Friday, 10 May, 2013 Jamadul Sani 29, 1434Rs 17.00 Vol III No 313 19 Pages Karachi Edition

Govt won’t punishconstitution’s abrogators: SC The government has made it clear thatit will not punish the abrogators of theconstitution and the courts do not wantto put anyone to trial, Justice JawwadS Khwaja has said. He gave theseremarks while presiding over a three-member bench hearing the treasoncase against former president Pervez

Musharraf on Thursday. PAGE 18

Speakers at a meeting of the EuropeanParliament on Thursday lashed out atUS drone strikes in Pakistan andtermed them illegal. They further saidthat drone strikes were counter-productive to security objectives. Atleast 4,700 people had been killedincluding only 4 percent of "high-level

militants" by US drone strikes. PAGE 18

US drones are amess ethically,morally, legally

Veena Malik’sheart ‘wept forSarabjit Singh’

A PTI coalitioncannot be ruledout : Qureshi

Govt’s Rs 11bbailout for PSM on 16th

STORY ON PAGE 03

STORY ON PAGE 04

STORY ON PAGE 04

STORY ON PAGE 03 STORY ON PAGE 02

STORY ON PAGE 03

STORY ON PAGE 02

PAGE 13

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ViceChairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi saidthe possibility of his party joining anycoalition government following the May11 polls could not be ruled out. “PTIjoining any coalition government afterMay 11 cannot be ruled out. Avenues arenever closed in politics,” he said while

talking to BBC on Thursday. PAGE 04

Federal Minister for Industries andProduction Shahzada Ahsan Sheikh onThursday said a bailout package of Rs11 billion would be released for thePakistan Steel Mills (PSM) on May 16.The minister hoped that the financialinjection would enable the PSM toincrease its production up to 60

percent by August. PAGE 16

A man falls tohis death in abid to escape thedeadly fire atLDA Complex.

photo by mURtAZA ALI

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nEwsMULTAN

StAFF REpoRt

DISASTER struck former prime ministerYousaf Raza Gilani’s family when hisyoungest son, Ali Haider Gilani, was kid-napped in broad daylight on Thursday. Wit-

nesses to the bold kidnapping said that armed gunmenopened fire at an election convoy of Ali Haider Gilani asit was departing from a corner meeting. They pushed theyoung Pakistan People’s Party candidate of the provincialassembly from PP-200, who was walking out of the meet-ing into a waiting car, and opened fire at his guards. Gi-lani’s secretary Mohyuddin Bhutta and gunman QaswarDharala were killed while five others were injured in thebrazen attack. Ali Haider Gilani was then driven away.

Multan Chief Po-lice Officer (CPO)Ghulam MehmoodDogar later told re-porters that a black carand a motorcycle wereused by the kidnap-pers. The police calledit an act of terrorism.Dogar said that entryand exit points of thecity and adjoining dis-tricts had been sealedto arrest the culprits.Police officials told a private TV channel thatthe target of the attack was Yousaf Raza Gilani,who was also present at the meeting. The gun-men kidnapped his son on being unable to killthe former prime minister.THE ELECTION MUST GO ON: Followinghis son’s kidnapping, PPP central leader andformer premier Yousaf Raza Gilani announcedthat polls would not be boycotted despite the horrific na-ture of pre-poll targeting his family had faced. Addressingreporters, Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned his son’s kid-napping and said that the elections were his national obli-gation and would not be boycotted. The visibly distraughtformer prime minister said his family would not be askingfor extra security in the wake of the attack. He added that

it was obvious that PPP was being denied a fair playingfield in the much-anticipated elections. GILANI BROTHERS THREATEN TO HOLD ELEC-

TION HOSTAGE: Earlier, an emotional Ali Musa Gilanisaid the PPP would not let elections take place in any con-stituency of Multan if his younger sibling Ali Haider wasnot traced and recovered before the day was up. AbdulQadir Gilani, the former PM’s eldest son, also shared thesame opinion and said his party had been deprived of allsecurity measures despite direct threats from the Taliban.MULTAN’S JIYALAS PROTEST: When news of thekidnapping broke, the PPP’s workers took to the streets,protesting their leader’s kidnapping and demanding his re-covery as soon as possible. They said that Gilani had in-formed the district administration and the government ofreceiving death and kidnapping threats from the Tehreek-

e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). PAKISTAN’S LEADERSHIP REACTS:

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime MinisterMir Hazar Khan Khoso condemned AliHaider’s kidnapping in a telephonic conver-sation with the former prime minister. Theydeemed the attack “cowardly” and “incom-prehensible”. Zardari said that the democratic

process wouldnot be derailedwith such at-t a c k s .Spokesperson tothe presidentSenator Farhat-ullah Babar saidthat the presidentalso called uponthe relevant gov-ernment agen-cies to takeaction to recoverthe kidnapped

Gilani safely and bring the culprits to book. Khoso con-tacted the Punjab government and asked for immediate re-covery of Haider. "The prime minister expressed hisconcerns over the incident and asked for making effortsfor prompt recovery of Haider," an official at the PM'sHouse informed Pakistan Today.

Gilani’s son Taken

WE WILL NOT ALLOWELECTIONS INMULTAN IF MYYOUNGER BROTHERIS NOT FOUND...

Two More killed,several hurTon lasT day ofcaMPaiGninG

QUETTA/PESHAWARAGENCIES

At least two people were killed and sev-eral others injured on Thursday in vio-lence related to elections across thecountry. A man was killed and six injuredin an attack on the convoy of PML-N can-didate for PB-50, Akbar Askani, in Mandarea of Balochistan. Officals said the con-voy of PML-N leader Askani was passingthrough Mand area of Turbat whenunidentified men opened fire. As a result,a security guard was killed on the spot,while six others sustained injuries. Akbar remained unhurt in the attack.In North Waziristan Agency, one personwas killed and five injured in a blast inMir Ali area of the agency.Officials said the blast occurred at Moskiarea near an election rally that was pass-ing through the main bazaar of the area.Security forces rushed to the scene soonafter the blast occurred and shifted the in-jured to hospital. Scores have died in themilitant campaign to derail the May 11vote, making them being called the blood-iest in Pakistan's history. In Bannu also, a bomb blast at thedoorstep of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl(JUI-F) leader's house resulted in no casu-alties. Police said miscreants had plantedexplosives outside the door of JUI-Fleader Shaukatur Rehman house's inSoorani area that exploded early onThursday. However, Rehman and his fam-ily remained safe in the incident.

Taliban Plan ToaTTack landMarkelecTion

ISLAMABAD oNLINE

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaderHakimulla Mehsud on Thursday saidthat TTP was planning to carry out sui-cide bombings on May 11 to underminethe general elections. Hakimullah, in amessage to the group's spokesman, out-lined plans for attacks, including sui-cide blasts, in all four of the country'sprovinces. "We do not accept norrecognise democracy which is a systemcreated by infidels,” Mehsud said.Since April, the al Qaeda-linked Pak-istani Taliban have killed more than100 people in attacks on candidates andrallies, particularly those of secular-leaning, in a bid to undermine electionsthey regard un-Islamic. The attackshave prevented candidates from thethree main parties in the ruling coali-tion from holding big rallies. Instead,they have relied on door-to-door cam-paigning or small meetings in homes oron street corners.

Govt welcomesinternationalobservers to monitorelections: PM

ISLAMABADNNI

Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Thursdaysaid the government welcomed internationalobservers who had arrived here to monitor thegeneral elections to be held on May 11. He wastalking to a five-member delegation of EuropeanParliament‚ headed by Michael Gahler in Islamabadon Thursday. Khoso said all arrangements had beenfinalised to ensure fair and transparent elections. Hesaid the government was extending all possibleassistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan.The prime minister said the army‚ the Rangers andother law enforcement agencies and volunteers hadbeen deployed throughout the country to maintainpeace. The head of the European Union delegationinformed the prime minister that the EU had over100 people working as observers all over Pakistan.Briefing the delegation on the political history ofPakistan, Khoso said Pakistan was unfortunate as thefather of the nation passed away within one year ofindependence. “Prime minister late Liaquat AliKhan’s assassination was another great set back forthe newly-independence state,” he added. The primeminister said the caretaker government was makinghistory by not only conducting credible elections butensuring transfer of power to a democratically-elected government. Khoso said the ElectionCommission of Pakistan was being headed by awell-known retired judge of the superior courts ofPakistan and was appointed with consensus. “Thecaretaker government has extended all-possibleassistance to the ECP under whose supervisionelections are being conducted.” “We have notinterfered in the work of the Election Commission ofPakistan,” said the prime minister. Recalling hismeeting with the prime minister a month ago, Galherinformed him that the European Union had over 100people working as observers all over Pakistan.

ISLAMABADtAyyAb hUSSAIN

With general elections only two daysaway, Chief Election Commissioner(CEC) Justice (r) Fakhruddin GEbrahim on Thursday expressed “dis-satisfaction” over the current securityplan for general elections, terming it“insufficient” following which theISPR has agreed to send more troopsfor security.

In a letter written to Chief of ArmyStaff (COAS) General Ashfaq ParvezKayani, the CEC urged Kayani for de-ployment of army personnel at themost sensitive polling stations.

The army leadership positively re-sponded to the call of the CEC, statingthat the General Headquarters has or-dered army troops to modify and fur-ther strengthen their plans and affectdeployment at the most sensitivepolling stations, to the extent possible.

Security has become a major irri-tant for the May 11 polls as successiveincidents of terrorist attacks have leftmany injured and killed across thecountry. The terrorists have targetedpoliticians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KP), Balochistan and Sindh butThursday's incident of alleged kidnap-ping of Ali Haider Gilani, son of for-

mer prime minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani, has sent shock-waves acrosscountry. This was the first reported in-cident of kidnapping of a candidatetaking part in polls and was also thefirst act of violence in Punjab.

When contacted, a well-placed of-ficial at the ISPR stated, “Despite veryless reaction time for a change in thefinalised security plan, for which de-ployment of all law enforcing person-nel has already been completed andcoordinated, in deference to the CEC’srequest General Headquarters has or-dered army troops to modify and fur-ther strengthen their plans and affectdeployment at the most sensitivepolling stations to the extent possible”.

“Priority for deployment on thesemost sensitive polling stations would bebased on assessment by local civil ad-ministration in coordination with intelli-gence, security officials and local armycommanders. These deployments will besolely for the purpose of providing assis-tance in security duties for elections asenvisaged under article 245 of the con-stitution,” the ISPR official added.

The CEC’s letter reflected hemight have reviewed his previous ap-proval to the security plan agreed uponon May 1. According to the agreedplan, 600,000 security personnel were

to perform election duties and as manyas 50,000 soldiers were to be deployedas a Quick Response Force to dealwith any emergency on polling day.About 20 to 50 Quick Response Forcepersonnel were supposed to man eachconstituency. Security personnel wereto be deployed on all polling stationsthroughout the country on May 10.

Per the previously agreed plan, Po-lice, Levies, Rangers, FC and volun-teers were to perform the securityduties while the army's Quick Re-sponse Force was to move on callwhere there was a need to cope withany situation at polling stationsthroughout the country. It was also de-cided in principle that the AzadJammu and Kashmir (AJK) Police wasto be deployed in Islamabad and KP.Under the plan, seven security person-nel, including police and rangers,were to be deployed on the most sen-sitive polling stations, five on moder-ately sensitive and four on normalpolling stations.

However, the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP), in order toprovide security to voters, on Tuesdayissued a rejoinder to the previouslyagreed security plan and suggested allprovincial governments to deploy atleast 10 security personnel at highly

sensitive polling stations. An ECP official said around 10

police officials, including paramilitarypersonnel, would perform security du-ties at every sensitive polling station.He said the ECP suggested provincialgovernments to deploy 10 securitypersonnel at highly sensitive pollingstations, seven at sensitive and five atnormal polling stations.

The CEC, in his letter, further saidto ensure free, fair and transparentelections the commission and PakistanArmy had to jointly ensure security. Inthis regard‚ Ebrahim said despite limi-tations in terms of resources, the pres-ence of army personnel on highlysensitive polling stations is mandatoryon the polling day.

In his letter to the COAS, Ebrahimasked Gen Kayani for army personnelat the most sensitive polling stationsto ensure a peaceful and transparentprocess of casting votes.

Out of the 69, 729 polling stationsset up across the country to help the86.189 million registered national vot-ers (86,189,802) exercise their right offranchise, around 15, 681 polling sta-tions have been declared “highly sen-sitive” by the ECP while another 15,214 have been classified as “sensi-tive.” However, 38, 834 polling sta-tions are deemed to be safe andnormal for voters. A further break-upshows that out of the 15, 681 pollingstations that have been declared“highly sensitive,” as many as 8,439are in Punjab, 3,064 are in Sindh,2,140 are located in KP, 1,783 inBalochistan, 243 in the tribal belt and12 in Islamabad.

CEC wants more troops forelections, army complies

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Friday, 10 May, 2013

LAHORERANA hAIDER

Araging fire that erupted inLDA Plaza on Lahore’sEgerton Road killed eightpersons on Thursday and in-jured dozens others. The

number of casualties is expected to rise as thefire had not been put out until this report wasfiled around midnight, almost 11 hours afterit first began. Five of the deaths came whendesperate people tried to save their lives byjumping off the building from the eight floor.

The dead included Iqbal Butt, Ikram,Asif, Riaz and Amjad. Per details, the fireerupted on the ninth floor of the building

at around 11am, purportedly due to a shortcircuit. The incident was reported to res-cue authorities at about 11:56am, almostan hour after the blaze first erupted. A wit-ness in the building, Abdul Razzaq toldPakistan Today that the employees work-ing in the building took the news of firelightly at first, but after about 30 to 35minutes, the fire got out of hands andeveryone rushed for the exit. Four helicop-ters were used in the rescue operation be-sides fire tenders and rescue vehicles. Twoof the helicopters were provided by themilitary while the other two belonged tothe governor and the chief minister. Thechoppers evacuated 15 employees andmoved them to various hospitals.

MEN JUMP OFF: In desperate attempt tosave themselves from the fire, at least fivepeople jumped off the building. One of themdied on the spot while four others succumbedto their injuries at the hospital. Rescue 1122Director General Dr Rizwan said there wasno equipment or facility available inside theLDA plaza to cope with fire incidents. “Thefire started at 11am but Rescue 1122 was in-formed at about 11:56am,” he said. “Thebuilding is worth billions of rupees but therewas no mechanism in place to cope with firesin the building. Much loss would have beenavoided had Rescue 1122 been informed ofthe accident earlier,” Dr Rizwan added. Hesaid access to the building was difficult dueto the design of the building and there was

no such proper place to put ladders or anyother equipment to rescue the people. Hesaid that there was also no place to open thesheets on which the people could jump fromthe building due to the sloped surface. NAB TAKES NOTICE: The National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB) took notice of thereports regarding burning of valuable record,including that of revenue in the LDA Plazafire. NAB Chairman Admiral (r) FasihBokhari directed NAB Punjab to take cogni-sance of the fire and look for the possible rea-sons. He also desired that an enquiry shouldestablish if there was some hidden hand be-hind the unfortunate incident.

“The NAB will call relevant departmentsincluding Revenue, LDA, City District Gov-

ernment, Lahore Rescue 1122 and otherstakeholders in this regard. These depart-ments would be called under NAB's preven-tion regime to determine the reasons behindthis unfortunate incident and burning ofrecords may be investigated if facts supporta probe,” the NAB chairman said. RECORD INTACT: Meanwhile, aspokesman of the LDA said that the recordof Metro Bus project is safe in the office ofTEPA situated at Lytton Road. Moreover, allrecord of this project is also available withthe NESPAK Consultant, he added. Thespokesman further said that the record relat-ing to properties of the citizens is safe in theoffice of LDA situated at Johar Town and nodamage was caused to it.

lahore firedevours 8,More deaThsfeared

PESHAWARStAFF REpoRt

The Peshawar High Court on Thursdaydeclared that US drone strikes in thecountry's tribal belt are illegal and hasdirected the government to move a res-olution against the attacks in the UnitedNations.

In what activists said was an his-toric decision, the PHC issued the ver-dict against the strikes by CIA-operatedspy planes in response to four petitionsthat contended the attacks killed civil-ians and caused “collateral damage”.Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan,who headed a two-judge bench thatheard the petitions, ruled the dronestrikes were illegal, inhumane and a vi-olation of the UN charter on humanrights. The court said the strikes mustbe declared a war crime as they killedinnocent people. “The government ofPakistan must ensure that no dronestrike takes place in the future,” thecourt said. It asked the Foreign Min-istry to table a resolution against theAmerican attacks in the UN.

“If the US vetoes the resolution,

then the country should think aboutbreaking diplomatic ties with the US,”the judgment said.

US officials have said the drones tar-get al Qaeda and Taliban in tribal regionswho are blamed for cross-border attacksin Afghanistan and say the operations aredone with the complicity of Pakistan'smilitary. Activists say hundreds of civil-ians are killed as “collateral damage” andthat there is no transparency about theoperation of the drones.

Former prime minister NawazSharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League(PML-N) party is considered frontrun-ner in this Saturday's election, thisweek vowed that he would not toleratedrone attacks on Pakistani soil.

“Drone attacks are against the na-tional sovereignty and a challenge forthe country's autonomy and independ-ence,” he said.

The case was filed last year by theFoundation for Fundamental Rights, alegal charity based in Islamabad, on be-half of the families of victims killed ina 17 March 2011 strike on a tribal jirga.

The jirga, a traditional communitydispute resolution mechanism, had

been called to settle a chromite miningdispute in Datta Khel, North Waziris-tan. This strike killed more than 50tribal elders, including a number ofgovernment officials. There was strongcondemnation of this attack by all quar-ters in Pakistan including the federalgovernment and Pakistan military.

Shahzad Akbar, lawyer for victimsin the case, said: “This is a landmarkjudgment. Drone victims in Waziristanwill now get some justice after a longwait. This judgment will also prove tobe a test for the new government: ifdrone strikes continue and the govern-ment fails to act, it will run the risk ofcontempt of court.”?

Clive Stafford Smith of the London-based group Reprieve, which has sup-ported the case, said: “Today's momentousdecision by the Peshawar High Courtshines the first rays of accountability ontothe CIA's secret drone war.”

He added: “For the innocent peoplekilled by U.S. drone strikes, it marksthe first time they have been officiallyacknowledged for who they truly are -civilian victims of American warcrimes.”

PHC dEClarEs UsdronE strikEs illEgal

nab deTainsGen (r) Zahidali akbar

ISLAMABADApp

The National Accountability Bu-reau (NAB) has detained Lt Gen(r) Zahid Ali Akbar, formerWAPDA chairman, allegedly in-volved in a case of making assetsbeyond means to the tune of Rs267.61 million.He was detained with the help ofInterpol and is presently detainedin Bosnia.His detention has been made pos-sible after the hectic efforts whichthe bureau was making for the lastthree months through internationalagencies, a press release said.All legal formalities are beingcompleted to bring back the for-mer chairman WAPDA Gen (r)Zahid Ali Akbar back to Pakistan.Reference against him for makingassets beyond known sources ofincome was pending before theAccountability Court Lahore sinceJuly 2006. He was declared a pro-claimed offender by the court onMay 10, 2007.

nyT PakisTanbureau chief’svisa cancelled

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have

cancelled the Pakistani visa of a foreign

journalist, Declan Walsh, the bureau chief of

New York Times. Walsh has been working in

Pakistan and Afghanistan for the last seven to

eight years and is known as an expert on

reporting on security and terrorism. Before

joining the New York Times, Walsh worked for

British newspaper The Guardian from 2004 to

2011 as its correspondent in Pakistan. When

contacted, an official source confirmed this

development. “His (Walsh) activities were

unbecoming of a journalist,” the source said,

seeking anonymity. However, he did not give

any further details. StAFF REpoRt

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Friday, 10 May, 2013

LAHORE/ISLAMABADNADEEm SyED/KAShIF AbbASI

THE political leadership across thecountry held public meetings andmade last-minute pleas to voters tosupport their respective parties be-fore the close of a 21-day election

campaign that was marred by security threatsand terrorist attacks on major stakeholders.

Despite the security constraints, the coun-try had exploded with political activity as thecampaign drew to a close a day before thestart of polling per the Election Commissionof Pakistan’s instructions, promising a livelyand hotly contested election with resultshighly unpredictable for the leaders as well aspolitical analysts. It seemed that it was a daywhen all roads were leading to public meet-ings and rallies organised by one party or theother. The leaders of the three main parties, thePakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, PakistanPeople’s Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf putup impressive shows to mark the end of thecampaign while candidates and ticket-holdersfrom these parties also did their best to flex theirmuscles to mark the end of the campaign in abid to leave lasting imprints on the minds ofgeneral public before the polling day.

