Saturday, 5 January, 2013 Safar 22, 1434rs 15.00 Vol iii No 189 19 pages Karachi edition

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Army wantsgovernment to decide TTP talks offer

Mobile phones areweapon of terrorism,says Rehman Malik

India moving toward more femalepolice officers

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ISLAMABADtayyab hussain

FEEliNG the heatfrom the longmarch announcedby Tehreek-e-Min-hajul Quran leader

Dr Tahirul Qadri, Prime Minis-ter Raja Pervez Ashraf on Fri-day contacted the leadership ofmajor coalition partners andopposition parties and assuredthem of the government’s re-solve to protect the democraticprocess against all odds.

Ashraf phoned PakistanMuslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) chief Nawaz Sharif andAwami National Party (ANP)President Asfandyar Wali Khanto assure them that no onewould be allowed to derail thedemocratic process in the coun-try. The prime minister also metPakistan Muslim league-Quaid(PMl-Q) President ChaudhryShujaat Hussain and Deputy PMPervez Elahi, seeking their sup-port to help reinforce the demo-cratic order in the country.

“Both leaders (Raja PervezAshraf and Nawaz Sharif) dis-

cussed the political situation pre-vailing in the country ... Theyagreed that democracy was theway forward and the people ofPakistan would not allow any at-tempt to derail the democraticprocess in the country,” said astatement issued by the PrimeMinister’s House. The telephoniccontact would bring about a sighof relief in the PMl-N camp, asthe Sharif brothers have beenmuch perturbed over the recentdevelopments. They think thatthe onslaught by Qadri was aspanner thrown in their work asthey had taken almost all “big-wigs and electables”, includingclose comrades of General Per-vez Musharraf., into their partywho could help the PMl-N winthe next elections.

“Talking to Ashraf, Nawazsaid Pakistan had lived withthe horrors of so-called slogansof revolutions and longmarches. He said that the bestway to ascertain the people’swishes was through the ballot,”the statement said. The primeminister said the restoration ofdemocracy owed itself to ardu-ous struggle of political forces

in the country and the systemneeded continuity to evolve.

He said it was a sign of po-litical maturity that all politicalforces were on the same pageas far as the need for continuityof the democratic system wasconcerned. “The prime minis-ter said the government wascommitted to holding of fair,free and transparent electionsin the country per law and con-stitution. He assured Nawazthat all necessary steps wouldbe taken to achieve this objec-tive,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the primeminister also telephoned As-fandyar Wali Khan and dis-cussed with him the prevailingpolitical situation. During thetelephonic conversation, As-fandyar Wali Khan said, “Ourgoal is to establish sustainabledemocracy in the country.” Re-iterating his support for thepresent coalition government,Asfandyar said any attempt tocreate hurdles in the demo-cratic process was unaccept-able. Responding to Khan’sremarks, Ashraf said the gov-ernment considered elections

as a national trust and wascommitted to hold them ac-cording to the constitution.

Deputy Prime Minister Per-vez Elahi and Chaudhry ShujaatHussain also met Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf at the PMHouse and discussed the politi-cal situation prevalent in thecountry. The leaders of PMl-Qassured the prime minister oftheir unstinted support to thePPP-led coalition governmentand conveyed their firm commit-ment to strengthen democracy inthe country. Talking to the PMl-Q leaders, the prime ministersaid a consensus among politicalforces over the need for continu-ity of democratic process wouldaugur well for the country’s sta-bility. The PM said the demo-cratic process was vital as itincorporated interests and aspi-rations of various stakeholders.Ashraf added that the countrywas looking forward to the gen-eral election and the governmentwould ensure that they were fair,free and transparent as per con-stitutional provisions.

g PM assures PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif of ensuring continuity of democraticsetup g Also takes up long march scenario with ANP, PML-Q chiefs

KARACHIOnline

The Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) on Friday filed apetition in the Supreme Courtto seek exemption for partychief Altaf Hussain from ap-pearing in the apex court onJanuary 7. The petition wassubmitted at the SC’s KarachiRegistry by Qazi Khalid Aliand Farogh Nasem.

According to the petition,Altaf’s admirers believed hislife would be at risk if he cameto Pakistan and Dr FarooqSattar wanted to appear be-fore the apex court on Altaf’sbehalf. The petition furtherstates that the political lead-ership of the country had

been at risk during the lastfive years which was evidentfrom the assassination of Be-nazir Bhutto and BashirBilour. The apex court had is-sued a contempt of court no-tice to Altaf and his party’sdeputy convener Dr FarooqSattar on December 14 overthe former’s derogatory re-marks against the SC judges.

The notice was issued dur-ing the hearing of a case onKarachi’s law and order. Thechief justice had stated that hehad read the text of a speechmade by the MQM chief andhad found it to be offensiveand threatening. The languageused in the speech was tanta-mount to an attempt to ob-struct justice, he had said.

Malala discharged from hospitalMQM files petitionseeking exemptionfor Altaf Hussain incontempt hearing

LONDONMajid KhattaK

Malala Yousafzai has been dischargedfrom the Queen Elizabeth HospitalBirmingham (QEHB) as an inpatientto continue her rehabilitation at herfamily’s home in Birmingham.

The 15-year-old, who was shot bythe Taliban for campaigning for girls’education, is well enough to betreated by the hospital as an outpa-tient for the next few weeks. Malalais being shifted to the three bedroomhouse allocated by the Government

of Pakistan to her family in Birming-ham. The government has also al-ready appointed Ziauddin Yousafzai,father of Malala Yousafzai, as Educa-tion Attaché (BS-19) in Consulate ofPakistan, Birmingham, UK. Thetenure of his office shall be initiallyfor three years, extendable for a fur-ther period of two years.

According to hospital sources,Malala was still due to be re-admittedin late January or early February to un-dergo cranial reconstructive surgery aspart of her long-term recovery and shewould visit the hospital regularly to at-

tend clinical appointments. Dr DaveRosser, medical director of UniversityHospitals Birmingham NHS Founda-tion Trust, said, “Malala is a strongyoung woman and has worked hardwith the people caring for her to makeexcellent progress in her recovery. Fol-lowing discussions with Malala and hermedical team, we decided that shewould benefit from being at home withher parents and two brothers.”

“She will return to the hospital asan outpatient and our therapies teamwill continue to work with her athome to supervise her onward care,”

Dr Dave said.Officials at the hospital said over

the past couple of weeks, Malala hadbeen leaving the hospital on a regularbasis on ‘home leave’ to spend timewith her father Ziauddin, motherToorpekai and younger brothers,Khushal and Atul. During those vis-its, assessments had been carried outby her medical team to ensure shecould continue to make goodprogress outside the hospital. Malalawas admitted to the QEHB on Mon-day October 15 after being flownfrom Pakistan.

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Good or bad, all terrorists will be eliminated: Qamar iceland teen fights to keep name of ‘light breeze’

PIA Kuwait-Lahore flight makesemergency landing in IranKARACHI: A Pakistan international Airlines (PiA)flight had to make an emergency landing in iran due to atechnical fault on Friday. According to details, thetechnical fault emerged in PiA flight PK-206 with 180passengers on board, which flew for lahore fromKuwait. The pilot after detecting a defect in the planelanded it at Karman Jan Airport, iran. Despite theemergency landing, all passengers remained safe. Afterremoving the fault, the plane flew for its destination. inp

20 militants killed in forces’Jamrud assault PESHAWAR: At least 20 militants were killed and 14others injured when security forces backed by fighterjets targeted their hideouts in Jamrud tehsil of KhyberAgency on Friday. Officials said the forces acted on a tip-off and targeted militant hideouts in Dwatoyee area ofJamrud with the help of fighter jets. As a result, fivedens were destroyed and 20 of the occupants werekilled. The toll could not be independently verified dueto inaccessibility to the area. However, tribesmenconfirmed the aerial strikes in an area dominated byKokikhel Afridi tribe. Officials said militants hiding inthe area were involved in recent terrorist acts inPeshawar and its surrounding areas. staff RepORt

Police gun down Swabi attacker

PESHAWAR: A man alleged to have been involved inthe recent killing of seven charity workers in Swabi waskilled on Friday in an exchange of fire with securityforces while his accomplice managed to escape, officialssaid. The suspected terrorist, who was holed up in ahouse in the Gar area of Maneri Bala in Swabi district,was among those who had attacked and killed the sevenworkers on Tuesday, said Swabi District Police OfficerAbdur Rashid Khan. The DPO claimed that a motorcycleand a pistol that had been used in the killings had alsobeen recovered from the suspected attacker. Swabipolice officials said the two suspects were riding amotorcycle when they were stopped by security forces atthe Pir Tab area on suspicion. instead of stopping, thetwo opened fire on the police and took refuge in thehouse of one Fazl Dad in Gar. The police and thesuspects were exchanging gunfire as a result of which anexplosion took place and one of the men was killed. Theman’s accomplice however managed to flee the scene. Asearch operation was underway to arrest the abscondingsuspect. Online

ISLAMABADstaff RepORt

The Supreme Court directed theSindh Police on Friday to arrestthe killers of Shahzeb Khanwithin 24 hours otherwise beready to face the music.

The court also directed thepolice to submit the chargesheet (challan) of the case at theRegistrar’s office on Saturday(today).

A three-judge SC bench,headed by Chief Justice iftikharMuhammad Chaudhry andcomprising Justice GulzarAhmed and Justice AzmatSaeed, heard the murder case.Shahzeb, the only son of hisparents, was shot dead on De-cember 25 in Karachi because ofa petty argument. During thehearing, the bench showed an-noyance over the absence of theSindh iG and the Sindh advo-cate general. Sindh Additional

iG Muhammad Rafiq was pres-ent in the court and so was di-rected to arrest the killers “or tocome to the court on the nextdate of hearing, January 7,without uniform”.

Rafiq and Additional Advo-cate General Kasim Mir Jat in-formed the bench that the SindhiG and the AG could not comedue to the cancellation of their

flights. Referring to a previous case,

the chief justice said, “The iGwas saved in the last case buttell him he will not be pardonedthis time,” adding that heshould have appeared in per-son.

During the course of hear-ing, a DVD of the interview ofSikandar Jatoi, father ofShahrukh Jatoi, the accused inthe case, was also played in thecourtroom in the presence ofthe Sindh police. Sikandar’s in-terview was recorded by a pri-vate TV channel. The father ofaccused claimed that his son,Shahrukh left the country thenight between December 24 and25. After seeing the interview,the bench observed that the po-lice were reluctant to carry outinvestigations. The bench re-marked that if an anchorpersoncould approach Sikandar, whyhad the police failed?

SHAHzeb Murder cASe

SC orders Sindh Police to arrest

accused within 24 hoursg Also directs police to submit charge sheet at the registrar’s office today

Six of afamily killedin Kohistan

PESHAWARstaff RepORt

At least six people, including a woman,were killed when unidentified armed menattacked a house in Kohistan’s Palas Valleylate on Thursday night. Reports from the far-flung valley revealedthat rivals from another village attackedthe house of Mohammad Afzal and hisrelatives. The intruders, equippedwith automatic weapons, killedsix people, including the brother and twocousins of Afzal. locals confirmed the number of deaths inthe attack. However, the Hazaracommissioner said in his estimation threeto four people had died in the attack. Hesaid teams of police officials had beendispatched to the area for theconfirmation of the attack. Afzal had allegedly made movies of womenduring a wedding ceremony and laterreleased them to the general public. Healso claimed that two of the women hadbeen killed by their relatives. However, theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa informationMinister iftikhar Hussain contradictedsuch reports.

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif offers Fateha for the departed

soul of former senior minister Bashir Bilour after condoling with his brother Ghulam Biiour on Friday. INP

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arif nizami says;Cooperation vs confrontation: How democracy holds answersto the shenanigans of a maverick cleric.

Raoof hasan says;A coalition of the absurd: The middle course is out for Pakistan.

dr Muhammad aslam Khan naru says;A proposal…: …for free, fair and transparent elections.

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Cameron diaz loves reading about herself Call for exemption of industrial, agri sectors from loadshedding Misbah makes the pakistan team work

PESHAWARapp

PAKiSTAN Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) chiefNawaz Sharif has said thatthe general election wouldbe held on time and no con-

spiracy to delay the polls would be al-lowed to succeed.

Talking to reporters on Friday atthe residence of Federal Minister forRailways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, hesaid his party wanted the promotion ofclean and fair politics and end to hyp-ocritical politics.

Nawaz said the postponement ofgeneral election would not be acceptedin any case.

However, he feared that the pathadopted by Tahirul Qadri would createanarchy in the country.

“People are being misled in thename of islam as they are being askedto sell their belongings just for partici-pating in the long march,” he said.

The PMl-N chief said his partywould not allow a few people to snatchthe rights of millions of people.

He also criticised the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) and Pak-istan Muslim league-Quaid for sup-porting Qadri’s long march.

Nawaz stressed on the need forjoining hands by all political forces toprepare a joint strategy to steer thecountry out of the prevailing crises.

Terrorism can only be defeatedwith unity.

He was of the view that all institu-tions should be taken on board overthe country’s security situation.

The PMl-N chief said the mani-festo of his political party was progressand development of Pakistan and pro-vision of employment opportunities tothe youth. Earlier, Nawaz condoledwith Ghulam Ahmad Bilour over thedeath of Bashir Bilour.

later talking to reporters, KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) Minister for infor-mation Mian iftikhar Hussain

claimed that Nawaz Sharif backed theAwami National Party’s (ANP) pro-posal on terrorism which was to de-velop a joint strategy withconsultation of all political partieswith the sole agenda of peace anderadication of terrorism.

He further said the ANP hadgiven its central leader Azam KhanHoti the task to consult all politicalparties and discuss the proposal toframe a joint strategy for establish-ment of peace and eradication of ter-rorism.

He urged the federal governmentto hold meaningful talks with Talibanmilitants. He, however, said if negoti-ation efforts did not yield any positiveresults, eventually a decisive actionwould have to be taken against terror-ists by launching a military operation.“All three frontline states, includingUnited States, Afghanistan and Pak-istan, should evolve a joint strategyfor complete elimination of terrorismfrom this region,” he stressed.

Elections will be heldon time, says Nawazg nawaz Sharif backs AnP proposal against terrorism: iftikhar Hussain

KARACHIaaMiR Majeed

Responding to Pakistan Army’s GreenBook, the country’s “internal threat”Hizbut Tahrir has called on sincere offi-cers in the armed forces to work with itto get rid of “alleged traitors” in theirlines, as the group believes it is time toopenly come to the fore before it is toolate.

“We are the ones Pakistan Armychief General Ashfaq Kayani called‘amorphous enemy’ in his speech at the98th Midshipmen Commissioning termand 7th SSC Officer’s class in Karachi,”an e-mail to Pakistan Today fromHizbut Tahrir (HuT) headquarters’ said.

“Earlier, we requested the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is an-other threat for traitors within thearmed forces, to reject talks with the au-thorities and side only with KhilafahRashida over Pakistan and

Afghanistan.”“Khilafah would establish correct

footing for Muslim armed forces as as-sets available to islam’s foreign policy,along with political means.”

“The Khilafah state would establishmassive and comprehensive industriali-sation to establish military superiority inweaponry and would help unify all Mus-lim lands as one state under one Khalifa.The Khilafa would end all occupation onMuslims soil, like the Jewish state andindian occupation of Kashmir.”

“it will eject all hostile actors, suchas American presence in Pakistan andwill call to other non-hostile, non-Mus-lim states by inviting them to islam andrejecting oppression of America and itsman-made system.” “So HT calls on sin-cere officers in the country’ armedforces to work hand in hand with us torid of these traitors and establish Khi-lafah in its place,” the e-mail added.

Backing its argument, the HT al-

leged that in the final year of his service,General Kayani was working hard tochange the mentality of the armedforces so that after his departure, thewar of ‘fitna’ remained in its place.

“As it was not enough for him to seta stage for a face-change of politicaltraitors, he has indulged himself inmaking sure that he is succeeded bymilitary traitors.”

“in a significant revision to greenbook, General Kayani enshrined Amer-ica’s war of fitna as an inviolable part ofthe military doctrine, as the US hasbeen earlier pressurising Pakistan tochange its india-centric policy and de-clare the ‘internal threat’ as the biggestthreat to the security of the country.”

“To change this doctrine and tochange focus of our armed forces fromindia to our own internal tribal terri-tory, General Kayani used the incidentsof Abbottabad and Salala attack, asthese incidents in reality proved that

our actual enemy was the US, but thearmy chief used these incidents as anexcuse to further ignite the war of fitnaand burn our sons in the armed forcesand the citizens in this war.”

“HT reminds all those who careabout islam, its people and Pakistanthat this change in doctrine will serve toopen a new chapter of humiliation andslavery of Pakistan by non-Muslimstates.”

“We have requested the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is an-other threat for traitors within thearmed forces, to announce rejection ofsurrender talks and express stance ofsiding only with Khilafah Rashida overPakistan and Afghanistan.”

“it is difficult to understand thatany of the Taliban would even considersuch a peace plan after having sacrificedso much time, effort and the money andspilling so much blood.”

“By all accounts, the root and

branches of the peace plan seek only tosafeguard the US wavering rule in theregion and that of its puppets in theAfghan government.”

“There is no doubt that this plan isan insult to countless Pakistani andAfghan civilians who have lost theirlives in their service to protect islamand would be despicable affront tothousands of martyrs and tens of thou-sands of mujahideen who made the USand his allies kneel and search for ahasty exit from Afghanistan.”

“The TTP’s only valid political goalis the re-establishment of the KhilafahRashida, which entails giving the bayahto the Khaleefah who will rule in accor-dance with the Quran, Sunnah, ijamaSahaba and Qiyas and any other politi-cal outcome, short of this goal is nulland void.” “Only the complete imple-mentation of islam in all walks of life issought and partial implementation isrejected in all its forms.”

HT asks its friends in army to come to the foreg Asks ttP to reject peace talks with Pakistani and Afghan governments g Says nothing short of Khilafat over Pakistan and Afghanistan acceptable

ECP bans election adsat public expenditureISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) on Thursday imposed a complete ban onadvertisements in print or electronic media bearing anypolitical party logo, political party name, images ofpolitical party leaders and/or directly or indirectlypromoting any political party or candidate. The ECPissued directives to the federal and provincialgovernments to ensure its implementation in letter andspirit. it said that as the forthcoming elections areapproaching, there are frequent advertisementsappearing in the print and electronic media whichhighlight the achievements of the incumbent federal andprovincial governments and that these advertisementswith party symbols are being used to promote politicalparties by placing party symbols and images of partyleaders therein. Such advertisements should not bepromoting party interests at the expense of publicmoney and thus are against the norm of a “level playingfield”, which cannot be allowed to continue as it wouldamount to misuse the resources from the publicexchequer for their own self-interest. staff RepORt

Around 150 clerics backQadri’s long march

ISLAMABAD: Around 150 religious scholars fromaround the country backed the long march announcedby Pakistan Awami Tehrik leader Tahirul Qadri. Clericsand spiritual heads of various shrines across thecountry including Pakpattan Sharif, Sakhi Sultan Bahushrine, Manki Sharif and Uch Sharif, called on Qadriand announced support for his long march, scheduledto be held on January 14. Talking to the delegation,Qadri warned that elections without reforms will be anagenda to dismember the country. nni

ISLAMABADnni

The All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) on Fri-day said the on-going CNG crisis was artificial and hadbeen engineered to boost imports of petrol, lPG andlNG to benefit certain lobbies at the cost of the masses.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Petroleum Dr AsimHussain is the biggest obstacle in resolution of the crisisand should resign immediately said APCNGA Chair-man Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Parachasaid the CNG sector has no alternatives and thereforegas load shedding should be stopped, gas prices andtaxes should be brought at par with other gas-consum-ing sectors, otherwise APCNGA will start a protestmovement from January 8.

A peaceful demonstration will also be carried out

in islamabad in which transporters and masses willparticipate, said Paracha.

Paracha said politicians and bureaucracy was di-rectly involved in the longest CNG crisis in the coun-try’s history which has made life miserable for 180million people of the country.

He said the government had notorious objectivesand delayed resolution of the problem for two and ahalf months under the pretext of policy guidelines andlater came up with the idea to close CNG filling stations,banning use of the economical fuel in private vehiclesand introducing costly liquid gasses. The ECC sub-committee formed to resolve the issue was not allowedto work and later they were forced to announce a pric-ing that was not sustainable, he said.

Paracha said the government wanted to divert at-tention of masses from their failures by keeping thembusy and confused. it wanted to promote petroleum,

lPG and lNG mafias and justify purchase of a scraplPG terminal on inflated rates.

The energy crisis would have been resolved earlierif Dr Asim, who is a Canadian national, focused on itsresolution but he wanted to destroy the CNG sectorhurting millions, Paracha added.

“A just and legal distribution of natural gas wouldhave saved a lot of foreign exchange presently beingwasted on addition petroleum imports,” said Paracha.

