islamabad — peshawar edition

PAGE | 22 PAGE | 07

No need for referenceagainst Justice

Chaudhry, says PMPAGE |03

Evidence against Arsalanworried me but I didn’tshed a tear: Aitzaz

Higher educationvital for progress: PM

Rs 15.00 Vol ii no 346 22 pages

ISLAMABADsTAff REpoRT

Drum roll. All rise.Call to witness.

Real estate ty-coon Malik Riaz Hus-

sain arrived inIslamabad on Monday

night, all pepped up to standbefore the Supreme Court in personand lay before it the “explosive” ev-

idence regarding the monetary in-centives and payments meted out to DrArsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in antic-ipation of getting cases pending againsthim with the SC settled in his favor.

In what is being called the mother ofall conspiracies, Malik Riaz – reportedto have the right friends in the rightplaces, the most notable being PresidentAsif Ali Zardari – allegedly paid between

Rs 300 million andRs 400 million to theCJP’s son to getpending cases de-cided in his favor.

Though JusticeChaudhry’s son hascategorically deniedhaving ever met orknowing Riaz, somenoted TV anchors havetold the apex court thatthey had been shown doc-umentary proof of the pay-ments made to Arsalan by theproperty tycoon. As the two-member SC bench of JusticeJawwad S Khawaja and Justice KhiljiArif Hussain resumed hearing in the suomotu notice of the graft charges against Ar-salan on Monday, it rejected an application

Real estate tycoon MalikRiaz back with ‘explosive’evidence against Dr Arsalan, set to appear before SC today

SC rejects application by CJP’sson seeking FIR against Malik Riaz for running ‘slander campaign’

Hague arrives formediation as USpulls out negotiatorsafter Kayani snub

ISLAMABADsHAiQ HUssAin

As the talks between Pakistan and the US on the reopeningof the stalled NATO supplies remained inconclusive despiteintense negotiations, Britain has decided to intervene andmediate between the estranged allies.In this regard, British Foreign Secretary William Haguewill hold important talks with top Pakistani leadershiptoday (Tuesday).The British foreign secretary will meet Pakistan’s civilianand military leaders in the wake of failed negotiationsbetween US Assistant Defence Secretary Peter Lavoy andthe Pakistani officials in the last couple of days.Before Lavoy’s talks with the Pakistani authorities, a USteam headed by US deputy ambassador RichardHoagland had also been discussing the issue but couldnot make any progress. Pentagon on Monday reportedlyconfirmed that the talks between the US and Pakistan onreopening the NATO ground supply routes intoAfghanistan had stalled. “The Pentagon has called itsnegotiating team home,” Pentagon spokesman GeorgeLittle was quoted as saying in reports from Washington.The diplomatic circles here say frustration was at all timehigh in Washington over Islamabad’s refusal to reopenthe NATO supplies and now hopes have been attachedwith the visit of the British foreign secretary who willpress the Pakistani leadership to oblige the US.“The British foreign secretary’s mediation is aimed at theunblocking of NATO supplies and for that he coulddiscuss his country’s plan with Pakistani leaders thatcould help end the stalemate,” said a diplomatic source.He, however, showed ignorance about the details of theBritish plan to defuse tensions between Islamabad andWashington. A Pakistani official, when contacted, saidthe reason for no progress in Pakistan-US talks wasWashington’s refusal to tender a public apology over theSalala incident.

SC has hadenough of FCg CJp says court will summongen Kayani if fC is not bridled

g says whoever provides evidenceagainst fC turns up dead

ISLAMABADAgEnciEs

Severely annoyed by the antics and a recent newsconference by Frontier Corps Inspector General MajorGeneral Ubaidullah Khattak, Supreme Court ChiefJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday saidthe court would be compelled to summon the army chiefunder Article 190 if no concrete steps were taken by theFC to mend its ways in Balochistan.A three-member SC bench comprising JusticeChaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khwaja and Justice KhiljiArif Hussain resumed hearing into the Balochistanmissing persons’ case on Monday, with the CJPexpressing anger over a news conference held by theFC IG. The CJP said Khattak’s press conference was inviolation of court orders and a uniformed general hadno business holding such an event.He ordered the video of the press conference beproduced before the court, adding that the recordingwould be sent to the army chief and the defencesecretary. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry saidthe court could pass an order under Article 190 forsummoning Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani and askhim what he could do to resolve the Balochistan quagmire. “Time has come to summonsomeone with authority.” He said the province couldnot be left in a lurch as it was the heart of the countrybeing its most important component.The chief justicesaid whoever provided evidence against the FC turnedup dead and the killing of more than 20 people inBalochistan in the past few days was alarming.QUETTA: A boy carries a toddler, wounded by a motorcycle bomb, at a hospital on Monday. At

least six people were killed in the incident. afp | story page 28 ConTinued on page 04ConTinued on page 04

ConTinued on page 04

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02Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

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Higher education vital for progress: pM pML-Q to play active role in next election: shujaat

PML-N marches on toPresidencyISLAMABAD: Hundreds of workers, leaders and parliamentari-ans of the PML-N on Monday marched towards the Presidencyfrom the National Assembly building as a token of protest againstthe “corrupt PPP government”. Opposition Leader in the NationalAssembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan led the rally. Security officialsdeputed along the route failed to prevent the PML-N workers fromreaching the President’s House. The protesters chanted slogansagainst the government and marched on to the main gate of thePresidency. Addressing the participants, Nisar said corrupt Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari and convicted Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani should quit office or else the people would not give them wayto flee the country. He said the rulers should realize that PML-Nworkers had managed to enter the Red Zone and they should won-der what would happen if PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif gave a call fora long march. Nisar said the rulers had proved the worst rulers ofthe nation’s history, adding that they should step out of their air-conditioned palaces and see the miserable conditions the commonman was living in. onLine

Girl commits suicideafter failing exam RAWALPINDI: A girl committed suicide in Dhok Kala Khan area ofRawalpindi on Monday after she failed her matriculation exam. Per de-tails, Nazia failed her Matriculation exam and took her life when herparents urged her to continue studies. Johnson, the girl’s father, saidhe and his wife worked at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences andhad two sons and three daughters. He was in Islamabad for a congrega-tion when his wife informed him that his daughter had failed the exam.“We expressed our desire that she continue study, which made her takeher life. She was taken to PIMS but could not survive,” he said. onLine

Musa Gilani appears before ANF

probe team, records statementISLAMABAD: Ali Musa Gilani, son of Prime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani, recorded his statement before the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF)for the third time in the ephedrine quota case on Monday. Accordingto a private TV channel, Gilani reached the ANF office in a car withno number plate. ANF officials questioned the accused for threehours. Sources said 159 questions were asked but junior Gilani failedto give a satisfactory answer. The officials said he denied any connec-tion with former health secretary Asad Hafeez. inp

Toy bomb kills mother,hurts childrenPESHAWAR: A bomb hidden in a toy exploded on Monday,killing a mother and wounding three young children who hadpicked up the device while out playing, police said. The incidenttook place in the Nasir Bagh area on the outskirts of Peshawarthat runs into the semi-autonomous tribal belt that US officialsconsider a safe haven for Taliban and al Qaeda linked militants.“The children, including a girl and two boys, brought home abomb concealed in a ball, which exploded with a bang killing awoman and wounding her two boys and a niece,” senior local po-lice official Shafeerullah Khan told AFP. The dead woman wasaged 32. Her wounded niece is four years old, and her two sonsseven and nine, police said. Local police official Haqdad Khanconfirmed the casualties. afp

ISLAMABADApp

Lawmakers on Monday urged the govern-ment to devise an effective strategy to helpsteer the country out of the power crisis andmake the national economy vibrant andstrong. “The power issue is directly linkedto the country’s economic development andif the government succeeds in overcomingthe power crisis, the economy will witnessa sharp growth,” Fiza Junejo of the Pak-istan Muslim League-Quaid said while par-ticipating in the general discussion onfederal budget 2012-13 in the National As-sembly.

She said there was a potential of gener-ating over 16,000MW through hydel elec-tricity in the northern areas and thispotential must be explored to producecheap energy in the country. She alsostressed on utilizing other sources of energylike solar, wind and coal. She said the tax

system of the country needed improvementand the tax net should also be increased inorder to achieve the tax collection target forthe upcoming fiscal year.

PPP’s Abdul Ghani Talpur said thebudget 2012-13 was the best budget pre-sented by a government and the oppositionwas struggling to find words to criticize it.He said the agriculture sector was the back-bone of the country’s economy and its de-velopment would help strengthen thecountry. He proposed that the subsidy foragriculture sector be enhanced in the up-coming fiscal year to encourage farmers. Hesaid Pakistan had the capacity to produceover 18,000MW of electricity. “The Kotripower plant has a capacity to produce225MW of electricity, but it is only produc-ing 50-60MW due to non-provision of gas,”Talpur added. MQM’s Shagufta Sadiq saidthe shadow budget proposed by the MQMwas prepared to guide the government indrafting a budget that could lead the coun-

try towards development. She proposed im-posing tax on people whose income wasover Rs 400,000. She also urged introduc-ing agriculture tax in the country.

She said the salary increase of 20 per-cent for government employees was not inaccordance with inflationary trends. PPPMNA Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor said the“system is hostage to WAPDA plunderers.They are not ready to fulfill their responsi-bilities. They support leakages and pilfer-age”. He regretted that “WAPDA is a whiteelephant and not even in the government’scontrol”. Former federal ministerHameedullah Jan Afridi went a step furtherby saying that WAPDA officials themselvesencouraged people in FATA to pilfer power.“WAPDA officials tempt our people to stealpower. When tribesmen approach them fora valid connection, they advise the con-sumers to use power and pay themmonthly. They discourage official connec-tions,” he said.

Lawmakers stress on resolution of power crisis

sC formslarger benchto hear memocase today

ISLAMABADApp

Chief Justice of Pakistan IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry on Mondayconstituted a nine-member larger bench tohear memo case on Tuesday (today).The bench would be headed by the ChiefJustice and consist of Justice MianShakirullah Jan, Justice Jawwad S.Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain,Justice Tariq Parvez, Justice Asif SaeedKhan Khosa, Justice Amir Hani Muslim,Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry and JusticeSheikh Azmat Saeed to hear theconstitutional petitions regarding thealleged memo delivered to Admiral Mike Mulen.The commission constituted by theSupreme Court on Monday submitted itsreport in court. The commission held 24 marathonsessions recording statements of thepersons concerned including that of theprime character Mansoor Ijaz on videolink, while the statement of HusainHaqqani could not be recorded as he likeIjaz on the pretext of security demandedvideo link facility, which the commissiondidn’t accede and, thereafter, Haqqanidespite repeated summons refused to cometo Pakistan.

g Slam WAPDA for inefficiency, encouraging power theft

MAsTUng: Local residents gather beside the wreckage of

a passenger bus destroyed by a bomb near Dreengar

town on Monday. afp

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03Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

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Where are we going wrong?Through trade:Peace with India.Dr faisal Bari says;Health rights?: Time for a deeper debate on the topic.

Kuldip nayar says;Rife with groupism: Both the Congress and the BJP.syed Hassan Belal Zaidi says;Beware of watchdog: It’s all about access: those who have it seek to protect it; those that don’t will speculate till the lie becomes accepted fact.

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Bangladesh turns away Muslims fleeing Myanmar Kareena rubbishes insecurity rumours Rain seals England-windies draw

KARACHIisMAiL DiLAwAR

SINDH government Monday un-veiled its Rs 577.98 billion tax-freebudget in the Sindh Assembly forthe financial year 2012-13, indicat-ing a deficit of Rs 7.166 billion.

The budget deficit was attributed to a“massive jump” in development portfolio.

“I present this budget free of any new tax,”Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah told the desk-thumping provincial legislature called to orderby Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza. Taking pridein making history by presenting the fifth con-secutive fiscal budget by any democratically-elected government, the deputy speaker andthe finance minister thanked the PPP’s coali-tion partners whose support had made it pos-sible. One may see a political touch in the newbudget by noticing certain figures, like a com-parison of the development funds earmarkedby the politically-embattled PPP-led coalitiongovernment during its five-year tenure, includ-ing Rs 231.174 billion of FY13, more than allo-cated by all previous governments from 1947 to2007. “During five years in power, the PPP-ledgovernment allocated unprecedented Rs 644billion for development… compared to this, thecumulative development spending from 1947to 2007 was Rs 310 billion,” the finance minis-ter said. The government’s ability to utilize theallocated funds, however, could be questioned,given the fact that the new budget documentcarries a huge revised “carryover cash balance”

of Rs 32.606 billion against Rs 4 billion esti-mated in Budget FY1112.

This year, too, the cash-strapped Sindhgovernment estimated to see its “carryovercash balance” accumulating to Rs 5 billion. Ac-cording to Shah, the outlay of the new fiscalplan showed an increase of 26 percent or Rs120.44 billion over the Rs 457.54 billion revisedestimate of the fiscal year FY12. The currentrevenue expenditure is projected at Rs 315.301billion, up by Rs 5.85 billion compared to Rs309.458 billion of revised estimates for the cur-rent fiscal. The estimated current capital ex-penditure amounts to Rs 31.508 billion againstthe revised Rs 28.834 billion.

In the proposed budget, total revenue re-ceipts have been estimated at Rs 570.81 billion,24 percent higher than the current year’s re-vised estimate of Rs 458.42 billion. This 24 per-cent growth, however, decreases to 15 percentor Rs 75.389 billion when the total receipts arecompared with FY12’s revised estimate of Rs495.428 billion. Of the total receipts, the cur-rent revenue receipts amount to Rs 478.544billion against. Of the current receipts, the fed-eral transfers and provincial receipts, respec-tively, are expected to total Rs 381.910 billionagainst FY12’s Rs 323.183 billion and Rs96.633 billion. The federal transfers include Rs314.366 billion revenue assignment, Rs 59.252billion straight transfers and Rs 8.29 billiongrants to offset losses of abolition of 0.66 per-cent of Sindh’s share in the Octroi Zilla Tax(OZT). A collection target of Rs 32 billion hasbeen set on account of GST on services, regis-

tering a growth of Rs 7 billion against Rs 25 bil-lion of outgoing FY12.

The estimated increase of Rs 7 billionequates to the budget deficit for FY13, meaningthe gap would be bridged through collectingmore sales tax on services. Also, the calamities-hit Sindh government expects to receive Rs41.189 billion on account of various levies, ex-cluding GST on services, while Rs 23.44 billionwould be raised as non-tax revenue. The bud-geted Rs 28.199 billion current capital receiptsinclude Rs 6.933 billion in localrepayments/loans, Rs 9.081 billion receipts asDPC/SWAP and World Bank, Rs 1.01 billion asEuropean Commission grant and Rs 11.170 bil-lion as Asian Development Bank funding.Other receipts envisaged are Rs 18.470 billionas foreign project assistance, Rs 17.187 billionas Flood Emergency Reconstruction Projectand Rs 14.516 billion as other federal grants.

The receipts and disbursements under theprovincial public accounts have been projectedat Rs 700.44 billion and Rs 691.54 billion, re-spectively. Proposing creating 20,000 new jobsin FY13, the provincial government proposedto spend Rs 111.96 billion and Rs 49.52 billionon education and health, respectively. A pro-posed sum of Rs 39.30 billion would be spenton the Sindh Police to maintain the prevalentpoor law and order across the province. Con-cluding his budget speech, the finance ministersaid: “I hope the coming year brings prosperityfor Sindh and may we continue to channel ourresources in the most effective manner for thedevelopment of our province.”

Sindh unveils Rs 577.983b tax-free deficit budget for FY2013

i never cried over arsalan’swrongdoing: aitzaz

LAHOReAgEnciEs

Rejecting media re-ports that he cried afterseeing “evidence”against Dr ArsalanIftikhar, son of ChiefJustice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry,Pakistan People’s Partyleader and seniorlawyer Aitzaz Ahsansaid on Monday that hehad only cried over thedeath of his mother andBenazir Bhutto. “In Ar-salan’s case, I was onlyworried,” he said.Aitzaz said it was a per-sonal matter of Arsalanand the SC chief justicehad nothing to do withit. He said he had seensome material against Arsalan, but refused to comment in de-tail as the matter was in court. Aitzaz said investigation intothe allegations leveled against the chief justice’s son should bemade so that the conspiracy, if any, could be revealed. He saidChief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should not betermed responsible for his son’s personal matters. To a ques-tion, Aitzaz said the chief justice should not have sat on thebench hearing the case also involving his son. He said he triedto suppress the scandal for the respect of the judiciary and thechief justice, but a group of anchorpersons raised the issue andMalik Riaz would now have to appear before the SupremeCourt in the case. Aitzaz advised Malik Riaz to avoid furtherfanning the issue. He said the PPP government had always re-spected the judiciary as the party leadership, President Asif AliZardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani were not com-menting on the Arsalan scandal.

QuettAApp

The Balochistan coalition government pre-sented a Rs 179.93 billion tax-free budget forthe fiscal year 2012-13 during the provincialassembly’s session on Monday. No deficit wasshown in the budget.

A 20 percent increase in salaries and pen-sion of government employees and 6,530 newvacancies were announced in the next fiscalbudget. Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhootanipresided over the sitting. Balochistan ChiefMinister Aslam Raisani and Senior MinisterAbdul Wasey were also present. BalochistanFinance Minister Mir Asim Kurd presentedthe budget which included Rs 35.81 billion ofannual development programem and Rs144.11 billion non-development expenditures.The finance minister in his budget speech said6,530 new vacancies in different governmentdepartments had been created in the newbudget. He said the government had also al-located funds for providing internships tomore than 15,000 youths in Balochistan ingovernment departments. Kurd said Rs 13.53billion had been earmarked in the Balochistanbudget for 2012-13 for maintenance of law andorder and related departments. He said Rs 9billion had been allocated for the health sectorand Rs 22.47 billion for education, adding thatthe BPS scale of SST teachers had been up-graded from 16 to 17.

He said Rs 2 billion had been earmarkedfor development projects in the education sec-

tor while 150 new schools would be built innext year. Kurd said Rs 8.50 billion had beenearmarked for Rekodeq project as the provin-cial government had decided to set up an in-vestment board in order to introduceRekodeq and Sandak copper and gold proj-ects in the market in order to get financialbenefits from them. The Balochistan govern-ment also allocated Rs 3 billion for subsidy onagricultural tube wells in the province whilethe federal government would also release Rs4 billion in this regard.

He said Rs 5.20 billion had been ear-marked for the agriculture sector, adding thatfarmers would be given a special financial aidpackage. He said funds had been allocated forthe implementation of solar home system inthe new budget that would cost Rs 888 mil-lion, adding that such projects would alsomeet the province’s energy requirement. Hesaid Rs 800 million financial aid provided bythe government of Japan would be spent onmaking Pasni Fish Harbor operational. Theminimum monthly wages had been increasedfrom Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000. The provincial fi-nance minister said Balochistan would collectan income of Rs 5 billion from its own re-sources, adding that the province would getother receipts from the National FinanceCommission (NFC) Award, gas surchargeand others. He said the revenue estimates ofthe province were Rs 107 billion and capitalreceipts were Rs 36 billion. He noted that thePSDP included 720 ongoing and 732 newschemes.

Balochistan govtincreases aDp by14 percent

QuettAsTAff REpoRT

Balochistan government has made a 14% in-crease in its annual development programfor the next fiscal year by allocating Rs 35.8billion as compared to the previous fiscalyear’s Rs 31.3 billion. The development pro-gram includes Rs 33.2 billion from its rev-enue surplus and Rs. 2.6 billion from foreignproject assistance loan. The Provincial Pub-lic Sector Development program (PSDP) forthe next year comprises of Rs 107.3 billion,making it 33 per cent more of the province’stotal revenue expenditure and almost 20 percent of the provincial consolidated fund(comprising revenue and capital incomeboth). While over 40 per cent, almost Rs.14.1billion, of the total development allocationwill be spent on 720 ongoing schemes,whereas the remaining Rs 21.6 billion will bespent on 732 new schemes. PSDP focusesmainly on infrastructural development ineducation, health and safe drinking watersectors with a view to bring about a changein social development indicators. The allo-cation for the development of economic in-frastructure in the sectors like agriculture,irrigation, small dams, thermal power, in-dustries, mining, etc has registered an in-crease of just over 33 per cent to the tune ofRs 20 billion which is 55 per cent of the totaldevelopment outlay as compared to Rs15.4billion of current financial year.

Balochistan assembly presentsrs 179.93b tax-free budget

g carryover cash soars to rs 32 billion against budgeted estimate of rs 4 billion g revenue receipts

estimated at rs 570.81 billion g collection target against GST on services set at rs 32 billion

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04Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

News

ISLAMABADApp

MEMBERS fromboth sides of theaisle in the Upper

House on Monday urged thegovernment to accelerate ef-forts to overcome the energycrisis and root out corruption.

“Institutional corruptionhas become order of the day.It is eating away the very vi-tals of our society. The gov-ernment should be moreproactive in punishing theguilty,” said Senator TahirHussain Mashhadi of theMQM while taking part in thebudget debate.

He said the MQM gavesolid suggestions to the fi-nance minister before thebudget was prepared andthey should have been incor-porated. He proposed to de-crease petroleum pricessaying, “Even a minor reduc-tion in petroleum prices willprovide a big relief to themasses.” He said some ana-lysts were saying that Pak-istan’s defence budget washalf of the total federalbudget which he said was nottrue. “This is a grave misun-derstanding. The army is ac-tually getting 9.5 percent of

the budget, while Fauji Foun-dation and its other welfareinstitutions are contributingbillions of rupees in taxes,” headded.

He pointed out that Indiawas continuously increasingits defence budget, while Pak-istan’s defence was constantlydecreasing. Mashhadi saidpeople were suffering due topower outages, price hike,unemployment and the gov-ernment should take immedi-ate steps to redress theirgrievances. He underlinedthe need to provide state-of-the-art equipment to law en-forcement agencies forimproving their efficiency.

He proposed to improvethe standard of education inthe country and added thatsalaries of teachers should beincreased. He also suggestedreducing sales tax from 16percent to 12 percent, addingthat the minimum wage oflabourers should be set at Rs10,000. Taking part in the de-bate, Saeedul Hassan Man-dokhail of the PML-Q saidhard realities had been ig-nored while preparing thefederal budget. He said peo-ple were facing a host of prob-lems due to load shedding.He proposed that PML-Q

chief Shujaat Hussain’s for-mula should be adopted to re-solve the energy crisis. Heasked the government to alsoconsider proposals given byLeader of the Opposition inthe Senate Ishaq Dar for solv-ing energy problem and otherissues. He asked all politicalleaders to sit together andfind out a proper solution ofthe situation in Balochistanand Karachi.

PPP’s Sehar KamranMuddasir said despiteglobal slowdown Pakistanhad managed to maintain itsexports during July-April2012 to last year’s level,which saw a phenomenalgrowth. “This is the result ofStrategic Trade PolicyFramework introduced bythe government and the re-sulting increase in exportsto China, Afghanistan andBangladesh.” She said for-eign exchange reserves hadalso witnessed a significantincrease, while per capita in-come had risen from $990to $1152. Sehar said powershortage and load sheddingwas a big crisis. “Althoughvarious steps have beentaken to solve the crisis,there is a need of long-termplanning,” she said.

PARISAfp

A key suspect in theFrench illegal politicalfunding scandal known asthe “Karachi Affair” hasbeen located and ques-tioned by investigators inSwitzerland, legal sourcessaid Monday.

Abdulrahman el-Assir,a Lebanese-born busi-nessman subject to aFrench arrest warrant is-sued last November, wasquestioned on May 30 bySwiss investigators butwas not placed in deten-tion, the sources said.Assir, who is also wantedfor questioning in Spain ina money laundering inves-tigation, is a former asso-ciate of Franco-Lebanesebusinessman Ziad Takied-dine, who has alreadybeen charged with graft inthe investigation. Frenchinvestigators raided

Assir’s Paris apartmentseveral months ago butfound it empty.

