aitzaz ahsan says ‘too strong’ judiciary

oversteps at timePAGE |15PAGE |02

Clinical aussies dashpakistan’s dream for Olympic medal

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Wednesday, 8 august, 2012 Ramadan 19, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 43 19 pages Lahore edition

Defiant PPP reaDy to face

ISLAMABADaGenCies

HE Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) leadership on Tuesdaydecided to fully resist all the newcenters of power confronting

parliament within the limits of lawand constitution.The decision was made in a meetingof senior PPP leaders and federalministers chaired by President AsifAli Zardari and Prime Minister RajaPervaiz Ashraf at the Presidency. Briefing journalists about themeeting, President’s SpokesmanSenator Farhatullah Babar said thatthe meeting discussed the currentsituation in the country with focus onpreparation for elections, overcomingenergy crisis and the legal challenges

before the government. He said thatthe president called upon the partyleadership to gear up preparations forthe future elections which thepresident emphasized would beheld on time in accordancewith the constitutionaland legal dictates andin consultation withcoalition partners.He said that theElection Commissionhad announcedcompletion ofelectoral rolls

high-level party meeting says legislation is parliament’ssacred duty and it will not compromise on this right

Continued on page 04

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Umar Ata Ban-dial on Tuesday said protests against unannounced loadshedding across the province were justified, as demon-strations against power outages continued in severalcities of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In his remarks during proceedings of petitionsagainst unannounced load shedding, Justice Bandialsaid in a city like Lahore, residents remained withoutelectricity and water for 18 hours a day and had no otheroption but to protest. The LHC CJ added that the gov-ernment was discriminating when it came to load shed-ding and officials sitting in air-conditioned offices had

no clue about the plight of the people. The LHC also di-rected for a load shedding schedule and the steps takento inform the public of the matter in the last six months.His remarks came as the electricity shortfall crossed4,000 megawatts on Tuesday.

According to a spokesperson for the Energy Manage-ment Cell, the production of electricity was 14,186MWwhile the demand was 18,192 MW. Officials of the LahoreElectric Supply Company said transformers in certain areastripped due to which production of electricity was affected.

Meanwhile, protests against prolonged unan-nounced load shedding continued in parts of Punjaband Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday, with residentsblocking roads and burning tyres to demand uninter-rupted power supply. Women and children in hun-

dreds held a rally outside the Mandi Bahauddin PressClub to protest against GEPCO for prolonged and un-scheduled power load shedding.

The protesters wielded cooking pans and sticks asthey chanted slogans against the authorities. They con-demned WAPDA and rulers for their complete failure toprovide electricity during Ramadan, especially at Sehrand Iftar timings, as promised earlier. Also, hundreds oftribesmen in Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziris-tan Agency, protested against power breakdown for thesecond consecutive day, demanding the government im-mediately restore power supply to the region. Hundredsof enraged protesters also protested in Mirali againstpower breakdowns. Protests were also staged in otherparts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Load shedding protests justified: LhC CJ

A banner displayed in Lahore’s Gawalmandi area on Tuesday. INP

ISLAMABADMuHaMMad azaM

The deadline given by the SupremeCourt to the prime minister to write aletter to Swiss authorities expires today(Wednesday) when the Supreme Courtresumes hearing in the NROimplementation case. The case will beheard by a five-member bench of theSupreme Court headed by Justice AsifSaeed Khan Khosa and comprisingJustice Ameer Hani Muslim, Justice IjazAfzal Khan, Justice Ijaz AhmadChaudhry and Justice Sheikh AzmatSaeed. The court had given an August 8deadline to Prime Minister Raja PervaizAshraf to write to Swiss authorities forreopening graft cases against PresidentAsif Ali Zardari. The government’sdefiance has already cost it a primeminister, when Yousaf Raza Gilani wassent packing by the apex court on June19 over charges of committing contempt

by defying court orders in the NROjudgment. The judiciary-executivetussle has left the country in a rut, withboth sides trying to outdo the other byclaiming supremacy over the other. The

government has time again taken thestance that parliament was the supremeauthority in the country and itsdecisions were unquestionable. Thegovernment also got a resolution passed

in favour of former PM Gilani in anattempt to safeguard him fromcontempt proceedings, but when thecalling came, there was no stopping thejudiciary from sending Gilani out ofoffice. Once the new PM was usheredinto office, the government got to workto devise ways not to let another PM bitethe dust. With parliament apparentlyacting as a mere stooge to the rulingelite, a new contempt law was passed bythe National Assembly making thepresident, PM, chief ministers,governors and ministers aboveaccountability by the apex court, even ifthey indulged in immoral criticism ofthe court with “good intentions”.However, the parliament’s supremacydid not last long when the SC struckdown the new contempt law on August3, only after 24 days in enforcement.

The SC action has again put the PPPin a tight spot as its PM heads to courttoday, leaving many to speculate his fate.

NAB says Ashraf, Gilani

involved in ‘illegal

appointment’ of Tauqir

Sadiq as OGRA chief ISLAMABAD

Tayyab Hussain

Officials of two investigation agencies onTuesday made startling revelations in theapex court, stating that the incumbent andformer prime ministers of the country wereinvolved in what they called “illegalappointment” of an officer due to whom theexchequer allegedly suffered a loss of Rs 82billion. Tauqir Sadiq is the brother-in-law ofPPP Secretary General Jahangir Badr. Hewas removed from the post of OGRAchairman for holding fake degrees andinvolvement in misappropriation of funds.NAB informed the apex court that incumbentPrime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, hispredecessor Yousaf Raza Gilani and cabinetdivision secretary Nargis Sethi were allegedlyinvolved in the illegal appointment of formerOGRA chairman Tauqeer Sadiq, due towhich the exchequer allegedly suffered a lossof Rs 82 billion. A three-judge bench headedby Chief Justice Iftikhar MohammadChaudhry was conducting contempt of courtproceedings in the Tauqeer Sadiq case.During the proceedings, NAB InvestigationOfficer Waqas submitted its report in thecourt regarding appointment of Sadiq.Waqas also briefed the court in detail aboutthe probe. The chief justice praised him,saying, “You are performing well.” He addedthat Waqas should be protected by theauthority chief as he had worked hard innational interest. The investigation officerinformed the Supreme Court that Ashraf waschairman of interview board while federalsecretaries Zafar Mehmood and Nargis Sethiwere members of the board that approvedthe illegal appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq.

All eyes on SC as PM’s letter deadline ends

Can’t keep her awayVeena Malik back withramadan show

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02News

Today’s

LookQuick

NeWS

Story on Page 05

cARTOON

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iNfOTAiNmeNT

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ppp busy in corruption, not serious about ending power crisis: nawaz 5 futuristic technologies that will never exist

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Adelegation of MuttahidaQaumi Movement(MQM) comprising ofDr Farooq Sattar, RazaHaroon, Wasay Jalil

and Iftikhar Randhawam, met thePakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) del-egation comprising Vice ChairmanPTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pres-ident Javed Hashmi and Informa-tion Secretary PTI Punjab AndleebAbbas at PTI’s office in Lahore.

Both the delegations exchangedviews on the current situation in thecountry in a frank, open and candidmanner. Dr Sattar conveyed themessage of their leader concerningthe internal and external dangersconfronting the country and theneed for all parties to sit togetherand find solutions that can save thecountry from this quagmire. He ex-pressed his special concerns on theconditions of the economy, energyand Balochistan.

Javed Hashmi from PTI statedthat dialogue with all political par-ties was an essential part of thedemocratic process and it must con-tinue with parties within and out-side the parliament. Shah

Mahmood Qureshi also welcomedthis process of reaching out to allparties for a national agenda but ex-pressed serious reservations on thekey issues in the country and gov-ernment’s sincerity in solving them.He said that he was glad to knowMQM had expressed those veryconcerns that PTI Chairman ImranKhan had been voicing for manyyears. He particularly pointed outthe grave situation of missing per-sons, Hazara killings in Balochistanand asked the MQM delegation toput pressure on the government totake it seriously.

Other issues under discussionwere the independence of judiciaryand the highly defamatory remarksof Faisal Raza Abidi. Qureshi alsopointed out the recent remarks ofRaza Rabbani on the rollback of18th amendment as an alarmingdisrespect of constitution by thepresent government. The PTI dele-gation requested the MQM delega-tion to ensure participation of allparties in the selection of the care-taker government to ensure freeand fair election.

The PTI delegation concludedthe meeting by saying they wouldconvey the discussions to their apexdecision making body.

No breakthrough asMQM meets PTIfor roundtable moot

ISLAMABADTayyab Hussain

Further split may hit the ranks of Pakistan Mus-lim League-Likeminded PML-LM as two of itsmembers were handpicked and appointed onTuesday against key offices in the party withoutany formal decision-making process.

Following internal bickering and maneuver-ing by the party Chairman Chaudhry HamidNasir Chattha, a new controversy may trigger asthe central leadership of the PML-LM has de-cided to appoint Iqbal Dar as secretary financeof the party while Riaz Mohammad Dogar asacting provincial president KP of the group. Thegroup is an off-shoot of the PML-Q and as yethas neither its manifesto nor the constitution de-spite parting ways from PML-Q in 2009. Noneof the office-bearers who took the decision tomake new appointments was authorized to doso as the party president has yet not delegatedpowers to doing so.

The appointments have been made in viola-tion of the Political Parties Act 2002. The grouphas made these appointments breaching theprerogative of the party president, Dr ArbabGhulam Rahim, who lives in self-exile thesedays. As per an official handout, the decisionswere taken during a meeting of the party at-tended by the party’s central leaders Salim Sai-fullah Khan, Humayon Akhtar Khan, KashmalaTariq and others. However, the party sourcesclaim that no such meeting was held and bothdecisions were imposed by Hamid Nasir Chatthaand Salim Saifullah Khan who had got theirhenchmen appointed against key posts.

The source said that Salim Saifullah Khanhad been instrumental in getting his crony ap-

pointed as KP president due to his political cloutin the party. These days, Saifullah heads theparty’s steering committee. “Neither there wasany meeting held here at the party’s central sec-retariat nor the matter was discussed at anyproper forum,” said a source, adding that the de-cision was made after Chattha threatened toleave the party if his close confidant, Iqbal Dar,was not accommodated.” The source said thatthe party’s central secretariat belonged to HamidNasir Chattha, which was bought by the funds ofthe PML-Junejo in late 1980s. Due to the samereason, Chattha was instrumental in getting thedecision as per his wish by the party’s decision-making individuals. However, the source said,no one was happy about these appointments asneither Dar was active in politics nor he enjoyedany support in his area. “Who knows Dar? Hecannot even win a union council election. But thereal party leaders are being ignored and leadersare dividing the party offices among them-selves,” asserted the source.

The group, which had support of aroundthirty lawmakers in the recent past, has alreadyshrunk to only five lawmakers – thanks to sup-port from Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim whosegroup enjoys support of three MNAs out of thetotal five. Those supporting Rahim includeArbab Zakaullah, Krishan Chand Perwani andGhulam Haider Samijo. Kashmala Tariq andHumayon Saifullah Khan are other two MNAssupporting the group. Most of the politicianspreviously associated with the group have eitherrejoined Chauhdry Shujaat-led PML-Q or havefound asylum in the Imran-led PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). The party’s SecretaryInformation Kashmala Tariq did not respond tothe repeated calls made at her cell phone.

Aitzaz says ‘toostrong’ judiciaryoverstepsat times

MOnITORIng DESk

PPP senior leader and prominent lawyerAitzaz Ahsan on Tuesday defended formerprime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani againsthis dismissal by the Supreme Court,saying the country’s judiciary was “toopowerful” and had at times overstepped itslimits. Talking to BBC, he said the SCcould not terminate a law that was passedby parliament with two-third majority.Aitzaz said there was no doubt thatdemocracy was strengthened when thechief justice of Pakistan took a standagainst General (r) Pervez Musharraf, butnow some Supreme Court decisions werebeing questioned and people werepointing fingers at these decisions. He saidthe Pakistan People’s Party would be ableto form the government after the nextelection as President Asif Ali Zardari hadgood experience of forming coalitiongovernments. He said the SC decisionshad blocked the way for Martial Law,adding that there was a tense powerstruggle ongoing in Pakistan.

Doctors strike in Quetta

for the seventh dayQUETTAaGenCies

Doctors continuedtheir strike for theseventh day onTuesday, as theirabducted seniorcolleague, Dr Ghu-lam Rasool, hasstill not been recov-ered yet. Doctors inBalochistan includ-ing Quetta, boy-cotted work inOPDs in all govern-ment and private hospitals, but attended patients in emergency and casualtywards. The call to strike came from Pakistan Medical Association (Balochis-tan) and other doctors’ organizations. According to the PMA, the strike willcontinue till Dr Rasool is recovered. Due to the closed OPDs in governmenthospitals and the non-availability of doctors, patients had suffered a lot.

Likeminded group facesfurther divisions

LaHore: Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader dr farooq sattar addresses the media after meeting with pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf leaders

shah Mahmood Qureshi and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi at the pTi office on Tuesday. ONLINE

g ‘Henchmen’ appointed against key posts

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03NewsediTORiAlTimes, they are a-changed:

cOmmeNT

Articles on Page 14

Keep up or let up?

dr Hasan askari rizvi says;The executive-judiciary conflict: Looking at the dynamics of the standoff.

syed Hassan belal zaidi says;

A Twit petition: For those of my readers who are not ‘down’ with Twitter, this is a pointlessread. Please check out Sabir Nazar’s excellent cartoon instead.

ARTS & eNTeRTAiNmeNT

Story on Page 12

BuSiNeSS

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SPORTS

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Kareena, imran to pair up for new flick apple won’t include youTube app in new mobile software Clinical aussies dent pakistan’s pride

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

CAn’t keeP her AwAy

Veena Malikback with Ramadan show

LAHOREsTaff reporT

The controversial Pakistani model-actor Veena Malik is back to hostHero TV show “Astaghfaar” which was called off after a barrage ofprotests on social media. The channel had previously decided not toon-air the show featuring Veena Malik due to a public outcry. “TV isfor the awaam. If the awaam does not want to see Veena Malik on thisRamadan show, then we will cancel it,” a member of the production

team was quoted as saying. However, now the channel has takenthe risk of airing the “Astaghfaar” show hosted by Veena Malik

in order to cover up the losses which they had to bear be-cause of dropping Malik. A four-

minute short clip is available onYoutube in which the actor is seenhosting the show along with a re-

ligious scholar. People are yet toreact but Ms. Malik is very excitedabout her comeback. She was

quoted as saying, “I am very happythat my show Astaghfar is going to be

on air. I thank Allah for giving me theopportunity to host this show. It is peo-

ple’s loves which has brought me back onthe show.”

nEWS DESk

Pizza Hut has withdrawn its all-you-can eatRamadan offer in Pakistan prompting howlsof fury from thousands of hungry familiesused to breaking their fast with plate afterplate of deep pan or thin crust, according toa report in The Telegraph.

Instead the chain said it wants to reduce“gluttony” by limiting customers to a singleregular pizza in its Ramadan Fiesta offer.

In previous years Pizza Hut restaurantswould be packed for the evening meal ofIftar, as diners starving from a day of fastingwould fill their bellies with pizza after pizzafor as little as £7 – a figure industry analystssaid was unsustainable.

Furious fast food fans have taken to so-cial media to complain at the new, cheaperdeal, which is still advertised as an “all-you-can” offer.

“Pathetic and a misleading deal. It’s onlyone regular pizza with bottomless Pepsi, not

all you can eat,” said one post on Pizza HutPakistan’s Facebook page.

Imran Khan, a student and regular cus-tomer at a branch in Karachi, said: “Theplace was always packed in the evening. Fora lot of people it had become a Ramadan tra-dition so this change is very sad.”

Marya Khan, of Pizza Hut Pakistan, saidthe offer was more in keeping with the spiritof the holy month of Ramadan.

“The former all-you-can-eat formatserved as an unrestrained invitation to glut-tony and waste, colliding with the very spiritof Ramadan,” she said.

“For those who do not consider Iftardeal as a means of just gorging after sunset,then the new Ramadan Fiesta offered byPizza Hut is a well-balanced and valuabledeal to enjoy finest pizza at a value price.”

Pizza Hut in Pakistan was one of manyfast food restaurants to have benefited froma move away from the traditional Iftar mealof spiced fruit salad, chickpeas and dates.

As an alternative, many people are turn-ing to Chinese buffets or burger joints al-though pakoras – vegetable or chicken

fritters - remain the most popular way tobreak the Ramadan fast, according to a re-cent survey by Gallup Pakistan.

Pizza Hut ditches all-you-can-eat Ramadan

offer to curb ‘unrestrained gluttony’

ISLAMABADaGenCies

PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)Chairman Imran Khan announcedon Tuesday that he would takePakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif to

the courts over his “false accusations” againstthe Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital.

Addressing a press conference in Islam-abad, Imran appealed to the chief justice tohear his case as soon as possible.

The PTI chairman said that he had chal-lenged Nawaz Sharif with 11 questions on Fri-day, but the PML-N chief had not respondedto any one of it. He said that unlike Nawaz hehad not set up factories for his own benefit,but created welfare institutions such asShaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospitaland NAMAL College.

He said that he had responded toChaudhry Nisar’s allegations by publiclyshowing the record of last 30 years’ tax re-turns, but that Nawaz had not responded toany of his allegation.

The PTI chief said that he had decided totake PML-N leader Khawaja Asif to court forleveling false allegations against the ShaukatKhanum Trust. He further said that he wouldtake all those individuals to court, includingChaudhry Nisar, who had made false accusa-tions against him. “The allegations were lev-eled in Ramazan as he (Khawaja Asif) knewthis is the time when Shaukat Khanum Trustcollects the majority of its donations. By hurl-ing these allegations, the life of patients has

been put injeopardy,”he said.

Imran said that he was still waiting forPML-N President Nawaz Sharif to answer theeleven questions he had raised. “Nawaz Sharifhides behind Khawaja Asif and ChaudhryNisar,” he said.

Imran announced that the ShaukatKhanum Trust was about to break ground onanother cancer hospital in Lahore, and wouldbuild one in Karachi if land was provided.

“Since the elections are nearing, they aregoing to target Shaukat Khanum MemorialHospital and Sita White in their campaigns tomalign my name. If he is truthful, then thecase should be dealt by the Supreme Court sothat the situation is made clear to the masses.”

Addressing the chief justice, he said thathe was not building “factories” with the dona-tion money, but was building institutions forthe people of Pakistan. He said that thebiggest responsibility of a politician was to se-cure public money and to spend it wisely.“Back in 1997, they ran the same campaignagainst me while I was abroad to collectfunds. Only I know how I had saved the hos-pital in a state of declining fund,” Imran said.He said that if his hospital fails to provide freetreatment to patients, the PML-N leaderwould accuse him of not providing the treat-ment despite asking for funds. On the otherhand, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif welcomedImran Khan’s decision to challenge his alle-gations in the court.

Imran vows totake PML-Naccuser to court

Ephedrine case: ANF moves

SC to put 14 accused on ECLISLAMABAD

app

The Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) has filed an application with the SupremeCourt, seeking direction for the Interior Ministry to place the names of 14 highprofile persons allegedly involved in the Ephedrine case on the Exit Control List(ECL). The application was submitted by Brigadier Fahim, the investigating of-ficer in the case. Through the application, the ANF requested the court to placethe names of Makhdoom Shahbuddin, Rasheed Juma, Khushnood Lashari, AliMusa Gilani, and others on the ECL. The ANF also requested the Interior Min-istry to place the accused on the ECL. During the proceedings of the case, theSupreme Court sought a written complaint from the ANF over the failure of theInterior Ministry to place known personalities under investigation in theEphedrine quota scandal on the ECL.

Aseefa to convincereluctant families aboutanti-polio vaccination

ISLAMABAD

app

Goodwill Ambassador for Eradication ofPolio Aseefa Bhutto Zardari on Tuesdaysaid that she was committed to eradicatingpolio from the country and would visitreluctant families to convince them to takethe anti-polio vaccination. In her remarksduring the meeting of National Polio TaskForce held under the chairmanship ofPrime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf at thePrime Minister’s Secretariat here, Aseefasaid it was one of the missions of hermother Shaheed Mohtarma BenazirBhutto, which she carried out with passion.Aseefa Bhutto said that the governmentwould leave no stone unturned in realizingBhutto’s dream. She said that MohtarmaBenazir Bhutto had started the campaignto eradicate polio from the country as sheconsidered the children of Pakistan to beher own. She said that the campaignagainst polio was not limited to anypolitical party but was a common cause ofcivil society and all political parties in thecountry. With regards to the fact thatTaliban were opposing this campaign, shetermed them as militants and reaffirmedthat “we will not allow this to happen. Wewill have a polio-free Pakistan”.

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MuLTan: punjab Chief Minister shahbaz sharif inspects new buses for the mass transit

system on Tuesday. onLine

News04

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

PARIS/PULI ALAM/kABULafp

AFrench soldierand around 10Taliban fight-ers were killedin an early

morning ambush and subse-quent firefight during a jointoperation on Tuesday withthe Afghan army in Kapisaprovince, officials said.

A statement from PrimeMinister Jean-Marc Ayrault’soffice said a French soldierdied and another waswounded “during a clash withinsurgents” and that thewounded soldier was ex-pected to survive.

The statement said thesoldiers were from the elite13th Chasseurs Alpin Battal-ion. The dead soldier was“part of an assistance team

advising Afghan units”, astatement from PresidentFrancois Hollande’s officesaid. The French military inParis said around 130 Frenchsoldiers came under small-arms and rocket-propelledgrenade attack at around 6amwhile securing an area near abridge outside Tagab village.

