Pak boils with protests, 21 deadProtesters turn violent on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAWS) Cinemas, properties burnt, banks looted

Unruly mobs without leadersrun riot on streets

Govt’s ability to control lawlessness exposed;A trailer before general elections

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—Considered tobe a trailer before general elec-tions, unruly mobs without

leaders went on rampage in dif-ferent cities and towns on Fridaykilling, burning and destroyingpublic and private properties.After giving calls to their work-

ers to stage protest on Fridayagainst anti-Islam film, no po-litical or religious leaderwas seen leading their work-

Anti-Islam film

FO hands over démarcheto acting US Ambassador

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Foreign Of-fice on Friday summoned act-ing US Ambassador Richard E.Hoagland and registering a for-mal protest, demanded of the USgovernment to remove the anti-Islam film from social network-ing and video-sharing websiteYouTube as well as punish those

involved in its making.The Foreign Office handed

over a démarche to Hoagland inprotest against the anti-Islamfilm on behalf of the Pakistanigovernment.

The démarche stated that thefilm, said to have been made inthe US, was akin to an attack onthe world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

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Australia shutsmission inIslamabad

SYDNEY—Australia on Fridaytemporarily shut its mission inIslamabad because over securityconcerns in the wake of anti-Western demonstrations.

“We strongly advise Austra-lians to reconsider their need totravel to Pakistan due to the veryhigh threat of terrorist attack,kidnapping, sectarian violenceand the unpredictable security

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PM demandsrespect forMuslims’

sentimentsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf Friday de-manded from the world commu-nity to declare sacrilege a crimeglobally.

Sacrilege was intolerable forthe Muslims, as it was not the

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Indian ministersresign ascoalition splitsNEW DELHI—Six ministersfrom a regional party insideIndia’s ruling coalitionresigned on Friday in a splitover economic reforms, anofficial in the prime minister’soffice said.

“They have submitted theirresignations and gone to meetthe president,” said theofficial, who spoke oncondition of anonymity.

The Trinamool party,based in West Bengal state,has withdrawn support fromthe coalition dominated by theCongress party over a rowabout foreign direct invest-ment in India and rises insubsidised energy prices.

Prime Minister ManmohanSingh’s government an-nounced a blitz of reformmeasures last week, includingallowing foreign groups toinvest in the retail and aviationsectors and hiking diesel pricesby 12 per cent.

Trinamool, which hasfrequently opposed policychanges since elections in2009, holds the railwaysportfolio in the cabinet and hasfive junior ministers in otherpositions in the government.

Pak-Indiainks 3 tradeagreements

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Three Tradeagreements were signed be-tween the Secretary CommercePakistan Munir Qureshi andSecretary Commerce India S RRao.

The agreements weresigned at the end of 7th Roundof Pakistan-Indian CommerceSecretary level Talks on “Eco-nomic & Commercial Co-opera-tion September 20-21, here onFriday.

UN team rejectexcuses for

disappearancesISLAMABAD—United Nations(UN) is well aware of the secu-rity challenges faced by Pakistanbut no excuse to abduct any per-son is consented.

This was stated by OlivierD Farr, the head of UN commis-sion which visited Pakistan re-garding missing persons whiletalking to media persons at theend of 10-day visit. He recom-mended the Pakistani govern-ment to include abduction andkeeping at unknown location insevere crimes.

Olivier said that it was notthe UN mandate to point out theinstitutions and elements respon-sible for missing persons. How-ever, he said that cases in civilcourts should be launched againstthe elements involved in missingpersons.—INP

ISLAMABAD: A crowd of protestors marching toward US Embassy condemning blasphemous film on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).

SHARAFAT KAZMI,AMANULLAH KHAN,

M M ALAM, TARIQ SAEED

I S L A M A B A D / K A R A C H I /PESHAWAR—At least 21 peopledied and hundreds injured invarious parts of the country onFriday during violent protestscondemning the blasphemousfilm, defying calls for peacefuldemonstrations.

Friday was public holiday toobserve Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool(SAWS) and express love andreverence for the ProphetMuhammad (PBUH), but theprotests turned violent withfierce clashes between policeand demonstrators.

Demonstrations started inthe morning and intensified af-ter Juma prayers.

In Islamabad andRawalpindi protest demonstra-tions continued throughout theday. At some places‚ the protest-ors turned violent they damagedpublic and private properties andindulged in clashes with law-enforcing agencies.

They burnt private and pub-lic properties.

Faizabad‚ main entry pointto Islamabad from Rawalpindiside saw daylong clashes. Pro-testors armed with sticks and

clubs clashed with police whofired rubber bullets to dispersethem. Protestors also damagedvehicles and a gas station.

The protestors foughtpitched battles with police andlaw enforcing agencies.

Police fired tear gas shellsas well as warning shots in anattempt to keep them from ad-vancing toward US embassy. Atleast 55 people, including ninePolicemen were injured. A mili-tary helicopter buzzed overheadto monitor the situation.

According to eyewitnessesthose involved in the destructionof a toll plaza were AfghanRefugees who looted everything and then set it on fire.

In Karachi, at least 14 per-sons including two police copswere killed and 100 injured dur-ing protest rallies taken out bypolitical and religious groups tocondemn anti-Islam film.

The sad part of Friday’s pro-tests was the incidents of lootand arson by miscreants whodamaged at least 6 banks andremoved money from ATMs in-stalled on various locations inthe city.

The angry crowd set at leastfour police vans ablaze in frontof Chief Minister house whiletwo cinema houses and two fast

food restaurants internationalfranchise were gutted by the pro-

testors.The processions turned vio-

lent when they were stoppedfrom entering the red zone

where foreign missions includ-ing US Consulate was located

on Mai kolachi road adjacent toNetty Jetty of Keamari.

The protesters set fire to 6cinemas, several shops, banks,vehicles and four police vans invarious parts of the city.

Meanwhile, some armedcriminals tried but failed to pil-lage mobile market in Saddar.Arsonists barring Fire Brigadefrom doing their duties de-stroyed two engines and injuredsix firefighters. Even Ambu-lances carrying injured police-men were fired at.

At Sohrab Goth mostly in-habited by Afghan Refugees apoliceman was shot dead andvehicles plying on Super HighWay were stoned. At Malir mis-creants pelted trains with stones.

Tehreek-e-Insaaf claimedthat two of their workers werekilled and several injured.

In Pesahwar, at least sevenpeople were killed and over sev-enty others wounded seriouslyin various violent incidents onFriday in the provincial me-tropolis which wore a look ofbattlefield throughout the day.

Those killed included aworker of the private TV chan-nel. The law enforcers alsoclaimed to have averted attemptto play havoc in the city by seiz-

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WorldT20

Wright’s99 helpsEngland crushAfghanistanCOLOMBO—The WorldTwenty20 continued toconform to expectation -disappointingly so, some willsay - as England began thedefence of their title with a116-run hammering ofAfghanistan.

Luke Wright could notquite follow BrendonMcCullum’s hundred earlierin the day, but produced ablistering 99 off 55 ballsafter the holders overcame aslightly tricky start in highlyconvincing fashion.

Continued on Page 7

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Interior Min-ister Rehman Malik on Fri-day said that Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N)chief Nawaz Sharif shouldnot use the Youm-i-Ishq-i-Rasool for political point-scoring, adding that, mem-bers of bannedorganisations were beingsent from Punjab towardsIslamabad.

Speaking to media repre-sentatives in Islamabad,Rehman Malik said mobilephone services had beensuspended in the capital and

that the military remained onhigh alert.

The minister moreoversaid that mobile serviceswould also remain suspendedin Murree, Chakwal andPeshawar, adding that, thefederal government had ap-proached chief secretaries oftwo provinces for services’suspension.

Responding to a ques-tion over the court’s direc-tives pertaining to his dualnationality issue, the minis-ter said he would present allthe facts before ChairmanSenate Nayyar Bokhari.

He reiterated that the is-

sue of his disqualificationfrom parliament membershipwould be decided by theSenate’s chairman.

Rehman Malik said therewere a number of legislatorswho still kept their dual na-tionalities, adding that, ifasked, he would produceevidence to prove the allega-tion.

On the security situationin Karachi, the minister saidthe city had seen a growingnumber of IED blasts, add-ing that, there were intelli-gence reports pertaining topossible terrorist attacks incertain cities.

FAISALABAD: Citizens hold a demonstration against the blasphemous film, on Youm-e-Ishq-Rasool (SAW).—Online

QUETTA: A traffic police personnel tight ribbon on the arm of his colleague on theoccasion of Youme-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).—INP

SUKKUR: Protestors burning US flag and an effigy on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW)announced by the government on Friday.—Online

SIALKOT: Activists of different religious parties hold a demonstration on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW) at Iqbal Chowk.—Online

BANNU: Citizens burning the US flag and effigy during a demonstration rally on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).—Online

NAZIR SIYAL

CHIEFTAINS of community, village landlord are not only the

killers of mother and daugh-ter but the area Police wasinvolved in a complete bru-tality and women violence.The facts revealed aboutdual murder, among Nusratw/o Manzoor Ali Gadhi,than slaughter of Parveen onKaro Kari (Honour Killing)by the killer Sikander Gadhiand dominant society rep-resentatives here a day be-fore. On Sunday September16th, 2012, Sikander Gadhi abrother in-law of womankilled his brother’s wifeNusrat w/o Manzoor AhmedGadhi at village Noorpur inthe Badah police limits ofDokri tehsil Larkana district.

The sources among toldthat the story was a differ-ent, the killer and others plot-ted to kill both women witha conspiracy and by a drama

involving police SHO BadahLarkana district. Nusrat’shusband Manzoor is aworker in Saudi Arabia andhis brother Sikander Gadhi isthe addict young man, Land-lord and his accomplices plan-ning to kill mother Nusratlater her daughter Parveen,she married to a child AyazAli in village. The police af-ter the murder of Nusrat couldnot arrested the real killerSikander Gadhi but hisbrother or cousin sourcestold.

The killer of woman took2 days grace period for plot-ting to slaughter anotheryoung niece Parveen (18) invillage Noorpur in theBadah police limits of Dokritehsil Larkana district anddisclosed that these womenwere killed on illicit relations(Karo Kari). According toreports, Nusrat w/oManzoor Ahmed Gadhi andher daughter Parveen ofNoorpur village were left

the house due to pressureand develop relations.Sources disclosed that bothmother and daughter wereescaped due to the illicit re-lations and further allega-tions to Bhand communityin Dadu.

Later, the influentialSardars and landlord broughtboth mother and daughter atvillage and plotted the mur-ders of both mother than herdaughter. Sources had dis-closed that the Parveen (18)was missing for several daysmay be facing physical andsexual violence later provedafter the killing of her MotherNusrat in village. PreviouslySikander Gadhi slaughteredNusrat but no arrest of him,the charge was announced aKaro Kari and defending himfor two days another youngParveen was killed on thehonour killing yesterday inthe reports.

On the occasion, thecivil Society representa-

tives among ZulfikarRahoojo, Irfan Hyder, M.Panjal Khan Sangi,Mohammed Aslam, havecondemned this act andhelp responsible to the SSPLarkana for the failures ofhuman rights and violenceagainst women and increas-ing the crimes, murders andabduction in Larkana. Theyhave said that the SSPLarkana is only scoring hisperformance by dismissingthe police personals, but noenquiry about the dual mur-der in Badah police limitsthey said.

While other, SSP Larkanahas dismissed the 7 Policecops on negligence of dutiesand breaching the informa-tion during raids to recoverkidnapped two girls. In apress statement issued bythe office of SSP Larkana,Javed Jiskani, told that thePolice Constable Barkat AliKhokhar, PC Aijaz AliKhokhar, HC Mashooque Ali

Khokhar, Rajib Ali Khokhar,PC Mir MuhammadKhokhar, Ali HaiderKhokhar and PC Safdar AliKhokhar, have dismissedfrom their services. Theywere allegedly supportedthe kidnappers of two girlsin Dokri tehsil and breach-ing the secrecy and informa-tion of Police Department.

It is also pertinent to bemention here that six armedmen of Khokhar communityon Sunday late night en-tered into the house ofAshraf Ali Bhutto and kid-napped two young girlsamong Humaira KhokharW/o Ashraf Bhutto (24) andKiran D/o Akber Ali Bhutto(18) in village Baggi nearMoe-Jo-Daro RandhanRoad in the Airport policelimits of Dokri tehsil. The in-cident was told due to thelove marriage of HumairaKhokhar with Ashraf Bhuttoat Baggi village couple ofmonths back.

Can police be involved in innocents’ killing?

Malik blames Nawaz forsending militants to Capital

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chairman PPPBilawal Bhutto Zardari hascalled upon the people ofPakistan especially the lead-ership, office bearers and theworkers of Pakistan PeoplesParty to come forward andhelp the victims of floods inSindh, Balochistan andSouthern Punjab. On theoccasion of his 24th birthday,fall on Friday 21st September,the Chairman PPP in his mes-sage said that his heart goesout to those people whohave been rendered shelterless by the recent floods andwere awaiting assistance.

“On my birthday I urgeParty workers to reach out tothose affected people whowere still stranded in the floodareas and were without anyshelter or food and also tothe families of the victims of

recent tragedies of fires inLahore and Karachi and tothe martyrs in the war againstterrorism?. Lauding the an-nouncement of Prime Minis-ter Raja Pervez Ashraf for aspecial relief package worthRs2 billion for the flood vic-tims, Bilawal said there wasstill a lot to be done by thegovernment, business com-munity and the civil societywho had been doing a lot inthe past.

Those hit hard by thenatural calamity direly needyour assistance in their diffi-cult time. They have nothingto eat, nothing to wear dueto the early advent of thewinter season amid wide-spread and extraordinaryrains. They are looking to-wards their countrymen whohave never left them alone incalamity situations, the PPPchairman added. They are

forced to live under open skyand direly need shelters, foodand monetary support. It is

time for our people to comeout to assist the humanitywhich is suffering badly, henoted.

Bilawal Bhutto alsolauded the performance ofthe private and governmentagencies involved with the

relief work. The ChairmanPPP made impassioned ap-peal to all the philanthropicorganizations and affluentsections of society to gener-ously contribute towards theNDMA’s special bank ac-count or at Ms. BakhtawarBhutto Zardari’s NGO Savethe Flood and Disaster Vic-tims Organization Accountmeant for collecting dona-tions for providing relief ofthe affectees. Account de-tails are mentioned below:NDMA’s special bank ac-count Local Currency Ac-count (PAK Rupees) Ac-count # 000294-2 BranchCode: 1732 Branch Name:National Bank of Pakistan,Prime Minister’s SecretariatBranch, Islamabad - PakistanSwift Code: NBPAPKKA02iForeign Currencies Account(US Dollar) Account #9901526 Branch Code: 0341

Bilawal asks workers toreach out flood victims

ATTOCK—Communist partyof Pakistan (CPP), CentralChairman Engineer JameelAhmed Malik demandedfrom the Prime Minister ofPakistan Raja Pervaz Ashrafand its Government to imme-diately depose and sendback the US Ambassador tillTerry Jones punishment.Neither any communist coun-try nor any of their citizenshas ever disgraced and hu-miliated Islam and the holybooks of any religion nor has

‘US envoy be sent back tillTerry Jone’s punishment’

played with the sentiments ofMuslims or injured the feel-ings of other religious com-munity of the world, henoted.

It is always the AmericanImperialism and its citizen orthe capitalist countries, whohad periodically, purposelyengaged and playing with thesentiments of Muslims hedeclared, condemning therecent deplorable anti-Islamfilm by priest Terry Jonesbeing a coward act by the

troika of President Obama,Secretary of State Hillary andCIA. The CPP also supportedtoday strike call by the Gov-ernment as a token of protestagainst Terry Jones andAmerican policies for notpunishing Terry Jones yet.

He further demanded thatthe US government shouldtake necessary steps againstPoster Terry Jones, becausehe is regularly playing withthe sentiments of Muslimsaround the world.—Online

Tainted milkclaims baby’s life

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HAFIZABAD—A four-year-old girl died after takingtainted milk while her twosiblings were in critical con-dition here on Friday. Ac-cording to police, NazirAhmad of MohallahIlyaspura purchased milkpowder from a shop andgave his wife to administerit to the children after pre-paring milk. Soon after tak-ing the milk, Amina (4), Noor(2) and Umar Farooq (1) fellunconscious and wererushed to the local hospitalwhere Amina breathed herlast while the latter ’s werereferred to Lahore Hospitalin critical condition.

Police are investigating.Meanwhile it is also reportedthat Unprecedentedshutterdown strike was ob-served in Hafizabad.

26 policemenawarded

punishmentsOUR CORRESPONDENT

FAISALABAD—City Police Of-ficer Bilal Siddique Kamyanahas awarded punishments to26 policemen including twoInspectors on corruption,carelessness, poor perfor-mance as well as poor inves-tigation. According to pressrelease issued here, CPOwithheld one year promotionof Inspector Ghulam Fareedand awarded the punishmentof sensor to InspectorMansoor Bilal.

The two years serviceof Sub-InspectorsMuhammad Afzal andLiaqat Ali and one year ofSI Muhammad Ashraf wasforfeited. SI Hamid Javedwas given the punishmentof sensor. Two ASIs AbdulRazaq and Besharat Aliwere dismissed from ser-vice while five year serviceof ASI Manzoor Ahmedwas forfeited besides withholding one year promo-tion of ASI Akbar. ASIAzam was awarded in thepunishment of sensor andASI Khalid Shahzad wasissued warning.

Dry weatherexpected

across countryISLAMABAD—Dry weather isexpected in most parts of thecountry during the next 24hours. Isolated thunderstorm/showers are also likely overupper Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand Gilgit-Baltistan. A weakseasonal Low lies over North-east Balochistan. Meanwhile,River Indus at Guddu was atlow flood level. Most areas ofthe country remained dry andonly one mm rain was re-corded in Mithi.Same weatheroutlook is likely during next24 hours, stated experts.

The Quetta will experi-ence dry weather on Fridaywith temprature ranging from29 to 10 degree celcius, Metoffice said here. According tothe weather forcast,meximum temperture ex-pected in the city and adjoin-ing areas to range between27 degrees to 29 degreescelcius on upper side whileminimum range is expected tobe within 10 to 12 degreecelcius.

The Multan Met office hasforecast dry weather for thecity and its suburbs during thenext 24 hours. On Friday, thehighest temperature of 41.5degree Celcisu was recordedat Turbat and lowest tempera-ture 5.5 degree Celcius was re-corded at Kalat. On theotherside the Federal FloodCommission (FFC) on Thurs-day said that the Indus Riverwas still flowing in low floodat Guddu Barrage with waterdischarge of 700,000 cusecs.According to daily FFC report,all other main rivers includingJhelum, Chenab, Ravi andSutlej were flowing normal.

The reservoir elevationsindicates that Tarbela Damhas attained its MaximumConservation Level of1550.00 feet since September12, while, Mangla Dam is atelevation of 1203.15 feet,which is 38.85 feet below itsMaximum ConservationLevel of 1242.00 feet.—APP

Branch Name: National Bankof Pakistan, Main Branch,Islamabad ? Pakistan SwiftCode: NBPAPKKA02i Savethe Flood and Disaster Vic-tims Organization AccountAccount # 168901003437Branch Name: UBL SEAVIEW BRANCH KARACHISwift Code: UNILPKKA

On this occasion, he alsopaid glowing tributes to allthe martyrs and victims ofterrorism and said that thewhole nation owes themgratitude for their sacrifices.Bilawal said that he, beinghimself a victim of terrorism,can well understand theagony of the loss of near anddear ones in acts of terror-ists. These militants willnever be able to shake ourresolve in pursuing our fightagainst militancy to its logi-cal conclusion, Mr. Bilawalsaid in his message.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Maulana LatifShakir Friday termed the vio-lent protest against thenorms of Islam and appealedto the people to remainpeaceful. He said all Mus-lims ought to be unitedagainst all those who terror-ize the innocents, and thosewho permit the killing ofnon-combatants without ajustifiable reason. Islam hasdeclared the spilling of bloodand the destruction of prop-erty as absolute prohibitionsuntil the Day of Judgment,

‘Violent protest against Islam’he added.

He said it is necessary toapprehend the true perpetra-tors of these crimes, as wellas those who aid and abetthem through incitement, fi-nancing or other support.They must be brought tojustice in an impartial courtof law and appropriately. Hesaid it the duty of Muslimsto participate in this effortwith all possible means.Meanwhile, MaulanaNaseeruddin appealed topeoples to remain peacefulin their protest against anti-Islamic film by US film maker.

Talking to media,Maulana Naseeruddin alsoappealed to people of thecountry to get united to foilnefarious designs of enemywho want to create instabil-ity in the country throughsubversive incidents.

Damaging public andprivate properties was vio-lent act and Islam did notallow such things. He alsoadvised the Ulemas to ad-vocate peace to the peopleinstead of fiery speechesthat instigate the peoplecome out and damaged pub-lic and private properties.

Govt to develop Pukhtun nationStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—Chief Minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hotihas said that educated and developedPakhtun nation was a dream of BachaKhan which has been materialized bythe present coalition government in theprovince. He said that darkness of pov-erty, terrorism and illiteracy can be re-moved through education. He was ad-dressing inaugural gathering of BachaKhan University at Palosa Charsadda.

The present government has realized dream of BachaKhan by extending net of schools, colleges and universi-ties in every nook and corner of the province and thenation has been led towards development and prosper-ity. The establishment of seven Universities in short spansof four and half years was an unprecedented achieve-ment. ANP Central President Asfandyar Wali Khan inau-gurated the university. Begum Nasim Wali Khan was alsopresent on the occasion. Citing background of BachaKhan University, the chief minister said that we an-nounced the establishment of Bacha Khan University onpressing demand of the people of Charsadda and orderof our leader on 24th December last year during a peoplegathering and its notification has been issued in Julythis year. He said that establishing a primary school in sixmonths was even a difficult task but the government offollowers of Bacha Khan has established a university insix months and materialized the promise made to thepeople of Charsadda. There were 10 universities in theprovince earlier to our government. Bacha Khan Univer-sity, established on area of 200 kanal will expand to 800kanal with passage of time. The financial implications forfirst phase of the university were Rs. 650 million and Rs.280 million has been allocated to it this year.

Netherlands to launch projectsOur Correspondent

FAISALABAD—Netherlands will startsome projects to enhance the textile ex-pertise in Faisalabad. This was statedby Mr. Gajus Scheltema Ambassador ofRoyal Netherlands during a meeting withOffice Bearers of the Faisalabad Cham-ber of Commerce & industry (FCCI)here. He said that Government of Neth-erlands will expand the bio-gas projectin Punjab province, already stated.Technology up-gradation program of

Textile sector will also be launched especially in the textileManchester of Pakistan. Earlier, UAF VC Prof Dr IqrarAhmad Khan said that university was a comprehensiveuniversity as only 10-15 universities, out of total 140 in thecountry, come up to the definition of a comprehensiveuniversity. He said that UAF was offering new programmesto give students more options of specialisation. He saidthat over 23 per cent students were getting free education.He claimed that UAF scientists were working on hundredsof research project worth Rs 1.7 billion. The UAF VC saidthat the university was working with the Australian agen-cies AusAID and ACIAR on numerous projects and Uni-versity of Western Australia had already announced floodscholarship of $100,000 to Pakistani students. He said hisinstitution was working on Turkish Rural DevelopmentProgramme of Goat Distribution among females of the poorand neglected families. He said that due to aggressive ef-forts for internationalization, an exchange programme hadtouched new heights as 270 faculty members visited abroadfor professional endeavours in contrast with 198 foreignvisitors who participated in various workshops, seminarsand conferences. Entry of irrelevant persons banned: Dis-trict Coordination Officer (DCO) Naseem Sadiq.

Rahabilitation of affecteesNazir Siyal

LARKANA—Advisor to Chief Ministerfor Reilef and Rahabilitation HaleemAdil Shaikh visited the dmamagedhouses and rain affected areas ofLarkana, Kamber-Shahdadkot and otherparts of districts here on Friday. HaleemAdil Shaikh was along with DeputyCommissioner Shahdadkot and otherauthorities, assured the people of ruralareas of districts for proper financialassistance and rehabilitation with a cost

of Rs. 06 million by the federal and provincial governmentto the affected families, as they were suffereing from dam-ages and their agriculture he said. He said during the cur-rent year 2012 in Kamber-Shahdadkot, Jacobabad andShikarpur district 550 mm rainfall damaged the Agriculturalsector as well the houses and infrastructure he said. Healso claimed that they have helped the rain affected areasof Sindh and provided amount Rs. 346 million, while 2 thou-sand tents and Rs. 50 thousand will be provided to theKamber-Shahdadkot district he told. In Larkana, he alsovisited the vicinities among Kausar Mill, Hussaini Muhalla,Nazar Muhalla were affected from worst rain hit, resultedthe houses were collapsed, while Advisor to CM expresseddissatisfaction over the NSUSC performance for the yetfailures of removal of rain and sewerage water from Larkanacity. He directed Depty Commissioner Larkana andconcerened authorities to take steps to drain out stagnantwater from Hussaini Muhalla, which was received com-plain from residents of Hussain Muhalla and Kausar Millon the occasion.

Open court heldOur Correspondent

FAISALABAD—Divisional Commis-sioner Tahir Hussain has said that ser-vices of departments are being im-proved for redress problems and diffi-culties confronted to the common man.He was addressing an open court(Khuli Katchery) at Jinnah hall districtcouncil Jhang. RPO Aftab AhmedCheema, DCO Jhang MuhammadShahid Niaz, DPO Akhtar Umar HayyatLalika, Assistant Commissioner (rev-

enue) Shafqatullah Mushtaq and other officers of differ-ent departments were also present on the occasion. Thecommissioner said that open courts (Katcheries) are be-ing organized by divisional and district officers on thespecial directions of Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif as he really feels the difficulties and prob-lems of people and want to resolve the issues at theirdoor steps. He said that the applicants would be informedabout the status of action taken by the department con-cerned on their applications presented in the open court,for which their cell phone numbers have also been ac-quired. He asked the people to contact with officers ofdepartment concerned for redressing their problems andin case of any difficulty, they can contact at his office.RPO Aftab Ahmed said that all district and sub-divisionalpolice officers have been directed to redress public com-plaints on daily basis. He said that police officers arebound to redress all genuine problems of the people add-ing that no hindrance would be tolerated in provision ofjustice to affected person. He asked the people to cooper-ate with police and other law enforcing agencies for curb-ing crimes in the society and maintaining law and order.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Tour ofHimalayas (TOH) Interna-tional Mountain Bike race inthree different stages at threeprominent sites of theKaghan valley Pai Ascent situ-ated an altitude 13,800 feet,The Babusar Challenge toJalkhad and The Lake Crite-rium (Saif-ul-Maluk) called offin a protest to the sacrilegiousUS film. We decided to call offthe Race in protest to expresssolidarity with the wholeMuslim Ummah who aregrieved over showing of sac-rilegious US film, Syed AqilShah, Khyber PakhtunkhwaMinister for Sports, Tourism,Youth Affairs and Archive

Syed Aqil Shah toled thisscribe on phone.

The three-day mountainBike Stage Race was actuallymasterminded and spon-sored by Tourism Corpora-tion Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(TCKP) with 44 internationalcyclists from 11 differentcountries besides 10 cycliststwo teams from Pakistan anda team from Sui Southern Gasturned up for the race. Hesaid five from Slovakia, fivefrom Czech Republic, sevenfrom Denmark, one from Bazil,two from Germany, five fromThe Netherlands, five fromHungary, 12 from Englandand one from Australia.

The names comprisingMr. Martin Frano, Ms.

Zuzana Vojtasova, Ms. LiviaHanesova, Mr. Lukas Batora,Mr. Ivan Viglasky (Slovakia),Mr. Marek Rauchfuss, Mr.Michal Vlasek, Mr. MarcelSladek, Ms. Lucie Vlaskova,Ms. Lucie Macikova (CzechRepublic), Ms. Lone Sand,Ms. Tenna ThusgardGregersen, Ms. TinaImpgaard Nielsen Sloth. Mr.Keld Fjord, Mr. Jon MollerAndersen, Mr. Soren BohnPetersen, Mr. Rico JensenBusk (Denmark), Ms.Fernanda Castilho Rodrigues(Brazil), Ms. Monica Sudhoff(Germany), Mr.Remko MariaKramer, Mr. Immanuel Rob-ert George Barkmeijer, Ms.Laura Carolina Turpijn, Ms.Chris van den Bergh.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Department ofHealth Khyber Pakhtunkhwawith the support of Director-ate of Hajj and UNICEF haveset up polio stalls at HajiCamp Peshawar to raiseawareness among the pil-grims about the crippling dis-ease and to ensure them po-lio vaccination along withother mandatory vaccina-tions. Health teams havebeen deployed at Hajji CampPeshawar to administer po-lio drops to the pilgrimswhere separate arrangementshave been made for the maleand female Hajjis (Pilgrims).

The pilgrims after beingvaccinated against polio, men-ingitis and influenza are issuedcard by the Govt of PakistanMinistry of Religious Affairs.Banners and posters providedby UNICEF have been dis-played at visibility points inHaji Camp Hayatabad alongwith the routes leading to itthat would sensitize the massesand the Hajjis (Pilgrims) aboutpolio, that was not curableonce contracted.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that administration of po-lio drops is being made man-datory for pilgrims of threecountries including Pakistan,Afghanistan and Nigeria, so as

to stop the transmission of vi-rus to the Kingdom of SaudiArabia and other countriesthat have already eradicatedpolio from their soil.

The Government of Paki-stan has made a commitmentwith the world community totake effective measures towipe out polio from the coun-try in 2012 and is taking allpossible steps in this regard.Polio remains endemic in Pa-kistan, Nigeria and Afghani-stan where the deadly dis-ease continue to hit children.The total number of poliocases has reached 35 in thecountry, 13 each in KhyberPakhtunkhwa and FATA.

Criminals heldwith weapons

MULTAN—Police claimed tohave arrested nine criminalsand seized drugs and illegalweapons from their posses-sion during separate raids.Police conducted raids at vari-ous locations of the city andarrested nine outlaws includ-ing Ahsan, Waheed, Luqman,Bashir, Arslan, Ashraf,Muhammad Buksh andNaveed from the area of PakGate, Gulgasht, New MultanMuzaffarabad and Chahliekpolice stations respectively.Police also recovered aboutone and half kilogram of hash-ish, heroin and four pistolsfrom their possession. Sepa-rate cases have been registeredagainst the accused.—APP

FAISALABAD: Businesses were closed in the city on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW) announced by the government.—Online

KALASH: Women and girls listening speech of Chief Secretary KP Ghulam Dastagir(not seen in picture).

OUR CORRESPONDENT

FAISALABAD—The powersupply from the followingfeeders will remain sus-pended on account of nec-essary repair, maintenanceand expansion of electricitylines. According to theschedule, power supply fromMahi Chowk, CityTandlianwala and Jhamrafeeders will remain sus-pended from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00noon while Farooq Abadfeeder will observe shut-down from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00noon on Saturday, Septem-ber 22. Power supply from

Raza Town, Mobilink, SaeedColony, Hamdard,Makkoana, Jhumra Road,Sheikhupura Road, SOS Vil-lage, Bagay Wala, Dry Port,Rasool Pur, MSC, NewInterloop, Meema Cotton,Bilal Textile, Rafi Textile andKamal feeders will remainsuspended from 8:00 a.m. to2:00 p.m. while College Road,Aminabad, Gaushala, AtomicEnergy, Khalid Abad andNazim Abad feeders will ob-serve shutdown from 7:30a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Thurs-day (September 13). Similarly,electricity supply from Fertil-izer and Raza Town.

Polio stalls for Hajjpilgrims awareness

FESCO issuesshutdown programme

In a protest to sacrilegious US film

Int’l Mountain race called off

OUR CORRESPONDENT

FAISALABAD—Security ofthe federal capital is the re-sponsibility of Interior Minis-try, as the area is out of thePunjab government’s jurisdic-tion, Punjab Law MinisterRana Sanaullah said. Talkingto media persons Friday, hesaid that the Interior Ministrywas also responsible for themess created by the individu-als of banned organizations inIslamabad on Thursday in theprotest against the profanemovie. He further said that thefederal government, with theentire cabinet, should haveprotested in front of the Presi-dent Secretariat and called theAmerican Ambassador to reg-ister their protest on the blas-phemous film so that thewhole Muslim nation receiveda positive message.

The whole country wasprotesting the profane movie,while President Zardari hadgone abroad at this criticaltime, he added. The provin-cial law minister said thatRehman Malik keeps puttingfalse blames of backing ter-rorists on the Punjab govern-ment every now and then.Sanaullah said RehmanMalik should reflect on hisown deeds before sayinganything. He said thatPunjab government con-demned the violent incidentsand demanded of the UN totake action against those re-sponsible for production ofthe profane film. MeanwhileSpokesman of the Punjabgovernment Senator ParvezRashid responding to the al-legations of information min-ister said it was the respon-sibility of the federal govern-

ment to stop the protest inIslamabad.

Parvez Rashid said thatthe Punjab government andPML-N did not believe in vio-lence, adding that the peopleshould keep their protestpeaceful. He said that themasses of the country are ex-pressing their anger over theanti-Islam movie in protests,adding that the people whoinclude element of violence inprotests the PML-N could notsupport them. He said that themasses should remain peace-ful while expressing their feel-ings. He said that it is the re-sponsibility of the federalgovernment to stop violentincidents, adding that thegovernment has failed to ful-fill its responsibilities.

