NEW DELHIAgeNCies

PAKiSTAN and india ended two days ofpeace talks on Thursday, vowing to keeptheir dialogue on track despite renewed

tensions over the alleged role of Pakistani “stateactors” in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The same day, indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh said his side was giving a se-rious thought to visiting Pakistan, but the tourwould be no good if it did not pay off.

“i believe a visit to Pakistan that does notbear fruit would be of no use,” he said. The talksbetween indian Foreign Secretary RanjanMathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil AbbasJilani covered terrorism, confidence-buildingmeasures and the South Asian rival’s core terri-torial dispute over Kashmir. The two top civilservants in their respective ministries said theywould meet again in islamabad to pave the wayfor foreign minister-level talks in September.

The talks in New Delhi were clouded bycharges arising from india’s recent arrest ofSayed Zabiuddin Ansari, suspected of being akey handler for the Mumbai attackers whokilled 166 people in india’s financial capital.india says Ansari has admitted helping to co-ordinate the deadly assault from a commandpost in Karachi, and his testimony has re-newed indian accusations that “state ele-ments” in Pakistan were involved.

At a joint news conference, Jilani insisted thecharge was baseless. “i would very strongly reject

any insinuation of any involvement of any stateagency in acts of terrorism in india,” Jilani said.

“if we keep accusing each other that willbe of no benefit, and we will not find any re-sult,” he added. His remarks were a responseto specific allegations leveled on Wednesday –as the foreign secretary talks began – by in-dian Home Minister P Chidambaram who ar-gued that Ansari’s evidence could only lead toone conclusion. “it is no longer possible todeny that though the incident happened inMumbai, there was a control room in Pakistanbefore and during the incident,” Chi-dambaram said. “it is clear that (Pakistani)state actors were there,” he added. Pakistanhas indicted seven people for their alleged rolein the Mumbai attacks but their trial, whichbegan in 2009, has been beset by delays.

Friday, 6 July, 2012 Shaban 15, 1433islamabad — peshawar editionRs 15.00 Vol iii no 11 19 pages

PAGE | 02 PAGE | 03

Opposition won’t be part of any ‘unholynexus’, says Nisar

‘The generals at leastkept the nation’s lights on’

ISLAMABADONliNe

Pakistan on Thursday again made itclear that restoration of NATO supplieshad been made possible on the basis ofreconciliation, however, no formalagreement had been made.

During the Foreign Office’s weeklypress briefing, spokesman MuazzamKhan said the decision to reopen theNATO supply route was made in na-tional interest and US had apologised

by accepting Pakistan’s stance. “Wehave to take along the entire interna-tional community, we can’t afford op-position of 50 countries,” he said.

“NATO supply trucks have started en-tering Afghanistan as Pakistan ended theseven month blockade of the route but wehave not given permission for the transportof lethal weapons,” Khan said. Asked aboutthe rules and regulations under which theroute was restored, the spokesman saidPakistan restored the NATO supply on oldconditions and talks were on with the US

for settling other matters. He said the opening of NATO supply

route was a new beginning of bilateralrelationships. He said NATO supplyroute was not only in the interest of US,but also beneficial for other countriesthat had good relations with Pakistan.The spokesman dispelled the impres-sion that Pakistan was raising the tariffon the supply route, adding that therewere several other issues involved.

Pakistan rejects Mumbai attacks onusg pakistani foreign secretary strongly rejects any insinuation

of involvement of any state agency in terrorism in India g Indian pM ties visit to pakistan with tangible results

NATO supply restored onbasis of reconciliation: FO

Continued on page 04

Continued on page 04

Shahbaz pampers NLC with monopoly,jacked up rates

PAGE |19

CHAMAN: Border security personnel check the documents of a first container truck carrying NATO supplies prior to

crossing the border into Afghanistan on Thursday. afp

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:26 AM Page 1

02Friday, 6 July, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

NeWS

Story on Page 05

WORLd vieW

Story on Page 16

CARTOON

Page 11

‘good governance impossible without accountability’ New roles for Arab intellectuals

SC rejects Malik Riaz

adjournment plea ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the adjournment plea of real estate tycoonMalik Riaz pertaining to the absence of his counsel, the SupremeCourt on Thursday remarked that it would not give any verdictwithout listening to Malik Riaz’s counsel. A three-member benchheaded by Justice Shakirullah Jan resumed the proceeding ofcontempt of court case against Malik Riaz. Advocate on record AbdulGhafoor pleaded the court that it must consider the request of therespondent and adjourn the proceeding of the case, as Malik Riaz’scounsel Abdul Basit was suffering from cardiac arrest and was not ina position to appear before the court. The court said Dr Basit onlyhad to listen to the petitioners’ arguments which could be done forhim by the advocate-on-record or by an assisting counsel. Thesubstituting advocate could take notes and provide them to Dr Basit,the court said. Ghafoor said the case was very important andsensitive in nature and the respondent, Malik Riaz, had hired thelawyer after great struggle as no one in the legal fraternity was willingto take up the case. He said it would be unfair to hear the case in theabsence of main counsel of Malik Riaz. Justice Jan said an orderwould only be issued after ample opportunity was provided to theparties involved. Petitioner Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf Gujjarrequested the court to sentence Riaz under the contempt of courtlaws. Gujjar, former president of the islamabad High Court BarAssociation, had earlier requested the court to include Riaz’s name inthe Exit Control List (ECL). ONliNe

Missing prisoners’ case: SC orders

treatment of 2 ailing prisoners ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has directed the KhyberPakhtunkhwa chief secretary and interior secretary to ensure medicaltreatment to two prisoners in the case of 11 missing prisoners fromAdiala Jail. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice iftikharMohammad Chaudhry heard the Adiala Jail missing prisoners’ caseon Thursday. Tariq Asad, counsel for the petitioner, told the courtthat the inter-Services intelligence (iSi) had kept the prisoners inillegal custody for 19 months under the Army Act. The prisoners wererecovered from the iSi after the court’s order and then they wereagain sent to Landi Kotal detention centre where the condition of twoprisoners Abdul Malik and Abdul Basit was reported to be critical, thecounsel said. Despite court orders, these two prisoners had not beenprovided any medical treatment and neither were they shifted to asuitable place. They have not been tried and are devoid of basicfacilities, we can only request the court as there is no one else whowould listen, the counsel said. He also pleaded to the court forimmediate release of these two prisoners. The chief justice remarkedthat the prisoners were shifted to according to the law and if anyhuman rights violations had been made, then necessary action wouldbe taken. “But you should also keep in mind our limitations, as wecannot go beyond our limit,” the CJP added. ONliNe

PML-N, ANP likely to oppose

dual nationality amendment billISLAMABAD: The Awami National Party (ANP) and PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday expressed theirreservations over an amendment allowing dual nationals inparliament. The ANP said that the law should only beapplicable for the person’s nominated for the offices ofpresident, prime minister or the army leadership and judges.Opposing the bill, the PML-N criticised the contempt of courtamendment bill and said that the bill is equivalent to restrictingthe judiciary’s authority. Haji Adeel, a central leader of thegovernment allied ANP, presented the party’s stance whenPresident Asif Ali Zardari contacted him. Adeel said, “if suchlaws are not enforced, then people like Mansoor ijaz can alsobecome the president of Pakistan one day.” ONliNe

Opp won’t be partof any ‘unholynexus’: Nisar

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in theNational Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan onThursday reiterated that the PML-N would neverbe a part of any ‘unholy nexus’ that was out tocurtail the judiciary’s role. in a statement, Nisarsaid the proposal for introducing amendments inconnection with dual nationality and contempt ofcourt bill would be strongly opposed. He said therulers completely defaced the truth by repeatedlybacktracking on issues. “The rulers have nowstarted to focus on their attempts towardspassing a controversial legislation after goingback on their earlier statements issued in regardto NATO supply,” he added. Nisar said thegovernment intended, through a constitutionalamendment, to limit the judiciary’s role, and toprotect its own interests by passing a dualnationality bill. “The rulers will not be allowed touse parliament for personal gains,” he said.However, he added that the government didenjoy two-thirds majority in parliament, and “sowho are they trying to fool?” iNp

ISLAMABADApp

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thurs-day said the decision to open Ground Lines ofCommunications (GLOC) for NATO supplieswas taken in the best national interest, in lightof the parliamentary recommendations.

The prime minister expressed the viewswhile talking to PML-Q President ChaudhryShujaat Hussain and Deputy Prime MinisterChaudhry Pervez Elahi.

The prime minister said the drawdown ofthe “NATO and iSAF forces gets underway,Pakistan wants to facilitate the process in theinterest of regional peace and stability”. He saidpeace and stability in Afghanistan was closelylinked to peace and stability in Pakistan. Theprime minister said Pakistan was partner of theinternational community and playing its lead-ing role against forces of terrorism as a front-line state. He said prolonged deadlock over theissue of supplies could have hurt the country’srelations with the NATO countries, includingfriendly countries and brotherly Muslim coun-

tries such as Turkey, Qatar and UAE. The primeminister referred to the passage of legislationfrom the European Parliament that would en-hance market access for the Pakistani exportsfrom 2014 onwards under the Generalized Sys-tem of Preference Plus.

Opening of NATO suppliesin national interest: PM

Pleased US pledgeswide-ranging tieswith PakistanWASHINGTON: Pleased at thereopening of Pakistani border for NATOsupplies, the United States on Thursdayrenewed its resolve to forge a wide-rangingrelationship with islamabad. As first NATOtrucks rumbled into Afghanistan after aseven-month hiatus caused by last year’sSalala airstrikes on Pakistani border posts– the State Department said “goingforward, the US looks to cooperative workwith Pakistan on a range of regional andbilateral issues”. A spokesman toldreporters at the daily briefing that theresumption of the border crossings –following US expression of apology overPakistani deaths in Salala tragedy -represented a “tangible” expression of itscommitment in support of US peace effortsin neighbouring Afghanistan. PatrickVentrell, director of Press Relations saidWashington looked forward to workingwith Pakistan on regional security effortsincluding peace and reconciliation inAfghanistan. speCiAl COrrespONdeNT

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:26 AM Page 2

03Friday, 6 July, 2012

NewsediTORiALAnother round:

COMMeNT

Articles on Page 14

The parliament makes its move.

Basharat Hussain Qizilbash says;

An unreasonable Indian: Stuck on stereotypes.

kuldip Nayar says;India’s changing political landscape: The old guard and new ground realities.

ARTS & eNTeRTAiNMeNT

Story on Page 13

buSiNeSS

Story on Page 18

SPORTS

Story on Page 15

Veena Malik stops traffic kse volumes trace the apex of aridity pCB confirms Australia limited-over series itinerary

ISLAMABAD/GUJRANWALAONliNe/sTAff repOrT

PAKiSTAN Tehreek-e-insaf (PTi)chief imran Khan on Thursdaywarned against any attempts toamend the Contempt of CourtAct, saying the rulers wanted to

weaken the judiciary in order to protecttheir corruption.

in a statement, imran said the ruling cabalhad been trying everything to avoid accounta-bility. “They took a number of steps in this re-gard: One, no law on accountability wasallowed to be passed in the parliament; two, asustained campaign was initiated to under-mine the National Accountability Bureau; andthree, the accountability watchdog was stuffedwith handpicked individuals.” The PTi chiefadded that the only institution standing in theway of the corrupt regime was the SupremeCourt of Pakistan, which had been constantlychecking the corrupt practices of the rulingparty over the last four years.

imran said the most important decisiontaken by the Supreme Court was declaring theNational Reconciliation Ordinance “illegal”. Hesaid the previous prime minister did not imple-ment the court’s verdict because he was man-dated by his superiors in the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) to protect the theft of billions of ru-pees committed by Asif Ali Zardari. “This led tohis conviction under the contempt of court law,and disqualification as a member of the parlia-ment and prime minister,” imran said, addingthat the lesson learnt by the ruling cabal afterthis episode was to weaken the judiciary byamending the contempt of court law.

“The provisions being amended will clearlyopen the way for the national office holders andmembers of the legislatures to refuse to obeycourt decisions, as they would face no penaltyfor doing so,” imran said, adding that theamendments would provide cover to the lootingand plundering committed by the ruling elite. NO ALLIANCe WITH PML-N: The PTichief also ruled out any possibility of striking analliance with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

He said that the PPP and the PML-N werenot different from each other, as both of themhad been enjoying rule in the name of so-calleddemocracy. “When general polls are a foot

away, both of them have started playing theirtactics in order to befool the nation for theirvested interests,” imran said, adding that thePML-N’s leadership escaped to London whilethe country was facing challenging problems. NATO SUPPLIeS: The PTi took out a mas-sive public rally from Lahore to Gujranwala todemonstrate against the restoration of NATOsupply routes amid continued drone strikes.

Addressing the rally at Gondlawala Chowkin Gujranwala, imran said the unconditionalopening of NATO supply lines by the govern-ment was an insult to the nation. He said thatdrone attacks were still going on but the corruptpoliticians were busy in safeguarding their cor-ruption instead of safeguarding the masses.

The PTi leader also denounced extensiveload shedding, corruption, unemployment,and “futile policies” of the current govern-ment which included the restoration ofNATO supply lines.

He said that instead of revisiting their rela-tion with the US and taking strong standagainst drone attacks, the rulers had sold thenation by opening the supply lines uncondi-tionally. “Our children are being murdered butthese corrupt politicians who have assetsabroad have plans to leave the country in diffi-cult times. But we will not let them escape,”imran said, adding that both the ruling parties

(the PPP and the PML-N) were in partnershipto maintain status-quo and stop any positivechange in the society. He said the PTi, with thesupport of the youth, would wash away the cor-rupt elements.

He warned of launching a “tsunami march”towards islamabad if the government tried toinsult and clash with the Supreme Court.

He said the plight of the common manwas worsening with each passing day, as thecountry’s industry was closing due to exten-sive load shedding. He said that Rs 66,000were being spent every minute to maintainthe luxurious life styles of the corrupt rulers.He said the PTi was a sword hanging over theheads of the corrupt politicians, and it wouldnot let them flee with the hard earned moneyof the masses. He pledged to eradicate loadshedding and unemployment from the societyafter coming into power. He said that the Pak-istanis living abroad were willing to insure theinflux of capital in Pakistan to free their moth-erland from foreign clutches.

He said the PTi was the party of theyouth, and a truly democratic one in whichanyone could become Chairman throughelections within the party. PTi’s central lead-ership, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi,Javaid Hashmi, SA Hameed, was also presentat the occasion.

Hands off judiciary: Imrang PTi chief warns against attempts to amend contempt of court law g Says ruling cabal doingeverything to protect its corruption g Rules out possibility of alliance with PML-N

Onset of monsoon likely from todayISLAMABAD: Monsoon rains are likely to start from today,says the Met office. The first spell of monsoon rains willstart from Friday and will continue till July 8. However,more rains are expected in the second week of July.Meanwhile, the weather turned pleasant in the northernregion of the country after Azad Kahsmir and Abbottabadreceived some rainfall on Wednesday, while the weatherremained hot and dry in the plain areas of the country.Temperatures as high as 47 degree Celsius were recorded inBhawalnagar, Bhakkar, and Bannu. The temperature inother major cities was as follows: 34 degree Celsius inKarachi, 40 Quetta, 39 Lahore, 42 islamabad, 43 Peshawarand 42 degree centigrade was recorded in Muzaffarabad.According to the Met office, gusty winds are likely to blow inLahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Hazara division duringthe next twenty four hours. sTAff repOrT

NEWS DESk

Beckoned by public spigots promising free,pure drinking water, tourists lined up lastweek to refresh themselves along the maindrag in Murree.

They soon discovered that the taps weredry. “We’ve gotten nothing,” said one thirstyvisitor, Abdul Sattar, 47. And he wasn’t justtalking about water, which hasn’t reached

Murree for weeks because severe powershortages have shut down pumping stationsin the valley below.

Nothing has come from democracy, ei-ther, a frustrated Sattar said — at least not asit is practiced by the barely functioning fed-eral government in islamabad. A report inThe Washington Post says the economy isbad enough to make Sattar and others nos-talgic for military rule, when the generals atleast kept the nation’s lights on.

“The military is better,” said Amir iqbal,who co-owns Mr Food, a small eatery whichhad just two lunchtime customers. At 44, herecalls fondly the relative prosperity andhigher economic growth rates that markedthe nine-year regime of Gen Pervez Mushar-raf. And, although he was young at the time,he speaks positively of the era of an earlierstrongman, Gen Muhammad Ziaul Haq.

“When the army is in government theykeep inflation low,” iqbal said. “They aregood at governance and better organised.”

Such yearnings for order are certainlynot new in Pakistan’s 64-year history, says

the report in The Washington Post. Thearmy, generally with popular support, hasstepped in three times to topple weak govern-ments and impose martial law. Judicial obei-sance to the generals used to be the norm.But, styling itself as a corruption-battlingpeople’s advocate, the current SupremeCourt has inverted the narrative. it has spear-headed investigations into misdeeds of the

executive branch and the military.Some experts call Chief Justice iftikhar

Muhammad Chaudhry the country’s mostpowerful man. Critics accuse him of mount-ing a “judicial coup” in the name of the ruleof law. His court picked off long-servingprime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani lastmonth for refusing to follow its orders and ispoised to oust his successor for the same

thing. “A power struggle among the judiciary,the executive branch and, to a lesser extent,the army, threatens to destabilise the nu-clear-armed nation at a time when its coun-terterrorism partnership with the UnitedStates has essentially fallen apart.”

Whatever its shortcomings, the coalitiongovernment has prevailed for four-and-a-halfyears without a coup, assassination or execu-tion of a top leader and is on track to becomethe longest-serving civilian government inthe country’s history. But nobody knows howlong the country can continue its slow stum-ble toward actual democracy: Pakistan, bat-tling an insurgency, now faces aconstitutional crisis during an economicmeltdown coupled with devolving publicorder, as power-outage protests turn intodeadly riots.DArkNeSS: “Democracy has broughtdarkness to the country, that’s it,” said polit-ical analyst and columnist Farrukh Saleem.He noted that since the end of Musharraf’srule, the price of milk has tripled and electric-ity has risen 500 percent.

‘THe geNerAls AT leAsT kepT THe NATiON’s ligHTs ON’g Political and economic

crises stir nostalgia for

military rule g Political

analyst says price of

milk has tripled and

electricity has risen 500

percent uder the

present regime

NEW DELHI:

Members of the

special cell of

Delhi Police

escort Sayed

Zabiuddin Ansari,

who is suspected

of being a key

handler for the

2008 Mumbai

attacks, to a court

on Thursday. afp

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:26 AM Page 3

04Friday, 6 July, 2012

News

SYDNEYAfp

THE potential dis-covery of the “Godparticle” was agateway to a newera that could see

humanity unlock some of theuniverse’s great mysteries in-cluding dark matter saidphysicists on Thursday.

The European Organiza-tion for Nuclear Research(CERN) unveiled data fromthe Large Hadron Collider onWednesday “consistent withthe long-sought Higgsboson”, an elusive particlethought to help explain whymatter has mass.

it was hailed as a huge

moment for science by physi-cists gathered in Australia,where CERN’s findings wereunveiled via video link fromGeneva at a landmark confer-ence attended by hundreds ofthe field’s top experts.

Following the announce-ment, scientists went into afrenzy speculating that itcould one day make lightspeed travel possible by “un-massing” objects or allowhuge items to be launchedinto space by “switching off”the Higgs. CERN scientist Al-bert de Roeck equated it tothe discovery of electricity,when he said humanity couldnever have imagined its fu-ture applications.