Paracha further said Dr Asim should come up witha clarification for forcing companies to appoint localagents of his choice for the iran-Pakistan gas pipelineproject which had delayed the whole matter.

“Why Byco has been exempted from tax for 20years and why refiners are being forced to open lCswith PSO and what was the wisdom behind Bakri Oilwhich has resulted in a NAB probe,” questionedParacha, seeking answers.

APCNGA says energy crisis engineered to meet objectives

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WASHINGTONspeCial CORRespOndent

THE United Statescould keep between6,000 and 15,000

troops in Afghanistan afterthe 2014 NATO withdrawalfrom the country, an Ameri-can news channel reported inthe light of options proposedby top US Commander inAfghanistan.

Citing American officialsthe CNN said US commanderGen. John R. Allen has sub-mitted three options to Penta-gon. The plans have beencreated with input from De-fense Secretary leon Panetta’soffice, the Joint Staff, the USCentral Command, and theWhite House - would givePresident Barack Obama op-tions based on what he is look-ing to do in Afghanistan. Theplans are awaiting official ap-proval from Panetta.

Meanwhile, The NewYork Times, quoting un-named US officials, reportedeach of the three plans con-tains with it a risk factor An

option of 6,000 troops wouldprobably pose a higher risk offailure for the American effortin Afghanistan, 10,000 wouldbe medium risk and 20,000would be lower risk, a US of-ficial said, according to a re-port in the newspaper.

Explaining the options, aCNN account said the low-endoption calls for 6,000 to 6,500troops that would be strictlyfor counterterrorism opera-tions: hunting down Talibanand al Qaeda members andcells still operating around thecountry. This plan would re-quire mostly Special Opera-tions Forces, with a limitednumber of support troops andonly a very small amount oftraining assistance for Afghanforces. The mid-range option,involving around 10,000troops, would still have themain focus on counterterror-ism operations, but it wouldhave a bigger training foot-print for Afghan forces, withmost of the focus on SpecialOperations troops and a lim-ited amount of conventionaltroop training. While the

15,000-troop option wouldbring in a greater number ofconventional troops for train-ing Afghan Security Forces, aswell as a bigger support ele-ment in addition to the coun-terterrorism forces.

American defense offi-cials say planning for thepost-2014 troop presence isstill not complete, but it isvery close. Currently, the UShas 66,000 troops inAfghanistan. The US expectsnext week’s visit of AfghanPresident Hamid Karzai toinvolve conversations dis-cussing these options. A sen-ior Defense official told CNNthe United States is expectingthe Afghan government toallow legal protections for UStroops who remain inAfghanistan after the NATOmission ends in 2014.

According to the channel,the iraqi government refusalto extend legal protections forUS troops after the end of thewar in iraq was a major rea-son the United States left thecountry with no residual mil-itary training force.

NEW YORKinp

An alleged Pakistani al Qaedaoperative accused of planningattacks in the United States,Britain and Norway was ex-tradited to America.

The British Home officeon Thursday said that Naseerwas a resident of Manchesterin Northern England and wasextradited to America wherehe is accused of terrorism of-fenses. His case is now a mat-

ter for the US authorities.Abid Naseer, 26, flew out of

Britain from luton Airport nearlondon under US custody. He isdue to face a federal judge Mon-day on charges of joining a failedal Qaeda plot to bomb the NewYork. Naseer was originally ar-rested in 2009 along with 10 otherPakistani men over a suspectedManchester bomb plot. They werereleased without charge afterprosecutors cited inadequate evi-dence, and ordered to be de-ported. Despite Naseer being an al

Qaeda operative who posed andstill poses a serious threat, hecould not be returned to Pakistanas his safety there could not beguaranteed, said an immigrationjudge. Two months after his re-lease in July 2010, Naseer was ar-rested again on a US warrantlinked to the New York case.

According to Americanprosecutors, Naseer was a go-be-tween for three men convicted oftraveling to Pakistan for militanttraining, then plotting an attackto set off suicide bombs in New

York City’s subway in 2009. Theplotters admitted to communi-cating with an al Qaeda organiserin Pakistan named Ahmad. USauthorities say Ahmad was inturn communicating withNaseer, who likewise visited Pe-shawar. Federal prosecutors saidin a statement that upon return-ing to the United Kingdom,Naseer sent messages back andforth to the same email accountthat ‘Ahmad’ was using to com-municate with the American-based al Qaeda cell.

NEW DELHIaGenCies

The government onFriday made it clear thatthe issuance of visa toformer Pakistani cricketerJaved Miandad, a relativeof underworld donDawood ibrahim, doesnot reflect any change inthe status of the Mumbaiserial bomb blasts case’smastermind as far asindia is concerned.Miandad’s son Junaid ismarried to Mahrukh, thedaughter of Dawood, whois wanted in india inconnection with the 1993Mumbai bomb blasts

case.“There has not been anychange as far as Dawoodibrahim is concerned. Hisposition remains exactlythe same,” a topgovernment source said.The remarks came amidstcriticism by BJP and ShivSena over the issuance ofvisa to Miandad.The source said Miandad,whose son married thefugitive terrorist’sdaughter, was not onindia’s negative list andadded that he was given avisa in April 2011 also.However, he did not comelast time. The formerPakistani captain has

been granted an indianvisa that will allow him towatch the final one-daymatch of the ongoinglimited-over cricket seriesbetween the two countriesin New Delhi on January6. However, Miandadcancelled his visit thistime as well. According toindian security agencies,Dawood is believed to bestaying in Karachi wherehe had fled to after theserial bomb blasts.Asked why he gave visa toMiandad, home ministerSushilkumar Shinde shotback “i have not givenvisa. My officer or mymission must have given”.

NEW DELHIaGenCies

india’s interior minister hasordered each police station in NewDelhi to beef up the number ofwomen officers to facilitatecomplaints from women. it is thelatest in a string of changes thatfollow the fatal gang rape of astudent that shocked the nation.interior Minister Sushil KumarShinde on Friday said each policestation in Delhi should have 10female constables and two femalesub inspectors. “We will be postingthese women very soon accordingto this order by diverting stafffrom other places and makingthem available in Delhi,” policespokesman Rajan Bhagat said.

Currently, females make up 7% ofpolice forces, he said. New recruitswill be selected in the next three tofour months, and training will takean additional nine months, hesaid. Bhagat denied that the newdirective was implemented solelybecause of the rape, but itsimplementation is aimed athelping women. The directive isnecessary because “we needoverall more women in the policestation as other women feel morecomfortable with female officers,”he said. “if all women complaintsare attended to promptlysituations like that of the gang-raped medical student may havebeen avoided.” The interiorminister also said he is workingwith security officials to

strengthen laws regarding rapeand assault.in the state of Haryana, about 80miles northwest of Delhi, officialswill make public the profiles ofrapists online.The state will publish the names,addresses and case numbers ofconvicted rapists on a website thatanyone can access.“in doing so, we hope to curbcrime against women,” said laikRam Dabbas, director of the statecrime records bureau. The policeexpect to approve the measure andthe website could be active thismonth, Dabbas said.“By making these names andprofiles public we think crime canbe curbed, as in india people aresensitive to public embarrassment

and once the public is aware ofsuch people roaming around theirarea they will become morecareful,” Dabbas said.The men accused in the gang rapethat led to the death of the 23-year-old indian woman wereformally charged with murder,rape and kidnapping in a NewDelhi court Thursday. The attackon the woman, who died last weekfrom her severe injuries, hasappalled and enraged manyindians, prompting widespreaddebate over the way the countryhandles sexual assaults and thetreatment of women in indiansociety.Numerous protests have takenplace, new laws have beenproposed and senior lawyers in the

court district where the accusedmen have been charged say theywill not represent them. Policesubmitted charges against fivesuspects before a new fast-trackcourt in Saket, a southern districtof New Delhi, said Suman Nalwa,deputy police commissioner of aspecial unit for women andchildren.He said authorities were waitingfor the outcome of a bone marrowtest before deciding whether asixth suspect in the attack,believed to be a minor, will becharged as a juvenile or an adult.The results of the test, intended todetermine the suspect’s exact age,should come soon, Nalwa said. Thetrial will begin this week once allthe evidence is gathered, he said.

mobile phones areweapon of terrorism,says rehman malik

ISLAMABADapp

Federal interior MinisterRehman Malik Friday said thatmobile phones were now aweapon of terrorism as allimprovised bombings wereconducted through them.Speaking in the Senate and lateroutside the Parliament House,he said elections will not bedelayed and will be held on timeas per the constitutionalprovisions. The minister saidthat mobile phone services weresuspended in different cities onChehlum of imam Hussain aftertaking all the provinces intoconfidence. “Mobile phones arenow a weapon of terrorism as allimprovised bombings wereconducted through them.” Hesaid that suspension of mobilephone services helped avoidingblasts. The minister suggestedthat legislation should be done toban illegal mobile phone SiMssell as it has become a weapon ofcommitting terror, adding thePakistan TelecommunicationAuthority (PTA) has beenwritten a letter in this regard.

ISLAMABADOnline

Refraining from verifying thedeath of Taliban warlordMullah Nazir in a US dronestrike in South Waziristan,the Foreign Office spokesmanon Friday said the issue ofdrone attacks had been raisedat with the United States.

in his weekly briefing tothe press, FO spokesmanMoazzam Ali Khan reiteratedthe stance that Pakistan con-demned US drone attacks onits soil, adding that the matterwas raised in talks between thesenior leadership of both coun-tries. Calling Foreign MinisterHina Rabbani Khar’s visit toSaudi Arabia successful, Khansaid the relations between thetwo countries were exemplary.To a question about iran’s nu-clear installations, thespokesman said the mattercould be resolved in a peaceful

manner. Khan said the issuecould not be solved with theimposition of sanctions. Speak-ing about a conference of cler-ics being planned inAfghanistan, the spokesmansaid Pakistan was in contactwith Afghanistan over dates forthe conference. He said Pak-istan supported reconciliationprocess in Afghanistan. Khanalso said President Asif AliZardari would not be attendingthe third Pakistan-india cricketmatch in india.

Prof. Khurshidconcerned overparadigm shift inmilitary doctrine

ISLAMABAD inp

Jamaate islami Naib Amirand former SenatorProfessor Khurshid Ahmadexpressed serious concernover the radical change in themilitary doctrine in Pakistan,shifting focus from externalthreats to internal threats“While there is no denyingthat terrorism has become aserious challenge, thecounter-terrorism strategysuggested by the Parliamentin the form of tworesolutions (October 2008and May 2011) and a detailedreport of the ParliamentaryCommittee on NationalSecurity (2009) has beentotally neglected by thegovernment,” Ahmadpointed out. He emphasisedthat the suggested paradigmshift in the military doctrinemust be carefully reviewed toassess how far it follows theguidelines of the Parliamentand to what extent itrepresents a departure fromthem. Prof. Khurshidexpressed fear that thegovernment was failing in itsduty to lay down clearparameters for the militarydoctrine in light of theconstitution and resolutionof the Parliament, leavingvital matters to the ArmedForces whose professionalinput was essential, but thefinal decision, he said, oughtto be made by the civilauthority as laid down in theconstitution.

uS general offers 3 optionsfor post-2014 military presence in Afghanistan

FO refrains fromverifying MullahNazir’s death

India moving toward more female police officers

Granting visa to Miandad doesn’tchange dawood’s status: govt

uK hands over Pakistani al Qaeda suspect to uS

la ReuniOn: a man struggles against the wind on friday in the western part of french overseas’ island of la Reunion, as

cyclone dumile approached the region. AGENCIES

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Saturday, 5 January, 2013

KaRaChi: Governor punjab Makhdum syed ahmed Mahmud called on president asif ali Zardari at bilawal house. INP

KARACHIstaff RepORt

EiGHT people died and atleast four others injuredon Friday as the wave ofviolence and killingscontinued in Karachi.

According to police, unknownmiscreants sprayed bullets at a carwith three people on board in EssaNagri locality of the city killing twopersons on the spot and injuring an-other. The injured was rushed to ahospital where he succumbed to hiswounds. The police also recovered thebodies of three unidentified men fromBaldia Town.

Bodies of two youngsters werefound from Netty Jetty Bridge in theprecincts of Jackson Police Station.According to police, the deceased werekidnapped and later shot dead.

Meanwhile, firing incidents con-tinued in different areas of the city

during which more than 10 peoplewere injured.

The citizens of Karachi and mem-bers of the business community criti-cized the federal and provincialgovernments and security forces fortheir failure to overcome the law andorder situation in the city.

“The surge in violence has not onlyadversely affected the routine life buthas also hit business activities, depriv-ing thousands of people of their liveli-hood,” a businessman said.

in raids and sting operations,rangers and police took 15 suspectedcriminals into custody. They alsoclaimed to have recovered arms anddrugs from the possession of de-tainees.ExCISE TEAM ARRESTS 8 AC-CuSED: Karachi excise team raidedin different parts of city on Friday andseized 230 illicit bottles of liquor ar-rested eight accused. Cases have beenregistered against them under various

sections. The excise team raided in the

areas of Essa Nagri, Machar Colony,Burns road, Khamiso Goth, BhainsColony, Juma Goth, Yousuf Goth andTB Hospital ibrahim Hyderi and ar-rested Jan Sher Khan, Muhammad is-mail, Wahid Bux, Ali Muhammad,Roshan Ali, Aslam and Saleem Balochand recovered 230 illicit bottles ofliquor and 360 grams hashish. TWO DIE IN MISHAPS: A womanburnt to death and a man died in roadmishap in Karachi on Friday. Policesaid Sana, 20, burnt to death duringcooking in her house no 210 sector A,Orangi Town, in the limits of OrangiTown Police Station. The body wasshifted to ASH for postmortem.

Meanwhile, a speeding vehicleknocked 45-year-old Abdul Rasheedto death in Nazimabad No 2 in thelimits of Gulbahar Police Station. Thebody was moved to ASH for post-mortem.

dO assuresteachers of enquiry againstprincipal

NAuDEROppi

Larkana District Officer (Sec-ondary Education) AnwarKhokhar visited GovernmentGirls Higher Secondary School,Naudero on Friday morningafter media reports about theon-going dispute between theteachers and the principal. After hearing both sides,Khokhar informed the strikingteachers and other lower staffas well as GSTA leaders that hewould send a detailed reportagainst the principal of theschool to education secretary inKarachi as he (DO) was not em-powered to issue her transferorder. He further told them that aninquiry would be initiatedsoon into the allegations ofprincipal’s bad attitude withthe junior and senior schoolteachers. Khokhar asked the principal,who arrived in the school fromLarkana when she was tele-phonically informed about thearrival of DO, that she wouldnot come to this school anymore till receiving her transfernotification which will be is-sued next week. The teachers, clerks and otherlower staff continued theirprotest and boycotted classesand held protest demonstrationinside the school. They chanted slogans againstthe principal demanding herimmediate transfer fromNaudero.

Pti won’t be partof Qadri’s longmarch: Ghazali

KARACHIppi

Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf will not be thepart of long march of Dr Tahirul Qadri,said imran Ghazali of PTi’s social mediateam on Friday.Addressing a press conference atKarachi press club, he said his party hadstrong belief in democracy and inde-pendent judiciary.Earlier, Dr Awab Alvi, imran Ghazali,Arslan Ghuman and Anas Malik of thePTi social media team announced itscode of conduct for the social media. Ghazali said PTi is dedicated to bringingabout a positive and constructive changein Pakistan. He urged all PTi supportersto embrace the core value of the partywhich revolved around justice, humanityand self-esteem.He said the social media code of conductcovers all social media platforms and isnot limited to face book, twitter,youtube, insaf.pk, blogs, forums andother websites where Pakistan PTi isbeing actively discussed.Arsalan Ghumman gave the detailsabout PTi core values and said all thePTi members must have to believe incore values of the party.Dr Awab Alvi said: “it constitutes theuse of language, personal or racial at-tacks and discourteous remarks, as inthis digital era it is impossible for a po-litical party to technologically stop orprohibit people from making abusive orderogatory remarks in the social media”.He said who claimed to be PTi supporterand office-bearer should show an in-creasing sense of responsibility andcourtesy, when they express their opin-ion on the social media.PTi secretary general Dr Arif, and seniorvice president and national campaignmanager Asad Umar said for a vibrantdemocracy it is essential that PTi en-courages a courteous exchange of dia-logue and discussion among all peopleon social media.

no offence made out againstmirza, court told

KARACHIppi

The Sindh High Court (SHC) was in-formed on Friday that statement of ap-plicant for registering an FiR against theformer Sindh home minister ZulfiqarMirza under the blasphemy law does notmake out any cognizable offence.The single bench comprising Justice Fa-rooq Ali Shah was heard the applicationfiled by MQM leader Rauf Siddiqui whosought contempt of court proceedingsagainst the police for not complying witha court order regarding registration ofFiR against Zulfiqar Mirza.The applicant stated that on his petitiona SHC bench had ordered the SHOKalakot on December 7 to record hisstatement under Section 154 of theCriminal Procedure Code and lodge FiRif the statement of the applicant consti-tuted any cognizable offence.However, he submitted that despite pas-sage of around three weeks, the SHO didnot lodge the FiR and he was liable to bepunished. Earlier the court had orderedthe SHO to appear in person to explainas to why the court order dated Decem-ber 7 had not been complied with. OnFriday SHO Kalakot, Javed Baloch, sub-mitted that in compliance of the courtorder he recorded a fresh statement ofthe applicant. He said he had gonethrough the statement received from theapplicant but it does not make out anycognizable offence under the blasphemylaw. Therefore, he appealed to court fordisposing of the application. The courtput off hearing till 10th .

City violenCeclaims 8 more lives

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Saturday, 5 January, 2013

06 Karachi

KaRaChi: police officials gather outside sikander jatoi’s residence after sealing his house during a raid to arrest shahzaib Khan’s murderer. PPI

LARKANA/KARACHIinp

PPP workers at national,provincial and districtlevels will celebrate the85th birth anniversary offormer prime minister

and founder of Pakistan People’sParty, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a befittingmanner today.

By forming the PPP in 1967,Bhutto laid the foundation stone of ademocratic process in the country.

He gave Pakistan a constitutionwhich was passed unanimously by theNational Assembly and he also initi-ated the nuclear programme. ZulfikarAli Bhutto served as the country’spresident from 1971 to 1973 and asprime minister from 1973 to 1977.

Radio Pakistan will broadcast aspecial transmission titled “Zinda HeyBhutto Zinda Hey” today to pay hom-age to the founding chairman of thePPP. Bhutto’s personality, his revolu-tionary struggle for democracy and hisservices for the country and the nationwill be highlighted in the specialtransmission on Pakistan TelevisionNetwork. MAuLANA MOHAMMAD ALIJOHAR’S DEATH ANNIvER-

SARy OBSERvED: Veteran Muslimpolitical leader and one of the heroesof the Pakistan movement, MaulanaMohammad Ali Johar was remem-bered on his death anniversary on Fri-day.

Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar,born in 1878 in Rampur in india,served as director of education inRampur state, and later joined theBaroda civil service.

Being a brilliant writer and orator,he wrote for major English and indiannewspapers and also launched theweekly Hamdard and English Com-rade in 1911.

After moving to Delhi in 1913, Mo-hammad Ali worked hard to expandthe Aligarh Muslim University, thenknown as the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College. He was one of the co-founders of the Jamia Millia islamiain 1920, which was later moved toDelhi.

Mohammad Ali attended thefounding meeting of the All indiaMuslim league in Dhaka in 1906, andserved as its president in 1918. He re-mained active in the league till 1928.

He represented the Muslim dele-gation that travelled to England in1919 in order to convince the Britishgovernment to influence the Turkish

nationalist Mustafa Kemal not to de-pose the Sultan of Turkey, who wasthe Caliph of islam. British rejectionof their demands resulted in the for-mation of the Khilafat committeewhich directed Muslims all over indiato protest and boycott the govern-ment.

He was arrested by British author-ities and imprisoned for two years forwhat was termed as a seditious speechat a meeting of the Khilafat Confer-ence.

He was elected as President of in-dian National Congress in 1923.

He re-started his weekly Ham-dard, and left the Congress Party.

He opposed the Nehru Report,which was a document proposing con-stitutional reforms and a dominionstatus of an independent nationwithin the British Empire, written bya committee of Hindu and Muslimmembers of the Congress Partyheaded by President Motilal Nehru. itwas a major protest against the SimonCommission which had arrived inindia to propose reforms but contain-ing no indian nor making any effort tolisten to indian voices.

He died soon after the conferencein london, on January 4, 1931 andwas buried in Jerusalem.

