e-paper pakistantoday 17th may, 2012

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lahore edition thursday, 17 may, 2012 Jamadi-ul-sani 25, 1433rs 15.00 Vol ii no 320 22 Pages

Asad Durrani says Aslam Beg was in on everything

NEWS DESK

THe cost of the US-led wareffort in Afghanistan is aboutto rise by $365 millionannually under an agreementthat would reopen a keyNATO supply route throughPakistan that’s been closed fornearly six months, theChristian Science Monitor

reported on Wednesday.The accord, which the Pakistani governmentannounced late Tuesday, would revive thetransport of vital supplies of food andequipment from Pakistani ports overland toland-locked Afghanistan.In return, the US-led coalition will payPakistan a still-to-be-fixed fee of $1,500 to$1,800 for each truck carrying supplies, a tabthat officials familiar with negotiationsestimated would run nearly $1 million a day.The officials requested anonymity becausethey weren’t authorized to reveal details of theagreement. Pakistan closed the land route tosupplies headed to the coalition afterAmerican aircraft mistakenly attacked twoPakistani border outposts Nov. 26, killing 24Pakistani soldiers. Since then, supplies forcoalition forces in Afghanistan have passedthrough one of two routes that stretch fromAfghanistan through central Asia and Siberiato Georgia on the Black Sea. One of the routesis nearly 6,000 miles long. The Pakistan routeis less than 500 miles. Officials in Washingtonsaid they didn’t know how much of the newcost the United States would bear. As theUnited States contributes more than two-thirds of the 130,000-strong internationalforce, which operates under the command ofNATO, it’s expected that Washington will paymost of the new fee.

What Pakistan suPPlies in returnIn return, the US is asking Pakistan to providesecurity for the supplies, which are truckedthrough the country by private local transportcompanies, and much speedier clearance ofcustoms and checkpoints. Militants and robbersfrequently attack trucks carrying NATO goods.No effective security had been provided in thepast. “Security is the most important thing werequire for swift transportation to besustained,” said Nadeem Khan, the chiefexecutive of Raaziq International, one of themajor Pakistani companies involved in carryingNATO supplies. “That is the least that the(Pakistani) government can provide us astaxpayers.” Before the Pakistan route wassuspended, 30 percent of coalition suppliespassed through the country, according to thePentagon. Reopening the route could be key toplans by NATO forces to end their combatmission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, agoal that would require the US and othercountries to move equipment out ofAfghanistan to Pakistani ports. American andPakistani negotiators are still haggling overdetails of the new supply agreement. Adefinitive deal is likely by early next week.

600 trucks a dayThe NATO traffic in and out of Afghanistanthrough Pakistan is anticipated to be as manyas 600 trucks a day between now and the endof next year. Until now, Pakistan, which joinedthe United States as an ally in invadingAfghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, hascharged only nominal fees for shipments to US-led forces. But the new charge is considered aPakistani effort to assert itself in itsrelationship with Washington, which suffered aseries of serious setbacks last year, beginningwith a CIA contractor’s shooting of twoPakistani civilians in January, continuing withthe May raid that found and killed Osama binLaden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and endingwith the border outpost attack.Late Tuesday, after a meeting of Pakistan’s topcivilian and military officials in Islamabad, theprime minister’s office confirmed that theNATO supply route, known as GLOC orGround Lines of Communications, would bereopened, subject to final negotiations.

Pakistan strikes $1m a day deal with NATO

g US-Pakistan deal to

reopen key NATO

supply route through

Pakistan would

raise cost of the

war effort in

Afghanistan

by about $365

million annually

KaracHi: a driver polishes his truck used to transport fuel to nato forces in afghanistan, as pakistan is expected to endorse the country’s attendance at key talks on

afghanistan in chicago and edge towards lifting a blockade on overland nato supplies to its war-torn neighbour. afP

ISLAMABADStaff report

Finance Minister Dr Abdul HafeezShaikh on Wednesday dropped abombshell during the federal cabinetmeeting, claiming that the Waterand Power Ministry had no mecha-nism in place to evaluate actualquantum of load shedding and thegap between scheduled and un-scheduled load shedding.

The assertion by the finance min-ister left Prime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani and other cabinet membersbiting their nails as Water and PowerMinister Naveed Qamar did not con-tradict Shaikh’s claim. He even couldnot satisfy the prime minister withhis answers and kept mum and con-fused over most of the questionsraised by the cabinet members.

Resultantly, all cabinet members

grilled the water and power minister,saying the ministry could land theruling coalition in hot waters duringthe upcoming elections.

“But Shaikh did not stop here andrather he went on to claim that thePPP-led coalition government had in-jected Rs 1,000 billion to clear thecircular debt, but could not do so andthe issue was unaddressed due topoor recovery system from influentialdefaulters, either in public or privatesector,” a member who attended thecabinet meeting informed PakistanToday, requesting anonymity.

The source said Shaikh urged thewater and power minister to install amonitoring system in the ministry toevaluate the actual power generation,gap between generation and require-ment, schedule of load shedding, etc.“Shaikh also questioned the claimmade by petroleum minister earlier

that Rs 50 billion had been providedfor provision of furnace oil. He saidhad the amount had been paid, allIPPs should have been producingpower at full capacity and thereshould be no load shedding in thecountry,” the source added.

Shaikh said there was no solu-tion to power shortage other thanpower conservation and for the pur-pose, there was a dire need to forma task force or monitoring system.“He also pointed out that some in-fluential were behind strategy tokeep prices of gas lower so as to getcheaper gas for power generation,”the source added. Shaikh also askedthe Interior Ministry to use its mus-cle to recover the amounts liablefrom defaulters as line loses were amajor dent for the country.

White House rejects conditionson Pakistan aid

WASHINGTONSpecial correSpondent

In another indication of imminent US-Pakistan rapprochement followingIslamabad’s expression of willingness toallow resumption of NATO supply routes, theWhite House has rejected a string ofconditions recently proposed by a keyCongressional panel at a “sensitive” time inAmerican engagement in the region. TheWhite House Office of Management andBudget issued a statement, taking exceptionto Pakistan-specific and several otherdefence-related proposals by the HouseArmed Services Committee in the defencebudget for the financial year 2013. Thestatement said that the new limitationswould impact the administration’s ability toimplement its defence strategy. In the USpolitical system, President is the ultimateauthority in conducting Washington’s foreignpolicy. The statement said that PresidentBarack Obama’s advisers would suggest aveto option, if the conditions are not dropped.

g Finance minister says Power Ministry has no mechanism to evaluate quantumof load shedding g Gilani says no emotional decision on NATO supply issue

Continued on Page 04

Continued on Page 04

Continued on Page 04Pentagon hoPeful of routes resumPtion | Page 04

Cabinet grills Naveed Qamarfor poor load management

Many will profit whenPakistan reopens NATOsupply routes: WP

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 5/17/2012 1:18 AM

02Thursday, 17 May, 2012

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cArTOON

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regularisation protest goes awry dr chishti lands in controversy over remarks on judiciary

ISLAMABADinp

PRIMe Minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani has confirmed that PML-Nchief Nawaz Sharif had suggestedthe names of five people for pos-sible appointment as the chief

election commissioner.Addressing the meeting of the federal cab-

inet, the PM said Opposition Leader in the Na-tional Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan haddeclined to suggest names for the CeC afterconsultation with his party after which Nawazhad suggested the names.

Nawaz has proposed the names of AliAhmad Kurd from Balochistan, Fakhruddin Gebrahim and Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahidfrom Sindh, Justice (r) Shafiur Rahman fromPunjab and Justice (r) Sardar Raza Khan fromKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters inShikarpur earlier, Nawaz on Wednesday saidthe Sindh card could no longer be used as it had“run out of credit”.

The PML-N chief blamed the country’srulers of being disconnected from the peopleand oblivious to their problems. He said it wastime the government paid attention to themasses’ issues and served the people. He saidpeople were fed up of the government’s corrup-

tion and mismanagement.Nawaz said the Sindh card had been emp-

tied by those who were filling their pockets withpoor people’s money and they would now goback home as people would not support them.He said if people were served selflessly, therewould be no need for any card.

The PML-N chief said the party had in itshand “Service to Pakistan Card” and it wouldserve the people of Pakistani.

He said whoever gave good advice to therulers, they turned against him instead of cor-recting themselves. He said the PML-N was sin-cere in moving with the rulers for the service ofthe country, but the rulers were not sincere.

Nawaz said if the PPP had joined handswith the PML-N, people would have been prais-ing the government. He said the PML-N be-lieved in service of people and was ready tocooperate with those who felt the pain of themasses. He said there could be difference in ide-ology, but every one wanted to see Pakistanprogress. He said if Sindh has reservations overthe construction of Kalabagh dam, it should notbe taken up. Replying to questions, the formerprime minister alleged that Rehman Malik’spast was rife with graft cases, saying that the in-terior minister had previously been convictedby the courts.

“Who is he to accuse others? He is not anangel,” Nawaz said.

Nawaz proposes 5

names for CECg PML-N chief says Sindh card has run out of credit

NATO supplies restoration an insult to parliament lahOre: JI chief Munawar Hasan has said restoration of the NATO supplies was be aninsult to parliament. He said the government had succumbed to US pressure and decided torestore NATO supplies without Washington yielding to Islamabad’s demands for an apologyon the Salala attack and stoppage of drone attacks. He was addressing the heads of JI’s sisterbodies at a meeting held at Mansoora to devise ways and means to stop the NATO supplies.Hasan questioned the worth of the government’s claim about the supremacy of parliamentwhen it had unanimously adopted resolutions which were being given little weight by the US.He said the government itself was by-passing parliament to please Washington. The rulerswere trampling upon the Supreme Court decisions and parliament’s resolutions and pushingthe country into chaos and the country’s solidarity and independence was at great risk underthe present ruling junta. He warned that his party would resist the NATO supply resumption.He said the main reason behind the US pressure was the corrupt leadership which openlysaid Pakistan could not survive without the US’ help. inp



NewscOMMeNTBack on track

Articles on Page 12-13

Moving forward

new provincesNeed more than political sloganeering

dr james j Zogby says:

Saleem Shaikh says:

FOreIGN NewS

Story on Page 17

ArTS & eNTerTAINMeNT

Story on Page 15

SPOrTS

Story on Page 18

Germany pledges post-withdrawal cash for afghanistan Kristen Stewart wants to go dark side

Don’t expect much: Netanyahu’s big new government

Prioritising education: Spend more, spend wisely

malik muhammad ashraf says:Playing politics: While there are bigger issues at hand

Wi batsmen set for stern england exam


INFORMATION Minister QamarZaman Kaira on Wednesdayclaimed that there was no differenceof opinion between the civilian andmilitary leaderships on the reopen-

ing of NATO supplies, adding that the de-cision to complete the dialogue processexpeditiously was a unanimous decision.

Briefing reporters on the federal cabi-net meeting at the PM’s Secretariat, theminister said individual views were alwaysthere but decisions were made collectivelyand all owned them.

The federal cabinet met and endorsedall the decisions adopted by the DefenceCommittee of the Cabinet (DCC).

Meanwhile, the military top brass alsoheld an informal meeting at the GHQ,chaired by COAS General Ashfaq Kayaniand the meeting which was attended by allcorps commanders, also discussed theDCC decisions and deliberated upon theissue at length.

Kaira said the decision on the issue ofNATO supplies resumption, would bemade in the light of parliament’s resolutionkeeping in view national interests and dig-nity. Dispelling the impression given by asection of the media about concealing thedecisions, he said, “The government doesnot need to hide any decisions on theNATO supplies, but being a sensitive issuethe media should report it correctly,”adding that the president had been ex-tended an invitation to attend the ChicagoSummit, but neither the civil governmentnor the security establishment had givenany assurances to the US.

To a question, he said the democraticgovernment had taken bold steps on theNATO supplies’ issue as no past regime

had ever taken such a stance. He also re-minded that the government had singedagreements with Iran despite oppositionfrom certain countries.

Kaira said Finance Minister HafeezSheikh assured the cabinet that in the nextbudget all required funds would be allo-cated to the power sector to avoid un-scheduled load shedding.

About power theft, he said the cabinetdecided that there would be “zero toler-ance” for this crime. He said it was hopedthat in the coming days inflow of water indams would increase and power genera-tion from hydel sector would increase con-siderably which would help minimise loadshedding. He said that the cabinet hadformed a committee headed by the financeminister to monitor the power situation ona daily basis and take appropriate steps inthis regard.

About Thar coal gasification by a teamheaded by Dr Samar Mubarkmand, hesaid funds required for the project would

be provided and the impression that hewas not being provided funds was incor-rect.

To a question, he said the superior ju-diciary, parliament and national institu-tions considered Prime Minister Gilanilegitimate head of the government.

Meanwhile, the prime minister in-formed the Cabinet meeting that economicindicators of Pakistan’s economy weremoving in the right direction despite theglobal recession and the devastating floodsof 2010 and 2011.

He said his government would presenta pro-people budget and he had given fol-lowing policy guidelines and broad param-eters on which the Finance Ministryshould focus in preparation of the budget.

“The budget should be people-friendlyand priority be given to alleviating the dif-ficulties of common man and provision ofrelief. Job creation through the nextbudget should be a top priority. Job oppor-tunities for 100,000 young men and

women have to be created,” asserted Gi-lani.

At this stage, the cabinet set aside theregular agenda and turned into a SpecialCabinet meeting to discuss the energyshortages in the country.

The special cabinet meeting had a de-tailed view of energy shortages in the coun-try. All members of the cabinet took partin the exhaustive discussion and sharedtheir point of view. The cabinet took thefollowing decisions: the Cabinet energyCommittee comprising ministers for fi-nance, petroleum, water and power, infor-mation and broadcasting, planningcommission deputy chairman and statebank of Pakistan governor would meet fre-quently to sort out the issue of energyshortages.

The finance minister assured the cab-inet meeting that all financial resourceswill be utilised, until the next budget, forthe generation of energy to meet the en-ergy requirements.

Civil, military leaderships on

same page over NATO suppliesg Federal cabinet endorses all decisions taken by Dcc

NEWS DESK

US commanders in Afghanistan want toget war supplies rolling across Pak-istan’s borders again. So do Pakistanisin places high and low, from officialstrying to balance the nation’s budget toblack marketeers who stand ready toplunder the NATO-contracted trucksand oil tankers expected to shortly re-sume passage into Afghanistan afternearly six months of closed bordercrossings.

The deal isn’t quite sealed, but Pak-istan is set to announce as early as pos-sible its decision to again allow onto itsterritory the convoys that supply US-backed international forces trying towind down the decade-long war againstthe Taliban, the Washington Post re-ported Wednesday.

Pakistan’s decision, after months ofpolitical posturing and delicate negoti-ations, is likely to ease strains betweenWashington and Islamabad. For its re-newed cooperation, Pakistan wouldreap higher tariffs and a payout of atleast $1.3 billion in withheld “coalitionsupport funds” for its contribution to

the fight against Islamist militants.Officials on both sides say the

agreement will not provide Pakistan thefull apology it wants for an incident inwhich US fighter jets and helicoptersmistakenly bombed two outposts on theborder with Afghanistan in November,killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.

But for traders such as Baz Muham-mad Afridi, happy days will returnwhen the blockade ends. Afridi, 46, whovends looted goods in a bazaar on theoutskirts of Peshawar known informallyas “the US market,” nearly abandonedhis business because of dwindlingstock. Afridi said he sold food, daggers,computers and engineering equipmentpillaged from supply convoys. “We weregetting quality goods, technologicalgadgets and American flags at very rea-sonable prices,” he said.

On the macroeconomic level, Islam-abad needs help, too. The $1.3 billionhas been penciled into the proposedbudget, according to Finance Ministryofficials.

The military, which played the keyrole in the NATO-provisioning negotia-tions with US and Afghan army com-

manders last weekend, declined tocomment on its share of the supplybusiness.

Tribal-area militants will profit,too: They demand protection moneyfrom the companies that haul thefreight. And they launch attacks to gettheir slice of what’s inside the steel sea-shipping containers that begin theirjourney at the port of Karachi andtravel hundreds of miles through per-ilous territory.

“even the Taliban is the benefici-ary. They get weapons and ammunitionwhen they attack the containers,” saida black-market trader in NATO goods,who spoke on the condition ofanonymity for fear of Taliban reprisals.“This is one of the financial sources ofthe militants.”

Not to be left out, police and otherlocal authorities extract bribes to allowconvoys to pass, transporters say. It’spart of doing business for companiesthat are hoping to put 8,000 to 10,000tankers and trucks back on the roads toreach land-locked Afghanistan.

even before the border closure, USmilitary officials had stockpiled several

months of material to weather possibleproblems with the Pakistan route.Those stockpiles have been supple-mented by increased shipmentsthrough what’s known as the NorthernDistribution Network, through CentralAsia and Russia.

While new NDN agreements havebeen signed to expand the types andquantities of goods those countriesallow to pass through their territories,the passage is far more expensive andlengthy. The cost and difficulty wouldincrease exponentially as the UnitedStates and its coalition partners beginto remove equipment as the coalitionwithdraws combat forces fromAfghanistan by the end of 2014.

For people in Pakistan’s insur-gency-wracked northwestern KhyberPakhtunkhwa province, the practicalimplications of the NATO issue matterfar more than the political ones.

“The prices of weapons, arms andammunition will come down once theNATO supply is restored. “American-and european-made pistol priceswent up almost double since Novem-ber 26, 2011.”

Many will profit when Pakistan reopens NATO supply routes: wP

3 MQM activists

among 10 killed

in KarachiKARACHI

aamir majeed

At least 10 persons, including three activists ofthe Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM),were killed in separate incidents of violence indifferent areas of the city after Tuesdaymidnight. According to details, bullet riddledand tortured bodies of two persons wereretrieved from Malir Cantonment. The bodieswere shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital wherethey were identified as Muhammad AzharKhan and Kamran Ali. The deceased wereMQM activists and hailed from ehsanabadarea in Scheme-33 of Sohrab Goth. The SohrabGoth area remained tense after the discoveryof the bodies, and the party leadership alsoprotested against the double murder. Theydemanded that the authorities immediatelyarrest the murderers. In another incident,armed motorcyclists gunned down seniorMQM worker Anwer Alam alias Babu near theparty’s sector office in Ferozabad area.Following the murder, armed miscreantsresorted to aerial firing and forced the tradersto close their businesses. Syed Mehdi Raza,aged between 40 and 45, was shot to death inNazimabad No-2 near the Jamia ImamiaImambargah. Tension gripped the area afterRaza’s murder and unidentified men resortedto aerial firing and created panic among thelocals. Separately, Dawood College ofengineering and Technology RegistrarGhulam Shabbir Bhaghio and his 25-year-oldson Farooq were shot at near Time Medicos onthe National Stadium Road in the New Townpolice limits. The victims lived in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area. Both father and son arestruggling for their lives and remain in criticalcondition. Two more bodies were found nearthe Navy Boundry Wall of Ilyas Goth inIbrahim Haidri area. The bodies were shiftedto the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre(JPMC). A tortured and bullet riddled bodywas found from the Malir City area near BakraPiri. Police said that the criminals kidnappedthe victim from an unknown location anddumped his body in the area after brutallytorturing the man and killing him.

PTI to plan ‘appropriate

action’ against NATO

supplies restorationISLAMABAD

nni

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ChairmanImran Khan has strongly opposed theproposed resumption of NATO supplyroutes, saying his party will plan“appropriate action” against the move. Inhis messages posted on social networkingwebsite on Wednesday, Khan condemnedwhat he called the “government’s NRO”with NATO. “The PTI opposes thereopening of NATO supply routes and willplan appropriate action,” Khan wrote.“We dismiss all government measureswhich prove fatal for innocent people andstabilise war against terror,” he added. Hefurther said that the Pakistani people hadbeen paying with their blood for a warwhich did not belong to them. “The PTIholds government, which is shamelesslybusy in offering assistance in the war,responsible for the killing of people,” thePTI chief said.



News

WASHINGTONSpecial correSpondent

THe United Stateshopes thatPakistan wouldreopen itsground supply

lines into Afghanistan “in thevery near future,” a Pentagonspokesman said.

The spokesman said theUS wants a relationship withPakistan that overcomesobstacles of the recent pastand wants to “reinvigorate” itgoing forward. “We arehopeful that in the very nearfuture they will be reopened,”George Little, acting assistantsecretary of defense for publicaffairs, told journalists at aPentagon briefing. “They areimportant supply routes forus.” Little said of the groundlines of transportation thatwere banned by Pakistan inresponse to killing of its 24soldiers in US war planestrikes on Salala border poston November 26 last year.Following the closure ofPakistani routes six months

ago , the US logisticsspecialists quickly shifted toother means to supply theAfghanistan-based forces, butthe routes through Pakistanremain the “most direct andmost cost-effective.”

Little said the UScontinues to work withPakistan. “We continue towork closely with thePakistanis to renew ourrelationship that gets oversome of the obstacles that wefaced in the past,” Little said.The United States andPakistan share commonthreats, concerns andinterests, the assistantsecretary said. “Terrorism iscommon concern that boththe United States andPakistan face,” he said. “Thesame terrorists that comeafter us go after Pakistanisand have been responsible forthe deaths of thousands ofPakistanis.”