He said that the federalgovernment should not in-dulge itself in blame game, but

it should accept its failure. Hesaid that the governmentshould take account that whyadministration was failed tokeep Islamabad peaceful. Ear-lier, Information Minister

Qamar Zaman Kaira said thatit was responsibility of thegovernment to protect foreigndiplomats “at all costs”, add-

ing that situation in Islamabadwas serious and Punjab gov-ernment was not performingits duty and is fanning theprotests against the blasphe-mous film; meanwhile the

Spokesman ofthe Punjabg o v e r n m e n tS e n a t o rParvez Rashidrejected the al-legations ofthe Kaira andsaid the fed-eral govern-ment was re-sponsible forthe security ofthe capital.Speaking to aprivate TV

channel Qamar Zaman Kairasaid the Punjab governmentshould have ensured that theprotesters who came from

Rawalpindi and Murree werestopped from enteringIslamabad.

The information ministerappealed to protesters to re-main peaceful. He also urgedpolitical and religious partiesto refraining from fuelling hateand destroying the country.Kaira further said that Paki-stan was the only Muslimcountry who had declaredIshq-e-Rasool (PBUH) day to-day (Friday) to protest againstthe anti-Islam film. He ap-pealed the people of the coun-try should save the protest oftoday (Friday) from sabotag-ing, adding that those whowant to gather at the Diplo-matic Enclave have politicalmotives, adding that thesepeople want to sabotageYaume Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH)day so that the bad impressionof Pakistan be sent in world.

‘Centre, not Punjab responsible for Islamabad’s security’

LOWER DIR: Provincial Minister Mian Iftikhar addressing a public meeting.

OUR CORRESPONDENTS

SH A B Q A D A R\QU E T TA—The elders of Shabqadartehsil of Charsadda districthave alleged embezzlementand nepotism in the distri-bution of funds among theaffectees of floods. The el-ders including Haji Fida,Sher Ali and Siraj Haleemzaitold local journalists that therelief money meant for theaffectees of the floods oflast year was being distrib-uted among the office-bear-ers of the particular parties.They alleged that a lot ofdeserving affectees were ig-

Flood affectees allege nepotismin funds distribution

nored for the relief fundswhile blue-eyed persons ofthe ruling party were beingrewarded owing to their po-litical links. They demandedof the government to com-pensate the real deservingaffectees of floods instead ofgaining political mileage withthe relief funds.

Quetta: In what appears tobe a tug of war of interestsbetween the provincial gov-ernment and non-governmentorganisations (NGOs) overthe collection and distribu-tion of relief supplies, around0.1 million victims of the re-cent floods in Balochistan are

still awaiting assistance tendays after disaster struck. OnSeptember 9, the floods thathit the region washed away90 percent of the areas in theNaseerabad and Jafferabaddistricts of Balochistan.

Despite the scale of thedisaster, the provincial gov-ernment has restricted NGOsfrom intervening in the emer-gency flood response, buthas provided only Rs2,000,000 and 200 tents to thedistrict administration ofNaseerabad to help the des-perate flood victims. “I don’tunderstand why they are notallowing the NGOs.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PESHAWAR\SHABQADAR—The police foiled a terrorismbid as it recovered a bombhidden in ghee tin here onFriday. According, to de-tails, the Bhana Marri policeduring routine patrol in itsjurisdiction found a sus-pected ghee tin by the road-side.

The bomb disposalsquad (BDS) was calledwhich defused the bombweighing 5kg. Police saidthat terrorists wanted to tar-get the participants of pro-test rallies being heldagainst blasphemous film inUS but police foiled the bid.

Meanwhile, Awami Na-tional Party (ANP) ChiefAsfanyar Wali has said sup-ported war against terrorand said that the waragainst terrorism is

Terror bid foiled,5kg bomb defused

Pakistan’s battle and ‘we aredetermined to stand firm onour ground’. Addressingthe inaugural ceremony ofthe Bacha Khan University,the ANP leader said, “we willnot shy away from the waragainst terrorism.” The ANPchief said that progress ofthe Pakhtuns was depen-dant on education and trade.“ANP will participate in theupcoming election and winwith a heavy mandate.”

On the occasion, ChiefMinister KyberPakhtunkhuan Amir HaiderHoti announced that laptopsworth Rs1 billion will be dis-tributed among 25000 de-serving students of the prov-ince. He also announced astipend of Rs 1500 for femalestudents of middle schooland Rs 2000 for high schoolstudents of Torkhar andKohistan.

Display of unprecedentedlove for Prophet (PBUH)THE Satanic works of some Americans, who dared ridicule Islam

and its great Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through a highly mischievous film, has provoked worldwide protests and condemna-

tion from the Muslim Ummah. The unapologetic, rather provocative atti-tude of the West as highlighted by the latest statement of Australian PrimeMinister, who has the audacity to term protests as extremism and not theact of film-making itself as it involved white-coloured West, has turnedpeaceful protests violent leading to killing of people.

No doubt, sentiments of the entire Muslim Ummah have been in-jured but the way the faithful in Pakistan have reacted to the dastardly actis reflective of the true Islamic identity of the nation. Pakistan was cre-ated on the basis of an ideology and the demonstrations and protests havebrought to fore once again the genesis of the country and deep commit-ment of the people of Pakistan to the cause of Islam. The force and com-mitment with which the protestors gave vent to their feelings was a glimpseof the deep attachment and display of love for the Holy Prophet (PBUH).Reports pouring in from across the country speak of people representingdifferent walks of life taking part in protest demonstrations and makingcalls for action against perpetrators of this heinous crime. There wassharp reaction even in remotest corners of the country and protestorsincluded women and children, ready to do anything to uphold dignityand honour of the great Prophet (PBUH). It was all the more impressiveto note that Christian community too participated in protest demonstra-tions and came out with fiercest condemnation of the blasphemous act ofsome extremists in the United States. As for some ugly scenes like pitchedbattles between protestors and police and incidents of burning, stonethrowing and damage to property, we believe that the Federal Govern-ment has to blame itself for the mess. It is because, nowhere in the worldthe Governments are supposed to join or lead demonstrations as has beendone by our Government. It is unfortunate that instead of agitating theissue through diplomatic channels and in coordination with other Is-lamic states, the authorities concerned thought it appropriate to offi-cially support demonstrations. We believe that instead the Governmentshould have convened an All Parties Conference to adopt a stronglyworded resolution besides hosting an emergent meeting of the OICForeign Ministers in Islamabad to ponder over counter moves and con-vey sentiments of the Ummah in strongly worded statement.

West may re-visit freedomof expression right

AS almost the entire world has plunged into turmoil due to misdeedsof some extremists in the West, it is all the more ironical that some

unscrupulous elements are still justifying their action on the pretext ofrespect for so-called right to freedom of expression which is now widelybeing used in the West as a weapon against Islam . It was this moribundthinking and approach that after production of the blasphemous film, aFrench magazine had the courage to publish disgusting and loathsomecartoon and its editor is shamelessly defending its publication.

Some elements in the West have continuously been ridiculing andmocking cruelly Islam, its Holy Book, its Holy Prophet (PBUH) and itsfollowers for the last several years resulting into widening of the gulf be-tween the West and the Islamic world. The recent misuse of freedom ofexpression by some individuals in the United States and apparent sanctionof their action by passive response by some Western Governments has ledto violent protests across the globe. This is a clear indication that if thisunfortunate trend of insulting and disgracing continued then the situationcould become uncontrollable leading to unforeseen chain reaction. It is,therefore, supreme responsibility of the West and especially the UnitedStates to realize the inherent danger to the world peace by such explosiveincidents on the pretext of freedom of expression and speech. No doubt,freedom of speech and expression is sacrosanct but does it mean a li-cense to attack others. One vividly remembers the hue and cry of theWest over destruction of two statues of Buddha in Bamiyan province ofAfghanistan in March 2001, which was described as an act of extremismby Taliban Government and an attack on cultural diversity. If civilizedworld can condemn blasting of statues, considered by Taliban as idols,then why shouldn’t we condemn attack on the most revered Prophet(PBUH) and burning of the last revealed Book? Why double standards?

Extremely biasedreport of UN Group

THOUGH contents of its full report and consequences would be knownmonths later but the initial assessment and analysis of the informa-

tion that the UN Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances is aclear indication of the real intent and objectives of the UN mission andwhat is in store for future. Though during its ten-day visit to five cities ofthe country, the two-member UN team met several officials to get theirinput but its initial report as made public at a news conference in Islamabadon Thursday highlighted overwhelmingly the other side of the story, nar-rated by NGOs and vested interests.

The preliminary report of the UN mission is highly biased as it delib-erately ignored facts and figures presented by the officials concerned.Even JWP leader Talal Bugti could only present a list of just 600 so-called missing persons to the UN team but still the team referred to theimaginary figure of over fourteen thousand. Knowledgeable sources sayevidence was presented to the UN Group about presence of many of theallegedly missing persons in Farari camps both in Pakistan and aneighbouring country but this aspect too has not been highlighted andappreciated. The way the one-sided stories of involvement of law-en-forcing agencies in abduction of people has been narrated is also an at-tempt to malign Pakistan and portray it in a bad light on the issue ofhuman rights. The real picture would emerge when the report would bepresent to the UN Human Rights Council next year but the authoritiesconcerned should make preparations to counter adverse propaganda. Thereis a dire need to activate our dormant missions abroad for the purpose.

Despite the propagandaagainst Pakistan that it is ensconcing and supporting

terrorists in FATA to destabilize Af-ghanistan, Pakistan has many timecategorically stated that it wishes tosee a strong, peaceful and prosper-ous Afghanistan. It is true that Pa-kistan cannot match resources ofIndia in respect of aid to Afghani-stan, yet it is helping in reconstruc-tion of Afghanistan to the best ofits capacity and ability. In fact, Pa-kistan is a victim of war against ter-rorism, and has made numerous sac-rifices in the war on terror.Pakistan’s Security Forces havebeen fighting the terrorists and havelost more than 3500 officers andjawans in addition to over 35000civilian deaths. Pakistan, however,has been trying to identify andeliminate the root cause of terror-ism. And Pakistan government’spolicy on terrorism is now recog-nized at global level and the US isalso holding dialogue with Taliban.Pakistan has broken the back of themilitant groups and terrorists, andarresting many Al Qaeda leadersand handing them over to the US isample proof that Pakistan is sincerein bringing stability in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has offered to rekindlethe stalled Afghan peace talks withthe insurgents. The impression that

Pakistan’s role in Afghan peace

National defence & 21st century

There’s no scandallike rags, nor anycrime so shamefulas poverty.

It is hard to imagine now in 2012that the world security and political culture is failed in craft-

ing even abasic requirement ofpeace to sustain national defence ofrespective countries. Just as theproblem of socioeconomic frag-mentation leading to unprecedentedchaos and underemployment inAsia, Africa and Middle East, hownational defence will face the chal-lenges in 2030 and beyond, is a cru-cial question for civil-military strat-egists? Pakistan is at a moment oftransition and given the magnitudeof current economic andinfrastructural problems (e.g. man-agement & logistics), and an addi-tional problem of impairedcounterinsurgency capacity of US/NATO, the only immediate solutionwill be to increase focus on creat-ing strategic alliances with otherregional and international powers(e.g. Russia, Brazil, and India).

Pakistan’s armed forces and in-telligence community are support-ing economic and political stabilityin the region, which is why goingforward must invest in capabilitiescritical to future successes includ-ing education, energy, buildingdams, healthcare, defence produc-tion, technical intelligence, recon-naissance, counterterrorism andmaintaining an effective nucleardeterrent. End of war on terror can

Syria inUNGA dock

The United Nations GeneralAssembly is seized with a bigger responsibility. The 67th

session of the world body, whichstarted on Tuesday, is likely to bedominated with the ongoing mess inSyria. The discord threatens to en-gulf the entire region in another war,whose consequences would be toohard to cope with. Secretary-Gen-eral Ban Ki-moon was right as heunderscored the importance of thecrisis in the Arab country, and madeit categorically clear that peaceseems unattainable until and unlessboth the government forces and therebels gave up their quest to find amilitary solution.

The world body chief’s submis-sion says it all when seen throughthe prism of defiance that is beingexhibited from either side. The cal-lous attitude of President Bashar AlAssad’s administration in dealingwith the crisis, which was initiallyone of reformative in essence, hasled to an upheaval. Similarly, therebels’ stubbornness to engage thesecurity forces while holding civil-ians as human shields has furthercomplicated the issue. The result ismore than 20,000 casualties, and adiaspora of around two millionpeople sitting on the internationalfrontiers of the war-torn country.

The situation is far from beingaddressed, as there is hardly any pro-posal that is making sense. Ban Ki-moon’s stance that the UN GeneralAssembly should debate the Syriancrisis and try to find a way out ismost encouraging. Given to under-stand the realpolitik at the SecurityCouncil, and the way Russia and theUnited States would try to influencetheir way out, it is quite unlikely thatthe world body would be able tomove ahead. But the point is thiscrisis and its implosion are too bigto be left for another day. A betterway could be emulating the post-World War II decorum and makingthe General Assembly pass a reso-lution that should come to overrideintricacies of the Security Council.

The Atoms for Peace resolutionis a case in point. Though that toowould lack the teeth to make any dif-ference as far as ground realities areconcerned, it could be a plausibleway out. The onus lies on ArabLeague member states and the Mus-lim world at large to save the regionfrom another military intervention— and that too by Nato and theUnited States. —Khaleej Times

*****

Manipulativeforces preying

on Muslims

The Muslim world has everyright to be outraged by theflow of deliberately insulting

content emerging in various coun-tries. The notorious film from the UShas now been joined by some car-toons in France, and both examplesof anti-Islamic imaging follow a se-ries of similar incidents over sometime. All of these are offensive, evenif some are simply satirical whileothers are profoundly mal-inten-tioned. But righteous outrage shouldnot become random violence.

The powerful emotions and ha-tred deliberately engendered by suchcontent should not be accompaniedby violence. It will be important forthe worldwide Muslim communityto rise above such insults, and todiminish such nonsense to its right-ful place which is the rubbish bin.Islam is one of the world’s majorreligions, with a profound messagefor the whole of mankind. It shouldnot allow itself to be manipulatedby extremist anti-Muslims, whohave started to realise that if theywant to trigger violence across thewhole of the Muslim world, all theyhave to do is produce yet more in-sults to Islam.

Such knee-jerk violence will re-sult in a very dangerous situation asMuslims will allow themselves to bemanipulated by people who are anx-ious to do them deep harm. The fringeradicals who produce such content arewell aware of the wide impact of theirvery small-scale actions, and are de-lighted by their effect so far. Manyleaders in the West have spoken outagainst this anti-Islamic content butthey are not able to stop its produc-tion, since free speech is a fundamen-tal part of their political system, aslong as it is not a direct call to crimeor violence. —Gulf News

Pakistan is reluc-tant to brokerpeace talks withTaliban is incor-rect, as Pakistanmade it possiblefor Afghan offi-cials to have anaccess to MullahAbdul GhaniBaradar -Taliban’s formerSecond in Com-mand. However,there are anti-Pa-

kistan elements in the Afghan gov-ernment who continue with the tiradeof accusing Pakistan for sending in-filtrators in Afghanistan. Aimal Faizi,a spokesman of President HamidKarzai, has recently said, “The inves-tigations confirmed infiltration byforeign spy agencies into Afghani-stan.” While he declined to name thecountries and agencies, but Pakistanand Iran are often accused of provid-ing safe havens to insurgents insidethe shared border. In fact, Afghanofficials are trying to divert the at-tention from the terrorists and mili-tants that are operating from Kunarand Nuristan and attacking Pakistanicheck posts and also villagers.

A trilateral meeting of the lead-ers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and theUK in Kabul was held in July 2012.Leaders from three countries reiter-ated the need for an Afghan-led solu-tion to the conflict, with Pakistanplaying a crucial role in bringing theTaliban to the negotiating table. PrimeMinister Raja Pervez Ashraf ex-tended his cooperation to iron out thedifferences amongst warring factionsfor ultimate peace in Afghanistan,something that the US has been work-ing on with little success so far. Un-derscoring the need to combat mili-tant forces out to destroy both Af-ghanistan and Pakistan, British PrimeMinister David Cameron said that

Pakistan and Afghanistan faced acommon enemy, which called for aunited front of all stakeholders op-posed to terrorism.

Lately, Pakistan has been expe-riencing cross-border attacks fromAfghan territory and a number ofPakistani soldiers were killed. The re-sponsibility for these attacks wasclaimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pa-kistan, which had been driven out ofPakistan in the 2009 military opera-tion and since then gathered strengthand support by anti-Pakistan elementsand forces in Afghanistan.

There are fears that once the USand NATO withdraw from the region,the Afghan Taliban, including theHaqqani network, may make a bid toregain power in Kabul. Though theUS and NATO have attempted to al-lay these fears by ruling out a returnof the Afghan Taliban to power, giventhe discordant history of Afghanistan,ruling out this scenario or a protractedcivil war is not possible. After fourdecades of continuous warfare, andwith neither side in a position to wina complete victory, the only way for-ward is a negotiated political solu-tion. Pakistan too has lost thousandsof its soldiers and civilians in a warthat spilled over and has by now thewhole country in its grip, an unin-tended consequence of havingjoined the jihad in early 1980s afterSoviet forces had invaded Afghani-stan, and then joining the war on ter-ror after 9/11.

Anyhow, peace efforts and accu-sations go side by side. Pakistan hasbeen accused of not wanting peacein Afghanistan and trying to supportre-imposition of Taliban rule in Kabulby force. Time and again there havebeen allegations of Pakistan’s in-volvement in shoring up the Haqqaninetwork to carry out high profile at-tacks in Afghanistan. The question iswhy more than 100000 US andNATO forces, and around 250000

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help alleviate pres-sures on Pak-militaryand ISI, and thus di-rectly contribute tosafer, stable andmore prosperous Pa-kistan because insta-bility in Afghanistanentrants into the bal-ance of power inSouth Asia, a rapidly

growing industry of private militiasbacked by advanced trainers/weapon-ries by major Western powers. Thisassessment reflects that over the pasteleven years, Pakistan’s human andfinancial losses narrate that key pow-ers carried deeply flawed defencepolices, and this may remain the or-der of choice in coming decade.Therefore,the belief in Pakistan’sself-sufficiency needs to be combinedwith catching up with Western tech-nology and reversing the patterns ofdependency. Torn between compul-sions of consistent US pressures anddesire to return to a more traditionaland peaceful Pakistan, the foundationof survival rests with the plan to con-solidate territorial, social and eco-nomic integrity.

This can be achieved at the costof classic definition of “old allays”being replaced for practical reasons,and it will change the cultural char-acter of Pak-US relations as well.From a broad historical point of viewthis may become a pressing problemboth in terms of technological andmilitary needs, but rapid and dramaticincrease in “conflict provocation”,and the way asymmetrical wars arebeing fashioned in the region, thedefinition of highly-classical friend-ship will automatically change thepriorities of national defence in2015.The breakthrough will be therealization that the historical view

does not work any longer and theburdens imposed by the US will beunsustainable and, will not be con-fined to Afghanistan and Iran.

Regional countries perhaps, Rus-sia and China have already perceivedthe “out of control” strategic risks thatthe US/NATO is taking; thereforethey are assessing a “two-way” frag-mentation and a chaotic regionalstruggle for economic and politicaladvantage. This disintegration is re-lated to both inter-state and inter-faithrelations. The US will have to dosomething extraordinary to convincemajority of Muslim population thatwar on terror is not against Islam,because up until now, the US publicdiplomacy campaign has miserablyfailed to create better understandingbetween Americans and Muslimsaround the world. Consequently, pro-jected security environment is in-tended to convey that the blueprintof world peace regards “building per-ceptions” about countries of “inter-est” as the key strategic guideline.This applies to every other countrythat is partnering in war on terror.With diffusion of al-Qaeda, Talibanand TTP, on the basis of counteringthese threats, the US will induce ap-proach of controlling ungoverned ter-ritories, the purpose of which is toopen up channels of networking inother parts of Asia.

Priorities of National defence intwenty-first century will also becomedisorganized because as a result ofregional struggle, with uncertain bor-ders and shifting alliance, the US andallies will start to render boundariesmeaningless. From the US pint ofview, the deployment of drone tech-nology represents a superb start of thisstrategy, a geopolitical imperative thatcurrently shadows Pak-US relation-ship. In the coming decade, no power

will really be in a position to domi-nate all of Eurasia. But, with the ex-ception of the US, which is not re-quired to involve in any conflict asthe fear of military might of US/NATO and war on terror are the per-fect combination of the factors thatwould allow the Western powers tomanipulate the fragmented govern-ments in the vast region rich in re-sources, labor and expertise.

On the other hand, the frag-mented central governments in war-zones will encounter influx of immi-grants, certainly be more substantialthan any other instance in the history.From now-onward, immigration willbe rising. In South Asia, the issue ofimmigration, especially from Af-ghanistan has been seen through theprism of encroachment on socioeco-nomic resources and terrifying reali-ties of “Kalashnikov& heroine cul-ture”. At the apex of Pakistan’s na-tional defence stands its own strate-gic interest, a reality that should begreatly clarified to the US, NATOand Arab nations. Eventually, estab-lishing defence relations with moreEuropean countries will be sendingpositive signal to new generation ofcivil-military bureaucrats. By thispoint, they will learn modern com-mand structure mechanism and ad-ministrative techniques – all in ad-dition to their original mission of de-fending the country from internalthreats and foreign attack. The 2030should seea surge in Pakistan’s edu-cation, economic development, wa-ter, energy and logistics manage-ment, similar to those of Turkey andMalaysia, but there is a lot of chal-lenges and history to come betweennow and then.—The author is a Denmark-basedNational Security Expert andDefence Analyst.

George Farquhar—Irish dramatist

Afghan army and police have failedto rein in Taliban fighters and to takethem head on while they cross theborder, if at all they are operatingfrom Pakistan. Anyhow, a politicalsolution implies the Afghan Talibanbeing persuaded by Pakistan to joinpeace talks. In view of the fact thatPakistan had recognized the Talibangovernment, there is a perceptionthat its leaders may listen to thevoice of reason, provided their con-cerns are also addressed, and minor-ity is not propped to rule the major-ity - Pashtuns. Needless to say, un-less Afghanistan settles down andPakistan benefits from such a peacedividend, both countries and thewhole region will suffer in terms ofdevelopment and progress.

The fact remains that Washing-ton is looking forward to a negoti-ated political settlement of the Af-ghan imbroglio for many reasons,and is even talking of peace withTaliban and other insurgent groups.However, it is yet to be seen if pa-rameters of settlement will go in ac-cord with the ones set out byleaderships of Afghanistan and Pa-kistan, as America is an overbear-ing occupying power in Afghani-stan, and has a soft corner for theNorthern Alliance and its principalbacker India. America has to under-stand that whatever semblance ofsuccess America achieved in Iraq itwas by accepting the principal i.e.the right of the majority to rule there.If the US can work along similarlines, it can win the hearts and mindsof people, the bitterness and the hor-rors of the long drawn out war not-withstanding. Historical evidencesuggests that Pushtuns have eitherbeen rulers or king-makers through-out the history of Afghanistan. Andany effort to make them play a sec-ond fiddle is bound to fail.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Rana Athar Javed Email: ma_javed@hotmail.com

Voice of the People

It is not true that Al-Qaeda is dead

TIME magazine has publisheda lengthy report predicting theend of Al-Qaeda. The predic-

tion was based on a number of im-portant events, such as the killing ofits leader Osama Bin Laden and thekilling of a large number of its mem-bers in Yemen. The report covered indetail the great setbacks Al-Qaedasuffered, but I do not agree with theconclusion about the “end of Al-Qaeda.” I believe the new realities sayotherwise. We are today witnessingalarming escalations of theorganization’s activities in variousparts of the world.

Al-Qaeda is not only fully aliveand kicking but has become morepowerful. It is now able to recruitmore members and spread widely inthe world. It has succeeded in build-

ing alliances and mergers in a num-ber of places in the world. We shouldnot ignore the fact that the reemer-gence of political Islam has, thanksto the Arab Spring, made thejihadists more enthusiastic to spreadtheir ideas and expand activities.They exploited the weakness of theofficial religious, security and me-dia organizations that were activeagainst the terrorist ideology inEgypt, Tunisia and Libya andstrengthened their presence. Theyalso encouraged extremist groups inother countries to raise their voicesand expand their activities.

I do not claim that the Islamicgovernments in these Arab Springcountries are behind Al-Qaeda’s re-turn. On the contrary, these govern-ments are in fact its victims. Para-doxically, the jihadist groups thatare linked to Al-Qaeda or are sup-porting its political line have turnedagainst these Islamists governments

and started fighting them. TheInternet website “Mujahedeen inEgypt” — the mouthpiece of thejihadists in Egypt — has openly de-clared its opposition to the new Is-lamist regime in Egypt. The siteconsidered the rule of presidentMuhammad Mursi null and void.The government of Mursi has com-mitted a grave mistake when it has-tened to release imprisoned terror-ists and pardoned the jihadists whoescaped to foreign countries.

The government believed thatthe pardoning of the jihadists wouldlead to national reconciliation andencourage them to participate inpeaceful political work instead ofviolent jihadist activities. The gov-ernment did not realize that the ide-ologies of these people were totallyagainst democracy, and that theywould only accept their extreme in-terpretation of Islam in the manage-ment of the state’s affairs. The re-

Has India begun loving Pakistan?

Today the Muslims all over theworld including Pakistan areprotesting over a film which

not only made fun of the Islamicteachings and preaching but also triedto (God forbid) disrepute and defamein a very derogatory manner the mosthonorable, respectable and no doubtthe most precious man ever bornsince after the creation of the uni-verse, the Holy Prophet of Islam(PBUH) but no one from the west-ern world is willing to pay any heedto this protest. The whole of the west-ern world is calling the making of thisfilm ‘the freedom of expression’.Freedom of expression may go tohell; this was the title of an SMSwhich I received a few days back.“When the Muslims speak against thebrutalities of the

Blacks, the western Christianworld calls it racism, when the Mus-lims protest against the atrocities ofthe Jews; the west calls it extrem-ism, when the Muslims stress theirwomen to observe ‘parda’, the samesociety brands this act as ‘gender dis-crimination, but when the westernChristian world attacks the dignity

Innocence of the Muslimsof our Holy Prophet(PBUH), this notoriousaction is projected, sup-ported and favoured asthe freedom of expres-sion. Why this injustice;why this unfair preju-dice and why this dis-crimination; not verydifficult to answer.

This all is becauseof our own weaknesses and fragil-ity of our position in the world. Howpainful is the reality that Islam andthe Muslims all over the world arebeing insulted ridiculed and mockedat but they are so helpless that theycould do nothing but smash theirown properties, burn their ownhouses and destroy their own assets;certainly this is not the solution tothe problem. Today every Muslimhas a lot of questions in his mind;where Al-Qaida is and where are allthose who claim to be the caretak-ers of the Muslims and Islam.

Why don’t they have courage tokidnap and slaughter the throats ofthe bastards who are behind all thishumiliation of our dear Holy Prophet(PBUH)? Why don’t they intrude theUS lands and burn the offices and thestudios of the film-makers behind thishumiliation? It is the time when allthe Muslim militants must come for-ward and tell the world that no com-promise could be done as far as thesacred and sublime personality of theHoly Prophet (PBUH) is concerned.If they don’t step ahead, the worldwould believe the statement of

NLC scam &rational approach

YOUSAF ALAMGIRIAN

Unfortunately history of Pakistan isfull of corruption, looting, plunder-ing and dishonesty. Number ofpeople took loans of billions and tril-lions from the banks and then neverreturned even a penny of that. Fi-nancial assets of the country wereshifted to the foreign banks. Per-sonal interests were considered su-preme and the national interestswere compromised. Supreme Courtof Pakistan has got hold of many ofsuch cases and is accountable to takethe culprits to the task. Public ac-counts committee is also probingmany of the corruption cases. TheNLC financial scam is one of these.The Planning and development di-vision was asked to hold an inquiryand secretary of the division gavefindings in his report that the NLCofficials were not directly involvedin the corruption but they failed toensure transparency in the proce-dures hence rules and regulationswere not followed in its true spirit.The inquiry report is there on thepublic accounts committee websiteas well for public consumption.

However General AshfaqPervez Kayani ordered an inquiryunder an officer not less than therank of a Lieutenant General in No-vember 2010. Only after the inquiryreport was completed the MilitaryLeadership has made an historicand visionary decision to reinstateall the three General Officers, twoLieutenant Generals and a MajorGeneral to prosecute them underthe Pakistan Army Act. This stepshould however not be consideredto give a fresh jab to those rein-stated generals but to ensure thesupremacy of law.

General Ashfaq Pervez Kayanihas always shown wisdom and fore-sight while making the decisions onNational and strategic issues. Theway Pakistan Army was kept asideduring the last elections was appre-ciable. It fully supported the demo-cratic culture in the country whichnot only strengthened the democ-racy but a record has been set thatthe present elected government isnearing to complete its 5 year term.General Kayani is not only servingto promote democratic culture at thesocietal level but aspires for peaceand harmony in the region. Reasonbeing soon after the Gayyari inci-dent he proposed that both Pak-In-dian Armies should vacate Siachinand the resources be utilized on de-velopment of the poor masses, bothsides. No doubt this is the true ap-proach needed to address the re-gional issues.—Via email

Way women dressMAIMUNA RAZA

“A woman’s clothing is her ownbusiness”. Many people in the coun-try seem to think that women in Pa-kistan have never been coerced intodressing in a particular way. This isa fallacy. There were many instancesduring the Ziaul Haq regime whenwomen were forced to wearchaddars against their wishes. I re-member being forced into wearingone when going to college, other-wise we would not be allowed toenter the college premises.—Karachi

Nazir Naji’sinterview

MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL

The renowned columnist Nazir Naji,in an interview with an Urdu weeklyof Karachi has suggested that the so-lution of Karachi’s problem lies thatKarachi be declared as an autono-mous administrative unit by hand-ing over it to “Karachi wallas”whereas intervention from Sindhand federal governments shouldstop. As a result, all nationalitieswould gradually live in peace andharmony, he added.

The fallacy of freedomsEMAN AFROZE BUTT

As they say, “one man’s freedom is another man’s slavery”, a civilized society, therefore, requires acertain set of laws to function smoothly and justly. Even when the west proclaims itself to be the

harbinger of freedoms, the slogan does not really represent the reality. The governments are alwayscoming up with reforms, amendments and new laws in order to truly ‘liberate’ the human race. So, theground reality is quite paradoxical: the rulers are imposing restrictions upon their citizens to ensuretheir freedoms. For instance, the much notorious National Defence Authorization Act of America whereany citizen can be put behind the bars for an indefinite period on the basis of allegations ,present a veryrelevant scenario in which the state literally turns into a terrorist herself. Or the freedom of expression,the cover of which is always taken in order to malign true prophets of God, specifically the Last Messen-ger, Prophet Mohammad SAWW, is not actually available to those who voice their opinions against thedemocratic system, manmade laws, the corruption of the elitist capitalists and abuse of the power ofstate institutions by these people. They are silenced with the help of all the state might because they aretermed as rebels, troublemakers, traitors etc. Such a contradiction of values exists in the all the liberal aswell as conservative societies of the world. Thus, it should be well understood by all that there willalways be restrictions when one is living in a human society the source of which could be manmade ordivine. The choice is ours for in case of divine laws, injunctions are imposed upon the state institutions tokeep them from barging upon the private lives of the citizens and arresting them without any chargesand these laws can never be subject to any human approval or revision.—Lahore

Indi a, at long last, has managedto influence the Pakistan media aswell in a big way by carefully fill-

ing the vacuum created by the unex-pected exit of pro-America stuff. Onecan feel the a sense of optimism aboutIndia wanting to make Pakistan a su-per power. Indian “talking” to Paki-stan is meant only to show a friendlyfacade to the world that it is a peaceloving country and it, like Israel, al-ways wants to have good relationswith its neighbours; especiallyIslamabad. But in reality, New Delhihas other strategic goals. Brutal oc-cupation of Jammu Kashmir andtraded boost and access to Afghani-stan and Central Asia and Silk Routethough Pakistan. Kashmiri’s havesustained their freedom struggle for20 long years due mainly toPakistan’s support. In order to keepthe Kashmir issue at bay for ever,New Delhi strategists want to splitthe historical bonds betweenKashmiris and Pakistanis. India iseager to retain Kashmir, occupied il-legally by India since 1947.

As a leading terrocracy, India ter-rorizes the besieged Kashmiri Mus-

lims by drinking their blood. Still fo-cused on a veto handle of the notori-ous UNSC, India wants to convincethe world powers and permanentmembers of UNSC that Kashmir is-sue was no more alive and it shouldbe taken out of UNSC agenda. In-dian military terrorists continue tosuppress Kashmiri’s freedomstruggle by use of brutal force by de-ploying 700,000 security forces in JKin utter disregard of human rights vio-lations and it has already reneged onan earlier understanding on with-drawal of troops from Siachen. Indiais keen to become a permanent occu-pation member of UNSC to perma-nently ignore Kashmir sovereigntyissue. Also, India aims at gettingcloser to Pakistan to score politicalpoints since for last few years gov-ernment of the extra corruptManmohan Sigh regime. Both Indiaand Pakistan are now on the discred-ited UNSC as ordinary members.