Bhutto’s birth anniversary today

Siraj to meet parents

after 18 years, says

Ansar burneyKARACHI

inp

Ansar Burney Trust international Chair-man and former federal minister forhuman rights, Ansar Burney, said Pakistaninational Siraj Khan, who accidentally en-tered india via Wagah Boarder at the age of10, will return home and re-unite with hisparents after staying in india for 18 years. in a fit of anger, Siraj Khan, resident ofMansehra, ran away from his home eight-een years ago following a tiff with his par-ents and accidentally entered india. inindia, he married an indian girl and gavebirth to three children.Siraj Khan wants to come back to his familyin Pakistan but is held up in a bureaucratichassle.Siraj’s parents asked volunteers of AnsarBurney Trust international to search forSiraj Khan.

dry, cold weatherpredicted

KARACHIppi

The Met Office has forecast dry weatherwith cold night and minimum tempera-ture of 08 to 10 degrees centigrade inKarachi on Saturday. Cold wave will pre-vail over the region. The highest maxi-mum temperature of 29.2 degreescentigrade was recorded at Mithi,Tharparkar district and lowest minimumtemperature of -09.0 degrees centigradeat Quetta hill station on Friday.

Kmc without salaries for 2 months

KARACHInni

Thousands of the Karachi MetropolitanCorporation (KMC) employees have notbeen paid their salaries and pensions.According to sources, the employees ofabove grade 5 have not received theirsalaries of November and December.More than 1,600 fire brigade employeeshave not got their allowances for the lastthree months. Director Education AfaqMirza told media that the teachers hadalso not received salaries because ofnon-availability of funds. naundeRO: laborers are busy in the construction of sewage drain replacing the old irrigation drain. PPI

bilawal condolestaseer’s death

KARACHIppi

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari onFriday spoke with Amina Taseer, the widowof late Punjab governor Salman Taseer onhis second death anniversary and sharedher grief. He hoped they would resolvetheir differences for a democratic systemwhere people would not be killed and vio-lence would not be carried out to settle thedifferences. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari saidShair-e-Punjab Salman Taseer would al-ways be remembered among the peopleand the party workers as a beacon of lightand source of courage. His sacrifices wouldstrengthen the will of masses to protect thenation from evil forces, he added.

‘media damaging education dept’

KARACHIppi

Senior Minister for Education and literacyPir Mazhar-ul-Haq said the Sindh educa-tion department allowed 353 teachersthrough a notification to work part time inmedia or NGOs after performing their pro-fessional duties, however, they should nottake undue advantage of this relaxation andmust pay attention towards teaching thestudents.in a statement issued here on Friday, hesaid it was really unfortunate that a privateTV channel and its newspaper group wasnot permitting 76 teachers to perform pro-fessional duties, on the other hand the saidgroup had established a front against theSindh education department.Pir Mazhar added: ‘The education depart-ment has given relaxation to the said teach-ers to do part time work. The saidnewspaper group is not permitting theseteachers to perform teaching duties. On thecontrary, it has been publishing concoctedstories against the department.

minister takes noticeof illegal occupation

KARACHIppi

Senior Minister of Sindh for Education andliteracy Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq has taken seri-ous notice of illegal occupation of a con-struction company over middle school atGoth Khair Bux leghari district Thatta anddirected the secretary education to vacatethe said school immediately and to startclasses in the school. A section of printmedia had reported that a constructioncompany had been using middle school asrest house. The minister directed to take ac-tion against those teachers who have beentaking salaries while sitting at homes.

notice issued toKwSb md, cS

KARACHIppi

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Fridayserved notices on Karachi Water and Sew-erage Board (KWSB) managing director,Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Au-thority (SPPRA) chairman and Sindh chiefsecretary for declaring a constructor notpre-qualified for the construction work.The petitioner submitted that KWSB hadinvited applications for the pre-qualifica-tion of construction work on September 15,2009, wherein he had applied for and wassubsequently pre-qualified for this work.He stated that construction works neverwent into bidding stages and was cancelledby the competent authority despite he hadqualified for it.He said applications through advertisementwere invited again for same constructionwork where he was informed by the KWSBthat he was not pre-qualified for the con-struction work. Therefore, he prayed thecourt to declare the act of respondents ofdeclaring him not pre-qualified illegal. Hepleaded the court to direct the respondentsto issue fresh qualification process for up-coming group works.

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Saturday, 5 January, 2013

Karachi07

low

High

110cSundAy mondAy tueSdAy24°c i 12°c 25°c i 12°c 25°c i 13°c

PrAyer timinGSfajr Sunrise zuhr Asr maghrib isha

06:00 06:10 12:00 15:45 15: 00 18:30

city directory

reScue 1122

edHi control 115, 32310066, 2310077

motorwAy Police 130

Police 15

GoVernor’S HouSe 136

cHief miniSter’S HouSe 99202051

fire briGAde 16, 99215007-8

bomb diSPoSAl 15, 99212667

red creScent 35833973

KHidmAt-e-KHAlQ foundAtion 36333811

emerGency HelP

HoSPitAlS

blood bAnK

HuSSAini 32238405-8

fAtimid 32225284, 32258656

PwA 99215740, 32735214

comPlAint

KeSc 118

Sui GAS 1199, 99231603

Ptcl 1218

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cdGK 134

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enQuiry 117, 99213565-6

city StAtion 99213538

cAntt StAtion 99201118

AirPort

fliGHt enQuiry 114

PiA reSerVAtion 111-786-786

colleGeS / uniVerSitieS

KArAcHi uniVerSity 99261300-06ned uniVerSity 99261261-8fuuASt 99244141-9duHS 99215754-7Smic 99217501-3fASt-nu 111128128, 34100541-7SzAbiSt 111922478iobm 35090961-7ibA 111422422iVS 35861039-40

AbbASi SHAHeed 99260400-09

ciVil 99215749, 99215960

JinnAH 99201300-39

nicVd 99201271-6

AGHA KHAn 34930051

tAbbA 36811841-50

Sunny

weAtHer uPdAteS

24°c

PIcASSO IN PAKIStAN

“Abstract art is only painting. And what’s so dramatic aboutthat? there is no abstract art. one must always begin withsomething. Afterwards one can remove all semblance of reality;there is no longer any danger as the idea of the object has leftan indelible imprint. it is the object which aroused the artist,stimulated his ideas and set of his emotions. boisgeloup,winter 1934, Quoted in letters of the great artists – from blaketo Pollock -, richard friedenthal, thames and Hudson, london,1963, pp. 256-257 (translation daphne woodward)

eMAc - PArAGLIdING IN KArAcHIIN, At ANd ArOuNd - VISuAL exPerI-eNceS OF MeMOry ANd trAVeL

´in, At and Around´ an exhibition of urban landscapes byPakistani Artist, Soraya Sikander on 10 till 17 January 2013 atunicorn Gallery, Karachi, creates awareness about eco-diversity,deforstation and rapid urbanisation. the exhibition featuresseventeen exclusive paintings created on-site around areas inlondon and Karachi. the artist traveled around london and trillduring her time at Slade School of fine Art, where she producedthese sensitive works as a response to a changing world.

dAte: JAn 10 - 17, 2013 Venue: unicorn GAllery KArAcHi

1) fill and submit the online registration formhttp://form.jotform.me/form/232212320694432) deposit the total fee into emAc’s account and receive emailconfirmation with more useful information about the day3) Join us for your training on the selected date4) Keep flying with us after training for only rs 1,000Saeed Alam :0300-2440066, muhammad rashid :0333-6294687, raza mehdi :0322-2755759

dAte: dec 21, 2012 to JAn 06, 2013

Venue: mubArAK VillAGe KArAcHi, dAte: dec 24, 2012 to feb 02, 2013 Venue: GAndHArA Art SPAce

KARACHInni

THE inauguration ceremony of Dowthalassaemia assistance unit at Dowinstitute of Haematology Dow Uni-versity Ojha Campus was inauguratedon Friday at Governor’s House. The

inauguration ceremony of the unit was performedby Governor Dr ishrat-ul-ibad Khan. Prof MasoodHameed Khan, Vice Chancellor, Prof M Umer Fa-rooq, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dr Zeenat Ayoob, Regis-trar, Prof Dr Akbar Agha, Director, DAP, syndicatemembers, professors, senior faculty member of theuniversity were present on the occasion.

Speaking as the chief guest on the occasion, thegovernor said that according to WHO, Thalassaemiais found in more than 60 countries with a carrierpopulation of 250 million people worldwide and2,000,000 are affected Thalassemia major patients.

He further said in Pakistan the highest fre-quency of Beta Thalassaemia trait is reported inSindh and Punjab (Ambekar et al, 2001). Every year6,000 patients are born with a severe form of thisdisease with 10 million carriers that pass the diseaseon to the next generation. There is a need to controland prevent the increasing burden of Thalassaemiain our population. This can be achieved by massscreening and awareness programs, counseling ofpatients and their families and providing state of artcare to the Thalassaemia patients. According to Gov-ernment of Sindh the policy has been implementedthrough Sindh Provincial Assembly legislation,made a law for Pre-Marriage screening to stop mar-riages in between 2 Thalassaemia Minor partners.

Appreciating the efforts of Vice Chancellor ofDUHS Professor Masood Hameed Khan Sahab and

the faculty of DUHS, he sadi that the team of DUHSis always keen to stand up for the health relatedproblems of general public (community).

Prof Dr Masood Hameed Khan, Vice Chancel-lor, DUHS in his address said that Dow institute ofhaematology (DiH)” has been established in thepremises of Ojha Campus of Dow University ofhealth Sciences to provides services in haematology,transfusion medicine, research and diagnostics. itserves as a resource centre to provide blood and itsproducts in affordable price for transfusion require-ments. This institute is involved in multiple post-graduate training programs like M.Phil(haematology) leading to PhD and MS in transfu-sion medicine and tissue typing.

The objective was to provide diagnostic andtherapeutic services related to haematology and

transfusion medicine for patients with haematolog-ical and non haematological disorders, to support inresearch and development activities within as wellas outside university to provide teaching and train-ing at all levels and to support liver transplantationand Jinnah Genome Projects of DUHS.

Dow-TAP, Thalassemia Assistance ProgramMajor Components includes Awareness, Screening,Diagnosis (Premarital & Prenatal), Technical sup-port/co-operation with other Thalassemia organi-zations and Genetic counseling.

There is dire need of sensitization, informationand education of the population at risk. The role ofthe authorities, the role of the associations of par-ents and patients, the role of mass media, the roleof the mosque/moulana, the role of the school andteacher is very important to overcome this problem.

KaRaChi Multitudinous vehicles are in queue waiting for their turn to refill CnG, at a CnG station at Qayyumabad on friday. PPI

inauguration of Thalassaemia unit at DUHSGovernor says highest frequency of Beta Thalassaemia reported in Sindh, Punjab

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:31 AM Page 7

08

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

News

BAGHDADaGenCies

TH O U S A N D S of Sunniiraqis have continued toprotest in Fallujah andother in iraqicities against the Shia-led

government in Baghdad.Protesters after Friday prayers in

the province of al-Anbar, the heart-land of iraq’s Sunni population, de-manded the release of prisoners andthe end to allegedly sectarian poli-cies.

The government of Prime Minis-ter Nouri al-Maliki released fourteenfemale prisoners a day earlier, butthe measure did not seem to have de-fused tension.

“According to organisers of theprotests and authorities in the Sunnicommunity, the prisoners range be-

tween 40 to 50 thousand people, in-cluding men and women,” AlJazeera’s Omar al-Saleh, reportingfrom Fallujah, said.

“The government says this figureis not accurate. it puts the number offemale prisoners at 900 and accusesthem of criminal activity and terror-ism charges,” he said.

Protests have been going on fordays. The rallies were sparked by thearrest on December 20 of body-guards of iraq’s finance minister, aSunni, and have spurred allegationsthat the government was using anti-terror legislation to target the Sunniminority.

iraqi authorities had called for anend to what a senior official said wereillegal and illegitimate protest ralliesin Sunni-majority provinces includ-ing Salaheddin, Nineveh and Anbar.

Protesters are demanding an end

to what they see as the marginalisa-tion of iraq’s Sunni minority, whichdominated the country until the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppledSaddam Hussein.

“The crisis has been going on foryears. Since the US invasion in iraq,the Sunni community says they havebeen marginalized. So not it hasreached the peak. They give examplesof targeting their leaders, includingthe finance minister and the vice-president,” al-Saleh said.

They say they want justice, equal-ity and fair representation in state in-stitution. Echoing slogans used inpopular revolts that brought downleaders in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia andYemen, protesters have also called onMaliki to step down.

Alaa Makki, head of the Sunniiraqiya bloc in parliament, said thegovernment has a “last chance for

reconciliation”.“This is the last chance for cor-

rection of all the [political] environ-ment in iraq, the political system andthe judiciary system,” he said. “They[the protesters] are waiting for thegovernment to send somebody there,representing the governmental con-cerns.”

The latest protests came a dayafter a car bomb explosion killed atleast 27 Shia Muslim pilgrims in thetown of Mussayab, south of Baghdad,as worshipers from around the worldthronged iraq’s shrine city of Karbalato finish mourning rituals for arevered figure in Shia islam.

Thursday’s attack came despitea massive security operationmounted to safeguard the millionsof pilgrims traveling to and fromKarbala for the conclusion of Ar-baeen commemorations.

Sunni Iraqis continueanti-government rallies

DAMASCuSaGenCies

At least 11 people were killed and40 wounded when a car bomb ex-ploded at a crowded petrol stationin the Syrian capital Damascus onThursday, opposition activistssaid.

The station was packed withpeople queueing for fuel that hasbecome increasingly scarce dur-ing the country’s 21-month-longinsurgency aimed at overthrowingPresident Bashar al-Assad.

The semi-official al-ikhbariyatelevision station showed footageof 10 burnt bodies and Red Cres-cent workers searching for vic-tims on the site.

The opposition Revolutionleadership Council in Damascussaid the explosion was caused bya booby-trapped car.

There was no immediate indi-cation of who was responsible forthe bombing in the Barzeh al-

Balad district, whose residents in-clude members of the Sunni Mus-lim majority and other religiousand ethnic minorities.

“The station is usually packedeven when it has no fuel,” said anopposition activist who did notwant to be named.

“There are lots of people whosleep there overnight, waiting forearly morning fuel consign-ments.”

it was the second time that apetrol station has been hit inDamascus this week.

Dozens of people were incin-erated in an air strike as theywaited for fuel on Wednesday, ac-cording to opposition sources.

in northern Syria, rebels werebattling to seize an air base intheir campaign against the airpower that Assad has used tobomb rebel-held towns.

More than 60,000 peoplehave been killed in the uprisingand civil war, the United Nations

said this week, a much higherdeath toll than previouslythought.

Despite gains in other parts ofSyria by rebels seeking to toppleAssad, he has largely kept his gripon the capital.

But Damascus has been tar-geted by a number of large bomb-ings, many of which appear totarget government buildings.Some have been claimed by theopposition group Jabhat al-Nusra, which the US has desig-nated a terrorist organisation.

There was no immediateclaim of responsibility for Thurs-day’s blast.

Masakin Barzeh is a middle-class neighborhood northeast ofdowntown that is home to manygovernment employees.

The UN says more than60,000 people have been killed inSyria since the start of the upris-ing in March 2011. The conflicthas since evolved into a civil war.

Syrian violence escalates: deadlybomb strikes fuel station GOMA

aGenCies

Congolese rebels have threatened to walk away fromthis week’s peace talks to end their nine-month revoltunless the government signs an official ceasefire, a de-mand Kinshasa dismissed as unnecessary.

The rebel March 23 Movement, preparing fortalks on Friday in Kampala, capital of regional medi-ator Uganda, said government troops had reinforcedpositions in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) and warned it would resist an offensive.

“if Kinshasa continues to refuse to sign a ceasefire,M23 is going to ask its delegation to return to DRC.We will wait and when they say ‘we’re ready to sign [aceasefire]’ we’ll go back,” Jean-Marie Runiga, head ofthe rebels’ political wing, told reporters in Bunagana,a border town under rebel control.

The first attempt at peace talks to end the nine-month rebellion in Congo’s volatile east failed lastmonth amid threats and accusations. A governmentspokesman dismissed the rebel demand.CEASEFIRE REJECTED: “There’s no point in aceasefire. When did we declare war?” lambert Mendetold the Reuters news agency by telephone.

“This group wants permission to kill Congolesewithout the army reacting, and we will never acceptthat. if they attack us, attack the people, the army willdefend the people.” Negotiations began last month

after regional leaders secured a rebel pull-out from thecity of Goma in Congo’s eastern North Kivu province.

The front lines have been quiet since, although thetalks quickly stalled in a climate of deep mistrust.

Foreign powers fear the conflict could spark an-other regional war in a borderlands zone that has suf-fered nearly two decades of turmoil. NeighbouringUganda and Rwanda are accused by a group of UN ex-perts of supporting the rebel campaign.

Successive cross-border conflicts have killed anduprooted millions in the Congo basin since the colo-nial era, driven by political and ethnic divisions andcompetition for minerals.uN BLACKLISTED: At first, M23, named after a2009 peace deal for eastern Congo, said it had takenup arms because the Kinshasa government failed tohonour its side of the bargain, under which rebel fight-ers were integrated into the army.

it later broadened its goals to include the “libera-tion” of all of Congo and the removal of PresidentJoseph Kabila. M23 is led by Bosco Ntaganda, a Tutsiwarlord indicted by the international Criminal Court.This week the United Nations blacklisted M23 alongwith another Congolese rebel group.

“We need encouragement from the UN, not sanc-tions,” Runiga, flanked by fighters, said. Nestled inlush green hills less than a kilometre from the Ugan-dan frontier, Bunagana fell into rebel hands last Julyafter government soldiers fled.

DR Congo rebels threatento ditch peace talks

Chavez fights ‘severe’lung infectionCARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez isbeing treated for “respiratory deficiency” aftercomplications from a severe lung infection, hisgovernment has said. “Chavez has facedcomplications as a result of a severe respiratoryinfection. This infection has led to respiratorydeficiency that requires Commander Chavez toremain in strict compliance with his medicaltreatment,” Ernesto Villegas, the Venezuelaninformation minister, said on television on Thursdaynight. The statement pointed to a deepening crisis forthe ailing 58-year-old president, who has not beenseen or heard from since his December 11 operation inCuba, and raised the possibility that Chavez might bebreathing with the assistance of a machine. But thegovernment did not address that question and did notgive details of the president’s treatment. Chavez’sgovernment expressed confidence in his medical teamand condemned what it called a “campaign ofpsychological warfare” in the international mediaregarding the president’s condition. Officials haveurged Venezuelans not to heed rumours aboutChavez’s condition. in its latest statement, thegovernment didn’t point to any particular rumoursbut said “this campaign aims ultimately to destabilisethe Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela... and end theBolivarian Revolution led by Chavez”. Venezuela’sopposition has demanded that the governmentprovide more specific information about Chavez’scondition. Chavez has undergone four cancer-relatedsurgeries since June 2011 for an undisclosed type ofpelvic cancer. He has also undergone chemotherapyand radiation treatment. He was re-elected in Octoberto another six-year term, and two months laterannounced that the cancer had come back. aGenCies

Fatah holds first massrally in Gaza in yearsGAzA: Hamas, which governs Gaza, has allowedthe West Bank political party, Fatah, to celebrateits 48th anniversary by staging a rally in Gaza Cityfor the first time since its forces were oustedfollowing a brutal civil war. Supporters carryingthe distinctive black and yellow flags of latePalestinian president Yasser Arafat’s group arrivedon Friday in a steady stream to the venue. ManyPalestinians living outside of Gaza City arrivedovernight, lighting fires and starting thecelebrations early. Cars cruised the streets withwaving Fatah and Palestinian flags. PalestinianPresident Mahmoud Abbas last month allowedHamas supporters to celebrate their movement’sfounding in a rare rally in the West Bank. Themoves appear to be an attempt by the two sides tomend relations after years of division and mistrust.After decades of dominance, Fatah lost a 2006parliamentary election to Hamas, the largestPalestinian armed group. Following the democraticelection results, the US and israel labelled Hamasa “terrorist organisation” and Fatah became theWestern-backed political party ruling the WestBank. A year after the election, Fatah’s forces wererouted by Hamas in a civil war and ousted from theGaza Strip. Fatah’s power in the West Bank hasbeen reduced by persistent internal struggles andits influence has waned. aGenCies

buenOs aiRes: a child looks through the window of a wooden carriage car on the historic subway system, line a. the city government has announced that the

almost 100-year-old wooden carriages will be replaced by modern units. AGENCIES

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Saturday, 5 January, 2013

News

WASHINGTONspeCial CORRespOndent

iN an effort to repair tiesbetween Washington andislamabad, Ambassador tothe United States SherryRehman on Thursday

asked for greater US trade accessfor her country.

She also stated Pakistan’s posi-tion on American drone strikes,claiming they are counterproduc-tive and reverse gains made in theirrelationship.

in an opinion piece, the Pak-istani envoy sought the new US

Congress’s help in materializing theelusive trade initiative whilst un-derlining Pakistan’s commitmentto the fight against terror. The am-bassador also highlighted to Amer-ican lawmakers the electedgovernment’s democratic and anti-terror achievements over the pastfive years.

