e-paper pakistantoday 01st november, 2012

thursday, 1 november, 2012 dhu al-Haj 15, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 125 19 pages islamabad — peshawar edition

Page |04Page |19

Storm-battered USbattles floods,power cuts

Legislation needed toprotect people’s rightsfrom State: Rabbani

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Key suspect in Malalashooting, aides arrested: Malik

ISLAMABADtAyyAb HuSSAIn

InfOrMATIOn Minister QamarZaman Kaira on Wednesdaysaid the interim governmentalset up would take over aroundMarch 18, 2013 following the

completion of the five-year term of thegovernment, while general electionswould be held 40 days after the caretakerset up took over.

Talking to reporters after a meetingof the federal cabinet, Kaira said therewas a baseless propaganda makingrounds about delay in election.

“There is a free media and independ-ent judiciary which will never allow this(delay). Moreover, the government andparliament duly get the credit for com-pletion of terms of the assemblies and ademocratic transition of power will takeplace and by delaying the elections, allcredit will become a discredit,” he said.

The minister said the governmentwould investigate the role of people likeHameed Gul in line with the SupremeCourt’s order in the Asghar Khan case.

“This order has proved that the gov-ernment installed after the 1990 electionwas illegitimate and its decisions needvalidation. A serious debate is on overthe legitimacy of the then governmentand the issue should be resolved.”

The information minister claimedthat history had revealed that mandates ofthe Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) hadbeen stolen. “At times direct martial lawswere imposed and indirect martial lawswere imposed at other times through al-liances like Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI).”

He said that several past presidents,like rafique Tarar, worked against thePPP. “Tarrar should be asked about theservice for which he was awarded the of-fice of the president. What was the

ISLAMABADStAff RepoRt

The Supreme Court on Wednesday soughta report from the federal government onhow the Balochistan government was stilloperating despite the October 12 interimorder by the apex court.

A three-member bench of Chief Jus-tice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Jus-tice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice KhiljiArif Hussain was hearing a petition re-garding the Balochistan law and orderfiled by the Balochistan Bar Association.

The SC bench announced in its interimorder that the Balochistan government

had failed in maintaining the law andorder and protecting the life and propertyof the people, which was the principal con-stitutional responsibility of any set up.

The court order also stated that theprovincial government could no longer be

Elections tobe held byMay 10g Information minister says free media, independent judiciary will never allow polls’ delay g Govt to investigate role of people like Hameed Gul in manipulating electionsg Approves visa agreement with India

SC seeks report on Balochistan govt’sstanding despite interim orderg Bench says Balochistan govt failed in maintaining law and order, protecting citizensg Federal govt has also failed in providing assistance to provincial govt

KARACHI: A pilgrim is being welcomed by his relatives on arrival by the first Haj flight on Wednesday. Online

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02News

Today’s

lookQuick

NewS

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CarTooN

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iNfoTaiNmeNT

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Malala is stable and making good progress: uK doctors oldest flying fish fossil found in China

Thursday, 1 November, 2012

Wassan likely to replaceShah as PPP Sindh president

KARACHI: Manzoor Wassanis likely to replace Qaim AliShah as the president ofPakistan People’s Party (PPP)Sindh chapter, a private newschannel reported onWednesday. The channelquoting its sources said the newreplacement was likely to occuron the directives of PresidentAsif Ali Zardari. The sourcessaid more changes are alsoexpected including the PPP’sgeneral secretary in theprovince. They said theannouncement will be made inthe next few days. Inp

Malala could have beentreated in India: reportNew DelHI: India had an opportunity to treat Pakistani activistteenager and victim of a Taliban attack, Malala yousafzai, which wasnot availed, Indian media reported on Wednesday. fifteen-year-oldMalala, who has become a symbol of girls’ right to educationworldwide, was shot by Taliban attackers on October 9. Civil societygroups in India and Pakistan, backed by some Awami national Partylegislators in Pakistan, approached the Indian establishment to haveMalala flown to a private hospital in Mumbai for treatment;Hindustan Times (HT) said quoting its sources. However, accordingto sources, officials in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) hesitatedon two counts: Malala did not possess valid travel documents- whichcould have easily been addressed- and such a move might appear tosome like a ploy on India’s part to score a brownie point on the backof a human tragedy. When contacted, a PMO official said “therewere indeed informal talks on the issue, but there was no formalproposal from any individual or group” to allow Malala to travel toMumbai for treatment. When asked if India could have made theoffer, the official declined to comment. onlIne

3 brothers electrocuted in JamrudPeSHAwAR: At least three brothers were electrocuted and a fourthwas seriously injured in Malikabad area of Khyber Agency’s Jamrudtehsil late on Tuesday. Officials said a speedy truck hit a hightransmission line pole in, following which an electricity transmissionwire fell on the house of Jan Mohammad, killing his three sons on thespot. The officials said Halim Khan, Alaf Khan and Asif Khan were killedon the spot, while Bhayee Khan was seriously injured. The injured wasadmitted to a hospital. The deceased were real brothers and students ofGovernment Degree College, Jamrud. They were laid to rest in theirancestral graveyard in Jamrud on Wednesday morning. StAff RepoRt

ISLAMABADKASHIf AbbASI

Chief Election Commissioner fakhrud-din G Ebrahim on Wednesday said theElection Commission had nothing to dowith political activities at the Presi-dency, as the ECP announced the Codeof Conduct for the upcoming generalelections.

Addressing reporters after presid-ing over a meeting of the ECP, Ebrahimsaid the appointment of judicial offi-cers as presiding officers is required tohold free and fair elections. He addedthat ECP could not provide transportfacility to all voters.

Meanwhile, the draft of the Code ofConduct states that candidates and po-litical parties shall refrain from criti-cism of any aspect of private life that isnot connected with the public activitiesof leaders or workers of other parties.

Criticism based on unverified allega-tions and distortion of facts shall beavoided.

The code further said the Districtreturning Officer and returning Offi-cer shall be responsible to ensure im-plementation of the Code of Conduct,in their capacity as Magistrate firstClass, through district/local adminis-tration, district police or other law en-forcing agencies in the area of theirjurisdiction.

The code put a complete ban oncarrying and display of all kinds ofweapons and firearms in public meet-ings and processions as well as on thepolling day and till 24-hours after theconsolidation of official results by thereturning Officer and official regula-tions in respect thereof shall be strictlyobserved. Aerial firing, use of crackersand other explosives at public meetingsand at or near the polling stations by

political parties and candidates shallnot be allowed. Wall chalking as part ofan election campaign shall be prohib-ited in all forms.

no person or a political party shallaffix posters, hoardings, banners orleaflets/handbills larger than the sizesprescribed by the Election Commission.The use of abusive language against theleaders and candidates of other politi-cal parties shall be avoided at all costs.Candidates and their supporters shallnot propagate against the participationof any person in the elections on thebasis of gender, ethnicity, religion orcaste.

Candidates and their supporters orother persons shall not encourage orenter into formal or informal agree-ments debarring women from becom-ing candidates or exercising their rightof vote in an election. Similarly, issueof advertisement at the cost of public

exchequer in the newspapers and othermedia and misuse of official massmedia during the election period forpartisan coverage of political news andpublicity shall be avoided by the fed-eral, provincial and local governments.

The President, Speaker/DeputySpeaker national Assembly, Chair-man/Deputy Chairman Senate, PrimeMinister, federal Ministers, Ministersof State, Governors, Chief Ministers,Provincial Ministers and Advisors tothe Prime Minister and the Chief Min-isters and other public office holdersshall not combine their official visitswith election campaign. This provisionwill also be applicable to the caretakersetup. Similarly, local governmentfunctionaries/representatives shall notannounce any development scheme ordo anything, which tends to influencethe results of an election in favour oragainst a particular candidate or polit-

ical party.Parties and candidates shall not

propagate any opinion, or act in anymanner prejudicial to the ideology ofPakistan, or the sovereignty, integrityor security of Pakistan, or morality, orthe maintenance of public order, or theintegrity or independence of the judici-ary of Pakistan, or which defames orbrings into ridicule the judiciary or theArmed forces of Pakistan, as providedunder Article 63 of the constitution.

Election Commission Secretary Ish-tiaq Ahmed told reporters that the ECPwould send the draft Code of Conductto the political parties for their com-ments and the political parties will beasked to send feedback within 15 daysotherwise it will be considered as finalfor upcoming general elections.

He said that out of total 1170 law-makers, 900 submitted affidavits toECP regarding their nationalities.

peSHAWAR: A female lawyer casts her vote during the annual election of the Supreme Court bar Association (SCbA) on Wednesday. inP

ECP has nothing to do with political activities at Presidency: CECg Code of Conduct bans rhetoric against army, judiciary g Display of weapons banned

NEWS DESK

fOrTy American citizens created ablockade on Wednesday of HancockAir national Guard Base outside Syra-cuse, ny, to protest against drone at-tacks in Afghanistan and other

countries.MQ-9 reaper drones are operated by re-

mote control from the base, and are used to carryout attacks in Afghanistan and other countries.

The blockade began shortly after 8am whenthe activists gathered outside three gates of themilitary airfield, which are located on East Mal-

loy, Thompson, and Townline roads in theTown of DeWitt, near Syracuse. They set up traf-fic cones, unfurled banners, and held up signsand pictures. They succeeded in blocking thegates for two and a half hours before they werearrested and taken to the Town Court of DeWitt.

The activists presented a document to per-sonnel at the base, which they called a “People’sIndictment for War Crimes”. They also read theindictment outside the gates. The indictmentreads, in part: “These drones are being used…forkillings far removed from combat zones….to as-sassinate individuals and groups…

‘Extrajudicial killings such as those the US

carries out by drones, are intentional, premedi-tated, and deliberate use of lethal force to commitmurder in violation of US and International law.”The use of armed drones has become the subjectof controversy recently, with a recent study byStanford and new york Universities showing thatcivilian casualties are much higher than has beenclaimed by the Obama administration. The studyalso shows that the continual presence of dronesover some arts of Pakistan is creating psycholog-ical trauma in the civilian population. A recentpoll in Pakistan shows the US drones are sparkingoutrage, with 75% now viewing the United Statesas more of an enemy than an ally.

Anti-drone protest shutsdown Hancock Air Base

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CommeNT

articles on Page 14

Voting rights for expatriates

Adeel Amjad says;

Droning Pakistan: The policy that is backfiring

Malik Muhammad Ashraf says;

Kashmir dispute: Let them decide their own future

arTS & eNTerTaiNmeNT

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BuSiNeSS

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SPorTS

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Holmes embarrassed by ‘free Katie’ t-shirts lpG price rises to Rs 3/kg Miandad threatens legal action against Sarfaraz


LAHOREonlIne

Adelegation of the Pak-istan Muslim League-Likeminded (PML-LM)met with PML-nawazchief nawaz Sharif at his

raiwind residence on Wednesday,and discussed the possibility of seat-to-seat adjustment with his party forthe general elections.

The PML-LM delegation in-cluded Hamid nasir Chattha‚ SaleemSaifullah Khan and HamayunAkhtar, while Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif‚ Senator Ishaq Darwere among other senior PML-nleaders present on the occasion.

During the meeting‚ the two sidesdiscussed the overall political situa-tion in the country as well as the strat-egy for the next general elections.Sources in the PML-n said that dur-ing the meeting, provincial commit-tees were formed for giving PML-LMelectoral seats under the seat adjust-ment formula. They said the finalshape to the distribution of 30 na-tional Assembly seats would be given

after consultations with the PML-n’sprovincial leadership. Salim SaifullahKhan, a senior member of the Like-minded group called for uniting allPML factions. He added that the uni-fication of PML factions would benefit

PML-n President nawaz Sharif. Meanwhile, a party meeting

chaired by nawaz was also held inwhich he directed party workers andleaders to speed up the election cam-paign. He also took the participants

of the meeting into confidence re-garding his conversation with PrimeMinister raja Pervez Ashraf. Sourcessaid the PM had assured nawaz thatelections would be held on time, andthat they would be transparent.

Likeminded group mullsseat adjustment with Nawaz

ISLAMABADInp

The US, which is battling the aftermath of Super-storm Sandy, on Wednesday rejected an offer ofhelp from Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the man be-lieved to be the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbaiterror attacks.

“We respect the Islamic tradition of help tothe needy, but we can’t take Hafiz Saeed’s offer se-riously...Saeed is wanted for suspected involve-ment in the Mumbai attacks, which killed 166people. JuD is a Un&US-designated terrorist or-ganisation,” the US embassy in Islamabadtweeted on Wednesday.

Saeed – who heads the Jaamatud Dawa orJuD, believed to be a front for terror groupLashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) – carries a $10 millionbounty for information leading to his arrest.

He is one of India’s most wanted men. Saeedsaid yesterday that his organisation was ready tohelp Americans affected by the Superstorm

Sandy, which has left 45 people dead and morethan eight million homeless. “We are ready tosend food items, medicines and doctors to the USfor the people affected by the storm,” Saeed hadsaid, adding that though the US had put a bountyon his head, it was the duty of Muslims to help fel-low human beings, irrespective of their faith, dur-ing a natural catastrophe. “It is our Islamic dutyand the government of Pakistan should allow usto provide relief goods to the affected people in theUS,” Saeed said.

Pakistan has so far refused to take actionagainst Saeed on the basis of material provided byIndia about his alleged role in masterminding the2008 Mumbai attacks. The US too has said thatthe assault on Mumbai was carried out by LeT op-eratives who were trained, financed and con-trolled by Pakistan-based elements. Saeed wasplaced under house arrest for less than six monthsafter the Mumbai attacks, largely due to pressurefrom the world community. He was freed in 2009on the orders of the Lahore High Court.

US rejects Hafiz Saeed’s offer of aid

oppositionparties warnagainst poll delay

LAHOREInp

Opposition parities have decided to offer strongresistance to any tactics by the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP)-led federal government to delay generalelections. In separate interviews with InP, seniorleaders of the opposition parties, including PakistanMuslim League-nawaz (PML-n), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), were of the viewthat the delay in general polls would not only hurt theongoing democratic process in the country, but wouldalso give rise to political anarchy and tug of warbetween various stakeholders. The opposition leaderswere unanimous over holding general elections ontime, and said they were in constant contact withvarious political actors in this regard. PTI VicePresident Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said that in orderto overcome the threats facing Pakistan’s sovereignty,stability and economy, the nation must get rid of thesitting government and hold timely elections. JI chiefSyed Munawar Hassan said the PPP government fearedbacklash in the polls over its deeds committed duringits four-and-a-half-year tenure. It will try anything toavoid elections, he added. He warned that if the PPPgovernment used any tactics to delay elections, hisparty along with other political parties would gathermasses on a single platform which would ultimatelyforce the government to quit. The JI chief also warnedof a strict response if the PPP tried to re-elect PresidentAsif Ali Zardari through the current parliament. PML-nleader Senator Pervez rasheed said his party would notlet the PPP delay elections. In order to get rid of theprevailing crisis, timely elections are necessary, he said.

mQm minister asks govt

to table expats’ voting

rights bill in 15 daysISLAMABAD

App

Minister for Overseas Pakistanis farooq Sattar said onWednesday that the government should present the billdrafted by his ministry to give voting rights to overseasPakistanis within 15 days. During a news conference, Sattar said that if thegovernment failed to present the bill, the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) would table a private bill. Sattar, who belongs to the MQM, told reporters that hisministry was working diligently to provide voting rightsto overseas Pakistanis.

israrul Haq becomes

SCBa president


The election results of the Supreme Court BarAssociation (SCBA) were announced on Wednesday, withMian Israrul Haq winning the office of the president.Haq took lead from Lahore and Multan, while his rivalAhmed Owais took lead in Karachi, Hyderabad andBahawalpur. The main contenders included Haq, backedby former SCBA president Asma Jahangir, and AhmedOwais, who was backed by Hamid Khan. Meanwhile,raja Javed Iqbal from Lahore has been elected as theSCBA secretary. He took 474 votes against 434 votes ofhis contender Sohail Dar. from four provinces, one vicepresident, one secretary, one finance secretary will beelected for each province, besides 16 members of theexecutive committee.

KARACHIInp

A Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) flight carrying 502 pilgrimsfrom Saudi Arabia reachedKarachi after a five-and-a-halfhour delay on Wednesday. How-ever, a VIP flight carrying federalMinister for religious AffairsKhursheed Shah and Senior Min-ister Amin fahim among 318 pil-grims, landed on time atKarachi’s Jinnah Internal airport.relatives and family members ofthe pilgrims had to wait for hoursdue to the delayed flight. About180,000 Pakistani pilgrims wouldbe flown back from Saudi Arabiaduring the month-long post hajflight operation.

Post-haj flight to Karachi arrives 5 hours late

QuettA: Relatives of pilgrims and Airport Security force scuffle at the airport as the first Haj flight arrived here on Wednesday. inP

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04 News


reason behind issuance of li-cence to launch a new bank toyounus Habib in 1992,” heargued.

referring to the release oftapes involving JusticeQuyyum and nawaz Sharif’scrony Saifur rehman, Kairasaid it was strange that thejudge had to resign but thethen chief minister, who hap-pened to be the present chiefminister of Punjab, did notface any punishment.

He said the PML-n gov-ernment was illegal in thepast and even the Punjabgovernment had no majorityin the provincial assemblyand was being saved bycrutches of turncoats fromthe PML-Q.

Kaira said that after the1990 elections, BenazirBhutto had issued a whitepaper about an alleged elec-tion fraud and rigging in 100

constituencies which waspart of history.

To a question, Kaira saidwhen the PPP-led govern-ment came to power in 2008,the economy was in tattersand there was recession in in-ternational markets, Pakistanhad over 250,000 IDPs fromSwat and Malakand.

“Moreover, the countrywas hit by devastating floodsin 2010 and 2011 and in sucha situation bringing the infla-tion down was no meagreachievement,” he said.

Kaira said the Presidencywas a political office and waspart of parliament. He saidthe president should be im-partial, but there was no baron his meetings with politicalleaders.

To a query on the muchdemanded army operation in

north Waziristan, he said thegovernment had already clar-ified that no such operationwould be conducted. He saidthat if any decision was madeby the political and militaryleadership, it would beshared with the media andthe nation.

To a question about in-crease in public sector debt,he said in presence of fiscalresponsibility Act, the gov-ernment could not exceed thelimit.

Commenting on the CnGsector, he said filling stationowners had their own view-point which would be pre-sented to the Supreme Court.CAbINet DeCISIoNS:

Giving details of the cab-inet meeting chaired byPrime Minister raja PervezAshraf, Kaira said the finance

secretary informed the cabi-net that the overall price sit-uation had stabilised and theinflation in prices had beencapped to single digit at 8.8percent, compared to 25 per-cent in October 2008.

following the policy ofself dependence, the govern-ment had collected rs 350billion in taxes in the currentyear. The overall revenue col-lection had doubled from rs1 trillion to rs 2 trillion in thelast four-and-a-half years.

The government hadraised salaries by 115 percentduring its tenure, while theoverall expenditure of thefederal government had in-creased by only six percent,adding that the country didnot default on payment ofloans, both internal and ex-ternal.

Kaira said the tax to GDPratio had increased by 0.5percent.

The cabinet was told thatthe subsidy on power sectorwas affecting the financialprudence of the federal gov-ernment.

While the overall expen-diture of the federal govern-ment was rs 220 billion perannum, subsidy on powersector alone had reached thers 30 billion per month.

Kaira said the cabinetreviewed status of imple-mentation of decisionspertaining to the financeDivision. The cabinet wasinformed that 93 percentof the decisions made bythe cabinet from 2008-2012 had been imple-mented, while the restwere at various stages of

implementation.The cabinet was also in-

formed that as a result ofnfC Award, the provinceshad been given 70 percentfunds of the divisible pool,thus restraining the federalgovernment to meet subsi-dies. “The country is generat-ing power at the cost of rs 12per unit but providing thesame to consumers at rs 9per unit. If the country im-ports gas from outside it willcost $18 per thousand cubicfeet, while the same amountis being provided in the coun-try for $6 only.”

The information ministersaid the prime minister ap-prised members of the cabi-net about his recent visit toSaudi Arabia to perform Hajon the invitation of Khadumal Harman Sharifan.

