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BRUSSELS: US Secretary of State John Kerry laughs as Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan Army Chief GenAshfaq Parvez Kayani shake hands after he made a statement after a meeting on Wednesday.

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CEC asked to take note of vilificationcampaign against President: Babar

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Spokesperson tothe President SenatorFarhatullah Babar urged theCEC to take note of the vilifica-tion campaign against the Presi-dent and issue directions to allto desist from it in the interest offree and fair elections.

In a letter addressed to theCEC which he personally deliv-ered in the office of ECP he said“The President is severely handi-capped because out of deferenceto the Court observations he can-

not react to these accusations byemploying befitting political jar-gon”. Direct personal criticism ofthe President during the campaignwhile the President was unable torespond to them is denying levelplaying field to the Party that iscontesting elections using the slo-gans and images of ShaheedBhuttos, the letter said.

The spokesperson wrote that“I wish to bring to your attentionthe vilification campaign set inmotion by the leadership of somepolitical parties particularly thePML-N against the person of

President Asif Ali Zardari and itsadverse impact on free and fairelections and the need to urgentlyredress the issue.”

He further stated in his letterthat the President of Pakistan wasthe head of the state representingthe unity of the Republic. Article41 of the Constitution states:“There shall be a President of Pa-kistan who shall be the Head ofthe State and shall represent theunity of the Republic”.

During hearing in the dualoffice case in the Lahore HighCourt recently the Honourable

court had made observationsagainst the Head of the State in-volving in any partisan politicalactivity.

Babar stated in the letter fur-ther that as a result a statementwas made before the court thatthe President dissociated himselffrom political affairs of the Party.The President also restrainedhimself from participating inactivities and holding meetingsthat could be seen as partisanpolitical in nature. This responseof the President was also appre-

Khoso visitsKarachi today

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker PrimeMinister Mir Hazar Khan Khosois rushing to Karachi today(Thursday).

The untoward developmentsin Karachi especially the decisionof Muttahidda Qaumi Movement(MQM) to close down its elec-toral offices in the city haveturned the maiden visit of theprime minister exceptionally sig-nificant.

Interestingly Prime MinisterKhoso had earlier scheduled toundertake visit to Karachi thricebut on every occasion it wascalled off at the eleventh hour. Heis succeeding in visiting Karachiafter more than a month of ac-quiring his office.

The Public Relations depart-ment of the PM House has con-firmed the schedule of PrimeMinister Khoso for Karachi ashis personal staff including per-

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Brussels talks

US wants Afghan,Pak tensions ease

BRUSSELS—Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai met Pakistan’sarmy chief and the foreign sec-retary in talks on Wednesdayhosted by U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry aimed at easing ten-sion between the neighbours be-fore the end of NATO’s Afghani-stan combat mission.

Kerry is hosting the talks inBrussels involving Karzai andPakistani Army Chief GeneralAshfaq Kayani and Foreign Sec-retary Jalil Jilani, with the aimof calming tensions over borderdisputes and the stalled peaceprocess.

Kerry told reporters at thestart of the meeting at the resi-dence of the US ambassador toNATO on the outskirts of theBelgian capital that Afghanistan

was in “a critical transforma-tional period”.

“(I am) very, very pleased thepresident could travel, GeneralKayani and Secretary Jilani couldtake the time to be here,” he said.“We are very, very hopeful for aproductive series of discussions.”

Karzai called it an importantmeeting and said he was gladKayani and Jilani had found thetime to travel to Brussels.

“Let’s hope forward for thebest,” he told reporters. Jilanicalled it a very important meet-ing, adding: “We are looking for-ward to a very productive andforward-looking discussion.”

The talks come after a dayafter a gathering of NATO for-eign ministers in Brussels atwhich NATO Secretary General

Anders Fogh Rasmussen saidPakistan must crack down onmilitants who use the country asa sanctuary to launch attacks inAfghanistan.

The meeting follows weeksof tension with Pakistan overtheir 2,600-km border and stalledpeace efforts.

U.S. officials hope thatKerry, who has a good relation-ship with Karzai, can bring theparties back to the negotiatingtable and make constructiveprogress on an issue that haslong-term security implicationsfor Washington.

Rasmussen held talks withKarzai at NATO headquarters onTuesday which he said focusedon the legal framework for

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PPP, PML-N did nothingin their tenures: Imran

LAHORE—PTI chief ImranKhan has said that tested partiesare unable to bring about achange in the country.

He was addressing a joiningceremony of 67 former Nazimsin Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf.

Addressing a press confer-ence held in a local hotel inLahore ‚ the leaders of the join-ing group termed Imran Khan asa great leader of the country‚ whois striving to build a new Paki-stan. They said that they are join-ing the PTI willingly and with-out any pressure and they weremotivated and inspired by the slo-gan of change. They were of theview that the next prime minis-ter would be Imran Khan.

The PTI chairman ImranKhan was also present on the

occasion. Addressing the new en-trants‚ the PTI chairman wel-comed their joining and hoped

that their joining would make theparty stronger. He said that bothPPP and PML(N) were elected a

number time‚ but‚ unfortunatelythey did nothing for the better-ment and prosperity of the peopleduring the past twenty sevenyears. He said that PPP and PML(N) had not enforced local bod-ies system and destroyed the na-tional institutions.

He said that “there are plentyof resources in Pakistan and wedon’t need to borrow money fromother countries.”

He said that the economicdevelopment cannot be possibleunless the powers are transferredupto the grass root level.

He said that developmentwork is not the actual job ofMNA and MPAs‚ rather their jobis legislation and the responsibil-ity of development project goesto the local bodies.—NNI

Election office attack

MQM observesmourning dayKARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) Wednesdayobserved mourning day acrossSindh over the attack on itselection office in Buffer Zonearea killing four people andinjuring 30 others.

It should be mentioned thatthe strike call was given byMQM’s CoordinationCommittee on Tuesday, inprotest over the killing of theactivists in the bombing.

The trades activities andtransport remained suspendedagainst the terrorist activities inthe metropolis.

BB murder case

Musharraf’sbail petitiondismissedRAWALPINDI—A divisionbench of the Lahore HighCourt’s Rawalpindi registrydismissed the bail petitionsubmitted by former militaryruler Gen (retd) PervezMusharraf in the BenazirBhutto murder case. The bailwas dismissed on the groundsthat Musharraf’s counsel didnot pursue the case on bail plea.

Federal InvestigationAgency (FIA)’s ProsecutorChaudhry Zulfiqar said thatfollowing the cancellation ofhis bail petition, Musharrafcould be arrested any time now.

The bench had resumed the

Final list issued

Election campaign picksup, PPP still slackens

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The electioncampaign has picked up in thecountry with the issuing of finallist of candidates by the ElectionCommission.

PML-N and PTI are in fullgear as their leaders includingSharif brothers and Imran Khanare leading the campaign by ad-dressing public meetings daily indifferent parts of the world while

PPP is still slackened and failedto hold a big public rally so far.

Though the parties had is-sued tickets to their candidates,the campaign was lack luster asfinal list of candidates wasawaited. As the situation hascleared now, the reports pouringin from different parts of thecountry suggested that campaignhas gained momentum. JUI-F,Functional Muslim League andregional parties in Balochistan

are also perked up their push butANP and MQM are facingshocks of terror strikes whichhave slowed down their drive.

These important electionshave also witnessed latest tech-nology being employed by PTIand PML-N and partially by PPPin attracting the voters. Facebook, twitter, blogs and SMSmessages are being extensivelyused. Recorded speeches of the

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Altaf asks people to take MQMpolls campaign in their hands

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Founder andLeader of Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) AltafHussain appealed to the peopleto take the MQM’s election cam-paign in their hands and spreadits message door-to-door. He saidthis while speaking at a condo-lence meeting held in London onWednesday.

Condemning the deadlybomb blast at the MQM’s elec-tion office at Peoples Chowrangiin North Nazimabad area, he of-fered his deep sense of grief andsorrow on the killing and injur-ing of MQM workers and sym-pathizers and offered condo-lences with the bereaved familymembers. He was overcome bygrief and his voice gave way

while speaking about the MQMmartyrs.

He said that the forces inimi-cal to the MQM were targetingwere targeting innocent MQMworkers in order to keep it awayfrom the election process. Thepersistent killings of the MQMworkers for the past ten daysbrought back the memories ofQasba-Aligarh tragedy of 1986and the operation clean-up of Jun19, 1992.

He said that unconstitutional,undemocratic, and illegal weretaken against the MQM in orderto restrict it from launching amassive election campaign.

Addressing the haq parastpeople, MQM leaders, workersand sympathizers, he said thathis courage and determination

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Dual nationality case

Contempt notices issuedto Zardari, Ashraf

ISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt of Pakistan Wednesday is-sued contempt of court notices toPresident Asif Ali Zardari andformer premier Raja PervezAshraf for not implementing itsorders pertaining to dual nation-ality case. A three-judge bench ofthe apex court, headed by ChiefJustice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, will hear the case onThursday.

Notices were also issued toSenate Chairman Nayyar HussainBukhari, Chief Election Commis-sioner Justice (Retd) FakhruddinG., Attorney General Irfan Qadir

and Senator Rehman Malik.Mehmood Akhtar, the petitioner,had filed separate petitions plead-ing the court to indict the said dig-nitaries over reappointing formerinterior minister Rehman Malik assenator.

Last month, the court had in-quired from the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP) about thereasons for not disqualifying thedual-nation lawmakers and askedas to why were criminal cases notproceeded against the former mem-bers of provincial and national as-semblies, when they had submit-ted their resignations.—INP

124 dead inBD building

collapseDHAKA—At least 124 peoplehave been killed and over 600others injured in an incidentwhere an eight-story buildingcollapsed in the Bangladeshi(BD) capital, Dhaka.

The number of deaths at theRana Plaza is expected to rise.“Many people are feared dead,”said the director of the fire de-partment, Zehadul Islam.

The Rana Plaza located in theSavar district on the outskirts ofDhaka, housed garment factoriesand a shopping center.

Reports say that only theground floor of the building hasremained intact. Fire service andarmy rescue workers are at thescene, trying to pull out trapped

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Delhi mulls tojoin Iran-Pakgas project

TEHRAN—Iran Oil Ministryspokesman has said that NewDelhi is in talks with Tehran tojoin the multi-billion-dollar pipe-line which Iran is building to ex-port natural gas to the neighbor-ing Pakistan.

“Since India has been moti-vated by Pakistan’s seriousnessin building the [Iran-Pakistan]`peace pipeline’‚ New Delhi isnegotiating to join the project‚”spokesman of Iranian oil minis-try Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar hasbeen quoted as saying by MeherNews Agency Wednesday.

The Iranian official addedthat there has been considerableprogress in the Iran-Pakistan (IP)pipeline‚ with Iranian contractors

Continued on Page 6China asks Indiato pull back fromE LadakhNEW DELHI—China hasasked the Indian Army todestroy certain fortifiedpositions in the disputedterritory in eastern Ladakh inreturn for the PLA removing itstemporary camp in Depsangvalley, now at the centre of amilitary face-off.

Indian Defence sourcessaid a flag meeting on Tuesday,the second since April 15,failed after the Chinese sidemade its demand. The Indianside was not willing to make acommitment, and that led to animpasse, the sources said.

The sources said thatIndian fortifications that havecome up recently in easternLadakh are in an area differentfrom the one where the current

PML-N to supportvoting rights for

overseasPakistanis: Nawaz

LAHORE—PML-N PresidentNawaz Sharif on Wednesdaycalled for the implementation ofthe Supreme Court’s order forgiving voting rights to overseasPakistanis.

“Overseas Pakistanis, whosend billions of dollars in remit-tances each year, are our majorasset,” the former PM told a del-egation of overseas Pakistanis.He said that after coming topower, the PML-N governmentwould promote business-friendlypolicies and provide safe envi-ronment for investment by over-

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Bomb explosions in Balochistan,KP, Sindh; 23 injured

QUETTA/PESHAWAR/SWAT—At least 23 people includingwomen and children were injuredin a series of bomb blasts inBalochistan, Sindh and KhyberPakhtunkhwa on Wednesday.

The blasts taking place inQuetta, Peshawar, Swat,D.I.Khan and Jacobabad createdscare among the people as themilitants have apparently becomemore active to derail the electioncampaign.

According to sources, a blastoccurred near a private hospitalin Quetta where the bomb wasplanted on a bicycle which wasdetonated using a remote control.According to preliminary inves-tigation, at least two kilogramsof explosives were used in theblast. Thirteen people includingtwo children were injured in theblast that took place in SatelliteTown, Quetta.

In another blast near policestation, two policemen were in-

jured. Later, police shifted the in-jured to the Civil Hospital wherethe condition of two wounded

was reported as critical.Moreover, police and Fron-

tier Corps (FC) cordoned off thearea and started their investiga-tion. Earlier, on Tuesday, at least

six people were killed and morethan 45 others were injured in apowerful explosion in Nichari

road area of Quetta.The banned Lashkar-i-

Jhangvi (LJ) claimed responsibil-ity for the car bomb attack. A

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QUETTA: An injured person being shifted to civil hospitalafter bomb blast near a private hospital in Satellite Town.

SHER MUHAMMAD KHAN

MULTAN—The politics ofMultan district is beset withlocal rivalries. The PPP oncehad a vote bank here but inrecent times the PML–N hascome to dominate the dis-trict. Multan city and districtheadquarters consist ofthree million population and52 union councils and atleast 1.5 million registeredvoters, according to the Elec-tion Commission statistics.A good number of peoplefrom Multan district aresettled abroad, especially inthe United Kingdom.

Multan is consideredvery important geographicalpart of South Punjab.Multan was considered aPPP fortress when Gillani

and Qureshi families repre-sented the party here duringthe era of Z A Bhutto. Theyhave traditionally been op-posed by the MakhdoomJaved Hashmi family and hisrelatives. Now, an alliance be-tween former federal ministerSikandar Hayyat Bosan andformer ticket holder ShahzadMaqbool Bhutta of the PML–N has come into existence inopposition to former PrimeMinister Sayed Yousaf RazaGillani’s sons Abdul QadirGillani and Ali Musa Gillani.The PPP has decided to fieldGillani’s sons and the son offormer senator late MalikSalahuddin Dogar’s sonMalik Amir Dogar PPP can-didate for NA–149.

NA–148 comprisesMultan urbanized and rural

union councils. The con-stituency was redesignedbefore the 2002 general elec-tions and included mostparts of the former NA–148from where Shah MahmoodQureshi had won. A verytough competition is ex-pected between ShahMahmood Qureshi (PTI), AliMusa Gillani (PPP), andAbdul Ghaffar Dogar (PML–N). Shah Mahmood Qureshihad won in 2008, as a PPPman and secured 83,184votes against MakhdoomJaved Hashmi. In 2010 byu-elections Ali Musa Gillanihas won as PPP candidateagainst Malik Abdul GhaffarDogar.

NA–149 electoral circlecomprises 23 union coun-cils. The registered voters

of this electoral circle is4,27,253. Javed Hashmi hadwon in 2008 as PML– Nmanand secured 70,864 votesagainst Malik SalauddinDogar (late). In 2010 bye-elections Shiekh TariqRasheed had won as PML–N candidate against MalikLiaqat Dogar. A very toughcompetition is expected inthis circle between MalikAmir Dogar (PPP), SheikhTariq Rasheed (PML–N),Makhdoom Javed Hashmi(PTI) and Liaqat Baloch(JI).

In NA–150 the registeredvoters are 3,99,93. RanaMahmood ul Hassan hadwon in 2008 as PML–N manand secured 57,774 votesagainst Mian Fazal Mukhtarof PML–Q. Here a very

tough competition is ex-pected between RanaMahmood ul Hassan (PML–N) and Nafees Ansari (PPP).NA–151 is very importantelectoral circle of theMultan District. The regis-tered voters of this constitu-ency are 3,51,092 accordingto the election commissionstatistics.

Sayed Yousaf RazaGillani had won in 2008 asPPP man and secured 77,664votes against SikandarHayyat Bosan. In 2010 bye-elections, Abdul QadirGillani defeated ShokatHayyat Bosan, brother ofSikandar Bosan. Now 2013Now a very tough competi-tion expected betweenSikandar Hayyat Bosan andAbdul Qadir Gillani.

PESHAWAR: A man collecting hailballs from a road as intense hailstorms and rain gripped Provincial Capital.

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister of KP Justice (Retd) Tariq Pervez with delegations of Barassociations from different districts.

Tough election contest in Multan district predicted

LARKANA: Police officials viewing the damaged gas pipeline after bomb blast by un-known miscreants near Talabani Village.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GUJRAT—Pakistan MuslimLeague senior central leader

and candidate from NA-105Gujrat Ch Pervaiz Elahi hassaid that Ahmad Mukhtarand N-League are one but

with blessings of AlmightyAllah and support of thepeople they would defeat the‘enemies of Gujrat’ as “wehad undertaken record de-velopment work during ourfive-year government inPunjab which were more thandone previously in 55 yearsand now, Insha-Allah, if gotthe opportunity we will pickup thread from there and domuch more works.”

Elahi said that on the NAseat, Ahmad Mukhtar is hisopponent whereas on bothProvincial Assembly seats N-League is being supportedand as such Ahmad Mukhtarand N-League are togethercontesting elections againsthim adding “enemies of Gujrathave joined hands against mebut Insha-Allah they will be

Mukhtar and N-League are one: Elahidefeated”. He said he wouldconstruct Gujrat-Sialkot-Lahore Motorway for thepeople of Gujrat and two uni-

versities and an industrial es-tate will also be establishedthere. He asked the people tosink their petty differences

and support him for honourand prestige of Gujrat as theopponents neither have anylove for them nor for Gujrat,they come after taking les-sons from Nawaz Sharif andin his language make falsepromises to the people.

The meeting atJheeranwali was also ad-dressed by N-League candi-date from PP-110 Pir SyedWaqar Gillani who had with-drawn in favour of MoonisElahi and joined PML-Q. Hesaid that in whole of the areathere is no better suited per-sonality than Ch Pervaiz Elahiand as such his communityhas unanimously decidedthat they would vote for ChPervaiz Elahi and Moonis Elahiand ensure their victory in theelections with big majority.

ISLAMABAD—Jamiat UlemaIslam-Fazal (JUI-F) stronglycondemned the recent attackson different political partiesand blamed the previous coa-lition government for the cur-rent deteriorating law and or-der situation. Talking to APP,spokesman of JUI-F chiefMaulana Fazal-ur-Rehman,Jan Achakzai said the recentattacks in Quetta, Karachi,Peshawar and D.I.Khan werereaction to bad policies of theprevious regime.

He said the steps taken byElection Commission of Paki-stan (ECP) for the security ofcandidates were not enough.He expressed hope that elec-tions would be held on time,but if delayed, the delaywould be long. The law andorder situation in Afghanistan

is more critical but still theywere going for elections, headded. The spokesman saidthe delay in elections wouldbe in favour of the forces whocould not see democracystrengthening in the country.

He said the party’s elec-tion campaign was at peakand JUI-F was contesting theelections with full strength.The party had strong posi-tion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KPK) where it was hopefulto win 66 seats of ProvincialAssembly and 27-28 of Na-tional Assembly, Achakzaiadded. He said the party po-sition in Pakhtun areas ofBalochistan province wasalso satisfactory as it spent17 billion out of 25 billionbudget in those areas duringits government.—APP

Steps for politicians’security not enough

H Y D E R A B A D —Direc to rMalaria Control Sindh,Naheed Jamali Wednesdaysaid that effective measuresare required to contol ma-laria which is now knockingat an alarming stage. He saidthis while talking to thisscribe in connection withthe World Malaria Day, tobe observed in Hyderabadon Thursday like otherparts of the world. She saidthat Malaria EradicationProgramme was started inPakistan in 1961 and in theProvince of Sindh during1963. During eradicationperiod due to support offoreign aid, she informedthat cent percent houseswere sprayed throughoutthe country.

She said that programmewas later renamed as “Ma-laria Control Programme” in1976.In control area, she in-formed that spray was re-stricted only to positive lo-calities with more stress upondetection and treatment ofcases. The Programme wasintegrated with GeneralHealth Services in SindhProvince in 1978, she said andadded that the programmerevitalisation started underglobal initiative of Roll BackMalaria in Sindh Province in2002.

In order to reduce thenumber of Malaria cases by50 percent by the year 2015(Base line 2002) it was aimedto keep Plasmodiumfalciparum less than 40 per-

cent of all Malaria infections,early diagnosis and prompttreatment, multiple preven-tion, epidemic preparedness,behavioral change communi-cation, partnership building,monitoring, evaluation andsurveillance. About malariarelated research, Naheed in-formed that 150 new Micros-copy Centres have been es-tablished in variousdistricts.The number ofthese centres have thus beenincreased from 280 to 430 andtrained Microscopists/ Ma-laria Supervisors have beenposted and provided withnew Microscopes.

Indoor Residual Spray(IRS) has also been con-ducted and 25,06,385 roomssprayed during last three

years, besides fumigationand 44,276 litres insecticideconsumed during the peakseason as well as flood andrain. Larviciding was alsoconducted to the extent of2,337 Kg Fenthion Granulesconsumed in positive pits,she said and added that45,000 Long Lasting Insecti-cide Treated Nets were dis-tributed among pregnantwomen, children and morethan 0.2 million were distrib-uted during the flood/ rains.

Naheed informed that sixweeks training of 20 MalariaSupervisors in Junior Course ofmalariology is being conductedat National Institute of Health,Lahore. Besides, six weeks Mi-croscopy Training is also givento 15 Microscopist at Lahore,

she added. She said that 50 Ma-laria Supervisors have beentrained in new technology ofIRS and Fogging at Karachi. BTLarvicidal dunks study is per-formed in districts Sukkur andJamshoro to check the efficacyat the larval stage of AnophlesStephensi, she said.

She further informed thatData Quality Assurance wascarried out by GFATM inDistrict Dadu, Khairpur andTharparkar in the month ofNovember 2011 and wasgraded A+.A Control Roomhas also been establishedwhich is working round theclock at Directorate of Ma-laria Control ProgrammeHyderabad to collect data ofmalaria cases from all rain af-fected districts and dissemi-

nate it to higher authoritieson daily basis.

RDT Combo Kits wereprovided to all districts inhuge quantity for early di-agnosis and prompt treat-ment in rain affected areaswhere microscopy facilitywas not available, she saidand added that treatmentwas provided to all positivecases on the spot. Larvicid-ing was carried out at stag-nant water by Fenthion twopercent Granules, usingMobil Oil, she said and in-formed that indoor residualspray was also carried outby Malaria Supervisors inSchools/ Relief Camps andin 100 houses around theDengue affected patient’shouse.—APP

Malaria knocking at alarming stage, warns expert

Land disputeclaims two lives

SHAFFAAT MALIK

TALAGANG—Two personswere killed in a clash over landdispute in Murali, a village nearTalagang on Wednesday.Misri Khan, 55, and ShafiqueAhmed, 22, died on the spotdue to firing. Police party fromTalagang rushed to the dis-turbed area and lodged adouble murder case against thesuspects but no arrests hadbeen made so far.

*****Candidate forum on the

theme of “Awam Hum Awaz,Pur Aman Intikhabat” washeld at TMA Hall Talagang.This forum was organized byFAFEN (Free and FairElectionNetwork) and PAIMAN TeamTalagang. All thirteen candi-dates of NA-61 were invitedto give their manifesto to thepeople for upcoming election.Sardar Mansoor HayatTamman from PTI who havewon this constituency forthree times, Commander (r)Malik Ayub from AwamiWorker Party, the only ladyindependent candidate of NA-61 Maqsooda Begum and QaziAmir independent candidatewere present at that moment.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SAHIWAL—CommissionerSahiwal DivisionMuhammad Abdullah KhanSumbal has said that Punjabgovernment is aware of thesevere energy crisis and haschalked out comprehensiveplan to minimize its impact oncommon man. Chairing divi-sional load managementcommittee meeting at his of-fice, he urged people to con-serve energy and use it judi-cially so that load sheddingcould be minimized.

All government offices willswitch off half of its lights be-sides complete ban on use ofair conditioners before 11 AM.Moreover all marriage halls willbe closed by 10 PM and ho-tels, restaurants and other eat-eries by 11 PM. The meetingwas also attended by RPOSahabzada MuhammadShahzad Sultan, DCOs, DPOsand representatives of cham-ber and trade bodies. He di-rected that all proposed mea-sures should be implementedwith letter and spirit and strictaction should be taken against

District admin to remain impartial during electionsBASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—The Commis-sioner Gujranwala DivisionTariq Najeeb Najmi onWednesday visitedHafizabad to review the poll-ing arrangements beingmade in the district. He alsovisited Control Room set upby the local administration.The DCO Hafizabad briefedhim about the details forholding free, fair and trans-

parent elections. He directedthe district administration toremain impartial and the care-taker government would notcompromise on this issue.

*****The Kaleke Police have

arrested Shafqat Ali, his wifeBashiran Bibi and FayyazAhmad on the charge of al-legedly setting ablaze KousarPerveen of Channi Jamke vil-lage. On Tuesday the policehad registered a case against

unidentified accused for caus-ing serious burns to KousarPerveen. The Chief Ministerof the Punjab Najam Siethi hadtaken strong exception to theincident and had ordered thepolice to resolve the mysterysurrounding the cause ofburning the woman when herhusband Muhammad Qasimwas away from the house.

According to Kaleke po-lice, it has resolved the mys-tery and has arrested Qasim’s

brother Shafqat Ali, his wifeBashiran Bibi and FayyazAhmad who had sprinkledpetrol on her and set her ablazefollowing quarrel of victimKousar Perveen with BashiranBibi. Kousar Perveen is strug-gling for life with over fiftypercent burns on her body ina Lahore hospital.

*****On persistent complaints

that agents sitting around thePassport Office Hafizabadwere fleecing the applicants,the city police raided the pre-mises and arrested HajiNasrullah and five others butlater set them on liberty aftergiving them warning.

*****PASSCO would start sup-

ply of empty sacks throughballoting to the growers at sixToken Centres in TehsilHafizabad and three in PindiBhattian from Thursday, un-der the supervision of DistrictAdministration. The DCOMuhammad Zafar Iqbal vis-ited Token Centre JalalpurBhattian to review the ar-rangements regarding thesupply of sacks to the grow-ers and issued direction to theconcerned officers to ensuretransparent balloting andwarned that no nepotism andcorruption would be tolerated.The PASSCO would startprocurement of 16,31,000 bagsof wheat from 19 procurementcentres from May 1.

