e-paper pakistantoday 14th january, 2012

No threat to democracy,parliament session was unwarranted, says Nisar

PAGE 04

Samsung Galaxy SIIversus the iPhone 4S –battle for supremacy

PROFIT | PAGE 04

pakistantoday.com.pkrs15.00 vol II no 198 22 pages Islamabad — peshawar edition saturday, 14 january, 2012 safar 19, 1433

ISLAMABAD/LAHOREMIAN ABRAR/ShAfIq ShARIf

EELING the heat from theorder of a five-member benchof the Supreme Court, Na-tional Accountability Bureau(NAB) Chairman Admiral (r)

Fasih Bokhari started implementing theapex court orders against the NationalReconciliation Ordinance (NRO) on Fri-day and cases against all beneficiaries ofthe controversial law were reopened.

The arrests of a close aide of Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari and a close friendand former jail-mate of Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani by the accountabilitywatchdog came as a huge surprise, as Ad-miral (r) Bokhari had told the apex courtduring the last hearing of the NRO imple-mentation case only a few days ago thathe would not implement the verdict.

Within a single day, not only noticeswere issued to several accused people butalso big fish such as former Oil and GasDevelopment Company Limited(OGDCL) chairman Adnan Khwaja, for-mer establishment secretary IsmailQureshi and former joint director of theFederal Investigation Agency (FIA)Ahmed Riaz Shaikh - a close confidant ofPresident Zardari - were questioned and

detained, while the hunt was on for oth-ers.

A team of the NAB Special Opera-tions Wing took Qureshi, currently prin-cipal of the National School of PublicPolicy, in custody late on Friday nightwhile he was in a meeting at his office.

Sources close to Qureshi’s family toldPakistan Today that the NAB team ar-

rested Qureshi only half an hour afterPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani hadleft the school after meeting him.

Sources said Qureshi resisted arrestand informed the raiding party that hehad filed a writ petition for pre-arrest bailin the Lahore High Court and the LHC CJhad referred his matter to Justice Man-zoor for further action. Sources said the

raiding team did not pay heed to hiswords and took him into custody, sayingthey had clear orders to arrest him.Qureshi was arrested for his alleged in-volvement in financial embezzlement atthe National School of Public Policy.Qureshi was taken to the NAB Punjab

g NAB springs into action, arrests high-profile NRO beneficiaries, includingAhmed Riaz and Adnan Khawaja g Ismail Qureshi detained despite bail

ISLAMABADStAff RePoRt

While the government made hecticefforts on Friday to woo the oppositionparties to support its resolution infavour of democracy and parliament,Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani saidthe government would prefer to go tothe people rather than ask anyone to“save us from the NRO or the army”,suggesting that the resolution was nottabled to protect his government but insupport of parliament. Throughout hisspeech in the National Assembly, Gilanimade several indirect attacks against thejudiciary and the armed forces but didnot make any specific remarks againsteither institution. Interestingly, thespeech was punctuated by politicaltwists, contradictions and somersaults.While the desperate-looking primeminister sought the oppositions’ supportfor the resolution, he said he did notneed a vote of confidence as he was aunanimously elected prime minister.

Opp to convinceZardari to stepdown ahead of polls

ISLAMABADtAhIR NIAz

As the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-ledopposition parties decided on Friday toconvince President Asif Ali Zardari to stepdown ahead of the next general elections tomake the election process transparent, theyalso agreed to adopt a cautious approachand avoid any confrontation with thegovernment so that no third force could takeadvantage of the political chaos. The topleadership of the opposition parties met onFriday at a lunch hosted by PML-N chiefNawaz Sharif amidst efforts to unite at oneplatform and form a grand alliance to pushthe incumbent political dispensation out ofpower. A participant of the meeting toldPakistan Today that the oppositionleadership had decided to convince Zardarito step down ahead of the next generalelections to make them credible. However,he added, the opposition would not push thegovernment to the extent where a third partycould take advantage of the situation. Themeeting also expected a “changed” attitudefrom the main ruling party to avoid anyconfrontation with army and judiciary that,they feared, could change the wholespectrum of politics. A source said it wasJamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chiefFazlur Rehman who proposed that all theopposition parties should convince Zardarito step down ahead of elections. The meetingwas held at a time when the government haslocked horns with the army and judiciary ona number of issues and facing legalchallenges emanating from a warning by theSupreme Court to implement its order in theNRO case. Fazl, Jamaat-e-Islami chief SyedMunawar Hassan, former JI chief QaziHussain Ahmed, PkMAP chief MahmoudKhan Achakzai, Hasil Bizenjo, PPP-S chiefAftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Sajid Mir,Gohar Ayub Khan, Salim Saifullah and ProfKhurshid Ahmed attended the meeting,which is being considered the biggest andmost serious anti-government gathering inthe recent days. Another source said themajority of the opposition leaders were ofthe opinion that the opposition should adopta cautious approach to push the governmentfor early elections and rejected the proposalsgiven by Nawaz which called for a no-trustmotion against the government, long marchor en-mass resignation from the parliament.Talking to reporters after the meeting, PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said theparticipants of the meeting agreed on fivebasic points, however, they would take afinal decision in this regard soon. The pointsincluded: the government should announceelections immediately, electoral rolls mustbe completed as soon as possible, alldecisions of the Supreme Court must beimplemented and an independent electioncommission and a neutral caretakergovernment be formed. The meeting askedthe government to avoid confrontation withstate institutions.

nA resolution callsfor adherence to trichotomy principle


Fearing the democratic system may comeunder threat, the government on Fridaytabled a resolution in the National Assemblythat calls for adherence to the principle oftrichotomy of powers and expects all stateinstitutions to strictly function within thelimits imposed on them by the constitution.The resolution was moved by AwamiNational Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar WaliKhan. The draft resolution was tableddespite strong reservations from theopposition benches, to get endorsed fromthe House the efforts made by the politicalleadership for strengthening democracy inthe country. The draft resolution, whichremained the topic of discussion in theHouse for a considerable time, created aclear division between the treasury andopposition, with one side seeing no harm init and the other terming it absolutelyunwarranted. The resolution was redraftedto the acceptability of the opposition as thetwo sides continued divergent arguments onthe issue, but the draft could not convincethe leader of the opposition to change hisstance on the move. The resolution said:“This House believes that the presentdemocratic dispensation, which is about tocomplete four years, came into being as

Govt would rather go downthan beg for help: Gilanig PM says resolution not meant to protect his govt but in support of parliamentg Says he does not need vote of confidence as he is a unanimously elected PM

NEPRA approves Rs 3.01 perunit hike for LESCO, QESCOISLAMABAD: The National ElectricPower Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) onFriday approved an increase of up to Rs3.01 per unit in the power tariff for LahoreElectric Supply Company (LESCO) andQuetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO).NEPRA said the increase had beenapproved for the current financial year.Power tariff for lifeline consumers had beenraised by Re 1 per unit, other categories ofdomestic consumers by 50 paisas to Rs 3.01per unit, commercial consumers by Rs 2per unit, industrial consumers by Rs 2.60per unit and agricultural consumers by Rs1.50 per unit. Online

ContInued on page 04

gIlanI, kayanI to meet over memo | page 24


mQm undeCIded, pml-Q wIll support | page 02


adnan khwajaahmed rIaz shaIkhIsmaIl QureshI

ISLAMABAD: Prime

Minister Yousaf

Raza Gilani greets

opposition leader

Chaudhry Nisar Ali

Khan after the NA

session. Online

No Aussie uranium for Pakistan, says Julia Gillard

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PDF E-Paper ISB_Layout 1 1/14/2012 1:44 AM

02Saturday, 14 January, 2012

News

Today’s

lookQuick

ISLAMABAD

Story on Page 06

NEwS

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CArtooN

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Chinese troupe mesmerises audience at PNCA Govt planning to buy new planes to make PIA profitable

ECP announces by-polls on

six seats on February 20ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) onFriday fixed February 20 for holding by-elections on five NationalAssembly and one provincial assembly seats. The seats were vacatedby Shah Mehmood Qureshi (NA-148), Javed Hashmi (NA-149), SardarAseff Ahmed Ali (NA-140), Jahangir Khan Tareen (NA-195) andKhawaja Muhammad Khan Hoti (NA-9). All these heavyweightpoliticians had tendered their resignation to join Imran Khan’sPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. According to a statement by the ECP,nomination papers will be received on January 19 and 20. On January23 and 24, returning officers will scrutinise the nomination papers, itsaid. Appeals against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers willbe received until January 26, while February will be the day forwithdrawal of candidature, the statement said. The revised list ofcontesting candidates will be published on February 3, the ECP said,adding that polling will be held on February 20. The ECP will alsoconduct election for a Punjab Assembly seat, PP-44, which becamevacant due to the death of Mir Amir Hayat Khan Rokhari. StAff RePoRt

IHC stays recruitment of NA

section officersISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday restrainedthe senior staff of the National Assembly from recruiting 37 sectionofficers after receiving a petition by 40 superintendents working in thelower house. Justice Azim Khan Afridi was hearing the plea submittedby the petitioners’ lawyer Mohammad Qamar Afzal. The petitionincluded the NA speaker, secretary and others as respondents. Afzaltold the court that the authorities had advertised 37 vacant posts ofsection officers in the national press, despite the fact that they weretraditionally filled through departmental promotions. He said thatappointments on the basis of the advertisement would deprive theexisting staff of the long-awaited promotions. He requested the courtto declare the recruitment process illegal and direct the authorities topromote the existing staff in accordance with the rules and regulations.Deputy Attorney General Mohammad Abid Raja appeared on behalf ofthe federation and said the authorities could hire new eligiblecandidates for the positions of section officers. However, after hearingarguments from both sides, the court ordered the authorities not totake any step that could harm the interest of the petitioners andadjourned the hearing for one week. StAff RePoRt

Musharraf stresses political

solution to defuse crisis MULTAN: Former presidentPervez Musharraf on Friday saidimposing a martial law was not theright step to correct the prevailingsituation, adding that a politicalsolution had to be found. During atelephonic address to journalists atthe Multan Press Club Musharrafsaid if the people elected the rightleadership in the next election, itwould steer the country out of thecrises. He said the two major partieshad ruled several times in thecountry and they had failed. “Nowthe people will have to go to a new

leadership minus these two parties,” he said. He said Saraiki provincewas a reality, adding that the province was already present in thecountry. He said the media should be free and was playing its due rolein the country. “I had trust in the media during my rule and I still trustit,” he added. To a question, Musharraf said the NRO case was sub-judice. “I don’t want to offer any comment on the prime minister’sstatement with respect to eth NRO. oNLINe

ISLAMABADMIAN ABRAR

Of the two major allies of the ruling Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP), the PakistanMuslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has de-cided to support the resolution tabled byAwami National Party (ANP) chief As-fandyar Wali Khan but the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) is still unde-cided on whether or not to support themove.

Though the treasury benches hadchanged the draft of the resolution sev-eral times under pressure from the al-lied parties, yet the MQM is unclearabout its decision. The ANP had pre-sented the resolution in support ofdemocracy and adherence to the princi-ple of trichotomy to ensure balance be-tween the three organs of the state.MQM spokesperson Wasay Jalil saidthe party would finalise its decision onthe resolution by Sunday.

Parliamentarians from the Feder-ally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)had also assured the government oftheir support, while the opposition par-ties were yet to decide their strategy. APML-Q leader told Pakistan Today that

his party would support the resolutionon Monday, when voting would be con-ducted in the assembly. Later, PML-QPresident Shujaat Hussain told a privatetelevision that his party was part of thegovernment and that it would supportthe resolution. He said the temperaturebetween the army and the governmenthad lowered during the past few days.He said those who wanted a clash be-tween institutions would be disap-pointed. Responding to a question,Shujaat said he had not met the armychief yet, but the matters would returnto normalcy within a week.


A committee formed by the cabinet on Fri-day decided to reduce the GST on tractorindustry from 16 percent to 5 percent sothat the prices of tractors could be broughtwithin the purchasing range of small land-holders.

The committee meeting was chaired byMinister for Industries and Defence Pro-duction Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and was at-tended by Minister for Kashmir Affairs andGilgit-Baltistan Manzoor Wattoo, Ministerfor Religious Affairs Khursheed Shah, In-dustries Secretary Aziz Ahmad Bilour, FBRChairman Salman Siddique and represen-tatives of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited(ZTBL), tractor and Pakistan Association ofAutomotive Parts and Accessories Manu-facturers.

Elahi said a reduction in the rate of GSTon tractors was a win-win situation for allstakeholders and would help low-incomefarmers to adopt modern ways of farming.

He said mechanisation of agriculturewas the need of the hour and low-pricedfarm machinery would attract more andmore farmers to upgrade their old and in-efficient farming techniques.

Representatives of tractor and its ven-dor industry met Elahi in Lahore on Thurs-day and the minister promised to resolvetheir issues.

He also directed the representatives ofthe ZTBL to resume bank leasing of thetractors on easy installments to farmers towhich they agreed.

The meeting was informed that suspen-sion of bank leasing on tractors was alsoone of the reasons of drop in sales of trac-tors.

Elahi said the decrease in GST wouldcut the prices of tractors by rs 60,000 to Rs90,000 which would boost sales and rev-enue for the Government.

He said the economy of Pakistan heav-ily banked on the agricultural sector of thecountry “therefore every step will taken tomodernise and mechanise it”.

Bombay HC okays Pak

judicial commission’s

visit in FebruaryNEW DELHI

INP

The Bombay High Court has given its consentto a Pakistani judicial commission to interviewkey people linked to the probe of the 2008Mumbai terror attacks. The High Court hasinformed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)that in-principle approval for the visit of thePakistani judicial commission has been givenand the team may come in first week ofFebruary. The MHA will soon convey thecourt’s approval for the visit to Pakistanthrough diplomatic channels, official sourcessaid. However, it is not clear when thedelegation’s visit will actually take place. Thecommission will take the statements ofAdditional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RVSawant Waghule and Investigating OfficerRamesh Mahale, who have recorded theconfessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, the lonesurviving terrorist involved in the attack. Thiswould help the commission pursue the case athome. It also wanted to take the statements ofthe two doctors who carried out thepostmortem of the terrorists killed during theattack. Pakistan has already issued a gazettenotification on the formation of the judicialcommission and has listed the members whowill represent Pakistan government.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif AliZardari arrived home from Dubaiearly on Friday, officials said. Apresidential official said Zardarireturned in the early hours ofFriday after a brief visit to attenda wedding. “The president arrivedat 5:00am after attending awedding in Dubai and he is inIslamabad now,” FarhatullahBabar told AFP. AfP

MQM undecided, PMl-Q to

support AnP’s resolution

Zardari back from Dubai

Govt decides to reduceGST on tractor industryfrom 16% to 5%

KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami activists stage a sit-in

demonstration outside Police Headquarters on II

Chundrigar Road against the alleged kidnapping

of their party colleagues on Friday. Online



NewsCoMMENtonly rational course

Articles on Page 12-13

The PPP should obey the SC’s orders.

on Saleem ShehzadA crime without a perpetrator.

Arif Nizami says:Life is unfair: Pakistani politics, even more so.

White Lies:At a wedding in Dubai, President Musharraf was the one that drew the greatestcrowd among “politicians”. If this is the kind of warm response he gets at publicgatherings then his belief and regular statements that he is “popular in Pakistan”are quite understandable.

ForEIGN NEwS

Story on Page 14

ArtS & ENtErtAINMENtMadonna breaks silence on Gaga ‘Born this Way’ controversy

Story on Page 17

SPortSWarner wallops clueless India

Story on Page 18

Court orders new psychiatric evaluation of Norway gunman


TH E Supreme Court on Fridaygranted more time to formerlaw minister and senior lawyerBabar Awan to engage a lawyerto defend him in a contempt of

court case.A two-member SC bench comprising

Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and JusticeMuhammad Ather Saeed had taken up acontempt of court case against Awan.

Appearing on notice, Awan requestedthe court to grant him more time to engagea counsel. He said he deemed it appropri-ate to appear before the court along withhis counsel. He said he also wanted to filehis reply to the contempt notice throughhis lawyer.

The court granted him until February 2to engage a lawyer, observing that, “Wehope he will behave with caution in themeantime”.

“What have you been doing for so manydays?” Justice Saeed asked Awan, whoreplied, “I have some responsibilities toshoulder as I am parliamentarian… I amnot going anywhere”, he said.

Earlier on January 4, the court had is-sued contempt of court notices to Awan

and another four PPP leaders, includingtwo sitting ministers for holding a ‘con-temptuous’ press conference at the PressInformation Department, which had cate-gorically rejected the Supreme Court’s De-cember 1, 2011 decision in the ‘memo’ case.

Just after being served the notice, Awanagain spoke to the media and recited a cou-plet in Punjabi meaning that “nothing hap-pened despite issuance of a notice. Whycomplain to the darling and not welcomeit”.

On January 5, the court abruptly put offthe hearing of the presidential reference forrevisiting the death sentence awarded toformer prime minister and PPP founderZulfikar Ali Bhutto, and issued anothershow cause notice to Awan, asking him toexplain and file a reply until January 9 ex-plaining why his licence to practice law atthe Supreme Court should not be cancelledfor ridiculing the SC time and again.

On January 9, the court had adjournedfor an indefinite period the hearing of thecontempt case due to the demise of fatherof Justice Nasirul Mulk, a member of the11-judge bench, hearing the presidentialreference for revisiting the death sentenceawarded to former prime minister and PPPfounder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Besides, Awan, the contempt noticeswere issued to Minister for Religious Af-fairs Khurshid Shah, Qamar Zaman Kaira,Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awanand Adviser to Prime Minister FarooqAwan for addressing the controversialpress conference.


Interior Minister Rehman Malik and In-formation Minister Firdous Ashiq Awanon Friday announced that tensions be-tween state institutions had been re-moved, and the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) government would complete itstenure.

Talking to reporters outside the Par-liament House, the two ministers saidthe PPP government did not believe inconfrontation with other institutions ofthe state. Awan said the people hadelected the PPP for a period of five years,

and the next elections would be held ontime.

She said misunderstandings createdby some elements among the institutionswould soon be removed. In response to aquestion, she said the Defence CabinetCommittee would discuss the NATO re-port on the attack on Pakistani borderposts in November.

Meanwhile, the interior minister saidthat tensions between state institutionshad been defused, and the issues wouldbe resolved in a week’s time. He tried todispel the notion that there was any fric-tion between the government and theSupreme Court and military. He said the

institutions did not want confrontationand that the present situation was “justa reflection of the transition to democ-racy”.

When asked why the PPP allies hadnot supported the original draft of thegovernment’s proposed resolution,Malik said that difference of opinionwas the democratic right of a personand the government’s allies had sup-ported the efforts for the continuationof democracy. Responding to anotherquestion, the minister said there was nosecurity threat to Mansoor Ijaz and hewould be provided security during hisstay in the country.

Awan gets more time to engage lawyer in contempt caseg Former law minister says he wants to file his reply to notice through lawyer

Awan, Malik deny confrontation

between state institutions

PIR JO GOTHINP

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Fri-day called for the unification of all factions ofthe Muslim League in Sindh, as he offered hiscondolences to the family of Pir Sahib Pagara.

Shahbaz said that Pagara’s death had cre-ated a void in Pakistani politics which wouldbe difficult to fill. He said that he had come tooffer condolences on behalf of the people ofPunjab and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. He said Pir Pagara was a great spiri-

tual leader and a prominent politician whomade great sacrifices for Pakistan whichwould be remembered for the time to come.

He refused to respond to the statementsof Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and saidit was time to get rid of a government that hadtaken the country to the brink of disaster.

The Punjab CM said unemployment andpoverty were on the rise while there was noelectricity and gas leading to the closure of in-dustries. He said corruption was rampant inthe country and it had become difficult for anordinary person to feed his family.

DG ISI turned memo into

a public issue: AsmaLAHORE: Asma Jahangir,former president of theSupreme Court Bar Association(SCBA), on Saturday held thechief of the Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) responsiblefor publicising the memo issue.Speaking at the inaugural of abook on famous poet HabibJalib, she said the controversywas not known publicly untilISI chief General Ahmad ShujaPasha had met Pakistani-American businessmanMansoor Ijaz. She said that

Ijaz’s arrival in Pakistan to testify before the judicialcommission would make no difference, and the scandal would“end into nothing”. About the ongoing standoff between thestate organs, she said that she felt the judiciary was not freeand “the sound of army boots” continues to be heard. She saidthe establishment in Pakistan “influences elections and worksonly for its own interests”. NNI

Shahbaz urges unification of

all PMl factions in Sindh



News

Reacting to OppositionLeader Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan’s remarks that the op-position did not have confi-dence in the government,the prime minister said itwas not a matter of confi-dence or no-confidence, asit was all about the demo-cratic process. He alsourged the opposition to getthe constitution amended toreduce the tenure of thegovernment and parliamentfrom five to four years ifthey did not like, him but noone else should tell the gov-ernment to go before theend of its term.

“We would support thisamendment. Why shouldany other institution tell usto leave after four years?This is the right of parlia-ment, so you should bringan amendment to reducethe term of the prime minis-ter and the parliament tofour years,” he said. He alsobrushed aside the impres-sion that the ruling partywanted to trigger a con-frontation between the stateinstitutions and commit po-litical suicide. “We don’twant confrontation betweenthe state institutions nor is(political) martyrdom ourobjective. We also did notcome here to get your rec-ommendations in supportof the National Reconcilia-tion Ordinance (NRO) andwe will also not beg for yoursupport to save us from thearmy. We have reached thispoint after a struggle,” hesaid, adding that the resolu-tion was aimed at strength-ening parliament.

Seeking support from

the opposition for the reso-lution moved by the treas-ury benches, Gilani said thelawmakers should gel to-gether to strengthen parlia-ment as even “crows getunited in difficult times”. Inorder to persuade PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) members to sup-port the resolution, Gilanireminded them how all the17 judges of the SupremeCourt had gathered at nighton a “misinformation” thathe was going to de-notifythe judges who had been re-stored. “This news wasmore of a misinformationand absurd but they all gottogether. It happens as evencrows get together in diffi-cult times. On my assur-ance, the judges asked me tostate in writing that theywould not be de-notified infuture. But I told them thatthey were released on myverbal orders in my firstspeech, even though I hadnot taken oath after beingelected. They were restoredon my executive order. Itold them that they wouldhave to believe on verbal as-surance of an elected primeminister, but I would notgive this in writing,” hesaid.

Gilani also said he wasbooked under treasoncharges for supportingChief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry andhad no regrets for that. “Butthis cannot happen that weask you to reopen the ZABhutto case and you term ustraitors. Even the judge whogave verdict against Bhuttoadmitted in his book that itwas judicial murder,” he

added. The prime minister was

interrupted with cried of“No, no” by his own col-leagues when he remindedthe PML-N members thatlike them, the Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) membershad also faced brutal torturein their struggle for demo-cratic order in the country.

“We, like you, were alsosubjected to lashes whilestruggling for democracy,”he said, but was interruptedby his colleagues who re-minded the prime ministerthat none of the PML-Nmen had fought against theautocracy of General ZiaulHaq in the 1970s. It is, how-ever, a historical fact thatthe prime minister’s elderswere with the PML in the70s. Gilani immediatelycorrected himself by statingthat though no PML-N lead-ers had to face lashes, butpeople like MakhdoomJaved Hashmi were sub-jected to torture along withhim in jail for the cause ofdemocracy. He said it wasto his government’s creditthat for the first time in thecountry’s history, the armychief and the ISI DG hadbeen made accountable toparliament.

Referring to the resolu-tion, moved in the NationalAssembly by Awami Na-tional Party (ANP) chief As-fandyar Wali Khan, theprime minister said the res-olution was not against anyinstitution but meant tosupport the democraticprocess and continuity ofthe parliamentary system inthe country.

Even though he vowed

that he would never seekhelp from the opposition,Gilani said urged the oppo-sition to support parlia-ment. “You should protectyourself, you should protectthe parliament,” he said.

