Rs 17.00 Vol III No 248 19 Pages Islamabad — Peshawar Edition Wednesday, 6 March, 2013 Rabi us Sani 23, 1434

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ebad acceptsMQM ministers’resignationDr Ishratul Ebad Khan has accepted

the resignations submitted by 11

provincial ministers belonging to the

MQM following the party’s

announcement to quit the federal and

Sindh provincial governments over

PPP’s ‘negative attitude’. Opposition

benches have been allotted to 40 out

of 51 MQM members in the Sindh

Assembly and Syed Sardar Ahmed

has been appointed the leader of

opposition. page 03

Lashkari leads 21others into pML-nIn a major set back to the PPP in

Balochistan, former president of

PPP Balochistan chapter Nawab

Lashkari Raisani and 21 other party

leaders have announced their

decision to join the PML-N. They

met PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in

Raiwind on Tuesday and announced

to join the party. page 19

ppp to enddeprivationof Southpunjab page 02

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ISLAMABADTAYYAB HUssAin

Ablame game be-tween the treas-ury ando p p o s i t i o nbenches on theirfailure to preventMonday’s Abbas

Town bombing was the hallmark of theproceedings of the National Assemblyon Tuesday.

Both opposition and treasurybenches grilled the government for its“criminal inaction” against the terror-ists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) while

Interior Minister Rehman Malik put theblame on the Punjab government forgoing soft on the banned outfits.

With the Senate passing Anti-Ter-rorism Bill the same day, the NationalAssembly also took up a report of thecommittee concerned to establish Na-tional Counter Terrorism Authority inthe country despite the fact that it wasnot on agenda. The report said thatthere was a dire need for a focal insti-tution to integrate and synergise na-tional counterterrorism efforts in viewof nature of magnitude of terroristthreat.

MQM lawmaker Wasim Akhtarcriticized the Sindh and federal govern-

ments’ for not taking action againstthe terrorist organisations, addingthat the Karachiites had been left atthe mercy of the banned outfitswhile the ministers and their rela-tives were being provided VVIPprotection.

Akhtar was followed by PML-Nlawmakers who also blasted thegovernment for its failure to takeaction against the terrorist organisa-tions.

However, Interior MinisterRehman Malik responded strongly,stating that the Punjab governmentwas soft on banned outfits and ter-rorists of LJ were operating fromPunjab.

He also claimed that authoritieshad arrested four terrorists of the LJfor their involvement in the AbbasTown bombing.

“The Karachi bombing is a

replica of sectarian attacks made inQuetta. A conspiracy is being hatchedto delay general elections … I will sub-mit a fact-sheet in the National Assem-bly tomorrow,” he added.

Malik pointed out that apart fromthe Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),some other banned outfits were also in-volved in the recent terrorist activities,adding that the LJ was openly holdingmeetings in Punjab.

Calling upon the banned outfits notto play in the hands of enemies, Maliksaid the enemy wanted to destabilisethe country. He noted that there was noShia-Sunni conflict in the country andrather it was a conspiracy by enemies.

Malik also suggested a joint sittingof parliament by summoning the SindhIG and Rangers DG to explain their po-sition in the bombing.

Earlier the House, suspending theagenda on private member day to dis-cuss the Abbas Town carnage under anadjournment motion moved by theMQM, witnessed fiery speeches withmost members coming hard on thePunjab government for letting thebanned outfits operate freely in theprovince.

The MQM lawmakers looked emo-tional while discussing the Abbas Towntragedy and they pointed out that ter-rorists were operating under the pa-tronage of state because of their freemovement in certain parts of the coun-try.

Wasim Akhtar deplored the silenceon the part of political and religiousparties on such incidents and said that

these parties talked so much but nevercared about security of people.

He claimed that President AsifZardari knew about the elements whowere involved in these incidents andurged him to take action against theseterrorists as the supreme commander ofthe armed forces.

PML-N lawmaker Khawaja Asifsaid the government should look intointernal forces which were conspiringto fuel the sectarian violence in thecountry.

PPP legislator Noor Alam Khanlashed out at the Punjab governmentand said members of banned outfitswere freely moving with the Punjablaw minister. He brushed aside the no-tion that the PPP wanted to delay elec-tions on the pretext of these terror actsand said that elections would be heldon time and PPP would again win theelections.

ANP lawmaker Himayatullah saidthat a clear policy should be devised tonegotiate only with those who werewilling to come to table under theambit of constitution. He also calledfor inquiring the generals for their in-action against terrorists.

PML-Q’s Sheikh Waqas Akramsaid that banned outfits have displayedtheir hoardings in Jhang and when hetried to remove them, Punjab policecame to protect these hoardings.

PML-Q legislator Sardar BahadurKhan said that Punjab was a hotbed ofbanned outfits and despite the lettersby the interior minister no action wastaken against them in the province.

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It is the collective responsibility of all of us to

work together against the menace of

terrorism –Interior Minister Rehman Malik

PM to undertakeprivate visit to IndiaISLAMABAD: Prime Minister RajaPervaiz Ashraf is expected to visitIndia on Saturday for a day-long pil-grimage to pray at the shrine of Sufisaint Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz inAjmer Sharif in Rajasthan. Accordingto an official source, the prime minis-ter would be in India on Saturday andwould be accompanied by his familyand other officials. According to thesource, the prime minister is not ex-pected to meet any Indian politicalleaders. “This is clearly a religiousand spiritual trip,” the source said.Meanwhile, Shiv Sena strongly op-posed the upcoming visit of PrimeMinister Parvez Ashraf saying thatthe PM should be allowed in Indiaonly if he brings with him the severedhead of the Indian soldier allegedlykilled on the Line of Control (LoC) inJanuary. inP

Treasury, opposition resort to blame game over Shia killing

PPP govt to remove deprivationsof people of South Punjab: ZardariMULTAN: President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday said hisgovernment would remove the deprivations of the peopleof South Punjab. Inaugurating Rashidabad Flyover here, Zardari said 95 per-cent of development projects in Multan had been com-pleted.He said southern Punjab was deprived of its share of devel-opment in the past‚ but “our government allocated recordfunds for rapid development of the region”. The president said it was the government’s desire to re-move the backwardness of southern Punjab and “for thisfunds are being enhanced”.Earlier addressing the ceremony, former prime ministerYousaf Raza Gilani said President Zardari had released Rs1.5 billion for the development of Multan.He said work on a cancer hospital and a burn centre inMultan would begin soon, adding that work on Multan In-ternational Airport had been completed. Gilani said workon the Faisalabad-Multan Motorway would also be initi-ated soon.“This 500-meter-long flyover has been completed in 10months at a cost of Rs 1.47 billion,” Gilani said.Later, addressing a gathering at Jamal Din Wali in RahimYar Khan, President Zardari said in line with the vision ofZulfikar Ali and Benazir Bhutto‚ the government was fo-cusing on less developed areas.He said the government was fully aware of the sense ofdeprivation of people of South Punjab and was taking con-crete steps to remove it. Agencies

PML-n LawMakers sLaMgovt for not takingaction againstterrorist outfits

MaLik says Punjab governMent is soft on banned outfits and Lj

MQM LawMaker cLaiMsPresident Zardariknows terroristsbehind these attacks

PML-Q LegisLator saysPunjab PoLice areProtecting bannedoutfits in jhang

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niCL CaSe(

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wednesday, 6 March, 2013

The government is not serious in

bringing an impartial chief minister

in Balochistan – Nisar Ali Khan

ISLAMABADAgencies

AS US officials dis-avow two recent“drone attacks” inearly February, thePakistan army onTuesday strongly de-nied a New York

Times report which implied that the strikeshad been conducted by the Pakistani military.

The two strikes, one each in North andSouth Waziristan on February 6 and 8 re-spectively, had reportedly killed up to ninepeople, including two senior al Qaeda com-manders. In Islamabad, the Foreign Min-istry lodged an official protest with theAmerican Embassy. However, according toan NYT report, three American officialswith knowledge of the programme said theUnited States did not carry out those attacks.“They were not ours,” one of the officials,speaking on the condition of anonymity toldthe paper. “We haven’t had any kinetic ac-tivity since January,” they added.

The report went on to say: “What ex-actly took place in those remote tribal vil-lages, far from outside scrutiny, is unclear.But the Americans’ best guess is that one orpossibly both of the strikes were carried outby the Pakistani military and falsely attrib-uted to the CIA to avoid criticism from thePakistani public.”

According to another report, “Two sen-ior United States officials said there hadbeen no American involvement in the at-tacks. A third official said the CIA had notpaid the reports much attention because noAmerican forces had been involved. But thatofficial said American intelligence pointedto the Pakistan Air Force as having con-ducted the first strike, probably as part of amilitary operation against Pakistani Talibanmilitants in the neighbouring Orakzai tribalagency. The second attack was more myste-rious. ‘It could have been the Pakistani mil-itary,’ the official said. ‘It could have beenthe Taliban fighting among themselves. Orit could have been simply bad reporting.’ ” ‘NOT US EITHER’: Strongly reacting tothe report, the Pakistani military’s mediawing – Inter-Services Public Relations(ISPR) – issued a press statement on Tues-day, denying any involvement in thestrikes. “…such an accusation is distortion

of the facts and seems to be aimed at dilut-ing Pakistan’s stance on drone strikes,” anISPR spokesman said in a statement. Hedenied that Pakistan’s security forces hadcarried out any operation, including airstrikes, in the area on the dates mentionedin the news report. CURTAIN OF SECRECY: For the pastmonth, John O Brennan, President Obama’scounterterrorism adviser and nominee to leadthe CIA, has been dogged by Congressionalquestions about the drone programme’s lackof transparency, particularly when it comesto killing American citizens abroad.

The biggest obstacle to confirming de-tails of the strikes is their location: thestrikes usually hit remote, hostile and vir-tually closed-off areas. Foreign reportersare barred from the tribal belt, and a hand-ful of local journalists who operate therefind themselves vulnerable to pressure fromboth the military and the Taliban.

That murkiness has often suited the pur-poses of both the CIA and the Pakistani mil-itary, said the NYT report. It allows theAmericans to conduct drone strikes behinda curtain of secrecy, largely shielded frompublic oversight and outside scrutiny. Forthe Pakistanis, the paper said, it allows themto play both sides: publicly condemningstrikes, while quietly supporting others, likethe missile attack that killed the PakistaniTaliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in 2009.

Still, the information vacuum alsoplaces American officials at a disadvantagewhen it comes to answering accusationsthat the drone strikes kill large numbers ofinnocent civilians alongside bona fide mil-itants. State Department officials have com-plained that they cannot effectively countercivilian death claims they believe arehugely inflated because the programme isclassified – a subject of lively debate insidethe administration, one official said.

Money trail leadsto Amin Fahim’shome: SC ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)Iftikhar Chaudhry on Tuesday said money trailled to PPP leader Amin Fahim’s home. Justice Chaudhry gave this remark while presid-ing over a three-member bench during the hear-ing of NICL case. Commerce Secretary Munir Paracha, FIA coun-sel SM Zafar, Commerce Minister Amin Fahim’slawyer and other senior officers appeared beforethe court. The court was told that Fahim had appointedAyaz Niazi. Four accused were out of the coun-try and action was being initiated against them.Most of the accused, including Amin Fahim,who are present in Pakistan, have been releasedon bail. Rs 2.6 billion loss has been caused tonational exchequer in NICL case and Rs 1.2 bil-lion have been recovered. The amount trans-ferred to Fahim’s account has now beentransferred to respective accounts from where itwas transferred. The CJP said Ayaz Niazi was appointed underthe directives of Fahim and transfer of moneyled to the minister’s home. What else was left,he inquired. The court asked the commerce secretary to takeaction against the accused. “You have registeredcases against them. Now provide the evidenceagainst them too and if your evidences areproved false then action will be taken againstyou. When court starts hearing of any case thenthe government institutions become active andbefore it, all of them are lying in a state of slum-ber. Go and initiate proceedings against the ac-cused persons. Register the cases against whomthe cases have not been registered. FIA has donenothing against the accused sitting abroad exceptregistration of cases against them. Under FIArules if the accused sitting in Pakistan is not ap-prehended then how those sitting abroad will bearrested.”Lahore Director Waqar Haider appeared beforethe court when the court sought report on thematter of Lahore land. Haider told the court his case was lying beforethe bench, led by Justice Jawad S Khawaja, andit has not been fixed for hearing for the last twomonths.Justice Chaudhry said, “What respect has beenpaid to the orders of the court that the personagainst whom SC has initiated contempt of courtproceedings is enjoying directorship. [The] courthas been made [a] laughing stock. What order isgiven is not implemented. What FIA wants? Firstof all we will see the matter of Waqar Haider andthen we will see the other things. FIA shouldpresent detailed report on the entire case and itsexplanation with reference to Waqar Haider inthe court. Whatever order is given to the govern-ment, activity starts contrary to the order. Oppo-nent of [the] court becomes pious and virtuousperson in the eyes of government.” The court summoned the FIA director along withreport on March 11 for keeping restored FIA Di-rector Waqar Haider on his post despite issuanceof contempt of court notice to the latter by theSC in NICL case. The court directed Munir Paracha, counsel forFIA, that action should be initiated against theaccused and report to the court in this regard.onLine

LAHOREAgencies

Lambasting the performance of the Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP)-led govern-ment, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif said onTuesday that the rulers had pushed thecountry 50 years back into past duringthe last five years.

Talking with journalists, Nawaz saidthat innocent people were being killedfrom Khyber to Karachi on daily basis.“It is the government’s responsibility toprovide safety to the people of the coun-

try,” he said. Addressing President AsifAli Zardari, Nawaz asked what the gov-ernment and its allies had done for thecountry and its people. He said that hadhe been in place of Zardari, he wouldhave said goodbye to the parties in thecoalition.

He said that terrorism in Pakistanwas the result of wrong policies of mil-itary dictators and unconstitutional gov-ernments. The PML-N chief demandedthe implementation of the SupremeCourt’s (SC) verdict on the Karachi lawand order case. He strongly condemnedthe Abbas Town incident, but regrettedthat the rulers were least perturbed bythe loss of innocent lives. He said thepeople had given mandate to the rulersfor their security and wellbeing, but thegovernment had shown complete ineffi-ciency and was levelling allegationsagainst others.

The PML-N chief asked InteriorMinister Rehman Malik what steps hadbeen taken to provide security despite

having information about terrorist inci-dents in Quetta and Karachi. He said theSupreme Court had pointed towardsmilitant wings in political parties but noaction had been taken. He saidthere were parties with peoplein their fold who had killedmore than a hundred persons.He said Karachi had beenmade hostage by crimi-nals, who carry out ac-tivities by wearingpolice uniforms butno action had beentaken againstthem. CARETAKER

PM: He said thenames suggestedby his party forcaretaker primeminister wouldbe acceptable foreveryone, addingthat if the govern-

ment’s nominee wasmore suitable andhad good reputa-tion, his partywould accept thedecision.

ECP invites applicationsfor election symbols ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pak-istan (ECP) on Tuesday invited applications frompolitical parties that have complied with the provi-sions of the Political Parties Order, 2002 for allo-cation of election symbols. The applications, signed by respective party lead-ers, should reach the Election Commission Secre-tariat Islamabad, on or before March 15. The political parties were advised to file applica-tions for allocation of symbols according to re-quirements of Article 5 of the Allocation ofSymbols Order, 2002. ECP said that the applications should contain in-formation about list of symbols applied for inorder of preference; symbol or symbols if any wasallocated to the political party during the previousgeneral elections; address of the head office of thepolitical party; the name of its president, secretarygeneral and other office-bearers of the central ex-ecutive committee; numerical strength of its mem-bers and copy of election manifesto and copy ofthe constitution of the political party should be at-tached. The parties were also asked to state whether theparty was represented by a member or members inthe National Assembly or a provincial assembly inthe past, if so, the name and other particulars ofsuch members; whether the political party hadconducted the intra-party elections as requiredunder Article 12 of the Political Parties Order,2002 and whether the political party had submittedits due consolidated statements of accounts auditedby chartered accountants as required under Article13 of the Political Parties Order, 2002.The ECP made it clear that incomplete applica-tions or requests through fax would not be enter-tained. The applications received prior to March 5would not be considered. sTAff RePoRT

KARACHIinP

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad onTuesday accepted the resignationssubmitted by 11 provincial ministersbelonging to the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM).

Opposition seats have been allot-ted to 40 out of 51 MQM members,while the remaining 11, who wereholding various portfolios, were wait-ing for their resignations to be accepted.

After speculations of his resignation,Ebad flew back home from Dubai lastweek on the directives of MQMchief Altaf Hussain to con-tinue as governor. O P P O S I T I O N

LEADER: Mean-while, MQM’s Sar-

dar Ahmed has been appointed as the leader of the op-position in Sindh Assembly. The Sindh Assembly sec-retary has issued an official notification in this regard.

Earlier on Tuesday, an MQM delegation called onSpeaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in his chamber to file

the application nominating Sardar Ahmed as op-position leader, after the resignations of

MQM ministers, advisers, special ad-visers, and coordinators were ac-cepted.

The MQM is the second-largestparty in the House after the PPP with51 members. It had announced toquit the federal and Sindh govern-ments, and moved to oppositionbenches in the Sindh Assembly afterciting Pakistan People’s Party’s(PPP) “negative attitude” and accus-ing the government of giving free-hand to criminals in Karachi.

However, certain sections of themedia reported that there was some

sort of an “understanding” be-tween the PPP and the MQM

over the latter becoming anopposition party in thefinal days of the currentparliament.

Army rejects NYT charges of drone strikesnyt rePort had cLaiMed that Pakistanwas resPonsibLe for two strikes in earLy february in fata

sindh governoraccepts resignation of MQM ministers

MQM’s sardar ahMed aPPointed oPPosition Leader in sindh asseMbLy

Rulers pushed Pakistan 50 yearsinto the past: nawaz sharif

PML-n chief deMandsiMPLeMentation of scverdict on karachiLaw and ordersituation

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wednesday, 6 March, 2013

The government is focusing on less developed areas in

line with the vision of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and

Shaheed Benazir Bhutto — President Asif Ali Zardari

RAWALPINDI: Children perform at a ceremony organised by Ummah Welfare Trust on Tuesday.

ABOTTABADsTAff RePoRT

PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ChairmanImran Khan on Tues-day called for appoint-

ment of a non-politicalindividual as caretaker primeminister (PM) of the country.

He said criminals were rul-ing the roost and terrorists werekilling people in broad daylightand no individual was safe,stretching from Karachi toWaziristan. Addressing publicgatherings in Haripur, Hawail-ian and Abbottabad duringPTI’s mass contact drive, Khansaid President Asif Ali Zardariand Nawaz Sharif were knownfor playing the notorious gameof ‘noora-kushti’ which haddamaged the country.

“Despite rampant killing,abductions and extortions, not asingle perpetrator has been ex-ecuted for these heinous crimes,and the government’s writseems non-existent in the coun-try,” he said. PTI would unitethe people of Pakistan and arevolution would hold sway inthe country, Khan added.

