tuesday, 18 september, 2012 shawwal 29, 1433rs 15.00 Vol iii no 82 19 pages lahore edition

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Kamran akmal andshoaib malik liftpakistan over india

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Youtube blocked acrosspakistan after refusal to remove anti-islam film

Khar, Clinton to holdtalks on high-

stakes relationship

ISLAMABADTAyyAB HuSSAIn

PrIMe Minister raja Pervez Ashraf is likely toappear before the Supreme Court today(Tuesday) in the NrO implementation case toseek another period of four to six weeks from thefive-judge bench to find a solution to the matter.

“The Law Ministry and political leadership of the ruling party –Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – have advised the primeminister to seek another adjournment of four to six weeks withthe plea that he could not deliberate upon the subject matterdue to his pressing activities during the past fortnight,including his visit to the World economic Forum in China, hisvisits to the flood-affected areas and other necessaryengagements,” a source in the government informed PakistanToday, requesting anonymity. The source said the government’sstrategy was also deliberated upon by the heads of coalitionparties who gathered at the Presidency late on Monday to takestock of the situation. The source said the coalition leadersagreed to the government’s strategy and assured prime ministerof their support, telling him that they would escort him to thecourt premises to show political support for the issue.Later, president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar confirmedthat the meeting had decided that Ashraf would appearbefore the Supreme Court today (Tuesday) and the coalitionpartners had decided to accompany the prime minister to theSupreme Court as a mark of solidarity.

PESHAWAR/KARACHISTAFF REPORT

Two protesters died on Monday asrallies across the country over ananti-Islam film intensified, withthousands taking to the streets,burning US flags and effigies of Pres-ident Barack Obama.

About 800 people demonstrated inthe northwestern town of Warai, inUpper Dir district, setting fire to a mag-istrate’s house and the local press clubbefore a protester was killed in an ex-change of gunfire with police. Anotherdemonstrator died on Monday after-noon after being shot in the head duringclashes with police near the US con-

sulate in Karachi on Sunday, a hospitalofficial said. The protesters set on fire alocal press club and office of the Tehsil-dar. The law enforcement agencies per-sonnel resorted to action when theprotesters made an attempt to attackthe office of sub-divisional magistrate.

According to details, studentsfrom local college and schools on thecall of a religious party staged aprotest demonstration at Warai Townof Upper Dir. The protesters whenreached near local press club madean attempt to force the journalists tocover the rally. The protesters how-ever forcibly entered and set on firethe furniture and other belongings inthe press club. Later, the protesters

moved towards government officesand set on fire the office of Tehsildar,but they were blocked by contingentsof police when they made similar at-tempt against the office of magistrate.The protesters reportedly peltedstones against the police personneland the police retaliated by openedfiring. The official claimed that thepolice only went for aerial firing.However, the firing caused the life ofone and injured two others.

Later, the protesters were dis-persed and the injured were shifted tohospital. District Coordination OfficerMehmood Aslam and District PoliceOfficer Ijaz Abid have ordered inquiryinto the incident. Up to 3,000 univer-

sity students, teachers and employeesmarched in Peshawar, the main city ofthe militant-plagued northwest,chanting anti-US slogans and de-manding a ban on the “Innocence ofMuslims” movie. The low-budgetfilm, thought to have been producedby a small group of Christianrightwing extremists in the UnitedStates, has sparked violent anti-American protests across the Islamicworld. “One person was killed andtwo injured during exchange of firebetween the police and protesters,”

City floodedafter heavydownpour

LAHOREuMAIR AzIz

Torrential rains thatstretched several hours onMonday evening turned ablessing into curse for theLahoris after most parts thecity got inundated, leading tosevere traffic jams. Peoplehave been praying for rainsto allay the severity of thescorching sun amid highhumidity levels. Theirprayers were answered onSunday evening when thecity received showers invarious parts, making theweather quite pleasant.

PM likely toseek moretime fromSC today g Coalition partners agree to government’s

strategy, will escort ashraf to sC

2 dead as protests over anti-islam film rage on

Continued on page 04

Continued on page 04

KARACHI: Police and rescue personnel examine the wreckage of a crashed passenger train in Bin Qasim, some 50kilometers southwest of Karachi, on Monday. afp | story on page 03

related stories | pages 24, 06

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02News

today’s

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cARTooN

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iNfoTAiNMeNT

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Britain’s royals calling in vain for head of topless snapper Record 964 Ferraris parade around Silverstone track

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

WASHINGTON SPECIAl CORRESPOndEnT

FOreIGN Minister Hinarabbani Khar will hold talkswith Secretary of StateHillary Clinton this week onpushing forward the high-

stakes relationship, which has only re-cently started recovering from successivesetbacks of the last two years.

Khar, who arrives here Tuesday, isexpected to discuss with Secretary Clin-ton subjects ranging from economic andtrade cooperation, counterterrorism co-ordination along the Durrand Line, peaceand security efforts in Afghanistan to re-gional issues of common interest. Thetwo sides will seek to build upon recentimprovement in ties after the revival ofkey Pakistani supply routes intoAfghanistan. The relationship is re-garded key bilaterally as well as to thepeace prospects in Afghanistan and thelarger South Asian region. American of-ficials say the United States is committedto building on recent achievements, suchas the reopening of the NATO supplylines and the meeting of the safe passageworking group held in Islamabad thismonth. According to a State Departmentofficial, the United States “looks forwardto welcoming Foreign Minister Khar toWashington and President Zardari toNew York for the UN General Assembly.”Besides holding formal talks with Clin-ton, the Pakistani foreign minister willalso meet with White House National Se-curity Advisor Tom Donilon and USTrade representative ron Kirk.

Khar will also meet Senator JohnKerry, who chairs the influential Foreignrelations Committee. Her talks on the

Capitol Hill will likely focus on securityconcerns vis-à-vis Afghanistan.

The Pakistani foreign minister’s visitcomes at a crucial time for both countert-errorism partners as the US-led NATOallies move towards 2014 deadline to pullout combat troops from Afghanistan. Is-lamabad fears the possibility of anotherdeadly unrest on its Afghan border afterthe NATO withdrawal, which, it says,could be a replay of post-Soviet pulloutwhen Pakistan was left to deal withwreckage of the decade-long Afghan warafter 1990. On counterterrorism, Khar islikely to stress the importance of intelli-gence sharing and opposition to any uni-lateral actions. President Asif Ali Zardaritold visiting special envoy Marc Gross-man of the country’s concerns on the tac-tic, which is seen as counterproductive tothe anti-terror effort in Islamabad but

valued in Washington as the most viableoption available. During her visit, the for-eign minister will also interact with themedia and American intelligentsia atthink tank events. Islamabad and Wash-ington entered into a strategic partner-ship and worked closely in the immediateaftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks onthe United States, with Pakistan playinga vital role in bringing several high-pro-file al-Qaeda-linked terrorists to justice.

Pakistan also deployed an unprece-dented number of troops along theAfghan border to stem the cross-bordermovements of militants. But relationsbetween the two countries soured whenthings started getting out of control inAfghanistan as Washington paid moreattention to the Iraq war. Pakistani offi-cial have been asking Washington to es-tablish mutually respectful ties, not

confined to its immediate concerns inAfghanistan but with a focus on long-term benefits. Islamabad also demandspreferential access for its textile productsto the U.S. and seeks American invest-ment into various sectors of the econ-omy. On the other side, Washingtonwants Pakistan to be more vigorous in itscounterterrorism cooperation againstterrorists operating along the porousPak-Afghan border, particularly theAfghan Haqqani group, which it recentlydeclared as a foreign terrorist outfit. For-eign Minister Khar’s visit takes place inthe backdrop of some improvement inthe bilateral ties from early July resump-tion of Pakistani land routes for NATOsupplies into landlocked Afghanistan.

Since then, senior American andPakistani military commanders have metto discuss mutual security concerns andcoordination along the Afghan border.US Special representative Marc Gross-man met with Pakistani leadership in Is-lamabad over the weekend includingPresident Zardari and Army Chief GenAshfaq Parvez Kayani.

Islamabad had closed the bordercrossings in reaction to killing of 24 Pak-istani soldiers in American airstrikes onSalala border posts on November26,2011. Secretary Clinton apologizedfor the loss of Pakistani lives, paving theway for revival of the crucial supplyroutes. The relations between the twocritical anti-terror partners had alreadybeen frayed by a series of events that in-cluded American security contractorraymond Davis’ killing of two Pakistanisin Lahore in early 2011, the discovery ofOsama bin Laden in Abbottabad and thesubsequent May 2, 2011 unilateral Amer-ican raid on the al-Qaeda chief’s hideout.

Khar, Clinton to hold talks onhigh-stakes relationship

ISLAMABADAgEnCIES

Opposition leader in the NationalAssembly Nisar Ali Khan has stronglycriticized the increase in POL prices andsaid a resolution would be tabled in theNational Assembly in this connection.

Talking to reporters, he said if thePML-Q, ANP and MQM were sincere inreducing the difficulties of the people,they must support the resolution. Nisarsaid instead of giving relief to the people,the government was bent on sucking

every drop of their blood. He called theincrease in POL prices unjustified,accusing the ruling party of feelingpleasure in giving pains to the people.

Nisar said the increase in POLprices was “Jagga Tax” and it had norelevance with international prices andthe government only wanted togenerate additional revenue. He saidthe MQM, ANP and PML-Q, who raiseda hue and cry for the people, would betested through the resolution moved bythe PML-N.

“If these parties agree to support

the opposition, they will succeed ingiving relief to the people,” he added.Nisar said the nation had given lot ofrespect to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan andhe should avoid giving statementswhich were contrary to facts.

He said his negative statementswould not damage any politician butwould have great repercussions forPakistan. Nisar said the PML-N hadstarted contacts with opposition for thecaretaker setup, because when theassembly was dissolved, the caretakerPM had to be decided within three days

by the prime minister and leader of theopposition.

He hoped that two names would beshort listed that would have consensus ofall opposition parties for the slot of primeminister. He said a message for thecaretaker PM was sent to Imran Khanthrough a member of Shaukat KhanumHospital board of directors.

Nisar said the PTI leader rejected thePML-N’s proposed names and gave twoother names.

He said Imran’s statement that thePTI was not consulted was surprising.

Rule of law mustbe upheld: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardarihas said rule of law must be upheld andconducive environment created for easyand speedy dispensation of justice. Talk-ing to a delegation of Pakistan Bar Coun-cil led by its Vice Chairman AkhtarHussain in Islamabad on Monday he em-phasized that the lawyers communitymust continue playing its role in ensuringthat law of the land takes precedence overall other considerations. Lauding role oflegal fraternity in strengthening ofdemocracy the President said the Govern-ment will continue to facilitate thelawyers in pursuit of their professionalduties. Vice Chairman PBC said thatlawyers’ community wanted to seedemocracy and rule of law flourish in thecountry. He said that the legal fraternitywould continue supporting all constitu-tional and democratic steps of the Gov-ernment. The President directed the LawMinister to look into the problems of thelawyers for their early redressal. agenCIes

pml-n to move resolution in na against pol price hikeg Nisar says resolution to be test for ‘pro-people’ MQM, ANP, PML-Q

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03NewsediToRiALCool and rational:

coMMeNT

Articles on Page 14

That’s how our reaction to the sacrilegious film should be.

dr Faisal Bari says;Changing weather patterns: Too important to ignore for anagriculture-driven economy, like ours.

Rabia Ahmed says;

Politicians at work?: Why exactly Hindus, or for that matterany other minority, should migrate from Pakistan.

ARTS & eNTeRTAiNMeNT

Story on Page 13

buSiNeSS

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SPoRTS

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nicki Minaj, Keith urban to join ‘American Idol’ judges PSM Board appreciates expansion plan of Pakistan Steel Olazabal seeks right words for Ryder Cup

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

KARACHIAgEnCIES

ATOTAL of 262 people have beenreported killed and 815 injured sofar this year as torrential monsoonrains and flash floods wreak havocthroughout the country, Pakistan’s

National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) said Monday. Over 70, 000 houseshave also been reportedly damaged, with51,027 partially and 19,465 completelydamaged, said the official statistics which areupdated until Sept 16.Approximately 3,883 villages, spreadingover an area of over 1,345,531 acres, havebeen affected by the torrential rains.DawnNews reported that the most casualtieswere reported in Sindh province, accordingto the data, with 106 people killed and 361injured, and a total of approximately273,000 people affected by the torrentialrains. At least 58 people were killed and 272injured in Punjab due to rain relatedaccidents, with over 857,000 people affectedin total in the province.

Torrential rains and flooding killed 39people and injured about 35 others inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, with 104 housesdamaged. Meanwhile, 25 people were killedin Balochistan. Pakistani-administeredKashmir (AJK) region recorded 31 deaths,while 3 people were reported killed inIslamabad region.

ExpEct MorE rA InS AnDthunDErStorMS: Heavy rains andthunderstorms are expected during the next24 hours in several areas of Upper Punjab,Kashmir and scattered places in KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, PakistanMeteorological Department said on Monday.During the last 24 hours, rainstorms poureddown in some areas of Punjab, Peshawar,Hazara Division, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. In Mianwali, 65 millimeters (mm)of rainfall was recorded, while inGujranwala, 41 mm; Sahiwal, 39 mm;Faisalabad, 25 mm; Peshawar, 12 mm;Lahore and Bahawalnagar, 9 mm;rawalpindi 8 mm, and in Islamabad, GarhiDopatta and Okara 2 mm.

Torrential rains,floods have killed 262

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

At least two people were killed and eightothers injured when two trains collidedwith each other at Gaghar Phattak nearBin Qasim railway Station, Karachi, onMonday morning.As per reports, a Karachi-bound Millatexpress was waiting for line clearancenear Karachi at Gaghar Phattak, when itcollided with another Karachi-boundShalimar express. The engine of thenewly re-launched Shalimar express wascompletely destroyed while two bogies ofthe Millat express train were badlydamaged. The incident took place around3:40am. A rescue service from Karachi

rushed to the spot to shift dead bodiesand the injured to a nearby hospital. railoperations in the country weresuspended for 12 hours and restoredafter the removal of the ill-fated trainsfrom the track Taking to Pakistan Today, the DivisionalCommercial Officer (DCO) Karachi,Shoaib Adil, said that two people werekilled and eight others had sustainedinjuries. He said that the driver of theShalimar express Ali Asghar and oneother passenger of the Millat express, AliHassan, were killed. He said that thedead bodies had been handed over totheir heirs while the injured weredischarged from Jinnah PostgraduateMedical Centre after treatment.

QUETTASTAFF REPORT

Voice for Baloch Missing Persons(VBMP) Chairman Nasurallah Balochhas said that he had been receiving lifethreats from spy agencies and he hadwritten to the Supreme Court of Pak-istan, international human rights or-ganizations and the United NationsWorking Group on enforced Disap-pearance to tell them that the country’sagencies were to be held responsible ifanything bad happened to him. Ad-dressing a news conference at the

VBMP’s token hunger strike camp onTuesday, Baloch said Tehreek NefazAman (TNA), a shadowy group, hadthreatened him and other members ofthe VBMP despite the fact that VBMPwas not a political front but an organi-zation peacefully striving for the recov-ery of missing persons.

He alleged that TNA was the brainchild of secret agencies that werethreatening VBMP members to forcethem to give up their peaceful and dem-ocratic protest. Baloch said TNA had al-ready claimed responsibility forthrowing several bullet-riddled and tor-

tured bodies of Baloch political ac-tivists, adding that the same elementswere now threatening women of direconsequences if they continued withthe hunger strike camp.

He said Baloch women came fromfar-flung areas of the province just torecord their statements so that theirloved ones could be recovered, but nowthey were being harassed by secretagencies. The VBMP chairman said sev-eral people had been killed and theirtortured bodies dumped in isolatedareas for daring to get FIrs registeredfor their missing relatives.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister raja Pervez Ashraf hasdirected the Sindh Government to submit a report in sevendays about the import of a large number of infected sheep fromAustralia at Port Qasim and to identify the persons responsible.recently, a Sindh Government official had said that mediareports suggesting that sheep recently imported from Australiawere infected with a contagious bacteria, are baseless andfabricated. The import of the sheep had raised alarm bellsthroughout Pakistan. Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM)chief Altaf Hussain had claimed that medical reports hadconfirmed that the sheep were infected with the disease andthat their meat was unfit for consumption. He had demandedan inquiry into the issue, adding that the government shouldprohibit the sale of the infected sheep. However, reportsemerged on Sunday that commissioner Karachi, roshan AliShaikh had ordered dumping of the infected sheep afteradministering poisonous injections to them. The Australianhigh commissioner to Pakistan Peter Heyward has insisted thatthe sheep were healthy and the refusal by Bahrain to offloadthem was puzzling. app

PM seeks inquiry reporton infected sheep

Secret funds are used for national security, informationgathering: govt counsel

ISLAMABADAPP

The secret fund allocated for the Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting is used for national security and to digout information related to the national interest, saidZulfiqar Malooka, the counsel representing the ministry.Talking to media persons at the Supreme Court, hecategorically rejected the notion that the fund was used tobribe journalists and said that the ministry had filed alldocumentary evidence with the said court.He said the misuse of rs four billion was alleged withoutgoing through the budget details of the ministry concerned.He said the ministry would refute the allegations throughthe audit reports of the ministry and its departments andother relevant documentary evidence already submittedbefore the two-member bench.He said the petitioners have also challenged the legal statusof the information ministry, adding the government wouldalso challenge this stance in the regular hearing of the casescheduled to start on September 27.

Train collision leavestwo dead, eight injured

VBMP chief says agenciesthreatening to kill him

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION:

This handout photograph

shows a Hatf-VII Babur

nuclear-capable cruise

missile launching from an

undisclosed location on

Monday.

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Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

04 News

He said Law Minister Farooq Naikbriefed the meeting on the status ofvarious court cases and that thecoalition partners reiterated their fullsupport to the government. earlier,the PM held a series of meetings withmembers of his legal team and thepolitical leadership to fine-tune thestrategy for today (Tuesday).

He held a meeting with LawMinister Farooq Naik at the PM’sHouse and discussed matters per-taining to the NrO implementationcase. The source said the ministeradvised the premier to seek anotheradjournment due to his massive en-gagements. A handout also con-firmed the meeting between the two

and added that the prime ministerdirected the minister to expedite thedisposal of cases pending in hisministry for legal opinion, so thatexecution of work on various proj-ects could be ensured and legal is-sues causing unnecessary delayscould be avoided.

PML-Q’s Deputy Prime Minis-ter Pervez elahi also met raja Per-vez Ashraf and passed on a messagefrom PML-Q President ShujaatHussain. Both the leaders discussedthe overall situation in the country.The prime minister later called onPresident Asif Ali Zardari and dis-cussed his appearance before thecourt with him. He sought guidancefrom the president and shared thestrategy advised by the law minister.

Per an official statement, themeeting of heads of allied partieswas held at Aiwan-e-Sadr with PPPCo-chairman Asif Ali Zardari andPrime Minister raja Pervez Ashrafin the chair. The meeting was at-tended by Chaudhry Pervez elahi,Mushahid Hussain Syed andBasharat raja of the PML-Q, As-fandyar Wali Khan and AfrasiabKhattak of the ANP, Dr Farooq Sat-tar and Babar Khan Ghouri of theMQM, Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri ofthe BNP and Hameedullah JanAfridi, Munir Khan Orakzai andAbbas Khan Afridi of FATA. FormerPM Yousaf raza Gilani, FarooqNaik, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar,Mehreen Anwar raja and Farhatul-lah Babar were also present.

