Continued on Page 7

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—As the pro-cess of reconciliation hasbegun with peace moveswith warring Taliban, es-tranged Balochs and actionsagainst groups stirringtrouble in Karachi, an under-standing has also beenreached among stakeholdersto resolve Musharraf treasoncase amicably for endingconfrontation, conflict andshow down in the country.

Understanding reached to resolve Musharraf syndromeThe Insiders privy to

such developments told thisscribe there was growingrealisation at all levels to ridthe country out of prevailingsores and irritants includingMusharraf case which hastriggered tension, divisionand disruption in the veryfabrics of social order, ham-pering vital economic devel-opment and harmony.

The sources said PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif hadalready taken several steps

to weed out menace of ter-rorism, lower political tem-

perature and tension to cre-Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

Treason court summonsMusharraf on Feb 18

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—A special court trying former military rulerPervez Musharraf for treason Friday ordered him to ap-pear on February 18, the latest postponement in the long-delayed case.

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—A member of the teamof negotiators representing theTehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in peacetalks with the Pakistani governmenthas expressed his reser-vations over the dia-logue, saying he won’tbe part of further nego-tiations.

Talks to end the mili-tants’ bloody seven-yearinsurgency formallykicked off Thursday be-tween a four-membergovernment committeeand a three-man Talibanteam, amid much scepti-cism over whether dia-logue can yield a lastingpeace deal.

The first round of talks ended withboth sides charting a roadmap for fu-ture negotiations, with the govern-

TTP negotiator rejects peacetalks under constitution

Maulana Aziz seeks assurance on Shariah enforcementTaliban team authorised to agree on ceasefire

ment team proposing that the peacetalk be pursued within the frameworkof the constitution of Pakistan.

However, Maulana Abdul Azizurged the government on Friday to re-move the condition of holding talks

under the constitution.“There would be no

problems if our constitu-tion were the Quran andSunnah. But the Talibansay they do notrecognise the prevailingconstitution,” Aziz tolda press conference inIslamabad. “The peopleshould not be misled intobelieving that our con-stitution is Islamic.”

Aziz, who rose toprominence during the2007 military operation in

Islamabad’s Lal Masjid where he is thechief cleric, said Pakistan’s constitutionshould be replaced by the teachings of

the Quran and the Holy Prophet (PBUH).Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Saudi Minister for Tourism and Antiquities Prince Sul-tan Bin Salman and Dr. Naeem Ghani, Chairman Sultana Foundation offering dua after inauguration of Center forEducation Research and Social Development at Sultana Foundation.

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif Friday said education in fieldsof science and technology can play an im-portant role in eradicating the economic illswhile ensuring socio-economic develop-ment of a nation.

He was addressing a ceremony to markthe launch of new initiative of the Centrefor Education Research and Social Devel-opment by Sultana Foundation. The Foun-dation, which is a Trust, financed by vol-untary donations from within and outsidePakistan is providing education to around8000 students, besides undertaking welfareprojects. The new Centre will focus onTeachers’ Development, Early Pre-schoolAge development and Primary EducationDevelopment in Pakistan.

The event was attended by Prince Sul-tan Bin Salman, Captain Shujaat Azim, Spe-cial Assistant to Prime Minister on Avia-tion, Dr. Naeem Ghani, Chairman SultanaFoundation, Admiral Mohammad Sharif,Trust member sultana Foundation Trust,Members of Sultana Foundation, teachersand students.

The Prime Minister said education wasthe key to a nation’s success and the morethe people of a country were educated; thehigher will be the standard of its develop-ment, as economic boom always followseducational revolution.

He said education, particularly in thefields of science and technology, can play

S&T can help eradicateeconomic ills: PM

an important role in eradicating the eco-nomic ills and ensure socio-economic de-velopment of a nation.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said as acountry on path of development, Pakistanneeds skilled, highly educated and moti-vated youth to compete in the present glo-bal environment.

“Though the present government iskeen to develop educational facilities forour youth, yet governmental efforts aloneare not enough to meet the ever growingrequirement.”

The Prime Minister therefore urged thephilanthropic institutions, the people andthe private sector to devote their effortsand resources to the noble cause of impart-ing quality education to young generationin line with modern trends.

He said Pakistan was blessed with a vasttreasure of talented youth who need to beproperly trained and guided. However hestressed that there was an urgent need toprovide them with opportunities so that theircapabilities were usefully employed for thenation’s socio-economic betterment.

He said the Youth Business Loan Schemewas one such step which the present gov-ernment has taken to allow the youth to usetheir skills and make them self reliant.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said socialwork was a service to humanity. “After theworship of Allah, no task is nobler than

UN ready to mediatebetween Pakistan,India on Kashmir

UNITED NATIONS—The UN is available to mediate be-tween Pakistan and India if the two neighbours requestsuch assistance in resolving the Kashmir issue, a spokes-person for UN Secretary General Ban

Ki-moon has said. “On Kashmir, (as with other con-flicts around the world), our good offices are available ifboth sides (Pakistan and India) were to request that. Andthat remains the case today,” Acting Deputy Spokesper-son for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq said here. FarhanHaq was responding to a question on whether the UN

Pak-UK holdconsultationson arms controlISLAMABAD—Pakistan andBritain on Friday revieweddevelopments in the areasof international armscontrol, non-proliferationand disarmament.

Both the countries, intheir third round ofPakistan-UK BilateralConsultations on ArmsControl, Non-Proliferationand Disarmament heldhere, expressed satisfac-tion on the bilateralrelations in these areas.

The Pakistani side wasled by Ms. Tasnim Aslam,Additional Secretary(United Nations & Eco-nomic Co-operation) at theMinistry of Foreign Affairsof the Islamic Republic ofPakistan. The UK Foreignand Commonwealth Officedelegation was led by Ms.Sarah MacIntosh, Directorfor Defence and Interna-tional Security. The talkswere held in a cordial andfriendly atmosphere.—APP

If we followedConstitution war

wouldn’t have beenwaged: Shahid

ISLAMABAD—Central spokesman ofthe Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)Shahidullah Shahid on Friday saidthat Taliban wouldn’t be waging awar against the government if theyfollowed a law or a constitution otherthan Islamic Sharia.

According to a report on BBCUrdu website, he said the real pur-pose behind holding dialogue withPakistani government was to enforcethe Islamic Sharia in the country.

Continued on Page 7

Govt team looking at TTP demandto meet PM, COAS, DG ISI

Talks do not provide legitimacy to illegal activities: PRSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Information MinisterPervez Rashid on Friday said the govern-ment committee was taking into consider-ation the demand by the Taliban committeeto meet the prime minister, army chief anddirector general Inter-Services Intelligence.

Speaking to media representatives,Rashid said the government was awaitingrecommendations from its negotiators onthe demand put forth by the Taliban com-mittee, adding that whatever recommenda-tions are brought forward would be facili-tated and implemented by the government.

The federal minister said every possiblehelp would be extended to government ne-gotiators and helicopter services would alsobe provided in case there was a need tosend the team for peace talks to Waziristan.

On the matter of legality of these talks,the minister said the option of a peacefuldiscourse remained viable in the areaswhere Taliban held greater influence. Fur-thermore, Rashid said talks were not un-constitutional as it was a form of putting astop to unlawful activities.

Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that hold-ing of dialogue with anyone did not pro-vide legitimacy to any body illegal activi-ties. Talking to media persons after distrib-

uting certificates among the participants of30th Specialized Training Course of Infor-mation Group here he said that “Talks donot provide legitimacy to any illegalactivity,rather talks are a tool to stop illegalactivities of certain elements’. In this re-gard he referred to United States talks withAfghan Taliban and United Kingdom’s talkswith banned Irish organisation IRA in Ire-land.

To a question he said that internationalcommunity has fully supported Pakistaninitiative to hold talks with Tehrik-e-TalibanPakistan and they want to see Pakistan astable and peaceful country.

To a question about the demands of theTaliban’s committee Pervaiz Rashid said thegovernment will welcome all proposalswhich will result in peace.

About appearance of Musharraf in thespecail court,he said he would not commenton this as it was sub judice matter and thecourt will decide about his future.

He said he would advise to PervezMusharraf to appear before the court ashiring he could not escape from law by hir-ing senior lawyers by paying heavy fees.About Local Body elections,he said thatall political forces were interested in hold-ing LG elections and the same were post-

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

OBSERVER REPORT

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nTehreek-e-Insaf chairmanImran Khan has said peacetalks with the Taliban wouldbenefit from the US stoppingor announcing that it wasgoing to stop drone attacks.

In the interview withBloomberg, Khan said ter-rorism would be fueled iftalks failed and a militaryoperation followed.

The peace negotiationsbetween the government

US halting drone attacks will bebeneficial for dialogue: Imran

Peace talks with TTP will probably failand the Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan will probably failand a resulting military op-eration would lead to moreviolence, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairperson ImranKhan told Bloomberg.

In an interview with theNew York-based newswebsite, Imran was quotedas saying: “The most likelyresult is that the negotia-tions will start, there will beabout three or four big ex-plosions and terrorist attacksand the negotiations will be

called off.” “There will bepeople baying for blood andthe operation will start,” heclaimed. “If the US stopsdrone attacks, announcesstopping the drone attacksduring the talks, it would bea big plus point,” he stressed.

Imran further accusedthe US of sabotaging anearlier effort at talks with aNovember 1 drone attackthat killed TTP leaderHakimullah Mehsud.

“The US doesn’t wantContinued on Page 7

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—The Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) Friday announcedit will observe a day of mourning onSaturday against the alleged extraju-dicial killings and enforced disappear-ances of party workers.

Speaking to a press conference atMQM headquarters ‘Nine-Zero,’ se-nior party leader Haider Abbas Rizvisaid that his party was pro-democ-racy which supports presenting sus-pects in courts of law.

He recounted that MuhammadSalman, an MQM worker of KorangiSector 75 along with his nephewNoman, was taken into police custody

MQM mourning day against extrajudicial killings todayfrom Korangi Crossing area of Karachion February 3. “Noman was laterdropped off near Tower area the nextday; however, the mutilated dead bodyof Salman was recovered from ShahLatif Town,” said the MQM leader.

He alleged that the MQM activistwas subjected to horrific torture andpresented some photos of Salmanduring the press conference as evi-dence.

Calling the ongoing targeted op-eration of police and Rangers inKarachi being carried out against theparty, he claimed that more than 40MQM workers have disappearedsince inception of the operation inNovember.

“We don’t know their where-abouts and whether they are dead oralive,” he said. Rizvi further addedthat despite 10 MQM workers beingkilled unlawfully in a year, his partywas still waiting to get relief from thecourts.

Meanwhile, Patron-in-Chief of Pa-kistan People’s Party Bilawal BhuttoZardari criticized the MQM’s decisionin a tweet saying the party will fur-ther lose its goodwill for takingKarachi hostage with strike politics.

Appealing to MQM chief AltafHussain to call off the strike, he saidthreatening people on live TV was not“Philosophy of Love,” referring toHussain’s recently launched book.

India planswall at LoC,NA toldISLAMABAD—NationalSecurity Advisor Sartaj Azizhas told National Assemblythat India desires to build aconcrete wall along theLine of Control in Sialkotsector. In a written state-ment, he said work on 41km long and 10 meter highwall hadn’t started yet, andthe Indian authorities hadbeen accordingly con-veyed message to refrainfrom materializing thisproject.

He also said thatduring last eight years,Iran had set free 46prisoners, and Indiareleased 725 Pakistanis.During the same period,Pakistan set free 1801Indian prisoners, headded. On behalf of theAdvisor on ForeignAffairs, Khurram Dastgir

NEW DELHI—India on Friday reacted withcaution to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’sinvitation to engage in a comprehensiveand sustained dialogue, saying it will de-pend on circumstances which have to beconsidered “thoughtfully”.

“They must have sent an invite whichwill go to the prime minister. The prime min-ister will apply his mind. It will all dependon the circumstances which have to be con-sidered thoughtfully,” Indian external af-fairs minister Salman Khurshid told report-

Talks with Pakistan depend oncircumstances: Salman

ers here on the sidelines of a function.Nawaz Sharif had on Wednesday invitedIndia to engage in a “comprehensive, sus-tained and result-oriented” dialogue withPakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue.

“I invite India for a comprehensive, sus-tained and result-oriented” dialogue for theresolution of the Kashmir issue, Nawaz Sharifhad said while addressing a joint session ofAzad Jammu and Kashmir assembly.

Noting that circumstances had led In-Continued on Page 7

Two suspectsheld in Khanewal,one killedOUR CORRESPONDENT

KHANEWAL—Officials ofan intelligence agencyalong with local Police andElite force skirmished witharmed men in Khanewalduring which one attackerdied in an explosion, whilehis two injured accom-plices were apprehended.

Intelligence agentsacting on a tip off, raided ahideout in Vehari but thesuspects had managed toescape just before the raid.

Security officialspursued the suspects.DPO Khanewal Rana AyazSaleem while talking tomedia said that policeintercepted the suspectsbetween Vehari andKhanewal.

The suspects openedfire on the officials,injuring two. Earlier reportshad suggested that thetwo officials had beenkilled.

US senatorsdemand say inAfghan deal

WASHINGTON—A biparti-san group of senators de-manding an end to US mili-tary involvement in Af-ghanistan urged PresidentBarack Obama on Thursdayto seek congressional ap-proval if he wants to keep

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

DI R UP P E R—Record snowfall invarious parts of the Dir Upper hasparalyzed life in the district as all theapproach roads have been closedwhile Army Engineers engaged inhectic efforts to clear the snow fromthe Lawari tunnel.

The bodies of two women whoburied under an avalanche last nightcould not be retrieved on the sec-ond as well. The power supply dis-connected for the last four days insome parts of the district due toheavy snowfall could not be restoredeven on Friday.

Dir city has received almost a feetsnow while it was recorded betweensix to eleven feet at Maina, Nehrgahareas, Lawari tunnel and Lawari Top.Local people facing tremendous dif-ficulties due to closure of approachroads in the district and they are vir-tually stranded in their houses.

In Dir city, the local people pro-tested against the Wapda officialsfor removing links from transform-ers thus disconnecting the powersupply.

The incident of land sliding alsoreported in Chukiattan area situatedon main Dir-Peshawar road howeverNHA officials cleared the road. The

Record snowfall paralyses life

PESHAWAR—Senior Leader PML and formerMinister Salim Saifullah Khan has thankedPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif for releasingfunds for the ongoing uplift projects inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and in southern dis-tricts.

Talking to elders of southern districtshere, Salim Saifullah Khan said that federalgovernment has expedited work on on-go-ing uplift projects including Kurram- TangiDam and all mega projects under Public Sec-tor Development Programme (PSDP) be-sides provision of sui-gas facility to all ar-eas of the province.

Salim Saifullah said that timely comple-tion of these developmental projects wouldchange the lot of the people of KhyberPakhtunkhwa and would end deprivationof the people.

Moreover, he went on to add that it wasvery important for the province to have closecoordination with the federal governmentso as to address the long-standing issuesin the province and to give maximum reliefto the people.

He appreciated the measures taken bythe federal government. Meanwhile, theProvincial Development Working Party(PDWP) has approved 37 schemes costingRs.19601.398million for different sectors ofthe province to help accelerate the pace ofdevelopment.

The approval was given during a meet-

house of Zahir Rehman destroyedas it was hit by landslide at Ganshalarea last night.SHANGLA: An avalanche slightlyhit a house at Alpuri, headquarter ofShangla district, however no casu-alty has been reported, police saidon Friday.

According to Alpuri police sta-tion spokesman, an avalanchecaused by yesterday rain and snow-fall on mountains rolled over andslightly hit a house of Sher Bacha atSanbai area in Tehsil Alpuri. How-ever, he said no casualty has beenreported.

He said all the inmates of thehouse was safe and no body wastrapped under the avalanche. The lo-cal residents and police rushed tothe spot and removed the avalanche.

QUETTA: Having one of theworld’s railway stations lying onhighest altitudes, small mountainoustown of Kan Mehtarzai received twoto four feet snowfall on Thursdaynight.

APP Quetta correspondent trav-elled to Kan Mehtarzai, located atsome two hours distance from theprovincial capital and found the en-tire town wearing white blanket of

heavy snowfall. “Our town receivedover two feet snowfall and the moun-tainous surrounding it got four feetsnowfall,” Khalil Khan, a local per-son said. He added that the localpeople were so much happy onheavy snowfall because it was a“fuel” for their apple fruit gardensand it would also charge subsoilwater level.He said that all people ofthe area used to dry meat by apply-ing salt that called “Landhee” inPashto language and whenever,heavy snowfall lashes the regionand the link roads are closed, thepeople cook and eat this dried meatto keep them warm in extreme coldweather, in which mercury used todrop to minus 18 Centigrade.

Kan Mehtarzai, a small moun-tainous town lying on about 8,000feet altitude having one of the rail-way stations among the highestaltitude’s railway stations of theworld is famous for special taste ofapple, Chromites mines and wildlife.

The town presents the same lookshowed in cowboy movies of Holly-wood. The scattered houses andshops are constructed on same de-sign of the buildings screened in theHollywood’s cowboy movies. —APP

Saleem thanks PM for earlyrelease of uplift projects funds

ing of PDWP held under the chairmanshipof Additional Chief Secretary KhyberPakhtunkhwa in Peshawar. The meetingapproved 37 schemes with an estimated costabout Rs. 19601.398 million in the Home,ST&IT, Water, Roads, Building, Urban De-velopment, Regional Development, Re-search & Development, Energy & Power,Higher Education, Health & Social Welfaresectors, says an official statement here onFriday. The Administrative Secretaries ofthe concerned departments and offices ofthe sponsoring agencies attended the meet-ing.

As per details, Rs. 324.407 million for ascheme in Law & Justice sector, Rs.1781.039 million in Home, Rs. 85.038 millionin ST&IT, Rs. 845.271 million for threeschemes in Water sector, Rs. 2579.46 for sixschemes in Roads, Rs. 188.453 million fortwo schemes in Building sector and Rs.2119.12 million for one scheme in UrbanDevelopment.

Similarly, Rs. 37.66 million were allo-cated for a scheme in Regional Develop-ment, Rs. 254.849 million for four schemesin Research & Development, Rs. 4765.532for two schemes in Energy & Power, Rs.2115.795 for ten schemes in Higher Edu-cation, Rs. 2541.421 million for threeschemes in Health sector and Rs. 1963.353million for two schemes in Social Welfaresector. —APP

Govt to launchKP green growth

initiativetomorrow

PESHAWAR—The ProvincialGovernment has decided toformally launch the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Green GrowthInitiative (GGI) on Sundayto bring maximum areas un-der plantation to offsets thechallenges of global warm-ing and climatic change.

Imran Khan, ChairmanPakistan Tahrik e Insaf islikely to inaugurate theproject during a function atPakistan Forest Institute,University of Peshawar onSunday, officials sources inEnvironment Department inKP told APP on Friday.

Under this mega project,two billion saplings wouldbe planted in the provinceover next five years withhelp of forest department,students, civil society orga-nizations, educational insti-tutes and other stakehold-ers to make the provincelush green.

As per the plan, four im-portant sectors, includingincreasing forest-coveredarea, protected green areas,parks, promotion of envi-ronmental tourism, increas-ing resources of energy andclimatic changes and resil-ience would also be paidspecial attention. —APP

RAWALPINEDI—PakistanArmy’s Southern Commandin uetta organized eight weeklong specialized anti-terror-ism training (ATT) for 200personnel of Police andBalochistan Constabularywhich was successfully con-cluded on Friday.

Governor Balochistan,Muhammad Khan Achakzaiwas the chief guest at theclosing ceremony which washosted by CommanderSouthern Command Lieuten-ant General Nasser KhanJanjua.

Deputy SpeakerBalochistan Assembly AbdulQuddus Bizenjo, Ministersand Members of ProvincialAssembly, Abdul RahimZiaratwal, Hamid KhanAchakzai, UbaidullahBabat,IG FC Balochistan, IGPolice,Secretary for Homeand TA and a large number ofsenior civil and military offic-ers were present on the occa-sion, said an ISPR press re-lease issued here.

Earlier in 2013 also, 200personnel of Police andBalochistan Constabularywere trained by Southern

200 police personnelcomplete ATT in Balochistan

Command. Commander Southern

Command Lieutenant GeneralNasser Khan Janjua in hisspeech at closing ceremonyunderlined the need of high-est level of training of lawenforcement agencies owingto the challenging securityenvironments in Balochistan.

He said that PakistanArmy has undertaken the re-sponsibility of enhancing thecapacity of Police force andthe high quality training forboth Police and Rapid Re-sponse Group of BalochistanConstabulary is part of theeffort. He lauded the enthusi-asm of the trainees who par-ticipated in the course andadded that now the trainedand motivated Police can lookinto the eyes of the terroristsand defeat them.

General Nasser also ap-preciated the efforts of train-ing teams of 33 Division, 41Division and SSG.

He highlighted that be-sides training, Pakistan Armyhas handed over modernweapons and ammunition toBalochistan Police to en-hance their capacity.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Mainly coldand dry weather is expectedin most parts of the countryduring next 24 hours whilefoggy conditions are ex-pected to prevail in plain ar-eas of Punjab during morn-ing hours.

Met office reported con-tinental air is prevailing overmost parts of the country.However, a shallow westerlytrough is still prevailing overnorthern parts of the coun-try and likely to persist dur-ing next 2-3 days.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,mainly cold and dry weatheris expected in most parts ofthe province, however, rain(snowfall over the hills) is ex-pected at isolated places ofMalakand division duringnext 24 hours.

In Sindh andBalochistan, mainly cold anddry weather is expected inmost parts of the provincesduring next 24 hours.

In Kashmir rain andsnowfall over the hills is ex-

Cold, dry weatheracross country likely

pected at isolated places ofKashmir during next 24 hourswhereas in Gilgit-Baltistanrain with snowfall over thehills is expected at isolated

places of Gilgit-Baltistan dur-ing next 24 hours. Mean-while, the KP MeteorologicalDepartment here Friday pre-dicted rain with snowfall overthe hills at isolated places inMalakand division, Kashmirand Gilgit Baltistan (GB) dur-ing next 24 hours, however,the weather would remaincold and dry in most parts ofthe country.—APP

SEPCO operationagainst defaultersISLAMABAD—Minister ofState for Water and PowerAbid Sher Ali on Fridaysaid the Sukkur ElectricalSupply Company (SEPCO)has planned a high level op-eration against electricitytheft to check losses andsought cooperation for par-liamentarians in the drive.

Addressing a pressconference, he said a num-ber of losses has beenmonitored in different areasof SEPCO which result inextra burden on the pocketof common man, adding,these losses results in hightraffic and increasedloadshedding. “Total re-ceivable amount fromSEPCO is 69 billion with 40percent total losses”, theminister said adding, theoperation has beenlaunched from today togive relief to other consum-ers who are suffering on thecost these law violators.Giving details, he said inSub-Division Nauderao,feeder City III, looses of 61.2percent has been recordedwith receivable amount ofRs. 56.528 million and hav-ing only 167 registered con-sumers.—APP

ISLAMABAD: A students delegation from Islamia University Bahawalpur with parlia-mentarians at Parliament House.

UPPER DIR : A beautiful view of the snow covered mountains at Upper Dir .

OKARA: Members of Baloch missing persons’ families on way towards Islamabad during their long march.

HYDERABAD—Provincial Ombuds-man Sindh Syed Pir Ali Shah haspledged to ensure protection of work-ing women in public and private sec-tors adding that strict action will beinitiated against those found harass-ing working women.

He was talking to media personsafter conducting hearing against vari-ous complaints here at Ex-DistrictNazim Secretariat on Friday.

He informed that the OmbudsmanSecretariat is setting up the offices ofthe protection against harassment ofwomen in each district of the prov-

Sindh Ombudsman pledgesto protect working women

ince and so far nine offices have beenestablished in three districts ofKarachi, Hyderabad, Umerkot,Naushero Feroz, ShaheedBenazirabad, Khairpur and Thatta.

Besides, he informed that MuhallaCommittees are also being formed ineach district and in this regard, 22 com-mittees have been formed only inHyderabad district which are monitor-ing the situation against women.

He informed that he received ma-jority of complaints regarding harass-ment of working women from HealthDepartment while Education Depart-

ment stood at number two. The Om-budsman said that he desired thatworking women should dischargetheir responsibilities in public and pri-vate sectors departments without anyfear.

The Ombudsman Secretariat hasso far received 27 complaints againstharassment of working women, ofwhich 21 complaints have been de-cided while six are in pending, he saidand added that prompt action is be-ing taken by the secretariat wheneverit received complaints of workingwomen. —APP

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for In-ter Provincial Coordination (IPC) RiazHussain Pirzada, hosted a lunch inhonor of the students of IslamiaUniversity’s media department, led byDr. Abdul Wajid Khan here on Fridayin the cafeteria of national assembly.

Before lunch, students had a tourof the national assembly building.During their visit they also went intothe galleries of national assembly and

Pirzada hosts lunch in honour of IUB studentssenate respectively and witnessed theproceedings of the lower and uppertHouses.

They were of the view that suchtour would help them to sharpen theireducational and leadreship qualities.

On the occasion, Federal Ministeraddressing the students said “you arethe future of Pakistan and it is a propi-tious sign that youth has started totake interest in the politics of the coun-

try”.He further added that youth were

much more aware of their rights and itwould achieve all those and marks inthe filed of politics which our genera-tion has failed to achieve.

He advised youg students to re-main honest and faithful to their du-ties. In the end Dr. Abdul Wajidthanked the Federal Minister on thebehalf of the students. —APP

Ajmal Khattakremembered

PESHAWAR—Awami Na-tional Party (ANP) Fridayobserved with reverenceand respect the fourth deathanniversary of noted Pashtopoet, scholar, writer andformer central ANP Presi-dent Ajmal Khattak here atBacha Khan Markaz withinterim ANP KP PresidentBashir Khan Matta in thechair.

The event was ad-dressed among others byCentral interim President ofANP Senator HajiMuhammad Adeel, centralorganizing secretary Sena-tor Baz MuhammadKhattak, Senator AfrasiabKhattak, former KP Informa-tion Minister Mian IftikharHussain.

The speakers paid glow-ing tributes to the political,literary, poetic and nationalservices of late AjmalKhattak, saying he (AjmalKhattak) took part instruggle against British Rajfrom his school time and wasan active member of QuitIndia Movement. He joinedthe government job whenhe was a student of classeighth. He also obtained adegree in fine arts and didMA in Persian languagefrom Peshawar University.

He also served as editorin various newspapers of histime including Anjaam,Bange Haram, Shahbaz andRehber and also worked inRadio Pakistan.

He was also an activemember of the ‘KhudaiKhidmatgar Movement’ andwas elevated to the post ofSecretary General NationalAwami Party (NAP). He spentfifteen years in asylum in Af-ghanistan after the LiaqatBagh firing incident. —APP

HMC’s poorperformance

flayedHYDERABAD—The SindhSecretary Local Govern-ment Javed Hanif has ex-pressed dissatisfaction atthe performance ofHyderabad Municipal Cor-poration (HMC), HyderabadDevelopment Authority(HDA) and Water and Sani-tation Agency (WASA).

“The state of cleanli-ness, waste disposal andwater supply in Hyderabadis in very bad shape,” heremarked at a meeting hereon Friday.

The Divisional Commis-sioner of Hyderabad JamalMustafa Syed, DeputyCommissioner Nawaz Sohoand officials of the HMC,HDA and WASA attendedthe meeting.

Hanif strictly warned themunicipal officials to im-prove their services withoutdelay failing which theywould have to face disciplin-ary action.

“There is ever growingpile of complaints from citi-zens against the bad stateof these services, and afterhaving visited parts of thedistrict, I feel these com-plaints are justified,” hesaid.—APP

Any drone attack willwiden trust deficit

REITERATING its position on the issue of unilateral and provocative drone strikes, Pakistan, on Thursday, categorically stated thatit wanted complete halt of the attacks and not just decrease in their

frequency. Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said at the weeklynews briefing that Pakistan’s stance over drone attacks is lucid that theyare unacceptable as they kill innocent people and violate the country’ssovereignty.

