PAGE |19PAGE |04

NaB asks for completerecord of Lahoremetro bus project

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president inauguratesfirst wind powerproject in Thatta

prince Harry kills Taliban commander

in afghanistan

Tuesday,­25­December,­2012­­­Safar­11,­1434Rs­15.00­­­Vol­III­No­178­­­19­Pages­ Islamabad­­Edition

Another nine fallprey to Karachitargeted killings g Zardari expresses angerover law and order, orders arrest of culprits

KARACHIStAff RePoRt

Nine people were killed and severalothers were injured in a fresh spate ofviolence in various parts of the city on Monday.Three people, including two brothers,were killed when unidentified gunmenfired at a general store in Nazimabad.The brothers died on the spot, whereasthe third person succumbed to hisinjuries on way to a hospital.Separately, armed assailants killed oneman, Abdul Sattar, and injured anotherin the Ayub goth area. Police said theshooting incident was a result of personal enmity.Meanwhile, one man was killed near DoaMinute Chowrangi, one near NaganChowrangi, one near Anda Morr and twopeople in Macchar Colony and oneperson near Northern Bypass Mor.Separately, a blast occurred near agarbage collection site in Quaidabad’sRehri goth area. However, no casualtieswere reported.Separately, President Asif Zardari said allpossible measures should be taken toensure law and order.He was presiding over a special meetingto review law and order situation inSindh, particularly in Karachi, at theBilawal House in Karachi. The meetingreviewed targeted killings and the post-scenario of attacks on anti-polio teams in the city.The president said that maintaining lawand order and ensuring safety andsecurity of citizens was the government’sresponsibility and all efforts should bemade in this regard.He said joint check posts of police,rangers, and Frontier Corps (FC) shouldbe established in order to improve lawand order in the province. The threeforces would carry out joint operationsagainst criminals in the province.The meeting also decided that 100armoured vehicles and 5,000 bullet-proof jackets would be provided to Sindh Police.President Zardari has expressed angerover the law and order situation in thecosmopolitan city of Pakistan andordered arrest of the culprits.The meeting was attended by Sindh chiefminister, chief secretary, inspectorgeneral and Rangers director general.

PESHAWARAPP

PAyINg glowing tributes to late senior ministerBashir Bilour for his firm stance against militancythat finally led to his assassination, KhyberPakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider KhanHoti on Monday called upon all political and

military leaders to make “a final decision” on how to purgethe country of terrorism. During a provincial assembly session called to pay tribute toBilour, who was killed in a suicide attack on Saturday, Hotisaid, “It’s time all of us get united and make a final decisionas to how we should get rid of this menace which has badlydamaged our whole society.” To express grief over the tragic demise of the lawmaker, theassembly staff had put a floral wreath on his seat, coveredwith red shawl and an Awami National Party cap.Addressing the House, the chief minister said paying tributeto the services of Bilour was not enough, adding, “We have totake proper action”. “Not taking a proper action at this stagewill be a criminal negligence on our part,” he said.Hoti said the final decision did not mean “taking the law inour hands but to find out the proper solution to the problem,either through negotiation or through action”.“It is ironic that the militants, who have formed separategroups in their respective areas, get united for their ulteriormotives, but we are still not united.” Hoti clarified that his offer of dialogue should not be takenas a weakness on the part of the government, but “in fact asour resolve to fight the forces bent upon taking the countryback towards the dark ages”. The chief minister said his government would completelysupport any decision that was made after a consensus,whether it was negotiating with the militants or taking amilitary action against them. He also suggested givingBilour’s assembly ticket to one of his sons. The proceedingsof the House were adjourned until January 4.

Hoti wants political, military leaderships to take decisive actionagainst terrorism

KARACHIISMAIL DILAWAR

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) on Monday filed two review peti-tions with the Supreme Court, seeking astay against the court’s ruling on delimi-tation of constituencies in Karachi, sayingany re-demarcation without a fresh cen-sus would be unconstitutional and an ex-ercise in futility.

“Without a fresh census, the act of de-limitation which, in essence, is meant tocreate equality in the constituencies with-out any gerrymandering, would be noth-ing but an exercise in futility,” reads thepetition filed by MQM’s ParliamentaryLeader in National Assembly Dr FarooqSattar at the SC’s Karachi registry. A five-member larger SC bench on November26 decreed that constituencies in the vio-lence-hit Karachi district be demarcatedso that political “polarisation” could beavoided in the city in the future.

“Delimitation without a fresh censusis tantamount to pushing the MQM andits mandate against the wall,” Sattar toldreporters at the Supreme Court premisesafter filing the petitions.

Seeking review of the SC verdicts is-sued on November 26 and 28, the MQMleader said the decisions were in contra-

vention of the law and constitution. Ac-cording to Farooq, the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP) had done away withits earlier stance on delimitation. He saidconstitutional provisions, not “someone’swishes”, could be the basis for re-demarca-tion of electoral limits. “This HonourableCourt in the Watan Party case PLD 2011 SC997 was pleased to hold that delimitationin Karachi was to be undertaken strictly inaccordance with law,” says a “concise state-ment” of the Civil Review Petition in which

the petitioner, the MQM, has made “Pak-istan and others” as respondents. The pe-tition said the law with regard todelimitation, as explained in detail in thepetition, was that delimitation could onlybe undertaken after a fresh census.

The petitioner recalled that the lastcensus was held in 1998 and the last delim-itation took place in 2002, which was up-held by the ECP and the courts of thecountry. He said two general elections andlocal bodies’ elections took place in the

country on the very demarcations. “There-fore, the delimitation of 2002, so also thecensus of 1998, constitutes a past andclosed transaction,” it said. In view of theabove, the petition said, no power of delim-itation under the relevant laws was avail-able to be exercised unless and until therewas fresh census, which in any event, “is atits fag end but unfortunately the same hasbeen disbanded for reasons not known”.

Therefore, the petitioner said, with-out a fresh census, the original order ofthis court in the Watan Party case was“not implementable”. The petition addedit was for this reason that the ECP vide itscomments dated October 24, 2012 hadconfirmed that there could be no delimi-tation in Karachi for want of a new cen-sus. However, the Supreme Courtrejected the considered stance of the ECPon November 26, after which the ECPsecretary appeared in court on November28 and conceded to expedite the exerciseof delimitation. The petitioner said, “It isthe case of the petitioner that when theHon’ble Court could not have interferedwith the discretion of the Election Com-mission exhibited through its commentsdated 24.10.2012 and the Hon’ble Courtought to have clarified that for want ofcensus no delimitation could proceed.”

“Thus, the orders dated 26.11.2012and 28.11.2012 are liable to be reviewed”.In the second petition, the MQM took theground that the SC order in connectionwith preparations of voters’ lists be put inplace for the entire country.

The petitioner prayed the court tostay implementation of its interim ordersdated November 26 and 28 until the de-cision on review petitions.

pakistan Today wishes its Christian readers Merry Christmas.Today’s issue carries special supplements on Christmas and thebirth anniversary of Quaid-e-azam Muhammad ali Jinnah.

See pageS 02 & 06

MQM seeks stay against SC’sKarachi delimitation order

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Sunday, 16 December, 2012

02

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03News

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

eDItorIALMischief is afoot:

CoMMent

Articles on Page 10-11

Be warned: this could bring chaos.

Waqqas Mir says;Sitting on the fence: In Pakistan, it seems, convenience trumpsconcern for human life.

Aima Khosa says;

bashy Quraishy says;

Egypt: Talking points: Consensus, even a manufactured one, can work.

Amazing Pakistan: How I again fell in love with the country.

ArtS & entertAInMent

Story on Page 12

ISLAMABAD

Story on Page 06

SPortS

Story on Page 15

Aamir Khan plays host for Imran’s party no operational plan in sight to purge Islamabad of.......... Pakistan, India resume rivalry after five-year break

lAHOREShAhAb JAfRy

PAKISTAN Today’s inves-tigative features, and subse-quent online HT response,prompt a unique participa-tory series regarding the or-

ganisation’s roots, mission andfunctioning in Pakistan

Friends familiar with intelligencematters speak of a line that does therounds in Israel’s secret serviceMossad, that when Muslims can boastFriday prayer numerical strength inFajr (morning) prayers, the Islamicworld would have become invincible.

The covert world, where theseoutfits operate, is often savagelydouble-edged, and the very tacticsthey are known to employ for na-tional security purposes –surveil-lance, reconnaissance, spying, etc –can and do sometimes become theirown vulnerable points.

And as Pakistan Today investi-gated alleged attempts at infiltratingimportant cadres of the military inthe aftermath of Brig Ali’s arrest lastyear, for links with banned extremistorganization Hizbut Tahrir, our find-ings were met with strong online re-buttal from HT loyalists, prompting

this series of articles regarding theparty’s working and main mission inPakistan.

This is the first of a multi-partseries in which arguments from on-line responses will also be accommo-dated. So the more HT affiliatespartake in this exchange, the morethey can air views in an environmentthey accuse of usurping their free-dom of expression.

Caliphate Coming full-CirCle

Despite its mid-‘50s roots in Palestine,when the immediate aftermath of thenaqba (catastrophe of the Israeli inva-sion) provided fertile ground formovements envisioning the caliphate,HT is now headquartered in the UK.And even though it is banned acrossmuch of Europe, the Middle East andAsia, it continues to receive diplo-matic safe haven from London.

The organisation dismisses dem-ocratic politics as well as free marketcapitalism, insisting on the system ofcaliphate as the only way forward foran integrated Islamic world, yet it re-mains suspiciously vague onspecifics, especially its large fundingbase that enables operations in morethan 40 countries.

Current British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron repeatedly called forbanning the organisation before com-ing to power, but has avoided thequestion since winning the election,raising more uncomfortable questionsfor the party. For example, howstrange that the country (greatBritain) at the centre of the lastcaliphate’s demise (Ottoman) is pre-sumably encouraging (and funding) aclaim to reestablish the institution.

Sharia and SubverSion

In calling for an overthrow of the rul-ing elite, and encouraging the militaryofficer corps to turn against its highcommand, HT officially advocatesmutiny and subversion. According toIslamic principles as mentioned inthe Quran (Surah al-Ma’idah), whichHT proposes to establish as the cor-nerstone of jurisprudence in itscaliphate model, subversion is to beaccorded one of four punishments:i) death penalty, ii)crucifixion,iii)cutting off hands and feet fromopposite ends, or iv) exile.

“The strong punishment is meantto discourage subversion against thestate to the last stage possible,” saysreligious scholar Amanat Rasool, the

main purpose being avoiding a state ofcivil conflict.

yet according to informationavailable online and in the press, suchtactics are central to HT’s operatingstrategy, not a measure of last resort.

“It’s not their wish for establishingan Islamic way of governance that up-sets governments,” most analysts toldPakistan Today. “It’s their method ofdismissing competitive politics andinstead advocating overthrow of gov-ernments and takeover of armies”.

In its sermons, HT has yet to ex-plain its disregard for Quranic injunc-tion by deliberately promotingsubversion and treason.

The Brig Ali episode was the per-fect example of an outside force tryingto incapacitate a central institution ofthe state. And since HT’s influencecomes from the outside, as no doubtdoes its funding, security agenciesface an active threat of infiltration ofthe army from external forces. It is apotentially more potent threat thanthe TTP insurgency in the tribal area,say counterinsurgency (COIN) offi-cials. It cannot be cordoned off andphysically constrained. It influencesminds, quietly infiltrates sensitive of-ficial and military cadres, and compli-cates the wider war against terrorism.

The Hizbut Tahrir files – part-1Bhootani to movecourt if no-confidencemotion is submitted

QUETTAAPP

Balochistan Assembly Speaker Aslam Bhootani onMonday said that he would go to court if no-confidence motion was moved against him in theBalochistan Assembly on December 26. He wasaddressing a news conference on the assemblypremises. “No-trust motion presented against mein the Balochistan Assembly has several faults andshortcomings as it does not meet constitutionaland legal requirement,” he said. He said thataccording to rules and regulations of theBalochistan Assembly, a member would submitno-confidence motion notice with the assemblysecretary, who would inform all lawmakerthrough notices within seven days. He said that inhis case, no constitutional and legal ways wereadopted as a minister moved the no-trust motion,adding that a minister could not table the motionand only a member has the right to table it. Hesaid that the assembly secretariat does notdispatch notices regarding no-confidence motionon postal address of the lawmakers so far, addingthat voting on No-trust motion could not be heldon December 26 according to rules andregulations. He said he would move court and ifthe court declares the voting null and void thenthe movers would have to think where they stand.He would not compromise on his principledstand, adding that whether he stays in office ornot. He said that Nawabzada Tariq Magsi wasdeclared opposition leader in the BalochistanAssembly as two members supported him.

45 children die ofmeasles in Kandhkot

KANdHKOTAGenCIeS

The government has imposed an emergency inhospitals after 45 children died of measleswithin a month in Kandhkot. According to thelocals, at least 45 children had fallen victims tothe disease in 21 days while hundreds ofchildren were being treated in various hospitals.The Health Department has taken a notice andimposed emergency in government hospitals.According to sources, blood sample of more than100 children had been sent for medical tests. Onthe other hand, the locals have blamed theunavailability of vaccines at local hospitals forthe outbreak.

ISlAmAbAdStAff RePoRt

It is extremely important that parents impartknowledge to their adolescent boys and girls aboutsexual health and hygiene, Maulana MuftiMuhammad Naeem, dean of Jamia Binoria AlAalamia, Karachi, said in a statement on Monday.

Only 29 percent girls and 41 percent boys haveaccess to correct information about puberty andhygiene in Pakistan and most parents are uneasydiscussing sensitive but vital health issues withtheir growing children. This communication gapmakes children vulnerable to exploitation, abuseand life threatening diseases, Mufti Naeem said.

Naeem stressed on the importance of commu-nication between parents and children about inti-mate health issues. Equipping children with thisknowledge would prepare them in advance for thechallenges of puberty and prevent them from being

exploited, he said. The Journal of Pakistan MedicalAssociation (JMPA) published the findings of asurvey titled “Understanding of Puberty and Re-lated Health Problems Among Female Adolescentsin Karachi, Pakistan”. Data was collected from 150females between the ages of 10 and 19.

The survey revealed that majority of partici-pants had limited knowledge about puberty andsexual health. About 72 percent of participants be-lieved they should be given proper informationabout puberty and the changes of adolescence sothey can deal with them better.

“Mothers must talk to their growing daugh-ters about the emotional and physical changesof adolescence,” Mufti Naeem said. Absence ofright information from right quarters on pu-berty and related issues misled the adolescentsand exposed them to wrong, illegitimate, im-moral, exploiting and abusive sources of infor-mation and misconduct.

Malik Riaz to sue Arsalanin UK, says Bukhari

lAHORE onLIne

Zahid Bukhari,counsel for realestate tycoonMalik Riaz, onMonday said hewould leave forthe UK onTuesday (today)to register a caseagainst DrArsalan Iftikharthere. Talking to reporters outside the Lahore High Court, hesaid Arsalan Iftikhar, son of the chief justice of Pakistanavailed all the perks and facilities provided by his client in theUK so the courts there should be contacted. He said theSupreme Court had also said the matter was between twoparties and both could knock justice’s door. “During the UKvisit, I will consult legal experts there after which a casewould be registered against Arsalan there,” he said.

Zardari mulling givingup party office?

ISlAmAbAd onLIne

President Asif Zardari is considering resigning from theoffice of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairmanamid pressure from the Supreme Court (SC) to retainonly one post. According to a private TV channel,former prime minister yousaf Raza gilani is the mostfavourite contender to replace the incumbent co-chairman. “The president is consulting with legalexperts and senior leadership in the party in thisregard.” The TV channel also added that the president’sson and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari wouldlead the party in the next general elections. PresidentZardari will make important announcements on the 4thdeath anniversary of slain PPP chairwoman BenazirBhutto at garhi Khuda Bukhsh.

Gas blast kills 9 coalmineworkers near Hangu

HANGUonLIne

At least nine labourers were killed in an explosion in acoalmine in a remote area of Orakzai Agency, officialssaid on Monday. government officials said the blast wascaused by methane gas in the coalmine. As a result, nineworkers were killed and two were seriously injured.Local administration carried out relief efforts with thehelp of local residents.

Parents should inform children

about puberty: Mufti Naeem

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04

CAIROAGenCIeS

EgyPTIAN judges wereon Monday investigat-ing complaints of vot-ing irregularitiesbefore declaring the re-

sult of a referendum set to show thata controversial new constitution hasbeen approved.

Opponents of the constitution,drawn up mostly by Islamists andfast-tracked to a vote by PresidentMohamed Mursi, have demanded afull probe into what they say were alitany of irregularities.

A tally by the Muslim Brother-hood, which lifted Mursi intoelected office, indicated a 64 percent“yes” vote, although only a third ofthe 51 million eligible Egyptians

took part. An opposition count wassimilar, but they said the ballot wasskewed by abuses in both rounds.

The constitution was intendedto draw a line under the era of HosniMubarak, the autocrat ousted al-most two years ago, and provide thebasis for a new, stable, civilian-leddemocracy. But the opposition Na-tional Salvation Front has said itdeepens a rift between the liberalsand Islamists who combined tooverthrow Mubarak, and will extendthe turmoil that has taken a heavytoll on society and economy.

If the “yes” vote is confirmed,a parliamentary election will fol-low in about two months, settingthe stage for Islamists and theiropponents, united and rejuve-nated by the political crisis, torenew their battle. “The commit-

tee is currently compiling resultsfrom the first and second phaseand votes from Egyptians abroad,and is investigating complaints,”Judge Mahmoud Abu Shousha, amember of the committee, toldReuters. He said no time had beenset for an announcement of thefinal outcome of but it was un-likely to be on Monday.

The relatively low turnoutprompted some independentnewspapers to question how muchsupport the charter really had.“The referendum battle has ended,and the war over the constitution’slegitimacy has begun,” the news-paper Al-Shorouk wrote in a head-line, while a headline in Al-MasryAl-youm read: “Constitution of theminority.”“neW page” But the newspaper

of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Free-dom and Justice Party carried a bigtick on its front page, with the head-line: “The people have commanded:yes to the constitution.”

The party head, Saad al-Katatni, wrote on Facebook thatthe group’s members were “ex-tending our hands to all politicalparties and all national forces”,adding: “We will all start a newpage.” But the opposition, made upof liberals, socialists, more moder-ate Muslims and the Christianswho account for one in 10 Egyp-tians, said they would continue tochallenge the charter throughprotests and other democraticmeans. “We do not consider thisconstitution legitimate,” liberalpolitician Amr Hamzawy said onSunday, arguing that it violated

personal freedoms. “We will con-tinue to attempt to bring down theconstitution peacefully and demo-cratically.” Opponents say thecharter favours Islamists andtramples on the rights of womenand minorities, notably the largeCoptic Christian community.

The run-up to the referendumwas marred by protests, originallysparked when Mursi awarded him-self broad powers on November 22.At least eight people were killedwhen rivals clashed in protests out-side Mursi’s official palace in Cairo,and violence flared in Alexandria onthe eve of both voting days. By forc-ing the pace on the constitution, hemay have squandered the opportu-nity to build consensus for the aus-terity measures needed to rein in acrippling budget deficit.

mONITORING dESK

This Christmas, Pastor NazirAlam will stoke up a fire, laya fresh cloth on the altar andwelcome parishioners as theyarrive at his church inWaziristan, a tribal areaknown as an al Qaeda haven.

“The lights are all up, andthe choir boys are ready. Thechurch is looking its best,”said 60-year-old Alam, a for-mer missionary who has cel-ebrated his last tenChristmases there. “There’snot much left to do but topray and rejoice.”