Farhatullah Babar said thecountry’s current situation, with afocus on energy issues, floods situa-tion, law and order and coalitionmatters, were discussed during themeeting. The PM briefed the meet-ing on the current power situationin the country and progress on vari-ous measures being taken to over-come the power shortage.

The meeting was informed thatvarious immediate steps undertakenby the government had resulted insteady improvement in the powersituation and expressed the hopethat with the rising water levels inreservoirs, the power generationwould improve further. The presi-dent directed for vigorous steps toaddress the power issue. The meet-

ing was also updated on the latestflood situation in various parts ofthe country and the steps taken forrelief and rehabilitation of flood af-fected people.

The spokesperson said themeeting condemned the anti-Islam film and called it an act of“grave provocation”. Babar saidthe prime minister also briefed themeeting of coalition parties abouthis recent visit to China and bilat-eral meetings with the Chineseleadership and world leaders onthe sidelines of World economicForum. Participants of the meet-ing also prayed for the victims offire incidents in Lahore andKarachi and expressed sympathieswith the bereaved families.

Two dead

Mohammad Irshad, a seniorlocal government official inUpper Dir, said. Officialsbaton-charged protesters, whowere chanting anti-USslogans, and fired tear gas totry to disperse them, Irshadsaid. They also fired liverounds into the air, promptingthe demonstrators to returnfire, he said, although it wasunclear who fired the fatalshot. Ihsanullah Khan, policechief for Upper Dir, which isadjacent to a former Talibanstronghold crushed in 2009,said 22 protesters had beenarrested and the situation wasunder control. Hundreds ofstudents protested in Quetta,the capital of Balochistan, withcaricatures of Obama pacedon a donkey as a gesture ofhumiliation. At anotherprotest in Peshawar, some 350activists from Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, a student wing of thehardline Sunni party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), blocked a mainroad by setting fire to tyresand burning a US flag. InKarachi, up to 100 youthsfrom JI rallied, chanting anti-US slogans and trying to reachthe American consulate beforebeing dispersed by police withtear gas.

city floods

However, Monday’sdownpour brought severalproblems as the city’sdrainage system failed topump out the rainwater,which inundated the roads,and caused traffic bottlenecksand misery to the commuters.The residents of low lyingareas faced an even worsesituation because their housesand courtyards were floodedwith water. All major roadsincluding the Mall, Jail road,Queen’s road, and Ferozepurroad witnessed the worsttraffic jams. The Canal roadremained blocked after wateraccumulated in the underpasses, blocking the route toThokar Niaz Baig and itssurrounding housingsocieties. “We should take itas a rule to stay indoors whileit rains, but we are not livingin some small town. This isLahore and people expectthat the roads will be at leastcommutable because theycould be facing an emergencysituation. I came out only totake medicines for my wife,but there are manyambulances stuck on theroads as there is watereverywhere,” said AhsanManzoor, a banker stuck intraffic on Queen’s road.

PM lIKely To seeK More TIMe Continued from page 01

HYDERABADAPP

A boy allegedly killed hisparents and two sisters forreportedly not allowing himto continue relations with agirl. The incident happenedin the Colony area in ofMarket Police Station lateon Sunday night. StationHouse Officer (SHO) WahidBux Laghari told APP thatthe accused, 15-year-oldSharik had been arrested.The SHO said that the boyhad earlier deniedcommitting murder, andaccused his paternal uncleand a cousin of the crime.However, the boy’s onlysurviving younger sisterZulash told the police thather brother had killed herparents and sister. “He alsotried to kill me but I took acopy of Holy Quran in myhands, and pleaded him tospare my life,” she told thepolice. The police identified

the murdered parents asMuhammad Akram(father), Shagufta (mother)and sisters Anisha andVarsha. Three of the victimsdied before reaching thehospital, while Varshasuccumbed to her injurieson Monday afternoon afterremaining in the intensivecare unit for over 6 hours.Akram was a linemanworking for the Hyderabadelectric Supply Company(HeSCO). DeputySuperintendent of Police(DSP) Aijaz Bhatti told APPthat the police had earlierarrested Aslam and Jabbar,the relatives accused by theboy. However, he said thepolice released them afterthe boy confessedcommitting murdersfollowing the testimony byhis surviving sister. Thepolice did not register theFirst Information report(FIr) until the filing of this story.

KABULAFP

NATO was forced ontothe defensive Mondayover a humiliating at-tack on one of its mostheavily guarded bases

in Afghanistan that destroyed six USfighter jets in unprecedented damagein the 10-year war. At a weekly pressconference given by the US-led In-ternational Security AssistanceForce (ISAF) at its closely guardedheadquarters, chief spokesmanBrigadier General Gunter Katz waspressed on Friday night’s assault.

ISAF says it is still investigatinghow Taliban commandos, armedwith suicide vests, guns and rocketsand wearing US uniforms, breachedthe perimeter wall of Camp Bastion,

in the southern province of Hel-mand. The vast base — where PrinceHarry is deployed — was deliber-ately built in the middle of thedesert to have a vantage point.

The cost of the damage runs totens of millions of dollars. “Yes, weassess that this attack was well-or-ganised, well-equipped and de-stroyed six Harrier jets, theydamaged two additional Harrier jetsand they destroyed buildings, theykilled two US Marines, but we mustnot forget out of those 15 attackers,we killed 14 and captured one,” Katztold AFP. The Taliban said the as-sault was conducted to avenge anAmerican-made film that insultsIslam and which has sparked a vio-lent backlash in Muslim countriesacross the world. They also said thathad they found Harry they would

have killed him. NATO insists theinsurgency, now in its 11th year, ison the back foot with Afghan forcestaking the lead over 75 percent ofthe population, as part of a phaseddeparture of most Western troopsby the end of 2014.

“Since the insurgency is clearlylosing the fight and the security sit-uation is becoming better everydayhere in Afghanistan, they look forattacks that attract the media,” Katztold reporters. But he conceded thatISAF would learn lessons from theattack on Camp Bastion and adoptforce protection measures accord-ingly, but declined to go into detail.

The raid kicked off a devastatingweekend for NATO in which twoBritish and four American soldierswere shot dead by suspected mem-bers of the Afghan police, and its

warplanes were accused of killingeight women in an air strike.

Such “insider” attacks carriedout by colleagues in the Afghanforces threaten NATO plans to handover security to locals. Concern isgrowing on how to halt them with 51Western soldiers already killed in 36such incidents so far this year alone.In Japan, US Defense SecretaryLeon Panetta sought to downplaysuch fears, calling the attacks a“last-gasp” tactic from Taliban whohave lost ground in the last twoyears since a surge of NATO troops,now being withdrawn.

The US military is looking atfurther steps to protect troops,Panetta said, but insisted the attackswould not force a change in warstrategy. Analysts said the Bastionattack showed how well trained in-

surgents had become. “It showedthe Taliban no longer attack blind.They have learnt to plan attacks andtrain their fighters for them. After adecade the Taliban have also learntfrom and know their enemy, theyhave become hi-tech,” said Afghananalyst Waheed Mujda. Othersspeculated about possible help fromturncoats within the base, home toaround 28,000 personnel.

“It would not have been possi-ble without any help from inside.I’m sure they’ve had people amongthe Afghan police and army on thebase,” said Kabul-based analystand writer Ahmad Saeedi. NATO isgradually withdrawing its 112,600remaining troops. The Pentagonsaid last week that there are cur-rently 77,000 US troops inAfghanistan.

nato defensive over unprecedented afghan base losses

nEW DELhI: Two important minis-ters of the Indian government havetaken opposite positions when it comesto having unconditional ties with Pak-istan. While Indian external AffairsMinister SM Krishna supports uncon-ditional relations with Pakistan, Na-tional Security Advisor Shiv ShankarMenon is urging the government to at-tach strings to its relations with Pak-istan. According to Times of India, ameeting was held in New Delhi whichwas attended by several foreign ambas-sadors and Indian government officials.While addressing the meeting, PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh and severalimportant personalities said that Pak-istan could not be prevented from ter-

rorism. However, Krishna said thatrestoring relations with Pakistan wasthe beauty of democracy. Talking abouthis recent visit to Pakistan, the foreignminister said that Pakistan wants to es-tablish a peaceful relationship withIndia, adding that Pakistan’s civiliangovernment and its military establish-ment were unanimous over havingpeaceful ties with India. In response toa question, Krishna said that the posi-tive trend in Pakistan-India relationwas due to the “kindness of PakistanArmy”. However, while addressing theambassadors, Indian Interior MinisterSosheil Kumar Shande alleged thatPakistan was sponsoring terrorism inIndia in various ways. onLIne

Boy murders parents, sisters ‘in the name of love’

Pakistan testfires N-capablebabar missile

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

Pakistan on Mondaysuccessfully test fired itsindigenously developedmulti-tube cruise missileHatf-VII (Babur), whichhas stealth capabilities andcan carry both nuclear andconventional warheads upto 700 kilometers.“Babur Crusie Missile is alow flying, terrain huggingmissile, which can striketargets both at Land andSea with pin pointaccuracy. It carries stealthfeatures,” said a statementissued by the Inter-Services Public relations(ISPr). “equipped withmodern cruise missiletechnology of TerrainContour Matching(TerCOM) and DigitalScene Matching and AreaCo-relation (DSMAC), itcan carry both nuclear andconventional warheads,” itsaid.The missile was launchedfrom a state of the artmulti-tube Missile LaunchVehicle (MLV), whichsignificantly enhances thetargeting and deploymentoptions of Babur weaponssystem. The test waswitnessed by DirectorGeneral Strategic PlansDivision LieutenantGeneral (r) Khalid AhmedKidwai, Nationalengineering and ScientificCommission (NeSCOM)Chairman MuhammadIrfan Burney, seniorofficers from the armedforces and strategicorganizations.“In today’s test, theNational CommandAuthority’s fullyautomated StrategicCommand and ControlSupport System (SCCSS)was once again employed,”the statement said. “Itenables robust Commandand Control capability ofall strategic assets withround the clock situationalawareness in a digitizednetwork centricenvironment to decisionmakers at NationalCommand Centre (NCC),”it said. The system has theadded capability of realtime remote monitoring ofmissile flight path, itadded. The testconsolidates andstrengthens Pakistan’sdeterrence capability andNational security. Thesuccessful test has alsobeen praised by thepresident, prime ministerand chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff Committee.

Key Indian officials divided overnature of ties with Pakistan

Continued from page 01

Continued from page 01

HydERABAd: Shahrukh, accused of murdering his parents and two sisters, in police custody. onLIne

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Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

News

PESHAWARSHAMIM SHAHId

PAKISTAN Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is going toface a severe setback aspowerful and influentialMarwat family has an-

nounced joining Maulana Fazalurrehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F). The family is going to announce itsformal decisions in a public meeting atLakki Marwat on today (Tuesday).

The family at the moment besideothers comprises of sitting MPA Mu-nawar Khan Advocate and formerMPA Zafar Ullah Khan. Beside them,former Inspector General (IG) of Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Dil Jan KhanMarwat along with other family mem-bers is also joining JUI-F in the samepublic gathering.

With the loss of both influentialfamilies in Lakki Marwat, the PML-N is

likely to lose its roots in the area. Iron-ically, former civil bureaucrat AkhtarMuneer Marwat had recently joinedPML-N and was posted as party’sprovincial senior vice president. Thepost fell vacant after the death of lateparliamentarian Anwar Kamal KhanMarwat but it had become impossiblefor him to face Kabir and Saif Ullahfamilies in the area. Akhtar MuneerMarwat is the younger brother of thelate Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat.

Maulana Fazalur rehman’s JUIhad suffered defeats not only in LakkiMarwat but also in Dera Ismael Khanduring the 2008 general elections. Ithad though retained some seats atBannu and swept polls in Tank but nowFazal is working hard to ensure victoryin these four Southern districts. Fazalis currently enjoying the support of for-mer Chief Minister Akram Khan Dur-rani who played a key role in theinduction of Kabir Khan and Dil Jan

Khan in the JUI-F. Durrani had earlierinducted his friend Malik riaz in JUI-F from Bannu who was divisional pres-ident of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).Whereas at Kohat, former ANP MPAShaukat Habib had joined JUI-F coupleof years back when his rival AmjadAfridi was given a ministerial post inKP government.

No one can deny the fact that somehigh ranking JUI-F stalwarts, includingSenator Haji Ghulam Ali, favor party’selectoral alliance with the PPP but sit-ting Deputy Speaker of National Assem-bly Faisal Karim Kundi is reluctant inallowing Maulana Fazal to contest andwin from Dera Ismael Khan. FaisalKarim Kundi has made huge contribu-tions in strengthening PPP in his nativeDera Islamel Khan. That’s why he is nowopposing electoral alliance with thePPP. Similar is the stance of PPP stal-warts from Tank and Bannu districts.

Considering all these factors, it is

believed that the JUI-F is likely to gofor a solo flight in the next general elec-tions from the same southern districtswhereas the PPP can easily go for seatadjustment with other parties includingPML factions and ANP.

It’s ironic but true that the tradi-tional rivals of Kabir’s and Dil Jan’s –Saif Ullahs from Ghazni Kel – are alsodivided. Salim Saif Ullah Khan is lead-ing PML-Likeminded whereas hisbrother Anwar Saif Ullah Khan iscounted amongst top PPP leaders. MNAHumayoon Saif Ullah Khan is support-ing brother Salim Saif Ullah Khanwhereas Senator Usman Saif UllahKhan is following their father AnwarSaif Ullah Khan. One of Saif Ullah fam-ily members, Javed Saif Ullah, has an-nounced to join Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf(PTI). These divisions amongst Saif Ul-lahs can make an easy task for JUI-F towin one national and three provincialassembly seats from Lakki Marwat.

Marwat family announces to join JUI-Fg A setback to PML-N; Maulana consolidates his hold in KP

KP vice chancellorsdemand annualincrements foruniversity employees

PESHAWARSTAFF REPORT

Vice Chancellors (VC) of KhyberPakhtunkhwa public sectoruniversities have unanimouslyresolved to convene a NationalConference of all PakistanUniversities’ Vice Chancellors tolook into the dire financial strainbeing faced by higher educationinstitutions in the country. They also decided to seek animmediate audience with the ChiefMinister and Governor of KhyberPakhtunkhwa in order to apprisethem about the situation. The VC’ssaid that they feel that universityemployees deserved to get a 20%increase in salary announced in thebudget as is their right. However they had not received thenecessary funds and would take theissue directly to the relevantquarters and fight for the cause oftheir employees and students. Forthe time being, an annual increasecannot be extended to them becauseof the poor monetary position of thevarsity, they said. The meeting of KP Vice Chancellors,held at the University of Peshawar,was jointly chaired by VC, UoP Prof.Dr. Qibla Ayaz and VC, UeT ImtiazGillani. The meeting was alsoattended by the VC of IslamiaCollege University Prof. Dr. NoorJehan; VC, KUST Nasir jamalKhattak; VC, Swat University, Prof.Dr. Jehanzeb; VC Prof. Dr. IhsanAli, Abdul Wali Khan University;Syeda Farhana Jehangir, BenazirWomen University Peshawar; VCDr. Mansoor A. Kundi, GomalUniversity; Prof. Dr. AsmatullahKhan VC, Bannu University; Prof.Dr. Khan Bahadar Marwat ViceChancellor KP AgriculturalUniversity Peshawar; Prof. Dr.Hafeezullah Vice Chancellor KhyberMedical University and Director IMSciences, Prof. Dr. Mohsin. All Vice Chancellors requested theprovincial government to form atask force for the purpose ofdrawing a map and outline, for theestablishment of a Highereducation Council to address theissues of higher education in theprovince, in the post 2014 scenario.They also requested the KPgovernment to look into some of theauthentic issues in the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Universities ModelACT-2012.

PESHAWAR: Protesters torch an Israeli flag during a demonstration against an anti-Islam movie on Monday. afp

GUJRANWALAOnlInE

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharifon Monday said the coming six months would bequite important from a political viewpoint.

Addressing party activists in Gujranwala, hesaid everybody had a responsibility towards thecountry, “something the PPP government has failedto deliver”. Nawaz was chagrined over numerous at-tempts to sabotage the constitution, but said the“coming six months will make everything clear as towho exactly served the nation more effectively andprogressively during the past 65 years”.

Nawaz said the country was facing severe crises,but the government had gifted nothing to masses butload shedding, unemployment and inflation.

“The country has been turned into a beggar,with sovereignty virtually on a fragile trail,” heregretted.

He said the country required a strong leadershipthat was able to resist any foreign dictation.

Nawaz recalled that the PML-N had resistednegative elements twice. “We transformed the coun-try into a nuclear power, resisting an offer of $5 bil-lion to quit the nuclear program,” he elaborated.

The PML-N chief promised that his party wouldcontinue to deliver on its promise of prosperitywhenever it gained power.

Coming six months politically crucial: Nawaz Two injured in attack onNATO trucks

pEShAWAr: At least two persons were injured whenmilitants attacked a truck loaded with NATO-boundsupplies at Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Monday. Perdetails, a number of trucks loaded with goods andequipment for NATO troops, camping across the border,were on their way to Afghanistan. When the convoyreached Jamrud, it was ambushed by armed militants. As aresult of the attackers’ firing, one vehicle was partiallydamaged, while its driver and assistant were injured andwere admitted to the Peshawar Hospital. Soon after theattack, security was tightened in the area and a number ofsuspects were arrested. STAFF REPORT

FILE PHOTO

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Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

robbers had yet another field day inthe city despite heavy rain on Mon-day as more than a dozen incidentsof robberies and related crimes werereported to the police.

Nasir, a resident of Shadbaghwas returning home with his familyfrom a wedding when robbers brokeinto his house and stripped them offjewelry, electrical gadgets and cash.Nasir tried to catch one of the rob-bers but his accomplice shot twobullets at him, hitting him in thehead. He was rushed to a hospitalwhere doctors have pronounced hissituation “critical”.

Aslam, also a resident of Shad-bagh, was robbed off rs 60,000 andgot injured when he resisted thecriminals.

Lateef Ahmed, a resident of Is-lampura was robbed in his house offrs 500,000 worth of gold jewelry,mobile phones and cash. FiazAhmed of Hanjarwal was alsorobbed off rs 500,000 at his house.

Mohsin and Abid were deprivedof rs 400,000 each at Iqbal Townand Garhi Shahu, respectively. Nia-mat of Shafiqabad was robbed offcash and valuables worth rs200,000 when robbers broke intohis house.

Arif, a resident of race Course,and Numan of Johar Town wererobbed off rs 100,000 each.

robbers fled with goods andcash amounting to rs 1.2 millionfrom the house of Nizam Uddin atMustafabad. A shopkeeper at MisriShah was robbed off rs 500,000worth of goods at his shop.

In other incidents, cars werestolen in DHA, Muslim Town andShadman, whereas motorbikes werestolen from Naseerabad, GardenTown, Sandah, Gulshan-e-Iqbal andKot Lakhpat areas.MurDErS: Besides robberies, thepolice also had to deal with twodead bodies.