The suspect may soonbe questioned in Switzer-land by a French judge, thesources said. The “KarachiAffair”, as it is dubbed inthe French media, is a com-plex probe into allegedkickbacks on arms deals.Investigators are lookinginto irregularities in the fi-nancing of Edouard Bal-ladur’s 1995 presidentialcampaign. Ex-presidentNicolas Sarkozy was then-prime minister Balladur’scampaign spokesman andbudget minister at the time.

Judges suspect Bal-ladur’s campaign of re-ceiving illicit“retro-commissions” fromthe sale of French sub-marines to Pakistan. TwoSarkozy political aides anda former minister areunder formal investiga-tion over the affair. Judges

are also probing claimsthat a 2002 bombing inKarachi that killed 11French naval engineerswas carried out by Pak-istani agents in revengefor the cancellation ofbribes secretly promisedto officials. The paymentof arms sales commissionswas legal in France until2000, but the payment ofkickbacks back to Francewas and is illegal.

The probe focuses onthe 1994 sale of sub-marines to Pakistan andfrigates to Saudi Arabia, inwhich Assir and Takied-dine are believed to haveacted as middlemen.Sarkozy loses his presi-dential immunity a monthafter leaving office on May15 and could be called infor questioning, either as awitness or potentially as asuspect, in the case. Hehas repeatedly denied anywrongdoing.

filed by the CJP’s son thatrequested the court toorder the registration of anFIR [First InformationReport] against Malik Riazfor running a slandercampaign against him inthe media.

Arsalan said that hewas ready to go to jail if thecourt decided to send himand Malik Riaz to prisonand put both their nameson the ECL [Exit ControlList]. The CJP’s son alsodemanded the courtprovide him security, whichthe bench allowed, askingthe attorney general to talkto the interior secretary inthis regard.

Arsalan had also said inhis plea that Malik Riaz hadvideos of his family’s stayin London and he be barredfrom releasing suchmaterial on the socialmedia, and be directed topresent them in the SC.

In its directives, thecourt issued third notice toAli Muhammad Riaz, chiefexecutive of Bahria Townand son of Malik Riaz, toappear before the court inperson.

The bench also rejecteda request by Zahid HussainBukhari, counsel for MalikRiaz, for grant of two days’time to submit a concisestatement, directing him tofile the reply by Tuesday(today).

It directed the FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR) totrace all tax statements andreturns of Bahria Town andsubmit it with the court.

Responding toArsalan’s claims, MalikRiaz’s counsel said hisclient had not talked to anyTV channel aboutpossessing photographs ofArsalan’s mother andsister.

He assured the courtthat his client would not doanything which could bringdisrespect to the chiefjustice or his family.

Rejecting Bukhari’sappeal for time, JusticeKhawaja said theproceedings would not beconducted per his client’s

wishes, adding that it wasunacceptable to him thatthe concise statement hadnot been filed so far. “Wehave to proceed in thematter realizing gravity ofthe situation,” hemaintained.

The judge said thebench would not let theissue drag unnecessarilyand “provide grist to themills”, as the issue wasbeing widely debatedacross the country due toits significance.

Justice Khwaja alsowarned Bukhari that thecourt would “considermeasures if Malik Riaz didnot appear tomorrow”.

Earlier, the SpecialBranch threw an exclusive

security blanket aroundMalik Riaz as soon as helanded in Karachi onboardhis private jet, barring himfrom meeting or talking toanyone. Riaz’s aircraft laterleft for Islamabad afterrefueling.

Upon reaching theIslamabad airport, thecentral character of the“familygate” scandalrefused to answerreporters’ queries on the“explosive” evidence he islikely to present in court.“The SC has barred mefrom commenting in thisregard. Whateverstatement I have to makewill be in the courtroom,”he said before beingescorted out of the airport.

Justice Chaudhry saidthe court wanted toknow what was the roleof the constitutionalgovernment in theprevalent situation inBalochistan.Justice Khawaja saidsome 835 incidents hadoccurred but no one hadbeen apprehended. “Weare neither the enemy ofthe agencies nor theagencies are our enemy,we are ready to givecredit, but they mustperform,” he added.Attorney General IrfanQadir said had therebeen no efforts, thesituation would havebeen much worse. Hesaid 23 missing personshad been recovered.The CJP saidparliamentarian SadiqUmrani had beenwitness to FC roundingup two men.Addressing the agencies’

lawyer, Raja Irshad, thechief justice said, “Trythe accused, don’tmurder them.”Irshad told the courtthat the FC IG’s pressconference was held tohighlight the acts offoreign agencies, but thechief justice said ifforeign agencies werepresent in Balochistan,the responsibility to dealwith them lay with thefederal government.Irshad said foreignagencies were targetingthe FC and so was theSC.To this, the CJP saida video had showed anFC vehicle involved inabduction and undersuch circumstances, whyshould the FC chief notbe consideredresponsible for thesame.Irshad asked the court towithdraw the FC fromBalochistan.The court, however, saidit was for thegovernment to decide.

Mrs ShaheenJahangir, wife ofSahibzada Jahangir,mother of Sheryarand Kafeel Jahangir,passed away onSunday, June 10 inCromwell Hospital,London. She was thedaughter of lateKhawaja Rehmanand sister of KhawajaAsif Rehman. Herfuneral prayer will beheld today (Tuesday)after Zuhr prayers atthe Central LondonMosque in RegentsPark, after which shewill be laid to rest atthe Allum LaneCemetery near thefamily home inElstree. Her Soyemwill be held at herbrother’s home inKnightsbridge onFriday June 15. MrsJahangir was greatlyloved by her familyand friends, in theUK, Pakistan andacross the world, andwill be dearly missed.

Hague arrives

He said the two sides had beenable to cover some ground asfar as the taxation to beimposed on NATO vehicles wasconcerned but the contentiousmatter of US apology over theSalala incident could not besettled. Meanwhile talking toreporters in Washington,Pentagon spokesman Little saideven though the US was pullingout its negotiating team,Washington would continue tomaintain a “dialogue” withPakistan, AFP reported. “That’snot to be taken as a sign of ourunwillingess to continue thedialogue with Pakistanis on thisissue,” he said, adding that thenegotiators are “prepared toreturn at any moment.”Members of the negotiatingteam started to leave over theweekend and the remainder ofthe negotiators would soonreturn to the United States, Littlesaid. The comments came afterPakistan’s army chief, GeneralAshfaq Kayani, refused last weekto meet US assistant defensesecretary Peter Lavoy, whotraveled to Pakistan to try toresolve the dispute, officials said.

Dear DeparteD

PeSHAWARsTAff REpoRT

Two people, including a mili-tant commander, were killedand several others injured as a

result of clashes between guntotting militants from rivalgroups in Khyber Agency’sTirah Valley on Monday. Re-ports from Tirah said militantsfrom Ansarul Islam group al-

legedly attacked a vehicle ofrival Lashkar-e-Islam with animprovised explosive devise(IED). As a result, an LI com-mander was killed and twoothers got injured.

In retaliation, the LI at-tacked a compound run byAnsarul Islam and shot deadone of its commander. Therival groups are engaged inhostilities against each othersfor the last several years.Meanwhile, security forcesand the political administra-tion of South Waziristan

Agency continued search op-eration in Wana on the sec-ond day running. The forcessucceeded in recovering ahuge quantity of weaponfrom militant’s compoundsand hideouts in RustamBazaar. Officials in Wana saida number of shops, hotels andother commercial properties,owned by militants or theirrelatives had been demol-ished during the operation.The operation was started onSunday and is likely to con-tinue until Wednesday.

‘the bomb’ is here!

Senators call on govt toovercome energy crisis

swiss query suspect in frenchpolitical corruption scandal

Clashes between rival militants claim two lives

SC has had enough

isLAMABAD: Major gen gurmit sing (L), ADgMo of indian Defence Ministry chats with DgMo pakistan Army Major general ishfaque nadeem

(2L), and former foreign secretary and designated pakistani high commission to india salman Bashir (R) before a meeting on Monday. afp

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05Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

News

isLAMABAD: police personnel baton charge pakistan Muslim League-nawaz workers who were trying to reach the presidency during a protest rally against the prime minister,

load shedding and corruption on Monday. inp

notices issued toawan, Chishti inpower projectsdelay case

ISLAMABADAgEnciEs

The Supreme Court has issued notices toformer law minister Babar Awan and LawSecretary Masood Chishti in powerprojects delay case. A three-member SCbench headed by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry heard a petition byPML-N’s Khawaja Muhammad Asifagainst delaying of Nandipur andChichokimallian power projects. The courtwas told that the national exchequer hadincurred an unrecoverable loss of Rs 113billion due to the delays. The CJ expressedanger over absence of the secretary offinance. During the hearing, the petitionercontended that both the projects were notaccomplished in time due to a delay inissuance of bill of lading by the authoritiesconcerned and this was causing an annualloss of Rs 62 billion. The CJP remarkedthat according to a commission reportthese projects were to be completed in2011 but the negligence had cost thenation Rs 113 billion. Justice Jawwad SKhawaja noted that the Law Ministrybosses kept the files under the carpet forone year. Tariq Rahim, counsel for theMinistry of Water and Power, told thebench that the Law Ministry wasresponsible, adding that the ECC wouldtake up the matter in its next meeting.

roundtable urges improving internal policymaking processes

ISLAMABADpREss RELEAsE

The need of the hour is for political parties tolook beyond constituency politics and focusmore on national policy concerns. This wasstated at a roundtable held at Jinnah Instituteorganized under a Lahore University ofManagement Sciences (LUMS) politicalparties initiative. In his opening remarks,Raza Rumi, Director Policy & ProgramsJinnah Institute, stressed on the need forpolitical parties to develop existingpolicymaking capacity and in addition, have aspecial focus within each party onformulating policy that envisions the longterm interests of the public, rather than shortterm electoral interests. Senator MushahidHussain Sayed said that a gap exists in almostall political parties in Pakistan when it comesto policy formulation. He added that politicalparties are focused on constituency politicsand on winning elections, rather than onformulating long-term national policies basedon informed thinking. Professor DrMohammad Waseem of LUMS stressed thatpolicy is as important to political parties astheir ‘electability’. According to Dr Waseem,political parties’ focus has remained onnetworking with the voters at the constituencylevel so as to ensure election victories.

7 million Pakistani childrenout of schools: UNESCO

sC directs naB to

expand investigation

into missing

nato containers ISLAMABAD

onLinE

The Supreme Court on Mondayexpressed annoyance over wastage ofrevenue worth billions while hearing thecase of missing NATO containers. Athree-member SC bench headed byChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry also directed NAB to extendits sphere of investigations and takeaction against the accused involvedwhile seeking a progress report in thenext hearing. “It is a matter of immenseconcern but no big fish has beenarrested so far… only some drivers.Billion rupees of tax have been stolenthat adversely affect the economy of thecountry,” the chief justice remarked.NAB informed the court about thedetails of the case, stating that 30,000containers were missed on its way toAfghanistan. The court was told thatinvestigations were underway and sixclearing agents had been arrested. Thechief justice was not impressed and saidNAB had not arrested any prominentfigure so far. The SC then adjourned thehearing until June 15.

ISLAMABADinp

THE Supreme Court onMonday issued noticesto PML-Q PresidentChaudhry ShujaatHussain and others in

light of a report compiled by Jus-tice (r) Ghulam Rabbani regard-ing the National InsuranceCompany Limited scam.

A three-member SC benchcomprising Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, JusticeJawwad S Khawaja and JusticeKhiji Arif Hussain on a suo motualso directed the Punjab inspec-tor general to provide adequatesecurity to Zafar Ahmed Qureshi,former FIA additional directorgeneral.

The bench also directed theFIA director general to come pre-pared with relevant documentsabout the steps taken so far forbringing back the money, al-

legedly laundered by MoonisElahi, from abroad.

The bench also ordered thecommerce secretary and FIAKarachi director to submit com-prehensive reports on the statusof cases pending for adjudicationbefore the FIA and allegations in-volving Amin Fahim, minister forcommerce.

During the proceedings, thecommerce secretary said he hadmoved a letter to the establish-ment secretary based uponSupreme Court’s judgement inthe appointment of OGDCLchairman, that all expenditures,perks and privileged from thecontractual officials should be re-trieved.

Barrister Ali Zafar, counselfor Fahim, stated that his client’sname was being mentioned in theNICL case time and again with al-legations.

He said the FIA investigationofficer had exonerated his client

in his report as he was innocent.The chief justice told him that

the FIA had not completed its in-vestigation yet and his clientcould move court if he felt he wasaggrieved once the process wascompleted.

FIA Karachi Director Moaz-zam Jan said so far they had re-covered Rs 490 million.

Tariq Asad, counsel for AyyazKhan Niazi, former NICL chair-man, contended that his client’sappointment was made in linewith Section 12 of the ordinanceand enumerated the educationalqualification and experience.

The FIA official from Lahoreapprised the bench that AkramWarraich, a relative of Habibul-lah Warraich and Mohsin War-raich, the two accused in theNICL case, had given them 10cheques but the fist cheque hadbounced.

The proceedings were thenadjourned until June 22.

ISLAMABADinp

The International LabourOrganisation (ILO), UNICEFand UNESCO on Monday calledfor renewed efforts to end theworst forms of child labour inPakistan.“Human Rights and SocialJustice – let’s end ChildLabour” is this year’s theme.Child labour is bad forbusiness, it hampers economicgrowth and prosperity andblocks social progress – therecan be no social justice withchild labour, said MargaretReade Rounds, Officer in

Charge, ILO Pakistan.This year the World DayAgainst Child Labour spotlightsthe right of all children to beprotected from child labour andfrom other violations offundamental human rights.Pakistan recently experiencedmultiple natural disasters in2010 and 2011 which renderedmillions of people acrossPakistan without livelihoods.This has resulted in increasedvulnerability to child labour inflood affected areas. Provincessuch as Punjab are extendingthe reach of programmes towithdraw children from thelabour force, however

insufficient data is an obstacle.According to most recent ILOglobal estimates around 215million children worldwide“labour”, with more than halfthis number involved in itsworst forms.According to UNESCO’sRepresentative to Pakistan, DrKozue Kay Nagata, “Educationis a basic human right, andchild labour deprives youngchildren from availing theirfundamental right to freeeducation. When children areinvolved in laborious work anddeprived from attendingschool, the opportunity forthem to fully develop their

potential and become aproductive and civilizedmember of the society ismissed.This situation is worsened bythe growing problem ofinsufficient access to schooling.Today, over 7 million childrenof age 5 to 9 years are not inschools. Most of these out ofschool children, it isanticipated, are subject to childlabour. An effective strategytowards elimination of childlabour will be to enforce Article25-A of the Constitution ofPakistan, by making educationcompletely free and compulsoryat least up to secondary level.

SC issued notices to Shujaat,others in Rs 7b NICL scam g court directs Punjab iG to provide adequate security to Zafar Ahmed Qureshi

Gujranwala rape

victim seeks justice GuJRANWALAsTAff REpoRT

A woman in Gujranwala is seeking justice against men whoallegedly reaped her, claiming police released the culprits afterreceiving heavy bribe from them, Pakistan Today learnt onMonday. Reportedly, Rukhsana, 45, was raped by fourinfluential men of her area, Salamatpura. Sources confirmed toPakistan Today that SI Liaqat Shah of Satellite Town policestation had taken bribe and released the culprits. Talking toPakistan Today, the victim said two women of the areabefooled her on the pretext of getting her an easy loan fromKashf Foundation and took me to the residence of Rana Waris,where four people – Rana Waris, Aslam, Rana Sajid and RanaSafdar – raped her. She said she managed to flee and registeredcase with Satellite Town police station, but as investigationofficer Liaqat Shah was a neighbor of one of the culprits, hetook their side and released Safdar and Aslam immediately.She said Liaqat Shah also offered her Rs 500,000 in exchangefor withdrawing the case. Upon her refusal, Shah took Rs500,000 as bribe and released the culprits. Shah, however,denied having gone to Rukhsana’s house as a mediator.

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06Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

News

DERA gHAZi KHAn: Border Military police personnel accused of raping five girls arrive at a court on Monday. onLine

TAPi gas project

most important for

Pakistan: ZardariASHGABAt

inp

The construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gaspipeline is “essential” and will mark anew era of cooperation at the regionaland inter-regional level, President Asif AliZardari said in a message to his Turkmencounterpart GurbangulyBerdimuhammadov on Monday.“Pakistan is considering the constructionof the TAPI gas pipeline as a majorproject, which is the beginning of a newera of cooperation at the regional andinter-regional levels,” said the message,delivered on the 20th anniversary ofestablishing diplomatic relations betweenthe countries. Zardari said Pakistan wasamong the first countries to recognizeTurkmenistan’s independence.“Increasing dynamics of mutuallybeneficial partnerships is due to thestrategic location, rich hydrocarbonresources of Turkmenistan andopportunity provided by Pakistan to usethe ports for access to various worldmarkets,” Zardari said.

TTP asks Mehsudtribesmen to vacate SWA

WANAonLinE

Banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan hasurged the Mehsud tribesmen of SouthWaziristan to leave their homes, claimingthat the Taliban are in a state of war withthe government of Pakistan. The Mehsudarea of the agency is under the influence ofTTP where Pakistani military carried out abig military operation in 2009. Since then,the Mehsud tribesmen are compelled tolive in nearby Tank and Dera Ismail Khandistricts. Mufti Waliur Rehman is currentlythe head of TTP in this particular region.The Wazir area is comparatively peaceful.Mullah Nazir, a ‘good’ Taliban commanderis the overall head of all militantsrepresenting Wazir tribal background. Acopy of the pamphlet that has distributedby TTP in South Waziristan states: “Weappeal all the people of South Waziristan toleave their homes for safer places, as we arein a state of war (with the government ofPakistan). All contractors, non-governmental organisation workers are ourtargets, as we have never allowed anybodyto carry out work here. We declare ‘AamMaafi’ (general amnesty) for all those wholeave the area. Nobody would be spared ifhe was found working in sectors likeeducation, health and local levies or if he isworker of any NGOs — they would betermed as offender. Those chieftains whosigned agreements for the rehabilitation ofSouth Waziristan and sent back themigrated to this particular area are ourprime targets.”

Asma for urgentmeasures to resolvebalochistan issue

ISLAMABADonLinE

Former Supreme Court Bar Association(SCBA) president Asma Jahangir hascalled for urgent measures to resolve theBalochistan issue and remove the sense ofdeprivation of the people of the province.In an interview with BBC, she said in arecent visit to Balochistan she felt that“the people of Balochistan are nowtalking about elections and trying to comeinto the mainstream, the situation haschanged now as people are talking aboutseparation”. She said the power shiftingfrom the Centre to the provinces in manysectors through the 18th Amendment hada positive impact over the issue ofBalochistan. “People are feeling that theirprovince has gotten its due share in termsof finance and they are of the view that ifthings are controlled by the provinceitself then it would have incrediblefuture,” she said.

g Party president saysnegotiations with otherparties regarding seatadjustment in progress

ISLAMABADnni

PAKISTAN Muslim League-Quaid President ShujaatHussain has said the partywill play an active and effec-tive role in the next general

election and will put its candidates onevery seat after adjustment with otherparties. Addressing the party’s KhyberPakhtunkhwa organising committee at

his residence on Monday, Shujaat saidnegotiations were in progress with otherparties for the general election. He saidthe decision would be taken in consulta-tion but the “party candidates will con-test the election on our tickets andmaintain their entity”.

He said conventions should be heldat the division and the district level inorder to organise and activate the partyin Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said, “Weare sticking to our commitment with thepeople of Hazara.”

Shujaat said in order to organise andactivate the party in the province practi-cal steps including reorganisation wouldbe taken. He said party workers wouldbe given responsibilities in the federaland provincial governments to ensure

that they got their right status.Addressing the meeting, PML-Q Sec-

retary General Mushahid Hussain Sayedsaid the party was a national and demo-cratic party and under the leadership ofShujaat it was maintaining its power andentity and had emerged as a major force.

He said the PML-Q had its trackrecord, adding that it had provided reliefto the people during its tenure andwould take part in the next general elec-tion with a forceful manifesto.

Mushahid said the party had gottenthe best team of talented people and hadits roots in all four provinces.

Provincial organiser Nighat Orakzaisaid despite problems in the province, allpossible steps were being taken tostrengthen the party.

WASHINGtONAgEnciEs

As Sahab, al Qaeda’s propagandaproduction outfit, has indicatedthat Abu Yahya al Libi may bealive, and that a video of him willbe released soon.

Two websites linked to alQaeda announced on Sundaythat they will air a new videofeaturing the network’s deputyleader Abu Yahya al-Libi, whomWashington claimed last week tohave killed.

The messages posted byAnsar and Alfidaa websitessuggested that Libi remainsalive.

“Soon, a video message bySheikh Abu Yahya al Libi, mayAllah protect him,” read themessage posted by Al Qaeda’sSahab media arm on both sites,one of which was put online onaround 1500 GMT on Sunday.

The statement “may Allahprotect him” is reserved for alQaeda leaders who are alive. AlQaeda will say “may Allah haveon mercy him” when referring toa leader who is dead.

It is unclear when this AsSahab statement was produced.Keep in mind that al Qaedareleased a Ramadan video byAtiyah Abd al Rahman less thantwo weeks after he was killed.The tape and the accompanyingannouncement appear to havebeen created prior to Atiyah’sdeath.

US intelligence officials andthe Obama administration havebeen adamant that al Libi waskilled in last week’s drone strikein North Waziristan.

There has been controversyover the reports of deaths of topal Qaeda leaders in the past(most recently, doubts wereraised about initial reports on

the deaths of Atiyah Abd alRahman and Ilyas Kashmiri: alQaeda finally announced Atiyah’sdeath in a martyrdom statement,while Ustad Ahmad Farooqreferred to Kashmiri as beingdead in a recent propagandatape).

It is difficult to be 100%certain if an al Qaeda leader waskilled in a drone strike inPakistan’s tribal agencies, as theTaliban control the ground there.Drones can’t bring a body backhome or sweep in and gatherDNA of those killed.

Instead, US intelligence mustrely on other means to determineif an al Qaeda operative has died:signals intelligence, rumourintelligence, etc. Short of thepossession of the corpse, anofficial al Qaeda martyrdomstatement still remains the bestindicator that a leader wasindeed killed.

DG Khan rapists remanded to police

DeRA GHAzI KHANAgEnciEs

A magistrate on Monday granted a four-day physical remand of the three officialsof the Border Military Police accused ofallegedly raping five girls at Fort Munrohill station in Dera Ghazi Khan. The threeaccused appeared before the court of CivilJudge Jahanzeb Khan. The police toldcourt that accused had tortured the girlsfor five days and asked for further physicalremand of the accused which was granted.Meanwhile, the district sessions judgeissued an order to shift the five girls to ashelter home. Lawyer of the girls arguedthat the police had made an attempt tosave their colleagues by accusing themunder inappropriate sections in the firstinformation report. The victims whilerecording their statement informed thecourt that they were continuouslyreceiving threats. The girls’ Parents, whowere present outside the courtroom,protested against the girls being sent toDarul Aman and demanded that they beallowed to take the girls home. The girls,aged 16 to 21, were intercepted by thepolicemen in Fort Munro picnic resort, onThursday and were allegedly taken to apolice station and raped.

Libi alive, video coming soon: al Qaeda

PML-Q to play active role innext election: Shujaat

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Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

ISLAMABADApp

PRIME Minister Syed YousufRaza Gilani Monday, highlight-ing importance of higher edu-cation, said it is imperative thatmaximum efforts should be

made to improve it as a nation’s prosper-ous future is directly linked to meaningful

investments in science and technology-led higher education.