Outsiders might see littlecause for joy. Pakistan is thesixth most dangerous countryin the world for minorities,says London-based watchdog

Minority Rights group Inter-national. Christians, Shia Mus-lims and Ahmadis are victimsof a rising tide of deadly at-tacks. But Alam’s church, andthe homes of most of his 200parishioners, are nestled insidea Pakistani army base in SouthWaziristan, a mountainous re-gion that was a hotbed of mili-tancy until a military offensivein 2009. “When the US wentinto Kabul, things became badfor everyone. But we are safehere. The army protects us,”says Shaan Masih, who helpsclean the church and likes toplay the drums and sing carols.

For two decades, thechurch was little more than aroom and the tiny communityworshipped there under lightprotection. In 2009, the army

set up a base in SouthWaziristan as part of the of-fensive against the insur-gency and invited the churchinside. “It was a longstandingdemand of the community tobe given a proper space,” ColAtif Ali, a military officer, toldReuters during a rare trip tothe region arranged by themilitary. Many of the Chris-tians work for the army inclerical or domestic positions.So far, they have been shel-tered from the bombings,raids and drone strikes, vio-lence that rocks the region onan almost daily basis.

Less than a 100 milesaway lies North Waziristan onthe border with Afghanistanand one of the last areas con-trolled by the Pakistani Tal-

iban. The United States has re-peatedly urged Pakistan tolaunch an operation againstmilitants sheltered there in-cluding remnants of al Qaedaand Pakistani groups targetingthe nation’s minorities. Pak-istan says it is doing every-thing it can to fight themilitancy and needs to consol-idate the campaign in SouthWaziristan before opening anew front.freShlY painted: Thesmall blue and white churchbuilding has been freshlypainted and the main hallcovered in new ceramic tiles.A small chandelier hangsfrom the ceiling and a clothspread over the altar reads:“So if the Son sets you free,you will be free indeed.”

ISlAmAbAdAGenCIeS

Pakistan is genuine aboutbacking the nascent Afghanpeace process and shares theKabul government’s goal oftransforming the Talibaninsurgency into a politicalmovement, a senior Afghangovernment official toldReuters. “They have told usthat they share the visioncontained in our roadmapwhich is basically totransform the Taliban from amilitary entity into a politicalentity to enable them to takepart in the Afghan politicalprocess and peacefully seekpower like any other politicalentity in Afghanistan, hesaid. “This is the vision thatthey share.” The official, whois closely involved inreconciliation efforts, saidrecent face-to-face talksbetween senior Talibanmembers and Afghanofficials in France were an

“enormously helpful” step inbuilding a widerenvironment for peace. Untilnow, the Taliban and Afghanofficials only made indirectcontacts. The official’sremarks signalledunprecedented optimismfrom Afghanistan thatPakistan - long accused ofbacking Afghan insurgentgroups - was now willing toput its weight behindreconciliation efforts, whichare still in early stages andare vulnerable tofactionalism. “We are veryoptimistic. We believe thatthey are genuine in thisdiscussion with us,” said thesenior government official.The senior official cautioned,however, that in order tosustain that optimism,Pakistan would need to takefurther concrete steps afterreleasing some mid-levelAfghan Taliban membersfrom detention, who may beuseful in promoting peace.

Pakistan allowedto cross-examinewitnesses iSlamabad: Pakistan andIndia on Monday signed anagreement to allow the formerto cross-examine Mumbaiattack witnesses. Under theagreement‚ a Pakistani judicialcommission will visit NewDelhi to cross-examine thewitnesses. Dates of the visithave not been announced but itis likely to be in the first week ofJanuary 2013. Pakistan decidedto send another panel toMumbai as the findings of thefirst judicial commission wererejected by an anti-terrorismcourt as the members were notallowed to cross-examine fourkey witnesses - the policeofficer who led the probe intothe attacks, the magistrate whorecorded Ajmal Kasab’sconfessional statement and twodoctors who conductedautopsies of nine terroristskilled in the attacks. Theagreement was reached duringInterior Minister RehmanMalik’s meeting with his Indiancounterpart ShushilkumarShinde in Delhi recently. ONlINE

Prince Harry kills Taliban commander inAfghanistan

lONdONonLIne

British Prince Harry, who is anRAF helicopter pilot deployedin Afghanistan, has killed aTaliban leader in an airstrike,notching up his first ‘kill’,British media reported onMonday. The 27-year-old, thethird in line to the Britishthrone, was called in to provideair support to troops tracking acommander-level Taliban chiefand hit the target with a 100 lbHellfire missile fired from anApache helicopter. It is the firsttime the prince has beeninvolved in a fatal airstrikeagainst a Taliban commander,a report in The Sun said.According to the Daily Mail,the attack was said to havehappened in late October,shortly after the princereturned to Afghanistan for hissecond deployment as gunshipco-pilot. A defence insider said,“We were on patrol and theApache helicopters were calledin. We heard this posh voicecome over the radio and knewit was Big H They weretracking a Taliban leader – hewas commander-level.”Captain Harry Wales - as he isknown in the army – is a co-pilot gunner in the Apache unitwhich has the highest ‘kill rate’in the war. As the co-pilotgunner, Harry commandsmissions, fires the weapons,navigates and sometimes takeover the controls. The two-crew gunship – nicknamed the‘flying tank’ – is used by the UKforces in Afghanistan to smashthe Taliban, gather intelligenceand provide support forsoldiers on the ground.

Egypt judges review ballot on contentious constitution

Pakistan’s loneliest church celebratesChristmas in Taliban country

Pakistan, Afghanistan trying to turnTaliban into political movement

Kabul: An Afghan woman wearing a police uniformshot dead on Monday a civilian contractor working forWestern forces in the police chief’s compound in Kabul,NATO said. The incident is likely to raise troubling ques-tions about the direction of an unpopular war. It appearedto be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan’ssecurity forces carried out such an attack. There were con-flicting reports about the victim. A spokesman for theNATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)said a U.S. police adviser was killed by an Afghan police-woman. Then ISAF said in a statement only that it was a“contracted civilian employee” who was killed. Moham-mad Zahir, head of the police criminal investigation de-partment, described the incident as an “insider attack” inwhich Afghan forces turn their weapons on Western troopsthey are supposed to be working with. He initially said thevictim was a U.S. soldier. After more than 10 years of war,militants are capable of striking Western targets in theheart of the capital, and foreign forces worry that Afghanpolice and military forces they are supposed to work withcan suddenly turn on them. The policewoman approachedher victim as he was walking in the heavily guarded policechief’s compound in a bustling area of Kabul. She thendrew a pistol and shot him once, a senior police officialtold Reuters. AGENCIES

Afghan policewoman killscoalition contractor in Kabul

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tuesday, 25 December, 2012

ISlAmAbAdAnWeR AbbAS

oBSERVINg religiousand cultural celebra-tions in connectionwith Christ’s birth-day, Christmas serv-

ices in Islamabad that started abouta week earlier, have touched itshighest point with the participationof hundreds of Christians from thefederal capital, various small andlarge churches including SaintThomas Church, Islamabad Church

and Catholic Church.Small Christmas celebrations

and events would continue in localchurches in various sectors wherethe poor and needy would receivegifts, rations and other basic com-modities of life.

On the other hand, almost allchurches in various sectors of Is-lamabad were beautifully deco-rated with liturgical coloursincluding red and golden, accom-panied with huge statues of Jesusin the main prayer halls.

In the Catholic Church F-8,

Christmas celebrations were di-vided into two sessions followingwhich around 9:30 pm a specialprayer session was organised forthe foreigners including diplo-mats and ambassadors from vari-ous countries.

Later, the locals attended thesecond session for Christmas serv-ices that begin at 10:45 pm andlasted till 1 am in the morning.Large numbers of Christians fromvarious areas of the federal capitalparticipated in the services.

A large model of “Bethlehem”

depicting identical conditionsand circumstances of the time ofChrist’s birth was decorated inthe prayer hall of the CatholicChurch F-8, with toy models ofshepherds and grazing sheep alsodisplayed alongside the maindecorations.

Prosperous people includingthe people from diplomatic cir-cles delivered food items beforethe celebrations in the evening tofacilitate poor Christians in cele-brating the spirit of Christmas tothe fullest.

Previously, Christmas celebra-tions started with carol singing andringing of bells in the church.

Meanwhile, “Amand creed” wasalso performed by lighting the fourcandles for expressing delight andto apologise for past sins.

Arshad Maseeh from the ad-ministration of the Catholic Churchtold Pakistan Today that keeping inview the loss of innocent lives in ter-rorism, this year the Christian com-munity had decided to lead specialprayers for the protection of inno-cent lives and the country.

Christmas celebrations wouldcontinue until New year eve, duringwhich various religious ritualswould be performed.

During the celebrations, tightsecurity measures were observed atmajor churches and special walkthrough gates were installed to pre-vent any mishap from occurring.

Special police guards andchurch volunteers were also de-ployed to ensure strict security ofchurches in the federal capital.

ISlAmAbAdonLIne

The adjutant general of PakistanArmy and the Judge Advocate gen-eral, the senior most law officer in thegeneral Headquarters (gHQ), weremade respondents in a petition filedin the Supreme Court (SC) about theongoing judicial probe into the LalMasjid incident.

The petition stated that the twoofficers were “duty bound to initiatelegal proceedings under the PakistanArmy Act, 1952 against any personwho violates the discipline of the Pak-istan Army and this Court may askthem if any such proceedings lie

against any person in relation to hisinvolvement in the Lal Masjid opera-tion.”

The SC was informed that JusticeShahzado Sheikh was proceedingwith his probe in clear violation of thejurisdiction of the high court underArticle 199. It was pointed out that nohigh court could hear an applicationby or about any person who was amember of the armed forces of Pak-istan or came under “any law relatedto those forces”.

The SC on December 4, by a fullbench headed by the Chief Justice, ap-pointed Justice Sheikh as a commis-sion to “fix responsibility upon thepersonnel of the security agencies”.

Petitioner Shahid Orakzai assertedthat two members of the bench hadnever heard the case before and noformal request was made by any partyfor the issue of commission. It may berecalled that general Ashfaq PervezKayani was the Director general ofInter Services Intelligence (ISI) whenthe Lal Masjid was besieged by troopsfor more than a fortnight.

The SC was asked to stay theprobe and to constitute a new benchto hear the matters related to LalMasjid operation. In this connection,attention was also drawn to the factthat Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry wasmade dysfunctional twice by a gen-

eral in 2007, and in the Asghar Khancase he had put “criminal liability” ontwo retired generals including a for-mer Chief of Army Staff (COAS).Drawing attention to last month’s“antithetical statements” made by theCOAS and the CJP, the petitioner saidthe personnel of the armed forcesshall not be made liable for “any actor word of the COAS”.

The apex court was reminded thatfor the enforcement of the fundamen-tal rights, its order should not preju-dice the provision of Article 199which had written a specific clause re-garding the persons in the armedforces whom were barred from seek-ing any relief.

ISlAmAbAdAPP

The two year hiatus is over for the SecretariatFederal Ombudsman as it gears itself up toprocess over 75,000 complaints and grievancesthat have piled up over the past two years.

Since the appointment of SalmanFaruqui as the federal ombudsman sometwo weeks back, advertisements have ap-peared for appointment of advisors, con-sultants and investigating officers whowould be appointed to process all the75,000 pending cases as well as the newones on a fast track basis, said a press re-lease issued here on Monday.

Since the advertisements appeared lastweek, the federal ombudsman Secretariat hadalready received nearly 500 applications from

retired BS-22 and BS-21 officers who had of-fered their services for appointment as advisorsand consultants.

To ensure transparency in these appoint-ments, Faruqui had constituted a five membercommittee headed by the Federal Tax Ombuds-man Dr Shoaib Suddle who carried a well es-tablished reputation for integrity andsupremacy of merit.

The committee included the federal secre-taries for the Cabinet, Establishment and Fi-nance with the secretary federal ombudsmanSecretariat as the member/secretary.

The five member committee was expectedto interview the candidates who met the crite-ria beginning from the first week of Januaryand the selected advisors and consultantswould start processing the pending grievancessoon after.

ISlAmAbAdInP

Despite directives of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf,encroachments have not been eliminated, and instead analarming increase has been witnessed in the same in mar-ket places of the federal capital.On the other hand, the Capital Development Authority(CDA) had failed to come up with a special strategy topurge the encroachments which contributed to traffic jamsand also caused inconvenience to visiting shoppers at mar-ket places. Abapara Market, Melody Market, PeshawarMor, F-10 Markaz, Super Market, g-9 Market, g-8 Markazand Blue Area were heavily encroached by handcarts andshopkeepers who had placed their tables bearing goods forsale on footpaths and in the corridors, thus leaving nowalking space for pedestrians.In connivance of corrupt officials of the CDA, illegal trans-port stands, workshops, handcarts and booths have virtu-ally occupied the entire area flanking Faizabad Flyover.Moreover, right of way on both sides of the IJP Road hadalso fallen to the encroachers.Sources said that officials of the civic body received month-lies from encroachers and therefore refused to act againsttheir interests. Encroachments have also increased to analarming level in the fruit and vegetable market in I-1,while Lehtra Road was also occupied by a large number ofhand carts and illegal booths which resulted in major trafficjams at critical times of the day. In Sector g-12, oppositeKashmir Highway, illegal markets have been erected andthe illegal construction in the area was increasing withevery passing day. It should be mentioned here that thenew administration of the CDA had claimed to devise a newpolicy for booths and hoardings but encroachments stillpersisted due to corrupt practices of officials concerned.

Merry Christmas Islamabad!

Lal Masjid probe: Adjutant General of Pakistan Army,Judge Advocate General made respondents

Federal Ombudsman to process 75,000complaints on fast track basis

No operational plan insight to purge Islamabadof encroachments

Clarification Reference to a news report carried in Pak-istan Today’s city pages on Monday, Decem-ber 24, titled “TV channels eroding moralfabric of society”, the article was strictlybased on remarks passed by Naib Khateebof Lal Masjid Maulana Amir Siddique andwas published as reported by the newsagency. Pakistan Today regrets the incon-venience caused to Mr Absar Alam and inno way authenticates or backs the claims ofthe Lal Masjid cleric. The organisation and its management be-lieve Mr Alam is a journalist among the verybest in the trade and in no way cast asper-sion over his character or his associationwith the foundation mentioned in the newsreport.

Justice TassadduqJillani takes oathas acting CJP

ISlAmAbAdAPP

Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jillani, seniormost judge of the Supreme Court (SC), onMonday took an oath as the acting ChiefJustice of Pakistan (CJP).Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk administered theoath to him as acting CJP in a ceremonyheld in the Supreme Court Building Islam-abad. Justice Tassadduq would act as CJPduring the period as CJP Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhary would be outsidethe country.Representatives of the bars, prominentlawyers and law officers attended the cere-mony.The SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain con-ducted the proceedings of the oath takingceremony. Officers and staff of the SC werealso present at the occasion.

ISLAMABAD: Christian children hold their Christmas gifts during a ceremony in connectionwith Christmas celebrations at Sector F-6. INP

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tuesday, 25 December, 2012

06 Islamabad

SARAH ElEAzAR

CHRISTIAN households commence theseason by decorating homes at thebeginning of December. Out come the

Christmas trees, the baubles, tinsel andboughs of holly (fake ones for the most part).Homes are decorated in their entireChristmas splendour and children build smallnativity manger models. It is commoncustom for Convent schools and Christianinstitutes to organise nativity plays and carolsinging events. Door to door carolling is animportant tradition carried out every year.Church choir groups bundle up and spendChristmas Eve night going door to door withcandles, dried fruits and carols. Severalchurches hold a Midnight Mass where peoplelight candles, sing carols and pray for thecountry. Christmas service is held onDecember 25 and Christians all over the

world dress up in new clothes, greet eachother and exchange gifts. Many people holdfestive lunches and dinners for family andfriends, while several families head towardsparks and recreational centres to spend arelaxing day with their loved ones. Prayermeetings and caroling events continuethrough the month up to December 31, whenall churches in the country pray for prosperityand peace for the nation in the year ahead.New year’s Eve is spent in church in prayerand worship and a service is held on January1 to welcome the New year. Christmas andNew year constitute the biggest religiousfestival for Christians around the world.Christmas decorations herald the happyseason and carols ring all through the month.The season brings tidings of joy and peaceamong all men. May this year’s Christmas bejoyous and in Charles Dicken’s words, godbless us, every one!uLeMa CouNCiL CHairMaN TaHir aSHrafi

islam teaches us to believe in all divine books revealed byallah and Muslims have utmost respect for Jesus Christ.we celebrate Christmas in solidarity with our Christianbrothers and extend our felicitations to Christians allaround the world. on this occasion we need to reinforcethe message of respecting each others’ beliefs, viewsand faith. we might disagree with each other’s beliefs butwe must never turn it into an excuse for war and violence.islam does not give anyone the permission to kill one anotherbased on differences of faith and we must incorporate this edict in our society.

MQM iNforMaTioN SeCreTary NaSir JaMaLMuttahida Quami Movement (MQM) believes that pakistan belongs to pakistanisirrespective of religious beliefs. pakistan’s religious minorities should have equalrights in all spheres of lives. They should have access to equal employmentopportunities and freedom to practise their religion. The MQM believes that it is ourresponsibility to integrate religious minorities with the rest of the country in orderto fulfil the dreams of the founding father who said in unequivocal terms, “you maybelong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business ofthe State”. Christmas is an occasion for joy and happiness for the Christians. weextended heartiest felicitations to our Christian brothers and sisters and would liketo assure that the MQM would continue to struggle for their rights.

revereNd dr JoSepH C LaLThis year when we celebrate Christmas and New year let’snot forget to spread warmth to all those in need. wedon’t think twice before spending on clothes,decorations and food for festivals while so manyaround us work hard to put a single meal on theirtable. if we cannot include these people in ourcelebrations we miss the whole point of Christmas. it isalso important not to hurt someone’s feelings or dignity byoffering them charity. By sharing love and happiness withothers we celebrate Christmas in its true spirit.

ppp SeCreTary geNeraL JaHaNgir Badari’d like to wish all Christians in the country a very happy

Christmas. The Quaid had assured equal rights and statusfor all regardless of creed or faith and pakistan people’sparty (ppp) respects that to the word. we have alwaysupheld the rights of our Christian brethren and are

mindful of the sacrifices they have made for this country.The Muslim faith is made complete when we believe in all

divinely revealed books and that includes the NewTestament. as Leader of the House of Senate and ppp secretary

general, i wish everyone a very happy Christmas.

LaHore dioCeSe BiSHop irfaN JaMiLChristmas is a joyous occasion for Christians around the world

where we celebrate the birth of Christ as a fulfillment ofprophecies. Christ came to save people from sin and givemankind abundant life and Christmas reminds us that hislove is for everyone, god’s love extends to all mankind. Todaywe see our world torn by war and strife. Social, religious and

economic pressures stifle the best of us and peace seems farfrom reach. Christmas reminds us that god brings peace to all. i

pray that we all find our peace with god and spread His message oflove and forgiveness among us all. Merry Christmas!

Christmas is not just aseason or an event toenjoy. it is a day forworship and prayer,and to thank god forHis mercy andblessing. it is a timeto cherish, love andspread peace to allmankind!

i pray for harmony andprosperity for mycountry and allbrothers and sisterswho lack happinessand peace in their lives.

