Rs 25.00 Vol III No 238 19 Pages Lahore Edition Sunday, 24 February, 2013 Rabi us Sani 13, 1434

page 03

page 19page 02

abbott’s sevenhas pakistanreeling at 156

story on page 21

shahbaz seals energy deals withgerman, austriancompanies

story on page 02

put ‘shia killer’Ishaq on trial,demand Hazaras

story on page 03

Bringing peacethrough pens:Lahore Litfestbegins!

story on page 05

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It would be better if retired judges do not join

the caretaker setup. – Asma Jehangir

MAnzoor WATToo

eMBArrASSed AS

JIyAlAS Go BerSerK RAWALPINDI: Pakistan People’s

Party (PPP) Punjab President Manzoor

Wattoo on Monday had to face an

embarrassing situation as disgruntled

PPP jiyalas tried to manhandle him

during a party gathering. According to

details, Wattoo was about to start his

address at a party meeting when

angry PPP jiyalas attempted to accost

him while he was on stage. They tried

to grab him several times but he was

saved from the angry mob of PPP

activists and taken off stage. Wattoo

then left the gathering to avoid

further embarrassment. INP

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

THe Punjab governmentsigned agreements withtwo companies, fromAustria and Germany, onsolar and hydel projects

in Cholistan.

Punjab Chief Minister (CM) ShahbazSharif said the German company AeG isexecuting 400 MW and 50 MW solar en-ergy projects in Cholistan and investingRs 100 billion in these projects, addingthat this is a fabulous gift from the PML-N government to the people of Pakistanand Punjab.

He said the 50 MW project will startgenerating electricity in June, 2013whereas the 400 MW project will also becompleted within a year. He said a sov-ereign guarantee will be sought from thefederal government for these projects.The CM said the Punjab government hassigned two Memorandums of Under-standing (MoUs) with German companyenergiequelle and Austrian companyAndritz Hydro for cooperation in the en-ergy sector.

Talking to media personnel on theoccasion of signing ceremony of

two MoUs with energy compa-nies from Germany and Austria

at Model Town, Sharif saidvast opportunities of gener-

ating energy through coal,

hydel and solar means existed in Pakistanand the Punjab government welcomes theinvestment by the German and Austriancompanies in this sector.

He said the Punjab government isserious in executing energy projects ina short span of time. However, it is lam-entable that NePRA had not yet fixedthe per unit electricity rate for these en-ergy projects, he said. Sharif said he hadraised his voice a number of times inthis regard but no attention was paid toit. He said an agreement had been madewith AeG for producing electricity at 18cent per unit.

He disclosed that the federal gov-ernment was interested in agreeing at 22cent per unit but now it has to give asovereign guarantee at the rate of 18cent. Sharif said he will lay the founda-tion stone of this project in Cholistanthis month.

Under the agreement, the Germancompany will install projects with a300 MW solar capacity whereas theAustrian company will cooperate inhydel power projects.

KARACHI

AFTAb ChANNA

After his resignation from the post of the federal finance minister, Dr AbdulHafeez Shaikh is likely to get the office of caretaker chief minister forSindh, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement,which recently became the leading opposition in the Sindh Assembly, hasalso given a go-ahead to its former ally – the ruling Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) – for Shaikh’s appointment as Sindh chief minister in the caretakersetup, sources privy to the development told Pakistan Today.The federal finance minister resigned from his post on February 19, 2013,amid speculations that he might lead the caretaker government as prime min-ister. However, it was also expected that the opposition leader might object tohis appointment as prime minister in the interim government, as he was seentoo close to the military and served as the privatisation and investment minis-ter under former military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf. AfterShaikh’s resignation, State Minister for Finance Saleem Mandiwalla wasmade the finance minister in his stead. The sources said that the MQM dele-gation, headed by Parliamentary Leader Sardar Ahmed, held a detailed discus-sion with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah over Shaikh’s appointment ascaretaker chief minister. However, the final decision in this regard would betaken by the MQM’s Rabita Committee, sources disclosed. Interestingly,sources claimed that Hafeez Shaikh was amongthose candidates which had been forwarded bythe MQM. “Shaikh has very good relationswith the MQM too and it will benefit the rul-ing PPP to induct him as caretaker primeminister,” sources said. Besides, Chief Min-ister Qaim Ali Shah will also contact otheropposition parties for Shaikh’s induction ascaretaker CM, sources said, adding thatPPP leaders including Pir Mazharul Haq,Sharjeel Memon, Ayaz Soomro and AgaSiraj Durrani also met President Asif Zardariand apprised him about the development ofmaking Hafeez Shaikh as caretaker chief min-ister. Sources claimed that the official an-nouncement was expected to be made in thedays to come after the consultation process withopposition parties was completed. When ap-proached, the PPP and MQM leaderships gaveclear hints however they did not confirm thenews, saying that they were waiting for anappropriate time.

Shahbaz seals energy deals withGerman, Austrian companies

Hafeez Shaikh likelyto be made Sindhcaretaker CM

Taliban spokesman

says he will lead

peace talksPESHAWAR:

Tehrik-e-

Taliban

Pakistan

(TTP) have

authorised

spokesman

Ihsanullah

Ihsan for peace

negotiations with

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, JUI-F chief

Fazlur Rehman and JI chief Munawar

Hasan. Speaking to media outlets

from an undisclosed location, the TTP

spokesman said that the decision to

appoint him was made in a meeting of

commanders in the outskirts of North

Waziristan. STAFF REPORT

IHC CJ appointed

SC judge; Kasi

new IHC CJISLAMABAD: On

the advice of the

prime minister

(PM), President

Asif Zardari on

Saturday

appointed

Justice

Hameedur Rehman

as judge of the

Supreme Court (SC) and Justice Anwar

Khan Kasi as chief justice (CJ) of the

Islamabad High Court (IHC). President

Zardari’s spokesman Farhatullah Khan

Babar said the Parliamentary Committee

on Judges Appointment in the Superior

Courts, after receiving the nomination

of Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman from

the Judicial Commission of Pakistan

(JCP), had unanimously agreed with the

nomination and requested the PM to

advice the president for the said

appointment. President Asif Zardari has

also appointed Justice Anwar Khan Kasi

as the IHC chief justice. Earlier, Justice

Kasi was serving as the IHC judge.

STAFF REPORT

Balochistan on strike

against arrest of

Sunni group’s leadersQUETTA: A strike was observed in

most parts of Balochistan on Saturday

in protest against the arrest of Ahl-e-

Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) leader

Mohammad Rafiq Mengal and several

other workers during a targeted

operation by security forces. The call

for strike was given by the ASWJ.

According to reports, most of the

trade centres were closed and traffic

remained thin. In the provincial

capital, markets and business centres

were closed on Jinnah Road, Shahrah-

e-Iqbal, Liaquat Bazaar, Bacha Khan

Chowk, Saryab Road and Satellite

Town. Markets were also closed in

Khuzdar, Dhadhar and other main

cities of the province.

SHOOTING: At least seven persons

were injured due to firing on a rally of

the ASWJ at Liaquat Bazaar, police said.

Officials said that unidentified

motorcyclists opened indiscriminate firing

at the rally when it was passing through

Liaqat Bazaar, the central commercial

area of the provincial capital. INP

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Sunday, 24 February, 2013

Consultation with coalition partners over caretaker

govt not mandatory. – Farooq Sattar

QUETTA: The Hazara community on Saturday demanded that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

chief Malik Ishaq be put on trial, a day after he was arrested following deadly

sectarian attacks in the city of Quetta. Ishaq, who leads the banned sectarian

militant outfit, was held on Friday after two recent bombings in Quetta targeting

the Shia Hazara minority killed more than 180 people, sparking nationwide

protests.The outlawed militant group, linked to both al Qaeda and the Pakistani

Taliban, claimed responsibility for both attacks. “We have always been demanding

arrest of all those involved in any act of sectarian violence, irrespective of their

party affiliation,” said Abdul Khaliq Hazara, leader of the Hazara Democratic Party.

“Ishaq must be brought to justice and punished for involvement in violence,” he

added. Ishaq, who has been arrested before, was released by a court on bail in July

2011, even though he has been implicated in dozens of murders. He was detained

briefly in 2012 for inciting sectarian hatred and has also been accused of

masterminding the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, which

wounded several players and killed eight Pakistanis.

His latest arrest – which came a day after the Pakistan Army denied any links to LJ

– should not be an “eye wash”, said Sajid Naqvi, leader of the Shia Ulema Council.

“We demand his trial and the authorities should provide protection to witnesses

who would like to appear in the court,” he said.

The LJ leader, said on Friday that he had been arrested in connection with the

Quetta bombings. Police officials said that he was arrested under the Maintenance

of Public Order law. AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD

TAyyAb huSSAIN

WITH the election Com-mission of Pakistan(eCP) announcing to en-sure implementation ofArticles 62 and 63 of the

constitution in order to filter out those politi-cians who have been evading taxes, gettingloans waived, and holding fake degrees, thePakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)has initiated back channel negotiations withthe Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to shootdown any such move.

A source in the ruling PPP told PakistanToday that the PML-N had used back chan-nels to convey to the PPP leadership its con-cerns over the eCP’s proactive approach onimplementing Articles 62 and 63, therebyclosing the parliament’s doors on top leadersof both the PPP and PML-N. “Surprisingly,the all-time hawk, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan,has conveyed to us that both the partiesshould discuss a joint strategy to counter theeCP’s moves,” he added.

Another source in the PPP confirmedthat top PPP leaders were also thinking onthe same lines. “We know that something iscooking up somewhere with a plan to block-ing doors on our top leaders,” he added.

The PPP leader said that if a jointstrategy was not evolved, there was astrong possibility that several PPP leaders,including Khurshid Shah, would becomea victim of Articles 62 and 63 due to thefake degree case. “There are some othersin the PML-N who would also be a victim

of Articles 62 and 63,” he added. He said there were strong chances that

over 200 top politicians, including NawazSharif and Shahbaz Sharif, would becomevictims of the said articles due to cases ofbank default and loan write-offs. He said thatthe eCP’s move to tighten the noose aroundpoliticians by implementing Articles 62 and63 of the constitution in true letter and spirithad annoyed parliamentarians belonging toboth the government and the opposition.

According to the source, the eCP seemsadamant in implementing Articles 62 and 63,which would mainly harm the two major po-litical parties – the PPP and the PML-N – asmore than 70 percent of parliamentarians havenot yet submitted their income tax returns.The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and theState Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have already as-sured the eCP of their help in identifying taxevaders, loan and utility bill defaulters andbeneficiaries of loan write-offs, setting thestage for meaningful scrutiny of declarationsof assets to be submitted by candidates.

In this regard, Chief election Commis-sioner (CeC) Fakharuddin G ebrahim alsoheld detailed meetings with SBP GovernorYaseen Anwar, FBR chief Ali Arshad Ha-keem and officials of the National Accounta-bility Bureau (NAB) and the NationalDatabase and Registration Authority

(NADRA) to filter out the tainted politicians.According to the decision, NAB would pro-vide the eCP with the list of convicted politi-cians while the SBP would give the details ofthe defaulters on bank loans, and the FBR andNADRA would furnish the details about taxevaders. However, the move has exposed theevil nexus between the two parties, as the twoapparent rivals have resumed contacts to un-dermine the radical measures being taken withan attempt to cleanse the system of the corrupt.Law Minister Farooq Naek, while speaking inthe Senate a few days ago, had also warnedthe eCP that it should remain within its pa-rameters and not exceed its powers.

Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan, the one-time supporter of the eCP,said that he would never submit his degreesto the eCP even if he was disqualified, re-flecting that both the parties had joinedhands to counter the move, the source said.

The source said that the stern reaction bythe government and the opposition was thefirst real test whether or not the eCP had thepower and the will to carry out a transparentand fair exercise to cleanse the system of rot-ten eggs. However, the CeC’s phone toChaudhry Nisar regarding clarification of theeCP’s position gives the impression that thecommission backtracked from its real stanceand its neutrality. A parliamentary commit-tee led by PPP leader Jehangir Badr mightapproach President Asif Ali Zardari in thisregard, the source said. Apart from this, thePPP-led coalition and its rival PML-N arefirm on their demand of allowing a 14-dayscrutiny period, instead of the 30-day periodsought by the eCP.

Hating PPP was easy,until eCP stepped in!

Put ‘Shia killer’ Ishaq ontrial, demand Hazaras

Fear oF articles 62, 63pushes pMl-N torecoNcile with ppp

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Sunday, 24 February, 2013

Gwadar deal to strengthen

Sino-Pak relations. – Minister

of State Tasneem Qureshi

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Punjab government spokesmanSenator Pervaiz Rasheed onSaturday rejected Interior Min-ister Rehman Malik’s allega-tions regardingLashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), sayingthe Punjab government hadplayed its role in arresting Ishaqbut the courts had set him free.

Rasheed said Malik Ishaqwas arrested twice by the Pun-jab government – first in 1997and the second time just a dayago. “Malik is levelling false al-legations only for political pur-poses,” he said, adding that theinterior minister should checkthe record and be aware thatMalik Ishaq was sentenced anumber of times by trial courtsbut was released by highercourts through appeals during

the Musharraf era. Rasheedsaid that Rehman Malik neitherwrote a letter to Punjab govern-ment for arresting Ishaq norprovided any material on thebasis of which Ishaq could havebeen arrested.

He said that it was an opensecret that 11 arms licenseswere issued to Malik Ishaq andtwo of his sons, Malik Usmanand Malik Muhammad HaqNawaz, who have connectionswith Sindh and Balochistangovernments of PPP. Similarly,licenses of prohibited boreswere also issued to Malik Ishaqby the federal government,added Rasheed. “The Punjabgovernment never issued anylicense to Ishaq. The federalgovernment was reminded re-peatedly to stop issuance ofprohibited bore licenses but ourpleas went in vain,” he said.

Senator Rasheed said thatinstead of levelling allegations,Rehman Malik should explainwhy licenses in such a largenumber were issued by theSindh and Balochistan govern-ments to Malik Ishaq. He saidthat following Ishaq’s arrest bythe Punjab government led byShahbaz Sharif in 1997, he hadto spend 14 years in jail andwas released due to weak pros-ecution in courts duringMusharraf’s time.

Giving details of the li-censes issued to Malik Ishaq,Rasheed said that the LJ leaderwas issued license No. 227/8for weapon No. 973066 of 222bore, license No. 226/9 forweapon No. 860760 of 223bore and license No. 225 forweapon No. 887068 of .44 borefrom Jacobabad by Sindh gov-ernment and license No. 358

for weapon No. SA 6393 of 12bore from Jaffarabad, Balochis-tan, and license No. 3158 forweapon No. 7034 of .222 boreby Balochistan governmentfrom Quetta. Malik Muham-mad Usman, son of MalikIshaq, was issued license No.2192 for weapon No. 276376of 12 bore and license No. 2193for weapon No. 6192 of 30bore by Balochistan govern-ment from Quetta while licenseNo. 803 for weapon No. 45358of 30 bore was issued to himfrom Jaffarabad, Balochistan.Similarly, Malik Haq Nawaz,son of Malik Ishaq, was issuedlicense No. 2191 for weaponNo. 276374 of 12 bore fromQuetta, license No. 804 forweapon No. 31110014 of 30bore from Jaffarabad and li-cense No. 2190 for weapon No.915312 of 30 bore from Quetta.

‘Courts let Ishaq loose, we didn’t’

LAHORE

ONLINE

nAWAZ Sharif, presi-dent of his own fac-tion of the PakistanMuslim League

(PML-N), on Saturday saidkillers of renowned Shia sur-geon Dr Ali Hyder would bebrought to justice.

Speaking to reporters out-side the deceased doctor’s res-idence, Nawaz said the familyof Dr Ali Hyder had sacrificedfor the creation of Pakistanand had severed the country,adding that murder of DrHyder was unfortunate for thewhole nation.

He said police and otherlaw-enforcement agencieswere doing their best to book

the culprits. Talking on the occasion,

Punjab Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif said he was mon-itoring the progress of thecase daily, adding that theculprits would soon bebrought to justice.

To a question about a

link between handing overof Gwadar Port to China andrecent wave of terrorism inBalochistan, Nawaz ruledout foreign hand in terror-ism, saying that the govern-ment had failed inmaintaining law and orderin Balochistan and Karachi.

PESHAWAR

STAFF REPORT

At least three militants anda policeman were killed ina clash near Karnal SherKhan Interchange on Pe-shawar-Islamabad Motor-way on Saturday.

A security official saidthat the clash occurred when apolice team stopped three per-sons riding a motorcycle. Themotorcyclists first threw ahand grenade at the police andthen started firing, he said.

As a result, one policemanidentified as Abdul Nasir waskilled on the spot, the officialsaid, adding that all three bikeriders were killed in retalia-tion. The driver of the policevan also received bulletwounds. He was taken to ahospital in Akora.

The official said that an

identity card issued by a localseminary had been foundfrom the possession of onedead militant. The police alsoclaimed to have seized twohand grenades along with so-phisticated weapons.

While investigations arein progress, officials believethat the militants were goingfor a terrorist attack.

elsewhere, a constable ofthe community police wasgunned down by unidentifiedpersons at Mathra near Pe-shawar on Saturday morning.

About a week ago, a sui-cide bomber attempted to hitKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)Chief Minister Amir HaiderKhan Hoti in Mardan. OnMonday, two suicidebombers attacked the KhyberHouse in Peshawar, killingeight including the assistantpolitical agent.

WASHINGTON

ONLINE

The US military on Satur-day temporarily groundedits entire fleet of F-35fighter jets as a precaution-ary measure after a routineinspection detected a crackon an engine blade.

According to a statementfrom Pentagon, all F-35flight operations had beensuspended until the investi-gation was complete. “It istoo early to know the fleet-wide impact of the recentfinding,” it said, adding that

the F-35 Joint Program Of-fice was working closelywith Pratt and Whitney andLockheed Martin at all F-35locations to ensure the in-tegrity of the engine and toreturn the fleet safely to flightas soon as possible.

The Pentagon said a rou-tine engine inspection revealeda crack on an engine blade ofthe F-35 engine installed in F-35A aircraft AF-2 operating atedwards Air Force Base, Cal-ifornia. engineering teamswould be shipping the engine’sturbine module and its associ-ated hardware to Pratt and

Whitney’s engine Facility inMiddletown, Connecticut, toconduct more thorough eval-uation and root cause analy-sis. The New York Times saidthe suspension of flightscame at an awkward time forthe military, which was fac-ing automatic budget cutsthat could slow its purchasesof the planes.