Khan said people werefully aware of their political tac-tics which would be reflected inthe forthcoming general elec-tions. He said people must joinPTI if they want real change inthe country. He said PTI hadbecome the first democraticparty of the country, having

held intra-party polls.Expressing wonder, Khan

said the JUI-F chief MaulanaFazlur Rehman had been anally of Zardari for the past fiveyears and now had sided withNawaz in his attempt to win innext polls. “Rulers are becom-ing billionaires, while the na-tion is getting poorer eachpassing day,” the PTI chief said.

He said Zardari’s andSharif’s assets were in foreignaccounts, adding it was not intheir interest to solve problemsof the masses. He said PTIwould hold a historic publicgathering on March 23 atMinar-e-Pakistan. He furthersaid the PTI would unite thenation to rid the country fromsectarianism, adding that thePTI tsunami would hit Pe-shawar on March 10.

“The rulers have made abig mistake by plunging thecountry, people and the armyinto the US war against terror-ism which has claimed the livesof 5 million people,” Khan said.

PTI after coming intopower would disengage fromthe US-led war and wouldbreak away from US slaveryonce and for all, the PTI chiefvowed. Khan said if PTI wasvoted into power, it would cre-ate a new Pakistan, free fromexternal influence and interfer-ence, where the youth wouldbe provided ample employ-ment opportunities.

Expressing disappointment

over functioning of governmentorganisations, Khan said theprofit earning institution- Pak-istan Steel Mill-at present faceda deficit of Rs 50 billion. Hesaid these rulers had broughtthe country on the verge ofbankruptcy and collapse.

The PTI chief said owingto sky-rocketing inflation andrampant corruption, the poorwere struggling to make endsmeet, and promised that thePTI would put an end to cor-ruption and bring foreign in-vestment in Pakistan. PTIactivists, through intra-partypolls, can expel corrupt lead-ers from the party, he said,adding that election was heldfor every position in the party.

Terming the PML-N as a“family-limited” party, Khansaid in the past, the two brothershad ruled the country and nowtheir children were in line tocapture the throne.

He said both “family-lim-ited” political parties hadbrought a plethora of problemsfor Pakistan and were unable tosolve problems of the masses

PTI would start its electioncampaign from March 23, fol-lowing the public oath-takinggathering in Lahore, he said,adding that people would notvote into power those who werebusy in underhand deals.

If the youth backed him inthe next general polls, Khanvowed he would bring aboutreal change in the country.

WASHINGTONinP

A US federal jury convictedHafiz Khan, a 77-year-oldcleric of Pakistani origin froma Miami mosque, for provid-ing material support to terror-ists, including the bannedPakistani Taliban.

His sentencing, which isscheduled for May 30, mightresult in him facing up to 15years in prison on each count.Khan was found guilty of twoconspiracy counts and twocounts of providing materialsupport to terrorists.

“Despite being an Imam, orspiritual leader, Khan was by nomeans a man of peace. Instead,he acted with others to supportterrorists to further acts of mur-der, kidnapping and maiming,”US Attorney for the SouthernDistrict of Florida Wifredo Fer-rer said in a statement.

If not for law enforcementintervention, these defendantswould have continued to trans-fer funds to Pakistan to financethe Pakistani Taliban, includingits purchase of guns, he said,after the jury gave its verdictfollowing two months of trial.

“Today, terrorists have lostanother funding source to useagainst innocent people and USinterests,” said Special Agentin-charge Michael B Steinbach.

“We will not allow thiscountry to be used as a basefor funding terrorists. Individ-uals such as Khan, who sup-

port terror, represent a threatto our safety and provide anexample of why the FBI’snumber one priority is coun-terterrorism,” he said.

According to evidence,Khan, with help of persons inSouth Florida and Pakistan,sent money and other materialsupport to Taliban contacts andsympathisers overseas.

Khan sought to aid theTaliban’s fight against thePakistani government and itsperceived allies, including theUS, by supporting acts ofmurder, kidnapping andmaiming in Pakistan and else-where, in order to establishSharia, Steinbach said.

Khan transferred moneyfrom the US to Taliban support-ers in Pakistan, primarily usingbank accounts and wire transferservices in the US and Pakistan.

These funds were in-tended to purchase guns forthe Pakistani Taliban, to sus-tain militants and their fami-lies and generally to promotethe Pakistani Taliban’s cause,the department of justice saidin a statement.

Khan also solicited and col-lected money in the US for thatpurpose, taking great care toconceal his activities, it added.

In one recorded conver-sation introduced as evi-dence, Khan stated thatmoney cannot be sent openlyto the Taliban, but must in-stead be sent covertlythrough its supporters.

CHICAGOAgencies

A massive winter stormpounding the northern UnitedStates grounded over 1,100flights, closed hundreds ofschools and made roadwaysimpassible on Tuesday.

More than a dozen statesfrom Minnesota to Virginiawere in the path of the hugestorm which had alreadydumped as much as two feetof snow in Montana and 15

inches in North Dakota.The heavily-populated

Chicago area was expected toget as much of an inch of snowan hour during the eveningrush, the National WeatherService said. Hundreds ofplows were working the WindyCity’s roads and freeways butwith up to 10 inches of snowexpected, there was no waythey could keep up. “Signifi-cant amounts of snow are fore-cast that will make traveldangerous,” the weather serv-

ice warned. “Consider onlytraveling if in an emergency.”

Nearly 800 flights weregrounded at Chicago’s O’Hareairport – a major hub – whileanother 240 were cancelled atChicago Midway. Over 100flights were cancelled in Min-neapolis, Minnesota, accordingto FlightAware. The storm wasexpected to hit the nation’s capi-tol late Tuesday or earlyWednesday, and some Congres-sional meetings were alreadybeing cancelled in Washington.

MQM toannouncefuture line ofaction today

KARACHIAPP

A joint meeting of the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) Co-ordination Committee was heldin Karachi and London late onTuesday night to discuss the fu-ture line of action after the expi-ration of the three-day deadlinegiven by MQM leader AltafHussain to the government forarresting the perpetrators of theAbbas Town attacks. Accordingto a statement, the MQM Coor-dination Committee will an-nounce the future line of actionin this respect through a pressconference on March 6 (today).The meeting offered condo-lences to the affected people andprayed for the speedy recoveryof the injured.

QUETTAonLine

Police, with the collaborationof Frontier Constabulary(FC), arrested on Tuesdaythree people and recoveredarms and ammunition fromtheir possession during asearch operation.

According to details, localpolice and FC arrested threesuspects, Naeem, Arif andAbdul Manaf during a searchoperation in Qambrani Road,Bank Colony and Kali Geo.

Police said one 9mm and

two 30-bore pistols were re-covered from the suspects’possession. Meanwhile, a casehas been filed against the cul-prits and further investigationshave been initiated.56 ILLEgAL AFgHANS

ARRESTED: Security forcesarrested on Tuesday 56 Afghannationals residing illegally inthe province. The Afghans werearrested while they on their wayto Karachi from Quetta, withoutany travelling documents. Se-curity forces took the arrestedpeople to Khuzdar Police Sta-tion for further investigation.

10 militants

killed in Orakzai

Agency

KALAYA inP

Security forces on Tuesdaykilled as many as 10 militants ina fresh offensive in two areas ofupper Orakzai Agency. Accord-ing to a security official, duringthe ongoing operation launchedby security forces against mili-tants in Orakzai Agency, secu-rity forces backed by helicoptergunships bombed the hideoutsof the militants in Mir KalamKhail and Adam Khail areas,killing 10. Security forces saidthree hideouts militants werealso destroyed in the operation.

Massive winter stormgrounds 1,100 uS flights

three suspectsarrested in Quetta

pakistani origin cleric convictedof aiding taliban in uS

Neutral caretakerPM a must, saysImran Khan

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thUrSdAy FrIdAy SAtUrdAy21C I 11°C 22°C I 13°C 21°C I 12°C

PRAYeR Timings

pArtly CloUdy

WeAther UpdAteS

230C

Fajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

5:07 6:29 12:19 3:38 6:08 7:31

100C

Though women have smaller brains

than men, they are more efficient.

ISLAMABADsTAff RePoRT

ON the directions of CDAChairman Syed TahirShahbaz, CDA on Tuesdaysealed four houses for non-conforming use and

violations of building by-laws in differentresidential sectors of Islamabad.

CDA Building Control

Enforcement Magistrate took part inthe operation which was supervisedby CDA Planning and DesignMember Syed Mustafain Kazmi.

During the operation, house No 9situated in Street 29 of Sector F-10/1 usedfor (QUIK Communications) officepurposes, house No 81 situated in Street45 in Sector F-10/4 being used as an office(Streaming Networks), house 233-Bsituated in Street 51 of sector F-10/4 (JAN

Enterprises) & house No 289-A at SumbalRoad sector F-10/4 (BJP) being used asoffices were sealed for non-conforminguse and for violating CDA by-laws.

CDA Chairman Syed Tahir Shahbazsaid that CDA was taking concrete step ina planned manner to discourage non-conforming use and violations of CDAby-laws.

He added that the offices in theresidential sectors would not be allowed

as there was enough space in commercialsectors of Islamabad. Owners of theseoffices, in their own interest, may shifttheir offices to these commercial areas sothat the problems of the residents couldbe solved.

He further said that in the first phase,offices situated in the residential sectorswould be removed and in the secondphase, CDA would take step against othersuch activities in the residential areas.

CdA SEAlS FOur hOuSES FOrNON-CONFOrMING uSE

RAWALPINDIinP

Hundreds of employees ofmodel children homes andmodel old homes workingunder Social WelfareDepartment on Tuesday

announced set-up of a protestcamp in front of the parliamenthouse, demanding payment ofsalaries and job regularisation.

According to theemployees hailing fromacross Punjab, they had notbeen paid their salaries for

the last 14 months. The employees announced

the decision during a protestdemonstration in front ofRawalpindi Press Club.Muhammad Riyaz,Muhammad Zaman,Muhammad Tariq, Hammad

Ahmed Kiani, Zain ul Abidinand others were leading theprotest demonstration.

The protesters said theemployers had not paid themfor the last 14 months, forcingthem to resort to protest. Theysaid they would stage a protest

camp in front of the parliamenthouse to inform thegovernment about theirmiseries.

Meanwhile, theydemanded of the governmentto pay their salaries andregularise their contract.

Old homes staffers await 14 months’ salary

Gang of street criminalsbustedISLAMABAD: Islamabad Police claimed

on Tuesday to have busted a gang of six

criminals for their alleged involvement

in car theft and possession of illegal

weapons. A spokesman of Islamabad

police said Sihala Police Station Station

House Officer Inspector Chaudhry

Muhammad Akhtar and his team,

including ASI Aurangzab, apprehended

four street criminals identified as Baber

Khan, Waseem Khan, Faisal and Mazhar

Khan, and recovered two stolen mobile

phones, cash worth thousands and a

32-bore pistol from their possession.

“They have confessed to their

involvement in several incidents of

street crime and are being further

interrogated after the concerned court

allowed physical remand,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shalimar Police Station

Station House Officer Inspector Ghulam

Muhammad Baqir and Sub-Inspector

Muhammad Ali arrested Waleed Khan

for his involved in car theft. Police also

recovered a stolen BMW (B-752) from

his possession and initiated search of

his accomplices. sTAff RePoRT

RAWALPINDIinP

City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) has delayedan anti-dengue campaign due to the ongoing polio vaccinationdrive and would now be launched on March 10 in all 46 unioncouncils of the garrison city.

A senior official of the CDGR said on Tuesday that 12teams, each comprising of five members, under thesupervision of a doctor would take part in an operation againstdengue to avoid the spread of the disease. The teams woulddetect and eliminate dengue virus in graveyards, empty plots,scrap houses, warehouses, hotels and restaurants. It may benoted that out of the total 46 union councils, 16 had beendeclared high risk, including Chamanzar, City Saddar Road,Dhoke Dalal and union council 1 to 12 of the city.

CDGR appointed Dr Ehsan Ghani as the focal

person of the anti-dengue campaign in the city. With the start of the anti-dengue campaign from March

10, strict action would be taken against car wash stations andowners of places where water accumulates.

Anti-dengue cAMPAignto stARt fRoM 10th

22 SuSPECTSArrESTEdISLAMABAD: Kohsar Police Station

arrested on Tuesday around 22 alleged

criminals during a search operation, a

police spokesman said. Following the

directions of IGP Islamabad Bani Amin

Khan, teams of Kohsar Police Station,

supervised by City SDPO, conducted a

search operation, a press release said.

The search operation was conducted by

police teams in various localities,

including slum areas, under construction

buildings, houses and hotels. A total of 22

suspects were arrested who could not

produce any identification.

The police Spokesman said that the

purpose of starting a search operation in

various areas was to ensure foolproof

security in the capital. sTAff RePoRT

Street crimesescalate in rA Bazaar RAWALPINDI : Street crimes have

escalated in the area of RA Bazaar while

the police play the role of silent spectators,

causing concerns amongst the residents.

The residents complained that muggers

were roaming freely in the area and

snatching valuables from the residents,

especially in Tench Bhatta, Peoples Colony

and Chungi No 22. The residents

demanded CPO Rawalpindi and other

concerned authorities to take strict action

against the rising incidents of street crimes

and take action against the negligent

attitude of the RA Bazaar police. onLine

Public parksdeprived of basicfacilities ISLAMABAD: Public parks in the rural

areas of the federal capital are in a poor

condition while millions of rupees are going

down the drain due to the negligence of the

Capital Administration regarding

maintenance of these recreational resorts

located in Rawal Town, Rawal Dam and

other areas.

The locals demanded the CDA officials

to provide the required facilities in the

parks situated in the locality and

appoint guards for the security of the

parks’ property. onLine

SPRING: An attractive view of mustard field near Golra Sharif. Pollen count in Islamabad is also on the rise. sAjjAd ALi QUResHi

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6 wednesday, 6 March, 2013

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:42 AM Page 6

ChAvEZ SuFFErING NEwrESPIrATOrY INFECTIONCARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's

breathing problems have worsened and he is suffering

a new, severe respiratory infection after cancer surgery

in Cuba, the government has said. Information

minister Ernesto Villegas said in a brief statement on

Tuesday that the 58-year-old's condition continued to

be "very delicate". "Today there is a worsening of

respiratory function. Related to his depressed immune

system, there is now a new, severe infection," he said

in the statement, read from the Caracas military

hospital where Chavez is being treated. "The president

has been receiving high-impact chemotherapy, along

with other complementary treatments... his general

condition continues to be very delicate." Al Jazeera's

Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from Caracas, said that

Villegas had said that the president is "clinging to his

faith in Christ". Chavez has not been seen in public,

apart from one set of photos, since a December 11

cancer operation in Cuba. In January, the country's

top court endorsed postponing his inauguration and

ruled that the president and his deputy would continue

in their roles, despite opposition complaints. Agencies

SEvEN KIllEd IN MExICOdruG vIOlENCECULIACAN: Unidentified assailants abducted and

killed four police officers and three civilians in Mexico's

Sinaloa state, in fatal suspected drug crimes, local

officials said on Monday. "Unfortunately we have had

four town police and three civilians murdered" late

Sunday in Agua Verde, said Edgar Gonzalez, mayor of

El Rosario in which Agua Verde is located in the

northwestern state. State prosecutors said the dead

were kidnapped late Sunday and that their bodies were

found early Monday, along with 90 spent gun shells

and four burned out vehicles, three of them belonging

to police. Authorities did not immediately give a

motive. Sinaloa is home to organized crime rings

including the cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,

Mexico's and the United States' most wanted man. APP

MAlAYSIA BOMBS ArMEdFIlIPINO GrOuP IN SABAhKUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian troops backed by fighter

jets have attacked an armed Filipino group, trying to

end a standoff on Borneo island after violence that

killed at least 27 people and sparked fears of broader

insecurity in the resource-rich region. Planes bombed

the area in eastern Sabah state on Tuesday for more

than 30 minutes before hundreds of ground troops

moved in to search for around 180 members of the

self-proclaimed Royal Sulu Army believed to be hiding

near a coastal palm-oil plantation, Malaysian officials

said. The armed group, who hail from the southern

Philippines, landed in a coastal village in Sabah on

February 9 to claim the territory as their own, citing

ownership documents from the late 1800s.

Police inspector general Ismail Omar told reporters

the mission's goals had been accomplished and there

were no Malaysian casualties, without giving further

details. Agencies

07

newswednesday, 6 March, 2013

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to

become so absolutely free that your very existence

is an act of rebellion. — Albert Camus N

CAIRo: Egyptian plain-clothes

police beat an anti-government

protester in Tahrir Square on

Tuesday. Agencies

DAMASCUSAgencies

SYRIAN rebels battling troops loyal to Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad overran al-Raqqa afterdays of fierce fighting, and were now in "near-total control" of the northern city, activistssaid.

The fall of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River,on Monday is a significant development in the two-year-old revolt against Assad. The rebels do not claimto hold any other provincial capitals.

Residents in Raqqa destroyed a statue of late Pres-ident Hafez al-Assad (Bashar's father), according toamateur video footage distributed by activists.

Rebel fighters said loyalist forces were still dug inat the provincial airport 60 km from the city and theyremained a threat. A resident said that a Syrian militaryintelligence compound was not in rebel hands but wassurrounded by anti-Assad fighters. "This is the firstprovincial capital in Syria where rebels have made suchprogress. They now have near-total control of Raqqa

city, except for some regime positions, including themilitary security and Baath party headquarters," RamiAbdel Rahman, the director of the UK-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rights, told AFP news agency.

Activists said a police chief was killed and two sen-ior security officials captured by the rebels. "Rebels tookthe state security chief to Turkey," Abdel Rahman said,noting that the road linking Raqqa to Turkey, includingthe border crossing at Tal al-Abyad, was under rebelcontrol. Raqqa was once home to 240,000 residents, butsome 800,000 people forced to flee violence in otherparts of Syria have sought shelter there ever since thestart of the conflict.

In recent weeks, rebel fighters cut off all the army'ssupply routes leading to the city and escalated their at-tacks on checkpoints and other regime positions.

Elsewhere, Syrian troops on Monday launched amajor assault to capture rebel-held areas of the centralcity of Homs. Regular troops backed by pro-regimefighters attacked the centre of Homs where rebels areholed up, including the Old City and neighbourhoodsof Jouret al-Shiah, Khaldiyeh and Qarabees, it said.

Syria rebels capturenorthern raqqa city

BEIjINGAgencies

China's National People's Congress hasopened in Beijing, the final stage of thecountry's once-in-a-decade leadershipchange, with top officials promising to fightcorruption, address environmental issuesand strengthen its military.

In a speech laying out governmentplans, outgoing premier Wen Jiabao sig-naled that leaders would no longer empha-size growth at all costs, and instead putpriority on social programs alongside eco-nomic development. "We must make ensur-ing and improving people's well-being the

starting point and goal of all the govern-ment's work,'' he said. The opening of themeeting also saw the unveiling of a budgetthat seeks to boost defence spending.