Addressing the inauguralsession of two-day COM-SATS conference of vicechancellors, rectors, presi-

dents of varsities, scholars,scientists, researchers

and eminent academicians from all overthe Islamic world the Prime Minister said,“In today’s knowledge-based global soci-ety, role of science and technology has as-sumed center-stage in the welfare and wellbeing of the people.” The Prime Ministersaid, “We will have to make increasing in-vestments in education in spite of numer-ous other competing demands and urgedthe universities to prepare their studentsappropriately and equip them with themost relevant skill-sets, suitable for themodern market place. He congratulatedthe organizers of the forum - ISESCO, Min-istry of Science and Technology, HigherEducation Commission and the COMSATSInstitute of Information Technology onthis wonderful initiative. “I really appreci-

ate your timely initiative, foresight and ex-treme hard work in making this event pos-sible.” The Prime Minister said he eagerlylooked forward to the proceedings of theconference, which will result into sound,specific and practical recommendations.

“I am confident that the practical pro-posals will further strengthen our respec-tive higher education systems in generaland research and development in scienceand technology in particular.” He said in-deed, modern life style is so fully infusedwith the foot prints of contemporary tech-nologies, which a few decades back couldnot even be imagined. In last decade or so,he said, the technological advances havebrought about a revolution both in ways ofthinking and living.

Highlighting the results of science andtechnology from the West, the Prime Min-ister said, “We would find that almost allthe modern creature comforts, the moderntechnologies, the modern goods and gadg-ets, the modern cures for diseases, themodern contributions to a variety ofknowledge have all mainly come from theWestern world.”

“We, the Muslims on the other hand,frankly speaking, are only the users andconsumers of the fruits of hard work ofothers,” he added. The Prime Minister nar-rating the history of the Nobel PrizeAwards, which dates back to 1901, said outof 825 individuals and 20 organizationsNobel Prizes winners, only nine hail fromMuslim countries.

Higher education vital for progress: PM

ISLAMABADKAsHif ABBAsi

Avoiding an imminentprotest of teachers againstthe nonpayment of houserent allowance for the lasttwo fiscal years, the Ministryof Capital Administrationand Development Divisionhas sought Rs 586 millionadditional grant from thegovernment.

Joint Secretary of Min-istry of Capital Administra-tion and DevelopmentDivision Prof Rafiq Tahir,talking to Pakistan Today,confirmed that they hadmoved a summary to theMinistry of Finance, seek-ing Rs 586 million addi-tional grant to pay teachers’ceiling dues.

“It is a serious matter.If we get the grant, we willclear all the dues of theteachers”, he added.

Thousands of teachersaffiliated with the FederalDirectorate of Educationhave been running from pil-lar to post for the last twoyears to get their house rent

allowance and after thismove they hope to get theirdue right of house rent.

“We have fed up as dueto non payment of houserent…our landlords havestarted threatening us toget vacated our houses,”said Arslan Ahmed, aschool teacher.

He said that it is of mat-ter of shame for people sit-ting in the helm of affairs asowner of rented house havebeen threatening to throwout teachers belonging onroads.

It is relevant to notehere that thousands ofteachers of FDE run schoolsand colleges are facing dif-ficulties as they had notbeen paid the monthlyhouse rent allowance forthe last two years.

“My landlord has beenthreatening me and myfamily of throwing ourhousehold in street as Ihave not paid the rent forthe last many months. It isa good news for teacherscommunity as CAAD hasmoved a summary for addi-

tional grant,” said Profes-sor Tahir Mahmood, gen-eral secretary of FGCTA.

He said that professorsand teachers were beinghumiliated by the ownersof rented houses, thanks tothe mismanagement ofFDE administration.

“So far teachers’ commu-nity in some extent managedto pay their house rent by re-ducing their kitchen budget,borrowing money from rela-tives and by taking loansfrom banks, but now our alloptions have almost ended,”said a female teacher, wish-ing not to be named.

While talking to a num-ber of teachers, PakistanToday observed that due tounavailability of house ceil-ing, a large number of teach-ers have shifted to ruralareas of the capital from theurban parts where houserent is relatively low.

The teachers’ commu-nity hailed the CAAD deci-sion of seeking ceilinggrants and demanded ofthe government to releasethe amount.

CADD seeks Rs 586m to clearteachers’ house rent dues

UsaiD launches paintingcompetition on energy

ISLAMABADpREss RELEAsE

USAID has initiated a nation-wide painting competition forstudents to help begin a dia-logue on how energy can beconserved. Pakistan has beenpassing through a grave elec-tricity load shedding for lastmany years, which has resultednot only in frustration amongthe general public but has alsoimpacted economy with de-crease in employment and in-vestment opportunities.Aimed at participants betweenthe ages of 8 and 17 years, thecompetition embraces a varietyof themes and styles from wa-tercolors to oil paints and colorpencils. Both English and Urdumedium schools are targetedso that maximum number ofstudents may be engaged and involved in energy conservation.

ISLAMABADsTAff REpoRT

Tarnol police have arrested a person whokilled his real brother over monetary dispute. A team investigating the murder of RehmanUllah who was reportedly shot dead at hisresidence near Chungi No.26, PindParacha, succeeded in arresting the killerwho turned to be Rehman’s real brother,Farman Ullah. Police said that Farman hasconfessed to the offence.WIFE’S KILLER NABBED: Tarnol Policearrested the killer of a married woman whowas assassinated some months back. Thepolice said that woman was murdered byhis husband Shafaqat. The police team re-covered a 32-bore pistol used in the offencefrom the accused who confessed that he hadkilled his wife with the help of his twoother accomplices. His two accomplices, Gulfaraz and TariqMehmud, have been also arrested and fur-ther investigation is underway from them.

Man held forkilling brother

g Says nation’s future directly linked to investment in science and technology-led education

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08 Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Islamabad

Low

high

TueSDAy WeDNeSDAy ThurSDAy39°c i 23°c 39°c i 23°c 41°c i 23°c

PrAyer TiMiNGSFajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib isha

03:32 05:08 12:04 15:48 19:00 20:36

ciTy DirecTory

PoLice eMerGeNcy 15

AMbuLANce 115

reScue 1122

hiLAL-e-AhMer 9250488

eDhi FouNDATioN 2827844

boMb DiSPoSAL 9270698

Fire briGADe ceNTre 16

ciViL DeFeNce 9262830

eMerGeNcy heLP

hoSPiTALS

bLooD bANK

PiMS bLooD bANK 9261272

PoLy cLiNic bLooD bANK 9209123

coMPLAiNT

WAPDA 111-000-118

Sui GAS 1199

rAiLWAyS

ciTy STATioN (eNQuiry) 117

reSerVATioN 9273614

rAiLWAy PoLice 1333

AirPorT

FLiGhT eNQuiry 114

PiA reSerVATioN 111-786-786

coLLeGeS / uNiVerSiTieS

iNTerNATioNAL iSLAMic uNiVerSiTy 9260765

bAhriA uNiVerSiTy 9260002

NuML 9257677

QuAiD-e-AZAM uNiVerSiTy 90642098

AriD AGricuLTure uNiVerSiTy 9290151

FJWu 9273235

riPhA iNTerNATioNAL uNiVerSiTy 111510510

NcA rAWALPiNDi 5770423

PuNJAb LAW coLLeGe 4421347

MAhrooF iNT 2222920

PiMS 9261170

PoLy cLiNic 9218300

cDA 9221334

ShiFA iNTerNATioNAL 4603666

ALi 4444435

DiSTricT hQS 5556311-14

uLTrASoNic cLiNic 2824862

hoLy FAMiLy 9290319

ExHIbITION OF POTTERY

exhibition of Pottery byShehereZADe ALAMon Tuesday 8 May, 2012the exhibition will countinue till 24 June, 2012closed Friday, Saturday & Public holidays

DRUMMING CIRCLE

DATe AND TiMe: 05:00 PM, WeeKLy eVeNTVeNue: The ceNTre For ArTS & cuLTure

our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoingevent and is held every Friday from 5pmto 6pmWe are having a great time, and want toshare the good time with you! ourdrumming circle has children ...

Partly cloudy

WeATher uPDATeS

38°c

DATe: MAy 08 - JuNe 24, 2012 VeNue: NATioNAL ArT GALLery (Free)

24°c

DIRT UNDER MY NAILS

Please join us this Thursday, 10 May 2012for Mohsin Shafi's first Solo Show atKhaas Art Gallery at 5:00 p.m onwards.Do spread the word and bring yourfriends to meet the artist in person andsee his work.

DATe: MAy 10 - 21, 2012VeNue: KhAAS ArT GALLery (Free)

ISLAMABADonLinE

PROSTITUTION is on the rise in Fed-eral Capital as around 300 newbrothels have been opened in addi-tion to illegal pubs. According tosources, these brothels are operating

in sector G-10, G-11, Shahzad Town, BurmaTown, Alipur, Ghauri Town, Pakistan town, ad-joining locality of Khanna Bridge, Shakaryal andPak PWD Colony, especially in the jurisdictionof 3 police stations.

According to sources, the police station thatcovers areas also including Ghauri Town hasmade a strategy to eliminate all the brothels op-erating in the area without the distinction of oldand new ones.

The police have also begun action against theold prostitution dens in Shahzad Town, leavingaside the newly established brothels, and havereceived appreciation from the high-ups. It is ex-

pected that minor action against the old housesof prostitution will continue in the coming days.

The local police are aware of the practice ofprostitution going on in residential flats andbungalows in sector G-11, and a particular placeis also told to have a group of 50 prostitutes. Itis a favorite location of certain influential offi-cials, sources said.

A spokesperson for the federal police hassaid that it resolves to take stern action againstsuch criminals on priority basis and the high-level officials perform their duties with completeresponsibility. CITy govT CHALKS oUT PLAN ToCoUNTER FLooD DISASTERS: Under thedirection of DCO Rawalpindi, Saqib Zafar EDOMunicipal services and DO Solid Waste Manage-ment have reviewed the on going desalinationprocess of Nullah Lai.

The city government has finalised flood planin view of upcoming flood in moon soon seasonwhile cleanliness of nullahs and streams are

being carried to counter the flood disasters, in-cluding the inundation of adjacent areas.

The DO Solid Waste Management has di-rected the Rawal Town authority to remove allkind of encroachments along side the bank ofthese Nullahs and streams Lai.gIRL CoMMITS SUICIDE oN FAILUREIN ExAM IN RAWALPINDI: A girl commit-ted suicide in Dhok Kala Khan after she failed inher matriculation exam.

Nazia failed in Matric examination and tookher life when her parents asked her to continueher education. Johnson, the father of the girl,told the police that he and his wife work in Pak-istan Institute of Medical Sciences PIMS hospitaland have 2 sons and 3 daughters.

He was in Islamabad for a congregationwhen his wife informed him that his daughterhad failed in Matric examination.

They expressed their desire that she shouldstudy which made her take her life. She wastaken to PIMS hospital but could not survive.

300 new brothels emerge in capital

RAwALpinDi: Young Doctors Association president Dr Haroon talks to journalists at a press briefing. inp

ISLAMABADApp

American research presented to explain howovereating may double the risk of memory loss,or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), among peo-ple aged 70 and older. Cognitive decline threat-ens the very nature of who we are and how weinteract with others and the number of individu-als experiencing normal loss of thought andmemory has been increasing over the past halfcentury, Mail Onlien reported.

Loss of cognition and early stage dementiaare both precursors to the devastating conditiondiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease, said to affectnearly half of those aged 80 and above. Calorierestriction initiated early in life may be one of themost effective tools available to combat cognitivedecline and memory loss leading to dementia.

The study was conducted using 1,233 individ-

uals aged 70 to 89 who were free of dementia andliving in Minnesota. Each participant filled out aquestionnaire detailing the number of caloriesthey ate or drank, and were then broken into threegroups based on total caloric consumption.

A third of the participants consumed be-tween 600 and 1,526 calories per day, the middlethird ranged between 1,526 and 2,143 and thetop third consumed between 2,143 and 6,000calories per day. The lead study author, Dr.Yonas Geda, noted of the initial findings, “Weobserved a dose-response pattern which simplymeans; the higher the amount of calories con-sumed each day, the higher the risk of MCI.”

The team discovered that those consumingthe highest number of calories (2,143 caloriesper day and up) more than doubled their riskfor developing MCI. The researchers adjustedfor history of stroke, diabetes, amount of edu-cation and other factors that can affect risk of

memory loss to reach their conclusion. It is im-portant to note that participants in the lowertwo-thirds experienced no increased risk ofMCI, leading to the conclusion that the body isable to metabolize calories to an individual setpoint before cognition is impaired.

It comes as no surprise to those followinghealthy lifestyle principles that caloric intake isyet another lifestyle factor found to affect thebrain and impact normal thinking and memoryprocesses as we age. Researchers have known fordecades that calorie restriction is the onlydemonstrated mechanism to extend healthy lifes-pan, as it is shown to stress the body’s naturalsurvival mechanism toward longevity. Cutting20% of your daily calories in the form of hydro-genated and trans fats, refined carbohydrates andexcess animal protein will not only help youmaintain a normal body weight, but may helpprevent cognitive decline in your senior years.

Overeating doubles risk of memory loss, cognitive decline

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09Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Islamabad

ISLAMABADApp

Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund(PPAF) has disbursed Rs.8.49 billionduring six months for its core opera-tions, launched to ensure bettermentin lives of the common man.

The disbursements included loanwith micro credit and enterprise devel-opment facility Rs. 6.766 million,water and infrastructure Rs. 365 mil-lion, education and health Rs. 361 mil-lion and capacity buildingdisbursements were Rs. 438 million. Asenior official, quoting figures on Mon-day, said the other disbursements in-cluded social mobilization Rs. 220million and disbursements for liveli-hood enhancement and protectionwere Rs. 339 million.

The overall operational and finan-cial outreach during period remainedsatisfactory, the official said. He saidin addition to disbursement for core

operations, Rs. 576 million (Rs. 273million from donors funding and Rs.203 million from PPAF own re-sources) were disbursed for projectand flood relief activities. He said byend of December last year, the totalcumulative disbursements by PPAFwere Rs. 100 billion and added creditand social safety nets enterprise de-velopment accounted for 59 percent oftotal disbursements followed by relief,rehabilitation and reconstruction ac-tivities 20 percent, community physi-cal infrastructure 10 percent, humanand institutional development (in-cluding social mobilization) sevenpercent, livelihood enhancement andprotection one percent and health andeducation three percent.

The official said PPAF’s interven-tions are being carried out nationwidewith 50 percent of the resources de-ployed in Punjab, 19 percent in Sindh,16 % in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4 % inBalochistan; 9 % in Azad Jammu and

Kashmir, 1 % each in Gilgit Baltistanand Islamabad Capital Territory. Giv-ing further details, he said by Decem-ber last, PPAF funding had beendisbursed in urban and rural areas of129 districts through around 297,000community organizations and 114partner organizations, of which 12were focusing exclusively or predomi-nantly on women.

The official said on cumulativebasis, PPAF has financed 5,352,838micro credit loans and added morethan 27,417 infrastructures, healthand education projects were initiatedand a total of 488,249 staff and com-munity members were trained. Hesaid in earthquake affected areas,PPAF, which is a flagship element ofcountry’s poverty reduction strategy,provided financing to 122,000 house-holds to build earthquake resistanthomes and trained over 108,000 indi-viduals in seismic construction andrelated skills.

ISLAMABADonLinE

National Assembly Speaker Dr FehmidaMirza Monday urged the organizationsworking for protection of the child rightsto make collective efforts to eliminatethe bane of child labour.

She said that children were the hopeof mankind and continuity of humanspecies is needed to be protected fromchild labour and other abuses.

In her message on the Child LabourDay being commemorated today (Tues-day) throughout the globe, the speakersaid that million of girls and boys in theworld were engaged in child labourwhich deprived them from education,health and basic freedom.

She said that basic human rightsconventions guarantee fundamentalrights and freedom to adults and chil-dren without any discrimination; there-fore, recognition of equal status tochildren as individuals in enjoying theirfundamental rights and freedom shouldbe ensured.

She called upon the states, organiza-tions and individuals to accord priorityand set goals and strategies and actionsto improve the lives of the children andto protect them from child labour.

She said that the employment of

children under the age of 14 years was amatter of great concern. She said thatthis is not an age to work and collect thelivelihood. She said that this is learningstage for the children and to move freelyto enjoy their freedom.

The speaker said that once they willget a good childhood and education theywill be good citizen in future. She saidthat as per latest ILO statistics million ofchildren are in labour world wide out ofwhich large number are in hazardouswork. She called for collective efforts tostop this practice.

Dr. Fehmida Mirza said that thebasic aim to commemorate the childlabour day to create awareness amongthe public that children needed qualityeducation and proper training she calledupon the parents to rekindle fond mem-ories, create ripples in the parent-childrelationship and spend time with theirchildren to create positive memories andtake part in fun activities.

The Speaker called upon adoption ofbenevolent and compassionate posturetowards disadvantaged children so thatthey could have access to basic livingneeds rather than being forced to engagein demeaning and non-empoweringjobs, early marriages, warfare and othersituations impeding their growth andwell being.

heavy backpacks

cause pain in

children’s backsISLAMABAD

App

Children carrying the heaviest bags were50 percent more likely to experience backpain than those carrying the lightest bags.Girls were found to have more pain thanboys. The research team concludes `car-rying backpacks increases the risk of backpain and possibly the risk of back pathol-ogy,’ noting `the prevalence of schoolchildren carrying heavy backpacks is ex-tremely high, The Telegraph reported. The researchers recommend preventiveand educational activities for children inthis age group. If your child had an un-derlying condition and experiences diffi-culty with walking, the risk of back pain islikely to increase further.The physiotherapy team at Child FirstPaediatric Therapy will be able to assessyour child walking with their school bagand identify strategies to help avoid theonset of pain - remember, as the re-searchers recommend, prevention is bet-ter than cure. If your child alreadyexperiences pain, assessment and treat-ment can assist with the recovery process.Rehabilitation of core stability followingback pain is an extremely important com-ponent of treatment and will help toavoid further incidences of pain. If yourchild does not have an underlying condi-tion and has hurt their back with a sport-ing injury, a sports injury physiotherapyservice may be a more suitable. Feel freeto contact our team for further advice. Ateam from Spain reported the weight ofschool backpacks gives many childrenback pain. 1,403 school children aged be-tween 12 and 17 years were studied innorthern Galicia. More than six out of tenof them carried bags weighing over atenth of their own body weight.

Aiou to send 8

employees for umrahISLAMABAD

App

As many as eight employees of AllamaIqbal Open University (AIOU) were se-lected for performing hajj in a lucky drawheld at Begum Nusrat Bhutto Auditoriumof the University. AIOU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. NazirAhmed Sangi, on the occasion of luckydraw, said five in services and three re-tired university employees who had wonthe lucky draw would perform Umrah. The lucky winners include MuhammadRiaz, Shabbir Ahmed, Amjad HussainShah, Muhammad Ishaq Shahid, Sid-dique Ahmed, Muhammad Javed (re-tired), Prof Dr M Javed Iqbal (retired)and former data processing manager Li-aqat Hussain.

Number of biSP’s

trained persons

rises to 20,000ISLAMABAD

App

Benazir Income Support Pro-gramme (BISP) has provided train-ing to around 964 persons aimed atpreparing them to meet modernneeds in technical areas. The train-ing provided under Waseela-e-Roz-gar programmefor which 4,044 persons have alsobeen enrolled. According to BISPhere Monday, the training is a con-tinuous process and by June 30 thisyear, the total number of recipientsis expected to rise to 20,000. This initiative has been piloted inKarak, Battagram and Bannu dis-tricts. In addition, the BISP also or-ganized vocational trainings for abatch of 173 recipients fromRawalpindi division through fundsprovided by a Chinese civil societyorganization. It may be mentionedthat BISP provides technical andvocational training to one memberper recipient family to help themsecure their livelihood.For trainings, the BISP signedMOUs with several public sectortraining organizations while a largenumber of private sector institu-tions were also selected across Pak-istan through a competitiveprocess.

roll No slipsdespatched tob.com candidates

RAWALPINDIApp

The Punjab University (PU) willconduct the B.com annual 2012 ex-amination as roll no slips has beendispatched to the candidates at thegiven addresses. According to schedule, the exami-nation of B.Com Part 1 will com-mence from June 15 to July 5while examination of B.Com Part 2will be held from June 18 to July6. In case of any inconvenience,the candidates are advised to con-tact with their institutions or thePunjab University Examinationdepartment.

PPAF disburses Rs 8.49b to ensurebetterment in masses’ lives

isLAMABAD: Human rights activist Tahira Abdullah addresses a press conference at sungi foundation. INP

Fehmida Mirza for elimination of child labour

ISLAMABADApp

World Day against Child Labour would beobserved across the world, including Pak-istan, on Tuesday to provide a spotlighton right of children to be protected fromchild labour and other violations of fun-damental human rights.

Various organizations including In-ternational Labour Organisation (ILO),Pakistan would hold activities in differentcities to observe the Day in a befittingmanner.

An official at ILO on Monday said

these will include a seminar, an exhibi-tion, speech contests and host of otherevents at Federal Capital, provincial Cap-itals, Sukkur, Sahiwal etc. A seminar en-titled - Human Rights and Social Justice,Let’s End Child Labour - would bearranged on June 12 at ILO Auditoriumwhich would be addressed by Represen-tative of UNICEF, Dan Rohrmann andCountry Director of UNESCO in Pakistan,Ms. Kay Nagata and other experts.

A speech contest would also be part ofthe activity where students of differentuniversities would compete and awardedcash prizes and certificates.

World Day against Child Labour today

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10Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Islamabad

isLAMABAD: AgpR workers stage a demonstration in support of their demands outside their office. ONLINE

ISLAMABADApp

THOUSANDS of people are vis-iting the hilly areas adjacent tothe federal capital to beat thesummer heat through recre-ational activities. Around

15,000 local tourists visit Murree, Nathi-agali, Ayubia and other popular spots ondaily basis due to rising temperaturefrom twin cities and other parts of thecountry, said an official of PakistanTourism Development Corporation(PTDC) while talking to APP.

With summer vacation in educationalinstitutions, families and groups of young-sters have started moving to these areas tospend their holidays in pleasant weather.The official of PTDC said the people willkeep on visiting these areas till mid Augustto enjoy their vacation through unforget-table experience of picturesque land-scapes, waterfalls and other glimpses ofnature. Close to Murree Hills, other lessdeveloped picnic spots are also gettingpopularity for day-long trips.

For tourists, mountains are consid-ered as the place for leisure activities. Peo-ple admire the beauty of these areas forthe reasons of the climate and clean air,varied topography, beautiful scenery, localtraditions and simple life styles. The do-mestic tourists consider Murree, Nathia-gali and Ayubia as most accessible touristspot to spend summer vacation.

The most popular feature of Chairliftalso serves the visitors with exciting oppor-tunities to experience an elevated passen-

ger ropeway over the mountains in envi-ronment friendly way.PCRWR CHAIRMAN RECEIvES PRESIDENT’SMEDAL FoR TECHNoLogy: Pakistan Coun-cil of Research in Water Resources(PCRWR) Chairman Dr. MuhammadAslam Tahir has awarded PresidentialMedal for Technology for achieving excel-lence in the field of Science & Technologyfor the year 2009 in recognition of hisachievements in the field of Chemistry.

Talking to APP here Monday, FederalMinister for Science & Technology MirChangez Khan Jamali appreciated the bestperformance of Dr. Aslam and said that heis a hardworker and honest officer of min-istry. He said that present government isworking for the development of the tech-nology in the country.

His remarkable achievement includesthe establishment & standardization ofNational Water Quality Laboratory ofPCRWR, which was the first ISO-17025accredited testing and research laboratoryin water sector and is well equipped withstate of art equipment solely for water andwaste water in the country. He also initi-ated National Water Quality MonitoringProgram which generate the first detailedwater quality profile of Pakistan. He hasmore than 21 publications/reports and haspresented research based water qualitypresentations at national and interna-tional forums. Recently, Dr. Tahir has de-veloped innovative and low costhousehold Arsenic Removal Safe WaterFilter to overcome the arsenic contamina-tion issue after tremendous day and nightresearch based efforts.