The F-35 II is a family ofsingle-seat, single-engine,fifth generation multi-rolefighters under development toperform ground attack, recon-naissance and air defense mis-sions with stealth capability.

Contaminatedmilk claimstwo livesKHAIRPUR: At least twochildren died while anothereight fell unconscious by drink-ing poisonous milk on Saturday.According to details, 10 chil-dren of a family fell uncon-scious when they consumedexpired milk in Allah Dino vil-lage near Deparja. The victimswere shifted to local hospitalswhere five-year-old Dhani BuxSaheto died. Another childHamzo, 10, died in a Sukkurhospital while other uncon-scious children were identifiedas Waheeda, 2, Asghar Ali, 5,Latif Dino, Zulekhan, Tauheedand Bakhat Ali. APP

Arab militia kills50 in Sudan

KHARTOUM

AGENCIES

An Arab militia firing heavymachine guns killed more than50 people in Sudan’s Darfurregion on Saturday, residentssaid, continuing unrest thathas caused the largest dis-placement of people in years.“They came on Land Cruisers,used Dushkas and they burned30 houses killing 53 people,”said one resident of el Sireaftown, to which most of the100,000 people displaced orseverely affected by the earliertribal fighting had fled.

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) hassuspended the supply of dieselto Pakistan Railways after acheque issued by the latterbounced on Saturday.

The sources quoted Pak-istan Railways authorities assaying that the fuel crisis trig-gered by this latest supply haltcould put branch-line trainsout of service.

“This suspension is a bad

news for the local trains asRailways does not haveenough diesel in reserve tomake up for the shortfall”,said an official.

The Railways officials saythe emergent situation hasforced them to buy dieselfrom the open market with therevenue generated by sellingadvance bookings to the pas-sengers. “We will do whateverwe can to keep the trains run-ning. We will not let the pas-sengers down,” he said.

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Independent Lawyers’Group led by Asma Jehangirsecured the president slot bydefeating independent candi-date and Professional Groupof Hamid Khan in the La-hore High Court Bar Associ-ation (LHCBA) polls heldon Saturday.

Abid Saqi was electedpresident of the LHCBA forthe year 2013-14 while inde-pendent candidate Shafqat

Mehmood Chohan stood asrunner-up.

Abid Saqi bagged 3,357votes, Shafqat Chohan ob-tained 2,783 votes and HamidKhan Group’s MuhammadShah got 2,194.

B a l e e g - u z - Z a m a nChaudhry secured 3,472 towin the LHCBA secretary po-sition. Ghulam Sarawar Ni-hung won as vice-president byobtaining 4,988 votes.

Usman Sher Gondal waselected finance secretary with5,542 votes.

Protest againstdrone strikesheld inWashington

WASHINGTON

ONLINE

A demonstration againstdrone attacks was held onSaturday outside thePakistani embassy inWashington. According todetails, activists fromCODePINK, a peace andjustice organisation, andstudents of George MasonUniversity staged thedemonstration againstdrone attacks.Dozens of Pakistanis and UScitizens participated in theprotest. The demonstratorsalso held a meeting withPakistan’s ambassador to USSherry Rehman anddemanded that governmentof Pakistan should raise thedrone attacks issue with US.Speaking on the occasion,Sherry Rehman said that thedrone attacks were actually growing militancy inthe region.

MQM seeksoppositionbench seatsKARACHI: The MuttahidaQaumi Movement’s ((MQM)coordination committee on Sat-urday urged the government toaccept resignations of its min-isters and advisers immedi-ately. In a statement, it alsocalled for the issuance of noti-fication of the MQM’s leaderof the opposition in the SindhAssembly. It said further theMQM had announced the deci-sion to sit on the oppositionbenches. All federal andprovincial ministers and advis-ers of the MQM had alreadytendered their resignations andapplications had been submit-ted for the allotment of opposi-tion benches. The committeesaid that the party had beenraising voice against undemo-cratic actions and it would con-tinue to play an active role bysupporting people’s issues. APP

driver fined forentering MetroBus trackLAHORE: The first fine onthe track of the Bus Rapid Tran-sit System (BRTS) was issuedyesterday. Per details, a car en-tered the BRTS track at theQaddafi Station. Police arrestedthe driver and imposed a fine ofRs 3,000. Sources said the fineof Rs 3,000 was ordered by thecommissioner. STAFF REPORT

nawaz vows tobring Shia doctor’skillers to justice

policeman, 3 militantskilled in peshawar motorway encounter

railways faces fuel crisisafter cheque bounces

abid saqi electedLHCBa president

pentagon grounds its entirefleet of F-35 fighter jets

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laHoreSunday, 24 February, 2013

low

high

MondAy tUeSdAy WedneSdAy23°C I 11°C 21°C I 12°C 19°C I 10°C

PRAyER TImINGS

pArtly CloUdy

WeAther UpdAteS

220C

05

LLate-night use of electronic gadgets

damages sleep cycle. –Science

Fajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

5:14 6:35 12:16 3:30 5:57 7:18

100C

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

PULLING large crowds on itsfirst day, the Lahore LiteraryFestival offered a wide array ofauthors talking about differentissues. The major attractions of

the day were renowned novelist MuhammadHanif, academician Ayesha Jalal and authorslike Khalid Ahmed and Tariq Ali. Like itsvery name, it was a sight for a festival witheach hall housing a different talk withrenowned panelists and bookstalls set up

inside each one. The discussions, which weremainly centered on literary themes, alsounderlined current political issues facing notonly Pakistan but other countries also.

The panelists also discussed how thePakistani literature was being read across theglobe. The inaugural came with enlighteningspeeches by foreign authors and keynotespeakers from the intelligentsia.

Tariq Ali, expressing his views in Politicsand Culture: Past and Present, highlightedvarious phases of the political developmentand how the country had reached its presentstate. The first-ever LLF was conceived

keeping in mind the legacy and cultureheritage of this city. Lahore has been knownas the cultural capital of Pakistan and forcenturies it has been associated with greatliterature, art, theater and music.

The main aim of LLF is to revive thespirit of art and creativity in Lahore. Itaspires to reestablish Lahore as the culturalheartbeat of Pakistan and enrich the city bycreating an institutional platform forforecasting and furthering Lahore’s literarytraditions. The LLF is about bringingtogether, discussing and celebrating thediverse and pluralistic literary tradition thatdistinguishes Lahore as a city of arts,activism and generally, of big ideas. Thefestival is about focusing on ‘literature’ asencompassing a variety of genres—fromfiction writing to history, politics, arts,architecture, culture and music.

Sharing his experiences on writingresistance literature Muhammad Hanif saidhow “actual” resistance was only politicalwhile the rest was only “propaganda”.“Sometimes in our society the most basicresistance becomes being able to namesomeone,” Hanif said to an attentive audience.

The two days programme includes booklaunches, exhibitions, readings and penaldiscussions on Urdu and english literature.In addition, the festival is also features desifood stalls and musical programs.

The scheduled panels, conversations andbook readings include the launch of NadeemAslam’s ‘The Blind Man’s Garden’, legacyof political Autobiographies, the Holywarrior in Pakistani Cinema, Discovering

Pakistan’s english–language poetry,language and storytelling in 21st Century,Architecture of Urbanism and Aesthetics.

Taking to Pakistan Today, Hamid Haroonsaid, ”We must accept that the military hasalways curbed the freedom of expression. Wealways think that because of terrorism, we arenot able to express anything but this conceptis wrong. The event like LLF provides thepeople of Lahore to express their views andparticipate in the freedom of expression.”

“The new generation is heading towardsintroducing a new culture, which is goodsign but they must be aware of our cultural

roots as well,” he added.Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi added such literary

events are very important because Lahore isone of the historic and cultural cities of theworld and is under the wave of terrorism. Aparticipant from Italy, Silvia Dinathle said,“This is an amazing event and I love thediscussions and every aspect of the event isvery wonderful. Lahore is a cultural city andthe image of Pakistan is completely oppositeto what we have in our minds in the west.”

Audience included retired and servingbureaucrats, politicians and a large numberof students, teachers and aspiring writers.

BrInGInG PeACe THrouGH PenS

LaHore LIterary FestIvaL puLLsLarge Crowds on FIrst day

autHors, poLItICIans, studentsdIsCuss varIous aspeCts oFpakIstanI and worLd LIterature

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Human rights activist andPakistan People’s PartySenator Iqbal Haider’s (late)efforts and services for thecause of minorities waslauded by friends andcolleagues in a memorialheld at Alhamra Hall onSaturday.

Senator Aitzaz Ahsansaid humility was Iqbal’s traitwho wanted peace in theregion. He said Iqbal went allthe way to Delhi for the

release of Pakistani prisonersin Indian jails. He lauded hisrole in the struggle forminorities and how he usedto call them betterPakistanis.

Asma Jehangir sharedher memories with the late

human rights activist andhow he had started hisstruggle and then moved on.“Initially he was ultra-red butlater he decided to joinmainstreampolitical partiesand joinedthe PPP,”she said,addingthatunlikeothermemberswho left theorganisationafter gettingministerialportfolios, Iqbal continuedhis struggle for the minoritiesand human rights.

Pope Alexander JohnMalik said he was a finespecimen of humanity andstood tall among thosewho fought for thehuman rights. He saideveryone wasremembered forsomething he had done inhis life and Iqbal would beremembered for his strugglefor the marginalised.

Manishanker, who hadcome over from

India to sharehis

experiencesandmemoriesaboutIqbal, saiddespite

beingagainst Zia

in 1981 duringthe time of Indo-

Pak tension Iqbalhad said he would sacrifice

his life if India attackedPakistan.

Renownedlawyer Abid Hassan Mantosaid a small minority hasbecome powerful enough tosuppress human rights, whilethe civil society had beenconfined to a few hundredpeople alone who keepsharing these thoughts witheach other. People wereafraid to name organisationswhich own terrorism andspread it, he said, adding thatorganising memorials forIqbal Haider was not enoughand people needed to workfor the goals Haider had set.

Human rIgHts aCtIvIst and ppp senator IqBaLHaIder Lauded By asma JeHangIr, aItzaz aHsan,manI sHanker and aLexander JoHn maLIk

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:58 AM Page 5

L

06

Sunday, 24 February, 2013laHore

Emotional immaturity makes

people vulnerable to stress and

ridicule from others. –Lancet

puNjab chieF MiNister shahbaz shariFasks all segMeNts oF the society toshow active participatioN

says battle agaiNst deNgue to coNtiNuetill its coMplete eradicatioN

CIne StAr rACe 2 02:30pM

ph: 35157462 jAyAnAtABhAI KI lUv Story 05:15pM

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ph: 36674271 MUrder 3 12:00, 2:30, 10:45 pM

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ph: 111-999-977 SpeCIAl 26 05:30pM

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ph: 36688880 jAyAnAtABhAI KI lUv Story 03:00 pM

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SUper CIneMA MUrder 3 06:00pM

At royAl pAlM jAyAntABhAI KI lUv Story 08:15pM

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36118679

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ABCd 3d 10:30pM

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, in his message on theAnti-Dengue Day today (Sunday), has said that war againstdengue has not completely finished yet and the struggle willcontinue till its complete eradication. He said nobody should be not afraid of dengue instead effortshould be made to fight it. He said February 24 was beingobserved as Anti-Dengue Day with determination that allsegments of the society would again step forward againstdengue virus and ensure protection of human lives by utilisingall possible resources. The CM said that nations chalk their future by learning formtheir past, adding that the Punjab government had savedthousands of lives by taking timely steps last year. He said allsegments of the society would have to play their effectiverole against dengue virus. He said social habits would have tobe changed to ensure prevention against dengue, whilelethargy and careless attitude towards protection of humanlives could prove fatal. He said a vigorous campaign, basedon preventive measures against dengue, was being launchedwhile it was the need of the hour that elected representativesand government machinery should further strengthen anti-dengue campaign with a missionary zeal, which could onlybe ensured by active participation of the common man. TheCM said the government machinery had a leading role to playin anti-dengue campaign, while government officers shouldparticipate in it with a passion to serve the people. He saidseminars, walks and workshops had been arrangedthroughout Punjab, including Lahore, to raise awarenessregarding anti-dengue steps. He said rate of dengue victimshad been greatly reduced due to effective steps of thegovernment and preventive measures taken by the people. Hesaid anti-dengue campaign would continue with a missionaryand patriotic zeal during the current year as well. The CMappealed to all segments of the society to join hands tocombat dengue virus and vigorously support thegovernmental steps taken in this regard.

LAHORE

OSAmA huSSAIN/SARANG AAmIR

The third day of SiMUN started with a committeesession. The delegates had their work cut out forthemselves as they endeavoured to compete throughthe tough contest. entertainment sessions were held

between the conferences, to relieve the youngdiplomats after the tedious arguments.

Also organised by the social welfare society ofSICAS, was a visit by the Responsible CitizensOrganization, “Zimmedar Shehri.” The charitablecommittee promoted ideas against sectarianism andmotivated a more peaceful society. The students

vowed to abide by the generous word by making handprints on a board. The talent night of SiMUN’13 wasan opportunity for the delegates to show off skillsother than excellent diplomacy. The Talent Night wasmet with much success and a massive audiencegreeted the participants; it was truly a night filled withvibrant music and exuberance.

Anti-dengueday today!

SiMUn’s 3rd day tests participants’ talents

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmad, Senior Judge ofLahore High Court said that the country is passingthrough a crucial stage as price hike, lawlessnessand terrorism activities have made the lives of thepeople miserable, adding that it is duty of the judgesto deliver judgments without fear or favour so thatmiseries of the people could be curtailed.

He was addressing a concluding ceremony of aCapacity Building Course designed for judicialmagistrates at Punjab Judicial Academy. Officersof LHC and judges of District Judiciary alsoattended the ceremony.

He said that in order to eliminate sense ofinsecurity and uncertainty among the people, thejudiciary had to play its due role by providinginexpensive and speedy justice at the door step ofthe masses. He said in this era of social andeconomic injustices, the duty of judiciary becamemore important. “Law and order situation in thesociety can only be ensured by establishing a quickand just dispensation system of justice,” Ahmadsaid, adding that the judges should come up to theexpectation of the people.

He said that profession of law had a vast scopeand strenuous effort was needed to keep up with thedemands of the modern time.

Punjab Judicial Academy Director General

Justice (r) Tanvir Ahmad Khan and representativeof trainee judicial magistrates Nasar MehmoodGondal also spoke on the occasion.

Ahmad also gave away certificates to theparticipants including Sadaf Liaqat, Nibza, NaziaRashid, Uzma Ahsan, Mehr-un-Nisa, ShaziaMehboob, Kashif Rasheed Khan Bangash, NaumanArshad Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shahzad, MuhammadUmer Farooq, Malik Muhammad Shakeel, NasarMehmood Gondal, Muhammad Ajmal Khan,Mubarik Ali, Muhammad Tayyab Ishaq, AdnanAnjum Gondal, Faiz Ullah, Mohsin Ali,Muhammad Tariq Khan, Farooq Ahmad, ZulfiqarAhmad, Sajid Mehmood, Muhammad MasoodAsghar, Adnan Bakhtiar and Ahmad Hayat.

Judges need to be brave to easepeople’s miseries: Imtiaz Ahmad

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Firing incidents occurred in two different areas of the citywhere two men were killed by unidentified shooters onSaturday. Per details, a man named Qari Iman-ul-Husain was returningto his house when unidentified men opened fire and murderedhim in Choburji and escaped. In another incident, a mannamed Akhtar was passing from Ravi Road along with hiscousin named Adnan, when unidentified men opened fire andmurdered Akhtar and injured Adnan. Police reached the spot and filed an FIR against MoshinAbbas on the request of victims’ relatives, who was arrestedfor further investigations. RAPE: Two men named Iqbal Nazim and Shoukat raped twosisters in Factory Area. Report said that the Mahwish andMuskan and their mother Khalida, resident of Badami Bagh,tried to commit suicide in front of the Factory Area PoliceStation over police’s failure to arrest the criminals. Thevictims said that the men had promised to give them jobs inthe factory but had raped them.ACCIDENT: A 55-year-old unidentified man was hit by anover speeding truck in Sandha. ARRESTS: In a raid at a brothel, police arrested three girlsalong with six men from Raiwind.Report said that the police had arrested Nasreen, Shumila,Sana, Atif , Asgher and others and had recovered liquor,illegal medicine from their possession.

2 SHoT deAd

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Police have arrested twelve accused,including two top wanted gangsters, duringraids in different parts of Lahore.

Lahore police conducted various raids inmany areas of the city and managed to arresttwelve miscreants.

Two top wanted gangsters, Jahangir andAbbas alias Basoo, were also taken intocustody by police in separate raids. Thesecriminals are included in top twenty wantedgangsters of Lahore.

Jahangir and Abbas both are considered

a symbol of terror in Cantt Division area ofthe city as they were wanted by the police inuncountable heinous crimes like murders,robberies, money extortion, and kidnaps forransom.

Police have recovered many hundredthousand rupees in cash, heavy weapons,and poisonous local liquor from custody ofthe arrested accused.

“These dangerous criminals can lead tomore gangsters and criminals operating inthe city, during interrogation,” police officialsaid, adding that crime ratio in Lahore willdrop after arrest of these notorious criminalsfrom the Cantt Division.