He also said the NROwas not drafted by the PPPbut no one was talkingabout its creator. “Now thesame dictator is talkingabout returning to the coun-try as the people want himback,” he said in a tauntingtone. “Let us decide that ei-ther there will be democracyor there will be dictatorshipin the country,” he said,adding that his governmentmight have made mistakesbut parliament should notbe punished for the wrong-doings of the government.Recalling the removal ofPML-N government in Oc-tober 1999, Gilani said itwas also a conspiracyagainst an elected govern-ment that enjoyed a two-thirds majority.

“Let me tell you even ifmy government is sentpacking and any new stageis set up, neither the oppo-sition nor we will be givenpower. We are politicalworkers. We may commitmistakes but democracyshould not suffer,” headded. Gilani said al-though the treasurybenches had majority inthe House, he did not wantto bulldoze the resolutionthrough but wanted to takethe opposition along. Hesaid since the oppositionwanted some time, the vot-ing on the resolution maybe held on Monday toachieve consensus.

Government would ratherContInued from page 1

Office at Thokar Niaz Baigalong with Khwaja, wherethey will both be detainedfor one night and will bemoved to Rawalpindi earlyon Saturday (today) inorder to present them incourt.

The arrest of Shaikhmay jolt the presidentialcamp as the president hadpardoned him earlier.Shaikh was been ap-pointed FIA additional di-rector general despitebeing an NRO beneficiary.The Supreme Court hadtaken notice of the issueand on orders from thecourt, he was rearrestedby the police. He was sen-tenced to 14 years inprison on 2001 on chargesof corruption, but he ben-efitted from the NRO.While he was in jail, notonly did important Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP)personalities meet him,but the president alsogranted general pardon toall the prisoners to gethim out of jail.

Adnan Khwaja, who isnot only an NRO benefici-ary but also a jail-mate ofPrime Minister Gilani, wasfirst appointed theOGDCL director generaland was subsequently re-moved after the SupremeCourt took suo motu no-tice of the appointment.He is an FA-pass individ-ual without any relevantexperience who was ap-pointed OGDCL’s manag-ing director on September9, 2010 in clear violationof the rules.

Arrest warrants wereissued for around half adozen accused and it wasexpected that more arrestswould be made soon. Asource in NAB told Pak-istan Today that the bu-reau’s chief hadreactivated the SpecialOperations Wing only afew days ago. Arrest war-rants were issued by theNAB’s Rawalpindi and La-hore offices against thosewho had benefited fromthe NRO or else werewanted on directions from

the apex court. He saidKhwaja and Shaikh hadappeared before NAB of-fices and were detainedwhile arrest warrantsagainst others were is-sued.

In its verdict in theNRO implementation caselast week, the five-mem-ber bench headed by Jus-tice Asif Saeed Khosa hadquestioned the attitude ofthe NAB chairman,terming it “defianceagainst the court” asBokhari had reportedly re-fused to implement theverdict. The warrants wereissued against Qureshi,Shaikh, Tahir Shahbaz,Raja Ahsen, Akhlaq Jillaniand RA Zia. The sourcesaid efforts were on to ar-rest others who had failedto appear before NAB.Qureshi was the establish-ment secretary whenKhwaja was appointedOGDCL chief, while TahirShahbaz was additionalsecretary and RA Zia wasserving as the Cabinet Di-vision deputy secretary.

nABBeDContInued from page 1

ISLAMABAD StAff RePoRt

National Assembly Opposi-tion Leader and senior Pak-istan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)leader Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan said on Friday therewas no threat to democracyand parliament, rather thegovernment wanted to usethe House for its own inter-ests.

Speaking on a point oforder in the National As-sembly, he strongly ob-jected to summoning asession in urgency andwithout taking the opposi-tion parties into confidence,saying he was unable to un-derstand what forced thegovernment to summon asitting and pass a resolutionas there was no threat toparliament or democracy.

Nisar rejected the gov-

ernment’s intention to seekparliament’s confidence inthe prime minister and thepresident at this juncture,questioning whether theopposition moved a no-con-fidence motion against thepremier or had any of theallies quit the government,which prompted it to pass aresolution in the House infavour of the government.“I am unable to understandwhy the government wishesthe parliament to expressconfidence in it at this par-ticular juncture,” he added.“We have no confidence inthe government and still itis expecting that we will re-pose confidence in it,” hesaid.

He also termed thedraft resolution unwar-ranted and added that thegovernment’s failures werethe real threat to the sys-tem. He said the govern-

ment never summoned asession to discuss inflationor load shedding, neitherdid it summon sessionsafter the Abbottabad inci-dent and the NATO attack.“Let us know whom it is youfear so much… Why do youwant to use this House forpersonal interests?” headded.

He said the SupremeCourt decision in the Na-tional Reconciliation Ordi-nance (NRO) case could notbe discussed in the House.He said if the governmenthad some administrative is-sues with the army, it wasnot worthy of being dis-cussed in the House either.

Nisar made it clear thatthe opposition would not letthe government use theHouse to advance its per-sonal agenda as the opposi-tion also had options toblock it. The PML-N leader

said it was for the first timein the history of the countrythat no one from the oppo-sition was supporting anyundemocratic or unconsti-tutional change.

Nisar also came downhard on one of the federalcabinet members, saying hetried to malign the PML-Nleadership. Without nam-ing the PPP minister, Nisarwarned that if he continuedwith his maligning cam-paign, the other side willalso come up with some“stories and documents”.

Replying to Nisar, Re-ligious Affairs MinisterSyed Khurshid Shah saidthe session was sum-moned to debate whatwas being discussed out-side parliament. Hesought the opposition’ssupport for the resolutionas “it must be undisputedand unanimous”.

a result of great sacrificesrendered by the people ofPakistan. This House reiter-ates the belief of the demo-cratic forces that the future ofPakistan and well-being of itspeople lies in the continua-tion and strengthening ofdemocratic institutions andconstitutionalism for the res-olution of national issues,strengthening of the federa-tion and empowering thepeople of Pakistan.”

It further said: “This

House believes that for thefurtherance of democracyand democratic institutionsthe basic constitutional prin-ciple of trichotomy of powersmust be fully respected andadhered to and all state insti-tutions must strictly functionwithin the limits imposed onthem by the Constitution.The House reiterates thatsovereignty lies with the peo-ple of Pakistan and the par-liament is the repository ofthe collective wisdom of thepeople.”

“This House endorses

and supports the effortsmade by the political leader-ship for strengtheningdemocracy and reposes fullconfidence and trust inthem,” the resolution con-cluded. Before amendments,the draft resolution hadsought the House to endorsethe efforts made by the pres-ident and prime minister forstrengthening democracyand repose full confidenceand trust in them. Later, thespeaker adjourned the houseto meet again on Mondayevening (January 16).

nA resolutionContInued from page 1

No threat to democracy: NisarISLAMABAD

StAff RePoRt/APP

Former defence secretary LtGeneral (r) Khalid NaeemLodhi on Friday said that hewould challenge his sacking incourt because the prime minis-ter had no justification in ter-minating his services.

Talking to Geo News,Lodhi said, “The prime minis-ter has given no reason forsacking me. Actually I havebeen punished for not signingan affidavit prepared by thegovernment, which was meantto prove that the military lead-ers’ replies in the court wereagainst the prescribed rulesand regulations. How could Isign a document that was notprepared by me and I was notaware of the exact contents.”

If the former defence sec-retary goes to the court to chal-lenge his termination, it wouldfurther complicate the politicalcrisis and create more prob-lems for the government, ac-

cording to observers.Meanwhile, a spokesman

of the Establishment Divisionhas said that Lodhi sent the let-ters to the Supreme Courtwithout seeking approval of thedefence minister and also with-out getting the comments vet-ted from the Ministry of Law,Justice and Parliamentary Af-fairs required under Rules ofBusiness 1973, which havebeen framed under Article 99of the Constitution.

The spokesman said thatwhen the defence ministersought an explanation fromLodhi for not observing thelegal provision, he submittedthat he was new to the job andwas, therefore, ignorant of therules.

He said the defence minis-ter then referred the matter tothe Ministry of Law, Justiceand Parliamentary Affairs forexpert views which informedhim that Lodhi’s action was inutter and gross violation of themandatory rule.

7-judge SC benchto hear Nro case

ISLAMABADMASooD RehMAN

A seven-member bench of theSupreme Court headed byJustice Nasirul Mulk wasconstituted on Friday to hearthe National ReconciliationOrdinance (NRO) verdictimplementation case onJanuary 16, along with thealready laid out six-options, ofwhich one could possibly bepart of the final judgment.However, a well placed sourcetold Pakistan Today on Fridaythat the government was likelyto move an application in theSC today (Saturday) seekingmore time to implement allportions of the NRO verdictand consequent directions, onthe grounds that it had startedimplementation of the verdict,however, more time wasrequired to implement all itsportions. He said theimplementation of the verdictto the extent of NAB cases hadbeen started by thegovernment. The source saidthe law secretary was stillabroad and would mostprobably return by the end ofnext week. The benchcomprises Justice NasirulMulk, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa,Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany,Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, JusticeIjaz Ahmed Chaudhry, JusticeGulzar Ahmed and JusticeMuhammad Ather Saeed. OnJanuary 10, a five-judge specialbench headed by Justice AsifSaeed Khan Khosa, in its shortorder on non-implementationof the NRO verdict by thegovernment, had laid out sixoptions it (court) could takeagainst the willful disobedienceof the government inimplementing the NRO verdictand its consequent directions.

ex-defence secy tochallenge sacking

g opp leader says government must let opposition know whom it fears so much


HOuse rent blOckeD

Saturday, 14 January, 2012

PAGE 08

CDA remains oblivious tocity’s transport needs

ISLAMABAD: A woman and old man on their way home with firewood in front of the President house. STAff PhOTO

Teachers threatento launch protest


TEACHERS of the federal gov-ernment educational institu-tions are all set to take to thestreets against the Capital Ad-

ministration and Development Division(CADD) for blocking their house rent forthe last one and half year.

“We have convened an emergencymeeting of teachers on Tuesday to decidethe protests schedule. Our patience is nowrunning out, as the owners of the rentedhouses have been threatening to throwout our belongings on the roads,” saidProf Tahir Mahmood, the general secre-tary of the Federal Government CollegeTeachers Association (FGCTA), on Friday.

The teachers of the Federal Direc-torate of Education (FDE)-run educa-tional institutions are facing difficulties asthey had not been paid the monthly houserent allowance for the last one and halfyears due to the paucity of funds.

Prof Tahir said whenever they ap-proached to the FDE DG for funds he‘consoled’ them that a summary had beenmoved to CAAD for allocation of funds.

However, CAAD Joint Secretary ProfRafiq Tahir was holding the file for the lasttwo months over some known reasons.

“My landlord has been demanding therent for the last two month. I have not paidthe rent for the past four months becausethe government has not released our rentallowance,” said Professor Tariq, a lecturerat H/8 College. The teachers’ communityhas been pursuing the FDE and the Capi-tal Administration and Development Di-vision, which are supposed to look afterthe affairs of educational institutions, buthave been unsuccessful in obtaining thestalled funds. The professors and teachersare being humiliated by the owners of theirhouses on a daily basis.

“We and our families were under ex-treme stress as a result of the situationand many were suffering psychologically,”said Professor Yasmeen Rehman. “Wemanaged earlier by borrowing moneyfrom our friends and relatives or by takingout loans from banks. Now most of ushave run out of money. Our landlords arethreatening to throw us out if we do notpay our outstanding rent,” she added.

It is relevant to note here that the gov-ernment is regularly paying house ceiling

grants to all government employees, withthe exception of the FDE teachers.

Talking to Pakistan Today a couple ofdays ago, FGSTA President Azhar Awansaid around five thousands school teach-ers were living in rented houses. He de-manded that the government release thefunds required and add the rent allowancefor the coming months to the teachers’salaries. FDE Director General AtifKayani a couple of days ago while talkingto this issue had told Pakistan Today thathe had moved a summary to CAAD to geta supplementary grant to pay the teacherstheir allowance.

Pakistan Today observed that due tothe non-payment of funds, a majority ofthe teachers had shifted to the suburbs insearch of low-rent housing. Since manyhad to now commute over large distancesto reach their institutions, the added trav-eling time was adversely affecting their ef-ficiency. It may be recalled here thatduring last year college teachers boy-cotted classes for more than threeweeks against the delay in their duepromotions announced by Prime Min-ister. And finally, government had togive them their due promotions.

Four held for digging old grave


A woman, her son and two labourerswere arrested for digging an old grave inthe Shahzad Town police precincts. Police said Malang Shah lodged anFIR against four people for digging hismother’s grave and putting some thingin it.After the FIR was registered on Thurs-day the police arrested the accused whoconfessed to the crime during a prelimi-nary investigation, saying that they didso to place a ‘taveez’ in the grave. The accused were identified as NighatBibi, her son Ashraf Gondal and labour-ers Imran and Riaz. The police pre-sented the accused before the magistrateon Friday who ordered that the culpritsbe held on judicial remand.

PtCL inauguratesone-stop shop

ISLAMABADAPP

The Pakistan Telecommunication Com-pany Limited (PTCL) inaugurated a re-vamped and remodeled PTCL One StopShop (OSS), as part of its new ‘CustomerFirst’ campaign, which focuses on build-ing an enhanced customer care experi-ence. “At PTCL, our customers always comefirst. With the start of the New Year, wewant our customers to walk into ournew centers and experience the bestcustomer care. This is not just a prom-ise; it is a commitment by PTCL,” saidCommercial Senior Executive Vice Pres-ident Naveed Saeed while addressingthe inauguration ceremony.Established in 2008, the PTCL Islam-abad OSS is the first pilot of a projectcovering 19 outlets, which will be re-modeled in various cities and towns toprovide enhanced customer service so-lutions. Widely recognised as the com-pany’s face, PTCL’s nation-wide 133One-Stop Shops are facilitating cus-tomers in billing adjustments, fault rec-tification, new service requests,duplicate bills, billing installments andpayments all under one roof.

Vehicles’ parking

turns into

daunting taskRAWALPINDIARShAD ALI

Lack of parking spaces at the variousmarkets of the city are creating prob-lems for shoppers, as a large number ofpeople visit the shopping centres dailyon their vehicles.They have to park their vehicles on theroad that not only creates traffic messbut also poses security threat for thevisitors. Worst traffic jams could beseen at various markets roads of thecity because of vehicles parked at roadsides. Motorists keep on moving insearch of a parking place for their vehi-cles while traffic wardens try their bestto ensure a smooth flow of traffic, butseen helpless because of lack of properparking spaces.The visitors urge the authorities to makeproper parking spaces in all the mainmarkets of the city, as lack of parkinglots causes traffic jams on the city roads.They also asked the owners of the vari-ous shopping malls of the city toarrangements for the parking placesnear these shopping malls. A visitor Sardar Ali said he hadstopped shopping at Saddar Bazaar,Moti Bazaar, Liaqat Road and RajaBazaar due to consistent problem ofparking and congestion. “These arethe oldest bazaars in the city and alarge number of people come here, butthe problem of parking is worseningday by day,” he said.Asif Ali, a motorist at Commercial Mar-ket, said he was searching for parkingplace for the last 20 minutes, but be-cause of lack of parking lots it is verydifficult to find any place. He com-plained that shopkeepers park their ownvehicles in front of their shops and oc-cupy the place for full day. Authoritiesshould ensure parking places in all thebig shopping malls and separate parkinglots in all the markets,” he added.Another motorist, Nayyar said, “Visitingto Bank Road, Committee Chowk to theCentre Hospital area on the BB Road forshopping in a vehicle is a nightmare, ashe had to park his vehicle either on theroad, or in no parking area, which pro-voked traffic police.”He said his friends were inside the shop-ping mall for shopping where as he waswandering here and there to find a placefor parking vehicle. He said that trafficwardens are also wondering around im-posing fines on motorists for wrongparking, but they not understanding theproblem where to park vehicle.A pedestrian near Faizabad said thatthey had to face acute problems becauseof the vehicles parked on the footpathsand on the road sides of the MurreeRoad. He asked the authorities to makeparking lots in the areas where mo-torists used to park vehicles on roads sothat to avoid the inconvenience faced bythe pedestrians.Azam Khan, a shopkeeper, said thatparking of vehicles on Liaqat Road is re-ally a big problem. He said that the prob-lem of lack of parking lots also affectstheir business because of lack of parkingspaces many customers avoid visiting themain markets of the city. He said thatthere was a dire need of proper parkingspaces in all the main markets of the city.

g Allege CAAD delaying summary for two months

PCP chief stresses unbiased reporting ISLAMABAD

StAff RePoRt

Press Council of Pakistan (PCP) Chair-man Raja Shafqat Khan Abbasi said onFriday that Pakistan was described asa danger zone for journalists and waslisted as a country where media per-sons are working under harsh circum-stances.

He was speaking at a PCP consulta-tive conference attended by civil soci-ety organisations at the council.

Shafqat said the role the mediaplayed during the last 65 years earnedit the respect and dignity that it enjoystoday.

He said the Press Council wasplanning to arrange short courses forjournalists through educational insti-

tutions. He added that under the PCPOrdinance of 2002, any complaintsagainst media had to first go to the ed-itor concerned.

In case the complaint was not ad-dressed, then only should it be for-warded to the PCP.

He stated that all the provincesshould promulgate the Freedom of In-formation Act to provide the public ex-

cess to issues of vital interest.The representatives of the civil so-

ciety organisations stressed upon theneed to address the grievances of theinstitutions and individuals and ensurethe freedom of the media.

They also express their concernover biased reporting and urged themedia to report news without any per-sonal biases.


sprinG festival: pak-cHina frienDsHip celebratiOns


Islamabad

ISLAMABADMAhtAB BAShIR

‘STUNNING’, ‘spectacular’,‘surreal’ - just three of the ad-jectives that were used to de-scribe the acrobatic

performance of a 14-member GuangdongArt Troupe from the People’s Republic ofChina, who presented their gravity-defy-ing performances for the people of twincities Islamabad and Rawalpindi at thePakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA)auditorium on Friday.

Like Peter Pan, a character created byScottish novelist and playwright JM Bar-rie (1860–1937), a mischievous boy whocan fly and who never ages, the troupemembers ranging from age 20-30 years,from the Guangdong Province of China,appeared perpetually youthful and vi-brant as they put up breathtaking per-formances at the PNCA auditorium tomark the ‘Chinese Spring Festival’.

The Roots School System (RSS) andPNCA, in association with Chinese Min-istry of Culture, Guandong Province De-partment of Culture and ChineseEmbassy in Pakistan, organised back toback performances by the art troupe inthe morning and evening of Friday.

In the first performance, the Chinesecultural troupe were also accompanied bythe young students of Roots School Sys-tem, while in the evening performances,the Chinese gymnasts displayed acrobaticskills with balancing techniques. Thestage was decorated with with colourfulflags of both time tested friends’ flags.

Young Rootsians, in the first sched-uled programme, mesmerised the audi-ence with the Chinese Performance titled‘Festivals of China’ comprised of famousChinese Ribbon dance, Umbrella Dance,Fan Dance and Stylized Martial Arts Per-formance to wish Chinese friends a veryHappy Chinese New Year. The Chinesesolo dances and gymnastic performancesby the professional acrobatic troupetrained in China, had lasting impressionson the minds of audience.

RSS Executive Director Walid Mush-taq facilitated the students, who per-formed exhilarating Chineseperformances, showing his commitmentfor continuous engagement with the Con-fucius Institute for accelerated and farreaching Chinese Language programmeand Summer Schools to China, so that thestudents could benefit from the exposureand education beyond borders.

In the evening, the PNCA in collabo-ration with the Chinese Embassy organ-ised a traditional Chinese Art andCultural Show with the same Chinese Ac-robatic Cultural Troupe from GuangdongProvince followed by a dinner reception.

Diplomats, civil society members,politicians, foreigners, students andPNCA officials were present on the occa-

sion. The families of armed forces per-sonnel were also invited to witness theevent. The programme started with theperformances of girls displaying acro-batic skills with balancing techniques.One of the stunning performances was anact of balancing a ceramic pot on the headby a performer. The artiste swung the ce-ramic pot on his hands and then landedthe pot diagonally on his head, gainingthe appreciation of the audience.

A female singer sang HadeeqaKiyani’s much acclaimed song ‘Bohe Bar-ian’ that stunned the audience. She sang

another catchy English number ‘Who’sthere’ in which she displayed her dancingskills too. The musical performance wasfollowed by a magic show that delightedthe audience, especially the children. Theyoung magicians grabbed the attentionby casting the spell of optical illusions,one after another, on the audience. Show-ing tricks with the help of cards, sticks,handkerchiefs, hats, newspapers andempty envelopes, the magicians enter-tained the families.

Last but not the least, ‘Golden Medi-tation’ was presented in which girls jug-

gled golden balls on their hands and feetwhile sitting and standing upside downwith such finesse that the audience wastruly spellbound.

Acrobatics is a pearl in the treasurehouse of the traditional Chinese perform-ing arts. The acrobatic art has existed inChina for more than 2,000 years. As earlyas the Warring States Period (475-221 BC),the rudiments of acrobatics existed. By thetime of the Han Dynasty (221 BC-220 AD),the acrobatic art or “Hundred Plays” fur-ther developed both in content and variety.In the Tang Dynasty, the number of acro-

bats greatly increased and their perform-ing skills improved a great deal.

The present status of the Chinese ac-robatics reflects the industry, resource-fulness, and un-daunting courage of theChinese people. In the past 40 years andmore, many Chinese acrobatic troupeshave toured more than 100 countries andregions of the world and promotedfriendship and cultural exchanges. Atpresent, there are over 120 acrobatictroupes above the county level, and morethan 12,000 people are involved in theperformances.

Chinese troupe mesmerises audience at PNCA

Spanish envoy

watches Gandhara

exhibition at rACISLAMABAD: Spanish Ambassador Gon-zalo Maria Saravia on Friday visitedRawalpindi Arts Council (RAC) and tookkeen inertest in the ongoing Gandhara artexhibition. Saravia applauded the creationwork of famous sculptor Shafeeq Ahmed.On the occasion, Shafeeq Ahmed briefedthe ambassador about the Gandhara artand civilisation. RAC Resident DirectorWaqar Ahmed also accompanied the am-bassador. Speaking on the occasion, Span-ish Ambassador Gonzalo Maria Saraviasaid that it was great honour for him towatch such a unique exhibition. He alsothanked Rawalpindi Arts Council for givinghim a warm welcome. It was a unique thingthat Pakistan had preserved its civilizationso far, he said and added he would arrangea visit to Spain for the Pakistani artists tosee its culture and civilisation. Saravia wasof the view that Taxila had become a hub ofold civilisation and was a great attractionfor the international community. RAC Res-ident Director Waqar Ahmed also briefedthe Spanish envoy about cultural activitiesand the council’s role for the promotion ofthe cultural heritage. StAff RePoRt

10 outlaws

arrested; 191 liquor

bottles seizedISLAMABAD

StAff RePoRt

The city police on Friday claimed tohave arrested 10 outlaws from variousareas of the city for their alleged in-volvement in theft, bootlegging, keepingillegal weapons and recovered 191 bot-tles of liquor, four pistols and looteditems from their possession.Sub Inspector Saleem Ullah of a womenpolice station arrested two bootleggers,Irfan Rafique and Romer Pervez and re-covered 191 bottles of liquor from them.Ramna police nabbed Jameel Masih forpossessing four bottles of liquor whilefour cans of liquor were recovered fromAamir Azhar by Kohsar police.In another strike, Ramna police nabbedtwo female thieves, Jannat Bibi andAasia, and recovered looted items worththousands of rupees from their posses-sion. ASI Zafar Iqbal from Tarnol policenabbed Taj for having a 30-bore pistol.Sabzi Manid police arrested QaisarAbbas and Rafaqat Hussain for keepingtwo 30-bore pistols.