BeeNiSH MuCCaraM

Christmas is a reasonto celebrate for all ofus. we should all vowto create a spirit ofpeace, love, happinessand forgiveness in our society.

aaMiN SHaikH

deck the halls!Christmas is a reason tocelebrate and be happyand i will definitelycelebrate with myChristian friends.

kaNwaL NadeeM

Happy Christmas toeveryone! please dontforget us when you’reeating all that cake.

aLi HuSSaiN

aruN SHukeruLLaH

6 cups sultana raisins 3 cups dried currants1 1/2 cups pitted dates6 cups raisins3 cups candied mixed citrus peel1/2 pound candied cherries2 cups almonds2 cups butter3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour3 teaspoons baking powder1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons ground allspice4 teaspoons ground cinnamon1 teaspoon ground nutmeg1/2 teaspoon ground cloves1 tablespoon vanilla extract1 tablespoon almond extract2 cups white sugar12 egg yolks1/2 cup molasses12 egg whites1/2 cup grape juice1/2 cup strong brewed coffee

Wash and dry the raisins and the currants.Wash, dry, pit, and chop the dates. Chop theraisins and the citrus peel. Slice the cherries.Blanch the almonds, and slice themlengthwise. Combine fruits and nuts in largebowl. grease and line 3 standard Christmascake pans (these round pans are at least 3inches deep and come in a set of three sizes- 5,7, and 9 inch across) with 4 layers of heavywaxed paper, or 3 layers of brown paper. greaseagain. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135degrees C). Sift together flour, baking powder,soda, salt, and spices onto a piece of waxedpaper. Remove 1 cup of this flour mixture, andcombine with fruit and nuts. Mix until fruit iswell coated. Cream the butter until fluffy. Addextracts. gradually add sugar, mixing untilcreamy. Beat egg yolks until light and lemon-colored, and beat into the butter mixture. Stir inthe molasses, and beat together well. Add half ofthe remaining flour mixture, and blendthoroughly. Beat egg whites until stiff but notdry; fold into batter. Stir in lightly theremaining flour mixture alternately withcombined fruit juice and coffee. Add flouredfruit and nuts, blending in until fruit is welldistributed. Turn batter into prepared cake tins,filling each about 2/3 full and spreading batterevenly. Bake in center of oven. Bake small cake2 1/2 hours, medium cake 3 1/2 hours, andlarge cake 4 to 4 1/2 hours. Remove from ovenand allow to stand for 5 minutes and turn outon wire rack to cool. Serves 12.

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tuesday, 25 December, 2012

Islamabad 07

FARzANA RAjA

All the challenges that the nation isfacing today demand us to furtherunderstand the message, guidingprinciples and the vision of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,the founder of Pakistan. It is im-perative to reshape the priorities tocreate a forward looking and pro-gressive modern democracy as itwas dreamt by our great leader.The nation needs to strive more tobecome a genuine democratic so-ciety as humanitarian democraticvalues were the conviction of ourgreat political thinker and amatchless nation-builder.

While looking back in the his-tory, we can find the extraordinarycharacteristics of Quaid-e-Azam asan inspirational leader as well asan ardent and devout leader forwhom, the welfare of the masseswas prime objective of his move-ment. Personally, the Quaid notonly followed a highly disciplinedlife but exhibited a spotless char-acter, thus able to lead the nationtowards unity, faith and discipline.

The struggle of our greatQuaid was based on premise of acountry that offers equal economicopportunities and social justice toall the population without any dis-crimination of caste, creed andcolor. The political insight of theQuaid resulted in carving out a na-

tion from a subjugated and direc-tionless minority besides estab-lishing a modern nation state.

Being a true demarcate, Mr. Jin-nah prescribed democracy as theonly way forward for the newly ac-quired country. Without any ambi-guity, he made the priorities of thestate clear right after the inception ofPakistan while stating that the gov-ernment’s aim and objective shouldbe to serve the people and deviseways and means for their social wel-fare, well-being and betterment.

Regarding the democratic fu-ture of the Pakistan, Quid said thatit is in the hands of people to putthe government in power or re-move it from power. This guidingprinciple of Quaid-e-azam stillserves as a source of strength forthe democracy loving people ofPakistan. The history of Pakistanis evident of the fact that Pak-istan’s first democratically electedPrime Minister Shaheed ZulfiqarAli Bhutto and his daughter Sha-heed Mohtarma Benazir Bhuttohad laid down their life in the pur-suit of the same mission and forthe practical manifestation of thedreams of the Quaid.

It is pertinent to note herethat the Quaid, as a great leaderand statesman, also underpinnedthe significance of welfare of thepeople of Pakistan as futureroadmap of the state. We must re-

visit his historic speech deliveredon August 11, 1947 when he saidthat “if we want to make this greatState of Pakistan happy and pros-perous, we should wholly andsolely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especiallyof the masses and the poor.”

Therefore, the dreams of Mr.Jinnah revolved around a Pak-istan that is an egalitarian moderndemocracy offering equity in thedistribution of wealth and re-sources to enable the people of thecountry to live a happy, prosper-ous and meaningful life. The vi-sion of our Quaid has special;significance as he had laid thefoundation for the concept of an Is-lamic Social welfare state which isa need of our society and relevantas ever to strengthen the nation onthe face of various contemporarychallenges. We have observed thatPPP has always actively followedthe economic and social vision ofQuaid-e-Azam and it is a hallmarkof the economic policies of the PPPled Federal government. Under thefirm commitment and persistentsupport from President Asif AliZardari, the democratic govern-ment has successfully advanced thenotions of social justice, equal op-portunities and wellbeing of thepeople of Pakistan. The writer is chairperson of BenazirIncome Support Programme.

Social welfare state under principles ofQuaid-e-azam Muhammad ali Jinnah

Students showcasetalent to markQuaid’s birth anniversary

ISlAmAbAdAPP

Students from various educationalinstitutions of the twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad show-cased their talent in a beautiful cul-tural show to mark Quaid-e-AzamMuhammed Ali Jinnah’s birth an-niversary here on Monday at thePakistan National Council of Arts(PNCA). The event was organized incollaboration with the Ministry ofNational Heritage and Integrationto pay homage to the founder of thenation for his constant and unwa-vering courage to mark this momen-tous occasion in a befitting manner.Students belonging to different agegroups presented a puppet showand tableaus based on stories por-traying the significance of December25 as Quaid Day. In addition to this,speeches, national songs andtableaus were also presented on theoccasion to depict the contributionsmade by national heroes in the his-tory of the freedom movement andalso to educate the participantsabout the importance of nationaldays. While talking to APP, PNCADirector general Touqeer Nasirsaid, “Muhammad Ali Jinnah was atowering personality, who hadchanged the course of history andgeography of the world through apeaceful struggle.”

Private institutescheating parents inthe name of qualityeducationiSlamabad: Themanagement of privateinstitutes in the twincities of Islamabad andRawalpindi are cheating,rather fleecing the lessliterate parents of stu-dents in the name of pro-viding quality educationto their children.A survey conducted byAPP had found that nor-mally no strict admis-sion criteria wasobserved by theseschools and anyone whocould afford the heftyfees could get his/herchild admitted at anystage throughout the ac-ademic year. Parentshave expressed reserva-tions against the bur-geoning culture ofprivate schools. Theycomplained of expensivefee structures, ineffi-cient teaching faculty,substandard education,poor playground facili-ties for students and im-posing heftyextracurricular chargesby the school manage-ment on various pre-texts. “We are asked topurchase textbooks andnotebooks from theschool bookshop. “youwon’t believe that theschool charged me Rs1,000 for participatingin the annual parents’day and later charged Rs500 because the man-agement had arranged abus for the students tobring them to the cere-monial hall. Anotherparent Asif Shah toldAPP that private schoolswere operating in everynook and corner of thecity and many business-men had started lookingat the education sectoras a lucrative businessventure. APP

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08

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

Newsiraqis protest against 'sectarian policies'baghdad: Tens of thousands of people have stagedprotests in western Iraq, blocking a highway leading toSyria and Jordan, against what they have termed the"sectarian" policies of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.The protesters, including local officials, religious andtribal leaders, turned out on Sunday to demonstrateagainst the arrest of nine guards of Finance MinisterRafa al-Essawi. Their arrest on terrorism charges hassparked a call from Essawi for Maliki to quit or beremoved. "We are gathered today not for Essawi and hisbodyguards, but to change the course of this sectariangovernment and to overthrow Maliki's government,"Hikmat Iyada, provincial councillor for Anbar, told theprotesters on Sunday. More than 2,000 Sunnidemonstrators took to the streets in the cities of Ramadi,the capital of Sunni province of Anbar, and about 10,000appeared in Falluja on Sunday in response to a call for acivil disobedience to protest what they called thesidelining of Sunnis in Iraqi politics. A letter fromSheikh Abdul Malek al-Saadi, a leading Sunni cleric inAnbar, was read at the protest in which he called forShias in the government to respect Sunni officials andthe minority's entire population in Iraq. Maliki was alsocondemned in a separate statement issued by fugitivevice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, who praised thedemonstration. "Maliki is a prisoner of a sick mind,obsessed with power," said Hashemi, who has beenhanded multiple death sentences in absentia for chargeshe insists are politically motivated. "The Islamic andArab world looks at him now as the sponsor of theSafavid [Iranian] project in Iraq." Hashemi also calledfor a no confidence in the prime minister, accusingMaliki of aiming "to get rid of his opponents". He saidthe current situation has reached a "deadlock". The Iraqiprime minister allegedly ordered for the arrest of thefinance minister’s bodyguards on charges of terrorism onThursday, in a move that has reignited a political crisis.Maliki has denied the allegations and expressed"astonishment" at "linking the issue of the detaineeswith political disputes" and spoke out against pulling"the whole country toward sectarian strife". Thedeepening political crisis seems to be getting worse asPresident Jalal Talabani, who has acted as mediator inthe past, has been rushed to germany for medicaltreatment after suffering a stroke last week. Talabanialso played a key role in mediating the growing disputeover oil between Baghdad and the autonomousKurdistan region. AGenCIeS

venezuela rules out new electionsCaraCaS: Venezuela will not call fresh elections if HugoChavez's cancer prevents him from taking office by January10, the head of Congress said, despite a constitutionalmandate that the swearing-in take place on that date. "SinceChavez might not be here in on January 10, [the opposition]hopes the National Assembly will call elections within 30days. They're wrong. Dead wrong," said Diosdado Cabello,the National Assembly's president and one of Chavez'sclosest allies, during a ceremony to swear in a recentlyelected governor. "That's not going to happen because ourpresident is named Hugo Chavez, he was reelected and is inthe hearts of all Venezuelans." He suggested Chavez mayneed more time to recover from his surgery. Officials inrecent weeks have recognised his condition was serious,and the garrulous leader's unusual silence has sparkedalarm even among supporters. Chavez is recovering inCuba from a six-hour cancer operation that followed hisOctober re-election. The socialist leader has not been heardfrom for nearly two weeks, raising doubts as to whether hewill be fit to continue governing. Opposition leaders maypounce on the issue of the swearing-in date to demand thatauthorities call fresh elections because of Chavez'sapparently critical state of health due to an undisclosedtype of cancer in the pelvic region. A constitutional disputeover succession could lead to a messy transition toward apost-Chavez era in the South American nation with theworld's largest oil reserves. AGenCIeS

hAnoI: Members of a yoga club celebrate Christmas in a public park. AGENCIES

NEW dElHIAGenCIeS

Manmohan Singh, India's primeminister, has vowed to protect

women in the wake of vio-lent demonstrations

against the "national epi-demic" of sex crimes.

He spoke after po-lice clashed with hun-dreds of protesters aday earlier in the In-dian capital NewDelhi over the gangrape of a medical

student in the capi-

tal last weekend."There is genuine and justified anger and an-

guish at this ghastly incident," Singh said in a tel-evised statement on Monday, appealing for"peace and calm" as officials shut down roads inthe centre of New Delhi - a city home to nearly 14million people - in a bid to prevent furtherprotests. "I assure you that we will make all pos-sible efforts to ensure security and safety to allwomen in this country," said Singh.

Police on Sunday had shot tear gas and watercannon, and used batons to disperse demonstra-tors, as the crowd at Delhi's landmark India gatemonument defied orders banning the protestsand swelled into the thousands.

Scuffles occurred between protesters and po-lice near government buildings, with demonstra-

tors shouting slogans against the authorities andthrowing stones and bottles at their barricades.Angry protesters later overturned a vehicle andseized police vans. At least 30 people, includingseveral policemen, have been treated for injuriesat a nearby hospital, officials said.

"Security has been tightened in the heart ofNew Delhi, with police in riot gear in every areaof possible demonstration. Section 144, a crimi-nal code that prohibits assembly of more thanfive people, has been imposed," reported AlJazeera's Subina Shrestha in New Delhi.

A delegation of protesters met Sonia gandhi,the leader of the ruling Congress party, to conveytheir demands. The gang rape of the 23-year-oldon a bus has sparked public outrage across India,bringing thousands of people onto city streets.

Marches, demonstrations and candlelight vigilshave spread during the past week.

Six drunk men were joyriding in a bus whenthey picked up the physiotherapy student and her28-year-old male companion last Sunday. Theytook turns raping her before throwing the pair offthe speeding vehicle. During her ordeal the victimsuffered serious intestinal injuries from beingbeaten with an iron rod. She remains in criticalcondition on respiratory support, but is respond-ing to treatment, doctors said on Sunday. Five ofthe suspects in the case were arrested soon afterthe crime and a sixth was caught on Friday, thePress Trust of India reported. New Delhi has thehighest number of sex crimes among India'smajor cities, with a rape reported on averageevery 18 hours, according to police figures.

dAmASCUSAGenCIeS

lAKHDAR Brahimi, the UN-ArabLeague envoy to Syria, has met Basharal-Assad, the Syrian president, in Dam-ascus, a day after an air strike killeddozens of civilians in Hama province.

"I had the honour to meet the president and asusual we exchanged views on the many steps to betaken in the future," Brahimi told reporters at hishotel in Damascus on Monday. "Assad expressedhis views on the situation and I told him about mymeetings with leaders in the region and outside,"said the veteran Algerian diplomat, who took overhis present task from former UN chief Kofi Annan.

Assad described his meeting with Brahimi as"friendly and constructive," according to state televi-sion. "The government is committed to ensure thesuccess of all efforts aimed at protecting the sover-eignty and independence of the country," Assad said.State news agency SANA said Foreign Minister WalidMuallem, his deputy Faisal Muqdad and presidentialadvisor Buthaina Shaaban all attended Assad's meet-ings with Brahimi.

Brahimi arrived in Syria on Sunday from neigh-bouring Lebanon. He had last visited the country onOctober 19. Fresh violence was reported on Monday,with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for HumanRights (SOHR) saying that warplanes had carriedout airstrikes in rebel-held areas in Eastern ghouta,near Damascus. Violent battles were also reportedovernight in the northeastern Damascus district ofQaboon, and on the road separating the Palestiniancamp of yarmouk from al-Hajar al-Aswad.

Heavy shelling was also reported in Hama onMonday, where anti-government activists said thatat least 90 people had been killed in an air strike ona bakery in the town of Halfaya on Sunday. Halfayawas seized by rebels few days ago as part of a cam-paign to push into new territories in the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Mousab al-Hamadee, an activist in the suburbsof Hama said and added that nearby towns have wit-nessed heavy shelling since rebels began advancingin the province. Samer al-Hamawi, an activist in thetown, said that more than 1,000 people had beenqueueing at the bakery. Shortages of fuel and flourhave made bread production erratic across the coun-try, and people often wait for hours to buy loaves."We hadn't received flour in around three days soeveryone was going to the bakery today, and lots ofthem were women and children," Hamawi said.

Syrian state media, however, disputed that ac-count, saying instead that a "terrorist" group had car-ried out the attack. SANA, the country's official newsagency, citing residents of the town located in the cen-tral province of Hama, said: "An armed terroristgroup attacked the town of Halfaya committingcrimes against the population, killing many womenand children." The report added that the Syrian armyintervened during the assault and "killed andwounded many terror-ists", a term Syrianofficials and statemedia use torefer to rebelsfighting tooust theAssad gov-ernment.

Mali fighters

destroy more

timbuktu tombsbAmAKOAGenCIeS

Al-Qaeda-linked fighters occupyingTimbuktu in northern Mali havedestroyed remaining mausoleums in theancient city using pickaxes, a leader of thegroup says. "Not a single mausoleum willremain in Timbuktu, Allah doesn't likeit," Abou Dardar, head of Ansar Dine,told the AFP news agency on Sunday."We are in the process of smashing all thehidden mausoleums in the area." Thesmashing of the mausoleum, part of whatthe fighters say is about defending thepurity of their faith against idol worship,follows a United Nations approval of amilitary force to wrest back control of theconflict-ridden area. Historians say therebels' campaign of destruction ispulverising a valuable part of the historyof Islam in Africa. The AFP reported thatwitnesses confirmed the claims, whichwere also corroborated by a resident whosaid he belonged to al-Qaeda in theIslamic Maghreb (AQIM), another groupoccupying the fabled city. "The Islamistsare currently in the process of destroyingall the mausoleums in the area withpickaxes," one witness said. "I sawIslamists get out of a car near the historicmosque of Timbuktu. They smashed amausoleum behind a house shouting'Allah is great, Allah is great'," anotherresident told AFP. Rebel groups withlinks to al-Qaeda took control of northernparts of the West African nation after aMarch 10 coup by low-ranking soldiers."Anything that doesn't fall under Islam isnot good. Man should only worshipAllah," Mohamed Alfoul said of themausoleums that armed groups considerblasphemous.

Top envoy Brahimimeets Syria’s Assad

India's PM responds to gang rape protests

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09

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

News

ISlAmAbAdInP

POLITICAL violence in thethird week of December af-fected 241 people in 41 in-cidents across the country,killing 75 people and injur-

ing 166 others.According to a report by FAFEN, 22

incidents were reported in Sindh fol-lowed by 10 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,six in Balochistan, two in Federally Ad-ministered Tribal Areas and one ingilgit-Baltistan.

No incident of political violencewas reported in Punjab in the reviewedweek.

Compared to the second week, thenumber of incidents went down from

52 to 41, but more people died andwere wounded – 75 and 166 – in polit-ical violence in the third week.

In the second week, 61 people werekilled and 51 injured in incidents of po-litical violence.

Most of the casualties – 15 killed,69 injured – were reported in KhyberPakhtunkhwa. Twenty-four people diedand 75 were injured in FATA, whileSindh witnessed 25 deaths and seveninjuries.

In Balochistan, nine people werekilled and 12 injured and gilgit-Baltistan reported two deaths and threeinjuries.

Incidents of terrorism claimed 47lives and left 154 injured across thecountry. Nine incidents of targetedkillings took 11 lives in Karachi, while

one incident in Swat resulted in onekilling and another injury.

A tribal conflict in North Waziris-tan Agency claimed five lives andwounded four others, while three peo-ple were killed in ethnic violence inBolan

In attacks on political workers, anMQM worker was killed while a PPPworker was injured in Karachi.

Seven people died and six otherswere injured in sectarian attacks in thethird week. Of them, four were killed inKarachi, two in gilgit-Baltistan and onein Quetta.

The major tactic of political vio-lence was bomb blasts, killing 19 peopleand injuring 79 others. The secondmost lethal tactic was gunfire thatkilled 48 people and injured 38 others.

A suicide attack in combinationwith gunfire killed five people and in-jured 46 others. Missiles and mortarskilled and injured three each.

Khyber Agency was the most vio-lent place where a car bomb went off inJamrud, killing 19 people and injuring71 others. Peshawar was the secondmost violent place, where a high-profileattack on an airport claimed five livesand injured 46 others.