India needs either Pakistan or Af-ghanistan, if not both, as a transit cor-ridor for boosting its foreign trade andfor years now New Delhi has beenmaking all-out attempts to secure theroute of either of them. Now USAseems to have clearly told India notto have false hopes on Afghanistanas it would not be allowed to controlit when the NATO terror syndicates

quit the lands of brave Afghans. Be-sides, the USA has hinted it wouldnot leave Afghanistan soon. Still thereare many Afghans living. In view ofits interest to meet its growing energyrequirements by importing electric-ity and gas from CARs and exploit-ing CARs and Afghanistan’s mineralresources India is more inclined to usePakistan as a transit corridor. It is astated objective of India to establishtrade and economic relations withCentral Asian States (CARs) by sign-ing transit agreement with Pakistan.

India has been pressing Pakistanto let to increase its trade volume withPakistan. India has been pushingIslamabad to let India also use Paki-stani soil and sea for trade purposes.Although the corrupt Zardari regime,seeking to make the “son” assumepower there, is showing pro-Indiainterest, heeding to Indian appeal tooffer the MFN status, it still has notallowed India to use Pakistani soil tohelp the NATO terror operations inAfghanistan. Obviously, Islamabadis eager to do that itself for personalprofits. As India moves faster tosomehow get inside Pakistan, thereis a perception in Pakistan that thiswill marginalize Pakistan’s industrywhich is not very competitive.Pakistan’s economic situation hasdeteriorated because of colossal ex-

Views From Abroad

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

Former French military intelligenceofficer Pierre-Henri Bunel, who oncesaid in a report, “ Al Qaeda is sim-ply an Intranet (A technology toshare information, operational sys-tems, or computing services withinan organization) the CIA used tocall up reserves of mujahedeen toengage in specified terrorist actions,much like those seen during the pastfew years in the remote-controlbombing of civilians in Damascus,Beirut, Baghdad, various Libyanand Pakistani cities, Aden, andother locales., all carried out by AlQaeda or its off shoots.”

Ridiculing the Muslims, victim-izing the followers of Islam and tar-geting their holy places is nothingnew particularly on the part of thewestern Christian extremists in col-laboration with the Jews and the Hin-dus. The Wired Magazine publisheda report in May 2012 regarding thedetails of an eight-week course at theUS Defense Department’s JointForces Staff College in Norfolk, Vir-ginia. The magazine referred to LtCol Dooley’s presentation at thecourse which was arranged theresomewhere in July 2011. The officersaid: “We have now come to under-stand that there is no such thing as‘moderate Islam’. It is therefore timefor the United States to make our trueintentions clear. This barbaric ideol-ogy will no longer be tolerated. Is-lam must change or we will facilitateits self-destruction.” The officer fur-ther added, “A possible war plan mustbe imposed to materialize a forced

transformation of Islam. That is theonly way to reduce Islam to a cultstatus and to threaten Saudi Arabiawith starvation.” The course in-cluded a strategy plan which taughtthe US military officers that USneeds ‘Hiroshima’ tactics to wipeout entire Muslim cities to protectAmericans in a ‘total war’ againstthe world’s 1.4 billion Muslims.Taking war to a civilian populationof Mecca and Medina or wherevernecessary, is all that US needs badlyin the present geo-political scenario.

It is no doubt the innocence ofMuslims that till now they have notrecognized their actual enemy, theyare always eagerly waiting for afriendly hand from America. Unlessthe Muslims come out of their base-less and illogical world of imagina-tion, things could never go in theirfavour. Be it the blasphemous cari-catures or the burning of the holyQuran by Terry Jones or publishingof the books like Satanic Verses ormaking of insulting films like In-nocence of Muslims, they will haveto show a very strong reaction; butthat reaction must not be limited toraising slogans and blocking theirown roads and killing their ownpeople; it needs something morethat directly affects the Americanareas of interest throughout theworld. It is a day-light fact that it isnot an easy thing to challenge thedictatorial authoritative position ofUS particularly for those who haveguns in their hands but they have tolook towards the US for the bullets.

sult was that four of the releasedjihadists were among the terror-ists who attacked the Egyptian se-curity forces in Sinai killing 16soldiers before their operationagainst the Israeli side.

The big surprise came duringthe protests against the anti-Islamfilm when demonstrators hoistedblack banners similar to the Al-Qaeda flag on the US Embassyin Cairo. They also pasted pho-tos of Bin Laden on theembassy’s walls. The demonstra-tors in Tunisia did the same thingafter forcefully taking over theembassy’s premises. Althoughmore than a thousand securitymen besieged the mosque inwhich Abu Ayyad, the main sus-pect behind the attack againstthe embassy took refuge theyfinally had to abandon the siegefearing more clashes with hisfollowers. —Arab News

penditure on war on terror as com-pared to the US economic assis-tance, dwindling of foreign invest-ments, lavish government spending,rampant corruption and energy cri-ses since 2008. Corruption is a com-mon factor binding Zardari andManmohan.

India wants to use Pakistan’s railand road infrastructure without dis-playing any flexibility on resolvingcontentious issues with Pakistan es-pecially the core dispute of Kashmirsince it has maintained its rigidity bynot discussing this dispute. Emotion-ally touched about Kashmir, Paki-stanis feel that moving towards grant-ing trade and transit concessions toIndia without clinching an under-standing from her on resolving Kash-mir and other disputes would meanto support Indian economic agendaat the cost of compromising onPakistan’s Kashmir policy.

That means a destabilized orfailed Pakistan would also fail theKashmir policy. Islamabad shouldcontinue to highlight Indian atroci-ties in occupied Jammu Kashmirand should also develop constantpressure on India for holdingmeaningful dialogue for resolvingKashmir issue once for all on pri-ority! And India cannot have toomany options now!

A Rahman Al-Rashid

If the contents of his Urdu inter-view are correct as reported, one canregret on the mentality of Mr Naji asKarachi issue is sensitive and suchirresponsible comments are bound toadd fuel to the fire. Mr Naji shouldknow that Sindhis have given theirblood and sweat to build this greatcity. Non-intervention by Sindh govtmeans Sindh government had to shiftits capital from the city and hand itover to an ethnic group of Karachiwho has remained in power one wayor the other for the last 24 years. Theyhave, more or less, physicallycrippled the elected Sindh govern-ment and are imposing upon theirhighly objectionable decisions onmajority people like promulgation ofSPLGO - 2012.

If suggestions of Mr Naji areimplemented, the target killings ofother nationalities including Pashtun,Punjabis, Sindhis etc would tremen-dously increase and they would wipeout other nationalities in Karachicompletely as they did with Sindhisafter creating of country i.e.1947 toJuly 1970. I suggest Mr Nazir Naji,in view of sensibility of issue, heshould avoid to give such objection-able suggestions that are bound toturn Karachi into carnage.—Karachi

Checking anti-Islam material

NAVEED AHMAD

Government deserves lot of praiseand appreciation for its timely actionto appease the infuriated masses ofPakistan. It was a very bold, un-daunted and courageous act of gov-ernment to ban the You Tube in Pa-kistan. On the special directions ofPrime Minister, Ministry of Infor-mation Technology issued special in-structions to PTA to close all thelinks containing blasphemous mate-rial. PTA, following the directionsof Ministry of IT established a com-plaint cell for public in which pub-lic was encouraged to report anyanti-Islamic link and website to PTAfor its timely closure.

This proactive approach on thepart of government is praiseworthybut this is not the permanent solutionof the problem. Need of the hour isthat government should try to resolvethis issue on permanent basis. Gov-ernment should prepare Google, Facebook, You Tube and all Internet ser-vice providers to follow a regularcode of conduct. Government shouldenter into a permanent accord withthese Internet service providers. Theyall should be made legally bound torefrain from publicizing any blasphe-mous material in future. This sort ofengagement can prove to be a pana-cea for occurrence of any future mis-hap in our country.—Via email

Liberalizedvisa regimeMEHAK ALI NAQVI

Pakistan and India have signed themuch-awaited pact for a liberalisedvisa regime. Under the agreement,visa on arrival has been introducedfor the first time. Pakistanis and In-dians can visit five places instead ofthe existing three. They have alsobeen exempted from the humiliatingpolice reporting on arrival and beforedeparture.

Hopefully, these steps would goa long way in promoting goodneighbourly relations between thetwo countries and also in bringingtheir people much closer to eachother.However, it was astonishing tonote that citizens aged 65 years andabove will be granted a single-entryvisa on arrival at the Wagah borderonly. This arrangement suggests thatthe facility will not be available tothose senior citizens travelling by air.

This is not understandable as towhy the aged citizens have been putto the unnecessary hardships of trav-elling by road. The exact procedureand related details in this connectionare yet to be made known to the pub-lic. However, it is hoped that the newarrangements would be implemented

by both the governments withallsincerity.—Karachi

There is noOmbudsman!

UMME RUBAB

The office of ombudsman is criticalfor good governance. It is noticed thatmaladministration and corruption ingovernment offices, both, federal andprovincial has alarmingly increased.There have been avoidable delays,faulty procedures, unfairness, bias,refusing to answer questions, discour-tesy, and mistakes in handling claimsare just a few examples.

The instances of favoritism,nepotism, lack of integrity, excessiveaction, inaction, abuse of position onthe part of officials and elected func-tionaries are also reported across thecountry particularly in Sindh. There-fore the provincial Ombudsman’soffice must perform it’s duties withdiligence and dedication to uphold therights of the citizens.

The Ombudsman office lacksproper training and orientation; thiscould be the cause of many problemswhich can be eradicated by provid-ing proper training in a capacitybuilding institute. Furthermore, Inorder to tackle the ever growingmenace of irregularities, corruptionin public institutions, I appeal to thepresident to appoint the FederalOmbudsman at his earliest as alreadytwo years have passed and the postis lying vacant.—Karachi

Authoritythey need

MUHAMMAD UZAIR NIAZI

Women policing is a new trend ris-ing in the Muslim world with a posi-tive thrust. The women in the Mus-lim world are now joining policeforce as a profession, and are help-ing in eradicating crimes from thesociety. In Pakistan women policingis excelling with a good pace, but stillthere are many hurdles for themwithin the premises of their own de-partments. The male dominance inthe police department is a main hurdlefor women police officers, for execut-ing proper actions. The women po-lice stations are also facing tremen-dous problems, where the womenpolice are not allowed to registerFIR’s, and perform clerical and se-curity duties.

Most of the women police sta-tions are not having the authority toregister FIR’s, carry out investiga-tions or support victims of violence.This practice has affected the womenin our society, as they do not feelfree to share information with themale police officers. The majorityof women police stations are ne-glected by the authorities in provid-ing funds, and as a result they can-not properly equip the office withcomputers, printers, etc. The womenpolice stations all around the coun-try are seeing a delay in transfers ofpowers, with a rapid politicizationfrom different interest groups. Atpresent the government has in-creased the quota of women to 5%in police department, which has re-sulted in more induction of womeninto police. Women who are join-ing police department must not beconstrained to women police sta-tions only, but they must be ap-pointed in traffic control, manage-ment, and inquiry.

The government must providethe women police stations with properequipments, so that they can do theirwork properly.—Mianwali

Ali Sukhanver Email:alisukhanver@hotmail.com

Dr Abdul RuffEmail: abdulruff@gmail.com

Though there are fears untoldand stern confronting me onmy way willingly still would

I go, not turn; For God walks be-sides me each day!

Even as the whole country is onthe brink of communal chaos as onereligious group assaults another andretaliation takes place. Even astrainloads of people from the north-east flee from expected danger, Iwant you to read these lines:

On a bright Sunday morning alittle fellow was on his way for a pic-nic with his mother. Soon the sightsand sounds of the new day made himskip on ahead. Suddenly his carefreeprogress came to an end. A few yardsaway was a boxer dog. Have you seena boxer? They are the most ferociouslooking dogs, but actually the mild-est of the canine species.

The little boy ran back to hismother, terrified and held onto herhand in fear. She held his hand tightand then walked slowly and confi-dently to the dog, and the dog seeingher determined gait ran away himselfin fright!

Can you visualize the scene?Now picture yourself holding onto

God’s hand and facing fear squarelyin the face. Many of us have the ideathat having God besides us means nofear! These people live in a fool’sparadise; having God beside youmeans you learn how to handle fear.You are able to look at fear in the faceand tackle it head on.

Listen to these lines of some-one who learnt to face fear withGod: I feared being alone until Ilearned I was never alone! I fearedfailure until I realized that I foundthat it was God’s next step to mysuccess. I feared success until I re-alized that I had to try in order tobe happy with myself. I fearedpeople’s opinions until I found itwas only His opinion of me that

Face your fear..!mattered. I feared pain until Ilearned how much pain God hadborne for me. I feared the truth un-til I saw the ugliness in lies. I fearedlife until God showed me it’sbeauty. I feared death until I real-ized that it’s not an end, but a be-ginning. I feared my destiny, untilI realized that God had the powerto change my life.

I feared hate until I saw that itwas nothing more than ignorance.I feared love until it touched myheart, making the darkness fade intoendless sunny days. I feared the pastuntil I realized it didn’t matter toHim above. I feared the dark until Iwalked with His hand in mine.—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

MOIN GHANI

IN every society there are extremist minority voices which would go to anylengths to be heard. In recent weekstwo such minority voices have again

brought to the fore the debate regarding “theclash of civilisations” and US relations withMuslim communities. The first extremist voiceis that of a US so-called filmmaker who pro-duced a despicable movie with the clear in-tent of demeaning and insulting ProphetMuhammad (peace be upon him). Equally ex-treme and unacceptable have been the vio-lent mob attacks on US consulates. On Sep-tember 13, following the murder of the USambassador and three other US officials inLibya, I attended a briefing at US Departmentof State. The occasion was initially meant tobe a briefing by Secretary Hillary Clinton onthe achievements of Muslim youths and abelated reception for celebrating Eid Al-Fitr.

The Libyan Ambassador to the US, Mr.Ali Aujali, made a brief statement about howLibya needed American support more thanever before following the success of theLibyan revolution which brought an end to42 years of dictatorship. He offered his apol-ogy for Libya’s failure to protect the US con-sulate and American lives against the terror-ist attacks and stressed the need for US andLibya to work together against terrorism.Secretary Clinton gave a strong and mea-sured speech which resonated with the au-dience. She recognised that the hatred andviolence of a small group of extremists wasnot reflective of the one billion Muslimsaround the world. While recognising that cer-

tain inflammatory and despicable materials wereposted on the internet, she shared the viewthat all prophets should be respected becausethey are all symbols of our humanity. How-ever, she wanted to make it crystal clearthat violent acts can never be justified asan acceptable reaction to insults, misun-derstanding, or denigration of one’s faith.She expressed her strong belief that greatreligions are stronger than any insults.Refraining from violence is not a sign ofweakness in one’s faith but proof that one’sfaith is unshakeable. She warned that onecannot respond to offensive speech withviolence without begetting more violence.

Can we really achieve a lasting peaceand understanding between the US andthe Muslim world as Secretary Clintonhopes? Or are we destined to face the“clash of civilisations” as suggested bythe American theorist Samuel Huntington?For me, the “clash of civilisations” theoryfails to hold water since, on a fundamental level,there are no two distinct civilisations. TheMuslim world is not monolithic but comprisedof a billion Muslims with different ethnicities,languages, cultures, and mores. Similarly, thereis no one entity or nation which can be calledthe “West.” In light of the global power andpolitical hegemony of the US, it is often viewedas the embodiment of Western civilisation. Infact, even within the US there exists a widerange of religions, cultures, races, and views.The reality of this diversity on both sides, how-

ever, gets submerged by the voices of extrem-ism, which in fact is a small minority. It is thesevoices of intolerance and hatred that highjack

the debate.Muslim extremists often find it convenient

to blame America for all their troubles. Theyblame the US for the plight of the Palestinians,the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the un-rest in the Middle East and North Africa. Toadd fuel to this fire of blame and hatred extrem-ists often exploit the ignorance of others toperpetuate a distorted view that the US isagainst Islam. For instance, they argue thatthe US advocates and supports the burning ofthe Holy Qu’ran and the production of materi-

als which are aimed to insult Islam and Mus-lims. The discourse of hatred takes away thespace from the truly educated and enlightened

Muslim voices of reason, rationality, andhumanity. It is the failure of the majorityMuslim believers to speak out that leadsto a perpetuation of a distorted reality aboutthe US in the minds of many. This obvi-ously has adverse consequences for boththe US and the Muslim communities andfeeds the notion of a “clash ofcivilisations.” On the other side, in the USas well there exists a small group of igno-rant bigoted extremists who believe thatMuslims are all polygamous wife-beatingterrorists who spend their days plottingattacks on the US. They abuse their con-stitutional right of free speech to burn cop-ies of the Holy Qu’ran, obstruct buildingof mosques, and encourage reprehensiblematerial insulting Islam. Again, this extrem-ist narrative somehow gets amplified in the

media and negates the voices of the over-whelming majority of Americans.

Muslim communities all over the worldshould not be held responsible for the insaneacts of al-Qaeda and the tragic events of 9/11,in the same way Muslims should not hold theUS responsible for insensitive acts of individualUS citizens. It is plainly wrong to judge the USas a nation by the acts of a few aberrant anddeviant citizens. Having lived in the US foralmost two years, and having had the privi-lege of interacting on a daily basis with other

Muslims from countries as diverse as Egypt,Turkey, Yemen, Jordan, and Sri Lanka — I nowknow that the perception of Muslims all overthe world about the American society is alsolargely distorted. In reality, the American soci-ety is largely tolerant towards all religions, in-cluding Islam. There are over a thousandmosques in the country where American Mus-lims go for their daily prayers. The Obama ad-ministration has been strongly supportive ofbuilding bridges with Muslim communitiesaround the globe to bring about a positivechange in relations based on mutual respectand understanding.

In a similar vein, the true voice of Islam isalso that of tolerance, peace, and humanity.Nowhere in the Holy Qu’ran is the murder andkilling of innocent people justified. On the con-trary, Surah Al-Maidah Chapter 5, Verse 32 ex-plains that if you kill a person, it is as thoughyou kill all humanity — save one life, it is asthough you save all humanity. Muslims believ-ers need to keep in mind that the Qu’ran affirmsthat the truth of Islam shall prevail and cannotbe diminished by insults and denigrations.Surah Al-Isra Chapter 17 Verse 81 clearly states:“Truth has come, and falsehood has departed.Indeed is falsehood, by nature, ever bound todepart.” Without in any way trying to justifythe intolerable and deeply offensive movie thathas caused so much outrage, we must also re-nounce the violent protests and the taking ofinnocent lives. The US and the Muslim commu-nities need to reinforce their bonds and buildbridges of trust and mutual respect since thereis no alternative to peaceful co-existence. Wecannot surrender to the extremists on bothsides. —[The writer is a lawyer]

Save a life, save all humanity

MICHAEL MAZZA

NORTH Korea has comporteditself relatively well of late.Kim Jong-Un’smoves to unseat some hardliners and his

talk of economic reform have beensuggestive of a brighter future (andhave distracted from the country’shuman rights crisis and verbal milita-ristic bluster). Unfortunately, NorthKorea may not remain on its best be-havior for long. There are reasons tobelieve we may be in for an autumnsurprise: from where Kim sitsin Pyongyang, the time maylook ripe for a third nucleartest. Indeed, what better timethan election season for NorthKorea to explode a nuclear de-vice? On December 19, SouthKorean voters will go to thepolls to elect a new presidentto a five-year term. Though athird candidate is running asan independent, the real con-test is between Park Geun-hyeof the ruling Saenuri party andMoon Jae-in of the oppositionparty, Democratic United. IfKim Jong-un had a vote, hemight cast it in favor of Moon,previously a chief-of-staff forthe late president Roh Moo-hyun,who favored a conciliatory approachto North Korea and continued hispredecessor’s “Sunshine Policy.” Thepolitical left’s return to power wouldlikely mean more aid for North Korea,closer cross-border economic links,and a general easing of South Koreanpressure on the Kim regime.

A North Korean nuclear test rightbefore the election could strengthenthe Democratic United’s narrativeabout the failure of the Leegovernment’s North Korea policy. Theleft could point to the sinking oftheCheonan, the shelling ofYeonpyeong Island, and the advance-ment of Pyongyang’s nuclear programto argue that Lee’s policy had onlyserved to elevate tensions and pushNorth Korea towards greater

Conditions Ripe for North Korean Nuclear Test?nuclearization. It’s not necessarily anaccurate argument, but it’s one withpossible domestic appeal. The ongo-ing American presidential campaignsalso make for good timing for a nucleartest. North Korea is unlikely to play amajor role in how Americans vote, evenwith another test this fall. But the con-test might keep the Obama administra-tion from throwing its full weight be-hind efforts to censure North Korea inthe event of a test or to take steps thatmight lead to further escalation. Andwith elections around the corner,

Pyongyang certainly doesn’t need toworry about the United States takingmore drastic steps ahead of a test, likestriking a nuclear test site when theNorth’s preparations become apparent(not that that’s likely in any case).

Aside from elections, Kim Jong-unmay believe the currently fraught inter-national environment in East Asia isalso in his favor. With growing tensionsin the East and South China Seas, withthe United States “rebalancing” to-wards the Asia-Pacific, and with per-sistent disagreements between Wash-ington and Beijing over Syria and Iran,the Sino-American relationship hasseen better days. Beijing would almostcertainly prefer that Pyongyang avoidany provocative actions at this time.But China is unlikely to side with theUnited States against one of China’s

few friends in the region at a time whenBeijing believes itself to be the victimof an American containment strategy.Moreover, the ongoing leadershiptransition in China will reinforce the ten-dency to stick by North Korea. Callsto support American efforts to punishPyongyang or to downgrade relationswith the Kim regime are unlikely to bepolitical winners. Beijing is just notcapable of major policy revisions at themoment. Indeed, the prevalent nation-alistic environment in China today maygive greater sway to those insistent

on the unshakeable bond be-tween the communist neigh-bors.

If China and the UnitedStates adopt significantly di-vergent positions following aNorth Korean nuclear test, thatcould sharpen the divide be-tween them and serve to pullBeijing into closer alignmentwith Pyongyang. Finally, thistiming may prove auspiciousfor something Kim believes heneeds to do anyway. It seemslikely that the talk of economicreform (however tentative) andmoves against hardliners arenot sitting well with all ofNorth Korea’s top leaders.

Those in the military may be especiallyconcerned about reform, worried thatthey could see their budgets slashedand their role in the economy curtailed.A nuclear test would demonstrate KimJong-Un’s commitment to the nuclearprogram and the “military first” policy,and could go far towards putting thelate Kim Jong-il’s former lieutenants atease.

For a number of reasons, then, thecoming weeks are more likely to playhost to a North Korean nuclear testthan were the summer months. Withregional tensions running as high asthey already are, this would be an un-welcome surprise indeed. —CourtesyThe Diplomat. [Michael Mazza is aresearch fellow in foreign and defensepolicy studies at the American En-terprise Institute]

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER,

IN the week following 9/11/12something big happened: thecollapse of the Cairo Doctrine,the centerpiece of President

Obama’s foreign policy. It was to re-set the very course of post-9/11America, creating, after the (alleg-edly) brutal depredations of the Bushyears, a profound rapprochementwith the Islamic world. Never lack-ing ambition or self-regard, Obamapromised in Cairo, June 4, 2009, “anew beginning” offering Muslims“mutual respect,” unsubtly implyingprevious disrespect. Curious, as overthe previous 20 years, America hadsix times committed its military forceson behalf of oppressed Muslims,three times for reasons of pure hu-manitarianism (Somalia, Bosnia,Kosovo), where no U.S. interestswere at stake.

But no matter. Obama had cometo remonstrate and restrain thehyperpower that, by his telling, hadlost its way after 9/11, creatingGuantanamo, practicing torture, im-posing its will with arrogance andpresumption. First, he would cleanseby confession. Then he would heal.Why, given the unique sensitivitiesof his background — “my sister ishalf-Indonesian,” he proudly told aninterviewer in 2007, amplifying on hisexquisite appreciation of Islam — hisvery election would revolutionize re-lations. And his policies of accom-modation and concession wouldconsolidate the gains: an out-stretched hand to Iran’s mullahs, afirst-time presidential admission ofthe U.S. role in a 1953 coup, a stud-ied and stunning turning away fromthe Green Revolution; withdrawalfrom Iraq with no residual presenceor influence; a fixed timetable for leav-ing Afghanistan; returning our am-

Charles Krauthammer

Collapse of the Cairo Doctrinebassador to Damascus (with kindwords for Bashar al-Assad — “a re-former,” suggested the secretary ofstate); deliberately creating distancebetween the United States and Israel.

These measures would raise ourstanding in the region, restore affec-tion and respect for the United Statesand elicit new cooperation from Mus-lim lands. It’s now three years sincethe Cairo speech. Look around. TheIslamic world is convulsed with anexplosion of anti-Americanism. FromTunisia to Lebanon, Americanschools, businesses anddiplomaticfacilities set ablaze. A U.S. ambassa-dor and three others murdered inBenghazi. The black flag of Salafism,of which al-Qaeda is a prominent ele-ment, raised over our embassies inTunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Sudan.The administration, staggered andconfused,blames it all on a 14-minutetrailer for a film no one has seen andmay not even exist.

What else can it say? Admit thatits doctrinal premises were supremelynaive and its policies deeply corro-sive to American influence? Religiousprovocations are endless. (AskSalman Rushdie.) Resentment aboutthe five-century decline of the Islamicworld is a constant. What’s new —the crucial variable — is the unmis-takable sound of a superpower in re-treat. Ever since Henry Kissingerflipped Egypt from the Soviet to theAmerican camp in the early 1970s, theUnited States had dominated the re-gion. No longer. “It’s time,” declaredObama to wild applause of his con-vention, “to do some nation-buildingright here at home.” He’d already an-nounced a strategic pivot from theMiddle East to the Pacific. Made pos-sible because “the tide of war is re-ceding.”

Nonsense. From the massacres inNigeria to the charnel house that is

Syria, violence has, if anything, in-creased. What is receding isObama’s America. It’s as axiomaticin statecraft as in physics: Natureabhors a vacuum. Islamists rush into fill the space and declare theirascendancy. America’s friends arebereft, confused, paralyzed. Islam-ists rise across North Africa fromMali to Egypt. Iran repeatedly de-fies U.S. demands on nuclear enrich-ment, then, as a measure of its con-tempt for what America thinks,openly admits that its Revolution-ary Guards are deployed in Syria.Russia, after arming Assad, warnsAmerica to stay out, while the sec-retary of state delivers vapid lecturesabout Assad “meeting” his interna-tional “obligations.” The Gulf statesbeg America to act on Iran; Obamastrains mightily to restrain .?.?. Is-rael.

Sovereign U.S. territory isbreached and U.S. interests areburned. And what is the official re-sponse? One administration denun-ciation after another — of a movietrailer! A request to Google to “re-view” the trailer ’s presence onYouTube. And a sheriff’s deputies’midnight “voluntary interview” withthe suspected filmmaker. This in theland of the First Amendment. Whatelse can Obama do? At their con-vention, Democrats endlesslycongratulatedthemselves on theirone foreign policy success: killingOsama bin Laden. A week later, theSalafist flag flies over four Ameri-can embassies, even as the mobchants, “Obama, Obama, there arestill a billion Osamas.” A foreignpolicy in epic collapse. And, by theway, Vladimir Putin just expelled theU.S. Agency for International Devel-opment from Russia. Another thankyou from another recipient of an-other grand Obama “reset.—FP

MICHAEL GRUNWALD

OBAMA’s stimulus packagewas an epic failure thathaunted his Presidency.”No. U.S. President Barack

Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill wascertainly a political failure. Obamasigned it during his first month in of-fice, cutting taxes for more than 95 per-cent of American workers, while pour-ing cash into health care, education,energy, infrastructure, and aid to vic-tims of the Great Recession. It was text-book Keynesian economics, usingpublic dollars to revive private demand,but within a year, the percentage ofthose who thought it had created jobswas lower than the percent-age of Americans who believeElvis is alive. Republicansmocked it as “Porkulus,” abloated encapsulation of ev-erything wrong with theObama regime, and it helpedlaunch their Tea Party-fueledpolitical revival. The mediabreathlessly chronicled itssilly expenditures, like cos-tumes for water-safety mas-cots; silly-sounding legitimateexpenditures, like a brain-chemistry study of cocaine-addicted monkeys; and ficti-tious expenditures, like levitating trainsto Disneyland. Democrats got soweary of the nonstop ridicule that theystopped using the word “stimulus.”

Nearly four years later, Obama’seconomic recovery bill and the tepideconomic recovery that followed it isat the heart of the debate over hiscampaign for a second term. To hisRepublican challenger, Mitt Romney,

Think Again: Obama’s New Deal

The President’s Republican critics aredead wrong. The stimulus worked

the stimulus was a big-governmentboondoggle that blew up the nationaldebt without putting Americans backto work, a profligate exercise in tax-and-spend liberalism, crony capitalism, andairy-fairy green utopianism. Obamadoesn’t use the s-word today, but hedoes argue that the bill, formally theAmerican Recovery and ReinvestmentAct, saved the country from a secondGreat Depression, ending an economicnightmare in the short term (the Re-covery part) while laying the ground-work for a more competitive and sus-tainable economy in the long term (theReinvestment part). Meanwhile, dis-gruntled liberals complain that thestimulus was far too small, because

Obama was far too timid, and that job-less Americans are still paying the pricefor the president’s spinelessness.When it comes to the Recovery Act,the facts are on Obama’s side. For start-ers, there is voluminous evidence thatthe stimulus did provide real stimulus,helping to stop a terrifying free-fall,avert a second Depression, and end abrutal recession. America’s top eco-

nomic forecasters MacroeconomicAdvisers, Moody’s Economy.com,IHS Global Insight, JPMorgan Chase,Goldman Sachs, and the Congres-sional Budget Office — agree that itincreased GDP at least 2 percentagepoints, the difference between con-traction and growth, and saved orcreated about 2.5 million jobs. Theconcept of “saved or created” hasinspired a lot of sarcasm — Obamajoked after his 2009 Thanksgivingpardon that he had just saved or cre-ated four turkeys — but it simplymeans 2.5 million more people wouldhave been jobless without the Recov-ery Act.

The unemployment rate mightstill be in the double digits.Of course, as Obama’s criticson the left and right correctlypoint out, the 8 percent U.S.jobless rate is still terriblyhigh. And there’s no way torun a double-blind study ofan alternative U.S. economywithout the stimulus, sothere’s no smoking gun toprove the stimulus launcheda recovery. But the ballisticscertainly match. The economy shrank at a Depression-level rate in the fourth quar-ter of 2008, and job losses

peaked in January 2009.Keynesian stimulus has since be-come a political football, but beforeObama took office, just about every-one agreed that when the economyslumps, government can boostgrowth and create jobs by injectingmoney into the economy, whether bytaxing less or spending more.—Cour-tesy - Foreign Policy.

WHEN Muslims take tothe streets in nearly 30countries to engage invarious degrees of anti-

Western violence, something impor-tant is under way. The following arereflections on what this might mean:The Rushdie Rules have gone viral:Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989masterstroke of imposing a death edicton Salman Rushdie has spread and be-come the humdrum response of Islam-ists to perceived insults. By telling theWest what can and cannot be saidabout Islam, Khomeini sought to im-pose Islamic law, or Shariah, on it. Therecent round of violence has mostlytaken the form of demonstrations andviolence against the West’s diplomatic,commercial and educational buildingsin Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh,China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq,Israel and the Palestinian Authority,Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia,Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar,Sudan, Syria (including the American-backed rebels), Tunisia, Turkey andYemen as well as in Australia, Belgium,France, Germany and the United King-dom. So far, about 13 people have losttheir lives. Recalling Khomeini, the Ira-nian and Egyptian governments bothwant to get their hands on the film-makers of “Innocence of Muslims,” afilm on YouTube they’re blaming forthe violence.

Anti-Islamic provocations haveproliferated: Mr. Rushdie had no ideawhat he was walking into, as he ex-plained just this week. Others, such asthe American soldiers who burnedKorans in Afghanistan in early 2012,likewise unwittingly set off Islamistdisturbances. But the activities ofFlorida pastor Terry Jones and thegroup behind “Innocence of Mus-

Islamic ‘violence’ advances Shariah law

Is US ready to accept second-class status?lims,” as well as anti-Islamic groups inCanada and Spain, overtly want to rileMuslims. Thus have Islamists and anti-Islam activists developed a symbioticrelationship in which the one spurs theother. Individuals hold governmenthostage: When Mr. Jones spoke ofburning copies of the Koran in 2010, hereceived calls from no less than the U.S.commander in Afghanistan, the secre-taries of defense and state, the attor-ney general and the president of theUnited States, all pleading with him todesist. Last week, the chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff picked up thephone to chat with him. Never beforecould random individuals drive policylike this. French humorist Jean-JacquesSempe drew a cartoon in 1989 captur-ing this reversal: As Mr. Rushdie isworking furiously on his typewriterunder the gaze of the 15 policemenguarding him from Islamists, one Bobbyyells into his walkie-talkie, “Close theairports! He wants to write VolumeTwo!” While Mr. Rushdie never wrotea Volume 2, Mr. Jones returns repeat-edly to the limelight.