“We, at the end of theday, believe that we sharecommon interests withPakistan. The relationship,we believe, is getting to where

it needs to be. And that’s whywe’re committed to ongoingdialogue, not just on GLOCs(ground lines ofcommunications) and onterrorism, but across the fullrange of security issues thatwe have common intereston.” Questioned if theadministration has ruled outan apology in the November2011 incident - thatundermined the relationship- Little said the US hadexpressed deep regret in thewake of the incident.

“ I would reiterate whatwe said in December, andthat is that we’ve expresseddeep regret and extended ourcondolences to the Pakistanipeople, to the Pakistanigovernment, and of course tothe families of the loved oneswho were lost and of coursethose who were injured in theincident as well. So we havebeen clear about expressingregret for that incident, andthe goal now is to pressahead, move forward, andreinvigorate the relationshipwith our Pakistani partners.”

KaracHi: edhi foundation distributing donkeys among poor people on Wednesday. Several people lost their animals during the recent lyari operation. iNP

CAIROafp

The Arab-speaking mediawas in a quandary after theappointment of Jean-MarcAyrault as France’s newprime minster on Tuesday —about how to mention thehead of the Frenchgovernment without causingoffense. Transcribed intoArabic from the Frenchpronounciation of his name,“Ayrault” refers to the malesexual organ in severalArabic dialects. The problemlasted for hours after FrenchPresident Francois Hollandenamed the head of theSocialist bloc in parliamentas his prime minister, withArab journalists tryingdifferent possiblepronunciations of his name.Some newspapers referred tohim as “Aro,” others prefixedhis name with an “H,” whilesome chose to spell out the

last two silent letters. Theconundrum was finallyresolved by the Frenchforeign ministry, whichissued an official edict onsubject permitting his nameto be transcribed as written,and saving the blushes ofmany an Arabic editor.

He also blamed provincial gov-ernments for poor recoveriesand said even the KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) governmenthad moved the high courtagainst the federal governmentafter power tariff was raised.

Prime Minister Gilani alsosupported the views expressedby Dr Shaikh and other cabinetmembers that the governmentwas entering an election yearand since all coalition partieshad to face the masses, theyshould be kept abreast on powerissue that could bring about adisaster for the ruling parties inthe upcoming election. Gilanialso shared his own experienceand said that during 2008 elec-tions, his opponent candidate

was PML-Q’s food ministerSikandar Bosan. “During theelections, there was flour short-age and we made the same issuean election issue. We used tocall Bosan ‘flour thief’. Despitemassive development projectscarried out by Bosan, I won theelection,” the prime ministersaid. He said power shortagecould do the same damage inthe upcoming election to theruling coalition.

The prime minister saidwhenever he had taken notice ofpower shortage, the power gen-eration had improved signifi-cantly, which reflected thatthere was some fault with theWater and Power Ministry indealing with the matter. He re-called that during the recentcricket match of Pakistan, he

had directed the ministry not toobserve load shedding duringthe match. He said that the en-tire day, there was no load shed-ding. “If we can avoid loadshedding for a whole day, whywe cant do so throughout theyear. Same situation happenedwhen during my visit to UK,when the president took noticeof the power shortage andpower generation improved.But the opposition claimed thatthe government had failed in re-solving power mess and thatwas the reason that the presi-dent had to intervene,” thesource quoted the prime minis-ter as saying. Gilani also tookthe PML-N leadership to taskfor undermining the sanctity ofthe office of the chief executiveof the country. “While I was

abroad, some political leaderstried to undermine the sanctityof the office of the prime minis-ter and urged their party work-ers to stage protest rallies, butthey miserably failed due to thepeople’s commitment todemocracy,” said the primeminister.

He said such politicianscould not interpret the judg-ments of the courts according totheir “own whims” and askedthem to avoid influencing thecourts by their “naive interpre-tation”. Talking about the rela-tions with the US, the primeminister said the relations withNATO and US were passingthrough a delicate phase where“we need to take critical deci-sions keeping in view our strate-gic importance in the region

and our national interest”. “Wedid not and will not compro-mise on our principled standbut would not take emotionaldecisions,” he added. Gilani saidnational interests would not becompromised while reviewingthe NATO supply issue. Abouthis appeal against the convic-tion by the Supreme Court, Gi-lani said, “Appeal is my rightand I hope to get justice. I be-lieve the justice will be servedaccording to the constitutionand I will defend the constitu-tion at all cost.”

The prime minister said ef-forts would be made to providerelief to the common man in thenext budget and achieve macro-economic stability. Gilani gaveguidelines to the Finance Min-istry on the next budget‚ he said

the budget should be peoplefriendly and priority be given toalleviating the difficulties ofcommon man and provision ofrelief. He said job creationthrough the next budget shouldbe a top priority. The PM fur-ther said recommendations ofthe energy Conference held inLahore should be the guidelinesfor resource allocation forpower sector to address the en-ergy crisis.

The cabinet decided to ex-pedite recovery of electricitydues worth Rs 300 billionagainst federal and provincialgovernments and the privatesector. The prime minister saidthe Chief election Commissionwould be appointed with con-sensus by adopting legal andconstitutional procedure.

CHICAGOafp

Protesters chanting “Fight!Fight! Fight! Housing is ahuman right!” marched inChicago Wednesday using theupcoming NATO summit as anopportunity to draw attentionto the US foreclosure crisis.

Thousands of protestersare expected to descendupon Chicago as the leadersof 50 countries gather for aNATO summit on Sundayand Monday. “Why can’t Ilive at Citibank, huh?” Loren

Taylor said as he sat on anarmchair and rug laid out infront of a Citibank branch inthe heart of Chicago’s finan-cial district. “They’re kickingme out of my home, whycan’t I just move in here?”Police wearing bicycle hel-mets and bright yellow jack-ets used their bicycles assubtle barricades to keep theprotesters on the sidewalk asthey marched to the court-house where foreclosuresare processed.

Fears that the protestscould turn violent have put

the city on edge, with somedowntown businesses eventelling office workers to ditchtheir suits and ties and dressdown to avoid being hassledor targeted on the streets.Po-lice and protest organizershave vowed that there will beno repeat of the trouble thaterupted at events such asG20 summits in London andToronto or the riots whichscarred Chicago during the1968 Democratic NationalConvention.

The decision to move theG8 summit — set for Friday

and Saturday — fromChicago to Camp David is ex-pected to lessen the intensityof demonstrations in Presi-dent Barack Obama’s adop-tive home town. Severalrallies held so far have beenpeaceful, although four pro-testers were arrested Tues-day at a rowdy rally outside aChicago immigration court.eight protesters werecharged with trespassingafter they refused to leave theChicago office tower whichhouses Obama’s campaignheadquarters.

The White House Office ofManagement and Budget(OMB) argued that limiting re-imbursement of funds for Pak-istan at this sensitive timewould have negative implica-tions for counterterrorism ef-forts in the region. “TheAdministration strongly objectsto the restriction in reimburse-ment for Pakistan from Coali-tion Support Funds and theassociated certification require-ments in section 1211,” the OMBsaid in a statement.

“Taken together, the reim-bursement restriction and thecertification restrictions – someof which require the Secretary ofDefense to certify Pakistani co-

operation on issues outside ofhis purview – are proposed at aparticularly sensitive time andwould severely constrict DOD(Department of Defense)’s abil-ity to respond to emergent war-time coalition supportrequirements, putting at risk thesuccess of our campaign inAfghanistan, and increasing therisk that al-Qaida and its associ-ates would be able to againenjoy a safe haven in Pakistan,”the statement added. Last week,the House Armed ServicesCommittees called for condi-tioning both US economic andmilitary assistance for Pakistan.It proposed the aid be limiteduntil the South Asian countryfacilities NATO supplies and ex-tends help in support of wide-

ranging US counterterrorism ef-forts in Afghanistan. Six monthsago, Pakistan closed down twosupply routes – that beginningat the sea port in Karachi snakethrough mountainous KhyberPass and in the southwesternprovince pass via Chaman -transport much-needed NATOsupplies into landlockedAfghanistan.

The routes blockade wascaused by a spate of unsavouryincidents that strained the rela-tionship between the two previ-ously close anti-terror allies. Therelations slumped to their low-est point in the post-911 phaseon November 26, 2011, whenAmerican warplanes destroyedtwo border posts in Salala,killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.

PAkiSTANSTrikeS

The meeting “authorizedofficers of relevant min-istries/departments to con-clude the ongoingnegotiation on the newterms and conditions forresumption of GLOCs,” astatement from the primeminister’s office said.nO aPOlOgynecessary? In a majorclimb-down, Pakistandropped its demand thatWashington apologize forthe deaths due to theNovember raids. There wasalso no agreement to endcontroversial strikes byAmerican drone aircraftagainst suspected militantsin Pakistan’s tribal area, asdemanded by a cross-partyresolution of Pakistan’sParliament. The statementadded that “the Ministry ofForeign Affairs wouldcontinue to remain engagedwith the government of theUnited States on otherparliamentaryrecommendations,including the question ofapology and cessation ofdrone attacks.” The othermajor point of contention,on which no accord wasannounced, is the moneythat the United States owesPakistan under theCoalition Support Fundsprogram that reimbursesIslamabad for the cost ofguarding its westernfrontier with Afghanistan.According to Pakistanisecurity officials, Pakistanis owed more than $2billion and hasn’t receiveda payment for two years.

aNP leader

escapes attack

on convoy,

two killedMONITORING DESK

Two people were killed andthree others were injured inan attack on the convoy ofAwami National Party (ANP)parliamentarian KhursheedBegum, who remainedunhurt in Wednesday’sattack, a private channelreported. Geo News,quoting police sources,reported that unidentifiedmen attacked Khurseed’sconvoy in Kohat and injuredfive people, including herhusband Saeed ShahBukhari. The injured wererushed to Kohat DistrictHospital, while thepolitician’s husband wasshifted to Peshawar. Two ofthe injured succumbed toinjuries in the hospital.

White House rejects conditions

Cabinet grills Qamar for poor management

Pentagon sees Pakistaniroutes resumption in ‘very near future’

Arab press blushes at

new French PM’s name

NATO protesters march in Chicago ahead of summit

Continued from Page 01





News

ISLAMABADapp

PReSIDeNT Asif AliZardari on Wednesday saidthe government while vigor-ously promoting interfaithharmony was determined

not to let anyone misuse the blasphemylaw against minorities and other vulner-able sections of society.

The president was talking to FatherRobert McCulloch, procurator generalfrom the Vatican, who called on Zardariat the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

The president welcomed him to Pak-istan and congratulated him on theSitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam that was con-ferred on him in recognition of his mul-tiple services spanning over 30 years forthe welfare of the people of Pakistan.

Zardari highlighted the contribu-tions of the minorities in Pakistan andinformed him of the constitutional pro-tection of their fundamental rights. Hesaid the government had taken impor-tant measures to ensure protection ofthe minorities.

During his stay in Pakistan, FatherMcCulloch remained involved in educa-tion, health and other social services. Heset up a Catholic Centre for Academicexcellence in Hyderabad to provide freeeducation to children from underprivi-leged families, besides a health develop-ment centre.

His other major contributions in-clude taking steps to preserve languageof Tharparker known as Pakrikohli andengaged experts from around the worldto work on a script to turn this languageinto a written language.

Babar said the president during the

meeting commended his services for thepeople of Pakistan and said presence ofFather McCulloch at Vatican was asource of strength for his continuoussupport for Pakistan as “he knows theland, people and its diversity”. Hepraised the contribution of Father Mc-Culloch for projecting a soft image ofPakistan. Zardari acknowledged the con-tributions of the Christian communityand other non-Muslim minorities for thesocio-economic development of thecountry and particularly noted their con-tributions in education and health sec-

tors. He said many missionary institu-

tions in Pakistan were assisting the gov-ernment to promote a culture of mutualunderstanding, tolerance and compas-sion. The president said the number ofseats in the Upper House of parliamentwere increased to accommodate minori-ties for the first time under the 18thAmendment.

Zardari also mentioned the impor-tant steps taken by the government thatinclude abolishing system of separateelectorate for minorities, measures to

ensure that blasphemy law was not mis-used, denationalisation of Catholicschools, establishment of a separateministry to promote inter-faith harmonyin the country and reserving five percentemployment quota.

He also endorsed international ef-forts to promote interfaith dialogue suchas Alliance of Civilisations, ASeM Inter-faith Dialogue, NAM and OIC.

Father McCulloch assured full coop-eration in augmenting the government’sefforts for promoting inter-faith har-mony and tolerance in the country.

Govt won’t allow misuse of

blasphemy law: Zardarig President says govt vigorously promoting interfaith harmony


The Supreme Court on Wednesdaygranted permission to former law min-ister Babar Awan to withdraw hisintra-court appeal filed against the de-cision of a two-member SC bench forframing charges against him in a con-tempt of court case.

A three-member bench comprisingChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawajaand Justice Khilji Arif Hussain heardthe intra-court appeal.

Barrister Ali Zafar, counsel forAwan, sought permission to withdrawthe appeal after he failed to point outany precedent available wherein it was

binding upon the court to consider anapology tendered by an accused. He re-peatedly argued before the court that ifa person makes an apology, the courtmust consider his apology.

The chief justice told Zafar that thecourt had not shut the door but theprocedure of the court had to be fol-lowed. “Accepting or rejecting apologywas the prerogative of the court,” thechief justice said. Zafar however con-tended that in the past when the apol-ogy was tendered, it was eitheraccepted or rejected by the court.

Justice Khawaja observed that theyhad no personal interest but it was thematter of court. “Tell us any principlethat is binding on us,” the CJ told thecounsel. Zafar however could not give

any precedent. Zafar told the court thatthe judges knew well about thoseprecedents and they could not betaught in this regard. Khawaja told himthat it was his duty to tell the court andhis client about the precedent.

The chief justice observed thatAwan used to appear before the courtand had assisted the court as well inmany cases. “He was our senior mem-ber and we have only temporarily sus-pended his licence,” the CJ said askingZafar to withdraw the intra-court ap-peal and raise all the questions in-volved in the case before the trial court,seized with the matter.

Zafar accepted the advice of thecourt and withdrew his intra-court ap-peal.

SC permits Babar awan to withdraw

his intra-court appeal

AJMERinp

He may have gone home brieflywith the Supreme Court’s permis-sion but Pakistani virologist DrKhaleel Chishti has left behind acontroversy by his remarks againstthe Indian judiciary.

A petition has been filed in alocal court for launching contemptproceedings against Chishti, whoreturned to Pakistan after spend-ing 20 years in a Rajasthan jail, forreportedly saying “there are illiter-ates in the Indian judiciary butalso intelligent judges”. The peti-tion was filed by advocates Deven-dra Singh Shekhavt and Prakash

Meena in the Fast Track Court.They alleged that Chishti had

said in a television interview that“there are illiterates in the judici-ary but also intelligent judges. In-telligent judges reach up to theSupreme Court”. The Fast TrackCourt will hear the application onMay 28. However, as the contro-versy blew up, he sought to clarifysaying he did not mean to be disre-spectful. “I wish to clarify that I didnot mean to be disrespectful to theIndian judiciary, I am a law abid-ing man with utmost respect forjudiciary. If my remarks hurt any-one please accept my deepest apol-ogy,” Chishti, who is facing lifesentence in a murder case and was

on May 10 permitted by the IndianSupreme Court to visit Pakistan fora temporary stay, had said onTuesday.

He had also thanked the In-dian judiciary and people for theirsupport and said he will return toIndia as ordered by the IndianSupreme Court. “I am grateful tothe Indian Supreme Court for al-lowing me to return home for fivemonths and for expediting the spe-cial leave petition which is sched-uled for hearing on November 20,2012. “I look forward to returningas ordered by the Supreme Courtof India and having my name ex-onerated,” 82-year-old Chishti hadsaid in an open letter.

Turkish prime

minister to

visit Pakistan

from 20thISLAMABAD

inp

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyiperdogan will pay a three-day officialvisit to Pakistan from May 20 to May 23on the invitation of Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani. The Turkish primeminister will be accompanied by thefirst lady and high-powereddelegation.During his visit, he willaddress a joint session of Pakistan’sparliament. The government of Turkeybestowed a unique honour on Gilaniduring his visit to Turkey in December2010 where he addressed the Turkishparliament. The Turkish prime ministerwill also co-chair the second High LevelCooperation Council meeting along withPrime Minister Gilani in Islamabad.Both leaders will address the joint pressconference after signing five agreementsof cooperation between the twocountries. The first High LevelCooperation Council Meeting was heldin Turkey in which Gilani representedPakistan in December 2010. PresidentAsif Ali Zardari and Prime MinisterGilani will host state banquet andluncheon respectively in honour of thevisiting Turkish Prime Minister andmembers of his delegation.

Pakistani, Indian

officials discuss

upcoming

secretary-level talksNEW DELHI

online

Prior to the round of talks between theHome secretaries of Pakistan and India,Pakistan’s High Commissioner to IndiaShahid Malik met Indian HomeSecretary RK Singh here on Wednesday.According to sources, this was agoodwill meeting and the two officialshad 30 minutes long discussion onmatters that would be discussed in theproposed talks between the Homesecretaries. The secretary level talks aredue to be held on May 24-25 inIslamabad. Sources said the twosecretaries are expected to sign a freevisa agreement, and permit traders’access to five cities instead of currentthree cities. On April 25, the Indiancabinet gave green signal for signing theagreement. The free visa agreement isexpected to benefit the population onboth sides. Sources told Online that theIndian delegation would also demandPakistan to present the accused ofMumbai attacks into courts and to speedup the proceedings against them.

Anti-India activities

in Pakistan

should stop, Singh

tells ZardariNEW DELHI

online

Indian Prime Minister ManmohanSingh has conveyed to President AsifAli Zardari that India’s concerns onterrorism have to be addressed andanti-India activities have to bestopped there if the people of Indiaare to support and sustain progress inrelations with Islamabad. During Zardari’s visit to India onApril 8, Singh and Zardari haddiscussed the issue of terrorism andthe Indian prime minister toldZardari that there was a need fortaking action to curb terrorism toenable New Delhi to make forwardmovement in the bilateralrelationship, Minister of State forHome Jitendra Singh told the RajyaSabha on Wednesday. “He (Singh)conveyed that it was imperative tobring the perpetrators of the Mumbaiattack to justice and prevent activitiesaimed against India from Pakistanisoil,” the minister said. In thiscontext, Singh also mentioned thatthe activities of LT founder HafizSaeed in public (in Pakistan) and said“our concerns on terrorism had to beaddressed if the people of India are tobe support and sustain progress inbilateral relations”. The president hadreferred to the judicial processagainst Saeed and said the matterneeded to be discussed furtherbetween the two governments, theminister said in a written reply.Zardari was in India on April 8 on a“private visit” during which the primeminister had hosted a lunch for him.He had later visited the Dargah ofMoinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.

Dr chishti lands in controversyover remarks on judiciary



News

KaracHi: Bomb disposal squad personnel inspect a roadside restaurant in Quaidabad which came under a grenade attack on Wednesday. ONLiNE

KARACHIaftaB cHanna

AL T H O U G H more than ahundred people lost theirlife in Lahore due to use ofsubstandard medicineIsotab recently, the people

of Sindh are at the risk of another suchdisaster as there is no drug testing lab-oratory in the province since the lastcouple of years, Pakistan Today has re-liably learnt.

In February 2012, at least 120 peo-ple lost their life after consumingIsotab, a medicine manufactured byefroze Chemical Industries that causedadverse reaction in consumers.

However, the Punjab governmenthas taken serious measures to check

the quality and expiry of the medicinesbeing used in the province.

Interestingly, the second largestprovince of the country with regard toits scattered population, the health au-thorities are so efficient that they neverbothered to take up the non-function-ing of the Drug Testing Laboratory inthe province, insiders told PakistanToday. Moreover, the same was alsoconveyed by senior officials of thehealth department to the Public Ac-counts Committee of the Sindh Assem-bly at which the members of thecommittee were shocked.

After the sad incident in Punjab,the provincial government took severalmeasures to ensure prior checking ofquality and expiry of the medicinesbeing supplied in the province.

However, there is no such testingprocedure in Sindh that could ensurethe quality and expiry of the medicinesbeing used by the masses at largerscale, the sources added.

Private medicine manufacturershave their own drug testing mechanismthat ensures the quality of drugs beforedispatching them to local market, butthe official drug testing mechanism isnot in place, putting at risk life of mil-lions of people.

“Medicines suppliers are deliveringdrugs to local markets through theirown people without going through theofficial checking process. And, the drugtesting laboratory does not exist in theprovince,” the sources disclosed.

Becoming a little active after Pun-jab incident, the Sindh government had

decided to take some stern measures,including gathering senior health ex-perts to ensure effective enforcement ofthe Drugs Act 1976 aimed at regulatingthe import, export, manufacture andsale of drugs in the local markets.

Per constitution, the Sindh govern-ment, especially the health department,is responsible for the health of the peo-ple and the authorities must ensureavailability of health-related institu-tions and mechanism with adequate re-sources. However, the apathy of theauthorities concerned even for theDrug Testing Laboratory raises eye-brows.

Pakistan Today repeatedly tried tocontact Health Secretary Hashim RazaZaidi to seek his version, but his cellphone remained unattended.