Karachi remained the third mostviolent area with 25 deaths, mostly inacts of targeted killings and sectarianattacks.

Additionally, five attacks were car-ried out against female polio healthworkers. In Nowshera, 18 people wereinjured in hand grenade attack on anarmy recruitment centre.

g violence affected 241 people in 41 incidents across the country leaving 166 people injured

Political violence claims 75 in3rd week of December: FAFEN

Pakistan tobecome UNSC’spresident inJanuary 2013iSlamabad: Pakistan will assume thepresidency of the United Nations SecurityCouncil for a month in January 2013.Pakistan’s Representative to the UnitedNations Masood Khan called on PrimeMinister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf at the PM’sHouse on Monday, according to anofficial statement. Khan informed theprime minister that Pakistan wouldassume the presidency of the UNSC for amonth in January 2013. He also apprisedAshraf of the activities being organised byPakistan’s Permanent Mission at theUnited Nations during the month. Khansaid the mission was arranging sessionson “Comprehensive Approach on CounterTerrorism”, and “Role of Peace Keeping”.The prime minister said the election ofPakistan as president of the UNSC was anacknowledgement of its role ininternational relations as well as itsstanding in the comity of Nations. Ashrafexpressed hope that Pakistan wouldcontinue to play its role for maintenanceof world peace and security. StAff RePoRt

Shahbaz shouldnot pretend to bea ‘Bhutto’: Kaira

deepalpur: Minister for Informationand Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kairahas said Punjab Chief Minister ShahbazSharif cannot attain the status of greatleaders like Bhuttos and should stoppretending to be late PPP founderZulfikar Ali Bhutto. Addressing theoath-taking ceremony of newly-electedoffice-bearers of electronic media, Kairasaid the leaders of Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz could not be PPP leaderswho sacrificed their life for truth. Hesaid Shahbaz wasted funds worthbillions of rupees in the name ofproviding bread to the poor. “Around Rs70 billion have been spent on a singleroad giving instilling an inferioritycomplex in the population of theremaining areas of Punjab,” he added.“When the PPP came to power in 2008,there was shortage of flour, but nowPakistan is exporting millions of tonnesof wheat,” he added. “There is a hue andcry over inflation, but price hike is aglobal phenomenon,” Kaira maintained.“The Sharif brothers say they did notsign a pact with the dictator but whenthe agreement came to the forefront,they said the contract lasted for fiveinstead of ten years,” he added. Kairasaid if President Zardari wanted, hecould have become prime minister andcould enjoy immense powers, but he didnot and instead delegated all his powersto parliament. Criticising the Punjabchief minister, he said the loyalties ofyouth could not be bought through thedistribution of laptops, but only byintroducing good policies and offeringsacrifices. To a question‚ Kaira said theMuttahida Qaumi Movement had its ownpoint of view regarding the delimitationin Karachi. onLIne

Power supplyto faisalabadfactoriessuspended

FAISAlAbAd InP

The Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company(FESCO) on Monday suspended power supplyto more than 400 textile factories for anindefinite period.Continuous closure of the factories has leftthousands of workers jobless as the units arefacing gas and electricity supply suspension.According to FESCO officials, the electricitywas suspended on the directives of the Waterand Power Ministry. The officials said that thefactories were capable of producing electricitythrough gas and furnace oil, adding that theirshare of electricity will be diverted to thedomestic consumers. On the other hand, theAll Pakistan Textile Mills Association(APTMA), the Kharianwala Industrial EstateAssociation, the Pakistan Textile ProcessingMills Association and the Pakistan TextileExporters Association have called anemergency meeting to review the situation.The factory owners have decided to announcea mutual-strategy to protest against thegovernment in this regard.

ISlAmAbAdonLIne

President Asif Ali Zardari on Mon-day said the father of the nationQuaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jin-nah had rejected change throughthe bullet and had always favouredit be done through the ballot.

“Let us pledge that we will notallow any change through force andintimidation and respect the powerof ballot as the instrument ofchange,” the president said in amessage on the 136th birth anniver-sary of the Quaid-e-Azam.

“Let us on this day rededicateourselves to the democratic idealsand principles of the father of thenation as well as reiterate our re-solve to defeat the forces that seekto undermine the nation’s foundingprinciples. Quaid stood for consti-tutionalism, rule of law, respect forhuman rights, pluralism and hon-ouring the mandate of the people,”he said.

Zardari asked the people neverto lose sight of the national goals.“This indeed is our compass in aturbulent sea,” he added.

He said the Quaid envisagedPakistan as a democratic countrydriven by the welfare of the masses.

“Unfortunately due to dictator-ships in the past, the welfare of thepeople took a back seat and securityconcerns became predominant asthe country faced extremism andmilitancy.”

He called for creation of condi-tions whereby the welfare of thepeople was the dominant concern ofthe state.

Meanwhile, Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf urged the nationto pledge on this day to reclaimQuaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan and un-

leash the creative powers of thepeople through freedom, justice, therule of law and an end to terrorismand violence.

The prime minister urged thenation to forge unity in their ranks“to preserve and protect their dem-ocratic and political rights andmake Pakistan a country whereegalitarianism prevailed and inwhich every individual was allowedopportunities for the blossoming ofhis potential and shaping his owndestiny”.

Quaid favoured change by ballot, not bullet: Zardari

PeShAWAR: no hearings were held at the Peshawar high Court on Monday as the judges and lawyers mourned the killing of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa senior minister bashir

bilour on Saturday. INP

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Comment10

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

There is hardly anythingpleasant about this week.This was originally sup-posed to be a piece aboutkillings of anti-polio

workers and the plight of Christiansas Christmas approaches. The plightof both had something in commonwith the late Mr Bashir AhmedBilour—his beliefs and actions, liketheirs, were on the wrong side of aline that decides whether or not youwill be allowed to live.

The Awami National Party(ANP)—true to its creed, imbued byintellectual giants like ghaffarKhan, Bacha Khan, of standing up tobullies—has taken the firmest standagainst violence in the name of reli-gion too. And they have paid a heavyprice for that. The KP informationminister has faced multiple attacksand lost his son in one such attempt.Hundreds, if not thousands, of ANPworkers at the grassroots level havebeen systematically targeted by theTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)and their multiple off-shoots. Makeno mistake about the magnitude ofthese sacrifices. Not only have hun-dreds of families lost their lovedones but a political party has lostgrassroots level workers—meaningthat come the elections the ANPparty machinery will be significantlyhandicapped in mobilising its sup-port base. As a friend from KP aptlyreminded me recently, “you winelections if you can draw out thevoters. For that you need people.ANP is running out of people.”

ANP’s stance, the latest casualty

of which has been the martyred MrBilour, is nothing short of heroic.From the day they took office theyhave highlighted how the TTP andits ideology threatens everythingthat we want for ourselves and ourchildren. Sadly, because of the Pun-jabi conditioning of Islamabad, Pe-shawar seems a long way off.Therefore, even the federal govern-ment and gHQ were slow to re-spond to calls for military action inSwat. Once the army began to feelthe heat itself, it kicked into actionbut Peshawar has not become anysafer and we, over time, have be-come immune to the plight of peoplethere. Many can afford to believe,while living in Lahore and Islam-abad, that Peshawar isn’t Pakistan.Convenience trumps concern forhuman life.

The federal government has notdone enough to protect the ANP andthe message that it stands for. Thesecurity agencies should have donea more thorough job of anticipatingthe violence that anti-polio workerswould suffer and adequate stepsshould have been taken. Their taskhas not been helped by the conspir-acy theories on the media thatturned Shakil Afridi’s story into aspecter haunting the security of lifeof anti-polio workers. Even if ShakilAfridi did what he did, the mediacould have been far more responsi-ble in distinguishing his actionsfrom the general campaign againstpolio. An ad by the ministry ofhealth can do little good if newschannels follow it up with showsmanned by people promoting con-spiracy theories. Free speech? Sure.But a media house can and must in-vite those who want to challenge theabsurd conspiracy theories beingpromoted. That is often lacking.

The mortal fault of the martyredMr Bilour, as well as the anti-polioworkers, is that they stood upagainst systemic ignorance and hateand decided to challenge a reduc-tionist narrative. They paid for thiswith their lives. The sad part is thatmany in this country will still blamethe US, Israel and India for this.They will, despite blown up schoolsand bullet riddled bodies, support

negotiations with people who wantnothing less than the destruction ofPakistan as we know it. They won’teven believe the TTP when theyclaim responsibility for this. Negoti-ations, apparently, is the way for-ward. Even Santa would find thatabsurd.

you don’t need to have taken aclass on negotiations to know that ithelps to negotiate from a position ofstrength. By caving in to the TTP, wedo not gain anything. Furthermore,in all this talk of negotiations, noone seems to be considering whatwill happen to those people who willbe forced to live under TTP “rules”?Should the state of Pakistan abdi-cate all responsibility towardsthem? If they don’t want polio work-ers in their midst, should we acceptthat? And if we don’t accept thatthen, sure as Christmas, the battlecan’t take place on the negotiationstable. Who are we kidding?

There are lines in Pakistan nowthat you shouldn’t cross now if youwant to be safe. But people like MrBilour crossed them being fullyaware of the consequences. And thatis the choice that we must makenow. Either take a stand or sit on thefence. The latter guarantees securityin the short term but uncertainty inthe long run—you will never knowwhat about you irks the believersand they will come after you. Thebenefit of taking a stand, withoutprejudice to morality, is that you atleast know the bargain that you areentering into. That you stand for thesecurity of this country’s citizensand the education of its children.And maybe that is a far better idealto die for than being naïve or beingkilled by a stray bullet while you aretwiddling your thumbs, sitting on afence. And by the way, Merry Christ-mas. Stay safe.

The writer is a High CourtAdvocate and a partner at Bhutta,Khan & Mir (BKM). He is aBarrister and holds a Mastersdegree from Harvard Law School.Contact: wmir.rma@gmail.com orTwitter @wordoflaw. Viewsexpressed here are strictly his ownand not the law firm BKM.

be warned: this could bring chaos

Mischief is afoot

There were already rumours regarding the possibility of the postponementof the elections. With Tahir-ul-Qadri’s speech, these are going to gainstrength. This despite every major party unanimous in one demand: theholding of elections on schedule. Qadri has issued the ultimatum that if

his demands were not accepted by January 10, he would march on Islamabad atthe head of four million people. The Minjah-ul-Quran leader knows that it issimply inconceivable to change the entire economic, social, political and electoralsystem in less than three weeks. Many think that if he was sincere he would haveworked for the change after he got elected in 2002 instead of resigning from theNational Assembly and leaving the country for newer, greener pastures.

Qadri knows that even the so-called constitutional requirements he wants tobe enforced cannot be implemented within three weeks unless through militarycourts. It is easy to declare, as he has done, that the vast majority of theparliamentarians are corrupt and can neither be called upright nor honest. Butcollecting evidence against hundreds of legislators and getting them prosecutedcould take years. So, quite plainly, what a determined and inspired Qadri inessence wants is an indefinite postponement of the elections.

Raising the question about the enormous funds at Qadri’s disposal to splurgeon his Lahore rally is not enough. What should worry the political parties is thathe was able to attract many more people at the rally than any of them have everbeen able to. The parties have to ensure that the issues of governance, economicdevelopment and social justice that perturb the people’s minds are genuinelyaddressed within a reasonable time frame – irrespective of who comes to power.Unless the issue is at the centre of the electoral agenda, forces and individualswith all sorts of objectives and agendas would try to upset the applecart by actinglike rabble-rousers.

In his address, the Minhaj-ul-Quran chief has made overtures to the SupremeCourt and the military which would provide further grist to the rumour mills. Hewants the Supreme Court and the Election Commission to enforce Articles 3, 9,37, 38, 39, 40, 218 (clause-III), 62, 254 and others before holding the elections.The articles, according to Qadri, require holding the elections after ending alldiscriminations, efforts for buying votes, ensuring social justice to all, impartialand threat-free voting, ending corruption, discouraging sale of party tickets andbanning the entry of corrupt politicians and tax defaulters into the corridors ofpower. He wants a body to introduce electoral reforms and hold elections withrepresentatives from the judiciary and military sitting with other stakeholders.While the political parties need to mind their store more diligently, improvingmassively on the delivery part of the bargain, the establishment has to realise thatany encouragement to attempts of the sort to upset the system can only lead tochaos to the detriment of the country in whose name it is being manufactured.

Sitting on the fenceIn Pakistan, it seems, convenience trumps concern for human life

Legally Speakingby Waqqas mir

Egypt: Talking pointsConsensus, even a manufactured one, can work

Egypt and its constitutional crisishas been a subject of intense de-bate among analysts worldwide.

So much has been said and written thatthere is little more to add to the currentsituation; that is, unless Egyptian poli-tics takes another shift in direction andmomentum.

So as things stand, the Egyptiangovernment is bracing itself for a freshwave of protests over allegations ofpolling violations on the referendumthat was to decide the fate of the con-troversial constitution that Morsi hasbeen pushing for.

Morsi supporters have been arguingthat this controversial constitution iswhat the country needs to step out ofdecades of military-backed regimes andenter a new era of democracy. His critics

have argued back that the new constitu-tion ignores the rights of women and theminorities (Christians make up aboutten percent of Egypt’s population).There has also been an international di-vide between pro- and anti-Morsi ana-lysts over the constitution as well. Somehave claimed that as Egypt is only justlearning to be a democracy and the con-stitution is a solid stepping stone in thatdirection – since it is the ‘most’ demo-cratic constitution Egypt has ever seen.It guarantees the right to start politicalparties and allows for freedom of thepress. It also bans torture and allows fordignity of the prisoner. However, othershave argued that this proposed constitu-tion is just ‘bad’. It gives unelected reli-gious figures the right of prior review oflegislation and it allows the ArmedForces to function independently.

Others still have insisted that it isnot a question of the constitution. In-stead, it is a much deep rooted problemof Egypt’s institutions. There have beenfears that with this faulty constitution,the institutions, including the courts,legislature, central executive and evenlow level officials, would not be able toresist stepping back into old habits.Hence, the deep rooted mistrust by thepeople is not just the Muslim Brother-hood and its leadership, but the abilityof Egyptian institutions to remain trueto the constitution.

The Muslim Brotherhood, led by

President Morsi, has not played a verypositive role in neutralising the mistrustamong the Egyptian public. On the con-trary, they seemed to have antagonisedevery section of Egyptian society and po-litical structures. A small example of thiswould be the promise of the MuslimBrotherhood that they would contest foronly 30 percent seats in the parliament,then 50 and finally settled for contestingfor 70 percent seats. They then promisedthat they would not nominate a candi-date for presidency and even expelledone of its prominent members, AbdelMoneim Aboul Fotouh, when he an-nounced his plans to compete. In theend, they nominated Morsi, reneging onpromise after promise.

Morsi’s decision to allow the army toenter the streets and arrest protestorshas also been called a martial law of aweakened army, trying to keep watchover a society whose divisions are in-creasingly raw. It has also become aquestionable if Morsi’s policies are de-liberately designed to provoke and po-larise. Under his regime, the samefigures that were present under theMubarak’s era have continued to sur-vive, unscathed and unpunished forsome of worst human rights crimes inthe country’s history.

But the blame does not lie withMorsi and his Muslim Brotherhoodalone. The liberals are beating drumsabout the potential threat of an authori-

tarian rule – Islamists taking control –without realising that the current regimein power may also be seen as moderatesand reconstructed versions of the Mus-lim Brotherhood that existed in the1980s. During that time, application ofIslamic law was the core demand of theorganisation. The demand was not justan idea that Muslim Brotherhood cameup with out of thin air – Islamic revivalwas on the rise in the 1980s in Egypt, somuch so that Sufi Abu Talib, the speakerof parliament and a close associate ofPresident Anwar Sadat, was won over bythe movement. By 1982, Abu Talib’scommittees had produced hundreds ofpages of draft legislation including 513articles on tort reform, 443 on the mar-itime code, and 635 articles on criminalpunishments. Back then, Muslim Broth-erhood was more of a Sharia lobby thana political party. Since then, however,the Muslim Brotherhood has workedpainstakingly to smoothen the roughedges of its ideology and political out-look. Today, they believe in a strongpresident (at the expense of the parlia-ment, and local government). However,they still insist on being democratic, andsay that the constitution was a consen-sus-driven document.

While the Salafi and Muslim Broth-erhood representatives oversaw thedrafting of the constitution, their dis-dain for the liberals is not baseless. Theliberals have had a history of tolerating

an oppressive regime as the lesser oftwo evils and more importantly, do nothave a strong constituency. Liberalismas a concept is foreign to an averageEgyptian man – so much so, that if hevotes for a liberal leader, it would per-haps be only because he does not wantto vote for the Brotherhood, not be-cause he understands what ‘liberalism’as a concept means.

Having said this, as several writershave pointed out, there is still room forconsensus despite the sad mismanage-ment of the transition. The liberals donot object to the role of religion in publiclife (the most liberal party in Egypt hascarried banners saying ‘Quran is ourconstitution’). At the same time, the con-servatives, now that they are in power,are also eager to look reasonable and re-sponsible. Nour Party, the political armof the largest Salafi organisation, saysthat “the state should be far from thetheocratic model”.

As Shadi Hamid, in the article ‘Isthere an Egyptian Nation?’ pointed out,a manufactured consensus may, in fact,be easier to forge now, in this early stageof Egypt’s democratic transition. “Is-lamists” and “non-Islamists” may hateeach other, but, on substance, the gapisn’t currently as wide as it might be.

The writer is a staff member. Thisarticle was also carried byspearheadresearch.org

by Aima Khosa

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

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Comment 11

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

no one can be the judge

of his own actionsThe Supreme Court is final arbiter of

constitution. In this sense, the SC is superior andall other heads of institutions as well as allindividuals are bound to bow before it. However,the constitution allows all pillars of the state andconstitutional bodies to form their own laws forsmooth running of administration. The apexcourt can review these acts to ensure they do notconflict with any provision of the constitution. Atthe same time, the SC is also authorised toformulate its own judicial policy, rules andregulations. However, no one can oversee orcriticise such policy and apparently there is nomechanism to oversee the SC policymaking,which seems to be discriminatory. No one can bethe judge of his own actions, as it betrays thepretention that no one is above law.

The SC judges might be competent, honest,and trustworthy, but as human beings they areprone to mistakes. Moreover, the superiorjudiciary is also subject to constitution, but itseems to overstep lines envisaged in theconstitution and encroach upon the jurisdictionof other heads of institutions. It is involved infixing of prices of commodities, promotions,postings, and transfers of government servants,dubbing some as honest and others incompetentwithout any trial or fair process. SC sometimestries to solve social issues outside its originalfunction – dispensation of justice – withoutwhich there is no rule of law and justice as oftenclaimed. It issued directive to CEC to prepareelectoral roll and redefine constituencies and ifCEC conducts elections under the direction ofSC, its own constitutional independence is indanger and slogan of free elections becomesmeaningless and doubtful.

Superior judiciary, being final arbiter of lawand constitution, stands at high pedestal andone can expect it to bear greater responsibilitywith regard to solution of public problem, forpeace and prosperity, economy, crumblingsecurity and worst law and order problemspersistent in the country. Efficiency lies inaverting an unpleasant event to happen thanbecoming wise in the retrospect. Everyone islooking towards judiciary to act in a most fair,honest and neutral way to dispense justice,which is its primary duty. If judiciary assumesthe duties of executive, probably Faiz’s poeticverse ‘kissey vaqil karien aur kiss sey munsafichahien’ fairly fits in.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAHIslamabad

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to Editor,

Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah,Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302.E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk.