Chief-of-staff spokesmanBertrand Bonneau saidaround 10 Taliban were killedduring the firefight that fol-lowed the ambush and thatan Afghan soldier was alsowounded. Two woundedFrench soldiers were airliftedto Kabul but one died enroute, the military said.NATO bAse: Meanwhile, apowerful suicide truck bombexploded at a NATO militarybase south of Kabul on Tues-day, wounding three soldiersand at least 17 civilians,

Afghan police said.Just hours earlier, a Tal-

iban bomb killed nine peopleand wounded five when itstruck a minibus on the west-ern outskirts of Kabul, amidgrowing unrest in areas neigh-bouring the Afghan capital.

A spokesman for NATO’sInternational Security Assis-tance Force confirmed “therehas been an explosion outsidean ISAF facility in Logarprovince” and that sometroops were wounded.

“We have information thatISAF members were woundedbut it is our policy not to con-firm the number or conditionof the injured,” he said, addingthat the cause of the explosionwas under investigation.Provincial police chief GhulamSakhi Rogh Lewanai told AFP,“A truck loaded with explo-sives detonated at the coalition

forces’ camp in (the provincialcapital) Puli Alam city. So farwe have information that 17Afghan civilians and threeISAF soldiers have been in-jured.” Most of the civiliansworked at the base, he said.ISAF said the explosion wasoutside the base, near anAfghan bazaar. Taliban insur-gents claimed responsibilityfor the attack, some 70 kilo-metres south of Kabul.

“At around 9am one ofour mujahideen carried out asuicide truck bomb attack ona big US forces’ camp result-ing in many deaths and in-juries,” Taliban spokesmanZabiullah Mujahid said in atext message. PresidentHamid Karzai condemnedthe attack on the minibusnear the capital, saying ninepeople had been killed, up-dating an earlier toll of eight.

DONkey bOmb: Sepa-rately, a bomb strapped to adonkey by Taliban insurgentskilled an Afghan district po-lice chief and wounded threeothers, an official said on Tuesday.

The explosive-laden don-key was tied to a bridge nearthe gate of the local govern-ment headquarters inCharsada, in impoverishedcentral Ghor province, beforepolice chief Gul Ahmad ar-rived at work on Monday, theofficial said. “When the dis-trict police chief’s vehicle waspassing, the bomb was ex-ploded by remote control,killing the police chief on thespot,” provincial spokesmanAbdulhai Khatibi told AFP.

Three other policemenwere injured, he said, blaming the attack on Talibanmilitants.

which were on display and ad-vised the party leadership toensure that every MNA‚ MPAand ticket holder thoroughlychecked voter-lists so that noone was left out, and reportedany discrepancy to the ElectionCommission for rectification.

He asked party leaders toreach out to masses and ad-dress their problems. Thepresident said that holding ofnext general elections on timeat the end of the tenure by thepresent assemblies would beanother important milestonein the nation’s journey towardsstrengthening of democracyand further strengthening ofthe political process.

Zardari said that the PPPbelieves in the power of the peo-ple and has never been shy ofreverting to the people for en-dorsement of its policies. Hesaid that the party believed infree, fair and transparent elec-tions for which it was importantthat the electoral rolls should befree of errors and no eligiblevoter was left out of the list.

The spokesman said thatthe Minister for Water andPower Chaudhry AhmedMukhtar briefed the meetingabout the energy situation inthe country. The minister saidthat in view of the critical na-ture of the power issue andthe problems faced by thepeople, the repair work of thehigh voltage pylons in Muzaf-fargarh was done on war foot-ing and the disrupted powerrestored to the national grid.

He said that with necessary fi-nancial resources being put inplace for the fuel and ex-pected rise in water level ofthe dams, the power genera-tion would further improve.

The meeting was informedabout the progress with re-gards to implementation of thecabinet decision about zeroduty on the import of solarpanels. He said that solar basedenergy would significantly re-duce the pressure on the powersector. In addition to this, workon small dams in various partsof the country was also beingdone on priority basis.

Law Minister Farooq HNaek briefed the meeting on thelegal challenges and the strategyto confront them. The meetingexpressed satisfaction with thestrategy and determined to re-sist within bounds of law andconstitution. It said that the lawmaking was a sacred responsi-bility of legislature which wouldnot be abandoned at any cost.The meeting also reposed fullconfidence in President Zardariand Prime Minister Ashraf’sleadership.

Those who were presentduring the meeting includedamong others PPP ChairmanBilawal Bhutto Zardari, formerprime minister Yousaf RazaGilani, Amin Fahim, NaveedQamar, Rehman Malik, Sena-tor Farooq H Naek, Syed Khur-sheed Ahmed Shah, QamarZaman Kaira, Makhdoom Sha-habuddin, Ahmed Mukhtar,Senator Mian Raza Rabbani,Senators Jahangir Badar andSardar Ali Khan.

french soldier, 10 taliban killed in afghan firefight Defiant pppreaDy tO faCe

censured

Afghan defence

minister quits

He said Yousaf Raza Gilaniwas the prime minister at thetime, adding that they wereall involved in the appoint-ment. The chief justice re-marked that the court wouldprovide protection to the in-vestigation officer. He furthersaid the report reflected thatthe NAB chairman was notcomplying with court orders.

The court directed theNAB chairman to submit a re-port under his signature byAugust 13 regarding the im-plementation of judgmentpassed in the case, enquiringwhat steps had been takenagainst the persons who wereallegedly involved in the caseand progress made in the re-covery of alleged misappro-

priation of Rs 82 billion.The court had passed an

order nine months ago toprobe into the matter whenYousaf Raza Gilani was hold-ing the PM’s office.

The court observed that noaction had been taken so far ei-ther from OGRA or NAB on thejudgment. The judgmentshould be implemented in let-ter and spirit, the CJ remarked.

NAB Deputy ProsecutorGeneral Fozi Zaffar apprisedthe bench that a warrant forthe arrest of the ex-OGRAchief had been issued as hewas hiding in Lahore, but thePunjab Police IG was not co-operating for the arrest.

The court also directedSadiq to remain present inthe court during the next dateof hearing and adjourned theproceedings until August 13.

Continued fRom page 01

Continued fRom page 01

NAB says Ashraf, Gilani

g Truck bomber wounds soldiers at NATO base in logar province g donkey bomb kills Afghan police chief

DAMASCUS/BAgHDAD/AnkARAafp

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad held unannouncedtalks with a top envoy fromclosest ally Iran on Tuesdayas his troops engaged rebelsin fierce fighting in key bat-tleground city Aleppo.

Iran, which has voicedgrowing criticism of supportby the United States, Turkey,Saudi Arabia and Qatar forthe rebels fighting Assad’sforces, also sent its foreignminister to Ankara and astern letter to Washingtonholding them responsible forthe fate of 48 of its citizenskidnapped by the rebels.

Saeed Jalili, a top aide toIran’s supreme leader Ayatol-lah Ali Khamenei, wentstraight into his meeting with

Assad on his arrival fromneighbouring Lebanon, a dayafter Syria’s prime ministerabandoned the regime.

“The Islamic Republic ofIran believes in national dia-logue between all domesticgroups to be the solution, andbelieves foreign solutions arenot helpful,” Iran’s statemedia quoted him as sayingon arrival in Damascus.

“We hope to take an ef-fective step in regards to thisnew direction.”

In commercial capitalAleppo, fierce fighting be-tween troops and rebelsrocked several areas of thecity centre early on Tuesday,while the army also shelledrebel-held areas in the east,the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said.

The fighting killed at

least seven people, theBritain-based watchdog said.

Troops fought rebels inthe Bab Antakya, Aziziyeh,Bab Janin and Sabaa Bahratareas of central Aleppo andnear the Palace of Justice inthe west, it said.

Fighting also broke outfor the first time in theAshrafiyeh district in thenorthwest, Observatory di-rector Rami Abdel Rahmantold AFP. “Clashes broke outthere after rebels attacked amilitary post,” he said.

Aleppo has been bracingfor a threatened ground of-fensive by the army againstthe rebels, who say they con-trol around half of the city.

Nationwide, violencekilled at least 265 people onMonday, 182 of them civil-ians, making it one of the

deadliest days of the uprising,the Observatory said.

Now ex-prime ministerRiad Hijab was in neighbour-ing Jordan firming up hisplans after his shock defectionto the opposition, whichWashington said showedAssad’s regime was crumbling.

US National SecurityCouncil spokesman TommyVietor said Hijab’s defectionwas “just the latest indicationthat Assad has lost control ofSyria and that the momen-tum is with the oppositionforces and the Syrian people.”

Assad’s government puton a brave face. InformationMinister Omran al-Zohbisaid defections at whateverlevel would have no impact,implicitly acknowledging thepremier’s flight.

“Syria is a state of institu-

tions and the defection of indi-viduals, whatever their rank,does not change the policy ofthe state,” Zohbi told the offi-cial SANA news agency.

Iranian Foreign MinisterAli Akbar Salehi headed toTurkey to demand Ankara’sassistance in securing the re-lease of the Iranian hostagesamid growing concern fortheir fate following an uncon-firmed report by a rebelgroup on its Facebook pagethat three of them had beenkilled in shelling by Assad’sforces on Monday.

“Considering that the(rebel) Free Syrian Army —which claims to have ab-ducted the Iranian pilgrims —is backed by Turkey, the visitby the foreign minister aimsto warn and remind theAnkara government of its re-

sponsibilities in this matter,”the foreign ministry said.

Tehran delivered a simi-lar message to Washington ina letter transmitted throughthe US interests section of theSwiss embassy.

“Because of the UnitedStates’ manifest support ofterrorist groups and the dis-patch of weapons to Syria, theUnited States is responsiblefor the lives of the 48 Iranianpilgrims abducted in Damas-cus,” Deputy Foreign MinisterHossein Amir Abdollahianquoted the letter as saying.

Meanwhile, more than22,000 Iraqis have fled theviolence in Syria for theirhome country in less thanthree weeks, joining over12,000 Syrian refugees, a UNrefugee agency official said onTuesday.

ISLAMABADonLine

The Higher Education Com-mission (HEC) on Tuesdaysaid the PhD degree of Fed-eral Board of Intermediateand Secondary Education(FBISE) Chairwoman Sha-heen Khan was fake.

According to a private TV

channel, the HEC referredKhan’s case to a standingcommittee of the HECthrough a letter on Tuesday.

Khan was appointedFBISE chairperson in Sep-tember 2008 and had beenan employee of the HEC be-fore her appointment.

According to the HEC,Khan’s PHD degree was sent

to the University of Karachifor verification. However, theuniversity did not verify herdegree even after the end of deadline.

HEC officials said theissue would be taken up byprofessional and the Techni-cal Education Committee andher degree would remain‘fake’ until the confirmation.

ANP district

official killed

in mardanMARDAn

sTaff reporT

Unidentified gunmen killed amember of the districtcouncil of the ruling AwamiNational Party (ANP) HajiMohammad Jamal Khan inhis hujra in Dheri village on Monday. Sources said the threegunmen entered Jamal’shujra after iftar and startedfiring at him and killed himon the spot. Jamal was the brother of lateANP MPA Mohammad IqbalKhan from Katlang tehsil. The deceased’s brother,Mohammad Ashiq Khan toldpolice that he and his familyhad no enmity with anyoneand registered a firstinformation report (FIR) inKatlang police station againstthe unknown accused. Jamal was a known politicalfigure of the area andbelonged to Khuda-e-Khidmatgar family. Jamal’s funeral prayers wereoffered in Dheri Lakpani andwere attended by a largenumber of ANP officebearers, workers and peopleof the area. He was laid torest in his ancestralgraveyard. His Qul will beheld on Thursday in Dherivillage in tehsil Katlang.

FBISe chairwoman’s PhD degree fake: heC

Assad sees Iran envoy as troops battle Aleppo rebels

kABULafp

Afghanistan’s outgoing de-fence minister Abdul RahimWardak abruptly resigned onTuesday after parliament de-manded his ouster but Presi-dent Hamid Karzai kept himon in an acting capacity.The move by Wardak, whohas strong support amongAfghanistan’s Western allies,comes at a critical time asNATO prepares to pull itstroops out in 2014 and handresponsibility for the fightagainst Taliban insurgents to local forces.“In accordance with the deci-sion of parliament as thehighest legislative body, andwith permission of the presi-dency, I declare my positionas defence minister fin-ished,” Wardak told a newsconference.Karzai on Sunday accepted adecision by parliament todismiss Wardak and InteriorMinister Bismillah Moham-madi — his two top securityministers — but asked themto continue temporarily untilthey could be replaced.He said he would offer themother posts within govern-ment, without giving details.Parliament’s vote of no confi-dence on Saturday cameamid tensions with neigh-bouring Pakistan and in-creasing insurgent attacks.The lawmakers said the min-isters had failed in their han-dling of cross-border shellingbarrages blamed on Pakistanand other security issues in acountry facing an insurgencyby hardline Islamists.After similar moves againstother ministers in the past,Karzai has sometimes keptthem serving in an acting ca-pacity for several months.

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05

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

nEWS DESk

Gah, a farming community of 300 squat,mud-brick homes about 60 miles southwestof Islamabad, is the birthplace of IndianPrime Minister Manmohan Singh, but un-like its prodigal son, the fortunes of the vil-lage have awaiting an awakening.

According to a report carried by TheWashington Post, the publichealth center isin shambles and birds have taken refuge inthe corridors of the never-used boys’ highschool, while the women’s vocational centerhas also been always devoid of staff.

It said the government-designated“model village” status for Gah and the vil-lage was supposed to serve as a thrivingsymbol of unity between Pakistan and India.But it feels like a ghost town and an embod-iment of “fitful, frequently stalled efforts bythe two nations to settle their historical dis-putes”.

Last month, President Asif Ali Zardariinvited Singh to visit Gah in the latest roundof so-called “soft diplomacy” between thenuclear-armed countries.

The offer came as relations improvedslightly, at least on trade matters. India’s de-

cision last week to allow investments fromPakistani citizens and companies was takenas another sign of progress, but there hasbeen no lowering of the guard militarily byeither side, the paper said.

Singh had planned to come severalyears ago at the request of then-militaryruler Pervez Musharraf, who embraced apeace process with India in 2004, whenSingh assumed office.

“Under Musharraf, money flowed intoGah from Punjab government that wasdominated by Musharraf’s party, fundingroads, water projects and social service fa-cilities. Pakistan permitted a team of Indiantechnicians from an energy institute to cometo Gah to install solar-powered street lamps,lighting for homes and a hot-water systemfor the village mosque,” the report said.

But Singh’s visit was botched in 2007amid Pakistan’s political turmoil that led toMusharraf stepping down in 2008.

The Mumbai attacks in November2008 broke down all communication andstrained the bilateral relationship.

“Funds for Gah’s projects were cut. Al-ready-constructed schools and other facili-ties were never staffed,” the paper said.

Zardari’s renewed invitation, however,

revived hopes, and some lingering disap-pointments.

“We resent that there was no follow-through,” said Ghulam Murtaza, a 38-year-old primary school teacher told the paper,standing outside the shuttered health clinic.“As a result you see nothing here, and ithurts the poor people.”

His family donated land for the site ofthe boys’ high school, he said, when thePunjab government asked the communityfor help. “We kept our promises, and theyhave not. It’s all been a waste.”

To Abdul Khaliq, 51, a village leaderwho has long pushed for economic develop-ment, a visit by Singh would highlight ayearning among ordinary Pakistanis: “Wevery much want peace,” he said. “We believethat both countries need to sit together toresolve the issues, to spend more on the de-velopment side, not the defense side,” hetold the post. Zardari has proposed thatSingh come to Pakistan in November,around the birthday of a revered Sikh saint.He told Singh in a letter that the occasionwould “reinforce our mutual desire to pro-mote inter-faith and inter-religious har-mony”.

Zardari was following up on overture he

made to Singh in April, when the Pak-istani president went to India on apilgrimage to a Sufi saint’sshrine. That visit seems tohave played well in Gah,where people talk of a peace-ful pre-partition coexistenceamong Hindus, Sikhs andMuslims. “It was a bettertime,” said Murtaza, whosefather Muhammad, nowaged and ill, was aschoolmate of Singh’s.

“There was no dif-ference of religion orany other things,”Murtaza said, citing hisfather’s recollections.“Children played to-gether and went to eachother’s houses. There was no dis-crimination. There was coeducation.”

Murtaza said he no longer counted onthe country’s leaders to care. He looks toIndia — and to a native son of Gah.

“If Prime Minister Singh could visit,that would make a difference,” he said. “Thepeople here could tell him of our problems.That is our only hope.”

Pakistani birthplace of Indian PM yearns for him to visitg Once in line to become a ‘model village’, Singh’s birth-village now appears a ghost town with severe lack of facilities

LAHOREaGenCies

PAKISTAN Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) President Nawaz Sharifon Tuesday said the electricity cri-sis could be resolved with the willof the ruling Pakistan People’s

Party (PPP), but “it is busy in corruption andclash with the judiciary”, as his brother Pun-jab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said thatPunjab was being subjected to revenge byPresident Asif Ali Zardari.

Talking to a group of PML-N workersfrom Gujrat at his Raiwind residence, Nawazsaid the purpose of politics was to serve peo-ple, but the PPP and its allies had turned itinto a game of personal interests.

“The federal government has failed com-pletely to solve the problems of the people,and the masses would reject those pursuingthe ‘politics of corruption and personal inter-ests’ in the next elections,” he said, asking hisparty workers to start preparations for gen-eral elections after Ramadan. He said thePPP had never actually kept the resolution of

people’s problems on its agenda, adding thatthe PML-N was the “only party” with a man-ifesto to serve the people and take the coun-try on the path of progress.

He said the PML-N had got two oppor-tunities of ruling the country, and that itspoliticians had “worked hard” to deliver thebest however “anti-democratic forces” hin-dered the way to glory. Manwhile talking toreporters at his Multan office, Shahbaz

Sharif said the ongoing prolonged spells ofload shedding had ransacked the economyof Pakistan. On questions put up by PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman ImranKhan, Shahbaz said, “My son gave fairly sat-isfactory answers regarding Imran. Idon’t want to add anything.”

He said Punjab con-tributed Rs 11 billion to theNational Finance Commis-

sion (NFC) Award.“We can work sitting in tents instead of

AC rooms, as we aim to serve the countryand nation,” he asserted.

To a query regarding Multan fireworksblast, he said an inquiry was being con-

ducted and the cul-prits would be

given duepunish-

ment.

PPP busy in corruption, not serious

about ending power crisis: Nawazg Shahbaz accuses President Zardari of ‘taking revenge from Punjab’

Militants attack FCpost in Barkhan,arms recoveredin Chagai

QUETTAsTaff reporT

A checkpost of the Frontier Corps wasattacked in Barkhan, some 300 KMsoutheast of Quetta on Tuesday as FCBalochistan personnel recoveredweapons from Pak-Iran border.FC officials said the force personnelraided a place close to Iran border,Landi in Chagai district, some 600kilometers west of Quetta andrecovered three SMG rifles, twopistols and over 995 rounds. However,no arrest was made during the raid.Meanwhile, unidentified armed menattacked an FC checkpost in Dolwaiarea of Barkhan. However, no loss oflife was reported in the attack. Theattackers fled when FC personnelretaliated.A spokesman of the Baloch LiberationArmy, Azad Baloch, accepting theresponsibility for the attack on the FCpost, claimed that in the attack FCpersonnel were killed and three wereinjured. He claimed that in anotherattack on FC camp in Kohlu, five FCmen were killed and two were injured.However FC officials denied that theattack caused any damage.

Astore jail inmatesbreak free withpolice’s weapons

gILgITinp

All the prisoners in Astore District Jailescaped along with jail officials’ weaponsfollowing a strong protest inside theprison that injured one warden onTuesday. Officials said that of sixpolicemen deployed at Astore Jail, fourhad gone out to fetch water at the timewhen prisoners started protest. Theprotesting inmates soon overpowered theon duty two policemen, and escapedalong with their weapons. Following theincident, the Astore deputy commissionerordered increased security at all the entryand exit points of the district to arrest thefugitives. In an earlier incident, nineprisoners had fled from the prisons inDiamir and Astore after which thesecurity of all police stations and prisonshad been tightened.

Two killed inQuetta violence

QUETTAsTaff reporT

Two men were killed in twoseparate firing incidents inQuetta on Tuesday.Police officials said in the firstincident, armed men openedindiscriminate fire on Asadullah,a shopkeeper in Suranj GanjBazaar, killing him on the spot.Police said the victim wasresident of Pishin and the motivebehind his killing could be an oldenmity. In another incident,unidentified armed men gunneddown a medical representative.Police said Khuda-e-Nazar Rindwas on his way home whenarmed motorcyclists opened fireon him killing him on the spot.Police said the deceased belongedto Kharan district. Cases havebeen registered in both incidents.

PESHAWAR:

Citizens burn

tyres during a

protest

against

prolonged load

shedding on

Tuesday. InP

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seher

iftar 06:54

fiqah-e-hanfi fiqah-e-Jafria

03:55 seher

iftar 07:04

03:45

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

LAHOREsTaff reporT

ANOTHER 7,635 volunteershave been registered inthe remaining 19 districtsof Punjab, raising theirnumber to 12,851 in 34

districts of the province for the PunjabYouth Festival.

These volunteers will assist the gov-ernment and other officials of the Pun-jab Youth Festival 2012 in theorganisation of different sports andother events. The details of these peoplehave also been sent to the district andtehsil sports officials of the province toform different committees for the hold-ing of the Punjab Youth Festival 2012 ina befitting manner.

The festival that will start in the lastweek of August would involve people ofdifferent segments and competitionswill be held at general public, elemen-tary and secondary schools, college anduniversity, engineer and several otherlevels, said Sports Board Punjab Direc-tor General Usman Anwar.

In sports sectors there would becompetitions in arm-wrestling, athlet-ics, Badminton, Basketball, Billiard andSnooker, Chess, Cricket tape ball andhardball, Football, Tug of War, Volley-ball, Bodybuilding, Hockey, Weightlift-ing, Kabaddi, Mat wrestling, Mudwrestling, Table Tennis, karate,Rugby, Taekwondo, Tent peg-ging, Gymnastic, Basketballand Swimming, he added.