Margalla Hills are a great natural re-source not only for the residents of Is-lamabad but for the entire Potoharregion. The designated hiking trailsand the residential areas of Islamabadhave been polluted by human activitiesand unhindered littering by the peoplewho use these areas and cleaning itsenvirons is a major challenge for CDA.

Consistent with these ambitions,Cleanup Pakistan organised an informalvolunteering activity hiking/cleanupevent at the popular Trail number three,titled ‘Hike2Clean’ on 24th December,2011. The launch of the activity was at-tended by over sixty participants fromall walks of life to encourage CleanupPakistan to organise more events in thefuture at other venues.

The organisers of the event believedthe people needed to be made awareabout the affects of littering and law en-forcement mechanisms needed to be putin place. CDA and the residents of Is-lamabad needed to collaborate to main-tain the natural beauty of Islamabad.

Cleanup Pakistan believes that it isnot just about picking up rubbish and

cleaning an area temporarily. Insteadthey want to work alongside govern-ment organisations, NGO’s, local peo-ple, businesses, tourists and schools toprovide sustainable solutions, ensuringrubbish is disposed of correctly and asmuch of it as possible is reused or re-

cycled The recently launched anti-lit-tering campaign by CDA is a positivestep in the right direction. However,stricter laws need to be implementedto stop illegal construction and defor-estation activity in the protected ‘Mar-galla Hills Natural Park’.

Cleanup Pakistan cleans Margalla Trail 3



IslamabadUSC teams active against overcharging


Utility Store Corporation (USC) Manag-ing Director Maj-Gen (retd) MalikMuhammad Farooq has directed vigi-lance teams to be active and raid variousstores and warehouses to check over-charging, unabated leakages and blackmarketing of sugar.This directive was issued to ensure supplyof quality products of daily consumptionto customers at lesser rates than the mar-ket, says a press release issued here.The USC has already reduced the retailprices (8-10pc) of more than 250 itemswhile sugar has been made available at allstores at the rate of Rs 42 per kg. Thisstep has enabled the USC to provide fairamount of relief to the customers and hasenhanced overall sales.The USC vigilance team raided a store inSarwar Colony, Jhang region, and caughtred handed Assistant Sales Manager Nus-rat Ali while selling sugar at the rate of Rs45 per kg to a dealer. Strict disciplinaryaction was taken on the spot by dismiss-ing him on the orders of the manage-ment. He was also handed over to policefor legal action.Another vigilance team unearthed an em-bezzlement of Rs 3.1 million in a store atSarai Alamgir. The staff responsible for ithas been taken to task.Strict orders have been issued to thevigilance teams to trace cases of corrup-tion and black marketing and takeprompt disciplinary action against theculprits. The sole purpose of this is tosave the corporation from loss, ensuresupply of commodities to customersand provide much-needed economic re-lief to the citizens.

AIoU to hold seminar on Bhittai on 17th


Department of Pakistani Languages, Al-lama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), hasarranged a daylong national literaryseminar with reference to Shah AbdulLatif Bhittai’s death anniversary on Jan-uary 17 at 10:30am at the council hall ofthe university. VC Prof Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi, Vice-Chancellor, AIOU will preside over theseminar. Scholar Naseer Memon willdeliver his lecture while selected partsout of the documentary film prepared bythe AIOU would also be screened. Other speakers of the seminar were In-stitute of Educational Technology Direc-tor Muhammad Qasim Haider, Bureauof University Extension and SpecialProjects Director Mir Mukhtiar Talpurand Dr Abdulullah Jan Abid, in charge,Department of Pakistani Languages ofthe University.

Court dismissesplea of cricketer’s ex-wife


A local court on Friday dismissed a peti-tion of the first wife of Sohail Tanveeragainst the cricketer for allegedly ha-rassing her. Sohail Tanvir’s ex-wife,Noshin Agha, moved the court againstTanveer a couple of weeks ago, alleginghe was harassing her. She submitted be-fore the court that she was still Tanvir’swife. Upon her allegations, Tanvir alsofiled a civil suit against his ex-wife andcontended that he had divorcedNosheen and she was leveling false alle-gations against him. However, the courtof Civil Judge Mazhar Abbas dismissedthe application of Nosheen Agha, sayingthat she was claiming Tanvir as her hus-band, so she could not proceed againsthim under Section 491.

ISLAMABAD: Activists of tanzeem Ahle Sunnah, Gilgit-Baltistan, demonstrate in favour of their demands outside the National Press Club. STAff PhOTO

UAe Pakistan Assistance Programme completes a year


The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Am-bassador Essa Abdullah Al-Basha Al-Nuaimi hosted a reception at theJinnah Convention Centre to markthe first anniversary celebrations ofthe United Arab Emirates- PakistanAssistance Programme.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa GovernorBarrister Masood Kausar was theguest of honour at the occasion.Kausar spoke highly of the Pakistan-UAE bilateral relations, saying thathe hoped that the brotherly, time-tested ties would continue to gainstrength in the future as well.

The KPK governor, the UAE Am-bassador and other diplomats cut aspecial cake. The national anthems of

the two countries were also played onthe occasion.

Paying tribute to the armed forcesfor their role in the rehabilitation ofSwat and thanking the UAE govern-ment for its generous assistance,Kausar hoped that both the countrieswould improve trade, diplomatic, andcultural ties.

Ambassador Nuaimi assured Pak-istan of UAE’s continued assistanceto help out the people of thecalamity-affected areas.

The ambassador said his countryhad a rich history of bilateral cooper-ation with Pakistan and his country’sleadership, especially PresidentShaikh Khalifa bin Zyed Al Nahyanand Prime Minister Muhammad binRashid Al Maktoum, were very keento enhance it further.

Saudi Arabian Ambassador AbdulAziz bin Ibrahim Saleh Al-Ghadeer,leaders of various political parties,members of the parliament, intellec-tuals, senior civil and military offi-cials, diplomats, PTCL chairmanWaleed Reshad, dignitaries fromSwat and journalists attended thefunction.

Abdullah Al Daffali of the UAEprogramme and Maj Gen Zahir Shah,commander of the area, signed proj-ects for the development of the areasin Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which weretargeted by extremists and needed re-pair and rehabilitation.

Children in traditional costumessung a number of songs, appreciatingthe contribution made by the UAEgovernment and its rulers for the bet-terment of their areas.

Labourercrushed to death


A 40 year old labourer, Muham-mad Ilyas, was killed when theditch he was digging caved in,crushing him under the mud, po-lice said on Friday.The deceased belonged to AzadKashmir. According to the police,Ilyas was taken to the PakistanInstitute of Medical Scienceswhere he succumbed to his in-juries.The incident occurred at Sangjani,a suburb of the city which falls inthe Tarnol Police Station precincts.

Mughal art reproduced, displayed at NomadISLAMABAD

MAhtAB BAShIR

MOULDING the Mughalhistory with contemporaryexperiments, a Lahore-based established artist

Samina Ali Akhtar on Friday brought herlatest collection of 25 mix media paint-ings to the Nomad Art Gallery.

Commenting on the display, NomadGallery Director Nageen Hyat said,“Samina Ali Akhtar goes a step forwardin merging history with aesthetic con-temporary imagery. Her latest exhibitionat Nomad, features 25 mix-media paint-ings reflecting unique elements on a jux-taposed surface of woodcut, calligraphy,natural dyes, stains, gold and silver leaf- with powerful compositions and finedetails,” she added.

New dimensions of mix media arethe main feature of the exhibition thatreflects artist’s love for the traditionalMughal era paintings in the Sub-Conti-nent. All the 25 paintings on display arein vibrant colours and a fusion of con-

temporary work with nostalgic images ofrustic history of Mughal dynasty.

The rich colour palate and the use ofgold and silver leaf to highlight the ec-centric miniature paintings added an af-fluent flair to the collection. As an ardentfan of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Samina has in-corporated his poetry in her work to ac-centuate it. The mixed media incombination with calligraphy and minia-ture art gives off a well-rounded feel.

With 243 paintings on permanentdisplay at the Serena Hotel Islamabad,the artist is appreciated and renownedfor her work.

Samina’s art is pluralistic and has anethereal quality. Her command on themedium, composition and texture areoverwhelming. Her paintings move backand forth in time and her innovative,original and breathtaking work is effort-less imagery of the past. These paintingsoffer a fascinating window into the livesof those great rulers. According to Sam-ina, the response in painting must be towhat it is, not to what it is about.

The collages are studded with old

manuscripts and architectural elementsto fit into a narrative. Her works encom-pass diminutive pieces of recyclable andhandmade paper, confectionary tinselwraps thrown away by children, oldstamps, withered leaves and anythingand everything that draws to the isola-tion of world of colours.

Born in Nowshera and holding Mas-ters degree in Fine Arts from Universityof the Punjab, Lahore in 1987, Akhtarcreates memories of grand spaces andcelebratory processions, Mughal eraprinces, royal weddings, assemblies,hunts and conquests layered into tapes-try of colour, texts and images.

“With the brilliance of colour, lineand astonishing vitality of form, theseimages draw us into a rich world ofsplendour and fantasy,” said Samina,while talking to Pakistan Today.

She said when she was attending acourse on restoration and preservationof architecture at the Lahore Fort, thesplendour of sovereignty froze in hermind’s eye.

“In the Mughal edifices built of

profound sculpted red sandstone Icould see a striking illustration of theirpeculiar culture in which barbarismand refinement were so stronglyblended,” she said.

She said her paintings expressednostalgia for the past while creating areference point for the present. “Artiststend to be nostalgic. They portray whatis the history. The wheel of time keepsmoving and culture changes with it,”said Samina who is holding her seventhsolo exhibition at Nomad Gallery.

Through her compositions, Saminaquestions, celebrates and makes endeav-ours to figure out a good balance be-tween religion, culture and expectations.

According to Saleema Hashmi, apainter and art critic, Samina’s worklooks like graffiti on the walls of a crum-bling city. “Shifting through the visuallegends of lost lovers in Samina’s work,one may ponder on matters such asthese,” she said. The exhibition will con-tinue at Nomad Gallery, House No # 22,Justice Abdul Rashid Road, (Old 7th Av-enue), F-6/1, till January 24.


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rESCUE 1122

HILAL-E-AHMEr 9250488

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EMErGENCy HELP

HoSPItALS

BLooD BANK

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CoMPLAINt

wAPDA 111-000-118

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cOnference

organised by Centres of Excellence in Science andApplied technologies, Islamabad. In the last eightconferences more than eleven hundred papers havebeen presented and more than four thousandparticipants attended the conference. It is the largestscientific event in Pakistan which is held regularly.

capOeira isltOwn

DAtE AND tIME: EVEry FrIDAy 6:30-7:30PMVENUE: KHAAS Art GALLEry ISLAMABAD

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nuMun 12

After two highly successful Intra-NUStepisodes, NUSt now invites you to its firstever All Pakistan event- NUMUN 2012. thisJanuary, we'd like to welcome you here at H-12and change all that you know about this placefor the better.

DAtE: JAN 26 — 29, 2012 VENUE: NUSt, H12 oPPoSItE to PoLICE LINE

DAtE: JAN 09 — 12, 2012VENUE: NAtIoNAL CENtrE For PHySIC

08 Saturday, 14 January, 2012

Islamabad

ISLAMABAD SALMAN ABBAS

NEW Capital Development Author-ity (CDA) Chairman EngineerFarkhand Iqbal had spoken ofmany welfare projects for the res-idents of Islamabad in his first

formal press conference, but like his predeces-sors, he seems uninterested in facilitating thecapital city with a proper transport service.

The long-standing issue has been discussedseveral times within lawmakers’ and media cir-cles but to no avail. After assuming charge, theCDA chairman had talked about many issues ofthe people, including the development of stalledsectors, replacing the street lights from LED’sand utilising the garbage for generating energy.However, the question of proper transport facil-ity in the federal capital remains unanswered.

Former CDA chairman Imtiaz Iniyat Elahiand Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had alsomade claims of starting CNG bus rapid system inthe city but all of the pledges and claims havebeen left unfulfilled. Moreover, due to the gascrisis faced by the country today, the feasibilityof CNG bus service is unachievable.

Thousands of people travel within and be-tween the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islam-abad and they have to face a lot of difficulties inreaching their destinations.STUDENT’S pLIgHT: A large number of ed-ucational institutions are situated in Islamabadbut reaching these institutions is a major task.The students, who reside in the suburban areasof the capital, have to face inconvenience in thepacked public transport vehicles, besides mal-treatment by the drivers and conductors.“The school and college buses ply only on spe-cific routes and I always use local transport toreach my college,” said Taseer Khan, a student.He said this is one of the major problems for allthose who come from far-off areas.The students complained that a majority of thelocal transporters do not stop the buses whenthey see students waiting at the bus stops. An-other student, Usman Mahmood said that due tofinancial problems, he couldn’t pay the full fareof the van, while the transporters did not allowhim any student concession. He also mentionedthe problems faced by female students in waitingto find a vacant seat due to which they reachtheir college late. He demanded the concernedauthorities arrange sufficient buses for colleges.FEMALE cOMMUTERS’ pROBLEMS:Many women work in organisations in the fed-eral capital due to which they commute daily be-tween the twin cities of Islamabad andRawalpindi. However, traveling in public vehi-cles is not less than a nightmare for them.

Most women have to travel all by themselvesin Suzuki pickups and Toyota Hiace vans, whichusually have only two seats reserved for femalepassengers. Therefore, the women have to standat bus stops for hours to be able to board publictransport.

“I work at a call centre in Islamabad. Everyday, I have to change two vans in order to reachmy office. Mostly, I have to wait for a long timeto get a seat in the van,” said Huma Shahid, aresident of the Raja Bazaar.

She said that buses were more suitable forfemale commuters but currently, no bus servicewas plying between Rawalpindi and Islamabad,adding that it was a need of the hour to launch aproper transport facility for the public in generaland female commuters in particular, so that theymay travel with dignity.

Government and private employees’ troublesThe government has been paying a large

amount to its employees in the form of travelingallowance but has been reluctant in providingthem a proper transport facility. Few of the gov-ernment departments have their own transport

facility but the employees of most other depart-ments have to travel by public transport.

A large number of private employees also usepublic transport to reach their offices. However,all employees are confronted by the same prob-

lems of inadequate transport facility. “The CDAshould now focus on introducing proper trans-port system in the city instead of just focusing onfacilitating the elite class,” said Husnain Ali, anemployee of a courier company.

CDA remains obliviousto city’s transport needs



News

Despite heavy odds stacked against thePakistan People’s Party (PPP) govern-ment, it is all set to complete its term andeven announce the future election sched-ule, showing a strong penchant to wriggleout of even the gravest crises of the kind itfaced more recently from a hostile judici-ary and powerful military.

Already the month of March does notlook that difficult for the PPP anymore.The recent confrontation between the gov-ernment and judiciary on the one handand government and military leadershiphitting the country like a real thunder-storm created a huge psychological impactthat would have sobering effects on all

stakeholders and would allow the govern-ment elbow room to come out of it un-harmed.

But more importantly, the politicalmindset is changing and focus of politicalleadership has shifted from disruptive pol-itics aimed at dislodging the present gov-ernment to Senate polls and early generalelections, which are positive signs for thecountry and even the PPP government sodiscredited, if we lend ears to the TV chan-nels.

It seems the country is heading forelection season sooner rather than laterwith all the doomsday scenarios for the in-cumbents taking a back seat.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N), the main opposition party rightnow, seems to be out of sorts after the fastchanging and dramatic political develop-ments, lacking both vision and support at

national level from other political forces toforce any political change or match the so-phisticated moves made by the PPP on thepolitical chessboard.

It has already backtracked from its ex-treme positions it adopted more recently.At one time not very long ago, it wasaverse to holding Senate elections and wasthinking in terms of resigning from assem-blies to rob the PPP of getting any advan-tage in the Senate polls. But now, giving into the political compulsions, it did not talkagainst the Senate election as it used to.Other political parties too have no grudgeagainst Senate polls.

Nawaz Sharif would like now to seeSenate elections taking place on scheduleas it would deprive its archrival the Pak-istan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) of any repre-sentation in the Upper House and so goingahead with the Senate polls is good for

him. As such the emerging scenario is notthat bad for the PPP.

The PPP government would be morethan happy to announce early elections aspart of any political deal with other enti-ties or otherwise. But early elections donot mean they are being held tomorrow.They would be held, at the earliest, by thelast quarter of this year. This allows thePPP to present the fifth consecutivebudget in the country and another chanceto make amends for the lapses it commit-ted before in order to improve the imageof its government and Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani to earn the distinctionof the first civilian prime minister to pres-ent the fifth consecutive budget in Pak-istan. Good for him.

As such it is a win-win situation for thePPP and its allies. The PPP governmentwould be ready to hold elections as being

demanded by the opposition; free and fairthrough an independent election commis-sion.

Meanwhile, threats once faced by thePPP and played up by the media includinglong marches, agitation movements by theopposition or resignation from assemblieshave receded with the changing politicalmoves. Nor is the political leadership will-ing to accept any adventurism involvingthe military. The military top brass, in-cluding the army chief and most of hisgenerals, are in favour of not destablisingthe present setup. Efforts are afoot involv-ing some intermediaries to patch up be-tween the government and militaryleadership to protect the PPP’s long-terminterests in politics.

The PPP in the latest turnaround willnot like to take its fight with the judiciarytoo far.

Doomsday scenarios for PPP taking back seat

CoMMENtNADeeM SYeD

g March does not seem that difficult for the PPP anymore


THE National Assembly wasinformed on Friday thatthe government was goingto replace the aging fleet ofPakistan International Air-

lines (PIA) with new aircraft to makeit a profitable entity and provide bet-ter traveling facilities to passengers.

Responding to a calling attentionnotice moved by PML-N MNA NuzhatSadiq and others, Minister for De-fence Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar saidof 39 aircraft, 32 were functional,while seven had beengrounded due to vari-ous reasons.

He said PIA wastrying to get nine air-craft on lease in accor-dance with PublicProcurement RegulatoryAgency (PPRA) rules. Hesaid most of the PIA aircraftwere past their useful lifeand the ministry was planning toget new aircraft on lease to keep PIAfunctional.

Asked why two aircraft gotten onlease were banned by Saudi authori-ties, the minister said during the Hajoperations, PIA acquired two aircrafton wet-lease basis and earned fivemillion dollars for transporting pil-grims from Burma. However, he didnot clarify why Saudi authorities hadbanned those two aircraft.

To another question, the ministeradmitted failure of the management tocheck theft of aircraft spare parts andsaid efforts were being made to con-trol the theft.

He said by leasing the aircraft, thetheft chances had been reduced.

Mukhtar said leased planes hadtheir own crew which

further de-

creased losses. As the minister couldnot properly respond most of thequestions, Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirzadirected the ill-prepared defence min-ister to give a detailed briefing to theHouse the next day.

Meanwhile, Minister for ReligiousAffairs Syed Khursheed Shah tabledbefore the House the career structurefor health personnel bill, 2012.

The bill aims at regulating the ap-pointment and the terms and condi-tions of service of health personnelserving in the federal health institu-tions of the government.

The minister also laid before theHouse the annual report of Competi-tion Commission of Pakistan for thefinancial year ending June30, 2010.

Govt planning to buy newplanes to make PIA profitable

Haqqani wants action

against Akram

ISLAMABADAPP

Former Pakistan ambassador to the USHussain Haqqani on Friday moved anapplication before the judicial commissionprobing the memo issue, seeking actionagainst Akram Sheikh, counsel for MansoorIjaz, for attributing false statements to him.Haqqani, through his counsel Syed ZahidHussain Bokhari, requested thecommission to restrict Sheikh fromattributing false, incorrect and provocativestatements about the applicant in theinterest of justice. He also requested thatthe commission might kindly take notice oraction of this matter by passing anappropriate order. Enumerating reasons,he said on January 9, Sheikh told theelectronic media that he had hurled threatsat his client. The news reports were alsocarried by a number of newspapers. He saidsuch fallacious and fabricated claimscarried no weight and were malafide.

Legislationto controlIEDs soon


The government would soon introduce alaw to counter and control improvisedexplosive devices (IEDS) and has soughtinputs from all the provinces and otherstake holders in this regard. The interiorminister on Friday chaired a high-levelmeeting at the Ministry of Interior inwhich progress was reviewed regardingstrategy for implementation of executivepolicy for curbing IEDs by all provincesand stakeholders. The meeting wasattended by high ranking officials offederal as well as provincial governments,including representatives of all lawenforcement agencies. The minister askedthe participants to offer their input in theproposed legislation to be enacted shortlythrough a bill named “Counter andControl of Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDS) Bill, 2012” to be drafted by theMinistry of Interior. The draft bill wouldbe circulated to all provinces fordeliberations. He directed the CivilDefence DG to take the draft bill toprovincial governments of Punjab andSindh for discussion with chief secretaries,home secretaries and IGPs. Similarly, hedirected law joint secretary at the InteriorMinistry to take similar action in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. Both officers have been directedto submit their joint report after which thesame would be promulgated. The ministeralso directed the interior secretary to forma committee under the chairmanship ofNational Police Bureau director generalfor revision and modification of Blue Bookaccording to the new challenges and newsecurity trends, so that the outdated BlueBook could be revised according to theneed of the hour.

AJK Assembly

shows support for

president, PMMUZAFFARABAD

INP

The Azad Jammu and KashmirLegislative Assembly on Friday passed aresolution in favour of Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani and President Asif AliZardari. The resolution was submitted bysome members of the treasury benches inthe assembly session. The resolutionpraised the efforts of the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP)-led government forthe Kashmir cause at national andinternational levels according to theUnited Nations resolutions andaspirations of the Kashmiri people. Theresolution said that the Kashmir issuewas attracting the attention of theinternational community because of thedemocratic government in Pakistan.

MUzzAfARABAD: Local residents cross River Jhelum using a wooden lift on friday. inP



News

PESHAWAR StAff RePoRt

KHYBER PakhtunkhwaChief Minister Amir HaiderKhan Hoti said on Fridayterrorists targeting policeand security forces would

not affect their commitment but wouldfurther boost their resolve.

He told reporters after offering fu-neral prayers for two police personnelat the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Linesthat further effective actions would betaken against groups involved in ter-rorist activities.

The police personnel were killed ina militant attack on a police post onThursday. A vibrant contingent of po-lice presented the guard of honourwhile the chief minister, along withother notable personalities, laid floralwreaths on the coffins of the slain po-

licemen and offered condolences totheir families The CM said the govern-ment and the people of KhyberPakhtunkhwa would not overlook thesacrifices of the martyrs. Respondingto media queries, the chief ministercondemned the incident in strongwords and expressed grief over the lossof precious lives. He said some of thehideouts of terrorists had been de-stroyed in a joint operation of policeand Frontier Corps (FC) and the ter-rorists had targeted the police post lastnight in retaliation, adding that the po-lice and FC personnel fought bravely.

He said one FC and two police per-sonnel lost their lives, while seven ter-rorists were killed, including twoskilled commanders. He said this inci-dent depicted that police and securityforces were fully active in counteract-ing terrorists, but regretted that thepeople were kidnapped and deprived of

their weapons earlier in such incidents. He said terrorist attacks on FC and

police were aimed at weakening theirspirits, but such evil agendas would failand the police and FC’s morale wouldonly be boosted.

Provincial Assembly Member Kara-matullah Chagarmatti, Senior Provin-cial Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour,Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastageer, In-spector General of Police Akbar KhanHoti, police officials and relatives ofthe deceased also participated in thefuneral prayers. Later, giving financialassistance cheques to the young chil-dren of former Awami National Party(ANP) Bannu president MuhammadIsrael Khan Shaheed and formerBannu District Zakat Committee chair-man Atta ur Rahamn Khan Shaheed,Hoti said the role and sacrifices of ANPworkers in the struggle eliminate ter-rorism were secret to none.

TIMERGARAStAff RePoRt

Officials of United Nation High Commis-sioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Fridayannounced to repatriate Afghan refugeesresiding in four different camps at LowerDir during the ongoing calendar year.

Though the UNHCR officials are yetto chalk out a schedule for voluntary repa-triation of Afghan refugees, the processusually starts in March and continuesuntil October and November.