Sindh conSuming unteSted drugS

PESHAWARSHamim SHaHid

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor BarristerMassed Kausar has said the government iscommitted to securing Pakistan’s interestsand addressing reservations of the peopleof the industrial sector in restoration ofsupplies to NATO troops camping acrossthe border in Afghanistan.

“There are positive and negative as-pects in supplies to NATO,” GovernorKausar remarked in response to a queryafter inaugurating a two-day conference atPeshawar University on Wednesday.

He said matters pertaining to NATOsupplies were being sorted out and a finaldecision could be taken after taking allstake holders into confidence.

The two days Pak-Afghan TransitTrade: dynamics, challenges andprospects,” is arranged by Political ScienceDepartment University of Peshawar with

collaboration of Bank of Khyber (BOK). Itis purely an academic discussion and con-sultation. Leading academicians from allover the country are going to read paperson the Pak Afghan Transit trade”.

even though a number of traders or in-dustrialists from Afghanistan were alsoseen in the inaugural session of the confer-ence, there was no name of any afghan ac-ademician or intellectual on the list ofexperts.

In his brief chat with reporters, thegovernor said, “The PPP government be-lieves in democracy, therefore, issue per-taining to restoration of NATO supplies arethoroughly discussed in parliament andconsensus proposals made before the gov-ernment. Now the government is going tosettle the issue in accordance with the pro-posals.”

However, he made it clear that the gov-ernment was determined to keeping intactits interests in restoration of NATO sup-

plies.Referring to complaints and reserva-

tions of Afghan government, he said allsuch issues could easily be resolvedthrough mutual understanding. In this re-spect, he stressed on maximum contactsand discussions between the two countries.He said it was an academic conference andacademicians were going to discuss theissue and would come up with proposals.

earlier, addressing the inaugural ses-sion of the two-day National Conference onPak Afghan Transit Trade, GovernorKausar termed it a positive step.

He said Pakistan and Afghanistan werenot only neighbours countries but theirpeoples were linked in unbreakable bonds.

Besides Governor Kausar, the inaugu-ral session was also addressed by PeshawarUniversity Vice Chancellor Dr Qibla AyazKhan, BOK Managing Director BilalMustafa and Prof Dr ZA Hilali, chairmanand organiser of the conference.

g There is no laboratory that could check the quality, expiry of local medicines

Government addressing people’sreservations: KP governor

Tripartite moot

did not discuss

NATO supply: ISPrRAWALPINDI

nni

The Pakistan Army has denied mediareports that the issue of NATO suppliescame under discussion during the meetingof tripartite commission of Pakistan,Afghanistan and the US last week. DirectorGeneral Inter-Services Public Relations(ISPR) Major Gen Athar Abbas termed thereports as speculations and said that themeeting that took place on May12 and 13did not discuss issue of NATO supplies. Hesaid the tripartite commission had onlydiscussed border control mechanism.

rs 1m looted fromrawalpindi bank inarmed robbery

RAWALPINDIinp

Armed robbers took away more than onemillion rupees from a private bank here onWednesday. According to police, five armedrobbers barged into a branch of a privatebank located in the Dheri Hasanabad areaof Rawalpindi. The dacoits held the bankstaff hostage at gun point and looted cashworth more than a million rupees. Therobbers also injured a security guard of thebank who offered resistance during therobbery attempt. Police arrived at the sceneafter the robbers had fled with the cash, andcordoned off the area.

NAB arrests OGrAmember overcorruption charges

ISLAMABADonline

In light of the Supreme Court’s order,National Accountability Bureau (NAB)officials on Wednesday arrested a memberof Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority(OGRA), Mansoor Muzafar, overcorruption charges. The NAB conductedinvestigation about OGRA embezzlementand submitted a report in the SC, statingthat corruption of more than Rs 80 billionhad been proved in various OGRA projects.In the NAB report submitted to the SC,incumbent Ogra members MansoorMuzaffar, Mir Kamal Marri and several oftheir cronies were also found to be guilty.The NAB had prepared the respectivearrest warrants but the bureau’s prosecutorgeneral (PG) was not giving his consentdue to his political allegiance with theruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

India must haveoption of nuclearpower: Manmohan

NEW DELHIonline

Prime Minister Manmohan SinghWednesday said his government wascommitted to ensuring foolproof security ofnuclear power plants but it would beharmful for the country to pass an ordinanceagainst nuclear power. “We must puteverything to ensure foolproof safety of thenuclear plants and we will not compromiseon it. “But at the same time I wouldrespectfully submit it would be harmful forthe country’s interest to pass an ordinance inthe self-denial that we shall give up theoption of having nuclear power,” the primeminister said during question hour in theLok Sabha. He said there was nocompromise when it came to the question ofsafety. “We have 19 functional reactors andthere has never been any accident. AfterFukushima, I ordered a complete revisit toall the reactors and those reports are on theNuclear Power Corporation of India Limited(NPCIL) website.”


Thursday, 17 May, 2012

regulariSation proteSt goeS awry g cIvIL SecreTArIAT MOBBeD By POPuLATION weLFAre DePT eMPLOyeeS g wOrKerS rOuGh uP OFFIcIALS, rANSAcK OFFIceS

LAHOREUmair aZiZ

ONe of the rare tippingpoints for the PunjabCivil Secretariat was ob-served, when the chiefsecretary’s turned into a

battleground on Wednesday after hun-dreds of employees ransacked the of-fice while it took hours for the policeto remove them from the premises,raising serious questions on the secu-rity arrangement made at the seat ofthe provincial government and the ne-gotiation skills of top provincial bu-reaucracy, Pakistan Today has learnt.

According to details, more than1,000 employees from the PopulationWelfare Department, most of themwomen, reached the Punjab civil sec-retariat from across Punjab andstarted protesting for their demands.

They said they have been workingfor the past 14 years in the depart-ment but have not been regularised.They kept protesting against the ad-ministration for a long time outsidethe secretariat, as the administrationkept the doors locked.

However, some women climbedover the main gate and unlocked itfrom inside, allowing the protestors toflood the secretariat immediately.

According to eyewitnesses, the pro-testers were carrying sticks and man-handled several officers who met themon the way, including the estate officer,Welfare DS Saghir and Cabinet SO Fa-rooka, before moving on to the minis-ter’s block. The demonstrators alsobroke the windows of three cars.

Further details state that ServicesSecretary Sikander Sultan Raja calledthe Lahore commissioner, DCO andother senior officials of the Lahorepolice along with top bureaucrats tohandle the situation.

Later, the Home, Implementa-tion and Coordination and Servicessecretaries held negotiations with

the employees and assured themthat the summary for their regular-isation had already been sent to thePunjab CM. Sources revealed thatthe negotiations remained success-ful and the leaders of the protesters

came out and communicated theupdate to the protesters.

However the female employees,who were present at the scene in largenumbers, refused to disperse and keptraising slogans against the bureaucrats

and the chief secretary.They broke the windows of the

chief secretary’s office after which theLahore commissioner ordered the po-lice to baton charge the unrulywomen, who refused to disperse de-

spite successful negotiations. This resulted in a ruthless conflict

between the protesters holding sticksand police officials who finally becamesuccessful in removing them from thesecretariat premises.

However the stakeholders havetermed it a failure on the part of thetop bureaucrats who could not managea minor issue and let it ‘blow out ofproportion’ in the absence of the chiefsecretary. Interestingly, the office ofthe additional chief secretary (ACS)has been vacant since the transfer ofNadeem Hassan Asif as the principalsecretary to the CM. The Punjab gov-ernment has given the additionalcharge of the ACS to Services SecretarySikander Sultan Raja.

They also termed Wednesday’sevent as a dark reminder of the con-flict between the PCS and DMG offi-cers under the same CS where an FIRwas lodged against PCS officers andarrests were also made.

“This is the tipping point whenpeople gather in large numbers toprotest for their rights especiallysince a large majority of female work-ers have turned up for their rights. Itshould serve as a reality check for thebureaucrats to look at their employ-ees’ issues properly to avoid such in-cidents,” an officer, seekinganonymity, said. Another officer saidit has raised serious questions onhow the security at the seat of theprovincial government is being man-aged that a mob can come over andattack the chief secretary’s office andbeat up senior officers.

According to further details, theIslampura Police station arrested fiveemployees.

Services Secretary Sikander Rajawas not available for comments de-spite repeated attempts.

a police official hits a female protestor with a baton. ONLiNE


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LAHOREadnan lodHi

tHe historic Punjab University con-verted into a battlefield onWednesday, when more than ahundred Islami Jamiat-e-Talba(IJT) activists attacked and dam-

aged the PU Vice-Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kam-ran’s office, terming him responsible for themurder of IJT activist Awais Aqeel, PakistanToday has learnt.

The PU had opened on its first working dayon Wednesday after the murder of the student.

It is pertinent to mention here that Aqeelwas murdered by former IJT activist AbrarWatto while at the PU hostel canteen.

After the incident, the varsity’s depart-ments were closed after the IJT called for com-plete closure of academic activities.

During the demonstration, the IJT activists,who had gathered on the express invitation ofthe organisation, shouted slogans against thePU VC and warned the PU administration ofdire consequences for the loss of their activist.

PU IJT Nazim Rai Haq Nawaz said the or-ganisation had proof attesting to the involve-ment of the administration in the murder asthe administration had supported Watto. Headded that Abrar had been involved in criminal

activities, but the administration did not takeany action against him.

The IJT activists claimed that the varsity’stop officials, especially the VC and PUCIT Prin-cipal Mansoor Sarwer were involved in Aqeel’smurder.

According to the official PU spokesman,two professors were also attacked by the ac-tivists, while most faculty members and em-ployees shut down their offices after theincident.

The PU is no stranger to clashes betweenthe university’s administration and the IJT, asjust last week PUCIT Principal Sarwer vacatedhostel rooms from the illegal IJT occupants,inviting another clash during which two IJT ac-tivists were injured.

An FIR was also registered against thePUCIT principal by the IJT.

According to IJT activist Nawaz, Aqeel hadbeen warned of dire consequences by principalSarwer before his murder.

The activist said the organisation was in-vestigating the incident and would not sparethose involved in the crime.

He said also criticised the administration’s‘double standards’, saying that many trouble-makers had been expelled from the varsity inthe past, with the exception of Watto.

Nawaz denied allegations that the IJT had

attacked teachers and said it was a part of theadministration’s propaganda.

However, according to the PU spokesman,the murder was a result of internal clashes inthe IJT, adding that the administration was notlinked to the incident.

He said the administration and PU Aca-demic Staff Association was protesting over thedisruptive activities of the IJT and were de-manding security measures from the Punjabgovernment.

The PU spokesman added that Aqeel andWatto were not PU students and that the ad-ministration had launched an operation to va-cate the PU hostels from illegal occupants suchas these.

According to PU spokesman, the organisa-tion had supported Watto during his attacks onthe houses of syndicate member Prof DrShaukat Ali and examinations Controller ProfDr Liaqat Ali.

He said the IJT activists were involved innegative politics that had claimed a preciouslife.

PUASA condemned attack on VC Office:Meanwhile, a meeting of PUASA was held onWednesday at executive club of the varsitywhere PUASA representatives condemned theattack on the VC office while other PU facultymembers also opposed the incident.

IJT aTTacks, damages PU Vc’s offIce

laHore: traders protest against prolonged electricity load shedding in icchra. iNP

Faculty demands security measures, condemns attack


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Lahore

laHore: a man waves a fan to cool off a patient after the mayo Hospital was hit by electricity load shedding. ONLiNE

LAHOREonline

PAKISTAN MuslimLeague-Quaid Par-liamentary Leader inthe Punjab Assem-bly Chaudhry Za-

heeruddin on Wednesdaysubmitted a resolution in theassembly secretariat for grant-ing a district status to Murree.

Talking to reporters aftersubmitting the resolution, Za-heeruddin said Pakpattan,Chiniot, Hafizabad andNankana Sahib were smallertehsils as compared to Murreeand had been granted districtstatus already. He said if Mur-ree was upgraded to a districtfrom tehsil, most of the prob-lems of the people would be re-

solved at their doorsteps.He said that for ensuring

potable water supply fromriver Jehlum to more than400,000 residents of Murree,Chaudhry Pervez elahi hadlaunched a project costing Rs3.5 billion in his tenure, but itwas scrapped by the incum-bent Punjab government.

He said if there was a dis-trict administration, the re-sources-rich Murree could itselfcomplete this project. He saidpeople’s problems could besolved through devolution ofpower and creation of more ad-ministrative units.

Zaheeruddin said aboli-tion of the district govern-ment system was alsoincreasing sense of depriva-tion among the people.

Lhc cJ seeks

appointment

of 1300 judges

LAHORE Staff report

Lahore High Court(LHC) Chief JusticeSheikh Azmat Saeed onWednesday sent a sum-mary to the Punjabgovernment demandingthe appointment of1300 judges in thelower courts.The summary sent tothe government statedthat 696 civil and 317additional sessionsjudges be appointed onan emergency basis asthe shortage of judgeswas causing a delay injustice.It stated that eachjudge in Punjab has todeal with 900 caseswhich cause delay inthe dispensation of thejustice. However, the Punjabgovernment is yet toreply to the summaryforwarded by the LHCchief justice.

Resolution movedfor grantingdistrict status to Murree

Govt enhances marriage

grant for workers

lahOre: Punjab Minister forLabour ehsaan-ud-Din Qureshion Wednesday announced thegovernment’s policy to enhancemarriage grant for the daugh-ters of labourers and femaleworkers from Rs.70,000 toRs.100,000. “Death grant forheirs has also been increasedfrom Rs.300,000 toRs.500,000 on the death of in-dustrial worker,” he added. Hesaid that 7,000 brick kiln chil-dren had been registered foreducation in Lahore and Kasurdistricts while interest-freeloans of Rs.75 million had alsobeen given to brick kiln work-ers. He said further that thegovernment was spendingRs.4.1 billion for providinghealthcare facilities to thelabourers and their families. app

LAHORE Staff report

The Punjab Forum said on Wednes-day that vested interests have tar-geted the Thar Coal project afterburying the Kala Bagh dam (KBD)project to bleed the country dry.Pakistan can never become a stableand energy-secure country in the ab-sence of critical projects which arebeing made controversial for specificpurpose, it said.

The Supreme Court should im-mediately take notice of the situa-tion and initiate action against thelobbies working to fulfill the agendaof foreign powers and multinationaloil companies, said Punjab ForumPresident Baig Raj.

Speaking at a meeting regardingthe energy crisis, he said the Plan-ning Commission (PC) has sent verywrong signals by opposing the TharCoal project. The PC should notraise objections on public sector en-terprises which are wasting more re-sources than the nation spends ondefence, he added. Raj said DrSamar Mubarik Mand should not bepunished for trying to generate elec-tricity without the involvement ofmultinationals and that the nationremembers his services as memberof a team that made Pakistan’s de-fence impregnable.

The meeting observed thatsome elements successfully trans-

formed a purely technical issue ofthe construction of the KBD into aburning political issue which iskeeping the country insecure.

Influential owners of IPPs andrental power projects have alsostarted a campaign against efforts toproduce cheap energy. The meetingwelcomed MQM-Haqiqi chief AfaqAhmed’s statement in which hevowed to unveil the names of politi-cians from Sindh who receivedbribes from India to oppose theKBD. The names of politicians fromKhyber Pakhtunkhwa who wantPakistan to plunge into darknessshould also be brought to limelight,it was demanded.

The meeting was attended byHydro power expert engineer Sha-habuddin, scientist Dr Riaz Ahmad,Punjab Forum General SecretaryMalik Zaieem and others. They saidIndia is making the most dams, out-side the USA and China, but it willblock any move to build feasibledams in Pakistan. They lamentedthat Pakistani companies are pro-viding cement for the constructionof dozens of thedams in Indiafor profit de-spite knowingthat New Delhiwants Pakistanto become adesert.

CJP asked to take noteof conspiracies againstThar Coal project

Police baton chargeon blind protesterscondemnedlahOre: Pakistan Associationof Blinds (PAB) SheikhupuraPresident Professor Umar DarazDogar has condemned the policefor baton charging the blind dur-ing their peaceful protest in frontof the Chief Minister’s Secre-tariat on Wednesday. In a pressstatement, Dogar said that byunleashing the police on peacefuldemonstrators holding whitecanes, the Punjab governmentstood exposed contrary to itsclaims of championing the causeof human rights. He assured themembers of the association thatthey would raise the matter be-fore international human rightsorganisations. Staff report

Prefabricated food storages being set-upin 8 districts: PDMAlahOre: Director GeneralProvincial Disaster Manage-ment Authority (PDMA) Mu-jahid Sherdil on Wednesdaysaid that PDMA in collabora-tion with the World Food Pro-gramme (WFP) had startedconstructing prefabricatedfood storages in eight districtsof Punjab to provide immedi-ate relief to people affected bynatural calamities includingflood. He said storages werebeing setup in eight districts ofPunjab, including Rajanpur,Bahawalpure, Bhakkar, DeraGhazi Khan, Gujrat, Mianwali,Rawalpindi and Sialkot. app



Lahore

laHore: Health workers beat up a citizen during a protest. STaff PHOTO

LAHOREStaff report

Amidst distinguished economists,academicians and policymakersfrom both the national and inter-national platform, the LahoreSchool of economics hosted itseighth annual conference on ‘Man-agement of the Pakistan economy’at its main Burki campus. Thetheme of this conference was ‘To-wards Accelerated economicGrowth: Its Need and Feasibility’,with the first day of the conferencebeing devoted to discussions on thechallenges and constraints faced inaccelerating economic growth inPakistan.

LSe Rector Dr Shahid AmjadChaudhry inaugurated the confer-ence and remarked that this year’s

conference addressed issues rele-vant to the Pakistani economy.

The opening session of theconference focused on ‘A Hetero-dox Strategy for Stabilisation andeconomic Growth’. The firstspeaker, Financing for Develop-ment Special Advisor

Dr Irfan-ul-Haq remarked thata strategy for accelerated growthfor Pakistan is both necessary andfeasible as Pakistan’s macroeco-nomic conditions are broadly sim-ilar to some of its neighbours.

He stressed that for acceler-ated growth to materialise, deter-mined steps are needed toovercome the energy crisis, sharplyraise the investment rate andstrengthen Pakistan’s competitive-ness in the world market.

Columbia University School of

International Public Affairs VisitingProfessor Dr Akbar Zaidi presenteda critical analysis of the PlanningCommission’s Framework for eco-nomic Growth . According to him,

the framework avoids tackling coreissues of taxation, distribution andequity, and privileges the marketand free enterprise over the role ofthe state and was a ‘technicist script

with little value’. Former World Bank Principal

economist Sikander Rahimpointed out that there has been afair amount of industrial develop-

ment in Pakistan but it has givenrise to disappointingly little in-crease of income.

Analysing factors that hinderexport competitiveness of manu-facturers in Pakistan, PIDe Facultyof economics Dean and ResearchChief Dr ejaz Ghani said at themacro level, GDP growth, level ofindustrialisation, real effective ex-change rate and physical infra-structure are the key drivers ofexport performance. Dr AzamChaudhry looked at local and inter-national factors that affect firmentry and survival in Pakistan. Ox-ford University Wolfson CollegeLecturer Dr Matthew McCartneystated that competitiveness has be-come a mantra and organising aframework for government policy-making in Pakistan and beyond.

LAHOREStaff report

ALCOHOL is themother of all socialevils and ultimatelyleads to drug ad-diction among

youth, especially in Pakistan.This was stated by speakers

addressing a one-day aware-ness seminar and walk at theGovernment College Univer-sity, Lahore. The seminar washeld against the increasingtrends of drug addiction amongPakistani youth.

700 students from variousdepartments of the universityparticipated in the walk andseminar organised by the Ra-vian Forensic Society (RFS) incollaboration with the DrugFree City Lahore.

GCU Vice-Chancellor ProfDr Muhammad Khlaeeq-ur-Rahman, Drug Free City La-hore Project Director AltafQamar and RFS Advisor DrAkhyar Farrukh led the walk tothe university campus to raiseawareness among the youth

against drug abuse.Addressing the seminar,

Qamar said there are nine mil-lion drug addicts in Pakistan,out of which two million arebetween the ages of 15 to 25.He said drug addiction is alsorapidly increasing amongwomen and there more than200,000 female drug addictsin the country.

He stated that the signs ofdrug addiction include loneli-ness, change in the colour ofthe eyes and skin and aggres-sive behaviour.

He added that it was theresponsibility of parents tokeep a check on the activitiesof their children. He saidhealthy activities like sportsand debates play a great role inpreventing students from be-coming addicts.

Dr Farrukh said GCU wasmaking an effort to keep astrong check on the activities ofits students and has constitutedseveral committees which playtheir role in refraining studentsfrom engaging in unhealthyand negative activities.

Surveillance beefed

up at high security

Punjab jails LAHOREonline

The surveillance of high securitybarracks across Punjab jails hasbeen beefed up due to the pertain-ing security threats. The revelation was made byProvincial Jails Minister MalikIqbal Chanter while chairing ahigh level meeting. The meetingwas attended by Punjab Jails IGMian Farooq and all the DIGs.It was told in the meeting thatafter the Bannu Jail attack and inview of the contacts that danger-ous jailed criminals maintain withterrorists, the surveillance of highsecurity barracks has been in-creased. It was told that securitycameras and jammers have beenactivated and that they wouldwork 24 hours a day. IG jails told the meeting that thefood of prisoners is checked be-fore it is given out and their visi-tors are monitored. He said theprisoners involved in terrorismare tried in the jail courts.He further stated that the jail staffis being equipped with the latestweapons and the boundary wallsof sensitive jails are being raisedand earth wires erected on themHe said the jail staff would facestrict action if any mobile phoneswere recovered from prisoners.