Plan to cut power outages underway

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MULTAN—Punjab ChiefMinister Najam Sethi hastaken notice of acid throwingincident in Naurangabad, onthe outskirts of Multan onWednesday. He has soughtreport of this brutal incidentfrom RPO, Multan. AccusedAltaf Baloch has been ar-rested by the police.

Dozens of people, mostly

CM calls reportof acid throwing

women, are disfigured everyyear by one of the most bru-tal forms of domestic violencein a country where women areoften treated as second-classcitizens. Most of the incidentsof acid throwing are takingplace in southern Punjab.More than 150 acid attackcases have been reported inthe past twelve months de-spite passage of a new law byParliament.

violators.RPO Sahabzada

Muhammad Shahzad Sultancriticised the lame duck attitudeof Wapda authorities andurged that complaints shouldbe addressed promptly. Cham-ber President Ch. MuhammadHussain Zahid said thatWapda should announce loadshedding schedule to facilitateindustrialists and traders. TheCommissioner stressed com-plete coordination betweentraders and Wapda authoritiesto avert any unpleasant situa-tion due to power outages.

Tribal leaderjoins PTI

PESHAWAR—A former candi-date and influential tribal leaderfrom NA-46 Khyber Agency,Haji Mian Gul along with sup-porters announced joiningPakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI)after reposing confidence in itschairman Imran Khan.

He announced this deci-sion in the presence of presi-dent PTI, Khyber Agency,Mohammad Iqbal Afridi dur-ing a press conference here atPeshawar Press Club (PPC) onWednesday.—APP

Quality education assuranceStaff Reporter

PE S H AWA R—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Caretaker Minister forEducation and Information, MossaratQadeem has said that governmentwould extend its all out support toeducational institutions who are en-gaged in promotion of quality educa-tion Talking to a delegation of PrivateSchools Management Association(PSMA) here Wednesday, she saidthat private sector educational insti-

tutions were playing significant role in spreading ofquality education. Secretary Elementary Education,Humayun Khan and Director Rafique Khattak were alsopresent on the occasion. Members of the delegationapprised the minister about the problems of the privatesector educational institutions in detail and demandedspecial grant-in-aid for the financial support. Mossaratsaid that keeping in view the importance of education inexisting setup maximum investment is needed to impartquality education to our youth. She urged the membersof the delegation to understand the hardships of theparents as they were the main stakeholders. The minis-ter said that focus of the government is to equip ourstudents with modern and contemporary education withan objective to prepare them for meeting the challengesof current world adding that the education loving peopleshould assist the endeavors of government.

Four former KP CMs in polls raceStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—With only 17 days leftbefore general elections, four formerchief ministers of Khyber Pakthunkhwahave accelerated their elections cam-paigns to secure a berth in the provin-cial legislature with main focus to reoc-cupy their past positions as chief ex-ecutives of the province. Former ChiefMinisters including PML-N Centralleader Sardar Mehtab Khan, JUI-F cen-tral leader Akram Khan Durrani, Central

leader of Awami National Party, Amir Haider Khan Hotiand Provincial President of PML-N Pir Sabir Shah are inthe run for general election 2013 from their respective homedistricts for provincial as well as national assembly seats.Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao who ruled the province twiceas Chief Executive 1988 and 1993 is contesting for NAconstituency from his home district Charsadda leaving theprovincial seat to his son Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao.Luckily, the nomination papers of all politicians have beenaccepted. The political observers believe that position ofall former Chief Ministers to win election are bright keep-ing in view their past track record of development workand strong roots among the masses. Sardar Mahtab AhmedKhan, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, and Pir Sabir Shahhave never lost elections against the provincial seats.Whereas Ameer Haider Khan Hoti started his political ca-reer from 2008 elections and made a debut in the provincialassembly and rose to the prestigious office of Chief Ex-ecutive owing to ANP’s majority in the house of 124. AkramKhan Durrani ruled the province for five years 2002-2007in MMA government.

NIM team visits Faisalabad FAISALABAD—A 20-member team of theofficers of 15th Mid-Career ManagementCourse of National Institute of Manage-ment (NIM) Karachi visited here onWednesday and attended a briefing ses-sion in Commissioner’s Office. DivisionalCommissioner Mushtaq Ahmad Anjumwelcomed the officers and apprised themof the geographical aspects of Faisalabaddivision. He informed the administrativeset up and socio-economic profile of the

area. He said that Faisalabad as a textile hub of Pakistan iscontributing major share to export of textile production. High-lighting the literacy rate in the four districts of the division,the Commissioner said that education sector had been fo-cused for strengthening the infrastructure to promote edu-cation and chain of public schools had been established toimpart the students with quality education. The Commis-sioner informed that young entrepreneurs in industrial sec-tor had established Faisalabad Development Trust (FDT)on the motivation of then Commissioner Tahir Hussain andcontributing a lot to welfare projects. He said that hugefunds had been donated by the FDT for the beautificationand face lifting of general bus stand besides developing thegreen belt of Jhang Road upto Faisalabad Airport. The stu-dents of Agriculture University Faisalabad.—APP

Exams re-scheduledHYDERABAD—On the directives ofVice Chancellor University of Sindh(SU) Jamshoro Prof. Dr. Nazir A.Mughal, the semester examinations ofthe University have been re-sched-uled and will now commence from May16 at Allama I.I. Kazi Campus,Jamshoro and the classes will con-tinue until then as usual. The ViceChancellor made this decision whilechairing a meeting which was attended

among others by Registrar Muhammad Nawaz Narejo,Pro-Vice Chancellors Dr. Anwar Ali Shah G. Syed, DrImdad Ali Ismaili , Campus Coordinator Badin Dr.Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro, Dr. Sarfaraz HussainSolangi, Dr. Basir Arain, Dr. Noor Afroz Khwaja, Dr.Abida Taherani, Prof. Khalid Noor, Controller SemesterExaminations Muhammad Ali Roshan Pathan, Control-ler Annual Examinations Dr. Naeem Tariq Narejo, DrAbdullah Dayo, Dr. Noor Muhammad Jamali, Dr. AsadShaikh and Dr. Aslam Parvez Memon. The meeting unani-mously decided that the date of semester examinationsof Allama I.I Kazi campus which is fixed as May 16 willnot apply to the other campuses of the University in-cluding Dadu, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Thatta, Bhitshah andothers. These campuses have been given free hand totake the examinations on their own schedules.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The candidatesof mainstream political par-ties have accelerated theirelection campaign for NA-35Malakand District by holdingpublic and corner meetingsin different areas of the con-stituency to inform massesabout their programs andparty manifesto. The electioncampaign is gaining momen-tum in the constituency com-prising Dargai and Batkhelatehsils as the polling daydraws nearer. The constitu-ency home to two provincialseats PK-98 and PK-99.

The candidates havestarted corner meetings withlocal and influential peopleand party workers to mustermaximum support in their fa-vor. Big banners and portraitsof party leaders had been in-stalled at all the importantroutes to attract voters’ atten-

tion while flags of differentparties are hoisting atophouses of the party workers.Tough contest is expected be-tween former Federal Ministerand veteran PPP leader LalMuhammad Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami leader former MNABakhtair Maani, Haji Fida ofPML-N, Muhammad Ibrar ofQWP and Junaid Akbar of PTIwhile ANP had awarded partyticket to noted Pushto poet,Rehmat Shah Sayl.

Political observers opinedthat every candidate at themoment stand almost fifty-fifty chances to win the con-stituency, however, effectiveelections campaigning byleadership of the political par-ties and party’s election mani-festo will make significant im-pact on overall results on May11. The PPPP, PMLN andMMA had won the constitu-ency in the past. However, thePPPP has larger vote bank in

the constituency as the pre-vious elections results bearstestimony to this fact.Malakand District called ‘MiniLarkana’ was swept by thePPPP in 2008 elections by win-ning the lone NA and two pro-vincial constituencies.

The slain PPP ChairpersonBenazir Bhutto Shaheed likeher father had given much im-portance to this constituencyas she addressed the electionrally in the constituency in1988 and 1993. This time, PPPPhas again awarded party ticketto old stalwart Lal MuhammadKhan who has great influencein his constituency. Lal Khanremained loyal to the PPPPsince his joining the politics inearly seventies. In 2002 elec-tions, Maulana InayaturRehman of MMA had won theseat by bagging 37,663 voteswhile Lal Muhammad Khan ofthe PPPP stood runner up with17538 votes.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Wednesday fore-cast scattered rain and thun-dershower with gusty windsfor Upper KhyberPakhtunkhwa, isolated placesof Upper and Central Punjab,Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir.The met office also indicatedchances of rain and thunder-shower for Quetta, Zhob andisolated places of Southernparts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwaduring the next 24 hours.

According to the synop-tic situation, an upper airwesterly trough is prevailingover Iran and adjoining areasof Pakistan and Afghanistanand likely to persist duringthe next 24 hours. A low pres-sure lies over North-WestBalochistan and its adjoiningareas and is likely to persistfor the next hours.

The maximum tempera-tures recorded during the last24 hours were Islamabad 30 C,

Lahore 36 C, Karachi 35,Peshawar 28, Quetta 19 C,Skardu 24, Murree 19 C,Muzzafarabad 28, GilgitBaltistan 28 C, Faisalabad 35C, Multan 34 C and Hyderabad36 C. The highest maximumtemperatures recorded during

the last 24 hours was Chor,Dadu 39 C, Badin and ShaheedBenazirabad 38 C.

The rainfall recorded dur-ing the last 24 hours wasTurbat 21 mm, Kalam 20 mm,Khuzdar 19, Parachinar 17 mm,Mirkhani 10 mm, Quetta,Chitral 9 mm, Malamjabba 7mm, Darosh, Pattan 6 mm, Dir,Pasni 5 mm, Saidu Shareef,Dadu and Bannu 4 mm.—APP

Election candidateescapes blastsSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWA R—Two blastsrocked the northwest prov-ince of KhyberPakhtunkhwa, while an elec-tion candidate remained safein the incident. Two explo-sives planted alongside theroad, located in Kalachi area,went off.

The bombs apparentlytargeted candidate Israr Khanand his guard. In yet anotherincident in the Sirki Gate areaof the province, a suspiciousblast near a house injured fourpeople. The incident causeddamage to several houses.

SYED ADNAN NOOR

JHANG—District Police Of-ficer Zeeshan Asghar hasassured foolproof securityduring the polling on May 11.During a special briefing onthe election duty, he said thatno male would be allowed inthe women polling stationswhile police officials couldonly enter in case of an emer-gency. He ordered the secu-rity officials to strictly imple-ment the ECP Code of Con-duct. He directed the SDPOs,SHOs and subordinate staff-ers to prepare lists of crimi-nals before the polling day.

He also ordered the offi-cials to repair the vehiclesand weapons. He directedthe officials to stock teargas

shells and other equipmentrequired to deal with a mob.Zeeshan Asghar said thatpolice officials would be de-ployed at entry and exitpoints of the district, whileall the voters would befrisked outside the pollingstations. The DPO orderedthe Special Branch to extendcooperation to sensitiveagencies.

He warned that stern ac-tion would be taken againstthe cops using mobile phoneon the premises of pollingstations. He said no politicianwould be allowed to keep pri-vate security without permis-sion and those who want tohave private guards shouldget them registered with thepolice station concerned.

Scattered rainlikely across country

Foolproof polling daysecurity plan finalised

Political heavyweights flexmuscles for NA-35 Malakand

HYDERABAD: Road seen deserted in the city during observance of mourning which was announced by MQM afterkilling of two party workers in a blast on election camp.

KOHAT: A worker sorting ballot boxes at the office of Election Commission of Pakistan,ahead of the May 11election day.

FAISALABAD: Firework display by a political party during its election campaign.

M HALEEM ASAD

TIMERGARA—Dr Murad Ali,Assistant Professor, Univer-sity of Malakand has won ahighly competitive researchgrant under the PakistanStrategy SupportProgramme, said a press re-lease.

The programme, fundedby the USAID and imple-mented by the InternationalFood Policy Research Insti-tute with the support of thePlanning Commission, Govt.of Pakistan, aims at fosteringinnovation within the aca-demic and policy-orientedresearch communities of Pa-kistan.

Focusing on four broadthemes comprising qualitygovernance, vibrant mar-kets, creative cities andyouth and community, thecall for these competitivegrants was announced in

July 2012 and over 200 ap-plications were receivedfrom Pakistani as well as in-ternational scholars fromUK and US universities, therelease said. In an award giv-ing ceremony held atIslamabad, Dr Murad Ali wasgiven certificate of award byDr. Nadeem Ul Haque,deputy chairman planningcommission and Jock Conly,USAID Pakistan MissionDirector.

Focusing on districtSwat, the research project ofDr Murad will examine theeffectiveness of foreign-funded development initia-tives following the 2009 mili-tants’ insurgency and the2010 floods. The researchaims at exploring what roleforeign assistance played inthe rehabilitation of the af-fected population and howaid can be made more effec-tive in poverty alleviation.

Dr Murad wins research grant

GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—A farewell partywas held in honour of out-going district education of-ficer Chitral Haji SirajMuhammad Khan. A simplebut prompt function washeld at Government Centen-nial Model High school HallChitral. Addressing on theoccasion the speakers paidrich tribute to SirajMuhammad Khan for bring-ing revolutionary changes ineducation system of Chitral.They said that he has beentransferred out from Chitralbut people of the valley willremember him for ever. Theysaid that earlier so manyteachers used to get salary

at their homes without per-forming their duty but SirajMuhammad Khan not onlymade them punctual but re-covered a huge amount assalary from those defaulters’teachers.

The speakers said thatSiraj Muhammad Khan is ahonest, hardworking anddedicated education officerwho bound all teachers toperform their duty with hon-esty. He introduced cash prizeincentive for best teachers asa result a large number ofteachers were motivated toteach their students with greatenthusiasm. Traditional giftsof Chitrali cloak and cap werealso presented to outgoingeducation officer. The speak-

ers said that Siraj MuhammadKhan introduced monthly testat each school so as to evalu-ate teachers performance andstudents interest in theirstudy as well as he regular-ized financial and budgetarysystem in education depart-ment.

He adjusted 997 primaryschool teachers in differentprimary schools without fol-lowing any pressure of politi-cians. They said that twogovernment educationalschools (religious Madrasa)at Chitral and Drosh havebeen working since 1952 butno education officer had vis-ited these the Madaras. HenceSiraj Muhammad Khan is theonly officer who noted his re-

marks in log book during vis-iting these religious schools.Siraj Muhammad khanthanked people of Chitral forpaying him due respect andhailing his services.

He stressed upon theeducation officer and teach-ers to continue his missionof quality education at Chitraland must declare Chitral as amodel district in education.The programme was orga-nized by all teachers coordi-nation council. Those whospoke on the occasion in-cluded Ziauddin, acting prin-cipal of GCMHS, MuhammadAshraf, president All primaryTeachers Association, MulviMuhammad Yousuf,Noorullah, Hafizuddin,Iftikharuddin, SultanMahmood, Prof UbaidurRehman and other teachers.A large number of teachers,social workers participated infarewell party.

DEO Siraj lauded for promoting education

3 injured inlandmine blastOUR CORRESPONDENT

TIMERGARA—Three peopleincluding a child were injuredwhen a landmine exploded out-side a house at Sadbar Kalay inthe jurisdiction of Samar Baghpolice station on Wednesday,police and residents told thisreporter. They said thelandmine was planted outsidethe house of an Afghan refu-gee, Mir Ajbar. The device wentoff with a big bang spreadingpanic in the area, sources said.

Three people identifiedas Gul Khan, Wakil Khan anda child Matiullah were injuredwhile a wall of the housedamaged. One of the injured,Wakil Khan lost his leg in theincident who was admitted tothe district headquartershospital, Timergara. Accord-ing to locals the Afghan refu-gee Mir Ajbar had a disputewith his countrymen.

ATIQ UL AMIN KHAN

MIRPUR—Experts from vari-ous nation-building institu-tions besides environmental-ists at a workshop here havestrongly emphasized theadoption and observance ofthe prime principle of Strate-gic Environmental Assess-ment before launching of thedevelopment projects of Hy-dropower generation in AzadJammu and Kashmir. “Requi-site legislation for making theexercise of Strategic Environ-mental Assessment (SEA)before launching the studyfor construction of the Hy-dro Power projects in letter

SEA implementation before hydropower projects stressedand spirit is primarily the needfor implementation of the SEAin letter and spirit”, the expertssuggested at the day longworkshop hosted by theEnviromental ProtectionAgency of Azad Jammu andKashmir with the coordina-tion of Islamabad-based Em-bassy of Netherland.

Highlighting the salientfeatures of the workshop –seasoned facilitator and theEnvironmental Expert fromNeitherland Dr. DavidAnnandale said that it wasaimed at to raise awarenessamong the participants ofthe importance of the val-ues of applying of SEA to

the hydropower planningin AJK, deciding on thestructure of the AJK Hydro-power SEA work and com-menting on a terms of refer-ence for a SEA study. “Theevent is also aimed at toprovide an opportunity forthe participants to discussand share ideas for ensur-ing complete protection tothe natural environmentduring the course of the ex-ecution of developmentprojects like those in hydro-power sector in AJK”, hepointed out.

Earlier in their addressesof welcome, Director Envi-ronmental Projection

Agency, AJK Dr. MuhammadAurangzeb and Mirpur Divi-sional Director Sardar IdreesMehmood revealed that theNational Impact AssessmentProgram (NIAP) was beingimplemented in various partsof Pakistan and AJK jointlyby the Planning Commissionand Ministry of ClimateChange of the government ofPakistan, all the provincialgovernments as well as AJKand Gilgit / Baltistan govern-ments, International Unionfor the Conservation of Na-ture and the EnvironmentalProtection Agencies, to con-tribute to sustainable devel-opment in Pakistan through

strengthening of Environ-mental Impact Assessmentprocess and introducingStrategic Environmental As-sessment.

They pointed out that theEnvironmental Impact As-sessment has become a legalrequirement in Pakistan forover two decades. “However,the Strategic EnvironmentalAssessment (SEA) is some-what new to the country”,they disclosed and addedthat the SEA, with broaderscope, aims to integrate en-vironmental considerationinto decision-making atpolicy, plan and program lev-els”.

Perception of Musharrafbeing victimised

WHEN former President Pervez Musharraf returned to Pakistanon his own initiative and rather against the advice of many ofhis well-wishers, his conscience was clear that he had done

nothing wrong for Pakistan and was prepared to face all the odds. Thatshowed his confidence and conviction in State institutions and expecta-tions from the people of Pakistan on the basis of his ten-year rule.

However there were many cases of all sorts pending against him andsome more could be opened. But on his return, the way the proceedingsstarted gives an impression to the neutral people that he is being victim-ized. Commentators and analysts are interpreting the body language andremarks of some of the judges in their own way and these have become asubject of criticism. The way the former Army Chief and President isbeing dragged from one to another court has also started evoking sympa-thy for him. Above all his lawyer Ahmad Raza Kasuri with tears in hiseyes appealed for allowing him to go to Dubai to see his 95-year oldmother who was seriously ill. Despite election hype in the country when-ever General Musharraf appears in the courts, he gets maximum cover-age in the print and electronic media. He is not just getting attention ofPakistani media but all the proceedings against him are being closely andkeenly noted by the diplomatic corps in Islamabad and commented in theinternational media. What is worrisome is the trend that some among theblackcoats, who apparently do not have any cases at their hands, gatheroutside the court premises and chant indecent language to gain cheappublicity. The clash between a group of lawyers and supporters of theformer President in Rawalpindi reflects that sympathy wave for GeneralMusharraf was on the rise. One thing is certain that Musharraf case isbound to have serious repercussions. Therefore in our view the casesagainst him should be handled on merit and extra care, as after all he isformer Army Chief and President of this country.

Caretaker PM too focuseson his constituency

IT is not unusual for any Minister or chief executive of the country topay attention to the problems of his area but it is the lopsided focus that

causes heart burning and creates feelings of utter discrimination andfavourtism. And we are sorry to point out that even Prime Minister MirHazar Khan Khoso, who is in PM House just for a limited period and aspecific purpose, has been swayed away by the same tendency.

Direction of the Caretaker Prime Minister to the Establishment Di-vision on Tuesday to widely publicize on priority basis recruitmentagainst vacancies available in the Federal Government on Balochistanquota is understandable and would be appreciated by all concerned asthere are expectations that the process of recruitment under the interimset up would be comparatively more transparent and merit-based thanit would have been during a political Government. This is despite thefact that total neutrality and fairness of the present set up is also ques-tionable and one example to doubt its impartiality is recent undue pro-motion of the son of the Prime Minister. But hopefully, somewhat meritwould be maintained and the process may help address the so-calledsense of deprivation in Balochistan and might also be helpful in tack-ling the menace of violence through provision of job to the youth. Butthis is not the only instance as Khoso has been holding meetings moreon Balochistan than the original mandate of the caretaker Governmenti.e. holding of the elections in a transparent and peaceful atmosphere.It is because of his diversion of attention that the caretaker Govern-ment has so far been unable to create peaceful conditions for electionsand hardly a day passes when there is no tragic incident in this or thatpart of the country. This approach of Khoso is no different from YusufRaza Gilanni for whom Pakistan meant Multan where he spent over Rs45 billions and Raja Pervez Ashraf who diverted huge funds to his ownconstituency in Gujar Khan. This culture of showering money in nativeareas at the cost of other neglected sectors and regions is highly lamen-table and it is particularly regrettable that such an approach should befollowed by a Prime Minister who is a retired judge.

Energy conservationis a way out

ACCORDING to a report appearing in this newspaper, WAPDA hasproposed phenomenal 165% increase in its tariff while central power

purchase agency has demanded a hike of Rs. 2.20 per unit under the fueladjustment mechanism. The proposal comes in the backdrop of risinggap between demand and supply of electricity and even the existing powerplants have been forced to run on less than fifty percent capacity due tonon-supply of fuel and liquidity crunch.

The load-shedding has increased to over 18 hours in urban areas whilethere is almost total blackout in rural areas and as a consequence busi-nesses are shutting down and industry is crippled. The loss of productionnecessarily means loss of exports and this would cause more foreignexchange problems for the country. As end of energy crisis is not in sightin short or medium terms, one must pay heed to the call of ShahzadaAhsan Ashraf Sheikh, Federal Minister for Industries and Production whohas urged industrial units to use energy efficient methods of production.This would, indeed, be saner course as energy efficient methods of pro-duction would help reduce the cost of production and conserve the en-ergy. Latest machines, plants and equipment are mostly energy efficientand it would be as worthwhile to replace the existing machinery based onobsolete technology as to make investment in exploration of new re-sources of energy. Energy conservation requires a coordinated effort bythe Government, the private sector and of course, general public. Likereplacement of ordinary bulb with energy savers, we can save much byopting for energy efficiency electrical and electronic equipment, solarsolutions for homes, streetlights, parts and lighting.

Rising election fever

A bit of fragrancealways clings tothe hand that givesyou roses.

Egypt’sjudicial

row

The Muslim Brotherhood’ssimmering feud with the judiciary is exploding. The res-

ignation of Egypt’s Justice Minis-ter Ahmed Mekky under duressspeaks of the uneasiness that is pre-vailing in the corridors of power inCairo. The judicial fraternity andthe elected dispensation have beenat odds for long, with the formerblamed for being pro-yester-re-gime. Thus the demands of cleans-ing the judiciary of people linkedwith ousted president HosniMubarak and the powerful militaryhave now unfortunately taken anugly turn with scuffles and protestsbecoming the order of the day.

Several people were killed inthe last many weeks and pro-gov-ernment supporters and the oppo-sition fought itched battles in thecapital city. The Brotherhood ac-tivists say that justice has not beendone and accuse the governmentfor failing to hold officials account-able for alleged crimes carried outduring the Mubarak years. Simi-larly, they blame the judiciary forplotting against the parliamentar-ians as the courts had suspended thefirst elected parliament, and calledoff another vote to elect a subse-quent assembly.

The fact that PresidentMohammed Mursi’s supporters arevehemently taking to the streets andbent upon coercing the judiciarytantamount to serious political cri-sis. Furthermore, the governmenttoo wants to seize the opportunityand has thus come up with anothercontroversial bill, which envisagesthe lowering of the retirement ageof the judges — a measure thatwould mean the forced retirementof some 3,000 judges. Such an actwould empower the executive in adraconian manner, and create moreproblems among the organs of thestate. The army and the courts takean exception to the stated policiesof the government, and had fell outwith the Mursi administration overthe broadening of its executive arm.What will be their reaction to theproposed legislation meant to cur-tail tenure of the judges is not dif-ficult to guess.

The evolving situation is tooprecarious to be left to the wind.Something serious and out of boxis what Egypt’s divisive politicalscenario needs at this point of time.President Mursi has to go back tohis policy of reconciliation and takealong the judiciary and the army —and try to broker a thaw. Egypt hasseen too much of violence and van-dalism, and this trend has to cometo a stop. The government wouldbe better advised to allow the judi-ciary the due space to operate, anddesist from influencing the courtsunder any pretext. The proposedrules of business are contrary to thespirit of judicial independence. — Khaleej Times

*****

Reading isimportant

today

The 23rd Abu Dhabi International Book Fair opened theother day at the Abu Dhabi

National Exhibition Centre. Theannual fair, held under the patron-age of General Shaikh MohammadBin Zayed Al Nahyan, CrownPrince of Abu Dhabi and DeputySupreme Commander of the UAEArmed Forces, aims to develop thebook and publishing industry andpromote reading in the Arab World.

Encouraging reading is espe-cially important today, consider-ing that coming generations willincreasingly be exposed to aninternet-based culture, where vid-eos, pictures and 140-word textmessages will be the dominantform of communication. Whilemodern information technologyis a wonderful thing, it cannotcompare to the experience ofreading a book. Encouraging ev-eryone to read books is a greatway to connect current genera-tions to the history and traditionsof not only their own culture, butalso to that of the world aroundthem. It is also one of the bestways to develop a politically, eco-nomically and socially aware andeducated society. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

Chinese proverb

May 11, 2013 has been announced as polling day.Scrutiny of nominations

papers has been completed and sub-mission of appeals to election tribu-nals and their decisions ended on16th. Final list has been issued on19th election campaign will reachfeverish pitch. Notwithstanding theeagerness of the candidates and vot-ers, security environment are notconducive for holding smooth, fairand free elections.