At the week-long assembly, China willalso see Xi Jinping complete his transitionto president, taking over from Hu Jintao.

Earlier, Wen said over the past yearChina's economy has thrived despite aharsh global economic climate, and is out-performing most emerging economies.

"Last year, while world economieswere retracting, China has prevented adownslope," Wen said. "We have acheiveda 7.8 percent GDP growth, 16m new jobs,laying a good foundation for this year's eco-

nomic growth." In an interview with AlJazeera, Andrew Leung, a political analystin Hong Kong, said that Chinese leaderswant to send a message that inspite of thefinancial crisis, China continues to succeedeconomically.

The meeting of about 3,000 Congressmembers will complete China's transitionthat began with a Communist Party con-gress in November 2012 that appointed Xias party leader and the country's new chief.

Wen's address, and the accompanyingbudget presented by the government onTuesday, are consensus documents ap-proved by the new leadership and reflectXi's priorities. Contained in the 2013

budget plan is a $116bn defence budget,which represents an increase by 10.7 per-cent from the previous year.

The move underlines China's militaryambitions, with Beijing embroiled in a se-ries of territorial disputes with its neigh-bours. China's military spending hastriggered concern across Asia and in Wash-ington, with experts saying the totals actu-ally spent are substantially higher thanthose publicly announced.

Beyond the ruling party, though, theparty faces a legitimacy crisis among thepublic. Many Chinese see business, societyand politics as dominated by a party-con-nected elite and wonder if Xi, as the son of

a revolutionary veteran, has the politicalwill to take on entrenched interests. The dis-affected include the middle class, which hasrisen out of decades of successful market re-forms and has tended to support the party,but has also grown weary of what is seen asan increasingly corrupt establishment.

Wen underlined the commitment tofight corruption that party leaders havestressed is vital to their legitimacy and sur-vival. "We should unwaveringly combatcorruption, strengthen political integrity, es-tablish institutions to end the excessiveconcentration of power and lack of checkson power," said Wen, who will step downat the end of the meeting.

China outLineS pLanS ahead of power tranSfer

WASHINgTON: Former US top diplo-mat Hillary Clinton and her staff fought"tooth and nail" to push ideas for diplo-macy in Afghanistan in a bitter turf warwith the White House, an ex-official saysin a new book.

Vali Nasr, now dean of the Paul H.Nitze School of Advanced International

Studies at Johns Hopkins University, wasan advisor to Richard Holbrooke, the spe-cial representative to Afghanistan and Pak-istan until his death in 2010.

US President Barack Obama inheritedthe legacy of the 2001 US-invasion ofAfghanistan and vowed to wind down thewar when he entered the White House.

But in an excerpt from his new book,"The Dispensable Nation: American For-eign Policy in Retreat," Nasr says "my timein the Obama administration turned out tobe a deeply disillusioning experience."Clinton, who stepped down after four yearsas secretary of state in January, wheneverpossible went directly to Obama in regular

private weekly meetings which she had in-sisted on as a condition for taking the job.This allowed her to get "around the so-called Berlin Wall of staffers who shieldedObama from any option or idea they did notwant him to consider," Nasr wrote in the ex-cerpt in the online Foreign Policy magazineMonday. APP

Prison sentenceshanded out in KabulBank investigation

KABUL Agencies

Two of the former heads of Kabul Bank,Afghanistan's first private bank, havebeen given five-year prison sentences bya tribunal investigating charges of fraudand embezzlement. There was anger anddisbelief in the courtroom as the verdictagainst Sher Khan Farnood, the bank'sfounder and chairman, and KhalilullahFerozi, chief executive of the bank, wasannounced on Tuesday. Turton said somepeople in the courtroom felt there was amishandling of the investigation into themulti-million-dollar fraud that caused thecollapse of the Kabul Bank in 2010.Shamsul Rahman Shams, the judge, saidthat Farnood and Ferozi must pay backthe money, more than $700m, they gainedfrom the corruption described as a "Ponzischeme" by international investigators. Incourt, Farnood accused Haseen Fahim,the brother of Mohammad QaseemFahim, first vice president, of being oneof the key organisers behind the scheme."The real thieves in Kabul Bank areHaseen [Fahim] and Ferozi," he said,telling the court that he had already paidhis debts since his properties in Dubaiand Kabul had been confiscated. "If thisis not jungle law, let this count," he saidfrom the dock. Ferozi hit back, saying:"This is not Bollywood where one canact like a hero. Everything is on paper."Farnood and Ferozi said they wouldappeal their cases to the Supreme Court.Along with the two top executives, atotal of 21 people were convicted inTuesday's verdict.

ex-uS official reveals war over afghan policy

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newsNwednesday, 6 March, 2013

08The Shia community is being targeted

under a well-thought-out conspiracy

— Khwaja Muhammad Asif

PESHAWAR sTAff RePoRT

KH Y BER PakhtunkhwaInformation MinisterMian Iftikhar Hussainon Tuesday said onlythe federal government

has the powers to start dialogue with theTaliban.

“Unless owning or endorsement of[the] federal government individuals orsingle political force negotiation with

Taliban militants could be meaning-less,” Mian Iftikhar said while talkingto reporters.

He said further it was high time forthe federal government to take army andother security agencies into confidenceand announce a plan for dialogues withTaliban militants.

The minister recalled that the KPgovernment, after taking political forces,the federal government, the army andother security agencies had initiated dia-logue with the Taliban in Swat. The

world witnessed its outcome as almostall political forces had backed militaryoffensive when the Taliban violatedagreement. The KP information ministersaid that it was the Awami National Partywhich first convened the All Parties Con-ference (APC), unanimously demandingdialogue with the Taliban. The JamiatUlema-e-Islam-Fazl held another APC incontinuation. Now the federal govern-ment should come forward to get bene-fits of the situation, he emphasised.

To a question, Mian Iftikhar saidthat negotiations could yield outcomewhen they were either owned or en-dorsed by the key stakeholders. The Tal-iban, the army, the government, tribalelders and KP were stakeholders there-fore they should be taken into confi-

dence. He said that tribesmen had suf-fered a lot and they should be repre-sented through tribal elders in thenegotiation process.

“No one will be allowed to use ne-gotiation process for other gains,” hesaid when asked about impression re-garding release of notorious militants.

He said, “We are striving for peaceas we suffered a lot due to violence andterrorism.” On such grounds, he said,the ANP was determined to go aheadwith its objectives which were onlypossible through dialogue. He saidpeace could be restored with comple-tion of the negotiation process there-fore; all of them needed to support theearly negotiations between the govern-ment and militants.

‘Only federal government cannegotiate with the Taliban’

WASHINGTONsPeciAL coRResPondenT

As the 2014 drawdown nears, theUnited States is either scaling back rap-idly or redesigning a series of develop-ment projects in Afghanistan, includingKajaki dam.

The Kajaki dam is one of many re-construction projects, once deemed es-sential, but being redesigned in thewaning days of America’s long war inAfghanistan as troop reductions, declin-ing budgets and public fatigue force arealignment of priorities, a report in TheWashington Post said.

But, according to the Post, USAID’sdecision to walk away from the turbineinstallation — one of the most importantand symbolic development efforts asso-ciated with President Obama’s troop

surge — is drawing unique scrutiny.Several civilian experts who have

served in southern Afghanistan contendthe Afghan government lacks the abilityto manage the complex project, placingin jeopardy a vital initiative to increaseelectricity production, which they deemcrucial to the region’s long-term stabil-ity.

The Kajaki dam was constructed byUS engineers in the 1950s, and it haslong been regarded by Afghans as amanifestation of American ingenuityand assistance. Should the Afghan-ledinstallation fail, the civilian experts fearthat the structure will come to representAmerican abandonment and weakness.

Military officers who lost comradesin the area see it in far more personalterms. “A lot of blood and treasure werewasted just to spike the ball at the 10-yard

line,” a senior Marine officer involved inthe campaign to secure the dam said onthe condition of anonymity. USAID offi-cials insist the US government is notabandoning the turbine project.

The agency, they noted, will stillpay for the costs of the installation, es-timated at about $70 million. But in-stead of having a US contractor performto work, USAID intends to give themoney directly to the Afghan state-runelectricity company, which will be re-sponsible for hiring experts and manag-ing the construction.

A report in the paper said when USMarines surged into southernAfghanistan in 2010, one of their toppriorities was to secure the toweringdam on the Helmand River so the USAgency for International Developmentcould begin a construction project to

provide much-needed electricity to Kan-dahar, the country’s second-largest city.

Simply reaching the outskirts ofthe Kajaki dam was perilous. Morethan 50 US troops were killed in com-bat operations to evict the Talibanfrom areas along a 30-mile-road lead-ing to the structure. Now that Marinesand Afghan soldiers have seized thedam and the surrounding areas,USAID has decided not to completethe most critical part of the $266-mil-lion project itself. Instead, the agencyintends to hand over the challengingtask of installing a large hydropowerturbine to the Afghan government.

Concern about security in the areaand pressure from Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai also prompted the shift,according to US officials involved inAfghanistan matters.

kP Minister says it is high tiMe the federaLgovernMent takes arMy and other securityagencies into confidence

As war end nears, us scales back projects in Afghanistan2m people likely to benefitfrom uS-sponsored Tarbeladam restoration: OlsonHARIPUR: US Ambassador Richard Olson onTuesday visited US- funded Tarbela Dam restorationproject. WAPDA Chairman Raghib Abbas was alsopresent on the occasion. The restoration of threegenerators at Tarbela adds 128 megawatts of power tothe national grid. “The United States understands thatPakistan is facing an energy crisis and we arecommitted to doing our part,” said Olson during hisvisit to Tarbela. “The work completed here at Tarbelacontributes enough electricity to supply two millioncustomers, and helps provide relief to those sufferingfrom extensive power shortages.” WAPDAchairman praised the US support in the country’s energysector. To increase production at Tarbela, the USAgency for International Development (USAID)provided $16.5 million to WAPDA to repair three powergeneration units and to train Tarbela’s staff to operatethe upgraded equipment. sTAff RePoRT

Three Pakistaniscaught withheroin in TurkeyISTANBUL: Acting on a tip-off, a Hakkari

Provincial Gendarmerie Command unit on

Tuesday stopped a vehicle on the Hakkari-

Van highway and found 5.6 kilograms of

heroin from three Pakistani citizens.

According to details, after being tipped off

by an anonymous phone call, gendarmerie

units stopped a minibus and searched the

vehicle but did not find any drugs.

However, three Pakistani men in the

minibus were found to be wearing special

bags sewn in their jackets which were

filled with heroin. The men were first

detained by gendarmerie units and were

later transferred to a court, which sent

them to prison pending trial. In a related

operation, the Istanbul Police

Department’s Narcotics Unit raided several

locations and detained 16 people on

suspicion of drug dealing. A total of 10

kilograms of drugs were seized in the

operation. inP

ANP lawmakerabducted inBalochistan QUETTA: Unidentified armed men on

Tuesday kidnapped ANP’s lawmaker from

Kuchlak area of Balochistan, official

sources said on Tuesday. According to

details, Sultan Tareen was heading

towards Harnai from Quetta when

unidentified gunmen stopped his car near

Kuchlak. The assailants injured his guard

for putting up resistance. Sources said

family members lost contacts with Tareen

in Kuchlak, some 30 km off the provincial

capital. “Armed men whisked away my

brother to unidentified location in Kuchlak

area between Monday and Tuesday night,”

Ghulam Tareen, brother of the lawmaker,

said. Tareen, who was elected from

Harnai/Sibbi constituency, was former

prisons minister. Agencies

Statementsrecorded in BBassassination case RAWALPINDI: Special Anti-Terrorism

Court (ATC) Judge Habibur Rehman on

Tuesday heard the former premier

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case.

During the hearing, the court recorded

the statements of prosecution’s

witnesses, District Headquarters Hospital

doctor Muhammad Ashraf, who

conducted external autopsies of two dead

bodies and eight injured from the

December 27, 2007 attack on the former

prime minister. However, cross

examination of two witnesses of

prosecution, Rescue 1122 former officer

Dr Abdul Rehman and Fire Fighting

official Ghulam Muhammad Naz could not

be conducted. The court adjourned the

hearing until today (Wednesday). inP

LAHoRE: While many able-bodied people have resorted to begging on the city’s roads, a physically-challenged, but high-spirited, boy paints during a

ceremony to celebrate Jashn-e-Baharan at Race Course Park on Monday. onLine

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news N

09

wednesday, 6 March, 2013

No measures were taken to stop terrorist activities in

Karachi despite prior intelligence reports about

terrorist threats. — MQM leader Wasim Akhtar

President condolesdeath of MPArafique EngineerISLAMABAD:

President Asif

Ali Zardari on

Tuesday

extended

condolences

to the family

of the

deceased

Pakistan

People’s Party (PPP)

MPA, Rafique Engineer. According to

details, the MPA left for a morning walk

near his residence in Karachi and had a

heart attack. He was moved to a private

hospital where he was pronounced dead

by the doctors. The president,

appreciating the services of the late PPP

leader, said he had always worked for

democracy and welfare of the people of

Pakistan. Moreover, the president said

his services to the country would be

remembered forever. In his condolence

message, President Zardari prayed for

the departed soul and hoped for courage

and patience for the bereaved family.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Raja Pervez

Ashraf expressed sorrow and grief over

the death of Rafique Engineer. The prime

minister lauded his services and termed

him a dedicated worker of the PPP.

Rafique Engineer was elected as MPA

from Lyari Town on a PPP ticket. APP

uS to leave $6bmilitaryequipment inAfghanistan WASHINgTON: The US military plans

to leave about $6 billion worth of

military equipment in Afghanistan after

Washington pulls out thousands of

troops to conclude the lingering war by

2014, a report said on Tuesday.

Currently, the United States is working

on plans for a major “retrograde” that

will account for the bulk of the vehicles,

gear, and other materiel after more

than 11 years of war in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s neighbours, including

Central Asian states, have evinced

desire to get the leftover US military

equipment. Pakistan Today reported

last month that Pakistan, which has

been a key ally in the US-led war

against terrorism, is also interested in

getting the military gear. The US has

recently conducted runs to ensure a

smooth return of military equipment

through Pakistani routes, which provide

the shortest and the most economical

way into and out of landlocked

Afghanistan. sPeciAL coRResPondenT

Female anti-polioworker hurt inKhyber Agency blastLANDI KoTAL: A female volunteer of

the anti-polio vaccination team was

injured on Tuesday when a blast took

place in the vaccination center at

Khyber Agency. According to police

sources, the blast occurred in

immunisation center at Tehsil Jamrud’s

civil hospital where a team of polio

workers, including female volunteers,

was busy in administering polio drops.

There was no word from the officials

about nature of the blast. However, they

said a female health worker sustained

injuries in the blast. She was admitted

to the same hospital. Anti-polio

campaigners have been targeting in the

tribal areas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and

even in the largest city of the country

where a dozens workers lost their lives

during the campaign. Pakistan is listed

as a top hazard country in the world in

terms of polio virus. The polio situation

in Pakistan is worse than any country in

Africa and Afghanistan. onLine

MULTANonLine

A large number of activists from variouspolitical parties welcomed the PakistanBachao march when it reached MultanRailway Station on Tuesday.

Activists of the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N), JamiatUlema-e -Islam-Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F)

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional(PML-F), Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan(JUP) and others were present at MultanRailway Station to receive oppositionparties’ train march. The train marchstarted from Karachi on Sunday andafter short stays at Rohri and RahimyarKahan, reached Multan. Jamat-e-IslamiSindh chief Dr Merajul Huda Siddiquiaddressed the march at Rahimyar Khan.

Merjaul Huda said in his address toparty activists at Rohri Station that theElection Commission of Pakistan (ECP)was being held hostage in Karachi andtransparent polls seemed impossible inPakistan’s largest city. Despite instruc-tions of the Supreme Court, delimitationhad not been initiated and politicalforces in the city had joined hands tobring peace back in Karachi, he said.

LAHOREinP

IN a coup against the ruling Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP) inBalochistan in the run-up togeneral elections, former presi-dent of the PPP Balochistan

chapter, Nawab Lashkari Raisani, alongwith 21 other party leaders, announcedtheir decision to join the Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tues-

day.A 22-member delegation from

Balochistan met with PML-N chiefNawaz Sharif in Raiwind and an-nounced their decision to join the party.The meeting was also attended by Pun-jab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

The 22-member delegation includedLashkari Raisani, Humayun Kurd, Is-mail Gujjar, Tahir Mehmood, and AyubKhoso among others.

Lashkari Raisani is the younger

brother of former Balochistan chiefminister Nawab Aslam Raisani, andwas appointed as president of the PPPBalochistan chapter by former PPPchairperson Benazir Bhutto in 2003.

However, in April 2012, he resignedfrom his Senate seat and ended hisnine-year-long association with the PPPover, what he called, the failure of thefederal and provincial governments toimprove security situation in the restiveprovince.

Speaking at a joint press conferencewith the PML-N chief on Tuesday,Raisani said the PPP had deviated fromthe ideology under which Benazir Bhuttoled the party. He said the situation inBalochistan had worsened over the years.“The entire country, including Balochis-tan, is facing a tough crisis,” said Raisani.“I have decided to join the PML-N toguide the country out of this crisis.”Raisani also expressed his full confidencein the leadership of Nawaz Sharif.

Pakistan bachao trainmarch welcomed in Multan

raisani, 21 senior PPP leadersfrom Balochistan join PMl-N

Four arrested forAbbas Townbombing: Malik

ISLAMABAD Agencies

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the NationalAssembly on Tuesday law enforcers had arrestedfour members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi(LJ) for their involvement in the Karachi’s AbbasTown bombing. Malik told the NA that thebombing was a replication of the sectarian attacksin Quetta. He claimed that a conspiracy was beinghatched to delay general polls. The interiorminister said he had visited Karachi on Mondayand had held meetings with law-enforcementagencies to stop the recurrence of such incidents.Malik said he would give a detailed statement inthe NA on Wednesday (today) on the law andorder situation in the country, particularly inKarachi. The minister again urged the Punjabgovernment to take action against LJ in Punjab.Speaking to reporters, Malik said the LJ wasconducting its activities through supervision fromPunjab. He urged the Supreme Court to inquirefrom the Punjab chief minister for not takingaction against the banned outfit. He said that if theterrorists could be controlled in Punjab, thenterrorism could also be curbed in Karachi. Hereiterated that a list of suspects belonging to thebanned organisation had already been sent to thePunjab government.

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ANY person or a groupwith financial resourcesand socio-politicalagenda can set up a po-litical party in a demo-

cratic country. The real test of a party ishow it copes with elections. If a politicalparty stays away from several electionsit will disappear from the political sceneor become irrelevant. If a party hardlywins a seat in the elections over an ex-tended period it is unable to sustain itssupport. A good number of people donot vote for the parties that have little orno chances of winning seats.