The body of an unidentifiedman was found lying at a roadsidein the jurisdiction of Qila GujjarSingh police station. Police shiftedit to the morgue where doctors es-timated the age of the deceased tobe around 50 while the cause ofhis death is thought to be drugdrug abuse. However post mortemwas not initiated till this reportwas filed.

Separately, a bullet-ridden bodyof a 50-year-old guard posted at thehead office of a textile mill in Gul-berg was found when the guards onmorning duty broke into the officeafter making repeated calls to thedeceased to let them in.

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifpresided over a high level meeting today toreview the pace of the project of setting upPunjab Police Integrated Command & Con-trol Center, and directed authorities to com-plete the process of recruitment of 4,000retired army personnel in the police force intwo weeks. Presiding over a meeting on thelaw and order situation in the province onMonday, the Chief Minister said that law andorder cannot improve with mere data pre-pared by sitting in offices. Hesaid that the governmenthad provided all resourcesto improve law and orderand now the police mustshow its performance.He said that in order to bring crime to an end, the police will have towork like servants of the people. He said that the people are the bestjudges to give verdict on police performance. The Chief Minister di-rected the police to remain alert and control the street crimes. He saidthat he himself was monitoring the law and order situation as it is theresponsibility of the government to protect life and property of its citi-zens. He reminded the police officers that he would not tolerate anylaxity on their part and warned that he would take strict action if anycase of extortion came to his notice. The Chief Minister formed a highpowered committee to monitor the law and order situation and di-rected the immediate arrest of the accused involved in various highprofile cases. At the same time he said that the standard of investiga-tions must be improved, demands of justice be met and challans pre-sented in courts without delay. He directed that the Police Website beupdated regularly and Helpline 15 be made state of the art.

rain doesn’t deterrobbers from work

Shahbaz hopes to reform Punjab Police

LAHORERAnA HAIdER

Ademonstration against a hate-mongering film directed by anAmerican filmmaker turned violenton Monday when a large numberof protesters managed to reach the

US Consulate despite heavy deployment ofpolice and burnt an American flag hoisted onthe wall of the consulate, resulting in batoncharging and tear gassing by the police. Thedemonstration, organized by Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, began outside the Lahore PressClub from where it started moving towards thenearby US consulate. The police had erectedbarriers and barbed wires to t wart thedemonstrators, which included women andchildren. However, some of the protesters brokethrough the barriers and managed to scale thewall of the consulate where they pulled down anAmerican flag and set it on fire. The policeresorted to baton charge and tear gassing todisperse the protesters who kept shouting anti-American slogans. The demonstrators alsothrew stones at the consulate. The protesters,chanting “Down with America!” demanded theexpulsion of the US ambassador and the boycottof all American goods. earlier, addressing therally the organization’s Punjab PresidentMaulana Abdul Malik Asadi condemned theKarachi police and rangers for baton charging aShia rally protesting against the blasphemousfilm. In a related event, Jamaat-e-IslamiSecretary General Liaqat Baloch said that theanti-Islam film did not fall in the category offreedom of expression and the West’s claim inthis regard was not logical. Addressing anAzmat-e-rasool conference, he said that themischievous film had been in the making formonths and if the US authorities had takennotice, the bloodshed going on currently couldhave been avoided. He said that US policymakers were drunk on the Crusade mindset inline with the US World Order plan and they hadno regard for human blood or world peace. Hesaid that the Pope had also uttered blasphemousoutrage in Germany against Islam and the HolyProphet (PBUH) while the US pastor TerryJones was continuously indulging in desecrationof the Quran and blasphemy of the Holy Prophet(PBUH). Baloch said that the Muslims’reaction worldwide was quite natural and the USrulers were responsible for the killings during theprotests. He called for stern action against allthose involved in the film making. He also urgedpermanent representatives of Muslim states inthe United Nations to initiate legal action againstthe filmmakers.

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Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

Lahore

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LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Lawyers of the city on Monday boycotted judicialproceedings against an advertisement of a disre-spectful movie produced in the US against ProphetMohammad (PBUH).

The Judicial Staff Association extended com-plete support for the strike by the lawyers, and they

did not appear before the courts.General body sessions were convened in bar council

where condemnatory resolutions were adopted againstthe sacrilegious film as well as the Baldia Town and La-hore tragedies. The lawyers of Punjab Bar Council(PBC) marched through the city from LHC to PMGchowk wearing black arms bands. They chanted slogansagainst the US and others characters involved in adver-tisement of the disrespectful movie.

LAHORERAnA HAIdER

IN what appears to be staged encounters,the city police’s Crime InvestigationAgency (CIA) on Monday claimed that fourhardened criminals had been killed in twoskirmishes with law enforcement officials.

In the first incident, two under-custody bank rob-bers were killed when, according to the police,their accomplices opened fire on a police vantransporting them from Gujrat to Lahore.

The CIA had arrested two suspected bankrobbers, Dilbar Khan and Hameed Khan, resi-dents of Kohat from Nawankot in a raid fewweeks ago. According to the police, Dilbar andHameed were being transported from Gujratwhere they had led security officials to severalgangs involved in bank robberies, whenunidentified men riding two cars interceptedthe police vehicle near Shahdara on GT road.

Police claimed that the men opened fire onthem, and were shot at in return. They said that

no police personnel was injured in the attackers’firing but Dilbar and Hameed, and another pris-oner accompanying them fell prey to the as-sailants’ bullets.

A police team was sent to the purported crimescene to investigate the story.

According to sources, the investigation teamhas reported that the area where the attackerschose to raid the police party was deserted andthere’s no chance of finding any witness.

The investigation team has also raised ques-tion as to why the police van carrying the prison-ers went off the main highway into the fields.

Meanwhile early on Monday, a CIA IqbalTown team gunned down two wanted criminalsallegedly involved in several serious crimes, in-cluding the murders of a police constable and atrader and a large number of armed robberies.

Per police claims, a CIA team led by Sub-In-spector Maqsood Hayat set up a picket near riazFalooda shop following a tip-off that some wantedcriminals would pass their way. The police sig-naled two people riding a motorcycle to stop for

checking but the motorcyclists opened fire onthem and fled towards the Doongi Ground inHuma Block of Iqbal Town.

The police team chased the motorcyclists, whokept firing indiscriminately in their direction. Thepolice returned fire, killing both bike riders. Thepolice found two pistols and several bullets nearthe killed men’s bodies. Their motorcycle No.LeZ-786 was later found to have been snatched atgunpoint from Gulshan-e-ravi a few days ago.

The dead criminals were identified as ImranMasih and Muhammad Arshad and some 150cases of heinous nature were registered againstthem in different police stations of the city includ-ing Islampura, Misri Shah, New Anarkali, Lyttonroad and Gulshan-e-ravi.

Imran and Arshad had also allegedly killed apolice constable of Ichhra police and a trader inPST Colony in Lytton road police precincts.

However, police sources said that the twocriminals were already in CIA custody and theyhad been killed in a staged encounter. The CIAteam claims that the encounter was authentic.

CIA kills four hardened criminals,claims encounters not fake

LAhorE: As the city received heavy showers on Monday, valu-

ables worth millions of rupees were reduced to ashes in three fire

incidents in different areas of the provincial capital. Some 20 offices and apartments including the office of a localUrdu newspaper were badly damaged when fire broke out in abuilding located on Queens road due to short circuiting earlyin the morning. The five storey building was housing law firmsand other private offices. Bystanders cried while looking attheir millions of rupees worth of goods go down in flames. Peo-ple inside the building ran out into the open to save their lives.At least 13 people inside the building fell unconscious and wereimmediately shifted to a nearby hospital where their conditionwas stated to be out of danger. Officials of rescue 1122 and firebrigade brought the flames under control after an hour longfight. In Qila Gujjar Singh, fire broke out on the fourth floor ofa private TV channel after short circuiting of electricity wiresand engulfed the canteen and newsroom. employees of the TVchannel congregated on the road during the incident andwatched property worth thousands of rupees go down inflames. After receiving the information, officials of rescue 1122reached the spot and were successful in taming the ragingflames which saved precious lives and property. Late on Sunday, a restaurant in H-Block Defense HousingAuthority (DHA) was engulfed by flames after short circuitingof electricity wires which spread fear among the locals. TheKarachi BBQ building was up in flames in a matter of mo-ments as people ran out of the restaurant in a frenzy of des-peration. A person who got injured in the incident wasimmediately shifted to the General Hospital by rescue 1122officials. RAnA HA IdER

Valuables worth millionsgutted in three firesg 20 offices, apartments burnt in fireat building on Queens Road

Lawyers observe strike against sacrilegious film LHC summons responsefrom Punjab govt overdoctors’ strike

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Lahore High Court (LHC) onMonday directed Secretary HealthPunjab to submit a response per-taining to a contempt of court pe-tition filed against the YoungDoctor’s Association (YDA).LHC resumed the hearing of acontempt of court case againstYDA. During the hearing, the pe-titioner argued that the youngdoctors, disregarding the court’sorders, had continued theirprotest and therefore committedcontempt of court.The petitioner said that the YDAstrike had caused trouble for pa-tients and some of them had losttheir lives during the strike.“The court should give orders totake grave action against the doc-tors,” the petitioner pleaded.Justice ejaz-ul-Haq of LHC sum-moned a detailed response fromthe Punjab government and Sec-retary Health Punjab by Septem-ber 25.

LAhorE: The Lahore High Court on Mon-day issued fresh orders to police for the arrestof an immigration consultant company owner,allegedly involved in swindling money frompeople on the pretext of sending them abroad,and produce him before the court on Septem-ber 24. Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvipassed the orders on a petition filed Malik Sa-rood Ahmad.

earlier, the court was informed on behalfof police that the accused Asim Malik couldnot be arrested till now but a police team hadbeen constituted who was making raids forhis arrest. However, respondent’s counseltold the court that non-bailable arrest war-rants for the accused had been challengedbefore the Supreme Court and it was fixedfor hearing today. APP

LHC orders police to arrest Future Concern owner

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Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

PUNJAB yoUTH FesTIVAl 2012

Lahore

yoGA AND MeDITATIoN ClAsses

dATe: APRiL 01 To deceMbeR 30, 2012VeNue: fAiZ GHAR, LAHoRe

A unique blend of Yoga, Meditation, Neuro-LinguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.Achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

Yoga Master Shamshad Haider

100 GHAZAls oF MAUlANA rUMI

Hast-o-Neest centre for Traditional Art & cultureinvites you to its Monthly Saturday Sitting withJanab Ahmed Javed Sahib(director, iqbal Academy Pakistan)on 100 Ghazals of Maulana Rumi3:30 to 5:00 pm, Last Saturday of every month

dATe: MARcH 31 To deceMbeR 29, 2012 VeNue: HAST-o-NeeST ceNTRe, LAHoRe

This exhibition will showcase the best ofPakistan’s Gems & Jewellery productshighlighting both traditional andcontemporary class.

dATe: SePT 14 - 16- VeNue: PeARL coNTiNeNTAL HoTeL

3rD INTerNATIoNAl GeMs & JeWellery eXHIBITIoN

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

tHe Union Council level, which isthe second phase of the PunjabYouth Festival 2012 on Mondayentered into its concluding stagewith the healthy baby competi-

tion, with around 300 participants at twovenues in the city.

Mohammad Imran won the healthy babycompetition at the Shadbagh venue, whileAbeera Fiaz was placed second and ShafianIrfan secured third position. Faiza Gul, LHV,was the chief guest on the occasion and gave

prizes to the winners. At the Garishahu venue, Talha Amer was de-

clared winner of the healthy baby competitionwhile Khyzer Shoaib Bokhari was second andMohammad Dawood was placed third. The win-ners received prizes from chief guest, Abid Ali,Tehsil Officer Population, Lahore Cantt.

On the second last day of the PunjabYouth Festival 2012, general category events,competitions of cooking and dress designingconcluded under the supervision of the SocialWelfare Department, while the healthy babycompetition under the general public sectorof family events, would continue on the lastday (Tuesday), while sports events that in-

clude arm wrestling, athletics, badminton,billiard, cricket, tug of war, volleyball, body-building and weightlifting have also enteredinto their final stage.

Although outdoor sporting activity was badlymarred by heavy rain that hit the city on Mon-day, indoor competitions generated extensiveparticipation.

As the events of the festival continuedthroughout the province, Lahore too remainedactively involved in different competitions.Around 14 UCs of the city were seen involved inthe activity and 584 youngsters had enteredcompetitions in 36 events, while 292 won intheir respective games.

Over 300 take part in HealtHy BaBy COmpetitiOn

Iranian diplomat dr Abbas Famori looks at a calligraphic display by Imran Ahmed. staff photo

Googlers hangout

with Lahore

marketeers & geeksLAhorE: A team of professionals andtechnical experts from Google came toLahore on September 12 to run a seriesof sessions for marketers and softwaredevelopers. The first session focused onhow Pakistan can harness Google weband marketing tools and Search, to de-velop markets and re-energize its econ-omy. The experts from Google discussedin depth, how such strategies had beensuccessful in other emerging markets.The technical sessions began with a wel-come address by Amer Sarfaraz, GBGManager Lahore. Following the intro-ductory address, Aileen Apolo, Head ofOutreach, Southeast Asia conducted asession on “G+ for your business”.Aileen develops and implements pro-grams to help the internet eco-systemgrow, which includes gDays and com-munity development. Niken Sasmaya,Online Partnership Group, GoogleSoutheast Asia spoke on ‘Aligning yourAdSense account with your long-termbusiness goals’. Niken works closelywith strategic publishers to help themgrow their business with Google Pub-lisher Monetization Solution. nnI

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Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

Foreign Newstop Us general inankara to discusssyria crisis

ANKARAAFP

The top US general on Mondaydiscussed the Syrian crisis withofficials in Ankara, as Turkey’spremier criticised Washington forinaction over the conflict. GeneralMartin Dempsey’s visit is part of an“operational planning” mechanismestablished between Turkey and theUnited States to prepare for theaftermath of Syrian President Basharal-Assad’s embattled regime.Dempsey, chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff, met with seniorTurkish officials, including hiscounterpart Necdet Ozelwas. Apartfrom Syria, he was also expected todiscuss a range of other issues duringhis visit including counter-terrorismand Iran’s nuclear programme.Turkey has floated the idea of a “safezone” to protect refugees fleeing theviolence in Syria but that wouldrequire foreign military protection, anidea Washington has rejected. “TheUnited States is currently not involvedin this issue,” Prime Minister recepTayyip erdogan was quoted as sayingon Monday in Turkish media, as hecriticised the Americans for notfulfilling “what is expected of them.”“Countries that are rather active arerussia and China,” he said. The deathtoll from the 18-month-old Syrianconflict has risen to more than 27,000people, according to a tally byactivists. More than 250,000 Syrianshave fled the violence to neighbouringcountries.

police arrest occupy Wall streetprotesters in nY

NEW YORKAFP

Police in New York on Monday arrestedat least a dozen demonstrators markingthe one-year anniversary of the OccupyWall Street movement, witnesses said.At least eight people were taken intocustody when they tried to block anentrance to Wall Street, representativesof the National Lawyers Guild at thescene, told AFP. Others were arrestedwhen they started moving from ZuccottiPark toward Wall Street as police onhorseback blocked side streets onhorseback, according to an AFPreporter at the scene. Marchers thenreappeared on Broadway in an attemptto disrupt the morning commute. “Weare sending the message that WallStreet bankers cannot go to work everymorning without thinking what theirinstitutions are doing to the country,”Occupy spokesman Mark Bray toldAFP. The protest movement has seen asteep drop in support since it wasfounded a year ago, when hundredscamped in Zuccotti Park to rally againstbank bailouts and what they called theruling “one percent.” early Monday,roughly 200 demonstrators —monitored closely by a throng of police— gathered outside the park carryingsigns that read “Get money out ofpolitics” and “We are the 99 percent.”

PARISAFP

tHe photographer whotook pictures of PrinceWilliam’s wife Catherinetopless is unlikely to faceany sanction despite

moves by Britain’s royals to have himor her hauled before the French courts,legal experts say.

William and the former Kate Mid-dleton on Monday initiated criminalproceedings under French privacy lawas well as seeking an injunction to pre-vent further distribution of the picturesby France’s Closer magazine.

The injunction request was due tobe considered at an emergency hearingscheduled for 1600 GMT Monday.

No defendant was named in thecriminal complaint but aides to theroyal couple have said they want actiontaken against both Closer, which pub-lished the pictures on Friday, and thephotographer who used a powerful tele-photo lens to snap them poolside dur-ing a short break at a chateau insouthern France earlier this month.

William was reported by the Britishmedia to have insisted on going afterthe photographer in a case which hasevoked painful memories of paparazziharassment of his late mother Diana.

The former Princess of Wales died

in 1997 when the car she was travellingin crashed in a Paris tunnel while tryingto escape chasing photographers.

The photographer who took the pic-tures which appeared in Closer on Fri-day, and have since been published inIreland and Italy, has not been identi-fied and Closer has refused to namehim or her.

Legal experts say the magazineshould be able to maintain that stance.

“The identity of the photographerraises the question of the secrecy ofsources,” advocate Christophe Bigottold AFP.

“In principle, a judge cannot forceCloser to disclose it as that would be abreach of legislation protecting journal-istic sources.”

The law does provide for exceptionsto be made but a judge would have toshow “an overwhelming public inter-est” in it being bypassed, Bigot added.

That appears unlikely in this case asthere is no precedent for it and breachof privacy is considered a relativelyminor offence.

Under France’s privacy law, bothtaking and publishing pictures of some-one without their permission is a crimetheoretically punishable by a fine of upto 45,000 euros ($60,000) and a one-year prison sentence.

In practice, no one has ever beensent to prison and fines are frequently

well below a maximum threshold whichis comfortably affordable for Closer.

The magazine is likely to have re-ceived a considerable boost to its aver-age circulation of 400,000 copies perweek thanks to the pictures and will bemore concerned about being ordered topublish any legal condemnation on itsfront page than the prospect of a fine.

Following Monday’s reception ofthe royal complaint, a prosecutor willcarry out a preliminary examination ofthe case to establish if it is worth open-ing a full investigation which could takemonths to complete.

By then there is a good chance thatthe photographs, already widely avail-able on the Internet, will have beenseen by everyone on the planet who isinterested in them.

The royals have yet to say if theywill take legal action against Italianmagazine Chi, which published the pic-tures on Monday.

Italy has similar strict privacy lawsto France but the wheels of Italian jus-tice move so slowly that it could takeyears for William and Kate to secure ajudgement in their favour.

In Ireland, where the Daily Starpublished the pictures on Saturday, thecouple’s only option is to make a com-plaint to the Irish Press Council undera voluntary press code to which thetabloid had signed up.

JAKARTA: Indonesian anti-riot police arrest a protester during a protest against a low-budget anti-Islam film on Monday. afp

Britain’s royals calling in vain for headof topless snapper

VIENNAAFP

The head of the UN atomic agency saidMonday he wants to hold more talkswith Iran on suspicions of past nuclearweapons research activities, despite thefailure of a string of meetings this year.