“What’s really important

for the Higgs is that it ex-plains how the world couldbe the way that it is in thefirst millionth of a second inthe Big Bang,” de Roeck toldAFP. “Can we apply it tosomething? At this momentmy imagination is too smallto do that.”

Physicist Ray Volkas said“almost everybody” was hop-ing that, rather than fittingthe so-called Standard Modelof physics — a theory explain-ing how particles fit togetherin the Universe — the Higgsboson would prove to be“something a bit different”.

“if that was the case thatwould point to all sorts of newphysics, physics that mighthave something to do with

dark matter,” he said, refer-ring to the hypothetical invis-ible matter thought to makeup much of the universe. “itcould be, for example, that theHiggs particle acts as a bridgebetween ordinary matter,which makes up atoms, anddark matter, which we know isa very important componentof the universe.”

“That would have reallyfantastic implications for un-derstanding all of the matterin the universe, not just ordi-nary atoms,” he added. DeRoeck said scrutinising thenew particle and determiningwhether it supported some-thing other than the StandardModel would be the next stepfor CERN scientists. Clarifi-

cation could be expected bythe beginning of 2013; defin-itive proof that it fitted theStandard Model could takeuntil 2015 when the LargeHadron Collider (LHC) hadmore power and could har-vest more data.

The LHC is due to go of-fline for a two-year refit inDecember that will see itsfirepower doubled to 14 tril-lion electron volts — a hugestep forward in the search fornew particles and clues aboutwhat holds them all together.

De Roeck said he wouldfind it a “little boring at theend if it turns out that this isjust the Standard ModelHiggs”. instead, he was hop-ing it would be a “gateway or

a portal to new physics, tonew theories which are actu-ally running nature” such assupersymmetry, which hy-pothesises that there are fivedifferent Higgs particles gov-erning mass. The hunt forHiggs — the logical next stepof which de Roeck saidwould be searching for, andeventually being able to pro-duce, dark matter particles— has already had huge ben-efits to medicine and tech-nology. Volkas said theinternet was born at CERNas a solution to high-volumedata sharing and other majorspin-offs were likely to fol-low as physicists continuedto “push the boundaries ofpure science”.

No light atthe end ofthe tunnelNazeer Ahmad, who runs acomputer and mobile salesand service shop, said told AlJazeera he had to rely on anUninterrupted Power Supply(UPS) unit to power thebulbs and fans in his shop. But that only lasts for amaximum of 90 minutes,after which the batteriesmust be recharged - forwhich electricity is required.“Although a UPS is cheaperthan a generator, with a one-off purchase cost of around$300, there are associatedmaintenance costs and thosehave been increasing.Batteries must be changedevery 18 months. A fewmonths ago each battery costaround $100, and now thathas risen to $125,” added thereport. Many businesses areresponding to the powercrisis by turning toalternative energy sources.Mahmood Ahmad of GreasePakistan, one of Pakistan’smain suppliers of generators,told Al Jazeera the demandfor generators running ondiesel, petrol and gas hadincreased in recent years.“Over the last couple ofyears, it isn’t that we havestarted to sell or rent outmore generators,” heexplains, “but we havedefinitely seen the capacity[of the generatorsdemanded] being doubled.So if 500 generators of onekilowatt were being used,now that requirement hasjumped to 500 generators oftwo kilowatts.” The price ofa generator starts from $135and the cost of high-endmodels can run intohundreds of thousands ofdollars. And those prices arerising. “This year, we haveseen an increase in prices,”Ahmad says. “We importthese generators, so theprices are mainly affected bythe fact that the rupee hasbeen losing its value againstthe dollar. Going by thedemand and supply rule,now that the demand ishigher the prices should havegone down.

Addressing Thursday’s news confer-ence, Mathai stressed that bringingthose guilty for the Mumbai carnageto justice “would be the biggest con-fidence-building measure of all”.“We shall pursue this matter to itslogical conclusion,” Mathai said ofthe indian investigation intoAnsari’s testimony.

Jilani insisted nothing shouldbe allowed to prevent the peaceprocess going forward. “Thereshould be absolutely no setback, be-cause a setback is something we

cannot afford,” he said.“Terrorism is a common threat

to both india and Pakistan becausecitizens in both countries are facingterror,” Jilani said. “i, my govern-ment and my people are very seriousabout this... Terrorism is a seriousissue. We need serious and sincereefforts to resolve it,” he said.

Jilani said his talks with Mathaion peace and security, CBMs,Jammu and Kashmir and promo-tion of friendly exchanges have beensubstantive. “Both the countries facethreat of terrorism. We should in-tensify our cooperation,” he said.

Expressing the hope that the equa-tion would continue with the “posi-tive trajectory”, Jilani said he hadalso put forward some suggestionson resuming cricketing ties.

A joint statement issued at theconclusion of two day meet said thetalks were held in a frank and con-structive atmosphere. Both sides re-iterated their desire to carry forwardthe dialogue process in a purposefuland result-oriented manner.

it said the foreign secretaries re-viewed the ongoing implementationof the already adopted Nuclear andConventional CBMs. it was decided

that separate meetings of the ExpertLevel Groups on Nuclear and Con-ventional CBMs will be held to dis-cuss implementation andstrengthening of the existing CBMsand suggest additional mutually ac-ceptable steps that could buildgreater trust and confidence be-tween the two countries, therebycontributing to peace and security.The dates for the meetings of ExpertLevel Groups will be determinedthrough diplomatic channels.

The two sides also agreed tocontinue meaningful dialogue onthe thorny Kashmir issue. They de-

cided to convene a meeting of theWorking Group on Cross-LoC CBMson July 19 in islamabad to recom-mend steps for strengthening andstreamlining and effectively imple-menting the existing trade andtravel arrangements and proposemodalities for introducing addi-tional cross-LoC CBMs.

The foreign secretaries will meetagain in islamabad, on a date to bedecided through diplomatic chan-nels, to prepare for the meeting ofthe external affairs/foreign minis-ters in September 2012, the jointstatement said.

PakiSTaN rejeCTS MuMbai aTTaCkS ONuSContinued FRom page 01

LONDONMAJid kHATTAk

The London police have arrestedsix people, including threebrothers and a woman as part ofan intelligence-led operation inLondon on Thursday. The oper-ation included the services ofMi5, the UK’s national securityintelligence agency, sources toldPakistan Today.

A former police and com-munity support officer for theLondon Metropolitan policewas included in the group,however, Scotland Yardwould not confirm that detail.Counter-terrorism officers in-vestigating a suspected plot toattack targets in Britain car-ried out the raids. Although

police said they were notlinked to any threat to theOlympics, officials say theywill intervene quicker thanusual in disrupting suspectedplots in the run-up to theevent, which counter-terror-ism forces fear is a major tar-get. One person was shot witha Taser stun gun and Scot-land Yard said armed officershad been deployed during thearrests, which is an unusualdecision and indicative of therisk counter-terrorism chiefsthought officers faced in car-rying out the raid.

Officials believe they aredealing with a plot inspired byal-Qaida ideology. A LondonPolice spokesperson said thosearrested included a 21-year-

old man and a 30-year-oldwoman who were detained atseparate residential addressesin West London. Three othermen, aged 18, 24, and 26, werearrested at residential proper-ties in East London. Thespokesperson further said,“searches under the TerrorismAct 2000 are being carried outat eight residential premises inEast, West and North Londonand one business premises inEast London. Public safety re-mains our overriding concern.Today’s operation in London isnot linked to the Olympic andParalympic Games.” One ofthose held was a British na-tional who grew up in Dorset,a source in the Muslim com-munity told the BBC.

WASHINGTONspeCiAl COrrespONdeNT

The US apology over thedeaths of 24 Pakistani sol-diers at Salala coupled withislamabad’s green light fortransportation of NATO sup-plies to Afghanistan repre-sents a “historic turn” inbilateral relations, Ambassa-dor to the United StatesSherry Rehman said.

The Pakistani diplomattold CNN in an interview thather country’s decision toallow NATO supplies intoAfghanistan without imposi-tion of any additional transitcharges speaks of islam-abad’s commitment to peacein the region. “Today andyesterday mark a historicturn in the relationship. Wehave been able to, i think,turn towards building on thisopportunity and halt thedownward spiral (in Pak-istan-US ties),” she told CNNanchor Wolf Blitzer in theSituation Room program.

Sherry was commentingon an end to a seven-month

standoff between two coun-tries and sharp decline inPakistani-US relations result-ing from the killing of 24 Pak-istani soldiers in a November2011 American air strike onSlalala posts along the Afghanborder.

The relations were alsostrained by several other is-sues including unilateral USdrone strikes on tribal areasand last year’s US raid on Ab-bottabad that took out alQaeda leader Osama binLaden. The US, on the otherhand, has its own set of con-cerns, including perceivedPakistani inaction to stemcross-border activities ofAfghan Haqqani militants.Washington halted paymentof billions of dollars in prom-ised CSF money and aid forPakistan after a spate ofshocks in bilateral ties.

Pakistan approved thepassage of NATO suppliesthrough its territory shortlyafter US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton said the USwas “sorry” over the deaths ofPakistani soldiers.

Khan hoped the US wouldclear all dues of Pakistanunder the Coalition SupportFund (CSF).

He said that US had as-sured islamabad that it wouldrespect Pakistan’s sover-eignty in the future. Regard-ing foreign secretary-leveldialogue with india, the FO

spokesman said if india gaveus information, we had fullright to investigate it.

Refuting india’s blamegame on Pakistan on Abu Jun-dal concerning Pakistani pass-port, he brushed aside allrumors in this regard. Heagain made it clear that noPakistani institution was in-volved in sponsoring terror-ism, stating that terrorists

were common enemies of bothcountries. “We must makeconcerted efforts to wipe outthe menace of terrorism andextremism as terrorists canharm both countries,” he said.Khan added that Foreign Min-ister Hina Rabbani Kharwould represent Pakistan atDonors Conference to be heldin Tokyo. She will leave forJapan on Friday (today).

China reports birdflu outbreak

BEIJINGAfp

Authorities in China’s remotenorthwestern region ofXinjiang have culled more than150,000 chickens following anoutbreak of bird flu, officialssaid. The outbreak of the H5N1strain of avian flu initially killed1,600 chickens and sickenedabout 5,500, the agricultureministry said late Monday. inan effort to contain the disease,agricultural authoritiesquarantined the area andculled 156,439 chickens,according to the ministry. Theoutbreak occurred on June 20but was only confirmed asH5N1 bird flu on Monday, itsaid. The ministry and statepress did not specify exactlywhere the outbreak occurred,but said it happened at a farmrun by the Xinjiang Productionand Construction Corps,described by state media as asemi-military governmentorganisation of about 2.5million people. Xinjiang is avast region bordering CentralAsia and home to a populationof about nine million ethnicUighurs, a largely Muslim andTurkic speaking people. Chinais considered one of thenations most at risk of birdflu epidemics because it hasthe world’s biggest poultrypopulation and manychickens in rural areas arekept close to humans.

NATO supply resTOredContinued FRom page 01

Continued FRom page 19

‘God particle’ a gateway to new vision of universe

Sherry Rehman sees‘historic turn’ in ties after US apology

UK foils terror bid in London

lAHOre: lawyers sign a petition prepared by difa-e-pakistan lawyers forum against the restoration of NATO supply routes on Thursday. OnLIne

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:26 AM Page 4

Friday, 6 July, 2012

05

NEW YORkApp

US National Security Ad-viser Tom Donilon’s ap-pearance at a backyardbarbecue hosted by Pak-istani Ambassador to the

US Sherry Rehman signaled Obama ad-ministration’s decision resolve its dis-pute with Pakistan over the Salalaincident and get the relationship backon track, a major American newspaperreported on Thursday.

Citing US Officials, The WallStreet Journal said that Donilonplayed a key role in bringing about ashift in administration’s policy not tooffer an apology – as demanded byPakistan – over US airstrikes thatkilled 24 Pakistani soldiers in Novem-ber, arguing for a compromise settle-ment acceptable to both sides.

Noting that Sherry shuttled be-tween the State Department and WhiteHouse following the NATO summit atChicago, the dispatch said she pressedfor the apology, saying it was the onlyway to get islamabad to reopen the al-liance’s supply routes through Pak-

istan to Afghanistan. The Obama administration’s mes-

sage to the Pakistani envoy at the time,as delivered by Deputy Secretary of StateThomas Nides and others, was: “it isn’tgoing to happen,” the Journal said, cit-ing officials involved in the discussions.

“in the weeks that followed, how-ever, the White House had a change ofheart,” The Wall Street Journal said. Of-ficials said the shift came in a flurry ofmeetings, and was signaled to Pakistanby Donilon’s appearance at the June 26summer garden party hosted by Sherry.

The shift by the White House wasdriven by several pressing issues. US of-ficials said the mounting cost of using al-ternative routes, fears the closureswould complicate a US withdrawal fromAfghanistan, and by the Pentagon’s needfor Pakistan’s cooperation in fightingmilitants. On June 13, Defence SecretaryLeon Panetta told Congress the borderclosure was costing the Pentagon anextra $100 million a month. Surprisedlawmakers pressed the White House toreach a compromise, the Journal said,citing US officials.

Administration officials said Pak-istan’s cooperation was critical to speed-

ing the withdrawal of heavy equipmentfrom Afghanistan, as well as to revivingstalled negotiations with the Talibanaimed at ending the war.

“Let’s just get this done,” a seniorObama administration official said ofthe White House’s thinking. The WhiteHouse dispatched Nides to islamabadthis past weekend with instructions tomake it happen.

“Donilon surprised Pakistani offi-cials by attending a barbecue dinnerthat Mrs. Rehman held under a tent ather residence in Washington,” theJournal said. Officials said his atten-dance was seen by the Pakistanis as aclear signal that the White Housewanted to resolve the dispute and getthe relationship back on track.

Secretary of State Hillary Clintonand her top aides, the newspapersaid, have consistently urged an apol-ogy for US mistakes in the name ofimproved relations.

Officials said the White House cameto realize that there was no way that is-lamabad, in an election year in Pakistan,could reopen the routes without an apol-ogy to calm the irate Pakistani publicand the military’s rank and file.

Top official’s appearance at Sherry’s

barbecue signaled US apology: reportg uS National Security Adviser Tom donilon played key role in bringing a shift in Obama administration’spolicy of not offering an apology

PESHAWARsTAff repOrT

Wali Mohammad, brother ofslain militant commander NekMohammad, and his aide weremysteriously shot dead inKalushah near Wana, SouthWaziristan Agency on Thursday.

They were passing along aroad when unidentified personsopened fire on them, killing theminstantly. No one has claimed re-sponsibility for the murder buttribesmen in Wana cite internalrifts among militants as thecause.

Wali Mohammad’s brotherNek Mohammad was killed in thefirst US drone attack on June 17,

2004. He was a pioneer of mili-tancy and armed resistanceagainst the state. He made head-lines in the wake of the infamousShakai agreement with the armedforces through former Corps Com-mander Lt Gen (r) Safdar Hus-sain. He was garlanded by Lt GenSafdar during the signing cere-mony on April 24, 2004, but eventhen was pursued by drones in hisnative Kalushah Wana on June 17,and killed. Despite the assassina-tion, a number of militants fromthe clans of Ahmadzai Wazir re-spected him and his family.

Wali Mohammad Wazir’s as-sassination is likely to spark ten-sion in the Wana region of SouthWaziristan.

nek Mohammad’sbrother killed

ISLAMABADONliNe

Good governance and economicand social development cannotbe achieved without adheringto the principles of trans-parency and across the boardaccountability.

The present democraticsetup accordingly pledges to takeeffective measures against cor-ruption, said the Chairman NABAdmiral (Retd) Fasih Bokahariwhile inaugurating the two days17th Directors General Confer-ence that has started to reviewthe performance of NAB duringthe previous year.

Highlighting the role of theorganisation, the Chairman ob-served that NAB, being the pre-mier anti-corruption institutionof the country, remains at theforefront with regards to provid-

ing requisite support in anti-cor-ruption activities to all nationalinstitutions including the supe-rior judiciary, Public AccountsCommittee, office of FederalOmbudsman, and other anti-corruption agencies operating allover the world. Appreciating theperformance of NAB he said thatit had set positive trends duringthe past seven months or so eventhough there was severe short-age of workforce. He felicitatedthe officials and expressed thehope that they will continuetheir efforts for achieving the ul-timate goals of transparency andfinancial integrity in the publicand private institutions.

Directors General fromheadquarters, Punjab, Sindh,KP, Balochistan and Rawalpindiparticipated in the conference togive an overview of their per-formance during previous year.

The directors general wouldmake their presentations overthe period of two days afterwhich the conference would con-clude. Apart from making pre-sentations about theperformance in their respective

regions, the directors generalwould also deliberate upon vari-ous administrative and technicalissues they counter while per-forming their functions underawareness, prevention and en-forcement activities.

President shockedover burning ofblasphemy accused

ISLAMABADApp

President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursdayexpressed and shock over the harrowingincident of a man being burned alive inBahawalpur after he was pulled from apolice station. The president directedRehman Malik to conduct an enquiry intothe incident and submit the report to thePresidency immediately. The presidentstated that no one would be allowed totake the law into their hands regardless ofthe crime committed. Zardari alsoinstructed the relevant authorities todispense justice according to the law. Theman burnt alive, was reportedly mentallyunsound and was accused of desecratingthe Holy Quran.

President putsmoratorium ondeath sentences

ISLAMABADONliNe

President Asif Ali Zardari has stopped theimplementation of the sentencing ofprisoners on death row till September 30.According to media reports, the lawministry has dispatched a letter bearingPresident Zardari’s directives to allprisons in this regard.in Karachi central jail, three prisoners -Baram Khan, Atta ullah and MohammadAzam - were to be sentenced to death thismonth on 17 and 18th July respectively.According to DiG Jail Karachi, NusratMangantan, hanging of two activistsof a banned organization has alsobeen stopped on the directives ofPresident Zardari.

Man killed in Quetta,2 abducted in Hub

QUETTAsTAff repOrT

A man was gunned down in the provincialcapital on Thursday, while two others,including a manager of a motorcyclecompany, were kidnapped from Hub townof Balochistan. According to police,unidentified armed motorcyclists openedfire on a man at Baloch Khan Chowk in thePakhtunabad area of Quetta. As a result,he sustained critical wounds andsuccumbed to his injuries while beingtaken to Civil Hospital. The assailants fledfrom the scene. The deceased wasidentified as Siddiqullah. Police said thedeceased was an Afghan national and arickshaw driver, adding that the motivebehind his murder was not yet clear. Policeregistered a case against unidentifiedpeople and started investigations.Meanwhile, unidentified men kidnappedthe manger of a motorcycle company andhis driver from Hub, an industrial town inBalochistan. Police said the manager,Hanif Asfahani, was on his way alongwith his driver Nawaz in Hub whenarmed men intercepted them, andkidnapped them. Police startedinvestigation into the incident.

‘Good governance impossible without accountability’

pesHAwAr: Jamaat-e-islami activists shout slogans during a protest against the government's decision to reopen NATO

supply route to Afghanistan on Thursday. afp

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:26 AM Page 5

Friday, 6 July, 2012

ISLAMABADONliNe

SeeING scattered shopping bags, garbage and the worst possible graffitiin the city, no one could believe that we are living in the federal capital. Is-lamabad is recognised as the most beautiful city in the world, but unfortunately,some indecent locals of the area are ruining its beauty by spreading garbage. The resi-dents throw wrappers and bags on the roads from their vehicles, which is extremely a vulgar deed.