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was inLahore on Thursday and addressed threepublic meetings in NA-127, NA-122 and

his own constituency NA-120. It was also Nawaz’s first appearance in

the city known as the bastion of Sharifs nowshaken by the challenge posed by PTI’s topman Imran Khan and his ascendancy in na-tional politics as a force to be reckoned. Inlast ditch efforts to woo voters, despite his in-juries PTI Chairman Imran Khan delivered apassionate speech through a video link at amammoth public meeting in Islamabad. Themeeting was also addressed by SheikhRashid relying heavily on the cooperation ofthe PTI to clinch a victory after suffering hu-miliating defeats from the PML-N banner inthe recent past. Most surprising was BilawalBhutto’s appearance in a public meeting inRawalpindi again though through a videolinkage televised throughout the country.

BILAWAL’S ADDRESS:

Bilawal’s address was meant to boost thefortunes of Haji Nawaz Khokhar’s son tak-ing part in the election and also an anti-PML-N alliance at works in Rawalpindi.

While addressing the people of con-stituency NA-49 Bhara Kahu, Bilawal saidthat he was proud of talking to the people offederal capital on the last day of electioncampaign because it was the land where hismother Benazir Bhutto dedicated her life forthe revival of democracy and it was his right

to ask the people to poll their votes into thefavour of his party’s candidate.

He claimed that an ideological conspir-acy had been hatched to destabilise Pakistanand it was more dangerous than terrorists.“Let us come together to flop this mind setwho flourished under dictatorial regime,funded by terrorist elements in previouselections and requested them not to have anyterrorist attack in Punjab province,” Bilawalreiterated. He claimed to eliminate poverty,unemployment and terrorism if PPPP re-turned to power, adding that jobs quotawould be provided for the local residents offederal capital in the future too.

NAWAZ’S ADDRESS:

In Lahore, Nawaz concluded the campaign atmid-night in Data Darbar. Party workers andsupporters had the other day invited people tojoin Nawaz at the Data Darbar. Nawaz alsoaddressed gatherings in Dungi Ground inSamnabad and before that Green Town (nearSunday Bazar, appealing the public to votefor PML-N if they want to change their lives.Nawaz said that his party deserved their voteon the basis of their past performance.

IMRAN’S FINAL POLL ADDRESS:

PTI Chairman Imran Khan made a final ap-

peal to the nation through a video-link fromhis hospital bed, calling upon the people tovote for the PTI to usher in an era of pros-perity in a ‘Naya Pakistan’.

Addressing the participants of the D-Chowk rally in Islamabad, the PTI chiefcalled upon the people of Pakistan to votefor their future and their children’s futureon May 11.

Some analysts put the attendance at therally close to 100,000 people.

Khan urged voters to bring create a newPakistan through the power of the ballot.

Addressing the people of Pakistan,province by province, he urged them toshun the politics of the old and tested facesand take Pakistan towards a new direction.

Speaking to the people of Sindh, heasked them if they still wanted the blood-shed they suffered for the last five years.

“How long would you give votes andsacrifices in Bhutto’s name? Peace cannotreturn to Karachi as long as political partiesmaintain militant wings. Those involved inextortion themselves can never end extortionand terrorism in the city,” the PTI chief said.

Khan said the rural areas of Sindh wereone of the least developed parts of Pakistan.

Speaking to the people of Balochistan,he said the oppressed people of theprovince must come out of the jungle thatthe sardars had confined them to.

“Stop being exploited in the name ofnationalism and religion. Vote for the partythat will make a new Pakistan,” Khan said.

“The people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhawaand FATA have made their decision,” a smil-ing Khan said, adding that “come out andvote for the PTI”, assuring the people ofrestoring peace and stability to the region.For Punjab, he asked the people how couldthe Sharif brothers, who had ruled for a com-bined period of 25 years, do any more good.

“They did nothing in the past fiveyears, if you think they will do in the sixthyear what they did not in the last five, youshould vote for them.”

Khan’s party then made the rally par-ticipants’ take an oath of allegiance of notbowing down before anyone to make a selfsufficient and self reliant Pakistan.

Due to security reasons and lack of lead-ership, the PPP remained conspicuous by itsabsence from the election campaign. Instead,the PPP based its strategy on minimumagenda in Punjab. It focused mainly on con-stituencies with some prospects for it.

But both the PML-N and the PTI leader-ship made most of the period allotted forcampaigning holding public meetings inevery big city of the province and outside,mobilising the general public in a big way.This mobilisation, the political analysts say,will lead to greater turn out at the polling day.

canvassinG ends, biG show on 11Th

LAHOREStAFF REpoRt

The body of Pakistani prisonerSanaullah Ranjay, who suc-cumbed to injuries at a Chandi-garh hospital was brought backto his native town Sialkot onboard a special aircraft on Thurs-day. Earlier, the Indian homeminister had said India wouldhand over the body to Pakistan.

Sushilkumar Shinde toldreporters said the Ministry ofExternal Affairs was coordinat-ing with Pakistani authorities tocomplete the formalities to sendback Sanaullah’s body home.“Once the formalities are done,we will hand over the body,” hehad said. In Sialkot, the districtcoordination officer said thatSanaullah’s body would beburied with official honours.Commenting on Sanaullah’sdeath, a senior security official,asking not to be named, saidthat the Indian civil society,politicians and military officialshad reacted furiously to Sarabjit

Singh’s death. “Sarabjit Singh was a RAW

agent who infiltrated into Pak-istan to commit terrorist attacksagainst innocent Pakistanis andhad confessed his involvement inbomb attacks in Pakistan thatkilled 14 persons and injuredseveral others. The Indian gov-ernment declared state funeralfor Sarabjit Singh and awardedhim gun salute for his bravery inline with ‘national cause’. Sarab-jit’s involvement in espionage inPakistan was also confirmed byhis former handler, who later be-came the chief of the Indian pre-mier spy agency. Killing aninnocent Pakistani prisoner toavenge the unfortunate death ofSarabjit at the hands of some fel-low inmates over a reported drugmoney dispute is inhumane andhighly condemnable,” he said.

The official lamented thatseveral apologists in Pakistan hadjoined the Indian media and polit-ical leadership’s chorus in con-demning Sarabjit’s death. “Theywere very vocal in condemning

the death of the Indian prisonerbut refuse to speak up against In-dian atrocities in Kashmiris, theinhuman treatment of Pakistaniprisoners in Indian jails, the actsof water terrorism against Pak-istan, the Samjhota Expressepisode and fostering insurgencyin Balochistan. The Indian author-ities sent to Pakistan tortured bod-ies of Abdul Aleem and Qateelbut there was no reaction fromPakistani politicians,” he said.

The official said that it was amatter of concern that during a re-cent interview with a TV channel,the leader of a frontrunner politicalparty talked about all subjects per-taining to India without giving asecond thought about stated na-tional policies. “The politicalleader did not even once mentionstate-sponsored terrorism by Indiathrough their agents such asSarabjit Singh and neither did hecondemn the torture on Pakistaniprisoner Sanaullah. The sittingPunjab caretaker chief minister’sstance on the issues is equally con-demnable,” the official said.

ISLAMABADShAIQ hUSSAIN

Pakistan on Thursday soughtprobe into the killing of its cit-izen Sanaullah, who suc-cumbed to serious injuriesafter being attacked in an In-dian jail, and asked India tobring the perpetrators of theheinous crime to justice.

“We have learnt with adeep sense of grief that Pak-istani Prisoner Sanaullah hasexpired today (Thursday) in ahospital in Chandigarh, India.He succumbed to the brutal in-juries inflicted upon him duringan attack in a jail in the IndianOccupied Kashmir,” said For-eign Office Spokesman AizazAhmed Chaudhry.

“The government of Pak-istan offers its deep condo-lences to the family ofSanaullah,” he said. Aizazsaid, “The government ofPakistan is making necessaryarrangements to repatriate hismortal remains to Pakistan.We hope that the governmentof India will extend expedi-tious facilitation to that end.”

He said, “The brutal man-ner in which Sanaullah wasattacked in the jail is most un-fortunate and a matter of deepconcern for the government of

Pakistan. We have conveyedour concern to the govern-ment of India in this regardand demanded that an investi-gation into the incident beheld and perpetrators of thisheinous crime be brought tojustice.” “The prime ministerof Pakistan has also calledupon the government of Indiato ensure the safety and secu-rity of all Pakistani prisonersin Indian jails,” he said.

He said, “We also reiter-ate our call to the governmentof India to hold focused dis-cussions on the conditions ofPakistani prisoners in Indianjails and repatriate those whohave already completed theirsentences as per the ConsularAccess Agreement betweenPakistan and India.”

Prime Minister Mir HazarKhan Khoso has announcedRs 1 million compensation for

the family of the killed Pak-istani prisoner.

Singh was sentenced todeath in 1991 in Pakistan forspying and involvement in ter-rorist acts in which several Pak-istani citizens were killed.Diplomatic sources in Islam-abad say that the killings of Pak-istani and Indian prisoners in thejails of two countries had furtherstrained the already tense rela-tions between the South Asiannuclear neighbours.

“At present, the Indo-Pakpeace process is stalled andworld powers like US and UKhave been trying hard throughdiplomatic channels to persuadethe two sides to resume thepeace dialogue but these inci-dents of prisoners’ killing wouldharm those efforts,” a sourcesaid, seeking anonymity. Thedeaths of Sarabjit and Sanaullahhave also raised concerns aboutthe safety of Pakistani and In-dian prisoners in each otherjails. At present, there are 535Indian prisoners in Pakistan jailsand 500 to 600 Pakistani prison-ers are in Indian jails. TheIndia-Pakistan Judicial Com-mittee on Prisoners has alsocalled on the Indian and Pak-istani governments to ensurethe safety of each other’s pris-oners languishing in jails.

Injured Sanaullahsuccumbs to injuries

Sanaullah’s body brought home

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan makes

a video link address to a party rally in D Chowk. oNLINE

LAHORE: Relatives of Pakistani citizens imprisoned in India protest against the brutal

torture and death of Sanaullah Ranjay in an Indian prison on Thursday. oNLINE

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif

addresses a rally in Samanabad. INp

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto

Zardari addresses a party gathering via video link. oNLINE

a PTi coalitioncannot be ruledout : Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ViceChairman Shah MehmoodQureshi said the possibility ofhis party joining any coalitiongovernment following theMay 11 polls could not beruled out. “PTI joining anycoalition government afterMay 11 cannot be ruled out.Avenues are never closed inpolitics,” he said while talk-ing to BBC on Thursday. Hesaid a crucial PTI meetingwould be held the day afterpolls to decide a future strat-egy in perspective of electoralpledges made by his partywith the people. Respondingto a question on talks withTaliban, he said PTI was thefirst and only party, asking fornegotiations with Taliban forthe sake of establishment ofpeace in Afghanistan. Talkingon democracy, Qureshi saidTaliban, who do not acceptthe political system as Is-lamic, have their own viewpoint and PTI has its own.“No bar has been imposed byIslam on democracy in myview,” he added. Respondingto a question on Imran Khan’sstance on shooting downdrones, Qureshi said not onlyPTI, but several other circlesand human rights’ organisa-tions in the Unites States(US) and Britain were op-posed to drone attacks. oNLINE

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MQM chief Altaf Hussain telephoned President Zardari and

expressed grave concern over the kidnapping of Ali Haider

Gillani, son of former premier Yousuf Raza Gillani

KARACHIAFtAb ChANNA

ALTHOUGH people areexpecting a tough fightbetween the candidates ofMuttehida QaumiMovement (MQM) and

its ideological rival, Jamaate-e-Islami (JI),on NA 253, the dwellers of posh areas thatmake a larger part of Gulshan-e-IqbalTown can change the overall scenariofollowing the rising popularity of PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).

The MQM took part in 2008 electionswith the JI’s boycott that helped theformer to secure both the seats from thisarea. Interestingly, the PPP outspokenleader, Syed Faisal Raza Abidi, was astrong contender during the last generalelections.

At least four potential candidates arerunning in the arena of NA-253 whichinclude Asadullah Bhutto of the JI,Muzzamil Qureshi of the MQM,Muhammad Murad Baloch of the PPP andMuhammad Ashraf Jabbar Qureshi of thePTI.

The NA 253 consists of various townsincluding Gulshan-e-Iqbal, JamaliColony, Gilani Railway, Shanti Nagar,Katchi Para, Waseem Bagh, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 1, 2, 3 and 6, Patel Hospital,Quid-e-Azam Society, Metrovill-III Block1 and 2, and Karachi University StaffColony.

It also comprises Gulistan-e-JoharBlock 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16

and 10 and Pehlwan Goth. Besides, theconstituency sprawls to other parts likeGulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Abbas Town,Gulzar-e-Hijri Scheme 33, Sachal Goth,SPARCO Road, Johar Complex,Bakhtawar Goth, Bhattiabad, GunjoTown, Ahsanabad and Dhari Bux Goth ofMalir District.

The political analysts believe thatcircumscription of MQM candidates’campaign in the constituency will surelybenefit JI candidate in NA-253, however,half of the constituency makes posh areathat could change the whole fate in theconstituency if they vote for the PTI.

MQM candidate Muzzamil Qureshihas not bothered to visit even theSindhi-dominated areas of theconstituency - Shanti Nagar, Dalmia,Kachi Para, Sachal Goth, Mosmiyat,Safoora Goth, Makhdoom BilawalGoth, Pehlwan Goth, Chisti Nagar,and several other katchi abadies.

However, JI’s Asadullah Bhuttohad paid detailed visits to such areas,who, according to observers, willsupport him in replacing the PPPcandidates who never won thisconstituency.

In the wake of terror activities in thecity, the JI continuously has beencontinuously demanding of the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) to call inarmy and deploy it inside polling stationson the elections day to ensure a peacefulelectoral process. Stationing of army menwill help stop any attempts if made to rigthe polls, the JI says.

But the MQM is stillunwilling to support itsarch rivals’ demand fordeployment of militarymen at polling stations.

‘final game’ in na-253 lieswith ‘burger generation’

iT’s noT yourauThoriTy, shcTells ecP

KARACHIStAFF REpoRt

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursdaygranted stay order in favour of Sui SouthernGas Company (SSGC) against the directivesof the Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP), provincial election commission and thereturning officer for NA-239. The SSGC hadprayed the court on April 30 that according toSection 9(1) of the Representatives of thePeople’s Act 1976, only the employees offederal and provincial governments, andcorporations established or controlled by suchgovernments could be appointed as presiding,assistant presiding and polling officers. TheSSGC is a public limited company originallyincorporated under the Companies Act 1913,and presently existing under the CompaniesOrdinance 1984, therefore it does not fallwithin the ambit of Section 9 (1) of thePeople’s Act, the counsel for SSGC argued.The RO for NA-239 constituency had issuedvarious notices to the petitioner SSGC toprovide the lists of its employees who wouldbe appointed as presiding, assistant presidingand polling officers. Furthermore, the stayorder elaborated that “election commission hasno authority either to call for the said listand/or to direct the employees of the petitionerto perform the duties and functions of pollingagents in any election”.

SayS the electioncommiSSion haS notauthority to direct SSGcemployeeS to work aSpollinG aGentS

Blast injures 20KARACHIoNLINE

At least 20 people including six children and women were injured in the blast inMehmoodabad area on Thursday.The blast took place near Sitara Bakery in Mehmoodabad No 6 wherein 20 peopleinjured. The blast, which was heard in the radius of several kilometers, spread fearamong local residents. Nearby shops and vehicles were also damaged in theincident.The scheduled rally of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) candidate wasapparently the target of the blast, official sources added.Exact nature of the blast is yet to be ascertained, however, a completely destroyedsuspected motorcycle was found from the site. Most of the injured were shifted toJinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre while the rest were moved to a nearby hospital.The city police have said an explosive device was planted in plot.

KARACHI: Army soldiers

stand alert near ballot

boxes at the city court

building on Thursday. oNLINE

KARACHINNI

MQM Deputy Convener Dr FarooqSattar has said his party will move theSupreme Court against thedelimitation of constituencies inKarachi after the elections.Addressing a news conference in onThursday‚ he said the MQM wasbeing subjected to terrorist attacks.He alleged that efforts wereunderway to steal its mandate inKarachi. He said due to terror threats,the MQM could not run its electioncampaign; however, it won’t boycottthe upcoming elections. He said sixterrorist attacks had already beencarried out on the party’s electionsoffices. Besides‚ candidates andworkers of the party were attacked indifferent areas of Karachi during theelection campaign, he added.

KARACHI DELIMITATION (

(

MQM willmove sC afterpolls: sattar

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PML-N candidate from NA-239, Qadir Khan

Mandokhel, has joined the Pakistan People’s

Party along with his supporters

KARACHIUmER bAShEER

THE People’s BuzurgCommittee (PBC), anew form of the Peo-ple’s Aman Committee(PAC), succeeded to

make Lyari operation victims agree tovote for the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP), which had launched an opera-tion against them in recent past.

There were rumours that aftergrand operation in Lyari, the PPPwould lose its seats, but all predictionsturned wrong as the Election Daycomes near. The people of Lyari be-lieve that PPP is the only party whichcan understand their problems andtake steps to get them resolved in fu-ture.

There are one national assemblyand two provincial assembly seats inLyari, NA-248 and PS-108 and PS-109 respectively.

Lyari covers areas of Moosa Lane,Khadda Market, Mehman Society,Agra Taj, Baghdadi, Angoorabad,Baloch Muhallah, Kalakot,GulMuhammad Lane,Chaki wara,ShabikLane,Behaar Colony, Ath Chowk and

Dubai Chowk. If we divide the area intwo provincial assembly constituen-cies of PS-108 and PS-109 thenMoosa Lane, Kadda Market, MehmanSociety, Agra Taj, Baghdadi, An-goorabad, Baloch Muhallah falls in ju-risdiction of PS-108 while Kalakot,Gul Muhammad Lane, Chakiwara,Shabik Lane, Behaar Colony, AthChowk and Dubai Chowk covers lim-its of PS-109.

Apart from this, some peopleclaimed that they were being harassedand threatened to vote for the PPP andif they vote for another party theirentry in the town would be declaredprohibited.

The position of Nabeel Gabol,who had won NA seat from Lyari on aPPP ticket and now contesting elec-tions from the same constituency on anMQM ticket, is very weak. The peopleof Lyari call him a perpetrator. The po-sition of Shah Jahan Baloch, a PPPcandidate, who had replaced NabeelGabol, is much strong than his rivals.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) nominee Subhan Ali Sahil,Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F)Shirin Muhammad, Jamaat-e-Islami’s(JI) Babu Ghulam Hussain and Pak-

istan People’s Party Shaheed Bhutto’s(PPP-SB) Ghanva Bhutto are contest-ing for NA seat.

Sania Naz got a PPP ticket for PS-109 that was previously held by PPPleader Rafiq Engineer while PPPawarded ticket of PS-108 to JavedNagori. Like NA-248, both provincialassemblies were occupied by PPP can-didates during 2002 and 2008elections and this time the sit-uation is also no more dif-ferent.

PPP Media Cell In-charge Lyari AkramBaloch told PakistanToday that the majorproblem of Lyariwas consecutive op-erations. Raising fin-gers at a politicalparty, he held theSindh governor respon-sible for using paramili-tary troops against thepeoples of Lyari.

“Nabeel Gabol, who won the na-tional assembly seat from Lyari in 200and 2008 on PPP ticket, played withsentiments of the local residents andlater showed his real face by joiningarch-rival MQM,” he accused. “FaryalTalpur appeared on the scene and heldtalks with PBC and assured them thatPPP had thrown perpetrators of Lyarifrom party and has decided to transferpower to middle-class people,” headded.

“I used to vote for PPP and I will

vote for PPP again,” a Chakiwara res-ident told Pakistan Today. “I don’t careabout this that after coming to power,the PPP elected representatives re-solves problems of the town, I will re-quest party candidates to takeimmediate steps for restoration ofpeace in the town,” he added. “We arewith Sardar Uzair Jan Baloch because

he is the one who could realizepain of people of Lyari

and we would vote andsupport his nomi-

nated candidatesonly,” he main-tained.

“I will onlycast vote to PPPbecause SardarUzair JanBaloch, who is

considered as agangster of Lyari, is

our only and trueleader,” a resident of

Gul Muhammad lane said.“Sardar Uzair Jan Baloch has

made a space in hearts and minds ofLyari residents by establishing educa-tional institutes in the town and alsocreated an educational atmosphere inthe violence-hit area,” he added. “Be-side this he made countless efforts toimprove the living standards of thearea residents,” he acknowledged.