12 ‘dangerous’

criminals nabbed

KNOW ALL: This baba claims

that he can tell anyone their

fate in RS 10 only. MURTAZA ALI

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:58 AM Page 6

deAdly BlAST KIllS PolICeMen IneASTern IndIANEW DELHI: At least eight people have been

killed, including six policemen, in a landmine

blast blamed on Maoist rebels in the eastern

Indian state of Bihar, police have said. The

attack in Gaya district, 155km south of Patna,

the state capital, also killed a village elder and

a police informer who were travelling in the

same vehicle as the policemen, the district

police chief said late on Friday. “The Maoists

targeted a convoy heading out on patrol duty,

killing six policemen in Gaya district,” NH Khan

told the AFP news agency. The attack comes

barely a month after Maoists shot dead seven

policemen in the neighbouring state of

Jharkhand. “IED might have been used in the

landmine blast. We have intensified operations,”

the state director general of police, was quoted

as saying by the Indian Express newspaper. The

Maoists, who claim inspiration from Chinese

revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been

described by the government as the country's

most serious internal security threat. They are

demanding land and jobs for impoverished

tribal communities they say have been ignored

by the successive state and federal

governments. The Maoists have been fighting in

several states, mainly tribal areas, for more

than 40 years. The simmering conflict pits the

rebels against local and national authorities in

the forests and rural areas of mainly central

and eastern India. AGENCIES

SPAIn GruMBleS ASKInG'S Son-In-lAWAPPeArS In CourTMADRID: The Spanish king's son-in-law

appeared before a judge on the island of

Mallorca on Saturday to respond to charges of

tax fraud in a six-million-euro embezzlement

case that has eroded public support for the

once-popular royal family. The scandal and

other corruption cases in which politicians are

accused of taking millions of euros in bribes

have enraged Spaniards at a time when

unemployment has soared to 26 percent in a

deep recession. Inaki Urdangarin, a former

Olympics handball player who is married to

the king's daughter, the Infanta Cristina, is

accused of using his powerful connections to

win public contracts to put on events on the

Mediterranean island of Mallorca and

elsewhere in Spain. His Noos Foundation is

suspected of overcharging for organizing

conferences about the business of sports and

hiding the proceeds abroad. Dozens of police

officials guarded the courthouse in Palma as

Urdangarin got out of a car and walked down

a 30-metre access ramp into the building for

the closed-door hearing where he will be

questioned by Examining Magistrate Jose

Castro. Near the courthouse, a few hundred

protesters chanted and held up signs reading

“down with the monarchy” and “they call this

a democracy but it isn't”. More than a hundred

journalists were also on hand. In Spain's legal

system, lengthy pre-trial investigations are

carried out by an examining magistrate, or

judge. Urdangarin, 45, is charged with fraud,

forgery, embezzlement and corruption. If

convicted, he could face a prison sentence and

fines. Urdangarin was first charged and called

in for questioning in 2011, but a trial could

still be months or years away as the judge

continues his probe and adds or dismisses

charges. AGENCIES

07

newSSunday, 24 February, 2013

When the President does

it, that means that it's not

illegal. — Richard NixonN

GAO: Malian soldiers battle Islamist

rebels on Saturday. AGENCIES

DAMASCUS

AGENCIES

THe most prominent Syrian opposition group,the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), has an-nounced it is pulling out of the upcomingFriends of Syria meeting in Rome and sched-uled talks in Russia and the United States.

After missiles killed dozens in Aleppo on Friday, theSNC released a statement saying the move was to protestthe lack of international condemnation of the “crimes com-mitted against the Syrian people”. “Hundreds of civilianshave been killed by Scud missile strikes. Aleppo, the cityand the civilisation, is being destroyed systematically,” thestatement said. “The Russian leadership especially bearsmoral and political responsibility for supplying the regimewith weapons,” it added, referring to Moscow's status as aleading ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“In protest of this shameful international stand, the coali-tion has decided to suspend its participation in the Romeconference for the Friends of Syria and decline the invita-tions to visit Russia and the United States.” The Friends ofSyria is a collection of dozens of countries trying to find asolution to the Syrian crisis. Al Jazeera's Nisreen el-Shamay-ley, reporting from Antakya in Turkey, said that the SNC feltpromises of help from international community has beenvery slow and that international community was not keepingthe promises it made three months ago. “It is not really turn-ing its back on the international community. It is still callingon the international community to help it with negotiations

it wants to start with the Syrian government, she said.At least 29 people were killed and dozens more

wounded after rockets hit two eastern districts of the Syriancity of Aleppo on Friday, according to anti-government ac-tivists. The rocket strikes caused several buildings to col-lapse, and people were being rescued from the rubble,according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights(SOHR), a UK-based anti-government rights group.

At least 29 people, among them children, were killedin three surface-to-surface missile strikes on easternAleppo, the Observatory said. In a video posted toYouTube, a massive cloud of dense smoke was seen risingfrom the neighbourhood at dusk after one of the missilesstruck. Other video showed burning buildings, and peoplecarrying the wounded to ambulances and cars.

Meanwhile, in Cairo, the SNC said that it was pushingforward with efforts to name a transitional government inthe coming days. The decision on Friday was made on thesecond day of a conference held by the opposition in theegyptian capital. Walid al-Bunni, a spokesperson for theSNC, said that the group's government would control rebel-controlled areas in Syria. He said that the prime ministerwould be named on March 2 during a meeting in Istanbul,after consultations were held within the opposition. Al-Bunni stressed that the SNC was open to a negotiated endto the conflict, but that it would not negotiate with Presi-dent Assad. Assad and government officials involved in thekilling of rebels must step down and face charges, he said.

Almost two years after the revolt against Assad broke outin southern Syria, the absence of a political leadership fromswathes of land under rebel control has been a glaring weak-ness of the rebels, who have little control over armed brigadesmaking advances on the ground. Opposition sources estimatethat they will need several billion dollars every month to runa government in rebel-held areas, mostly rural and desert re-gions estimated to comprise over half of Syrian territory.Bunni urged the UN Security Council, and particularly theUS and Russia, to support the SNC's initiative.

Syria opposition toboycott upcoming talks

CARACAS

AGENCIES

Hundreds of Venezuelans have lit candles, cried andprayed for Hugo Chavez's health in a hillside parknear the presidential palace, as the president con-tinues to receive treatment in a military hospital.

Since returning from his fourth operation inCuba on Monday with minimal fanfare, Chavez’ssupporters have taken to the streets to welcome himhome and wish him good health. On Friday at theovernight vigil, they sang along to a recording of ahealthy Chavez belting out the national anthem.“We're praying for the president, for him to getthrough all of this,” said Ana Perez, a seamstress.

“There is no other president like this one. He'sunique. He's going to come out of all of this, and

he's going to get better.”A group of indigenous people wearing colour-

ful dresses, beads and feathers danced around abonfire at the base of a wide stairway at the park.

One man blew on a conch shell, while othersshook maracas as they danced around the flames.

Chavez, 58, has not been seen in public sincehe returned to Venezuela from Cuba, where for 10weeks he was recovering and fighting complica-tions following his latest operation. He announcedhis return on Twitter.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez'snamed successor, said that he and other officialshad met with the president at the military hospital.

Though breathing through a tracheal tube,Maduri said Chavez was smiling and in an ener-getic mood.

“He communicatedwith us through variouswritten ways to giveus his guidance,”Maduro said, speak-ing on televisionalongside other aides atthe hospital.

Despite calls from the opposi-tion for specific details on Chavez’scondition, and disapproval aimed atpoliticians who indefinitely postponedhis swearing in ceremony for a newsix-year term, government officialsinsist Chavez remains in charge andhas been communicating with themabout policy decisions.

Heavy casualties

in northern

Mali fighting BAMAKO

AGENCIES

At least 13 Chadian soldiers have beenkilled in fighting in northern Mali, theheaviest casualties sustained by French-led African troops since the launch of amilitary campaign against rebels lastmonth, Chad's army has said. Sixty-fiverebel fighters were also killed in theclashes that began before midday onFriday in the Adrar des Ifoghasmountains near the border with Algeria.“The provisional toll is ... on the enemy'sside, five vehicles destroyed and 65terrorists killed,” said a statement fromthe army general staff read on state radio.“We deplore the deaths of 13 of ourvaliant soldiers.” earlier this month,Chad deployed 1,800 soldiers in thenorthern city of Kidal to secure what hadbeen the rebels' last urban stronghold,putting itself in the frontline in the fightagainst the rebels. Also on Friday, twosuicide car bombers targeted ethnicTuareg forces in the northern town ofTessalit, killing three people. “The two[suicide bombers] were killed and in ourranks there were three dead and fourseriously wounded,” Mohamed IbrahimAg Asseleh, a spokesman for the ethnicTuareg rebel group, the MNLA, inBurkina Faso confirmed. Tuaregs in thenorth, who have long sought greaterautonomy, rebelled against the federalgovernment and swept across northernMali in April last year, taking advantageof a power vacuum left by a militarycoup. However, the MNLA and otherTuareg groups were sidelined by armedgroups such as the Movement forOneness and Jihad in West Africa(MUJAO), who took over major towns ofnorthern Mali and imposed Islamic law.France intervened in its former WestAfrican colony on January 11 to stop asouthward offensive by the rebels whoseized control of vast swaths of the northin April last year. Troops fromneighbouring African nations - includingfrom Chad - have since deployed to Maliand are set to take over leadership of theoperation when French forces begin aplanned withdrawal next month. However,continuing violence since the rebels weredriven from major urban areas highlightsthe risk of French and African forcesbecoming entangled in a prolonged conflictas they try to help Mali's weak armycounter bombings and armed raids. A USdefence official said on Friday thatWashington had deployed several Predatordrones to Niger to fly surveillance missionsin support of French forces in Mali.

syriaN NatioNal coalitioN pullsout oF FrieNds oF syria MeetiNgiN roMe over ‘shaMeFul’iNterNatioNal sileNce oN aleppo

Venezuelans hold vigils for Chavez’s health

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:58 AM Page 7

newSNSunday, 24 February, 2013

08 South Punjab province bill will be presented in Senate

before March 16. — Manzoor Wattoo

ISLAMABAD

INP

FeDeRAL Secretary for Cab-inet Division and Water andPower Nargis Sethi – one ofthe most powerful bureau-crats and a firm believer in

the rules of business – has been removedfrom the Ministry of Water and Power, re-portedly on the pressure of some ministersand influential people.

According to reports, she refused torelease subsidies of Rs 40 billion and Rs 2billion for projects not approved underprescribed rules and procedures with 23days remaining in the present govern-ment’s tenure.

Highly reliable sources said on Satur-day that Minister for Water and PowerChaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, Minister forKashmir Affairs Manzoor Wattoo, andsome other important people were an-noyed with Sethi. Sources said that Sethi

had personally requested the prime minis-ter that she be relieved of the additionalcharge of the Water and Power Ministry.

After getting the additional charge ofthe Water and Power Ministry, Sethi tookimmediate steps to stop corrupt practicesin the National Transmission and DispatchCompany (NTDC) and other institutionsin order to reduce load shedding and tobring parity in load shedding between ruraland urban areas. She was also instrumentalin recovering arrears from influential per-sons, and refused requests by ministersand parliamentarians for transferring

WAPDA XeNs and SDOs. According to another report, the minis-

ter of water and power had asked Sethi toappoint Mehboob Alam, acting chief exec-

utive officer of the Gujranwala DistributionCompany, as the managing director of theNTDC, and in his place appoint Javed Azad,a superintendent engineer. But she refusedto accept the recommendation on the pleathat Mehboob Alam was a junior officer andcould not be posted at such a senior position.

Two weeks ago, during the meeting ofa four-member committee comprising thedefence minister, the minister for Kashmiraffairs, the finance secretary and the Waterand Power secretary, Wattoo pressed for aflat rate subsidy of Rs 40 billion for tubewells – a proposal strongly opposed by thesecretaries of finance and water andpower. However, the committee approvedthe flat rate subsidy proposal for tubewells, which would be sent to the newwater and power secretary, Rai Sikandar,for approval. Sikandar is Grade-21 officerwho has been given the charge of the min-istry. He is junior to Water and Power Spe-cial Secretary Himayatullah Khan andAdditional Secretary Arshad Mirza.

nargis Sethi pays the price for upholding rules

‘legacy &sanctions maderao decideagainst nuke tests’WASHINGTON: The prospect of a

crippling economic sanctions,

“improving” electoral chances and his

“desire” to be noted as the architect of

India’s economic revolution might have

prevented the then Prime Minister

Narasimha Rao from going for nuclear

tests in the winter of 1995-96. This

was the conclusion that the Bill Clinton

administration had arrived at, which

for weeks in December and then in

January, mounted pressure on India by

itself and through its allies warning

New Delhi against going ahead with

nuclear tests in Pokharan, in support of

which it provided satellite imageries to

the Indian Government. According to

the classified American cables released

yesterday by the National Security

Archive, which it obtained from the

federal government under the freedom

of information act, it was by December

10, 1995 that US intelligence agencies

informed the Bill Clinton administration

about impending Indian nuclear tests

at Pokharan resulting in a flurry of

activities by the US. ONLINE

Appeal to savefilm industryLAHORE: The film artists, distributors

and producers have shown grave

concern over delay of issuance of no

objection certificates (NoCs) by

Pakistan Sensor Board, saying that this

indifferent behavior of Chairman

Sensor Board is destroying the film

industry and causing producers and

distributors huge financial losses. They

alleged that the sensor board officials

demand bribes for clearing films and

nobody was taking action against

them. They say that the sensor board

demands unnecessarily 35MM prints

which causes inconveniences and

financial loss to producers. They

alleged that the chairman sensor board

didn’t understand that 35MM format

had become absolute and no film

industry in the world used that format.

They demand the prime minister and

president to save the film industry of

Pakistan. PRESS RELEASE

Pakistanresponsible forHyderabadblasts: Advani

MUMBAI: BJP leader LK Advani on

Saturday blamed Pakistan squarely

for Thursday’s blasts in Hyderabad,

saying Islamabad is involved in a

proxy war against New Delhi. “The

neighbouring country has not been

successful in waging a war against

India in the last few decades, so it

has resorted to proxy war,” Advani

was quoted as telling reporters here

on Saturday. “The neighbouring

country has taken recourse to

terrorism to trouble India,” he said,

adding, “There is no doubt that there

is the hand of the neighbouring

country in Hyderabad blasts.” Pakistan

should abide by the commitment

made during the meeting between

Vajpayee and Musharraf, whereby

Pakistan undertook not to allow its

soil to be used for terror acts against

India, Advani said. ONLINE

HYDERABAD: Traffic on the Hyderabad Bypass remained stuck for hours following a

sit-in by Sunni Tehreek activists on Saturday against targeted killings in Karachi. INP

LAHORE

ONLINE

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazlur Rehman onSaturday said that law and order has become anational issue and they wanted to play a positiverole for peace in FATA.

Fazl has also called all parties conference inIslamabad on February 28.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with Ja-

maat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hasan in Man-soora, Fazl noted that peace in FATA was in-evitable for peace in the country. He added thatno political forum had done anything so far forresolving the peace issue.

Hasan said that the provincial governmentswere responsible for maintaining peace. Headded the government had failed in this regardso all political parties needed to perform theirdue role in this regard, he observed.

ForMer water aNdpower secretaryreMoved For NotreleasiNg subsidies oFrs 40b oN tube wells

Pakistan ranks31st in blackmarket countries KARACHI: According to a website monitoring black marketing ac-

tivities, Pakistan ranks 31st out of 91 countries in the world with a

black market value of over six billion dollars. According to Havoc-

scope, black market value is the estimated value of the global black

market. This figure is determined by combining the total value of 52

black market products and activities with the total value of the black

market activity in 91 countries. World crime statistics and values are

gathered from law enforcement and security agencies, international

organisations, industry lawyers and representatives and news arti-

cles. The website stated that Pakistan black market’s estimated

value is 6.12 billion dollars per annum with cocaine price in the coun-

try at 118.7 dollars per gram. Heroin price is at three dollars per

gram. Human smugglers are paid at least 22,000 dollars and human

traffickers’ price is at 342 dollars. Similarly, book piracy in Pakistan

is estimated at 55 million dollars, counterfeiting at 358 million dol-

lars, cigarette smuggling at 116 million dollars and drug trafficking

4.8 billion dollars. Gas and oil smuggling is estimated at 66 million

dollars. Havocscope further stated that heroin trafficking in Pakistan

was hovering around 1.2 billion dollars, illegal logging at 782 million

dollars, music piracy at 25 million dollars and software privacy at

278 million dollars. On the other hand, India stands 18th out of 91

countries in the world with the black market estimated value of

16.84 billion dollars, more than double as compared to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, India’s estimated value in prostitution is 8.4 billion dol-

lars while the website did not show any figures regarding this sector

in Pakistan. INP

Fazl keen to play role for FaTa peace

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:58 AM Page 8

newS N

09

Sunday, 24 February, 2013

ISLAMABAD

NNI

Former president General (r)Pervez Musharraf on Satur-day refused to appear beforethe one-man commissionconstituted by the Supreme

Court to probe into the Lal Masjid oper-ation of 2007.

The commission on January 31 haddecided to summon Musharraf and for-mer prime minister Shaukat Aziz afterrecording the statements of a number ofwitnesses who alleged that the formerpresident was responsible for the militaryoperation that left 103 people, including10 military personnel, dead.

An official of the commission con-firmed that Musharraf had refused to ap-pear before the commission.

He said the commission had sum-moned the former president thrice withthe last summon sent to his residenceabroad through the foreign ministry.However, he did not receive it.

According to him, the commission

would not take any coercive measuresagainst Musharraf for defying the sum-mons because it had no power to compelany witness to record theirstatement.

Cleric Abdul Azizof Lal Masjid, hisspouse UmmeHasaan and otherclerics heldMusharraf re-sponsible forthe operation, aprivate televi-sion channel re-ported onSaturday.

Testifying be-fore the commission,Aziz on December 31had said “General Mushar-raf was against our religious ide-ology. In his tenure, the districtmanagement started demolishing 80mosques in the federal capital. That waswhy students of Jamia Faridia startedprotesting against him.”

Similarly, Umme Hasaan alleged thatGeneral Musharraf, General (r) RashidQureshi and General Waheed Arshadwere responsible for the operation.

General Rashid Qureshi, when con-tacted, said the government wanted toblock Musharraf’s return by creatingbogus and fake cases against him.

He said some clerics, includingAziz’s spouse, had recorded irresponsi-

ble statements before the commission.“They recorded the statements evenagainst me whereas I retired from the

military in December 2005.”Barrister Mohammad

Ali Saif, a spokesman forthe former president,

told reporters that theoperation was con-ducted in 2007 andthe probe into thisover five-year-oldcase had been ini-tiated just fourmonths before the

general elections.He said it was

one of the politically-motivated cases

through which the govern-ment and other political par-

ties wanted to malign Musharraf inorder to stop him from contesting theelections. Tariq Asad, the counsel forAkmal Saleemi, a petitioner in the LalMasjid case, said the retired general mustbe summoned and the commissionshould record his statement.

He said the commission could issuewarrant for his arrest and could also at-tach his property for defying its orders.

The commission could also recordhis statement through video conferencingin the same pattern as a three-membercommission had recorded the statementof American businessman Mansoor Ijazin the memo case, he further said.

Musharraf’s cold shoulderto lal Masjid commission

ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

Supreme Court Registrar Dr Faqir Hussainhas rebutted an article reported by the Onlinenews agency and carried in Pakistan Today’sJanuary 29 issue in which the wire agencyhad made claims regarding the SC official’sproperty dealing with Bahria Town.