LAHORE inp

A landlord tortured and dragged a 10-year-old boythrough the streets of Nankana Sahib on Wednesday, bytying him to the tail of a buffalo. According to details,Ali, aged 10, the son of a labourer Muhammad Yousaf,residing in Kowairakalan area of Nankana Sahib, wasgrazing cattle in the fields when he exchanged heatedwords with Papoo and Murtaza, sons of a local influentiallandlord, Mohsin Ali Kharral.The two sons of the landlord tortured Ali and laterdragged him through the streets after tying him to thetail of a buffalo. The villagers, after hearing the screamsof the child, reached the scene and rescued him. How-ever, the boy received injuries. The injured child wasshifted to the Mayo Hospital Lahore in critical conditionwhere he was being treated. Due to political pressureand the influence of the father of the accused, the Syed-wala police refused to register a case against the culprits.The parents of the injured child have demanded the au-thorities and the Punjab chief minister to take notice ofthe incident and to bring the culprits to justice.rObber killed in exchange Of gunfire,shO amOng tWO injured: A robber was killedand two others, including a cop were injured during anexchange of gunfire late Tuesday night.According to details, the police signaled a suspected ve-hicle to stop at the Gawalmandi police picket but the ve-hicle’s passengers attempted to flee while firing at thepolice squad, injuring SHO Abdul Sattar, a passerbyUmer. The police opened retaliatory fire which killedone robber, while the other hijacked a police vehicle andfled from the scene. Later the police vehicle was foundparked in a near locality. The robber killed in the fire ex-change was later identified as police constable SajjadAhmed and was said to be serving in the investigationsheadquarters. The injured were shifted to the Mayo Hos-pital for treatment.

Paramedics

continue protest

on 9th dayLAHORE

app

Office bearers of the Punjab ParamedicalAlliance (PPA) on Wednesday continuedtheir protest for the revision of servicestructure and other allowances.They conducted a two-hour token strikein the city’s hospitals and staged a sit-inon the road on the 9th day of the protest. On other hand, patients and their atten-dants faced severe distress due to thestrike and made a fervent appeal to thehealth department officials to look intothe matter. Meanwhile, provincial chair-man of the alliance Malik Munir andother leaders demanded the Punjab gov-ernment to announce the service struc-ture and professional healthcareallowance for paramedics. They said theother provinces had announced servicestructures for paramedics but those work-ing in Punjab were being deprived of it.

Minister for moderneducational facilities

LAHORE app

Punjab education Minister MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman said the governmentwas implementing a comprehensive pro-gramme for providing modern educa-tional facilities to students.Addressing a meeting on Wednesday, hesaid the government was working hard toachieve an 88 percent literacy rate before2015 in order to fulfill the internationalcommitment made under the millenniumdevelopment goals. He said 262,500 stu-dents under the age of 4 to 15 years werereceiving education under non-formalbasic education schools. He stated thatprivate educational institutions are per-forming a valuable service in the field ofeducation and that the government isproviding cooperation and assistance tothe private sector. The minister addedthat the government schools were giventhe status of english medium schools lastyear, while the Punjab government hasalso launched a vigorous campaign to in-crease primary enrolment.

Lhc cJ refuses to hear

PM disqualification case

LAHORE inp

Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justiceSheikh Azmat Saeed on Wednesday ex-cused himself from hearing the petitionchallenging the status of Prime MinisterGilani. The petitioner stated that Gilanican no more hold the office of the primeminister after being convicted by theSupreme Court and requested the courtto disqualify him. excusing himself from hearing the peti-tion, Chief Justice Saeed forwarded thecase to Justice Umer Atta Bandial.

drug abuse rates spikeas 9m pakistanis identified as addicts

influential landlord’ssons torture 10-year-old

LSE conference discusses ideas for economic growth


Editor’s mail 11Thursday, 17 May, 2012

No more junk carsI would like to draw your attention to

the demand put forward by the All Pak-istan Motor Dealers Association(APMDA) to the government to allowcommercial imports of used vehicle of upto 10 years of age in the forthcomingbudget to provide relief to the commoncustomers. In its budget proposals sentto the Finance Ministry, APMDA Chair-man HM Shahzad has said the import ofvehicles up to 10 years old would benefitthe local car customers but also generatehuge revenues for the government.

They are under the misconceptionthat the import of used cars is the answerto providing affordable cars to local con-sumers and that this will create an envi-ronment of healthy competition and willensure a steady supply of quality andreasonably priced cars.

It needs to be emphasised that suchcars are almost at the end of their pro-ductive life, or are not compatible withPakistani conditions. Often the odometerof such used cars is reversed, using un-scrupulous techniques to give the falseimpression that the vehicle has done lowmileage. There is also no after sales serv-ice and parts support for such vehiclesand ultimately the customer suffers.

As it is, the import of five-year-oldcars is already causing embarrassment tothe government, as most of them arepriced at the rates of brand new carsmanufactured locally.

This policy is hazardous to environ-ment as the rate of emission of carbonfrom used vehicles is much higher thanthe rate of brand new cars. If the govern-ment continues with further relaxation, itwould not only harm the consumers inthe long run, who will end up with highpriced junk cars with no spare parts andafter sale services.

SARAH MIANKarachi

Military staff for vIPsIn no other country military staff is

deployed in such numbers for protocolduties of various VVIPs like the presi-dent, the prime minister and governorsas it is in Pakistan. Look at the primeminister, he has an MS, an assistant MSand two ADCs. Neither the British norIndian PMs have any military officials ontheir staff. The Indian PM, when he cameto Pakistan in 2006, had one DSP, onePA and a protocol officer.

There is no need for our PM to haveany military staff. Similarly, governorsneed not have any military staff. Thepresident is entitled, traditionally, tohave military staff, but his military staffat the moment also needs to be curtailed.The other point is when the presidentgoes to the National Assembly for his ad-dress, there is no need for the ADC tostand behind him. In fact, he is not au-thorised to be there. I have watched theUS president several times addressingthe US Congress, none of his militarystaff was in sight. The other day, I sawthe MS and ADC of the prime ministeroutside the Supreme Court buildingbeing swept away by the crowd there;and that scene was disgracing their uni-form.

AREEBA REHMANKarachi

Another opinionAccording to religious teachings only

good deeds of deceased are to be high-lighted, and deficiencies withheld. But,people attached to public/media assign-ments; their works as well as conduct asa whole would remain under scrutiny fortimes to come. This is the spirit whichhas prompted me to share my experiencewith the readers. In present times if per-sonal interview is not granted; telephoneconversation, or email contact is as goodas meeting somebody. What landed meat Muratza were some issues with themagazine staff over my submissions. Idesired to have personal meeting, but itwas discouraged. However, we had con-versation on telephone. His emails still inmy inbox would remind me about hisway of thinking.

Since my four pieces were not ac-cepted for one reason or another. I waseager to approach next level of magazinestaff just to know what was wrong in thewrite up. And, I was ready to improvethem. As prior to it my some writingshad duly appeared in the magazine. Tomy utter disappointment he said thatthat was not his domain, and after fur-ther insistence, he replied in an email on4 April, 2011 which still was not suffi-cient for me.

In fact I hold firm opinion that dif-ferent tiers of authority in any organiza-tional set up have been formed to createchecks and balances. And higher author-ity was there to intervene and issue guid-ance to the people working underhim/her, or even override them if it is al-lowed by the facts/merit. Otherwise whyto create vast structure?

There is no intention of hurting thefeelings of Muratza's family or hisfriends. I would pray that not only hiskillers are brought to justice, but mur-derers who are causing death of innocentpeople across the country would be cap-tured, and awarded appropriate punish-ment.

A CRITIQUEKarachi

Thar coalOrdinary citizen of Pakistan is fully

distressed by unprecedented and persist-ent shortage of electricity. It is costingthem their jobs and businesses severelydegrading their financial health. Itsshortage has virtual turned their livesinto hell especially in this scorching heatof summer. They are taking to streetsand burning tyres to register their an-guish. Government has repeatedly failedto live up to its promises. Billions of dol-lars spent on private power producershaven’t made an iota of difference in theavailability of electricity.

Now what we have learnt is that thePlanning Commission of Pakistan wantsto shelf the Thar Coal Project. It is re-ported that Member Planning Commis-sion Mr Shahid Sattar has held backedthe funds on the grounds that the projectis impracticable and risky. This is whatthey have learnt when Dr SamarMubarak Mand and his team has alreadygasified coal using indigenous technol-ogy and the blue flame can be seen byanybody visiting Thar Coal site. One cansmell maleficent intent in the whole af-fair.

Nation trusts Dr Samar MubarakMand more than any of the politician. Hewas member of the team that vindicatethe nation by producing nuclear device.People of Pakistan for sure trust hisjudgment more than anyone else. It willbe in the fitness of things for the govern-ment to release the funds and give freehand to the esteemed Doctor to prove hisclaim. Otherwise political opportunistswill capitalise on the issue and the nationwill rely behind them. After all, people ofPakistan deserve to have illuminatedhomes and running factories.

ABDUL REHMANRawalpindi

uS and Nato suppliesThe decision of reopening Nato sup-

ply routes shows the defeatist attitude ofour foreign policymakers and rulers.Why this sudden change of heart towardsthe United States? Has the United Statesapologised for killing our soldiers? It isthe fear of sanctions which has forcedthem to change their stance. Will we everbecome a truly sovereign state?

MUNIBA FAROOQIKarachi

education is the key to successThe gateway to a country's success is

undoubtedly education. It is what en-lightens and boosts the country's econ-omy, sovereignty and development.

Malaysia is a worthy example. It hasdragged itself into the category of the de-veloped. The education has been sowisely promoted that the literacy rate hasflown up to 95 percent. This is why theireconomy and development has expandedgreatly by the years.

We have got so much to blame, butthe Indians who became independentright along with Pakistan, are seeinggreat prosperity. They have populationproblems, but alongside that, they keepon promoting their education sector.They can’t be called fully developed, butthey have improvised their financial sta-tus using the education and skills. Theynow are a nuclear power, have a reason-able tourist industry and an extremelysuccessful film industry. It is the educa-tion that has done everything.

It has been a lengthy discussion, butthe best example is yet to come and is

that of Bangladesh. They were a part ofus in 1971. We lost them and are still cry-ing over the spilled milk. But they insteadhave promoted the education sector im-mensely. Schools have been built foreveryone with equal opportunity for therich and the poor. This is why that todaythey have got quite ahead of us. Theyhave a better currency value and a betterGDP growth rate.

We have untapped oil and gas re-serves under the barren mountains ofBaloshistan, and we have coal estimated175 billion tons, under the sands ofSindh. We have everything but the prob-lem is that we don’t have the key – that iseducation.

In Pakistan, two education systemsare running parallel to each other – theCambridge and the Matriculation. I findthis the primary cause of lack of equalopportunity of education for everyonehere in Pakistan.

The government schools for the lowerand the lower middle class mostly offerMatriculation. These schools are mostly

in a neglected and ruined state. Here, thestudents aren't even facilitated with basicrequirements including books, and furni-ture.

To be honest the teachers come justfor killing time and are focused upontheir income instead of fulfilling the basicpurpose of teaching. Children should beentitled to great care, security and a goodupbringing. They should always betreated with respect and love, but herethey are treated with inhumane punish-ments and humiliating treatment. Thismismanagement in government schoolshave caused the children of the ones witha lower budget to lack behind in terms ofeducation.

The Cambridge system is ostensiblyfor the upper class. The rich think ofnothing less than famous privatelyowned schools, which teach according tothe Cambridge system. Here, the chil-dren aren't given strenuous punish-ments, but are treated as 'lords'. Thiscauses the children to become arrogantand give less importance to studies,

which is a great cause of this predica-ment.

As said before, education is every-thing for a country to survive. We need tocover this massive gap between the richand the poor. education should beequally available to everyone. We mustimprove the standard of education andmust standardise the present infrastruc-ture instead of introducing new and os-tentatious programs. The children ofleaders and the servants should study to-gether.

Most importantly, there should be asingle education system, and the teachersshould be hired for their teaching skillsand not their references from famouspersonalities. The teachers should alsotreat the children as their own, and withlove and affection. Promoting educationand improving its standards is inten-sively required in Pakistan. We have thecapacity to beat the developed and eventhe so called 'super powers'.

M IBRAHIM TARIQLahore

Be pakistanis onlyAfter the creation of Pakistan, everyone who lived in Pak-

istan was proud to call himself a Pakistani. But slowly this thinghas changed. We are no more Pakistanis; we are now dividedinto provinces and have started calling ourselves Punjabi,Sindhi, Balochi etc.

The condition has worsened even further. Living in thesame province we have divided ourselves into castes, Mahajir,Pathans, Seraiki etc. If something bad happens in Karachi, theother provinces say “Oh thank God, we are safe.” No one is

ready to take steps to help others and due to this selfishness,the situation has deteriorated even more.

So it is the prime duty of the media and the politicians toteach the masses to call themselves a Pakistani instead of la-belling themselves either with language or caste/origin. Sec-ondly, the government must emphasise on education so thatstudents can easily obliterate the differences between them.

SWERA IJAZKarachi

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

creativity and entrepreneurCreativity is defined as the tendency

to generate or recognise ideas (showingthe power and imagination to create), al-ternatives, or possibilities that may beuseful in solving problems, communicat-ing with others, and entertaining our-selves and others. --Robert e Franken.

Creativity can easily be said as back-bone of modern corporate world. Moderncorporate world owe to entrepreneursand their creativity which means, thatentrepreneur only invest assets, but alsoinvest emotions, ideas and vision.

History proves that entrepreneur notalways rely on funds only; to start busi-ness. A single distinctive idea can turnmarket around. And this unique ideamay help entrepreneur to rule globalmarket.

Today it is evident that a single per-son can influence whole market throughinnovative ideas. The creativity supportsentrepreneur in numerous ways, entre-preneur may have different captivatingideas which this world has never been ex-posed to. In our part of world, peopleusually focus on financial inflows and fol-low traditional way of working. Contem-porary businesses shall promotecreativity, instead of investment centric-ity. This is just haze of mind where tangi-bility always takes priority. Theentrepreneur has always the propensityto take the risk and he always try to befirst in the market.

For us, change agents are young en-trepreneurs, equipped with desire to in-

stil culture, where the best ideas can becreated, for this they shall own concept ofcreativity. Several examples can bequoted, where entrepreneurs startedbusiness with insufficient funds, yet in-novative ideas and today due to innova-tion and creativity they have become starbusiness men. Local governing bodies,including universities shall devise mech-anism to route innovative thoughts ofyouth (students) for greater good. It willnot only seed future entrepreneurs, buttheir successes will create several jobs;causing increased life quality of society.

The entrepreneurs who are risk tak-ers are mostly the driver of the economyand it is true that economy does not relyon big corporations only, in fact smallbusinessmen contributes major chunk.entrepreneurs are optimist in majority;which helps them fuel not only theirbusiness. But this positive energy helpsthem maintain work/life balance in theirchallenging life.

encouragement of entrepreneurship,by developing and maintaining right cul-ture can result in world changing innova-tions. Now we understand strong linkbetween creativity and entrepreneurs, itis recommended to academic institu-tions, that they shall promote entrepre-neurship. Academic institutions decidefate of any nation, our academic institu-tions shall seed creativity; and trainingworkshops on entrepreneurship can helpstudents to polish their skills in this im-portant area.

MUSLIM AYAZ & SIKANDER AZEEMLahore

An ideaI was just thinking about the power

shortages in Pakistan and I concludedsome very basic solutions can be tried bydomestic consumers with the help of gov-ernment.

If there is no power for 5-6 hoursdaily in any locality, some of the middleclass consumers in that community witha small enough family, say one that livesin a 2-3 bedroom house, can go for buy-ing a generator.

A solar generator of a reputablebrand for coping with the needs of asmall house would cost between 50-60thousand rupees. If the governmentcould start a project wherein the affluentmembers of society could contribute 50-60 thousand rupees each, or members ofthe community themselves become shareholders in the project, solar generatorscan also be easily established at neigh-bourhood level.

These generators could provide serv-ice to medium-sized communities andcould be collective assets of the peoplejust like parks and community centres.What is required is the tax-free import ofsolar equipment by the government andsmall-scale contributions by charitablerich or some investment on part of thecommunity itself.

I think we can get over this energycrisis if we act smartly and in the bargainalso generate more jobs and investmentopportunities.

NIMRAH AMJADKarachi


Comment12Thursday, 17 May, 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: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

need more than political sloganeering

New provinces

As the term of the incumbent government is drawingnear to its end, there is a flurry visible in theactivities of the political parties. Some have startedorganising jalsas and rallies, a trend re-established

by the PTI after its Lahore jalsa October last year, while othershave started different initiatives to lure in the public, like thecreation of new provinces. While arguments for and againstthe idea can be presented, these arguments are largely besidethe point and the issue has merely provided a platform to thepolitical parties to flex their muscle and gain popularity intheir respective areas of dominance.

How different parties perceive the issue and take a positionon it is instructive about what is their vote bank and whichdemographic they are targeting with their rhetoric. MQM is,for example, not against new provinces in Punjab but isvehemently opposed to the same in the province of Sindh.PML(N), on its part, has wavered on the issue from outrightrejection to acceptance with certain conditions. The recentstatement of its chief Mian Nawaz Sharif that he won’t allowthe bifurcation of Sindh while he has no objection on thebifurcation of Punjab is certainly a fodder for thought andmost certainly an invitation for criticism. Consistent with hisstyle, he has once again jumped on a bandwagon he mostprobably will have to jump off under pressure from his partyand his vote bank. A great gesture in terms of strengtheningthe federation but perhaps the purpose could have been servedbetter if the focus would have been to strengthen thefederating unit instead of the federation itself because onlystrong federating units can make a strong federation.

By playing this tricky shot, he might be able to get afoothold in Sindh where his party has a negligible presence butif it backfires (which most probably it will), he is going to facetough questions from his traditional vote bank i.e. Punjab. Inany case, the creation of new provinces is a subject that needsmore than just political sloganeering. It has to follow aconstitutional procedure that is nearly impossible toimplement given the present scheme of things with respect topolitical clout and numbers in the parliament. No party wouldallow the other to take an initiative that weakens its positionbefore its own vote bank.

moving forward

Back on track

Some reason, finally. Pakistan is presumably set toreopen the Nato supply lines. And the Americans haveextended an “unconditional” invitation to PresidentZardari to attend the Chicago moot.

This has been a most uncomfortable impasse. The deepstate wanted to play a game of chicken with the Americans andthey saw right through it. One reason for their sure attitudewas the fact we has used up all of our leverage. In effect, thisgave them a carte blanche to do whatever they wantedafterwards. What would we have done at the next possibleinstance of American adventurism? How could we have uppedthe ante then? Blocked their air routes as well? Hardly. Theycould always violate the no-fly zone at will, the way theirdrones strike deep within Pakistani territory despite resolutionafter resolution by the parliament against the same.

If the reader were to excuse the tired analogy: Pak-USrelations, like any bad marriage, is marred by both sidesknowing each others weaknesses. The Americans called thisbluff; the Pakistanis blinked and a resumption of the supplyroutes is imminent. The Americans have weaknesses of theirown, however. The best that they have been able to do inAfghanistan is reach a stalemate. They can’t do any betterwithout the support of the Taliban. And for that, they needPakistan to use all the leverage it has got with the militia.

The mistakes that Pakistani ‘defence analysts’ (the best gigaround) make is thinking that the Pak-US dynamic is anequation. It isn’t; it is an inequality. Pakistan has moreweaknesses than the US. What if the Americans plan, now, togive us enough rope to hang ourselves? The Americans canvery well leave Afghanistan. Where, exactly, will that leave us?Is it a foregone conclusion that a (possible) Taliban regime inAfghanistan will do the Pakistani government’s bidding? evenif it does, what if the spread of the militants’ networksthroughout the country continue to go about their businessregardless of who is running the government in Afghanistanor, perhaps, even be emboldened by it?

even if we achieve what we desire in Afghanistan andperhaps even beyond, it would do us well to realise that itwould be a pyrrhic victory. What good is any possible foreignleverage if it tears asunder our very social fabric?

Don’t expect muchnetanyahu’s big new government

The transatlantic alliance is in the spotlight. Its summitmeeting in Chicago is taking place at a time when theworld’s largest military organisation is in a dilemma of

its own as far as its offshore engagements are concerned. Themeet primarily meant to deliberate the future of Afghanistanis likely to bring to fore certain unavoidable questions as towhat was at all the utility behind being in that terrain for al-most a decade when the organisation is leaving behind hardlya different country that it intervened in the first place.

With around 100,000 troops from all over europe, Aus-tralia, Canada and the United States — and, of course, some ofthe Asian contingents, NATO hasn’t made a mark at all in re-building the war-shattered country. Its duties as peacekeeperare also questionable, as trigger-happy troops had broughtmore slur — though they were expected to act in considerationin an alien territory. Thus, as bigwigs meet in Illinois, theyneed to dwell into the details of conducting operations overseasand chalk out a roadmap that is purely security driven and thattoo from a defensive perspective.

