e-paper pakistantoday 31st march, 2012

ISLAMABADMaSood RehMan

The Supreme court on Friday directed the in-telligence Bureau’s (iB) director general to filehis written statement in a sealed envelope onapril 23 mentioning the utilization of rs 270million withdrawn by the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) government from iB’s secret fundallegedly to influence loyalties of the membersof the Punjab assembly in 2009 to topple theprovincial government.

a three-member bench of chief Justiceiftikhar Muhammad chaudhry, Justice Khiljiarif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, washearing a petition filed by air Marshal (r) as-ghar Khan some 16 years ago against the dis-tribution of millions of rupees public money bythe inter-Services intelligence (iSi) among theanti-PPP politicians to manipulate the 1990election. The amount was allegedly disbursedby then army chief general Mirza aslam Baig,

then director general of iSi lt gen asad Dur-rani and defunct Mehran Bank’s chief YounasHabib to disrupt the general elections.

The court directed attorney generalMaulvi anwarul Haq to produce ‘MehranBank inquiry commission report’ on nexthearing, and court asked the counsels forasad Durrani and Younas Habib to submittheir replies by april 23. at the onset ofhearing, when attorney told the court thathe could not get ‘Mehran Bank and HabibBank inquiry commission reports’ fromthe law Ministry, the chief justice doubtedif the report were intentionally being madeunavailable, so as to hide some influentialinvolved in the episode. The chief justiceinsisted the attorney general about iB’sstand over the withdrawal of rs 270 bil-lion from its secret fund to topple the Pun-jab government.

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

Declaring all rental power plants(rPPs) contracts illegal and non-transparent, the Supreme court onFriday directed the national ac-countability Bureau (naB)

chairman to proceed against all the personsinvolved in corruption, including formerminister for water and power raja Pervezashraf, in accordance with the law.The court also directed naB to submit fort-nightly progress reports pertaining to ac-tions against the persons involved incorruption in the case to the registrar Of-fice for the judges’ perusal. a two-memberbench of chief Justice iftikhar Muhammadchaudhry and Justice Khilji arif Hussain an-nounced operative part of the 90- page verdict andheld that rPPs mode of electricity generation proveda total failure and was incapable of filling the electricitydemand and supply gap on a short term basis. The judgmentsaid that during the award of rPPs contracts, PPra rules wereviolated and principle of transparency and open competition was notfollowed. The court ordered that the contracts of rPPs be rescindedforthwith and all the persons responsible for the same were liable to bedealt with for civil and criminal action in accordance with the law.

Lahore edition Saturday, 31 March, 2012 Jamadi-ul-awal 7, 1433Rs15.00 Vol ii no 273 28 pages

PAGE | 04 PAGE | 02

Imran Khan: May find spotin time;s

PAGE |05

Arrested Railways GMholds Bilour responsiblefor all wrongs

Apex court says all RPPs contracts illegal,

non-transparent

Directs NAB to proceed against all

persons involved in corruption,

including former power minister

SC pulls the plugon Raja’s RPPs

Continued on page 04

Continued on page 04

IB chief told to explain‘funds for Punjab coup’g IB chief tells SC release of any amount from secretfund and purpose of its usage was not available in writing

Previous governments responsible for power crisis, says Gilani

PDF E-Paper ISB_Layout 1 3/31/2012 3:32 AM

02 Saturday, 31 March, 2012

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ptI protests against load shedding, inflation nisar doubts govt’s will to implement foreign policy resolution

Arrested Railways GM holds Bilour

responsible for all wrongsLAHORE: railwaysgeneral Manager Saeedakhtar, who has beenremanded into naBcustody for 14 days inconnection withcorruption allegations,has reportedly told theinvestigation team thatall his actions werebased on directives ofthe Minister forrailways, ghulamahmed Bilour.

according to reports, akhtar is accused of corruption of billions of rupeesin Pakistan railways that included malpractices, hundreds of illegalrecruitments, sale of scrap and mismanagement in railways in the lastfour years. naB sources said on Friday that Saeed akhtar has madesensational disclosures, alleging that most of the scrap was sold topersons close to the railways minister. it is worth mentioning that therailways minister got approval from the prime minister for a secondextension in the tenure of Saeed akhtar. The minister has not onlycondemned the arrest of Saeed akhtar but described him as a very honestofficial. earlier, accountability court lahore-iii Judge ali Hassan rizvihanded over akhtar’s custody to naB officials. Staff RepoRt/aGenCIeS

Sporadic fighting in Karachi

claims six livesKARACHI: Sporadic gun fire on Friday claimed six lives including anactivist of awami national Party (anP) and an aSi. according to details,some unidentified motorcyclists, near Baitul Mamur Mosque in Peerabadneigbourhood, sprayed bullets upon Hidayatullah Mehsud, a member ofanP Sindh council and made their escape leaving him dead. Theincident spread violence in the locality forcing the owners to shut theirshops and small businesses. Moreover, indiscriminate firing by unknownmiscreants killed a man near Bilal colony in Korangi. Meanwhile, OrangiTown, Qasba colony and Banaras, including some other areas, remainedin the grip of firing shots which continued from late Thursday. Twoyouths belonging to a political party also sustained injuries in Qasbacolony. The enraged masses also set ablaze a number of motorcycles andbuses in reaction. in the latest development, an assistant Sub inspector(aSi) police was killed in garden area after an exchange of fire withunidentified miscreants. The Police and rangers, in a crackdown,arrested more than a dozen suspected persons. Inp

If we can summon PM, we canalso summon Punjab CM: CJPISLAMABAD: chief Justice iftikhar Muhammad chaudhryexpressed his displeasure over the progress of the Sonia naz rape casesubmitted by the Punjab police and observed that if the Supreme courtcould summon the prime minister, it could also summon the Punjabchief minister. He was heading a three-member bench over a suo motucase of 2005 on Friday. The bench reprimanded the Punjab Policeofficials for changing their stances over whereabouts of the accused(retired and serving officers) involved in the said rape case. nnI

Miscreants blow up school in CharsaddaCHARSADDA: Unidentified men Friday blew up a governmentschool in the ebrahim Zai area of district charsadda. according topolice sources, the miscreants planted explosives in the governmentPrimary School no-2, completely damaging two rooms. onlIne

QUETTA: A boy sits outside a shuttered shop during a

strike called by traders and political parties on Friday to

condemn the killing of seven Shias on Thursday. ONLINE

QUETTAStaff RepoRt

a shutter-down strike was observed in Quettaon Friday against the sectarian killing of sixShias the previous day.

On Thursday, unknown attackers hadopened indiscriminate fire on a van carryingpassengers from the Hazara community inQuetta.

The strike call was given by the HazaraDemocratic Party (HDP), Shia conferenceand backed by Pakhtunkhwa Milli awamiParty (PMaP), Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP)and other nationalist parties to condemn theincident.

Police and Frontier corps (Fc) were de-ployed in sensitive areas.

Trade and business activities in Quettacame to a halt and all shops, trading centers,retailers and commercial establishments onPrince road, Masjid road, liaquat Bazaar,Joint road, Saryab road, alamdar road,Hazara Town, Marriabad, abdul Sattar road,Zarghoon road and others remained closed.

Police rounded up over a dozens of sus-pects during the search operations for inves-tigation.

addressing a news conference at Hazaragraveyard, vice president of the Shia confer-ence said police had rounded up several peo-ple of the Hazara community during apeaceful protest.

The Hazara community staged a protestat the graveyard demanding an immediatearrest of culprits involved in targeted killingsof the Hazara community.

The angry protestors burnt tyres on east-ern Bypass and raised slogans against thegovernment and law enforcement agenciesfor their failure to protect the life and prop-erty of people.

Balochistan has seen wave of sectarianand targeted killings in recent months.

On March 29, at least eight people, awoman and a policeman among them, werekilled and 13 others injured in what appearedto be a sectarian attack on a group of Hazarapeople and in ensuing clashes between policeand protesters.

Strike observedin Quetta againstsectarian killings

Two killed in

Quetta incidentsQUETTA

Staff RepoRt

Two people were killed and four otherswounded including two women when theroof of a house collapsed in Dera MuradJamali, on Friday. according to reports, theincident occurred in goth Bakar when theroof of a house owned by, Piral Solangi,collapsed due to its dilapidated condition.as a result, rahim Bakhsh and afsana werekilled and four others, including SubatKhatoon, Babul and Farzan sustainedinjuries. People from the area retrieved thedead and injured from the debris andmoved them to a nearby hospital.Meanwhile, a main gas supply pipeline wasblown up in Dera Bugti district while anofficial of civil Defense received injuries in ablast in Sibi, on Friday. according toreports, unidentified people attachedexplosives to a 15-inch diameter gas pipelinein Pir Koh area of Dera Bugti district thatwent off with a huge explosion, badlyobliterating the pipeline. as a result, gassupply to a purification plant was lost fromthe damaged pipeline. However, no loss oflife occurred in the blast. in anotherincident, an official of civil Defense, ghulamSarwar, received injuries when explosivesplanted with a power pylon in Sibi exploded.The injured were immediately rushed to thehospital for treatment.

Pakistani amongfour arrestedafter Denmarkheroin find

COPENHAGENafp

Danish police have arrested twoemployees of copenhagen airportafter seizing 20.5 kilograms (45pounds) of heroin, they said in astatement Friday. The drug was foundon Wednesday hidden in a bag thathad arrived from Pakistan.“This is a huge haul with a streetvalue of at least 25 million kroner(3.4 million euros, 4.5 milliondollars), police inspector Knud Hvasssaid in the statement.Four people were arrested in total —two of them 38-year-old airport staffwho were detained on the airportpremises.a third man, also 38, was arrestedat his home and a 44-year-oldPakistani national was arrestedThursday in Spain in cooperationwith Spanish police.The statement said he could beextradited to Denmark.


03Saturday, 31 March, 2012

NewsCoMMenTBefore it’s too late

Articles on Page 12-13

The cooling off has hurt Pakistan more than anyone else.protests, protestsThe PML(N) thinks itself as a government in waiting.

arif nizami says:Resetting of ties: The US does not trust the ISI.

aziz-ud-din ahmad says:Dictating to parliament: The TTP has gone a step further.

Raoof hasan says:Seeking the truth: The memo has become a test case for the judiciary.

foReIGn newS

Story on Page 16

ARTS & enTeRTAInMenTYashji is a sharp person, says Katrina Kaif

Story on Page 15

SPoRTSWhatmore observes young talent in hand

Story on Page 18

annan calls for immediate Syria ceasefire

ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

adull session of the parlia-ment on Friday urgedthe government to linkrestoration of naTOsupplies to afghanistan

to end to US drone attacks insidecountry as the main opposition partyPMl-n largely remained absentfrom the House.

Starting the debate, PMl-Q Sen-ator Mushahid Hussain Syed calledfor making the resumption of naTOsupplies conditional. “Unless thedrone strikes were not stopped,naTO supplies should not be re-stored,” he emphasised as he be-lieved these attacks against thenational sovereignty. Mushahid pro-posed that the country should allowonly those naTO containers which

carry foodstuff or similar things anddisallow the transit of weapons in thenaTO containers from the countryto afghanistan. “The permission toallow weaponry in the naTO sup-plies means that we want to continuethe conflict in afghanistan,” henoted. He commended the recom-mendations of Parliamentary com-mittee on national Security saying ithad come up with the best to rede-fine ties with the US. “This is for thefirst time that the US has taken seri-ously the Pakistani parliament after9/11 incident on its soil as US Presi-dent Barack Obama also suggestedthat they are waiting the decision ofthe Pakistani parliament on naTOsupply,” he said.

Senator Mushahid, however, de-plored the ‘lack of seriousness andhomework’ for the session to debatethe recommendations of the national

security committee. He even regret-ted the role of opposition in the jointsession and felt that opposition ap-peared scared to debate these recom-mendations. “When their memberssigned the report in the committee,why they are running away from theparliament to discuss this issue,”Mushahid said. PPP senator Saeedghani said if the people outside par-liament are calling for stopping thenaTO supplies by force, what theutility of this parliament is. “Whenparliament embarks upon formulat-ing the foreign policy, these elementsget up in arms,” ghani observed andadded these very people had no ob-jection when the dictators took thedecisions on their whims.

PPP Mna akhunzada chattansaid new foreign policy should bejudged in the backdrop of drone at-tacks adding it would be successful if

these drone attack are stopped.He also questioned the silence of

those parties which were in power inKP and Balochistan during Mushar-raf era when naTO supplies beganand added now they were raising hueand cry over it. There were no in-stances of protests, boycotts or walk-outs during the sitting. The Housedeferred the Domestic Violence (Pre-vention and Protection) Bill for thefifth time. Four bills on the Orders ofthe Day were not taken up. it includedthe pro-women Domestic Violence(Prevention and Protection) Bill 2009which was deferred for the fifth time.However, the House passed theModaraba companies and Modaraba(Floatation and control) (amend-ment) Bill 2009 and the Delimitationof constituencies (amendment) Bill2011. The house was adjourned tomeet again on april 05.

MPs link restoring NATO supplieswith end to drone attacks


Hearing a suo motu case involvingproblems faced by the women ofHindu community in obtaining com-puterised national identity cards(cnics), the Supreme court on Fridayordered the national Database andregistration authority (naDra) tosort out permanent solution of theissue, as it was the matter of three mil-lions Pakistani Hindus.

a three-member bench comprisingchief Justice iftikhar Muhammadchaudhry, Justice Khilji arif Hussainand Justice Tariq Parvez was hearing asuo motu case initiated on media re-ports, which highlighted problemsfaced by a Hindu woman, Pram SariMai, a resident of rahimyar Khan. Shefailed to get a passport to visit indiaeven after paying a large amount in fee.

During the hearing, attorneygeneral Maulvi anwarul Haq told

the bench that naDra had issued anew circular about issuance ofcnics to the Hindu female througha simple affidavit.

Upon this, the chief justice ob-served that it was a temporary solution.He said the naDra chairman had legalauthority to amend the law pertainingto the matter. He said governmentshould be consulted, if needed. Thecourt directed naDra to sort out per-manent solution of the issue and sub-mit report on april 23.

On last hearing, the court had ex-pressed reservations over the miseriesof the Hindu community, particularlyverification of their women’s marriagecontract before issuance of cnics tothem. “How can we satisfy three millionPakistani Hindu community, as theyhave equal rights as you have,” the chiefjustice had asked a naDra official. Hehad said that the court was bound toprotect the rights of minorities underarticle 36 of the constitution.


The Parliamentary committee onnational Security (PcnS) on Fridayheld a special sitting to discuss anew recommendation put forth byPMl-Q Senator Mushahid HussainSayed who asked parliament to linkthe resumption of naTO supplyroutes with an end to drone attacksinside Pakistani territory.

Mushahid viewed that droneattacks were an attack on the coun-try’s sovereignty and therefore thenaTO supplies should not be al-lowed to be transported throughPakistani soil to the iSaF and UStroops in afghanistan.

The committee, which had met

here at the Parliament House inview of the consultations held be-tween the government and opposi-tion sides on Thursday night toevolve consensus on the PcnS rec-ommendations, also decided toscrap two of its previously maderecommendations, a source con-fided requesting anonymity.

“The discarded recommenda-tions related to parliament’s priorapproval before any operation to beconducted by any foreign intelli-gence agency operation inside Pak-istani territory. another trashedrecommendation was about seek-ing parliament’s nod before hand-ing over a Pakistani airbase to anyforeign country,” said the source,adding that both recommendations

had no logic or rationale and there-fore the committee decided to dis-card both the recommendations.