A statement received from the SC Reg-istrar said that it had been falsely allegedthe at the time when the controversy be-tween the judiciary and Bahria Town wasat its peak, Dr Hussain purchased an 8-marla house and got rebate in a 2 kanal plot,thereby reaping benefits. The statementsaid that the Online story is false, mischie-

vous and misrepresentation of facts. According to the statement, the actual

position is that an advertisement was pub-lished in the newspaper (Daily News, Islam-abad dated 17.09.2004) wherein applicationswere called for allotment of 1 kanal, 2 kanaland 4 kanal plots in the Bahria Town ClubCity, Rawalpindi. The advertisement statedthat plots are reserved from various cate-gories and professions like senior servicesofficers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, etcand offered 50% rebate to persons with cre-dentials in various fields of life. Thus DrFaqir Hussain applied for a plot in the samescheme in September 2004, mentioning hiscredentials to claim the rebate.

The Bahria Town in July 2005 communi-

cated the allotment of 1 kanal plot at Rs,15,000,00 payable in installments. The pay-ment schedule statement carried the endorse-ment of 50% rebate. In April 2006 the plot sizewas changed from 1 to 2 kanal. The plot is notyet handed over, and is still in the developmentstage therefore extension in payment schedulewas applied for and granted. Thereafter, fullpayment was made in June 2011.

The Bahria Town later communicatedsome additional installments payable as de-velopment charges/utilities for the plot,which are being paid as per schedule. Thusthe impression gathered from the fabricatedrecord of Bahria Town that in July 2012 a50% rebate in the 2 kanal plot was grantedto Dr Faqir Hussain is absolutely wrong as

the rebate was granted in the year 2005, notin July 2012 and not as a concession but asper criteria offered in the advertisement, thestatement said.

Regards two 5-marla pre-fabricatedhouse known as Awami Villas, the state-ment said that Dr Hussain applied for it on05.04.2006 as ordinary applicant andholder of Home Plus Card. Purchased fromthe Bahria Town, the cost of each 5-marlahouse was stated at Rs 4,99,000 payable ininstallments. Full payment of Rs 508,100and Rs 508,000 respectively was completeby October 2008. On completion of con-struction the possession was transferred in2009 where after these were sold out in De-cember 2009. It is inaccurate to say that

these Awami Villas were meant for earth-quake affectees. As per record, these wereoffered to those persons who had purchasedthe Home Plus Card from the Bahria Town.

Regarding the 8-marla house which isthe subject of defamation case pending trial,the house was booked on payment of initialinstallment on 11.01.2007. The total costmentioned was Rs 40,98,000 and not Rs5,299,000 as alleged in the misleading doc-ument of Bahria Town fabricated record.Thus no rebate or waiver was granted as al-leged. The payment of Rs 3,898,000 as bal-ance amount was made on 15.11.2011whereupon on completion of the construc-tion of the house its possession was givenon 28.11.2011, said the statement.

no undue favours sought from Bahria Town: SC registrar

PESHAWAR: Rescue workers search for bodies a day after a bus carryinga wedding party plunged into a canal, killing at least 15 people. INP

Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project to help address

energy crunch. —Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf

Hazaras say theyhave no intentionto leave country

ISLAMABAD: Leaders of Hazara

community, Sardar Saadat Ali Hazara and

Qayyum Changezi, on Saturday said

Australia had offered to give asylum to

2,500 Hazara families, but they have no

intention to leave the country. In an

interview, Sardar Saadat said according

to newspaper reports the offer was for

families affected by terrorism. He said

they could not think of leaving Pakistan,

but it was becoming increasingly difficult

to pursue their educational career or job

due to target killings. He said the

government had made some appreciable

moves during the last one month as a

number of terrorists have reportedly been

arrested. He‚ however‚ said there was

need to bring the terrorists to justice.

Hazara Qaumi Jirga Chairman Qayuum

Changezi said the Hazaras were living in

Quetta for over a century and their future

generations would also live here. He said

the Hazaras had contributed immensely in

the development of Pakistan, adding that

the government should take effective

steps to ensure safety of their lives and

property. ONLINE

Circular debt inenergy sectorreachesalarming levels ISLAMABAD: According to a Ministry of

Finance official, the circular debt of the

country has exceeded an alarming level

of Rs 872 billion over the last one year.

According to the official, power sector

had remained the major reason behind

the increase in the circular debt and

volume of debt in power sector witnessed

an increase of 62 percent during the

previous year and volume of liabilities of

power sector had also exceeded from

100 billion rupees. The official further

revealed that Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is

owed 1.5 billion dollars and power

companies were major stakeholders.

Furthermore, Pakistan International

Airline (PIA) and Pakistan Railway were

also debtors. Moreover, PSO owed 1.23

billion dollars to different foreign and

local oil suppliers and facing immense

difficulties in payment of its outstanding

dues. Sources said that due to acute

shortage of gas for power sector, it was

largely dependent on imported oil and oil

import bill had also exceeded. The official

also said that inefficiencies had been

pointed out on different intervals but

they had been unable to control their

losses. This created problems for

companies to clear their liabilities with

PSO and consequently, the entire cycle

was suffering, he said. ONLINE

26/11 case:Pakistan judicialpanel’s visit to Indiamay be delayed

ISLAMABAD

INP

The Pakistani Judicial Commission’s visit toIndia in connection with the Mumbai attackscase is likely to be delayed as an anti-terrorism court on Saturday sought anassurance that members of the panel will beallowed to cross-examine key Indianwitnesses. Prosecutors informed the courtconducting trial of seven suspects chargedwith involvement in the Mumbai attacks thatthey would provide an undertaking from theIndian government that the panel will havethe power of cross-examination. Chiefprosecutor Chaudhry Zulifqar Ali told JudgeChaudhry Habibur Rehman that Pakistaniauthorities were awaiting India’s formalresponse on the issue. The Pakistanicommission is set to make a second visit toMumbai to record statements of fourwitnesses because the anti-terrorism courtrejected a report submitted after its first visiton the ground that the panel was not allowedto conduct any cross-examination. ZulfiqarAli argued during Saturday’s hearing that theIndian government had stated it would allowcross-examination of witnesses. He furthersaid a previous agreement that barred cross-examination would not have any bearing onthe judicial commission’s second visit.Khwaja Haris Ahmed, counsel for ZakiurRehman Lakhvi, insisted that a “writtendocument” from the Indian governmentregarding cross-examination should bepresented in court. Ali said he wouldsubmit a “written assurance” from theIndian side at the next hearing.

ForMer presideNtreFuses to appearbeFore sc coMMissioNprobiNg operatioNsileNce

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:58 AM Page 9

lack of proper equipmentI was watching the footages of a bomb blast on TV thathappened in the Indian city of Hyderabad Decca. Thepolicemen and members of bomb disposal squad collecting theevidence from the blast site were fully equipped with latestequipment and all of them were picking the pieces of evidencewith gloves on.Bomb blasts in Pakistan are the order of the day. It is verydisturbing and disappointing to see personnel of bombdisposal squad and police diffusing bomb and pickingevidence without appropriate equipment and bare hands. Why

can’t our government provide effective tools to personnel ofrelevant department who risks their lives to save ours? Ourgovernment announces millions of rupees as compensation tothe families of the victims but never provides funds to equipour bomb disposal squads and police.

M RAFIQUE ZAKARIAKarachi

ED NOTE: The first paragraph of the article titled“Lessons from Pukthunwali” on 21 February was mistakenlyprinted and attributed to the writer. The mistake is regrettedand has been corrected in the online edition.

CoMMenT

Arif NizamiEditor

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

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

C

No yielding on matters of sovereigntyPakistan, Iran and uS

The magic wand

Peace talks

NOW that the over a decade-long war on terrorism in Afghanistan andPakistan is going to wind up by the end of next year, efforts to makepeace with the terrorists have become a priority. President Asif Ali

Zardari in this regard seems to have hit the mark when he said that war alonewas no solution to terrorism and that hate-mongers needed to be countered withpeaceful efforts. The way the world powers are going about tackling terrorism isindeed no solution. In fact, it has become a legitimate concern that war alone isonly producing more terrorism. This is why the president is right in pointing outto the world that talks are as much important for peace as is having the capacityto overcome terrorists militarily.

This two-point strategy has already been put into practice as the president hasordered strict action, without any discrimination, against all the banned militantoutfits, while the government is considering taking TTP up on its peace talksoffer. TTP has also announced that its official spokesperson ehsanullah ehsanwould lead the talks from their side, a position they have taken probably afterthe government snubbed their earlier demand of releasing two of their captivecommanders who they wanted to lead the talks. Another interesting developmentin this regard is the joining of hands by JUI-F and JI in order to help restore peacein the country. The PML-N, the third party that the TTP had asked to become aguarantor for peace talks, however, seems ambiguous and misleading in itsactions and statements regarding the offer. It didn’t take any action against the LeJchief till he handed himself over to the police authorities the other day, while theparty is also accused of having soft corner for the terrorists on account of theirholding a vast vote bank that it needs in the upcoming elections. It has also beenaccused of, though refuted by one of its leaders, to enter into a deal for seatadjustments with the extremist LeJ in at least 14 national assembly constituencies.

Whatever the reasons for PML-N’s behaviour, or for that matter JUI-F, JI or thegovernment’s own behaviour, one thing is for sure, unless there are someconcrete steps taken to resolve the issue of terrorism through peaceful means,the country is only bound to face more bombings and killings. However, peacetalks from a position of weakness won’t benefit the government; a reprisal ofSwat is not what it should aim for. And militants must also keep in mind that inorder to join the mainstream politics, they have to first put their faith in thesystem, submit to the constitution, and renounce violence.

THe US continues to remind Pakistan ad nauseam of the aid it has giventhe country and the consequences for Islamabad if it acted against USwishes. The timing of the new Chairman Foreign Relations Committee’s

arrival in Pakistan and his reiteration of what his country was doing to helpPakistan in energy sector indicated that if Pakistan persisted in the pursuit of gaspipeline from Iran, it would have to forgo US aid and face sanctions. This iswhat Victoria Nuland’s statement issued the next day implied. If there were stillany doubts they were removed by the WSJ story on Thursday. There aregenerally two types of reactions to reminders of the sort, rightly seen as impliedthreats. The government routinely reiterates the contribution the country hasmade in the war on terror. The Pakistani public, however, widely resentsstatements of the sort. This explains why despite millions of dollars poured intoPakistan, mostly when dictators ruled with the US’ help, anti-US sentiment hascontinued to rise. Any demand that requires Islamabad to follow a prescribedcourse in internal or foreign affairs, even if it goes against Pakistan’s nationalinterests, is bound to be widely unpopular. Any government seen to be acting asa US client would lose the goodwill of the masses. Aid used as an instrument toimpose hegemony must be rejected by Pakistan.

Pakistan receives aid from a number of countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, UnitedKingdom and China. None uses it so brazenly as a lever. China’s popularity inPakistan is due to its cultured handling of relations with the government and thepeople. Beijing has invariably stressed that the projects it has helped to constructare mutually beneficial to the both the countries. Washington’s offensivediplomacy on the other hand could harm relations between the two countries at acrucial juncture when both need to fight terrorism together.

It is in Pakistan’s national interest to urgently import gas from wherever it can.The time factor is important as power shortages have taken toll on the country’seconomy. While Pakistan is keen to bring gas and electricity from Central Asia,it simply cannot wait for years for the situation in Afghanistan to improve. Itcannot allow its national interests to be sacrificed at the altar of US strategic needs.There is a cross party consensus in Pakistan on putting an end to dependence onthe aid. The government has to go ahead to fulfil Pakistan’s energy needs fromIran irrespective of whether this pleases the US or not. The Pak-Iran gas pipelineshould be constructed at top speed. Iran-financed oil refinery must be given a goahead. Pakistan must not yield on matters of its sovereignty.

terrorists and the government may make it work

Sunday, 24 February, 2013

10

everyone has one; how and when to use it is a different matter altogether

The world breaks everyone, and

afterward, some are strong at the

broken places. –Ernest Hemingway

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusivelyEditor’s mail

IT was most uncharacteristic of for-mer Finance Minister HafeezShaikh to resign at the cusp ofmaybe elections. Speculation be-came rife. He is not the type to

abandon ship about to reach port. His bosseslike him. Conclusion: he must be the rulingparty’s nominee for caretaker prime minis-ter. For once, speculation is not off the mark.But as the hackneyed adage goes, “There’smany a slip between the cup and the lip.”

The best outcome would be for HafeezShaikh as consensus candidate, else itwould go to a multi-party parliamentarycommittee. If no consensus is formed there,names from the leaders of the House andthe Opposition go to the election Commis-sion for final decision. The eC is likely toselect Shaikh, but you never know.

Whoever the caretaker PM is, if he isthere only for 90 days his task sounds sim-ple: to hold clean elections. But herein liesthe rub, for the task is not so simple, not ina country riven by turmoil. There is so muchbloodletting in large swathes of Pakistan thatpeaceful elections seem a pipedream. Then,our demographic profile is outdated becausea population census was not held in 2008.How can you hold elections when you don’teven know how many people you have,their ages and addresses, the gender balanceetcetera? Without a census you cannot de-limit constituencies and create new ones toaccommodate a larger population. Withoutup-to-date representation elections would bepartially invalid ab initio.

Given this problem is accompanied bypolitical and economic turmoil and the ur-gent need for a fresh IMF programme thatwon’t come without a stable and sensiblegovernment, speculation is also rife that thecaretaker might get a judicial extension tofirst undertake fast track reforms. The taskthen becomes even less simple. In that caseHafeez Shaikh is the best of the namesbeing bandied about. He is young, honest,God fearing, humble, highly educated, wellregarded in the international financial anddiplomatic communities, understands bothtypes of government, a consensus builderand peacemaker who likes to take everyonealong because he doesn’t have an out ofcontrol ego.

Having said that, I repeat that it is bestto let the system continue to evolve accord-ing to its logic: it will either self-destructor correct itself if self-correction is in itsprogramming and the people will learnmore. It is more likely to self-destruct be-cause development cannot take placealongside fake electoral democracy. elec-tions are not democracy, delivery is, andthe governments this system throws upcannot deliver. After self-destruction, what-ever system replaces it will have automaticconsensus. Isn’t that better?

The problem is that Pakistan is at the

brink. Fear abounds that the self-destructionof the system could take the state with ittoo. Thus the question: “What is more im-portant: evolution of this decrepit system orthe survival of the state?” My reply is thatany unnatural intervention will make thissystem a martyr and prolong its life, as hap-pened twice before. The only interventionthat works is genuine revolution, not anar-chy. The old standard operating procedurewill not work and will leave us worse off.If you don’t have a good and doable agendaimplemented by people who won’t cling topower for its own sake by becoming forceddemocrats, don’t even think about it.

One wrong step and Pakistan could fallover the brink, like many states older andmore powerful have done. Better to let thesystem die its own death or correct itselfand let the devil take the hindmost. Godknows best.

Whoever the long-term caretaker PM,his agenda must be informed by the follow-ing, and more:

Return their eroded stake in Pakistanisto all stakeholders, the people, not their urbanMafiosi, feudal lords and tribal chieftains.

Hold a census and delimit constituencies.Make far-reaching structural economic

reforms, especially in the modes and rela-tionships of agricultural ownership andproduction that put an end to feudalism.easier said than done because such reformsare accompanied by short-term pain for allclasses: we could have the ‘Revolt of theRobber Barons’ on our hands.

This must be accompanied by massiveand sensible infrastructure investment thatprovides jobs and gets the economy going.If energy, communications and water needsare accompanied by stability, security andsensible interest rates, investment will startcoming in. Official usury must end to mo-tivate investors.

Close the trade gap: increase exportsby strengthening value added agriculturalproducts and reducing unnecessary andwasteful imports.

Our three biggest imports are petro-leum, tea and edible oil. We can’t do muchabout the first. But the other two can be re-duced substantially by taking the people onboard and educating them that edible oiland tea are bad not only for their health butthe country’s health too.

Document the economy, bring thegrowing, vibrant informal economy intothe tax net and increase government rev-enues. It would double official GDP.

either eliminate income tax altogetherand replace it with more sensible indirecttaxes or bring agricultural incomes into theincome tax net.

Consider making the Identity Card theTax Card too and have the same number forboth, with different colours for those eligi-ble as taxpayers and those outside the taxbracket and renew them annually. This willrequire devolution down to the con-stituency level.

Reform revenue collection, throw outthe corrupt and make a small, honest, leanand mean team. The fewer the taxes theeasier to beat corruption.

Remove contradictions in the much-mutilated constitution and undertake re-forms to make our political system trulydemocratic and people friendly. The bestwould be one in which parliament and ex-ecutive are totally separate from one anotherby holding direct elections for the chief ex-ecutive on the basis of one person one votewith a second ballot for the two frontrunnersand then letting the winner select his own

team from the best and the brightest. So tooa second ballot for parliamentary elections.

If new provinces have to be made, letthem be made throughout the country andnot in one province only and on the basisof economic viability, not divisive ethnic-ity. Then undertake delimitation.

Strengthen and empower the policeand remove all bad eggs.

Make modern education with one sys-tem and curriculum (allowing for provin-cial needs) a top priority.

educate people in population control.Our birthrate is our biggest time bomb: if notdiffused it will put all other reforms to naught.

Rationalise the judiciary andstrengthen it with enough judges at all lev-els so that thousands of cases don’t remainpending while time is wasted on constitu-tional and political cases.

Democratic regulation of the electronicmedia but with proper regulations, over-sight and implementation without erodingpress freedom. Right now, a ratings hungrymedia is often wittingly or unwittinglyspreading discord and disharmony: ‘Fitna’and ‘fasad’ are great sins in Islam for theydivide the community.

Some oppose making Hafeez Shaikhcaretaker prime minister because the econ-omy is in decline, without regard to theglobal economy being in recession, turmoilin our region and the presence of fakedemocracy that won’t allow for economic re-forms for fear of losing votes. We remaintrue to our time-honoured tradition of findingscapegoats for collective mistakes as if onlyone man is responsible and another wouldhave done wonders with his magic wand.

We have had three finance ministerspreceding Hafeez Shaikh during this ‘de-mocratic’ government. The third be-queathed us the National FinanceCommission Award in naive good faith thatleaves the federal government little whilehumongous amounts are diverted toprovincial governments that don’t have thecapacity or honesty to use it correctly. Allthey are worried about is fancy schemesthat will get them votes come the next elec-tions. Forget development.

Compare this to Sindh when HafeezShaikh was its finance minister. He inheriteda deficit that he turned into surplus. Whatwas his magic wand then? His boss wasGeneral Musharraf unburdened with theneed to get votes and win elections. That wasShaukat Aziz’s magic wand too. Musharrafknew his limitations and let his economicteam get on with it. They took a clinicallydead economy out of the grave. Thingsstarted going awry after the West gaveMusharraf a democracy injection and he gotburdened with the need to win elections. Theslide began. And therein lies a tale.