Besides security concerns andfears that elections will be bloody,there is growing skepticism over theimpartiality of caretakers and Elec-tion Commission (EC). Questionsasked by the Returning Officers toascertain whether the candidates ful-fill the requirements of Articles 62and 63 have generated a heated de-bate. The main objection is that fo-cus should have been on financialimpropriety rather than on testingcandidate’s knowledge of Islam.Seculars are in ugly mood and aredemanding scrapping of Gen Ziainvented Articles in the constitution,not realizing that these were dulyapproved by the outgoing parliamentwhile introducing 18th Amendment.

Every political party, whetherstatus quo loving or change seeking,is claiming that it will bring about arevolutionary change if voted topower. None has the magic wand orcredible roadmap to overcome com-plex problems and yet it claims thatit would be able to clear the hugemess left behind by the last govern-ment in quick time and make Paki-stan an Asian tiger or a welfare state.Among the contesting political par-ties, three liberal parties PPP, MQMand ANP are feeling more insecurebecause of threats hurled by Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP). Exces-

Army and elections security

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Prevent army encroachment inpolitics is a lesson that the nation has learnt after paying a

huge price in its short history. Asthe military rulers changed so didour national interests and withthem our security strategies whichwere twisted and turned to servethese military defined national in-terests. Having come so close tothe elections one wonders can thefollies and mistakes of past com-mitted by our uniform wearingPresidents leading a compliantmilitary be eradicated without pay-ing a cost?

General Kayani ‘urges allpolitical parties in Balochistan toparticipate in the upcomingelections’. He even welcomes “allinclusive elections” in theprovince and in doing so onceagain emphasizes the militaryformula and understanding ofhow to combat the risinginsecurity challenges in thecountry. Not through the use offorce and deployment of the armybut through an all inclusivedemocratic system that providesgood governance.

Critics all over the world haveaccused Pakistan Military for lackof intent and action to confront thegrowing extremism in the country.‘Talibanization of Karachi’ beingtermed as the latest consequenceof its persistent procrastination.Army’s strategy to fight militancy

sive force was employedagainst the militants after PPP-MQM-ANP coalition hadtaken over power in March2008. Large-scale Army op-erations were launched inSwat, Buner, Dir, Shangla,

Dara Adam Khel and all tribal agen-cies to control menace of terrorism.It led to displacement of millions ofpeople from war ravaged regions. Thelast government was also suspectedof permitting CIA to employ dronesin FATA freely. Acceleration of dronewar gave rise to militancy and height-ened antagonism against USA and thegovernment. The TTP which doesn’tbelieve in Pakistan’s constitution, de-mocracy and elections and advocatesits brand of Sharia, is now trying tosettle scores with liberal parties,which it considers as anti-Islamistsand hand-in-glove with USA. It hasactualized its plan to disrupt electioncampaign by targeting contestants ofthe three secular parties. Terrorist actshave been stepped up particularly inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), an af-filiate of al-Qaeda and TTP, with itsmain base in Jhang is targeting Shiasoutside Punjab, which has given ahandle to other political parties to la-ment that PML-N has a secret alli-ance with LeJ and Ahle-Sunnat WalJamaat. Although of late PML-N hasdistanced itself from banned religiousgroups, it cannot be denied that po-lice and crime investigative systemin Punjab being more stringent andeffective than other provinces con-stricted the space for terrorists.

Altaf Hussain has been raisingalarm bells about arrival of Talibanin Karachi. After the target killing oftwo candidates of MQM inHyderabad and Karachi and its ac-tivists, the MQM has decided to cur-tail holding of public meetings andto instead carryout door-to-door can-vassing. ANP is however the chieftarget of TTP, which had authorizedrepeated Army operations in KPKand PATA and had all along remainedin combative mood to crush mili-

tancy. Maximum numbers of ANP ac-tivists and leaders including BashirAhmad Bilour have been gunneddown by TTP. Even after ANP lead-ership decided to tone down its ag-gressiveness and to hold peace talkswith TTP, the latter has not relented.Since March 31, 2013, five ANP con-testants have been targeted. Latestsuicide attack on ANP public meet-ing in Peshawar took place on April16 in which eight activists got killedand 50 including Ghulam AhmadBilour received injuries. HamstrungANP deprived of security cover wasleft with no choice but to prefer door-to-door canvassing over public meet-ings . ANP leadership has blamedcaretakers and EC for failing to pro-vide security. Governed by similarfear psychos, the PPP is also con-strained to keep its trump cardBilawal Bhutto restrained.

Gen Musharraf who has recentlybarged into the political arena is alsoa prime target of TTP as well as theBaloch militants. Demand for his trialand prosecution under Article 6 forsubverting constitution is growinglouder. He is also blamed for LalMasjid carnage, getting Nawab AkbarBugti murdered and having a hand inmurder of Benazir Bhutto. His spir-its have soured after rejection of hisnomination papers and cancelation ofhis bail and declaring his ChakShehzad farmhouse as subjail.Akhtar Mengal has returned and hasannounced that his BNP will contestelections provided security situationin Balochistan is favorable. PML-Nhas offered seat adjustments to BNP.So far Mengal is unhappy with theexisting situation and holds the mili-tary responsible for it. In case he takespart in elections, he along with HasilBizenjo can help in emasculating thepower of separatists or inducing themto come down from the mountains.

Leaders of all separatist groupsother than BLF are absconders.Funded by foreign powers, they areleading a luxurious life abroad. Theircontinued absence is causing heart-burns to Baloch fighters stuck in the

mountains. It has also led to inten-sification of inter-tribal Baloch ri-valry and cropping up of severalarmed groups in westernBalochistan where hold of Sardarsis minimal. These groups are con-fronting anti-state groups supportedby foreign agencies. It is being al-leged that our security forces andagencies are backing up armedgroups and are also involved inmissing person’s racket. SupremeCourt is relentlessly pursuing miss-ing person’s cases and is pushing theFC to recover them. Akhtar Mengalis among the complainants and talksof death squads and mutilated bod-ies left along the roadside. In casehe finds the atmosphere uncongenialand pulls out of elections due to se-curity concerns, it will be sad. BLFled by Dr Allah Nazar which is mostdangerous and more active in west-ern Balochistan including Khuzdar,has got miffed over Akhtar Mengal’sdecision to participate in elections.Nazar sees it as a setback to Balochseparatist agenda and has vowed totarget BNP members. BLA, BRAand RAW agents are trying to dis-rupt elections in Balochistan.

Among the contesting partiesthat are feeling less threatened frommilitant groups are PML-N, PTI, JIand JUI-F, all favoring dialogue withTTP and opposing use of force anddrones. Till October 30, 2012 mam-moth rally held by PTI at Lahore,PML-N was taking Imran Khan forgranted, but now it sees him as aformidable opponent in Punjabwhere the main battle will be fought.Although Imran has successfullygalvanized the urban youth and willcapture seats from all provinces,PML-N with its allies is in a goodposition to form coalition govern-ments in the Centre, Punjab andBalochistan, and also gain sizablenumber of seats in KPK and Sindh.While PPP and PML-Q will becomeirrelevant, there will be reduction invote bank of MQM.—The writer is a freelance colum-nist and defence analyst.

and extremism in the society isbounded by ‘military exclusion’ asits important feature. Endorsedrecently by the caretaker cabinet’sdecision that army troops would notbe deployed at polling stations andonly kept as standby at all districtheadquarters as a ‘quick responseforce’. A change from an earlierposition taken by the electioncommission that army will bedeployed on all sensitive pollingstations. Whatever be the finaldecision it is hoped that the armywill come forward and ensure itcontributes to the smooth conductof elections putting up ablesecurity arrangements against allsecurity threats.

What worries and concerns thearmy is the institutional provocationthat might result if the soldiers de-ployed on polling duties are targetedby the militants. This certainly is asituation that the army and the Statewould both wish to avoid. But is thisnot a defeatist consideration?Knowing that militants have alreadydemonstrated their capability to tar-get the second best security forceslike the Rangers in Karachi. Wouldyou still wish to put up your secondbest defense against a threat that isreal and beyond the capability ofany other security service to con-trol? To put it simply It’s a clear caseof overstating the cost and under-stating the benefits.

Army cannot afford to abandonits security commitments to theState. Nothing is more importanttoday than planning and executingthe deployment of army on at leastthe most sensitive polling stations.

This will not only prevent the mili-tants and anti-state elements fromexecuting their evil designs but willalso encourage the people to comeout of their homes and vote.

‘Balancing the threat’ is part ofmilitary doctrines taught, practicedand war gammed extensively inarmy. Why should it than not bemind boggling to know that the armyis content with ‘soft balancing’ thisthreat that not only has the potential

of ruining the complete election pro-cess but also damaging the alreadytinted status of the army as the soleguarantor and protector of the secu-rity of the State.

By avoiding confronting grow-ing militancy in the society armyonly allows the militants to movefrom strength to strength. It is notthe job of the army to facilitate therise of militancy and extremism in

Asif Haroon RajaEmail: asifharoon7751@yahoo.com

the society. The ‘continued militantover stretch’ in our society can beheld back and blocked. For this thearmy must recognize that the lossof human lives is the most matteredcost that the nation pays for army’sdoctrine of military exclusion. Theproblem of militancy and extrem-ism in the society is a problem thatis the creation of the military rul-ers. It thus makes it a military prob-lem and one important componentof its solution is military solutionpossible only through military de-ployment and operations.

The Supreme Court orders ofelimination of all no go areas inKarachi within a week in the recentpast also speaks of how only goodhopes and wishes are guiding our in-stitutions to seek solutions to statesecurity concerns. The police andrangers do not have the capabilityto partially fix let alone entirelyeliminate the no go areas and thattoo in a week’s time. At times oneis inclined to think that the best thatall pillars of our State can do is seekpublic approval and sympathy onlythrough a barrage of public friendlystatements hooted out by the me-dia. But when it comes to actionthey all fall short of meeting theirresponsibilities. Ideally to bringabout change they should work to-gether through cooperation and col-lective action. Possible only if theirunderstanding of national interestsconverges and not diverges - this itseems is not the case.—The writer is a retd officer fromPak Army, doing PhD in civil-military relations from KarachiUniversity.

Muhammad Ali EhsanEmail:muhammadaliehsan1@hotmail.com

Army mustrecognize that theloss of human lives

is the mostmattered cost thatthe nation pays forarmy’s doctrine ofmilitary exclusion.

The problem ofmilitancy and

extremism in thesociety is a problemthat is the creation

of the militaryrulers.

Voice of the People

Air pollutionM OSAMA AFNAN HANAFI

Air pollution is actually the ad-dition of any harmful substancesto the atmosphere, which causesthe damaging of the environment,human health and the quality oflife. With the development in in-dustry, came along the increase inair pollution, which occurs insidehomes, schools, offices even inthe countryside. Consequentlythere has been an increase in thedeath rates resulting from variousdiseases caused by air pollutionvarying from breathing problemto lung cancer.

Air pollution does not onlyaffect people but it also damagesthe whole ecological system inwhich plants and animals areharmed as well. Air pollution hasreached such a critical stage whereit affects the earth’s atmosphere asit lets in more harmful radiationfrom the sun. Consequently, ourpolluted atmosphere is becominga better insulator, thus, preventingheat from escaping back intospace. That is why there is a glo-bal rise in temperature which sci-entists refer to as “global warm-ing”. As a result of this rise in tem-perature the world food supply andsea level will be affected, alsothere is the probability of increasein the tropical disease.

Domestic fires are principalsources of air pollution. While theyaccount for nearly 52 per cent ofthe pollution, industrial gases ac-count for between 20-25 per centand the internal combustion en-gines account for the balance 25-30 per cent. Some steps can be ini-tiated to reduce air pollution. Useof LPG and electricity will makepeople less dependent on domesticfires. Non-conventional energysources should be encouraged inrural areas. Factory chimneysshould be as high as possible to dis-tribute and dilute the pollution levelover a larger and wider area. Sepa-rators and air filters should be usedin factories. Separators separate outpanic late and gas fraction. Filterscan collect over fine particulates.Chimneys should be provided withsetting chambers, so that the smokeparticles settle down separatingfrom other gases. To prevent auto-mobile exhausts, regular checkingshould be done. Forestationprogramme should be implementedthroughout the country.—Karachi

Tell us truthHAFIZ SHOIB KHAN

Different political parties have pre-sented their manifestos vowing thatonly they can solve the problemsinflicting the country. Unfortu-nately for them, we are in no moodto be taken for another ride. Itwould have been better if one ofthe parties had spoken the truth andmade achievable goals that onecould believe.

The voters are mature enoughto face reality and want to hear thetruth. I would vote for a leader whocan look me in the eye and say thatthe country is facing a lot of seri-ous problems which will take a lotof time and effort to improve, andthat if elected I will try and startthe process of making things bet-ter and solving problems. Unfortu-nately, we don’t have such a leader.—Karachi

Stray dogsNUZRAT FATIMA

Through the courtesy of yourwidely circulated newspaper, Iwould like to draw the attention ofthe concerned authorities towardsnuisance done by street dogs. In ourarea there is more stray dogs. Theydisturb us when we are going byroads. People are much more dis-turb in midnight. They make a messof the rubbish bins every day. Theyfight among themselves and espe-cially when the mating season ar-rives the noise they make is unbear-able. I have to say they are a threatto the residents here. There havebeen many instances of dog bitesor dog chase reported and yethaven’t seen any effort by BBMPto curb the population of street

Dishonesty all overMIR MURTAZA HUSSAIN

We were told that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), being truly independent, wouldnot allow dishonest persons to contest the elections. But now we see that it has not disqualified

even certified crooks like those who submitted fake degrees and an ex-PM who sold some land that hedid not own. Besides these, it has allowed even bank loan defaulters like the ex-speaker and her spouse,as well as the former foreign minister (who paid income tax that was less than the price of her handbag).As for those who were named as recipients of ISI money in the Asghar Khan case, they are holy cowswho cannot be touched. One is tempted to ask what the use of articles 62 and 63 is if criminals are notrestrained from standing in the elections? Knowing the mindset of the majority of our voters (whomostly vote on caste basis), immoral and corrupt people will be elected again, giving them ample time toloot the country while cases against them will take many years to be fully decided. I wonder why theoutgoing government did not amend the constitution to allow only corrupt people to contest the elec-tions. That would have been much closer to reality. The next government should do so immediately.—Karachi

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

dogs. I personally have never beenbitten by a dog however I have beenchased and barked at many a timesleaving a permanent scar in mymemory and indication of lanes toavoid at particular times of the day.Could you please do something toget rid of these pests before a realtragedy occurs?—Karachi

Impact of dramasALTAMASH BIN SYED

I am writing this letter in referenceto your article “The major influenceson the year today” last month, Iwould like to add that the article wasvery accurate in defining the majorinfluences on a normal teenager. Oneof those is the impact of TV serialsand soaps on the youth. Our youthof today is a bit naive; they fall intobad habits if left unattended. Thedaily programs airing on TV chan-nels mostly display stories based onin-house politics and drama that onegoes through in his life. Such sto-ries affect the mind of the person andidealize it.

Some programs leave a bad im-pact on the human mind provokingit to indulge into bad habits. SomeT.V programs help in enhancing ahuman mind positively as well.People learn a lot from reality quizshows and real life documentaries.This increases a person’s knowledgeand helps him to understand its at-mosphere. It also increases theawareness in a person about the cur-rent situations of the country.—Karachi

Unsafe journalistsRIMSHA AHMAD

Being a journalist in Pakistan is notan easy job now a day, as the rate ofkilling journalist in Pakistan is in-creasing day by day. Global rightsorganizations have rated Pakistan asone of the most dangerous for jour-nalists and an increasing number ofreporters being killed in the last twoyears made it the deadliest in theworld. It is now becoming very com-mon for a Pakistani journalist, or hisfamily, to live under fear and threats.Reporters working in the field havebeen supposedly threatened, torturedand killed by political groups as wellas state and enemies of homeland.

The Pakistani journalists areforced to not only work in poorworking conditions but also receivenot enough compensation. They arenot only insecure but also under con-stant mental, physical and economicpressure to support their families.About 63 journalists have killed andthe number of injured is not less than350. The causes of these deaths arePakistan’s countless conflicts. Someare caught in suicide blasts; otherstargeted by Taliban militants orBaloch insurgents. In Karachi, sev-eral reporters have been gunneddown as part of the city’s politicalinfluence war.

So is this bearable for journalistcommunity? Why are they not pro-tected by the government and me-dia groups? Being a student of MassCommunication I am also having afear about my profession and futurebecause of the insecurity. There isno doubt that the working journalistand the future journalist are becom-ing afraid to do work in this field.Journalism plays an important rolein any society and it is a well knownand respectable field. So it’s ahumble request to our governmentto take prompt action for all troublemakers and try to make secure ourjournalist and reporters.—Karachi

Fashion andfashionholics

MADIHA RASHEED

Through your newspaper i wouldlike to draw the attention offashionholics towards its effects. Aunique combination of functionaland cultural systems defines and dis-tinguishes a society. Society is aplace where we live together andinteract with each other and also weshare our joys and sorrows. Fashionis something we deal with everyday.One can find a lot of changes andevolution in the history of fashion.

At home with Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf’s recent legalsetbacks are Pakistan’s gain.Since Saturday, the country’s

former military leader has found him-self confined by police to a bedroomin his farmhouse on the outskirts ofIslamabad. He faces charges rangingfrom complicity in the assassinationof former Prime Minister BenazirBhutto in 2007 to wrongful dismissalof judges in the waning days of hisunpopular rule, which stretched from1999 to 2008. Meanwhile, his quix-otic hope of once again leading Paki-stan was dashed after courts rejectedhis attempt to run for Parliament.Pundits don’t expect Mr. Musharraf’spolitical party to claim a single seatin elections scheduled for May 11.

A two-week house arrest is farfrom the welcome Mr. Musharrafexpected on his return to Pakistanlast month after more than fouryears of self-exile. In a stream oftweets and Facebook posts, theformer commando had painted apicture of a grateful nation waiting

to sweep him back to power with apopular mandate.

In addition to serving as a casestudy in political delusion, Mr.Musharraf’s downfall marks a mile-stone in Pakistan’s fledgling democ-racy. Following on the heels of thefirst-ever completion of a full termby an elected government, theMusharraf arrest shows that thearmy’s death grip on public life isweakening.

Until now, the idea of a merejudge ordering a former army chiefinto confinement—even to the rela-tive comfort of his own home—wasunthinkable. Such treatment was re-served for elected leaders deposed bythe kind of coup that brought Mr.Musharraf to power.

That Mr. Musharraf now facespunishment for his actions showshow quickly the country’s demo-cratic institutions, most notably anindependent judiciary and free press,have matured over the past fiveyears. An alert media helped thecourts by making it harder forPakistan’s generals to intervene ontheir former boss’s behalf withoutfacing public backlash. Large turn-

outs at election rallies this year in-dicate that the average Pakistanifeels every bit as entitled to choosehis own rulers as the average Indian.Should next month’s polls go off asplanned, Pakistan will join Turkey,Bangladesh and Indonesia as coun-tries that have defied those whodoubt Islam’s compatibility with de-mocracy.

For the US, the general’s arrestshould underscore a central lesson ofthe Musharraf era, that backing mili-tary leadership in Islamabad neverpays off. In the immediate aftermathof the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Mr.Musharraf won Western aid by vow-ing to fight terrorism and clothinghimself as a modernizer in the mouldof Turkey’s Kemal Ataturk. But thiswas mostly a public relations ploy.By striking deals with militant groupsin Pakistan’s remote northwest in-stead of fighting them, Mr. Musharraflaid the groundwork for much of theviolence that roils Pakistan—and Af-ghanistan—today.

Mr. Musharraf’s twin legacies, avirulent Islamist insurgency and asluggish economy dependent on aid,have unfortunately deepened over the

Sadanand Dhume

Views From Abroad

past five years of civilian rule. Vio-lence against religious minoritiessuch as Shia Muslims has skyrock-eted. And this year’s election has al-ready been marred by terrorist at-tacks against the non-religiousAwami National Party in KhyberPakhtunkhwa province and theMuttahida Quami Movement inKarachi. The army, for its part, mayhave retreated from hands-on gov-ernance, but it continues to consumea whopping 20% share of the na-tional budget and call the shots oninternational relations and nationalsecurity policy.

Nonetheless, bloody and balkyprogress is still progress. Only whenPakistan’s politicians grow confi-dent that they won’t be jailed, ex-iled or executed for crossing themilitary will they be able to deci-sively reorient their country awayfrom confrontation with itsneighbours and toward developmentfor its citizens. House arrest for aonce grandstanding general is onelarge step in this direction. Thewriter is a resident fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute.—Courtesy: The Wall Street Journal

This morning I read with delight that the Municipality ofMumbai decided to keep

their public gardens open till 11 pm.It was just the other day I was tell-ing my wife that compared to othercountries our gardens are kept openduring office hours and shut duringrecreation times. “Come dear letus take a stroll down the road andsit in the park awhile!” says the tiredhusband to his wife after returning

from work. “It’s closed dear!” saysthe wife, “It closes at seven o clock!”“But who sits in the park between 9and 7?” asks the flustered husband.

“Well I do see a couple of drugaddicts, they do enjoy the park andquite often children playing truantfrom school or college, but nobodyelse!” “So what’s the park for?”“Why husband, lets take a walk andwatch the park from over the wall!”

And across the wall of the closedpark, the couple see empty benchesbeckoning them, saying, “Come! Sit!We were placed here for couples likeyou!” “But the gates are locked!” saythe tired couple as they walk back totheir homes and put on their TV tosee another silly soap opera.

I remember driving down a roadin Chennai a few months ago. I wasso happy to see a river called theCooum that used to raise quite a stinkbefore, had now been dredged andlooked pretty clean. I was even moredelighted to see that all along thebanks, stretching for miles on end,parks had been built. “How beauti-ful!” I thought to myself, “How re-laxing it would be to sit and watchthe river flow by!”

I decided to stop the car, and sitawhile, till I saw the locks on all thegates. It was not even seven o clock!I then heard the parks were closed allthe time. “Why?” I asked a friend.“Because the public will dirty it!”Open the parks! Leave it open to the

Opening the gardens for us..!public!

Have guards who will enforcecleanliness, see there are enoughdustbins, and watch a populationwho don’t have enough restingspots, slowly start to relax.

We put restrictions, enforcepreventive measures, instead ofeducating our people to enjoy theview and keep clean habits. It’s notthe public who are dirty, it’s our lawenforcing security who are lazy.

Any way, this morning I readwith delight that the municipalityof Mumbai, have decided to keeptheir public gardens open till 11 pm.Way to go Mumbai! I hope othercities follow suit..!—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Human trafficking

Today remittances of Pakistaniexpatriates hover around US$13-14 billion which accounts

for almost 7 per cent of the GDP andnearly 60% of the total tax revenuegenerated in Pakistan. Thus foreignremittances apart from being themainstay of the Pakistan economyare also subsidizing the social secu-rity net in the country. It is estimatedthat almost 60,0000 Pakistanis goabroad every year for employmentthrough Recruiting and Employmentagencies licensed by the governmentand the Overseas Employment Cor-poration (OEC) established in thepublic sector in 1976.

That is of course the brighter fa-cade of the phenomenon of eco-nomic migration. There is anotherside to it, a much darker and the mostpainful aspect of the lure and crazefor seeking jobs abroad. Presentlythere are 1500 recruiting agencies inthe country, mostly owned and pa-tronized by the elite, politicians andbureaucrats. The job seekers going

through them are almost swindledby them. Although these agenciesare supposed to get commissionfrom employers on every individualsupplied by them, yet they chargeexorbitant amounts from the se-lected persons. The poor souls haveto sell their valuables and whateverpossession that they have to meettheir demands. Then they are fleecedby having to pay for visa because ofthe visa box system in vogue andalmost every worker has to payRs.50,000 for that.

The most sordid fall out and col-lateral social tragedy of the phenom-enon of economic migration is theemergence of the most detestablepursuit of human trafficking. Thefraudsters and unscrupulous ele-ments within the society have de-stroyed many families by takinghuge sums of money for facilitatingtheir potential bread earners to goto European and other countries andvanishing with the accumulatedmoney.

In certain cases the job seekershad to meet tragic deaths while un-dertaking sojourn to the foreignlands through illegal means includ-ing sneaking through borders or

traveling by boats which have methorrible accidents. In cases wherethey have managed to reach theirdestinations, most of them have hadto bear the brunt of the law and arein jails for entering the country ille-gally. More than ten thousand arelanguishing in jails in Middle East-ern and European countries. Nearlyten thousand Pakistanis are in Ger-many as asylum seekers. Majorityof them were smuggled into thecountry through former SovietUnion and Poland by the human traf-fickers. The ordeal and agony theywent through during their journeyswould fill volumes of harrowing sto-ries. I gained first hand knowledgeabout it while posted in PakistanEmbassy in Berlin. Some of themare there for nearly a decade to thechagrin and grief of the familiesback home. Besides the sufferingsof the victims, the problem alsobrings bad name to the country.

Unfortunately no effective mea-sures have been taken to tackle theillegal practices of the employmentpromoters and human traffickers.The successive governmentsshowed criminal apathy to the plightof the poor masses and even the

media has not given much atten-tion to this subject. I am of the con-sidered view that this issue can beeffectively tackled through educat-ing the masses about the perils ofrelying on the unscrupulous andunauthorized elements for seekingjobs abroad, through concerted ef-forts at the official level throughmedia. The media itself needs tohighlight the issue by giving it dueattention.

On the administrative side, thegovernment must cancel the li-cences of all the employment pro-moters in the private sector and en-trust the responsibility of sendingPakistani workers to the interna-tional job markets to Overseas Em-ployment Corporation. It shouldhave the monopoly in this regardlike it has been doing exclusivelyin case of export of manpower toKorea since 2008. If the Pakistaniexpatriates are bringing valuableforeign exchange for the country,it is also obligatory on the state andgovernment to protect the would-be job seekers from the clutches ofthe elements who are exploiting thecircumstances to their advantage atthe expense of the poor people.

Name brands became of particularimportance among young people.Fashion changes like wind whichmakes it difficult for man to keeppace with them. Fashion is a formof non-verbal communication to in-dicates occupation, gender etc. It notonly embraces clothing but also ac-cessories.