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

how I again fell in love with the country

Amazing Pakistan

This November, I visited Pakistan after 10year’s absence. This lapse was partly dueto my heavy working schedule but mainly

due to what I saw in the Western TV, Pakistanimedia and the scary stories told by my Pakistaniand foreign friends living in Europe. The con-stant demonisation of Pakistan made mescared. I was indeed afraid to set foot on theground of a land I so immensely love and amproud of. The situation became so absurd thatevery year I made plans to visit Pakistan but atthe eleventh hour chickened out.

Finally, I said to myself that in spite of allthe problems, millions of other Pakistanis visittheir motherland every year, so I should putaside my fears and make a leap of faith. One ofthe positive influences for this decision was aninvitation from my niece who begged me tocome to her wedding.

I was told by friends, not to travel by PIA –Pakistan International Airline – because of thebad service, unreliable flying schedule, oldplanes and expensive prices. I was warned thatI should not wear western clothes because it willmake me a kidnapping target, do not go out inthe street after 10 pm and certainly not to walkaround with my expensive camera or use iPhonein public. On top of this, another very sound ad-vice was dished to me by many: that I shouldnot discuss Islam with anyone, even my ownfamily because of blasphemy laws. Since I wasvery critical of religious monopolists, I may endup in jail if I was reported.

In short, I was told to mingle with crowd,keep my mouth shut and appear poor. In all myworld travels from Indonesia to USA, I havenever been so warned and alarmed as of thistrip to my own motherland.

Against all warnings, I bought a ticket byPIA, which turned out to be a blessing. It wascheaper than other international carriers, theservice was great, the plane was a new one andthe flights were on time. First prejudice turnedout to be false.

In the ensuing three weeks I spent in Pak-istan, I visited the capital Islamabad, largecities like Rawalpindi, Lahore and gujrat aswell as numerous middle and small towns. I

wore suits, walked on foot, rode on motorbikeand cars and other means of transport. No oneeven looked at me with any envy, concern orsuspicion, let alone try to kidnap, harass or in-timidate.

As far as speaking openly, I delivered lec-tures at the prestigious Fatima Jinnah WomenUniversity, at Islamabad Rotary Club, was theguest of honour at a think tank in Islamabad,celebrating inter-culturalism, was interviewedat radio stations, by newspapers and had heateddiscussions at my brother’s home with relatives,guests and even two guys from Pakistan’s FBI.Issues discussed were Islam, the role of reli-gious parties and how Pakistan can move for-ward. Not once, I was arrested, reported or evenlabelled as a blasphemous person.

Actually, most people agreed with my criti-cism of the misuse of Islam and blamed the so-called religious leaders for misleading theinnocent public by invoking religion.

There were many other remarkable goodchanges that I witnessed during my stay. Theflourishing of a fantastic amount of small busi-nesses, the abundance of food, the schools, col-leges and universities, internet cafes andyoungsters striving to educate themselves, es-pecially girls. I especially noticed the improvedinfrastructures, highways, super expressways,the extensive use of mobiles, very versatile elec-tronic media with 70 channels – broadcasting24 hours programmes regarding religion,sports, news, political discussions, family prob-lems, music, arts, criticism of government,food, comedies, films and every other topic, youcan think of.

But above all, what impressed me most wasthe hospitality, graciousness, generosity, sincer-ity and willingness to please, which is the hall-mark of Pakistani people. In the parties, atshops, in private get-togethers and at the homesof total strangers, the pleasure people exhibit ininviting and entertaining others to be theirguests is indescribable. They do not correct youif you make a mistake, do not accuse you if youdo not show good manners and are really apolo-getic if they feel that you are not eating a fullmeal.

To someone who has not been to Pakistan,this may sound a very exaggerated tale of patri-otism and a view of Pakistani society withoutany criticism. It may be so but after being wit-ness to 10 years of Pakistan bashing in the west,which has declared Pakistan a failed state,called it a country on the verge of breaking upand where Taliban are running around instreets, my western acquired prejudices werelaid to rest, once for all.

Having seen things with my own eyes, expe-riences I had in the society at close hand andtalking to ordinary Pakistanis, I came out withvery beautiful and uplifting feelings about thisland of the pure. No doubt Pakistan has hugeproblems, immense difficulties – economic, so-

cial, political and institutional – like all othercountries in the developing world. I can alsowrite pages upon pages of negative histories –high unemployment, extremism, deadly sectar-ian violence against minorities, especiallyAhmedis, corruption, mismanagement of econ-omy, electricity shortages, deteriorating institu-tions and what not, but what I want to achieveby writing differently is to inform the world thateven though there is so much negative coverageabout Pakistan in the mainstream media in theWest, there is another side to the coin, which isthere but is neglected intentionally.

Pakistan is very strategically placed withneighbours like Iran, Afghanistan, China andIndia. The landscape of Pakistan ranges fromlofty mountains in the north, the Karakoramand the Himalayas, through dissected plateausto the rich plains of the Punjab. Then followsbarrenness of Balochistan and the hot drydeserts of Sindh blending into miles and milesof golden beaches of Makran coast.

Pakistan’s gross National Product is 500billion dollars, its population is around 190 mil-lion, with 60 percent of the population com-posed of vibrant youth, very lively politicalculture, strong democratic institutions and alarge NgO sector of various types. It is self-suf-ficient in food, has world’s 7th largest armedforces with nuclear capabilities and profession-alism second to none. The Pakistani expatriatesin the world send 30 billion dollars a year backhome. Pakistan is not the same as it was fewdecades ago.

The strong critical lobby against Pakistanshould also remember that it is a country whichappeared on the world map only 65 years ago.It started with no resources, very little moneyin the treasury and many odds stacked againstit. It survived through the shear willpower of itspeople who have unshakable faith in its destiny.It is now progressing – slowly but steadily.

To call it a failed state as some westerncountries and few international institutionsgleefully claim, is not only unfair but smells ofa calculated political agenda. I would advisesuch armchair analysts to get out of their com-fortable offices in Washington, London andParis and go visit Pakistan. They would bepleasantly surprised of the development,progress and tenacity of the people of Pakistan.They may not be rich according to western pa-rameters of living standards but they are defi-nitely, very rich in landscape, history, culture,resources, hospitality and are moving on theright path.

The Pakistani leaders should tell the westcategorically: If you cannot support Pakistan inits continuous efforts to improve, please stopputting it down and discouraging the Pakista-nis. They need friends, not masters.

The writer is Secretary General, EuropeanMuslim Initiative for Social Cohesion.

by bashy Quraishy

ISB 03-10-2012_Layout 1 12/25/2012 2:03 AM Page 11

12

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

You would expect Angelina Jolie and Brad pitt to

splash out on expensive gadgets and toys for their

large brood, but the couple has simply opted to

splash out on liverpool football kits for their six children.

The couple has spent a great deal of time in the uK this

year and it seems they picked up a love of football while

here, in particular liverpool player Steven Gerrard and have

decided to buy their children a hoard of memorabilia. “They

rang the club shop and spent hundreds. Son Maddox is a

big fan and his favourite player is Steven Gerrard,” a source

told The Sun, before adding that the Hollywood couple

ordered several shirts, mugs, caps and tracksuits. Angelina

is believed to have developed a passion for the team in

2002 when she and eldest son Maddox, 11, spent time in

the Merseyside where she was filming a movie. neWS DeSK

Jolie and pitt treat children toSteven gerrard kits for Christmas

i always wanted to bea movie star: Tom Cruise

aamir khan plays host forimran’s party

ReCeSSIoN-proof Bollywood, now back on its

feet, thanks to several rs. 100 crore

blockbusters, seems determined to end the year

with a lot of celebrations. The latest is Imran Khan’s

house-warming bash on Saturday (december 22), which

saw a bevy of filmstars partying till late night. Imran and

wife Avantika played the perfect hosts, while Aamir Khan

and wife Kiran, who looking ravishing in a fitted dress,

also looked after the guests personally. Aamir’s ex-wife,

reena, looking dazzling in a red sari, came with

daughter Ira. The guest list included Karan Johar,

priyanka Chopra, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor,

Alvira Khan, among others. The sprawling lawn of

Imran’s newly acquired bungalow at pali Hill, called the

NH Bungalow, once belonged to his grandfather Nasir

Hussain. Naturally, the place still has a certain old-world

charm to it. neWS DeSK

Hollywood star Tom Cruise says healways wanted to

be a move star. The 50-year-old actor, who split with

actress wife Katie Holmes in June this year, says he

dreamed of making films when he was just 4-years-old and

always relishes the challenge of taking on a new character

with every film he makes, reported Showbiz spy. “It’s always

exciting to create new characters and I get to live the dream

by travelling the world and meeting new people and new

cultures. “I feel very privileged to be able to do something

that I love. I remember being four years old and dreaming

about making movies. It’s a great life,” he said. The actor-

producer is currently working on his upcoming film All you

Need Is Kill, where he is playing a soldier. neWS DeSK

NEWS dESK

IF Deepika Padukone is satisfied after doing romantic comedy “Cocktail” in2012, she wishes she had been part of the Ranbir Kapoor starrer 2011musical hit “ Rockstar”. “I am more than happy I was part of‘Cocktail’. It was the most satisfying experience to do the film. Theaudience really appreciated me a lot in ‘Cocktail’,” Deepika told

IANS. “So this year, I am extremely happy about ‘Cocktail’ and haveno regrets. But if you ask me about last year, then yes, I would say, Iwish I was part of ‘Rockstar’.” The actress had dated Ranbir for sometime and even featured with him in the hit movie “Bachna AeHaseeno” before parting ways. “Rockstar”, a musical extravaganzathat rocked the box office, was helmed by Imtiaz Ali who roped inPakistani American Nargis Fakhri as Ranbir’s love interest in the movie.If Deepika pats herself for doing “Cocktail”, she candidly admits thatsome of her films disappointed her. “I don’t regret anything but, yes, Ihave been disappointed with two to three films that I did in the lasttwo years,” the 26-year-old said. “I put equal amount of effort toeach and every film but when it doesn’t work, it is verydisappointing. All of us face ups and downs in our lives, but all wecan do is we can learn from our experiences.” However, sherefused to name those disappointing films, saying it would be“unfair to name any films because ultimately it’s me who hadchosen the film ... so I would never name them”.

I wish, I was part of ‘Rockstar’:DeePIka PaDukone

Demi Moore reportedly seeking bigpayout from Ashton Kutcher in divorceAshton Kutcher may have to empty his pockets if he wants to officially

close the chapter on his marriage to DemiMoore. The “Two and a Half Men” actor

filed divorce papers last week, but hisestranged wife is reportedly holdingout on signing because she wants

more cash, according to TMZ.com.Despite being worth millions, Moore,

50, apparently hopes she’ll get asmuch money from the split as she did

in her divorce with Bruce Willis.Willis and the hard-partyingactress never revealed the terms oftheir settlement, but Moore is

thought to have scored a hugechunk of change. Kutcherfiled for divorce in LosAngeles County SuperiorCourt Thursday, a year after

the May-December coupleannounced they were calling itquits. The 34-year-old actorfinally decided to pull the plugon the six-year marriagebecause of his relationshipwith former “That ’70s Show”co-star Mila Kunis, a source

told the Daily News’Confidenti@l. neWS DeSK

adeLetrademarksher ownname

NEWS dESK

Adele has reportedlytrademarked herown name. TheSun has revealedthat the multi-million sellingpopstar has madesure that her namecan’t be used tosell perfume orjewellery withouther consent. Asource told the tabloidpaper: “She doesn’t wantanyone exploiting hername by using it on productswhich may trick puntersinto thinking she’s involvedwith it.” Adele was recentlynamed Entertainer Of Theyear by the AssociatedPress. The title is givenannually to the person whohad the most influence onentertainment and culture.Previous winners includeLady gaga, Taylor Swiftand comedian Tina Fey.Meanwhile, Adele’s‘Someone Like you’ wasnamed as the most popularkaraoke song of 2012 bykaraoke company LuckyVoice. The track also enteredthe Co-OperativeFuneralcare’s chart of thetop music played at funeralsearlier this year. Thoughshe didn’t release an albumin 2012, Adele gave birth toher first child andrecorded the theme to thelatest Bond film, Skyfall.She also won six grammyAwards and two BritAwards. Adele’s recordlabel, XL Recordings,have stated that they donot expect her torelease the follow-up tothe best-selling ‘21’ fora while. Speaking toThe New york Timesa spokesperson forthe label said: “Thenext Adele albummay not come forsome years...”

neW york: hugh Jackman gets his hands on a tree just in time.

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13

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

ChriStmaS 2012 is here! So, how are the

stars celebrating this year? Will it be a

lavish all the family party, or just a day in

bed unwrapping gifts and watching home

alone? most of these celebrities have made

plans to be around friends and family for the holidays,

and are making sure it’s an extra special event for their

kids too. from baking mince pies to waking up at 6am to

see what’s under the Christmas tree, these 6 stars are all

set to enjoy a very fun festive season. many are heading

back home to be with their parents for the holidays while

others will be spending it with their own young kids taking

part in their own traditions. neWS DeSK

Keira KnightleY

Keira is now engaged to Klaxons frontman

James Righton, so she’s torn over where to

spend Christmas – with her own family or

his: “It’s no longer ‘I’ but that big old ‘we’…

I have no idea (where to spend Christmas);

it’s a massive question. My family was just

four and very simple. Now all of a sudden

it’s breaking into different parts. I cannot

imagine my mother letting us go.”

matt damon

Matt’s family have mixed traditions which

means two days of present opening which

his children love: “We have this weird fusion

for Christmas, but I think it just means more

gifts for the kids, so they’re into it. I’m just

going to hang out with my kids, we’ve been

on the Promised Land train a little bit for the

last week or so, and we’re looking forward

to just settling down.”

mel C

The Spice Girls singer will spend Christmas

with her 3-year-old daughter Scarlett:

”Having a little one around I don’t want to get

too drunk, but I’ll have a Christmas Spice Girls

night out. We’ll go to someone’s house and

buy for each other’s children. I’m going to be

in London with my family and Scarlett. My

mum’s doing the cooking and Scarlett and I

will make mince pies with Christmas music.”

niCole SCherzinger

Nicole plans to spend the holidays in Hawaii

with boyfriend Lewis and her family: ‘Oh,

that’s going to be fun. I totally forgot about

that. I’m going to be with my whole family

there. In Hawaii, our Santa Claus wears surf

shorts, it’s so much fun. I spent one Christmas

Eve travelling back from a tour in Europe to

get back to my family in Kentucky, and I got

stuck in the airport. It was devastating!”

rob KardaShian

Rob will be at his family home surrounded

by the entire Kardashian clan: ‘Christmas is

home, so everyone will be home and we’ll

all hang out together. My mom has a really

big Christmas party every year on

Christmas Eve, We all sleep over at the

house, and on Christmas morning we wake

up at like 6 a.m. and do presents. They all

make breakfast, all the girls. We watch

basketball. It’s a family day.”

Kate hudSon

Kate Hudson says that

she starts knitting, while her

son likes to ski: “Christmas has always

been a big holiday for our family

and we’ve always been pretty crafty

anyway. We all knit. The girls

knit. This year I’m doing these great big

knits. We’re going to ski like we always

do. My son is skiing now.”

reeSe WitherSpoon

Reese Witherspoon indulges

in some yummy food when the

festive season rolls around:

”There is a lot of eating that

goes on . . my whole family is with me.

And we all hang out and just tear

through all the presents and

eat a bunch of Southern fried food and

just have a good time.”

rod SteWart

Life sure has changed for the veteran rocker,

he told Hello! “There are a few more shillings

about now, however, my childhood memories

of Christmas are full of joy.” Stewart now

spends the holiday with wife No. 3 Penny

Lancaster, their two young sons and his

multiple kids (eight altogether). The former

model revealed their plans: “In the afternoon

all the boys want to do is jump around in all

the wrapping paper and empty boxes.

raChel bilSon

Rachel Bilson also enjoys

eating at Christmas, and

gorges herself on her mother’s home

cooking: “The things that I look

forward to for the holidays is

just being at home and eating all my

mom’s food and cookies, and that’s

really what I’m focusing on more

because that’s the best part.”

neil patriCK harriS

The How I Met Your Mother star and

partner David Burtk a will stay local

with 2-year-old twins Gideon and

Harper, he told People. “This

year will be an L.A. Christmas. Both

sets of our parents are flying in,” he

says. “I’m very much looking forward

to relaxing and not having to navigate

airport madness.”

Jane KraKoWSKi

The 30 Rock star told Celebrity Baby

Scoop she had fun picking out

a tree and introducing her 20-month-

old son Bennett to St. Nick. “We

got the classic screaming photo on

Santa’s lap.” As for shopping for

relatives, the actress didn’t have to do

much: “I have nephews who at this

point really just want cash.”

Jennifer laWrenCe

The Hunger Games’ leading lady is

going home to Louisville, Ky.,

she told the U.K.’s The Guardian. The

trained archer plans to go first-time

clay pigeon shooting with her brother.

“I don’t know what his shooting skills

are like — I’m sure they’re better than

mine. I’m going to have to bring my

bow and arrow.”

ISB 03-10-2012_Layout 1 12/25/2012 2:06 AM Page 13

14Infotainment

facebook releases ‘poke’ app

fACEBOOK released a little holiday surpriseFriday with a new messaging app called“Poke.” The name, of course, is a play off of

Facebook’s “Poke” function, which has always beenthe network’s way of sending a digital wave. NowFacebook users can send more complex greetingsthrough the app, which lets you send text, a photoor even a quick video. The app, as rumored, issimilar to the Snapchat service, which lets userssend real-time messages that are only available for afew seconds. Poke lets users send messages toindividual users or groups that are visible for up to10 seconds. Snapchat has grown in popularity sinceits launch last year, reporting last week that it seesmore than 50 million messages flow through its sitea day. But the service has also gained a reputationas some users feel more free to send graphic orotherwise inappropriate messages because thosemessages disappear so quickly. Perhaps as a nod tothis kind of behavior, Facebook mentioned that ifPoke users ever see anything they’re “uncomfortablewith” they can easily report inappropriate content tothe network through the settings menu. Poke iscurrently only available on the iPhone, as a freedownload. The app adds to Facebook’s growingportfolio of mobile applications, including FacebookMessenger, Facebook camera and, of course,Instagram. neWS DeSK

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

end of the world on Christmas instead?

aFTER months of bunker-stocking, NASA-calling, and party planning, Dec. 21, 2012passed with the world still firmly in place. If

you believed, however, that the end of the Mayancalendar's 13th baktun would indeed signify the endof the world, you might not want to breath easy justyet. Matching up modern calendars with Mayanpredictions is tricky, german researcher Nikoaligrube told Spiegel Online. He says the 13th baktunmay not actually be over until December 24.Nevertheless, grube emphasizes that whatever theexact date, the end of the baktun -- a period of timelasting 144,000 days -- represents the end of a era,not the end of the world. The change is comparableto the turn of a millennium. In fact, grube says,Mayan artifacts include many references to datesthat stem far beyond December 2012. neWS DeSK

phony 911 call distracts policefrom catching robbery

tHE week after the Newtown, Conn.massacre, jewelry thieves may have takenadvantage of the nation's fears of a similar

event, police in Texas say. Tuesday afternoon,Houston dispatchers received a 911 call stating thata man with a gun was in a local theater, KPRCreports. Officers rushed to the scene but found nosigns of the alleged man or the caller. While policewere occupied with the theater, however, four orfive armed men with covered faces burst into aJared's jewelry store just two blocks away. Officerssay one suspect forced customers onto the floorwhile the others shattered display cases to steal thegoods inside. They made off with nearly 1 milliondollars worth of jewelry. Even if it's not part of aplan to stage a jewelry heist, misusing the 911system is still a criminal offense. In September,one Florida teenager was arrested after heallegedly dialed 911 twice to inform dispatchersthat his dreams had become reality. neWS DeSK

Santa Claus is comin’ to town. yes, your child’sphoto with him may not have gone as plannedand you probably forgot to move the Elf one (or20?) times this month. But with mere hours leftof Christmas 2012, NORAD Tracks Santa is hereto help make your everyone's holiday magical.