Now I don’t mean that we need mili-tary dictatorship again. What I’m saying isthat we need a genuinely democratic sys-tem that works.

Came ‘democracy’ and federal financeminister Hafeez Shaikh was burdened withbosses ‘democratically’ elected by smallelectoral colleges. It is in the genes of thiswretched British parliamentary system thatany structural adjustment that necessarilyentails pain is automatically rejected by po-litical bosses seeking reelection. Out goesgood long-term planning, in come pointlessoptics. Therein lies the difference. That,ladies and gentleman, is your magic wand.

The writer is a political analyst. Hecan be contacted athumayun.gauhar786@gmail.com

humAyuN GAuhAR

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:58 AM Page 10

MALIK Ishaq has surrendered him-self. No charges have been framed.The most dangerous man in Pak-istan – the enemy number one –

has chosen to be escorted to a bunker bed in hisjail cell till it is safer for him to step outside.

When the going gets tough, Malik Ishaqprefers to be a VIP guest at one of the lodges con-structed for the country’s finest – until the threatto him is mitigated or he is needed to negotiate on‘important security matters.’

On the other side, Hazara Town in Quetta hasjust finished burying 90 of its own. The organisa-tion that Malik Ishaq fronts, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, has claimed the bombing. The half amillion Shia Hazaras that inhabit Hazara Townfear stepping out of their homes. At least a few ofthem will risk their lives to join the growing exo-dus seeking asylum in far off lands. The rest willhope that the latest refusal to bury their near anddear ones for four days will secure them.

As Malik Ishaq takes a breather, the task forwhich he was let out has been accomplished.Since he was released by the Supreme Court in2011, 1,500 Shias have been killed across thecountry. Gruesome Shia massacres have beenconducted in Gilgit-Baltistan and Parachinar aseveryday Shia targeted assassinations continue invarious parts of the country every day.

But that is perhaps not the most importanttask he completed for the security establish-ment. This was completed in Quetta: to makepeople forget the Baloch and begin to think ofthe Hazara – to secure for itself control over theprovince. The strong criticism of the military’srole in Balochistan has been wiped out in thecourse of two months and calls for the militaryto ‘take control of Quetta’ (and thus Balochis-tan) have been sounded out as the ‘voice of theHazara community.’

The same voice became the rallying call forthe Shia dharnas across the country that managedto paralyse life for two days.

This was as the Balochistan Governor Magsiwas insisting that the Inter Services Intelligence(ISI) is “too scared” [to act against the LeJ] andsenior journalist Hamid Mir insisted that it had“delibrately created death squads” in Balochistan.Speaking at the dharna at the Governor’s House,Lahore, human rights activist Asma Jahangir hadcalled for firing all intelligence chiefs if they donot agree to decisively act against the LeJ.

earlier, one of the Shia scholars speaking atthe dharna, called ‘calling the army’ the equiva-lent of “jumping into the crocodiles mouth whenrunning from the wolf.” He went further andsuggested that the “Shia youth needed to takecontrol of Quetta.” Talking to the people attend-ing the dharnas, each shared memories of the1980s when the Sipah e Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)was created under General Zia’s watchful gaze.In fact, none of those attending appeared underany delusion on who was backing the LeJ: inBalochistan and across Pakistan.

Unlike the dharnas that started after the Jan-uary 10 massacre, this time this criticism founditself articulated from the podium. Back when theGovernor’s Rule was implemented on January 16,this was considered an “opportunity for the secu-rity establishment to show which side it was on.”

This time round three demands came for-ward again: to hand over Quetta to the army; tar-geted operations against the LeJ in Balochistan,and arming and training the Hazara communityto defend themselves.

The question again was: if there was such cri-tique amongst the Shia community, why was itprotesting to ask the army to take Quetta? Theregular response has been: “The relatives of theQuetta attack victims are desperate and we sup-port them.” However, such questions cannot beanswered with such simplicity. During the four-day sit in after the January 10 attack, the HazaraDemocratic Party continued to organise protestseparate from the dharna led by the Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM). The MWM ap-pears to be the pro-army group in the politicalmatrix – and also the one controlling the officialversion of events. When the agreement to burythose who died in the February 16 attack was an-nounced by the MWM spokesman, the familieswere taking a different line and confusion pre-vailed until the morning.

A Hazara refugee from Quetta explained thatsome of the Hazara clerics are also on the payrollof the agencies. He also identified some of thoseleading the current protest. When this writer askedhim,“Why do they not forge an alliance with theBaloch nationalists if they believe the LeJ has the

establishment’s support?” The response wassharp: “One of our leaders was quoted in the pressdefending Baloch nationalists. This was a periodwhen minor overtures had been made. A weeklater he was shot dead on Khuzdar Road. Themessage had been delivered and we knew themessenger. No one ventured on this path again.”

By the time the Supreme Court ‘took notice’(legal jargon has its sense of oxymoron) of theHazara killings, the military had felt it necessaryto officially deny links with sectarian outfits andan operation of sorts was orchestrated in Quetta.We were told that over 100 people, including the“mastermind of the February 16 attack” havebeen arrested. If finding the “mastermind” of theattack was so easy, could the raids have not beenconducted earlier? especially after the intelli-gence agencies have admitted to the SupremeCourt that “they had intelligence that a truckwould be used for another attack.” Deliberatenegligence, some would term this as, but this isthe nature of the game in Pakistan. Does the factthat no challan has been presented in any of the1,300 plus Shia Hazara killing in Quetta over thelast 13 years not show state complicity?

As it stands, Malik Ishaq knows it is a riskfor him to be ‘free.’ He has an election to contestin three months and he would be best positionedto contest it from the safety of a high-securityjail. Maulana Azam Tariq, one of Ishaq’s prede-cessor in the LeJ and another darling of youknow who, followed the same route in the 2003general elections. It was only after Tariq was re-leased from jail that he became the third SSP/LeJhead to be assassinated.

Malik Ishaq’s so-called ‘detention’ shall bepresented as a success. What could be moreprompt action than arrested the ‘main man’ in theLeJ, we shall be told. The truth, however, ismurkier. Which other country could have itsmost wanted terrorist ‘surrender’ himself – andbe arrested – without framing any charges? Ishaqhas calculated that jail is safer than his fortifiedhouse in Rahim Yar Khan and the state apparatusis willing to play along.

As it stands, Ishaq, used as a negotiatorwith ‘rogue LeJ militants’ in the 2009 attack onthe GHQ, knows he is indispensable to the deepstate and so is his organisation. There could beno better indication than his willingness to goto the state for protection. Perhaps like beforehe has even been promised a monthly stipendfrom his political patrons as he rests until he isneeded again.

The writer is the General Secretary(Lahore) for the Awami Workers Party. He is ajournalist and researcher. Email:hashimbrashid@gmail.com.

CoMMenT CSunday, 24 February, 2013

11

of dreams unshattered

THe journeyof life is ane x c u r s i o ninto the un-

known. The thrill of thisjourney is captured inthe fact that each mo-ment has the potentialto unlock countless pos-sibilities. And its beautystems from the carelessinteractions this journeyentails with countlessindividuals of varyingbackgrounds. These in-teractions shape ourpersonalities, making uswho we are, and how we view the world.

Living in distrustful times in Pakistan, it is easy to meet peoplewho would convince others of the futility of hope. Those who,through their speech and conduct, remind us that believing in Pak-istan is synonymous to a blind man’s wish of finding a pot of goldat the end of an invisible rainbow. But every once in a while, weare fortunate enough to meet an individual who not only restoresour faith in humanity, but also inspires us to be more, to be better,to never give in to the temptations of cynicism and apathy.

Recently, I have met one such individual – a young and brightwoman named Shaharbano. encapsulating the essence of an honest andhardworking Pakistani, Shaharbano’s father spent the better part of hislife working in the development sector. Sadly for him, his wife and threedaughters, had the misfortune of being born in the violence-prone cityof Quetta. During casual conversations, he narrates tales from a ‘once-upon-a-time-Quetta’ that was free of ethnic strife and bloodshed. The“fruit-garden of Pakistan”. A place full of communal love and brother-hood; surrounded by the snow-covered peaks of Chiltan, Takatoo, Mur-dar and Zarghun. Through a gleaming smile, he speaks of workingthere, amidst people from all ethnicities and religious sects, and puttinghis daughters through school, in the fierce belief that education (espe-cially for women) holds the key for a prosperous Pakistan.

But soon, as he narrates his tale, his eyes turn moist and the smiledisappears. His stare becomes distant, and in a quacking voice he re-counts how his Quetta got hijacked by a band of ethnic and religiousmilitants, whose violent vendetta went unchecked by a generation ofapathetic bureaucracy and feeble governmental resolve. Left with noother option, he narrates the pain of having to leave his beloved Quetta,and moving to Lahore, where his family could be safe(er), and hisdaughters could have a fighting chance at a brighter future. Some daysago, Shaharbano’s father told me of a Hazara-Shia friend who lost twosons (in their mid-twenties) to target killings in Quetta. And then, losthis own life in last month’s attack on the Hazara community.

Shaharbano listens to these conversations with an indescribablesadness, but then quickly snaps out of it to remind everyone aroundthat hope is not lost. That better, brighter future awaits Pakistan, ifonly we could muster the courage to reach for it. She tells her fatherand her friends (which, luckily, includes me) that our generationholds the key to unlocking this future. And that so what if her familyhad to migrate due to threat of violence, she reminds us that if onlywe can harness our collective potential to counter the scourge of ex-tremism, our children will not have to face pain of displacement orhopelessness. Hope is real, she says. In a time of global chaos andinstability, where our faiths collide through the barrel of our weapons,hope is real. She tells us that while there may be such a thing as falsepromises, and false starts, there is no such thing as false hope.

I frequently wonder, what kind of internal strength and faith ittakes for someone like Shaharbano to not only believe in Pakistan,but also actively advocate the same to others. In the prejudiced so-ciety of Pakistan, she is a woman, hailing from a minority province,a persecuted ethnicity, and a family that has lost friends to themindless menace of violence. There is every reason for her to lashout those around her, and be despondent about our national destiny.But still her faith is stronger than anyone else I know. She doesn’tjust believe in that Pakistan’s problems will end one day, she knowsthey will. And her faith in this unlikely fact is unshakable.

When I think of Shaharbano, I feel embarrassed at myself. Andat everyone else around me. We are not doing enough, for Shahar-bano. Too often, we spend our days chasing illusions of materialthings and grandeur. Too often, we allow ourselves to be persuadedby rhetoric of apathy. Too often, we do less than we can and settlefor a fraction of who we are. Too often we forget that we all sharethe collective responsibility of fulfilling the dreams of countlessShaharbanos across Pakistan, who have hung their hopes, theirdreams, and their faith in our imperfect abilities. And too often wecower behind our daily routines and social commitments to evadeour responsibility to all the faceless Shaharbanos of Pakistan.

Last week, I had the opportunity of delivering a talk atTedXKinnaird. The speech, which was a discourse of idealism, wastitled ‘Aik Rupay ke chaar dollar milein gey!’ The very next morn-ing, Shaharbano, in response to the title, wrote the following:

Agar aaj har su hai pat-jhar ka manzarKal chaaro’n taraf phool he phool khilein geyNa bijli, na paani, na aata agar aajKal yehi sabb hum baramad karein geyJahalat ke phande se aaj bahaut mar rahe hainKal sab shehri yaha’n ke parhe’n gey likhe’n geyAgar aaj hukumat hai zardario’n kiKal muhib-e-watan qayadat karein geyBana hai qanoon chief ka jaa’n nisaar aajKal adl aur insaaf pe jaa’n nisaar karein geySuno nayi duniya mein ja basne waloKal yaha’n ka visa hum tumhein na dein geyAur aye mere watan ke logo…Dhoondo sambhalo sab rupay ka sikkaKal rupay ke chaar dollar milein gey!For those of who you who can read these words – for those

whom these words resonate in the heart – please know: Shaharbanois counting on you!

You have your way. I have my way. As for

the right way, the correct way, and the only

way, it does not exist. –Friedrich Nietzsche

even amid chaos and killing, there is hope

A terrorist gets a safe housethe hazara question and the baloch question go together

SAAd RASOOL

Comradely SpeakinghAShIm bIN RAShId

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:59 AM Page 11

Raat youn dil mein teri khoyii hui yaad

aayi; Jaise veeraanay mein chupke se

bahaar aa jaaye – Faiz Ahmed Faiz

arts

ASunday, 24 February, 2013

12

What’s inside the$45k oscarnominees’ gift bag?

Oscar nominees who will attend the

awards ceremony on Sunday

night will be waking up the next

day with 45,000 dollars worth of loot, it has

been revealed. Those who don’t get their

magic Oscar moment will walk away with a

“2013 Everyone Wins at the Oscars

Nominee Gift Bag,” News.com.au repoted.

Included in the luxurious bag is a 12,000-

dollar trip to Australia, meaning the cream

of this year’s Academy Awards crop could

be heading their way in the very near

future. Recipients can choose between two

luxury Aussie destinations. Lizard Island -

listed as one of the top 10 resorts in the

world and positioned atop the Great Barrier

Reef - or El Questro Homestead, an ultra

private resort right in the middle of the

Outback. But not all of the loot is luxury

goods and exclusive holidays. The

nominees will also receive condoms, maple

syrup, electronic cigarettes, “The Ultimate

Fuzz Remover,” and Windex of all things in

their goody bag. NEwS dESk

lady Gaga thanksfans for supportafter surgery

LADY Gaga, who underwent a

surgery for a long-term hip

injury that left her unable to

walk, has thanked her fans for their

emotional support. The 26-year-old

singer expressed her gratitude to her

fans by saying: “Everything happened

so fast, but when it came time to face it

I reflected on the many stories and

experiences you’ve shared with me

about your lives ... you have completely

blown my mind,” the Mirror quoted her

as saying. The ‘Bad Romance’ singer

said that she love her fans and is proud

to be a part of their lives. “I’m alive,

I’m living my dream, and this is just a

bump in the road,” she added. Gaga,

who had a tear in the labrum of her

right hip and was using crutches and a

wheelchair, has cancelled the remaining

21 dates of her two-year world tour

‘Born This Way Ball’. NEwS dESk

lohan loses legal battleagainst Pitbull

ACTRESS Lindsay Lohan has

lost a court battle with

rapper Pitbull, who used her

name in his 2011 song “Give Me

Everything”. Pitbull’s song included

a line “I got it locked up like

Lindsay Lohan”, prompting the

actress to take legal action against

him, claiming he had no right to

use her name. But a New York

federal judge ruled in favour of

Pitbull Thursday, saying the song

is a work of art protected by the

US first amendment, reports

tmz.com. NEwS dESk

If intellect is welcome

anywhere in the other

world, it is in hell, not

heaven.” “His voice seemed

to say like the river, ‘Why

hurry? Eternity is long; the ocean can

wait,’” Helen Keller marveled upon meeting

Mark Twain. Indeed, while Twain may be

America’s most celebrated humorist,

underpinning — and fueling — his

remarkable wit was unparalleled insight

into the human condition, a kind of

profound philosophical prism through which

his comedic genius was bent. That gift of

Twain’s comes to life with astounding

eloquence and elegance in this passage

from Autobiography of

Mark Twain: The

Complete and

Authoritative

Edition,

Volume 1

(UK; public

library), in

which he

turns a

cautious

eye towards

the relationship

between human

morality and the

intellect, wincing

at our

anthropocentric sense of entitlement —

something all the more tragically palpable a

century later, amidst environmental

degradation, overpopulation, and economic

collapse. Twain writes:

We have no respectworthy evidence that the

human being has morals. He is himself the

only witness. Persons who do not know him

value his testimony. They think he is not

shallow and vain because he so despises the

peacock for possessing these qualities. They

are deceived into not regarding him as a

beast and a brute, because he uses these

terms to disapprovingly describe qualities

which he possesses, yet which are not

possessed by any creature but himself. On

his verbal testimony they take him for every

creditable thing which he particularly isn’t,

and (intentionally?) refrain from examining

the testimony of his acts. It is the safest

way, but man did not invent it, it was

the polecat. From the beginning of time

the polecats have quite honestly and

naively regarded themselves as

representing in the animal kingdom

what the rose represents in the

vegetable kingdom. This is because

they do not examine. […] However,

moralless man, bloody and atrocious

man, is high above the other animals in his

one great and shining gift — intellectuality. It

took him ages and ages to demonstrate the

full magnitude and majesty of his gift, but

he has accomplished it

at last. For ages it was

a mean animal indeed

that was not vastly his

superior in certain

splendid faculties. In

the beginning he had

nothing but the puny

strength of his

unweaponed hands to protect his life with,

and he was as helpless as a rabbit when the

lion, the tiger, the elephant, the mastodon

and the other mighty beasts came against

him; in endurance he was far inferior to the

other creatures; in fleetness on the land

there was hardly an animal in the whole list

that couldn’t shame him; in fleetness in the

water every fish could excel him; his

eyesight was a sarcasm: for seeing minute

things it was blindness as compared to the

eyesight of the insects, and the condor could

see a sheep further than he could see a

hotel. But by the ingenuities of his intellect

he has equipped himself with all these gifts

artificially and has made them

unapproachably effective. His locomotive can

outstrip all birds and beasts in speed and

beat them all in endurance; there are no

eyes in the animal world that can compete

with his microscope and his telescope; the

strength of the tiger and the elephant is

weakness, compared with the force which he

carries in his mile-range terrible gun. In the

beginning he was given ‘dominion’ over the

animal creation — a very handsome present,

but it was mere words and represented a

non-existent sovereignty. But he has turned

it into an existent sovereignty, himself, and is

master, of late. In physical talents he was a

pauper when he started; by grace of his

intellect he is incomparably the richest of all

the animals now. But he is still a pauper in

morals — incomparably the poorest of the

creatures in that respect. The gods value

morals alone; they have paid no

compliments to intellect, nor offered it a

single reward. If intellect is welcome

anywhere in the other world, it is in hell,

not heaven. In the century since,

philosopher Thomas Nagel has spoken to

the importance of intellectual humility in

understanding our place in the universe,

behavioral economist Dan Ariely has put

Twain’s insight to the test in the lab,

demonstrating the positive correlation

between creative intelligence and

immorality, and Albert Einstein, Anne

Lamott, and Steve Jobs have all made

passionate cases for intuition

over the intellect. But perhaps

it was philosopher Bertrand

Russell who had it right in

balancing the intellectual and the

moral with his simple, timelessly

wise words: “Love is wise, hatred is

foolish.” COuRTESy bP

Mark Twain on Moralityvs Intelligence

‘‘

NEWS DESK

t He British PrimeMinister DavidCameron who was inIndia on a short visit

interacted with Aamir Khan atan educational institution inNew Delhi. Naturally the twogot acquainted. And, one hearsthat later the same evening,David Cameron invited Aamirto 10 Downing Street, theofficial residence of the

British Prime Minister,when the actor is in

London, thenext time.Aamir hasacceptedtheinvitationand heand hiswifeKiranRaoKhanare

expected to visit the PM’shome later this year. WhenCameron visited a college inDelhi on Tuesday for adiscussion with students,Aamir was the surprise drop-in, as the Indian ambassadorfor Unicef. Their arrival in thecollege was announced bydeafening cheers, andCameron and Aamir walked insurrounded by security, and satdirectly between the students— no boring speeches — andgot talking to the girls next tothem. It was quite a warmingsight, two biggies sitting onthe benches, talkinganimatedly like they’d known

them for years. After a fewQ&As, they’d move on aheadto another group. except that,nobody, not even the students,apart from those sitting next tothem, could hear what theywere discussing! There wereno mics used. The discussionwas mostly about theinequality between boys andgirls. But why wouldCameron, and Aamir, want tolimit their audience, is whatwe’re still puzzling over.When Obama addressesstudents anywhere, he rollsup his sleeves and is readyfor a duel - which everyonecan hear.