However, the UNHCR officials havemade it clear that they were determined

to vacate Lower Dir by December 31 2012.So far the UNHCR established a registra-tion centre, Volunteer Center for Repatri-ation (VCR), at Khiaima area of LowerDir, which was formally inaugurated bythe UNHCR and Afghan Refugees Com-missioner on Friday. Besides others,UNHCR Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chiefAhmad, Commissioner Afghan RefugeesZaheerul Islam, operational commanderColonel Kamran Aslam, Dir Lower DCOMahmood Aslam and district administra-tor Afghan Commissionerate SahibzadaBiradar Jan were present on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, the

UNHCR provincial head praised Pakistanand Sudan for hosting Afghan refugeesfor more than 30 years. He said both Is-lamic states had rendered great sacrificesfor refugees. He said the Afghan refugeeshad to complete repatriation to theirhomeland by December, 2012. “The gov-ernment of Pakistan will no more be re-sponsible for them after the due date,” hesaid, asking the refugees to make prepa-rations for their voluntary repatriation toAfghanistan. He said townships had beenset up in nine Afghan provinces where re-habilitation of the refugees would be car-ried out. About opening of the office at

Timergara, the UNHCR head said itaimed to facilitate and asses refugees foreasy and dignified return to their home-land. He urged the Afghan refugees tostrictly follow the directives of the govern-ment of Pakistan about their repatriation.“Go to your own home and play an activerole in developing your country,Afghanistan,” he said, adding that whatPakistan did for them was appreciable.

Ahmad appealed to the governmentof Pakistan and concerned authorities tokeep open the Pak-Afghan border forrefugees returning to Afghanistan so thatthey could easily go to their homeland.

UnhCr to complete Afghan refugees’ repatriation by Dec end

PeShAWAR: the driver of this vehicle apparently failed to determine the distance of the edge of the road while parking his

vehicle near the central jail on friday. TAriQ Aziz

PESHAWARStAff RePoRt

Leaders of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) onFriday remained mum over the assassina-tion of 15 soldiers of Frontier Constabularyand influence of thousands of local and for-eign militants while addressing a well-at-tended public gathering in Mirali, thesecond largest town in North WaziristanAgency.

The JUI-F arranged the rally in Miralifor commemorating the services of latetribal MNA Maulana Mohammad Deen-dar, who breathed his last a couple ofmonths ago.

Deendar remained MNA in 1993 andwas the first amongst tribesmen who

backed the emergence of the Taliban andbanned Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi.

He was in contact with al Qaeda fugi-tives and arranged the marriage of hisgrand daughter with an Arab national.

The JUI-F conference was addressedamong others by party’s provincial chiefSheikh Aman Ullah, Maulana AtaurRehman, Mufti Kifayat Ullah and MuftiAbdul Shakoor.

Former chief minister Akram KhanDurrani and Maulana Gul Nasib Khan wereunable to address the gathering.

Almost all JUI-F leaders focused theirspeeches on what they called “wrong poli-cies of present government, particularly inthe war on terror”.

Such policies, they claimed, aimed at“getting the blessing of the US and its al-lies”.

They said military action was leadingto the killing of innocent people and onsuch grounds, they demanded an immedi-ate halt to the offensive against the Talibanmilitants across the Tribal Areas.

But at the same time, the JUI-F leadersremained silent over the establishment of“a state with in a state” by the militants inWaziristan.

They time and again used the words“mujahideen” and “jihad” for all those whoare killing innocent personnel of the secu-rity forces and blowing up schools acrossKhyber Pakhtunkhwa in the name of “jihadagainst the US”.

Mufti Kifayat Ullah, who is an MPAfrom Mansehra, said, “Everyone is talkingabout democracy, constitutions and insti-tutions but no one realises his responsibil-ity towards Quran and Sunna.”

He said only the JUI-F was sincere tothe Islamic cause.

During the rally, JUI-F leaders de-nounced the US presence, particularly itsdrone operations in Waziristan region, withthe audience endorsing the condemnationwith raised arms and loud sloganeering.

The JUI-F urged the government toforce the US to halt drone attacks.

Likewise, they also asked for continua-tion of sanctions against US-led alliedtroops in Afghanistan, especially the ban onsupplies.

JUi-f stops short of condemning Taliban

No Australian

uranium for

Pakistan: GillardSYDNEY

INP

Australian Prime Minister JuliaGillard has reiterated that Australiawill not agree to export uranium toPakistan, which is imploring Canberrato make a similar policy change asdone recently for India.“This policy is an exception whichrecognises the compelling rationaleand national interest for a change inrelation to India only,” Indian newsagency IANS quoted Gillard as saying.“In the case of Pakistan, the issue doesnot arise as it does not have anexemption from the Nuclear SuppliersGroup,” she said. Gillard also indicated that the UnitedStates might have played a significantrole in Australia overturning the banon the sale of nuclear fuel to India.“Not selling uranium to India madesense when it was part of a widely-supported international strategy tobring New Delhi into the NuclearNon-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” shesaid in answer to a question about theprimary reason behind the lifting ofthe ban. “But the US-India civilnuclear agreement of 2007 changedthat strategy,” Gillard added. Against that background, it made littlesense for Australia to stand alone as acountry that would not considernuclear trade with India, she said.

India to prosecute

Google, FacebookNEW DELHI

AfP

India’s government authorised on Fridaythe prosecution of 21 Internet firmsincluding Facebook and Google in a caseover obscene content posted online, twosources told AFP. The approval couldlead to company directors being called toa trial court in New Delhi to answerserious charges such as fomentingreligious hatred and spreading socialdiscord, an official and a lawyer said. Acriminal case against the companies wasfirst brought by journalist Vinay Rai whocomplained that the websites wereresponsible for obscene and offensivematerial posted by users.

Khattak blames

PML-N, ANP, JUI-F

for Pakhtun woesKARAK

StAff RePoRt

Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) directorgeneral Masood Sharif Khan Khattak saidon Friday that the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz, the Awami National Party(ANP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlwere the political parties that had sold theblood of Pakhtuns and held themresponsible of the disappointments of thePakhtun people. Addressing a big publicmeeting at Khurram, he urged the Khattaktribe to help him get the rights of the tribe.He said the ANP leadership could not evenarrange a public gathering on its soil andquestioned how it could serve the people.He said the oil and gas companies workingon the soil of Karak district were onlyextracting the natural wealth of the districtand in return spending nothing on thewelfare of the people, which was a failureof the elected representatives.

JI condemns recent

drone attacksISLAMABAD

StAff RePoRt

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader SenatorKhurshid Ahmad on Friday condemnedin strongest terms two recent dronestrikes on Pakistani soil by the UnitedStates, saying the attacks had killed manyinnocent people. In a press release, hesaid that after a silence of six weeks theUS had once again started its aggressiveviolation of Pakistan’s sovereignty andterritorial integrity. He said theparliament had repeatedly demanded thegovernment to take effective steps toprotect Pakistan’s air space and itspeople. The senator said the militaryleadership had issued a clear messageagainst further aggression after theNATO attack on Pakistani border postson November 26. “The nation asks thepolitical and military leadership whatsteps they are going to take to resist theseshameful attacks on Pakistan,” he said.

‘Terrorists can’t demoralise forces’

LoWeR DIR: Afghan Refugees Commissioner for

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khwaja zahoorul Islam

Balambat inaugurates the VRC office in timergara.


Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 14 January, 2012

revive the nameOf late, there has been a discussion

going on in various newspapers in whichthe readers have dissented over chang-ing street names. I tend to back theviews of the writers.

The names of streets, neigbourhoodsand cities carry historical background,thus the people over period of time growemotional attachment with them. There-fore, changing old street or towns namesshould be avoided. However, new townscan be built to name them for the re-quired purpose.

We can observe in the recent pastworld famous cities like Leningrad,Peking, Bombay, Rangoon, Madras, Cul-catta, have been restored to their oldnames. In our country the province ofNWFP has been renamed as KhyberPakhtunkhwa, in accordance with thewishes of the people.

In this perspective, I would suggestthe old Karachi street Bunder Road mayalso be restored too. Bunder is a word ofSindhi dialect which represents port.During colonial days, Karachi city wascarefully designed with a major longroad having shops at designated places.The road finally would terminate at theport location called Keemari.

After death of the founder of the na-tion, Bunder road was renamed as M AJinnah Road. I presume had this namebeen changed in the life time of Jinnahsaheb, he would have surely not allowedit because of its historical importance.

I have great regard for the father ofour nation and I have no intention ofcreating any controversy. However, aproposal could be worked out by whichthe road from Sohrab Goth to Old Nu-maish may be renamed as M A JinnahRoad.

Likewise, the road from Old Nu-maish to Keemari may be retained withits famous old name which was BunderRoad. Many old people I have met inSingapore, Hongkong, Manila, KualaLumpur, New York, still remember withgreat affection the most famous Karachistreet widely known as Bunder Road,which is no more there.

I expect our seasoned civil societyhas the capacity to discuss such issues toreach at logical solutions without gettingcarried away by sentiments.

A PAKISTANIKarachi

A ray of lightIn Pakistan, the general public per-

ception is that women are treated un-fairly in our society. But while mostPakistani women are victims of in-equality, abuse and threats, I believethere is a ray of light that often goes un-noticed.

In my experiences, many middle-to-upper class women in Pakistan are deli-cately handled – like valuable, glassobjects. They are respected at least out-wardly and even allowed to disgracemen in public for initiating eye contact.Women are not treated equally politi-cally, socially and elsewhere.

SABEEN IMANLahore

the other argumentA lot of talk is going around these

days on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).So many people are criticising PTI’sChief Imran Khan’s talk of change butkeeping old faces in his party. People arealso saying that these politicians havechanged quite a few political parties al-ready and now being with Imran Khan,they cannot bring change.

But I disagree. To make it clear, letme quote an example. If the head of a se-curity guard sleeps when he is on hisduty, the security guard will also sleep ashe will think that his boss is asleep. But ifthe head is awake, then his junior willnever sleep as he will be afraid of hisboss.

The point is if the leader is credible,honest and hard working, then his teamor workers will also work and the leadercan monitor and inquire about the workof his workers anytime.

MUBASHIR MAHMOODKarachi

Strange demandThe video statements of Mr Altaf

Hussain, the chief of MQM, are very fas-cinating. I have been watching Mr Hus-sain's video statements since I was alittle kid. Since Mr Hussain and hisparty MQM have been in the oppositionmost of the time, I think they have for-gotten how to act when they are part ofthe government.

A recent video statement of Mr AltafHussain, where he is requesting the gov-ernment to allow new provinces seemedvery weird to me because Mr Altaf Hus-sain and MQM are part of the govern-ment and they are requesting thegovernment to do something.

Since Mr Altaf Hussain has been liv-ing in United Kingdom (he fears for hislife and would not return to his countryeven when MQM have formed a coali-tion government in Pakistan), was hemaking these requests to his own work-ers who are now employed in his gov-ernment?

SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEERPeshawar

Six ways to doomTuesday was a black day in the his-

tory of Pakistan. The premier arbiters ofthe country declared the person withmost responsibilities, irresponsible. Thistells a lot about the slow progress of thecountry. It also indicates the persistentattitude of Pakistani politicians towardsthe issues in Pakistan.

Pakistan was once seen as the AsianTiger as its economy was growing at a re-spectable pace. Traditionally, any com-parison with India was in the favour ofPakistan. Its economy, poverty situation,airline, army, and air force had alwaysbeen a step ahead than its archrivalneighbour. Pakistan was a well respectedcountry among the Muslim countries, butnow even the most loyal of friends likeSaudi Arabia and China see us with sus-picions.

There might be a never-ending list of

disappointments, but today the attitudeof judiciary and media, even with all theirfaults, show us a beacon of hope.

The judiciary has been immenselypatient with the ever-embarrassing atti-tude of the government. It has ignoredSC’s decision. Nonetheless, the judiciaryhas come out with another bold decision.It might be discouraging that the judici-ary has not taken any strict action againstthe prime minister and president for ig-noring the top court of the country. Yet, acareful look into this decision, a set of sixsuggestions, is in fact six ways to doomfor the government and the ruling party.

The decision includes a possibility ofdisqualifying the Prime Minister topressing charges against the responsiblepoliticians and bureaucrats. It hinted onthe likelihood of some harsh decisions tobe taken in future. Judiciary has been re-

ally impressive in avoiding the possibleconfrontation even at this hour. One ofthe six suggestions is to take the matterto Pakistani citizens. It shows the sincer-ity and devotion of judiciary to avoidconflict and still fulfil its duty of dispens-ing justice.

The suggestion of taking the decisionto public might not be the one mosttalked in the media, but it is the one thatmust be thought most seriously about. Ina civilised world this would be the casethat the populace would decide on suchimportant and serious matters. It is animportant phase in the history of thecountry; the public must get to play itsrole.

The country is facing problems fromhome-grown extremists to foreign pow-ers. Its economy is going down the slope,and there is a severe power problem.

There are important decisions that mustbe taken to frame a policy for the futureof the country. So, this decision of the SCis an important one and must not be ig-nored by the government this time.

The government’s track record criesout loud that the SC’s propositions aregoing to fall on deaf ears. At least five outof the six suggestions will be fatal to thepolitical career of some important lead-ers of the ruling party. Even if govern-ment takes the option of going to polls itwill not be able to secure a good positionin the next elections. The current sce-nario suggests that all of the six ways aregoing to put the Pakistan Peoples Partyin a hitch. It is a sure doom for the party.The situation has become so because ofconstant wrong steps taken by the party.

SULTAN MEHMOODLUMS, Lahore

Going where?The government is once again increasing the electricity

tariff. This is tantamount to giving the public a deadlyshock. This is the latest in a series of tariff increases thathave come one after the other in recent months. Indeed,there is a need to rationalise the electricity tariff but doingthis in one go is very hard on the suffering common man.

Sometimes I wonder if the government is even inter-ested in the welfare of the people or not as it seems with its

gross mismanagement, it is leading the public like somesacrificial animal about to be slaughtered.

The government would have found it easier to rallysupport while it is beleaguered if it had done something toimprove people’s day to day lives. But, it has failed to doso.

KAINAT FATIMALahore

Send your letters to:Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, PakistanFax: +92-42-36298302E-mail: [email protected] Letters may be edited for length and clarity.It would be appreciated if letters were ad-dressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

Musharraf’s returnIn his jalsa on 8 January, Pervez

Musharraf has announced that he will re-turn to Karachi by the end of the month.It takes great courage to return to thecountry where people are already callingout for his blood. He himself said that therelative comforts one gets while livingabroad are not given up unless the re-wards on the other side are greater.Musharraf reiterated that he wants to re-turn to help his people and not for anypersonal gain.

He spoke out clearly against thecharges being levelled against him like

the Nawab Bugti case and Benazir’s as-sassination. It wasn’t only the urbanKarachiites who were present at the gath-ering. Participants came from Sukkur,Khairpur and other interior areas of thecountry showing their support.

Contesting elections from Chitralshows that he has the confidence in thesupport of the Northern regions. Hissupport for the province of Hazara isgoing to further increase his popularitythere. Ethnicity is one of the core sensi-tive issues of our population right now.The presence of Bengalis, perhaps themost discriminated minority, was spe-cially noted and it was wonderful to see

their presence at the rally.The APML rally is sure to invite com-

parison with the PTI jalsa. It is, however,important to note that there was consid-erable support of the newly formed party.At this point it is not important to notehow many people come out to support aparticular party but to appreciate the factthat at least people are coming out fortheir democratic right. The APML rallywas also a part of the democratic process.The party is headed by a man who couldprove to be the best choice as he is triedand tested.

MASOOMA IMRANKarachi

Change is in the air. The sixthoption given by the SupremeCourt judges in their judg-

ment on the non-implementationof the controversial National Rec-onciliation Ordnance (NRO) im-plies an interim governmentfollowed by elections. This is alsothe demand of the opposition par-ties, especially the biggest one –the PML(N). The government islooking at October after the Senateelections in March in which theyhope to win a majority. It’s a timeand space game – the governmentslowly gives up its space for ma-noeuvre to gain time while othersseek to deny it time as well asspace. Going by this the chancesare that the executive will obey theSupreme Court’s orders as a lastresort and at the last possibleminute. The furore will then diedown, at least on this issue. If this

does not happen then the other op-tions are always there.

Next is the so called ‘Mem-ogate affair’ on which the linesseem to have been drawn betweenthe government and the judiciaryand the government and the mili-tary. Two facts are important andneed to be borne in mind – theSupreme Court is on record ashaving said that it does not want toderail the system – meaningdemocracy – and that no unconsti-tutional step will be accepted im-plying that the past judicial coverto military coups is a thing of thepast. Secondly, the military hasstated that it has no intention ofintervening, implying that change,if any, should only come throughconstitutional means.

The memo has alreadyclaimed two victims – our ambas-sador to the US and the secretary

defence. It has alsoled to statementsfrom the governmentthat led to a generalperception of a civil military con-frontation that could lead on tofurther destabilising steps. So star-tling were the statements thatsome thought that the governmentactually wanted to be ousted pre-maturely to trigger the ‘martyrsyndrome’ because it was at a deadend in terms of options.

Fortunately, the response fromthe military in each case was meas-ured, deliberate and calibrated tocreate just the right effect. The re-sult has been follow-up statementsfrom the prime minister that havescaled down the situation and havereassured the nation. Much willnow depend on the end of the twotrails on which ‘Memogate’ is pro-ceeding – the parallel investiga-

tions by the judicialcommission and theparliamentary com-mittee. There may be

fireworks but already there aresane voices suggesting that thecountry and its institutions are farmore important than individualambitions.

The media, especially the USmedia and even official spokesper-sons, are implying that the militaryis behind the judiciary and isegging it on so as to undermine orbring down the government – a‘slow motion coup’ as one analystcalled it. The government is beingprojected as ‘besieged’ by the mili-tary and the judiciary and asper-sions are being cast on the judicialprocess in Pakistan. No one is say-ing what the military hopes to gainby such actions even if these suc-ceed. There is also nothing being

said as to why a judiciary that haswon its independence the hardway should now tarnish its imageby following dictates from the mil-itary.

The judiciary is also aware ofthe fact that its performance isunder international scrutiny. Themilitary is likely to remain withinconstitutional bounds but it willnot allow itself to be ridiculed oraccused of something that it is notdoing. It is also fighting a war thathas already cost it heavily in lives.The judiciary will proceed on thepath that it deems to be in the bestinterest of the country. The gov-ernment having asserted its su-premacy will move towardsbalance but more importantly willalso take steps to stem the tide thatan absence of governance and in-ternal security are creating.

The overarching demand is for

civilian supremacy over the mili-tary and a review of Pakistan’sstrategic direction in view of its de-clining resources. Both these stepsrequire carefully thought outstrategies but creative strategiesare not made by those lighting andputting out fires. For any signifi-cant strategy, the requirement iseconomic viability and internalstability. It’s time to pull ourselvesout of the morass of trivial pursuitsand orchestrate all institutions andpower to develop inner strength asa nation. The people must nowtake priority.

Spearhead Research is a pri-vate centre for research and consul-tancy on security, headed byJehangir Karamat. Spearheadanalyses are the result of a collabo-rative effort and not attributable toa single individual.

resolving Pakistan's institutional conflict


Comment12Saturday, 14 January, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

As flies to wanton boys....

on Saleem Shehzad

Those who believe that the mood of the court, morethan anything else, influences the decisions of thejudiciary, would infer a lot from the findings of thecommission that was set up to probe the murder of

slain journalist Saleem Shehzad. They would infer from thisthe verdict of the Abbottabad commission: another acquittalfor the powers that be? They would also infer from this theverdict of the court in the memo commission: guilty ascharged?

A flawed belief, one that is the province of gut feelings,unable to stand up to reason or scrutiny. Not demonstrablyaccurate either. If a fair commission, one that would havebeen to the intelligence agencies’ detractors’ liking, had beenset up and couldn’t find any dirt, they couldn’t have goneahead and created some. Yet the adeptness of the spooks toclean up after themselves and the widespread publicperception that they were, somehow, involved, made thecommission talk about the intelligence agencies in its report.Bring them under control, it said about the IB and the ISI.Was including the IB an attempt to lessen the sting? If it was,perhaps they could have thrown in the Special Branch as well.Or the irrigation department.

The case itself: Saleem Shehzad couldn’t have been asgood as he was at his beat and not attracted the ire of thenon-state actors and various “belligerents.” Thoseprotesting the findings of the commission cannot brushaway an independent splinter group of militants behind hisgruesome murder. The timing of his murder, however, rightbefore he was to publish an installment of his findings onthe attack on the Mehran naval base in Karachi, makes itharder to believe that.

The commission’s directive to the investigating authoritiesto go about their work without the fear of reprisals is merelysymbolic; we have been down this road many times before.

The aftermath of Shehzad’s murder, more than themurder itself, is depressing indeed for professional, feet-on-the-ground journalists in the country. If as prominent ajournalist as he could be killed off, with no clue about theculprits, what hope do those working for the local mediahave? What hope do the local correspondents in the districtsand tribal agencies have?

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods,

They kill us for their sport

why defy the SC?

only rational course

The PPP must have realised by now that the MQM andPML(Q) had joined the coalition to share power andnot to support it in defying the powers that be.Sensing that the two might not be willing to support

it, the government had abandoned on Thursday the idea ofseeking a vote of confidence for Gilani from the NA. So far,only the ANP has offered full-blooded public backing to thegovernment. That Asfandyar also presented the resolution insupport of parliament, government and democracy on Fridaymakes one wonder if it was just a chance that Ch Shujaat orFarooq Sattar did not volunteer to do it. In the tripartitestandoff, the NA sitting has done little to alter the situation onthe ground.

The attorney general has rejected the government’s standregarding the legality of the statements by the COAS and DGISI. This would weaken the prime minister’s position on thedismissal of the defence secretary, an issue over whichreservations were reportedly expressed during Kayani’smeeting with the principal staff officers. While Kayani’sattendance at the defence committee of the cabinet wouldensure the continuation of dialogue with the military, there islittle likelihood of the gulf created among other things byGilani’s earlier remarks being reduced. Nawaz Sharif remainsdetermined to change the government at the earliest. There islittle possibility of the no confidence move getting anywherenear success as long as the MQM and PML(Q) continue tosupport the government. The next two steps Nawaz proposesto undertake are collective resignations regarding which hehas remained double-minded for long and a long marchwhich is an extra-constitutional measure as it is not visualisedin the basic law as a legitimate way of removing thegovernment. Moreover, it could set a dangerous precedent.

Under the circumstances, the best move that the PPP mayhope to rely on to complete its tenure is to change its attitudetowards the SC. The policy of defiance has to be abandoned.The government has to comply with all the court decisionseven if it does not agree with them. What is more, it has tofight the memo case with the help of a more competent legalteam.

life is unfair

The PPP-led coalition is in allkinds of trouble, some of its ownmaking. In a nutcracker situa-tion, it is facing the combinedwrath of the superior judiciary,

the military establishment and the opposi-tion. Whether acting in unison or not, thereis a lot of talk in the air about the imminentclash of institutions.

The PPP certainly feels that it is beingcornered in an effort to hound it out of of-fice. Although both the president and theprime minister exercising restraint are re-luctant to say it on record, they suspect anexus between the judiciary and the mili-tary with a helping hand from the opposi-tion led by Nawaz Sharif to engineer theirouster.

Endorsing the military’s viewpoint, theapex court in its detailed judgment hasgiven a novel justification for admitting themaintainability of Nawaz Sharif’s petition.The chief justice declaring the link between

sovereignty and citizens’ fun-damental rights as being obvi-ous, has added that, “once acountry’s sovereignty and in-dependence are compromised,the lives and dignity of the cit-izen cannot but be adverselyaffected.”

In a related development,the Supreme Court has de-clined to extend the February23 deadline for preparation ofnew electoral rolls. Whereasthe PPP is overtly keen to holdthe Senate elections on itswatch and has announcedMarch 2 as the election date,there are powerful forces thatwant to rob the ruling coali-tion of the luxury of a possiblemajority in the upper house.