He further said that thegeneral public will be given anopportunity to show their skills incompetitions like Cooking, Horti-culture, Mushaira, Naatkhani, Petscompetition, Photography, Qirat,Songs, Debates, Dress designing/stitch-ing, Handicraft, Painting, Calligraphy,Gardening, Street Art, Drama/Shortfilm, Theatre, Culture Modelling, EssayWriting and Science Models.

He said that in 19 remaining dis-tricts the volunteers registered in At-tock are 27, Bahawalpur 253, Chakwal18, DG Khan 374, Faisalabad 534, Gu-jranwala 1274, Hafizabad 140,Khanewal 585, Khushab 228, Layyah

246, Lodhran 297, Mandi Bahaud-din 227, Multan 260, Rahim YarKhan 264, Rajan Pur 715,Rawalpindi 1428, Sahiwal 182,Sargodha 570 and Vehari 245.

He said that earlier 5,016 volun-teers were registered in 15 districtswith Narowal having 85 registra-tions, Sialkot 171, Gujrat 178, Okara114, Sahiwal32, Pak-

pat-tan 155, Chiniot 174, Muzaffargarh 105,Toba Tek Singh 18, Jhang 81, Kasur316, Bahawalnagar 1,546, Bhakkar 912,

J h e l u m388, Nankana Sahib 447 andSheikhupura 294.

“These volunteers will form dif-

ferent committees under the supervi-sion of district and tehsil sports offi-cials so that the festival is conductedin a proper and smooth manner,” hesaid.

He further said that copy of thevolunteers details have also been sentto the CM secretariat while SportsBoard Punjab Chairman Mian HamzaShahbaz Sharif and Deputy Speaker

Punjab and Organizing CommitteeChairman of the Festival Rana Mash-hood Ahmed Khan.

youth FeStIvAl 2012

g Punjab gears up for mega-event thatwill bring the youth together

Over 7,000 young people to volunteer

LAHOREMoniTorinG desK

Most of the traffic signals in the city were out of order,including 38 signals on the most important junctions,City42 reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, 38 of the most importanttraffic signals in the city had not been working for thepast month and the traffic wardens had no other op-tions but to direct traffic themselves in places includingMall Road, Jail Road and Ferozepur Road.

CTO Dr Usman said that in spite of several writtenrequests to NEPA, no positive response had been re-ceived, as a consequence of which the city traffic man-agement system remained abysmal and ineffective.

The CTO said that he even wrote a letter to the DCOabout the problem but nothing happened.

Areas where the signals did not work includedGarhi Shahu, Crown Cinema, Mayo Gardens, SultanChowk, Dharampura, Model Town Link Road, ChinaChowk, Faisal Town round about, and other 26 impor-tant signals on different roads.

PTi will prevail:Aleem Khan

LAHOREaGenCies

Leader of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Abdul Aleem Khan saidthat the people of Pakistan havesupported and donated toShaukat Khanum Hospital andthey would also safeguard it.He was addressing an Iftarparty at Gondal Chowk. WaleedIqbal, Abdul Karim Kehlwaar,Ameen Zaki, Chaudhry Moham-mad Riaz, ex-Nazims, NaibNazims and several others par-ticipated in the Iftar reception.Aleem said that those tryingto defame PTI and ImranKhan for polit ical gain wouldnever succeed. He said that those who had ledthe country into darkness forthe past 64 years were againtrying to misguide the masseswith new slogans. He said that PPP and its allieshad failed to resolve main is-sues affecting the commonman. He said that all the en-ergies of the government werebeing utilized to battle the ju-diciary, which was actuallytrying to save the looted na-tional exchequer.

MOnITORIng DESk

A 40-year-old man died due to electrocution in the Shadbagh re-gion, causing people to protest on Tuesday, City42 reported.

According to the channel, 40 year-old Akram, a father of fourand resident of Pamay Chugiyan in Shadbagh, was going to hishouse, where he received an electric shock from live electricitywires lying in an empty plot of land and died on the spot.

When locals discovered the body, they took it to his houseand called the police and LESCO officials, but no one reachedthe spot.

Locals began protesting against the police and LESCO officials,after the protest the police reached the location and negotiated withthe protesters and filed an FIR against SDO Ali Raza and line Superin-tendent Noman. The police handed over the dead body to the familymembers after completing the investigation.

traffic signals out of order across the city

LAHOREinp

A robber was killed on Tuesday while his accomplice managed to es-cape in an exchange of fire with the police. According to reports, the police was chasing two robbers who fleeingafter snatching a motorcycle from a citizen near Home Economics Col-lege and had opened fire at the police.In retaliatory firing one robber identified as Tanwir was killed on thespot while his accomplice managed to escape. Arms were also recov-ered from the killed robber.It should be mentioned that it was the third police encounter in threedays during which three robbers have been killed.

Man dies because of live electricwires lying in the open

robber killed in fire exchange

LAHOREapp

Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on Tues-day announced that it will execute 9 develop-ment projects in various localities of the city at acost of Rs1.104 billion

This announcement came at a meeting ofthe LDA governing body chaired by DistrictCoordination Officer and LDA ChairmanNoor-ul-Amin Mengal.

The purpose of these projects is to im-prove the physical infrastructure of theprovincial metropolis.

It was agreed in the meeting to give a greensignal to the construction of a two kilometer long

road from E Block Johar Town to Doctors Hos-pital at a cost of Rs 235.32 million. The govern-ing body also approved the widening andimprovement of Khayaban-e-Jamia Punjab fromBhekwal Junction to Campus Canal Bridge at acost of Rs 93.74 million

Improvement and carpeting of the roadbetween Liaqat Chowk and Kharak DrainSabzazar Scheme was approved with thebudget of Rs 35 million.

The meeting also decided to adopt the Pun-jab Finance Department notification regardinggrant of adhoc relief allowance-2012 at 20 per-cent of basic pay to civil servants of the Punjabgovernment and another notification regardinggrant of increase in pension to civil pensioners.

LDA approves 9 projects to improve city infrastructure

fiTs: a shopkeeper displas a huge khusa to attract customers to his shop in Texali Gate. ONLINE

LHR 08-08-2012_Layout 1 8/8/2012 1:55 AM Page 6

07Lahore

ciNe STAR THe AmAZiNG SPideRmAN 03:00 PmPH: 35157462 cOcKTAil 09:00 Pm

cOcKTAil 11:30 PmTHe dARK KNiGHT RiSeS (fRidAY AuG 10) 12:00 AmTHe dARK KNiGHT RiSeS (SATuRdAY AuG 11) 09:00Pm THe dARK KNiGHT RiSeS (SuNdAY AuG 12) 12:00Am

ciNe GOld ROWdY RATHORe 12:30AmPH: 35340000 ROWdY RATHORe 06:30 Pm

cOcKTAil 9:00 PmTHe AmAZiNG SPideRmAN 1:00 PmTHe AmAZiNG SPideRmAN 3:30 Pm

SOZO WORld cOcKTAil 09:00 PmPH: 36674271 BOl BAcHAN 08:30 Pm

cOcKTAil 11:30 PmmAdAGAScAR 3 04:45 Pm

SOZO GOld BOl BAcHAN 12:00 Pm, 03:00 PmPH: 36674271 cOcKTAil 09:30 Pm, 11:30 Pm

cOcKTAil 12:30 Pm, 03:30 Pm

LAHOREonLine

PAKISTAN Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Cen-tral Senior ViceChairman and for-mer foreign minis-

ter Makhdoom ShahMehmood Qureshi on Tues-day said that the governmentshould avoid confrontationwith judiciary and it can de-rail democracy and furthercould harm the country.

The PTI leader while

addressing press conference at theresidence of Chaudhry NoorAhmad Sarra, strongly criticisedthe PPP-led coalition governmentand said that the government wasdeliberately ready to confrontwith the judiciary.

He claimed that everythingthat the government was doingwas meant to just provide protec-tion to corrupt President Asif AliZardari but PTI would not allowsuch a thing. He demanded thatthe government should immedi-ately hold elections while there isno need to hold local bodies polls

at this time. Commenting on theallegations made by PML-N onImran Khan and ShaukatKhanum Hospital, said that bythis N-league expressed theirmeanness.

Qureshi said that it was anhistoric decision to declare nulland void the contempt of courtlaw which was enacted in hurryand on to pursue personal inter-ests .The basic purpose of this lawwas to protect the present corruptleadership.

The former foreign ministersaid the foremost task of the par-

liament was legislation, howeverthe parliament cannot legislateany law that would confront withthe constitution, moreover the ju-diciary’s job was to interpret thelaw. PTI leader Ch Saadat Nawaz,Kanwar Imran Saeed Advocate,former Parliamentary SecretarySardar Kamil Omer, former Dis-trict nazim Chaudhary TawaqalAllah work, Chaudhary ShafqatAli Gujar, Chaudhary Faiz ur Ra-sool Gujar, Chaudhary MurtazaVirk, Sardar Asif Dogar and otherleaders were also present on theoccasion.

Govt-judiciary tussle can harmcountry, says Qureshi

LAHOREapp

Common use of short messaging service(SMS) and internet sources have re-duced use of traditional Eid cards andhave affected the industries that havebeen producing these cards for specialoccasions. “Email was a blow to Eidcards and SMS signed their death war-rants,” one shopkeeper said.

After a slump in the Eid card indus-try, hundreds of shopkeepers havechanged their profession as all elec-tronic means of communication arecheaper, save time and hence more con-venient for the general public who arenow unwilling to visit marketplaces tosearch for the right Eid cards.

Shopkeepers in Anarkali, Urdu

Bazaar and Shah Alam Market saidthere has been a significant reduction inthe Eid cards sale which is below 80 percent as compared to sales few years ago.

Shopkeepers of Anarkali said thatthe Eid card industry has seen a down-fall in recent years. They said SMS pack-ages and price hike of basiccommodities were the main cause of thepoor sales of Eid cards.

One shopkeeper at Shah Alam Mar-ket said that he opened his stall dailyfrom 10 am to 12 am but his sale of Eidcards was less than Rs 1000. He saidValentine’s Day cards are still in greatdemand in this age of mobile phones.

“Three days of selling Valen-tine’s Day cards bring us moreprofit than we earn in 30 days forselling Eid cards,” he added.

LAHOREaGenCies

Secretary General Jamaat-e-Is-lami, Liaquat Baloch has said

that the government’s plan tobattle it out with the judiciarywould be foiled by the parlia-mentarians themselves.

Members of the parlia-ment from the ruling

parties as well as theopposition will

never sign thedeath warrantfor democ-racy andthose tryingto disgrace

the judiciary would be singled out, he said, while addressingan Iftar dinner on Tuesday. He said that the federal and theprovincial governments had failed miserably and fresh elec-tions were the only way to improve the situation and givenew hope to the masses, and added that transparent andimpartial elections would guarantee national security.

Liaquat said that nature had blessed the country withabundant resources but corruption and bad governance bythe rulers had set it on the path to destruction.

He stressed upon these governments to take solid andquick measures to solve the energy crisis, as artificial stepscould not boost the industry, agriculture and trade in thepresent situation. Concrete measures should also be takenfor the security of life, property and honor of the masses,especially businessmen and industrialists, he added.

The Liaquat underlined the need to strengthen faith, es-pecially during the month of Ramadan, and said that thiscould help solve all problems of the Ummah and set theMuslim world on the road to progress and prosperity.

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Provincial Minister for LawRana Sanaullah on Tuesdaysaid that Dost MuhammadKhosa had been disgruntledfrom the day his ministrywas changed.

Sanaullah said that dur-ing the tenure of DostMuhammad Khosa as minis-ter, an advance payment ofapproximately Rs 2 billionwas made on a project meantfor provision of drinkablewater in the province.

He said that due to non-transparency in the processof this advance payment,local government secretaryand project director, at thattime, were transferred, whilethe portfolio of Dost Khosawas changed.

He claimed that media-based protest move by DostKhosa is contrary to thefacts, and is just an expres-sion of his anger.

He said that Dost Khosashould take follow the leadof his father, Sardar ZulfiqarKhosa, and register hisprotest by remaining withinparty discipline.

Sanaullah explained thatPunjab Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif is the best admin-istrator and an asset for theparty.

Promotion of merit-basedculture, at every level,throughout the province, andsetting up of examples oftransparency in the develop-ment projects by the chiefminister is the hallmark ofthe Punjab government, heconcluded.

FOLLOW THELEADER!

LAHOREaGenCies

Speakers at a function said thatPakistan had not been createdout of the blessings of the Eng-lish emperors, but came intoexistence because due to thehectic efforts of Quaid-e-Azamand workers of the PakistanMovement.A ceremony was held in con-nection with the IndependenceDay of Pakistan at the GirlsGuide House, which was ad-dressed by Zulfiqar Hussain,Consultant anti -narcotics cam-paign and Sana Badar, pro-gram coordinator.The speakers were of the viewthat English emperors did notin particular, favor the Muslimsof the sub-continent which waswhy they had deprived them oftheir rights; they had createdevery possible hurdle in theway of Pakistan’s formation asan independent state. They mentioned that LordMountbatten, soon after thecreation of Pakistan, admittedto BBC during an interview thathe had strived hard to avoidpartitioning the sub-continent,but it was Mr Jinnah whose un-tiring efforts and dedicationhad forced them to accept Pak-istan.The Speaker urged people to fol-low Quaid-e-Azam and makePakistan stronger and invincible.

MOnITORIng DESk

Samosas worth Rs 200 cost Rs200,000 to the police department onTuesday, City42 reported.

According to the channel, a sen-ior official in the government whowas very fond of Samosas chargedthe police department Rs 200,000in getting Samosas delivered to him.Officials gave Rs 200 to the driverto bring Samosas from a shop atLakshmi Chowk.

The driver told the official that

the road was blocked and floodeddue to heavy rainfall but the officialforced him to bring Samosas re-gardless.

The driver took a Vigo double-cabin with registration number LEG5003, which is used only for the se-curity of high officials, and went tobuy Samosas, when the car gotstuck in the heavily flooded andjammed Lakshmi Chowk, causingthe engine to seize.

The channel’s sources said that carrepairs could cost up to Rs 200,000.

Govt’s plan for a clash with judiciary to be foiled byparliamentarians themselves, says Liaquat Baloch

Gone are the dayswhen people sent eid cardsg internet, SmS take over the traditional wayof greeting on eid by sending eid cards

For the love of Samosas!

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

‘Dost Khosa is angry becausehis ministry was changed’

LaHore: akhbar farosh union president Chaudhry nazir, Vice president Waris ali naqvi, General secretary babar yaseen, Joint secretary Malik imtiaz, information secretaryChaudhry farooq, finance secretary Malik Tanveer and news agent naziruddin photographedwith pakistan Today editor arif nizami and Chief operating officer babar nizami at an iftardinner hosted by pakistan Today at The avari on Tuesday. STAFF PHOTO

LHR 08-08-2012_Layout 1 8/8/2012 1:55 AM Page 7

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Tuesday, 7 August, 2012

ISLAMABADsTaff reporT

We all know that honey is deli-cious. It is perfect for sweet-ening tea, pouring over Greekyogurt and combining withpeanut butter for an easy

sandwich. For thousands of years, honey hasbeen used all over the world and in just aboutevery culture.

A toast with honey. That is a perfect wayto start your day. Apart from its great taste,honey has lots of health and nutrition bene-fits. Honey is a great natural source of carbo-hydrates which provide strength and energyto our bodies. If you are suffering from fa-tigue, then honey can help you a lot. Honeyis known for its effectiveness in instantlyboosting the performance, endurance and re-duce muscle fatigue of athletes. The glucosein honey is absorbed by the body quickly andgives an immediate energy boost. It is knownthat honey has also been found to keep levelsof blood sugar fairly constant compared toother types of sugar. So, it’s time to includehoney in your diet.

Now, scientists have found a substance inhoney that is crucial for the health of beesand that may explain the use of the sweetfood throughout history as a folk medicine.

Tobias Olofsson and Alejandra Vásquez,researchers at the Department of Medical Mi-crobiology at Lund University in Sweden,have discovered the importance of a bacterialgroup called the lactic acid bacteria (LAB), sonamed because they produce lactic acid astheir main end product.

LAB contribute to the health of the bee it-self and produce the healing effect of honey.

“We made this discovery. Honey actuallycontains millions of beneficial lactic acid bac-teria that none have ever seen before. Thebacteria live in symbiosis with the honeybeein their honey stomach. They are used by thehoneybee to protect the nectar that becomeshoney. They are also used to protect them-selves and their larvae from diseases. It’s abig part of the immune system of the honey-bee,” Olofsson says.

Wild fresh honey has been used by manydifferent cultures for thousands of years for

its health benefits and as a therapeutic agent.It is used as a cure for sore throats andwounds healing, for example.

Olofsson believes it could be used as anatural antibiotic alternative, not only forbees but also for humans.

Since the 1970s, scientists have foundthat honeybee communities have declinedworldwide. They call this phenomenon“colony collapse disorder.”

In recent years they have observed adrastic increase around the world, and scien-tists offer different reasons. Olofsson believesthat beekeepers are responsible for the situ-ation.

“Commercial beekeepers give the beessynthetic food all the time, and antibioticsthree or four times a year. We have come toa place where we can’t treat them anyworse,” he said.

The mature honey that is sold in stores,with less than 20 percent water content, doesnot contain the viable, beneficial bacteriafound inside the honey crop, a special part ofthe insect’s body used for honey production,Vásquez and Olofsson write in an article pub-lished in Microbiology Today.

Today, the only way to obtain honey withhealthy LAB is by collecting honey in the wild,which can be dangerous, or by getting freshhoney directly from beekeepers.

n From healing wounds to curing depression and anxiety, scientistskeep discovering the wonders of this miraculous product of nature

Moisturizing skin: Honey helps absorb water and retain it in hair and skin.

Combine it with milk for a facial, add it to your bath to soften skin, or mix it

with olive oil as a natural hair conditioner. Add sea salt or crushed oats to

honey and rub it on your skin for a fabulous exfoliator.

Leveling blood sugar: Dr. Duncan says, “Instead of consuming refined sugars

and high fructose corn syrup … opt for an all-natural boost of honey.”

Improving sleep and relaxation: The natural sugar found in honey raises our

insulin slightly and allows tryptophan to enter our brains more easily. Dr.

Duncan suggests taking a spoonful of honey before bed to sleep better.

Cure for throat infection: One of the better known health benefits of honey is

that it is able to help treat sore throats honey not only soothes throats but

can also kill certain bacteria that causes the infection.

n As a drizzle

for desserts such as

pudding, pancakes, ice-

cream, oats and corn

flakes.n As a sweetener for

your tea, coffee,

or smoothie recipes.n As a seasoning for

barbecue spare ribs or

chicken wings before

cooking.n As a salad dressing

with olive oil and vinegar

for the extra body.n As a morning snack

START uSINg HONEY IN YOuR

mEAlS STRAIgHTAWAY

BENEFITS OF HONEY

LHR 08-08-2012_Layout 1 8/8/2012 1:57 AM Page 8

09Foreign News

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

OAk CREEkafp

POLICE are investi-gating the whitepower ties of the for-mer US soldier whogunned down six peo-

ple at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin,while the close-knit Indian-American community mournedits dead.

Wade Michael Page, 40, burstinto the temple with a 9mmhandgun and several magazinesof ammunition — all of which hadbeen purchased legally — andopened fire on worshippers at-tending a Sunday service, author-ities said.

Special Agent Teresa Carlson,head of the Federal Bureau of In-vestigation’s Milwaukee office,said Monday the suspect — killedat the scene during a shootoutwith police — was now the subjectof a “domestic terrorism” probe.

“We are looking at ties towhite supremacist groups,” she

told reporters, noting that theFBI did not have an active file onPage before the incident.

“No law enforcement agencyhad any reason to believe he wasplotting anything,” she said.

But the Southern Poverty LawCenter, a civil rights group,branded Page a “frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of aracist white-power band,” and theSITE Intelligence Group said hewas an active skinhead. A formerarmy buddy, Christopher Robil-lard, told CNN that Page had spo-ken of “racial holy war, like hewanted it to come,” but addedthat he never thought the sus-pected gunman would act on it.

Page was a member of theHammerskins Nation, a groupthat describes itself on its websiteas a “leaderless group of men andwomen who have adopted theWhite Power Skinhead Lifestyle,”SITE said in a report.

Page “engaged in extensiveonline activity” and maintaineduser accounts on “some of the

most prominent white suprema-cist forums,” SITE said, addingthat he issued messages “urgingactive resistance ‘regardless ofthe outcome.’”

The Southern Poverty LawCenter said the ex-soldier had re-cently been the leader of thethree-man hardcore punk band“End Apathy.”

Photographs of the band onits Myspace webpage(myspace.com/endapathyband)showed Page with a shaved headand Gothic tattoos all over hisbody.

Page served as a US military“psychological operations spe-cialist” between April 1992 andOctober 1998, ending his careerat the base at Fort Bragg, NorthCarolina, home to the US Army’sairborne forces and Special Oper-ations Command.

He was a qualified para-chutist who received several goodconduct awards and a NationalDefense Service Medal, but neverwon significant promotion.

US probes Sikhtemple shooter’swhite power links

WASHIngTOnafp

Republican presidential hopefulMitt Romney raked in more than$100 million in fundraising inJuly, widening the cash advan-tage he enjoys over PresidentBarack Obama, who garneredover $75 million.

The presumptive Republicannominee pulled in $101.3 millionfor his campaign and the Repub-lican National Committee, theRomney camp said in a state-ment exactly three months beforeAmericans go to the polls.

Romney and the RNC nowhave around $185.9 million ofcash on hand to throw into cam-paign advertising and grassrootsget-out-the-vote efforts in the in-tense final months of the cam-paign to deny Obama re-electionin November.