Enables us to make ourselvesunderstood with rapid comprehen-sion by the onlooker. Fashion is onlya means of ones expression? Musi-cians and other cultural icons havealways influenced that we are wear-ing, but so have political figures androyalty. The death of Diana, the prin-cess of Wales, was a severe blow tothe high fashion world, where herclothes were daily news fashionsHave both positive as well as nega-tive impacts. Girls or boys use thefashion in order to attract the repre-sentatives of their contrary. Fashionindustry employs some millions ofpeople. It shows your thinking ismodern and flexible. It is a way ofcelebrating the diversity and varietyof the world in which we live.

Negative impacts youth onlythink about the new fashion stylesand this causes money wasting onit. The main task of students is study,since they spend more time on fash-ion, they will have less time andenergy for study. We seem to feelinadequate if not properly acceptedby society, so we are mentally dis-turbed by it and it can causes thingssuch as anxiety, depression and eat-ing disorders. We go more for thelook and the name, rather than qual-ity. I believe that fashion should besensible, dress up nicely, lookinggood and the main and the commonthing the fashion is to be which makeyou comfortable.—Karachi

Road accidentsKIRAN ZEHRA

Reports are being published in yournewspaper as well as in others re-garding causalities due to road acci-dents across the country especiallyin Karachi. Our country has seriousroad accident problems wherein thefatality rate appears to be higher thanin many developing countries. Thisshows that moving on roads has be-come hazardous to an extent thatroad accidents claim more lives. Oneestimate confirms that the reporteddeaths on roads in Pakistan areabove 50,000 a year.

There are many causes of acci-dent on the road. Lack of experi-ence and licensing older drivers arethe causes of escalating accidentrate. Nowadays, people can obtainlicense easily. Actually, people whowant to obtain the license must havean experience and know the rule onthe road. However, we do not havea big number of experienced driv-ers on the road. The inexperiencedrivers will give problems to otherpeople and they can be the causesof accidents on the road. Moreover,a few other issue which need to beseriously taken care of include put-ting an immediate ban on heavyand long trailers at least in areaswhere there are single and alreadydevastated roads like deserts partof the country.—Karachi

*****FAHAD ANWAR

The new traffic arrangements in rail-way road are causing problems. It isnow difficult for residents to crossthe road because of the increasednumber of vehicles.

This situation affects espe-cially the young who go to schoolthere, and the old who live in theold people’s home. Also, the noiseand the fumes are annoying every-one and affecting the health ofsome. As a result, the residents in-tend to fight to have the traffic ar-rangements cancelled.—Via email

Life is what you make of it. Itis a mixed bag of disappointments and surprises. Every-

one has a reason to hang on to life toachieve what he desires for. Unfor-tunately, to some life is not easy.Rather, it’s not a bed of roses. I per-sonally know many of the univer-sity graduates who are still withoutjobs, struggling to achieve some-thing in their lives. This makes mewonder whether they will succeedor rather ill find one or not? Whatwould you do if destiny twisted theroad you took? What if it threw youto a place you did not want to go?Would you fight, would you run orwould you accept?

Although some of my friendshave been able to find one but theythemselves are not sure whetherthey should celebrate their first jobor regret on the money and timetheir parents spent on their educa-tion. But I think they should, feelhappy as there are numbers ofgraduates who have specialized but,are either unemployed or have con-sented to work for much lesser sala-ries for what they did not wishedor desired for. One out of every 10

people in the country is unem-ployed. The unemployment rate hasfurther increased to 6.5%, showingsigns of a crisis-plagued and slow-ing economy. The unemploymentincreased from 6% to 6.5% accord-ing to the latest labour force surveyreport 2012-2013. Also there was noreal improvement in the living stan-dards of the people in rural areas.All persons aged above ten whowork at least one hour per week weredefined as employed persons regard-less of whether they were paid em-ployees or self-employed.

Due to the slow economicgrowth rate, youth unemploymentand underemployment has risensharply during the last few years.The supply-demand of job markethas been upset, with a major in-crease in supply and negligible in-crease in demand. So there is a needto develop better and well paidwork opportunities to stop thissteadily growing unemploymentrate that is depriving graduates offtheir hopes.

The environment we are livingin is not what we desire. But with-out realizing our own responsibil-ity one cannot hope for a changewe people wish for. Now we all arehoping for a change in coming elec-tion in 2013 but the question stillarises that can it be fulfilled in its

true essence? Though, the stepstaken are positive sign of improve-ment of a society and the structureof the government but still nobodyis giving its clear vision about howto end all this that is breaching theroots of our country. Change is nota thing that happens over the night.It is not just about focusing on onething and leaving the others buteverything needs to be improvedfrom top to lower order. One needsto come up with a clear vision. Theproblems we need to focus on areenergy crisis, economic meltdown,unemployment, drone attacks, andpoverty. So, the countries problemscannot be reduced by going to gen-eral election and electing a newgovernment. It is also the responsi-bility of masses to use their vote ina positive and right manner.

Unemployment is recognizedas the mother of all ills. This ris-ing unemployment and underem-ployment is creating problems forour society. We are the cause ofdrowning our young generationinto darkness as an educated manhad to resort to the extreme stepself-immolation because he couldnot find a job for himself. It is alsogiving rise to social and psycho-logical problems like frustration,depression, food insecurity, andcrime rate etc therefore youth’s ac-

tivities and energies should be di-rected in a useful channel for thenation’s prosperity. So, unem-ployment needs to be kept as atop priority for policymakersand economic agents to controlthis rising ill. This requires aparadigm shift in policies for theprosperity and economic devel-opment of our country.

Unemployment is one of themajor burning issues of a country.This ever increasing unemploy-ment paints a dark or bleak pictureof the youth’s future. Given the im-portance of tapping or utilizing thecapabilities of young generation,there is a need to immediately ad-dress the rising ill of unemploy-ment. A much greater effort is re-quired to improve the unemploy-ment situation in view of the cata-strophic development that hastaken place in the past few years.Solution to this problem is towriggle the new generation out ofthe sense of deprivation. A wellthought-out policy and politicalwill is required. In the end mostimportant of all is to check corrup-tion and nepotism in our countryand the constitutional obligation ofthe government needs to makeplans to solve this problem as it isthe need of the hour.—The writer works for IPRI.

Nuisance of unemployment

Malik M AshrafEmail: ashpak10@gmail.com

Usman Ali KhanEmail: usmanalikhan6@gmail.com

face off is taking place. No offi-cial word was forthcoming on theflag meeting. India raisedthe issue with China last weekand summoned Ambassador WeiWei to South Block. The MEAjoint secretary who heads thejoint working mechanism to dealwith boundary issues from theIndian side spoke to his Chinesecounterpart and emphasised theneed to resolve the issue.

However, the Chinese for-eign ministry spokesperson HuaChunying said on Monday that“China’s frontier troops havebeen abiding by theLAC agreedby the two countries... (and) pa-trolling on China’s side of LAC”.

ciated by the Hon’ble Court whiledisposing the petition.

However, he said that duringthe ongoing electioneering cam-paign a section of the politicalleadership particularly that of thePML-N has been hurling accusa-tions against the President of Pa-kistan that tend to inevitably dragthe President into political contro-versy.

The President, on the otherhand, is severely handicapped

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because out of deference to theCourt observations he cannot re-act to these accusations by em-ploying befitting political jargon.

The spokesperson furtherstated that furthermore, the Presi-dent was the spouse of formerPrime Minister Shaheed BenazirBhutto and the son-in-law of thefirst directly elected Prime Min-ister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Directpersonal criticism of the Presi-dent during the campaign while

the President himself is severelyhandicapped to respond to themis denying level playing field tothe Party that is contesting elec-tions using the slogans and im-ages of Shaheed Bhuttos.

He told the CEC to kindlylook into this and issue directionsto the political parties particularlythe PML-N leadership to desistfrom partisan political attacksagainst the person of the Presidentof Pakistan.

Sources quoted by Times ofIndia said New delhi may beworking the diplomatic hotlineswith Beijing, but parallels arealready being drawn between theongoing 10-day military standoffin Ladakh and the SumdorongChu incident of 1986-87, whichrequired “a major show of forceand resolve” to settle mattersamicably.

With “no breakthrough” be-ing achieved in the second flagmeeting between the Indian andChinese armies held on Tuesday,the Indian defence establishmentand military operations director-ate here went into a hurdle to dis-cuss “various options”, including

further troop reinforcements tothe region, till late in the evening.

The Army may well deployadditional troops in the region ifthere is no de-escalation over thenext few days.

“The flag meeting, held atSpanggur gap between DaulatBeg Oldie and Chushul, lastedfor around five hours. Our sidewas led by a brigadier, Chinesehad a senior colonel. We toldthem this intrusion was simplyunacceptable. But they accusedus of aggressive patrolling. Therewas no concrete outcome, muchlike the first flag meeting on April18,” said a source.—INP

sonal physician will also accom-pany him in the journey. Gover-nor Sindh Ishratul Ibad Khan andChief Minister Justice (Retired)Zahid Qurban Alvi will receivethe prime minister on the arrivalat the Jinnah International airportKarachi. The programme of theprime minister has been finalizedas he will be visiting the tomb offather of the nation Quid-e-AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah immedi-ately after his arrival in the cityon Thursday.

He will pay his respect at theQuAid’s Mazar and ink his im-pression in the visitor’s book. Theprime minister will have an over-night stay in Karachi and will re-turn on the following day.The PMwill chair high level meeting ofthe officials including some mem-bers of the provincial cabinet onthe second day of his visit.

Federal Interior MinisterMalik Habib Khan is likely toaccompany the prime minister asthe law and order situation in thecity would be discussed on Fri-day in Karachi. Prime MinisterKhoso, who has already visitedhis home province Balochistanlast week, would be visitingLahore and Peshawar next week,the sources said.—Online

Khoso visitsFrom Page 1

leaders are available easily oninternet. According to the finallists, a total of 4671 candidatesare contesting for 272 generalseats of the National Assemblywhile 10958 are competing for577 seats of provincial assem-blies. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,517 candidates are contesting for35 general seats of the NA while1438 aspirants will run for 99provincial assembly seats.

In Fata, 339 candidates arerunning for 12 general seats ofthe National Assembly in Feder-ally Administered Tribal Areas(FATA).

As many as 77 candidateswill compete for two generalseats of the National Assemblyin Islamabad.

In Punjab, 5758 contestantswill run for 148 National Assem-bly seats while 5758 will com-pete on 297 provincial assemblyseats.

In Sindh, 1087 candidateswill run for 61 NA seats while2810 contestants will be runningfor 130 provincial assemblyseats.

As many as 284 candidateswill be in the election race for the14 seats of the National Assem-bly in Balochistan while 953 willcontest for 51 seats of the pro-vincial assembly seats.

Nomination papers of 258female candidates have been ac-cepted for the 60 reserved seatsfor women. The ECP has ac-cepted 123 nomination papers for35 reserved seats for women inPunjab, 58 in Sindh for 14 seats,45 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for 8seats and 32 in Balochistan for 3reserved seats.

Nomination papers of 71candidates have been acceptedfor 10 reserved seats for minori-ties in the National Assembly.

Electioncampaign

From Page 1

hearing over a petition filed byMusharraf seeking bail in the casepertaining to the murder of formertwo-time prime minister BenazirBhutto in December 2007.

The bench had earlier giventhe counsel for the petitioner anhour’s time to makes make itsargument over why the formermilitary should be granted bail.

Musharraf’s counsel insteadof giving his argument, hadsought more time and requestedthe court to adjourn the hearing.

Prosecuting lawyer of theFIA had objected to the requestarguing that Musharraf was al-ready under detention on judicialremand at his Chak Shehzad resi-dence, which was declares as asub-jail after the cancellation ofhis bail in the judges detentioncase.—NNI

people. Officials say at least 100are feared to be trapped.

Police officials say factoryowners had ignored warningsagainst allowing workers into thebuilding after a crack was de-tected the day before.

Last November, 112 workerswere killed in a blaze at a factoryin an industrial suburb of Dhaka.In2005, more than 70 people werekilled after a garment factorybuilding collapsed in the samearea. Bangladesh owns around4,500 garment factories and is thesecond largest clothes exporterafter China.—Agencies.

starting work on the Pakistanisection of the pipeline‚ after fin-ishing nearly 900 kilometers ofthe pipeline on Iran soil.

In March‚ Indian Minister ofPetroleum and Natural Gas M.Veerappa Moily voiced hiscountry’s willingness to join thepipeline project.

The pipeline will enable theexport of 21.5 million cubicmeters per day of Iranian naturalgas to Pakistan. The Pakistanigovernment has stressed that itwould go ahead with the con-struction of the gas pipeline de-spite threats and pressure fromthe U.S.—NNI

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82 deadFrom Page 1

NATO’s presence in Afghanistanafter 2014.

NATO-led forces are ex-pected to cede the lead role forsecurity in Afghanistan thisspring to Afghan soldiers, 12years after the United States in-vaded Afghanistan to oust theTaliban government harboringOsama bin Laden, the al Qaedaleader.

The White House has yet todecide how many U.S. troopswill remain in Afghanistan after2014.—Reuters

US wantsAfghan, Pak

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Musharraf’sFrom Page 1

spokesman for the group,Abubakar Siddiq, called localreporters and said it had carriedout the attack.

The Hazara DemocraticParty’s chairman, Abdul KhaliqHazara, had a narrow escape ashe was passing through the areaafter addressing an election cor-ner meeting when the blast tookplace. Mir Zubair Mehmood, theCapital City Police Officer inQuetta said that the casualtieswere due to suicide bombing.

Police said the bomber wasdriving the car towards AlamdarRoad, probably to carry out anattack on members of the Hazaracommunity, but he detonated thevehicle when the FC soldierflagged it down.

At least four people were in-jured when two consecutiveblasts rocked the provincial capi-tal on Wednesday while an elec-tion candidate narrowly escapedin the incident. According to de-

Bomb explosions in Balochistan,KP, Sindh; 23 injured

From Page 1

Maryland governorconsidering White House run

JERUSALEM—Maryland Gov.Martin O’Malley, a rising star inDemocratic politics, saidWednesday that he is consider-ing making a run for the WhiteHouse in 2016 and will likelymake a decision later this year.

O’Malley, in Jerusalem on aMideast tour, said he was stillundecided but intends to dedicate“reflection time” on whether toseek the Democratic nomination.

“I plan for the latter half ofthis year to dedicate some morethought time — reflection time— to the question of whether ornot I would run in 2016,”O’Malley, a former mayor ofBaltimore, told reporters.

“The key question in run-ning for any office is having aclear and refined understandingof the shared reality we face,”he said. “I arrived at that free-dom and that clarity when I ran

for mayor and when I ran forgovernor, and the interior chal-lenge is whether or not I can ar-rive at that clarity, and that free-dom and that sense of responsi-bility and urgency with regardto making a run in 2016.”

O’Malley, 50, is frequentlytouted as a potential presiden-tial candidate, along with formerSecretary of State and U.S. Sen.Hillary Rodham Clinton, VicePresident Joe Biden and NewYork Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Heis favored by Democrats whowant the party to look toyounger candidates, noting thatClinton will turn 69 shortly be-fore Election Day 2016, andBiden will turn 74 soon after.

President Barack Obama, aDemocrat, cannot run becauseU.S. presidents are limited totwo four-year terms. O’Malleyhas successfully promoted a pro-

gressive agenda that includes le-galizing same-sex marriage, in-troducing some of the U.S.’stoughest gun control laws, re-pealing capital punishment, andenabling some students who arenot in the country legally to payin-state tuition, seen as an im-portant part of immigration re-form.

O’Malley is on an eight-daytour of Israel, Jordan and the Pal-estinian territories with a delega-tion of Maryland officials. He ismeeting Israel’s PresidentShimon Peres, high-ranking Is-raeli politicians and the outgoingPalestinian prime minister,Salam Fayyad.

During his visit, he also in-tends to visit the traditional birth-place of Jesus, the Palestinian cityof Bethlehem, to attend SundayMass. This is O’Malley’s thirdvisit to Israel.—AP

Wife: American in Iraqiprison is on hunger strike

BAGHDAD—In Baghdad’smaximum-security Karkh prison,Shawki Omar is triply damned,his supporters say.

He’s a Sunni prisoner in aShiite-dominated jail. A foreignerin a country where outsiders areblamed for fueling an insurgency.And to top it off, an American ina nation struggling with thebloody legacy of the U.S.-led in-vasion.

“He is discriminated againston three different levels there,”Omar’s wife, Sandra, said in aninterview. She said Shawki — anaturalized American citizen ofJordanian-Palestinian descentwho was apprehended by U.S.-led forces in Baghdad nearly adecade ago on suspicion of fo-menting jihad — had been beatenand denied medication.

In emails and phone callsfrom her home in Raleigh, NorthCarolina, Sandra Omar said thather 51-year-old husband shareda poorly heated shipping con-tainer with a dozen other inmates.She said he and other Sunni pris-oners were denied care packages,refused exercise and repeatedlybeaten. She said Omar had beenon some form of hunger strike formore than two months to protesthis condition.

The U.S. governmentclaimed that Omar was unlikelyto be tortured when it handed himto the Iraqi justice system, whoseprisons are notorious for rightsabuses. But Omar says he wasbrutalized soon after he wasturned over. American officialssay they are aware of Shawki’sallegations and of his hungerstrike. In a statement, it said ithad raised the issue of abuse withIraqi officials and that they wereinvestigating.

“We are in regular contactwith him and the prison authori-ties concerning his health,” the

statement said. Omar’s case isunique in one way: He was thefirst known American to be slatedfor trial in Iraq’s post-SaddamHussein courts. He is also one ofonly five American citizens inIraqi custody. But his allegationsof mistreatment are far from un-usual. Erin Evers, a Middle Eastresearcher with Human RightsWatch, said she knew of similarclaims, and that they were symp-tomatic of a shaky criminal jus-tice system shot through withcorruption.

“It’s one of the biggest prob-lems in Iraq today,” she said, not-ing that the Sunni protest move-ment, which has threatened thegovernment of Iraqi Prime Min-ister Nuri al-Maliki, has prison-ers’ rights at the heart of its de-mands. Iraqi officials deny mis-treating their American prisoner;Deputy Justice Minister BushoIbrahim said the allegations were“absolutely not true.” But Omar’sIraqi lawyer, Zeina Ahmad, toldThe Associated Press that whenshe saw her client late last yearhis feet had been so badly beatenthey had swelled up and turnedblue. Omar’s path to U.S. citizen-ship began when the Kuwaiti-born Jordanian visited SouthDakota more than three decadesago. In 1982, he met Sandra, astudent at the Pierre School ofPractical Nursing in Pierre, SouthDakota. The couple married thefollowing year, moving aroundthe country as their family grew.

Sandra Omar, who was putin touch with The AssociatedPress though the London-basedprisoners’ advocacy groupCagePrisoners, said she grew up“firmly Christian.” When thetwo wed, she still held on to thehope that Shawki would con-vert. “It didn’t turn out that way,”she said. Instead, she convertedto Islam, eventually moving to

Jordan in 1995 in a bid to famil-iarize the couple’s children withthe Arabic language and Muslimculture. Shawki Omar, who hadbecome increasingly devout,took a second wife — a Jorda-nian — and brought the entirefamily to Iraq in 2002 in an at-tempt to get his eldest son intouniversity there. He then took athird wife — an Iraqi. The fam-ily left as the U.S.-led invasionwas looming, but Sandra said thatShawki returned to the countryafter the war.

What happens next is in dis-pute. In a statement, U.S. Maj.Gen. John Gardner alleged thatOmar was an al-Qaida emissarywhose second marriage had madehim a member of terror kingpinAbu Musab Zarqawi’s extendedfamily. Gardner said that multi-national forces had arrested fourJordanian jihadists and an Iraqiinsurgent at Omar’s home inOctober 2004. Under question-ing, the general said, the arrestedjihadists accused Omar of tryingto organize the kidnapping of for-eigners in Baghdad.

Sandra Omar said the alle-gations are bogus, suggesting thatthe information had beensqueezed out of Omar’s allegedassociates under duress.

“This is the kind of faultyintelligence you get when youtorture people,” she said of theallegations. From U.S. detention,Omar sent a series of desperate-sounding letters to his wife andson, saying he was being kept insolitary confinement and wouldbe refusing food until he saw alawyer. “The last time I checkedmy passport I thought I was anAmerican citizen,” he wrote in aletter dated March 2005. He wenton to demand that his family dosomething — anything — to pre-vent his transfer to Iraqi cus-tody.—AP

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of Mr.Muqarab Khan NaiziSahib, District Judge

ChakwalCivil Appeal-96Feroz Khan etc V/S MehboobHussain etcMemoMuhammad Altaf, GhulamRuqizya, Mazhir Hussain,Muhammad Naveed CasteKahoot Qreish R/O HijyalTehsil & Distt, ChakwalWhereas serving of summonto the respondent in the caseas titled above is not porrible,the respondent is herely informed through this ad in thisnewspapers that the respon-dent has been announced toappear in this court in personon be represented by a lawyerin this court on 07-05-2013 at8.00 hours. In case of non-compliance, ex-party proceed-ing shall take place.Given under my hand and sealof the Court.

Sd/- District JudgeChakwal

tails, two explosive devicesplanted alongside the road inKalachi area of Peshawar wentoff at the time provincial assem-bly candidate Israr Khan and hisguard were passing by the scenebut they remained unhurt.

In yet another incident in theSirki Gate area of Peshawar, asuspicious blast took place neara house leaving four people in-jured. The incident caused dam-age to several houses. Policereached the scene of blast andcollecting the evidences startedthe investigation.

Meanwhile, police foiledanother attempt of terrorism inPeshawar by defusing a remote-controlled bomb planted under asecurity officer’s car.

Officials said the Bomb Dis-posal Squad was called atPeshawar’s Hayatabad area afterreceiving a tip off that explosivematerial has been fixed under acar which is being used by a se-

curity official. The BDS success-fully defused the bomb weightedabout 3 kg, foiling another bid ofterrorism.

It may be mentioned herethat a surge in the incidents oftargeting elections candidates ison the rise in the KhyberPakhtunkhawa and other parts ofthe country to degrade the elec-tion process.

Moreover, Peshawar hasbeen the center of terrorist activi-ties recently, calling tougher andprompt action against those re-sponsible.

Four people including awoman were wounded in acracker blast that took place onWednesday morning in Swat.Sources said rescue teams rushedto the scene and the injured arebeing shifted to the Madyan CivilHospital. Blasts also took placein D.I. Khan and Jacobabad onWednesday but no casualtieswere reported.—INP

seas Pakistanis.Nawaz said that those over-

seas Pakistanis who want to in-vest in industrial zones in theirhomeland would be given relax-ation in various taxes and duties.

He assured the delegationthat property of overseas Paki-stani would be protected from‘Qabza’ groups. He also pledgedsteps to bring overseas Pakistanisinto the country’s economicmainstream.—INP

PML-N to supportFrom Page 1

Brazilian Embassyadmissions for

studies in BrazilSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistani stu-dents that are finishing theircollege can apply for an oppor-tunity of having their Univer-sity studies done in Brazil,with tuition costs covered bythe Brazilian Government,through the Program for Ex-change Students – Under-graduate (PEC-G).

This programme has been inplace for more than thirty yearsin Brazil, and Pakistan has beenpart of it since 2012. Currently,more than 3,000 students fromdeveloping countries are in Bra-zil through the Programme, 2 ofthem from Pakistan.

The applicants can chooseany field of study in any of themore than 60 universities thattake part in PEC-G, which in-clude some of the best highereducation institutions in the de-veloping world.

Applications can be made atthe Embassy of Brazil inIslamabad until the 28th of June.

Detailed requirements forcandidates and indicative lists ofuniversities and courses are avail-able at the Embassy’s websitewww.embassyofbrazil.com.pk.

APUC interfaithmoot todaySTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—All PakistanUlema Council is conducting aninterfaith and inter-harmonyconference in Islamabad today,says a press release.

Nearly 27 different religiousand political parties would beparticipating in the conferencethrough their leadership and rep-resentatives.

The main objective of theconference is to bring peoplefrom all sects within Islam andpeople belonging to minoritiescloser through highlightingoverlapping features among allthe sects and religions.

The conference would givean official Islamic decree on theright of women to vote.

Afghan diplomats do notreturn, seek asylum: ExpertsKABUL—A number of expertssaid that some of the Afghandiplomats, especially ambassa-dors to other countries, have notreturned to the country aftertheir working term ended andhave sought asylum, an actwhich according to the punditsis caused for inattention fromforeign ministry while employ-ing the diplomats.

Admitting such act for onlya very few diplomats, foreignministry, however, said that it hasset a fresh regulation for employ-ing diplomats and in the futuresuch issues will be resolved withthe country the diplomat is sentto. Experts said that over the pastyears, many diplomats used theirpassports to seek asylum.

“Over the recent years, dip-lomats were not employed at theforeign ministry based on theircompetencies and capacities butthrough in-betweens, are Jihadileaders, MPs, and figures inpower,” said Ahmad Saeedi, po-litical expert.

“Based on the figures I have,Afghanistan has 63 offices ofdiplomatic mission and more

than 70 percent of the diplomatswho were changed in Afghani-stan over the course of one to oneand a half year have not returnedto Afghanistan,” Saeedi added.

Some jurists have suggestedthat foreign ministry of Afghani-stan is required to consider com-mitment from its staff besidesskills and experience.

“There will be problems ifwe set a standard by which, forexample, they spend three yearsin mission and three years in aforeign country formulaically. Irepeat again that a diplomat’scommitment to their country andto their country’s interests –whether inside Ministry of For-eign Affairs or at offices of dip-lomatic mission – is a very im-portant principle which Ministryof Foreign Affairs needs to workon seriously and be concernedabout,” said Nasrullah Stanikzai,Kabul University teacher.

Nevertheless, Ministry ofForeign Affairs said the asylumact has only been done by a veryfew diplomats and dialogues re-garding the issue are carried outwith those countries. “Unfortu-

nately, there are few cases inCanada and Germany. In veryfew cases, there were those whosought asylum. We informedCanada and Germany about theissue,” said Jawid Lodin,deputy foreign minister for po-litical affairs.

“The only measure we canput to practice is to agree withthe countries of the other side,and no matter what their laws are,our laws require that the govern-ment staff cannot – with the privi-leges they receive – do such acts,which are not good for thecountry’s reputation,” the deputyminister added.