The PM said that duringhis stay in Saudi Arabia, hemet Saudi King Abdullah binAbdul Aziz and Crown PrinceSalman bin Abdul Aziz.

During his meeting withthe Saudi crown prince, thePM extended an invitation tohim to visit Pakistan, whichhe graciously accepted.

“The son of the crownprince will soon visit Pak-istan.

Kaira said the cabinet ex-pressed solidarity with theSandy storm-hit Americans,adding that several Pakista-nis had also been affected bySandy. The federal cabinetalso ratified the visa agree-ment with India and approvalwas been given for three busi-ness and one cultural visaagreements.

An approval was alsogiven for an MoU with theUnited States concerningfinancial intelligence co-operation.

Elections to be held by May 10

allowed to remain a silent spectator anddirected it to adopt appropriate measuresto end the sense of deprivation amongstthe people in the troubled province.Expressing displeasure with the federalgovernment’s lack of interest in the mat-ter, the Supreme Court said there hadbeen no fortnightly report regarding thelaw and order in the province from the in-terior secretary, as had been directed inthe order.The federal government had failed as itwas not providing assistance per Article148 (3) where the federal governmentcould intervene to assist authorities.Attorney General Irfan Qadir argued thata review petition had been filed againstthe interim order, arguing that while thecrime ratio in Punjab was more thanBalochistan, the court still remained wor-ried about Balochistan.Chief Justice Chaudhry said Balochistanhearing was currently underway and if theAG felt strongly about the matter, hecould bring up Punjab’s case to court.The CJ said the government of Balochis-tan had failed to enforce the constitution,adding that after the interim order, itcould not continue to spend funds fromthe national exchequer.“How is it [Balochistan government] stilloperating? It should have been dissolved,”the CJ said.To the court’s direction, Balochistan Addi-tional Advocate General Azam Khattakread out the interim order’s para 48.AG Qadir argued that the governmentcould not be dissolved as such, promptingJustice Jawwad S Khawaja to say thatQadir had no authority on this matter andthe federal government should give an ex-planation.The SC endorsed the decision of the highcourt regarding banned outfits involved insectarian violence in Balochistan. It saidthe government was facing corruption al-legations and it should take measures inthis regard.The hearing was later adjourned until no-vember 2 after Khattak requested for itdue to the ongoing cabinet meeting.

SC seeks reporton Balochistangovt’s standing

Taliban can run for

afghan president:

election chiefKABUL

Afp

The Taliban and other insurgentleaders could stand as candi-dates in Afghanistan’s next pres-idential election, to be held inApril 2014, the country’s toppoll official said Wednesday.President Hamid Karzai, who isserving his second term asleader of the war-torn nation, isconstitutionally barred fromrunning in the election and noclear candidate to succeed himhas yet emerged.The vote, scheduled for April 5,2014, is seen as crucial toAfghan stability after the with-drawal of nATO troops and fazilAhmad Manawi, the head of theIndependent Election Commis-sion (IEC) insisted his bodywould act impartially.“We are even prepared to pavethe ground for the armed oppo-sition, be it the Taliban or Hezb-i-Islami, to participate in theelection, either as voters or can-didates,” Manawi told a newsconference.“There will be no discrimination,”the IEC chief added, defending thebody in response to a questionabout its impartiality.Hezb-i-Islami is the faction offormer prime minister Gulbud-din Hekmatyar which wages aninsurgency along with the Tal-iban against Karzai’s Western-backed government. Under theIEC timetable, initial results ofthe election will be announcedon April 24 and final results onMay 14, with May 28 set asidefor any potential run-off vote.The 2009 poll, in which Karzaiwas reelected over former for-eign minister Abdullah Abdul-lah, was marred by widespreadallegations of fraud, and thecredibility of the 2014 vote isseen as key to avoiding an esca-lation in violence after thenATO withdrawal. The Interna-tional Crisis Group think-tankwarned this month that theKabul government could fallapart after nATO troops pullout, particularly if the presiden-tial elections are plagued byfraud. The Taliban, whose hard-line Islamist regime was over-thrown in 2001 by a US-ledinvasion for harbouring Osamabin Laden, did not take part inthe 2009 election, instead at-tacking polling stations.Under the Afghan system, voterselect the president as an individ-ual rather than as a representa-tive of a party, and candidatesmust submit their nominationsby October 6, 2013.The IEC will then rule on their ad-missibility and publish a final listof candidates on november 16.

Pia plane damaged

after hitting birdSKARDU

Inp

A bird hit a Pakistan International Air-lines (PIA) plane while it was landing atSkardu airport on Wednesday, damagingthe aircraft.According to details, the PIA Boeing flightwas carrying passengers from Islamabadto Skardu when a bird collided with itduring landing. The pilot was able to safely ground theplane following the incident. However, ac-cording to sources, the plane was latertermed as unfit for flight.

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NEW YORKAfp

NEW york struggled to getback on its feet Tuesdayafter superstorm Sandycarved a path of destructionfrom the Caribbean to

Canada that left at least 110 people deadand millions without power.

The cyclone drove hurricane-forcewinds and deadly ocean surges against alarge swathe of the US East Coast, addingan uncertain twist to an already tight USpresidential race.

President Barack Obama declaredSandy a “major disaster” in the states ofnew york and new Jersey, where he wasdue to tour flooded areas on Wednesdaywith governor Chris Christie, a backer ofhis republican rival Mitt romney.

romney cancelled a second day ofcampaign events Tuesday to focus on res-

cue and recovery work, just one week be-fore American voters go to the polls.

The death toll from accidents relatedto the storm rose to 43 confirmed in northAmerica since Sandy made landfall onMonday and 67 killed beforehand as thethen hurricane tore through theCaribbean. Meanwhile, authorities and cit-izens in America’s biggest city struggled torestore vital services and clear debris aftera wall of storm-driven seawater swampedroad and rail tunnels and triggered mas-sive fires. “restoring power and mass tran-sit remain the two biggest challenges in thedays ahead,” new york City MayorMichael Bloomberg told reporters, as res-cue crews and utility workers surveyed anapocalyptic scene.

In the ocean-front Queens neighbor-hood of Breezy Point, more than 80 housesburned after flooding caused a fire, whilelower Manhattan — new york’s iconichigh-rise financial center — was blacked

out by a massive power cut.Bloomberg struck an upbeat stance:

“We have a plan for recovery and that re-covery is already beginning, I’m happy tosay. This is the end of the downside, andhopefully from here it is going up.”

Before things could improve, however,the new york subway system, much ofwhich was flooded by seawater, will needto recover from what management dubbedits worst disaster in its 108-year history.

Obama, who faces a tough re-electionbattle on november 6, sent his support.

“The most important message I havefor them is that America is with you. Weare standing behind you and we are goingto do everything we can to help you getback on your feet,” he said.

The president said he would tour newJersey on Wednesday after Christie, thestate’s republican governor, reported “un-thinkable” devastation in submergedcoastal communities.

KANDAHARAfp

Two roadside bombings in southernAfghanistan on Wednesday killed a total of11 civilians, including seven women andthree children, officials said.

The interior ministry and local officialssaid the attacks, both in Musa Qala districtof Helmand province, wounded six others,also mostly women and children, andblamed the Taliban.

“Today at around 9:00 am (0430GMT) a roadside bomb blew up a civilian

truck in Musa Qala that killed 10, includ-ing seven young women and three chil-dren.” provincial spokesman farid Ahmadfarhang told AfP. Hours later, a seconddevice destroyed a civilian motorcycle,killing a man and wounding a woman andthree children — all members of the samefamily — farhang said.

A statement from the Helmand gover-nor’s office confirmed the toll and blamedthe “enemies of Afghanistan”, a term usedby officials to refer to Taliban insurgentswaging an 11-year war against the Kabulgovernment and its nATO supporters.

roadside bombs, also known as im-provised explosive devices (IEDs), are thedeadliest insurgent weapon in Afghanistanboth for the military fighting the Talibanand civilians. The crude devices, often builton old ammunition, are planted by the sideof roads to target nATO and Afghan troopsbut they also kill civilians travelling on thesame roads.

The United nations says 1,145 civilianswere killed in the war in the first sixmonths of this year, blaming 80 percent ofthe deaths on insurgents, with more thanhalf caused by roadside bombs.

Afghan roadside bombings kill 11 civilians

Storm-battered US battlesfloods, power cuts

fAISAlAbAD: A policeman registers a case against a woman for distributing a pamphlet calling for sale of male children on Wednesday. Online

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News

NEWS DESK

One cleric is a wanted terrorist who preaches that theUnited States is Pakistan’s worst enemy, determined to“wipe out every Muslim” with the help of his other neme-sis, the Jews. His name is Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.

The other cleric fondly recalls his years in the UnitedStates, where he drove a Chevy Suburban and allied him-self with a prominent rabbi to promote religious toler-ance. His name is Hafiz Muhammad Masood.

Masood, 54, and Saeed, 62, are brothers. Their con-spicuously different paths illustrate the often contradic-tory nature of Pakistan itself, a country that behaves likeboth friend and foe to its chief patron, the United States— frequently at the same time.

As much as Pakistanis are said to loathe US policies,many eagerly seek opportunities for themselves and theirchildren in the United States. Masood was one of them,spending 21 years in the Boston area.

Today he is the spokesman for the Lahore-based re-ligious charity that his brother heads, Jamaatud Dawa, orParty of Truth. The United States calls it a terrorist frontgroup tied to the 2008 attacks in Mumbai and has offered$10 million for evidence leading to Saeed’s arrest or con-viction. Masood has denied the accusations.

According to a report in the Washington Post, unlikehis fiery-tongued brother, Masood displays a calm, good-humoured nature. He has an easy command of Americanidioms, such as “one size fits all” and “this is a no-no.”

Masood returned to Pakistan only grudgingly, afterpleading guilty in 2008 to visa-related violations. He leftbehind his comfortable job as an imam at the Islamic Cen-tre of new England, as well as his wife and eight children.

“Believe me, I love American life, and for many as-pects,” Masood said contemplatively, sitting in a quietroom across the courtyard from the capacious two-levelmosque where his elder brother delivers his rants againstthe United States, India and Israel. “People are very logi-cal, they are very open, and I found the Islamic work very,very enjoyable in American society.”

The world knows much about Saeed and the otherUS-designated terrorist group he founded: Lashkar-e-Tayyab, or Army of the Pious. Officials say Lashkar-e-Tayyaba carried out the three-day attack in Mumbai —killing 166 people, including six Americans — and is re-sponsible for several other deadly operations againstIndia. The $10 million reward puts Saeed in the same top-tier terrorist category as fugitive Taliban chief Moham-mad Omar.

far fewer have heard of Masood, whose 15-yeartenure at the Islamic center in Sharon, Mass., won himpraise for outreach to other faiths. His supporters, includ-ing members of a local synagogue, said the immigrationcase stemmed from anti-Muslim bias.

“He was a positive influence on the community, andI didn’t think it made a whole lot of sense to deport him,”said rabbi Barry Starr of Temple Israel in Sharon. “Ifound him to be a gentleman, a gentle person, a person ofpeace.”

In Masood’s view, the case against him representedclassic guilt by association. “When they want to findsomething on you, they will,” he said with a hearty laugh.

In lengthy conversations, Masood, a stocky man with

a chest-length beard, rarely seemed angry or bitter, eventhough he gave up everything he had worked to achievein the United States: His family, a five-bedroom house onfive acres, three cars, a lovely garden and access to theswimming pool and tennis courts on the Islamic center’sgrounds.

“I lost my worldly life,” Masood said. “I lost that forgood.” “Hafiz” is a title bestowed on those who have mem-orized the entire Quran. Saeed, Masood and their youngerbrother, Hamid Mahmood, all earned that distinction, ashave their two sisters.

Their father was a farmer, Islamic teacher and re-spected village elder. “He did conflict resolution,” Masoodsaid. Their mother ran a religious school for children.With her prodding, Masood learned the Koran by heartby age 10. In 1965, war broke out between Pakistan andIndia over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Itsoon touched the family’s village, about 120 miles west ofLahore. Actually, there was no fighting there; it waswartime paranoia.

rumours flew that Indian spies might infiltrate thevillage. Their target: the nearby Pakistani air force base atSargodha. The teenage Saeed grew convinced that Indianparatroopers might land in the vicinity.

He organized a group of boys — 30 or 40 of them —to stay awake all night, brandishing sticks to guard the vil-lage, he recently told a Pakistani newspaper.

“I still remember that the boys were fully charged,”recalled Masood, who was 7 at the time. Their leader in-structed them to beat the bushes looking for Indians and“any suspicious activity.”

Did they ever catch any spies?“no,” he said, laughing. As young men, Masood and Saeed earned advanced

degrees in Pakistan and became professors. The elderbrother focused on Islamic studies and Arabic literature,while Masood’s specialty was Islamic economics.

The younger brother’s path led him to the UnitedStates on a student visa in 1987. He took his wife and five

small children, enrolling first at Vanderbilt for a semester,then earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in eco-nomic policy at Boston University.

Saeed went in a different direction. His advancedscholarship took him to Saudi Arabia, where he studiedin the early 1980s under the same teacher who once in-structed Osama bin Laden. After supporting the fight tooust the Soviets from Afghanistan, Saeed in 1990 estab-lished Lashkar-e-Tayyaba to target Indian troops in Kash-mir. for years, Pakistan’s main intelligence service backedLeT as a proxy against India. Official support ended whenthen-President Pervez Musharraf banned the group in themonths after the September 11, 2001, attacks. But it hasstill enjoyed tacit sanction.

After the ban, Saeed disassociated himself from themilitant group and said it no longer exists. Instead he runsJamaatud Dawa, which many investigators describe as abenign facade behind which Saeed has tucked Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. But there is no denying that it has earnedgoodwill across Pakistan for its schools, anti-poverty pro-grams and health clinics, as well as its relief work for floodand earthquake victims. Saeed has been periodicallyplaced under house arrest but never convicted of anycrimes. He has insisted that he has no connection toLashkar-e-Tayyaba. As for the Mumbai attacks, Saeedwas exonerated by Pakistan’s Supreme Court, which de-clared that “the India lobby” concocted the charges.

In gentler tones, Masood echoes his brother’s accu-sations that India, with US help, is scheming to dominateAfghanistan as a way to intimidate Pakistan. He also callsthe war against the Taliban in Afghanistan illegal and im-perialistic. Muhammad Amir rana, an expert on extrem-ism here, said that Jamaat-ud-Dawa is trying to establisha different identity and build a political base, but that itretains its militant links.

The group has made clear that it opposes attackswithin Pakistan and condemned the Pakistani Taliban’srecent shooting of the young education activist Malalayousufzai. But no matter how mild Masood comes across,

rana said, he still represents an extremist group that is“the new far right in Pakistan.” The United States has longexpressed irritation at Pakistan’s refusal to hand overSaeed. Pakistani officials, speaking on the condition ofanonymity, indicated that the matter has recently dieddown, with the United States putting greater focus on theHaqqani terrorist network, which is based in Pakistan’stribal areas. The US Embassy in Islamabad would notcomment on Saeed. After his studies in Boston, Masoodjoined the suburban Islamic centre, where he inherited afractious congregation of 3,000 Muslims of various na-tions and beliefs — Sunnis and Shiites, liberals and hard-liners.

He is remembered particularly fondly in the Jewishcommunity: Once, when nazi swastikas were painted ona local temple, the imam and members of his mosquehelped remove them. Masood also introduced a coursefor interested locals called Islam 101. He said he convertedhundreds of people to the faith. In October 2006, theMuslim fasting month of ramadan coincided with theJewish High Holy Days. Members of Starr’s synagogueand Masood’s mosque came together for prayers and thebreaking of the Muslims’ daylight-hours fast.

“It was a beautiful moment,” the rabbi recalled. Sixweeks later, Masood found himself in jail, caught up in aneight-state dragnet in which the federal government ac-cused him and 32 others of immigration-law violations.

In the early 1990s, it turned out, Masood had violatedthe terms of his student visa because he had not returnedto his native country for two years as required. And, whilepursuing permanent residency, he had lied on documentsby saying that he had. Masood fought the charges, deter-mined to remain in Sharon, but finally admitted to them.facing certain deportation, he left the country the dayafter entering a plea deal. During questioning, Masoodsaid, federal agents attempted to draw links between himand his older brother. He said they had no relationshipand didn’t communicate. “Jamaatud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba formed in my absence,” Masood said. “I readabout them in the newspaper.”

The former US attorney in Boston, Michael Sullivan,said the case against Masood was rooted in visa fraud andnothing more. “It was not an investigation opened up be-cause of guilt by association,” he said.

Masood is convinced that he will never be allowed toreturn to the United States, where his wife and five chil-dren who were born in Pakistan are fighting deportation.(His three other children are US citizens.)

“Even if they allowed me, they would always suspectme as” — he curves his fingers to form air quotes — “‘aterrorist,’ as ‘an extremist,’ ‘brother of Hafiz Saeed.’”Today, besides heading his brother’s media wing, he runsa separate mosque and religious school. He isn’t paid, hesaid, although the congregation provides him a home. Hesupports himself through a small embroidery business.

“I have a very humble car,” he said — a 10-year-oldToyota Corolla. He took a second wife, as is permissibleunder Islam, and has since had another son, who is 2. “Istarted my family from scratch again,” he said.

William Joyce, who formerly represented Masoodand his family, said the case’s outcome left the imam withfew options. “He was sent back with no particular way tosurvive,” Joyce said.

Pakistani brothers reflect their country’s contradictions

LONDONonlIne

GIrLS’ rights activist Malalayousafzai, who was critically in-jured after being shot in the headby the Taliban, is stable and mak-ing good progress.

“The medical team caring for Malalayousufzai at the Queen Elizabeth HospitalBirmingham reported today that she is still sta-ble and making good progress with her treat-ment,” the hospital said in a statement onWednesday.

“Only the medical team from the QueenElizabeth and Birmingham Children’s hospitalsand Malala’s immediate family has been givenaccess to her bedside,” it said.

Doctors say Malala continues to makesteady progress at the hospital.

On Tuesday, UK foreign Secretary WilliamHague, Interior Minister rehman Malik andUnited Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign MinisterSheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed met the members ofthe medical team caring for the 15-year-old, andher father Ziauddin.

Afterwards, the ministerial delegation helda short press conference during which Hague

said Malala’s “swift and full recovery is our ab-solute priority” and thanked the doctors at thehospital.

Malala is stable andmaking goodprogress: UK doctors

QuettA: people shift a sick relative to a private hospital on Wednesday as doctors in all provincial government

hospitals remained on strike against the abduction of a colleague. inP

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tHE government decidedto implement projectsto install plants to gen-erate 304MW of elec-tricity from garbage in

different cities of the country.Projects with an aggregate ca-

pacity of 57 MW were already in var-ious stages of implementation.Agricultural, industrial and biogaswaste products would be used in en-ergy projects, to generate approxi-mately 247MW of power.

A senior official on Wednesdaysaid that agricultural waste projectswere being executed in Sindh togenerate 21MW, 12MW were pro-duced in Shahkot, 12MW in Okaraand 12MW were being generated inPak Pattan.

He said that projects through in-dustrial waste, with an aggregate ca-pacity of 247MW, included 27MW tobe produced in DI Khan. A project togenerate 15MW was signed betweenPESICO and Al-Moiz Industries. APower Purchase Agreement had beensigned by fESCO and ShakarganjSugar Mills to produce 7MW while 14

new energy projects, with the cumula-tive capacity of 213MW had beenawarded a generation license bynEPrA.

The official said that a refuse De-rived fuel (rDf) was also being pro-duced by converting municipal wasteinto combustible components throughdehydration. Presently, a number ofrDf plants were producing and sellingfuel to the cement industry.

Highlighting other initiatives, hesaid that a waste-to-energy studywas being carried out with referenceto Karachi, to generate 10MW ofpower, while financing had beenarranged for detailed MunicipalSolid Waste, Liquid Waste and Ani-mal Waste-to-Energy studies for 20

large cities in the country.He said that a pilot plant for the

Landhi Cattle Colony Biogas projecthad been completed and bids werebeing received from the private sec-tor, for the generation of 30MW ofelectricity from Landhi CattleColony waste after the completion ofa feasibility study.