“A number of people are victimsof unemployment due to lack of jobopportunities for the resident ofLyari,” a resident of Baghdadi said.

Pbc lures lyari residentsinto voting for PPP

poSition ofppp candidateShah Jahan balochiS StronG

Some people claimthat they are beinGthreatened to votefor ppp

the position ofnabeel Gabol, who had

won na seat from lyari on appp ticket and now contesting

elections from the sameconstituency on an mQm

ticket, is very weak

afaq conveysreservationsto cec

KARACHINNI

Mutahida Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) ChairmanAfaq Ahmad on Thursday said his party was not beingallowed to run polling campaign in Karachi while thelocal administration had become helpless before the anti-social elements. Afaq Ahmad called on Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin G Ibrahim on Thursday andinformed him about the problems being faced by theMQM-H in running election activities in the city. Aftermeeting with the CEC, the MQM-H chairman said all thepolitical parties must have right to run polling campaign inthe metropolis and that he had also conveyed hisreservations to the election commission after failing to geta chance of running election campaign. “I am not beingallowed to meet my voters in the areas where the MQM-Hhave vote bank,” Afaq Ahmad said. Mostly, firingincidents happened in his areas for creating fear andharassment among the commoners, he added. As only oneparty had its hold in the city, so they did not make seatadjustments with other political parties in Karachi, saidAfaq Ahmad in reply to a question on seat adjustment.The chief election commissioner was trying to hold atransparent election in Pakistan but the Sindh electioncommission was under pressure for pre-poll rigging,added the MQM-H chief.

Transportersthreaten strikeon May 11

KARACHINNI

The Karachi Transport Ittehad has threatened to go onstrike tomorrow (Saturday) against forcible snatching oftheir vehicles by police and a few political parties. Thetransporters’ body said they were facing severedifficulties after the city police and a few politicalparties seized their buses and other vehicles and usedthem for their duties and election-related purposes. Theywarned if such practice was not brought to an end, theywould have no option but to go on strike on May 11.

KARACHINNI

The Pakistan People’s Party had faceddifferent tenures of military dictatorsbut they failed to keep the party awayfrom the masses.

Senator Mian Raza Rabbani saidthis while talking to delegations at thePPP media cell in Sindh on Thursday.PPP Sindh General Secretary TajHaider, Sindh Information SecretaryWaqar Mehdi, Information SecretaryLateef Mughal, Habibud Din Junaidiand Senator Saeed Ghani were alsopresent.

The people of Pakistan would againprove their love and affection for thePPP which would appear victoriousand lead the country towards prosper-

ity and integrity. Rabbani said that opponents’ tricks

and propaganda would fail as noagenda could affect the vote bank ofthe PPP. The people knew that the PPPhad never bowed before dictatorsrather they stood beside the peoplethrough thick and thin. The relations ofthe masses with the PPP were time-tested and unbreakable.

He said the party in its previoustenure eliminated all black laws thatwere against the working class of thepeople and the labourers, and rein-stated those that were removed fromtheir services during the tenures ofmilitary dictatorships. It was the PPPthat ensured representation of thelabourers in board of directors of fac-tories and companies. The PPP ensured

that the labourers were entitled to 12percent share in all public institutionsand it also confirmed services of1,05,000 contractual lady health work-ers, Rabbani added.

The senator reiterated that the PPPwas determined to raise the living stan-dard of the poor. After winning thecoming elections, the PPP would formits government in the centre and allprovinces and would fix the monthlywages of a labourer as Rs 18,000 min-imum.

Rabbani said the PPP always be-lieved in the unity of federation andautonomy of provinces. He appealed tothe people to vote for the PPP on May11 so that they could make their gov-ernment in the centre and theprovinces.

rabbani promises rs 18,000 per month to labourers

SayS cec iS tryinG to holdtranSparent electionS but theSindh election commiSSion iS underpreSSure for pre-poll riGGinG

KARACHI: A large number of presiding and assistant presiding officers are seen at the city court as they wait to perform their election duties. oNLINE

KHI 10-05-2013_Layout 1 5/10/2013 3:11 AM Page 6

assad cannoTbe ParT of syriasoluTion: kerryWASHINGTON: John Kerry, the US

secretary of state, has said Syrian

President Bashar al-Assad will have

to step down as part of any political

solution in Syria. Kerry made the

comments on Thursday in Rome

while meeting his Jordanian

counterpart, Nasser Judeh, during

the third day of talks on the nearly

two-year conflict. He said all sides

were working to "effect a transition

government by mutual consent of

both sides, which clearly means that

in our judgement President Assad will

not be a component of that

transitional government". Kerry also

officially unveiled $100m in additional

US humanitarian aid for Syrian

refugees, almost half of which will go

to help Jordan struggling to cope with

a tide of people fleeing the 26-month

war. About 2,000 people are flooding

across the border into Jordan every

day, and the country now hosts

nearly 525,000 refugees, Judeh said

at the start of the talks in Rome. "We

have 10 percent of our population

today, in the form of Syrian refugees.

It is expected to rise to about 20 to

25 percent given the current rates by

the end of this year, and possibly to

about 40 percent by the middle of

2014," he said.

INTERNATIONAL CONfERENCE:

Plans for an international conference to

try to find a solution to the crisis were

also continuing, Kerry said, after he

agreed in talks in

Moscow that he

and Sergei

Lavrov, the

Russian

foreign

minister, would

work in tandem

on the issue. He had

spoken with most of

the foreign ministers

from the countries

involved and there is a

"very positive

response and a

very strong

desire to move to

this conference

and to try to find,

at least exhaust

the possibilities of

finding, a political

way forward".

AGENCIES

07

nEwsFriday, 10 May, 2013

Any dictator would admire the

uniformity and obedience of the

US media. – Noam Chomsky N

DHAKAAGENCIES

aT least seven people have beenkilled when a fire swept througha garment factory in an industrialdistrict of the Bangladeshi capitalDhaka, police and an industry as-

sociation official said.Thursday’s fire, which broke out

overnight in the Mirpur area, occurred twoweeks after more than 900 people werekilled in a factory collapse outside the city.

"It is not clear to us how the accidenthappened, but we are trying to find out thecause," Mohammad Atiqul Islam, presidentof the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturersand Exporters Association, told Reuters.

The fire broke out at a factory belong-ing to the Tung Hai Group, a large garmentexporter, after most workers had gonehome, police said.

The owner of the factory was amongthe victims, but there were no workersamong the casualties as there was noovernight production, police and fire serv-ice officials said.

"It was a big fire but we managed toconfine it on one floor," Mahbubur Rah-man, operations director of the nation's fireservice department, said.

He said the victims died of suffocationafter rushing into a stairwell and becomingoverwhelmed by "toxic smoke from burnt

acrylic clothing."Local police chief Khalilur Rahman

said the fire killed eight people includingthe owner, his four staff, a senior police of-ficer, and a low-level police official.

On Wednesday the Bangladesh govern-ment said it had shut down 18 garment fac-tories for safety reasons following the April24 collapse of Rana Plaza, which housedfive garment factories making clothes forWestern brands. The number of dead in theRana Plaza collapse, which was the worstgarment manufacturing disaster in theworld, has now passed 900, according tothe army. Garment workers held protestscalling for the building owner MohammedSohel Rana to be hanged. Rana was ar-rested from near the Indian border.

There are allegations that Rana andother building managers forced workersback into the factory shortly before it col-lapsed, despite warnings that it was unsafe.

The authorities have now started dis-bursing salaries and other benefits to sur-vivors of the collapse.

On Wednesday, the European Union'sdelegation to Bangladesh urged the govern-ment to "act immediately" to improveworking conditions.

Bangladesh's garment industry, whichaccounts for 80 percent of the South Asiancountry's exports, has seen a series ofdeadly accidents, including a fire in No-vember that killed 112 people.

UNITED NATIONSAGENCIES

Israeli "segregation policies" have caused deep eco-nomic isolation and left more than 80 percent of Palest-ian children in east Jerusalem wallowing in poverty, theUN said in a report.

"Palestinian poverty in Jerusalem has risen steadilyover the last decade," the UN Conference on Trade andDevelopment (UNCTAD) said in a statement on Thurs-day. A full 82 percent of Palestinian children in eastJerusalem lived in poverty in 2010, a figure that fell to45 percent of Israeli children in the same area, accordingto the organisation. The findings echoed a report issuedby an Israeli human rights group earlier this weeklamenting that the city's Palestinian residents were suf-fering the "worst (poverty) rate of all time."

The soaring poverty levels among Palestinians wereclosely linked to the city's increasing economic isolation,

UNCTAD said, maintaining that "segregation policies"including the building of Israeli separation barrier hadleft it "integrated neither into the Palestinian economynor into the Israeli economy."

Israel insists the barrier is needed for security rea-sons, but it has met broad international condemnationfor carving off large segments of the West Bank, splittingfamilies, separating farmers from their land and slicingeast Jerusalem off from their hoped-for future state.

DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES

The barrier has caused direct losses to east Jerusalem'seconomy of more than $1.0 billion, the UNCTAD reportsaid, adding that the wall continues to cost the city's econ-omy around $200 million a year in lost trade and employ-ment opportunities.

The report authors pointed out that isolation alonedid not explain the spread of poverty among Palestinians

in east Jerusalem, pointing to discriminatory policies andthe different legal status of the city's Palestinian dwellerscompared to Israeli settlers there and other Palestinians.

This "implies a host of further impediments, espe-cially with regard to housing, employment, taxation,"the report said, pointing out by way of example thatPalestinians there "pay high municipal taxes in returnfor poor services and disproportionately low public ex-penditures." UNCTAD chastised Israel for not doingenough to meet its obligations as an occupying power,urging the country to act "with vigour to improve eco-nomic conditions in east Jerusalem and the well-beingof Palestinian residents."

It also called for an end to "settlement activities andthe occupation of east Jerusalem in line with United Na-tions resolutions." Israel captured the Arab eastern partof Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later an-nexed it in a move that has never been recognised by theinternational community.

UN decries rising poverty in east Jerusalem

another bangladesh garment factory fire kills 7

us nun convictedover nuclear sitebreak-in

NEW YORKAGENCIES

An elderly nun and two other peaceactivists have been convicted by a USfederal jury for damage they caused afterthey broke into a defence facility whereenriched uranium used in nuclear bombswas stored. Sister Megan Rice, who was82 at the time of the incident, MichaelWalli and Greg Boertje-Obed admittedcutting fences and making their wayacross the Y-12 National SecurityComplex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, inJuly 2012, embarrassing US officials andprompting security changes. Rice stoodup straight and smiled when the verdictwas read after two-and-a-half hours ofjury deliberation. Supporters of the threegasped and some began to cry beforesinging a hymn as the judge left thecourtroom. All three were convicted ofdamaging a national defence premisesunder the sabotage act, which carries aprison sentence of up to 20 years, and ofcausing more than $1,000 of damage toUS government property, which ispunishable by up to 10 years in prison.They were detained overnight and willappear at a detention hearing onThursday. The activists admitted cuttingseveral fences, walking through thecomplex for hours, spray-paintingslogans and hammering on the walls ofthe facility.

DHAKA: A war crimes court sentenced

a top Bangladeshi Islamist to death on

Thursday for masterminding the

slaughter of at least 120 farmers in one

of the bloodiest single episodes of the

1971 independence war. In a ruling

likely to further fuel tensions between

the secular government and religious

hardliners, a special tribunal found

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman guilty of

mass killing, torture, abduction and

crimes against humanity. He would “be

hanged by the neck till death”, presiding

judge Obaidul Hassan told a packed

courtroom in the capital Dhaka. The 61-

year-old Kamaruzzaman, who is the

assistant secretary general of the

opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, was

the fourth person to be convicted by the

much-criticised International Crimes

Tribunal and the third senior politician.

As the verdict was announced, he could

be heard condemning it as the “wrong

judgement” from his seat in the dock.

Previous verdicts by the tribunal have

sparked widespread violence on the

streets of a country that has a 90 per

cent Muslim population. Hundreds of

secular protesters who had gathered at

a central Dhaka intersection for news of

the verdict greeted the announcement

with loud cheers. “Because of his

heinous role, many people were

murdered and many women were

raped,” Attorney General Mahbubey

Alam told AFP outside the courthouse.

“The nation has got justice

today.”Prosecutors said Kamaruzzaman

was a “chief organiser” of Al Badr, a

notorious pro-Pakistani militia accused

of killing thousands of people in the

nine-month war, which saw what was

then East Pakistan split from Islamabad.

The genocide charge against

Kamaruzzaman stems from the killing of

at least 120 unarmed Bangladeshi

farmers in the remote northern village

of Sohagpur, which has since become

known as the “Village of the Widows”.

Three of the widows testified against

Kamaruzzaman at his trial in which the

prosecution detailed how the then 19-

year-old led Pakistani troops to the

village. The soldiers then marched the

farmers to paddy fields, forced them to

stand in a line and proceeded to gun

them down en masse. Mohammad Jalal

Uddin, a farmer who lost seven

members of his extended family in the

killing, was delighted at the verdict. “I

lost my father, uncle and other relatives.

Their crime was to have taken part in

training to join the freedom fight,” said

Uddin, who was a student at the time.

“My mother and aunt died without

getting justice, but at least I’ve seen

justice,” Uddin, who heads the village’s

welfare society for widows, told AFP by

phone. “We still have 37 widows in the

village.”Defence lawyers rejected the

charges as baseless, saying the chance

to prove their client innocent was

severely curtailed as the court only

allowed five witnesses to testify for

Kamaruzzaman. “He was just a lad

during the war. It’s a ridiculous

suggestion that a 19-year-old could

control the Pakistani army,” chief

defence counsel Abdur Razzaq told AFP.

The latest verdict came days after at

least 38 people were killed in clashes

between security forces and Islamists

who are demanding a new blasphemy

law. The secular government led by

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has

insisted that it will not bow to their

demands. Around 150 people have now

been killed since the first verdict on

January 21 when an Islamic TV preacher

was sentenced to death.

NEW DELHI: Chandravati, 30,

holds trousers belonging to her

three-year-old daughter Muskaan

who went missing in 2010. So far

this year 725 children in Delhi have

been reported missing. AGENCIES

BANGLADESH ISLAMIST SENTENCED TO HANG FOR WAR KILLINGS

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nEwsNFriday 10 May, 2013

08

ISLAMABADoNLINE

THE government has made itclear that it will not punish theabrogators of the constitutionand the courts do not want to

put anyone to trial, Justice Jawwad SKhwaja has said.

He gave these remarks while presidingover a three-member bench hearing thetreason case against former president Per-vez Musharraf on Thursday.

Musharraf’s reply was placed beforethe court whereby he had expressed hisreservations with regards to formation ofthe bench and declared the argumentsgiven by his three lawyers correct. He re-quested the court to pursue the constitu-

tional points mentioned in the applicationsif any dispute arose.

Ahmad Raza Kasuri argued that theNovember 3 step was an affidavit and itwas sent from the prime minister and thecabinet, adding that the president issuedthe orders on the summary of the primeminister.

He said Musharraf neither abrogatedthe constitution nor any martial law wasimposed. “The court should give a decisionwithout influencing the arguments of any-one. The review petition has also been dis-missed. The court has given protection tothe orders and decisions of Abdul HamidDogar in the Sindh High Court bar case.”

Justice Khwaja said, “You had saidthat Musharraf was not party in the casethen what dispute lies between the par-ties?”

Kasuri said, “This decision is part ofthe past now and it cannot be applied tothis case. No discriminatory decisions canbe given against fundamental rights.”

He said the matter of abrogation of the

constitution should be started from March23, 1956 and if proceedings were initiatedwith regards to the steps taken on Novem-ber 3, 2007 then the court would have totake an action against all. “Whosoever ab-rogated the constitution and held it inabeyance all should be proceeded against.That includes judges, politicians, officersfrom armed forces and other people.”

Kasuri said if any judge had taken oathunder the PCO, he should immediately re-sign from his office by demonstratingmoral courage. “Whoever took an oathunder the PCO and has performed functionunder this system, he will have to be pro-ceeded against under Article 6 and he willhave to resign.”

He said the court was not authorised totake action against the army chief underArticle 199(3) and any application in thisrespect could not be filed directly underSection 184(3), therefore, the applicationsbe dismissed with fine.

The attorney general (AG) said, “Ihave to play the role of a bridge between

the federation and the court. The court hasto play a neutral role.”

Justice Khwaja said, “Elections aregoing to be held or otherwise.”

The AG said, “The federation is notGod. All the arrangements have been madeand elections will take place in time.”

Addressing the AG, Justice Khwajasaid “Tell us the stance of the federation.”

The AG said “The federation does notwant to become a party in this matter. Thisis political matter and if the caretaker gov-ernment does anything, its transparencywill be affected.”

Justice Khilji said, “What obstacle isthere that the caretaker government cannotgive an order to the Interior Ministry to ini-tiate proceedings under Article 6?”

The AG said, “If the caretaker govern-ment takes any action in this respect in theprevailing situation then its transparencywill be questioned. Several characters areinvolved in this case.”

Later, the hearing of the case was ad-journed until May 20.

Govt won’t punishconstitution’s abrogators: sc

aG SayS abroGatinGconStitution anincident of the paSt

ihc warns of contemptproceedings againstofficials in missingperson case

ISLAMABADApp

Hearing a missing person’s case, a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court(IHC) on Thursday observed that the courtmay initiate contempt proceedings againstthe responsible officials if the person was notproduced on May 15.Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui observed thiswhile hearing the case of a missing personfiled by Rashida Amir for recovery of herhusband Amir Ahmed.The court has ordered a number of times forrecovery of the missing person but he did notproduce so far, the judge remarked. Wajeehullah, counsel for the petitioner, ap-prised the bench that Amir had been missingfor three years.He requested the court to order the authori-ties concerned to recover Amir as soon aspossible.Deputy Attorney General Tarqi Mahmood ap-peared and sought time for producing themissing person Amir Ahmed till next date ofhearing. The court accepted the request andadjourned the matter till May 15.In earlier hearing on Wednesday, the courthad directed the Additional Advocate Generalof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to produce the miss-ing person on Thursday. KP Additional Advocate General AkhterNaveed apprised the bench that the KP gov-ernment has arrested Amir Ahmed and kepthim in interment centre.

Mr cJP, only PresidentZardari brought youback, says Malik

LAHORE: Former interior minister Rehman

Malik on Thursday demanded that Chief Jus-

tice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry take a suo

motto notice of the Pakistan Muslim League-

Nawaz (PML-N) political advertisement where

the chief justice was shown alongside party

chief Nawaz Sharif. Addressing a press con-

ference‚ Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)

Rehman Malik said that the chief justice was

restored under the sole authority of Presi-

dent Asif Ali Zardari but the contents of the

advertisement gave credit to PML-N chief for

arranging a public rally for his restoration.

Malik said that it was a gross violation of the

election campaign rules and it was made to

gain political mileage. He further said the ad-

vertisement gave the impression that that

judiciary was supporting PML-N. oNLINE

BRUSSELSoNLINE

Speakers at a meeting of the European Par-liament on Thursday lashed out at USdrone strikes in Pakistan and termed themillegal. They further said that drone strikeswere counter-productive to security objec-tives. According to details, British Mem-ber of the European Parliament, SajjadKarim said, "US drone killings in Pakistancasts an even darker shadow with the Pak-istani government explicitly stating thatthey did not give consent for the attacks.And it is telling that a nation as great as theUSA was not here to make clear its opposi-tion.” Pakistan's Ambassador to the EUMunawar Bhatti expressed his country's

opposition to the drone strikes. "We areopposed to the drone strikes and we haveconsistently condemned the drone attacks.We regard the dronestrikes as illegal ininternational law,counter productive and aviolation of Pakistan’s sover-eignty and integrity," he said.Bhatti noted that the dronestrikes causedcollateral dam-age and incited afeeling of re-venge among innocent victims against theUS which further exacerbated the problem.Another British Member of the EuropeanParliament Baroness Sarah Ludford

pointed out the EU hadrejected the US legal justi-fication that drone strikeswere a part of the War on

Terror. "It is not drones in them-selves; it is weaponised droneswhich are the problem,” she said.There are legitimate uses for drones

in other circumstances," she added.The deputy director of international

NGO Reprieve Hilary Stauffersaid that at least 4,700 peoplehad been killed includingonly 4 percent of "high-levelmilitants" by US drone

strikes. 76 countries possessdrone technology; 10 countries, includ-ing some EU member states, use armeddrones and 4 countries were developingindigenous technology including Iran,North Korea, she noted. Stauffer calledon the EU to develop a united position ondrone because if the failed to do so, theUS would continue to make up its ownrules and the rest of the world would“have to pay the consequences." The useof armed drones "is a mess, ethically,morally, legally," she stressed.