NATO’s of late adventures, in fact, have blessed it with anew lease of life. Libya is strongly a case in point. Though itsprecision was not up to mark, its role was still appreciated, asit was instrumental in dislodging a well-entrenched dictatorand that too by virtue of plugging off his military muscles be-fore he put them to use. Irrespective of the fact that France,

Britain and other european stalwarts depended highly on theUnited States expertise in choreographing the episode of bomband retreat.

The issue of what should enable Brussels to create a de-fence shield of its own and with little of Washington’s input re-mains a policy doctrine for NATO. Similarly, the newlysurfacing geopolitical realities in the form of a resurgent Rus-sia, but cordial to the very concept of a Western-based defenceumbrella, would keep policy-makers glued to their chairs untiland unless they strike the right chord. Annoying Russia as itfloats its own eurasia vision is next to impossible and interde-pendence remains the hallmark of collaboration. Intricate is-sues such as fighting terrorism, missile defence shield andSTART II are indispensable aspects that would have their im-pact on the structure and growth of the military-political or-ganisation.

Whatever may be NATO’s reorientation, exiting out ofAfghanistan is sine qua non for peace. In this regard, an invi-tation to Pakistan to attend the summit is a welcome develop-ment. The southwest Asian country is no bed of roses and thelonger the military muscles stays put there, the more it will finditself tangled in an unending quagmire. On the geo-economicfront, too, NATO leaders will certainly feel the heat as theystruggle to sustain budgetary allocation in an era of austerity.

With euro and the concept of a unanimous europeanUnion in troubled waters, NATO’s vibrancy and essence willbe up for debate in months and years to come. It’s time forNATO to reassign itself a new outlook.

recasting a new NATOThe Khaleej Times

foreign press

Benjamin Netanyahu, ever themaster manoeuvrer, has done itagain. Just moments before theIsraeli Parliament was to ratifythe call for new elections, the

Kadima Party announced that it had com-pleted negotiations with the prime ministerand would join the government producingIsrael's largest governing coalition in his-tory (including 94 of 120 Members of theKnesset). The announcement sent shock-waves throughout the region and here inthe US. Speculation was rife about what thissudden move might mean.

In the days that followed, it was fasci-nating to read the views of Arab, Israeli,and American commentators as they at-tempted to understand this Israeli develop-ment. Many Arab commentatorspredictably and definitively saw this new Is-raeli "unity" as a danger, a harbinger of anew regional war. And they didn't mincewords. Seeing a precedent in the Israelicoalition government that was formed inthe lead-up to the '67 War, one Arab analystwrote "this is a war coalition" claiming thatthe target would be Iran or Lebanon.

The US press, equally delusional whenit comes to all things Israel, largely saw thisbroader Israeli government as a positive de-velopment, with liberals moralising thatwith this expanded mandate Netanyahushould now be in a position to move confi-dently to a peace settlement with the Pales-tinians, saying that "under Netanyahu,Israel is stronger than ever.”

This echoed the somewhat subtle chid-ing of Secretary of State Hilary Clinton whoreportedly suggested that the Israel PrimeMinister could no longer claim that hewould lose his governing coalition shouldhe make peace. He was now in a politicalposition which gave him the space to atleast help strengthen the Palestinian Au-thority.

American neo-conservatives, on theother hand, shared the Arab take on theNetanyahu move, but with a twist. WhileArab writers dreaded the war they fearedmight result from this expanded govern-ing coalition, US hawks appear to eagerly

anticipate it.Most interesting and sanguine were the

Israeli commentators who saw in the ma-noeuvring of both Netanyahu and his new"partner,” Shaul Mofaz, signs of weakness,not strength. This led many Israeli writersto conclude that far from setting the stagefor decisive action, this new governmentwas doomed to paralysis.

Netanyahu is facing two immediate in-ternal challenges that were threatening hisrightist coalition. Within a few weeks thegovernment must act on two separate courtdecisions, one which found unconstitu-tional the law that exempted the ultra-Or-thodox from military service, and the otherwhich gave the government until the begin-ning July to evacuate an illegal settlementbuilt on Palestinian-owned land north ofRamallah. Implementing either one or bothwould cause a political rupture, causingsome members of Netanyahu's coalition tobolt. Meanwhile, the third largest groupingin his government, the Russian immigrant-based nationalist party headed by ForeignMinister Avigdor Lieberman has threat-ened to leave should the government failimplement the change in the law on mili-tary service. All of which put Netanyahu ina bind.

By broadening the base of his coalition,Netanyahu has now removed the leverageof these groups to withdraw their support— since they no longer have the ability tocollapse the government. His motivation, itappears, was more survival than action, oras one writer termed it "nothing more thanan attempt to prolong his own political life.”He is, said another, "a coward who is afraidof elections, afraid of the settlers, and afraidof the ultra-Orthodox.” So rather than leadby taking decisive action, he accepted thelife-line offered by Mofaz and can now con-tinue to govern by playing one group

against another.The leader of the Kadima group simi-

larly appeared to be motivated by crass po-litical survival. Since winning the contest tolead the party founded less than a decadeago by the personal aspirations and"charisma" of Ariel Sharon, Shaul Mofazhas seen his fortunes dramatically fade.Most recent polls show that in new elec-tions Kadima would win a mere 10 seats inthe next Knesset, down from the party'scurrent 28. entering into a coalition withthe man he recently called a “liar,” ap-peared a safer bet than facing humiliationat the polls. One analyst termed the move“a cynical attempt to extend the life of aspineless party.”

Secretary Clinton is right. The game isup. Netanyahu can no longer use the lameexcuse he has relied on for years. He has, ifhe wishes, the numbers within and still out-side of his coalition to make peace. Butsadly, the Israeli pundits who know himbest also have it right, he is a manoeuvrerwho uses his wiles to promote paralysis inorder to avoid peace at all cost. The best ev-idence is that his response to the court de-cision to evacuate the illegal settlement isto propose new legislation to "legalise" whatis illegal. So do not hold your breath expect-ing big things, either bad or good, from thisbig new government. That was not whatbrought it into being. expect, instead, busi-ness as usual.

And so after all the drama of the pastweek and the nervous speculation or ex-cited expectation (depending on the lensthrough which you viewed the events thatunfolded) little has changed for better orworse. As my friend MJ Rosenberg wrote,it was all “much ado about nothing.”

The writer is President of the Arab-American Institute.

Washington Watch

By Dr James J Zogby


Comment 13Thursday, 17 May, 2012

Spend more, spend wisely

Prioritising educationWhile there are bigger issues at hand

Playing politics

We are back to the crass politics ofnineties marked by intense polari-sation and political vendettas. The

brand of politics that not only culminated inthe derailment of democracy in the countrybut also left deep scars on the political land-scape which continue to haunt the Pakistanination. The Sharif brothers enjoy the dubiousdistinction of starting that despicable dramain collaboration with the establishment in thenineties and now again share the blame. Theydo not seem to have learnt from their pastmistakes. They are crying hoarse from everyconvenient roof-top to urge the prime minis-ter to abdicate power on moral grounds afterthe SC verdict but do not realise that it is alsotheir moral obligation not to mislead the peo-ple on crucial national issues. Their actionsare also politicising the judiciary.

True, the PM has been convicted for con-tempt of court by the SC but that is not theend of the road. The PM has the right of ap-peal and till such time that the appeal is heardand final verdict given, he remains the chiefexecutive legally as well as constitutionally.The Pakistan Bar Council has also admittedthis fact and thrown its weight behind the PM.Islamabad High Court in a petition seekingdisqualification of the PM has also observedthat the SC in its verdict has not disqualifiedthe PM from holding the office of the chief ex-ecutive. In the backdrop of this evidence as tothe constitutional position of the prime min-ister, the insistence by the PML(N) that SyedYousaf Raza has ceased to be the legal PM isabsolutely untenable and extremely mislead-ing.

The opposition, particularly the PML(N)is so blinded by their lust for power and ani-mosity towards the PPP-led coalition govern-ment that it did not even hesitate from askingthe British PM not to play host to Syed YousafRaza Gilani as prime minister of Pakistan.They were not alone in this sabre-rattling; asection of the media sympathetic to theircause and essentially hostile to the presentgovernment also joined this shameful exer-cise. Nobody would grudge the legitimateright of the opposition to grill the governmenton issues of national importance but it is cer-tainly not desirable to pull the rug from underthe feet of the chief executive embarking on aforeign visit.

To an anodyne observer, the visit comingin the backdrop of a row between Pakistanand US regarding resumption of NATO sup-plies and the continuing deadlock, was of im-mense significance as the UK is the closestand major ally of US in the war on terror andis in a position to help resolve the stalemateamicably. The issue did come up for discus-sion between the two leaders and it provided

an excellent opportunity to Pakistan to clarifyits position on the subject and the stakes thatit has in re-engaging with US and NATO in amanner that meets Pakistan’s concerns and isalso mutually beneficial. The developmentson this issue after the visit do suggest thatthere is a significant movement towards re-solving the conundrum. Pakistan has been in-vited to the Chicago Conference without anypre-conditions. The matter has been deliber-ated upon at a high level meeting and also inthe DCC. The Foreign Minister Hina RabbaniKhar has also indicated the possibility to re-opening the NATO supplies indicating thatthe ice has finally started melting and senti-mentalism is giving way to prudence.

Contrary to the expectations of thePML(N) and its cohorts, the British govern-ment extended befitting protocol and wel-come to PM Gilani and said that he wasworking to make democracy strong in Pak-istan. These words coming from the leader ofthe mother of all democracies are indeed veryreassuring and an acknowledgement of theleadership in ensuring continuation of thedemocratic process in the face of an unremit-ting hostility by its opponents, conspiracies ofthe elements inimical to the democraticnorms and some controversial decisions bythe more than independent judiciary.

On the bilateral front, the visit has beensuccessful. The two sides agreed to enhancetheir bilateral trade from the current level of1.4 billion pound sterling to 2.5 billion poundsterling by 2015 in pursuance to the UK-Pak-istan enhanced Strategic Dialogue launchedin 2011. The British leader acknowledged sac-rifices made by Pakistan in furthering the ob-jectives of war on terror and also expressedresolve to help Pakistan in meeting securitychallenges and curbing militancy, terrorismand religious extremists which pose an exis-tentialist threat to Pakistan.

The affirmation and endorsement by theUK of the contribution made by Pakistan tothe war on terror is very encouraging as itwould strengthen its position in regards toany future dialogue with the US and NATO.The UK has also played a pivotal role in en-suring duty-free access of Pakistani productsto the eU markets which represents an expo-nential boost to Pakistan’s foreign trade. Thevisit therefore was timely and productive.Such summit level interactions are nevermeaningless as they invariably help to createbetter understanding and enhancing bilateralcooperation between the countries involvedbesides affording opportunity for exchangingviews on matters of global importance. Theyalso help in resolving issues which cannot betackled through normal diplomatic channels.The criticism hurled at the PM by the opposi-tion for undertaking this visit smacks of theirtraditional cynicism rather than an objectiveappraisal of the obtaining circumstances andthe benefits that it will accrue to Pakistan.

By Malik Muhammad Ashraf

Before the budget is de-cided, proposals are in-vited from different sectors

of economy and meetings areheld with the representatives ofthese sectors including indus-trial, pharmaceutical, agricul-ture, banking and textile, butsuch practice has never beenseen as far as education sector isconcerned.

experts say that the absenceof such process is partly a causeof why the government is un-aware of the genuine problemsand challenges faced by the edu-cation sector, which after thehealth sector is one of the mostcritical ones for the country’soverall socio-economic uplift.

Poor budgetary allocationsare among major causes of dis-mal state of education system inPakistan. Poor spending on thesector, which is critical for thecountry’s overall socio-economicgrowth, demonstrates that edu-cation continues to be low on ourpriority list.

Besides worsening standards,infrastructure of the educationalinstitutions, absence of facilitiesfor research, poor research andteaching capacities of teachingstaffs and libraries inundatedwith subpar research journalsand books are outcomes of inad-equate budgetary allocations forthe education sector.

The goal of providing a con-ducive environment for innova-tion and research at educationalinstitutions across the countryand strong linkages with otherinstitutions of higher learningacross the world can never beachieved until adequate invest-ment is made into the educationsector.

However, education expertslink the country’s backwardnessin this modern era of researchand development because of poorspending on the sector.

Pakistan spends less than 2per cent of its GDP on educationand education experts havepressed on government to spendat least 4 per cent of the GDP toboost socio-economic develop-ment in the country.

Many experts agreed withHigher education Commission

(HeC) Chairman Dr JavaidLaghari, when he said, at a highlevel meeting of the vice-chancel-lors of public sector universitiesof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at Uni-versity of engineering in Pe-shawar on April 23, that annualbudget should be significantly in-creased to 4 per cent of the GDPfrom the existing 1.7 per cent toattain the heights of socio-eco-nomic glory, boost research cul-ture, fight poverty andunemployment.

Another major challenge ispositive and maximum utilisa-tion of the allocated budget fordrawing maximum output. Whilea huge chunk of the allocatedbudget for the education sectorgoes to salaries and administra-tive expenditures, little is left tobe spent for delivery of qualityeducation services, training andcapacity building of the teachers,provision of basic facilities re-quired for imparting quality edu-cation (such as laboratories lacedwith modern equipments, up-dated libraries, furniture, properdrinking water and sanitation fa-cilities).

According to a recent studyby the Free and Fair electionNetwork (FAFeN), nearly 92 percent of the 154 government girls’primary schools in 84 monitoreddistricts of the country werewithout cleaners while aboutthree-fifths did not have peonsand security guards. More thanhalf of the schools were withoutplaygrounds while 51 had noclean drinking water facilities.Besides that, 50 schools in thesurveyed districts lacked properseating for students and three-fourths of the monitored schoolswere without staffrooms forteachers, 43 schools were foundwithout electricity connectionsand 56 schools had no fans.

Unesco’s ‘education for AllGlobal Monitoring Report 2011’underlines grave ramifications ofinadequate funds allocation forthe education sector, saying with7.3 million children, this countryhas amongst the highest out-of-school populations in the world.

The Unesco report suggests,“investing in education, with at-tendant benefits for employmentand social inclusion, would do agreat deal to enhance Pakistan`slong-term national security”.

education and independent

policy experts have stressed theneed for evolving a policy andbudget-making process. There isa need to use education data andtranslate it into effective policiesand budget planning; such anexus will help in plugging gapspertaining to education data andreliable policy inputs required forguiding budget makers and eco-nomic managers of the country totake precise account of the exactneeds of the budgetary require-ments of the education sector.

The country’s ailing educa-tion system has so far fallen shortof its goal of equipping the youthwith the skills essential for thedevelopment of a modern state,society and economy. Althoughthe government-run schools andcolleges impart education to thevast majority of children, theirperformance as contrast to theprivate sector educational insti-tutions is gruesomely poor.

Since education is a provin-cial subject after the passage ofthe 18th Constitutional Amend-ment, many have raised ques-tions whether the provinces havethe capacity and necessary re-sources to manage education in asatisfactory manner in their re-spective areas.

There is no denying the factthat the country has fallen shortof delivering on its constitutionalobligation to provide universalprimary education to every singlechild. While the demand for edu-cation remains high amid gallop-ing population, poorer families,having no choice, will only sendtheir children to a school systemthat matches to their daily livesand economic needs.

However, the failure of thepublic school system to deliversuch education has only con-tributed to the boom of seminaryschools (madrassahs), increasingthe dropout ratio, child labor,delinquency and crime.

Much of the solution of theproblem lies not just in increasedbudgetary allocations but spend-ing those increased budgetary al-locations wisely. For it is equallyimportant to ensure that moreand more of the allocated fundsare spent on strengthening of fa-cilities at the educational institu-tions, capacity building and skilldevelopment trainings for theteaching staffs for the overall up-lift of the education sector.

By Saleem Shaikh


mUmBai: When it comes to playing acharacter, Kareena goes out of her wayto do it right. Reportedly the he ac-tress will portray the role of BegumSamru in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s untitledperiod drama and is required to sporta de-glam look. The actress is morethan ready to shed her glamorousavatar and face the camera sansmake-up. Kareena has gone de-glamin previous films such as ‘Asoka’ and‘Dev’, too. Interestingly, Kareena isbusy executing two extremely differ-ent roles: the de-glam Begum Samru,and the fashionista in Madhur Bhan-darkar’s film. Kareena says she hasextreme faith in her directors and is asexcited about Tigmanshu’s film as sheis about Bhandarkar’s. Dhulia’s perioddrama was apparently first offered toRani Mukherjee, while Madhur waskeen to cast Aishwarya Rai Bachchanin ‘Heroine’. Kareena now has baggedboth these projects. AGeNcIeS

14 Thursday, 17 May, 2012

lUcKnoW: Days after Amitabh Bachchan wrote off

the debts of 90 farmers in the Indian state of

Maharashtra, those in the state of uttar Pradesh

have written to the Bollywood star in the hope that

he would do the same for them. In a letter to

Bachchan, a farmer from the area has told

the star he comes from uttar Pradesh

and that the debt ridden farmers of his

area were looking to him to come to

their rescue. In the letter, the

farmers pointed out how they were

being pressurised by private money

lenders and some banks, forcing

some farmers to commit suicide.

The umbrella body of farmers also

made a fervent appeal to the

state government to come to

their help. Bachchan had, last

Saturday, given cheques to 90

farmers to repay their debt. The

cheques total around rs.30 lakh,

all of which was donated by

Bachchan.aGencieS

No make-upfor Kareena inTigmanshu’s next

NEWS DESK

Pakistani band Raeth is all set tomake its Bollywood debut withthe upcoming film ‘Marksheet’.Famous for songs like ‘BhulaDo’ and ‘Waada’, the three-member band will be compos-ing a song for the film directedby Rakesh Ranjan Kumar andstarring Delhi boy Imran Zahid. The Sufi rockband came out with their first album in 2006and there has been no looking back ever since.Raeth has also opened for international artisteslike Akon, Akcent and has also performed acrossIndia in various shows. Band members WajhiFarouqui, Hassan Farabi and Sunny Ghanshamare all pepped up about foraying into Bollywood.“We are really excited about entering Bollywoodthrough a project like Marksheet. Making music

for us is a collective effort.Often you find that only play-back is given importance evenwhen a band is taken aboard.But the makers of the film arenot limiting our capability andhave given us a chance to per-form together with our origi-nal sound which is a welcomestep for musicians,” said

Sunny, the group’s guitarist. “Also, we have ahuge following in India but films increase yourspectrum and take you to a much larger base,”he added. The song by Raeth will be shot inDelhi University, with students of the campus.While ‘Marksheet’ treads on the serious issue ofeducation scams in the country, it is set to be amainstream movie with all elements of a com-mercial Bollywood flick and will be made underthe creative guidance of Mahesh Bhatt.

Cannes 2012: Five thingsto know about this year’ssun-soaked film festival

mUmBai: here’s something that will make everysingle Salman Khan fan take pride in the factfor being one. Filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar, whohas acted in ‘Dabangg’ and ‘ready’ in the recenttimes, has spoken about his dear friend Salmanand his greatness. recently Manjrekar wasasked about his equation with the ‘Dabangg’superstar said, “he’s one of those guys who willcome to your rescue no matter what. In thisindustry, he redefines the concept of friendship.I feel lucky.” The filmmaker-actor has also saidthat he acts in films only for Salman, for he issomeone Manjerkar can never say no to.“Salman is a friend and I just can’t say no tohim. Besides, he never asked me whether Iwould like to act in the films he had approachedme for. he just said, `you are doing this film’. Idid all those films for Salman,” a daily hasquoted Manjerkar as saying. Now we know whySalman is called a lion-hearted star. aGencieS

FASHIONcanneS: Kara hayward, Jared Gilmanand director wes Anderson pose duringthe photocall of ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ atthe 65th cannes film festival. AFP

london: Alice eveposes for pictures duringa photocall for her newfilm ‘Men in Black 3’. AFP

canneS: edward Nortonposes during the photocall of‘Moonrise Kingdom’ at the65th cannes film festival. AFP

canneS: Bruce willis posesduring the photocall of‘Moonrise Kingdom’ at the65th cannes film festival. AFP

More farmers seekBig B’s help towrite off debts

PARIS aGencieS

MON dieu! The65th CannesFilm Festivalstarted yester-

day. Twenty-two films will bein competition this year, com-prising a wide swath of globalart-house fare and good-old-fashioned star-driven vehicles.Here are five notable things toknow about this year’s fest: 1.Is this Cannes or a ‘Twilight’convention? Prepare to getyour Robsten fix-sans vam-pires. Officially minted coupleRobert Pattinson and KristenStewart will both be at Cannesthis year, but they’ll each beshilling for different flicks.Pattinson stars in the DavidCronenberg-helmed mind trip‘Cosmopolis’. Stewart, mean-while, is part of the star-stud-ded adaptation of JackKerouac’s Beat Generationtouchstone ‘On the Road’. Andwhat’s a Twilight reunionwithout Taylor Lautner? Theactor doesn’t have a film incompetition, but the rights tohis new flick, ‘Tracers’, will beput up for sale at this year’sfest. 2. The Americans arecoming: This may be France,but Hollywood is coming outin full force. Five Americanproductions will be competingfor the Palm d’Or. This year’s

slate includes Lee Daniels’highly anticipated follow-up to‘Precious’, the Florida-set ‘ThePaperboy’; Wes Anderson’s‘Moonrise Kingdom’ and An-drew Dominik’s ‘Killing ThemSoftly’, starring Brad Pitt. 3.The star power: The starwattage at this year’s fest willbe blinding. Aside from Pitt,Pattinson and Stewart, the2012 roster features an A-list’sworth of stars. They includeReese Witherspoon (‘Mud’);Kirsten Dunst (‘On the Road’);Bruce Willis, Bill Murray andedward Norton (‘MoonriseKingdom’); Marion Cotillard(‘Rust and Bone’); evaMendes (‘Holy Motors’); andShia LaBeouf (‘Lawless’). Twostars will even be pulling dou-ble duty at the fest: NicoleKidman will star in ‘Heming-way and Gellhorn’ and ThePaperboy, while ‘Paperboy’

star Matthew McConaugheywill also headline ‘Mud’. 4.They’ll be the judge of that: Intrue eclectic Cannes fashion,this year’s jury represents aneclectic coterie of tastemakerswho’ll be putting their headstogether to award top prizes tothe most deserving films in thepack. You’ve got marqueenames like ewan McGregorand Diane Kruger, along withOscar winner AlexanderPayne (‘The Descendants’). 5.How about some popcorn togo with that pomp? The festwill be pimping out its fairshare of populist crowd-pleasers, from the schlocky tothe fantastical to the down-right family-friendly. Thisyear’s line-up keeps the ani-mated theme going with‘Madagascar 3: europe’s MostWanted’ and also includes‘Dario Argento’s Dracula’.