There is a proliferation of politicalparties in Pakistan. Currently 227 po-litical parties are registered with theElection Commission of Pakistan. Ifyou include unregistered political par-ties there would be over three hundredpolitical parties. Up to now 123 are en-titled to contest the elections. Thisnumber is going to rise in the next twoweeks. However, not all of them willfield candidates. There may be 35-40political parties, excluding independentcandidates, in the elections to the na-tional and provincial assemblies. Outof these only 15 to 20 parties are ex-pected to draw attention.

The major competition for the seatsof national andprovincial as-semblies isgoing to be be-tween the PPP(contesting asPPP-P) and thePML-N. How-ever, PakistanTehrik-i-Insaf(PTI) willevoke muchcuriosity be-cause it is ex-pected to winseats in the Na-tional Assem-bly, the PunjabAssembly andperhaps in theK h y b e rPakhtunkhwa(KP) Assembly.The key ques-tion would behow much seatlosses the PTIcan cause to thetwo leadingparties whichwill have impli-cations for therole of theseleading parties

in the formation of a coalition govern-ment at the federal level. Most politicalanalysts do not share the PTI leader-ship’s optimism that it will sweep asidethe two leading party and become thenumber one contender for setting up thefederal government.

There are more reports of seat ad-justments among the political partiesthan electoral alliance building becausethe former method is relatively easier toagree to and gives a lot of flexibility tothose agreeing to seat adjustment.Though the PPP, the ANP, and the PML-Q (three partners in the federal govern-ment) are seeking seat adjustment witheach other and other parties where pos-sible, there is more active politics of seatadjustment and electoral partnershipbuilding among the political parties withIslamist and Political Right orientations.

The former allies of the alliance ofIslamic parties, the MMA (2002-2007)have separately expressed their desire torevive it with the objective of replayingthe political triumph of the 2002 elec-tions. The two major constituent units ofthe former MMA, the Jamaat-i-Islamiand the JUI-F, are not expected to pulltogether in a formal alliance, making itdifficult to revive the MMA. Some Is-lamic parties have announced partner-ships for the elections but there is hardlyany political impact of these partner-ships. The Deoband/Whabbi-Bralevi di-vide, especially their disposition towardsthe Taliban and other violent religiousgroups, is expected to reflect on the dis-position of some Islamic political parties.

One or two Shia parties may put uptheir candidates. Traditionally, exclu-sively Shia political groups have notperformed in the elections because thepast general elections show that a verysmall number of Shia vote goes to ex-clusively Shia parties. The PPP has beenthe major beneficiary of the Shia vote.This vote also spreads to different fac-tions of the Pakistan Muslim League,the MQM and the ANP. Local politicalaffiliations, especially the personal qual-ities of the candidates, disperse smallnumber of votes to other parties, includ-ing the Jamaat-i-Islami. This time, someShia vote is expected to be divertedfrom the PPP and the Muslim Leaguesto PTI, especially that of the youth.

It is interesting to note that mostpolitical parties of the Political Rightare agreeing to seat adjustment. Onewonders how would there be seat ad-justment among so many parties. Itseems that it is fashionable to talkabout seat adjustment whenever topleaders of different parties meet.

The MQM is expected to face

credible challenge from the ANP andthe Islamic parties in Karachi but theMQM is expected to maintain its po-litical supremacy. The other parties in-sist that if the alleged excesses of theMQM are contained in the run up tothe elections and on the polling day,Karachi will have different results.There is no way to verify this claim.

A number of political parties arestriving hard to cash on the alienationof the people from the PPP in interiorSindh. Twenty-two political parties andgroups have joined together in interiorSindh in the last week of February tocontest elections in opposition to thePPP. Most of these parties and groupshave not traditionally performed in theelections. There are three significantparties: the PML-Functional of the Pirof Pagaro, the National People’s Partyof the late Ghulam Mustaf Jatoi, nowled by his son, and the PML-N, led byNawaz Sharif. The NPP has limitedvote bank. Similarly, Mumtaz Bhuttowho has joined the PML-N has not tra-ditionally performed well in the elec-tions. Nawaz Sharif has made earnesteffort to mobilise people in his favourby addressing various public meetingsin interior Sindh. His decision to joinhands with the Pir of Pagaro (PML-F)helps to boost the PML-N’s fortune ininterior Sindh. However, the Pir of Pa-garo, while agreeing to work withNawaz Sharif, is maintaining his auton-omy because his party is expected to getmore voters alienated from the PPP thanany other political party. If he commitshimself fully with Nawaz Sharif, thelatter’s position will be strengthened butthis limits the Pir’s political options inthe post-election scenario. He may en-courage his followers to attend NawazSharif’s public meetings but the vote ofhis followers will go to PML-F candi-dates, unless the PML-F agrees to stepback in favour of the PML-N.

General Pervez Musharraf plans toreturn later this month for entering thepolitical fray. Pakistan has changed somuch since 2008 that Musharraf willfind himself irrelevant in the politicalcontext of 2013, especially because hisMuslim League (APML) is in shambles.All political parties will target him forcriticism and court cases will haunt him.Instead of returning to active politics,Musharraf should write another book.However, proliferation of political par-ties and increased politico-religious di-visions are likely to increase politicalconfusion and produce a split mandate.

The writer is an independentpolitical and defence analyst.

Political confusion will likely result in a split mandate

dR HAsAn AskARi Rizvi

coMMent

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

C

imran khan and his big bang governanceAnd now an industrial policy

Musharraf itching to return

“IT is now or never” was Pervez Musharraf’s mantra when speaking about hisreturn to Pakistan from Dubai. The skeptics have already assumed the answeris the later. A week after the caretaker setup takes charge is the proposed date

of arrival his advisers have put forward. But this is certainly not the first timeMusharraf has offered a return date. Musharraf’s repeated change of date of arrival hasbegun to resemble the Aesop’s famous shepherd boy’s fable: people eventually stopbelieving the cries of ‘wolf.’ The retired general continues to test the waters andconclude conditions are not ripe for his return. His warrants are out in a number ofhigh-profile cases, including the Benazir Bhutto assassination case and Nawab AkbarBugti murder case. The ghost of the Lal Masjid case has also been raised while anAnti-Terrorism Court only last week ruled that his assets would remain seized. TheFIA special prosecutor also assured that Musharraf would be arrested upon arrival“before or after the formation of the caretaker setup.” The Damocles sword of Article 6also continues to loom over the former general for suspending of the Constitution andwith a judiciary that appears willing, it is only a question of political forces musteringenough political will to put a living former COAS on trial. This is perhaps the reasonwhy Musharraf has called for the army to “supervise the elections.”

Perhaps the one indicator that Musharraf may actually be intent upon coming isthe about turn he has taken in his love affair with the US. In an article published in aUS magazine, Musharraf has pinned the blame on US policies for the failed war onterror. While Musharraf may have learnt from his mistakes, the question is why did hefollow US dictates when in power? Regarding his declared willingness to face all thecases against him, the only way for the self-proclaimed ‘commando’ to prove it is toreturn to Pakistan.

However, the question still remains outstanding: what does Musharraf gain fromreturning to Pakistan just before the elections? His political party continues to functionrudderless and has lost some of its staunchest supporters, including Fawad Chaudhryand Sher Afgan Niazi – the former through defection and the latter through death.Maybe the controversial former president wants to keep the ‘threat’ of his return as away keep his nuisance value alive amongst international circles. A judgment call on hisseriousness to return cannot be made. However, to think out loud, what harm is thereto let the former dictator having a shot at the ballot box? Especially if he has insistedhe shall seek votes in the Dera Bugti area too – voters may deliver a comprehensiveverdict better than anyone else on his tenure.

IRRESPECTIVE of whether one agrees with Imran Khan and to what extent, he isthe only political leader who has done some homework on policies on vital issues.What the PTI considers the crux of the matter is governance. Imran Khan thinks

that most of the problems have been created by corrupt politicians. What is needed isto replace them with an honest, competent and dedicated administration. The PTIhopes to bring ‘big bang governance’ within first 100 days of coming to power. Whilesome of Imran’s ideas are thought provoking, his unending fascination for shortdeadlines to resolve complicated problems has been variously characterised assimplistic, unrealistic or even an exercise in political gimmickry.

In the seminar on electricity held last year, Imran pledged to ease the energy crisisin two years. He suggested a big reduction in circular debt by increasing tariffcollection from the present 78 percent to 95 percent which alone would save Rs 300billion a year. He proposed to generate some 4,500 MW through cheaper importedcoal. Here too Imran depended much on his ‘big bang governance’. It wasconveniently forgotten that the country was deficient in gas and oil and hydroelectricpower generation had become a divisive political issue on account of mistrust amongthe provinces. Dependence on governance alone without being able to create thenecessary consensus will hardly help in constructing dams.

The Economic Policy Vision introduced in October last year took up challengingtasks. It promised to tackle the energy crisis, cut back government expenses and initiatetax-cum-civil service reforms. Health and education services were to be further extended.Imran may not find the task of convincing the military to reduce its budget a cake walk.

The economic policy advocated a robust regulatory role for the government plus amore direct involvement of the state through professionally managed state-ownedenterprises. Many think the challenge is worth taking up though few are sure of itssuccess. Imran is not clear how he would implement revenue reforms with assembliesdominated by vested interest deadly opposed to land reforms or agricultural tax.Another onerous task is the enforcement of GST and taxing the real estate tycoons andthe stock exchange manipulators.

The nine-point industrial policy is the latest in the series. The PTI promises torevive economy and eradicate corruption besides creating 10 million jobs through skilldevelopment programmes in a country where there is hardly any wherewithal forimparting skills at this scale. It wants to revive the industrial sector and restore theconfidence of investors without any clear cut policy or commitment to eliminateterrorism. The deadline: 90 days.

daunting challenges await the former dictator

wednesday, 6 March, 2013

10Although modesty is natural to man, it is not

natural to children. Modesty only begins with

the knowledge of evil. –Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Political partiesand elections

The drone doctrineAmerican contributions towards the growth anddevelopment of international law and jurisprudence havebeen great. The founding fathers of America were genius –George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson, JohnAdams and James Madison – who introduced the modernconcepts of democracy, liberty and fundamental right. Theywere the flag-bearers of human rights and fundamentalfreedom. Likewise, the “Monroe Doctrine” propounded bythe president James Monroe in 1823 reflecting the USforeign policy of the time was based on the principle ofnon-intervention that helped promoting self-respect amongthe member of international community.

This process still continues, however, in the negativedirection. The so-called “Bush Doctrine” by the George WBush is essentially based on the concept of Unilateralism inthe international intercourses. The principle of “No-Fence-Sitting” based on his proclamation that “you are either withus, or with terrorists” has called for the unqualified andunquestioned support by the international community forthe War on Terror. Now, the drone attacks conducted byUncle Sam worldwide, and mainly in Pakistan, is an

important development and contribution in this regard.Here are the important points of its newly introduced

and recently evolved “Drone Doctrine.” Firstly, a singleincident like 9/11 can give a nation a sort of “license to kill”and impose upon another nation a “liability to be killed.”Under this license, one can attack any country and dismantleany regime all over the world. Secondly, in the name ofsome “higher cause” e.g., War on Terror, now one state canviolate the national sovereignty of other state and maytotally reject the protest or objection by the other state uponthis. Thirdly, no formal authorisation from the UN SecurityCouncil is required for an international intervention inviolation of the International Law and UN charter includingArticle 2(4), refraining to the member state from the use offorce against the territorial integrity and politicalindependence of other states. Fourthly, a civil and non-military agency of a state, like CIA, can directly and openlyinvolve in the acts of hostility against an alien state. Lastlyand most importantly, one can act as prosecutor, adjudicatorand executor simultaneously and arbitrarily by relying on thenew fundamental principle of “guilty until proven dead.”

MOHSIN RAZA MALIKLahore

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusivelyEditor’s mail

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:42 AM Page 10

IRAN looms on the horizon. Resumption oftechnical talks with Iranian officials doesnot alter the gloomy outlook for resolutionof the dispute’s underlying issues. Sanc-

tions clearly are not forcing Tehran leaders toyield to American demands. While there is no ev-idence that the Islamic Republic (IRI) has decidedto develop a nuclear weapon – or accelerated itsrelated programmes, pressures to take preventiveaction will continue to mount. Israel’s tactic ofthreatening unilateral action so as to force Wash-ington’s hand may have lost credibility but Con-gressional pressure is unrelenting. The assault onChuck Hagel provoked by his earlier statementssuggesting that serious engagement provided analternative to coercion is the handwriting on thewall. It is underscored by the latest move to leg-islate a further turn of the sanctions screw.

President Obama’s obvious preference is tokick the can down the road – as it is on mosteverything that is contentious or risky. That luxurymay be denied him. For he has boxed himself intoa corner from which he cannot spin a semantic es-cape. The White House has declared repeatedlythat it will not tolerate Iran’s developing as muchas the capability to build a bomb. No definitivemeasure of ‘capability’ has been enunciated.However, the administration takes ever occasionof a technical development – real or imagined,possibly weapons related or not – to pronouncethat Tehran is edging closer to that threshold.Those declarations are magnified by the powerfullobby pressing for military action. Moreover,lurking in the background of official thinking isan unmistakable preference for regime change.

The White House, therefore, will have to makeup its mind whether its war or peace – attack nuclearsites or engage Iran on terms of respect for Tehran’slegitimacy and Iran’s own perceived security inter-ests. And perhaps do so sooner than it likes.

One item in the bill of particulars indicts Iranfor aggravating the situation in Iraq (their neigh-bour and former mortal foe) by meddling in intra-Shi’ite politics and by urging Premier Maliki tofoster an avowedly Shi’ite state. Their activitiesallegedly are directed at blocking reconciliationwith the country’s other sectarian communities –above all, the Sunnis. Their ultimate objectivesupposedly is to enlist Iraq in the Shi’ite, Iranianled camp vying for leadership in the Islamicworld. Whatever truth there may be to this ascrip-tion of motives, the charges come from a countrythat invaded and occupied the country on the mostflimsy grounds for eight years – and sought to turnit into a base for the spread of American influencein the Middle East. How would we interpret thesituation if the positions were reversed?

Two, to indict Iran for supporting terrorism

when the United States is supporting terrorist actsin Balochistan, placing the seal of approval onMEK, launching cyber war against technical insti-tutions, and may possibly be an accessory to themurder of Iranian scientists similarly is not tenable.In addition, there is no factual basis for chargingIran with launching terrorist acts directed at theUnited States or its citizens. Three, Iran’s materialand political backing for Hezbullah is a particularlynoxious sin by Washington’s account. We shouldremember, though, that Hezbullah’s enemy is Is-rael. Its primary field of political action is Lebanon.Its precursor organization attacked Americanforces in Lebanon when we intervened there tomanage the Israeli invasion of 1982 and woundup taking sides in the civil war. We also shouldkeep in mind, as others in the region do, Israel’sattack on Hezbullah in 2006 with full Americanbacking that killed or wounded a few thousandShi’ite civilians – an act calculated to intimidatecivilians and scare them away from Hezbullah.

The point is not to draw up a balance sheet ofrights and wrongs. Rather, it is to correct a stark por-trayal of the situation that depicts a simplistic moral-ity drama between the forces of good and evil.

The dangers of deepening fault lines betweenthe Middle East’s Shia and Sunnis carries graverisks of sparking new, uncontrollable conflagra-tions. That prospect is downplayed. A policy ofseeking to exploit it conforms with a primitivelogic, though, in the absence of a more sophisti-cated strategic design. Since Washington has de-picted Iran as the region’s gravest threat, and sinceit has tactical alliances with Alawite Syria (aShi’ite offshoot) and Hezbullah, and since we fearwithout solid grounds Tehran’s using Shi’ite com-munities in the Gulf as instruments of their al-leged imperial ambitions – then it follows that allthese other parties are our enemies as well. There-fore, the conclusion that America should supportthe Sunnis; so we act in a manner that militatestoward a recrudescence of Islam’s sectarian war– with Washington taking sides.

The question of perspective in a nutshell isthis: are we debating tactics for bringing to heal arogue, hostile regime? Or, are we assessing whatcan be done to avoid a cataclysmic war by reach-ing agreement on terms that satisfy our reasonableconcerns and Iran’s legitimate security concerns?

The nuclear issue is the immediate, most com-pelling point of contention – if not the be-all andend-all of the United States’ conflict with Iran.Most assessments begin by stating that all agreethat a nuclear capable Iran is intolerable. Wheneveran interpretation features the phrase “all agree,” it’sthe signal to alert your critical faculties. NuclearIran need not be a danger to all the world – what-ever American policy-makers (and their Europeancourtiers) think. Let’s take a look at the logic. First,there is no definition of what a nuclear Iran means:a capability entailing the technological, hardware

and fuel elements? Actual weapons? How manywith what delivery systems? Without specification,we are dealing with fuzzy abstractions that evokefeelings, not rigorous strategic thought.

Second, some reputable analysts (e.g., PaulBracken) declare that “You don’t have to fire a nu-clear weapon to gain a strategic advantage from it.This is perhaps the most important lesson from thedecades of the Cold War.” History points to quite adifferent conclusion. Who actually gained an ad-vantage from possession of nuclear weapons? TheUnited States in Korea and Vietnam? The SovietUnion in Afghanistan or in controlling Eastern Eu-rope? France? Britain? India? Pakistan? SouthAfrica? Israel circa 1973? The only benefit of nu-clear weapons is to deter another nuclear armedstate. That, strictly speaking, is not an “advantage.”

Third, the reality is that most in Washingtonseem to fear a nuclear Iran because it then can dis-suade the US or Israel from threatening it. In addi-tion, it might dissuade us from a conventional attacksince the mere presence of nuclear weapons in acountry whose integrity is threatened gives pause.None of this is aggressive. Fourth, would a “nu-clear” Iran actually be a danger to the “wholeworld”? By all evidence, China does not give adamn about 2 or 3 or 30 Iranian nuclear weaponsand has no reason to, just as it has no worries aboutIndian or Pakistani nuclear weapons. Why? It is notcontemplating a confrontation in the Persian Gulfand does not see Iran as led by madmen. The Rus-sians, who live next door, aren’t panicked either. Itis discouraging and distressing that the vast majorityof commentary on Iran precedes on dubious prem-ises that are neither adequately justified nor open todebate. The Obama administration is deaf to thevoices of skeptics. Unhappily, that leaves themscanning the skies for a magic carpet that will ex-tricate them from the dead-end they have entered.

Humiliation is a dangerous and delicate busi-ness. Especially so when the party whom you intendto humiliate is a proud people and its leaders willful– if not indeed criminal by your own lights. That iswhy Rome imagined sowing the fields of Carthagewith salt. That is why Prussia’s humiliation ofFrance in 1871 led to the former’s own humiliationin 1919. Better to crush your avowed enemy thanhumiliate him and allow him to nurse vengeance;all the more so when you have scattered valued pos-sessions throughout the neighborhood on which hecan wreak his revenge. Of course, all of this matterslittle if Washington believes it can dominate the re-gion forevermore and smite the violators of its hege-mony as it chooses. If it cannot, then our leadershave best wise up as to the psychology of dealingwith rivals. If history is not their cup of tea, theymight try the saga of the Corleone family.