The reviewed draft will be pre-sented before the joint session ofparliament on april 5. another ses-sion of the PcnS would be held onSaturday at 10am.

an official statement alsostated that in order to remove thereservation of various political par-ties upon the recommendations ofthe PcnS and to evolve consensuson unanimous recommendationsin the joint sitting, the committeewill hold its informal sittings and anew draft would be finalised. Thenew draft would be having in viewof fresh proposals by oppositionparties. The joint sitting of parlia-

ment would remain adjourned onapril 3 and 4 due to the death an-niversary of Zulfikar ali Bhutto.The joint sitting would meet againon april 5.

JUi-F chief Fazlur rehmantold reporters that all political par-ties were ready to contribute toevolve a consensus on parliamen-tary recommendations on thecountry’s foreign policy. He saidarmy chief general ashfaq Kayanihad assured the political leadershipthat he had not given any assuranceto the US army leadership on re-sumption of naTO supplies. Hesaid drone issue and naTO sup-plies could not be included in long-term policy of the government asthese were not permanent issues.

PCNS discusses new recommendations on US ties

Power shortfall down to

2,800Mw after protestsLAHORE: electricity shortfall has reduced to 2,800MW amiddemonstrations against power outages across Punjab. according to aPePcO spokesman, the total power generation has reached 10,854megawatts however the demand stands at 13, 654 megawatts. Due toimprovement in the oil supply, iPPs are generating 544MW andthermal plants are providing 1,823MW of electricity. However, hydelpower generation has been restrained at 2,392MW due to shortageof water. Moreover, the rental power plants, which were suspendedby the court, could produce only 85MW of the electricity. Theelectricity shortfall has now reduced to 2,800MW from 6,000MW.The PePcO spokesman claimed that unannounced load sheddinghad been ended and now it was being made according to theschedule of the distribution companies. nnI

SC orders NADRA todevise strategy for CNICs to Hindu women

Un limits activitiesin Balochistan

ISLAMABADonlIne

The United nations (Un) and otherinternational organisations haverestricted their activities inBalochistan a day after gunmen shotdead two local employees of a Unagency, Un sources have said. Policesaid unidentified gunmen attacked avehicle of the Food and agricultureOrganisation (FaO) in Mastung townand killed two of its employees onThursday. Those killed included anFaO officer Muhammad Yousaf andhis driver abdullah. anotheremployee of the Un agency,irfanullah, sustained serious injuriesin the attack, police said. The Un andother international organisationsadvised their employees to restricttheir activities in Quetta, and othermajor cities. The aid agencies,whoever, said they would not haltoperations in Balochistan. no groupclaimed responsibility. But theauthorities suspect militants arebehind the attack.



News

ISLAMABADapp

PriMe MinisterYousaf raza gi-lani on Fridaysaid the countrywas facing the

problem of load sheddingowing to the wrong policiesof the previous govern-ments.

To questions of the peo-ple in his monthly TV pro-gramme, Prime MinisterOnline, broadcast on Pak-istan Television and channelFive, the prime minister saidenergy crisis was not a newissue. He said an importantenergy conference was beingheld on april 9, which wouldbe attended by representa-tives from all the provincesto discuss and find solutionto the energy crisis.

referring to the inde-

pendent power producers(iPPs) initiated by BenazirBhutto in 1994 during herfirst term, gilani said shewas criticised for this initia-tive. He said said many cor-ruption cases had beenmade against her, causinginvestors in the iPP projectto run away from Pakistan.“This situation created theenergy crisis in the country.”

“We have added3400MW to the nationalsystem with the help of shortterm projects and added thatmore electricity will beadded by end of the yearwhen many mid term proj-ects will be completed.”

He said many otherprojects like Bhasha Dam,raising of Mangla Dam andother hydel projects areunder construction to im-prove electricity and reduceload shedding. gilani said, “i

am from Punjab, and cannotdiscriminate against otherprovinces on the issue ofload shedding.”

The prime minister saidthe provinces had been per-mitted to generate electric-ity, therefore, all provinceswere equally responsible forenergy crisis. He said thegovernment was also mak-ing efforts to get energyfrom iran, adding that hehad informally talked to in-dian Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh about getting500 to 1000MW of electric-ity from india.

He said the committeeformed by him on energywould meet daily to lookinto the current condition ofload shedding.

“gas shortage is also aproblem directly affectingthe shortage of electricity, asmany power projects use gas

and even provision of gas forfertilizers also create short-age for power projects,” headded.

He said the governmentis also making efforts to im-port lng from differentcountries to meet the de-mand in energy sector.

To a question about en-ergy losses, the prime minis-ter said PePcO and theMinistry of Water and Powerhad been restructuredpurely on professional basisand all areas had been madeindependent and it wouldimprove the situation andreduce corruption and linelosses. The prime ministersaid he had ordered thatthere would be no new tax inthe next budget and reliefwould be given to the peo-ple. about change in federalcabinet, the prime ministersaid it was a routine matter

and it should not be a con-cern for any one. “all themembers of cabinet areelected representatives andthey are politicians.”

He said politicians wereelected and deserved to beincluded in the federal cabi-net as they had experience.

about allegations of cor-ruption against his sons, gi-lani said these were wrongallegations, adding that eventhe Supreme court hadstated that his son was notinvolved in the Haj corrup-tion case, but still the presswas projecting the issue.

The prime minister saidelections for local govern-ments were not held, be-cause of which there were nolocal elected officials to con-trol prices.

“Price control is aprovincial subject andshould be dealt at the local

and provincial levels,” hesaid, adding the provincialgovernments should takenotice of the problem ofadulteration in edible items.

To a question about thesituation in Karachi, he said,“Karachi is a mini Pakistanwith a large population anddifferent dynamics,” addingthat it was the responsibilityof the state to protect lifeand property of citizens butlaw and order in Karachiwas a complex issue.

“The provincial govern-ment should fulfill its obliga-tion and perform theprimary duty to maintainlaw and order,” he said.

gilani said despite thefact that all three main par-ties in Sindh were in thecoalition government it wasnot a guarantee that law andorder was under control allthe time.

Previous govts responsible for

power crisis, says Gilani

The court had reserved itsjudgment on December, 14,2011 on the petitions of fed-eral minister for housingMakhdoom Syed FaisalSaleh Hayat and PMl-nleader Khawaja asif in therPP case. During adjudica-tion of the case, in pursuanceof the court orders from timeto time, a sum of rs 8.689billion was paid back to thegovernment by differentrPPs. This amount was paidto them as mobilisation ad-vance, however, proceedingfor recovery of interestamounting to rs 445.496million from two rPPsYoung gen and reshmawere still pending.

While issuing directivesto the naB chairman, the cJsaid all government func-tionaries, including the min-isters for water and powerholding charge in 2006 andonward and from 2008 toonward, during whosetenure the rPPs were ap-proved and the finance sec-retary holding the chargewhen mobilization advance

rate was increased from 7 to14 percent, were liable to bedealt with under the naBOrdinance, 1999, by thenaB.

“all functionaries ofPePcO, gencOs, PPiB andnePra along with sponsors(successful bidders) who hadderived financial benefitsfrom the rPPs contracts are,prima facie, involved in cor-ruption and corrupt prac-tices, therefore, they are alsoliable for the civil and crimi-nal action,” said the cJ in hisdirections to the naB chair-man.The chief justice said inthe judgment that BhikkirPP was paid rs 8,698 mil-lion against 811.605MW ofelectricity, whereasSharaqpur rPP was paid rs13,941.82 million against1520.420MW of electricity.

He added that as regardsthe rPPs set up since 2008,out of nine rPPs to whomadvance payment were made, six, including Techno Sahi-wal, guddu, reshma, Younggen, naudero-ii and TechnoSamundari had returned theadvance payments in pur-

suance of court orders. How-ever, mobilization advancepayment made to Karkey,gulf and naudero-i had notbeen returned so far.

it was categorically saidin the judgment, “Despitedown payment of billions ofrupees to the rPPs, Karkey isgenerating 48.33MW againsta capacity of 231MW andnaudero-i is generating9.16MW against a capacity of51MW; whereas, gulf is gen-erating 50.08MW against acapacity of 62 MW.”

it added that PakistanPower resources (Pirang-haib, Multan) did not gener-ate electricity at all, althoughdown payment of $14.58million was made to it, whichhad not been returned.

The judgment added,“Though rPP reshma hasreturned the down payment,yet it is still functioning andgenerating 15MW onlyagainst capacity of 201.3MW”.

The verdict disclosedthat per unit cost of electric-ity produced by the rPPswas on a very high side, as

Karkey was ranging from rs35 to rs 50, gulf rs 18 to rs19, naudero-i rs 12 to rs 19,adding that such rates were ablunt violation of ecc deci-sion of September 10, 2008which emphasized on mak-ing efforts for lower tariffthrough rPPs than iPPs onthe similar technology forthe first ten years.

“all the rPPs are collec-tively generating just120MW of electricity, addinghuge amount has been paidto Karkey, gulf and naud-ero-i and if they are allowedto continue for the left overterm, further huge amountswould be paid to them at ex-pense of the public excheq-uer with no correspondingbenefit to the consumers,”the judgment said.

it said, “Prior to the in-troduction of rPPs, the sys-tem of generation ofelectricity under the controland management of Ministryof Water & Power, WaPDa,PePcO, gencOs, etc., hadsufficient potential to pro-duce more electricity, but in-stead of taking curative stepsfor its improvement, includ-ing clearance of circular debtof the iPPs or resorting toother means of generation of

electricity, billions of rupeeswere spent on Bhikki andSharqpur rPPs, whichproved a complete failure be-cause the object could not beachieved as the shortage ofelectricity persistently con-tinued, and yet more rPPswere installed,” the verdictsaid. The court ruled that thefederal government,WaPDa, PePcO anDgencO had failed to controlpilferage of electricity fromthe system because of badgovernance and failure of therelevant authorities to en-force the writ of the govern-ment.

“Therefore, the govern-ment is required to improvethe existing system of gener-ation and transmission ofelectricity, by taking all nec-essary steps, including clear-ing of circular debt, et., sothat electricity can be gener-ated to the maximum capac-ity,” the verdict said.

later in the day, Minis-ter for Water and PowerSyed naveed Qamar saidthat the national Transmis-sion Despatch company(nTDc) would release no-tices of termination of con-tracts to all rPPs in line withthe Sc order.

SC pulls plug

India should

scrap ‘excessive’

security law in

Kashmir: Un

NEW DELHIReuteRS

india should scrap acontroversial law which givessecurity forces battlingmilitancy in the troubledregions of Kashmir and thenortheast sweeping powers tosearch, arrest or shoot people,the United nations said onFriday. Human rights groupssay the armed Forces SpecialPowers act (aFSPa) is adraconian law which themilitary arbitrarily uses toviolate civilians’ rights. indianauthorities and the army denythose charges, and say thelegislation is essential to rootout insurgents. Kashmir, thecountry’s only majority-Muslim region, has been thetrigger for two out of threewars between india and itsneighbour Pakistan. after a 12-day visit to india, the U.n.’sSpecial rapporteur onextrajudicial, summary orarbitrary executions, christofHeyns, urged new Delhi torepeal the law, saying it was “asymbol of excessive statepower” that “clearly violatesinternational law.” “a law suchas aFSPa has no role to play ina democracy and should bescrapped,” Heyns told reporters.a defense ministry spokesmandeclined on Friday to commenton Heyns’ remarks. Heyns, whowill submit a report of hisfindings to the U.n. Humanrights council next year, said heheard numerous testimoniesfrom families of victims whohad reportedly been killed inarbitrary executions carried outby security forces. among otherpowers, the aFSPa allowssecurity forces to fire upon, oruse force against, an assembly offive or more people, or anyonein possession of a deadlyweapon. it gives legal immunityto the officials, so they can beneither sued nor prosecuted. in2010, over 100 people werekilled by government forces inprotests against the aFSPa inKashmir. local authorities insome areas have said they willstop using the law, but this hasbeen blocked by the indianarmy.

IB chiefDuring the hearing, a reporterof a local english daily and theeditor of the newspaper, whichpublished the news about thewithdrawal of rs 270 millionfrom iB’s secret fund, also ap-peared on notice and informedthe court that they stood by thenews. The reporter told thecourt that after publication ofthe news item, the interior Min-istry issued an explanation say-ing that the iB did not fall underits’ ambit. However, he said theministry did not contradict therelease and utilization of thefund. The chief justice notedthat 16 days had passed afterpublication of the news item,however, the iB did not contra-dict it, which he said prima facieindicated correctness of thenews item. Meanwhile, thecourt asked the attorney generalto call the iB chief to appear be-fore the bench within half-an-hour and explain aboututilization of rs 270 million.The chief justice said that ac-cording to law, the iB chief was

bound to assist the court. ap-pearing on notice, iB chief aftabSultan told the court that he hadchecked the record, howeverwithdrawal of the amount couldnot be confirmed. He said re-lease of any amount from thesecret fund and purpose of itsusage was not available in writ-ing. The chief justice inquiredfrom the iB chief about Tariqlodhi, saying that the reporterhad claimed lodhi was his newssource. aftab Sultan thenreplied that lodhi was in lon-don nowadays. The iB chiefstated that although no writtenrecord was maintained aboutthe usage of secret funds, auditreport about the release of rs270 million fund was madeavailable to the Pac. The chiefjustice then directed him to pro-vide such information to thecourt as well. To a court query,aftab Sultan said such amountswere not provided throughbanks, cheques or drafts. Hesaid such amounts were givenin cash. To another query, he re-quested the court to grant himsome time to inform it in-cam-era about all the informationabout the said amount.

Continued fRoM page 1

Balochistan Assembly adopts

resolution asking govt to ratio-

nalise PIA fares for QuettaQUETTA: The Balochistan assembly adopted a resolutionon Friday with consensus calling upon the federalgovernment to rationalise Pia fares for Quetta as it hasdone for other sectors of the country, besides announcingnight couch package for Quetta. The assembly session washeld with Balochistan assembly Speaker aslam Bhootani inthe chair. The speaker said Pia officials had briefed himwhen the issue was raised in the House. He said there weresome technicalities and the members should first meet Piaofficials to understand things and then approach the primeminister. The resolution was jointly moved by provincialminister engineer izmarak Khan of the anP, Mohammadismail gujjar of the PPP and rahila Durrani of PMl-Q andPMl-Q leader Shiekh Jaffar Khan Mondokhail. Theassembly members expression their disappointment aboutthe implementation of the resolutions of the Balochistanassembly and said the federal government and itsdepartments did not pay any attention to the problems ofthe people of Balochistan. Shahzada zulfIqaR

ISLAMABADonlIne

The World Bank (WB) hasclosed three projects worth$650 million for Pakistan dueto slow progress on the proj-ects, sources said on Friday.

However, economics af-fairs Division (eaD) SecretaryWaqar Masood Khan said WBhad not abolished the projectsand had closed down only twoprojects, one of energy sectorproject (Balochistan) due to lawand order and other was inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa whichwas abolished by the WB due toslow moving work on the proj-ect. However, the eaD secre-tary refused to tell the namesand cost of the projects whichhad been abolished by the bank.according to the sources, theWorld Bank took the decision of

abolishing the projects after re-viewing the progress on theprojects and found them slowso it brought to an end $300million programme of PrSPand $50 million aJK commu-nity Development programme.The asian Development Bank(aDB) is also likely to delay thedisbursement of $1.1 billion asfour projects of national Highauthority (nHa) have beenfound moving slowly or facingdelay. The aDB committed$1.6 billion for projects of thenHa and these projects aresupposed to be completedwithin the agreed period till2015. The initial review of theimplementation of these proj-ects has revealed that the proj-ects have been found to moveslowly and are likely to causefurther delay in the disburse-ment of the releases from aDB.