“i appreciate US Ambassador toPakistan Richard Olson’s wordsthat al Qaeda has largely been elim-inated in the region due to jointPak-US efforts, and hope that thiswill trigger a more meaningful con-versation on ending U.S. dronestrikes in Pakistan,” she wrote in a

piece posted by The Hill Congres-sional daily.

She also addressed the case forenhanced trade access to the USmarket. The envoy pointed out thatthink tank studies have shown thatthe impact of greater market accessto Pakistan on US jobs will be neg-ligible while the economic impacton the Pakistani side will be enor-mous. “it will spur economic activ-ity, generate employment, give thecountry’s enormous youth cohortan avenue to earn a living, andabove all, give ordinary Pakistanisa stake in an enduring Pakistan-USrelationship,” she said.

Good or bad, allterrorists will beeliminated: Qamar

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Syed NaveedQamar on Friday said consultation over thecaretaker setup would be held with the oppositionon March 17 and no such talks were possible beforethat date. Talking to reporters outside theParliament House, he said there was no such thingas “good or bad Taliban” and all terrorists should beeliminated. The minister said Pakistan had so farreleased 26 Taliban prisoners. Qamar said theAbbottabad commission’s report was beingreviewed, after which it would be decided whetherto make the report public or not. He said theestablishment was not backing Tehreek-e-MinhajulQuran (TMQ) chief Tahirul Qadri, adding that it wasQadri’s right to protest, however, nobody could beallowed to violate the constitution. inp

Indian women thrashCongress leader forraping womanASSAM: While india continues to mourn the deathof the Delhi gang-rape victim and demand forstringent anti-rape laws have grown louder, a seniorCongress leader, accused of rape, was beaten upbadly by angry women in a remote village in Assam.The Congress leader, identified as Bikram SinghBrahma, was publicly beaten up by angry villagers,particularly women, when he admitted to raping alocal woman some time back. irked with hisconfession, a group of women then assaulted,slapped and stripped the Congress leader in fullpublic view. The visuals of this shocking incident wasalso aired on the local news channel. The man hasbeen detained by the police and an investigation intothe case has begun. The case comes as anembarrassment for the ruling Congress governmentin the state and may even cast a shadow on theapproaching panchayat elections. inp

Wave of severe cold,dense fog to continuefor next 24 hoursISLAMABAD: The Metrological Departmenton Friday forecast that the wave of severe coldwould continue over the northern parts ofBalochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan during the next 24 hours The MetOffice said dense foggy conditions wouldcontinue to prevail in plain areas of Punjab,including islamabad, Peshawar, Dera ismailKhan, Sukkur and larkana divisions, addingthat mainly cold and dry weather was expectedin most parts of the country. However, cloudyconditions with light rain/snowfall were likely inMalakand division. inp

Sherry says drone campaign

counterproductive

NEW DELHIOnline

On the coldest day in Delhi, many pa-tients were forced to sleep in a publictoilet outside the All india institute ofMedical Sciences (AiiMS), the biggesthospital in india, local media reportedon Thursday.

Amongst those who took shelter inthe toilets was a 6-year-old child who

had lost both his eyes due to cancer andhas been coming to the hospital fortreatment since the past three yearsfrom Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.

Since the child had not been givena bed, he had to face the bone-chillingcold with his father, every night in apublic toilet.

The father-son duo however, is notalone in the suffering. With tempera-tures in the indian capital dipping

drastically, about 20 homeless peopletake shelter in this public toilet everynight. They cook their food and sleepthere and most of them are gettingtheir relatives treated in AiiMS.

The Delhi government has arrangedabout 150 shelters for the homeless,but with around 300,000 people on thestreets of Delhi, all shelters are alreadysaturated.

These people outside AiiMS say

they would rather stay on the footpathor this toilet than the government-runshelters, due to the extremely unhy-gienic conditions and congestion there.

last year too, public toilets hadbeen used as a shelter by the homelesspatients and their relatives. The policehad then removed the homeless fromthere, but with nowhere to go, the coldhas forced them to take shelter thereyet again.

Indian patients take shelter in public toilets

ISLAMABAD Online

During 2012, Pakistan continued tosuffer under different types of violence,including target killing, bombings anddrone attacks, which resulted in deathof as many as 6,059 people in the coun-try.

According to the data compiled bya think-tank, Centre for Research andSecurity Studies (CRSS), revealed thatalmost 15 percent decline in violencewas noticed during 2012 as comparedto 2011.

The report said that in total 389

bombings and suicide attacks that tookplace in the county in 2012 as many as937 people were killed, including 709civilians, 130 security persons and 102militants. While in 56 landmine explo-sions some 65 people were killed in2012.

Similarly, 49 drone attacks wereconducted on Pakistani soil whichclaimed 345 lives in last year.

The study also informed that ap-proximately 1,564 people were killed in1,324 incidents of target killings inKarachi and various areas of Balochis-tan, whereas 618 bodies were foundfrom across the country in 2012.

in Karachi alone, as many as 991people were dead in 791 violent attacks.Among these, 917 were civilians and 74security forces officials. Similarly, tar-get killings in KP surged by 42 percentwith police, paramilitary and promi-nent political personalities being primetargets. As a whole, 6,059 persons diedduring 2012, as a result of 2,536 inci-dents of violence. likewise, some 309rocket and mortar attacks were also re-ported during 2012 due to which 263people, including 117 security forcespersonnel, lost their lives. The reportalso read that terrorists had blown upsome 116 schools in KP and FATA.

Economic growthshould be toppriority in nextdecade: survey

ISLAMABADppi

A survey carried out by Gallup Pakistanshows that 42 percent of Pakistanisbelieve that economic growth should bethe most important goal of the countryfor the next 10 years. A ‘nationallyrepresentative’ sample of men andwomen from across the four provinceswas asked about what the goals forPakistan should be for the next decade.in their response, 42 percent claimedthat a high level of economic growth isthe most important goal for the countrywhereas 38 percent believe havingstrong defence forces is a major goal.Around 14 percent believed the mostimportant goal is giving people more sayin how things are done at their jobs andin their communities and only 5 percentbelieve that the most important goal isto try and make the cities andcountryside more beautiful. The studywas released by Gilani Foundation andcarried out by Gallup Pakistan, thePakistani affiliate of Gallupinternational. The recent survey wascarried out among a sample of 1,200men and women in rural and urbanareas of all four provinces of the countryduring October 4 to 19, 2012.

Violence claimed 6,059lives in 2012, says reportg terrorists blew up 116 schools in KP and fAtA last yearg Says targeted killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa surged by 42 percent

peshaWaR: activists of the pakhtunkhwa Civil society network on friday offer fateha for the seven nGO workers gunned down in swabi a couple of days ago. INP

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Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Or no one will believe the Commission

make the report public

it took CiA 15 long years to finally catch up with Osama bin laden.OBl was not found in the “hole” from which former US PresidentGeorge W Bush had pledged to smoke him out, but livingcomfortably in a large house in the cantonment city of Abbottabad.

The discovery stunned many Pakistanis who had been used to hearingangry denials from government and security officials whenever anyforeigner talked about the possibility of OBl being somewhere inPakistan. initially, PM Gilani welcomed Osama’s killing as a great victory.Then suddenly, without any explanation, he withdrew the statement. Thisled to a widespread public demand for enquiry. The issue was taken upin a joint session of Parliament where a resolution was passed to set upan “independent commission to fix responsibility and recommendnecessary measures to ensure that such an incident does not recur”.

The way the Commission was set up raised many eyebrows. Theleader of the Opposition was not consulted in violation of the spirit ofthe resolution. The initial statement did not detail the Commission’sterms of reference. Neither did it set a timeframe for the investigation.it was unknown whether or not the Commission would be authorisedto fix responsibility for the Abbottabad fiasco.

The Commission has taken 18 months to prepare a report which hasnow been submitted to the PM. it was expected that the Commissionwould concentrate on how the much wanted foreigner managed tosneak into Pakistan in violation of the country’s sovereignty. Further,how could the man with a truckload of wives, children, grandchildrenand dependants move from place to place and father four children, twoborn in public hospitals, without being detected. it dismayed manywhen the focus shifted to an altogether different issue. The Commissionshowed more interest in how the US found OBl in Abbottabad. itordered the trial of a Pakistani doctor who had helped in the discoveryof OBl. it also sought help of legal experts on international affairs toascertain whether the US military operation was conducted under theUN’s charter or not. Within a month of the initiation of the enquiry, amember of the Commission told an Australian Radio that the iSi andmilitary were not aware of Osama bin laden’s presence in Abbottabad.This was widely construed as an attempt to influence the enquiry.

The Commission was set up at public demand and after aparliamentary resolution. The questions raised by the presence of OBlin Abbottabad continue to disturb many Pakistanis. What is more isthat public money has been spent on the preparation of the report. Thereport should therefore be made public. in case it is not, a perceptionof there being some sort of cover up is likely to be created.

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

the middle course is out for pakistan

A coalition of the absurdCandid CornerBy Raoof Hasan

There is little doubt that theincumbent parliamentarysystem cannot remedy the

woes of the people which are mul-tiplying by the day. They crave fora change – a change that wouldmake them a direct stakeholder inthe working of the state and whichthey are able to influence.

The prevalent corrupt systemworks by exploiting the captivitiesthat have been passed on from gen-eration to generation. Principally,these include the deprivations inthe fields of education and eco-nomic survival. While genuine edu-cation is a rare commodity, it iseconomic captivity that forces thepeople to vote the way they are or-dered to because their survival de-pends on maintaining the goodwillof the political mafias they are de-pendent on. Be it the rural or theurban sector, this is the exploitativemechanism by which people are re-turned to the assemblies to formthe governments in islamabad andall of the provincial capitals.

Come Tahirul Qadri – the latestharbinger of the elusive ‘change’that people have been craving for.Within a few days of addressing amammoth gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan grounds, he is flanked onthe one side by the mercurial MQMand, on the other, by those inveter-

ate survivors under all circum-stances, the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.Both these parties have shared thebed with dictators and ‘democrats’alike to advance their vested inter-ests. MQM rules Karachi, yet thereis extortion and murder which,today, tethers on the verge of abloodbath while to the Chaudhrysgoes the indisputable distinction offorging alliances with everyone sansprinciples. What boggles the mindis that both these parties have nowjoined forces with Tahirul Qadri totopple the incumbent governmentof which they are still a part, byleading a march to islamabad. Howon earth could you be involved in amovement to remove a governmentof which you are a partner?

if ever one were looking for a rea-son that has brought the country tothe present miserable state, it can befound in its abdominal and unprinci-pled politics where the self takesprecedence over all other considera-tions. Nearing the next elections, thenoose seemed to be tighteningaround the PMl-Q neck because ofincreasing defections while the MQMwas fighting a battle for its own sur-vival both internally and on a foreignfront where its leader is allegedlybeing investigated for the murder Drimran Farooq. Having provided themuch-needed shield to the corrup-

tion of the incumbent government bybecoming a part of their loot spree, itrequired the ultimate in Machiavel-lian parlance for these two politicaloutfits to have joined forces withsomeone who comes with a commit-ment to change what they have beenand remain a symbol of.

Understandably, the two leadingparties are visibly disturbed over thedevelopment which has gained in in-tensity within a short span of time.Their leaders are variously critical ofthe prospect of a long march as ‘un-democratic’ and ‘sponsored’. Whilethe former does not stick as all kindsof peaceful protest is an inherentright of the people, one would needirrefutable evidence to accept the lat-ter charge. if, however, TahirulQadri is using the widespread frus-tration among the people to advancehis political interests, it would fallwithin the given parameters of poli-tics as has been practised in thecountry. in my last column, i hadcalled him a ‘potential game changer’which he just might become if thesitting government and its depletingallies do not address the issue of re-form on an emergency footing.

On a different front, the army hasgiven a hint of shifting its operationalpriorities rating the internal securitychallenges as a major threat to thecountry’s sovereignty. Simultane-

ously, the military command has ad-vised the government to devise astrategy to respond to the militants’offer for a dialogue which is generallyperceived as an indication of theirgrowing vulnerability under thearmy’s ceaseless assault. The ques-tion that arises is whether it is at alladvisable to go for a dialogue with themilitants at this stage? The recent up-surge in inhuman militant activity,including the beheading of 21 levissoldiers, the sectarian attacks inBalochistan and multiple other inci-dents of brutal violence, perpetratedby the TTP and its allied bands, leavelittle scope for any such dialoguewhich should also be viewed in thecontext of the past failures in enforc-ing agreements with them signed in2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008.

in the absence of a comprehen-sive strategy to deal with the growingspectre of militancy and violence,and now nearing the next elections –a prospect that may be jeopardiseddepending on which way the TahirulQadri bandwagon progresses – thereis little scope and time for the gov-ernment to undertake any meaning-ful initiative in that direction. Butthere are a few things that should beclearly understood. Pakistan’s“friend-some-enemy-some” Talibanpolicy has failed in delivering the de-sired results as, indeed, it could not

have. Terrorism is a reprehensiblephenomenon that must be crushedwith the full might of the state with-out distinguishing between the so-called ‘friendly’ and ‘enemy’elements within their ranks. Theyare all fighting the state of Pakistanand eliminating them should be thetop priority of any operation that isenvisaged. There is no middle courseand no effort should be unleashed tofind one as the spectre, if allowed tohibernate, would come back with in-creased ferocity and destruction.Pakistan has suffered immensely be-cause of this duality in approachwhich, if allowed to linger, wouldcause irremediable damage to thestate and its institutions.

it is the danger within that Pak-istan should fear the most – both onthe political and militancy fronts.The former can be addressedthrough undertaking a comprehen-sive programme of reforms preced-ing the next elections and the latterwill require a focussed and all-en-compassing strategy with a backupmechanism which is clinical with nolet up till all the short- and long-termobjectives have been sealed. Themiddle course is out for Pakistan.

The writer is a political analyst.He can be reached atraoofhasan@hotmail.com

The inevitable has happened.Nawaz Sharif and Asif AliZardari are now on the samepage, at least on TahirulQadri’s threats. The PMl-N

and the PPP have become natural alliesin the developing scenario.

Nawaz probably feels that with thePPP-led coalition teetering under its ownweight and general elections round thecorner, any move to postpone the polls ismeant to hurt him. Even before the pollsare held, he sees himself as the presump-tive prime minister.

Sharif is not sure whether Qadri is aforeign agent or an establishment’spawn. But surely, he feels that there areforces within the ubiquitous establish-ment who want to block him.

Why does the PMl-N supremo has athreat perception despite protestations tothe contrary by the military? The iSPR,the public relations wing of the military,has clearly stated that the army in thepast five years under General Kayani hassupported democracy and would con-tinue to do so. it has no truck with Qadrior his proposed long march.

There is a long history of Nawaz’s un-easy relations with the military top brass.As the record speaks for itself, during histwo terms as prime minister, he nevercould get along with all the five militarychiefs. He sacked General Jehangir Kara-mat and in the process of sacking GeneralMusharraf got sacked himself.

Going by its ethos, PMl-N is a pro-status quo party. But even while in theopposition, it has come out hard on themilitary top brass and its policies.

Nawaz and his opposition chief in theNational Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali,had spared no opportunity to castigate thearmy. The PMl-N being a Punjab basedparty, this did not sit well with the military.

Thankfully, in the past year or so, bettersense has prevailed amongst the PMl-N

leadership. its criticism of the military hasbecome somewhat muted and far apart.

in this context, perhaps there is a feel-ing in the PMl-N ranks that Qadri hasbeen launched from nowhere just to blockNawaz. The Sharifs’ confidant, Punjab’slaw Minister Rana Sanaullah, known forhis acerbic remarks, has very aptly ampli-fied this feeling. According to him, “Firstthe establishment floated the imran Khanballoon which was deflated by the PMl-N. Now it has inflated the Qadri balloon,which will also be pierced.”

Qadri has a lot of skeletons in his cup-board. Apart from being a perjurer, hisCanadian citizenship is haunting him. Withthe exception of MQM, no other politicalparty is entirely supporting his agenda.

The PTi, after its initial enthusiasmfor him, is now somewhat muted in itssupport. Expedient politics par excel-lence, the Choudharys of Gujrat firstcalled on Qadri and later claimed that itwas a personal visit. The rest of the polit-ical spectrum is vociferous in its criticismof the maverick cleric.

Nawaz has correctly spelt out theirony that the government’s own coali-tion partners, the MQM and the PMl-Q,were backing a movement against theirown government.

Unsurprisingly, they want to extracttheir pound of flesh from their senior coali-tion partner. The MQM wants Karachi toremain its closed shop. The election com-mission’s moves to revisit the demarcationof constituencies and the voters lists in themetropolis on the orders of the SupremeCourt are anathemas to its interests.

Already under criticism from Sindhinationalists and the resurgent PMl-Functional under the new Pir of Pagarafor introducing a two tier local bodiessystem, the PPP can ill afford to furtheralienate its constituency in the province.

The Choudharys of Gujrat are some-what miffed for not being consulted on theappointment of Manzoor Wattoo as theparty president and Ahmad Mahmud thegovernor in the province. The PPP rightlycontends that these matters fall under itsown domain. The Choudharys, on the otherhand, consider Punjab as their citadel.

The prime minister also feels that theestablishment is not backing Qadri. Thecat will be, however, out of the bag assoon as Qadri embarks on his threatenedlong march.

Conspiracy theorists – in abundanceamongst the commentrati – wonder whoprovided the cleric with money and the or-ganisation to put up such a massive show

in lahore a fortnight ago. Qadri claims thathe has garnered his own resources andgenerated donations to fund his operation.But no one believes him and rightly so.

So far as the military is concerned, itis too busy fighting an existential threatto Pakistan. After being fixated on indiaas the archenemy, it has finally acknowl-edged that this is not the only threat.

According to a military doctrine pub-lished by the army, insurgency in the tribalareas and on the western borders as wellas terrorist attacks by militant outfits onindividuals and institutions are the biggestthreats to Pakistan’s sovereignty. Coupledwith this, as a precursor to a drawdown ofNATO forces from Afghanistan next year,the military leadership is engaged in sen-sitive negotiations with the Taliban tobring them to the negotiations table.

Although adventurism bordering onBonapartists tendencies within the intelli-gence apparatus cannot be entirely ruledout, this is hardly the time for the militaryto engage in internal or external war games.

The PPP-led coalition’s record on gov-ernance has been dismal. There are con-cerns about a faltering economy across theboard. And the military is no exception onthis count. But, on the other hand, thecivilian government has enjoyed an excel-lent rapport with the GHQ, unprecedentedin the checkered history of the country.

There are elements in the countrythat perhaps genuinely feel nostalgicabout the Ayub and Musharraf eras. Theycontend that democracy is not good forstability and economic growth. However,a vast majority does not subscribe to thisshortsighted view.

A civilian government calling generalelections will be a first for Pakistan. ifpolls are held on time, it will certainlystrengthen democratic institutions. Noteveryone likes it.

in this context, Qadri is perceived asa saboteur of democracy, not its saviour.if Nawaz and Zardari want to walk thetalk, they should be seen on the samepage. For starters, formal talks to chalkout a caretaker setup and other modali-ties of holding general elections on timeshould be held without further delay.

The Punjab Assembly passing aunanimous resolution condemning theproposed long march of Qadri’s outfit,Tehreek-e-Minhaj-ul-Quran, is perhapssymptomatic of a change of heart thatdemocracy is not all bout confrontationbut cooperation as well.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today

Cooperation vs confrontationhow democracy holds answers to the shenanigans of a maverick cleric

By Arif Nizami

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:31 AM Page 10

Turns out that a former military man,once close to Pervez Musharraf, wantsto contest the elections. Now, since the

man was considered the eyes and ears of thegeneralissimo, he was instrumental, amongsta couple of others, in setting up the PMl-Q.

The same league, however, refused to givehim a ticket for the National Assembly seat ofNankana Sahib in the upcoming elections.Bruised, he went over to the PTi, who refusedto comply either.

Finally, he made his way to formernemesis PMl-N, whose chief, surprisingly,was willing to give him the ticket. Tillsomeone within the league, presumablyholding one hell of agrudge, asked hisboss that if theycould take him,why not drop allpretence andtake the whole ofthe PMl-Q? Sothey took the ticketback.

Howthemightyhavefallen!

Comment 11

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Not a peep recently out of imran Khan.is it because of the cold? Quite possibly;it does hit the elderly the hardest.