In addition, employing dip-lomats as ambassadors in coun-tries where they have citizenshipis of other distresses. Experts saidthe diplomats prefer interests ofthe country of their second citi-zenship as superior. Experts saidthat foreign ministry of Afghani-stan should act more accuratelyfor employing ambassadors, andsuggested the ministry shouldselect diplomats – with dual citi-zenship – as ambassadors to athird country.—NNI

BRUSSELS—The EuropeanUnion’s counter-terrorism coor-dinator says at least 500 Europe-ans are fighting along with theforeign-backed militants againstSyria.EU’s anti-terror chiefGilles de Kerchove told Britishmedia on Wednesday that some500 Europeans were in Syria, tofight against the government ofPresident Bashar al-Assad.Hesaid that Britain, Ireland and

500 Europeans fighting withmilitants in Syria: EU

France were among the EU coun-tries to have the highest numbersof militants in Syria.

He also warned that the Eu-ropeans who have joined themilitants in Syria would mostlikely be radicalized there andwould be a serious threat whenthey get back to theircountries.On Monday, the EUforeign ministers met in Luxem-burg and eased EU’s oil embargo

against Syria to assist the foreign-backed militants. Under the deal,European countries will be al-lowed to purchase oil from themilitants in Syria and in turn pro-vide them with funds needed tobuy more weapons. Syria hasbeen gripped by unrest sinceMarch 2011, and many people,including large numbers of gov-ernment forces, have been killedin the violence.— PressTV

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The country washeading fast toward the changeacross the board and it was thenational obligation of the massesto sanely react to the forthcom-ing challenges especially theelections that were meant to putthe country on the track ofprogress and prosperity if themasses would elect the nomineesof the Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) because the laterhad for the last 25 years servedthe humanity and sent educatedand talented youth to assembliesand Senate.

This was stated by formerCity Nazim Syed MustafaKamal, who is also a Senatorfrom the MQM and active mem-ber of the MQM Co-ordinationCommittee while talking to alarge gathering of the people,supporters and sympathisers ofthe MQM at a meeting in elec-toral constituency NA-253Wednesday.

The MQM Chief AltafHussain had during his stay in thecountry and even when he wasforced to live abroad in exilegained nothing for his own ben-efit but produced the youth fromthe lower socio-income segmentsof the society to rise for the en-lightenment, service to the hu-manity and the country.

Unfortunately, the MQM hadalways been a victim of the po-litical grudges, personal biasesand utter discrimination and wastime and again punished for rain-ing the depressed and struggle fortransforming the country into atruly welfare state as per the vi-sion of the founder of PakistanMuhammad Ali Jinnah.

Senator Kamal said that theongoing wave of terrorismagainst the MQM in particularwas in fact a conspiracy to sabo-tage the elections and to deprivethe nation of their constitutionalrights of forming a governmentand enter into the new ear ofprogress and prosperity.

He said that the threats weremounting with the passage ofevery moment and the perpetra-tors were after the masses andtheir leaders but the citizens ofthe city had proved they wereeager for the peace and tranquil-

MQM to bring change in countrywith power of vote: Mustafa

ity and despite countless con-spiracies to divide the people onsectarian grounds, the people hadremained united under the lead-ership of the MQM Chief AltafHussain, whose struggle forkeeping the sects united with liveand let live slogan had workedmagic. Senator Kamal, however,urged the people and the candi-dates that they should stay cau-tious and keep an eagle’s eye intheir surrounding as the terroristsalways emerged from narrow al-leys on earth.

He said that the MQM hadthe potential to give stunning re-sults with the everlasting supportof loyal workers, ambitious sup-porters and people of the city thatknew it was the MQM that hadin recent past built the city to astate of world modern city.

He said that the MQM hadproved that not a single incidentof target killing occurred whenthe interior ministry was with thelawmaker of the MQM. It wasthe MQM Mayor that had underthe theme of ;IO Own Karachi’brought all ethnic entities on oneplatform and job and businessopportunities were open for allon merit.

Senator Kamal said that itwas the MQM that introducedsignal free corridors concept, so-lution of people to people dis-putes at grass root level, extendededucation and health facilities tothe rural outskirts and villages inremote interior Sindh and in-duced foreign direct investment.

He hoped that the people ofthe country, as they had judgedthe MQM in past for its astound-ing performances. would againelect the nominees of the MQMChief Altaf Hussain for equalrights of education, health, jobs,and above all eradication of allforms of injustices, tyrannies,loot and corruption from thecountry. The MQM was a well-disciplined political party andwould march toward the goal ofprosperity for the nation.

He invited the extremistgroups to listen to the MQMChief Altaf Husain for laying offarms and enter into the strugglefor transforming the country awelfare state according to Quid-e Azam’s visions and thoughts ofAllama Iqbal.

were strengthened by them.Thepeople did not leave him alonein the past in difficult times andinspired the nation with theirunity and gave him the courageand determination, he said add-ing that he was confident that thenation would not disappoint himeven today.

He appealed to the MQMworkers and haq parast people totake the election campaign of theMQM in their hands and informthe people about injustices beingdone against the MQM.

He said that he wanted to tellthe enemies that the determina-tion of the MQM remained un-shaken, and the people were fullof vigour and energy. He said thatthe MQM had made a pledge tothe Almighty Allah that theywould not let the blood of themartyrs go wasted.

Altaf asksFrom Page 1

Private Schools Management Association and Trans-

porters Association completelysupported the strike.

MQM coordination commit-tee said that entire nation is unitedagainst the terrorist elements andtheir cowardly attacks.—INP

MQM observesFrom Page 1

4 Gitmo inmates incritical condition

GUANTANMO BAY—US mili-tary official has reported thatfour of the inmates on hungerstrike at the Guantanamo mili-tary prison and torture camp arein critical condition and havebeen transferred to the prison’shospital.

Lieutenant Colonel SamuelHouse also announced on Tues-day that 17 out of the 84 in-mates currently on hungerstrike at the notorious prison fa-cility are being forced-fedthrough the nose to prevent fur-ther deterioration of their healthconditions.—Agencies.

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—India’s formerright handed off-spinner M.Venkataramana turned 7when Sachin Tendulkar wasborn on April 24 in 1973. Hedoesn’t remember how hecelebrated his seventhbirthday, but now feelsproud in seeing world’scricketing God SachinTendulkar also cutting thecake on this day.

“I don’t mind my birth-day being overshadowedby Sachin Tendulkar’s”,the 47-year-oldHyderabad-born M.Venkataramana said fromChennai.

M a r g a s h a y a mVenkataramana played hisonly Test (against WestIndies in April 1989) beforeSachin Tendulkar made hisTest debut against Pakistansix months later.

“I have no regrets onnot being able to score anyrun in my internationalcricket (he also played oneODI, failing to score theretoo), but am unlucky tohave played with the icon”,he said.

We too celebrate ourbirthdays on this day, say

India’s two former players“Me and Sachin

Tendulkar were members ofIndia’s touring team to NewZealand in 1989-90. I couldonly play a few side-gameswith him on that tour. Ourtour ended before our jointbirthday”, Venkataramanaadded.

“I have met SachinTendulkar on few occasions.The recent being when hewas in Chennai during Testmatch against Australia”.

“I have never exchangedbirthday wishes with themaster-blaster and don’tknow really whether SachinTendulkar is aware about thecoincidence of my birthdayfalling on the same day”.

“It will be a quiet celebra-tion but will not miss watch-ing Sachin Tendulkar’s IPLgame today”, he signed off,but not before adding, “It isgreat to share my day withSachin”.

Sachin Tendulkar is alsosharing his birthday withformer India stumper, MSKPrasad.

“We don’t only share thecommon birthday but thereare quite a few other commonthings between us”, he saysproudly. “Our wives are doc-tors. Sachin’s wife, Anjali is

a paediatrician (to look af-ter two children, daughterSara and son Arjun, she hasnot been doing medicalpractice), while my wife,Prashanthi is a non-clinicaldoctor. She is MD in Bio-chemistry”.

The name of MSKPrasad’s daughter is Anjali,which is incidentally thename of Sachin’s wife. Ex-plaining, he says, “no, itwas not decided to keep mydaughter’s name after leg-endary batsman SachinTendulkar’s wife name, butour family is a great devo-tee of Lord Hanuman andyou know Hanuman’smother was Anjani. Inter-estingly, Anjaneya in ourmother tongue too, MSKPrasad concluded.

“Like Sachin, we alsodo lot of charity work in ru-ral areas. Right now also, Iam on my way to some vil-lages in Andhra Pradesh togive lectures on the gameto some boys and play withthem”, he signed off.The ICC umpire, KumarDharmasena (Sri Lanka),also born on this day, re-fused to offer comments. Heis in India officiating in theIPL matches.

MUNICH: Bayern Munich’s players celebrate after the end of the match.

ISLAMABAD: Winners of T-20 cricket, badminton, table tennis and football with chief guest, former Pakistan testcricketer Majid Khan and senior management of Preston University during Spring Splash 2013 at the university.—PO Photo by Sultan Bashir

Preston University‘Sports Gala’

concludesSPORTS REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The week-longfestivity “Spring Splash2013” organized by PrestonUniversity came to a conclu-sion with a grand prize distri-bution ceremony held at theShalimar Cricket Ground,Islamabad.

The winners of the inter-university T-20 Cricket, Bad-minton, Table Tennis andFootball competitions wereawarded prizes, said a pressrelease.

Teams of the winninguniversities in all the fourtournaments received tro-phies and prizes from leg-endary test cricketer, MajidKhan who graced the occa-sion as Chief Guest.

In his brief address onthe occasion, chief guest,legendary test cricketerMajid Khan at the outset con-gratulated the winners of allthe sports events.

He immensely lauded thetalent of the young studentswho excelled in the games inwhich they participated andwon 1st and 2nd positions.

Eulogizing the initiativeof Preston University to or-ganize inter- universitysports and other competi-tions every year, Mr. MajidKhan said that it was trulyan admirable contributionthat the university was to-wards building the talents ofthe students in extra curricu-lar activities which are no lessimportant than education.

He expressed In the maleT-20 Cricket championship,after a tough competitionFederal Urdu University,Islamabad beat Air Univer-sity, Islamabad in the finalsto win the trophy of the com-petition.

LAHORE—Pakistani Youthfootballers showed theirprofessional skills and out-classed Turkmenistan 6-0 inAFC U-14 Championship(Qualifiers) match at SamenAl Aemeh Stadium,Mashad, Iran on Wednes-day.

According to informationmade available here StrikerMuhammad Shahid gave Pa-kistan the first goal in the 4thminute of the game. In the25th minute Striker JunaidAhmed doubled the lead fol-lowed by 30th minute goal bydefender Saif Ali.

Pakistan dumped their

Pak U-14 football teambeat Turkmenistan

ever struggling opponentswith further addition of goalsand striker Majid Khan hit thelime light by slamming twogoals in space of four min-utes in the 32nd and 35thminutes.

Pakistan StrikerMuhammad Shahid com-pleted the tally in the dyingstages to the play as thegreen shirts achieved a de-cent result in their openingtie of the event.

This match was equallyimportant for Turkmenistanwhose team has alreadyplayed a draw againstKyrgyzstan. Though

Turkmenistan team is con-sider a favorite team but wasbulldozed in this match by abetter planning and offen-sive strategy of the Pakistaniteam under the expert coach-ing.

Meanwhile, PresidentPFF,Faisal Saleh Hayat andSecretary, Ahmad Yar Lodhihave praised the performanceof the team againstTurkmenistan and wished itluck in its coming matches.

Pakistan U-14 team nowplay their next games againstKyrgyzstan on April 26, rivalIndia April 28 and hosts Iranon April 29.—APP

KARACHI—Former Asianchampionship finalistMuhammad Sajjad was tar-geting the title in 29th edi-tion of continental compe-tition which explode intoaction here at Sheraton Ho-tel Hall from April 27.

“Luck eluded me in2010 in Thailand. But I am

Sajjad determined to makehis mark in Asian Snooker

determined to make mymark in my home territory,”29-year-old Sajjad, whowill be featuring in hisfourth Asian champion-ship, remarked.

“I can not forget losingin the final of Asian eventin 2010.It was big disap-pointment for me”, he said.

He said he had reallyworked hard to achieve mygoals. “I Know it will be bigchallenge.But ready andprepared to do somethinggood for the country,” hesaid.

Sargodha-based Sajjadsaid being a host countryexpectations would be high.“I will try to come up to the

expectations of my sup-porter and well-wishers,” hesaid.

He said his old coachBilal Mughal, who runs asnooker club in Sargodhawas imparting training tohim and now NaveedKapadia is working hardwith us in national trainingcamp.

Muhammad Sajjad saidlong potting had been hisproblem and was workingon it to improve his game.

It had always beengreat honour to representyour country. My missionis to bring glory andhonour to the best of myabilities.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Former crick-eter Sarfraz Nawaz said thePakistan Cricket Board (PCB)should appoint former chiefselector Mohsin HassanKhan as the batting coach inorder to put the team on theright track.

Talking to APP onWednesday, Sarfraz Nawazsaid the national team hasperformed very well underMohsin and therefore heshould be called in again forthe job.

“Though he (Mohsin)hasn’t applied for the coach-ing job but there are somethings that need to be done

Sarfraz wants PCB to appointMohsin as batting coach

for the betterment of cricket.I believe if PCB appointshim as the coach, the teamwill come back on the righttrack they were on before,”he said. Under Mohsin’s feat Pa-kistan whitewashed Englandlast year in the historic testseries. “PCB chairman Ch.Zaka Ashraf should keepaside his grudges withMohsin and appoint him ascoach,” he said. Talking about the Cham-pions Trophy to be held inEngland next month, Sarfrazsaid, “With the ICC Champi-ons Trophy just around the

corner, I don’t know why thePCB chairman and selectorshave delayed in naming thefinal squad which was theneed of the hour,” he said. “The final squad shouldhave been named up till now,so that the players could gothrough thorough and toughtraining,” he said adding thatShoaib Malik, Shahid Afridiand Imran Farhat should bedropped from the final squadas they are out of form andare just occupying extraspace in the team which canbe given to other talentedperforming players. Pakistan team is placed

under Group B of the tourna-ment and as per schedule; itwill play against their cricketrivals India, South Africa andWest Indies. Talking about the trainingcamp for fast bowlersorganised by the PCB underformer captain and fastbowler Wasim Akram, Sarfrazsaid it would have been bet-ter if PCB would had at-tached Wasim with the Un-der-16 and Under-18 lot offast bowlers, as it is the agewhere we get a handful oftalented players rather thenassisting the seniorbowlers.—APP

LONDON—Liverpool strikerLuis Suarez has accepted aviolent conduct charge fromthe FA after biting Chelsea’sBranislav Ivanovic inSunday’s Premier Leaguedraw at Anfield.

However, the Uruguayanis ready to contest the length

Football: Suarez acceptsFA bite charge

of any ban imposed by theFA.

“Luis Suarez has todayaccepted a charge of violentconduct,” read a statementreleased by the FA.

“However, Suarez hasdenied the FA’s claim that thestandard punishment of

three matches is clearly in-sufficient for this offence.

“The incident was notseen by the match officialsand has therefore been ret-rospectively reviewed.”

Suarez sunk his teeth intoIvanovic’s right arm duringSunday’s 2-2 draw at Anfieldin the Premier League.

On Monday, he was finedby Liverpool following theincident and asked that themoney be donated to theHillsborough Family SupportGroup.

Suarez has a long list ofprevious misdemeanourseven before joiningLiverpool from Ajax in Janu-ary 2011 and it is not the firsttime he has been in troublefor biting.

In November 2010, Suarezwas banned for sevenmatches and dubbed the‘Cannibal of Ajax’ after bit-ing PSV Eindhoven’s OtmanBakkal.

In December 2011, he wasbanned for eight matchesand fined #40,000 ($60,000)after being found guilty of ra-cially abusing Manchester

PESHAWAR—Swat andPeshawar took berth into thefinal of the KhyberPakthunkhwa Inter-RegionBoys Under-17 BadmintonChampionship being played atMakan Bagh Sports ComplexHall, Swat on Wednesday.

In the first semi-finalSwat stunned strong Bannuby 3-2 in the thrilling encoun-ter. In the first singles ShoaibRaiz of Bannu defeated Farazof Swat by 3-2. Faraz of Swattook the first two sets by 19-21 and 22-24 but failed toclick in the three consecutivesets won by Shoaib Riaz, anex-Under-16 Champion. Thescore was 21-19, 21-17 and21-19. Both Shoaib Raiz andFaraz exhibited excellent dis-

Swat to face Peshawar in KPInter-Region Badminton final

play of cross-court smashesand overhead smasheswhich were largely enjoyedby the jam-packed cheeringspectators.

Faraz has better chanceto win the singles after tak-ing 2-0 lead, but Shoaib Riazstaged a strong come backand defeated Faraz 3-2. It wasin the doubles when ShoaibRiaz and Majid overpoweredFaisal and Nisar in the mara-thon five sets battle. ShoaibRiaz and Majid won the firsttwo sets by 27-25, 24-22 butfailed to click in the third andfour sets won by Faisal andNisar at 19-21 and 18-21.

Both Shoaib Riaz andMajid were looked tired in thedoubles but it was the last

and decisive set in whichShoaib Riaz and Majid beatNisar and Faisal by 21-18. Itwas in the reverse singleswhen Nisar beat tired Majidby 3-0, the score was 21-19,21-17 and 21-18.

In the reverse doublesNisar and Faisal defeatedShoaib Riaz and Majid by 3-0, the score was 21-17, 21-19and 21-19. Bannu have justtwo players in the semi-fi-nals. Three of the Bannu play-ers were over aged andousted in the scrutiny.

The final of the Champi-onship will play betweenPeshawar and Swat. It was forthe first time that Swatreached to the final of the In-ter-Region Badminton.—APP

Butt ready foranti-corruption

rehabLAHORE—Pakistan’s formercaptain Salman Butt saidWednesday he had offeredto take part in anti-corruptionrehab a week after an inter-national court threw out hisappeal against a spot-fixingban.

The 28-year-old, alongwith team-mates Mohammad

Asif and Mohammad Aamer,was banned for contrivingdeliberate no-balls for cashduring the 2010 Lord’s Testagainst England.

The International CricketCouncil (ICC) in 2011 bannedButt for 10 years, with fivesuspended on the conditionthat he commits no furtheroffences and takes part in aprogramme of anti-corrup-tion education.

Asif received a sevenyear ban with two sus-pended while Aamer got fiveyears.

The trio and their agentMazhar Majeed were jailedby a British court in Novem-ber 2011. All three playerswere released last year. Buttappealed to the Swiss-basedCourt of Arbitration forSports for a reduction in hisfive-year ban but his appli-cation was rejected.

Butt met Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) officials lateTuesday to discuss his reha-bilitation programme. “I haveoffered my availability for therehabilitation and wheneverthe PCB wanted me to appearI will be ready,” Butt told AFP.

Bayern crushBarca withdynamic

4-goal showMUNICH—Barcelona, whohave changed the face of thegame in recent years, werehanded a footballing lessonwhen they were crushed 4-0 byBayern Munich in an extraor-dinary Champions Leaguesemi-final first leg.

The Catalans, winners ofthe trophy in 2009 and 2011, hadno answer to Bayern’s power,speed, pressing and resolutedefence as they slumped totheir heaviest defeat for almostsix years and matched theirworst result in European com-petition.

The victory was so com-prehensive the 68,000 crowd atthe Allianz Arena may havewondered whether they werewitnessing the end of an era asthe all-conquering visitors wereripped apart in the second half.

Thomas Mueller was thearchitect, scoring the first andlast goals and setting up thesecond for Mario Gomez as theBavarians, already crownedBundesliga champions, contin-ued an astonishing season thatcould yet yield a treble.

“We played fantasticallytoday,” Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told report-ers. “I have never experienceda night like this and I have beenaround for quite some time.

“I think we all saw Messiwas not fully fit. We have a verygood chance now of reachingthe final.” World Player of theYear Messi, returning from ahamstring injury, made little im-pact up front for Barca whilemidfield duo Xavi and AndresIniesta lacked their usual cut-ting edge.—AFP

Legendary singerShamshad Begum

dies at 94MUMBAI—Legendary singerShamshad Begum, one of thefirst playback singers in thefilm industry and voice be-hind hit songs like ‘Mere Piya

Gaye Rangoon’, ‘Kabhi AarKabhi Paar’ and ‘KajraMohabbat Wala’, died at herMumbai residence. She was94. “She was not keepingwell for past few months andwas admitted to the hospital.She passed away on Tues-day night. The funeral was asolemn affair with a fewfriends present,” Begum’sdaughter Usha said.—INP

WASHINGTON—In the late1970s, Central IntelligenceAgency had information thatChina might have provided afairly comprehensive pack-age of proven nuclear weap-ons design information to Pa-kistan, a recently declassifieddocument has revealed.

According to recentlydeclassified CIA data, ob-tained by the National Secu-rity Archive under the Free-dom of Information Act, theCIA had evidence suggest-ing close Pakistan-Chinanuclear cooperation, to thepoint of facilitating a nuclearweapons capability, al-though the intelligence com-munity saw this as possiblya special case based on analliance that had existed since

1963. “This allegation hascome up before, for examplein a State Department docu-ment and in major news sto-ries but this is the first timethe CIA has released some ofits own information,” accord-ing to the set of two docu-ments obtained by the Na-tional Security Archive.

“The estimate highlightssome of the main develop-ments, including “verbalconsent (in 1974) to help Pa-kistan develop a ‘nuclearblast’ capability”, “hedgedand conditional commit-ment” in 1976 to providenuclear weapons technol-ogy, and unspecified excisedinformation that raised the“possibility that China hasprovided a fairly comprehen-

sive package of provennuclear weapon design infor-mation,” the NSA said.

“Even without Chinesehelp, the Pakistanis could de-velop a nuclear weapon, butaccess to Chinese weaponsdesign and test data might becrucial in establishingIslamabad’s confidence in anuntested weapons capabil-ity,” said a 1983 national in-telligence estimate of theCIA, which is heavily excised.

The exchanges may nothave been one-way and thereference to Chinese “in-volvement” in Pakistan’s ura-nium enrichment programmeprobably refers to gas cen-trifuge technology, which Pa-kistan shared with the Chi-nese, it noted.—Online

China provided nukes weaponsdesigns to Pakistan: CIA

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—President Asif AliZardari said that there weresome frustrated elements in thesociety that wanted to sabo-tage the process of electionsin the country. However, thevested interests of such frus-trated elements would neverbear fruits. The President reit-erated his resolve for holdingthe forthcoming general elec-tions in the country on timeand said that the governmentwould take all necessary mea-sures for the safety of thepeople before, during and af-ter the elections.

The President said thiswhile in a meeting with SindhGovernor dr Ishrat Ul EbadKhan at the Governor houseWednesday. S i n d hGovernor on the occasion briefthe President on the law andorder in the metropolis.

The President said that theprovisioning of safe environ-ment to the citizens and ensur-ing the secdurity of everysingle man and woman was thetop priority of the government,which would never be allowedto be compromised.

The caretaker govern-ments, Election Commission ofPakistan and law enforcementagencies and institutions re-sponsible for citizens’ safetyshould devise a consolidatedstrategy to ensure peace andtranquility and safety of thecitizens and for holding of elec-tions in a peaceful environ-ment, he said. He directed thegovernor and authorities con-cerned to take steps for the im-provement in law and ordersituation in the city and accel-erate the pace of targeted op-erations against the terrorists,hardened criminals and out-laws in the city.

Conspiracies to defer pollswon’t bear fruit: Zardari

ISLAMABAD—While epi-demic diseases like measlesand polio have taken analarming situation withdaily deaths of small chil-dren, the federal govern-ment is facing the dilemmaof funding to purchase vac-cines as no funds have beenprovided in the budget ofthe current year and for thenext year.

Highly reliable sourcestold INP here on Wednes-day that the federal govern-ment owes $65 million to theUNICEF for the vaccinesalready procured through itfrom international sources

for immunization. Funds arenot being provided for thepayment and priority commit-tee which is involved in thepreparation of budget hasmade no allocations for thisvital health programme forthe year 2013-14.

The inter-ministerialmeeting convened by Inter-Provincial Coordination Min-istry on Tuesday discussedthe alarming epidemic spreadincluding deaths due tomeasles and other diseasesin the light of the report pre-pared by the Federal Om-budsman.

All the provinces and

Gilgit-Baltistan, AJK andFATA representatives agreedthat procurement of vaccine,which is required in big num-bers should be done by thefederal government directlythrough UNICEF.

They were told that thevaccines procured throughthe UNICEF costs Rs23.5per dose while the ongoingsystem of procurementthrough open tenders whichwas introduced in the pastto benefit the importers costRs45 per dose. They saidthat EPI rules already pro-vide exemption in certaincases and if needed Public

Procurement RegularityAuthority provision couldbe invoked to enable directpurchase of vaccinethrough UNICEF. It wasagreed to approach the PPAto issue a fresh exemptionfor vaccines procurementbecause it involves lives ofmillions of children as wellas price and quality of thevaccine. A redeeming fea-ture was that the Global Al-liance Vaccine Immunization(GAVI) has assured in ameeting with the FederalOmbudsman to extend anassistance of upto $30 mil-lion. —INP

Govt has no funds for vaccine against epidemics;unable to clear UNICEF dues of $65m

JALALABAD—An earth-quake centered inAfghanistan’s east killed atleast four people and injuredalmost 70, after wet weatherweakened the country’s tra-ditional mud-brick homes,officials said on Wednesday.

The 5.7 magnitude quakewas felt as far away as theIndian capital of New Delhi,the latest in a string of trem-ors to shake Asia thismonth.

The quake was 40 milesdeep with an epicenter 11 km(seven miles) from MehtarLam, the capital ofAfghanistan’s eastern prov-ince of Laghman, accordingto the U.S. GeologicalSurvey’s website.

Initial reports from offi-cials in neighboringNangarhar and Kunar prov-inces said four people hadbeen killed, with the deathtoll expected to rise. Sixty-nine people were injured.

Hundreds of homes col-lapsed across Kunar, theprovincial governor’sspokesman, WasifullahWasifi, said. Wednesdaysaw steady rain across mostof Afghanistan, whichwould have weakened thetraditional mud-brick homesmany Afghans live in, saidthe deputy chief ofAfghanistan’s National Di-saster Management Author-ity. The agency did not yethave casualty figures, hesaid.