Governments want to clamp downon free speech: More ominous than thecalls to Mr. Jones was the suggestionfrom the White House to Google, ownerof YouTube, that it “review whether[“Innocence of Muslims”] violates theirterms of use.” (Google kept it availableexcept in four countries.) While argu-ments about the need to censor one-self so as not to stir the Islamist beastand jeopardize American lives maysound reasonable, such appeasementonly invites more rage, intimidation andviolence.

A growing separation of civiliza-tions: The famous clash of civilizationsdoes not exist; in fact, a separation ofcivilizations is under way. It takes many

forms, from Muslim-only enclaves inthe West to matrimony, economics,education, culture, media, entertain-ment, travel, websites and even time-keeping. How many tourists, for ex-ample, will sun themselves on Tuni-sian beaches or explore Egyptian an-tiquities anytime soon?

“Obama, we love Osama”: That’swhat a crowd in downtown Sydney,Australia, chanted. Meanwhile Afghan,Indian and Pakistani Islamists burnedPresident Obama in effigy. Such hatredof Mr. Obama is the more remarkablegiven Mr. Obama’s many childhoodconnections to Islam, his 2007 predic-tion that his presidency would witnessa major improvement in relations withMuslims, his strenuous efforts to winover Muslim opinion on becomingpresident and the initially favorableMuslim reaction to him. In fact, hisstanding has plunged to the point thathe is as unpopular or more so thanGeorge W. Bush. Minimal impact onU.S. presidential elections: Polls showthat voter attitudes toward Mr. Obamaand Mitt Romney have hardly budgedover the past six months, suggestingthat Islamists on the rampage will havelittle impact on the election results.

Western civilization in the balance:Islamist aspirations grow with im-proved communications and weakenedMiddle Eastern governments, ulti-mately posing an existential questionfor Westerners: Will we maintain ourhistoric civilization against their chal-lenge, or will we accept Muslim domin-ion and a second-class dhimmi status?In sum, Islamists want to imposeShariah, Westerners are divided andthe battle of wills is just getting started.Courtesy - The Washington Times.Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org) ispresident of the Middle East Forum

LAHORE: Demonstrators climbing containers placed by police to stop them from going to US Consulate against an anti-Islam film on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).

ing explosive material in thecity. Three policemen wereamong those sustained wounds.

The Mobile services inPeshawar remained suspendedup to seven in the evening whilethe roads leading to Governorhouse, CM house Civil Secre-tariat, the US consulate, officesof Western aid organizations andother sensitive buildings as wellas Military offices other govern-ment installations were blockedby parking containers.

However, crossing all thebarriers the infuriated protestorsmanaged to reach even protectedareas. They set ablaze a bank inthe premises of KhyberPukhtunkhwa Chamber of com-merce and Industries. Theytorched KFC Food out let asthousands of demonstrators con-verged at the Peshawar –Torkham road in Universitytown area.

The protesters went berserkwhen the guard of a cinemaopened fire over the crowd in-juring at least one protestor. Theangry crowds armed with clubsand bamboo poles then brokeinto the building of the cinemahouse, smashing it up and set-ting furniture ablaze. Likewiseanother cinema was also ran-sacked.

The Khyber PukhtunkhwaGovernor, Barrister MasoodKausar expressed his deep shockand sorrow over the tragic deathof a worker of a private TVchannel in Peshawar on Fridayand described it a very shock-ing incident.

In Lahore, the protestors re-moved containers placed nearFerozesons. After removibng

Pak boils with protests, 21 deadFrom Page 1

containers, the protestorsmarched towards Governor’sHouse and Press Club. The pro-testors threw stones on policewho in retaliation resorted tosevere tear gas shelling.

The protestors also break thewindow panes of some banks atEgerton Road smashed.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, PPP, Jamaat-e-Islami,Minhaj ul Quran, Ahle SunnatJamaat, Tehreek-e- Wahdat-e-Islamia and many othersoroganisations held rallies inLahore to register their protest.

The business activities in allthe big and small trade centersacross Punjab remained sus-pended. Even bakery shops andfood outlets remained closed.All the petrol pumps and CNGstations also remained closed onthe strike call given by All Pa-kistan CNG Association(APCNGA) and Pakistan Petro-leum Dealers Association.

In Lahore‚ PPP Punjab tookout a rally to protest against theblasphemous film fromEdgerton Road to the FaisalChowk. PPP Punjab leaders andparty workers took part in therally.

At the concluding point‚PPP leaders addressed the par-ticipants and strongly con-demned the blasphemousmovie.

Provincial Ishq-e-Rasool(PBUH) Conference was held atGovernors’ House ‚ which waschaired by the Provincial Gov-ernor‚ Sardar Latif Khan Khosa.

Religious personalities be-longing to various schools ofthought and religions partici-

issue of freedom of expressioninstead it was the question ofviolence on earth, he said.

Addressing the Ishq-e-Rasool Conference (Love forHoly Prophet PBUH) here Fri-day, the prime minister said thatfreedom of expression didn’tmean that revered personalitiesbe made a target, adding thatprotest against such despicableacts was our religious duty.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf saidthat the world today was threat-ened by the religious extremismand one of the reasons of ex-tremism was disrespect to otherreligions.

He said that the miscreantshave targeted the greatest per-sonality of the universe whomno power on earth could evercause any damage.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said thatthe sentiments of the Muslimswere not taken care of, while thedebate on holocaust was forbid-den. Pakistan has the right toprotest against the anti-Islamfilm and added that all the reli-gions, beliefs and the reveredpersonalities must be respected.

He said that Pakistan wasthe only Islamic country observ-ing protest day officially and thiswas not all but President Asif AliZardari would be taking up thisissue in the General Assemblyof the United Nations.

He said anti-social elementswere using the concept of free-dom of speech in an offensivemanner, adding that, Islam wasa religion of peace and preachedrespect for all faiths.

He warned if such actionsdid not stop, they would createinstability worldwide. He saidwe want such a resolution of thematter which has international

PM demands respect forMuslims’ sentiments

From Page 1support and protection so thatsuch sacrilegious acts could beaverted in future.

He pointed out that desecra-tion of last Prophet HazratMohammad [Peace Be UponHim] has witnessed an upsurgein recent years in the name offreedom of expression. He saidthis is not freedom of expres-sion. This is more about hatredand demonstrates blatant doublestandards.

Pervez Ashraf said the per-sonality of holy ProphetMohammad [Peace Be UponHim} is paramount to the prin-ciples of our great faith of peace,tolerance and harmony and cen-tral to the beliefs of Muslims.He said an attack on the ProphetHazrat Mohammad [Peace BeUpon Him] is an attack on thecore belief of 1.5 billionmuslims. This is something thatis unacceptable. Our faith re-mains incomplete without totaldevotion and reverence to theProphet. The anguish and hurtis even more deep after the dis-covery that the profane act wasbased on biased, hatred andprejudice.

He said we appreciate thosein the international communitywho joined Muslims in con-demning this act.

He said the Holy Prophetgave the message of peace andharmony. He appealed thenation to maintain peace andavoid violence. It is our collec-tive responsibility to protest

peacefully without causing harmor damage to properties or lives.He said as the punishment ofone’s crime can’t be given toanother person, similarly it is notright to damage the foreign dip-lomatic missions. He urged theUlema and Mashaikh to usetheir influence over masses tohelp stopping the violence.

The Prime Minister said theIslamic countries should formu-late a unified policy to impressupon the world community thatthe Muslims are enraged overthe profane acts and want an endof them. He said irrevervanceand disrespect to other’s reli-gions is the root cause of extrem-ism. He said world peace couldonly be ensured by giving re-spect to the sentiments of allfaiths.

On its part, the Prime Min-ister said, Pakistan has startedinterfaith dialogue process andalso carved out a ministry forminorities affairs. Appreciatingthe minorities for their supportin the wake of screening of blas-phemous film, Pervez Ashrafsaid we will also stand shoulderto shoulder with them for theprotection of their rights.

He said it was the right ofthe Pakistani people to expresstheir strong sentiments againstthe blasphemous movie.

He however emphasizedthat these sentiments need to begiven a constructive direction inorder to transform the Muslimsinto a socio economic and po-litical power.

Pakistan moreover statedthat the film aimed at fanninghatred among the people of dif-ferent faiths and demanded theUS government to take steps forthe film’s removal fromYouTube.

The government also de-manded that action be takenagainst the film’s author andagainst those involved in itsmaking.

On the occasion, Hoaglandsaid the US government andleadership had condemned theanti-Islam film severely, addingthat a majority of the Americanpeople viewed it as offensive tothe religious sensibilities of theworld’s Muslim population.

situation. If you do decide to travel

to Pakistan, you should exerciseextreme caution,” the foreignaffairs department said in astatement.

The U.S. State Departmenthas warned its citizens to avoidthe centre of Sydney this week-end in case of a repeat ofSaturday’s riot by Muslims vent-ing anger over an anti-Islamfilm.—INP

Australia shutsmission inIslamabad

From Page 1

FO hands overdémarche

From Page 1

Wright became the secondEngland batsman to be strandedone short of a Twenty20 hundredfollowing Alex Hales’ inningsagainst West Indies earlier thisyear. Wright only returned to theline-up at the tail-end of theEnglish season and had not re-ally been earmarked for the No.3 role until Ravi Bopara’s rapidloss of form but, having made abrace of useful 30s in the warm-ups, provided further evidenceof his development over the lastyear. He powered past his pre-vious best of 71 against Nether-lands, at Lord’s, during the 2009World Twenty20. England, fa-mously, lost that match but therewas never a risk of a repeat.

Unsurprisingly, Afghanistancame out swinging with predict-able results. MohammadShahzad picked out mid-off,Shafiqullah skied to cover andthe captain Nawroz Mangal wasbrilliantly held by Stuart Broadoff his own bowling. Much hasrightly been written and saidabout the fairytale ofAfghanistan’s rise, but this wasa harsh of reality check as theyslid to 26 for 8.—Agencies

Wright’s99 helps

From Page 1

The move leaves Singh’sCongress party running a minor-ity government, dependent onoutside support from other par-ties and vulnerable to falling be-fore the scheduled date for thenext elections in 2014.

There appears no immedi-ate danger of collapse after theregional Samajwadi Party (SP)from northern India, whose 21MPs generally back the govern-ment from outside the coalition,vowed on Friday to keep upits.—AP

Indian ministersresign as

coalition splitsFrom Page 1

The agreements signed in-cluded Redressal of trade Griev-ances and Agreement betweenGovernment of Islamic Repub-lic of Pakistan and governmentof Republic of India on co-op-eration and mutual assistance incustom matters.

Besides, Bilateral Coop-eration agreement between Pa-kistan standard of quality con-trol authority, Ministry of Sci-ence & Technology and theBureau Indian Standards Min-istry of Consumer Affairs, Foodand Public Distribution wasalso singed.

Pak-Indiainks 3 tradeagreements

From Page 1

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—As many as 36,000(11,000 male and 25,000 fe-male) candidates shall appear inthe University of Health Sci-ences (UHS) entrance test to-morrow (on Sunday) for admis-sion to public and private sectormedical and dental institutionsof the Punjab.

UHS has established 20 testcentres in 12 cities of the prov-ince including Lahore,Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan,Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan,Sargodha, Rawalpindi, HassanAbdal, Gujrat and Gujranwala.The test was also scheduled tobe held at D.G. Khan but due tothe floods in that area the centrehas been changed and now thecandidates of D.G. Khan centreshall appear at the GovernmentDegree College for Boys,Muzaffargarh.

The test shall start at 09:00A.M. on September 23. Thecandidates, however, must

36,000 candidates toappear in entry test

reach their respective centresat least one hour before thecommencement of the test asall the centres would be sealedat 08:15 A.M. and nobodywould be allowed to enter af-ter that.

In Lahore, three centreshave been set up that includeExamination Halls of Board ofIntermediate and SecondaryEducation, Lawrence Road; Ex-amination Halls of Punjab Uni-versity, Wahdat Road; and Gov-ernment Comprehensive GirlsHigh School, Wahdat Road.Around 10,500 candidates(3000 male and 7500 female)shall sit the test in the metropo-lis.

The test shall comprise 220multiple choice questions(MCQs), divided into four sec-tions namely Physics (44MCQs), Chemistry (58 MCQs),English (30 MCQs) and Biology(88 MCQs).

Total duration of the testshall be two and a half hour.After the main test, the candi-dates shall be required to answera separate test comprising ques-tions related to aptitude andfeedback. An extra 30 minutesshall be given to the candidatesto answer this test which shallhave no weightage in the en-trance test score.

Total marks of the test shallbe 1100. There shall be negativemarking in the test and while 05marks will be awarded for eachcorrect answer, one mark will bededucted for each incorrect an-swer.

The district administration,under the supervision of con-cerned divisional commissionersand district coordination officers,had finalized the security and lo-gistic plans at their respectivecentres where the test was sched-uled to be held, Prof. Naveedsaid.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague President Senator Ch.Shujaat Hussain and seniorleader and Deputy Prime Min-ister Ch. Parvez Elahi haveasked the United Nations andthe West not to put Islamicworld’s patience to more testand pay immediate attention tothe protests of the Muslims overblasphemy, the culprits shouldnot only be given exemplarypunishment for committingblasphemy but also effectivelegislation should be done oninternational level to preventsuch heinous acts in future.

In a statement, they saidthat the Muslims are followersof the peace according to thetenets of their religion but they

Islamic world urged to adoptunanimous line of action: PML

cannot tolerate any blasphe-mous act and disrespect inhonour of the Holy Quran andtheir most beloved HolyProphet (Peace Be Upon Him).They said that the govts of theIslamic countries should alsoadopt unanimous strategy in re-sponse to the voices and pro-tests of their people.

They said that blasphemyand disrespect in honour of anyreligion, faith and their respect-able personalities is not onlyworst extremism but also an openact of terrorism and when no ac-tion is taken against such heinousacts of blasphemy and discrimi-nation is shown towards follow-ers of a particular religion, thenthis gives rise to religious extrem-ism.

They further said that show-

ing of disrespect in the honourof the Holy Prophet (Peace BeUpon Him), by those who areeven ignorant of basic principlesand moral values of their ownreligion, cannot in any mannerundermine the exalted place en-joyed by the Holy Prophet (PeaceBe Upon Him) but this is highlyintolerable and unacceptable forany believer of the faith and thisis why the entire Muslim Ummahis up against it in protest today.

They said that no immedi-ate and effective legislation tostop such heinous activities inrespect and honour of the mostrespectable and dignified per-sonalities poses serious threatto the world peace. They ap-preciated the decision of Pa-kistan Govt to protest on offi-cial level.

ers on the streets. The result wasobvious as crowds, of coursemixed with criminal elementsturned Pakistan into a mob-ruled state exposing ability offederal and provincial govern-ments to control lawlessness. Insome places, army troops werecalled in to guard diplomaticsites in the country.

It was still not known as towhy leaders stayed indoors af-ter pushing their workers on thestreets. When this scribe tried tocontact some of the leaders toknow their point of view, theywere not forthcoming. How-ever, sources in the parties saidthe leaders knew they could notcontrol the charged crowds onthe emotional issue. Public andprivate properties includingbanks, cinemas, police vans andprivate vehicles were put at theirmercy.

Political analysts have con-sidered the Friday events as atrailer before general electionswhich will be ‘bloody’ if properarrangements to control law andorder were not made before theirholding.

Unruly mobswithout

leaders runriot on streets

From Page 1

DRF rescued8,351 flood-hit

peopleLAHORE—Disaster ResponseForce (DRF) rescued 8,351people during flood in Rajanpurand DG Khan whereas medicaltreatment was provided to 1,227flood affectees and 49,178 cattlewere vaccinated.

This was disclosed by Di-rector General Provincial Disas-ter Management Authority,Mujahid Sher Dil while presid-ing over a review meeting ofrelief items being provided toflood affectees.

Mujahid Sher Dil said thatPunjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif waspersonally monitoring the reha-bilitation of flood affectees and allconcerned departments had beenbound not to create any hindrancein the relief activities.—APP

pated in the conference, whichunanimously adopted three reso-lutions‚ strongly condemningthe blasphemous movie againstthe Holy Prophet HazratMohammad PBUH.

Addressing the conferencethe speakers strongly con-demned the blasphemous movieand demanded a stern actionagainst the culprits.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also held arally in Lahore on Friday likeother parts of the country to reg-ister its protest against profanefilm.

The PML-N legislatorsfrom Lahore led different pro-test processions taken out fromtheir respective constituencies.These processions joined thePML-N rally at Masjid-e-Shuhda.

PML-N leaders called forevolving a collective strategy tothwart such elements who in-dulge in hurting the sentimentsof followers of other religions,and promote hatred, prejudice,chaos and anarchy, in the garbof freedom of expression.

When the rally taken out byJamaat-e-Islami and other reli-gious groups like Minhaj ulQuran reached near Ferozesons,the PML-N leaders left thescene.

In Quetta, Gilgit-Baltistanand several places of the coun-try, thousands of activists ofpolitical and religious partiesand students wings of variousparties took out aggressive pro-test rallies against the blasphe-mous film. The enraged protest-ers damaged several govern-ment and private buildings.

LAHORE—Third ParticipatoryCourse on Democracy and Hu-man Rights (PCDHR) begins inLahore under the auspices of theCentre for Human Rights Edu-cation (CHRE), a human rightsinstitution working to strengthenhuman rights activism to builda human rights and democraticculture.

The course is being partici-pated by 25 human rights de-fenders, university students,representatives of political par-ties, members of religious mi-norities from different parts ofthe country.

On the 21st SeptemberSamson Salamat, Director Cen-tre for Human Rights Educationfacilitated a session on the con-cepts of human rights and inter-national human rights mecha-nisms while Mehboob AhmedKhan, Legal Officer of HRCPshared his knowledge on the

CHRE’s course ondemocracy, human

rights kicks offconstitutional history of Paki-stan. Wilson Lee, Senior Pro-gram Officer of National En-dowment for Democracy alsospoke to the human rights de-fenders.

The course focuses the de-velopment of knowledge on theconcepts of human rights anddemocracy and skill develop-ment of the participants with avision to prepare them to con-tribute to the efforts for to builda human rights friendly society.

Apart from the in-house ses-sions, the participants shall visitWomen Jail, Brick Kiln Workers,Dar-ul-Aman, Sanitary Workers,Trans-gender Community, Fe-male Workers and Gypsies to as-sess human rights situation inconnection with internationalhuman rights standards and prin-ciples. After the assessment, theparticipants in their individualplans shall plan.—Online

LAHORE: A policeman throwing stone on demonstrations to disperse them during demon-stration against an anti-Islam film on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).

ISLAMABAD: A crowd of protestors marching toward US Embassy condemning the blasphemous film on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).

ISLAMABAD—Amid world-wide protest demonstrationsagainst blasphemy film andcaricatures, proposed draft ofspeech of President Asif AliZardari at United Nations Gen-eral Assembly, Friday, wasamended.

Government had alreadyannounced public holiday torecord strong protest againstblasphemy committed byAmerican filmmaker and

President to seek internationallaw against blasphemy at UNGA

Haroon writes letter to Secretary GeneralFrench newspaper. The holidaywas named as ‘Youme-e-Ishaq-e-Rasool’ and an internationalconference with titled ‘Ishaq-e-Rasool Conference’ was alsoheld at Prime Minister Secre-tariat here.

Well placed sources, Friday,said that President Asif AliZardari’s speech had beenamended for highlighting issueof blasphemy as well as conveythe sentiments of Muslim

Ummah over acts of blasphemyto international community.

Sources said that PresidentZardari would press on Interna-tional legislation against culpritsinvolved in blasphemy.

He would also underscorethe need of intra religion har-mony to ensure durable globalpeace through mutual respectand regard.

It is pertinent to note herethat Prime Minister Raja Pervez

Ashraf in his address to Ishaq-e-Rasool Conference alsohinted at seeking internationallaw against culprits for com-mitting blasphemy acts, say-ing, blasphemy should be de-clared ‘cognisable offence’.

He also observed that un-fortunately, incidents of blas-phemy had increased in past fewyears and committers of suchacts took shelter behind the free-dom of expression.—Online

GENEVA—Iran and Israel haveclashed at the annual meetingof the UN atomic agency, fur-ther throwing into doubt ahoped-for 2012 conference oncreating a Middle East free ofnuclear weapons.

In lively debates at the In-ternational Atomic EnergyAgency (IAEA) gathering ofits 155 member states, Iransaid on Thursday that Israelshould accede to the NuclearNon-Proliferat ion Treatyaimed at stopping the spread

Iran, Israel clash at IAEA meetingof nuclear weapons. Atpresent the Israeli regime isthe only non-party to the NPT[Non-Proliferation Treaty] inthis region despite repeatedcalls by the international com-munity,” Ali AsgharSoltanieh, Iran’s envoy to theIAEA, said.

“Peace and stability cannotbe achieved in the Middle Eastwhile the massive nuclear ar-senal of that regime continuesto threaten the region and be-yond,” he said. Ehud Azoulay,

the Israeli envoy, in turnpointed the finger at Iran andSyria, saying “the most signifi-cant threats to the nuclear non-proliferation regime are those,that pursue weapons under theguise of their NPT member-ship”.

“It is Iran which representsthe greatest threat to peace andsecurity in the Middle East andbeyond,” he said. “No words inthis room could distort the realfacts behind Iran’s drive tonuclear weapons.”—AP

WASHINGTON—The continuedshelling from Pakistan into east-ern Afghan provinces resulting incasualties and great anguishamong the Afghans is riskinggravely jeopardized relations be-tween Kabul and Islamabad, For-eign Minister Zalmai Rassoulcautioned the United NationsSecurity Council (UNSC) onThursday.

The unprovoked shelling in-side Afghanistan coming fromacross the border was a matter ofdeep and serious concern for thegovernment and the people of hiscountry, Rassoul told the power-ful 15-member UN body.

“The shelling of areas inKunar province of eastern Af-ghanistan from across theDurand Line has led to unprec-edented anger and frustrationamong the Afghans from allwalks of life,” the foreign min-ister said in his address to a spe-cial UNSC meeting on Af-ghanistan.

“We reiterate our call for animmediate and complete end tothese acts, which have taken thelives of dozens of Afghans,mainly civilians, while leavingmany more wounded. We remainin close contact with the govern-

Kabul takes UN routeon cross-border shelling

ment of Pakistan to address thisissue, holistically and resolutely,”Rassoul said.

He warned if they failed toend the attacks, it couldjeopardise Afghanistan-Pakistanbilateral relations and could nega-tively impact bilateral coopera-tion on peace, security and eco-nomic development.

“Afghanistan desires closeand fruitful relations with Paki-stan, a neighbour with whom weshare historical, cultural and tra-ditional ties,” the foreign minis-ter said.

Susan Rice, US Ambassadorto the UN, in her address said thatto be sustainable, improved se-curity and greater economic de-velopment must rest on a foun-dation of good governance.

“Credible and broadly inclu-sive elections in 2014 and 2015will bolster the legitimacy of thegovernment in Kabul, vest Af-ghans in its success and send amessage to all Afghan factionsthat their interests are better ad-vanced through political partici-pation rather than violence,” shesaid.

Ján Kubiš, the Secretary-General’s Special Representativefor Afghanistan, told a meeting

of the Security Council that the2014 presidential elections are inthe center of attention. The con-duct of credible polls with a man-date for the new country’s lead-ership is essential to nationalunity and legitimacy as well as acritical component of ongoinginternational support, he said.

Pakistan Ambassador to theUN, Abdullah Hussain Haroon,said that the improvement inmilitary cooperation between thetwo countries should berecognised by all players.

“Pakistan is maintaining itssecurity forces along the interna-tional boarder, and indeed it hadplaced more troops there thanboth the Afghan government andits international partners,” hesaid, adding that Islamabad in-tended to maintain those forces,despite the high cost in lives andresources.

Pakistan has shown great re-straint, including regarding at-tacks on its checkpoints, andwould continue to cooperate withISAF on security matters, hesaid, adding that he was confi-dent that the “redoubtable peopleof Afghanistan” would achievetheir aims towards lasting peaceand security.—INP

WASHINGTON: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar meets the US Senate Foreign Re-lations Committee Chairman Senator John F Kerry accompanied by Ambassador SherryRehman.

Pak, Afghan, UKtrilateral securitymeeting in NewYork next week

KABUL—Top officials from Af-ghanistan, Pakistan and Britainwould meet next week on thesidelines of the UN General As-sembly in New York.

Security in Afghanistan andPakistan’s role in the war on ter-ror would figure prominently atthe meeting, scheduled for Sep-tember 26, the Afghan ministry’sdeputy spokesman said.

Although Faramarz Tamanadid not give details, leaders fromthe three countries had agreed onthe formation of a trilateral com-mission to promote the Afghan-led peace drive at their meetingin Kabul on July 19.

Two months, little progresshas been made toward constitut-ing the panel, with a knowledge-able Afghan official accusingPakistan of evincing no interestin this regard. The agenda for themeeting was yet to be firmed up,he said.

During his recent visit toIslamabad, US Special EnvoyMarc Grossman invited PresidentAsif Ali Zardari to attend thethree-way talks on the reconcili-ation effort and cross-border in-cursions into eastern Kunar prov-ince, the source revealed.

Faramarz said a bilateralcommission would hold its inau-gural session at the end of thecurrent month on the implemen-tation of the Afghan-US Strate-gic Cooperation Agreement. For-eign Minister Zalmai Rassoulwould formally express Kabul’sconcern at Pakistani rocketstrikes into eastern Afghanistanduring the UN General Assem-bly on Sept. 20, he said.—NNI

MOROCCO—Hackers fromseveral Arab countries callingthemselves “Arab ElectronicArmy” have invaded severalWestern websites in response toan American film that slandersIslam and prompted worldwideanger.

One of the hackers, whoidentified himself as Ridouanfrom Morocco, wrote in anemail sent to Al Arabiya En-glish that the hacking opera-tions were part of a “campaignto defend Allah’s Prophet.”

“The army was recentlyformed and we have started towork as a team after we usedto work individually.”

He identified some of hisfellow hackers as Abdel Haqfrom Morocco , Saudi Hacker(wesker Hacker) Alaa fromSyria (Alaa Alsory), Khaled

Anti-Islam film

Arab Electronic Armyattacks Western websites

from Syria (Connect-r Syrian).“The hacking operations

are of course a response to theoffense against the prophet,peace and blessing be uponhim.” Ridouan, the spokesmanfor the group, explained thatafter he proposed the idea offorming an “electronic army”he received wide support fromyoung Muslim hackers to “re-pel all offenses against our re-ligion.”

In one of the websites thehackers placed a verse from theHoly Qur’an and a video titled“the absolute truth aboutMuhammad in the bible withArabic subtitles.”

He explained that the grouphas plans to attack and hackmore websites in order “to de-liver the message to whom itmay concern.”—AP

US paid $70,000for Ads on

Pak TV channelsWASHINGTON—The UnitedStates has said that cooperationwith the Pakistanis on securityof the Embassy and Consulatehas been good during protestdemonstrations and the US willcontinue to work closely withPakistani authorities to ensurethe safety of our facilities andpersonnel.

“ I want to say that we’vehad good security cooperationwith the Pakistani Government,as evidenced by the fact that wehaven’t – whereas we’ve seensome violence, we haven’t seendamage” state departmentspokespersons Victoria Nulandsaid during a briefing here onThursday.

Victoria Nuland said theUS consulates in Lahore,Karachi and Peshawar wereclosed on Thursday while theEmbassy in Islamabad wasopen.—INP

WASHINGTON—Pakistan’sForeign Minister Hina RabbaniKhar said on Friday that the mili-tary in Pakistan plays as much ofa role as the Pentagon in theUnited States does.

Addressing an audience ofthink tanks and policy pundits atthe Council on Foreign Relationsin a session moderated by formerUS Secretary of State MadelineAlbright, Khar explained whyAdmiral Mike Mullen made hisnow famous remarks about theHaqqani network being a veri-table arm of the ISI.

“Intelligence was sharedwith us that there was a truck fullof explosives that was crossing

the border into Kabul and wewere asked to apprehend it.”Khar questioned how the truckhad managed to cross 300km intothe Afghan territory.

When discussing the securitysituation in Pakistan, Khar said,“People like me, who are part ofthe elite, our lifestyles havechanged.” She followed it up byasking the audience to imaginewhat kind of effect the securitysituation has on the rest of thepopulation. On the protests inPakistan, Khar said that the gov-ernment was able to manage thesituation better because Fridayhad been declared a holiday, elseschool children and others would

have been at risk. In her re-marks, the foreign minister saidthat Pakistan does not want anystrategic depth in Afghanistan.She added that the closure of jointoperations between US forcesand Afghan forces and the recentgreen on blue attacks were mat-ters of grave concern.

“It is not ambition, but anxi-ety which drives our interest inAfghanistan,” said the foreignminister. She added that shewould be the first to admit thatPakistan’s relations with Af-ghanistan have not been easy, butcited examples of how they havebuilt a relationship with the Af-ghan president.—AP

Pak military plays as muchrole as Pentagon in US: Hina

India test firesNuclear-capableballistic missile

BALASORE—India on Fridaytest fired its nuclear-capableAgni-III ballistic missile fromWheeler Island off Odisha coast.

Agni-III is an intermediate-range ballistic missile with arange of 3,500 km- 5,000 km.

It has been designed by theDefence Research and Develop-ment Organisation (DRDO).

Agni-III is a two-stage mis-sile that can carry nuclear war-heads weighing one tonne.—INP

School blown upSHABQADAR—Unknownmiscreants blew up a govern-ment middle school for boyswith explosive device here inSaro Killay area late onThursday night. According tolocals, two rooms of the schoolwere completely destroyed inthe blast. —INP

Four childrendrownedMIRPUR MATHELO—Fourchildren, including two realbrothers drowned in a canalhere on Friday. According todetails the four children,including two brothersMuzammal Hussain and ZamirHussain alongwith theircousins went to Qazi Wahcanal for taking bath and werewashed away by the strongcurrent. People present nearthe canal tried to rescue thembut could not succeed. Theydead bodies were laterrecovered by the rescue team.—INP

DRF rescues8,351 flood-hitpeopleLAHORE—Disaster ResponseForce (DRF) rescued 8,351people during flood in Rajanpurand DG Khan whereas medicaltreatment was provided to1,227 flood affectees and49,178 cattle were vaccinated.This was disclosed by DirectorGeneral Provincial DisasterManagement Authority,Mujahid Sher Dil whilepresiding over a reviewmeeting of relief items beingprovided to flood affectees.Mujahid Sher Dil said thatPunjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharifwas personally monitoring therehabilitation of flood affecteesand all concerned departmentshad been bound not to createany hindrance in the reliefactivities. He said that 20 moretrucks carrying relief goods hadreached in affected districts andthe total number of trucks hadincreased to 305. He said that37,000 flour bags through 204trucks, 1500 blanket throughnine trucks had also reachedthere.—APP

PPP would winelectionsLAHORE—Senior Lawyer andPPP leader Senator AitzazAhsan has said that if twomore PPP Prime Ministerswere disqualified, the partywill win the forthcominggeneral elections Speaking on aprivate TV channel Friday,Aitzaz Ahsan said President AsifAli Zardari is a consensus makerand coalition maker whenquestioned about the President.He said Mian Nawaz Sharif is asenior politician while MaulanaFazlur Rehman has no match asfar as political wheeling dealingis concerned. He said ImranKhan is a better sportsman andGhulam Ishaq Khan was adifficult President for PPP. To aquestion, Aitzaz Ahsan saidthat Mohtarma Benazir Bhuttowas a brave politician.—INP

Dengue dayLAHORE—A spokesman ofPunjab Government has saidthat, on the directive of PunjabChief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif, Anti-DengueDay would again be observedthroughout the province onSunday, 23rd September, 2012.All the government institutionswill remain open, and will takepart in anti-dengue cam-paign.—APP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—President PakistanMuslim League-N, MuhammadNawaz Sharif has said that fed-eral government has given thepeople nothing but despondencyduring its four and a half years’rule. The performance of thegovernment has remained abso-lutely zero, he added.

He said that important na-tional issues like inflation,unemployment,lawlessness andload shedding are amply reflec-tive of incompetence andbadgovernance of present gov-ernment.

He stressed that the alliedparties of the government areequally responsible for the fail-ure of the federal government.Muhammad Nawaz Sharif ex-pressed these views, while talk-ing to Member National Assem-

Nawaz blames allied partiesfor failure of government

Doors opens for Muslim Leaguersbly of PML-Q Riaz HussainPirzada at Raiwind. He said that,Inshahallah after winning theforthcoming elections, PML-N

would begin its journey again forthe progress and prosperity ofPakistan which was cut short bya dictator in 1999 at gun point.

Last US surgetroops leaveAfghanistan

WASHINGTON—The last of the33,000 US soldiers that Presi-dent Barack Obama sent to Af-ghanistan nearly three years agoas part of a military surge haveleft the country, US defence of-ficials said.