Obama, once the championfundraiser, was outpaced for thethird straight month by Romney.His camp revealed its own Julyfundraising numbers on Twitter,saying the president had mademore than $75 million from

761,000 donors. The president’scampaign spokeswoman JenPsaki told reporters on Air ForceOne that Obama always expectedto be outraised by Romney, butsaid the focus was on buildingthe biggest grass roots politicalcampaign in history.

“We know we’re going to beoutspent. That’s a reality,” shesaid. “We know they may have

more resources on the air, but wehave a message and a plan thatwe think is going to translate bet-ter for middle-class voters andpeople who are deciding in No-vember who they want to sup-port.” The president was alreadygetting to work on his Augustfundraising figures on Monday,with two campaign fundraisers inConnecticut.

$100 million Romneyoutraises Obama

sTAmFORD: US President Barack Obama joked Monday thathis election foe Mitt Romney’s tax plans would rob from themiddle class to help the rich — “like Robin Hood in reverse.”Obama intensified his attacks on the Republican’s tax reformplans at a fundraising event in Connecticut, on a day when itwas revealed his rival outraised him by $25 million last monthin campaign fundraising. “It’s like Robin Hood in reverse.... it’sRomney Hood,” Obama said, arguing that the middle classwould bear the brunt of his opponent’s plans which he saidwould mostly benefit the wealthy. “If this sounds like an ideathat’s difficult to explain or sell to the American people, youwould be right,” Obama said. “They have tried to sell us thistrickle down, tax cut fairy dust before.” afp

obama slams romney as‘robin hood in reverse’

RIYADHafp

Saudi Arabia accused authorities inBuddhist-majority Myanmar on Mon-day of “ethnic cleansing” against theMuslim Rohingya minority in the westof the country, state media reported onTuesday.

The Saudi cabinet said it “con-demns the ethnic cleansing campaignand brutal attacks against Myanmar’sMuslim Rohingya citizens, as well as vi-olation of human rights by forcingthem to leave their homeland,” in astatement carried by the official SPA

news agency.The cabinet, chaired by King Ab-

dullah, urged the “international com-munity to take up its responsibilities byproviding needed protection and qual-ity of life to Muslims in Myanmar andpreventing further loss of life.”

Fighting in western Rakhine statebetween Buddhist Rakhine and MuslimRohingya has killed 80 people sinceJune, with three killed on Sunday, agovernment official in Yangon said.

The violence initially broke out fol-lowing the rape and murder of aRakhine woman and the subsequentlynching of 10 Muslims by a crowd of

angry Buddhists.The bloodshed has cast a shadow

over widely praised reforms by Presi-dent Thein Sein, that have included therelease of hundreds of political prison-ers and the election of oppositionleader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.

New York-based Human RightsWatch has accused Myanmar forces ofopening fire on Rohingya, as well ascommitting rape and standing by asrival mobs attacked each other.

The Saudi-based Organisation ofIslamic Cooperation on Sunday pro-posed sending an OIC mission to probethe “massacres” of Rohingya Muslims.

Saudi accuses myanmar of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of muslims

British police arrest Sun

journalist, policemanLOnDOn

afp

Police arrested a journalist from Rupert Murdoch’s top-selling British tabloid The Sun and a policeman onTuesday for alleged corruption, Scotland Yard and thejournalist’s employer said. London’s Metropolitan Policesaid the male journalist, 37, and the policeman, 29, hadbeen arrested in dawn raids over the suspected bribery ofa police officer. It did not name either man. Aspokeswoman for News International, the Britishnewspaper wing of Murdoch’s US-based NewsCorporation empire, confirmed that the journalistworked for The Sun but would not name him. The pairwere detained under Operation Elveden, one of threeinvestigations sparked by the phone-hacking scandal thatclosed the News of the World, The Sun’s weekly sisterpaper, last July. There has been a string of recent arrestsof Sun journalists. Police said the latest arrests came as aresult of information provided to police by theManagement Standards Committee of NewsCorporation, which was set up to investigate malpracticeat the media giant. The journalist was arrested at hisnorth London home while the policeman, a servingofficer with Sussex Police in south-east England, wasarrested at his home. Both are in custody at Londonpolice stations, Scotland Yard said.

Bahrain policemanhurt in petrolbomb attack

DUBAIafp

A Bahraini policeman was injured whenhis patrol was petrol-bombed in a villagewhere Shiites frequently stage protestsand clash with security forces, the BNAstate news agency said on Tuesday. Itsaid a policeman “suffered medium burnsin several parts of his body when a groupof terrorists attacked” his foot patrol inBani Jamra late on Monday, adding thatthe assailants threw Molotov cocktails.“The injured policeman was rushed tohospital to undergo treatment,” it quoteda police official as saying. “Police havelaunched an investigation to identify theperpetrators and bring them to justice.”The authorities often accuse Shiiteprotesters in the Gulf kingdom of usingpetrol bombs against security forcesduring demonstrations in villages outsidethe capital Manama.

4 Qaeda militants killed in Yemen raidssANAA: Yemeni forces gunned down two Al-Qaeda militants in a raid on their southern hideout early on Tuesday,hours after drone strikes killed two others in the centre of the country, officials and tribesmen said. The army backedby militiamen “raided a house where Al-Qaeda militants were hiding” in Jaar, prompting a firefight in which “twomilitants were killed and three others were arrested,” Mohsen bin Jamila, an official in the region, told AFP. Abdullatifal-Sayed, who leads the militiamen known as the Popular Resistance Committees, was wounded during the earlymorning clashes, the official said. Jaar, which the army recaptured from the jihadists in June with the help of themilitiamen, was the site of a suicide attack on Saturday in which 45 people were killed. Closer to Sanaa in Baydaprovince, two drones targeted Al-Qaeda positions, killing two other militants among them a local leader of the networkidentified as Abu Osama al-Maaribi, tribal sources said. afp

Dutch diplomatnamed top NATOcivilian inAfghanistanbRUsseLs: NATO onTuesday named DutchmanMaurits Jochems as its nextsenior civilian representative inAfghanistan, replacing Britishambassador Simon Gass. Astatement said the currentDutch ambassador to Estoniawould succeed Gass in Kabul inOctober and lead the transitionto “a sovereign, secure anddemocratic Afghanistan”following the planned end-2014troop withdrawal. “Hisappointment comes at a crucialtime for ISAF (the 50-memberInternational SecurityAssistance Force) as wecontinue to hand over moreareas of security control to theAfghan National SecurityForces,” said NATO SecretaryGeneral Anders FoghRasmussen. afp

Cairo: relatives and friends mourn over the coffin of one of the 16 soldiers killed during an attack on a

border crossing post in northern sinai, during their funeral on Tuesday. AFP

ManiLa: residents climb above a shop wall as they try to

reach their flooded homes in the village of Tumana,

Marikina town, suburban Manila, on Tuesday. AFP

LHR 08-08-2012_Layout 1 8/8/2012 1:57 AM Page 9

Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

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

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Keep up or let up?

Times, they are a-changed

Changes in social mores have been rapid during thelast half century and are being speeded up by global-ization on one hand and the breathtaking develop-ments in IT on the other. What was anathema a

generation back is now not only normal for many but also anindispensable part of their daily life. This is sometimestrongly resented by those wedded to the past. A right wingstudent organization enforced for years a ban on girls andboys sitting together inside a university in Lahore. A groupinitiated a campaign to blacken the pictures of women ap-pearing on billboards. The official organ of LeT publishedregular reports about jihadis smashing the TV sets in theirhomes with bursts from kalashnikovs. This was celebrated asa victory against Satan. With the passage of time, the vandal-ization of hoardings has come to an end, the campaignagainst girls and boys mixing up on the campuses is wiltingand TV sets are no more broken. The popular resentmentagainst moral vigilantes has stopped them from acting vio-lently. They continue, however, to remain deeply perturbedover the changes in society.

A retired judge and a former chief of a religious party haveapproached the Supreme Court against what they consider ob-scenity on the TV channels. The acting PEMRA chief has how-ever maintained that obscenity still needs to be strictlydefined. He might as well have maintained that one man’smeat is another man’s poison. Under Zia, it was consideredimmodest for a woman to appear on the state-run TV withoutcovering her head with a scarf. Taking the TV back to that erais neither sensible nor possible in a period where scores of pri-vate TV channels jostle against one another. The variety ofchannels provides those concerned about obscenity the choiceto switch over to more conservative channels. They have to re-alize that the advances in IT have done away with iron cur-tains. Thanks to the dish, channels from all over the world canbe viewed in Pakistan. In case Pakistani channels are forced toobserve a strict moral code, viewers would be forced to switchover to foreign channels, particularly the Indian ones whosesoap operas have already gained popularity in Pakistan. Thiswould lead to laments about the ‘insidious invasion’ of Indianculture into our lives via our television screens.

The country practices free market economy. Like otherindustries, the media also caters to the demands of itscustomers. In a period of globalization, no culture can remainimmune from alien influences. Instead of waiting for directionsfrom outside, the media should devise a code of conductdefining limits that are not to be crossed. The code of conductshould however be revised and updated from time to time.

Nobody was surprisedwhen, on August 3,2012, the SupremeCourt of Pakistan de-clared the new contempt

of court law as unconstitutional. Sucha judgment was expected in view ofthe comments the judges in thecourse of the court proceedings. TheChief Justice had categorically said inhis speeches outside the court that hedid not recognize the principle of su-premacy of the parliament and theSupreme Court had all power to de-clare any law or action of the govern-ment as illegal if it conflicted with theprovisions of the constitution as in-terpreted by the judges.

It is understandable that theSupreme Court has turned down thenew contempt of court law becausethis law negated the Supreme Court’scurrent effort to establish its com-manding role in the political system.In the presence of this contempt ofcourt law, the Supreme Court couldnot take any action against the newprime minister or any other officialwith reference to performance of offi-cial duties.

Now, as the contempt ofcourt law is knocked out, thestage is set for the SupremeCourt to disqualify the sec-ond and the current primeminister for not writing a let-ter to the Swiss authoritiesfor reopening of money laun-dering cases against the sit-ting President Asif AliZardari.

If the directing principlebeing trumpeted by the pro-current judicial activism isthat nobody can be immunefrom contempt of court, theremay be another crisis in theoffing. The Lahore HighCourt has already issued anotice to President Asif AliZardari to comply with itsorder of not combing the of-fice of President with theparty leadership. If PresidentZardari ignores this, will theLahore High Court issue hima contempt notice, by passingthe presidential immunitygiven in the constitution inthe tradition of the SupremeCourt.

It would be unfortunate ifthe current prime minister isalso disqualified and a con-tempt notice is issued to thepresident. These actionswould be an extremely desta-

bilizing development, especially if thePPP-led federal coalition decides toappoint a new prime minister whoalso refuses to write the letter. Willthe Supreme Court then disqualifyhim?

The politically active circles andlawyers are divided on the expansionof the domain of authority of theSupreme Court under the pretext ofjudicial activism. One argument iswhat can be described as the pure andsimple view of what is happening.The argument emphasizes theSupreme Court’s recognized power ofinterpretation of the constitution andthat if the prime minister does not re-spect the courts nobody would dothat? The ambiguous principle ofequality of all is also emphasized, al-though absolute equality is not foundin any political system.

The other argument in favor of in-terventionist Supreme Court is basedon the partisan interests of politicaland societal groups. All those op-posed to the PPP and its allies sup-port the Supreme Court’s pressure onthe federal government. They wouldnot mind if the Supreme Court or themilitary remove the federal govern-ment.

The pure and simple approachwould have been relevant if it was asingle issue of complying with theSupreme Court order. The primeminister’s disqualification issue is apart of the overall disposition of theSupreme Court to expand its domainof authority after the Chief Justiceand other judges were restored by thePPP-led coalition government withreluctance in 2009. It is known to allthat had there been no pressure fromthe opposition and the army chief, thePPP-led federal government mightnot have restored the Chief Justice.

Since his return to the court theChief Justice has been consistentlyusing judicial activism to expand thedomain of authority of the SupremeCourt. The major target of this strideis the PPP-led federal governmentand its officials. By now, what we arewitnessing in Pakistan is an institu-tional clash between the federal exec-utive and the superior judiciary (theSupreme Court and the provincialHigh Courts, especially the PunjabHigh Court). The Supreme Court isexercising some executive power byreprimanding, removing and trans-ferring officials, and giving judg-ments on prices of some consumergoods. It removed Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani by disqualifyinghim as the member of the National

Assembly. The power of disqualifica-tion of a member of parliament is tra-ditionally exercised by the ElectionCommission of Pakistan.

There is another dimension to thecurrent political situation in Pakistan.We are witnessing another type ofpower struggle between the electedinstitutions and non-elected state in-stitutions. In the past, this strugglewas between the non-elected militaryand the elected civilian institutions.

Now, the non-elected SupremeCourt is endeavoring to expand itsdomain at the expense of the electedparliament and the elected executive.Such an effort can strengthen the po-sition of the Supreme Court in the po-litical system but it cannot rectify theills of the political system or removethe so-called corrupt politicians fromthe political scene.

As the federal government is en-gaged in a desperate struggle for sur-vival, it can hardly pay attention toacute internal economic and societalproblems and external pressures. TheSupreme Court pressure is likely toimmobilize the federal governmentand the problems will fester whilePakistan moves towards an internalcollapse.

Independent judiciary is impor-tant for democracy but it is not theonly condition for the success ofdemocracy. The judiciary should alsobe viewed as non-partisan and non-political. There is a need of institu-tional balance in Pakistan and theSupreme Court needs to show re-straint to allow the elections to takeplace in due course.

If the confrontation is not moder-ated the political initiative will shiftto the military. Currently, it is influ-encing state power management fromthe side lines but it has the capacityto move in if the confrontation be-tween the Supreme Court and the fed-eral government becomesunmanageable or the Supreme Courtprovides a legal cover to the militaryto move in for an “assigned task,” in-cluding the removal of the presentPPP-led federal government.

All these moves will underminethe already under pressure democ-racy. The Supreme Court will also ex-perience the loss of power ifdemocracy decays. The military dom-inated or directed political order isbased on the unity of command anddoes not allow autonomy for any in-stitution, including the judiciary.

The writer is an independentpolitical and defence analyst.

The executive-judiciary conflictLooking at the dynamics of the standoff

By Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

Freedom of speech has to bethe most ridiculous ideasince people said to Noah,

“Nah, I think we’ll be fine withoutyour boat.” It is that piece ofstatutory (s)crap which hascaused the most wars, conflicts,professional wrestling matchesand husband-wife separationsthan any other freedom enjoyedby man. Except maybe the free-dom of conjugate.

But even the beghairat liberalin me gets outraged when certainindividuals take their right to saywhat they want, a little too far. Ifone has any preoccupation withthe social media, one knows thatone is referring exclusively and vo-ciferously to the entity known onlyas @SaroorIjaz. Never before hasmalice, wit, venom and goose-stepping neo-Grammar Nazismbeen so perfectly encompassed inone Twitter handle. But whatstarted as a seemingly-harmless

joke, quickly degenerated into anunbridled verbal sword fightingwith soiled diapers being hurled inall directions. You had to be there.It was hilarious. And outrageous.

I will hold my horses for thenext two paragraphs to bring youall up to speed. @SaroorIjaz is abrand-spanking-new Twitter ac-count which has resisted all at-tempts to label it ‘a parodyaccount’ of one Saroop Ijaz, anerudite legal eagle who exerciseshis pen for the Express Tribune.And what a lovely pen it is. In-deed, Saroop is a master word-smith and has the power to turndribble into poetry, all the whilewriting in prosaic prose. He isalso an extremely affable chap,praised by all and sundry whohave allegedly met with him.While one has never had the priv-ilege, one can safely report thatsaid lawyer is a ‘Good Man’.

That, unfortunately, is more

than one can say for the fictitious@SaroorIjaz. Saroop himself hasno Twitter account, nor does hehave (I am told) the inclination toown one in the near future. How-ever, the imposter uses Saroop’sphotograph and his persona as anExpress Tribune columnist andhas the bejeezuz fooled out ofnearly everyone on Twitter. LikeEngineer Majorly Profound beforehim, @SaroorIjaz has gone viralon Twitter. Well, sort of.

You see, the best way to bepopular on Twitter is to haveTwitter fights. This was my firstlesson in the 140-character world,courtesy a musician friend ofmine. Then, it was made clear tome by an ubertroll, that trolling(which is another word for fore-play, really) was what two peopledid to each other when one ofthem wanted to take the other outon a date. Obviously, he wastrolling too. But then I was set

right by another writer, whopointed out that ticking off theright people was the wrong thingto do. The right people being as-sorted haseenas or hawt wim-mens. One young intellectualtaught me the importance of hav-ing something intelligent to say allthe time, while a certain formernewspaper editor showed me thatit was possible to be precise,funny and nice at the same time.

However, @SaroorIjaz has in-terfered with that utopia. He hassingled out many of the above in-dividuals and has chosen to makehimself a marked man by markingsaid individuals and making themthe focus of his grammatically-perfect and verbose attacks. This,obviously, means war. For toolong has anonymity been the baneof the existence of many socialmedia users. Too plentiful arecases of users being bullied, bat-tered and made to wet their self-

esteem by excessively viciouscyber-bullies. Mostly of the femi-nist variety. It is high time that weput into practice what @Sen-RehmanMalik said to us at#SOCMM12 in Karachi. It is time.Ladies and gentlemen. To frysome eggs. Some very bad eggs.Out with the andas and in withthe hawt wimmens with gratu-itously doctored-and-photo-shopped display pictures.

There are simply too many ex-cuses for being a gratuitous pottymouth. But when you turn thatmouth onto others, things getcomplicated. And bloody. I amcurrently in process of enlistingthe services of a good lawyer totake the right dishonorable @Sa-roorIjaz to court, via Twit peti-tion. RT this if you agree.

Follow @mightyobvious onTwitter for more incoherence in140 characters or less

for those of my readers who are not ‘down’ with Twitter, this is a pointless read.please check out sabir nazar’s excellent cartoon instead

A Twit petitionMighty obviousBy Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi

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Comment 11

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey

Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk.

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan

Today exclusively.

After the passage of the shortorder by the Supreme Court, thecoalition is reported to have sent amessage of defiance. Thoughparliament has the right to legislate,the Supreme Court enjoys the right toreview them. The two organs of thestate, parliament and judiciary, arealso bound to obey the constitutionunequivocally. Their duties andpowers are defined. According to part1 section 5 of constitution loyalty tostate, constitution and law ismandatory for both parliament andjudiciary. Despite this an unnecessarytussle between the two pillars of stateis going on. Both have respect and

dignity, One being representative ofpeople and the other being judges ofapex court but loyalty to the state isthe basic duty of everyone (5 (1) part 1of constitution). The two organs aresupposed to perform their duties asdefined in the constitution.Unfortunately, the country has beenmade hostage to an endless debate.

The judges are expected to hearcourteously, answer wisely ,considersoberly and decide impartially(Socrates) .Regarding justice, thelegal experts often state that justiceshould not only be done but seen tohave been done . Moreover, judgesare to dispense fair justice and not to

please anyone. As a dissenting judgenoted, “the courts were not to pleaseanyone but to dispense justice” andalso added “what may please thenation may turn out to be against thelatter and spirit of law andconstitution”.

While hearing petitions againstcontempt act 2012 the CJ was quotedto have said that if one PM waspunished, how could the other bespared, even though the other PM’scase was to be heard on 8/8/12. Suchobservation and remarks endangerthe credibility of the court. Thejudges, being the custodians of thelaw and the constitution, need to be

more circumspect and tolerant thanpoliticians.

With regards to the executive, itmay be said that it had to performwithin the parameters set in theconstitution, instead of working togain favor with politicians and partyleaders. The country and people havesuffered much due to the standoffbetween the executive, judiciary andparliament. With due respect, onewould like that the 3 pillars of thestate do justice to themselves, theircountry, and the masses and givethem some relief.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAHIslamabad

Not just a green and white scrapThe national flag is the identification of a

country. Pakistanis celebrating their independenceday on 14th August with mania shows that thePakistani flag is integral to these celebrations andthat displays of nationalism would be incompletewithout it. On that day, flags are fluttering in thebreeze and people celebrating independence arefilled with pride looking at those.

But after the celebrations, that supreme greenand white flag that is a sign of peace and freedom isfound on roads and it is in an insult that it is fallenhere and there. Nations that do not value theirnational symbols like flag ultimately do not valuetheir country. We should try to give much care andimportance to our flag and also alter this badattitude as soon as possible.

FATIMA GULLLahore

(II)As 14th of August is drawing nearer, we see lots

of stalls arranged at the roadsides and vendorsselling Pakistani flags, small paper flags, badges,stickers, etc. at the shops. It really feels good to seekids buying flags with a great smile on their face andeven more great love for the country in their heart.It is no doubt a beautiful sight for every patrioticPakistani.

But the thing that I have noticed quite often andperturbs me is the ignorance and illiteracy of thepeople regarding the flag and etiquettes pertainingto it. The color of our green and white flag is alteredand is available in blue, pink, yellow, etc. White andgreen is our identity, the symbol of peace andfreedom, representing green majority and whiteminority and changing its color is akin to changingour identity. The Pakistani flag with crescent andstar is sometimes made with unwanted additions init e.g. Quaid’s portrait, face of political leaders, etc.Worst is adding up of pictures of cartoon characterslike Mickey Mouse, which is disrespectful. Slogansare written on it along with greetings or other wordsor phrases.

This distortion of our graceful flag is anirresponsible attitude and affects the dignity of our

beloved flag. I hope people will play their part bybuying the real flag of Pakistan, and the authoritieswill soon take notice of this issue and will ban suchflags.