The Foreign Office reaction was in response to a report appearing inthe Washington Post that the United States had cut back sharply on dronestrikes in Pakistan after Islamabad asked for restraint while it seeks peacetalks with Taliban. The spokesperson has done well in further clarifying theposition of Pakistan as the issue is not only being agitated vociferously bypeople of Pakistan but has also become one of the main irritants in Paki-stan-US relations. On the one hand, it infuriates people of Pakistan on breachof their sovereignty and that too by a country that claims to be its friend andon the other hand, it widens trust deficit between the two countries. Thoughone must acknowledge that the United States has exercised somewhat re-straint these days when the process of talks between the Government andthe TTP has begun but no one knows for sure how long this restraint wouldcontinue. In the past, the United States used the weapon of drones to strikedown the prospects of peace with Taliban and therefore, apprehensions re-main that at some point of time Washington might repeat the machinationto undermine talks. But irrespective of the process of talks, the United Statesmust respect wishes of people of Pakistan who saw these attacks as highlyprovocative and disruptive. The killing of innocent people in what is beingdubbed as collateral damage is fuelling more resentment and thereby moreextremism and terrorism. It is all the more intriguing that drone strikes arenot directed at Pakistani Taliban on both sides of the Durand Line, whichspeaks volumes about real intentions and designs of the United States. Asthings stand today, drones are likely to be retained by the US as the choicestof weapons in the so-called war against terror and the issue would continueto spoil bilateral ties besides fuelling terrorism. Therefore, revision of policyis the only answer to the issue — either they should be stopped altogether ortheir technology be handed over to Pakistan for its use in its own territory.

Start dialogue withBaloch dissidents alsoAS the dialogue process with TTP has started, political circles and

observers are emphasizing the need to replicate the same approach toresolve the ticklish issue of Balochistan as well. The onus in this regardobviously falls on Chief Minister Abdul Maalik and Provincial leaders ofother parties but unfortunately they seem to be entangled in power tussleas the latest reports indicate from Quetta, highlighting differences amongcoalition partners over exercise of power and authority.

It seems that Provincial set up, to which people of Pakistan had pinnedlegitimate hopes of working towards resolution of the problems and pro-motion of national harmony, has priorities other than reconciliation. Wewould, therefore, urge Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the ProvincialChief Minister and Governor to play their roles in addressing internalissues of the coalition swiftly and pay focused attention to the problem ofmilitancy and violence in the Province. Though the situation in Balochistanis not as volatile as in FATA because an elected government is function-ing, the law-enforcing agencies have presence everywhere to ensure writof the state and Army too has its establishments augmenting security anddevelopment efforts but still there is urgency to address the issue as it isbeing exploited by some foreign forces. It is an open secret that someforeign countries are aiding and abetting terrorists and saboteurs to ad-vance their own nefarious agenda. But it is also a fact that the vast major-ity of people of Balochistan are as patriotic as people in other parts of thecountry and only a handful of elements are pursuing the path of violenceat the instance of their foreign masters. We have been hearing about talkswith dissident Baloch leaders ever since former President Asif Ali Zardarioffered apology from people of Balochistan for the past mistakes but notonly the PPP regime but also the present PML-N government also failedto take any tangible initiative to restore peace and harmony in the Prov-ince. One fails to understand why those at the helm of affairs are takingthe issue so lightly when the situation is deteriorating day-by-day. If talkscan be held with Taliban, there is no question not to engage estrangedBaloch leaders in dialogue as well. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif enjoysgood rapport with leaders of Balochistan and therefore, we expect that hewould move forward on this front as well without loss of further time.

Accelerate productionof solar energy

ACCORDING to report, 22 solar power projects with cumulative capacity of 773 MW are under different stages of development and are

expected to achieve commercial operation by 2016. Similarly, during hisrecent visit to the site of Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur, the PrimeMinister was informed that the first stage of the project would be com-pleted in November this year which will add 100 MW to the national grid.

All these are appreciable developments and would surely contributetowards meeting the crippling shortages of energy that is affecting almostevery sector of the national economy. However, these projects are fractionof the real potential of the country for solar power production, which, ex-perts say is 2.9 million megawatts per annum. Similarly, according to astudy conducted by a US organization, Pakistan can produce 150,000 MWof wind energy. These two sources alone have the prospects to make Paki-stan surplus in energy production but the question is that of planning andimplementation and we have been lacking on both fronts. There is everyreason to pursue these options as other sources of energy either take longand arduous time to tap or the electricity so produced is costly and createenvironmental problems. However, on the contrary, the energy producedfrom solar and wind sources would be cheaper and environment friendly;therefore, apart from attracting foreign companies in the sector, efforts shouldalso be made to promote indigenous research and development.

Cornering a Palestinian man of peace

Talking toTaliban

DELAY in the peace talks between Islamabad and the Pakistan Taliban — aimed to

achieve peace without resorting toforce — has set off a heated debateabout the viability of even holdinga dialogue with the militant groupwhose diametrically opposite view-point regarding governance andconstitution goes against what thePakistan state stands for.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) has always been advocatinga Sharia-based government on thelines of the Afghan Taliban underMullah Omar. So the set of condi-tions the TTP has set before PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif’s commit-tee tasked to negotiate a settlementwith it should not surprise. Amongthe Taliban’s 10 demands are therelease of all Taliban prisoners,compensation for drone-strike vic-tims and specific conditions im-posed on women to dress accord-ing to Sharia. Heading a democraticgovernment, Sharif is unlikely toimpose any conditions on womenor men, irrespective of how desir-ous he may be to achieve peacethrough dialogue. Even the releaseof prisoners is likely to raise thestakes for the government. Many ofthese prisoners have been caught inhard-fought security operations.The successes achieved so far inmany reclaimed restive areas in thetribal belt and northern areas facethe risk of being overturned if ap-peasement measures backfire,which they will most likely. Thesuccess of any peace talks will onlycome about if the governmentshows resolve and negotiates froma position of strength. Giving in toeven one unreasonable demand canjeopardise the whole effort and failto achieve anything tangible. Whileit may be true that Sharif may bemaking a last-ditch effort at peacetalks before he gives the formal go-ahead of launching a large-scalemilitary offensive to flush out themilitant strongholds in NorthWaziristan, credit must be given tohim for going the extra mile. Butwhat the government must not dois allow the TTP to use any agree-ment if it comes about as a meansto buy time to shore up its resourcesfor starting a new phase of insur-gency. Pakistan cannot afford toindulge in experiments of this sortat this juncture when any wrongmove in dealing with its Talibangroups could impact the securityhandover in neighbouring Afghani-stan. — Gulf News

****

Khaleda’saccusations

BNP chairperson Khaleda Ziamade a very serious claimin her Thursday’s press

briefing that in a month betweenDecember 26, 2013 and January 27,2014, some 300 opposition activ-ists were killed or made to forciblydisappear by the law-enforcingagencies and AL men. But she couldprovide the names of only five ofsuch victims and designations oftwo others, including one from itsalliance partner Jamaat-i-Islami,while the identities of the over-whelming majority of rest remainedunknown. Needless to say, this onlymade her claim lose credibility be-fore the public eye. Worse yet, herslapdash approach towards such aserious matter supplied enough ar-senal to the government to dismissher accusations out of hand.

The question that naturallyarises is what was the basis of theBNP leader’s information about thevictims of killing and disappear-ance? If she has any details aboutthe names and addresses of the vic-tims those demand immediate dis-closure. Otherwise, the whole ex-ercise will look like an attempt atplaying a sheer numbers game withthe plight of the victims. The gov-ernment, on its part, cannot confineits responsibility to just dismissingBNP leader’s claim about atrocitiessaid to have been committed bylaw-enforcers and ruling party cad-res. If truth be told, reports of ex-cesses committed by different armsof the law-enforcement departmentabound. Given the media reportsand occasional disclosures by localand international human rights bod-ies, the government has little roomfor complacency about the issue.So, before brushing off BNP’sclaim as fake, the government mustclarify its position about widespreadallegations of atrocities commit-ted by law-enforcers against theopposition activists and members ofthe public. — The Daily Star

MEDIA WATCH

PALESTINIAN PresidentMahmoud Abbas stands nowat a crossroads of his people’s

national struggle for liberation and in-dependence as well as of his politicallife career. Cornered between the rockof his own rejecting constituency andthe hard place of his Israeli occupy-ing power and the US sponsors oftheir bilateral negotiations, whichwere resumed last July 29, despite hisminesweeping concessions and back-tracking “on all his redlines.”

Unmercifully pressured by bothIsraeli negotiators and Americanmediators, the elusive cause of peacestands about to loose in Abbas a bravePalestinian man of peace-making ofan historical stature whose demisewould squander what could be the lastopportunity for the so-called two-state solution. To continue pressur-ing Abbas into yielding more conces-sions without any reciprocal rewardsis turning a brave man into an adven-turer committing historical and stra-tegic mistakes in the eyes of hispeople, a trend that if continuedwould in no time disqualify him of apersonal weight that is a prerequisiteto make his people accept his “pain-ful” concessions.

The emerging, heavily “pro-Is-rael” US-proposed framework agree-ment “appears to ask the Palestiniansto accept peace terms that are worsethan the Israeli ones they already re-jected … that it would all but compelthe Palestinians to reject it,” LarryDerfner wrote in The National Inter-est on this February 3. Abbas “rejectsall transitional, partial and temporarysolutions,” his spokesman Nabil AbuRdaineh said on last January 5, butthat’s exactly what the leaks of theblueprint of the “framework agree-

ment” reveal. Reportedly, the interna-tional Quartet on the Middle East,comprising the US, EU, UN and Rus-sia, meeting on the sidelines of theMunich security conference last week,supported US Secretary of State JohnKerry’s efforts to commit Palestinianand Israeli negotiators to his proposed“framework agreement.” Europe isalso tightening the rope around Abbas’neck. If the current US-backed frame-work agreement talks with Israel fail,Europe will not automatically continueto support the Palestinian Authority,Israel’s Walla website reported on lastJanuary 29.

However, The US envoy MartynIndyk said on last January 31 thatKerry will be proposing the “frame-work agreement” to the Palestinianand Israeli negotiators “within a fewweeks,” but the State Departmentspokeswoman Jen Psaki on the sameday “clarified” in a statement that the“contents of the framework” are not“final” because “this is an ongoingprocess and these decisions have notyet been made.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres onlast January 30, during a joint pressconference with the envoy of theMiddle East Quartet, Tony Blair, saidthat there is “an opportunity” now tomake “historic decisions, not politi-cal ones” for the “two-state solution”of the Arab – Israeli conflict and that“we are facing the most crucial timesince the establishment of the newMiddle East in 1948,” i.e. since whatthe Israeli historian Ilan Pappé calledthe “ethnic cleaning” of the Arabs ofPalestine and the creation of Israel ontheir ancestral land.

Peres on the same occasion saidthat he was “convinced” that Abbaswants “seriously” to make peace withIsrael, but what Peres failed to notewas that “historic decisions” are madeby historic leaders and that such aleader is still missing in Israel sincethe assassination of late former pre-

mier Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, but al-ready available in the person ofPresident Abbas, whom Peres hadmore than once confirmed as the Pal-estinian peace “partner,” defying hiscountry’s official denial of the ex-istence of such a partner on the Pal-estinian side.

Abbas is making concessions un-acceptable to his people out of deepconviction in peace and unwaveringcommitment to peaceful negotiationsand not because he is out of options.One of his options was reported in aninterview with The New York Timeson this February 2, when Abbas saidthat he had been “resisting pressure”from the Palestinian street and leader-ship to join the UN agencies for whichhis staff “had presented 63 applicationsready for his signature.” In 2012 theUNGA recognized Palestine as anobserver non-member state; reapply-ing for the recognition of Palestine asa member state is another option post-poned by Abbas to give the resumednegotiations with Israel a chance. Rec-onciliation with Hamas in the GazaStrip is a third option that Abbas hasbeen maneuvering not to make since2005 in order not to alienate Israel andthe US away from peace talks becausethey condemn it as a terrorist organi-zation. Suspension of the security co-ordination with Israel is also a possibleoption, which his predecessor Arafatused to test now and then.

Looking for other players to jointhe US in co-sponsoring the peacetalks with Israel is an option that Abbasmade clear in his latest visit to Mos-cow. “We would like other parties,such as Russia, the European Union,China and UN, to play an influentialrole in these talks,” the Voice of Rus-sia quoted him as saying on last Janu-ary 24. Israel’s DEBKAfile in an ex-clusive report on last January 24 con-sidered his Moscow visit an “exitfrom the Kerry peace initiative,” la-beling it a “diplomatic Intifada” and

US soldiers afflicted by PTSD

THIS week’s Time magazinecarried Marine sergeantDavid Linley’s tragic tale by

Mark Thomson, in which he also nar-rated the plight of thousands of vet-erans suffering from Post TraumaticStress Disorder (PTSD) that were de-ployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.Linley had tried to kill himself twiceby filling the house with natural gas,once by sitting in his car running in-side the garage and once by hanging.Mark Thompson wrote: “Linley sawaction and witnessed horrors inGrenada, Lebanon and Iraq a gen-eration ago. Ten years ago in Janu-ary, he headed back to Iraq on his fi-nal combat deployment. But the fi-nal firefight was on his suburbanstreet 30 miles southwest of Chicago,and the enemy was local police.When it ended he had traded 17 yearsin uniform for 16 years behind bars”.Anyhow, 10000 veterans from Af-ghanistan and Iraq are in nation’s pris-ons, where adequate facilities do notexist for mental health treatment forthousands of PTSD patients.

A Defense Force Study releasedin August 2013 claimed that soldiersinvolved in bomb disposal andgreater combat exposure in coun-tries like Afghanistan and Iraq wereat a greater risk of suffering fromsubsequent mental health problemsincluding Post-Traumatic StressDisorder. The study discovered thehighest rates of PTSD symptoms

HURMAT GROUP OF PUBLICATIONSZahid Malik

President & Editor-in-ChiefPh: 051-2256006

Faisal Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 021-32631102

Gauhar Zahid MalikExecutive Editor

Ph: 051-2853818

IslamabadPh Exchange: 051-2852027

Reporting Desk: 051-2852028, News Desk: 051-5879329Marketing: 051-2262254, 2852029 Fax: 051-2262258

Email: observer@pakobserver.net Website: www.pakobserver.net

KarachiFaisal Zahid Malik

EditorPh: 021-32211777, 32635403

Fax: 021-32626902Email: obskhi@pakobserver.net

LahoreKhalid ButtResident Editor

Ph: 042-37593341, 37566702Marketing Ph: 37597364

Fax: 042-36300043Email: obslhr@pakobserver.net

QuettaGhulam TahirResident Editor

Mobile: 0333-7944760E-mail:obsqta@pakobserver.net

PeshawarTariq SaeedResident Editor

Mobile: 0321-9001476E-mail:obspwr@pakobserver.net

Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com —Proverb

a “defection” that caught Kerry andIsraeli Prime Minister BinyaminNetanyahu “unprepared.”

Abbas’ representative Jibril al-Rjoub on January 27 was in the Ira-nian capital Tehran for the first timein many years. “Our openness to Iranis a Palestinian interest and part ofour strategy to open to the wholeworld,” al-Rjoub said. Three dayslater the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi daily reported that Abbas willbe invited to visit Iran soon with theaim of “rehabilitating” the bilateralties. The Central committee ofFatah, which Abbas leads, on thisFebruary 3 said that al-Rjoub’sTehran visit “comes in line withmaintaining international relationsin favor of the high interests of ourpeople and the Palestinian cause.”

Opening up to erstwhile “hos-tile” nations like Iran and Syria ismore likely a tactical maneuveringthan a strategic shift by Abbas,meant to send the message that allAbbas’ options are open. Howeverhis strategic option would undeni-ably be to honor his previous re-peated threats of resignation, toleave the Israeli Occupation Forcesto fend for themselves face to facewith the Palestinian people whosestatus quo is no more sustainable.

Speaking in Munich, Germany,Kerry on this February 1 conveyedthe message bluntly: “Today’s sta-tus quo, absolutely to a certainty, Ipromise you 100 percent, cannot bemaintained,” Kerry said of the Is-raeli-Palestinian conflict. “It is notsustainable.” Last November, Kerrywarned that Israel would face a Pal-estinian “third Intifada” if his spon-sored talks see no breakthrough. Theloss of Abbas by resignation or bynature would for sure end Kerry’speace mission and make his warn-ing come true.—The writer is a West Bank-basedveteran Arab journalist.

among veterans whowere out of defense forcefor a period of two to threeyears. In 2012 the num-ber of US soldiers thatcommitted suicide wasestimated to be greaterthan the numbers (6460)that were killed in com-bat in Afghanistan and

Iraq”. Before World Wars, Americalmaintained somewhat neutrality, andhad tried to keep out of the FirstWorld War for three years. It enteredthe war on April 6th, 1917. After see-ing the threat to its shores byGermany’s unrestricted submarinemovements America joined the waron the side of the Allies. World WarII had started in September 1939, andUnited States did not enter the waruntil after the Japanese bombed theAmerican fleet in Pearl Harbor, Ha-waii, on December 7, 1941.

The US was the main beneficiaryof the WWII, and had emerged as asuper power along with the SovietUnion. Since 1950s, America is en-gaged in wars – from Korean War toVietnam War to Iraq and AfghanistanWar. American soldiers on the onehand perpetrate excesses on thepeople in the occupied territories,and on the other hand they sufferfrom mental ailments, besides facingdeath and disablement. On 23rdMarch 2011, American army special-ist Jeremy Morlock, 23 was sen-tenced for 24 years after he pleadedguilty in US military court, admit-ting that he was part of a ‘kill team’that deliberately murdered Afghancivilians for sport between Januaryand May 2010. On 28th October2009, 26-year-old Fort Carson wassupposed to return to Afghanistan,but he intentionally shot himself inthe shoulder to avoid deployment. On

5th November 2009, a 39-year-oldUS Army psychiatrist, who had facedrepeated harassment for his ethnicityand faith from his fellow soldiers,shot dead 13 people at the “SoldierReadiness Center” in Fort Hood,Texas military base.

According to reports, U.S. mili-tary troops with severe psychologi-cal problems were sent to Iraq or keptin combat, even when superiors hadbeen aware of signs of mental illness.It could be the acts of mentally sickor suffering from posttraumatic stressdisorder that they bombed even wed-ding parties. After 2nd World War,America assumed a special positionof a super power, and continued towage wars to control world resources.Vietnam War began in 1954 andended in 1975 when all US person-nel left and North Vietnamese forcesconquered Saigon. The war had es-calated from an insurgency in SouthVietnam sponsored by the North Viet-namese, as Ho Chi Min wanted tounify the Vietnam. During this war,more than 60000 American soldierswere killed; about 500000 Vietnamcivilians were killed by US Soldiers,and millions died of starvation. Thefigure of those killed in Cambodiaand Laos, when American forcesbombed on the pretext that they pro-vided the supply line to North Viet-nam, exceeded one million.

America has indeed traditions offreedom, democracy, human rights andhuman values dating back to Ameri-can founding fathers. It is, however,unfortunate that barring a few honor-able exceptions, their successorsthrough their actions negated the prin-ciples upheld by them. In the past, theUS had resorted to unilateral use offorce ostensibly to promote democracyin Haiti, Nicaragua and in LatinAmerica. It had intervened forcibly to

Things are notalways what theyseem.

change regimes, restore order andpreach democracy. In the new mil-lennium, the US with a view toachieving its avowed objectives at-tacked and occupied Afghanistan andIraq, obviously to control the oil re-sources, as all other pretexts wereproven wrong. After the change ofguard with the election of PresidentObama it was expected that he wouldabandon the policies pursued byformer president. He has completedfirst year of his 2nd term as presi-dent, and vows to withdraw Ameri-can forces by the end of 2014.

But President Obama is seek-ing an agreement with Afghanistanfor keeping ten thousand troops andsome Air Force squadrons, on thepretext of imparting training to Af-ghan forces and providing supportto Afghanistan in the event of for-eign intervention. President HamidKarzai is not inclined to sign theagreement, insisting that it shouldbe done after the forthcoming elec-tions in Afghanistan. American lead-ership should think whether it wasworth spending trillions of dollarson wars in Afghanistan and Iraqwars, more than 5,000 deaths and30,000 maimed. The decade-longAmerican wars in Afghanistan andIraq would end up costing betweenUS Dollars 4 to 6 trillion, which in-cludes salaries to military person-nel, salaries of contractors engagedin both countries; compensation andmedical care and disability benefitspaid to those killed or disabled dur-ing the next ten years. Former Presi-dent Bush’s economic advisor hadestimated cost of Iraq war as twohundred billion dollars, but Americahas already paid $300 billion as in-terest on war debt.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Nicola NasserEmail: nassernicola@ymail.com

Voice of the People

Mobile applicationsfor traffic

AAMIR KHAN KASI

Recently I came across a computerapplication the Punjab governmenthas launched to execute rate controlof commodities. It is a step worthpraising. But it is only a small useof the technology. Indeed, a lot morecan be done.

Spending some time in Lahore,I analysed that attention has beenpaid to the infrastructure of Lahore.But there is always room to excel.Vehicular traffic is one issue. Un-derpasses and flyovers have easedthe load of traffic. Public transportis used by around half of the popu-lation in Lahore. Metro bus cannottackle this problem alone.

More modes of transportationare needed to boost efficiency. Busesget late because of traffic jams, andthe common man has to suffer. Ionce had to wait for a bus for 30minutes and when it did arrive, Icould not board it because of a largecrowd. Calculating these minutes formillions on a daily basis can makeus realise the gravity of the time-lossbeing incurred, besides the loss offuel and energy.

The transport sector needs ap-plications (apps) to cater to the needsof passengers. For example, if I amwaiting for a bus, I am unawarewhere is the bus at the moment andhow much I have to wait for it and,more importantly, I have no idea ofthe load already on the bus.

These are the answers neededby the passengers to make a deci-sion. Most people have mobilephones. Applications can be intro-duced to tackle the issue. SMS ser-vice can be started on request. It willtackle the agony of the common manto some extent. I have noticed thePunjab government is focusing onmega schemes. Some small stepscan also help us a lot. Last but notleast, traffic jam alert on SMS or theapplication can guide the commuterabout the traffic jam ahead. This willsave millions of rupees in saving offuel. I hope all Provincial govern-ments will introduce such smallthings as soon as possible. Thesedon’t need huge funds.—Via email

Right toself-defence

ABDUL WAHID

I agree with M. Akram Niazi, re-garding the right of citizens to carrynon-prohibited bore arms and am-munition for self-defence. I wouldlike to add that under Article 9 thesecurity of a person is a fundamen-tal right whereby it has been guar-anteed, “no person shall be deprivedof life or liberty saves in accordancewith law.” And the right to life maynot be imagined without the right toself-defence.

Compulsory licensing of armsand ammunition is a kind of dis-crimination that divides the commonpeople into two privileged and non-privileged classes. This is also con-trary to the spirit of the Constitutionthat no discriminatory law may bemade by the state.

Under Sections 42 and 43 of theCriminal Procedure Code every per-son is bound to assist the police toprevent crimes, and the police areauthorised to arrest any criminalwho is committing any offenceagainst public or public property.Obviously, the duty imposed by thelaw may not be performed by a citi-zen unless he has sufficient meansto do so. It has, frequently, been wit-nessed that criminals succeeded intheir crimes only because the citi-zens present on the spot are no morethan helpless spectators. Keeping inview the prevailing onslaughts ofterrorists and street criminals, in-cluding target killers, it prompts usto allow every citizen to carry arms,following an appropriate legislationin this behalf.

Whenever the law and ordersituation runs out of hands, the gov-ernment launches drives to unearthillicit arms and ammunitions but atthe end the whole exercise provesfutile since we have no foolproofmechanism to stop entry of such il-licit arms in the city or locality.

Sui Gas connectionsRAJA GHAZANFAR ALI

It seems that most of the cruel officers of SNGPL, WAPDA, Railways, Public Transport and those ofothers departments will die, this year, due to heart failure, cancer, kidneys failure, bursting of brain

vein, road accidents etc. by the wrath of Allah, because of their cruel and corrupt dealings with the mostoppressed people of Pakistan because of the following reasons. Officers of SNGPL are giving extensivemental tension to SNGPL Consumers by illegally charging shortfall Security Charges forcibly from theSNGPL Consumers; moreover, under the pretext of ban on new connections, the SNGPL officials arecharging heavy bribes from the applicants, who applied for gas connection, years ago, to install gasmeters. WAPDA, in the same pattern, is forcibly charging Neelam Jhelum Dam chgarges from theconsumers bills while there are existed the amount of others chaeges under the heads like CED, OctroiDuty, GST , Fuel Adjustment Charges etc in the consumers bills only for getting more and more moneyto enjoy luxurious lives themselves, while the small children and patients are dying due to worst load-shedding in common areas; though the officers’ colonies are exempted from this load shedding of gasand electricity.—Via email

DISCLAIMER

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

THE articles, columns andletters are published on thesepages in good faith. However,the contents of these writingsmay not necessarily match theviews of the newspaper.

—Editor

Negotiations with Taliban

THERE seems to be a slimchance for the negotiatingteam put up by Prime Minis-

ter Nawaz Sharif, to strike a dealwith shrewd and battle hardenedTaliban and to convince them to laydown arms and join the society aspeaceful and law abiding citizens.The sticking point is obviously theirfocus on a bloody struggle for en-forcement of shariah in Pakistan.

If their brand of Sharia is evenpartially enforced and interpolatedin the constitution, then Pakistanwould recede to the times of As-sassins in the Middle East and Van-dals in Europe. Any reconciliationbetween an elected constitutionalgovernment and renegade Talibanis inherently contradictory, i.e., sav-age inhuman system vs a represen-tative rule.

The assassins were eliminatedby the Mongols to rid the Islamicregimes from that curse. Same un-forgiving blitz is needed to wipe offthis scourge from the soil of Paki-stan. But perhaps there seems to bea kind of catch and trickery behindthis overture of the incumbent re-gime not to be blamed later that itdid not offer an olive branch to thebrute Taliban. The refusal fromTaliban for a deal could morally jus-tify the military action against theTTP network of hordes.

According to a news reportTTP’s monthly earnings from ex-tortion, kidnapping, drug trade andbounty killings in Karachi alonehave exceeded 115 million dollars.Therefore, they would go downfighting but would not submit. Asa ferocious, religious conglomera-tion, their affiliates and membersprefer dying for a swift placementin paradise. Such is the level ofpowerful indoctrination by the zeal-ots of that outfit created by Paki-stan herself in yester-years. Talibanwould not relinquish their militancy

no matter Pakistan goesextra mile, to accommo-date their conditions.Such a hope is prema-turely doomed for theobvious reasons laid outin the foregoing narra-tive. The taming ofhardcore religious bigotsand tenacious fighters is

a far cry and cannot be attained bysolicitation or sweet overtures. Theunderlying purpose of Taliban andtheir supporters from the mainstreampolitico- religious parties is to revivethe pristine Islamic caliphate andtowards the attainment of this ob-jective they would never compro-mise or budge.

Even if by a miracle they joinhands with the government, theywould not abandon their option offalling out with the civilian ordemocratic government. Theywould not abandon their fanaticcreed anyway. The induction ofTaliban factions into the democraticpolitical culture of Pakistan wouldremain like strange and incompat-ible bedfellow and would backfire.

The ongoing, unrelenting may-hem of terrorism is primarily be-ing spawned and tenaciously car-ried out by Taliban and sectarianrivals. It would be spine-chilling toimagine what would happen to Pa-kistan if such rigid, extremist andruthless militants as Taliban, in tan-dem with the homegrown religio-political groups, become sharehold-ers in power. In that horrid situa-tion would Pakistan be any differ-ent from Syria and Iraq or certainAfrican countries where religiousinsurgents are braced against thestates and also fighting one anotheron the sectarian basis?

The Al-Qaida and Al-shababand various shades of Taliban are anewborn face of the erstwhile reli-gious fundamentalist forces. Thepresent day religious outfits withstubborn agenda and unflinchingwill to fight the heathens are aspillover from the past. It is mindboggling to watch that in thesetimes of enlightenment, liberalism,free societies, the human rights, theplanet Earth is still infested withsuch rogue bands that want the ob-scure dogmatic orders to be revived

and implemented in entirety.So the only effective and abso-

lute mechanism for dealing with theradical militants is to exterminatethem physically and destroy and de-bilitate their militancy with fullmight of the state. If in Pakistan theskirmishes with the Taliban and Al-Qaida continue unabated, therewould never be an end or any tan-gible result coming out of these.The compelling reason is that thosewho are killed among the insurgentsare filled by new cadres and volun-teers indoctrinated and motivatedby religious zealots and fiery dema-gogues with a dainty and alluringpromise of straight away going toparadise as martyrs.

