e-paper pakistantoday 27th august, 2012

ISLAMABADTAyyAb HUSSAin

THe Supreme Court on Mondaygranted Prime Minister Raja PervezAshraf 22 days to implement thecourt’s verdict in the NROimplementation case after assurance

by the chief executive of the country ofmaking “genuine and serious steps” toresolve the impasse in the issue.The prime minister would have to appearbefore the bench on September 18 to informthe court what steps had been taken toimplement the court’s order in NROjudgment. earlier, amid tight security across

the Red Zone, the prime minister headed tothe SC flanked by a number of leaders of thePPP and coalition parties. A five-memberspecial bench headed by Justice Asif SaeedKhan Khosa and comprising Justice ejaz AfzalKhan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, JusticeGulzar Ahmed and Justice Athar Saeedresumed the hearing in the 2009 NROjudgment case. At the onset of theproceedings, the PM went to the rostrum andsaid in response to a show-cause notice issuedto him by the court that it was an honor forhim to appear in person before the court.

coNTINuEd oN PAgE 04

PIcTuRE ANd REAcTIoNS | PAgES 03 & 24

Tuesday, 28 August, 2012 Shawwal 9, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol III No 61 19 Pages Lahore Edition

PM getS whAt he wANted…

g SC gives Ashraf threeweeks to implementcourt’s orders on NRO

g PM says will take ‘genuine and serious steps’to resolve impasse

g Ashraf blames media forcreating hype on issue

Ten people killedin firing on buses in Sibi, Bolan

g BRP claims responsibility for killings

QUETTASTAFF REPoRT

At least 10 people were killed and 15 othersinjured when unidentified armed menopened fire on four buses in separate inci-dents in Sibi and Bolan districts of Balochis-tan late on Sunday night.

Per details, the first incident near Col-magi involved a bus traveling to Quetta fromNawabshah and a truck. The assailantsopened fire on the two vehicles, killing fourpeople on the spot. The second incident oc-curred in Bala Nari area of Bolan whenunidentified armed men opened fire on aQuetta-bound coach, killing three people andinjuring five others. In another incident nearDhadar, armed assailants opened fire on abus, killing a woman and injuring three oth-ers. The injured were rushed to a hospitalwhere two more succumbed to injuries.

Meanwhile in Mastung, unidentifiedpeople torched two trucks on way to Karachi.No casualty was reported in that incident.The attacks were linked to the 6th anniver-sary of Nawab Akbar Bugti by the Balochis-tan Republican Party (BRP), whose leaderBrahamdagh Bugti has led an insurgency tosecede from Pakistan.

He is the grandson of Akbar Bugti, whowas killed during a military operation in2006. BRP spokesman Sarbaz Baluch

claimed responsibility for the shooting. “Wehad launched an appeal for a complete strikeand the buses bound for southern Sindh andcentral Punjab provinces had ignored our ap-peal. We therefore opened fire on them,” hesaid in a telephone call to AFP. Sunday’sstrike had been almost complete across theinsurgency-hit province and had been en-dorsed by almost all political and religiousparties in the province.

Three Hazaraskilled in Quettadrive-by shooting

QUETTA AFP

Three Hazara Shias were killed in asectarian drive-by shooting in Quetta onMonday, police officer Zakir Ali said. Nofurther details were available of theattack. Dozens of minority Shia Muslimshave been killed in months of violenceacross Pakistan, often brutally. Bombblasts and attacks on police and securityforces are frequent across Balochistan,which is also a flashpoint for sectarianviolence involving majority Sunni andminority Shia Muslims that has leftthousands dead since the 1980s.

QUETTA: People look at a cab which was targeted on Esphani Road on Monday. Three

Hazara Shias were killed in the deadly attack. online

more time!

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PMl-n announces education package for one child of each victim family Putting the green back in the environment Sleep learning is possible, according to researchers

Tuesday, 28 August, 2012

Haj corruption scandal:Hamid Kazmi freed on bailRawalpindi: Thejudge of a special court inRawalpindi on Mondayaccepted the bail plea offormer Religious AffairsMinister Hamid SaeedKazmi and ordered hisimmediate release.According to mediareports, the formerReligious Affairs Ministerwas under the custody ofFederal InvestigationAgency (FIA) since Marchlast year. Kazmi isaccused of corruption in arranging residential accommodation forPakistani Haj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia in 2010. AgEnciES

SC summons 58 media ownerson anchorpersons’ pleaiSlaMaBad: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to58 TV channel owners while hearing petitions filed by journalistsagainst distribution of money and plots by business tycoon MalikRiaz. The two-member bench of Justice Jawad S Khawaja andJustice Arif Hussain heard the petitions filed by journalistsHamid Mir, Absar Alam and other journalists. Counsel for BahriaTown Zahid Bokhari told the court that Malik Riaz had nevergiven any plot or money to any journalists and such insinuationswere lies. No amount through Bahria Town pad or cheque wasever distributed. On this, Hamid Mir argued that if this was nottrue than the court should seek PTA record and see who displayedthe list of journalists on the Internet. Justice Jawad S Khawajaremarked that several important questions had been raised in thepetitions and it was imperative that they be argued in the court.Bokhari further told the court that Hamid Mir filed the petitiondue to his opposition to Dunya TV. “This is a fight of anindividual which was being fought through channels,” he said.Hamid Mir said he was a professional journalist and bore noanimosity towards anyone. If he had filed the petition due todifferences with Dunya TV, its anchorperson Arshad Sharif wouldnot have been party to the petitions. He said besides him, AsmaSherazi and Mazhar Abbas, were also co-respondents and theywere all professional journalists and had no link with mediahouse owners. He said they were under constant pressure formTV channel owners as well as other elements. Mir said that nooffice of any TV channel was operating in Quetta. The court lateradjourned then hearing until September 6 and asked for adetailed response from 58 TV channel owners. The counsel forexpress TV requested additional time for his client to file aresponse in the court. onlinE

35 Sialkot, Pasrur villages submerged in flood waters daSKa: At least 35 villages in two districts have been inundatedby flood waters following heavy rainfall, officials said. Villages inPasrur and Sialkot districts are flooded in four feet of water. Thefloods damaged standing crops on hundreds of acres of land,officials reported. Some residents of these villages moved to safeplaces with their cattle and belongings. There were no reports ofcasualties so far. Traffic on Pasrur’s three main roads — Sialkot-Pasrur road, Daska-Pasrur road and Pasrur-Zafarwal-Narowalroad — was suspended after they were flooded by three to four feetof rain water. There is an acute shortage of food and potable waterfor people and fodder for cattle in flood-hit villages. STAFF REPoRT

QUETTA: Police and paramilitary soldiers guard a street after gunmen shot at a vehicle on Monday. AFP

ISLAMABADAgEnciES

President Asif Ali Zardari will lead the Pak-istani delegation to the 16th Summit of theNon-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran.

President Zardari during his visit is alsoexpected to hold several bilateral meetings onthe sidelines of the summit to be held fromAugust 29-31, which will being attended by120 delegates from developing countries.

He is expected to meet Indian Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh, whom he last met inApril, during his day-long trip to India.

Manmohan Singh is expected to holdmeetings with Iranian President MahmoudAhmadinejad and leaders of Pakistan, Nepaland Bangladesh, Indian media quoted ForeignSecretary Ranjan Mathai.

President Zardari will be accompanied byForeign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who willuse the multinational forum to project Pak-istan’s position on various international andregional issues.

During the two-day deliberations, worldleaders and delegates from other countrieswill exchange views on latest developments inthe world and issues related to NAM.

Along with the UN Secretary General BanKi-moon, two kings, 27 presidents, eightprime ministers, nine vice-presidents, six spe-cial envoys and around 25 foreign ministerswill attend the summit.

A spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Min-ister told reporters in Tehran that all neigh-boring countries of Iran were participating in

the meeting. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz ofSaudi Arabia had sent his special envoy, whileBahrain’s Foreign Minister Khalid bin AhmedAl Khalifa will also participate in the summit.

It will be the first visit by a Bahraini offi-cial to Iran since tensions between the twocountries began last year. egypt, which hostedthe 15th Summit, will hand over the rotatingchairmanship to Iran.

The 16th Summit of the Non-AlignedMovement (NAM) will be held at Tehran’sIRIB International Conference Center (IICC).

President Zardari scheduled to

attend nAM Summit in Tehran

Joint committeeto probe Rimshablasphemy case

ISLAMABADinP

The All Pakistan Ulema Council(APUC) and the Pakistan InterfaithLeague (PIL) on Monday forged analliance to promote interfaith harmonyand peace in the country and vowed tostand united against religiousextremism. Both the parties decided toform a special committee to investigatethe blasphemy case registered againstthe 11-year-old Christian girl RimshaMasih, accused of burning pagescontaining Quranic verses. The specialcommittee was assigned the task ofinvestigating Rimsha’s case in closecollaboration with the police andauthorities concerned. A joint meetingof the two organizations was held inthis regard. The meeting was chaired byPIL Chairman Sajid Ishaq, and APUCChairman Tahirul Ashrafi. The meetingdemanded accountability of those whowrongly accused, instigated and ignitedthe situation for their vested interestsin the name of religious extremism andunjustly accused a young girl of a gravecrime, which was beyond her capacitydue to her mental illness, diagnosed asDown’s Syndrome. The meetingdemanded severe punishment to theguilty as a warning to others againstmisusing the blasphemy law for theirvested interest.

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On way to breaking deadlock.

Dr Faisal bari says;Reform implementation: A must do come next elections.

Syed Hassan belal Zaidi says;Titanic, government, mandate: Policy usually comes from the elegant fountain pens of babusand the typewriters of their stenographers.

ArTS & enTerTAinmenT

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See who is Shah Rukh Khan befriending Hafeez replaces Tsotsobe as number one oDi bowler


SC cannot adopt a middleway in NRO caseiSlaMaBad: SenatorAitzaz Ahsan on Mondaysaid if the governmentrefuses to write the letter toSwiss authorities, theSupreme Court would give asimilar ruling against PrimeMinister Raja Pervez Ashrafas it did against Yousaf RazaGilani. Talking to reportersat Parliament House, Aitzazsaid if the present primeminister was disqualified, hewould be replaced with anew one and the process would continue until thescheduled general elections in March 2013. Aitzaz saida seven-member bench of the apex court disqualified aprime minister in NRO case and now the five-memberbench of the Supreme Court could not adopt a middleway for the same matter. He noted that the court gavethe present PM a relaxation of 22 days for taking adecision, but the Supreme Court did not display suchcourtesy when he pursued the case for former PMYousaf Raza Gilani. onlinE

PPP has always respectedSC decisionsiSlaMaBad: Minister forInformation and BroadcastingQamar Zaman Kaira onMonday said that despitereservations, the PPPgovernment had alwaysrespected the Supreme Court’sdecisions. Talking to reportersoutside the Supreme Court, hesaid the government hadaccepted every decision of theSupreme Court and "we arethankful to the apex court forthe additional time". He said there was disagreement on theinterpretation of Para 178 regarding NRO case. “Still we arepresent to resolve the issue in court,” he added. Kaira saidpolitics was all about consensus and the government wouldresolve the issue with mutual understanding. He said," Wedo not want any kind of confrontation with the judiciary,rather we were the ones who played an important role forthe restoration of the deposed judges." To a question, hesaid general elections would be held on time as parliamentwould complete its legal tenure. APP

PPP respects judiciary, will not attackSC like other partiesiSlaMaBad: InteriorMinister Rehman Malik onSaturday said the PPP hadalways respected thejudiciary, as its workers hadnever attacked the SupremeCourt like others. Talking toa private news channel, theinterior minister said theapex court's orders wouldbe implemented inaccordance with the law. Hesaid the PPP was ready torender sacrifices for democracy. Meanwhile, FederalMinister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Faheemtold a private TV channel that the prime ministerwould not be disqualified under the constitution. Hesaid under Articles 12 and 13 of the constitution,punishment could not be given twice. He said, "Werespect the judiciary, while respecting theconstitution is mandatory for every Pakistani." To aquestion, Faheem said his party would follow thedirectives of the Supreme Court, even if they wereagainst them. APP

PPP does not believe inpolitics of confrontationiSlaMaBad: FederalMinister for Political AffairsMoula Bux Chandio onMonday said the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) did notbelieve in politics ofconfrontation, rather inreconciliation. Talking to APP,he said the PPP was ademocratic party and it hadsacrificed a number ofprecious lives for therestoration of democracy, evenfor the judiciary, throughout its history. Chandioreiterated that the government respected all institutionsand urged them to work within their constitutionalparameters. "The PPP coalition government expects thesame response,” he remarked. He said the PPPgovernment had always given due respect to other stateinstitutions, including the judiciary, as its two primeministers appeared before the apex court without anyreservation. "We want good relations with judiciary asconfrontation is not the policy of the PPP-ledgovernment,” he added. APP

Court cannot summonPrime MinisteriSlaMaBad: AttorneyGeneral Irfan Qadir on Mondaysaid a prime minister could notbe summoned by a courtaccording to the constitution.Talking to reporters on Monday,Qadir said the prime ministerappeared before the SC due tohis wisdom, as he could not besummoned to the courtaccording to the constitution.Qadir said Raja Pervez Ashrafdid not mention anythingpertaining to writing the letter toSwiss authorities when he appeared in the Supreme Court. Hesaid with his gesture, the prime minister had declared that hewould respect the institutions. He hoped the constitution wasfollowed and would be followed in the future as well. Qadirsaid he expected the matter to be resolved with consultationsand understanding. The SC on Monday gave a period of threeweeks to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the show-causenotice for contempt of court regarding the implementation ofNational Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). onlinE

decision on PM’s appearancein court unanimousiSlaMaBad: We havealways respected the judiciary,and the decision on PrimeMinister Raja Pervez Ashraf’sappearance in the SupremeCourt was taken unanimouslyby the ruling allies, PakistanMuslim League-Quaid (PML-Q)leader and Deputy PrimeMinister Chaudhry Parvez elahisaid on Monday. Talking toreporters at the Supreme Courton the occasion of the primeminister’s appearance, he said they had “always opposedhostility and confrontation between the institutions”.Replying to a question, elahi said that all parties included inthe ruling coalition had supported Ashraf’s appearance in thecourt. He said that “we respect the verdicts of the SupremeCourt”, while accused his rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of adopting a confrontation course with thejudiciary in the past. He said that the PML-N had evenattacked the Supreme Court under a plan, and afterwardshosted a reception in honor of the attackers. STAFF REPoRT

LAHOREAgEnciES

PAKISTAN Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) PresidentNawaz Sharif has said thatseeking time from the judici-ary for writing letter to Swiss

authorities was like a joke with the apexcourt, country and the nation.

Talking to reporters at the residenceof renowned actress Zeba in Lahore, hesaid the judiciary was doing its job with atrue sense of responsibility by keeping inview the rule of law and the constitution.

“If the government had respect forthe constitution, circumstances wouldnot have gone to this extent,” he said,adding that the government had been

under-estimating the judiciary for fourand a half years. He said the governmenthad not learnt any lesson from the past,and if judicial orders were not imple-mented, then the prime minister wouldbe disqualified.

Nawaz said the government had notyet accepted the independent judiciary,as it wants “Dogar courts”. He said therulers say one thing and do the opposite.

The PML-N chief said that electionswould be held in the next three to sixmonths, and by making amendments inthe constitution for caretaker setup, hisparty had done a great service to thecountry.

He said his party had no objectionover the commission to form newprovinces, but added that any decision inthis regard should be taken on mandate.He strongly supported the creation ofHazara province. He said the governmenthad picked its favorite people for thecommission, adding that the official in-stitutions were being used to serve thevested interests of some people who hadnothing to do with the issues of the na-tion. He said that he and Shahbaz Sharifhad taken notice of Sardar Dost Moham-mad Khosa’s press conference, and hadspoken to Sardar Zulfikar Khosa. He didnot respond to the statement of JavedHashmi’s statement on Sunday in whichhis former aide threatened to start expos-ing PML-N leaders.

On energy crisis, Nawaz said that ifthe government had taken it seriously, atleast 50 percent crisis would have beenresolved. “We have a comprehensiveplan; if we are allowed to come to thepower, we would try our best to tackle theissue at every cost,” he said.

Request for moretime for writing Swissletter a joke withjudiciary: Nawaz

PM asks ministersto respect judiciary

ISLAMABADAPP

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf onMonday urged all concerned, includingthe cabinet ministers, to show utmostregard and dignity towards the judiciarywhile discussing court cases especiallyduring television talk shows. The primeminister made these observations whileinformally talking to ministers at thePrime Minister’s House after hisappearance at the Supreme Court in themorning. The five-member SupremeCourt bench headed by Justice Asif SaeedKhosa, while praising the prime ministerfor showing respect to the court, drew hisattention to the remarks by certaincabinet members and party workers, whoused undignified language while talkingabout the judiciary. Ashraf said everyeffort should be made to ensure that theelements, who were trying to createmisunderstanding among the institutions,were discouraged.

Polls on April 4

MONITORING DESK

Former Sindh home minister ManzoorWassan on Monday said that a middleground was being sought to break theimpasse between the judiciary and thegovernment on writing a letter to theSwiss authorities, DawnNews reported.Speaking to reporters, the formerminister claimed that the next generalelections would be held on April 4,2013, following dissolution ofassemblies on Feb 18, 2013.The PPP leader said that a thirdpassage was being carved out to avoidfurther confrontation between thegovernment and judiciary.

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News04


He said he had taken chargeof his office two monthsback and there were manyissues confronting thecountry, includingworsening law and order,Balochistan disorder, energycrises and ties with foreignstates, especially the US.He said at the same time, theNRO implementation case,one of the important cases,had also got hype andcreated ambiguity anduncertainty not only insidethe country but also grippedthe Pakistani expatriatesliving abroad.Ashraf said he was underpressure regarding the issue,but wanted to resolve it in amanner so that dignity of thecourt was preserved. He saidbeing a political worker andlaw-abiding citizen, hewanted that there should beno impression that thejudiciary was not respected.“It is also a requirement ofmy office that respect of thejudiciary be preserved,” headded. The PM said hewould require four to sixweeks to understand theconstitutional and legalaspects of the case and toengage his counsel to submithis reply over the show-cause notice issued to him

by the court, therefore, hemight be granted time tomake sincere efforts in thisregard. “For the bettermentand solidarity of the countryand removal of this air ofuncertainty, I require four tosix weeks’ time,” hemaintained. Referring to theleaders of the coalitionpartners in the PPP-ledgovernment; Ashraf said hisgovernment’s allies werealso of the opinion that thecourt verdicts should berespected.However, Justice Asif SaeedKhosa observed that since1975, the Supreme Courtthrough its verdicts hadmaintained that a personissued show-cause noticeunder contempt of court hadto appear before the court inperson. “If anyone appearsbefore the court, it enhanceshis dignity. The historyremembers him in goodwords and your appearancehere is a laudable step. Butmere appearance is notenough to show respect forthe judiciary, rather itsorders should also beimplemented,” he observed.Justice Khosa informed thePM that in former PMGilani’s case, the bench hadruled in its order that PM’soffice would have nodiscretion in the instant

matter. Dispelling anyimpression of confrontationbetween judiciary andexecutive, Justice Khosa saidthey only wantedimplementation of para 178of the NRO judgment andthey did not mention anyprosecution or any person.“If you, the federalgovernment, have anyconcerns, we are ready to goto every extent to addressthe same. The matter isblown out of proportion butyou can resolve the issueeven today,” he added. Theprime minister regrettedthat the issue had beenplayed up by the media andsaid being a political worker,he was not using delayingtactics to further linger onwith the matter, rather hewanted to resolve the issueonce and for all.The bench observed that hecould take steps toimplement the verdict andcould go for inquiry himselfas to why the issue had beendelayed for the last two-and-a-half years. Justice Athar Saeedcomplained that certainmembers of federal cabinet,governors, senators andmembers of parliament wereusing contemptuouslanguage against thejudiciary that should stop.