The scattered bags on the roads are badly affecting the beauty of the city. The Capital Development Authority started anti-littercampaign a few months earlier and imposed fine on several citizens, but the practice has slowed down. The locals urged the governmentthat it should carry on with the respective in order to keep the city clean and create awareness of importance of cleanliness among the people in the city.

islAMABAd: A vendor sells coconut water at his roadside setup. Sajjad aLI QUReShI

ISLAMABADsTAff repOrT

The islamabad administration, in co-ordination with all the departmentsconcerned, has finalised the flood con-tingency plan, in view of the upcomingmonsoon rains and necessary protec-tive arrangements in catchments.

The officials of the departmentsconcerned, including Rawal Lake andSimly Dam management, the CDA, as-sistant commissioners, magistrates,DHO, iCT, Civil Defense Departmentand iCT, have been asked to upgradetheir level of preparedness to meet anyflood situation in low-lying rural andurban areas, in view of the forecast ofmore rains and ensure effective coor-dination among them during the

rains. A control room has also beenmade functional round the clock.

Relief and rescue teams, headedby the assistant commissioners, as-sisted by the CDA teams and Civil De-fence Department, are also visiting thelow-lying areas, including, RawalDam, Simly Dam, the Korang Riverarea and other tributaries to ensurethat protective arrangements are inplace.

Earlier, Deputy CommissionerAmer Ali Ahmed held a coordinationmeeting with the officials of the re-spective departments and it was de-cided that the managements of RawalLake and Simly Dam would announcethe gradual release of water from thedams and prior to release of water, thepeoples living in the low-lying areas

would be informed in advance abouttheir shifting to safer places.

The rescue teams would remainalert in the catchment areas and an-nounce through loudspeakers forshifting of peoples to safer places. itwas decided that safe level of cushionin the dams would be maintained.

Deputy Commissioner Amer AliAhmed said that the district healthand livestock departments as well asiCT have started immunization drivein the rural areas against the seasonaldiseases as part of preventive meas-ures. He added that chlorination of allthe water supply schemes in the ruralarea is also underway. The district ad-ministration has also identified schoolbuildings for the establishment offlood relief centres.

Minister visits ongoing NHA projects

ISLAMABADpress releAse

Federal Minister for Communications Dr.Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil paid sudden visitsto various areas of the country; issued direc-tives to complete all on-going NHA projects asper international standards. According to de-tails, Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil, nowa-days is paying visits across the country tomonitor progress on all on-going NHA proj-ects. To this effect, he reached Sukkur todaywhere he reviewed progress on Sukkur,Shikarpur and Jacobabad projects and later oninspected construction work on the projects in-cluded in the Larkana Package. On this occasion, General Manager NHA SyedShabbir Ali Shah, Aziz Langah and other highofficials were also present. The Federal Minis-ter told the concerned officials that no compro-mise would be made on quality and pace ofwork and neither any laxity nor negligence, in-efficiency would be tolerated in this regard. Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil said that hewas personally inspecting each and every proj-ect of NHA in Sindh on the special directive ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari so that these projectscould be completed in time as per interna-tional standards. The minister further said thenation was fully aware that despite limited re-sources we had put country on the road toprogress and we would solve all the problemsfaced by the people, the minister added.

1,000 cops performduty on Shab-e-barat

ISLAMABADsTAff repOrT

The city police have made elaborate arrange-ments to ensure foolproof security on the eveof Shab-e-Barat and have deployed 1,000 copsfrom the security to worshippers at masjid andother places, a spokesman said. On the specialsdirections of inspector General Police BaniAmin Khan, SSP islamabad MuhammadYousaf Malik devised a special security plan.According to the plan, SPs have been directedto monitor their areas and ensure effective pa-trolling. Special teams have been constitutedfor vigilance and patrolling while falcon squadsand other police contingents will assist to en-sure success of this plan. Security at exits andentrances has been enhanced.

Rescue-1122 plans tocheck fire incidents

RAWALPINDIApp

The Punjab Emergency Service of Rescue-1122 is preparing a draft legislation on the fireprevention and community safety aimed atminimising risks to life and property besidesimpeding the increasing number of fire inci-dents. The draft legislation, which is being fi-nalized in consultation with the StrathclydeFire and Rescue Service of the United King-dom, will be forwarded to the quarters con-cerned for approval. The cooperation is thepart of a memorandum of understandingsigned between the two emergency services ofUK and Pakistan. “An effective legislationwas need of the hour as the Rescue teamsdealt with more than 34,000 fire incidents,mostly caused by poor safety arrangements incommercial and high-rise buildings, duringthe last seven years,” official sources in theemergency service told APP.

Health dept asked totake anti-dengue steps

ISLAMABADApp

The health authorities have been asked to takepreventive measures to protect the citizens ofthe federal capital from dengue virus. Accord-ing to health experts, active monitoring andsurveillance of natural mosquito is necessaryduring these days to check spread of thedengue virus. They urged the staff of depart-ments concerned of the federal capital forproper solid waste disposal and improvedwater storage practices, including coveringcontainers to prevent access by egg laying fe-male mosquitoes. They said mosquitoes breedprimarily in man-made containers like earth-enware jars, metal drums and concrete cisternsused for domestic water storage, as well as dis-carded plastic food containers, used automo-bile tyres and other items that collect rainwater. Dr Wasim Khawaja of PiMS said thatdengue was a mosquito-borne infection, whichin recent years has become a major publichealth concern. He said dengue fever is a se-vere, flu-like illness that affects infants, youngchildren and adults. He added the spread ofdengue is attributed to expanding geographicdistribution of the four dengue viruses and oftheir mosquito vectors.

ICT finalises monsoonemergency measures

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:27 AM Page 6

07Friday, 6 July, 2012

Islamabad

ISLAMABADApp

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) onThursday reassured its support to Allamaiqbal Open University (AiOU) to set upopen schooling network in Pakistan to im-prove existing literacy rate and ensure ed-ucation for all, at primary, middle andsecondary level.

During a detailed presentation on theopen-schooling project at the AiOU’s maincampus, the visiting COL’s education spe-cialist Ms. Frances Ferreira said that theCOL will try to find out internationaldonors to support the project which mightserve as a model for other countries to ed-ucate people, through distance-learning

system. While eulogizing the AiOU’s project,

she said COL would also be expending nec-essary technical support, like designingcontents/ curriculum of the open schoolsthat were to be set up in cooperation withthe provincial governments.

The presentation ceremony waspresided over by the vice chancellorProf.Dr. Nazir Ahmed Sangi. He hoped theCOL would be strong partner in launchingof this mega project that aimed at impart-ing basic education to around one millionboys and girls during the next three years.

“We need financial support of around$ 20 million from international donors asinitial funding for the payment of students’fee and to meet project’s cost. The project

will be made financially sustainable tomake open- schooling system self-suffi-cient”. additional secretary Sindh Mrs.Aftab inayat who was present on the occa-sion assured the AiOU all out support ofher government in implementing the proj-ect.

The presentation was given by Bureaufor University Extension and Special Pro-gramme Mir Mukhtiar Hussain Talpur,.He elaborated in detail various phases ofthe project and said that it would be a mile-stone providing basic education to peopleat the door-step.

Under the proposed project, PakistanNational institute of Open Schools andLifelong learning will be established at theAiOU to impart education at primary, mid-

dle and higher secondary levels throughoutPakistan, through distance and open learn-ing system.

The system has already been success-fully tested in many other countries includ-ing UK, india, Namibia and Tanzania. Themain beneficiary of the project drop-outgirls who missed their education due tosome social and financial constrains, boys,who are working as child labour and theadult who could not carry forward their ed-ucation on different reasons, The vicechancellor further said the University hadthe capacity and required academic poten-tial for developing necessary curriculumand other parameters to implement theplan in its true spirit.

AiOU will develop a wide-range of ed-

ucational courses at post- literary pre-ter-tiary level and set up an effective openlearning structures and system for thoseyoung and adult people who are currentlyoutside the formal and non-formal educa-tion.

Majid Rashid a focal person of COLalso gave presentation on Rural internetSchooling Education. He said this projectis a brain-child of the vice chancellorwould be a part of AiOU’s vision of life-long learning. it aimed at bringing peopleof all ages in the main stream of educationsystem. This would be a novel methodol-ogy ensuring equal access to secondary ed-ucation in Pakistan, he added.

All deans and heads of various depart-ments attended the ceremony.

COL to help aIOU set up open schooling network

RAWALPINDIApp

WATER and Sanita-tion Agency(WASA) on Thurs-day announcedthat it had cleared

silt and solid waste from Nullah Leh tosave the low-lying areas from flood dur-ing the upcoming monsoon season.

Talking to APP, Deputy ManagingDirector WASA said that Nullah Lehmainly in low lying areas have beencleared of silt and solid waste and fur-ther widened and deepened to save thecity from the flood devastations.

Gawalmandi area was especially fo-cused during the cleanliness drive asdue to heavily populated locality, alarge amount of garbage and filth isthrown in the nullah which created ob-stacle in the smooth flow of flood water,he said adding, the section of the nullahhas been cleared. City Sadar Road,Dhoke Charg Deen, Pirwadhi, New Ka-trian and Dhoke Naju were also criticalsections of Nullah Leh which werecleared of silt and solid waste, he in-formed. The filth and all types ofgarbage were removed to make sure the

smooth flood water flow particularlyduring heavy rains in upcoming mon-soon season. He urged the people tocome forward and play their role inprotecting especially low lying areas ofthe city from flood devastations,adding, solid waste, garbage, shoppingbags should not be thrown in nullahsparticularly in Nullah Leh as these cre-ate blockages in the way of flood water.As a result the flood water plays havocwith the properties and lives of the peo-ple, he added. Meanwhile, the city dis-

trict government has made otherarrangements with setting up of specialcontrol rooms and flood relief camps toprovide relief to the people in caseheavy monsoon rains are recorded.

On the other hand, the residents oflow lying areas particularly Waris Khan,Glass Factory, Mokh Singh State, DhokeKhaba, Umer Road, Nadeem Colony,Dhoke Elahi Bukush, Arya Mohallah,Javed Colony demanded more focusedapproach with visible steps so that thedanger of flood could be minimized.

Rain to beat heat spellISLAMABAD

App

Pakistan Meteorological Department(PMD) on Thursday forecast rain for differ-ent parts of the country which will beat theprevailing long heat spell, giving relief tothe people. Rain/dust thunderstorm islikely at the scattered places of islamabad,Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodhaand Faisalabad divisions during the next24 hours. According to the synoptic situa-tion, seasonal low lies over northwestBalochistan and adjoining areas with itstrough extending southeast wards. Weakmonsoon currents are penetrating intoupper parts of the country and likely topersist for the next three days. Rain/dust-thunderstorm is expected at scatteredplaces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa includingMalakand, Hazara, Peshawar and Kohatdivisions during the next 24 hours. Mainly hot and dry weather is expected inmost parts of the Sindh during the next 24hours. However dust-thunderstorm/lightrain is likely at isolated places of Sindhcoast during the next 24 hours. The weather will remain hot and dry inBalochistan. Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan,mostly partly cloudy weather is expectedwith chances of rain/thunderstorm at scat-tered places during the next 24 hours. Yesterday’s highest maximum temperaturerecorded in Bannu , Bhakkar, Bhawalnagarand Dalbandeen was 47 C. The maximumtemperatures of other cities during the last24 hours were islamabad 42 C, Lahore 39,Quetta 40, Karachi 34, Peshawar 43,Muzaffarabad 42, Gilgit 40, Murree 29,Multan 44 and Faisalabad 44C.

NuST hosts seminaron management innovation

ISLAMABADsTAff repOrT

One of the renowned names in the field ofcreativity and innovation, Fredrik Harenenthralled audience at National Univer-sity of Sciences and Technology with hiscogent views on the subject area. As soon as he ascended the rostrum, theguest speaker started floating ideas andthat too in a very interesting manner toingrain in the audience the very essenceof innovation. invited to the main campus of the univer-sity to conduct a daylong seminar onmanagement innovation, the author ofThe idea Book (2004), counted amongtop 100 business books of all times, mes-merized the gathering of academics andscholars with his thought-provoking ideaspunctuated with humour-coated exam-ples to help them understand the worthof thinking in new ways. He talked at length on a range of topics,including: From the information Age tothe innovation Age; why business creativ-ity will become even more important inthe future and why we are less creativethan we think, but more creative than wecan imagine.Fredrik is credited with over 1000speeches, lectures and workshops on ideageneration and entrepreneurship to morethan 100,000 people in over 20 coun-tries. He has held seminars for hundredsof organizations in almost every line ofbusiness, including Hewlett Packard,American Express, ABB, China Mobile,Nokia, Ericsson, Ogilvy and BiMBA. Hisbestseller, The idea Book (2004), aims atawakening the spirit of creativity and in-novation among his readers. its 50,000copies in the Swedish version alone havesold. it has also been translated into 15different languages. His latest book, TheDeveloping World (2009), is about cre-ativity, dreams and a curiosity about theworld, written about change and awaken-ing and the dangers of not seeing what isgoing on in the world today.

ieSCO power shutdown notice

ISLAMABADApp

islamabad Electric Supply Company(iESCO) on Thursday issued powershutdown schedule for various areasdue to necessary maintenance and rou-tine development work. According to iESCO Spokesman, powersupply of the areas fall under the follow-ing Grid Station/feeders would remainsuspended as under: - July 6 (Friday)from 6am to 9am, Best Way CementFactory, C.S Shah, From 5am to 1pmDhurnal feeder, D.S Bilawal July 9(Monday) From 07am to 12pm, TenchBhatta feeder, Capt. Aamir feeder, RadioPakistan feeder, Azizabad feeder, TenchBhatta, Radio Pakistan, Dk. Syedan, Az-izabad and Surrounding area July 7-9(Saturday-Monday) From 7am to 11am,Peshawar Road feeder, Millatabadfeeder, Peshawar Road, Chour Chowk,Millatabad July 10 (Tuesday) From 7amto 11am, Saghri feeder, K/Syedan feeder,Redco feeder, Saghri, Mankiala, Bashn-dot, Kallar Syedan & Redco.

rAWALPINDI: Amidst the increasing ratio of unemployment and inflation inthe country, 50 daily-wage employees of Parks and Horticulture Agency (PHA)have been sacked from service due to the paucity of funds in the PHA. Accordingto information, the PHA removed these daily wages employees under the verbalorders of higher officials while majority of gardeners were included among the

sacked employees. Assuring that the Sacked employees would be reinstated afterreceiving finical assistance from the Punjab government, Director Administration

PHA, Dr Afzal called finical crisis of PHA as a reason behind the removal of theseemployees. Meanwhile, the sacked employees demanded of the provincial govern-

ment to take notice of this issue and to issue orders for their reinstatement. ONliNe

WASA clears NullahLeh to avert floods

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:27 AM Page 7

08 Friday, 6 July, 2012

Islamabad

Low

High

SATuRdAy SuNdAy MONdAy31°C i 26°C 29°C i 25°C 31°C i 26°C

PRAyeR TiMiNGSFajr Sunrise zuhr Asr Maghrib isha

03:20 05:02 12:12 15:57 19:22 21:04

CiTy diReCTORy

POLiCe eMeRGeNCy 15

AMbuLANCe 115

ReSCue 1122

HiLAL-e-AHMeR 9250488

edHi FOuNdATiON 2827844

bOMb diSPOSAL 9270698

FiRe bRiGAde CeNTRe 16

CiviL deFeNCe 9262830

eMeRGeNCy HeLP

HOSPiTALS

bLOOd bANk

PiMS bLOOd bANk 9261272

POLy CLiNiC bLOOd bANk 9209123

COMPLAiNT

WAPdA 111-000-118

Sui GAS 1199

RAiLWAyS

CiTy STATiON (eNquiRy) 117

ReSeRvATiON 9273614

RAiLWAy POLiCe 1333

AiRPORT

FLiGHT eNquiRy 114

PiA ReSeRvATiON 111-786-786

COLLeGeS / uNiveRSiTieS

iNTeRNATiONAL iSLAMiC uNiveRSiTy 9260765

bAHRiA uNiveRSiTy 9260002

NuML 9257677

quAid-e-AzAM uNiveRSiTy 90642098

ARid AGRiCuLTuRe uNiveRSiTy 9290151

FJWu 9273235

RiPHA iNTeRNATiONAL uNiveRSiTy 111510510

NCA RAWALPiNdi 5770423

PuNJAb LAW COLLeGe 4421347

MAHROOF iNT 2222920

PiMS 9261170

POLy CLiNiC 9218300

CdA 9221334

SHiFA iNTeRNATiONAL 4603666

ALi 4444435

diSTRiCT HqS 5556311-14

uLTRASONiC CLiNiC 2824862

HOLy FAMiLy 9290319

IT's summer AGAIN!

it's the summer again & kuch khaas is back with all things awesome! June 18th - July 31st. For more details call 051-8357483

drummING CIrCle

dATe ANd TiMe: 05:00 PM, WeekLy eveNTveNue: THe CeNTRe FOR ARTS & CuLTuRe

Our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoingevent and is held every Friday from 5pmto 6pmWe are having a great time, and want toshare the good time with you! Ourdrumming circle has children ...

Partly Cloudy

WeATHeR uPdATeS

34°C

dATe: JuNe 18 TO JuLy 31, 2012 veNue: CeNTRe FOR ARTS ANd CuLTuRe

26°C

TOur TO KHIlAsH, CHITrAl,sHANdOOr, GIlGIT, eTC

every month, FAC organizes several tripsand expeditions to various locations inPakistan. For more updates like our Communitypage:www.facebook.com/falconadventureclub

dATe: JuLy 06 TO 14, 2012 veNue: FALCON AdveNTuRe CLub

RAWALPINDIONliNe

LACK of basic facilitiesin different schools inRawalpindi division isproof of the provincialgovernment’s negli-

gence in providing quality educa-

tion. Majority of schools have noroofs forcing the students to studyin open atmosphere in all four sea-sons. There are a lot of other publicschools that lack infrastructure.Many schools have no furniture inclassrooms, and lack teaching staff,toilets, clean drinking water andplaygrounds.

Clean drinking water has al-ways been a big issue for publicschools. A number of schools in thedistrict have no water tanks andsome that have them, don’t havedrinkable water.

A number of public school stu-dents get sick after drinking waterfrom these tanks.

Govt sets up scrutiny

committee for

educators’ recruitment

RAWALPINDIONliNe

The district education depart-ment has set up a scrutiny com-mittee for the recruitment of992 educators in Rawalpindi.The recruitment of science andEnglish teachers would be mate-rialized up to August 11 whileJuly 10 would be the last datefor the submission of forms.The government will recruit 21English teachers in grade-16 assenior schoolteachers while 55teachers would be recruited assenior schoolteachers ingrade-16 for chemistry and bi-ology. For physics and Mathe-matics, the government willrecruit 50 senior schoolteach-ers in grade-16.Meanwhile, recruitment of 537junior teachers (science –math)will be carried for eliminatoryschools in grade-9 while 186and 143 senior eliminatoryschoolteachers would be hiredfor grade-14.

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:27 AM Page 8

09Friday, 6 July, 2012

Foreign News

UNITED NATIONSAfp

THE UN SecurityCouncil onThursday passeda resolution call-ing for sanctions

against Al-Qaeda-linkedfighters in Mali blamed forthe desecration of the tombsof Muslim saints.