In the hindsight let us recollectthat Pakistan along with other Is-lamic regimes created a force ofuniversal Islamic crusaders to fightungodly Russians in rugged Af-ghanistan as allies of a free and re-ligious Christian world led by theUnited States. What a hoax it wasthat while the Islamic countrieswere arraigned against the Russianwith a resounding spirit of Islamicresurgence, the underlying catchwas to bring victory of capitalismover communism.

While the second purpose hasbeen ideally served, the first one(creation of militants) has becomea lasting millstone around the neckof Pakistan. It is like a Frankensteinever ready to swallow its own cre-ator which in this case is Pakistan.Pakistan allowed its land and man-power for the fulfillment of a goalthat was extraneous to its nationalinterests. Hence we see the prolif-eration of terrorism all over Paki-stan by Taliban and hardcore reli-gious fanatics.

The pitiless Taliban and theircohorts had virtually occupied Swatvalley in 2007. They were drivenout with full-fledged military op-erations in 2007 and 2009. Onecould gauge the resilience and thedevious way the Taliban broadenedtheir tentacles based on primitiveorthodoxy in that marvelous en-chanting valley. From Swat valleythey were planning to march to-wards the federal capital of Paki-stan Islamabad and terrorize thelocal population through coercive

ALL too often I hear friendssigh and wish father, uncle,sister or brother would

leave them fortune, some propertyor maybe just a Mercedes! “Imag-ine postman bringing a letter say-ing my brother gifted me a car!”they sigh and look wistfully in thedirection of rich relative’s house.

Here’s an incident related byDan Clark and sent by my motherwhich touched me and I’m surewill do the same for you: A friendof mine named Paul received anautomobile from his brother as a

Christmas present. On ChristmasEve when Paul came out of his of-fice, a street urchin was walkingaround the shiny new car, admiringit.

“Is this your car, Mister?” heasked. Paul nodded. “My brothergave it to me for Christmas.” Theboy was astounded. “You mean yourbrother gave it to you and it didn’tcost you nothing? Boy, I wish . . .”he hesitated.

Of course Paul knew what hewas going to wish for. He was go-ing to wish he had a brother like that.But what the lad said jarred Paul allthe way down to his heels. “I wish,”the boy went on, “that I could be abrother like that!” Paul looked at theboy in astonishment, then impul-sively asked, “Would you like a ridein my automobile?”

“Oh yes, I’d love that.” After ashort ride, the boy turned and withhis eyes glowing, said, “Mister,would you mind driving in front ofmy house?” Paul smiled a little. Hethought he knew what the ladwanted. He wanted to show hisneighbors that he could ride homein a big automobile. But Paul waswrong again. “Will you stop wherethose two steps are?” the boy asked.

He ran up the steps. Then in alittle while Paul heard him comingback, but he was not coming fast.He was carrying his little crippledbrother. He sat him down on thebottom step, then sort of squeezedup against him, pointed to the carand said, “There she is Buddy, justlike I told you upstairs. His brothergave it to him for Christmas and itdidn’t cost him a cent. And some

Brotherly love..!day I’m gonna give you one justlike it . . . then you can see for your-self all the pretty things in the shopwindows that I’ve been trying totell you about!”

Paul got out with tears in hiseyes and lifted the little lad to thefront seat of his car. The shining-eyed older brother climbed in be-side him and the three of them be-gan a memorable holiday ride. Inmy mind’s eye I can see that cargo by; I see two brothers smiling,one sitting in the car, giving hislittle sibling a joy ride and a fewmoments of happiness, and theother not in the car; the brotherwho gave Paul the car as a gift.“Oh Brother!” they say, “what funto see your joy!” Oh Brother! It’stime we experienced such joy..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

regimentation. They and theiragents forced the people to abideby religious injunctions such as forthe ladies to cover their head in themarket places.

The Taliban and their ilkwould resist, thwart and block, byevery conceivable means, all suchendeavors that overhaul Pakistaninto a modern frame. The funda-mental question is whether Paki-stan survives as a modern state orsuccumbs to the dictates of Talibanand fanatic orthodox religious en-tities. The choice is certainly amodern state with a secular andpluralistic edifice erected on thefoundation of an enlightened Is-lam. It would not be advisable orthinkable to live with a monsterlike Taliban and then expect to re-main unscathed.

The dream of crafting a mod-ern egalitarian, Liberal, pluralisticand democratic society in Pakistanis entirely out of sync with thecrude model of statehood envi-sioned by the obscurantist and theconservative Islamic forces. Islamfundamentally is a progressive re-ligion and can tailor itself with thechanging times. The creed and ide-ologies of fundamentalists and re-actionary religious assortments areretrogressive and negate the fruitsof modern times such as advance-ment in technology, universal cul-ture of humanism, pluralism, in-clusiveness, emancipation ofwomen folks and a fusion of reli-gion with modernity and so on.

The sectarian and ideologicalconflicts now rife in the Islamiccountries are the formidablehurdles in their progress and get-ting into the strides of modern na-tion states. With the advent of afossilized version of Islam im-posed on Pakistan, the country cantransform into a medieval state butnot the one that is indispensablein the present times of enlighten-ment and awakening. The conser-vative Islamic societies are in astate of flux and groping how toexplore an identity that simulta-neously serves their religious ob-ligations and the imperative of thepresent times.—The writer is a senior journalistand a former diplomat.

Asia’s dangerous nostalgia

INDONESIA is growing at 6 percent, has rejoined the ranks of investment-grade nations and, af-

ter decades under the corrupt and re-pressive Suharto, has reaffirmed itsplace as the world’s third-largest de-mocracy. Yet somehow enough In-donesians remember the Suhartoyears fondly that his Golkar Partyhas hopes of regaining power in up-coming elections.

Golkar isn’t alone in trying toexploit nostalgia for past strongmen(and women). India’s CongressParty is trying to squeeze any re-maining good feelings about theNehru-Gandhi period (from 1947 toabout 1989) to elevate lacklustre heirapparent Rahul Gandhi.

Even as China’s Xi Jinpingpushes ahead with market reforms,he continues to pay homage to com-munist icon Mao Zedong (1949-1976). Thais are destroying theireconomy rather than cut off supportfor tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra(2001-2006) and his sister Yingluck.Many Malaysians wax sentimentalabout the boom days of MahathirMohamad (1981-2003). Japaneseare indulging Prime Minister ShinzoAbe’s dangerous stroll downmemory lane. What gives with“nostalgianomics”? The yearningfor yesteryear speaks to our disori-enting times and a dearth of vision-ary leadership when it’s most

needed. This is an upside-down erawhen the unthinkable has a way ofbecoming reality: The United Statesis a developing nation again; Europeis hitting up “poor” China to bail outits debt markets; central banks havegone Islamic with zero-interest rateseverywhere; the free trade that onceraised living standards now fomentspoverty. Many simply want to getoff this crazy ride.

That’s a problem in a dynamicglobal economy that is constantlyreinventing itself. It’s natural topine for a less-frenzied existence,but looking to the past for policysolutions courts economic decline.Unless nations reinvent themselvesand plan ahead now, they’ll get leftbehind.

Across Asia, there are too manyexamples of populations still fixatedon worldviews that no longer exist.The forces of globalisation won’tslow down as nations reminisce.Neither will the biggest migrationflows in history, the dizzying paceof change in technology, the need tocompete with neighbours as muchas cooperate, nor the deadly effectsof climate change. These are simplythe conditions of our new world.

Amid such upheaval, those at thehelm must lead their people forward.They must innovate constantly, pro-mote dialogue about how best to ex-ploit global developments, and man-age plural societies. When their citi-zens start looking to the past for in-spiration, today’s leaders must takethe hint and do better.

Views From Abroad

Nostalgianomics is related to the cultof gross domestic product thatstarted with Japan. Its swift rise fromthe ashes of World War II set the barhigh for leaders from South Koreato Indonesia. Fond memories of a Ja-pan-like postwar boom under ParkChung-hee (1961-1979) helped pro-pel daughter Park Geun-hye into theSouth Korean presidency. Japaneselong for a return to their boom yearsso much that they’re willing to turna blind eye to Abe’s nationalisticways and retrograde foreign policy.

The Mahathir schmaltz pervad-ing Malaysia recalls the days whenGDP also soared. But the insular andjury-rigged system of affirmative ac-tion, national champions and fat sub-sidies over which Mahathir presidednow holds the economy back. TheMalaysian leader also had a ten-dency to embarrass his nation on theglobal stage with his nutty anti-Semitic tirades. Malaysians mustfind inspiration by looking forward,not back to 1990.

The same holds true across theregion. As Singaporeans try to bal-ance the open immigration flowsthat drive growth with rising socialtensions and inequality, they won’tfind answers by harking back to theheady days of Lee Kuan Yew(1959-1990). They need to identifyand empower a new generation ofprogressive leaders. N oone really worries about a revivalof Mao’s disastrous economic poli-cies in China. But not until Beijingstops pretending that the Great

Helmsman remains a guiding in-spiration — and removes his por-trait from the Tiananmen gate incentral Beijing — will it enjoy theglobal legitimacy it craves.

Abe’s wistfulness about a timewhen Japan was a military power-house, its pacifist constitutionwasn’t an American creation, andwar crimes of past leaders didn’tanger neighbors or implicate hisgrandfather is proving especiallydangerous. At some point Japaneseare going to have to ask themselveshow much more leeway they’rewilling to grant their prime minis-ter in the hopes that he can revivegrowth — something that remainsin doubt.

Asia is hardly alone, of course.In the US, the slow recovery underPresident Barack Obama has somelooking back fondly to the wreck-age that was the George W. Bushyears. Europe’s many crises andwaning competitiveness have vot-ers in Barcelona and Milan missingthe pre-euro days. And how else doyou explain Vladimir Putin’s last-ing presence in Russia?

Musing over the past helps hu-mankind avoid repeating its mis-takes. But looking at yesteryear withrose-tinted glasses encourages poli-cies and styles of leadership that areno longer relevant in a fast-chang-ing Asia. The more voters yearn togo back, the more they may sufferin the future. The writer is aBloomberg View columnist in Tokyo.— Courtesy: The Japan Times

William Pesek

Saeed QureshiEmail: qureshisa2003@yahoo.com

Column from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from Dallas

Some people fear that if citizensare allowed to carry a weapon, itwould be fatal and may turn into acivil war-like situation. However, thehistory of mankind has no such ex-ample of any society where a civilwar was caused by ammunition. Anexample of recent past is that of theformer NWFP Province ( now calledKPK ) where it was customary forall to carry weapons which they usedto call their ornament, and the crimerate in the Provinces was less thanother parts of the country, becauseevery criminal pre-empted as the per-son whom he might assault mightalso be in a position to respond morefatally. Hence there seems to be noharm to abolish licensing of non-pro-hibited bore weapons for self-de-fence.—Karachi

KP andKalabagh DamDR M YAQOOB BHATTI

Aftab Sherpao is reported to have saidin the National Assembly, while com-menting on Kalabagh dam, that itwould submerge the KhyberPakhtunkhwa lands in the Provinceand that three Provincial Assemblieshad passed resolutions against it.The facts as given by WAPDA illus-trate that out of 164 square miles sub-merged land, only 3,000 acres are ir-rigated, mostly in Punjab, and 24,500acres are dry-farmed while the damwould irrigate three to four millionacres of virgin land.

As such, the views of Mr Sherpaoare based on hearsay. Moreover, Pro-vincial Assemblies have no nexuswith water issues. Only the Councilof Common Interests (CCI) has theauthority to decide the issue of a wa-ter-storage dam, which has alreadybeen done in the 1991 Water Accord,wherein any dam feasible on theIndus may be built while theKalabagh dam is highly feasible.

Mr Sherpao wants to sacrifice 14per cent share of water for KhyberPakhtunkhwa which can only be as-sured by the Kalabagh dam, while atpresent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hasonly five per cent irrigated area. MrSherpao needs to reassess the prob-lem in national interest, includingKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.—Lahore

‘I am Malala’MOHAMMAD RAFI

The launching of Malala’s book ‘I amMalala’ by Peshawar University wasstopped by the Provincial govern-ment. It is being criticised by many,including Imran Khan, on the groundthat it amounts to curbing freedomof expression. Launching of a bookis simply a ceremony. Disallowing itdoes not mean “curbing the freedomof expression”. Banning the publica-tion and sale/purchase of a book doesmean that. When I first saw Malalaspeaking on TV, I formed the opin-ion she was an intelligent girl. Whenshe was shot and was in a critical con-dition, I, like many other Pakistanis,prayed for her survival and with willof Allah she did survive. Then therewas a shower of awards on her re-garding education and acclamations,which she probably did not deserve,with what motives and objectivesMalala should know better.

But by her stance and statementsregarding education in Pakistan, sheis spreading Pakistan’s image as acountry where the government andpeople are against giving educationto children, especially to girls. Thisis incorrect except for some villageswhere tribal chiefs have enslaved thepeople. Otherwise both boys and girlsalmost everywhere go to school. Un-fortunately, our government is notdoing anything to correct the image.—Karachi

BPSC: neglectingPashtun zonesHAZRAT WALI KAKAR

The Balcohistan Public Service Com-mission (BPSC) had announced va-cancies for Lecturers (BS-17) in theEducation Department. It has ne-glected the Pashtun districts of theProvince. According to the recruit-ment policy of 1991, vacancies in

every department of the Provinceshould allocate vacancies on the ba-sis of zonal merit system: Kalat zone,Zhob zone, Makran zone, Quetta di-vision, Sibi zone and Quetta divisionzone and also a specific number ofvacancies for disabled and religiousminorities. This time the authoritiesconcerned have neglected Pashtundistricts, including Zhob, Sherani,Musakhel, Lorlai, Harnai, Duki andZiarat, along with the disabled andminorities.

Out of 674 posts , there are only93 vacancies for Pashtun districts,while there is not a single vacancyfor disabled and religious minorities.The BPSC also eliminated open meritand zonal merit and zonal allocationof seats. The BPSC had announcedthese vacancies on districts-basedmerit system among districts exceptthe above-mentioned districts.

This is against the BPSC’s re-cruitment policy of 1991. There isdisappointment among educatedyouth of the above-mentioned dis-tricts, disabled youth and religiousminorities of the Province on thisunjust and unfair distribution and al-locations of vacancies. There are anumber of degree-holders in thesedistricts. I request Chief Minister DrAbdul Malik Baloch to restore thezonal allocation and distribution ofvacancies. Last but not the least, Irequest the government to providejobs to the youth of the area to utilisetheir skills in the development andprosperity of the province.—Zhob, Balochistan

Pakistan’s ‘Newton’,Dr Abdus Salam

M ASADULLAH

The name of Dr. Abdus Salam issynonymous with one thing in Pa-kistan, Nobel Prize because to datehe is the only Pakistani who has re-ceived this award, which is un-doubtedly world’s most covetedprize in science.

Dr Abdus Salam was born inJhang and had an illustrious aca-demic career, which took him fromhis parental town to GovernmentCollege and then to Cambridge Uni-versity where he completed his PhD.He came back to Pakistan after com-pleting his PhD and taught at Gov-ernment College, Lahore where helater headed Mathematics depart-ment as well.

Dr. Abdus Salam went on to es-tablish a world class institute inTheoretical Physics in Italy wherehe kept a special place for studentsfrom developing countries with lim-ited resources. This institute is stillfunctioning as a premier researchbody in Physics.

Dr. Abdus Salam’s work withProfessors Weinberg and Glashowearned him Nobel Prize for Physicsin 1979. During the award ceremony,Dr Abdus Salam being the true Pa-kistani that he was, was proudly cladin his national dress. Dr AbdusSalam was a remarkable scientistwhose other achievements includebeing an influential academician atinstitutes like Imperial College Lon-don and awards like Royal Medal,Hopkins Prize, Maxwell Prize andEinstein award by UNESCO.—Hayatabad, Peshawar

Tollinton marketM SALEEM SAYYED

Shops in the new Tollinton Market,Lahore, sell chicken, mutton, fish andpets. Filth, foul smell, heaps of rot-ten meat and waste are hallmarks ofthe market. Selling pets and meatunder one roof is a health hazard.Animal germs easily infest meat. Itis dangerous for human health.—Lahore

A man walks along a street lined with damaged buildings in the besieged area of Homs.

Civilians and rebel fighters are seen on a boat in Sobat river in town of Ulang in Upper NileState, South Sudan.

ALAA AL ASWANY

Last month, on the third anniversary of the revolution of Jan. 25 that led to the ouster of PresidentHosni Mubarak, millions of Egyptians came out onto

the streets carrying Egyptian flags and pictures of Gen.Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the army leader whom they consid-ered their hero for siding with the will of the people andoverthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood government in June.At the same time, supporters of the Brotherhood’s deposedpresident, Mohamed Morsi, continued their confrontationswith the police, which resulted in 49 deaths and scores ofinjuries.

There was a third position taken by some of the youngrevolutionaries who played a role in ending Brotherhoodrule last year, but were terrified at the prospect of the re-turn of the police state they had opposed when Mr.Mubarak was in power. Two such people are Khaled el-Sayed, 30, and Nagy Kamel, 27, both engineers, whohelped organize a demonstration against both a return ofthe Brotherhood and the Mubarak-style regime.

The demonstration had hardly started before it was setupon by the police, reportedly using tear gas and live am-munition, causing the demonstrators to flee for their lives.

After the protesters were dispersed, Mr. Sayed and Mr.Kamel went for lunch in the city center, where they werepicked up and placed under arrest by the secret police,who charged them with possession of bombs for use interrorist attacks. Prosecutors ordered both men to be heldin custody for 15 days, pending investigation.

What happened to these two men is just one episodein a long series that has targeted young revolutionaries.Some have been sentenced to three years in prison just fororganizing a peaceful demonstration without prior autho-rization.

These sentences are based on the law on demonstra-tions issued by the transitional government on Nov. 24,which has been widely criticized and has led several hu-man rights organizations to issue a joint statement of pro-test. The statement noted that the law had been promul-gated by an unelected government with no legislative au-thority, that it put unreasonable strictures on the right topeaceful assembly, and that it empowered the police touse lethal firepower.

Such oppressive measures previously met with stiffresistance, but now they are used on a daily basis and fewEgyptians raise much of a voice in protest. This change ofstance has a number of explanations. First, since Mr. Morsiwas deposed, terrorists have been carrying out armed at-tacks and car bombings against the army, the police andchurches, causing hundreds of fatalities among both mili-tary personnel and civilians; this campaign has led mostEgyptians to give their support to the state in its fightagainst terrorism and to turn a blind eye to excesses com-mitted by the security apparatus.

Second, the standard of living in Egypt three years af-ter the revolution has deteriorated to the point where it isworse now than it was under Mr. Mubarak. Many Egyp-tians long for the reimposition of security and an improve-ment in the economy at any price.

The third reason is a systematic media campaign car-ried out by state television and the private channels ownedby businessmen who used to back the Mubarak regime.This public relations effort aims to convey the notion thatthe January 2011 revolution was a plot by American intel-ligence agencies to remove Mr. Mubarak. It accuses theyoung revolutionaries of being traitors and paid agents ofthe West.

The campaign to discredit the activists has not pro-vided any conclusive evidence, but it has had the effect ofreducing their popularity to the extent that some well-known dissidents have been attacked by ordinary citizens.Last month, when a prominent activist, Esraa Abdel Fattah,went to vote in the referendum on the new constitution,she was surrounded by women who forcibly ejected herfrom the voting station to shouts of “enemy agent” and“traitor.”

This is a tragic turn of events. Those young revolu-tionaries stood up to the giant machine of oppression thatwas the Mubarak regime; they resisted the previous mili-tary council and rose up against the tyranny of the Mus-lim Brotherhood. They carried aloft the corpses of theircomrades, shot by the police. They sacrificed so much torestore freedom and dignity for precisely those Egyptianswho now accuse them of being traitors. A few days ago,someone posted a comment on Facebook that went viral:

“Fellow revolutionaries, we have been through the threemost beautiful and difficult years of our life. We have tried torealize the dream but we now know that it has become impos-sible. Yet we keep on stating that it was a real dream, no matterhow much they try to falsify history. None of us who havelived that dream will ever forget, or regret it, for a moment. Asfor those who have died in the service of the revolution, wesay to you and your families that we apologize because we arenot worthy of your sacrifices.”

The poster’s words clearly reflect the despair of thisgeneration, a disillusionment that led many to abstain fromvoting in the constitutional referendum, which was ap-proved by 98 percent of those who turned out.

Commenting on the abstentions, observers have notedthat it has made the transitional government uneasy: Egypt’sprime minister has convened more than one meeting withrepresentatives of the young revolutionaries. It has also ledGeneral Sisi to issue a statement confirming that there canbe no return to the status quo that existed before Jan. 25. Isthe Egyptian revolution over, as the frustrated youngFacebook poster declared? The answer is provided by re-cent official statistics that show that the country’s popula-tion has already reached 85 million, 60 percent of whomare under 29. It is these young people — the majority of thepopulation — who made the revolution. It is they who, inthe end, will \win out, because they alone are the future.

—Courtesy The New York Times

Egypt’s despair,and its hope

HOMS—Syria evacuated three busloadsof civilians from a besieged area ofHoms on Friday, the first stage of aplanned three-day humanitarianceasefire in the city which has sufferedsome of the worst devastation of Syria’sthree-year conflict.

The buses carrying dozens of weary-looking evacuees, accompanied by SyrianArab Red Crescent officials, arrived at ameeting point outside Homs watched bysoldiers and police.

The deal is the first positive result ofpeace talks which were launched twoweeks ago between Syria’s warring foesand resume on Monday in Geneva, withlittle prospect of resolving core grievancesbehind a war which has killed 130,000people.

Under the Homs deal, women, chil-dren and old men are allowed to leave theOld City which has been under siege byPresident Bashar al-Assad’s forces for ayear and a half, while humanitarian sup-plies will be allowed in to those who re-

Syria starts evacuating civilians frombesieged Homs amid temporary truce

main.The World Food Programme said it

had trucks ready to take a month’s supplyof food on Saturday to the estimated 2,500hungry and malnourished people who havebeen trapped for months in the rebel-heldheart of the city.

Syrian authorities and aid groups saidthey expected around 200 people to leavethe rebel-controlled neighborhoods. ByFriday afternoon about 80 people had beenevacuated, a U.N. official told Syrian tele-vision. It was the first time the Red Cres-cent had gained access to the center ofHoms since the siege began, the aid agencysaid.

Russia said a three-day ceasefire hadbeen agreed in the city, which was one ofthe first areas to erupt in protest againstAssad nearly three years ago and wherestreet after street has been destroyed inheavy fighting between Assad’s forces andrebels seeking his overthrow.

Syrian authorities had announced thatevacuees would be given medical treat-

ment and shelter. They said residents ofOld Homs who prefer to remain will besent humanitarian aid as well.

Moscow, which has supported andarmed Assad throughout the civil war,hailed the Homs deal as a “landmark agree-ment”, but Western officials gave a skep-tical response, saying Syria had an uncon-ditional obligation to civilians trapped byconflict, arguing the issue should not haverequired weeks of negotiation to allow aidto enter.

“The regime should let the humani-tarian convoy in. Then the populationshould decide to stay or leave,” said JonWilks, Britain’s diplomatic representativeto the Syrian opposition.

Rebels have rejected similar offers toevacuate women and children in the pastbecause of concerns about what mighthappen to any men, including fighters,who are left behind. Dozens of men weredetained and disappeared after a similardeal made last year in Mouadamiya, westof Damascus.—Agencies

DR N JANARDHAN

When Barack Obama won the presidential bid in 2008, it was tough to be evenremotely critical of the first African-American to occupy the White House.More than five years later, it is tough to highlight anything remotely posi-

tive.Despite a comfortable re-election in 2012, Obama has moved from one predica-

ment to another on domestic and international issues, receiving flak for the way hisadministration has handled or mishandled them.

The latest round of criticism revolves around the recent State of the Union ad-dress. While Obama concentrated mostly on domestic issues in light of the mid-termpolls in November, the gist of his foreign and defence policy in the annual addresswas that Washington would limit US military intervention in conflicts around theworld, without neglecting global terrorism.

The criticism must be seen in the context of two US decisions related to the Gulfand Middle East — retreating on the chemical weapons ‘red line’ that he emphasisedas a condition for military intervention in Syria, and the negotiations on Iran’s nuclearprogramme and rapprochement with the Islamic republic. These policies reflect ei-ther or both the following sentiments: Washington’s decline as an unchallenged su-perpower due to its economic woes and the desire to focus on domestic issues at theexpense of its international role.

With less than three years remaining in his second term, the US president hasfailed to turn around the American economy in the manner he had claimed he wouldduring his first campaign trails. Since his domestic legacy hinges more on stabilisingthe economy, Obama’s recent external policies clearly stress the mantra that “it’s the

Passive super powereconomy, stupid”.

Obama recognises a major reason that triggered the US economic slump — theGeorge W. Bush administration’s misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, which isestimated to finally cost the United States up to $6 trillion, mostly borrowed frominternational lenders at high interest. According to a 2013 report by HarvardUniversity’s Kennedy School of Government, these “will be the most expensive warsin US history” and the decisions revolving around them would impact federal bud-gets for decades.

Apart from the lives lost, the financial costs include “long-term medical care anddisability compensation for (American) service members, veterans and families, mili-tary replenishment and social and economic costs… paying off trillions of dollars indebt incurred as the US government failed to include them in annual budgets… (and)huge expenditures to replace military equipment used in the two wars”.

This has made Americans favour a diminished US security role abroad, whichhas been recognised by Washington. According to a Council on Foreign Relationsand Pew Research Center survey last December, 53 percent of those polled opinedthat Washington was less important and powerful in global affairs than it was a de-cade earlier. More importantly, 52 percent felt that Washington should “mind its ownbusiness internationally and let other nations get along the best they can on theirown”. It is the most emphatic response on this issue since about five decades.

This was qualified by a record 80 percent wishing that Washington would “con-centrate more on national” than international problems.

In the past, while most of Washington’s foreign policies have been good forAmerica, even if they had disastrous consequences for other countries, some mayhave beneficial to the world at large, even if they had undesired consequences for the

United States. Obama’s latest ‘defensive’ strategy, however, could be categorised asfalling somewhere in between — a win-win scenario for the United States and theworld.

‘No offence, mostly defence’ is a good economic and diplomatic policy, espe-cially since the United States has earned more enemies than friends during the lastfew decades of its aggressive foreign policy. It is this understanding — maximumeconomic growth as the ‘end’ through minimum external military engagement as the‘means’ — that could have conditioned Obama’s recent strategies. The point is, whytread the road of military conflict when good results can be achieved through diplo-macy. More seems to have been achieved through negotiations with Iran than hasbeen seemingly achieved through the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Thus, if Bill Clinton’s presidency could be termed as ‘economic highs and Lewinskylows’, George W. Bush’s as ‘military highs and economic lows’, Obama’s term —going by his five-year reign — could still end up being ‘economic and military lows’.

Not doing much or anything at all is a great risk for anyone, let alone a politician.But Obama seems to have mastered this by doing very little and still appearing to beattempting radical change, irrespective of the results. While the jury is still out onwhat his final legacy at home would be, his external policies so far mean that Obamacould still be the first US president in recent memory to finish, not one, but two termswithout waging direct wars against any country in the world.

Just on this count, he deserves a better international approval rating than the pre-vailing 43 percent among Americans. And for those displeased in the Gulf and MiddleEast about US policies, it is time to ponder alternative strategies, boldly experimentand intensify regional solutions to tackle regional problems.

—Courtesy Khaleej Times

14 people deadin Philippines

bus crashBONTOC, Philippines—Policein the Philippines said at least14 people died and 31 were in-jured Friday after a bus fell intoa 300-foot ravine.

The accident took placearound 7:20 a.m., local time, inSitio Pagang, BarangayTabulin, Bontoc MountainProvince, ABS-CBN reported.

Some witness told policethe bus had engine problems,but investigators said they’reconsidering human error.