US drones are a mess ethically, morally and legally: EU Parliament

RAWALPINDI: An Election Commission employee seals election material in bags before handing it over to the returning officers on Thursday. INp

KHI 10-05-2013_Layout 1 5/10/2013 3:11 AM Page 8

PESHAWARShAmIm ShAhID

LATEST steps and reformstaken by the government areleading the Federally Admin-istrative Tribal Areas (FATA)

to positive changes. By allowing politicalforces to field candidates to contest pollsin FATA, people from both Sunni andShia sects are now supporting candidatesirrespective of their faith and belief.

For so long, people from FATA werenot allowed to vote, but in 1996 thenpresident Farooq Ahmad Khan Legharithrough a presidential order promulgateda law, allowing FATA inhabitants tovote. Whereas President Asif Zardarithrough another presidential order ex-tended the Political Parties Act to FATA.This historic order has been praised bypeople from all across the world.

Getting benefits of the act, politically

motivated tribesmen have got a chanceto contest polls with party symbols. Amaximum number of candidates haveregistered their nomination papers fromFATA. As many as 339 are contesting for12 National Assembly seats from FATA.Except two constituencies, each con-stituency has more than 20 candidates.

The most interesting and positive de-velopment in 2013 general elections isthe reconciliation between Shias andSunnis in FATA. Since early 90s, peoplefrom both Kurram and Orakzai agencieswere engaged in sectarian hostilities inwhich thousands of people lost theirlives. Sectarian violence surged during2008 general elections when as many as300 people were killed in terrorism.

With commencing of existingtrends of violence and militancy, sectar-ian violence took another turn. In fact,various groups of banned Tehreek Tal-iban Pakistan (TTP) are either directly

engaged in sectarian violence or sup-porting those involved in killing. Vio-lence against Shias escalated leading totheir isolation in Shia-dominated areasof Kurram and Orakzai agencies. Simi-lar was the situation in adjoining Hanguand Kohat districts, whereas the au-thorities have already made theatmosphere conducive in DeraIsmail Khan and Peshawar.However, target killing ofShias continued un-abated acrossK h y b e rPakhtunkhwa. Inthe past, Shiaand Sunnit r i b e s m e nhave con-tested polls orcasted votesin electionson sectariangrounds. Butthis time thecontest is differ-ent. A number of po-litical parties havefielded their workers andstalwarts from the National Assem-

bly seats. In Upper Kurram Agency, 80percent of people are Shias and rest of20 percent are Sunnis, whereas inLower Kurram, Sunnis are in a major-ity. Hamid Hussain Turi is consideredprominent amongst the politically mo-tivated tribesmen. He is contesting

polls on a Pakistan People’s Partyticket from NA-37. He is facing anumber of rivals, including

Hafeezullah of PakistanTe h r e e k - e - I n s a f .Hamid is a Shiawhereas Hafeezul-lah is a Sunni. Both

claim to enjoy thesupport of peo-ple from bothsects, which isnot only uniquebut could bringpeace to the re-

gion. The exten-sion of Political

Parties Act toFATA is praised by

leaders of all politicalparties. They are also

considering it a milestone intribal area’s history.

nEws N

09

Friday 10 May, 2013

PoliTical ProcessGood oMen for faTa

339 candidateSare conteStinG for12 national aSSemblySeatS

moSt poSitivedevelopment iSreconciliation betweenShiaS and SunniS

PESHAWARShAmIm ShAhID

Unlike other parts of the country, inSwabi national and provincial level par-ties are being challenged by smallergroups, having influence in this particu-lar area. At least, three small politicalgroups exist in Swabi. One of thesegroups has a meager existence in one ofprovincial assembly constituencies.These groups are the Awami JamhooriIttehad, the Swabi Qaumi Mahaz andthe Pakistan Patriotic Party. In early20th century, Swabi resident SahibzadaAbdul Qayoom Khan, pioneer of mod-ern education, laid the foundation stoneof Islamia College Peshawar in 1913.The college had played a key role inpromotion of educational activitiesthroughout Pakistan and Afghanistan.Khan was elected to provincial assem-bly in 1938 from Haripur and becamethe chief minister of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (then NWFP). Swabi also

produced politicians like late Khan Ba-hadur Abdul Ghafoor Khan. He waselected to the provincial assemblyin 1932. He was the father oflate Colonel Abdul Rahim Khanwho had served Pakistanas its first representa-tive to the UN in1947-48. AbdulRahim Khan wasmaternal grand-father of latepresident Sar-dar FarooqAhmad KhanLeghari. KhanFateh Muham-mad Khan, whowas a federalminister duringPakistan's firstdays, also belonged toSwabi. Late GhulamGhaus Hazarvi, late KhanAbdul Qayoom Khan, late Manfaat

Khan Baba, Abdul Aziz Khan, FirdausKhan, Wabaab Khan and several oth-

ers were elected from Swabi. A largenumber of freedom fighters who re-mained in late Bacha Khan's Khu-

dayee KhidmatgaarTehreek also be-longed to Swabi.Late Sahibzada Im-tiaz and Javed Iqbal

Khan are consid-ered amongst topbureaucrats.Javed Iqbal isPunjab chief sec-retary. His fatherlate Khan

Muhammad AjabKhan had served

former princelySwat State as Hakim

Saib, a very prestigiouspost. Two top generals,

General Bahadar Sher Khanand General Sher Bahadar Khan also

belonged to Swabi. Due to its agricul-tural and economic importance, Swabiremains very rich and fertile in politics.Swabi people played a key role in na-tionalist, progressive and religious poli-tics. In current election campaign,leaders of newly-established politicalforces are utilising various options andresources for mustering support of elec-torates. Both Swabi Qaumi Mahaz andAwami Jamhoori Ittehad have signed anelectoral alliance. Swabi Qaumi Mahazwas established by late Dr MuhammadSalim Khan after his revolt against ANPleadership whereas Awami Jamhoori It-tehad was established by Liaqat Khan.The stalwarts of Qaumi Watan Party en-tered into seat adjustment with FazalurRehman's JUI-F. The JI leaders suc-ceeded in an alliance with JUI(S) andJumaat Ishaat Wa Tauheed, commonlyknown as Panjpeeris. All these alliancesaimed at blocking ANP candidates. Be-side using religious and nationalist slo-gans, the Awami Jamhoori Ittehad

leaders are known for pleasing peopleboth with cash and kinds. They are mak-ing attractive offers of fresh currencynotes, motorbikes and even motorcars.It was learnt that they also fixed returnsfor hoisting of flags, pasting of postersand banners and arranging of receptionsand corner meetings. In some of the vil-lages, they are also distributing cookedrice and food as earlier distributedamongst the IDPs. Whatever might bestrategy and policies on the part of lead-ers and candidates of three different al-liances, but it seems that results ofupcoming general elections will not bedifferent from previous polls. Since1988, the ANP proved itself as a strongpolitical force of Swabi. Even in 2008general elections, there was completealliance against ANP but it got one outof two national and four of six provin-cial assembly seats. Whereas now thesituation is quite different as peoplehave realised blunder of helping in de-feat of ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan.

all measures forpeaceful pollscompleted: habib

LAHORE oNLINE

Caretaker Interior Minister Malik Habib onThursday said the government had com-pleted preparations for the peaceful conductof general elections on May 11, adding thatpeople should come out of their houses tovote on the day as the government will bethere to protect them. Talking to reportersafter paying a visit to the Rangers Head-quarters in Lahore, the interior minister saidPakistan was passing through a historic mo-ment now as it was the first time that thepower was being transferred from one civil-ian government to another civilian govern-ment. “The government has accomplishedall the measures for peaceful elections withthe Pakistan Army remaining on alert toprovide full assistance, advocating the peo-ple to partake in the voting to prove thatthey will not capitulate to the terrorists.”Habib expressed grief over the injury toPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman ImranKhan in his Tuesday’s collapse from a lifterwhile being raised to the rally stage andprayed for his early recuperation. Sepa-rately, Habib called on Punjab GovernorAhmed Mehmood and discussed with himthe overall political and security situationof the country. Habib apprised the gover-nor that all important security steps werebeing taken by the government for upcom-ing polls. He said the government had in-creased cooperation with those provincialgovernments where terror activities were onthe rise to avoid further attacks. He said thearmy and the Rangers would be deployed atsensitive places when needed.

us seeking 9

military bases in

afghanistan: karzaiKABUL

INp

The United States has demanded nine perma-nent military bases in Afghanistan, somethingthat has long fuelled concerns among re-gional countries, President Hamid Karzaisaid on Thursday. In the Bilateral SecurityAgreement (BSA) being negotiated betweenthe allies, the president said, “The US insistson its demands and interests and we havestick to our own.” Addressing a gathering atthe Kabul University, he said Washington hadsought military bases in Jalalabad, Bagram,Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul, Gardez, Kandahar,Helmand and Herat provinces. Given the factthat Afghanistan was going through a criticalphase of history, his administration wasdoing its bit to exercise caution in taking im-portant decisions, Karzai added.

Swabi in the grip of smaller groupsQUETTA: Shops are closed during a shutter down strike on the call of Baloch National front on Thursday. INp

KHI 10-05-2013_Layout 1 5/10/2013 3:11 AM Page 9

CoMMEnt

CFriday, 10 May, 2013

10

TOMORROW Pakistanwill hold one of its mostcontroversial elections.The irony is that thiswould happen under the

country’s first independent and pow-erful election commission and a con-sensus caretaker setup.

The PPP, the ANP and the MQMhave been “debarred” by the TTP fromelections. Several deadly terrorist at-tacks on their rallies and candidateshave seriously limited the ability ofthese parties to approach the voters.Whatever their failures, only the votershad the right to pass a judgment on theirperformance rather than a band of out-laws operating from the tribal areas.

There will be change in the coun-try after the elections though it islikely to be small. What matters is howsignificant it is going to be.

Imran Khan’s sudden burst on thecenter-stage of politics from nowhereis a warning to the old guard – whethersecular, conservative or religious – tobe more honest and responsive thanthey have been.

There is a widespread awakening inthe middle class. A whole lot of other-wise apolitical youth has been galva-nized into political action. How many ofthem will retain their interest in politicsin the days to come remains to be seen.Will they continue to focus only on is-sues like due importance to merit, gen-der equality, opposition to dynasticleadership at all levels and an equal op-portunity to compete? Or will they alsoembrace the matters near to the heart ofthe toiling masses that include eradica-tion of poverty, better education andhealth facilities, adequate housing andjobs? In other words will the youth re-main tied to the ideals of liberal democ-racy or take a turn to the left?

A lot will remain the same. Theold political families which have all

along sustained the status quo arefairly represented in all the parties, in-cluding the ones clamouring forchange and revolution. Well knownMusharraf loyalists are contesting onthe tickets of all major parties.

What is more no party has a pro-gramme which makes the slightest de-parture from the neo-liberal version ofthe free market economy. The panaceato all economic ills is to privatise andderegulate every state enterprise.There is no talk about a viable andcomprehensive social security net forthe most vulnerable sections of soci-ety. None is willing to reduce the de-fence spending or put an end to landgrants to those in uniform.

The toiling masses have no effec-tive role in the elections. For one theyare so deeply absorbed in relentlessfight for survival, which requires thatthey devote their entre energy to makeboth ends meet. The working class isreeling under the impact of the neo-lib-eral policies and the domestic economicslowdown. The trade union movementhas consequently weakened.

In rural areas, the creative energyof millions of landless or poor peas-ants remains unutilised due to the un-even distribution of land. Only landreforms, which are not on the agendaof any party, can put their hidden po-tential to use. The key interests of thedowntrodden masses find little reflec-tion in the manifestos of major par-ties. The common man thus willcontinue to be treated roughly till hedevelops awareness and is organizedto fight for his rights.

The day of the left has yet to come.A fledgling Awami Workers Partywhich was born six months back has gotinto the election fray at a time when itwas still in its formative process. Howmany of its half a dozen candidatesmanage to gather a respectable numberof votes is anybody’s guess.

To start with, those who come topower could at least bring down the in-cidence of corruption, buy off the cir-culatory debt and improve the law andorder. This is what the PML-N and thePTI both have promised. The only dif-ference is in their timelines. At thisstage even a modicum of adherence tothe rule of law and good governancewould come as a relief.

Both the PML-N and PTI want tobring the TTP to the negotiating table.This is what the ANP was forced to doin Swat with the result that the SwatiTaliban used the lull in military oper-

ation to strengthen their position.Once this had been achieved theywent back on their promises of peacedespite the reestablishment of Shariacourts demanded by them.

The TTP thinking regarding peacecan be gauged from the pronounce-ments of its chief. HakimullahMehsud’s video message released lastmonth should act as an eye-opener tothose who want to resolve the issuethrough talks. Mehsud summarised hisnetwork’s stand in three plain sen-tences. The TTP, he said, is fightingagainst democracy which is a systemof the infidels. It wants to enforceshariah which is possible only throughwaging jihad. A time will come whenthe Muslims will establish theCaliphate on the surface of earth.

Hopefully the new governmentwould be able to end the targeting ofthe Baloch and the Hazara as well asthe settlers in Balochistan. Further, itwould improve ties with India, whichis on the agenda of both the PML-Nand the PTI.

Some of the vital domestic issuesand foreign policy matters continue toremain in the army’s domain. Theseinclude policies regarding Balochistan,dealings with the terrorist groups aswell as relations with the US, Indiaand Afghanistan.

Whichever government comes topower will have to retrieve the turf lostto the army. The civilian government’sauthority over the military has to be es-tablished to further strengthen democ-racy. The last government fortifieddemocracy by restoring the constitu-tion to its original position, extendedprovincial autonomy and the share ofthe smaller provinces in divisible pool.The PPP introduced a consensus NFCAward. There were no political prison-ers and the media was free.

While the PTI has been silent onthe issue of civil- army relations, thePML-N has taken an unambiguousstand on the matter. In an interviewwith the Indian journalist Karan Thapar,Nawaz Sharif vowed to make the mili-tary establishment subservient to thecivilian government, hold an enquiryinto the Kargil misadventure, initiateMusharraf’s trial on treason and bringrelations with India to the high trajec-tory of February 1999. Hopefully thiswould be done with the support of theparliament rather than arbitrary actions.

The writer is a political analyst anda former academic.

Aziz-ud-Din AhmadEditor

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

the elections must go on, and so must theinvestigation and efforts for his recovery

young Gilani kidnapped

elections amidst terror

THERE is much to praise about the people of Pakistan and the political partiescontesting the elections as they are set to cast their votes and put themselves tothe public test tomorrow. Not only are Punjab and Sindh looking forward to

going to the polls, the valiant people of the tribal areas of Pakistan, located in theTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan heartlands, shall be looking towards casting their ballots withmuch changing in terms of local dynamics. It is of course given that the reign of terrorimposed by the TTP has continued, but its ultimate aim to derail the elections hasappeared to have failed due to the resilience of the people and political parties.

Wednesday, with two days to go to the elections, saw a number of blasts and gunbattles. Three people were killed in Peshawar in a gun battle between militants and police,two ANP activists were killed in Bajaur attack, at least 20 people were injured in anotherblast in Karachi and four people were killed in blasts in Hangu and Bajaur. Whatever wesay of the rest of the Pakistani people, it is the people of the tribal areas that deserve specialmention for creatively challenging the Taliban. South Waziristan has taken to revivingtradition and culture in election campaigns by introducing the rhythm of the Attan, thetraditional Pashtun dance, during the campaign season. The dance was ‘discouraged’ bythe Taliban when they emerged as a force during the early 2000s. The elections haveoffered another spectacle in WANA, where candidates often lead their processions onhorseback, accompanied by thousands of supporters, most of whom travel by foot. Somesupporters even ride camels draped in the party’s flag and colours. The rallies continuefrom village to village without fear despite rocket attacks on some candidates.

People today are not asking who is the next candidate to be targeted but rather whoshall they vote for. A civil society group in Waziristan has presented a collective charterof demands to the contestants. In Bajaur, women will be allowed to vote for the firsttime, through an agreement between ulema and political parties. The election has allowedthe ground on which politics is based to change and open new avenues for people toarticulate their demands and ask for their rights. Security may still be one of the biggestconcerns on the elections day but it is the fervor of the people of Pakistan, including thePTI supporters rushing to D-Chowk in Islamabad to attend Imran Khan’s after-injuryspeech that shall hopefully overshadow fear on May 11. A new election brings a new rayof hope, only possible due to the resilience of both the people of Pakistan and politicalparties under the siege of militants. It is hoped this will not change.

IT seems the country’s seemingly divided voters, the rightists and the leftists, arebeing affected by the extremists, but in an entirely different manner. While theleftists have been threatened, and actually attacked many times, on continuing their

political activities, the militants took no such action against the rightists, except for anattack or two on the JUI-F rallies. With three of relatively secular, centre-left partiesunder consistent attacks from the terrorists, who are targeting them specifically forhaving liberal ideology, the election pitch was already queered to one side. The threat ofterrorism and the threat of losing either their leaders or political workers have kept theseparties, the PPP, ANP and MQM, indoors with their political campaigns being almostnon-existent, thus giving an undue advantage to the centre, centre-right and right partiesin the election campaign. The situation has, however, taken an ugly turn, one that theliberal parties feared and the one that could throw the elections on a rocky road.

Ali Haider Gilani, son of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, was attackedand kidnapped in Multan yesterday while he was going to attend a rally as part of hiscampaign for PP-200 on a PPP ticket. As the reports say, two gunmen opened fire, killinghis driver and personal secretary and probably injuring him, as the eyewitnesses havesaid. They then proceeded to kidnap him and fled the scene. If that is really how theevents unfurled, there are a number of questions that need answers. Why did the cityadministration not provide security when they knew that high profile candidates were anobvious target of such heinous activities? Law and order is the responsibility of theprovincial government and with the militants having made their intentions known, whydid the government not take any measures in providing security to the candidates of theparties that were on the top of terrorists’ hit list? Political campaigning is as much theirright as is it of the parties that the terrorists are sympathetic to. The failure to provide asafe environment to the candidates, whatever ideology they belong to, is a combinedfailure of the law enforcement agencies, government and the ECP.

Religious intolerance is rapidly making inroads into the country’s social and politicalethos. If this took hold of the situation, it would work faster than a catalyst in bringingdown what the society has so far achieved in almost all aspects. Gilanis are an influentialfamily in Multan, and their plight is understandable when one reads about their reaction –“there would be no elections in Multan if young Gilani is not recovered” – but that is apath no one should go down on. Now is the time to be even more careful and responsible,not to make a volatile situation even worse. On their part, the police and other lawenforcement agencies must take immediate action to recover young Gilani, for his injurycould make things worse with every passing minute.

a tribute to the people for the struggle for democracy

a lot will remain the same

AZIZ-UD-DIN AhmAD

a journey from dictator

to a leaderAccording to International Monetary Fund (IMF),Pakistan was the third highest growing economy afterChina and India in Musharraf’s era. Other indicatorsinclude a drastic decrease in poverty, growths in CNGfuel, information technology and telecommunicationsectors.

Musharraf even played a significant role intransforming the infrastructure of this country. Fourdams (Subakzai, Gomalzam, Khurram and Tangi) wereconstructed during his period.

He initiated the plans to work on seven motorwaysin different areas of Pakistan; some were completedduring his period and others remained underconstruction. Advanced Gwadar port, Kachi CanalProject, Lyari Expressway and a 650km long coastalhighway are also among the many achievements ofMusharraf’s period. Media enjoyed the liberationduring his era.

I think it’s unfair to stop Musharraf from contestingthe elections. To conduct free and fair elections,everyone should get a chance.

OMAIMA KHALIDKarachi

a good actA bill to facilitate reproductive healthcare and healthrights have been approved by the national assemblygiving a hope to the country to equally access basicreproductive and health facilities. This is no doubt awelcoming step to promote and protect these rights inaccordance with the Constitution and internationalcommitments made by the Government of Pakistan.

With the effective implementation of the approvedbill, everyone would have access to information relatedto reproductive rights and responsibilities within agender perspective free from stereotyped anddiscriminatory practices. These interventions wouldsurely be beneficial especially for younger generationas this information will improve their knowledge ofmodern contraceptives to reduce chances of infectingwith various diseases.

Now, government departments and media shouldplay their roles in translating these words into realityfor the promotion of basic youth rights in the country.

AMINA SARWARIslamabad

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

will elections make a difference?