ISLAMABADApp

The country annually faces shortage ofaround 1,400,000 blood units against thedemand of around 3,200,000 units tosave lives of thousands of the people asvoluntary blood donations remains belowthe set standard, said Project DirectorSafe Blood Transfusion Programme DrHassan Abbas Zaheer.

Addressing a ceremony the other dayto commemorate World Blood Donor Day2012, Dr Hassan Abbas Zaheer said as perinternational standards if one to threepercent of any country’s population do-nates blood, it would be sufficient to meetcountry’s requirement of blood transfu-sion. “But unfortunately, ratio of blooddonation in Pakistan stands even belowone percent of total population,” said theproject director adding the country isamong 77 states faced with the same sit-uation. He said there are only 62 stateswho have got 100 percent blood dona-tions from volunteers, adding the dona-tions made by the professional donors or

patients’ relatives were comparatively un-safe. World Blood Donors Day is cele-brated on June 14 with events to raiseawareness of the need for safe blood andblood products and to thank voluntaryunpaid blood donors for their life-savinggifts of blood.

The theme for 2012 World BloodDonor Day drive is, ‘Every blood donor isa hero’ to recognize the silent and unsungheroes who save lives every day throughtheir blood donations.

Dr Hassan said the trend of donatingblood is very minimal among Pakistanwomen that is just 3 percent of totaldonors, contrary to other countries wherethere is no such gender-based differencein blood donations.

He said currently the private bloodbanks were working without mutual col-laboration however, a network is yet inthe making and the blood TransfusionProgramme has been effectively workingin provinces as well as federal capital.Former Surgeon General Lt Gen (Retd)Mustafa Kamal Akbar, who has the dis-tinction of donating blood for more than

100 times, told the gathering that con-trary to below one percent in Pakistan,blood donors in Iran comprise almost 2.5percent of population.

He exemplified developed countrieslike UK where a dozens of blood donorsrush to hospital only after listening to a‘blood needed’ message on radio and saidsuch examples needed to be replicated inPakistan. Nullifying the misconceptionsassociated with the blood donations likeoverweighing or weakness owing to blooddonation, Mustafa Kamal said even thesugar patients may also donate blood.

He said in Pakistan majority of blooddonors comprise teenagers as the trend isdiminishing from the aged people whocan also contribute to this cause evenafter aging 60. The event also marked thepresentation of a drama `Drops for Life’directed by President ThalassemiaAwareness and Prevention PakistanAyesha Abid and performed by studentsfrom Shifa College of Medicine aimed atshunning fears and misconceptions ofcast, religion and diseases about theblood donations.

ISLAMABADApp

Islamabad police have arrested eight personsbesides a busting a gang of cheaters involved inpreparing fake CNICs and recovered severalidentity cards, fake stamps and 100 wine bottlesfrom their possession, a police spokesman said. According to details, ASI Irfan Ullah fromRamna police arrested Saeed Ullah andAsgharand recovered several fake CNICs and stampsfrom their possession. The police have also obtained their physical re-mand from the court and further investigationis underway. Sabzi Mandi police arrested four thieves JawadAhmed, Ismail, Aamir, Anwer and recoveredstolen items from their possession. On a tip off, ASI Salman Shah from Shehzadtown police arrested Zulfiqar Shah during raidand recovered 100 wine bottles from himwhile Ramna police nabbed a thief identifiedas Yasrab besides recovering stolen itemsform him. Cases have been registered against these nabbedpersons and further investigation is underway.

ISLAMABADApp

Pakistan National Council of the Arts(PNCA), in collaboration with Min-istry of National Heritage and Integra-tion, has scheduled Qawwali eveninghere on June 12.

The event entitled ‘Mehfil-e-Sama’will entertain the audience of twin citieswith performance of renowned Qawwalsincluding Meher Ali, Asif Santoo, AllamaNazir Chishti and others. The show hasbeen planned to promote traditional

melodies and spread message of peace,love and harmony through spiritual mes-sages. Talking to APP, Director GeneralPNCA Tauqeer Nasir said, Qawwali islinked to Sufi traditions and Islamicverses having a mystical school of Islamicthought which strives to attain truth anddivine love by direct personal experience.

The teachings of Sufis played a signif-icant role in dissemination of the divinemessage of Islam and through Qawwali,their messages travelled to the four cor-ners of subcontinent through the uniqueexpressions.

Rise in mercuryattracts peopleto hilly areas

pnCa to hold Qawwali today

Country short of 1.4mblood units annually

Fake CNICs and 100wine bottles seized

isLAMABAD: federal Minister for national Regulations & services Dr firdous Ashiq Awan addresses a seminar on ‘wahdat-e-Ummat’ at a local hotel. INP

ISB 12-06-2012_Layout 1 6/12/2012 3:24 AM Page 10

Editor’s mail 11Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Asma JehangirThat Asma Jehangir, the famous

Pakistani human rights activist, hasreceived death threats for her fearlessmanner, is something that everyonecondemns. But once it has beendenounced, the threats ought not to betaken lightly by the authorities, but needto be probed into at length. Consideringthe authority that Ms Jehangir holds, thefact that she accuses, so blatantly, thatthe assassination plot was set up by theISI ought to be brought to court so thataction taken in case the charges areproved. This may be done by MsJehangir providing all the possibleevidence that she has against the accusedand to be done with once and for all.

This game of hurling accusations atone or the other needs to be stopped, forthe armed forces is an institution thatoperates with the support of the people.If such accusations, whether true orfalse, like in the case of missing persons,where every case is attributed to thesecurity apparatus without any secondthought just shows how we have beentrained into accepting a stereotype, keepon emerging at such speed and withoutbeing backed by any evidence we might bein a serious position that tears us apart.

Why can the different institutions ofthe state function in a harmoniousfashion? Dr Wahid Baloch, the presidentof the Baloch Society of North America,has shown his concern over the mattersaying that the ISI appears to be irked bythe historic conference convened by theSupreme Court Bar Association wherekey leaders in Pakistan expressed theirdeep concerns regarding thedeteriorating human right situation inBalochistan and suggested a 15 pointresolution on how to solve Balochistanproblem.

One needs to ask what does the ISIstand to lose if the issue is resolved?Apparently, that is something that mayirk the militants and criminals, butwould be a proverbial feather for ISI’scap. Maybe it’s time that we brought theissue in court so that it is settled onceand for all.

PROFESSOR KABIL KHANPeshawar

Another incidentThe recent incident of NATO forces

killing 18 civilians including women andchildren is very sad news while GeneralJones has asked forgiveness from theeffected families. He is to offer hiscondolences as well. It appears blood ofMuslims is flowing freely like water as itis not the first case of like nature inAfghanistan at the hands of foreignforces invited by Mr Karzai who oftenshows his annoyance at such brutalkilling of innocent Afghans. As it is said ifyou sow wind you would reap awhirlwind. When a nation invites foreigntroops to sustain its invalid hold on thecountry such merciless killing of civiliansis the result. The ten years war inAfghanistan and its spillover in Pakistanis the consequence of foisting a minorityrule of “Shomali itehad” over themajority population of Pashtuns inAfghanistan. This mayhem would onlystop when the NATO troops leaveAfghanistan as ten years of war hasachieved little with horrendous sufferingof Afghan people for which Mr. Karzai issquarely responsible.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

The only answerWe talk of big things and big projects

but what we have failed to understand in65 years is that the real talent of thisnation exists in manual skills andexpertise of individuals, regardless ofeducation and belonging. We have donenothing to harness this resource. We setup cottage industries developmentdepartments but they failed due toprimary mishandling. We set up smallindustries development and thenSMEDA but we failed again due tocorruption and mismanagement.

The primary reason for failures ofthese half hearted attempt was lack ofunderstanding of the basic purpose andfollow up management. Except for fewpress releases and some pictures takenwith hi-profile individuals they didnothing substantial. The solution to thisenigma lies in development andstrengthening entrepreneurial skills inyoung boys and girls. Training must beimparted on professional grounds.Secondly, follow up by experts. We havehundreds of thousands of retiredpersonnel who have in their experiencerich bounty. They are retired ofsuperannuation age but they can stilloperate and work. Why can’t we use thepool of such people to monitor thesesmall set ups? One that they can servethe nation and secondly we can use theirexpertise. Yes, indeed we have to makethis corruption-free set up.

Whether we like it or not this is theonly answer to the misery we are facingin the economic front. But is thereanyone in the government who issincerely interested in bringing thiscountry out of doldrums? That remains amillion dollar question.

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

Prompt justiceThe latest drama in the media about

maligning the CJ through Malik Riaz willhelp the CJP to ensure that the pendingcases are dealt with expeditiously. Thebenefactors in these cases have obviouslyset up a drama to malign the CJ, but theywere not so smart as the CJ who took atimely suo motu action against his ownson. The benefactors of all these pendingcases appear to have certainly a motiveto get rid of the man who is against thecorruptions.

It would be best for all the judiciaryto take all the pending cases on dailybasis and decide all as per the evidencesavailable. Justice delayed is justice notdone. The more they give time to theaffected persons involved in thesecases, the more problems/dramas arelikely to be staged. Let all involved getthe real taste of real justice, and thattoo without any further delay. Theentire nation hopes and prays that thetruth is revealed and the culprits arebrought to book with clear and firmorders.

RASHID MAQSOODLahore

Poultry meat productionThe Pakistan Economic Survey of

2011-2012 has revealed interestingchanges in meat production patterns ofPakistan compared to 2010-2011. Itshows an increase of one percent forpoultry meat at 25.8 percent of totalmeat produced which has replaced redmeat of beef and mutton that stands at74.2 per cent of total meat produced witha break up of 54.7 percent for beef and19.5 percent for mutton. This shows thatpoultry production as also itsconsumption is inching forward tosteadily replace the red meat produced inPakistan.

This is due to rising prices of redmeat as compared to poultry meat due tolack of mass production in beef andmutton producing animals as hadhappened in case of poultry meat that isswaying its production steadily over thered meat. In case poultry productionwhich grew at the rate of 7 percentduring 2011-2012 had not happened redmeat prices would have shot through theroof to make it even more difficult for theconsumers. It appears the nation isslowly but surely leaning towards higherpoultry meat consumption thanks tobroiler industry.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

No compromiseThis is with reference to news on

Panetta’s recent interview to FOX TVthat US was at war with Pakistan inFATA. This statement has come in at atime when Pakistan is faced withextraordinarily challenges and toughpredicaments. Political instability,economic woes, government-judiciaryrow, mutual games of mudslinging andpoint scoring, poverty, inflation,corruption, war on terrorism, risingcrime rate, upward trend in targetkillings, fuel prices, protests bycommuters, agitation against powershortages, strikes, deteriorating moralvalues, rapid increase in kidnappings andrape of minor girls, ineffective criminaljustice, ethnic divide, shortage of foodand water and conflicting interests ofviews between PPP and PML(N) are

some of the factors which drawsimilarities between Pakistan and protestridden countries in Middle East.

In all probabilities CIA’s hand cannotbe overruled. Such elements will neversucceed in their design to destabilisePakistan as conditions in Pakistan arenot similar to Middle East countrieswhere autocratic rule is being challenged.System in Pakistan, good or bad, is whatpeople want. US unfortunately has alsojoined hands to ensure that Pakistandoes not get respite to homegrownproblems as it thinks that buildingpressure at this critical juncture shallforce Pakistan to surrender.

The US is trying its best to malignPakistan with Haqqani group on the pleathat they are operating from Pakistanwhereas they are fighting war against

occupied forces in Afghanistan. Since theborder between Pakistan andAfghanistan is not very secure so whenthere is a pressure on them they crossover here in FATA. Haqqanis have nevertargeted Pakistani soldiers, so whyPakistan should act against them. The USis perturbed over the closure of NATOsupply route since Nov 2011. Foreignoffice’s stand is very clear that it wouldneither allow its territory to be usedagainst any country nor it would allowsafe heavens on its territory. Pakistanunder no circumstances shall chaseHaqqanis inside Pakistan as they are notcreating any problems. The US mustunderstand waging war against peacefulHaqqanis would be inviting moreradicalism and war inside Pakistan.

Pakistan has paid high price in the

war on terrorism. The nation as a wholehas suffered severely, sacrificing preciouslives, property and suffering frompsychological traumas. Pakistan is stillfacing storms of suicide bombs, droneattacks while kidnapping by terroristscontinue inflicting deadly losses bothagainst human life and property.Pakistan wants to help Afghanistan toresolve the present conflict and facilitatethe US in peaceful withdrawal but notunder threats. More threats to Pakistanby Panetta or somebody else shall notdeter Pakistan to move away fromrighteous path but would certainly add tomore problems for the US. So let us talkand move forward without compromisingon respective stands.

MUKHTAR AHMEDKarachi

Ever since Gilani defied the Supreme Court so much praisehas been heaped upon him by the Bhutto family and the Bhuttodevotees that it has gone to his head. By definition politiciansare not expected to talk sense.

‘If you can’t hear Arslan’s case, hear Ali Musa’s’. Is hegloating over the discomfiture of the chief justice regarding hisson? Is he taunting the chief justice to catch Ali Musa if he canbecause it is the PM who will appoint the SHO? Is this his wayof respecting the judiciary which he keeps parroting all the time?

Earlier, he praised the PPP opposition in the Punjab

assembly for having maintained decorum in the house unlikethe PML(N) opposition in the national assembly. The PML(N)opposition was protesting his presence in the house as aconvicted person. What reason could the PPP opposition havehad for protesting except ‘tit-for-tat’? Is he praising the PPP?

His behaviour is unbecoming of a prime minister of acountry. The sooner he is shown the door by the SupremeCourt, the better.

KHURSHID ANWERLahore

Send 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.

Stop child labourThis is with reference to Child Labour

Day celebrated every year to highlight theplight of working children. Even thoughthis day is regularly followed worldwideby governments, labour ministries,NGOs, media and other relevantorganisations, the number of workingchildren is consistently escalating.

This is evident from the latest figuresby International Labour Organisation,according to which, more than half (53percent) of the 215 million child workersworldwide are involved in hazardouswork. And, unfortunately, highestnumber of children belongs to Asia andthe Pacific.

Pakistan is among these Asiancountries where a number of children aredeprived of their basic right of health,education and protection owing to theirinvolvement in different inhumaneoccupations. According to Pakistan’sNational Child Labour Survey, 3.3million children between the ages of 5and 14 years were working in differentfields on full time basis.

It is apparent that despitecommitments at national andinternational level, the state has failed topositively respond to the situationthrough due to lack of effectiveimplementation of child labour lawsthroughout the country.

Finally, it must be clear that the goalof the elimination of child labour cannotbe achieved only through pushing childworkers out of the workplaces and byimposing restrictions on employment. Amultitude of factors namely pervasive

poverty, adult unemployment,population growth, illiteracy and the lackof social protection mechanisms are thevarious causes that promote child work.Hence, to eliminate the menace, the stateis supposed to initiate composite effortsto combat against all of the abovementioned factors immediately.

AMINA SARWARLahore

Missing personsAccording to the news about missing

people found in Afghanistan (June10),Justice (R) Javed Iqbal who is headingthe commission of enforceddisappearances has disclosed that around15 Baloch people that were found to beamong the missing persons were inPaktia and Pul-i-Charkhi jails inAfghanistan. Also, that some other thatwere included in the missing list werealso known to be living in othercountries. The case of Shakeel Turabi’sson who had gone missing and wasfinally found to have joined the militantsin North Waziristan exemplifies that themissing persons issue is more complexthan it appears and that it is being usedby some to even scores with other groups.

The interior minister had alsoasserted last year that around 200missing persons had been traced thatwere taken across the border to betrained by the Indian spy agencies. APakistani writer has rightly analyzed that“army bashing, instead of offering issue-based criticism, is now the vogue andfinds many buyers on all sides”.

The missing persons case has taken

an alarming intensity and a one sidedapproach without providing hard facts tothe public. Obviously stemming from aprotracted period of deprivation, theprovince is ripe for foreign exploitationkeeping in view its natural wealth andgeo-strategic positioning. It is, perhapstime that we open our eyes to view thelarger picture where our own governmentand agencies may be operating as amicrocosm with limited power of theirown.

The clandestine activity carried outby Indians inside Pakistani soil is nostate secret as it harbours a hiddenPakistan centric foreign policy tomaintain its dominance in the region.The consequences of such covertoperations have been borne by Pakistanin the form of the tearing off of EastPakistan. These separatist groups, likethe Mukti Bahnis, are being trained,provided safe sanctuaries and amplefunding through the multitude of Indianconsulates peppered all across thePakistani borders. Christine fair in anunbiased analysis also confirms thatthese multiple Indian consulates in Iranand Afghanistan are surely not issuingvisas as their main activity. They are infact running their covert operations andmissions along the Pakistan border.

There is a need for the government totake over this problem in earnest toexpose the true face behind thisgrotesque act of violence to rid theBalochi people of the insecurity andparanoia it breeds to pave the way fordisaster.

LUBNA HAMEEDIslamabad

Unbecoming bahaviour

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Comment12Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

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

peace with india

Through trade

Secular Kashmiri nationalists who had gone onbackfoot after the induction of militantorganisations are back into the business with aprotest in Neelum valley. They brought out

hundreds of Kashmiris from divided families to stage aprotest on Pakistani side of the Neelum river that cutsKashmir into two in the Karen sector. Their demand: the twocountries take their armies out of Kashmir and divert theirscarce resources from military confrontation to the welfareof their people. The protest must awaken India and Pakistanto the need of resolving their outstanding disputes.Islamabad meanwhile has to learn to live with Kashmiris onits side who do not adhere to the establishment’s line of“Kashmir banay ga Pakistan.” The dissenters must not betreated in a knee jerk reaction as ‘traitors’. Attempts tounderrate the sentiment could lead to the opening of a newfront in AJK. In case an attempt is made to silence thedissenters through the security agencies, the single sparkcould set the whole prairie on fire. New Delhi must alsorealise that in this time and age it is simply impossible for acountry, however powerful, to keep an unwilling populationunder control through sheer military power.

Some of the recent developments vis a vis Pak-India tieshave roused hopes combined with doubts. The two countrieshave again initiated talks on the outstanding disputes whichis encouraging. There are, however, unnecessary hiccups. Attimes official confirmation of understandings reached isdelayed as in the case of agreements on the relaxation of visarestrictions. This creates the perception that the forces onboth sides interested in keeping the pot boiling are at it again.

The disputes may take more time to resolve than onewould like. This should not cause much concern as long aseconomic ties continue to be strengthened and mutualdependencies created. India must meanwhile address theconcerns regarding non tariff barriers that create hindrancesfor Pakistani exporters. The trade must not be a one-waytraffic. Pakistan should also go ahead with concludingagreements for the import of crucial items, like power andpetrol products, from India.

where are we going wrong?

Tirah falls

Clear, hold, build. That’s what the Americans andother coalition partners were going for, withvarying measures of success, in both Afghanistanand Iraq. And both foreign countries, these.

With Pakistan, there are no areas we are building inearnest. There are a number of areas that we cannot holdand let the militants retake control of the areas that havebeen cleared in the past. And then there are the areas likeNorth Waziristan, where we will not - or cannot - clear in thefirst place.

Whereas the last of the aforementioned has two sidesadvocating the wisdom of their own points of view, the sheerfutility of letting the theatres of successful operations slideback into the miscreants’ control really does beggar belief.

The strategic advantages of the military operations in theBajaur and Mohmand agencies, supposedly successful ones,keep slipping back to the militants. So are several areas inSouth Waziristan.

In this regards, things are worst in the Khyber Agency.Operation after operation in the agency still haven’t yieldedthe required results. In the latest development, the PakistaniTaliban have taken control of the Kukikhel area. Accordingto reports, this means that apart from the Bazaar Zakakhelarea, the entire Tirah valley is firmly under the control ofthree militant groups: the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), theAnsar-ul-Islam and the agency’s most notorious militantgroup, the Lashkar-e-Islami.

If there is some smoke-and-mirrors play going on hereby the military (and that wouldn’t exactly be beyond therealm of possibilities), there needs to be an improvement inthe policy being adopted. By now, it should be clear toeveryone that no successes can be sustainable without notjust the inclusion but clear supervision of civilians. Thesecould be career public service operatives but should ideallybe elected representatives.

No operation in the tribal areas can be deemedcompletely successful by all those involved. There must besomething going wrong here. The military should be open tonew ideas.

The white House has a piece of advice for Europe: Don’tlet the European crisis spin out of control. If it does,then the US too will be sucked into it and its own econ-

omy that’s just beginning to come out of the woods could bebattered once again.

The US economy is on a fragile turnpike and cannot riskthe aftershocks likely to result from the somersaults in the eu-rozone. After all, Europe remains America’s biggest tradingpartner. With Europe’s massive debt problems rattling globalmarkets, this is a moment of deep introspection for Washing-ton, and President Barack Obama has, subtly, hinted that Eu-rope should quickly come up with a blueprint that will arrestthe slide into recession and prevent its financial markets fromcollapsing altogether.

Though Obama said he isn’t scolding the Europeans for themess they are in, he made it a point to mention that they haveto watch their steps closely. The problem for eurozone and the

United States is that they have to keep their fingers crosseduntil the verdict of the ballot is made public in Greece nextweek. If Athens decides to opt out of euro, the nomenclature ofsocio-economic and political unanimity would be adversely im-pacted. It is bound to have a snowball effect, as well, and noone can predict what the periphery states might do in terms ofstaying put in the union as they find themselves squeezedunder debt-servicing and soaring inflationary trends.

The prescription is, however, quite close to what Obamahas suggested. A drastic injection of liquidity into ailing banksand financial institutions, along with stringent regulationsover their monetary decisions, could stem the rot from spread-ing. In this regard, the submissions of pan-European bonds togenerate money, as proposed by French President FrancoisHollande, could be a leap ahead. International donors whohave been lecturing on austerity and bailout mechanism arein need of revisiting their terms and conditions for a renewedfinancing spree, especially one that could make the eurobounce back to stability. Saving the eurozone is tantamount tosaving the euro tender.

obama’s euro scepticismKhaleej times

foreign press

Health rights?Time for a deeper debate on the topic

Some time back a doctor friend,who works at a large publichospital, called us to ask if wecould spare some money for apatient of his. A young man,

with multiple fractures in his right leg,had been brought to the hospital by hisfather. When the doctors had told the fa-ther that they could put the leg right butthey would need to put in some platesand bolts to make sure the bones get setin the right place, and a few thousand ru-pees would be needed for thesebolts/plates, the father had said that hehad spent all the money that he had withhim or that he could have borrowed ingetting his son to the hospital from hisvillage. He had no more.

When the doctors told him that with-out the operation and the plates theywould not be able to save his son’s legand would have to amputate. The fatherhad cried, but had pleaded to save theson’s life, even if it cost a leg, but he justdid not have the money to pay for theparts that were needed. The doctors,being at the public hospital, were notcharging fees of course, but they did nothave any budget for the plates/bolts. Inthe end the money was pooled and theyoung man’s leg was saved. But howmany other people suffer? And it is notfrom ignorance or lack of understanding.The father was desperate to save hischild. It was sheer lack of resources.

Another time we found out that ourchowkidar’s son, living in the village,had broken his arm. We asked him if allwas well. He said it was. They had takenthe child to the local pehalwan and hehad set the arm. We asked if an x-ray hadbeen done. He said no. So we asked himto bring the child to the city. We tookhim to a hospital in Lahore. The doc-tors had to operate and re-set the armas it had not been set right by the pe-halwan.