Among the dead were twotourists from the Netherlandsand Canada, ABS-CBN re-ported. Twenty-one peoplewere taken to Bontoc GeneralHospital, three were admittedto Luis Hora Hospital and fourwere missing, the newspapersaid.—Agencies

CAIRO—Six Egyptian police-men were wounded in a bombattack in Cairo on Friday, hoursbefore clashes between policeand Islamist protesters in sev-eral cities killed at least oneperson, officials said.

The attack shattered a tensecalm in the capital after a spateof bombings on January 24killed six policemen, in an es-calation of a militant campaignfollowing the overthrow of Is-lamist president MohamedMorsi.

The interior ministry saidtwo small bombs exploded nearpolicemen stationed on a bridgenear central Cairo. At least sixwere wounded in the attack, thehealth ministry said.

Police cordoned off thescene, where a lightly damagedpolice truck appeared to haveborne the brunt of the blast.

State television reportedthat the attack targeted a check-point set up to counter a sched-uled protest by Morsi’s Islam-ist supporters, who had calledfor rallies on Friday.

Two Egypt bombswound six officers

Police dispersed severalprotest marches that set offfrom mosques after noonprayers, security officials said.

One person was killed inthe violence in Fayoum, a citysouth west of Cairo.

The country has beenshaken by persistent and oftenviolent protests as well asbombings and shootings sincethe military overthrew Morsion July 3.

Militant attacks on policeand soldiers have killed scores,mostly in the restive Sinai Pen-insula.

Jihadists based in the pen-insula have also claimed re-sponsibility for attacks on po-lice in Cairo and elsewhere.

An Al-Qaeda-inspiredgroup in the Sinai said it car-ried out a car bombing outsideCairo police headquarters onJanuary 24 that killed fourpeople.

Two more policemen werekilled in three additionalbombings in the capital thatday.—AFP

JERUSALEM—Israel’s right-wing foreign minister on Fridaydefended U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry whose Middle Eastpeace drive has seen mounting criticism from within the Israeligovernment.

The conciliatory remarks by Foreign Minister AvigdorLieberman, who has previously been a vocal critic of interna-tional efforts to set up a Palestinian state on Israeli-occupiedterritory, could help Kerry cobble together consensus for pursu-ing the peace negotiations.

“I want to make clear - Kerry is a true friend of Israel,”Lieberman told business leaders in Tel Aviv. “What is the pointof turning friend into foe?” Lieberman has taken a more cir-cumspect tack since resuming the role of foreign minister afterhe was cleared of graft charges last year. Kerry launched thelatest Israeli-Palestinian peace push last July and has visited theregion more than 10 times in the past year.

He hopes to complete a “framework” accord by an Aprildeadline and will then try to negotiate a final peace deal by theend of 2014, a U.S. official has said. However, both sides arestanding firm on their demands in decades-old disputes.—APP

Israeli foreignminister defends

peace-maker Kerry

WASHINGTON—The United States saidThursday that Iceland was violating aninternational agreement through its whal-ing, opening the possibility of economicsanctions over the controversial hunt.

The Department of the Interior, in adecision it is required to take under USlaw, found that the Nordic country’s ac-tions violated the Convention on Interna-tional Trade in Endangered Species ofWild Fauna and Flora. The certificationwas sent to President Barack Obama, whohas 60 days to determine whether to im-pose economic sanctions on the NATOally.

US hits Iceland on whaling, looks at sanctionsAfter a similar decision in 2011,

Obama declined to do so but ordered dip-lomatic measures to raise concern. Ice-land and Norway are the only nations thatopenly defy a 1986 global moratorium oncommercial whaling. Japan kills hundredsof whales a year but says it abides by themoratorium by using a loophole that al-lows “lethal research” on the ocean gi-ants.

Iceland consumes little whale meat butsupplies the Japanese market. It increasedits 2014 quotas to 383 whales, despite notmaking the hunt level the previous year.Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, in a state-

ment on the decision, credited the 1986moratorium with helping whale stocks re-cover after commercial whaling “hadnearly driven whales to extinction.”

Conservation and animal rights groupshailed the move and called for Obama totake action to stop Iceland’s hunt. “Kill-ing endangered fin whales is not only bru-tal, it’s short-sighted,” said Taryn KiekowHeimer of the Natural Resources DefenseCouncil. “Iceland should not be allowedto ignore the fact that, regardless of sometemporary financial reward, this practiceis simply unsustainable and cruel,” shesaid.—AFP

JOHANNESBURG—PresidentJacob Zuma on Friday an-nounced that South Africa willhold a general election on May7, a vote which promises to bethe sternest test yet of the rul-ing African National Congress.

The election — SouthAfrica’s fifth since apartheidended in 1994 — will be thefirst in which “born free” citi-zens can cast their ballot. Theycould make up as much as onefifth of the electorate.

It will also be the first elec-tion since the death of NelsonMandela, the nation’s foundingfather, first democraticallyelected president and theANC’s talismanic leader.

“These are historic elec-tions as they take place duringthe 20th anniversary of ourfreedom from apartheid bond-age,” Zuma said, foreshadow-ing a campaign likely to leanheavily on the ANC’s past glo-ries.

Zuma said the vote would“consolidate the democracyand freedom that we worked sohard to achieve, and for whichesteemed South Africans suchas former president NelsonMandela sacrificed life’s com-forts for.” The ANC is thestrong favourite to win a ma-jority of the 400 seats in par-liament and so to return Zuma,now 71, to the presidency.

It has won each of the lastfour elections by a landslide,winning more than 60 percent

S Africa to hold generalelection on May 7

of the popular vote.But the party’s reputation

has been sullied by pervasiveinequality, joblessness,cronyism, corruption and gov-ernment incompetence.

And this time round theANC faces a phalanx of oppo-sition parties — from the cen-trist Democratic Alliance to theleft-wing Economic FreedomFighters of Julius Malema —who have fastened on to wide-spread popular unease.

Struggling leadershipZuma himself heads into

the election with his own stand-ing significantly reduced.

He has been beset by alitany of scandals, crowned bythe revelation that $20 millionof taxpayers’ money was usedto refurbish his rural homestead.That sits uneasily in a countrywhere one in three workers isunemployed and many millionsstruggle to get by.

“This will be the jobs elec-tion,” said Democratic Allianceleader Helen Zille, who prom-ises to implement policies thatcreate six million new jobs, ifelected. “We will make this elec-tion a battle of ideas; even as ouropponents cling to the outdatedpolitics of racial mobilisation.”With the Democratic Alliancestill struggling to shed its imageas a party of white and mixed-race South Africans, the ANC’sstrongest challenge may comein urban and provincial elec-tions.—AFP

chief would propose to In-dia to sit down and talk withPakistan to resolve thelongstanding Kashmir is-sue.

Among the most vitalroles played by the Secre-tary-General is the use of his“good offices,” which aresteps taken publicly and inprivate, drawing upon hisindependence, impartialityand integrity, to prevent in-ternational disputes fromarising, escalating orspreading.

“Good offices” are em-ployed to help bring warringparties towards peace or toprevent political and armedconflicts from escalating.India has always ruled outany intervention by the UNin settling issues, includingKashmir, with Pakistan. Pa-kistan, on the other handhas sought UN interventionand has described the UNresolutions on the issue asan “important framework”for settlement of the dis-pute.—INP

UN ready tomediateFrom Page 1

The 70-year-old is facing treasoncharges, which can carry the deathpenalty, over his imposition of a stateof emergency in 2007 while he waspresident. He was first ordered be-fore the tribunal on December 24 buthas yet to put in an appearance, withbomb scares and health problemskeeping him away.

In his arguments before thecourt, Musharraf ’s counsel AnwarMansoor assured the court that hisclient would appear on February 18.“Pervez Musharraf will appear be-fore the court after being dischargedfrom the hospital,” Anwar said.

Justice Faisal Arab remarked thata non-bailable warrant for Musharrafwould be issued if he failed to ap-pear before the court.

Earlier, Anwar Mansoor pleadedthat his client’s petitions challeng-ing the appointments of the pros-ecutor and judges should be takenup first, as during the entire week-long hearing at no point was thispetition heard. He said that if thehearing proceeded without decidingon the petitions it would be injus-tice to his client.

Justice Faisal Arab interveningsaid proceeding in the case were de-ferred on three consecutive hear-

Treason court summons Musharraf on Feb 18From Page 1

ate conducive atmospherefor economic progress. Hehad already made sacrificesoffering government seat toBaloch nationalists inBalcohistan and allowedsmooth sailing of PTI gov-ernment in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

Sharif had lamented inhis address to AJK Assem-bly on Feb. 5 he could notfind ample time for carryingout mega projects for eco-nomic uplift of the countryas he had to devote most ofhis time in tackling law andorder and security issues.

Sources did not specifydetails about way out ofMusharraf case but tippedit would be done throughthe court.

UnderstandingreachedFrom Page 1

TTP negotiator rejects peace talks under constitutionFrom Page 1“That should be the law in Pakistan and

until the committee brings this point on theagenda I won’t be part of negotiations,” hetold reporters.

He said he would remain part of theTTP’s three-man delegation led by fellowcleric Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, unless toldotherwise, but would not come to the ne-gotiating table.

“I won’t participate in talks until theyinclude a clause about the imposition ofIslamic law,” he said. Aziz’s move threatensto further undermine the talks – the gov-ernment side has already voiced doubtsabout the composition and authority of theTTP’s representatives.

The government delegation skipped aninitial meeting on Tuesday citing confusionover the militants’ team after two memberspulled out.

poned due to some legalhitches.

All political parties wantto allow their worker an op-portunity to take part in theis process and serve themasses.

Earlier while address-ing the participants of thecourse the minister saidthat in the past Pakistan re-mained an authoritarianstate and role of informa-tion ministry was to coverthe mistakes of therulers.However he saidnow Pakistan has becomea democratic country andwith democratization of thecountry the role of theministry has changed.

Now the job of the in-formation ministry wouldbe promote a soft and posi-tive image of Pakistanacross t he world and at lo-cal level work for promo-tion of peace and stabilityand work for developmentof Pakistan.

Govt teamlookingFrom Page 1

service to humanity.”He said the teachings of Islam were based

on two basic principles, worship of Allah(Huqooq-ul-Allah) and service of men(Huqooq-ul-Ibad). Without putting both ofthese principles into practice, there can be notrue fulfillment of one’s religious duties, headded.

Quoting a Hadith, Sharif said “you shouldbe merciful to people on earth and Allah Al-mighty will be merciful to you”, and added itwas the way in which Islam links personal sal-vation to serving humanity.

Prime Minister said every Pakistani has aspecial place in the hearts for the people andgovernment of Saudi Arabia and keeps themin high esteem.

Prime Minister said the Centre will work asa vehicle for transferring the retired people’sintellectual, academic and professional knowl-edge and experiences to the younger genera-tion.

He also expressed his gratitude to PrinceSultan Bin Salman for taking out time to visitPakistan and pay reverence to his mother lateSultana Turki-Al-Suderi, who played a key rolein the expansion and building of the SultanaFoundation.

“Your presence here today is a symbol ofthe longstanding and everlasting friendly re-lations between the people of Saudi Arabiaand Pakistan,” he said. Prime Minister saidboth the countries share a vast heritage ofcultural, religious and social values that bindthem in the common bond of eternal brother-hood.

“Pakistan is just like your second home.The people of Pakistan hold Saudi Arabia ingreat reverence as a model Islamic country,having the privilege of being the caretaker ofthe ‘Harmain Sharifain’, and as a reliable andtrustworthy friend.”

He said people of both the countries werepeace loving, faithful and hardworking and can

S&T can help eradicate economic ills: PMFrom Page 1

troops there beyond 2014.The Obama administra-

tion is negotiating a bilateralsecurity agreement with Af-ghan President HamidKarzai that could keeptroops in Afghanistan afterthe longest war in US his-tory winds down at the endof this year, when the Natomission ends.

“We are introducing abipartisan resolution to saybefore any American soldier,sailor, airman or Marine iscommitted to stay in Af-ghanistan after 2014, Con-gress should vote,” Demo-cratic Senator Jeff Merkleytold reporters.

“Automatic renewal isfine for Netflix and gymmemberships, but it isn’t theright approach when itcomes to war.” Conserva-tive Senator Mike Lee andfellow Republican SenatorRand Paul have also signedon.—AFP

US senatorsdemandFrom Page 1

peace talks here or peace inPakistan while they are leav-ing Afghanistan,” the reportquoted Imran. “The thinkingis that if they [insurgents]are engaged here, theywould not be going acrossto fight.”

Imran criticised PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif forwaiting too long after theMay election to start talkswith the TTP. He said thestate negotiation team alsoreflected Nawaz’s lack ofseriousness.

“If I was him, I wouldlead it myself; it’s too impor-tant an issue for Pakistan,”he said. Commenting on whythe TTP named him as a ne-gotiator from their side, Imransaid that they trust him towithstand US pressures.

Stressing that he dis-agrees with TTP’s interpre-tation of Sharia law, Imransaid “clearly, I don’t repre-sent Taliban.”

US haltingdrone attacks

From Page 1

dia to suspend dialoguewith Pakistan, Khurshidsaid, “Circumstances mustbe befitting to be revived”.Though relations have im-proved “undoubtedly”,there is still a lot of work tobe done, he said. “I believemy colleague Anand Sharmais going to Pakistan on tradetalks. Let me see what hap-pens,” Khurshid said.—INP

Talks withPakistan

From Page 1

Khan said Pakistan releasesthe Indian prisoners aftercompletion of their sen-tences as per the bilateralagreement but regretfullyIndia is not reciprocating inthe same manner.

He said the presentgovernment has taken upthis issue seriously withIndia to ensure release ofits prisoners. Respondingto a call attention notice,Parl iamentary Secretaryfor Cabinet SecretariatRaja Javed Ikhlas told theHouse that the govern-ment is ensuring uninter-rupted supply of vaccinesof different diseases withthe cooperation of WHOand UNICEF.

He said majori ty offunds al located for thecurrent financial year forExpanded Programme onImmunization have beenreleased. The House hasnow been prorogued.—Online

India plansFrom Page 1

ings, adding it is not our personalmatter whatever case comes beforethe court it is our responsibility tohear. The hearing of the case hasbeen adjourned till February 10.

On January 31 the court refusedto grant him permission to go abroadfor medical treatment and orderedhim to appear on Friday.

But at Friday’s hearing JusticeFaisal Arab accepted a request fromMusharraf ’s lawyers that he be ex-cused until February 18. The nexthearing in the case will be on Febru-ary 10, but Musharraf is not requiredto attend.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wasthe man Musharraf ousted frompower in his 1999 coup, and his law-yers have said the treason case isan attempt to settle old scoresthrough the courts. They have alsochallenged the civilian court’s rightto try a former army chief, saying heis entitled to be dealt with by a mili-tary tribunal.

In addition to treason, Musharraffaces an array of other criminalcharges dating back to his 1999-2008rule, including for the murder offormer prime minister Benazir Bhuttoin December 2007. Musharraf facestreason charges under Article 6 for

suspending, subverting and abro-gating the Constitution, imposing anemergency in the country in Novem-ber 2007 and detaining judges of thesuperior courts.

The 70-year-old retired general iscurrently hospitalised at AFIC inRawalpindi. He was rushed to theAFIC and admitted there over amonth ago, after he complained ofchest pain en route to the court.Three possible routes were set outbetween the AFIC and the specialcourt and at least 1,100 security per-sonnel were on duty to ensureMusharraf ’s security.

Large contingents of police andRangers, including elite forces werestanding guard at the National Li-brary and AFIC as well as on partsof Airport Road, Murree Road, Ex-press Highway and Mall Road. TheBomb Disposal Squad also swept thearea to check for explosives.

On February 4, the former armychief had challenged the specialcourt’s order regarding the issuanceof a bailable warrant, along with itsJanuary 10 order on the applicabilityof the Code of Criminal Procedure(CrPC) in the Supreme Court. The SCon Friday dismissed Musharraf’s re-quest against the arrest warrant.

make great contributions to the overall peaceand prosperity of not only the region but thatof the whole world.

The Prime Minister said the primary mis-sion of social work was to enhance humanwell-being and help meet the basic humanneeds of all people, with particular attentionto the needs and empowerment of people whoare vulnerable, oppressed, and living in pov-erty.

He said a defining feature of social workwas its focus on individual well-being in a so-cial context and the well-being of society interms of education, health and social uplift.Thus it is fundamental to social work to pro-mote social justice and social change.

“We need a social change to create ahealthy society in which our people are safe,educated and are able to participate in thedevelopment and prosperity of the country,”Sharif said.

He said Sultana Foundation was one suchexample of social work, conceived by a fewretired people and transformed into reality bythe generous financial support of Late Prin-cess Sultana whose love and devotion to hu-man service was reflected in the shape of thisKnowledge city, serving thousands of stu-dents on humanitarian basis.

“The name of that great philanthropist ladywill forever remain a great source of inspira-tion for generations to come,” the Prime Min-ister said.

He said the vast range of formal and infor-mal education modalities applied to educationdevelopment, by Sultana Foundation, washighly helpful in promoting the cause of edu-cation in Pakistan.

He said its initiatives for emphasis on out-of-school children, which Dr. Naeem Ghanihas named a “Quantitative Deficit of Educa-tion” as a vital area needing attention of thecivil society as well as the government.

“I pay my humble tribute to the Great Lady

and the men behind this Mission,” the PrimeMinister said.

He acknowledged that the Foundationwhich started with a two room primary schoolfor boys in 1994 was today running a numberof prestigious educational institutions wherethousands of students were getting qualityeducation.

“The Foundation’s emphasis on skillstraining and character building is also com-mendable,” Prime Minister Sharif said andprayed “may Allah keep us in peace and giveus the strength to serve humanity to the bestof our abilities.”

The Prime Minister concluded his addressby raising the slogan of Long Live Pakistan -Saudi Arabia friendship, amidst a loud ap-plause.

Prince Sultan bin Salman Abdul Aziz saidhe saw a bright future for Pakistan as its peoplewere hard working and committed.

The Prince posed great trust in the leader-ship qualities of Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif and said that Pakistan was agreat country and has bright future underNawaz Sharif”s leadership. He said the foun-dation has played a key role in improving andspreading education across the nook and cor-ner of the country.

He recalled the vital role of his mother inthis regard and said his family was proud tohave been of assistance to the fellow Paki-stanis in a noble task.

He said that foundation was an idea of hismother and she also supported several othercharitable institutions.

Outlining future plans of the Foundationthe Prince said that we want to further expandthe programme from schools to colleges andmedical colleges and scholarships for theneedy students.

He pledged to continue support to the Sul-tana Foundation particularly in the areas ofeducation, research and health.—APP

Meanwhile, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Paki-stan has given its negotiators the author-ity to agree on a ceasefire if the govern-ment agrees to halt troop deployment,sources said.

The authority was delegated to the ne-gotiating body headed by Maulana SamiulHaq in a contact between members of thegroup with Qari Shakeel, who is headingthe nine-member monitoring committee ofthe TTP. Shakeel has communicated to thenegotiators that if the government stopsthe deployment of forces, a ceasefire canbe agreed upon.

The communication also entailed dis-cussion on Taliban militants in governmentcustody as well as those abducted by theTTP.

The state has 43 senior Taliban leaders

and some 800 Taliban members as prison-ers, Shakeel said, adding that if the govern-ment releases Taliban prisoners, the TTPwould release those detained by it for theirlinks with the government and securityforces.

Shakeel said those being held by theTaliban, including Prof Ajmal, Ali HaiderGilani and Wapda and FC personnel, wouldbe released if the government agrees to re-lease TTP leaders and members.

He insisted that the Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan team of negotiators was formedwith good intentions, and pointed out thatthe government’s demand to hold negotia-tion within the parameters of the Constitu-tion will only delay the process.

“The peace process can move forwardonly if it is according to the Quran and

Sunnah,” Aziz stressed, adding that if thegovernment means Islamic laws when itmentions the Constitution, there would beno problem.

“We want this constitution as well,” hesaid. Aziz said that even the lawmakers inPakistan do not know anything about Is-lamic law.

Sources said Qari Shakeel, head of care-taker committee of Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki-stan telephoned Maulana Aziz three timeswhile he was talking to mediamen, however,Maualana Aziz did not respond.

In the press conference, Maulana Azizsaid Taliban were calling him but he wouldnot receive their call till he present his view-point.

Sources added that JUI-S chief MaulanaSamiul Haq also called him, however, AbdulAziz did not speak to him as well.

“The war we are fight-ing is for enforcement ofSharia….and talks with thegovernment we will beholding will be for thesame objective,” saidShahidullah.

Commenting on theconditions put forward bygovernment negotiators,he said those were beingconsulted upon, however,he added that any decisionin this regard would bemade after his meeting withTTP negotiators.

Talks to end the mili-tants’ bloody seven-yearinsurgency formally kickedoff Thursday between afour-member governmentcommittee and a three-manTaliban team, amid muchscepticism over whetherdialogue can yield a last-ing peace deal.

When he was askedhow enforcement of Is-lamic Sharia was possiblewith an already imposedConstitution in the coun-try? He replied: “This issimple because the otherparty we are holding peace

If we followed Constitution warwouldn’t have been waged

From Page 1

talks with claim that theyare Muslim…..and Paki-stan was created in Islam’sname…so this taskshouldn’t be difficult forany Muslim.”

“If we demand Ameri-cans to enforce Sharia intheir country then it wouldbe understandably difficultfor them to do so but notfor people who call them-selves Muslims,” said theTTP spokesman.

Expressing optimismabout outcome of peacetalks, he said a meetingwith Taliban negotiatorswas due in next four to fivedays in which furthercourse of action would bedirected to them.

Answering a query re-garding dissociation ofMaulana Abdul Aziz frompeace talks, Shahidullahsaid Aziz was still his rep-resentative and that hisreservations will be ad-dressed soon.

“Maulana (Abdul) Azizis not wrong in his stance,”he added.—BBC

2014 Sochi WinterFrom Back Page

add another gold medal totheir collection of StanleyCups. In the rink, American’sAshley Wagner and GracieGold will try to dethroneSouth Korean marvel anddefending goal medalistYuna Kim. But every athletewho makes it to Sochi ishonoured with the titleOlympian, and a satelliteimage of the earth was pro-jected on the floor of FishtStadium as they enteredduring the parade of na-tions, the map shifting sothe athletes emerged fromtheir own country. The ath-letes from the Cayman Is-lands even arrived in shorts!

After Greece, tradition-ally first as the birthplacenation of Olympic competi-tion, the teams marchinginto the stadium in Russianalphabetical order, puttingthe US between Sloveniaand Tajkistan. The cer-emony was crafted as a cel-ebration of Russia and is

presenting Putin’s version:a country with a rich andcomplex history emergingconfidently from a rockytwo decades and now ca-pable of putting on a majorinternational sports event.And it didn’t take long forthat classic Russian pride intheir nation to come shiningthrough.

The official ceremonyopened with the Russian al-phabet projected on the sta-dium floor, as a young girl toldthe story of her country’sheroes and their globally re-nowned achievements: com-poser Tchaikovsky; artistsKandinsky, Chagall andMalevich; writers Tolstoy,Pushkin and Chekhov;Mendeleev and his periodictable; the first spaceshipSputnik and Russia’s spacestations. There was a glitch,too, as the lighting of the fiveOlympic Rings overshad-owed the singing of the Rus-sian national anthem.—AP

Operation atSohrab GothISLAMABAD—Rangers con-ducting search operation heldseveral suspects at HassanNoman Colony in Sohrab Gothon Friday morning here. Rang-ers’ sources said that the opera-tion started on secret informationrelating to the presence of mis-creants in the area and a strongcontingent of 400 Rangers con-ducting raids at the suspectedhouses and hideouts.—Online

Famous actorGhayyurAkhtar

passes awaySTAFF REPORT

LAHORE—Renowned radio,TV and film actor Ghayyur

A k h t a rpassed awayon Friday inLahore. Ac-cording tosources, hesuffered pa-ralysis threeyears agoand was

shifted to hospital Thursdaynight after his condition dete-riorated where he could notsurvive.

Ghayyur Akhtar startedacting in the late 1970s andbecame famous during 1980s.His performances in drama se-rials such as ‘Khawaja andSons’ and ‘Sona Chandi’ werehighly appreciated.

Ghayyur was particularlyfamous for his acting abilitiesin comedy roles.

For his startling perfor-mance throughout his career, healso received Pride of Perfor-mance Award.

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for Com-merce Engineer Khurram Dastgir KhanFriday said that Pakistan had not yet givenNon Discriminatory Market Access andMost Favoured Nation status to India, add-ing that although India had already

Pakistan yet not awarded NDMA, MFN status to Indiaawarded MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.

This he said while answering a ques-tion raised by Senator Syeda SughraImam in the Senate. Dastgir explainedthat NDMA entails imports in terms ofmarket access and imposition of taxes/

customs tariffs while MFN is a terminol-ogy used in World Trade Organisationagreement which implies any advantageor immunity to a member country for anyproduct to be accorded immediately andunconditionally.—APP

SOCHI, RUSSIA: A general view of fireworks over Fisht Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Sochi 2014Winter Olympics on Friday.

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Former InteriorSecretary and ex-InspectorGeneral Police Ch. Fazal-I-Haq was laid to rest here onFriday.

He breathed his last herein the day at the age of over 90years.

A large number of relatives

and friends including in-serviceand retired personnel attendedNazemay–e- Janaja.

Ch. Fal-I-Haq belong to theearly inductees of police ser-vice of Pakistan. He gainedtribute of being outstandingofficer.

He had the honour of meet-ing Quaid-i-Azam after and be-fore creation of Pakistan.

Ch. Fazl-i-Haq passes away

SOCHI—Music, dance andplenty of Russian bravado un-leashed the ultimate achieve-ment of Vladimir Putin’s Rus-sia on Friday — a WinterOlympics to showcase the bestathletes on ice and snow thatthe world has to offer.

The opening ceremony onthe edge of the Black Sea andsubsequent games are Russia’schance to tell its story of post-Soviet resurrection to theworld, and dispel the anger,fear and suspicion that hasmarred the buildup to thesemost expensive Olympics ever.Just after the sun set over theCaucasus Mountains and along

2014 Sochi Winter Olympicssees spectacular start

the seashore just outside FishtStadium in the wet-paint-freshOlympic Park, Russian TV starYana Churikova shouted to acrowd still taking their seats:“Welcome to the centre of theuniverse!” For the next twoweeks, it certainly is for the3,000 athletes who will com-pete in 98 events, more peopleand contests than ever at theWinter Games. Americansnowboarder Shaun White iscertain to wow crowds in theKrasnaya Polyana resorthalfpipe. On the ice, Canadianhockey players Sidney Crosbyand Jonathan Toews will try to

Continued on Page 7

PARENTS have long poured on cheesesauce, peanut butter and the like tocoax kids to eat their vegetables, but

a new study suggests those tricks mightalso get children to look more favorably atthe vegetables them-selves. Preschoolers in-troduced to Brusselssprouts alongside creamcheese to spread on thebitter vegetable more of-ten said they liked thesprouts and ate more ofthem, even when laterserved plain.

The strategy of pairingsomething new with some-thing a person already likesis known as associativeconditioning and could behelpful in encouraging kids- and adults - to eat morefruits and vegetables, theauthors say. “This has thepotential to change the eat-ing habits of children, in-cluding eating more veg-etables, and this in turn will affect childhoodobesity,” said Elizabeth Capaldi-Phillips, a psy-chologist at Arizona State University and leadauthor of the study.

The research was published in Journal ofthe Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Inthe study, parents of 29 children between theages of three and five years old filled out asurvey about the kids’ views of 11 vegetables,including whether they liked or disliked thevegetable, or had never tried it. Cauliflowerand Brussels sprouts were among the veg-etables most children had not tried, and wereselected as the ones used to gauge children’spreferences in the study.

The children were given either cauli-flower or Brussels sprouts once per dayfor seven days, and ate in a group of five orsix children that was led by a researcher orteacher. The vegetables were all boiled, then

were either served plain, withunsweetened cream cheese orwith sweetened cream cheese.After this conditioning period,the kids were given the veg-etables plain.