The official said that 14,000 biogasplants were being constructed througha rs 365 million grant. He added thatthese projects were located in Punjab,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.

Some of these projects were opera-tional while others were at variousstages of development, and most ofthem were expected to reach at thelevel of financial close by 2013.

ISLAMABADApp

As winter sets in, hordes of people,rich and poor, are seen bargainingwith retailers in Islamabad andrawalpindi, where woolly heaps ofquilts, bed covers, blankets andrugs are up for sale.

Vendors and shopkeepers in thecities experienced a hike in sales.

All kinds of winter wear and acces-sories including gloves, woollen hats,mufflers, pullovers, sweatshirts andjackets were seen displayed in front ofstalls, shops and weekly bazaars, to at-tract customers.

Stalls of winter clothes andshoes could be seen at AabparaMarket, Melody Market, SuperMarket, Jinnah Super Market, Sit-tara Market, Peshawar Morr,Karachi Company, faizabad, Com-mercial Market, Sadiqabad Chowk,raja Bazaar and in many other big

shopping malls and markets in thetwin cities.

Many customers however, com-plained that second-hand clotheshad also become expensive. Pricesof used clothes had been spirallingevery year, commented a customerat a weekly bazaar.

A second-hand clothes dealersaid that they had bought thoseclothes at exorbitant rates fromwholesale dealers in Lahore andKarachi and had been forced to sellthem accordingly.

Kashif Khan, a clothes-dealerat Super Market, said, “Our busi-ness is going very well these daysas the demand for winter clotheshas risen considerably.”

He said that sa les had dou-bled and they were expect ingeven more revenue in the daysahead. Varieties of clothing andaccessories l ike gloves, woollenhats, mufflers, pullovers, sweat

shirts , and jackets could beseen hanging in front of shopsand booths in weekly bazaars.

“Customers however have be-come more selective in their pur-chases. They not only select clotheswhich had the best quality, but alsotry to buy them at throw awayprices,” said Shahid Ali, a salesmanin Aabpara.

He said that some people eventried to bargain at fixed priceshops. There were also many whothronged to weekly bazaars to findclothes that were both utilitarianand comparatively cheaper.

Qasim raza, a customer at theG-6 weekly bazaar, said, “Thesebazaars offer cheap and inexpen-sive clothes, because prices of newwinter clothing are out of ourreach. We rush to these second-hand clothes’ stalls where we getdecent quality clothes at affordablerates.”

IHC orders removal of illegal kiosk

ISLAMABADKASHIf AbbASI

Islamabad High Court (IHC), onWednesday, directed Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA) todemolish an illegal kiosk, ownedby an influential personality,from Shalimar Park in the sectorf-7/3.Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiquiwhile hearing the case regardingencroachment in public parks,ordered the Directorate of Mu-nicipal Administration of CDA todemolish an illegal kiosk fromShalimar Park and submit a re-port in two days.Earlier on October 17, the samebench had directed CDA to sub-mit a complete report on October31 regarding illegal kiosks placedin different public parks. The pe-tition had been filed by Vice Ad-miral (r) Muhammad AhmedTasnim, a resident of sector f-7/3, through his counsel Advo-cate Jehangir Khan, challengingthe illegal kiosk placed in thepublic park.During the course of the hear-ing, Advocate nazir Jawad,counsel of CDA, submitted hisreport and claimed that the en-forcement directorate had sent anotice to the owner of the kiosk,placed in Shalimar Park, on Oc-tober 28. However the ownerhad refused to obey the court’sorders and misbehaved withCDA employees. Meanwhile Advocate Jehangir al-leged that the kiosk was ownedby Khalid rehman, the brotherof Interior Minister rehmanMalik, and CDA’s enforcementdirectorate was reluctant to takeaction against him. However the CDA counsel, whiletalking to media representa-tives, claimed that according toCDA’s records, no kiosk hadbeen registered under the nameof Khalid Malik. He said thatthe kiosk had been owned byMuhammad Zaheer. Just ice Siddiqui expressedconcerned and asked whetherthe a l lotments had been madethrough proper advert ise-ment . However the CDAcounsel could not g ive a sat is-factory response. The courtdirected CDA to submit a re-port in two days and ad-journed the case t i l lnovember 2 .

Three, including2 women, kidnapped

RAWALPINDIStAff RepoRt

At least three persons, including twowomen, were abducted in different areasthe other day. In the first incident, AliAsghar told Westridge police that anunidentified person had abducted hiscousin Muhammad riaz from DhokeHameedaIn other incident, Muhammad Ishtiaqtold Westridge police that Amir, Tayyab,nauman, rukhsana, Shams, SultanMehmood and Muhammad Taj had kid-napped his daughter nadia.Muhammad Ali told Civil Line policethat his daughter rozina Bibi, wife ofMuhammad riaz, was an employee ofCDA. She had left for her office but didnot return.

NAB to go ahead with enquiry into illegal recruitments in Pak PWD


national Accountability Bureau (nAB) saidthat it would continue its inquiry into theillegal recruitment of personnel in the PakPWD Department and take it to a logicalconclusion.nAB, in a media release on Wednesday,said that the chairman of nAB had receiveda slanderous letter written by the formerfederal Minister faisal Saleh Hayat, copiedto the Chief Justice of Pakistan and ‘leaked’to the press.The release stated that out of respect forthe judiciary, the chairman had restrainedhimself from responding to the implied ac-cusations, barbs, and insinuations of thejudiciary. He refused to dignify such scur-rilous and meaningless accusations with aresponse.The only possible objective of the lettercould be to pre-empt, so as to preventnAB from proceeding with its inquiryinto illegal recruitments in Pak PWD.

Traffic police devisespecial plan for returning pilgrims


The City Traffic Police devised a compre-hensive strategy to ensure the smooth flowof vehicles, keeping in view the increasingnumber of visitors to Benazir Bhutto Inter-national Airport due to the start of thepost-Hajj flight operation.A great rush was witnessed on city roads,as family members, relatives and friendsfrom different cities visited the airport inconvoys to welcome pilgrims returningfrom Saudi Arabia. “A special squad comprising inspectors hadbeen deputed and a helpline (1915) at theTraffic Headquarters had been established,besides the deployment of additional trafficwardens, which would ensure smooth flowof traffic,” said Chief Traffic Officer (CTO)Ishtiaq Hussain Shah on Wednesday.Under the plan, he said that visitors wouldnot be allowed to park their vehiclesaround the airport, as separate arrange-ments had been made for them to avoidrush within the airport premises. The CTO would supervise the entire trafficplan during the month-long post-Hajjflight operation.

Making electricity from garbagen Projects will generate over 304MW electricity

People rush to bundleup for winter

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07Islamabad



THErE is a need to come upwith an effective legislation totackle terrorism in the countryas the world has changed after9/11. This was the dominant

view on a public forum on “Anti-terror-ism laws in Pakistan: the quest to balancecivil liberties and addressing terrorism”.

The forum was chaired by ShahidHamid, former governor of Punjab, whileLord Alex Carlile, the former Independ-ent reviewer of UK Counter-TerrorismLegislation, was the key speaker.

Lord Carlile shared his experience ofstrengthening legislation to tacklecounter-terrorism. He underlined thatthere had to be a narrative that dealt withthe counter terrorism strategy. LordCarlile said that the UK’s definition ofterrorism was narrower.

He agreed that it had to be recognised

that Pakistan was the frontline stateagainst terrorism. An effective way out oftackling terrorism would be “shared solu-tions toward shared problems,” he said,adding that it was an art of maintainingan effective balance between civil liber-ties and counter-terrorism.

Probing as to why Pakistan had a lowconviction rate than the UK, Lord Carlilesaid that the judiciary was the key to thiseffect. He said that not only do they haveto be safe and secure, but they also needto be properly paid.

Moreover, the judges needed to havecertain expertise, he said, disagreeingwith the notion that all judges could dealwith anti-terrorism cases. In the UK, hesaid, there was a judicial appointmentcommission which enforced that alljudges, starting off at the district level,had to pass a written examination andundergo an interview.

The competence of a judge includedabsorbing diversity and comfort in deal-

ing with others, leading to a considerableimprovement in quality of judges, hesaid. Lord Carlile clarified that there was“absolutely no use of the best judge if thecase if badly prepared.” To this end, heshared the process through which the ev-idence makes the way from crime sceneto forensic laboratory to present in thecourt.

Shahid Hamid, while explaining thelegislation in Pakistan regarding Anti-Terrorism said that so far, there were twolegislative instruments that deal with ter-rorism. The first such bill is the Anti-Ter-rorism Act which was originally draftedin 1997; the law has since then beenamended in 2001 and 2004. The Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2010 wasintroduced in the Senate of Pakistan bythe federal interior minister on July 27,2010. The second bill which curbs finan-cial aspect of terrorism was the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, he said.

The Act, he said, itself came in the

backdrop of Pakistan’s commitment tothe United nation’s 1998 resolutionwhich asked for the states to come upwith measures to control money launder-ing, he said, adding that the law requiredthe reporting of any suspicious transac-tion beyond rs 25 lakh.

Shahid Hamid also compared that thenature of terrorism had become destruc-tive since the law was first introduced. Hesaid that unlike in the 1990s, a terroristor his organisation was identifiable,today terrorists groups appeared on thehorizon after a “suicide bomb” occurs.

Moreover, whereas in the past, theterrorist groups had some popular sup-port, he said.

He also said that the present-day ter-rorists detonate explosives. These groups,he said, espouse an “ideological” agendawith some having “territorial ambitions.”

Despite these laws, he lamented, theconviction rate in the country was low.He said according to a report, less than

700 cases of money laundering were re-ported, of which only four (4) were pros-ecuted and none convicted. Hamid thatduring the same time frame, none hadbeing convicted in India and only one hasbeen convicted in Bangladesh.

He further said that the definition ofterrorism was so wide that if somebodythrows a brickbat at the police, he or shecan put on trial for conducting terrorism.

Hamid recommended that the num-ber of days for detention needed to belooked into, and those institutions thattrain suicide bombers need to be investi-gated.

Hamid shared the Investigation intofair Trial Bill made digital information asadmissible evidence even prior to thelodging of the fIr. He recommended thatit would be better to remove the clauserestricting phone-tapping of parliamen-tarians. Parliamentarians, academia, civilsociety and media participated in largenumbers in the forum.

‘Outdated terrorism laws need revamping’g Speakers at a forum say Pakistan needs to fix its judicial system to ensure implementation of laws


Students of national University of ModernLanguages (nUML) received a media labon Wednesday, to hone their directorial,editorial, production and designing skills.

A state of the art Media Laboratory hadbeen established with the collaboration ofHUDA Development Organisation and En-trepreneur Global Trust (EGT) for studentsof Mass Communication at national Uni-versity of Modern Languages (nUML), Is-lamabad. Both organizations had beenworking for the provision of media labora-tories, studios, and infrastructure to imparteducation in the field of Mass Communica-tion to academic institutions.

The plaque of the new laboratory wasunveiled by Tayo fagberno, team leaderand CEO of HUDA Development Organisa-tion. He was accompanied by nUML rec-tor Maj Gen (r) Masood Hasan, DirectorGeneral Brig Azam Jamal, EGT Chairper-son fatima Kazmi, Head of Mass Commu-nication Department Mufti JameeludidnAhmed, registrar Brig (r) Saeed AkhtarMalik, Patras rahmat, GM HUDA and

other officials of the university.fagberno said, “new possibilities

emerge when we have the right environ-ment. When people refuse to accept tech-nologies, they eliminate the capacity tofunction freely and swiftly.”

“Therefore it is a challenge for the fac-ulty that they should be very open to newtechnology and assist their students learnthem, because our young generation is veryquick in learning and adopting “, he added.

He said that nUML was a distinguisheduniversity because of its uniqueness, as ittaught 26 modern languages. Therefore,the significance of a media lab increasedmanifold. Hasan said, “The establishmentof a media lab will equip our students withlatest skills in media production, editingand all functions that are carried out in amedia studio.” Jamiluddin told media thatthe media lab would complement the stu-dents’ theoretical knowledge with practicalexercise in the lab.

The new lab has a facility for docu-mentary making, editing, and recordingthrough nLE Macro System, Windowsbase Editorial System, Audio and VideoConsoles.

Workshops on gendersensitivity to be heldin various cities


The Institute of rural Management (IrM) announcedon Tuesday that they would conduct a series of train-ing sessions on gender sensitization across the coun-try to sensitize organizations about stereotyping,oppression and gender relations.According to details, workshops titled ‘Gender re-sponsive Governance’ would be organized in variouscities including rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Sukkur,Quetta, Lahore and Peshawar. The workshop wouldcover major areas like gender prejudice, relationships,network and reputation. Ways to identify the glassceiling and to search for a mentor within an organiza-tion would be discussed in detail with the objective toimprove gender equality in organizations. This wouldenhance good governance within organizations andlead to overall poverty reduction. The workshopwould be designed to enhance the participants’ capa-bility to work in multidimensional work conditionswith good governance skills. Participants would gaintheoretical and practical understanding and approachto ‘Gender and Development.’ These workshops wouldalso enable them to enhance their abilities to con-tribute to and benefit from development, and identifygender bias in workplaces. In november, trainingworkshops on ‘Breaking through the glass ceiling’would also be organized by IrM in rahim yar Khan,Hyderabad and Mithi under the same training series.In this context, IrM would provide need-based schol-arships to participants.

Students of NUMLget a media lab

to lASt tIll neXt yeAR: A woman dries meat to store it. this method of meat storage has been in use for centuries. InP

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08Islamabad

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YOgA WiTH AMANDA

This yoga course will creatively and mindfully

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NEWS DESK

tHIS year, scores of Muslimsthroughout Pakistan were not beable to perform the most sacred riteassociated with the festival on Oct.27 – the sacrifice of cattle – since il-

legal smuggling to neighbouring Afghanistanpushed cattle prices to exorbitant levels.

Eidul Azha is celebrated to mark the beliefthat Prophet Muhammad Ibrahim readily ac-cepted God’s command to sacrifice his sonHazrat Ismael until God sent down a sheep forhim to slaughter instead.

“As Muslim we ought to recall that huge sac-rifice by slaughtering an animal,” MuhammadMustafa, a local school teacher, told IPS.

But cattle prices have almost doubled sincelast year. As the time for the festival drew near,“demand for animals has risen on both sides ofthe border,” Mustafa added.

Last year, a buffalo that sold for about $300is today not even available for $500.

Since cattle breeders earn more fromsmuggling the animals to Afghanistan thanthey would if they sold the animals locally,the illegal trade is flourishing.

Pakistan currently has a surplus of 2.23million cattle, which had hitherto been ear-marked for export to Afghanistan, since thelatter had zero local production of animalslast year – a lingering impact of the 1979russian invasion and subsequent conflictthat has decimated many industries.

Livestock Director Muhammad Sultan, toldIPS that close to 10,000 animals are illegally ex-ported to Afghanistan every month, which hasalso forced up the prices of milk and poultry.k

On July 23, the Peshawar High Court(PHC) suspended all export permits issued bythe federal government and ordered the con-fiscation of cattle destined for Afghanistan, in

a bid to protect local consumers.Since 1979, “Afghanistan (has been) totally

dependent on Pakistan for food and other basicneeds but the court’s ban on transportation ofcattle and poultry to Afghanistan worked tosome extent,” Muhammad Khan, a Peshawar-based trader told IPS.

According to Khan, local businessmen arethe main beneficiaries of this trade, whichtravels along the 2,400-kilometre-longporous border.

“The higher prices are hampering people’sability to slaughter animals during the festival.The PHC order (created) some obstacles to thepractice but the business continues because it isso profitable,” Khan said.A CHANGe IN tRADItIoN:

Locals here told IPS they roamed animalmarkets pointlessly last week but were forced toreturn home empty-handed because no onecould afford the sky-high prices.

Zubair Shah, a civil servant, told IPS he hasvisited numerous markets over the last threedays to purchase a sheep or a goat but the pricesare such that he won’t be able to slaughter an an-imal this Eid.

“This is shocking for my family. Every yearfor the past decade we have slaughtered an ani-mal (and donated) two-thirds of the meat to poorpeople. It seems that this year we will be gettingmeat or mutton from someone else,” he said.

He is not alone in his plight. Others, like themechanic Gul Meer, have taken loans to buy cat-tle for 40 percent more than they paid last year.

“Even if it means I have to sell my wife’sgold ornaments, I will buy an animal for thisis the only way to win Allah’s pleasure,”Mustafa vowed.

Meer believes the problem has been pro-longed by the Pakistan government’s failure toimpose harsh penalties on traders who continueto flout the smuggling ban.

The government has already seized 33,000kilogrammes of illegal meat since the ban wasimposed three months ago.

“We have also confiscated 800 animals, in-cluding oxen, buffalo, sheep and goats fromsmugglers near border areas to control theprices and (protect) local consumers so theycan acquire an animal to sacrifice on EidulAzha,” Sultan told IPS.

Government efforts to clamp down on thepractice have yielded some results. Prices ofpoultry have come down, according to Sultan.

“Before the ban, one kilogramme ofchicken cost six dollars, but the price hasnow come down to four dollars after thecourt’s directives,” he said.

Still, the province continues to facedeficits in milk and poultry products.

Ayub Sattar, a mason on University road,says that prices have always been high duringthe festival time, but this year has been ex-ceptionally hard.

“Last year we (could get) a sheep for 150 dol-lars. A sheep of the same size now sells for 250dollars, far out of my price range,” he told IPS.

Some people have decided to pool their re-sources and purchase oxen, camels and buffaloescommunally, with plans to share the meat be-tween their families.

“This year (we bought) cattle for 520 dollarsin the market when last year we paid 380 dollarsfor the same animal,” Liaqat Ali, who is sharingan animal with five others this year, told IPS. Dr.Tariq Ali, a veterinarian in Peshawar, told IPSthat Pakistanis usually slaughter between fiveand six million animals at this time of year.

“farmers in neighbouring Afghanistan willremain dependent on Pakistan’s animals andpoultry in the future too. Therefore, it’s up to thegovernment (here) to stop this illegal trade andallow the transportation only of surplus animalsvia legal routes,” he stressed.

Cattle smugglers thwartMuslims’ desire to sacrifice

Illegal smuggling into Afghanistan pushed cattle prices so high that many ordinary Muslimswere not able to perform the ritual slaughter during the ‘feast of sacrifice’ this year

ISB 01-11-2012_Layout 1 11/1/2012 2:07 AM

09


Foreign NewsFrance offers aid,solidarity tostorm-hit US

PARISAfp

france has offered aid to help the USEast Coast recover from the ravages ofsuperstorm Sandy, foreign MinisterLaurent fabius said Tuesday, express-ing “total solidarity with the Americanpeople.” “france is ready to providethe United States with all the aid itdeems necessary,” fabius said in astatement. The death toll across sev-eral states on the US eastern seaboardhas risen to 42, with another death inCanada, and is expected to climb fur-ther as several people remained miss-ing, officials said Tuesday.Sandy had already killed at least 67people — including a US national inPuerto rico — as it swept through theCaribbean, meaning the overall tollfrom the storm is now 110.Some eight million Americans re-mained without electricity on Tues-day. Disaster estimating firm Eqecatforecast that the massive storm wouldaffect more than 60 million Ameri-cans, a fifth of the country’s popula-tion, and cause up to $20 billion (15billion euros) in damage.“In the face of the devastating effectsof Hurricane Sandy, I express my totalsolidarity with the American peoplewho, after the Caribbean nations, areliving through very difficult hours,”said fabius. He appealed to frenchnationals in the disaster area to actwith extreme caution and follow theadvice of the US authorities.Some 65,000 french people live inthe northeastern United States, in-cluding 35,000 in new york, whichbore the full brunt of the storm.