I asked the father if there wereno hospitals in the village. He saidthat there were. But the private oneswere expensive and the public oneswere underfunded/understaffed. Thedoctors told us that if the arm had notbeen reset it would have gotten weakerthan the other arm and would have re-mained painful for the rest of the child’slife. The father said he was aware of thedanger as a number of people in his vil-

lage had suffered similar outcomes, butwith limited resources, he could only af-ford the pehalwan.

Article 25 of the Universal Declara-tion of Human Rights, adopted by theUnited Nations General Assembly on De-cember 10, 1948, says. “Everyone has theright to a standard of living adequate forthe health and well-being of himself andof his family, including food, clothing,housing and medical care and necessarysocial services…” This does not need fur-ther comment. It is interesting thatthough we did a very significant amend-ment to our Constitution as recently astwo years ago, the Eighteenth Amend-ment, which added the right to fair trial,right to information and right to educa-tion in the basic rights section of the1973 Constitution, the lawmakers did notmake access to health services a basicright. And there has not been much dis-cussion on the issue either.

But the evidence from the fieldseems to suggest that the issue definitelydeserved to be discussed. Our nutritionsurveys are showing high levels of mal-nutrition across significant areas of thecountry. Social surveys are showing thata major cause of vulnerability of peopleis the fear of losing their health. A personwho has to depend on his/her labour tomake a living for survival will be veryvulnerable to poverty and deprivation incase he/she loses her health. Healthshocks are tough not just for the poor butfor many of the non-poor too who de-pend on work for keeping themselves outof poverty. Offering health insurance andaccess to decent quality health care tothese groups becomes one of the majorways of addressing their vulnerability.

In some of the surveys we have con-ducted we have also found that a lot oftimes lack of timely access to even basichealth services can create large and de-bilitating deficits, especially in children,that are difficult to cover later. Poor eye-s i g h twhere achild can-not see theboard fromthe back ofthe class canget the

child labelled as slow and/or as a poorlearner and can lead to drop out fromschool. Same thing if a child’s hearing ispoor. Sometimes children with poorhearing are labelled as mentally chal-lenged and allowed to drop out ofschools. In all of these cases a basichealth check-up and corrective, glassesor hearing aids, could easily allow thechild to thrive. Children run around andare prone to accidents and breakingbones. Access to basic orthopaedic serv-ices, as most of these breaks are fairlyeasy to fix, would take care of lots of de-formities. But access to these serviceshas to be very cheap or free and theyhave to be widely available.

The current government, through theBenazir Income Support Programme(BISP), has been working on a health in-surance scheme for the poor. Other polit-ical parties, some of them in coalitionwith the PPP and others in power in theprovinces, have also talked of health in-surance schemes every so often or have,at least, been very aware of the need toensure better health care services for thepeople. But still the 18th Amendment didnot include the right to health as a basicright. This, as mentioned, despite the in-clusion of 25A regarding the right to ed-ucation. Do people feel that the right tohealth is any less urgent or basic than theright to education? Or any less needed?It would be hard to argue that one ofthese rights is more basic than the other.Did legislators feel that functionally, forreasons of economic growth and our fu-ture, the right to education was more im-portant? But this too would be hard toestablish. From vulnerability data wehave it would seem that access to healthservices scores very high as a source ofvulnerability for people, apart from beingcorrelated with poverty. Maybe it is timeto have a deeper debate on the need for abasic right to decent health services.

The writer is an AssociateProfessor of Economics atLUMS (currently on leave) anda Senior Advisor at OpenSociety Foundation (OSF). He

can be reached atfbari@sorosny.org

By Dr Faisal Bari

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Comment 13Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

it’s all about access: those who have it seek to protect it; thosethat don’t will speculate till the lie becomes accepted fact

Beware of watchdog

Istop paying attention for a week andlook what happens! It seems my wholeworld is in turmoil. A father tries his own

son; a journalist defends his income on na-tional TV; more undead Al-Qaeda zombies;a fresh wave of suicide bombings; the FrenchOpen; the Euro Championships and Elmothe Embezzler (more on that later). I think Iwill have a breakdown if I try to process allof this information simultaneously.

So let’s start with the most harmlessissue: the media’s stake in the ArsalanChaudhary-Malik Riaz scandal. Here are thefacts as we know them: Malik Riaz is Pak-istan’s answer to Donald Trump, Sir RichardBranson and Laxmi Mittal all rolled into one;while Dr Arsalan Chaudhary’s claim to fameis his descent from our chief and most hon-ourable bastion of justice. Allegedly, the er-rant son extorted favours from the magnatein return for favourable decisions in court.When the prodigal child failed to come goodon his promises, said magnate whipped out‘evidence’ of his profanities and showed it tohis friends in the media. These friends im-mediately chimed in, vouching for the verac-ity of this ‘unseen evidence’ like chorus boyssinging Auld Lang Syne. Then there was‘great debate’ between those lucky enough tohave seen this ‘evidence’ and those cynicswho didn’t get an invitation to the tycoon’s

garden party. However,this so-called evidence

has yet to see the light ofday, even though it isunder subpoena by thehighest court in the land.

I have a few opinionstoo. The big chief is still‘intimidating’ the primesuspect through othercases. He may have left hisson’s bench, but there areother ways of twistingarms. And also, just be-cause a case involves someof the most high-profilefigures in the country doesnot mean that it warrantsairtime on the primetimeTV shows. And just be-cause it’s on TV or in thenewspaper doesn’t meanyou should believe it. Es-pecially if it’s not a publicinterest story. Because wein the media tend to makethings up when it comes tothe corridors of power andthe people therein. It’s allabout access: those whohave it will not go to thetrouble of writing about itlest they spoil their access;

while those that do not will speculate andflog nonexistent horses until the lie is ac-cepted as a fact. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Also, in all of this circus, we all seem tohave forgotten that no evidence has beenpresented in court, no charges framed andno prosecution made. One small step for jus-tice, one giant leap for speculation.

Then we have the curious case of SimSim Humara, the scandal that shook themuppets and puppets around the world.While the facts were laid out quite succinctlyby this very newspaper, the story is blood-curdling, to say the least. That a children’sshow, meant to educate and entertain themost impressionable minds, was being usedas a vehicle of embezzlement, is seriousbusiness. My sources tell me that whilethings are not as bad as they have beenmade out to be, the bulk of the allegations istrue. While I can’t believe I’m actually say-ing this, but all this could have been avoided(according to my sources) if the people inquestion had coughed up the “cost of doingbusiness”. Since that was apparently toomuch to ask, they had to pay the ultimateprice: the death of a dynasty. The donors, onthe other hand, were going to pull out any-way. Only now, they will do so after a full in-quiry and with a bitter aftertaste in theirmouths. This may also apply to other proj-ects the same donor has been funding andwe may see a lot of cleaning house in themonths to come. This obviously does notbode well for the artists and creative personsof the land, who are being sullied by associ-ation with the organisation responsible. It isa sad, sad day on Raiwind Road.

Finally, a topic I’ve tried to talk aboutbefore. It seems that our treatment ofwomen is steadily declining into the me-dieval and the macabre. Be it Kohistan orFort Monroe, it seems women can only betreated as commodity or cattle. Or objectsof desire. This frustrates me to no end, be-cause I generally try to consider themhuman beings. But there is something fun-damentally wrong with gender relations inour fair land. Otherwise, the use of brutaland unforgiving force against (mostly) de-fenceless girls would not be on the rise.

Let me just say that I don’t care whowins the next elections. It’s obvious thatnothing (much) is going to change, even ifthe tsunami does roll in. The chief of ourproblems will remain politics and humanbeings will continue to score very low on the‘valuable things’ index. And the watchdogsthat we trained to keep us safe, well, let’sjust say they have begun to turn on theirmasters. Beware.

Follow @mightyobvious on Twitter formore incoherence in 160 characters or less

Mighty obviousBy Syed Hassan Belal zaidi

Both the congress and the BJp

rife with groupism

Whatever the Congressspeaks, it sounds like anevangelist’s outpouring.

The party was no different a fewdays ago at its meeting of some 100delegates, comprising WorkingCommittee members and statepresidents. The party again actedlike a preacher who wanted to stirup feelings of revival. It cannot bedone by merely attacking the oppo-nents. There has to be answers tothe questions on the ever-risingprices and the never-ending scams.

The delegates and other sup-porters who return to their fieldhave to tell the people amongwhom they live or work what arethe replies they have broughtback. There have been scams cost-ing the exchequer billions of ru-pees and inordinate delays intaking steps to stop the down slid-ing economy. Still, there is no of-ficial explanation.

Prime Minister ManmohanSingh’s slogan, ‘we will overcome’or the Congress president SoniaGandhi’s attack for levelling base-less charges will not do. The partymen are not gullible as they havebeen in the past. They want proofsand measure them against theirliving conditions.

The over confidence, ratherarrogance, that the Congress lead-ers effuse, particularly the seem-ingly humble Finance MinisterPranab Mukherjee, has not gonedown well. People have not beentaken in by the promises. The gov-ernment’s performance is prettypoor. True, the general electionsare still two years away. Yet thisperiod is not long enough for thegovernment to take pertinentsteps which would perk the econ-omy and the life of the voters.

Somehow, I was expectingdrastic changes in the cabinet, abigger role for Rahul Gandhi, andinnovative economic policies togive the message of a new resolve

and new measures to reflect a bet-ter way of governance. The hedg-ing because of impendingPresidential election is under-standable. Yet the delegates andothers cannot say that the paraly-sis of government is because theparty wants first to install its ownperson at Rashtrapati Bhavan.The Congress has missed a greatopportunity if it had anything upits sleeve. I am confirmed in myview that the party is bereft ofideas and does not know how tocontrol prices or to facilitate moreproduction in factories and fields.It seems to have lost its way.

The seemingly alternativeBhartiya Janata Party (BJP) isneither here nor there. The criti-cism of the ruling party, with apinch of parochialism, completesthe BJP’s story from A to Z.Lately, it has smelt power. It be-lieves that the people’s alienationwith the Congress will divert themto the BJP. But when its ownhouse is not in order, how can itexpect to net the catch it wants?

That the RSS will continue todominate it is not something theparty can wish away even if thebulk of it wants to have a differentimage. One, it cannot deny theparenthood because the RSS gavebirth to the Jana Sangh, later re-named as the BJP, to be the or-ganisation’s political arm. Two,the party does not have the cadreof its own. The leadership, drawnfrom the middle class, does notlike the smell of sweat of thepracharaks (the RSS preachers).But they are their main strength.

The BJP has never been aparty in the real sense. It was a re-action to the ousting of old JanaSangh members by the JanataParty which wanted them to maketheir promise to cut off links withthe RSS good. And the RSS on itspart has kept the BJP under itscontrol. Even a tall person likeAtal Behari Vajpayee had to wearkhaki knickers and stand at atten-tion in the RSS organized drills toshow who was the boss. That isthe reason why the RSS leaderschip-chop the party in a way theywant and whenever they want.BJP chief Nitin Gadkari is the RSSchoice and even when he was notto the liking of veteran L.K. Avanior the opposition leader in the LokSabha Sushma Swaraj, Gadkariwas reappointed.

Such an imposition is may be

disliked by some members whofeel that by this time they havewon recognition on their own. Yetthey never challenge the RSS be-cause they have seen that a fewwho did went out unsung and un-wept. Since their differences arenever over the ideology, they con-tinue to be a part of the big family.

The RSS knows whom to proj-ect and when. Gujarat chief min-ister Narendra Modi has startedbehaving as if he would be theprime minister when the BJPforms the government after the2014 general elections. The RSShas criticized the party for havingtoo many persons harbouring theambition of becoming prime min-ister. Maybe, it feels that it is tooearly to project Modi. Maybe, itbelieves that his name will dauntmany liberals sitting on the fencethinking to vote for the BJP.

But what the RSS doesn’tseem to realize is that Modi’s can-didature will divide the nationwhich does not accept him in anyshape after what he did to theMuslims in Gujarat. He is yet toclear himself from the variouscases filed against him. That theSupreme Court misjudged the cre-dentials of former IB chief R.K.Raghavan when it appointed himas head of the Special Investiga-tion Team (SIT) which has exon-erated Modi does not mean thatthe mistake cannot be rectified.His report is anything but unbi-ased. The RSS should wait tillModi is exonerated.

The unhappiness of Adavni isunderstandable because he led theoustees from the Janata Party toassemble them under the um-brella of the BJP. He finds theRSS, which he served as a loyalsoldier, has not allowed him to be-come the opposition leader of thehouse, the Lok Sabha. In fact, heowes it to the BJP parliamentmembers who rehabilitated himby creating the position of parlia-mentary party’s chairmanship.

People’s dilemma is that bothnational parties, the Congress andthe BJP, riven as they are withgroupism and ambitions, do notqualify to lead the nation. How Iwish if there were some party,even though small, had the visionto retrieve the country and take itforward.

The writer is a senior Indianjournalist.

Border crossingsBy Kuldip Nayar

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I’m too old to collaborate with Justin Bieber, says Chris Martin LonDon: chris Martin has ruled out collaboratingwith Justin Bieber because he’s scared that the teenidol will make him look old. Martin said this beforehis band ‘coldplay’ set at the wembley stadiumevent, where they performed at the capital fMsummertime Ball in front of 80,000 fans. “Rihannawas top of our list of collaborators, and we’ve donethat. she was lovely - she was cool,” a leading dailyhas quoted the singer as saying. “we’d work withanyone who wanted to work with us. But JustinBieber is too handsome for us. if he wants to do avideo with four people who look like hisgrandparents then we should be in it. But we’ve gotto look good. we’d just look terrible next to that guy.He’s good-looking and has an amazing complexion,”he said. Martin carried his inferiority complex onstage, when he shouted out to the crowd, “we’reJustin Bieber’s dads.” Before they played their hit‘charlie Brown’ under blazing sunshine Martinshouted out, “Are there any Beliebers out there?”Martin also joked before the group’s six-song setthat they were only going to play Bieber covers.However, Martin does have one thing in commonwith the youngster – he stuffed himself withsweets before the gig because he said he needs thesugar rush for stage performances. AgEnciEs

sUTAMARcHAn: People enjoythrowing tomatoes to each otherduring the ‘Vi Tomatina colombiana’festival. According to the organisers4 tons of tomatoes were thrown bythe participants. afp

LAHoRE: Samsung electronics co,Ltd launched the much anticipatedGALAXy S iii at the royal Palm Golfand country club. The event wasan art of the Samsung Galaxy SiiiWorld Tour through which thephone was launched simultaneouslywithin various countries globally. pHotos By faisaL farooQUi at DragonfLy

14 Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Club Caramel

Mime Performance by Wahab Shah and his troupe

Ali Noor and Ali Hamza of NooriClub Caramel

IN LIMELIGHT

Raja Chaudhary keen on tying the knot with Veena Malik VeeNA MALiK who makingheadlines in the showbizthese days is once again inthe limelight, credit: one ofher admirers in the form of‘bigg boss’s ex-inmate rajachaudhary. TV actressShweta Tiwari’s ex-hubby islove sick over this Pakistanisiren’s beauty and hasexpressed his desire to marryher. interestingly, hisfondness for her has gone sofar that he does not evenmind being called ‘rajaMalik’. Sources reveal thatapparently raja had fallen forVeena during the musiclaunch of soon-to-be-released flick ‘Daal Me KuchKaala hai’. Now that raja hasput forth his marriageproposal, we are waiting forVeena’s answer. nEws DEsK

LONDONAgEnciEs

TOM Cruise attendedthe European premierof his new film ‘Rockof Ages’ and wasjoined on the red car-

pet by fellow stars JulianneHough, Russell Brand, Paul Gia-matti and Mary J Blige. Cruiseplays the tattooed-and frequentlyshirtless-rock star Stacee Jaxx inthe tribute to the big-haired, big-riffing glam metal sound of the1980s. But when asked if he hadthe choice between the life of amovie star or a rock star, Cruise

said he would to stick with his dayjob. “I love my job, and I feel veryprivileged to be able to do it,” hesaid. However, the ‘Mission Im-possible’ star makes a very con-vincing rocker, and he had toembrace all of his character’s rock‘n’ roll habits. These includedbeing hands on with his female co-stars. When asked about this, theever cool Cruise said he took Jaxx’scharacteristics in stride. “You haveto go all of the way, particularlywith Stacee,” he laughed. Based onthe musical hit, the movie tells thestory of small town girl Sherrie(Hough) and city boy Drew (DiegoBoneta) who share a dream of

reaching dizzying heights in Holly-wood. Their glittery romance is setto a rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack that in-cludes hits from Journey, Styx, DefLeppard, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, andPoison. Recording artist Blige, whoalso rocks out in the film, said sheenjoyed embracing rock `n’ roll forthe part. While everyone was im-pressed with Tom’s performance,the most meaningful confirma-tions may have come from the real-life rock stars who attended thepremiere. “He mixed a lethal com-bination of Bret Michaels and AxlRose,” raved Poison front-manBret Michaels. “It was a meltingpot of rock ‘n’ roll coolness.”

‘Rock of Ages’: Tom Cruise gets seal of approval from rockers

wAsHingTon: Lindsay Lohan has blamed amechanical failure for slamming her rentedPorsche into the back of an 18-wheeler. Afterthe driver of the truck, who has been identifiedonly as James, came forward to claim that theaccident was entirely her fault, the 25-year-oldconfessed to friends that she couldn’t haveavoided the crash. “Lindsay is sticking with the“truck cut me off!!!” story, but with a twist, sheclaims she slammed on the brakes, butnothing,” TMZ quoted a source as saying. Thetruck driver said that he had been minding hisown business when he felt the impact ofLindsay’s Porsche. “She came over and hit theback of the truck. Then the car pulled up onthe sidewalk,” he said. And he even claimedthat he could prove his innocence with the helpof eyewitnesses who were at the scene. “Theyhave a video of this whole incident,” he said.The truck driver alleged that he was driving at40 miles per hour along the Pacific coasthighway when the troubled actress hit him.Meanwhile, sources said that Lohan is insistingthat the truck driver has made the whole storyup in a possible attempt to extort money fromher. Apparently she is also telling friends thatshe never offered him a bribe to keep quiet, ashe had previously reported. AgEnciEs

Lohan blames brake failure for Porsche crash

LOS ANGeLeS AgEnciEs

Actor Christian Bale’s former publi-cist had to be treated for post-trau-matic stress disorder due to actor’sexplosive anger, a new book hasclaimed. According to the sensa-tional biography, the ‘Batman’ starhas distanced himself from familyand friends, and hasn’t spoken to hismom in more than four years. Thebook written by Harrison Cheung,his ex-publicist, also accuses the 38-year-old actor of being so mean thathe would reduce little girls whoasked for his autograph to tears. Thebook also talks about how the Oscar-winner saw Leonardo DiCaprio ashis nemesis after the ‘Titanic’ starkept beating him to roles, and howhe rejected becoming James Bond.Cheung was by Bale’s side for adecade. Cheung said: “He refused tosign autographs. He would lecturelittle girls about being rude and in-trusive until tears streamed downtheir faces and their parents tugged

them away from our table.” Bale,who will be returning as ‘Batman’ in‘The Dark Knight Rises’ next month,had risen to fame when he was justa 14-year-old by starring in StevenSpielberg’s ‘Empire Of The Sun’. Ac-cording to the book, ‘Christian Bale- The Inside Story of The DarkestBatman’, the actor blamed one per-son for thwarting his career plans-

DiCaprio. It says that the ‘Titanic’star seemed to beat him to prizedroles each time, including ‘ThisBoy’s Life’ and ‘What’s EatingGilbert Grape’. As it turned out,Cheung had left before Bale’s tem-per reached its fever pitch in thewake of the 2007 role that finallytook him into the A-list, as Batmanin ‘The Dark Knight’.

ChristianBale blamesLeonardo forthwartinghis career

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tOKYOREUTERs

I N the concrete jungle ofTokyo, some 600 retireeshave gathered to fight forsupremacy - with blowdarts. The ancient Borneo

rain forest tradition of blow dart-ing is picking up new fans thou-sands of kilometres away inJapan, where it is a rapidly grow-ing sport among the nation’s eld-erly. In just five years, nationwidemembership in a blow dart clubhas tripled, on target to hit 30,000members this year. The averageage of enthusiasts is 70. “Olderpeople are really getting into it be-cause it’s easy for anyone to do -whether your legs are playing up,you’re confined to a wheelchair ormissing an arm,” said NobuhikoYamada, a blow darting instruc-tor. Though popular culture hasplaced blow darting - or “fukiya,”as it’s known in Japanese - amongthe arsenal of ninjas and nighttime assassinations, actual histor-ical records of it are few. The pop-ularity of the sport is likely togrow still further, given Japan’srapidly greying population. By2060, the number of people aged65 or older is expected to hit 35million. The sport is especiallypopular among Japanese men,who tend to be a bit lost afterdevoting their lives to their jobs.

15David Cameron leftdaughter in pubLoNDoN: David and SamanthaCameron left their eight-year-olddaughter alone in a pub as theytravelled home from Sunday lunchwith friends, it emerged last night.The prime minister, his wife and threechildren had enjoyed an afternoonmeal with two other families at arestaurant, when they took their eyeoff their eldest daughter Nancy. Whenthe family gathered their things andleft Cameron shared a car with hisbodyguards while Samantha followedbehind with son Elwen, six, anddaughter Florence, 22 months.The prime minister thought Nancywas in the car with his wife, whileSamantha thought she had jumped inwith her father. It was only whenboth cars pulled up to Chequers, twomiles away, that they realised she wasnot there. A Downing Street sourcesaid the "distraught" parents rushedinside and telephoned the pub, wherestaff reassured them that theirdaughter had been found alone in thelavatory and was being looked after.The staff knew who the girl was buthad been unable to contact herparents because, as one pub insiderput it: “It’s not like you can look upDavid Cameron in the phone bookand then ring to say, ‘You’ve left yourdaughter behind’.” “You’d havethought someone would have done aheadcount or something," the insidertold The Sun. AgEnciEs

We are more likely todie on our birthdaythan any other dayBE careful blowing out the candles.Scientists have found we are morelikely to die on our birthday than anyother day. Researchers who studiedmore than two million people over 40years found a rise in deaths from heartattacks, strokes, falls and suicides.William Shakespeare died on hisbirthday on April 23 1616. The actressIngrid Bergman also died on herbirthday, in August 1982. On average,people over the age of 60 were 14 percent more likely to die on theirbirthdays. Heart attacks rose 18.6 percent on birthdays and were higher formen and women while strokes wereup 21.5 per cent - mostly in women.The risk of birthday death rose aspeople got older. Studies shoe therewas a 34.9 per cent rise in suicides,28.5 per cent rise in accidental deathsnot related to cars, and a 44 per centrise in deaths from falls on birthdays.More suicides happen on birthdays,though only in men. nEws DEsK

NeWS DeSK

There are diet fads, and then there are diet fads.While many diets try their best to give youwholesome nutrition while restricting thecalories, here are some crazy and ridiculous dietfads that have come and gone and have attractedtheir share of criticism, and of course-followers.Sure, these diets may have resulted in weight loss.But are any of them remotely healthy? Ah, that’sanother story altogether. Here's looking at the 5most ridiculous diet fads in recent times, and yeswe are pointing fingers:

1) Vodka anyone?‘The drinking man’s diet’-a weight loss book

published by Robert Cameron in 1964 got a lot offlack from experts of that era. The diet was quitesimple. Low carbs, high proteins, and as muchWhiskey, Gin, Vodka or any other distilled liquor asyou like. The extremely low carbohydrates and thehigh alcohol content will lead to a thinner waistlineand also liver disease in all probability.

2) Cabbage, cabbage, even more cabbageThe cabbage soup diet is exactly that: Cabbage

soup and nothing else for 7 days. Apart from the factthat it is a totally unbalanced diet, once you losewater weight in the 7 days (which you will of

course), it will come right back once you go off it. Itis a popular one with the celebrities, who want toshed the pounds quickly. Is it healthy? We think not.