Speaking at the start of a week-long an-nual gathering of the International Atomicenergy Agency’s 155 member states in Vi-enna, Yukiya Amano said the watchdog “isfirmly committed to intensifying dialogue”with Tehran. “We will continue negotia-tions with Iran on a structured approach to

resolve all outstanding issues. I hope wecan reach agreement without further delay,to be followed by immediate implementa-tion,” Amano said in a speech.

His comments came ahead of an ad-dress to the IAeA general conference byFereydoon Abbasi Davani, head of Iran’sAtomic energy Organisation. Abbasi wasalso due to meet Amano later on Monday.

On August 24, the IAeA failed againto convince Tehran in talks to grant ac-cess to sites, scientists and documentslinked to suspected activities that theIAeA believes were “relevant to the de-velopment of a nuclear explosive device”.

evidence of these alleged activities,which the IAeA believes were carried outunder a structured programme until2003 and possibly since, were set out ina major IAeA report in November thatcited a number of different sources in-cluding foreign intelligence services.

Iran is also expanding the enrichmentof uranium, a process — subject to IAeAinspections — which can provide fuel fornuclear power stations and medical pur-poses, but also when highly enriched for anuclear weapon. Iran, subject to growinginternational pressure over its growingnuclear activities, says its programme is

peaceful and that the IAeA’s allegationsare baseless. It wants any agreement withthe IAeA to cover a range of issues.

An earlier fruitless meeting betweenIran and the IAeA took place in June.Amano also visited Tehran in May, as dida team lead by chief inspector HermanNackaerts in January and February, re-turning however with no deal.

Parallel higher-level diplomatic meet-ings between Iran and the P5+1 — Britain,China, France, russia, the United Statesand Germany — took place in Istanbul,Baghdad and Moscow earlier this year butwere downgraded to working-group level.

iaea chief vows to continue talks with iran

Blast near Baghdadgreen Zone kills seven

BAGHDADAFP

A suicide bomber on Monday killedseven people and wounded an MP in anattack at an entrance to Baghdad’sheavily secured Green Zone, where theIraqi government is based, officials said.The attacker drove up to the entrancesituated at the July 14 bridge, which ismanned by Iraqi soldiers and lies acrossthe Tigris river from the Green Zone,before detonating an explosives-riggedvehicle, an interior ministry official said.The blast killed seven people andwounded at least 24, according to theofficial and a medical source. MP HabibHamza al-Turfi was among thosewounded, another deputy, AmmarToma, told AFP. The mangled remainsof a Humvee armoured vehicle could beseen at the site of the blast, which wasswarming with Iraqi soldiers. Twistedand burned pieces of metal werescattered around for dozens of metres(yards). Iraqi soldiers and police armedwith M-16 and Kalashnikov assault riflescordoned off the main road leading tothe July 14 entrance, and deployedHumvees mounted with machine gunson the street. Federal police and soldiersalso stopped cars and pedestrians fromapproaching the main road via sidestreets, although some people stillmanaged to gather at the site. “Thesound of the explosion was huge and thesound of gunfire could be heard in thearea” after the blast, a witness told AFP.

islamists destroysaint’s mali tomb

BAMAKOAFP

Islamists have destroyed the tomb of aMuslim saint in a northern Mali regionunder their control, two months aftersimilar incidents in the region broughtwidespread condemnation, sources saidMonday. “The Islamists on Saturdaydestroyed the mausoleum of Cheik el-Kebir, 330 kilometres from Gao,” a localpolitician told AFP on condition ofanonymity. “Twelve of them arrived at thesite. They demolished the mausoleum withhammers, picks.” The sources said theIslamist militant Movement for Onenessand Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) wasresponsible for the destruction. “Today inGao, the Islamists boasted about thedestruction of the mausoleum of Cheikhel-Kebir. They said they had smashed themausoleum on Saturday, a town leaderwho would not give his name told AFP.

LHR 18-09-2012_Layout 1 9/19/2012 3:55 AM Page 9

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

That’s how our reaction to thesacrilegious film should be

cool and rational

The film “Innocence of Muslims” which is based on sheer hatredfor Islam has understandably led to protests among the Muslimcommunity from Srinagar to Sidney. Any act that intentionallyinjures religious feelings of the people, irrespective of the faith

they believe in, falls within the realm of violence. Allowing the freecirculation of hate material including pamphlets, CDs, cartoons or filmshas to be disallowed to maintain peace inside the countries and in theworld at large. One expects from the states which have enacted lawsagainst the denial of Holocaust or strongly resent anti-Semiticstatements that they would show similar consideration to the feelings ofthe Muslims.

The immediate reaction to the film came from the Middle east. Therewere two approaches to the violent form the protests took; oneresponsible, the other imprudent and harmful. The spokesman ofPresident Mohamed Morsi strongly condemned the film but denouncedthe forced entry of the mob into the US embassy in Cairo as“unjustified.”Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia denounced attacks ondiplomats and embassies as un-Islamic. “It is forbidden to punish theinnocent for the wicked crimes of the guilty, or to attack those who havebeen granted protection of their lives and property, or to expose publicbuildings to fire or destruction,” he told the official news agency. Thehead of Al-Azhar backed peaceful protests but said Muslims shouldcounter the movie by reviving Islam’s moderate ideas. Al-Qaeda in theArabian Peninsula (AQAP), however, praised the action by gunmen inLibya who had attacked the US consulate and a safe house to kill USambassador Christopher Stephens and three other Americans. It calledon the Muslims to kill US ambassadors and close down US embassies.

There is a need in Pakistan to foil the attempts to create chaos.Pakistan government, President Zardari and the National Assembly havecondemned the defamatory film. All political and religious leaders havealso denounced it. The Supreme Court has ordered the blocking of itssacrilegious content on the internet. Protests starting all over the countryon Saturday were initially peaceful but are gradually assuming a violenttrend. This has to be discouraged. People have to be made to realize thatsetting on fire the private or government vehicles, buses and petrolpumps as happened in Karachi doesn’t hurt those who made the film.The government must ensure that protestors do not damage property orattack foreign embassies. The political and religious parties must not sayor do anything that helps the extremists who want to use the protests topromote their global agenda of violence and destruction.

Changing weather patternsToo important to ignore for an agriculture-driven economy, like ours

For the last 4-5 years Pakistanhas been seeing significantchanges in weather almostevery year and in every sea-son. The rains have often

been late or early, and sometimes toomuch or too little. Monsoons have beenlate and then have come down hard tocause major flooding a number of timesin the last few years. In winter too therains have sometimes been quite late incoming. Winter and summer peakshave moved around a bit too.

The changing weather patternshave already exacted a heavy enoughprice in Pakistan, and they continue todo so. The most devastating floods inthe history of the country happened in2010. But we have had flooding in 2011as well and we are currently seeing sig-nificant flooding as well. The 2010floods might have been an extremeevent that, maybe, could not have beenpredicted. But they did make us awareof the fact that many years of low rainsis not a reason to be complacent aboutlevies and protective barriers. It alsohighlighted the need for having disas-ter mitigation and management plansin place. Though the follow up has beensomewhat weak, but at least some workon the issues have started through thenational and provincial disaster man-agement agencies.

Are these changing weather pat-terns a part of the global warmingstory? Are we going to see extremeevents more frequently? Will the ‘ex-tremeness’ of events go up with globalwarming? We might not have enoughof a history of the changing patterns toanswer these questions right now. Andeven if we find that patterns are chang-ing, we might not have specific enoughparameters to be able to predict ex-treme events very well. But, our igno-

rance in these matters, or our relativeignorance, should be grounds for us tobe more cautions and more prepared,rather than less. We live in an areawhere we have plenty of rivers, whererains do fall seasonally and where mostof the populace is poor and cannot af-ford very sturdy housing structures.Our emergency planning needs to becognizant of that.

Whether our economy is still ‘agri-culture based’ or not, the importance ofagriculture to our economy cannot beover-emphasized. Wheat crop helpsfeed Pakistan, cotton runs our majorindustry, and rice is a major exportitem. Sugarcane and fruits add the nu-tritional supplements that Pakistanisneed badly. We also know that cropscan be very sensitive to weather. And itis not just the amount of rain or theavailability of water we are talkingabout. If humidity level is a bit high orlow, if the temperature is a bit high orlow, if rains come at a different time, ifsun does not shine in the weeks it isneeded, if fog/smog covers the plainstoo long, the crops will get affected.And we have seen some of these effectsover the last few years as well. We needto prepare for these changes too. Or thechanging weather patterns will exact aneven higher price from us.

A failure of one of the main cropscan be extremely costly for us even if ithappens for a year. The income thatgoes to rural areas will be lost andmany a farmer will need to take credit,if they can get it, to survive the shock.Given estimates of vulnerability levelsare very high in Pakistan, for mostareas, the ability to absorb shocks islimited and even a single shock willpush a large number of people intopoverty. Since our industry, or majorparts of it, also depends on agriculture,the shock of a crop failure gets magni-fied as lower industrial production aswell. This is especially true of cottonand textile area. And, it would alsoshow up on the export side if cotton isaffected and we either have to importcotton or have reduced textile exports,have lower rice exports or have to im-port wheat or sugar.

We need to start exploring crop va-rieties that can withstand changes inweather. Crop varieties that can with-stand temperature changes, changes inhumidity, changes in amount of waterthat might be available and changes intimes when sowing and reaping can be

done. All of this will require a lot of re-search. I do not know if we have the re-search ability available with the currentagriculture research institutes and uni-versities. But we do not have much ofan option. The cost of not doing this re-search will be too devastating for us. Sowe should get the ability if we do nothave it already.

The existing research institutes,one can be sure, must have startedlooking at these issues. But research isnot an activity that has ever, in anyfield, been adequately funded in Pak-istan. Given the importance of the areathe government should give special pri-ority to these issues. It might be worth-while to set up commissions with theresponsibility to look into effects thatchanging weather patterns will have onthe economy of Pakistan, agriculture,living patterns and anything else that islikely to be affected by the weatherchanges. These commissions should begiven area specific tasks, strict timelines and resources to do comprehen-sive work on recommendations. Andthen the recommendations should beimplemented.

After the 2010 flood the govern-ment had to use BISP, in the emer-gency, to give help to large numbers ofpeople who were in dire need. But BISPwas not prepared for doing this sort ofrelief effort and there were a lot of mis-takes made in the process. But if we aregoing to be facing changing patternsregularly, including extreme events,should we not look into these possibil-ities and have agencies that are gearedfor going into action if and whenneeded.

Global warming or not, weatherpatterns are definitely changing. Justlooking at rain patterns, fog/smog pat-terns, the winter and summer peaks aswell as their spreads is telling us thatthings are changing. We have to figureout all things that the weather will af-fect and prepare for how it will changelives. In particular, we have to see howagriculture is going to be affected bychanging weather patterns. If we aregoing to prepare for the future, we needto act now.

The writer is an AssociateProfessor of Economics at LUMS(currently on leave) and a SeniorAdvisor at Open Society Foundation(OSF). He can be reached atfbari@sorosny.org

By Dr Faisal Bari

Comment10

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

When the Hajr-e-Aswadwas placed on a sheet itwas lifted by representa-

tives of all the tribes of Qureish.Only when it was at the right leveldid the Prophet (pbuh) put thestone into its place himself. Withall tribes equally involved, sensi-bilities remained unruffled. Theobvious lesson is the importanceof even handedness and an allround concerted effort in handlingissues. After all, had the sheet notbeen lifted equally from all sides,the stone, inadequately supported,could not have been raised.

The myriad problems of Pak-istan cannot be blamed on corrup-tion alone or on a lack of or pooreducation. Politicians alone arenot responsible, nor does respon-sibility lie individually with theabsence of law, order, justice, oraccountability, the widespreadpoverty of the Pakistani people ortheir fallacious interpretation ofreligion. All these factors com-pound the situation together, andthe only solution is a joint effort tobring about change on all thesefronts, by everyone involved to theexclusion of no community.

Minorities in Pakistan faceabuse which is at best marginali-sation, at worst a threat to their

beliefs and existence. The problemhas been identified many timesover, but it persists and has wors-ened, because no measures havebeen taken against it. Instead,these and other issues are used forpolitical mileage.

Hundreds of workers died as aresult of a factory blaze in BaldiaTown, Karachi, a heartrendingtragedy for which blame can belaid at many doors. Following thisevent Mr Nawaz Sharif chose tovisit Karachi to offer his condo-lences to families of the victims,point a few pudgy fingers at theSindh government, and gain somepoints in the process. In the Pun-jab, meanwhile, another factorywent up in flames, claiming sev-eral other lives.

Mr Sharif asked the Hinducommunity in Sindh not to leavePakistan (it is terrible how the gov-ernment is ignoring the minoritiesin Sindh, he said), while back inhis own province an entire Chris-tian community was drummed outof its homes by a violent mob, andrimsha, a minor girl, was arrestedfor alleged blasphemy. His otherremarks on the occasion rangedfrom a criticism of Sindh’s LocalGovernment Ordinance (it doesn’tmake sense, it won’t work, it

wasn’t discussed with everyone) tothe monsoons and the havocwrought by the rain in Sindh (theprovincial government should con-centrate on this rather than on theLocal Government Ordinance).

In the rimsha case which alsomade no sense, neither the politi-cal nor the religious leadershiplifted a finger to help her commu-nity, displaced because of a mobthat went unchecked by the lawenforcing authorities. The publicand the police, no doubt continuesunder the impression that suchbehavior is sanctioned by Islam.The sentiment is, after all, ratifiedevery Friday, reinforced inschools, and sanctioned by a lawthat everyone is too scared to crit-icize or amend, much less discard.

Understandably so, consideringwhat happens to those who try.

The repercussions havespread. An unemployed Christianman was wary of accepting em-ployment in the home of a ladywho wears hijab in spite of re-peated assurances that she wasnot ‘like that’.

Like what, exactly, is ‘likethat’? ‘Like that’, sadly, is the rap-idly growing misconception thatMuslims are a rabid, monstrous,violent lot. Once again, under-standably, given the worldwide re-action to worthless videos puttogether by puerile minds.

even though some NGOs andindividuals work bravely to tacklethe issues on the ground, religiousinstitutions and schools continue

to promote divisiveness and intol-erance. The back of every rickshawsports a rogue’s gallery of beardedindividuals who collected recentlyto condemn the Ahmadiya com-munity and demand that they be‘monitored’. Mr Sharif’s brother,the Chief Minister, is also pro-moted on the back of rickshaws asthe patron saint of the ‘green CNGscheme’ or some such thing, butneither Sharif appears to be takingmeasures to change the status quoon the minority issue, to mentionjust one.

On Pakistani passport forms,for some inexplicable reason,there still is a field for ‘religion’,where all Muslims are still re-quired to declare their rejection ofthe Ahmadiya belief. In the Pun-jab, some official forms still con-tain fields for the caste status ofapplicants. There is no publicawareness campaign targeting di-visions of caste in this, supposedlya Muslim, country.

So, for now, the stone remainson the ground, in which case, whyshould the Hindus (or anyoneelse) not migrate?

The writer is a freelancecolumnist. Read more by her athttp://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com/

politicians at work?By Rabia Ahmed

Mr Sharif’s brother, the Chief Minister, is

also promoted on the back of rickshaws as

the patron saint of the ‘green Cng scheme’

or some such thing, but neither Sharif

appears to be taking measures to change

the status quo on the minority issue.

Why exactly Hindus, or for that matter any other minority, should migrate from Pakistan

LHR 18-09-2012_Layout 1 9/19/2012 3:55 AM Page 10

Comment 11

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk.

Letters should be addressed to PakistanToday exclusively.

I read with interest Mr ArifNzami’s article titled as aboveregarding the thought provokingquestion: “Did the Quaid-e-Azamenvisage a secular Pakistan or atheocracy in the name of an Islamicsystem? It’s been sixty-four yearssince his passing away but this is aquestion that is still a subject ofintense debate.” (Sep 15).

When as students of AligarhMuslim University we were strugglingfor a Muslim homeland, during the

Pakistan Movement in mid 1940s, wewere clear in our mind as to what typeof country we were going to create.The issue was raised after Pakistancame into being by vested interests.

It was indeed regrettable that evenafter over six decades on every suchoccasion, the issue is raised incountless articles in the press and indiscussions in TV talk shows. There isa pressing need for resolving thisimportant issue once for all. It maycall for a kind of a debate in the press.

Prominent historians, intellectualsand writers of open mind may beinvited to express their views.

This scribe could contribute to thedebate based not on others’ researchwork or writings but from personalknowledge, experience andobservations since I happened to be ina way to have become a part of historyof that period and saw how Pakistancame into being as the largest Muslimcountry in the world at midnightAugust 14-15, 1947.

Further, I could not think of abetter person for this step than ourveteran top journalist Mr Arif Nizami,editor, Pakistan Today. He is theright person to initiate necessaryaction and coordinate activities for adebate through Pakistan Today. Thematter being of vital importancehaving far reaching ramifications, Itrust Mr Nizami will kindly accept thesuggestion in the national interest.

BASHIR A MALIK (ALIG)Lahore

The only option leftIn the backdrop of heavy rains in September

that have inundated Sindh, Balochistan and partsof Southern Punjab, scenes of miseries can be seenof the poor masses who have become refugees intheir own country with meagre belongings. Does itnot bring tears to the broad smiling faces of ourrulers who boast of serving the people as“Khadims”?

The hypocrisy is written large on their faceswhen they fail to take any action to store rain waterupstream in a mega dam like Kalabagh to the reliefof lower riparians. The best option would be tobuild Kalabagh dam post-haste to store rain waterbelow Tarbela up to the site of Kalabagh dam thatwould take care of 6.1 MAF of water from flowingdown to drown people in three provinces. Why isthere not a single voice of politician being raised indefense of the only option remaining to solve ourchronic problems of power and water in the formof shortages and damaging floods? They are waryof losing their votes of gullible people having beenmisinformed so far. They are guilty of criminalneglect in not speaking the truth that would lessentheir troubles.

China has built six storages dams on theBrahmaputra river passing through their territoryto store flood waters while we have made only onedam on Indus that is not enough to control rainwater in upper reaches of little rainfall. May AllahAlmighty give the capacity to our leaders tounderstand the dire need of Kalabagh dam to solveour water and power problems!

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

Peace in balochistanOne wonders that despite government efforts

and the will of the people of Balochistan whypeace seems to be at a distance. The disturbancein Balochistan is not due to the local Balochpopulation or residents of the area. Psychologicalgames are being played by self exiled leadershaving self-interests or fulfilling the objectives ofthe enemies of Pakistan. Why are they havingpolitical asylums, enjoying all the facilities of lifeand just to remain relevant in the news,pronounce themselves as leaders and are makingthe life of the common Baloch nothing less thanhell. Through their paid agents, a small group isfollowing their orders. They perpetuate in killinginnocent people and undertake sabotageactivities. These fake leaders are hostage

themselves and are trapped by foreign intelligenceagencies, who execute their own interests inBalochistan as this land is taken to be the gatewayto economic prosperity of the future. Theseindividuals when abroad are being paid andlooked after by the same agencies. Have they everthought what would happen to them when theirservices will not be required any longer? Historyhas examples of Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq andtheir end. A person not sincere to his own countryor the people can expect least reward fromoutsiders!