Slow progress causes

WB to close 3 projects

worth $650m in Pakistan

Continued fRoM page 1



News

KaRaChI: female family members of people arrested during a Rangers’ search operation in Kasba Colony, Kati pahari area, weep during a protest rally on friday. ONLINE

ISLAMABADaGenCIeS

PaKiSTan Muslim league-nawaz (PMl-n) chiefnawaz Sharif on Friday saidhis party would never backany decision that might fuel

public’s anger.addressing a consultation meeting

with the party’s high-ups at PunjabHouse, nawaz said the nation had notyet forgotten the incidents like missilestrikes and the US attack on Salalacheckpost.

Several leaders, including raja Za-farul Haq, chaudhry nisar ali Khan,ishaq Dar, Zafar iqbal Jhagra, Mehtababbasi, Khwaja asif and Mushahidullahattended the meeting.

The PMl-n chief noted that his

party was not in favour of doing politicsover issues regarding restoration of thenaTO supplies. However, he added thatthe sentiments of the country’s peoplecould not be overlooked either.

earlier, United States ambassadorcameron Munter and British Highcommissioner adam Thomson sepa-rately called on nawaz in islamabad.

according to sources, the US am-bassador and UK high commissionerdiscussed with nawaz the naTO supplyissue.

Matters including Pak-US relations,naTO supply and recommendations ofthe Parliamentary committee on Secu-rity were discussed during the meeting.

The sources further said that nawazinformed the envoys about the nationalstance on Pakistan’s sovereignty and se-curity.

PML-N will not go against

public sentiment: Nawaz Sharif

WASHINGTONInp

The Obama administration is talkingwith the Pakistanis about possiblechanges in the way the US conducts airstrikes against terrorists in Pakistan,including providing Pakistan advancenotice of attacks, modifying the targetsand changing how targets are deter-mined, according to a senior US officialwho is involved in intelligence matters.

The official, who would not speakfor attribution because of the sensitiv-ity of the issues, said the White Houseis making a serious mistake by puttingthe options on the table for the Pakista-nis to seize.

“The big mistake was the adminis-tration - i did try to warn them - thatonce you put it on the table, it will onlyget worse,” the official said. “Sureenough, once they put it on the table,(Pakistan) grabbed it, and they’ve runwith it and now it’s the centerpiece oftheir negotiations.”

The offer to put the issue on thetable reportedly was made earlier thisyear by cia Director David Petraeus ina meeting with the head of Pakistani in-

telligence, lt gen ahmed Shuja Pasha.“The director and i have had seri-

ous go-rounds about this particularissue before he did it, and he did it any-way. and now i think we’re paying theprice,” the senior US official said.

another US official who is not au-thorized to speak on the record deniedany concessions were made.

“no such concessions were offeredto Pasha,” said the official, who wouldnot answer questions about whetherchanges in the drone program havebeen discussed.

Deputy national Security adviserBen rhodes told reporters earlier thisweek that he would not discuss thespecifics of US-Pakistan counterterror-ism programs, but said the story “didnot represent the ongoing nature of thedialogue we have with the Pakistanis.”

The missile strikes by cia-operatedunmanned aircraft has irked Pakistaniofficials who publicly say the country’ssovereignty is being violated and thereare too many civilian casualties associ-ated with the attacks. The US rejectsthe accusations.

“if the main concern is sovereignty,the Pakistanis might want to deal with

the al Qaeda foreigners who are livingwithin their borders and planning at-tacks on Pakistan, their neighbors andthe West,” said the second US official.

The potential modifications in thedrone program might not be as bad forthe United States as some might sug-gest. although a former senior US in-telligence official who is not privy tothe specifics of the discussions is a bitnervous about what is being reportedin the media, he suggests there’s a lotwe don’t know, cnn in a report on Fri-day said.

“i was struck by the language whichsaid inform rather than approve. Thereis a very large difference,” the formerofficial said. “and then the question iswhen you say inform, is it simultane-ously? an hour before? a day before?”

in addition, the former officialraised the question about whetherthere would be an understanding withthe Pakistanis that the United Statesstill could act unilaterally if need be.

That question appeared to be an-swered by a senior Defense Depart-ment official during congressionaltestimony this week.

Michael Sheehan, the assistant sec-

retary for special operations, did notaddress the drone question specifically,but said the United States and Pakistanwould try to work as best they can toresolve their differences. But he addedthat ultimately, “the president is goingto do what he has to do unilaterally.and he will always protect that prerog-ative, to protect the security of theamerican people and our interest.”

as the senior U.S. official put it,“We have good day, bad days and terri-ble days. This is the way we have a re-lationship with Pakistan. andsometimes that can all happen in thesame day.”

The bumpy road ahead was also re-flected by Senate intelligence commit-tee chairman

Dianne Feinstein who told cnn shehas no confidence that the relationshipwith Pakistan will smooth out any timesoon. The california Democrat will joinher committee vice chairman and theranking members of the House intelli-gence committee on an upcoming visitto Pakistan to demonstrate the impor-tance of the nations’ relationship andto re-enforce their shared national se-curity objectives.

US discussing drones strategy with Pakistan: official over 100,000 havefled northwestPakistan fighting:UnHCR

GENEVAafp

Over 100,000 people have fled fightingbetween government troops and Taliban or alQaeda-linked militants in northwest Pakistansince January 20, the Un refugee agency saidFriday. “an estimated 101,160 people, mostlywomen and children, have become displacedsince January 20 when government troopsbegan security operations against militantgroups in the Khyber” tribal district, said theUnHcr in a statement. The agency warnedthat a recent increase in the intensity ofcombat was pushing even larger numbers offamilies to flee the region to Jalozai camp,located close to Peshawar. an average of2,000 families have been arriving daily at thecamp since March 17, said the UnHcr. “newarrivals say that they have left their homesbecause of the proximity of fighting and dueto instructions by the authorities to evacuatethe area,” it added.

Imran Khan mayfind spot in TIMe’s‘world’s 100 mostinfluential people’

ISLAMABADnnI

imran Khan, chairman of the PakistanTehreek-e-insaaf, is likely to be selectedamong the 100 most influential figures ofthe world as he has secured eighth positionso far in the Time magazine polling. He leftgen ashfaq Kayani, chief of army Staff,Barack Obama and Bollywood celebritySalman Khan far behind in the index basedon online polling. Khan bagged 8,695 votesin his favour, which was more than 85percent compared with votes (1,146) castagainst him. gen Kayani secured 863 votesin favour and 1,028 votes against him.Obama was cast 6,487 votes in favour and3,808 votes were against him. Salman got2,370 votes in his favour and 546 votesagainst him. imran is one of the twoPakistani and eight Muslims selected in theindex. He has been most popularpersonality among all.

Two women fall

victim to karo kariLARKANA

Inp

Two women were killed after being declaredkaro kari in ratodero city on Friday.according to details, an 18-year old nadiaJalbani was killed by his relative in the nameof honour in Bappar Muhalla of ratoderocity, while another woman identified asShehnaz Jalbani was also found dead in herhouse in Bhutta Wandh ratodero city. Thesources said the woman was killed by herhusband Madad ali Jalbani on suspicion ofhaving involved in an illicit relationship witha man. The police shifted body of deceasedShehnaz to hospital for postmortem andlater handed over to heirs. ISlaMaBad: nawaz Sharif in a meeting with British high Commissioner adam thomson. ONLINE



News


ex P r e S S i n g apprehen-sions over some clauses ofthe proposed resolutionon foreign policy, leaderof the Opposition in the

national assembly nisar ali Khan onFriday said even if their reservationswere removed, the government couldnot implement the unanimous resolu-tion in its true letter and spirit.

addressing a news conference atthe Punjab House, nisar, flanked byother PMl-n leaders including Sena-tor Mushahidullah and iqbal ZafarJhagra, said if their party accepted theresolution, the government will openthe naTO supplies. “But there are nosigns that the government will actupon the resolution as in past itpassed the same resolution for four

times but had not acted upon them,”he said, adding, “We agree with theresolution wholeheartedly but we areonly concerned about its implementa-tion.”

Talking about the clauses overwhich their party had reservation, hesaid his party objected to the clauseregarding the presence of a foreignbase in the country, along with someother clauses, adding that they werenot ready to compromise on the sover-eignty of the country at any cost. He,however, added that all the partici-pants of the meeting including thegovernment representatives and mili-tary establishment praised the PMl-n’s move of objecting the clauseswhich could harm the sovereignty ofthe country.

The opposition leader said he wasfighting the war of Pakistan not PMl-n’s and would continue to create hur-

dles in the way of everything whichwould be against Pakistan.

referring to some media reports,the PMl-n leader said he and hisparty was not creating any hurdle inway of resolution as most of its clauseswere in favor of the country but theonly thing which we could not allowwas compromise on national securityand sovereignty.

nisar said they were in favour ofthe clauses that no drone attackswould take place in the country, it willbe no free move of foreign military of-ficials in the country and the peoplebehind Salala attacks would be dealtaccording to the law.

He said during the meeting of po-litical and military leadership held theother day, he had also raised the issueof afia Siddique and this time the gov-ernment’s stance on their issue hadcompletely totally changed.

Nisar doubts govt’s will to implementforeign policy resolution

ISLAMABADafp

Osama bin laden fathered four chil-dren as he hid out in Pakistan afterthe 9/11 attacks, his youngest wifetold interrogators, according to a po-lice report seen by aFP on Friday.

amal abdulfattah’s account pro-vides rare details of the al-Qaedaleader’s life from when he fledafghanistan in late 2001 until hisdeath aged 54 last May during a USnavy Seal operation in abbottabad,in Pakistan.

abdulfattah, from Yemen, was ar-rested by Pakistani authorities fol-lowing the US raid on bin laden’scompound near islamabad, alongwith two of his Saudi wives, and herfive children.

The three detained widows facecharges of illegally entering and re-siding in Pakistan. abdulfattah, 30,was shot while trying to protect herhusband, according to the US.

The police report, dated January19, said abdulfattah was born into afamily of 17 children and married binladen because “she had a desire to

marry a Mujahedeen”, using the termfor “holy warrior”.

The report, from the office of theinspector general of police in islam-abad, recommended abdulfattah andher children be immediately de-ported.

after arriving in Pakistan in July

2000 on a three-month visa, in thecompany of her sister and brother-in-law, abdulfattah travelled to Kanda-har, in neighbouring afghanistan, atthe time capital of the Talibanregime.

The date of her marriage to binladen was not specified, but the po-

lice report said afterwards she movedin with him and his other two wives.

“She further revealed that afterthe incident of 9/11, they all scatteredand she came to Karachi with one ofher daughter’s, Safia,” the reportsaid. Safia, her first child by the al-Qaeda kingpin, was born in Kandaharin 2001.

She stayed in Karachi for eight tonine months, moving between homesarranged for them by Pakistani fami-lies and bin laden’s oldest son Saad.

abdulfattah then met back withthe fleeing bin laden in Peshawar, innorthwest Pakistan. The report sug-gests that the pair did not part fromthat moment until the raid in abbot-tabad.

They stayed for eight or ninemonths in Swat, then for two years inHaripur, 90 minutes from islamabad,before moving to the garrison town ofabbottabad in 2005. During thistime, abdulfattah had four other chil-dren by bin laden, by then the most-wanted man in the world.

in Haripur, aasia, a girl, was bornin 2003 and ibrahim, a boy, was bornthe next year.

On both occasions abdulfattahgave birth in a public hospital, the po-lice report said.

The other two children, Zainab, agirl, and Hussain, a boy, were born inabbottabad in 2006 and 2008.

according to the report, the fam-ily movements while they were on therun were organised by “ibrahim andabrar”, two Pakistanis given respon-sibility for the task by members of al-Qaeda.

Both the men were killed by theamericans during the raid on abbot-tabad and had been living in the samecompound, along with ibrahim’s wife,Bushra, and bin laden’s son, Khalid.

The continued detention of binladen’s wives has led to accusationsthat Pakistan is attempting to muzzlethem to stop them from providing de-tails that could embarrass islamabador add to suspicions it knew wherebin laden was.

Pakistan was humiliated by thecovert american operation thatkilled the al-Qaeda leader in theearly hours of May 2, practically onthe doorstep of the country’s elitemilitary academy.

Bin Laden fathered four children while on run: wife

no fresh polio casereported in Pakistansince January

PESHAWAR Staff RepoRt

not a single fresh polio occurrence casehas been reported in Pakistan sinceJanuary this year which, despite manydifficulties, is a significant achievement. all the 15 polio cases came to limelightover the period are, in fact, back logs andvigorous efforts are under way to vaccinateeach and every child during the ensuingpolio vaccination campaigns.This was told to Khyber Pakhtunkhwagovernor Barrister Masood Kausar whilehe was presiding over the third meeting ofthe Special Joint Task Force for FaTa andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa on Polio eradicationat governor’s House on Friday whichbeside others was also attended by Mnaazra Fazal Pechuho, who is member of thetask force and also the sister of Presidentasif ali Zardari. The meeting was attended by provincialchief Secretary ghulam Dastagir akhtar,administrative secretaries and heads ofconcerned departments, commissioners,political agents of tribal agencies, districtcoordination officers, representatives ofWorld Health Organisation, UniceF,Malinda and Bill gates Foundation andother organisations engaged in thestruggle to get the world free from thepolio threat.Both governor Kausar and Mna azraFazal Pechuho while noting theachievements with appreciation of furtherobserved that though substantial steps areunderway in getting rid of polio diseaseyet, there is a need not only to reach toeach and every child of the province andFaTa. The polio eradication campaign, it wasobserved, is a continuous process and tomake it fully result oriented, not only thezero level tolerance towards any shortcoming has to be maintained but there isalso need to maintain quality in all respect.Besides ensuring efficient working of poliovaccination teams, it was further stressedthat regular review especially effective roleof accountability teams have also to bemaintained up to the mark. Meanwhile, the meeting was informed thatdouble gadget of cooling system ismanaged to maintain quality of vaccines.The practice of providing vaccinationfacility at the transit routes has beencontinued and in Peshawar alone morethan thirty thousands internally dislocatedchildren were given polio drops. On apoint, it was further told that hundredpercent achievements have been targetedtill end of June this year in all respects andit is determined not to spare any effort tomake this possible. it was further told thatten days ahead of every polio vaccinationcampaign, formal coordination meetingsare held right at the district and unioncouncil level wherein all concerned are up-dated and the issues thrashed out.

hYdeRaBad: policemen load Sheesha in their van after a raid on a restaurant providing the banned item to customers on friday. ONLINE


Saturday, 31 March, 2012

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

PaKiSTan Tehrik-e-insaf(PTi) President MukhdomJavaid Hashmi said hisparty should be allowed toannounce the interim

budget of the country as that was theonly solution to the country issues.

He said if the PTi was allowed tomake the announcement; it will elimi-nate load-shedding, poverty and infla-tion from the country and will exposeall those who have looted Pakistan’s re-sources.

The PTi president was addressing arally held in front of the Wapda House.

a large number of citizens, civil so-ciety members, students and insaf Stu-dents Federation (iSF) activistsparticipated in the rally held againstload-shedding and inflation.

The rally started from the Mozangchowk and reached the Mall road whilethe participants chanted slogansagainst President asif ali Zardari andPakistan Muslim leage-nawaz Presi-dent Mian nawaz Sharif and demandedthat PTi chairman imran Khan beelected as prime minister.

iSF President Farukh Habib leadedthe student community on the occasion.

Former foreign minister MianKhurshid Mahmoood Kasuri, PTi la-hore President Mian Mahmood-ur-rashid, iSF Punjab President FarukhHabid and information coordinator

ishtiaq Malik were also present duringthe rally.

Hashmi said as a result of the gov-ernment’s policies, Pakistan was forcedto beg india for electricity.