But no, the reason, apparently, is his sons,who visit him every Christmas break. Hewould rather spend some quality time andease up on the politics front for a bit.Understandable.

whitelies

For feedback, comments, suggestions and,most importantly, tips, contact us at

whitelies@pakistantoday.com.pk

unnecessary financial burdenMuhammed Hussain Syed, the Adminis-

trator, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation(KMC), has recently notified to create a non-budgeted post of Director General (ForeignCoordination) exclusively to deal with al-ready notified responsibilities entailing‘arrangements of foreign visits’ as well as re-cently added responsibilities such as to ‘makeall arrangements of lodging, boarding, proto-col, conveyance and etc for the visiting for-eign dignitaries in close coordination withrelevant KMC, provincial and federal govern-ment departments’. i am sure that an officialarrangement must be underway to benefit ablue eyed retiree to appoint as a consultant inthe department which is either a blatantfavouritism or sheer nepotism.

is this feasible for a cash-strappedorganisation which has also failed to disbursemonthly salary for the month of November2012, paid in December 2012, to itsthousands of employees and could notmanage to remove its financial backlog formany months on account of pension andpost-retirement dues for which paymentseekers have been going from pillar to post.

it is the time to disburse monthly salaryand pension on time and release funds to theKDA hospitals and medical laboratories sothat they could continue their services to theemployees halted for couple of months. it isthe time to curtail a hefty expenditure beingincurred monthly on POl for official vehicles.Almost all officers use their POl quota ontheir domestic use instead of official use forwhich the quota is sanctioned. The Audit De-partment is responsible to scrutinise whetherjourney performed was official or otherwisebut it has done nothing with this scrutiny. itis time to keep a watchful eye on the misuseof financial resources of KMC and officers liv-ing beyond their known means of income.

The priority should be given to settlemonthly salary and pension instead ofrehiring a retiree or retirees on the pretext ofconsultancy. Attention is also paid to thosecases where applicants are hired oncontractual basis without any requisition bythe department.

i request the Administrator, KMC, and theChief Officer, KMC, to look into the matter orelse recently added tax on the pretext ofmunicipal charges would not suffice. A carrotand stick approach must be adopted.

JAWED AHMED KHURSHEEDKarachi

Editor’s mailSend your letters to:

Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan

Fax: +92-42-32535230E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

by Apollo

…for free, fair and transparent elections

A proposal…

One of the most importantturning points in Pak-istan’s checkered history

was the valiant and vibrant move-ment, led successfully by thelawyers’ community, to restore thehonour of the judiciary in 2007,which has been a landmarkachievement in the history of thesubcontinent. The support givenby the newly emerging civil societyand the role of the media will alsobe remembered as a major contri-bution in the annals of history. Al-beit all this, the doors of justiceremain closed for the forgottenbuilders of the nation — the work-ing people of Pakistan. And, theagenda of the movement, however,remains unfinished until the foun-dations of a strong and dynamicdemocratic society are established.We have a long way to go to sal-vage the country from apparentlyan imminent disaster. Nonethe-less, the environment of hope for abright future for the coming gener-ations is in the offing as we can no-tice the public opinion is surgingagainst the so-called democraticsystem and imperialism.

The people of Pakistan stronglydesire to emancipate themselvesfrom the corrupt and putrid systemof governance. it is evident fromthe ever increasing momentum inpublic unrest and the recent mam-moth public response to DrTahirul Qadri. This demonstratesthe burning desire of the peoplefor a political change. A qualitativechange that should make peoplemaster of their destiny rather thanto bring back in power the samecorrupt people who have been rul-ing the country for the last 65years. These people are part of theproblem, not the solution.

Allow me to recount brieflysome of the events of the recentpast of our checkered history.Each time people have registeredprotest against bad governance ofour rulers, their untiring struggleand sacrifices have been renderedfruitless by those who rose to con-trol the reins of power. We are wit-nessing the same, rather worse,current regime which controls thereins of the government as a resultof the February 2008 general elec-

tions. The successive regimes,both civilian and military, withstrong federalist and authoritativeorientation, centrally controlledand lacking people’s participation,have, time and again, failed thepeople and the country.

Two decade-rule of Zia andMusharraf and the bad governanceof current regime have brought thecountry and its economy to a dis-astrous point. The political lead-ers, so-called champions ofdemocracy, while in office, re-mained true to their class inter-ests. A feudal-hari relationshipbetween them and their nomi-nated, sycophant and nincompoopcourtiers is central to their leader-ship style, where jiyalas don’t fig-ure anywhere. All this failed toarticulate democratic values.

Holding an election alone, ina milieu of feudal and colonialvalue system, is not the solutionof our ill-fated society. We need totransform the society and becomea catalyst to uproot the value sys-tem impregnated with dishonesty,corruption, immorality, absenceof rule of law and good-gover-nance. Democracy is a culture andway of life that requires the adop-tion of an entire value system.

Now i come to elections, thecentral point of this article. i in-tend to convey my viewpoint withthe hope that it can become thetheme of discussions among theknowledgeable concerned citizenof Pakistan and become the van-guard of democratic movement.

in the past, elections have notbrought any healthy and qualita-tive change in our society becauseit has been a luxurious privilege ofour wealthy classes. Nevertheless,election must be held and it shouldbe free, fair and transparent. in theurban centres, the people are rela-tively freer than in rural, feudalstrongholds where the people dis-play the stress of centuries of longsubjugation to a culture of forcedobedience and servitude. Hencethe ensuing helplessness does notpermit them to exercise their rightto vote freely. To ensure free, fairand transparent elections, to mon-itor the enormous sums of moneyspent in the campaign, to preventbribes and kickbacks to the elec-tion officials, to stop massivebuying of general voters, and toimprove general security during

elections, the following proposalsare to be considered for debateand discussion:

There should be complete banon conventional way of campaign— public rallies, posters, loud-speakers etc.

Each candidate for Nationaland Provincial Assembly shoulddeposit with the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP) rupees onemillion and half million respec-tively as election expenditures.

ECP would make arrange-ments for debates on close circuitTVs among the candidates in eachconstituency. The topics of debateshould be issues like foreign af-fairs, agriculture, education,health care, security and socio-politico-economic problems etc.

The ECP would distribute slipsshowing an individual’s voting de-tails taken from the official voterslists 10 days ahead of Election Dayto all voters at their homes.

All polling stations must belocated not more than a 10-minute walking distance from thevoter’s home.

A complete ban on transport.The ECP would make arrange-ments for the transportation ofthe handicapped voters.

The agents of candidatesshould not be allowed to gatherand harass the voters at pollingstations. The polling staff wouldbe appointed by ECP.

No reception camps of candi-dates should be allowed at thepolling stations.

A new vote counting methodshould be evolved which is accept-able to all the candidates.

international/national ob-servers should have access topolling.

The entire election operationsmust be supervised by the SupremeCourt of Pakistan/Pakistan Army.

in this way, i hope a majorpart of our population of middleclass and intelligentsia from thecivil society, such as professionals(lawyers, doctors, professors,working class leaders etc), wouldbe able to contest elections mak-ing our assemblies representativeof all sections of our society.

The writer is a member ofCentral Committee, PakistanPeoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto.Email: maknaru@gmail.com

By Dr Muhammad Aslam Khan Naru

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 11

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

12

SingER Kesha has revealed she is bisexual and

loves people regardless of their gender. The 25-

years-old 'die young' singer, who once said she

had a sexual encounter with a ghost, doesn't care about

gender and loves women as much as men, reported daily

Mail online. "i don't love just men. i love people. it's not

about a gender. it's just about the spirit that exudes from

that other person you're with," Kesha said. The singer

said that she wanted to speak out about her sexuality to

stand up for others, who are bullied because of their

sexual orientation, as well as for her brother, who is

bullied in school for having a speech impediment. "i am

all about standing up to gay, lesbian, transgender bullying,

but it is also about my little brother. He is 13 and he gets

made fun of because he has a stutter. neWs desK

Singer kesha admits bisexuality

NaoMi Campbell suffered a leg injury after she

was violently attacked and robbed on a Paris

street last month, according to sources. The 42-

year-old supermodel was knocked over and robbed by

goons, as she tried to hail a cab, the new york Post

reported. Campbell suffered a torn ligament in the

incident and reported the matter to the French police. it

is not known what the robbers stole from her, but it's

believed that they were targeting the expensive

jewellery that she might have been wearing. Her

billionaire boyfriend, Vladimir doronin, immediately flew

her to Vail, Colorado, by private jet, where she was

treated by J. Richard steadman, one of the top

orthopaedic surgeons in the world. Campbell has been

using a wheelchair and crutches to get around following

the attack. The source said that she has not spoken

publicly about the assault nor told friends at the request

of French police. doronin reportedly has upped security

around Campbell, as a precaution.neWs desK

Lindsay Lohan, who just two days back looked

really rough, stepped out looking like a totally

different person on Thursday in London. The 26-

year-old troubled actress showed up at London's fancy

nozomi restaurant wearing a black fur jacket, TMZ.com

reported. Lohan had a bad time last year, with numerous

lawsuits and her movie 'Liz and dick' not performing

well, and critics slamming her performance as Elizabeth

Taylor. The 26-year-old troubled actress showed up at

London's fancy nozomi restaurant wearing a black fur

jacket, TMZ.com reported. neWs desK

lindsay lohan undergoes total makeover for 2013

naomi Campbell 'injured andmugged' in Paris

you're best known for your role as luc Deveraux. why do you thinkthis character became more popular than everything else you'vedone?i am not sure that this is the case. i have enjoyed thischaracter, and i have appeared as him four times, soperhaps the frequency of appearance leads to theperception of popularity. i think a number of othercharacters have shown staying power as well.

five films so far as a villain (the latest one included). what's theattraction?i am an actor, i enjoy playing roles. it is alwaysdependent on the script and story line.

you've worked in several films with both Scott Adkins and Dolphlundgren. Doesn't familiarity breed contempt in your case?Why should it? They are great guys and i enjoyworking with them.

who do you think is competition right now?You know, i love movies. i love watching movies andseeing other people's performances. in my mind youdon't compete, you do what you do and hope peoplelike it, and you appreciate what others do.

Save for JCVD (a mock biopic based on you) and a voiceover in kungfu Panda 2 (Master Croc), you've barely moved outside the actiongenre. why's that?Welcome to the Jungle, a really fun comedy is just about

to be released, so the answer is i am stretching my legs.

People constantly criticise Stallone for not ending the Rocky orRambo series while at the peak. what are your reasons for stickingaround with the franchises that made you famous?Frankly, my role in Universal Soldier 4 is not central,and i enjoyed participating in the franchise, as well asthe direction John Hyam's has taken the franchise.Otherwise i don't think you have seen me repriseroles very often. As for Stallone, my take on it is thatpeople still very much enjoyed Rambo and Rocky so ipersonally would not criticize his choices, he has anexcellent sense for what an audience wants.

Think Hollywood lacks real action heroes? with gadgets and gizmostaking over hardcore action, think the old-school heroes have a future?i think it is all about the story and the quality of a film.Tastes change over time, sometimes returning to earliertimes. One has to find good scripts, good co-stars andmake a good film. its not genre-specific or group-specific.

Most of your films are either VoD (Video on Demand) or DVD rentalfavorites. But they rarely, if ever, fare well at the box-office. why doyou think that is?i don't think that is correct. in the 80s and 90s, i didvery well at the box office. i then went through aperiod where a lot of films were done as direct-to-DVD. i have now gone back to theatrical releases, ienjoy them more. let's see what the box office says.

you have quite the fan following in India (even in small cities) andpeople are more likely to be familiar with your work than withthose of your peers. what do you think you're doing right?i think i am very fortunate that people enjoy my work.

you were reported to be besotted by Aishwarya Rai and have likedher film Devdas the most. How true?i think she is quite a good actress.

The same report said you were keen on working with AmitabhBachchan. Are you really that familiar with Bollywood and ourstars? If yes, what's keeping you from working in Bollywood?i know a number of the people in Bollywood and ilike them very much. Nothing is keeping me fromworking with them, other than schedule andcommitments.

Have you seen Bollywood action films? fancy any favorites?Every time i pick something, i later remember that ishould have also mentioned something else as well.There are some really neat films that have beendone, and i think there will be many more to come.

Plan on visiting India sometime soon?i do tend to get around, so don't be surprised if i show up.

Salman Khan wants to work with Tabu and Naseerin ‘Radhe’ Sohail Khan, at Salman Khan’s

insistence, has sounded out Tabu and Naseer forhis remake of Murugadoss’s Stalin Could Salman’snext, Radhe, give his image the kind of makeoverhe so seems to desire? The Sohail Khan directorial,which is a remake of southern hit, ARMurugadoss’s Stalin (2006), will see Khan play agood Samaritan – a far cry from the roles he hasbeen essaying to the hilt of late.According to a report in TOi: And to give the film acertain gravitas, the actor has reportedly soundedout both Tabu and Naseeruddin Shah to sharescreen space with him. When contacted, Sohail said,“(The actors) have not confirmed yet.” A source closeto the film told TOi, “Before leaving for Dubai,Sohail spoke to Tabu and Shah for two importantroles in the film.”Elaborating on Sohail’s unusual choice, the sourcesaid, “it was at Khan’s insistence that Tabu and Shahwere contacted. Khan felt that the supremelytalented duo could give the film a touch of class.Also, the film sees him as a military officer who setsout to reform society and Sohail, needs cerebralactors.” initial reports suggest Tabu will play Khan’ssister in the film, while it is not clear what Shah willbe portraying. incidentally, Radhe will be the firstfilm with Khan and Shah in it. As for Tabu, this willbe Salman’s fourth film co-starring the actress. Thefirst three being , Hum Saath Saath Hain, Biwi No 1and Jeet. CouRTESy ToI

Jean-Claude Van Damme, much like hiscontemporaries, Sylvester Stallone andJackie Chan, has had a busy, eventful career.At his peak, Van Damme, also known as theMuscles from Brussels, gave his career-besthits as an action star. As an actor, he iscoming into his own only now. let’s ask theactor about his life as an action star andabout the co-stars in his latest film.

I know A loT of PeoPleIn BollywooD: JeAn-ClAuDe VAn DAMMe

Cameron Diaz lovesreading about herself

Actress Cameron Diaz reportedly loves to readnews and gossip about herself online. The 40-year-old is time and again seen in coffee shops,where she connects her iPad to free wi-fi there andreads everything written about her. "She's alwayssurfing the web in here, and has been. looking upHollywood gossip about herself and reading moviereviews and news featuring her name,"thesun.co.uk quoted a café-goer assaying."Cameron's also not shy of sharing Skypecalls with pals while sitting over her coffee anddoesn't mind turning herself into the centre ofattention," he added.Diaz will soon be seen in Joeland Ethan Coen's new movie Gambit, which alsofeatures Colin Firth and Alan Rick NEwS DESk

HO l l Y W O O Dloves politicaldramas and thenext to get abiopic could be

outgoing secretary of stateHillary Rodham Clinton as ascript focusing on her youngerdays features in the list offavourite future films. Writtenby Young ii Kim from SouthKorea and dubbed 'Rodham',the screenplay follows a 20-something Hillary.

The film focuses at Hillarywhen she is the youngest attor-ney on the House JudiciaryCommittee working to impeachPresident Richard Nixon whileher boyfriend Bill Clinton istrying to launch his political ca-reer in Arkansas, the Politicoreported. "There's this incred-ible irony that she worked onthe impeachment process thatwas used against her husband,"Kim said while referring toClinton's impeachment scandalinvolving former White Houseintern Monica lewinsky.

"But it's also really a jour-ney of a woman who was tornbetween her personal desiresand her professional ambition

both literally pulled her thou-sands of miles apart, becauseBill did not want to leaveArkansas, and she did not wantto leave Washington, DC." Thescript came fourth on Holly-wood's all-important Blacklist, an annual poll of nearly300 film executives about theirfavorite scripts. Films that havemade to the list include Oscar-

winners 'The Social Network'and 'The King's Speech'.

Kim, 39, said he got theidea after he saw a photo ofHillary in the Situation Roomwith President Barack Obamaand others watching the raid tokill Osama bin laden in May,2011. "That photo... made meremember another photo.There was this photo of Hillarywhen she was in her 20s withcoke-bottle glasses and long,hippie hair. And it was thosetwo images that really made merealize that this would be agreat way into this story just tofocus on a moment in her lifewhen she's in her 20s, and shedoesn't know what she wants todo with her life."

Kim left his job in venturecapital post September 11, 2001attacks to chase his dream ofbecoming a screenwriter. Hol-lywood veteran Richard Arlookhas signed on to manage Kim.United Talent Agency's JennyMaryasis, who helped discoverlena Dunham, is the agent onthe script as is veteran BarbaraDreyfus. Arlook said the nextstep in the process is to getfunding. NEwS DESk

A movie on Hillaryclinton's younger days?

Steve Jobs biofilm set forApril release

The first film based on the life of legendaryApple co-founder Steve Jobs will be releasedin April, according to a distribution deal for"jOBS" announced on Thursday. The"biopic" starring Ashton Kutcher as Jobs,who died in 2011, will premier later thismonth on the closing night of the SundanceFilm Festival, according to independent dis-tributor Open Road Films. Written byMatthew Whitely and directed by JoshuaMichael Stern, "jOBS" focuses on the Appleco-founder's life from 1971 through 2000. Adeal was announced for the film to be dis-tributed in North America by Open Road,which is owned by major cinema chains AMCEntertainment and Regal Entertainment."jOBS is certain to resonate with audiencesand we are thrilled to partner with Five StarFilms to bring this film to theaters," said OpenRoad chief executive Tom Ortenberg. SonyPictures is backing a its own Jobs film basedon the biography of the Apple co-founder's lifewritten by Walter isaacson. NEwS DESk

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 12

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Saturday, 5 January, 2013

LAHOREsidRa faZal

FiRST it was Saas Bahu story, now it is anon-traditional love story. No matterhow you put it we as Pakistanis arebeing bombarded by foreign media andculture. Our culture is facing immense

and increasing pressure to either get with theprogram or get out of the system. Yes it is true, inthis global village we are part of a world economyand be it our products or services or entertainmentwe must compete. But unfortunately being part ofthe global village all the countries in the world tendto keep their values and culture intact and in factthey try to impose and expand it to others. On theother hand we are not only losing our own culturebut adapting to a mix culture of unknown land andunknown consequences.

Now it may seem that i represent an extremistnationalist point of view that says no to indianDramas and Films because apparently india is oursole and born enemy, but in fact the sect of society irepresent is more of a moderate Pakistan. Yes iwatch all such programs but how many of educatedpeople like me have the opinion to watch theprogram and at the same time maintain our ownculture. if i watch indian dramas i do not go aroundtalking in Hindi and imitating Hindu weddingculture into ours. i watch it for entertainmentpurposes only and sometimes even to make fun ofthe rituals and screenplay of drama by itself, i meanseriously how many women in india or anywhere inthe world go to bed dressed like a bride with alltheir jewelry on them and i am may not know muchabout indian culture but i don’t think there are a lotof people getting or giving divorce day in and dayout of their lives after all there are values andculture in each and every society.

The point to make out of all this is that we were,we are and we will always be in a cultural war runby TV channels and news channel all across theboard. We have to take a stand as Pakistanis andMuslims and decide for ourselves as to the extent ofour participation in this war. Unfortunately insteadof proactively participating in this war and sendingour own troops in we have retaliated and areenjoying the fruits of war which we think the enemyleft behind. But in fact enemy left this for us so weforget our own values and culture. We have seennumerous talk shows and discussions in past fewweeks about the influx of Urdu dubbed dramasimported by local channels from foreign countrieslike Turkey or Spain. The problem isn’t that ourpublic is being exposed to such dramas, but issue isour illiterate public is being exposed to such culturein their language and they are not able to make adecision on their own as to whether to follow this orcondemn this situation. it is human nature, be itman or women to be attracted to opposite sex

specially when portrayed so glamorously there is noMuslim or Hindu or Christian value in it, it is ahuman nature instilled in every human being byGod, Allah, Jesus etc. So if our pubic is exposed tosuch shows shouldn’t at least our channels, owner ofmedia groups, government and even the educatedclass take a notice of this and ensure that onlypeople who really understand what’s the purposeand origin behind these shows be exposed to it andnot the general public. Majority of our populationlives in rural areas, a vast majority doesn’t evenknow how to read or write, a vast majority probablyhas never been outside their village but when theyare exposed to this vulgarity on Pakistani air wavesthey may generate an opinion in both extremes. Onecould be their use of this culture in personal lives,which causes our value system to collapse, othercould be to come out violently against these showsand cause massive destruction because we knowhow getting these illiterate people exposed to facebook and YouTube has turned out. Making anintentional issue out of nothing is part of ourculture. Not condemning the acts by itself but ourpeople don’t understand that at the end of the dayits not YouTube or Face book that is uploadingcontents it’s the people and denying such serviceswill cause our people and youth to suffer andnothing more. Getting back to the point ofinternational entertainment being portrayed asPakistani on our TV channels, it is imperative toknow that these dramas appear in our Prime Timeand cause families, children, youths and adults tobe ashamed of watching such things together.Have we reached a point that we are so numb toour culture and values that we will disregard ourrich history and values for an hour ofentertainment?