Why today foreign intelligence agencies arecontinuously interfering in Balochistan and wantto keep Balochistan a region of instability and fear?Why are the efforts of the government and LeAs tobring peace in Balochistan discredited andsabotaged? Just because the enemies of the Balochdo not want any development, awareness andprosperity of the Baloch. It is high time that Balochunderstood their friends and foes, set right theirpriorities, and break the shackles of helplessnessand of being held hostage.

ANWAR PARWEENIslamabad

The three retired menThe prospect of holding senior officials

accountable for their deeds and the mere thoughtof punishing them is something very rare andunheard of in Pakistan. Thus, when the armydeclares that it has recalled three retired generalsfor the purpose of holding them accountable fortheir misdeeds in the NLC money launderingscam, there seems to be a sudden clamorannouncing that such actions would only serve tofurther shroud the whole case in mystery. Drawingsuch conclusions has become a collective responseconditioned through many episodes of injustices.This case has been taken up by the army since2010 and steady progress has been made in thepast few months to reach a point where the threeretired men have been recalled to be dealt withaccording to strict military laws. Never has thenation experienced officials at such ranks to becourt-martialed before. This is surely a precedentset by the armed forces that does give the nationsome hope that Generals too need to be broughtunder the umbrella of accountability and thatjustice be done.

Without entering into the debate whether thethree retired senior army officials should be triedunder a civilian court or a military court, one oughtto focus more upon the fact that speedy trial

should pave way for a judicious verdict. That noneis above the law, would be the best message thatthe armed forces could give forth through this caseby keeping the proceedings absolutely transparentfor the nation to view as the people have hadenough of cases being mysteriously brushed underthe carpet never to be heard of again. Theperpetrators of such a high level corruption oughtto be punished for their crimes and the embezzlednational wealth ought to extracted. Only throughtransparency can the armed forces turn thisdecision into a very wise one.

PROFESSOR KABIL KHANPeshawar

History won’t forgive usIt may be justified to presume that every other

reader might have been moved by a recentlypublished photo, wherein a teacher is trying toconsole a small girl who has been crying afterwatching the damage to her school in Tunis. Theother photo shows books on fire probably in theschool’s library. What this school has to do withthe production of a crude film uploaded on theinternet by some individuals in the US?

I don’t know whether this Tunisian girl isaware that she is not alone trapped in this agonyand misery. There are hundreds of thousands ofboys and girls in Pakistan’s Pashtun areas whoseschools and colleges have been destroyed byTaliban. Why, because Taliban think that moderneducation invites the wrath of God and one need tobe clear of such education as proof of being a trueMuslim. They have waged a systematic campaignto dismantle modern education facilities byblasting them to rubbles; only in Pakistan’s KPprovince and tribal agencies more than 700 schoolsand colleges have been destroyed. Most of theseare girls schools as Taliban don’t believe in femaleeducation. Afghan Taliban banned femaleeducation during their 1996-2001 tenure. evennow Afghan girls schools are frequentlythreatened; poisoning water supplies to a girlsschool is still in the news.

Muslims are being criticized across the worldfor not doing enough to isolate a minority who hashijacked the religion for its evil designs. We needto come out and stop this madness in the name ofsomeone’s twisted interpretation of religion.History will never forgive us for surrendering ofour values —- decency, moderation andenlightenment at the altar of a deviant mentality.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

Long lasting solutionHashim Abro has called for long

lasting solution to the incessantproblem ravaging the regions inSindh. It has to be understood that allthe rivers flow down to Sindh. Suitablyplaced storage reservoirs can go a longway in moderating the recurring floodhavoc in Sindh. There are no sites fornew dams in Pakistan on the Jhelum,Chenab, ravi and Sutlej rivers. Floodsin Swat river can be moderated withMunda dam. Those in Haro river withAkhori dam. But the floods in Kabul,Chitral and Soan rivers cannot bemoderated except by a dam at theKalabagh site. These are the longlasting solutions which a learnedwriter like Hashmim Abro should beadvocating.

ENGR KHURSHID ANWERLahore

dr Q and Mushrecently Gen (retd) Musharraf

who lives in London and Dubai saidthat Dr A Q Khan was no nuclearscientist. Instead of reacting againstMusharraf, Dr Qadeer has lambastedthree largest political parties in thecountry – PPP, PML-N and PTI. Dr Qalready owns a political party hencecriticism of his competitors might bejustified. But it is Gen Mush’scomment about him that needselucidation. Mush has treated Dr Q asan ordinary mechanic than anaccomplished scientist. Dr Q remindsme of Mr ‘Q’ in James Bond movies. Qdeveloped lethal toys for Bond to carryon a mission. Q was quick to be upset,especially when debonair Bond didn’thandle the sensitive gadgets nimbly.Sadly, Q died few years ago and one isnot sure who now develops thesophisticated gadgets for thephilandering Bond.

Dr Q was always fond of fame andpopularity. He made politicalstatements even when he heldsensitive positions. Now it’s time heweighed his words carefully. It isbetter to be quiet and considered afool than opening one’s mouth andleaving no doubt. The wise have said.

DR JAFFER KAPADIALahore

“what the Quaid did not want…”

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12

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

TILL therelease ofBarfi! It hadseemed thatranbir

Kapoor and PriyankaChopra would be the most

notable factors associated withthe Anurag Basu directed film.However what has turned out tobe a pleasant surprise indeed isthe presence of Ileana D’Cruz

who has managed a very goodBollywood debut.

An experienced actressfrom down South, she hasreinforced her standingin the industry and hasannounced loud andclear that she is here to

stay. even as shecontinues to gain

accolades around herperformance in the film, Ileana getsinto a tete-a-tete and reiterates theconfidence she had in the film.Ileana, you have managed to makeeveryone stand up and take notice.In fact it was good to see that thefilm was actually narrated fromyour point of view. See,when Barfi! came along, I knew thatAnurag was there to keep it alltogether and he would pay goodattention to every aspect of the film.I knew that I wouldn’t beinsignificant to the film. In any

case, I didn’t expect something liketypical like ‘naachgaana’ and allwith the film. Yes, I wasapprehensive about how peoplewould have wanted to see me forthe first time in a Hindi film.However I just went by the flow.

GUESS THE GAMBLE PAID OFF...

(Smiles) For me more thananything else, just acting in Barfi!turned out to be a fabulousexperience. In any case it was moreor less a given that I would end upentering Bollywood at some pointin time or the other. I didn’t knowwhen but it was due for sure. I hada couple of offers but they didn’tseem right or worth pursuing. Icouldn’t have given my time tothose films but when it cameto Barfi!, I pretty much allowedmyself to jump into it. From theworld of South to something likethis in Bollywood, it must havecome as a shock, isn’t it?(Smiles) Not really a shock butthen the thing is that out there inSouth, we are used to goingthrough things which are scriptedand all we have to do is be on thesets and deliver. Barfi! was acompletely different set up. I guessdue to this way of working, we allwere all the more involved in thevery execution of the film and got

to know each other much betterthan ever before.

SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT FROM HERE?

I am sure many more doors wouldhave started opening for you inBollywood now. I just don’t want toget carried away now. I could lookpretty and do a couple of songs butthen that’s not the only thing Iwould want to do in Bollywood. Ifthat was the case, I could haveperhaps jumped into the arenamuch earlier. Yes, I would love todo a glamorous role now but therehas to be some meat to the role Istep into. One can’t deny the factthough that Barfi! has indeedturned out to be big for you, whatwith the film finding all aroundappreciation for itself. See, I knowthat quite a few actresses say that‘working in this film was one greatexperience’ and so on and so forth.However after Barfi! I too have tosay the same. The kind ofcomfortable relationship that weall shared is what made the filmspecial. Moreover this was a veryhonest set up. There wasn’t anyguarded approach followed by anyof us and we were open about allthe things. Yes, at times wecouldn’t see each other eye to eyebut then soon we used to make upand get it right! COuRTESy HT

I knew I wouldn’t beinsignificant: Ileana

Papa Rishi Kapoor findsflaws in Ranbir’s actingActing is in his blood, and he can do little to getrid of his inborn talent. ranbir Kapoor is here tostay and has already paved the way for his superstardom, or so it seems. However, Papa rishi isnot impressed with his acting prowess, for hebelieves ranbir has lots to learn and miles to coveras an artist. Talking to a leading daily, rishi said,“ranbir doesn`t like to portray characters whichare larger than life. I am very proud that he tooksuch challenges. But I don`t like his (ranbir) filmsbecause as an actor I find flaws in them.” ranbir,who is carrying forward the legacy initiated by hisgreat grand father, Prithviraj Kapoor, finds least

interference from hisparents when it

comes to takingdecisions.“He isabsolutely on

his own andwe never

interfere inany of his

decisions.When

ranbirjoined theindustry hetold hismother that

he wantedto portray

characterswhich a boy ofhis age would doin real life,” saidrishi. So,

ranbir, up yourperformance sothat PapaKapoor startsliking yourfilms! nEWS dESK

PArINeeTI Chopra, who has starredin films like ‘Ishaqzaade’ and ‘Ladiesv/s ricky Behl’, says she is ambitiousbut in no hurry to enter the rat race.“I am ambitious to do good work and

do it really well. However I am not socompetitive and I don`t want to be

either,” Parineeti said. The 24-year-old actress, who is an MBA, said thatshe is not solely dependent on herfilm career and always has anoption to fall back upon hereducational qualification and geta job. “I hadn`t grown upthinking that I have to be thisbig actress in Bollywood.” sheadded. Parineeti may have

established her credentials asan actress with her first

two films but she saysshe has a long way togo. When asked if sheis ready to fit into aconventionalromcom genre,Parineeti said, “I amup for that. I wouldlove to get into aregular heroine mode

and reach out to themasses. I lovemasala films andas an audience, I

like my dose ofcommercial

cinema. nEWS

dESK

I AM NOT SO COMPETITIVE:

PARINEETI CHOPRA

People only want to seebeautiful girls: Esha GuptaMODeLS are beautiful, and they can act, says esha Gupta, whobelieves that the transition of a model from the ramp to celluloid isoften successful because the audiences like to watch beautiful faceson screen. “Look at Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharmaand Katrina Kaif... they are one of the best actresses we have thesedays, and they all used to be models. The bottomline is that everyonewants to just see beauty and models are beautiful,” esha told IANS.“At the end of the day, you need to be presentable, becausethe janata wants to see a beautiful girl on screen, who they can gohome and imagine about. That’s how it works around the world.

“When I saw Bipasha Basu coming out of the waterin ‘Jism’, wearing that white outfit, I being a girl drooled on

it. I imagined what I’d look like in that scene. everyone

wants to see beauty. It’s just that modelsare good looking, and we get achance, we are well aware of theindustry, focus well, do our actingcourse and enter the industry,”added the 26-year-old. “Whenyou’re on the ramp, we areourselves and showcasingshoes, clothes, andrepresenting products - butwhen you’re an actor, you’renever the same person. I amnever esha Gupta. I am alwayssome character,” she said. eshahas also shot her third film,Prakash Jha’s “Chakravyuh” —and as one expects, the moviewill present her in a “completelydifferent look”, the actressconfirms. COuRTESy TOI

MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Salman Khan,speaks during an event to launch oftelevision show ‘Bigg Boss 6’. Zee news

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13

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

MADHUr Bhandarkar, 44,has evolved his own brandof cinema based on real life,winning the National Awardfour times. Just ahead of his

upcoming film Heroine, he talks to TOIabout his struggling years, the realities of thefilm industry and the constantly changingequation between stars and the media.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR CHILDHOOD?

I failed my sixth standard. My father wasan electrical contractor while I used todeliver video cassettes on a cycle to peopleincluding celebrities like MithunChakraborty. Mithunda remembers meand is very proud of me. Then there came atime when the video cassettes businesswent down dramatically. So I decided to goto Muscat to stay with my sister and findwork. But I came back as I had a film bugin me and wanted to make films.

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR FIRSTBREAK AS A FILMMAKER?

One of my cousins introduced me to ramuand I got to assist him in rangeela. Iwanted to make my own film, but in theabsence of a big star or a production houseit was tough to get a break. I got tomake Trishakti with Arshad Warsi whowas a newcomer at that time. The movietook three years to complete and becamedated by the time it was released. It was avery bad patch of my life and a big disasterfor my career. Film industry takes failuresvery seriously. I was told by everybody thatmy career was over. But I am a fighter andI don’t give up easily. I wanted to make amovie in which I had 100% conviction. Oneday I was sitting with a friend of mine atMahim and he asked me to accompanyhim to a ladies bar for a drink. I had neverbeen to one before and was shocked to seethe girls dancing. I was very uncomfortableand left within 15 minutes of getting there.But the song playing there kept hauntingme and I requested my friend to take me toanother bar the next night. This triggeredthe idea for Chandni Bar. I approached rMohan who had seen Trishakti and knewthat technically it was a decent film. Heagreed to produce Chandni Bar. Fromthere on I had a series of lucky breaks. Forinstance, I only envisioned Tabu in thatrole. r Mohan had worked with Tabubefore and took me to meet her. Tabulaughed when I told her that I had madeTrishakti, but she loved the scriptof Chandni Bar. We made the film in 1.5

crores. Today, Kareena alone has charged1.5 crores for Heroine.

WHY ARE ALL YOUR FILMS SO CLOSELYLINKED TO REAL LIFE?

I am an emotional and fragile person. Iobserve life, I am perceptive and can read aperson’s body language. I have a strongjournalistic streak in me, and had I notbeen a filmmaker, I would have become afilm journalist. I have combined myperceptive and journalistic traits to createmy own brand of cinema.

HAS THE INDUSTRY’S ATTITUDETOWARDS YOU CHANGED?

I don’t have any friends in the industry.Here you come on transit visa. I live in myown world and have struggled enough toknow that what goes up has to come down.I see actors, actresses, directors, producerswho are left nowhere once the limelightfades. I remember when I got the firstNational Award for Chandni Bar and myname was announced in President Kalam’spresence, I literally pinched myself. Icouldn’t believe that a man who had beenstanding at a bus stop just six months agowas now receiving the National Award. Ialways do a reality check in my life. I amvery optimistic but practical and know thateven if my films flop in the future I can be

proud that I have won 4 National Awardsand built my own brand of cinema.

WHY ARE YOUR PROTAGONISTSALWAYS WOMEN?

I myself introspect why that is the case. Ihave a very impromptu way of writingand directing. I have always gone with theflow.

WHY ARE MOST ACTRESSES SO FRAGILE?

Actresses have a brief shelf life and whilethey are in the limelight they need tocompete fiercely to remain there. There isa lot at stake for them which makes themvery fragile. There is a dialogue in yourfilm Heroine “Mumbai daily ki editor hotum. Heroine ki friendship tum se nahitumhari position se hain”? Do you believethis is true in real life? I do. I am a media-friendly person and know that theequation between a star and a journalistchanges constantly. When a journalistholds a position, the entire industrywants to rub shoulders with you. Themoment your position goes down,they stop taking your calls and thebouquets disappear. Likewisewhen a star loses celebritystatus journalists stopinterviewing and chasingthem. COuRTESy TOI

I have faced humiliation in the

industry: Madhur Bhandarkar

THe Fox television network an-nounced Sunday it has tapped rapperNicki Minaj and country singer KeithUrban as judges on troubled TV talentshow “American Idol.”

The pair will join pop star MariahCarey and randy Jackson, the only re-maining original “Idol” judge. The an-nouncement came just hours beforeinitial auditions for the next season inNew York. “I am thrilled about thisyear’s judges’ panel!” said Mike Darnell,president of alternative entertainment atthe Fox Broadcasting Company. “Nicki’san unbelievably captivating interna-tional phenomenon who has made an in-

delible mark on rap and pop. And Keithis another great addition to IDOL — he’sone of the biggest stars in country musicand I know that our fans and contestantswill fall in love with him.” He said thenow-complete team was “one of themost exciting judging panels around.”Pop diva Jennifer Lopez and Aero-smith’s Steven Tyler announced in Julytheir departure from the show, which isstruggling against rival “The Voice” onNBC. “American Idol” has aired for 11seasons, but was thrown into disarray bythe departure of judges Simon Cowell,ellen DeGeneres and Kara DioGuarditwo years ago. AFP

Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban tojoin ‘American Idol’ judgesSure, some celebrity breakups result in the stars in question hooking up with

new people - sometimes pretty much immediately, and sometimes after as long

as a month. But there are some couples who can’t live without each other.

Celeb exes who got back together

Twilight fans were shocked when

pictures of Kristen in the arms of

her Snow White and the

Huntsman director rupert

Sanders were made public. They

split up, and r-Patz moved out of

their LA home, and Kirsten

followed thereafter. But if news of

their reunion is true, it seems

that Twilight fans have gotten

their happily ever after, after all.

ROBERT PATTINSON AND KRISTEN STEWART

rihanna infamously went MIA at

the 2009 Grammy Awards. The

reason: She was beaten black and

blue by her then boyfriend, singer

Chris Brown, the night before.

There was much public outrage

after pictures of rihanna with a

swollen eye, cut lip and bruised face did the rounds on the net.

The couple split. rihanna admitted to Oprah that she missed

Brown and that he was her “first love”. The two are back

together after they were seen kissing at the 2012 VMAs.

CHRIS BROWN AND RIHANNA

The former N’ Sync singer and

The A Team actress got together

in 2007, but called things off in

March 2011, reportedly because

of reports that Justin was getting

cozy with his Friends With

Benefits co-star Mila Kunis. Now

that they’ve officially declared

their engagement, everyone is

speculating about when the

wedding will be.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AND JESSICA BIEL

Miley and Liam hooked up

after they met on the sets of

the film The Last Song in

2009. However, in 2010,

Miley was photographed

getting cozy with a male co-

star on the sets of LOL,

while Liam was spotted

playing the field. They got

back together soon after,

and are now engaged.

MILEY CYRUS AND LIAM HEMSWORTH

CO

uR

TES

y T

OI

Priyanka Choprashoots sharp atKareena KapoorActor Priyanka Chopra hasreacted to her onscreen rivalKareena Kapoor’s commentsto an HT City interview wherethe latter had said that herforthcoming film, Heroine, isbigger than PC-starrerFashion, despite the fact thatChopra won a National Awardfor her film. Priyanka said in aTV news interview, “Well, Iguess if you don’t haveone (National Award), thensour grapes!” Bebo had said inour interview that shedoesn’t care about NationalAwards. Both films have beendirected by MadhurBhandarkar. COuRTESy HT

LHR 18-09-2012_Layout 1 9/19/2012 3:55 AM Page 13

1 It’s Google.com’s 15thbirthday this weekend - thenow-famous domain namewas first registered on Sep-tember 15, 1997 (although

Google wouldn’t officially exist as acompany until almost a year later).We celebrate its birthday with 15 un-usual facts you might not knowabout the search giant.

2 Google wasn’t always calledGoogle. Before founders SergeyBrin and Larry Page chose the

name Google, the search engine - aproject the two began while graduatestudents at Stanford University - wasknown as ‘Backrub’.

3 Among the many languagesGoogle’s services are offered inis fictional Star Trek language

Klingon.

4 While another language is thatof the ‘Swedish Chef’ characterfrom The Muppet Show.

(Swedish Chef was introduced as alanguage option in 2001; Klingonfirst appeared in 2002.)