But the council heldback from giving a UN man-date to a proposed WestAfrican force to help the in-terim government to takeback territory from islamistrebels in the north of thecountry.

The 15-nation councilunanimously passed Resolu-

tion 2056 which called onUN states to submit namesof individuals and groupslinked to Al-Qaeda “notablyin the north of Mali.”

islamist fighters havedestroyed the tombs of sev-eral Muslim saints in thenorthern city of Timbuktu.The resolution warned thatthe desecration could lead tointernational CriminalCourt charges. West Africannations have been pressingfor UN backing for a pro-posed intervention forcethey want to send to Mali,where a military coup onMarch 22 was followed bythe rebel breakthrough inthe north of the country.

The council called on

West African states to pro-vide more information aboutthe objectives and means ofthe proposed force before itcould act.

The resolution noted therequest by the EconomicCommunity of West AfricanStates (ECOWAS) and theAfrican Union to give a UNmandate to the force.

The council said it wasready “to further examinethe request of ECOWASonce additional informationhas been provided regardingthe objectives, means andmodalities of the envisageddeployment.”

African diplomats saiddetails on the force would beprovided within days.

UN calls for sanctionsagainst al Qaedafighters in Mali

DAMASCUSAfp

China joined Russia on Thursday in boy-cotting a meeting aimed at coordinating ef-forts to stop the killing in Syria, where threesenior army officers were among the latestto be killed.

Moscow confirmed that some Westerncountries had asked it to offer Syrian Pres-ident Bashar al-Assad a haven in exile, say-ing it had dismissed the idea as a joke.

in Beijing, foreign ministry spokesmanLiu Weimin said China would not attendthe so-called “Friends of Syria” gathering inParis on Friday. China “at present does notconsider attending the meeting,” Liu said.

Russia has also said it will stay awayfrom the meeting after accusing the Westof seeking to distort a weekend deal byworld powers in Geneva aimed at achievinga transition of power. The Paris meetingfollows one in Tunis and another in istan-bul, both of which called in vain for tougheraction against Assad’s government.

China did not attend either of thosemeetings, in which the United States,France, Britain, Germany and Arab nationsSaudi Arabia and Qatar lead a group ofmore than 60 members, including most EUstates and many Arab League nations.

China backed Russia in Geneva on in-sisting that Syrians must decide how thetransition should be carried out, ratherthan allow others to dictate their fate, anddid not rule out Assad remaining in powerin some form. The West has said Assad

should not be part of any new unity govern-ment. Russian Foreign Minister SergeiLavrov confirmed that Western nationshad asked Moscow to offer Assad asylumand that Russia had thought it was a joke.

He said the idea was first raised by Ger-man Chancellor Angela Merkel duringJune 1 talks with Russian PresidentVladimir Putin in Berlin. “Our side thoughtthis was a joke and responded with a joke— how about you, the Germans, take MrAssad instead,” Lavrov said during a pressappearance with his German counterpart,Guido Westerwelle. Lavrov said he was“quite surprised” when the idea was raisedagain during the meeting in Geneva on Sat-urday. The foreign minister also repeatedRussia’s displeasure with the slow pace ofreforms pursued by its Soviet-era ally, butagain argued that any attempts at forcedregime change were doomed to end in evengreater violence. “Yes, the regime bears themain responsibility,” but those who seekregime change “ignore the fact that we arenot talking about a few dozen people — asthey tell us we are — but a very large part ofthe Syrian population that ties its securityto the current president.” On the eve of theParis meeting, Amnesty internationalcalled for an immediate arms embargo onthe Syrian government and for caution overthe supply of weapons to rebels.

“Amid growing reports of abuses bymembers of the armed opposition, statesshould also stop arms transfers to the op-position wherever there is a substantialrisk that they are likely to be used for war

crimes or other human rights abuses,” itsaid. On the ground, the Syrian Observa-tory for Human Rights reported at least27 people were killed nationwide onThursday, a day after 99 people died inthe violence that has plagued the country

for nearly 16 months. The Britain-basedwatchdog has estimated that more than16,500 people have been killed since theSyria uprising erupted in mid-March lastyear. Among the dead in this week’s vio-lence, the Observatory said gunmen

killed a general and two other senior of-ficers on Wednesday. Another generalbecame the 15th such high-ranking offi-cer to flee the conflict-wracked nationwhen he defected to Turkey on Wednes-day, a Turkish diplomat said.

China joins russia in staying away from syria talks

LONDON: WikiLeaks said Thursday it was publishing over two million emails from Syrian political figures dating back to 2006but also covering the period of the crackdown on dissent by Syria’s regime. “Just now... WikiLeaks began publishing the Syriafiles, more than two million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies dating from August 2006 toMarch 2012,” said Sarah Harrison, spokeswoman for the anti-secrecy website. The latest disclosures could throw fresh light onthe workings of the Syrian regime and its interactions with allies in the run-up to and during the current bloody crackdown. TheBritish-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the 16 months of bloodshed in Syria have claimed more than 16,500lives. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London seeking political asylum, saidin a written statement: “The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s external opponents. “Ithelps us not merely to criticise one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. “It is only throughunderstanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it.” WikiLeaks said the first files, released on Wednesday, reveal thatItalian defence giant Finmeccanica has provided communications equipment to the Syrian regime since the unrest began. Thecommunications system was provided by Finmeccanica’s subsidiary SELEX Elsag, in claims by WikiLeaks published by Italianmagazine L’Espresso. WikiLeaks’ announcement comes a day after Russia denied having discussed with Washington offeringexile to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. It also comes ahead of a meeting Friday in Paris of the “Friends of Syria” group ofcountries which support tougher action against Assad’s government. WikiLeaks said the 2,434,899 emails came from Syrianministries including foreign affairs, finance and presidential affairs. There are around 400,000 emails in Arabic but also 68,000 inRussian. Harrison said WikiLeaks could not comment on the full contents of the release, which is being organised in collaborationwith media partners in countries including the US, Lebanon, Egypt, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. “This is a large data set.It will take time for these stories to come out,” she said at a press conference in London announcing the release. She refused tocomment on how WikiLeaks had obtained the emails, telling AFP: “We never comment on our sourcing.” AFP

WikiLeaks begins publishing twomillion Syria emails

RAMALLAHAfp

A Palestinian call for an internationalprobe into Yasser Arafat’s death won of-ficial backing from Tunisia on Thursday,after a report showed the leader mayhave been poisoned.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyadal-Malki told the official Voice of Pales-tine radio on Thursday that such an en-quiry could finally “close the file” onArafat’s mysterious death.

And Tunisia called for the ArabLeague to convene.

“We call for an urgent meeting ofArab League foreign ministers and thecreation of an international committee toinvestigate the circumstances surround-ing the death” of Arafat, Foreign MinisterRafik Abdessalem told private radio sta-tion Mosaique FM.

“We are waiting for this Tunisian ini-tiative to be translated into action and forthe meeting to be held,” Malki said.

“Then we will ask for an interna-tional investigation committee to beformed similar to the one formed into theassassination of (Lebanese Prime Minis-

ter) Rafiq Hariri so we can solve so manyof the unanswered questions,” he added.

“We want to show that the PA(Palestinian Authority) leadership andpeople are all anxious to know all the de-tails surrounding Arafat’s death, so wecan close this file.”

On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera televisionbroadcast the results of a nine-monthprobe it commissioned into the 2004death of the iconic Palestinian leader thatindicated he could have been poisonedwith the radioactive substance polonium.

The next day Palestinian presidentMahmud Abbas endorsed exhumingArafat’s body from its mausoleum at thePalestinian presidency headquarters inthe West Bank city of Ramallah for aforensic examination.

The supreme Palestinian islamicauthority, Grand Mufti of JerusalemMohammed Hussein, said there wasno religious law forbidding Arafat’sexhumation.

“if it is necessary to examine abody for the needs of an inquiry andthat requires its full or partial retrievalthere is nothing to prevent that,” hetold AFP on Thursday.

palestinian call forarafat death probebacked by Tunis

eight-year-olddies of bird fluin indonesiaJAkArTA: An eight-year-old girlin indonesia has died of bird flu, thehealth ministry reported Thursday,in the country’s eighth fatal casethis year. The girl from Karawangdistrict in western Java died on July3, three weeks after visiting amarket and helping to carryslaughtered birds home, theministry’s website reported.indonesia is the nation hardest-hitby bird flu, with 157 other fatalitiesreported since 2003 out of 357worldwide, according to the mostrecent World Health Organisationfigures, which exclude the latestdeath. Bird flu, also known as theH5N1 virus, typically spreads frombirds to humans through directcontact, but experts fear it couldmutate into a form that is easilytransmissible between humans. Afp

Fukushima was‘man-made’disaster: probe

TOkYOAfp

Last year’s Fukushima nuclearaccident was a man-made disastercaused by Japan’s culture of“reflexive obedience” and not just thetsunami that hit the plant, a damningparliamentary report said Thursday.ingrained collusion between plantoperator Tokyo Electric Power, thegovernment and regulators,combined with a lack of any effectiveoversight led directly to the worstnuclear accident in a generation, thereport said. “They effectively betrayedthe nation’s right to be safe fromnuclear accidents. Therefore, weconclude that the accident was clearly‘man-made’,” said the FukushimaNuclear Accident independentinvestigation Commission. “Webelieve that the root causes were theorganisational and regulatory systemsthat supported faulty rationales fordecisions and actions,” it said. Theprobe is the third of its kind in Japansince the huge tsunami of March 2011crashed into the Fukushima Daiichinuclear power station.

NANCHONg: Chinese rescue

workers evacuate residents

from their home in the

flood-hit town of Nanchong

on Thursday. afp

wAsHiNgTON: fireworks illuminate the night sky

over the washington Monument (bottom) during

fourth of July celebrations on wednesday. afp

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:27 AM Page 9

Comment10Friday, 6 July, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

The parliament makes its move

Another round

in the present state of confrontation between the SupremeCourt and the executive, there is a likelihood of anotherstandoff between the two as the government introduces twonew bills in parliament. The issue of the dismissal of former

prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will remain a matter for debatein days to come. The Supreme Court was unmoved by theargument that Gilani had declined to write the letter as heconsidered it to be against the constitutional provision providingimmunity to the head of state from litigation. Gilani’s plea that hecould not think of being disrespectful to the apex court and hadtherefore appeared before it twice was also rejected. The issuethat heads of state and government cannot take timely decisionswith the judiciary breathing down their neck has been raised byrespectable jurists outside Pakistan also. The cabinet’s approval ofa bill to change the contempt law and provide immunity to thegovernment leaders is aimed at ensuring that the present primeminister who has to play a central role in overseeing an orderlytransition of power is not removed prematurely like Gilani. Thegovernment will not have difficulty in getting the bill through onaccount of its majority in the National Assembly.

The cabinet has also approved a draft bill proposingamendment in article 63(1) C to enable Pakistanis having dualnationality to contest election for the parliament. The argumentby those opposing the bill that two nationalities can lead toconflict of interests carries weight. in case of legislators andministers with divided loyalties, this could lead to decision thatharm national interests. The argument that the expatriatesconstitute the backbone of the national economy on account ofthe remittances they send may be correct. But the largemajority of the expatriates do not have dual nationality. Again,most of those holding two passports have neither theinclination nor the means to contest elections in Pakistan. Thisexplains why the coalition partners are divided over the issue. itremains to be seen if the government can get the needed twothirds majority to pass the constitutional amendment.

The parliament has the right to amend the constitution andlaw. The Supreme Court should not be seen to be creatinghurdles in the way of the parliament as it performs the dutyassigned to it by the constitution. All institutions of the statehave to function in harmony. This is possible only when they treateach other with respect and do not transgress their mandate.

an unreasonable Indianstuck on stereotypes

Most people desire to livein peace. if that is thecase then why the statesof Pakistan and indiahave failed in this quest?

One may blame the politicians, diplomats,civil and military decision makers of boththe countries for exhibiting tunnel visionat critical junctures to reach conflict reso-lution. This put the onus on the commonfolks across the borders to engage inmeaningful dialogues to develop a betterunderstanding of one another.

Most people neither have the meansnor the time to make visits across the bor-ders to see for themselves how their coun-terparts think about them and theircountry. Often those who appear in theelectronic media and write in the presshave either peculiar agenda to pursue orexperience certain invisible restrictionswhich do not allow them to freely expressthemselves. Moreover, these people arenot ‘common’ folks in the real sense of the

world. it was mydesire to find howa common indianthinks about Pak-istanis that ipicked up a bookby Mr U V Singh, ahighly educatedindian with vastexperience in cor-porate manage-ment andpossessing a doc-torate from NewDelhi, a post-doc-torate from Franceand having the au-thorship of threebooks to his creditincluding the‘indo-Pak rela-t i o n s - g l a m o u r ,drama or diplo-macy.’

To gain theconfidence ofone’s opponentsfor fruitful engage-ment, one has tofirst engage theother with all thedue courtesies andcivilities. i leave itto the readers todecide how thepeople of the two

countries can advance towards a people-to-people rapprochement if an ‘educated’indian has such feelings about Pakistanand its citizens. For example, he terms thecreation of Pakistan a ‘nefarious adven-ture’. He calls its birth an ‘unpleasant act’.To him “Pakistan is like a fakir with onlyone cloak of anti-indianism to cover itsbody.” in his grand view, “The rationale ofPakistan’s existence is to be anti-india andanti-Hindu”; that Pakistanis blindly par-rot out, “india is our enemy number one”;that its rulers are ‘mentally distorted’ and“Pakistan’s real intention is not to do any-thing to improve relations with india so asto keep its population poverty strickenand development denied”; and “withoutanti-indian opium, Pakistan’s rulers sus-pect that the country might not survive.”He then concludes that Pakistan is an ‘evil’and india is a ‘non-evil’ much like RonaldReagan labelling the erstwhile SovietUnion as an ‘evil empire’.

After such harangue about Pakistan,he sharpens his tirade against the Pakista-nis by branding the ‘Pakistani mindset’ asan ‘islamist mindset’ by which he meansthat the whole Pakistani nation is nothingbut a mass of religious militants. Heequates the post-partition violence as the‘vicious islamic violence’- a deliberate at-tempt to establish a link between Pakista-nis and their religion, islam- as beinginherently violent. Whereas several histor-ical studies have proved that the post-par-tition violence was primarily motivated bypersonal greed and sense of vengeance onthe part of the perpetrators whetherHindu, Muslim or Sikh. Moreover, thoughevery student of religion knows that no re-ligion preaches hatred and bloodshed ofhumans; this ‘educated’ indian arguesthat “islam was never a religion of peace”and that “sword and bloodshed have ap-pealed [to the Muslims] more than dia-logue and understanding.”

With such sweeping generalisationsabout islam, he delves into the history ofHindu-Muslim relations in the subconti-nent where he finds Muslims only as ‘in-vaders’, who killed, plundered and forciblyconverted Hindus to islam during thecourse of interaction extending over a mil-lennium. Without quoting any historicalauthority, he surprises the readers by stat-ing that the All-india Muslim League hadtwo ‘vicious militias’ that indulged in thekillings of Hindus in horrendous propor-tions after the League’s Direct Action callin 1946. What were the names of those ‘vi-

cious militias’? ; Who were their heads?And who has historically investigated their‘heinous’ acts? ‘Our worthy writer has noteven bothered to answer these questions.

There is an unmistakable hint of fearin this Hindu indian of Muslims, whom helook upon as ‘predatory invaders’. He feelsa constant threat to his country from Pak-istan, which is much smaller in size, num-bers and defence capabilities than india.Thus, about the first indo-Pak war overKashmir in 1947-48, he ignorantly assertsthat Pakistanis tried to grab the whole ofKashmir ‘under the guise of a tribal attack’whereas historical researches have re-vealed that the first indian Governor-Gen-eral Mountbatten and Premier Nehru hadsecretly sent artillery and forces to Kash-mir much before the tribal invasion. Andthen this ‘educated’ indian ‘innocently’whips Mountbatten for fooling ‘Chacha’Nehru to go to the UN for a favourableoutcome of the conflict as if the ‘Chacha’was not an astute politician but merely a‘goofy kaka’. With sheer naiveté borderingeither on ignorance or spitefulness, thisindian makes a startling allegation thatPremier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dreamt of sep-arating india’s north-east by cutting it offat the chicken’s neck with the Chinesehelp and when this did not materialisethen the state of Pakistan fuelled theTamil insurgency. He brings his discourseto the present-day efforts being made forPak-india normalcy by stating that “Theleopard [Pakistan] is not changing spots;it is not ready for peace. Whatever it mightsay for public consumption, Pakistanfirmly believes that peace with india is notin its interest.” in one go, our ‘educated’indian has decided to act as the judge, juryand the executioner.

He represents the educated and in-formed indians and is not the mouthpieceof india’s political or military establish-ment but ironically his views about thepast, present and future of Pak-india rela-tions are quite identical to the stereotypical‘official’ views of the indian state. Thepropaganda machine of ‘democratic’ indiahas proved to be as good as that of ‘author-itarian’ Pakistan. Can there be a meaning-ful meeting of minds even with educatedindians if this is what their views are aboutPakistan and the Pakistani nation. Let thetwo peoples judge themselves.

The writer is an academic andjournalist. He can be reached atqizilbash2000@yahoo.com

eye on HistoryBy Basharat Hussain Qizilbash

The old guard and new ground realities

India’s changing political landscape

The Bhartiya Janata Party seems tohave a tryst with doom. in thewake of scams and scandals in the

Congress-run government, the BJP wasgaining ground. its performance in Par-liament was comparatively better and itsyounger leadership assertive and moremeaningful. But once again, the RSSmen have been riding the party that hasbrought it back to square one.

First Gujarat Chief Minister Naren-der Modi joined issued with Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar on the concept ofsecularism and then RSS played theHindutava card. Both have scotchedeven the remotest chance of BJP return-ing to power. A person who has his

hands tainted with the blood of Muslimscannot be projected as india’s next PM.Nor can the false clothes of culture hidethe real face of adherents to HinduRashtriya concept.

The BJP has, by and large, remainedquiet. One if its leaders has spoken outof turn and questioned the very conceptof secularism. But he was hushed upquickly. it seems that the party did de-lude itself with the idea that the Hinduvoters were beginning to own the RSSphilosophy. The BJP should have learntthe lesson in 2009 when it was all set towin but lost to the Congress.

Political parties, including the Con-gress, do not understand the new elec-torate, mostly young. it is liberal inoutlook and hates to mix religion withpolitics. This was the ethos which thenation adopted during the independencestruggle and after freedom as a pole starunder the leadership of MahatamaGandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru andMaulana Abul Kalam Azad.

True, regional chauvinism, which isco-terminus with caste and communityin certain states, is rearing its ugly head.This is because the centre looks confusedand equivocal when it comes to enunci-ate policies which demand secular cre-dentials. Having little feedback from thefield, New Delhi continues to monopolisepower and fails to appreciate that the de-

centralisation would infuse life amongthe people in a state. Regional aspira-tions have got a new edge in the pastyears and the locals are fired with confi-dence that they can sort out their prob-lems themselves and find a consensusquicker than the remote New Delhi does.

This is the reason why Trinamul Con-gress won in West Bengal and SamajwadiParty in UP. The voters found the partiescloser to them and more sympathetic totheir problems. Even if these regional par-ties do not give them a better administra-tion the people are not likely to go back toall india parties which they have foundfailing them again and again. They maytry another party within the region be-cause they are getting convinced that allindia parties are not an answer to theirproblems of appalling living conditions.