Kuwait summonscritic of emir inwidening crackdown

KUWAIT CITYAfp

A Kuwaiti opposition figure said hehas been summoned for questioningafter allegedly criticising the emir ontelevision, as the Gulf state widened acrackdown on dissent.“I will go to the public prosecution (onWednesday) for interrogation on theaccusation of undermining the statusof the emir in a televised interview inAugust,” former Islamist MP faisal al-Muslim said on Twitter.Muslim is the sixth former oppositionMP to have been summoned for inter-rogation on accusations of makingpublic remarks critical of Emir SheikhSabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.The prosecution has also extendedthe detention of a former national-ist MP Mussallam al-Barrak for aday following his arrest on Mondayand interrogation until late Tues-day, his lawyers said.Barrak was accused of underminingthe emir’s status at a rally on Octo-ber 15 when he warned againstamending the disputed electorallaw and also cautioned Kuwait wasbecoming autocratic.

DAMASCUSAfp

SyrIAn warplanes poundedrebel bastions on Wednesdayafter a day of fighting thatleft more than 180 dead, asUn-Arab League peace

envoy Lakhdar Brahimi urged China tohelp end the violence.

In a week that has seen unprece-dented air strikes, regime fighter jetsagain pummelled rebel-controlledareas east of Damascus where clasheshave raged for months.

At least five raids were carried outin the capital’s eastern suburbs, where30 civilians, including five children,were killed in air strikes and fightingthe day before, the Syrian Observatoryfor Human rights said.

They were among 182 people killedacross Syria on Tuesday, said the Ob-servatory, adding more than 36,000people had now died in the 19-monthconflict.

Analysts say the regime has boostedair strikes in recent days in a bid to re-verse opposition gains on the ground,especially in Syria’s north, and to pre-vent the rebels from taking control offurther territory around the capital.

fierce clashes erupted Wednesdayin the northwestern province of Idlib,where rebels attacked highway militarycheckpoints and battles raged over therebel-held town of Maaret al-numanand the Wadi Daif army base.

After the heaviest wave of airstrikes yet on Monday, on Tuesday afighter jet hit targets inside Damascusfor the first time, dropping four bombs

on an eastern neighbourhood near toan opposition-held suburb.

rebels also claimed responsibilityfor the killing of a senior air force gen-eral, Abdullah Mahmud al-Khalidi,whom state television said had been as-sassinated by “terrorists”.

Visiting Beijing, peace envoyBrahimi said he hoped China wouldplay an active role in helping to bring ahalt to Syria’s violence.

Greeting foreign Minister yangJiechi in front of reporters, Brahimisaid he hoped “China can play an activerole in solving the events in Syria,”without elaborating.

Both China and russia have exer-cised their veto in the Un SecurityCouncil to block resolutions aimed atputting more pressure on PresidentBashar al-Assad.

Air strikes pound Syria rebelsas China urged to help

NEW YORKAfp

Americans sifted through the wreckageof superstorm Sandy on Wednesday asmillions remained without power andPresident Barack Obama prepared tovisit areas hardest hit by the unprece-dented cyclone.

The storm carved a trail of devasta-tion across new york City and new Jer-sey, killing dozens of people in severalstates, swamping miles of coastline, andthrowing the tied-up White House raceinto disarray just days before the vote.

Obama planned to tour flooded areasalongside new Jersey Governor Chris

Christie as his republican rival Mittromney was set to ease his way backonto the campaign trail in florida after astorm-imposed virtual hiatus.

new york City authorities weremeanwhile struggling to restore vitalservices and clear debris after a wall ofstorm-driven seawater flooded lowerManhattan, swamped road and rail tun-nels and triggered fires.

“restoring power and mass transitremain the two biggest challenges in thedays ahead,” new york City MayorMichael Bloomberg told reporters Tues-day, as rescue crews and utility workerssurveyed an apocalyptic scene.

“This is the end of the downside, and

hopefully from here it is going up.”The new york Stock Exchange and

the nasdaq aimed to reopen Wednesdayafter their first weather-related closuressince Hurricane Gloria in 1985, and theJohn f. Kennedy and newark Liberty in-ternational airports were set to reopen at7:00 am (1100 GMT), with limited serv-ices. La Guardia Airport remains closed.

The new york subway system, muchof which was flooded by seawater, was stillgripped by what management dubbed itsworst disaster in its 108-year history, andthe new Jersey coastline remains a sceneof sprawling devastation. Obama, whofaces a tough re-election battle on novem-ber 6, was set to tour some of the worst-hit

areas with Christie — a prominent repub-lican and romney supporter — who de-scribed the destruction as “unthinkable.”

“America is with you. We are standingbehind you and we are going to do every-thing we can to help you get back on yourfeet,” Obama said Tuesday. On Tuesdaythe death toll from the storm rose to 43 innorth America, in addition to the 67 peo-ple killed as Sandy swept through theCaribbean as a hurricane last week.

More than eight million homes andbusinesses from the Carolinas to Mainewere without power, the Department ofEnergy said, with outages increasing asthe still-formidable storm moves westtowards the Great Lakes.

Storm-battered US sifts through Sandy’s wreckage

Clinton says Kosovoindependence ‘notup for discussion’

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton onWednesday said that Kosovo’s unilater-ally declared independence, fiercely op-posed by Serbia, was not debatable.“(The United States) will oppose anydiscussion of territorial changes or re-opening Kosovo’s independentstatus. These matters are not up for dis-cussion,” she said, reiterating Washing-ton’s strong support for Kosovo’s ethnicAlbanian authorities on a visit toPristina. The disputed status of Kosovois the main bone of contention still af-fecting regional ties after the break-upof the communist former yugoslavia,which collapsed in a series of bloodywars in the 1990s. Washington is one ofthe main supporters of Kosovo’s inde-pendence, unilaterally proclaimed in2008. It is recognised by some 90 statesincluding 22 of the European Union’s 27members but is rejected by Serbia andKosovo Serbs.Clinton also said that the US wants tosee the rule of law “extended throughoutKosovo”, in a reference to majority-Serbnorthern Kosovo where the ethnic Al-banian authorities have no influenceand Serbia maintains parallel institu-tions.

Fire at Saudi weddingkills at least 25

RIYADHAfp

A fire sparked by celebratory gunfire haskilled at least 25 people at a wedding inSaudi Arabia, media reported onWednesday. The bullets struck electricdecorations that triggered a short-cir-cuit, igniting a women-only marquee atthe wedding on Tuesday night in East-ern Province, said Al-yaoum newspaper,citing civil defence chief General Abdul-lah Khsheiman. Al-yaoum, which isbased in the province, said at least 28people died in the fire, although variousother reports put the death toll at 25, allof them women and children. The gover-nor of the oil-rich region, Prince Mo-hammed bin fahd bin Abdul Aziz,ordered a prompt investigation into theincident, the Okaz daily reported.Only women and small children were inthe tent in line with strict rules of segre-gation in the ultra-conservative Muslimkingdom.

Herat: afghan internal refugee young women carry gas cylinders

on their heads on the outskirts of Herat. Over a third of afghans

are living in abject poverty, as those in power are more concerned

about addressing their vested interests rather than the basic

needs of the population, a UN report said. AFP

TUNISAfp

Police and soldiers deployed heavily onWednesday in the Tunisian capitalafter deadly clashes with radical Is-lamists during the night, the interiorministry said.

“There has been a reinforcement ofsecurity, of the national guard, of thearmy to prevent any retaliation” by theradical Salafist movement, ministryspokesman Khaled Tarrouche said.

The security forces would use “allthe tools allowed by law” in the event of

any further violence, he warned, sug-gesting that they could fire live roundsif confronted.

Militants attacked two nationalguard posts in the Tunis suburb ofManouba on Tuesday night after policearrested a Salafist suspected of assault-ing the head of the area’s public secu-rity brigade, according to the ministry.

The attacks were carried out by “alarge number of people with radical reli-gious tendencies,” Tarrouche said earlier.

“The response by the securityforces led to the death of an attackerwho was hit by a bullet,” he said.

Two security force members werealso seriously injured, he said.

A police official told AfP anotherperson died in the violence, but thatwas denied by Tarrouche.

Since the Tunisian revolution inJanuary last year that ousted formerpresident Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, rad-ical Islamists have carried out a num-ber of attacks, including againstsecurity forces and on cultural events.

The opposition accuses the govern-ment, led by Islamist party Ennahda, offailing to rein in violence by Salafists, ahardline branch of Sunni Islam.

Security beefed up in Tunis after islamist clashes

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Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Voting rights for expatriates

long overdue

Abelated consensus has emerged between the opposition andthe government to concede the right of vote to overseasPakistanis. The Supreme Court has also supported thedemand. What remains to be seen is whether all the

required formalities can be completed within time to allow theexpatriates to vote for the first time. Had the political partiesconcentrated on the issue instead of exhausting their energies onproviding dual nationality holders the right to get elected, allexpatriates would have been voting in the forthcoming elections.

There are presently around seven million Pakistanis living abroad,more than half of them working in Saudi Arabia, UAE and UnitedKingdom. The expatriates thus comprise nearly three percent of thetotal population. The vast majority belongs to the working class whoare not likely to contest the elections but are keen to exercise theirright to vote. Those who show inclination to contest elections orbecome ministers belong to a mini minority settled in the US andEurope comprising businessmen or well-to-do professionals. As theycan finance the political parties at home, their voice has carried moreweight with the parties like the PPP, MQM and others who recentlylobbied on their behalf. It is, however, the Pakistani blue collar labourwhich sends the bulk of remittances that climaxed to $ 13 billion in2012, thus forming the largest source of foreign exchange afterexports. Over the last several years, the remittances have maintaineda steadily rising trend. Those who send the bulk of their earnings tothe country deserved to have been granted the right to vote long ago.

All voters are required to be in possession of CnICs. One is notsure if all overseas Pakistanis have acquired the computerisednational Identity Cards for Overseas Pakistanis (nICOPs). It is fornADrA to issue nICOPs, or the Smart nICOPs recently introduced,to all the bona fide overseas Pakistanis who do not have them. TheCnIC holders are subsequently to be registered with the ECP andtheir names put on the electoral rolls. All this requires legislation. Ithas been suggested that MoUs were needed to be signed with someof the host countries which do not allow political activities. TheMinistry of Overseas Pakistanis had recently sent a draft billregarding the grant of right to vote to expatriate Pakistanis to theECP. The later has appointed a committee headed by the ECPsecretary and comprising members of the related ministries toexamine all aspects of the bill before the bill is presented beforeParliament. The process needs to be completed at the earliest toundo the injustice that has been done to the overseas Pakistanis.


let them decide their own future

Kashmir dispute

The landing of Indian troops in Sri-nagar on 27 October, 1947, on thebasis of an instrument of accession,

which the Indians claim was signed by theruler of Kashmir, does not form part ofany official record concerning partitionand therefore does not have a legal basis.The legal experts are of the opinion that inconsonance with Article 7 of the Indian In-dependence Act all agreements andtreaties with the princely states or theirrulers stood terminated on 15 August,1947. Therefore, Maharaja of Kashmirceased to be the legal ruler of the state andhence was not in a position to sign the in-strument of accession.

Granted that the Maharaja did signthe accession and he was legally compe-tent to ender into an agreement with theIndian dominion, it is pertinent to note

that the accession itself was provisional asis manifest by the letter that Lord Mount-batten wrote to Maharaja in October 1947accepting the accession provisionally andmaking it clear that the state would onlybe incorporated into the Indian Unionafter a reference had been made to thepeople of Kashmir. It thus clearly ac-knowledged ascertaining the will of thepeople, which was never done.

According to the Indian IndependenceAct, the rulers of princely states were giventhe choice to freely accede to either Indiaor Pakistan, or to remain independent.They were, however, advised to keep thegeographical proximity and demographicrealities in view while deciding the acces-sion. Lord Mountbatten, in his address tothe special full meeting of the Chamber ofPrinces in new Delhi on 25 July, 1947, alsoreiterated geographical contiguity and willof the people as the basic ingredients foraccession.

In case of Kashmir both these ele-ments were negated. The revolt of Kah-miris against their ruler's pretensions tojoin India and the resultant war betweenIndia and Pakistan is also a strong testi-mony to the fact that the people of Kash-mir wanted to join Pakistan. Kashmir wascontiguous to Pakistan and majority of itspopulation was also Muslim. It had cul-tural and historic links with Pakistan andhad remained under Muslim rule for cen-turies before ranjit Singh annexed it. En-cyclopedia Britannica also highlighted this

reality in these words "Although there wasa clear Muslim majority in Kashmir beforethe 1947 partition and its economic, cul-tural, and geographic contiguity with theMuslim-majority area of the Punjab (inPakistan) could be convincingly demon-strated, the political developments duringand after the partition resulted in a divi-sion of the region. Pakistan was left withterritory that, although basically Muslimin character, was thinly populated, rela-tively inaccessible, and economically un-derdeveloped. The largest Muslim group,situated in the Vale of Kashmir and esti-mated to number more than half the pop-ulation of the entire region, lay inIndian-administered territory, with its for-mer outlets via the Jhelum valley routeblocked."

In regards to the Un resolution onKashmir it is relevant to point out that inthe wake of the war that broke out be-tween the two countries after the landingof Indian forces in Kashmir, it was Indiawho took the matter to the United na-tions, which facilitated an immediateceasefire. The Un during the course of itsdeliberations on the subject passed 23 res-olutions, including two UnICEP resolu-tions of 13 August, 1948, and 5 January,1949, calling for a plebiscite in Kashmirunder the auspices of United nations. It isquite evident that like the supposed in-strument of accession and the partitionplan, the Un resolutions also vividlyrecognised the right of the people to de-

cide their own future through a process ofself-determination. It is also pertinent tomention that the Un through its resolu-tions 91 and 122 also repudiated Indianstance that the issue of accession of Kash-mir had been resolved by the constituentassembly of Kashmir. These resolutionsreiterated that the question of accessioncould not be resolved by any means otherthan enunciated in the Un resolutions onthe subject. This proves beyond any doubtthat the Indian claims of Kashmir being anintegral part of India represent travesty ofthe facts and lack any legal basis.

In the wake of 1971 war between Indiaand Pakistan, Simla Agreement wassigned and clause six of the agreement em-phasised the resolution of all disputes be-tween the two countries includingKashmir through peaceful means, bilater-ally. But unfortunately the Indians havenever shown honesty of purpose in resolv-ing this issue and have used varying tacticsto suspend or scupper the process of dia-logue. It has always remained evasive onthe core issue of Kashmir.

The Indians also claim that in view ofthe Simla Agreement, Pakistan cannot in-ternationalise the Kashmir dispute. Thisstance is also devoid of any legality. Thebilateral agreement does not change thestatus of the dispute. It also does not pre-clude the possibility of raising it again atthe Un in case the bilateral agreementfails to deliver. Article 103 of Un Chartersays, "In the event of a conflict between

the obligations of the members of the Ununder the present charter and their obli-gations under any other internationalagreement, their obligations under thepresent charter will prevail." What itmeans is that the Un resolutions on Kash-mir will take precedence over all other in-ternational agreements on the same issue.So Pakistan is very much within its rightto invoke Un resolutions, after havingbeen frustrated to find solution throughthe bilateral arrangement.

The Un resolutions on Kashmiradopted under Chapter VII of the UnCharter remain legally binding on the par-ties. Article 25 also reiterates their obliga-tory nature. The Security Council underthe Un Charter has the power to enforceits decisions and resolutions militarily orby any other means necessary; the powersthat it has used during the Korean War in1950 and in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991.

It is abundantly clear from the forego-ing that the legal status and obligations ofthe parties to the dispute under Un reso-lutions and that of the Security Council tohave its resolutions implemented, remainunaffected. President Zardari in his ad-dress to the General Assembly rightly at-tributed the non-resolution of Kashmirdispute to the failure of the Un system.His effort to sensitise the internationalcommunity on this forgotten subject re-flected Pakistan’s unflinching resolve tosupport the inalienable right of the peopleof Kashmir to decide their own future.

The final session of debate be-tween the two US presidentialcandidates largely focused on in-ternational affairs and foreignpolicy. The main questions asked

by the moderator related to preserving US in-terests in the coming presidential term. Theposition of President Obama is already knownto the world through 284 drone strikes or-dered during his presidential term in Pakistanalone. As for as romney is considered, the re-sponse was: “I believe that we should use anyand all means necessary to take out peoplewho pose a threat to us and our friendsaround the world. The president was right toup the usage of that technology and believethat we should continue to use it to continueto go after the people who represent a threatto this nation and to our friends.”

In short, whoever comes into power, thedrone strikes will continue.

The issues related to Pakistan are verycomplex in nature. This country is a clear ex-ample of mess up created by the world powersfor purposes of attainment of their own ambi-tions. However, the question as to the objec-tive to be achieved by this drone campaignhaunts many a Pakistani. Where does the for-eign policy of this country stand? Pakistan, itseems, has paid too heavy a price as an ally inthe war on terror. The country has lost morethan 40,000 of its soldiers and civilians dur-ing the last 10 years since this war started.furthermore, this country hosts millions ofAfghan refugees, earning from the valuable re-sources generated by this very state. Why is it,then, that Pakistan is held answerable forevery decision made in Pentagon?

frankly speaking, Pakistan was dismallybetrayed at the end of Afghan War when mil-lions of Afghans and Pakistanis were left atthe mercy of mujahideen. The creation of Al-Qaeda and strengthening of Taliban was a re-action to the ignorance of Americanestablishment towards the plight of both the

countries. The American establishment didnothing to console the millions of Afghanfamilies that were affected during the war,nothing was done to cover the loss of therefugees, the investments made in the mili-tary establishment of Pakistan in the 1980sresulted in creating strong jehadi forces thathave now got their roots strongly sunk in thetribal roots of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Drone strikes have been much appreci-ated by the American establishment as theyfeel that the results achieved by this strat-egy have been very helpful in defeating Al-Qaeda. However, this policy has garneredmuch support for the anti-American forcesin this war on terror.

The super power lies far away from thistroubled region. The opponents to the Amer-ican establishment lack vision and resourcesto counter them. Major financial problemsrelated to the American economy have keptanti-drone activists away from creating hypeand support against this violation of the in-ternational law. However, the long term pol-icy of “droning in” on Pakistan will not workout well. Pakistan is facing major socio-eco-nomic crisis due to deteriorating law andorder situation. The policymakers of Pak-istan point out many reasons for this deteri-oration in law and order, but they mainly putthe blame on the Americans for leaving themunattended after the end of the Cold War.

The American president’s job is a toughone as his policies affect many countriesaround the world. America has often beenblamed for ignoring the interests of itscoalition partners. The policy followed bythe Obama Administration in the past twoyears has brought both Pakistan and Amer-ica on the verge of hostile relations. The op-eration against Osama bin Laden inPakistan may be a highlight for Obama’ssecond presidential bid but the way theAmerican administration handled Pakistanafter the operation really brought the Pak-istani civil and military leadership to a de-

cisive point of choosing a different line ofaction for future. The attack on Salala checkpost later on pinned another nail in the cof-fin of “strong US-Pak relations”.

The policy for war on terror is and willbe based in line with protecting Americaninterests and any US president would pro-tect his citizens, but in no way any fruitfulresult can be achieved without gaining thesupport of Pakistan.

Pakistan is tormented by the continu-ous assaults on its soil by the US adminis-tration. Pakistan has its share of issues butdissatisfaction from and hatred for the USare definitely among them. A change of facewill not likely affect the policy of drone at-tacks in Pakistan. Media reports, on thecontrary, claim that the American estab-lishment is planning on expanding therange of drone attacks to other regions too.However, one must wonder what lies afterthese drone attacks? Can anti-Americansentiments be also droned in a countrywhere much blame for all the poverty,hunger, lawlessness and impotency of in-frastructure is put on the US?

America is planning on withdrawing it-self out of Afghanistan in the next twoyears. The stability of this region is impor-tant for peace and prosperity of both Amer-ica and Pakistan. no matter which policy isadopted, nothing can be achieved withoutPakistan’s help. The US policymakers mustrealise that the sole reason for their victoryagainst Soviet forces was the cooperationthat Pakistan offered. Sidelining it nowwould not help the US achieve its goals.

So, dear US President, please drone thiscountry, if you must, with investment,trade, opportunities and long term cooper-ation if you have the wits to bail out of war.Otherwise, the potential of creating a strongally is diminishing with every passing day.