The most interesting caseis that of the PML(N). It wantselections to take place as soonas possible and is willing to goan extra mile to destabiliseand isolate the government,forcing its hand to hold anearly election. The Sharifs, un-nerved by Imran Khan’s risingpopularity in their heartland,do not want to lend him timeto organise, find suitable can-didates and have elections

under fresh lists. The PTI stands to gainmore if elections are held on the basis offresh lists as its vote bank is the youngersegment of the population.

On the other hand, the PML(N) is alsowary of the military with which it has notenjoyed an amicable relationship of late.The military does not trust the Sharifs ei-ther. Its charge that the establishment ispropping up Imran has to be viewed in thiscontext. Paradoxically, it is the Imran khanfactor, which has forced the PML(N) to co-operate with the ubiquitous establishmentin the wider scheme of things to get rid ofthe Zardari-Gilani duo.

The PPP has consolidated its positionwith its allies albeit conditionally. Even if itwas contemplating sacking the COAS andthe ISI chief, its allied parties have made itclear that they will not support such a move.Also, if Nawaz tries to bring a no-confidencemotion against the parliament, the PPP’scoalition partners might not lend a helpinghand.

It has been suggested to PresidentZardari to call early elections immediatelyafter the Senate elections. Unless there ispackage deal on the Memogate scandal andthe NRO, the PPP is unlikely to call elec-tions.

A way out of the impasse could be thegovernment agreeing to write to the Swissauthorities to reopen the cases againstZardari as has been suggested by eminentPPP lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan. According tosome legal experts, the heavens will not fallif such a letter is written as he will continueto enjoy sovereign immunity being presi-dent. However, Zardari is still reluctant,saying that this would be tantamount to atrial of the grave of Benazir Bhutto which hewill not allow.

Although Gilani in his emotional butsomewhat measured address in the parlia-ment claimed that he did not need to take avote of confidence from the parliament,ANP chief Asfandyar Wali tabled a draftresolution immediately after his speech.The resolution while reiterating the need forall state institutions to work within their re-spective spheres talks about sovereigntylying with the parliament.

The prime minister has deferred thetabling of the resolution till Monday osten-sibly to seek a consensus with the opposi-tion. If the purpose of the resolution was tosend a message to the military, that has

been served. As leader of the opposition Nisar Ali

Khan knows well that it does not, however,change the ground realities. A similar reso-lution was passed by the parliament in Oc-tober 1999. Musharraf sacked Nawaz only afew days later

The meeting of the defence committeeof the cabinet (DCC) scheduled for today iscrucial. The very fact that it is taking placeis a positive development in the sense thatat least the military and civilian leadershipshave decided to bridge their trust deficit ina structured manner.

Previously, General Kayani absentedhimself from President Zardari’s dinner inhonour of the visiting Chinese vice premier.The military has taken the stance that theSupreme Court should judge Memogateand a meeting between the troika – thepresident, prime minister and the armychief – seems unlikely.

The military top brass has made astrategic decision not to intervene politi-cally. But issues like the Memogate andcomplying with the apex court’s order ondeclaring the NRO null and void cannot besimply wished away. Even if early electionsare called, these issues will keep on haunt-ing Zardari.

Hence, there is need for deep introspec-tion by the president to review his presentstrategy which is simply not working. Theprime minister in his speech to the parlia-ment claimed that the government does notwant to go as a martyr and simply wants tocomplete its term. The ground reality is thatthe PPP is facing a three-pronged attackand the noose around its neck is beingslowly but surely tightened.

The president’s legal eagle and loyalistBabar Awan facing double contemptcharges of the Supreme Court is not theright man for the job at hand i.e. to find away out of this legal and political labyrinth.Of course, the PPP – the largest and mostresilient national party of the country – hasbeen in power four times since its inception.Surely, it will bounce back again if forcedout of office.

President Zardari, a brave man indeed,is not overtly worried. But as his late wifeBenazir Bhutto who faced great adversityduring her political career used to say, toobad life is unfair.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today

Cracking this nutcracker

whiteLIeSBy Ess Aich

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at [email protected]

We hear that a star-stud-ded wedding of amedia mogul’s daugh-

ter in Dubai some two weeksback was a litmus test for celebsand Pakistan’s politicians, espe-cially the latter. PresidentMusharraf was the one that drewthe greatest crowd among“politicians” for that is the labelthat befits him most, now that hehas a political party of his veryown.

If this is the kind of warm re-sponse he gets at public gather-ings then his belief and regularstatements that he is “popular inPakistan” are quite understand-able. The fanfare at Dubai mayjust have contributed to hisdream of landing in Pakistan tobe greeted by a sea of bannersand waving arms. In stark con-trast, former PM Shaukat Aziz cut a lonely figure with no one ap-proaching him for an opinion or a one-liner and that perhaps is

why he stakes no claim to being a grassroots politician. As forMusharraf, we wait and see.

By Arif Nizami

When the info minister Ms FirdausAshiq Awan made her move with

tears and put the PM’s favourite mandarinin her place, she did tell a few that she waspeaked with a Gang of Four conspiringagainst her.

It included, we were told, a female bu-reaucrat. Ms Awan may have won thatround with tears but it seems the otherlady is back with a bang and this time it isanother khaki bureaucrat who sits nursinghis wounds.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Being behind bars can be a life changingexperience as most people have found

but sometimes being restricted to an eight-star residence with all perks and no billscan also get to you. When HussainHaqqani, previously our man in Washing-ton or as some unjustifiably claimed ‘their’man in the Pakistan Embassy, first cameto Pakistan to appear before the SupremeCourt in the memo case, he was heard say-ing loud and clear that he was ever willingto “live and die” for Pakistan.

A few days of confinement in the PM

House and the man was being rescued byhis advocate and the judiciary. More daysand HH was heard issuing statements that“he could be killed if he came out of the PMhouse”. More weeks and it is a total changeof heart. HH has now applied to be allowedto go out of the country. Obviously, ourman in Washington is not willing to live inthis country for fear that he may actuallydie here as his book Between the Mosqueand Military did not endear him to themilitants. One can only say to the PMHouse: Please release the prisoner.


Comment 13Saturday, 14 January, 2012

The scenario is movingstep by step towardsthe pre-determined de-

nouement. This time the mil-itary will not step in directly.The government hawks havedamaged its case in the SC sobadly that there is a likeli-hood of the apex court deliv-ering the coup de grace,beginning with Gilani andthen moving towards Zardari.The army will then gladlyoffer its help to execute thedecision, if so desired by thecourts. After all, this is what itis required to do under theconstitution. Had the govern-ment not dug in its heels onthe issue of the implementa-tion of the NRO verdict, defy-ing the court on the unusualground that it amounted tothe trial of Benazir’s grave,things might have been dif-ferent, at least in the crucialNRO implementation case.

The memo case was builtup by those working from thesidelines. After all, the DG ISIdid not do all that runningaround from Islamabad andLondon for nothing. On theface of it, there is little in thecase but even if the govern-ment is finally exonerated, itwould emerge out of the legalbattle badly battered andbruised. A section of themedia has already taken thecomplicity of Zardari in whatit describes as treason forgranted. Whatever the court’sdecision, enough propagandahas already been conductedagainst the PPP governmentcosting it popularity.

Those working from thesidelines have yet anotherplan up their sleeve if thelegal scheme does not work.That PML(Q) and MQM havegradually started distancingthemselves from the govern-ment indicates that this plan

being simultaneously un-folded. At a wink from themasterminds, the two partieswould renounce the alliancewith the PPP, ensuring thefall of the government. Thiscould even coincide withNawaz Sharif’s no confidencemove which would be de-scribed as a happy coinci-dence.

The army in this countryhas never tolerated a civiliangovernment for long. Agen-cies which are adept at politi-cal engineering are set inmotion. In the 90’s, it allstarted with a whisperingcampaign which was followedby newspaper plants. Thegovernment in power, it wassuggested, was either thor-oughly corrupt or some of itsministers were working forRAW, of course with theblessings of the prime minis-ter. Then came the blow, nor-mally from the president whoused to be an administra-tion’s man. The governmentwas sent home without com-pleting its tenure.

The only civilian primeminister acceptable to thearmy has to be like ShaukatAziz. Under the system de-vised by Musharraf, the chiefexecutive and ministers en-joyed all perks and privilegesand were free to mint moneyin any way they liked. Theyhad absolutely no say in theformulation of policies whichwas the sole privilege of thepresident in uniform and hisunelected advisors.

The system suited thearmy. It gave it a free hand toformulate internal or externalpolicies without being heldaccountable for any possiblelapses and failure. The blamecould always be shifted to thecivilian dummies. No gen-uinely elected governmentcan allow this sort of arrange-ment. Conflict can at best bedelayed but is inevitable.

Turkey with a long his-tory of military dominationhas over a decade managed toput the army under civiliancontrol. The example indi-cates that political parties inother military dominatedcountries too can perform thefeat. Prime Minister Erdo-gan’s government managed

to do this because of its un-paralleled political and eco-nomic performance. It hasraised the image of the coun-try with a foreign policy basedon friendliness with neigh-bours and trade with all. Thegovernment’s image rose fur-ther after it firmly opposedIsraeli atrocities and reducedthe level of its diplomatic tieswith Israel. Its biggestachievement was putting theeconomy back on track,something that the militaryrulers and the army domi-nated civilian governmentshad failed to do over manydecades. With an 87 percentturnout at elections, and themassive public support in thereferendum, the party is in aposition to take several gener-als to court for plottingagainst it.

The PPP leadershipstarted with a tragic flaw: mil-lions of illegal dollars piled upin Swiss banks. Its leaderssimply forgot that in Pakistanonly those in uniform cankeep the kickbacks from de-fence and other such deals.The politicians do not havethat privilege. The PPP lead-ership wants to keep themoney and complete thetenure which has brought itinto a confrontation with thecourts.

The PPP was keen to re-tain the Dogar Court becausea pliant judiciary alone couldhave saved it from legal chal-lenges. The refusal to restorethe independent judiciary ledthe PML(N) to part companywith the alliance. To maintainitself in power, the PPP had tobring in the MQM andPML(Q). This led to the in-duction of a super large cabi-net and promoted corruptionand bad governance. It alsomade the PPP unpopular inits stronghold of Sindh. ThePPP failed to realise that nei-ther of the two allies wouldstand by it in case of con-frontation with the army andjudiciary. What one sees hap-pening is that the chickensare now coming home toroost.

The writer is a formeracademic and a politicalanalyst.

The drift of things ever since the PPP-led gov-ernment took over had always pointed in onedirection: disaster, unmitigated disaster. The

ones who disagreed and were willing to give the va-grant charlatans the benefit of doubt would possiblybe having some second thoughts.

But, quite comprehensively, we are well past thestage of any rethink. The seeds were sown exten-sively and the crop of abominable corruption andabdication of governance tended to lovingly overfour arduous years as we wait to reap the ultimateproduce. The only question is whether that wouldcome in the shape of a judicial coup or military in-tervention.

I have frequently written about the lack ofprospects of the military intervening directly, but itsrole in any change can never be underestimated par-ticularly when the environment has been distortedbeyond the contours of manageability and whenthere is an open confrontation between the execu-tive on the one hand and the military and the judi-ciary on the other hand. No one can be blamed morefor this than the executive itself which has indulgedceaselessly in acts smacking of mala fide intentions.

The government began with one massive liabil-ity who, over time, and to hide his transgressions in-ducted a coterie of cronies, even convicts grantedpresidential reprieve, who became co-operators inweaving a web of deception concerning every aspectof governance. To hide their crass misdemeanours,they needed to gain unbridled control over all eche-lons of the government. Three institutions posed

prospective hurdles in the process: thejudiciary (after restoration), the militaryand the media. To diminish its statureand credibility, the judiciary was wan-tonly scandalised, devious tactics wereemployed to weaken the military andthe premier intelligence agency whileevery endeavour was made to browbeatthe media into submission. When nei-ther of the tricks worked, the angergradually gave way to desperation andthe country was set on course to a show-down either with the dubious intentionof the government dying a political mar-tyr thus leaving it a chance at the nextelections, or bringing the system downand blaming it on undemocratic forcesit had been allegedly confrontingthrough the entire tenure of its incum-bency.

But, while the executive may havebeen digging its own grave over time,the judiciary and the military did justabout everything to facilitate itspredilection to hang itself. The judiciarydid it by inordinately delaying the is-suance of strategic injunctions andgoing soft on their implementation andthe military by showing a total lack of in-terest in intervening even when the op-portunity was offered to it on a goldenplatter. While the judiciary, basking inits new-found independence, may havebeen reluctant to move in too quickly to

rein in the governmental transgressions, the mili-tary was busy fighting an alien war that had beenimposed on it through the hideous capitulation ofthe former dictator. Instead of using the twin-op-portunity to consolidate its hold through good gov-ernance and delivery at the grassroots level, theexecutive chose to perpetuate abject corruption andgross mismanagement of the state and its institu-tions.

When its multiple devious machinations did notlead to giving it unquestioned hold on power, itstooped to conspiring against its own institutions.The Kerry-Lugar Bill, the May 2 incident and thememo are just three instances of this heinous en-deavour. But, every failure further incensed the gov-ernment’s recalcitrance and obduracy because itfully understood that the edifice it had erected stoodon weak pillars and the only course open for it tohide its misconduct was continued defiance of thelegitimate state institutions. Today, the governmentstands alone. Its allies are deserting it. It is in defi-ance of the apex court. Its confrontation with themilitary has only aggravated with the passage oftime.

The SC bench hearing the implementation ofthe NRO judgement case has held the president andthe prime minister guilty of having violated theiroaths of office and has offered six possible solutionsto the government. The judgement makes for an-other moot point because when the guilt of a personis established, he automatically becomes liable to beawarded an appropriate punishment which cannotbe left to his discretion as, in that case, every crimi-nal will want this precedence replicated.

Most controversial is option six which statesthat “...if in a given situation, the Executive is bentupon defying a final judicial verdict and is ready togo to any limit in such defiance, then, instead of in-sisting upon the Executive to implement the judicialverdict and thereby running the risk of bringingdown the constitutional structure itself, this courtmay exercise judicial restraint and leave the matterto the better judgement of the people of the countryand their representatives in the Parliament to ap-propriately deal with the delinquent”. This, interalia, politicises a matter that should have been han-dled strictly within the domain of law. Also, how canit be expected that a parliament that has been ren-dered irrelevant by the executive would be suddenlyelectrified to play a role? Does this make for anotherinstance of the judiciary blinking in the face of his-tory?

The one liability that the PPP-led governmentstarted with at the time of its induction has todaybecome a mountain of crises and conflict that is wellbeyond control. Its policy of confrontation has led itto becoming increasingly mired in unmanageablecontroversies and intrigues. The executive has be-come a victim of its own mala fide work that has dugin deep impacting every aspect of the national life.There appears to be no easy escape – either for thegovernment or the country.

The writer is a political analyst and a memberof the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reachedat [email protected]

the one liability has become a mountain of crisesAn all-too-familiar script

‘Tis written? Mala fide

Candid CornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad



14 Foreign News

RAMALLAHAfP

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas saidhe will press on with a campaign for full statemembership at the United Nations despiteongoing “exploratory” talks with Israel.

Palestinian officials have said the talks,which so far have included two meetings inAmman in the last 10 days, will not con-tinue beyond January 26 — the deadlineset by the international peacemakingQuartet for both sides to submit compre-hensive proposals on borders and security.But the current dialogue with Israel will

not stop the Palestinians from seeking UNrecognition, Abbas said. “We will continueour (statehood) efforts in the SecurityCouncil,” he told a meeting of his Fatahmovement on Thursday, adding that healso planned to petition the UN’s HumanRights Council in Geneva over Israel’s con-tinued occupation of Palestinian territory.

“We want to make a complaintagainst the occupation, which violates theGeneva Convention,” Abbas said, accord-ing to an official transcript of his remarks.Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat saidthis week that meetings in Jordan wouldnot develop into full negotiations without

a settlement freeze and Israel agreeing toaccept parameters for future talks. “TheAmman talks are intended to obtain a set-tlement freeze and the use of the 1967lines as a reference for any future talks,and will be given a chance to succeeduntil January 26,” Erakat told AFP. In theabsence of formal negotiations with Is-rael, the Palestinians have focused theirattention on the international arena. In2011 they won a UNESCO seat over USand Israeli opposition.

Erakat said 2012 “will be the year thatthe Palestinians go to the United Nationsand all of its organisations.” Abbas also told

Fatah officials he was committed to recon-ciliation with the rival Hamas movement.“We want to bring reconciliation tofruition,” he said. “There are people in cer-tain places, I do not wish to specify where,who do not want reconciliation but there arepeople who do want reconciliation. “Recon-ciliation is the main thing and we shall notallow anyone to get in our way if we reachan agreement,” he said. The two factionssigned a unity deal in May 2011 followingyears of bitter hostility but it has yet to beimplemented. On Thursday, a senior Fatahofficial said the cause of the hold-up was in-ternal divisions within Hamas itself.

KANOAfP

AMOB killed two peopleand burnt mosques andhomes in an overnightraid on a mainly Muslimvillage in northeastern

Nigeria in the latest such violence to hitthe country, residents said Friday.

“It was around 11:30 pm (2230GMT) when a crowd from Imbur at-tacked Gwalam village, setting fire onhomes and mosques,” residentAbubakar Hussaini said, with Imbur alargely Christian area and Gwalammainly Muslim. “So far, we have twodeaths, and we still don’t know the fateof some residents who fled into thebush to escape the attack.”

The attack occurred in Adamawastate, which is to hold a governorshipelection on January 21. Such ethnic andreligious violence often occurs aroundelection periods in Nigeria, thoughsome residents believed the attack wasin retaliation for the recent killings ofChristians in the state claimed by Is-lamist group Boko Haram.

Gamo Jika, an official in the statefor one of Nigeria’s main Islamic or-ganisation, Jama’atu Nasri Islam, con-firmed two were killed. “We have twodead from the attack on Gwalam bysome Christians. We are taking inven-tory of houses burnt in the attack,” he

said. Adamawa state police spokes-woman Altine Daniel confirmed the at-tack but gave no details.

Imbur and Gwalam villages are lo-cated in Numan, a flashpoint of sectar-ian violence. Nigeria has seen spirallingviolence mostly blamed on Boko Haram,whose recent attacks targeting Chris-tians have sparked fears of a civil conflictin a country roughly divided between amainly Muslim north and mostly Chris-tian south. Meanwhile, a nationwidestrike and mass protests shut downNigeria for a fifth day running Friday,but union leaders called for a weekendpause in demonstrations as talks soughtto avert a halt in oil production.

A first round of negotiations be-

tween labour leaders and top govern-ment officials, including PresidentGoodluck Jonathan, failed to reach adeal on Thursday night over soaringfuel prices, but more talks are set forSaturday. Union officials said thepause in talks until then was to allowfor labour officials from across thecountry to gather in Abuja and meet onthe way forward. With domestic flightsgrounded, they would be forced tocome by road. The main oil workers’union has threatened to shut crudeproduction beginning on Sunday if thegovernment does not reverse a movethat ended fuel subsidies on January 1,more than doubling pump prices inAfrica’s top crude exporter.

saudi forcesshoot deadshia protester

RIYADHAfP

Saudi security forces clashed with Shiaprotesters in the kingdom’s oil-rich east killingone person and wounding three, the interiorministry and witnesses said Friday. A“security forces’ patrol was carrying out itsnormal duties in (the Shia village of) Al-Awamiya late on Thursday when it wasattacked with a petrol bomb that left it inflames,” said a ministry spokesman incomments published by state news agencySPA. When security forces “tried to control thefire, they were shot,” it said, adding that Saudiforces responded. “The exchange of fire lefttwo of the assailants wounded. They weretaken to the hospital where one of them laterdied,” said the ministry spokesman. Witnessessaid earlier that security forces opened firewith live rounds after protesters hurled stonesat one of their vehicles in Al-Awamiya in theQatif region. Activists said IssamMohammed, 22, was killed by multiple bulletwounds. Three other people were woundedby security force fire, one of them a mandriving through a checkpoint at the entranceto the village, the activists said. Securityforces sealed off the village after the clashes,witnesses said. The clashes came afterdemonstrations were held in four Qatif regionvillages to call for the “release of politicaldetainees, reform and an end to sectariandiscrimination,” one activist told AFP on thecondition of anonymity. Protests erupted inthe Eastern Province in March whenmembers of the kingdom’s Shia minority tookto the streets to condemn Saudi militaryintervention against Shia-led pro-democracydemonstrations in neighbouring Bahrain.

kuwait policebreak upstateless demo,several wounded

KUWAIT CITYAfP

Several people were wounded and dozensarrested Friday as Kuwaiti police used teargas, water cannons and batons to dispersestateless protesters demanding citizenship,witnesses and a rights group said.Hundreds of riot police backed byarmoured vehicles assaulted severalhundred protesters who braved a sterninterior ministry warning not todemonstrate as authorities promised toresolve their decades-old plight. Policechased the protesters into the streets ofJahra, northwest of the capital KuwaitCity, and arrested many of them, includinga 13-year-old boy, the independent KuwaitAssociation of Human Rights said on itsTwitter account. A number of youngprotesters were seen with their headsbleeding after they were beaten withbatons by riot police, witnesses said.Private Al-Watan TV channel said itsphotographer was wounded. Statelesspeople, officially known as illegal residentsor bidoons, have been demonstrating overthe past several weeks for their rights.Kuwait’s interior ministry issued threestatements this week warning them not todo so or face punishment.

court ordersnew psychiatricevaluation ofnorway gunman

OSLOAfP

An Oslo court on Friday ordered a newpsychiatric evaluation of Anders BehringBreivik, who killed 77 people in twinattacks in July, after an earlier and widelycontested test found him criminallyinsane. “Due to the gravity of this case,the criminal responsibility (of BehringBreivik) must be examined again,” OsloDistrict Court judge Wenche ElizabethArntzen told a news conference. Two newexperts, Agnar Aspaas and TerjeToerrisen, were named to evaluate the 32-year-old rightwing extremist’s sanity. Inlate November, two court-appointedpsychiatrists concluded that BehringBreivik was suffering from paranoidschizophrenia and should be consideredcriminally insane and therefore notaccountable for his actions. If the findingis confirmed, Behring Breivik, who hasconfessed to carrying out the deadliestmassacre on Norwegian soil since WorldWar II, would likely be sentenced topsychiatric care in a closed ward insteadof prison. The initial report, latersupported by an expert panel, wascontroversial in Norway, with criticspointing to the years of detailed planningBehring Breivik had put in and cool andmethodic execution of the massacre. OnJuly 22, Behring Breivik first set off a carbomb outside government buildings inOslo, killing eight people. He then went toUtoeya, some 40 kilometres (25 miles)northwest of Oslo, and, dressed as apolice officer, spent more than an hourmethodically shooting and killing another69 people, mainly teens, attending asummer camp hosted by the rulingLabour Party’s youth wing.

Mob kills 2, burns mosquesin raid on Nigerian village

palestinians to press un bid despite Quartet talks push

GGULMARG: A Kashmiri snowboarder rides down a slope in Gulmarg, situated about 55 kms north of Srinagar, on friday. Gulmarg is the main ski destination in Indian-held Kashmir andhundreds of foreigners visit the slopes despite an ongoing insurgency in the region. AfP

g Protests, strike shut down nigeria for fifth day running


Foreign News 15Saturday, 14 January, 2012

TEHRANAfP

IRAN on Friday buried a topscientist it said was killed byIsrael and the United States aspart of a covert campaign againstits nuclear programme, as a US-

led drive for crippling sanctions ran intoopposition, even from allies.

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputydirector of Iran’s main uraniumenrichment plant, was given a funeralservice in north Tehran after noonprayers, state media reported.