Cameron invites aamirto 10 Downing Street

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 2:59 AM Page 12

God is really only another artist. He invented the

giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style,

He just goes on trying other things. — Pablo Picasso

13arTSSunday, 24 February, 2013

A

FaIza s kHanMira Hashmi who’s

moderating the Courtesan

in Literature session has

just arrived in a gharara.

Wah! #LLF2013

zoe vICCaJI Just walked out of Hameed

Haroon’s session at the

Lahore literature Festival.

Feeling heavy but

enlightened

nuzHat s. sIddIqI“They just wanted theirsons & husbands back. Thepress didn’t notice them.So I went and talked tothem.” Mohd Hanif. #LLF

aamna taseer3 enjoyable sessions at

Lahore Lit Fest. The

rainbow in a gloomy

rainy cold day

saLman akram raJa Renowned left intellectual

Tariq Ali says at the Lah Lit

Festival he will vote for

IK/PTI. Now listening to

Intezar Hussain Sb. A feast!

notaBLe tweets

NEWS DESK

HeRe is a list of the BestPicture Oscar winnersfrom the last 20 years,

ahead of this Sunday’s 85th Acad-emy Awards in Hollywood. StevenSpielberg’s presidential drama “Lincoln” and Ben Affleck’s Iranhostage drama “ Argo” are seen asfrontrunners, although it is seen asone of the least predictable Oscarsraces in recent memory.8 2012 - “The Artist”8 2011 - “The King’s Speech”8 2010 - “The Hurt Locker”8 2009 - “Slumdog Millionaire”8 2008 - “No Country for Old Men”8 2007 - “The Departed”8 2006 - “Crash”8 2005 - “Million Dollar Baby”8 2004 - “The Lord of the Rings:

The Return of the King”8 2003 - “Chicago”8 2002 - “A Beautiful Mind”8 2001 - “Gladiator”8 2000 - “American Beauty”8 1999 - “Shakespeare in Love”8 1998 - “Titanic”8 1997 - “The english Patient”8 1996 - “Braveheart”

8 1995 - “Forrest Gump”8 1994 - “Schindler’s List”8 1993 - “Unforgiven”

COURTESy HUffBOOKS

It may seem a little unfair to return so soonto a designer and publisher that I’ve al-ready covered on this blog, but I was sotickled by this story when I heard it that Icouldn’t wait to share it. Last week I wentto talk given by one-time Penguin in-housedesigner, now freelancer, David Pearson,at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. entitled‘Money for Old Rope – A Revivalist Ap-proach to Modern Book Design’, it was re-ally just an illustrated run through ofPearson’s career and the books he loves.

His time at Penguin coincided with aconcerted effort at the publisher to makesense of (and, perhaps, make moneyfrom) its own design history. Pearsonwas behind Penguin By Design, the bookthat tells that design story, did much ofthe research for Seven Hundred Penguins(a marvelous brick of a book containingnothing but images of book covers) andwas in charge of the look of such seriesas Pocket Penguins and Great Ideas.

What I didn’t know, though, was thathe was also responsible for the 2007 re-design of the Penguin Popular Classicsseries, the cheapo, no-introduction, no-scholarly notes edition originally broughtout to counter the threat of WordsworthClassics. The previous look had been fullbleed artwork with a tan-coloured ovaltitle box towards the top. They were, tobe charitable, twee in the extreme. To beuncharitable, they were horrid.

Penguin ran an internal competitionto come up with a comprehensive over-

haul of the series. Five designers submit-ted, and Pearson won with a super-plain,type-only design featuring modern GillSans lettering, a doubled up logo featur-ing two dancing penguins (to denote,perhaps rather obliquely, the ‘popular’aspect) and the £2 price tag, promi-nently, even proudly, displayed. Thecover was an equally restrained maroon.The office was, Pearson says, ecstaticabout the design… until someone said,almost wistfully, that they preferred it tothe ‘proper’ Penguin Classics. At whichpoint everyone froze.

Why would anyone spend £6.99 on,say, Dracula, not to mention £14.99 forCoralie Bickford-Smith’s lovely cloth-covered hardback – both of which fea-ture the full scholarly treatment ofpreface, chronology, introduction, fur-ther reading, a note on the text, plus 50pages of appendices and notes, when the£2 version, containing just the novel,looks so good? The Classics series is ob-viously where the money is to be made,and the reputation upheld, and that couldnot be put in jeopardy. Pearson was sentaway with the brief – unique in his andprobably many a designer’s career – tomake the thing look worse.

Not wanting to mess with the type, orthe layout, he decided on the colour, andafter much deliberation settled on thelurid lime green that we have seensplashed across bookshops, a colour souncommonly disgusting that none of theprinter’s standard pigments came near it,and it had to be specially mixed.

Penguin asks designer tomake book cover worse

8 new and necessary Punctuation Marks

oscar best picturewinners of last 20 years

NEW YORK: Ke$ha and her and her Siamese cat

Mr. Peeps check out of a New York City hotel.

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 3:00 AM Page 13

NEWS DESK

New research has found that humans possess at least twounique networks in their cerebral cortex not are not seenin rhesus monkeys. The rhesus monkeys, though, do haveone network that seems to be unique to them that humansdo not have. The researchers theorize that these networkswere probably ‘added’ sometime in the last few millionyears. The discoveries were made by analyzing the func-tional brain scans of humans and of rhesus monkeys, andcomparing the two during different activities.

According to currently accepted theory,the ancestors of modern humans “evolu-tionarily split from those of rhesus mon-keys about 25 million years ago.Since then, brain areas have beenadded, have disappeared or havechanged in function. This raises thequestion, ‘Has evolution given hu-mans unique brain structures?’.” Theidea has been popular amongst manyscientists, but until now there therehasn’t been any evidence. (Author’s note:Focusing on the things that make humans‘unique’ amongst other animals seems to be avery common bias amongst those in the scientific commu-nity. Previously things such as complex “language”, cul-ture, use of tools, mathematics, empathy, etc, have beenconsidered to be unique to humans. But now it’s knownthat these are present in many animals. In my opinion, thiscurrent research should be read with that in mind.)

Professor Vanduffel explains: “We did functionalbrain scans in humans and rhesus monkeys at rest andwhile watching a movie to compare both the place andthe function of cortical brain networks. even at rest, thebrain is very active. Different brain areas that are activesimultaneously during rest form so-called ‘resting state’

networks. For the most part, these resting state networksin humans and monkeys are surprisingly similar, but wefound two networks unique to humans and one uniquenetwork in the monkey.”

“When watching a movie, the cortex processes anenormous amount of visual and auditory information. Thehuman-specific resting state networks react to this stimu-lation in a totally different way than any part of the monkeybrain. This means that they also have a different functionthan any of the resting state networks found in the monkey.

In other words, brain structures that are unique inhumans are anatomically absent in the mon-

key and there no other brain structuresin the monkey that have an analo-gous function. Our unique brainareas are primarily located high atthe back and at the front of the cor-tex and are probably related to spe-

cific human cognitive abilities, suchas human-specific intelligence.”The researchers utilized fMRI

(functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)scans to observe activity in the brain. “fMRI scans mapfunctional activity in the brain by detecting changes inblood flow. The oxygen content and the amount ofblood in a given brain area vary according to a particu-lar task, thus allowing activity to be tracked.”

It’s not surprising that animals in very different en-vironmental niches and subject to very different condi-tions would have brains that function differently. And it’salso worth keeping in mind, that within the controlledconditions of the lab, the behavior and brain activity ofmost animals, especially intelligent ones (and ones thathave been raised in captivity at that), is greatly modified.Brains are relatively plastic things, regions and networkscan completely change in function in response to injury,learning, and other environmental conditions.

NEWS DESK

THe man with the“world’s worst por-trait tattoo” finallygot his happy end-ing on Thursday

when he had the opportunity tofix the botched ink job of his latewife that had plagued him for somany years. In 2007, on the one-year anniversary of his wifeMindy’s death, Chad Stahl, 38,owner of Cutright Lawn andLandscaping, LLC, visited Onthe edge Tattoo Studio in Bowl-ing Green, Ohio to honor herwith a portrait tattoo. The couplehad been dating for 10 years, had3 children, and were married forless than 3 months when Mindydied in a household fire.

Tattoo artist Dennis Foustinked the $450 portrait tattoo. “Ihad seen Faust’s portrait work onhis website and he even tattooedsome of my in-laws with designsin honor of Mindy so I was confi-dent going in,” Stahl told Yahoo!

Shine in his first media interview.“But when the swelling subsided,it didn’t look like Mindy at all—her teeth looked evil.” To add in-sult to injury, a friend had emailedhim a link to a blog post titled“Worst Tattoo ever” with a photoof Stahl’s tattoo posted by a dis-gruntled On the edge ex-em-ployee. A few months later, Stahlreturned to the studio and Fausttried to fix it, adding the words,“In loving memory of Mindy” but

the damage was too great. “I wasembarrassed to wear sleevelessshirts and didn’t want anyone tosee the tattoo but everyone in mytown knew about it,” says Stahl.

Foust told Shine: “This wasmy very first portrait tattoo doneyears ago. I’ve since moved for-ward, improved my skills, andmy work has been featured inmagazines.”

Recently, a friend of Stahl’srecommended that he visit Scott

Versago at empire Ink in Akron,Ohio, who had heard of the infa-mous tattoo and on Thursday Ver-sago fixed it—for free. Vergasowrote on his Facebook page: “Igot to tackle the official ‘#1 worstportrait tattoo in the world’ today.I’m sure you’ve all seen it a mil-lion times online, as had I. Icouldn’t believe my eyes whenthis guy walked in and showedme this project. I think my jaw lit-erally hit the floor. He went on to

tell me the story behind the por-trait; He had just married hisbeautiful wife and not even threemonths afterwards she was killedin a horrible house fire accidentleaving him to raise their threechildren alone. Shortly after hewent to a local tattoo studio tomemorialize his wife and was leftwith this abomination. He laterreturned to that studio for onemore session, thinking that per-haps ‘he had done somethingwrong in the healing of the tattoo’and they butchered it even morethe second time. Finally, he droveall the way to my studio, empireInk, just to meet me and to seewhat his options were. Touchedby his story, I gifted the entireproject to him for free. Now hehas closure and I have an amazingstory to add to my portfolio!”

The fix-it job took just threehours. “I’m so happy and wanteveryone to see it,” Stahl toldShine. “I’m going to enter the tat-too in a contest hosted by On theedge to see if they recognize me.”

School teacher,nurse chargedin murder plotA kindergarten teacher and a school

nurse in Virginia are accused of trying

to kill the teacher’s ex-husband in a

murder-for-hire plot, Fox News

reports. The teacher—Angela Nolen,

47—allegedly conspired with 37-year-

old Cathy Bennett at the elementary

school where they work in Rocky

Mount, Va. But someone they

contacted asking for a hit man

bothered to call the cops, and state

police sent in an undercover agent to

play the role of professional killer.

After receiving half the “fee”

upfront—$4,000—police arrested the

women and told 63-year-old husband

Paul Strickler about it. He explained

that he was trying to find a way for

Angela to buy their house from him

after their 2012 divorce. “If I was

dead, she would not have to give me

the money,” he tells the Roanoke

Times. “That scares the H-E-L-L out

of me.” The former school

administrator says he’s still too afraid

to even open his front door. A court

has granted Bennett a $60,000 bond,

but a bond hearing for Nolen has

been postponed. NEwS dESk

Walmart hits oreo-loving workerwith felony chargeWalmart is slapping a former

employee with felony charges after

she allegedly ate the store’s Oreo

cookies on the job, The Smoking Gun

reports. Penny Winters, 63, admits to

munching on Oreos at the Indiana

store but says she noticed an open

bag and considered them a gift from

management. Surveillance footage,

however, showed “Ms. Winters select

the package of cookies, open it, and

proceed to consume multiple cookies

during her work shift,” according to a

police report.

The report added that Winters

admitted to stealing and eating other

junk food, and said she “simply did

not have the monies to legitimately

purchase the food items.” So Walmart

had her arrested, charged with felony

theft, and fired her from the $11.40-

per-hour maintenance job. She

posted bond and was released from

jail earlier this week. NEwS dESk

InFotaInment

ISunday, 24 February, 2013

14We build too many

walls and not enough

bridges. –Isaac Newton

NEWS DESK

FACeBOOK’S and Google’s founders set aside theirrivalries to create the “Breakthrough Prize” for sciencethat’s worth more than double the value of the Nobelprize. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and his wifePriscilla Chan, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin andhis wife Anne Wojcicki have joined forces to launchthe Breakthrough in Life Sciences Award, worth $3million, The Daily Mail reports. The prize will beawarded to those with the best ideas in science, medi-cine, and technology and foundation, lead by the win-ner, is intended to fund scientists working on researchaimed at curing intractable diseases and extendinghuman life. “Our society needs more heroes who arescientists, researchers and engineers,” Zuckerberg saidin a statement. “We need to celebrate and reward thepeople who cure diseases, expand our understanding

of humanity and work to improve people’s lives…At$3 million per prize, it’s the largest prize for this workin the world. I’m hopeful this serves as a blueprintfor prizes and philanthropy in other fields as well.”

Monster goldfishinvade lake TahoePlanning a vacay to

Lake Tahoe? You

may well encounter

goldfish that are

1.5 feet long and

weigh more than 4

pounds, Scientific

American reports.

Researchers trolling for invasive species

encountered the massive goldfish and say pet

owners may have dumped them. That act of good

will, however, could damage the lake’s ecosystem

when the goldfish eat native species and excrete a

nutrient that muddies the water by causing algal

blooms. So-called fish dumping is nothing new:

“Globally, the aquarium trade has contributed a

third of the world’s worst aquatic and invasive

species,” says the lead author of a report on

California’s aquarium trade. Owners often discard

them because the fish are too big and aggressive,

he adds. As for the monster goldfish, only 15 have

been found so far, swimming “in a nice corner,”

says a scientist. “It’s an indication that they were

schooling and spawning.” NEwS dESk

Microsoft says it gothacked tooAll but inevitable?

Microsoft has joined the

ranks of US companies

that admit to having

been hacked, Reuters

reports. On the heels of Twitter,

Apple, Facebook, the New York Times, and others,

Microsoft today announced that a few of its computers

were infected with malware after connecting to a

software developer website. The world’s biggest

software company made it sound minor, saying no

customer data has been affected. No word on

whether China’s military was involved. NEwS dESk

Pope’s Twitter accountleaving with himIf you’d been looking forward to keeping up with

ex-Pope Benedict’s exploits as a Vatican lay-

about/shadow pope on his @Pontifex Twitter feed,

or maybe hoping he’d hand the handle off to his

successor, we’ve got some bad news. The much-

hyped account, which has drawn 2 million followers

in just two and a half months, will be going away

when Benedict hangs up his pope hat on February

28, Vatican Radio revealed today, according to

CNN. “It seems unimaginable that one could

continue to use a communication tool so popular

and powerful during the ‘sede vacante’ period,” the

station said. “From choice, the Pontifex profile was

not personalized, but it clearly refers to the person

of the pope.” Benedict will likely send one last

Tweet on February 27, the same day he gives his

final general audience, or else a day later, “before

retiring into silence.” NEwS dESk

World’s worst tattoo is fixed

Facebook, Google create ‘new nobel prize’ worth 3 million dollars

Unique brain structuresfound in humans

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 3:00 AM Page 14

CHENNAI

AGENCIES

IN the space of his first two balls, Sachin Tendulkarchanged the complexion of this match. Arriving atthe wicket with India a forlorn 12 for 2 in reply to

380, he punched a rampant James Pattinson through thecovers with so much certainty that a previously confidentAustralia were given pause, while a momentarily cowedIndia breathed anew. By the end of the day Pattinson hadburst through a third batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara, butused only in a pair of micro-spells he was unable to getat Tendulkar, and the hosts reached a contented 182 for 3with Virat Kohli offering typically wristy support.Tendulkar's innings was the most assured and ominoushe has played at Test level in recent memory, though itcould easily have ended in the final over before tea.

Nathan Lyon pushed most of his deliveries through,but second ball he looped an off break that Tendulkarpadded away dismissively though it appeared bound forthe stumps. Australia's appeal was prolonged and justified,but the umpire Marais erasmus was unmoved. Thereprieve had a restorative effect on Tendulkar, allowinghim to go on to only a second half-century in his past 14Test innings, and a deflating one on Lyon, depriving himof the confidence an early wicket would have provided.

He was seldom a threat from that moment. India's inningshad been delayed until after lunch by the obduracy of theAustralian tail. Michael Clarke went on from his overnight

103 not out to 130, going past Greg Chappell onAustralia's list of run aggregates along the way, and PeterSiddle dead-batted to a stodgy but valuable 19 from 94balls. Pattinson and Lyon then managed to extend thesession, each ball a little victory for the pair. Lyonultimately succumbed when his sweep was well held atleg slip. R Ashwin again bowled teasingly, and Lyon'swicket gave him a new innings high-mark in first-classcricket. Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh struckearlier in the morning, the latter improving somewhat onhis diffident performance on the first day of the series.Redolent of a desert, the pitch required constant vigilanceby the batsmen, and does not look like improving. MVijay and Virender Sehwag walked out for the start of theafternoon session aware that Australia's most threateningbowlers would be employed immediately. Mitchell Starctook the first over and bowled tidily without extracting hispet inswing to the right-hand batsmen, relying on theoccasional short ball for the element of surprise. He waslater to spend too many overs around the wicket, negatinghis natural angle, and the creation of footmarks for Lyon.