Int’l Dramas In our culture

you're best known for your role as luc Deveraux. why do you thinkthis character became more popular than everything else you'vedone?i am not sure that this is the case. i have enjoyed thischaracter, and i have appeared as him four times, soperhaps the frequency of appearance leads to theperception of popularity. i think a number of othercharacters have shown staying power as well.

five films so far as a villain (the latest one included). what's theattraction?i am an actor, i enjoy playing roles. it is alwaysdependent on the script and story line.

you've worked in several films with both Scott Adkins and Dolphlundgren. Doesn't familiarity breed contempt in your case?Why should it? They are great guys and i enjoyworking with them.

who do you think is competition right now?You know, i love movies. i love watching movies andseeing other people's performances. in my mind youdon't compete, you do what you do and hope peoplelike it, and you appreciate what others do.

Save for JCVD (a mock biopic based on you) and a voiceover in kungfu Panda 2 (Master Croc), you've barely moved outside the actiongenre. why's that?Welcome to the Jungle, a really fun comedy is just about

to be released, so the answer is i am stretching my legs.

People constantly criticise Stallone for not ending the Rocky orRambo series while at the peak. what are your reasons for stickingaround with the franchises that made you famous?Frankly, my role in Universal Soldier 4 is not central,and i enjoyed participating in the franchise, as well asthe direction John Hyam's has taken the franchise.Otherwise i don't think you have seen me repriseroles very often. As for Stallone, my take on it is thatpeople still very much enjoyed Rambo and Rocky so ipersonally would not criticize his choices, he has anexcellent sense for what an audience wants.

Think Hollywood lacks real action heroes? with gadgets and gizmostaking over hardcore action, think the old-school heroes have a future?i think it is all about the story and the quality of a film.Tastes change over time, sometimes returning to earliertimes. One has to find good scripts, good co-stars andmake a good film. its not genre-specific or group-specific.

Most of your films are either VoD (Video on Demand) or DVD rentalfavorites. But they rarely, if ever, fare well at the box-office. why doyou think that is?i don't think that is correct. in the 80s and 90s, i didvery well at the box office. i then went through aperiod where a lot of films were done as direct-to-DVD. i have now gone back to theatrical releases, ienjoy them more. let's see what the box office says.

you have quite the fan following in India (even in small cities) andpeople are more likely to be familiar with your work than withthose of your peers. what do you think you're doing right?i think i am very fortunate that people enjoy my work.

you were reported to be besotted by Aishwarya Rai and have likedher film Devdas the most. How true?i think she is quite a good actress.

The same report said you were keen on working with AmitabhBachchan. Are you really that familiar with Bollywood and ourstars? If yes, what's keeping you from working in Bollywood?i know a number of the people in Bollywood and ilike them very much. Nothing is keeping me fromworking with them, other than schedule andcommitments.

Have you seen Bollywood action films? fancy any favorites?Every time i pick something, i later remember that ishould have also mentioned something else as well.There are some really neat films that have beendone, and i think there will be many more to come.

Plan on visiting India sometime soon?i do tend to get around, so don't be surprised if i show up.

Salman Khan wants to work with Tabu and Naseerin ‘Radhe’ Sohail Khan, at Salman Khan’s

insistence, has sounded out Tabu and Naseer forhis remake of Murugadoss’s Stalin Could Salman’snext, Radhe, give his image the kind of makeoverhe so seems to desire? The Sohail Khan directorial,which is a remake of southern hit, ARMurugadoss’s Stalin (2006), will see Khan play agood Samaritan – a far cry from the roles he hasbeen essaying to the hilt of late.According to a report in TOi: And to give the film acertain gravitas, the actor has reportedly soundedout both Tabu and Naseeruddin Shah to sharescreen space with him. When contacted, Sohail said,“(The actors) have not confirmed yet.” A source closeto the film told TOi, “Before leaving for Dubai,Sohail spoke to Tabu and Shah for two importantroles in the film.”Elaborating on Sohail’s unusual choice, the sourcesaid, “it was at Khan’s insistence that Tabu and Shahwere contacted. Khan felt that the supremelytalented duo could give the film a touch of class.Also, the film sees him as a military officer who setsout to reform society and Sohail, needs cerebralactors.” initial reports suggest Tabu will play Khan’ssister in the film, while it is not clear what Shah willbe portraying. incidentally, Radhe will be the firstfilm with Khan and Shah in it. As for Tabu, this willbe Salman’s fourth film co-starring the actress. Thefirst three being , Hum Saath Saath Hain, Biwi No 1and Jeet. CouRTESy ToI

PeoPle ARe STIllBuyIng ADele'S 21

Turns out Adele ruled 2012, too – and set a record while she was atit. The British singer's "21" was the highest-selling album in the US forthe second consecutive year, according to 2012 sales figures released by

Nielsen SoundScan on Thursday. That's a first in the SoundScan era.Adele sold 4.4 million copies of the album in 2012 after selling 5.8

million in 2011. She crossed the 10 million threshold in Novem-ber and was only rivaled by Taylor Swift, whose "Red" was

second on the list. if her album sales continue apace in2013, `21' will move into the top 10 list for sales since

1993, when SoundScan began current trackingmethods. Gotye scored the year's top-selling

song with "Somebody That i Used To Know"featuring Kimbra. The song was down-

loaded a record 6.8 million times. CarlyRae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" was next

at 6.5 million. Both songs are the first tocross the 6 million digital sales mark,while fun. came close with 5.9 million

downloads of "We Are Young" featur-ing Janelle Monae. Forty-one songscrossed the 2 million download mark,

helping drive digital and overall sales to anew high even as album sales began to drop

again after a momentary gain. A record 1.65 bil-lion music units – combining physical albums, dig-

ital albums and digital songs – were sold in 2012,fueled by an increase of 9.1 percent in total digital sales

and a 14.1 percent increase in digital album sales. Overall,however, album sales declined 4.4 percent. That continues adownward trend since 2004 that was only briefly halted by lastyear's 3 percent gain – mostly due to the surprise success of"21." Only two genres showed album sales gains in 2012. Rockgained by 2 percent and country, fueled by the format's as-sault on the top 10, jumped 4.2 percent. Swift led a recordfive country artists into the top 10, selling 3.1 million copiesof "Red" in just over two months. Other country artists onthe list included Carrie Underwood's "Blown Away" at No.7 (1.2 million) followed by luke Bryan's "tailgates & tan-lines" (1.1 million), lionel Richie's duets album "Tuskegee"(1 million) and Jason Aldean's "Night Train" (1 million).One Direction nearly matched Swift's sales total, but didit by placing two 2012 releases in the top 10 – "Up AllNight" placed No. 3 with 1.6 million sold and "Take MeHome" was fifth with 1.3 million. NEwS DESk

Playboy mogul HughHefner reportedly wantsto have a baby with hisnew wife Crystal Harris,who is 60 years youngerto him. The 86-year-oldand Harris, 26, marriedin a small ceremony atthe Playboy Mansion inHollywood on New Year'sEve, reported Daily Star."Crystal is desperate tohave Hugh's baby. Shethinks it would be themost beautiful wayimaginable to show himhow much she reallyloves him. "Hef is

insisting he's still manenough for the job, tellingfamily and friends at thewedding he's still up forit. He wants to show theworld that age shouldn'tstop you doing anything,"a source said. Hefner waspreviously married toMildred Williams andKimberley Conrad andhas two children witheach of his ex-wives. it isthe first marriage forHarris, who recentlyopened a lingerie store,Femme Fatale, in StudioCity, California.

Hugh Hefner wants a baby at 86?

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 13

14Infotainment

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

Companies trick hackerswith fake data

WiTH corporate espionage on the rise, anumber of companies are taking asomewhat unconventional approach to

cyber security. instead of focusing on guardingtheir valuable data, they’re mixing it with a wholebunch of fake data, hoping to trick hackers intoelaborate wild goose chases, the Washington Postreports. “We’re taking the hackers’ strengths andwe’re making it their weaknesses,” says an iTofficer at one company using the technique. “Theyget caught up in this cycle of fake information.” it’sone of a number of inventive techniques companiesare taking that they refer to as “active defence.” Attheir most aggressive, these manoeuvres can befairly controversial, like knocking offending serversoffline, which officials say may be illegal.“Companies are tired of playing defence,” says onecyber security professional. “They want to feel likethey actually can fight back.” neWs desK

1 in 24 admit fallingasleep behind wheel

Abig CDC survey finds that 1 in 24Americans admit to nodding off whiledriving at least once, reports AP. What’s

worse, officials think the number is probablyhigher because people often don’t remember doingso. Men are more likely to fall asleep, as are thoseages 25 to 34, and Texans in general, for reasonsthat aren’t explained. Add it to the list of roaddangers, along with people driving too fast or tooslow, going the wrong way, texting, driving whiledrunk or stoned, driving with a lapdog, and, ofcourse, making espresso in the car. neWs desK

NASA celebrates stunning discoveries made by Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity

Martian rock found inSahara thrills experts

AFTER a rock from Mars was discovered inthe Sahara desert, scientists investigated itfor a year—and they’re fascinated by what

they’ve learned. At an estimated two billion yearsold, the rock is older than most Martian meteoritesand holds more water, the AP reports. And it offersan opportunity for scientists to study the planetwithout having to drop by. “Here we have a pieceof Mars that i can hold in my hands,” says anexpert at the University of New Mexico.So how did the rock get here? Experts think a giantobject, such as an asteroid, hit Mars and knockedrocks into space. Some 65 have now been found onEarth, typically in the Sahara or Antarctica, andthis one, dubbed “Black Beauty,” is the second-oldest known Martian meteorite that formed froma volcanic eruption. Scientists know it’s from Marsthanks to chemical analysis. The rock’s high watercontent points to interaction with water when theplanet was mostly dry. Future tests will establishhow long the rock floated in space and how long ithad been sitting in the Sahara. neWs desK

NiNE years ago today,NASA’s Jet Propulsionlaboratory began theirmissions to Mars. OnJanuary 3rd, 2004

NASA’s first Mars rover, which wasnamed Spirit, reached the RedPlanet. Nine years later, the programis still going strong with a total ofthree rovers on Martian soil.

Spirit first landed on Mars at ageographical location known asGusey crater. The robotic rover wascontained in landing gear that con-sisted of many airbags. After bounc-ing across the terrain, the roverfinally came to a stop, left the airbagsbehind, and began its journey.

Spirit did not remain alone forlong, just three weeks after landingon the Red Planet the first Marsrover was joined by its twin, whichwas named Opportunity. Opportu-nity landed on the other side of theplanet and together the two beganmaking scientific history.

The rovers’ initial mission wassupposed to last just 90 days. NASAhad sent Spirit and Opportunity toconduct tests and determine if waterwas or ever had been on Mars. Afterthe initial 90 days were up, therovers remained on Mars and havebeen studying the environment eversince. Their most significant discov-ery to date was that Mars used to bemuch warmer and wetter than thecurrent environment.

Spirit, the first rover on Mars, is

no longer optional. in 2009, therover got stuck in loose soil around“Home Plate,” a large rock on theplanet. NASA engineers could notget the rover out of the hole so theychanged Spirit’s mission to a station-ary research project. This continued

until the end of March 2010 whenSpirit went into low-power hiberna-tion to get ready for winter on Mars.NASA never heard from the roveragain. The Spirit mission was offi-cially concluded on May 25, 2011after the engineers tried once again

to contact the rover.Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, has

remained active, however. in fact,except for breaks during the winter,the rover has been constantly run-ning for almost nine years. in August2012, Opportunity was joined by anew rover, the much larger and moresophisticated Curiosity.

Though much of NASA’s atten-tion has been on Curiosity lately, Op-portunity has continued to makesome significantly scientific discov-eries. Currently, the older of the tworovers is studying an area of Marsthat scientists think may have con-tained microbial life in the past.

After almost nine years on Mar-tian terrain, Opportunity is startingto wind down a bit. With the addi-tion of Curiosity, NASA’s JPl hasensured that the robotic rover mis-sions will not die out once Opportu-nity concludes like Spirit. Curiosityis powered by a nuclear battery,which will keep the rover going formuch longer than the two year mis-sion it is currently on.

Curiosity is currently studyingan area of Mars known as GaleCrater. Once it has canvassed thisarea, it will climb to the peak of aMartian mountain known as MountSharp. Curiosity is just 2,200kmfrom where NASA lost communica-tion with Spirit. Curiosity is notlikely to stay the newest rover forlong. NASA plans to send a similarrover to Mars by 2020. neWs desK

Milky Way: home to 100b+ planets

Iceland teen fights to keepname of ‘light breeze’

THE unusual lawsuit of the day comes fromiceland, where a 15-year-old is suing thegovernment to keep her given name of

“Blaer.” The problem, as the AP explains, is that it’snot on the list of 1,853 approved names for girls. ittranslates into “light breeze,” and Blaer’s mom saidshe had no idea it wasn’t on the list when shebestowed it. As a result, Blaer is referred to as“Stulka,” meaning simply “girl,” on all her officialdocuments. Other nations, including Denmark andGermany, have similar lists, the rationale being topreserve the native language. neWs desK

Company pulls drug forlou gehrig’s disease

AN experimentaldrug thatshowed promise

of becoming the firsteffective treatment for louGehrig’s Disease is being pulledby its manufacturer because itperformed miserably in a majordrug trial. Biogen says its drug, dexpramipexole,did nothing to improve the condition of patients orextend their lives, reports Reuters. The only drugused to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Rilutek,offers only a modest benefit to patients, most ofwhom die within two to five years of diagnosis.“As a physician who has treated people with AlS, ihoped with all my heart for a different outcome,”says a top Biogen researcher. “While these resultswere not what we expected, we hope these data willprovide a foundation for future AlS research.”Biogen had been on a roll, with its stock rising 25%last year alone, but today’s news sank shares bymore than 3%, reports Bloomberg. neWs desK

Feds clear Google of search biasGoogle is resolving the FTC’s antitrust probeinto its business practices today after 19months, the AP reports. As part of the settle-ment, Google will voluntarily license patentsdeemed “essen-tial” to its ri-vals in them o b i l ephone in-dustry, in-c l u d i n gApple, Re-search in Motion,and Microsoft. The investigation was canteredon allegations that Google was abusing its in-ternet search dominance, and the companyalso agreed to remove content from otherwebsites in its search results upon request.

Google had already scaled back that practice,known as “scraping,” even though it says it’slegal under copyright law’s fair-use provi-sions. The FTC said today that antitrust reg-

ulators found noevidence that Google

gives it-self anu n f a i redge in

search re-sults; rivals

had accused itof highlighting its own

services while burying links toothers. Bloomberg calls the settlement “ablow to competitors,” and the New YorkTimes calls it a “victory for Google.” neWs desK

Scientists have done a sort of “cosmic

census,” completing a new study that

finds the Milky Way galaxy is home to 100

billion alien planets—and maybe even

many more than that. “It’s a staggering

number, if you think about it,” says the

lead author. “Basically there’s one of

these planets per star.” The researchers

figured the estimate by studying Kepler-

32, a five-planet system that, they say, is

representative of many such systems in

the galaxy, Space.com reports. The plan-

ets orbit around the most common type

of star in the galaxy, and they are similar

in size and orbit pattern to other planets

spotted orbiting around the same type of

star. “This is as close to a Rosetta stone

as anything I’ve seen,” says a co-author.

“It’s like unlocking a language that we’re

trying to understand—the language of

planet formation.” Scientists only esti-

mated the number of similar planet sys-

tems, meaning that their estimate is

probably rather conservative; the lead

author estimates there could actually be

200 billion planets in the galaxy. NEWS DESK

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 14

dHONI rueS tOP-Order FAILure

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

SYDNEYaGenCies

Australian blew the chance to take an irongrip on the third test against Sri lanka onFriday and instead scrabbled to a 48-runfirst innings lead after reaching 342 for sixat the close of the second day's play on Fri-day. Phil Hughes and David Warner got thehosts off at a canter on a glorious morningwith half centuries in a partnership of 130as Australia looked to build a big total intheir bid to sweep the series 3-0.

Two run outs, including one for MikeHussey in his final test, and a couple of softdismissals, however, left Sri lanka bowlingat Matthew Wade, who had survived agood few scares to reach 47, and Peter Sid-dle (16) when stumps were drawn.

Australia captain Michael Clarke alsomade 50 but will probably remember theday more for having given the call for therisky single that saw Hussey dismissed for28 by Dimuth Karunaratne's direct hit."Today we could look back and feel we

could have been in a better position, itwould have been nice to have a couple ofwickets less," said Hughes, who hit a styl-ish 87, told reporters. "But that's the posi-tion we're in now, 40-odd run lead andwe're well balanced in this game." Srilanka, who made 294 in their first in-nings, showed considerably more fightthan they had in the innings and 201 rundefeat in Melbourne last week and theywere only a couple of dropped catchesfrom being right back in the match. "A

number of young players have come inand shown that they've got some guts andthe desire to play at this level," coach Gra-ham Ford Said. "On the other hand... wemight have been in a better position. Al-though we're still in the game, we couldhave been in quite a powerful position."

Hughes and Warner, who hit a pug-nacious 85, had plundered runs in theopening session against a patched-uppace attack in almost perfect batting con-ditions. The only wicket to fall before

lunch was that of opener Ed Cowan, whogave a precursor of what was to comewhen he ran himself out for four. Srilanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene fi-nally introduced spinner Rangana Herathafter the break and the most prolificwicket-taker in test cricket last year al-most had an immediate impact with astrong lbw appeal against Warner.

it was turned down and a TV appealshowed the ball was turning too much tohit the leg stump but half an hour laterthe opener was heading back to the dress-ing room. The 26-year-old, who hadreached his half century off just 37 balls,could not resist a slash at a TillakaratneDilshan delivery only for the ball to bal-loon up into the air for Dhammika Prasadto take the catch backtracking at long-on.Hughes had shown that for all the re-building of his technique he could still cutthe ball like few other batsmen but on 87,traditionally considered unlucky for Aus-tralian batsmen, he tried another and wascaught behind off Herath.

Australia rue runouts despite taking lead

KOLKATAaGenCies

MiSBAH-Ul-HAQ, the Pak-istan captain, said a total of300 was on the cards afterthe platform Pakistan

openers had set but the pitch was not aneasy one to score on, especially for newbatsmen. He, however, praised the bowlingattack for another efficient performance.

"The bowlers are really doing a greatjob, especially Junaid who is moving itboth ways and asking questions of thebatsmen," Misbah said. "irfan has hisheight, Gul also bowled well today, andAjmal and Hafeez always deliver for us.

"We have the edge in the quality of ourbowling. indian batsmen are struggling forquite a long time. But i think our bowlers

exploited the conditions better. Normallywe get flat pitches here in india. But boththe pitches - in Chennai and Kolkata - werechallenging for batsmen," he said.

Misbah also singled out NasirJamshed for special praise and said thebatsman has matured well during the tour.india had their second successive top-order batting collapse but unlike the firstODi in Chennai, where their lower ordercame to the rescue, Pakistan's bowlers did-n't give the hosts a second chance andcompleted a big win to take the series.

MS Dhoni rued the failure of his bats-men after the bowlers had brought indiaback into the match. Pakistan had ap-peared set for a huge total after a 141-runopening stand, but india's bowlers struckregularly in the second half of the inningsto limit their target to 251.

india's openers made an edgy start,but were still in the middle by the 10th overand had put up 42 on the board. However,just like the previous game, a wicketopened the floodgates and the team wasreduced to 95 for 5 in 26 overs. There wereno lower-order stands of note this time andwhile Dhoni stayed unbeaten, the teamwas all out for 165.

"last 30 overs we needed 180, so if youput 100 off 20, then you can get 80-90 offlast 10 with five fielders inside the circle,"Dhoni said. "But the key is to have wicketsin hand and we never were in a position."Virat [Kohli] has scored runs for us, butone of the top three needs to play with themiddle order, that will make it easy, notthat they aren't trying, but it happens."

The batting failures in the two matcheshave meant that india have neither beenable to put up a competitive total nor be ina position to chase one down. Dhoni saidthere was experience in the batting but allhave struggled to find form on tracks that

have helped bowlers but also rewardedbatsmen who showed patience.

"The bowlers brought us back into thegame," Dhoni said. "The spinners in thesecond half of the first innings bowled welland the faster bowlers made most of thebounce available off the pitch. But when wewent into bat, we lost too many wickets."

"initially there was something for fastbowlers, then it became flat, but therewas something for the spinners. There

was turn in the first as well as second in-nings, but after 25th over the ball starteddoing a bit for the faster bowlers, evenwith the old ball. So there was everythingfor everyone. There were runs for bats-men too. it was a good ODi wicket."Dhoni also conceded that the team wasfinding it difficult to win matches withpart-time bowlers in view of the amendedODi rules which stipulate five fielders in-side the circle for full 50 overs. "We are

used to play with part-timers. Now it'sdifficult for part-timers to bowl with fiveplayers inside the circle. if there's dew,then you don't get turn as well. With thenew rules, you've to assess whether sixbatsmen are enough or seven." "Whatwe're looking at is somebody who can fillin the gap -- a genuine allrounder to bringin the balance in the side. lower-ordercontribution is also very important espe-cially when you're chasing."