Voicing his concern over theremarks of his Justice Athar,Justice Khosa observed thatsuch an impression wasbeing created that certainpeople were well-versed withthe law while the judgesknew nothing.Ashraf also tried to pass thebuck to the media forshowing disrespect towardsjudiciary and told the benchthat there were 89 televisionchannels airingtransmissions across thecountry and they weremaking a mockery of thepresident and primeminister’s offices. But thePM said there should be nodisrespect for the judiciary.Justice Khosa told Ashraf tomake a serious and positivecommitment overimplementation of itsdirectives, assign that thebench was willing to addresshis concerns and facilitatehim. He said they had askedthe PM Office to authorizesomeone like Law MinisterFarooq H Naik to implementits orders vis-à-vis writing aletter to Swiss authorities.He also made it clear to thePM that he would have noother option to consultanyone, as they had alreadylaid down in its verdict, as itwould have implications. PMAshraf said the NRO matter

was debated whenever hemet ambassadors and otherforeign dignitaries.He asked the bench toconsider what would be theeffects of contempt noticeserved upon him if he wasvisiting abroad. JusticeKhosa replied that it wastheir desire to see him asthe prime minister untilnext elections and advisedhim to make sincerecommitment forimplementing the courtorder.He told Ashraf that thebench had great regard forhis office. Law Minister Naikalso went to the rostrum andrequested the bench toconsider the request by theprime minister, as he wasshowing commitment ofmaking serious efforts toresolve the issue.Later, the bench dictatedits order stating that uponthe prime minister’srequest, it was persuadedto adjourn the matter untilSeptember 18. However,the bench told LawMinister Farooq Naik thatbeing respondent of ashow-cause notice, theprime minister would haveto appear before the courtin person on the next dateof hearing.PPP, coalition leaders

escort Ashraf:earlier, PPP stalwarts andcoalition parties’ leadersescorted the prime ministerto apex court building.They included DeputyPrime Minister ChaudhryParvez elahi, DefenceMinister Naveed Qamar,Minister for InformationQamar Zaman Kaira,Minister for Law FarooqNaik, Minister for Waterand Power ChaudhryAhmed Mukhtar, Ministerfor Commerce MakhdoomAmin Faheem, Minister forKashmir Affairs ManzoorWatto, Minister for Portsand Shipping BabarGhauri, State Minister forWater and Power TasneemAhmed Qureshi, PublicAccounts CommitteeChairman Nadeem AfzalGondal and Senator HajiAdeel. Owing to the arrivalof the PM, security hadbeen beefed up under thesupervision of InteriorMinister Rehman Malikwithin and outside thepremises of the SupremeCourt. The Red Zone wassealed from 7am to 11am,while aerial surveillancewas also done with twohelicopters. Walk-throughgates had been installedand the parking lot wasalso vacated.

Pm gets what he wanted…more time!coNTINuEd fRom PAgE 01

ISLAMABADAPP

Reiterating his call for prefer-ential treatment and greatermarket access for Pakistaniproducts, President Asif AliZardari on Monday said “it istime for international com-munity to think of ways tocompensate the countriesmost adversely impacted bythe war on terror by makingsome allowance to them formarket access.”

Addressing a gathering atAPTMA’s annual dinner heldat Aiwan-e-Sadr, the presi-dent said the ongoing waragainst militancy had in-flicted huge damage to Pak-istan’s economy. On accountof Pakistan’s sacrifices andsuffering while fighting on be-half of the international com-

munity in the war against ter-ror, Pakistan is entitled topreferential treatment andgreater market access, thepresident added.

Zardari said that thetremendous cost of the waragainst terror had put a greatstress on Pakistan’s economy.He said that the huge eco-nomic cost of the war hadcompelled the government tocurtail its Public Sector De-velopment Programme, lead-ing towards putting a greatpressure on the businesscommunity by increasingtheir input costs and ad-versely impacting their com-petitiveness. The presidentwelcomed international toPakistan, but added thattrade was more sustainable,as it helps integrate peopleand cultures across borders.

PESHAWARSHAMiM SHAHiD

AT least five foreignersassociated with eastTurkestan Islamic

Movement (eTIM) wereamong the 18 people killed inUS drone attacks in Northand South Waziristan Agen-cies last Friday.

Tribal sources told Pak-istan Today that on August24, three compounds of sus-pected militants at TundaDarra near Dray Nishtar areaof Shawal mountainous re-gions were targeted by USdrones. According to officials,18 people were killed and 14others injured in the missilesstrikes, considered most se-vere in the latest round of of-fense starting August 18.

Officials in the civil ad-

ministration and spy agenciessaid five leading commandersof eTIM were among thosekilled. They eTM command-ers were identified asemimithi Yakov, known asAbdul Jabbar in Waziristan,Yako A Mathew alias Saleh,Toyosan To Methew aliasZabih Ullah, while the fourthwas known as Mukhtar.

The name of fifth eTIMcommander could not be as-certained. The eTIM is a groupof militants known as Ovegoor.The Ovegoor originate fromCentral Asian Republics andChina. Ovegoor militants arepart of eTIM, Ittehad IslamiJihad, Hizbe Islami Turikistanand Islamic Movement ofUzbekistan. A large number ofthese militants are staying inscattered areas of Waziristansince 2004. Reports revealed

that most of the victims of USdrone attacks were CentralAsians and a majority of themwere of Ovegoor origin.

Some of these militantswere also accompanied by fe-male relatives and were resid-ing among the localpopulation across NorthWaziristan. Meanwhile, twoactive commanders ofTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistanheaded by HakeemullahMehsud were also killed in theAugust 24 US drone attack.Their exact identity could notbe ascertained so far. Haqqaninetwork spokesman AhmadJan has already denied thekilling of BadaruddinHaqqani, however, thespokesman confirmed thekilling of Osama, a 13-year-oldmember of Haqqani family, indrone attacks.

JAISALMERinP

Many areas of India’s Ra-jasthan along the interna-tional border with Pakistanare receiving signals of Pak-istani mobile companies upto of 15-20 kilometers insidethe Indian territory.

According to a reportpublished in The Times ofIndia on Monday, smugglersand spies of Jaisalmer andBarmer using Pakistan SIMcards give strategic and con-fidential information of thecountry to Pakistani intelli-gence agency ISI.

According to the interna-tional rules in telecom sector,mobile network of any countrycan go up to 500 meters of theborders of the other country.Pakistan is openly violating in-ternational law, as the signalsare causing a hole in the coun-try’s security and is proving to

be a security threat, the paperreported. Quoting reliablesources, the paper said Pak-istan had set up over threedozen new mobile towers nearthe international border ad-joining Jaisalmer, Bikaner,Ganganagar and Barmer inRajasthan. The signals of thesemobile towers are being re-ceived up to 15-20kms insidethe Indian territory, which wasbecoming a threat to the secu-rity of India. The signals ofPakistani mobile companieswere enabling smugglers andspies operating in the area.There is no facility of scanningof passengers coming by Tharexpress at Munabao railwaystation.

The paper quoted itssources as saying that therehad been information that afew old smugglers in Longe-wala, Ghotaru and Ramgarharea in Jaisalmer districtclimbed old towers or went to

higher ground to use PakistaniSIMs for sending Indian con-fidential information to Pak-istani intelligence agency ISI.The report further said Pak-istan had installed mobile tow-ers opposite Rajasthan borderat Khokharapar, Chacharo,Jumantar, Mubarka FortAbbas, Mantharbanglo, MandiSadiikganj, Minchandabad,Bahawal Nagar, Dungabunga,Haroonabad, Fakirewanar,Hasilpur, Rahim Yar Khan,Mandi Sadi Mangal, GabbarKehju and Sadiqabad.

The telecom companieswhose mobile signals arereaching India are Veridatel,Oasis Pak, Telenor, PKPL,Pak Pal Mobiling, U-phone,PT Soral and Hutch. Con-firming the signals reachingIndia, Jaisalmer telecom of-ficer Yogesh Bhaskar said asit was an international mat-ter, it would be solved at ahigher level.

US troops face

punishment over

Quran burning,

urination video

WASHINGTONAgEnciES

The US military is expectedto announce disciplinaryaction in response to twoincidents that provokedoutrage in Afghanistan earlythis year, one over a videodepicting Marines urinatingon corpses and anotherinvolving burning of copiesof the holy Quran, USofficials said. The US armywas expected to announcethat six soldiers wouldreceive administrativepunishments over anincident in which copies ofthe holy Quran and otherreligious material wereremoved from a prisonlibrary and sent to anincinerator to be destroyed, aUS official said on conditionof anonymity. The incident inFebruary touched off severaldays of rioting and attacks onUS troops after local workersfound charred copies of theholy Quran among trash atthe incinerator at the Bagrambase north of Kabul.

Two killed in

muslim mob attack

in indonesia

SaMpanG: A mob attackon Shiites in Indonesia sawtwo men killed with sicklesand dozens of homestorched, police and a humanrights group said Monday, inthe latest sign of rising intol-erance in the world’s largestMuslim country. Around500 villagers, mostly Sunnisand many armed with ma-chetes, attacked a group ofShiite students in the townof Sampang in east Javaprovince Sunday, Setara In-stitute for Democracy andPeace researcher IsmailHasani told AFP. “Oursources on the ground said itwas an attack by Sunnis onShiites. There were similarincidents before,” he said.“There is rising religious in-tolerance as there was nevera strong law enforcement inhandling violence, which en-couraged militancy amongthe ordinary citizens,” headded. AFP

5 Turkmen militantskilled last week by drones

Door to militaryadventurismshut forever: cJP

KARACHIAPP

Appreciating the role oflawyers’ community in themovement for thereinstatement of judges,Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry onMonday said sacrifices bylawyers, particularlyyoungsters who stood forthe judiciary, had ensuredthat the door of militaryadventurism was closedonce and for all. He wastalking to former AttorneyGeneral for the US and acivil and human rightslawyer William RamseyClark who called on thechief justice on Monday.The CJ recalled his visit tothe US in 2008 and thesupport Clark had providedfor the cause of rule of lawand independence ofjudiciary in Pakistan.

QUETTA: People are perturbed as Pakistan Medical Association continued its strike in government hospitals of the province on Monday. online

Signals from Pakistani mobile companiesreaching indian border areas: report Zardari wants preferential

treatment for Pakistan

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05


News

ISLAMABADAPP

STRONGLY condemning tar-geted and sectarian killings inthe country and showing soli-darity with the victims, thePML-N on Monday an-

nounced an education package for onechild of each victim family.

Under the package, the Punjab gov-ernment would provide free education toone child of a victim family anywhere inthe country, PML-N leaders MarviMemon and Siddiqul Farooq told a pressconference.

Marvi said this was not the first timethe PML-N president and the Punjab CMhave demonstrated solidarity with terrorvictims and natural disaster victims.

Strongly condemning incident of tar-geted and sectarian killings all over thecountry, she said these terror incidentswere aimed at destabilizing the country

and crippling the economy.She criticized the provincial govern-

ments of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Balochistan and GB and claimed thatthey were responsible for the deteriorat-ing law and order.

Terming attacks on shias a conspir-acy to destabilize sectarian harmony, shesaid it had reached unbearable levels inthe recent past.

“In line with our chief Nawaz Sharif’sinstructions”, she undertook a series ofcondolence visits to all provinces re-cently to reach out to the victims fami-lies.

Farooq lauded the people of Gilgit-Baltistan who had not fallen prey to thedesign of creating sectarian conflict andmaintained peace despite such attacks byterrorists. “The people of these areas al-ways lived in sectarian harmony and wepromise them complete security whenthe PML-N government is in charge,” headded.

PML-N announces education package

for one child of each victim family

PESHAWAR: Activists of Khyber students union and Afridi students union protest on Monday against the death of civilians in a mortar shell attack the other day. inP

ISLAMABADAPP

A consultative meeting to deliberate uponparameters of “obscenity” for the electronicmedia was held at the PeMRA Headquar-ters Islamabad on Monday.

The meeting was attended by QaziHussain Ahmed, Ansar Abbassi, Muham-mad Hussain Mehanti, Lt Gen (r) AbdulQayyum, Oriya Maqbool Jan, Javed Jab-bar, Mehdi Hassan, Muhammad Ziauddin,Mazhar Abbass, Kamran Khawaja and rep-resentatives of the Pakistan Advertisers So-ciety (PAS), United Producers Associationand PeMRA officials.

The PeMRA chairman briefed the par-ticipants about various terminologies, con-notations and expression used to defineobscenity in different countries. Qazi Hus-sain Ahmed, Mehanti, Qayum and Abbassiwere of the view that Pakistan was createdin the name of Islam and its constitutionclearly envisaged that there could be noth-ing against Quran, Sunnah and Shariah.

Qazi referred to surahs of the holyQuran and some explicit clauses of Inde-cent Advertisement Act of 1963 which in-terpreted vulgarity.

They specifically criticized news chan-

nels for spreading vulgarity in the guise ofentertainment news. They objected show-ing vulgar dances and songs in every head-line. The reenactment and dramatization ofcrimes was also severely criticized by theparticipants. They unanimously recom-mended referring the matter to the Councilof Islamic Ideology and parliament to de-fine “obscenity and vulgarity”. However,they also praised the work done by PeMRAin this regard and demanded immediateclosing of all illegal channels.

They said, “Any content which is unac-ceptable while viewing with the family tran-spires obscenity.” They also recommendedforming a committee to screen out un-wanted content from TV advertisements aswell as regulating the rating of TV channels.

Javed Jabbar and Mehdi Hassan on theother hand defended that the media wasnot all about vulgarity. They were of theview that there might be 10 percent of thetotal content objectionable but the rest wasfine.

They said technological advancementsand cultural dynamism could not be en-slaved in a rigid canvas. They were of theview that cultural ethos varied from time totime. Jabbar opposed involving the Councilof Islamic Ideology in defining obscenity.

Hassan said if something was undesir-able to watch, everybody had the option toswitch the channel. “It would be wrong tohamper technological advancements in-stead of grooming and training our off-spring. We absolve our responsibility by notteaching them good or bad and then shedour responsibility by putting iron curtainson media.”

He said obscenity could not be con-fined only to ill dressed models on TV chan-nels but to him child labour, injustice tominorities, social imbalance, poverty,hunger and disloyal politicians are also ob-scene. Why the custodians of morality donot account for these issues?

Ziauddin, the veteran journalist,strongly endorsed the viewpoint of Jabbarand Hassan. He, however, proposed ap-pointing an ombudsman for every mediainstitution to ensure accountability.

Sameena Ahmed from the United Pro-ducers Association and Aly Mustansir fromthe Pakistan Advertisers Society said vul-garity was a relative term and could not beinvoked by a select group of people.

They proposed taking input from theentire society on the issue. They were of theview that they reflect public aspirations intheir programs/advertisements and a thor-

ough research is conducted before launch-ing any content. They denied that the ad-vertisements and dramas produced bythem contravenes to the Islamic values.They however, agreed to comply with theCode if it is unanimously accepted andadopted.

Mazhar Abbass disagreed with thehardcore and rigid opinions of censoringmedia by blaming it vulgar. He suggestedformulating an independent commissionwith no involvement of stakeholder inorder to deal with the media violation is-sues.

The participants, however, unani-mously agreed and suggested PeMRA in-voke its laws across the board and desiredzero tolerance for violation of PeMRA lawsparticularly the illegal channels and illegalcontent.

The PeMRA chairman thanked partic-ipants for sparing valuable time for thisconsensual and national cause and ensuredthat all possible measures would be takenwithin the ambit of PeMRA laws to curb vi-olations. The next meeting on the subjectwas proposed in the mid of Septemberwhereby the owners of TV channels andcable operators would also be involved inthis constructive consultation process.

Balochistandoctors tocontinue strike:PMA president

QUETTAonlinE

Doctors in Balochistan on Monday vowedto continue their strike and not to be coweddown in the face of any pressure.Addressing an emergency press conferenceat the Civil Hospital here, Pakistan MedicalAssociation Balochistan (PMA) PresidentSultan Tareen said the doctors’ strikewould continue until they were providedfull security. Tareen observed that thegovernment had failed in giving protectionto the masses and doctors, as kidnappingfor ransom had turned into a lucrativebusiness in the province. The PMABalochistan president alleged that somegovernment functionaries were alsoinvolved in abductions for ransom, addingit was due to the worsening law and orderin the province that the doctors wereforced to migrate from here. “The strikeand peaceful protest will continue until thedemands are met,” he added.

5 militants, 2peace volunteerskilled intribal clashes

PESHAWARonlinE

At least five suspected Taliban werekilled in a clash with Pakistan Army inKurram Agency, while two members ofa peace lashkar lost their life in amilitant attack in Khyber Agency.According to government officials,several militants ambushed a securityforce checkpost in Torghar, a remotearea of Kurram. The personnelretaliated with full force and killed fiveof the militants.Military officials said two securitypersonnel were injured in the hours-long clash.Meanwhile in Khyber Agency, two localmembers of a peace lashkar were killedin a remote-controlled bomb blast.Suspected Taliban militants hadplanted the bomb targeting local peacemilitia that is fighting the terrorists inthe area.Another two members of the militiawere injured, who were later shifted toPeshawar Military hospital in a criticalcondition.

PeMRA holds consultative meeting to set parameters of ‘obscenity’ US denies reportabout cedingAfghan territory toHaqqani network

ISLAMABADinP

The US embassy in Islamabad hasdenied assertions attributed toBrigadier General Stephen Twitty, aspokesman for the United States Forcesin Afghanistan that the United Stateswas willing to cede Afghan territory aspart of a rapprochement with theHaqqani network and that the US sawthe Haqqani network playing animportant role in the future politicaldispensation of Afghanistan, termingthem false.In a clarification, the embassy saidthese comments, attributed to “a seniorAmerican military official” wereinconsistent with the US policy.“Further, only the government of theIslamic Republic of Afghanistan has theauthority to take political steps onbehalf of the Afghan people,” it said.

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LAHOREAPP

Lahore electric Power Company(LeSCO) Chief executive Officer (CeO)Sharafat Ali Siyal said on Monday thatthere was no unscheduled power load-shedding in the Lahore and electric sup-ply was suspended only in areas wheredevelopment projects were underway.

While briefing the media at LeSCOHead Office, the CeO said, “We have tosuspend the electricity supply for a fewhours in surrounding areas of the underconstruction Metro Bus Service projectand some other projects in the metropol-itan city, however, such outages shouldnot be considered as load-shedding.”

He added that the LeSCO wouldissue the power outage schedulethrough the media.

While answering a question, he said

that strict action would be taken againstthe power stealers irrespective of theirsocial status or political association,adding that LeSCO was also taking totask the officers and other staffers in-volved in the overbilling. “The LeSCOtook strict departmental action againsta large number of its officers and stafferswhich no other power distribution com-

pany has taken so far on account of over-billing or corrupt practices,” he main-tained. Siyal said that LeSCO had alsoposted the defaulters list on its website.While answering a query from themedia, he said “Yes, we have recoveredRs 163 million from the WASA; how-ever, the Punjab Government owes Rs 5billion electricity bills to the company”.