The withdrawal, which be-gan in July, follows an unprec-edented number of Nato sol-diers being shot dead by theirAfghan colleagues, 51 so farthis year, and comes as anti-Western protests sweep Muslimcountries.—Online

EXTREMES of temperatures duringheat waves or cold spells could trigger premature deaths from heart at-

tacks, according to a new study by Aus-tralian researchers.

The findings are important because ofhow the body responds totemperate extremes, thegrowing obesity trend andthe Earth’s climatechanges, said CunruiHuang, who led the studyas doctoral scholar at theSchool of Public Health,Queensland University ofTechnology (QUT),Brisbane.

Exposure to extremetemperatures can triggerchanges in blood pres-sure, blood thickness,cholesterol and heart rate,according to previous re-search, the journal Circu-lation: CardiovascularQuality and Outcomes re-ports. The study is thefirst in which researchers examined thelink between daily average temperatureand “years of life lost” due to cardiovas-cular disease (CVD).

Years of life lost measures prematuredeath by estimating years of life lost ac-cording to average life expectancy, ac-cording to a QUT statement. “With in-creasing rates of obesity and related con-ditions, including diabetes, more peoplewill be vulnerable to extreme temperaturesand that could increase the future diseaseburden of extreme temperatures,” Huangsaid.

Researchers collected data on daily

temperatures in Brisbane, Australia, be-tween 1996 and 2004 and compared themto documented cardiovascular-relateddeaths for the same period.

Brisbane has hot, humid summersand mild, dry winters. The average daily

mean temperature was 68.9degrees Fahrenheit (20.5degrees Celsius), with thecoldest one percent of days(11.7 degree Celsius)characterised as cold spellsand the hottest one percent(29.2 degree Celsius) heatwaves.

Per one millionpeople, 72 years of life werelost per day due to CVD, re-searchers said. Risk of pre-mature CVD death rosemore when extreme heatwas sustained for two ormore days, researchersfound.

“This might be be-cause people become ex-hausted due to the sus-

tained strain on their cardiovascular sys-tems without relief, or health systemsbecome overstretched and ambulancestake longer to reach emergency cases,”said Adrian G. Barnett, study co-authorand associate professor of biostatisticsat QUT.

“We suspect that people take betterprotective actions during prolongedcold weather, which might be why wedid not find as great a risk of CVD dur-ing cold spells.” Spending a few hoursdaily in a temperate environment canhelp reduce heat- and cold-related ill-nesses and deaths, Barnett said.

Extreme heat, cold cantrigger fatal heart attacks

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Highway wears a deserted look due to public holiday announcedby the government on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).

ISLAMABAD: A view of clash between protestor and police Personnel during demonstration against an anti-Islam film on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool(SAW) in front of Diplomatic Enclave.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The 24thdeath anniversary of Urdupoet and psychoanalystRais Amrohvi will be ob-served on Saturday, today(September 22).

Syed MuhammadMehdi‚ known as RaisAmrohvi (1914-1988) was anoted Urdu poet and psy-choanalyst.

He was born on Sep-tember 12‚ 1914‚ inAmroha‚ India. Almost allthe members of his familywere poets. He migrated toPakistan on October 19‚

1947‚ and settled inKarachi. Rais Amrohvi wasknown for his unique styleof Qatanigari (quatrainwriting). For decades‚ hepenned quatrains for dailyJang. He also supportedthe Urdu language and theUrdu-speaking people ofPakistan.

He set up Raees Acad-emy which trained peoplefor the improvement of theiremotional and moral well be-ing. He penned a number ofbooks on metaphysics‚meditation‚ and yoga. Hewas assassinated on Sep-tember 22‚ 1988.

Rais Amrohvi’s 24thdeath anniversary today

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The violentdemonstrators in the twincities of Islamabad andRawalpindi have blockedroads to record protestsagainst the blasphemousAmerican movie.

According to detai ls ,the protesters blocked IJPrincipal Road and burnttyres to mark their hatredagainst the makers of thecontroversial movie.

In sector G-10 and G-11,the violent crowd broke bill-boards leading to consider-able loss in additon to cre-ating law and order situa-tion.

Section 144 imposed across ICT

Demonstrators blockroads, burn tyres

In addition, the demon-strators on the 9th avenueset ablaze the US flag andthe puppet of themoviemaker.

They also hammeredpublic propert ies, how-ever, the police took con-trol of the whole situation.

Earlier, Islamabad trafficpolice (ITP) tried to stopdemonstrators at the entrypoints to Islamabad in theevening, on the directivesof the federal interior minis-try.

Meanwhile, district ad-ministration Islamabad onFriday imposed Section144 in the federal capitalbanning the display of

arms.Deputy Commissioner

Islamabad took the deci-sion on the direct ives ofthe interior ministry.

Peaceful demonstrationwill not be objected, how-ever, action will be takenagainst those taking law intotheir hands, the administra-tion of capital city stated.

A huge force ofIslamabad police was de-ployed in the Red Zone, andthe road to Diplomatic En-clave was blocked with thehelp of containers to stop in-trusion of demonstrators.Every effort was made to notto allow demonstrator to enterthe diplomatic enclave.

R AWA L P I N D I — P a k i s t a nAmn Party (PAP)organised a seminar on“International Peace Day”here on Friday. Accordingto a press release, thespeakers of the seminarnoted that without estab-l ishing interfai th respectand harmony, efforts for in-ternational peace wouldprove fruitless.

“Profane film producedby an American citizen verybadly hit the Islamic worldlike material attack anddreaming for peace in thisstate of affairs is like livingin a fool’s paradise”, theyobserved.

The speakers of theseminar included ChairmanPakistan Amn Party HajiMohammad Gulzar Awan,renowned educationistsand intellectuals Dr AghaShuja, Professor NisarTarabi , Malik Arshad,Begum Shaheen Basheer,

Begum Azra Gulzar, andMalik Zahid Awan.

A large number of work-ers of Amn Party attendedthe seminar.

The speakers said byproducing and encourag-ing profane materialagainst Holy Prophet ofIslam, the American andWestern societies are part-ing ways from the Muslimworld.

Haji Mohammad GulzarAwan urged the world lead-ers to reduce the factorsposing threat to peacerather than increasing them.“Last Prophet (PBUH) isthe integral part of our faithand any desecration

against him is not toler-able”, he said.

The other speakers alsocondemned the desecrationof Islam and Holy ProphetHazrat Muhammad (PBUH)and said such blatant attackon Islam would not be tol-erated at any cost.

They mentioned that Is-lam is a religion of peaceand it gives respect to allother but this does notmean that others play withMuslim faith. The address-ers further added the peopleof different faiths could bebrought closer to help re-duce extremism and hatredamong people of theworld.—Online

Inter-faith harmonyindispensable for world peace

AFIC to holdprize distribution

ceremonyR AWA L P I N D I —Pres iden tAnjuman Faiz-ul-Islam Com-plex (AFIC), MianMuhammad Siddique Akbarhas said that the prize distri-bution ceremony for reward-ing shining students of theinstitution will be held onDecember 24, 2012.

In a press release, Presi-dent AFIC Mian SiddiqueAkbar said despite being de-prived of the patronage oftheir parents and affection oftheir own families, the stu-dents of the institution havewon laurels in exams andspeech contests for whichthey will be awarded.

Incharge Bazm-e-Faiz-ul-Islam Prof. Dr. Niaz Irfan saidthose who won the speechcontests on the occasionsof “Independence Day”,“Defence Day” and “DeathAnniversary of Quid-e-Azam Mohammad AliJinnah” would be givenspecial certificates and cashprizes.

Giving details of the spe-cial prize distribution cer-emony in Anjuman Faiz-ul-Islam Complex, Mandra Cam-pus, Mian Siddique men-tioned that the ceremonywould be organized by the“Bazm-e-Faiz-ul-Islam” whichis a literary body of AFIC.

“On this occasion, some92 shining students will beawarded with shields and cer-tificates who obtained A+and A grade in Matric andother regular and technicalexams”, he added.

He further said the teach-ers of these shining studentswould also be given specialprizes in a function to be heldon 25th December 2012 inAnjuman Faiz-ul-Islam Com-plex, Faizabad.—Online

President, PMcondemn deathof ARY workerISLAMABAD—President AsifAli Zardari and Prime Minis-ter Raja Pervez Ashraf on Fri-day expressed grief over thedeath of a private TV chan-nel worker, Muhammad Amirin Peshawar.

In their separate mes-sages they urged the nationto remain peaceful during theprotests. The President andPrime Minister said peacefulprotest was the appropriateway of expressing senti-ments. —Online

West must learn torespect religiousbeliefs: Imran

ISLAMABAD—Tehreek eInsaf, Chairman Imran Khanhere on Friday while speak-ing to a peaceful rally saidthat West must learn to re-spect all religions of theworld.

Expressing his deep re-sentment at the defamatoryfilm about the Holy Prophet(PBUH), he said that it isunfortunate but govern-ments and people in theWest neither respect theirown religion nor care aboutthe religious beliefs of oth-ers.

Imran Khan said that theonly way to counter this isfor the Muslim Ummah toact in a concerted fashionand make sure that laws arepassed in Western countriesthat prescribe punishmentfor those ridiculing religionsor religious beliefs of Mus-lims.

He said that the Jewshave been able to do that andnow in many countries Ho-locaust denial is a crime. Ifthat can be a crime than whynot ridiculing or maligningIslam he said.—Online

PFUJ condemnsattacks on journalistsISLAMABAD—Pakistan Fed-eral Union of Journalists(PFUJ) (Dastoor) has con-demned attacks on journal-ists during coverage of ral-lies and demonstrationsagainst blasphemous film inLahore, Karachi, andPeshawar during last twodays.

In a statement issuedhere, the PFUJ PresidentIdrees Bhaktiar, and GeneraSecretary Mian Rifaat Qadrisaid that some violent ele-ments within the ranks ofprotestors had continuouslybeen attacking journalists,especially cameramen en-gaged in coverage of ralliesand demonstrations againstblasphemous film.

They expressed deepgrief and sorrow over killingof an employee of ARY TVchannel during coverage ofa protest rally in Peshawar onFriday.—Online

ISLAMABAD: CEO Women’s Empowerment Group Lahore Omer Aftab speaks duringthe launching ceremony of a “Nationwide Journalists Engagement Program” at a localhotel.—PO Photo

RAWALPINDI: Women holding a demonstration against the blasphemous film.

ISLAMABAD: Ubaidullah with the teachers and administration of Pak Turk Schoolsafter winning gold medal in an international contest held in Turkmenistan.—PO photoby Sultan Bashir

Peaceful protestright of

citizen: GondalISLAMABAD—Ministry ofCapital Administration andDevelopment(CAD) NazarMuhammad Gondal has saidthat peaceful protest waseverybody’s right.

In an interview he saidthat the cabinet decided todeclare Friday a national holi-day in honour of the prophetMohammed(PBUH) andcalled for peaceful protestsagainst film deemed insultingto Islam.

He said that the govern-ment will hold a namoos-e-resalat conference on Fridayto be chaired by the primeminister

He said that blasphe-mous film has stirred the sen-timents of the whole Muslimworld and due to this theMuslims around the worldare protesting.

He added that the gov-ernment represents the sen-timents of the people of Pa-kistan and will take all neces-sary steps in consultationwith religious leaders andother segments of the soci-ety.—APP

Nayyar Bokharitakes over as

Acting PresidentISLAMABAD—Chairman ofthe Senate Syed NayyarHussain Bokhari has takenover the responsibilities ofActing President in the ab-sence of President Asif AliZardari who has arrived inNew York to address the UNGeneral Assembly.

The President is to ad-dress the world body andraise the issue of sacrile-gious film that has hurt thesentiments of 1.5 bi l l ionMuslims across theglobe.—INP

PEC announces5th, 9th gradeexam schedule

RAWALPINDI—Punjab Ex-amination Commission (PEC)has announced the scheduleof fifth and ninth grade ex-amination 2013, and last dateof submission of forms isOctober 10.

According to theschedule, the willing can-didates may get the admis-sion forms from the officesof the deputy DEOs of theirrespective tehsi ls . Stu-dents from government andprivate schools are eligibleto appear in the examina-tion.—INP

ISLAMABAD—A Pakistanistudent from Balochistanprovince has bagged goldmedal in an internationalcontest held in Turkmenistandefeating all the participantsfrom Germany, Canada, Rus-sia, England, India,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka be-hind.

Ubaidullah, son of HajiTalib Din, a rice trader, is aclass ninth student of Pak-Turk International Schoolsand Colleges, Quetta hasbagged a gold medal from theInternational ComputerProject Olympiad (ICPO)held in Ashgabat,Turkmenistan, said a pressrelease.

The competition washeld among students fromforty-five countries who pre-

sented one hundred and fiftyprojects in the Olympiad.

Ubaidullah’s project thatcaught attention of partici-pants, organisers and judgeswas about Plant AutomationSystem; subsequently hewas awarded for the 1st po-sition worldwide in the hard-ware category.

His project P-Bot aims tosave plants in cold-flame orgreenhouse setting, especiallywhen someone wants to pro-tect the plants at home in allthe seasons. P-Bot automatesthe round-the-year tasks ofplant care by means of its full-automatic Cold Flame andGreenhouse routines.

On his arrival in Pakistan,Chairman Pak-Turk Interna-tional Educational Founda-tion Unal Tosur, Director

Education Kamil Ture,Ebubekir Haspolat, Ahmet EfiTurk and others congratu-lated Ubaidullah and projectsupervisor Halil Baris for theiroutstanding achievement.

On the occasion, UnalTosur said that they will con-tinue to encourage Pakistanistudents become indepen-dent, innovative and knowl-edgeable so that they canbecome great leaders in mul-tiple fields in the years tocome.

ICPO is an internationalcompetition that brings theworld’s best IT students to-gether. It also serves to pro-mote intercultural dialogueand cooperation, through theinvolvement of students andteachers from many differentcountries.—APP

Pakistani student bags goldmedal in int’l IT contest

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Incidents ofmisbehaviour with the doc-tors of government hospitalsare on the rise in Rawalpindidue to lack of proper secu-rity.

In a recent incident, at-tendants of a patient as-saulted an on-duty doctor,Dr Imran, and misbehavedwith the lady doctor in theemergency ward of HolyFamily Hospital (HFH),Rawalpindi, when the doc-tors asked them to wait out-

side, allowing one atten-dant with the patient as theward was very over-crowded.

The doctors had to callin the hospital security. Later,the doctors informed Medi-cal Superintendent (MS)Capt (Retd) Fiaz and de-manded that if any actionwas not taken against thepersons, who misbehaved,they would not work in theemergency.

The doctors said that ifproper security was notprovided to them, duties in

Incidents of misbehaviour

Doctors of govt hospitalsdemand security

the emergency ward wouldbe impossible for them.Young doctors also pro-tested the lack of securityin emergency and otherwards.

When contacted, Direc-tor Emergency, Dr ShafiqSarwar said that the doctorsshould also keep patience, asmore security could not beprovided to them.

The doctors demandedof the MS and directoremergency to provideproper security to them inthe hospital.

I S L A M A B A D — W o r l dAlzheimer day was observedon Friday across the worldincluding Pakistan under thetheme of “Dementia: Livingtogether” to raise awarenessand challenge stigma.

According to the WorldHealth Organization (WHO)‚approximately 18 millionpeople worldwide haveAlzheimer’s disease. By2025‚ this estimate is pro-jected to grow to 34 millionpeople‚ with the highest in-crease expected among de-veloping countries.

Alzheimer associationsacross the world focus theiractivities on reducing thestigma associated with de-mentia and making commu-nities more dementia-friendlyby offering a range ofprogrammes and events. Ac-tivities include educationalseminars‚ workshops andenjoyable social events forpeople with dementia andtheir careers.

Memory Walks tookplace in numerous countrieswith communities gatheringto show their commitment toremembering those who theyhave lost and creating a so-ciety where people with de-mentia and their families canlive without the fear of dis-crimination.

The ADI (Alzheimer’sDisease International)launched the InternationalAlzheimer’s Day on 21st Sep-tember 1994 on their tenth an-nual conference. Since thenInternational Alzheimer’s Dayor the World Alzheimer’s Dayis observed every year on the21st of September to spreadthe understanding of this de-generating disease of the cen-tral nervous system.

The Alzheimer’s organi-zation around the globekeeps their focus on the dayby creating awareness aboutthis progressive and irrevers-ible disease which has mil-lions of victim in every part

of the world with at least twopeople getting the diseaseevery three minutes.

Alzheimer’s disease is in-creasing its number of pa-tients every minute and sodoes it calls for the right edu-cation and guidance about itand its initial symptoms.

Alzheimer’s disease is themajor cause of dementiaaround the world and it isestimated that every year mil-lions of lives are affected byit. Almost ten percent ofadults above the age of 65are affected by Alzheimer’sand it is believed that the in-cidence and the rate of dis-ease will increase with ageand time. There are alsocases of early onset of thedisease where people of 30to 45 years become the vic-tim. Awareness about this de-generative and irreversibledisorder is very important tounderstand and care for thepatients affected withAlzheimer’s.—NNI

World Alzheimer’s Day observed

ISLAMABAD: Chairman IPO-Pakistan Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi MNA discussing ar-rangements regarding Judges Colloquium with Inyat Syed.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A Pakistanijudges delegation will par-t icipate in the two-dayJudges conference to beheld in Singapore from Sep-tember 26.

The conference is beingorganized in collaborationwith World Intel lectualProperty Organization(WIPO) and EuropeanUnion at Singapore and allarrangements for the con-ference in this regard hasbeen finalized, said a pressrelease.

The World IntellectualProperty Organization

(WIPO) and EuropeanUnion at Singapore thatwould be held from Septem-ber 26 to 27.

Chairman IPO-PakistanHameed Ullah Jan Afridi in-formed that a delegationconsist of eighteen judgesand public prosecutors,would represent Pakistan inthe conference.

He sa id , th is eventwould provide a uniquepla t form to the par t ic i -pants in which various le-gal i ssues and re levanttopics with respect to IPRwould be shared to com-pile applicable and resultoriented proposals. Direc-

tor General IPO-PakistanSaj jad Ahmed Bhut tawould also part icipate inthe workshop.

Hameed Ullah JanAfridi while elaborating thebasic aims and targets ofthe said workshop, saidthat this event would as-sist to avail the f loor byexchanging knowledge andexperiences.

He said that consistentinitiatives are being takento promote IP culture in thecountry and severalprojects are under way tomake awareness at grossroot level in collaborationof relevant stakeholders.

Pak judges delegation to participatein WIPO conference in Singapore

ISLAMABAD—Minister forInformation and Broadcast-ing Qamar Zaman Kaira Fri-day urged media and the reli-gious leaders to teach peopleto show restraint from arsonsand damages to public prop-erties that has nothing to dowith our love for HolyProphet Muhammad(PBUH). “Our Holy Prophetwas a blessing for us andeven for the enemies and ani-mals. Every Muslim has lovefor Him. But today our foeswill be making mockery of us.Is this a protest to protect thereverence of that HolyProphet?” he questionedtalking to a private televisionchannel.

He questioned where thepolitical leadership of thoseparties had gone who hadgiven a strike and protest calland that why they had lefttheir activists alone to ran-sack the public properties.

The Information Ministeralso criticized media and said

they acted irresponsibly.“Live coverage of violent

protests added fuel to fire.Even media did not pay heedto our requests,” said the in-formation minister advisingmedia to act responsibly andteach people to show re-straint. “Media should thinkwhat good they have donethrough this live coverage,”Kaira asked.

To a question, the minis-ter said the security of theforeign diplomats wasgovernment’s responsibility.He said there was no roomfor violence in Islam and thata deliberate effort was madeto sabotage government’sefforts for peaceful demon-strations.

He said the governmentof Pakistan was the only oneacross the world that hasprotested the sacrilegiousfilm at state level, also men-tioning the condemnation byForeign Office as well asunanimous resolution

adopted by the National As-sembly. He said by declaringFriday as Yaum-e-Ishq-e-Rasool and a public holiday,the government providedthe people a chance to regis-ter their protest peacefullyfor reverence of the HolyProphet.

Kaira said President AsifAli Zardari would also takeup the issue at United Na-tions General Assembly tomake the world realize that theMuslims cannot toleratedenigration of their HolyProphet. He clarified thatFriday’s protest was notagainst the governmentrather it was to denounce aninternational behavior ofhurting the religious senti-ments of others.

Kaira said the worldwould have to end doublestandards as if there was nopermission to speak on ho-locaust then why the deni-gration of our Holy Prophetis allowed. —APP

Media, religious leaders shouldteach people to show restraint

Sealed animal fatsprocessing factoriesstart operating againRAWALPINDI—Owners of theillegal factories of animal fatsprocessing in Hazara Colony,sealed by the TMA the otherday, have broken the seals,starting the business again.

In an operation againstillegal factories, the TMAsealed some factories of ani-mal fats processing in UC-3Hazara Colony last week,which have started the pro-cessing again but the TMAand the Health Departmenthave turned a blind eye to-wards the situation allegedlydue to political influence.

The residents of the areaare in a great trouble due tothe stench and pollutioncaused by the processing ofanimal fats. They demandedof Chief Minister Punjab,Shahbaz Sharif and the Com-missioner Rawalpindi to takenotice of the situation andtake strict action against thefactories’ owners. —INP

Names of candidatesfor Civil

Judges sent to CJISLAMABAD—The JudicialSelection Board of theIslamabad High Court(IHC) on Friday, aftercompletion of interviews,recommended 20 candi-dates to the chief justice forappointment against theposts of Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate.

Out of the 20 selectedcandidates, 11 belong to ICT,two each from Punjab, Sindh,KPK and Balochistan andone from FATA. Six candi-dates are women.

The selected candidatesinclude: Omer Shabir, RiffatMahmood Khan, SuhaibBilal, Sanam Bokhari,Muhammad Naveed Khan,Muhammad Azhar Nadeem,Ayesha Shabbir, UmbreenIqbal, Saqib Javed, RajaFarrukh Ali Khan, MujahidRahim, Mubeshir Hassan,Muhammad Adnan Jamali,Shaista Khan, Rabia BatoolMalik, Shahzad Khan,Muhammad Shoaib Akhtar,Naseer Ahmed and MalikAman.—INP

Construction of 6thRoad fly-over leads

to traffic jamRAWALPINDI—After the con-struction of 6th Road fly overhas started, traffic jams havebecome more frequent onMurree Road as the trafficpolice has not defined an al-ternate route for commuters.

As a result, the ambu-lances going to Holy FamilyHospital and Benazir BhuttoHospital get stuck in hourslong traffic jams. Moreover,the traffic constables on dutyare not serious about resolv-ing the problem.—Online

IESCO extendsdeadline for paying

electricity billsI S L A M A B A D —IslamabadElectric Supply Company(IESCO) has extended the lastdate of payment of electric-ity bills up to September 24.

According to spokesper-son IESCO, the decision toextend the deadline for pay-ing the bills has been takenbecause of public holiday onFriday.—Online

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad po-lice, in its ongoing operationagainst anti-social elements,have arrested 11 outlaws andrecovered 40 liquor bottles,500 gram charas, three pis-tols and stolen valuables andcurrency from their posses-sion.

According to details,Kohsaar police raided aguesthouse in F-7/1 and ar-rested Nasir Mehmood,Abdul Razaaq, Farman,Khuram, Sheen and ‘N’ fortheir alleged involvement inimmoral activities. They re-covered 40 bottles of liquor

from their possession duringsearch.

Meanwhile, Margalapolice arrested one SajjadAli, a pickpocket, and re-covered currency andother valuables from him,while CIA police revered apistol from a murder ac-cused, Usman.

Similarly, Sabzi Mandi po-lice recovered one pistol froma murder accused. Secretariatpolice recovered a pistol froman accused, Ikhlaq Ahmed,while Bahra Kahu policenabbed Shahzad alias Shajoand recovered 510-gram cha-ras and one pistol from hispossession.

Police net 11 outlaws,recover liquor, drugs

Rescue 1122, TMAjoin hands against

fire-hazardsRAWALPINDI—Rescue 1122and City governmentRawalpindi have started acampaign to implement fire-safety standards in certainbuildings of the city.

In a meeting presided byDistrict officer, Rescue 1122,namely Dr Abdur Rehman, itwas decided that a joint teamcomprising workers from Res-cue 1122 and Tehsil MunicipalAdministration (TMA) willconduct a survey of buildings.The survey will be completedby October 6 this year. Theparticipants of the meeting de-cided that District officer, CivilDefence will issue notices tothe owners of the buildings forfacilitating the survey. —Online

05:1001:30

05:00

08:00

Juma

September 22

THE fourth National PhotoExhibition organized byPakistan Association ofPhoto Journalists (PAPJ)would be starting in atRawalpindi Arts Council(RCA). The display wouldcontinue for three daysand more than 400 photojournalists from all over thePakistan would put theirextraordinary pictures ondisplay.

September 24

ROHTAS Art Gallery hasscheduled a show ofPakistani ContemporaryArt at the National ArtGallery here on September24 to celebrate RohtasGallery’s 30th anniversary.More than 65 artists willdisplay in excess of 160works. The artists arerecognized worldwide andthe show will celebrate thecontribution the RohtasGallery has made overthree decades to thedevelopment ofcontemporary art inPakistan.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MIRPUR—AJK Prime Minis-ter Ch. Abdul Majeed hereFriday called upon the Mus-lim ummah to immediately toimmediately summon the jointemergency meeting of all theIslamic countries to condemnthe blasphemous act of theproduction of anti-Islam filmand its aftermath”.

Addressing hurriedly-called news conference at thePrime Minister house hereFdaiday, AJK Prime MinisterCh. Abdul Majeed, that sincethe blasphemous movies hurtthe Islamic world, it was en-

joined upon all the Muslimcountries to move for holdingtheir joint emergency session,as early as possible, over thesituation when the Muslimsacross the world were badly hurtby the sacrilegious act.

Earlier, he led rally whichwas staged to observe ‘Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH) inAJK besides the nation-wideobservance of the day acrossPakistan.

The AJK Prime Ministercontinued that it was pride forentire Pakistani nation whichstood united for observing‘ Yo u m - e - I s h q - e - R a s o o l(PBUH)’ to express deep-rooted

reverence for the last HolyProphet Muhammad (PBUH)and to strongly condemn theblasphemous act of the anti-Is-lam film’s production, on thecall of the President Asif AliZardari and Prime Minister RajaPervez Ashraf to observe theday.

Majeed said that besidesentire Pakistani nation, thepeople of AJK and gilgit-Baltistan as well as theKashmiri expatriates abroad,observed ‘Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH) with great en-thusiasm and devotion to reit-erate their reverence for theHoly Prophet (PBUH) – by con-

veying message to the entireworld to stop playing with thereligious sentiments of the Mus-lim ummah if the internationalcommunity intended the emer-gence of a durable peace on theplanet.

Ch. Majeed declared thatthe situation has gone beyondthe tolerance for the Muslimsafter the recent repeated sacri-legious acts by the anti-Islamelements and the perpetratorscould not be pardoned, he de-clared.

The AJK Prime Ministersaid that through the sacrile-gious act of producing the filmdefaming Islam, the perpetra-

tors have tried to fuel the senti-ments of the Muslims across theworld through a pre-plannedconspiracy.

He demanded that the per-petrators of the sacrilegiousfilm production should beawarded exemplary punish-ment.

“The heinous act of anti-Is-lam film’s production is notonly an abortive attempt to hurtMuslims feelings but also tosabotage the global peace,which was already endangereddue to such repeated acts of theanti-Islami forces”, he ob-served.

The prime Minister de-

Majeed for early Ummah meeting over blasphemous filmclared that it was the firm be-lief of a Muslim that salvationhere and hereafter lies in thetotal implementation of Islamicteachings in our individual andcollective lives.Paying glorioustributes to the Holy ProphetMuhummad (PBUH), the PrimeMinister said that ‘Hazoor-e-Akram (PBUH) a great bless-ing to the Universe beingRehmat-ul-il-Aalmeen‘

He said that the solution ofthe problems of the Muslimummah lies in complete unityand integrity and the strict ob-servance of the sayings of theHoly Prophet Muhammad(Peace Be Upon Him) and the

China urges Pak,India to resolve

Kashmirthrough talks

ISLAMABAD—China has saidthat India and Pakistan shouldresolve the Kashmir disputethrough talks.

According to Kashmir Me-dia Service, Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman, Hong Lei,at a media briefing in Beijingsaid that China’s stand on Kash-mir remained clear and consis-tent that it was an issue to beresolved by India and Pakistanthrough negotiations.

“Kashmir is left over (by his-tory) between India and Pakistan.As a neighbour of India and Pa-kistan, China maintains that therelevant issue be resolved throughdialogue and negotiations be-tween India and Pakistan,” hesaid. Hong dismissed as “entirelygroundless” Indian Army ChiefGen Bikram Singh’s assertionthat Chinese soldiers were presentin Azad Jammu and Kashmir(AJK).—APP

‘Yaum-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH)’ observed in AJK

Wheel-jam, shutter-down strike andmass rallies condemn anti-Islam film

NEELUM VALLEY—Pakistanand India on Friday were urgedto avoid violations of ceasefireon Line of Control (LoC) tosave lives of civilians and thetroops.

“Both countries should re-spect the existing peace accordfor the protection of people”.

On World Peace Day aRally and Walk of children washeld in a village communityschool Near the Athmuqamtown, which is located on theLine of Control (LoC).

The event was organized byPress For Peace (PFP) anorganisation working for thepromotion of peace and sustain-able development.

PFP celebrated similarevents in Bagh, Mirpur andother areas of Azad Jammu andKashmir to observe the World

Children appeal India, Pakistanto maintain peace agreement

Peace Day (WPD) to expresssolidarity with the world com-munity, especially people ofwar-torn regions.

In Neelum Valley the par-ticipants of the walk were car-rying banners and play cardswith pro-peace slogans such as“Keep Cease-fire on LoC”, “WeDemand peace”, “We needbooks, not bombs, Give peacea chance,” “War is expensive,peace is priceless”

Addressing on the occasionoffice bearers of PFPAmiruddin Mughal, ShafqatHussain, Moulana M.Taiba andothers highlighted the signifi-cance of peace and harmony inthe society.

Amiruddin Mughal, Chair-man Board of Trustees said thatit is responsibility of both Indiaand Pakistan to ensure the

ceasefire agreement on Line ofControl (LoC) is not breachedso that civilian people can con-tinue to live peacefully.

Referring the losses of thepost- ceasefire years he said thatwe have lost a generation ofchildren due to the Kashmirconflict and Indo-Pak tensionsin border areas.

Shafqat Hussain Principalof Peace Community Schoolsaid that Pakistan and Indiashould follow and practicetheir commitments of toleranceand non-violence which weremade recently by their leader-ship.

Moulana Taiba maintainedthat Peace Day reminds us thatfollowers of each religionshould honour all faiths and be-liefs and sentiments of oth-ers.—INP

Gunmen thrash Bandipora familywe moved out and saw Naseerwas lying in a pool of blood.When we tried to save him, theIkhwanis started beating all oursix family members.

My father was grievouslyinjured and was hospitalized atthe district hospital,” he added.

He said that the police weretrying to hush up the case andwere not arresting the ac-cused.—KMS

teachings of Islam which pro-vides as the complete code oflife for a Muslim.

Ch. Majeed declared theprogress and successes of theIslamic world lies in the strictobedience to the sayings of theHoly Prophet (PBUH).

He declared that the lifeof the Holy ProphetMuhammad (Peace Be UponHim) is the complete sourceof inspiration and beaconlight for the entire humanityand especially for the Mus-lims who should strictly actupon the sayings of the HolyProphet Muhammad (PBUH)and the teachings of Islam.

RAO ATIQ UL AMIN KHAN

MIRPUR—Fully joining thenation-wide observance ofYo u m - e - I s h q - e - R a s o o l(PBUH) across Pakistan,people across AJK also ob-served the day with full reli-gious enthusiasm and devotionand in totally peaceful manneracross the State to expressgreat reverence for the HolyProphet Muhammad (Peace BeUpon Him) besides to registera strong protest and resentmentagainst the production of ananti-Islam film.

Entire AJK was bangedwith the full-throat slogans of‘Ghulam Hain Ghulam Hain –Rasool (PBUH) Key GhulamHain’, ‘Ghulami-e-Rasool(PBUH) Mein Mout Be KaboolHai’ and ‘Amreeki Samraaj –Murdabad’ – which wereshouted to express deep-rooted respect and honour forthe last Holy ProphetMuhammad (Peace Be UponHim) and to express hatredagainst the United States ofAmerica – whom citizen com-mitted the nefarious act of pro-ducing the movie sacrilegiousto Islam and the Holy Prophet(PBUH) – which badly hurt thereligious sentiments of the

Muslims across the world.Participants of the peace-

ful demonstrations and ralliesheld across AJK also carriedplacards and banners bearingslogans depicting a great rev-erence for Islam and the HolyProphet (PBUH) and severehatred against the anti-Islamforces involved in fanningcommunal unrest through ne-farious acts like production ofanti-Islam film and other blas-phemous activities.

The AJK government hadofficially announced a publicholiday throughout AJK to ob-serve the day to mark a greatrespect for the Holy Prophet(PBUH) besides to reiteratedcomplete solidarity and integ-rity among the entire nation forsafeguarding and upholding theteachings and tenants of Islamand the Islamic values acrossthe world. Special programs tomark the day were held jointlyunder the auspices of all the so-cial, political, religious andpublic organization represent-ing all segments and sects ofthe Muslims civil society toobserve the day.