NADIA EHSANLahore

Rogues in politicsWhat Pakistan needs is good governance by

relatively honest politicians who are committed tothis country and have no split loyalties. As politicalmorality, democratic norms and ethics have failedto gain foothold in working of our political parties,role of rogues and sycophants has become moreprominent. Every political party has more than theirshare of such vagabonds, for whom politics is allabout taking over power, resorting to its abuse andplundering national exchequer to better personalassets. Can somebody justify ethics of men whosepersonal life revolves around debauchery, yet theybecause of accident of birth were born in familieswhose great grandfathers were noble men, nowfinancially exploit the illiterate masses who do nothave enough to eat but offer these creeps their life-long savings expecting divine blessings in return.These gaddi-nasheens seek nazranas from criminalsand white collared corrupt who think these offeringswould launder their criminal earnings, remindingyou of black magic fake alims. They make a mockeryof faith and religion when they think that their ill-gotten wealth can buy divine blessings.

As if this was not enough we now have roguesons of politicians, men like Dost Mohd Khosa orHamza Shahbaz of PML(N), who seek public officeon hereditary grounds but instead of being rolemodels serve more as vagabonds, making amockery of the institution of marriage and familyvalues. Then, there is that bull in china shop son-in-law, who would not qualify for any job on meritbut was made head of PML(N) Youth wing. ThePPP has an endless list of such cronies rangingfrom Feisal Raza Abidi, Qayuum Jatoi, MusaGillani, Qadir Gillani to Sharjeel Memon, Basra orRaja Riaz, who having piled assets beyond theirwildest dreams now resort to foul mouthed

language for judiciary and justify corruption as if itwas a legitimate perk of power, reminding you ofcorrupt bureaucrats and generals. Even the PTI,headed by a man with some credibility is nowsurrounded by rogues and opportunists likeInamullah Niazi, Imran Usman, Khurshid Qasuri,Sardar Assef etc, most of whom were loyal poodlesof either Musharraf, or even of AZ till they wererefused lucrative posts. With such poor talent, nowonder political parties in Pakistan have fared nobetter than the corrupt khakis and bureaucrats whohave abused this country for more than half acentury without any shame or remorse.

ALI MALIKLahore

History repeats itselfIt is disheartening to learn that the competent

authority of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation andits allied department has decided not to give thebenefit of 20percen adhoc relief allowance-2012 and20 percent increase in pension to its around 10,000pensioners and 40,000 employees drawing in thesalary of July 2012 paid in August 2012 as alreadynotified by the Finance Department, Government ofPakistan. Likewise, last year, the pensioners andemployees of KMC could get their increasesannounced in the national budget after a period ofsix month as the pensioners and employees weredenied with due course of time.

The pensioners and government employees whodeserve additional financial relief in the holy monthof Ramazan as they are already financially burdenedwith the skyrocketing prices of fruits, vegetables,grains and other eatable.

With this discouraging situation in view, I wantto draw the attention of the Chief Minister, Sindh,Administrator, KMC and MetropolitanCommissioner to look into the matter and takeimmediate action in adding the benefits recentlyannounced for the monthly pension and salary sothat thousands of families could celebrate Eid withtheir children peacefully.

JAWED AHMED KHURSHEEDKarachi

dammed?If Kalabagh dam was the first dam

being built one could understand theapprehensions about it, but with twodams already in operation with aproven track record, it is difficult tounderstand the opposition to Kalabaghdam except for purely political reasons.Mangla dam was built to compensatefor the loss of the three eastern riversand it brought about a green revolutionin the country. By trapping the surplusflows in the Indus, Tarbela damincreased canal supplies by 25 percent.Sindh got an additional 7 million acrefeet of water with which it was able tocultivate 27 lakh additional acres.Kalabagh dam will give another 2.2 mafto Sindh which it cannot get fromanywhere else.

KHURSHID ANWERLahore

Pedestrian rightsThe authorities are responsible for

preventing the dangers a pedestrianmay face on the streets and they mustensure their safety.

For one, it is the pedestrian’s rightto have zebra-crossings available atvarious junctions so as to regulate thetraffic and make allowances forpedestrians simultaneously.

At the same time, it is a pedestrian’sresponsibility to follow the rules at azebra-crossing so as to help keepeveryone on the road safe.

Furthermore, proper pedestrianbridges at the right places and junctionsshould be built to provide a saferatmosphere for all pedestrians on thestreet.

A lot of people who occupy streetsthroughout the day are people who livein slums. Therefore, for the safety of thepublic at large, awareness programsshould be developed to educate peopleabout traffic rules along with the rightsand responsibilities of the commonman.

MEHAK ALI NAQVI Karachi

On the standoff

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Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

kareena, imran to pair upfor new flick

AFTeR their sizzling chemistry in ‘ek MainAur ekk Tu’, actors Kareena Kapoor andImran Khan will again team up for Karan

Johar’s untitled home production, to be directed byPunit Malhotra. “We are making a film withKareena and Imran in the lead. Karan is producingthe film and I would be directing it. We are veryhappy to have Kareena and Imran on board withus,” Punit told PTI. Released in February earlier thisyear, Kareena and Imran’s romantic comedy ‘ekMain Aur ekk Tu’, produced by Karan and directedby Shakun Batra, was a hit. On the untitledventure, Punit said, “It is a romantic movie, as wellas a little more than that. It is tough to be put in agenre. It is different from ‘I Hate Luv Storys’. It isnot a rom-com, but definitely a romantic film, alittle more serious.” neWs desK

anil’s son to make his debut

ANIL Kapoor’s son Harshvardhan, youngerbrother of actress Sonam Kapoor andproducer Rhea Kapoor will continue the

family legacy. Yes, this 20-something boy whostands over six-feet tall, has taken courses incinematography and screenplay writing in LosAngeles. He is currently in Orange County, LA butwill shift base to Mumbai soon. Harsh will joinfilmmaker Anurag Kashyap in his Ranbir Kapoor-Anushka Sharma film Bombay Velvet. Dad AnilKapoor says: “Anurag and Harsh have been in touchfor many years. They have their own equation.”Learning filmmaking before they plunge as actors isa fad that is fast catching up in Bollywood. RanbirKapoor assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali before hebecame the nation’s heartthrob; Varun Dhawanassisted Karan Johar in My Name is Khan before hestepped in front of the camera for Student of theYear. However, Aamir Khan’s son has no plans to bean actor as of now. He is all set to assist Raj KumarHirani on P.K. that will go on the floors thisSeptember. neWs desK

katrina spends the night atranbir’s pad?

IN a recent interview to HT Cafe, Katrina Kaifmaintained that she’s single when asked aboutSalman Khan: “I am single. Our equation is

very different today and I believe that exes can begreat friends.” We may believe that the ek Tha Tigerco-stars are not romantically together anymore butwhat about Ranbir Kapoor? It was reported thatRanbir cheated on then girlfriend Deepika Padukonewith Katrina Kaif. However, the two have consistentlymaintained the ‘just friends’ stance. The twist in thetale is Katrina Kaif’s recent late night visit to RanbirKapoor’s pad in Bandra. Bollywoodlife.com reportedthat the actress was spotted around 2 am onSaturday night at his Krishna Raj residence. “Butwhat actually makes it even more interesting is thatthis secret rendezvous took place immediately afterRanbir spent a nice, pop corn-filled evening with hisex-girlfriend Deepika Padukone at Ketnav studio at aprivate screening of Gangs Of Wasseypur II.CourTesy HindusTan TiMes

NABilA WiTH A fRieNd RiZWAN WiTH OmAR SHAHZAd

YASiN PARAcHAWiTH deePAKANd ZAHiRRAHimTOOlAH

NidA AZWeR WiTHmAHeeN KHAN

AdNAN HAmidWiTH YASiNPARAcHA ANdSHAKeel jAffeR

Gm Of deBeNHAmS AdNAN HAmidPReSeNTiNG SHield TO GOVeRNORSiNdH dR iSHRAT-ul-eBAd KHAN

yOu say when yOu initiaLLy beGan taLkinG abOut theauthOrs anD bOOks yOu reaD, they were sO hiGh-brOw thatpeOpLe thOuGht yOu were beinG pseuDO-inteLLeCtuaL. hOwhaVe yOu resOLVeD that anD MetaMOrphOseD intO the styLeDiVa - by DuMbinG DOwn the COMMuniCatiOn?Not dumb down, but simplify it, you know what Imean? And anyways people stop asking you thosequestions very quickly. They're more interested inknowing 'have you signed this film? / why haven'tyou signed this film? / what is your relationshipstatus? / have you had a catfight with X? / whyhaven't you had a catfight? / so what exactly is yourrelationship? / you seem too friendly with X and Y' -by now I know, by rote, the questions that certainjournalists are going to ask me. That is their job,because that makes for a good copy. I guess peoplewant to read all this. If they want to read moreintellectual stuff, they can always read interviews ofsocial workers, politicians, intellectuals, authors...They don't want to - actually I don't know if theydon't want to, but perhaps they don't expect to hearanything literary or intellectual from an 'actress' -let's just say that! (laughs)

yOu're reCOnCiLeD tO MeetinG the benChMarks Of what an aCtress is suppOseD tO be?Yes, I have actually. I've learnt to be a little morediplomatic. I've learnt that sometimes my humour getslost in translation. People don't understand that I'm justbeing funny, not trying to hurt anybody. People takethings too personally - I don't. If someone sayssomething about me, I let it go. But unfortunatelyeveryone isn't like that. So I'm trying to be morediplomatic - but people always want a headline from me!

DOesn't yOur Current status as the unCrOwneD styLe DiVaOf inDia DisquaLify yOu frOM haVinG any seriOus OpiniOnOn a pOLitiCaL issue?Yes, it does (sighs). So when I do say anything, itbecomes that she's shooting her mouth off. I'm asocially concerned citizen of India. I have strongviews on issues of social and political relevance. Butit's very difficult to voice it in an intelligent mannerwithout it sounding contrived. Because people thinkyou're saying or doing all this as a PR exercise, notfrom your heart.

her JOb is tO wear natty Outfits anD she ObViOusLy DOesn'tunDerstanD anythinG beyOnD that, etC?Yeah, yeah, yeah... all the time. I think young peoplehave to take the responsibility for how things are inour country. But what happens is that when I go outto vote, I'm asked why I wore my red sunglasses!Recently somebody asked me about nightclubs andrules and I said, we need to be more proactive ininfluencing the political process. The laws are allantiquated. Why complain about those whoimplement them?

sO yOu're nOt part Of the sLaM-DhObLe CaMpaiGn in MuMbai?No. He's just implementing what the law says. It'sthe law that needs to be changed, na. He's not doinganything wrong, but the law itself is wrong, it's suchan old thing. He says, this is the law, and I'mfollowing the law to the T, and for that you can't turnaround and say you're wrong. I don't know the man,I don't know his intentions, good or bad. My pointis, rebel against the law, why rebel against the

person who's implementing it?yOu'Ve been rather Open in pubLiCfOruMs abOut yOur fitness anDweiGht LOss issues - sOMe wOuLDsay exCeptiOnaLLy sO.What all you said from adais in Delhi whilepromoting Kalli Purie'sbook ("I refuse to wear abikini. I have a saggybum, I have cellulite")was talked about forquite a while.(Laughs) I got a lot ofadvice after I said allthat. A lot of PRpeople called meand said, youshouldn't have saidthat, there has tobe a mystery to anactress, there has tobe this, there has tobe that... I said, Ifeel I have aresponsibility toyoung girls out there.Because a lot of themare going throughanorexia, or arebulimic, or have otherhealth issues becausethey are trying toemulate a certain body

type. Nobody's lookingat it as a health issue. I

didn't try to becomethin, I tried tobecome healthy,because I hadthese issues, iswhat I wassaying. I didn'tthink it was rightof me to say, Iwas born thisway. I'm 5'9''and 36-24-36and that's howI just am. No.It came with alot of hardwork. I did itbecause Iwanted to behealthy, andbecause Iwanted to wearcertain clothes.

But I did it theright way. I did a

proper nutritionaland exercise plan. A

lot of girls come acrossand say, we eat

everything and we're stilllike that, size zero, and I

want to say, I know you'relying, bitch! You can't eat

everything and be that way.

hOw Often DO yOu haVeaDVisOrs Or yOur pr systeMteLLinG yOu, "yOu shOuLDn't

haVe saiD this"?Lots of times - I thinkevery two days I get a

call saying that!The top 5 episodes in that list?One, you shouldn't have given that Delhi weightspeech, interview, whatever. Two, you shouldn'thave said this about a certain activist. Three, youshouldn't have said this about a certainjournalist. I could go on and on, but let's keep itto the top 3 (laughs)!

questiOns that irk yOu?I don't want to be asked what I think about otheractresses, and how I rate their body parts. I don'twant to talk about who I had a catfight with orwho I am friends with. I don't want to generallywish Happy Rakhi and Happy Birthday andHappy Whatever Day. Those kinds of things...'Are you just friends with so and so...' it's becomeso stereotyped, you know. 'How come this film ofyours didn't do well?' Arrey, if I understood that,I wouldn't have done the film in the first place,would I? (laughs) And then 'don't you thinkyou're becoming known primarily as a fashionistaand not as an actress'? And I have a full rehearsedanswer, I've answered that so many times! I thinkthey ask this to provoke me.

hOw easy is it tO prOVOke yOu?Very easy! I'm a hot blooded young girl, yaar, it'seasy to provoke me. But I take it on the chin.

hOw Often DO yOu Get parentaL repriManDs fOr beinG prOVOkeD?

My dad thinks it's very funny. My mom alsodoesn't really say anything. Because I don't thinkI've really ever been irresponsible. I don't regretanything that I've done. I started working when Iwas 19. My parents often say, we're scared ofreading the papers, ab pata nahi tumne kya boldiya, but never anything more. I'm a very goodchild, that way. I still stay with my parents, and Ilive by the rules of the house. I don't even spendmy father's money; I spend my own, though I dolive in his house. I've never embarrassed them. Idon't have a bad reputation in the industry. I'm

always on time. I work very hard. I like to partybut I'm never irresponsible about it, I've neverbroken any law. The only thing they tell me tokeep in check is my temper. Hopefully I'll reinthat in. How much has the hot-headedness dissipated inthe five years you've spent in the industry?I have mellowed. I've become very patient. Butbasically, I'm a very passionate person. I don't liketo brown nose too much, I'm not a suck-up at all.It's difficult for me to really temper mypersonality, but I am trying to be a little moresensible about it. If I really lose my temper, I go tomy room and scream and shout, but I try not tolose it on people any more. I've never saidsomething mean just like that. I've only saidthings in retaliation. If somebody says, you arelike this, I can also turn around and say, if we'retalking like this, well, I think you're like that, too.Maybe it's childish. But why should I let someonesay things about me, put up an act and say, oh, letit be, she's such a nice person - she's not! I can'tbe fake about it.This whole 'fashion icon' tag - though it's oftenused in a disparaging tone -No, no, I love it! I love being called a fashion icon!

- DOes it GiVe yOu an eGO kiCk?No, it doesn't. Honestly, when I started off, I waswearing my old, vintage clothes. My father used tosay, purane phate kapde kya pehenti rehti hai.People would say, why is she wearing these 1950s,1970s style clothes, who are these designers, wecan't even pronounce these French designers'names, we haven't heard of these Indian designerseither. Why's she wearing trousers? Why's shewearing high-waisted pants? Why's her hair donethis way? Why isn't she wearing lenses?Eventually, girls started liking it, because I wasn'tdressing aspirational - I was dressing like a younggirl. Then everybody started hiring stylists! I don'tthink it's an ego boost, it's an extension of mypersonality. COuRTESy TOI

sonam kapoor on how she had to dumb herself down but still remains her pr's worst nightmare

a conversation with sonam

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Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

kristen stewart’s sex scenes in new movie

KRISTeN Stewart, who recently admitted tocheating on her boyfriend Robert Pattinsonwith married director Rupert Sanders, is set

to bring more embarrassment on the alreadydistraught actor by indulging in sex scenes in hernew movie. The controversial scenes in 'On theRoad' might prove to be an awkward viewing forheartbroken Pattinson, who is holed up in theholiday pad of co-star Resee Witherspoon aftersplitting with Stewart. "He is keeping a low profilebefore On The Road is screened in London onAugust 16," the Daily Mail quoted a source assaying. "He's bracing himself because there's ascene where Kristen gets involved with two men,"the source added. neWs desK

Miranda’s nude photos surface

NUDe photographs of Miranda Kerr ofunknown vintage have surfaced online.Shot by French fashion photographer,

Laurent Darmon, the images were uploaded on hiswebsite and then were quickly removed but notbefore they were reposted elsewhere,News.com.au reported. The black and white photosshow Kerr in various flirty poses and are fairlytame by internet standards, artfully hidinganything more risque than her bottom and breasts.Kerr has been photographed in various states ofundress since she started modelling, but very fewnude shots find their way onto the internet.According to Triple M, the photos were firstpublished in 2009 before her marriage to OrlandoBloom. neWs desK

SHeHRiSH iN deBeNHAmS

yOu say when yOu initiaLLy beGan taLkinG abOut theauthOrs anD bOOks yOu reaD, they were sO hiGh-brOw thatpeOpLe thOuGht yOu were beinG pseuDO-inteLLeCtuaL. hOwhaVe yOu resOLVeD that anD MetaMOrphOseD intO the styLeDiVa - by DuMbinG DOwn the COMMuniCatiOn?Not dumb down, but simplify it, you know what Imean? And anyways people stop asking you thosequestions very quickly. They're more interested inknowing 'have you signed this film? / why haven'tyou signed this film? / what is your relationshipstatus? / have you had a catfight with X? / whyhaven't you had a catfight? / so what exactly is yourrelationship? / you seem too friendly with X and Y' -by now I know, by rote, the questions that certainjournalists are going to ask me. That is their job,because that makes for a good copy. I guess peoplewant to read all this. If they want to read moreintellectual stuff, they can always read interviews ofsocial workers, politicians, intellectuals, authors...They don't want to - actually I don't know if theydon't want to, but perhaps they don't expect to hearanything literary or intellectual from an 'actress' -let's just say that! (laughs)

yOu're reCOnCiLeD tO MeetinG the benChMarks Of what an aCtress is suppOseD tO be?Yes, I have actually. I've learnt to be a little morediplomatic. I've learnt that sometimes my humour getslost in translation. People don't understand that I'm justbeing funny, not trying to hurt anybody. People takethings too personally - I don't. If someone sayssomething about me, I let it go. But unfortunatelyeveryone isn't like that. So I'm trying to be morediplomatic - but people always want a headline from me!

DOesn't yOur Current status as the unCrOwneD styLe DiVaOf inDia DisquaLify yOu frOM haVinG any seriOus OpiniOnOn a pOLitiCaL issue?Yes, it does (sighs). So when I do say anything, itbecomes that she's shooting her mouth off. I'm asocially concerned citizen of India. I have strongviews on issues of social and political relevance. Butit's very difficult to voice it in an intelligent mannerwithout it sounding contrived. Because people thinkyou're saying or doing all this as a PR exercise, notfrom your heart.

her JOb is tO wear natty Outfits anD she ObViOusLy DOesn'tunDerstanD anythinG beyOnD that, etC?Yeah, yeah, yeah... all the time. I think young peoplehave to take the responsibility for how things are inour country. But what happens is that when I go outto vote, I'm asked why I wore my red sunglasses!Recently somebody asked me about nightclubs andrules and I said, we need to be more proactive ininfluencing the political process. The laws are allantiquated. Why complain about those whoimplement them?

sO yOu're nOt part Of the sLaM-DhObLe CaMpaiGn in MuMbai?No. He's just implementing what the law says. It'sthe law that needs to be changed, na. He's not doinganything wrong, but the law itself is wrong, it's suchan old thing. He says, this is the law, and I'mfollowing the law to the T, and for that you can't turnaround and say you're wrong. I don't know the man,I don't know his intentions, good or bad. My pointis, rebel against the law, why rebel against the

person who's implementing it?yOu'Ve been rather Open in pubLiCfOruMs abOut yOur fitness anDweiGht LOss issues - sOMe wOuLDsay exCeptiOnaLLy sO.What all you said from adais in Delhi whilepromoting Kalli Purie'sbook ("I refuse to wear abikini. I have a saggybum, I have cellulite")was talked about forquite a while.(Laughs) I got a lot ofadvice after I said allthat. A lot of PRpeople called meand said, youshouldn't have saidthat, there has tobe a mystery to anactress, there has tobe this, there has tobe that... I said, Ifeel I have aresponsibility toyoung girls out there.Because a lot of themare going throughanorexia, or arebulimic, or have otherhealth issues becausethey are trying toemulate a certain body

type. Nobody's lookingat it as a health issue. I

didn't try to becomethin, I tried tobecome healthy,because I hadthese issues, iswhat I wassaying. I didn'tthink it was rightof me to say, Iwas born thisway. I'm 5'9''and 36-24-36and that's howI just am. No.It came with alot of hardwork. I did itbecause Iwanted to behealthy, andbecause Iwanted to wearcertain clothes.

But I did it theright way. I did a

proper nutritionaland exercise plan. A

lot of girls come acrossand say, we eat

everything and we're stilllike that, size zero, and I

want to say, I know you'relying, bitch! You can't eat

everything and be that way.

hOw Often DO yOu haVeaDVisOrs Or yOur pr systeMteLLinG yOu, "yOu shOuLDn't

haVe saiD this"?Lots of times - I thinkevery two days I get a

call saying that!The top 5 episodes in that list?One, you shouldn't have given that Delhi weightspeech, interview, whatever. Two, you shouldn'thave said this about a certain activist. Three, youshouldn't have said this about a certainjournalist. I could go on and on, but let's keep itto the top 3 (laughs)!

questiOns that irk yOu?I don't want to be asked what I think about otheractresses, and how I rate their body parts. I don'twant to talk about who I had a catfight with orwho I am friends with. I don't want to generallywish Happy Rakhi and Happy Birthday andHappy Whatever Day. Those kinds of things...'Are you just friends with so and so...' it's becomeso stereotyped, you know. 'How come this film ofyours didn't do well?' Arrey, if I understood that,I wouldn't have done the film in the first place,would I? (laughs) And then 'don't you thinkyou're becoming known primarily as a fashionistaand not as an actress'? And I have a full rehearsedanswer, I've answered that so many times! I thinkthey ask this to provoke me.

hOw easy is it tO prOVOke yOu?Very easy! I'm a hot blooded young girl, yaar, it'seasy to provoke me. But I take it on the chin.

hOw Often DO yOu Get parentaL repriManDs fOr beinG prOVOkeD?