LAHORETAJWAR AWAn

Being the pioneer it hasalways been, LahoreUniversity of Manage-ment Sciences (LUMS)planted a seed of instill-

ing the values of environmentalsustainability amongst its stu-dents earlier this year which hasalready started bearing fruit. Theautumn semester, officially chris-tened the SarSubz Semester(green semester), has begun withmany new programmes, ideas andinitiatives in store.

Realising its role as one of theleading institutions of the country,LUMS took upon itself to inculcatea ‘green’ sense among its stu-dents on issues related to envi-ronment protection not onlythrough the curricula, intellectualactivities, discussion and re-search, but through actions whichproduce long term results and canhelp the students and the commu-nity at large to understand theconsequences of ‘green’ habits.

Beginning from March, the uni-versity-wide SarSubz LUMS Com-mittee, which is being headed byVC Adil Najam himself and in-cludes other faculty members andstudents, has held various eventsincluding the Campus Bike-Shar-ing Programme, Neem Tree Plan-tation, discussion by NobelLaureate andIntergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) Chairman Dr Rajendra KPachauri, Workshop on ClimateAdaptation in Pakistan hosted byLUMS and a panel discussion titled‘Environment@LUMS: An Exposi-tion of Environmental Research’ inwhich distinguished panellists dis-cussed various aspects of environ-ment protection and the role ofdeveloping countries.

These efforts did not go unac-knowledged and LUMS becamethe first university in South Asia

to become a member of the Sus-tainability, Tracking, Assessment& Rating System™ (STARS®)which is administered by the As-sociation for the Advancement ofSustainability in Higher Education(AASHE), which is an internationalrating and action programme toencourage sustainability in all as-pects of higher education. Notonly this, LUMS also became oneof the only ten schools currentlyparticipating in the InternationalPilot Program.

“STARS is an excellent oppor-tunity for us to showcase all theexciting things we have goinghere at LUMS. It will be an honestrepresentation of things we’redoing well, and even things weneed to improve on,” said DrNajam, LUMS VC, said, addingthat LUMS’ participation in theSTARS demonstrated its seriouscommitment to these issues andits aim to be a leader in sustain-ability.

In the upcoming SarSubz Se-mester, LUMS aims to introduce a

SarSubz graduation pledge ‘thatwill allow graduates of 2013 tocommit to living green in theirlives beyond LUMS.’ According tothe VC, “Naming this SarSubz Se-mester is a small but importantway to get the entire LUMS com-munity involved, especially ourstudents, in making our own cam-pus an example of good environ-mental stewardship.” Theuniversity will also continue work-ing on its three-year climatechange research project titled“The Determinants, Impact andCost Effectiveness of ClimateChange Adaptation in Indus Ecore-gion” which a joint research initia-tive between LUMS and WorldWide Fund for Nature and is beingfunded by International Develop-ment Research Centre (IDRC).

Faculty members from variousdepartments, including, Dr.Abubakr Muhammad in Engineer-ing, such as Rafay Alam in Lawand Dr Irshad Hussain in Chem-istry will also conduct different re-search projects related to

environment sustainability. LUMS will also complete a report

for STARS and the bike and treeplantation drive will also continue.

“We are looking forward to set-ting an example for other univer-sities. Walks, placards, banners doplay a role but what the environ-ment sustainability needs rightnow is a solid, action-based initia-tive and this is what our SarSubztheme is based on,” said a LUMSofficial.

“Trust LUMS to make some-thing as boring as switching thelight off fun. Everyone on thecampus is involved in makingLUMS, and eventually the countryand the world ‘SarSubz’ and thisfor me is one of the greatestachievements of this initiative. Weare not just empty slogans, or aonce-in-a-year environment day.This is an every minute of everyday of an entire life’s initiative andwhen all this effort is pooled in,only then will we be in true har-mony with nature,” said Ali Mur-taza, a student.

through Campus-Bike Sharing, tree plantation, research, discussion and now SarSubz Semester and SarSubz graduationpledge, Lahore University of Management Sciences is bringing humanity a huge step closer to being in harmony with nature

No unscheduled power outagesin Lahore: LESCO chief

Shortfall reaches 3782MwlahoRe: Shortfall of electricity has increased and reached 3,782 megawattacross the country while load shedding continues in Punjab including Lahoredue to which consumers are facing great difficulties. According to energyManagement Cell (eMC), the production of electricity in the country decreasedand reached 13,482 MW while the demand of electricity was 17,214 MW.Owing to shortfall of electricity, the power outages in Lahore had continued atregular intervals. onlinE

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Lahore

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LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

pUNJAB Chief Secretary NasirMahmood Khosa has di-rected heads of all govern-ment departments to ensureimplementation of the work-

ing plan formulated for Anti-Dengue Dayon September 2 throughout the province.

He was presiding over a meeting toreview the results of special cleanliness

campaign launched on Sunday and theworking plan formulated by govern-ment departments. Special Assistant toChief Minister on Health KhawajaSalman Rafique secretaries of all gov-ernment departments, additional sec-retaries and other senior officersattended the meeting.

Health Secretary Arif Nadeem toldthat various machines, spray pumps andchemicals were available in abundanceand the provision of diagnosis and treat-

ment facilities for dengue patients hadbeen ensured in all hospitals. Moreover,high dependency units had been madefunctional in all government hospitals.He said that senior officers of the HealthDepartment would visit the hospitals onAnti-Dengue Day. Seminars would bearranged in medical colleges and bannersand flax would be displayed for creatingpublic awareness. He said that pamphletscarrying symptoms of disease and pre-ventive measures would be distributed

among people. Students of medical col-leges will also be included in this cam-paign. Nadeem said that the situation wasmuch better from last year.

Information and Culture Departmentwill arrange walks, seminars and musicshows with the cooperation of PunjabArts Council and Lahore Arts Council.Besides this, the artists of TV darama‘Ainak Wala Jin’ will also present adrama regarding dengue. Lahore Com-missioner Jawad Rafique Malik detailedthe working plan prepared for Lahore.Officers of all departments presented

their performance report in the meetingabout special cleanliness campaign re-garding eradication of dengue launchedon Sunday. The chief secretary said onthis occasion that although all depart-ments had formulated a comprehensiveworking plan for eradication of dengue,yet, there was a need of ensuring its im-plementation in letter and spiritthroughout the province. He said thatnext two to four weeks were very impor-tant with regard to dengue during whichall government departments would haveto work with devotion and dedication.

Justice MuhammadAsif Jan remembered

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

Justice Muham-mad Asif Janwho expired onAugust 14, 2012was the son oflate JusticeAgha Muham-mad Jan. Bothserved in La-hore HighCourt, althoughthe father waselevated to thebench in pre-partition days. Justice Muhammad AsifJan is remembered by his friends, col-leagues and near ones for his sharp in-tellect and wit and yet he had an auraabout him which put all in a comfort-able mood in his presence with hissatirical elegance, a winsome smile andfinely chiseled features on a handsomeface, he was also a pious person atheart. Despite his somewhat shortstature, he stood tall among men andparting with him brought tears to manyeyes. However, death is our common lotand as Omar Khayyam put it:-“The Moving Hand writes and havingwrit Moves on, neither all your pietynor wit can lure it back to cancel halfa line. Nor all your tears wash out aword of it.” He was appointed Assis-tant Advocate General Punjab in 1975and served as Deputy Attorney Gen-eral Pakistan from 1989 till he was el-evated to the bench. After hisretirement from the Bench he servedin various capacities as Member Pun-jab Public Service Commission andChairman CPLC. In student days hewas the best debater in english duringhis stay in Govt. College and Law Col-lege Lahore.

Preparations complete for Anti-Dengue Day on Sept 2g chief secretary reviews arrangements, results of Sunday’s cleanliness campaign

LAHOREAPP

A division bench of the Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Monday stoppedthe Punjab government from evict-ing federal additional secretary forindustries from government resi-dence situated in GOR-I.

The bench headed by the LHCChief Justice Umar Ata Bandialpassed the order on an inter courtappeal filed by Additional Secre-tary Industries Agha Nadeemagainst an order of LHC single

bench. earlier, the petitioner’scounsel argued before the courtthat the Punjab government allot-ted a government residence inGOR-I to Agha Nadeem while hewas serving as secretary transportin Punjab. The counsel said thataccording to the allotment policyAgha Nadeem could retain thehouse for five years after his trans-fer from the province.

He said that the petitioner wasrelieved in 2008 from service inPunjab, and later posted as an ad-ditional secretary for industries.

The counsel pointed out thatthe petitioner was not allotted anyresidence in Islamabad by the fed-eral government. He said that therespondent department issued anotice to the petitioner directinghim to vacate the house which hechallenged before the court. Headded that the Punjab govern-ment had changed its allotmentpolicy when the case was stillbeing heard, and the petitionercould retain the house for twoyears after transfer from the Pun-jab according to the new policy.

LAHOREAgEnciES

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) PakistanSecretary General Liaqat Balochhas expressed his deep concernover problems being faced by mi-norities in the country during avisit to Saint Joseph Church inLahore Cantonment on Monday.

Baloch met Father NadeemFrancis, Father John Than Fran-cis and other Christian leaderson his visit and demanded from

the government to ensurethe protection of lives and

property of minoritiesin accordance with

the law and consti-tution of the

country.During

the meet-ing, theleaders ex-c h a n g e dviews onthe minor-

ity problems in Pakistan includ-ing the migration of Hindu fami-lies from Sindh, the RimshaMashih case and the current po-litical situation in the country.

Baloch said that the rootcause of the problems beingfaced by the minorities and themajority alike were due to thecorruption of the rulers.

“As a matter of fact, therulers are corrupt law breakersand the law enforcement agen-cies themselves are breakinglaws, that is why the minoritiesand the majority face similarproblems,” he added.

He held President Asif AliZardari and Sindh Chief MinisterQaim Ali Shah responsible forthe troubles being faced by theHindu community in Sindh.

He said that all religious par-ties would consider all the factsrelated to the arrest of RimshaMasih in Islamabad on the alle-gation of burning pages of theHoly Quran.

MONITORING DESK

A son killed his mother in Tajpura area of Ghazi-abad on Monday and hid her body in a box in hishouse, City42 reported. Per details, a man namedJaved killed his mother and afterwards hid herdead body in a box in his house. The neighbours,disturbed by the smell of the dead body, informedthe local police who raided Javed’s house andfound his mother’s dead body. The neighbors alsoinformed the police that the accused used to fightwith his family and was used to torturing hismother and brother.

JI expresses concern overtreatment of minorities

LHC bars Punjab govt from evicting additional sec from GOR-I

Son butchersmother

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chief miniSTer’S hoUSe 99203226

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bomb diSPoSAl 99212111

mcl comPlAinTS 99211022-29

lAhore wASTe diSPoSAl 1139

emergency helP

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fATmid 35210834-8

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iTTefAQ 35881981-85

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children’S 99230901-3

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08


Lahore

YOGA AND MEDITATION CLASSES

dATe: APril 01 To december 30, 2012VenUe: fAiz ghAr, lAhore

A unique blend of yoga, meditation, neuro-linguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.Achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

yoga master Shamshad haider

100 GHAZALS OF MAULANA RUMI

hast-o-neest centre for Traditional Art & culture

invites you to its monthly Saturday Sitting with

Janab Ahmed Javed Sahib

(director, iqbal Academy Pakistan)

on 100 ghazals of maulana rumi

3:30 to 5:00 pm, last Saturday of every month

dATe: mArch 31 To december 29, 2012 VenUe: hAST-o-neeST cenTre, lAhore

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

dATe: SePT 14 - 16- VenUe: PeArl conTinenTAl hoTel

3RD INTERNATIONAL GEMS & JEWELLERY EXHIBITION

1 indePendent womenCompared to more rural areas or other smaller cities in Pakistan,women in Lahore have a greater deal of independence. You will seescores of women drivers and shoppers at all times of the day andeven into the evening. It is not safe to go everywhere as a lonewoman, but once you get to know the city better you will learnwhere women congregate. It is easy to meet other ladies at parks,markets, and department stores. Many women in Lahore work,study, and even run businesses.

2 Lahori hosPitaLitYHospitality is something you will enjoy all over Pakistan, but it is par-ticularly pronounced in the Punjab. Get ready for endless cups of chaiand start expanding your stomach for Pakistani sized portions! Meet-ing locals is easy, and although the media may portray it differently,most Lahoris are very open to meeting and befriending Westerners.Families are quite willing to take you, and especially if you are a singleor a young couple, they’ll consider you as part of their own family. Youcan count on close Pakistani friends to come to your side in times oftrouble. Many times they’ll go above and beyond what you’d expect ofeven your own blood related relatives!

4winter weatherMid-October to mid-March is a time of lovely weather in Lahore. Flow-ers bloom and you will see carefully manicured green gardens all overthe city. People sit on their terraces and enjoy walks in parks. Thebest thing about the winter season is that you can actually enjoy thesunny days and clear skies. In the summer It is too hot to appreciatethe sun, and instead you will find yourself rejoicing at the sound ofraindrops. It does get cold enough in winter to use heaters, so you willwant to bring sweaters and winter coats. Another great thing aboutwinter is when the power gets cut off you can snuggle up in blanket orsleep right through it.

YAHOO NEWS

HEATHER cARREiRo

3 sUPerB shoPPingI must admit that in the states, I am

not much of a shopper. I do not gothe mall just to browse, but I go inwith an objective, find said objec-tive and get out. On the contraryI really enjoy shopping in Lahore.

It is a cultural and relational expe-rience, and you can get some wicked deals.

Be creative by custom designing your cloth-ing, home décor, furniture and jewellery.Browse bustling markets for colourful hand-embroidered saris, bangles, and playful pat-

terns for your latest shalwar kameez (long shirt & loose trousers wornby Pakistani women). In your hometown, how often do you get to choosethe material, trim, and embroidery patterns for your clothing and get itmade just for you? Shopping can be frustrating at times, but the senseof satisfaction that comes after a bargaining success is worth it.

One of the most impressive thingsabout life in Lahore is just that.Life goes on. Despite whatever po-litical drama is filling up the head-lines, or whatever financial crisis iscoming Pakistan’s way, life goeson. People go to work. Kids go toschool. Very rarely does the cityreally shut down. Even on so-called “strike” days decided bymosque leaders, people usuallyopen up their shops by late after-noon or evening. At first, the ideaof living in a city where suicidebombs have gone off can be a bitdaunting. After a while you will

start taking it like the locals. Sure,everyone talks about it when abomb blast goes off, but the nextday people will be congregating in

that very spot doing business asusual.I remember when a bomb wentoff Liberty Market. The next day, I

myself was there doing my shop-ping. That’s how it is. Lahoris refuse tolive in fear. If they did, they’dnever leave their homes.Whether Pakistan is on the frontpage news or not, most people donot even worry about. People inthe West generally are more in-formed about what happens in re-mote areas of the country thanthose of us actually living here.To sum it all up, I will quote the fa-mous Pakistani saying,“Lahore Lahore hai.”Lahore is Lahore. There is no othercity like it, and it is uniquely itsown. If you choose to live in La-hore, you will certainly come to em-brace Lahore for all that it is.

5 LiFe goes on

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:44 AM

09


Foreign News

DAMASCUSAFP

SYRIAN rebels claimed they shotdown an army helicopter duringfierce fighting in Damascus on Mon-day, saying it was to avenge the “mas-sacre” of over 330 people blamed on

regime forces in the town of Daraya.State television said the aircraft crashed

near a mosque in the eastern district of Qa-boon, where activists reported heavyshelling by combat helicopters and fiercefighting between government troops andFree Syrian Army rebels.

“It was in revenge for the Daraya mas-sacre,” Omar al-Qabooni, spokesman for theFSA’s Badr battalion in Damascus told AFP,adding that rebels had found the body of thepilot after the helicopter crashed to the groundin a ball of flames. A series of explosions rockedthe city from about dawn, an AFP correspon-dent said, while the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights reported battles in Qaboon andthe neighbouring district of Jubar, where anti-regime sentiment is strong.

The FSA also said it shot down a Syrianwarplane on August 13 in the eastern provinceof Deir ezzor, but the claims cannot be inde-pendently confirmed.

The assault on the northeast of the capitalwas unleashed a day after opposition activistsaccused President Bashar al-Assad’s regime ofa gruesome new massacre in the Daraya, atwon southwest of the capital. The Observatorysaid hundreds of bodies had been found in thesmall Sunni Muslim town after what activistsdescribed as brutal five-day onslaught ofshelling, summary executions and house-to-house raids by government troops.

It said Monday that a total of 334 bodies

had now been found in Daraya, of which 241had been identified.

Government troops launched the offensivelast Tuesday in a bid to crush insurgents whohave regrouped in the southwestern outskirtsof Damascus after the regime claimed to haveretaken most of the capital late last month.

Assad vowed Sunday that he would notchange course in the face of what he chargedwas a “conspiracy” by Western and regionalpowers against Syria, which has been con-vulsed by 17 months of bloodshed.

“The Syrian people will not allow this con-spiracy to achieve its objectives” and will defeatit “at any price,” Assad said at a meeting with atop official from Iran, Syria’s chief regional ally.

Assad has since March last year been tryingthrough force to smother a popular uprisingthat has turned into a brutal civil war which hasleft thousands dead, seen more than 200,000refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries and2.5 million in need inside Syria. But despitetheir far superior fire power, the governmentforces are struggling to defeat rebels who havebuilt strongholds in many parts of the country,particularly the northern city of Aleppo.

Human rights groups have accused theregime of committing many atrocities dur-ing the conflict, and a UN panel said earlierthis month it was guilty of crimes againsthumanity.

Grisly videos issued by opposition ac-tivists showed dozens of charred and blood-ied bodies lined up in broad daylight in agraveyard in Daraya, and others lying wall-to-wall in rooms in a mosque.

Meanwhile, the head of the Iranian parlia-ment’s foreign policy committee, Aladin Boru-jerdi, vowed that Tehran will “stick by ourSyrian brothers” at a meeting with Assad andVice President Faruq al-Shara in Damascus.

Syria rebels claimdowning of helicopterin Damascus

WASHINGTONSPEciAl coRRESPonDEnT

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll Monday re-vealed President BarackObama and Republicancontender Mitt Romneyare running evenly, withvoters more focused onObama’s handling of the

nation’s flagging economythan on some issues dom-inating the political debatein recent weeks.

The findings of the pollcame on the eve of Republican

National Convention that opensin Florida this week.

The Post reported that the pollputs Romney at 47 percent among

registered voters and Obama at 46 per-cent — barely changed from the deadlocked

contest in early July. The findings con-tinue a months-long pattern, with

neither the incumbent nor thechallenger able to sustain

clear momentum, despiteairing hundreds of mil-lions of dollars in tele-vision ads — most of

them negative — and exchanging some of the harshestearly rhetoric seen in a modern presidential campaign.

Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as hisrunning mate also did not fundamentally reshape the race,although the GOP’s conservative base has grown more en-thusiastic about the ticket — but no more so about thechances of beating Obama in November.