The day was also markedwith a wheel jam and shutter-down strike in nook and cor-ner of all ten AJK districts in-

rally at the lawns of the localMunicipal Corporation, speak-ers including the AJK PrimeMinister Ch. Abdul Majeed, cityAdministrator Ch. ManshaUllah and others demanded thatnot only the film should bebanned across the world but alsothe culprits should be bookedfor committed the history’s hei-nous crime. Speakers declaredthat no Muslim could toleratesuch nefarious acts. They saidthat the perpetrators of the hei-nous offence could never be for-given at any cost and beawarded the capital punishmentby the international court of jus-tice. Similar protest processionswere taken out from almost allmosques in all small and majortowns in AJK territory afterFriday prayers. All the proces-sions later converged in to ral-lies at the central places of thetowns. Addressing the centralralliesSpeakers called upon theMuslim Ummah to rally rounda single flag getting united atthis crucial juncture and seek apermanent solution so that noone could dare to desecrate Is-lam and the Holy Prophet(PBUH).

Speakers emphasized theurged need for the MuslimUmmah work together with

other countries to find a solu-tion that ensures respect of thesentiments of people of all re-ligions. They regretted that theanti-Islam global forces wereengaged in their nefarious de-signs to bring into defame themost honourable and reveredpersonality of the world, and ofthe entire humanity of the HolyProphet Muhammad (Peace BeUpon Him). The perpetratorsof the blasphemous acts couldnot be spared at any cost.

They declared that it wasalways crystal clear that theprime stature of the HolyProphet (PBUH) could neverbe discredited by any onethrough any sacrilegious act,despite their nefarious at-tempts, as the last HolyProphet (PBUH) enjoyed theblessings of the Allah Al-mighty. The called upon theIslamic world to move forwardfor thwarting the nefarious de-signs of the anti-Islam forceswhich were involved in theblasphemous incidents, oneafter the other, with ulterior de-signs to create communal un-rest and chaos in the world.They rallies later dispersedpeacefully and no any unto-ward incident was reportedfrom any part of AJK territory.

MUZAFFARABAD: A view of ralley on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH).

cluding the capital city ofMuzaffarabad, Mirpur, Kotli,Bhimbher, Bagh, Rawalakot,Sudhanoti, Haveili, Hattiyanand Neelam valley – wherepeople thronged the streets to

stage rallies to express deep-rooted respect for the HolyProphet Muhammad (Peace Be

Upon Him) besides to registerstrong protest against the pro-duction of an anti-Islam film.

Addressing the rallies,speakers expressed heart-feltlove and warmth with the Holy

Prophet (PBUH) and tostrongly condemn the sacrile-gious film which severely hurt

the religious feeling of the en-tirely Muslim world.AJ&K Prime Minister Ch.Abdul Majeed led the majorrally in his native town ofMirpur, which was taken out

from his local private resi-dence.

Speakers to the mammoth

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the authorities im-posed stringent restrictions inSrinagar, Islamabad and othertowns of the territory, today, tostop people from holding pro-

test demonstrations against theblasphemous film in the US.

The authorities had madeheavy deployments of Indiantroops and paramilitary person-nel in all major towns.The vet-eran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader,Syed Ali Geelani had given acall for peaceful protests againstthe sacrilegious film after Jumaprayers.

The Indian police resortedto teargas shelling to dispersea demonstration organised bythe activists of Dukhtaran-e-

Stringent restrictions imposed in occupied Kashmir

Geelani, Malik detained,Shabbir put under house arrest

Millat in Srinagar. The detain-ees at Udhampur jail in Jammuwere subjected to brute forcewhen they staged a protestagainst the film.

The police arrested Syed Ali

Geelani, Muhammad YasinMalik, Dr Ghulam MuhammadGanai, and other Hurriyet lead-ers lodging them in differentpolice stations. The puppet ad-ministration placed Hurriyetleaders including ShabbirAhmed Shah and Zafar AkbarButt under house arrest to pre-vent them from leading thedemonstrations. Mobile tele-phone and Internet services inthe territory were snapped caus-ing inconvenience to the people.

Earlier, talking to media

men before his arrest, YasinMalik urged the Kashmiripeople to continue peacefulprotests against the blasphe-mous act.

At least six troopers of In-

dian Central Reserve PoliceForce were injured when a gre-nade exploded inside a trainingcenter at Nagrota in Jammu.

On the other hand, the AllParties Hurriyet ConferenceChairman, Mirwaiz UmarFarooq led a demonstration out-side the UN office in Genevaagainst the anti-Islam film. Ad-dressing on the occasion, he saidthat freedom of speech could notbe used as a pretext to justifysuch repugnant activities and ared line had to be drawn.—KMS

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, a family of Bandiporahas said that the governmentgunmen (Ikhwanis) thrashedthem heavily with iron rods andcritically injured one of thefamily members.Lateef AhmadDar, one of those attacked bythe Ikhwanis, at Hakbara inSonawari area of Bandiporatold media men that they wereassaulted without any reason.

He said that the Ikhwanis at-tacked his brother, NaseerAhmad Dar, with an axe andhe was battling for life at a hos-pital in Srinagar.

Lateef said that his brotherwas on his way to GovernmentDegree College Bemina whenhe was intercepted and assaultedby the Ikhwanis.

“When we heard mybrother was screaming for help,

MUZAFFARABAD: Wife of Chairman Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Yasin Malik,Mrs. Mashal Malik addressing meet the press at Central Press Club.

6 CRPF meninjured in grenade

explosionJAMMU—At least six paramili-tary CRPF men were injured,when a grenade exploded in-side a training center at Nagrotaon city outskirts here.

Police said that CRPF menwere undergoing special train-ing to handle hand grenades,during a refresher course whenone of the grenades (used fortraining purposes only) ex-ploded due to some unknownreason.

The injured CRPF menwere rushed to GovernmentMedical College HospitalJammu for treatment. The in-jured were identified as ArshadAhmed of Pulwama, SureshKumar of Patyari, RajeevKumar of Rajouri, MuhammadYasin of Poonch, Arshad Ratherof Pulwama and Sushil Kumarof Pathankot.

Police said that injured per-sonnel were fresh recruits andhave sustained minor splinterinjuries. “It is not yet known ashow the device exploded assuch kind of explosives are spe-cially designed for training pur-poses and these only createsound when thrown,” a policeofficer said.—INP

SRINAGAR: Occupation authorities impose severe restrictions in IHK to stop people hold-ing protests.

SRINAGAR—Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) presidentMehbooba Mufti has said theagenda for transforming Jammuand Kashmir into a hub of peaceand economic stability can beachieved only with the activeparticipation and struggle ofyouth of the state.

Mehbooba was addressing aPDP youth convention organisedby Agha Syed Yousf at Budgam .Mehbooba said since its inception,

People should support PDP: MehboobaPDP had promised people of thestate that once in power the partywill restore sense of security andprovide a clean administration. Itwas during PDP regime, she saidthat political process was initiatedand new ventures for the empow-erment of people like mobile tele-phony, creating new educationalinstitutes, reforms in health sectorand opening of traditional routesincluding Srinagar-Muzaffarabadroad, Poonch-Rawalakote road,

Mughal Road became a reality.She said reopening of these roadswas the most significant develop-ment in breaking decades’ oldmindset that denied the people ofthe state the right to travel acrossthe Line of Control.

Mehbooba said, the NationalConference right from 1947 tilldate created a wedge between thepeople of the state and rest of thecountry just to stay relevant andenjoy power.—INP

Pathribal victimfamilies stay

away from courtproceedings

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the families of the vic-tims of Pathribal fake encoun-ter stayed away from court mar-tial proceedings at 16 corpsheadquarters at Nagrota inJammu.The families maintainedthat they chose not to participatein the trial, as they had appre-hensions about the transparencyof the proceedings in Jammu.

Army last week had issuedsummons to the family mem-bers of the victims as witnessesasking them to appear in thecourt martial proceedings onSeptember 20. The Army inter-estingly also had issued sum-mons to the fathers of twonamesake victims who accord-ing to the family members haddied much before the incidenttook place in 2000.

Abdul Rashid Khan, son ofone of the victims, Juma Khan,talking to media men said thatno member of the five victimfamilies who had been sum-moned by the army participatedin the trial. “Since the day one,army issued summons to us, weare apprehensive about thecourt martial proceedings. Sowe all stayed away from thetrial,” he said.He said that itwas not possible for any of thefamily members of the victimsto go to Nagrota and appear inthe army court without securityand the counsel of their ownchoice.—KMS

Mirwaiz forwithdrawal of

‘draconian’ lawsGENEVA—Chairman ofHurriyat Conference (M)Mirwaiz Muhammad UmarFarooq, who is currently inGeneva, has called upon NewDelhi to withdraw all the dra-conian laws especially AFSPAand PSA in vogue in JammuKashmir.

“It would be considered asa constructive step forward toimprove the ground situation ifall the draconian laws especiallyAFSPA and PSA are withdrawnwithout any further delay,” saidMirwaiz while addressing aseminar and a launch ceremonyof ICHR Report on HumanRights situation in Jammu andKashmir in connection with the‘UN Kashmir Week’ functions.

“Human Rights in Flames2012” speaks comprehensivelyabout on-ground human rightssituation in Kashmir. “The re-port has been released in con-nection with the Universal Pe-riodic Review (UPR) of IndianHuman Rights situation. It con-tains reference to all the obliga-tions that India was expected tofulfil after 2008 UPR. It alsoexhaustively refers to obliga-tions of India under Interna-tional law and InternationalHumanitarian law. The functionwas moderated by FrancSchwaba, member EuropianParliament and the panelistswere Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad, SouthAsia expert from Oxford Uni-versity, Dr. Karren Parker –Chairperson International Edu-cational Development, Profes-sor Nazir Ahmad Shawl –Chairman Kashmir Centre,London UK, Barrister MajidTramboo – Chairman KashmirCenter EU Brussels,” said aspokesman of the Hurriyat in astatement.—NNI

Kashmir, EUweek

BR U S S E L S—Kashmir-EUweek would be held at the Eu-ropean Parliament on 24-27September 2012. The Interna-tional Council for Human De-velopment (ICHD) and Mr.Sajjad Karim, MEP are host ofthe Kashmir-EU week at AltieroSpinelli Building (ASP),Ground Floor, Couloir Cheval.

Expert on Kashmir Af-fairs ( Holland ) MarjanLucas, Member of BrusselsParliament Danielle Karon,Policy Advisor (HR, climatechange) ( UK ) Sadi Mir andChairperson, ICHD Ali RazaSyed addressed a press brief-ing about Kashmir-EU weekin Brussels.The briefing was organised byICHD and Kashmir CouncilEU. They said, objective ofthe Kashmir-EU’s ceremoniesincluding the exhibition is tohighlight the Kashmir issuespecially to make awarenessamong the European respon-sible people and policy mak-ing institutions about the mis-eries of people of India HeldKashmir (IHK).

During the press briefing,Marjan Lucos talked on thou-sands of unnamed mass gravesdiscovered in IHK—DNA

A cardinal principleof Total Quality

escapes too manymanagers: you

cannot continuouslyimprove interdepen-

dent systems andprocesses until you

progressively perfectinterdependent,

interpersonal rela-tionships.

— Stephen Covey

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The deadlinefor phasing out of negativelist is Dec 31 and progress isbeing made in this record.Talking to media, FederalMinister for CommerceMakhdoom Amin Faheemsaid this.

Earlier, he has presidedover the ceremony of sign-ing of Trade Agreements be-tween Secretary Commerce ofIndia and Secretary Com-merce Pakistan here on Fri-

Negative list to be phasedout by Dec 31: Faheem

day.Faheem informed that

this is the 3rd meeting be-tween the two secretaries. Heappreciated the pace of thetalks aimed removing hurdlesand bottlenecks in the traderelated talks.

The MoU’s signing are atestimony to the fact. He em-phasized the fact that thewishes of public and busi-ness community will be takeninto consideration.

He also asked the localindustries and businesses to

bring down consumer pricesto facilitate people. AminFaheem also requested Paki-stan people to protest peace-fully against the blasphe-mous movie and not harmpublic and government prop-erty in the process.

Earlier on, Federal Min-ister for commerce Mr. AminFaheem held a dinner inhonour of the Indian del-egation at local hotel herewhich was also attended byIndian High commissionerBhaglay.

Yen higherNEW YORK—The yenpushed higher Thursdaywhile the euro fell backbelow the $1.30 line after aweek-long trip above thatlevel, as a key industrialindicator showed continu-ing recession in theeurozone. Markit’s purchas-ing managers index for theregion fell for the eighthstraight month in Septem-ber, disappointing hopesfor a recovery.—APP

Tokyo shares upTOKYO—Tokyo sharesopened 0.29 percent higheron Friday with a lack ofpowerful trading incentiveskeeping activity subdued.The Nikkei 225 index at theTokyo Stock Exchange wasup 26.32 points at 9,113.30at the start.—AFP

FAISALABAD—Netherlandswill start some projects toenhance the textile expertisein Faisalabad.

This was stated by Mr.Gajus Scheltema Ambassa-dor of Royal Netherlandsduring a meeting with OfficeBearers of the FaisalabadChamber of Commerce & in-dustry (FCCI) here on Thurs-day.

He said that Governmentof Netherlands will expandthe bio-gas project in Punjabprovince, already stated.Technology up-gradationprogram of Textile sector willalso be launched especially

Netherlands to launchprojects in Faisalabad

in the textile Manchester ofPakistan.

He stressed on businesscommunity for inputs inpolicy making and investingin energy sector. He admiredthe potential available in thecountry and suggested to tapthe new avenues also.

He briefed the partici-pants about the skill en-hancement of managers es-pecially in textile sector. Somecompanies of Netherlandshave very cheap and bestquality solar system thatcould be imported in Paki-stan. He also promised topromote the investment of

Dutch companies in energysector of Pakistan.

Earlier in his address ofwelcome President FCCIMuzammal Sultan said that,Pakistan and Netherlandshave always enjoyed ex-tremely cordial and friendlyrelations. He elaborated that,Netherlands is a vital tradingpartner of Pakistan and agateway to Europe by its geo-graphical location.

He emphasized to maxi-mize volume of trade betweenthe two countries as it hasgone lowered instead of in-creasing in the previousyears. —APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The PIAF-Founders Alliance Thursdaymade another clean sweep bywinning all eight seats ofLCCI Associate Class for year2012-13 paving the way forthe Alliance to have its Presi-dent, Senior Vice Presidentand Vice President.

Total 2080 votes werepolled out of 6000 while 45votes were rejected due totechnical reasons. PIAF-Founder Alliance got 1105panel votes while the rivalsAzad Progressive Alliancesecured 410 panel votes.

The PIAF-Founders Alli-ance candidates MuhammadNasir Hameed Khan got 1491votes, Irfan Iqbal Sheikh1409, S.M. Tariq 1408,Hassan Amjad 1397,Mudassar Masood 1391,Mian Zahid Javed 1390,

PIAF-Founders sweepLCCI polls

Kashif Anwar 1385 andMuhammad Akram Malik got1284 votes.

Azad Progressive Alli-ance candidates MuhammadNawaz got 531, Mian ShabbirAhmad 531, Manzoor Butt528, Imran Asghar 545, RajaAbdul Sattar 531, KamranButt 560, Abdul Wadood Alvi516, Waseem Yousaf 549while an independent candi-date Waheed Ahmad Sheikhgot 144 votes.

Election Commissioncomprising Mian MuzaffarAli, Haroon Shafiq Chaudhryand Nasrullah Mughal an-nounced the provisional re-sults.

Chairman PIAF-FoundersAlliance Mian MuhammadAshraf and Chairman PIAF-Founders Alliance SteeringCommittee Mian Anjum Nisarthanked the voters for repos-ing confidence in PIAF-

Founders Alliance. They saidthat the number of votes castin favour of the PIAF-Founders Alliance wasenough to prove that the busi-ness community was with theAlliance. They paid rich trib-utes to the Leadership of thePIAF-Founders Alliance forputting in their in their bestefforts to ensure a comfortablevictory. They said that all ef-forts would be made to facili-tate the members of LCCI forsmooth functioning of theirbusinesses.

Polling for the new office-bearers will be held on Sep-tember 24, the Annual Gen-eral meeting will be held onSeptember 29 wherein finalresults of elections will beannounced and approval ofaccounts will be sought. Newoffice-bearers will assume thecharge of their offices onOctober 1.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—In the wake ofdisqualification of the law-makers holding dual nation-alities by the Supreme Courtof Pakistan, the All PakistanAnjuman-e-Tajiran (APAT)has called for amendmentsin the constitution, en-abling the overseas Paki-stanis to get them electedas parliament membersthrough reserved seats, as

APAT seeks reserved seats for overseas Pakistanisremittances from abroadprove a lifeline for Pakistan’seconomy.

The APAT general secre-tary Naeem Mir urged thegovernment as well as theopposition parties to allocateat least 10 per cent reservedseats for overseas Pakistanisin the parliament. The gov-ernment will have to amendthe constitution with thesupport of all opposition par-ties to facilitate the Pakistani

dual nationality holders, liv-ing abroad with a view to cre-ate sense of ownership inthem, he said. In this way,their interest in affairs of theirmotherland will further in-crease, as remittances havebeen playing a key role in theeconomic performance ofPakistan, he observed.

He said that continuousrise in remittances in the lastfew years has saved Paki-stan from serious economic

problems including defaulton debt repayments.

He said that presently,several countries, includingall the seven states ofSouth Asia, counting Indiaas well, and Pakistan’sshare has been phenomenalduring 2011-12 when over-seas Pakistanis sent homerecord Rs13.21 billion thateclipsed all the receipts ofseveral decades. Pakistanhas now become among top

five countries of the worldwhich are receiving big re-mittances from overseasworkers, majority of themmight have dual nationality,he added.

“This goes without say-ing that remittances fromabroad proved a lifeline forPakistan’s economy in asituation that energy short-ages, high inflation andmissing revenue collectiontargets have hurt gross do-

mestic product (GDP)growth.”

He appreciated the rightof vote for the overseas, call-ing for their representationtoo in parliament, as in thisway, they will turned to bethe ambassadors of Pakistan.They will not only remit theirincome but also pursue for-eign investors to make in-vestment in Pakistan.

He said that Pakistanmay still be lagging behind

the full potential of remit-tances, which experts ex-pect $20 billion, if more in-centives are introduced foreasier way of sendingmoney home by overseasPakistanis. He said that ex-cept for September ($890.42million) and November($924.92 million) in last fis-cal, Pakistanis remitted $1billion or more in each of theremaining 10 months of2011-12.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The govern-ment is set to add another120 megawatts of electric-ity to the national grid asthe Mangla Dam Raisingproject is nearing comple-tion.

After raising ofMangla Dam by 30 feet,water conservation levelwill be raised from 1202 re-sulting in enhanced waterstorage capacity of theDam by 2.9 million acre

Mangla Dam raising tohelp contribute 120MW

feet, according to an officialof the ministry.

After enhanced capacity,the facility will generate ad-ditional energy of about 120MW per annum that is 12%increase in the present en-ergy of 1000 MW.

He said the main dam,spillway and its allied workshave been completed sinceDecember 2009 while re-settlement works are inprogress and physicalprogress is almost 96.50 per-cent.

To a question, he saidthere is no plan as yet toraise Tarbela Dam; however,sediment managementstudy is in progress.

However, he saidTarbela 4th Extensionproject is under implemen-tation for the generation of1410 MW through the creditfrom World Bank.

He said the contractagreement for sedimentmanagement study hasbeen signed with MML(UK) and MMP last year.

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanEconomy Watch (PEW) onFriday rejected government’splan to import 15 thousandtonnes of Liquefied Petro-leum Gas (LPG) monthly dur-ing winter.

The import of 75 thou-sand tonnes of LPG whichwill continue for from Novem-ber to March to reduce short-age of natural gas is aimed topersonal welfare whilemasses will have to pay thebill, it said.

The top management ofSui Southern Gas CompanyLimited and Sui NorthernGas Pipelines Limited hasbeen directed to buy 500tonnes of LPG each fromSaudi Aramco to be addedin gas system after mixing airin it.

Similarly, the SSGC andSNGPL, which will buy 250tonnes of LPG each, has

PEW rejects LPG import planbeen directed to make a dealthrough a broker, highlyplaced sources in the Minis-try of Petroleum and NaturalResources told AbdullahTariq, SVP, PEW.

The present Aramco CP(Contract Price) for LPG is $946 per tonne while bringingit to Pakistan will cost another$ 150 per tonne excludingtaxes and other expenditures.The move will cost massesRs 50 million per day for fivemonths or 7 billion and 80crores in total.

Sources further said thatthe broker with whom deal isalmost final will have to paya commercial bribe of 25000dollar (Rs 23 lakh) per daywhich will be deposited in anoffshore account of a politi-cian. If the supply continuedfor five months, the totalkickbacks paid by the Saudibroker will be around Rs 3.5

billion.Abdullah Tariq said that

government and private com-panies in are extracting 1100tonnes of LPG from all the oiland gas wells in Pakistanwhich is shrinking naturalgas. On the other hand gov-ernment plans import of LPGwhich will jack up cost of gasfor masses.

Theft of gas has reachedto 12 per cent of total produc-tion or around 504 tonnes. Thisis the same amount of gas gov-ernment wants to import but itwould not stop leakage. It maybe mentioned that price of lo-cal gas is $6 per British Ther-mal Unit (BTU) while cost ofimported LPG stands at $ 24per BTU. Presently country’stotal production of gas standsat 4200 mmcfd (million cubicfeet per day) while demand inwinter touches mark of 5900mmcfd cubic feet.—Online

ISLAMABAD—India has of-fered to sell locomotives toPakistan at a competitiveprice. The offer was madeduring the seventh round ofcommerce secretary-leveltalks between the two coun-tries.

According to sourcesPakistan agreed to considerover buying locomotivesmade in India and start directflights between Islamabadand Delhi.

The sources said Indianswere informed that although

India offers Pakistan tosell locomotives

bids for the purchase of 150locomotives against softloans had already been in-vited, Pakistan would placeadvertisements to buy 50more locomotives in the nextfew weeks and they were en-couraged to participate in thebidding.

The Indian delegationquoted a price of 70 millionIndian rupees per locomo-tive. The two-day Pakistanand India talks on promo-tion of trade relat ionsended in Islamabad on Fri-

d a yPakistani side was led by

Secretary Commerce MunirQureshi while his Indiancounterpart S. R. Rao led theIndian side.

Both countries signed onthree agreements. Theseagreements pertain to re-moving mutual trade griev-ances‚ cooperation in mu-tual custom affairs andagreement between PakistanStandards Control Authorityand Bureau of Indian Stan-dards.—NNI

IS L A M A B A D—Food im-ports into the country wit-nessed decrease of 9.02percent during the first twomonths of the current fis-cal year as compared to thecorresponding period oflast year.

The food imports intothe country were recordedat US$818.011 million dur-ing July-August (2012-13)against the imports ofUS$899.062 mill ion re-corded during July-ugust(2011-12), according to thedata of Pakistan Bureau ofStatistics released here.

The major productsthat contributed in nega-tive growth included tea,

Food imports decreaseby over 9pc

imports of which decreasedby 24.72 percent during theperiod under review.

Tea imports into thecountry were recorded atUS$42.541 million in July-August (2012-13) againstthe imports of US$56.512million during July-August(2011-12).

Imports of spices de-creased by 8.71 percent byfalling from US$14.863 mil-lion to US$13.568 millionwhereas the imports ofpalm oil decreased by 12.22percent by going downfrom US$466.360 million toUS$409.360 million.

Imports of sugar wererecorded at US$1.334 mil-

lion during the period un-der review against the im-ports of US$6.160 millionlast year, showing negativegrowth of 78.34 percent.

On the other hand, thefood items that witnessedposit ive growth includedmilk, cream and milk foodfor infants , imports ofwhich increased fromUS$28.602 million last yearto US$34.545 million duringcurrent year, showinggrowth of 20.78 percent.

The imports of dry fruitsand nuts increased by 6.48percent by growing fromUS$15.767 million toUS$16.788 million whereas

Continued on Page 14

CHINIOT: Petrol pumps were closed in the city on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Mustafa announced by the government.

Talks with IntelTOKYO—Japan’s SharpCorp is in talks with USchipmaker Intel Corp on acapital alliance, a newspa-per said, offering a lifelineto the troubled TV maker asdiscussions with Taiwan’sHon Hai Precision IndustryCo Ltd stall. The companiesare in talks for Intel toinvest more than 30 billionyen ($383 million) in Sharp,possibly making it Sharp’stop shareholder, Japan’sMainichi newspaperreported on Friday, withoutciting sources. They couldreach a deal as early as nextmonth, although Sharp willalso continue its capital tie-up discussions with HonHai, the paper added. Intelis attracted by Sharp’stechnology for small andmidsize liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) panels, thereport said.—Agencies

Oracle new softwareBOSTON—Technologygiant Oracle Corp reportedthat new software salesrose 6 percent from a yearearlier to $1.6 billion in itsfiscal first quarter endedAug. 31, in line with its ownforecasts. Oracle met its keyrevenue target afterreorganizing its salesoperation in the UnitedStates, its biggest market,following the departure ofExecutive Vice President forNorth American sales andconsulting Keith Block. Theworld’s No. 3 softwaremaker had forecast that newsoftware sales would climbbetween 0 to 10 percentfrom a year earlier when itlast reported earnings onJune 18.—Agencies

Opel tempts carbuyersFRANKFURT—In a bid torepair its sickly brand image,General Motors’ ailingEuropean arm Opel is offeringGerman consumers thechance to hand back the keysto their brand new car with noquestions asked and walkaway free of charge. Runningunder the slogan “thrilled orjust return it”, the offer islimited to either 30 days or3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles)and is only valid in its homemarket of Germany, the makerof the Astra said on Thurs-day. “We want to win newfans of the brand with thisdeal. Whoever drives our carsfor the first time will quicklybe convinced of the qualityand innovation of our cars,”Opel interim chief ThomasSedran said in a statement.—Agencies

AngloGoldworkers strike atS African mine

JOHANNESBURG—Workershave embarked on an illegalstrike at a South African minerun by world No. 3 bullionproducer AngloGoldAshanti, a company spokes-man said on Friday, signal-ling spreading labour unrestin the mining sector.

“The night shift em-barked on an unprotectedstrike at Kopanang and themorning shift didn’t go downeither,” company spokesmanAlan Fine said.

Fine said the mine has5,000 workers and the strik-ers had not yet communi-cated their demands to thecompany.

A spokesman for the Na-tional Union of Mineworkerssaid the strikers wanted awage of 12,500 rand ($1,500)a month, mirroring demandsat other mines. This is abouttriple the amount earned asbasic pay at the bottom endof the wage scale.—APP

Microsoft, HPskirted taxesvia offshore

unitsWASHINGTON—Technologygiants Microsoft Corp andHewlett-Packard Co usedoffshore units to shield bil-lions of dollars from US taxesby taking advantage of loop-holes and stretching the lim-its of the tax code, a US Sen-ate panel said on Thursday.

Describing tax avoidanceas rampant in the technologysector, the Senate’s Perma-nent Subcommittee on Inves-tigations said tech compa-nies used intellectual prop-erty, royalties and licensefees in tax havens such as theCayman Islands to skirt UStaxes.

The panel subpoenaedinternal documents from thecompanies and interviewedMicrosoft and HP officials tocompile its report, and usesthem as case studies.

“The tax practices andgimmicks range from egre-gious to dubious validity,”Senator Carl Levin, chairmanof the panel, said at a newsconference.

Officials at HP andMicrosoft strongly deniedany wrongdoing.

The investigative panel’sfindings came hours ahead ofa hearing Thursday, at which

Continued on Page 14

BRUSSELS—China pledgedcontinued assistance tohelp tackle the eurozonedebt crisis, saying Europewas “on the right track” butneeded to implement themeasures agreed to fix itsproblems.

Premier Wen Jiabao toldEU and Chinese businessleaders that Beijing had con-tinued purchases of Euro-pean government bonds inrecent months and discussedcooperation with the neweurozone rescue fund, the

China to continue support toresolve euro crisis

European Stability Mecha-nism (ESM).

As the 500-billion-euro($648 billion) ESM becomesoperational next month,“China will continue to playits part in helping resolve theEuropean debt issue throughappropriate channels,” Wensaid.

“Europe is on the righttrack in tackling its debt is-sue... What is crucial now isto fully implement the poli-cies agreed” to put it on firmerground, he told the meeting,

held alongside the annualEuropean Union-China sum-mit.

The EU and China form“one of the most importantpartnerships in the world,”added Wen.

“I hold the developmentof this relationship close tomy heart,” he said after sign-ing a 49-point, four-pageagreement with the EU rang-ing from foreign policy to re-search and development, andthousands of student schol-arships.—AFP

LO N D O N—The governorof the Bank of England saidThursday that the Britisheconomy showed signs ofrecovery but warned i twould be “slow” as theeurozone crisis hangs overit like a “black cloud”.

“I think we’re begin-ning to see a few signs nowof a slow recovery, but itwill be a slow recovery,”Mervyn King told Britain’sChannel 4 News in a raretelevision interview.

“After a banking crisisone can’t expect to getback to normal and I fear itwill take a long time.”

Sandwiched betweenthe austerity plan of PrimeMinister David Cameron’sConservative-led coalitionand the eurozone crisis ofits neighbours, Britain fell

BoE chief warns of slowBritish recovery

back into recession in thefirst quarter and sank fur-ther in the second.

According to King,Britain’s recovery dependson the handling of theeurozone crisis whichhangs over it like a “blackcloud of uncertainty”.

“I think it’s this blackcloud of uncertainty whichis hanging over British busi-ness as it is hanging overAmerican business,” headded. King’s message foreurozone finance ministerswas that “now is the time”for them to decide on the fu-ture of the monetary union.

The plan presented inearly September by the Eu-ropean Central Bank (ECB)to help countries in diffi-culty l ike Spain “doesn’toffer a solution in the long

term”, according to King.But he said it may buy

eurozone leaders t ime to“work out what is the longterm solution”. The BoEchief also warned that slowgrowth in other nationscould put the brakes onBritain’s recovery.

“The United States isstruggling a bit, Brazil andChina are slowing,” hesaid. “I think our fate interms of the speed in whichwe come out of the flat pe-riod we’re in will dependvery much on what hap-pens in the rest of theworld.”

He said it would be “ac-ceptable” for Bri tain tomiss its targets for cuttingdebt by 2015, but only if itwas a result of slow globalgrowth.—AFP

Long queuesfor iPhone 5

rollout despiteglitches

TOKYO—Apple’s iPhone 5hit stores in a festive globalrollout Friday, with longqueues of devotees unde-terred by a lukewarm wel-come from experts and com-plaints about its thesmartphone’s new mappingsystem.

The lines of eager fansoutside stores looked set tomake the latest generationiPhone another commercialsmash for the trend-settingUS company, with Applesaying it had received morethan two million ordersonline.—AFP

JAL shares dropbelow offer price

TOKYO—Shares in JapanAirlines slumped 4.29 per-cent by close on Friday, twodays after relisting, amid aterritorial row.

The stock closed at 3,680yen, below the 3,790 open-ing price when it returned tothe Tokyo Stock Exchangeon Wednesday, less thanthree years after becomingone of Japan’s biggest evercorporate failures.

The close was off an in-tra-day low of 3,630 yen,reached moments before thefinal bell.

The fall came as JAL,which has undergone atransformation since bank-ruptcy, announced it wouldcut the number of flights toChina next month to reflect afall in demand from touristsin both countries.—AFP

Lufthansa tocombine European

flights into onelow-cost unit

F R A N K F U R T — D e u t s c h eLufthansa AG, Europe’s sec-ond-biggest airline, will com-bine short-haul operationsoutside its main Frankfurtand Munich hubs with theGermanwings low-cost unitas part of a cost-reductioneffort.

The new unit will beginoperations in January and fly18 million passengers annu-ally, Cologne, Germany-based Lufthansa said onWednesday. Former ChiefExecutive Officer WolfgangMayrhuber and former ChiefFinancial Officer Karl-Ludwig Kley have beennominated to joinLufthansa’s supervisoryboard in 2013, withMayrhuber becoming chair-man, the airline also said.

Lufthansa has acompanywide goal of saving1.5 billion euros ($1.96 billionor Dh7.2 billion) through 2014under a reorganisationprogramme dubbed Score.The company is cutting 3,500jobs in administration and asmany as 1,000 catering postsmay be eliminated. Theprogramme has alreadyhelped improve earnings,with second-quarter operat-ing profit increasing 28 percent to 361 million euros andexceeding analyst estimates.

“Combining our domes-tic German and Europeanpoint-to-point services hasenormous potential to im-prove efficiency,” CEOChristoph Franz said in astatement. “Our aim is to onceagain fly these services prof-itably under the umbrella ofa single company.”—Agen-cies

ISLAMABAD: Dr David Waters along with leading healthcare professionals and the manager of Pfizer Pakistansnapped at the conclusion of a cardiovascular expert symposium.

Federal Minister for Communication Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan is receiving a briefing onprogress of Chakdara Bridge Project.