5 Speaking of chefs, Google haslong been legendary for thequality of food served in its of-

fices. Google hired their first com-pany chef back in 1999, when theyhad just 40 employees - the chef theyhired, Charlie Ayers, had previouslybeen the personal chef for rock bandThe Grateful Dead.

6 Having The Grateful Dead’schef isn’t Google’s only musicalconnection. In 2008, the com-

pany collaborated with radioheadon the band’s music video for ‘Houseof Cards’ - which was created with-out using any cameras, just datascanned with lasers.

7 For the first few years of its ex-istence, Google’s famous logohad an extra character - a

Yahoo!-style exclamation mark.(And, as you can see above, theGoogle logo wasn’t properly centredon the page; it skews slightly to theleft. This wasn’t fixed until 2001.)

8 The famous tradition of theGoogle Doodle - the creative al-teration of the company’s logo

- originated in 1998, when foundersPage and Brin wanted a way to letusers know that they weren’t in theoffice, because they’d gone to theBurning Man festival in Nevada. Sothey drew a little picture of a burning

man behind the logo.

9 Google’s first ever storage -from the days when it was stillcalled Backrub - was made out

of ten 4GB hard disks, all containedin a storage case made out of...LeGO. ever since that day, Googlehas had a fondness for the smallplastic bricks, as the above picture ofthe Google logo made entirely out ofLeGO bricks, at the company’sMountain View headquarters

10 Google has its own herd ofgoats - rented from a localgoat-hire firm - whose job is

to replace lawn mowers at theirheadquarters.

11 Google now owns thegarage that, famously, theyrented as their first office.

The home the garage was attachedto, at 232 Santa Margarita, MenloPark, belonged to Susan Wojcicki -who didn’t work for Google at thetime, but is now a senior vice presi-

dent at the company (and her sisteris married to Sergey Brin). Googlebought both the house and thegarage from Wojcicki in 2006.

12 Google’s famous ‘I’m FeelingLucky’ button - which takesyou straight to the first result

- is only used by around 1% ofsearchers. But the company haven’tremoved it (despite the fact that theydon’t get to show ads whenever peo-ple do use it, losing them money) be-cause, apparently, it makes users feelcomfortable... even if they don’t use it

13 Google’s self-driving carshave, since March 2012,been legally allowed to

drive on roads in Nevada, USA (al-though they have to have someonesitting behind the wheel.) Above is apicture of one of the cars driving it-self around Las Vegas.

14 The verb ‘to google’ was offi-cially added to the Oxford eng-lish Dictionary in June 2006.

15 Among the objects you’llfind in the grounds ofGoogle’s Mountain View

headquarters are a full-sized Tryan-nosaurus rex skeleton and a full-sizedmodel of SpaceShipOne, the space-plane that completed the first mannedprivate space flight in 2004. (Googlealso sponsors a multi-million dollarprize for the first company to managea private moon landing.) nEWS dESK

14Infotainment

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

Chinese base jumping festival

THrILL-SeeKING BASe jumpers andexcited spectators converged on the Aizhaisuspension bridge in China’s Hunan

province on Sunday for a major BASe jumpingfestival on Sunday. More than 40 jumpers from 13different countries including Great Britain, Spainand Germany participated in the event, which isAsia’s largest celebration of the daredevil sport ofBASe jumping. BASe is an acronym which standsfor the four categories of fixed objects from whichone can jump: buildings, antennas, spans orbridges, and earth or cliffs. BASe competitionshave been held since the early 1980s, with accuratelandings or free fall aerobatics used as the judgingcriteria. China held its first BASe jumping event inShanghai in 2004. Among the competitors at thefestival in Hunan was Lonnie Bissonnette, a 47-year-old paraplegic jumper from Canada who madethe jump in his wheelchair. COuRTESy THE TElEgRAPH

record 964 ferraris paradearound silverstone track

HUNDreDS of Ferraris took to Silverstonein a world record attempt for the biggestever parade of the supercars. A total of

964 Ferraris paraded round the Silverstone circuitto beat the previous 2008 record of 490 cars atJapan’s Fuji Speedway Circuit. Formula One driverFelipe Massa led the parade at the wheel of a 458Spider. Ferrari donated £5 for every car in theparade to BeN, a British charity that supportsemployees from the motor industry and theirfamilies. An entire range of Ferrari cars wereparaded, including the latest F12 Berlinetta, themost powerful road car every built by theMaranello marque. COuRTESy THE TElEgRAPH

earthworms ‘marry’ in taiwan ceremony

SeVeNTY “lucky earthworms” have beenmarried off in an elaborate wedding ritual insouth Taiwan in a bid to raise awareness

about the environment and the problem of soilerosion, organizers said. The worms arrived Sundayat Takang Park in Tainan city inside a traditionalwedding sedan draped in red cloth to “tie the knotwith the soil of the park”, Takang CommunityDevelopment Association said. “The ceremony wasimplemented exactly according to traditionalTaiwanese customs,” said Huang Sen-nan, theleader of the volunteer group. “We want to raisepublic awareness about the need to protect the landwhere we live.” Soil erosion — which can contributeto landslides during typhoons — is one of Taiwan’smain environmental problems. The presence ofworms can help the prevention of soil erosion byimproving soil structure and drainage. AFP

GooGLE.Com’S 15tH BIrtHday:15 fun facts about Google

Croatian company Mg Vrbanus has made a wrought-iron VW Beetle. The

project took four months and 3000 man hours to complete with details

including exterior 24-carat gold leaf and hand-stitched leather interior.

Emma Cahill has the biggest feet among European women and has to buy

high heels made for men. The 19-year-old from Worcester, who wears size

14 shoes, can only buy high heels made for drag queens and transvestites.

drought reveals 400-year-oldsunken treasuresA huge cargo of elaborate marble stonework that sank tothe bottom of Poland’s Vistula river four centuries agohas re-appeared after a drought and record-low waterlevels revealed the masonry lying in the mud on the riverbed. Archaeologists believe the stonework was part of atrove which 17th-century Swedish invaders looted fromPoland’s rulers and loaded onto barges to transporthome, only for the booty to go to the bottom when thevessels sank. researchers knew about the artefacts, onthe river bed where the Vistula passes through thePolish capital but, before the drought, retrieving themwas a painstaking task because they were under severalfeet of water. Navigation along the river has alreadybeen affected and officials say if water levels do notrecover soon, power stations in Warsaw that use riverwater for cooling may be forced to close down. The lowwater levels that revealed the artifacts are hamperingefforts to retrieve them. regular lifting equipmentwould sink into the mud, but the river is too low forthe researchers to bring in floating cranes. nEWS dESK

Bowtie duck banned fromworking for British charityThe owner of a duck that wears a bowtie is getting a dressing-down from the charity where he volunteers. Barrie Haymanis the owner of “Star,” a duck that often waddles beside himwhen he is raising money for charities serving their hometown of Bideford, Great Britain — while sporting a bowtie.Hayman and his dapper duck recently raised more than$10,000 for a children’s hospice, but they also ruffled thefeathers of various local councils, who told him that his stylishsidekick could be deemed “irritating,” according to the DailyMail. Apparently, the irritation could be overcome if Haymanis willing to pay for a permit, but the rules require him to apply28 days in advance for a single day’s permission. “If I was put-ting into my own pocket, I could understand it, but everythinggoes to the sick children,” he told The Sun. “Our policy is toallow one charity collection per day per parish, so that thestreets aren’t full of people collecting for charity, which is ir-ritating to the public,” the official said. But locals like deliowner Sally Shephard think the council officials are having acow over nothing, and want the bowtie-wearing duck tocontinue its fashion-forward fundraising. COuRTESy HuFFPOST

Baby girl is bornin parking lot A New Hampshire woman andher baby are doing fine after thewoman gave birth in the NewHampshire Motor Speedwayparking lot. Shawna Arnold begangoing into labor on Friday andshe and her boyfriend begandriving to a hospital. But whenshe realized she was about togive birth on the way, they madea pit stop at the racetrack park-ing lot in Loudon. Arnoldtells WMUr-TV that she andher boyfriend delivered the baby,named Katie, in their car. Speed-way General Manager JerryGappens has awarded the babytwo tickets to NASCAr racesfor the rest of her life. nEWS dESK

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Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

Page 18

Azarenka stays top of world rankings

COLOMBOAFP

KAMrAN Akmal smashedan unbeaten 92 off 50balls as Pakistan camefrom behind to defeatIndia by five wickets in a

warm-up match for the World Twenty20on Monday.

Pakistan, chasing India's command-ing 185-3, appeared to be out of con-tention when they lost five wickets bythe 12th over with just 91 runs on theboard at the Premadasa stadium.

But Akmal and former captainShoaib Malik turned the game aroundwith a brilliant unbroken stand of 95 off46 balls that helped Pakistan beat theshell-shocked Indians with five balls tospare.

Akmal plundered six sixes, includ-ing the winning shot off seamer IrfanPathan which sailed over the coverfence. Malik remained unbeaten on 37off 18 balls.

Virat Kohli had earlier top-scoredfor India with 75 not out, while off-spin-ner ravichandran Ashwin claimed fourwickets for 23 runs.

Some 3,000 Sri Lankan fanswatched the arch-rivals battle out in themiddle in the only warm-up match to bebeamed live by the host broadcasters ofthe World Twenty20 that opens onTuesday.

"We knew that if India could post ahuge total, so could we," said Pakistancaptain Mohammad Hafeez. "Kamranwas exceptional, and Malik's experiencealso helped."

Indian captain Mahendra SinghDhoni said the batting worked well, but

the bowlers needed to contain runs onthe easy-paced wickets.

"It was not really a bad game for us,"he said. "We have got to work on a fewthings with our bowling."

India and Pakistan are drawn in dif-ferent groups for the preliminaryleague, but are seeded to meet in theSuper eights round in Colombo on Sep-tember 30.

In other matches, england beat Aus-tralia by nine runs, Ireland pippedBangladesh by five runs, the West In-dies slammed Afghanistan by eightwickets and South Africa overcame NewZealand by nine runs.

reigning champions england piledup 172-6 after being sent in to bat, withopener Alex Hales top-scoring with 52off 38 balls. Luke Wright hit a 29-ball 35and eoin Morgan scored a brisk 30 from16 balls.

Australia managed only 163-6 inreply against the tight england bowlingdespite a polished 71 off 51 balls fromMichael Hussey, who hit five sixes.

england, who take on Afghanistanin their opening match in Colombo onFriday, play another practice matchagainst Pakistan on Wednesday.

A middle-order collapse sawBangladesh go down to Ireland despiteShakib Al Hasan's hurricane 52 from 23balls that was studded with three foursand five sixes.

Ireland made 164-6 after beingasked to take first strike, with Paul Stir-ling hitting a 41-ball 71 with five foursand as many sixes. ed Joyce scored 39from 36 balls.

Shakib and Tamim Iqbal (35) tookBangladesh to a comfortable 105-2, be-fore four wickets fell for 21 runs to allow

Ireland to bounce back.West Indies opener Chris Gayle

warmed up for the tournament with anunbeaten 65 off 48 balls as the West In-dies eased past Afghanistan's modest122-7 in the 16th over.

New Zealand skipper ross Taylorhammered seven sixes in an unbeaten75 from 42 balls, but could not preventSouth Africa from carving out a nine-run victory.

South Africa rode on captain AB deVilliers' 54 to make 186-6 before fourwickets from Dale Steyn restricted theBlack Caps to 177-8.

KAMRAN, MALIK LIFT PAKISTAN OVER INDIA

PAKISTAn beat India by five wickets

India 185-3 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 75 not out, Rohit Sharma

56, Virender Sehwag 26, Saeed Ajmal 2-22)

Pakistan 186-5 in 19.1 overs (Kamran Akmal 92 not out, Shoaib

Malik 37 not out, Ravichandran Ashwin 4-23)

EnglAnd beat Australia by nine runs

England 172-6 in 20 overs (Alex Hales 52, luke Wright 35,

Eoin Morgan 30, Brad Hogg 2-39, Mitchell Starc 2-32)

Australia 163-6 in 20 overs (Shane Watson 37, Mike Hussey

71, Steven Finn 2-26)

IRElAnd beat Bangladesh by five runs

Ireland 164-6 in 20 overs (Paul Stirling 71, Ed Joyce 39,

Mashrafe Mortaza 2-33, Shakib Al Hasan 2-21)

Bangladesh 159-9 in 20 overs (Tamim Iqbal 35, Shakib Al

Hasan 52, Kevin O'Brien 3-24, Trent Johnston 2-25, Alex

Cusack 2-28)

SOuTH AFRICA beat new zealand by nine runs

South Africa 186-6 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 54, JP duminy

30, Farhaan Behardien 24 not out, Adam Milne 2-26, James

Franklin 2-31)

new zealand 177-8 in 20 overs (Ross Taylor 75, Rob nicol 37,

dale Steyn 4-25)

WEST IndIES beat Afghanistan by eight wickets

Afghanistan 122-7 (Asghar Stanikzai 53, Fidel Edwards 3-24,

Sunil narine 2-23)

West Indies 125-2 in 15.5 overs (Chris gayle 65 not out,

Mohammad nabi 2-29)

BRIEF SCORES

coLoMbo: Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik celebrate after their teams victory during a world

Twenty20 warm-up match between india and Pakistan at The R. Premadasa cricket Stadium. afp

COLOMBOAgEnICES

Some might say preparation is slightlyovervalued when it comes to Twenty20cricket, but nothing can be farther fromthe truth. Twenty20 cricket might nothave as much scope for tactical versatil-ity as Test cricket, or even the 50-overgame might, but to write off practiceand preparation as of little significanceis at once foolhardy and naïve.

The time for preparation, however,is almost over. edition four of the ICCWorld Twenty20 will kick off at theMahinda rajapakasa InternationalCricket Stadium in Hambantota onTuesday when Sri Lanka, the host na-tion, takes on Zimbabwe in easily themost open of the ICC World Twenty20sthus far. eleven practice games over thelast four days have merely served to re-iterate this point. There have been vic-tories for Ireland over Bangladesh, forengland, the defending champions,against Australia, and for Pakistan overIndia. South Africa, whose only globalsilverware dates back to the ICC Cham-pions Trophy in 1998, was forced to digdeep to quell a strong challenge fromNew Zealand while the West Indies, oneof the favourites to go all the way thistime around, was soundly put in itsplace by Sri Lanka, riding on thestrength of its spin resources.

Interestingly enough, only one ofthe 12 warm-up games – the last one isslated for Wednesday, between englandand Pakistan – was scheduled at aground that will actually host the ICCWorld Twenty20, thereby offering verylittle even to the teams by way of whatto expect, come competition-time.

Monday’s showdown between Indiaand Pakistan at the r Premadasa Sta-dium in Colombo suggested that thePremadasa has come some way fromproducing slow, low surfaces on whichstroke-making was a hazardous propo-sition. More than 370 runs were scoredin 39.1 overs for eight wickets lost; sixof those wickets did go the spinners, butthat was mainly because of the high skillsets that Saeed Ajmal and r Ashwinpossess, not because the pitch held anydemons as such.

Spin is invariably expected to play avital role in matches played on the sub-continent, but that expectation might bebelied this time around. The MrICS inHambantota and the Pallekele Interna-tional Stadium in Pallekele too haveprovided excellent batting surfaces thisseason, and while the possibility of thetracks in Pallekele and Colombo slow-ing down with wear and tear as thetournament progresses cannot be ruledout, spin is unlikely to have as massivea say in the early stages as is widely be-

lieved. That’s one of the main reasonswhy the ICC World Twenty20 2012wears such a completely even look.Most teams from outside the sub-conti-nent will welcome the level-playingfield; sides such as the West Indies andNew Zealand, which has alwayspunched above its weight in ICC events,will quietly fancy their chances of mak-ing reasonable headway.

Which will be the last team stand-ing? Only a very brave man or a verysilly one will hazard a guess even beforea ball is bowled, especially in a formatwhere fortunes can change in the spaceof one over. Suffice to say thatTwenty20 is the one version thatbridges the gulf between teams, so whilea Bangladesh or an Ireland will not re-alistically expect to go the distance, theycan play spoilers if they fuse all ele-ments of their game together on a par-ticular day.

For Afghanistan, to merely qualifyfor the ICC World Twenty20 2010 inthe West Indies was a victory of sorts.Better off for that experience,Afghanistan will try to be competitive,fully aware that it has some distance totraverse before seriously threateningthe big boys.

Sri Lanka will remain a threat, notonly because most of its players arecoming off the Sri Lanka PremierLeague but because it has consistentlybeen the one team that has bucked thetrend of the host nation buckling underthe pressure of expectations. It will bematched for exuberance and efferves-cence by Pakistan, unpredictable, mer-curial and enigmatic, millstones inanother version but undisputed virtuesin the Twenty20 game.

Sri Lanka out for faststart at world T20

HAMBANTOTAAFP

Hosts Sri Lanka will hope to make abrisk start to the World Twenty20 Tues-day as they open the country's biggestever sports event with high hopes ofclaiming a second global title.In Hambantota, the home town of Presi-dent Mahinda rajapakse, Sri Lankashould encounter few problems againstminnows Zimbabwe as they raise thecurtain on Twenty20 cricket's three-week, 12-nation, world championship.Sri Lanka have yet to emulate their 50-over World Cup victory in 1996, despitereaching the final in 2007 and again lastyear. They were World Twenty20 run-ners-up in 2009 and went out in thesemi-finals in 2010.The tropical "Teardrop Island", torn by a37-year ethnic conflict until hostilitieswere declared over in 2009, has neverheld a tournament on this scale, al-though it was a co-host of the 1996 and2011 World Cups.Despite a fast and furious format whichmakes predictions unwise, MahelaJayawardene's team start as slight tour-nament favourites because of home ad-vantage and because they are known as ateam for the big occasion."We are one of the favourites but we arepart of the pack that, you know, if we getinto a good momentum we could go allthe way," Jayawardene said."Sri Lanka is a cricket-crazy country andthe expectations would be high. Peoplewould back us so we need to enjoy that,"he added. Along with newly crownedcricketer of the year Kumar Sangakkara,Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshanwill do damage with the bat, while SriLanka can also call on talented all-rounders Angelo Mathews and ThisaraPerera. Fast bowler Lasith Malinga andunorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendiscomplete a formidable line-up which willalso be familiar with the varied condi-tions in the capital Colombo, steamy hilltown Pallekele and coastal Hambantota.

chokers? At leastwe reach finals

HAMBANTOTAAFP

Sri Lanka's captain Mahela JayawardeneMonday hit back at suggestions his teamhave "choked" in major finals -- and saidhe'd rather be a runner-up than an also-ran. Jayawardene, speaking on the eve ofthe hosts' World Twenty20 openeragainst Zimbabwe, said it was tribute toSri Lanka that they had reached threeglobal title matches since winning the1996 one-day World Cup."A lot of people have asked us why wehave choked in the finals," he said onMonday. "I'd rather be in that situationthan being knocked out in earlier rounds."So that means we are doing somethingpretty good in these big tournaments andwe hope to continue that in WorldTwenty20."Sri Lanka lost to Australia and then Indiain the 2007 and 2011 World Cup finals,and missed out on the World Twenty20title when they were beaten by Pakistanin the 2009 title match at Lord's.Jayawardene admitted that home expec-tations were now sky-high that Sri Lankawere about to end their 16-year hunt fora second world title, with the benefit ofhome advantage and a balanced team."We are one of the favorites but we arepart of the pack that, you know, if we getinto a good momentum we could go allthe way. We cannot put the hype down inthe sense that we are playing at home,"he said."Sri Lanka is a cricket-crazy country andthe expectations would be high. Peoplewould back us so we need to enjoy that,"Jayawardene added.

the most open ICC worldtwenty20 till dateThe time for preparation is over, it's over to the real action now

LHR 18-09-2012_Layout 1 9/19/2012 3:55 AM Page 16

PUNJAB yoUTH FesTIVAl 2012

Sports 16

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

neArLY half of the compe-titions and events of thesecond level of the PunjabYouth Festival 2012 con-cluded on the 10th day on

Monday with the remaining finals set tobe held on the final day tomorrow (Tues-day) throughout the province.