My dad thinks it's very funny. My mom alsodoesn't really say anything. Because I don't thinkI've really ever been irresponsible. I don't regretanything that I've done. I started working when Iwas 19. My parents often say, we're scared ofreading the papers, ab pata nahi tumne kya boldiya, but never anything more. I'm a very goodchild, that way. I still stay with my parents, and Ilive by the rules of the house. I don't even spendmy father's money; I spend my own, though I dolive in his house. I've never embarrassed them. Idon't have a bad reputation in the industry. I'm

always on time. I work very hard. I like to partybut I'm never irresponsible about it, I've neverbroken any law. The only thing they tell me tokeep in check is my temper. Hopefully I'll reinthat in. How much has the hot-headedness dissipated inthe five years you've spent in the industry?I have mellowed. I've become very patient. Butbasically, I'm a very passionate person. I don't liketo brown nose too much, I'm not a suck-up at all.It's difficult for me to really temper mypersonality, but I am trying to be a little moresensible about it. If I really lose my temper, I go tomy room and scream and shout, but I try not tolose it on people any more. I've never saidsomething mean just like that. I've only saidthings in retaliation. If somebody says, you arelike this, I can also turn around and say, if we'retalking like this, well, I think you're like that, too.Maybe it's childish. But why should I let someonesay things about me, put up an act and say, oh, letit be, she's such a nice person - she's not! I can'tbe fake about it.This whole 'fashion icon' tag - though it's oftenused in a disparaging tone -No, no, I love it! I love being called a fashion icon!

- DOes it GiVe yOu an eGO kiCk?No, it doesn't. Honestly, when I started off, I waswearing my old, vintage clothes. My father used tosay, purane phate kapde kya pehenti rehti hai.People would say, why is she wearing these 1950s,1970s style clothes, who are these designers, wecan't even pronounce these French designers'names, we haven't heard of these Indian designerseither. Why's she wearing trousers? Why's shewearing high-waisted pants? Why's her hair donethis way? Why isn't she wearing lenses?Eventually, girls started liking it, because I wasn'tdressing aspirational - I was dressing like a younggirl. Then everybody started hiring stylists! I don'tthink it's an ego boost, it's an extension of mypersonality. COuRTESy TOI

JANET Jackson’s lawyer has said that she will“press forward” with the fight against theexecutors of her late brother Michael’sestate, even though she has been“relentlessly” portrayed in the negative

light. In a statement on behalf of Janet and hersiblings Randy and Rebbie, lawyer Blair Brownreiterated the claims that executors John Brancaand John McClain have never publicly been able toexplain how Michael could have signed a will with aLos Angeles dateline when evidence showed that hewas in New York with Reverend Al Sharpton at thetime. “Since the loss of Michael, Janet, Randy andRebbie’s principal concern has been and continuesto be for the safety and wellbeing of Michael’schildren, their mother Katherine Jackson, and theentire family,” the New York Daily News quotedthem as saying in a statement. “Unfortunately, thosepeople have been harmed by the actions of theexecutors of Michael’s estate,” the statement read.The letter accuses the executors and “those installedand paid to do their bidding” of hiding behind thequestionable documents and perpetrating a smearcampaign related to treatment of matriarch Katherine Jacksonand Michael’s 14-year-old daughter Paris. “The negative mediacampaign generated by the executors and their agents has beenrelentless. “In recent weeks, the media received preposterousreports - all now proven to be false - of a purported kidnappingof Katherine Jackson and of physical and verbal abuse of achild,” the letter said. NEwS DESk

Finally the wait is over,Mausumery lawn and OriginsReady to Wear launched its flag-ship store in Defence. As thestore opened its doors, an influxof vanity conscious customersdropped in to buy their favoritepret/printed suits. Origins Readyto Wear introduced its eagerlyawaited new Eid collection at thelaunch while Mausumery lawnlaunched its detailed embroi-dered and print collection Chap-ter 2. “This collaborated effortoffers a one stop solution to cus-tomers whether its pret orprinted lawn, giving our clients awide variety to choose from “ saidSuleman Pervez The Red Carpet

had top models such as Mehreensyed, Nadia Ali and Natasha daz-zling the cameras In ORIGINSEid collection. All in all it was oneof the biggest store launches inrecent times Showcasing the

brand power and mass appeal oforigins and Mausummery lawn.The new store offers one of themost detailed pret collections inLahore with over ninety differentstyles to choose from . NEwS DESk

MausuMery Lawn LaunChes fLaGship stOre in DefenCe

Janet Jackson to fight forbrother’s estate despitenegative publicity natalie portman gets married

in private ceremony

NATALIe Portman married her fiance of twoyears choreographer Benjamin Millepied, onthe scenic central California coast of Big

Sur, on Saturday. The couple was surrounded byfamily and friends, including Ivanka Trump, whenthey exchanged vows after dark in a Jewishceremony at a private home, People magazinereported. The 31-year-old Oscar winner first metFrench dancer Millepied, 35, on the set of ‘BlackSwan’ in the fall of 2009. He worked as achoreographer on the film and the two started todate during the shoot. By December 2010, thecouple announced they were engaged andexpecting their first child. Their son Aleph is 14-months old. “Nothing is more important than mypersonal life,” Portman recently told France’sMadame Figaro magazine. “It’s something whichcomes first, always makes sense, and compared tothe happiness of a successful family life, everythingelse is practically superficial,” she said. neWs desK

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Isaak Lasson can finally breathe easy afterthree years of sinus problems.

The cause? A single wheel-shaped Legopiece that he got stuck up his nose backwhen he was 3. At least that’s what his dad,Craig Lasson, said he thinks. His son startedhaving a hard time breathing back then.

“I felt so bad,” the father told KSL-TV.Isaak “was sleeping with his mouth open,trying to breathe.” Numerous doctors lookedat Isaak’s nose and prescribed antibiotics.

But last week, a new doctor noticed thatIsaak seemed to have something foreignstuck up his Schnozz and asked what it

might be. “I put some spaghetti up there, butthat was a long time ago,” Isaak told the doc-tor, according to KTLA-TV.

But it wasn’t pasta that was up Isaak’snose, just a ball of fungus encasing a Legowheel. “We think he bent it in half — it’s prettyflexible — and that it opened up once it gotinto his sinuses,” Isaak’s father told reporters.

Although Craig Lasson momentarilyworried he was a bad parent for needingthree years to figure out the Lego problemplaguing his son’s sinuses, he said he ishappy that Isaak is eating and sleeping bet-ter than he has in years. neWs desK

P ART of the joy of science fiction is see-ing all the awesome toys, and imagininghow they could exist in the real world.And so many of science fiction’s coolestgadgets have come true, including Star

Trek’s PADDs and communicators.But the sad truth is, a lot of the most fantastic

technologies in science fiction are fantastic for areason — they can’t ever exist in reality. Here are5 amazing technologies that will never exist inreal life.

1. LightsabersAside from the sheer impracticality of this

weapon — and not to mention how hazardous itwould be to wave one of these around — the StarWars lightsaber will almost certainly nevercome to be. The first engineering challengewould be in figuring out a way to stop the beamof light about two feet from the source. Lightsimply does not work in this way, unless there’ssomething to obstruct or absorb it. Similarly, ahighly concentrated beam of light wouldn’t beable to cut through materials, or face resistancewhen striking another lightsaber. Assuming,therefore, that it’s not actually a “light” saber,but rather some kind of plasma-beam saber (onethat’s available in a delicious assortment ofcolours), the intense heat would likely melt thehandle — and possibly burn the Padawan to acrisp. There’s also the power source to consider;these suckers pack quite a punch, deflectinglaser beams and cutting through solid metalwalls, so they would likely require somethingsubstantially more powerful than a pair of dou-ble-A’s. A power source that powerful doesn’t,and can’t, exist.

2. human teleportationA staple of the Star Trek universe is the ca-

pacity to beam, or teleport, humans from one lo-

cation to another. As legend has it, Gene Rodden-berry came up with the idea as a work-around tofilming expensive scenes involving ships takingoff and landing. But his idea slashed both thebudget and common sense. Yes, quantum tele-portation has been demonstrated in the lab — butspawning a pair of entangled photons across vastdistances is a far cry from teleporting an entirehuman body. Moreover, Star Trek’s teleportationscheme involves what’s called “destructive copy-ing,” meaning that the source person must beobliterated (as evidenced in the TNG episode“Second Chances” when you accidentally get twoRikers). So, even if teleportation is somehow pos-sible, it doesn’t solve the problem that you’d bestepping into a suicide machine. And finally, thephysical and energy requirements of teleporta-tion simply won’t allow for it. The system wouldhave to be capable of the instantaneous scanning,recording and relaying of all 1045 bits of informa-tion that make up the human body, then transmitall this data to the destination, and finally com-pile the person without so much as putting a sin-gle molecule out of place.

3. time machineThanks to Albert Einstein we know that time

travel is possible. If you think about it, we’re alltime travellers, inexorably moving forward intothe future without even having to think about it.But more conceptually, Einstein’s theories havesuggested that “wormholes” can connect two dis-parate regions of space and time, potentially al-lowing for the creation of time machines. Okay,great — so knowing that, now what do we do?Well, according to physicist Michio Kaku, wewould need to extract the energy of an entire staror black hole — easier said than done. And thenthere’s the challenge of stabilizing the wormholeand ensuring that the aperture (or wormholeentry point) remains open for the return journey(one way trip into the past, anyone?). But even if

physics is on our side, metaphysics is not. The“grandfather paradox” suggests that any technol-ogy that lets you kill your own ancestor can’t pos-sibly exist, because it would break the cosmos.But there’s an even tougher paradox to consider:If time travel is possible, then where are all thetime travellers from the future?

4. Personal force fieldsWhile it is certainly conceivable that a space-

craft could eventually surround itself with a pro-tective layer of charged plasma or a powerfulelectromagnetic force, the idea of a personal forcefield poses a different problem altogether. Thevery essence of the force field is to either absorbor reflect massive amounts of incoming energy.Consequently, it would have to exert an equal orgreater amount of force outwards to prevent theenergy from passing through the shield (yes, Iknow — physics is ruining everything). The onlycosmological force suitable for a personal forceshield would be electromagnetism, because theother forces, namely gravity and the strong andweak forces, are either way too weak or are con-strained across short distances. The problem withelectromagnetic force, however, is that it onlyworks on charged objects — and humans are elec-trically neutral. Moreover, even if we could some-how develop a device that envelopes a personwith a powerful shield, there’s no guarantee thatthe person inside it wouldn’t be fried by the thing;it would be impossible to make the force fieldomni-directional.

5. continuity of consciousness afteruploading

While the prospect of uploading our mindsinto supercomputers remains a distinct possibil-ity, it’s an open question as to whether or not we’llalso be capable of transferring our consciousnessas well. Most uploading schemes describe thecopying of neural information from biological todigital substrate — but what’s often lost in theconversation is the question of how a person cansuddenly be in two places at once. Destructivecopying (similar to the teleportation problem),will still result in a perfectly replicated personwho will adamantly insist that they’re the genuinething — but so would the other 50 copies. As forthe original source consciousness, it would ceaseto exist. This is what’s referred to as the “conti-nuity of consciousness problem,” and it’s a matterof great contention in the philosophical, neuro-scientific, and AI communities. Part of the prob-lem is that we still don’t have a developed scienceto explain the nature of consciousness, so we’releft guessing. As futurist John Smart told io9, it’slikely an issue that will never be satisfactorily re-solved. “This is an issue that will eventually startto take on religious or spiritual connotations,” hesaid, “people will just have to take a leap of faithand make the jump.”

14Infotainment

Man arrested for calling911 to do a beer run

WHENyou’reout of

beer and need aride to get some,who you gonna’call? Not 911.The ColumbiaDaily Heraldreported citypolice arrested a67-year-old man after he allegedly calledemergency dispatchers at least nine timesSaturday. Most of the calls were hang-ups, but adispatcher said at least once, the caller asked ifsomeone could send him a ride so he could buybeer. Police Officer Seneca Shield said he toldAllen Troy Brooks that if he cooperated, he wouldjust receive a citation. But authorities said Brooksdenied making calls and claimed he didn’t have atelephone. Brooks was arrested and charged withmaking 911 calls in a non-emergency situation. Hewas released on bond. A phone number listed forBrooks was out of service on Monday and noattorney was listed in court records. neWs desK

5 futuristic technologies that will never exist

Man sets fire to apartmentby microwaving socks

NOTe TO seLF: A microwave is forleftovers, not your boxers. British fire-fighters say they saved an apartment

from destruction after its domestically challengedresident tried to dry his wet socks and underwearin a microwave oven. The Dorset Fire and RescueService say fire-fighters rescued the man from hishome and extinguished the kitchen blaze Monday.The fire destroyed the appliance along with thetwo pairs of underwear and socks inside it, andcaused smoke damage to the apartment inWeymouth, a town on England’s southwest coast.“The fire safety message here is to never putclothing of any kind in the microwave or an ovento attempt to dry them,” the Dorset fire-fighterssaid in a statement. neWs desK

Michael phelps admits: we do pee in the pool

MICHAEL PHELPS, the most decoratedOlympic athlete of all time, has revealedwhat no sports fan wants to hear – that

Olympic swimmers occasionally relievethemselves in the pool. The US swimmer said: “Ithink everybody pees in the pool. It’s kind of anormal thing to do for swimmers. When we’re inthe water for two hours, we don’t really get out topee. “Chlorine kills it so it’s not bad.” Phelps wasresponding to comments made by fellow swimmerRyan Lochte, who caused controversy recentlywhen he reportedly said that he has on occasionrelieved himself while in the pool. Lochte hasrevealed that he peed in the pool while warmingup for the London Olympics. The 28-year-oldswimming star made the revelation when radiopersonality Ryan Seacrest asked him, if swimmersurinate in the pool. neWs desK

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

child findsmissingLego piecestuck inhis nose

teacher takes a day off workby saying he killed a girl

THERE’S fakingsick, and thenthere’s telling

your employers thatyou just killed a smallchild. 42-year-oldteacher DerekMcGlone was wellknown at CalderheadHigh School inScotland for making upstories to get out of work, the Telegraph reports.At an August 1 hearing of the General TeachingCouncil Scotland (GTCS), McGlone admitted tolying on a number of occasions between June2008 and May 2011. In his most egregiousfabrication, the music teacher told school officialsthat he had just run over a little girl with his car,according to UPI. “He said he felt his car wheelsrunning over her body,” Calderhead High Schoolhead Joyce Kilmartin wrote in an officialstatement. On another occasion, McGlone calledfrom his home in Glasgow, claiming he was stuckin a volcanic ash cloud in Iceland. At the Council,McGlone took heat not only for his lies, but for hisreaction to being reported. After discovering thatsome of his colleagues at Calderhead had madestatements about his conduct to the GTCS in April2011, McGlone went on a “drunken rant” overFacebook. He admitted to the Council panel thathe referred to his coworkers as “bitches” andwrote that he would “hunt them down,” accordingto the Scottish Sun. McGlone resigned later thatyear, the Mirror reports, but now says he wants toreturn to teaching. neWs desK

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Wednesday, 8 august, 2012

Page 18

dibaba on course fordistance double

LOnDOnaGHa aKbar

IN what was a most humiliat-ing end to its campaign to gar-ner some respect if notrecognition by way of anOlympic medal, an insipidPakistan handed a relentless

Australia its biggest win here, by 0-7.As a consequence of such pride-dent-

ing defeat, the greenshirts lost every-thing: a probable spot in the semifinalshad they won, even a slot in the 5th-6thplayoffs and are now condemned to fightit out in the bottom half for the 7th-8thplace. That means not a tangible im-provement in their current eighth worldrank, and no automatic qualification forthe Champions Trophy.

Finishing top of the Pool A, Australianow take on world number two andOlympic champion Germany in the semi-finals on Friday while the Netherlandsawait either Great Britain or Spain. Onehas to grant that the best four outfits havearrived there in the medals hunt, andwhatever our pretensions, Pakistan doesnot belong there.

The ubiquitous lack of spunk andfight – the kind of chutzpah that Ar-gentina and Great Britain had so effec-tively displayed against the rampagingAussies with the odds similarly stackedagainst them – was far too evident.

One does not even have to look at thestats to have a measure of how dismalPakistan was, yet these are quite reveal-ing: not a single short corner, and almostno real shots at the goal. Comparablestats for the Kookaburras: 23 shots at thegoal, three goals from eight short cornersand yet another from a stroke.

Previously Pakistani forwards hadbeen known for being wastrels withoutcompare, for botching opportunities thatother sides convert blindfolded. This timeround it was so unlike Pakistan, for thesignal failure was not creating anythingthat could remotely resemble a chance.

Akhtar Rasool, the manager/chiefcoach, who had led Pakistan in periods of

plenty, in a voice choking with emotion,admitted absolue failure: “In my 43years, I’ve never seen Pakistan play asbad as this. The Aussies dominated useverywhere on the field. Our failure wastotal”.

With their tails up from two goals asearly as by the sixth minute, the Kook-aburras went after Pakistan hammer andtongs, and by the break were ahead 4-0.That outcome must have cleared the cob-webs of self-doubt after, from a positionof strength succumbing to two soberingdraws against Argentina and GreatBritain.

And Ric Charlesworth, the celebratedAussie coach post-match admitted that

once Australia had gotten “amongst thegoals first-up against a Pakistan side thathe reckoned was growing in confidence”,the game plan changed: in place of alter-nating between defence and counterat-tack, the order of the day now was all-outaggression.

That should have provided the green-shirts with some opportunities, only ifour leaden footed midfielders and for-wards been able to stitch together somemoves. That was not to happen. What-ever little approach work was attemptedit was too feeble, and only destined to fiz-zle out before it could become hazardousfor the Aussies. With the possession ofthe ball so pronouncedly with the

Aussies, and their end under no threat,Pakistan’s defence was bound to be underunrelenting pressure; and the skill-set ofthe Aussies made it crumble like theproverbial pack of cards.

Despite the assurance of a big winand qualifying for the knockout stage atthe top of Pool A, the Aussies kept comingat Pakistan till the very end, GlennTurner having the satisfaction of gettinghis first goal in the very last minute. Thefinal whistle was the only reprieve in thematch for a sorry Pakistan.ScOReS:

Australia 7 (c ciriello 2, mark Knowles, jamie dwyer,

Russell ford, Glenn Turner, liam de Young goals) d

Pakistan 0.

Clinical Aussies dent Pakistan’s pridedevoid of spunk and fight, Greenshirtsgo down 0-7

lONdON: Sohail Abbas leaves the field along with team members after Pakistan was defeated

by Australia in their preliminary round match at the Riverbank Arena. AFP

lONdON: Australia's mark Knowles (2nd R) is congratulated by teammates, (from l) Simon

Orchard, Kieran Govers, matthew Swann, after scoring a goal against Pakistan. AFP

legend fears for the game

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Former Pakistan captain Islahuddin Sid-dique is concerned for the future of thegame in his country after the men's sidecrashed out of the Olympics.Needing to win their last game to have achance of reaching the semi-finals, Pak-istan were routed 7-0 by Australia.Pakistan finished bottom of their groupat the 2010 World Cup and Siddique isworried about the national game."If you are losing, losing, losing, peopledon't want to come and play hockey," hehe said."It was really disappointing because Aus-tralia beat Pakistan by a tennis score. Weused to win by five, six seven goals andnow we are losing by the same score."Everyone wants to see the Pakistan flaghigh and for Pakistan to win the title.Everyone understands hockey it is ournational game and with this result, Ithink everyone is annoyed."Pakistan has won medals at eightOlympics including gold in 1960, 1968and 1984 but Siddique, who won 130caps for Pakistan scoring 117 goals, feelsthe team is falling further behind rivalcountries.Siddique, who led the side to one of theirrecord four World Cup wins, added: "Notreaching the last four is very disappoint-ing for Pakistan hockey. Other teams areplaying very high skill hockey and Pak-istan must improve."We need some surgery and we needsome good infrastructure in hockey."Pakistan manager Akhtar Chaudhry criti-cised his team for the manner of their de-feat."The midfield was totally abolished andthe forwards totally failed to win a singlepenalty corner," he said."Because of this bad play Pakistan lost 7-0. Today is the worst game and I havenever seen Pakistan play like this beforein my 47-year career."

LOnDOnafp

Imperious Usain Bolt eased through thefirst round of the Olympic 200m onTuesday as the Jamaican took the nextstep towards a sprint double after havingalready retained his 100m title in style.

Reigning champion Bolt showed nosigns of fatigue as he ran the bend hardbefore relaxing in the home straightand strode over the line to win in20.39sec in the first heat on a chillymorning in the Olympic Stadium. "Thiswas an easy run. I am enjoying it," saidBolt. "This is my favourite event so I amlooking forward to it." His main chal-lenger for the 200m, Yohan Blake, alsonegotiated his passage into the nextround with ease, as the Jamaican whotook the silver behind Bolt in the shortsprint won his heat in 20.38sec.

Blake said it was possible Bolt'sthree-year-old world record of 19.19seccould be under threat in the later rounds.

"The track is fast and Usain is fast soanything is possible," Blake said.

European challenger ChristopheLemaitre of France also went throughafter winning his heat in 20.34sec.