The writer can be approached [email protected]

Droning Pakistanthe policy that is backfiring

By Adeel Amjad

By Malik Muhammad Ashraf

ISB 01-11-2012_Layout 1 11/1/2012 2:07 AM

Comment 11


Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to PakistanToday exclusively.

responsible politicsWhen Hurricane Sandy struck east

coast, President Obama immediately sus-pended election campaign, cancelled allprior political or private commitments andwas seen steering relief operations, work-ing closely even with states such as nJ ledby a republican Governor. In a democracy,the politicians have to be seen serving thepeople and making their welfare and se-curing national interest the primary objec-tive. nobody is above the law, nor cananybody afford to be seen abusing theirpowers. This does not mean that there isno corruption in America, but the fact isthat if any member of ruling elite is caughtin financial impropriety or violating anylaws, or abuse of office, he cannot escapeaccountability.

As compared to that we witnessed, thatwhen parts of Pakistan had natural disas-ters such as floods etc, our ruling elite, in-cluding the President embarked on theiruseless foreign junkets, visiting their villasabroad, leaving unfortunate millions toface wrath of nature and consequences of acollapsed infrastructure infected with ram-pant corruption. It was again displayedwhen hundreds died of Dengue attack in aprovince and others were ridiculing theCM, instead of being seeing providing re-lief to the victims of a natural calamity.

The mere holding of elections is notdemocracy. It is a system through whichpeople elect individuals to act solely as cus-todians of national exchequer and collec-tive welfare of masses, working strictly inaccordance with laws and accountable forall acts and financial transactions to thepeople and superior judiciary. The Ameri-can president does not enjoy a blanket im-munity for any criminal act, nor abuse ofpower even during tenure of his presi-dency. This has been clearly established inthe case of President nixon and againwhen President Clinton had to face investi-gation by special prosecutor for perjury inMonica scandal. no Senator or member ofHouse of representative in USA can dareto ridicule Supreme Court, or even re-motely be associated with any activity thatis violative of laws or constitution. Thefounding fathers of US Constitution haveclearly stated that democracy is rule oflaws, not of men.

ALI MALIK TARIQIllinois, USA

Politician’s performanceIt seems that our politicians en-

gage in blame game. They have no jobexcept blaming one another. for in-stance, after Ashgar Khan case verdict,the PML-n chief is under fire and allare lashing out at him. Several politi-cians have benefitted from younusHabib’s largesse. There is no properinvestigation in this regard. TheSupreme Court is being dragged in oldand obsolete cases. This is a plan todivert court’s attention from realcases. Pakistan is heading to failure.There is no government writ in threeprovinces. The issues of the massesare as they were while the politiciansplay their blame game.

TARIQ HUSAIN KHANKarachi

objections on SPlgofirst there was an appeal to Asif

Zardari, now Mohammed Khan Sialhas asked Bilawal Bhutto to inter-vene, ‘An appeal to Bilawal Bhutto’,Oct 31. He seems to be quite upset onapproval of SPLGO-2012 by the SindhAssembly. But why so upset, what ishis real objection: ordinary peoplegetting power at grass root level,some administrative powers to be inthe hands of elected representatives,large urban centres to be run in an ef-ficient way? PPP and MQM are twomajor stakeholders in the province,they discussed, argued and deliber-ated over the local governments billfor over three years and finallyreached on a consensus on this issue.General elections are few monthsaway; whoever is the winner in 2013elections may choose to amend theSPLGO -- that’s the democratic wayto handle issues. Strikes, lockouts, vi-olent rallies, threats, blasts are notgoing to help the cause Sial is advo-cating for. By resorting to violentmeans, nationalists are themselveswidening the gap between rural andurban divide. I will request Sial toclearly record his objections on

SPLGO-2012, to let the discussionsmove towards a logical conclusion.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

without an ombudsmanThe office of Ombudsman exists in

more than 100 countries for ensuringgood governance and accountability ofpublic servants.

In Pakistan, the first Ombudsman,aka Wafaqi Mohtasib, was appointedin 1983.The primary objective of theWafaqi Mohtasib is to diagnose, inves-tigate, redress and rectify injusticesfaced by the public from federal gov-ernment departments. Provincial Om-budsmen have also been appointed inthe provinces of Sindh, Punjab,Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Azad Jammu and Kashmir for similarpurpose. The tenure of the Wafaqi Mo-htasib is four years. This position is va-cant since 27 October, 2010, when MrJaved Sadiq Malik completed histenure. It means there is no public rep-resentative or agent of the governedpopulation for redress of their griev-ances for the last two years. It alsomeans that there is no person in thecountry qualified to be appointedWafaqi Mohtasib. What a tragedy!

Though there is no Wafaqi Mohta-sib in place, Wafaqi Mohtasib Secre-tariat with an army of advisors,consultants and support staff is func-tional on the Constitution Avenue inIslamabad, at the cost of public money.It is also pity that the Public AccountsCommittee has not taken serious noteof wastage of public money.

ASGHAR MAHMOODIslamabad

PPP’s new cardMian Maanzoor Wattoo is one of

the most outstanding personalities inPakistani politics. He is a no nonsensepolitical leader with an experience ofwell over 35 years. President Asif AliZardari has been reiterating that thePPP will make a clean sweep of the

next general elections in Punjab withthe PPP introducing a jiyala as thenext chief minister of Punjab after 40years. The PPP has appointed veteranstatesman Wattoo as the president ofPPP in Punjab. Most analysts believethat Wattoo’s selection will prove tobe beneficial for the PPP. I believethat Wattoo, through his experienceand wisdom, will make a remarkablecontribution in strengthening theparty in Punjab. This is a very calcu-lated decision by President Zardari.He knows that Wattoo can carry outand extend his policies of reconcilia-tion in a much better way in Punjab.

DR SAIFUR REHMANIslamabad

responsibility of the mediaThe suspicions of the lower ripari-

ans about Kalabagh dam are throughsheer ignorance, they think the damwill reduce flow in the Indus, when infact it will only store surplus flood wa-ters, when available, the Indus willkeep flowing normally. The dam willactually provide Sindh with an addi-tional 2.2 million acre feet, just as Tar-bela dam had provided 7 maf. The fearthat Punjab will steal Sindh's water be-cause the dam is in Punjab is unten-able, river water distribution is underthe federal body IrSA and Punjab hasno direct control over the supplies toits canals, in fact under the Water Ac-cord of 1991 Punjab agreed to a reduc-tion in its share to give equal share toSindh in all future dams despite thevast difference in population and inthe area under cultivation. It is a pitythat the print and electronic media,with some notable exceptions, hasfailed to educate public opinion on anissue of such national importance.

ENGR KHURSHID ANWERLahore

Honest officersIndeed, corruption has become a

way of life in our Pakistani societywhereas corruption is a symbol of status

amongst politicians, bureaucrats andtechnocrats in Sindh province. It is seenthat a vast majority of corrupt to thecore bureaucrats and technocrats areplaced at the top positions in theprovince. On the contrary, honest, up-right and dedicated government officerswho believe in their personal and pro-fessional dignity are cornered, are des-tined to play second fiddle during thecurrent coalition government in Sindhprovince. Last week, I received severalemails from a few highly componentand men of character, indeed, foreignqualified friends, who are working withvarious projects funded by internationaldonor bodies such as the Word Bank,related to health, education, environ-ment, etc in Sindh. It appears from theiremails that those honest and uprightfriends are caught between the devil andthe deep blue sea in Sindh governmentbecause corrupt bosses and politicalbigwigs never allow them to work withhonesty and use the finance allocatedfor various funds fairly and honestly.

It is one of the universal truthsthat honest and upright, dedicated anddevoted officers become an asset toany society and democracy. It is notedthat the provincial rulers are indiffer-ent to such precious and rare gems,and some even show utter displeasurefor such breed of officers in the dis-pensation who really want to deliver.They are left at the mercy of corruptbureaucrat and technocrats who rulethe roost in the province today. In-deed, selfless and sensible governmentofficers, both contractual and perma-nent, along with strong civil society,are the only hope for true democratisa-tion of our society and the prevalenceof the rule of law. It is high time thatwe all rose to rein in our bureaucracyand political elites and ensure thatthey govern and deliver as per the con-stitution and law and not rule by theirwhims. Our hyperactive media, bothprint and electronic, too must ensurethat such issues may not go into obliv-ion after becoming a day’s headline.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

The BrTS project has come under criticism byprofessional and habitual critics firstly for its costand now for its utility. BrTS is a daredevil initia-tive by Mian Shahbaz Sharif which will bring achange in our style of life. I remember similar criti-cism was levelled against the motorway when it wasbeing made. first against the very concept of mo-torway, then the route of motorway and then theaccidents that took place initially. But look at themotorway now. It has changed the very structure ofroads in the country. Look at the motorway policeit has changed the very system of highway pa-trolling. It has taken time but the change was in-

evitable.BrTS is a pain in our necks. But it has changed

the primitive look of Lahore. It will bring change inour intra-city commuting pattern. Why would any-one use personal cars, barring a few with ill-gottenmoney and self – build egos, when a proper systemof transport is available? In London we all use un-derground metro system and we don’t feel shy. Weall stand in a queue the moment we land in Europebut no one feels shy or embarrassed. I do not un-derstand that when we make such infrastructuralchanges in our own country why do these criticssharpen their knives to start snubbing the projects?

Petroleum prices are rising and are perhaps theonly source of generating revenue for our govern-ments lord’s style of lives but when it comes to av-erage people BrTS would perhaps be the onlysource of inexpensive commuting. All I want to sayis that don’t we have the right to a decent life?Should we be static in our way of living for the restof our lives? As for the cost escalation of BrTSproject the prices of basic things used in this proj-ect are escalating geometrically so how do we ex-pect the cost remaining the same?

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

i totally disagree

ISB 01-11-2012_Layout 1 11/1/2012 2:07 AM


12

Holmes embarrassed by‘Free Katie’ T-shirts

aCTrEss Katie holmes reportedly got

embarrassed when she came across a group

of people who were wearing T-shirt with

slogans like “Free Katie” and “save suri”. holmes

went dining with her six-year-old daughter suri

Cruise at a restaurant named Mr. Chow Tribeca in

New York when she saw a group of people wearing

them. The T-shirts belonged to the time when

holmes married in 2006 actor ex-husband Tom

Cruise, urging the former to end the marriage. The

group hid the slogans when they came face to face

with the actress. “When they sat down, they

exchanged an awkward glance with Katie, but she

kept her cool and didn’t say anything. The

embarrassed halloween crew quickly covered up the

costumes before suri got a chance to take a look,”

nypost.com quoted a source as saying. neWS DeSK

How Kristen won back Robert

KrIsTEN stewart won back robert Pattinson

with a video montage of their happiest

moments together as a couple. The duo - who

play on screen lovers Edward Cullen and Bella swan in

the Twilight saga series - have rekindled their

romance after Kristen had an affair with her snow

White and the huntsman director rupert sanders but

it took a lot of effort by the actress to get a second

chance. The touching video made robert realise he

didn’t want to throw their relationship away. “she sent

robert the film after bombarding him with hundreds

of texts, emails and answer phone messages,” a

friend of Kristen told The sun newspaper. “It was a

last-ditch attempt at getting him back and she spent

ages making the video montage using hundreds of

photos and hours of home film footage of nights out

and holidays.” It would seem that Google Chrome’s

recent advert - which sees a man begging for his ex-

girlfriend’s forgiveness through a film - inspired the

actress. neWS DeSK

Imran Khan names bungalowafter late grandfather

WhEN Imran Khan got his Pali hill bungalow

renovated recently, he wanted to find a

fitting name for the place. After taking in

suggestions from friends and family, the actor finally

settled on naming his home after its original owner

and his late grandfather Nasir hussain. Imran plans

to call it Nh Bungalow, using the initials of his

grandfather’s name. A source close to Imran says,

“This is his way of showing love and respect for his

late granddad. Everyone in Imran’s family is really

happy with his decision.” Popularly known by its plot

number, ‘24, Pali hill’, the house has seen a lot of

history. “hussain was a well-known filmmaker. his

residence has always been a famous address, which

was frequented by the who’s who of the industry.

Back in the day, a lot of parties used to be hosted

here. Many A-list weddings, too, were also held at

the bungalow.” On behalf of Imran, a spokesperson

confirms the news: “24 Pali hill is an iconic bungalow

and mostly everyone referred to it as Nasir saheb’s

bungalow. neWS DeSK

Ajudge is allowing the woman who was allegedly roughed up by security guardsof Johnny Depp to pursue punitive damages against the actor. robin Eckert, anassistant clinical professor at University of California Irvine School of Medicine,sued Depp and Live nation anonymously in April, claiming an altercation at anIggyand the Stoogesconcert in December at the Hollywood Palladium left her injured.

According to the complaint, she was dragged across the VIP section, and as her shoes came offand her clothes were disheveled, she was handcuffed and dragged through the venue,“exposing her buttocks to the other Hollywood Palladium theater patrons.” In August,judge Michael Johnson ordered that she would have to identify herself before proceeding anddismissed several causes of action including negligent infliction of emotional distress andemployment claims related to the hiring of the security guards in question. At the time, thejudge also denied Eckert punitive damages but let her amend her lawsuit, which she did. Butafter a hearing on a demurrer on Monday, the judge has ruled that Eckert has allegedsufficient facts to support a claim of punitive damages. According to a tentative decision inadvance of the hearing today, “As alleged, Plaintiff did nothing to warrant the conduct ofDepp’s security guards who were controlled by the defendants, which must be taken as trueat the pleading stage.” Johnson goes onto say that Depp’s attorneys argue that security onlyintended to restrain her and keep her separated from Depp so as to protect him from a

“potential out-of-control fan,” but at this stage of the case, those alleged facts can’t beconsidered. If the case gets to trial, Eckert will only be able to recover punitive damages in her

assault and battery case if she can prove intentional misconduct or gross negligence. It wasn’t acomplete victory for Eckert. The judge has dismissed the possibility that Eckert can recoverattorney’s fees because there aren’t any allegations that any of the defendants have beenconvicted of a felony. Since the judge has already denied a motion on attorney’s fees, he says it isa closed issue and won’t be considered in any amended complaint. “The ruling only relates to amotion to strike the allegation,” says Marty Singer, Depp’s attorney. “There was no finding that

she is entitled to punitive damages. This is a ridiculous suit against our client. After we prevail, weintend to pursue claims against the attorneys and the plaintiff for malicious prosecution.” neWS DeSK

Johnny Deppfaces damages in lawsuit

SEOULAfp

A costume drama about a stand-in monarch hasswept South Korea’s domestic Oscars, winning 15of the 23 awards up for grabs, including bestfilm. “Gwanghae: The Man Who Became King” —distributed internationally under the title “Mas-querade” — also won a best actor gong for its starLee Byung-Hun at the annual Daejong (GrandBell) film Awards on Tuesday night. Lee won forhis dual role as King Gwanghae, the 15th ruler of

Korea’s Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), and thehumble acrobat Hasun, who stands in for themonarch when he faces the threat of being poi-soned. The film, which also picked up best direc-tor, best supporting actor and best screenplayawards, was one of two Korean films this year tobreak through the 10-million ticket barrier at thedomestic box office. The other, “The Thieves”, astar-studded casino heist movie shot in Macau,only managed one award — best supporting ac-tress for Kim Hae-Sook. And there was only asingle prize for “Pieta”, maverick director Kim

Ki-Duk’s gritty revenge thriller that won theGolden Lion — a first for a Korean production —at this year’s Venice International film festival.The movie garnered a best actress award for JoMin-Soo, who won for her role as a womanclaiming to be the mother of a brutal loan shark.2012 looks set to be a record-breaking year forSouth Korean cinema. The Korean film Councilrecently announced around 120 million cinematickets had been sold across the country by theend of the second quarter of 2012, a year-on-yearrise of around 20 percent.

Anwar Maqsood,whose illustrious 45-yearcareer in writing for TV has penned for thefirst time for for theatre the smash-hit‘Pawnay 14 August’. This play was pre-sented to the audience of Karachi in March2012, and become an overnight runawaysuccess. The play ran 28 live performancesto a packed house, every day.Karachi continued the demand for moreshows. However, the production team de-cided to take “Pawnay 14 August” on itsnationwide Tour beginning with Lahore(4th July to 17th July, 2012) at the Al-Hamrah Arts Council and then Islamabad(October 10th to October 22rd, 2012) atthe PnCA Auditorium. After a successfulround, Pawnay 14 August is hitting thestage in Karachi once again from 30thOc-tober to 14th november, 2012 at the ArtsCouncil. ‘Pawnay 14 August’ is a thoughtprovoking story of what Pakistan was per-ceived as and what Pakistan has becometoday. revolving around the three princi-pal characters: Quaid-i-Azam, AllamaIqbal and MaulanaShaukatAli,whohavecome to see today’s Pakistan. filled withquestions and curiosity, the story is re-plete with a variety of characters repre-senting Pakistan’s society from Politics,Business, Military, film World, etc. Thesetting is at the Karachi Airport where

each passenger is a storyteller. This pro-duction features some of the finest theatreactors from Islamabad, Lahore and

Karachi. This play is directed and pro-duced by Dawar Mehmood, the CEO ofKOPyKATS Productions. neWS DeSK

Gwanghae reigns supreme at South Korea film awards

Pawney 14 to go on nationwide tour

BEIJING: A

model parades a

creation by the

Chinese fashion

brand Guli during

the bi-annual

China Fashion

Week on

Wednesday. AFP

ISB 01-11-2012_Layout 1 11/1/2012 2:08 AM


13

I’m getting married:Sushmita Sen

IT’s official. sushmita sen is getting hitched soon.

While the actor doesn’t tell us the name of the

mystery man, she confirms the wedding next year.

“Yes, I do plan to get married next year. I think it is

time. Ab Bahut wait karva liya sabko (I have made

everybody wait a lot),” she says. After having dated

directors Vikram Bhatt, Mudassar Aziz and actor

randeep hooda, sen, 36, was recently rumoured to be

dating 23-year-old business man Imtiyaz Khatri. “I am

taking my time to say yes, but once I say I do, it will

be for keeps as I firmly believe in the institution of

marriage,” said sush on a recent visit to the Indo-

German Urban Mela in the Capital. do her daughters

want to see her married? “Alisah is too young but

renee is quite comfortable with me being single. she

would like to see me as a bride one day, but she does

not push me for it. she is 13 and we are more like

friends; she understands me as a woman now. It’s only

when she has skipped homework that I become the

mother,” sush says. neWS DeSK

I’m a great boyfriend:Bradley Cooper

BrAdlEY Cooper, who has reportedly rekindled

his romance with former girlfriend Zoe

saldana, has said that he is a great guy to

date. The 37-year-old actor, who has previously dated

stars like renee Zellweger and Jennifer lopez, enjoys

being in a relationship. “I try to be as honest as I can.

And caring, I try to be caring,” News.com.au quoted

him as telling UK magazine Glamour. “I try to be

loving. I think that’s the key,” he added. neWS DeSK

Robbie Williams wants totake Mila Kunis out

SINGEr robbie Williams is happily married, but

would like to spend time with actress Mila Kunis.