The idea of india may be pushed fur-ther into the background. There may beinsurgents and separatists in certain areasto assert the identity of their caste or com-munity, believing that in the affairs of allindia politics they may get lost. Muchwould depend on how New Delhi handlesthe situation. The Sarkaria Commissionon Centre-State relations has become out-dated. Had its recommendations been im-plemented when the report came out morethan two decades ago, the demand by thestates to have more powers might not havearisen. The Centre has to curtail the sub-

jects it has, either voluntarily or through aConstitutional amendment. Apart fromDefence, Foreign Affairs, Currency andoverall financial planning, New Delhishould not have more subjects. Once it de-centralises its power it should ensure thatthe decentralisation goes all the way, fromthe state capital to the district and then tothe Panchayat so that people themselvesparticipate in governance.

The two main parties, Congress, theBJP and the Left would have problems.The Left does not seem to bother becauseit is dictatorial in its working. The CPMousted a member from the party eventhough he had resigned after supportingPranab Mukherjee, the Congress Party’spresidential candidate. Yet both the Con-gress and the BJP need to handle theirmembers carefully. Both parties wouldhave great difficulty for 2014 election,first in choosing the top person and thentackling him or her. Take for example theBJP, it is already wooing VasundherarajeSindhia, former Chief Minister, whothumbed the party and stayed in thewilderness because she was sure that theCentral BJP would one day come to herand accept her authoritarian leadership.

Problems of the Congress on thiscount are negligible. Sonia Gandhi hasall the authority. That Rahul Gandhi, herson, should be nominated as number twohas already been done. There is no dissi-

dence and she alone, more so after thedeparture of Pranab Mukherjee, has theconfidence of allies in the ruling UnitedProgressive Alliance (UPA) she chairs.

The BJP would need more and moreassistance of RSS to sort out difficultieswith the state leaders. Realising this,RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat has an-nounced that Modi has all the qualifica-tions to become india’s new PM.However, this has naturally infuriatedthe BJP’s main ally, Janata Dal (United).its President Sharad Pawar has said thatif Modi is the Prime Minister candidate,the JD (UP) would quit the BJP-led Na-tional Democratic Alliance (NDA).

What is wrong with having a Hindu-tava prime minister, questions Bhagwat?This question itself shows how RSS livesin a world of it own and does not face thereality of secular india. For the BJP, al-ready a divided house, the confusion ismore confounded. it realises that thecountry can never be ruled through acommunal agenda. Even the former PMAtal Behari Vajpayee realised this and al-ways put his liberal foot forward. He re-fused to oust his Principal SecretaryBrijesh Mishra despite the pressure ofRSS. But then the BJP’s problem is thatit does not have a tall person like Vaj-payee to withstand the pressure of RSS.

The writer is a senior Indian journalist.

Border CrossingsBy kuldip Nayar

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:27 AM Page 10

The Honourable Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja made aseparate note on the Supreme Court detailed judgementin the National Assembly Speaker ruling case. He madea very interesting observation: he stressed that theconstitution is supreme over all organs of the state,representing the will of the people. The constitution alsoexplicitly states, in the preamble, that the will of thepeople should be used to establish a constitutionalorder. it also says in the third schedule, that theconstitution embodies the will of the people. it is thisfundamental principle that is the hallmark of ourdemocratic dispensation.

i must state that i am not a lawyer or a legal expertso cannot comment on the technical and legalimplications of the Supreme Court’s decision. However,there are a few questions i would like to raise.

The present constitution was approved by theparliament in 1973 whose members were not elected as aconstitution making assembly when Pakistan comprisedof two wings. Then how can it be asserted that the 1973Constitution was made by the will of the majority?

is it not the will of the people of Pakistan to get

socioeconomic necessities and speedy justice? Whatsolution does the present constitution provide when acountry is facing problems of internal disorder,sectarian killings, religious extremism and terrorism?Can the state organs of judiciary, parliament andexecutive try to work jointly to solve these issues andrepresent the will of the people in reality rather thanprinciple?

Which state organ actually represents the will of thepeople - the parliament or the judiciary? Which stateorgan has he power to amend the constitution? if theparliament can amend the constitution, then how areparliament and judiciary equal in protecting the will ofthe people? is it not true that the present PPP-ledgovernment and president were not keen on restoringthe current CJ and a few other high-up judges?

is it not true that the Army Chief played a role inrestoring the CJ in March 2009?

is it not true that the present judges adopted judicialactivism that mainly targeted the PPP led governmentand its key executives?

is it not true that the SC judges have shown

unanimity of views in the judgement against theexecutive and there have been no independent views ofany judge on any case? Why has the judiciary beenentertaining politically motivated petitions by theopposition parties? Do these parties represent the will ofthe majority of people?

Why does the judiciary exercise caution in theinterest of political stability and follow the rules ofdemocracy and wait another six months when the newgovernment is ushered in after the elections so that themuch required letter to the Swiss Authorities can bedispatched then?

is there no independent national institution whichcan rightly assess the judges’ performance?

What about the accountability of those judges thathave charges of corruption on their families?

Why does the judiciary not allow the parliament todebate on its performance and its expenses?

How do the people of Pakistan know the judiciary isin sync with the people’s will?

S T HUSSAINLahore

in our own interestThe Taliban’s (regardless of which

side of the border they reside) must notbe happy at the way both US andPakistan ended their 7 months longstalemate on a positive note. The timingsof the current agreement could not havebeen more appropriate as it precedes theall important negotiated settlement ofAfghanistan problem in which both USand Pakistan are major players.

As the US troops drawdown comesclose, US wants quick results from its‘renewed Afghan transition strategy’ thatgives priority to diplomacy over militaryactivity. Reaching an agreement withPakistan and de-escalating tensions withit was only one component of thisstrategy the other and more importantcomponent is bringing the Taliban’s onthe negotiation table for negotiating afuture settlement of Afghanistan.

Can the Taliban’s be trusted with apeace agreement? Their method ofspreading ‘tyranny and fear’ by recentlyresorting to cold blooded murder ofPakistani soldiers was a gruesome actthat was not only against the spirit ofislam but against any ethics of war. Byreleasing footages of these mass murderson YouTube, the Taliban gave a clearmessage of what opinion they carry aboutan army that collaborates and cooperateswith the western forces that occupy theirland. This was before the agreement onopening of the NATO supply routes. Whathappens now, only time will tell. Can thePakistan Army negotiate with themunder the current conditions? Can suchpeople be trusted by being made part of apolitical process and given control overany political space in Afghanistan?

Can the Pakistan army ‘look the otherway’ while its kidnapped soldiers aremurdered? it is in the interest ofPakistan army to first plan and executean operation in FATA to eliminate thethreat that will continue to harm/damagenational security. Gaining a position oftactical superiority against the militantsis important before initiating anynegotiations with them. Any peaceaccord signed with Taliban (a short termsecurity objective) from a position ofweakness will not hold and we willremain hostage to their militarycapability. Even after signing peaceagreements if the Taliban’s resort to theirviolent methods, would Pakistan Armyand US retain the choice to unilaterallyact against them? in fact, they will becompelled to do so. if so, then why notinitiate military operations to at leastmarginalise and reduce their capabilities.

We have been accusing the US ofviolating our sovereignty. We can onlyclaim to be sovereign if as a state weretain the ‘supreme decision makingauthority both within our territory andover our citizens’. it’s not theCommander iSAF or USA or the wholeworld reminding us that we are ‘notdoing more’. it is us who have to makethis decision.

Sovereignty only exists if it isexercised. if the architects and executersof terrorist acts continue with their workwithout the fear of any reprisal, we arefar from being sovereign. it is not thecontinuation of drone attacks but thecontinuation of our ‘failed Afghan policy’that makes us less sovereign in the eyesof the world.

MUHAMMAD ALI EHSANKarachi

unpluggedThe tug of war between the US and

Pakistan has finally ended after the magicword was uttered by the fairy godmotherHilary Clinton. One must realise thatapologising does not always mean thatone is wrong and the other right, but thatone values the relationship more thanone’s ego. So, it is ultimately implied thatPakistan is very crucial a nation in SouthAsia and that it has been actingabsolutely generously towards this war byoffering both its territory and its armedforces for the cause. The closure of theNato supply routes was just one of manydecisions that had generated conflictwith the US. Many of these divergencesof views between the two countries havenot just affected the war on terror buthave had an adverse on Pakistan inparticular has had to suffer multiplesetbacks because of the ensuing impasse.

The reopening of the supply routessurely will be beneficial for all stakeholdersinvolved in the counter-insurgencymovement. The Pakistani decision tounblock the routes shows a visible maturityin handling the affairs. At this point, itcertainly cannot afford to be isolated andUS-Pak harmony is a prerequisite forleading this war to a conclusion.

The unblocking also goes a long wayto show that we are still ready to pursuethe long war objectives of purging theterritory from militancy. The sacrifices ofour soldiers ought to be acknowledgedand our commitment must also berealised globally. This decision ought tobe welcomed as it will have positiveaffects on the economic front. Not onlywill CSF payments be made but it wouldalso help the local transporters earn their

living as they have been the worst sufferers.Pakistan also must wake up to realise

its own interests after weighing theoptions. The withholding of the CoalitionSupport Funds and other aid money, itmust be understood is something thatPakistan can ill afford at a time when theWoT becomes a colossal strain on theeconomy. in the absence of a strong caseto project in front of the world, Pakistanought to duck down from the variousblows inflicted upon it to save its face,body and interest till it become strongand gains enough strength to takeappropriate care of national affairs.

KABIL KHANPeshawar

(II)This is with reference to the DCC’s

decision to reopen NATO supply routes.A small segment of society which is un-

necessarily raising objections and callingfor mass protests should understands thathostility must not be given way to spoil therelations out of emotionalism. Enough hasbeen done in terms of punishment for theUS forces’ deliberate aerial attack on Salalacheck-post by sending a clear message thatany such attempt by the US in future wouldcarry severe repercussions. Also theopening of NATO supply would have apositive impact on the bilateral relationsand pave the way for resolving long pend-ing issues. it would also allow Pakistan toplay its role for peace and stability in theregion in a more effective manner.

The decision to open GLOC has beentaken keeping in view the best of nationalinterests under the parliamentary guide-lines therefore it should be respected by allthe factions of the society within Pakistan.

A’AYAN HUSSAINIslamabad

Comment 11Friday, 6 July, 2012

Jinnah was hereit is very sad to read the news that a

historical house in Mirpurkhas is beingdemolished by its owners. Quaid-i-AzamMohammad Ali Jinnah stayed in thathouse on Dec 28, 1943. The house isspread over 3200 square feet and wasdeclared an evacuee property. The housewas also divided into four portions.

The Government of Sindh should takeimmediate action and should take thepossession of that property. The houseshould be renovated and should be turnedinto a museum for the general public.

All those houses where our nationalleaders stayed should be taken over bythe government and should be declaredheritage sites. i hope that the requisiteauthorities will look into the matter sothat this house in Mirpurkhas will not bedemolished.

MUBASHIR MAHMOODKarachi

dual nationality debateFor those who advocate granting

constitutional right to dual nationalityholders to contest parliamentaryelections in Pakistan, i have a question.if George Galloway, a British national bybirth, were to willingly adopt Pakistaninationality, will he be eligible to be amember of House of Commons or Houseof Lords? The answer is no. it is the lastand most recent oath of loyalty which anindividual takes that matters and not theoriginal nationality that he had. i havegreat respect and admiration for LordNazeer who holds a British passport, butif any of his British born children were totake a US passport pledging loyalty toUSA, thereby renouncing loyalty to HerMajesty and the UK, they would becomeineligible to contest elections for theHouse of Commons, House of Lords orhold any public office and ambassadorialassignment. it seems this coalition govtwould go to any extent and submit toblackmail of their coalition partners atany cost, even if this compromises ourstate sovereignty, economic viability anddefensive nuclear capability.

ANEELA CHANDIOSukkur

Will of the people?

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

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

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

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan

Today exclusively.

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:27 AM Page 11

12 Friday, 6 July, 2012

Cocktail releases themusic video for ‘jugni’

COCKTAIL‘S album has received superbaudience reaction and with that we have seenfour Pakistani talented singers making their

debut in Bollywood soundtrack. The latest musicvideo ‘Jugni’ depicts the preppy, fun side of themovie. Arif Lohar and Harshdeep Kaur lent theirvoices for Jugni. The song is a traditional Punjabitrack with western music. A perfect blend of music,lyrics and vocals has led to the creation of thissoulful song. The song was originally designed byRohail Hyatt and Arif Lohar for Coke Studio and isnow an ideal adaptation to the movie.The videoshows all the three stars Saif Ali Khan, DeepikaPadukone and Diana Penty taking probably the mostconfusing decisions. It portrays the turmoil one goesthrough when one is faced with two choices. It isthe perfect song that defines the tagline of themovie ‘Some Friendships are too good toshare’.‘Jugni’ is a song about choices that we haveto make every single day . The song is perfect forsituations we witness at times, especially when lovegets complicated. TiMes Of iNdiA

ekta kapoor becomesvictim of e-mail hacking

WITH the alarming rate at which the cybersecurity is being hampered by hackersthese days, there is no doubt that even

the celebrities are soft targets. So when television’ssoap queen Ekta Kapoor’s personal e-mail accountgot hacked, we could understand how grave the issuewas. A source close to Ekta had revealed that thelatter was shocked to receive phone calls from friendswho said that they got emails from her personalaccount which asked them to pay Rs 11,000 if theywished to audition for her shows. Apparently, Ekta,who stays in touch with her friends in the US throughher email, was shocked to know all this. Since moneywas involved in the incident, she thought abouttaking the matter seriously. As a result, she sent textmessages to all her friends saying that her accountwas hacked and immediately blocked the old e-mailID and made a new one. TiMes Of iNdiA

frieda flaunts yoga moves

IT seems that Freida Pinto’s character in Knight OfCups is a fan or teacher of Yoga. The 27-year-oldshowed some yoga moves and massages on the

sets of her latest movie along with co-star Christian Bale,who is romancing the Indian beauty in the movie, theDaily Mail reported. The duo was spotted filming togetheron the beach. The 38-year-old famously temperamentalstar, was all smiles as he filmed romantic scenes withPinto at Santa Monica’s famous pier. The plot of Knight ofCups is being kept very hush-hush, but it is described as thetale of a man in search of love and truth. In addition toPinto, he has also been working with Cate Blanchett andNatalie Portman in recent weeks. However the Oscar winnerappeared to be having the most fun yet as he got up closeand personal with the glamorous Slumdog Millionaire actorin the sunshine. On Friday his character appeared to begetting a shoulder and head massage. AgeNCies

O PRAH Winfrey is embroiledin a bitter row with herstepmother. BarbaraWinfrey, who is married to

Oprah’s father Vernon, has accusedthe billionaire chat show host offorcing her out of her husband’s life.She claims that the 58-year-old hasused her fortune to take control ofthe barbershop Vernon has run formore than 50 years.And now the 78-year-old has filed fordivorce as the row over ownership ofthe barbershop threatens to tearapart the Winfrey family.Oprah bought the store in Nashville,Tennessee, last week after it wentinto foreclosure. She paid 475,000dollars for the property when it wasput up for auction. Barbara Winfreysaid the purchase means thatOperah, who now runs her own YVnetwork, has gained control of thebusiness and cut her out. “i knowwhat is going on. i’m tired of it, andi’ve had enough,” the Daily Mailquoted Barbara Winfrey as tellingWSMV TV in Nashville.Barbara and Vernon had opened thebarbershop a year ago to replace a

store at a nearby location.But the couple apparently could notmake timely payments on theirmortgage and the red brick buildingwent into foreclosure.Barbara said she wanted to borrowmore money from a bank to comeout of the situation but that onadvice from his famous daughterVernon refused to take out a loan.“People are giving him wrong advice,and it’s leaving me in a situationwhere all i can do is fight for me,”Barbara said. “There is no reason forit to go into foreclosure like this. Theproperty is upside down, which iswhat a lot of properties are. it cost us481,000 dollars to build thisbuilding, but it’s only worth 350,000dollars,” she said. “He believes whathe’s told. His daughter doesn’t careabout the community. His daughterdoesn’t care about the barbershop.But i do,” Barbara said. in astatement to the TV station aspokesman for Oprah said: “Oprahpurchased the property that was inforeclosure.” “Vernon Winfrey hasbeen a fixture in the community fordecades and will continue to manage

the business on a day-to-day basis,”the statement read. Barbara saidthat her husband has since filedfor divorce and believes he doesnot understand the decisionshe is making.“My wife and i, we have notbeen getting along well, and idid not want to endow myself toanother drawn-out, strugglingdebt,” Vernon said onthe TV show.AgeNCies

OPrah WiNfrey CaughT iN a faMiLy feud

j OHNNY Depp started to drink“heavily,” after he had “blazingfights” with Vanessa Paradis beforetheir breakup, according to sources.The former model and aspiringsinger is said to have resented her

partner’s successful career, causing hugetension in their relationship. “They’d haveblazing fights. Vanessa would take herfrustrations out on him. Johnny, in turn,started to drink heavily,” a friend said. Ac-cording to the source, 39-year-old Par-adis, pushed Depp to take up roles whichwent on the be a huge success, such as2003’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: TheCurse of the Black Pearl.’ Paradis eventu-ally began to resent Depp’s success-eventhough his 20 million dollar-a-moviesalary paid for their lavish lifestyle. Andwith Paradis’ singing going nowhere,“Vanessa started to feel like she’d sac-rificed her career for his,” the friendsaid. Depp, who earned more than 75million dollar in 2010, grew resent-ful, too. “Nothing Johnny did wasever good enough for Vanessa. Whenhe was working, she wasn’t happy.And when he wasn’t working, he wascalled a slob for not doing enough forthe kids and her family,” the friend

said. The two are parents to 13-year-old Lily-Rose, and 10-year-old Jack.

The constant bickering led to viciousspats. “They’d have blazing fights,” the

friend said. “Vanessa would take herfrustrations out on him.” Depp, in turn,“started to drink heavily.” Though theycontinued to drift apart, Depp and Par-adis always put their kid’s needs first. “itbroke Johnny’s heart that the family heloves so much was becoming fractured,”the friend added. But in 2010 — the lasttime Depp and Paradis were photographedtogether on the red carpet-the singer de-cided to pull the plug. “Johnny was heart-broken,” the friend said. “But they agreed

the kids’ lives shouldn’t be affected. That’swhy they didn’t announce it,” the friend said.Since then, the actor has found love againwith his Rum Diary costar, Amber Heard.“They are 100 percent dating. He treats herreally well,” a source added. AgeNCies

Depp and VanessaParadis had ‘blazingfights’ before theirbreak-uP

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:27 AM Page 12

13

first look at PreityZinta’s ishkq in Paris

PREITY Zinta’s film Ishkq in Paris has beenthe talk of the town for a while now. Finally,the first poster of the film has released and

shows a glimpse of what the film is about. The firstlook shows the actress enjoying Paris with a man.The poster is divided into three 3 parts, the firstshows the couple sightseeing around the EiffelTower in the evening, the centre portion shows thetwo sharing a drink at the bar late in the night andthe third part shows them hanging out in the weehours of the morning at the librarry cafe. While itis unclear who the actors are, and whether thecouple is the same in all the three frames, it iscertain that the film is about Ishkq In Paris. Thefilm not only marks Preity’s comeback but evenher production debut and that’s not all! Theactress has apparently even tried her hand at co-writing the Prem Soni-directed film, which he hadoriginally scripted himself. According to thedirector, Ishkq in Paris is supposed to be a typicalBollywood film. Ishkq in Paris, scheduled torelease on September 21, will clash with two otherwomen-centric films - Sridevi’s English Vinglishand Kareena Kapoor’s Heroine. COUrTesy HT

katie holmes says she is alright

KATIE Holmes is getting her life back on track(and having some fun while she’s at it) followingher decision to end her marriage to Tom Cruise.