The challenge for the United States

will come from Wallace Spearmon, whoqualified second in his heat, while his USteam-mate Maurice Mitchell also wentthrough with a time of 20.54sec to winhis heat. Spearmon is bidding to put be-hind him the disappointment of the Bei-jing 2008 final when he was disqualifiedfrom the bronze medal position for run-ning out of his lane.

Bolt and Blake easethrough 200m rounds

LONDON: Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt paid tribute to Liu Xiang on Tuesdayafter the Chinese star suffered an agonising exit from the Olympics for the secondtime in a row. Liu, who had been forced to withdraw from the 110m hurdles in Bei-jing four years ago just moments before his first heat, fell at the first hurdle hereTuesday as he returned to the Olympic arena. The 29-year-old's sad exit from thecompetition sparked a wave of sympathy amongst athletes and spectators, with100m champion Bolt leading the way. "It is really hard for him because I think heis one of the best, hands down," said Bolt after strolling through his opening 200mheat. "He has shown the world he can do great things. For him to push himself andcome back last year... for this to happen, this is really sad for any athlete." afp

Bolt tribute to liu after hurdles heartache

champion He

leads springboard

field into final

LONDON: Defending champion HeChong goes into the final of the men's 3mspringboard as the Olympic gold medalfavourite after topping the semi-final quali-fiers on Tuesday. He trailed after four ofthe six rounds but came home strongly tofinish with 510.15 points, 4.55 clear ofRussian Ilya Zakharov (505.60) and 9.80ahead of Chinese teammate Qin Kai(500.35) to head the 12-man field intoTuesday night's final.Two-time world champion He took controlwith a score of 91.80 for an inward threeand a half somersault with tuck in the thirdround and 91.20 for a forward four and ahalf somersault on his fourth dive.China have already won the opening fivediving events as they target an unprece-dented clean sweep of all eight gold medalsin London after finishing with seven of theeight golds in Beijing four years ago."I think my performance is just so-so," Hesaid. "I still have room to improve for thefinal because I can do much better in train-ing, I especially hope I can have less splash."I just followed the routine which mycoach told me to do. I never changed it.There's no real competition between theathletes so I have no strategy, I just wantto do my best." Zakharov, who finishedrunner-up behind He at last year's Shang-hai world championships, zoomed to sec-ond overall with a spectacular forwardfour and a half somersault which scored acompetition high 100.70. afplONdON: A combination of pictures show jamaica's usain Bolt as he gestures before competing in the athletics events. AFP

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Sports 16

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

feng succeeds li as parallel bars champion

LONDON: China's Feng Zhe took the honours in the men'sparallel bars final on Tuesday to succeed his countryman LiXiaopeng as Olympic champion. Germany's Marcel Nguyencame second, adding another silver medal to the one he wonin the individual all-around final earlier in the competition,while Hamilton Sabot of France finished third. Feng, parallelbars world champion in 2010, now has two gold medals at theLondon Games, having already played a part in China's vic-tory in the men's team final. His score of 15.966 saw him fin-ish 0.166 points above Nguyen, with Sabot posting a score of15.566 to succeed compatriot Benoit Caranobe -- the all-around bronze-medallist in 2008 -- as an Olympic medal win-ner. "I think the judges were more nervous than me!" saidFeng. "I have learnt so much from this experience. It has beenperfect." Japan's Kazuhito Tanake finished in fourth place,with his brother, Yusuke, seventh. After his team-mate ZhangChenglong had fallen from the apparatus in the opening rou-tine, Feng followed Sabot onto the bars and smoothly estab-lished a score that would not be beaten. afp

Hoy wins record sixth gold

LONDON: Sir Chris Hoy crowned his Olympic career with arecord sixth gold medal here Tuesday to become the mostdecorated British Olympian in history after powering to vic-tory in the keirin.Germany's Maximilian Levy finished secondto take the silver with New Zealand's Simon Van Velthoovenand Dutchman Teun Mulder sharing the bronze after a longwait for a photo finish decision. Hoy won three Olympic goldmedals in the sprint, keirin and team sprint four years ago toadd to his kilometre time trial crown from Athens in 2004.And despite being unable to defend his sprint title after beingousted by Jason Kenny for Britain's sole spot in the event,Hoy struck gold twice in his two London events of the teamsprint and keirin. The 36-year-old Scot's sixth gold meansthat on the count of gold medals alone, he overtakes Sir SteveRedgrave's tally of five gold medals, all of which were won inconsecutive Games. "I'm in shock, you try and compose your-self but it's surreal. I wanted to win gold in front of my homecrowd. I saw everyone stepping up to the plate and thankfullyit worked out for me too," said Hoy. Asked if he would com-pete at the Rio Games, Hoy said his preference would be toend his career at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow."Not in an Olympic Games. afp

iran grab gold in 96, 105kg wrestling

LONDON: Iranian Ghasem Gholamreza Rezaei won theOlympic Greco-Roman wrestling 96kg gold medal Tuesday,beating Russian Rustam Totrov 3-0 in the final. Bronzemedals went to Armenian Artur Aleksanyan and Sweden'sJimmy Lidberg.Later in the day, Iran's Salimi wins men'sover-105kg weightlifting gold. afp

Omer Associates in semiLAhORe: Omer Associates confirmed their place in the semi-final of Advance Telecom 2nd Corporate T20 Cup 2012 played atthe DHA Sports Club Moin Khan Academy on Monday. FamousAll-Rounder Shahid Khan Afridi graced the post match ceremonyas chief guest. He paid tributes to his former captain and fellow-test-cricketer Moin Khan, Chairman Tournament Committee forhis untiring efforts in organizing an excellent tournament. suMMarized sCores: Omer Associates beat candyland by 30 runs, Omer Associ-

ates 127-6 in 20 overs (Omer Siddique 35, Shaharyar Ghani 26, fahad ul Haq 24;

Zahid mehmood 3-13) candyland 97/10 in 17.2 overs (fawad Khan 19, Asif Afridi 16;

Sultan Ahmed 4-24, Hafiz Sajid 2-17, m. irfan 2-18) sTaff reporT

LOnDOnafp

bRITAIN won a 22nd Olympicgold medal on Tuesday to makeit the host nation's most suc-cessful Games in history. Thegold for the dressage team atGreenwich pushed the gold

medal haul for the London Games beyond the 19that Britain won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Britain is comfortably third in the medals table,behind China and the United States.

The Beijing total had been equalled when AlistairBrownlee won the men's triathlon earlier on Tuesday.More medals could follow in the track cycling later inthe day. Britain have already won five golds in theVelodrome and Tour de France winner Bradley Wig-gins took the cycling time trial title.

Four golds have come from rowing, while a re-markable night in the Olympics Stadium on Saturdayproduced three golds, for heptathlete Jessica Ennis,Mo Farah in the 10,000m and Greg Rutherford in thelong jump. Sailor Ben Ainslie won the fourth gold ofhis Olympic career, while Andy Murray beat RogerFederer to take the men's singles title. Britain's othergold medals came in canoe slalom and shooting andfrom the team show jumping event. British competi-tors have been supported by funding underpinned bythe national lottery in preparation for the firstOlympics held in London since 1948.GReAT bRITAIN wIN hIsTORIc DRes-sAGe TeAm GOL: Great Britain celebrated theirfirst dressage medal in Olympic history with gold inthe team event at Greenwich Park on Tuesday, takingthe host nation's gold total to a record 20.

A century of disappointment at this exalted levelcame to a glorious end for the London 2012 hostscourtesy of Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin and LauraBechtolsheimer. The triumphant trio followed upBritain's show jumping team gold 24 hours earlierwith a score of 79.979 to defeat dressage masters Ger-many, who took silver on 78.216.

The Netherlands, on 77.124, revised down slightlyafter an initial total of 77.127, came in third.

Britain went into this final round with a slenderlead over Germany, who were seeking their ninthconsecutive Olympic title. And with Princess Anne,who competed at the 1976 Montreal Games, in thecrowd, the home team were set on their way by a su-

perb opening test from Hester - who posted a newOlympic Grand Prix Special record riding Uthopia.

Bechtolsheimer, on Mistral Hojris, kept the mo-mentum rolling with Olympic debutant Dujardinsealing victory on Valegro and lowering the freshly es-tablished Olympic record set a few minutes earlier inthe process. Hester, appearing at his fourth Olympics,said: "I know it is an old cliche, but this is the culmi-nation of many years of dreaming about it and it fi-nally happening. "Both those girls (Dujardin andBechtolsheimer) are cool customers. "Charlotte wasunbelievable. The horse (Valegro) was also unbeliev-able, he's the best horse in the world."

He added: "I told Charlotte on the way down herethat some people wish it would happen, some peoplethink it will happen, and you're going to make it hap-pen. "She just goes in and does it like the true pro-fessional she is and like most of the athletes who havewon gold for Britain. It has shot our sport into a to-tally different league." Dujardin could be celebratingfurther gold on Thursday in the individual dressage,for which the inexperienced but brilliant 27-year-oldwill start hot favourite.

She praised Valegro, describing him as "a once-in-a-lifetime horse." And on scoring higher than hermentor, Hester, she added: "I always love beatinghim. We will be competing again in the freestyle andI will beat him again!"

Up to this remarkable turnaround in their for-

tunes, the mysterious world of dressage based on cav-alry training techniques developed in Europe in theMiddle Ages had eluded Britain.

Equine ballet, as it has been described, involvesthe top hat and tailed rider instructing the horse withbarely perceptable movements to demonstrate obe-dience, relaxation and agility. Among the moves arepiaffe, where the horse appears to be dancing on thespot, and half-pass, a trot diagonally across the arena.

Each routine, set to music, lasts around six min-utes and is assessed by eagle-eyed judges sitting inwooden cabins around the arena. Britain's best pre-vious showing in dressage came four years ago in Bei-jing when they came in sixth to Germany.

Well-beaten in sixth on Tuesday came the UnitedStates, with one of their number, Jan Ebling, ridingRafalca, part-owned by Ann Romney, wife of Repub-lican presidential hopeful Mick Romney.

Rafalca's ears were covered with an equine-stylebaseball cap, sporting the Stars and Stripes.

Asked if his horse's owners had turned up towatch Ebling replied: "Yes, the three amigos are in theaudience. That is Mrs Romney, my wife and BethMeyer. "I blew them a kiss at the end as I knew wherethey were sitting."

The equestrian competition continues onWednesday with Britain's Nick Skelton riding BigStar fancied to win individual show jumping gold toadd to the team title he won here on Monday.

PALLEkELEafp

Virat Kohli cracked a half-century andIrfan Pathan bagged three key wicketsto help India post an easy 39-run winover Sri Lanka in the one-offTwenty20 international in Pallekeleon Tuesday.

In-form Kohli hit a 48-ball 68 forhis maiden half-century in T20 inter-nationals while paceman Pathan fin-ished with 3-27 as India bowled SriLanka out for 116 after scoring 155-3.

Man-of-the-match Pathan joltedSri Lanka's top order when he dis-missed skipper Mahela Jayawardene(26), Tillakaratne Dilshan (0) andUpul Tharanga (5) in his openingthree overs to reduce the hosts to 35-3. Seamer Ashok Dinda finished with4-19, including three wickets in anover, as Sri Lanka lost their last sixwickets for 20 runs. Angelo Mathews

top-scored for Sri Lanka with 31.Kohli earlier smashed one six and

11 fours before being caught by LahiruThirimanne at deep mid-wicket offdebutant paceman Shaminda Eranga,who took 2-30 off four overs.

"I think we mastered our bowlingand batting better than them," saidIndia captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

"We thought we were 15 runsshort, but overall we were reallygood."

Kohli, who scored two centuriesin the recent five-match one-day se-ries in Sri Lanka, put on 74 for thesecond wicket with opener AjinkyaRahane (21) and 48 for the next withSuresh Raina who made a 25-ball 34not out.

"We thought 150 was achievable,"said Jayawardene. "We're making alot of mistakes and when you comeacross a team like India it is tough."

Sri Lanka struck early after elect-

ing to field as Eranga bowled openerGautam Gambhir (six) with his fourthdelivery, but Kohli and Rahanepropped up the innings.

Kohli went for his shots from the

beginning as he hit pacemen ThisaraPerera and Eranga each for threefours in an over. He reached his half-century with a four off left-arm spin-ner Rangana Herath.

Kohli, Pathan star in India T20 winindia:

G. Gambhir b eranga 6

a. rahane c and b Mendis 21

V. Kohli c Thirimanne b eranga 68

s. raina not out 34

Ms dhoni not out 16

extras (lb7, w3) 10

Total (for three wickets; 20 overs)

155

fall of wickets: 1-7 (Gambhir), 2-81 (rahane), 3-129 (Kohli).

bowling: Mathews 3-0-23-0, eranga 4-0-30-2 (w2),

Malinga 4-0-31-0 (w1), perera 4-0-34-0, Herath 3-0-17-0,

Mendis 2-0-13-1.

sri LanKa:

M. Jayawardene lbw b pathan 26

T. dilshan b pathan 0

u. Tharanga c raina b pathan 5

L. Thirimanne b ashwin 20

a. Mathews c dhoni b dinda 31

J. Mendis c rahane b yadav 11

d. Chandimal c Kohli b dinda 7

T. perera run out 1

s. eranga c ashwin b dinda 6

L. Malinga c dhoni b dinda 0

r. Herath not out 0

extras (lb2, w7) 9

Total (for all out; 18 overs) 116

fall of wickets: 1-7 (dilshan), 2-14 (Tharanga), 3-35

(Jayawardene), 4-68 (Thirimanne), 5-96 (Mathews), 6-100

(Mendis), 7-102 (perera), 8-116 (Chandimal), 9-116 (eranga),

10-116 (Malinga).

bowling: pathan 4-0-27-3 (w3), yadav 3-0-24-1 (w2),

dinda 3-1-19-4, Kohli 3-0-13-0, sharma 1-0-9-0 (w1),

ashwin 4-0-22-1 (w1).

result: india win by 39 runs

Toss: sri Lanka

umpires: Kumar dharmasena (sri) and Tyron

Wijewardene (sri)

TV umpire: ruchira palliyaguruge (sri)

Match referee: Chris broad (enG)

sCoreboard

ranK CounTry G s b ToTaL1 china 34 21 18 732 uSA 30 16 20 663 Britain 22 13 12 474 South Korea 12 5 6 235 Russia 9 18 20 476 france 8 9 11 287 italy 7 6 4 178 Kazakhstan 6 0 1 79 Germany 5 14 7 2610 Netherlands 5 3 6 1411 Hungary 4 2 3 912 iran 4 2 1 713 North Korea 4 0 1 514 Australia 3 12 9 2415 cuba 3 3 1 716 Belarus 3 2 3 817 New Zealand 3 1 5 918 South Africa 3 1 0 419 ukraine 3 0 6 920 japan 2 13 14 2921 Romania 2 5 2 922 denmark 2 4 2 823 Brazil 2 1 5 823 Poland 2 1 5 825 jamaica 2 1 1 4

Top 25 MedaL CounTries LasT updaTe aT 1 aM

MedaLs TabLe

22nd gold makes it Britain’s best Games

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Britain's Alistair Brownlee won goldwith the fastest Olympic triathlonyet Tuesday as his brother Jonny re-covered from a time penalty to takebronze -- and then dramatically col-lapsed minutes later. The elderBrownlee completed the 1.5kmswim, 43km bike-ride and 10kmrun at London's scenic Hyde Park in1hr 45min 25sec, the quickest sincetriathlon's Olympic debut in 2000,and 11 seconds ahead of Spain'sJavier Gomez.

But his jubilation at walkingacross the line, draped in a UnionFlag to thunderous applause,turned to worry when Jonny,crossing 31 seconds behind, col-lapsed and started vomiting afterhis extreme exertions.

After an hour's delay for med-ical treatment, the three medallistsemerged for the victory ceremonybut the younger brother was tooweak to stand as he gave media in-terviews. It underlines the inten-sity of triathlon -- and reprisessimilar scenes in 2010 when Alis-tair Brownlee, who was leading a

race on the same course, was takenill 400 metres from the finish andstaggered across the line in ninth.

"After the finish I collapsed. Icrossed the line and I felt awful,but that's part of racing. But I gotinto the tent afterwards and I gotworse and worse and I over-heated," Jonny Brownlee said.

Penalty, collapse mar British triathlon win

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Sports17

Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

cyprus hails silversailor, its firstOlympic hero

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Cyprus basked in Olympic glory onTuesday after its first ever medal winnerPavlos Kontides sailed his Laser to silverand can expect a hero's welcome whenhe returns home to the east Mediter-ranean island.Starved of international sporting suc-cess, the local media lapped up Mon-day's London 2012 medal triumph as amuch-needed antidote to gloomy reces-sion economics. Kontides has beenshowered with congratulations andplaudits from across the Cyprus politicaland sporting spectrum.Daily newspaper Politis summed up themood with the simple headline: "Pavlos,we thank you," while the mass-circula-tion Phileleftheros said Kontides haswritten the first golden chapter inCypriot sport. "There is nobody likeyou," trumpeted daily sports newspaperGoal on its front page.Sport Day went even further. It ran afront-page opinion piece calling Kon-tides "our modern-day Saint Paul." Thesaint's first missionary journey took himto Cyprus. "He has come to make us be-lieve that nothing is impossible in thislife," it said.Simerini newspaper said Kontides hadsingle-handedly raised the profile ofCyprus sport on his mast.On Monday the 22-year-old won the sil-ver medal in the men's Laser one-persondinghy event on 59 points behind Aus-tralia's Tom Slingsby with 43."It's a historic day for Cypriot sport andI'm very happy that I'm the one respon-sible for it," he said soon after receivinghis medal. Kontides is now expectedback home on Thursday to a rapturousreception from grateful fans, especiallyin his home Limassol, the island's sec-ond city on the south coast.He can also expect to be thanked per-sonally by President DemetrisChristofias who attended the first weekof the Games. Before the event nobodyin Cyprus had dared to believe that Kon-tides could steer to a podium place. Hetook a two-year break from his studiesat Southampton University in Englandto prepare for 2012 and had to overcomeseveral injuries. The island's first evermedal hopes had been pinned on worldclass skeet shooter George Achilleos,tennis player Marcos Baghdatis -- whoboth failed -- and Kyriacos Ioannou whowas competing in Tuesday's high jumpfinal. Cyprus joined the InternationalOlympic Committee in 1979 and sent itsfirst team to Moscow.

Aussies confidentagainst uS NBA stars

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If Patrick Mills sounds crazy when hesays the Australia Boomers are confi-dent they can defeat the unbeaten USNBA Dream Team in their Olympicquarter-final matchup on Wednesday,just ask the Russians.Mills, a guard for the NBA San AntonioSpurs, sank a 3-pointer at the finalbuzzer to deliver Russia's first loss of theOlympics 82-80.That last-second stunner has sparkedthe Aussies' imagination about thechances of delivering the NBA super-stars a setback for the ages."We have no choice. We have to believethat we can win," Mills said. "We'regoing into the next game with all we'vegot. Going into the quarter-finals andgoing against the United States, it'samazing to me."There's a different feel, a different vibe,a different belief in ourselves for ourgoal to be reached." That goal would beto play for an Olympic medal. Australialost bronze-medal Olympic matches in1988, 1996 and 2000 and has not playedfor gold -- yet."Russia was unbeaten so we feel likewe're really putting ourselves in themix," Aussie captain Matt Nielsen said."We have USA next so we feel reallyconfident going into that."

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Olympic champion Zhang Jike suffereda shock defeat as China survived a cou-ple of unexpected wobbles before beat-ing Germany 3-1 to reach the final ofthe men's team event on Monday.Zhang lost in four games to Timo Boll,the former world number one, butChina recovered to beat Germany 3-1

and emulate their women, whoreached their final by beating SouthKorea 3-0 in the morning.

Few visualised such a setback forZhang, who only four days earlier hadadded the singles gold medal to hisworld title. Instead he found it impos-sible to contain the left-handed loopsand hits of Boll from positions all overthe table, and the German's 8-11, 11-8,11-9, 11-8 victory ignited the match.

It put Germany and China level at1-1, and when Boll and Bastian Stegertook the first game in the doubleswhich followed, there was a hint ofpossible defeat for China, who not onlyhold the Olympic team title but havecaptured 18 out of 26 world team titles.

"For 20 or 30 minutes I was a littlebit nervous," said coach Liu Guoliang.

"But I actually thought the doubleswas the more important match.

BmX bandits hopeto put brakes onGB gold show

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Australia's Sam Willoughby and French-woman Magalie Pottier will be amongthe riders aiming to stop Britain baggingmore Olympic cycling gold from theBMX events later this week.BMX -- or bicycle motorcross to give thesport its full name -- made its Olympicdebut in Beijing where Latvian MarisStrombergs and Frenchwoman Anne-Caroline Chausson won the men's andwomen's inaugural golds. And whileBritain have continued their dominationof track in the Olympic velodrome, theBMX field is far more competitive.Willoughby, a 21-year-old from Ade-laide, is BMX's newest world champion,having won gold earlier this year aheadof Frenchman Joris Daudet.As Australia continues to reel from hav-ing won only two gold medals,Willoughby brushed off suggestions hissquad had been cursed."I'm not superstitious. There's no curses.I did the work and I have 100 percentfaith in what I've done," saidWilloughby.Both the men's and women's field racedthe Olympic Park circuit in a test eventlast year. It has since undergone changesafter a number of riders were injured.Pottier believes the changes make for amore exciting, and fairer race."Now it's better, because some ridershad an advantage over others from thestarting point and also because therewere some areas soggier than others,"said Pottier, a world champion earlierthis year. "Now the first right is thesame for the men's and women's events.Then the girls we'll have a tunnel, whichis something new." British medal hopeLiam Phillips welcomed the changes too:"They have downscaled things a lot sincethe test event which I think is a goodmove in my opinion.

lONdON: japan's forward Kozue Ando (R) vies with france's camille Abilly during their Women's football

semifinal match at the Wembley Stadium in london, during the london 2012 Olympic Games. AFP

China in shock as Liu crashes out

China reach men’s final despite Zhang defeat

BEIJIngafp

cHINA was in shockTuesday as athleticshero Liu Xiang crashedout of the Olympic 110mhurdles in a nightmar-ish reminder of the

2008 Beijing Games when he wasforced to withdraw.

Even state television sports commen-tator Yang Jian could not hold back histears as he reported the news to a stunnednation. His sobs were heard live duringthe broadcast of Liu's elimination.