Thesun.co.uk reports that Williams, 38, who is

married to model Ayda Field and has a two-month-old

daughter Theodora ‘Teddy’ rose with her, expressed his

desire on a radio show. “I’m married and I respect and

love my wife too much. But, that being said, if Mila could

meet me at the nearest hotel, the Travelodge. I don’t

know if she’s been to Keele services before, but at Keele

services there is a Travelodge,” Williams said on the

show. “It’s only 27.99 pounds for the afternoon, Mila, I’ll

see you there,” he added. neWS DeSK

Taylor Swift’s new album is called“red,” but its true colour is abrilliant platinum. The 22-year-old sold 1.2 million copies of herlatest album in its first week — thelargest sales week for any album ina decade. nielsen SoundScanconfirmed the blockbuster sales onTuesday night. “red” marksSwift’s second straight album tosell more than 1 million copies inits first week; “Speak now,” herthird album, sold a little over 1million copies when it wasreleased in 2010. She is the onlywoman to have two albums sellmore than 1 million copies in itsfirst week. “They just told me redsold 1.2 million albums first week.How is this real life?! you areUnrEAL. I love you so much.Thanks a million ;),” Swift tweetedTuesday night. The only other actto sell more than 1 million copiesof an album in its debut weektwice was ‘n Sync. Swift isn’t a boy

band, but she’s certainly got theappeal of one: the countrycrossover has a huge following,particularly among teens who havefollowed her since she was a teenherself, releasing her first album.But she’s also a critic’s darling:The Grammy-winner’s “red”garnered plenty of acclaim when itwas released last week. Swift wasomnipresent in the week of thealbum’s release, appearing on suchshows as “Good Morning America”and “Katie.” She also joined withtwo untraditional partners — PapaJohn’s and Walgreens, whichoffered the album for sale. Andshe announced her upcoming tour.The last album to sell more than 1million copies in its debut weekwas Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,”which sold 1.1 million copies lastyear. However, that album wasdeeply discounted on Amazon.comin its first week. Swift has theopportunity to celebrate for a

second time thisweek: As thereigning“Entertainer of theyear” at the CMAAwards, she has thechance to capturethe trophy for asecond time when itis held Thursday innashville. neWS DeSK

Taylor Swift sells 1.2m copiesof new album in one week

LOS ANGELESAfp

EnTErTAInMEnT giant Walt Dis-ney Co is to buy director GeorgeLucas’s world-renowned Lucas-film Ltd, including his legendary“Star Wars” franchise, for some $4

billion, it announced Tuesday.A new movie in the series, “Star Wars 7,”

is set for release in 2015 “with more featurefilms expected to continue the Star Wars sagaand grow the franchise well into the future,”said a Disney statement.

The deal “combines a world-class portfo-lio of content including Star Wars, one of thegreatest family entertainment franchises of alltime, with Disney’s unique and unparalleledcreativity,” said Disney chief robert Iger.

The transaction is valued at $4.05 billion— based on current stock value — with Disney

paying about half in cash and issuing approx-imately 40 million shares at closing.

“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary pas-sion, vision, and storytelling of its founder,George Lucas,” said Iger, head of global enter-tainment giant Disney, which is headquartedin Burbank, just outside Los Angeles.

Lucas himself, chairman and chief execu-tive officer of Lucasfilm, added: “for the past35 years, one of my greatest pleasures hasbeen to see Star Wars passed from one gener-ation to the next. “It’s now time for me to passStar Wars on to a new generation of filmmak-ers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars couldlive beyond me, and I thought it was impor-tant to set up the transition during my life-time.” “I’m confident that with Lucasfilmunder the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy,and having a new home within the Disney or-ganization, Star Wars will certainly live on andflourish for many generations to come.”

Disney buys Lucasfilm,new ‘Star Wars’ film set

Renowned Pakistani poetessSamina Raja passes away Samina raja, a renowned Urdu poet, writer,translator, educationist and broadcasterwho passed away in Islamabad last night,was laid to rest at the Islamabad Graveyardearly Wednesday morning. raja, who hadbeen suffering from cancer, was 51. notableliterary personalities, including threeprominent women poets and activistsattended her funeral procession. raja wasworking as a subject specialist in thenational Language Authority and wasplanning to bring out a special edition ofliterary magazine Khwabgar (the DreamMaker) on legendary poet Ahmad faraz. Intheir condolence message, members ofIdara said, “Samina raja is one of the toppoets of Pakistan. In her death Pakistan haslost an eminent poet. “ Born on September 11, 1961 in rahim yar Khan, raja held amaster’s degree in Urdu literature from the University of Punjab. She startedwriting poetry in 1973 and had 15 books of poetry published. She also wrote somebooks in Urdu prose, besides editing and translating some valuable works of prosefrom English to Urdu. raja joined the national Book foundation as a consultant in1998 and edited its monthly newsletter Kitab from 1998 to 2005. She also editedmonthly literary magazines Mustaqbil(1991–1994), Aasar (1998–2004),and Khwabgar from 2008 till her death. In her poetry she highlighted the feminineand human perspectives of love and longing, nostalgia of the past and past lives,socio-psychological problems of the new age, mythological and metaphysicalsubjects. neWS DeSK

ISB 01-11-2012_Layout 1 11/1/2012 2:09 AM

14Infotainment


First ‘Angry Birds’ themepark announced for Asia

tHE company behind “Angry Birds” saidWednesday it would open its first theme parkin Asia next year at a site near Shanghai as it

builds on the brand of the hugely popular game.“Angry Birds Land” will be located in Haining cityin China’s Zhejiang province, next to the commercialhub of Shanghai, and will be the firm’s third themepark after one in finland and another in Britain.“People in China want to get out and spend their freetime at a leisure destination,” rovio Entertainment’sgeneral manager for China, Paul Chen, told AfP.“We’re hoping to open (the theme park) by Chinesenew year next year, february,” he added as thefinnish company launched a playground on thecampus of Shanghai’s Tongji University. Thefirst China theme park, featuring an interactiveplayground and rides, would welcome up to 400visitors a day paying admission of 60 yuan ($9.50).China has the world’s second-highest number ofdownloads for Angry Birds at 190 million, trailingonly the United States. The mobile game involvesusing slingshots to launch birds at fortresses built bygreen pigs — an addictive challenge that became theworld’s most-downloaded app and spawned afranchise of merchandise and media tie-ins. Afp

Free yoga awaits USvoters on election day

Ayoga studio in Washington said Tuesday it willgive free classes to anyone who casts his or herballot in next week’s US elections. flow yoga

Center said it was throwing open the doors to itsAstanga Mysore, Pilates, Prana flow and Vinyasa flowclasses next Tuesday “to help our United States re-uniteagain.” “you just need to vote first, and then bring alongyour ‘I Voted!’ sticker or equivalent to get a free class,”said the studio, in the trendy Logan Circleneighborhood, in an email flyer. Those ineligible to votecan attend classes, too, so long as they buy a “pay whatyou can” pass for as little as one dollar. Election time inthe United States is rife with marketing gimmicks. Theyinclude free pizza for life from Pizza Hut, fresh coffee inblue Barack Obama or red Mitt romney cups from 7-Eleven, and free flights out of the country on JetBlue forvoters whose presidential favorite loses. Afp

Japan mobile users make260,000 years of calls

JAPAnESE mobile phone users made aquarter of a million years’ worth of calls lastyear, the government said on Wednesday. A

total of 59.17 billion calls were made fromcellphones in the 12 months to April 1, 2012, withconversations lasting 2.27 billion hours, acommunications ministry official said. The figureis equivalent to 259,132 years. The total number ofhours of talking actually fell 1.8 percent from ayear earlier, said a spokeswoman. The ministry hascarried out the survey every year since 1992 to helpwith decisions on infrastructure investment. Afp

PARIS

frOM “Kate”-inspiredlace dresses to toweringwedding cakes — andeven British celebrants— french brides-to-be

are looking across the Channel, andthe Atlantic, to make their day thatbit more special.

“These past two years, we’vebeen seeing girls pick and mix ingre-dients from English or Americanweddings,” said Sophie Chastrusse-Peyronnet, who heads up a giantParis bridal fair, the Grand Salon duMariage, each October.

Start with the lingo: french cou-ples no longer cut the “gateau” but a“wedding cake”, they order “escortcards” to guide guests to their seats,and talk of “DIy”, when it comes toMartha Stewart-style decorations.

“Our DIy workshop is one of thefair’s most popular,” Chastrusse-Peyronnet told AfP. “young girls gocrazy for it.”

Lifted from the movies, blogs, orlast year’s royal nuptials, Anglo-

American styles and customs areshaking up traditional french wed-dings.

“Sweet tables” stacked high withpristine-looking candy are a strongtrend, but the really big business isin cakes.

Two years ago, Canadian chefTaylor McLoughlin and Americanbusiness partner Krista Juracekopened the Sugarplum cake shop inParis, offering north American-stylestacked cakes, 80 percent of themfor weddings.

“It’s going through the roof,” the33-year-old Juracek told AfP. “Dur-ing wedding season we book monthsin advance.”

“Most french people don’t wantthe same thing their mothers orgrandmothers had at their wed-dings.”

US and British lovebirds tradi-tionally invest quite a bit more inweddings than in france.

An average french budget runsto 13,000 euros, says the Salon,compared to $27,000 in the UnitedStates, based on a 2011 study, and

21,000 pounds ($33,700) in Britainaccording to consumer groupWhich?.

But this is changing, with budg-ets on the rise, and US-style weddingplanners stepping up to orchestratethe event.

“We no longer have to explainwhat we do,” said one of the growingranks of french planners, CarolineLe Moigne-Hirel. “Quite clearly thetrend comes from the UnitedStates.”

“you can see the Anglo-Ameri-can influence everywhere,” sheadded, even as far as the ceremonyitself, with English “celebrants”called on to officiate.

“People of mixed, or no religionwho want to add a spiritual dimen-sion to their wedding are turning toEnglish celebrants” to write them apersonalised ceremony with just theright dose of gravitas.

Then of course, the dress.“This year’s trend is for Kate-

style lace gowns, with a deep scoopat the back” — directly inspired bythe much-copied Sarah Burton dress

worn last year by the now Duchess ofCambridge, said Chastrusse-Peyron-net.

Jean Postaire, owner of an up-market wedding dress store in Paris,Metal flaque, saw brisk sales for aDavid fielden model inspired byKate Middleton’s dress in the wakeof the royal nuptials. Likewise aJenny Packham model, this timebased on an evening dress she madefor the princess.

Postaire, who introduced bothBritish designers to france threeyears ago along with US stars likeVera Wang, says brides come to himfor styles they cannot find in thefrench market.

“Americans know how to createprincess gowns that aren’tmeringues — big but not ridiculous,”he said. “The British are good at lin-ear silhouettes, it’s English chic, amore demure look.”

Hoping to tap into this new ap-petite, a group of upmarket Britishwedding designers crossed theChannel this month, hosting a show-room in a Paris mansion. Afp

From ‘Kate’ to

caKeS, French

briDeS SpeaK

FlUent engliSh

A fish from China has displaced its Eu-ropean relatives to become the oldestknown gliding fish.

A near-complete skeleton of thefish, named Potanichthys xingyiensis,was found near Xingyi in Guizhouprovince in southwest China. It is de-scribed today in the Proceedings of theroyal Society B1.

“They have beautiful details of thebone. I always envy material like this,”says Alison Murray, a palaeontologist atthe University of Alberta in Edmonton,Canada. The fossils suggestthat Potanichthys was a squat swimmer,almost as wide as it was tall, and lived inthe Triassic period. “fish of that age arechunky, heavily built. you wouldn’t ex-pect them to be flying out of the water,”Murray says.

But Matt friedman, a palaeobiolo-gist at the University of Oxford, UK, saysthat “they have the right kinds of bits inplace” for flight. Potanichthys had well-developed pectoral fins, like modern fly-ing fish. But what seals the deal forgliding flight is the fish’s forked, asym-metrical tail, which had a chubby lowerlobe similar to that seen in flying fishtoday. “They’re using these fins to makeprolonged jumps of of the water,” fried-man says. “If Potanichthyswere any-thing like modern flying fishes, glides oftens of metres are not out of the realmof possibility.”

Potanichthys is not an ancestor oftoday’s flying fish, however. Aside fromsimilar adaptations for gliding, “they’rea completely different evolutionary ex-periment”, says friedman. The fossils’

discoverers say that Potanichthys is re-lated to a now-extinct family of over-water glider known as thoracopterids.fossils of these gliders, which lived inthe late Triassic, around 200 millionyears ago, have been found in Italy andAustria, Potanichthys is the only gliderfound in Asia and it is the oldest, datingtens of millions of years earlier to themiddle Triassic.

Potanichthys and the Europeanthoracopterids probably have a com-mon ancestor, says Guang-Hui Xu, thepaper’s first author. Although the Aus-trian thoracopterid has scales, the Ital-ian ones lack thementirely. Potanichthys is on the fence: ithas just four rows of scales reachingback to its tail. “This fish provides atransition, it’s a missing link between

them,” Xu says.Potanichthys’ ancient home adds to

evidence that the thoracopterids movedbetween what is now Asia and Europe.Murray expects that they would haveavoided deep water, instead travellingclose to the shoreline that extendedfrom what is now China to what is nowEurope.

As the theory goes, fish evolved glid-ing flight to escape predators.So Potanichthys’ gliding ability is moreevidence that the ocean bounced backfairly quickly from the end-Permianmass extinction around 250 millionyears ago, in which up to 95% of marinelife died. “This discovery indicates thatthe recovery after the end-Permian ismore rapid than previously thought,”Xu says. neWS DeSK

Oldest flying fish fossil found in China

ISB 01-11-2012_Layout 1 11/1/2012 2:11 AM

thursday, 1 november, 2012

Page 18

Djokovic adds voice toend-of-season concerns

Pakistani women go down toIndia in T20 Asia Cup final

KARACHI AGenCIeS

Pakistan’s former captain and CricketBoard official Javed Miandad hasthreatened to sue ex-teammate Sar-faraz nawaz for stating that he pushedfor the inclusion of tainted players inthe PCB.

Miandad`s warning to nawaz camejust a day after Pakistan’s former Testpacer Ata ur rehman said he had con-sulted his lawyers to send a notice tonawaz for his comments.

Sarfaraz nawaz was until recentlyemployed as a coach by the Board. Hisaccusations came after the PCB re-cently appointed ex-Test spinnerAkram raza to the umpires panel andalso appointed rehman as coach forthe fATA area. Miandad said he would

warn nawaz to be careful about whathe says in future.

"I can deal with him in two waysbut I will only advise him the judiciaryis free and independent now and if hesays anything more I will take action,"Miandad said on Geo Super. He alsomade it clear he wouldn’t like to go intothe past of the former Test pacer whoshould avoid mudslinging.

Miandad was also asked about thehefty salary he takes from the boardand he defended it by saying he hadturned down other lucrative offers towork in the PCB.

"I am committing no crime. I hadgot more lucrative offers to coach but Ididn’t accept them because I want towork in Pakistan cricket and contributetowards it. The figures quoted aboutthe financial benefits I get in the board

are not correct," he said.Miandad praised the efforts of PCB

Chairman Zaka Ashraf insisting he hadcome with a clear vision to improvethings in Pakistan cricket.

He also made it clear that he hadno personal grudges against anyone inthe board including former ChairmanEjaz Butt with whom he didn’t getalong.

"I respect Ejaz Butt as an elder. Imay have cricket related differenceswith him but that does not mean I haveany enmity with him. As far as ZakaAshraf is concerned he has clear visionand wants to do something for Pak-istan cricket."

During Butt`s tenure, Miandad re-signed after differences over policymatters but Ashraf recently gave moreauthority to the former captain.

Miandad threatens legal action against Sarfaraz

PCB issuesanother notice tolCCa secretary

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

The Pakistan Cricket Board is not satisfiedwith the reply of the show cause notice ofSecretary Lahore City Cricket AssociationMian Javed Ali and has issued him anothernotice for violating the PCB conduct ofholder of office rules and code of conductfor members of PCB general body . “His(Javed’s) reply is not satisfactory and PCBauthorities believe that he twisted the factsin it and also tried to conceal facts and hehas been given a weeks time to submit hisdetailed reply after which the case will bedecided “,said the sources in PCB here onWednesday. Javed was issued a showcause notice on September 27 for his out-burst against President, LCCA, Khawajanadeem Ahmed and working of the LCCAon a TV show which forced the PCB to takenotice of the situation and to come up witha disciplinary measure. The fresh noticesays that Javed in his reply, submitted onOctober 23, has narrated that he did notmake any negative statement against theworking of LCCA and its Presidentwhereas in the notice fifteen points regard-ing his comments on the tv show havebeen raised and their explanation has beensought form him. “It is serious issue whichspeak not only the volume of violation ofcode of conduct but also of indiscipline andPCB is dealing such matters as per the laiddown rules and regulations without show-ing any soft corner,” they said. “The aim ofimplementing the code of conduct on theoffice bearers of the regional bodies is toensure troube-free working of the regionalbodies,” he added. The sources said thatPCB is looking into the matter seriously asit relates to the regional bodies which areworking under the control of PCB. Theydispelled the impression that issuing an-other notice to Javed was aiming to extendhim any favour or to adopt delaying tacticsto linger on the issue. “There is nothingsuch going on and PCB will be decidingthis issue on merit and that is why Javedhas been issued another notice to answercertain queries to conclude it early as pos-sible,” they said. They also clarified thatno official of the PCB was in league withJaved to give him assurance that he willescape the disciplinary action to be initi-ated by the PCB. “KCCA Secretary Ijazfarooqi was banned for indefinite timeperiod for a similar offence and he com-pleted one full year ban,” they concluded.

india notenthused byday-night Tests

MUMBAIAfp

India are unlikely to embrace the concept ofday-night Test matches, a top official said onWednesday, because a previous experimentin first-class cricket fell flat. The InternationalCricket Council announced this week thatTests can now be played under lights, withrival teams deciding on the hours of play andthe colour of the ball to be used. Cricket Aus-tralia applauded the move, but the powerfulBoard of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)was lukewarm towards the idea despite hav-ing tried the concept in a domestic final in1997. "We were the first to experiment withthis and our experience was not so great,"said the BCCI's chief administrative officerratnakar Shetty. "At this stage we have nosuch proposal." The BCCI held the five-dayranji Trophy final between Mumbai andDelhi under lights in Gwalior in April 1997.Bowlers struggled due to the heavy eveningdew and frequent changes of the white ball.Just two innings were completed in five days.Mumbai, who made 630 after batting first,were declared winners after Delhi were dis-missed for 559 on the last day. four bowlersfrom each sides conceded more than 100runs apiece, their plight worsened by fieldersunable to spot the ball both in the air and onthe ground, especially in the outfield. Crowdsare dwindling at Test matches in India evenas one-day and Twenty20 cricket enjoys wideinterest. Cricket Australia conceded on Tues-day that day-night Tests were not imminent,since an ideal ball had yet to be found. redballs used in Tests were not easily visible atnight, while white balls used in limited-oversmatches were found not durable enough forTests. Experiments have included playingwith pink, orange and yellow balls.

Kaneria’s appealagainst life ban to beheard in December

KARACHIAGenCIeS

Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria willhave his appeal against a life ban for corrup-tion in English county cricket heard in Britainin early December, a source close to the for-mer test player told reuters. Kaneria, 31, wasbanned for life from playing in Britain afteran England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)disciplinary panel ruled last June that he hadbeen involved in spot-fixing. Tafazzul rizvi, alegal advisor to the Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB), said the board had been informed ofthe hearing. “Basically under ECB rules it willbe a fresh trial and hearing in which therewill be a reappraisal of witnesses and Danishcan produce fresh witnesses as well,” hesaid. The PCB has suspended Kaneria fromdomestic cricket pending his appeal hearing.

GUANGZHOUAGenCIeS

InDIAn Women T20 teamdefeated Pakistan WomenT20 team in the final ofWomen's T20 Asia Cup by

18 runs. Indian women won thetoss and chose to bat first. Onlythree batsmen raut, Kaur andMalhotra could reach to doublefigures and the whole team col-lapsed for 81 in 20 overs. SanaMir of Pakistan took 4 wicketsin 4 overs giving away just 13runs.

With the low score on theboard, it seemed Pakistan wouldeasily win but Indian bowlersdidn't gave any chance to oppo-site team. A Das and n niran-jana took 2 wickets while SSharma, E Bisht, AA Patil and rMalhotra took one wicket each.

Pakistan Women were

bowled out on 63 in 19.1 overs.Captain Mithali raj and

bowler Jhulan Goswami couldn'tplay the final game due to in-jury. Harmanpreet Kaur was thestand-in skipper in this match.

Mithali said, "So happy forthe girls even though I'm disap-pointed not to have played be-cause of my ankle. Winning thisAsia Cup is a great achievementand what's been special is howour team has become like a fam-ily over the years, everyone con-tributes and plays for eachother".

PG raut was given thePlayer of the match.

Bismah Maroof (PakistanWomen) was awarded the playerof Player of the series.