KARACHI: Stephen Meerwaid, MD, Wellard Australiaspeaking at a press conference Mellisa Kelly, First Sec-retary for Political and Economic Affairs of AustralianHigh Commission present on the occasion.

ISLAMABAD—The recentflooding in the country hascaused an estimated loss ofaround Rs 250 billion to in-frastructure, public and pri-vate property, agriculture andlivestock in all provinces.

Discussions with agricul-tural experts and governmentofficials showed that cropssown nearly 2 million acreshad been destroyed or dam-aged in all four provincesalong with Azad Kashmir andGilgit-Baltistan, with SouthPunjab and upper Sindh ap-pearing to be the worst-hitareas.

Agriculture experts ar-gued that the current rainspell, which started in Sep-tember, also resulted indeaths of 369 people.

They said that so far thefloods destroyed two millionbales of cotton, two milliontons of Irri-6 rice, 70 percentof sunflower, 50 percent on-

Floods cause economiclosses worth Rs 250bn

ions, 50 percent tomatoes, 40percent green chilies alongwith other crops.

Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan,Muzafargarh, Layyah,Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khanand other cotton growingdistricts in Punjab were badlyhit by the recent rains. InSindh, rains severely hitMirpurkhas, Badin, TandoMuhammad Khan, Umarkot,Dadu, Ghotki, Hyderabad,Jacobabad, Jamshoro,Khairpur, Larkana, Matiyari,Sanghar, Tharparkar, Thattaand Sanghar districts.

According to a senior of-ficial of the National Disas-ter Management Authority(NDMA), as many as 12,559cattle heads perished in thefloods and over 600,000people were forced to takeshelter in relief camps.

The floods in 2010 haddamaged crops and other in-frastructure amounting to

over Rs800 billion, whilefloods in 2011 caused an es-timated loss of Rs600 billionto the national economy, headded.

Talking to Business Re-corder former AgricultureDevelopment CommissionerPakistan Inayatullah Khansaid that floods had severelydamaged cotton and Irri-6paddy crops in South Punjaband Sindh.

After floods, prices ofsome vegetables registered asignificance increase, onionsand tomato prices jumped toRs70 per kg from Rs35-45 perkg, cucumber from Rs30 perkg to Rs70 per kg while somevegetables were entirely un-available in the market.Mohammed Tariq of KisanIttehad Pakistan said the cur-rent destruction to the agri-culture sector could havebeen averted if the federal aswell as provincial govern-

ments had built water reser-voirs and repaired the dam-aged drainage system.

According to him, provin-cial and federal governmentshad not learnt any lessonsfrom the destruction of 2010and 2011 floods. He said thatthe average annual cultiva-tion cost stands at Rs60,000per acre and floods have af-fected a total of 2 million acresof land and total loss to agri-culture and livestock standsat around Rs250 billion.

He said that Sindh pro-duced around 3 million tonsof Irri-6 rice and floods dam-aged the crop, adding thatrice production in the prov-ince might decline to two mil-lion tons against the targetof three million tons. He saidthat the domestic cotton pro-duction would decline to 13-13.5 million bales against thetarget of 15 million bales inthe current year.—Agencies

the imports of soyabean oilincreased from US$24.343million to US$29.755 million,showing increase of 22.23percent.

Similarly, the imports ofpulses ( leguminous veg-etables) increased fromUS$83.823 mill ion toUS$93.293 million, showingincrease of 11.30 percent.

Meanwhile, the importsof all other food items de-creased by 12.73 percent bygoing down fromUS$202.632 million in July-August (2011-12) toUS$176.827 million in July-August (2012-13), the PBSdata revealed.

Meanwhile, during themonth of August 2012-13the food imports into the

country witnessed de-crease of 12.71 percent and11.50 percent when com-pared to the imports ofAugust 2011 and July 2012respectively.

Food imports in August2012 stood at US$384.064 mil-lion against the imports ofUS$439.965 million andUS$433.947 million in August2011 and July 2012 respec-tively. It is pertinent to men-tion here that overall importsinto the country during the pe-riod under review witnesseddecrease of 1.99 percent.

The imports into thecountry were recorded atUS$7.346 billion in 2012-13against the imports ofUS$7.495 billion, the PBSdata revealed.—Agencies

Food importsFrom Page-13

Levin is slated to reveal fur-ther details and to take testi-mony.

Levin, a Democrat, hasbeen investigating offshoretax evasion for years and of-ten issues reports calling at-tention to the issue. But Sena-tor Tom Coburn, the rankingRepublican on the panel, alsosigned onto the report.

US companies haveabout $1.5 trillion in profitssitting offshore, and most saythey are keeping it there toavoid US tax. Of the top 10companies with the biggestoffshore cash balances, fiveare in the technology sector.

“The high-tech industryis probably the No. 1 user ofthese offshore entities totransfer intellectual prop-erty,” Levin said.

The committee said thatfrom 2009 to 2011, Microsoft

shifted $21 billion offshore,almost half its US retail salesrevenue, saving up to $4.5billion in taxes on goods soldin the United States.

This was accomplished,the panel report said, by ag-gressive transfer pricing,where companies put valueson intercompany movementof assets. Units are sup-posed to use a fair marketprice to value such transfers,but critics say they are un-dervalued to minimize tax.

The report also said thesoftware giant shifts royaltyrevenue to units in lower-taxnations such as Singaporeand Ireland, avoiding billionsof dollars of additional taxesin the US

In prepared testimony,Microsoft vice president fortax William Sample said all itsunits serve a purpose,

though he acknowledges taxconsiderations come intoplay.

“While the primary objec-tive of our regional structureis to improve our competitive-ness and efficiency in eachof the three regions, weevaluated available tax in-centives,” also in its deci-sions.

Witnesses set to testifyalso include a tax executivefrom Hewlett-Packard, a taxexecutive from Big Four ac-counting firm Ernst & Young,and senior officials from theUS Internal Revenue Service.

SHORT TERM LOANSThe panel said Hewlett-

Packard funded US opera-tions with a stream of inter-company loans, using an ex-ception in the law for short-term loans, to avoid billionsof dollars in taxes.—Agencies

Microsoft, HP skirtedFrom Page-13

ABU DHABI—Gold rose backabove $1,770 an ounce onFriday as expectations thatcentral bank measures tostimulate growth wouldboost liquidity, fuel inflationand keep interest rates atrock bottom put the metal ontrack for a fifth straight weekof gains.

A firmer tone across thefinancial markets also sup-ported bullion. Europeanshares and the euro rose,while oil rebounded from a 1-1/2 month low, as investorsmoved back into markets stillfeeling the benefits of cen-tral bank support measures.

Spot gold was up 0.4 per-cent at $1,773.36 an ounce at1204 GMT, while U.S. gold

Gold climbs above $1,770 as bankstimulus cheers buyers

futures for December deliv-ery were up $5.80 an ounceat $1,776.00.

The Bank of Japan is thelatest central bank to unveileasing measures this week,after the Federal Reserve an-nounced an aggressive assetpurchasing programme andthe European Central Bankunveiled plans this month tobuy bonds of the bloc’sheavily indebted countries.

The Fed move in particu-lar, which will see it buy $40billion a month in mortgage-backed debt until the outlookfor the labour market im-proves, helped push spotgold to 6-1/2 month highs at$1,779.10 an ounce.

“With the open-ended

scheme to print as much dol-lars as needed until the U.S.economy recovers, gold’suptrend has fewer barricadeson the way at least to earlierhighs,” Richcomm GlobalServices senior analystPradeep Unni said.

“Charts hint at a majorresistance at $1,787-$1,790,where we have failed thriceearlier,” he added. “Thus,consecutive closing above$1,790 will be a necessity toavoid a profit-taking correc-tion.”

The Fed measures haveboosted interest in gold ex-change-traded funds, popu-lar investment vehicles thatissue securities backed byphysical metal.

Holdings of ETFstracked by Reuters, whichincludes the SPDR GoldTrust and products oper-ated by London’s ETF Se-curities and ZurichCantonalbank, have risen272,302 ounces so far thisweek, though they have re-treated from record highs.

“Once again, the rise inprices has gone hand in handwith inflows into ETFs,”Commerzbank said in a note.

Disruption in the SouthAfrican mining industry,which earlier this monthhelped drive platinum pricesto levels not seen since lateFebruary, showed signs ofspreading on Friday.—Agencies

NEW YORK—The logo ofthe International MonetaryFund (IMF) at theorganization’s headquartersin Washington, DC, in thisfile photo. - AFP

The International Mon-etary Fund will lower itsgrowth forecasts for theglobal economy nextmonth, an IMF official saidThursday.

“The global economyhas weakened. We are shav-ing off our forecast for glo-bal growth by a few decimalpoints,” said Hoe Ee Khor,assistant director of theIMF’s Asia and Pacific De-partment, in a conferencecall on South Korea’seconomy.

In its last estimates theWashington-based globallender projected global

IMF to lower globalgrowth forecasts

growth of 3.5 percent in 2012and 3.9 percent in 2013.

It is slated to unveil newforecasts on October 9 at theannual IMF and World Bankmeetings in Tokyo, Japan.

“We expect the globaleconomy to recover gradu-al ly over the next year,”said Khor, who is the IMFmission chief for SouthKorea.

On Thursday, the IMFcut its growth estimate forSouth Korea to 3.0 percent,from a June forecast of 3.25percent, citing the eurozonecrisis and high householddebt problems.

“The main short-term riskto the outlook is a furtherescalation of the euro areacrisis, which would have asignificant impact on Korea,”the IMF said.—AFP

Globalmanufacturing

weakensNEW YORK—US manufactur-ing suffered its weakest quar-ter in three years and condi-tions at European businessesworsened, surveys showed onThursday, while China’seconomy continued to losemomentum.

The data shed more lighton the difficult task facing glo-bal policymakers, particularly inEurope and the United States,who have tried to boost eco-nomic growth with aggressivemonetary stimulus.

There was little indicationthat the European CentralBank’s plan announced earlierthis month to buy the govern-ment bonds of troubledeurozone states has boostedconfidence among service sec-tor firms. Financial informationfirm Markit said its US “flash”,or preliminary, manufacturingPurchasing Managers Indexstood at 51.5 in September, un-changed from August. A read-ing above 50 indicates expan-sion.

The index averaged 51.5 inthe third quarter, below the 54.2registered between April andJune, for its worst showingsince the third quarter of 2009.At 51.2, the output componentwas the lowest since Septem-ber 2009. “The global situationis a restraint on the USeconomy,” said David Sloan,economist at 4Cast Ltd in NewYork. “Certainly, there is notgoing to be much growth inEurope. Growth in Asia, andChina in particular, is slowingdown, so US growth is goingto have to be domestically gen-erated.”

Export orders at US facto-ries fell for a fourth month run-ning, with September’s fall thesteepest in nearly a year. TheFederal Reserve last week saidit will hold interest rates at zerountil mid-2015 and would buymortgage-backed bondsmonthly until the job market im-proves substantially.

Export-driven Asian econo-mies struggled again in Septem-ber. The China HSBC manufac-turing PMI inched up in Sep-tember to 47.8 from August’snine-month low of 47.6, sug-gesting the world’s second-largest economy remains ontrack for a seventh quarter ofslowing annual growth.China’s economic slowdown isexpected to reach its nadir thisquarter, with a recovery of mo-mentum delayed until the finalquarter, leaving growth for2012 likely to fall below eightper cent, a level last seen in1999, a Reuters poll showed lastweek.—Agencies

Oil pricesfall further

LONDON—Oil prices fell fur-ther on Thursday over theprospect of weaker energydemand by China, a day af-ter Brent futures closeddown almost four dollars ontalk that Saudi Arabia wasboosting crude supplies.

Brent North Sea crude fordelivery in Novemberdropped 96 cents to $107.23a barrel in London middaydeals.

New York’s main con-tract, light sweet crude forOctober slid 92 cents to$91.06 a barrel.

Analysts said recentprice support won from theUS Federal Reserve’s deci-sion last week to embark ona third round of exceptionalstimulus measures, or quan-titative easing (QE3), hadtailed off.

“The extended losses arehinting more and more thatthe bullish impact of QE3 hadalready been priced into themarket for several weeks(ahead of the announce-ment) and that the focus isnow on weaker global eco-nomic growth indicators,”JBC Energy research groupsaid in a note to clients.

Prices were retreating onThursday after data showedmanufacturing activity in theworld’s largest energy con-sumer China contracting forthe 11th straight month.

Crude demand worrieswere stoked after Britishbanking giant HSBC releaseddata showing China’s manu-facturing sector still stuck ina rut, said Justin Harper, astrategist at IG MarketsSingapore trading group.

“The China data haspushed down commoditiesafter HSBC’s flash PMIshowed contraction for an-other month,” he told AFP.

“Oil has been on the re-ceiving end of this negativitytowards the Chinese economyand more evidence of its con-tinued slowdown. China is amajor consumer of oil and anyslowdown in its economy wor-ries traders about future de-mand.” The preliminary read-ing of the purchasing mangers’index (PMI) for China releasedby HSBC hit 47.8 this month, amild improvement from a finalreading of 47.6 in August, thebank said in a statement.

But the latest readingmarked nearly a year of con-tinuous contraction sinceNovember, underscoringbroader economic weaknessand shrinking demand in keyoverseas markets.—AFP

Turkish PM cancels trip to UNANKARA—Turkish Prime MinisterTayyip Erdogan has cancelled a trip tothe United States where he was due toattend a U.N. General Assembly meet-ing next week, an official from his of-fice said, citing a forthcoming partycongress and heavy work schedule.The rebellion against Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad is likely to be focusof plenary and bilateral meetings inNew York. Erdogan has been one of

Assad’s harshest critics, allowing the Syrian oppositionto organise on Turkish soil, and pushing for a foreign-protected safe zone inside Syria. But with soldiers en-gaged in some of the heaviest fighting in more than adecade with Kurdish militants in Turkey’s own mountain-ous southeast, public sentiment is swinging againstdeeper Turkish involvement in Syria. Erdogan had beendue to travel to New York between September 22 and 25and to give a speech at the U.N. assembly. Washingtonsees Turkey as the key player both in supporting Syria’sopposition and in planning for what U.S. officials say isthe inevitable collapse of the Assad government. “PrimeMinister Erdogan cancelled his U.S. trip because of theparty congress on September 30th, as well as his busyschedule,” a source in his office said. Foreign MinisterAhmet Davutoglu will now lead the Turkish delegation atthe New York meeting. Turkey’s President Abdullah Gulhad earlier been scheduled to attend the U.N. assemblybut cancelled due to an ear infection.—Reuters

Norway PM reshuffles cabinetOSLO—Norwegian Prime Minister JensStoltenberg reshuffled his cabinet onFriday, hoping to revive the fortunes ofhis Labour Party, badly trailing in pollsjust a year before parliamentary elec-tions. Stoltenberg moved his foreign,defence, health and culture ministers,and replaced the labour minister inmove seen as the last big effort to shapethe team that would campaign forLabour’s third straight term. “We have

made these changes to make room for new values, newforce and new ideas,” Stoltenberg told reporters after in-forming King Harald of the changes. “It is a combination ofrenewal and continuity.” Foreign Minister Jonas GahrStoere, a close Stoltenberg ally, will take over the healthministry, a key position for a government hoping tostrengthen the extensive social safety net. Botched hospi-tal reform has been a drag on Labour’s popularity and hasovershadowed its success in running one of Europe’s rareeconomic stars. “I think that he is trying to turn the shiparound before election time,” said Frank Aabrebrot, a Euro-pean politics professor at Bergen University. “At timessome of the ministers have looked like commentators talk-ing to bureaucrats, instead of leaders.” Opinion polls giveLabour around 30 percent of the vote, behind the opposi-tion Conservative Party’s 34 percent. They also showStoltenberg’s two coalition allies would struggle to breakthe 4 percent threshold needed for parliamentary seats whilethe right-wing Progress Party, a potential ally of the Con-servatives, polls around 14 percent.—Reuters

Russia’s Putin nears 60MOSCOW—As Vladimir Putin’s 60thbirthday approaches, a wave of bitingsatire is starting to hurt his macho im-age. Back in the Kremlin since May, theformer KGB spy faces the biggest pro-tests of his long rule and ratings that anindependent pollster says have slippedbelow 50 percent. His image, says aformer Kremlin spin-doctor, may needrebranding. Vote-winning antics such ashorse-riding bare-chested, or shooting

a tiger with a tranquiliser dart now open him to ridiculereminiscent of that directed at Boris Yeltsin, the vodka-swilling leader he replaced 12 years ago. Putin has longcultivated a sober and vigorous image in contrast withYeltsin. His spokesman said he was paying little attentionto his birthday on October 7 because of his passion for hisjob. Many analysts say he will seek another six-year termwhen his mandate ends in 2018. He has no obvious suc-cessor and a strong hold on business in the country of 140million, a major oil and gas producer. “Putin is still the guyyou have to go to for approval on any major businessdecision,” said a senior Western executive based in Mos-cow. “He is still the ultimate arbiter.” The satire is focusedon the Internet, which has helped remove the shackles oncriticism and has proved a growing influence in Russia asa forum where Putin’s opponents announce their protests.

October vote ‘already rigged’KIEV—Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailedopponent of Ukrainian President ViktorYanukovich, said on Friday a parliamen-tary election in October would be un-fair and called for Western sanctionsagainst the former Soviet republic’s lead-ership. A Ukrainian court sentencedTymoshenko to seven years in prisonon abuse-of-office charges last Octo-ber in a case criticised by the West asan example of selective justice, strain-

ing Kiev’s relations with Brussels and Washington.Tymoshenko, who has denied any wrongdoing, accusedYanukovich of using the legal system to carry out personalrevenge against her. As a result of the conviction, she can-not run in the October 28 vote in which Yanukovich’s Partyof the Regions is expected to retain a majority but is closelytrailed by a bloc which includes Tymoshenko’sBatkivshchyna (Fatherland) party. “The elections are al-ready rigged even before they have started. We must im-mediately, before the elections, find the means to break thegrip of the dictatorship before sham elections give it un-questioned control,” Tymoshenko said in a statement onFriday. The 51-year-old politician has been receiving treat-ment for back trouble in a state-run hospital since Maywhile fighting fresh charges of tax evasion and embezzle-ment in court. Shortly after her conviction, the EuropeanUnion shelved landmark deals on political association andfree trade with Ukraine.—Reuters

Seeks to reassureBEIJING—China’s leader-in-waiting XiJinping sought to reassure SoutheastAsian leaders on Friday that his coun-try wanted only peaceful relations withthem, following months of growing ten-sions over the strategically locatedSouth China Sea. Speaking at the open-ing of a trade fair in southern China forAssociation of Southeast Asian Na-tions (ASEAN) members, Vice Presi-dent Xi said China’s own prosperity

could only be guaranteed by having good relations withits neighbours. “The more progress China makes in de-velopment and the closer its links with the region and theworld, the more important it is for the country to have astable regional environment and a peaceful internationalenvironment,” Xi said. “Having gone through numerousvicissitudes in modern times, we are deeply aware of theimportance of development and how valuable peace is,”he added, according to state media.—Reuters

JERUSALEM—Israeli troopson Friday killed three mili-tants who infiltrated over theborder from Egypt to launchan attack and an Israeli sol-dier also died in the clash, anIsraeli army spokeswomanand Israeli media said. TheIsraeli military declined imme-diate comment on reports ofIsraeli casualties.

“Three armed terroristscrossed the border into Israeland opened fire at troops se-curing workers who are build-ing the border fence in thearea ... They (attackers) werewearing flak jackets and werewell armed and carried explo-sive belts,” spokeswomanLieutenant-Colonel AvitalLeibovich said. She said shedid not have information onthe identity or affiliation ofthe gunmen but added thatsoldiers from a joint male-fe-male army battalion had been

Israeli soldier, 3 gunmenkilled on Egypt border

involved in the fighting and“managed to thwart a majorincident.”

An Egyptian securitysource said one of the gun-men died when a bomb hewas carrying detonated andthe other two were killed in agun battle with Israeli forces,adding that the nationalitiesof the gunmen were not im-mediately clear. In June, mili-tants crossed into Israel fromEgypt’s Sinai desert and firedon Israelis building a barrieron the border, killing a worker,before soldiers killed two ofthe attackers.

Israel is putting up theborder fence to curb an influxof African migrants and im-prove security, hoping tocomplete it by the end of theyear. It will run along most ofthe 266-km (165 miles) fron-tier from Eilat, on the Red Sea,to the Gaza Strip.—Reuters

TRIPOLI—The guns are si-lent and fighters have dis-appeared from the streetsof the north Lebanese cityof Tripoli but the battle thatflared last month, killing 16people, is far from over.Unrest in neighbouringSyria, where 27,000 peoplehave been killed in a con-flict that is becoming in-creasingly sectarian, isdeepening tensions be-tween Tripoli’s Sunni Mus-lim majority and Alawiteminority.

Feuds between the twocommunities, which pre-date Lebanon’s 1975-1990civil war, fester beneath thedaily bustle in shops andrestaurants. Residents fearthe clashes which paraly-sed their city several timesthis year may erupt againat any time. After the latestround of fighting in Au-gust, many meetings wereheld between clerics, localparliamentarians and localarmed commanders toagree a ceasefire. But littlewas done to prevent a re-currence or hold anyone toaccount.

North Lebanon city bracesfor next round of fighting

“Everyone here whofights has political cover.How come after every battlenobody is arrested?” saidAbu Emad, a local dignitarywho is close to the fighters.“We haven’t seen anyoneput on trial for the deathsand the fighting,” he said,lighting a cigarette andchecking in case he was be-ing overheard by other inthe busy Tripoli cafe.

Salem, a lawyer from thecity, said tensions are likelyto flare again betweenTripoli’s Sunnis, who largelysupport the rebellion againstPresident Bashar al-Assad,and the Alawite minority, anoff-shoot of Shi’ite Islam towhich Assad belongs. “No-body forgot anything. It iscalm now but we all ask our-selves: Until when? Weknow this is not the lastone.” Commanders of the ri-val forces say the fighting isfuelled by politicians chan-nelling money and arms tothe two sides, and residentsaccuse both pro- and anti-Assad forces of stirring uptrouble.

They say Syria’s allies in

Lebanon want to create con-flict to relieve pressure onAssad by diverting atten-tion, while Assad’s oppo-nents hope the fightingcould weaken Lebanon’sgovernment, which is led bythe pro-Assad Shi’iteHezbollah group and its al-lies. Allegations of Syria’srole in the tensions wereheightened by the arrest ofa pro-Assad former Leba-nese minister, MichelSamaha, accused of forming“an armed gang” to incitesectarian fighting in north-ern Lebanon. Two Syrian of-ficials have also been in-dicted in the same case.

On the other side of theshowdown, Sunni-led SaudiArabia, the world’s biggestoil exporter, is a leading sup-porter of Lebanon’s SunniMuslims and Tripoli resi-dents say hardline Sunnifighters in the city haveSaudi backing. Riyadh haslong viewed the Assad gov-ernment with distrust, point-ing to its alliance with Shi’iteIran which Saudi Arabia sus-pects of stirring up unrest inneighbouring Bahrain and

among its own Shi’ite minor-ity.

Beyond the sectariantension, a power struggle issimmering between SunniMuslims seeking to lead thesect which under Lebanon’sconfessional system holdsexecutive power through theposition of prime minister.“The conflict is going to bea Sunni-Sunni one sooner orlater. It is only a matter oftime,” Abu Emad said.

Many Sunnis are loyal toformer prime minister Saad al-Hariri, son of slain statesmanRafik al-Hariri. Others sup-port current prime ministerNajib Mikati who came topower after Hezbollah and itsallies toppled Saad - a movewhich Saad Hariri’s support-ers condemned as a politicalcoup. While most Sunnisoppose Assad, some see himas an Arab nationalist lead-ing the battle against Israel.

“I am with Bashar becausehe is a man of a state, he sawhis country facing all theseproblems and he is dealingwith it as a surgeon shouldbe dealing with a disease -removing it.” —Reuters

MOMBASA—Bodies mayhave been moved from massgraves in Kenya to prevent aninvestigation into a suspectedslaughter of villagers duringinter-tribal unrest in the TanaRiver region, police said.

The suspected graveswere found on Monday inKilelengwani village, the focusof fighting in the coastal areathat has killed more than 100people in the past three weeks,including nine police officers.The scale of the unrest hasleft many Kenyans convincedit was politically instigatedand has raised fears of seri-ous tribal fighting before elec-tions due in March.

The Kenya Red Crosssaid at least 20 people be-lieved to have been killed werestill unaccounted for, and theysuspected their bodies hadbeen buried in the graves.Regional police chief AggreyAdoli said only a human footand human skin had beenfound after two hours of dig-ging, however.

“The whole place ap-peared freshly dug and wasexuding the stench of rottenflesh ... we all were surprisedwhen nothing was found.Those who removed the bod-ies must have been striving tohide some evidence,” he said

Bodies moved from Kenyamass graves, police suspect

by telephone late on Thurs-day. “It is possible that thegraves might have been tam-pered with and bodies re-moved before police arrived atthe scene to seal it off,” Adolisaid.

Raiders shot, hacked andburnt to death 38 people lastweek in Kilelengwani and 20people have been arrestedand charged with murderover the killings. Those ar-rested include members ofboth rival tribes involved inclashes, the Pokomo andOrma. Local human rightsgroups have blamed the vio-lence on incitement by politi-cians seeking to drive awayelements of the local popula-tion they believe will vote fortheir opponents.

President Mwai Kibakiimposed a curfew last weekand sent extra security forcesto the area to try to end theviolence, intensified by an in-flux of weapons in the last fewyears. Settled Pokomo farm-ers and semi-nomadic Ormatribesmen have clashed foryears over access to grazing,farmland and water in thecoastal region. Dams alongthe Tana River, Kenya’s long-est, supply about two thirdsof the east African state’selectricity.—Reuters

SOUTH AFRICA—Residentsblocked roads and South Af-rican police fired rubber bul-lets at the world’s top plati-num firm Anglo Americanyesterday, the same day min-ers there faced a deadline toreturn to work. The unrest atAnglo American Platinum(Amplats) in Rustenburg,about 120 kilometers (75miles) northwest ofJohannesburg, seemed to beescalating just as a deadly six-week strike at a nearby plati-num mine run by Lonminwound down.

Black smoke billowed inthe Sondela informal settle-ment next to a shaft, as min-ers and residents blocked

Strikers at South Africamine return to work

roads with rocks and burn-ing tires to keep the policeout. “They shot at us withrubber bullets, and afterwardsthey poured teargas, that’swhy we put the rocks,” saidresident Mable Makgetla, 30,whose husband works for amining contractor.

Police arrested 22 peoplein the area on Wednesday butdid not immediately respondto requests for comment onthe fresh unrest. “Teachersand children were inside classwhen the y (police) shot,”said striking Amplats minerDaniel Khasiphe, 38, of a pri-mary school that was closedafter the police operation.—Arab News

BEIRUT—At least 54 peoplewere killed when a jet fighterblew up a fuel station amidheavy fighting betweengovernment and rebel forcesin northern Syria on Thurs-day, a British-based monitor-ing group said. The SyrianObservatory for HumanRights, which has a networkof activists across Syria re-porting on government vio-lence during the 18-month-old revolt, cited an activistin Al-Raqqa province assaying more than 110 peoplewere dead or wounded.

A video published by ac-tivists, said to be from Al-Raqqa, showed black cloudsof smoke rising from thewreckage of the petrol sta-tion as bewildered residentsexamined the scene follow-ing the attack by an air forcejet. Government forcesshelled rebels near a bordercrossing with Turkey some30 km (18 miles) away on thenorthern fringes of Al-

Syrian air strike kills 54 activistsRaqqa, a day after it wasseized by the insurgents.

A Reuters witness on theTurkish side of the borderheard heavy gunfire and ex-plosions close to the TelAbyad border post, where anopposition flag still fluttered.Residents rushed toward theborder as the gunfire intensi-fied. It was impossible toverify the authenticity of theactivists’ video, and most for-eign journalists are barred en-try into Syria, making ac-counts of events difficult toconfirm.

President Bashar Assadhas used helicopters andfighter jets against areaswhere insurgents have beenoperating, including residen-tial districts of the capital andother cities. Assad’s forceshave targeted petrol stationsin rura l towns and villagesand along main roads to de-prive rebels of fuel. Civilianshave set up smaller, discreetfuel outlets. In comments to

Egyptian magazine Al-AhramAl-Araby, published in itsFriday edition, Assad said“the armed groups exerciseterrorism against the state.They are not popular withinsociety ... they will not be vic-torious in the end.”

But he added that the“door to dialogue remainsopen.” “Change cannot beachieved through foreign in-tervention,” he said. Activ-ists say more than 27,000people have been killed in aconflict which began withpeaceful street protests thatprovoked a harsh militarycrackdown and mushroomedinto civil war. Last month wasthe bloodiest yet.

Earlier on Thursday,Syria’s information ministrysaid a Syrian military helicop-ter that crashed near the capi-tal had clipped the tail of aSyrian Arab Airlines passen-ger plane, but the 200 peopleon board escaped unharmed.—Arab News

Israel kills 2Hamas guards

RAFAH—An Israeli strike onGaza overnight killed twopeople whom Palestinian of-ficials described as borderguards, but Israel said it hadthwarted an attack in the ad-vanced planning stage.“Two citizens were martyredand another was woundedin an Israeli air strike on a carin Rafah city,” Palestinianhealth ministry spokesmanAshraf Al-Qudra said.

Officials in Gaza’sHamas-run Interior Ministrysaid the air strike killed twoborder guards and seriouslywounded a third as theywere patrolling the frontierwith Egypt. The ministrynamed the two dead men asLt. Ashraf Saleh, 33, and hisdeputy, Anis Abu Al-Aynin,22. The third, who was seri-ously hurt in the strike, whichoccurred just before mid-night, was also a lieutenantin the security forces.—Arab News

Portugal rulingparty’s popularity

hammeredby taxes

LISBON—The Social Demo-crats received 24 percentsupport, down from 36 per-cent in June and sevenpoints behind the oppositionSocialists, in the Diario deNoticias daily’s opinion poll.The rightist CDS party, partof the Social Democrats’ rul-ing coalition, edged up to 7percent from 6 percent.

The government plansto raise the social securitylevy in 2013 for all workersto 18 percent from 11 per-cent, potentially creatingtensions with the smallerparty which is traditionallyopposed to higher taxes.Following a late-night meet-ing on Friday, the two par-ties issued a statement say-ing they remained commit-ted to the coalition pact andthe targets of the 78-billioneuro (62 billion pounds) bail-out.—Reuters

JERUSALEM—US officialshave warned that Egypt andJordan could annul their peacetreaties with Israel and severall diplomatic ties if the Jew-ish state attacks Iran’s nuclearsites, a newspaper said yes-terday. Quoting a high-levelIsraeli official, the top-sellingIsraeli newspaper YediotAharonot said Washingtonhad warned that Arab leaderswould not be able to controlan angry public backlash ifIsrael were to mount an attackon Iran.

The official, who wasprivy to the US warning,pointed to the violent re-sponse in several Middle East-ern countries to a film insult-ing Islam, saying: “Today theArab leaders do not controltheir peoples, the streets con-trol the leaders. “An Israelistrike is just what the Iraniansneed. The entire Arab andMuslim street will take to the

US warns Israelagainst Iran strike

streets to demonstrate,” hesaid.

“What happened with thefilm ... is just a preview of whatwill happen in case of an Is-raeli strike,” he said of the un-rest which has swept the Mus-lim world, targeting US embas-sies and other American sym-bols and leaving more than 30people dead. Egyptian andJordanian leaders “would notbe able to withstand the pres-sure of the masses and wouldhave to take drastic measuressuch as the severing of diplo-matic ties and annulling thepeace agreements, despite thefact that they are personallyopposed to a nuclear Iran,” thepaper said.

As well as potentially sac-rificing its relations with Jor-dan and Egypt, a strike“would have severe ramifica-tions on ties between Israeland other Muslim countriesaround the world.—Reuters

SEOUL: South Korean armymen in action during a live fire drill in Paju, south of the demilitarized zone that dividesthe two Koreas, South Korea, Friday.

South Koreafires on NorthKorean fishing

boatsSOUTH KOREA—SouthKorea’s navy fired warningshots Friday toward NorthKorean fishing boats thatcrossed a disputed maritimeboundary, but the shotsdidn’t hit the fishing boatsand the vessels retreated, aSouth Korean official said.Fishing boats routinely jostlefor position in the seafood-rich Yellow Sea watersclaimed by both countriesduring crab-catching season,which is now in high gear.

Three deadly navalclashes since 1999 havetaken a few dozen lives.Pyongyang argues the lineshould run farther south. Butfor Seoul, accepting such aline would endanger fishingaround five South Koreanislands and hamper accessto its port at Incheon. NorthKorea denies responsibil-ity.—Reuters

PRAGUE—Czech spirit mak-ers slammed a governmentdecision to freeze all salesand exports of hard alcoholfollowing a health scare,saying on Friday it wouldunfairly damage their repu-tations and cost millions insales. A number of leadingbrands told Reuters on Fri-day they were suspendingproduction and said smallerfirms could face severecash-flow problems andeven bankruptcy.