He stated that the PTi will fulfill allthe demands of the masses.

He added that imran Khan hadgiven hope to the country’s people andthat the PTi wanted to put Pakistan onthe path of progress.

Former foreign minister KhurshidMahmood Kasuri also spoke on the oc-casion.

a scuffle also ensued between thePTi and PMl-n activists as both theparties were raising slogans against theother’s leaders.

Traffic on the Mall road also re-mained disrupted due to the rally.

it is important to mention here that

the lahore High court had banned po-litical parties from holding rallies at theMall road after traders protestedagainst the disruption these ralliescaused.

Many traders condemned the PTileaders for violating the court’s orders.

PTI protests against load shedding, inflationg Traders condemn the party for blocking Mall Road

LAHOREShafIq ShaRIf

Four armed robbers looted rs 1.9 mil-lion in cash from a branch of a bank lo-cated in Tibbi city area around theclosure of bank timings on Friday.

The robbers also injured a securityguard of the bank on offering resist-ance. Police investigators have takensix labourers, a peon and a sweeper ofthe bank into custody for interroga-tion. Per details, four armed robbersentered the bank’s branch located onlungay Mandi road just as the bankwas about to close.

They injured security guard Shah-

baz and took the bank staff hostage ongun point.

One of the robbers collected cash,after which all escaped unhindered.

Bank officials informed the police,which rushed to the spot, recordingstatements of bank staff and collectingcircumstantial evidences from thescene.

an investigator, seekinganonymity, said the robbers werewearing Shalwar Kameez and ap-peared to have hailed from KhyberPakhtunkhwa, as they had been com-municating with each other in Pashto.

Sources said the security camerasof the banks were not functioning be-

cause of renovation work and policeinvestigators were unable to collectvideo recording of the mishap.

The sources said police investiga-tors had taken six labourers into cus-tody who were working on the bank’srenovation.

Senior cops told reporters that thebank administration was responsiblefor the mishap, saying the bank ad-ministration had not made proper se-curity arrangements.

SSP operations told the media thatonly a couple of days ago, a police teamvisited the branch and had repri-manded the bank administration forusing security guards as peons.

Robbers make away with Rs 1.9 million from bankg Police hold bank administration responsible for putting in place

inadequate security measures

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

civil lines Police on Friday regis-tered a case against 600 workersand leaders of the PakistanTehreek-e-insaaf (PTi) for holding arally on The Mall.However, police quashed the Fir onthe intervention of Punjab chiefMinister Shahbaz Sharif late atnight. earlier, PTi leadership, alongwith thousands of workers, held aprotest rally on Friday against mas-sive price hike and prolonged elec-tricity outages.The rally started from Mozang

chowk and concluded outsideWaPDa House on The Mall, violat-ing Section 144 imposed by the dis-trict coordination officer on theorders of the Supreme court.Sources said civil lines police regis-tered a case against 600 workersand leaders of the PTi, includingJaved Hashmi, Khursheed Kasuri,ibrarul Haq, Mian Mehmoodulrasheed, ahsan rasheed, KaramatKhokhar and others for violatingSection 144.On Thursday, PMl-n leaders andworkers had also held a protest rallyon The Mall.Senior advocate azhar Siddique had

filed a complaint for registering acase against PMl-n leaders andworker for holding a rally on TheMall, but ccPO ahmed raza Tahirrefused receiving any such com-plaint and police did not registerany case against any of the PMl-nworkers. late at night, PTi leadersand workers reached the civil linespolice station to lodge a protest,saying an Fir should be registeredagainst PMl-n leaders as well forviolating Section 144 on The Mall, ifthe police had to book PTi leadersfor the same offence.later, the case was withdrawn onShahbaz Sharif’s orders.

600 PTI workers booked for violating Section 144 on The Mall


Low

High

160CSUnDAY MonDAY TUeSDAY33°C I 18°C 34°C I 20°C 33°C I 19°C

PRAYeR TIMInGSfajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

04:33 05:54 12:12 15:39 18:21 19:43

CITY DIReCToRY

ReSCUe 1122

eDHI ConTRoL 115

MoToRwAY PoLICe 130

PoLICe 15

GoVeRnoR’S HoUSe 99200081-7

CHIef MInISTeR’S HoUSe 99203226

fIRe BRIGADe 16

BoMB DISPoSAL 99212111

MCL CoMPLAInTS 99211022-29

LAHoRe wASTe DISPoSAL 1139

eMeRGenCY HeLP

HoSPITALS

BLooD BAnK

fATMID 35210834-8

ISLAMIC ALLIAnCe 37588649/37535435

CoMPLAInT

wAPDA 111-000-118

SUI GAS 1199

RAILwAYS

CITY STATIon (enQUIRY) 117

ReSeRVATIon 99201772

RAILwAY PoLICe 1333

AIRPoRT

fLIGHT enQUIRY 114

PIA ReSeRVATIon 111-786-786

CoLLeGeS / UnIVeRSITIeS

PUnJAB UnIVeRSITY 99231257KInnAIRD CoLLeGe 99203781-4QUeen MARY CoLLeGe 36362942GoVT. CoLLeGe UnIVeRSITY 111-000-010UMT 35212801-10LUMS 35608000UeT 36288666LCwU 99203072SUPeRIoR CoLLeGe 111-000-078

MID CITY 37573382-3

SeRVICeS 99203402-11

MAYo 99211100-9

GeneRAL 35810892-8

SHeIKH ZAID 35865731

SIR GAnGA RAM 99200572

UCH 35763573-5

ITTefAQ 35881981-85

CMH 366996168-72

SHoUKAT KHAnUM 35945100

JInnAH 111-809-809

ADIL (DefenCe) 36667275

CHILDRen’S 99230901-3

DefenCe nATIonAL HoSPITAL 111-17-18-19

ipSS DOcUMENTAry cOMpETiTiON

DATe: feBRUARY 07 To APRIL 07, 2012 VenUe: InSTITUTe foR PeACe AnD SeCULAR STUDIeS

Under the initiative ‘Pakistan India Relaxed VisaRegime’, the IPSS has organized a short documentarycompetition. This short documentary contest aims atexploring and recording the depth and seriousness ofthis social cause, moreover being able to capture onfilm the intense need of a resolve in this conflict zone.

AJOKA´S bASANT bAhAr ThEATrE FESTiVAl

DATe: MARCH 16 — 31, 2012VenUe: ALHAMRA ARTS CoUnCIL - THe MALL

SUnnY

weATHeR UPDATeS

32°C


Lahore

ArAbic cAlligrAphy

CALLIGRAPHY CLASSeS are on-going, interestedstudents can enroll throughout the year. Theduration of one module is three months. There arefour modules of learning calligraphyt: primary,secondary, advanced and higher. The course includestraditional pen and traditional paper making.

DATe AnD TIMe: JUne 1, 2012, 4PM To 6PMVenUe: HAST-o-neeST CenTeR

Ajoka Theatre in collaboration with the Lahore ArtsCouncil presents the Basant Bahar Theatre festivalMarch 2012, BULLHA based on the life & times ofBaba Bulleh Shah, written by Shahid nadeem,directed by Madeeha Gauhar on 16th March

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

PUnJaB chief Minister,Muhammad ShahbazSharif, has said thatwork is speedily inprogress on the 320

million dollar project for moderniz-ing cleanliness system in theprovincial metropolis with the col-laboration of Turk companies. Heguaranteed that success of this pub-lic welfare project would be ensuredat any cost with the cooperation ofthe people. He said that lahore willbe made the most beautiful city ofthe world by removing filth andgarbage. He said that the model oflahore will also be replicated inother cities of the province formaintaining cleanliness condition.Setting up of a cabinet committeefor the rapid execution of the proj-ect, cM directed the committee tomeet twice a week and take stepsfor removing hurdles. He said thathe would also preside over a meet-ing of the committee once a monthto review the pace of implementa-tion of the project.

Provincial Minister for excise &Taxation, Mian Mujtaba Shuja urrehman, Deputy Speaker Punjabassembly, rana Mashhood ahmadKhan, advisor, Zaeem Qadri, chair-man Solid Waste Managementcompany, Kh ahmad Hassaan,Member Provincial assembly, Mehrishtiaq ahmad, chairman Turk

company Oz-Pak, Muhibi Kartal,representatives of Turk companiesOz-Pak and albayrak and commis-sioner and District coordinationOfficer lahore were also present onthe occasion.

addressing the meeting, Shah-baz said that the project of intro-ducing a modern and organizedsystem of cleanliness in lahore hasbeen initiated and its implementa-tion will not only restore the natu-ral beauty of the city but it willagain be transformed into the cityof flowers and gardens. He directedthat a vigorous campaign be started

for informing the people about thenew system of cleanliness so thatthey could cooperate for its success.The representatives of Turk compa-nies informed that they are facingcustoms problems for bringingtheir machinery to Pakistan due towhich the progress at the desiredpace is not being made. cM saidthat it was the first glorious projectduring the last 64 years for provid-ing clean and healthy environmentto the people but it is unfortunatethat hurdles are being created in itsexecution. He directed that the con-cerned federal authorities should

immediately be contacted for re-solving problems being faced by theTurkish companies. He directedthe cabinet committee constitutedfor speedy implementation of theproject to take measures on emer-gent basis to resolve customs andother problems so that the projectcould be furthered expedited.

chairman Turkish company,Oz-Pak, Muhibi Kartal said that dueto the keen interest being taken bycM, people are extending their fullcooperation due to which the proj-ect will prove to be successful. MDSolid Waste Management, Waseemajmal while giving a briefing aboutthe pace of the project informedthat lahore city has been dividedinto two zones for modernizingcleanliness system. Oz-Pak com-pany is looking after one zone whilealbayrak company is implementingthe project in the second zone. Hesaid that both the companies havestarted garbage collection fromhouses and bags are being distrib-uted for this purpose. He said thatTurk companies have also installedabout 1200 containers at differentplaces in both the zones. He saidthat a vigorous campaign had alsobeen started for apprising the peo-ple of new system of cleanliness. Hesaid that 3460 tons of waste hadbeen collected by albayrak till 29March while Oz-Pak has removed3035 tons of waste. He said that asite had been identified for landfillfacility at lakhudair.

LAHORE Staff RepoRt

The Pakistan Muslim league-nawaz (PMl-n)will hold a protest rally today (31st March), start-ing from the Muslim Mosque at the loharichowk to Bhatti chowk.

The participants of the rallies will protestagainst prolonged load-shedding, inflation andcorruption.

PMl-n Media coordinator MuhamamdMehdi told Pakistan Today that the rally was apart of a series of protest demonstrations thatthe PMl-n intended to hold in all the provincialcapitals.

On 2nd april, similar rallies will be held inabbottabad, Sialkot, Hyderabad and Sahiwal.Protests will also be held in Multan, Qasoor,Shekhopura and Dg Khan on 3rd april.

The party will also hold rallies on 4th aprilin Bahawalpur, Karrak and Sargodha and in gu-jrat, Okara and Dg Khan on 5th april.

Mehdi said the rallies will be themed aroundthe slogan ‘come nawaz come’ to rid the massesof a corrupt and incompetent government whichhad aggravated the problems of load-shedding,corruption and price-hikes through its destruc-tive policies.

He stated that the government had promised

to hold early elections after succumbing to publicpressure. However, he said it reneged soon afterthe pressure dwindled.

“The momentum generated by the ‘come

nawaz come’ rallies will make the governmentbow down before public pressure, as the peopleare fed up of the government and want snappolls to be held as early as possible,” he said.

New cleanliness projects underway

PML-N’s ‘Come Nawaz Come’ rallies to protest against load shedding, inflation


LAHOREStaff RepoRt

race course police, onFriday, registered a caseagainst former Punjabchief Minister, Dost Mo-hammad Khosa, for kid-

napping actress Sapna. The case hadbeen registered on the complaint ofMisal Khan, father of actress SapnaKhan, who alleged that PMl-n leaderDost Mohammad Khosa had kidnappedSapna to kill her. Other persons nomi-nated in the Fir include Sajjad ahmad,Shabbir Daud Butt, Muhammad naeemamjad, rana Tanvir, Javed, Yaseen andShahid. The case was registered on theorder of lahore High court.

However, another case under Sec-tion 365, 468, 420,471 was also regis-tered at race course police stationagainst Misal Khan and three others onbehalf of Khosa, who stated that MisalKhan was not Sapna’s father and he hadhimself kidnapped her to blackmailhim to mint money. Other personsnominated in the Fir include Muham-mad ameen, son of Misal Khan, FaisalKhan and Hina Khan,wife of aziz Khan.BODIES FOUND: Two persons werefound dead under mysterious circum-stances in different areas of the provin-cial metropolis on Friday.

as per details, a 60-year-old manlater identified as altaf, resident of Ha-keema Wala Bazaar, was found uncon-scious on the road in the Sanda policelimits. a passerby informed the policewhich rushed the victim to a local hos-pital. Doctors declared him as broughtin dead. according to the doctors, thevictim has died of a heart attack. He issurvived by four children. Police havehanded over the body to his family aftercompleting legal formalities.

Separately, a 45-year-old man wasfound unconscious on a road in thenawankot police limits. He was rushedto a local hospital where he died on Fri-day. Police have removed the body tothe morgue as nobody turned up toidentify him. Police have claimed thatthe deceased person was a drug addictand died of excessive use of drugs.FIRE: Valuables worth thousands ofrupees were reduced to ashes in twofire incidents in the provincial metrop-olis on Friday.

a fire broke out at the house ofShahid ahmad in neelam Block, iqbal

Town due to a short circuit and en-gulfed two rooms. Firefighters, afterbeing informed, rushed to the sceneand brought the fire under control.rescue officials estimated a loss ofvaluables worth rs 3 lakhs.

Separately, fire broke out at a bridalgarments shop in Bano Bazaar,anarkali due to short circuit and re-duced garments, worth rs 2 lakh, toashes. rescue 1122 arrived at the sceneand brought the fire under control.However, no loss of lifeor injury was reportedin both cases.


CIneMA fILM TIMeCIne STAR JoHn CARTeR 02:00 PMPH: 35157462 THe HUnGeR GAMeS 04:50 PM

JoHn CARTeR 06:45 PMKAHAAnI 09:00 PMTHe HUnGeR GAMeS 11:15 PM

CIne GoLD LonDon PARIS newYoRK 12:00 PMPH: 35340000 LonDon PARIS newYoRK 3:00 PM

JoHn CARTeR 6:00 PMLonDon PARIS newYoRK 9:00 AMLonDon PARIS newYoRK 12:00 AM

SoZo woRLD KAHAAnI 12:00 PMPH: 36674271 LonDon PARIS newYoRK 2:30 PM

THe HUnGeR GAMeS 5:00 PMLonDon PARIS newYoRK 8:00 PMJoHn CARTeR 10:30 PM

SoZo GoLD LonDon PARIS newYoRK 12:30 PMPH: 36674271 TeRe nAAL LoVe HoGAYA 03:00 PM

KAHAAnI 05: 30 PMTHe HUnGeR GAMeS 08: 30 PMLonDon PARIS newYoRK 11: 00 PM

LahoreMore flyovers in the pipeline

LAHROEStaff RepoRt

Director general lahore Developmentauthority, ahad Khan cheema, has di-rected for identifying new road con-struction projects in under-developedareas of the provincial metropolis, espe-cially in northern lahore. He also di-rected preparing plans for constructionof low cost flyovers for facilitatingsmooth flow of traffic in busy areas likeek Moria Pull to railway Station andother dense localities.He passed on these directions while re-viewing the functions and responsibili-ties of Traffic engineering and Planningagency (TePa), here, on Friday. The di-rector general asked for submitting proj-ect brief for construction of underpass atrailway level crossing at Katcha, Jailroad, for providing direct access to ve-hicular traffic of Moulana Shoukat aliroad and Peco road to Feroze Purroad.in order to overcome traffic congestionat Jinnah Flyover, Dg lDa directed thatoption of cost sharing by the canton-ment Board should be explored on pri-ority for construction of another flyover,from Hussain chowk to Khurshid alamroad. He further asked that the issue ofcost sharing for construction of pedes-trian overhead bridge near governmentcollege University, lahore, should beactively followed for convenience of gen-eral public.For providing parking facilities in thebusy commercial centre of anarkali andadjoining markets, the director generallDa asked for initiating a case for seek-ing approval of the government forfunding the construction of car ParkingPlaza at neela gumbad. about the development works and pro-vision of world class basic infrastructurein the Finance and Trade centre, spreadover 1132 Kanals in Johar Town, lahore,the Dg lDa, directed that three yearswork plan for construction of roads inthe surrounding area be prepared andsubmitted for approval.