The final was played atGuanggong InternationalCricket Stadium, Guangzhou,Guangdong on 31 October 2012.

InDIA WoMenS naik† b Qanita Jalil 2AA patil c Sana Mir b Sadia yousuf 0pG Raut c Marina Iqbal b bismah Maroof 25H Kaur* b Sana Mir 20A Sharma lbw b Mariam Hasan 2R Malhotra lbw b Sana Mir 18n niranjana c nain Abidi b bismah Maroof 3S Sharma lbw b Mariam Hasan 1MR Meshram c bismah Maroof b Sana Mir 3A Das c nida Dar b Sana Mir 1e bisht not out 0eXtRAS 6totAl 81fAll of WICKetS 1-1 (patil, 0.3 ov), 2-4 (naik, 1.3 ov), 3-36(Raut, 8.2 ov), 4-44 (A Sharma, 11.1 ov), 5-62 (Kaur, 15.2 ov), 6-67 (niranjana, 16.6 ov), 7-70 (S Sharma, 17.6 ov), 8-77 (Malhotra,19.1 ov), 9-79 (Das, 19.4 ov), 10-81 (Meshram, 19.6 ov)boWlInGSadia yousuf 4-0-15-1, Qanita Jalil 2-0-8-1, Asmavia Iqbal 1-0-10-0, Sana Mir 4-0-13-4, bismah Maroof 4-0-14-2, nida Dar2-0-11-0, Mariam Hasan 3-0-8-2, pAKIStAn WoMenQanita Jalil c A Sharma b S Sharma 2bismah Maroof c Malhotra b patil 18Sana Mir* c patil b niranjana 11

nida Dar run out (Raut) 1

Javeria Khan c †naik b niranjana 4

nain Abidi st †naik b Das 13

Marina Iqbal st †naik b Malhotra 2

Asmavia Iqbal c Raut b Das 1

Mariam Hasan not out 8

batool fatima† c †naik b bisht 1

Sadia yousuf run out (Kaur/niranjana) 0

eXtRAS 2

totAl 63

fAll of WICKetS 1-4 (Qanita Jalil, 2.4 ov), 2-31 (Sana Mir, 8.6

ov), 3-32 (bismah Maroof, 9.5 ov), 4-33 (nida Dar, 10.5 ov), 5-

40 (Javeria Khan, 12.4 ov), 6-44 (Marina Iqbal, 14.2 ov), 7-48

(Asmavia Iqbal, 15.5 ov), 8-60 (nain Abidi, 17.6 ov), 9-63 (batool

fatima, 18.5 ov), 10-63 (Sadia yousuf, 19.1 ov)

boWlInG

S Sharma 4-0-12-1, A Das 4-0-12-2, e bisht 4-0-9-1, AA patil 2-

0-5-1, n niranjana 3.1-0-15-2, R Malhotra 2-0-10-1,

Match details

toss India Women, who chose to bat

player of the match pG Raut (India Women)

player of the series bismah Maroof (pakistan Women)

umpires bb pradhan (nepal) and Sarika prasad (Singapore)

Match referee Aminul Islam (bangladesh)

Reserve umpire S Jianxin

SCoReboARD

guaNgzHou: Bismah maroof of Pakistan gets the player of the series award while indian women team celebrates with the asia Cup. File PHOTO

ISB 01-11-2012_Layout 1 11/1/2012 2:11 AM Page 16

Sports 16


MUMBAI CRICInfo

enGLAnD'S batsmen had agood day out at the BrabourneStadium in Mumbai, replyingstrongly to India A's 369 with

captain Alastair Cook leading the waywith a century. Jonathan Trott made ahalf-century and Samit Patel, promotedto bat at no.6, gave his captain good com-pany, finishing the day unbeaten on 82.

India A had done well on the openingday and their innings lasted just one de-livery on the second, as r Vinay Kumarwas trapped in front by James Anderson.England suffered an early blow in theirresponse, with nick Compton edging tothe wicketkeeper off Ashok Dinda in thesecond over. Cook and Trott, though,built a steady stand before the part-timeoff-spin of Suresh raina accounted forTrott, breaking a partnership of 95.

A left-arm spinner, once again,brought about Kevin Pietersen's down-fall, as he was caught and bowled by yu-vraj Singh for a quick 23 that included

three fours and a six. When yuvraj dis-missed Ian Bell for 5 in the 38th over,England were in a difficult situation at133 for 4. Cook continued accumulatingruns and Patel gave him good support,the pair batting 49 overs till the close toadd 153. England finished the day on 286for 4, just 83 adrift.SCoReS: England XI 286 for 4 (Cook112*, Patel 82*) trail India A 369 (Ti-wary 93, Abhinav 73, Bresnan 3-59,Swann 3-90) by 83 runs.INJuReD FINN out oF INDIA

touR oPeNeR: England fast bowlerSteven finn could be a doubtful starterfor the first Test against India after athigh strain ruled him out for the rest ofthe ongoing tour opener on Wednesday.

finn, 23, who was regarded as a cer-tainty for the first Test in Ahmedabadfrom november 15, pulled up with a thighstrain on the opening day of the three-daygame against India 'A' in Mumbai onTuesday.

The beanpole Middlesex pacemanbowled four overs before being injuredwhile chasing a ball in the outfield and

was confined to the dressing room for therest of the day.

Scans later on Tuesday did not revealany major damage but finn was asked tosit out for the rest of the match to under-take a recovery programme set out byteam doctors.

"Steven finn has been ruled out ofthe remainder of the three-day game witha right thigh strain," team spokeswomanrhian Evans said.

"He will be assessed over the nextcouple of days to determine a rehabilita-tion programme."

England are not calling in a replace-ment, but finn may be required to play atleast one of the two remaining warm-upmatches to be considered for the Ahmed-abad Test. The tourists take on Mumbai'A' in a three-day game from Saturdayand play state side Haryana in a four-daymatch in Ahmedabad from november 8.

finn has played 16 Tests since hisdebut against Bangladesh in 2010, claim-ing 66 wickets at an average of 28.15. Hehas taken five wickets in an innings threetimes.

Cook, Patel lead strong response

Siddique motorsbeat Hajvairy Sports

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

Siddique Motors beat Hajvairy Sports by23 runs in the 3rd Amar Cables T-20 Vet-eran Cricket Tournament on Wednesdayat Shah faisal Cricket Ground. SCoReS: Siddique motors batting first made 172/7

after 20 overs. Shabbir Hussain 41, Shahid yaqoob

39, Toqeer ahmad 35 and maqsood ahmad 21. amjad

Hussain 5/18 & akmal Shah 82 wickets.

in reply Hajvairy Sports 149/8 after 20 overs. mian

mobeen 29, munir Hussain 29, imtiaz ahmad 21 &

zafar Butt 22 runs. gohar Siddique 4/12, Sultan ali

2/24, muhammad rasheed 1/27 & muhammad za-

heer 1/34 wickets. irfan Dilshad, muhammad Shafiq

were the umpires and Qasim Shafiq was the scorer.

in the end chief guest Stage Star amanat Chan gave

away man of the match award to gohar Siddique.

mian mobeen and Sohail madni were also present on

the occasion.

PALLEKELECRICInfo

new Zealand's reception on their tour ofSri Lanka was cold and rainy, as thehosts' seamers left their batting in disar-ray on a stop-start evening marred byheavy showers that ultimately sealed thegame's fate. These showers also savedthe visitors from defeat; just two oversafter Sri Lanka had kept new Zealand to74 in an already truncated fixture, therain again caused an interruption thatproved terminal.

In his first match as Sri Lanka's full-time T20 captain, Angelo Mathewshoped for some assistance for hisbowlers in wet conditions and he wasn'tdisappointed. The discipline with whichhis bowlers bowled in the first half of theinnings set up the game for Sri Lanka.

Mathews paved the way with amaiden first up, moving the ball bothways, getting some early swing and beat-ing rob nicol's early attempts to clearthe in-field. Kulasekara followed suit,the only aberration early on being asmashed four through cover by openerTom Latham. The batsman perishednext ball, swinging, and missing, astraight delivery and despite wickets inhand, the innings stagnated. Only 16runs came in the Powerplay, the lowestfor new Zealand in a T20 international.

The Sri Lanka seamers maintainedtight lines, bowled mostly just short of agood length, beat the bat and crampedthe batsmen as they tried to make spaceand push on. Brendon McCullum, stillnot set, charged out in a failed attemptto slog Kulasekara and skied an easycatch. Even as Mathews kept one endquiet, he brought on Shaminda Eranga

who trapped nicol in front with an in-swinger in his first over. Another bowl-ing change, Thisara Perera, was a touchfortunate to have James franklin caughtdown the leg side to make it 18 for 4. A38-ball boundary drought was broken byBJ Watling but ross Taylor's nick to thekeeper in the ninth over while trying tocut Perera left the visitors in a deep hole.

A 70-minute rain interruption gavethem brief respite, and a reduction inovers - to 14 a side - spurred the lowerorder to chase quick runs. Andrew Ellispulled Perera for a flat six over deep mid-wicket before Southee tore into Eranga tolend a bit of a respectability to newZealand's score in a truncated game.Bowling the penultimate over, Erangadoled out length and Southee used power,and some cheekiness when he shuffled

across to glance one fine, to take thebowler for 16 runs. Kulasekara, though,conceded just three off the final over toensure his team walked back on a high,with not much for their batsmen to scaledown. But the rain was to deny them.SCoReS: Sri Lanka 6 for 0 v newZealand 74 for 7 (Southee 21*, Danan-jaya 2-9, Kulasekara 2-13) Match aban-doned.RAIN lIKely to HAve A SAy IN

Sl-NZ oDI: It has taken just onematch to confirm that Sri Lanka andnew Zealand will be battling somethingthat is beyond their control. rain ruinedthe one-off T20I at Pallekele, makingAngelo Mathews' first stint as T20 cap-tain a wet one. The weather is all set towreck havoc for the first ODI that will beplayed at this venue. for Sri Lanka, thesituation is similar to the time when theWest Indies arrived on Sri Lankanshores in 2010 when rain destroyed theentire tour. for the sake of Sri Lankanfans, they will be hoping that they canget a match without any interruptions.

The return of Mahela Jayawardeneand Lasith Malinga will boost the SriLankan line-up. The Sri Lankan battingline-up looks stronger on paper than theKiwis. Tillekeratne Dilshan, MahelaJayawardene and Kumar Sangakkaraform the core of the batting unit. The re-maining places in the batting could wellbe the same as the squad that played inthe T20 World Cup. Looking at the per-formance of Akila Dananjaya in theT20I, he looks all set to make his ODIdebut and partner rangana Herath asthe second spinner.

The most interesting aspect is thatthis will be the first bilateral ODI seriesplayed in Sri Lanka between these two

teams after a gap of 20 years. Thanks tothe familiarity with the conditions, theSri Lankan team are favorites in thiscontest. All this will be applicable if therain stays away.

The new Zealand batting order atpresent is fragile. During the T20I inPallekele where conditions provided alot of help to the Lankan bowlers, theKiwi top order fared worse thannovices. Only three batsmen manageddouble digits in the rain-curtailedmatch. Their ODI record does not makefor good reading either. If the serieswins against Zimbabwe and Bangladeshare taken out of the equation, then newZealand last won an ODI series againstPakistan in the UAE in 2009. In the lastone year, they have won only one out oftheir last eight ODIs and this will be acause of concern.

The only players who have per-formed well for new Zealand have beenross Taylor and Kane Williamson. Theproblem is that no one else has con-tributed consistently when the teamneeded it the most. A middle order thatis lacking in form is being jolted furtherby the lack of depth in new Zealand'sbowling. Barring Tim Southee and KyleMills, the rest of the bowlers have strug-gled for penetration. In spinning condi-tions, one wonders about the impactthat ronnie Hira and possibly nathanMcCullum might have. The bottom-lineis that in the sub-continent, the Kiwishave a huge mountain to climb.

Sri Lanka and new Zealand haveplayed 74 ODIs against each other andboth are evenly matched. new Zealandhave won 35 matches and Sri Lanka havewon 34 with one match being tied andthe remaining four being a no-result.

LAHORE StAff RepoRt

Chief Minister Punjab Mian ShahbazSharif will inaugurate the newly-con-structed Hockey Stadium at Johar Towntoday (Thursday) while an exhibitionhockey match between Pakistan Whitesand Greens will mark the formal openingof the 1500-capacity venue.

Addressing a press conference here atthe national Hockey Stadium, Chief Or-ganiser Punjab youth festival andDeputy Speaker rana Mashhood AhmedKhan said that last year when severalvenues and grounds were cleaned to pre-vent the dengue attack, the Punjab gov-ernment and Sports Board Punjabidentified around 4500 grounds in theprovince and similarly several placeswere also spotted in Lahore.

Also present on the occasion were Di-rector General Sports and youth AffairsUsman Anwar and chairman managingcommittee new hockey stadiumOlympian Akhtar rasool. The committee

also comprises DG Sports and DG LDA.“It was the vision of Chief Minister

Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif to see thesports facilities develop in the provinceand as part of the plan a state of art sta-dium has been established at JoharTown,” he maintained.

“After the conduct of the first sixphases of the Punjab youth festival andGuinness World records, we are movinga step ahead,” he added.

“Akhtar rasool has been appointed ashead of the managing committee of thestadium where the camp training of thenational hockey team for Champions Tro-phy is also going to be conducted after itsinauguration,” he added.

“We have set a benchmark by devel-oping grounds, holding sports and youthactivities and now preparation are under-way to conduct the Punjab InternationalSports festival,” he added.

“Around 41 countries will be takingpart in the International festival and itsgoing to be the biggest sporting event ofthe country and will also be participated

by the Deputy CM of Indian Punjab,” hesaid.

rana Mashhood further added thevisit of the foreign teams to Pakistan is aturning point and it is the first hockeystadium after the establishment of thenational Hockey Stadium.

He further said that a committee hasbeen formed which will give recommen-dation for its name as Mian MuhammadSharif Hockey Stadium is one of the nameproposed for the venue.

rana Mashhood stressed the need ofinviting foreign teams to play in Pakistanand the Punjab Government is ready toprovide all possible support to hold inter-national cricket matches in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Akhtar ra-sool thanked Chief Minister Mian Shah-baz Sharif for taking special interest indeveloping a new hockey venue, whichhas all the major facilities a sports venuerequires.

Among the guests apart from govern-ment and other officials around 13Olympians would also grace the occasion.

State of Art Hockey Stadium to open at Johar Town today

rain has final say on stop-start day

mumBai: india 'a' cricketer murli Vijay (r) looks on as england cricketer alastair Cook (l) playsa shot during the second day of a three-day practice match. AFP

PalleKele: Sri lanka cricket captain mahelaJayawardene addresses a press conferenceat the Pallekele Stadium. AFP

laHore: Chief guest Stage Star amanatChan gives away the man of the match awardto gohar Siddique. mian mobeen & Sohailmadni are is also present. STAFF PHOTO

laHore: Deputy Speaker rana mashhood ahmed Khan addresses a press conference while Directorgeneral Sports and youth affairs usman anwar and olympian akhtar rasool look on. MUrTAzA Ali


Sports17


Thorpe says he’sno stereotypeand not gay

SYDNEYAfp

Swimming legend Ian Thorpe admits heis a nerdy bookworm who hardly fits thestereotype of an Australian sportsman,but says rumours he is gay are simplynot true.Launching his autobiography "This isMe" on Wednesday, the five-timeOlympic gold medallist opened up abouthis battle with depression and his failureto qualify for the London Games in hismuch-anticipated comeback."This is a very different book than I in-tended," said Thorpe, now 30, addingthat it was supposed to be the story ofsomeone who got back in the pool andachieved "the success he had in the past"."Unfortunately... it didn't turn out thatway. I didn't qualify for the Olympics andI didn't have the ending that I anticipatedand also hoped for."Thorpe, who won his first world title atthe age of 15 and was just 17 when he firstwon Olympic gold, grew up in the mediaspotlight, and said from the age of 20 hesometimes felt like leaving the sport.He held on to sensationally quit swim-ming at the age of 24, and writes in thebook that he knew he was retiring prema-turely and could have achieved more butwas "bitter with the constant pursuit, ac-cusations and innuendo".On his sexuality, he writes: "I acceptthere's nothing else I can say or do."There'll always be people who are scepti-cal; people who want me to be gay, andothers who'll try and use it against me."It should have been over and done with along time ago but people have remainedobsessed with it and need to find an ex-planation which suits their perspective."He said he finds the fact that people ques-tion what he is saying hurtful."I think it's because I don't fit into thetypical stereotype of... what Australianathletes have been in the past," he toldABC television."I guess I behave differently. I'm a nerd;I'm just someone that happened to begood at sport as well."Thorpe said that he realised "somethingwasn't quite right" when he was in hismid-teens, but at the time did not know itwas depression.He sought help but admits in the book heoccasionally turned to alcohol.Thorpe says he is happy and healthy now,but is intrigued by the possibility of a linkbetween depression and elite sport."I think there may be some reason thatathletes actually turn to sport because Ithink the benefits of exercise in relationto managing depression is a really posi-tive thing," he told AfP.

PariS: french Jo-wilfrid Tsonga

jubilates after winning against

french Julien Benneteau during

their Paris Tennis masters Series

indoor tournament match. AFP

LOS ANGELESAfp

Britain's Amir Khan says it's his head, nothis heart, that will put him back on thepath to boxing's summit when he takes onunbeaten American Carlos Molina in De-cember. "We know we have to win thefight, not only win it but win it in goodstyle," Khan said Tuesday at the Los Ange-les Sports Arena, where he and Molina willface off in a light welterweight bout on De-cember 15. "I want to be back up there. Iwant a good win. I aim to win this fight tobe back where I want to be."

former world champion Khan is com-ing off two successive defeats, including afourth-round knockout loss to light welter-weight world champion Danny Garcia inJuly. Khan has since sacked famed trainerfreddie roach, mentor of filipino iconManny Pacquiao, and says that thanks tohis preparations with Virgil Hunter, fanswill see "an Amir Khan who is smarter, anAmir Khan who is thinking about every-thing". That's the prescription fromHunter, who scoffed at the notion that Gar-cia's victory indicated Khan had a suspectchin. Hunter said it wasn't Khan's inabilityto take a punch, but his inability to stick tohis strategy after a third-round knock-down, that cost him that fight. "He has totemper his approach," Hunter said. "He's

a little ahead of himself, he has to learnhow to harness his speed." Khan, 26-3 with18 knockouts, admitted that the loss toGarcia -- coming after he dropped a con-troversial split decision to American Lam-ont Peterson -- was especially bitter.

"I think I let him and his father get tome," Khan said. "I lost my cool. I couldhave just boxed him and I tried to get into

a fight with him and I got into his game."Hunter, who trains unbeaten super-

middleweight world champion AndreWard, has counseled Khan that boxing isabout business, not revenge. But Khanclearly has Garcia in the back of his mind,saying that's a rematch he'd like to makebefore perhaps moving up from the 140-pound division. first, however, comes the

17-0 Molina, who says he's looking forwardto fighting in front of home fans in a venuethat has hosted Olympic boxing as well asthree Muhammad Ali fights. Khan says hispreparations are progressing quietly in thepeace and quiet of Hunter's Oakland gym,which has none of the hubbub of roach'sWild Card gym in Hollywood.

"We all know he's a great trainer,"Khan said of roach. "(But) I need to bewith someone who can spend 100 percentof time with me." Khan also likes trainingoutside Britain, where his private life hasbecome tabloid fodder. "It is a distractionwhen you're preparing for a fight," he said.Home FAvouRIte wINS FIRSt

AFGHAN PRo bout: Afghan-Germanboxer Hamid rahimi beat his Tanzanian op-ponent in Kabul on Tuesday in Afghanistan'sfirst professional bout, prompting jubilationamong thousands of home fans. Ecstaticsupporters mobbed the ring in the capital'sLoya Jirga (grand assembly) tent as the ref-eree declared rahimi, 29, winner after SaidMbelwa withdrew with an injury in the sev-enth round. It may not have been the"Thriller in Manila", but the bout billed as the"fight 4 Peace" marks another sporting land-mark for the war-torn nation after the re-sounding success of the Afghan PremierLeague football tournament. Amid tight se-curity, around 2,000 fans including digni-taries such as the head of the intelligence

service packed the Loya Jirga, and hundredsof thousands were expected to watch live tel-evision coverage. The crowd cheered everyblow as rahimi, who grew up in Germany,dominated the early exchanges, while his 23-year-old opponent looked to frustrate thehome favourite by dancing round the ringbefore a shoulder injury got the better of him17 seconds into the seventh.