Raeth to make B’wood debut with ‘Marksheet’

‘Sallu redefinesthe concept offriendship inBollywood’


15

TUSSHArKAPOOr DOES AJOHN, SLAMMEDON TWiTTEr

lOs angeles: Actress Kristen Stewartwants to get rid of her Bella Swan personafrom the ‘Twilight Saga’ film series. Afterportraying a warrior in ‘Snow White and theHuntsman’ and playing a seductress in ‘Onthe Road’, the 22-year-old actor said that shewants to tackle darker roles. There’s beensome speculation that Kristen Stewart wouldbe perfect in the Anastasia role in the ‘FiftyShades of Grey’ movie, but it doesn’t soundlike anything Kristen is interested in. In fact,if Kristen has her way, she will next play bystarring as suicidal girl Peyton Loftis in herupcoming movie. The character of Loftisappears in the book ‘Lie Down in Darkness’.“I want to play Peyton more than anything Ican possibly taste or touch in my life. I wantto play her so bad,” Stewart said. Loftis is apsychologically vulnerable young lady whofalls for her own father. The actress alsothinks Colin Firth would be perfect to play herfather’s role. Stewart also has her eyes onanother dark character. The star said shewants to play murderous Cathy Ames fromthe book ‘east of eden’. “She is a troubledcharacter who leaves her children to operate a

brothel. She’s a psychopathic, evil. I haven’tdone that yet.” Kristen is absolutely right towant to play characters that are as farfrom ‘Twilight’s Bella Swan as possible.If she wants a long acting career, it isimperative that she not get typecast.Although Kristen has been an actresssince she was a child and she nodoubt has a broad range, the factis, Hollywood has a very shortmemory. Kristen is probablydrowning in scripts with partsthat are close to what Bella was.And since Anastasia Steele isbased on the Bella character, toplay her would be career suicide.especially if the movie turns outto be a hit, she will never getaway from the Bella-like roles.Stewart needs to go as evil, aspsychopathic, as crazy aspossible. She needs to do acharacter like Charlize Theron’s in‘Monster’. Right now, she needs to proveto everyone that she’s got the acting chopsto play a wide array of characters. aGencieS

TO GO DArK SiDEKristen Stewart wants

london: will Smith

poses for pictures during

a photocall for his new

film ‘Men in Black 3’. AFP

london: Josh Brolinposes for pictures duringa photocall for his newfilm ‘Men in Black 3’. AFP

lOs angeles: With a new movie coming out on June 15, ‘Rock of Ages’star Tom Cruise is embarking upon the promotional trail and his first stopis Playboy. In the issue, Tom gets quite candid about the rumours thathave plagued him for years, his controversial religious beliefs and howaddressing either only serves to work against him. Does refuting things

help? Not really,” he tells Playboy. “There comes a point when you justhave to go, ‘You know what? Here’s how I’ve lived my life: I’ve never been

late to a set. I make films I believe in. I feel privileged to be able to do whatI love.’ You just have to keep going and remember that.” As for why Tom sued

various people and outlets (like england’s Daily express) over unfounded al-legations he dated women for ulterior motives, he says, “You start with a letter

saying, ‘Okay, you know it’s not true. Apologise.’ But with certain ones you haveto go, ‘Okay, you crossed a line, and now you have the attention of my

lawyers.’ When it involves your kids, you have to go, ‘Here’s the line.’They know I mean it, that if I have to, I will sue. But life is not a

matter of trying to prove anything to anybody.” Cruise alsorevealed that the presence of his wife Katie Holmes makeshim feel better. The actor also discussed his behaviourearly in the couple’s relationship. “When she walks intothe room, I just feel better,” he said. The 49-year-oldhad made headlines for infamously jumping on OprahWinfrey’s couch and lambasting Brooke Shields fortaking anti-depressants. As for the rumour mill con-stantly spinning on himself and Holmes, the ‘MissionImpossible’ star said that he has learned to not payattention. “There’s a separation between what’s hap-

pening versus what people say. This is something Ilearned growing up, moving and always being thenew kid. Life is not a matter of trying to prove any-thing to anybody,” he added. aGencieS

MuMBAI: It was a story of success - not just oncelluloid but also at the box office. The vidyaBalan starrer ‘Kahaani’ directed by Sujoy Ghoshdid more than simply thrill the audience. Itsurprised the industry with its simplicity. Andnow, Aditya chopra seems to have set his eyeson the film. A few days back, yash raj Filmsentered into discussion with co-producersJayantilal Gada and Sujoy Ghosh to obtain therights of ‘Kahaani’. chopra is planning to makethe 2012 hit in english now. If sources are to bebelieved, the plan is to make this new projectunder yrF’s new foreign division helmed by

uday chopra. A source close to the film, ‘Kahaani’said the final decision is yet to be taken. “It couldeven be under the yrF banner also. But Adityasurely wants the film. It’s a gripping script. Theresponse at the ticket window is a proof of thatfact,” said the source. ‘Kahaani’, however hasalready become a franchise in demand. The filmhas been sold for a Telugu and Tamil remake.Adi chopra, who had worked on the script of‘Kahaani’, has claimed the english remake rights.And though the deal has not yet been sealed,sources revealed that that the modalities werebeing fast worked out. aGencieS

Tom Cruise gets candidabout rumours, relationships

Carrie Underwood,Lady Antebellum toplay CMT Awards

NASHVILLLEcBS

Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Lady Ante-bellum, Little Big Town, Brad Paisley and theZac Brown Band are the first performers an-nounced to play the 2012 CMT Music Awards.Underwood also leads this year’s nominationswith five nods, followed by Miranda Lambertwith four. Several artists earned three nomina-tions: Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Lady Ante-bellum, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, ThompsonSquare and The Civil Wars. The 11th annualawards show will take place at Nashville’sBridgestone Arena on June 6.

HilarySwank sueshome-audiofirm

LOS ANGELESaGencieS

Actress Hilary Swank has filed a lawsuitagainst a home-audio company for usingher pictures without her permission. Theactress filed the lawsuit in a Los Angelescourt against Robert’s Home Audio, itsvideo and its proprietor Randall Corderoand Cordero Studios, claiming that theywere using her name and image in theirads without her permission, reportsaceshowbiz.com. The complaint read: “De-fendants did not ask for or receive MsSwank’s permission to use her photograph,identity or persona in the advertisements.”It, however, didn’t offer details on how theimages were used. The Oscar-winner issuing for misappropriation of right of pub-licity and privacy and negligence, and isseeking unspecified damages.

Aaron Sorkin to penscreenplay for Steve Jobs film

LOS ANGELESreUterS

Steve Jobs’ lifewill be brought tothe big screen byOscar-winnings c r e e n w r i t e rAaron Sorkin in amovie based onWalter Isaacson’sbest-selling biog-raphy of the enig-matic co founder of Apple. Sony Picturesunveiled plans to put Sorkin, who wroteFacebook film ‘The Social Network’, be-hind the screenplay of what will be a majorrelease for the movie studio. “There is nowriter working in Hollywood today who ismore capable of capturing such an ex-traordinary life for the screen than AaronSorkin; in his hands, we’re confident thatthe film will be everything that Jobs him-self was: captivating, entertaining, and po-larising,” Amy Pascal, co-chairman ofSony Pictures entertainment, said in astatement. Sorkin will adapt Isaacson’sbest-selling biography that topped bookcharts and became the top-seller of 2011following Jobs’ death last October after along battle with cancer. Sorkin won a bestadapted screenplay Oscar for his work on‘Social Network’ in 2011, and was nomi-nated for a best writing Oscar in 2012 for‘Moneyball’.

Aditya Chopra plans to remake ‘Kahaani’ in English

MUMBAI: If you were wondering how come TussharKapoor started trending, here’s an answer. The actorhas done a John Abraham by aping the latter’s‘Dostana’ pose in his upcoming flick ‘Kyaa Super KoolHain Hum’. Tusshar might have certainly not expectedthat his “butt” act would land him in severe criticismbut as they say good or bad, any publicity is goodpublicity. With social media growing powerful by thehour, the Twitteratti haven’t taken his “aping” act allthat lightly and have gone overboard in describing his‘Dostana’ move in hilarious ways. Here’s taking a lookat some of the tweets: Mukesh Gehani ? @ItsMyRAGEThat pic is gonna haunt me for the rest of my life :-(#tusshar kapoor Ashesh ? @ashesh_dxb Everyonewants to be famous except Tusshar Kapoor! MangalPardeshi (@MangalPardeshi): Inspired BY Aamir Khanother actors also want to do social service. Tussharkapoor can do social service by quitting acting. Chitra ?@chitrambling That pic was supposed to make you alllaugh only so Tusshar Kapoor - 1, You - 0. Also, he islooking hotter than Poonam Pandey. aGencieS



16 Foreign News

THE HAGUEafp

Former Bosnian Serb army commanderRatko Mladic went on trial Wednesdayaccused of carrying out a brutal cam-paign of ethnic cleansing and europe’sworst massacre since World War II.

Mladic’s trial opened at the Yu-goslav war crimes court in The Hague,also watched in a live broadcast in Sara-jevo by widows and other relatives ofvictims of the 1995 massacre at Sre-brenica where almost 8,000 Muslimmen and boys were allegedly murderedby Mladic’s forces.

“Ratko Mladic assumed the mantle ofthe criminal goal of ethnically cleansing

Bosnia,” prosecutor Dermot Groome toldInternational Criminal Tribunal for theformer Yugoslavia. Now 70, Mladic hasbeen indicted on 11 counts of genocide,war crimes and crimes against humanityfor his role in the Balkan country’s brutal1992-95 war that killed 100,000 peopleand left 2.2 million homeless.

“The prosecution will present evi-dence that will show without reasonabledoubt the hand of Mr Mladic in each ofthese crimes,” Groome said. Mladic,dressed in a dark grey suit and patternedtie, sarcastically applauded judges asthey entered the courtroom, but was notasked to speak during the hearing.

He had pleaded not guilty to thecharges at an earlier court hearing last

June. He faces life imprisonment if con-victed. Outside the court, a group of 25women belonging to the “Mothers ofSrebrenica” organisation representingwidows and victims of the Srebrenicamassacre, held a demonstration.

In Sarajevo, 63-year-old FatimaMujic, all of whose male relatives werekilled in Srebrenica, said: “Ratko Mladicripped out our hearts.”

“But God sees everything and I be-lieve in his judgement only,” she added.

Mujic lost her three sons, husband,two brothers and father to Bosnian Serbmilitary forces under Mladic’s com-mand when the eastern Bosnian town, aUN protected enclave at the time, wasoverrun on July 11, 1995.

In his opening address, the prosecu-tor displayed population maps showingthe ethnic distribution in Bosnia beforeand after the war, explaining how mixedor predominantly Muslim municipali-ties became exclusively Serbian after acampaign of ethnic cleansing he saidwas one of Mladic’s “strategic objec-tives”. Groome said the very first objec-tive was to “separate the Serbs from theother two national communities” —Bosnians and Croats.

“Thousands of families were forcedfrom their land,” Groome added, as hetold the court how groups of non-Serbswere executed and others forced tojump from a bridge by soldiers underMladic’s command.

Bangladesh court

denies bail of 33

opposition figures DHAKA

afp

A Bangladesh court denied bail to 33opposition figures Wednesday includinglawmakers and senior officials ahead of theirtrial over violence at a series of anti-government protests, a state prosecutor said.The judge’s order sparked demonstrationsoutside the court by supporters of theBangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP),forcing police to use batons to dispersethem. “Thirty-three people including BNPsecretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Alamgirsought bail after they surrendered to thecourt. The court denied bail and orderedthem to jail custody instead,” prosecutorAbdullah Abu told AFP. Alamgir is not amember of parliament but is the second-highest official of the main opposition BNP.Also among those held were lawmakers andnearly a dozen former ministers. A total of40 opposition activists from the BNP andits allies are now in prison awaiting trial oncharges of torching a vehicle duringprotests at the end of last month.Many senior opposition figures went intohiding when they were charged overviolence at the demonstrations.During the protests, a small bomb blastexploded in the Secretariat, home to mostministries, and the Cabinet office, wherePrime Minister Sheikh Hasina holds weeklymeetings. No one was hurt in the attacks.Bangladesh’s often turbulent politics havereturned to near boiling point over thedisappearance of BNP’s regional head, IliasAli, on April 17. The BNP fear that Ali hasbeen killed and accuse the elite RapidAction Battalion security force of abductinghim on government orders, an allegationthat has been flatly rejected. Police foundAli’s car abandoned in an upmarket districtof Dhaka. His driver is also missing.Protests over the disappearance haveregularly paralysed the country in recentweeks. Ali is the highest profile oppositionpolitician to have “disappeared” sinceHasina took power in January 2009.

london: confetti falls and flags fly from Harrods department store on Wednesday as employees of the store celebrate Queen elizabeth ii’s forthcoming diamond jubilee. afP

Mladic masterminded ethnic cleansing, court told

13 more killedas south Yemenclashes rageinto 5th day

ADENafp

An all-out army offensive against Al-

Qaeda in south Yemen raged into a fifth

straight day on Wednesday with battles

around the restive town of Loder leaving

another 13 people dead, most of them

jihadists, sources said.

Wednesday’s fighting saw the army

backed by local militiamen taking on Al-

Qaeda insurgents in an area surrounding

Mount Yasuf, overlooking Loder in Abyan

province, which until it was overrun on

Tuesday had been an Al-Qaeda

stronghold, witnesses said. A member of

the Popular Resistance Committees, a

militia formed by local residents, told

AFP that Al-Qaeda militants had at dawn

fired artillery shells at troops and

militiamen stationed atop Mount Yasuf,

killing two armed residents and wounding

four. The army responded and in a fierce

counter-attack killed 11 jihadists, tribal

sources said. The area then fell quiet, they

added. The defence ministry’s news

website 26sep.net reported that the

jihadists had suffered major defeats

around Loder on Tuesday. The army and

militiamen, it said, “dealt heavy blows to

the terrorists in Loder and managed to

cleanse many positions they were

stationed in, including Mount Yasuf...

which was completely cleansed after all

their strongholds were destroyed.” The

jihadists, who last year took control of the

Abyan capital Zinjibar and a string of

other southern towns and cities, have

been trying to overrun Loder for months

but have been repulsed by the militia,

backed by the army. Troops on Saturday

launched a multi-pronged assault aimed

at recapturing Qaeda-held towns and

cities across Abyan, including Zinjibar.

Since then at least 128 people — 82

jihadists, 20 soldiers, 16 civilians, and 10

militiamen — have been killed, according

to an AFP tally based on reports by

officials and tribal leaders. The offensive

is supported by US drones which on

Saturday launched two air strikes in

eastern Yemen killing a total of 11

suspected Al-Qaeda jihadists.

DAMASCUSafp

sYRIAN forces were ac-cused Wednesday of hav-ing “executed” 15civilians, as the office ofenvoy Kofi Annan said

members of a UN observer team wereevacuated from a tense town a dayafter a blast hit their convoy.

“After regime forces raided theneighbourhood of Shammas (in thecentral city of Homs), 15 civilians werefound summarily executed,” RamiAbdel Rahman of the Syrian Observa-tory for Human Rights told AFP, inwhat he branded a “massacre.” Theovernight killings came one day afterregime forces were accused of anothermassacre in the town of KhanSheikhun in northwest Idlib when theyopened fire on a funeral procession andreportedly killed 20 people.

Abdel Rahman said a 43-year-oldMuslim cleric who had six children wasamong those killed in Homs. “every-body loved this cleric, because he calledfor national unity,” he said, adding thecleric had been involved in charitywork. The killings were reported hoursafter the Observatory said regime

troops shot dead at least five people ina new assault in Khan Sheikhun andopened fire on a refugee camp in Daraato the south, killing three civilians.

Four others died of wounds suf-fered on Tuesday during the funeralin Khan Sheikhun, according to theBritain-based group. Regime forceson Wednesday also killed a youngman in a raid on Mleiha al-Aatsh vil-lage of Daraa province, the watchdogsaid. And in Homs province, a civilianwas killed in Rastan under regimebombardment, the Observatory said.

The watchdog updated its toll ofpeople killed in Syria on Tuesday to64. During the funeral in KhanSheikhun, a convoy of UN truce ob-servers was struck by a homemadebomb, damaging three vehicles butcausing no casualties, the UN said.

Six members of the team wereforced because of blast damage to thecar to spend Tuesday night with ac-tivists in Khan Sheikhun, which wasunder under regime shelling, an ac-tivist said. “The UN Supervision Mis-sion in Syria reports today that it haspicked up the six UN Military Ob-servers who had to stay overnight inKhan Sheikhun. They are now back intheir team site in Hama,” the office of

UN-Arab League envoy Annan said ina statement. The blast came as the ob-servers made their way in a convoy ofvehicles along a narrow street in KhanSheikhun, said activists, rebels and thewatchdog. It was the second roadsidebombing involving the military ob-servers’ vehicles in less than a week,after six Syrian soldiers were woundedin a May 9 bombing in Daraa.

The United Nations, which ac-cuses both sides of violating an April12 ceasefire, reaffirmed its condemna-tion of any violence against the moni-tors. “This mission is there to help thepeople of Syria, to help ensure thatthe six-point plan is implemented,”spokesman Martin Nesirky said, re-ferring to Annan’s peace plan.

Iran, the main regional ally ofSyria, said on Wednesday that Damas-cus needed more time to make the planwork. “More time should be given tothe Syrian government in order tomake Kofi Annan’s plan a success,”Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said,quoted by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

Meanwhile, Annan urged Syria tostop delaying an agreement on allow-ing UN access to more than one millionSyrians in need of assistance, sayingthe process had been “very slow.”

Syria accused of new‘massacre’, UN teamevacuated from town

Queen of

austerity merkel

gets pay riseBERLIN

afp

Chancellor Angela Merkel will soon havean extra 930 euros ($1,182) in her pocketeach month after Germany’s cabinetawarded themselves their first pay rise in12 years. The salaries of Merkel and herministers will rise by 5.7 percent in threestages until August 2013. The chancellor’stotal pay will then be around 17,016 eurosper month, before tax. Ministers’ pay willrise by 750 euros to around 13,795. Merkel,recently named the world’s most powerfulwoman by Forbes Magazine, is famouslydown-to-earth, snapped earlier this monthshopping on her own for groceries. She hasbeen the chief advocate of austerity in theeurozone during the debt crisis, earningher criticism from some quarters, notablyGreece and more recently France, whosenew leader Francois Hollande wants tofocus on growth.


Foreign News 17Thursday, 17 May, 2012

MOSCOWafp

mOSCOW authoritiesbroke up a week-longOccupy protest onWednesday thatsprung up in re-

sponse to President Vladimir Putin’s in-auguration, warning they would preventsimilar actions during his third term.

The dawn-hours raid on dozens ofsleeping protesters brought an abruptend to younger Russians’ first attemptto emulate the tent city tactic that is in-creasing popular in the West. Sweepershad already cleared the scenic squareby the time commuters were rushing tothe nearby metro station while activistswere debating where next to stage thefirst sit-in since former spy Putin’sdomination began in 1999.

“They put up no resistance. every-thing passed off fairly peacefully,”deputy district police chief YuryZdorenko said in televised comments.“everything happened in accordance

with the spirit of the law.”The small but daring protest be-

came the talking point of Russian poli-tics while testing the ruling elite’sdesire to put up with a form of dissentthat still falls narrowly within the con-fines of increasingly strict legislation.