“enthusiasm — or a lack thereof — will be on displayas Republicans and Democrats hold their conventions overthe next two weeks,” the newspaper commented. The twoparties will make their pitches to an electorate stuck in adeeply pessimistic mood. More than eight in 10 give theeconomy negative marks and nearly seven in 10 see thecountry as seriously off track — an assessment that has notchanged significantly all year.

The Post-ABC survey highlights the dominance ofthe economy as an issue in the 2012 election. Seventy-two percent of voters say the president’s handling of theeconomy will be a “major factor” in their vote this No-vember. Fewer voters place great significance on otherissues that have roiled the campaign, including newlyminted GOP vice presidential candidate’s plan to re-structure Medicare, differences between the parties onwomen’s issues and Romney’s handling of his tax re-turns. The Post-ABC News survey contains some goodand bad news for both candidates.

Obama continues to get more negative reviews thanpositive ones for his handling of the economy, and there istepid confidence that the economy would get back on trackin a second Obama term. Majorities have disapproved ofhow Obama is dealing with issue No. 1 for more than two

years, although his numbers havenot further deteriorated, de-spite a string of weak jobsreports leading into thefall campaign season.Romney now holds aslim, seven-point edgeamong registered vot-ers when it comes tohandling the economy,even as there is also lim-ited faith that things wouldquickly get better if he was towin. Obama counters withan equivalent advantage overRomney when it comes to whois seen as having a better under-standing the financial problemspeople are facing. Obama’s cam-paign has spent freely to portrayRomney as a businessman more in-terested in profits than creatingjobs, and one who enrichedhimself even as hiscompany, BainCapital, wasclosing com-panies ands h e d d i n gjobs.

Latest poll finds Obama, Romney locked in neck-and-neck fight

7.3 quake off the coast of El SalvadorwaShinGTon: A strong 7.3 earthquake shook an area in the Pacific Ocean off elSalvador early Monday, prompting a brief tsunami warning for the region that waslater lifted, US officials said. The epicenter of the tremor, which occurred at 0437GMT, was located 111 kilometers (69 miles) south of the city Puerto el Triunfo in elSalvador, according to the US Geological Survey. Following the quake the PacificTsunami Warning Center issued an alert, saying that the temblor, which took placeat a depth of 54 kilometers (36 miles), had spawned a tsunami. “Sea level readingsconfirm that a tsunami was generated,” the center said, pointing out that the threatextended to all Central American nations and Mexico. It warned that this tsunamimay be “destructive along the coastlines of the region. “Authorities in the regionshould take appropriate action in response to this possibility,” the center said.Shortly thereafter, the center said “the tsunami warning... is now cancelled” for all ofthe affected area, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, el Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala,Panama and Mexico. It was not immediately clear where the tidal wave had landed.No reports of casualties or damage were immediately available. But in el Salvador,Civil Protection Service Director Jorge Melendez dismissed the tsunami threat.“There is no tsunami alert,” he told AFP in San Salvador. AFP

AMMANAFP

The United Nations appealed on Mon-day for $54 million to help meet thegrowing needs of tens of thousands ofSyrian refugees in Jordan, particularlychildren who “suffer most.”

The UN Children’s Fund UNICeFsaid in a statement the funds are “ur-gently” needed “to meet the emergencyhealth, protection, and water and sani-tation needs of the growing numbers ofSyrian refugee children and their fami-lies arriving in Jordan.” Jordan is host-ing around 200,000 Syrian refugees —17,000 are sheltered at the UN-run Za-atari refugee camp in the north and halfof them are children. “We expect to have70,000 people at Zaatari camp by theend of this year,” said the UNICeF’s Jor-dan representative Dominique Hyde.

“We must act now because it is chil-dren who continue to suffer most. Somore funding is urgently required toscale-up our emergency response activ-ities.” UNICeF said conditions at theseven-square-kilometre (two-square-mile) Zaatari camp are “harsh, withscorching temperatures, no natural

shade, and frequent sandstorms that ripthrough the camp.”

“There was a significant increase inthe number of arrivals at the camp thislast weekend with more than 2,000 peo-ple crossing the border in a single night,”it said. “This number is nearly 80 per-cent higher than the previous largestnumber of Syrians crossing into Jordanwithin a 24-hour period.”

The UN warned that “as the numberof children increases, so does the risk ofdisease outbreaks.” “This week, UNICeFis partnering with the Ministry of Healthand the World Health Organisation toimmunise children under five, many ofwhom will have missed routine vaccina-tions due to the violence in Syria.”

“UNICeF is working with partnersto establish a regular vaccination pro-gramme at the camp,” it said.

Hyde said children fleeing violencein Syria are at risk of suffering long-termdistress without appropriate care.”

“In just a few months, we expect asmany as 35,000 children will be at thecamp, so we urgently need to provide ad-ditional safe places and other support toprotect these children who have alreadysuffered so much,” he said.

Un appeals for$54m to helpSyrians in Jordan

AU, Somali troopsseize port of Markafrom Islamists

MOGADISHUAFP

African Union and Somali troops capturedthe key port of Marka from Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents on Monday, thelatest in a string of bases to be wrested offthe extremists, officials said. “We havetaken Marka, we entered alongside theSomali government forces this morning,”said Colonel Ali Houmed, the spokesmanfor the African Union mission in Somalia(AMISOM). “There was some fighting, butnot so heavy, most of the Shebab had fled.”The loss of Marka, some 70 kilometres (45miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, isanother major blow for the insurgents, whohave been on the back foot for severalmonths. AU and Somali troops have madesignificant gains in recent months againstShebab, although the Islamists remain amajor security threat. ethiopian troops arealso battling the militants from the southand west. The loss of Marka leaves theShebab with two major ports in southernSomalia — Barawe and the key rebelbastion of Kismayo — although aninternational naval blockade has alreadygreatly squeezed maritime access there.

Iraq generalamong threedead in attacks

BAGHDADAFP

Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi border forcesbrigadier general on Monday, among threepeople killed and six wounded innationwide violence, security and medicalofficials said. Brigadier General AbdulHussein Mohsen was gunned down byseveral armed men while he was in thetown of Taji, just north of Baghdad, aninterior ministry official said. A medic atKadhimiyah hospital in the north of thecapital confirmed the facility receivedMohsen’s body, adding that the generaldied of multiple gunshot wounds. A bombblast targeting an army patrol in the townof Haditha, 210 kilometres (130 miles) westof Baghdad, meanwhile, killed a civilianand wounded three soldiers, according toan army officer and a doctor at Hadithahospital. And in the main northern city ofMosul, a roadside bomb apparently aimingfor a police patrol killed one person andwounded another, according to police 2ndLieutenant Salam Hamed and doctor FaizTareq from the city’s main hospital. Also inMosul, which lies 350 kilometres (220miles) north of the capital, two young boyswere wounded by another bomb blast, theofficials said. The latest fatalities took to259 the number of people killed innationwide attacks so far in August,according to an AFP tally based on reportsfrom security and medical officials.

MUMbAi: indian residents play ball on a flooded street during heavy rains on Monday. AFP

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:44 AM

Arif NizamiEditor

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

Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

on way to breaking deadlock

Seize the moment

The appearance of Prime Minister Pervaiz Ashraf beforethe Supreme Court is indicative of the PPP doves,supported by government’s coalition partners, carryingthe day, for the time being at least. A section in the

party which advocated defiance of the court’s orders argued thatthere was little sense going to the Supreme Court if the primeminister was only to be charged sheeted and sent home. Theposture assumed by the prime minister during the last fewweeks was however consistently deferential. While appearingbefore the apex court on Monday, Pervaiz Ashraf sought moretime to find a way out without committing that the Swiss letterwould be written. He assured the bench however that he wantedto make sincere efforts to resolve the issue in a way that thedignity and honor of the Supreme Court was maintained.

While reiterating that the NRO verdict had to be carried out,the court gave three weeks to the prime minister to implementthe order. The court hinted at the possibility of a way outmaintaining that the issue at hand was not as big as it had beenprojected and told the PM that he could nominate someone elseto write the letter. Presumably, the idea of writing a letter thatdoes not directly hit Zardari is under discussion among thegovernment’s legal team.

Both the PPP and the Supreme Court are presently inpressure cooker. While the party continues to boast that it hasno dearth of parliamentarians willing to be sacrificed, there arePPP leaders who believe the confrontation could harm theirelectoral prospects. An unending confrontation with theSupreme Court does not suit the government’s coalition partnerseither. Among other things it shifts the government’s focus frompreparations for the elections. The Supreme Court too is feelingthe heat. The removal of the former prime minister wascriticized by some of the outstanding lawyers who were in theforefront of the struggle for the restoration of an independentjudiciary. Jurists outside the country too have raised voicesagainst judicial over activism. On Saturday, Indian CJ S HKapadia opined that judges should not govern the country orevolve policies and wondered what would happen if theexecutive refused to comply with the judiciary’s directives. Thereare people in Pakistan who think the apex court’s confrontationwith the executive and parliament could derail the system.

The court thinks that Law Minister Naek, known for hismoderate views, could be assigned the task of writing the letter. Itremains to be seen if Naek can draft a document which addressesPPP’s concerns while it simultaneously satisfies the court.

Reform implementationA must do come next elections

expecting elections in early2013 political parties havestarted work on their mani-festoes, agendas and policypapers/positions. Some have

even started announcing bits and piecesof these to create some buzz in the mediaand society and to elicit support for ideasfrom the public. This activity is going topick up pace over the next few months.Hopefully, some interesting ideas andpledges will come through, and more im-portantly, the winners will actually im-plement some of the changes they arepromising once they are in power. Giventhe state of our economy, governance,and institutions, the urgent case for rad-ical reforms is not hard to make. It willbe surprising if any party does not prom-ise deep and thorough reforms in theirmanifestoes for the next elections.

All of the political parties are likelyto say that education, health and socialsectors need major reforms: they needmore resources, the resources need to bebetter spent, and we need new thinkingin some of these areas, for example onthe role of the state versus the role of thepublic sector. All parties are likely to saythat governance is in need to major re-forms and these reforms will have to in-clude radical institutional reforms aswell: move towards local governmentand decentralization is likely to be pop-ular, as will be moves to streamline stateowned enterprises and other state runinstitutions.

everyone will have to take on issuesof fiscal reforms. Tax rates are alreadyquite high in Pakistan so most partiesare likely to talk about extending the taxnet, bringing those who are currently notpaying taxes, or not paying enough (agri-culturalists, traders, businessmen) intothe formal economy and the tax struc-ture, and removing all the ad hoc exemp-

tions that have been given on politicaland/or rent-seeking grounds. All partieswill have to offer new ideas on the issueof energy and electricity: generation, dis-tribution as well as pricing. One justhopes that parties will do some in depthwork and go beyond rhetoric and/or justmentioning of these issues in their man-ifestoes and offer some interesting pos-sible solutions.

But apart from ideas on what needsto be done, it will be far more interestingto see what the parties propose on howthey would be implementing the ideasthey would be proposing. In public pol-icy and reform, implementation issuesare as interesting and important, if notmore so, than ideas on what needs to bedone. This is where most parties, at leastso far, have not been coming up with in-teresting things to say.

We all know that education is an im-portant sector for Pakistan’s future, itsgrowth as well as possibly its existence.We also know, and most parties and peo-ple acknowledge it, that our educationsystem, especially the public sector one,is in very poor shape. We also know thateven the bulk of the private sector, thelow fee private sector, is only impartingfairly poor quality education. Article25A, added to the Constitution throughthe 18th Amendment, has committed thestate of Pakistan to ensure that all chil-dren, between 5 and 16 years of age,need to have access to free and compul-sory education. All parties are sayingthey will ‘fix’ education. But how are theygoing to do it?

PPP, ANP, PML-N, PML-Q andMQM have been in power in various gov-ernments over the last five years. Theyhave not been able to do much, in fact al-most nothing at all, in the sector overthese years. And more importantly, theyhave not even come up with any interest-ing ideas for the sector over the years.PTI has not been in power and so thesame cannot be said about them, butmost of the people who are leading thePTI now have been in other parties overthe last many years. And while they werethere, they have been ministers, senatorsand MNAs. They are not unknown peoplein that sense. Do we expect them to comeup with new and interesting ideas on im-plementation after they have joined PTI?

All parties are likely to promise an in-crease in the percentage of GDP that theywill spend on education. But what partic-ular institutional and governance re-forms will they implement to make

public schools better, and/or regulateprivate schools? How are those reformsto be implemented, how will decentral-ization help in improving educational ac-cess and quality, and what will be done tooffer better, more accountable and moreattractive career paths for teachers?

Over the last couple of decades thatI have been a student and observer ofpublic policy and reform issues in Pak-istan, I have observed the pattern somany times: good or decent ideas havebeen proposed often enough, and vari-ous parties, ministers and other stake-holders have even expressed intentionsof implementing changes, but when itcomes to trying out actual implementa-tion, most of the policies did not do toowell. One reason for this is that imple-mentation is a lot messier than propos-ing ideas. You have to work with peopleand existing institutions to implementchange and people who stand to lose dueto change will resist them. And facing re-sistance, most ministers and/or otherstakeholders, tend to step back and donot want to ruffle people too much. Ifthere was stronger commitment tochange from the party and party leaders,maybe the resistance cold be countered,but in most cases that support was notthere and so policies were usually aban-doned or would get lip-service only.Hopefully parties, this time round, willfeel more responsible to the people andwill have more of a commitment tochange. But this also depends on how theelectorate, rating the performance of theparties that have been in power, re-wards/punishes them and sets incen-tives for performance for the future.

Key ingredients to institutional re-form, from across a lot of literature, havebeen identified as the involvement ofand ownership of the people at large andthe commitment of the people who arein-charge of implementing change.Hopefully the manifestoes will detail thechanges that parties will implement, andsome detail on how they will implementthem. Whether the public will buy theirpromises, and post election get involvedwith implementation and whether thecommitment of the parties will continuethrough implementation, we will onlyknow about in time.

The writer is an Associate Professorof Economics at LUMS (currently onleave) and a Senior Advisor at OpenSociety Foundation (OSF). He can bereached at [email protected]

By Dr Faisal Bari

Comment10


When I was a child, birth-day parties for toddlersfeatured two very simple

yet challenging games: ‘musicalchairs’ and ‘pass the parcel’. Bothgames are obviously very apt forpolitical analogy, because the for-mer term has been used by many abudding copywriter in the script formany a TV news bulletin. The latteris not too oft used, but is equallyrelevant to our current state of gov-ernmental indigestion. Only ourgame of political ‘pass the parcel’begins with the voter.

everything comes down to thevoter. The nameless, faceless,everyman who decides the fate andthe ideological direction of thecountry for the next five years. Intheory at least. It is speculated thatvoters vote along two distinct lines,party and personality. The politicalnarrative of Pakistan, as it has be-come shaped over the years, tellsus that voters are non-rational be-ings, voting to secure short-termgains in sacrifice of broader, moresustained growth. Therefore, pun-dits (mostly foreign) argue that thePakistan Tabdeeli Institute (PTI forshort) can and must sweep the nextgeneral elections. Yet the samepundits predict a rout for the PML-

N and a valiant-yet-weak-willed re-turn to power for the ruling PPP,based on the opposite assumptioni.e., voters who are satisfied/disil-lusioned with the performance ofany particular party will necessar-ily vote according to their electoralwishes, never mind the trappingsof party or person.

Obviously, the way in which theelectorate votes determines the waythe government is going to form.These votes usually represent asmall, yet broad spectrum of thePakistani mainstream. Hence, pop-ulist right-wingers and hardlineclerics are seated in the assembly insimilar (if not greater) numbersthan the left-leaning progressives orthe centrists (who are a dying breedanyway). It is this House whichshapes policy that makes the wheelsof the country go round and round.

Policy drives the engines ofgovernment. It is the coal that fuelsthe big, hungry boiler that is themilitary; it powers the elephantinebureaucracy; it shapes the face oflegislation: past, present and fu-ture; and, it is responsible for thewell-being of the people of the statei.e., the mandate. These tasks takeup most of the government’s time.In the few minutes it has left to dis-

pense with other, more importantbusiness – such as the receiving ofstate guests, the jetting off on toursof foreign countries, the hosting ofiftaar-cum-dinner-cum-press-con-ferences so nighttime TV news hassomething to show it’s grub andpolitics-starved viewers – there isusually no time left for their chieffunction i.e., reviewing, debatingand passing (or blocking) the pas-sage of legislation. But this hasnever stopped any governmentfrom trying, nor should it.

Policy, then, comes from the el-egant fountain pens of babus and

the typewriters of their stenogra-phers, clack-clackity-clacking awayin the corridors of power. White-hall, or the Pakistan Secretariat inIslamabad, is the silent driverslowly but surely driving our Ti-tanic into an iceberg. Only, right atthe very end, just when the icebergis about to hit, the crew of affluentcivil ‘servants’ sound the generalalarm just in time for everybody tomake it out of the ship beforetragedy strikes. At least everybodywho matters. Those on the lowerdecks are sucked into the mael-strom and end up becoming statis-

tics published by the Census Bu-reau or the Bureau of Statistics.

Once a rescue has beenmounted and fresh elections held,pretty much the same crew as theone that sunk it the last time boardthe newly-built vessel of gover-nance. New ministers and parlia-mentarians mean new guests toferry into the abyss. There are al-ways a few more mouths to feedbelow deck, but the scraps from thegalley more than quench theirneeds. either that or the corrupt, in-efficient, brutal and multifarious se-curity agencies that have been hiredto maintain the peace below decks,are called upon to do their jobs. Andthe ship of life sails on, into the ice-berg infested waters of the Arctic.

The problem with this hierar-chy of responsibility is that changebecomes dependent on Whitehall’swillingness to change. Their inter-ests do vary from election to elec-tion; but the objective remains thesame: to ensure a better lifestyle forthemselves and their peers. every-body else must pay cash. It’s verySherriff of Nottingham-type stuff.

Follow @mightyobvious onTwitter for more incoherence in140 characters or less

Titanic, government, mandateMighty obviousBy Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi

Policy drives the engines of

government. it is the coal that fuels the

big, hungry boiler that is the military; it

powers the elephantine bureaucracy; it

shapes the face of legislation: past,

present and future; and, it is

responsible for the well-being of the

people of the state i.e., the mandate.

Policy usually comes from the elegant fountain pens of babus and the typewriters of their stenographers

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:45 AM

Comment 11


Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

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

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to PakistanToday exclusively.

The US Aid is known for itswelfare activities all over the world.This is termed as aid or assistance“From the American people” and italso has a considerable significance inPakistan, as the US Aid is executingmany welfare projects in the rural andurban areas. Some of their projectsinclude installing water filtrationplants; establishment of schools in therural areas, providing financialassistance to poor families etc.Despite their numerous efforts it isnot allowing the Americans toestablish their goodwill among thePakistani people. Our analysts

attribute this to the intervening role ofAmericans in Pakistani politics, theirstrict policies against our governmentand covert operations of Americandominated “NATO” in Pakistaniterritory which has worsened theentire situation.

The US Aid is rendering a noblejob by doing relief works in ourbackward areas and aiding thedeprived the class of the society.However, if they want to generate afavorable public opinion and build upa positive image among the Pakistanipeople, these welfare activities won’tbe enough. As these welfare activities

won’t be useful for curing their brokenimage which had been spoiled due tothe stiff attitude of Americanpoliticians towards Pakistan.