The writer is a Senior Fellow at the Centrefor Transatlantic Relations, SAIS-Johns Hopkins,Washington, DC

The Iranian dilemmafaith, hope and the magic carpet

micHAeL BRenneR

coMMent Cwednesday, 6 March, 2013

11A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is

better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or

worse, to avoid trouble. –Mahatma Gandhi

sri Lanka knew it was fighting the tamil tigers. we don’t seem to have a clue who the enemy is

Enough isenough

Ifeel that I mustmake it clear thatI am not a FATAexpert. Nor am I

in any way an informedcommentator who canwax poetic about theevils of tacit militarysupport for homegrownextremists. Neither can Itrace with expert deft-ness the etymology ofthe various terror groupsthat abound in our fairbackwater today and tellyou with pin-point pre-cision who-is-in-bed-with-who and who-finances-whose-gun running-operation.

In fact, this article will teach you nothing new. To those of youwho were expecting this to become an army-apologist or a Taliban-apologist piece, I extend my sincerest apologies. Today, I must pose avexing and pertinent-question; one which you are unlikely to be ableto answer. If you do have an answer, please tell me before you haveme summarily executed for treason; I’d hate to die without knowing.

Over the past half decade, our bastion of Islam has beenplagued by insurgency, terrorist activity, sectarian strife, politicalsubterfuge and ethnic genocide. While this is just the top 5, and thecharts include hits such as necrophiliacs, “husband-curry” special-ists and rapists of an order lower than the molten core of the earth,it is the more political forms of violence that interest me today.

GHQ, Kamra, PNS Mehran, Peshawar airbase, FIA headquar-ters; these were the attacks orchestrated against some of the coun-try’s most well-protected security and defence installations.Alamdar Road, Hazara Town, Abbas Town; these were three of thedeadliest attacks ever carried out against the Shia minority in ourcountry. The attacks on polio workers, explosions at girls’ schoolsin KPK and FATA, the near-fatal attempt on Malala Yousafzai, theexecution of Shia passengers in Mustung and Babusar Top, the as-sassination of Bashir Bilour; these were all some of the most highprofile acts of violence committed in the past year, give or take.While this is not a representative sample by any stretch of the imag-ination, nor does it meet the rigorous requirements of comparativequantitative analysis, it will serve to illustrate my point.

The question that I pose to you today, dear readers, is this: Whowas responsible for these attacks? It’s alright, take your time. Thereare no right answers to this question. This, in my humble and irrele-vant opinion, is the single biggest threat facing our country today.Under Rajapakse, the government of Sri Lanka knew that it was fight-ing the Tamil Tigers. In Yugoslavia, NATO knew it was fighting Milo-sevic’s forces. On Omaha Beach, the Allies knew they were fightingthe Germans and on the high seas, the Spanish Armada knew theywere fighting everyone else. We, however, don’t seem to have a clue.

This is because ours is not a traditional war. It is not even a tradi-tional guerrilla war. When ‘our’ Taliban were paradropped intoAfghanistan in the 90s to capture Kabul, the Afghans had a fair ideaof who was behind this rising tide of extremism and violence. Buttoday, as the forces of evil overrun our towns and cities, we are nocloser to understanding the complexity of the threat facing us.Tehreek-e-Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Islami; these are all simply names. We are yet to establish what theirmotives are and are reduced to playing amateur Cluedo with each in-cident, as it happens, in order to piece together whatever rudimentaryunderstanding we have of these groups and their methods.

The media has a bigger part to play in this game that you wouldthink. Day after day, blind murders and senseless killings are slottedinto the attic of “terrorist attacks” and “target killings”, simply be-cause it is too risky to dig any deeper. I have spoken to many jour-nalists who, when they cover these incidents, can piece togetherpretty well the “who, why, what and wherewithal” of the typicalhit. However, because the information they have is mostly hearsayor because they cannot afford to take that sort of pressure from un-savoury types, they are forced to report within the given templatethat characterises reportage of such attacks.

This is crucial, mostly because media coverage of attacks andbombings is admissible in court. It also serves as a historical recordfor people who want to retrospectively study the violence thatplagues our country. When their sample is unnecessarily skewedby the countless “unknowns” and “unidentifieds”, it is difficult toimagine how anyone, let alone those that make and break policy inour state, can have a clear idea of who or what they are up against.Even intelligence briefings handed to senior security personnelconsist of newspaper articles and TV reports.

This is not all there is to it. But information, or the lack thereof,is a major failing of our state and society as a whole. That those whohave the knowledge are not talking to those who can actually dosomething with that knowledge is criminal. While I know that Isound like I’m making the case for security agencies picking upmore journalists, I am actually calling for the opposite. Rather thantaking an adversarial approach, the law enforcement apparatus needsto understand that a symbiotic relationship with the media will ben-efit it far more than an adversarial one. I know of many journalistswho still have faith in the state and are willing to go that extra mileto make sure justice is served. After all, one can only see so muchsenseless killing in a lifetime before one decides enough is enough.It’s time the state and its various arms did the same.

Follow @mightyobvious on Twitter for more incoherence in140 characters or less

mighty obvioussYed HAssAn BeLAL zAidi

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:42 AM Page 11

“Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to

be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on

it as certain.” — Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice

artS

Awednesday, 6 March, 2013

12

BOOK ONCONTrAdICTIONOF POlITICS INPAKISTANPuBlIShEdLAHORE: A

book titled

Pakistan Main

Jamhuriat key

Tazadat

(contradiction

of politics in

Pakistan) by

veteran

political

analyst and

development

expert Salman

Abid has been

published by

Jamhuri

Publications.

The book is

the fourth in

the row of

publications by Abid. The book covers

democratic process and its importance in

Pakistan. The role of different stakeholders

in democracy, including the government,

state, political parties, civil society

organisations, judiciary, military and

citizens has been discussed in the book.

The book also analyses the intervention of

military, election process, political alliances

and controversies on the election

commission. Extremism, terrorism,

provincial autonomy, new provinces and

women’s representation in politics have

also been covered in the book. The preface

is written by Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi and

Farrukh Sohail. sTAff RePoRT

COURTESY AA

Q: WHY ARE YOU NOT A CHRIS-

TIAN?

RUSSELL: Because I see no evidencewhatever for any of the Christian dogmas.I’ve examined all the stock arguments infavour of the existence of God, and none ofthem seem to me to be logically valid.

Q: DO YOU THINK THERE’S A PRAC-

TICAL REASON FOR HAvINg A RE-

LIgIOUS BELIEF, FOR MANY

PEOPLE?

RUSSELL: Well, there can’t be a practicalreason for believing what isn’t true. That’squite... at least, I rule it out as impossible.Either the thing is true, or it isn’t. If it istrue, you should believe it, and if it isn’t,you shouldn’t. And if you can’t find outwhether it’s true or whether it isn’t, youshould suspend judgment. But you can’t... itseems to me a fundamental dishonesty and afundamental treachery to intellectual in-tegrity to hold a belief because you think it’suseful, and not because you think it’s true.

Q: I WAS THINKINg OF THOSE PEO-

PLE WHO FIND THAT SOME KIND

OF RELIgIOUS CODE HELPS THEM

TO LIvE THEIR LIvES. IT gIvES

THEM A vERY STRICT SET OF

RULES, THE RIgHTS AND THE

WRONgS.

RUSSELL: Yes, but those rules are gener-ally quite mistaken. A great many of themdo more harm than good. And they wouldprobably be able to find a rational moralitythat they could live by if they dropped thisirrational traditional taboo morality thatcomes down from savage ages.

Q: BUT ARE WE, PERHAPS THE OR-

DINARY PERSON PERHAPS ISN’T

STRONg ENOUgH TO FIND THIS

OWN PERSONAL ETHIC. THEY

HAvE TO HAvE SOMETHINg IM-

POSED UPON THEM FROM OUT-

SIDE.

RUSSELL: Oh, I don’t think that’s true,and what is imposed on you from outside isof no value whatever. It doesn’t count.

Q: WELL, YOU WERE BROUgHT UP,

OF COURSE, AS A CHRISTIAN.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST DECIDE

THAT YOU DID NOT WANT TO RE-

MAIN A BELIEvER IN THE CHRIS-

TIAN ETHIC?

RUSSELL: I never decided that I didn’twant to remain a believer. I decided... be-tween the ages of 15 and 18, I spent almostall my spare time thinking about Christiandogmas, and trying to find out whether therewas any reason to believe them. And by thetime I was 18, I’d discarded the last of them.

Q: DO YOU THINK THAT THAT gAvE

YOU AN ExTRA STRENgTH IN YOUR

LIFE?

RUSSELL: Oh, I don’t... no, I should’thave said so, neither extra strength nor theopposite. I mean, I was just engaged in thepursuit of knowledge.

Q: AS YOU APPROACH THE END OF

LIFE, DO YOU HAvE ANY FEAR OF

SOME KIND OF AFTERLIFE, OR DO

YOU FEEL THAT THAT IS jUST...

RUSSELL: Oh, no, I think that’s nonsense.

Q: THERE IS NO AFTERLIFE?

RUSSELL: None whatever.

Q: DO YOU HAvE ANY FEAR OF

SOMETHINg THAT IS COMMON

AMONgST ATHEISTS AND

AgNOSTICS, WHO HAvE BEEN

ATHEISTS OR AgNOSTICS ALL

THEIR LIvES, WHO ARE

CONvERTED jUST BEFORE THEY

DIE, TO A FORM OF RELIgION?

RUSSELL: Well, you know, it doesn’thappen nearly as often as religious peoplethink it does. Because religious people, mostof them, think that it’s a virtuous act to telllies about the death beds of agnostics andsuch. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t happenvery often.

WHAT WOULD YOU THINK IT’S

WORTH TELLINg FUTURE gENER-

ATIONS ABOUT THE LIFE YOU’vE

LIvED AND THE LESSONS YOU’vE

LEARNED FROM IT?

“I should like to say two things, one intel-lectual and one moral. The intellectual thingI should want to say is this: When you arestudying any matter, or considering any phi-losophy, ask yourself only what are the factsand what is the truth that the facts bear out.Never let yourself be diverted either bywhat you wish to believe, or by what youthink would have beneficent social effects ifit were believed. But look only, and solely,at what are the facts. That is the intellectualthing that I should wish to say. The moralthing I should wish to say… I should saylove is wise, hatred is foolish. In this worldwhich is getting more closely and closelyinterconnected we have to learn to tolerateeach other, we have to learn to put up withthe fact that some people say things that wedon’t like. We can only live together in thatway and if we are to live together and notdie together we must learn a kind of charityand a kind of tolerance which is absolutelyvital to the continuation of human life onthis planet.”

Bertrand Russell over God — Interview (1959)

wedding bellsjust weeks awayfor Aniston?

NEWS DESK

Actress Jennifer Aniston is set to marry fianceJustin Theroux, and the wedding date is

reportedly just a few weeks away.Aniston, who was married to actor

Brad Pitt for five years beforethey got divorced in 2005, got

engaged to Theroux lastAugust. “Jen is goingto great lengths tokeep the weddingdetails a secret so itdoes not become ahuge media circuslike her weddingto Brad,”

thesun.co.uk quoteda source as saying.

“Just a few dozen oftheir closest family and

friends will be there. Butnews is beginning to leak that

the date is just a few weeksaway now,” the source added. The

couple doesn’t want to marry undermedia glare, and hence, they might opt for

a quieter place like Hawaii. “Jen doesn’t wantto get married with photographers buzzing

around her head in helicopters. Justin just adoresHawaii. It’s his favourite place in the world and he

has a little house on the island of Kauai,” a sourcesaid. “But they both love the island and the idea of alaid back Hawaii wedding in the sunshine. The have

looked at some expensive villas including one wherethey enjoyed a romantic holiday in 2011,” the source

added. Actor Ben Stiller, who is good friend of thecouple, might be of some help. “And Ben Stiller, a big

buddy of Justin’s, has a house over there too so that could bea surprise option,” a source said.

CArrEYhated dieting for film

NEWS DESK

Hollywood actor Jim Carrey went on a strictdiet for his new film, “The Bncredible BurtWonderstone” but didn’t quite like theexperience. The 51-year-old feels getting inshape was difficult, reports contactmusic.com.“It was tough to get in shape to play streetmagician Steve Gray, but now that we are done

with shooting, I can regainthe weight I lost,” said

Carrey. Carrey, whoappears shirtless infew scenes in thefilm, insisted that itwon’t be a regular

thing, and joked: “Ifigured that its

MatthewMcConaughey’s

thing.” Carreyis not the onlyactor toundertake atough diet fora role, Hugh

Jackman hadconsumednothing butwater for 36hours toprepare for“LesMiserables”.

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:42 AM Page 12

13ARtswednesday, 6 March, 2013

A

najaM Sethi@SSEHBAI1 For six years

earlier you said Military

messed up. For last four years

you said Politicians messed

up. Make up year mind now.

Shaheen Sehbai@najamsethi NS: Whn we wre

telling u4 last4 yrs that poltcians

r messng up u joked at us.Now

when 8days r left uhv joined d

club.WHT U SAY

MohSin haMidSpecial#TheReluctantFundamentalistscreening in London next Sun(Mar 10).

jeMiMa khanIn the words of my ex

husband, “who the **** was

Valentine anyway?”

fayeS t. kantawaLaI’m liking Anna Karenina way

too much.

notabLe tweetS

NEWS DESK

Adele may be worth millions but she would rather be sitting at home

eating spaghetti hoops than guzzling Champagne at fancy parties. The

south London singing star is determined to remain down to earth,

despite having won 106 awards, nine Grammys, a Golden Globe and

now an Oscar. Last week, the 24-year-old new mum turned down

the chance to go to Elton John’s swanky post-Oscar party, where

the menu was orchestrated by Gordon Ramsay. Instead, after

collecting her golden statuette for Best Original Song for the

Bond theme ‘Skyfall’, she went straight back to the Hollywood

home being loaned to her by Sir Paul McCartney, the Sun

reported. According to friends, she often travels with her

favourite snacks - packets of custard creams and tins of

spaghetti hoops - so that she can cater for herself at home

rather than eat out in fancy restaurants. In an exclusive

interview, one of her aunts revealed that the singer-

songwriter, is happy to make her own cup of tea when

she pops by. Anita Adkins, older sister of Adele’s

mum Penny, watched the Oscars on a live stream

on TV at her London home with relatives cheering

tearfully on the sofa. “She doesn’t get any

special treatment, of course not. Why would

she? There’s plenty of nieces, nephews and

grandchildren in this family so no one gets any

special treatment, I can tell you. They’re all

treated the same,” the aunt said. She has

turned down invitations from Chris Martin and

Gwyneth Paltrow for a night out and pleas from

scores of celebrities including Kim Kardashian

and Rihanna to perform at private gigs or be

guest of honour at star-studded parties.

Instead Adele is making time for the man in

her life, 38-year-old Simon Konecki, and their

four-month-old son Angelo.

‘down-to-eARth’Adele shunsceleb lifestyle

BrAdlEY COOPErdidn’t even wantan OscarB

RADLEY Cooper was nominated for an Oscar at the85th annual Academy Awards, and while he attendedthe show and cheered on his Oscar-winning co-starJennifer Lawrence, he reportedly did not want to winhimself. In an interview with British GQ, reported by

the UK’s Metro, Cooper spoke about the death of his father and theimpact it had on him. Cooper’s father passed away in 2011 at the

age of 71, an event that Cooper says gave him major perspective.“I watched him dying and I was there by his bed watching him,breathing with him, and then I saw his last breath and he was

gone,” he said. “I experienced the whole thing. And that wasa watershed moment that I was privileged to experience.And it changed everything. Nothing has ever been the samesince.” He went on to add, “The beauty is that I just don’tsweat s—t anymore.” It seems that for Cooper, the “s—t” is

an Academy Award. “I don’t want to win an Oscar,” he said.“It would change nothing. Nothing. The things in my life that

aren’t fulfilled would not be fulfilled. Career-wise, right now,it’s better that I don’t win one. I don’t want to win. I don’t.”

Cooper wasn’t the only actor nominated at this year’s Oscars toexpress conflict over the awards. Last year, Joaquin Phoenixinfamously blasted the Academy Awards as “bulls—t.” “I think it’stotal, utter bulls—t, and I don’t want to be a part of it,” Phoenix saidduring an interview with Elvis Mitchell for Interview magazine. “Idon’t believe in it. It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’veever tasted in my whole life. I don’t want this carrot. It’s totallysubjective. Pitting people against each other ... It’s the stupidestthing in the whole world.” Phoenix was nominated alongsideCooper in the Best Actor category for his role in “The Master.” Inthe end, neither Cooper nor Phoenix won Best Actor. They wereedged out by Daniel Day-Lewis, who took home the award for hisrole in “Lincoln.” news desk

SAlMAN KhANlOvES, rESPECTSANd SuPPOrTSIMrAN KhAN

NEWS DESK

A picture is being circulated in the socialmedia depicting Salman Khan wearing a blackT-shirt with ‘Love, Respect, Support for ImranKhan’ written on it. Sources say that PTIInternational Secretariat sent this shirt toBollywood Star Salman Khan who is also anactive follower of Imran Khan.The picture has gone viral in the social mediaand supporters of PTI and Imran Khan haveexpressed joy and delight seeing Salman Khansupporting Imran Khan.

Socialite Paris Hilton threw a special theme partyaround “Alice In Wonderland”. She transformedher house into a virtual fairytale world for it. Shethrew the party March 2. The hotel heiress, whoturned 32 Feb 17, donned an Alice costume anddecorated her mansion here with themed props,including towering mushrooms and larger-than-life butterflies, reports dailystar.co.uk. She alsotreated her guests to 100 bottles of Champagne, afeast of sweet treats and multiple birthday cakes.Rapper Lil Wayne and DJ Tiesto added a dash ofentertainment to the party by playing sets forguests including screen stars China Chow, EfrenRamirez and Jesse Woodrow, as well as director EliRoth. Hilton shared photographs of the party onTwitter. “So much fun! Incredible night! Best timeever,” tweeted Hilton, while Roth added:“Happy birthday Paris Hilton! I had an

amazing time. Yes!” news desk

PARis hiltonthrows ‘Alicein wonderland’party

Pregnancy news,best Christmaspresent: hilariaThomas

NEWS DESK

Actor Alec Baldwin’swife Hilaria Thomassays the news ofpregnancy was likea Christmas gift forthem. The couple,

who got marriedin June last year,confirmed thenews in Februarythis year. “It wassomething that weboth wanted; I

don’t want to say itwas a surprise andwe didn’t want it,”

dailystar.co.ukquoted Thomasas saying. “Wewere veryexcited when wefound out, but wejust got marriedin June and wefound out twodays before

Christmas so itwas a really niceChristmaspresent,” she

added.