The rallies swelled to a few thousandas people finished work but shrank tojust a few dozen activists overnight. Thesit-in referred to itself as “Occupy Abay”— a reference to the looming bronzestatue of 19th century Kazakh poet AbayKunanbayuli around which the protest-ers gathered in a leafy boulevard in theupscale Chistye Prudy district.

And they got around rules requiringthe city to mandate any form of protestby calling their action a mass public“stroll”. A local Moscow court on Tues-day ordered the authorities to break upthe rally because of noise and othercomplaints from three local residents.

The police had a noon Wednesdaydeadline but moved in at 5:30 am (0130GMT) despite at least one appeal havingbeen filed against the judge’s orders.

“The morning dispersal was illegaland here is the proof,” liberal Yablokoparty leader Sergei Mitrokhin wrote in ablog on the Moscow echo radio stationwebsite next to a copy of his own letter tothe court. Prominent activist Ilya Yashinsaid some of the activists had moved to asquare that sits under a famous Stalin-era skyscraper near the Moscow zoo.

“Come and join us. Things are funhere,” Yashin tweeted to his supporters.Activists unhappy with Putin’s presi-dential return after a four-year stint asprime minister have been increasinglyresorting to creative forms of protestthat slip through legal loopholes and donot require formal city sanction.

More than 10,000 Russians of all agesjoined a peaceful stroll through a neigh-bourhood near Chistye Prudy on Saturdayin a clear bid to test the limits of the law.Moscow painters have voiced plans toconduct a similar stroll over the weekend.

“If they push us out again, then wewill simply walk around the city fromsquare to square,” said opposition law-maker Ilya Ponomaryov.

BERLINafp

Chancellor Angela Merkel and PresidentHamid Karzai hailed Wednesday a“milestone” in their relations as Ger-many pledged 150 million euros ($190million) a year after international forceswithdraw from Afghanistan.

Signing an agreement that securesGerman cash for security training inAfghanistan after the 2014 withdrawaldate, Merkel said: “This shows we arecommitted to Afghanistan in the longterm.” The money demonstrates thatGermany’s engagement in Afghanistanis “not just words,” Merkel added.“Afghanistan’s fate is close to our heart.”

Karzai said: “We hope it will help usto train security forces and to have a bet-ter and stronger Afghanistan.”

The deal follows an accord inked ear-lier this month between Karzai and USPresident Barack Obama that allowed forthe possibility of American forces stayingbehind to train Afghan forces and pursueAl-Qaeda after NATO troops leave in2014. However, the Strategic PartnershipAgreement signed by Obama and Karzai

did not commit the United States to anyspecific troop levels or funding, leavingsuch decisions up to the US Congress.

earlier Wednesday, Australian PrimeMinister Julia Gillard said Canberra

would provide US$100 million annuallyfor three years from 2015 to assist localforces with the transition. Germany is thethird biggest supplier of troops to the130,000-strong NATO-led International

Security Assistance Force (ISAF) after theUnited States and Britain. It has a maxi-mum of 4,900 soldiers in Afghanistan butanother 500 are set to be withdrawn by2013 before a complete pullout.

france’s new

prime minister

readies fresh

cabinetPARIS

afp

French President Francois Hollande’snew Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayraultgot to work selecting a cabinet on his firstday on the job Wednesday, vowing to getthe crisis-hit country back on its feet.Ayrault, a former German teacher,lawmaker and longtime Hollande ally,bade farewell to former presidentNicolas Sarkozy’s premier FrancoisFillon and said his first cabinet wouldmeet on Thursday, a public holiday.“The government will be ready and setup by the end of this afternoon,”Ayrault, 62, told journalists beforeheading off to the elysee Palace to puthis cabinet suggestions to Hollande.“What’s essential, and that’s why thecabinet will meet as soon as Thursday,is to get quickly to work to allow Franceto get back on its feet in a just way,” hesaid. A presidential spokesman said thecabinet line-up would be announced“late in the day” on Wednesday. LikeHollande, who on Tuesday becameFrance’s first Socialist president since1995, Ayrault has never previously helda ministerial post, but he is mayor ofNantes, a veteran parliamentarian andseen as a consensus builder. Hollandehas been criticised for naming Ayrault,who has a conviction for favouritism inawarding a local government contract,with opponents noting that as candidatehe promised not to work with anyonewith a criminal record. He was namedto the job of prime minister over otherpotential candidates, including SocialistParty leader and former labour ministerMartine Aubry, who said she had agreedthere was no place for her in agovernment led by Ayrault. “In such aset-up, we agreed, amicably, that therewas no sense in my being ingovernment,” Aubry told AFP. “Therewas no proposal and no negotiation.”“What’s certain is that I will campaignfor the parliamentary election. All threeof us agreed that, under thecircumstances, where I can be mostuseful is at the head of the SocialistParty to be close to Jean-Marc Ayrault,”she said.French media has been rife withspeculation about other appointments,with Spanish-born Manuel Valls, 49,mooted as interior minister andHollande’s campaign chief PierreMoscovici mentioned as foreign orfinance minister.

Iran urges rally

against Saudi,

Bahrain unionTEHRAN

afp

Iran hardened its tone against a plan tounite Bahrain with Saudi Arabia,calling on its people to protest Fridayagainst what it described as a US plotto annex the tiny Gulf archipelago.The Islamic Propagation CoordinationCouncil, which organises state-backedprotests, urged Iranians “to protestagainst the American plan to annexBahrain to Saudi Arabia and expresstheir anger against the lackey regimesof Al-Khalifa and Al-Saud.” Leaders ofthe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)discussed on Monday plans to turn thebloc into a union, starting with SaudiArabia and Bahrain. “This dangerousplot is the result of the American-Zionist-Britain evil triangle to preventpopular uprisings spreading into othercountries of the region and to controlthe internal crisis in Bahrain which hasbeen caused by the inability of the Al-Khalifa regime to control the situation,”the council said on its website.

Australia pledges$300m to Afghantransition

SYDNEYafp

Australia pledged Wednesday tocontribute US$300 million toAfghanistan in the years following thewithdrawal of foreign troops to assistlocal forces with the transition.Prime Minister Julia Gillard saidCanberra would provide US$100 millionannually for three years from 2015 “aspart of international efforts to helpsustain and support Afghan NationalSecurity Forces beyond the transition”.Australia has some 1,550 troopsstationed in Afghanistan with a focus ontraining and mentoring Afghan NationalArmy soldiers in southern Uruzganprovince. Gillard last month said thatAustralia would begin withdrawingtroops in 2013 — quicker than planneddue to significant security gains —though her government has sincestressed to NATO it will be “combatready” through 2014. The Australianprime minister said Wednesday thatAfghanistan “will have responsibility forits own security by the end of 2014” butthe job would not be complete. “Toconsolidate and build on the securitygains of the transition strategy, theAfghan National Security Forces willneed ongoing funding and training andmentoring support,” Gillard said,making the US$300 million pledge.

Moscow police break up anti-Putin sit-in

germany pledges post-withdrawal cash for afghanistan

pariS: french outgoing prime minister francois fillon (l), flanked by his wife penelope (2ndl) leaves eyed by his successor jean-marc ayrault (foreground, 2ndr) and his wife

Brigitte, during the handover ceremony on Wednesday. afP

Berlin: protestors demanding an end to

German military operations in afghanistan

are surrounded by police officers outside

the chancellery on Wednesday. afP


thursday, 17 may, 2012

Page 21

Pakistan cricket campstarts, Jamshed out ofSri Lanka tour

LONDONafp

WeST Indies face eng-land in the first of athree-Test series atLord's here on Thurs-day with the tourists'

batting likely to determine the course ofthe match.

Should conditions prove as seamfriendly as they have for much of the earlypart of the english season, West Indies' toporder could struggle to provide the kind ofplatform that will help improve on a recordof just two wins in 30 Tests since beatingengland in Jamaica in 2009.

Kieran Powell made his second first-class hundred in West Indies' 10-wicketdefeat by the england Lions at Northamp-ton last week, a match where number fourDarren Bravo made two fifties.

However, Powell's opening partnerAdrian Barath and Kirk edwards managedjust 26 runs between them at Northamp-ton, having only compiled 16 and eight re-spectively in the near washout againstSussex at Hove.

Much could depend on world numberone batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul,who has performed many a rescue missionfor the West Indies during a career that lastmonth saw him become only the 10th bats-man to score 10,000 Test runs.

However, the 37-year-old Guyaneseleft-hander generally prefers to bat nohigher than five in the order.

The problem with that, from the WestIndies' point of view, is that too oftenChanderpaul comes in with the team al-ready in trouble.

For example, during West Indies' mostrecent Test -- a 75-run defeat by Australiain Dominica last month -- Chanderpaulcame in at 73 for three and 45 for three.

There has been talk of promotingChanderpaul up the order but it appears heis set to stay put -- at least for the timebeing. "It's something we've thoughtabout," said West Indies coach Ottis Gib-son. "Our batting revolves around Shiv -he's very comfortable in the position he isat the moment and he's doing a good jobfor us. "We've decided to leave it as it is atthe moment but it's something we haven'tcompletely ruled out."

West Indies will be without aggressiveopening batsman Chris Gayle because ofhis Indian Premier League commitmentsand the fact the former captain's lengthy

stand-off with the West Indies CricketBoard only recently came to an end.

But Gibson backed his younger bats-men to come good, saying: "We know it's

going to be a challenge for them -- but theselectors have got a lot of confidence inthem, as I have."

Before taking up his current post, Gib-

son was england's bowling coach and sohelped the likes of home duo James Ander-son and Stuart Broad.

But the tourists, whose three threeleading pacemen -- Kemar Roach (ankle),Fidel edwards (back) and Ravi Rampaul(stiff neck) -- have all overcome minor in-jury concerns, boast some firepower oftheir own.

england will be keen to make a com-manding start after seeing their status asthe world's number one Test side dimin-ished somewhat during a recent 3-0 defeatby Pakistan in the United Arab emiratesand a 1-1 draw in Sri Lanka.

"I don't think we need to prove any-thing," said Matt Prior, the england wick-etkeeper. "We've played good cricket overa number of years now.

"After the glitches in the winter, I knoweveryone is very keen and pumped up toperform from the off this summer."

An injury to Ravi Bopara could seeJonathan Bairstow, son of late englandwicketkeeper David, make a Test debut atnumber six. england, who have five seam-ers in their squad, face some awkward se-lection decisions and when it comes to toporder batting they too have a problem theywould like to solve quickly.

Andrew Strauss, the england captain,has made just one century in his last 49Test innings but Prior said: "The one fan-tastic thing about Straussy is that he's just'Mr Consistent'. "He could score four hun-dreds in a row, four zeroes in a row, buthe'll be exactly the same person."

WI batsmen set for stern England exam

LONDONafp

england captain Andrew Strauss has in-sisted he has no desire to rid himself of thepressure of leadership despite a poor runof form with the bat.Strauss on Wednesday received the presti-gious Reliance ICC Test Championshipmace for leading the team that finished ontop of the Reliance ICC Test Championshiptable on the annual cut-off date of 1 April.Clive Lloyd, chairman of the ICC CricketCommittee and former West Indies cap-tain, presented the mace to Strauss whoalso collected a cheque of US$175,000from Rod Riley, executive Senior VicePresident, Reliance Communications,ADAG, in a ceremony that was staged atCoronation Garden at Lord’s and attendedby england and Wales Cricket Board(eCB) Chief executive David Collier.The Middlesex opener is all set to skipperengland in the first of a three-Test seriesagainst the West Indies at his Lord's homeground on Thursday with a record of justone hundred in his last 49 Test innings be-hind him.However, the 35-year-old left-hander, eng-land's Test captain since 2009, told re-porters at Lord's here on Wednesday he

was a long way from feeling 'fed up' withthe job of leading the side."Not even close," Strauss said. "There maybe a situation where that has happened toengland captains in the past and maybe itwill to me in the future, but I'm not there atthe moment yet. "I'm excited about thechallenges ahead, to come out at Lord'sagain and hopefully we will all show whatwe're capable of this summer."South Africa arrive later in the english sea-son for what could be a clash for the num-ber one Test ranking and Strauss said hewas looking forward to making a majorcontribution in both campaigns."The West Indies series is an importantone for us and they're a vastly improvedside, so it will be a big challenge.

england skipper Straussin no mood to stand down

LONDONafp

West Indian cricket icon Brian Larahas called upon Shivnarine Chander-paul, the world's number one bats-man, to move up the order for histeam's three-Test series with englandwhich begins on Thursday.

"It beats me," Lara said of his fel-low left-hander's reluctance to bathigher.

"If he can be so consistent, why hewouldn't say, 'Let me bat with somemore experienced, talented players upthe order.' That's not only going tobenefit him but it would help the team.

"Your best batter is going to be atnumber three -- he is the one who isgoing to lay the foundations to win amatch," added the record-breakingbatsman.

"If your best batter is coming in atfive, repairing damage, I don't under-stand the logic in it."

The West Indies were reliant onChanderpaul during their recent 2-0Test defeat to Australia, although theseries was closer than the score sug-gests.

The obdurate Guyanan made 103not out in the first Test in Barbadosfollowed by 94 in Trinidad despite

coming in four times during the serieswith three wickets down for less than100 runs.

The 37-year-old became only thesecond West Indian to reach 10,000Test runs when he went to 14 in hisside's second innings in the third andfinal Test against Australia.

Lara also insisted that the addi-tion of opener Chris Gayle, who re-mains in the Indian Premier League,"would lend the experience" neededto challenge england in the serieswhich begins at London's Lord'svenue on Thursday.

Despite the top-order weaknesses,Lara believes the series could be close.

"This team is full of talent," hestressed to reporters.

"I think it is going to be very toughfor them, especially with the weatherconditions and the lack of preparation.

"It is a pretty young team but it isone that has something in it that couldgo forward. I have a funny feeling thatwe are going to impress you over thissummer," he suggested.

england are top of the ICC Testrankings, while the West Indies -- whohave won just two of 30 Tests sincebeating england in Jamaica in 2009 -- are down in seventh place.

However, england have lost fourout of their last five Tests heading intoThursday's match, after strugglingagainst Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

clarke to drive in Queensland rallySYDNEY

afp

Australian captain Michael Clarke will swap his cricket whites for a driving suit whenhe takes part in the International Rally of Queensland this month, organisers an-

nounced Wednesday. Clarke willbe behind the wheel for twostages of the rally in a BP Ulti-mate team car and said he waslooking forward to his first everrace. "It's pretty well known thatI have a passion for driving, buta part of me has always won-dered what it would be like to goup against the best in the busi-ness," he said."There's no doubt that rallydriving is one of the most exhil-arating sports around and, assomeone who puts my heart intoeverything I do, this is a greatopportunity to mix it with someof the world's best drivers."He will drive alongside veteranprofessional Mark Stacey, whohas competed at internationallevel for two decades.The rally,in its 44th year and the longest-running round in the AustralianRally Championship, has at-tracted more than 100 cars fromAustralia, Britain, Malaysia,Japan among other countries.

lara urges chanderpaul to climb order

London: The west Indies players play football on the pitch at Lord's cricket Ground. afP

Teams and officials for the first Testbetween england and the west In-

dies at Lord's here on Thursday:england (from): Andrew Strauss(capt), Alastair cook, Jonathan

Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, MattPrior (wkt), Stuart Broad, Tim Bres-nan, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn,

James Anderson, JonathanBairstow, Graham Onions

west Indies (from): Darren Sammy(capt), Kirk edwards, Adrian Barath,Darren Bravo, Shivnarine chander-paul, Narsingh Deonarine, Fidel ed-

wards, Assad Fudadin, ShannonGabriel, Kieran Powell, Kemar roach,Denesh ramdin (wkt), ravi rampaul,Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford

umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK) andMarais erasmus (rSA)

Tv umpire: Asad rauf (PAK)Match referee: roshan Mahanama (SrI)


Sports 21Thursday, 17 May, 2012

DAeGu: Karin Mey of Turkey competes in the women's long jump event at the Daegu championships Meeting of the IAAF world challenge. Mey took the second place with a record of 6.48 meters. afP

DELHIcricinfo

MAHeLA Jayawar-dene's half-centurymay have been theslowest for DelhiDaredevils this sea-

son but it was compiled under tryingcircumstances and helped his teambecome the first side to qualify for theplayoffs. Jayawardene's composureunder pressure ensured that an inci-sive fast-bowling performance fromVarun Aaron and Umesh Yadav,which restricted Kings XI Punjab to amiddling total, was not in vain. With aplace in the top four secure, Daredev-ils need to win only one of their lasttwo games to secure No. 1 position.

Kings XI, on the other hand,needed victory tonight and in their re-maining two games to be assured of aplayoff spot. They cannot afford an-other defeat and will have to dependon net run-rate and on a permutationof results in other matches to qualify.

Kings XI had persevered to make abelow-par total competitive in theirfirst clash against Daredevils - thisseason's 64th game - but did not haveenough runs in the end.

Daredevils unleashed their quickbowlers, supported by a crack fieldingunit, and a steady fall of wickets en-sued after Kings XI chose to bat. Theyhad made a brisk start but Aaronended that with his first ball: ShaunMarsh caught glancing down the legside. In his second over, Aaron had thefree-swinging Mandeep Singh pullingto midwicket, where Virender Sehwagdived forward to take a low catch.

Kings XI were progressing well,though, and reached 50 for 2 in 6.2overs. Yadav was the fifth bowler in-troduced, in the eighth over, andstruck with his second ball. NitinSaini drove loosely at a fastoutswinger and Sehwag was stoopingat first slip to catch the edge. AfterDavid Miller was run out by a directhit from Pawan Negi at mid-on, AzharMahmood, the last of Kings XI's

proper batsmen, was in as early as the10th over. He stayed only until the12th, when he hoisted Yadav towardslong-off, where Irfan Pathan back-pedalled and caught the ball over hisright shoulder on the edge of theboundary. Kings XI were eventuallyin danger of being dismissed andDavid Hussey, who had been cryingout for a reliable partner in vain, hadto play within himself. He even turneddown singles in the final two oversand dragged his team 136 for 8.

Hussey, however, had one reallyquick bowler in his attack too andParvinder Awana rattled the Daredev-ils top order. He cut one delivery intoVirender Sehwag and bowled him offthe pad; he straightened two balls justoutside off and induced edges fromVenugopal Rao and Ross Taylor in thesixth over.

Scores: Delhi Daredevils 140 for5 (Jayawardene 56*, Awana 3-22)beat Kings XI Punjab 136 for 8(Hussey 40*, Yadav 3-21, Aaron 2-19) by five wickets.

LAHOREStaff report

Director of Game Development Pak-istan Cricket Board (PCB) IntikhabAlam has said that the board is work-ing to host Pakistan’s series againstAustralia at some alternative venueafter it was cancelled by Sri LankaCricket.

Pakistan-Australia series whichwas scheduled to comprise five one-day internationals and three T20s tohelp the sides prepare for the WorldTwenty20 in Sri Lanka was recentlycancelled by Sri Lanka Cricket, due toa fixture clash with the Sri Lankan Pre-

mier League. “Yes it’s disappointing to see the

series against Australia not goingahead in Sri Lanka and it would haveprovided ideal practice for the Pakistanteam ahead of the Twenty20 WorldCup in Sri Lanka, but it’s out of ourhands and we have two or three alter-natives to Sri Lanka in mind,” PakPas-sion quoted Alam, as saying.

Alam who has served the PakistanCricket Board in a number of roles overthe years refuted the suggestion thatthe series of 50 over and 20 overmatches against Australia may have tobe cancelled due to a lack of possiblealternative venues.

“There are absolutely noplans to cancel the seriesagainst Australia and thePakistan Cricket Board isactively working on sev-eral options that canserve as an alternative toSri Lanka. We shouldhave more concrete de-tails in a week or so afterwe have looked at the vari-ous options available to us infurther detail” added Alam.

Alam further added that“The Pakistan Cricket Boardwill speak with CricketAustralia soon about an al-

ternative to Sri Lanka once ourresearch into possible other

venues is complete. We arelooking forward to playing

against Australia andhope that it will be a

competitive serieswherever it is

played.”

pcB in hunt for options to host australia: alam

Mahela guides Delhi into playoffs

Beckham to bringflame to Britain

LONDONafp

Football star David Beckham will bring theOlympic flame from Greece to Britain forthe torch relay ahead of the London 2012Games, organisers said on Wednesday.Beckham will be joined by five youngBritons for Thursday's handover ceremonyat the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.The Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder and for-mer england captain will then be part of thedelegation that brings the flame to Cornwallin southwest england to begin its 70-dayjourney around Britain and Ireland.Beckham was part of London's winning bidteam in the contest to stage the Olympicsand could be included in Great Britain'sfootball squad for the Games. During thefinal push of the bidding campaign in 2005,Beckham said he was dreaming of the daythe Olympics would be staged in east Lon-don, where he grew up. Queen elizabeth II'sdaughter Princess Anne, who is a memberof the London organising committee board,chief organiser Sebastian Coe, Olympicsminister Hugh Robertson and LondonMayor Boris Johnson will also be in theBritish delegation in Athens. The party fliesback on Friday evening, landing at theRoyal Naval Air Service's Culdrose base inCornwall, where there will be a special cere-mony welcoming the flame.