Debating, essaycompetition winners awarded

LAHORE: The winners ofchief Minister Debating andessay Writing competitionswere awarded prizes in a func-tion held at govt islamia col-lege railway road on Friday.The function was presided overby the principal, M ajmal akiShakar. Director education(colleges) awarded the winningstudents with prize money.Deputy Director education ProfZafar inayat was also presenton the occasion. Staff RepoRt

Case registered against Khosa for Sapna’s murder

Punjab govt allotsRs 60 crores forbuilding model police stations

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The Punjab government released rs 60crores on Friday for the establishmentof 100 model police stations across theprovince.10, 000 policemen will also be re-cruited annually in the Punjab PoliceForce.This was stated by Punjab inspectorgeneral of Police Muhammad Habib-ur-rehman while addressing the PoliceDarbar and media representatives atthe Bahawalpur Police lines.igP said a special campaign will be ini-tiated from next month to arrest toptwenty proclaimed offenders fromevery district and that lists for the pur-pose have already been finalised.rehman said the police department isbeing reorganised on a modern scale,hoping to combine investigation withoperation. He stated that at the DPOs will lookafter the operations at the district leveland the SHO will look after the investi-gations at the police station level. The igP stressed on the senior policeofficers to hold open courts regularlyin remote areas so that the grievancesof the people could be redressed intheir hometowns.The igP also announced that anUmrah ticket will be awarded to HafizFarrukh ijaz for presenting an impres-sive recitation of ‘naat’ at the PoliceDarbar.Bahawalpur rPO, captain (r) SyedMuhammad abid Qadri and the re-gion’s police officers were present onthe occasion.

dost Mohammad Khosa andSapna Khan. fILE PHOTO.



Lahore

the daRK hoRSe: a glimpse of the ‘horse and Cattle Show’ organised under the auspices of punjab Rangers. INP

Punjab governmentand wwf to fight pollution

LAHORE Staff RepoRt

a memorandum of understanding wassigned between the Punjab governmentand the World Wide Fund for nature(WWF) on Friday for overcoming envi-ronmental pollution. Punjab chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif and WWF Director Op-erations anwar naseem signed the doc-ument. Punjab assembly Deputy Speaker ranaMashhood ahmad Khan, Special assis-tant Manshullah Butt and WWF corpo-rate relations Manager Sania Khan werealso present.Speaking on the occasion, the chief min-ister said the Punjab government is de-termined to provide a clean and healthyenvironment to the people and that solidmeasures are being taken for this pur-pose. He stated that the government is mak-ing sincere efforts to control environ-mental pollution.The cM added that the agreement forcooperation signed between the WWFand the Punjab government is a step inthe right direction and that the Punjabgovernment will extend its cooperationfor the success of the programme.anwar naseem said the earth Hour pro-gramme has been successfully imple-mented in 1000 cities of 150 countries. He stated that the programme will proveuseful in controlling environmental pol-lution and providing a clean atmosphereto the citizens.The chief minister and anwar naseemalso lit torches occasion to express theirresolve to protect the environment.

Punjab Assemblyadopts resolutionagainst energy crisis

LAHOREInp

The Punjab assembly on Friday unani-mously adopted a resolution against theenergy crisis. The assembly, in its reso-lution, called for equitable distributionof electricity among all provinces. Talkswere held between the Opposition andthe representatives of the Punjab gov-ernment for moving a unanimous reso-lution against the energy crisis.Opposition leader raja riaz attendedtalks with the Punjab government repre-sentatives and reviewed nine points ofthe resolution.The opposition demanded that the ob-jectionable points of the resolutionshould be removed. Opposition furtherdemanded that the resolution shouldnot give any impression that the federalgovernment was doing injustice with thePunjab government regarding distribu-tion of electricity. it had been demandedin the resolution that the distribution ofelectricity among the provinces shouldbe based on justice and issue of the cir-cular debt and should be resolved withina month. The resolution further de-manded that the projects of gas pipelinewith iran and import of lng should beimplemented on an urgent basis andthis gas should be utilized only for in-dustry and power generation.

PML-Q to submit disqualification reference

LAHORE

Inp

Pakistan Muslim league (Q) leadershipon Friday decided to file disqualificationreference against its two former membersameer Muqam and awais leghari to theSpeaker national assembly FehmeedaMirza, seeking their disqualification.according to sources PMl (Q) president cHShujaat Hussain and senior minister cHPervaiz elahi has tasked Kamil ali agha toprepare references against ameer Muqamand awais leghari to be submitted with thespeaker na seeking their disqualificationfor showing disloyalty with the party.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

THe Punjab emergency Serv-ice (rescue 1122) will collab-orate with the asian DisasterPreparedness center (aDPc)

and concern international through thenational Disaster Management au-thority for the implementation ofthe community-Based Disas-ter risk Management(cBDrM) programme.

This understandingwas reached while anaDPc and concern in-ternational delegationvisited the emergencyServices academy onFriday.

The delegation in-cluded experts from Thailand,Sri lanka and concern international.

Punjab emergency Service Directorgeneral Dr rizwan naseer explained

the operations of the rescue 1122emergency management system whichincludes an ambulance service, rescueand fire services and community emer-gency response teams, through whichres-

cue 1122 hasmanaged over

1.2 million emer-gencies while maintaining its average

response time and standard in all ofPunjab’s districts.

The delegation appreciated theprogress made by rescue 1122 in pre-venting emergencies through the Dis-

tricts emergencyBoards and theDistrict Disaster

M a n a g e m e n tauthorities.

The dele-gates said theylooked for-ward to work-ing withrescue 1122 toensure the sus-

tainable imple-mentation of the

cBDrM programmethrough the extensive rescue 1122 net-work.

This programme will be replicatedin other provinces through the na-tional Disaster Management authority.

Rescue 1122 to launch riskmanagement programme

Sundar Industrial estate

allows transfer of

non-industrial plotsLAHORE: The Punjab industrial estatesBoard of Directors has approved an exitpolicy for the Sundar industrial estate plotowners, enabling them to transfer theirplots within a year. The policy is applicablefor the plot holders who did not enter theprocess of industrialisation. This policy hasbeen adopted in line with the vision of Pun-jab chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to makethe province an industrial hub. This wasstated by Punjab industrial estates chair-man Spokeman Tanveer in a statement re-leased yesterday. He said the policy willhelp accelerate the colonisation of the Sun-dar industrial estate. The Pie spokesmansays the colonisation of the industrial estatewas suggested by industrialists. ThePieDMc exit Policy-2012 will allow all ex-isting plot owners and allottees to transfertheir plots from 14 to 15 March. Staff RepoRt

PostingsLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

Secretary to government of the Punjab,Human rights and Minorities affairs De-partment, arshad bin ahmad, has been ap-pointed as Member, Punjab Public Servicecommission, lahore, for a period of threeyears from 29 March, a day after his retire-ment upon attaining the age of superannu-ation, against the post to be vacated byShaukat Javed.Muhammad Tariq ayub, has been ap-pointed as Member, Punjab Service Tribu-nal, lahore, on contract basis.Dr Tahir raza Bukhari, is currently await-ing posting in auqaf and religious affairsDepartment, government of the Punjab, asDirector general, Punjab institute of lan-guage, art and culture, lahore, has beenwithdrawn.additional Programme Director, Punjabeducation Sector reforms Programme,Malik Muhammad ashraf awan, has beenpromoted to BS-20, to the rank of Secre-tary to government of the Punjab, com-missioner of the Division, Districtcoordination Officer and other equivalentposts, on regular basis and upon such pro-motion, he has been transferred andposted as Director general, Punjab insti-tute of language, art and culture, lahore,against a vacant post.The services of Maleeha rashid, awaitingposting in Services & general administra-tion Department, have been placed at thedisposal of commissioner, lahore Divi-sion, lahore, for further adjustment.The services of aman anwar Kadwaii,awaiting posting in Services & general ad-ministration Department, have been placedat the disposal of commissioner, lahoreDivision, lahore for further adjustment

‘Hathora’ gang hammered by city policeLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

cia Police, iqbal Town, have claimedto have arrested six members of abidalias “Hathora” dacoit gang includingits ringleader, involved in incidents oftheft and robbery, and recovered 34thousand in cash, cell phones as well asillegal weapons from their possession.The criminals have confessed to a num-ber of incidents of theft and robberyduring preliminary interrogation.

according to the details, policeteam collected particulars of abid alias“Hathora” dacoit gang and arrested sixculprits, including its ringleader. Thecriminals are history offenders andaround seven cases have also beentraced against the criminals in ghazi-abad, Tibi city, Manawan, Wahdatcolony and Harbancepura police sta-tions. The police have recovered 34thousand in cash, two cell phones, twopistols, two revolvers and bullets fromtheir possession. The arrested wereidentified as ringleader abid alias“Hathora”, Muhammad Qasim alias“Mota”, azeem, Muhammad Zubair,asghar ali and abid Hussain. Furtherinvestigation is in progress.

capital city Police Officer (ccPO),ahmed raza Tahir has announced cash

prizes and commendatory certificatesfor the police team.NOTICES TO CCPO, SHO ONPLEA FOR FIR AgAINST LAwMINISTER: an additional Districtand Sessions Judge (aD&SJ) on Fridayissued notice to the capital city PoliceOfficer (ccPO) and Station Head Offi-cers (SHOs) of civil lines and Qilla gu-jjar Singh for april 2 on a petition forregistering a case against Punjab lawMinister, rana Sana Ullah, and PMl-n MPas for holding a rally on the Mall.

aD&SJ Muhammad ijaz Butt washearing a petition filed by advocateMuneer ahmad. The petitioner submit-ted that the Punjab government had im-posed Section 144 on the Mall andholding a public rally was prohibited.He submitted that rana Sana Ullah andother provincial assembly members hadviolated Section 144 by organizing aprotest rally on the Mall on March, 29.He contended that law is equal for allpeople, therefore, a case be registeredunder 16 MPO against the PMl-n lead-ers who violated the law. The court afterhearing the arguments sought replyfrom the ccPO and SHOs by april 2.

The court also directed the SHOs toappear personally on the next hearing.CAR SNATCHERS POSINg ASPOLICEMEN CAUgHT: anti Vehi-

cles lifting Staff Saddar Division, onFriday, have claimed to arrest five carlifters of Zeshan, alias “Shani com-mando”, car snatcher gang includingits ringleader, and recovered 12 carsand one motorcycle worth rupees 87lakh 40 thousand from their posses-sion. The criminals have confessed to15 cases of car lifting and snatchingduring preliminary interrogation.

according to the details, the policeteam collected particulars of Zeshanand arrested its five culprits, includingits ringleader. There are around 18traced against them in Barki, ghalibMarket, chung, north cantt, ModelTown, gulberg, Baghbanpura, gardenTown, islampura, Defence B, Har-banspura, Shahdara, Sabzazar, li-aqatabad, Sarwar road and Sherakotpolice stations. The police have recov-ered 12 cars, one motorcycle worth ru-pees 87 lakh 40 thousand, as well as twopistols and police uniforms from theirpossession. The arrested were identifiedas ringleader Zeshan Haider alias Shani,Muhammad Zaman, Muhammad irfanalias Fani, Muhammad imran andMuhammad anayat. Further investiga-tion is in progress. capital city PoliceOfficer (ccPO), ahmed raza Tahir, hasannounced cash prizes and commenda-tory certificates for the police team.


Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 31 March, 2012

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

Low literacy rateeducation is an essential part of a

man's life. and in this era of technol-ogy, advancement and globalisation,education is very important.

it helps in improving living stan-dards and enhances the quality of life.it also helps individuals to run theirpersonal life and bring improvementsin their society.

Pakistan cannot survive unlessproblem of illiteracy is solved. Most ofour citizens are unable to read andwrite due to which they face a lot ofproblems. They are not even capable toread sign boards.

They hardly know how to communi-cate or how to utilise modern technol-ogy. illiteracy affects society terribly.The more illiterate people there are in acountry, the harder it will be for thecountry to develop.

There are many reasons of low liter-acy rate: for example, poverty, popula-tion expansion, male dominated societyetc. Many people are living below thepoverty line due to which it is not possi-ble for them to send their children toschools, colleges and universities.

in this sort of conditions, role andsupport of the government becomes un-avoidable. This problem can be handledby providing education on cheap prices.Therefore, it is necessary for the gov-ernment to take solid steps towards thisproblem.

TAZEEN FATIMAKarachi

Threat to soil and waterregrettably, there are 80 million

people in the twenty-one upper andlower Sindh districts that do not haveaccess to safe drinking water.

Therefore, significantly increasingthe coverage of rural water supply inupper and lower Sindh districts is fun-damental to achieving many of the in-ternationally agreed MillenniumDevelopment goals (MDgs). Withoutsafe water near to dwellings, the healthand livelihoods of families will be se-verely affected; children’s educationtoo suffers as the daily tasks of survivaltake precedence over all other con-cerns.

However, the deterioration in thequality of groundwater due to the rightBank Outfall drain (rBOD) and leftBank Outfall drain ( lBOD) whichdrain out the industrial and chemicalwaste in various upper and lower Sindhdistrict needs immediate attention toavert the catastrophe.

elevated concentrations of natu-rally occurring elements in water suchas arsenic and fluoride, in my homedistrict larkano, are having cata-strophic impacts on health and fertilityof the rich agrarian soil.

Pitiably, the previous successiveregimes did nothing to mitigate the im-pacts. is there anyone in the presentcorridors of power and politics to directthe concerned departments both fed-eral and provincial to take correctiveand constructive steps to save millionsof lives in Sindh province?

The provincial and federal govern-ments and international organisationsas well are appealed to launch “north-ern and Southern Sindh Quality Drink-ing Water Schemes” at the earliest. Thesooner, the better.

Otherwise, millions of people willhave to die premature deaths due todeterioration in the quality of ground-water in the upper and lower Sindh dis-tricts.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

Their own informant?Mohamed Merah, a French-born

self-confessed fanatic, who killed sevenpeople – including three children – in ashooting spree in southwest France,stirred a sharp controversy when Frenchauthorities claimed that the offender un-derwent radicalisation during a trip toafghanistan bordering the tribal areas ofPakistan in november 2011. However,the French national of north african ori-gins, was killed in a police commandoraid in Toulouse at the end of the 32-hours siege of his house on March 24,2012. in the shocking aftermath of theToulouse attacks, French as well as inter-national news organisations were quickto trace back Merah’s training excursionin Pakistan militant camps.

Mohamed Merah, 23 years old, had avery dubious and capricious history. Hewas a proclaimed offender who was ar-rested on several occasions because ofhis involvement in drugs, thefts and vio-lent crimes. However, he was hired as aninformant and sent to afghanistan to spyupon al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in thetribal belt, by the Dcri, a French domes-tic intelligence agency. a former intelli-gence chief, Yves Bonnet, has alsoconfirmed that Merah was on the pay-roll of Dcri before this grisly incident.“He was known to the Dcri, not espe-cially because he was an islamist, but be-cause he had a correspondent indomestic intelligence,” Bonnet told laDépêce newspaper.