Buildings swayed inNew Delhi and people raninto the street in the dis-puted northern region ofKashmir, where an earthquakekilled about 75,000 people in

2005, most on the Pakistanside. —Reuters

4 dead, 69 injuredin Afghan quake

Syrian landmarkmosque minaret

destroyedBEIRUT —The minaret of afamed 12th century Sunnimosque in the northern Syr-ian city ofAleppo was de-stroyed Wednesday in shell-ing leaving the once-soaringstone tower a pile of rubbleand twisted metal scatteredin the tiled courtyard.

President BasharAssad’s regime and anti-government activists tradedblame for the attack againstthe Umayyad mosque, whichoccurred in the heartAleppo’s walled Old City, aUNESCO World Heritagesite. It was the secondtime in just over a week thata historic Sunni mosque inSyria has been seriouslydamaged. Mosques servedas a launching pad for anti-government protests in theearly days of the Syrian up-rising, and many have beentargeted.—AP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—All PakistanNewspapers Society office-bearers and members Execu-tive Committee led by Presi-dent APNS Sarmad Ali calledon Punjab Chief MinisterNajam Sethi at ChiefMinister ’s Secretariat heretoday.

Difficulties being facedby newspaper industry,peaceful and transparentconduct of elections andload-shedding problem wasdiscussed on the occasion.Various proposals to providerelief to the people facingload-shedding were also dis-cussed in the meeting.

Secretary InformationAmjad Hussain was alsopresent on the occasion.

Talking to APNS delega-tion, the Chief MinisterNajam Sethi said that peopleare facing a number of prob-lems due to load-shedding,however sincere efforts arebeing made to provide reliefto the masses.

He said that power crisisis a national issue and can beresolved only by adopting anational approach.He said that the burden ofload-shedding will have tobe shared and decisionsmade for the solution of thisproblem by keeping nationalinterest uppermost.

Efforts on to provide relief tomasses in loadshedding: CM

Govt requests SCto move all

Musharraf casesto a single place

ISLAMABAD—The caretakerfederal government has re-quested the Supreme Courtof Pakistan to transfer all thecases against former presi-dent General (Retd) PervezMusharraf to a single placekeeping in view the sur-mounting security threatsfacing the former president.

According to sources,the federal governmentwrote a letter to the apex courtpleading that there are im-mense security threats in-volved in Musharraf’s trans-portation to and from differ-ent courts.—INP

Britain fears newwave of recessionLONDON—Recession mayjust be a word. But in Britainit may become a habit — anda dangerous one at that.

It’s possible that officialfigures on first quarter eco-nomic growth, to be releasedThursday, could show thecountry is back in recession,and tension is building.

Although economists onaverage expect growth of 0.1percent on the quarter, theywarn it would take the small-est statistical variation to putthe figure in negative terri-tory. That would place thecountry in recession, typi-cally defined as two con-secutive quarters of eco-nomic contraction.”—AP

Traders Alliancejoins PTIMULTAN—Chairman TradersAlliance Pakistan KhwajaMohammad Shafique alongwith hundreds of tradersjoined Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insafin the presence of PTI presi-dent Javed Hashmi and PTIVice Chairman ShahMehmood Qureshi here onWednesday. Addressing apress conference, KhawajaShafique said that traderscommunity had been re-mained loyal to PML-N for lastfew years but PML-N failedto deliver any sort of relief totraders as well as generalmasses. He informed that fivethousands traders fromacross the country would ar-range lunch in honour ofImran Khan in Lahore.—APP

Steps needed tocurb malariaHYDERABAD—Director Ma-laria Control Sindh, NaheedJamali Wednesday said thateffective measures are re-quired to contol malariawhich is now knocking at analarming stage. He said thiswhile talking to this scribe inconnection with the WorldMalaria Day, to be observedin Hyderabad on Thursdaylike other parts of the world.She said that Malaria Eradi-cation Programme wasstarted in Pakistan in 1961and in the Province of Sindhduring 1963. During eradica-tion period due to support offoreign aid, she informed thatcent percent houses weresprayed throughout thecountry she said.

Use voting rightsjudiciouslySWAT—The Central VicePresident of PML-N andParty candidate for NA-30,Ameer Muqam Tuesday saidthat Pakistan emerged on theworld map owing to effortsof PML-N and only the lead-ership of this political force iscapable to steer country outof crisis. He expressed theseviews in a ceremony held atSanghota to welcome newparty entrants. He said theparty who created Pakistanwould lead the country to-wards the course of progressand prosperity. —APP

3 kids succumb tomeaslesLAHORE—The caretakerPunjab government and pro-vincial health authorities havefailed to curb the spread of themeasles epidemic as threemore children died of the dis-ease Wednesday mountingdeath toll in Punjab to 61.According to details, twominor girls who were under-going treatment at MayoHospital and Children Hos-pital of Lahore breathed theirlast on early Wednesdaymorning. It should be men-tioned that 61 children havedied of measles in various ar-eas of Punjab. —INP

Earthquaketremors felt

across PakistanSTAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—Earthquaketremors were felt across Pa-kistan including ParachinarMohmand Agency,Shabqadar, Swat, Peshawar,Islamabad, Chiniot andLahore.

According to the USGeological Survey, the earth-quake measured 6.2 on theRichter scale with its epicen-ter in Southeastern Afghani-stan. Following the tremors,citizens rushed to openspaces fearing for their safety.No loss of life has been re-ported. Tremors were also feltin Afghanistan and India.

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari talking to Sindh Governor Dr. Ishrat-ul-EbadKhan during a meeting at Governor House.

ALEPPO: This undated image provided by Aleppo Media Center shows the minaret of a famed 12th century Umayyadmosque which was destroyed by the shelling on Wednesday.

Mehreen firstPakistani woman

to serve Australianparliament

SYDNEY—Mehreen Farooqi, aPakistani-born migrant, is setto become the first Muslimwoman to serve in Australianparliament.

It may be mentioned thatMehreen Farooqi, an environ-mental engineer, was selectedby the New South WalesGreens to fill a vacancy in theupper house of the state legis-lature.

She migrated from Pakistanwith her family in 1992.

The university academicwas selected by a postal bal-lot of party members, from afield of seven in a contest inwhich only women could run.

Farooqi will take up herposition in July, when she willbecome the first female Mus-lim in any of Australia’s state,territory or federal parlia-ments.—INP

A VIRUS that infects humans without causing disease kills breastcancer cells in the laboratory. Re-

searchers from Pennsylvania State Uni-versity (Penn State) College of Medicinein the US, tested an unal-tered form of adeno-asso-ciated virus type 2(AAV2) on three differenthuman breast cancertypes representing differ-ent stages of cancer andfound it targeted all ofthem. They hope by un-covering the pathwaysthe virus uses to triggercancer cell death, theirwork will lead to new tar-gets for anti-cancerdrugs. A paper on thiswork appeared recently inthe journal MolecularCancer.

In earlier studies, theteam also showed thatAAV2 promotes cell deathin cervical cancer cells infected with hu-man papillomavirus (HPV).

Cells have different ways of dying.When a healthy cell gets damaged, orstarts behaving in an abnormal way, thisnormally triggers production of proteinsthat cause apoptosis or cell suicide: partof this process also involves switchingoff proteins that trigger cell division. Theproblem with cancer cells is thatapoptosis fails, and the proteins thatregulate cell division and proliferationstay switched on, so abnormal cells con-tinue to multiply and create new abnor-mal cells and that is how tumors develop.

Breast cancer is the most commoncancer in the world and the main causeof cancer-related death in women.

First author Dr Samina Alam, re-search associate in microbiology and

immunology at Penn State,told the press in a statementreleased on Thursday thatbreast cancer is also “com-plex to treat”.

Senior investigator DrCraig Meyers, professor ofmicrobiology and immu-nology at Penn State, ex-plained why:

“Because it has mul-tiple stages, you can’t treatall the women the same.Currently, treatment ofbreast cancer is dependenton multiple factors such ashormone-dependency, in-vasiveness and me-tastases, drug resistanceand potential toxicities.”

However, he went onto say that in their study, they showedthat “AAV2, as a single entity, targetsall different grades of breast cancer”.

He and his team believe that AAV2is switching back on the apoptosis path-ways that were switched off in the can-cer cells.For their study they used labtissue cultures of cancer cells and foundAAV2 killed 100% of them within sevendays, with most of the cell death pro-teins activated on day five.In anotherexperiment, working with cancer cellsfrom an aggressive form of breast can-cer, they found the virus took threeweeks to kill the cells.

Non-disease virus killsbreast cancer cells in lab

ISLAMABAD: Family members belonging to unprivileged class are carrying bundles of dry branches for domestic use.

Intellectuals discuss book ‘Nazriya-i-Pakistan’STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Dr. AyubSabir’s booklet “Nazriya-I-Pakistan” can be placed atpar with any voluminousbook on this subject due toits highly appreciable con-tents and sequence of itschapters which portray thereal spirit of Pakistan move-ment as well as the sugges-tions it carries out to intro-duce the best suitable edu-cation system for the coun-try to safeguard its ideo-logical barriers.

These remarks were madeby eminent Pakistani scholarand educationist of interna-tional repute Dr. Anwar Dil, inhis presidential address, dur-ing the monthly literary sittingof Nuqta-I-Nazar arranged bythe Nazriya-I-Pakistan Coun-cil at Aiwan-I-Quaid, whereinthe literati of twin cities re-viewed the booklet in detail.Those who attended theevent included Dr. Ehsan

Akhter, as Chief Guest,Muzaffar Mehmood Qureshi,Prof. JalilAali, Dr. MaqsoodJafri, the author Dr. AyubSabir,,Manzar Naqvi, Asghar Abid,

Shamim Ikramul Haq, AfshanAbbasi, Yawar Azeem, AliQambar and Anjum Khaleeq,the host.

The two hours discussion

ISLAMABAD: Farhana Azeem, Advisor Floral Art Society Islamabad briefs partici-pants during Floral Art Competition.

brought out that the booklet“Nazriya-i-Paksitan” was ca-pable of answering manyquestions as to why a coun-try like Pakistan was lacking

behind the expected degreeof achievements and pros-perity while it was blessedwith the best of resources andpotentially strong manpowerin every field.

The meeting was of theunanimous view that theonly reason of our failure asa progressive country wasthat we have forgotten thevalues, our religion as wellas the leaders of Pakistanmovement like Quaid-I-Azam and Allama Iqbal, haveset for us to lead our lives astrue Muslims and patrioticPakistanis. We can still havethe renaissanceas we see ashining dawn approachingin the shape of our youngergeneration which is showingan unconditional love for themotherland, the gatheringmaintained.

It was summed up thatDr. Ayub‘s book would goa long way in making usthink about the fundamen-tal objectives of the Paki-stan movement.

April 25

ALLAMA Iqbal Open Uni-versity has scheduled itsfinal exams of MS, M.Philand Ph.D Programmes forthe Semester Autumn, 2012from 25th April, 2013 simul-taneously.

*****THE COMSATS Instituteof Information Technol-ogy will hold a one-dayseminar on Developmentin Pakistan and Women-Inclusive Strategies onThursday besides an ex-hibition of women entre-preneurs here.

April 30

“MOTHER & ChildHealth Week” will start inRawalpindi Districts tillApril 30 and massiveawareness would be dis-seminated among themasses about the healthof mother and child.

ISLAMABAD: Participants of discussion on the book Nazariya-e-Pakistan at Aiwan-e-Quaid. Dr Anwar Dil, Dr Ahsan Akbar, Muzaffar Mehmood Qureshi, Prof Jalil, ManzarNaqvi, Dr Masood Jaffery and author of the book are seen in the picture.—PO photo bySultan Bashir

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister(PM), Mir Hazar Khan Khosohas directed interior ministryto stop the recruitment pro-cess of 2700 new police offi-cials in the Islamabad Police.

Reliable sources said thatthe PM decided to leave thematter of recruitment to newgovernment to be installedafter general elections.

The caretaker interior

PM stops recruitmentin Islamabad Police

minister Malik MuhammadHabib Khan had announcedto induct 2700 police person-nel in Islamabad police whilethe interior secretary hadalso directed the concernedquarters to advertise theposts.

Meanwhile, summary re-garding the funds was sentto finance ministry but theministry in return informedPM regarding the financialhurdles and non-availability

of funds. Keeping in view thefinancial crunch, Khoso di-rected the interior ministry tostop the new recruitment tillthe establishment of newgovernment.

It is pertinent to mentionthat the caretaker interior min-ister had announced the re-cruitment to beef up the se-curity in federal capital aheadof the coming polls but thePM stopped it due to lack offunds.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A GeneralCouncil meeting of PressCouncil of Pakistan (PCP)was held under the chairman-ship of Raja M. Shafqat KhanAbbassi.

Media commission reportand election guidelines infive languages were reviewedin the meeting.

PCP Chairman said that acommittee had been formedcomprising Wamiq A Zubari,Syed Fasih Iqbal, GhulamNabi Mughal and BachalLaghari to set up PCP re-gional office at Karachiwhereas another committeehad also been formed headedby Fasih Iqbal to redress theproblems of journalists ofQuetta.

Abbassi said that it wasthe responsibility of the me-

Election 2013

PCP for foolproofsecurity to media

dia to provide correct anddue coverage to political par-ties. There should be no ex-ternal interference by anyquarter to ensure better roleof media.

He said that state agen-cies should provide fool-proof security to the mediaso that it could discharge itsresponsibility in an efficientmanner.

The meeting also en-dorsed the previousmeeting’s agenda andstressed that complaintmechanism should be effec-tive.

M u j e e b - u r - R e h m a nShami, Nasir Zaidi, YasmeenRehman, Zia Shahid, AyeshaIkram, Bachal Laghari, IqbalJaffery, Siddiq Baloch,Wamiq A. Zubari, GhulamNabi Mughal attended themeeting.

Shops, restaurantsto close by 11pm

RAWALPINDI—The Punjabgovernment has given ordersto close down all hotels, shopsand wedding halls at 11pm dueto the severe power crisis.

In order to cope with loom-ing power crisis, Punjab gov-ernment has strictly bannedthe use of air condition in allgovernment offices before 11am and has ordered to con-serve electricity by shuttingoff additional power supplies.

All monthly bills of govern-ment offices would be strictlychecked at the end of month.

Punjab govt has also or-dered the closure of weddinghalls by 10:00 pm and shopsand restaurants by 11:00pm.

Strict action would betaken against all those whowould try to violate thelaw.—Online

Textbooks of PTBnot available in

marketRAWALPINDI—Despite startof new academic session,text books of various sub-jects are still unavailable tostudents of private and gov-ernment schools.

The authorities con-cerned have failed to ad-dress shortage of textbooks.

The new academic yearhas started from April 1 butmany textbooks of PunjabTextbook Board are still notavailable in the market, caus-ing immense problems forthe students of governmentand private schools. Thestudents and their parentsare complaining non-avail-ability of most prescribedbooks published by thePunjab Textbook Board(PTB).

The parents say sincePTB books are not availableand they are being forced tobuy expensive booksprinted by private publish-ers since some teachershave started fining the chil-dren for not bringing thebooks.

Muhammad Altaf, fatherof a fifth grade student, saidthat he had purchased somebooks of 2012 editions forhis son, but now his teach-ers have been telling him tobuy the 2013 editions, mostof which he said, were notavailable in the market.

Another parent, com-plained that every year thePunjab Textbook Board de-layed publication of one ortwo books. But this year, hesaid, most books were notavailable.—APP

23 outlaws arrestedRAWALPINDI—Police onWednesday arrested 23 out-laws from different areas ofthe city and seized 489 gramscharras, 65 bottles of liquorand four pistols and a stolencar from them. According toa police spokesman, WarisKhan police arrested Sohailand recovered 40 bottles ofliquor. R.A. Bazaar policeheld Fayyaz for having fiveliquor bottles while Shahidwas netted with three liquorbottles.

Race Course police ap-prehended Irfan and recov-ered 10 bottles of liquor. Civilline police sent behind thebars Khursheed as five liquorbottles were recovered fromhim.—APP

Minister for establishingart and craft schools

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker Fed-eral Minister for National Heri-tage and IntegrationShahzada Jamal Nazir hassuggested to establish artand craft schools under pub-lic and private partnership inorder to promote heritage ofthe country. The minister ex-pressed these views whilespeaking at a meeting onprojects, goals and activitiesof Lok Virsa here.

He said there is a need ofsponsorship and marketingaccess to the crafts for therevival and uplift of the crafts.

He said roads, streetsand other popular placesshould also be named afterthe artisans in order to payhomage to their skills.

He directed the authori-ties concerned to take all

possible steps for the re-vival and promotion of heri-tage and stressed on theneed to strengthen the rootsof culture in order to projectthe true identity of the coun-try.

The minister appreciatedLok Virsa for its efforts tocreate harmony among thefederating units by holdingnational and communitybased activities andprojects, adding it serves asthe only show-window onmagnificent living culturalheritage of the country.

Executive Director LokVirsa Khalid Javaid informedthe minister that a road hasalready been named after folksinger Tufail Niazi which isleading in front of hishouse.—APP

Pak, Thai relationsto be strengthened

ISLAMABAD—Chairman Sen-ate Nayyer Hussain Bokharihas said that Pakistan ac-cords high priority to its re-lations with all countries ofSouth East Asian region par-ticularly Thailand

“We want to furtherstrengthen our relations indifferent spheres includinglegislature, trade and tour-ism”, he said. He was ex-pressing these views in ameeting with Thailand’s Sen-ate delegation led by Presi-dent Mr. Nikom Wairatpanichat parliament house here.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that Thailand’s Senatedelegation is on three-dayvisit to Pakistan at the invita-tion of Chairman Senate andwill have important meetingsincluding that with the Presi-dent, Asif Ali Zardari.—NNI

ISLAMABAD—Land mafia isactive in the illegal sale ofplots in Saidpur with impu-nity in connivance with cor-rupt elements of Capital De-velopment Authority(CDA).

Land mafia has beengiven free hand by CDA tosuch an extent that earlier itused to occupy the tract ofland adjacent to their roomsby constructing a room overthere illegally. Now they havestarted selling the mountain-

Illegal plots sellinggoes unchecked

ous areas as well.They sell out plot with

the area equivalent to tworooms at the rate of Rs 50000while the large sized plots arebeing sold out at the ratesranging between Rs 100000to Rs 200000.

The citizens have de-manded high ups of CDA tostop this illegal business ofplots besides initiating actionagainst the corrupt officialsfound involved in this unlaw-ful transaction.—Online

The first one gets theoyster the second

gets the shell.—Andrew Carnegie

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Board ofManagement of PakistanState Oil (PSO) convened onTuesday at PSO House toreview the company’s per-formance for the first ninemonths of FY13 from July,2012 to March, 2013.

The meeting waschaired by Mr. AhsanBashir and members in at-tendance were Dr. MirzaIkhtiar Baig. Mr.Mohammad Naeem Malik,Mr. Malik Naseem HussainLawbar, Mr. Raja HameedAhmed Saleem, Mr.

Muhammad Azam and Mr.Naeem Y. Mir-CEO&MD,PSO.

In the period under re-view, PSO’s revenues roseto Rs 930 billion as com-pared to Rs 862 billion in thecorresponding period lastyear, representing a growthof 7.8 %. After tax earningsalso witnessed significantimprovement and increasedto Rs. 9.31 billion in the pe-riod under review in com-parison to Rs. 8.97 billionduring the correspondingperiod last year represent-ing an increase of 3.8 %.

During this time period,

industry volumes for BlackOil remained stable whileWhite Oil grew by 1% re-flecting an increase inMogas consumption of16%. PSO’s share of theMOGAS segment also grewto 50.9% in comparison to49.6% while the HSD mar-ket share increased to57.6% against 54.8% lastyear. Once again, your Com-pany also continued to holdonto the lions share of themarket with its share in theWhite Oil segment growingto 56.0% of the overall mar-ket while its share in theBlack Oil segment stood at

74.7%, thereby contributingto a total market share of64.3%.

Living up to its role asthe nation’s leading PublicSector Company; PSO hasinaugurated the first of itskind Fortified Medical Cen-ter at PSO House. Also dur-ing this period, PSO for-mally inaugurated the firststreet under its unique CSRStreet Program in Thatta,Sindh.

Recently, in April PSOhas taken further stepsalong the path of becomingan integrated energy com-pany and building a self-re-

liant energy chain by sign-ing various strategic agree-ments. This has includedsigning a MoU with EngroPowerGen Limited (EPL) toreview the technical andeconomical feasibility of theThar coal project. Addition-ally a second MoU has beensigned with the Governmentof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(GoKP) for the establish-ment of a state-of-the-art oilrefinery with a capacity of40,000 barrels per day inDistrict Kohat - KhyberPakhtunkhwa. PSO has alsoinitiated a number of newand innovative marketing

projects to project its image.With this in mind, the Com-pany has inaugurated thefirst of its kind “DieselSquare” in Karachi andplans to replicate thisproject in multiple cities na-tionwide.

Another first for PSOhas been the inaugurationof the world’s first “Commu-nity Owned Station” inGujrat which shall helpbring about a social revolu-tion at a grass roots levelby distributing the station’sprofit amongst local areastakeholders.

At the meeting, the

Board appreciated the Com-pany management’s effortson behalf of the sharehold-ers as well as the employ-ees and the general public.At the same time, the Boardexpressed increasing con-cern over the balance of re-ceivables, including pricedifferential claims, whichstood at over Rs 142.8 bil-lion as on March 31, 2013.They observed that the fi-nancial costs of this debtcoupled with the continu-ously increasing receiv-ables from the power sectorcontinued to hurt the over-all profitability of the com-

pany and directed efforts tobe made to reduce the im-pact of the burdening fi-nancial costs through con-stant pursuit for recoveryof receivables from thepower sector entities aswell as from the Govern-ment of Pakistan. Keepingin view the financial con-straints the Board did notapprove any dividends forthe period under review.The Company managementthanked the members of theBoM for their direction andpledged to act on their in-structions for the futurebenefit of the shareholders.

Post tax profit of PSO for FY13 increases by 3.8%

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI —Standard Char-tered was recentlyrecognised as the Best Struc-tured Trade Finance providerin Pakistan by Asset Triple ACountry Award 2013. Thisaward is recognition of Stan-dard Chartered’s superiorstructuring and distributioncapabilities, and reinforces itsdominant leadership positionin Wholesale Banking.

Commenting on the rec-ognition Mohsin A. Nathani,

Chief Executive, StandardChartered Pakistan said,“The Best Structured TradeFinance House award re-flects the Bank’s commitmenttowards innovation and is atestament to the exceptionalperformance that the Bankhas achieved across its busi-ness in the country. Bankshave an essential role in so-ciety and thereby we activelyinvest in innovative prod-ucts and services to provideour clients with world classfinancial solutions that cater

to their specific needs.”The Asset Triple A

Awards are Asia’s definingrecognition for excellence inthe industry. Into their sec-ond decade, the perceptionand appreciation of TheTriple A’s has gone fromstrength to strength.

The Bank was competingwith some of the largest lo-cal players in the BankingIndustry and has won thisaward on the basis of its com-petence and commitment tothe customers.

Standard Chartered recognised as ‘BestStructured Trade Finance Provider’

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—United BankLimited (UBL), one ofPakistan’s largest privatebanks with nearly 1,300 do-mestic branches, announcedits results for the first quar-ter 2013 on Tuesday, April 23,2013. The bank registered aprofit after tax of Rs. 4.9 bil-lion for Q1’13 in its consoli-dated results, which repre-sents a 2% growth over thesame period last year. Thistranslates into earnings pershare of Rs. 3.82 (March 2012:Rs. 3.97). The Board of Di-rectors in their meeting heldon April 23, 2013 also ap-

proved an interim cash divi-dend of 20%, i.e., Rs.2.00 pershare. Despite falling mar-gins and severe spread com-pression, the bank was ableto enhance its fee income andlower provisions.

Non-interest income inQ1’13 saw an increase of 17%to Rs. 5.1 billion. Fees andcommissions grew by 23% toRs2.7 billion, mainly attribut-able to increase in remit-tances, branchless bankingincome, improved generalbanking fees and cross-sellof bancassurance. Dividendincome increased by Rs 0.4billion to Rs 0.5 billion inQ1’13, whilst capital gains

increased by Rs 0.6 billion toreach Rs 1.0 billion in Q1’13.

Provisions reduced byRs182 million compared tothe corresponding period lastyear and this has resulted inan improvement in the Bank’scoverage ratio.

Administrative expensesreduced by 1% over the pre-vious quarter. Compared tothe first quarter of 2012, ex-penses increased by Rs 674million to Rs 6.7 billion, par-tially due to the full impact ofthe 2012 branch expansion,rupee devaluation on over-seas expenses and an increasein variable costs driven byhigher commission earnings.

UBL’s consolidated assets crossRs1 trillion in Q1

EPZA Chairman Muhammad Saadat S Cheema briefing Federal Minister for Industry and Production ShahzadaAhsan Ashraf Sheikh.

ZONG and NADRA signed an agreement through which NADRA will be using ZONG’svoice services on the allocated short code 7000 for Centralized Call Centre. This call centrewill be used for providing assistance to general public for different queries. Picture showsZONG’s CEO Fan Yunjun shaking hands with Muhammad Tariq Malik, Chairman NADRA.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Establishment ofExport Processing Zone inGwadar can prove instrumen-tal in bringing substantial for-eign and local investmentthrough economic and tradeactivity. When fully func-tional, it has the potential tobenefit many neighbouringand landlocked countries.This was observed byShahzada Ahsan AshrafShaikh, Minister for Indus-tries and Production duringhis visit to Export ProcessingZones Authority in Karachi.

While emphasizing theimportance of Gawadar, theFederal Minister said thatthe importance of this portis strategic in nature and it

can be visualized to becomea regional hub serving incom-ing and out going commer-cial traffic of Middle East,Central Asian Republics andGulf countries. It will attracttrade from over twenty coun-tries including Srilanka,Bangladesh, Oman, UAE,Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq andIran. Keeping such profile oftrade in perspective it is natu-ral to plan establishment ofan Export Processing Zone inGwadar on priority basis.

The Federal Minister as-sured Chairman EPZA andhis team that the Ministry willextend all out support for es-tablishment of an Export Pro-cessing Zone in Gawadarand instructed EPZA Chair-man to immediately speed up

the work in this regard.Chairman EPZA, Mr.