On the second last day of the UnionCouncil level, the events and competi-tions of cooking and dress designing con-cluded under the supervision of the SocialWelfare Department while the healthybaby competition under the general pub-lic sector of family events, are continuingand a large number of participation wasregistered making the venues of theevents a look of a fancy dress show.

However, the sports events that in-clude arm wrestling, athletics, bad-minton, billiard, cricket, tug of war,volleyball, bodybuilding and weightliftingare being held in its final stage through-out the province and on the day nearly77,697 youngsters took part in theseevents in 677 events and with the involve-ment of 1497 Union Councils, 19,432youngsters were the winners. With theevents of the second level reaching its

conclusion a total participation in theUnion Council crossed half a million with118,338 winning their respective compe-titions.

Lahore division saw 8223 peoplefrom 103 UCs taking part in 94 eventsand 3170 claimed the top honour. Kasurdistrict was the most active where 45 UCswith 5322’s participation in 20 eventsthat make the competitions lively and thewinners were 2053. At Nankana Sahib 23UCs’ 1441 took part in 22 events and 603saw the light.

In Lahore, around 14 UCs got 584youngsters involved in 36 events and winlanded 292’s way. Out of the nine townsof the city, Gulberg, Iqbal and ravi townshad more than 350 people taking part in15 events.

Ch Shahbaz, MPA, was the chief guestat Iqbal Park Sports Complex venuewhere bodybuilding and weightliftingcompetition were held.

In Samanabad badminton eventswere held. Union council 104’s Moham-mad Umer, Umer rafi and GhulamMustfa qualified for next level of compe-titions. In Billiard, Mohammed DanialShahid and Mohammed Sufian Yusuf ofUnion council 104 were the winners. InShalimar Town, Union council 46’s block1 defeated block 3, 2-0. The score was 11-

9, 11-7. In Billiard, Union council 47’sblock 4 beat block 5, 2-0.

In the Arm Wrestling competitions,Union council 46’s Tehseen Hussain ofblock 1 beat Junaid of block 5, 2-0.

In ravi Town, Body Building Unioncouncil 9’s Qasim Ali bagged first posi-tion in the category 65 kgs. In 75 Kg,rafaqat Ali was declared winner while in75 + kgs, Amjad won the competition. InShalimar town, Bodybuilding competi-tions, players from Union council 25 par-ticipated. In 65 kgs, Qasim Mehmoodwon while in 75 kgs, Adeel achieved firstposition. In Iqbal Town, Union council114’s Akmal Kamran won the 65 kgs’s cat-egory whereas Afzal Butt attained posi-tion in 75 kgs.

In the various competitions ofWeightlifting among different towns,Haris Butt of Shalimar Town won in 62kgs, Mohammed Fiaz of SamanabadTown and Nadeem of ravi Town weredeclared winners in the same category.In 77 kgs, rizwan Nawaz of Aziz Bhattitown, Yahya Butt of Nishtar town, Mo-hammed Ilyas of Samanabad Town andMohammed Bilal of Shalimar Townwon the competitions. In +94 kgs,Noman Nadeem Butt of Wahga Townand Mohammed Hamza of Aziz BhattiTown bagged positions. In the Arm

Wrestling, Tehseen Hashim of Unioncouncil 46 beat Junaid 2-0. In Billiard,Union council 7’s Nabeel Butt out-played Shahzad 2-0. In the Badmintontournaments of Shalimar Union council46’s rizwan beat Tahir 2-0. In ArmWrestling, Union council 28’s Moham-mad Ibrahim beat Muzammil Hussainin 65 kgs category. In 70 kgs, Moham-mad Afzal beat Mohammad Mushtaq 2-0 and In + 75 kgs, Amjad Ali defeatedAsim 2-1.

At Shadbagh, Mohammad won thehealthy baby competition, Abeera Fiazwas second and Shafian Irfan was thirdwhile Faiza Gul, LHV was the chief guestand gave the prizes to the winners. AtGarishahu, Talha Amer was the winner ofthe healthy baby contest while KhyzerShoaib Bokhari was the second and Mo-hamamd Dawood was third. Here AbidAli, Tehsil officer Population LahoreCantt was the chief guest and gave theprizes to the winners.

Similarly, the participation of peoplein other parts of the province created his-tory and revived sports culture. Theground which were being used by differ-ent quarters were got released from theiroccupation and active sports events arenow being held on those sports facilities.In rawalpindi 5303 people of 157 UCs

took part in 88 events. In this division,the rawalpindi district got 1665 from 50UCs involved in 31 events and 362 win-ning their events. Then comes Attockwhere 1503 took part in 30 events and 51UCs showed their interest in the festivalwith 609 winning respectively. Sargodhahad 2733 involved in the events from 112UCs. From 50 events there were around1010 winners. It was in Bhakkar districtof Sargodha where 1059 people of differ-ent walks of life took part in seven events.A total of 203 winners got to the limelightas 20 UCs remained active in the activi-ties.

Gujranwala was again ahead of all di-visions where more than 20840 from 465UCs competed in 110 events and 2758winning their competitions. Here the Gu-jranwala city alone 5166’s of 184 tookpart in 32 events and 1020 won their re-spective events.

Faisalabad got 197 UC’s 10570 in-volved in 83 events with 3388 winningtheir matches, Sahiwal had 73 UCs 3079competing in 49 events and 968 winning,Multan got 163 UCs taking part in 98events and out of the 13713, 3164 wontheir games. Bahawalpur had 1493 win-ning from 7284 participants and at DeraGhazi Khan 1727 won from among 5952from 93 UCs.

UNION COUNCIL LEVEL NEAR COMPLETION

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Saadi Saeed won the Lahore DistrictAmateur Table Tennis Championshipbeating Abubakar Aziz in the finalshere on Monday. The table tennisplayers from different towns of Lahoredistrict participated in the event beingorganized by Lahore District TableTennis Association under the Supervi-sion of Punjab Table Tennis Associa-tion at newly built Ittefaq Table TennisHall. This event is being managed forthe preparation of different TehsilsTable Tennis Teams of Lahore for par-ticipation in the upcoming PunjabYouth Festival. Group A: Atif beat Nouman Bilal by3-0, Aleem ud Din beat Amir Sohail by3-0, Adeel Sattar beat Shahwaiz by 3-2, Tayyab Saeed beat Shoaib Anwer by3-0, Atif beat Alee mud Din by 3-0,Abubakar beat Nouman Bilal by 3-0,

Shoaib beat Shahwaiz by 3-0, Amir So-hail beat Tayyab 3-1, Shoaib Anwarbeat Amir Sohail by 3-0, Atif beatTayyab Saeed by 3-1, Adeel Sattar beatNouman Bilal by 3-0, Abubakar beatAlee mud Din by 3-2, Abubakar Azizand Atif qualified for the Semi-Finalsstage securing 1st and 2nd positionsrespectively in the group A.Group B: Saadi Saeed beat Salmanby 3-0, Ahsan Mubashir beat Shoaibby 3-1, Usman Aziz beat Abdul rafiby 3-0, Pasha beat Ali Usman by 3-1, Saadi Saeed beat Ahsan Mubashirby 3-0, Salman Baig beat usman Azizby 3-0, Pasha beat Abdul rafi by 3-0, Umer Shakoor beat Ali Usman by3-0, Saadi Saeed beat Usman Aziz by3-0, Salman Baig beat Pasha by 3-2,M. Shoaib beat Ali Usman by 3-0,Umer Shakoor beat Abdul rafi by 3-0, Saadi Saeed and Ahsan Mubashirqualified for the Semi-Finals stagesecuring 1st and 2nd positions re-

spectively in the group B.Semi-Finals: Both the Semi-Finalswere one sided affairs as Saadi Saeedand Abubakar Aziz played outstandingTable Tennis beating their respectiverivals in the straight sets and qualifiedfor the Finals. Saadi Saeed beat Atif by3-0 (11-9, 12-10 and 11-9) AbubakarAziz beat Ahsan Mubashir by 3-0 (11-6, 11-8 and 11-7)Final: Saadi Saeed was seen in full cryin the first two sets against AbubakarAziz finishing both the sets very con-vincingly by 11-7 and 11-8 and gainedthe vital lead of 2-0. In the third setAbubakar came back with extra ordi-nary hitting and won the set at 11-7,making the score 2-1. In the fourth setSaadi Saeed fought back with his richexperience finishing the match at 11-9.Saadi Saeed won the Finals 3-1.Amir Jan, Additional Secretary Homegave away prizes to the winners afterthe finals.

saadi wins Lahore Districtamateur table tennis

Trescothick spearheadsdepression campaign

LONDONAFP

Former england batsman MarcusTrescothick is helping to spearhead a newcampaign to help cricketers tackle depres-sion and addictive behaviour.The Professional Cricketers' Association(PCA) have launched a series of six online'Mind Matters' tutorials, covering subjectsincluding alcohol and drug abuse, gam-bling, anxiety and suicide, and offering ad-vice on where to seek help.The tutorials are mainly presented byTrescothick, who has suffered from de-pression and anxiety throughout his ca-reer. "Thankfully mental well-being isincreasingly taken more seriously andalong with that comes a decreasing stigmafor sufferers," Trescothick said."Cricket is quite a unique sport to play,and as people we are a normal cross sec-tion of the population and as susceptibleas anyone to encounter problems of anynature." Michael Yardy, who flew homefrom england's 2011 World Cup campaigndue to depression, and Warwickshirewicketkeeper Tim Ambrose, anotherplayer to suffer depression, also present asection on the topic. Former england all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and ex-essex andNorthamptonshire bowler DarrenCousins, who attempted suicide in March2011 following his retirement, have alsomade contributions to the initiative.

Taylor hopes to repeatbirthday displaycoLoMBo: ross Taylor, the New Zealandskipper, wasn’t too disappointed after hisillness-hit team succumbed to a nine-rundefeat to South Africa. With Kyle Mills,Jacob Oram, Tim Southee and Daniel Vet-tori all out with stomach bugs, Taylor’sbrisk 75 couldn’t help his side avoiding de-feat against one of the pre-event favourites.“I guess it’s what warm-up games are allabout. It’s about trying to get as much out ofit – it’s a bonus if you win. You would ratherwin the World Cup games. We had a few ill-nesses leading into the match so we onlyhad 11 players there, but the whole squadhas had a game so far, so we’re looking for-ward to the start of the World Cup.”Taylor admitted he was pleased with hisbatting, smashing seven sixes in his 42-ballinnings. “In Twenty20 you can score someruns and it can be pretty hit and miss, but itwas nice to hit a few out of the middle,” hesaid. “It’s only a warm-up game though soyou don’t want to get too carried away.”New Zealand travels to Kandy on Tuesday,ahead of its opening match on Fridayagainst Bangladesh, before Taylor will gethis chance to repeat his heroics at Pallekeleagainst Pakistan on Sunday. AgEnCIES

Pharma open TennisKARACHI

STAFF REPORT

Competitions are continuing in the AJMirza Pharma Open Tennis Tournmentat Karachi Club and the events hasreached semi-final stage on Monday. ReSuLTS: SeMi fiNALS u 18 GiRLS: maheen dada beat Neha

Khan 6-0,6-1, Hania Naveed beat wania Khan 6-1,6-2,

uNioRS 18 SeMi: Mudassir Mustaza beat mian bilal 6-2

5-7 6-4, Kashanul Haq beat Hasnain Manzoor 6-1 1-6 6-1.

55 PLuS SiNGLeS 1ST RouNd: Sabilwali beat fawad

ejaz 6-0,6-1, Zafar Hasan beat Ayoub Haroon 6-2 6-0,

45 plus singles 1st semi: Tahir gul beat Shahid Azoz 6-

7(6) 6-2 7-5,

35 PLuS SiNGLeS QuARTeRS: irfanullah (kpk) beat

Jawad Amjad 6-0,6-0, Rafi derbari (hyd) beat Nawab

muzaffar (mpk) 2-3rtd, ejaz Sarhadi beat Shabbir Gul

(hyd) 5-7 rtd, M Manzer beat Asad ali Habib 6-2,6-2

LHR 18-09-2012_Layout 1 9/19/2012 3:55 AM Page 17

Sports17

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

PARISAFP

VICTOrIA Azarenka of Be-larus stayed top of theWTA world rankings onMonday ahead of MariaSharapova and Agnieszka

radwanska.With none of the top players in ac-

tion, US Open winner Serena Williams,widely regarded as the best player in theworld, remained in fourth place.

Croatia's Donna Vekic, who at 16 be-came the youngest WTA finalist since2006 at Tashkent, jumped 62 places tostand at 121st.

WTA top 201. Victoria Azarenka (BLr) 10265 pts

2. Maria Sharapova (rUS) 84353. Agnieszka radwanska (POL) 82954. Serena Williams (USA) 79005. Petra Kvitova (CZe) 66906. Angelique Kerber (Ger) 50857. Sara errani (ITA) 47558. Li Na (CHN) 45269. Samantha Stosur (AUS) 420010. Marion Bartoli (FrA) 380011. Caroline Wozniacki (DeN) 344012. Ana Ivanovic (SrB) 320013. Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 300514. Maria Kirilenko (rUS) 293515. roberta Vinci (ITA) 242516. Kaia Kanepi (eST) 234417. Lucie Safarova (CZe) 221018. Nadia Petrova (rUS) 200519. Vera Zvonareva (rUS) 187520. Julia Goerges (Ger) 1815 (+1)

drogba row notover, says Shenhuachairman

SHANGHAIAFP

The billionaire chairman of Chinesefootball club Shanghai Shenhua has saida boardroom dispute threatening the fu-ture of foreign stars including DidierDrogba and Nicolas Anelka is not over.Drogba started Saturday's game againstLiaoning Whowin, and scored their lastgoal in a 3-0 win, after Shenhua headcoach Sergio Batista said the row hadbeen "basically resolved".But Zhu Jun, a flamboyant online gam-ing tycoon who has bankrolled the clubfor years and reportedly threatened towithhold the salaries of foreign players,who also number Colombian midfielderGiovanni Moreno, denied any deal.He is said to be demanding other share-holders grant him majority control ofthe club and on his microblog -- China'sequivalent to Twitter -- issued a newdeadline for agreement to be reached bythe end of the month."Now, I made a difficult decision to be-lieve you one more time, one last time!And this time I have a deadline: twoweeks," Zhu said at the weekend, with-out giving details of the dispute or say-ing to whom the message was aimed.Media reports say that under a 2007deal, Zhu's 28.5 percent stake in Shang-hai Shenhua was supposed to rise to 70percent if he invested more than 150million yuan ($23.6 million). Zhu hasreportedly spent about 600 millionyuan. The state-backed Shanghai YouthDaily newspaper on Monday quoted anunnamed source as saying: "If this issueis not resolved satisfactorily, from Octo-ber Zhu Jun might take action.

dogged bhullarwins in Taiwan

TAIPEIAFP

Gaganjeet Bhullar claimed a third AsianTour title on Monday, closing withthree-under-par 69 to win the weather-shortened Yeangder Tournament Play-ers Championship by four strokes.The Indian fended off American JasonKnutzon and 14-time Asian Tour winnerThaworn Wiratchant of Thailand to winthe $500,000 event with his three-daytotal of 12-under-par 204 at Linkou In-ternational Golf and Country Club.Knutzon enjoyed his best result of theseason with his tied-second finish along-side Thaworn, whose hopes of securingback-to-back victory effectively endedwhen he was left to mull a one-shotpenalty because of slow play. American-Korean David Lipsky continued his finerun in his rookie season with anothertop-10 finish when he closed with a 70to take a share of fourth place alongsideBerry Henson of the United States andhome players Lin Wen-tang and HungChien-yao. "I believe it was my fightingspirit as I told myself that I've got to winthis tournament no matter what hap-pens. I knew I was playing well and Iplayed really well on the par-fives allweek," Bhullar told the Asian Tour."I guess this whole week I was totally fo-cused and I was in the zone and if I canrepeat what I've been doing the last tworounds nobody can even touch me."The 24-year-old was in determinedmood in Taipei -- the showpiece was re-duced to a 54-stroke play tournamentbecause of bad weather -- after having tosettle for second best behind Thaworn inMalaysia a fortnight ago.

AZARENKA STAYS TOP OF WORLD RANKINGS

coLoMbo: Pakistani cricketers Kamran Akmal (R), and Shoaib Malik (L) are congratulated

by their team captain Mohammad Hafeez (c) after their victory during a world

Twenty20 warm-up match against india at The R. Premadasa cricket Stadium. afp

QUEBEC CITYAFP

Kirsten Flipkens made the most of herfirst WTA finals opportunity, capping adream week at the Bell Challenge with a6-1, 7-5 victory over eighth-seeded LucieHradecka in Sunday's final.

Both finalists were seeking a first ca-reer WTA title. Hradecka had come upshort in four prior finals appearances,while Flipkens, 26, had never before

reached a championship match.It didn't look that way on Sunday, as

she dispatched Hradecka, of the Czechrepublic, in 69 minutes.

Her triumph punctuated a week thatincluded a first-round upset of top-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkovaand a semi-final win over third-seededGerman Mona Barthel. Flipkens' previ-ous best WTA showings were fourtrips to the semi-finals, most recentlyat 's-Hertogenbosch this year.

Flipkens seizes first WTA title

LHR 18-09-2012_Layout 1 9/19/2012 3:55 AM Page 18

watch it LiveSTAR CRICKETWORLD T20: SRI LANKA VS ZIMBABWE07:00PM

Sports 18

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

Hockey goalkeeperserves legal noticeto Ayaz Mahmood

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

The National hockey team goalkeeperIman Shah has served a legal notice to for-mer hockey Olympian Ayaz Mahmmod formaking baseless allegations on his selec-tion in the team for London Olympics.“Ayaz has defamed me by giving unjusti-fied statement in a TV program on my se-lection in the team that one of the coach ofthe team selected me as I gave him a laptopand ipod,” said Imran in the notice servedthrough his counsel Sheikh MuhammadJaved here on Monday.Imran said he was serving the national forthe last three years before being a part ofthe national junior team for four years. “Ihave made my place in the team throughhard work and years long effort in thehockey field and Ayaz has launched a char-acter assignation campaign against me inthat programme “,said Imran. His counselhas asked Ayaz to seek apology from hisclient or to face legal action.