The researchers foundthat children given Brusselssprouts with cream cheeseduring conditioning liked themsignificantly more than thosegiven plain sprouts. Less thanone in five kids given plainsprouts said they liked thevegetable, whereas about two-thirds of kids who got sproutswith either type of creamcheese said they liked the veg-etables. The children likedmilder, non-bitter cauliflowermore overall, and aboutequally whether or not it was

served with cream cheese. After the condi-tioning period, when children were giventhe plain vegetables, those who had previ-ously said they “liked” Brussels sproutsate more of them than kids who had ex-pressed dislike. Although previous re-search has found that kids need to try somenew foods eight to 10 times before they getused to the taste, the children in the studytried the new vegetables only seven timesbefore they would eat them plain, the au-thors point out. Such a flavor-pairing strat-egy could work, not only for Brusselssprouts, but other vegetables and foods ofother kinds, they suggest.

Flavor-pairing may teachkids to like vegetables

Dried up trees in the capital waiting for spring season to blossom again.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cul-tural Organization (Unesco) andComsats Institute of InformationTechnology (CIIT) have inked anagreement to establish the UnescoChair on ‘Knowledge Systems forIntegrated Water Resources Man-agement’ at the COMSATS WahCampus. The signing ceremony,held at the Ministry of Science andTechnology, was presided over byMinister for Science and Technol-ogy Zahid Hamid.

Director General Unesco, DrIrina Bokova, and the Rector CIIT,

Establishment of UNESCO’s chairDr. SM Junaid Zaidi, signed theagreement on behalf of their orga-nizations. The ceremony was wit-nessed by the Secretary S&TKamran Ali Qureshi, Executive Di-rector COMSATS, Dr Imtinan ElahiQureshi, Resident Director Unescoto Pakistan, Dr. Kozue Kay Nagata,Secretary-General Pakistan Na-tional Commission for Unesco,Amna Imran. Federal MinisterZahid Hamid highlighted the rolehis ministry is playing for the pro-motion of science and technologyin the country. He noted hisministry’s recent initiatives on tech-nical education and viewed the re-cently adopted National Science,

Technology and Innovation Policy(2012) of Pakistan was a step in theright direction for national devel-opment.

Executive Director COMSATSDr Imtinan Qureshi expressed hisdesire to have long-term partnershipbetween COMSATS and Unescobased on synergy, goodwill andmutual understanding. DG Unesco,Dr Bokova reiterated Unesco ‘spledge to work with the Governmentof Pakistan to elevate the level ofknowledge and expertise in thecountry. Unesco supports initiativesthat aim at S&T advocacy, knowl-edge sharing and excellence inhigher education, she said.

She also pledged support toCOMSATS, especially for activitiesrelated to science, technology andinnovation, which she consideredpivotal for the future developmentframeworks. She said that this sign-ing ceremony is a testimony of theimportance Unesco gives to science,technology and innovation. Thepurpose of the chair is to promotean integrated system of research,training, information and documen-tation on water resources manage-ment, facilitating high-level interna-tional collaboration for researchersand teaching staff of the universityand other institutions in Pakistanwith those in other parts of the world.

Delegation from King Abdullah Int’l Centre visits NUML

Efforts for promotion ofArabic language appreciated

Dr Muhammad Al-Hadlaq, Ex-chairman Board of Trustees for the Centre, is exchanging his views with RectorNUML Maj Gen (R) Masood Hasan during his visit to NUML.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A three-member delega-tion of King Abdullah InternationalCentre for Arabic Language, Kingdomof Saudi Arabia along with officials ofIslamic International University,Islamabad (IIUI), visited National Uni-versity of Modern Languages (NUML)to support and acknowledge effortsof Arabic Department for the promo-tion of Arabic Language within andout of Pakistan.

The delegation was headed byDr. Muhammad al-Hadlaq, Ex-Chair-man Board of Trustees for the Cen-tre, and comprised of renownedscholars and experts in the field ofArabic language and literature in-cluding Prof. Dr. Salih al-Shathri,Head of the Department of Humani-ties Military College of King Khalid,and Dr. Salih bin Mueed Al-Ghamadi,Dean Faculty of Literature King SaudUniversity.

The members of delegation calledon Rector Maj Gen (R) Masood

Hasan and Director General (DG) BrigAzam Jamal where they discusseddifferent issues of mutual interestand pledged to continue coordinatedefforts for the promotion of academicresearch and scholarship in ArabicLanguage.

Head of Arabic Language Depart-ment, Dr Syed Ali Anwer briefed thedelegation about university’s objec-tives, mission, functions, regionalcampus, organizational aspects, inter-national partners, teaching, learningfacilities and the role of Arabic De-partment for the promotion of ArabicLanguage.

Dr Syed Ali Anwer told the del-egation that Arabic Department atNUML was not only disseminating aquality education of Arabic Languagefrom language courses to doctorallevel to Pakistani students but also toknowledge seekers from Central Asia,China, Bangladesh, Turkey and othercountries.

Dr Syed Ali Anwer said thatNUML has state of the art language

labs in Persian, Chinese, Korean,Turkish languages department andwould urge the delegation member tosupport the Arabic Department forthe establishment of such languagelaboratory.

Dr. Muhammad al-Hadlaq, alsodelivered a lecture on “Role of King-dom of Saudi Arabia for Promotionof Arabic Language in Future”which was attended by the facultymembers and students of the ArabicDepartment. A question and answersession was also held in the end oflecture.

The delegation and other visitoralso visited the different departmentsof the university including IranologyCentre, Language Labs and Library.The delegation was also accompaniedby the Hafiz Muhammad Bashir Deanfaculty of Arabic IIUI, Dr Riasat AliDirector Planning and CoordinationNUML, and other officials of the uni-versity. In the end Rector NUML MajGen (R) Masood Hasan presented uni-versity shield to the visiting guests.

LED screensinstalled attoll plazas

OBSERVER REPORT

I S L A M A B A D — N a t i o n a lHighways & Motorway Po-lice has installed LEDscreens on Motorways andHighways Toll Plazas to fa-cilitate the road users trav-elling and to enhance roadsafety awareness amongroad users. Security Cam-eras have also been in-stalled at Toll Plazas onMotorways.

As per detailsMotorway Police has in-stalled security cameras atin and out side of Toll Pla-zas on Motorways to keepthe information’s of Vehiclesand to indentify the crimi-nals activates. These cam-eras can save the recordingfor two months.

Motorway Police alsoinstalled LED Screens on allToll Plazas and Service ar-eas on motorways for creat-ing awareness on roadsafety and providing infor-mation regarding fog andweather change etc. TheseLED screens are becomingvery useful for the road us-ers. Road safety messagesregarding usage of seatbelt, prohibition of usage ofmobile phone while driving,speed limits, usage of Hel-met, information regardingfog and other weatherinformation’s are being dis-played continuously onthese LED screens.

Apart from theseinformation’s, messages ofNational integrity and col-lective National responsi-bilities are also displayed onthese LED screens.

Fines imposedon food outlets

ISLAMABAD—Assistant Di-rector, Food Islamabad,Muhammad Afzal con-ducted surprise visit tocheck and inspect the priceof food outlets in ChakShezad, NIH market and I-9markets.

He imposed finesamounting Rs 18,000/- on 5unhygienic food outlets onaccount of violation of hy-giene and sanitation laws.

He also imposed heavyfines on the profiteers forover charging the Flourbags, eggs and chickens.

Muhammad Afzal di-rected the shopkeepers todisplay the rate list of fooditems and ensure the qual-ity of food items failingwhich stern action would betaken against the viola-tors.—APPCITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prominent singers UstadShoukat Manzoor and Mushtaq Raza onFriday mesmerized the audience with theirmelodious tunes and ‘Aarifana Kalam’ toacknowledge the services of legendary Sufipoets at the Sufi Musical Night held at Pa-kistan Academy of Letters (PAL).

Talking on the occasion, Abdul Hameed,Chairman, Pakistan Academy of Letters(PAL) said that Sufis always talked abouttruth and rights.

Abdul Hameed said that all the peoplesof all religions respect Sufi people becausethey conveyed message of brotherhood,love and humanity. It is necessary that theirmessage should be delivered to everyoneand in this way a soft image of Pakistanshould be portrayed.

He said that Sufi joined the hearts bytheir teachings and lightened the candle of

Audience mesmerizedwith aarifana kalam

peace after failing all kind of hatred. Sufisplayed their role to turn the world into thepeaceful place, to bring the people of dif-ferent religions and sects closer by theirwritings and philosophy and it is a magnifi-cent chapter of our literature traditions andculture, he added.

Ali Akbar Abbas presented his es-say regarding Sufia Ikram and said thatthe personality of spiritual writer has adifferent appearance and unique effect,and listeners remained under its influ-ence for long and the persons who lis-ten to it, he gets spiritual, mental andhearty melody.

He said that the echo of spiritual poetrycan be heard in a Mehfil-e-Sama. This tra-dition can also be found on the tombs ofShah Shams Tabraiz and Pir Rumi. It canalso be heard on the shrine of Nizam uddinOlia, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Baba BullehShah and Shah Hussain.

IHC ordersremoval of slums

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—IslamabadHigh Court (IHC), Friday,ordered the removal of il-legal residential colonies(Slums) in the federal capi-tal.

The IHC judge JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiqui saidthis while hearing issuanceof NADRA identity cardcase. Additional SecretaryInterior Ministry apprisedthe court that slums wereconstructed illegally in thecapital. Justice ShaukatAziz Siddiqui in his re-marks said that illegal resi-dential colonies are secu-rity risk in Islamabad there-fore it is necessary to re-move these slums.

Member Capital De-velopment Authority alsopresented before thecourt and briefed aboutthe slums.

06:20 01:30

04:15

07:30

Zohr

Brothers in Islam establish

Monkeys getting their food from a litter bin near Margalla Hills.

Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting, Senator Pervaiz Rashid distributing certificates among theofficers of Information Group of 30th Specialized Training Programme on the occasion of their passing outceremony at ISA.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—UNESCO Director-General IrinaBokova and the Pakistan’s Minister of State forEducation, Training and Standards in Higher Edu-cation, Muhammad Baleeghur Rehman signedMalala Funds-in-Trust agreement to support bet-ter access, improved quality and safe learning en-vironments for girls in the hard-to-reach areas ofPakistan.

The $7 million funds-in-trust will focus onbuilding up capacities in both formal and non-for-mal education, from gender-sensitive training forteachers to awareness-raising in communities tosupport girls’ education.

This marks the launch of an operational phase,following the high-level advocacy event co-hostedby UNESCO and the Government of Pakistan inDecember 2012, when the Malala Fund for Girls’Right to Education was announced. Girls’ educa-tion is one of the most powerful forces for humandignity. It is a human rights issue and a break-through strategy for human development andpeace.

There is no better long-term investment acountry can make to foster social inclusion, jus-tice, equity and economic growth, said the Di-rector-General. Pakistan is home to 3.8 millionout-of-school girls, while those in school aremore likely to drop out than boys.

Today gender disparities between boys andgirls in access to primary education stand at10%, said Minister of State Mr. Baligh-ur-Rehman. With the Malala Fund programme

UNESCO launches MalalaFunds-in-Trust for girls’ education

implemented in Pakistan, we intend to narrowthat gap to 5% in 3 years, he added. Comment-ing on the spirit of this fund, the Director-Gen-

eral said, Education is not just about quantityor putting more money or improving enrolmentrates. It is about the quality of education pro-

vided in schools, it is about teacher training, itis about relevant competencies for decent jobsand an inclusive society. The Malala fund willaddress this. During a National Forum on Girls’Right to Education, the Minister also outlinedmeasures taken by the government to acceler-ate progress, including the adoption of free andcompulsory education for all children 5 to 16 asa constitutional right, adopted with the techni-cal support of UNESCO, and a commitment toincrease education spending from 2% to 4% ofGDP, along with the development of a national planof action to define targeted initiatives.

“The rights accorded to girls in Islam areabsolutely equal to those of boys,” said Balighur-Rehman. “Education in today’s world is nota choice but a fundamental right of every child.Government is responsible morally, ethicallyand constitutionally to provide education forevery child regardless of creed or gender.”During the Forum, attended by UN partners,civil society groups, experts and donors, theemphasis was put on changing attitudes, train-ing female teachers and making schools acces-sible and safe, especially in remote and ruralareas. Families want to send girls to school butthey want safe, quality education for their girls.

Schools need to be located closer to familesand sharper policies in place to reach theunreached, said Mrs Bokova.

The commitment of families and local leaders,including religious leaders, is essential to convinceeveryone that education is the best investmentfor the future.

Minister of State for Education and Trainings Engr Baleegh-ur-Rehman presenting a photo album toDirector General UNESCO Irina Bokova during the ceremony.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Allama Iqbal OpenUniversity(AIOU) has adopted a compre-hensive strategy to promote ethics-basedradio programming for character-building ofits students. Proper brought-up of the newgeneration as well as proper education isimperative to develop a healthy society.AIOU has focused to meet this targetthrough its various academic programme,said the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. NazirAhmed Sangi while addressing the closingand certificate distribution ceremony of train-ing workshop “Radio for Education”. Direc-tor General, Radio Pakistan, Samina Pervezwas a chief guest on the occasion.

Dr. Sangi highlighted the recent initia-tives undertaken by the University for edu-cating its students through FM radio andother E-learning programmes. He said thatthe University is working actively in threemain areas, education, skill and attitudebuilding. New contents have been incor-porated in the University curriculum to in-culcate positive attitude in the new genera-tion, as well as motivating them to play theiractive role in the nation building task.

The Vice-Chancellor further said theAIOU is prepare to work with radio Paki-stan and other broadcasting institutions forpromoting education through radio. Hehoped that the Educational BroadcastersForum(EBF) will expand its network on coun-

try-wide level to promote radio broadcast-ing for the benefit of the students. He ad-vised the President of EBF, MuhammadQasim Haider to work out a three years planfor promoting ethics based educationthrough radio. He assured that the Univer-sity will provide all possible cooperation toachieve the task. DG Radio, Samina Pervezelaborated the radio Pakistan programmeswhich are aimed at motivating the new gen-eration for their participation for the socio-economic development of the country. Ra-dio Pakistan has a pivotal role in highlight-ing issues faced by the civil societies.

The radio, he said has also laid empha-sis on promotion of skill-based vocationaltraining through its broadcast basedprogrammes. She also appreciated the ef-forts of EBF for streamlining the FM radioprogrammes, making them useful for thesociety. Dr. Shamim Zaidi, Head of the MassCommunication Department, Fatima JinnahWomen Education also addressed the cer-emony and appreciated the AIOU’s effortsfor focusing more on character building ofits students, she also appreciated the openschooling project recently launched by theUniversity at the country level.

Dr. Sangi said AIOU will set-up 30 FMradio FM-Radio Channels at regional head-quarters as a part of distance learning sys-tem to facilitate its students in their educa-tional pursuits as well as to promote com-munity-based services.

AIOU to promote ethics-based radio programming

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Director General PakistanPost (PO), Syed Ghulam Panjtan Rizvi Fri-day said a housing scheme would belaunched for employees of the organiza-tion. Addressing a ceremony held here todistribute motorcycles among postmen,the scheme would be introduced onKarachi pattern under which 72 flats werehanded over to employees from low in-come group.

He said Khyber Bank has shown inter-est in this regard and negotiations are un-der process accordingly, saying that itwould be a great facility for the workers.

Besides, he said, another plan is underconsideration to provide different house-hold items to the employees on easy in-stallments.

Handing over keys of motorcycles topostmen, he urged them to pay installment

Post Office housingscheme for employees

on time so that more projects could be initi-ated.

Rizvi said more motorcycles would bedistributed among postmen in differentcircles of Pakistan Post. He said the organi-zation has so far distributed 267 motorcyclesin Islamabad circle, 442 motorcycles inRawalpindi circle, 105 in KhyberPakhtunkhwa circle, 20 in Lahore circle and46 motorcycles in the Directorate GeneralIslamabad without any down-payment.

He said the scheme has been initiatedfor the low-paid employees on easy install-ments and without any advance payment.He said welfare of the employees has al-ways remained priority of the authoritiesand the instant motorcycle distributionscheme is a sequence of the same policy.

He expressed the confidence that thesemotorcycles would help increase efficiencyof the employees besides improving theirliving standard.

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—RegionalTransport Authority (RTA)Friday announced start pub-lic transport service forwomen commuting betweenthe twin cities and Sowan-Haji Camp from February 17.The service titled “Tabeer”being initiated as a pilotproject in collaboration withRTA, Al-Abrar Associatesand ZONG Flutter with theaim to ensure safe, secure,comfortable and economicaltransport service for women.Briefing reporters here, Sec-retary RTA, Awais ManzoorTarar said primarily twelve 16-seater hiace vans would plyon Route No.1 and 7 from07:00 a.m. to 07:00 p.m. withonly five minutes break atstarting and ending points.

He said the branded vansequipped with cellular phonefacility, would be driven bymale driver, however, conduc-tors would be ladies for guid-ance of the passengers.

Tarar said terminal for theservice has been set up atRTA office where the fleetwould be parked and oper-ated in an effective manner.He said any transporter wish-ing to ply their vans under thepilot project would be wel-come as Punjab governmenthas plans to extend the facil-ity to other parts of the prov-ince.

To a question, the Secre-tary said, RTA has the role ofregulatory and supervisorybody in execution of theproject, while private sectorwould ply vans and arrangethe required staff. “Fare of the

transport service will be atpar with public transport op-erating on other routes,” hesaid replying to another ques-tion.

Following is the RouteNo.1 for ladies transport ser-vice; Haider Road Saddar,Railway Station, MareerChowk, Moti Mahal, Com-mittee Chowk, Waris Khan,Naz Cinema, Central Hospi-tal, Sadiqabad, Rehmanabad,Shamsabad, Faizabad, ZeroPoint, Fire Brigade, Aabpara,Melody, GPO, PolyclinicHospital, F-6/1, Super Mar-ket and Pak Secretariat.While, Route No.7 is; HajiCamp, Golra Morr, KohinoorMills, Pir Wadhai Morr, ChurDepot, Chairing Cross, RadioPakistan, Race CourseGround, MH Chowk, RailwayStation.

Public transportservice for women

Dead bodyrecovered from

Cantt areaSTAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—An uniden-tified body has been recov-ered from the sensitive areaof the Cantonment.

The body was discov-ered by some citizens whoinstantly informed Morgahpolice station. Apparentlysomebody had killed theman and thrown his deadbody there.

The police took thebody into custody andplaced it in a hospitalmorgue. No identificationwas found on the deceased.

Water metersin 13 union

councilsSTAFF REPORTER

R A W A L P I N D I — WA S ARawalpindi has decided toinstall water meters in theresidences of 30000 con-sumers in respect of 13union councils of provin-cial assembly constituencyPP- 6 which have beenplaced under its control.

WASA has also startedsurvey of these union coun-cils to .to ascertain numberof consumers connectedwith water supply schemes.WASA will begin the pro-cess of sending bills to theconsumers following thecompletion of this survey.

WASA has brought 25out of 33 water supplyschemes of PP-6 under itscontrol and committee un-der deputy managing direc-tor WASA Amir Rashid hasbeen constituted to runthem. A tubewell repair teamhas also been set up tomonitor the working ofschemes in PP-6. Revenuedepartment has also startedsurvey.

Ban imposedon

constructionSTAFF REPORTER

R AWA L P I N D I — D i s t r i c tmanagement Rawalpindi hasimposed ban on all types ofconstruction alongsideMurree road and its linkroads till the completion ofmetro bus project.

The district administra-tion has issued orders to theconcerned quarters not toapprove any map in respectof any new constructionproject unless the metro busproject is accomplished.This way hundreds of mapshave been kept aside fromthe process of approval.

The step has been takento avoid any untoward situ-ation during the construc-tion of the metro bus project.

Orthopaedicward in DHQ

HospitalSTAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—An ortho-paedic ward, constructedwith the financial assistanceof Pakistan OrthopaedicAssociation, has been inau-gurated in the District Head-quarters HospitalRawalpindi. The new ortho-paedic ward will be consist-ing of 32 beds, while opera-tion theatre is already func-tional in the hospital.

Chairman Board of Man-agement Allied Hospitals,Dr Muhammad Aslam wasthe chief guest in the inau-guration ceremony, whileHanif Abbasi, DrMuhammad Umar, Dr ArifMalik, Dr Nasir Mehmood,Dr Nayar and others alsoattended the event.

ChineseAmbassadorpresents gift

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—In a simple anddignified ceremony held at theMinistry of Foreign Affairs,the Chinese Ambassador toPakistan H.E. Sun Weidongpresented a tapestry of theGreat Wall of China for theSahibzada Yaqub Khan Blockof the Foreign Office.

It was received by theSpecial Assistant to thePrime Minister Syed TariqFatemi and Foreign Secre-tary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhryin the presence of seniorofficers of the Ministry.

Speaking on the occasion,the Chinese Ambassador saidthat, this gift symbolizes thelong-standing & time-testedfriendship between Pakistanand China. SAPM Syed TariqFatemi & Foreign SecretaryAizaz Ahmad Chaudhrythanked the Chinese Ambas-sador for the precious gift.

Affiliation withFederal

Education BoardSTAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Managementof all private schools ofRawalpindi division has de-cided to seek affiliation fortheir respective educationalinstitutions with FederalEducation Board. They havetaken this decision due toincrease in students fee atexorbitant rate, imposition ofcertificate fee, enhancementin rechecking of papers fee,ban on appearance of privatestudents in science subjectsexamination by RawalpindiEducation Board.

The private schools ad-ministration has contactedmanagement of federal educa-tion board and state ministerfor education in this regard. Inthe wake of this decision over8000 private educational insti-tutions of Rawalpindi divisionwill delink them fromRawalpindi Education Boardand forge affiliation with fed-eral education board.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Justice Jawwad S Khawaja hasremarked “corruption has gone deep rootedand there can be no development in the coun-try without weeding it out. He gave theseremarks while presiding over a 3-member benchof Supreme Court (SC) during the course ofhearing of 650 illegal CNG licenses case hereFriday. He further remarked “ This is publicmoney and we will not let any one to stomachit easily. Taking action against the corrupt ele-ments is one of the pivotal obligations of thestate. The way CNG licenses were distributedstands unprecedented in the country.

OGRA presented report about CNG sta-

Corruption has gonedeep rooted

tions before the court. All the CNG stationswere not divided into different categoriesin this report. Justice Jawwad S Khawajaremarked “ divide them into categories andthen tell the court about it. Iftikhar Gillani,counsel for OGRA told the court “ someCNG stations are legal and some are illegal.

Justice Jawwad S Khawaja observed “generally guideline given to regulatory au-thority is meant for assistance and not forguidance. The court has sought reply fromAttorney General (AG) that court be in-formed if government policy is applicableto OGRA or otherwise. The court while seek-ing assistance from AG adjourned the hear-ing of the case till February, 27.

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D —ChairmanBenazir Income SupportProgramme (BISP), EnverBaig, has said that the tar-gets will be given to differ-ent regions which shouldbe met.

He was addressing aBISP’s Director Generals’

BISP sets targets to improveefficiency

Conference held at BISP’sSecretariat, Friday.

The Chairman directedthe DGs to ensure trans-parency in the Programmeand assist underprivilegedpeople at grass root level.

He said that BISP hasreceived some complaintsthat unscrupulous ele-ments are fleecing people

in rural areas in the nameof BISP through fake SMS.He asked the DGs tostrengthen monitoring andcase management tocounter such elements. Healso stressed upon theneed to ensure that benefi-ciaries must not face anydifficulty in receiving ser-vices from BISP.

MUZAFFARABAD: Parliament’s Kashmir Committee Chairman Fazlur Rehman alongwith AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed addressing a press conference.

PULWAMA: Indian police arrest JKLF Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik along with other party leaders from Awantiporawhen they were on their way to Islamabad town.

Kashmir dispute core issuebetween Pakistan, India: Fazl

MIRPUR (AJK)—Chairman ParliamentaryKashmir Committee Maulana Fazal ur Rehmansaid in Muzaffarabad on Friday that Kashmir isa core issue between Pakistan and India and itshould be resolved as per the aspirations of thepeople of Kashmir.

Talking to mediaman in Muzaffarabad,Moulana, also the Chief of Jammiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) said Pakistan would continue fightingthe case of Kashmiris at each forum unless Kash-mir issue was settled in line with the wishes ofthe people of Jammu & Kashmir.

He reiterated that Pakistan would continuefull moral, political and diplomatic support tothe people of Jammu & Kashmir in their justand principled struggle for the achievement oftheir legitimate right to self determination.

He urged the world powers to come forwardand play their vital role in resolving the linger-ing issue of Kashmir.

Moulana Fazal ur Rehman said that hearts

of Pakistanis and the people of Jammu & Kash-mir beat in unison. He resolved that entire Paki-stani nation stands united with their Kashmiribrethren all the time.

He said that the Kashmiri Committee in thePakistani Parliament was raising Kashmir ques-tion at all relevant forum both at home andabroad to muster maximum support for theKashmir cause and the Kashmiris indigenousstruggle for freedom and right to self determi-nation. He said that people of Jammu & Kash-mir enjoyed full moral, political and diplomaticsupport of entire Pakistani nation and the gov-ernment.

The Moulana extended gratitude to the en-tire political leadership of Pakistan for adopt-ing unanimous stance on the Kashmir issue.

Moulana said the government was takingall possible steps to promote peace in the re-gion as improvements of its economic condi-tions.—APP

SRINAGAR—The authorities havelaunched a massive crackdown againstHurriyet leaders and activists to thwartconducting of various programmes in con-nection with the martyrdom anniversariesof prominent liberation leaders,Muhammad Maqbool Butt andMuhammad Afzal Guru.

Muhammad Maqbool Butt washanged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Feb-ruary 11, 1984, while Muhammad AfzalGuru was sent to gallows in the samejail on February 9, last year. Both theleaders remain buried in the premises ofthe jail.

Indian police, today, arrested Jammuand Kashmir Liberation Front leaders,Bashir Ahmed Butt, Showkat AhmedBakhshi and Sheikh Khalid besides morethan one hundred party activists. The po-lice also raided the residence of the JKLFChairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik, andharassed the inmates. It also disallowedthe JKLF to hold an exhibition of the pic-tures of Maqbool Butt in Srinagar.The

Massive crackdown againstHurriyet leaders in IHK

puppet authorities have already arrestedHurriyet leaders including Shabbir AhmadShah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Zafar Akbar Butt, Shabbir AhmedDar, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash,Muhammad Ahsan Untoo and MuhammadShafi Reshi while Muhammad AshrafSehrai and Altaf Ahmed Shah have beenplaced under house arrest. The veteranHurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani, and theVice Chairman of Jammu and KashmirDemocratic Freedom Party, MehmoodAhmed Saghar, in their statements de-nounced the police action against pro-lib-eration leaders and activists.

APHC leaders including Agha SyedHassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi, Syed BashirAndrabi, Javed Ahmad Mir and HakeemAbdur Rasheed addressing gatherings andrallies at different places paid rich tributesto Muhammad Maqbool Butt andMuhammad Afzal Guru. They demandedtransfer of their bodies to the occupied ter-ritory.

On the other hand, three-day protest

strike will commence on Sunday to pressthe demand for transfer of mortal remainsof Muhammad Maqbool Butt andMuhammad Afzal Guru from Tihar Jail tothe occupied territory for a decent burial.Call for the shutdown has been given bypro-freedom leaders and organizations.The JKLF has called for a march towardsSrinagar’s Lal Chowk on Sunday.

The High Court Bar Association in areport regarding a recent visit of its teamto New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, highlighted theproblems faced by the Kashmiri detaineeslanguishing in the jail for years. The re-port said that the Kashmiri detainees hadbeen lodged in high security cells and theirevery movement was being monitored bythe jail authorities through close-circuittelevision cameras fixed in their cells. Thereport said that the Kashmiri prisonerswere not provided with proper basic fa-cilities. The team was headed by the BarPresident, Mian Abdul Qayoom, and com-prised Muhammad Ashraf Butt, ArshadIndrabi and Bilal Ahmad Butt.—KMS

SRINAGAR—APHC leader and the Chairmanof Kashmir Freedom Front (KFF), Syed BashirAndrabi, has said that Indian troops are com-mitting the worst kind of human rights viola-tions in the territory to suppress the Kashmirisinto submission.Syed Bashir Andrabi address-ing a gathering at Naman Kakapora in Pulwamaurged the Kashmiri people to continue to fightfor securing their right to self-determination tillcomplete success. He said that sacrifices of theKashmiri people would not go waste.