"I thank you all for coming -- you gaveme power, this belt belongs to Afghanistan.It is yours," rahimi told the crowd after re-ceiving the WBO intercontinental mid-dleweight belt. After more than threedecades of war, Afghans are no strangers tofighting, but Tuesday's bout was their firsttaste of top international boxing and theclash began with the sport's usual theatreand razzmatazz, much to the delight of thesell-out crowd, many of them waving thenational flag. "I'm very happy to be here,I've waited for a month to come and see thismatch. I've never been to a live boxingmatch before," said fan Abdul Maqsood,who paid 5,000 Afghanis ($95) for histicket -- around a month's salary for an av-erage government employee. "rahimi is myfavourite boxer, he is our pride." Despitetheir penchant for floggings and public ex-ecutions, the Taliban declared boxing to be"against human dignity" during their hard-line rule and banned it, along with mostother forms of entertainment.

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

Muhammad Javed will lead 15-memberPakistan kabaddi team which will takepart in the 2ndAsia Cup being playedhere from Thursday at Punjab Stadium.

“Our team is balanced in all aspectsand it is a combination of experienceand youth and we hope to fetch encour-aging results in the event,” said Javedsaid. He termed Asia Cup a tough event

as Asia’s top notch kabaddi teams aretaking part in it.

“It is going to be a challenging eventas we will be facing a strong challengefrom our arch rivals India and otherteams which include Iran andAfghanistan,” he asserted.

He further said tha the Pakistanteam has been dubbed as favourites inthe event and urged the team membersnot to undermine the strength of anyopponent as any weaker opponent can

upset a much fancied rival .“We will be doing our best in the

field and we are looking forward to anexciting event which will produce highquality kabaddi,” said he.

following are the other members ofthe team, Afzal Butt, Obaidullah, BabarWaseem, Mohammad Irfan, AkmalDogar, Mohammad Shafique, Kashifriaz, Shafique Butt, Sajjad Gujjar,rashid Ismail, Mohammad Mansha,

Mohammad Maltloob, Asif Ali, Mo-

hammad Aslam Dogar and KhalilAhmed.

The team officials are Tahir WhaeedJutt (coach), Chaudhary MohammadAsghar (manager).

Meanwhile Indian kabaddi teamalso arrived Lahore via Wagha borderto take part in the event .

Teams from India, Iran,Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia,nepal and hosts Pakistan are featuringthe premier Asian activity.

Pakistan kabaddi team named for Asia Cup

Molina bout sees Khan at crossroads

KaBul: afghan-german boxer Hamid rahimi (l) prays after defeating Tanzanian Said mbelwa

in afghanistan's first professional bout. AFP


PUNjAB OPeN gOLF

Sports 18


watch it LiveESPNSports Center07:30PM

NyC marathon

organizers

assess optionsNEW YORK

Afp

new york City Marathon organizers con-tinued to plan for Sunday's race as themetropolis coped with the chaotic after-math of deadly superstorm Sandy. "Themarathon has always been a special dayfor new yorkers as a symbol of the vital-ity and resiliency of this city," new yorkroad runners president Mary Witten-berg said in a statement. "nyrr contin-ues to move ahead with its planning andpreparation. We will keep all optionsopen with regard to making any accom-modations and adjustments necessary torace day and race weekend events." Sub-way trains and buses remained sus-pended for a third day on Tuesday andhundreds of thousands of homes in newyork faced up to a week without electric-ity, the power company warned.

PSg to pay 100mfor ronaldo: reports

ROMEAfp

Big-spending french side Paris Saint-Germain are ready to shell out 100 mil-lion euros for real Madrid ace Cristianoronaldo and bring manager Jose Mour-inho at the same time, Italy's Gazzettadello Sport said Wednesday.The sports daily claimed the two clubshave already opened negotiations on thejoint move, with ronaldo and Mour-inho's agent Jorge Mendes in talks withthe player, real president florentinoPerez and PSG's Qatari owner Tamimbin Hamad al-Thani.

PARISAfp

NOVAK Djokovic on Tues-day added his voice tocalls for a re-think of thelate-season ATP calendar,

admitting that he is having to workhard to hold up physically throughthis week's Paris Masters to the year-ender in London. The Serb, who willfinish the season as world numberone for the second year running, saidhe is trying to conserve his strengthfor the final competitive sprint --even in a season shortened by a fort-night. "It is a big challenge," he told anews conference in the french capi-tal. "Obviously I'm sure all the partic-ipants in London will agree that this(ending the pre-London preparationweek) is definitely not something thatgoes in the favour of us preparing forthe most important event in the endof the year."

The last two spots in the WorldTour finals will be decided duringplay this week.

Djokovic himself has not playedsince beating Britain's Andy Murrayfor the title in Shanghai this month,then resting for two weeks.

While Djokovic and Murray arecompeting in Paris, current worldnumber one roger federer is not,with the Swiss taking a break beforethe start of the eight-man World Tourfinals on Monday.

Djokovic, whose own health (pos-sible stomach virus) and that of hisfather, who is reportedly ill in a Bel-grade hospital, have been the subjectof speculation in recent days, saidnothing on either matter.

Instead, he indicated that he feelswiped out after a long season duringwhich he and his team have tried toconserve strength for the run-in.

"This is the schedule. It is the wayit is. We have to adjust, we have to

accept it," he said. "Unfortunately,there is no other options at this mo-ment.

"But we will discuss this matter

after we finish this season. Maybe wecan try to find some other way.

"This season is shorter by twoweeks. now we have a two weekslonger off-season. Maybe that was thesacrifice we had to make.

"There are still some options onthe table about this (pre-London)week. Maybe we can move it aroundso we can make it more adjustable forthe top players."

Djokovic added: "Physically I feelgood now, but I'm not the freshestguy on the Tour because I have had along year. But I want to try to hold onthese two weeks and perform mybest, and then go to holidays."

On court, france's men continuedto impress in front of the home pub-lic.

french sixth seed Jo-WilfriedTsonga stayed in the race for thepenultimate position in the year-endfinals field as he beat compatriotJulien Benneteau in a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(7/2) second round struggle lastingfor more than two hours.

Tsonga can clinch his place in theLondon field by winning just onemore game here to reach the quarter-finals, according to ATP calculations.

Wild card Paul-Henri Mathieu,who missed 2011 with a knee injury,came through his first round clash indramatic style over Spanish qualifierrobert Bautista-Agut 6-4, 7-5.

The number 64, who reached theBasel semi-finals last weekend, wasbroken while serving for the match ina game which lasted an incredible 27minutes and featured 15 deuces and12 break points.

Bautista-Agut finally won it forfive-all only to lose serve again asMathieu squeezed through to set up amatch with third-seed Murray.

Compatriot Jeremy Chardy willplay Canadian Milos raonic as he de-feated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ofSpain 6-0, 6-3.

Djokovic adds voice toend-of-season concerns

LAHOREKHAWAJA peRVAIz SAeeD

The top 79 prequalified professionalgolfers from Karachi, Lahore, Multan,Okara, Jehlum, rawalpindi, Islamabdand Peshawar have converged to Gujran-wala Golf and Country Club, GujranwalaCantt for a crack at the esteemed PunjabOpen title for 2012 and also try and suc-cessfully scoop the maximum out of thecash laden prize purse of rs 1.5 millionmade possible because of Bank Alfalahsupport through performances that canbe graded as excellent.

naturally the one emerging as the topcontender gets the maximum amountwhile those attaining a position amongstthe top 30 competitors manage amountsallotted for the positions they secure. Thetop ten ranked professional golf players ofthe country have a history of accomplish-ments to back their chances of success inthis championship, yet one sees on the

horizon some non heralded ones who seekto get noticed through forceful applicationof golfing skills and in the process hamperthe forward march of the establishedones. Predictions, assessments and statis-tics, however favour the top ranked, oncethey tee off on friday,2nd november atthe par-72 Gujranwala Golf and CountryClub Golf Course.

Mohammed Shabbir the top rankedprofessional of our national golf circuit is achampion whose consistency is flairloaded, with no hiccups or any semblanceof nervousness during competitions.Through accuracy from the tees he demon-strates emphatic control of a smooth golfswing and on other shots, from the fair-ways, he has the satisfaction of giving fullfull expression to his gifted golfing abilities.Somehow in our country he has not beenhonored to a level that he deserves.

Since this competition is taking placein Gujranwala, the players who heraldfrom Lahore certainly enjoy a slight ad-

vantage over competitors who come fromfar off places like Karachi,on one end andfrom Peshawar on the other end. La-horites regularly visit the Gujranwala GolfCourse and their feel of the playing con-ditions is likely to give them edge overtheir fellow competitors. In this ShahidJaved Khan of royal Palm Golf Coursehopes to raise his game to an outstandinglevel and make it jitters free. He hasample ability to back up his playing planduring this Championship and looks for-ward to an inspired performance.

A few of the professionals are due toreturn from the MEnA Golf Tour in UAEin the early hours on friday and the expe-rience of international competition hasmade them battle hardened.In particularShafiq Masih and Mohammad Munir haveadded international titles to their reper-toire and during the practice sessions atGujranwala, they appear more compactand spirited and also remarkable.

Out of the other accomplished ones

Matloob Ahmed is one who is alwayshungry for success and capable of comingup with a polished performance. As forwhispers around the golf course, the gen-eral perception is that youngsters likeAadil and Asher and Talib also have to betaken seriously.

As for the playing arena, it is all readyto test the skills of the competing golferswith course getting a refreshing look.from the championship markers thecourse is likely to present an exacting ex-amination that requires meticulous shotplacing accuracy due to the demandingfairways. The infrastructure is top classand the organizing team comprising BrigAteequr rehman, Lt Col AsgharMehmood and Capt Arsalan Akhtar Satti,at Gujranwala Golf Club needs to be com-plimented for a wonderful job.

The opening ceremony will be per-formed by Lt Gen Muzzamil Hussain,Corps Commander 30 Corps at 9am onnovember 2 (friday).

A stern test for champions

english fa in thedark over Serbiamatch charges

LONDONAfp

England's football Association has yetto receive confirmation from Serbianpolice that two of its under-21 playershave been charged in relation to scufflesat the end of a European qualifyingmatch. Police on Tuesday announcedthat they had charged 12 people, includ-ing five Serbian and two England play-ers, over the incident in the central townof Krusevac two weeks ago, which thevisiting side claimed had been provokedby racist abuse.Assistant coaches from both sides werealso charged with "taking part and com-mitting violence". none of the suspectswas identified.England won the match 2-0 on aggre-gate with an injury-time goal to securequalification for the 2013 Europeanchampionships. But defender Dannyrose was sent off for kicking the ballaway in response to what he claimedwas racist chanting.

DONGGUANAfp

Luke Donald admitted Wednesday he'd haveto win his last two European Tour events ofthe year to retain his merit title -- while con-tending with a "scary" operation facing hisbaby daughter.

The Englishman said he needed victory atthis week's $7 million WGC-HSBC Champi-ons, and another at the season-ending WorldTour Championship in Dubai to have achance of closing rory McIlroy's $2 millionadvantage.

World number one McIlroy is now in line

to emulate Donald's feat of last season, whenhe became the first player to win the moneyraces on both sides of the Atlantic.

"rory is making it tough on us. He's play-ing very consistently every week," Donaldsaid before the WGC-HSBC Champions.

"He's won some big events that count onboth tours and hence, he's in a very similarposition that I was last year where he has achance to win both money titles.

"He's got a pretty big lead. I'm going toneed to pretty much win out. I'm going toneed to win this event and win Dubai for anychance."

Donald, 35, added that he will skip his

title defence at next week's PGA Tour event atDisney while his youngest daughter Sophia,who is not yet one, undergoes a routine oper-ation.

"She was born with a skin defect on herear. She's already had one operation to re-move most of it. She has the second one nextweek," said the world number three.

"It's still scary as a parent whenever yourchild is put under for an operation, and I justwant to be there with my wife to support herand make sure everything goes well.

"It's a routine operation, it should be fine.But as parents, you always worry about thesethings."

Donald needs two wins to trump Rory DoNgguaN: Phil mickelson of the uS tees off

at the 17th hole during the Pro-am for the

wgC-HSBC Champions tournament held on the

olazabal Course at mission Hill golf Club. AFP



Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami


tHE Oil and Gas regulatoryAuthority (OGrA) onWednesday approved a newpricing formula for the CnGsector, per which the price of

compressed natural gas would go up by upto rs 4.81 per kilogramme.

Though the new mechanism will in-crease CnG prices, it will bring down op-erating costs and profits charged by gasstations by rs 15 per kilogramme.

The regulatory authority approvedthe new pricing formula in light of theSupreme Court’s verdict earlier lastweek that made way for a rs 30-cut inCnG prices.

Per the new mechanism, CnGprice will be raised by rs 4.81 per kgin region 1 (Pothohar, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan), whilethe price will be raised by rs 3.85 perkg for region 2 (Sindh and Punjab’sareas excluding Pothohar).

OGrA has renamed the head “operat-ing cost” “production cost” and slashed thecharges down to rs 5.75 per kg from rs20.80.

On the other hand, the profit chargedby CnG retailers has been brought downfrom rs 11.20 to rs 5.28.

OGrA will be presenting the newformula in the Supreme Court today

(Thursday) for approval, after whichan official notification will be issuedfor the price revisions.

Power ratesjacked up by5 paisas

ISLAMABADonlIne

The national Electric Power regulatoryAuthority (nEPrA) on Wednesday raisedthe power tariff by five paisas per unit. A hearing was held in this regard underthe nEPrA chairman here in the federalcapital. Officials said the power tariff hadbeen raised due to the increase in theprice of furnace oil. During the hearing,the Lahore High Court’s verdict whichdeclared fuel adjustment surcharge illegalwas also read out. “We have not been barred from holdinghearings therefore we will conduct ahearing. It is up to the government to im-plement the court’s decision or other-wise,” he added.

CNG price up by Rs 4.81 under new formula

ISLAMABADAGenCIeS

Interior Minister rehman Malik onWednesday said the key suspect involvedin shooting 14-year-old Malala yousufzai,Attaullah, and his aides had been arrested.

According to a BBC report, Maliksaid Attaullah had been arrested alongwith his fiancée.

Attaullah had crossed over from

Afghanistan into Pakistan before makinghis way to Swat. There, he tracked downhis target, intercepting Malala’s school vanon October 9, 2012. He fled shortly afterthe assassination attempt.

Attaullah is a former Swat residentand was identified by police officialslast week as the main suspect in theshooting incident.

Police said Attaullah had been study-ing for a Masters degree in chemistry prior

to opting for militancy and had studied forhis bachelors’ degree in physics at Ja-hanzeb College in Swat.

The interior minister said theTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan hadadopted a new strategy of carrying outattacks and were now teaming up withproclaimed offenders.

To a question, Malik said the demandof military operation in north Waziristanby citing the attack on Malala was inappro-

priate. He said a lot of factors needed to beconsidered while conducting a military op-eration in any area, including security oflocal population, timing, weather and han-dling of displaced masses.

The interior minister said the civil andmilitary leadership would jointly decideabout an operation in nWA. “We will makeall our decisions in our national interest asthey (US) do,” Malik said.

To a question regarding handing overof Maulana fazlullah, Malik said the gov-ernment had not only spoken to Afghan

President Hamid Karzai, but a written ap-plication had also been sent out to theAfghan government.

However, he said the Afghan govern-ment had not yet responded.

Pakistan has requested Afghanistan tohand over Maulana fazlullah, claiming heis involved in planning major attacks inPakistan from across the border, includingthe attack on Malala yousufzai.

About the worsening law and order inKarachi, Malik said such things happenedin a city of 20 million.

COLOMBOInp

Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition is all set toimpeach the country’s first womanchief justice on charges of “improperconduct” after weeks of a simmeringspat between the executive and the ju-diciary, a media report said.

A motion to remove Chief JusticeShirani Bandaranayake from the postwill be handed over to the parliamen-tary speaker today (Thursday), theSinhala language daily ‘Lankadeepa’said on Wednesday.

The government parliamen-tary group had endorsed the moveat a meeting of the ruling coali-tion leaders, it said.

The speaker will be informed onthe motion under Section 107 of theconstitution with one third of parlia-ment’s 225 members or 75 MPs put-ting their signatures on the motion.

The paper said the motion was tobe moved on the basis of “chief jus-tice’s improper conduct” and hadbeen signed already by 117 membersof the government.

The move follows weeks of a sim-

mering spat between the executiveand the judiciary, the paper said.

The government was irked bya ruling on a major financial billin which the Supreme Court heldthat the bill must be referred toprovincial councils for approvalbefore being submitted in na-tional parliament.

In mid-September, the JudicialService Commission issued a publicstatement claiming interference inthe judiciary by the executive.

Early this month, the secretary tothe commission, Judge Manjula Thi-lakaratne, was assaulted by an un-known group which the oppositionblamed on the government.

Last week, Bandaranayake’shusband Pradeep Kariyawasamwas indicted by the anti-graftcommission for his role as chair-man of the state savings bankover a dubious share deal.

Bandaranayake, who was ap-pointed last year, became the firstwoman to head the highest court. Shewas also the first woman judge in theSupreme Court.

ISLAMABADonl Ine

The national Accountability Bureau hassummoned three retired generals(today) Thursday in the railways landsale scam case. nAB has summoned LtGeneral (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi‚ Lt Gen-eral (r) Saeeduz Zafar and Major Gen-eral (r) Hassan Butt to record theirstatement in the probe regarding thesale of 141 acres of prime railways Landto royal Palm Golf Club at throwawayprices in 2001.

Then minister for railways, Lt Gen(r) Javed Ashraf Qazi, along with secre-tary and chairman of Pakistan rail-ways, Lt Gen Saeeduz Zafar and general

manager Maj Gen Hamid Hassan Butt,had been held responsible for manipu-lating the deal that caused a heavy lossto Pakistan railways.

According to the findings of a spe-cial parliamentary committee, Pakistanrailways suffered a loss of rs 25 billionas a result of the transfer of land.

Sources said after clear directivesof the Public Accounts Committeeand national Assembly StandingCommittee for railways, nAB Chair-man fasih Bukhari had decided toinvestigate the land scandal.

They said once the statements of thethree retired generals were recorded,nAB would expand the sphere of its in-vestigation.

Key suspect in Malala shooting, aides arrested: Malikg Interior minister says demand for operation in NWA over Malala attack inappropriate

railways land scam: nAB summonsthree retired generals

Sri Lanka to impeachfirst woman Cj

legislation needed toprotect people’s rightsfrom State: rabbani

ISLAMABADAnWeR AbbAS

The Parliament’s national Security Committee(PnSC) Chairman raza rabbani on Wednesdaycalled for such counter-terrorism legislationwhich does not allow the state to undermine thefundamental rights of the citizens. The parlia-mentary body held an in-camera sitting underits chairman at the Parliament’s House, and re-sumed the debate on the issue of missing per-sons. It also finalised the draft of itsrecommendations on the issue. A source toldPakistan Today that during the meeting, thefinal review was made on the draft of recom-mendations on missing persons by variousmembers of committee. After a detailed review,the committee gave approval to the finaliseddraft containing these recommendations; it alsodecided to ink the draft in its next meeting. Dur-ing the sitting, Lord Alexander Charles Carlyle –a British lawyer and an expert on anti-terrorismlaws – also attended the PCnS session, and gavea detailed briefing before the members. Speaking to journalists after the meeting, rab-bani said the country needed such counter-ter-rorism legislation, which would not give thestate the power to undermine the fundamentalrights of the people.

HoboKen: A man rides his bike down a flooded street after Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday. AFP

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