“Try to remain humble. Smartness kills everything. The object

of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.”

— Sherwood Anderson in a letter to his 18-year-old son

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:43 AM Page 13

Open by 2050:Shipping lanesin North PoleClimate change has got its upside if you

happen to own a shipping company.

Researchers say that by 2050, the

Arctic ice sheet will be weak enough

for cargo ships to take the northern

route between the Atlantic and Pacific

oceans without the aid of icebreakers,

the Guardian reports. Ships with just

moderate ice protection will be able to

sail directly over the North Pole, making

it a lot faster and cheaper to ship goods

from China to Europe. Scientists, who

studied seven different climate models,

say it's too late to cut carbon emissions

enough to prevent the change, the

Telegraph reports. As big business

spies new Arctic opportunities,

environmentalists are campaigning to

create a sanctuary in the region. The

Arctic "is melting because of our use

of dirty fossil fuel energy, and in the

near future it could be ice-free for the

first time since humans walked the

Earth," Greenpeace's Save the Arctic

petition states. "This would be not

only devastating for the people, polar

bears, narwhals, walruses, and other

species that live there—but for the

rest of us too," because the region's

ice helps cool down the world by

reflecting sunlight. news desk

vatican bootsfake priest whogot past securityThe Vatican today kicked out a phony

bishop who got past security and

nearly entered a meeting of cardinals

who will pick the next pope, USA

Today reports. Identified as Ralph

Napierski, a German, the man showed

up with an entourage of fake

assistants and posed for photographs

with an actual cardinal. But there were

giveaways: His short cassock, black

fedora in lieu of skull cap, and an

ordinary purple-pink scarf instead of a

sash. Still, Napierski fooled people for

about an hour, calling himself Basilius

and claiming membership in a Catholic

order he invented called Corpus Dei (a

riff on the real Opus Dei). His motive

is unknown, but Napierski runs a blog

about Corpus Dei and another blog

called Jesus Yoga, which purports to

teach the "hidden techniques of

Christian meditation," the

International Business Times reports.

Now the Vatican is holding talks on

how to boost security before the next

pope is chosen. news desk

infotainMent

IWednesday, 6 March, 2013

14When the rich wage

war, it's the poor who

die. –Jean-Paul Sartre

NEWS DESK

IF late night exercise works foryou, just do it. That's new advicefrom a leading sleep group andother experts in sleep and exercise,all of whom say it's time to throw

out the old rule that you should never ex-ercise in the hours just before bedtime.

Most people can sleep just fine after aworkout, say experts from the NationalSleep Foundation, relying on evidence froma growing body of research and a new poll.The 2013 Sleep in America Poll, out today,finds people who exercise at any time ofday report sleeping better and feeling morerested than those who don't exercise. It alsofinds people who exercise in the last fourhours before bedtime report sleeping just aswell as those exercising earlier in the day.

"The timing of exercise ought to bedriven by when the pool's lap lane is openor when your tennis partner is available orwhen you have time to get away fromwork, not by some statement that has neverbeen validated," says Barbara Phillips, aUniversity of Kentucky sleep medicinespecialist who worked on the poll.

More than half of vigorous and moder-ate exercisers reported sleeping better ondays they exercised — even if it was close

to bedtime. In the poll of 1,000 people, just3% of late-day exercisers said they sleptworse. Margin of error was plus or minus 3percentage points. The idea that exercise latein the day is bad for sleep was always basedon conjecture and anecdote, Phillips andothers say. The theory was that the stimula-tion of exercise, combined with rises in bodytemperature, would keep people awake. Forsome, that may be true, but studies now sug-gest it's not the norm, says Shawn Youngst-edt, a researcher at the University of SouthCarolina. He also worked on the poll.Youngstedt conducted one study in which fit

young men with no sleep problems rode sta-tionary bikes for three hours and went to bedjust 30 minutes later. They slept soundly.Other studies in good sleepers have shownsimilar results, he says. He is now starting astudy of evening exercise in otherwise inac-tive people who do have sleep problems.

"When I present this data, almost in-variably, someone will say, 'I don't carewhat the data show – I think that exercis-ing too close to bedtime is bad for mysleep,' " Youngstedt says. They may beright, he says. But, for many other people,the option of late-day exercise may open

up healthy new horizons. "We have verybusy lives now," he says. "For a lot of peo-ple evening is the most convenient time."

Jessica Matthews, a fitness instructorand personal trainer who is a spokeswomanfor the American Council on Exercise, saysher advice has evolved as it's becomeclearer that different times work for differ-ent people. She suggests people who wantto try late-day exercise give it go — andplay around with the timing, intensity andtype of workout to see what feels right.

Some people may still find that theyget "more bang for their buck" by exercis-ing early in the day, especially if they canget outside and take advantage of morningsunlight, which can help keep the bodyclock running on time, says MichaelGrandner, a sleep researcher at the Univer-sity of Pennsylvania and a spokesman forthe American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

But any exercise is better than none, forsleep and health, he says. He did not workon the new poll but isn't surprised it foundactive people sleep best: "Your body ismeant to move. Getting the right type andamount of movement helps your body dowhat it was built to do, and that includessleeping." Well-rested people also feel morelike exercising, so the link goes both ways,he says. Grandner says data from a largersurvey of 150,000 people, conducted by theCentres for Disease Control and Prevention,also found that people who did any exer-cise, no matter how light, reported signifi-cantly better sleep than non-exercisers did.

NEWS DESK

A gene associated with obesity andovereating is also linked to the mostfatal skin cancer, malignantmelanoma. The finding came from anew study conducted by Cancer Re-search UK experts at the Universityof Leeds, England, and was pub-lished in Nature Genetics.

Individuals with certain varia-tions in a stretch of DNA within theFTO gene, known as intron 8, mayhave a higher chance of developingmelanoma, according to the results.

Scientists have known that themost critical genetic risk factor forobesity and overeating are variationsin a different part of the FTO gene,referred to as intron 1. In 2010, re-searchers at the Medical ResearchCouncil (MRC), UK, demonstratedthat over activity of the gene FTOleads to overeating and obesity.

These variants are associatedwith BMI (body mass index), whichcalculates a person's shape by usingtheir height and weight. People withhigh BMIs may have a raised risk ofa range of diseases, such as kidneydisease, type 2 diabetes, womb (en-dometrial) cancer and a host of otherproblems. The current study, how-ever, is the first to demonstrate thatthe gene plays a role in the develop-ment of melanoma, a disease whichis not associated with obesity andBMI. The report implies that FTOplays a more wide-ranging part thanexperts believed in the past, with dif-ferent areas of the gene being linkedto a range of diseases. Dr Mark Iles,Cancer Research UK scientist at theUniversity of Leeds and author of the

research, said: "This is the first time toour knowledge that this major obesitygene, already linked to multiple ill-nesses, has been linked to melanoma.This raises the question whether futureresearch will reveal that the gene hasa role in even more diseases?"

A study from 2010 suggestedthat the FTO gene increases the riskof Alzheimer's disease and demen-tia. Other research on the FTO genehas only observed its importance inmetabolism and appetite, the authorssaid. However, it is now obviousthat scientists do not completely un-derstand all that this gene does.

"This reveals a hot new lead forresearch into both obesity-related ill-nesses and skin cancer," Iles added.

Experts gathered and analyzeddata on tumour samples from over13,000 melanoma patients and nearly60,000 controls (people with nomelanoma) from all over the world.

Malignant melanoma is the fifthmost prevalent cancer among peoplein the UK. Each year, there are about

12,800 novel cases and approxi-mately 2,200 deaths resulting fromthe disease. "These are fascinatingearly findings that, if confirmed infurther research, could potentiallyprovide new targets for the develop-ment of drugs to treat melanoma,"explained Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Re-search UK's senior science informa-tion manager. Experts have alreadybeen able to create new crucial treat-ments for skin cancer that will havea considerable impact on patients, be-cause of the progress in understand-ing more about the molecules thatdrive skin cancer. Sharp concluded,"But it doesn't detract from the im-portance of reducing your risk of thedisease by enjoying the sun safely onwinter breaks abroad and avoidingsun beds. Getting a painful sunburnjust once every two years can triplethe risk of melanoma." Previous re-search suggested that the risk of skincancer from tanning beds is twotimes higher than spending the samelength of time in the summer sun.

Guy fakes kidnappingto avoid his girlfriendTalk about sad: A man bound himself with duct

tape and claimed he'd been kidnapped only to

avoid facing his girlfriend, the New York Post

reports. New York police say they found Rahmell

Pettway, 36, bound and looking beat up last week

between two parked cars in Brooklyn. At first

Pettway "couldn't recall" what had happened, but

later said two guys in a minivan kidnapped him

last month. One little giveaway: The roll of duct

tape was still dangling from his wrists when police

found him. "He’s a total moron," says a source in

law enforcement. "It was a pathetic attempt to

pull the wool [over] her eyes." Pettway

apparently hadn't called his girlfriend for a couple

of weeks and didn't dare

face her. "The

officers were

asking him, ‘Are

you OK?

Are you

OK?'" says a

woman who

saw the scene.

"That’s

something

very

sick.

Just

be a

man

and

face

the

consequence."

Police charged

Pettway with filing

a false report. He

had already been

arrested 14 times,

mostly for assault,

marijuana, and

robbery. news desk

obesity gene linked to skin cancer

Exercising close to bedtime is OKjogging at midnight?walking in the moonlight?

A 21st-century team of researchers hassolved an enduring 20th-century mystery:What sparked the fire that caused the Hin-denburg to explode and plummet to theground? Static electricity, asserts the British-US team, which tested a number of the the-ories that have been floated for the last 76years on 79-foot scale models of the hydro-gen-filled airship, reports the Independent.The paper explains that investigators of theMay 6, 1937, disaster determined that aspark ignited leaking gas, but were unableto definitively determine the source of the

spark or the gas leak. Others believed sabo-tage, by way of a bomb or a shooter sta-tioned on the ground, was to blame, but theteam outlines a more scientific series ofevents: It believes an electrical storm causedthe Hindenburg to be charged with staticelectricity; when the crew members on theground in New Jersey grabbed the landingropes, they "earthed" the Hindenburg (i.e.,connected it electrically to the ground). Thatcaused the spark that perilously ignited thehydrogen that had leaked into the ventilationshafts by way of a broken wire or sticking

gas valve. An airship historiansays he thinks the team's find-ing is "exactly what happened. Ithink you had an ignition sourcepull down into the ship, and that wholeback portion of the ship went up almostat once." The news follows Bloomberg'sprofile of a resurgent airship industry; it re-ports that a drop in the cost of carbon fib-ber and advances in buoyancy technologyhave manufacturers asserting that theircoming ships will be able to steal businessfrom freight operators by 2016. news desk

hindenburg mystery finally put to rest

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:43 AM Page 14

DUNEDINAgencies

The long shadow of back-to-back Ashesseries later this year crept on to UniversityOval on Tuesday as England captainAlastair Cook went through his final mediaconference ahead of their first test of 2013against New Zealand. Cook's side will play15 tests in the next 12 months, three in NewZealand, two against the same opposition inEngland in May, before the back-to-backAshes series against Australia.

The unflappable Cook, like hisimperious batting style, let a few of thequestions whistle past him, preferringinstead to focus on the more immediatefuture. It was obvious, however, thatretaining the Ashes against Michael Clarke'steam was already in their thinking.

"Yes, we have got a huge year and yes,it's great to be involved in such a big yearof test cricket ... but as players we have to

focus on tomorrow's game and worryabout all the other stuff afterward,"Cook said. "It's quite exciting for usto look at what we can do with 15test matches. "I don't think anyEngland side has had theopportunity to play two back-to-back Ashes series and play NewZealand as well. "So we have thechance to do something veryspecial if we can perform to the waywe can perform, but if we don't, wewill get found out." Cook's team weregiven a bit of a wake-up callimmediately before the first test whenthey lost to the New Zealand XI,essentially an 'A' side, by threewickets in their only warmupbefore the series-opener at thetiny University Oval inDunedin's northern suburbs.The 28-year-old, however,was more pleased with what

he saw in the game than the result, withboth Matt Prior and Ian Bellproducing strong batting efforts andfast bowler Stuart Broad getting

through an impressive workloadin Queenstown. Twenty20captain Broad was forced homefrom their victorious tour of Indialate last year with a recurrence ofa heel injury and doubts over his

long-term future. "To see StuartBroad back, with his heel, he

bowled quite a lot and got a biggerworkload than we thought and pulledthrough with no effect on his heel at all,

which is good news for us movingon to the summer," a smilingCook said. "Yes, we were

disappointed to lose butactually it really doesn'tmatter. The important stuffstarts tomorrow." England

had some "minor niggles" to

check but Cook expected all 15 of thesquad available for selection. New Zealand,however, were forced to make at least onechange with Doug Bracewell ruled out witha cut to his foot, sustained when he stoodon a glass while cleaning up following aparty at his house in Napier.

Left arm pace bowler Neil Wagner willcome into the side as the first change option,with Ian Butler and left arm spinner BruceMartin battling for the final place. CaptainBrendon McCullum said he would bat at sixto give the lower middle order someexperience and depth, and put the onus backon the top order to produce runs, somethingNew Zealand teams have struggled to do intests in recent years. "We have to make surethat we get the run production from ourbatters," McCullum said. "Adding a batterand shifting some of our experience to themiddle order should give us an ability toscore some runs later and add some betterruns with the tail as well.

sPoRts

Swednesday, 6 March, 2013

15You’ve got to remember Joe Root has played

one test match. I think everyone should keep a

little calm about his prospects. – Andy Flower

Ashes loom large as England begin huge year

SPORTS DESK

Haroon Lorgat, the former ICC chiefexecutive, remains the leadingcandidate for the position of CSA chiefexecutive despite the BCCI's"concerns." South African cricket'sgoverning body is due to appoint anew head in the next month to replaceacting boss Jacques Faul, who joinedthe Titans franchise on Friday.

ESPNcricinfo has confirmed thatLorgat was among the 90 applicantsand has been shortlisted along with atleast three other candidates. CSAemployees Mike Gajjer, the currentcricket operations manager, and MaxJordaan, the transformation manager,along with Border Cricket CEOThemba Lupuwana are among thosewho will rival Lorgat for the position.

Although Lorgat's experience,which includes time as South Africanconvenor of selectors, may appear togive him an advantage, his four yearsin charge of the ICC and the resultantstrained relationship with India's boardcould negate that. Lorgat irked theBCCI with his stance on DRS, amongother things, and they have made cleartheir stand on his involvement.

"They raised their concerns aboutHaroon Lorgat," Norman Arendse,CSA's lead independent director, whowas at the meeting, said. "We said to

them we had embarked on a process,and that it would be premature todiscuss him or the outcome of thatprocess because we're waiting for it tobe concluded."

CSA had also heard that the BCCI

may threaten to pull out of nextseason's tour to South Africa shouldLorgat be in charge. "We said we werekeen to discuss the issue because wehad heard rumours that the tour was injeopardy if Lorgat was appointed.They conveyed to us, with a fairamount of detail, why they would beopposed to his appointment," Arendsesaid.

He could not expand on thosedetails because they had not yet beenconveyed to the rest of CSA's boardand Arendse said if they were madepublic first it "would be prejudicial toLorgat."

N Srinivasan, the BCCI president,said he has "nothing" to commentsince it's "their [CSA's] internalmatter".

For now, the tour remains on andthere is even talk of an extension fromthree Tests to four. Further details of itwill be discussed at a follow-upmeeting in Kolkata next month. Adelegation from CSA will travel toIndia from April 2 to 4 and finalisearrangements.

If the new CEO is appointed bythen, he will be part of the travellingparty. Arendse said it would be"appropriate" to have CSA's head atthat meeting because it deals withactivities that will take place on thecountry's calendar next summer.

lorgat remains in raceto become csA chief

LAHOREsTAff RePoRT

FORMER Pakistan coachRichard Pybus feels that thelack of experience costPakistan dear in the test series

against South Africa and also defendedDave Whatmore saying that he must beaware of the team’s lack practice in thelonger version of the game.

“That's life at international level, andI am sure Whatmore is also aware of it. Ithink he [Whatmore] has done well. Allyou can do is prepare the team and handover to the captain in the game time.” saidRichard Pybus, in a television interview. “Ipopped in to watch a bit of the Cape Towntest. Overall the [Pakistan] sidedisappointed in the Tests in South Africabut this is not new though. They lack depthin experienced batters for these conditions

while the bowlers weren’t up to thestandard even.” added Pybus, who coachedthe Pakistan team twice between 1999–

2001 and 2003. “If Whatmore wascoaching South Africa with players likeSmith, Kallis, De Villiers and Amla then he

would be called a great coach”, maintainedPybus Richard Pybus is the first amongstthe four foreign coaches appointed so farby the Pakistan Cricket Board from 1999,followed by the Late Bob Woolmer, GeoffLawson and the incumbent Whatmore.The former coach also acknowledged thatthe Pakistan Cricket was suffering from thelack of international events at home.

“It’s really tough if you take away aside’s home advantage but Pakistan haveadapted reasonably well. I saw themprepare in Sri Lanka for the T20 and theylooked a profession outfit. Pakistan needsto build on continuity of selection, trustingand challenging players to success”,concludes Richard Pybus. On the upcomingODI series against South Africa, RichardPybus hopes to see competitive encounters,adding that with the inclusion of a fewplayers, Pakistan look a more formidableoutfit in the limited-over matches.

Swann fears forAshes fitness

DUNEDINAgencies

Graeme Swann, the England offspinner, hasadmitted he fears that the state of his rightelbow could threaten his involvement in theback-to-back Ashes series taking place laterthis year. Swann underwent surgery to removefragments of bone from around his right elbowin 2009. The surgeon was unable to remove allthe fragments, however, as some were deemedto be too close to the nerve. Despite severalweeks of rest ahead of the New Zealand tour,the injury flared up during England's warm-upgame in Queenstown leaving Swann worriedabout how he will manage throughout a busyyear that contains home and away seriesagainst Australia and the Champions Trophy."We are embarking on arguably England'sgreatest year of Test cricket ever and I can'twait for the back-to-back Ashes series,"Swann wrote in his Sun column. "But I haveone big worry - the state of my right elbow. Itcaused me discomfort again during our onlywarm-up match before the first Test and I hadto leave the field. "I'll be honest, the elbow isalways a concern. It's been hanging over mefor several years and, despite having anoperation in 2009, the problem hasn't entirelygone away. "It would be a massive pain in thebackside if my wonky elbow forced me tomiss any of the Tests against Australia. I'mabsolutely determined to be available for whatmight be my final two Ashes series - and thatmeans managing the elbow as well aspossible. "I was rested from the one-day seriesin India and that meant I had around sevenweeks at home, which was brilliant. It gave theelbow a nice break. But it stiffened up duringour three-wicket defeat to a New Zealand XIin Queenstown and I went off for sometreatment. Had it been a Test match, I wouldhave carried on bowling and suffered theconsequences the next day. Clearly, needingtreatment in my first match after a long breakwas not great. But I was able to come back onto the field and bowl again."