3) A great fruit that grape fruitThe grape fruit diet is again pretty simple to

follow. Grape fruit has fat burning properties“apparently”. So all you have to do is eat a grapefruitbefore every meal and you are good to go. Soundstoo good to be true? Maybe because you haven’t readthe fine print, which says meals have to be tiny-like800 calories a day.

4) Pass me the lemonade pleaseThis one is popularised by Beyonce Knowles.

This diet requires users to drink six to 12 glasses oflemonade laced with cayenne pepper (Lal mirch)and maple syrup. If you’re still hungry, no problem,you can have another glass, and then? Yet anotherone. Beyonce admitted that she lost 18 pounds in 10days with the diet (WOW!) But she put all of it rightback on when she got back to eating normally.

5) Hey babyReese Witherspoon, cute as she may be, swears

by it. For a quick weight loss fix, just eat baby food.You can maintain a very healthy lifestyle byconsuming just 600 calories a day. You really can.Assuming you are a baby, of course.

5 ridiculous diet fads

Ahmad Ali Butt

Faridullah Jan and John Park

Rakae Jamil, Babar Khanna, Farhan Ali and Farhan

nEw DELHi: The sindustry was abuzz withrumours that Kareena Kapoor is sleepless overbipasha’s closeness to her beau Saif Ali Khanon the sets of ‘race 2’. however, latest mediareports reveals that Kareena has laughed-offthe rumours by saying that insecurity is anemotion that has no place in her life. She saidher trips to Turkey, where Saif is currentlybusy shooting for ‘race 2’, are because sheintends to spend some quality time with herwould-be-hubby. She also said, "i encourageSaif to please work with everybody. he is freeto work with whoever he wants to, it is notmy concern. even i am free to work withwhoever i want, Saif never interferes. Mycareer will always be the way it is. Work ismy passion. both Saif and i are very urbanand contemporary in our thoughts. We haveour own space, he does his own thing. Wedon’t even discuss work and i don’t thinkSaif has ever asked me which film i amdoing. he probably gets to know from thenewspapers and magazines (laughs). if i amin a meeting, he doesn’t even ask me who ihad a meeting with. he is the mostsupportive man i could have asked for." ifthat is what the truth is bebo, then we wishyou a long blissful life ahead! AgEnciEs

Kareena rubbishesinsecurity rumours

Lady Gaga concussed

during showwELLingTon: Pop diva Lady Gagasuffered concussion when a danceraccidentally hit her on the head with ametal pole during her final New Zealandshow. The uS artist was performing her hit‘Judas’ at Auckland’s Vector Arena whenthe accident left her seeing stars, 3Newsreported. Footage of the incident showedher staggering briefly after the polecrashed on the top of her head then re-gathering herself and continuing theconcert. “i wanna apologise if i’m ramblingtonight, but not sure if you noticed, i hitmy head earlier and i think i may have aconcussion,” she later told fans, TVNZreported. “Don’t worry though, i’m gonnafinish the show.” The singer’s make-upartist Tara Savelo took to Twitter after theshow to assure fans that the star was ingood shape. “Gaga has a concussion butshe is going to be okay,” Savelo tweeted.“She wants u to know she loves u. i’mtaking care of her. can’t believe shefinished the show.” Lady Gaga will openthe Australian leg of her ‘born This Way’tour in brisbane on Wednesday. She had tocancel her indonesian shows in the face ofthreats from religious hardliners. Afp

Blow darts just a breeze for old Japanese folk

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Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

16 Foreign News

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POLICE armed with assaultrifles raided the homes ofRussia’s top protest lead-ers on Monday in an un-usually blunt show of force

on the eve of a mass rally against Presi-dent Vladimir Putin’s rule.

The coordinated security sweep inthe early hours of a public holiday tar-geted the homes of a new brand ofyoung Russian politicians who analystsbelieve represent the biggest threat toex-KGB spy Putin’s 12-year rule.

Some of their supporters comparedthe raids to Soviet dictator JosephStalin’s night-time arrests of his biggestfoes during the Red Terror wave of the1930s. And even Putin’s own humanrights council adviser expressed “shock”at what to many appeared to be a bla-tant and previously unseen campaign to

openly intimidate the Kremlin’s biggestfoes into submission.

“I think that from the standpoint ofsocial harmony, modernisation and po-litical reforms, this is the very worst thatcould have happened,” adviser MikhailFedotov told Interfax. Officers beat downthe doors of the increasingly popularanti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalnyas well as media celebrity and more re-cent Putin critic Ksenya Sobchak.

Others on the list included SergeiUdaltsov — an outspoken ultra-leftistwho stages periodic hunger strikes toprotest his repeated arrests — and thefar more moderate democracy cam-paigner Ilya Yashin. “They are taking allthe electronic devices,” Navalny tweetedduring the raid. “Even disks with photosof the children.”

Russia’s powerful InvestigativeCommittee said 10 raids were conductedin all as part of a probe over a May 6demonstration “that ended in mass dis-

turbances.” A so-called “March of Mil-lions” that drew 20,000 people inMoscow ended in the arrest of hundredsafter bloody clashes broke out betweenprotesters and police on the eve ofPutin’s inauguration to a third term.

Navalny and the nine others face upto 10 years in prison if they are chargedand convicted of organising mass dis-turbances. The May unrest sparked astiff response from the Kremlin that sawPutin on Friday sign into law legislationdramatically raising fines for those whobreak the already restrictive laws onorganising and holding rallies.

The highest penalty for in-dividuals has been raised to300,000 rubles ($9,000) —more than for any other ad-ministrative offence andabout equivalent to Russians’average annual salary.

Rights activists said thesecurity agencies were try-

ing to intimidate the nascent movementand prevent mass attendance at Tues-day’s protest in order to avoid embar-rassing Putin just a month into his

historic third term. “This re-calls 1937,” campaigner

Valery Borshchyov saidin reference to the

most infamous year ofStalin’s repression.

TEKnAf: A Rohingya Muslim woman, fleeing sectarian violence, cries on an intercepted boat as they try to cross the naf river into Bangladesh on Monday. Bangladesh border

guards and coastguard patrol teams pushed back eight boats carrying more than 300 Rohingya Muslims, mostly women and children, fleeing religious violence in Myanmar. afp

Police raid homes of Putinfoes on eve of mass march

afghan quakeskill at least three

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Two earthquakes destroyed dozens of mud homes inAfghanistan’s mountainous Hindu Kush region onMonday, killing at least three people and trapping othersunder rubble, officials said. Rescue teams were makingtheir way to the remote Burka district in the northernprovince of Baghlan where around 20 houses hadcollapsed, the head of Afghanistan’s natural disasterdepartment, Samim Afzali, told AFP. “We have reports ofaround 60 people trapped under rubble. We still don’tknow whether they are alive or dead,” he told AFP. Thehead of the provincial disaster management departmentsaid several houses and a school had collapsed but he wasunable to confirm the number of people trapped. “Ourlatest report from Burka shows that three people,including two women, were killed and eight injured in thequake this morning,” Nasir Kohzad said. “We’ve onlyreceived a phone call from a villager saying around 60people are trapped in Mullah Jan village in Burka — ourteam is about to reach there to see if that is true.”Baghlan provincial government spokesman MahmoodAhmad said houses had been damaged in three districts— Burka, Jelga, and Nehrin — and casualties were feared.Another 10 houses had been destroyed in Ishkamishdistrict in neighbouring Takhar province, Afzali said, butno fatalities had so far been reported from that area.

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Bangladesh border guards Monday turned backeight boats carrying more than 300 Rohingya Mus-lims, mostly women and children, fleeing religiousviolence in Myanmar, a border guard said.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and coast-guard patrol teams, which have been ordered toprevent an influx of refugees, intercepted the boatson the Naf river that separates the two nations, BGBMajor Shafiqur Rahman said.

“There were more than 300 Rohingya in theboats which are coming from the Myanmar city ofAkyab (Sittwe). They were carrying mainly Ro-hingya women and children, many of whom werecrying and looked extremely anxious,” he told AFP.

“All eight boats have been pushed back toMyanmar territory,” he added.

Akyab is the former name of Sittwe, the capitalof Myanmar’s western Rakhine state where sectar-ian violence flared last week, leaving at least 17 peo-ple dead and prompting the authorities to declare astate of emergency. An AFP photographer at Teknafin Bangladesh, near the border with Myanmar, sawsmoke billowing from houses believed to be burntin villages during the sectarian violence.

BGB men handed out water and food to the Ro-hingyas on the boats before they were turned back,Rahman told AFP. Security has been stepped upalong Bangladesh’s 200-kilometre (125-mile) bor-der with Myanmar to stem the influx of Rohingyarefugees. “We have been asked not to allow any il-legal entry of Rohingya in Bangladesh. The author-ities are concerned that their could be large-scaleRohingya entry from Myanmar,” coastguard officerBadruddoza, who uses one name, told AFP.

Reinforcements have been sent to intensify pa-trols on the Naf river and the islands close to theMyanmar border. “We have also enhanced vigilanceduring night time,” he added.

Bangladeshi officials estimate that a total of300,000 Rohingya people live in the country, withonly about a tenth of them in two official refugeecamps in southern Cox’s Bazaar. Two injured Ro-hingya, including one who was hit by a bullet, en-tered Bangladesh illegally Saturday and werearrested, Rahman said. Rohingya are a statelesspeople described by the United Nations as one ofthe world’s most persecuted minorities.

The Myanmar government considers the Ro-hingya to be foreigners, while many citizens seethem as illegal immigrants from Muslim-majorityBangladesh and view them with hostility.

Bangladesh turns awayMuslims fleeing Myanmar

Mubarakdefibrillatedtwice

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Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak,who has been in critical condition sincemoving to prison, was defibrillated twiceafter his heart stopped on Monday, a prisonhospital source told AFP. Mubarak’s “heartstopped twice. Doctors had to use adefibrillator. He has been in and out ofconsciousness and has been refusing food,”the source said. Earlier, an interiorministry source told AFP his condition was“critical but stable”, as officials weightransferring him to a Cairo hospital. The84-year-old former strongman wassentenced to life behind bars forsuppressing a revolt against his rule inearly 2011 during which nearly 850protesters were killed. His medicalcondition deteriorated and he suffered anemotional breakdown after being moved toTora prison on the outskirts of Cairo onJune 2, where he remains in intensive carein the prison hospital. He has suffered fromacute depression since his transfer, as wellas periodic increases in blood pressure andshortness of breath, the interior ministrysource said. Prison authorities last weekagreed to move Mubarak’s son Gamal, whois in the same prison awaiting trial oncorruption charges, closer to his father.Mubarak asked that his other son Alaa, alsoin Tora awaiting trial on the same chargesas Gamal, be allowed to stay with him. “Hewants both his sons by his side,” a securityofficial said. Mubarak’s wife Suzanne andhis two daughters-in-law were given specialpermission to visit him on Sundayfollowing rumours that he had died inprison, state media reported.

Defence seeks

Karadzic acquittal, says

no genocide in bosniatHe HAGue

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Radovan Karadzic and his lawyers onMonday asked the Yugoslav war crimescourt to acquit the former Bosnian Serbleader on all counts, arguing that nogenocide took place in Bosnia in 1992.“Dr Karadzic requests a judgement ofacquittal pursuant to rule 98bis for countsone to 11,” said his lawyer Peter Robinsonat a public hearing at the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for the formerYugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. “Therewas no genocide in the municipalities inBosnia in 1992... there is no way the trialcan conclude that Dr Karadzic is guilty ofgenocide,” he added. Once the mostpowerful leader among Bosnian Serbs,Karadzic, 66, faces 11 counts of genocide,crimes against humanity and war crimesfor his role in the conflict which left some100,000 people dead and 2.2 millionhomeless. He is particularly wanted formasterminding the killings that followedthe Serbs’ capture of the eastern Bosnianenclave of Srebrenica in July 1995. Close to8,000 Muslim men and boys weremurdered over the course of a few days inEurope’s worst attrocity since World WarII. “My responsibility in Srebrenica has notbeen proven in any way,” Karadzic said.“My asssertion is that there was nogenocide.” “The prosecution has made ahuge effort to try to make some kind of anindictment out of nothing,” he said,charging that prosecutors had beeninfluenced by “Muslim propaganda.” Underthe tribunal’s rules, the defence is allowedto seek acquittal after the prosecution haspresented its case.

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Foreign News 17Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

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Helicopter gunships onMonday fired on rebelpositions in centraland northwesternSyria in a bid to snuff

out the gunmen as violence killed 52people across the country, a monitor-ing group said.

Helicopters strafed rebels positionsin Al-Heffa, in the northwesternprovince of Latakia, and in Rastan, inthe central province of Homs, the Syr-ian Observatory for Human Rightssaid. Regime troops have pounded Al-Heffa daily for the past week to snuffout rebel Free Syrian Army fighters de-ployed in the rugged countryside nearthe Turkish border, activists said.

Activists said Monday’s assault wasviolent and described the situation inAl-Heffa as “terrible,” although therewere no immediate reports of casual-ties. “Army tanks are deployed at theentrances of the town. They have nevercome this close before,” local activistSema Nassar told AFP in Beirut viaSkype, weeping as she spoke.

“There’s only one doctor workingto treat the wounded in the town,” of30,000 people, said Nassar, adding

that most of the residents have fled.“Some civilians have stayed behind

to help the rebel fighters defend thetown,” she added. Nassar also pointed toreport carried by the official SANA newsagency and Syrian TV claiming that “ter-rorists” were planning “to carry out amassacre” in Al-Heffa and nearby Tfil.

“This is cause for great concern. Itseems there are plans to kill many peo-ple,” said Nassar. Government troopsalso used helicopters to attack rebel po-sitions in the Homs province town ofRastan which has been under intermit-tent army shelling “for months,” theBritain-based Observatory said.

Four civilians, including a younggirl, were killed in the violence, itadded. Troops have trying to overrunRastan since mid-May, after rebelfighters from the battered city of Homsregrouped in the town which straddlesthe main highway linking Damascus tothe north. In restive Qusayr, also inHoms province, another two civilianswere killed, the Observatory said.

Activists in the central province ofHama told AFP that regime troops con-tinued to target towns and villages inthe region, where anti-regime senti-ment was strong. “We are worriedabout how much violence there mightbe there right now, because we have

heard that regime forces are using res-idents as human shields,” an activistwho identified himself as Abu Ghazi al-Hamwi told AFP via Skype.

At least five people were killedacross Hama on Monday, the Observa-tory said. Elsewhere, at least nine peoplewere killed in the eastern province ofDeir Ezzor, where rebels and regimeforces clashed, while a blast in the north-western city of Idlib killed a civilian andseven regime forces. Also in Idlib, 11 oth-ers were killed, including three rebels,six regime troops, two women and ateenager, according to the watchdog.

And after days of violent clashes inthe capital, a booby-trapped car ex-ploded in the central district of Barzehkilling one person, the watchdogadded, while gunmen shot dead aBaath party official in the city suburbs.

The latest deaths in strife-torn Syriatook place after at least 63 people werekilled nationwide on Sunday — 38 civil-ians, 19 soldiers, and six rebel fighters— the Observatory reported. More than14,100 people have been killed since ananti-regime revolt broke out in Marchlast year, including 9,862 civilians,3,470 soldiers and 783 army defectors,according to the watchdog. The Obser-vatory counts rebel fighters who are notdeserters from the army as civilians.

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Former British prime minister GordonBrown repeatedly criticised Rupert Mur-doch’s newspapers in his evidence to apress ethics inquiry Monday, denying hispolicies were ever influenced by the tycoon.

Brown, Labour premier from 2007 to2010, blasted Murdoch’s Sun daily tabloidfor its “sensationalised” coverage of thewar in Afghanistan and for its decision toreveal in 2006 that Brown’s son had cysticfibrosis. Brown said he “absolutely” de-nied that his wife gave consent for thestory to be published, contradicting claimsby Rebekah Brooks, The Sun’s editor atthe time, when she gave evidence to theLeveson Inquiry last month.

Kicking off a week in which both ofBritain’s main political parties will faceintense scrutiny of their ties with Mur-doch’s News Corp., Brown said it was

“ridiculous” to suggest Murdoch exertedundue influence on his government.

“I understood, I think, quite a lotabout his Scottish background,” Brown,who is Scottish, said of the Australian-born tycoon at the inquiry, which was setup in the wake of the phone-hacking

scandal at Murdoch’s News of the Worldweekly tabloid. “But the idea that I wasinfluenced in what I did by Mr Mur-doch’s views is faintly ridiculous.”

Laughing, he said Murdoch wouldhave wanted Britain to leave the EU and“probably would have had us at war withFrance and Germany”. “Mr Murdoch hasvery strong views,” said Brown, wearinga dark suit with a purple tie. “He’s enti-tled to these views. But the idea that Iwas following those views is just absolutenonsense.” Brown also denied Murdoch’sclaim that he telephoned the tycoonthreatening to “make war” on News Corp.after The Sun, Britain’s biggest-sellingpaper, switched support to the Conserva-tives before the 2010 election.

Brown, whose Labour party subse-quently lost the election after 13 years inpower, said: “There was no such conver-sation.” He also criticised Murdoch’s sonJames, who resigned as executive chair-

man of News Corp.’s British newspaperwing over the phone hacking scandal, forhis aggressive pursuit of deregulation inthe British media industry.

He described a 2009 lecture byJames Murdoch criticising the size of theBBC and the interference of mediawatchdog Ofcom as “breathtaking in itsarrogance and ambition”. Current fi-nance minister George Osborne was dueto appear at the inquiry later on Monday,while Prime Minister David Cameron willgive a full day of evidence on Thursday.

Cameron set up the Leveson Inquiryin July after revelations that Murdochjournalists hacked into the voicemailmessages of a murdered schoolgirlprompted a wave of public revulsion,forcing the News of the World to close.

But his own government has comeunder fire after evidence at the inquiryexposed the Conservative-led coalition’scloseness to the Murdoch press.

yemen army seizes

Qaeda munitions

factory, kills 26

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Yemeni troops seized control of an Al-Qaeda munitions factory in the southernAbyan province on Monday as battles forcontrol of the restive region killed 26militants, local and military officials said.The bodies of 12 militants werediscovered inside the factory which lieson the outskirts of the Al-Qaedastronghold of Jaar, a military official toldAFP on condition of anonymity. AYemeni air raid on Al-Qaeda positions inJaar meanwhile killed six jihadists, alocal official said. In the nearby town ofShaqra, where many of the local Al-Qaeda leadership is believed to be hiding,fierce clashes between troops andmilitants killed eight militants, a militaryofficial said. Five soldiers were alsowounded in the battles, the official addedon condition of anonymity. Yemeniforces launched an all-out offensive onMay 12 aimed at reclaiming towns andcities lost to Al-Qaeda during the pastyear, including Abyan’s capital Zinjibar.

Syria has world’s

biggest chemical

arsenal: israelJeRuSALeM

Afp

Syria has the “biggest chemical weaponsarsenal in the world,” which it could useto threaten the Jewish state, Israel’sdeputy chief of the general staff haswarned. “Syria has built up the biggestchemical weapons arsenal in the worldand has missiles and rockets capable ofreaching any part of Israeli territory,”Major General Yair Naveh said inremarks delivered Sunday night andcarried on Israeli military radio onMonday. Naveh pointed to the deadlycrackdown on anti-governmentprotesters being waged by PresidentBashar al-Assad and his forces, saying itwas proof that Syria would show norestraint in any attack on Israel. “TheSyrians who treat their people that waywill do the same to us if they have theopportunity,” he said. Israel has beenraising the alarm for months over Syria’schemical weapons stockpiles, with thehead of the army’s northern commandwarning they could end up in the handsof Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shiite militiagroup. Israeli military analysts say Syriahas spent the past 40 years producingsarin and nerve gas, as well as mustardgas, which can be used in missiles. Andearlier this month, chief of staffLieutenant General Benny Gantz toldMPs that the unrest in Syria was affectingstability on the strategic Golan Heightsplateau, half of which is held by Syriawhile the other half is occupied by Israel.

French left ontrack for strongparliamentarymajority

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President Francois Hollande’sSocialists and their allies were on trackMonday to win a strong parliamentarymajority after a first-round electionthat cemented France’s swing to theleft. A week ahead of a crucial run-offvote, the Socialists and other left-wingparties won about 46 percent inSunday’s first round ahead of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wingUMP party and its allies with 34percent, official results showed. Withpollsters predicting the Socialists maywin a majority of the NationalAssembly’s 577 seats on their own,party officials on Monday urged votersto keep up the momentum in nextSunday’s second round. “The essentialthing is that the president has a strongmajority,” Socialist Party leaderMartine Aubry said. Sunday’s vote alsosaw a surge in support for Marine LePen’s far-right National Front, whichwants to ditch the euro and battleagainst what she calls the“Islamisation” of France. Aubry urgedthe UMP to withdraw its candidates inconstituencies where the far rightcould win to ensure victory for centristcandidates. “I call on the UMP to beclear... Many are watching in Franceand in Europe and I believe we must beclear in defending certain values,” shesaid. Hollande defeated Sarkozy in lastmonth’s presidential election and nowwants voters to give him a strongmandate to enact left-wing reforms asFrance battles Europe’s crippling debtcrisis, rising joblessness and a stagnanteconomy. However, after a highturnout in the presidential election,voters were less enthusiastic onSunday with participation rate at only57 percent, a record low for a firstround. If the second round confirmsSunday’s results, it will increaseHollande’s status in Europe aschampion of the movement away fromthe German-led fixation on austeritytowards growth, and give him aconfidence boost in upcoming talkswith fellow EU leaders on the eurozonecrisis. Pollsters say Sunday’s resultsindicate the Socialists will takebetween 283 and 329 seats in the run-off vote, likely enough to secure the289 seats they need to form a majorityon their own.

52 killed in Syria, troopspound rebels strongholds

ex-pM Brown blasts Murdoch press at enquiry

JERUsALEM: A palestinian man gestures towards a car sprayed with graffiti written in Hebrew that reads, ‘Ulpena’ referring to the Jewish outpost built illegally in the west Bank and

which is earmarked to be relocated following a supreme court order, in the palestinian neighborhood of shuafat, in israeli annexed East Jerusalem on Monday. afp

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Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Page 21

Nadal wins record seventh French open

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RAIN had the final sayas the third and finalTest between Englandand the West Indiesended in a draw atEdgbaston here on

Monday. In a match where three days outof a possible five were washed out, it wasno surprise neither side had got in a po-sition to force victory.

And, after yet more rain, the umpiresfinally called the game off shortly before3.15pm local time (1415GMT) followingno play at all on the final day.

The draw gave England, who'd al-ready retained the Wisden Trophy, a 2-0win in this three-match series after five-wicket and nine-wicket wins at Lord'sand Trent Bridge respectively.

Overnight, England were 221 for fivein reply to West Indies' first innings 426,a deficit of 205 runs and needing a fur-ther 56 to avoid the follow-on.

Ian Bell, attempting to become thefirst Warwickshire batsman to score aTest hundred on his Edgbaston homeground, was left on 76 not out and night-watchman Steven Finn nought not out.

West Indies' total owed much to TinoBest's whirlwind 95, the highest scoreever by a Test match No 11 batsman.

Best faced just 112 balls with a six and14 fours on Sunday's fourth day.

Together with wicket-keeper DeneshRamdin, who made 107 not out, Bestshared a partnership of 143 -- the thirdhighest 10th wicket stand in Test historyand a West Indies record.

And, before Sunday's close, fastbowler Best removed both England cap-tain Andrew Strauss and JonathanBairstow. England, with the series al-ready won, controversially chose to restfirst-choice new-ball pairing James An-derson and Stuart Broad from this match.

In their places came fellow seamersGraham Onions and Finn. Durham quickOnions, who two years ago suffered a ca-reer-threatening back injury, took fourwickets for 88 runs in 29.3 overs, withFinn managing three for 109 in 32.