No matter how much theAmericans keep up the relief work andwelfare activities in our country, theywon’t be able to establish their goodwill unless and until they fix the realproblem. Only if the Congressmendecide with a sincere heart that theywill true bilateral relations on thebasis of mutual respect with thePakistanis, the situation will notimprove.

The Americans should know that

“we need friends not masters” andwhen these drone attacks in thetribal areas of Pakistan are stopped;ultimately an atmosphere of trustwill be developed among the twonations. As when they will listen tous, then our government and ourpeople will also respect them fromthe core of heart. Slowly and steadilyour people will began to lookpositively towards them and will alsohave a good opinion about them.Finally, the atmosphere of distrustwill end.

SYED MUHAMMAD ABUBAKERLahore

Justice delayed is…!The recent proactive action of Chief Justice of

Lahore High Court to move the CCI to untangle theknot of KBD hanging fire since decades is apositive step to finally solve the simmeringproblem of water and power shortages dogging thecountry. In this connection it is pertinent tomention that the writer had tried to move theSupreme Court of Pakistan through a writ petitionNo. 37 of 2000 under Article 184(3) of theConstitution through Barrister Zafarullah Khan onwhich the decision is still pending. It waspetitioned to direct the federal govt to undertake areferendum upon the issue to build the muchdelayed Kalabagh dam so as to ascertain the wishesof people all over the country once for all.

Since the issue of water pertains to all theprovinces, the Apex Court was a better forum todecide the interprovincial issue of a hydro electricdam. WAPDA has also stated that the objections ofsmaller provinces on KBD were baseless. Now it isincumbent on the Apex Court to issue a directive tothe federal government to carry out a nationalreferendum over the much delayed issue of KBDthat can be built in six years with half the cost ofBhasha dam that would take 12 years to build at acost of 12 billion US$. There is a saying that even alark (a small bird) is heard after 12 years. May bethe Apex Court would finally hear the petitionerafter 12 years since the year 2000.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

President has a chanceI read the news story with a pleasure that

President Asif Ali Zardari has advised PM RajaPervaiz Ashraf to respect the court and shouldappear before the Supreme Court on Monday inresponse to the show cause notice for contemptissued by the Supreme Court for not writing lettersto the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases. Thepresident often shows his respect for the courtsthrough his statements. I think he personally has nogrudge against the judiciary and if so, then heshould be aware of those who misguide him withtheir mischievous advices. Being the chief of rulingparty, he should also find out a genuine solution ofthe ongoing government-judiciary conflict.Sacrificing a prime minister after every quarter ofthe year is not a solution.

I think there is an historic opportunity for Mr

Zardari being the co-chairman of the PPP. He canregister his names in good books of history simplyby taking a decision that proves to be an end to thecurrent row without harming the dignity of anyinstitution.

SOHAIL RASHIDRawalpindi

South Punjab deprivationsThe feudals, makhdooms, sardars and Sajada

Nasheens of South Punjab have been in powerbefore partition and thereafter, not only atprovincial level but at federal level. No benefit willaccrue to the millions living in stone ages in thisarea by creation of a separate province which will beruled by the very feudal nemesis, who areresponsible for their plight. When undivided Punjabwas ruled by Unioinist Party, it were these feudalfrom Zamaidara League who formed a coalition withHindu and Sikhs to rule this province. Afterpartition the most powerful civil government whichhas ruled Pakistan was ZAB’s PPP and it was noneother than Mustafa Khar, strongest politician ofPunjab, followed by several others from thisdeprived part of Punjab, who enjoyed immensepower. While the feudal from South Punjab todayown largest sugar mills and are masters of biggestfarm houses, the people are illiterate, deprived evenof clean drinking water.

South Punjab has the highest ratio of ghostschools and hospitals, where funds allocated wereutilized to build infrastructure and hire teachers,doctors etc only on paper, but never was thisinfrastructure allowed to function and deliver bypowerful feudal lobby who by design want hundredsof thousands of deprived to live in abject poverty inthe areas under their influence. Billions of rupeeshave been allocated for construction of roads andbridges, which have been consumed by corrupt localbureaucracy with patronage of powerful MNAs andMPAs of this area. Billions allocated by successivegovernments to MNAs, MPAs, Senators fordevelopment projects have vanished into thin air.

Bridges and roads which if properly constructedshould withstand pressures of rains and floods gotwashed away like sand dunes. The biggest hindranceto development of South Punjab are these powerfulfeudals whose foreign educated daughters are seencarrying Birken bags, but who would ensure thatthese deprived millions live forever in deprivation,without any education, never demand equality oreven basic rights. No other area of Punjab has such

a high rate of female abuse crimes where women aretreated even worse than cattle and sheep and minorgirls are given away to compensate feuds bypanchayats, patronized by none other than powerfulpolitical feudal who hold the fort in this mostdeprived part of Punjab.

SYED JAWAID HUSSAINMultan

Say no to even toy gunseid is a wonderful event for Muslim all over the

world. It brings happiness as well but it is also anevent for the parent to learn what their children dowhen they enjoy financial autonomy to some extentafter receiving eidi (rupees given to children as atoken of fondness) from their elders. each childbehaves towards it in their individual manners.Some children buy things to eat, some save theircollections and some get toys. Buying toys is notworrisome for the parent but some toys are.

It saddened me a lot to see children playing withtoy guns in their nearby play grounds or on streetsclose to their homes. Their seriousness whileplaying was worth noticing. They were not aware oftheir surroundings. What surprised me was thattheir parents did nothing even when seeing whattheir children were doing. Only some parents werecomplaining whose children were hit during the‘play’. These toy guns are designed to emit theplastic bullets in a row or one by one and showstriking resemblance to the real guns: color, sizeand system of loading magazine.

I neither want to blame for the children becausethey are not old enough to realize what to do andwhat not to do nor do I intend to request thegovernment functionaries responsible forcombating such evils as the governmentfunctionaries have many other things to shift theirresponsibilities and will turn a deaf ear to it in theend. The government functionaries could have donemuch to restrict the manufacturing of such itemsand impose ban on importing such items but theyhave done nothing so far.

I just want to draw the attention of the parentsto keep a watchful eye on the activities of theirchildren and to do their utmost to channelize theirpotential in positive direction. Parents must avoidproviding such computer games where the use ofguns is unavoidable. Parents must revisit theirattitude causing the children to play with toy guns.

JAWED AHMED KHURSHEEDKarachi

circus of talk showsMost of the talk shows on prime

time have been reduced to a match ofshouting obscenities, display ofintolerance and unsuitable for familiesto watch. What message are they givingto our youth? Almost every party hastheir share of such unsocial animalswho act like stray dogs and a viewercannot understand what is happening.This stray dog affliction is dominantamongst PPP’s Faisal Raza Abedi,Sharjeel Memon, PML-N’s Abid SherAli, PTI’s Imran Ismail, InamullahNiazi, MQM’s Wasim Akhtar and PML-Q’s Agha. One wonders what sort of rolemodels are these people, and whatprompted their political parties tochoose them for this task.

Of course, nobody matches FaisalRaza Abedi’s theatrics and his joy atabusing the Chief Justice of Pakistan,who has more credibility than all the po-litical leaders put together. Instead of ameaningful discussion, which can takeplace in an educated forum observingparliamentary ethics, what you witnessis everybody talking simultaneously,shouting obscenities, or calling their ad-versaries thugs and making a monkey ofthemselves. Are these the men or womenwhom we expect to deliberate and re-solve the colossal problems this nationfaces? What sort of change can we ex-pect from these new entrants, when theyindulge in nothing but mudslinging?How can we expect them to restore ruleof law, when they cannot maintain deco-rum in public? Will these people addressthe issue of target killings, unemploy-ment, acute power shortages, extortion,fanaticism, kidnapping from ransom andexploitation of religion, when they can-not have decency to hear other’s point ofview, or respect right of dissent?

It seems every political party in thiscountry has become a cult, whose mem-bers have to prove that they would nottolerate any criticism of their leadership.Does this display a decline in our moralvalues, or does it reflect only upon ourdecadent political culture which must re-form itself? In what manner are thesemen better than Musharraf who ap-peared while in power, on television,raised a fist and proudly proclaimed hisdisplay of street power on 12 May?

MALIK T ALILahore

US Aid won’t work

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:45 AM


deepika meets olympians

BOLLYWOOD actor Deepika Padukone andMary Kom talk to each other during thefelicitation conference for Olympic medalists

Mary Kom and Vijay Kumar, organized by theBombay Gymkhana Club. Deepika is quite interestedin sports and her father Prakash Padukone is aveteran badminton player. Deepika Padukone, asports enthusiast herself, supports and encouragesthe athletes and players of every sport. She spoke tothe media about her interest in sports andencouraged the players more. Deepika Padukone,Mary Kom and Vijay Kumar shared light moments atOlympics felicitation ceremony. nEWS DESK

aamir khan’s new lookfor ‘dhoom 3’ revealed

BIDISHA Roy and Krishnendu Sengupta - acouple from Kolkata - woke up to a bigcommotion in their downtown Chicago

neighbourhood on August 7. Clad in black, a bikerwas racing down the road with police cars in hotpursuit. Weaving in and out of the traffic, it lookedlike he would get away. Suddenly, the bike hit arough patch and crashed. As people watched inamazement, Take 2 began. That’s how the Bengalicouple recalled the start of the Chicago leg of theshoot of Aamir Khan’s latest film. But as the chasesequence was played out, the only person missingwas Aamir himself. “We saw his stunt-double doingthe action. He looked a little taller than Aamir andwas dressed in black,” recalled Bidisha. But the manhimself - with a lean, mean look and a never-seen-before hairdo - arrived in a while. “It looked like he’dgone back to his Ghajini days. We had read reports ofhow Aamir wanted a new hairstyle for this film.During the day, he hardly took his hat off. But whenhe did, we could understand what might haveprompted him to keep his look hidden - it’s thatdifferent,” said Bidisha. coURTESy Toi

12

WhendirectorApoorvaLakhia

announced hisplans of re-

making‘Zanjeer’ witha stellar castearlier thisyear, all eyes

were set onhim and the way

he would re-craftthe film. With Ram

Charan Teja andPriyanka Chopra

essaying the roles of VijaySrivastav and Mala (Amitabh

Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan in theoriginal) respectively, and Arjun Rampalperforming that of Sher Khan (Pran in the

original), the recipe for anotherblockbuster might just have been

concocted. But apparently, beginning wellwasn’t merely enough for the project.

Arjun Rampal has been quoted, inconversation with a daily: “I don`t know ifI`m part of the Zanjeer remake. During theinitial meetings, I liked the script, but Ihaven`t seen Apoorva since. I will bemeeting him soon.” On being asked whether that means hewouldn’t act in the film, the acclaimed actorwent on to add, “No. The role soundsexciting. Ninety-nine per cent, I am doingthe film, but we are going back and forth ona few matters. This month, things shouldclear up. I`ve committed to Apoorva ondoing it (the film).” However, a tweet had something else tosay. The tweet read, “Arjun Rampal hasapparently walked out of the remake of‘Zanjeer’, where he was playing Pran’srole.” However, according to a daily, ace actorSanjay Dutt has been roped in for essayingthe iconic role of Sher Khan. After the actorwas seen in the blood-curdling performanceof Kancha Cheena in ‘Agneepath’, we aresure waiting to watch him play SherKhan! newS DeSk

daniel Craig ‘best Bondever’, says roger moore

SIR Roger Moore, who has possibly remained thefinest ‘007’ star till date, has hailed Daniel Craigas the best actor ever to play Bond. The 84-

year-old who is writing his new book, Bond On Bond,revealed that he absolutely loved ‘Casino Royale’ andCraig. “I loved Casino Royale and Daniel Craig. He is awonderful actor, certainly the best actor to play Bond,”the Telegraph quoted him as saying. “I have never beenguilty of method acting, or even acting if you want toargue a point.” He also insisted that the 42-year-old has“the best build of any Bond”. He also claimed that thetouch of humour he brought to the seven Bond films hestarred in from 1973-1985, was lacking in the last film,Quantum of Solace. “I believe that Skyfall is going tohave a lot more humour in it than Quantum of Solacedid, something I’ll be pleased to see.“Of course, we hadexecutives breathing down our necks when I wasplaying [Bond], but I never took them seriously. In fact,I don’t think I took anything seriously. Except makingsure I got paid on Friday,” he added. nEWS DESK arjUn waLks oUt, sanjaY as sher

khan in ‘Zanjeer’ remake

TOP 20 Of JACK BLACK

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:45 AM

13


ross unsure about reconciliation with sanders

MODEL Liberty Ross is reportedly not sure ofreconciling with her husband, director RupertSanders, who cheated on her with actress

Kristen Stewart. Ross, 33, has been in contact withher spouse for their children - Skyla, 7, and 5-year-old Tennyson. “Nothing has been filed. It’s still tooearly to tell what will happen. She is talking to andseeing Rupert now for the kids, but as far as themarriage she’s still processing everything thathappened,” showbizpy.com quoted Ross as saying.“No decisions have been made. It’s been very hard onher dealing with this and all the media attention Sheis very strong and working through it and keepingprivate about it,” the source added. nEWS DESK

no madame tussauds for sridev

IT Even as the buzz about Sridevi making hercomeback in a Tamil-Telugu-Hindi trilingual isgetting intense, the actor has been making

headlines for yet another reason recently. Thegrapevine is abuzz with rumours that the star, likeher counterparts Amitabh Bachchan and MadhuriDixit Nene, is set to have a wax replica of herselfmade at Madame Tussauds soon. While Srideviremained unavailable for comment, her husband,producer Boney Kapoor, denies any suchdevelopment. He says, “This is news to us. I’ve alsobeen reading reports about Sridevi beingimmortalized at the wax museum, but this untrue.We haven’t received any official letter or callregarding this.” Bobby Khan, who has played a bigrole in bringing Bollywood celebs to MadameTussauds, also says he’s unaware of any suchdevelopments. coURTESy Toi

miley Cyrus spices up acasual outfit with a racybackless t-shirt

SHE is known for her love of all things skimpyand it seems Miley Cyrus can give just aboutanything of physical appeal. The star stepped

out in a simple grey T-shirt and jeans but gave theoutfit a racy twist because her top was backless.The 19-year-old wore this T-shirt for an outing inPhiladelphia, where she is currently staying whileher fiancé Liam Hemsworth is shooting a movie onlocation. She tucked her dark skinny jeans into herfavourite black Doc Martens and completed her lookwith gold hoop earrings. Miley happily showed offher new peroxide blonde pixie cut which was styledmessily for her outing. She was spotted leavingaccessories store Tumi after enjoying a spot of retailtherapy. Miley has been doing her best to keepherself occupied in the city while her beau is busyfilming Robert Luketic thriller Paranoia. As well asshopping, having a makeover and keeping in touchwith her fans over Twitter, the star has done sometravelling. Just two days earlier she was pictured inNew York hanging out with a male friend in the EastVillage. Since chopping off her locks Miley has alsoaltered her style and has regularly been picturedsporting grungier outfits. nEWS DESK

Shiney Ahuja is calmer and introspective after his unforeseen tryst behind thebars - and that’s because the actor strongly believes in learning out of all bitterand sweet experiences.

The one positive thing in his tough phase, he says, has been the growth in the warmthof the industry members and his fans towards him.One would think his fraternity andfans would have become averse to his popularity, especially after he was hounded byaccusations of rape, but Shiney says “there’s a lot of warmth and love”. “Irrespective ofwhat has been sometimes reported or said, whenever I have gone amongst people, theirreactions have been pretty much the same that was earlier. Now, in fact, there is a rela-

tionship that they feel they have with me,”Shiney told IANS in a candid

interview. “There is so much of warmthand love. They (fans) keep saying theyare waiting for me to come back in an-other great film and looking forward toanother great performance. These are the kind of things I get to hear,”

he added. Shiney was arrested in June2009 .He spent nearly five months behind

bars. In March 30, 2011, he was sentenced toseven years’ imprisonment by a Mumbai fast

track court, but he challenged the sentence inthe Bombay High Court. He is currently on bail

and facing each day with a smile. His confidenceseems a tad dented, but he doesn’t shy away from

the media - only he is more careful about choosingthe right words. The actor is now working to-

wards resurrecting his Bollywood career. Andhe says his friends in the film industry havebeen extremely supportive to help him re-gain his stand. “The perception is very dif-ferent for people who know you as aperson. For them you are a person and nota product. So people who know me, they be-lieve in me; so that’s the reason there is nochange in their perception at all. In fact, nowthere is much more warmth which wasn’tthere earlier,” the 38 year-old said. “I feel Iam very fortunate because I have some goodfriends like Sudhir Mishra and AnuragBasu from the film industry who have en-couraged me in the past as well. I hope I cancontinue to give in my best,” he added.Whatever the obstacles in life may be, it isimportant to learn the best out of them, be-lieves the actor, who tasted success withfilms like “Hazaaron KhwaisheinAisi”, “Khoya Khoya Chand”,“Gangster” and “Life... In A Metro”. “I thinkthere are incidents or accidents that happenin everybody’s life in some or the other way.Otherwise also sometimes things happen

which are not in our control, but what wetake out of that experience is definitely in ourcontrol,” he said. “So my constant search andmy constant endeavor in the entire phase of

my life is to take something more than what Ihave given to this particular experience or time,”he added. Last seen in “Ghost”, Shiney is nowlooking forward to the release of “HarPal” and “ek Accident”. He is also reading a lotof scripts. “I have been reading a lot of scriptslately. And just keeping myself on toes just to de-cide what I want to take up next,” he added.-CoURTeSY Toi

No matter what SalmanKhan and Shah Rukh Khan do toshow solidarity to each other,their camps do have a very welletched boundary. They are dif-ferent and distinct.

Of late, Anurag Kashyap hasbeen bonding big time with SRK.even his spouse Kalki Koechlinhas been seen hanging out withSRK’s camp at a number of socialdos. So the bond betweenKashyap and Khan seems to begrowing thicker with time. How-ever, what is noteworthy is thatSRK’s longtime foe Salman Khanhad apparently given bitter re-marks to Kashyap’s movie‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ over its vi-olence dominated content. Andhence Kashyap’s closeness toSRK does raise eyebrows.

Talking to a tabloid, sourcesclose to the filmmaker revealed,“SRK asked Anurag to make afilm for him. Anurag agreed to itbut on one condition. The film-

maker told SRK that he wouldwrite a film and even narrate it tohim but would hand over thebound script only after SRKsigned the film.” SRK has alsoapparently patched up withShirish Kunder, who has just

concluded his film ‘Joker’ withAkshay Kumar. And if rumoursare anything to go by, Kumar hasvowed never to work with Kun-der again. So is SRK on the vergeof mending fences and expand-ing his camp? newS DeSk

Subhash denies signingSalman for film

Amidst speculations that the ultimateking of the Box Office, Salman Khan hadteamed up with Subhash Ghai for hisnext, what has come to the fore is that thenews is just a rumour. The filmmakerhas clarified that he hasn’t signed SalmanKhan as yet, but admitted that he met theactor on August 15, to watch ‘ek ThaTiger’ at the Yash Raj studios. Ghai alsohad a discussion with Salman about hiscurrent project but did not talk about his‘supposed’ project with the actor. Ghaihas been in Bangalore since August 17,and is busy completing his latest venture.And hence has said that rumours doingthe rounds are baseless. newS DeSk

industry, fans warmerto me than before

See who is Shah RukhKhan befriending

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:46 AM

w e have all heard the superstitiousurban legend that if you sleep witha textbook under your pillow, youmay retain some information: as ifthe information will seep from text-

book into your brain. This act stems from the des-perate desire to learn while we sleep. What if itwas actually possible?