Pakistan bowlers did a great job, says Misbah

austRalia WOn the tOss and ChOse tO bOWl fiRstsRi lanKa fiRst inninGs 294austRalia fiRst inninGsd. Warner c prasad b dilshan 85e. Cowan run out 4p. hughes c Chandimal b herath 87M. Clarke c Karunaratne b herath 50 M. hussey run out 28M. Wade not out 47M. johnson c Chandimal c pradeep 13 p. siddle not out 16 extras (lb-5, w-7, nb-3) 15

total (for six wickets, 88 overs) 342

fall of wicket: 1-36 2-166 3-195 4-251 5-271 6-307

to bat: M. starc, j.bird, n. lyon.

bowling: lakmal 20-4-63-0, pradeep 14-0-83-1 (w-5, nb-3),

prasad 11-0-53-0 (w-2), Mathews 2-0-11-0, dilshan 19-2-58-1,

herath 22-3-69-2

sri lanka: Mahela jayawardene (captain), tillakaratne dilshan,

dimuth Karunaratne, lahiru thirimanne, thilan samaraweera,

angelo Mathews, dinesh Chandimal, dhammika prasad,

Rangana herath, nuwan pradeep, suranga lakmal

australia lead the three-match series 2-0.

sCORebOaRd

The Pakistan team's dominance in theongoing ODi series against india hascome as a surprise for me. i feel the hostteam looked jaded after playing toomuch cricket. india’s 85 runs slump toyet another series defeat with a patheticdisplay is nothing less than a surprise.it’s another low for the struggling indi-ans who suffered an embarrassing Testseries debacle against England at home.i did not expect such wins. it was a bat-tle of nerves and Pakistan did better towin it. On the contrary, the indian play-ers were tired. They have played toomuch cricket recently and have not per-formed to the potential. The role of Mis-bah-ul-Haq as captain is a laudablefactor as he led Pakistan's team work.Pakistan has done exceptionally well.Nasir (Jamshed) and (Mohammed)Hafeez were particularly brilliant withthe bat while bowlers like Umar (Gul),Junaid (Khan) and (Saeed) Ajmal did

not let the famed indian batting line-upopen their hands. it was a daunting taskto suffocate the indian batsmen but Pak-istani bowlers succeeded. Pakistanibowlers maintained an accurate line andlength and none of the indian top orderbatsmen could fire. i feel the india areunder additional pressure due to playingat home. Naturally there is additionalpressure to perform in front of a home

crowd and it tends to increase whenindia and Pakistan play each other.india was under pressure but we mustgive credit to the Pakistani team whichhas performed really well. indian cap-tain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is facing se-vere criticism but as a captain alone hecannot win matches. A captain is as goodas the team. Bowlers and batsmen haveto perform. it was due to Dhoni's un-beaten century that india managed toget a decent score in the first match andin the second match also he batted well.looking at the current form of the Pak-istan team, i think this team can go for awhitewash. Pakistan can clean sweep theseries in Delhi and if it happens, it willbe a blessing for Pakistan cricket. We aredeprived of international cricket at homeand in such circumstances a win againsta top team like india will boost Pakistancricket. i urge india to reciprocate bytouring Pakistan in near future. i wouldlove to see the indian team playing inPakistan. Pakistani people are cricketcrazy and they want to see the greatcricketing battle between the arch-rivals.

Misbah makes the Pakistan team work ZAHEER ABBAS

Comment

LAHOREstaff RepORt

The international Cricket Council todayinducted Glenn McGrath into the iCCCricket Hall of Fame during the lunchinterval of the third Test match betweenAustralia and Sri lanka in Sydney.

McGrath becomes the 68th malemember of the Hall of Fame and joinsfellow 2012-13 inductees West indianBrian lara and England’s Enid Bakewellin being recognized by the iCC and theliving members of the Hall of Fame.

While lara and Bakewell were in-ducted in September at the lG iCCAwards, McGrath was inducted at hishome ground of the SCG by the iCCPresident, Alan isaac, along with CricketAustralia chairman Wally Edwards in

front of a large and appreciative crowd.A fourth and final inductee of 2012-13will be announced later this year.

McGrath, who was born in inDubbo, New South Wales in 1970, rep-resented Australia in 124 Test matches

between 1993 and 2007 claiming 563Test wickets at an average of 21.64, andhe is still taken more Test wickets thanany other seam bowler currently in thegame or retired.

Australia won 22 of the 30 AshesTest matches that he played, with theside losing just four matches when Mc-Grath was part of the bowling attack.

McGrath was part of the Australianside that won three successive iCCCricket World Cups – 1999, 2003 and2007 and he still holds the record withthe most wickets in iCC Cricket WorldCup competitions, with 71 scalps and hisfigures of 7-15 against Namibia are thebest in the competition’s history.

When McGrath retired from thegame in 2007 he had represented Aus-tralia in 250 ODis, claiming 381 wickets

at an average of 22.02 while he took over800 first-class wickets in his career.

McGrath said of his induction: “i amdelighted to be inducted into the iCCCricket Hall of Fame and to be consid-ered amongst the greats of the game. Tobe honoured alongside the likes of DonBradman, Dennis lillee and MichaelHolding who were all my heroes when iwas growing up is something i couldnever have dreamed of when i firststarted playing cricket.

“i have to thank my family, myteam-mates, my coaches and all thosewho have supported me throughout theyears to help mold me into the cricketerthat i became. i took great pride everytime i donned the Baggy Green and inow take great pride in being inductedinto the iCC Cricket Hall of Fame.”

McGrath inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame now, flintoffplans to open fishand chips shopLONDON: Former England captain An-drew Flintoff is so unconvinced with thequality of fish and chips shops in londonthat he is now planning to open his own.The cricketer-turned-boxer is in talkswith TV producers about a news series,where he runs a chippy in london withwife Rachael, the Daily Mail reports.Flintoff isn’t impressed with the qualityof fish and chips shops down south, andhe wants to open his own up in londonselling market-fresh fish, a source said.The sourced added that Flintoff would befront of house but his wife Rachael, whohas a background in catering and events,would run the business. aGenCies

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 16

Sports 16

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

CAPE TOWNaGenCies

SOUTH Africa completed aninnings victory over NewZealand on Friday in a re-sult which was never in

doubt after the visitors collapsed to 45all out before lunch on the openingday of the first test. Dean Brownlie'smaiden test century helped NewZealand to 232 for five at lunch on thethird day after S Africa had declaredtheir first innings closed at 347 foreight on Thursday. However five wick-ets fell for 23 runs in a lower order col-lapse in the second session and theNew Zealanders ended up 27 runsshort of making the world numberone side bat again. Brownlie, who hadbeen brought into the team as a re-placement for Ross Taylor who opted

out of the tour after he was replaced ascaptain by Brendon McCullum, re-sumed on day three with wicketkeeperBJ Watling, who was on 10.

The duo were resolute in themorning session and a frustratedProteas' outfit were forced to watchas Brownlie reached his century witha big six over long-off from the bowl-

ing of Robin Peterson. South Africaeventually got their man in thepenultimate over before lunch asBrownlie cut a Morne Morkel deliv-ery straight to Alviro Petersen on thepoint boundary having made 109.Watling and James Franklin contin-ued to frustrate the Proteas in thefirst hour following the break as they

looked to avoid an innings defeat.Three dropped catches had

marred the hosts fielding display onday two and Franklin was next to begiven a reprieve as ro Petersengrassed his second chance of the in-nings at gully. A double-strike byVernon Philander shortly before thedrinks break crippled the NewZealand innings though, as Watlingedged to first slip and was out for 42.

Doug Bracewell was caught atgully for a duck to reduce the BlackCaps to 252 for seven and JeetanPatel (8) was clearly rattled by thefearsome pace of Dale Steyn beforeeventually chopping on to hisstumps. The final two wickets fell inquick succession, as Franklin tooplayed onto his stumps for 22 havinglasted 103 minutes to leave NewZealand on the brink at 274 for nine.

South africa complete innings victory

royal Palm AnnualGolf from today

LAHOREstaff RepORt

The Royal Palm Annual Golf Champi-onship will commence from 5thJanuary(today)at the par-72 Royal PalmGolf Course and will be contested over twodays of competitive golf.it is a 36 holesevent and the participants who have regis-tered as the eligible ones number 81.Col(r)Jameel Khalid, Director Golf Opera-tions at Royal Palm stated that inspite ofthe non sunny days and chilly weather thefairways are looking exceedingly good andthe lie of the ball will definitely be to theliking of the contenders,some of whom areextremely eager to have a crack at the pres-tigious Royal Palm Champions title. SardarMurad Khan is the reigning champion andagain a part of the competitors line up,stillhungry for continuing his reign.inspite ofthe presence of a few really sharp con-tenders,it can be predicted that SardarMurad would not be easy to beat.He hasdefinitely stuck to his practice routine andstated that,"i do value the importance ofparticipation in this title bearing champi-onship and would love to give it a full tryover the two rounds". Sardar Murad maybe planning his own strategy for domi-nance in this championship,but thechances of some fearsome competitors can-not be overlooked.The top ones amongstthe expected front runners are ShoaibBokhari,Faisal Malik,Waqar Saigol,MohsinZafar and his son Mahad Zafar,Asad AminSheikh,Tariq Misbah,Raza Ali Khan,AbbasAli Khan,Hussain Hamid ,Shoaib Shamsand the ever improving Faisal Sayid. ingross competitions such as this event,thedouble digit handicappers do not stand achance but if some talented one canspring a surprise,it adds loads of excite-ment to the occasion.While the chances ofsuch an eventuality are slim,yet the onesunder focus will be steady players likeimran Miraj,Sharjeel Awan,AbdullahSharif and Dr Mohsin Anwar. The longhitters who can push the ball through theair for 260 yards or more are bound to bein an advantageous position as the roll isminimal. Once the tee shot is effectivelythrough on the par 4's and fives,all theyhave to do is to supplement it with a crispfairways shot.These two shots supple-mented by a responsive putter can givethe top contenders decent scores whichultimately add up to excellence. The teeoff will be at 10am on Saturday (today) atthe Royal Palm Golf Course.

national netballpostponed

LAHOREstaff RepORt

The 11th edition of the National Men’snetball championship which was sched-uled to be held from January 15 at islam-abad has been postponed owing tounavoidable circumstances. “Now theevent will be played from February 18 atislamabad's Pakistan Sports Complex ",said Mudassar Arain, Secretary, PakistanNetball Federation here on Friday.Thefinal will be played on February 21.

LAHOREstaff RepORt

WAPDA beat Pakistan Army 3-0 tomove into the final of the 1stWomenChallenge Cup women hockey tour-nament here on Friday at the outerground of the national stadium.

in another match Punjab got ridof Sindh with a fine 3-0 victory.WAPDA has now ten points fromthree victories and one drawn game ,out of total four matches played sofar. Pakistan Railways with sevenpoints after winning two matches,one drawn and one loss, have alreadyqualified for the final which will beplayed on January 6 after tomorrow’sSaturday rest day. Punjab will takeon Pakistan Army in a classificationmatch for the third place.

Wapda and Army played a goal-less first half as the long term posses-sion of ball by either sides confinedthe game to mid field.

After a dull first half, Wapda gotinto action to stamp their supremacy.Azra Nasir struck a field goal in the33rd minute as Aqeela Naseem net-ted their second goal in the49thminute off a short corner withAzra adding her second goal in the69stminute off a mid field move.

Bushara Nazir scored two min-utes before the close of the first half

as Punjab gained 1-0 lead over Sindh.Asma Ashraf scored Punjab’s secondgoal after converting a penalty corner

in the 56th minute. Bushara con-tributed her second goal in the 61stthminute.

wAPDA in final of womenChallenge Hockey Cup

LAHOREstaff RepORt

Former Pakistani cricketer Javed Mian-dad has called off his proposed visit toindia amidst controversy over grantinghim visa to watch ongoing india-Pak-istan ODi series.

Notably, Miandad was scheduled toarrive in New Delhi on Saturday aftervisa clearance to watch the third india-Pakistan ODi match slated on Sunday.A Pakistan Cricket Board PCB officialsaid that the board did not want the

focus to move away from cricket toother matters.

Ever since news came out that Mian-dad, whose son Junaid married the fugi-tive Mumbai don Dawood ibrahim’sdaughter Mahrukh in Dubai in 2005, acontroversy broke out in india over gov-ernment giving him visa for the visit.

Opposition parties like BJP and ShivSena were red-faced over this and vehe-mently criticised the government for al-lowing visa to the former Pak cricketer.

Reacting to the reservations of theopposition parties, Minister for External

Affairs, Salman Khurshid,on Thursday defended thedecision to grant visa toMiandad saying, “Miandadwas not on the 'negativelist' of those not to be givenvisas. No Pakistani ViSAgets cleared without MHAclearance. inputs from allagencies were taken intoconsideration be-fore this move.it is an inter-nal proce-

dure.” Minister of State forHome RPN Singh had said,"He is a well known cricketer.His visa application paperswere in order and valid andthat is why the government has

decided to give him visa." Therehad been reports before a se-

ries in 2005 that a requestfor a visa by the bat-

ting great wasturned down

by the indiangovernment.

new Zealand first innings 45 (V. philander 5-7)

south africa first innings 347 for eight declared

(a.petersen 106, h.amla 66, j.Kallis 60, ab de Villiers 67)

new Zealand second innings

M. Guptill c amla b steyn 0

b. McCullum lbw b peterson 51

K. Williamson c petersen b Kallis 15

d. brownlie c peterson b Morkel 109

d. flynn c de Villiers b Kallis 14

bj Watling c smith b philander 42

j.franklin b steyn 22

d.bracewell c petersen b philander 0

j.patel b steyn 8

t.boult not out 2

C.Martin run out 0

extras (b-1 lb-8 w-3) 12

total (all out, 102.1 overs) 275

fall of wickets: 1-0 2-29 3-118 4-155 5-229 6-252 7-

252 8-265 9-274 10-275

bowling: steyn 30-6-67-3, philander 24-8-76-2 (1w),

Morkel 21-6-50-1 (1w), Kallis 11.1-3-31-2 (1w), peterson

16-6-42-1

new Zealand won the toss and elected to bat

Result: south africa won by an innings and 27 runs

sCORebOaRd

Pakistan,india teamsarrive in delhifor third odi

NEW DELHIaGenCies

The indian and Pakistani cricket teamsarrived here this evening amid tight se-curity cover for the inconsequentialthird and final ODi to be held at theFeroze Shah Kotla ground on Sunday.The two teams arrived here by a char-tered flight from Kolkata and weretaken straight to the team hotel by twoseparate buses under tight securityarrangements. indian captain Mahen-dra Singh Dhoni, however, was conspic-uous by his absence as he was not in thebus along with his team-mates. Boththe teams are slated to practice at theFeroze Shah Kotla tomorrow. Down 0-2in the three-match series, india have al-ready lost the rubber and would look toredeem some pride by winning the thirdand final match here.

reception inhonour of Pakcricket team

LAHOREstaff RepORt

Pakistan Cricket Board will hold a re-ception in the honour of its team afterits return from india after winning theone-day series. “The reception will alsobe participated by a two member dele-gation of Bangladesh Cricket Board“,said the sources in PCB here on Fri-day. “ The aim of visit of delegation ofBangladesh led by its President, NazmulHassan is convince the PCB authoritiesto send their players in the BangladeshPremier league set to start from January18. PCB has taken a decision in princi-ple not to send its players to feature inBPl after BCB refused to send its teamto Pakistan later this month, backingout from its second such commitment.

Miandad calls off India tour following visa controversy

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 17

radwanska toface wickmayerin Auckland final

AuCKLANDaGenCies

Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska over-came blustery conditions and a doggedJamie Hampton in the semi-finals of theAuckland Classic on Friday to set up atitle clash against Belgium's Yanina Wick-mayer. The Polish world number four hadto dig deep in the year's first tournamentto edge out the 70th-ranked American 7-67-6. "i've never been in a final in my firsttournament of the year, so it's a goodstart, and i'm going to do everything inmy power to win that match tomorrow,"Radwanska, who is yet to drop a set at thetournament, told reporters. "Winning atitle is a great thing, especially at a tour-nament i haven't played before." Thirdseed Wickmayer reached her third Auck-land final in four years after winning afinal set tiebreak against eighth-seededGerman Mona Barthel.

Poulter ready forreturn to action

AuGuSTAaGenCies

ian Poulter is the first of Europe'sRyder Cup heroes into action in 2013,but this week's Hyundai Tournament ofChampions in Hawaii is his only ap-pearance until late February. Part of aPGA Tour winners-only 30-strong fieldat Kapalua, the 36-year-old has beenplaying down his chances in the build-up to the £3.5million event - £686,000of it to whoever comes first. "i wouldn'tbe picking me in any fantasy pick or betthis week even with my own money.Slapping it," the Englishman said on

Twitter. "it's beena good Christ-mas." Poulter,who qualifiedwith his second

World Golf Cham-pionships victoryin Shanghai inNovember, hada hectic end tolast seasonand after thistrip will notbe playing

competi-tively againuntil thefirst round

of the Ac-centure MatchPlay in Arizonaon Feb 20.

Sports17

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

AuGuSTAaGenCies

World number one Rory Mcilroy hasrevealed that he may not play in Rio in2016 when golf returns to theOlympics. The 23-year-old would be el-igible for selection by either GreatBritain or ireland, but may opt out in-stead to avoid offending anyone.

Speaking in a BBC documentary,the Ryder Cup star said: "Whatever de-cision i make, whether that's play forireland, play for Britain, not play at allmaybe just because i don't want toupset too many people...."

Asked if not playing was a genuinepossibility, Mcilroy added: "For sureit's definitely an option. "i've got threeoptions; i either play for one side or theother or i don't play."

in September last year, Mcilroy re-leased an open letter on his Twitter ac-count in response to quotes attributedto him which said he felt "more Britishthan irish". "i am in an extremely sen-

sitive and difficult position and i con-veyed as much in a recent newspaperinterview," he wrote at the time.

"i am a proud product of irish golfand the Golfing Union of ireland. i amalso a proud Ulsterman who grew up

in Northern ireland which is part ofthe United Kingdom. That is my back-ground and always will be. "i receivegreat support from both irish andBritish fans alike and it is greatly ap-preciated."

DOHAali aKbaR

“You cannot be serious. Chalk flewup!”John McEnroe’s immortal harangueat the umpire at Wimbledon many yearsago, will sadly, never be repeated. Be-cause this is the age of Hawkeye, the elec-tronic line calling system that hasrendered umpire baiting all but extinct.This hack had the opportunity to sit downwith the Hawkeye people at a Desert Sa-fari during the ongoing Qatar Open ATPevent and gleaned some facts about thesystem that never fails.

Hawkeye was the invention of aBritish scientist who had gotten tired of

seeing blatantly inaccurate umpiring de-cisions. So he decided to do somethingabout it. What it culminated in was a sys-tem where ten cameras are placed, five oneach side of the court. Any three of thefive are enough to provide triangulationthat provides the precise location wherethe tennis ball bounced. if a player feelslike the call he has received is wrong, hecan make a maximum of three incorrectchallenges to Hawkeye. And Hawkeyewill tell you to the accuracy of withinthree millimeters whether the ball was inor out. More importantly, according tothe players, Hawkeye provides consis-tency in line calling, something the play-ers prize above all else. The tennis

Hawkeye is different from the cricket sys-tem although the company is the same.The cricket system uses the cameras al-ready in place for broadcasting while intennis, ten dedicated cameras are fixed.

So, John McEnroe, your umpiresledging days are over. But hold on. Notquite. The ATP Masters series whereMcEnroe plies his trade these days, doesnot have Hawkeye. And McEnroe is stillin his element. He is the major draw cardand any McEnroe match withouttantrums is not complete.

Hawkeye costs a pretty penny. Aboutfive million rupees a day. So a good spon-sor with deep pockets, is essential!uSuAL SuSPECTS IN THE SEMIS:

On Center Court, the usual suspects camethrough into the semi finals. Davydenkoplays Ferrer while Gasquet takes on thesurprise package, Daniel Brands. Brands,a qualifier, easily defeated Gael Monfilsto make his first semi final on the ATTour. A tall man with a powerful, aggres-sive game, Brands is on the comebacktrail after reaching a high ranking in the1960s a couple of years ago. Davydenkois a former top four player on his wayback from injury. He looked formidablein dispatching the italian Bolleli for theloss of onloy two games and could provea match for Ferrer. Brands is in with agood chance against Gasquet, who looksslightly short of his best.