After this match, England and the

West Indies play three one-day interna-tionals and a stand alone Twenty20,starting with Saturday's 50-over clash atSouthampton. The West Indies willwarm-up for the limited overs fixtureswith a one-day game against Middlesex atLord's on Wednesday.

Rain seals England-Windies drawwest indies 1st innings 426 (D Ramdin 107no, T Best 95, M

samuels 76; g onions 4-88, s finn 3-109, T Bresnan 3-111)

England 1st innings (overnight: 221-5)

A. strauss c Bravo b Best 17

A. cook lbw b Rampaul 4

J. Trott b sammy 17

K. pietersen c sammy b samuels 78

i. Bell not out 76

J. Bairstow b Best 18

s. finn not out 0

Extras (b1, lb7, nb3) 11

Total (5 wkts, 58 overs, 245 mins) 221

fall of wickets: 1-13 (cook), 2-40 (Trott), 3-49 (strauss), 4-186

(pietersen), 5-215 (Bairstow)

Did not bat: M prior, T Bresnan, g swann, g onions

Bowling: Best 12-2-37-2 (3nb); Rampaul 14-1-55-1; sammy 8-

1-22-1; narine 15-1-70-0; samuels 9-0-29-1;

west indies: Adrian Barath, Kieran powell, Assad fudadin,

Darren Bravo, Marlon samuels, narsingh Deonarine, Denesh

Ramdin (wkt), Darren sammy (capt), sunil narine, Ravi

Rampaul Tino Best

Result: Match drawn

series: England win three-match series 2-0

previous Results

May 17-21: 1st Test, Lord's: England won by 5 wkts

May 25-28: 2nd Test, Trent Bridge: England won by 9 wkts

Toss: England

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (sRi) and Tony Hill (nZL)

TV umpire: Aleem Dar (pAK)

Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (sRi)

scoREBoARD

birMiNGhAM: rain delays the start of the fifth day of the third Test match between england and the West indies at edgbaston. afp

S.PeRvez QAISeR

After drawing the first match with Poland,Greece take on Czech Republic in theirsecond match of the 14th Euro Cup Foot-ball tournament at the Municipal Stadiumin Wroclaw, Poland on Tuesday (June 12).This group A match will start at 21.00hours (PST). This will be the ninth inter-national match between the two teamsand third in the European Cup finals.

Czech Republic have won five, lostone and draw two in eight previous meet-ings. They scored 11 and conceded threegoals in these matches.

Czechoslovakia defeated Greece 3-1when two teams met first time in Euro-pean Cup finals at Rome on June 14,1980while Greece recorded a 1-0 extra timevictory over Czech Republic at Porto onJuly 1,2004 in the last meeting.

If past experience is anything to go by,this match is unlikely to produce a hatfulof goals. In three previous encounters be-tween Greece and the Czech Republic,only one goal has been scored. That wasat the 2004 finals when Greek defenderTraianos Dellas scored in extra time, a sil-ver goal which ended the match, to givehis team a 1-0 victory in Porto and a placein the final. Though Greece have neverconceded a goal against the Czechs, theyhad an appalling record against theirpredecessors Czechoslovakia who beatthem in all five matches they played.

Greece’s 1-1 draw with hosts Polandin the opening match of the tournamentwas their first point at a Euro finals sincetheir surprise win in 2004. In 2008, theylost all three group games. In 2004 Greeceplayed and surprisingly beat then hostsPortugal in the opening match of the tour-nament and repeated the feat in a final noone had expected. The odds on them play-ing Poland again in the Euro 2012 finallook extremely slim.

The Czech Republic’s 4-1 thrashing byRussia in their opening game was theirheaviest ever defeat. They have only lostby a three-goal margin twice before - 3-0to Switzerland in 1994, the second gamethey ever played after the break-up ofCzechoslovakia, and 3-0 to Norway in afriendly last year. The Czechs have nowlost their last three games at EuropeanChampionship finals. In 2008, they wontheir opening group game against hosts

Switzerland but then lost 3-1 to Portugaland 3-2 to Turkey to exit before theknockout stage. The second match of theday will be played between Poland andRussia at the National Stadium, Warsaw,Poland. This group A match will start at23.45 hours (PST). This will be the 15thinternational match between the twoteams and first in European Cup finals.

Russia have won seven, lost three anddraw four in 14 previous matches playedagainst Poland. They scored 28 and con-ceded 13 goals in these matches

Co-hosts Poland can take hope fromthe fact that they won their only previoushome game against Russia 3-1 in afriendly in Chorzow in 1998. They werealso unbeaten at home in full internation-als against the Soviet team before thebreak up of the Soviet Union. Poland’ssquandering of chances in the first half oftheir 1-1 draw with Greece in the openingmatch of the tournament means they arestill awaiting their first victory at a Eurofinals. In their only previous appearancefour years ago, they drew one and lost twoof their group games.

The goal conceded by Poland whenGreek substitute Dimitris Salpingidis net-ted a second-half equaliser in the openingmatch was the first the Poles have con-ceded in their last five matches. Russia’simpressive 4-1 demolition of the CzechRepublic in their first match increasedtheirunbeaten run to 15 matches in whichthey have conceded just five goals.

Russia’s victory over the Czechs wasan exact reversal of the score in their firstgame at Euro 2008 when they lost 4-1 toeventual champions Spain. They then re-covered to win three games in a row be-fore losing by three goals again to Spain,this time 3-0, in the semi-finals.

czech republic havean edge over Greece

euroPeAN cuP FooTbALL

cZech rePubLic V

Greece:

heAD To heAD:

iNTerNATioNAL MATcheS:

Played: 8

czech republic won: 5

Greece won: 1

Drawn: 2

Goals for czech republic: 11

Goals for Greece: 3

euroPeAN cuP MATcheS:

Played: 2

czech republic won 1

Greece won: 1

Drawn: -

Goals for czech republic: 3

Goals for Greece: 2

ruSSiA V PoLAND:

heAD To heAD:

iNTerNATioNAL MATcheS:

Played: 14

russia won: 7

Poland won: 3

Drawn: 4

Goals for russia: 28

Goals for Poland : 13

** First meeting in euro-

pean cup finals.

BIRMINGHAMAfp

Ian Bell was recalled to the Englandsquad on Monday for their upcomingthree-match one-day international se-ries against the West Indies.

Warwickshire batsman Bell, backin the limited overs set-up after beingleft out of England's 4-0 one-day winagainst Pakistan in the United ArabEmirates in February, having strug-gled in the preceding Tests.

However, with Kevin Pietersen hav-ing retired from one-day internationals lastweek, England have a vacancy at the top ofthe order which Bell, who made an unbeaten76 in the washed out third Test against theWest Indies concluded at Edgbaston onMonday, could now fill alongside one-dayskipper Alastair Cook.

The 30-year-old Bell averages just over34 in 108 one-day internationals but hasscored just the one hundred.

In addition to their 14-man one-daysquad, England also named a separate 13-man party for the stand alone Twenty20at Trent Bridge ahead of the defence oftheir World Twenty20 title in Sri Lankain September.

"We are anticipating a very competitive NatWest seriesagainst West Indies and are looking to continue to build on the

progress we made in limited overs cricket earlier this yearagainst Pakistan," said Englamd national selector GeoffMiller in a statement.

"Kevin Pietersen's recent decision to retire from oneday cricket means we now start looking at other optionsavailable to us as we prepare to defend our ICC World

Twenty20 title and look towards next year's ICC ChampionsTrophy and the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup," the former

England off-spinner added.England one-day squad

Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson,Jonathan Bairstow , Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim

Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach,Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Eoin

Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann,Jonathan Trott

England Twenty20 squadStuart Broad (capt), Jonathan

Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan,Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dern-bach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, CraigKieswetter (wkt), Eoin Morgan, Samit

Patel, Graeme SwannFixtures

Jun 16: 1st ODI, Southampton Jun 19: 2nd ODI, The Oval

Jun 22: 3rd ODI, HeadingleyJun 24: T20, Trent Bridge

england recall Bell for Wi oDis

BIRMINGHAMAfp

Kevin Pietersen said Sunday he stillwanted to help England defend theirWorld Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka in Sep-tember, despite announcing his retire-ment from limited overs internationals.The South Africa-born batsman was manof the tournament when England won theWorld Twenty20 in the Caribbean twoyears ago. But he quit all limited overs in-ternationals last week when he was told bythe England and Wales Cricket Board(ECB) the terms of his England centralcontract would not allow him his wish ofabandoning 50-over one-day matcheswhile still playing Twenty20 fixtures forhis adopted country. "I've said I'll play theT20 World Cup," Pietersen explained. "Ifthey (England) want me to play the T20World Cup, I'll play the T20 World Cup.

"But contracts are contracts. They'd haveto change the rules to make that happen."

Pietersen, who also plays in the lucra-tive Indian Premier League (IPL), wasadamant it was no longer possible for himto perform to his best in all three interna-tional formats in what is an increasinglycongested programme "I'd had enough ofthe schedule. I can't carry on doing every-thing. I play every single form of cricket thatthere is. "Apart from (India captain) MSDhoni, I've played the most days of interna-tional cricket over the past seven years."There comes a time when some form of thegame has to be taken out of my schedule.One-day cricket was it. "If the schedulesweren't like that, or I played for anothercountry where you had months and monthsoccasionally to rest and recuperate, or if Ihad the opportunities to be rested (thingsmight be different), but you don't get thoseopportunities when you play for England."

umpire Llongjoins icc panelBIRMINgHAM: Nigel Llong has beenselected to replace Billy Doctrove on theInternational Cricket Council (ICC) panelof elite umpires for the 2012/13 season,the global governing body announcedMonday. The 43-year-old Englishmanhas come in for Doctrove following theWest Indian official's retirement fromthe elite panel last week.Llong, who will take up his place on thepanel on July 1, has already umpired in12 Tests, 55 one-day internationals and16 Twenty20 internationals. A left-handed batsman and an off-spin-ner for Kent from 1990-1998, Llongplayed in 68 first-class matches, scoring3,024 runs and taking 35 wickets.Meanwhile the 12-man elite panel --deemed by the ICC to be cricket's leadingumpires -- will be joined for the WorldTwenty20 in Sri Lanka in September andOctober by Australia's Bruce Oxenford. Afp

pietersen calls forengland t20 compromise

ISB 12-06-2012_Layout 1 6/12/2012 3:26 AM Page 18

AUSTRALIA SERIES vENUE

Sports 19Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

LAHOResTAff REpoRT

THE Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials weremeasuring the pros and cons of the decision tochoose either Malaysia or the UAE asvenue for their home series againstAustralia that is scheduled to

start in August and no it has approachedthe team managent for its feedback onthe potential venue for the upcominghome series against Australia.

With the series fast-approach-ing, PCB Director International In-tikhab Alam last week visited bothcountries to assess facilities anddiscuss holding the forthcoming se-ries with the authorities.

However, the senior official re-turned with a similar feedback fromboth venues, making the decision dif-ficult for the board.

The PCB was forced to look for an al-ternative after Cricket Sri Lanka refused tohost the series due to a clash with the proposedSri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) despite making acommitment earlier. Both Australia and Pakistan are sched-uled to play five One-Day Internationals and three

twenty20s in August. “There are similar sort of positivesand negatives in both choices [Malaysia and UAE],” a PCBofficial close to the matter said.

“We know about the situation in the UAE but the facil-ities in Malaysia have also impressed Alam. The country is

hosting major tournaments and it is still under PCB'sconsideration.

“The weather is also an issue in bothcountries. If there are humidity problems

in UAE then rain is an issue inMalaysia. But we have been told thereis less rain there in late August andSeptember. “We are still weighingthe options by taking broadcastersand sponsors into account. But tillnow we are indecisive.”

The official added that advicefrom team management will also

help in finalising the decision. “Weinitially arranged the series in Sri

Lanka as it would have been idealpreparation ahead of the World

Twenty20. “Now the team management'sadvice will be important.”While PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf an-

nounced that the decision will be taken today, the offi-cial said the board may take few more days to finalise thechoice of venue.

PCB seeks teammanagement advice

LAHOResTAff REpoRT

The Pakistan Cricket Board is keen onsigning "exchange" contracts with theSri Lankan and Bangladeshi counter-parts under which their players will takepart in the Premier League Twenty20Tournament in the country.

"While we allow our players to goand play in the Sri Lankan PremierLeague if they are not required for na-tional duty, under the exchange contractby the PCB, the Sri Lankan Board willalso make its players available for ourPremier League whenever it islaunched," PCB chairman Zaka Ashrafsaid.

Ashraf said the matter had been dis-cussed this week on telephone with theSLC and the discussions had been verypositive.

"The Sri Lankans have also invitedme to watch the first Test in Galle and

we hope to send a draft of the proposedcontract to them soon," he said.

Ashraf said the PCB is also planningto sign a similar exchange contract withthe Bangladesh board.

"We allowed our players to go andplay in the Bangladesh Premier Leagueand once this contract is done it will en-sure Bangladeshi players will also takepart in our Premier League," he said.

Ashraf said that he would also like tosee Indian players take part in the PPL.

Ashraf also spoke on the issue ofPakistani players not getting their pay-ments from franchises in theBangladesh Premier League and said itwas a serious matter.

"It is a serious matter and whatevercommitments have been made need tobe honoured. When we host a similartournament in Pakistan we will look toavoid such issues and ensure that alldocuments are in place so such a sce-nario does not occur," he said.

pCB wants exchange contracts with SLC, BCB

Miandad turns

55 today

LAHOResTAff REpoRT

The 55th birthday of former captain ofPakistan cricket team and renowned bats-man, Javed Miandad will be celebrated onTuesday. His fans and cricket lovers willhold a ceremony in Jehaniyan markinghis birthday. Javed Miandad was born onJune 12, 1975 in Karachi and served as thecaptain of Pakistan cricket team from1975 to 1996. He has been a renownedbatsman throughout his cricketing career.He also has a world record of participat-ing in 6 cricket world cups. His record hasremained unbroken till now.

Flying start foregypt, Tunisia inWorld cup race

JOHANNeSBuRGAfp

Egypt and Tunisia celebrated Mondayafter taking significant strides this monthtoward qualifying for the 2014 World Cupin Brazil.The Pharaohs and the Carthage Eagleswere the only countries among the 40 in-volved in the mini-league second elimina-tion phase to win both matches over thepast two weekends. After a routine 2-0home win against Mozambique, Egypt tri-umphed 3-2 in Guinea after the most ex-citing game of the 40 played in the questfor five qualifying places.While a 3-1 win at home to EquatorialGuinea was anticipated, Tunisia did wellto triumph 2-1 away to a Cape Verde Is-lands side ranked among the top 20 na-tional teams on the continent.With a third of the mini-league schedulecompleted, Egypt and Tunisia must be-lieve they are well on the way to winningtheir groups and advancing to the knock-out five-tie final stage.No domestic football in Egypt since post-match Port Said riots on February 1claimed 74 lives left the Pharaohs short ofcompetitive practice, but gave Americancoach Bob Bradley much more time withhis squad than usual.Egypt have lifted the Africa Cup of Na-tions a record seven times, but reachedthe World Cup only twice, and for ageingstars like goalkeeper Essam Al Hadaryand midfielder Mohamed Abou Treika,these qualifiers represent a final chance.Former African champions Tunisia haveexperienced steady progress under coachSamir Trabelsi with France-based IssamJemaa among the most dangerouspenalty-area predators on the continent.The Cape Verde Blue Sharks also lost inSierra Leone and hold the unwantedrecord of being the only side to lose bothmatches, giving them little chance of over-taking the Tunisians.Although 2010 World Cup quarter-final-ists Ghana fired seven goals past lowlyLesotho during the opening series of fix-tures, 83 goals from 40 matches means anaverage of just more than two per game.Ghana drew a blank in a 1-0 away loss toAfrican champions Zambia, but remainthe leading scorers with seven followed byAlgeria, Egypt and Tunisia with five each.Burkina Faso, seeded to win Group E,Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Niger andZimbabwe have failed to score, whichpartly explains why they all occupy lowlypositions in the tables.Individuals to catch the eye includeEgyptian icon Abou Treika, who bagged abrace in Guinea, and little known Ethiopiastriker Saladin Said, whose three goalshave propelled the Black Lions to the topof Group A.

Pakistan lacks goodtalent for differentteams: Jalaluddin

LAHOResTAff REpoRT

Former Pakistan fast bowler and na-tion's leading coach Jalaluddin hassaid the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)is blindly aping other nations by tryingto build three different teams, andadded that Pakistan doesn't haveenough talent to do so.Jalaluddin, who is the first ever bowlerto take a hat trick in the one-day for-mat, said old players making a come-back in the team should do on merit,and this concept doesn't suit Pakistancricket."With regards to the formation of 3teams, I would say that we are blindlytrying to copy other nations. We don'thave good enough players to make sep-arate teams for 3 formats. We seemedto have picked all these players tomake three teams to make everyonehappy and hope that they perform onthe international stage," Jalaluddinsaid in an interview withPakPassion.net."There are currently 3-4 players in thisteam who we are just taking as a for-mality and the selectors will dropagain. This means that players are sim-ply being chosen to keep people happy,when really the only thing that shouldmatter is choosing the best team forPakistan," he added."If we have plenty of players to choosefrom then its fine, but we simply do nothave the talent to make three differentteams just because other countries aredoing so. I feel this concept of differentteams does not suite Pakistan and Icompletely disagree with it," he said.

Pcb reducesnumber of umpiresfor domestic penal

LAHOResTAff REpoRT

The Pakistan Cricket Board has de-creased the number of umpires in-cluded in the domestic elite penal.According to reports, a committee ofPCB comprising Zakir Khan, SaqibIrfan, Aleem Dar and Asad Rauf, hasdecided to include 20 umpires in thepanel instead of 27, demoting 10 um-pires owing to the complaints of theteams playing matches during the pre-vious season of national cricket.The umpires who have been given placein the elite panel include Aftab Gilani,Akmal Hyatt, Saqib Khan, Majid Hus-sain, and Sajid Afridi.Islam Khan, Masood Khan, AkbarKhan, Jameel Kamran, Iqbal Butt,Meer Dad, and Aijaz are among theumpires who have been transferredfrom elite panel to grade one panel.Two famous umpires, Shakeel Khanand Rasheed Bhatti have retired fromtheir position.

LAHOResTAff REpoRT

Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria will appear be-fore the England and Wales CricketBoard hearing into the spot-fix-ing from June 18 and willleave for London with hislawyer on Thursday.

The ECB com-mittee has chargedKaneria and hisformer Essex team-mate Mervyn West-field with spot-fixing.

"Danish has finally got his visa to travel toLondon and is scheduled to fly out on the June14 with his lawyer Faroog Naseem to attendthe hearing. He is confident he will becleared at the hearing of all charges," PTIquoted a source close to Kaneria assaying.

Westfield was given a shortjail sentence by a crown courtin February after pleadingguilty to having taken 6,000pounds to bowl wides in aPro-40 match between Essex and Durhamplayed in 2009 in English county season. Kane-ria, who played in the match, was also ques-tioned by Essex police during investigations butwas cleared for lack of evidence against him.But at the Westfield trial, the English crick-

eter's lawyer claimed that Kaneria had played a rolein introducing his client to the bookmaker whogave money for spot-fixing. Kaneria has deniedthe allegations but has been summoned by theECB committee to respond to the charges. "Dan-ish and his legal team have prepared a strong replyto the charges against him and will submit it to the

ECB at the hearing," the family source said. The ECB hearing has already been post-

poned twice due to Kaneria not getting avisa to attend the hearing. The KarachiCity Cricket Association just last week

cleared Kaneria of any wrongdoing in amatch of the National Super Eights

Twenty20 match held in Rawalpindiin March in which the leg-spinner

bowled just four deliveries beforelimping off with a side strain. The

inquiry committee formed bythe KCCA to investigate allega-tions that some Karachi play-ers deliberatelyunder-performed in the match

questioned Kaneria and later ac-cepted that he had a medicalcondition which didn't allowhim to bowl properly in thematch. Kaneria has not playedfor Pakistan since August, 2010

as the Pakistan Cricket Board hasnot cleared him for selection due

to integrity issues following hisquestioning by the Essex police.

Kaneria appears before eCBspot-fix hearing on 18th

ISB 12-06-2012_Layout 1 6/12/2012 3:26 AM Page 19

Sports20Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Johnson wins after McIlroy's last-hole stumbleMeMPHIS

Afp

Dustin Johnson birdiedtwo of the last three holesSunday to win the US PGASt. Jude Classic after reign-ing US Open championRory McIlroy'shopes

endedwith ad o u b l e

bogey onthe last hole.

Johnson captured hissixth US PGA victory at the$5.6 million event, his first sincelast year's Barclays, by firing afinal-round 66, four-under par,that included birdies at the par-516th and par-4 17th holes. Johnsonfinished 72 holes on nine-under par271, one stroke ahead of fellow Amer-ican John Merrick and two in front ofAustralian Nick O'Hern and Ameri-cans Davis Love, Ryan Palmer andChad Campbell.Northern Ireland'sMcIlroy, who defends his US Opencrown starting Thursday at TheOlympic Club, was among half a

dozen contenders within a stroke of thelead over the final holes at TPC South-

wind. McIlroy birdied the par-4 sec-ond, par-3 fourth and par-4 seventhholes and added another at the par-3 11th to put himself in the title hunt.

Even after bogeysat the par-412th and par-314th he was

among the leaders.A birdie at the par-4

17th gave him a share ofthe lead at eight-under,

but McIlroy's doublebogey at 18 left him

with a 69 to shareseventh on 274

with AmericanKen Duke, Aus-

tralian RobertAllenby and

South Ko-rean Seung-Yul Noh.J o h n s o n

started wellwith an

o p e n i n gb i r d i ea n d

back-to-back birdies at the sixth and sev-enth before closing the front nine with hislone bogey of the day, then making six

pars before his back-to-back bogeys anda closing par to win.

Merrick birdied the 15th an 16th but

was undone by his double bogey at 12while Campbell and O'Hern were undoneby bogeys at 18.

Mian Sharif inter-school final on 18th LAHoRE: The final of the 2nd MianSharif Inter-school T20 Cricket Tourna-ment will be played on June 18 at theLCCA ground. City Distrit Boys Schoolwill take on Pakistan Railways School inthe final and Mian Nawaz Sharif is likelyto be the chief guest of the prize distribu-tion ceremony. As many as 19 matcheshave been played in the tournament andthe final is awaited to be played. REsULTs: city District School beat Kanshafi hS by 131 runs.

central Model beat Govt hS chaburji by seven wickets.

english Foundation beat Muslim Model by 21 runs.

Govt hS chaburji beat Govt hS QLS by nine wickets.

Govt S QLS beat Govt hS Sanat Nagar by 59 runs.

Pakistan railways beat The Lords int’l by 6 wickets.

Govt chishtia hS islampura beat Govt hS Sharanwala

by eight wickets.

Govt Darul Furan School begunpura beat Govt Muslim

School baghbanpura by three runs.

Govt hS chuna Mandi beat hS Khazana Gate by 11 runs.

Govt School QLS beat Govt Khazana Gate by 24 runs.

english Foundation hS beat Darul Furqan by 19 runs.

Pakistan railways beat Govt islamia School Sanat

Nagar by two wickets.

Govt School QLS beat central Model by 106 runs.

Govt Pilot hS Wahdat road beat cathedral School by 13 runs.

english Foundation beat Pilot School by nine wickets.

Pakistan railways beat Dare Arqam by 87 runs.

railways School beat english Foundation by 10 wickets.

Govt hS Misri Shah beat Govt hS Shish Mahal seven runs

sTAff REpoRT

poland tight-lippedas russia clash looms

WARSAWAfp

With Russia on a high after a su-perb 4-1 defeat of the Czech Re-public, Euro 2012 co-hostsPoland are keeping their cardsclose to their chest as they bracefor their politically-chargedmatch here on Tuesday.