Motorway Policecentral win LAhorE: National Highways & Motor-way Police N-5 Central thrashed PakistanSteel 6-2 to emerge as national champi-ons, winning the 8th National Men’s FFCNational Touch Ball Championship inrahim Yar Khan.The teams of Punjab Police, railways,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, National Highwaysand Motorway Police, Sindh, PakistanSteel, Punjab and Balochistan are partici-pating in the event. The Motorway Policewhich jolted Pakistan Steel to record anupset win earned the national title for thefirst time .The Motorway Police won finalwith the core of 6-2. Zonal Commander N-5 Central DIG rai Altaf Hussain expressedhis gratitude over splendid win of Motor-ways Police team. STAFF REPORT

OVER $ 2.7 M UP FOR GRABS IN WORLD T20 CUPS.PERVEz QAISER

The winner of the 2012 Twenty-20World Cup in Sri Lanka will pick up $1,000,000 (one million dollars- aboutrs 94,540,000) while the runners-upwill be comforted by receiving a chequefor $ 500,000 (about rs 47,270,000).

Indian team received $ 3,250,000(3.25 million dollars- about rs 307,255,000) while the runners-up SriLanka got a cheque for $ 1,500,000(about rs 141,810,000) in the 50-50World Cup last year in India

The total prize money up for grabs inthe 2012 Twenty-20 World Cup has been

almost $ 2.75 million dollars (about rs259,985,000).

The losing semi finallists in thisWorld Cup will get $ 250,000 each(about rs 23,635,000 each). The winnerof each match in Super eights will re-ceive $ 42,000 (about rs 3,970,680)while winner of each match in Groupstage will get $20,500 (about rs1,938,070).

The winner of the women's Twenty-20 World Cup will pick up $60,000(about rs 5,672,400) while runner-upwill be comforted by receiving a chequefor $ 25,000 (about rs 2,353,5ag00).

So how does the winners’ prize

money of the Twenty-20 World CupCricket compare with those of othermajor sporting events. Unfortunately,not very favourably. The FIFA WorldCup Soccer 2010, Champions Spain,took away $30 million dollars. The clubwinning the europe’s regional Champi-ons League is awarded a whopping $170.In golf’s richest event - the Fedex Cup -champions walks away with a $10 mil-lion payout. Horse-racing’s Dubai WorldCup Night pays the winner $22 million.One of the few major sports which com-pares to World Cup Cricket in terms ofprize-money budget is Grand Slam Ten-nis, which awards $1.5-2 million to its

individual winner.thE prIZE MonEY At thEtWEntY-20 WorLD cup 2012:

Winning Team $ 1,000,000 rs94,540,000

runner up $ 500,000 rs47,270,000

Semi-final Losers $ 250,000 rs23,635,000

Semi-final Losers $ 250,00023,635,000

Winner of each super eight match $42,000 rs 3,970,680

Winner of each 1st round match $20,500 rs rs 1,938,070

Total $ 2,750,000 rs 259,985,000

formula one:Hamilton 'happy' at McLaren

MUMBAIAFP

Lewis Hamilton insists he is happy atMcLaren and believes the Formula Oneteam can deliver success this season butthe British driver says he has yet tomake a decision on his future.The former world champion, whose con-tract with the British-based outfit ex-pires at the end of the 2012 season,acknowledged rumours linking him tothe rival Mercedes team, with MichaelSchumacher expected to retire at theend of the season. But Hamilton, 27,speaking on a visit to India, spokewarmly about his long relationship withMcLaren, with whom he won the 2008drivers' championship. "There havebeen a lot of speculations and rumoursabout my move to Mercedes but I amhappy with McLaren," he was quoted assaying by the Times of India."We have a great car and we are in a po-sition to challenge the top teams. We aredefinitely in with a chance to win thechampionship," Hamilton added.The Briton, who was in Mumbai for asponsors' event ahead of next month'sIndian Grand Prix in New Delhi, said hewould not be rushed into deciding onhis next step.

Shin Jiyai winswomen's britishopen by nine shots

HOYLAKEAFP

South Korea's Shin Jiyai overcame atro-cious weather and survived a marathon36-hole final day to claim a secondWomen's British Open at royal Liver-pool Golf Club by nine shots on Sunday.With rounds of 71 and 73, the 2008champion finished on nine under parand won the final major of the season byan outstanding margin from SouthKorea's Park Inbee.It was the biggest winning margin sincethe Championship became a major in2001. Park, the 2008 US Women's OpenChampion, birdied the last for a closing76 and second place, with AmericanPaula Creamer, who closed birdie, eagle,par birdie, taking third on one over parafter a 72. Finishing in near darkness,the victory and the £266,000 chequecompleted a remarkably impressiveweek for 24-year-old Shin, who has nowwon 10 times on the LPGA Tour.

LAHOREKHAWAJA PERVAIz SAEEd‏

tHe star golfers of Pak-istan like Shabbir Iqbal(U Fone), Matloob Ahmed(Garrison), Shahid JavedKhan (royal Palm) and

Muhammed Munir (Islamabad) allchampions in their own right, haveconverged to the Defence raya GolfCourse in Lahore, full of confidenceand loaded with the intention of tastingvictory on this brilliant golf coursewhich certainly measures upto interna-tional standards.

And mind you, these championsknow how daring it is to meet the chal-lenges that this layout presents. Thegolfing ability is tested to the full andso is the champions capacity to surviveunder duress and competitive condi-tions.

Shabbir, Matloob, Munir andShahid have many titles in their bagand hence whenever they compete theyare considered amongst the hotfavourites. There is a long list of otherstrong and fancied contenders who areeager to reduce these champions tosize, but then what actually happens at

the end of the three days duel dependson consistent excellence throughoutthe three rounds, virtually on everyshot, be it a long drive or a 50 yardspitch or even a three feet putt. In thisregard, at least thirty participating pro-fessional golfers are exceedingly out-standing in patches, however a missedputt here and a poor hit on one or twotees leads to their downfall. Ultimatelythe difference and deficit in scores maybe two or three, yet it throws them waydown the leaderboard.

Shabbir and Munir who hail fromIslamabad, recently enjoyed emphaticvictories in Karachi and while Shabbirhas been more dominant of the two,both are eager to add another featherin their caps at the Defence raya GolfCourse layout during the three tourna-ment days starting from 18th Septem-ber to 20th September.

Out of the other seasoned stal-warts, Shahid Javed Khan of royalPalm has certainly fine tuned his tem-perament and his performance in thePrime Ministers Open Golf Champi-onship in rawalpindi last week wasoutstanding, although he lost to Shab-bir in the playoff. His hitting off thetees is awesome and is determined to

appear as the front runner in thismajor championship.

Matloob, a two-time Pakistannumber one, looks in great trim and allgeared up to accept the challenge thatthis golf course poses.

"The most important thing is thatthis is like my home course and myrhythm really picks up when I playhere," said Matloob.

Promising golfers like Aadil Je-hangir and Daanyal Jehangir find therhythm missing in their swings, thoughAadils long hitting continues to lookremarkable and many of his rivals envyhis tee shots hitting ability. An encour-aging aspect is that after his practiceyesterday he said he was feeling betterand more in control.

Another superb one, Shafiq Masihstated “After missing victories in thelast three championships, I know thatthis is an event where i can do well. Ijust have to feel confident and the urgeto win has to be dominant. From theprofessional golfers point of view, thischampionship is special and an oppor-tunity to add their earnings.

The Sayyid Paper Open GolfChampionship will be declared open byFaisal Sayyid of Sayyid Paper at 9am.

TURINAFP

european ryder Cup captain, Jose MariaOlazabal produced his lowest score inthree years on the final day of the ItalianOpen on Sunday and then reassured thegolf world there would be no repeat of theopening ceremony remarks delivered byNick Faldo four years ago at Valhalla.

Olazabal bogeyed the first but thenbirdied three in a row on route to a sevenunder par 65 for a seven under par tally.

Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castanomade amends in missing out on ryderCup selection, winning a second ItalianOpen in six years by two strokes with alast round 64 for a 24-under par tally.

South African Garth Mulroy (67) wassecond on 22-under par and the ryderCup duo of Nicolas Colsaerts and MartinKaymer, both had 67s, sharing fifth placeon 18-under par.

Olazabal will spend this coming weekresting at his home in Spain before head-ing to London over the weekend and thenjoining just three team members - Lon-don-based Francesco Molinari, Belgium'sColsaerts and Scotland's Paul Lawrie -aboard next Monday's special charterfrom London Heathrow to Chicago'sO'Hare Airport.

But while the Spaniard, who is head-ing to his 10th ryder Cup, is delightedwith the form of his 12 players his mainfear seems to be the formality of the occa-sion.

"That's why I am taking this week off.I am going to stay at home, just relax, chill

out, make a few calls, check everything'sin place," he said.

"I'll also be talking to the PGA people,to my team, to see everything is spot on.

"Thomas Bjorn and Jamie Spence aretravelling to Chicago on Thursday, sothey'll be on site from Friday and they willgive me some information on the set-upof the course.

"There are some other things I needto do plus I'll be keeping an eye on howthe boys are playing in Atlanta. You know,those little things." And with just over aweek before competition commences,Olazabal is pondering the speeches he willbe called upon to make especially at theopening ceremony.

Four years ago, the last time theryder Cup was held in the United States,Faldo hit a false note at the opening cere-mony, introducing triple Major winnerPadraig Harrington as "He's hit more golfballs than potatoes grown in Ireland", and

naming Soren Hansen as Soren Stenson'.Olazabal will certainly produce a

more sombre note and is expected tomake a reference to his ryder Cup part-ner Seve Ballesteros, who died from abrain tumour in May, 2011.

"The speeches are the part I feel mostuncomfortable with," he said.

"Obviously, they're not our cup of teain the sense we are not used to doing thatweek-out, week-in, and talking in front ofmillions of people. "I won't tell you if I'vewritten my speech but it's tough as youdon't want to forget anyone, you have tothank the right people.

"I know Sam (Torrance) got somecoaching, so it's not easy. As players weare used to hitting tee shots, chips andputts and there's nothing really to fear butmaking speeches? Well, that's different.

"I feel I've been okay up to now andhopefully I'll be okay when I get to Medi-nah and I won't make a mess of it."

olazabal seeks rightwords for ryder Cup

Golfing heavyweights seekSayyid Paper Open Title

LHR 18-09-2012_Layout 1 9/19/2012 3:55 AM Page 19

Tuesday, 18 September, 2012

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

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

FOLLOWING Youtubemanagement’s refusal toheed to the advice of theGovernment of Pakistan toremove blasphemous

material from its site, Pakistan onMonday night blocked the websiteacross the country. The Ministry ofInformation Technology implementedthe orders by Prime Minister rajaPervez Ashraf and Supreme Court ofPakistan and blocked the social website.expressing inability to remove thevideo, YouTube said, “This can be achallenge because what’s OK in onecountry can be offensive elsewhere.This video – which is widely availableon the web – is clearly within ourguidelines and so will stay onYouTube. However, we’ve restrictedaccess to it in countries where it isillegal such as India and Indonesia aswell as in Libya and egypt, given thevery sensitive situations in these twocountries. This approach is entirely

consistent with principles we first laidout in 2007.”earlier, the prime minister had takencognizance of presence of blasphemousmaterial available on the social medianetwork and issued strict instructions tothe ministry to block the services ofYoutube with immediate effect. The PTA had earlier sent a list of anti-Islamic secured links to Facebookmanagement, which had been blockedfrom viewing. A number of complaintshad been reported stating that clips ofthe blasphemous anti-Islam film werestill available on the internet, especiallyon Youtube. The prime minister said theblasphemous material would not betolerated and the services of Youtubewould remain suspended until theremoval of blasphemous material.

ptA BLocKS 934 LInKS oF AntI-ISLAM MoVIE: Meanwhile, PakistanTelecommunication Authority (PTA)said 934 websites carrying blasphemouscontent had been blocked by Mondayevening. “However, the surge of anti-Islamic video is massive, causing unrest

in the country,” the statement added.The PTA urged the nation to inform theauthority of any viewable links of anti-Islamic websites promptly.

court For BLocKInGoFFEnDInG MAtErIAL: earlier inthe day, the Supreme Court directedPTA to immediately block the offensivematerial against Islam and Muslims onYouTube and on any other website.The PTA chairman was ordered to

submit a report with the registrar. Athree-judge bench of Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, JusticeJawwad S Khawaja and Justice KhiljiArif Hussain issued directions afterconduction proceedings on aconstitutional petition moved byJustice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed andformer Jammat-e-Islami chief QaziHussain Ahmed availability of obsceneand other objectionable material onthe Internet and media.

BEIRUTAFP

Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah on Mondaywarned of “very dangerous” global reper-cussions if an anti-Islam film is released inits entirety, as the death toll from violencesparked by the movie rose to 19.

An eruption of Muslim anger over atrailer of the American-made film that ap-peared on the Internet has spread acrossthe world, taking hold on Monday inAfghanistan, Indonesia, the West Bank,the Philippines and Yemen. Tens of thou-sands of demonstrators poured into thestreets of southern Beirut to denounce thefilm at Nasrallah’s request, and the head ofthe powerful Shia Muslim group surprisedsupporters by making a rare public appear-ance. “O Prophet, we die for you, my souland my blood are for you,” he said, urgingthe crowd to repeat the words after him forthe whole world to hear. Nasrallah, whoseLebanese movement is blacklisted in theUnited States as a terrorist group, has

called for a week of protests across thecountry over the film, describing it as the“worst attack ever on Islam.”

“America must understand... the USmust understand that releasing the entirefilm will have dangerous, very dangerous,repercussions around the world,” he toldMonday’s rally. “All our people and gov-ernments must put pressure on the inter-national community to issue internationaland national laws to criminalize insults ofthe three world religions,” he said, refer-ring to Christianity, Islam and Judaism.“America, great Satan! Israel, enemy of theMuslims!” cried men, women and chil-dren. The movie entitled “Innocence ofMuslims”, believed to have been producedby a small group of extremist Christians,has sparked a week of furious protests out-side US embassies and other Americansymbols in at least 20 countries.

In Afghanistan, protests turned violentfor the first time when more than 1,000 peo-ple protested in Kabul, setting police cars andcontainers ablaze, police told AFP. Between

40 and 50 policemen were “very slightlywounded” by stone-throwers and membersof the crowd waving sticks, said Kabul policechief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi. A police of-ficial, who gave his name only as Hafiz, saidprotesters also threw stones at CampPhoenix, a US-run military base in the capi-tal, but were later driven back.

Google has barred access to the videoin egypt, India, Indonesia, Libya andMalaysia, while the government has re-stricted access to Google-owned YouTubein Afghanistan. Later, Pakistan blocked ac-cess to YouTube after an order from PrimeMinister Pervez Ashraf to do so over blas-phemous material, following the video-sharing website’s failure to take down theanti-Islam film. In Jakarta, protestershurled petrol bombs and clashed with In-donesian police outside the US embassyshouting “America, America go to hell”, asdemonstrations in the world’s most popu-lous Muslim nation turned violent. Policewere seen kicking or dragging away someof the protesters, while one policeman was

taken away in an ambulance with his facebleeding. Many of the protesters were sup-porters of hardline Islamic groups andwere dressed in identical white Muslimgarb. The capital’s police chief Untungrajab said 11 policemen and a protesterwere injured and taken to hospital, andthat four protesters were arrested.

At the weekend, President BarackObama called top US diplomats in Libya,Tunisia, Yemen and Sudan to assure themtheir safety is a top priority, the WhiteHouse said. Mass demonstrations after themain weekly Muslim prayers on Fridaysaw 11 protesters killed as police battled todefend US missions from mobs in egypt,Lebanon, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen. Theunrest began in Cairo, where protestersstormed the US embassy late Tuesday, re-placing the Stars and Strips with an Is-lamic flag. Hours later it spread to theeastern Libyan city of Benghazi, where theUS consulate came under sustained attackwith four Americans killed, including am-bassador Chris Stevens.

In Afghanistan, two US Marines diedand six US fighter jets were destroyedwhen Taliban fighters on Friday stormed agiant airfield to avenge the film. TheUnited States has deployed counter-terrorMarine units to Libya to protect its em-bassy in Tripoli and stationed two destroy-ers off the North African coast. A Marineunit was also dispatched to protect the USembassy in Yemen, where police shot deadfour protesters and wounded 34 others onThursday as a mob breached its perimeter.There were more protests in Yemen onMonday. The United States has evacuatedall non-essential staff and family membersfrom Sudan and Tunisia and warned UScitizens against travel to the two countries.Libya said it has arrested 50 suspects inconnection with the consulate attack andreplaced its security chiefs in Benghazi re-gion over the deadly violence. And therussian prosecutor general’s office onMonday backed a ban on the anti-Islamfilm, saying it would seek to add it to a listof extremist material, Interfax reported.

Youtube blocked across Pakistan afterrefusal to remove anti-Islam filmg sC, pM order immediate removal, blockade

of blasphemous content g youtube says video to go off-site only in

India, Libya, Indonesia and egypt

HeZBollaH Warns Us of dangeroUs reperCUssions over anti-islam film

sC begins contempt proceedings againstmalik riazg Questions AG Qadir’s ability toact as impartial prosecutor

g Reserves verdict in the caseuntil September 20

ISLAMABADAgEnCIES

The Supreme Court on Monday formallyinitiated contempt of court proceedingsagainst property tycoon Malik riaz ofBahria Town on charges of leveling harshallegations against Chief Justice IftikharMohammad Chaudhry. A two-judgebench of the apex court headed byJustice ejaz Afzal Khan began theproceedings against Malik riaz. Duringthe hearing, Attorney General Irfan Qadirsubmitted a list of witnesses thatincluded the names of Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, formerprime minister Yousaf raza Gilani,Supreme Court registrar Dr FaqirHussain and Arsalan Iftikhar. Justiceejaz asked the attorney general whatconnection did the witnesses had withthe contempt of court case. The judgeremarked that the attorney generalshould have reviewed the list ofwitnesses, adding that the name of animportant witness was not on the list.The bench also objected to the inclusionof the chief justice’s name in the list.Addressing Qadir, Justice ejaz said therewere allegations of bias against him,adding that how could the attorneygeneral be allowed to act as a prosecutorin the case. Qadir said allegations ofprejudice against him had been leveledby Arsalan Iftikhar. Justice ejaz alsoinquired Qadir whether oath should betaken from a judge in case he/she was toappear as a witness. To this, the attorneygeneral said judges had been appearingin courts in the past. Justice ejaz askedQadir whether he had previously acted ascounsel for riaz and whether he wantedto act as the prosecutor in the contemptof court case. Qadir said such restrictionsexisted for judges, not for the attorneygeneral and that the case required of himto prosecute riaz for contempt of courtcharges. Justice ejaz said the bench hadto assess whether Qadir could act as aprosecutor in the case independently.Hesaid there were reservations over Qadir’srole as the prosecutor in the contempt ofcourt case against Yousaf raza Gilani.The bench, however, did not allow riaz’scounsel Abdul Basit to present hisarguments on the issue of the prosecutor.Basit said the proceedings were beingcarried out against riaz and that hisclient had the right to stress that theprocedures be carried out properly. Hesaid the court did not have the authorityto change the prosecutor in the case.Adjourning the hearing until September20, the bench said a verdict in the casewould be issued on the said date.

WARAI: Residents look at the burning government offices following a protest rally against an anti-Islam movie on Monday. Two protesters died in Pakistan as a violent

backlash against a uS film mocking Islam spread across the region. afp

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