Pybus feels lack ofexperience cost Pakistan

hayden helpsstruggling batsmen

HYDERABADAgencies

Few Australian batsmen are more qualifiedto give advice on scoring runs in India thanMatthew Hayden and Michael Clarke, andthe two men were locked in intensediscussions out on the field after the end ofthe Hyderabad Test. Following the Chennaidefeat, Clarke enlisted the help of ShaneWarne to speak to the spin-bowling groupand a similar scenario played out withHayden in Hyderabad, as the Australianspractised at a time when the second sessionshould have been under way. A makeshiftnet was set up around the Test-match pitchand the batsmen rotated through a centre-wicket batting session against the spinnersand the two left-arm fast bowlers, MitchellJohnson and Mitchell Starc. While thecoach Mickey Arthur and his assistantSteve Rixon watched from behind thebatsman, Hayden, the batting coachMichael di Venuto and a padded-up Clarkestood to the side. They spoke betweenthemselves and to whichever batsmenweren't in at the time, Haydendemonstrating stances and footwork duringhis hour-long stay. Hayden is the onlyAustralian who has scored more Test runsin India than Clarke's 954; his 1027 runscame at an average of 51.35 across threetours from 2001 to 2008. He entered thefirst tour desperately in need of some bigscores to secure his place as a Test openerand he responded with 119, 28 not out, 97,67, 203 and 35. Much of his successagainst spin came because he employed thesweep shot to great effect. England'sbatsmen also swept well during their seriesvictory in India late last year, but whenDavid Warner and Phillip Hughes tried theshot against R Ashwin coming over thewicket on the third day in Hyderabad, bothwere bowled around their legs. Hayden,who is in India commentating on theseries, said on Star Sports before the fourthday's play that Warner had fallen into thetrap of sweeping a ball that was too full,meaning his stumps were vulnerable.

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:44 AM Page 16

PCB not to take hasty decisions: ZakaChangeS in the teaM ManageMent(

(

sPoRts Swednesday, 6 March, 2013

16What contract? There was a party here and

I came for the function. Ask the people who

came here for the contract. – Lasith Malinga

LAHOREsTAff RePoRT

THE Pakistan Cricket Board hasassured of proper deliberationbefore taking any decision inchanging the team

management. However, a board officialruled out sackings in the team managementafter just one series loss. Pakistan's cricketchief threw his weight behind under-firecoach Dav Whatmore on Tuesday, after thenational team's 3-0 Test whitewash in SouthAfrica, saying he was doing a good job.

Whatmore, appointed Pakistan coach ayear ago, came in for severe criticism fromformer captains Wasim Akram, Moin Khanand Rashid Latif who called for the former

Australian batsman to be sacked.Appointed on a two-year contract,Whatmore guided Pakistan to the Asia Cuptitle and a one-day series win over arch-rivals India but lost consecutive Test seriesin Sri Lanka and South Africa. PakistanCricket Board (PCB) chairman ZakaAshraf vowed there will be no hastydecisions on Whatmore's future.

"Whatmore is under contract with thePCB and is performing well," Ashraf wasquoted by a website. "There is a committeewhich evaluates each person under contractand submits its report. "We take decisionsonly on merit and performance of theindividuals." Pakistan has a history ofsacking coaches, showing the door to theirlast foreign coach Geoff Lawson after only a

year in the job in 2008. Whatmore's ownappointment in March last year came as asurprise after his predecessor Mohsin Khanwas widely acclaimed for bringing stabilityto the team and leading them to a 3-0 Testwhitewash over England. But the latest Testcapitulation prompted Khan to lash out atWhatmore, who masterminded Sri Lanka's1996 World Cup triumph, calling him over-rated and saying he was "fighting forsurvival".

Pakistan bounced back with aconvincing win in Sunday's Twenty20match and a PCB official speaking oncondition of anonymity said Whatmoreshould not be judged on Tests alone.

"Undoubtedly, the Test performance isa concern but our results in other formats

are not bad. People who are criticising thecoach must look at the team's overallperformance," the official said.

Pakistan's Twenty20 captainMohammad Hafeez, who blitzed a match-winning 86 on Sunday as the touristshammered South Africa by 95 runs in thesecond T20, also backed Whatmore.

"It (criticism of Whatmore) wasunfair," Hafeez said in his post-matchcomments. "If the results of one format donot come in your favour, it does not meanthe boys are not working hard or the coachis not good enough. Those are allpremature statements," he said. Pakistannow play a five-match one-day seriesagainst South Africa, starting inBloemfontein on Sunday.

HYDERABADAgencies

Michael Clarke has suggested that therecould be changes to Australia's line-up forthe third Test in Mohali after what he called"unacceptable" performances from boththe batsmen and bowlers in the first twomatches. Clarke also conceded that theshot selection of the batsmen had been"horrible" so far on the tour and called onthem to show more patience in the middle,as their Indian counterparts had done.

Speaking straight after the defeat byan innings and 135 runs in Hyderabad,Clarke did not foreshadow what teamalterations could occur, other than toconfirm that he would move up the orderfrom his No.5 position. None of the topfour batsmen have averaged more than 30during the first two Tests, while JamesPattinson is the only bowler averagingunder 30. The squad includes three menwho are yet to play a Test on this trip -Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja andSteven Smith - and the other two playersleft out of Hyderabad after the Chennailoss, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, willalso be in consideration. The team has

eight days to regroup ahead of the thirdTest and Clarke said the batting andbowling departments would both be underthe microscope.

"We have to look at both areas that'sfor sure," Clarke said. "Both have beenunacceptable, both aren't good enough. Wehave to try and find ways to improve andif that means making changes that's whatwe have to do. We made a couple ofchanges for this Test match. I want to paycredit to India, the way [Cheteshwar]Pujara and Vijay played. Our bowlers inpatches bowled really well but they wereable to stay together and not lose theirwicket and bat patiently."

While the bowlers only claimedone victim on the second day of theTest as Pujara and M Vijay put on370 for the second wicket, it was theteam's first-day batting that reallystarted the rot. After Clarke won thetoss and chose to bat Australiastruggled to 237, a paltry effortcompared to the 503compiled by India.The accurateseamerBhuvneshwar

Kumar accounted for three of the top fourbatsmen in the first innings and spin thentroubled the rest. Clarke and MatthewWade looked comfortable during their 145-run partnership but only three other standsreached double figures. That was followedby a second innings collapse on the fourthmorning and the entire innings lasted lessthan two sessions. But the most damningstatistic was that Australia made less in thewhole match than Pujara and Vijay did inone partnership. "I think they scored 50

runs in the [first] session, butthey had the discipline and

the patience to bat longperiods of time becausethey knew as the gamewent on, second session,third session, theywould catch up," Clarkesaid. "It gets easier. It

does. That's the fun partabout batting. You do the

work at the start of yourinnings, you get the reward at

the end of your innings. Atthe moment our

shot selectionhas been

horrible. "We need to be smarter with ourshot selection, that's for sure. You haveseen in the first few Tests too many guysgetting out playing across the line of theball and against the spin especially early inour innings. So I think we have to be moredisciplined with our shot selection. But Idon't want guys to curb their naturalinstinct, I don't want guys to try and play away they aren't comfortable doing.

"We've had the best of conditions, wonthe toss and batted on both wickets. Weknew before coming to India howimportant the first innings was going to be.There is more variable bounce, more spin,it is harder to bat in the second innings.That doesn't excuse today, that's for sure.We still should be doing than we did todayand yesterday but our first innings hasreally let us down as a batting unit."

The result was Australia's first inningsdefeat since the Sydney Ashes Test in2010-11, when Clarke found himself incharge of the Test side for the first time asthe stand-in captain when Ricky Pontingwas injured. When asked to offer hisoverall thoughts following the second-innings collapse for 131, Clarke was bluntin his assessment.

our shot selection was horrible: clarkeCaptaincysuccess'overhyped': dhoni

HYDERABADAgencies

Victory in the Hyderabad Test has madeMS Dhoni the most successful captainin Indian cricket, with 22 Test wins andtwo world titles in the limited-oversgame - the 2007 ICC World T20 titleand the 2011 World Cup. At the end ofthe Hyderabad Test, where Indiastomped over Australia by an inningsand 135 runs taking an unassailable 2-0lead, Dhoni waved away his numerouno standing as India captain, and saidit was "over-rated and hyped." "If yousee our dressing room right now, we arenot bothered about who has won howmany matches. What's important is towin Test matches. The more consistentwe become the better it is for the side. Idon't think this number really mattersfor us. What's important is that the lasttwo matches we have done really well."A Dhoni media briefing can be a wide-ranging explanation of tactics, glimpsesof personal philosophy and moreimportantly, a reflection of the teammanagement's thinking. Post-Hyderabadthis is what it looks like: VirenderSehwag's position in the squad is a bitiffy, Harbhajan Singh is safe and ifCheteshwar Pujara pays too muchattention on performing outside India,he won't relish the present. Asked ifSehwag was on borrowed time andwould be persisted with, Dhoni calledthe question a "difficult one." He said a'wait and watch' was necessary beforethe selectors meet to pick the team forMohali and Delhi. "You have to create abalance... You also need to see whatsituation we are in, because we will betouring abroad and we don't have thatmany Test matches after this series. Inbetween we hardly play any Tests andwe go off to South Africa… I won'treally like to comment."

SPORTS DESK

Kolkata Knight Riders, the franchise thatShakib represents in the IPL, remainhopeful that the player will be available forthe sixth season. "It is slightly unclear atthe moment. We will have to wait andsee," Venky Mysore, the Knight Riders'chief executive said. However, he pointedout that franchises were always preparedfor such scenarios. When the player signsthe contract, the NOC clearly mentionsthat the player's availability is subject tothe ICC's Future Tours Programme or anylast-minute tours arranged by their

country's board. Mysore also ruled out theoption of KKR seeking a replacement forShakib in case he missed out due to theZimbabwe tour or if he failed to recoverfrom his shin injury.

Pune Warriors, Tamim's franchise,have also decided to monitor the situationbefore they make a final decision. "We areaware that he might miss a good part ofthe tournament. But, at the moment, wewill have to just wait," a Warriors officialsaid. The official did not rule out the teamseeking a replacement for Tamim. TheBangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) willtake a call on Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim

Iqbal's participation in the Indian PremierLeague after discussion with the teammanagement as the tournament clasheswith Bangladesh's tour to Zimbabwe. TheZimbabwe tour commences on April 13and ends on May 12, while the IPL isscheduled between April 3 and May 26.

Shakib and Tamim, who play forKolkata Knight Riders and Pune Warriorsrespectively, will have two windowsbefore and after the Zimbabwe tour duringwhich they can play four matches for theirfranchise. However, the players need a NoObjection Certificate from the board toparticipate in the IPL.

Shahzad, hassanhelp Afghanistanmake it 2-0

SPORTS DESK

Afghanistan wrapped up the Twenty20series against Scotland 2-0 with anotherthumping win in Sharjah. Hamid Hassanpicked up four wickets to restrictScotland to 139, then MohammadShahzad produced another impactfulinnings to help the team achieve thetarget with 15 balls to spare.Scotland chose to bat and lost openerRichie Berrington in the first over. Theyproduced a better batting performancethan the first match as Matt Machan andCalum McLeod steered the team to 74for 2 in the 11th over. But once Machanwas out to Samiullah Shenwari, regularwickets kept tumbling. Only MoneebIqbal's late runs helped them to 139,before Hassan collected two wickets offthe last two balls.Afghanistan started their chase at afrenetic pace with Karim Sadiq taking15 runs off the second over. Sadiq put upa half-century stand with NawrozMangal, and once they were out,Shahzad continued his form from theprevious match by scoring 46 off 25balls. his innings included threeboundaries and two sixes and though hewas out in the 15th over, he had takenthe team only 15 runs short of the win,which the other batsmen completedeasily. The two teams are now scheduledto play two ODIs in Sharjah followed byan ICC Intercontinental Cup match inAbu Dhabi.

DUNEDINAgencies

Alastair Cook expects England will haveto work hard to exert their predictedsuperiority against New Zealand, butopposing captain Brendon McCullum haslabelled the visiting side 'giants' of Testcricket as he laid down the challenge tohis team.

In their Test history New Zealand haveonly eight wins against England, arecurrently eighth in the rankings and twomatches ago were skittled for 45. Cook'steam, meanwhile, secured a historic win inIndia before Christmas (somethingAustralia will find tough to match), have atop seven where only one batsman does notaverage over 40, a pace attack that includestwo of the in-form quicks in the world and

one of the leading spinners on the scene."We know this is a huge series, we are

taking on one of giants of the Test gameand on the back of a tough South Africaseries we know the importance of usshowing a fighting spiriting for cricket in

this country," McCullum said. "Theyaren't one of the best teams in the worldfor no reason so we know the magnitudeof the challenge."

Cook is rightly confident of theplayers at his disposal, but was not goingto be drawn into believing that the serieswas a foregone conclusion. Events of2012 for England which, despite victoryin India, included seven Test defeats(equaling their worst year) and theproblems involving Kevin Pietersen hasmade Cook aware how swiftly fortunescan change. "If we play to our potentialwe're going to be a hard side to beat,"Cook said. "But you've got to do that toearn the right to get into good positions towin games of cricket. That's ourchallenge, to produce match-winningperformances." New Zealand's biggest

problem has been putting consistentlylarge totals on the board to give theirimproving bowling attack a chance. Ifyou exclude Tests against Zimbabwe,New Zealand's score of 412 in Colombolast year (the match they won to level theseries) was their first total of 400-plussince the tour of India in 2010.

With that in mind, some structuralchanges have taken place with McCullumreturning to the middle order in an aim tostack that area with experience. Thecomeback of Ross Taylor, whose absenceleft a massive hole in South Africa, alsomeans that there is a less callow feelabout the line-up although, in the endlesssearch of an opening pair, another newcombination will be tried at the top.There is a sense that New Zealand willaccept being 20 for 2.

bcb yet to clear shakib, tamim for iPl

England are Test ‘giants’: McCullum

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:44 AM Page 17

sPoRtsS

wednesday, 6 March, 2013

17Last year was the best year of my career and I

was very happy with the performance, but I think

this year will be better. – Fernando Alonso

LAHOREsTAff RePoRT

ZTBL has maintained its win run in the 2nd ShaheedMohtarma Benazir Bhutto Women Cricket ChallengeTrophy – 2013 on Tuesday while Sindh also got the tasteof victory here at the Gaddafi Stadium. In the frirstmatch of the day, Sindh beat Balochistan by two wickets

while ZTBL trounced Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by 110 runs. SCoRES:

BALUCHISTAN – 101-9 in 20 overs: (Nahida Khan

37*, 3x4s, 41 balls, Sukhan Faiz 11, 2x4s, 15 balls,

Sajjida shah 3-11, Ramim Shamim 2-15, Kainat

Imtiaz 2-17)

SINDH –105-8 in 20 overs: (Ayesha Zafar 27*,

2x4s, 35 balls, Aiman Anwar 24, 3x4s, 35 balls,

Kalsoom Hanif 3-14, Bakhtawar Iqbal 2-15)

Result: Sindh won by 2 wickets

Player of the Match: Ayesha Zafar (Sindh)

Toss: Balochistan, Umpires: Nasar Khan & Afia Amin,

TV Umpire: Tahir Shah, Match Referee: Ameeruddin

Ansari, Official Scorer: Azhar Hussain.

Second match: ZTBL –170-3 in 20 overs: (Javeria

Khan 67*, 8x4s, 54 balls, Bismah Maroof 67, 10x4s,

45 balls, Zainab Khan 1-35, Shakeela Naz 1-29, )

Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa – 60-9 in 20 overs: (Zainab

Khan 27, 34 balls, Sania Khan 2-3, Bismah Maroof 2-

12, Sadia Yousaf 2-8), Result: ZTBL won by 110

runs, Player of the Match: Bismah Maroof (ZTBL),

Toss: ZTBL, Umpires: Javed Ashraf & Samera Aftab,

TV Umpire: Tahir Shah, Match Referee: Ameeruddin

Ansari, Official Scorer: Najmus Saeed.

ZTBL maintain win run in Benazir Women Cricket

Two matchesdecided inveteran Cricket

LAHOREsTAff RePoRT

Golden Eagles scored a fine 6-wicketwin over Aashiyana and Sialkot beatGujrat by 2 wickets as two matches weredecided in National senior veterancricket cup here on Tuesday.SCoRES: At Cricket Centre Model Town ground,

Aashiyana batted first were all out at 150 in 27.5

overs. Zaheer Iqbal batting well 61 runs, Amir

Riaz 24, Kashif Mehmood 23 & Shan Shahid 13

runs. Golden Eagles bowling Tajamal Chaudhary

3/29, Tanzeem Ali 2/15, Javeed Hafeez 1/13, Asif

Mehmood 1/10, Naveed Sufi 1/16, Ali Rafi 1/23 &

Hafiz Ghafoor 1/24 wickets. In reply Golden

Eagles 151/4 after 19.1 overs. Man of the match

Jamshaid Ali batted well and scored 61 runs not

out, Javeed Hafeez 21 runs not out & Asif

Mehmood 30 runs. Aashiyana bowling Shan

Shahid 1/53, Usman 1/27 & Iftikhar 1/15 wickets.

Muhammad Kaleem and Muhammad Asif were

the umpires and Sajjad-ul-Hassan was the scorer.

In the second match, Gujrat posted 151 allout in

30 overs. Rashid Gujjar 30, Aziz Baig 15, Maqbool

Ahmad 14, Atta-ur-rehman 13 & Khurram

Mukhtar 34 runs not out. Sialkot bowling

Zulqarnain 3/21, M Malik 2/20, Zahid Javed 3/29,

Amir Miran 1/21 & Anjum Saeed 1/23 wickets. In

reply Sialkot Stallions 153/9 after 21.4 overs.

Nadeem Butt 30, Zahid Javeed 17, Zahid Saleem

15, Umair Butt 22 & Amir Butt 31 runs not out.

Gujrat bowling Khurram Mukhtar 2/21, Atta-ur-

rehman 2/29, Waqar Ilahi 2/28, Rashid Gujjar

2/33 & Maqbool Butt 1/20 wickets. Sagheer

Ahmad and Mohammad Kaleem were the umpires

and Mohammad Ilyas Gul was the scorer.

Punjab Collegegrab boxing title

LAHOREsTAff RePoRT

Punjab College of Commerce grabbed theoverall trophy of the Inter-collegiate BoxingChampionship held at the championsbackyard, Islamia College Civil Lines.Punjab College, now coached byMohammad Yousuf Mahmood Butt,toppled Civil Lines college, with 56 pointsthat they earned by winning seven goldmedals. Civil Lines College failed to retainthe trophy that it had been winning for thelast 40 years. At number three spot cameScience College Wahdat Road. PunjabCollege stunned the onlookers in thechampionship, which was the most poorlyorganized. In the event the weigh-in was notproperly done by the organizes, no medicalof the boxers was done and even doctorswere also not present on the occasion.