Just a week after her she filed for divorce from the Rockof Ages star, the Jack and Jill thesp and daughter Suriwere all smiles as they grabbed ice cream at Sundaesand Cones in New York City Tuesday. And the darlingduo was back out again Wednesday, shopping forIndependence Day supplies at Whole Foods, includinghamburger meat, buns, strawberries and bananas. Asthey were leaving the store, Holmes reportedly told areporter, “I’m alright. Thank you.” News desk

robert Pattinson gushes aboutgirlfriend kristen Stewart

TWILIGHT star Robert Pattinson says his girlfriendKristen Stewart is the only person who canunderstand him. The 26-year-old actor, who has

been dating his Twilight Saga co-star for around threeyears, said she is perfect for him because she knowswhat he is going through, reported Contactmusic. “Sheunderstands exactly how I feel. She is an ambitiouswoman who wants to grow as an actress. She has anexcellent radar for what is good and challenges meconstantly,” he said. Pattinson also said it was nice to goto the Cannes Film Festival for the promotion of theirfilms with her. “In the end, it was amazing to have eachother’s support. Her presence at the gala screening ofCosmopolis made me really nervous. She was sitting infront of me. I kept looking at the back of her neck, tryingto find out if she was liking the movie or not. I onlycalmed down when, at the end, Kristen told me sheloved it.” COUrTesy HT

STOPS TraffiC VeeNa MaLik

PAKiSTANi actress VeenaMalik was in city for the pub-licity of her first Kannadaflick. But her visit to the city

caused public inconvenience too. Achoco-blok at Kempe Gowda Bus sta-tion affected bus schedules for morethan 30 minutes, when the actresscame out in open to wave and fly kissesto her audience. Veena’s first Kannadafilm is the remake of the Hindi filmDirty Picture performed by VidyaBalan. The latter received best actressawards for this movie at various plat-forms in the Bollywood. Veena has def-initely tried to make her presence feltamid the sandalwood fans by making

such appearances, but to the vain, peo-ple in Majestic bus stop were onlywondering who the damsel is. As hercar and fans gathered around, entrancefor buses to the Majestic bus stand washindered and traffic cops had toughtime. Being the peak hour, commutershopped down only to find busesclogged at all platforms. Theexit routes were somewhatclear. People also hungfrom the skywalks atthe bus station tocatch a glimpse ofthe Pakistanibeauty. News desk

LAHOrE: Moda In Pelle, a British

high street brand for shoes,

handbags and accessories opened

its first store in Vogue Towers on

MM Alam Road. Enyclomedia PR

organised the event. MUrTAZA Ali

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:28 AM Page 13

Infotainment14Friday, 6 July, 2012

Cover of jk rowling’s first Post-harry-Potter novel, TheCasual Vacancy, revealed

LITTLE, Brown and Company this morningunveiled the cover of J.K. Rowling’s first post-Harry-Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy. Aimed at

adults, the highly anticipated 512-page “blackly comic”book will be Rowling’s first since the Harry Potter seriesformally concluded in 2007, and her first to feature aplot set outside the Harry Potter universe since 2008.SyNOPSIS: When Barry Fairweather diesunexpectedly in his early forties, the little town ofPagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, anEnglish idyll, with a cobbled market square and anancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facadeis a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers atwar with their parents, wives at war with theirhusbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagfordis not what it first seems. News desk

Lifeguard fired forattempting to rescuedrowning man

EVERY lifeguard wants to be a hero, but youcan’t just go around saving people willy-nilly.Tomas Lopez learned that the hard way when

he got fired for trying to save someone outside of hisjurisdiction. The 21-year-old lifeguard was workingon Hallandale Beach in Florida when he wasapproached about a man drowning in theunprotected part of the beach. Even though it wasn’ttechnically his job, Lopez ran toward the man. By thetime he got there, other beachgoers had pulled thedrowning man from the water — but Lopez hadalready committed a serious offense. Lopez workedfor private aquatic safety contractor Jeff Ellis andAssociates, who is only paid to patrol a certainportion of the beach. Company spokesperson SusanEllis said that having an employee leave his zonecould have been a liability issue. But it certainlydoesn’t look good that a lifeguard was fired for tryingto go above and beyond the call of duty. News desk

World’s most expensive cupcakegoes on sale in dubai

THE world’s most expensive ‘edible’ cupcakehas gone on sale at the newly launchedBloomsbury’s outlet at The Dubai Mall. The

‘masterpiece’ cupcake, named The Golden Phoenix,is only available at The Dubai Mall outlet of theboutique café and is valued at $1,010 (Dh3,700)and presented on a 24-carat gold Empire MorningCake Stand with Cloch by Villari. The concept ofBloomsbury’s was created by Shafeena Yusuff Ali,daughter of Yusuff Ali MA, Chairman of the EMKEgroup, which also owns and operated the Lulu chainof hypermarkets and supermarkets in the Gulfregion. The Dubai Mall outlet of the café officiallyopened on June 28, 2012, marking the one-yearanniversary of Bloomsbury’s, which first opened itsdoors to food lovers last year in Abu Dhabi.According to the media statement issued by thecafé, the unveiling of The Golden Phoenixpresentation on Thursday evening exceededDh100,000 ($28,000). News desk

TO get to the heart ofcool, the researcherscame up with threeseparate studies. In the

first, they asked participants(353 college students from alarge Canadian university) tosubmit words that describedcool. In the second, they askedparticipants to rank how cool ordesirable these qualities were.“We wanted to tease apartcoolness and social desirability,”says Dar-Nimrod, who is veryaware that his last name isdefinitely not cool. “There is alot of overlap between socialdesirability and coolness.” In thethird and final study, subjectswere asked to rank their friendsbased on these qualities.What makes a person cool? TheBody Odd scrutinized the paperfor suggestions. Although thefollowing traits are actually moredesirable than cool (according tothe second study), these simple

steps will make you what Dar-Nimrod dubs “cachet cool.”Be hot. When Dar-Nimrod firstasked participants what wordsdescribe cool, he receivedmyriad responses (1,639 to beexact). But again and again, heencountered words like “hot,”“handsome,” “beautiful,” “cute,”and “sexy,” with an overalltheme of physical attractiveness.People agree that beingattractive is cool.“Our research was kind ofdesigned to see what goes intocoolness evaluation,” he says.“What we found was that thedominant perception of coolnessis revolving around socialdesirability and generic semi-gentrified traits.” Be friendly.Dar-Nimrod believed thatcoolness would have a rebelliousfeel to it, a James Dean “RebelWithout a Cause” vibe. What hefound instead was that mostpeople believe friendliness

constitutescool. Bepersonally competent(successful). Achievinggood grades in school orholding down a securejob with a good paycheck feelscool, according to subjects. Infact, being smart or talented wasthe second most popularsuggestion of what cool is (themost noted cool trait wasfriendliness or popularity). Bepro-social. Participants believedpeople were cool if theyvolunteered or recycled or joinedin socially responsibleactivities.Other cool qualities?Trendiness, desirableness,individualism, confidence and,yes, a sense of humor. Whatabout the James Dean/JackKerouac cool that Dar-Nimrodthought he’d find, a coolness

based

on rebellion and fighting “the

Man?” (The researcher believes

he exemplified this as a teen

when he bought dark sunglasses

and started smoking.) This kind

of cool, which Dar-Nimrod calls

“contrarian cool,” still exists.

“There is a smaller and different

facet … which is the dark,

historical coolness, revolving

around counterculture, risky

behavior, irony,” says Dar-

Nimrod. “Going into the project,

it is what I perceived as

coolness. [It is] much less

dominant.” News desk

researchersstudy whatmakes us ‘cool’

AIMA kHOSA

iF you are a frequent user of the internet, youwill have noticed the current internet trend:expressing yourself through memes. Butwhat is a meme, you ask. And how do they

originate? What memes are world famous andwhat do they mean? Here is a small introductionto everything you want to know on memes. An in-ternet meme is an idea that is spread through theWorld Wide Web. This idea can take several forms;pictures, videos, hashtags, websites or even just aword. The meme may spread from person to per-son via social networks, blogs, direct email, newssources, or other web-based services. An internetmeme can stay the same but often they evolve overtime, sometimes by pure coincidence, other timesthrough commentary, imitations, and parodies.These memes evolve and spread rapidly, some-times reaching world-wide popularity within a fewdays. internet memes usually are formed fromsome social interaction (such as rage comic or re-action faces), pop culture references, everyday sit-uations people find themselves in, or even videogames. Here are some of the world’s most recog-nizable memes.

Know your Memes

fOreVer aLONe

internet Meme Database defines this asan exploitable rage comic character thatis used to express loneliness anddisappointment with life. Creators of thisvariety of rage comic occasionally alterone word or both of the words “foreveralone” for a more humorous effect. Anexample of this would be:

TrOLLfaCe / COOLfaCe/ PrObLeM?Trollface is a

black and

white

drawing of

a face with

a large

mischievous

grin that is

meant to

portray the

expression

someone makes while trolling. Posting

a Trollface image into a forum thread

is often used to claim that someone

was being fooled or intentionally

angered. The face commonly appears

in rage comics indicating that the

character is being mischievous in some

way. Example:

‘y u NO’ guy

“Y U NO” Guy (also known as “Y U No[X]?”) is an image macro series usingSMS shorthands and carefree grammaras a way to bring someone’s attention ona particular subject or issue. The uniquefacial expression worn by stick-figurecharacter is believed to have been tracedfrom the Japanese sci-fi manga / animeseries Gantz. Example:

yOu dON’T Say?

“You Don’t Say?” is a rage comic facebased on a contour drawing of NicolasCage that is that is used as a sarcasticresponse to an obvious observation orstatement. Example:

yaO MiNg faCeYao Ming Face is a rage comic-stylecontour drawing of the professionalbasketballplayer YaoMingwearing aheartysmile. Theimage istypicallyused as areactionface toconvey adismissiveattitude towardssomeone else’sinput in onlinediscussions.

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:28 AM Page 14

LAHOREsTAff repOrT

PAKiSTAN on Thursday finally announced alimited-over series schedule against Aus-tralia, delaying the matches to late in theevening to avoid the heat in the United

Arab Emirates. According to a Pakistan Cricket Boardofficial: "Pakistan had to search for the venue for theseries after Sri Lanka refused to host the matches asthey clashed with their premier league season."

The PCB also considered Kuala Lumpur andMalaysia, which was ruled out over the danger ofmonsoon rains. But Australian Cricket Associationfears over excessive heat in the UAE were allayed byscheduling the day-night matches as late as 6pm.

"The matches will be held in the UAE from 28 Au-gust until 10 September. The series will comprisethree one-day internationals and three Twenty20 in-

ternationals," the PCB said in a statement.The series starts with a one-day match in Sharjah

followed by two other 50-over matches in Abu Dhabion August 31 and in Sharjah on September 3.

The three T20 matches will all be played in Dubaion September 5, 7 and 10.

Pakistan has been a "no go" zone for international

teams since March 2009 terrorists attacks on the SriLankan team bus in Lahore, which left eight peopledead and wounded seven visiting players and theirassistant coach.

Pakistan has since had to play its home games inneutral venues such as the UAE, England and NewZealand.

Even before the 2009 attacks, teams includingAustralia have refused to tour Pakistan in the wake of9-11 attacks on the United States. Australia have nottoured Pakistan since 1998.

prOgrAMMe:First one-day August 28 - SharjahSecond one-day August 31 - Abu DhabiThird one-day September 3 - SharjahFirst Twenty20 September 5 - DubaiSecond Twenty20 September 7 - DubaiThird Twenty20 September 10- - Dubai

LONDONAfp

Australia's men's team may be looking tohold all the sport's major titles by winninggold at the London Olympics but coachRic Charlesworth was far from content ashis team headed to the Games.

He's complained about the pitch thatwill be used for the tournament andslammed what he believed is an unfairmatch schedule. And he insists reigningOlympic champions Germany could welldefend their title after beating the Kook-aburras in a warm-up competition.

"if i did the odds now, i wouldn'thave us as the favourites, i'd probablyhave Germany," Charlesworth told theWall Street Journal. "At our best, we'vegot skilful, speedy, flexible players and away of playing which allows us to get pen-etration but we're going to be competingagainst teams that have got antidotes tothat." in multiple world player of the yearJamie Dwyer, Australia have a potentialman of the tournament but Charlesworthis concerned the relatively recently laidblue and pink artificial pitch in theOlympic Park won't have been played insufficiently before the Games.

"The pitch is an issue," he said re-cently. "The ball bobbles a fair bit. it does-

n't reward skill." Meanwhile, Australiawon an appeal over being handed threeearly morning starts in their groupmatches. Charlesworth was furious whenthe draw gave his team three 8:30amgames, which he said would require play-ers to wake up at 5:00am in a major dis-ruption to their daily tournament routine.

At the same time, Germany avoidedthe early time slot altogether in the oppo-

site group. Hockey Australia fired in anofficial protest and the Federation of in-ternational Hockey said it has re-sched-uled Australia v Pakistan on August 7from 8:30am to 10:45am.

South Korea against the Netherlandswill be switched to the earlier start.

New Zealand appear to be timingtheir bid for Games glory in style afterwinning the prestigious Sultan AzlanShah Cup in Malaysia with a 1-0 victoryover Argentina.

The Black Sticks haven't won men'sOlympic field hickey gold since 1976 and,although ranked seventh in the world toAustralia's first, could pose a threat.

"it is great to have won our firstSultan Azlan Shah Cup," said NewZealand coach Shane McLeod. "But westill have a fair bit of work to do beforethe Games start."

Eight-times champions india returnto Olympic Games hockey, having failedto qualify for Beijing four years ago, al-though, given the last of their gold medalscame back in 1980, they are not expectedto be on the podium in London.

in the women's tournament, Ar-gentina will hope to crown the brilliantcareer of seven times world player of theyear Luciana Aymar, 'the Maradona ofhockey', with a first Olympic gold.

"On the pitch she is magical andextra-terrestrial," said Argentina coachCarlos Retegui of Aymar.

Defending champions the Nether-lands have been impressive in recentwarm-up events but Great Britain'swomen are being tipped to do well infront of their own fans after only narrowlylosing the Champions Trophy final tohosts Argentina in Rosario in February.

"We saw them in the ChampionsTrophy, where they were the best teamthere, and that is the level we expect wewill see in London," said Hockeyrooscoach Adam Commens.

The British men, ranked four in theworld, are also medal contenders al-though it will be asking a lot to match thegold medal won by the 1988 side in Seoul.

Their opening match against Ar-gentina takes place against the backdropof the 30th anniversary of the war thecountries fought over the Falkland is-lands, a British overseas territory in theSouth Atlantic.

Argentina's Fernando Zylberbergcaused controversy with a television ad-vertisement that showed him training inthe Falklands islands.

"The video ended with the voiceover:"To compete on English soil, we aretraining on Argentine soil."

friday, 6 July, 2012

Page 18

Radwanska reachesfirst Wimbledon final

Misbah’s selectionpredicament

LAHOREsTAff repOrT

The Pakistan Cricket Board officials areunsure about including Misbah-ul-Haqin the squad for the Twenty20 WorldCup. The PCB’s indecisiveness over se-lection of the 30-man preliminary squadis believed to be affecting morale of thecricketers. PCB chief, Zaka Ashraf has,however, played down the selectiondilemma, saying that the board will stickto its policy on the matter.According to an official close to the team,Mohammad Hafeez is striving to get his‘friend’ back into the team.“Misbah has been desperate to make aT20 comeback since the day he wasdropped. Both players have convincedthe team management, including coachDav Whatmore,” reports said. “Neither the selection committee, nor thePCB chairman, is keen to recall Misbah.The reason is clear — they want to moveforward rather than going back,” the offi-cial added.While a report has suggested that Misbahhas already booked his place following arequest by Whatmore, a selector said thedecision is still pending.“We haven’t finalised the list yet,” the se-lector said.“The selection committee cannot confirmthe selection of Misbah or any otherplayer in the preliminary squad as we arestill working on finalising the list. Hafeezis likely to be retained as captain,” theselector added.“But the delay is creating problems sinceother senior cricketers also have cap-taincy in mind. Recently Shahid Afridihas also shown his availability as cap-tain,” the selector said.

Pakistan, indiacricketing tiesfeature in foreignsecretary talks

LAHOREsTAff repOrT

Cricketing ties were amongst the manyissues discussed between Pakistan For-eign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani and hisindian counterpart Ranjan Mathai dur-ing their two-day talks.Expressing the hope that the equationwould continue with the "positive tra-jectory", Pakistan Foreign Secretary Ji-lani said that he had put forward somesuggestions on the issue.Addressing a joint press conference,Mathai said there were issues of secu-rity. As for resumption of cricketingties, it is for the BCCi and the cricketingbody in Pakistan to decide, Mathai said.The joint statement, he said, empha-sised the need to promote sports andmedia ties.Jilani also said that things are movingforward in the right direction on theissue. "i had discussion for the revival ofcricket ties between the two countries. ithink that we will continue with thisformative trajectory that we haveadopted over the years in moving for-ward in our relationship," Jilani said. The indo-Pak bilateral cricket ties havesnapped after the 2008 Mumbai terrorattacks even though the two teams havecome face to face in multi-team eventssuch as the World Cup. The PakistanCricket Board is pushing hard for the re-sumption of ties but the BCCi is playinghardball citing the busy internationalschedule. A desperate Pakistan haseven offered to host the indians on neu-tral turf given the perils of touring thestrife-torn nation which is facing con-siderable revenue loss due to interna-tional teams' refusal to play there. Nointernational team has played in Pak-istan after the 2009 Lahore terror attackon the Sri Lankan cricket team duringsome of the visiting players were injuredin firing by terrorists.

Angry Australia aim for hockey clean sweep

PCB confirms Australialimited-over series itinerary

BIRMINGHAMAfp

England's Graeme Swann will miss thefinal two matches in the one-day seriesagainst Australia, allowing him to rest hissore bowling arm, national selector GeoffMiller said Thursday.

Swann, a mainstay of the Englandside in all three international formats,will be replaced by fellow off-spinnerJames Tredwell in the squad for the con-cluding fixtures of a five-match seriesagainst Australia at Chester-le-Street andManchester on Saturday and Tuesday re-spectively.

England have also called up seamerChris Waokes, drafted in for Wednes-day's abandoned match against Australiaat his Edgbaston home ground, whererain meant not one ball was bowled,while Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meakerattended the funeral of their former Sur-rey team-mate Tom Maynard.

Dernbach will be unavailable for thefinal two matches as well because of a

side strain. Miller said team managementhad always intended to give Swann abreak after the Edgbaston match, wherethe wash-out left England 2-0 up withtwo to play in a NatWest series they hadto win 5-0 to replace Australia at the topof the one-day international rankings.

Former England off-spinner Milleradded the decision had been made witha view to Swann being fit for the upcom-ing three-Test series with South Africa,where England will put their world num-ber one status on the line.