Poland coach FranciszekSmuda, who has dubbed RussiaGroup A favorites, is widely ex-pected to make key changes tothe line-up that drew 1-1 withGreece in Friday's tense Euro-pean championship opener.

"It's a maybe," said teammedia director and formerPoland defender Tomasz Rzasawhen pressed repeatedly forcomment.

There is speculation thatSmuda could start midfieldersAdrian Mierzejewski and KamilGrosicki, of Turkish clubs Sam-sunspor and Sivasspor.

They are seen as likely to re-place Bordeaux's Ludovic Obra-niak and Maciej Rybus, despitethe Terek Grozny player's famil-

iarity with the Russian league.Smuda's squad is seen as

Poland's strongest since thelong-lost 1970s and 1980s glorydays, raising fans' hope.

But Smuda, who has set thequarter-finals as his basic target,warns that Poland must not losefocus if they want to bring homeany points from Tuesday's clashwith the flair-filled Russians, letalone the coveted three.

He and Russia's Dutch coachDick Advocaat will be expectinggreat things from their star strik-ers - both rumoured to be beingcourted by English PremierLeague clubs.

Poland's is 23-year-oldRobert Lewandowski, fresh froma stellar season with Germandouble winners Borussia Dort-mund, who sent home fans wildwhen he scored on Friday.

Russia are counting on an-other sterling performance fromCSKA Moscow's 21-year-old AlanDzagoev, their two-goal heroagainst the Czechs. Polandreckon that having seen Russiain action already is a help.

WARSAWAfp

Spain's bid to become the first team towin back-to-back European titles gotoff to a bad start on Sunday, after theywere forced to come from behind todraw 1-1 with crisis-hit Italy in Gdansk,Poland. Antonio Di Natale put the Az-zurri ahead in the second-half, latchingon to an inch-perfect Andrea Pirlothrough-ball and slotting it with hisright foot past the advancing Iker Casil-las. But Cesc Fabregas equalised withinminutes at the other end after DavidSilva split two Italy defenders with aneat pass, leaving Gianluigi Buffonhelpless.

Barcelona star Andres Iniesta de-scribed the draw as "bitter-sweet",while Italy coach Cesare Prandelli saidhis team had allowed Spain back intothe game. "We've given Spain the op-portunity to equalise, so we have to im-prove and that's the mentality weneed," he added. Spain's shaky startwas in contrast to Germany, whom theybeat in the final four years ago and whoare out for revenge this time round.They at least managed to get threepoints in a laboured 1-0 win over Por-tugal on Saturday. The Italy team will

take heart from the match after a torridbuild-up, when police raided their pre-tournament training camp as part of anationwide probe into illegal betting onfootball. The team later had to cancel awarm-up match against Luxembourgafter an earthquake rocked northernItaly and were then thumped 4-0 byRussia in a friendly.

In the second Group C match,Croatia beat Republic of Ireland 3-1 inthe western city of Poznan, thanks to abrace from Mario Mandzukic. Mandzu-kic opened the scoring within minutes,beating Shay Given to his left from 12yards out with a header before Sean StLedger levelled the scores.

But Nikica Jelavic put the Croatsback in front just before half-time.Mandzukic then saw another header goin after the break, with the ball bounc-ing back off the left-hand upright andhitting the luckless Given's head as hedived. Croatia looked likely to facesanctions, though, after their fans litflares and let off smoke bombs to cele-brate the first-half goals. Germany isfacing disciplinary proceedings aftermissiles were thrown in Lviv and Por-tugal are being investigated after thesecond-half kick-off was delayed.

UEFA has already initiated pro-

ceedings against Russia after its fans litand threw fireworks and displayed po-tentially inflammatory "Russian Em-pire" flags at Friday's Group A gamewith the Czech Republic in Wroclaw,Poland. It also said it was investigatingclaims from a racism monitoring bodythat the Czech's Theo Gebre Selassie,who is black, was subjected to monkeychants during the game, which Russiawon 4-1. Police are separately probingan attack on four volunteer stadiumstewards after the match, and are pub-lishing photographs of six Russian sus-pects. Russian football chiefs havevowed to do all they can to prevent a re-peat of the violence.

But the country's football support-ers association accused the Polish stew-ards, who required hospital treatmentafterwards, of provoking the attack bytrying to detain what they said was aninnocent fan. Wroclaw police saidmeanwhile that two Russia fans wereeach given two-year bans from Polishfootball grounds and a 2,000-zloty(460-euro, $575) fine for ignoring re-quests by security personnel during thematch. Four other Russia fans werecharged in connection with a restaurantbrawl while 10 Poles, four Irish and oneCroat were held after violence in Poznan.

Spain setback in Euro bid

PoZNAN: irish goalkeeper Shay Given(bottom) vies with croatian forward NikicaJelavic during the euro 2012 championshipsmatch at the Municipal Stadium. afp

PIttSFORDAfp

Feng Shanshan became the first Chinesegolfer to win a major title by firing abogey-free five-under par 67 on Sundayto capture the LPGA Championship bytwo strokes. The 22-year-old from Bei-jing, who began golfing at age 10 andcame to America as a teen before joiningthe LPGA in 2008, took her first careerLPGA triumph by finishing 72 holes atLocust Hill Country Club on six-under282. "I still can't believe that I won amajor. It just feels so good," Feng said."I'm just so excited right now. I did it."Japan's Mika Miyazato, Norway's SuzannPettersen, American Stacy Lewis andSouth Korean Eun-Hee Ji shared secondon 284. Feng, whose victory was worth$375,000, will rise from 10th to fourth inthe world ranking on Monday. She firedthe week's low round on the final day.

"My goal for the year was to win on theLPGA Tour and a top 10 in a major. I didthem at one time," Feng said. But asmeaningful as the shock victory was forFeng, it could resonate far more in China,which opened its first golf course in1984, only five years before Feng wasborn. "Golf wasn't that popular inChina," Feng said. "I was lucky to have achance to start." Feng, who asked televi-sion commentators to call her "Jenny",said she had planned to play upcomingLPGA events, but will instead celebrateher victory with a trip home to China.She plans to play July 5-8 in the USWomen's Open.A startled Feng exclaimed, "Oh my God,"when she saw the winner's trophy andwhere her name would be engraved be-side that of World No. 1 Yani Tseng ofTaiwan, the five-time major winner whoowns three victories this season.Despite lingering political tensions be-

tween their homelands, Feng said sheand Tseng get along well and Feng oneday hopes to match Tseng's success byreaching the top of the rankings. "I'mstill chasing her," Feng said. "But maybeI got a little closer." In a strong amateurcareer in China, Feng won nine titles, in-cluding the China Women's Amateurtitle from 2004 through 2006. Fengshared the runner-up spot in February'sHSBC Women's Champions event in Sin-gapore to match her best LPGA result tothat point, runner-up efforts in lastyear's Mizuno Classic and the 2008 BellMicro LPGA Classic."This means a lot for me," Feng said."This is my fifth year on the tour. I hadno winning. I was down. I was thinking,'Could I win again?' Now I know I canwin again." Feng, who began the daythree strokes off the pace, birdied thepar-4 second and sixth holes and addedanother at the par-5 eighth.

Feng wins LPGA Championship, first major for China

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Sports 21Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

watch it Live

SPORTS CENTER

07:30PM

condolence LAHoRE: Messages of condolence keptflowing in expressing sympathy with seniorsports journalist Syed Ali Hashimi on hisfather’s sad demise. Syed Fuzail Hashimi,former editor Imroz, breathed his last inthe wee hours of Monday and was laid torest at the Model Town G Block Graveyard.Quran Khawani and dua for the departedsoul will be held after Asr prayers on Tues-day at 77 B Block Model Town. Pakistan Sports Writers Federation, SportsWriters Association of Punjab, spots asso-ciations of Lahore, Sindh, Faisalanad,Rawalpindi and Islamabad shared theirgrief with Ali Hashimi. Director GeneralSports Punjab Usman Anwar, his staff,Chairman PCB Muhammad Zaka Ashraf,Chairperson PCB Women Wing Mrs.Bushra Aitazaz, and PCB COO Mr. SubhanAhmed, Pakistan Hockey Federation presi-dent Qasim Zia, secretary Asif Bajwa, La-hore Region Cricket Association presidentKh Nadeem, Secretary Mian Javed Ali andtreasurer Sarfraz Ahmed and the entiresports fraternity condoled the sad demiseof veteran journalist Syed Fuzail Hashimi.They expressed their deep sense of sorrowon the passing away of Syed FuzailHashimi and shared the grief of the dearlydeparted with the family and prayed thatMay Allah Almighty rest the departed soulin peace and give Ali and his familystrength to bear this huge loss. sTAff REpoRT

rafael Nadal's sevenFrench open titles

PARISAfp

Rafael Nadal's seven French Open finalsafter the Spaniard clinched a record sev-enth title at Roland Garros on Monday:2012: bt Novak Djokovic (SRB) 6-4, 6-3,2-6, 7-52011: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 7-5, 7-6(7/3), 5-7, 6-1 2010: bt Robin Soderling (SWE) 6-4, 6-2, 6-42008: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 6-1, 6-3,6-0 2007: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 6-3, 4-6,6-3, 6-4 2006: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 1-6, 6-1,6-4, 7-6 (7/4)2005: bt Mariano Puerta (ARG) 6-7(6/8), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 Note: In 2009, Nadal was defeated inthe fourth round by Robin Soderling, hisonly loss at the French Open.

Ali stuns Wajid Aliin bb badminton

ISLAMABADsTAff REpoRT

The 12th seed Ali Murad stunned 3rdseed Wajid Ali Choudhary 2-1 in theMen’s Singles fixture of the ongoing Be-nazir Bhutto Shaheed Badminton Cham-pionship 2012 to record back-to-backsecond upset victory, as he (Ali) had top-pled heavyweight Wajid 2-1 in the teamevent three days back at Rodham Hall,Pakistan Sports Complex. The final score-line was 19-21, 21-16 and 21-11.Also, top seed Ahsan Qamar, RizwanAzam and Atiq Choudhary reached in thesemifinals of the Benazir Bhutto ShaheedBadminton Championship 2012 afterbeating their respective rivals. In thepenultimate quarterfinal, Ali Murad set-tled himself on the court after losing thefirst game 19-21 and won the rest of twogames 21-16 and 21-11 to qualify for thesemifinal of the badminton champi-onship.Earlier, in the first quarterfinal, Ahsanfrom Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) defeated Awais from Army 2-1 in awell-contested three games. The finalscore-line was 21-14, 13-21 and 21-18.Ahsan claimed a comfortable win in thefirst game at 21-14 by displaying excellentskills of the game. However, army manAwais bounced back in the match by win-ning the second game at 21-13 andsquared the match 1-1.Later, in the decisive game, both playerstoiled hard in the court to earn the crucialvictory in the prestigious national bad-minton showpiece. The game was a blendof powerful strokes and classic dropshorts at the net, which won by Ahsan at21-18. Ahsan Qamar will meet RizwanAzam in the semifinal on Tuesday (today)at same venue. Meanwhile, in the Women’s Singles quar-terfinals, Sara Mohmond, Sidra Hameed,Pawasha Bashir and Sadia Arshadshowed impressive performance to qual-ify for the top-four stage of the champi-onship. Sara from National Bank ofPakistan (NBP) outplayed Gazala Bibifrom Higher Education Commission(HEC) 2-1. Top seed Sara had to workhard to overcome a lowly ranked girl andset the meet Sidra Hameed in semifinalon Tuesday (today).results: (11-06-12)

Men’s Singles (Quarterfinals):

Ahsan Qamar (PiA) beat Awais Zahid (Army) 2-14, 13-21, 21-18

rizwan Azam (NbP) beat hasher bashir (WAPDA) 21-13, 21-09

Ali Murad (NbP) beat Wajid Ali choudhary (WAPDA) 19-21, 21-

16, 21-11

Atiq choudhary (WAPDA) beat Pervaiz Akhatar Nabeel (AJK)

23-21, 21-14

Women’s Singles (Quarterfinals):

Sara Mohmond (NbP) beat Gazalla bibi (hec) 21-16, 11-21, 21-12

Sidra hameed (WAPDA) beat Sara razzak (WAPDA) 21-18,

21-17

Palwash bashir (NbP) beat Shahnaz Shah (Punjab) 21-13, 21-03

Sadia Arshad (WAPDA) beat Kizra rasheed (WAPDA) 21-17,

18-21, 21-17

PARISAfp

RAFAEL Nadal clinched arecord seventh FrenchOpen title on Monday, de-feating world number oneNovak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3,

2-6, 7-5 and shattering the Serb's dreamof Grand Slam history.

In a fractious final pushed into a thirdweek for only the second time because ofSunday's rain, the Spanish world numbertwo, playing in his 16th Grand Slam final,also took his Paris record to a staggering52 wins against just one loss. Victory,which was achieved on a Djokovic doublefault, allowed him to break the tie for sixFrench Opens he shared with Bjorn Borg.

It was the 26-year-old's 11th GrandSlam title, taking him one behind RoyEmerson, three off Pete Sampras and fiveaway from the record of 16 held by RogerFederer. For five-time major winnerDjokovic, the Wimbledon, US Open andAustralian Open champion, it was the endof his dream of emulating Don Budge(1938) and Rod Laver (1962 and 1969) byholding all the Grand Slams at once.

He was left to regret his unforced errorcount of 53 which undermined his chal-lenge. "For me it's a real honour, this tour-nament is the most special and for me tohave this trophy is unforgettable - it's prob-ably one of the greatest moments in my ca-reer," said Nadal, who needed just 49minutes on Monday to complete victory.Djokovic, who had won the pair's epic Aus-tralian Open final this year, admitted thatNadal had been the better player.

"Rafa was better. He is a great playerbut I hope to come back next year and dobetter," said the Serb, playing in his firstRoland Garros final. After Sunday's sus-

pension, the players, meeting in a fourthsuccessive Grand Slam final, resumed withNadal leading 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 1-2, but withDjokovic in the ascendancy and serving fora 3-1 lead in the fourth set. But a forehanderror from Djokovic, with the court at hismercy, gave Nadal a break point and theSpaniard seized it when the Serb had beenleft flat-footed by a net cord which allowed

his opponent to push through a winner.The set remained tight as would be ex-pected with the pair meeting for a 33rdtime. Nadal moved to 5-4 as the umbrellaswent up all around Philippe Chatrier Courtand the players sat courtside to wait out apassing, heavy shower and complained totournament referee Stefan Fransen aboutthe slippery conditions.

Disappointed Djokovic says better man wonPARIS

Afp

World number one Novak Djokovicsaid Monday that he was disappointedat losing his chance to make historyafter being defeated by Rafael Nadal atthe French Open, but admitted that thebetter man won.

"The better player won today, socongratulations for that," Djokovicsaid, refusing to blame rain and the de-cision by tournament officials to delaythe match a second time late Sunday,which he said helped Nadal recover hisform.

World number two Nadal clincheda record seventh French Open title, de-feating Djokovic 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 andshattering the Serb's dream of achiev-ing Grand Slam history as well.

For five-time major winnerDjokovic, the reigning Wimbledon, USOpen and Australian Open champion,

it was the end of his dream of emulat-ing Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver(1962 and 1969) by holding all theGrand Slams at once.

"He is definitely the best player inhistory on this surface, and results areshowing that he is one of the best play-ers that ever played this game, and heis only 26 years old," Djokovic said.

"Hopefully we can have many morebattles," the 25-year-old Serb added.

Making history "was not the pri-mary thought in my mind" and "thedisappointment is there because I lostthe match".

Djokovic had been on top whenplay was halted for a second and lasttime on Sunday when he had clawedback a set and led 2-1 with a break inthe fourth.

"Playing conditions were notgood. But it's not anybody's fault, andit's not the reason why I lost today,"he admitted.

Nadal wins recordseventh French Open

PAriS: Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts afterlosing to Spain's rafael Nadal in their men'ssingles final during the French open. afp

PAriS: Spain's rafael Nadal poses with his trophy after winning against Serbia's NovakDjokovic in the men's singles final of the French open. afp

bALGiuM: The Dar hockey academy team before their second match. Dar academy win 6-1 against rapid hockey club, belgium with goals

coming from Saleem 2, bilal Mahmood, Salman, M.rizwan, Waseem Akram while rapid club got its goal from Wouter Van hecke.

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Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

22

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami, Resident Editor: Rana Qaisar

ISLAMABADAgEnciEs

PRIME Minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani on Monday ruled out send-ing a reference against ChiefJustice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry over bribery charges

against his son, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar.“I think there is no need for sending a

reference against Justice Chaudhry for al-leged involvement of his son in the briberyscam,” Gilani said while talking to re-porters after addressing the inaugural ses-sion of two-day Vice Chancellors Forum.

He said Arsalan Iftikhar’s case wassub-judice so there was no need to makespeculative comments, adding that the

media had created unnecessary hype overthe issue. Addressing the Vice Chancellors’Forum earlier‚ Gilani said budgeted alloca-tions for promotion of education had beenincreased to explore true potential ofyouth. He said the education sector was atop priority of the government and itwould make maximum investment in it.

Later, chairing a briefing on the up-coming UN Conference on “SustainableDevelopment Rio-20” being held in Brazilon June 20 to 22, Prime Minister Gilanisaid that climate change is a multi-dimen-sional developmental challenge for boththe developing and the developed world.He said that keeping in view the all-perva-sive impact of the issue, it was a challengefor statesmen, policy makers, planners,

thinkers, and professionals, which war-ranted partnership approach. More than120 heads of the governments and statesare expected to attend the multilateral con-ference, which has been billed as the mostimportant UN Conference of 21st century.Over 40,000 members of NGOs, acade-mia, media, youth, environmentalists andsocial activists will also be in attendance.

The PM underscored the importanceof enhancing cooperation between the de-veloping and the developed countries inorder to effectively deal with the challengeof climate change. He said that it was re-sponsibility of the developed world to rec-ognize the concerns of developingcountries regarding sustained economicgrowth and poverty eradication.

ISLAMABADAgEnciEs

Pakistani defence officials could not get aclear response from their Indian counter-parts on the Siachen issue on Monday dur-ing the first round of talks on thedecades-old dispute.

The Pakistani side had suggested de-claring the glacier a non-military area andwithdrawing forces to the 1984 position.

In the two-day talks, which will con-tinue today (Tuesday), Indian Secretary forDefence Shashikanth Sharma representedthe Indian side while the Pakistani side wasled by Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi.

Later, Sharma said though his countrywas in favour of withdrawing its forcesfrom Siachen, any decision in this regard

would be taken in India’s best interest Healso expressed grief over the April 7 inci-dent.

Meanwhile, Nargis gave suggestions formaterialising the withdrawal of forces fromSiachen.

At the end of Monday’s session, the In-dian defence secretary held a meeting withDefence Minister Naveed Qamar.

India’s Defence Minister AK Antonyhas warned against any breakthrough, say-ing that India would explain its “clear-cutposition” on Siachen to the Pakistanis.

“Do not expect any dramatic announce-ment or decision on an issue which is veryimportant for us, especially in the contextof national security,” he said last week.

Pakistani officials were also tight-lipped about the talks.

WASHINGtONspEciAL coRREsponDEnT

The White House on Monday termedthe US relationship with Pakistan“both extremely important and ex-tremely complicated”, saying Ameri-can officials would return toIslamabad to conclude negotiations onreopening of NATO supply routeswhen Islamabad is ready to do so.

US President Barack Obama’sspokesman said technical arrange-ments had been largely completed andat the same time admitted that otherissues remained to be resolved to-wards the goal of restoration of Pak-istani land routes that transportNATO supplies into landlockedAfghanistan.

At the daily briefing, Press Secre-tary Jay Carney confirmed reports thata US team, that negotiated with theirPakistani counterparts for about sixweeks, was returning home. Expertssaw withdrawal of the technical team asa failure for efforts to secure a deal onrevival of Pakistani land routes intoAfghanistan but the White House offi-cial’s remarks suggested that it did notrepresent a complete breakdown.“Most of the technical arrangementshave been worked out but there are sev-eral issues outstanding. We believe thatall can be resolved and we remain readyto conclude this agreement as soon asPakistan is ready,” the spokesman toldthe daily press briefing. Pakistan’s am-bassador in Washington SherryRehman, meanwhile, said the US with-drawal of its technical team did not in-

dicate an institutional pullback. “I don’treally see it as an institutional pullout,but really, that question is for the USadministration to answer.” “For ourpart, I have been saying this again andagain, Pakistan is seeking to be part ofthe solution for NATO and the US asthey transfer security in Afghanistan,not an obstacle,” she said in a statementemailed by the Pakistani embassy.

“On the NATO supplies, the wayforward is more related to other issues.We certainly did not close the GLOCsfor leveraging a price advantage. Theywere not closed in a fit of pique or onimpulse. These were closed as a deci-sion of the DCC after 24 Pakistani sol-diers were martyred at the Salalacheckpost in November last, absent anexpression of remorse,” the Pakistaniambassador added. The Pentagon andState Department had earlier con-firmed that the team was returning toWashington for debriefing. “We saw itis the right move to withdraw,” Carneysaid in response to a question at theWhite House briefing. “We are readyto send officials back to Islamabadwhen the Pakistani government isready to conclude the agreement.” “Itcertainly remains our goal to completean agreement as soon as possible andI would note that the Pakistani govern-ment has said the same thing. “ Thespokesman observed that the remain-ing issues that needed to be resolvedbetween Pakistan and the US did notrequire the kind of technical peoplewho have largely completed discus-sions on technical aspects of theground lines of communications.

No need for reference against CJP: Gilani

India beats aboutthe bush on Siachen

Officials will returnwhen Islamabad is readyfor deal: White House

isLAMABAD: Defence secretary nargis sethi shakes hands with her indian counterpart shashikant sharma before the

start of talks on the siachen dispute on Monday. afp

MASTUNg: At least six people were killedand more than 30, including women andchildren, were injured when a powerfulbomb exploded near a passenger bus on themain Quetta-Mastung highway on Monday.Levies sources said a Noshki-boundpassenger bus coming from Quetta withabout 60 people onboard was targeted with abomb planted along the road in theDarengrra area of Mastung. As a result, sixpeople were killed on the spot while more

than 30 were injured. Locals and LeviesForce officials rushed to the spot and helpedmove the injured to Civil Hospital Mastung.Doctors said the condition of several of theinjured was serious and the death toll couldrise. Those seriously injured were shifted toBolan Medical Complex Quetta, where threepeople were said to be critical. Securityforces cordoned off the area after the blastand launched a search operation, however,no arrest could be made. staff report

Six killed, 30 injured asbus blown up in MastungPower outages,

scorching heat

claim two livesDASKA

sTAff REpoRT

Prolonged power outages coupledwith scorching heat has hit peopleacross the country hard, with twopeople dying of severe heat inDaska and Sambrial on Monday.Low supply of fuel and gas topower plants resulted in theelectricity shortfall climbing to4,482MW on Monday. Aspokesman for the NationalTransmission and DispatchCompany Limited (NTDCL) saidhydel power plants weregenerating up to 4,417MW,thermal units 1,212MW and5,739MW of electricity was beingsupplied by IPPs. Electricityremained absent in major citieslike Lahore for up to 12 hours,while the situation was muchworse in rural areas with 18-houroutages. One of the two men killedby severe heat on Monday wasidentified as Muhammad Asif Khan,while the identity of the other couldnot be ascertained. Also, electricitysupply was cut to 16 districts ofBalochistan, including Quetta, aftera fault emerged in the maintransmission line from Guddu. TheQuetta Electricity Supply Companychief engineer said the transmissionline coming from Quetta to Gududeveloped a fault resulting insuspension of supply to 16 districtsof Balochistan, including Quetta,Sibi, Jalal Magsi, Bolan, Harnai,killa Saif Ullah, killa Abdullah,Pishin and Zhob.

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