In an unprecedented study that looks at the

ways in which the subconscious human learns, anew Weizmann Institute study appearing today inthe Journal Nature Neuroscience has found thatyou can never go wrong with classics-classicalconditioning, that is.

Researchers discovered that people can learnnew information while they sleep, and this cansubconsciously modify their waking behavior.

Prof. Noam Sobel and research student Anat

Arzi, together with Sobel's group in the Institute'sNeurobiology Department in collaboration withresearchers from Loewenstein Hospital and theAcademic College of Tel Aviv put subjects asleepand monitored their sleep states, breathing andheart rate. After a night of exposing them to alter-natively pleasant and unpleasant odors, followedby a tone, scientists removed the odors on the fol-lowing night and found that when a tone associatedwith an unpleasant smell was played, participants'breathing became short and shallow. Converselywhen a tone that was paired with a good smell wasplayed, the subjects inhaled deeply.

The next day, the now awake subjects againheard the tones alone again - with no accompany-ing odor. Although they had no conscious recollec-tion of listening to them during the night, theirbreathing patterns told a different story. When ex-posed to tones that had been paired with pleasantodors, they sniffed deeply, while the second tones- those associated with bad smells - provokedshort, shallow sniffs. Researchers noted that thelearned response was more pronounced during theReM phase of sleep, but the transfer of the associ-ation from sleep to waking was evident only whenlearning took place during the non-ReM phase.

Sobel and Arzi suspect that this is because"dream-amnesia" or those parts during sleepwhere we forget our dreams occurs at the ReM-stage. Therefore, though we may be more sensitiveto external stimuli at this stage, any conditioningmay not stick upon waking. By contrast, non-ReMsleep is the phase that is important for memoryconsolidation, (also the phase that changes yourdreams depending on external stimuli such as arunning television) so it might also play a role inthis form of sleep-learning.

Now that researchers know it is possible tolearn while asleep, Sobel and Arzi intend to findthe limits of sleep learning, what information canbe learned during sleep and what cannot.

While this information may prove useful whentrying to get your roommates from eating yourstuff in the fridge, our hope is that further studieson this will ultimately give us la earning advantageover peers. nEWS DESK

14Infotainment


md. City fails to break bikiniparade record

Acity in China still holds the bikini paraderecord after a failed attempt in Maryland.Organizers of Saturday's effort in Ocean City

to take the title from Huludao City in China fell short.Only about 325 women turned out under rainy skies.Brad Hoffman, who organized the parade for theNorth Ocean City Business Alliance, blamed the rainfor the poor turnout. Organizers were trying toattract more than 1,085 to break the record set inChina earlier this month. The 25-block paradeincluded women of all ages. The $10 registration feefor the event benefited charities including theAmerican Cancer Society's Relay for Life. nEWS DESK

surgeon rides kid’s bike throughtraffic in race to hospital

DR. Catherine Baucom was stuck in trafficwhile making her way to the BRASSSurgery Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

on Wednesday. So the determined doctor left hercar behind and cut through the traffic jam on a 7-year-old's pink bicycle. "Catherine called, she wasoutside my house. She said 'Hey do you have abike?'" colleague Dr. Brian Barnett told WAFB. "Iwalked outside and said yeah, it's a kid’s bike. I gotthe air pump out and aired the tires up as much asI could." The nearly 6-foot-tall surgeon thendonned the girl's helmet and peddled away."It was hot pink and small," Dr. Baucom said, "Thehelmet was pink with princesses."Dr. Baucom then cut through traffic on BatonRouge Interstate 10 before being stopped by police.When she explained the unusual circumstancessurrounding her mode of travel, policeimmediately escorted her through traffic and to theoperating room. "They said we can escort you andhe essentially drove past me and then he turnedaround and was videotaping me," Dr. Baucom said."I did tell him I didn't know if he could keep upwith me." Dr. Baucom herself is an avid cyclist.And as a small reward for her dedication, Dr.Barnett's daughter said she could keep theprincess-themed helmet. However, the bike itselfhas been returned. nEWS DESK

Sleep learning is possible,according to researchers

Facebook unveils new search ad plan

TRYING to compete in the race with alreadyexisting search engines, Facebook hasunveiled a new feature which delivers ads to

users based on their search queries, taking a pagefrom a strategy used effectively by Google andothers. "We have launched a feature that surfacessponsored results along with the organic resultswhen people are looking for things on Facebook," aFacebook spokeswoman said. "We try to showpeople apps and pages they'll be most interestedin." With the launch of Google plus, Facebook istrying to comp up with strategies that will hold it’simage and repute high in the market. The world'sbiggest social network gets most of its revenuesfrom ads, but until now has not directly linkedthose ads to search queries in the manner of the bigsearch engines like Google and Yahoo. nEWS DESK

Richard III may beburied under parking lot

It seems like england's Richard IIImay have gotten a burial not-quitefit for a king.

Archaeologists believe the king,who was killed in battle in 1485,could be resting under a parking lotin Leicester, according to the LosAngeles Times.

A team from the University ofLeicester began excavation work onSaturday.

The archaeologists believe thecar lot was once the site of a Fran-ciscan friary known as the Grey fri-ars, who cared for Richard III'sremains after he was killed duringthe Battle of Bosworth, a battle inthe english civil war known as theWar of the Roses.

"The big question for us is de-termining the whereabouts of thechurch on the site and also where inthe church the body was buried,"Richard Buckley, of the University

of Leicester, told the LA Times.The university is working with

the Richard III Society and Leices-ter City Council to hunt for themonarch's bones.

Diggers will use ground-pene-trating radar to determine the bestspots to break ground in the citycouncil offices lot.

"This archaeological work offersa golden opportunity to learn moreabout medieval Leicester as well asabout Richard III's last restingplace," Philippa Langley, a memberof the Richard III Society, said in astatement. "And, if he is found, tore-inter his remains with propersolemnity in Leicester Cathedral."

Any remains that are found willbe subject to DNA testing, to con-firm that they belong to the fallenruler, who was immortalized inWilliam Shakespeare's play,"Richard III." nEWS DESK

British police deploy inforce after lion sighting

A small army of officers and tran-quilizer-toting zoo experts, alongwith a pair of heat-seeking helicop-ters, are spending their Mondaycombing the woods, ponds, andfarmland around the coastal com-munity after a resident spottedwhat was believed to be a lionlounging in a field of grass.

Where such a beast may havecome from is anyone's guess; thelocal zoo says its animals are ac-counted for, and police have said alocal circus isn't missing any either.As of early afternoon, the force had-n't found any paw prints or drop-pings, but officers said they weretreating the sighting seriously, andso too are St. Osyth's 4,000-oddresidents.

"I wouldn't expect to see a lionwalking up the high street, but itseems to be very quiet in the vil-lage," said Jason Amos, who ownsSt. Osyth's timber-framed Red Lionpub. "People are taking it very seri-ously."

The sighting has prompted amedia frenzy in Britain, with theDaily Mail tabloid splashing a pic-ture of a snarling lion across itsfront page and camera crews racingto the historic village, which is built

around medieval priory only a cou-ple of miles from england's southcoast. Amos said he'd just seenjournalists from Britain's Sky Newstelevision broadcasting from out-side the pub.

Improbable sightings of danger-ous animals are a familiar part ofthe British news cycle, particularlyat the height of summer when jour-nalists struggle to fill papers andnews bulletins.

Last year, police in northernengland scrambled a helicopter andpassengers were stopped from leav-ing a train after a motorist reportedseeing a lion (a hunt turned upnothing). During the riots that hitLondon in 2011, there were rumourswhich were quickly disproven that atiger was on the loose in the capitalafter escaping from the city zoo.

In 2007, the British media wentwild over a man who claimed tohave photographed a great whiteshark off the coast of Cornwall, insouth western england.

He later admitted that the pic-tures were actually taken while onvacation in South Africa, addingthat he couldn't believe anyone hadbeen foolish enough to take thehoax seriously. nEWS DESK

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Tuesday 28 August, 2012

Page 17

goodbye-girl clijstersready for US open

SHARJAHAFP

pAKISTAN captain Mis-bah-ul Haq believes hisplayers will be extra mo-tivated to win againstAustralia who they havenot beaten for the last 10

years. The two teams meet in a three-match one-day series starting here onTuesday, followed by as many Twenty20internationals.

Misbah said his players will make anextra effort to register a series win whichhas eluded them since Pakistan's 2-1 winin Australia in 2002.

"Of course, whenever there is such athing it charges the team in an extra way,its needs an extra effort to combine andbeat an opponent who we have not beatenfor some time," Misbah said Monday.

Pakistan have only two survivours inShahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik from theteam which beat Australia 10 years ago,but Misbah said all his players are fo-cused against an opponent who are dan-gerous anywhere in the world.

"Australia are one of the top teams,it's difficult to beat them because they area fighting team in any conditions of theworld," said Misbah of the Australianteam led by Michael Clarke.

"They have good players who put upthe best fight and they are a difficult op-ponent," said Misbah, playing down thehype that it will be a series between Pak-istani spin bowlers against Australianbatsmen. "I don't think we will only relyon spinners, we have to bat well and fastbowlers are very important for us becausethe ball reverse swings in Sharjah," saidMisbah. Australian pacemen grabbednine of the 10 wickets during their 66-runwin against Afghanistan in the first-evermatch between the two countries here on

Saturday.Misbah admitted it will be important

for Pakistan to win after losing their lasttwo one-day series, 3-1 in Sri Lanka and4-1 here against england. "I think its im-portant for both the teams also for Aus-tralia," said Misbah of his opponents wholost 4-0 to england last month.

"For us it is very important becauseafter this is the World T20, we couldn'tgive the kind of performance that wewanted in the last two series, so its a goodchance for us to stage a comeback," saidMisbah.

The Pakistan captain said oppressiveconditions in United Arab emirates, withthe temperature scaling to 40-plus in the

day and 35-plus in the evening, givesPakistan some edge.

"Definitely, conditions suit us butour players are focused because theyknow teams can adapt quickly and wehave to be at our best to beat Australia,"

said Misbah."We are going to play against a top

team and if we win then we have ad-vantage and it will help us in future. Italso helps you improve when you playa top team and you remove your

flaws," said Misbah.The second match will be played in

Abu Dhabi on August 31 followed by thethird here on September 3. All threeTwenty20 internationals will be played inDubai on September 5, 7 and 10.

Beating Australia is a motivation for Pakistan: Misbah

DUBAIAFP

experienced batsman Michael Husseysaid Australia were determined to bounceback by winning their limited seriesagainst Pakistan which starts in Sharjahon Tuesday.

The 37-year-old left-hander missedAustralia's tour of england last monthdue to family reasons but believed Aus-tralia 4-0 loss in his absence makes themmore determined to win.

"We're very determined. The guyshave got a real sting in the tail after losingin england and we want to put in a verygood performance," said Hussey on Mon-day. The ever-reliable Hussey, who has sofar played 182 one-day and 78 Tests in aglorious career, believed a break wasgood for him.

"It was great to be back around theteam, no question. Having a break makesyou realise how much you enjoy playingfor Australia and my enthusiasm and en-ergy for the game has risen more by beingable to have a rest," said Hussey.

Asked if Australia were as preparedfor the Pakistan series, Hussey said: "Itremains to be seen, I guess. We've won inplaces like India before. The last time wecame here we beat Pakistan in one-days,"said Hussey of 3-2 win in 2009.

Hussey said his experience in thehumid conditions of Chennai during his

stint in the Indian Premier League willhelp him combat the oppressive 35-plustemperatures in United Arab emirates.

"These conditions are very oppres-sive. But... the guys are in pretty goodshape. When you do play pretty much allthe previous year, there are times whenyou do start to get mentally and physi-cally fatigued.

"I don't think we'll be letting the heatbe an excuse for any poor performance.I've played in Chennai, even in justTwenty20 games, and that's a lot hotterthan playing out here," Hussey said.

"In Chennai the temperature mightbe only mid-30s but the humidity isunbelievable. That's probably the mostoppressive conditions I've ever had toplay in.

"Having said that, it's still extremelytough (in Sharjah). I only batted for 15overs the other day and I was prettyknackered by the end of it," said Husseyof Australia's 66-run win againstAfghanistan in Sharjah on Saturday.

He made a brisk 37-ball 49 in Aus-tralian total of 272-8 in 50 overs.

Hussey said he was ready to open theinnings in case the team managementasks him in order to shield MatthewWade who opened the innings on Satur-day and then kept wicket.

"Whatever the team needs," saidHussey. "If 'Wadey' did make a hundredin these oppressive conditions battingfirst and then has to go straight out and'keep, that would be a difficult thing,"Hussey said.

The second one-day will be playedin Abu Dhabi on August 31 followed bythe third in Sharjah on September 3.The three Twenty20 internationals willbe played in Dubai on September 5, 7and 10.

Australia determined to beat Pakistan: Hussey

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

Top Pakistani first class cricketers earn-ing income from top cricket tourna-ments around the world have failed tofile their wealth statements and incometax returns and have hidden their in-come records through mis-declarationsof their income.

According to a report, 25 first classcricketers in Pakistan have failed to filetheir wealth statements for the financialyear 2010-11. These cricketers, says re-port, have earned their income for the

aforesaid tax years through foreign tour-naments, english counties and variouspremier leagues across the globe.

Pakistan's financial daily further re-veals, that most top cricketers in thecountry hide their income through‘gross mis-declarations’.

While the report states that some ofthe cricketers don’t even file their tax re-turns, many popular cricketers appear-ing in soft drinks commercials haveconcealed their wealth and assets.

Cricketers who participate and earnhefty cash and rewards by playing invarious T20 leagues in India,

Bangladesh and other countries don’tmention the income in their tax returnsto avoid tax payment.

The Federal Bureau of Revenue(FBR) of Pakistan in view of such coverup of wealth and properties by cricketersproposed amendment in assessments ofIT returns. The FBR maintains a recordof around 25 cricketers’ tax profiles con-cealing their income records.

The daily suggest that cricketersborn in Pakistan are obligated to declaretheir foreign income as both Pakistanand foreign income are liable to tax inthe country.

Another astonishing fact revealed bythe daily suggests that the incomeearned by cricketers through variouscash awards and prizes during interna-tional tours too were not declared.

FBR’s record of tax profiles men-tions that some top cricketers who playfor the national team and also remainbrand ambassadors of major companieshave been reluctant in disclosing theirearnings in their income tax returns.

The report cites the example of onesuch player, who despite representingthe national team since 2007 fails to befeatured on the tax roll.

Top Pakistani cricketers fail to file income tax returns

hafeez replacesTsotsobe as numberone odi bowler

lahoRe:

Pakistan all-rounder Mo-hammadHafeez has re-placed SouthAfrica pace-man LonwaboTsotsobe asthe number-one ranked

bowler in the Reliance ICC Player Rank-ings for ODI bowlers, which were releasedon Monday after a one-off ODI betweenAustralia and Afghanistan. Hafeez andTsotsobe swapped places on the bowlers’table after the first match in the england-South Africa ODI series at Cardiff on 24August, which was abandoned due to rain.Tsotsobe ended with figures of 2.3-0-18-0in the rain-affected game, and he nowtrails Hafeez by just two ratings points inthe bowlers’ table. Hafeez and Tsotobewill, however, get a fair opportunity to ei-ther retain or reclaim the number-onespot in the coming weeks. STAFF REPoRT

LONDONAFP

england batsman eoin Morgan admitsKevin Pietersen's fall from grace hasemphasised the danger of letting indi-viduals undermine team spirit.

Pietersen has been cast into exileby england after the controversialbatsman infuriated captain AndrewStrauss and coach Andy Flower bysending text messages containing crit-icism of the duo to South Africa play-ers.

The 32-year-old is also reported tohave made england newboy JamesTaylor feel unwelcome when he joinedup with the squad, prompting an un-named senior player to become em-broiled in a row with Pietersen.

The england and Wales CricketBoard remain tight-lipped about theprospect of Pietersen, who wasdropped from the Test squad due to

what Flower described as issues of"trust and mutual respect", returningto the fold any time soon.

While Morgan wasn't involved inTest series, the Irishman has beendrafted in for the limited overs clasheswith South Africa and, after assessing

the mood in the camp, he believes it isvital that distractions like thePietersen saga are quashed quickly toavoid bad feeling speading through thesquad.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday's sec-ond one-day international inSouthampton, Morgan said: "I thinkKevin is a world-class cricketer andany team around the world wouldwant him in their side, but there are is-sues surrounding him at the momentand it will take time to resolve them.

"Personally I didn't find him diffi-cult but I've not been around the Testteam a lot. "I think that it is hugelyimportant (to get the situation re-solved) because the amount of timewe spend together is huge. We spendmore time together than with ourfamilies, particularly on tour. "It is ahuge factor and it has been for the allthe successful years we've had as theengland cricket team."

27 disciplines to

be contested in

national gamesLAHORE

STAFF REPoRT

Altogether 27 disciplines will be con-tested during the 32nd edition of theNational Games to be held here formOctober 16-22 at different centres.“Men will be competing in all the 27disciplines while women will be partic-ipating in 17 events”, said a spokesmanof Pakistan Olympic Association hereon Monday.He said the events to be contested areathletics, baseball, bodybuilding, box-ing, football, gymnastics, handball,hockey, ju-jitsu, kabaddi, karate, net-ball, shooting, rowing, rugby, sailing,softball, squash, swimming, table ten-nis, taekwondo, tennis, tug of war, vol-leyball, weightlifting, wrestling andwushu.The women competitions are, athlet-ics, gymnastic ,handball, hockey, ju-jistu, karate, netball, karate, shooting,swimming, squash, table tennis, taek-wondo, and tennis, volleyball andwushu.He said Punjab Olympic Associationbeing the hosts of games is eligible toparticipate in maximum number ofsports/discipline while 300 athleteseach from KPK, Sindh, Balochistanand 100 each from Islamabad andFATA will take part in the country’sbiggest sports event“The participating units of the Gamesare Provincial Olympic Association ofPunjab, KPK, Sind, Baluchistan as wellas Islamabad Olympic Association andFATA alongwith the Services/Depart-mental Organizations of the Pak Army,Pak Navy, Pak Air Force, Pak WAPDA,Railways, Police and HeC,” he added.

Team spirit must come before individuals: Morgan

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:46 AM

Sports16


n. zealand Pmpraises teensensation lydia ko

WELLINGTONAFP

New Zealand Prime Minister John Keyled a chorus of praise for teenage golfsensation Lydia Ko after she became theyoungest winner in the history of theLPGA Tour.The 15-year-old, who said her aim hadbeen to make the cut at the CanadianWomen's Open, finished the 72 holes atthe Vancouver Golf Club course in 13-under-par 275 to beat South Korea'sPark In-Bee by three shots.Ko, born 11 days after Tiger Woods wonhis first Masters in 1997, is 16 monthsyounger than Lexi Thompson, who heldthe previous LPGA age record at 16years, eight months.Prime Minister Key said the South-Ko-rean born Ko's win in a field packed withseasoned professionals was a "fantasticachievement", topping an amazing yearfor the teenager.In January she won the New SouthWales Open at 14 to become theyoungest winner of a professional tourevent and two weeks ago she won the USWomen's Amateur competition.Key, who played with Ko in a pro-amearlier in the year, said he was "im-pressed by her poise, skill and absolutededication to her sport."New Zealand Golf chief executive DeanMurphy rated Ko's win in Canada as oneof the most outstanding performances inNew Zealand sporting history.