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness

depends upon the character of the

user. –Theodore Roosevelt

KHI 10-05-2013_Layout 1 5/10/2013 3:11 AM Page 10

IN presenting thecurrent age as one ofcriticism as opposedto creation, one may

overlook the advance-ments made in the sphereof literary theory. With in-sights provided by new de-velopments in psychology,linguistic theory, anthro-pology and cultural history,the new age critic hasdemonstrated the evocativepower of written language.The interplay of words, im-agery and symbolism produce a unique account that is laden withmeaning and depicts the trials and significance of life. As thereader and the author are often separated by time, context andculture, it becomes important to identify whether the modernreader faces certain limitations in his analysis of the text.

The majority of literary critics tend to agree that both the au-thor and reader hold a degree of determinacy over the meaningof a literary text. The notion that the reading must be circum-scribed by authorial intention appears problematic, as there areno means of determining the author’s exact state of mind at thetime of writing. Instead, readers’ understanding of the text isshaped by their social and cultural positioning, as they cannot en-counter texts in a void. Although the significance of a literary textalters with time, it is unable to escape the “social forces” andcodes which govern its audience’s understanding of language.

Eminent literary critic, Terry Eagleton suggests that the inter-pretation of a “text must be logically constrained by the text itself”in order to maintain its particularity. The reception of a literarywork is anticipated by the author through the construction of lan-guage within a text that acts as a signifier of its readership. A pieceof literature constrains the range of its audience as the internalstructure/language of the text can only speak to readers who pos-sess “cultural knowledge of the connection” between its motifs andthemes. For example, a reader with no knowledge of Victorian Eng-land will be unlikely to identify the cultural underpinnings of a cer-tain characters physical appearance or the oddity of their behavior.The reader is provoked to exercise his instinctive and creative fa-cilities in order to access the unwritten part of the text and supplywhat is not immediately evident. However, as Iser proposes, “thewritten text imposes certain limits on its unwritten implications”,allowing flexibility in interpretation to be bounded by certain pa-rameters drawn by the author himself. Individual readings of thetext reflect the reader’s own disposition and in this respect the lit-erary text acts as a kind of mirror, however the recognition, reflec-tion and understandingof the text is groundedin a reality differentfrom his own andunique to the text.

Despite the attemptof certain authors to sub-vert and deconstructnormative understand-ings of language, semi-otics and symbolism,their “texts belong tolanguage as a whole”(Eagleton) which has acertain power over themeaning and does notmagically evaporateduring the reader’s en-counter with a text. Theunderstanding of thetechniques and conven-tions of literary era dur-ing which a literarywork is penned is key inanalyzing the text andevaluating its significance at a particular, cultural standpoint. Theproduction of meaning within a text is systemically governed byrules that require the reader to mobilize general social knowledgeand specific literary technique. Iser implies that a “reader with astrong ideological commitment is an inadequate one” since he willbe unable to experience the new “critical awareness” offered bythe text. However, this point of view limits readership to thoseindividuals who hold their “convictions rather lightly,” under-mining the significance of the subversive power of the text. Fur-thermore, the influential value of art lies in its ability to stir someemotional or ideological change in the reader – it is not only mar-keted to impressionable minds, it encourages dogmatic peopleto question their ideals as well. This is especially true for the Bil-dungsroman novel, wherein a reader is able to identify with acertain character and retrospectively analyze his own identity ortreat the character’s fate as a precursor for his own.

It is unlikely that identical interpretations of texts will beproduced by readers, or even the same reader on two differentaccounts, however, the meaning of a text is largely determinedby a category of permissible interpretations monitored by the“literary institution” and dominant understanding of language.

The writer is a staff member of Pakistan Today and holds adegree from Mount Holyoke College.

CoMMEnt CFriday, 10 May, 2013

11Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide

to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they

will just have to sit on their blisters. –Abraham Lincoln

NADIA KhAwAjA

“Nothing could stand in its way. The gods andkings of the past were powerless before thebusinessmen and steam-engines of the present.”

WITH such awe one of the mosteminent historians of our times,Eric Hobsbawm, has spokenabout the Industrial Revolution

that broke out in Britain towards the end of 18th

century, and accompanying rise of the middleclass so consequential that the world thence-forth was defined by it. So far-reaching was thechange that, to borrow the phrase from Carlyle,all social bonds crumbled except the implacablegold and paper ones of the cash nexus.

‘Change’, the captivating six letter word, hascome to be the shibboleth of urban middle classof Pakistan in general and of Punjab in particular.Imran khan is the long awaited Godot who hasshown up to reestablish the lost utopia of the mid-dle class. Enthusiasm is in the air. The said classis all set to rock the boat. New-Pakistan-fad isrunning amok in urban areas of Punjab unmovedand untouched by the unabated violence beingunleashed on certain political forces in certainparts of the country. The spectacle of two parallelrealities, i.e. coffin and campaign, unfolding be-fore us warrants a serious dissection of the mid-dle class phenomenon as to what extent it mayprove as a harbinger of much yearned change.

Dr. Durr-e-Nayab of Pakistan Institute ofDevelopment Economics (PIDE) proposes thesize of the middle class in Pakistan to a substan-tial 61 million people which is 34.6 per cent ofthe total population. She has used ‘expandedmiddle class’ categorization that includes‘upper lower class’ – which has been catego-rized as ‘climbers’ – in the middle class.

For largely being an urban phenomenon thesize of the middle class has increased with the in-creasing urbanization in recent years. In the re-cent past, the PML-N has enjoyed a considerablesupport from the Punjabi middle class, which islargely a commercial stratum of the society. Thissupport base largely is still intact arguablythough. Against the backdrop of arrival of elec-tronic media owned by private enterprises, riseof consumerism, judicial activism and web based

interconnectivity ofurban population, anew class hasemerged which madeits presence felt dur-ing the Lawyers’Movement in 2007.This is the ‘NewMiddle Class’ of Pak-istan. The said classhad its political mo-ment during thelawyers’ movementand the momentumthen acquired has led to its political expression,namely PTI.

The new middle class includes judiciary andlegal community, thriving media, technicians andassociate professionals, expatriates, the NGO sec-tor, small businessmen and to some extent traderclasses. The prefix ‘new’ has been attached in thecontext of newfangled consciousness that has man-ifested itself in the Middle Class lately, althoughthe structural bases of the class are unaltered.

In order to conceptualize how far-reaching isthe new middle class phenomenon, it is importantto understand the structure of the state and its sub-sequent relation with the former. Distinguishedcivilian military analyst Dr Ayesha Siddiqa has rea-soned in one of her incisive pieces that the phenom-enon is cosmetic rather than consequential in realsense. She has invoked the construct of post-colo-nial state delineated by well known Marxist scholarand activist Hamza Alavi. Through a ground-breaking article written in 1972, Hamza Alavipropounds the idea of post-colonial state, whichhe termed as an ‘overdeveloped state’ as follows:

“In particular the special role of the military-bureaucratic oligarchy has become all too com-mon a phenomenon in post-colonial societies.This role now needs to be interpreted in terms ofa new alignments of the respective interests of thethree propertied exploiting classes, namely the in-digenous bourgeoisie, the metropolitan neo-colo-nialist bourgeoisie, and the landed classes...”

He further writes how the post-colonial statecomprised of military-bureaucratic oligarchymediates competing but not contradictory inter-ests of competing propertied classes thus assum-ing a relatively autonomous role.

Increasing size of the middle class in the pasthas laid the bases for its inclusion in the state ap-paratus itself. The 2008 parliament had only 25members out of 342 with over 100 acres landhold-ing, while the rest largely hailed from the burgeon-ing indigenous bourgeoisie including both theupper and the middle class. The same goes for themilitary and civilian bureaucracy that has allowedmore middle class people to enter than ever.Graphical presentation by the PIDE is as follows:

For being the part of the entrenched hege-monic system, the middle class discourse vis-à-vis the change and overthrowing existingexploitive system is irrational. A case-in-point isthe recent development related to Engro Fertilizer

that has been fined Rs5.5 billion by the Competi-tion Commission of Pakistan (CCP) for raisingthe prices by 86% in 2010 thus exploiting the al-ready impoverished peasantry that stands for themasses in Pakistan. Not to forget that during thesaid year Asad Omer, proverbial chief policymaker of the new middle class, was the CEO ofEngro Fertilizer. Such is the nature of exploitivesystem the new middle class itself is a part of.

So called political awakening of the NewMiddle Class is nothing but vying for its ownpiece of the pie in political arena. Hamza Alavihas described it as: ‘positions in the oligarchyare of crucial importance, especially for aspir-ing educated middle class groups; and their po-litical demands are focused on shares ofpositions in the oligarchy.”

For the very reason religious nationalism,which has been propagated by the state as its rai-son d’être, is being invoked by the leaders of thenew middle class to peddle the state sanctioneddiscourse. For the very reason, the terrorism,nemesis of the people of Pakistan, is being down-played and obfuscated by its leaders since it out-rightly manifests the failure of the state itself. Forthe very reason, the main election battle is beingportrayed by the corporate media, which itself isan emerging stakeholder, as between the two Mid-dle Class political parties in Punjab, which arevying for the same space and essentially stand forthe same ideals despite the superficial contradic-tory interests. For the very reason, the changemantra is unfounded and unsubstantiated.

It may feel somewhat gratuitous to judge thenew middle class of Pakistan against the standardsof the European bourgeoisie of 19th century, butthe rationale was to highlight how the changewarrants downright groundbreaking approach to-wards things and not just the mimicking.‘Change’ stems from questioning socially ac-cepted stereotypes, challenging dogmas widelytaken at face value, calling into question the statepropagated lies and even the very structure of thestate itself. From reformation to iconoclasm, theprocess may take many shapes but this is the onlyway to get to changing things. All told, it wouldbe unwise to suggest that the middle class is readyas yet for this momentous undertaking.

The writer is a mechanical engineer byprofession.

can the middle class do it?

SULEmAN AKhtAR

are there limits on how a pieceof literature can be interpreted?

The limits ofinterpretation

The charade and the change

The majority ofliterary critics tendto agree that both

the author andreader hold a degreeof determinacy over

the meaning of aliterary text.

KHI 10-05-2013_Layout 1 5/10/2013 3:12 AM Page 11

NEWS DESK

MADONNAwill donate$7.2 mil-lion to pro-moting

girls’ education rights inthe Middle East andSouth Asia, from the saleof a Cubist painting byFrench artist, FernandLéger. The keen art col-

lector and internationalstar bought Léger’s “Trois

Femmes à la Table Rouge,”in 1990, reported The Inde-pendent on Thursday.

The piece, painted in1921, was sold at a Sotheby’ssale of Impressionist andModern art in New York onWednesday.

Madonna said she wishedto auction the work to “tradesomething valuable forsomething invaluable;” all

proceeds will go to her Ray ofLight Foundation which sup-ports education projects aimedat young girls in the MiddleEast and South Asia.

“Thanks to everyone whohelped make it happen! Artequals Revolution!” Madonnawrote on her Facebook pageon Wednesday. The post wasaccompanied by a smilingpicture of MalalaYousafzai, the Pakistanigirl and education activistwho was shot by mem-bers of the Taliban last

year.“I cannot ac-

cept a world where

women or girls are wounded, shot or killedfor either going to school or teaching ingirls’ schools. We don’t have time to becomplacent,” she said in a press statementlast month.

“I hope to make many girls smile likeMalala all around the world!” Madonnawrote.

The singer is known for her dedicationto charitable causes, she previously sup-ported UNICEF, Amnesty International andChildren In Need, among other organiza-tions.

Despite this, her charity in Malawi re-cently came under fire, directed atMadonna by the government’s educationminister, Eunice Kazembe.

“[Raising Malawi] have said they havebuilt ten schools in Malawi and on our sidewhat we know is that she [Madonna] hasbuilt classrooms... these are not schoolsfrom our side and really that’s the essenceof the difference between her side and theMalawi government,” Kaembe told media.

ARTS

AFriday, 10 May, 2013

12We are all serving a self-sentence inthe dungeon of self. –Cyril Connolly

COURTESY RTE

Bridget Mendler is the latest Disney kidto launch a music career but is her debutalbum more than just a Mickey Mouseaffair? Alan Corr talks to the all-Ameri-can teen about her acting career, why shehas no advice for the one they callBieber, and the importance of family.You may not have heard of her but Brid-get Mendler has the kind of potentialthan can make the bleary eyes of recordcompany execs light up with dollar signs.

The 19-year-old from WashingtonDC is the star of hit TV series GoodLuck Charlie, a slice of cutesy Ameri-can family life which has become themost-watched thing on The DisneyChannel. She plays Teddy Duncan, ateenager who makes a caring, sharingvideo diary for her little sister Charlieand the series, which debuted two yearsago, has peaked at 50 million viewers.So lots of learning and lots of hugging.It only seems natural that young MissMendler, like numerous Disney bratsbefore her, should make the career hop,skip and jump into pop stardom, right?

She has just released her debutalbum Hello My Name is . . . and it's acarefully-engineered but catchy mix ofsass and sweetness. On the phone fromthe states, Mendler is a curious mix ofMiss Teen beauty pageant contestantand record company marketing execu-tive. She talks about her "album experi-ence", and the importance of writing

about "concepts that can be appreciatedby multiple ages."

Behind that sing-song voice theremay lie a more steely determination."The thing for me was that I wanted tobe playful on this album," Mendler saysin that cupcake and cola accent. "It's thefirst time I'm putting out my own musicand I'm really discovering what it was tomake pop music so I wanted to messaround and see what came about and thisis what was honest for me at the time andyou know, if I had wanted to write sugarypop I would have done that but that was-n't what I was feeling."

She wasn't feeling overly in themood to write endless ditties about loveeither. "Hmmmm no! I think my albumhas romantic songs but there is so muchmore going on in life than just that," shesays. "Most importantly I don't thinkthat should be the centre of anyone'sworld. But it is a really exciting time tobe learning about relationships and it'sobviously something I'm growing upwith." Hello My Name Is . . . has gotsugar rushes aplenty but when Mendlermentions Bob Dylan and Lily Allen asinfluences, the casual listener (and, let'sface it, the obsessive fan) might be sur-prised. "Bob Dylan was the music I wasdefinitely influenced by earlier on andhe stuck with me because he is such anindividual. He's such a special lyricistand he really had the ability to speak forhis whole generation through sayingthings in a poetic and creative way."

And what about Irish acts. "Ummm. . . is Van Morrison Irish? He's great.Brown Eyed Girl, you can't do betterthan that! Are The Script Irish? Yeah?They're great as well." Mendler joinedDisney in 2004 and as well as the top-rated Good Luck Charlie, she's alsostarred in The Wizards of Waverly Placealongside Selena Gomez. She's alsobeen in Disney movie LemonadeMouth and the lucrative tween marketwas sewn up with a role in Alvin and theChipmunks: The Squeakuel.

However, she came up against aless, shall we say, disciplined side of theindustry when she worked on a filmwith Lindsay Lohan called Labor Painsback in 2009. For some reason, it keptbeing pushed back due to various con-flicts and problems.

Lohan, a good actor with a colour-ful personal life, is another former teenstar who has had a less than smoothtransition into adulthood. Somethingthat the one they call Bieber may be ex-periencing right now. Mendler, whoworked with his on/off/do we reallycare? girlfriend Selena Gomez, is ofcourse diplomatic on the subject.

"Um well I think I can't really ac-cess the situation without knowing hisside of it but sometimes I have a hardtime and people make judgements on asituation without really knowing what'sgoing on in his life. I dunno, that's kindawhere I stand on it."

Ten years ago, Mendler's fellow

Disney graduate Britney Spears wasin a similar situation. Assailed bymedia, old and new, it must be easy tosnap under the pressure? "Yah it isand that's why it's so important forsome people to have people stickingup for them and looking out forthem because sometimes it's hard tosay no to work especially whenthey're really fun things to do butyou have to remember you canonly capable of so much."

Naturally, her family are very pro-tective and she's close to heryounger brother Nick who alsohas an interest in performing."He's wonderful, last year he passed mein height so it's so weird to be lookingup at him now," Mendler laughs."He's really sweet and he's a reallysmart kid and he's such an indi-vidual and I really admire that.Also, we're both the only left-handed members of our familyand I don't mean to be left handelitist but I'm just saying . . . "

Mendler's immediate plansinclude continuing to work onGood Luck Charlie and then tour-ing her album. It looks like a TVshow that can fetch 50 millionviewers won't be cancelled anytimesoon. "We love working on the showand I will work on it as long as theywant me to. I think it's been success-ful because it's a normal family showand people like that. It's real to life."

I HOPE TO MAKEMANY GIRLS SMILELIKE MALALA,SAYS MADONNA

Mendler as anything

heaTher MorrisPreGnanT, MaTThewMorrison exciTed

NEWS DESK

Actor Matthew Morrison says he is ex-cited about his "Glee" co-star HeatherMorris's pregnancy. Morris, who playscheerleader Brittany S. Pierce in theshow, is expecting her first baby withher childhood lover Taylor Hubbell. "It'sfunny, when she told me. I think I wasone of the first people she whispered,'Come over here.' I said, 'What is it?' andshe whispered in my ear, 'I'm 13 monthspregnant', and I was like, 'Months?' andshe said, 'I mean 13 weeks!' It was justfunny and we all started laughing andshe was like, 'Oh my god'. I'm very ex-cited for her," contactmusic.com quotedMorrison as saying. The fourth seasonshooting has been wrapped and the castand crew celebrated the end last week.Morrison revealed there will be a notice-able difference in the outfits Morris willwear towards the end of the series. "Thelast few episodes, they had to makesome unique wardrobe choices becauseshe's showing, she's definitely showing.She was no longer in her cheerleadingoutfit," he said.

TribuTe Paid ToleGendary arTisTirfan khoosaT

ISLAMABADoNLINE

“Irfan Khoosat is a national asset. It is anhonour for me and I feel proud to have theopportunity to stand with legendary actor,”said caretaker Federal Minister for NationalHeritage & Integration Shahzada JamalNazir at the conclusion of the functionarranged by Pakistan National Council ofArts (PNCA) to pay tribute to Khoosatunder Aiteraf-e-Fun on Thursday at PNCAauditorium Islamabad. It took me to myyoung age and hostel life when we waitedthe whole week for ‘Andehara Ujala,’ hesaid. That was the only source of recreationand respite at that time, the minister added.Earlier PNCA Director General TauqeerNasir said PNCA has started this pro-gramme to pay tribute to national heroesand legends during their life time as op-posed to acknowledging icons after theirdeath. This practice was started with hon-ouring the king of Ghazal Mehdi Hassan, hesaid. Artists reflect society’s behavior andattitudes and try to mend shortcomings, hesaid. Khoosat, sharing his life and workwith the audience reminisced the start of hiscareer. He attributed his success to produc-ers and intellectuals such as Hali, AhmedNadeem Qasmi, Sufi Tabassum, FaizAhmed Faiz and others. Khoosat paid aspecial tribute to Jamil Fakhri and othercontemporaries. Khoosat belongs to a fam-ily of artists. His father, Sultan Khoosat wasa prolific actor and painter having severalother talents. His children are also artistsand producers. Khoosat was twelve whenhis father died and he had to support a fam-ily of nine persons. He thanked PNCA forhonouring and acknowledging artists.

KHI 10-05-2013_Layout 1 5/10/2013 3:12 AM Page 12

13artsFriday, 10 May, 2013

A

I don't want the fear of failure to

stop me from doing what I really

care about. –Emma Watson

NEWS DESK

AMIR Khan let Shah Rukhenjoy the spotlight at themusic launch of the Deols'upcoming film where themedia pounced on SRK.

They were sharing a public platform after along time. Sunny Deol had not really goneout of his way to be seen with Shah RukhKhan ever since he felt shortchanged inDarr. Aamir Khan and SRK had not beenBFFs after a prolonged season of jibes. Buton Tuesday night, they put aside their dif-ferences to celebrate the music launch of

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2.And while the pictures of the starry

guest list - featuring Hrithik and PapaRoshan, Aamir, SRK, Akshay Kumar,Ritesh Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Sunny,Dharmendra - have since been doing therounds, TOI gets you the insider's view ofwhat really happened when they all cametogether.

The buzzing suburban venue sawAamir walk in early and take his seat. TheDeols and the media greeted him warmly.But all that changed once SRK walked in.Thanks to the simmering controversyaround his Wankhede episode, all eyes and

ears were on the actor, who was bom-barded with requests for a comment and aphoto op. Aamir got up from his seat andgreeted his peer cordially, but as soon as itbecame evident that the media and theguests were keener to get a piece of SRK,he moved away, maintaining a dignifieddistance from him.