At the other end Pattinson charged in for his first Testsince a side strain removed him from Australia's attackin Adelaide last November. Clearly instructed to bowl athis fastest in short spells by his captain Clarke, Pattinsontouched 150kmph during a three-over stint thatexhilarated everyone but the Indian opening batsmen.entering the match with modest domestic form, Vijaywas beaten for pace by a full ball that tailed backfractionally and plucked out leg stump via the insideedge. Sehwag never seemed at home, and a late defensiveprod on a ball angled back into him resulted in a dismissalthat looked bizarre but also felt inevitable.

SPorTS

SSunday, 24 February, 2013

15Hey my peeps. I'm back on the track running

the heats and finals of the 4x400m at Gibson

Relays. Feeling like junior again. – Usain Bolt

Tendulkar, Kohli even up match

GRENADA

AGENCIES

Johnson Charles and Darren Bravo struck stylish centuriesas West Indies easily beat Zimbabwe by 156 runs in theopening game of their one day series in Grenada on

Friday. The Caribbean side made 337 for four from their50 overs and Zimbabwe limped to 181 for nine after apoor start. Charles' 130, which follows his maiden centuryin Melbourne earlier this month, came off 111 balls andfeatured 12 boundaries and four sixes as the opener madethe most of a modest Zimbabwean attack.

Charles, Bravo set up massive wI win

AUCKLAND

AGENCIES

ENGLAND cashed in on a fineperformance with the ball andin the field to coast to victoryat eden Park and wrap up the

one-day international series 2-1 againstNew Zealand. Steven Finn was the drivingforce as the tourists bowled their hosts outfor 185, and Saturday's decider turned intoa mis-match. even Brendon McCullum'sthird successive half-century was unable torescue a defendable total for New Zealand,albeit on a pitch which had offered plentyearly on to well directed seam bowlingafter Alastair Cook had won the toss.

england's two premier exponents,Finn and James Anderson, soon reducedthe hosts to a hapless 11 for three.McCullum (79) refused to let englandhave it all their own way with six foursand five sixes but, without significantsupport, could not turn the tide on hisown. It seemed a foregone conclusion thatengland would make light work of theirtarget. In the event they were not flatteredby a five-wicket margin, and it was moreinstructive that they also had 12.3 overs tospare. Finn's first of three wickets for 27was his 50th in ODI cricket, and for goodmeasure Graeme Swann was later to takehis 100th - only the eighth englishman todo so in this format.

Finn began england's dominance bybeating BJ Watling twice in three balls inhis first over, with bounce and awaymovement. With a third similarly testing

delivery, he got his first reward - takingthe shoulder of a defensive bat for a neatcatch by Swann at second slip.

Then after a Finn maiden to HamishRutherford, Anderson struck with a lengthball which held its line and had KaneWilliamson edging behind on the back-foot defence. Rutherford, in particular,was enduring an unequal struggle.

He managed just two runs from 19balls, eventually falling to Finn - whoallowed him a little width for the firsttime but, rather than being punished, hadthe left-handed opener edging to thewicketkeeper as he tried to seize on a rarescoring opportunity. Ross Taylor andGrant elliott dug in to attempt a recovery.But after a hard-working stand of 53 in15 overs, their industry was squanderedvia a mix-up over a second run which left

elliott sent back and stranded mid-pitch.When Taylor then became the thirdcaught-behind departure of the innings -umpire Chris Gaffaney's decision upheldafter a DRS process which could notdisprove it - it was hard to envisage howNew Zealand might reach a competitivetotal. McCullum would still have his say,though, and in the 32nd over hit the thefirst six of the innings - up the wicket toSwann, over long-on.

Another feasible partner came andwent, James Franklin poking a catch backto a diving Swann off the back foot tobring up the off-spinner's ODI century;then McCullum's brother Nathan edgedthe returning Finn to slip at the start of thebatting powerplay. Finn had figures of 8-3-10-3 at that stage. McCullum puncturedhis pride by clubbing him for two pulled

fours and a six over long-off in successiveballs in a ninth over which cost 17, andNew Zealand's lynchpin continued hisone-man counter-attack too.

england cruise to series win in nz

Afridi to decidefate himself

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Pakistan's under-scrutiny all-rounder ShahidAfridi Saturday vowed to play on his ownterms and quit on his own terms after beinggiven a possible last chance to improve hisperformance in one-day matches. Afridi, whoquit Test cricket in 2010, was recalled forPakistan's five-match one-day series againstSouth Africa, with the country's chief selectorIqbal Qasim warning it could be the lastchance for some players, including Afridi. ButAfridi pledged to walk away from the gameon his own terms. "I will never give anyone achance to speak," Afridi told reporters. "I willplay cricket on my own terms and leave onmy own." Afridi has been under pressure toperform after being dropped from the one-dayteam for the India tour in December last year.He was then selected for Twenty20s only. Thedashing batsman, who holds a world recordfor smashing a 37-ball century in a one-daymatch against Sri Lanka in 1996, failed to hita 50 in his last 12 one-day matches andcaptured only seven wickets. Afridi, whoturns 33 on Friday when Pakistan take onSouth Africa in the first of two Twenty20internationals in Durban, said he plays for hisfans. "If fans want to see me play, I will play,and if they don't want me to play then I willleave," said Afridi, who has a huge followingin Pakistan and other countries. Pakistan willplay five one-day internationals against SouthAfrica, the first starting in Bloemfontein onMarch 10. Afridi has so far scored 7,075 runsin 349 one-day matches with 348 wickets --the most in the 15-man one-day squadannounced for South Africa. He has 845 runsand 63 wickets in 58 Twenty20 internationals.Afridi led Pakistan to the semi-final of the2011 World Cup where they lost to eventualchampions India. But he fell out with thenchairman of Pakistan Cricket Board, Ijaz Butt,resulting in his sacking as captain.

sachiN teNdulkar's iNNiNgswas the Most assured aNdoMiNous he has played at testlevel iN receNt MeMory

AuSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS

EJm Cowan st dhoni b Ashwin 29

dA warner lbw b Ashwin 59

PJ hughes b Ashwin 6

SR watson lbw b Ashwin 28

mJ Clarke c kumar b Jadeja 130

mS wade lbw b Ashwin 12

mC henriques lbw b Ashwin 68

mA Starc b Jadeja 3

Pm Siddle c Sehwag b harbhajan 19

JL Pattinson not out 15

Nm Lyon c kohli b Ashwin 3

Extras (b 1, lb 7) 8

Total (all out; 133 overs; 495 mins) 380

Fall of wickets 1-64 (Cowan, 14.3 ov), 2-72 (hughes, 18.3 ov), 3-126 (watson, 34.4

ov), 4-131 (warner, 36.4 ov), 5-153 (wade, 46.6 ov), 6-304 (henriques, 89.2 ov),

7-307 (Starc, 90.1 ov), 8-361 (Clarke, 119.1 ov), 9-364 (Siddle, 120.6 ov), 10-380

(Lyon, 132.6 ov)

bowling: b kumar 13-1-52-0, I Sharma 17-3-59-0, harbhajan Singh 25-2-87-1, R

Ashwin 42-12-103-7, RA Jadeja 36-10-71-2

INdIA 1ST INNINGS

m Vijay b Pattinson 10

V Sehwag b Pattinson 2

CA Pujara b Pattinson 44

SR Tendulkar not out 71

V kohli not out 50

Extras (lb 3, w 2) 5

Total (3 wickets; 52 overs) 182

To bat RA Jadeja, mS dhoni*†, R Ashwin, harbhajan Singh, b kumar, I Sharma

Fall of wickets 1-11 (Vijay, 3.2 ov), 2-12 (Sehwag, 5.2 ov), 3-105 (Pujara, 28.4 ov)

bowling: mA Starc 14-2-37-0, JL Pattinson 6-1-25-3, Pm Siddle 8-1-31-0, Nm Lyon

14-0-55-0, mC henriques 8-2-17-0, mJ Clarke 2-0-14-0

Toss Australia, who chose to bat

Test debuts mC henriques (Australia); b kumar (India)

Player of the match tba

umpires hdPk dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and m Erasmus (South Africa)

TV umpire VA kulkarni

match referee bC broad (England)

Reserve umpire k Srinath

SCOREbOARd

wEST INdIES

J Charles b mpofu1 30

kOA Powell c Ervine b mpofu 79

dm bravo not out 100

Ad Russell c Chakabva b mushangwe 4

dJ bravo c Chakabva b Jarvis 9

RR Sarwan not out 7

Extras (b 2, lb 2, w 3, nb 1) 8

Total (4 wickets; 50 overs) 337

did not bat d Ramdin†, N deonarine, SP Narine, kAJ Roach, TL best

Fall of wickets 1-168 (Powell, 28.4 ov), 2-248 (Charles, 38.6 ov), 3-266 (Russell, 41.3

ov), 4-302 (dJ bravo, 47.2 ov)

bowling: km Jarvis 10-1-65-1, P utseya 10-0-60-0, Cb mpofu 10-0-83-2, CJ Chibhabha

3-0-19-0, N mushangwe 10-2-56-1, h masakadza 5-0-35-0, mN waller 2-0-15-0

ZImbAbwE

V Sibanda lbw b Roach 12

CJ Chibhabha c Powell b Narine 6h masakadza c Roach b Narine 4bRm Taylor c deonarine b best 8CR Ervine c Charles b Russell 41mN waller c sub (V Permaul) b dJ bravo 51Rw Chakabva c Roach b Narine 4P utseya not out 18km Jarvis b Russell 1N mushangwe b dJ bravo 14Cb mpofu not out 0Extras (b 4, lb 5, w 10, nb 3) 22Total (9 wickets; 50 overs) 181Fall of wickets 1-18 (Sibanda, 4.4 ov), 2-22 (Chibhabha, 5.3 ov), 3-31 (masakadza, 9.2ov), 4-34 (Taylor, 10.5 ov), 5-92 (Ervine, 23.5 ov), 6-115 (Chakabva, 29.3 ov), 7-156(waller, 40.6 ov), 8-161 (Jarvis, 43.4 ov), 9-181 (mushangwe, 48.5 ov)bowling: kAJ Roach 8-1-15-1, TL best 10-1-38-1, SP Narine 10-4-28-3, deonarine 7-1-37-0,dJ bravo 8-0-30-2, Ad Russell 7-0-24-2

SCOREbOARd

NEw ZEALANd

bJ watling c Swann b Finn 1

h. Rutherford c buttler b Finn 2

k. williamson c buttler b Anderson 7

R. Taylor c buttler b broad 28

G. Elliott run out 24

b. mcCullum c Anderson b Swann 79

J. Franklin c & b Swann 13

N. mcCullum c Cook b Finn 4

A. Ellis c woakes b broad 9

k. mills lbw b woakes 2

T. Southee not out 5

Extras (lb-3, w-8) 11

Total (all out, 43.5 overs) 185

Fall of wickets: 1-2 2-11 3-11 4-64 5-67 6-99 7-109 8-146 9-150

bowling: Anderson 8-1-34-1 (w-3), Finn 9-3-27-3 (w-2),

woakes 9-0-34-1 (w-2), broad 9-0-38-2, Swann 8.5-0-49-2

(w-1)

ENGLANd

A. Cook c watling b Southee 46

I. bell c Rutherford b Ellis 24

J. Trott c watling b Southee 38

J. Root not out 28

E. morgan c mills b Ellis 39

J. buttler c watling b Southee 3

C. woakes not out 3

Extras (lb-1, w-4) 5

Total (for five wickets, 37.3 overs) 186

did not bat: Stuart broad, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn,

James Anderson

Fall of wickets: 1-42 2-109 3-112 4-168 5-171

bowling: mills 7.3-0-34-0 (w-1), Southee 10-1-48-3 (w-3), Ellis

8-0-35-2, N. mcCullum 7-0-39-0, williamson 1-0-9-0, Franklin

4-0-20-0

Result - England won by five wickets

Previous results

Feb. 17 - New Zealand won by three wickets

Feb. 20 - England won by eight wickets

England won the toss and opted to field.

SCOREbOARd

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 3:01 AM Page 16

SPorTS SSunday, 24 February, 2013

16I just tried to save some energy for the end and with 10 laps to go I realised

I needed just one point. When you've got a world title on the line you get that

energy from somewhere. – Simon Yates after claiming World Cycling title

LAHORE: Shoaib Akhtar, Chief Guest at FCC's Alumni Sports Events,

distributes prizes among the sporting event winners. StAFF photo

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

The Pakistan Hockey Federation hasbrought in four new faces for the AzlanShah Cup to strengthen the bench strengthand rested four of thr senior players.

The Azlan Shah Cup has four newfaces and the team management is hopefulto get decent results in the event beingplayed from March 9-17 in Ipoh, Malaysia.

The fresh legs included in the 18-member squad are half line players AmirShahzad, Tasawar Abbas and forward IrfanJunior and Mohammad Imran Jr, saidAkhtar Rasool Chaduahry, manager andchief coach of the team at a pressconference here on Saturday at NationalHockey Stadium. Coaches Hanif Khan andAjmal Lohdi were also present on theoccasion. The team chief coach said the twosenior players Shakeel Abbasi and formercaptain Wasim Ahmed have been given restin order to test the abilities of new players.Rizwan Sr, and Mohammad Rashid whopreferred playing league abroad ratherjoining the national camp were notconsidered and the team management havesent a compliant against them to the

Pakistan Hockey Federation.To a question Akhtar refused to predict

teams chances on reaching victory podiumand rather said: “We are working hard onimproving teams performance and we areconfident to get decent results,”

“I don’t want to make tall claimsregarding teams reaching the victory standbut one thing is very clear that we are goingthere with a high aim to show consistencykeeping in mind our title victory in AsianChampions Trophy in Doha December last.

Akhtar Rasool said the four new

players are the produce of the junior teamand the team management has taken AzlanShah Cup as an event to test the talent ofnew players for building the team for futureneeds. “We want to give rest to some seniorplayers because Azlan Shah is the onlytournament ahead of us to gauge thepotential of new players as we will beplaying a number of important tournamentsafterwards and there are lesser chance toinduct new faces,” he asserted.

The former Pakistan captain said he hasfaith in new comers and he believes they

will be justifying their inclusion by puttingup their best in the Azlan Shah Cup inwhich worlds best teams will be playing.

He said team management is makingchanges in the side keeping in view thefuture assignments including next year’sWorld Cup and 2015 Olympics. HanifKhan said he was not afraid of criticism andhe is fully satisfied on the selection of theteam. “We are going to try new players andat this stage it is difficult to say how theywill perform but hopefully they will liveupto the expectations,” he added.

THE TEAM:

Goalkeepers: Imran Butt, Imran Shah

Fullbacks: Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad

Imran (captain), Muhammad Atiq

Halfbacks: Rizwan Jr, Farid Ahmed, Amir

Shahzad, Muhammad Tauseeq, Tasawar

Abbas. Forwards: Waqas Sharif, Shafqat

Rasool, Haseem Khan, Mohammad Imran

Jr, Ali Shah, Muhammad Suleman, Kashif

Ali and Irfan Jr.

Seven stand byes are: Khalid Butt, Kashif

Shah, Sabtain Raza, Muzammal Bhatti,

Muhammad Suleman, Arslan and Dilbar.

PHF brings four new faces for azlan Shah Cup Hockey

CENTURION

AGENCIES

KYLe Abbott took seven for 29 on hisTest debut to send Pakistan crashingto 156 all out on the second day ofthe third and final Test against South

Africa at SuperSport Park on Saturday. Pakistan,forced to follow on 253 runs behind, were 14 forone at the close, with Mohammad Hafeez bowledby Dale Steyn with the first ball of the secondinnings. It left Pakistan facing an almost hopelesstask as they tried to avoid a series whitewash.

Abbott, 25, was called into the South Africansquad as cover for the fast bowlers when regularreserve Rory Kleinveldt was named to replacethe injured Morne Morkel. The Dolphins fastbowler, the leading wicket-taker in domesticfirst-class cricket, found himself in the teamwhen all-rounder Jacques Kallis suffered a calfinjury the day before the match. He bowled atight line at a lively pace to take two wickets inan initial Pakistan collapse, which saw them slipfrom 46 for no wicket to 75 for four, then had a

spell of five for five as the lower order and tailcrumbled. Six of his wickets were to catches inthe slip cordon before he finished off the innings

by trapping Younis Khan leg before wicket afterthe Pakistan veteran had battled for two-and-a-half hours and 86 balls to make 33.

Pakistan in deep trouble

SOuTh AFRICA FIRST INNINGS (334 FOR SIx OVERNIGhT)G. Smith c younus khan b Adil 5A. Petersen lbw Rahat 10h. Amla c Sarfraz b Rahat 92F. du Plessis c Sarfraz b Adil 29Ab de Villiers c Shafiq b Rahat 121d. Elgar lbw b Rahat 7R. Peterson run out 28V. Philander c hafeez b younus 74 k. Abbot b Rahat 13R. kleinveldt c Ajmal b Rahat 0d. Steyn not out 5Extras (b-1 lb-6 w-6 nb-12) 25 Total (all out, 103.2 overs) 409Fall of wickets: 1-13 2-38 3-107 4-186 5-186 6-248 7-377 8-394 9-402 10-409bowling: mohammad Irfan 21.5-3-80-0 (3nb), Rahat Ali 27.2-1-127-6 (6nb,6w), Ehsan Adil 12.1-2-54-2 (3nb), Saeed Ajmal 29-6-76-0, younus khan6-0-28-1, mohammad hafeez 5-0-24-0, Azhar Ali 2-0-13-0.Pakistan first inningsmohammad hafeez c Elgar b Abbott 18Imran Farhat lbw Philander 30Azhar Ali b Philander 6younus khan lbw Abbott 33

misbah-ul-haq c Petersen b Abbott 10

Asad Shafiq lbw Steyn 6

Sarfraz Ahmed c Smith b Abbott 17

Saeed Ajmal c Smith b Abbott 0

Ehsan Adil c du Plessis b Abbott 9

mohammad Irfan c Elgar b Abbott 0

Rahat Ali not out 0

Extras (lb-17 w-8 nb-2) 27

Total (all out, 46.3 overs) 156

Fall of wickets: 1-46 2-56 3-56 4-75 5-95 6-132 7-132 8-149 9-149 10-156

bowling: Steyn 12-5-25-1 (1w), Philander 10-2-30-2 (1w), kleinveldt 12-

1-49-0 (1nb, 1w), Abbott 11.4-4-29-7 (1nb 1w), Peterson 1-0-6-0

Pakistan second innings (follow-on)

mohammad hafeez b Steyn 0

Imran Farhat not out 5

younus khan not out 8

Extras (lb-1) 1

Total (for one wicket, 9 overs) 14

Fall of wickets: 1-0

To bat: Azhar Ali, misbah-ul-haq, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Saeed

Ajmal, Ehsan Adil, mohammad Irfan, Rahat Ali

bowling: Steyn 4-1-9-1, Philander 3-2-2-0, Abbott 1-1-0-0, R. kleinveldt

1-0-2-0, South Africa won the toss and elected to bat.