NORAD (the North American Aerospace De-fense Command) first got into the Santa busi-ness 57 years ago, thanks to a happy accident.On December 23, 1955, Sears Roebuck & Co.printed an advertisement with a portrait ofSanta that read “Hey Kiddies, call me direct onmy telephone...” with the wrong phone number.Instead of the store, children started callingCONAD (the Continental Air Defense Commandwhich later became NORAD). Colonel HarryShoup, who was in charge at the time, went farbeyond being a good sport; he had his staffcheck their radar to provide updates on Santa’slocation, and, as the official NORAD websitesays, “a tradition was born.”

Over the years, trackers at NORAD continuedto take phone calls from anxious kids on Newyear’s Eve, wanting to know where Santa was.They relied on radar, satellites and fighter jets (!)to locate Santa's sleigh. Then, in 1998, NORAD

debuted a Santa Cam Network -- “ultra-cool,high-tech, high-speed digital cameras that arepre-positioned at many locations around theworld… [to] capture images and videos of Santaand his reindeer as they make their journeyaround the world.” In other words, NORAD wentonline -- and became even more fun and popular.

Today, NORAD will be tracking Santa on theirsite and via the NORAD app with interactive mapsand constantly updated videos.While you wait forhim to get close to your hometown, exploreSanta’s village to play holiday versions of classicgames like tic-tac-toe (elves are x’s, snowmen areo’s) or head over to Facebook to hang out with theSanta tracking community on the NORAD TracksSanta page, which has over 1.1 million fans. Andyes, if you want your kids to have an old schoolChristmas, it's still possible to get Santa's locationby phone -- call 1-877-HI-NORAD or 1-877-446-6723 to speak to a real-life tracker.

Clearly, NORAD is the granddaddy of track-ers, but there are even more, entertaining optionsfor kids in search of Santa on December 24. Frompersonalized phone calls and videos to a hilariousphoto-maker, NORAD has a bunch of interactiveservices for children around Christmas. neWS DeSK

tALK about tables beingturned! The first step tointegrating multimediafunctions on a smart-phone was enabling the

handset to take pictures. Samsung isnow playing the game the other wayaround. The new Samsung galaxyCamera is a shooter, based on an An-droid platform that lets you do allthat you do on a smartphone exceptmaking calls! Oh, the irony of it all!

We got our hands dirty with thepristine white Samsung galaxy Cam-era. The camera looks slightlychunkier than the thinner point-and-shoot models that you see instores these days. Most of the ‘bulk’of the all-plastic camera is attributedto the massive 4.77-inch screenwhich spans the entire back panel. Aseamless fascia, the screen doublesup as a live view display as well asthe interface medium for the user.The display supports HD resolutionsof 720p and is a pretty bright andvivid screen to be using, almost onpar with a good smartphone display.

By default, the home screen al-ready had widgets – a couple of appsready for you. Fans will be happy toknow that Instagram rests right nextto the camera icon on the homescreen,saving them the bother of download-ing it from google Play. Oh yes, thecamera is Android-based hence youhave access to all yourfavourite apps from thegoogle Play Store.

S h o o t i n g :Swiping away fromthe home screen di-rectly takes you tothe capture mode.All settings are centeredaround a virtual click-wheelwhere you flip through the variousmodes. I could choose among threeoptions depending on how much con-trol I wanted over the shots. The

Smart mode is the more interestingone where you have more than ahandful of effects which kick intoplace before you take a picture. Thereare some common ones such as Con-tinuous Mode, Panorama, Sunset andso on. But I had more fun with modessuch as Beauty Face, Rich Tone andSilhouette. In the panorama mode,the stitches were easily visible despiteholding the camera reasonably stillwhile capturing the scene. The richtone works well but you can alwaysup the saturation after you’ve taken apic so there’s no real need to activateit beforehand. We wish we werearound a Waterfall or on a skate-board so we could try out the Water-fall and Action Freeze modes.

The camera has a cool and conven-ient pop-up button for the flash on theside. The camera is capable of 21x op-tical zoom and while that’s a big num-ber, a lot of the detail was lost when wetried taking pics in full zoom. It has adedicated toggle button on top of thecamera so you don’t have to botherwith a virtual zoom slide. Also, becauseit’s a little bulky, single-handed shotsended up

being blurry most of the time. Theonly mode in which the camera givesyou complete control is the ExpertMode, and in doing that the galaxyCamera comes close to emulating aDSLR. I could choose between threedifferent priority modes – Aperture,Shutter Speed and Exposure.

appS: The smart-camera comeswith pre-loaded apps such as googleLocal, Latitude and google+. youalso have Samsung’s proprietary S-Voice, game Hub and ChatOn.

you can download many morefrom google Play as and when youwant to but do keep in mind that thecamera comes with only 4gB of inter-nal storage. It is, however, expand-able up to 32 gB with an externalmemory card. you can also activateDropbox which is already installed inthe cam so your pics get stored in theCloud after you click them. PaperArtist and Photo Wizard are the twopost-processing apps that are loadedon to the camera. Both offer a bunchof editing options and both are varied

in how they post-processyour pictures.

batterY life: Unlike a regulardigital camera, the battery life of theSamsung galaxy Camera is compar-atively limited.

Thanks to the Android platformand all the apps that come alongwith it, the camera’s hours are asgood as any other big screen Androidsmartphone.

you can slot in a 3g-enabledmicro-SIM card but remember youcannot make voice calls through thegalaxy Camera, unless you useSkype or something.

Another possible roadblock tokeep in mind is that at times youmight not be around a Wi-Fi connec-tion. So, using the camera to uploadphotos over 3g, especially if you areon roaming, might end up with youhaving to pay huge bills.

verdiCt: The Samsung galaxyCamera does a real good job of in-tegrating ‘smart’ features into whatwould otherwise be a Plain Janecamera. But the question you haveto ask yourself is whether you can/ need to put the cam to good use.

Clicking pics is fine, butwill you also use it to

reply to mails, playgames or read an e-book? If yes, will asmartphone/tabletat the same price do

a better job of it? Ifnot, then will another

digicam in the same pricerange offer a better sensor orfeatures? The Samsunggalaxy Camera tries to giveyou the best of both worlds,it’s up to you to decide if youwant to have your cake andeat it too! Love – Interesting integration,good touchscreen Hate – Bulky body, averagebattery life

neWS DeSK

Where is Santa?

Samsung galaxy Camera review

Australian child escapes

death as eggs hatched

deadly snakes

A 3-year-old Australian boy was lucky to escapeuninjured after a collection of eggs he found in hisyard hatched into a slithering tangle of deadlysnakes. Reptile specialist Trish Prendergast saidFriday that young wildlife enthusiast Kyle Cum-mings could have been killed if he had handledthe eastern brown snakes – the world's most ven-omous species on land after Australia's inlandtaipan. Kyle found a clutch of nine eggs a fewweeks ago in the grass on his family's 1.2-hectare(3-acre) property on the outskirts of the city ofTownsville in Queensland state, Prendergast said.He had no idea what kind of eggs they were. Heput the eggs into a plastic takeout food containerand stashed them in his bedroom closet, where hismother, Donna Sim, found them Monday. Sevenhad hatched, but the snakes remained trappedunder the container's lid. The remaining two eggswere probably infertile and were rotten, Prender-gast said. "I was pretty shocked, particularly be-cause I don't like snakes," Sim told the TownsvilleBulletin newspaper. Prendergast, who is theTownsville-based reptile coordinator of the volun-teer group North Queensland Wildlife Care, washanded the container on Tuesday and released thesnakes into the wild that night. She was relievedthat no one had handled the snakes. "Their fangsare only a few millimeters long at that age, so theyprobably couldn't break the skin, but they're justas venomous as full-grown snakes," Prendergastsaid. "If venom had got on Kyle's skin where therewas a cut or if he put it in his mouth, it could havebeen fatal," she added. neWS DeSK

ISB 03-10-2012_Layout 1 12/25/2012 2:06 AM Page 14

lAHOREStAff RePoRt

Pakistan pace legends Wasim Akram andWaqar younis on Monday paid glowingtributes to Sachin Tendulkar on his re-tirement from One-Day Internationals,terming the Indian cricketer as the“greatest batsman of the modern era”.

The 39-year-old Tendulkar an-nounced his retirement from ODIs onSunday, just days before India and Pak-istan clash in a three-match ODI seriesthat will mark the revival of bilateralcricketing ties between the two coun-tries since 2007. Akram, who playedagainst Tendulkar many times in an il-lustrious career, said that he was fortu-nate to have played in an era thatfeatured the Indian batting maestro.

“I have no doubt in my mind that hewas the greatest batsman of the modernera and I don’t see another like himcoming soon,” Akram said. “It was aprivilege to play against him,” he added.

Tendulkar announced his retire-

ment after scoring 18,426 runs in 463ODIs with 49 centuries — all three worldrecords for most runs, matches and hun-dreds. Akram pointed out that for abatsman to play at the highest leveland score 100 internationalcenturies is a phenomenalachievement. “I credithim a lot for maintain-ing the fitness and levelof endurance and con-centration to play atthis level for so long. Itis a hard job,” he said.Akram said he hadfound Tendulkar to bea technically very cor-rect player. “He was sopassionate about his bat-ting and always hungry forruns. I don’t see his recordsbeing eclipsed very soon.”Akram’s pace partnerWaqar, whomade hisTest debut

alongside Tendulkar in the 1989 KarachiTest, said he had always felt that Ten-dulkar was “special”. “We knew from thefirst match he played against us that he

was special. He was also very gutsyand courageous because he

faced one of the best paceattacks in his first series,”Waqar noted. “In thatseries we slowly beganto realise that here wasa special talent and heproved this in years tocome. It was always achallenge to bowling athim.” Former Pakistancaptain Inzamam-Ul-

Haq said that wheneverhe played against Indiahe knew that the key

wicket was alwaysTendulkar.

“India

depended so much on him and what sur-prises me is that Tendulkar withstood allthis pressure all these years to set somany records which will be difficult tobreak in years to come,” he said.

“He was a gentleman and soft spo-ken and for a sportsman, who is idolisedby millions, his conduct was always im-peccable. He is truly a role model foryoung cricketers.” Former Pakistan cap-tains Moin Khan and Rashid Latif alsopraised Tendulkar and said he has takenthe right decision by retiring from ODIs.

“He went out on a high. The prob-lem is that he had set such high stan-dards that people always expected bigscores from him and he handled thispressure very well,” Latif said. Moin,though, was little surprised at the timingof Tendulkar’s decision to quit ODIs.

“He should have played against Pak-istan in the coming series but it is hispersonal decision and he knows best,”he said. “But as a cricketer he has leftbehind a legacy for Indian players which

will be hard to live upto,” Moin added.

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

bANGAlOREAGenCIeS

JUST the plain fact that this touris actually happening is a gar-gantuan achievement for thePakistan Cricket Board and its

chairman Zaka Ashraf. How many diplo-matic and political channels must havebeen traversed, how many meetingsarranged and attended, how many peoplecajoled and persuaded, and how manyprayers said in the hope that nothing goeswrong at the last moment. Well, Pakistanare finally here, on Indian soil, for theirfirst bilateral tour in five years. It does notmatter that it is apologetically short, itdoes not matter that it is barely squeezedbetween the two legs of England’s Indiavisit. Thank heavens to Christmas then,for ensuring a gap existed in the first placefor the two Twenty20 internationals andthree ODIs to be sneaked in.

The rivalry needs no introduction.In the earlier part of the previousdecade, the historic Indian tour of Pak-istan in 2003-04 - after another five-year break in ties - heralded a surfeit of

bilateral series to the extent the rivalrybegan to feel a bit jaded. Since 2007, ormore pertinently, since the Mumbai at-

tacks of 2008, fans have had to rely oncrumbs - a Champions Trophy game in2009, an Asia Cup match in 2010, a

World Cup semi-final in 2011, and aWorld Twenty20 clash in 2012.

“We want him to stay at the peak.We don’t want to put too much pressureon him. At the same time, other bowlersalso have to take wickets to give confi-dence to him,” said Mohammad Hafeezon Saeed Ajmal MS Dhoni might say itis just another series but it isn’t. Pri-vately for the players, and openly for thefans, India v Pakistan will always be acoming together of shared history, cul-ture, language, fear, hopes, love, hatred.India v Pakistan will always convert aneutral venue into a sea of flags of thetwo countries. India v Pakistan will al-ways do strange things to players; it willdrain flair out of those who have it, andit will inject flair into those who haven’thad it till then, and won’t have it there-after. India v Pakistan will always maketemporary fans out of people who runaway from cricket otherwise.

Too much cricket? UnderperformingIndian team? No Sachin Tendulkar? Allvalid concerns and worries. But come thefirst ball in Bangalore on Tuesday evening,few will be able to resist watching.

Pakistan, India resumerivalry after five-year break

Pakistan has anedge over India inpace bowling: Tanvir

bANGAlOREAGenCIeS

Left-arm Pakistan seamer Sohail Tanvirreckons his team will have an edge overthe archrivals India in the fast bowlingdepartment in the upcoming limitedovers series, adding that the hosts do nothave permanent pace attack.“Pakistan has an edge over India in fastbowling as India lack good quality fastbowlers,” left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvirtold reporters here in Bangalore. “Indianpacers are busy cementing their place inthe team and they lack in confidence.India does not have permanent paceattack and we will try to take advantageof that,” he added further.Besides Tanvir, the Pakistan cricket teamboasts the likes of T20 death overs’specialist Umar gul, left-arm seamerJunaid Khan, and gangling pacemanMohammad Irfan. The visiting paceattack will be further strengthened by theinclusion of Wahab Riaz come the one-day leg of the itinerary, starting inChennai on December 30. One the otherside of the coin, the Men in Blue havestruggled to find a set pace combinationof late, and will be without frontlineseamer Zaheer Khan, who has beendropped after having failed to impress theselectors with his performances this year.Tanvir, the 28-year-old Rawalpindi fastbowler, was also full of praise for his side’sspin department, led by wily off-spinnerSaeed Ajmal. He, however rued the factthat fast bowlers’ performances getovershadowed because of the spinners.“With the arrival of Saeed Ajmal, ShahidAfridi and Mohammad Hafeez in Pakistanteam and playing together in matchesafter matches, the performances of fastbowlers goes unnoticed,” he argued.Tanvir, a veteran of 50 One DayInternationals and 26 T20 Internationals,said that the experience of playing inIndian conditions in the past would helphim perform better in the forthcomingseries against the arch-rivals.“I have played in India and performedreally well. I cherish 2007 series in Indiawhere I bowled well and got manywickets in Tests and ODIs,” said the left-arm seamer reminiscing about their 2007tour of India, where he was the leadingwicket-taker in the five-match ODI serieswith eight scalps from four innings.

Pakistan team’sfirst practicedevoted tofielding

bANGlORE AGenCIeS

The 15-member Pakistan squad includingstars Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed,Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, ShoaibMalik and Saeed Ajmal slogged it out atthe Chinnaswamy stadium under thewatchful eyes of coach Dav Whatmore.Having not played since last October’ssemifinal match against Sri Lanka in theTwenty20 World Cup, the MohammadHafeez-led Pakistan side Sundayunderwent a one-hour practice session toget into the groove ahead of the first T20match against India.The practice session began around 10.50am with the players doing warming upexercises. Whatmore and his boys mainlydevoted their time on fielding practice.Almost all the players including Ajmal,Afridi, Hafeez, Umar gul, the Akmalbrothers and Malik practised outfieldcatching and ground fielding. The teamarrived here last night for the firstbilateral series between the two sidessince 2007.

bANGAlOREAGenCIeS

Police bomb squad officers and snifferdogs searched Bangalore stadium Mon-day as part of a massive security opera-tion for the start of the first Pakistancricket tour to India for five years.

Hardline Indian nationalist organisa-tions including Vishwa Hindu Parishadand the Shiv Sena have both threatenedto hold protests outside all the venues forthe five-match series, which begins inBangalore on Tuesday evening.

The Indian government has said itwill issue a record number of 3,000 visasto Pakistani fans attending the series —the first since the 2008 Mumbai attackswhich led to a complete breakdown in re-lations between the two countries.

“As the governments of both thecountries have agreed to hold the bilat-eral series, no organisation will be al-lowed to disrupt the match,” Bangalorepolice commissioner Jyotiprakash Mirjitold reporters. An AFP reporter sawbomb squad officers carrying out apainstaking inspection with their dogs

in and around the Chinnaswamy sta-dium in Bangalore, the capital of thesoutheastern state of Karnataka.

As many as 5,000 security person-nel, including a 100-member bombsquad, have been deployed to cover thematch, fearing attempts to disrupt thegame or even stage an attack.

Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist party

based in Mumbai, has branded the toura “national shame” and accused Indiancricket authorities of “betraying thecountry for sake of money”.

The same organisation dug up thewicket at the Feroz Shah Kotla cricketground in New Delhi in 1999 ahead of anIndia-Pakistan Test although the matchdid go ahead.

Cricket has been used in the past tomend diplomatic ties, with the primeministers of both nations symbolicallyshaking hands as they watched theirteams in the semi-final of last year’sWorld Cup in the northern Indian city ofMohali. But the prospects of a diplo-matic dividend this time round appearslim and there has been no announce-ment of a visit by a Pakistani leader forany match. Ties were further strained ona trip to New Delhi by Pakistan’s Inte-rior Minister Rehman Malik this month,when he compared the Mumbai attacksto the 1992 razing of a mosque by aHindu mob which sparked a wave of sec-tarian violence.

Boria Majumdar, a Kolkata-basedacademic and sports historian, saidthere was little reason to expect that theresumption of cricketing ties would her-ald any wider political thaw between thenuclear-armed neighbours.Schedule: Pakistan in India 2012-13

Dec 25: 1st twenty20 international, bangalore (d/n)

Dec 28: 2nd twenty20 international, Ahmedabad (Motera) (d/n)

Dec 30: 1st oDI, Chennai (d/n)

Jan 3: 2nd oDI, Kolkata (d/n)

Jan 6 3rd oDI, Delhi (d/n)

Bomb squad combs match venue

Akram, Waqar pay tribute to Tendulkar

Indian bomb squad officials carry out a routine check outside the M. Chinnaswamy

Cricket Stadium in Bangalore.

ISB 03-10-2012_Layout 1 12/25/2012 2:07 AM Page 16

POA celebratesQuaid’s birthanniversary

lAHOREStAff RePoRt

WAPDA maintained itssupremacy with 26gold medals on thethird consecutiveday of the 32nd Na-

tional games which are in full swing hereat different venues of the city.

Sindh finished second with 11 goldmedals and HEC earned third with sevengolds. Wapda defeated Punjab 36-25 inthe kabbadi final to notch up gold medalwhile Wapda earned silver and KPKbronze. In the volleyball women event,Wapda won gold medal, HEC earned sil-ver and Punjab won bronze medal whilein volleyball men event, Wapda baggedgold, Police earned silver and Punjabbronze.