SRK was also much in demand by PapaRoshan, who pulled him aside and engagedhim in a serious conversation for a good fewminutes. We wonder if they were exchang-ing notes on superheroes. On the otherhand, a visibly cheerful Juhi shared a fewmoments with SRK, who seemed to be

sweating under his collar, despite the air-conditioning.

Once it was time to launch the music,SRK took the lead in getting all the actorsin one happy frame. Even as the star guestsstood shoulder to shoulder for the photo op,perhaps a little awkward in their newfoundcamaraderie, SRK broke the ice by request-ing Dharmendra to do his signature, YamlaPagla dance move. It worked like a charmas all of them suddenly let go of their inhi-bitions and broke into a jig, making it a mo-ment to cherish. As for Aamir and SRK, thetwo of them made it evident that it was timefor mature interactions in public spaces.

NEWS DESK

Actor-producer Saif Ali Khan is treading new ter-ritories with " Go Goa Gone" - a zombie comedy,after making romance-based entertainers like"Love Aaj Kal" and "Cocktail", but he's quitesure he won't ever make a "sleazy" comedy.

There's a thin line between "naughty" and"sleazy", he believes.

Why is comedy all about sleaze nowadays?"Everything should have a representative, I

guess! So, also have a branch of comedy, whichis sleazy, but I suppose there is an audience forthat as well. There are different kinds of peoplein our country, and you've got to cater to all."

"But I don't think I want to make a sleazyfilm. I'd rather make a naughty one," the 42-year-old told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

"Go Goa Gone", his production and actingventure, releases May 10. Starring KunalKemmu, Vir Das and Anand Tiwari in key roles,the movie, as Saif believes, is a "naughty" kind!

Narrating a scene from the movie, he said:"There's a scene in which Kunal's charactergoes and buys condoms. The shopkeeper askshim, 'So what kind of condoms do you want?'and then Kunal's character says, 'Well, the onesfor having sex!'

"So this, I think is naughty and funny, but

not sleazy." While the movie has been heavilypromoted as a 'zombie' film, Saif says it's notall that "zombie".

"It's a very urban movie, it's a funny one andnot aimed at buying anyone into the theory of thezombie. It is essentially a story of these threeboys and their ridiculous adventures. So, I thinkit's nice if we can just laugh a little bit withoutthinking what's a zombie and all of that," he said.

The idea behind "Go Goa Gone" was also tocater to the audience which wants "new and ex-citing" genres and storylines.

"The audience is ready and maturing. So it isup to us now to give them the content. I remem-ber Kunal (Kemmu) came up to me with thisscript, and said this is a comedy about zombies.At first I was apprehensive to try something new,to produce something new, but then when I readthe script, I laughed out loud quite a number oftimes."

"I believe the audience will laugh too," Saifsaid. The budget for the film, he said, was "notvery much". But he promises they haven't"cheated" the audience.

He said the crew shot a lot on beaches and injungles of Mauritius, besides getting Hollywoodexperts to work on the zombies' make-up. Saif'sown look is different in the film - he sportsblonde locks."I liked the idea," he said.

Don’t think I want tomake sleazy comedies,says Saif Ali Khan

aaMir leTs srkenJoy The sPoTliGhT

My hearT wePTfor sarabJiT:veena Malik

KOLKATAINp

As India-Pakistan bilateral relationscontinue to be under strain, Pakistani ac-tress Veena Malik has said art remainsthe only bridge between the two neigh-bours. "Today SRK, Salman andAmitabh are as big stars in Pakistan asthey are in India. The only bridge whichis still there between the two countries isart. Whenever someone says that sendPakistani artists back, then we shouldalso understand that Indian films willalso get banned in Pakistan as a result,"Veena Malik told during a visit toKolkata. Asked to comment on Pak-istani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, whosuccumbed to injuries earlier in the dayfollowing a scuffle with another inmatein a Jammu jail, she said, "It reminds meof what Gandhi had said - an eye for aneye will only make the world blind."Veena pointed out that with the recentdeterioration in relations between thetwo countries, people to people relationshad also suffered. "Whenever anythinghappens, they say send Veena Malikback. Artists are very fragile becausetheir hearts are soft and so they makesoft targets," she said. 52-year-oldSanaullah, who was serving life sen-tence at Kot Balwal Jail in Jammu, wasgrievously injured in an attack by an in-mate on last Friday and died in aChandigarh hospital. The assault came aday after the death of Indian prisonerSarabjit Singh who was attacked by fel-low inmates in a Pakistani jail. "WhenSarabjit case happened, my heart criedbecause he was a guy who is alreadyunder trial and under the grip of the law.To kill him is inhuman," said Malik, the26-year-old actress best known for herstint in 'Bigg Boss' in 2010. She saidharmony, love and peace should in-crease so that Sarabjit and Sanaullahcases don't recur. "We (India and Pak-istan) have bigger challenges. We arenot enemies. Let's get over our past andmove on into a new life," said Malik.

forMer wesTlifesTars for chrisTydiGnaM GiG

NEWS DESK

Members of Westlife, Shane Mac-Gowan, Paul Brady, Gavin Friday andBressie are among the performers setto sing Aslan songs at a special one-off show for Christy Dignam thisJune. A Night For Christy will takeplace in Dublin's Olympia Theatre onJune 21 and will feature Irish actssinging Aslan songs they have hand-picked from the Finglas band's backcatalogue in honour of the 52-year-oldsinger who was released from Beau-mont Hospital earlier this week after10 weeks of treatment for two formsof blood cancer. Danny O'Reilly ofThe Coronas, Ryan Sheridan, MaryBlack, Don Mescall (who pennedAslan's recent charity single CatchYour Fall), Tom Dunne of SomethingHappens, Jerry Fish, and Steve Wallof The Stunning are also among theacts playing on the night.

KHI 10-05-2013_Layout 1 5/10/2013 3:12 AM Page 13

BBC FUTURE

THE tech giant looks like itis ditching its fondness forapps and programs thatlook like real-world prod-ucts. Is this a good thing?

Why do most smartphones make aclicking noise, like a camera shutter closing,when you take a picture with them? Whydo the virtual pages of a book on a tablet ap-pear to turn as you swipe across the screen?

The answer is skeumorphic design,from the Greek words for a tool (skeuos)and shape (morph). It means designing atool in a new medium that incorporatessome of the features of its antecedents.These no long perform any necessary func-tion but – like the unfurling of virtual paperacross a digital screen – forge an intuitivelink with the past, not to mention being(hopefully) attractive in their own right.

Though it sounds obscure, skeumor-phism is everywhere around us – from“retro” detailing on clothes to electric ket-tles shaped like their stove-top ancestors.It’s also a topic of much hand-wringing andangst in the tech world, thanks to AppleCEO Tim Cook’s decision to shake up thedesign principles of his company’s iOS mo-bile operating system – one of the world’stouchstones for digital appearances.

The latest incarnation of iOS – version7 – is likely to be previewed in June aheadof a September release. And its putativeappearance is feeding a thanks to Cook’slast year to put hardware supremoJonathan Ive – the designer responsible foriconic minimalist designs from the iMacand iPod to the iPad – in charge not onlyof the physical product, but also the lookand feel of its software.

Ive replaces perhaps the world’s mostinfluential exponent of skeumorphic soft-ware, Scott Forstall, whose work at Appleincluded creating iOS as we know it – com-plete with a compass app that looks like ahandheld orienteering compass, a notes appmimicking yellow sticky paper, a calcula-tor app designed like an old-fashioned ac-countant’s pocket calculator, a game centrethemed around wood and green baize, and

analogue dials on its clocks.Apple’s skeumorphism has, over the

last few years, divided the opinions of de-signers, to say the least. For author andtech design consultant, it’s inexplicablethat the company has for so long saddledits exquisite devices with “the most awfuland mawkish and flat-out tacky visualcues”; while software developer hasbluntly described it as “horrific, dishonestand childish crap.”

For more sympathetic critics like userinterface designer , meanwhile, the deci-sion to launch the iPhone with such a tex-tured, “realistic” interface was a sensiblemove given just how novel the device wasin 2007. “Nobody,” he argues, “had seensuch visual richness in an operating sys-tem’s user interface before (let alone on aphone)... Realism was a way to link the fu-ture with the past, and make people feel atease with their new device.”

This ease has been important to thecompany’s success. Outside the rank ofdesigners, few ordinary users are likely togive the subtle stylistic influences of theirscreens much thought. Yet these are crucialpsychological components within aweightless, immaterial medium.

Unlike physical materials and the tra-ditions surrounding them, digital pixelshave no inherent aesthetic or “feel”.Everything onscreen must be fabricatedfrom scratch – and, for many early users

of Apple products, the textured tones of askeumorphic interface offered a demo-cratic counterpoint to the elitism of theirseamless exteriors.

FROM FAKE TO FLAT

Today, though, even the fanboys agreethat some species of revamp is in order –and that Ive’s fondness for modernist min-imalism is in line with trends elsewhere.Rather than fake wood and leather, a vi-sual style has emerged in the last fewyears that is neatly embodied by Mi-crosoft and its technicolour approach toWindows’s latest incarnation.

Here, bright square and rectangularpanels match a crisp, two-dimensionalaesthetic, with an emphasis on clarityand clean blocks of colour. It’s a deliber-ately “flat” look, embracing the pinpointresolutions of modern screens rather thansofter-edged illusions of weight anddepth – and it was on its release as “in-credibly innovative”.

The only problem is that many usersdon’t especially seem to enjoy it – a back-lash that has led to of Microsoft preparingto restore some aspects of its older operat-ing systems. If Apple heads down thispath, it will be seeking its own distinctiveevolution of Ive’s design philosophy – aphilosophy explicitly indebted to the greatGerman designer Dieter Rams and , themost famous of which states that “gooddesign is as little design as possible.”

Some change is likely to be welcomed.But – as Microsoft’s experience shows –any reinvention of a widely-used standardbreeds a particular gamut of hazards, espe-cially within the open and potentially unan-chored spaces of an electronic medium.

All digital design is to some extent agame of metaphor and illusion. Yet, in-creasingly, some of the objects being ges-tured towards are vanishing from users’remembered experience. Will the youngestgeneration of iPad users ever physicallyhave handled analogue dials, desktop cal-endars or yellowed paper notepads? Willmany of them, soon, even have turned thepages of a physical book?

These hollowed out metaphors hauntdigital design – together with the fear thatimitation and repetition risk shackling thepresent to an increasingly irrelevant past.Successful simplicity, as Ive and Rams haveeach shown, is about capturing the essenceof an experience via the painstaking elimi-nation of anything redundant. How far,though, are skeumorphism’s visual echoesand references themselves essential?

Design can never go entirely withoutmimicry; not least because, if you’re notspeaking some kind of common visuallanguage, you cannot make yourself un-derstood. Ive’s greatest triumphs at Appleto Rams’s work at Braun in the 1960s –and it seems unlikely that someone withsuch a deep sensitivity to its history willabandon onscreen dialogue with the man-ufactured world.

This dialogue is likely to be as muchwith Apple itself as its antecedents – andto draw deeply on its own aesthetic of in-dustrial design. In the end, though, skeu-morphism is not about wood and leatherany more than “flat” design is aboutcolours or rectangles. Each aims at an ex-perience that is its own justification – andthat, if the experience should somehowfall short, cannot be saved by all the justi-fications in the world. As Ive himself putit in a , “we don’t really talk about design,we talk about developing ideas and mak-ing products.” Once you have a suffi-ciently complete understanding of whatyou wish to achieve, the rest is detail.

INFOTAINMENT

IFriday, 10 May, 2013

14

Power To ThePedal! charGerharvesTs bikes’kineTic enerGy

There is no shortage of kinetic phone

chargers that give you battery power

in exchange for your own muscle

power. But the is a bit different: it

attaches to your bike, and it’s

compact enough to be thought of as

unobtrusive.

The generator mounts onto just about

any bicycle in a matter of minutes.

When you start cycling, the kinetic

energy you generate is harnessed in

the lightweight gadget to either

directly power your gadget or to be

stored in a detachable battery pack.

You can charge just about any device

that is powered by USB – even

attachments used by the bike itself.

Charge while you’re riding, or take

the detachable battery pack with you

to charge your gadgets when you get

to where you’re going.

The Siva is perfect for people who

want to bike to work or school more

often but miss the convenience of

charging their device in the car on the

way to their destination. The team

behind the gadget is dedicated to the

cause of renewable energy, so for

every ten Atoms sold they’ll donate

one to someone in need. NEwS DESK

disney Tries ToTradeMarkMexicanTradiTion

Pyjamas that read yourchild a story: the mostridiculous invention?

apple: an end to skeumorphic design?

NEWS DESK

Miami-based performance artist Orestes de la Paz hasput his heart, soul and fat into 20 bars of special soapmade with his liposuctioned blubber. The bars of humansoap are available for purchase and priced at $1,000.

Orestes de la Paz underwent a liposuction procedurein December of last year, and decided to turn the re-moved fat into soap to prevent it from going rancid. Hecame up with the idea for his art thesis after realizingthat “clients are willing to try anything to feel and lookbeautiful, even to the extent of buying products withhuman elements in them (stem cells, placenta, semen;you name it, it’s out there.)” Working as a hairstylist andmake-up artist, Orestes loves combining the worlds ofart and beauty together, so the unusual project sort ofmade sense to him. Apart from coconut oil, organic veg-etable shortening, lavender and tree tea oils, as well asother cosmetics ingredients, his unique soap bars are25% human fat, which apparently leaves the user’s

hands soft after washing. “There’s always a certainamount of blood, sweat, and tears that goes into any art-work. I just make it more explicit,” the artist said abouthis bizarre project.

“Making Soap”, Orestes’ art thesis, is currently dis-played at Miami’s Frost Museum, where attendees canactually wash their hands with his lipo-soap. ”The mu-seum-goers were so at ease, that the idea of the soapbeing from human fat escaped their minds and they sim-ply enjoyed the soap for it’s lavender, tree tree scent andthe way it left the hands soft after washing,” the artisttold . ”Those brave enough to wash ended up inspiringothers to simply to try a good product. No one seemeddisgusted by the soap demo even after having watchedthe video in the gallery.”

People interested in this organic human fat soap canbuy a bar for $1,000, but he has extended a special invi-tation to the all-thing-weird lover we all know as LadyGaga. “I challenge @ladygaga to try my human fat soap.You down, homie?” Orestes de la Paz wrote on Twitter.

Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing

the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at

twice its natural size. –Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Miami artist uses his ownbody fat to make soap

Disney isn’t winning points for

cultural sensitivity this month after

trying to trademark the phrase “Dia

de los Muertos,” reports the Arizona

Republic. The company is working on

a film inspired by the centuries-old

Mexican holiday, which translates to

“Day of the Dead” and celebrates the

spirits of ancestors. Disney filed for

the trademark on May 1, standard

practice ahead of a movie to protect

merchandising rights, but pulled the

bid yesterday amid the ensuing

outcry. “How can you trademark a

cultural tradition?” asks one Phoenix

artist, her question summing up the

common reaction. In its explanation

for why it is pulling the trademark

bid, Disney didn’t exactly

acknowledge the criticism: “It has

since been determined that the title

of the film will change, and therefore

we are withdrawing our trademark

filing.” Disney also once tried to

trademark the phrase “Seal Team 6,”

but pulled the application after the

military raised objections, notes the

LA Times. NEwS DESK

A hi-tech pair of pyjamas can now read your kids a

bedtime story. Once upon a time, parents thought

nothing of doing this themselves - and long may that

tradition continue, argues mother Laura Perrins.

The world can be a frightening place. There are all

manner of creatures out there wanting to gobble

you up. There is the Gruffalo; the high-way rat;

various foxes and wolves who prey on

grandmothers and little girls in red; and, an

assortment of witches, evil fairies and goblins.

The humans are not much better either; step-

relations of every kind should be avoided and even

the odd parent has been known to boil up a child or

two. Yes, the bedtime story is by far and away the

best moment in the Perrins’ house. But it seems

this is another job I could delegate to technology.

Getting children to go to bed can be a battle in and

of itself. But now there are ‘’. These are the

“world’s first and only interactive bedtime clothing

that will actually read your children a story”. At

first I thought this was a spoof, but sadly not. It

seems there is someone out there who believes

parents will spend their hard earned cash on a

machine to read a bedtime story to their child. Will

said machine do the funny voices? No. Will it make

the Gruffalo very scary? I doubt it. Will it add the

splash sound when the wolf climbs up the pig’s

house, and down the chimney into the boiling

water? Unlikely. Bedtime stories are a way to

connect with your child. So it is hoped that this

invention takes it place in the academy of

alongside the flatulence deodoriser. NEwS DESK

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SFriday, 10 May, 2013

15There is quite a big overlap there, and because we announced our tournamentlast year and have set that window aside, we have asked the Caribbean PremierLeague tournament to move their tournament up — Ajit Jayasekara

SYDNEY AGENCIES

AUSTRALIA’S TimMay, ousted from anInternational CricketCouncil panel amidallegations of pressure

from India, says it is time someone “stoodup to the cancer of stand-over tactics” thatdefine the governing body.

May, chief executive of TheFederation of International Cricketers’Associations (Fica), was recently replacedas a players’ representative on the ICCcricket committee by India’s LaxmanSivaramakrishnan.

Fica this week called on the ICC toinvestigate charges of ballot “fixing” afterthe former Indian leg-spinner was electedto the committee amid accusations thatvoters had been put under pressure.

Fica – which, has no Indian affiliateas there is no Indian players’ union – hasclaimed what was, in effect, a run-offbetween May and Sivamarakrishnan was

not conducted fairly, with some nationalboards exerting undue pressure on theircaptains to back the Indian.

May said in a report Thursday hewould not comment on the specifics of hisnon-election because he has a vestedinterest, but he pointed to the ICC’s failureto enforce its own standards ofgovernance.

“The only thing that I can say andreinforce is that this issue isn’t aboutwhether Siva or I got elected or not but it’sabout was the process compromised?” theformer Australian off-spinner told Fairfaxnewspapers.

“Did Boards interfere and makethreats to captains to change their votes?

“Which leads to the crux of thematter – that we (Fica), on behalf of allplayers, need to ensure that the players’representative is actually therepresentative chosen freely by players,not one forced upon the players byboards.”

May said Fica wanted the ICC topolice their own processes and not turntheir back on it.

“It’s time someone stood up to thiscancer of stand-over tactics that definesthe ICC these days,” May said.

May has challenged all nationalcricket boards on issues ranging from tourscheduling to the Woolf report, whichtried to revamp ICC governance but wasrejected by India, Fairfax newspaperssaid.

The ICC cricket committee makesrecommendations on issues including theumpire Decision Review System (DRS),which May has pushed to be used in allinternational series.

Opposition from the powerful Boardof Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)means it is not used in contests involvingIndia.

May has said that while he supportssome aspects of the BCCI, “there areother aspects that concern me and others”.

However, some argue it is naive toexpect India to produce so much of thegame’s cash and not have equivalentinfluence in cricket’s corridors of power.

May said Fica will discuss its

response to the ICC committee vote at itsannual general meeting in the UnitedStates later this month.

Paul Marsh, chief of the AustralianCricketers’ Association, said all boardswere equally guilty because of theirreluctance to stand up to the BCCI.

“The reality is the boards can’t seepast the next India tour that might be injeopardy because they say something –there are constant threats of that sort ofstuff,” Marsh told Fairfax newspapers.

smith to missChampions trophy

JOHANNESBURg AGENCIES

A recurring ankle injury has ruled starSouth Africa batsman Graeme Smith out ofJune’s Champions Trophy. Smith isexpected to return home this week fromEnglish county cricket duties at Surrey andan operation will sideline him for severalmonths. Proteas Team Manager, DrMohammed Moosajee said: “Graeme hasbeen troubled by left ankle pain over thelast few months and despite extensivetreatment and physiotherapy, it has recentlydeteriorated significantly while playing forSurrey in England. “He underwent a rescanof his left ankle in London on Wednesday,and it was determined that since his lastscan, the condition has progressed to astress fracture. Surgery will be required, andhe has been advised to follow a rest andrehabilitation programme over the next fourto six months. “This unfortunately ruleshim out of the upcoming ICC ChampionsTrophy in England and Wales and theselectors will name a replacement in duecourse.” Losing Smith for the one-dayinternational championship in England andWales is a massive blow for perennialtournament ‘chokers’ South Africa after all-rounder Jacques Kallis declared himselfunavailable for selection.

icc urGed To invesTiGaTe voTeICC FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF FOULPLAY IN FICA ELECTIONIn response to recent media stories, the International Cricket Council

wishes to clarify certain aspects relating to the recent appointment of player

representatives to the ICC Cricket Committee. In January this year, because

of confusion in the voting process for such representatives (for example in

respect of what should happen in the case of a tied vote and, where teams

had different captains for different formats of the game, which captain

should be entitled to vote), the ICC Board considered the matter carefully,

and following clarification of the process to be followed, decided that

another vote should be taken. Subsequent to the re-vote, the ICC is

concerned to note a number of factual inaccuracies appearing in the media

in respect of the results of the voting and the underlying basis for the Board

decision that a re-vote was necessary, as well as unsupported allegations

of impropriety in the voting process. In that respect, the ICC can confirm

that it has received a written request from the Federation of International

Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) to refer the matter to the Ethics Officer. This

request is being considered, but in view of the allegations already appearing

in the media, the ICC wishes to state for the record that the re-vote took

place according to the determined procedure and that the ICC has seen no

evidence that supports allegations now being made that captains were put

under pressure by their Member Boards to vote for a particular individual.