SPORTS DESK

Martina Hingis has been elected intothe International Tennis Hall of Fame.Hingis, nominated in the recentplayer category, won five Grand Slamsingles titles during her career andheld the world number one spot for209 weeks in total. The 'Swiss Miss'won her first Grand Slam title atWimbledon in 1996 when, at the age

of just 15, she claimed the women'sdoubles to become the youngest-everGrand Slam champion. It was the firstof nine Grand Slam doubles titles,while she also added another inmixed. Her biggest career year camein 1997 when she won three of thefour majors, missing out only at theFrench Open where she lost in thefinal to Iva Majoli. "Being inductedinto the International Tennis Hall ofFame is tremendous honour," saidHingis. "It is truly a privilege to bepart of such an exclusive group oftennis icons. I am looking forward tothe enshrinement weekend inNewport and to being welcomed inby the other Hall of Famers."

International Tennis Hall ofFame president Stan Smith said:"Having achieved world number onestatus in both singles and doubles,and having won an incredible 15Grand Slam tournament titles,Martina Hingis is undoubtedly one ofthe world's elite tennis players, andwe are glad to pay tribute to heramong the legends of the sport."

BIRMINGHAMAgencies

British number one Heather Watson hasconfirmed she will compete at this summer'sAEGON Classic in Birmingham.

Organisers hope the world number 39 willprove a big draw for the home fans at theEdgbaston Priory Club from June 9-16.

Watson, who last season became the firstBriton in 24 years to win a WTA singles title,told the tournament's official website: "I'mreally excited to be coming back to the

AEGON Classic this year, it's a really friendlytournament. "I always love playing in the UK,especially on the grass and in front of theBritish fans. They are so enthusiastic abouttennis and I feel so supported when I play athome.

"My ranking has improved a lot since lastyear and I'll be looking to do better than I didin 2012 where I reached the third round. Itwould be a dream for me to win a title on homesoil." The announcement was made on Mondayto tie in with the launch of ticket sales for theWTA event.

Berdych to make return to Queen's ClubLONDON: World number six Tomas Berdych will play the traditionalWimbledon warm-up event at Queens Club in June as he targets arepeat of his 2010 run to the final at the grasscourt slam. The Czechconfirmed on Tuesday that he would take part in the London event,now called the Aegon Championships, in a bid to sharpen hisgrasscourt skills after the European clay season. It will be Berdych's

first return to the club for eight years and comeson the advice of his new manager and former

world number three Ivan Ljubicic. "I think itcould be a good advantage to be in Londonto get used to the conditions and to thosegreat courts, and I think this is exactly

what I need before Wimbledon," Berdych,one of the most consistent players on tour last

year, said in a statement from the organisers. "Eventhough it's a long time since I played there (at Queen's)I still remember that beautiful club very well. I have to

say that I have never played on a better grasscourt than at The Queen's Club. Agencies

hingis toenter tennishall of fame

Watson headed for AEGONClassic in Birmingham

european tourconfirm supportfor putter banSPoRTS DESK: The European

Tour confirmed its support for the

proposed ban on anchored putters

from 2016. At the end of last

month, the PGA Tour came out

against the ban, joining the PGA

of America in opposing the move.

But the European Tour has backed

the proposals put forward by the

game's governing bodies, the R&A

and USGA, although support from

the tournament committee and

player representatives was not

unanimous. A statement from the

European Tour read: "The

European Tour has confirmed its

support for the R&A and the USGA

and their proposal for rule 14-1b -

the prohibition of anchoring any

club when making a stroke under

the Rules of Golf."

ISB 06-03-2013_Layout 1 3/6/2013 2:45 AM Page 18

SPORTS DESK

RORY McIlroy has admittedwithdrawing from theHonda Classic last weekwas "not the right thing to

do". McIlroy claimed he was "in a badplace mentally" after pulling out of thedefence of his title midway through hissecond round, but later released astatement to say a sore wisdom toothwas the reason for his early exit.

The world number one had playedthe opening eight holes of his round inseven over par, before finding a waterhazard on the 18th and immediatelyquitting the tournament.

He concedes, in hindsight, he madea mistake, telling Sports Illustrated: "Itwas a reactive decision.

"What I should have done is take mydrop, chip it on, try to make a five andplay my hardest on the back nine, evenif I shot 85.

"What I did was not good for thetournament, not good for the kids and thefans who were out there watching me -it was not the right thing to do."

McIlroy has 14 days from the date ofthe withdrawal to submit writtenevidence to the PGA Tour to support hisclaim of medical grounds, with a fine orsuspension possible if the body is notsatisfied with his explanation.

It was his first ever withdrawal froma tournament as a professional, but

follows on from losing in the first roundof the Accenture Match PlayChampionship to Shane Lowry andmissing the cut in the Abu DhabiChampionship in his first event sincesigning a lucrative deal with Nike.

The Northern Irishman, who isscheduled to play in the WGC-CadillacChampionship at Doral this weekend,has dismissed suggestions his poor form

is down to his change in equipment.He added: "The driver and the ball

took some time to get used to, but I hadweeks at Nike before the start of theyear, and I feel comfortable with all theequipment.

"The problem is, I'm bringing theclub too upright on the backswing thendropping it in too much on thedownswing."

LAHOREsTAff RePoRT

The golden jubilee edition of ZongNational Open Polo Championship for theQuaid-e-Azam Gold Cup will be playedhere from Wednesday, at Lahore polo clubwith six teams beaming with foreignplayers showcasing their talent.

This was stated by President, LahorePolo Club, Abdul Haye Mehta at a newsconference here on Monday at LPC. Alsopresent were Niaz A Malik, ExecutiveDirector Strategy Corporate Sales Zongand Muhammad Usman representative ofCorporate department Zong.

Mehta said it is a historic moment inLahore Polo Club that the Golden Jubileeversion of the most prestigious event ofour polo calendar will see theparticipation of country’s most respectedpolo players.

“National polo championshipincepted way back in 1963 will add more

to the grandeur of our club besidesserving as an effective medium to furtherpopularize polo,” He said.

“First introduce as the El Effendi Cupwas presented by Brig H M el Effendi”,hesaid. LPC chief said in 1977 thistournament was renamed as Quaid eAzam Gold cup on the direction of theGovernment of Pakistan”, he added.

Praising the role of Zong for the upliftof polo, LPC President said “Their role istremendous as far as the development ofpolo is concerned because Zong has comeforward to sponsor high goal tournamentsfor the past many years.”

Mehta urged the business houses tofollow the example of Zong andpatronage polo tournaments and theriding school of Lahore Polo club.

Niaz A Malik of sponsors said theyare delighted to be a part of historicactivity whose golden jubilee edition hasits own importance being the oldest golfevent of the country.

“We are playing our due role innational building and contributing in thecreation of healthy society and it is matterof satisfaction and honour for us that weare associated with the LPC andsponsoring a high goal tournament,” hesaid .

Niaz said apart from sponsoring polothey are extending support to cricket and

a number of other sports to engage theyouth in healthy activities. “ Through ourstrategic partnership with LPC we plan tosponsor polo tournaments on regular basisin future as well,” said the Zong official.Colony Sugar is last year’s champion.

Colony Sugar is the defendingchampion of the event whose final will beplayed on March 17.FoLLoWING ARE THE TEAMS:

GUARD GROUP: Taimur Ali Malik, Bilal Haye,

Santiago Mendivil, Ahmed Ali Tiwana,

ARMY/COCA COLA: Abdul Rehman Monnoo,

Raja Temur Nadeem, Maj Gen Isfandiyar Ali

Khan Pataudi, Manuel Crespo

COLONY SUGAR: Hamza Mawaz Khan,

Sameer Habib Oberoi, Saqib Khan Khakwani,

Matias Vial Perez

DIAMOND PAINTS: Mir Shoaib Ahmad, Omar

Asjad Malhi, James Harper, Raja Samiullah

HATAFF/NEWAGE: Adnan Jalil Azam, Shah

Shamyl Alam, Hissam Ali Hyder, Hassan Ali

Farrukh

MASTER PAINTS: Sufi Muhammad Aamir, Sufi

Muhammad Haris, Gaston Moore, Shah

Qubilai Alam.

LAHORE sTAff RePoRT

The Punjab Youth Festival 2013competitions of Press Clubs, BarAssociations, Departments and Corporatesector in cricket and badminton haveentered into semi-final stage while tabletennis formally started at Shah Jahan Hall,

near Mian Plaza on Tuesday. In the tabletennis competitions, Lahore defeatedFaisalabad 3-0. Lahore players did not givean inch to the Faisalabad Press Club playersto settle down and won the competition. Insingles, Lahore’s Naeem Akhtar beat Bilalof Faisalabad 10-6, 12-9. In the othersingles match Sarmad Saeedi defeatedAbdul Wahed 10-5, 108 and in the doubles

match Lahore beat Faisalabad 11-7, 12-10.In the second match, Multan edged

aside Rawalpindi 3-2 to qualify for thequarter-finals. The table tenniscompetitions of departments, BarAssociation and Corporate sector will startfrom today. In cricket matches of the pressclubs, Lahore was overwhelmed byMultan. Lahore gathered 96 runs in eight

overs but Multan hammered the targetlosing one wicket. With this nine wicketswin Multan qualified for the semi-final andseems all set to defend its title.

In the badminton competitions, HigherEducation Commission beat MotorwayPolice 2-0 to qualify for the final. Similarlyin the Press club category, Sahiwal beatRawalpindi while Lahore Bar defeated

Rawalpindi. On Wednesday, semi-finals ofcricket will be played at Ittefaq Ground,New Ittefaq, Shah Faisal and Mehran Clubgrounds while the semi-finals ofbadminton will be played at Iqbal ParkSports Complex Gymnasium and tabletennis will have matches of bar association,corporate sector and industries at ShahJahan Hall, Johar Town.

TEN SPORTSUEFA League:Juventus v Celtic 11:25 PM

sPoRts Swednesday, 6 March, 2013

18

wAtCh It LIve

STAR CRICKETVarsity Cricket: WesternWolves v Eastern Tigers07:00 PM

When you have that much firepower on

the pitch, undoubtedly there are going

to be chances and goals. – Ryan Giggs

Pakistan-IndiaSnooker Seriespostponed

LAHOREsTAff RePoRT

KMC Pakistan-India snooker seriesscheduled to be played from March 7 atKarachi has been postponed as the IndianTravel Advisory Board has restricted theIndian team to travel to Pakistan due tosecurity concerns. “We were all set forstaging the event and now we have beeninformed by the Billiards& SnookerFederation of India that the players fromIndia will not be able to participate in theabove event as the Indian Travel AdvisoryBoard has restricted the Indian team totravel to Pakistan”, said Alamgir AShaikh, President, Pakistan Billiards &Snooker Association here on Monday.He said PBSA and the CSR, Department,K.M.C. has decided to postpone the seriesfor the and its new dates will beannounced in due course of time.“The PBSA is thankful to theAdministrator, K.M.C, Syed Hashim RazaZaidi for his support in sponsoring theevent and we hope to receive theirpatronage in future to hold this event at alater date”, he added.

Punjab Youth Festival: Cricket, badminton semis today

national open for Quaid-e-Azam cup Polo from today

Kapur eyeselusive home winin SAIl-SBI Open

SPORTS DESK

Shiv Kapur will seek a first professionalvictory at his home course, the Delhi GolfClub when he tees up in the SAIL-SBIOpen. Kapur learned the game at thevenerable Delhi course when he was ayoung boy before going on to become oneof the country's leading golfers where hehas won once on the Asian Tour. The 31-year-old is presently in fine form,winning twice at home over the past threemonths but it is a victory at theUS$300,000 SAIL-SBI Open that he isafter this week. "When I was a boy, wehad a car sticker that said "DGC - mysecond home" but it really is my firsthome," said Kapur, whose lone AsianTour title came in 2005. "I remember thedays when I was eight or 10 years old andtrying to get through the crowds to get apeek at the players. Now, I'm one of them.I've never won as a pro on this golf courseand I hope to win here.”

McIlroy regrets hondaClassic withdrawal

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

wednesday, 6 March, 2013

ISLAMABADAnweR ABBAs

THE Upper House of parliament onTuesday unanimously passed the“Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill2013” that was introduced last

week, allowing the government to imposebars on leaders of banned outfits.

On the other hand, legislators ques-tioned the status and lists of the judges hold-ing multiple nationalities, while SenatorRaza Rabbani staged a walkout over theissue of construction of technical commandand operations center compound at Karachiairport. The members of the upper house of

the Parliament met under the chairmanshipof Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari on Tues-day. During the Question hour, Minister forState for Communications Dost Moham-mad Mazari told the House that due toworsening law and order in Balochistan, thework on various link roads to Gwadar Portremained incomplete, adding that the Na-tional Highways Authority (NHA) plannedto construct four link roads to Gwadar Port.

Law Minister Farooq H Naik said to aquestion by Senator Karim Ahmed Khwajathat the Supreme Court did not provide theHouse with details of pending cases, de-spite the fact that parliament was supreme.

“The answers would be laid before the

members as early as Supreme Court pro-vides the details,” he added.

PML-N Senator M Hamza said 33cases were still pending of a total 86 casesunder trial in the apex court and the courtshould redress the rest of the cases.

To this, Karim Ahmed Khawaja urgedthe apex court to resolve the pending cases.

Khawaja asked the law minister to de-liver the sentiments of the legislators to theSupreme Court, saying rather that “desta-bilising” the government, the court shouldfocus on resolving the cases.

Senator Farhatullah Babar pointed outthat the high courts and the Supreme Courthad not provided answer to a simple ques-tion regarding the list of the judges holdingdual or multiple nationalities, giving a gen-eral impression that judges with multiplenationalities were also sitting in high courtsas well as the Supreme Court.

Declaring the response of the questionnecessary, he was of the view that the matterwas on concern. He said the court passed

many remarks during the recent hearing ofDr Tahirul Qadri case, adding that if holdingmultiple nationalities was prohibited formilitary personnel and government employ-ees, how could it be justified for the judges.Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah from the PML-N said the Supreme Court would not pro-vide any such information, however, thegovernment should seek the particular in-formation from the Presidency.

Senator Dr Babar Awan suggested re-ferring the case to the standing committeeconcerned, whereas Saeed Ghani from thePPP said observing silence by the apexcourt on the issues was making things sus-picious. Senator Aitzaz Ahsan of the PPPwas of the view that apparently, there wasno ban on holding dual nationality byjudges, adding that the parliamentary com-mittee had become non-functional at themoment. He said that judges should alsofollow the constitution and laws.

Earlier on a point of order, Senator Per-vaiz Rashid suggested the minister for in-

terior avoid issuing irresponsible state-ments of linking the Punjab governmentwith banned outfits.

Awami National Party Senator DaudAchakzai informed the House about the de-tails of former ANP provincial minister Sul-tan Tareen, following which ANP senatorsstaged a walkout from the session.

Senator Mian Raza Rabbani exchangeharsh remarks with the Senate chairman,forcing Rabbani to stage a protest walkoutfrom the session. Also, the Senate unani-mously passed “Anti-Terrorism (Amend-ment) Bill 2013” that was introduced lastweek, allowing the government to imposebars on leaders of banned outfits. Oneclause of the new bill says that “if any or alloffice-bearers of a proscribed organisationform a new organisation under a differentname, upon suspicion about their involve-ment in similar activities, the said organisa-tion shall also be deemed to be a proscribedorganisation and the government may issuea formal notification of its proscription”.

MULTAN: President Asif Ali Zardari at the ground breaking

ceremony of a bridge planned over river Ravi at Syedwala.

Senate approves Anti-Terrorism Bill 2013biLL aLLowsgovernMent to iMPosebars on Leaders ofbanned outfits

senators QuestionMuLtiPLenationaLities ofjudges

ISLAMABADinP

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said onTuesday that Pakistan People’s Party hadstrived hard to eliminate the word minorityfrom the narrative and instead addressminorities as non-Muslim Pakistanis.He said this while addressing agroup of students comprisingchildren of non-MuslimPakistanis who wereawarded scholarships undera special scheme toencourage educationamong non-Muslimcitizens of the country.The Prime Minister said theconstitution of Pakistanenvisaged that we were allPakistanis irrespective of ourcast, colour and creed. “It is therefore the duty of thestate to provide themwith basicfacilities likeeducation,without anydiscrimination,”he said.“There canbe no

discrimination among citizens who raise thesame flag, as every citizen enjoys equalrights under the constitution” said PrimeMinister Raja Pervez Ashraf.He said, “It is the duty of the state to protectthe fundamental rights of the citizens.”Welcoming the children at the PrimeMinister’s House, Ashraf urged them to workhard for the glory of the nation by proving

themselves as able citizens of thecountry. He expressed confidence

that the children who had beenawarded scholarships wouldimmensely benefit from thescheme. It may be mentionedthat the Federal Government hadallocated Rs 23.7 million for3761 eligible non-Muslimstudents. The function was alsoattended by Paul Bhatti, advisor

to PM on national harmonyand Akram Masih

Gill, MOS fornational

harmony.TARBELAnni

US Ambassador to Pakistan RichardOlson on Tuesday warned Pakistan, say-ing Islamabad should avoid projects thatcould invite sanctions.

Talking to a private television chan-nel, Olson said Pakistan must fulfill its

international obligations. “The US policyon Iran is very clear,” he said.

“Not only the United States but thewhole world has reservations over Iran’snuclear programme,” he said. The envoydid not give a straightforward reply whenasked whether Pak-Iran gasline projectwill affect Pakistan-US relations.

He also declined to comment on the

resolutions by APCs organised by theANP and the JUI-F urging talks with theTaliban, saying the talks with Taliban wasan internal matter of Pakistan. The am-bassador appreciated Pakistan’s role inAfghan peace process and the release ofTaliban leaders, hoping the two countrieswould reach an understanding on theissue of Moulvi Faqeer.

LAHORE nni

Opposition leader in the Na-tional Assembly ChaudhryNisar has said the oppositionwould soon reply to the gov-ernment’s letter over a care-taker prime minister.

Talking to journalists inRaiwind on Tuesday, Nisarsaid the Punjab Assemblywould not be dissolved untilcompletion of an impartialconsultation on a caretakerprime minister.

He said that two nameswere decided for caretakerPM, but a few reservationscame on one name. He saidthe PML-N would again con-

sult over the issue and wouldgive the same name or a newname. Nisar said the govern-ment was not serious in bring-ing an impartial chief ministerin Balochistan.

Minorities should becalled non-Muslimcitizens:PM

uS warns pakistan against iran gas pipeline project

reply to govt’s letter oninterim pM soon: nisar

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