Saadat S. Cheema informedthe Federal Minister thatGawadar is already on thetop priority of his team. Hementioned that the landwhich has been allocated forEPZA in Gwadar is far fromthe port, we therefore re-quest for its re-allocationnear the port as otherwiseExport Processing Zone inGawadar will become alesser attractive businessproposition for the inves-tors. By moving close to theport we may well become acountry specific export pro-cessing zone, keeping inperspective the significantChinese investment inGawadar Port.

Gwadar vital for Pak economy

LAHORE: John Park, Managing Director Samsung andAkbar Khan, Chief Marketing Officer at Ufone exchang-ing the MoU at the launch of Samsung Galaxy S 4.

Delegation of Afghanint’l bank visits ISE

TARIQ KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD—A delegationfrom Afghan InternationalBank visited Islamabad StockExchange (ISE). The delega-tion apprized that althoughmoney market was function-ing under the umbrella of Af-ghan Central Bank, however,the country has yet to havea stock market as well as se-curities regulator. The partici-pants were therefore inter-ested to know about thefunctioning of stock marketand investment procedures.

Mr. Waris Niazi DeputyGeneral Manager ISE gave adetailed presentation on se-curities market and invest-ment procedures. The partici-pants were briefed about thesecurities laws, functioningof stock markets, roe of Se-

curities & Exchange Commis-sion of Pakistan (SECP),NCCPL and CDC. Mr. Niaziexplained that after itsdemutualization on August27, 2012, the ISE is in searchof a strategic investor for saleof 40% shares available withit on behalf of members of theExchange. He said that afterfloatation of further 20%shares to public at large, theshareholding of the ISE shallbe diversified. The partici-pants were informed that thedemutualization has helpedISE to improve its gover-nance.

Replying to various ques-tions of the participants, Mr.Usman Rashid Head of In-vestor Relation of ISE in-formed that Pakistani markethas been 3rd in world with33% return.

Samsung, Ufone tolaunch Samsung

Galaxy S 4STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Samsung Electron-ics Co., Ltd and Ufone havejoined hands to launchSamsung Galaxy S4 in Pakistan.The MOU signing ceremonybetween both the companieswas held at the Pearl Continen-tal Hotel Lahore. Among thetelecom operators, Ufone shallbe the co-launch partner forSamsung Galaxy S4 in Pakistan

With a range ofSmartphones launched everyyear, Samsung has attainedimmense popularity all over theworld. As a latest addition tothe Galaxy Series Smartphones,Samsung Galaxy S4 offers ex-citing possibilities for “consum-ers on the go” and has beenbecoming increasingly popularever since it was unveiled inUSA on March 14, 2013 . Be-sides receiving a tremendousresponse from consumersworldwide, the Samsung Gal-axy S4 reached 10 million pre-orders in the first two weeksafter it was announced lastmonth. The innovative newdevice is the most eagerlyawaited device in Pakistan.Ufone too, shall soon be initi-ating pre-booking of SamsungGalaxy S4 for the all theSamsung Smartphone enthusi-asts.

Speaking at the event FaridUllah Jan, head of mobile phonebusiness at SEPAK said, “Intoday’s age staying connectedon the go is an essential. TheSamsung Galaxy S4, being a reallife companion, goes a stepahead in providing the mostadvanced user experience thatmakes consumers’ life richer,simpler and more fun”.

Bank Alfalah postshandsome profit

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Bank Alfalah hasposted a healthy profit be-fore tax of Rs. 1.527 billion forthe first quarter endedMarch 31, 2013, a commend-able achievement consider-ing the challenging macro-economic landscape and thedeclining interest rates envi-ronment.

Profit after tax for the firstquarter was recorded at Rs.1.011 billion and earnings pershare were reported at Rs.0.75. The bank has managedto increase its non mark-upincome by 27% to Rs. 1.864billion in the first quarterended March 31, 2013 com-pared to the correspondingperiod last year. Revenue forthe first quarter was reportedat Rs. 5.688 billion, a declinefrom Rs. 6.108 billion reportedin the corresponding periodlast year mainly attributableto pressure on net interestincome due to lower interestrates in the current quarter.

Total assets increased toRs. 544.724 billion at March 31,2013 as compared to Rs.536.467 billion at year end2012, further strengtheningbank’s financial position.

PASSCOannounces wheat

procurement policyLAHORE—Pakistan Agricul-tural Storage & Services Cor-poration (PASSCO) an-nounced its Wheat Procure-ment Policy 2013 for purchas-ing 1.6 million wheat across thecountry. The policy statementwas made by Col TanveerHussain, General ManagerCommercial PASSCO whileaddressing a press conferencehere at the PASSCO office onWednesday. G.M Field BrigRashid was also present on theoccasion. Col Tanveer saidthat the department had com-pleted all the arrangements forprocurement of wheat this yearand a total of 218 purchasingcentres had been set up in 21tehsils of Pakistan and mainaim was to facilitate small grow-ers.

He told media thatPASSCO would start distrib-uting bags on Thursdaywhile wheat receiving proce-dure would be started on May1,to be completed in sixweeks. He said that eightbags would be given for oneacre while no wheat growerwould be given more than 200bags at one time. —APP

Nishat Power postsRs.2.06 b profitISLAMABAD—The NishatPower Limited on Wednes-day announced the profit ofRs.2.06 billion for the periodended on March 31, 2013,registering an increase of44.69 per cent againstRs.1.42 billion in the sameperiod of the last year. Theprofit of the company wasincreased due to a surge insales and a decline infinance cost. The sales ofthe company stood atRs.18.58 billion for ninemonths of current year,witnessing an increase of18.44 per cent againstRs.15.69 billion in the sameperiod of the last year. Inthe same way, the financecost of company hadshown a decrease of 27.27per cent from Rs.2.18 billionto Rs.1.71 billion during theperiod under view. Theearning per share (EPS) hadwitnessed a surge fromRs.4.02 in the period of lastyear to Rs.5.82 EPS in thecurrent year.—APP

LSE down by 14.13pointsLAHORE—Bearish trendprevailed in Lahore StockExchange on Tuesday as itshed 14.13 points, followingthe LSE-25 index openedwith 4012.87 and closed at4027.00 points. The market’soverall situation, however,corresponded to an upwardtrend as it remained at 2.041million shares to closeagainst previous turnover of892,400 shares, showing anupward move of 1.149million shares. While, out ofthe total 100 active scrips 36moved up, 12 shed valuesand 52 remined equal. EngroCorporation Limited,Shakarganj Mills Limitedand Engro Foods Limitedwere major gainers of theday by recording increase intheir per share value by Rs5.41, Rs 1.05 and Re 0.98respectively. Nishat MillsLimited, Pakistan State OilCompany Limited andPakistan National Shippinglost their per share value byRs 2.95, Rs 2.00 and Rs 1.90respectively. The VolumeLeader of the day includedByco Petroleum Pakistanwith 569,000 shares, SilkBank Limited (Saudi) with360,000 shares and MapleLeaf Cement Factory with219,500 shares.—APP

Conversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Coveron Foreign CurrencyDeposits (excluding F.E. 25deposits) by the State Bankon April 25, 2013. The ratesare U.S. Dollar Rs 98.4026,Japanese Yen Rs 0.9882,Pound Sterling Rs 150.3494and Euro 128.0710.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Vice President ofSCCI Pakistan chapter IftikharAli Malik on Wednesday saidthat the SAARC Chambers ofCommerce and Industry (SCCI)could play a pivotal role inbroadening economic co-op-eration for the benefit of peopleof the region. Talking to APPafter attending SAARC CCI as-sembly and returning fromKathmandu, leader of Pakistandelegation said.

He cited that intra-regionaltrade figures for South Asianwere disappointing as theseconstitutes only 1.4 percent ofthe total world imports and 1.2percent of exports,whereasmerchandise trade was only27.9 percent of GDP, the low-est in the world. He said thatWorld Development Indicators

have revealed that South Asiahouses 1.4 billion world’spopulation,thus representinga large workforce, tremendousbusiness and investment op-portunities. Although SouthAsia has significantly reducedimport tariffs, the cost of trad-ing across its borders is oneof the highest in the world, re-gretted Malik.A number ofnon-tariff barriers have beenidentified which hamper tradeand increase cost, he added.

He said that SCCI, anapex organisation ofSAARC and a representa-tive of the private sector hasworked to create awarenessof regional integrationthrough various activitiesin the region and beyond.Iftikhar Ali Malik said that

SAARC CCI has fully sup-ported the government-in-dustry partnership and re-mained engaged in dialoguewith governments of theSAARC region.

He added that recent de-velopments and parleys be-tween Indo-Pak would ben-efit and help normalization ofrelations between the twonuclear states. He noted thatif all SAARC member coun-tries pool and harness theirindigenous resources itwould improve socio eco-nomic conditions of their re-spective people.

He highlighted that SCCIwas established in 1985 withmain agenda to promote re-gional and economic co-op-eration in South Asia.

SAARC Chambers tobroaden weal co-operation

Officials of ICAP, DAGP, and CGA pictured after signing MoU at Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Secretary IT and Telecom Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qadir with WaleedBasheer who won Gold Medal in global computer competition.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Housing and Works Dr. Younis Soomro chairing the meeting of National Con-struction Limited.

Gold Tezab 47400.00Silver Tezabi 788.57

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct)50420.00Gold 22 Ct 46010.00SilverTezabi 895.00Silver Thobi 815.00

USA 98.30 98.10

UK 149.75 149.44

EURO 128.53 128.27

Canada 95.90 95.71

Switzerland 105.45 105.23

Australia 101.26 101.05

Sweden 15.06 15.03

Japan 0.9849 0.9829

Norway 16.93 16.89

Singapore 79.42 79.26

Denmark 17.24 17.20

Omani Riyal 255.00 245.00

Saudi Arabia 26.21 26.16

Hong Kong 12.66 12.64

Kuwait 344.96 344.26

Malaysia 32.33 32.26

Newzeland 84.99 82.83

Qatar 27.00 26.71

UAE 26.76 26.71

KR WON 0.0877 0.0875

Thailand 3.432 3.425

First Pakistanibiological productaccepted at ICVH

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—For the firsttime ever a Pakistan manu-factured biologicalproduct’s clinical trial wasaccepted and presented atthe prestigious ICVH andhaving the dual distinc-tion of being presentedearlier at EASL (EuropeanAssociation of Liver Dis-eases) conference 2012.Getz Pharma presented lat-est clinical data on Unipeg(Pegylated Interferon) atthe International Confer-ence on Viral Hepatitis(ICVH) 2013 held recentlyat New York, USA.

The World famousIcahn School of Medicineat Mount Sinai in NewYork and the InternationalAssociation of Providersof AIDS Care (IAPAC)jointly sponsored The In-ternational Conference onViral Hepatitis 2013. It washeld at the New York Acad-emy of Medicine in NewYork City from April 24-26,2013.

The conference wasco-chaired by ProfessorDouglas T. Dieterich, MD(Icahn School of Medi-cine at Mount Sinai, NewYork, USA) and ProfessorMark R. Nelson, MD(Chelsea & WestminsterHospital, London, En-gland).

Dr. Saleem Qureshi,Co-Investigator EUROPTrial from KRL HospitalIslamabad presented GetzPharma’s Clinical Trialfindings titled “AMULTICENTER EVALU-ATION OF PEGYLATEDINTERFERON (UNIPEG)FOR RESPONSE IN PAKI-STANI POPULATION(EUROP)” at the confer-ence which was well re-ceived by the audience &faculty at the ICVH 2013.The abstract was alsopublished in the ICVH2013 program & abstractbook.

Oil up in AsiaSINGAPORE—Oil pricesrose slightly in AsiaWednesday on cautioushopes of a rise in energydemand in the UnitedStates, analysts said. NewYork’s main contract, lightsweet crude for delivery inJune, added 21 cents to$89.39 a barrel and BrentNorth Sea crude for Junedelivery gained 17 centsto $100.48 in mid-morningtrade.

“There is an underly-ing growth-in-demandprospect with the upcom-ing US stockpiles data.This is fuelling positivesentiment and balancinggenerally softer economicdata,” Jason Hughes, headof sales trading at CMCMarkets in Singapore, toldAFP. Later Wednesday, theUS Department of Energy(DoE) will publish its reporton crude reserves in thecountry for the week end-ing April 19.—AFP

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

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Secretary Min-istry of Information Technol-ogy and Telecom Dr. ZafarIqbal Qadir of Wednesdaysaid quality education andeconomic prosperity arelinked together. Educationsystem plays most importantrole in rise and fall of nationsas it is related to the overalleconomic performance, hesaid.

Secretary IT said thiswhich talking to Vice Chair-man of PakTurk SchoolsTurgut Puyan. WaleedBashir, a class ninth studentfrom Balochistan whobagged gold medal in a com-

petition in Kazakhstan andothers were also present onthe occasion. Dr. Zafar IqbalQadir said that those who arepromoting quality educationin Pakistan are our bestfriends as it is linked to sus-tainable development ofeconomy and the society.

He said that innovationof Bashir could trigger greenrevolution in the countrytherefore he will be providedall necessary encouragementby the government. Paki-stani youth are highlyblessed as they have sur-prised the world repeatedly,especially in the field of IT,the government official re-marked.

Mr. Qadir said that wecould not afford to ignoreeducation in this era ofglobalisation and competi-tion where all countries arebringing trade barriers down.Economically successfulcountries will hold competi-tive and comparative advan-tages over other economiesand he hope that Pakistanwill be among one of the lead-ing economic powers in theglobal marketplace, he said.

The Secretary said thatTurkey are tied in religiousand cultural bonds whilePakTurk has strengtheningbilateral relations by promot-ing affordable quality educa-tion in Pakistan.

Education linked witheconomic prosperity

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE —The Twenty luckywinners of the ‘ShahCar Offer2013’ launched by Ufone ear-lier this year have been an-nounced. The lucky Ufone cus-tomers who have won a ToyotaCorolla each are : Abdul Sattarfrom Karachi, MuhammadKhalid Jameel from Mirpur,Abdul Jabar from Lahore,Mohammad Ishaq Naeem fromAhmedpur Sial, Muhammad

Tariq from Bhakar, MuhammadSiddique from Taxila,Muhammad Imran fromSahiwal, Muhammad Tariq fromOkara, Shahzad Anjum fromLahore, Muhammad Asgharfrom Kasur, Kashif Iqbal fromHyderabad, Shahid Akhtar fromKasur, Muhammad Buta fromNishtarabad, Noor ul Qamarfrom Swabi, Rashida kausorfrom Karachi, MuhammadHassan Tariq from Lahore,Shafique al Rehman from

Bhawalnagr, Shahid Maqboolfrom Lahore, Muhammad Nasirfrom Gujranwala and AbdulSatar from Sheikhupura.

Speaking at the press con-ference Salman Wassay, ChiefCommercial Officer Ufone saidthat “Ufone has always beenin the lead to offer attractive andmeaningful promotional offersto its customers. In the past, 30customers have benefittedfrom the two previous UfoneShahCar offers. Ufone under itsShahCar offer is working in anumber of ways to change thelives of the people involved andthese 50 winners in almost twoyears is a true example of that”.

Wassay added, “Today weare giving away a brand newToyota Corolla to 20 luckyUfone customers, this is a ba-sic necessity and cannot beafforded by many. Ufonethrough this scheme has estab-lished a credible prize schemefor its customers that is trustedfar and wide in Pakistan.”

Winner of Car Offer revealed

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan StateOil (PSO) and Habib BankLimited (HBL) have signedan agreement for the deploy-ment of ATM’s at PSO retailoutlets nationwide.

This agreement betweenthe nation’s leading EnergyCompany and the country’slargest private sector bankpromises to be a mutuallybeneficial partnership and

one which will translate intoconvenience for the generalpublic.

Seen in the picture are(from left to right) Mr. NaeemY. Mir, CEO & MD- PSO andMr. Nauman Dar, Presidentand CEO - HBL.

Also in the picture are(from left to right) Mr. ArifNasib GM Marketing Ser-vices - PSO and Mr. FaiqSadiq - Head Payment Ser-vices - HBL.

PSO, HBL ink dealSamsungemployees enjoygood experience

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Samsung Elec-tronics is a global leader andaward-winning innovator inTelecommunications andDigital Technologies. Re-cently, Samsung Pakistan ar-ranged an exciting and fun-filled outdoor recreationalactivity celebration, in whichall Samsung employees wereinvited to participate andhave delightful experiences.

This celebration is named“Great Working Place”(GWP) activity at Oasis Aquaresort and is held on a 5thApril to promote Team-Build-ing opportunities among theSamsung staff. It helps thehard-working, passionateand innovative employees torelax and cheer with numer-ous outdoor fun activities forparticipants of varying ages.An interactive meeting foroperational deliberationswas also held on that fun-filled day to enhance theteam-building skills of theemployees.

wi-tribe offersdouble volume tonew subscribers

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — w i - t r i b e ,Pakistan’s No. 1 broadbandprovider for quality of servicebrings forth another promo-tional offer to further enrichcustomer’s experience. The lat-est offer called ‘Double Volume’is targeted towards 1st timesubscribers of the 1Mbps Ba-sic package.

The ‘Double Volume’promotional offer will in-crease the current 12 GBdownload volume of the 1Mbps Basic package to 24 GBfor a period of 2 months with-out any additional costs. Theoffer is valid from April toMay, 2013 and is only fornew subscribers of the1Mbps Basic package.

Excluding thetransitioned accounts to the1Mbps Basic package, wi-tribers who have purchasedthe package (before thelaunch of the promo) in themonth of April will automati-cally get double volume.

This offer is in line withwi-tribe’s recently intro-duced packages which aredesigned to meet customer’sdiverse online requirements.These reiterate wi-tribe’sstance as a company at theforefront of understandingits customer’s needs and ex-ceeding them, while enhanc-ing their experience.

Pakistan tycoonsurged to explore

US marketSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—US Economic Of-ficer Matan Meyer has saidthat Pakistani businessmenshould explore American mar-ket that offers huge opportu-nities in all sectors of theeconomy. The US EconomicOfficer was talking to Chair-man PIAF Malik Tahir Javaidhere on Wednesday. PIAFExecutive Member SheikhMuhammad Irfan was alsopresent during the meetingthat continued for well overan hour. He said that theUnited States would continueto support democratic pro-cess in Pakistan and wouldwelcome and cooperate who-soever makes government asa resul of upcoming electionsat national level.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Securitiesand Exchange Commissionof Pakistan (the “Commis-sion”) has approved draftPharmaceutical Industry(Cost Accounting Records)Order, 2013 (the “Order”) tofacilitate maintenance ofrecords by the companiesengaged in the production,processing and manufactur-ing of pharmaceuticals prod-ucts. Pharmaceutical compa-nies are required to maintainsuch cost accountingrecords including all particu-lars relating to utilization ofmaterial, labour or other in-puts of items of cost to de-termine total product cost.The notification is being

published for the informationof all parties likely to be af-fected thereby. The draft willbecome effective thirty daysafter its publication in theOfficial Gazette. Any objec-tions or suggestions whichmay be received from anyperson in respect of the saiddraft before the expiry of thesaid date will be consideredby the Commission.

Cost Audit practice wasadopted in the Sub-Conti-nent in 1967 and today a num-ber of industries are follow-ing this practice. In Pakistan,“Cost Audit Rules” are ap-plicable to five industries i.e.Cement, Sugar, VegetableGhee, Chemical Fertilizer,Synthetic and Rayon.

The Commission consid-

ers that maintenance of thecost accounting record andcost audit reporting is nec-essary to foster efficiencyand promote sustainablegrowth. The primary advan-tage of maintaining cost ac-counting record as pre-scribed by the Commissionin pharmaceutical industry isto determine accurate prod-uct cost, which will providethe following advantages: Itwill enable a company to mea-sure the efficiency of its manu-facturing processes and tomake improvements. By com-paring valuable cost data acompany can identify sourcesof loss or waste through ineffi-ciencies and develop appropri-ate controls to prevent such aloss in the future.

Draft pharmaceutical industry costaccounting records order approved

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Dr. Adil KhanMiankhel, Senior EconomicAdvisor at the CompetitionCommission of Pakistan(CCP), has won a highlycompetitive research grantaward during the secondround of Call for Proposalsunder the ‘Pakistan StrategySupport Program’ (PSSP)administered by Interna-tional Food Policy ResearchInstitute (IFPRI), Washing-ton DC.

A call for proposals forthe second round of Com-petitive Grants focused on“Policy Research to SupportSustained EconomicGrowth” was made in August2012. A Research AdvisoryCommittee (RAC) compris-ing of leading national andinternational academics andresearchers evaluated thegrant proposals.

Around 200 applicationswere received from universi-ties and research institutionsfrom all over Pakistan andaround the world. After thesecond round of reviews bythe RAC members, 33 pro-posals were shortlisted andpresented at a conferencetitled “Second ResearchCompetitive Grants Confer-ence” on February 8-10, 2013in Islamabad.

Taking the presentationsinto account, the ResearchAdvisory Committee afterconsultations with its mem-bers, finalized the selectionof 20 applicants (an accep-tance rate of 10%) and theAward ceremony was heldon April 19, 2013 inIslamabad. The Commissionhas termed it an academicachievement on part of Dr.Miankhel and a matter ofprestige for CompetitionCommission of Pakistan.

CCP official wins award

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Securitiesand Exchange Commission ofPakistan has filed a criminalcomplaint in the competentCourt of Law against six com-panies and seventeen individu-als involved in manipulation ofANL share price and volumethrough means which consti-tute acts, practices or omissionsthat operated as a fraud, deceitin terms of Section 17(e)(ii) to(v) of the Securities and Ex-change Ordinance, 1969. TheHonorable Court of III Addi-tional Sessions Judge KarachiSouth, vide Order dated April22, 2013, has issued bailable

warrants of all the accused per-sons.

The list of accused in-cludes JS Global Capital Ltd(JSGCL), Jahangir Siddiqui &Co. Ltd (JSCL), JahangirSiddiqui & Sons Ltd, JahangirSiddiqui Securities ServicesLtd, JS Investments Ltd (JSIL),Aziz Fidahussain & Co. Ltd,Saad Saeed Farooqui,Mehboob Ali Kalyar,Muhammad Sadiq Patni, ShaziaSadiq, Syed Nizam Shah,Humayun Shaikh, Alia SherazMonoo, Amna HumayunShaikh, Nasreen Shaikh,Ahmed Shaikh, MuhammadRiaz, Muhammad Ijaz, IrfanAziz, Saba Irfan Aziz, Zehra

Nazim Aziz, Mohammad Iqbaland Muhammad MubashirHameed Dagia

The analysis of KSE trad-ing data disclosed that during73 trading sessions between2.4.2007 to 13.7.2007, there wereunusual hikes in trading volumeand price of the ANL share.Said data reflected an abnormalaverage daily trading volume of3.5 million shares reaching thepeak of 10.8 million shares on20-4-2007. The average dailytrading volume during the saidperiod reflected an increase of2.3 million shares (i.e. 65%) ascompared to its average trad-ing volume of 1.2 million sharesfor the preceding 12 months.

Complaint against Cos involvedin shares price manipulation

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—US companieshave shown interest in in-vesting in energy sector ofPakistan considering thegreat potential in power, oiland gas sector, said Chair-man US-Pakistan BusinessCouncil (UPBC) Miles Younghere at Federation of PakistanChambers of Commerce andIndustry (FPCCI) today.

The head of visiting del-egation from USA, said thatUS companies including GE,Shell and other companiesare already initiated theirprojects in Pakistan. He saidthat UPBC is quite concernedabout ongoing energy crisisin Pakistan and keen to re-solve it. He said that UPBCrepresents major multina-tional companies of USA inPakistan and the delegationis on fact-finding mission,

seeking joint ventures andbilateral trade promotion dur-ing the visit. He said that thelowest volume of FDI (for-eign direct investment) fromUSA to Pakistan during therecent years was not due toany particular reason but itwas due to economic crisisworld over that also affectedUSA. He said that it was amisconception that USA hasstopped FDI to Pakistan inrecent times and should notbe taken negatively. He saidthat the biggest challenge forUPBC is to present Pakistanpositively among the Us in-vestors as media especiallyCNN and Fox TV are show-ing much against Pakistannow a days.

He said that UPBC is nota branch of US governmentand that working indepen-dently. He suggested havingdialogue between the two fo-

rums on political and eco-nomic issues. He said that byand large it was a responsi-bility of the business com-munity of the two countriesto promote bilateral trade. Hesaid that he is very much am-bitious to boost trade and in-vestment between the twosides. “We want to do busi-ness with Pakistan becauseit is a country of future”,Young said adding that de-spite the fact that security isthe main concern here US in-vestors and energy crisis isanother issue here but theUPBC is committed to Paki-stan. Executive Director,UBBC, Esperanza Gomez saidon the occasion that Pakistaniexporters should avail GSPfacility offered by US govern-ment and the UPBC is readyassist Pakistani exporters inutilizing this facility of prefer-ential tariff on many items.

US investors keen inPak energy sector

Wheat procurementto start in

Punjab on May 1ISLAMABAD—Procurementof wheat in Punjab will starton May 1 for maintainingstocks along with strategicreserves to meet domesticrequirements of the country.The federal government hasapproved procurement ofabout 7.91 million tons wheatas a bumper crop is expectedin the country this year, saidChief Agriculture Policy In-stitute Abdul Rauf Chaudhrywhile talking to APP here onWednesday.

The provincial food de-partments and the PakistanAgriculture Storage and Ser-vices Corporation (PASSCO)have been given the task toprocure wheat from the grow-ers at official fixed rate of Rs1,250 per 40 kg, he added.

Wheat harvesting is infull swing in Sindh where itsprocurement started on April15 and is expected to con-tinue till end of next month,he said. He said that the FoodDepartment Punjab wouldprocure about 4.5 milliontons, Sidnh 1.3 million tons,Khyber Pukhtunkhwa 0.4million tons and Balochistan0.11 million tons wheat.

Abdul Rauf said that thePunjab Government wouldstart distributing bags fromApril 25 and procurementfrom May 1 while the KPwould initiate its campaignby mid of next month as har-vesting would take sometime in the province due toweather conditions. ThePASSCO has set up 200 cen-ters across the country forprocuring wheat, he added.