No further comment will be made at this stage.

LAHOREStAFF REpoRt

For Pakistan cricket, this is a historic occasion.The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has for thefirst time ever elected its chairman, with thegoverning council on Wednesday interviewingtwo candidates and then voting Ch. ZakaAshraf into office for a four-year term.

The main stipulations of the PCB’s newconstitution are: no government interventionfor the first time since the Board’s inception in1949, and turning it into a democratic entityat the same time, with an electedchairman who is accountable to agoverning council.

Ashraf was elected by thegoverning council under a newconstitution was crafted by thegovernment of Pakistan inaccordance with theInternational Cricket Council’s(ICC) guidelines, giving up itspowers to appoint the PCBchairman. Subsequently the newconstitution was approved bythe ICC.

Over thisdevelopment,generally there isa sense ofelation inthe

cricketing circles in Pakistan and many aresaid to have called up Ch. Zaka Ashraf tocongratulate him on his election.

“Pakistan cricket needed stability at thispoint and it is good that PCB has now anelected Chairman at the helms of affairs, saidWasim Bari, the former Pakistan captain.

“Now that Ch. Zaka has been elected to thechairman’s office, he should be given all-outsupport to implement his vision so thatPakistan cricket in these difficult times could

progress at a rapid pace”, said WasimBari.

The new constitutionnot just puts a check on

the unbridled powers ofthe chairman, makinghim accountable, itcaters for allstakeholders in

Pakistan cricket,giving them duerepresentation.

These stakeholdersin the main are the

regions, thedepartments and theplayers representatives,

and all have foundrepresentation in the

governing council.Basit Ali, a

formercricketer ofthe 1990svintage,was

ofthe

view that the PCB, Pakistan government andthe ICC all must be congratulated for thesmooth transition. “You have to grant that thegovernment gave away its lien and hold on thePCB. This is something that needs to beacknowledged and applauded. A democraticdispensation is always better than ahandpicked one.

“I must also congratulate Ch. Zaka Ashrafon his election as chairman. I think Pakistancricket shall be better off with his election fora four-year term.”

But in Pakistan there are always somewho have an axe to grind. Barely a day afterhis election, the PCB chairman’s election hasbeen challenged by two non-entities in a courtof law; both claim to be regionalrepresentatives, albeit of dubious antecedents.

When one tried to contact Malik Zulfiqarand Ch. Anwar for their version, they were notavailable for comment, however Daud Mirfrom Sialkot and Jalal Akbar from Sargodhawere quite open and candid in sharing theirviews. Both castigated Zulfiqar and Anwar fortaking the issue to court ‘for no rhyme orreason’.

Daud Mir, representative of Sialkotdistrict, said: “What grievance did MalikZulfiqar have? Absolutely none, but he ishabitual litigator. His tenure expired sixmonths ago, there has been a vote of noconfidence against him, yet he is not holdingthe regional elections just because he wants tohang on to the position and get benefits fromthe PCB”.

Jalal Akbar, representative of Sargodhadistrict, was equally scathing in his comments:

“I condemn Ch. Anwar. For five years, hehas enjoyed all favours from the Board

at the expense of the region. The regionalelections are overdue, and yet this non-

cricketer instead of holding them is trying tocoerce and milk the Board for personal gain.”.

About the newly-elected PCB chairman,Jalal said: “In my interactions with him, Ihave found him to be attentive andconcerned. I feel he has Pakistan cricket’sgood in his heart. I’m sure he will succeedand promote cricket in the regions”.

Pakistan cricket’s firstelected chairman

We need toget monkey offour back: AB

JOHANNESBURG: Proteas captain AB de

Villiers believes South Africa can remove

their “chokers” tag and secure their

first global trophy in 15 years at the

Champions Trophy tournament in

England and Wales next month. South

Africa won the inaugural Champions

Trophy – then known as the

Knockout Trophy – in 1998,

and while they have since

reached the semi-finals

in three editions of the

competition, as well as

the last four in three

World Cup

tournaments, they

have failed to secure

a title. “There is

always extra

pressure when it

comes to our

performances at ICC

(International Cricket Council)

tournaments,” De Villiers said

on Wednesday. “Our

performances have not been a

true reflection of the talent and

skill that we possess, and this

year we will be out to change

that. “We will always have this

monkey on our back until we win

the competition, so hopefully this

time around we will be able to

overcome the pressure.” The

Proteas are in Group B alongside

world champions India, World

Twenty20 title holders West Indies,

and Pakistan. “I personally think

every opponent in our group is a

threat,” De Villiers said. “Our

recent 3-2 win over Pakistan only

highlighted the threat they can

pose in the limited-overs format,

and India and West Indies can

both be destructive if they

arrive on the day. AGENCIES

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sPorts S

Friday, 10 May, 2013

16SACA has always maintained that it has not breached Rule 4 of the Rules for

Interstate Competitions but accepts that the Cricket Australia grievance tribunal

process is now complete and a $15,000 penalty issued — Keith Bradshaw

HYDERBABADAGENCIES

TH E Sunrisers Hyderabadsuffered their first defeaton home soil this season asa Suresh Raina-inspiredChennai Super Kings

trounced them by 77 runs in Hyderabadon Wednesday.

The Super Kings, bouncing backfrom a bad loss to Mumbai over theweekend, ensured that they are withinreach of a playoff place with acomprehensive victory at the Sunrisers’fortress, as the hosts were dismantled intheir attempt to chase down a target of224.

Raina hit an unbeaten 99 off 52 ballswhile David Hussey became the highestrun-scorer in this season’s IPL with 67off 42. They helped Chennai post thehighest total for any team at playing atthe Hyderabad ground this season.

The Sunrisers had won the toss andelected to bowl first, but their bowlerslooked completely out of their depth asthe Super Kings batsmen took them totask.

Ishant Sharma was particularlywoeful with the ball as he finished with4-0-66-0, the worst figures in IPL

history.Dale Steyn was impressive in his

four-over spell, conceding just 17 runs,but his prowess was not enough to stopthe Super Kings from racking up theruns.

Raina’s knock took him past 400runs in this year’s IPL, and he becamethe first player in the history of thetournament to pass the 400-run mark inevery edition of the tournament as thevisitors set their hosts an imposing total.

In their chase, the Sunrisers got offto a bad start with Shikhar Dhawan runout in the second over after attempting aquick leg bye.

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara couldn’tdo much and contributed just threebefore he top-edged to short fine legwhere Chris Morris took a simple catchoff Ravi Ashwin’s bowling.

Hanuma Vihari then followed,caught off Raina’s bowling by MuraliVijay as the hosts stumbled to 55-3.

Darren Sammy was gone in the nextover and the Sunrisers were in all sortsof trouble at 62-4.

Parthiv Patel was looking steady andhad managed 44 off 30 before he toowas sent on his way, caught at deepsquare leg by Vijay off Mohit Sharma.

Thisara Perera briefly looked like he

might be able to change the impossibleto the improbable, but after whacking 23off 13, he too was dismissed.

Just one ball after being dropped,Perera was foxed by a slower ball fromDwayne Bravo and ended up getting athin edge down to third man whereSubramaniam Badrinath took a goodcatch as the embarrassment continuedfor the home side.

Amit Mishra was the next to go, inthe unluckiest of fashions when Karan

Sharma hit the ball straight back to RaviJadeja who happened to get a finger onit and Mishra had backed up too much.

The Sunrisers were capitulating andat 110-7 after 15.2 overs, they needed amiracle, but it wasn’t to be.

Karan Sharma stuck it out to the endwith an unbeaten 39 off 33 and Steyn hita few lusty blows to help keep his side’snet-run rate in check, but a poor all-round performance was the undoing ofthe home side in the end.

csk end sh’s unbeatenhome run

BULAWAYOAGENCIES

Moments before Mushfiqur Rahim announced his resignationas captain, he and his deputy Mahmudullah had blamed theBangladesh top order for the 1-2 defeat to Zimbabwe. Mushfiqurwas among the top five batsmen who hadn’t scored a half-century in the series.

Bangladesh had also lost all three tosses, but Mushfiqur saidit was a matter of handling the conditions rather than relying onluck. They had gone 1-0 up after the first game in Harare but lostthe next two.

“Luck is not everything,” Mushfiqur said. “We are a muchbetter team than how we played in this ODI series but we couldn’tprove it, especially with the bat. None of the top five could scorea fifty in the series, which is very disappointing. We regularly lostearly wickets, which affected our scoring rate. If we had scored270 on all three occasions, it would have been a different ballgame. “Obviously that’s [complacent] what they looked like. Iwouldn’t say Zimbabwe bowled too badly but we lost earlywickets and we went into the last ten overs with only a few wicketsin hand. It hampered our performance.”

Mushfiqur, Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan and MohammadAshraful averaged less than 22 in the series, and Bangladeshoften replied on the lower-middle order to bail them out of toughspots. Nasir Hossain and Mahmudullah were the only batsmento aggregate more than 100 runs in the series. “I wouldn’t blamethe wicket. I would rather say that the top-order didn’t bat well,”Mushfiqur said. “We couldn’t do that well in the first matcheither. In all three matches, the lower middle-order backed upwell. “I think the toss was also very important, so we also neededsome luck. Our target was to bat second, because we are good atchasing totals. But we couldn’t do well with the bat, and hencelost the series.”

banGladeshleadership blamespoor batting for loss

LAHOREStAFF REpoRt

The Pakistan rugby team won there first semi-final against Laos by 31-25 at Sharjah Stadium inAsian Five Nation Division Four tournament.

Pakistan played good rugby in the first halfwith Captain Arslan Zahid scoring first try fromand was followed by Tahir who scored another.At about try at half time Pakistan 18-5. In thesecond half Laos reply quickly and respond well.They score three more tries in 2nd half. FromPakistan Babar, Shakeel and Arslan Zahid scoretries. At the end Pakistan won by 31-25 toface Lebanon in the Final of event.

Pakistan face lebanon in rugby final

Pakistan team group photo with coach Roger Cambus.

inJuredsTeven sMiThreTurnsfroM iPl

SPORTS DESK

Steven Smith is expected to be fit for theupcoming Australia A series in Englanddespite suffering a back injury that hasforced his withdrawal from the remainderof the IPL.Cricket Australia on Thursday confirmedthat Smith was returning home from Indiadue to the issue with his lower back,which was likely to make him unavailablefor any more matches with Pune Warriors.However, his role as vice-captain to BradHaddin for the Australia A games, whichbegin on June 7, is not expected to be indoubt.“While the injury is minor, Pune respectedSmith’s upcoming playing commitmentsand advised it was best for him to returnto Australia for treatment,” CricketAustralia said in a statement. “CA expectsSmith to be fully fit for his upcomingcommitments with Australia A, where hewill be vice-captain.”Smith missed out on a place in Australia’sAshes squad despite being one of thestrongest performers with the bat on therecent Test tour of India, where hisfootwork against the spinners put himsecond only to captain Michael Clarke onAustralia’s batting averages.He has also topped the average for PuneWarriors so far in their IPL campaign with159* runs at 39.75.

BULAWAYOAGENCIES

Emotional outburst is now the accepted rationale ofMushfiqur Rahim’s resignation from the Bangladeshcaptaincy but BCB president Nazmul Hassan hasvowed to get to the bottom of this sudden decision,hinting that there were other contributing factors.

Mushfiqur’s inability to control himself has beenwell known to those close to him, and given howeasily Bangladesh went down to Zimbabwe in the ODIon Wednesday, it was enough for him to get riled anddefeat to Zimbabwe would obviously lead to anger inthe Bangladesh dressing-room.

There were far too many poor shots played bysenior batsmen, including Mushfiqur, and the bowlingwas not efficient enough to defend 247 on Wednesdayor 252 in the 2nd ODI. In general, there was a lack ofhunger, noticeable in the players’ body language.

There was, predictably, a lot of expectation onBangladesh. A team that can beat West Indies and SriLanka would certainly be expected to win thesubsequent series against Zimbabwe. Instead thepressure of expectation got to the players, some takingthe contest too lightly while others, like Mushfiqur,visibly crumbled.

When he took over as captain in 2011, formerBangladesh national selector Faruque Ahmed, whopicked Mushfiqur at the age of 16 to play the Lord’sTest in 2005, pointed out only one blemish inMushfiqur’s make-up, saying: “He has difficultyhandling matters when he doesn’t do well himself.” Inessence, Faruque meant that when his batting orwicketkeeping sees bad days, he has a difficult timecoming to terms with it.

At the time this was a minor factor as some arguedthat he was mature enough to keep a positive outlook

in tough times. There was a short honeymoon periodin his captaincy before losses to Pakistan at home, butover the last 12 months, Mushfiqur has led well andkept the team on an even keel.

But in Zimbabwe, his preparation was hamperedby poorly organised practice sessions and trouble inthe hotel. For someone who is very particular withpreparation, these were important issues that neededto be taken care of. Then came the 335-run defeat inthe first Test, after which Bangladesh recovered witha series-equalling win in the second Test. Mushfiqurled from the front, his 93 in the second innings beingthe clinching factor. But the 2-1 ODI series defeatultimately became the trigger for his announcement.

He talked to BCB president Hassan on Wednesdaynight, but like he told his teammates and the mediaearlier, he did not elaborate on the “why” and “whynow”. Apparently he was sobbing as he talked to

Hassan, who was critical of the time he chose to quit,especially as it was done while on tour and with twomore matches left to play.

“Mushfiqur couldn’t speak properly when I calledhim,” Hassan said. “He was probably choking backtears. He just told me that he can’t give properleadership, and that there were issues with teamwork.We will investigate all of this when the team returns.

“But it wasn’t smart to give up the captaincy whileon tour. We will find out upon his return why he quitso suddenly. We need to find out what compelled himto take this decision, if there were any instigatingfactors. If we find anyone guilty of hampering ourteam’s progress in any way, we will definitely takeaction.”

Hassan said he will also talk to Mushfiqur aboutsome of the shots the senior batsmen played.Throughout the three ODIs, there were ordinarydismissals from the top and middle-order batsmen thatled to collapses but while they recovered through NasirHossain, Mahmudullah and one occasion AbdurRazzak, it was not enough in the second and thirdODIs.

“We probably still don’t know how to bat in suchconditions,” Hassan said. “But at the same time, theway some of the batsmen gave away their wickets atcrucial times was just astonishing. I have told themanagement to investigate already, but I think it’s bestto talk to Mushfiqur directly.”

The Bangladesh captaincy has changed handsquite frequently over the last decade, despite thecultural subtext that success was not always thedefining factor. Since the team loses more often, thecaptains over the years have been expected to leadfrom the front. In his stint, Mushfiqur has done it wellon the field, but this move will lose him a lot ofgoodwill.

BCB to investigate Mushfiqur resignation

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sPortsS

Friday, 10 May, 2013

17It was a hard finish, especially the last kilometre, It was super

fast and then there was the crash. I saw I had a gap and so I

had to go full gas for the last 800 metres — John Degenkolb

MADRIDAGENCIES

VICTORIA Azarenka lost for thefirst time this year as she wentdown 1-6 6-2 6-3 to unseededRussian Ekaterina Makarova in thesecond round of the Madrid Open.

The Belarussian world No 3, runner-up here forthe last two years, lost her temper and was dockeda point for smashing her racket as she suffered ashock defeat against her 24th-ranked opponentafter cruising through the first set.

However, Makarova raised her game to takethe second set and after Azarenka smashed herracket on the ground at 3-3 in the decider theAustralian Open champion’s game fell apart.

The umpire had already warned Azarenka atthe end of the first set for a show of temper and

when she infringed again she was docked a point.“I just felt it was a weird call for me because Ihad no idea I had a code violation,” she saidafterwards “But, I mean, it happened. It didn’thelp, for sure, but it’s okay. It’s my own fault.”Playing in her first event since her withdrawal atIndian Wells in March due to an ankle injury,Azarenka said the lay-off had affected her. “Ihave been making mistakes that I don’t do butthat’s what comes after not playing for a long

time,” she added. “So I still have anothertournament before the French Open to competein and I’m going to go back on the practice courtas I always do and work hard to improve. “I haveto give Ekaterina credit. She played well. I feltlike I had a lot of chances, I just didn’t take them.”Makarova had beaten Azarenka once in fourprevious meetings. She now has seven careerwins against top-10 opponents but Azarenka isher highest-ranked victim.

Makarova hands azarenkafirst loss in 2013

IVANOVIC WITHSTANDS ROBSON CHALLENGELaura Robson could not build on her triumph over Agnieszka

Radwanska in the Mutua Madrid Open and succumbed to

a battling defeat against Ana Ivanovic. Robson - who

has split with Croatian coach Zeljko Krajan, it was

announced - had plenty of opportunities to claim

another famous scalp in a matter of days after

hammering Radwanska on Monday. She took

the first set and served for the match at 5-3 in

the decider, but the 2008 French Open

champion came storming back to book her

place in the quarter-finals with a 5-7 6-2 7-6

(7/5) win in two hours and 13 minutes. The

encounter contained 83 unforced errors and 15

breaks of serve between them, so it was perhaps

unsurprising that Robson served a double fault on

match point although no one could argue that it was not

gripping. Robson, 19, secured her first win over a player

ranked in the world’s top five two days ago although she came stumbling out of the blocks

today and while she saved two break points in her opening service game, a double fault

handed the advantage to Ivanovic before Robson hit a forehand long. She immediately broke

back, however, and the game went with serve for the next few games. At 5-5 and 30 all,

Robson appeared to be under pressure but showed her growing maturity with two

outstanding forehand winners before then setting up a set point in the next game, which she

duly converted when Ivanovic meekly sent a backhand into the net. SpoRtS DESK

MADRIDAGENCIES

Spanish duo Rafael Nadal and David Ferrerthrilled the home crowd with relativelyuntroubled performances to advance to thelast-16 of the Mutua Madrid Open.However, fellow seeds Tomas Berdych andJo-Wilfried Tsonga were given stiff tests.Fifth seed Nadal, who is looking for back-to-back titles after triumphing in Barcelonatwo weeks ago, needed one hour and 26minutes to wrap up his 6-3 6-4 victory overdetermined Frenchman Benoit Paire.Nadal, whose hopes of claiming anothertitle ahead of the French Open wereboosted by Tuesday’s shock departure ofworld number one Novak Djokovic, paidtribute to his beaten foe today. “That’s animportant victory today,” he said on theATP Tour website. “Each match in this kindof tournament is very demanding from thefirst round. “He was a very uncomfortableopponent. He makes you play quite badly.He doesn’t give you any rhythm. He hasone of the best backhands in the circuit,without any doubt.” Compatriot Ferrerbounced back from his setback in theBarcelona Open by swatting aside DenisIstomin. The world number four wasdefeated by Russian qualifier Dmitry

Tursunov at the Real Club de TenisBarcelona in the second round two weeksago but he showed no ill-effects of the losswith a 7-5 6-2 win today against hisUzbekistan opponent. Sixth seed Berdychbecame the second player this week - afterAndy Murray yesterday - to win his 400thcareer match although he was pushed allthe way by Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz. TheCzech faced nine break points in the matchbut managed to save eight of them as hecame through 6-7 (3/7) 6-3 6-2. Tsonga,

seeded seventh, also found the going toughbut the Frenchman managed to just edgeout Dutch qualifier Robin Haase 7-6 (7/5)7-6 (7/2) in one hour and 46 minutes.Eleventh seed Nicolas Almagro was theday’s biggest casualty, the Spaniard goingdown 7-6 (7/4) 4-6 6-2 against Russia’sMikhail Youzhny although there were nosuch worries for 14th seed Kei Nishikori,who was a 7-5 6-2 winner over ViktorTroicki. Tommy Haas overcame Spanishwild card Tommy Robredo 6-3 7-5, Kevin