Wapda also dominated in the lawntennis event by winning the team eventgold medal while Punjab won silver andHEC bronze. In the team event final,Wapda defeated Punjab 2-0 while HECoutclassed Sindh 2-0 to win the third po-sition in the classification match. In theindividual event events, Aqeel Khan ofWapda defeated Heera Ashiq of Punjab2-6, 6-2, 6-2 and yasir Khan of Wapdathrashed Ahmad Babar of Punjab instraight sets 6-3, 6-4.

The rugby event of the games com-menced here at DHA Rugby ground onMonday as six league matches were de-cided on the opening day. In the firstmatch, Punjab played superb rugby andcrushed KPK 49-0. The main scorer forthe winners were Arslan Zahid and TahirRafi who scored two tries each whileSahir Riaz, Khurram Ali and Vickyscored one try each. In the second match,Police outclassed Balochistan 39-0 withNaeem, Khalid and Babar scoring pointsfor the winner. In the third match, Policeoutpaced KPK 29-0 as the key scorerswere Naeem, Babar, Sajjad and KhalidBahtti. The fourth match saw HEC de-feating Balochistan 36-0 and points werescored for HEC by Waseem, AbdullahJutt and Abu Bakar (two tries each).Punjab beat Police 24-7 with Arslan scor-ing two tries and Sahir and Tahir one tryeach for the winners while for the losers,Sajjad scored one try. HEC thrashed KPK66-0. Waseem scored three tries andNaseer, ghalib, Mujahid, Khurram, Abu

Bakar and Abdullah Jutt scored one tryeach for the winners.

In cycling 1000 m sprint (men), MShakeel of Punjab clinched gold medal bycompleting the distance in 13 sec 59points, Naveed Ahmad of Wapda won sil-ver and Zafar Hussain of Wapda wonbronze. The 1000 m sprint (women) goldmedal went to Raheela Bano of Wapdawho covered the distance in 14 sec 37points while Rashida Munir of Wapdawon silver and Fiza Riaz of Railwaysbronze.

In the 1000 m team sprint (men),Wapda claimed gold medal by completingthe distance in 1 min 16 sec 75. Punjabearned silver and HEC bronze. In the1000 m team sprint (women), Wapda se-cured gold medal after covering the dis-tance in 1 min 27 sec 76. HEC won silverand Punjab bronze.

In the elimination race (men), Sabirof Wapda claimed gold medal while MShakeel of Punjab earned silver andSameer Ahmad of Railways bronze. Ra-heela Bano of Wapda clinched gold medalin the elimination race (women) whileMehvish of HEC secured silver and FizaRiaz of Railways bronze.

The 200 m individual medley goldmedal was won by Soha Sanjrani of Sindhin the time 3:15.50 while silver went toAleesha Mitha of Sindh (3:24.27) and

bronze was won by Rizma Farooq ofWapda (3:28.09). Sara Tajamal Hussainof Wapda won 200 m breast stroke goldin 3:56.80 time while Sania Nadeem ofWapda won silver (3:57.49) and SohaSanjrani of Sindh bronze (4:08.04).

In 200 m freestyle, Rida Mitha ofSindh grabbed gold covering the dis-tance in 2:41.04 while Anaida Mitha ofSindh bagged silver (2:46.08) and Fa-tima Mehmood of Wapda bronze(2:54.45). The 800 m freestyle goldmedal went to Fatima Mehmood ofWapda (13:31.40), silver to Kara Alam ofPunjab (15:11.78) and bronze to ImanAleem of Sindh (15:31.51).

The 200 m back stroke gold was wonAnaida Mitha of Sindh (3:05.32), silverby Aleesha Mitha of Sindh (3:14.12) andbronze by Rizma Farooq of Wapda(3:39.53). Soha Sanjrani of Sindhnotched up gold medal in 200 m butter-fly with the time line of 3:33.34 whileAfia Shah of Wapda bagged silver(3:45.59) and Zaha Sheikh of Sindhbronze (4:20.68). The 4 x 100 mfreestyle relay gold medal was grabbedby Aleesha, Soha, Anaida and Rida ofSindh in 5:19.86 time, silver went toKhadija, Fatima, Afia and Rizma ofWapda (5:39.04) and bronze was won byJaveria, Mehak, Mahnoor and Wardahof Islamabad (7:39.20).

In the swimming men events, 100 mbutterfly gold medal was won by Sikan-dar Khan of HEC (1:01.73), silver by Far-rukh Shahzad Butt of Wapda (1:03.88)and bronze by Adnan Hashim of Wapda(1:12.93).

In the 100 m freestyle, Mazhar Hus-sain of Wapda earned gold medal(58.28), Sikandar Khan of HEC won sil-ver (59.59) and Shahbaz Khan of HECbronze (59.85). The 400 m individualmedley gold went to ghulam Muham-mad of Wapda (5:36.30), silver went toHassan Kamran of Punjab (6:08.36) andbronze to Sikandar Khan of HEC(6:18.90). Abdul Aziz of Wapda clinchedthe 100 m breaststroke gold medal in thetime of 1:17.08, Tanveer Ahmed ofWapda won silver (1:18.10) and RohailWaqar of HEC won bronze (1:20.45).

The 400 m freestyle gold medal waswon by ghulam Muhammad of Wapda(4:43.65), silver by Mumtaz Ahmed ofWapda (5:03.48) and bronze by Sikan-dar Khan of HEC (5:15.35). HaseebTariq of Sindh won 100 m back strokegold (1:10.67), Atif Khawaja of Wapdasilver (1:12.18) and Harris Banday ofPunjab bronze (1:12.32) while Abbas,Shahbaz, Mursil and Sikandar of HECwon 4 x 200 m freestyle relay gold medal(4:07.48), Mumtaz, Abbas, Rauf andMazhar of Wapda won silver (4:08.41)

and Mustafa, Shahid, Haseeb and Saadof Sindh bronze medal (4:27.80).

In 10m air rifle (men) team event,HEC scored 1,428 to clinch gold medal,Wapda scored 1402 to bag silver andPunjab scored 1,268 to win bronzemedal. In the individual events, M Arifof Wapda scored 508 points to securegold medal, Jamshed of HEC scored 491points to earn silver and M Akhtar ofWapda scored 476 points to win bronzemedal.

In baseball men event, Wapda de-feated Police to win gold medal whileSindh outpaced Balochistan to winbronze medal. In the softball men, Policedowned KPK to win gold medal whileSindh overpowered Punjab to winbronze medal.

In the football women leaguematches, HEC held KPK 1-1 and Punjaband Wapda played goalless draw. In thewomen football event, Wapda defeatedPolice 4-2.

At the end of the third day, Wapdawas on top with 26 gold medals, 13 sil-vers and 13 bronze, Sindh was secondwith 11 golds, five silvers and eightbronze medals while HEC claimed thirdposition with seven golds, four silversand 10 bronze medals. Punjab was atfourth with five golds, 10 silvers and fourbonze medals.

Sports 16

lAHOREStAff RePoRt

At the occasion of Quaid-i-Azam’s birth anniversary, thePakistan Olympic Association(POA) celebrates the momentousmoment of birth of the Father ofthe Nation. “This is not merelyremembering him rhetorically,but the POA quite seriously cher-ishes the values and ideals of theQuaid, especially those enunci-ated with regards to democracyand nurturing a vibrant sportingculture”, said the President POA,Lt. gen. (Retd) Syed Arif Hasan,HI(M).

Today we pay the Quaid aspecial tribute, by recallingQuaid-i-Azam’s message to thefirst Pakistan National games[then called Pakistan Olympicgames], and his various sayingsand speeches on the importanceof sport and other views and pro-nouncements.

“This is only appropriatethat at the auspicious conver-gence of the Quaid’s birth an-niversary falling in the middle ofthe games that he initiated inthose extremely demanding im-

mediate post-Independence pe-riod, that we collectively recallhis person and his vision”, saidthe President POA.

A keen sportsman himself inhis prime, the Quaid activelytook part in cricket and golf, andin billiards till very late in hislife, until he was thoroughly con-sumed by the political strugglefor Independence.

“His vision guides us today,when as he had warned, our‘path is calculatingly cluttered’[Quaid’s words] by some egosand considerations that are pettyand narrow. We, the Olympicfamily, are trying our best to riseabove ourselves and put our bestfoot forward. The organization ofthe ongoing National games2012 is a living example, a clearmanifestation of that resolve.

“Let us follow the Quaid’s vi-sion in all walks of life, a mostcardinal part of which should beput on his philosophy on youth.Today let us resolve to follow theQuaid’s vision and work towardsthe attainment of his objectives.Let it not be said we could notprove equal to the task,” the POAPresident concluded.

Wapda maintain grip over the top32nd nATiOnAl GAMeS

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

NEW dElHIAGenCIeS

India and Pakistan will resumetheir competitive cricket ties withthe first match of the series today,the fans on both sides of the bor-der ate eagerly waiting the his-toric clash which would be thefirst in five years. The two sidescontinued to play each other inWorld Cup competitions and atthird country venues.But this isthe first time in five years thatPakistani cricketers are visitingIndia for an exclusive competitionbetween the two rival nations.

And that five-year gap has justunderstandably intensified the ex-citement and anticipation of India’scricket fans. Pakistani cricket play-ers have arrived in India to playtheir first official series in fiveyears. The South Asian rivals willbe playing three One Day Interna-tionals and two Twenty20s, and itall begins on December 25.

The last series between Indiaand Pakistan held in either of thetwo home countries was in 2007-2008 when Pakistan visitedIndia. But relations between thetwo countries soured after the2008 Mumbai terror attacks, inwhich 166 people were killed.

India blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attack. Soumil Patel,a cricket fan in Ahmedabad city,said: “Expectations from this willbe a good cricket, good competitionand also some good relationshipwhich can be made up between thetwo countries. Cricket is the bestthing, we can improve our relation-ship between both the countries.”

The matches will be played infive cities including Chennai,Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad andBangalore. Most Indian fans are

hoping for a good competitionand, of course, a victory for theirhome team in the much-awaitedseries. In southern Chennai city,eager fans waited in long queuesto buy tickets for the match to beplayed at the M A ChidambaramStadium on December 30. Nitesh,a cricket fan in Chennai city, said:he had waited nearly eight hoursin the queue to buy his ticket.

Wasim Mushtaq, a cricket fanin Chennai city, said: “This is adream come true for me. I am justhere to inquire about the tickets.

Well, we are very excited aboutthis match. Believe me or not, Iam ready to remain here for thewhole night to get the tickets.”

India is likely to issue 3,000visas to Pakistani cricket fans at-tending their team’s first cricketseries in India after five years.

The series is also likely to bea money spinner with privatebroadcaster ESPN demandingnearly US$18,000 for a 10-sec-ond advertising spot for T20s andUS$11,000 for one-day matches.

Meanwhile, police bombsquad officers and sniffer dogscombed Bangalore stadium onMonday as part of a massive secu-rity operation for the start of thefirst Pakistan cricket tour to Indiafor five years. Hardline Indian na-tionalist organisations includingVishwa Hindu Parishad and theShiv Sena have both threatened tohold protests outside all the ven-ues for the five-match serieswhich begins in Bangalore onTuesday evening. “As the govern-ments of both the countries haveagreed to hold the bilateral se-ries, no organisation will be al-lowed to disrupt the match,”Bangalore police commissionerJyotiprakash Mirji told reporterson the eve of the first match.

Eager fans await Pakistan-India matches

ISB 03-10-2012_Layout 1 12/25/2012 2:07 AM Page 17

UK paper tosue Armstrongover libel case

lONdON AGenCIeS

A British newspaper is suing LanceArmstrong for more than $1.5 millionafter it settled a libel case over dopingallegations, saying that revelations ofthe cycling star’s use of performance-enhancing drugs show the case wasbaseless. The U.S. Anti-DopingAgency concluded this year thatArmstrong led a massive dopingprogram on his teams. Armstrong wasstripped of his seven Tour de Francetitles and banned from cycling for life.The Sunday Times paid Armstrong300,000 pounds (now about$485,000) in 2006 to settle a caseafter it reprinted claims from a bookthat he took performance-enhancingdrugs. The paper said in an articleSunday that it has issued legal papersagainst Armstrong. “It is clear that theproceedings were baseless andfraudulent,” the paper said in a letterto Armstrong’s lawyers. “yourrepresentations that you had nevertaken performance enhancing drugswere deliberately false.” The paper,which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’sNews Corp., said its total claim againstArmstrong is “likely to exceed” 1million pounds ($1.6 million). “TheSunday Times is now demanding areturn of the settlement payment plusinterest, as well as its costs indefending the case,” the paper said.

Pattinson setto return forSri Lanka ODIs

mElbOURNEAGenCIeS

Pace bowler James Pattinson is set toresume from a rib injury in the one-dayseries against Sri Lanka in January,Cricket Australia’s team physio AlexKountouris said on Monday. Pattinson broke down during lastmonth’s second Test against SouthAfrica in Adelaide but was able totrain with Australia’s Test squad atthe MCg nets on Monday morning.“James is making good progress fromthe rib injury he sustained againstSouth Africa,” Kountouris said. “Hehas resumed bowling and building uphis bowling workloads to be availablefor the series against Sri Lanka.”The five-match ODI series starts onJanuary 11 at the MCg.Pattinson has a tremendous record inhis seven-Test career of 31 wickets atan average of 22.09 and the 22-year-old is a key part of Australia’s plansfor the 2013 Ashes tour. All-rounderJohn Hastings, who made his Testdebut in Perth last month againstSouth Africa before being rested fromBig Bash League games forMelbourne Stars because of a backinjury, is also returning to full fitness.“John has recovered from the backinjury. He is preparing to play in theBBL for the Melbourne Stars laterthis week,” Kountouris said. TheStars’ next BBL game is in Adelaideagainst the Strikers on December 27.

Sports17

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

lONdONAGenCIeS

Manager Paul Lambert admitted hisAston Villa side were not good enoughagainst rampant Chelsea after they suf-fered a record 8-0 defeat at StamfordBridge. The defeat was Villa’s heaviestever in the top flight.

“We were beaten up pretty badlyfrom start to finish. The lads knowthemselves that that was not accept-able,” said Lambert.

“We were second best all over thepitch, I am not going to stand here andmake excuses.” Aston Villa came into thegame unbeaten in their last six matches,including an impressive 3-1 win overLiverpool at Anfield last time out.

But they fell behind after 129 sec-onds when Fernando Torres headed pastgoalkeeper Brad guzan and were soonburied by a ruthless attacking display bythe Blues. “We cannot concede as earlyas that at places like these, you are onthe back foot right away. It is vital thatyou come here and try and get a footholdin the game,” Lambert added.

“you can’t feel sorry for yourselves,you take your medicine in football andyou have to go again.

“We have got two days to mull overit and we have got to go again onWednesday [against Tottenham].”

The victory carried Chelsea up fromseventh to third and interim managerRafael Benitez, who succeeded Robertodi Matteo at the end of November, be-

lieves his side are starting to play theway he wants them to. “Everything im-pressed me the performance of theteam,” said the Spaniard.

“We have been talking before aboutthe mentality of the team; attacking, cre-ating chances, we had good movement,we were good in defence. As a team wehad the balance we are looking for.”

Defender David Luiz revived the

midfield role that he played in the Blues’semi-final win over Monterrey in theClub World Cup, but Benitez says hedoes not foresee the Brazilian makingthe positional switch permanently.

“No, I knew it could be an option,”Benitez added. “Now we can manage ina different way we can use him as a hold-ing midfielder but also as a centre-back.

“He’s good in the air, can use bothfeet, can score goals and he can tackle. Hehas a lot of attributes.” Benitez was coy onthe future of two players who have beenlinked with moves away from the club.

The 52-year-old confirmed thatDaniel Sturridge was due to have a med-ical at Liverpool ahead of a proposedmove, but said he had been concentrat-ing on the match rather than thestriker’s situation. He also stressed thatFrank Lampard, whose contract expiresat the end of the season, remains a keypart of his squad for the moment.

“He is an important player for us. Hetrained well and is doing well. His com-mitment is there,” said Benitez.

“Everything is positive. It is still along season to play but he is doing well.”

Aston Villa ‘unacceptable’ against Chelsea: Lambert

lONdONAGenCIeS

R OBIN van Persie is the “lastpiece of the jigsaw” for lead-ers Manchester United, SirAlex Ferguson has claimed.

The striker’s 12 goals in 18 gameshave helped the 29-year-old’s newclub to a four-point Premier Leaguelead. “I am reluctant to subscribe tothe cult of an individual. But some-times you find the last piece of the jig-saw,” the United manager said.

United lost last season’s title ongoal difference but are currently the topscoring team thanks to the Dutchman.

The reigning Professional Foot-ballers’ Association Player of the yearand Football Writers’ AssociationFootballer of the year has made ahuge impact at Old Trafford since hejoined in the summer from Arsenalfor £24m, scoring 15 goals in all com-petitions. Van Persie’s timing in theleague has also proved crucial as hehas scored the opening United goal infive games and the winning goal infive games, with the highlight beingthe crucial 3-2 victory away to rivalsManchester City.

If his strikes were subtractedfrom his club’s total, table toppersUnited would be 15 points worse offin eighth place. His tally in all compe-titions is well ahead of the other firstteam United strikers, with DannyWelbeck 14 behind, Wayne Rooneyseven goals off and Javier Hernandezclosest to him on nine.

Van Persie’s influence has beencompared to that of iconic FrenchmanEric Cantona when he led United totheir first league title in 26 years de-spite the fact that when he arrived fromLeeds in November 1992 Ferguson’steam were languishing in mid-table.

Speaking in the programme forBoxing Day’s visit of Newcastle, Fer-guson said: “We did it when webrought Eric Cantona to Old Traffordwhere he proved to be the right playerat the right club at the right time.

“He became the catalyst andspringboard for our surge to success.

“It doesn’t have to be signingsomeone for a record fee. CristianoRonaldo was not a record buy eitherbut he certainly made a difference ashe prospered with us to the extentthat he came to be regarded by a lotof people as the world’s best player.”

Ferguson hailsPersie’s impact at Man United

mANCHESTERAGenCIeS

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez says Ash-ley Williams is not a “nasty footballer”after the Swansea player was criticisedfor kicking the ball at ManchesterUnited striker Robin van Persie’s head.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson saidVan Persie was “lucky to be alive” andcalled for Williams to be banned. ButMartinez, who signed Williams when incharge of Swansea in 2008, believesSunday’s incident was not deliberate. “Ican guarantee you he is not the typewho would do that on purpose,” he said.

Van Persie was lying on the groundwhen defender Williams kicked the ballfrom a couple of yards away as refereeMichael Oliver blew the whistle for afoul. Ferguson said Van Persie “couldhave been killed” and labelled Williams“disgraceful” after the 1-1 draw.

“Robin van Persie is lucky to be

alive. He (Williams) should be bannedby the FA. Robin could have had a bro-ken neck,” he added. Martinez signedWilliams from Stockport County aftera successful loan spell. The Spaniardadmitted the incident was a “danger-ous situation” and the player hadshown frustration but he does not be-lieve Williams would be so malicious.

“It is an emotional game and it isvery unfortunate that it hits Van Persiein a part of the body where he couldhave been hurt heavily, and you don’twant to see that,” he added.

“If you see one of your players witha bang on the back of the head it is re-ally dangerous and it can have bad con-sequences. you can understand that.

“But from my point of view, Isigned Ashley Williams for Swanseaand I know his character inside out.