He and his driver were killed onWednesday when two men on amotorbike slapped a magnetic bomb onhis car while it was stuck in Tehrantraffic. Iran’s supreme leader, AyatollahAli Khamenei, said the “abominable” and“cowardly” killing was committed “withthe planning or support of the

intelligence services of the CIA andMossad,” of the United States and Israel.

He said in a statement his countrywould “continue with determination” itsnuclear activities, which Westerngovernments suspect mask a drive for aweapons capability despite Tehran’srepeated denials.

Some media close to Iran’sconservatives have called for“retaliation” against Israeli officials.The Iranian government has demandedthat the UN Security Council condemnthe “terrorist” killing.

The United States has stronglydenied it had anything to do with theassassination, although DefenceSecretary Leon Panetta admitted: “Wehave some ideas as to who might beinvolved.”

The prime suspect is widely seen asIsrael, as it was in the murders of threeother Iranian scientists in similar

circumstances over the past two years.Israel, though, has a policy of notcommenting on intelligence matters.

Asked in a CNN interview on Fridayif Israel was involved in Wednesday’sassassination, President Shimon Peressaid: “Not to the best of my knowledge.”

US President Barack Obama spokewith Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu the day after the scientist’smurder to discuss developments in Iran.

EU foreign ministers are to meet onJanuary 23 to consider new sanctionsincluding action against the central bankand a proposed ban on Iran oil importsthat may be phased in over months toavoid hurting struggling eurozoneeconomies.

But Iran’s two main allies on theworld stage, Russia and China, haveexpressed strong criticism of the newWestern measures and remain adamantlyopposed to any new UN sanctions.

Iran buries scientist slain by ‘CIA and Mossad’

2 killed as Yemenpolice, protestersclash in south

ADENAfP

Two people were killed and 13 woundedwhen Yemeni police traded gunfire withsouthern separatists, and as nationwideprotests rejected a plan granting thepresident immunity from prosecution,activists and police said. “Shakib SuleimanHasan and an elderly man were killed and10 other protesters wounded when policeopened fire on a demonstration” in KhorMaksar district in the main southern city ofAden, said Mohammed al-Abadi, anactivist from the separatist SouthernMovement . A police official said threepolicemen, including a man identified asMajor Walid Saleh Ali, were wounded.Witnesses said police fired tear gas and liverounds at thousands who demonstrated toreject a Gulf-brokered plan that grantsPresident Ali Abdullah Saleh immunityfrom prosecution when he steps down.Gunmen among the protesters returnedfire, the same sources said. The SouthernMovement protesters also called forseparation on the anniversary of internalclashes on January 13, 1986 betweenfactions of the Yemeni Socialist Party thatruled the south of Yemen — anindependent state at the time. “TheSouthern Movement is boycotting theupcoming presidential elections across allsouthern provinces,” read their banners.“The Gulf Initiative does not concern us.”Based on a Gulf plan, Saleh will remain anhonorary president until February 21 whenVice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi willofficially replace him.

Myanmar freesleading politicalprisoners

YANGONAfP

Myanmar pardoned prominent dissidents,journalists and a former premier Fridayunder a major prisoner amnesty,intensifying a surprising series of reformsby the army-backed regime. Westernpowers have demanded the release ofpolitical detainees languishing in jail in thecountry formerly known as Burma beforethey will consider lifting sanctions on theregime and its cronies. Friday’s amnestyincluded members of the “88 GenerationStudents” group, which is synonymous withthe democratic struggle in Myanmar andwas at the forefront of a failed 1988uprising in which thousands died. The masspardon, which looked set to be the mostsignificant yet under the nominally civiliangovernment which took office last year, washailed by democracy leader Aung San SuuKyi’s opposition party as a “positive sign”.Amnesty International welcomed therelease as “a major step forward.”

tehRAN: Iranians hold a portrait of assassinated nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan and a wanted poster with portraits of US President Barack obama, German Chancellor AngelaMerkel, french President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron during his funeral after the friday prayers outside tehran University. AfP

DAMASCUSAfP

Thousands demonstrated in support ofthe rebel Free Syrian Army on Friday,as longtime Damascus ally Moscowkept up its opposition to calls fortougher action against the regime, say-ing they were flagrant attempts to bringabout its downfall.

Meanwhile, both France and Syriaannounced investigations into thedeath of French TV correspondentGilles Jacquier, the first Western news-man to die in Syria since anti-regimeprotests erupted in March. Securityforces were out in strength as they havebeen each Friday for the main weeklydemonstrations. Security force firekilled one protester in Idlib province inthe northwest, a human right watchdogtold AFP in Nicosia.

The Syrian Observatory for HumanRights said 20,000 people had turnedout in the Idlib town of Ariha calling forthe overthrow of the regime, and an-other 15,000 in the Damascus suburbof Douma. Explosions were heard inthe flashpoint central city of Homs, the

Britain-based watchdog said. The secu-rity forces opened fire on demonstra-tors in Deir Ezzor in the northeast,Daraa province, south of the capital,and in the Damascus suburbs, it added.The rallies, following a day in which se-curity forces killed 15 civilians in theircrackdown, come after the largest civil-ian opposition group agreed to boostties with the rebels.

Burhan Ghaliun, the head of theSyrian National Council, an umbrellagroup that initially opposed the use offorce in the uprising, met on Thursdaywith rebel chief Colonel Riad al-Asaad.The SNC said they “extensively dis-cussed the situation on the ground andthe organisational capacity of the FSA.”They agreed to “formulate a detailedplan, to include the reorganisation ofFSA units and brigades, and the cre-ation of a format to accommodatewithin FSA ranks additional officersand soldiers, especially senior militaryofficials, who side with the revolution,”it added. Formed from deserters fromthe regular army who mutinied overthe regime’s deadly crackdown, theFSA says it has some 40,000 fighters

under its command.The numbers cannot be independ-

ently verified although the Syrian au-thorities have acknowledged mountinglosses at the hands of the rebels in re-cent months. UN Secretary GeneralBan Ki-moon, on his way to Syria’swestern neighbour Lebanon on Friday,issued a call for the international com-munity to stand together to address acrisis which the world body estimatedlast month had cost more than 5,000lives. In an interview with Lebanon’sAn-Nahar daily, Ban said he had re-peatedly appealed to Assad to stop thebloodshed and listen to his people butthat he had received only empty prom-ises. He said the UN Security Councilmust speak with one voice in seekingan end to the crisis but Moscow re-newed its opposition to Western callsfor tougher action by the world body.

Russian Deputy Foreign MinisterGennady Gatilov rejected Western-pro-posed amendments to a draft SecurityCouncil resolution on Syria whichMoscow circulated last month. “Unfor-tunately, the West’s approach radicallydiffers from ours,” Gatilov said.

british pM meetssaudi king as Gulftensions run high

RIYADHAfP

British Prime Minister David Cameronheld talks Friday with Saudi KingAbdullah in Riyadh, state mediareported, as tensions soar between theWest and Tehran, the oil-rich kingdom’sarch-rival in the Gulf. The two leadersdiscussed “regional and internationaldevelopments as well as the variousmeans of strengthening cooperationbetween both countries,” the official SPAnews agency said, without elaborating.The meeting was attended by top Saudiofficials. Cameron’s first visit to theOPEC kingpin comes as Westerngovernments, including Britain, havemoved to step up sanctions over Iran’scontroversial nuclear programme,threatening an embargo on vital oilexports that has drawn an angryresponse from Tehran. Britain has beenseeking to strengthen ties with oil-richSaudi Arabia and boost exports to itslargest Middle East trading partner.Annual bilateral trade is worth 15 billionpounds ($23 billion), while Saudiinvestments in Britain amount to morethan 62 billion pounds.

syrians rally in support ofrebels as russia backs ally

VIENNAAfP

A high-level UN nuclear agencydelegation will visit Iran late thismonth to try to clear up claims ofcovert weapons activities that havestoked tensions between Tehran andthe West, diplomats said Friday. Thetrip led by International AtomicEnergy Agency chief inspector HermanNackaerts and the agency’s numbertwo Rafael Grossi would last fromJanuary 28 through the first week ofFebruary, one Western diplomat toldAFP. Another envoy also said the visit,two months after an IAEA report onIran took suspicions to a new levelthat Tehran is developing nuclear

weapons, would “likely” be fromJanuary 28, although it was not yetdefinite. There was also some“ambiguity” on whether the delegationwould merely hold talks with Iranianofficials or be able to visit sitescovered in the IAEA’s bombshellNovember 8 report, the seconddiplomat said. “It may be that theIranians just want a short discussion inTehran, which would not be what theIAEA is looking for,” the envoy told AFPon condition of anonymity. An IAEAspokesman declined to comment. Iran’sambassador, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, whosaid in December he would hold talkswith the IAEA in Vienna this monthabout a visit, was not immediatelyavailable to say any more.

un n-watchdog to visit iran


BeSt PICtuRe: ‘the Artist’

BeSt ACtOR: George Clooney, ‘the

Descendants’

BeSt ACtReSS: Viola Davis, ‘the Help’

BeSt SuPPORtING ACtReSS: Octavia

Spencer, ‘the Help’

BeSt SuPPORtING ACtOR: Christopher

Plummer, ‘Beginners’

BeSt ACtING eNSeMBLe: ‘the Help’

BeSt DIReCtOR: Michel Hazanavicius,

‘the Artist’

BeSt COMeDy: ‘Bridesmaids’

BeSt ANIMAteD FILM: ‘Rango’

BeSt FOReIGN FILM: ‘A Separation’

BeSt yOuNG ACtOR OR ACtReSS:

thomas Horn, ‘extremely Loud and

Incredibly Close’

BeSt ADAPteD SCReeNPLAy:

‘Moneyball’, Steve Zaillian and Aaron

Sorkin, story by Stan Chervin

BeSt ORIGINAL SCReeNPLAy: ‘Midnight

in Paris’, Woody Allen

Here’s the full list of winners

16 Saturday, 14 January, 2012

IN LIMELIGHT

LoS ANGeLeS:‘Melrose Place’ actressHeather Locklear wasrushed to hospitalafter she reportedlymixed alcohol andprescriptionmedication.“Emergency responsepersonnel respondedto a medicalemergency call atLocklear's residence,”people.com quotedMike Aranda of theVentura CountySheriff's departmentas saying. Locklearwas rushed to ahospital for furthermedical attention.Hospital personnelwere taking care ofher, Aranda said.AGeNCIeS

Aamir enjoying free time with MUMBAI: Aamir Khan is abit free these days and theactor-producer is keepinghimself busy spending timein watching his newbornson grow up. “Hope the newyear has begun well for youall. Me, I'm spending all myfree time with Azad :-) Love.a,” the 46-year-old postedon his Facebook page. Aamirand his second wife Kiranrao's son, Azad, was bornDec 1 last year, to asurrogate mother throughIVF. the actor, who also hasa son, Junaid, and adaughter, Ira, from his firstwife reena, loves playingwith his new bundle of joy.this year, he will be seenonly in one project. He willfeature alongside raniMukerji and Kareena Kapoorin reema Kagti's ‘talaash’, apsychological thrillerwritten and directed byreema Kagti. this apart, hehas also joined hands withStar Plus for a talk show,said to be completely forthe masses. Aamir has alsobeen signed on to play thevillain in "Dhoom 3". But themovie will only release in2013. AGeNCIeS

Heather Locklear

hospitalisedlittle one

LoS ANGeLeS:

Lindsay Lohan

attends the

party hosted by

the Weinstein

Company and

Audi to

Celebrate Awards

Season. afp

LAHorE: Models walk

down the ramp during

Gliours Fashion Show

at a local hotel. inP

CALIFORNIA: Octavia Spencer, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst arrive for the 17th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. afp

LOS ANGELESABC

‘The Artist’ took home the prize ofthe night at the Critics ChoiceAwards, winning best drama of theyear for the “love letter to Ameri-can cinema,” as the team behindthe French silent film put it intheir acceptance speech. It wasalso night of quips. After acceptingthe award for best comedy on be-half of ‘Bridesmaids’, Judd Apa-tow slammed Jerry Lewis, sayingthat the comedy he produced, inwhich Kristen Wiig served as starand co-writer, proved the veterancomedian wrong: “Jerry Lewisonce said that he didn’t thinkwomen were funny. So I’d just liketo say, with all respect, f*** you.”George Clooney won best actor(‘The Descendants’) and revealedthat his mom made him a Nauga-hyde leisure suit when he was insixth grade. Patton Oswalt saidhe’d compensate for not winningbest supporting actor (‘YoungAdult’) with lots and lots of scotch.

LOS ANGELES ReUteRS

RAPPER Nicki Minaj willmake her debut Grammyperformance next month,joining Foo Fighters, BrunoMars and country singer

Jason Aldean on the list of artists who willtake to the stage on the recording indus-try’s biggest night. Grammy organiserssaid on Thursday that Minaj, who has fourGrammy nominations, will perform at theFebruary 12 awards show, as well as coun-try sensation Taylor Swift, and KellyClarkson. But there was no official wordon Thursday on whether Britain’s Adele,

whose album ‘21’ was the biggest seller of2011, will be singing at the Grammys fol-lowing surgery on her vocal cords in No-vember. Adele, who has been ondoctor-ordered vocal rest since Novem-ber, was not among the first list ofGrammy performers. But the 23 year-old‘Someone Like You’ singer was listed onThursday as being down to sing at theBRIT music awards ceremony in Londonon February 21. Rapper Kanye West, wholeads this year’s Grammys with sevennominations, is also yet to be confirmedas a performer at the live awards show inLos Angeles. Organisers said additionalperformers and presenters will be an-nounced in the coming weeks.

Nicki Minaj, Foo Fighters to

at Grammysperform

‘Artist’ wins, Judd Apatow slams at 2012 Critics Choice Awards

MUMBAI: the firsttime Ranveer Singhset his eyes onKareena Kapoor, hegushed so much thatit almost embarrassedher. Imagine whatwould happen if hewere to share screenspace with her?Sources revealed thatKareena's good friendKaran Johar wasconsidering castingthe duo in one of hismany projects that arein the pipeline.Ranveer had once saidthat Kareena was thereason he transitionedfrom boyhood tomanhood, so we hopeBebo helps this boyturn from a novice toa natural. AGeNCIeS

Ranveer’s ‘Kareena fantasy’

fulfilled?


ABC

Nearly a year after Lady Gaga released her hit single “Born This Way,”Madonna is finally offering her take on the song … and it’s not exactly enthu-siastic. Gaga has long expressed her admiration for Madonna, calling the popicon an inspiration. Comparisons between the two divas have been inevitable,from their dance-hall beats to their risque musical treatment of sex and reli-gion. The two even teamed up for a “catfight” skit on ‘Saturday Night Live’in2010. But last February’s release of ‘Born This Way’ had many questioningwhether the Mama Monster had gone too far in emulating her idol. The song,

critics charged, was stunningly similar to Madonna’s 1989 chart-topper,‘Express Yourself’. Gaga would go on to say that she got an e-mail

from Madonna’s “people” saying they supported the song, but arepresentative for Madonna later said she was unaware ofany such e-mail. Starting with the question of whetherMadonna felt Gaga was “copying” her. The pop singer’sresponse, at first, was complimentary. She called Gaga “avery talented artist” and said she admired her song writ-ing. But she owned up to the connection between Gaga’smusic and her own. “I certainly think she references me alot in her work. And sometimes I think it’s amusing andflattering and well done,” she said. “There’s a lot of waysto look at it. I can’t really be annoyed by it …because, ob-viously, I’ve influenced her.” But the Material Girl be-came coy when the conversation turned to “Born ThisWay. When I heard it on the radio …I said that soundsvery familiar,” Madonna said. Asked if that felt annoying, Madonna responded, “It felt reductive.”

MUMBAI: we all knowthat they have a longhistory. But formerlovers and now friendsKatrina Kaif and SalmanKhan seem to bebonding big time on theset of ‘Ek tha tiger’. Somuch so, that the couplehas decided to go on adinner date! Buzz has itthat Katrina is beingencouraged by herformer beau Salman togive her best for one ofthe scenes in the film.the scene is supposedto be a difficult one andit seems Katrina isnervous aboutperforming the sceneproperly. to encourageKatrina to put her bestfoot forward, Salmanhas promised her alavish dinner date if shegives the perfect shot inthe first take itself. theformer lovers seem tobe very comfortablewith each other. Doesthat mean they willrekindle their romance?Guess, we will have towait and watch!zeeNeWS

17

NEWS DESK

Krizmah, one of the most excitingnames to emerge in the field ofhandmade bags, recently launched atEnsemble, a high-end multi designerboutique located in both Lahore andKarachi. Both boutiques will now bestocking Krizmah bags permanently.The Krizmah label is owned by twoLahore based graphic designers ZainabUlmulk (a member of the ancientKatur dynasty of Chitral), Nadia Malikand Chitrali female artisans. Thepurpose behind Krizmah is to producehaute couture hand bags for globalfollowers of fashion. At the launch Zainab said: “I havealways been engaged in creativepursuits and was drawn to the idea ofdeveloping a Chitrali product because ofmy link with the area, and that’s wherethe concept of Krizmah emerged from.” “Each Krizmah bag is completely handstitched by artisans. Each bag has astory behind it such as the Joshi bagwhich talks about the traditional annualspring festival of the Kalash people inthe middle of May,” said Nadia. After conducting a series of exhibitionsfor Krizmah in Lahore, Islamabad,London and Singapore, Zainab andNadia felt that they needed a placewhere they could permanently stocktheir bags. “The response to ourexhibitions was phenomenal and thatwas what inspired us to look at a placefor permanent stocking and so wechose to go with Ensemble since as abrand house it only caters to high-endproducts and Krizmah is a high-endproduct,” said Ulmulk and Malik.

MUMBAI: first Katrina Kaif's look inspired afashion Barbie doll and now heartthrobhrithik Roshan is likely to walk the rampfor Mattel toys. Katrina had walked theramp in 2009 for Barbie and Mattel hasnow roped in hrithik as the brandambassador for racing game hot Wheelsteam Xtreme. he is likely to walk theramp at the India Kids fashion Week,starting Jan 17, in a collection designed byNarendra Kumar. Kumar has a tie-up with‘hot Wheels team Xtreme: Buckle Up’ andhis collection targeting boys across allages will be showcased on the inauguralday. India Kids fashion Week is the firstsuch dedicated to children. the three-day event will see Indian andinternational designers exploringthe relatively untouched territoryof children's lines by displayingapparel, toys, accessories and alot more. AGeNCIeS

Salman Katrina to go on aAfter Katrina, Hrithik to walk

PArIS: rooney

Mara and Daniel

Craig take part in a

tV broadcast show

as part of the

promotion of the

movie ‘Millenium :

the Girl with the

Dragon tattoo’. AfP

JAIPUR zeeNeWS

THE government of Rajasthan has extendeda helping hand to ailing ghazal maestroMehdi Hassan. As a token of support, theRajasthan govt has offered to bear all themedical expenses incurred by Hassan and

his family. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot spoke toHassan’s son Asif Mehdi about the veteran’s healthcondition and offered monetary and treatment in India.Gehlot also directed the chief secretary of Rajasthan tokeep in touch with Hassan’s family across the border.Hassan is currently in the ICU of a private hospital inKarachi since Tuesday after he complained of breathingproblem. The 84 year old singer, who was born inRajasthan had to leave for Pakistan post partition.

Madonna breaks silence on Gaga ‘Born This Way’ controversy

handmade bags newest haute couture item

date?the ramp for kids



Azarenka ends Li’swinning run in Sydney

PERTHAfP

AUSTRALIAN opener DavidWarner questioned India'sresolve after slamming theequal fourth fastest centuryin Test cricket on a horror

opening day for the tourists in the thirdTest in Perth Friday. Warner reached hishundred off 69 balls and did it in style,clouting debutant paceman VinayKumar for his third six of the innings.

The Indians, down 2-0 in the seriesand needing to win both remainingTests to retain the Border-Gavaskar Tro-phy, were routed for just 161 off 60.2overs after being sent in to bat.

Australia then raced to 149 withoutloss at stumps, with Warner unbeatenon 104 and Ed Cowan on 40 for Aus-tralia to trail by just 12 runs.

The openers scored at better than sixruns an over against an impotent Indianbowling attack and Warner questionedIndia's commitment. "In my mind, theyare bowled over already," he said. "They

have to work out how they can play out-side India." Warner's prodigious hit wasthe second-quickest ton at Perth'sWACA Ground, behind Adam Gilchrist's57-ball blitz against England in 2006.

It capped a miserable day for thetourists with Sachin Tendulkar's questfor an elusive 100th international hun-dred again delayed after he was dis-missed for just 15.

"I didn't even realise when I was on80-odd I had only faced 40-odd ballsand I was actually shocked," saidWarner, who has now scored two cen-turies in five Tests. "I was looking at mystrike-rate and thinking this isn't Testcricket, this is something different. Butthat is how I approach the game."

The only setback was when he wasstruck around the left ear by UmeshYadav on 80, the left-hander lookinggroggy as play was held up for severalminutes after he sought treatment fromthe team physio. But when play resumedhe clubbed the next two balls for fourand took just seven more deliveries tosprint to his second Test ton. Virat

Kohli, who topscored in the Indian in-nings with 44, said it was bad toss tolose, but denied the cause was lost."Early on it was seaming around a bit,but as the day progressed it got better tobat on," Kohli said.

"They might come out tomorrowand lose wickets in clusters, you neverknow what might happen." The Indiantail again showed little appetite for thecontest as the tourists lost their last sixwickets for just 30 runs. The rejuvenatedswing bowler Ben Hilfenhaus continuedhis fine season and took his series tallyto 19 wickets with four for 43, whilePeter Siddle claimed three for 42.

It was another inept batting displayby India's ageing top order, with Viren-der Sehwag out for a four-ball duck andmisfiring Rahul Dravid making justnine, while Tendulkar looked in superbform but also went cheaply. Havingplayed two elegant straight drives in thefirst over he faced, Tendulkar was de-ceived by a delivery from recalled pace-man Ryan Harris that nipped backtrapping him leg before wicket.

Warner wallops clueless India

PErtH: India’s Mr wall rahul Dravid is cleaned up yet again. (Centre) David warner plays a shot on his way to scoring 104 and (right) Ben Hilfenhaus celebrates the wicket of zaheer Khan. AfP/reUTerS

INDIA, 1st innings:

G. Gambhir c haddin b hilfenhaus 31

V. Sehwag c Ponting b hilfenhaus 0

R. Dravid b Siddle 9

S. tendulkar lbw harris 15

V.V.S. Laxman c Clarke b Siddle 31

V. Kohli c Warner b Siddle 44

M.S. Dhoni c Ponting b hilfenhaus 12

V. Kumar lbw Starc 5

z. Khan c Clarke b hilfenhaus 2

I. Sharma c haddin b Starc 3

U. Yadav not out 4

eXtRAS: (b2, lb2, w1) 5

totAL: (all out; 60.2 overs) 161

fall of wickets: 1-4 (Sehwag), 2-32 (Dravid), 3-59

(tendulkar), 4-63 (Gambhir), 5-131 (Kohli), 6-138 (Laxman),

7-152 (Kumar), 8-152 (Dhoni), 9-157 (Khan), 10-161 (Sharma).

BoWLING: Ryan harris 18-6-33-1, Ben hilfenhaus 18-5-43-4,

Mitchell Starc 12.2-3-39-2 (1w), Peter Siddle 12-3-42-3.

AUStRALIA, 1st innings:

e. Cowan not out 40

D. Warner not out 104

eXtRAS: (lb3, w2) 5

totAL: (for no wickets; 23 overs) 149

BoWLING: zaheer Khan 7-1-44-0 (1w), Umesh Yadav 6-1-42-

0 (1w), Vinay Kumar 4-0-31-0, Ishant Sharma 5-0-28-0,

Virender Sehwag 1-0-1-0.