Anderson saw off Juan Monaco 7-6 (7/5) 3-6 6-4 and Stanislas Wawrinka eased pastSantiago Giraldo 6-3 6-3. In the women’sdraw, Victoria Azarenka suffered her firstdefeat of the year following, againstEkaterina Makarova. All looked to be goingto plan for the Australian Open champion,who was playing her second match since anankle injury, when she won the first set buther Russian opponent rallied to a 1-6 6-2 6-3 victory, which included winning the finalfive games of the match. “I have to giveEkaterina credit - she played really well,”Azarenka, who had won all 18 of hermatches this year prior to today, said on theWTA Tour website. “I felt like I had a lot ofchances, I just didn’t take them. “I putmyself down a little bit. I didn’t play for along time. I haven’t lost a match for a longtime. But this happens - it was going tohappen sooner or later anyway. “I just wantto do better in the next tournament and kindof pick it up.” Laura Robson failed to buildon her win over world number fourAgnieszka Radwanska as 16th seed AnaIvanovic claimed a 5-7 6-2 7-6 (7/5) win intwo hours and 13 minutes to book aquarter-final match against AngeliqueKerber, who saw off 2009 French Openchampion Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6 6-4 7-5in the third round.

nadal through to last 16 at Madrid open

bolT wins 100M in PhoTo finishSix-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt edged teammate KemarBailey-Cole in a photo finish to win the 100 metres at the CaymanInvitational track meet on Wednesday. Jamaica’s Bolt kicked his100-metre season off on Wednesday with a less than impressivetime of 10.09 seconds at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex.Bailey-Cole, who finished with the same time, is one of Bolt’straining partners. Antiguan Daniel Bailey finished third with atime of 10.23. Bolt has been battling a hamstring problem butsaid that wasn’t to blame for the slow time. “It was just a badrace,” he said. “I just have to go back and figure out with mycoach what went wrong. “I felt it (hamstring injury) slightly. Itwasn’t a bothering pain so I can’t blame it on that.” In the women’sevents, American Carmelita Jeter became the first to finish in under 11 seconds in the 100metres, winning with a time of 10.95. SpoRtS DESK

rosberG asGood ashaMilTon,says berGer

SPORTS DESK

Former McLaren driver Gerhard Bergerrefuted suggestions that Nico Rosbergmay not be able to live up to LewisHamilton’s ability over the course of theseason. Hamilton has helped theBrackley-based marque achieveconsiderable success over the first fourraces of his debut season and currentlylies third in the drivers’ championship.The ex-McLaren man has alsoconsistently outqualified Rosbergalthough the German did secure poleposition at the Bahrain Grand Prix.However, Rosberg could not capitalise onthe front-row start and suffered tyremanagement problems. By the end of therace, he could only finish in ninth whileHamilton pulled off a late surge to secureten valuable points. Berger does notdisagree and pointed towards Rosberg’strack record over the past three seasons.“That’s what they said about (Rosbergalongside Michael) Schumacher,” Bergertold Auto Motor und Sport. “Rosberg hasproved how good he is. If he can also holdHamilton at bay, it will be anothermilestone. “For me, those two (Rosbergand Hamilton) are on the same level. Eachhas his own strengths. “One has the coolerhead, the other more emotion, and it’spretty even.” Moreover, Berger believesthat Mercedes, as an engine supplier,always had the potential to become one ofthe frontrunners/ .“It’s not surprising,” heinsisted, “because they have the bestengine and two great drivers.” “It wasclear that at some point they would start toget the chassis right. “Step by step theyare coming to the front.” Mercedes are infourth in the constructors’ championshipand are doing much better than traditionalheavyweights McLaren, amassing 41more points than the Woking outfit.

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GEO SUPERDaredevils v RCB

07:30 PM

sPorts SFriday, 10 May, 2013

18It is always the couple of days before the fight which is the worst,

I think every boxer will tell you the same because you need to

start cutting down on what you are eating — Ricky Burns

wAtCh It LIve

loCal nEws

siddiQ evenT inseMis sTaGeLAHORE: The 10th M Siddiq Memorial

cricket event has reached into the

semifinal stage. Yuslim Club and Servis

Club have reached into the semifinal

while Aligarh Club and National Gym

have qualified for quarters. Shining

Club have moved into 2nd round. The

last initial round match between Model

Town Club and Wahdat Eaglets will be

played on May 16 at Model Town

Ground and winner will face with

shining club

SEvEN CLUBS CONfIRMED IN

QUARTERS: The prominent 2nd round

7 clubs of the city reached the quarter-

final of 16th Tauseef Trophy cricket

championship i.e Ghari Shaho Gym,

Muslimabad Gym, Servis Club,

Mughalpura Whites, Akhter Abdul

Rehman Club and Wahdat Eaglets and

Aligarh Club. Remaining match for

quarterfinals will be played between

Model Town club and Yuslim Club in

next week. The four semifinal will play

league matches. Every club will play 3

matches. Meanwhile 2 quarterfinal will

be played on May 12.

YASEEN AKHTER EvENT IN fULL

SWING: The 28th M Yaseen Akhter

Memorial cricket event has reached

in semifinal stage. Three clubs i.e

Rising Star Club, Ghulam Qadir

Memorial Club and Jallo Gym have

reached into the quarterfinal. while

National Gym has reached in

semifinal stage. Model Town Gym,

Model Towl Greens have reached into

the 3rd round while Aligarh Club,

Wahdat Eaglets, Shining Club and

Cantonment Gym have qualified for

2nd round.

EAST ZONE CHAMPIONSHIP

BEGINS fROM LAST WEEK: The

East Zone cricket championship will

begin from the end of this month.

Meanwhile East Zone Tournament

Committee meeting will be held on

May 15 at 5:00 pm under the

chairmanship of Waqar-ul-Munir

chairman Tournament Committee.

Meeting will be held at Chairman’s

house. In the meeting all arrangements

will be finalized regarding the

championship. All members of the

committee are advised to attend the

meeting in time. StAFF REpoRt

SPORTS DESK

MANCHESTER United haveappointed Sir AlexFerguson’s recommendationDavid Moyes to replace the71-year-old as manager at

Old Trafford. Moyes, out of contract at the endof the season, leaves Everton after 11 years incharge at Goodison Park.

The 50-year-old Scot has agreed a six-yeardeal and will replace Ferguson, whoannounced his retirement on Wednesday after26 years, on 1 July. “We unanimously agreedon David Moyes,” said Ferguson.

“There is no question he has all thequalities we expect of a manager at this club.”

Moyes, who will be introduced asUnited boss in “due course”, said it was “agreat honour” to be appointed as the newmanager of the Premier League champions.“I am delighted that Sir Alex saw fit torecommend me for the job. I have greatrespect for everything he has done and forthe football club. “I know how hard it willbe to follow the best manager ever, but theopportunity to manage Manchester Unitedisn’t something that comes around veryoften and I’m really looking forward totaking up the post next season.”

Moyes also paid tribute to current club

Everton and vowed to remain fully committeduntil the end of the season.

“I have had a terrific job at Everton, witha tremendous chairman and board of directors,and a great set of players. Between now andthe end of the season, I will do everything inmy power to make sure we finish as high aspossible in the table.

“Everton’s fantastic fans have played abig part in making my years at Goodison soenjoyable and I thank them wholeheartedlyfor the support they have given me and theplayers. Everton will be close to me for therest of my life.”

Everton said in a statement: “Thechairman, on behalf of the club, would like toplace on record his thanks to David for themassive contribution he has made to Evertonsince his arrival in March 2002. He has beenan outstanding manager.”

Moyes was installed as favourite to leaveEverton for United following a rush of betsover the weekend, even before speculationmounted about Ferguson’s retirement.

Ferguson, who stays at Old Trafford as adirector and ambassador, has had a closerelationship with his successor throughout hismanagerial career and considered appointinghim as his assistant when Moyes was in chargeat Preston North End.

Moyes had insisted he would make any

decision on his Everton future until the endof the season, but has now accepted thechallenge of succeeding the man many haveseen as his mentor.

He has won widespread acclaim forconsistently guiding Everton into the

upper reaches of the Premier League on alimited budget, including reaching thequalifying stages of the ChampionsLeague in 2005, when they lost to eventualsemi-finalists Villarreal.

Moyes has not won a trophy in his time at

Goodison Park but United’s hierarchy - and nodoubt Ferguson - have been impressed by thestability he has brought and his ability to keepEverton punching above their financial weight.

The second message posted on Man Utd’sFacebook page on Thursday afternoon.

AUgUSTAAGENCIES

MASTERSchampion AdamScott admits he hasbeen “floating inthe clouds” since

his win at Augusta, but has shunnedcelebrations as he focuses on moremajor titles.

Scott returns to action at ThePlayers Championship at Sawgrass onThursday, almost a month after hismemorable victory over AngelCabrera on the second play-off hole.

The 32-year-old has beenoverwhelmed by the reaction to hisfirst major triumph, which came ninemonths after squandering a four-shotlead with four holes to play in the OpenChampionship at Royal Lytham.Prime minister Julia Gillard wasamong those to congratulate Scott onbecoming the first Australian to win aGreen Jacket, but plans for acelebration back in Adelaide have beenput on hold. “I was very tempted to go

home but I talked it over with thepeople around me and we are in themiddle of the year,” Scott told a pre-tournament press conference. “It’s acause for celebration but we have aplan in place and hopefully it’s notgoing to stop with the Masters.

“I want to keep focused and tryand make this my biggest year yet. Ithink we can rustle up somecelebration when I get home at the endof the year.” “I’ve had a really nicebreak, which I had planned anyway,but it was even better because I wasfloating around on the clouds the lastthree weeks. It’s been anoverwhelming time for me, so manypeople reached out to me, I was blownaway. “I put the clubs away for a weeklonger than I normally would to justunwind and get away, but the last weekI had Brad [Malone] my coach backwith me on the range, we quickly gotback into it and after a couple of daysthe swing was still feeling good.

“You get itchy feet and are readyto get back out here and compete and Iam looking forward to this week. It’s a

nice week to come back because I havehad such a great run here over the years(becoming the youngest winner in2004). Hopefully I can take my headout of the clouds, come back down toearth and play some good golf.”

The world number three hadlooked set to break his major duck atLytham last year, only to bogey the lastfour holes to finish a shot behind ErnieEls, who birdied the 18th.

But he used that as motivation forthe rest of the season and carried thatinto this year’s Masters, where hebirdied the 72nd hole to seeminglyclinch victory and then repeated thetrick on the second play-off hole afterCabrera had matched his birdie on the18th to force extra holes.

“The Open was obviously adisappointing loss but it was amotivator and Bridgestone [the WGCInvitational] and the US PGA were justaround the corner,” Scott added. “I feltI had never swung the club as good asI did at the Open, it was a chance forme to go out at the PGA and right thewrong of Lytham.

scott to staygrounded afterMasters win

Manchester United appoint Everton bossWAYNE ROONEY NOT FOR SALE: MAN UNITEDDavid Moyes is facing his first major test as Manchester United

manager - and he has not even been appointed yet. It is

understood in an informal chat with Sir Alex Ferguson a couple

of weeks ago, Rooney suggested it would be better if he made

a fresh start away from Old Trafford. United have rejected the

idea out of hand and insisted: “Wayne Rooney is not for sale.”

However, it is thought Rooney has been unimpressed at being

asked to play out of position during the latter weeks of the

season and with Robin van Persie impressing in his debut

campaign, wondered whether he had a future at United.

Ferguson’s impending departure, coupled with Moyes’

impending arrival, brings Rooney back together with his first

boss at Everton. The rift caused by comments Rooney made

about Moyes in his autobiography has now been healed.

However, with two years remaining on his contract, United

must make a move or risk Rooney electing to let the deal run down and leave for nothing. That is an unpalatable prospect, yet

there have been suggestions Rooney will be asked to take a pay cut from the mega deal he signed in 2010 - days after handing

in a transfer request - which would not go down well either. Ferguson had not forgotten how Rooney effectively held the club to

ransom in the aftermath of Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit, something he vowed not to let happen again. SpoRtS DESK

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters swarm D Chowk during an address by party chief Imran Khan on Thursday. oNLINE

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi.

Friday, 10 May, 2013

ISLAMABADApp

THE Supreme Court of Pakistanon Thursday observed therewas a dire need to put energyemergency to overcome loadshedding in the country, as the

country had a capacity to generate 21,000 to22,000 Megawatts while the production wasmuch less than the capacity. A three-memberbench headed by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry resumed hearing in a

suo moto case regarding load shedding andenergy crisis in the country.

The bench noted that even though thecountry had a capacity to generate electricity,what elements were creating obstacles to dothe needful. The CJP remarked that no onewas serious in tackling the issue which wasthe most crucial thing at the moment. “Thereis a need to put energy emergency in thecountry to meet the demands”, the CJP stated.During the course of proceeding, AdvocateIftikhar Gilani apprised the court that PEPCOManaging Director Zaigham had been given

additional charge of National Transmission &Dispatch Company (NTDC) Limited, thusbeing overburdened. He said he would submitthe report in next hearing. Representative ofAlternate Energy Development Board(AEDB) informed the court that internation-ally solar and wind energy sources werecheaper compared to the others. The CJP saidnothing had been done by the board and allthings were only on paper, as the board hadonly installed a few wind mills in Sindh andnothing else. He questioned that why theywere not focusing on geo-thermal energy pro-

duction. The AEDB representative repliedthat this technique was not appreciated inter-nationally, even by India, where they weregenerating 18,000MW from wind, 3,000MWfrom hydro and 1,000MW from solar energy.The CJP said the only thing needed was sin-cerity. He said if they were facing any prob-lem regarding law making, the board shouldconsult the government and show their seri-ousness. The PEPCO MD apprised the courtthat at the moment the total power productionin the country was 10,131MW while theshortage was 3,500MW.

The CJP said it was beyond under-standing why there was a shortage whenthe total capacity of electricity generationwas 22,000MW. The PEPCO MD said itwas due to power theft and pilferage bythe people. Later, the court issued noticesto the finance secretary regarding the fi-nancial burden on the economy on gener-ating electricity. The court also issuednotices to SNGPL and SSGC to apprisethe court regarding gas load managementin the country and adjourned further hear-ing for a week.

ISLAMABADANwER AbbAS

An official from the Overseas PakistanisFoundation (OPF), who was supposed tofile an inquiry report in the Supreme Court(SC) in connection with the vast irregular-ities and financial miss-appropriations inOPF, has been reportedly removed fromhis position on directions of interim Fed-eral Minister for Overseas PakistanisFeroz Jamal Kakakhel, prior to submissionof the inquiry report, Pakistan today haslearnt reliably.

Syed Khalid Ali Raza Gardaizi, whowas earlier in the Establishment Division,was on deputation in OFP serving asHuman Resource and Administration DGsince March 2012. Following a high-levelinquiry in March 2000, a detailed report

comprising 57 pages was compiled regard-ing massive irregularities, corruption andfinancial miss-appropriations in OPF;however, the report was later dumped andefforts were made to hide the issue.

Later, in light of the apex court’s direc-tives, Gardaizi took up the issue andsearched for the report of the said inquiryso it could be presented before the court.While he was involved in efforts to recoverthe file and present it in court by May 27,he was removed from his position, al-legedly because some powerful blue eyedofficials close to the caretaker ministerwere not in favour of giving life to thedead issue. Gardaizi was henceforth re-moved from his position on directions ofthe OPF minister.

Deciding not to bow down before cor-ruption and injustice, Gardaizi has filed a

plea in SC against the decision of hisforced removal. The inquiry committeethat probed the massive irregularities inOPF focused on service/personnel mattersand development projects. The report hadsaid the OPF management over the yearsdid not adhere to the prescribed proceduresunder the OPF service rules in initial re-cruitment, promotion, absorption and var-ious other matters. The committeementioned in the report that it had discov-ered several cases that reflected politicalinfluence, favouritism/ nepotism or out-right negligence on part of the administra-tion.

It also said a large number of inade-quately qualified officers had been re-cruited, resulting in an overall poorperformance of the organisation. The com-mittee also recommended termination of

officers who were recruited without meritincluding M A Sherazi (Director), KhawarNoor (Joint Director), Abrar Ahmed Awan(Joint Director), Mohammad Azam (Su-perintendent), Tahir Ali Mirza (WelfareOfficer), Salahiddin M Hasani (GM), A AAsad Khan (GM), Salim Iqbal (Joint Di-rector), Malik Javed Akhtar (Joint Direc-tor), Mustafa Haider (Assistant Director),Ashfaq Ahmed Sheikh (Welfare Officer),Mashkoor Haider (Superintendent),Chaudhry Jamshed Akhtar (Assistant Di-rector), Zafar Khan (Deputy Director),Waqar Aziz (Assistant Director) and SaifurRehman Khan (GM). In addition, the in-quiry committee also recommended rever-sion of promotions of 23 employees whowere promoted in violation of rules, andcalled for action against those who werebehind the illegal promotions.

GovT foiledPlans TosaboTaGePolls: niZaMi

ISLAMABADStAFF REpoRt

Caretaker Information and BroadcastingMinister Arif Nizami on Thursday re-vealed that some forces were trying tosabotage the election process by target-ing a specific political party in Karachibut the interim government had foiledtheir nefarious designs through coordi-nated efforts with the law enforcementagencies. The information ministercalled upon the masses to come out onthe polling day to play their role for thedevelopment of the nation. “The gov-ernment has made all arrangements forholding the general elections in a fair‚free and transparent way,” he said. Hesaid Pakistan came into being throughthe power of vote and exercising theright to vote by every citizen was neces-sary to take the country forward on thepath of progress and prosperity. The in-formation minister said that governmentwas making utmost efforts to providesecurity to candidates and the votersand all available resources are beingutilised in this regard. He said there wascomplete coordination and harmonyamong the federal and the provincialgovernments and the law enforcementagencies. The information minister saidthe pledge of the caretaker governmentto hold free and fair election was reach-ing its logical end and expressed thehope that the election process would becompleted smoothly. He called upon themasses to play their role to defeat thenegative forces, saying it was a fight be-tween right and wrong and by comingout on Election Day, the masses coulddefeat the anti-state forces. To a ques-tion‚ the minister said that it was a goodomen that nationalist parties were tak-ing part in election in Balochistan,adding that their participation in theelections would yield positive results.To a question regarding the kidnappingof PPP candidate Ali Haider Gilani‚ theinformation minister said the govern-ment was fully conscious of the issueand the provincial government was in-vestigating into the incident. To a ques-tion‚ Nizami said security arrangementshad been made for international journal-ists and observers and government wasfully facilitating journalists covering theelection activities.

sc for ‘energy emergency’ to overcome load shedding

OPF DG FIRED FOR TAKING UP INQUIRY BEFORE SC

ISLAMABADStAFF REpoRt

President Asif Ali Zardari onThursday approved and signed theElectoral Laws (Amendment) Or-dinance, 2013 to facilitate over-seas Pakistanis to cast their votefrom abroad.

Giving details of the ordi-nance, the spokesman to the pres-ident, Senator Farhatullah Babarsaid the ordinance provides that atleast 14 days before the day fixed

for poll abroad, the Election Com-mission of Pakistan shall set uppolling stations with as manypolling booths as maybe neces-sary in the premises of an em-bassy, a mission or a consulateprovided that the Ministry of For-eign Affairs has obtained consentof the host countries for establish-ment of the polling stations.

He added that the ordinancesays that an overseas Pakistani,not later than 10 days before theday fixed for poll abroad, register

himself as an elector in the em-bassy, mission or consulate wherehe intends to cast his vote.

“To ensure the conduct offree, fair and transparent poll, theElection Commission of Pakistanshall appoint as many independentmonitors as necessary at a pollingstation abroad,” Babar quoted theordinance as stating. He said theordinance shall come into force atonce but shall take effect on thedate or dates to be notified by theECP in the official gazette.

sc issues conTeMPTnoTice To PreMierISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday issuedcontempt of court notices to caretaker Prime Minister (PM) MirHazar Khan Khoso, the establishment secretary and principalsecretary to PM in transfer of grade-20 officers’ case, seekingreply from them within seven days. A three-member bench ofthe SC headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja heard the case.The petitioner Shafqat Naghmi presented a list of 20 officers inthe court who were transferred during March. The court in itssuo moto notice had directed the federal government andestablishment division to explain as to why transfer orders wereissued despite court orders. Making transfers in this way isbreach of law and constitution, the court said. The detailsprovided to the court reflect that the court’s orders have beenviolated since the caretaker government was not authorised tomake these transfers, the court noted. The hearing of the casewas adjourned for one week.oNLINE

President gives overseasPakistanis right to vote

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