Over the period of time, Merah de-veloped severe differences with theFrench secret intelligence agency. in re-action, Merah, being a sociopath, wenton a shooting spree on the children of aschool in the Southern France. after thetragic events, in order to cover up theirlinks with Merah, the French intelligenceauthorities put him down as a radical is-lamist who was trying to avenge thekilling Palestinian children and punishedFrance for sending troops toafghanistan. in this way, Dcri got rid oftheir own informant.

ANSAR MEHBOOBRawalpindi

Dealing with pollutionOur earth is a paradise if we live on it

in a sensible way; otherwise it is theother name of hell. Unfortunately, atpresent, man is misusing the resources ofthe earth which can spell doom for hisown existence. air, soil, water and spaceall are getting polluted. air pollution istaking place because of mindless fellingdown of trees and poisonous emissionsfrom chimneys of factories and automo-biles. excessive use of insecticides andpesticides is causing soil pollution. Poi-sonous elements are finding their wayinto the food that we consume.

Quite another type of pollution isnoise pollution. it is caused by loud-speakers, factory buzzers, vehicularhorns, high pitch of TV sets and radiosand noises in streets and markets. noisepollution can cause great injury to ourdelicate nerves. in fact, all kinds of pollu-tion are harmful to man in more thanone ways.

it is high time that we give attentionto the hazards of pollution of all kinds.Otherwise, there may be not only wide-spread epidemics, but man’s very exis-tence on this planet may be in danger.

KARAR ALIKarachi

Being practicalThe nation and the whole world are

keeping their fingers crossed for thenew terms of engagement that the par-liament will decide.

Our worthy parliamentarians woulddo well to focus on the concept of inter-dependence rather than base their rec-ommendations on the idea ofsovereignty that should only guide thefunctions of the state. Sovereigntymeans having the ability to handle ourproblems ourselves with our own re-sources. Unfortunately, this we cannotdo. not at this stage and not even in thenear future.

We can either work in harmony

with US or subscribe to many conspir-acy theories and abandon this relation-ship. if the parliamentaryrecommendations are based on prag-matic concerns, then they may be ableto establish ties on a mutually benefi-cial basis for both the countries. But ifthe recommendations demand obedi-ence from the US on matters that uni-laterally benefit only Pakistan, thenthese recommendations will be useless.

Between the two extremes of ‘cando’ and ‘not possible’ lies the huge mid-dle ground of many opportunities andpossibilities. if designed and structuredto strengthen Pakistan, these recom-

mendations can help the government toexplore these opportunities and possi-bilities.

The mindset that views US only as‘satan’ and ‘evil’ is hardly expected tosee the benefits of a prolonged relation-ship with a state that can help us toachieve economic and social securityfor the people of Pakistan. This mindsetfears the imagined threats of foreign in-vasion, intervention and attacks.

if security is ‘freedom from threats’than the real threat that we as a stateface is not from US but these ‘reformsblockers’ who in the name of misguidedideology and tainted sovereignty create

road blocks and hurdles in the estab-lishment of a purposeful and meaning-ful relationship with US.

in the end, it is not the drone at-tacks or the Talibans who will challengethe security of the state of Pakistan. itwill be the minds inside and outside theparliament of both our legislatures andpolicy makers who will fail to view‘common threats’ and ‘common secu-rity’ that should in fact be the guidingprinciples to endorse new terms of en-gagement with US on long term as wellas permanent basis.LT COL (Retd) MUHAMMAD ALI EHSAN

Karachi

a free-for-all?

Defusing the population bombif population growth spirals out of

control, it poses severe challenges of un-employment, education, health, housing,urbanisation and food security. Pakistanis confronted with a horrendous problemof overpopulation. as estimated (July2012) by cia Fact book, Pakistan with190,291,129 people living on its soil is thesixth most populous country on the globeand the fourth in asia. When Pakistanbecame independent in 1947, its popula-tion was estimated at 32 million. Sixty-five years later, it has increased 5.6 timesto 190 million.

The unchecked population growth iscausing a catastrophic strain on the de-veloping economy of Pakistan. no onecan deny that achieving desirable rates ofpopulation growth could be an importantfactor in bringing sustainability of re-sources and averting energy problems.Food problem and population are inter-

connected. The price of food commodi-ties have gone five times up in Pakistan,compared to three years ago.

Family planning is necessary to im-prove the condition of the Pakistanimasses. We cannot improve the condi-tion of the masses without limiting thesize of the family. The root causes ofoverpopulation are: a) unbalancedgrowth rate of rural-urban migrationmaking rural land unused and cities be-come crowded. b) low governmentalspending on awareness campaigns. c)low literacy rate as compared to othercountries. d) Paucity of funds and capitalfor educational development sector.china is spending 12.1% of its total yearlybudget on education, US 17.1%, UK 11.5,iran 17.7%, canada 12.7%, Uae 22.5%whereas education expenditure of Pak-istan is 7.8 percent.

How to control the ticking of popula-

tion explosion? Pakistan has to learnfrom the strategy of other successfulcountries, like china, Bangladesh andegypt. china brought down the country'srapid population growth by encouraging“one-child family” and providing thefamily with free education until the ageof 18. Bangladesh recorded impressivegains in slowing population growth byadopting the slogan “chhoto paribar,sukhi paribar” (small family, happy fam-ily). The religious clerics in Bangladeshwould inform people about the signifi-cance of family planning in their ser-mons. contraceptives were distributedand literature was given out to spreadawareness about the importance of fam-ily planning and safe sex.

egypt controlled its burgeoning pop-ulation through the “fatwas and edicts”issued from various centres of islamiclearning endorsing family planning.

egypt has registered a swift decline intheir population growth rates. The popu-lations of 47 european nations are on thedownward slide from 728 million thisyear to 653 million in 2050. This is prob-ably due to well-thought policies markedby importance attributed to small family.We have to overcome the problem onwar-footing as a moderate population is apre-requisite for our national develop-ment. Pakistan should adopt a holisticapproach on it, i.e. on the one hand, theulemas and religious scholars shouldplay a motivating role and change the so-cial attitudes of the people with regardsto gender equality and family size; on theother hand, the government will have toimprove awareness campaigns coupledwith the contraceptive delivery servicesin the country.

MUHAMMAD ASLAM KHOKHARLahore

electricity shortageThis government has been in power

for over 4 years, which is more than thetenure of any elected civil government inpower for the past 20 years. Yet in thesefour years, instead of installing cheaperelectricity power generation units, basedon indigenous resources, it opted for ex-pensive rental power, because of attrac-tive kickbacks for a few. it blamesanother government, which was in powerfor 2 years and 8 months, almost 12 yearsago, for turning down the Thar coal proj-ect, but has itself done nothing except forpoliticking on it. They could have startedconstruction of small run-of-the-riverdams for cheaper hydro electric powergeneration, but did nothing except goingfor setting up more expensive thermalpower generation based on imported fur-nace oil.

While it is true that this governmentinherited an energy crisis from the mili-

tary junta of Musharraf, it is also a sadreality that they have only worsened thiscrisis. The rental power units that havebeen installed only produce less than10% of the capacity for which they getpaid a guaranteed lump sum, because ofdefective contracts negotiated by corruptministers and cronies of this regime. Pak-istan's economy has suffered more fromthe incompetence and corruption of itsown government than the loss caused tous by external terrorism.

MALIK TARIQ ALILahore

why this brain drain?according to official estimates of

Pakistan Overseas employment corpora-tion, around 36,000 professional includ-ing doctors, engineers, teachers havemigrated to other countries in last 30years and this human capital flight hasincreased drastically in recent years.

Being a developing nation, our peopleought to give services to our own home-land rather than migrating to other coun-tries for seeking pleasure and better lifestandards. Time and again our belovedcountry comes across several crises dueto the absence of leadership and skillfulhuman capital.

in my opinion, it is cowardice to runaway from the hurdles and challengesprevailing in one’s own country and serv-ing developed nations for one’s sel-inter-ests. We all know charity begins at homeso why don’t we contemplate on what weshould do for the uplift of our homeland.

MISBAH KANWALKarachi

Lost and foundFound: night street crimes. lost: the

pleasure of after-dinner strolling.Z A KAZMI

Karachi

corruption is the malaise that is eating through the veryfabric of our society. Be it our civilian leaders or military rulers,they are involved in one kind of corruption or the other. Ourgovernmental infrastructure is riddled with corruption from thelowest tier to the highest post.

While it is true that the problem may not be as widespreadas the media hype and sensationalism makes it out to be, it isbig and alarming enough to warrant urgent attention. The peo-ple feel strongly about it which is what would explain the surge

of certain ‘tsunamis’ who make outlandish claims about elimi-nating corruption in 90 days.

Some corruption will always be endemic to the bureaucraticsystem but the widespread looting we see these days is unac-ceptable. every person should individually make the effort to beas honest in their dealings with government officials as well.Otherwise, our society will become rotten to the core.

AHMAD ALILahore


Comment12 Saturday, 31 March, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

of the government, against a government

Protests, protests

The power outages seem to have turned into afederalist issue, with Punjab MPas leading a strikeagainst the electricity loadshedding. now theprovincial government happens to be headed by the

principal opposition party at the federal level, so the strikes,the league would say, should not be construed in thatmanner. But to the other federating units, the province, whichconsumes the bulk of the electricity on the grid, yet doesn’treally contribute all that much, would be chuckled at.

compare, for instance, with KP, which has only juststarted receiving the hydel profits that were its constitutionaldues. compare with Balochistan, whose natural gascontributes to our thermal profile.

it would also do the league well to realise the crisis in itscontext. The second BB government ushered in the era of theiPPs, much maligned a little later, that too at rates whichseem like a song in retrospect. This left Pakistan in a positionto export power to india; a famous reversal of those roles wasseen the other day in Seoul. This electric surplus continuedwell into the nawaz Sharif government and lasted all the waythrough the later part of the Musharraf government, at theend of which there just wasn’t enough juice for everyone. Boththe regimes did scant for addition of capacity to the profile. ifthere is any space for smug indignation, it belongs, counter-intuitively, to the incumbents.

But let us not tread on that ground. let us assume whatperhaps is the truth: that the present government has been farfrom ideal in its response to the electric crisis. in thisframework, what should be considered is the acceptablemodes of protest for what is, in fact, a sitting government. if amarch is to be led by a chief minister - he promises this often -what good would it do to an already fractured polity?

The PMl(n) thinks itself as a government in waiting. and,given the performance of the current PPP government, itmight have a sporting chance. Under that assumption, itshould avoid playing a game it would find hard to keep upwith itself later on. The energy crisis is a global phenomenon.it should be above even international politics, what to speakof the national variety.

Pragmatism needed

Before it’s too late

The joint session of parliament which started onTuesday failed to initiate a debate in earnest and hadto be postponed after three sittings. The progress wasstalled by differences developing over the consensus

document outlining new terms of engagement with the USand naTO. The consensus developed by the parliamentarycommittee on national security turned out to be short lived assome of the signatories including the PMl(n) and the JUi(F)developed second thoughts about certain proposals. Whilesome of the provisions might have suffered from draftingflaws, pressure exerted by extremist organisations too playeda role in the withdrawal of support for the jointly prepareddocument.

it has now been fifteen months since Pakistan scaleddown its ties with the US and naTO to the minimum. Thecooling off has hurt Pakistan more than anyone else. Thedecisions about new parameters of relations cannot be left onthe back burner indefinitely. The delay has alreadycompromised Pakistan’s interests. Some of the naTOcountries have started withdrawing their troops fromafghanistan. The US is scheduled to complete the drawdownby the end of 2014. Once the process is complete, Pakistanwill be in the unenviable position of dealing with not only thePakistani extremists but also their counterparts inafghanistan. From total dependence on the US, islamabadhas gone to the equally harmful extreme of total alienation. Byboycotting the Bonn conference, it has further painted itself ina corner. as things stand the country has no afghan policyexcept empty phrases like “afghan-led solution to afghanproblems” or clichés like “ties based on trust.”

Terrorism being an existential threat to the internationalcommunity the world wants Pakistan to play its role in itseradication. as PM gilani put it, it is not a matter of the USalone, but 48 countries. The meeting of the civil and militaryleaders at the prime minister’s house has reportedlyconcluded on a positive note. The PMl(n) after airingreservations earlier has now agreed conditionally to theproposals. if the opposition has any meaningful reservations,these should be resolved by the time the joint session beginson March 5. The parliament has then to move apace towardsformulating a realistic policy that best serves the interests ofPakistan while taking into account the security concerns of itsallies also.

Resetting of tieson the slow mend

whitelIeSBy ess Aich

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at [email protected]

We hear that last week the indiandelegation here in lahore to cele-

brate the life of a Punjabi freedomfighter, the late Bhagat Singh, and alsoto bury memories of wars fought be-tween two neighbours, got involved inanother war raging in lahore at thetime. apparently their arrival coincidedwith the “designer lawn war” unleashed

by the textile industry in Pakistan. The female indian delegates were

seen shopping like crazy at a store in la-hore’s liberty Market and later at thePFDc outlet in gulberg. However,though the “lawn war” is attracting in-dian clientele, it does seem that PFDcdespite its elegant decor fails miserablyto meet some essential requirement, a

well-greased credit card processing fa-cility being one of them. There were sev-eral hitches before indian shoppersmanaged to pay their bill with plasticmoney.

However, the lawn war turned intolawn diplomacy. it worked; thanks, ofcourse, to the freedom fighter BhagatSingh.

The top military and civilianleadership is striving to de-velop a consensus on our for-eign policy, primarily onfrayed Pakistan-US rela-

tions. it is heartening to note that apartfrom the coalition members, the oppo-sition leaders in the national assemblyand the Senate also attended the top-level meeting chaired by the prime min-ister. But apart from the politicalparties, the military and the civilianleadership have not been on the samepage on the issue.

Outside the parliament, a newly cre-ated pressure group largely composedof out-of-job politicians and mualanasof different ilk, the so-called Difa-e-Pak-istan (Defence of Pakistan) council isplaying a rejectionist role, ready to sab-otage any deal.

nonetheless Prime Minister gilanimeeting President Obama in Seoul,President Zardari meeting Washing-ton’s special envoy on afghanistan Marcgrossman in Dushanbe and the militaryleaderships of the US and Pakistan hav-ing consultations, all in the last threedays, underscores a sense of urgency onboth sides to restore ties.

according to the White House andhe US State Department, the top-leveltalks have led to a better understandingbetween the two countries. Similarly, is-lamabad has put a positive gloss on thehigh profile engagements. Despite thebonhomie, intractable problems remainto be resolved.

The past one-year or so has been themost turbulent period in the chequeredhistory of Pakistan-US relations. Start-ing from the raymond Davis affair lastJanuary to the abbottabad raid by USnavy Seals in May killing Osama binladen and the Salala incident in no-vember, relations have gone consis-tently downhill.

The chimerical relations betweenthe two allies have seen many ups and

downs in the past. even at the best oftimes american pundits aptly coinedthe term ‘frenemy’ to describe the rollercoaster nature of US-Pakistan relations.

in the past year, relations have hitan all time low. recently, Hollywoodstar george clooney revealed to RollingStone magazine that President Obamahad told him that one place which giveshim sleepless nights is Pakistan.

as of now naTO supplies toafghanistan through Pakistan remainsuspended. and despite the high levelcontacts between Washington and is-lamabad, the long-awaited apology fromthe US on the Salala incident is notforthcoming. it is not even clear nowwhether islamabad is still insisting onthe apology to restore ties.

indications are that most outstand-ing issues between the US and Pakistanhave been sewn up in a broad frame-work of mutual understanding. Sinceneither side can afford a clean break,there is a sense of urgency to restore amodicum of normalcy as soon as possi-ble.