Yet to bat: Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke

(capt), Michael hussey, Brad haddin, Peter Siddle, Mitchell

Starc, Ben hilfenhaus, Ryan harris. Nathan Lyon (12th man).

toss: Australia, Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), Kumar

Dharmasena (SRI), Video umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS),

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)

SCoReBoARD

DUBAIAfP

Jonathan Trott returned to form with 93 asEngland geared up for next week's firstTest against Pakistan with a 100-run winover Pakistan Cricket Board XI in theirthree-day tour match here on Friday.

Trott, England's number three batsmanwho was declared ICC player of the year in2011, looked back to his best to allow histeam declare their second innings at 138-8before bundling their opponents out for 150.

That made it two wins out of two afterthey won the tour opener against ICC Com-bined XI by three wickets here on Monday,to gain valuable confidence ahead of thefirst of three Tests against Pakistan startinghere from Tuesday. Skipper AndrewStrauss also hit 62 but Kevin Pietersen (3),Ian Bell (12 not out) and Eoin Morgan, whodid not bat, remained in search of their bestform ahead of the Test series.

Trott, who hit 12 fours during his 150-ball knock, had a sound opening partnershipof 130 with Strauss and overcame concernson his form after scoring one, 35 and noughtin the previous innings of the tour.

Chris Tremlett (2-32) and GrahamOnions (3-38) remained in the hunt for aplace in the Tests as England bowled withdiscipline to get their opponents -- mostlycomprising Pakistan's top first-class per-formers -- out cheaply.

Only Pakistan discards Fawad Alam(51) and Usman Salahuddin (32) offeredsome resistence during their resolutefourth wicket stand of 71, lifting their teamfrom a precarious 16-3 after being set 251to win in a possible of 63 overs.

Trott misses hundred but England gain another win

DUBAI: PCB XI's Fawad Alam plays a shot as England's Prior and Strauss look on. (right) England's Jonathan trott plays a shot in the practice match between England and PCB XI. AfP/reUTerS

tremlett waits for test chanceDUBAI: Lanky paceman Chris Tremlett said on Friday he did not expect to be se-lected to play in the first Test against Pakistan starting in Dubai next week due to thenature of the pitch. The 30-year-old fast, who played the last of his ten Tests againstIndia in July last year, took two wickets in each innings during England's 100-run winover Pakistan Cricket Board XI here on Friday. But with a slow, spin track expected forTuesday's opener against Pakistan, England will be keen on playing two spinners --Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar. The latter increased his chances of playing by tak-ing eight wickets in the second tour match. "The competition (for places) is tight, andyou have to be on the ball all the time. I guess I'm not expecting to play, but just wait-ing to see what happens," said Tremlett, who overcame back trouble to get a place onthe tour. Tremlett said England will assess the conditions before deciding on the finaleleven for the Test. "We'll assess conditions when we get to the stadium. All I can do isput my name in the hat. I'm back fit and hope I will get selected," he said. AfP

eNGLAND, 1st innings: 269-9 decl (A. Cook 133,

M. Prior 46; Yasir Shah 5-75, Mohammad talha 4-43)

PCB XI, 1st innings: 200-9 decl (Raza hasan 50 not out;

M. Panesar 5-57)

eNGLAND 2nd innings:

A. Strauss lbw b Shah 62

J. trott c Khalil b Shah 93

K. Pietersen c Jamshed b Shah 3

I. Bell not out 12

eXtRAS: (b5, lb1, nb4, w1) 11

totAL: (for three wkts decl) 181

fall of wickets: 1-130 (Strauss), 2-140 (Pietersen), 3-181 (trott).

BoWLING: talha 11-2-50-0 (nb3, w1), Khalil 9-2-27-0 (nb1),

hasan 17-1-57-0, Shah 11.3-0-38-3, Ayub 1-0-3-0

overs: 49.3

PCB XI, 2nd innings:

Nasir Jamshed c Prior b tremlett 0

Afaq Raheem b onions 7

Mohammad Ayub lbw b onions 0

Usman Salahuddin c Swann b Panesar 32

fawad Alam c trott b Pietersen 51

haris Sohail lbw b Swann 11

Sarfraz Ahmed c Prior b tremlett 11

Raza hasan st Prior b Panesar 22

Yasir Shah lbw b onions 10

Mohammad talha lbw b Panesar 3

Mohammad Khalil not out 0

eXtRAS: (nb3) 3

totAL: 150

fall of wickets: 1-7 (Raheem), 2-7 (Jamshed), 3-16 (Ayub) 4-87

(Salahuddin), 5-103 (Alam), 6-114 (Sarfraz), 7-120 (Sohail), 8-134

(Shah), 9-148 (hasan).

BoWLING: tremlett 10-3-32-2 (nb1), onions 10-3-38-3 (nb1),

Swann 16-4-24-1, Panesar 14.3-3-46-3, Pietersen 2-0-10-1

overs: 52.3

Result: england won by 100 runs

toss: PCB XI

SCoReBoARD

Moshin warnsEngland of numberone pressure

DUBAIAfP

Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan Fridaywarned England will feel the heat tomaintain their world number one rankingagainst his fast-rising team in the three-Test series starting next week. Englandrose to the top of ICC (InternationalCricket Council) Test rankings after beat-ing India 4-0 on their home grounds lastyear but face a stiff challenge against aresurgent Pakistan on the slow tracks ofUnited Arab Emirates. Khan, a formeropening batsman, said England will behard pressed to maintain their top stand-ing. "I won't say they will be hugely underpressure, but definitely this kind of pres-sure will be there, because they have tomaintain their position. Once a team or aperson attains the top position that pres-sure exists," said Khan, 56. Khan, whotook over as interim coach after WaqarYounis quit the post in September lastyear, said his team was rising fast. "Pak-istan is coming up and coming up fastover the last 18 months. I am workinghard with the boys who are also doingtheir best and we are expecting for somefavourable results," said Khan. Pakistanhave not lost a Test series since losing toEngland on the 2010 tour. Khan praisedEngland's balance as they won both theside games ahead of the first Test startinghere from Tuesday. England beat Pak-istan Cricket Board XI by 100 runs onFriday. "I feel that apart from Englandbeing ranked number one, which I don'tcare much about as rankings goes up anddown, but they are a very balanced sideand will pose good competition for us."As far as my team goes, I can happily saythat we have a talented side and we haveto mix up that talent with a professionalattitude to counter the opposition," saidKhan, who termed the series as a test forthe batsmen. "I think both teams have agood pace attack, good spinners, so it willbe a test for the batsmen because boththe teams have good bowlers," saidMohsin, who started his 48-Test careeragainst England in 1977. Khan admittedspinners would have a role in the series.


Sports 19Saturday, 14 January, 2012

LAHOREStAff RePoRt

FORMER Pakistan captainShahid Afridi will get a freshcentral contract when thePakistan Cricket Board an-nounces its list of centrally

contracted players for the year 2012.Afridi had lost his contract in May whenhe announced his retirement from inter-national cricket in protest against theBoard's decision to remove him as cap-tain of the one-day team and its policies.

He made a comeback to the nationalteam for the one-day series against SriLanka in November and is presentlyplaying in the Big Bash in Australia . APCB official said chairman Zaka Ashrafhad asked the concerned officials to start

preparing the list of players to be givencentral contracts this year in consulta-tion with the national selectors and teamcoach. "Obviously Afridi will get a con-tract because if he is playing. There is noreason to not give him a contract as he isa former captain and senior player whois performing," the official said.

But he admitted the same fatemight not await senior players KamranAkmal and Shoaib Malik. Malik waspart of the Pakistan team until he wasdropped for the series against Englandbecause of poor form while the selectorshave constantly ignored Akmal sinceafter the World Cup for various reasons.

"The emphasis this time will be onrewarding those players who have per-formed consistently well in 2011 andalso maintained top fitness. Taufiq

Umar because of his performancescould be promoted to the top contractcategory," he said. He conceded that thelist of contracted players could increaseand the emphasis would be on encour-aging new players. The PCB has not yetdecided whether to make any incre-ments in the present slab system ofmonthly payments to the players.

"This is something for the Chairmanand governing council to decide whenthe list is finalised," the official said. Atpresent the players in the top A categoryget a monthly salary of 250,000 fromthe Board besides their match fees andother perks and benefits. The officialalso said only those players would beconsidered for the central contracts whoare clear for national selection by thecricket board's integrity committee.

Afridi to get central contract

LAHOREStAff RePoRt

Delhi Rugby Club president Lala Bh-seen Jun Jun is delighted over the loveand hospitality he and his team re-ceived on their visit to the city.

The team arrived here on Wednes-day to play a couple of matches andfigure in a local 7 a side tournament.

Addressing a press conferencehere on Friday, Lala said that therehas not been much of the sporting ex-changes between the two countries butthe team he has brought to Pakistan ishere to win hearts and when they re-turn home they will spread goodwillabout this country. Apart from playingthe 7s tournament, the visiting teamwill also play two test matches withLahore Rugby Club.

Pakistan Rugby Union SecretaryArif Saeed said that it was the best op-portunity to promote Indo-Pak sportsactivity. President Lahore Rugby ClubHaji Anwar, Captain of LRFC ShakeelAhmed, Captain of Dehli Lions Happyand DHA rugby club Jibran were also

in present on the occasion.LRFC spokesmen Fowzan Wain

said that the tour will consist of twofull 15-a-side matches and a 7s tourna-ment against Pakistan’s super leagueteams Lahore Djuice Rams. The firstmatch was played on the 12th at theUMT ground while the second finalwill be played between the two old ri-vals, Lahore Djuice Rams, which isPakistan No 1 ranked Super league

club and the guests.Both the teams having quite a few

national team players will meet onSunday at 2 pm at DHA stadium.

The 7s tournament in which thevisiting team will feature also involveLahore Djuice Rams, GarrisonionsServis Bulls, UMT Lahore, LUMS La-hore , University of Lahore, AIT RugbyClub , Multan rugby Club, Muzzafar-gurh rugby and DHA rugby Club.

LAHorE: Delhi rugby Club’s president Lala Bhseen with PrU officials at thepress conference. STAff PhOTO

Delhi rugby Club’s chief wantsmore series with Pakistan

Statelife/olympia inPakistan Cup Polo final

LAHOREStAff RePoRt

Statelife/Olympia won the match NewageCables to qualify for the main final of thePakistan Polo Cup. Hilton Pharma/Unitedwon their match and qualified for the sub-sidiary final against HBL on Sunday.Hilton Pharma/United beat Park View Vil-las/Army 7-5. Santiago Mendivil with fourgoals, Ahmed Zubair two and AhmedKhan one ensured win for HiltonPharma/United. The losing side got theirgoals from Isfandiyar Ali Patuadi who hitfour goals while Hamza Mawaz Khan hadone. Statelife/Olympia had luck on theirside when their one-and-a-half goal ad-vantage earned their place in the final.Statelife/Olympia won the match againstNewage Cables by half a goal margin (6½-6) All the efforts of Shah Shamyl Alamwho hit five goals with Bilal Haye Mehta(one goal) for Newage went in vain whileAhmed Ali Tiwana after scoring goals withAtif Yar Tiwana and Abdul Rehman Mon-noo having one each returned back to thedressing room smiling with win.Umpires for the matches were Shah Qubi-lai Alam, Raja Samiullah, Santiago Men-divil and Raja Temur Nadeem.

ronaldinho threatens toquit over unpaid wages

RIO DE JANEIROAfP

Striker Ronaldinho has threatened toquit his Brazilian club Flamengo unlesshe receives over $2 million dollars in un-paid wages, his agent and brotherRoberto de Assis claimed on Thursday."I want to reach agreement and then hecan compete in the Copa Libertadores.But I don't know if that's going to hap-pen," de Assis told the newspaper Extraahead of the January 25 tie against Boli-vian side Real Potosi.Three-quarters of Ronaldinho's salary iscovered by marketing group Traffic, whohave not paid in five months, amountingto $2.05 million."Someone has to take that on, they haveto pay. We've been waiting for fivemonths now. They (Flamengo and Traf-fic) have to reach agreement but thatseems difficult to me. Five months havegone by and there has been nothing," deAssis continued.Club president Patricia Amorim ex-pressed his optimism that "things are ad-vancing".But De Assis warned that if the 31-year-old former World Cup winner is not paidimmediately he could take up one of sev-eral firm offers he has had from teams inItaly, Spain and South America. Ronald-inho returned to Brazil in 2011 in thehope of winning back a place in the na-tional side for the 2014 World Cup whichis being hosted by his home country.The 2002 World Cup winner last playedin November 2010 after being over-looked for the World Cup in South Africawhen his club career at AC Milan beganto flag.Twice world player of the year, Ronald-inho whose full name is Ronaldo de AssisMoreira, started with Gremio aged 18 be-fore moving to Paris Saint-Germain, FCBarcelona - with whom he won the 2006Champions League - and then AC Milan.

three matchesdecided in JrNational Hockey

LAHOREStAff RePoRt

Another three matches were played inthe 31st U-21 National Hockey Champi-onship in progress at National HockeyStadium here.In today’s (Friday) matches WAPDA,PHF Academy and NBP registered easywins.WAPDA beat Balochistan 12-0 (fulltime), 3-0 (half time); WAPDA: M. Sule-man 4 goals 6th, 11th, 39th & 49th min-utes (FG), Asad 2 goals 27th & 60thminutes (FG), M. Rizwan 3 goals 38th,58th & 61st minutes (FG), Aleem Bilal 2goals 45th & 70th minutes (PC) & M.Irfan (Capt) 63rd minute (FG).PHF Academy beat Sindh 4-0 (full time),1-0 (half time); PHF Academy: Awais-ur-Rehman 2 goals 33rd & 45th minutes(FG) & Mudassar Ali 2 goals 41st & 52ndminutes (FG). NBP beat Islamabad 14-0 (Full Time), 4-0 (Half Time)NBP: Kashif Javed 4th minute (PC),Ahmed Zubair 3 goals 25th, 36th & 56thminutes (FG), Zohaib Azeem Khan 2 goal29th & 67th minute (FG), KhurramShahzad 2 goals 35th & 60th minute(FG), M. Dilber 2 Goals 39th & 48thminute (FG), Arslan Qadir 2 goals 43rd &52nd minutes (FG), Ayub Ali 51st minute(FG) & Ali Hussain 70th minute (PC).

Sindh issuesannual tennisranking

KARACHIStAff RePoRt

The Sindh Tennis Association has issuedits annual ranking which is based on 11Sindh ranking championships held inprovince Sindh during the calendar year2011. Aqeel Khan continued to be the topplayers in men’s singles with 130 rankingpoints and Sara Ahmed became new topwomen player of the year. With accumu-lated 150 points, she has taken over theposition from Maheen Dada who is at sec-ond position with 130 points.FoLLowING ArE toP FoUr PoSItIoNS IN VArIoUS EVENtSMeN’S SINGLeS1: Aqeel Khan 130 pts, 2 Sikander Hayat 111, 3 Jalil Khan110, 4 omer Shahid 105. Ladies Singles: 1. Sara Ahmed 150, 2. Maheen Dada 130,3. Neha Khan 100, 4. Urooj Iltifat 75JUNIoRS UNDeR 17 SINGLeS: 1. Hassaan Siddiqui 190, 2. talha zubair 150, 3. MalikHamza 120, 4. Farhan Mustafa 110. UNDeR 15 SINGLeS1. Malik Hamza 195, 2. Saud Shoaib 155, 3. Azhar A. qadir130, 4. Nazif Ahmed 125. Under 13 singles: 1. Hasan Farooq 265, 2. Nazif Ahmed180, 3. Dawar rehan 160, 4. Marib Malik 150. Under 11 singles: 1. Houd Azher 270, 2. Bilal Imran Lohya205, 3. Shahzil Malik 160, 4. M. Dada 73Under 9 singles: 1. Houd Azher 290, 2. M. Dada 195, 3. AliFaisal 90 pts, 4. osama Khan 40. 35 plus singles: 1. Ejaz Sarhadi 65, 2. tahir Iftikhar 50, 3.Azheruddin 40, M. A Saeed 40. 4. M. Iltifat 35 pts45 Plus singles: 1. Gul Hameed 80 points, 2. Syed M. Jalal70, 3. Karim Gul Agha 60, 4. Azheruddin 35.

LAHOREStAff RePoRt

The par 72, 18 holes Royal Palm Golf Course ranks as amajestic and awesome test of golf players’ ability and onSaturday it will host the 5th Club Indigo Golf Tournament,to be contested over 18 holes and participated by 120 cor-porate leaders, most of whom are golfers of ability, thoughnot in practice and hence shot making might turn out tobe a little rusty.

But a large number of them do not seek a major victoryor a win and will be content with playing at a golf courselike Royal Palm in august company and enjoying the su-perb hospitality of Mobilink who are famous for givingsuch events a touch of cheer and joy.

These 120 competing golfers have a love for this gameand the occasion helps them to revive their golfing relation-ships and a feel of the golfing arena. Amongst them aresome who manage to retain their rhythm and without beingplagued by any kind of jitters hope to cast their winningspell over the championship and take home some enviable

prizes, supplemented by glittering trophies.Most of such hopefuls are single handicappers who are

not bothered by creaky swings or inaccurate hitting andthus add grace to the occasion with birdies and ample reg-ulation pars and thus produce par or under par scores.

The Royal Palm Golf Course is demanding with greenstrue and fast and the fairways supportive to crisp shot-making. And demons are there too in the shape of 72bunkers, water hazards on holes 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 12,13, 14, 15, 16 and finally on the closing hole, the 18th. Ad-ditionally the eight man made lakes cause a fright of theirown and golfers have to keep their nerves safe from un-bearable stress and causing limbs to stiffen and result increaky swings. To add a touch of majestic grandeur, arethe age old trees, some 50 plus years old. Col(r)Jamil, Di-rector Golf rightly pointed out, "all these threats of haz-ards and out of bounds can be neutralized with rhythmand graceful play". And at least twenty of the competitorshave the ability to do that. The Mobilink Club Indigo GolfTournament has already been held at Karachi and nextarena is the Islamabad Golf Course.

indigo Golf at royal Palm from today

MANCHESTERAfP

Carlos Tevez could play for ManchesterCity again, according to assistant man-ager David Platt, after the want-awaystriker's proposed transfer to AC Milancollapsed on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Argentina interna-tional has not featured for PremierLeague leaders City since September,having been frozen out by managerRoberto Mancini after refusing to comeon a substitute in a Champions Leaguematch away to Bayern Munich.

It had been thought that incidenthad damaged Tevez's relationship withMancini beyond repair but Platt,speaking to reporters here Friday, said

there was still a chance of the formerManchester United star representingCity again. "Stranger things have hap-pened," former England midfielderPlatt said. City, three points clear atthe top of the Premier League, travelto Wigan on Monday where they willlook to bounce back after sufferingsuccessive defeats for the first timesince 2008.

The holders were knocked out ofthe FA Cup by United last weekend be-fore a midweek League Cup semi-finalfirst leg loss to Liverpool. But Platt in-sisted City were not cracking under thepressure of expectation. "No one ex-pected us to continue winning gameswithout having a difficult moment,"said Platt. "We can't accelerate the sea-

son by four months to see how it isgoing to turn out. "But weare still in the Carling(League) Cup semi-finaland our players arequite capable of turningthe situation around,and 19 clubs would liketo be where we are inthe championship. "It isnot a bad position to bein --- some crisis."Meanwhile Plattsaid City ex-pected to haveDavid Silva fitto face Wiganafter theSpain winger

suffered an ankle injury in the defeat byUnited that saw him miss the Liver-

pool clash. "David did a bit ofrunning yesterday (Thursday)

and will do a bit more today(Friday)," said Platt. "Hope-fully he will be back on thetraining pitch tomorrow(Saturday)." But Platt wasnot so positive aboutstriker Mario Balotelli, who

aggravated an ankle in-jury against Liver-

pool. "Maybe (hecould playa g a i n s tWigan). Butthat's all itis, a maybe."

Tevez could play for City again, says Platt


Sports20Saturday, 14 January, 2012

United have called backPaul Scholes, Arsenal haverecalled Thierry Henry,how long will it be beforeLiverpool make a movefor Robbie Fowler?

Legends of their respective clubs andof the Premier League era, Paul Scholesand Thierry Henry have put pen to paperthat has heralded their second comingsduring a truly bizarre start to the Januarytransfer window. Add to these signingsthe loan deals of Landon Donovan andRobbie Keane, with Everton and AstonVilla respectively, and the peculiarity ofthe winter signings become all the moreconspicuous. Is it a matter of muchneeded influx of experience, a case ofshrewd purchases, a complete lack ofquality available in the market or do themoves smack of sheer desperation?

SChoLeS to the ReSCUe?

Manchester United’s midfield predica-ment has been thoroughly discussed inthis space, and by pundits around theglobe. The problem is so obviously omi-nous that even the most deluded ofUnited fans wouldn’t doubt the claimthat 2009 onwards, United’s midfieldhas been their Achilles’ heel. Recently,Michael Carrick has come to the fore byproviding some much needed stability,but since his partner has become a lot-tery draw – much like most of the United

lineup – the English Champi-ons’ midfield has become ahotchpotch of uncertainty.

From 2006-2009, Carrickand Scholes formed a formida-ble midfield duo. The duowasn’t quite as robust, orindeed dynamic, as someof the more legendarymidfield twosomes; butconsidering the fact thatthe era coincided with theRonaldo (and Tevez) era, theon-the-ball skills of Carrickand Scholes meant that itwas like having two verycompetent quarterbacks or-chestrating the show fromthe middle of the park; al-lowing Rooney, Ronaldoand Tevez to expound theirflair and score goals.

Like for like replace-ments are rare in football;despite the fact that one reg-ularly hears pundits say thatplayer X is yet to be replaced,and the void of player Y is stilltangible. The fact of the matteris that when influential play-ers leave, more often than notthe managers resort to a newsystem. Carrick was neverKeane’s replacement; he was avery shrewd purchase whichresulted in the most successfulera in United’s history. The RedDevil brigade might label it blas-phemous, but having Keane inthe 2006-09 seasons wouldn’thave had been as successful as

having Carrick in the middle alongwith Scholes.

Similarly, when Ronaldo left in2009, Valencia was never a direct re-

placement. The signing of the for-mer Wigan man connoted

that United were going toresort back to the 4-4-2 ofthe late 90s – with twoproper wingers on eitherflank – and hence

United needed either agoal scoring mid-fielder or a midfielddestroyer to com-

plement that. As ofnow, even with Scholes

arriving, they have neither. Carrick can do the holding

midfielder’s job quite compe-tently – not quite of the DidierDeschamps or the ClaudeMakelele mould – but his read-ing of the game ensures that hedoesn’t have to make last ditchtackles. But with that you needa goal scoring midfielder – a laFrank Lampard or Steven Ger-rard of their halcyon days – infront of him. Having Scholespartner Carrick would be athrowback to the two quarter-back days but without a fluid in-

terchangeable frontline to makethe overall composition of the team

as menacing as it was back then.

VA VA VooM

Receive a decent through ball, takea touch, compose yourself, locateyour spot and bury it with effort-

less ease. Thierry Henry, 34 yearsyoung, makes it look oh so simple,while some other forwards in theleague with a combined transfer fee ofumpteen gazillion pounds aren’t ableto buy a goal at the moment. Henry’sreturn – and instant impact – notonly generated a vigorous nostal-gic sensation at the Emirates, italso seems to have solved the ‘ifnot RVP then who’ puzzle.

As mentioned in this col-umn a couple of weeks back,Henry’s return is not only amasterful footballing deal, itis all worth it even for the‘feel good factor’ only. SinceArsenal, unlike United, arecalling on their old warhorse to solve a minor chinkin the armour, hence thismove is more likely tobear the desired fruits.Both moves imply thatthe respective managesaren’t going to delve intothe club’s exchequer –and since United’s fix ismore long term, the pic-ture looks pretty gloomyfor them. This two-monthloan deal is going to workwonders for Arsenal, andthe youngsters would begaining invaluableexperience fromthe man whowas the corner-stone of theclub’s illustri-ous past.