Indian, Afghan touchball teams arrivelahOre: Indian and Afghanistan teamsarrived here on Wednesday to take part inthree-nation touch ball championship beingplayed on Thursday at Punjab Stadium.The 14-member Indian team arrived herevia Bus and officials of Pakistan Touch BallFederation accorded a warm welcome to thevisiting team on its arrival. 'Sports can playvital a big role in bringing closer the peopleof both the countries,” said FC Sharma, Sec-retary, Indian Touch Ball Federation.He said they are delighted to be in Pakistanspecially in Lahore which is a hub of sportsactivities and they look forward to excitingtouch ball competition. "Pakistan andAfghanistan are tough and strong sides andI think it will be a thrilling event as all theteam are equally good,” he said.He called for frequent exchange of tours be-tween India and Pakistan and said sportsevent help in forging brother hood besidesbettering relations. Indian captain, SherSingh and manager Diljeet Singh said theirteam is well prepared for the event and theyexpect encouraging results on part of theirteam. "Tough ball is an entertaining sportand we believe this event will play a big rolein improving sports ties between India andPakistan,” they said.Meanwhile Afghan team management saidthey will be aiming to produce high qualitydisplay in the event to prove thatAfghanistan is fast coming up in sports de-spite many problems at home."Our goal is to play with good spirit and toexhibit all round performance to achieve ourset targets and we are confident of our suc-cess,” they added. The final of the five dayevent will be played on May 21. Staff report

MT move to semislahOre: Model Town club has movedinto the semifinal of 27th MohammadYaseen Akhter Memorial event when theyoutplay strong P&T Gym by 5 wickets in thelast quarter final played at Model Townground on Wednesday. Scores: P&T Gym 163/5 in 20 overs. AbdulRazak 65, Babar Manzoor 43, Imran NAzir13, M Saad 11. Ziaul Haq 3/32, MustafaIQbal 1/18, Sajaid Vatoo 1/25. Model Town Club 164/5 in 19 overs. ImamUl Haq 64, Hafiz Saad NAseem 76(no),Itazaz 12(no). M Rohail 2/28, HusnainTalat 1/22. Staff report


Sports20Thursday, 17 May, 2012

LrcA urges PcB to include informplayers in national squads

LAHORE Staff report

Lahore Regional Cricket Association(LRCA) and its three affiliated zoneshave urged the Pakistan Cricket Boardto include Lahore's notable performersof domestic tournaments in the nationalsenior and junior teams."In recent selections of Pak senior andjunior teams our most budding playershave been left out which has created alot of disappointment not only amongthe players but also in LRCA,” saidPresident, LRCA, Khawaja NadimAhmad and Tauqir Ali Shah, President,West Zone, Kamil Shah, President, eastZone and Mian Mubeen Ahmad, Presi-dent North Zone in a joint statement.Kh Nadim was quoted by AssociatedPress of Pakistan that Lahore's mostsuccessful run getter, Usman Salahud-din has immense cricket talent but de-spite doing so good, sadly, he could notget the nod of the selectors in the Pakteam named for the tour of Sri Lanka.Similarly Lahore's upcoming off spinnerRohail Ali could not get a place in thelist of probables announced for the JrWorld Cup."If a player of Usman's caliber is notconsidered then what is the aim of play-ing cricket and excelling in the domestictournaments and what attraction is leftfor the youngsters to play cricket,” ques-tioned LRCA Chief requesting the PCBauthorities and the national selectors toinduct fresh blood in the team for its re-building to secure a better tomorrow ofPakistan in cricket at international level.Usman stuck 1622 runs in all the threeformats of domestic tournament with anaverage of 81.25 percent, hitting sevencenturies and eight half centuries, re-maining the top scorer of one day na-tional tournament.Rohail while representing ZTBL in interregion U19 tournament captured 22wickets off 684 balls and took threewickets in trials matches for selection ofprobables and Faisal Tahir who took 15wickets in 987 balls from Karachi Blueswas preferred over talented Rohail. In-terestingly Tahir remained wicket less inthe trial matches.

Lawson to coachAfghanistan at u-19world cup

SYDNEYcricinfo

Geoff Lawson, the former Australia fastbowler, has signed a deal with theAfghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) to be aconsultant coach for the Under-19World Cup being held in Australia inAugust. Lawson will take charge whenthe team arrives in Australia on July 21,three weeks before the tournament actu-ally begins. In 2007, Lawson had a 15-month coaching stint with Pakistan anda season with the Kochi Tuskers in theIPL last year."The idea behind Lawson's appointmentwas to have an experienced and well-known coach," ACB's high performanceprogram manager Bashir Stanikzai said."That will automatically boost themorale of these young and talentedplayers.""They will share the dressing roomwith a top-class cricketer and coach.We are sure that with Geoff's guidancethese players will perform better thanthey did in the last Under-19 WorldCup in 2010 (where they won just onematch)," he said.

LAHOREStaff report

THe camp raining of thePakistan’s Sri Lankabound team started hereat the Gaddafi Stadiumunder the supervision of

chief coach Dev Whatmore. Apart from Younus Khan all the

players of the three format of teams re-ported for the evening session of train-ing which of the camp which willcontinue till the team leaves for SriLanka for a full bilateral series.

Pakistan will play two Twenty20Internationals, five One-day Interna-tionals and three Tests during the tour.

Meanwhile, fast-rising openerNasir Jamshed was Wednesday ruledout of Pakistan's tour of Sri Lanka afterfracturing a finger on his left hand.

The 22-year-old, who hit a brilliantone-day hundred against arch-rivalsIndia in the Asia Cup in Dhaka twomonths ago, injured his finger duringa club match, the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) said.

Jamshed, only named in the one-day squad for Sri Lanka, has been ad-vised to take four to six weeks' rest bythe medical team and the PCB said adecision on a replacement will be an-nounced in due course.

Pakistan are to play twoTwenty20s, five one-day internationalsand three Tests on their tour of SriLanka starting early next month.

Pakistan announced separatesquads for all three formats last week,with Mohammad Hafeez taking over asTwenty20 captain for the first time.

Misbah-ul Haq, who also lost hisTwenty20 place, will lead the team inone-dayers and Tests.

Naveed Akram Cheema, teammanager informed that Pakistan’steam management wants to give theplayers all possible opportunities towarm up for the tour as they won’t getany practice ahead of the series againstSri Lanka.

“This time we have focused on hav-ing a series of practice matches beforeour departure as there are no warm-upmatches in Sri Lanka,” said Cheema.

“This time we have focused on hav-ing a series of practice matches beforeour departure as there are no warm-upmatches in Sri Lanka,” said Cheema.

Pakistan will leave for Sri Lanka

on May 28 and will get down to workright away as they will be taking on thehosts in the opening Twenty20 Inter-national in Hambantota on June 1.

Before leaving for Sri Lanka, thePakistani players will attend a series oftraining and nets sessions at the Na-tional Cricket Academy from May 16-19 before playing two 50-overday-night practice matches on May 20and 22. After a rest day, they will playback-to-back Twenty20 matches onMay 24 and 25. During a couple of restdays, PCB officials will deliver lecturesto the players, warning them of thedangers of associating with strangers.

Pakistan set tobreak Sri Lankahome advantage

LAHOREStaff report

Pakistan chief coach Dav Whatmore saidon Wednesday that Pakistan team is ca-pable of beating Sri Lanka despite hostshome ground and crowd advantages."Definitely the hosts will be having theirown advantages (home ground andcrowd) but my team is fully prepared totake on Lankan challenge in a decentway by exhibiting professionalism,” hetold reporters after Pak team trainingsession for the build up of the team forits tour later this month."Lankan are always tough to beat intheir own backyard and their (Lankan)weather will be also tough but we arealso training in hot conditions and thereshould not be any problem to adjustwith the conditions there.He said he hopes that Lankan wicketsfor one day will be supporting both forthe batsmen and bowlers. “We havegood number of experienced players inour side and I look forward to excitingcricket in the Lankan tour,” he said.He said, he backs Pakistan cricketBoard's decision to announce differentteams for different formats of the gameand is fully satisfied with the combina-tions named for different formats.“It is a good step to name teams for dif-ferent formats keeping in view thestrengthen of our own players and themight of the opponents,” he said adding“Only specialised players will be takingpart in a format for which they are suit-able."He said it is the job of Pakistan CricketBoard to appoint the captain and hewould extend full support to the nationalcaptains .“As a coach it would be my utmost effortto work for the improvement of the teamand to play my due role in benefiting therespective captains no matter which for-mat of the game we are playing,” he as-serted.

LAhOre: The Pakistan hockey players warm up at the National hockey Stadium mini ground

to start their regular training session to prepare for the Azlan Shah cup. MurTaza aLi

Camp starts, Jamshedout of Sri Lanka tour

LAhOre: Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal bowls durng the camp

training as caoch Dav whatmore watches him. STaff PHOTO


iPL SPOT FixiNG

Sports 21Thursday, 17 May, 2012

watch it Live

GEO SUPERKings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings03:30PMDelhi Daredevils v Royal Challengers Bangalore07:30PM

LAHOREStaff report

Spot-fixing sting doesn’t surprise Pakistanis,who believe India are always allowed to getaway, thanks to the BCCI’s money power,while they are labelled as habitual offenders.

“The general feeling in Pakistan was thatIPL had always been “above the law” and arevelation of this kind was only expected. Sar-fraz Nawaz, never short of an opinion oncricket corruption, is believed to havelaunched a tirade against the Indian cricketboard. He has said that the ICC is too feeble abody to intervene since it has always beenunder the thumb of the BCCI. But, he re-minded, that had any Pakistan cricketer beeninvolved, the game’s governing body wouldhave launched an inquiry by now.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board offi-cials have been silent on the issue. They areunwilling to offend the BCCI who only re-cently cleared Pakistan’s decks for the CL T20.

Later in the day, readers peppered thewebsite of newspapers with vitriolic com-ments. One post read: “This news has in-eluctably proven that the high profile IPL isnothing but a showcase for gamblers, bettingand film stars. However, one has to give creditwhere due, that it is exciting to watch thematches. But since India is an emerging superpower with mountains of money, the ICC willbecome a ‘limp-wrist’ where justice is con-cerned.”

When it comes to judging corruption alle-gations in cricket, particularly in the sub-conti-nent, ‘no smoke without fire’ has become thefavoured testing method, reads an article inHindustan Times. “There are two strong rea-sons for this: The match-fixing scandal thatrocked the game in 2000 and the serious con-cerns raised by the Central Bureau of Investiga-tion ripped apart pretensions that the game wasinsulated from shady elements. The scourge ofspotfixing then came to the fore after the New-

softheworld sting in 2010 led to Salman Butt,Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir beingjailed in the UK,” opines the article.

“With every second fixing allegation beingsourced to illegal bookies based in worldcricket’s financial hub, few think these ele-ments do not try to target the game in thecountry. The Indian Premier League, since itkicked off in 2008, has never been free ofwhispers; close matches, incredible twists andturns, and the way teams that are seeminglydown and out bounce back every time onlyfuel more speculation,” says the HT article,adding that the TV sting on domestic players,essentially fringe characters as far as themulti-million dollar IPL goes, has raised seri-ous fears that the rot runs deep and even do-mestic cricket like Ranji, Deodhar Trophy, etcis not immune.

“Some of the players who spoke to the un-dercover reporters claimed spot-fixing doeshappen in the IPL.”

Meanwhile The Hindu writes that until1997, all the murmurs of possible match-fixingin cricket were dismissed as creation of thosejealous of the popularity enjoyed by the game.“With television bringing the games to thedrawing rooms of the millions of cricket-lov-ing households, the spectre of match-fixinggrew with the involvement of the underworldgaining currency. Many believe that live tele-cast of the matches, even if involves lessercricketing nations like Zimbabwe or Kenya,aids betting. Once the bets get bigger, thestakes become higher. Higher stakes, in turn,lead to the lure of influencing the ‘performers'to get the desired ‘results'. The Pakistan trio ofMohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Moham-mad Asif is an example of precocious talentfalling prey to the lure of the lucre,” says thearticle, adding that the revelations from thecricket world, whether involving Indians,South Africans or Pakistanis, have establishedthat all is not clean with what was once de-scribed as a “Gentlemen's Game”.

ROMEafp

ROGeR Federer braved duststorm conditions to blowpast Argentine CarlosBerlocq 6-3, 6-4 and openhis week with a second-

round victory at the Rome Masters onWednesday. The world number two withfour titles this season - including two ofthe first three Masters 1000 honours of2012 - came good on his hope of playingin Rome the week after winning in diffi-cult conditions on and off court on thecontroversial slick blue clay of Madrid.

The Swiss third seed will next playSpanish veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero,champion here 11 years ago. Federer beatFerrero in a 2003 semi-final in Rome.

Federer is on the hunt for his firstRome title after losing the 2003 and 2006finals. His victory left Berloq 0-8 againsttop 20 opponents as the Swiss chargedout by winning the first dozen points ofthe contest. Federer, 30, and winner of ti-tles in seven of his last 10 events dating tolast November, left it late to actually de-cide on playing Rome, hoping that hisbody would give him indications of howhe was holding up after Madrid.

He evidently got the right answerwith his victory, bolstered by 16 winnersin the first set and success on 12 of the last15 points of the afternoon.

The Rome pressure now shifts to five-time champion Rafael Nadal to post a vic-tory in his opening match.

The Spaniard has been mentally frag-ile after his troubles last week in Madrid,complaining about the blue clay and los-ing badly in the third round to FernandoVerdasco from a 5-3 lead in the final set.

The king of clay insists that all is finein the kingdom now that he's left behind

his Madrid bad memories. But his testwill come in Italy as he faces German Flo-rian Mayer, who beat him in their lastmeeting in Shanghai in 2011. In women'splay, China's Li Na moved on to the fourthround as third seed Agnieszka Radwan-ska lost to only her third different oppo-nent of the season. eighth seed Li beatIveta Benesova with ease, 6-1, 7-5, butCzech Petra Cetkovska caught Poland's

Radwanska with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 loss. Thewinner attacked and went for her shots ona windy day on the clay at the Foro Italico,producing 44 winners and 38 unforcederrors. She broke the seed sight timesfrom 20 chances. Of Radwanska's eightdefeats in 2012, six have come from worldnumber one Victoria Azarenka, with theirmost recent meeting the Madrid semi-fi-nals last weekend.

Federer blows past Berloqin return to Rome clay

Bulgaria's Kutrovsky

gets doping banSOFIA

afp

Bulgaria's number-two tennis playerDimitar Kutrovsky has been banned fortwo years for doping, the Bulgarian Ten-nis Federation said Wednesday.The 24-year-old had tested positive forthe banned substance methylhexa-namine at a tournament in San Jose,California in February, it added.A probe by the International TennisFederation found that the player hadnot used the banned substance deliber-ately but was ignorant about its pres-ence in another product which he usedat the tournament.His lawyer has said he would appeal theban which enters into force retrospec-tively from February 14.

pakistan not amusedby the scandal



22

Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami


FORMeR Inter-Services In-telligence (ISI) chief AsadDurrani has said that ex-Army chief Mirza Aslam Beghad been onboard since the

beginning of the distribution of moneyamong selected politicians through erst-while Mehran Bank.

In the rejoinder to the affidavit filedby Beg in Asghar Khan case, Durrani ac-cused his former boss of involvement inthe operation since its beginning. Dur-rani said that Beg used to issue instruc-tions in this regard, and properfeedback was provided to him about the

progress made. He said that the order to fund anti-

PPP parties was legal, as it camethrough proper channel and his role asISI head could only be revealed in-cam-era. “The ISI is accountable to the pres-ident, the prime minister, serviceschiefs among others, but the army chiefholds more influence than others on it.The fake bank accounts were opened inthe name of personnel of military intel-ligence,” the former ISI chief said.

On the other hand, Beg had deniedhis involvement in the distribution offunds among politicians in his replysubmitted to the Supreme Court on May 9.

Beg said he was not involved in the

disbursement of donations ordered bylate president of Pakistan Ghulam IshaqKhan, and that he merely possessedknowledge of the accounts or of the dis-bursement of money.

A three-member bench headed byChief Justice of Pakistan IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry is hearing a peti-tion filed by Air Marshal (r) AsgharKhan some 16 years ago against the dis-tribution of millions of rupees by the ISIamong Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP)rivals to manipulate the 1990 elections.The amount was allegedly disbursed bythen army chief General (r) Mirza AslamBeg, former director general of the ISILt General (r) Asad Durrani, and de-funct Mehran Bank chief Younis Habib.

g court issues contempt

notice to rehman Malik for

forming new investigation

team without notifying Sc


Announcing its 57-page verdict in suo motucase clubbed with identical petitions aboutcorruption of Rs 26.5 billion in Pakistan SteelMills (PSM), the Supreme Court on Wednes-day directed the National Accountability Bu-reau (NAB) chairman to probe the matterthoroughly within three months.

The NAB chairman was also directed tofile fortnightly progress report on the matterwith the SC’s Registrar for perusal of thejudges in their chambers for appropriate or-ders in the matter.

Besides, through its judgment, the courtalso issued contempt of court notice to Inte-rior Minister Rehman Malik for constituting anew investigation team to probe into the cor-ruption scam in the PSM without informingthe apex court.

Malik has been directed to reply to the no-tice in two weeks.

A three-member bench headed by ChiefJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry or-dered the FIA director general to hand over allthe record pertaining to the case’s investiga-tion to the NAB for further investigations.

earlier, the court had reserved its judg-ment in the case on March 15, when IndustriesSecretary Gul Muhammad Rind had failed totake timely action on a forensic audit report(2008-09) that had identified cumulativelosses of Rs 26.5 billion faced by PSM in a sin-gle fiscal year.

Rind had apprised the court that after re-ceiving FIA’s investigation report, the ministrywould decide to refer the matter to NAB.

The court directed NAB chairman toprobe into the mega scam involving more thanRs 26 billion losses in PSM and also take strictactions to recover the looted money from theplunderers.

The court also directed NAB to arrest ab-sconders and all others who were involved inthe PSM corruption.

The court directed NAB to activate itsprosecution branch to seek cancellation ofbails of the nominated accused in the case.

The judgment authored by Justice TariqParvez directed NAB to file references againstthe persons found involved in the PSM cor-ruption after completing its enquiry and inves-tigation under the law.

Power tariff increased

by rs 1.25 per unitNEWS DESK

The Water and Power Ministry has increased the electricity tariff by Rs1.25 per unit. The hike will be applicable with immediate effect. Anotification on Wednesday stated that the increase will be applicableacross the country, including Karachi. The tariff has been increased toRs 8.83 per unit and the government is still paying a subsidy of Rs 3.08.With the current hike in power tariff, the government will get Rs 90billion revenue per year. Lifeline consumers will be excluded from thisincrease. The announcement comes at a time when people across thecountry are protesting against prolonged hours of load shedding. LastThursday, people across Punjab took part in violent protests ransackingpublic installations and resorting to street crimes against massive loadshedding. On Friday, the power minister said that unannounced loadshedding would end but there has been no let up in the outages.

PHC gives police final warning to close torture cells

PESHAWARonline

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued a final warningto police for closing down torture cells in the provincial capital. Whilehearing a case on the disappearance of 92 people in the province, PHCChief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan said that action would be takenagainst police if the torture cells were not closed. Provincial policechief Azam Khan and the chief secretary were also present in the courtduring the hearing. “The politicians and the army could not resolveproblems without rule of law,” the chief justice remarked. He said thata slight violation of law could result in a storm. earlier on Tuesday, thePHC had asked army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to takestrong action against the officials of secret agencies involved inabducting people. “It seems that secret agencies are involved in thedisappearance of youth, and army chief should order an investigationand court martial proceedings against the officers responsible,” thechief justice had remarked.

Threats sentto embassiesin Pakistanislamabad: Several Western embassiesin Islamabad received letters on Wednesdaycontaining suspicious powder and threats topoison supplies for NATO soldiers inAfghanistan, officials said. Islamabad policechief Bani Amin told AFP that at least threeembassies had received small packetscontaining black powder, which had been sentfor laboratory analysis. The letters said thepowder was a sample of “poison” that wouldbe hidden in NATO supplies if Pakistan lifts anearly six-month blockade on convoyscarrying supplies for troops fighting theTaliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. SeniorPakistani security officials told AFP that theFrench embassy and the Australian andBritish High Commissions had receivedsuspicious packages for certain, and otherdiplomatic missions had probably also beentargeted. “embassies have received one sacheteach. The problem is that it is in a meagrequantity and difficult even to test. It seemssomebody has committed some mischief. Weare sending it to a laboratory,” Amin told AFP.A diplomat at one of the embassies said theaccompanying handwritten letter was inbroken english and threatened to avengemilitants killed in Afghanistan by poisoningfood supplies in the convoys. “We received aletter containing greyish powder in a sealedplastic sachet, which we didn’t open,” thediplomat told AFP, speaking on condition ofanonymity. There was no risk of anyone beingcontaminated as the powder did not get out ofthe sealed bag, the diplomat said, adding thatit had been sent to police for analysis. afP

peSHaWar: relatives of the missing persons hold a protest in front of the peshawar High court on Wednesday. iNP

Durrani says Beg was in on everything

SC directs NAB toprobe PSM scamwithin 3 months

g former iSi DG says Gen Beg used to issue instructions on distributionof money among politicians and received feedback on the progress


e-paper pakistantoday 17th may, 2012

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