The foreign office has claimed thatno verbal agreement would be made inthe future with Washington and therewould be complete transparency in re-lations with the US. according to therecommendations of the Parliamentarycommittee on national Security(PncS), every agreement shall be writ-ten down and formalised.

in a country where the approval rat-ing of the US is one of the lowest in theworld, this makes fine reading. The par-liament can lay down broad policyframework and its committees can scru-tinise all aspects of foreign and securitypolicy. But speaking practically, theconduct of day-to-day policy will be ren-dered virtually impossible if the newguidelines are followed in letter andspirit.

it is indeed ironic that despite theanxiety to rein in relations with the US,issues like details of the defence budgetas well the conduct and working of theintelligence establishment remain be-yond the pale of the parliament or itscommittees. like in all democraticcountries, these matters should also bebrought under the domain of the parlia-ment.

apart from the Salala incident (forwhich the US military has decided notto charge its soldiers), the use of drones- ostensibly to flush out militants - re-mains a flashpoint between Washingtonand islamabad. although drone attackshave been reduced quite a lot in the pastfew months, they remain the keyweapon to kill and destroy the al-Qaeda

network in the badlands of Pakistan.The US has reportedly agreed to

fewer but more targeted drone attacks.and they are continuing while bothsides are talking. These attacks from theUS military’s standpoint have their util-ity as they have helped in weakening ifnot actually destroying the al-Qaedanetwork in n. Waziristan.

admittedly, there has been respitefrom terrorist activities in most urbancentres of the country in the past year orso. These attacks have become fewerand far apart, and less lethal in their in-tensity. nevertheless, the militant net-work is still active mostly inBalochistan, KP and the tribal areas.

Targeted killings of the Shias, Fcand the police in Balochistan and someother areas of the country are adequatetestimony to the fact that the hydra-headed monster of terrorism mighthave been scorched but not destroyed.it can easily raise its head again andstrike with full might and fury.

it is obvious that despite the fulmi-nations of the leader of the oppositionsnisar ali Khan and Mualana Fazlur-rehman in the parliament, a modicumof agreement has been reached on tieswith the US. Prime Minister gilani be-fore his departure for china will make alast ditch attempt at building a consen-sus. Hopefully, he will succeed.

Some kind of framework has alreadybeen evolved which will be clinchedwhen Secretary of State Hillary clintonarrives in islamabad in a few weeks. Butthis does not mean relations betweenthe US and Pakistan will be hunky doryagain. The US does not trust the iSi.The US congress is loath to approvemore military aid for islamabad.

The US commander in afghanistangeneral John allen just before comingto Pakistan accused the Pakistani spyagency of maintaining ties with the Tal-iban and the Haqqani network. Simi-larly, the report that the just-retiredcontroversial head of the iSi generalShuja Pasha rejected an offer by the USfor advance notice of drone attacks doesnot help.

The iSi has not denied its ties withthe militant networks proscribed by theUS. it has maintained that it has to keepcontacts with all sides like any efficientintelligence apparatus. What is to beseen is whether, under its new head, theiSi is able to carve a key role for itself ininitiating talks with the afghan Talibanfor an eventual exit strategy for the USand naTO forces.

The writer is Editor, PakistanToday

By Arif Nizami

Well here is some real bad news forTV anchors and chat show hostshoping to get a kiss-and-tell in-

terview with general Pasha, the outgoingiSi chief. apparently, the general has re-fused point blank to appear before TV cam-eras and have secrets and facts grilled outof him, interrupted only by a sea of adver-tisements. We hear that he has turneddown several requests and for good reason.

Besides not wanting to have his dignitystripped by sensationalism, he has a betterplan to put across his version of history.Word has it that he intends to write hismemoirs in which no doubt there will bechapters, among others, on the abbottabadincident and Memogate. Step aside, TV an-chors. it is publishers that are now makinga beeline for the general.

We hear that the ahmedriaz Sheikh clan keeps

slipping in favour with thepresidency. now it is the sonand whiz kid, a “special assis-tant” in the hallowed corri-dors, who invites disapprovalon the female company hekeeps.

The lady from Karachi,though an important PPPmember and office bearer, isconsidered “unsuitable”. Shewas spotted at a family wed-ding, fuelling more rumours.The Big Boss noticed and reg-istered his disapproval. ap-parently, the special assistantis not quite a big boy yet.


Comment 13Saturday, 31 March, 2012

The government takespride in having enabledparliament to undertake

a review of the Pak-US rela-tions, a vital part of the coun-try’s foreign policy. Till nowpoliticians were not allowed toenter the territory consideredby the army as its exclusivepreserve. Sen FarhatullahBabar reminded the parlia-ment that the previous politicalgovernments had strived to re-claim what was their exclusiveturf but failed to do so. a jointsession of parliament is nowreviewing the new parametersworked out by a parliamentarycommittee to determine rela-tions between Pakistan and theUS.

is the parliament reallyfree to take decisions? With theextremist organisations threat-ening the government of may-hem in the country andindividual legislators of physi-cal attacks in case they take de-cisions not liked by theextremists, every member ofparliament expresses his viewswith an eye on the Damocles’sword hanging over their head.as the killings of SalmaanTaseer and Shahbaz Bhattiamply prove, falling foul of theextremist organisations cancost a politician his life.

as a joint session of parlia-ment initiated debate on Tues-day on the Parliamentarycommittee on national Secu-rity’s (PcnS) recommenda-tions, threats were deliveredloudly outside its gates wherethe Difa-e-Pakistan council(DPc) was holding a rally.

The DPc is an alliance ofreligious parties and bannedextremist outfits workingunder new names. its leadersinclude Maulana Samiul Haqwho is sometime referred to asthe father of the Taliban move-

ment and former iSi chief ltgen (retd) Hamid gul. TheDPc has been allowed to holdmeetings all over the countrydespite the fact that it includesorganisations like JUD, the hu-manitarian wing of the bannedlashkar-e-Taiba and the mor-bidly anti-Shia aSWJ which isa reincarnation of the bannedSipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.Since Jamaat-e-islami lost allrepresentation in parliamentwith the departure of SenatorsKhurshid ahmad and ibrahimKhan, the party has startedtalking of violent agitation.

is it possible for DPc to pa-rade up and down the countrywith leaders of banned partiesaddressing mammoth crowdswithout a nod from the army?The alliance may not have thearmy’s support in all that theDPc does but definitely seemsto enjoy its tacit approval torant against the improvementof ties with the US and india.This would constitute anotherpressure on parliament whichwould be wary of taking anydecision not liked by the army?

after staging several ralliesin major cities where fieryspeakers opposed reopening ofnaTO supply routes, the DPcstaged a sit-in outside parlia-ment on Tuesday where a jointsession was in progress .itsleaders delivered fieryspeeches and announced thatthey would not only reject theparliament’s decision to re-open the supply routes but alsoforcibly stop the nato trucks allover the country. in fact, thiswas the second rally by theDPc in islamabad after Febru-ary 22. The meeting held ear-lier had delivered an identicalmessage. Two of the leaders ofbanned outfits who were notallowed to enter islamabad bythe local administration inFebruary spoke at the DPcrally this time.

Junior leaders of the DPcwere more upfront about whatthey intended to do if the gov-ernment took decisions whichwere not to their liking. On Fri-day last speaking at a protestrally outside lahore Pressclub, Hafiz abdul ghaffarropari of Jamiat-e-ahle Ha-dith, a component of the DPc,said his workers would bomb

any naTO containers thatplied through Pakistan. Hesaid the supplies would bestopped regardless of the par-liament’s decision.

The militant wing of theextremists, Tehrik-e-TalibanPakistan has gone a step fur-ther. On Sunday, TTPspokesman ehsanullah ehsantold reuters “if the parliamentdecides to restore naTO sup-plies, we will attack parliamen-tarians and their overlords.”

The threats are alreadyproducing the results desiredby the extremists. The consen-sus document formulated by amulti-party parliamentarycommittee and duly signed bytheir representatives has sud-denly become controversial.The PMl(n) and JUi(F) havedecided not to support it un-less it is amended.

Speaking at a point oforder in the joint session ofparliament on Tuesday, Fazlurrehman categorically opposedthe reopening of naTO supplyroute to afghanistan. He said ifrecommendations of the PcnSwere approved with a majority,it will be the decision of thegovernment and not the parlia-ment. ch nisar said that hisparty would take part in the de-bate only if the government re-moved their reservationsregarding some clauses. Bothhad earlier signed the consen-sus proposals.

The parliamentary com-mittee had submitted its pro-posals in the last week ofJanuary. The parliament hasyet not finalised the recom-mendations. The joint sessionwhich started on Tuesday hasyet to begin the debate inearnest. The reason why it failsto catch the bull by the horns isknown to all.

in yet another attempt atforging consensus, PM gilanicalled a meeting of the coun-try’s top leadership on Thurs-day. This time the militaryleadership was also roped in. itremains to be seen if the movewould provide enough courageto the parliament to moveahead.

The writer is a formeracademic and a political an-alyst.

The memo has not only become a test case forthe judiciary to untangle, it is also so forMansoor ijaz, the (named and un-named)

government functionaries, the army and the iSi. isay so not for any other reason, but for the standstaken by each party in the matter.

So far, the principal witness in the case Man-soor ijaz has been the most forthcoming in termsof testifying before the Sc-appointed commissionwith transcripts of conversations and other proofsto substantiate that he was in contact withHaqqani and the memo conspiracy was, indeed,conceived and put in motion for implementation.He has also indicated his willingness to forgo hisprivacy rights with regard to securing informationfrom the BlackBerry company. Haqqani, on theother hand, while denying the allegations, has beennon-cooperative saying that he had misplaced histwo BlackBerry sets and did not remember his pinnumbers. The army and iSi chiefs, in submittingsigned affidavits with the Sc, ostensibly based onincriminating evidence secured by the iSi whichhas already claimed the scalp of the former ambas-sador to the US, were accused of having committed‘unconstitutional acts’ by the prime minister – anaccusation that has since been withdrawn underincreasing pressure from the gHQ. in his affidavit,the cOaS had stated that the memo ‘was a reality’that had ‘affected national sovereignty’ and shouldbe investigated thoroughly. The government, onthe other hand, considered the memo a ‘non-issue’and questioned why the army chief had notbrought the matter to the notice of the government

any earlier than he eventually did. italso cautioned the iSi chief as to thechain of command that he needed tofollow under the relevant laws andrules. The detailed log of conversa-tions allegedly between various ac-tors which is part of Mansoor’stestimony provides extensive in-criminating details of the events ofthe night of May 1-2.

amid reverberations of an ac-cord having been reached betweenthe government and the security es-tablishment to bury the controversy,it remains to be seen whether thearmy and iSi chiefs stick to theirstated positions or take steps back-wards. in the former event, thememo could boil over into becominga major controversy while, in the lat-ter case, their own positions wouldbe rendered untenable - an eventu-ality that neither of them would beable to live with. in such a situation,would pursuit of truth be a preferredoption with either party, or will theyjoin hands, as indicated in variousreports, to quash it?

That brings us to the other partyin the equation: the judiciary. So far,it has taken all the right steps. it ap-pointed a three-member judicialcommission to investigate the mat-ter thoroughly which has given time

and space to each party to state its case. When thegovernment resorted to vile tactics to stop Man-soor ijaz from coming to Pakistan to appear beforethe commission, it conceded his request to recordhis statement through a video-link facility fromlondon which he has since done to telling effect.after the completion of his cross-examination, thecommission asked Hussain Haqqani to appear be-fore it on March 15 with details of his phone sets,pin codes and any other evidence that he may wantto produce in support of his contentions. He didnot come. instead he asked for the provision of asimilar facility that was accorded to Mansoor ijaz– recording of statement vide video-link from lon-don. The commission rejected his request and di-rected him to appear in person before it on March26. He has not done that again citing security rea-sons for his inability to travel to Pakistan and senta communication directly to the cJ outlining hisreasons for non-appearance. The Sc has, however,reiterated that he should appear in person beforethe commission as per his affidavit submitted ear-lier when he was allowed to leave the country thathe would appear on a four-day notice.

The question is: will he come at all? if he does,of which the chances now appear to be slim, thematter would proceed towards its final resolutionon the basis of ascertainment of evidence producedby each party before the commission. But if hedoes not, which appears the more likely option atthis stage, what is the course that the judiciarywould follow in pursuit of truth and what are theroles that every other party to the case would play,more notably the government and the chiefs of thearmy and the iSi?

The matter has become even more relevant inthe light of the proposals that the Parliamentarycommittee on national Security (PcnS) has sub-mitted for discussion before the parliament for therevival of Pakistan-US relations. This endeavourwould have to be viewed in a different perspectiveif some of our own senior officials were found in-volved in forging conspiracies with a foreign powerto destabilise national military and intelligence in-stitutions. So, it is absolutely vital that the courtgets to the bottom of the alleged conspiracy beforethe parliament could move any further with theproposed review of the Pakistan-US relations.

The crucial factor here is not so much whetherone party is guilty or the other. The crucial factoris the task of seeking the truth in a matter that hasadversely impacted the legitimacy of the govern-ment functionaries and security institutions alike.For them to continue with a stigma on their char-acter would be absolutely untenable. apparently,the government is virtually pitted against the se-curity establishment. if, along the way, there hasbeen a decision to forget and forgive, that does notrender the task of seeking the truth any less impor-tant and relevant. if, for any reason or a combina-tion of reasons, the pursuit is aborted, it would bea sad day for the country, its institutions and itsfast-obliterating credentials.

The writer is a political analyst and a memberof the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can bereached at [email protected]

More relevant than ever, not lessIs it really free?

Dictating to parliament Seeking the truth

Candid CornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad



SEOULafp

SOUTH Koreansaged under 18have beenbanned from

attending an upcomingconcert by US pop divalady gaga after it wasrated unsuitable foryounger audiences, or-ganisers said. ladygaga will begin herthird concert tour, ‘TheBorn This Way Ball’, onapril 27 at the OlympicStadium in Seoul. Theshow had an initial agerating of 12 and olderbut the Korea Mediarating Board, a statewatchdog, has adjustedit upwards, said event organiser Hyundaicard. "Our company will respect the

board's decision and refund all tickethold-ers younger than 18," a Hyundai card of-ficial told aFP. Some religious groups in

South Korea have op-posed the concert, say-ing lady gaga hasadvocated homosexual-ity and performed in anexplicitly sexual man-ner. lady gaga is ex-pected to do 110 showsthis year following onthe success of hersmash hit ‘Born ThisWay’. The eccentricstar, who has a recordnumber of almost 22million followers onTwitter, will kick off herworld tour in Seoul.From there she will takeher pop hits and extrav-agant costumes to Hong

Kong, Japan, Singapore, new Zealand andaustralia, where she will stage six shows.