Syed Bashir Andrabi paying glowing trib-utes to prominent martyred liberation leaders,Muhammad Maqbool Butt and MuhammadAfzal Guru, said that the Kashmiris rememberedboth the leaders with great love and respect. Hesaid that New Delhi’s refusal to handover mor-tal remains of Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru hadexposed the cruel face of the so-called demo-cratic India. He demanded return of the mortalremains of the two leaders to their families. SyedBashir Andrabi also supported the strike callgiven in connection with the anniversaries ofMaqbool Butt and Afzal Guru.

Indian troops committingworst HRs abuses

The KFF Chairman condemned the arrestof youth throughout the Kashmir Valley par-ticularly in Pulwama town and said that suchtactics could not stop the Kashmiris from con-tinuing their struggle to achieve their right toself-determination. He stressed for initiatingimmediate steps for resolution of the Kashmirdispute for ensuring permanent peace in the re-gion.

Syed Bashir Andrabi also welcomed thestatement of Pakistan Prime Minister,Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, inviting India formeaningful and result-oriented talks on Kash-mir. He said that Kashmiris were basic party tothe dispute so both the countries must start dia-logue process and involve the leadership ofKashmiris in it. He hailed the role of Pakistanin highlighting the violations of human rightsin the occupied territory by Indian troops andpolice personnel.

Syed Bashir Andrabi was accompanied byparty leaders, Muhammad Akbar Dar,Muhammad Shameem and ShowkatAhmad.—KMS

SRINAGAR—Senior leader ofthe All Parties Hurriyet Con-ference (APHC), Agha SyedHassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi,paying rich tributes to theprominent Kashmiri leaders,Muhammad Maqbool Butt andMuhammad Afzal Guru, ontheir martyrdom anniversaries,reiterated the demand fortransfer of their bodies to theoccupied territory for properburial.Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi addressing agathering in Badgam, today,said that hanging of

Demand for transfer of bodiesof Butt, Guru reiterated

Muhammad Afzal Guru in theNew Delhi’s Tihar jail was aspot on the face of so-calledIndian democracy. He said thatIndian judiciary had dual stan-dard, adding that on one side,it executed Afzal Guru with-out proper trial and proof tosatisfy the collective con-scious of Indian people, whileon the other, it gave clean chitto the men in uniform involvedin the Pathribal fake encoun-ter.

He also condemned thecrackdown on the Hurriyet lead-

ers and activists by the authori-ties to thwart conducting of vari-ous programmes in connectionwith the martyrdom anniversa-ries of the two martyred leaders.

It is to mention here thatMuhammad Maqbool Butt washanged in New Delhi’s TiharJail on February 11, 1984, whileMuhammad Afzal Guru wassent to gallows in the same jailon February 9, last year. Boththe leaders remain buried in thepremises of the jail and India hasnot shifted their bodies to occu-pied Kashmir.—APP

SRINAGAR: People are participating in signature drive for return of mortal remains ofButt and Guru.

Signature drive for return of mortalremains of Butt, Guru

SRINAGAR—All Parties Hurriyet Conference(APHC) leaders including Javed Ahmad Mir,Hakeem Abdur Rasheed, Imtiyaz Ahmed Reshi,Jaffer Kashmiri and Ghulam Mustafa Butt, Fri-day, addressed a signature campaign in Souraand other parts of Srinagar regarding return ofmortal remains of Muhammad Maqbool Buttand Muhammad Afzal Guru.

On the occasion, they leaders condemnedthe arrest of pro-freedom leaders and restrictionson political leaders, as they were not allowed tooffer Friday prayers, Kashmir Media Service(KMS) reported.

They said that harassment of the family of

pro-freedom leaders and highhandedness of anykind would never be accepted and tolerated.

They said that after the execution ofMuhammad Maqbool Butt and MuhammadAfzal Guru, Indian forces in Kashmir had startedcrackdown against the Kashmiri people.

They said that houses of the pro-freedomleaders ware being raided and political activistshad been arrested.

On the occasion, the Hurriyet leaders leda rally and raised pro-freedom slogans be-sides demanding the return of mortal remainsof the martyrs from New Delhi’s Tihar jail.—APP

NEW YORK—Pakistan’s Ambassador to theUnited Nations, Masood Khan and other speak-ers at a special event on Thursday night pledgedto stand by Kashmiri people until the realisationof their “sacred” right to self-determination.

The speakers denounced the large-scale hu-man rights violations taking place in Indian Oc-cupied Kashmir, and urged the internationalcommunity to help resolve the decades-old dis-pute in accordance with the aspirations of theKashmiri people and ensure protection of theirfundamental rights.

They were addressing a large gathering ofthe Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora residing inthe snow-hit tri-state region— New York, NewJersey and Connecticut—on the occasion of theKashmir Solidarity Day.

The event was organized by the ConsulateGeneral of Pakistan in New York.

The speakers included Consul General RajaAli Ejaz, Captain (retired) Shaheen Butt, headof the Kashmir Mission, US, Sardar SawarKhan, a former member of the Kashmir Coun-cil, Sardar Aslam Khan, a Kashmiri activist, andMufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, a noted religiousscholar.

Pakistan’s full support for Kashmiris tocontinue until their freedom: Masood

Asif Saeed Khan, a consulate official, con-ducted the meeting, which started with recita-tion of the Holy Quran and ended with ‘dua’for Kashmir’s freedom from Indian yoke.

Special tributes were paid at the meeting toPrime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif’s ef-forts to infuse new life into the Kashmir dis-pute.

As part of those efforts, it was pointed outthat the Prime Minister forcefully spoke outfor the rights of the Kashmiri people in the U.N.General Assembly, highlighted the issue dur-ing his talks with the world leaders, and in-structed Pakistani diplomatic missions abroadto hold commemoration of the Kashmir Soli-darity Day every year.

In his keynote speech, Ambassador MasoodKhan said Islamabad had remained steadfast inextending moral, political and diplomatic sup-port to the Kashmiri people and it would con-tinue to do so because Kashmir, in the world ofQuaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, wasPakistan’s jugular vein.

The people of Kashmir, he said, were in-debted to Pakistan’s solid backing, and heartsof Kashmiris and Pakistani beat in unison.

The Ambassador exhorted the audience notto get disheartened or frustrated by the inordi-nate delay in accomplishing freedom for thepeople of Kashmir.

The issue remained alive even after the pas-sage of six decades and was still on the agendaof the U.N. Security Council despite Indian ef-forts to move it from the list of outstanding in-ternational disputes.

Consul General Ejaz highlights the repres-sion let loose by India as documented by cred-ible international human rights orgainzations.

The people of Hedl Kashmir, he said, weresuffering at the hands of brutal Indian securityforces and called on the international commu-nity to play a role in putting an end to thoseatrocities.

Capt (Retd) Shaheen Butt deplored India’scontinued occupation of Kashmir, saying anoverwheming majority of Kashmiri peoplewanted to be part of Pakistan.

The struggle for the Kashmiri people’s in-alienable right to self-determation would con-tinue, he said. Sardar Sawar Khan urged theUnited Nations to wake up and implement itsresolutions on the Kashmir dispute.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistanis in Jeddah commemo-rated the 25th Kashmir Solidarity Day at the con-sulate and a local school this week.

Aftab Khokhar, the Pakistan consul general,was the chief guest at a programme held at thePakistan International School-Jeddah (PIS-J)Azizia, Arab News reported, Friday.

Mohammed Bilal, the principal of theschool, was also present. Muhammad Ahmed, agrade nine student, delivered a speech in sup-port of the people in Kashmir. Another speaker,Muhammad Zubair, said that Pakistan wouldcontinue assisting with moral and diplomaticsupport of accupide Kashmir.

Yahya Aneeq said: “India should realize thatthe Kashmir dispute is not about a piece of landbut involves human lives and emotions.”

Zahid Mahmood, a grade 11 student, saidKashmir was one of the oldest unresolved in-ternational disputes in the world today. The Pa-kistan consulate and the Kashmir Committeealso commemorated the day in Jeddah onWednesday at an event held at Khokhar’s resi-dence.

The guests included Mahdy Fathallah, di-rector general of political affairs for the Organi-

International community urgedto help resolve Kashmir issue

zation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ali Al-Ghamdi, a former Saudi diplomat and writer,and Abdulwahab Noorwali, former assistant sec-retary of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth(WAMY).

Khokhar urged the international communityto help resolve the dispute in accordance withUnited Nations Security Council resolutions andthe aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

Khokhar also out read messages fromPakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain andPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Khokhar said,quoting Hussain, that the day was held on Feb.5 every year to reaffirm “our moral, political,and diplomatic support for our Kashmiri breth-ren in their just struggle for fundamental rights,including the right to self-determination as en-shrined in the United Nations Charter and therelevant UN resolutions.”

Sharif in his message called for a just andpeaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmirdispute. “On this day we reaffirm our resolve tostand by our brothers and sisters in their valiantstruggle for their just cause. The peaceful peopleof Jammu and Kashmir continue to suffer,” hesaid.—APP

Expelled Kashmiristudents protestin Press Enclave

SRINAGAR—Around 23 ex-pelled Kashmiri students, pur-suing Bachelor of Pharmacy atShekhawati College of Phar-macy in Rajasthan, along withtheir parents staged a protest inPress Enclave in Srinagar, say-ing that India in a well-plannedmanner was hell-bent to ruinthe future of Kashmiristudents.The students havebeen evicted from the collegeand hostel following non-re-lease of payment from the In-dian Prime Minister’s SpecialScholarship Scheme (PMSSS).

The students said that un-der PMSSS their future wasruined. “Some 15 days ago thecollege authorities forced us toleave the college following thenon-release of scholarshipfund. “The PMSSS fund hasnot been released into the col-lege accounts despite the factthat we have fulfilled all for-malities,” said one of the stu-dents, Ahsan Ali.

Meanwhile, Tahafuz-e-Anjuman-e-Urdu lashed at thepuppet authorities for ignoringUrdu language and issuing ra-tion card application formsonly in Hindi and English lan-guages.—KMS

Mirwaiz stressesKashmir settlement

through dialogueISLAMABAD—Chairman of AllParties Hurriyet Conference,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, hastermed the Pakistan Prime Min-ister, Muhammad NawazSharif’s offer of dialogue to In-dia for permanent resolution ofthe Kashmir dispute as a rightstep taken at the right time.

According to KashmirMedia service, the APHCChairman said that time hadcome when leadership of boththe countries needed to showpolitical courage and shed theirconfrontationist approach forthe better future of the peopleof the region and start a result-oriented dialogue process forsettling the Kashmir disputeand all other pending issues.

“APHC has always sup-ported dialogue for a just andpermanent resolution of Kash-mir, however, the inclusion ofKashmiri people was impera-tive to make such a processcredible and meaningful,” hesaid. People of Kashmir.—APP

Overall telecomteledensity

reaches 64.1pcin AJK

ISLAMABAD—The telecomsector in Azad Jammu Kashmir(AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan(GB) is witnessing a steadygrowth with overall tele-den-sity including cellular mobile,Local Loop (LL) and WirelessLocal Loop (WLL) has in-creased to 64.1 per cent.

The de-regulation of thearea by Pakistan Telecommu-nication Authority (PTA) hasresulted in expanded coverage,drop of tariffs and at the sametime afordability of cellularmobile connection for a com-mon man.

Currently, cellular mobilehas 61.4 per cent penetration inthe area followed by 1.5 percent of WLL and 1.2 per centby Fixed Line Loop (FLL) sec-tor.

According to PTA here onFriday, cellular mobile sub-scribers have reached 3.2 mil-lion till 2012-13 as comparedto 2.7 million in the previousyear.

All six mobile operatorscombined together added423,909 subscribers with 17per cent growth during the pe-riod.

The Regulator said cellu-lar mobile growth in AJK &GB was a direct result of itsdecision to deregulate the sec-tor and introduce competitorsto the already established Spe-cial Communications Organi-zation (SCO) network.

The influx of five morecellular operators changed theentire telecom scenario of AJK& GB as the new operatorsquickly gained market shareand the proliferation of cellu-lar sector blossomed.

During the period, the sec-tor added 423,909 subscriberswith Telenor leading the wayhaving added 216,930 sub-scribers.

SCO stood at the secondspot with 143,480 subscribersfollowed by China Mobile Pa-kistan (CMPak) with 121,048.However, Warid, Ufone andMobilink lost some subscribersduring the last year owing tosubscriber churn.

Telenor has a strong holdon the cellular sector in AJK &GB with 41 per cent marketshare followed by SCO with 18per cent. Mobilink holds thethird spot with 15 per cent sharewhile CMPak is close behindwith 14 per cent.—APP

If there is anythingthat a man can dowell, I say let himdo it. Give him a

chance.—Abraham Lincoln

ISE stays bearishISLAMABAD—TheIslamabad Stock Exchange(ISE) Friday witnessed abearish trend as the ISE-10Index was down by 24.57points to close at 4614.38points. A total of 400,000shares were traded, whichshowed a negative growthof 385,000 shares whencompared to previousday’s trading of 785,000shares. Out of 160 compa-nies, share prices of 45recorded increase whilethose of 115 companiesdecreased. The share priceof Murree Breweryincreased by Rs 17.24 whilethat of Siemens Engineer-ing decreased by Rs 51.5per share. Lotte Chemical,Fauji Cement and LafragePakistan Cement remainedthe top trading companieswith 250,000, 200,000 and178,000 shares respec-tively.—APP

Invest in mineralsPESHAWAR—Zambazi, anEnglish investmentcompany has shown itsinterest in investing inmineral sector of KhyberPakhtunkhwa. A delega-tion of the company calledon Special Assistant toChief Minister for MineralsDevelopment, ZiaullahAfridi here at his office onFriday. The delegation wasled by George H. Rich-mond. They expressedtheir willingness to investin discovering copper,gold, iron ore, preciousstones and minerals inKhyber Pakhtunkhwaespecially in DistrictChitral. Secretary MineralsMian Waheed and DirectorMinerals, Shakirullah Khanwere also present on theoccasion. Ziaullah Afridi,assured the delegationthat the government ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwawould not only encourageforeign investors butwould also provide themall possible facilitiesthrough one windowoperation. He said all outsteps would be taken forthe protection and securityof the foreign investors.Ziaullah hoped thatforeign investment inminerals would helpchanging the lot of peopleof this province.—APP

Shipping activity atPort QasimKARACHI—Four ships C.VSaigon Express, C.V BoxContact, C.V Tabea andM.T DL Violet carryingcontainers and chemicalswere arranged berthing atQasim InternationalContainer Terminal andEngro Vopak Terminalrespectively at Port Qasimon Thursday, 06thFebruary-2014. Meanwhilefour more ships withcontainers and coke alsoarrived at outer anchorageof Port Qasim during last24 hours. Berth occupancywas maintained at the Portat fifty percent on Thurs-day where seven shipsnamely C.V SaigonExpress, C.V Box Contact,C.V Tabea, C.V Chopin,M.T Gonuine Galaxy, M.TNorgas Innovation andM.T DL Violet wereoccupied at PQA berths toload/offload containerspalm oil and chemicalsrespectively during last 24hours. A cargo volume of78,649 tonnes, comprises45,519 tonnes imports and33,130 tonnes exportsinclusive containerizedcargo carried in 3,368containers (TEUs) (1,701imports and 1,667 exportsTEUs) were handled at thePort during last 24 hours.Three ships ContainersVessal ‘Saigon Expressand Box Contact.—APP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Lahore Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (LCCI) has urged thePunjab government to stop district admin-istration from harassing the retailers on theissue of prices as they are being forced tosell their goods below their actual prices.

After a meeting with retailers here Fri-day, the LCCI President Engineer SohailLashari and the Chairman LCCI Commit-tee on Trade and Traders IssuesMuhammad Haroon Arora said that gov-ernment should maintain supplies insteadforcing the business to sell their goodsbelow the prices of their purchase. Theysaid that either the government should

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan and Nigeriahave strong friendly relations and there is a needto increase the volume of trade between the twocountries. He said that there should be exchangeof trade delegations between Pakistan and Nigeriaas the two countries can promote trade relationsthrough investment. He said that Pakistan is readyto promote cooperation with Nigeria in textile, phar-maceutical, rice processing and agriculture sectorsand a high level delegation of Punjab governmentwill soon meet Nigerian authorities to finalizedmeasures for promoting mutual trade and invest-ment.

He was talking to Nigerian High Commissionerin Pakistanm, Dauda Danladi, who called on himhere today. Matters of mutual interest and promo-tion of bilateral relations were discussed in the

Shahbaz for increasing volume of trade with Nigeriameeting and it was agreed that the two countrieswould promote cooperation in textile, rice process-ing, pharmaceutical, agriculture and other sectors.Provincial Minister for Agriculture Dr. FarukhJaved, Minister for Industry Muhammad Shafique,Secretary Agriculture, Secretary Industry and ViceChairman Punjab Investment Board were alsopresent on the occasion. Talking to the NigerianHigh Commissioner, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifsaid that due to business-friendly policies of Paki-stan Muslim League-N government, investment isincreasing in the country while trade and economicrelations are strengthening with the friendly coun-tries.

He said that government has provided a favor-able atmosphere for investment and special facili-ties are being extended for investment in varioussectors due to which confidence of investors hasrestored. He said that there are longstanding rela-tions between Pakistan and Nigeria and they

should promote bilateral trade, investment and eco-nomic ties. He said that Pakistan has an importantplace in agriculture, textile and livestock sectorsand is ready to promote cooperation with Nigeriain these sectors. He said that exchange of tradeand industrial delegations between Pakistan andNigeria is of vital importance as it will strengtheneconomic and trade ties between the two coun-tries. The Chief Minister directed Punjab Invest-ment Board to formulate a consolidated plan forpromotion of cooperation with Nigeria in textile,pharmaceutical, rice processing, agriculture andother sectors and recommendations be submittedas soon as possible so that economic and tradeties between the two countries could furtherstrengthen.

Nigerian High Commissioner Dauda Danladiwhile speaking on the occasion said that Nigeriaattaches high importance to its relations with Paki-stan. He said that Pakistan and Nigeria have deep-

rooted friendly ties and cooperation in trade andinvestment should be promoted between the twocountries. He said that Pakistan and Nigeria aremembers of OIC, Commonwealth and D-8. He ex-pressed the desire to promote cooperation withPakistan in textile, rice processing pharmaceuticaland agriculture sectors. The Nigerian High Com-missioner said that Pakistan especially Punjab hasmade rapid progress and Chief Minister ShahbazSharif has executed a number of developmentprojects for the welfare of the people.

He said that the efforts made by Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif for the welfare and prosperity ofthe masses have been appreciated at every level.He said that Shahbaz Sharif’s metro bus project isa splendid gift to the people and execution of thisproject in a very short time is no less than a miracle.He said that Shahbaz Sharif has indeed set newrecord of public service through his hard work anddetermination.

KARACHI: President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry AbdullahZaki presenting Chamber’s crest to secretary, Trade Development Authority of Paki-stan and Chairperson, Export Processing Zones Authority Rabia Javeri Agha duringher visit to KCCI.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The year 2013 was a turn-around year for Engro Fertilizers Lim-ited. The Company managed to returnback to profitability after incurring aloss in 2012 and in the process,achieved its highest ever revenue. Thesound financial performance was onthe back of highest ever productionand sales of 1,562 k tons and 1,570 ktons respectively. With improved prof-itability, the Company decided to gofor an IPO, which was a huge successas it was oversubscribed by 4 times.

In 2013 the urea industry grew by13% after the downturn in 2012(5,900K tons in 2013 versus 5,230 K

Positive turnaround in EngroFertilizers’ financial results

tons in 2012). This growth was mainlyattributable to better economics onmajor crops; weather conditions alsoremained favorable, casting a positiveimpact on demand.

Increase in off take is also a resultof restoration of channel confidenceat retail and trade level. The Govern-ment also played an important role byimproving gas allocation to the indus-try. Local production increased by17%, as a result of which, the Govern-ment managed to reduce the subsidyon imported urea.

The prices of locally produced urearemained fairly stable throughout theyear. Average price of domestic ureaduring the year increased by 3.8% only

(1% was due to sales tax changes)versus overall inflation of 9%. Salesrevenue for 2013 was Rs. 50,129 mil-lion which was higher by 64% as com-pared to the corresponding period(2012: Rs. 30,627 million).

Profit after tax for the year was Rs.5,497 million as compared to a loss ofRs. 2,934 million for the same period.This increase in profit after tax is dueto higher sales on account of bothplants running at around 80% for mostpart of the second half coupled withincreased efficiencies due to conver-sion of Enven to run on Mari gas. Asa result of above, EPS improved to Rs.4.66 per share as compared to loss pershare of Rs. 2.59 last year.

ISLAMABAD—A delegation of theRawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (RCCI) is on its maiden visit to SouthAfrica presently to study the market, lookfor business prospects and to make initialassessment for holding a single country ex-hibition. According to a statement issuedby the Trade Development Authority ofPakistan (TDAP) on Friday said that thedelegation is led by Kashif Shabbir, formerPresident of the Chamber.

Meetings of the delegation has beenarranged and coordinated by the TradeCommission of Pakistan, Johannesburg(South Africa). The Rawalpindi Chamberis planning to hold a Single Country ex-hibition in South Africa. This will be thefirst single country exhibition of Pakistanin South Africa. During their visit, thedelegation held meetings with local busi-ness community to ascertain the market

RCCI to explore businessprospects: TDAP delegation

potential, prospects for the export of Pa-kistani products in the African continent.

South Africa is the most importantand largest trading partner of Pakistanin the African Continent of 54 countries.The South Africa is the biggesteconomy of Africa with GDP of US $ 390billion and total trade of US$ 210 billion.Traditionally, it is called as gateway toAfrica and it plays critical role in thesocio-politico and economic milieu ofAfrican continent.

South Africa has FTAs with EU, mem-ber of BRICS, SACU, SADC, FTA with US(AGOA), and member of numerous othervital preferential trading agreements. SouthAfrica imported goods worth US$ 280 mil-lion from Pakistan (2011-12) while the totalSouth African imports were US $ 106 billion(2012), Thereby, reflecting a huge potentialfor Pakistani goods.—APP

LCCI seeks end of harassment of retailersISLAMABAD: Ambassador of Turkey, S Babur Girgin called on Federal Minister forCommerce and Textile Industry Engr, Khurram Dastgir.

ISLAMABAD—Minister for CommerceKhurram Dastgir Khan Friday said the per-formance evaluation of country’s 60 Com-mercial Counsellors working across the worldwould be initiated soon. Replying the ques-tions of legislators in the National Assem-bly, the minister said that there is an openmerit for appointing commercial counsellorsbefore giving advertisements in the impor-tant newspapers. And provincial quota isalso observed in the appointment process.

He said the commercial counsellors havenot yet been appointed in 55 countries andcountry’s embassies look after trade relations.To a question, he said interior ministry dealswith the issue of Iranian prisoners and fisher-men. The host governments has not yet offi-cially informed or provided data regarding re-lease of any Pakistani prisoners /fisherman

Performance evaluation of 60Commercial Counsellors soon

during the last five years. However, basedupon recent Consular meeting /visits, 26 Pa-kistanis prisoners, who were detained on vari-ous charges, have been released.

Moreover, 20 Pakistani prisoners hadalso been released from various prisons ofIran, after 90 days of imprisonment for illegalentry. He said that during the last five yearsPakistan has released 1801 Indian prisoners74 civil and 1727 fishermen). During the lastfive years India has released 725 Pakistaniprisoners 324 civil and 401 fishermen.

Khurram Dastgir Khan said Pakistan re-leased the Indian prisoners after completionof their sentences as per the bilateral agree-ment but regretfully India is not reciprocatingin the same manner. He said the present gov-ernment has taken up this issue seriously withIndia to ensure release of its prisoners.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Minister for State for Parlia-mentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad statedthat Pakistan International Airline (PIA) is bear-ing loss of Rs.87 million on daily basis. Re-sponding a question in the Senate, he informedthat previously, PIA was making loss of roundabout Rs.101 million per day on average. Thisyear, PIA has improved and it has generatedRs.71.71 billion net income within the first ninemonths from January to September 2013.

Aftab apprised the House that the gov-ernment has injected Rs.16 billion out ofwhich RS.11.759 billion has been releasedso far as equity in PIA. Senator MuhammadTalha Mehmood showed his concern aboutthe privatisation of PIA if the organisation

PIA bearing loss of Rs.87m per dayis improving its financial day by day.

“In fact, the government has no con-cern with business, it is the department ofprivate sector. As far as the government isconcerned, its duty is to form polices andlegislation etc.”, the minister replied. Onvarious queries of other respective mem-bers, he pointed out that PIA has taken fourairlines on lease from Turkey and it hasplanned to get five more in near future.

Aftab declared that last time, the air-lines was purchased on weight lease butthis time, the deal is being done on dry lease.He was of the opinion that the small aircraftare better than big airlines in comparison tofuel consumption.—APP

Daewoo BusService UM join

hands forstrategic alliance

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Daewoo Paki-stan Express Bus ServiceLimited and United Mobilehave joined hands for astrategic alliance coveringvarious aspects of busi-ness including promo-tional activities and creat-ing passenger conve-nience. Both the organiza-tions Friday stamped anagreement at a ceremonyheld at local hotel. VicePresident Daewoo ExpressFaisal Siddiqui and Direc-tor United Mobile SyedEjaz Hassan signed theagreement on behalf oftheir organizations.

Faisal Siddiqui said onthe occasion that they en-tered into a strategic busi-ness alliance with UnitedMobile which is one of thetop-ranking cell phone com-panies in Pakistan. SyedEjaz Hassan said that itwould be a pleasure to col-laborate with Daewoo Ex-press which is one of thelargest transport companiesin Pakistan. Manager Mar-keting Daewoo ExpressNaeem Ullah said this strate-gic alliance between the twoorganizations may expand infuture. He said about 6 mil-lion people travel on DaewooExpress every year due toreliability of our organiza-tions. He said Daewoo Ex-press would continue to takesteps for the facilitation of itspassengers.

make upward revision in its control list orshould ensure provision of these goodsat lesser ratesthan their ac-tual cost.

How abusinessmancan sell hisgoods at lesserthan its actualprices, theyq u e s t i o n e d .Unfortunately,there are numerous grades of food items inPakistan therefore their rates are according totheir grades.

They said that the district administration

should only focus on ‘CM Sasta Bazaarsscheme’ that is an ample proof of Chief

Minister’s sa-gacious ap-proach. Hesaid that the‘Sasta Ba-zaars’ shouldbe in all areasto enable thepeople top u r c h a s edaily use-

items from the place of their choice.The LCCI President said that the

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry had also received complaints that

the retai lers are being harassed andforced to sell food items as per the con-trol list wherein the quoted rates haveno relation to the actual costs.

Muhammad Haroon said that the gov-ernment would have to bridge demand-supply gap to overcome the issue of price-hike as the existing mechanism of imple-mentation of unrealistic prices would notwork at all as businessmen would preferclosure of businesses instead of generat-ing huge losses on daily basis.

He also urged the District Coordina-tion Officer Lahore to immediately stopharassment and fines on this pretext toenable the businessmen to continue theirbusinesses with peace of mind.

SECP initiatesaction againstnon-compliant

companiesKARACHI—The Securitiesand Exchange Commission ofPakistan (SECP) has steppedup its enforcement effortsagainst lapses in accountingand financial reporting be-sides accelerating actionagainst irregularities. In Janu-ary, the Insurance Division ofthe SECP issued six showcause notices and passedthree orders against insur-ance companies for failing tocomply with the 1984 Com-panies Ordinance and 2000Insurance Ordinance.—INP

New PresidentFounder Group ICCIassures to resolve

business communityproblems

ISLAMABAD—Business-men are playing a vital rolein promoting trade andeconomic activities andtheir problems would beresolved on priority basis,said Abdul Rauf, a cer-emony after taking oath asnew Chairman FounderGroup of ICCI. Large num-ber of traders and indus-trialists attended the cer-emony, according to astatement issued by theICCI here on Friday.

Abdul Rauf, was alsoFormer President ofIslamabad Chamber of Com-merce & Industry (ICCI)elected as new Presidentsaid that the business com-munity has posed greatconfidence that he wouldwork with full dedication toresolve their problems. Hesaid many issues of busi-nessmen related to the dis-trict administration, CDA,FBR, police and other de-partments are still unre-solved and he will Insha Al-lah play his role to resolvethe same on priority.