Fifteen tehsils of Punjabhave been selected and di-vided in nine zones includingHafiz Abad, Pakpatan, BahwalNagar, Veharri, Khanawal,Lodhran, Layya, Alipur andMuzaffargarh and centershave also been established inKhanpur tehsil of RahimyarKhan district, he added.—APP

A VIRUS that infects humans without causing disease kills breastcancer cells in the laboratory. Re-

searchers from Pennsylvania State Univer-sity (Penn State) College of Medicine inthe US, tested an unalteredform of adeno-associatedvirus type 2 (AAV2) onthree different humanbreast cancer types repre-senting different stages ofcancer and found it tar-geted all of them. Theyhope by uncovering thepathways the virus uses totrigger cancer cell death,their work will lead to newtargets for anti-cancerdrugs. A paper on this workappeared recently in thejournal Molecular Cancer.

In earlier studies, theteam also showed thatAAV2 promotes cell deathin cervical cancer cells in-fected with humanpapillomavirus (HPV).

Cells have different ways of dying.When a healthy cell gets damaged, or startsbehaving in an abnormal way, this normallytriggers production of proteins that causeapoptosis or cell suicide: part of this pro-cess also involves switching off proteinsthat trigger cell division. The problem withcancer cells is that apoptosis fails, and theproteins that regulate cell division and pro-liferation stay switched on, so abnormalcells continue to multiply and create newabnormal cells and that is how tumors de-velop.

Breast cancer is the most common can-

Non-disease virus killsbreast cancer cells in lab

cer in the world and the main cause ofcancer-related death in women.

First author Dr Samina Alam, researchassociate in microbiology and immunol-ogy at Penn State, told the press in a

statement released onThursday that breast canceris also “complex to treat”.

Senior investigator DrCraig Meyers, professor ofmicrobiology and immunol-ogy at Penn State, explainedwhy:

“Because it has multiplestages, you can’t treat all thewomen the same. Currently,treatment of breast cancer isdependent on multiple fac-tors such as hormone-de-pendency, invasivenessand metastases, drug resis-tance and potential toxici-ties.”

However, he went on tosay that in their study, theyshowed that “AAV2, as asingle entity, targets all dif-

ferent grades of breast cancer”.He and his team believe that AAV2 is

switching back on the apoptosis path-ways that were switched off in the can-cer cells.

For their study they used labtissue cultures of cancer cells andfound AAV2 killed 100% of them withinseven days, with most of the cell deathproteins activated on day five.In an-other experiment, working with cancercells from an aggressive form of breastcancer, they found the virus took threeweeks to kill the cells.

KARACHI: CEO Dolmen Group, Brad Gee presenting keys to winner of Dolmen shop-ping Festival, Nazeer Shah. Aamir Dar, Mohsin Ali are also seen in the picture.—POphoto by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: Rangers personnel patrolling on roads of the port city in order to maintain law and order.

KARACHI: Coffin of a worker of MQM who died in bomb blast at People’s Chowrangiyesterday being taken to graveyard.—PO photo.

KARACHI: A view of Jashan-e-Baharan Family Festival at Park Towers.—PO photo

Chinese diplomatcalls on CSSATFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Chinese actingConsul General Jian Zing JianWednesday called on SindhChief Secretary (CS)Muhammad Ijaz Choudhry.

The CS welcomed theChinese diplomat, who in-tended to have a courtesycall. The bilateral affairs werediscussed in the meeting.

The CS noted that anacademy of Chinese lan-guage was under construc-tion, which would be ex-tended throughout SindhProvince.

Chinese diplomat and CSalso exchanged viewed aboutthe cultural, agricultural, in-dustrial, and power/energybased affairs, which werebased on the mutual interest.The task of Pak-Chinesefriendship was also dis-cussed.

Envoys designatepresent credentials

to PresidentIRFAN ALIGI

KA R A C H I—Ambassadors(designate) of Tajikistan, Phil-ippines, Morocco, SlovakRepublic, Malawi, Chile andthe High Commissioner (des-ignate) of South Africa,Wednesday presented theircredential to President AsifAli Zardari at a special cer-emony held at GovernorHouse Karachi today.

The Ambassadors andHigh Commissioner, after pre-senting their credentials sepa-rately called on the Presidentand discussed bilateral rela-tions and matters of mutualinterest. The President whilefelicitating the newly ap-pointed ambassadors ex-pressed the hope that they willwork for further strengtheningthe existing ties of their respec-tive countries with Pakistan.

The envoys who pre-sented their credentials in-cluded Mpendulo Kumalo,High Commissioner designateof South Africa, SheraliJononov, ambassador desig-nate of Tajikistan, DomingoD. Lucenario, Jr. Ambassadordesignate of Philippines ,Mohamed MustaphaSalahdine, ambassador desig-nate of Morocco, Jan Bory,ambassador designate of Slo-vak Republic(Non Resident),Younas Abdul Karim, ambas-sador designate of Malawi(Non Resident) and Jean PaulTarud, ambassador designateof Chile (Non Resident).

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Bonded labourwas a crime and cognizable toPolice. However, Police per-sonnel took the issue ofbonded labour as dispute dueto lack of awareness to the law.Police had to take the matter inlight of law as a crime cogni-zable to Police and should helperadicate the nuisance ofbonded labour. Police high of-ficials had to work on thetheme of creating awarenessamong the Police personnel.

This was stated by theadditional Inspector General ofPolice (IGP), Sindh (Training)Ghulam Qadir Thebo while

Bonded labour cognizable topolice crime: Thebo

addressing a workshop onbonded labour jointlyorganised by internationalLabour Organisation andSindh Police held at a localhotel in the city Wednesday.The 3-day workshop fromApril 22-24 was initiated onspecial directives of Sindh po-lice Inspector General ShahidNadeem Baloch. More than 35Police Training Instructorsfrom Police Training Schoolsand Colleges attended.

The workshop discussedand reviewed in details the le-gal and social aspects of theissue of bonded labour andwas a step forward to createawareness among Police offi-

cials and personnel. The work-shop also reviewed steps forthe initiation of standard op-erating procedures regardingimplementation of law thatgoverned the issues ofbonded labour.

He told the workshop thatPolice Training Module wasbeing upgraded, which wouldinclude special subjects in thecurriculum of Police Trainingsuch as bonded labour, humantrafficking and human rights.

Former IGP GhulamShabbir Shaikh, Human rightstrainer Iqbal Detho, ILO repre-sentative in Pakistan BinYamin and others also ad-dressed.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan Medi-cal Association (PMA) andCollege of Family MedicinePakistan (CFMP) raised ob-jection on very first day onFeb 2, 2013 regarding Paki-stan Medical and dentalCouncil (PMDC) electionsand seats for General Prac-titioners of Pakistan, whichwas not according to num-ber of General Practitioners.That is 132000 General Prac-titioners/ Family Physiciansin Pakistan and they needproper representation inPMDC as one representa-

PMA for action against PMDCtive for one Province was notenough to represent largenumber of family doctors inPakistan.

When advertisement ofPMDC appeared in press onMar 3, 2013 in the press, aletter was addressed by col-lege of family medicine Paki-stan to PMDC administratorIslamabad, PMDC PresidentIslamabad as well as toPMDC Secretary.

It again addressed a let-ter to PMDC regardingPMDC elections for allowinga surgeon namely Dr SyedRazi Muhammad to contestelections on seat of General

Practitioner and these sent toDr Raja Amjad Mehmoodadministrator PMDC thatthis seat was supposed forgeneral practitioners andwould not be acceptable togeneral practitioners of Paki-stan, especially regardingProvince of Sindh.

This the PMA stated in apress conference heldWednesday at PMA office inthe city. Dr Aziz Khan Tank,Secretary General, College ofFamily Medicine Pakistan,Dr. Mirza Ali Azhar, Secre-tary General PMA Centre, DrS.M.Qaisar Sajjad, TreasurerPMA Centre, Dr Idrees Adhi,

President PMA Karachi andDr Qazi M. Wasiq, GeneralSecretary PMA Karachijointly addressed the pressconference.

Meanwhile, the PMAsaid that the delegation ofgeneral practitioners metthe administrator of PMDCat Islamabad an requestedhim to clarify the positionof general practitioners,who represented two-thirdof the entire medical profes-sion as being primary care-taker. The PMA said that itwas essential that their rep-resentation should be prop-erly decided.

KARACHI—Ashba Kamran,Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Pakistan Associa-tion for Difficulties in Learn-ing (PADIL) has criticized themainstream political partiesfor not including the SpecialEducation Needs (SEN) intheir manifestos.

She said that the SEN aremeant for the children facinglearning disabilities due toAttention Deficit Disorder(ADD), Attention DeficitHyperactive Disorder(ADHD), Dyslexia, Dys-graphia and such other brain

Politicians criticised for not includingSpecial Education needs in manifestos

relating processes.Resultantly, these childrenare tagged as slow learnersand majority of them fall un-der the category of dropoutsdue to their incapacity ofpace with the mainstreameducation system.

“But it is a matter of graveconcern that not a single po-litical party has given anyplace to the children withlearning disabilities in theirmanifestos. It suggests howserious our political leader-ship towards our upcominggenerations is”, she added.

It is only the PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf, which hasmentioned in its manifestothat jobs will be given to spe-cial children, she said.

But st i l l i t lacks theconcept of SEN, which isquite embarrassing for alarge number of parents ex-pecting something goodout of the political leader-ship, she said, adding es-pecially, it nothing but a biga disappointment so far asthe manifestos of thePMLN and the PPP are con-cerned.—NNI

FPCCIobserves Earth

DaySATFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Federation ofPakistan Chambers of Com-merce and Industry cel-ebrated Earth Day by plant-ing trees at FederationHouse, Karachi.

FPCCI acting PresidentShaheen Ilyas Sarwana,while speaking on the occa-sion emphasized the need fora pollution-free environmentand said that it was only pos-sible when people from allwalks of life join hands to cre-ate a pollution-free environ-ment in order to create ahealthy atmosphere for thepeople.

He also suggested to allindustrialists to make planta-tion in their factories and en-sure that all wastage fromtheir production is disposedoff properly so that a cleanenvironment was provided tothe nation.

He further stated that thetheme of this year’s EarthDay was the “Face of ClimateChange” and Pakistan wasone of the countries which ismost affected by globalwarming and climate change.

He said that our countryhad continuously faced anirregular pattern of rain overthe past few years, which hasdeteriorated our infrastruc-ture. At this time, there was aneed to rehabilitate the envi-ronment through natural re-sources management and re-moval of greenhouse gases.

He said that the celebra-tion of Earth Day remindedus of our responsibility totake necessary steps for thepreservation of the earth,nature and to fight againstthose elements working to-wards the degradation of theecosystem.

He further said thatFPCCI has a Standing Com-mittee on Environment,which would be further acti-vated to achieve its aims andobjectives.

KARACHI—Speakers be-longing to various walks oflife paid rich tributes to lateSSUET Chancellor Engr Z.A.Nizami for his services andhighlighted various facets ofhis life as a world class townplanner, educationist and asa poors loving human being,at a condolence meeting.

The meeting was orga-nized by Sir Syed Universityof Engineering and Technol-ogy in collaboration withAligarh Muslim UniversityOld Boys Association ofwhich Mr Nizami was Presi-dent and Aligarh Institute ofTechnology at the Convoca-tion Ground.

Homage paid to late ZA NizamiGen Moinuddin Haider

said the name of Mr Nizamiwill always be rememberedbecause of the service hedone for the development ofKarachi and specially the es-tablishment of an engineer-ing university of interna-tional standard.

He pointed out that afterthe creation of Pakistan , theAligarhians with their talentand vision steered Pakistanto the path of progress andname of Mr Nizami will remainon the top.

He recalled Mr Nizami’smeetings with him for the ac-quisition of 200 acres of landwhere he wanted to establish

bigger SSUET’s campus.He called for continued

growth of the tree planted byMr Nizami for propagation ofengineering education sothat the university could con-tinue to meet the ever chang-ing world standards in vari-ous fields of engineering.

Pirzada Qasim RazaSiddiqi, recalled Nizami’s as-sociation with his father andlater with him and said he isthe one for whom condo-lence meetings are being or-ganized by scores of organi-zations across Pakistan high-lighting his vision, greatnessand various facets of his fas-cinating life.—APP

p

A TWO-year study of nearly 190,000girls and women, finds thatGardasil, the human papillomavirus

(HPV) vaccine made by Merck & Co, doesnot trigger autoimmune disorders such aslupus, rheumatoid arthritis,type 1 diabetes and mul-tiple sclerosis. The resultsare published in the Jour-nal of Internal Medicine.

Study lead author DrChun Chao, a researchscientist at the KaiserPermanente Departmentof Research & Evaluationin Pasadena, California,said in a statement re-leased on Friday, that:

“This kind of safetyinformation may help par-ents with vaccination de-cisions.”

“These findings offersome assurance thatamong a large and gener-alizable female popula-tion, no safety signal forautoimmune conditions was found fol-lowing HPV4 vaccination in routine clini-cal use,” said Chao.

Gardasil is a “quadrivalent” vaccinebecause it helps protect against 4 typesof HPV. In girls and young women age 9to 26, it targets 2 types that cause about75% of cervical cancers, and 2 othertypes that cause 90% of cases of genitalwarts.

The vaccine, which is given as threeinjections over six months, also helpsprotect boys and men age 9 to 26 against90% of cases of genital warts.

HPV vaccine not linked toautoimmune disorders, study

Genital warts is the most commonsexually transmitted infection in the US,where it infects about 6.2 million peopleevery year. It can also lead to cervicalcancer in women.

Gardasil received US Food andDrug Administration(FDA) approval in 2006.But a longstanding con-cern about links with au-toimmune disorders hassurrounded the vaccine,and many parents won’tlet their children be vacci-nated because of this.

However, Chao and fel-low co-investigators fromKaiser Permanente told thepress “most speculatedassociations havestemmed from case reportsthat have not been con-firmed by large, controlledepidemiologic studies”,and their investigation“presents findings from awell-designed, post-licen-

sure safety study of the vaccine on alarge, ethnically diverse population”.

For the study, Chao and colleaguesused electronic health records of 189,629girls and women age 9 to 26 years inCalifornia. The participants had been fol-lowed for six months after receivingeach dose of the quadrivalent HPV vac-cine in 2006-2008.

They found no increase in any of16 autoimmune disorders in the vacci-nated populat ion compared to amatched population of non-vaccinatedgirls and women.

LAHORE: Lawyers are protesting against Income Tax Officer outside Aiwan-e-Adl.

LAHORE: Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Ch. Abdul Majeed meeting Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi onWednesday.

LAHORE: A vendor arranging the clay made pitchers and different other items to at-tract the customers at his shop.

AJK PMmeets Sethi

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Prime MinisterAzad Kashmir Ch. AbdulMajeed called on PunjabChief Minister Najam Sethi atChief Minister’s Secretariat.Holding of general electionsand matters of mutual inter-est were discussed in themeeting.

Talking to Prime Ministerof Azad Kashmir, the ChiefMinister Najam Sethi saidthat information technologyis being fully utilized for en-suring peaceful and fair elec-tions in Punjab and PunjabElection Monitoring Systemhas been formulated with thehelp of information technol-ogy for monitoring the elec-tion process.

He said that citizens canregister their complaints onspecial hotline regardingelection process and amechanism has also beendevised for addressing suchcomplaints. He said thatmonitoring of entire electionprocess has been ensuredfrom the level of polling sta-tion under the modern moni-toring system. He said thatPunjab Election MonitoringSystem is a comprehensiveand most effective systemand will play an effective rolein holding of peaceful, trans-parent and impartial elec-tions.

Prime Minister AzadKashmir Ch. Abdul Majeedsaid that Punjab governmenthas taken an important stepby formulating modern moni-toring system for ensuringholding of elections in a freeand transparent manner.

OBSERVER REPORT

LA H O R E —The caretakergovernment in Punjab hasstopped the DilkashLahore Project (DLP), whilethe project ConvenerNoor-ul-Amin Mengal,former District Coordina-t ion Officer (DCO), hadalso been made as OSD.

According to sources,DLP was launched byformer Chief Minister forthe beautification and res-toration of historical andheri tage buildings of thecity of Lahore. The govern-ment had made Just ice(Retd) Khali lur RehmanRamday as chairman of theproject.

The government hadearmarked an amount of Rs100 mill ion for DLP and

given the task for the res-toration of three old build-ings situated on The Mallincluding Shahdin Build-ing, Dinga Singh Buildingand Ghulam Rasool Build-ing.

The government hadalso fixed a period of fourmonths (December 2012 toMarch 2013) for thecompletion of this project.But due to process ofawarding the contracts andlate start of constructionwork the project could notbe complete in time.

Sources revealed thatcaretaker government hadfrozen the funds allocatefor ongoing projects lastmonth soon after takingover the charge, while thecontractor firm was also nottaking interest for complet-

ing the work due to forth-coming general elections.The sources said that nomeeting in connection withDLP has been held duringthe past one month. Ameeting was scheduled inApril for reviewing the on-going construction workbut i t has also been can-celled without any reason.

Dr Ajaz Anwar VoiceChairman of DLP andformer Director Art Gallery,National College of Arts,while commenting on theproject, said that DLP wasa political stunt.

“I requested formerchief minister not to fix thespecif ic period for thisproject but he refused anddirected to complete thisproject within threemonths”.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Some 67 ex-nazims and naib-nazims fromvarious union councils of theprovincial metropolis metPakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf(PTI) Chairman Imran Khanand announced to join theparty.

Speaking on the occa-sion here at a local hotelWednesday, the ex-Nazimssaid that they had decided tojoin PTI since it is the onlyparty which has introducedclear-cut stance of the localgovernment election in thecountry and believed intransferring powers to themasses at the grass-rootlevel.

Those who joined theparty-folds are: Afeef Siddiqui(UC-107), Mehr Mohammad

Shabeer (UC-103), MohammadAzmat Ch. (UC-104), CH.Iftikhar Yousaf (UC-06 ), HamidHussain Khan (UC-08), MalikM.Sadiq (UC-130), Tahir Islam(UC-31), Tasnim Shafi(UC-32),Asif Hussain Butt(UC-54),Naeem Mughal(UC-3),Dr.Muhammad Nasir(UC-76),Mian Maqsood Naib-Nazim(UC-76), Asif Ali Babar (UC-63), Malik Nadeem Awan (UC-141), Naeem Haider Butt(UC-10), Ch. Abdul Jabbar(UC-34),Qaiser Raza Rana (UC-131),Haji M. Riaz(UC-131),Khurshid Anwar Naib-Nazim(UC-84), Ch. Khalid Mahmood(UC-1), M. Abid Mustafa (UC-1), Muhammad Azeembhatti(UC-1), Muhammad M.Asghar(UC-16), Javaid IqbalBhatti (UC-137), Rai AmjadJavaid (UC-137), Amjad Khan(UC-134), Colonel (Retd) Tahir

Kardar (UC-127), WarisMahmood (UC-129), HafizRizwan (UC-75), Ch. JavedTariq (UC75), Junaid Butt (UC-25), Mehar Moid Waseem (UC-35), Mian Rashid Iqbal (UC-68), Zulfqar Mahmood Naib-Nazim (UC-68), Haji Tariq Feroz(UC-79), Zulfqar Ali Mauj (UC-60), Malik Babar Awan (UC-136), Malik Nadeem Liaqat(UC-141), Javed Iqbal Bhatti(UC-137), Malik Mudassar(UC-121), Maqdood AhmadMora(UC-65), ShahidMunir(UC-86), Ch. WaheedAkhtar (UC-165), Tahir Altaf(UC- 106), Akram ul Haq(UC-106), Ch. Mohammad AshrafNaib-Nazim (Garden Town),Waheed Abrar Gill NN (UC-105), Amjad Ali Union CouncilPresident PPP (UC-65),MianAdil Rasheed (UC-94), ArshadDogar (UC-112).

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt on Wednesday tooknotice of the news publishedin a section of press regard-ing rape of a mother of threechildren at Shahkot. District& Sessions Judge, NankanaSahib has been directed toprobe into the matter and sub-mit a detailed report regard-ing steps taken by the localpolice along with his owncomments.

According to details, vic-tim submitted an applicationwith Police Station CityShahkot. She alleged that shewas sleeping at home with herfamily. Accused Ali Raza alias

LHC notices rape ofmother of three children

Bhola with his three armedmen including Khalil etc.jumped the wall and enteredher house. They made herfamily hostage and lockedthem in one room. She wasdragged to other room force-fully where accused Ali Razasexually harassed her whilehis accomplices kept guard inthe courtyard threatening theinmates to keep mum.

Affected woman saidwhen she reached police sta-tion for lodging FIR, policeofficials get annoyed for re-porting the incident at PoliceHelpline 15 and they did notregister case. She also allegedthat Lady Doctor of Govt.Hospital Shahkot connived

with the accused and not is-sued medical report despiterepeated visits by the victim.While on the other hand, theaccused persons threatenedthe affected family for seriousconsequences. The victimwoman had appealed theChief justice of the Pakistanfor taking Suo-Moto notice ofthe incident. She also claimedthat if the culprits were notbrought to book, she willcommit suicide along with herchildren.

LHC Complaint Cell tookserious notice of the news anddirected the concerned D&SJto look into the matter andsubmit report within a weekpositively.

Ex-Nazims, Naibs enter PTI fold

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague – N will introducesocial and economic reformssoon after coming into power.Industrial clusters, Informa-tion Technology & Software,Garments & Cottage citieswill be established across thecountry.

PML-N will also intro-duce a mechanism to stopbrain drain, flight of capitaland industrial units shiftingto the other countries.“Power projects will be com-pleted in record time likeMetro bus project that wascompleted in just 11months.”

These views were ex-pressed by the PML-N NA123 candidate Pervez Malikwhile talking to a 16-memberdelegation of businessmenhere on Wednesday.

Pervez Malik said thatcorruption was the mother ofall ills, malpractices andmisgovernance had de-

PML-N to implementpublic welfare agenda

stroyed the social fabric ofthe country. He said that dur-ing the 5-year tenure, PPPgovernment, under the pa-tronage of Zardari, promotedpoverty by exhausting thenational resources.

He said that PML-N wasthe only party that has aclear vision of a progressivePakistan and other partieswere doing the politics ofhollow slogans. He lamentedat this juncture when thecountry was facing loadshedding, PPP was utilizingmillion rupees a day to pro-mulgate its so calledachievements that havenever took place ever.

He said that PPP was re-sponsible for severe energycrisis that has crippled theliving of Pakistani nation, in-dustrial activities while highinflation, unemployment andpoverty had brought societyto its knees.

He said that work on newpower projects will be expe-dite to ensure provision of

uninterrupted electricity andgas supply to the industrialsector while PML-N will notdiscriminate with any prov-ince as it believes on nationalsovereignty.

Pervez Malik said that allthose factors will be abol-ished that were impeding thegrowth.

All national resourceswill be exploited for develop-ment of the country. He saidthat fiscal deficit will be re-duced by cutting the nondevelopment expenditures.PML-N will also introducecomplexity-free tax regime.

He said that planned in-dustrial clusters, IT & Soft-ware and Cottage cities willnot only generate million newjobs but will also helpstrengthening financial posi-tion of the country.

He urged the businesscommunity in particular andpublic in general tostrengthen PML-N hands forthe implementation of publicwelfare agenda.

Dilkash Lahore Projectstopped by caretakers

141 freshmeasles cases

reportedLAHORE—Over 9400 cases ofmeasles have so far been re-ported from Punjab during thelast five months with additionof 141 new cases during the last24 hours.

According to health de-partment officials, 54 deathshave so far been reported, in-cluding one from Children hos-pital on Wednesday, mostlydeaths occured from Lahore,Gujranwala, Rajanpur, RahimYar Khan and Kasur districts.

During the last 24 hours,around 54 cases of measleswere reported from Lahore’shospitals only. Meanwhile,Director EPI Dr.TanveerAhmed said that on investi-gation, it was found out thatmajority of deaths in Lahorewere caused due to severepneumonia and delay inreaching hospitals. How-ever, Dr.Tanveer said that inall the hospitals of Lahoremeasles vaccination wasavailable in ample quantityand patients were beingtreated free of cost. —APP

Move againstnon-cooperatives

in anti-denguecampaign

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—District Coordi-nation Officer (DCO) LahoreMr. Rizwan Mehboob hasdirected all the officers con-cerned of City District Gov-ernment Lahore to lunch amassive and comprehensivecampaign against non-coop-erates in anti dengue cam-paign and FIR should belodged against responsibleand their premises shouldalso be sealed.

Rizwan Mehboob ex-pressed these views whilechairing a meeting in connec-tion with anti dengue driveat Town Hall on Wednesday.The meeting was attended byAssistant Commissioners,Town Administrators, HealthDepartment officials, PHAofficials, Town Municipal of-ficers, Council officers, Ento-mologist and others. Officialof Health Department briefedDCO, Lahore that weeklymeetings are being arrangedat town levels and the per-formance of employees arebeing inspected continu-ously.

Quetta Expressresumes operation

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Pakistan Rail-ways (PR) will restore Qutttabound Quetta Express fromtoday (Thursday). GeneralManager (operations)Muhammad Junaid Qureshiwill inaugurate the train atLahore railway station. Rail-ways had suspended theoperation of Quetta Expressin 2010 due to lack of loco-motives.

According to new sched-ule this train will now departfrom Lahore at 5.00 pm andreach at Quetta the next dayat 4.30 pm, while it will departfrom Quetta at 10.00 am andarrive at Lahore at 9.30 am.

Maqsood-un-Nabi, ChiefOperation Officer (COPS) ofPakistan Railways told Paki-stan Observer that QuettaExpress would run fromLahore via Faisalabad,Shoorkot and Khanewal. Thedepartment has changed theroute over the demand ofpassengers because JaffarExpress was already runningvia Lahore, Sahiwal andKhanewal.

Retiredemployees thank

PIA ChairmanSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—PIA Retired Em-ployees Association’sChairman, Mr.Zulfiqar Ali,President, Syed TahirHasan, Senior Vice Presi-dent, Mr. Lateef Siddiquiand Secretary GeneralMohammad YounusKakakhel thanked theChairman PIA Lt.General(R) Asif Yaseen Malik,Managing Director Capt.Junaid Younus and all wellwishers for increasing thepension of PIA existingpensioners and widows. Itwas due to the interestshown by Chairman whofulfilled his commitmentwith the PIAREA officebearers and his declarationson different occasions.

They also congratulatedthe beneficiaries. It wasmade possible because ofsincere efforts of PIAREAand retirees continuedpeaceful and unifiedstruggle.