LIVeRPooL’S PRoBLeM

Liverpool’s achievements thisseason – whatever little they

might be – have been formedon the foundation of a

solid defensive dis-play. Their winover City in theCarling Cup firstleg – the seconds u c c e s s i v ehome defeat forthe league lead-ers in 2012,after going theentire 2011 un-beaten at home

– was againbased on a soliddefensive show.

While City’s prob-lems are coming to

the fore as the seasonunfolds, Liverpool’s lackof goals has been a prob-

lem throughout the sea-son. And it doesn’t looklike they’d be taking aplunge into the market.With Chelsea, Arsenaland Liverpool all vyingfor the coveted fourth

spot, if Liverpool cansolve their goal scoring rid-dle, they would do their

chance of ChampionsLeague qualification theworld of good! Consideringthe recent comeback trend;

Robbie Fowler anyone?

MELBOURNEAfP

World number one Caroline Wozni-acki could face French Open cham-pion Li Na in the quarter-finals of theAustralian Open following Friday'sdraw for the season-opening grandslam. The Danish top seed, whoseworld ranking is under threat fromPetra Kvitova, also has defendingchampion Kim Clijsters, third seedVictoria Azarenka and the dangerousAgnieszka Radwanska in her top halfof the women's singles draw.

Wozniacki is hunting a maidengrand slam title in Melbourne andopens her campaign against Aus-tralian Anastasia Rodionova.

Clijsters beat Li in last year's Aus-tralian Open final before the Chinese

star went on to take the French Openat Roland Garros, in the process mak-ing history as the first Asian grandslam winner. "For me playing Li Na inthe final last year was one of the funfinals and one of the best finals thatI've played so far in a grand slam," Cli-jsters said at the draw.

"It was a really tough match, weboth played well in a close match andwinning it gave me a lot of confidenceand I was able to show the people heremy best level and fight for it and therewere a lot of emotions involved.

"For Li Na there was a lot of out-side pressure from her country and alot of expectations and I was happy tosee her do well in Europe in the sum-mer." Li plays Ksenia Pervak of Kaza-khstan in her opening match.

Wimbledon champion Kvitova,beaten by Li in Thursday's semi-finalsof the Sydney International, will facetough opponents as she targets Openglory. Thirteen-time grand slamchampion Serena Williams, US Openchampion Samantha Stosur andthree-time major winner MariaSharapova all share the Czech left-hander's bottom half of the draw.

Kvitova will open against RussianVera Dushevina, while five-time Aus-tralian Open champion Williams,seeded 12 this year, takes on AustrianTamira Paszek first up.

"It's definitely something that haschanged over the last few years," Cli-jsters said of the many potential win-ners in this year's women's field.

"I remember when I was youngereverybody was already pencilling inthe top seeds, quarter-finals, semi-fi-nals, and that's totally different now.

"It's a different mindset for a lot ofthe top players. You have to focus onthe first round onwards because newplayers, players that I've never playedagainst before, can cause upsets." Sto-sur, drawn to face Kvitova in the quar-ter-finals and bidding to become thefirst Australian woman to win her na-tional Open since 1978, begins againstRomania's Sorana Cirstea. Russia'sSharapova, who won in Melbournefour years ago, plays Argentina'sGisela Dulko in the first round.

MELBOURNEAfP

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadalare in the same half of a grandslam for the first time in sevenyears after the draw made Fridayfor next week's Australian Open inMelbourne.

Defending champion NovakDjokovic has world number fourAndy Murray in the top half of themen's singles draw, while Nadaland Federer, second and thirdranked respectively, were placedfor the bottom half. It is the first

time since the 2005 French Openthat 16-time grand slam championFederer and 10-time major winnerNadal have been pitted in thesame half of a grand slam draw.

The draw means that if theyprogress, the quartet will meet inthe last four with Djokovic andMurray on collision course andFederer and Nadal eyeing asemi-final clash. Djokovic, whowon three of the four grandslams and five Masters titles in aremarkable 2011, begins his Aus-tralian Open title defence againstItaly's Paolo Lorenzi.

Wozniacki getstough draw atAustralian Open

PErtH: ryan Harris (2nd r)

of Australia celebrates after

taking the wicket of Sachin

tendulkar (r) of India during

their third test. reUTerS

Federer, Nadal in same half of Australian open draw

EPL CRYSTAL BALL

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

Inspirational comebacks or sheer desperation?


Sports 21Saturday, 14 January, 2012

WaTCh IT LIvE

STAR SPORTS ATP - HeinekenOpen 2012 08:00PM

STAR CRICKET Australia vs India3rd Test, Day 208:00AM

SYDNEYAfP

VICTORIA Azarenkaended Li Na's unbeatentwo-year run at the Syd-ney International with afighting three-set victory

in the final on Friday. The Belarusianthird seed claimed her ninth careerWTA title with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 victoryover the fourth seeded Chinese star inone hour 56 minutes at Ken RosewallArena. French Open champion Li wason a nine-match winning run in Sydneyafter beating Kim Clijsters in last year'sfinal, but was edged out by Azarenka,who ranks third in the world behindCaroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova.

It capped a big week for 22-year-old Azarenka with victories over JelenaJankovic, Marion Bartoli, AgnieszkaRadwanska and Li ahead of Monday'sAustralian Open in Melbourne. "Itbrings a lot of confidence," Azarenkasaid. "But it's going to be a new week, anew tournament, so for me it's going tobe starting from zero. "I'm glad the way

I played here through those battles thatI went through, so I really tested myselfbefore a big event.

"I'm just going to try to keep goingthe same way with the same attitude,the same way I'm playing." Despite hervictory Azarenka will remain at num-ber three in the world, while Li is ex-pected to drop one place to sixthbehind Australian Samantha Stosurwhen the next rankings are releasedon Monday. Azarenka is among sixplayers with a chance of reaching thetop spot depending on results at theyear's opening grand slam tournamentin Melbourne. In three trips to Aus-tralia Li has compiled a 21-4 record,highlighted by a semi-final appearanceat the 2010 Australian Open, her run-ner-up finish to Clijsters at last year'sOpen, her Sydney win last year and therun to this week's final. Li, who beatKvitova in Thursday's Sydney semis,heads to Melbourne in form after a dipin the second half of last year followingher landmark French Open success,which saw her become the first Asianto win a grand slam title.

Azarenka endsLi’s winningrun in Sydney

LONDONAfP

English cricket chiefs have offered anamnesty to players to report pastmatch-fixing approaches after formerEssex bowler Mervyn Westfieldpleaded guilty to spot-fixing at theOld Bailey. Westfield, 23, the firstplayer to admit to a corruptioncharge in a county match, entered aguilty plea to charges of accepting orobtaining a corrupt payment to bowlin a way that would allow the scoring

of runs. He received £6,000 ($9,199)to bowl so that 12 runs would bescored in the first over of a matchagainst Durham in September 2009,although in fact only 10 were scored.A separate charge of assisting an-other person to cheat at gamblingwas ordered to lie on file. Westfield,who will be sentenced on February10, was told by Judge Anthony Morrison Thursday: "It's open to the courtin this case to pass an immediate cus-todial sentence."

Morris added the name of the

other party involved in the dealwould be known to cricket fans, but itwas not revealed in court. An interna-tional cricketer was arrested along-side Westfield but later releasedwithout charge. It is already an of-fence under England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) regulations forplayers to fail to report approachesrelated to corrupt activities. But thegoverning body, at a meeting Thurs-day, established a "window" untilApril 30 whereby players can reportprevious approaches without the

threat of ECB punishment.Chris Watts, information manager

to the ECB's Anti-Corruption Com-mission for Education, Standards andSecurity (ACCESS), said: "Informa-tion is critical in addressing the threatposed by corruption in sport. "Indi-viduals may not have thought theseapproaches were worthy of reportingat the time and, prior to the decisionof the board, may have been con-cerned that the fact that they did notreport such activity may have putthem at risk of disciplinary action."

Hockey coaching clinic from 17th LAHORE

StAff RePoRt

The Pakistan Hockey Federation as a part of its development plan to groom male andfemale coaches at national level, is holding a coaching clinic at National Hockey Sta-dium Lahore from January 17 to 21.The coaches will get full knowledge in the field on the sidelines of the 31st National Jun-ior Hockey Championship, which is in progress at NHS Lahore. Khawaja Muhammad Ju-naid will be the Course Conductor and Rana Mujahid Ali will be the Coordinator.The PHF has invited following coaches for the Clinic: Ajmal Khan Lodhi, Shahid AliKhan, Danish Kaleem, Ahmed Alam, Anjum Saeed, Jan Muhammad, Dilawar Hussain,Muhammad Ali, Khawar Javaid, Rahim Khan, Mubasshir Mukhtar, Rana Zaheer Ahmed,Sabir ALI, Farooq Khan, Mumtaz Haider, Muhammad Akhlaque, Abuzar Umrao, MajorTariq Ahmed, Masood-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Shafqat , Muhammad Usman, Muham-mad Aslam Roda, Rana Asif, Yasir Khurshid, Mujahid Afzal, Muhammad Riasat, Muham-mad Asif, Ms. Beenish, Ms. Saman Islam, Ms. Chand Parveen & Ms. Humaira Mughal.

Professional cricketers have actuallypractised match-fixing and score manip-ulation for years – in benefit games.

Most will have played matches fortheir county against local club or villagesides in which it is taken as read that theprofessional batsmen will get out whenthey have struck a few decent blows andthe bowlers will give away some runs,usually to ensure a tight finish.

I often bowled the last over in suchmatches with, say, eight runs to win, afairly hopeless club tailender on strikeand the unstated challenge to take thematch to the last ball. Mostly I succeeded.

Bowlers inadvertently practise it inthe nets too. Often at the end of a trainingsession, a batsman will ask a colleague tobowl him some half-volleys or short balls

to hone a particular shot. This he willwillingly and effectively do.

For a professional bowler it is fairlyeasy to offer a decent batsman runs. Hewill have fairly good control of his lineand length and, on a flat pitch andagainst a good striker of the ball, thereis not much margin of error anyway. Adelivery slightly over pitched will be ea-gerly seized on and anything wide of offstump in one-day cricket is a licence toprint runs. It will be thrashed to theboundary. Such is the intensity of pro-fessional sport that a journeymanbowler has to be only 10 per cent or sooff his game to offer easy pickings. If afast bowler wanted to deliberately givea batsman runs, he wouldn’t have to doit conspicuously. He would merely haveto throttle back in pace a fraction andlook to drop slightly short or aim atouch wide. The lack of venom in the de-livery would be enough for the batsman

to quickly seize on it.Also umpires are notoriously strict

on wides in one-day cricket. He wouldonly have to slip one a fraction downthe leg side to concede an extra andhave to bowl the ball again. If you hadseen Mervyn Westfield’s offending overlive, you would have concluded that itwas just a youngish bowler trying tofind his bearings early in a spell. Noneof the deliveries except the third – avery wide ball outside off stump –would have been considered especiallybad. Ian Blackwell left the first two andthey sailed through innocuously to thekeeper. The third was signalled wide,the fourth was only a little short but of-fered inviting width and was thumpedto the extra-cover boundary. The fifthwas straight and penetrative and wasdefended, the sixth was fuller but againwide enough of off stump to allow thebatsman some freedom and was driven

crisply through the covers, the last wassliced for a single.

I can remember bowling similarlyunthreatening overs at the start of amatch without it causing great conster-nation. Now we know what Westfieldwas up to, the over has a different com-plexion. He knew that Blackwell was aclean striker of the ball through the offside and that he had little protection onthat boundary. It was fairly simple toerr consistently a little too far outsideoff and give Blackwell the scope to clubit to the unprotected boundary. Therewere no glaring long hops, hit-me fulltosses or clubbable slower balls.

It is much easier for a bowler to in-dulge in spot-fixing than a batsman.But if team ethics and personal pride donot deter the would-be fixer from send-ing down some calculated dross, thenthe humiliation suffered by the haplessWestfield surely will.

Kaneria might getone leg dragged inwestfield case: Latif

LAHOREStAff RePoRt

The latest case of the spot-fixing in theEnglish county circuit, where Essex fastbowler Mervin Westfield pleaded guiltyof spot-fixing, is a reminder of the 2010episode after which three Pakistani crick-eters – Salman Butt, Muhammad Asifand Muhammad Amir – not onlybanned, but later were jailed as well. Thefate of Westfield would be decided onFebruary 10, but former Pakistan captainRashid Latif feared that leg-spinnerKaneria would be further dragged in thecase. “I have a strong feeling that theywould allege it was Kaneria who cor-rupted Westfield, as it was said in thecase of Muhammad Amir during the eye-catching probe against three Pakistanicricketers”, said Latif said“I don’t think Kaneria would be sen-tenced but even though he may be sus-pected of having had a role, which wouldbe enough to ruin his career”, added Latifwho is considered as the whistle bloweron match-fixing in the mid 90s.Mervyn Westfield, the former Essexbowler, has become the first Englishcricketer to be convicted of spot-fixingafter pleading guilty at the Old Bailey,London's central criminal court, to crimi-nal charges arising from a spot-fixing in-vestigation by Essex police. He pleadedguilty of accepting £6000 to concede 12runs in his first over of Essex's Pro40 en-counter against Durham in September2009. Westfield could face a maximumjail term of seven years.Although Westfield’s teammate, DanishKaneria was also originally alleged tohave been involved, but was later re-leased by the Essex police after thoroughquestioning in May 2010. The police didnot find enough evidence to prosecuteKaneria and released him from his bailconditions with "no further action".

ECB offers amnesty to match-fixer WestfieldFixers should be comingout in a cold sweat This is the bestmethod of preven-tion because theWestfield case andthat of the Pak-istani playersshows you cannotget away with spot-fixing anymore. Itis a clear messageto tell young play-ers that anyone thinking about doing this will faceprison if they are caught. The county game is vulnerablebecause it is shown on television in India. I think it hasbeen happening for a while in county cricket but Iwould be amazed if anything has gone on since this casecame to light. Having said that there may be a numberof players who had a cold sweat when they heard thenews on Thursday. I hope that is the case too because ifthey have done anything they deserve to be punished.Mervyn Westfield deserves to be punished, too, and Idon’t feel sorry for him because he could have said nobut somewhere out there is another person who has alot to answer for. He did not do this alone and some-body else ruined a young bloke’s career. We know in thecounty game there is not an Anti-Corruption Unit set upwhich is as stringent as the one in international cricket.Players are told not to take their phones into the dress-ing room but I have seen it happen. It is impossible topolice. I have heard discussions about dodgy thingsplayers have thought they have seen. This case has alsoshown that we can’t just shrug our shoulders and say itis a problem only in the sub-continent. Our game is vul-nerable too. If you can turn on a TV and see a game ofcricket then you know that match could be vulnerable.

eXPeRt CoMMeNt

MICHAEL VAUGHANit is easy for a professional to deliver a spot-fix over

SIMON HUGHES

CommEnT

Fastest centuries in Test cricketTen fastest test centuries after Australian opener David Warner hit a69-ball ton in the third test against India on Friday:Deliveries, player, team, opposition, date, venue56 - Viv Richards (West Indies) v England 1986 St John's57 - Adam Gilchrist (Australia) v England 2006 Perth67 - Jack Gregory (Australia) v South Africa 1921 Johannesburg69 - S Chanderpaul (West Indies) v Australia 2003 Georgetown 69 - David Warner (Australia) v India 2012 Perth70 - Chris Gayle (West Indies) v Australia 2010 Perth71 - Roy Fredericks (West Indies) v Australia 1975 Perth 74 - Majid Khan (Pakistan) v New Zealand 1976 Karachi 74 - Kapil Dev (India) v Sri Lanka 1986 Kanpur 74 - Mohd Azharuddin (India) v South Africa 1996 Kolkata

ReUteRS


Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. Printed by Ghulam Akbar, AA & NHT Group, Plot 24, Shalimar Road, Lilly Market, Soan Garden, Islamabad.

Saturday, 14 January, 2012 22

ISLAMABADShAIq hUSSAIN

AGAINST the backdrop of sim-mering tensions between thecivilian rulers and the army,the Defence Committee of theCabinet (DCC) will hold its cru-

cial meeting today (Saturday) with PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the chairand army chief General Ashfaq Kayani alsoparticipating along with other serviceschiefs to ponder over the “memogate”, thathas generated grave political crisis and ledto confrontation between the government,army and judiciary.

The meeting of the DCC has beenseemingly convened to deliberate upon an-

other vital issue of stalled Pakistan-UnitedStates relations and especially the recom-mendations made by the Special Parlia-mentary Committee on National Securityon how to revise the ties with Washington,but it would focus mostly on the “mem-ogate”. The issue is now in the SupremeCourt but serious differences have oc-curred between the government, army andthe judiciary owing to civilian rulers’ resortto dub the so-called secret letter as inau-thentic, military leaders calling it a real andgenuine letter and the apex court frus-trated over the civilian authorities’ refusalto accept courts’ jurisdiction over the gravematter. The situation became worse, how-ever, on Wednesday when the prime min-ister fired defence secretary Lt General

Khalid Naeem Lodhi for not following therules and regulations while sending thereplies of the army chief and ISI DG to theapex court on the memo issue.

Before that, the PM said in an inter-view with a Chinese news agency that thearmy chief’s and ISI DG’s replies to thecourt were illegal and against the constitu-tion. The army also came up with a strong-worded statement expressing annoyanceover the PM’s interview and also declaringthat the replies of top military leaders werein accordance with the law.

The DCC meeting on Saturday is thefirst gathering of civilian and military lead-ers after the escalation of civil-military ten-sions on Wednesday. One of thegovernment’s allied parties, the Awami

National Party also tabled a resolution inthe National Assembly on Friday seekingsupport for the government in the face ofits standoff with the army and it would bevoted upon on Monday. “The prime minis-ter is likely to use the opportunity that hehas in the form of DCC meeting to iron outthe government’s differences with the mil-itary, but owing to the serious nature ofconflicting issues, it is highly unlikely thathe will have success in this regard,” said asecurity official seeking anonymity.

He said the army leadership was ofstrong opinion that the “memo issue”would have to be settled by the apex courtand they were in no mood to allow anyother forum for the purpose, including theDCC. Some observers, however, look at

the vital DCC meeting differently, sayingthe forum could be used to lower the ten-sions to some extent and it was a good op-portunity for the government and for theprime minister.

“The DCC meeting could help lessenthe civil-military tensions but that de-pends on the tone that the prime ministerwould use in the meeting. If he (PrimeMinister) opts for conciliatory tone anddisposition, it will lessen the tensions andease the situation to some extent if notending the standoff altogether,” saidnoted analyst Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi.“However, if the prime minister opts forthe other way round and lodges com-plaints only during the meeting, the DCCwill certainly not help his case,” he said.


An unexpected shock for the already embat-tled Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani camefrom the attorney general on Friday when hedisputed the premier’s statement, telling re-porters at the apex court building that thearmy chief and Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) director general (DG) had submittedtheir replies following the rules of business.

Haq said further that linking the submissionof a reply or a letter by the former defence secretaryto the statements of the two army generals was notcorrect. Meanwhile, after Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry turned down the attorneygeneral’s request for a rescheduling on account ofsimultaneous appearances before the judicial com-mission probing the memogate scandal as well asthe Supreme Court on Monday, Haq decided onFriday to appear in the apex court, being a higherforum, instead of the judicial commission.

The attorney general decided this aftermeeting Akram Sheikh, the counsel for Pak-istan-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz,the central character in the memo case. Haqand Sheikh met to file a joint application be-fore the head of the judicial commission to ex-tend the date of hearing, keeping in view theengagement of the attorney general in theSupreme Court on Monday.

According to Haq, he would prefer to ap-pear in the SC instead of the judicial commis-sion. However, he said he would think about it

more. He said the government would requestthe SC not to apply any of the six options it hadlaid out in the National Reconciliation Ordi-nance (NRO) case.

The commission will hear the memogatecase at the Islamabad High Court on Mondayand on the same day, the apex court will takeup the case about the government’s failure toimplement its NRO verdict. The attorney gen-eral was summoned for both cases, therefore,he had requested the chief justice to adjust thehearing of the two matters, which the chief jus-tice turned down. This will be at the same timewhen the attorney general is supposed to ap-pear before the three-judge judicial commis-sion constituted under orders from theSupreme Court to investigate the veracity of thecontroversial memorandum, which sparked acontroversy in the country.


President Asif Ali Zardari andPrime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani on Friday discussed thecurrent political issuesconfronting the government,including the implementation ofthe Supreme Court’s order inthe NRO implementation case.Gilani went straight to thePresidency after reachingIslamabad where the twodiscussed the current situation.The government is facing legalchallenges, particularly theimplementation on some partsof the SC order in the NRO casewhich included writing a letterto the Swiss authorities forreopening of cases against thepresident. According to sources,both leaders discussed thestrategy for January 16 hearingin the NRO implementationcase in the SC. They said thememo controversy also cameunder discussion during themeeting. The DefenceCommittee of the Cabinet(DCC) is also holding its crucialmeeting today (Saturday),which will be chaired by theprime minister. COAS GeneralAshfaq Kayani will also attendthe meeting along with otherservices chiefs. The sources saidboth the leaders also developeda strategy as to how to goforward on the issue after thecommittee meeting.

8 soldierskilled, 9 injuredin three attacks

PESHAWARStAff RePoRt

At least eight security forcespersonnel were killed andnine others were injured inseparate terrorist attacks inPeshawar, South Waziristanand Tank during the last 24hours.Officials claimedsecurity forces had killedseven militants, including twonotorious commanders, andarrested another in retaliatoryaction. Reportedly, dozens ofarmed militants had attackeda checkpost of security forceson Bara Road at Sarband,near Peshawar, at midnighton Thursday. The attack leftthree soldiers dead and nineinjured. Those killed includedtwo policemen and oneparamilitary soldier. Soonafter the attack began,contingents of security forcesrushed to the site to providebackup. The clash continuedfor around half an hour.Officials also said a group ofmilitants had attacked acheckpost in Sararogha,South Waziristan, and killedfour personnel. Securityforces said they had killed amilitant in retaliatory action.A third attack occurred in theSarghai area of Tank late onThursday night when a groupof militants attacked aFrontier Constabularycheckpost. A paramilitarysoldier was killed in the fighting.

ISLAMABAD: PML-N President Nawaz Sharif discusses the opposition’s future strategy with politicians, including fazlurRehman, qazi hussain Ahmed and Mehmood Khan Achakzai on friday. AfP

Gilani, Kayani to meet over memogate todayg Analysts believe PM has prime opportunity to ease tensions with military establishment in meeting of DCC

army chief, isi DGfollowed rules: aGg Haq says linking submission of a reply or letter by formerdefence secy to statements of army generals not correct

zardari and Gilani exchange notes

PM, UK deny ‘SOS’ call MONITORING DESK

British and Pakistani officials denied a newsreport that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilanicontacted the British High Commission in a“panicky” phone call to express fears that amilitary coup was imminent in the country,the Cable News Network (CNN) reported onFriday. CNN said that in a story published onFriday citing anonymous sources, theAssociated Press (AP) reported that the primeminister asked British High CommissionerAdam Thomson for “Britain to support hisembattled government”. Whether Britain tookany action was unclear, AP reported. “This isabsolutely an incorrect report; the primeminister hasn’t spoken to the highcommissioner of UK on this subject,” Gilani’sspokesman Akram Shaheedi told CNN onFriday. “Democratic government led by theprime minister derives its strength from thepeople of Pakistan - not from any foreignpower,” CNN quoted him as saying. Thespokesman for the High Commission also saidthe call never took place and that thecommission asked AP to print a retraction. APdid not immediately respond to calls and e-mails on the issue, said CNN. The call, whichone official said was “panicky”, suggestedthere was a genuine fear at the highest level ofthe Pakistani government that the army mightcarry out a coup or support possible moves bythe Supreme Court to topple the civilianleadership, said AP. In a BBC radio interview,British Foreign Secretary William Hagueexpressed doubts about any return to the daysof coups as that would damage Pakistan’sstruggling economy and image.


e-paper pakistantoday 14th january, 2012

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