Shaban Khalid, Presi-dent, ICCI under the guid-ance of Founder Group isacting as a bridge be-tween the private sectorand the government andhas taken many initiativesto facilitate the growth ofprivate sector.—APP

Microsoft Lync:transforming

businesscommunication

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Microsoft Pa-kistan held an exclusiveevent for Pakistani corpo-rate customers in the pres-ence of Worldwide CTOfor Lync, Aamer Kaleem atthe Pearl Continental Ho-tel, Karachi. Aamer Kaleemtravelled all the way fromSeattle to engage with Pa-kistani customers- a grow-ing market whichMicrosoft is keenly inter-ested in. The discussionprovided a detailed insighton “Microsoft Lync”, asoftware which providesorganizations integratedcommunication solutionsdesigned to cut costs andimprove productivity.

At this occasionMicrosoft Country Man-ager Pakistan, Amir Rao,shared worldwide enter-prise communicationtrends and discussed howcustomers in Pakistancould benefit fromMicrosoft Lync.“The waywe connect and interactwith people, informationand organizations is evolv-ing, and those changeshave tremendous impact inthe workplace,” said AmirRao, “With Lync, Paki-stanis can now reducecommunication costs.

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

Currency Selling Buying

Bullion Rates

RS PER 10 GRAMS

USA 105.20 105.00

UK 171.74 171.41

Euro 142.99 142.72

Canada 95.08 94.90

Switzerland 116.82 116.60

Australia 94.07 93.89

Sweden 16.18 16.15

Japan 1.0314 1.0295

Norway 16.93 16.90

Singapore 82.94 82.78

Denmark 19.16 19.12

Saudi Arabia 28.05 28.00

Hong Kong 13.56 13.53

Kuwait 372.02 371.31

Malaysia 31.65 31.59

Newzealand 86.56 86.39

Qatar 28.89 28.83

UAE 28.64 28.59

KR. WON 0.0978 0.0976

Thailand 3.206 3.200

ABU DHABI—The Federal Minister forFinance, Economic Affairs, Revenueand Statistics Senator MuhammadIshaq Dar said that the governmenthad taken a number of bold initiativesto bring financial discipline and turn-around the economy. He expressedthese views while meeting SheikhNahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, theMinister of Culture, Youth and SocialDevelopment of the United Arab Emir-ates at Abu Dhabi and discussed mat-ters of mutual interests.

The Finance Minister enquiredabout the health of the UAE PresidentSheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyanand conveyed good wishes andprayers of the Prime Minister NawazSharif for his good health and longlife. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak alNahyan said that the United ArabEmirates leadership and its peopleenjoy close historical and cultural re-

Pakistan can provide skilled manpowerfor growing UAE economy: Dar

lations with the people and leadershipof Pakistan. He expressed the confi-dence that these relations wouldstrengthen further with the passageof time.

Senator Muhammad Ishaq Darsaid that Pakistan and UAE enjoyclose fraternal relations which weredeep rooted in shared history, culture,and heritage. Pakistani leadership andits people value its bond of fraternityand look forward to expand coopera-tion with UAE in all fields, he added.The Minister said the Pakistani lead-ership and its people acknowledgeUAE’s contributions and cooperationfor the development of Pakistan. Hesaid that we eulogize UAE progressand achievements.

Sheikh Nahyan expressed his con-fidence that the present governmentwould soon overcome the economicchallenges confronting the country.

Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak alNahyan said Pakistan is his secondhome and assured that his governmentwould extend all possible cooperationfor economic development of Paki-stan. The Finance Minister said thatthe government had taken a numberof bold initiatives to bring financialdiscipline and turnaround theeconomy. He stated that the govern-ment was incentivizing foreign invest-ment in all fields including oil and gassector to accelerate pace of economicdevelopment in the country. The Fi-nance Minister while talking to SheikhNahyan said that Pakistan could pro-vide skilled manpower for the grow-ing UAE economy. Alluding to theforthcoming spectrum license auctionin Pakistan, the Finance Minister ex-pressed the hope that telecom com-panies from the Middle East countrieswould participate in it.—Online

Federal Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs, Revenue and Statistics SenatorMuhammad Ishaq Dar meeting with Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, the Min-ister of Culture, Youth and Social Development of the United Arab Emirates.

Abuld Rauf, newly elected Chairman Founder Group in a group photo with ShahbanKhalid President and Khalid Chaudhry Senior Vice President of Islamabad Chamber ofCommerce and Industry.

Minister of State for IT& Telecommunication, Anusha Rahman while chairing a meet-ing interactive session with CEOs of Technology companies here at Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Rawalpindi Transport Authority speaks during a press con-ference regarding the project of a bus service exclusively for women.

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Liaqat Baloch speaks during an‘Anti-Privatization Seminar’ organized by National Labour Federation.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Nigerian High Commis-sioner in Islamabad Dauda Danladi has saidthat Nigerian market has huge potential forPakistan Rice, Textile products, Pharmaceu-ticals and Agricultural machinery includingtractors, therefore Pakistani businessmenshould avail opportunities in these areas.The High Commissioner was speaking atthe Lahore Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry on Friday. LCCI President EngineerSohail Lashari presented address of wel-come while Chairman LCCI Committee forPakistan-Africa Trade Promotion ZafarMehmood, LCCI former Executive Commit-tee Member Rehmatullah Javaid also spokeon the occasion.

The High Commissioner said that thePresident of Pakistan and the Chief Minis-ter Punjab had promised to take businessdelegations to Nigeria that would pave wayfor frequent business exchanges betweenthe two countries. Mr Dauda Danladi saidthat Chief Minister Punjab had formed acommittee to finalise modalities for a high-powered visit to Nigeria. The High Com-missioner expressed the optimism that the

Nigerian market has huge potentialfor Pakistani products: Danladi

ISLAMABAD—Etihad Airways, the nationalairline of the United Arab Emirates, has an-nounced plans to increase its services tothe Pakistani cities of Islamabad andPeshawar as part of its commitment to pro-vide travellers with more convenient traveltimings and choices. Starting from 30 March2014, Etihad Airways will increase its flightsto Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad, from11 flights a week to a double daily sched-ule. Services to Peshawar, often referred toas the “City on the Frontier” due to its stra-tegic location at the crossroads of CentralAsia and South Asia, increased from twoto five per week on 1 February 2014.

With the addition of the new services,Etihad Airways will now offer 37 weeklyflights from four destinations in Pakistanwhich, along with Islamabad and Peshawar,

Etihad Airways announces to increaseits services for Islamabad, Peshawar

include Karachi and Lahore. The additionalservices on each route will be operated byA320 aircraft, fitted with 16 Pearl BusinessClass and 120 Economy Class seats, andwill increase capacity by over 150 per cent.The new services to Peshawar will improvethe number of connections over the airline’sAbu Dhabi hub to more than 167 connec-tions a week (representing an increase of78 per cent) to a number of key destina-tions in the GCC, North America and Eu-rope.

Kevin Knight, Etihad Airways’ ChiefStrategy and Planning Officer, said: “Paki-stan is a growing market for Etihad Airways,as passenger demand, connectivity choice,and frequency enhancements continue todrive business and leisure traffic onto ourexpanding global network.—NNI

LAHORE—The Punjab Forum on Fridaysaid weather has improved across provinceof Punjab leaving government without anyjustification to continue CNG load shed-ding. People of Punjab are without CNGsince months on the pretext of cold weatherbut now it has normalised, it said. Massesas well as transporters across Punjab ex-cept for the twin cities have been facingdifficulties due to suspension of natural gassupply which has also left many jobless,said Baig Raj, President of Punjab Forum.

He said that CNG sector was closed onthe pretext of gas shortage but all the othersectors including captive power plantswasting gas worth billions continue to getsupply. Resuming supply of natural gas to

CNG load shedding across Punjabunfair as weather turns pleasant

CNG sector in Punjab will have an impactof one per cent only on the overall naturalgas production while it will benefit tens ofmillions, he added. Baig Raj said that do-mestic use of gas in dropping which hasincreased pressure in the pipelines there-fore masses should be no more deprivedby the bureaucracy and politicians.

He noted that discriminatory distribu-tion of gas since last five years has takentoll on economy and masses with Punjabsuffering the most. Incumbent governmentshould feel its responsibility to improve situ-ation and take action against gas mafia sothat they can stop victimising masses fortheir petty gains, demanded Mr Baig Raj.—INP

Technicaltraining GSP

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Pakistan Stan-dards and Quality ControlAuthority (PSQCA), underthe Ministry of Science andTechnology, as the NationalStandardization Body ofPakistan organized a tech-nical training course onGood Standardization Prac-tices on 07th February 2014.Mr. Pir Bakhsh Jamali, Direc-tor General, PSQCA in hisclosing remarks highlightedthe importance of GoodStandardization Practicesand stressed the importanceof international participa-tion.

Further, he asked stan-dards developers, academiaand Industry must workjointly to realize the eco-nomic benefits by followingthe International standards.Moreover, he asked to or-ganize this kind of trainingcourse on regular basis par-ticularly energy manage-ment system and other mar-ket oriented topics. Earlier,Dr. Barkat Saeed Memon,Deputy Director General (Fi-nance) in his opening re-marks advised to all partici-pants to actively involve inthe training course.

Earlier Mr. KhawjaGulam Mohiuddin, DeputyDirector/ Incharge, Interna-tional Affairs and Trainingof PSQCA highlighted thatthis Authority have pro-vided the platform at na-tional level for the ex-change of ideas and bestpractices among stake-holders and shows commit-ment towards sustainabilityon Good StandardizationPractices in Pakistan.

More than forty partici-pants were attended thetraining course. This train-ing course is expected toensure the implementationand use of internationalstandards, active participa-tion in standardizationwhich directly impacts thegrowth of the nationaleconomy.

WomenExclusive VanService kicksoff in Twin

CitiesOBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Taking furtherthe Government of Punjab’sobjective of women empow-erment, Al-Abrar Associ-ates, RTA (Regional Trans-port Authority) and ZonGhave joined hands to launcha Women Exclusive Van ser-vice – “Tabeer” for the com-muting women ofIslamabad/ Rawalpindi.

To provide a sustainablesolution to traveling issue,DRTA has taken a revolu-tionary step of ProjectTabeer in collaboration withAl-Abrar Associates, spon-sored by Zong Flutter to al-low every woman the rightto avail convenient trans-port facility to commute forwork.

Expressing his views onthe Project Tabeer initiative,Mr. Awais Manzoor Tarar,Secretary DRTA said, “Withthe very first initiative of itskind taken by private sec-tor, DRTA in collaborationwith Al-Abrar Associatesand support of Zong wishesto take the endeavors ofGovernment of Punjab forwomen’s empowerment to anew level.

trade between Pakistan and Nigeria wouldget a new boost as both sides were plan-ning to sign various trade-related agree-ments including Preferential Trade Agree-ment very soon.

Speaking on the occasion, the LCCIPresident Engineer Sohail Lashari said thatPakistan’s business community was wellaware of the market size of Africa and Ni-geria could serve to be the best destina-tion to exploit the potential. The LCCI Presi-dent said that the continuity of organizingAfrica Show every year in Lahore is a clearsign of LCCI’s commitment towards bridg-ing the gaps and upsizing the current levelof two way trade. Engineer Sohail Lasharisaid that it is encouraging to note that Ni-geria is one of the major member states ofAfrican Union and classified as an emerg-ing market rapidly approaching to middleincome status.

“By way of having good banking net-work and stock exchange, Nigeria seems fullypoised to lead the acceleration of Africa’seconomic development.” He said that thejoint efforts in the form of organizing AfricaShow on regular basis from the last threeyears or so have started paying off.

ISLAMABAD—The National Assembly wasinformed that Pakistan Textile City andKarachi Garment City are being set up tofurther enhance textile exports. Parliamen-tary Secretary for Cabinet Secretariat RajaJaved Ikhlas told the House during ques-tion hour that land for Pakistan Textile Cityhas been acquired in Karachi.

He said 1.5 billion rupees have been re-leased by the Finance Division for support-ing of the textile sector during the first sixmonths of the current fiscal year. Raja JavedIkhlas said new trade and agriculture poli-cies are on the cards. He said the govern-ment is giving top priority to address en-ergy crisis to provide uninterrupted power

Pakistan Textile City, KarachiGarment City being set up

and gas supply to the industries. Ministerfor Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan toldthe House that enhancing trade ties withneighbouring countries is the foremost pri-ority of the government.

It is in negotiations with Iran on the pos-sibility of entering into Free Trade Agree-ment. Besides, Pakistan is also striving toenter into Preferential Trade Agreementswith Turkey, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.To a question, the Minister for Commercesaid there is no shortage of cement in thecountry and the commodity is also beingexported. He said there is a price controlmechanism at the provincial level to checkprices of cement.—Online

Gold Tezab 47142.00Silver Tezabi 788.75

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct)43380.00Gold 22 Ct 39660.00SilverTezabi 686.00Silver Thobi 627.00

RAWALPINDI: Players of Dera Murad Jamali Ibexes and Abbottabad Falcons teams in action during Faysal Bank T20 Cup played at RawalpindiCricket Stadium.

HAFIZABAD: Minister of State Saira Afzal Tarar is givng away trophy to a playerwinner of district level competition.

ATTOCK: Players of Attock and Hazro playing during a Kabaddi match in connection with Punjab Youth Festival.

NALTAR: IGP G-B Saleem Bhatti awarding trophy to PAF team for winning 2nd InterServices Ski Championship at PAF Ski Resort.

ISLAMABAD—Pitching for the firsttime in the Faysal Bank Twenty-20Cup, Dera Murad Jamali Ibexes causeda major upset for Abbottabad Falconsby hammering them by 11 runs in thematch played at Pindi Stadium,Rawalpindi on Friday.

Put into bat, Jamali Ibexes posteda total of 35 runs for the loss of fivewickets in the reduced five-over matchdue to the wet outfield.

Mohammad Ayub and Sanaullahscored 8 runs each while Kamran Sajid(4) and Taimur Ali (3) batted well. AbidAli remained unbeaten at 7 runs.

For Falcons, Fazl-e-Rabbi andYasir Shah bagged two wickets eachfor 11 and 9 runs, respectively. JunaidKhan grabbed one wicket for 7 runs.

In reply, Falcons could hardly make24 runs in the allotted overs losing 7

Ibexes cause major upset forFalcons in T20 Cup

wickets. Yasir Hameed top scored with11 runs smashing two 4s while RiazKail was the other batsman to bat wellscoring 8 runs.

For Jamali Ibexes, Shabbir Ali andKamran Sajid took two wickets eachfor 8 and 1 runs, respectively. NajafShah bagged one wicket giving 3 runs.Kamran Sajid of Dera Murad JamaliIbexes was declared Player of thematch.

The Twenty20 Cup matches arebeing staged at four different venuesof

Islamabad and Rawalpindi withseventeen teams battling for the title.The tournament will continue till Feb-ruary 16 and the matches are beingplayed at venues including DiamondGround, Marghazar Ground, NationalCricket Ground and Rawalpindi Cricket

Stadium.A total of 17 teams have been di-

vided into four groups. Group A:Sialkot Stallions, Karachi Dolphins,Hyderabad Hawks, Quetta Bearsand Larkana Bulls; Group B:Rawalpindi Rams, Karachi Zebras,Multan Tigers and Fata Cheetahs;Group C: Faisalabad Wolves,Islamabad Leopards, Lahore Eaglesand Peshawar Panthers; Group D:Lahore Lions, Abbottabad Falcons,Bahawalpur Stags and D.M.JamaliIbexes.

Teams of D.M.Jamali Ibexes, FataCheetahs and Larkana Bulls are par-ticipating in the event for the first time.Faysal Bank will be awarding a totalof Rs 2 million as prize money to thewinning team while Rs 1 million to therunner-ups.—APP

PAF win 2ndInter-Services

Ski C’shipSPORTS REPORTER

NALTAR (GILGIT)—PAFclinched the trophy of the2nd Inter-Services SkiChampionship and 8thChairman Joint Chiefs ofStaff Committee Ski Cham-pionship concluded at PAFSki Resort, Naltar on Friday.

Saleem Bhatti, InspectorGeneral Police GilgitBaltistan was the chiefguest on the occasion wholater on distributed trophiesand awards among the win-ners. Pakistan Air Force wonthe 2nd Inter-Services SkiChampionship whereinGilgit Baltistan Scouts took8th Chairman Joint Chief ofStaff Committee Ski Cham-pionship Trophy.

The ski competi t ioncontinued for three daysat PAF Ski Resort, Naltar.Skiers from various Ski as-sociations participated inthe Championship in tem-peratures below freezingpoint.

Results of events are asunder: - Slalom GoldMuhammad Abbas (PAF)Silver Abdul Jan (Army)Bronze Sawar Khan (PAF)Giant Slalom GoldMuhammad Abbas (PAF).

Zakir namedmanager of Pakcricket teams

LAHORE—Zakir Khan, Di-rector Cricket Operations In-ternational PCB has been ap-pointed Manager of PakistanTeam for the upcoming ACCAsia Cup 2014 and ICC WorldTwenty-20 to be played inBangladesh.—APP

Zahid-Humawin special

category racesof PYF

LAHORE—The competitionof special people continuedhere on Friday at Punjab Sta-dium in collaboration withSports Board Punjab underthe banner of Punjab YouthFestival 2014.

In Men’s Blind AthleticsEvents, Zahid Mahmoodearned limelight while in Girls’Category, success went infavour of Huma Ashraf.

The event attracted spe-cial children from educationcentres of Lahore,Sheikhupura, Kasur, andKahna. Mentally impededchildren took part in 100mRace and Shahzad Maqboolof Sharakpur was declaredthe winner while M Bilal ofIqbal Town was placed sec-ond and Zaheer was third inthe same category.

In Girls’ Category, HumaAshraf was the winner of tophonour while Rabia Islam ofGovernment College Univer-sity took the second positionand Saima of Sangla Hills wasthird. In Boys’ Class of blind100m Race, Zahid Mahmoodfrom Johar Town took the firstposition, Abdul Shakoor ofGCU was declared secondwhile Ziauddin from PunjabUniversity was placedthird.—APP

Mubarakelected as

ACBS chiefKARACHI—Mubarak AlKhayarin of Qatar waselected as the President ofAsian Confederation of Bil-liards Sports (ACBS) unop-posed, according to a newsrelease issued on Friday

Alamgir Shaikh of Paki-stan was also elected as Se-nior Vice President unop-posed of the continentalbody.

The deadline for thenominations for the forth-coming elections to be heldin Fujaira (UAE) has passedby the end of February 04,2014.

Michal Al Khoury(Syria) was elected GeneralSecretary and Joseph Lo(Hongkong) elected Trea-surer of ACBS.—APP

Junior TennisCamp

concludesISLAMABAD—The ATF-PTFJunior Training Camp con-cluded here at PTF TennisComplex on Friday with 14players from all over thecountry participating in it.

The training camp washeld from February 2 to 7.The training camp was su-pervised by Ex Davis Cupplayer and Davis Cup cap-tain Mushaf Zia.

A total of four nationalcoaches including MoinKhan, Jalil Khan, KhalidMehmood Khan and RashidAli worked as assistantcoaches for the camp. Thetraining camp focused on themodern techniques of coach-ing which include drills, matchplaying tetchiness, tactics,mental and physical training.A 4-day tournament will startfrom Satudrday amongst theparticipants. The tournamentwill be held feed in draw andall the players will play thematches till last day of tourna-ment. Shahzad Akhtar Alvi,White badge official has beennominated at Referee for thetournament.—APP

KARACHI—Little known Imran Ali Khan of the host clubstole the limelight in the first round of DHA Al-BarakaOpen Golf Championship by carding 6-under-par 66 atDefence Authority Country Golf Club (DACGC) on Fri-day. Brilliant Imran demonstrated superb driving, chippingand putting at the fairways and greens of DACGC to leadthe pack of over 100 golfers on day one.

After making two birdies at the front nine and five bird-ies and one bogey at the back, Imran maintain his ascen-dancy from start to finish in presence of all big of Pakistangolf and that took in strong wind by playing impeccable32 at the back nine in Rs.1.8 million prize money event.

Matloob Ahmed of Lahore Garrison and Latif Rafiq ofLahore Gymkhana were lying two strokes behind the leaderwith opening round of 4-under-par 68. Spectacular Matloobmade as many as seven birdies and one double bogeywhile Latif made five birdies and one double bogey.

Defending Champion Shabbir Iqbal was laying joints19th with ten golfers after carding two-over-par 74.

Zuhaib Asif of DACGC led in the net amateur eventafter carding the first round of 2-over-par 74 whileMuhammad Shariq of Westwind Golf Club was placed twostrokes behind.

Waheed Akbar of the host club was leading gross eventwith first round of 66. Leaderboard: Professionals: 66 -Imran Ali Khan (Isb) 68 - Matlopob Ahmed (LGC), LatifRafique (Gym) 69 - Akbar Mehroz (Gym) 70 - M.Sajjad(AMGC), Naseer Khan (KPK) 71 - Waheed Baloch (KGC),M.Khursheed (Isb), M.tariq (Isb), M.Aamir (KGC) 72 -Muhammad Munir (Isb), Amjad Yousuf (KGC), Amateurs:Net: 66 - Waheed Akbar (DACGC) 67 - Sandeel (DHA) 69 -Farman (AMGC) Gross: 74- Zuhaib Asif (DACGC) 76-M.Sharif (WWGC) 78- Waheed Akbar (DACGC).—APP

Imran fires 6-under inDHA Open Golf

LAHORE—In the build upto the Divisional level of thePunjab Youth Festival 2014,Donkey Cart Races andDonkeys’ Beauty contestwere held to give a differentcolour to the festivity of themega event here in Defenceon Friday.

Divisional Sports Con-vener MPA Mian Naseerwas the chief guest of theevents, witnessed by a largenumber of people. MPAYasmin Sohal was alsoamong the guests. The chiefguests gave prizes to thewinning owners of the don-keys.

In the other competi-tion, around 50 DonkeyCarts took part in the racethat started from Defencemor to Walton bus stop.

Donkey cart race held inPunjab Youth Festival

Sher-i-Lahore donkey cartowned by UstadShahabuddin won the raceand was followed by thecart of Arshad Ali while cartowned by Javed took thethird position.

To the amusement of allthe donkey owned by Ch.Jabbar won the beauty con-test, which was unique inmany ways and first of itskind.

The competition wasparticipated by around 30animals which were beauti-fied by various materials likeglitter and colourful cloths.While the donkey ownedby Mian Kashif was runner-up in the event and the don-key owned by SakhiMohammad was third in thecontest.—APP

LAHORE—Pakistan’s talented but taintedtrio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif andMohammad Amir on Wednesday vowed toreturn to international cricket, three yearsto the day after they were banned for spot-fixing.

On February 5, 2011 an anti-corruptiontribunal of the International Cricket Coun-cil (ICC) banned the three players for a mini-mum of five years for arranging no balls toorder during the Lord’s Test against En-gland in August 2010.

Butt, the captain of the Pakistan Testteam at the time, finally admitted his guilt inJune last year and said he wanted to moveon from the disgrace.

“I try hard to forget but someone al-ways makes me remember that tough day,”Butt told AFP.

Butt was banned for 10 years, with fivesuspended, Asif for seven with two sus-pended and Amir for five years, meaning allof them could return to the game in August2015.

“I regularly play cricket as I cannot adoptany other profession and I am very, verykeen to stage a comeback,” said Butt.

The ICC tribunal made rehabilitation,including anti-corruption courses, manda-tory to avoid the suspended part of the play-ers’ sentence.

West Indian Marlon Samuels is the onlyplayer ever to return to international cricket

Spot-fixing trio dreamof comebacks

after serving a two-year ban on fixing.Butt said he wanted the Pakistan Cricket

Board (PCB) to help him get permission toplay first-class cricket.

“The PCB has taken up Amir’s case andI have appealed to them to help me playfirst-class cricket, as I am very keen to re-sume my career,” said Butt, who played 33Tests, 78 one-day internationals and 24Twenty20s for Pakistan.

The ICC last year formed a committeeto consider relaxing some of the sanctionsof Amir’s ban.

Asif has found a sideline on the silverscreen and is about to star in a joint Indian-Pakistani film, but says he wants to returnto the game.

“Although I am going to act in the film,my first love is cricket and I am countingthe days until my ban is over,” Asif toldAFP. “Cricket will always be part of my life,it’s in my blood and I will bowl once againfor Pakistan.”

Meanwhile 21-year-old Amir, who wasjust 19 at the time of the scandal and re-ceived a great deal of sympathy, said hewas looking forward to returning.

“I train a lot because I cannot think ofanything else to do other than playingcricket,” he told AFP.

Before the ban, the young left-armer wasseen as one of the brightest fast-bowlingtalents in international cricket.— AFP

Flamens, HawksClubs win Essa Lab

U-23 BasketballKARACHI—Flamens Cluband Hawks Club won theirmatches in the Essa Labora-tory Under-23 BasketballTournament at ArambaghFloodlight Court Thursdaynight. Zareen Mehdi contrib-uted 14 points to as FlamensClub routed Civil Club 47-19in one sided tie.

Abbas Ali scored ninepoints and Shoaib Ahmed (8)was other main scorers for thewinner.SM Abbasi (10) andSohail Khan (4) played wellfor the losers.—APP

Bipin DaniObserver

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—There were hardly any fansat Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta InternationalAirport-NBO to greet the Kenyan teamwhich earlier this week returned fromNew Zealand after losing the ODI sta-tus.

According to Aasif Karim, who wasKenya’s first captain after the team gotthe ODI status in 1997, the cricket in hiscountry is now dead.

Speaking exclusively over telephonefrom Nairobi, he says, “I am not surprisedas I had seen this fall coming almost 5 to7 years back. Kenya cricket was in comafor the last 5 years and now dead andburied”.

“Having began from the humble be-

Kenya cricket dead, saysformer captain Aasif Karim

ginning to play for Kenya at the age of 17in 1980 and finished at the world cup 2003,In south Africa-semi finals, it pains me tosee where Kenya cricket has gone”.

When Kenya got ODI status 1997,Iwas appointed captain. At that time,bangladssh also got the ODi status. Un-til 2003,Kenya was 8-1 ahead betweenthe 2 countries. Since then it has been adisaster for Kenya. Whereas Bangladshhas moved on to a much a higher level.”,he added.

“All stack holders will need to get to-gether to chart a way forward to revivecricket in Kenya. If at all that happenssincerely, correctly, I think it will take atleast 10 years to be a force In interna-tional cricket at the top level”.

“We have excellent facilities, weather.We just need dedicated and competentpeople to run cricket, he signed off.

SOCHI: Pakistan Ski delegation headed by President Ski Federation of Pakistan Air Marshal Athar Hussain Bukhari with Pakistan SkierMuhammad Karim at Winter Olympic Village Russia.

AUCKLAND—Captain Brendon McCullumscored his second test double century topush New Zealand to an impressive 503before they were bowled out shortly afterlunch on the second day of the first testagainst India at Eden Park on Friday.

McCullum, whose highest test inningsis 225 scored against India in 2010, was lastman out for 224 when attempting to sloganother six to add to the five in his 307-ballinnings.

McCullum’s innings was the highest bya New Zealander at Eden Park and fourthhighest overall.England’s Wally Hammondscored 336 not out on the ground in 1933.

The New Zealand captain had broughtup his double century on the final ball ofthe morning session with his 28th bound-ary and upped the run rate after the break.Legspinner Ish Sodhi, whohad been 18 not out at lunch,added five runs to his totalbefore he became IshantSharma’s fifth wicket whenRohit Sharma held a goodcatch in the slips to end avaluable 56-run partnershipwith McCullum.

Neil Wagner was wellcaught by Virat Kohli at slipfor a duck off left-arm spin-ner Ravindra Jadeja beforeMcCullum was well caught byJadeja on the boundary togive Sharma his sixth wicketof the innings.