GLENEAGLESAFP

european Ryder Cup captain Jose MariaOlazabal on Monday named england'sIan Poulter and Belgian Nicolas Colsaertsas his two 'wildcard' picks for nextmonth's tournament at Medinah, Illinois.

Poulter, 32, will be competing in hisfourth Ryder Cup since making his debutat Oakland Hills in 2004 while the 29-year-old Colsaerts will be the only debu-tant in Olazabal's team.

It is Poulter's second wildcard afterhe received a similar pick in 2008, whileColsaerts is the first Belgian in the 85-year history of the event to compete in theRyder Cup.

"Ian's had a great Ryder Cup record,"said Olazabal. "He was playing well, hehad some issues early in the season.

"He got ill and he couldn't play asmuch as he could, but his attitude and hisspirit in the Ryder Cup team has alwaysbeen great. He's one of those players thatlikes to be in that situation.

"I think he gets the best out of himplaying the Ryder Cup. The two times Ihad the opportunity to share a few mo-ments with him at Valhalla and CelticManor, you didn't need to motivate him."

Olazabal singled out Colsaerts for hisdetermination and effort after the Belgianhad finished two places outside of auto-

matically qualifying for the europeanteam.

But after sharing seventh in thismonth's PGA Tour Wyndham Champi-onship and then making the effort to re-turn to europe for last week's JohnnieWalker Championship, where he shared19th place, Olazabal afforded him a pick.

"Nicolas, obviously he's a rookie. Ifyou look at the team, he's going to be theonly rookie on the team," the Spaniardsaid.

"We do have an experienced team.His match play record is very good. Hefinished runner-up last year at the WorldMatch Play. He won this year at theWorld Match Play.

"He's had a very solid season, and ontop of that, he's made the extra effort try-ing to make the team. He really showedme that he wants to be a part of that team.Those are the reasons for me to pick him."

Olazabal indicated he had alsophoned all those immediately behind Col-saerts on the qualifying table includingthe 19th-placed Padraig Harrington ofIreland. Harrington's non-selection endsa run of six straight Ryder Cup caps forthe triple Major-winning Irishman.

"Well, I talked to Padraig last night,and I was very straight to the point," saidOlazabal. "I know he tried hard. Heplayed well at the Masters; he finishedeighth. He had a good US Open and thenthe following week he had a great IrishOpen. But you know, he was 19th on thelist. He was just a little bit down the list.

"I know he's a great player. I wouldhave loved to have him on the team thesame way I would have loved to have PaulCasey, Robert Karlsson, Henrik Stenson.Those are great players. "But you need tobe playing good, simple as that. I think hetook it well, and that was it." US captainDavis Love will announce his four wild-card picks on September 4 in New York.

hon bemoans'high-techParalympics'

PHNOM PENHAFP

It has the world's highest percentage ofamputees yet Cambodia is sending justone athlete to the Paralympics, an eventcritics say increasingly favours nationsthat can afford the latest high tech gear.Thin Seng Hon, who was born without afully formed right leg, will be Cambo-dia's sole representative in London earlynext month when she competes in the100m and 200m sprints in the below-the-knee amputee category. Her "lucky leg", as she calls the $2,500J-shaped running blade which allowsher to race, helped her to three podiumplaces at a regional athletics meet lastyear. But she doubts it will keep pacewith the higher-tech prosthetics of herrivals in London."I don't expect to win a medal," the 28-year-old said after a morning trainingsession at Phnom Penh's run-downOlympic Stadium, explaining her oppo-nents will likely benefit from "moremodern prosthetics" costing severaltimes that of her own.Living in a poor country already putsher at a disadvantage -- she trains on adirt track and balances running with afull-time job at a souvenir shop whereshe earns $120 a month.But it is her artificial leg, paid for by do-nations from friends, that leaves hertrailing rivals before the competitioneven begins.

KARACHIAFP

pAKISTANI poliosurvivor MudassarBaig dreams of win-ning a medal at theLondon Para-

lympics, hoping to inspire a nationtroubled by corruption, Taliban vi-olence and lost sporting glory.

"It's a dream come true for meand I want to be a role model -- notonly for disabled people in mycountry but also for the able-bod-ied who lose courage," said Baig,whose right leg was left shorterthan his left by polio in childhood.

The 33-year-old post officeclerk who thought life was overwhen he couldn't run as fast as theother boys growing up, is one offour athletes representing Pakistanat the London Paralympics fromAugust 29 to September 9.

He will compete in the 200and 400m, hoping to replicate thesuccess of Pakistan's first para-lympian, long jumper Haidar Ali,who won silver in Beijing in 2008.

"I always wanted to run likethe other boys but my disabilityhindered that. I made a promise tomyself that one day I will run andwin, and that day will come duringthe London Paralympics," he said.

Ali heads the Pakistani contin-gent. Aneela Beg will compete inwomen's 100m and shot-put, and

Mohammad Naeem in the 800and 1,500m.

Baig won silver in the 400m atthe Asian Games in Dohar in2006, but London will be his firstOlympics as a competitor.

He represented Pakistan inBeijing as an official after notbeing selected to compete -- a dis-appointment he doesn't want todiscuss.

Born and brought up in the in-dustrial town of Faisalabad in Pak-istan's political heartland ofPunjab province, Baig struggledfor years after contracting polio.

"I used to feel dejected when-ever I watched boys my age play,run and do the usual things of lifewithout facing any problems."

He declined to be drawn onthe Taliban's recent ban on poliovaccinations in parts of Pakistan'snorthwestern tribal belt, jeopardis-ing the health of 240,000 children.

But bizarrely, he says whatchanged his life was watching anobscure film as a teenager about aman who overcame adversity tohelp his nation win a war.

"It taught me a lesson that Ishould fight and pave a way to be-coming a role model for my coun-try's youth," said Baig.

He finished school and went touniversity, completing a Bachelor'sdegree that enabled him to get ajob as a clerk in the Faisalabad postoffice.

But the track was always hisfirst love. "I trained and trainedhard because I knew that if Iwant to achieve the goal of repre-senting Pakistan and become arole model I have to work hard,"said Baig, who started at club andregional level.

His first international chancecame in the 2006 Asian Games.

"That silver medal made merealise that nothing is impossiblein life," said Baig. "Haider's successin the last Paralympics was a fur-ther motivation and now I want towin my own medal," said Baig.

LONDONAFP

The Paralympic Games begin in London onWednesday, with China tipped to repeat their goldrush of four years ago but hosts Britain aiming topush them hard and give home fans more reasonsto cheer. Just over two weeks after the Olympicsclosing ceremony, organisers have transformedsports venues and accommodation in readiness forthe arrival of some 4,200 athletes with a disabilityand the 11-day finale to a summer of sport.

Queen elizabeth II is due to open the Games

on Wednesday evening, with the Paralympic caul-dron lit using flames kindled on Britain's fourhighest peaks and 24 hours after a torch relaystarting at the spiritual home of the movement.

It was in Stoke Mandeville, southern england,in 1948 that a German Jewish medical doctor or-ganised sports events for World War II veteranswith spinal injuries, 12 years before the first Para-lympic Games in Rome in 1960.

The sporting action begins on Thursday, withshooting at the imposing 18th century Royal Ar-tillery Barracks set to provide the first gold of theGames in the women's 10m standing air rifle.

geTAfe: real madrid's midfielder xabi Alonso fights for the ball with getafe forward Angel lafita

on August 26, 2012 during a Spanish league football match at the Alfonso Perez stadium. AFP

Poulter, Colsaerts named asEurope's Ryder wildcards

Polio athlete who wantsto inspire Pakistan

Paralympics set to open this week

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:46 AM

watch it Live

TEN SPORTS1ST ODI: PAKISTAN VAUSTRALIA07:00PM

Sports 17


officials confidentno Australian open boycott

SYDNEYAFP

Tennis Australia said Monday it wasconfident players would not boycott theAustralian Open over a prize money dis-agreement, but it was taking the threatseriously.The Sunday Times of London reportedplayers on the ATP Tour, which runs themen's game, were considering a boycottof January's tournament in a bid to gaina higher percentage of Grand Slam eventrevenues for themselves.Australian Open director Craig Tileysaid he did not view the reported threatsto the opening Grand Slam of the seasonwith alarm."We are working on a compensationplan for the 2013 event and are keen toensure it addresses a lot of the issuesplayers have been raising with us in ourongoing discussions," he said in a state-ment."Our relationship with the playing groupis very strong and I'm absolutely confi-dent we'll see all the players in Mel-bourne for Australian Open 2013."At issue is the pay of lower-ranked play-ers who often exit in the first round aftermaking the long journey Down Under.While this year they pocketedAus$20,800 ($21,600 US) for a firstround defeat at the Australian Open,some players struggle to make endsmeet during the year, as they pay formuch of their own expenses and travel.

gb competitorshoping for home boost

LONDONAFP

British athletes on Monday said thatthey were hoping for a home boost tospur them to medal success at the Para-lympics, but were tight-lipped as towhether they could rival powerful Chinafor top spot. Many of Britain's non-dis-abled Olympic medallists credited stronghome support for contributing to win-ning places on the podium, includingdistance king Mo Farah, who was roaredto victory in the 5,000m and 10,000mdouble. ParalympicsGB said they ex-pected a similar lift from the crowds,amid expectations that the 11-day com-petition, which starts on Wednesday,will be an unprecedented sell-out."I handle pressure very well. every timeI enter the London Marathon, I'm ex-pected to win," wheelchair racer DavidWeir, who won the T54 800m and1,500m in Beijing, told a news confer-ence. "But Mo Farah's win just inspiredme to train harder and I just want to goout there and race. I'm just looking for-ward to it." Swimmer ellie Simmonds,gold medallist at the S6 100m and 400mfour years ago at the age of just 13,added: "I'm really looking forward tocompeting, having family and friendsthere. I'm very excited."Five-a-side football captain Dave Clarkesaid that he was looking to draw inspira-tion from the "positive energy and antic-ipation" surrounding the Games."It's going to be an amazing environ-ment to play football in," he added.Britain has been set a target of 103medals in London, one more than inBeijing, when they came second in theoverall medal table behind China, whowon 211, including 89 gold.ParalympicsGB's chef de mission CraigHunter said the Games were set to be"the most competitive yet, with Chinaour greatest rival and enormous compe-tition from Ukraine, Brazil, the USA andothers".China -- whose team has been cut dras-tically from Beijing, with about half ofthe line-up debutants -- have been play-ing down their chances this time round.Jia Yong, vice president of the ChinaDisabled Persons' Federation, told AFPthis week that they only expected to bein the top three, amid concern that ath-letes might face a tough time competingaway from home.

warid cricket c’ship2012 concludes

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

Warid Telecom kept the rich tradition oforganizing sports festivals in Ramadanalive by hosting a tape ball cricket tour-nament which proved to a healthy activ-ity as 104 competitive teams from eightcities of the country showed their skillsin batting, bowling and fielding. After a tough competition, eight bestteams emerged as Champions; ‘Shair-e-Punjab’ from Faisalabad , ‘Shakeeleleven’ from Lahore, ‘Boloch eleven’from Multan, ‘Tiger eleven’ from Gu-jranwala, ‘Friends eleven’ from Sukkur,‘Allah Ho eleven’ from Rawalpindi, ‘FaizSports’ from Hyderabad and ‘Dora Roadeleven’ from Peshawar Certificates ofparticipation were awarded to all play-ers The eight winning teams baggedcash prizes of Rs. 35,000 while runner-ups received Rs. 15,000 A overwhelming response was shown bythe general public. Approximately30,000 watched enjoyed the matcheslive and prizes were distributed amongstthe audience through a lucky draw. Such activities hosted by Warid not onlykeep the sports tradition alive in Ra-madan but also offers an opportunity tothe street players to come forward, per-form and showcase their talents.

MADRIDAFP

lA Liga champions RealMadrid crashed to a shock2-1 defeat at derby rivalsGetafe on Sunday to leavethem five points behind

fierce rivals Barcelona after only twogames of the new season.

Madrid's sluggish start has seenthem held 1-1 at home to Valencia inthe league followed by a 3-2 defeat byBarcelona in the Spanish Super Cupfirst leg, before this latest slip-up.

Gonzalo Higuain put Madridahead after 26 minutes but theirweakness in the air returned to hauntthem as Juan Valera headed Getafelevel after 52 minutes.

Madrid pressed forward lookingfor the winner but instead they werecaught out at the back, with AbdelazizBarrada scoring a 74th-minute win-ner.

"It was a deserved win for Getafebut they didn't do anything specialand we were very poor," said RealMadrid coach Jose Mourinho.

"It was an unacceptable perform-ance and I don't feel frustrated aboutthe result because it was totally de-served."

Mourinho's side will now look toget their season back on track in thesecond leg of the Super Cup on Thurs-day against Barca, who beat Real So-ciedad 2-1 earlier on Sunday.

After a scrappy opening at Getafe,Madrid began to assert themselvesand Mesut Ozil was guilty of a glaring

miss in the 15th minute when he hitthe bar with the goal gaping after aneat combination with CristianoRonaldo.

Higuain had been picked ahead ofKarim Benzema and he gave the visi-tors the lead from Angel Di Maria'spass, using his strength to round thegoalkeeper and slot the ball home.

After the break, Getafe came outlooking to attack and got their rewardthanks to poor marking from Madrid,with the unmarked Valera heading infrom a free-kick.

The visitors pushed forward look-ing to regain the lead but insteadGetafe struck again, with Adrian Col-unga going past Raul Albiol and set-ting up Barrada to score.

earlier, Lionel Messi struck a latebrace to give Barcelona a victory over10-man Osasuna that took them to thetop of the table on goal difference overRayo Vallecano.

"This is a difficult stadium to cometo and Osasuna were on top form butwe still had good chances," saidBarcelona coach Tito Vilanova, whowas sent from the dug-out for dissentmidway through the second half.

"I told the linesman that there wasa free-kick and I was told not to com-plain," he explained. "Now we knowwhat to expect from this referee."

Barcelona goalkeeper VictorValdes prevented Osasuna from tak-ing the lead inside the first minute ashe palmed away a close-range effortfrom Alvaro Cejudo, who had easilyskipped past Gerard Pique.

The Catalans began to find open-

ings, with Andres Iniesta firing overand Cristian Tello hitting the postfrom 25 yards, but it was Osasuna whosnatched the lead on the break.

Roland Lamah sent a deep crossfrom the left wing that found JosebaLlorente -- on loan from Real So-ciedad -- and he squeezed the ball inat the far post.

The game seemed to be goingaway from Barcelona but Messipopped up with two goals in the last 15minutes to rescue them, first touchingin an Alexis Sanchez cross and thenfinishing clinically with his left foot tocondemn Osasuna.

Osasuna's Francisco Punal wasred-carded by the referee for protest-ing about the Argentine's first strike,as he felt he was offside.

The late game between Valenciaand Deportivo La Coruna proved to bea thrilling affair, with visitors Deporrallying from 3-1 down at half-time tosecure a 3-3 draw.

Valencia, third last season, went2-0 up inside 28 minutes thanks to abrace from Roberto Soldado and madeit 3-1 shortly before half-time whenSofiane Feghouli replied to AbelAguilar's strike for Depor.

However, Aguilar added a secondfor the away side just before the hourand striker Pizzi made it 3-3 with a76th-minute spot-kick after RicardoCosta had been sent off for concedinga penalty.

elsewhere, a 44th-minuteequaliser from Spain international Al-varo Negredo earned Sevilla a 1-1draw at Granada.

NEW YORKAFP

Three-time US Open champion Kim Cli-jsters is ready to give up the globe-trot-ting tennis star life at the age of 29 inorder to spend more time as a wife andmother.

But first, she's going to give winninga Grand Slam title one last try.

Clijsters was set to begin the finaltournament of her WTA career on Mon-day night at the US Open against Amer-ican Victoria Duval at Arthur AsheStadium, where she captured women'scrowns in 2005, 2009 and 2010.

"I've trained very hard for the pastyear to try and stay in shape. I'm notworried that I'm not physically ready forit," Clijsters said.

"Just like every other Slam, take itone match at a time. I have an opponentfirst round, a girl I don't know and havenever played against. They can be trickyas well. I'm just focused on playing mybest." Clijsters, whose Grand Slam titlehaul also includes last year's AustralianOpen, has a 24-match US Open winstreak. However, she has missed five ofthe past eight Flushing Meadows fort-nights due to injury or retirementbreaks.

The Belgian gave birth to daughterJada, 4, in 2008 and has brought thechild along with her in her global tennistravels. But Clijsters said she knows thetime is right to depart the sport noweven though older players are still win-ning Grand Slams.

"You feel it when it's right," Clijsterssaid. "It's a feeling you need to have in-side if you still want to keep going andyou want more of those adrenalinerushes. I just know for me the time isright." Not even another US Open titlewill keep her from a second and final re-tirement, Clijsters said, a fact that left

men's and women's stars saddened."As a person, which is much more

important than the tennis, she's a lovelyperson," reigning Olympic championAndy Murray said. "I'm sure she will beremembered as one of the best playersover the last 15 or 20 years and also oneof the best people." Reigning US Openmen's champion Novak Djokovic wasalso confident that Clijsters will performwell in her final bow.

"A great, very successful player.She's going to be missed," he said. "She's

very popular around here. Hopefully shecan make a great last US Open."

Women's top seed Victoria Azarenkaexpects to see nothing less than Clijstersat her best.

"To me personally she has been agreat inpsiration," Azarenka said.

"She's a great role model. She's oneof the people you always like to bearound. She's definitely going to be oneeverybody is going to miss. I just wishher the best in her life. We'll definitelysee the best of Kim here."

Goodbye-girl Clijstersready for US open

Champions RealMadrid crash

LHR- 28-08-2012_Layout 1 8/28/2012 4:47 AM

Sports 18


LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

THe Punjab Youth SportsFestival 2012 is gaining mo-mentum with people of dif-ferent walks of life havestarted to take interest in

the sports events that started at Neigh-

borhood and Village level among 55200Sports and Youth Development Councilsin the province of Punjab.

In Lahore’s Shalimar Town UnionCouncil 15, cricket matches were playedbetween Block 16 and 11 which was wonby the later by 15 runs when Block 16was bowled out for 85 runs. In theother match, Block 16 beat Block 12 by

28 runs. The winners piled up 72 runs.In UC 16 of Shalimar Town Block 6’sShah Mir beat Amer of Block 3 in bad-minton with a score of 11-6, 11-7. In bil-liard of the same UC Blk 6 beat 16 by2-0 while in arm wrestling MohammadAmjad beat Shah Mir.

In Gulberg Town UC 76 Moham-mad Shah Rukh and Kaleem beat Mo-hammad Yousuf and Ahmed Ali inbadminton doubles 20-16, 20-17 andlater the same pair beat UMair andUsama in straight games of 20-7, 20-10.

In Lahore alone theevents are scat-tered aroundmore than 50venues and arebeing participatedby around 140 unioncouncils of Sports andYouth DevelopmentCouncils.