Liu, a former world record holder andwinner of the 2004 Olympic crown,ploughed into the first hurdle and crashedto the ground to end his London dreams.

The Internet was instantly floodedwith comments on the national hero'sperformance, with Liu nicknamed "LiuShuaishuai" (Liu fell-fell) on Sina Weibo,China's version of Twitter.

"I never imagined that you would saygoodbye in this way to your thirdOlympiad," one commentator using the

name "Maymaypmp" said in a microblogposted on Sina Weibo.

Liu -- who has been troubled by backand foot problems in the past month --was helped off the track and then takenaway from the arena in a wheelchair andthen to the medical centre.

"A single injury to a man causes suf-fering to a population of 1.3 billion peo-ple," said another user posting as"AAAAA".

"How cruel competitive sports are!Liu Xiang is getting old," said"Kouyamin", also on Weibo.

LHR 08-08-2012_Layout 1 8/8/2012 1:59 AM Page 18

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Pietersen refusesto rule out Testretirement

LeeDs: Eng-land star KevinPietersen onM o n d a ydropped abombshell bysuggesting thatthe third andfinal Testagainst SouthAfrica might behis last. "I can't

rule out that my next Test may be my last,"he said after winning the man of the matchaward in the drawn second Test at Headin-gley after a superb innings of 149, which hefollowed up by taking three wickets.Pietersen's future was a major issue beforethe series against the Proteas began. He hasalready announced his retirement from fromone-day international cricket, amid specula-tion he wanted to be available for a full In-dian Premier League programme while stillplaying for England and play in the upcom-ing World Twenty20 in September. afp

PcB gives centralcontract to 17female playersLAhORe : The Pakistan Cricket BoardWomen Wing has on Tuesday an-nounced the Women Players CentralContract List for the 2012 CalendarYear. The seventeen women playershave been awarded contracts in threecategories. The names of women playersby category are as follows:category – A: Sana mir, javeria Wadood, Bismah ma-

roof, qanita jalil, Sadia Yousaf, Nain Abidi

category – B: Nida dar, marina iqbal, Batool fatima,

Asmavia iqbal, Rabiya Shah

category – c: mariam Hassan Shah, Nahida Khan,

Sidra Amin, Sania iqbal, Sana Gulzar, Namra imran.

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Pakistan, New Zealand need to be wary of minnowsLAHORE

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Complacency will be Pakistan’s and NewZealand’s biggest enemy when they lockhorns in Group B of the ICC U19 CricketWorld Cup 2012, a group that also in-cludes a dangerous Afghanistan and Scot-land, which is returning after missing theprevious two events. The ninth edition ofthe ICC U19 CWC will be staged from 11to 26 August in Queensland with GroupB matches to be played on the SunshineCoast. The top two sides will progress tothe Super League quarter-final stagewhile the bottom two sides will competein the Plate Championship. Pakistan isthe only side that has won back-to-backtitles when it won in Bangladesh and SriLanka in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Inaddition to this, it twice reached the fi-nals, in 1988 and 2010, while it lost in thesemi-finals of the 2000 and 2008 tour-naments.

The current form of Pakistan has beenexcellent. At Kuala Lumpur in June, Pak-istan shared the U19 Asia Cup trophy with

India while it beat Australia 2-1 in a seriesthat finished last week on the Gold Coast.

New Zealand has only once appearedin the final of an ICC U19 CWC when, in1998, it lost to England in Johannesburg.New Zealand lost to India in the 2008semi-final, finished third in 2002 and twicefinished fourth, in the 2000 and 2004events. In contrast, Afghanistan and Scot-land are relatively inexperienced sides butthe strong cricket culture in their respectivecountries, backed up by some strong per-formances by their senior sides, make themteams that deserve respect and cannot betaken as push-overs.

Afghanistan will be appearing in itssecond ICC U19 CWC, after having finishedlast in the 16-team contest two years ago,with Afsar Khan, Hashmatullah Shaidi,Noor-ul-Haq and Yamin Ahmadzi return-ing for their second World Cup.

Scotland is returning to the event afterhaving missed the events in Malaysia andNew Zealand in 2008 and 2010, respec-tively. It also didn’t figure in the tourna-ment that Sri Lanka staged in 2000.However, for the ICC U19 CWC 2012, Scot-

land qualified in style when it topped thepoints table of the 10-team ICC U19 CricketWorld Cup Qualifier 2011 that was stagedin Derby, Ireland. In that event, Scotlandwon eight of the nine matches.

The Pakistan side will be led by BabarAzam who, along with Usman Qadir, alsoplayed in the ICC U19 CWC 2010. Babaris the only player in the side with first-class experience.

dibaba on coursefor distance double

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Defending champion Tirunesh Dibabaof Ethiopia qualified fastest for the finalof the 5000m on Tuesday as she chasesa second consecutive Olympic long dis-tance double.The Ethiopian, who has already won the10000m in London, won her 5000mheat in a time of 14min 58.48sec, edgingout Athens 2004 gold medallist MeseretDefar (14:58.70)Double 2011 world champion VivianCheruiyot of Kenya, who finished thirdin the last week's 10000m, also qualifiedfor Friday's final in 15:01.54.Dibaba was the first woman to completethe 5000-10000 double in Beijing andsuccessfully defended her 10000 title onthe opening day of the track and fieldprogramme in London.Defar said her plan was to save energyand qualify for the final."It was a good race and everything wentaccording to plan. I am ready for thefinal," she said."I have a good chance. I'm in good shapeand I'm feeling fine, but there are otherstrong athletes in the field and I willnever stop fighting for it."Other qualifiers include Viola Kibiwot,who has twice won the world crosscountry title, and Kenya's Sally Kipyego,who took silver in the 10000m in Lon-don. The women's 5000m became anOlympic event at the Atlanta 1996Games, succeeding the 3000m. Ethiopialead the table with two gold and threebronze medals.

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JAPAN'S 'Nadeshiko'women's football teammoved within one win ofa rare World Cup andOlympic double Mondaywhen they set up a final

with fierce rivals the United States.Japan beat France 2-1 to advance

to their second major final in as manyyears. The Americans, their opponentsin last year's World Cup decider, dra-matically edged Canada 4-3 in the lastminute of extra time.

"We were always confident wewould not lose," said Japanese strikerMegumi Takase, adding there were jit-ters when France's Elise Bussagliastepped up to take a late penalty.

"We were all praying on the benchthat she would miss, and she did."

Victory on Thursday at WembleyStadium would make Japan only thesecond team to hold both the world andOlympic titles, after the United Stateswhen they won the 1999 World Cup.They relinquished their Olympic crownthe following year.

Goals in each half from Yuki Ogimiand Mizuho Sakaguchi appeared to haveleft the Japanese cruising into Thurs-day's final.

However France staged a desperatelate fightback to run the Japanese close,with Eugenie le Sommer pulling a goalback to make it 2-1 on 76 minutes.

France then appeared poised toequalise after le Sommer was bundled

over in the penalty area by Sakaguchi toearn a penalty.

But the pressure was too much forFrance's Elise Bussaglia, who blastedher spot-kick well wide as a goldenchance to level went begging.

The United States advanced to thefinal after an Alex Morgan goal in thelast minute of extra-time snatched agripping win over Canada.

In one of the most extraordinarymatches in the history of the tourna-ment, the American women came frombehind three times to level at 3-3 in 90minutes before Morgan's 120th-minuteclincher at Old Trafford.

After another 18 medals were settledon day 10, China remained two clear ofthe United States at the top of themedals table with 31 golds. Xu Lijia'swomen's Laser sailing victory was theironly win of the day.

China's men's basketball team was

shocked 90-58 by Britain -- who hadnever before won an Olympic match --and triple Olympic champion gymnastChen Yibing retired after being edged byBrazil's Arthur Zanetti in the men's ringsfinal. Olympic champion Zhang Jike suf-fered a surprise defeat in the team tabletennis, to Germany's Timo Boll, beforeChina advanced to a final against SouthKorea.

India had mixed fortunes in the box-ing, with Vijender Singh going out in themen's middleweight quarter-finals as hefailed to match his 2008 bronze -- thecountry's first Olympic medal in thesport.

But five-time world champion M.C.Mary Kom guaranteed at least a bronzemedal in the first ever Olympic women'sboxing tournament when she beatTunisia's Maroua Rahali.

She will now Britain's Nicola Adamsin the flyweight semi-finals.

'Posh' British team sparks row over class divideLOnDOn

afp

Britain may be basking in Olympic glory, but at the "People'sGames" many of the host nation's team come from privilegedfamilies and compete in costly sports. A disproportionate num-ber of British competitors at London 2012 were educated at fee-paying schools, and the government faces growing calls to tacklethe perceived elitism of top-level sport.

Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughter Zara Phillips- who won a silver medal in the three-day eventing- was following a tradition of British royals com-peting at the Olympics, but one of her schoolmatestook home a medal too. HeatherStanning, who with HelenGlover won Britain's firstgold medal of the Games inthe women's double sculls,attended the elite Gordon-stoun boarding school inScotland, where Phillips alsostudied.

Some 20 percent of Britain'steam were privately educated, and in rowing,

sailing and the equestrian events -- all British specialities, andall seen as expensive pastimes -- the figure rises to a third. Incontrast, just seven percent of the overall British population at-

tend fee-paying schools, with the other 93percent studying at state-funded

institutions. British OlympicAssociation chief Lord Colin

Moynihan last week con-demned the dominanceof private-school-edu-cated athletes in theBritish Olympic team as

"one of the worst statisticsin British sport".

"There is so much talent out therein the 93 percent that should be iden-tified and developed," said Moynihan,who is himself an aristocrat. Calling for

a dramatic overhaul of school sportspolicy, Moynihan said it was "wrong and

unacceptable" that so many top British athletescame from private schools. Alan Bairner, Professor of Sport andSocial Theory at Loughborough University, said a combinationof factors was responsible.

‘Nadeshiko’ in sightof Games gold

uSA into women’s finalafter extra-time thrillerLONDON: The United States advanced to the final of the Olympic women'sfootball tournament on Monday after an Alex Morgan goal in the last minute ofextra-time clinched a dramatic 4-3 victory over Canada. In one of the most ex-traordinary matches in the history of the tournament, the American womencame from behind three times to level at 3-3 in 90 minutes before Morgan's120th-minute clincher at Old Trafford. Canada -- who had taken the lead threetimes thanks to a magnificent hat-trick from captain and striker Christine Sin-clair -- were left shattered by the agonising nature of the loss. The United Stateswill now play Japan in Thursday's final at Wembley in a rematch of last year'swomen's World Cup final won by the Asian giants. afp

england beat Pakistan in ahigh-scoring warm-up matchLAhORe: A big hundred by Ben Foakes, a near ton by Daniel Bell-Drummond and somemoments of brilliance from the Overton twins Jamie and Craig, delivered an encouragingfive wickets victory for England against Pakistan in a warm-up match of the ICC U19 CricketWorld Cup 2012 in Brisbane. England won a high-scoring game at Redlands, thanks to 133off 119 balls from Foakes. The Essex wicket-keeper belted 14 fours and five sixes as hehelped his side chase down Pakistan’s 281 for six with 36 balls to spare. Craig Overton was30 not out after his twin Jamie had taken three wickets and pulled off a key run-out in thePakistan innings which revolved around a classy century from Saeed Ali.Saeed hit a neat100 from 93 balls, including eight fours and a six, before Overton’s run-out in the 45th overstymied Pakistan’s charge. A solid 79 from No.3 Imam Ul-Haq, nephew of former Pakistancaptain Inzamam-ul-Haq, got the Pakistan innings off to a promising start. Apart from run-ning out Saeed, Jamie Overton picked up 3-22 from seven overs. sCores in brief: england beat Pakistan by five wickets at fred Kratzman Oval, Redlands, Pakistan 281 for

six (Saeed Ali 100, inam ul-Haq 79; jamie Overton 3-22), england 283 for five (Ben foakes 133, daniel Bell-

drummond 91; usman qadir 2-48) sTaff reporT

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Wednesday, 8 August, 2012

19

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami

PESHAWARsTaff reporT

AT least two security personneland three militants were killedin a clash in the most sensitive

and well-guarded Cantonment area ofPeshawar in the wee hours of Tuesday.

According to officials, the clasherupted between a group of militantsand security forces at RA Bazaar andState Life Building Chowk when themilitants attempted to escape the cus-tody of security forces.

Per details, a number of militantsattempted to escape security forces’custody at around 11:15pm on Mondaynight. An emergency was declaredacross the Cantonment as soon as thenews broke out. Meanwhile, a clasherupted between militants and securityforces that continued for more thantwo hours. The officials said on Tues-day morning that the gun-battle had re-sulted in the killing of three militantsand two personnel of the securityforces. The deceased personnel wereidentified as Salim and Nadir.

Soon after the clash, security wastightened across the Cantonment andvehicles without authorized permits andstickers were not being allowed to enter

the area. Almost all secret and law en-forcement agencies dealing with terror-ism and militancy have offices and cellsin the Peshawar Cantonment. The Pe-shawar-based United States and

Afghanistan Consulates are also situatedin the area apart from the Governor’sHouse, Chief Minister’s House, FlagStaff House, Pearl Continental Hotel andother important installations.

ISLAMABADaGenCies

Despite tough opposition from Oil andGas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), theEconomic Coordination Committee(ECC) of the Cabinet has allowed to de-termine oil prices on weekly basis on trialbasis to examine impact on general publicand oil marketing companies.

The ECC met here on Tuesday underthe chairmanship of Federal Minister forFinance and Economic Affairs Dr AbdulHafeez Shaikh to discuss various agenda ofnational importance. The ECC approved toimport 0.3 million urea and decided not tochange existing pricing formula. ECC alsoapproved in principle the removal of HighOctane Blending Component (HOBC)from inland freight equalization margin

(IFEM) regime, subject to consultation andendorsement from ministry of law and jus-tice. The ECC also approved the short andlong term liquefied natural gas (LNG) im-port framework proposed by ministry ofpetroleum and natural resources. How-ever, the ECC formed a technical group towork further on mechanism, bidding de-tails, guarantee matters and legal issues asraised by minister of law and to present areport to ECC a next meeting.

The ECC approved import of furnaceoil by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) underterm contract. However, the ECC askedministry of petroleum and natural re-sources to work for detailed calculationson the subject with consultation of min-istry of finance. The matter of terms ofsettlement with IPPS regarding delays inpayments by power purchaser under

power policy 2002 was also discussed inthe meeting. The ECC approved the pay-ment schedule of the amount of Rs 24 bil-lion which is overdue and payable formore than 45 days, as proposed by min-istry of water and power. The ECC alsoconstituted a committee comprising Sec-retary Petroleum and Natural Resources,Secretary Finance and Deputy ChairmanPlanning Commission to work further onthe other matters of the said proposal.

While arguing the need of energy in thecountry, ministry of water and power pro-posed a summary for issuance of GOPguarantee in the sum of Rs 10 billion to beraised in the form of loan from thebanks/institutions by WAPDA for watersector projects and the repayment of loanalong with interest to be made throughPSDP as concurred by the Finance Divi-

sion. The ECC approved in principal thesummary; however, the retiring of loan willbe decided by a committee headed by DCPlanning Commission, and comprisingSecretary Finance and Chairman WAPDA.The ECC approved in principle the pro-posal for issuance of Government of Pak-istan guarantee for 10 billion rupees to beraised in the form of loan from banks andinstitutions by WAPDA for water sectorprojects. The ECC also allowed 30,000 tonsof sugar export to Tajikistan on governmentto government basis at price differential of$ 20 per ton from international market.

The ECC also approved in principlethe sale of wheat to Iran under bartertrade system. The ECC asked GovernorState Bank to get Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs’ viewpoint in context with interna-tional trade restrictions faced by Iran.

uS mosque destroyed insuspectedhate attack

WASHIngTOnafp

A mosque burned to the ground in themidwestern United States on Monday, inwhat worshippers suspect was a hate attack,less than a day after a deadly shooting at aSikh temple. Firefighters and police werecalled to the Islamic Center in Joplin,Missouri at 3:40 am (0840 GMT) — aboutan hour before local Muslims were about topray during Ramadan — according to theFBI. “The building was completelydestroyed,” said Sharon Rhine, aspokeswoman for the local Jasper CountySheriff’s office. No one was hurt in theincident, according to a statement by theoffice that referred to the mosque as an“Islamic Church.” “No-one wasapprehended. They don’t want to call it ahate crime without information orknowledge of having someone to charge,”Rhine said. Monday’s blaze followed anattack on July 4, when an unidentifiedsuspect threw a petrol bomb onto the roof ofthe same mosque, causing minor damage.The mosque’s surveillance cameras capturedan image of the assailant’s face, and the FBIrecently offered a $50,000 reward forinformation leading to the arrest of the manbehind the July incident, but no one hasbeen apprehended. FBI spokeswomanBridget Patton said both incidents occurredin the middle of the night, but said the FBIwould “wait to determine the cause of thefire.” “If it is determined that the attack wasintentional, we will conduct an investigationto see if there is any correlation between thisfire and that of July 4,” Patton added. But thelocal Muslim community, which numbersaround 125, said the fire was one of a seriesof attacks on their mosque since it wasfounded in 2007. “We’ve been constantlyunder attack,” said former mosque boardmember Navid Zaidi, 47. “Our sign has beenburnt ... Our mailbox was smashed multipletimes. We had bullets shot at our sign.” Zaidisaid it was fortunate that the attack occurredin the early morning when no one was theredespite Ramadan, the busy and ongoingMuslim holy month of fasting and prayer.Zaidi also complained that no suspects havebeen caught in the month since the July 4attack. “I don’t recall in my 27 years in theUS, ever seeing perpetrators apprehended,”he said. At an attack at a Sikh Temple onSunday, a gunman shot and killed six peoplebefore he was shot by a police officer. “Wehope these are isolated events, but suddenlythey have become more regular and bolder,”Zaidi added. The American IslamicCongress, a Muslim advocacy organizationwith headquarters in Washington, Bostonand across the Middle East-North Africaregion, condemned both the attack againstthe Wisconsin Sikh Temple and the Missourimosque. “These faith communities came tothis country seeking democracy and freedomand hoping to worship the way they wish,”the congress’s Washington-based director,Zainab Al-Suwaij told AFP.

Gunmen kill

19 in nigerian

churchLAgOS

afp

Gunmen have opened fire on anevangelical church during a service incentral Nigeria, killing the pastor and atleast 18 worshippers while injuringseveral others, officials said Tuesday.Kogi state, southwest of the capitalAbuja and the scene of the latestviolence, has not been hit particularlyhard by the Islamists, althoughmembers of the group are believed tohave come from the ethnically diversearea. In mid-July, a bomb went off nearanother church in Okene, but caused nocasualties, while in April, the JTF said ithad discovered a Boko Haram bombmaking factory in Kogi, in the town ofOgaminana. The radical Islamist groupBoko Haram, responsible for hundredsof deaths across north and centralNigeria this year, have repeatedlytargeted Christians during worship in aseries of gun and suicide bomb attacks.“The attack was at 8:20 pm yesterdaynight. The attack was from unknowngunmen at the Deeper Life Church,” saidLt Col Gabriel Olorunyomi, head of amilitary task force in Kogi. “They weredoing their normal Monday eveningservice. When we went there wediscovered the church had beenattacked. Instantly we saw 15 peopledead, including the pastor,” heexplained. The military has sincelearned that an additional four peoplehad died from their injuries,Olorunyomi explained. The NationalEmergency Management Agency’scentral region chief, Ishaya Chonoko,said several people were also injured inthe raid and that rescue workers were atthe site. There was no immediate claim ofresponsibility and Kogi state policespokesman Simon Ile told AFP there wereno early indications as to the culprits.“They entered the church...they justopened fire and they went away. We don’tknow their motives yet,” he said. WhileMuslims have often been its victims, BokoHaram, which has said it wants to createan Islamic state in northern Nigeria, hasincreasingly attacked Christians, oftenduring church services. In addition tochurches, Boko Haram has also targetedMuslim figures as well as a range ofothers, including the United Nationsbuilding in the capital Abuja.

2 troops, 3 militants killedin Peshawar Cantt clash

four policemen killed, 14 injured in turbat bombingQUeTTA: Four police personnel werekilled and another 14 were injured in abombing in Turbat, southwest ofQuetta late on Tuesday night. Pla-toons of Balochistan Constabulary(BC) and reserved police were goingfor deployment in the area for the reli-gious congregation of Zikris to be heldfrom Ramadan 23 to 27 in Turbattown. When the trucks carrying thesecurity personnel reached Shapuk, 25kilometers from Turbat, a powerfulblast took place, killing four BC per-sonnel on the spot and injuring 14others. When contacted, District Po-lice Officer Farooq Faiz Lahri said twoof the injured were declared to be seri-

ous, adding that efforts were beingmade to arrest the culprits. He saidevery year police provided protectionto Zikri pilgrims who came fromKarachi and other parts of Balochistanto participate in the annual congrega-tion, adding that this year too the BCpersonnel were coming to Turbat forbeing deployed for maintenance of lawand order in the area. Levies officialShamim Ahmad said the civil adminis-tration was of the view that improvisedexplosive device could have been usedto be detonated by a remote-controlleddevice. However, he said investiga-tions by the bomb disposal squad wereunderway. SHAHzADA zuLFIQAR

ECC okays weekly revision of petroleum prices

OAK cReeK: A man vists the makeshift memorial near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on Tuesday. AFP

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