"We had earmarked the fourth andfifth matches in this series as an oppor-tunity to rest Graeme, regardless of theresult at Edgbaston, because we have toconsider our preparations for the in-vestec Test series later this month,"Miller said in an England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) statement.

"Graeme has some pain in hiselbow at the moment and we feel thatan extra week's rest will allow hiselbow to settle. "Chris Woakes replacesJade Dernbach, who has been ruled

out with a side strain." All-rounderSamit Patel (Nottinghamshire) andbatsman Jonathan Bairstow (York-shire) have been released for theTwenty20 match between their respec-tive counties later Thursday.

Bairstow will also be available forYorkshire's 'Roses' clash away to arch-rivals Lancashire at Old Trafford onFriday and he and Patel will rejoinEngland in time for Saturday's fourthone-day international.

reVised eNglANd sQUAdAlastair Cook (capt), ian Bell, JonathanTrott, Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, CraigKieswetter (wkt), Tim Bresnan, StuartBroad, Steven Finn, James Anderson,James Tredwell, Samit Patel, ChrisWoakes, Jonathan Bairstow

reMAiNiNg fixTUresJul 07: 4th ODi v Australia, Chester-le-Street (0945GMT)Jul 10: 5th ODi v Australia, Manches-ter (1300GMT)

england rest Swann forfinal aussie one-dayers

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:28 AM Page 16

Sports 16Friday, 6 July, 2012

ISLAMABADsTAff repOrT

MiR Hazar Khan Bijrani,President Pakistan SportsBoard (PSB) said onThursday that the PSB Ex-

ecutive Committee have given a two-month deadline to all its affiliatednational sports federations to follow theSupreme Court judgment regarding theimplementation of the National SportsPolicy (NSP)2005. Addressing a pressconference here at the Pakistan Sports

Board Media Center after presiding overthe PSB Executive Committee meeting,Bijrani, who is also Federal Minister forinter Provincial Coordination (iPC), saidthat all units unanimously agreed on theimplementation of SC verdict but somewere opposing the criteria of its imple-mentation.

State Minister iPC, Malik AzmatKhan, Secretary iPC Anees-ul-HasnainMoosvi and Director General (Tech&Training) PSB Akhtar Nawaz Ganjerawere also present on the occasion.

Bijrani said that the proceeding of the

meeting ran smoothly and the PSB wasnot willing to intervene in the affairs ofnational sports federations.

The Federal Minister further said thatin the special meeting all the representa-tives of various federations were givenopen opportunity to express their viewsregarding the implementing the SC ver-dict in true letter and sprit.

”We are sincere to support the feder-ation for the implementation of NSP,” hemaintained.

He revealed that the House also con-stituted a four-member committee to re-

visit the 4Xi and 4iia clauses of the NSPto make necessary amendments.

“Both DGs PSB, legal advisor of iPCand Deputy Secretary iPC will be themembers of the committee,” he viewed.

To a question regarding PakistanOlympic Association (POA), as they arenot affiliated with Pakistan Sports Boardand the SC had clearly mentioned theverdict doesn't apply on POA, Bijrani saidthat PSB would impose the ruling of SCon its affiliated sports federations. Buthave asked for their (POA’s) opinion toconvince us that they are an affiliated

unit of the PSB or not,” he said.Bijrani further said, international

Olympic Committee (iOC) and OlympicCouncil of Asia (OCA) had written a letterto iPC and expressed their concerns andwarned government that Pakistan couldbe banned from taking part in the inter-national sports if they would interfere inthe affairs of the POA and national sportsfederations. However, the governmenthas sent a joint secretary for consulta-tions with the iOC in which Pakistan’sgovernment point of view would be madeclear,” he said.

Federations given 2 months to execute Sports Policy

LONDONAfp

Former England batsman Mark Ram-prakash announced his retirement fromcricket with immediate effect on Thurs-day. The 42-year-old, whose careerstarted with Middlesex in 1987, made thedecision after being dropped from theSurrey team earlier this season. "i'd like toformally announce my retirement fromfirst-class cricket. i'd like to express how

lucky i feel to have had such a long ca-reer," said Ramprakash at a news confer-ence at The Oval, Surrey's headquarters.

Ramprakash, a prolific run scorer atfirst-class level, was unable to transfer hisdomestic form to the international stagewith just two hundreds in 52 Tests. "i'vebeen asked about regrets in my Englandcareer many times, but you do the best youcan," he said. "i couldn't have trained anyharder and i did the best i could at thattime. i went through many ups and downs,

but did have some highlights," Ram-prakash added. But it was a different storyduring a 25-year first-class career thatstarted at Middlesex before he movedacross London to Surrey 11 years ago. Hescored 35,659 runs in 461 first-classmatches since his county debut and morethan 13,000 in limited-overs cricket. How-ever, Ramprakash, widely regarded aslikely being the last man in cricket historyto make 100 first-class hundreds becauseof the reduction in domestic fixtures.

LOS ANGELESAfp

international Olympic Committee presidentJacques Rogge supported the decision to omitDavid Beckham from the British footballsquad at the London Olympics in commentsto CNN on Wednesday. Rogge said that it wasBritish coach Stuart Pearce's job to select thebest players to give the host squad its bestchance for success when the London Olympictournament kicks off later this month. "if thehead coach decides not to field the playerthat's the end of it," Rogge said.

"This is not an issue for sentiment. it'snot an issue for nostalgia. it's about beingthe best athlete in the world in your ownplace, in your own sport." Rogge, 70, saidhe would have "loved" to have seen formerEngland football captain Beckham, amajor player in the bidding to bring theGames to London, on the field in theOlympics. "He has done a great job in bid-ding for the Games," Rogge said. "He hasa great personality. He has a very likeableperson. But it's the law of sport."

Rogge said he plans to watch competi-tion in all 26 sports on offer at London,looking forward to seeing a swim show-down between US stars Michael Phelpsand Ryan Lochte and the men's 100-meterathletics final on August 5. "i want to seethe fight between Usain Bolt and Yohan

Blake in the sprint," Rogge said. Blake de-feated Bolt, the reigning 100m and 200mOlympic champion and world record-holder, in both events at last weekend's Ja-maican Olympic trials.A CHANCe fOr yOUNGSTerS TOPrOve IN ABSeNCe Of BeCkHAM:David Beckham's shock absence from theOlympic football tournament has provokeda storm of controversy, but Stuart Pearce'sdecision to axe the aging star means theyoung prodigies of Brazil, Spain and Britainwill take their rightful place in the spotlight.Beckham was widely expected to makeGreat Britain's final squad as one of threeover-age players, but the former Manches-ter United and Real Madrid icon last weekreceived an unwanted call from coachPearce to inform him that he hadn't madethe cut. The 37-year-old LA Galaxy mid-fielder was left out to allow Pearce to selectManchester City defender Micah Richardsas his third over-age player along withWelsh duo Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy.

Beckham responded with a statementunderlining his disappointment and it isbelieved leading figures in the BritishOlympic heirarchy including Lord Coe,who worked closely with the player dur-ing London's successful bid to host theevent, were also unhappy that such aglobally recognised figure would nolonger be part of the Games.

LAHOREsTAff repOrT

West Zone Blues U-19 has outplayed EastZone Whites U-19 by 10 wickets in the Re-gional inter District U-19 Cricket Eventplayed at at iteefaq Hospital ground onThursday.

Resuming 81/0 West Zone Blues hasmade 274/8 in 70 overs. Earliest East ZoneWhites has made 200 runs. West ZoneBlues has got 74 runs lead in 1st innings.in the 2nd innings East Zone whites all outon 90 runs and gave 17 runs target to WestZone BLues to win the match. Fine bowl-ing by Haider Ali and Waqar Ali was themain feature of the matchScores: West Zone Blues 274/8 in 70overs 1st innings. Fahad Usman 92, AmeerKhan 48, Shehryar Waseem 51(no), Wah-dat ALi Khan 26, Fahad Farooq 21. Ali Sul-tan 4/40, Salman Daood 2/41, M Qasim2/81.

East Zone Whites 90 all out in 40.3overs in 2nd innings. Adnan Danish 35, MQasim 20. Haider ALi 5/16, Waqar ALi3/11, Qamber ALi Shah 2/17.

West Zone BLues 20/0 in 2.5 overs.Ameer Khan 12(no), irfan ALi Qadir 8(no).

Final Score: EAst Zone Whites 200,and 90. West Zone Blues 274/8, and 20/0Scorer M Arif.

NOrTH ZONe WHITeS OUTPLAyeAST ZONe BLUeS: North ZoneWhites U-19 has outplayed East ZoneBlues U-19 by 9 wickets in the Regionalinter District U-19 Cricket Event played atat LCCA ground on Thursday.

Resuming North Zone Whites 122/1has made 308/5 in 70 overs in 1st innings.So North Zone Whites has got 17 runs leadin 1st innings. in the 2nd innings EastZone BLues all out on 78 runs in 27.2 oversand gave 62 runs target to win the matchto North Zone Whites.

Fine century by Faraz Meer and AsadQaiser and dashing bowling by AsfandMehran (6/18)were the main feature of thematch. Scores: North Zone Whites 308/5 in 70overs in 1st innings. Faraz Meer 109, AsadQaiser 111, M Mateen 26(no), MubasharSaeed 13, Babar Arshad 19. Shehzad Mirza2/38, Bilawal 1/83, Habib ALi HAssan1/49, Mudasar Zaidi 1/44

East Zone Blues 78 all out in 27.2 oversin 2nd innings. Salman Shafiq 14, MudasarZaidi 13, Rehan Malik 11, HAbib ul hassan10(No). Asfand MEhran 6/18, M Waleed3/13, Aftab Azwar 1/10.

North Zone Whites 65/1 in 14.5 overs.Babar Arshad 23(no), Arslan Bajwa 29,Mubashar Saeed 4 (No), Sharjeel Shahid¼. Scorer Azhar Hussain.

East lose to West Blues

Rogge backs BeckhamOlympic snub

100 detained over gambling in MalaysiakUALA LUMPUr: Malaysian police have detained 100 people in nationwide raidson international crime syndicates who bet millions of dollars on the Euro 2012 cham-pionship, reports said Thursday. Police conducted almost 150 raids across the countryin May and June in collaboration with officials from China, Macau, Hong Kong andSingapore among other nations, crime investigation chief Bakri Zinin told local media.He said the suspects from five syndicates were involved in betting worth more than 49million ringgit ($16 million) on European Football Championship matches and severalcomputers and mobile phones were seized in the raids. Among those arrested were twoSingaporeans and two indonesians, the reports in the New Straits Times and The Starquoted Bakri as saying. He could not be reached for comment. Football is hugely pop-ular in Malaysia, but sports betting is illegal and those found guilty can be jailed. Afp

Ramprakash retires

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:28 AM Page 17

WIMBLEDON: Belarus's Victoria

Azarenka plays a forehand shot during

her women's singles semi-final match

against US player Serena Williams. AFp

Sports17Friday, 6 July, 2012

PFF determinedto promotefootball atgrass roots level

QUETTAsTAff repOrT

The Pakistan Football Federation(PFF) has carried out 30 times moreactivities in last eight years as com-pared to the corresponding eight yearsof the old PFF set up. This was said by the Director Develop-ment & Competition PFF, Wing Cmdr® Pervaiz Saeed Mir during a seminaron “Football activity atDistrict/Province level for Balochistanat Municipal Corporation Hall, LiaquatPark here in Quetta. The main purpose of this seminar wasto help the provincial and and districtfootball associations and clubs to car-ryout their own football activities likedistricts and provincial leagues,women leagues and youth activities.This was the fourth such seminar or-ganized for the development of footballin Balochistan and was attended by thepresidents and general secretaries ofall district associations of the province.Mir further said that in order to fur-ther speed up the activities, the PFFhas decided in its September 17 meet-ing that in the next 4 years all theprovincial and district associationsmust also generate the required finan-cial and resources to hold football ac-tivities. The PFF authorities alsoaddressed the problems raised by theparticipants like the improvement ingovernance, promotion of youth andfemale teams, improved training foryoung players, upgrading football facil-ities and establishing training centers. in the end, the participants came tothe conclusion that provincial associa-tions should take a step forward infootball development and with the helpof District Government, a well-coordi-nated plan should be made to solve allthe problems, including the allocationof resources and the development offootball venues.

SAO PAULOAfp

Brazil's Corinthians won the Copa Liberta-dores for the first time, defeating Ar-gentina's Boca Juniors 2-0 in the secondleg of the final before an ecstatic homecrowd of 40,000 late Wednesday.

The Corinthians prevailed 3-1 on ag-gregate as the two teams drew the first leg1-1 in Buenos Aires last month.

Striker Emerson scored twice in thesecond half (in the 54th minute and the72nd), denying Boca Juniors a seventhcontinental crown in their tenth appear-ance in the final of South America's eliteclub competition. The Sao Paulo side hadnever previously gone past the semi-fi-nals of the Copa Libertadores. But theywon plaudits this year by beating Ney-mar-inspired holders Santos 2-1 on ag-gregate in the last four. The Corinthians,

the reigning Brazilian champions,coached by Tite, also beat Vasco da Gamain the quarter-finals and did not lose agame on their run to the final.

Their historic win sparked scenes ofwild jubilation by tens of thousands of fansboth inside the Paceambu stadium andthroughout this huge metropolitan area of20 million people.

Amid exploding fireworks, CaptainAlessandro lifted the trophy and passed iton to his colleagues before they all set offon a victory lap as die-hard supportersdanced and chanted: "The Cup is ours!"and "We are the champions!"

"it's great to be here, to wear this jer-sey," said a beaming Emerson.

"We are going to celebrate now. Wehave to celebrate a lot. We deserve it. Wedon't have a star, but we are a very strongteam and Emerson had an exceptionalnight," said Paulinho.

Corinthians win Copa Libertadores for 1st time

queTTA: Pervaiz Saeed Mir, directordevelopment & Competition PFF, and otherofficial address a football seminar. STaff phOTO

SAO PAuLO: Romarinho of brazil's Corinthians holds the CopaLibertadores trophy after their victory against Argentina's bocaJuniors during their Copa Libertadores 2012 second leg finalmatch at Pacaembu stadium. afp

AACHeN: German dressage rider kristina Sprehe competes in the CdiO GrandPrix at the World equestrian Festival CHiO. The CHiO, the last major equestrianevent before the London Olympics, takes place from July 03 to 08. afp

LONDONAfp

An ugly selection controversy surround-ing a British entrant into the OlympicTaekwondo competition has been domi-nating the news ahead of the LondonGames. Olympic hosts Britain created afurore by selecting Lutalo Muhammad,ranked 59th in the world, ahead of theworld number one Aaron Cook in theunder-80kg division.

European champion Cook appealedthe decision and took his case to theBritish Olympic Committee (BOA) whilethe World Taekwondo Federation (WTF)also launched an investigation into the fi-asco. The BOA has since ruled in BritishTaekwondo's favour and Cook, who con-sidered legal measures against them, hasbeen left in the lurch.

The problem stems from the fact thatthere are eight weight divisions for bothmen and women in international compe-

tition but at the Olympics there are onlyhalf that number. it means fighters whousually fight at one weight have to try tochange their category in Olympic year ifthey want to compete at the Games.

On top of that, each country is only al-lowed to select fighters in half of the avail-able categories, meaning that nationalteam squads comprising eight men andwomen are whittled down to just two ofeach. Muhammad was ranked seven inthe world at under-87kg after winning theEuropeans in his division but rather thanstepping up to heavyweight, he opted tocome down to under-80kg and try to chal-lenge Cook.

However, with limited time compet-ing in his new category and with the com-bination of two categories -- under-80kgand under-74kg -- for Olympic qualifica-tion, Muhammad is actually ranked 103rdin the official Games ranking list.

British Taekwondo said they had aspecific slection criteria and that Muham-

mad had earnt his spot, but overlookingthe world number one for a man rankedoutside the top 100 has not gone downwell. "We are extremely disappointed bythe way in which British Taekwondo's se-lection process has been conducted,"Jean-Marie Ayer, the WTF secretary gen-eral, said in the statement.

"Our main concern is always thatevery athlete is given fair and equal con-sideration." Cook and Muhammad havefought twice in the past, winning onceeach. South Korea, the country that cre-ated the sport, are by far the dominantforce and have been since the inception ofinternational competition in 1973.

Their total of 152 gold medals at theWorld Championships is 40 more thaneveryone else put together.

However, last year they won only twogold medals in the men's divisions com-pared to three from iran, a marked shiftin power. it was the first time the men'steam had ever been beaten at a world

championships. And only three years ago,the women's team lost for the first timetoo, having their results surpassed byChina. South Korea's dominance has beenfar less acute at Olympic level due in nosmall part to the reduced field, whichmeans each country can only field twomen and two women.

it means only two of iran's threeworld champions Alireza Nasr Azadani,Farzad Abdollahi and Yousef Karami willbe allowed to attend whereas South Koreacould send both their male world champi-ons Lee Dae-Hoon and Jo Chol-Ho.

France, for example, have twowomen's world champions but that is inthe top two weight divisions, over-73kgand under-73kg.

The top weight in the women'sOlympic competition is over-67kg mean-ing Gwladys Epangue and Anne-CarolineGraffe would have been competing for thesame spot but for the former's tuberculo-sis which has ruled her out of the Games.

British controversy overshadows Games prep

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:28 AM Page 18

WAtCh it LivE

STAR SPORTSWimbledonTennis04:00PM

from Athensto London2Nd OlyMpiC gAMes iN 1900

VeNUe: Paris, FrancedATes: May 14 to October 28, 1900NUMBers Of spOrTs: 17 (95 events)NUMBers Of NATiONs: 24NUMBers Of pArTiCipANT: 997 (975 men & 22 women)yOUNgesT gOld MedAlisT: unknown boy(France) aged about seven years in RowingOldesT MedAlisT: eugene Mougin (France) aged47 years and 193 days in shooting

fiNAl MedAls TAlly:COUNTry g s BFrance 26 41 34 united States 19 14 14 Great britain 15 6 9 Mixed team 6 3 3 Switzerland 6 2 1 belgium 5 5 5 Germany 4 2 2 italy 2 2 0 Australia 2 0 3 denmark 1 3 2 Holland 1 2 3Hungary 1 2 2Cuba 1 1 -Canada 1 - 1Sweden 1 - 1Austria - 3 3Norway - 2 3Czechoslovakia - 1 2india - 2 -TOTAl 88 87 89

TriViA:The united States runner Fred Lorz finished first inthe Marathon in the 1904 Olympics at St Louis butlater admitted that he took a car ride for approxi-mately 11 miles of the 25-mile race.Charlotte Cooper (britain) was the first woman totake the title of Olympic champion. We are nottalking of gold medals as they were not yetawarded at these Games.Many countries won the first medal in their historyin Paris Olympics, e.g. Spain, italy, Norway, theNetherlands, and even Cuba, india and Mexico.Norman Pritchard competed in four events for india inthe Paris Olympics, the 100 and 200 metres and the110 hurdles and the now discontinued 200 metreshurdles. He claimed silver in 200 metres with a timeof 22.8 seconds. Pritchard claimed his second silver inthe 200-metre hurdles. He finished behind AmericanAlvin kraenzlein with a time of 26.6 seconds.Alvin kraenzlein (united States) won the 60m, the110m hurdles and 200m hurdles, and the long jump.His record of four individual victories at one Gamesstill stands for a track and field athlete.With the French rugby team, Frantz Reichel won theOlympic title, successfully dominating Great britainand Germany. This journalist and accomplishedsportsman (boxer, gymnast, athlete and fencer)later became Secretary General of the Organizingexecutive Committee for 1924 Paris Olympics offi-cially known as Games of the viii Olympiad.in the 1900 Paris Olympics, cricket was played as wellbut after the withdrawal of Netherlands and belgiumonly one match was played between the hosts Franceand Great britain. Great britain won that match eventhought still that cricket match has no first class status.