New Zealand had re-sumed on 329 for four withMcCullum (143) and aggres-sive all-rounder CoreyAnderson (42) picking up

McCullum scores 224 asNZ bowled out for 503

New Zealand first innings(overnight 329-4)Fulton lbw b Zaheer .. 13Rutherford c Rahaneb I. Sharma .................... 6Williamson c Dhonib Zaheer .................... 113Taylor c Jadejab I. Sharma .................... 3McCullum c Jadejab I. Sharma ................ 224Anderson lbwb I. Sharma .................. 77Watling c Dhawanb I. Sharma .................... 1Southee b Shami ........ 28Sodhi c R. Sharma b I.

Sharma ......................... 23Wagner c Kohlib Jadeja .......................... 0T. Boult not out ............ 1Extras: (w-5, lb-5, b-1,nb-3) ............................. 14Total: (all out) ........... 503Fall of wickets: 1-19 2-233-30 4-251 5-384 6-398 7-434 8-490, 9-495 10-503Bowling: ........ O-M-W-RShami ............... 28-6-95-1Zaheer ............... 30-2-132Sharma ........ 33.4-4-134-6Jadeja ............. 26-1-120-1Kholi .................... 1-0-4-0R. Sharma .......... 3-0-12-0

where they left off on Thursday by scoringat almost four runs an over. Anderson hadmoved to a breezy 77, his first test half cen-tury, before being trapped lbw by Sharma,ending a 133-run partnership.

Wicketkeeper BJ Watling (1) becameSharma’s fourth victim on the first ball afterthe drinks break when he drove at a widedelivery and was snapped up by ShikharDhawan in the slips.

Pace bowler Tim Southee provided an en-tertaining, quick-fire 28, which included threeboundaries and two sixes, before beingbowled by Mohammed Shami. McCullum andKane Williamson had rescued New Zealand’sinnings on the first day with a 221-run standafter India had exploited the green drop-inpitch and overcast conditions to reduce thehosts to 30 for three.—APP

CHITTAGONG (Bangladesh)—KumarSangakkara became the second bats-man in history to score a triple-cen-tury and a hundred in the same matchas Sri Lanka pressed for victory in thesecond Test against Bangladesh inChittagong on Friday.

The tourists, who led by 161 runson the first innings, declared their sec-ond knock at 305-4 in the post-tea ses-sion of the fourth day’s play at theZahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium.

Bangladesh, set an improbable tar-

Sangakkara hits another tonas Sri Lanka eye win

get of 467 to record a series-levellingwin, were 12-0 at stumps with TamimIqbal on seven and Shamsur Rahmanon four.

Sri Lanka will begin the final dayneeding 10 wickets to sweep the two-match series, while Bangladesh requireanother 455 runs in a minimum of 90overs.

Left-handed Sangakkara followedhis 319 in the first innings with 105 inthe second, joining Englishman Gra-ham Gooch as the only batsmen to

achieve the rarefeat.

G o o c hmade 333 and 123against India atLord’s in 1990.

Sangakkara, with34 three-figureknocks alreadyunder his belt,added one more tothe tally with a sixoff Sohag Gazi af-ter tea, but wasbowled off the nextdelivery.

D i n e s hChandimal re-mained unbeatenon 100, havingshared a fourth-wicket stand of 145with Sangakkaraafter Sri Lanka’swobbled at thestart.

E a r l i e r ,Bangladesh werebowled out for 426in their first knockwithin 25 minutesof the start in replyto Sri Lanka’s 587.

S p i n n e rAjantha Mendisfinished with sixfor 99, havingclaimed both theremaining wickets

after Bangladesh resumed the day at409-8.

Mendis dismissed Mahmudullahwith the morning’s fourth delivery,forcing a catch to short-leg before thebatsman had added to his overnightscore of 30.

Al-Amin Hossain was bowled byMendis for nine, leaving last manAbdur Razzak unbeaten on 11.

Off-spinner Dilruwan Perera sup-ported Mendis with three wickets,while seamer Suranga Lakmal tookone.

When Sri Lanka batted a secondtime, off-spinner MohammadMahmudullah dismissed both open-ers, Dimuth Karunaratne and KaushalSilva, in his first three overs beforelunch to make it 49-2.—AFP

Sri Lanka 1st innings: .......... 587Bangladesh 1st innings: ........ 426Sri Lanka 2nd innings:Karunaratne b Mahmudullah ....15Silva lbw b Mahmudullah .......... 29Sangakkara b Sohag Gazi ......... 105Jayawardene lbw b Shakib ........11Chandimal not out .................... 100Mathews not out ........................43Extras: (lb 2) ................................... 2Total: (4 wickets dec) ................ 305Fall of wkts: 1-36, 2-49, 3-78, 4-223Bowling: .........................O-M-R-WAl-Amin Hossain .............. 7-1-31-0Sohag Gazi .................... 18.5-1-87-1Shakib ............................... 22-2-80-1Mahmudullah .................. 18-4-46-2Mominul ............................. 7-0-46-0Nasir Hossain .................... 3-0-13-0Bangladesh 2nd innings:Tamim Iqbal not out ...................... 7Shamsur not out ............................ 4Extras: (b 1) .................................... 1Total: (0 wickets) .........................12Bowling: .........................O-M-R-WRAS Lakmal .........................3-0-9-0Perera ....................................4-3-1-0Mendis .................................1-0-1-0

AUCKLAND: Ravindra Jadeja takes a blinder during New Zealand vs India 1st Test’s2nd day on Friday.

Federer,Swiss to face

KazakhDavis Cup tieG E N E V A —Switzerland’s Davis Cupteam, boasting newly-crowned AustralianOpen champion

Stanislas Wawrinka andformer world numberone Roger Federer, willface Kazakhstan inGeneva in April’s quar-ter-finals, Swiss Tennisannounced Friday.

The Swiss team willtake on the visitors fromApril 4 to 6 in a 16,500-capacity venue atGeneva’s Palexpo cen-tre.

Swiss captainSeverin Luethi said hissquad was relishing theprospect of playing inGeneva, the largest cityin Switzerland’s westernFrench-speaking re-gion.

“I know that theteam likes playing therebecause it’s a regionwhere we have the big-gest number of loyalfans. It’s going to be afestival of tennis, andwe hope to play to apacked house in front ofa crowd that’s support-ing us with every bonein their body,” Luethisaid in a statement re-leased by Swiss Tennis.

“It’s been 10 yearssince Switzerland man-aged to reach the quar-ter-finals.With Stan andRoger, it’s clear thatwe’re targeting thesemis,” he added.

The Swiss teamearned their berth in thequarter-finals thanks toa 3-2 win last weekendaway to Serbia, lastyear’s beaten finalists.

The Davis Cup isthe only major trophymissing from 17-timeGrand Slam winnerFederer’s collection.—AFP

CHITTAGONG: Kumar Sangakkara goes on the attackduring Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test’s 4th day.

RIO DE JANEIRO—The Brazilian Football Confedera-tion (CBF) on Thursday unveiled its calendar for nextseason without Portuguesa, who were controversiallyrelegated in December. Sao Paulo-based Portuguesaexited the top flight after having four points dockedfor fielding suspended midfielder Heverton on the fi-nal day.

The punishment, which the club continues to con-test, enabled Fluminense, who had finished in the finalrelegation spot, to escape becoming the first champi-ons to go down the following season. Portuguesa havespent the period since the end of the season pursuingcivil court actions to try to have their demotion over-turned but without success.

The CBF said Thursday it was now in a position topublish the calendar for the “Brasileirao” season run-ning from April 20 through to December 7.

CBF chairman Jose Maria Marin, alluding to the le-gal complications of the Portuguesa case after the club

Brazil league unveils fixtures after drop controversytook the matter to the courts, demanded clubs abide bysporting tribunal decisions or face potential long-termdamage to the league.

Resorting to court actions and throwing into doubtthe final outcome of a league season would, Marin said,“bring about negative consequences” such as spon-sors pulling the plug on deals. Marin said broadcasterGlobo had already voiced such concerns. AtleticoMineiro chairman Alexandre Kalil agreed, pointing tothe weeks of “uncertainty” following the Portuguesarow. “Without sponsorship, clubs will go to the wall,”Kalil warned.

The league will observe a break for the June 12 toJuly 13 World Cup, halting action from June 2 to July15. Cruzeiro are the reigning champions and will starttheir title defence at Bahia. Portuguesa will meanwhilehave to hope they can achieve promotion and put be-hind them a punishment deemed excessive by manyobservers.—AFP

PARENTS have long poured on cheesesauce, peanut butter and the like to coaxkids to eat their vegetables, but a new study

suggests those tricks might also get children tolook more favorably at the vegetables them-selves. Preschoolers intro-duced to Brussels sproutsalongside cream cheese tospread on the bitter vegetablemore often said they liked thesprouts and ate more of them,even when later served plain.

The strategy of pairingsomething new with some-thing a person already likes isknown as associative condi-tioning and could be helpfulin encouraging kids - andadults - to eat more fruits andvegetables, the authors say.“This has the potential tochange the eating habits ofchildren, including eatingmore vegetables, and this inturn will affect childhood obe-sity,” said Elizabeth Capaldi-Phillips, a psychologist at Arizona State Uni-versity and lead author of the study.

The research was published in Journal ofthe Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. In thestudy, parents of 29 children between the agesof three and five years old filled out a surveyabout the kids’ views of 11 vegetables, includ-ing whether they liked or disliked the vegetable,or had never tried it. Cauliflower and Brusselssprouts were among the vegetables most chil-dren had not tried, and were selected as the onesused to gauge children’s preferences in the study.

The children were given either caulifloweror Brussels sprouts once per day for seven days,and ate in a group of five or six children that

was led by a researcher or teacher. The veg-etables were all boiled, then were either servedplain, with unsweetened cream cheese or withsweetened cream cheese. After this condition-ing period, the kids were given the vegetables

plain.The researchers found

that children given Brusselssprouts with cream cheese dur-ing conditioning liked themsignificantly more than thosegiven plain sprouts. Less thanone in five kids given plainsprouts said they liked the veg-etable, whereas about two-thirds of kids who got sproutswith either type of creamcheese said they liked the veg-etables.

The children likedmilder, non-bitter cauliflowermore overall, and aboutequally whether or not it wasserved with cream cheese. Af-ter the conditioning period,when children were given the

plain vegetables, those who had previouslysaid they “liked” Brussels sprouts ate moreof them than kids who had expressed dislike.

Although previous research has foundthat kids need to try some new foods eight to10 times before they get used to the taste, thechildren in the study tried the new vegetablesonly seven times before they would eat themplain, the authors point out. “Children developfood preferences at a young age, yet tend tobe really picky at this age, so it’s important tosustain healthy habits which will persist intoadulthood,” Devina Wadhera, also a re-searcher at Arizona State University and thestudy’s other author, told Reuters Health.

Flavor-pairing may teachkids to like vegetables

The Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany Dr Tilo Klinner, hosted a dinnerfor delegates of the Karachi Literature Festival at a local hotel. Picture shows AmbassadorDr Michael Koch, special Envoy of German Government for Afghanistan and Pakistan,PGBF, President Qazi Sajid Ali, Byram D Avari, Luba Klinner, Amina Seyid, and diplo-mats from Germany and Sri Lanka.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah putting his note on application of a woman in the Provincial Assembly session.—PO photo Sultan Chaki

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Police had been allowedto procure tools, equipments, weapons, ma-chinery and special vehicles to amicably dealwith the terrorism. It was the Sindh govern-ment that had made it lawful for a period ofone year that Sindh Police would not be an-swerable till one year for not following the rulesand regulations under the Sindh Public Pro-curement Regulatory Act (SPPRA)-2009.

This was all done in Sindh assembly onFriday as the House had passed a Bill throughwhich the Police of the province to buy bomband bullet proof cars and jackets, helmets andlatest weapons to fight away the terrorism.

The Bill would be for one year and wouldbecome void after one year deadline on its own.

Sindh Minister for Parliamentary AffairsDr Sikandar Meendhro while defending the

passage of the said Bill, said that under the(SPPRA) Act-2009 Police could not readilyprocure any item of urgent need as the Act hadto be followed with variety of departmentalprocedures.

However, Pakistan Muslim League Nawazmember in the House suggested to the Sindhgovernment that the law should be not for oneyear but for 5 years.

MQM member Khawaja Izhar Ul Hassansuggested that Police and other departmentsconcerned should attain people’s trust.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member saidthat any procurement by Police should be heldaccountable under the Public Accounts Com-mittee. Leader of opposition in the HouseSyed Faisal Sabzwari demanded that a com-mittee comprising members of the Sindh as-sembly should be constituted for any urgentprocurement.

SA allows high-tech equipments for Police

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Pakistan has a beauty that can bestbe seen in its culture and rich traditions. Thiswas said by Consul General of the FederalRepublic of Germany Dr Tilo Klinner at a din-ner hosted by him for guests participating inthe three-day 5th Karachi Literature Festival.

The German diplomat said literature opensthe horizons and expands the vision of humans,guiding them toward accommodation and har-mony with their fellow beings and promotingpeace. He added the Karachi Literature Festi-val Peace Prize 2014 is meant to recognise andhonour such achievements. Dr Klinner said thePeace Prize is joint project of the Consulate

General of Germany in Karachi, the Embassyof Germany in Islamabad and the Karachi Lit-erature Festival. It aims to recognise bookspromoting peace, international understandingand tolerance.

It is awarded by a jury comprising emi-nent Pakistani academics and human rightsactivists and carries a prize of 3,000 euros.

Special Envoy of the government of Fed-eral Republic of Germany for Afghanistan/Pa-kistan who has also served as German ambas-sador to Pakistan, Dr Michael Koch, said hewas glad to be back among so many friends.He said books and literature bring out the bestin mankind.

German envoy fetes KLF participantsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The treasury Bench in Sindh as-sembly had passed a Bill with majority of votesafter which powers of the town planning werewithdrawn from the local governments andconferred upon the Sindh Building ControlAuthority (SBCA). The Bill thus passed was‘Sindh building Control Authority (Amend-ment) Bill-2014.

The opposition in the assembly had op-posed the passage of the said Bill. In this re-gard, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)while rejecting the passage of the said Bill saidthat it looked as if the Sindh government wouldnot conduct the local body polls in the prov-ince and for that purpose, had been withdraw-ing powers of the local governments.

In rejection of the stance of the MQM,Sindh Minister for information Sharjeel Innam

Memon said that the Sindh government wasfully determined to conduct the local body pollsin the province. The powers for town planningwith the local government had smashed theshapes of the urban nomenclatures and theamenity plots were widely misused and ille-gally occupied or converted into commercialentities.

The Minister said that the Sindh govern-ment did not move courts over the local bodypolls and the powers of town planning that weregiven to the union councils had smashed theface of the city and the amenity plots wereconverted into commercial Marriage Halls forminting money on commercial basis. Theunion councils had utterly failed to work withhonesty and in a diligent and transparent man-ner and hence the Sindh government haddecid3ed to withdraw their powers and trans-fers them to the SBCA.

Sindh building Control Authority(Amendment) Bill passed

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Pakistan People’s Party Par-liamentarian (PPPP) Chairman BilawalBhutto Zardari said that the first prize win-ning documentary film to be screened atthe Sindh International Film festival un-der the canvass of Sindh festival would beforwarded for the nomination in the Lon-don International Film Festival.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was speakingat the International seminar held at the Al-liance Francaise Friday. He said that vari-eties of programmes under the Sindh fes-tival were being completed successfullyand the response was quite overwhelming.

On the occasion, the Ambassador ofFrance in Pakistan Phillipe Thiebaud fe-licitated Bilawal for the successful orga-nization of Sindh festival.

The French convoy said that SindhFestival would pave ways for promoting

Pakistan’s soft image across the world. Theholding of the Karachi Literature Festivalas part of Sindh Festival would be a greatactivity, which would also promote the softimage of Karachi and the country at theworld level.

He said that the Alliance Francaise hadplayed a pivotal role in promoting bilat-eral relations between the people of the twocountries, Pakistan and France regardingcultural and literary activities.

While responding to the French con-voy, Bilawal said that following the inau-gural cession of Sindh Festival, he had re-ceived tremendous messages of apprecia-tion from all over the world as the MohenjoDaro session had introduced it to the worldin a diligent manner that was never donebefore in history of the country. He saidthat Mohenjodaro session had informed mil-lions of people around the world that hadnever heard about it before.

World learning aboutMohenjodaro through its

inaugural festivity: Bilawal

Orientationfor JENESYSparticipants

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—A total of 72 par-ticipants from Pakistan,67High School and Universitystudents from Islamabad,Karachi and Quettaand 5super-visors will be visiting Japan inFebruary.

The Consulate-General ofJapan at Karachi held the orien-tation for the JENESYS (Japan-East Asia Network of Exchangefor Students and Youths) Partici-pants. Akira Ouchi, the Consul-General of Japan in Karachi,emphasized in his speech thatthrough JENESYS programme,youths of Pakistan and Japanwould foster and strengthenfriendship.

MQM walks out fromSA over workers killing

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) stageda token walkout from the Sindh assembly during its sessionon Friday. The walkout was in condemnation to murder afterkidnapping of the worker of the party.

Earlier, leader of opposition in Sindh assembly Syed FaisalSabzwari while speaking in the House said that people in plainclothes in private vehicles without displayed registration num-bers had been roaming across the city and kidnapped any per-son they wanted. Later the bodies of kidnapped persons withsigns of vehement physical torture were dropped.

He said that the people in plain clothes had kidnappedone of workers of the MQM Salman and his brother Nadirduring their passage from Korangi to Civil Hospital Karachi.His brother was released while body of Salman was recov-ered from Malir River after three days of his abduction.

He said that a targeted operation was in full swing in themetropolis under the orders and command of the Sindh gov-ernment while the MQM had immensely supported the tar-geted operation and the criminals were being arrested but theincidences like that of Salman were a great reason for thereservations by the MQM on the targeted operation.

He demanded that in case any was held under suspicions,he should be produced in any court of law but the kidnappingof the workers of the MQM and their killings were sheermanifest of extra-judicial killings and had created a percep-tion that the targeted operation was deliberately directedagainst a particular community of the province.

Pakistaniastrologer wins

Malaysian awardSTAFF REPORTER

K A R A C H I — H u m a y u nMehboob is the first Pakistaniastrologer to receive the mostprestigious Civil Award ofMalaysia bestowed on him bythe King of Malaysia H.E.Tuanku Abdul HalimMu’azam Shah.

Introducing the astrologerto media, Azeem Qureshi Gen-eral manager Hotel Pearl Con-tinental Karachi said that in thehistory of Malaysia and Paki-stan this is the first time thisaward was given to Mr.Humayun Mehboob which iscalled the DATUK AWARD.

Ombudsmanhelps releasestuck up dues

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—On the interven-tion of the Provincial Om-budsman Sindh Asad AshrafMalik, the Karachi Universityhas paid the dues of formerDirector Finance Karachi Uni-versity Syed Masood Rizvifor the services he rendered forthe University.

The Provincial Ombuds-man gave the cheque amount-ing to Rs. 276774.against thedues claimed by complainant -the former Director FinanceKarachi University.

The complainant had madehis complain against KarachiUniversity to the ProvincialOmbudsman that the Universitywas not paying his dues againstthe services he rendered forApplied Economics ResearchCentre, and ICCBS(aka-HEJ)on the instructions of the com-petent authority.

PARENTS have long poured on cheesesauce, peanut butter and the like to coaxkids to eat their vegetables, but a new study

suggests those tricks might also get children tolook more favorably at the vegetables them-selves. Preschoolers intro-duced to Brussels sproutsalongside cream cheese tospread on the bitter vegetablemore often said they liked thesprouts and ate more of them,even when later served plain.

The strategy of pairingsomething new with some-thing a person already likes isknown as associative condi-tioning and could be helpfulin encouraging kids - andadults - to eat more fruits andvegetables, the authors say.“This has the potential tochange the eating habits ofchildren, including eatingmore vegetables, and this inturn will affect childhood obe-sity,” said Elizabeth Capaldi-Phillips, a psychologist at Arizona State Uni-versity and lead author of the study.

The research was published in Journal ofthe Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. In thestudy, parents of 29 children between the agesof three and five years old filled out a surveyabout the kids’ views of 11 vegetables, includ-ing whether they liked or disliked the vegetable,or had never tried it. Cauliflower and Brusselssprouts were among the vegetables most chil-dren had not tried, and were selected as the onesused to gauge children’s preferences in the study.

The children were given either caulifloweror Brussels sprouts once per day for seven days,and ate in a group of five or six children that

was led by a researcher or teacher. The veg-etables were all boiled, then were either servedplain, with unsweetened cream cheese or withsweetened cream cheese. After this condition-ing period, the kids were given the vegetables

plain.The researchers found

that children given Brusselssprouts with cream cheese dur-ing conditioning liked themsignificantly more than thosegiven plain sprouts. Less thanone in five kids given plainsprouts said they liked the veg-etable, whereas about two-thirds of kids who got sproutswith either type of creamcheese said they liked the veg-etables.

The children likedmilder, non-bitter cauliflowermore overall, and aboutequally whether or not it wasserved with cream cheese. Af-ter the conditioning period,when children were given the

plain vegetables, those who had previouslysaid they “liked” Brussels sprouts ate moreof them than kids who had expressed dislike.

Although previous research has foundthat kids need to try some new foods eight to10 times before they get used to the taste, thechildren in the study tried the new vegetablesonly seven times before they would eat themplain, the authors point out. “Children developfood preferences at a young age, yet tend tobe really picky at this age, so it’s important tosustain healthy habits which will persist intoadulthood,” Devina Wadhera, also a re-searcher at Arizona State University and thestudy’s other author, told Reuters Health.

Flavor-pairing may teachkids to like vegetables

Rita Akhtar and Dr Tebbe cutting the ribbon to inaugurate Fulbright Centre, a Joint Ven-ture of FC College and United States Educational Foundation.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Advisor to Chief Minis-ter Punjab on Health Khawaja SalmanRafique has reiterated that govern-ment would continue to provide allout resources for the control of HIV/AIDS and to provide diagnostic aswell as facilities to the AIDS patientsin Punjab. He said that all recommen-dations of WHO for the control ofHIV/AIDS shell be implemented.

He expressed these views whilepresiding over the concluding sessionof a two-day consultative meeting

organized by Punjab AIDS ControlProgram and WHO, here today. Themeeting was attended by GabrieleRiedner, Regional Advisor HIV/AIDS, WHO/EMRO, JoumanaGeorge Hermez, Technical Officer,HIV/AIDS, WHO/EMRO, Dr.Quiad Saeed, National ProfessionalOfficer HIV/AIDS, WHO Pakistan,Russell Armstrong, InternationalConsultant, Dr. Zahid Pervaiz,DGHS Punjab and Dr. SalmanShahid, Project Director, PunjabAIDS Control Program. A largenumber of representatives of civil

society, preventive programs andother stakeholders also attended themeeting.

The WHO conducted an analy-sis of HIV/AIDS treatment programin Punjab. The gaps and challengeswere identified and shared with theparticipants. The efforts of the HealthDepartment and Punjab AIDS Con-trol Program regarding preventive,diagnostic and treatment serviceswere appreciated. The 9 core inter-ventions were discussed in detail.The recommendations included scal-ing up of preventive services, HIV

testing & counseling, care & supportand drug dependence treatment ser-vices. The importance of awarenessand advocacy campaigns was alsoemphasized.

On the occasion, the WHO pro-vided two Mobile CD4 testing ma-chines worth Rs.3 million to PunjabAIDS Control Program. The CD4testing is crucial to initiate treatmentof HIV AIDS. The machines will beused to provide testing services at thedoorsteps of the AIDS patients inSouthern Punjab and jail inmates allover the Punjab.

Govt would continue to provideresources of HIV/AIDS control

Activists of different NGOs lighting candles in connection with World Interfaith Harmony Week.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Provincial Minister for Excise &Taxation, Finance Mian Mujtaba Shuja urRehman has said that in order to achieve theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs),record funds are being provided to health andeducation sectors.

He said that health sector, the major fo-cus of the government is on protecting thehealth of people trough strengthening of Pri-mary Health Care & Disease PreventiveProgrammes and government is giving spe-cial focus for the treatment of chronic & fa-tal diseases.

He said that for imparting modern educa-tion to the students Rs. 244 billion are beingspent on education sector during the currentfiscal year which is 26 percent of the totalbudget of the province. He told that establish-ment of 82 new colleges has been plannedwhile missing facilities will be provided in68 colleges with a cost of Rs. 1470 million.

He told that funds to the tune of Rs. 175million have been allocated for different

projects of commerce colleges in the prov-ince while Rs. 266 million have been allo-cated for establishment of new universities.

Addressing the delegation of NGO,Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman said that govern-ment was encouraging the NGOs as well aseducational institutions for organizing aware-ness events against fatal diseases. He said thatPunjab government has provided 19 per centadditional budget for the provision of healthservices in Punjab.

He said that by increasing the health bud-get up to 102 billion rupees, the present gov-ernment has ensured modern health facilitiesand free medicines as well as air-condition-ing in general wards to poor and resource-lesspeople. He told that Rs.4 billion have beenallocated for launching of health insurancescheme.

He said that Rs.30 crore has been reservedfor dialysis facilities to the poor kidney pa-tients. He said that huge amount of 7.5billonis being spent on the provision of free treat-ment and medicines to the poor and destitutein public sector hospitals of the province.

Record funds for health,education sectors

Shahbazcondoles death of

KunjahiOBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad ShahbazSharif has expressed deep senseof sorrow and grief over the saddemise of prominent poetZaman Kunjahi.

Security planfor Indiandelegation

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—A security plan hasbeen prepared for the IndianCultural Delegation’s visit toLahore.

This was disclosed by theMinister for Environment Pro-tection and Chairman PoliceReforms Committee Col RShuja Khanzada while presid-ing over a review meeting re-garding security arrangementson arrival of Indian delegationat Lahore.

Chief Secretary Punjab, Sec-retary Home, IG Punjab Police,Director General Protocol, Di-rector General Rangers, repre-sentatives of Lahore Chamber ofCommerce and other officialswere also present in meeting. TheMinister told meeting that 200-member Indian cultural delega-tion will arrive at Lahore on 12thFebruary through Wahga Borderand will stay till 16th February.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Provincial Minister for Law, RanaSanaullah Khan has said that the entire worldappreciates metro bus project but only the lead-ers of Q-League have been unduly criticisingthis project.

In a statement here Thursday, RanaSanaullah said that it is not understandablewhy Q-League criticizes every public-welfareproject. He said that Q-League had also lev-elled allegations against Lahore metro busproject but it faced humiliation.

He said the fact that more than 1.5 lakhpassengers travel by Lahore metro buses dailyis a proof of the utility of this project. He saidthat like Lahore, metro bus service will alsoprovide best travelling facilities to the peopleof Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad andthese projects will be a masterpiece of trans-parency and architecture.

Rana Sanaullah said that exemplary per-formance of Punjab government has causedpanic in the ranks of Q-League therefore itsleaders are criticizing provincial governmentwithout any justification.

Metro bus providingbest travelling facilities

Standardized curriculumfor medical education

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Prominent medical experts associated with teach-ing process in medical colleges of Punjab have demanded set-ting up of a medical staff college in the province on the patternof Administrative Staff College so that promotion of profes-sor doctors could be linked with completion of courses at medi-cal staff college.

This demand was voiced at the second day of 3-day inter-national conference on medical education being held at FatimaJinnah Medical College. Provincial Minister for EducationRana Mashhood Ahmed Khan presided over the scientific ses-sion. He stressed the need for evolving a standardized curricu-lum of MBBS and postgraduate medical education keeping inview the local needs. Brig Dr Moadat Hussain Rana stressedthe importance of consolidating various diagnostic fields ofmedical education so that doctors could play their due role inproviding affordable health facilities to the masses.

He said that Indian and Pakistani societies even hospitalsare based on caste system and the health administrators ofmajor hospitals and health department are not doctors but oth-ers who consider themselves as superior beings. He said thatat the next level there are professor doctors, general cadre doc-tors and then internees. He said that nurses who serve the pa-tients in the real sense have not been granted their due statuswhereas ward boys and sanitary staff of hospitals are consid-ered untouchable.

LAHORE—Advisor to Chief Minister Punjabon Health Khawaja Salman Raffique has saidthat no posting and transfer of officers inHealth Department including EDOs/DOs andMSs of government hospitals would be madeon political grounds.

He said that Chief Minister has approvedthe policy for this purpose.

He expressed these views while address-ing monthly EDOs Health Conference atDirectorate General Health Punjab, here Fri-day. —NNI

No posting on political ground