“I can guarantee you without evenlooking at the incident that he is not anasty footballer. “He is a winner and

fully committed, a leader and a cap-tain, and I don’t for one second doubtthat he did not do that on purpose.”

Williams, 28, insisted after thegame he did not deliberately kick theball into Van Persie’s head.

“I just kicked the ball in frustrationand obviously not trying to hit himsquare on the head,” he added. “Every-one’s going to have their own opinionbut from my point of view I tried to apol-ogise on the pitch but it all flared up.”

Brendan Rodgers, who wasWilliams’ manager at Swansea until heleft to take charge of Liverpool in thesummer, said he felt the issue had beenblown out of proportion.

“When you slow it down and lookat it 20 times it does not look good forAshley,” he said. “But I know the playerwell and it is just that split-secondwhen you can see he is trying to clearthe ball and unfortunately hits VanPersie right on the back of his head.

Ashley defended by Martinez:Robin van Persie

Starc out, Birdexcited to move upthe pecking order

mElbOURNE AGenCIeS

Paceman Jackson Bird has been handedan early Christmas present after beingnamed to make his debut for Australiain the second test against Sri Lankastarting in Melbourne on Wednesday.Bird, the leading wicket-taker in thedomestic Sheffield Shield, will take thenew ball in front of a bumper crowd atthe Melbourne Cricket ground onBoxing Day as Australia seek to seal thethree-match series 2-0.“I got the call from Mickey yesterday tosay that I’m in the final 11,” Bird toldreporters at the MCg on Monday,referring to Australia coach MickeyArthur.“So yeah, it’s very exciting and I’mlooking forward to it.“In the last 18 months I’ve been prettysuccessful in first-class cricket.

ISB 03-10-2012_Layout 1 12/25/2012 2:08 AM Page 18

SAN PAOlOAGenCIeS

Tennis players have a habit of im-personating one another for a laughwhile in exhibition matches, andone of the more notable, for anynumber of reasons, is CarolineWozniacki’s overstuffed take on herfriend Serena Williams. This pastweekend, playing a match in SaoPaolo against Maria Sharapova,Wozniacki added a bit of paddingand played a point “as” Williams.

Funny little goof, right? Be-

cause Wozniacki and Williams arefriends, and especially becauseWilliams herself has no problemmaking fun of her own figure? Butno, this is an era where no jokegoes unscrutinized, and no humorapparently exists without sinistersubtext.

In other words: People are actu-ally saying Caroline Wozniacki wasperforming a racist act.

One blogger on Tumblr wrote,“this isn’t ‘harmless fun’ as one ar-ticle described it. its racist. out andoutright racism. mocking and mak-

ing fun of the bodies of blackwomen for a laugh? real funny, stu-pid white girl. real real funny.”(Link not provided because of non-stop profanity in the rest of thepost. And the words “stupid whitegirl” in a post condemning racismpresented without comment.)

Another Tumblr blogger actu-ally tried to make a point, wonder-ing why Wozniacki’s routine isacceptable and Williams drew criti-cism for her “Crip Walk” after win-ning gold in the Olympics. It’s a fairquestion, if only because Williams

didn’t deserve the grief she got.Thing is, this isn’t the first time

Wozniacki has done a Serena im-pression. For that matter, Wozni-acki isn’t the only tennis player todo Serena impressions; Andy Rod-dick did the same thing in 2011.Both of those moments receivedplenty of publicity; why is this onlya racial issue now?

It’s a fine line here; had Wozni-acki come out in blackface makeup,the line would obviously be crossed.Here? One could argue that Wozni-acki was making fun of Williams’

figure outside the context ofrace; there are, of course, whitecurvaceous women’s tennisplayers. Throwing out accusa-tions of racism is all too easyfor such a serious charge, par-ticularly on the Internet, andthe likely outcome of this is sim-ply that Wozniacki won’t dothis particular gagagain. An apol-ogy may bef o r t h c o m -ing, but itshouldn’t be.

Model Town lift Yaseen Trophylahore: Model Town Club lifted the trophy 4th timeof 27th Mohammad yaseen Akhter Memorial crickettournament when they beat Servis Club by 8 wickets inthe final played at LCCA ground the other day.SCoReS: Servis Club 120/6 in 20 overs. Ali Zahid 19, Arshad naeem 10, Adnan Danish

22, farhan Asghar 18, nabeel Siddiqui 21, Sattar Khan 12(no). Ahsan Adil 2/23, Saad

naseem 2/23, Zia ul haq 1/28, KAshif Siddiq 1/22

Model town Club 121/2 in 16 overs. Rashid Riaz 53, Sohail Ahmed 21, Immam-ul-haq

27(no), Amir Sajjad 15(no). Adnan Danish 1/22, Rana Mansoor 1/24.

the President of LCCA Khawaja nadeem Ahmed was the chief guest who gave away the

prizes, after the final Rashid Riaz emerged winner of man of the match award. earlier

Waqar-ul-Munir the organizing secretary gave details of the event. the other prize winners

were best batsman Umer Siddiq( Ludhiyana Gym), best bowler Sattar Khan (Servis CLub),

best All rounder Rashid Riaz (Model town Club) and best Wicket keeper (farhan

Asghar (Servis Club). the huge public were present at the ground. StAff RePoRt

Sports 18watch it Live

TEN SPORTS1st T20: Pakistan vs India06:30PM

Sue Barkerrecalls sharingthe Wimbledonstage

lONdONAGenCIeS

In a year that contained so many sun-drenched winning moments forBritons, Andy Murray’s tears in drizzlysouth London was one of the mostmemorable. The 25-year-old Scot had narrowlyfailed to end a 76-year wait for a Britishwinner of the the men’s singles title atWimbledon, succumbing in four sets tothe great Roger Federer. The defeat was made harder for Murrayby the fact it was his first time in thefinal at SW19 and because he won thefirst set only to be ruthlesslydispatched by Federer’s scintillatingperformance. As the Centre Court net was loosenedfor another year and preparationsbegan to present the trophy to Federer,Murray was struggling to keep hisemotions in check. BBC Sport’s Sue Barker then strodeonto court to interview the players, notknowing the significance of herupcoming chat with the runner-up. Barker, who did not watch fellowBriton Virginia Wade win the 1977tournament because she was so upsetby her own semi-final defeat by BettyStove, recalls speaking to a tearfulMurray. “I was welling up I felt so sorry forAndy,” she told BBC Radio 5 live for aprogramme on Murray’s grand Slamyear that will be broadcast at 19:30gMT on Thursday, 27 December. “I kept wanting to say that you don’thave to do this but in my heart ofhearts I thought that ‘you really dowant to do this’. “It would have been very easy for me tosay ‘Andy we’ll do it later’ but I kept themicrophone there because I could seethat he wanted to talk and I knew thatthe people wanted to share it with him.I think he knew that as well.” Murray had previously been accused bysome of not showing enough emotionaside from the harsh dressings down hegives himself on the court. However, the Scot won the hearts of theBritish nation with his speech despitethe fact it came after one of thecruellest defeats. “The speech he made showed everyoneat home who thought he was a hard,heartless competitor what it meant tohim,” said Barker. “He showed a real softer side. I thoughtthat he won so many people over thatday because all you want from yoursportspeople is to give everything.” It showed in the backing Murrayreceived when he returned toWimbledon later in the summer to takethe Olympic title - avenging his defeatby Federer. Murray then went on to win the USOpen in September - ending Britain’slong wait for a male grand Slam singleschampion.

Funny or racist? Wozniacki draws heat for her Serena impersonation

CONNECTICUTAGenCIeS

iN the minutes, hours anddays following the terri-ble tragedy at SandyHook elementary in

Newton, Conn., plenty of politi-cians, celebrities and athletes of-fered up support, donations andheart-felt sorrow for the victimsof this horrible tragedy. But fewpeople actually know from expe-rience how tough this can be.

Andy Murray, the 2012 U.S.Open champion, was part of a1996 school shooting at Dun-blane Primary in central Scot-land that left 16 students and ateacher dead, and offered up hissupport for the Connecticut

community on his Facebookpage this last weekend.

“My heart goes out to allthose poor children, their fami-lies and the community in New-town in Connecticut, so, so sad,”Murray said.

The shooting in 1996, ac-cording to this USA Today re-port, was a very similar situationto that of Sandy Hook, and whileMurray doesn’t talk much aboutthis, understandably, he hasmentioned at times of what hap-pened all those years ago.

Murray and his brother tookcover under a table in a class-room, and his mother even com-mented to ESPN that thisparticular day was, “The worst.The worst thing you could ever

imagine having to go through inyour life. Sitting, waiting andnot knowing if your child is aliveor dead — you can’t imaginewhat that was like. It was quitehorrific.”

Murray mentioned in hisbook Hitting Back that, “Theweirdest thing is that we knewthe guy (Thomas Hamilton),” aformer scout leader that took thelives of these 17 people beforetaking his own.

The aftermath of the Dun-blane shootings was then PrimeMinister Tony Blair putting astop to firearm sales in theUnited Kingdom, with similarreactions being thrown aroundin this country after SandyHook.

Murray, part of 1996school shooting, offersup support for Hook

mElbOURNE AGenCIeS

A last-gasp victory over Sri Lanka in Ho-bart gave Australia a sorely needed boostafter disappointment against SouthAfrica, but a mounting injury toll has tem-pered the hosts’ Christmas cheer in thelead-up to the second test in Melbourne.

Captain Michael Clarke, in white-hotform with the bat, remains a doubt toplay the Boxing Day test after sufferinga hamstring strain at Hobart, whilefront-line seamer Ben Hilfenhaus hasbeen ruled out with a side strain. Topyoung talents Pat Cummins and JamesPattinson have already been lost for theseries, and have been joined in the casu-alty ward by fellow quicks John Hastingsand Josh Hazlewood. Six months outfrom the Ashes, Australia’s hopes ofusing its home summer to hone a battle-hardened attack lie in tatters.

Australia’s selectors have com-pounded the angst, however, with a con-

troversial rotation policy that has seen in-jury-free bowlers rested for fear theymight break down, drawing howls of criti-cism from former players and pundits. Thein-form Mitchell Starc is the latest casualtyof that policy, and despite taking a five-wicket haul to help Australia seal the Ho-bart win, will cool his heels in theMelbourne Cricket ground dressing roomwhen the test starts Wednesday. “We’vegot to be very mindful of the fact that we’vegot such a lot of important cricket comingup,” Australia head coach and selectorMickey Arthur told reporters on Monday.

“And Mitch will be integral to that.It’s tough on Mitch but hopefully hemisses one test to make sure we don’thave another injury.” Paceman Starc’senforced break and Hilfenhaus’s absencemean Australia will bring an overhauledpace attack for a third consecutive test.

The mercurial Mitchell Johnson earnsa recall after being dumped following thethird and final test against South Africa inPerth. Although the Proteas’ batsmen bul-

lied Australia in the series-sealing victoryat the WACA, the 31-year-old Johnsonwas the pick of the hosts’ bowlers and willhope for a big haul to remain in favourahead of tours to India and England.

Johnson, however, may have to waithis turn behind debutant Jackson Bird,who will open the bowling against SriLanka’s formidable batting lineup infront of a bumper crowd at the MCg.

The 26-year-old Bird has played only17 first-class matches, but is the leadingwicket-taker in the domestic SheffieldShield, and has enjoyed good form for hisadopted Tasmania state in his twomatches at the MCg. He is likely to sharethe new ball with fiery paceman PeterSiddle, who took nine wickets in a man-of-the-match performance at Hobart andis the only pace bowler retained from thefirst test. Sri Lanka have their own pacebowling problems, with their raw attackstruggling in Hobart, but they will againpin their hopes of a breakthrough firsttest win in Australia on their batsmen

and spinner Rangana Herath.With the team having lost the coin toss

and the benefit of batting first, Sri Lanka’sbatsmen frustrated the Australian bowlersfor nearly four sessions on a deterioratingwicket at Hobart, only to collapse after teaand surrender the test within the last hour.They will hope to have better luck with thetoss at the MCg, where the drop-in pitchtraditionally rewards batting sides whosurvive a torrid first session on day one,before offering something for the spinnerson days four and five. The Sri Lankanshave additional motivation in their firstBoxing Day test in 17 years, with masterbatsman Kumar Sangakkara needing only40 runs to reach the magical 10,000-runmilestone in tests. The 35-year-old wouldbecome only the 11th cricketer to reach thelandmark and second Sri Lankan aftercaptain Mahela Jayawardene. “I thinkKumar Sangakkara and Mahela haveplayed a huge part with the youngsters,”middle order batsman and captain-in-waiting Angelo Mathews told reporters.

Australia hobble into Boxing Day test

LAHORE: Balochistan and Police players

in action during the Rugby event of the

32nd National Games. MurTAzA Ali

tuesday, 25 December, 2012

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19

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami tuesday, 25 December, 2012

NEW dElHIAGenCIeS

RUSSIA and India signednew weapons deals worthbillions of dollars Mondayas President Vladimir Putinsought to further boost ties

with an old ally. Putin and Indian Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh hailed cooperation be-tween their countries as officials signed a$1.6 billion deal for India to purchase 42Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets and a $1.3 bil-lion contract for the delivery of 71 Mil Mi-17 military helicopters.

Singh said the talks included discus-sions on the security situation in the re-gion, including Afghanistan. “India andRussia share the objective of a stable,united, democratic and prosperousAfghanistan, free from extremism,” Singhtold reporters after the talks.

While the volume of Russian-Indiantrade has risen six-fold since 2000 and isexpected to reach $10 billion this year,the growth has slowed in recent years.And even though India remains the No 1customer for Russia’s arms industries,

Moscow has recently lost several multi-billion-dollar contracts to Westernweapons makers.

Russia and India have shared closeties since the Cold War, when Moscowwas a key ally and the principal arms sup-

plier to New Delhi. The ties slackenedafter the collapse of the Soviet Union, butgrew stronger again after Putin came topower in 2000, seeking to reviveMoscow’s global clout and restore tieswith old allies. Russia has maintained its

strong positions in the Indian marketwith $30 billion worth of arms contractswith India signed in 2000-2010 that en-visaged supplies of hundreds of fighterjets, missiles, tanks and other weapons, alarge part of which were license-producedin India. The countries have cooperatedon building an advanced fighter planeand a new transport aircraft and havejointly developed a supersonic cruise mis-sile for the Indian Navy. But the militarycooperation has hit snags in recent years,as New Delhi shops increasingly forWestern weapons. The Indians alsohaven’t been always happy with the qual-ity of Russian weapons and their risingprices. Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, yuriUshakov, who briefed reporters ahead ofthe visit, said military cooperation withIndia will “expand and deepen,” addingthat concerns about Russia losing itsdominance in the Indian arms marketwere exaggerated.

As part of its cooperation with India,Russia also has built the first reactor atthe Kudankulam nuclear power plant andis building a second unit there. The proj-ect has been delayed by protests by anti-nuclear groups and local residents.

nAB asks forcomplete recordof lahore metrobus project

lAHORE onLIne

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB)has sought the entire record of the MetroBus Service project in Lahore that isnearing completion under the directsupervision of Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif. A private TV channelreported that NAB had issued notices toPunjab Communication and Works andTransport secretaries, as well as the LahoreDevelopment Authority Dg, seeking allrelevant record on the bus service projectin Lahore, including copies of all contractsinked so far in this connection. The workon the project is underway incollaboration with a Turkish firm. PunjabChief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is directlyoverseeing the project and called theproject part of efforts to give Lahore aplace among modern cities of the world.

ISlAmAbAdStAff RePoRt

The relations between thegovernment and the armyare set to sour again as theSupreme Court on Mondayfixed January 28 as the nextdate of hearing of the MemoCommission case.

Notices have also beenissued to all respondents inthe constitutional petitionsNo 77 to No 85 of 2011.These constitutional peti-tions were filed in theSupreme Court by PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) President NawazSharif and others under Ar-ticle 184(3) regarding an al-leged memorandum to

Admiral Mike Mullen au-thored by HussainHaqqani, Pakistan’s formerambassador to the US. Thematter was highlightedafter Mansoor Ijaz, a US cit-izen of Pakistani origin, ac-cused Haqqani of writing amemo to US army chief Ad-miral Mike Mullen seekingWashington’s help against apossible military coup inPakistan.

A nine-member SCbench, headed by Chief Jus-tice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry will hear the case.The case was heard on No-vember 13 by a nine-mem-ber bench and an order hadbeen passed asking thecounsels for the respondent

to submit a written requestto the interior secretary,pointing out Haqqani’s ap-prehensions regarding hissecurity in Pakistan.

“On receipt of the same,adequate arrangementsshall be made by the interiorsecretary intimationwhereof shall also be fur-nished to the registrar. Sucharrangements of securityshall be required to be madeat least two weeks prior tocommencement,” the courtorder said. Asma Jahangir,the counsel for Haqqani,had expressed her inabilityto show up in court duringDecember 2012. Therefore,a hearing into the case hadto be fixed for January.

QUETTAShAhZADA ZULfIQAR

Five people, including twopersonnel each of FrontierCorps and BalochistanConstabulary, were killedand five others injured inthree separate incidents ofviolence across Balochistanon Monday.

Per reports, a FrontierCorps party was movingfrom Mashkey to Quettawhen armed men openedfire on it. As a result, two sol-diers were killed and an-other was hurt. Thedeceased were identified asSaifullah and Shazad.Balochistan Home SecretaryAkbar Hussain Durrani con-firmed the incident and saidtwo FC jawans had beenkilled in the attack. How-ever, he rejected reports thatarmy soldiers were amongthose killed in the attack. Inanother incident, an FC con-voy was targeted with explo-sives fixed to a motorcycleon Sakran Road in Lasbeladistrict. Four FC sepoys re-ceived injuries. An FC

spokesman confirmed theincident and said the condi-tion of all of the injured wasout of danger. Meanwhile, aparty of Balochistan Con-stabulary was passing alongthe Eastern Bypass areanear the cattle market whenunidentified armed mensprayed bullets on it. Resul-tantly, three BC personnelsustained serious wounds.The injured were beingrushed to a hospital whentwo among them suc-cumbed to injuries. The de-ceased were then shifted toCivil Hospital Quetta wherethey were identified asAbdul Haleem and Muham-mad Arshid, while the in-jured was named yarMuhammad, whose condi-tion was also critical. Sepa-rately, a driver of a NATOsupply container was killedin Sariab locality. Police saidthat the incident occurred inNew Sariab police precinctswhen armed men openedindiscriminate fire on a con-tainer, killing the driver onthe spot. He was identifiedas Muhammad Qasim.

Airports, Motorway

closed due to dense

fog in lahore

ISlAmAbAdAGenCIeS

Allama Iqbal InternationalAirport was closed for alldomestic and internationalflights due to dense fog onMonday. A PIA spokesmansaid the prevailing weatherconditions with the dense fogand zero visibility in Lahore,Faisalabad, Multan andadjoining areas had affectedthe schedule of PIA flights.He said due to heavy fog inLahore and adjoining areas,the schedule of PIA domesticand international flightswould now be subjected tothe weather. The statementsaid the PIA flights affecteddue to fog on Monday werePK306 that was divertedback to Karachi, PK796, andPK348, adding that flightsPK789 to Toronto and PK721to New york might also bedelayed. Meanwhile, theMotorway had also beenclosed from Babu SabuInterchange in Lahore toPindi Bhattian Interchangein Faisalabad as visibility wasdown to zero. The Motorwaypolice appealed to the driversto use fog lights and drive atvery slow speed.

Russia, India sign weapons deals worth billions

Hearing into memogatefixed for January 28

Security personnelamong five killedacross Balochistan

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