QUiZ:Q: When was Hockey introduced in Olympic Games?A. 1908Q: Why were Germany and Japan missing at theLondon Olympics in 1948?A. Germany and Japan being defeated nations,were not invitedQ: Which country won all five Tennis titles in the1924 Games at Paris ?A. united StatesQ: How many countries took part in the secondOlympic Games in 1900 at Paris ?A. Twenty fourQ: Who holds the men’s 100 metres record in Olympics?A. usain bolt (Jamaica)

Sports 18Friday, 6 July, 2012

LONDONAfp

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer havemet 26 times, but Friday's potentiallyepic Wimbledon semi-final will be a firstclash on grass in their rollercoaster, six-year rivalry. Defending championDjokovic has won the pair's last threemeetings, in straight sets on clay thisyear in Rome and in the semi-finals ofthe French Open. Those wins followed amorale-sapping semi-final loss for Fed-erer at the US Open where the Serb, forthe second successive year, saved matchpoints before driving another daggerinto the great Swiss. Both men go intoFriday's clash having racked up impres-sive numbers. Djokovic, the US Open,

Australian Open and Wimbledon cham-pion, is in a ninth successive Grand Slamsemi-final and has played in four of thelast finals at the majors. Federer is in arecord 32nd semi-final of a Grand Slam.On paper, the grass of Centre Courtshould favour Federer, the six-timechampion desperate to equal the recordseven set by Pete Sampras. But the 16-time Grand Slam title winner is playingdown the significance of the surface.

"Things are not that drastic of achange anymore from clay, hard court,indoor, to grass. But it is interestingthat this is our first grass court match,"said Federer.

"i'm just happy that i'm aroundfurther than i've been the last couple ofyears. So it's been a good tournament

for me. it gives me confidence goinginto a big match against Novak."feDerer TArGeTS GOLD ATWIMBLeDON: Roger Federer has sethis sights on crowning his remarkablerecord at Wimbledon by winningOlympic gold on his favourite grasscourts. For the second time, and thefirst since the 1908 London Games,Wimbledon will play host to anOlympic tennis tournament, compris-ing men's and women's singles, as wellas doubles and mixed doubles. WhileGreat Britain's athletes and competi-tors will enjoy home advantage duringthe Games, even they will struggle tomatch the levels of familiarity andcomfort Federer enjoys at the All Eng-land Club.

Federer, Djokovic poised for epic first grass clash

JUST as we were running outof superlatives for SerenaWilliams in the second sin-gles semifinal, that Victoria

Azarenka broke Serena's serve tocome back on level terms at 3-3 inthe second set, first set to Serena. itwas level pegging into the tie breakwith Azarenka gaining some ascen-dancy in the baseline rallies.

But in the end it was the Serenaserve, perhaps the most mechanicallyefficient ever in the women's game,that did the trick. On match point forSerena, ace down the center line. inall Serena served 24 aces, averagingtwo a game. it is hard to remember amatch where such a high percentageof aces have been hit.

And then there were the servicewinners and blistering groundstrokes. When Serena Williamsplays, the opponent ceases to mat-ter. if Serena is on her game, as shewas in most of today's semifinal, noplayer in tennis history can staywith her.

in the other semifinal, the craftyAgnieszka Radwanska of Poland wastoo consistent for her good friendAngelique Kerber. Kerber hadplayed an incredible match to defeatSabine Lisicki in the quarters andthat long match may have had a lin-gering effect on her semifinal per-formance. Kerber led 3-1 in the firstset but Radwanska then broke backand pulled away with some errorfree tennis.

The final between Serena andRadwanska will depend entirely onhow Serena Williams serves. if herserves are going in and her ground

strokes are finding their range, thenRadwanska's role may be reduced tothat of a spectator. The Polish girl isgoing to have to stay with Serenaand hope that the American coolsdown and then reel her in with hercrafty ground game. But Radwan-ska's serve is weak and could be at-tacked by Serena.

With Serena playing as she didtoday, it should be straight sets forthe American.

There are a couple of intriguingsemi finals in store on Friday. RogerFederer plays Novak Djokovic whileEngland's Andy Murray carries hiscountrymen's hopes against the like-able Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga.Tsonga was impressive as he cruisedpast Phillip Kohlschreiber in foursets. He has found maturity and self

belief ever since he held four matchpoints against Djokovic at theFrench Open. His game and his tem-perament is steadier and allied tohis natural power and athleticism,could be irresistable for Murray.Murray struggled to get past DavidFerrer in the quarters and is in thesemis for the third year in a row. Hewould dearly hope to go one better.The last Englishman to reach theWimbledon finals was Bunny Austinin 1938 and the last to win was FredPerry in 1936. This weight of historywill be on Murray's shoulders as hesteps on the center court tomorrow.

in yesterday's post match inter-view, Roger Federer denied therebeing any tension between him andNovak Djokovic. He blamed thepress for turning a small issue into amontain. But relations between thetwo are civil but not necessarilywarm and there could be sparks onthe court. Djokovic trails 14-12 intheir meetings but has won six of thelast seven. This is the first time theyare playing on grass. Roger shouldhave the edge but he seems to havedeveloped a mental block againstNadal and Djokovic. He will have tobring his best game on court if he isto beat the top seed. Should federerwin and then go on to win the title,he will be number one in the world.

Aisam Qureshi generated somecontroversy following his MixedDoubles loss in the second round.He and Hlavackova were upset byFleming and Hsieh in a three setmatch on court 18. Following thematch, Aisam refused to shakehands with the umpire and sataround even when the umpire andall the other players had left.it is notknown what provoked this unchar-acteristic behavior.

LONDONAfp

Agnieszka Radwanska became the firstPolish Grand Slam finalist for 73 years asthe world number three cruised to a 6-3,6-4 win over Germany's Angelique Kerberin the Wimbledon semi-finals on Thurs-day. Radwanska's first appearance in aGrand Slam final emulates the achieve-ment of compatriot Jadwiga Jedrze-jowska, who reached the FrenchChampionships final in 1939.

The 23-year-old -- a Wimbledon jun-ior champion in 2005 -- will play four-time champion Serena Williams or worldnumber two Victoria Azarenka in Satur-day's final. Radwanska deserved her mo-ment of glory on Centre Court after aremarkably composed 70-minute displayin her first major semi-final and she couldyet leave London as both Wimbledonchampion and the new world numberone. Deploying a consistent counter-punching game, Radwanska made just sixunforced errors compared to 14 from themore aggressive but unfocused Kerber,

who had been attempting to become thefirst German woman to reach a GrandSlam final since Steffi Graf at Wimbledonin 1999. "i'm so happy, it's amazing. i

played very good today," Radwanska said."it's always tough against Angie. We arevery good friends but of course on courtwe were both fighting for the final.

"i think we were both a bit nervous inthe beginning, your hand is shaking a bit,but after a couple of games i relaxed."This is what i dreamed of since i was akid. Everyone wants to reach a GrandSlam final. it is the best two weeks of mycareer." Radwanska's victory over MariaKirilenko in the quarter-finals had endedfour years of frustration after she sufferedlast eight losses at Wimbledon in 2008and 2009 and three defeats at the samestage of the Australian Open.

With that burden erased from hermind, Radwanska was able to play withfreedom against eighth seed Kerber --once she recovered from an early breakin the third game. Radwanska immedi-ately retrieved that break and thenbroke for a 5-3 lead thanks to a pair ofcrucial Kerber miscues on the back-hand side. The Pole closed out the setwith a blistering ace that left Kerberrooted to the spot.

Radwanska reaches first Wimbledon final

WiMbLedON: Agnieszka Radwanskacelebrates her semi-final victory overAngelique kerber during the 2012Wimbledon Championships. afp

Lodhi top NationalChess standings

kARACHIsTAff repOrT

Defending champion Mahmood AhmedLodhi has made to the top of the NationalChess Championships standings with sixpoints at the end of the sixth round here at alocal hotel on Thursday. The internationalmaster from Punjab defeated National Mas-ter Anwar Qureshi of Sindh in 39 moves ofthe match that lasted just two hours. Lodhi,who represented Pakistan in ChessOlympiad, had earlier defeated RaeesAhmed Ansari of Sindh in the fifth roundafter a mere 23-move match. The unfanciedM Ayub of Punjab, meanwhile, jumped tothe second spot on the table after he de-feated Anwar Qureshi. On the women’s side,titleholder Nida Mishraz and Zenobia Wasifjointly share the lead with three points. sTANdiNgs: Men’s Mahmood Ahmed Lodhi 5, Moham-mad Ayub (Punjab) 4.5 Anwar qurshi (Sindh) 4,Haseeb Ahmed (Sindh) umer khan Amjad Hafeezbajwa (both Punjab) dr Naeem Mirza Wahaab AhmedWaqar Ahmed Madni (Punjab). Women: Nida Mishraz(Sindh) and zebibua Wasif (Sindh).

WiMbLedON: uS player Serena Williamsplays a double-handed backhand shot tobelarus's victoria Azarenka during the 2012Wimbledon Championships semi-final. afp

When Serena is on song,opponent does’nt matter

ALI AkBAR

at Wimbledon

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:28 AM Page 19

Friday, 6 July, 2012

19

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

LAHOREUMAir AZiZ

PUNJAB Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif’s penchant for allthings military – in this partic-ular instance National Logis-tics Cell, for short NLC – is

bleeding the province’s exchequer. But theCM’s instructions sustain: NLC has to havea monopoly on all big-ticket, high-value in-frastructure work in the province, nevermind even if it costs an arm and a leg morethan the civilian contractors – who actuallyend up executing it.

Since everything military costs more –not unlike most countries all over the world– the NLC’s price tag is predictably higher –by a considerable margin. The CM knows itwell, but he still has to have his way. Andthat translates into, Pakistan Today haslearnt on good authority, the NLC ratesjacked up by 15 per cent. And what does the

NLC do afterwards? it sublets almost all itswork to private contractors! Only if the Pun-jab government invited bids and created alevel playing field instead of handing hege-mony to NLC, it would save it billions of ru-pees which could be used for what thesewere intended: the public benefit.

Explaining how the market price is set,a senior officer on condition of anonymitysaid that estimates are collected from thePublic Works Department executive engi-neers and sub-divisional officers (theserates are already inflated in any case sincekickbacks have to be factored in) and arepassed on to the finance department,which counter checks and approves.

“The finance department rate is thebenchmark and a contractor can bid higherbut up to 4.5 percent and as low as it deemsfit. But in case the bid is lower, the govern-ment locks the contractor through suretybonds to make sure it doesn’t renege later,”the official added. But here the CM has used

his discretion, and not just offered all majorcontracts to the NLC on a platter but at rates15 per cent above the approved benchmark– for no obvious benefit. it just doesn’t stophere: other ‘relaxations available exclusivelyto the NLC’ are indeed fabulous too. One,the mandatory 6.5 per cent at source in-come tax is not deducted. Two, in caseequipment not displayed on the finance de-partment website is employed, an addi-tional 4.25 per cent is dished out. Three,unlike civilian contractors, the NLC doesnot have to deposit 10 per cent security.

The major projects given to the NLCrecently include: the widening of the canalbank road costing around Rs1.6 billion, theKalma Chowk Flyover at Rs2.7 billion, theMuslim Town flyover at Rs3.7 billion,Chandni Chowk, Rawalpindi at Rs4 billion.Even the Lahore Ring Road which was ini-tially given to private contractors throughthe highways department was later handedover to the NLC. interestingly, the NLC

sublet all the aforementioned projects to pri-vate contractors – who have all previouslyworked directly with the Punjab governmenton several projects. it might just be a coinci-dence but there is a monopoly within themonopoly. The NLC sublet all its aforemen-tioned projects (together worth Rs12 billion,excluding the Lahore Ring Road) to one con-tractor – Habib Constructions. The latter,along with two others, built the Kasur-boundFerozepur Road after Hussnain Cotex andEcowest were blacklisted over delays.

The Superintending Engineer Highways,Lahore Circle, Sabir Khan Sadozai says, “TheNLC is preferred over civilian contractorsowing to its reliability. We want to avoid theFerozepur Road-like situations where a con-tractor flees, leaving us in the lurch. The NLCis huge and responsible – and can make upfor a delay or a mishap.” The critics of thepolicy maintain that the SE’s justification im-plies that the NLC has grown bigger than thePunjab government itself.

“if the NLC can keep its sublet contrac-tors on the straight and narrow, why can’tthe Punjab government do the same? Thatwhen previously these contractors have sat-isfactorily worked with it, and it would savebillions given to the NLC over the top,” thedetractors question. Then there is the curi-ous case of an NLC project collapsing quitespectacularly. instead of the NLC being heldresponsible as the principal contractor afterthe Harbanspura Bridge collapse on the La-hore Ring Road, the owner of the subletKhalid Rauf & Co. was arrested and pro-ceeded against. “According to the agree-ment, the main contractor – here the NLC– is responsible for any accident or mishap,and the government has nothing to do withthe subcontractor. But since the NLC is notrequired to deposit any security and morethan a year had gone by, the NLC went scotfree, leaving the hapless civilian contractorto cop the consequences,” the highway de-partment insiders claim.

CHAMANAfp

The first trucks supplying NATO troops inAfghanistan crossed the border from Pakistanon Thursday after islamabad ended a seven-month blockade.

Pakistan closed overland routes forNATO convoys into its war-torn neighbourafter a botched US air raid in Novemberkilled 24 Pakistani soldiers at a border post,plunging ties between the “war on terror”allies to a new low. Following a bitter seven-month standoff, islamabad agreed to reopenthe routes on Tuesday after US Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton said sorry for theairstrike deaths.

Three trucks loaded with mineral waterwere cleared to enter Afghanistan from theChaman border post in Balochistan onThursday, Chaman district customs officialAbdul Razaq imran told AFP. “Three NATOcontainers parked in customs house Chamanfor the last seven months have crossed intoAfghanistan from the Chaman border,” hesaid. “We cleared their documents andallowed them to cross the border after wereceived a letter from the Federal Board ofRevenue about the restoration of the NATOsupply.” Malik Hukam Dad, an official fromPakistan’s Federal investigation Agency atChaman, said three trucks had been clearedand two had already crossed the border.

The majority of trucks for the NATOconvoys have spent the past seven monthsstanding idle in the Arabian Sea port ofKarachi. Officials there said it was likely to beseveral days before they set off as measures toprotect the containers from attack by Taliban

militants were still being worked out.“The security situation is very bad so we

cannot take any risks. We will be providingevery possible security to the NATO truckers,”said Sharfuddin Memon, a senior Sindh homedepartment official. The Pakistani Talibanhave vowed to attack NATO supply trucks,and haulage associations have voiced fears forthe safety of their drivers.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for theTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), saidthe militants would strike at the convoys“with a new spirit and more effectivestrategy to destroy them”. The DefenceCouncil of Pakistan, a coalition of right-wing and extremist religious groups, hascalled for countrywide protests against theNATO convoys.

Rana Mohammad Aslam, vice presidentof the All Pakistan Goods Carrier Association,said that in view of the threats, truckers wereinstalling tracking systems in their vehiclesand taking other security measures.

The land routes into Afghanistan are vitalas the United States and its NATO allieswithdraw troops and equipment built up inAfghanistan since the 2001 invasion. Theblockade had forced the United States and itsallies to rely on longer, more expensivenorthern routes through Central Asia, Russiaand the Caucasus, costing the US militaryabout $100 million a month, according to thePentagon. As part of the deal to open theroutes, which followed months ofnegotiations, Washington will release about$1.1 billion to the Pakistani military from a US“coalition support fund” designed toreimburse Pakistan for the cost of counter-insurgency operations.

NEWS DESk

Frequent power outages are takinga toll on businesses across Pak-istan, Al Jazeera said in a reportpublished on Thursday.

Most businesses and house-holds go without electricity for atleast 12 hours a day, making life ex-tremely difficult. “The power goesoff for one hour and then comesback for an hour,” Ali, a tailor ex-plains. “So it is every other hour thatwe are without power. And on Sun-days it goes for three hours at astretch,” he told Al Jazeera. Ali saidhe relied on a generator to keepthings running, but at a cost ofroughly $125 a month. He cannotafford to run it as regularly as hewould need to keep his businessticking over. The cost, he said, wouldbe much greater if he kept the airconditioner running. But, he ex-plains: “For me that is not an option;it is an expense that i cannot bear.”

“When i have to ask my six toseven workers to stay back to fin-ish the customers’ orders that wehave, i have to order food for themand keep the generator and elec-tricity going for longer.” “i can nei-ther say no to the customers, norcan i always deliver. i don’t see away out of it. We can barely makeends meet. We can’t run thesewing machines without electric-ity and in the evening, withoutlights, we cannot even cut the fab-ric because it is difficult to see.”

Despite the difficulty, Ali admitshe is among the luckier ones.

The situation is much worse inrural areas, where outages last for16 to 20 hours a day. The electricalhide and seek makes it impossibleto plan work. Over the past coupleof years, the situation has deterio-rated dramatically and the short-fall has soared to 7,000megawatts. in 2010, power out-ages did take place and could lastfor up to four hours at a time - butthey were monthly occurrenceswith advanced notice, enablingpeople to plan their lives aroundthem. “Now, small business own-ers report a 50 percent reductionin revenue over the past twoyears,” the report said. The coun-try’s power crisis might havereached the tipping point, but thefactors behind it have been brew-ing for the past two decades. Oneof the key reasons is unpaid elec-tricity bills: provincial and federalgovernments often fail to pay theirdues despite being the biggest con-sumers. “Then there is the matterof electricity theft, in which someresidential and commercial con-sumers bribe staff at the powercompanies in order to receive anunlimited supply. This, in turn, af-fects the supply to other house-holds and businesses that musteffectively pay the bill for thosewho do not,” Al Jazeera said.

ydA saysstrike notover yet

LAHOREApp

The Young Doctors Association onThursday announced to resume work inemergency departments of threecardiac hospitals in Punjab.Speaking at a press conference, arepresentative of YDA Punjab Dr AmirBanday Shah said as the Punjabgovernment had released all arresteddoctors, YDA had decided to start work inemergency departments of Punjabinstitute of Cardiology (PiC), Faisalabadinstitute of Cardiology (FiC) and Multaninstitute of Cardiology (MiC).However, the strike in OPDs of allhospitals across Punjab would continueuntil the announcement of servicestructure by the Punjab government,he added.To a question about rulings of theSupreme Court that doctors fell underthe compulsory service act and couldnot strike, he said everyone had theright to strike for his rights in ademocratic country, but he could notcomment about the specific law.He said if the Punjab governmentreleased four doctors of Mayo hospitalwho were arrested on charges ofmurder, the YDA would call off itsstrike in emergency departments of allPunjab hospitals.He said negotiations were underwaywith the Punjab government that mightbring some positive results.

Shahbaz pampers NLC with monopoly, jacked up rates

naTO trucks cross borderafter blockade ends

no light at theend of the tunnel

Continued on page 04

New delHi: foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani speaks to journalists as his indian counterpart ranjan Mathai looks on

during a joint press conference on Thursday. afp

ISB 06-07-2012_Layout 1 7/6/2012 5:28 AM Page 20