SCOREbOARd

LHR 24-02-2013_Layout 1 2/24/2013 3:01 AM Page 17

SPorTSS

Sunday, 24 February, 2013

nugent must go,says swim star

MELBOURNE: James Magnussen,

centre, and Eamon Sullivan, right, at

the press conference where they ad-

mitted to a Stilnox-fuelled bonding

session. Picture: Getty Images

Source: Getty Images OLYMPIC

Games gold medallist Melanie

Schlanger has become the first mem-

ber of the Australian swim team to call

for the removal of Leigh Nugent as

head coach, as a fourth review was

announced yesterday into the behav-

iour of swimmers at the London

Games. The confirmation yesterday by

five members of the men's freestyle

relay team that they had taken the

banned hypnotic drug Stilnox as part

of a bonding session ahead of the

Games prompted the Australian

Olympic Committee to announce it

would engage a Queen's Counsel to

investigate this incident and a number

of other possible breaches of the ath-

letes' team agreements. This new AOC

investigation comes even as Swim-

ming Australia's integrity panel,

formed four days ago to investigate

the scathing findings earlier this week

of two full-scale reviews of the sport,

is preparing to examine reports of

drunkenness, bullying and possible in-

appropriate behaviour towards two fe-

male swimmers. AGENCIES

17I think people are talking us up at the moment as we are

going to compete for the world championship, but I really

don't see that happening at the moment. – Lewis Hamilton

ARIZONA: Tiger Woods is the only player to win back-to-back World GolfChampionships since the series began in 1999, but Ian Poulter has the chance tojoin him in Arizona. Five months after his heroics at the Ryder Cup and threemonths after he won the HSBC Champions in China the 37-year-old takes on SouthAfrican Tim Clark at the Accenture World Match Play for a place in the quarter-finals. None of the top seven seeds still alive after Luke Donald, Louis Oosthuizen

and Justin Rose on Friday followed Rory McIlroy, Woods, Adam Scott andLee Westwood out of the event. McIlroy's conqueror Shane Lowry - only

playing because Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker did not take up theirplaces - is also through to the last 16 and he is now involved in another all-Irishclash against Graeme McDowell. Poulter, winner of the title three years ago, hasshown no ill-effects of taking six weeks off coming into the tournament. AGENCIES

Poulter on the Tiger trail in Arizona

LONDON

AGENCIES

David Price wants to send a message to theKlitschko brothers by hammering formerworld title challenger Tony Thompson instyle on Saturday night. The 6ft 8inLiverpool heavyweight has his long-termsights set on a clash with either WBCchampion Vitali or his brother Wladimir,who holds the WBA, IBF and WBO belts.

First however, the unbeaten Pricefaces a step up in class against Americanveteran Thompson, who has lost twice toWladimir in the past. The Britishchampion knows he can make a statementto the world by beating Thompson evenmore impressively than Klitschko, whoneeded 11 rounds to stop the Washingtonman in 2008 and six in July last year.

"It's the biggest fight of my career,"said Price. "The ideal scenario is that I do areal number on him - better than Wladimir

Klitschko did. "I'm not Wladimir Klitschko,I'm David Price, so at the end of the day Ineed to do what's best for me. That meanskeeping a professional, focused mentalityduring the fight and if an opportunity comes

to finish the fight early then I'm definitelygoing to go for it. "Beating him in style isthe ideal scenario but I'll take any kind ofwin." Price (15-0, 13 KOs) revealed thebout at Liverpool's echo Arena will not be

his first time in a ring with Thompson (36-3, 24KOs). "When we went with englandto America in 2007 for the WorldChampionships in Chicago we stayed inPhiladelphia for 10 days or so and TonyThompson was in the same gym as us," hesaid. "I think I sparred one round with him,which he won't remember as it wasn't reallymemorable. It was like a lifetime ago, whenI was an amateur. That's the only time I'vecome across him. We had a little chat andhe gave me a bit of advice.

"It's gone full circle now and here weare, about to fight each other." Thompson,41, knows this is a make-or-break fightfor him too. "Price's team have picked mebecause they think I'm just a name to lookgood on his record," he said. "They thinkI'm past my prime and they are making amistake. This fight will tell us somethingand I'll be honest, if he blasts me out thenI know it's over for me. But I don't believeit's my time yet."

MEMPHIS

AGENCIES

Sabine Lisicki and Marina erakovic will meetin the final of the US National Indoor TennisChampionships in Memphis after a pair ofstraight sets victories. Germany's Lisicki, seededthird and ranked number 40 in the world, willstart as favourite ahead of New Zealand'serakovic, who is rated number 71 on the WTA.

Lisicki defeated seventh seed MagdalenaRybarikova 7-5 7-5 to book her place in theshowpiece. erakovic, who is seeking her firsttour title, beat Switzerland's Stefanie Voegele 6-

2 6-4. In the men's competition, top seed MarinCilic was ousted at the quarter-final stage byJapan's Kei Nishikori.

The Croatian was outplayed as he wasbeaten 6-4 6-2 by Nishikori, the fifth seed.

Nishikori faces Australian MarinkoMatosevic in the semi-finals after he defeatedseventh seed Alexandr Dolgopolov in a hard-fought (6)6-7 6-2 6-4 result.

The other semi sees Feliciano Lopez meetDenis Istomin after both men beat Americanopponents. Wild card Jack Sock could not matchLopez, a 6-4 6-3 winner, while Uzbek Istominsaw off Russell 6-4 7-6.

Price keen to outdo Klitschkos

NEW yORK

AGENCIES

The United States Government hasconfirmed it has joined a civil lawsuitagainst Lance Armstrong to claimaround US$100 million from the dis-graced cyclist. The US Departmentof Justice took the opportunity to joina whistle-blowing lawsuit filed byArmstrong's former team-mate,Floyd Landis, who alleges the Texandefrauded the US Govt when it spon-sored the United States Postal Serviceteam. The lawsuit was filed under theFalse Claims Act and provides forthe recovery of three times the dam-ages, plus penalties, and also includesthe possibility of the whistle-blowersharing in any funds recovered.

The USPS sponsorship was from1999 to 2004, with US dollars 31mpaid between 2001 and 2004 alone,the Department of Justice said.

A statement read: "The Depart-

ment of Justice announced today thatthe government has joined a civillawsuit alleging that Lance Arm-strong, Johan Bruyneel and TailwindSports LLC and Tailwind SportsCorporation (Tailwind) submitted orcaused the submission of false claimsto the US Postal Service (USPS) inconnection with its sponsorship of aprofessional bicycle racing team byregularly employing banned sub-stances and methods to enhance theirperformance, in violation of theUSPS sponsorship agreements.

US govt joins lawsuitagainst armstrong

Berdychreaches last fourin Marseille

MARSEILLE

AGENCIES

Tomas Berdych had to come through threetough sets against Jerzy Janowicz of Polandto reach the last four of the Marseille Open onFriday. The top-seeded Czech needed almosttwo hours to see off his seventh-seededopponent, eventually emerging a 6-3 6-7(0/7) 6-3 winner. Berdych will next faceDmitry Tursunov, who reached his first ATPTour semi-final in 20 months by beatingGilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (9/7) 1-6 7-5. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will take on GillesSimon in the other all-French semi-final.Third seed Tsonga saved five match points onhis way to a 4-6 6-3 7-6 (12/10) victory overAustralia's Bernard Tomic. Simon had amuch easier time on court in his quarter-final,dispatching second seed Juan Martin delPotro 6-4 6-3 in one hour and 22 minutes.

Jankovic reacheslast four in Bogota

BOGOTA

AGENCIES

Top seed Jelena Jankovic cruised into thelast four of the Copa Colsanitas with astraight sets win over Romania's AlexandraCadantu in Bogota. Jankovic, the only seedleft standing in a competition that has hadmore than its share of upsets, yielded justthree games as she claimed a regulation 6-26-1 success. Her semi-final opponent willbe Italy's Karin Knapp, who took a 6-3 6-3win over Spain's Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino.World number 198 Paula Ormaechea is alsothrough after seeing off Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor 6-1 7-5. Torro-Flor is ranked exactly100 places above the Argentinean, but wasrepeatedly broken on the way to defeat.Ormaechea meets Teliana Pereira of Brazilnext after she coasted to a 6-1 6-2 victoryover Mandy Minella.

COPA CLARO

AGENCIES

Spanish pair David Ferrer and NicolasAlmagro remain on course to reprisetheir 2012 Copa Claro final after bothmen won their quarter-finals in straight

sets. Top seed and reigning championFerrer made light work of sixth seedFabio Fognini with a 6-2 6-1 success.

The man he beat into the runner-upspot last year, Almagro, lined up againstArgentinean wild card FedericoDelbonis and recorded a 6-1 7-6(3)

victory. Ferrer's semi-final opponent isanother Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, afrerhe defeated Julian Reister 6-3 6-2.

Third seed Stanislas Wawrinka isnext for Almagro after he prevented aSpanish clean sweep in the last four,seeing off Albert Ramos 7-6(4) 6-4.

lisicki, erakovic reach Memphis final; Cilic out

Ferrer, Almagro through to semis

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SPorTS SSunday, 24 February, 2013

18

wAtCh It LIve

PTV SPORTS3rd test: Pakistan South Africa01:30 PM

It is a big game for both the teams. We need to win to get closer to them

and get some advantage. Second place is more than possible for us. To win

I think we are maybe a little bit too far. – Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech

ESPNBarclays League:Manchester City v Chelsea06:55 PM

STAR CRICKET1st test: IndiaV Australia 09:00 AM

THAILAND

AGENCIES

The Asian Tour stars will challenge for fourcoveted spots in The Open Championship inJuly at the International Final Qualifying(IFQ) - Asia in Thailand next week. Someof the leading lights and rising stars fromAsia will converge for the two-dayqualifying at the majestic Amata SpringGolf and Country from February 28 toMarch 1. Anirban Lahiri of India, whofinished tied 31st in his Major debut lastseason, countryman Gaganjeet Bhullar,Prom Meesawat of Thailand, Lam ChihBing of Singapore and Jonathan Moore of

the United States, who both missed out onthe final ticket in a play-off last year, willfeature in the 78-man field. Chinese prodigyGuan Tianlang, who will be the youngestplayer in the field, will be bidding to earnhis second Major appearance in 2013.

Fellow countryman Liang Wen-chong,the 2007 Asian Tour Order of Merit winnerand Masanori Kobayashi of Japan will alsovie for elusive tickets to the year's third Majortournament played at Muirfield from July 14to 21. Lahiri, a two-time Asian Tour winner,won the IFQ - Asia last year to book his placeamong the game's elite. He went on to enjoya stellar debut which was highlighted by hishole-in-one in the third round.

HARVARD

AGENCIES

James Bowen savoured a memorable weekby closing with a one-under-par 71 to claima maiden Asian Development Tour (ADT)breakthrough at the PGM Sime DarbyHarvard Masters. Victory on Saturday, whichcame courtesy of his four-day total of 18-under-par 270, was especially sweet forAmerican Bowen as he had earlier suffered

the agony of missing the cut at the Asian TourQualifying School Final Stage last month.

It was a four-way tie for second placeafter Thailand's Wasin Sripattranusorn, PavitTangkamolprasert, Jakraphan Premsirigornand Canada's Lindsay Renolds closed theircampaigns with matching 274s at theRM200,000 (approximately US$65,000)ADT event which was staged at the HarvardGolf and Country Club this week.

Bowen has been in commanding form allweek. Since taking over the lead after thesecond round, the American was a figure ofconsistency as he was determined to erase theheartbreak of last month where he slipped upand lost his chance to earn his Tour card onthe region's premier Tour.

"This is my first professional win since Iturned pro in 2008. It's definitely a greatconfidence builder and made up for mydisappointment of missing out on my AsianTour card at Qualifying School," said Bowen.

"I have a chance of playing my way intothe Asian Tour again and I'm looking forwardto more wins on the ADT," said theAmerican. The top three players at the end ofthe ADT season will earn their Asian Tourcards for 2014.

TUCSON

AGENCIES

LUKe Donald suffered one ofthe biggest defeats of hiscareer as the giant-killingcontinued at the Accenture

Match Play Championship in Tucson.Made favourite for the title after the firstround defeats of the world's top two, RoryMcIlroy and Tiger Woods, third seed and2011 winner Donald was crushed 7&6 byunheralded Scott Piercy.

With Justin Rose and LouisOosthuizen also bowing out eighth seedBubba Watson is now the highest-ranked player left in - and he had to goto the fourth extra hole to get the betterof Ryder Cup team-mate Jim Furyk.Also still alive, though, are 2010champion Ian Poulter, McIlroy'sconqueror Shane Lowry - only playingbecause Phil Mickelson and Brandt

Snedeker pulled out - and GraemeMcDowell. The two Irishmen play eachother next, while Poulter takes on SouthAfrican Tim Clark in the first of tworounds now scheduled for Saturdayfollowing the delays caused by the

freakish snowstorm earlier in the week.American Piercy, who has made it to37th in the world with hardly anybodynoticing, sank his four-iron approach tothe fifth for an eagle two and turned ina marvellous six under par 30.

donald ousted fromMatch Play Championship

Pistorius out on bailPRETORIA: OscarPistorius wasgranted bail as heawaits trial forkilling his girlfriend.Supporters could beheard saying "yes",and members of theathlete's family weptand appeared topray after ChiefMagistrate Desmond Nair announcedhis decision following a 90-minutespeech to the court in Pretoria. AGENCIES

Stars aim for The Open spots

Bowen securesPGM Sime Darby win

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

Sunday, 24 February, 2013

HyDERABAD

ONLINE

PRIMe Minister Raja PervezAshraf said on Saturdaythat he was ready to giveaccount of the govern-

ment’s spending in last five years,adding that soon “we will all bepresent before the public court”.

Speaking at the GovernmentCollege, Hyderabad‚ he said thathe had come to the institute after47 years, reviving lots of oldmemories. He said that he wouldparticipate in the centennial cele-brations of the college.

Recalling his memories of study-ing at the college‚ he said the institu-tion had made great contributions inthe education sector. He announcedRs 500 million for renovation and ex-pansion of the college.

Ashraf said that for the firsttime in the country’s history, a dem-ocratic government was completingits five-year term. “It is a bigachievement for the people of Pak-istan,” he said.

“We executed an unprece-dented number of revolutionaryprojects in the 65-year history ofthe country. We devolved powers tothe provinces and gave them

provincial autonomy. Similarly‚ thePPP government gave jobs to thejobless,” he said.

The PM said that those criti-cising the government on televi-sion had never seen poverty andneither visited a village. “Theydo not know the problems, and Iwant to tell them that they shouldnot worry, because soon wewould be in front of each other inthe court of the people and itwould be their prerogative tochoose their representatives,” hesaid. He added that a strongdemocracy and parliament wereimperative to find solution tomultidimensional challengesfaced by the country.

The PM said the whole nationshould stand united to confront thechallenges of terrorism‚ extremism‚law and order and the energy crisis.He asked the students to reject ha-

tred and promote the message ofpeace and brotherhood for theprogress and prosperity of the

country. The ceremony was also at-tended by Sindh Chief MinisterQaim Ali Shah, federal ministers

Naveed Qamar and Maula Baksh Chandio, and

several other parliamentarians.

PM says govt ready for accountabilityasks the NatioN touNite agaiNstterrorisM,extreMisM

aNNouNces rs500M For govtcollege iNhyderabad

ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturdaysaid the top leadership of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi(LJ) is based in Punjab.

He said taking LJ leader Malik Ishaq incustody was an appreciable step by the Pun-jab government but more is required includ-ing initiation of criminal cases against him.

Malik also said Pakistan would soon re-quest Interpol for the repatriation of seniorTehreek-e-Taliban commander Maulvi Faqirfrom Afghanistan.

Maulvi Faqir was arrested by Afghanforces from the Pakistan-Afghan border a fewdays ago. Speaking to reporters at the passingout ceremony at Police Lines, Malik saidFaqir was behind a series of terror attacks inthe country. “We want his deportation to Pak-istan so that action can be initiated againsthim in accordance with the law,” he added.

Responding to another question on theTaliban dialogue offer‚ Malik said the Talibanwill have to demonstrate seriousness for talks.“They have to first surrender their weaponsbefore the start of negotiations,” said Malik.

LAHORE

ONLINE

Attorney General (AG)Irfan Qadir said presidentand prime minister (PM) arenot answerable to any court.

Talking to media per-sonnel on Saturday, the AGsaid President Asif AliZardari and Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf had notfiled any joint report in thecourt in connection with theQuetta tragedy. Media re-ports in this regard are in-correct, he added.

He went on to say that areport was presented in thecourt on behalf of federa-tion of Pakistan under arti-cle 174 of the constitution.

He was of the view that thepresident and the primeminister are the top mostfigures of the country andcertain responsibilities havebeen rested with them

under the constitution. Theyhold the mandate to ensureall the institutions of thecountry function withinconstitutional parameters,he said.

Top lJ leaders holed-upin Punjab: rehman Malik

President, PM not answerableto any court: aG Irfan Qadir

what did you do forBalochistan killings,shahbaz asks malikLAHORE: Claiming that the law and

order situation in Punjab was

comparatively better than other

provinces, Chief Minister Shahbaz

Sharif on Saturday asked Interior

Minister Rehman Malik as to what did

he do to bring the killers of hundreds in

Balochistan to justice. “Rehman Malik

better first come clean on his progress

in restive Balochistan before raising

fingers at others,” he said. He was

speaking to journalists after condoling

with the family of slain eye surgeon

Prof Dr Ali Haider. STAFF REPORT

iNterior MiNister callsFor lauNchiNgcriMiNal cases agaiNstMalik ishaq

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