The age of the hawkeye

McIlroy could opt out of Rio 2016

Stander diesafter accident

JOHANNESBERGaGenCies

South African mountain biker BurryStander has died in a road accidentwhile on a training ride. The 25-year-old, who finished fifth at the londonOlympics, was killed in a collision with ataxi in Shelley Beach, the South AfricanSports Confederation and Olympic Com-mittee (SASCOC) confirmed. Standerwas a two-time Olympian, having alsocompeted in Beijing in 2008. SASCOCpresident Gideon Sam said on www.sas-coc.co.za: "This is indeed terrible newsto start 2013 with. "Burry was the epit-ome of an Olympic athlete; talented,ultra-competitive but at the same timeextremely humble and a true gentleman."SASCOC, the cycling fraternity and theentire South African sporting commu-nity mourns his passing and sends ourprayers to his wife and family. "i'm to-tally shattered because athletes ofBurry's calibre are not easily replaced.it's an enormous loss to the entire cy-cling family. "i've said this time andagain but it is really time to work evenharder at protecting both our runnersand cyclists who used the roads daily todo their training." Olympic and Para-lympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius paidtribute to Stander. He tweeted: "Ab-solutely devastated by the tragic news ofBurry Stander's passing. A South Africanicon and sporting great. RiP my friend."

brISbANe INterNAtIONAL

BRISBANEaGenCies

ANDY Murray has succeededin reaching the semi-finals ofthe Brisbane internationalbut the U.S Open champion

has fallen short in a pledge to curb hishabit of swearing on court. Moreover, hehas toned down the promise itself.

last month, the Briton said hewanted to clean up his act after re-peated warnings for unsavoury lan-guage, but audible obscenities havebeen uttered in his opening matches inBrisbane against Australia's John Mill-man and Uzbekistan's Denis istomin.Spectators at Pat Rafter Arena haveclearly heard Murray barking the occa-sional swear word, something theworld number three has done through-out his career to let off steam when dis-satisfied with his own performance.

Murray defeated istomin 6-4 7-6 onFriday to book a semi-final againstJapan's Kei Nishikori, who trumpedUkraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov by anidentical scoreline. The other semi-finalon Saturday will feature Bulgaria's GrigorDimitrov against Cypriot Marcos Bagh-datis. Dimitrov beat Austria's JurgenMelzer 6-3 6-2 after Baghdatis had takenout France's Gilles Simon 6-3 6-4.

"Obviously, me saying 'shit' or what-ever is bad and wrong, and it's somethingi want to try to stop doing," Murray wasquoted as saying last month. However, hedeclined to make the same promise aheadof his clash against Nishikori.

"i don't really know how that willgo, to be honest," Murray said. "A lot oftimes i get asked after matches about it.it can get picked up on the microphoneor whatever. No-one has mentionedanything to me (in Brisbane) yet but themicrophones at the Aussie Open are allaround the court, so we'll see." Murraydenied his attempt to tone down his

language was because he felt more of arole model after winning the Olympicsand U.S Open in a breakthrough 2012.He claimed worse levels of swearingfrom other players went undetected be-cause it was not delivered in English."Where it (the pledge to stop swearing)came from was when i got asked a ques-

tion," he said. "i was doing an interviewover the phone. i got asked aboutswearing on the court. i said 'obviouslyi don't mean to do it. i don't want to doit. Sometimes you get frustrated andyou do and obviously i will try to stop.'"i didn't make any promises or guaran-tees that i was going to.

Murray unable to swearby curse-curbing pledge

BRISBANE: Victoria Azarenka's Australian Open preparations were compli-cated on Friday when "a bad pedicure experience" forced the world numberone to withdraw from her Brisbane international semi-final against SerenaWilliams. Thirty minutes before the match against her American opponent, thedefending Australian Open champion announced she would be unable to com-pete after undergoing a minor procedure to fix an ingrown nail that infectedher right big toe. "it's been there for about 10 days," the 23-year-old Belaruss-ian told reporters. "it's just been getting worse a little bit," she added. "i don'tknow in medical terms, but i had to get a piece (of nail) out of my toe because itwas jamming into me and got infected. "it's something that's very just reallyunfortunate, but i had to do that. it was just jamming underneath into the skin.i was trying to minimise the pain with taping and everything. "Yesterday it gotworse. it got really infected and got really red, so we had to go and see the doc-tor. He had to open it. That's what i had to do." Azarenka had won her first twomatches at Brisbane without any signs of discomfort but the eagerly-antici-pated showdown against the third-ranked Williams failed to materialise. "itjust got infected from a bad pedicure experience," she said. "i had somebodywho gave me infection. They cut a little bit too much and it got infected. Andthen from as much as we do, as much exercise, it's just been jamming into itand it's created an infection inside. Created a little piece of nail to go in and al-ways be hurting me. "Actually the doctor said it happens a lot. Never happenedto me, so it's something that i am definitely going to prevent for the next time."i tried everything. We tried medication with taping, and i was playing throughthe pain for quite a while. "You know, it's just something that i had to do tomake sure that i can be fully recovered and ready for Australian Open. it's thecompromise i had to take. "it's just very unfortunate timing, because i was re-ally looking forward to playing. But the health is definitely something that'smore important." Despite the setback, Azarenka expected to be fully fit whenthe Australian Open begins in Melbourne on Jan. 14. "The procedure has beendone and the worst already passed by. it just needs some time to get it better."Williams will now meet either Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Ukraine'slesia Tsurenko in the Brisbane final on Saturday. aGenCies

Azarenka suffers setbackahead of Open defence

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 18

Sports 18

Saturday, 5 January, 2013

watch it LiveESPNFA Cup: West Ham V Man U 10:40PM

STAR SPORTSLa Liga: Zaragoza vs Betis01:55PM

STAR CRICKET2nd Test: Australia V Sri Lanka 04:30AM

LONDONaGenCies

Sturridge, who has established himself asone of England's brightest young talents,only joined liverpool recently. it is be-lieved that a primary factor in the movebetween the two rivals was Sturridge'sfrustration at being continually deployeddown the wings instead of a more centralposition, although the 23-year-old deniedthe assertion in the immediate aftermathof the move. luckily for the striker,Rodgers appears keen to give him that li-cence as the Northern irishman indicatedthat Suarez could be instructed to play ina support role if he feels it would be in thebest interests of the team.

The new liverpool buy would have towork quite hard to establish his creden-tials, though, as Suarez has been in superbform this season. The Uruguayan interna-

tional has already scored 15 Premierleague goals. On Wednesday, he alsocombined excellently with Raheem Ster-ling to terrorise the Sunderland defenceduring liverpool's 3-0 win at Anfield.

But the ex-Chelsea coach understandsthat Sturridge could be at his deadly bestas a main striker and feels Suarez mighthave to adapt to accomodate his newteam-mate. "For the common good of theteam [Suarez could be moved]," Rodgerstold the Guardian. "i spoke with luis atlength on it a number of times. This hasbeen in the plan for a few months.

"When he played at Ajax he playedin behind as a No10, in between thelines, and he played as a reverse wingerfrom the left side so he wasn't quite outwide - he was tucked in round the cor-ner. "Wherever he plays he will make thesame movements and he will find thespace because he is a world class player."

"Daniel's best position is as a centralstriker. i have said that 4-3-3 will be-come richer because of the type of play-ers. There is not one way to play 4-3-3."You can have one up and two wingers,

a floating nine like luis Suárez, you canhave one like Daniel Sturridge central,two in and around him narrow with fullbacks bombing on. "The principles ofyour game are based on your players.

Arsenal target m’Vilacould exit rennes

LONDONaGenCies

Rennes midfielder Yann M'Vila hasreignited speculation over a move to Arse-nal by questioning his future at the ligue 1club. The 22-year-old was linked with theGunners in the summer transfer windowand has now stated there is "no doubt" hewill move on should he receive an appeal-ing offer. "i am at Rennes at the momentso let's see what happens," said M'Vila,quoted on skysports.com. "if the club re-ceive a good offer and i like the destinationthen i will go, there is no doubt about that.Until that happens, nothing can be said."

Joe cole returnsto west Ham

LONDONaGenCies

Cole first made his name in Englishfootball at the Boleyn Ground from1998 to 2003 before sealing his big-money move to Chelsea. After a suc-cessful spell at Stamford Bridge, wherehe won eight major trophies includingthree Premier league titles, the Eng-land international became Roy Hodg-son's marquee signing at liverpool in2010. However, Cole failed to settle atAnfield and even spent last season onloan at ligue 1 outfit lille. Cole made atotal of 42 appearances for liverpooluntil the Reds decided to payoff the 31-year-old's contract to allow him to signfor the Hammers on a free transfer inthe newly opened transfer window. Colehas signed a 18 month contract with theHammers and will wear his old No. 26shirt. "it is a great move for me," Colesaid on the West Ham website.

bojan wary of‘unstoppable’ barca

BARCELONAaGenCies

A product of the Barcelona youthacademy, Bojan was regarded as thenext big thing to emerge from the clubsince lionel Messi when he made hisfirst team bow in 2007. However, astring of injuries and poor form re-sulted in the forward's failure to estab-lish himself in the Catalan side'sstarting 11, before Bojan left for SerieA side Roma in the summer of 2011.

Sturridge could outdo Suarez: Rodgers

briSbAne: Victoria

Azarenka addresses

a press conference

while Andy murray

reacts to a lost point

against denis istomin.

rooney ruled outof liverpool clash

LONDONaGenCies

Wayne Rooney has been ruled out for an-other two weeks. Rooney sustained aminor knee injury in training on Christ-mas Day and Sir Alex Ferguson initiallyexpected the striker to be back in a fort-night. However, it now seems he will bemissing for longer - and will sit out nextweek's clash with liverpool. "Wayne isstill injured," said Ferguson. "it is not seri-ous but it is going to take longer than wethought, probably another two weeks. Hewon't be fit for liverpool." Rooney was ex-pected to have been back in training bynow and Ferguson cannot exactly workout why it has not happened. "He got a lit-tle kick behind his knee and he is still feel-ing it," said Ferguson. "Hopefully anothercouple of weeks will sort it out. "Nonethe-less, it is a loss. You always want your bestplayers available." There was some goodnews, though, with Ferguson revealingwinger Nani, who has been absent for twomonths with a hamstring problem, willtake a major step forward in his recovery."He starts training today [Friday]," hesaid. Ferguson also explained the reasonbehind Darren Fletcher's recent absence.After battling back from a chronic bowelcondition, Fletcher played four times in afortnight at the end of last month. How-ever, the midfielder's only appearance

since came as alast-minute

substitute inthe BoxingDay winover New-castle."The

groundshave beenreally heavy,

which has notsuited Darren," said

Ferguson. "The pitchat Old Trafford seemsto have collapsed in

the last two weeks."We have had sixgreat years out of

it. They havedone a fantas-tic job but weare going tohave to changeit during thesummer."

SINGAPORE aGenCies

Weeks of practice and family time haveleft Swiss maestro Roger Federer fit andrefreshed ahead of what the 17-timesmajor winner believes could be an un-predictable Australian Open in the ab-sence of old foe Rafa Nadal.

Federer, 31, opted to skip his usualAustralian Open warm-up tournamentsin the Middle East this year and insteadspent it working on his game and par-enting, all part of a shorter 2013 sched-ule that he hopes will extend his careerbut has left him hungry for matches.

"i am very happy that the year isstarting. it's a bit of a different prepara-tion for the Australian Open this yearbut i'm confident i am mentally re-freshed, which i am, and physically i amfine and that i will play a good Aus-tralian Open," Federer told reporters inSingapore on Friday. "i have been prac-tising really hard the last few weeks anddidn't play a leading up tournament thisyear just because i thought practice isvery important for me coming up in thenext year, year-and-a-half." The worldnumber two's last match on Tour was

back in November when he was defeatedin the final of the ATP Tour Finals inlondon by Serbia's Novak Djokovic.

With only some exhibition matchesin South America since, some ques-tioned the move to go straight to theAustralian Open but Federer, who wonthe last of his four Australian Open ti-tles in 2010, said rest was required. "it

is key to always have a healthy sched-ule, it is difficult to do as they (thetournaments) are spread out basicallyfrom January to October-November,"he said. "it is hard to say i'm going totake one or two months off and prac-tice hard while there are 10 to 15 newtournament winners on the Tour andyou are sitting at home."

Family, practice leave Federerready for another slam

KHI 05-01-2013_Layout 1 1/5/2013 2:32 AM Page 19

Saturday, 5 January, 2013Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi. Editor: Arif Nizami

islaMabad: prime Minister Raja pervaiz ashraf talks to pakistan Muslim league-Quaid leaders Chaudhry shujaat hussain, Chaudhry pervez elahi and Monis elahi during a

meeting at prime Minister’s house on friday. oNLINE

ISLAMABADshaiQ hussain

THE military leadership onFriday resolved to con-tinue with its fight againstterrorism and declaredthat it was the govern-

ment’s discretion whether or not to ac-cept the ‘peace talks’ offered by theTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The military commanders whogathered for the 156th Corps Com-manders’ meeting at GHQ Rawalpindidiscussed in detail the offer for dia-logue recently made by TTP chief Ha-keemullah Mehsud.

“The meeting undertook a compre-hensive review of the routine profes-sional matters and securityenvironment in the country,” an iSPRstatement said on Friday.

However, a security official privy tothe development said on condition ofanonymity, that the main issue on themilitary commanders’ agenda was theTTP truce offer and the issue was delib-erated upon at length. “The army lead-ership was of the view that it must bedecided by the government whetherthe talks with TTP should be held. Themilitary commanders reiterated theircommitment that its fight would con-tinue against the terrorists that werebent upon harming the peace and sta-

bility of the country,” he said.He said the army leadership also

observed that it needed to be adjudgedwhether the TTP leadership, which hadbeen involved in gruesome acts of ter-ror and had earlier broken several ac-cords, was serious in its bid to holdpeace dialogue. The source said thearmy commanders said they wouldcontinue with their duty of protectingthe country against internal and exter-nal threats. He said the army seniorcommanders also discussed the “longmarch call” given by Tehreek-e-Min-hajul Quran chief Dr Tahirul Qadri onJanuary 14, reiterating the stance thatthe army had nothing to do with it and

those who saw such a linkage were mis-taken. Another security official said thecorps commanders’ reviewed in detailthe country’s internal and external se-curity situation.

“The latest situation on country’seastern and western border was re-viewed by the meeting of senior armycommanders, especially the coopera-tion with the US-led NATO forces aswell as Afghan army along the Afghanborder,” he said.

The army leaders, he said, also helddiscussions on the ongoing peace andreconciliation process in Afghanistanwith the Taliban, as well as the role thatPakistan could play for its success.

ISLAMABADstaff RepORt

Prime Minister Pervez Ashraf on Fridayurged the armed forces to redefine militarystrategies and doctrine to tackle the threatsto national security and sovereignty, assur-ing that the government would stand bythe military to provide a strong support inthe war against terrorism.

Addressing the 14th National SecurityWorkshop at the National Defence Univer-sity (NDU), the prime minister said today’scomplex and multi-faceted concept of na-tional security was neither a pursuit of themilitary alone, nor was its managementthe exclusive domain of a selected few.

Assuring the government’s support tothe armed forces in the war on terror, he

said national security institutions must im-prove intelligence gathering and establisheffective coordination among civil and mili-tary institutions to attain optimum results.“Threats to Pakistan’s national security stemmainly from non-state actors who are tar-geting the state’s symbols and institutions ina bid to impose their agenda. it is an enemythat is nameless and faceless,” Ashraf said.

“We are living in a world undergoingdynamic changes,” he added, “where tradi-tional notions of security and sovereigntyare being constantly redefined. There is aneed to come to grips with the implicationsof this flux in intra-state and internationalrelations.” Elaborating, the PM said effec-tive pursuit of national security goals re-quired developing a strategic frameworkthat encompassed all elements of national

power. “it must focus on the complex waysin which national, regional and global fac-tors impinge upon the security outlook of acountry. The key imperatives of a compre-hensive national security paradigm includesustainable socio-economic growth, politi-cal sovereignty and stability, rule of law,food security, stable state institutions andtechnological advancements,” Ashraf re-marked. Recognising and praising the sac-rifices made by security forces to defend themotherland, he was of the view that theneed of the time was to work on a strategythat could comprehensively tackle the men-ace, adding that “we have to redesign andredefine our military doctrine to achievethis objective”. Urging both parliament andthe security forces to stay on the same page,the PM said no military action could suc-

ceed alone, as the political will and supportof the people were critical to its success.

Ashraf added that the entire nationand parliament stood behind their armedforces in their struggle to secure the futureof our children. “The present democraticgovernment can rightfully take pride in thefact that it gave political ownership to thewar against terrorism. The Swat Model, asit globally came to be known, representsthe finest example of a combination of po-litical strategy and modern warfare,” hesaid. The prime minister said for a countryto be able to protect its national security, itwas incumbent that every institutionworked within its constitutional ambit.

“Political stability is critically linked tonational security,” he remarked. Ashrafstated that economic diplomacy was an in-

tegral part of the foreign policy. “The grantof GSP plus status to Pakistan by the Eu-ropean Union bears testimony to our ef-forts in seeking concessions to enhanceinternational trade relations. The forces ofdoom and gloom thrive in an environmentof chaos, uncertainty and instability. Weneed to guard against all such forces,which are out to derail the system so assid-uously put in place after a protracted strug-gle.” Commenting on the media, Ashrafsaid the media was crucial to building con-sensus on broad contours of national secu-rity. “i have unflinching faith in the peopleof Pakistan. They have always risen to theoccasion. We will defeat the forces of dark-ness who cast evil designs on our culture,values and a way of life. i have no doubtabout it,” he added.

Senate accords nod

to recommendations

on tax amnesty billISLAMABAD

staff RepORt

Cracks in the ruling coalition stoodexposed on Friday as the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) was left stranded by its threemajor coalition partners as senators ofPakistan Muslim league-Quaid (PMl-Q),Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) andAwami National Party (ANP) opposed thetax amnesty scheme being introduced bythe PPP government. Despite being aloneand equipped only with misguidedcalculations, the PPP got therecommendations passed from the Housewith a majority as the opposition did notbother to challenge the ruling of the chairand did not demand a count over thevoting either. ishaq Dar, leader of theopposition in the Senate, also facilitatedthe PPP government as he looked veryfriendly towards the treasury benchesthroughout the session. He did not evenchallenge the Senate chairman’s ruling forcounting over the recommendationsdespite the fact that some of the PMl-Nback-benchers demanded a vote count.Senate Standing Committee on FinanceChairperson Nasreen Jalil said that MQMwas opposed to the Tax laws(Amendment) Bill 2012 and the committeehad passed the recommendations with amajority of four against two votes. Sheadded that the Senate is supporting thievesand dacoits to get away with the lawthrough this bill and is giving around threemillion corrupt people amnesty through it.As Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikhrose from his seat to move the motion forputting the recommendations of the SenateStanding Committee on Finance to theHouse for voting, it was the ANP memberswho decided to object and decided to stagea walk out from the House in protest to thevoting on the bill. The bill has already beenopposed by the ANP and they will notbecome part of the voting procedure onthis bill, said Senator Abdul Nabi Bangishof the ANP as he led his party members’walkout. it was evident later that thewalkout was pre-determined as itfacilitated the PPP to get therecommendations over the bill passed.Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of thePMl-Q followed, saying that his party wasopposed to the bill which violatedfundamental rights of the people ofPakistan. Taking part in the debate, leaderof the Opposition ishaq Dar expressedreservations over the bill, stating that therewere many flaws in the original bill whichwere rectified by the Senate StandingCommittee. He said that the bill meant atax amnesty scheme for “filthy rich” peopleand would also facilitate the tax evaders. Hesaid the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)should have brought all the 2.9 million taxevaders into the tax net but instead the FBRhad chosen a method to facilitate 2.7 taxevaders through amnesty scheme while onlytwo million would be brought under the taxnet through normal procedures. Defendingthe bill, Minister for Finance Abdul HafeezShaikh said that the Tax laws (Amendment)Bill 2012 would help broaden tax basefacilitating 2.7 million tax-evaders to bringinto the tax net for a life-time.

No one backsme exceptGod andlawyers: cJ

MONITORING DESK

Chief Justice of Pakistan iftikharMuhammad Chaudhry on Friday saidhe enjoyed backing of none butAlmighty Allah and lawyers of thecountry. Speaking at a ceremony inGujranwala, he said a decision toreopen the Kohistan video case wouldbe taken soon. The CJ said the judiciarywas informed about the killing ofrelatives of the boys who had appearedin a Kohistan dancing video. He saidthe people had reposed confidence inthe judiciary through the social media.Justice iftikhar said democracy wasrestored in the country due to thesacrifices rendered by lawyer.

blast kills twoin Peshawar

PESHAWAROnline

At least two people were killed in a blast inPeshawar on Friday, a private TV channelreported. According to police, the blasttook place in Peshawar’s suburban area ofSialkhor where a bomb was planted nearan electricity poll. The bodies were taken toa nearby hospital for medico-legalformalities.

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