The EU country tempo-rarily banned the sale of spir-its in shops and pubs lastFriday - a dramatic move inone of the world’s heaviest-drinking nations - after 23people died and others wentblind drinking bootleg alco-hol laced with methanol. Therestriction was extended toexports on Thursdayevening, under pressurefrom the European Union.Prime Minister Petr Necassaid he had heard the blocwas preparing to impose itsown ban and decided tomake a pre-emptive move.

The government hasvowed to get the drinks backon bar and supermarketshelves as early as next week,

Czech spirits freeze hitsmakers’ sales, reputations

as soon as it can impose newsafety measures, but hasgiven no firm date. Spiritcompanies said the ban andother planned measures likenew tax stamps or certificatesof origin would have littleimpact on bootleg makerswho operate outside the law.

The freeze would alsodamage the brands of repu-table companies by bundlingthem in with bootleggers,they added. “It is a scar onthe reputation of qualityCzech goods for exports,”said Zdenek Chromy, deputychairman of the country’stop fruit brandy makerRudolf Jelinek. “Orders fromGermany and Austria havealready been cancelled. Wehave a shipment to the U.S.,where we don’t know howthings will end up.”

He said Rudolf Jelinekwould stop production onMonday. A third of thecompany’s 350 millioncrowns (11.1 million pounds)in sales last year were fromexports. Slovakia and Po-land, which take about 50percent of the $80 million inannual Czech liquor exports,had already imposed theirown freeze.—Reuters

World T20 2012, Group D

Today MatchesSri Lanka

vsSouth Africa

Australiavs

West Indies

New Zealand Innings:Guptill b Razzak ............. 11Franklin b Mortaza ........ 35B McCullum c Tamimb Razzak ........................ 123Taylor not out ................ 14Extras: (6w 2lb) ................ 8Total: (for 3) ................. 191Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WMortaza ............. 4.0-0-26-1Shafiul Islam ..... 3.0-0-34-0Razzak ................ 4.0-0-28-2Shakib ................ 4.0-0-40-0Mahmudullah ... 1.0-0-13-0Elias Sunny ....... 3.0-0-36-0Rahman .............. 1.0-0-12-0Fall of wicket: 1-19, 2-113, 3-191Bangladesh Innings:Tamim c Guptill b Mills ... 0Ashraful lbw b Southee 21Shakib c Williamson

b Mills ............................. 11Mushfiqur c Williamson b Mills .............................. 4Mahmudullah b NMcCullum ....................... 15Nasir c Guptill b Southee 50Rahman not out ............. 14Mortaza c Franklinb Oram .............................. 5Elias c Oram b Southee .. 5Razzak not out ................. 0Extras: (4w 3lb) ................ 7Total: (for 8) ................. 132Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WMills ................... 4.0-0-33-3Southee ............. 4.0-1-16-3Oram ................... 4.0-0-34-1Vettori ................ 4.0-0-31-0N McCullum ...... 4.0-0-15-1Fall of wicket: 1-0, 2-19, 3-33, 4-37, 5-87, 6-115, 7-123,8-128

P A L L E K E L E — B r e n d o nMcCullum notched the high-est individual score in allTwenty20 internationals tohelp New Zealand humbleBangladesh by 59 runs atPallekele stadium on Friday.

The 30-year-old righthander smashed seven sixesand 11 boundaries during his58-ball 123 to give NewZealand, who reached 191-3in their 20 allotted overs, arampaging start to the groupD match played under over-cast conditions.

McCullum’s clean hittingmade it gloomy forBangladesh who were re-stricted to 132-8 in their 20overs, with Tim Southee (3-16) and Kyle Mills (3-33) shar-ing the spoils.

Nasir Hossain played alone fighting hand with animpressive 39-ball 50, studdedwith six boundaries and a six

McCullum breaks record asNew Zealand beat Bangladesh

PALLEKELE: Brendon McCullum’s 123 off 58 balls, a record T20 international score,crushed Bangladesh in World Twenty20 2012, Group D match.

while opener MohammadAshraful made 21.

Shakib Al Hasan fell for 11.New Zealand skipper

Ross Taylor praisedMcCullum’s robust innings.

“When you have some-one score a century in T20you’re always in the boxseat,” said Taylor. “The wicketnipped around early on andseemed to zip on a little bitunder the lights. Hopefullythis win will give us momen-tum.”

Bangladesh captainMushfiqur Rahim saidMcCullum had made all thedifference.

“We bowled well in thefirst few overs but McCullum,even when he doesn’t hit theball well, it’s still going for six.We’ll look at our strengths andcome up with a new strategy

for the next game,” saidRahim.

It was all McCullum whenNew Zealand batted after be-ing sent by Bangladesh.

McCullum hit two sixes inAbdur Razzak’s last over ofthe innings to go clear ofSouth African Richard Levi’sprevious highest score of 117made against New Zealand inHamilton earlier this year.

He fell caught off the lastdelivery to end Bangladesh’s

miseries but not before help-ing New Zealand to 63 runsoff the last four overs.

New Zealand lost MartinGuptill in the fourth over butMcCullum ensured a big totalwith his ruthless slogging,hitting Hasan for two sixes inhis successive overs.

He added 94 for the sec-ond wicket with JamesFranklin who made 35 and 78for the third wicket Taylor(14).

McCullum reached histenth half-century off just 29balls with the first of two suc-cessive boundaries off ZiaurRahman and continued withthe same aggression.

He was dropped on 92before hitting two boundariesoff Elias Sunny to completehis ton off 51 balls.

The knock wasMcCullum’s second T20 cen-tury. His first came againstAustralia at Christchurch in2010.

New Zealand next playPakistan here on Sunday.The top two teams willqualify for the Super Eightsround.

New Zealand: Ross Tay-lor (capt), Martin Guptill, RobNicol, Brendon McCullum,Kane Williamson, JamesFranklin, Jacob Oram, NathanMcCullum, Daniel Vettori,Kyle Mills, Tim Southee.

Bangladesh: MushfiqurRahim (capt), MohammadMahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal,Mohammad Ashraful,Shakib Al Hasan, NasirHossain, Ziaur Rahman,Elias Sunny, Abdur Razzak,Mashrafe Mortaza, ShafiulIslam.—AFP

ISLAMABAD: Farhan Mehboob and Danish Atlas in action during semifinals of CAS International Squash Champi-onship-2012 at Mushaf Squash Complex.

Aamir, Farhanin final of Intl

Squash tourneySPORTS REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Semi Fi-nals of Chief of Air Staff In-ternational Squash Champi-onship were played atMushaf Squash Complex,Islamabad Friday.

The 1st Semi Final be-tween Aamir Atlas Khan andFarhan Zaman proved to bea one sided match. AamirAtlas won the match with agame score of 11/5, 11/7, 11/7. The match lasted for 28Minutes.

The 2nd Semi Final be-tween Farhan Mehboob andDanish Atlas Khan was a nailbiter. However, FarhanMehboob won the matchwith a game score of 12/10,11/9, 9/11, 3/11, 11/3. Thematch lasted for 52 minutes.

CO L O M B O—Hard-hit t ingWest Indies opener ChrisGayle celebrated his 33rdbirthday on Friday by tellingbatsmen how to hit sixes dur-ing the ongoing WorldTwenty20 in Sri Lanka.

“It takes a bit of strengthand once the ball is in yourslot you go for it,” Gayle saidahead of the West Indies’ firstmatch against Australia inColombo on Saturday.

“It’s instinct to be hon-est. You have to let the mindand body flow together. Youdon’t want to get stuck in atwo-minded situation.

“You just try and be natu-ral out there and things willactually flow for you in theend,” Gayle was quoted assaying by the West IndiesCricket Board in a statement.

Left-handed Gayle,whose 27 sixes are a tourna-ment record in the WorldTwenty20, is one of the mostfeared batsmen in all formatsof the game with a penchantfor big hits against both paceand spin.

His rapid-fire 117 off 57balls with 10 sixes and sevenfours against South Africa inthe inaugural WorldTwenty20 in 2007 remains thehighest individual score inthe competition.

“The key is balance. Youhave to have good balanceto be able to hit a lot of sixes,”said the Jamaican, who alsohas two triple-centuries inTest cricket to his credit.

“I pay special emphasisto my balance. You have torealise that bowlers are notalways going to make it easyfor you. You have to createthe shots, so you have tomake sure you do it well.”

Gayle said he looked for-

Gayle reveals bighitting secret

KARACHI—Legendary leg-spinner Abdul Qadir firmlybelieved that consistencywill be key to Pakistan’s suc-cess in the 4th edition of ICCWorld Twenty20 CricketChampionship.

“Consistency should bein all areas of the game, bat-ting, bowling and fieldingplus fitness,” he told APPin an interview on Friday.You cannot even afford asmall mistake in this shorterbrand of cricket.

“Everybody knows Pa-kistan team’s unpredictablenature and their fiery brand.But without consistency inall areas of the game, theynot reach the top,” he said.

“At the moment ourstrength is bowling. But atthe same time we neededgood show from the bats-men,” he commented.

“Picking the right combi-nation for each match withclose eye at their opponentsstrength and weakness willbe very important.

“No doubt we got supe-rior combination with somedangerous players in theteam. But there should begreat deal of determination,enthusiasm with intelligenceand killers instinct in theteam, he maintained.

He suggested that Paki-stan team should use left/right combination withMuhammad Hafeez and NasirJamshed at the top with UmarAkmal should up in the or-der at number three spot fol-lowed by Kamran Akmal andAsad Shafiq.

Rest should be with tour-ing selection committee asper the conditions. He fa-vored inclusion of left arm

spinner Raza Hasan amongthe spinners. He dispelledthe impression that SaeedAjmal will be under pressurebecause of too much expec-tations.

Ajmal is enjoying hiscricket at the moment and heknows his job well and thereshould no worries.

He (Ajmal) at his prime.Opposition will be underpressure against SaeedAjmal, he asserted.

Afridi is out of form. Butremember that he is three inone. Dangerous batsmanand bowler and agile andswift fielder. He prayed forAfridis return to form in in-terest of Pakistan.

He said Pakistan can gointo the match with threepaceman Umer Gul, AbdulRazzak, Yasir Arafat/SohailTanvir.

Consistency crucial for Pakistan’ssuccess in World Twenty20: Qadir

He said Umar Gul isvery experience bowler andneeded to his touch.

Being big hitterRazzaqs inclusion will beneeded, Abdul Qadir said.However he said properplanning and teams meet-ings and discussions will beimportant with team man-agement.

He said Kiwis are verydangerous opponents andPakistan bowlers shouldcome up with good and plan-ning particularly against thebatsmen of caliber ofBrendon McCullum, RossTaylor and Jacob Oram.

Abdul Qadir, a formerchief selector a completeand flawless performance isneeded to win both theiropening group D matchesagainst New Zealand andBangladesh.—APP

ward to playing against Aus-tralia, who thrashed Irelandby seven wickets in their firstgame on Wednesday.

“The first game is vital,”he said. “You don’t want toplay catch-up cricket in T20,so it’s a very big match forus. It will also get our confi-dence going.

“In our team we bat rightdown, and bowling-wise wehave spinners and fastbowlers. The key for us is toget to the second round andtry and take it step by step.”

The West Indies, one ofthe pre-tournamentfavourites, play Ireland onMonday.—AFP

PTF to organizeForeign Int’l

CourseI S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nTaekwondo Federation is or-ganizing first-ever Foreign In-ternational Instructor Coursein Pakistan under the supervi-sion of Kukkiwon which willbe held from February 1 to 5here. Lt. Col Waseem Ahmed,Secretary General, PakistanTaekwondo Federation toldAPP that many qualified In-structors will be coming to Pa-kistan for the mega event, aswithout talented coaches it isnot possible for players tohave valuable knowledgeabout this Unique OlympicMartial Art Sport.

He said it is a certified in-ternational course that will beconducted by KukkiwonQualified Instructors who are9th Dan and most qualified in-structors in the world. “A totalof 120 to 150 participants fromall over the country and neigh-boring countries includingMale and Female will take partin this event,” he said.—APP

LONDON—Stoke defenderAndy Wilkinson has beensuspended for three matchesfor his clash with ManchesterCity striker Mario Balotelli inthe Premier League match.

Wilkinson caught Balotelliin the face with his elbow dur-ing Saturday’s 1-1 draw at theBritannia Stadium in an inci-dent that was missed by ref-eree Mark Clattenburg, reportsXinhua.

After reviewing the video

Wilkinson banned for 3 matchesevidence, an independentFootball Association disci-plinary panel decided the 28-year-old had a case to answer.

Stoke boss Tony Pulisconfirmed the club would notappeal against the punish-ment, meaning Wilkinson willmiss his side’s next three Pre-mier League matches againstChelsea, Swansea andLiverpool. AC Milan club vice-president Adriano Galliani in-sisted that the ‘Rossoneri’

head coach MassimilianoAllegri has not been given onegame to save his job.

Local reports this weekhad suggested that PresidentSilvio Berlusconi wanted tosack Allegri following hisside’s 0-0 draw with AnderlechtTuesday in a ChampionsLeague group match, reportsXinhua. But Galliani is under-stood to have convinced himto give Allegri more time, start-ing with this weekend’s game

against Udinese.“Any coach in the world

would be at risk if he lost 10games in a row, but that’s notthe case here and we don’twant it to happen to us,”Galliani said Thursday. “Thefaith that we have in Allegriwon’t expire on Sunday inUdine. As for Berlusconi, Ihave known him for 33 yearsso there is no possibility ofany misunderstanding be-tween us,” he added.—Online

C O L O M B O — D e f e n d i n gchampions England’s moraleis brilliant after winning bothTwenty20 World Cup warm-up games against Pakistanand Australia, captain StuartBroad said .

The 2010 winners, whoalso play India on Sundaywith the top two from thegroup advancing to the su-per eights, beat Pakistan by15 runs and the Australiansby nine runs.

“We prepared really well,won both games over hereand both have been verygood tests for us,” Broad toldreporters.

“I am really delighted. Themorale is brilliant. Everyone isexcited about getting under-way. Our preparations havegone as well as we hoped.”

Broad was asked how theteam would cope in the ab-sence of leading batsmanKevin Pietersen.

“We’ve got world-classmatch winners in the side. Yes

England morale ‘brilliant’after warmup wins: Broad

we have got guys who haveplayed a lot of internationalcricket,” Broad said.

“We’ve got eight of thosewho won the World Cup threeyears ago and we’ve got play-ers who can clear the ropeswithout a doubt, we haveseen that in the last twogames.” Pietersen an-nounced his retirement fromlimited-overs cricket this yearbefore making himself avail-able again in August.

The South African-bornbatsman has been frozen outof the England set-up sinceallegedly sending “provoca-tive” text messages about hisown team mates to players inthe South Africa side lastmonth. “It’s back to the ECBat the moment that he is nothere and we have to put upwith that and get on with that.The 15 guys in the squad areexcited to be here, out for thechallenge and that’s what youwant coming into a tourna-ment.”—Online

EXTREMES of temperatures duringheat waves or cold spells could trigger premature deaths from heart at-

tacks, according to a new study by Aus-tralian researchers. The findings are impor-tant because of how thebody responds to temper-ate extremes, the growingobesity trend and theEarth’s climate changes,said Cunrui Huang, wholed the study as doctoralscholar at the School ofPublic Health, QueenslandUniversity of Technology(QUT), Brisbane.

Exposure to extremetemperatures can triggerchanges in blood pressure,blood thickness, choles-terol and heart rate, ac-cording to previous re-search, the journal Circu-lation: CardiovascularQuality and Outcomes re-ports. The study is the firstin which researchers exam-ined the link between daily average tem-perature and “years of life lost” due to car-diovascular disease (CVD).

Years of life lost measures prematuredeath by estimating years of life lost ac-cording to average life expectancy, accord-ing to a QUT statement.

“With increasing rates of obesity andrelated conditions, including diabetes,more people will be vulnerable to extremetemperatures and that could increase thefuture disease burden of extreme tempera-tures,” Huang said.

Researchers collected data on daily

Extreme heat, cold cantrigger fatal heart attacks

KARACHI: Activists of Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat holding a rally on Youm-e-Rasool (SAW) at MA Jinnah Road.

KARACHI: Residents of Godhra burning an effigy during demonstration against theblasphemous film.

temperatures in Brisbane, Australia, be-tween 1996 and 2004 and compared themto documented cardiovascular-relateddeaths for the same period. Brisbane hashot, humid summers and mild, dry win-

ters. The average dailymean temperature was 68.9degrees Fahrenheit (20.5degrees Celsius), with thecoldest one percent of days(11.7 degree Celsius)characterised as cold spellsand the hottest one percent(29.2 degree Celsius) heatwaves.

Per one million people,72 years of life were lost perday due to CVD, research-ers said. Risk of prematureCVD death rose more whenextreme heat was sustainedfor two or more days, re-searchers found. “Thismight be because peoplebecome exhausted due tothe sustained strain ontheir cardiovascular sys-

tems without relief, or health systemsbecome overstretched and ambulancestake longer to reach emergency cases,”said Adrian G. Barnett, study co-authorand associate professor of biostatisticsat QUT.

“We suspect that people take betterprotective actions during prolonged coldweather, which might be why we did notfind as great a risk of CVD during coldspells.” Spending a few hours daily in atemperate environment can help reduceheat- and cold-related illnesses anddeaths, Barnett said.

Altaf urgesObama, OIC totake notice ofanti-Islam film

KARACHI—MQM chief AltafHussain on Friday urged USPresident Barack Obama,parliamentarians and Organi-zation of Islamic Conference(OIC) to take notice of ananti-Islam film that angeredMuslims across the world.

In a telephonic addressfrom London, Hussain warnedsaid that the world could facea third world war if the processof making sacrilegious filmsand cartoons continued.

He deplored the killing ofinnocent people and damageof public and private prop-erty in the guise of protest.

The MQM chief furthercalled upon to policy makingbodies and international com-munity to take notice of theprotest of Muslims.—NNI

KARACHI: Containers have been placed on the road leading to US Consulate to stop theprotestors on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (BHUH).

KARACHI: Activists of Islami Roohani Mission hold a demonstration against the blas-phemous film.

KARACHI—Suspension ofcellular phone services didnot help the government tocontrol protesters destroy-ing public property thoughit irked customers for doingtheir routine works.

The government askedcellular operators to blocktheir services in 15 cities asa security measure but its didnot generate the acceptedresults.This is not the firsttime communication hasbeen blocked by means of akill-switch. The Governmenthas previously resorted tosuch tactics in Balochistan,Gilgit and other major citiesin the country on importantoccasions such as Eid andIndependence Day, a privatetelevision channel reportedFriday.

Bolo Bhi, a Non-Profit-Organization, raised the is-sue with security expertswho clarified that kill-switch tactics not onlycompromise communicationrights of citizen but also re-

Suspension of cellularservices seems useless

sult in huge security risksthemselves – GSM blockingbars tracker services andhome security equipment,allowing a field day forcriminals. This communica-tion breakdown also takesa toll on health and emer-gency services.

There are other, moreefficient methods tocounter terrorism withoutcompromising citizen’s ba-sic rights to access andcommunication, it said.Such measures only createmore problems for the citi-zens. The Government mustensure the right to life, dig-nity without taking awaytheir basic rights that com-promise their security aswell as their peace of mind.

The government mustclarify how such measuresserve the purpose of secu-rity and it must come upwith alternate plans to en-sure safety of the citizenswithout compromising theirrights.—NNI

Dubai basedinspection clearsAustralian sheepKA R A C H I —An indepen-dent veterinarian from aleading World AnimalHealth Organisation (OIE)accredited lab, Central Vet-erinary Research Labora-tory (VRL Dubai) whichoperates as a Governmentdiagnostic centre for theUnited Arab Emirates hasissued a certificate term-ing the sheep free of anyexotic disease and per-fectly fi t for human con-sumption.—NNI

M M ALAM

K A R A C H I — A g g r e s s i v edemonstrations by variousreligious, political, students& other organisations havetaken place here on Fridayas Govt. initiated obser-vance of Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH) against ananti-Islam film made in theUS. Protesters vented theiranger against America inparticular and the West ingeneral.

Following Juma Prayersthe protesters initially con-verged at NumaishChowrangi on M.A. JinnahRoad (Near Quaid’s Mazar)where various associationshad erected welcome camps& moved towards

City in gripof violent protests

Merewether Tower (some)endeavoring to approachUS Consulate General.Enroute they torched threecinemas & reached NativeJetty Bridge where somemiscreants fired live roundskilling one & injuring manypolicemen.

Later, turning over/torching shipping-contain-ers with their bare hands(that were supposed to cor-don off the Red-Alert area)a mob converged at PIDCHouse where they smashedglasses of Sheraton & PearlContinental’s road-facingshowrooms; damaged vari-ous vehicles includingthree police mobiles sta-tioned there for CM Housesecurity; torched & looted

three banks & two interna-tional fast-food franchises.Meanwhile, some armedcriminals tried but failed topillage mobile market inSaddar.

Another mêlée tookplace at Tower where miscre-ants set a bank & a buildingharboring head office of aninsurance company. Police& Rangers who were not ex-pecting such a large crowdtried to disperse them byshooting tear gas & liverounds.

Arsonists barring FireBrigade from doing theirduties destroyed two en-gines & injured sixfirefighters . Even Ambu-lances carrying injured po-licemen were fired at.

‘SC open Pandorabox with dual

nationalities verdict’KARACHI—Former Presi-dent Supreme Court Bar As-sociation and renowned hu-man rights activist AsmaJahangir has termed Su-preme Court’s verdict in thedual nationalities case akinto opening a Pandora’s Box.According to BBC, she wasreacting to the apex court’sdecision of declaring a mem-ber of the parliament ineli-gible for holding his posi-tion on the pretext of not be-ing righteous, honest and‘ameen.’

Asma said that court’s re-sponse is unlike anythingthat has been seen by the SCin the past and that it hadseemingly taken over theElection Commission ofPakistan’s powers regardinglawmakers’ eligibility for hold-ing office.—NNI

RESEARCHERS in China who compared the brain scans of 18 teenagers diagnosed with Internet Addic-

tion Disorder (IAD) with those of 18 non-addicted teenagers found differences inwhite matter density in over 20 brain re-gions. A report on theirfindings was publishedonline in the 11 January is-sue of PLoS ONE. All theparticipants had a brainscan from which the re-searchers assessed thedensity and structure ofthe white matter. Whitematter contains fibers thatcarry the signals variousparts of the brain use tocommunicate with eachanother.

The researchers, whocame from the ChineseAcademy of Sciences andother research centers inChina, also assessed arange of behavioral fea-tures such as addiction,anxiety, emotional disorder, social relation-ships, family functioning and time manage-ment and compared the results from thegroup diagnosed with IAD with the non-IAD group.

They found the participants in the IADgroup performed less well in some of thebehavioral assessments, including an ad-ditional measure of addiction, a question-naire that assesses emotional conduct andproblems in relationships, and a measurethat screens for anxiety-related emotionaldisorders.

Also, when the researchers comparedbrain regions they observed to be differ-

Internet addiction linked to whitematter differences in teen brains

ent between the groups with the resultsof their behavioral assessments, theyfound that worse (ie less “healthy”)scores on two of the behavioral measureswere linked to lower white matter densityin two specific brain regions.

The researchers con-clude that their findingsshow IAD is “characterisedby impairment of white mat-ter fibres connecting brainregions involved in emo-tional generation and pro-cessing, executive attention,decision making and cogni-tive control”. At this pointwe might mistakenly assumethat because the research-ers found a link betweenIAD and brain changes, thatit was the former that led tothe latter.

However, we shouldbear in mind that this is a across-sectional study: theresearchers took a “snap-shot” at one point in time.

They did not follow the participantsover a period and they did not establishwhat their brain structures were like be-fore they became “addicted” to theinternet.

So we don’t know if the brainchanges were already present before-hand and so we can’t rule out whetherthey led to or contributed to the addic-tion. There are two other reasons to becautious about interpreting these results:Firstly, the number of participants is small,and while the results may show “statisti-cal significance”, we should probablyregard them as tentative.

LAHORE: A policeman throwing stone on demonstrations to disperse them during dem-onstration against an anti-Islam film on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).

LAHORE: Demonstrators climbing containers placed by police to stop them from going to US Consulate against ananti-Islam film on Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (SAW).

Anti-DengueDay again on

23rdLAHORE—A spokesman ofPunjab Government has saidthat, on the directive ofPunjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif,Anti-Dengue Day wouldagain be observed through-out the province on Sunday,23rd September, 2012.

All the government insti-tutions will remain open, andwill take part in anti-denguecampaign.—APP

DRF rescued8,351 flood-hit

peopleLAHORE—Disaster Re-sponse Force (DRF) rescued8,351 people during flood inRajanpur and DG Khanwhereas medical treatmentwas provided to 1,227 floodaffectees and 49,178 cattlewere vaccinated.

This was disclosed byDirector General ProvincialDisaster Management Au-thority, Mujahid Sher Dilwhile presiding over a reviewmeeting of relief items beingprovided to flood affectees.

Mujahid Sher Dil said thatPunjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharifwas personally monitoring therehabilitation of floodaffectees and all concerneddepartments had been boundnot to create any hindrance inthe relief activities. He said that20 more trucks carrying reliefgoods had reached in affecteddistricts and the total numberof trucks had increased to 305.He said that 37,000 flour bagsthrough 204 trucks, 1500 blan-ket through nine trucks hadalso reached there.—APP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague President SenatorCh. Shujaat Hussain and se-nior leader and Deputy PrimeMinister Ch. Parvez Elahihave asked the United Na-tions and the West not toput Islamic world’s patienceto more test and pay imme-diate attention to the pro-

Islamic world urged to adoptunanimous line of action: PML

tests of the Muslims overblasphemy, the culpritsshould not only be given ex-emplary punishment forcommitting blasphemy butalso effective legislationshould be done on interna-tional level to prevent suchheinous acts in future.

In a statement, they saidthat the Muslims are follow-ers of the peace accordingto the tenets of their religionbut they cannot tolerate anyblasphemous act and disre-spect in honour of the HolyQuran and their most be-loved Holy Prophet (PeaceBe Upon Him). They saidthat the govts of the Islamiccountries should also adoptunanimous strategy in re-sponse to the voices andprotests of their people.

They said that blasphemyand disrespect in honour ofany religion, faith and theirrespectable personalities isnot only worst extremism butalso an open act of terrorismand when no action is takenagainst such heinous acts of

blasphemy and discrimina-tion is shown towards follow-ers of a particular religion,then this gives rise to reli-gious extremism.

They further said thatshowing of disrespect in thehonour of the Holy Prophet(Peace Be Upon Him), bythose who are even ignorantof basic principles and moralvalues of their own religion,cannot in any manner under-mine the exalted place en-joyed by the Holy Prophet(Peace Be Upon Him) but thisis highly intolerable and un-acceptable for any believer ofthe faith and this is why theentire Muslim Ummah is upagainst it in protest today.

They said that no imme-diate and effective legisla-tion to stop such heinous ac-tivities in respect andhonour of the most respect-able and dignified personali-ties poses serious threat tothe world peace. They ap-preciated the decision ofPakistan Govt to protest onofficial level.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—As many as36,000 (11,000 male and25,000 female) candidatesshall appear in the Universityof Health Sciences (UHS)entrance test tomorrow (onSunday) for admission topublic and private sectormedical and dental institu-tions of the Punjab.

UHS has established 20test centres in 12 cities of theprovince including Lahore,Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan,Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan,Sargodha, Rawalpindi,Hassan Abdal, Gujrat andGujranwala. The test was alsoscheduled to be held at D.G.Khan but due to the floodsin that area the centre has

Admission to medical, dental colleges

36,000 candidates toappear in entry test

been changed and now thecandidates of D.G. Khan cen-tre shall appear at the Gov-ernment Degree College forBoys, Muzaffargarh.

The test shall start at09:00 A.M. on September 23.The candidates, however,must reach their respectivecentres at least one hour be-fore the commencement ofthe test as all the centreswould be sealed at 08:15 A.M.and nobody would be al-lowed to enter after that.

In Lahore, three centreshave been set up that includeExamination Halls of Board ofIntermediate and SecondaryEducation, Lawrence Road;Examination Halls of PunjabUniversity, Wahdat Road;and Government Compre-hensive Girls High School,Wahdat Road. Around 10,500candidates (3000 male and7500 female) shall sit the testin the metropolis.

The test shall comprise220 multiple choice ques-tions (MCQs), divided intofour sections namely Phys-ics (44 MCQs), Chemistry (58MCQs), English (30 MCQs)and Biology (88 MCQs).

Total duration of the testshall be two and a half hour.After the main test, the can-didates shall be required toanswer a separate test com-prising questions related toaptitude and feedback. Anextra 30 minutes shall begiven to the candidates toanswer this test which shall

have no weightage in theentrance test score.

Total marks of the testshall be 1100. There shall benegative marking in the testand while 05 marks will beawarded for each correct an-swer, one mark will be de-ducted for each incorrect an-swer.

While briefing on the ar-rangement of the test, UHSVice Chancellor Prof. I.A.Naveed said that the Punjabgovernment had made im-maculate arrangements forsmooth conduct of the en-trance test.

The district administra-tion, under the supervision ofconcerned divisional commis-sioners and district coordina-tion officers, had finalized thesecurity and logistic plans attheir respective centres wherethe test was scheduled to beheld, Prof. Naveed said.

He further said that dis-trict police officers would beresponsible for security anddeployment of police person-nel at the test centres in theirrespective districts. Policewould ensure extensive pa-trolling and proper sweepingof the area before the com-mencement of the test.

Walk-through gates andmobile jammers would be in-stalled at each centre. Re-strictions would be imposedunder Section 144 on the en-try of unauthorized personsin the premises of examina-tion centres, UHS VC said.

LAHORE—Third Participa-tory Course on Democracyand Human Rights (PCDHR)begins in Lahore under theauspices of the Centre forHuman Rights Education(CHRE), a human rights in-stitution working tostrengthen human rights ac-tivism to build a human rightsand democratic culture.

The course is being par-ticipated by 25 humanrights defenders, universitystudents, representativesof political parties, membersof religious minorities fromdifferent parts of the coun-try.

On the 21st SeptemberSamson Salamat, DirectorCentre for Human RightsEducation facilitated a ses-sion on the concepts of hu-man rights and internationalhuman rights mechanismswhile Mehboob AhmedKhan, Legal Officer of HRCPshared his knowledge on theconstitutional history of Pa-kistan. Wilson Lee, SeniorProgram Officer of NationalEndowment for Democracyalso spoke to the humanrights defenders.

The course focuses the

CHRE’s course ondemocracy, human

rights kicks offdevelopment of knowledgeon the concepts of humanrights and democracy andskill development of the par-ticipants with a vision to pre-pare them to contribute to theefforts for to build a humanrights friendly society.

Apart from the in-housesessions, the participantsshall visit Women Jail, BrickKiln Workers, Dar-ul-Aman,Sanitary Workers, Trans-gender Community, FemaleWorkers and Gypsies to as-sess human rights situationin connection with interna-tional human rights stan-dards and principles. Afterthe assessment, the partici-pants in their individual plansshall plan and strategize re-search, advocacy and aware-ness raising initiatives to ad-dress the human rights is-sues.

Meanwhile, motivationalexercises would be con-ducted consistently duringthe course to strengthen thecommitment of human rightsdefenders and sensitizationfor their particular role in pro-tecting and promoting de-mocracy and human rights.—Online

Nawaz asks partyMPs to submit dual

nationality clearancecertificate

LAHORE—The PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) chief MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharifhas directed party membersof national and provincialassemblies and senators tofollow the Supreme Court(SC) directives regardingsubmitting certificate of nothaving dual nationality.

According to details,Mian Nawaz Sharif hashanded over the responsibil-ity of monitoring the processof dual nationality clarifica-tion certificate before Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan(ECP) to Senator Ishaq Dar.

He said that the N-League has always respectedthe decision of courts and itwould continue reverence ofSC’s decisions in the fu-ture.—INP

Dozens injured inanti-Islam rally

LAHORE—Dozens of pro-testers of the anti- sacrile-gious movies by Jone’sTerry, an American pastor,sustained multiple injuriesfollowing skirmishes withpolice near the US Consulateat Egerton Road here Friday.

The protesters mostly ci-vilians and activists of reli-gious organisations werethrashed by police as theyattempted to surpass the RedZone around the AmericanConsulate near Simla Hill.

Later, the situation turnedin an encounter between thepolice personnel and the an-gry protesters, who peltedstones on each others, whilethe security officials openedtear gas and areal firing todisperse the demonstra-tors.—APP

PPP would winelections if twomore PMs aredisqualified:

AitzazLAHORE—Senior Lawyerand PPP leader SenatorAitzaz Ahsan has said that iftwo more PPP Prime Minis-ters were disqualified, theparty will win the forthcom-ing general elections.

Speaking on a private TVchannel Friday, Aitzaz Ahsansaid President Asif Ali Zardariis a consensus maker and coa-lition maker when questionedabout the President. He saidMian Nawaz Sharif is a seniorpolitician while Maulana FazlurRehman has no match as faras political wheeling dealing isconcerned. He said ImranKhan is a better sportsman andGhulam Ishaq Khan was a dif-ficult President for PPP.

To a question, AitzazAhsan said that MohtarmaBenazir Bhutto was a bravepolitician. When asked tocompare Asif Ali Zardari andBenazir Bhutto in politics,Aitzaz said Asif Ali Zardari isa better politician. —INP