The events alsostarted throughout the Punjab provinceand in Faisalabad alone 212 competi-

tions were conducted. In LayalpurTown, eight cricket matches were held,14 competitions of billiard were con-ducted, 24 persons got involved in armwrestling. In Madina Town, 11 cricketmatches were decided and six at IqbalTown, 18 arms wrestling contested

were held, threematches ofcricket were

held at Jin-nah Townand at

Jaranwala Town 35 events of athleticswere decided. Similarly at Sumandari

two cricket matches were played, threearms wrestling games were held at Tan-dlianwala and 15 at Chak Jamro. At thesame place 15 events of athletics wereheld and the same numbers of bad-minton were also decided. Overall,around 221 persons contested in 17 dif-ferent events.

In the other categories of generalpublic, at union council 8 Asad Ullah-pur two naat khani competitions wereheld and the winner was MohammadQamar. Similarly in qirat, Tayyab Raza

was declared the best.Similarly, in UC 36, 37, 46,

47, 48, 57 and 59 competi-tions in cricket athletics, armwrestling were conducted. InJaranwala’s UC 10, 156 com-petitions were held among890 blocks in which around614 players participated.

The first phase of theneighbourhood and villagelevel will conclude on Sep-

tember 6 and will be followed by UnionCouncil level.

Youth Sports Festival gaining momentum

lAhore: The participants of a cricket match of the Punjab youth

festival before the start of their game at gulshan ravi. STAFF PhoTo

LAHORE STAFF REPoRT

Secretary Pakistan Hockey Federation(PHF) Asif Bajwa, on Monday, said In-

dian hockey teamwould tour Pak-

istan next year.The former

Olympian said,just like cricketPakistan also

wants to resumehockey ties with

India.The revival of

P a k - I n d i ab i l a t e r a lh o c k e yseries isin itsp h a s eand at w o -m e m -

ber delegation of Pakistan Hockey Fed-eration will be visiting India from Sep-tember 15 to sort out necessarymodalities to hold the event next year.

“We had very productive meetingswith the officials of Hockey India duringLondon Olympics and we discussed is-sues relating to revival of Pak-India bi-lateral series in length and finalizedmany aspects regarding the event,” saidSecretary PHF, Mohamad Asif Bjawa onMonday.

Bajwa said it is in the larger interestof sub-contingent hockey that Pak-Indiaplay on regular basis and keep improv-ing in the game to lift the level of theirgame.

President PHF Qasim Zia and AsifBajwa will be visiting India for four-dayto finalize the modalities of the series atmeetings with the officials of theHockey India.

“It is our desire that Indian hockeyteam should visit Pakistan first as wehave visited them on many occasions in

the past and we believe the visiting of In-dian team early next year will mark anew era in Pak-India hockey,” he added.

Bajwa described of Pak-India seriesof greater importance to lift the saggingfortunate of the game. “Once this regionwas the power house of the hockey andnow it is struggling (region) at a lowlevel at international ranking and themore these two countries play hockey itwill be better for our hockey.

He also said that a return tour is alsoon the cards and hoped that the PakIndia hockey series will become a regu-lar feature.

Hockey India has invited PakistanHockey Federation (PHF) officials to fi-nalise terms for a regular bilateral seriesbetween the two countries.

“The series may be resumed earlynext year,” said Bajwa, adding thatPHF’s priority would be to host Indianteam first.

The PHF has come under fire afterthe London Olympics, with former

hockey greats gearing up to launch acampaign against it.

Samiullah, Shahnaz Sheikh, QamarZia, Qamar Ibrahim and Salim Sherwanibesides others, want to start a campaigncalling for the removal of PHF officials.

Country’s chef de mission forOlympics has also called for a cut in thefunds allocated to the PHF.

Pakistan-India played their last bi-lateral series way back in 2006 withPakistan winning three matches withtwo ending in draw and India won a lonefixture.

To a question, Secretary PHF, saidduring the meetings the strength of thematches and the final dates will be final-ized after which the tour programmewill be announced.

He said the revival of Pak-India se-ries will not only serve the cause ofhockey in the region but will serve as aneffective medium to bring close the peo-ple of both the countries besides better-ing the mutual relations.

Pakistan-India hockey series revival on cards: Bajwa

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

With Board of Cricket Control ofIndia (BCCI) and Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) agreeing for an ODI se-ries between both the countries laterthis year, former Pakistani greatRameez Raja feels that cricket willbenefit immensely and should makeit a regular affair just like the Ashes.

“We saw it at the 2011 Interna-tional Cricket Council World Cupsemi-final, when even Americannewspapers carried cricket head-

lines on the India-Pakistan match. Ithink we should encourage it. It hasa lot of scope and people want themto play more often, and cricket willbenefit from it. Hopefully, this se-ries should happen. Cricket cansolve problem. The ICC should do itin a proper format and include it intheir annual calendar, like theAshes,” said Raja. Talking in con-text of the Sri Lankan PremierLeague, Rameez added that it hasfired the imagination of cricketfans, young aspirants and puristsalike in the sub-continent.

malafeyev stallsinternational careerfor sake of kids

MOSCOWAFP

Russian goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeyevon Monday announced he was temporar-ily stepping down from international dutyto spend more time with his two children.The Zenit St Petersburg shot-stopper in-formed the Russian Football Union(RFU) deputy president Nikita Simonyanand Russia's national manager FabioCapello, the official RFU site reported."It was a difficult decision to stop my in-ternational career from both a profes-sional and human point of view," theRFU site quoted Malafeyev as saying."But it's the only correct decision for myfamily," added the 33-year-old who israising his children alone after his wifeMarina has died in a car crash in March2011. Malafeyev has played 28 matchesfor Russia after making his internationaldebut in a 1-0 victory in the euro-2004qualifying play-off match against Walesin 2003.

condolence LAHORE

STAFF REPoRT

The Pakistan Veteran Cricket Associa-tion and Sports Journalist AssociationSajjal condoled on the sad demise ofPeer Syed Intazam-ul-Haq F/O Inza-mam-Ul-Haq Former Captain Pak-istani Team, chief executive PVCANawab Ashiq Hussain Qureshi, Chair-man Fawad ejaz Khan, PresidentLRCA Khawaja Nadeem Ahmad, SPMChief Aizad Hussain Syed, UsmanHaq, Col. Rafi Naseem, Javeed ZamanKhan, Nazeer Junior, Intikhab Alam,Saleem Malik, Sarfaraz Ahmad, Presi-dent Sajjal, Syed Ali Hashmi, Secre-tary General Ashir Butt and largenumber of electronic and print media,sports journalist, Secretary GeneralPFF Col. Ahmad Yaar Khan Lodhi, Di-rector Operation PFF, Ving Com-mander Perveiz Saeed Mir, VicePresident PRSB Saeed Iqbal Khan,Secretary General Rana Ibrar Anwar,Sports Officer Rashid Mehmood Butt,Shahid Aslam, Shan Shahid, AmanatChan, Amer Ilyas Butt, Rizwan Nisar,Salman Khan, Imran Bucha, JaveedAshraf, Waleed Yaqoob, Qaisar Wa-heed, Muhammad Kaleem, ejaz Butt,Rab Nawaz, Malik Sarwar Mehmood,Shakeel Malik, Syed Najam-ul-Saeed,Secretary General PSWA Manzoor AliArif, Secretary Abdul Rasheed Khanand large number of sports personsexpressed their grief on this great loss.The all persons prayed to AllahAlmighty, rest for the departed souland courage for the bereaved family.

defending champStosur advances at opennew YoRK: Defending championSamantha Stosur of Australia advancedto the second round of the US Open onMonday with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Croa-tian Petra Martic. Stosur needed only 51minutes to move on and will next face thewinner of a later match between quali-fiers edina Gallovits-Hall of Romaniaand Swiss Stefanie Voegele. AFP

GLASGOWAFP

Hearts captain Marius Zaliukas faces ananxious wait to discover if he will be fitfor Thursday's europa League play-offsecond leg at Liverpool. A longstandingthigh injury caused him to be substitutedat half-time during Sunday's goallessScottish Premier League draw againstAberdeen, placing a question mark overthe Lithuanian defender's participationat Anfield. "He picked up a thigh injuryagainst Inverness Caley and had to takea jag (pain-killing injection) before thematch against Liverpool on Thursdayand again today," said Hearts manager

John McGlynn. "Leading up to half-time,he felt it again so we thought it was bestto take him off. "We will just have to waitand see how he progresses through theweek to see whether or not he will beavailable for Thursday." Hearts almoststole all three points at Pittodrie whenAndrew Driver struck the woodwork instoppage time. McGlynn said: "If we hadscored that one at the end it would havefelt like we had mugged them. It wouldhave been daylight robbery. "We wouldhave taken it but that's how crazy footballis as we had our backs to the wall for longspells and had to defend really well. Ithink it would have been very harsh hadwe walked away with all three points."

rain halts US opennew YoRK: Heavy rain brought playto a halt at the US Open on Monday afterjust 90 minutes of action on the first dayof the final Grand Slam event of the sea-son. Only four women's singles matcheshad been completed with defendingchampion Samantha Stosur safelythrough to the last 64 with a 6-1, 6-1 winover Petra Martic of Croatia. AFP

new york: Samantha Stosur of Australia

celebrates a point during day one of the 2012

US open at USTA billie Jean king national

Tennis center. AFP

Rameez bats for Pak-indiaseries on regular basis

Hearts' Zaliukas doubtful for Liverpool clash

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19

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

g Two nATo troops killedin new insider attack

KANDAHARAFP

TALIBAN insurgents beheaded 17party-goers, 10 Afghan soldierswere killed and two NATOtroops shot dead in a new insiderattack in a bloody day across

Afghanistan, officials said Monday.The Taliban were responsible for be-

heading the civilians, including twowomen, who were holding a party withmusic in a southern Afghanistan village,officials said. “I can confirm that this is thework of the Taliban,” the Helmand provin-cial governor’s spokesman Daud Ahmadi

told AFP. “Two women and 15 men werebeheaded. They were partying with musicin an area under the control of the Tal-iban.” The hardliners were notorious dur-ing their rule for public executions and thesuppression of music and parties.

Nematullah Khan, the Musa Qala dis-trict chief, confirmed that the villagers hadorganised a party with music, and a localofficial said he suspected that the twowomen had been dancing.

Secret parties with dancing womenfrom a gypsy-type tribe are common acrosssouthern Afghanistan.

During their 1996-2001 rule inAfghanistan the Taliban, now waging afierce insurgency against the NATO-backed government of President HamidKarzai, also tried to stop the mixing of menand women who were not related.

The insurgents have in the past beenblamed for beheading local villagers,mostly over charges of spying for Afghanand US-led NATO forces.

Haji Musa Khan, a tribal elder in MusaQala district, said the region had seen asurge in such killings in recent months.“We had three people beheaded during themonth of Ramadan. Another person, theson of a tribal elder, was beheaded re-cently,” he said. Khan said the killings fol-lowed major military operations by Afghanand NATO troops in the area.

Hours after the beheadings, Talibaninsurgents overran an Afghan army post inthe same province in a pre-dawn attack onMonday, killing 10 troops, authorities said.

Four soldiers were wounded and six oth-ers were missing following the attack in Hel-mand’s Washir district, senior regional police

officer Colonel Mohammad Ismael Hotak toldAFP. Helmand spokesman Ahmadi confirmedthe incident and said the attack was an “insiderplot” in which some army soldiers helped therebels attack the post. If it is confirmed that theattack was facilitated by soldiers it will mark anew escalation in a string of insider attacks onAfghan and NATO security forces.

Two NATO soldiers were killed Mon-day when an Afghan army soldier turnedhis weapon against them in a “green-on-blue” attack in eastern Laghman province,the US-led International Security Assis-tance Force (ISAF) said. “ISAF soldiers re-turned fire and killed the attacker,” ISAFsaid. The latest NATO deaths take the tollfrom insider attacks this month alone to 12and to a total of 42 this year, making uparound 13 percent of all NATO deaths in2012. NATO, which has about 130,000

troops in Afghanistan, has struggled tostem the attacks and they have become amajor issue in the Afghan war, erodingtrust between the two forces.

ISAF spokesman Brigadier GeneralGunter Katz told reporters Monday thatthe attacks would not lead to less coopera-tion with Afghan troops as NATO preparesto pull out from the war in 2014.

“Let me clearly say, we are not going toreduce the close relationship with ourAfghan partners. We assess that closer co-operation results in stronger bonds and in-creasing trust and friendship,” he said.

“These incidents will not affect our op-eration. The campaign is on track, we ef-fectively fight the insurgency and mostimportantly we continue to fight alongsideour partners from the Afghan securityforces.”

WASHINGTONSPEciAl coRRESPonDEnT

The US weapons sales to theworld tripled in 2011 to a recordhigh, driven by major arms salesto Persian Gulf allies.

The United States overseasarms sales totaled $66.3 billionlast year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms mar-ket, valued at $85.3 billion in2011. With $4.8 billion in deals,Russia was a distant second, a re-port on the study by The NewYork Times said. The Americanweapons sales total was an “extra-ordinary increase” over the $21.4billion in deals for 2010, the studyfound, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history ofUnited States arms exports.

Previously, the highest levelwas in fiscal year 2009, whenAmerican weapons sales overseastotaled nearly $31 billion. Due toa worldwide economic declinearms sales had declined over re-cent years. But increasing ten-sions with Iran drove a set ofPersian Gulf nations — Saudi Ara-bia, the United Arab emiratesand Oman — to purchase Ameri-can weapons at record levels. TheTimes reported that the AmericanPersian Gulf allies, buyingweapons, are concerned about

Iran’s regional ambitions.These Gulf states do not share

a border with Iran, and their armspurchases focused on expensivewarplanes and complex missiledefense systems, the Times notedin a report on the study. The non-partisan Congressional ResearchService study by Richard F. Grim-mett and Paul K. Kerr, is consid-ered the most detailed collectionof unclassified arms sales dataavailable to the public.

American agreements withSaudi Arabia included the pur-chase of 84 advanced F-15 fight-ers, a variety of ammunition,missiles and logistics support,and upgrades of 70 of the F-15fighters in the current fleet.

Last year’s sales to Saudi Ara-bia also included dozens ofApache and Black Hawk helicop-ters, all contributing to a totalSaudi weapons deal from theUnited States of $33.4 billion, ac-cording to the study. The UnitedArab emirates purchased a Ter-minal High Altitude Area De-fense, an advanced antimissileshield that includes radars and isvalued at $3.49 billion, as well as16 Chinook helicopters for $939million. Another regional countryOman bought 18 F-16 fighters for$1.4 billion.

Consistent with recent trends,

most of the weapons purchases,worth about $71.5 billion, weremade by developing nations, withabout $56.3 billion of that fromthe United States. Among othersignificant weapons deals by theUnited States last year were a$4.1 billion agreement with Indiafor 10 C-17 transport planes andwith Taiwan for Patriot antimis-sile batteries valued at $2 billion— an arms deal that outraged of-ficials in Beijing.

The Times news report said apolicy goal of the United Stateshas been to work with Arab alliesin the Persian Gulf to knit to-gether a regional missile defensesystem to protect cities, oil re-fineries, pipelines and militarybases from an Iranian attack. Theeffort has included deployingradars to increase the range ofearly warning coverage across thePersian Gulf, as well as introduc-ing command, control and com-munications systems that couldexchange that information withnew batteries of missile intercep-tors sold to the individual na-tions.The missile shield in thePersian Gulf is being built on acountry-by-country basis — withthese costly arms sales negotiatedbilaterally between the UnitedStates and individual nations, theTimes reported.

17 beheaded at party in bloody Afghan day

US arms sales rocket to record highs

new provincescommission toelect ‘interimchairman’ today

ISLAMABADTAyyAb HUSSAin

The commission on newprovinces in Punjab would meettoday (Monday) to elect its“interim chairman”, as thePakistan Muslim League-Nawazmembers have planned toboycott the maiden sessionbeing held at Parliament House.The meeting would start at 11amat Constitution Room on thesecond floor, also calledCommittee Room No 5. Amember of the commission toldPakistan Today that PakistanPeople’s Party SenatorFarhatullah Babar may beappointed the commission’schairman. However, since Babarwas hectically involved withPresident Asif Ali Zardari, PPPMNA from Bahawalpur Arif AzizShaikh might be appointed aninterim chairman. Shaikh, whohails from Bahawalpur, haspublicly claimed that he wouldbe appointed the chairman ofthe commission. On the otherhand, former prime ministerYousaf Raza Gilani is makingattempts to get his son Ali MusaGilani elected the chairman ofthe commission. Reflecting thegovernment’s commitment forcreation of new provinces,National Assembly Speaker DrFehmida Mirza had constitutedan incomplete commission onAugust 16 for the creation ofnew provinces in Punjab after atwo-and-a-half-month delay.The speaker, who is in the USthese days for a minor surgery,constituted the commission inpursuance of the messagereceived from the president andauthorization by the NationalAssembly on July 11, 2012. Thepresident had actually sent themessage on May 30. Despite thelong delay, the speaker couldgather names of only 12members of the commission,while two members of thePunjab Assembly are yet to benominated, a notification issuedto this effect by the NationalAssembly Secretariat said. “Twomembers of the ProvincialAssembly of the Punjab wouldbe included as and when theirnominations are received fromthe Punjab Provincial AssemblySpeaker,” the notificationadded. The commissionincludes Farahatullah Babar,Syeda Sughra Imam, HajiMohammad Adeel, Kamil AliAgha, Malik Rafique Rajwana,Maulana Abdul GhafoorHaideri, Arif Aziz Sheikh,Jamshaid Dasti, Syed Ali MusaGilani, Tehmina Daultana, SaudMajeed and Dr Farooq Sattar.

PESHAWARAgEnciES

At least 65 militants, 11tribal militia men and sevensecurity personnel have beenkilled as clashes on the Pak-istan-Afghanistan border inSalarzai Tehsil of BajaurAgency continued for thefourth consecutive day onMonday. The border villagesand security checkposts at-tacked by militants, who of-ficials say are a mixture ofAfghan, Swat and BajaurAgency militant groups, alsoleft 12 volunteers and 10 sol-diers injured. Officialsources said that 15 mili-tants, a peace volunteer anda soldier died on Monday.TTP spokesman ehsanullahehsan claimed that the at-tacks on the border havebeen intensified to avengethe killing of Bajaur TTPchief Mualvi Dadullah andothers. He claimed that theTaliban had taken control ofan area about eight kilome-ters inside Salarzai along thePak-Afghan border and have

reached up to Khat Kalleynear Pashat Bazaar and areconsolidating their posi-tions. Salarzai Assistant Po-litical Agent Jehangir AzamKhan said that more than 65militants had been killedand scores of others injuredin the last four days in Bat-war area and the surround-ing villages. The militantsattacked the bordering vil-lages and the checkpostswith rockets and heavyweapons but the peace com-mittee volunteers and theforces repulsed their attackand had also arrested anumber of them. Roughly hesaid, more than sixty fivemilitants have been killed sofar and there are also lossesof volunteers and securitypersonnel. On the otherhand the TTP spokesmanclaims that they have killedmore than eight soldiers andmany lashkar men. ehsanul-lah ehsan said that oneZarar Tank, two motorcyclesand three vehicles of themilitary had also been seizedand one tank destroyed.

7 troops, 11 militiamen,65 militants killed in Bajaur clashes so far

iSlAMAbAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf

waves to supporters before his hearing at the

Supreme court on Monday. online

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e-paper pakistantoday 27th august, 2012

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