NEWS DESK

The last day of showcase 2012 ended on apositive note with the important an-nouncement of an ethical fashion platformin which prominent designers from southasian countries will come forward to pro-duce “garments without guilt”. The design-ers who showcased their collections on thelast day of the event were. Faiza Samee:Her collection took inspiration from thecourtesans of lahore and their beauty,grace and refined taste. in Faiza’s handsthe past comes alive through colour, shapeand style. Mian Nauman: His collection‘Mela’ was an overt display of the feelingsof festivity and joy embedded in Punjabiculture. Sanya Muneer: Her labellaunched its first screen print collection-agraceful and very feminine line with thesignature fusion of cuts and embellish-ments that Sanya is known for. Datch:The Datch’s Spring Summer 2012 collec-tion, ‘next Vintage’-is for those who lovedaywear in institutional colours like white,

blue and beige, combined with fresh sum-mer colours like light red, lemon yellowand light blue. ‘Heritage Freak’ is for casualdressers, but with stylish details. ‘Urbanchic’ is for the rockstar soul, in black andgrey with touches of white. Agatha Ruizde la Prada: after conquering the Span-ish fashion industry, agatha ruiz de laPrada is in Pakistan for the first time. Thecollection included agatha’s classic linearshapes as well as oversized coats, tuxedos,wide-leg pants and jumpsuits, flareddresses and skirts - honouring the modernwoman. Feeha Jamshed: She showcasedthe deeply personal ‘Minnaal’ collection,dedicated to her sister who passed awaytragically last year in Paris. The collectionconsisted of silks, cotton, velvet, muslinand cotton jersey. This collection was alsothe launch of the ‘Feeha Jamshed’ brandlabel, for which the music was titled ‘Foran angel’ by Mustafa ali Jamshed. MoniaFarooqui: Her collection was about theglitz and glamour of the chandni Bar withan east meets west undertone.

Showcase 2012 day 4:Ends on a high note

Under-18s barredfrom Lady Gaga concert

MuMBaI: After setting the box office on fire withtheir 2009 blockbuster ‘3 Idiots’, Rajkumar Hirani,Aamir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra will team uponce again. ‘3 Idiots’, a comedy-drama, was directedby Hirani and produced by Chopra. The film starringAamir, Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi,omi Vaidya and Boman Irani was loosely adaptedfrom the novel ‘five Point Someone’ written byChetan Bhagat. Reportedly, Aamir has signed Hirani stentatively titled film ‘PK’, which is to be produced byChopra. “we have finished writing ‘PK’," Hirani toldreporters. Asked if the trio would team up again,Hirani said, "Yes, it would be a return." earlier, Aamiron his birthday had said, "I would love to do Raju`s(Hirani) film. But I want him to make theannouncement. The script is very good. Raju is a verygood director and a very good human being. we havespoken about a film, but it is better if he announcesit." This year, Aamir will be seen in ‘Talaash’, apsychological thriller directed by Reema Kagti whichalso features Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukerji. It isslated for release either in november-end or earlyDecember. Then he has Yash Raj films’ ‘Dhoom 3’,which is schedule to release in 2013. aGenCIeS

Anti-smoking campaigner Vivek booked for public smoking

Aamir backagain with ‘3Idiots’ team

MuMBaI: There was a time when actors Shah

Rukh Khan and Arjun Rampal were inseparable. So

much so, that the two were seen together almost

everywhere. The friendship between the two actors

was very visible among their family members too.Mehr Rampal and Gauri Khan were very close

friends. However, everything doesn’t seem to

be well between the two actors, and they

have not been seen together of late. Ina recent party that Rampal had thrown

to celebrate his business partnership

with Rohit Bahl, the ‘Don’ wasnowhere to be seen. And neither washis wife. Speaking to a leading daily a

source revealed: “Arjun invited all hisclose friends from the industry whichincludes Shahrukh and Gauri. In fact,

Mehr and Gauri have almost beeninseparable all these years. But neither of

them came.” few months back, Shah Rukhallegedly ended his friendship withPriyanka Chopra over speculations of an

affair between the two. Then the King wasseen avoiding Vidya Balan. And if the grapevine

is to be believed, then Khan’s ‘Don’ co-star isthe latest in the list to have received the coldshoulder from Shah Rukh. who knows who

would be next in SRK’s list. aGenCIeS

fAshIon

The end of SRK and Arjun’s

friendship?

MUMbAi: Vivek Oberoi and 23

others have been booked under

the Tobacco Act following a

surprise check in a restaurant,

where cops stumbled upon

sheesha smoking, the use of

which is banned in public areas.

The 35-year-old actor, who is

incidentally the ambassador for

World Health Organisation’s anti-

smoking movement, denied

smoking hookah but probe will

reveal the details. A police team

had visited his restaurant and

arrested all the customers for

smoking sheesha. Around 15

hookahs were seized. Oberoi

requested the cops to let him go

as he did not smoke. However, all

the customers including Oberoi

have been booked. aGenCIeS


MuMBaI: Sonam Kapoor has opted out of ManiRatnam’s new film. the role has now gone to theupcoming tamil-telugu actress Samantha Ruth prabhuwho also will make her Bollywood debut with ‘assinabey poore Sau’. "at this point in her career goingSouthwards for Sonam would give the wrong signal tothe filmmakers in Bollywood. Mani had his heart seton Sonam since she suited the young innocenteffervescent sophisticated girl`s role to the hilt. hehad to look for a last-minute replacement," said asource. ‘assi nabey poore Sau’ had an interesting rolefor the female protagonist who had to go from age 15to 25. Sonam was reportedly considered for the role,but later Samantha was finalised for it. Samantha wassupposed to make her hindi debut with the movie’sremake ‘ek deewana tha’. the film pairs Samanthawith aditya Roy Kapoor, who disappeared after‘Guzaarish’ and ‘action Replayy’. Currently the actor isfocusing on getting the look and performance as a 15-going-on-25 loverboy right. aditya has gotten rid ofhis trademark curly mop for the role. "Both Sam andaditya have to have to go through three age-transitions from 15 to 20 to 25. their love story startswhen they’re six. obviously Sam and aditya couldn`tplay the six-year old pair. But the three other stagesin the characters` lives have been pulled offeffortlessly by the lead air," said Menon. aGenCIeS

15

LOS ANGELESafp

J Ulia roberts has taken time off fromHollywood of late to focus on her threeyoung children -- but admits she enjoysbeing back on the big screen, as a fairy-

tale villain in her latest movie. Playing the evilQueen in ‘Mirror Mirror,’ a new version ofSnow White, marks a departure for the USactress, whose career has included everythingfrom campaigning lawyer to high-class callgirl and celebrity love interest. it is directedby indian filmmaker Tarsem Singh, whomade last year's ‘immortals’. roberts, who at44 remains one of Hollywood's most bank-

able stars, made her name in films including1990's ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘erin Brockovich’in 2000, and said she never thought shewould appear in a fairy tale. "Just the onesentence pitched over the phone: 'Hey,they're doing this Snow White adapta-tion,' that didn't grab my attention. ididn't have any interest in this one,really, until Tarsem lured me in hislurid way." she told reporters. Thefilm tells the story popularisedaround the world by Disney, but givesit a different, sometimes comic or even ab-surd twist. The ‘notting Hill’ star said sheliked playing the Queen, Snow White'scruel stepmother.

Beatles musicalplanned for 50thyear of debut song

LONDON: a london musical willmark the 50th anniversary of theBeatles' debut single ‘love Me Do’,released in Britain in October 1962. ‘letit Be’ will feature live performances of astring of hits including ‘Twist andShout’, ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Hey Jude’.Described by organisers as a "theatricalconcert", the show will combine liveperformances with video footage to tellthe story of the Beatles' journey tobecome the most successful pop groupin history. ReuteRS

Kim tops forbes’most overexposedcelebrities listLOS ANgELES: Forbes magazine hasreleased a list of the most overexposedcelebrities, and it’s not too difficult toguess which star ranks first. We’ll giveyou a hint: she’s a Kardashian. The listis based on a survey conducted byencino, california-based e-Pollresearch. Sixty-five percent of surveyrespondents said they believeKardashian is overexposed. Kardashianstars in multiple reality TV series andis a tabloid fixture who’s beenendlessly scrutinised for her short-lived marriage to nBa player KrisHumphries last year. lindsay lohanand ‘Jersey Shore’ star nicole ‘Snooki’Polizzi are tied for second on the list at64 percent. not surprisingly,Kardashian’s sisters and co-stars,Kourtney and Khloe, also makeappearances on the list. The surveyranks a total of more than 6,600celebrities. Here are the top names onthe list with their “overexposed rating”:1. Kim Kardashian, 65%2. lindsay lohan, 64%3. nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, 64%4. nadya “Octomom” Suleman, 62%5. Paris Hilton, 60%6. Kate gosselin, 57%7. Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, 56%8. Kourtney Kardashian, 53%9. levi Johnston, 51%10. Khloe Kardashian, 51%. aGenCIeS

Sonam Kapoor’s losssamantha’s gain

MuMBaI: Actress Katrina Kaif, who is shootingfor Yash Chopra's untitled film in London, hassaid the veteran Bollywood filmmaker has asharp mind. After a gap of eight years, Choprahas returned to direction with the ShahrukhKhan Katrina starrer romantic film, which isslated for Diwali release. "we had a shootingschedule in London. It was extremely nice. Theweather was cold out there but we had a nicetime," Katrina at the launch of a book based onone of her films, 'Rajneeti - The film and Beyond'."we think of Yashji as a senior and young at heartman. But you have to be on sets to understand

how sharp he is. He picks up small things likesomething was disturbing me or something withmy mood, he used to pick up all that-which no oneelse does. He is very special person." Shooting forthe untitled film, which also stars AnushkaSharma, started in the third week of february inLondon. Katrina also happened to injure herself onthe sets of the film, which she thinks is a goodluck sign. "I hurt myself on bike. while I wasgetting off the bike I hurt my leg as I had it onsilencer. But in a way it is a good luck sign,"Katrina said. "every time I hurt myself during films,it turns out to be good thing." aGenCIeS

Yashji is asharp person,says KatrinaKaif

Julia Roberts reflects on evil in'Mirror Mirror'

Lohan admits personalproblems were makingcareer `fall apart`

wASHINgTON: lindsay lohan says shehas realised that personal problems wereharming her career and the actress nowhopes to move forward by putting work first.lohan - who has endured a string of legalproblems and stints in rehab in recent years -had her probation for a 2007 driving underthe influence (DUi) conviction come to anend on March 29. The troubled star admits ithas taken her some time to figure out thatshe needed to correctly address the difficul-ties in order to move forward. “it’s a tremen-dous weight i feel has been lifted off myshoulders and i feel really grateful and justhappy and ready to move forward,” a websitehas quoted her as saying. now that the sen-tence is complete, the ‘Mean girls’ star ishopeful she can put her career first and stopthe spotlight being on her personal life. “ithink i became more of a celebrity and i’dlike to bring the focus back to what it is i loveto do and what i started in this business for,which is acting. i think this being in my past(now) means it is something i can achieve,”the actress said. aGenCIeS

Justin Bieber fansdeclare twitter war onGaga's little monstersLOS ANgELES: Hell hath no fury like aBelieber scorned. earlier this month ladygaga surpassed Justin Bieber as the most-followed person on Twitter. But the Biebs'army has devised a plan to get their man backas king of the Twitterverse. "To all beliebersthis is operation unfollow lady gaga," anardent J.B. fan tweeted, as excerpted by thenew York Post. "i'm sorry if your a 'littlemonster' but don't (you) want Justin to be #1followed on Twitter? Well here is the plan.First, it's simple to lok up lady gaga onTwitter. next unfollow her. i'm not trying totrash gaga or anything i am a [fan] of hermusic but i think Justin should be #1followed on Twitter," the superfan added.Bieber nation even created a hashtag to helpget the pop icon back on top:#OperationUnfollowgaga. gaga's littleMonsters were not amused by the Beliebers'tactics. "Pathetic," one fan responded. andwhile lady gaga might be queen of the socialmedia world with over 21 million followers,we somehow think Justin is doing just finewith his 19 million-plus. aGenCIeS

DiCaprio embarrassedby 'Titanic'performance

LOS ANgELES: actor leonardoDicaprio was embarrassed when herecently revisited his 1997 blockbuster‘Titanic’. Director James cameron andDicaprio's co-star Kate Winslet Tuesdayattended the premiere of the new 3Dversion of the film. Dicaprio never made itto the red carpet, but cameron revealed hisformer leading man was left red-facedwhen he recently re-watched the film. "iwish leo could be here but he's shooting afilm. it would have been great for leo to behere, to be part of the celebrations. i didn'tshow him the whole film but i showed him18 minutes of it a few months ago. it was agood reunion for us but great to watch hisreaction. He couldn't believe it. He said tome, 'i'm such a young punk. look at me.'He was practically crawling under the seat.it was a good moment," dailystar.co.ukquoted cameron as saying. aGenCIeS


Saturday, 31 March, 201216 Foreign News

DAMASCUSafp

inTernaTiOnal envoy Kofiannan urged Syria’s Bashar al-assad to immediately imple-ment a ceasefire, as fightingraged Friday even after the em-

battled leader said he had accepted thepeace plan.

Demonstrators took to the streetsacross Syria to protest against whatthey regard as the inaction of arabgovernments in the face of a crack-down that the United nations says hascost more than 9,000 lives sinceMarch last year. Un-arab leaguepeacebroker annan’s ceasefire appealcame as monitors said shells raineddown on Homs, a main rebel bastionwhich has been the focus of much ofPresident assad’s year-long crack-

down on anti-regime protests.“We expect him to implement this

plan immediately. clearly we have notseen a cessation of hostilities on theground. This is our great concern,” thespokesman said, adding the “deadlineis now” for assad’s regime to end allviolence. The plan calls for a commit-ment to stop all armed violence, adaily two-hour humanitarian cease-fire, media access to all areas affectedby the fighting, an inclusive Syrian-ledpolitical process, a right to demon-strate, and release of arbitrarily de-tained people. “i can’t tell you what thenext steps will be if they don’t stopnow,” the spokesman said, addinghowever that annan was due to briefthe Un Security council on Mondayand “we will take it from there.”

annan is also working to convincethe Syrian opposition to “lay down their

arms and start talking,” he said. State-run news agency Sana said on Thurs-day that “President assad... hasinformed annan that Syria approvesthe plan (the envoy) submitted but hadmade remarks about it.” assad would“spare no effort” for the success ofannan’s six-point plan but said the pro-posal would only work if “terrorist acts”by foreign powers stopped. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Humanrights said at least 11 people were killedin violence on Friday, most of themcivilians. Protesters took to the streetsdespite a fierce assault by securityforces on the town of Maaret al-numanin idlib province in the northwest. “Thedesertion of the arabs and the silenceof the Muslims are the hardest thingsfacing Syrians,” read a sign held up at aprotest by hundreds of people in theidlib settlement of Kafaroma.

g Refiner Tupras says to

cut imports by fifthg Ankara hopes to obtain

waiver from US sanctions

ISTANBULReuteRS

Turkey said on Friday it will cut im-ports of oil from iran by a tenth,ceding to US pressure a week afterWashington warned Tehran’s cus-tomers they could incur US sanc-tions unless they significantlyreduce purchases.

Pressure from Washington andBrussels, which will slap a eU-wide embargo on iranian oil fromJuly as part of a campaign againstTehran’s nuclear program, has ledto a rally in oil prices this year asmarkets fear supply shortages.

The West’s energy watchdog,the international energy agency,has warned that iran might haveto halve its exports by around 1

million barrels per day later thisyear because of the eU embargoand as its four biggest customers— china, india, Japan and SouthKorea — are also cutting imports.Turkey, the fifth largest buyer ofiranian oil, had previously re-frained from committing to lowerimports, saying it had long-estab-lished relations with its neigh-bour iran and was too dependenton its oil.

its statement on Friday effec-tively leaves china as the onlycountry that has yet to commit of-ficially to cutting imports in amove that would potentially fur-ther squeeze Tehran’s stretched fi-nances, which rely heavily on oilrevenues. Turkey’s energy Minis-ter Taner Yildiz said on Friday thecountry would reduce purchasesby around 10 percent and Turkey’ssole refiner Tupras, a unit of KocHolding , said it would cut importsby 20 percent. “We plan to in-crease the number and the route ofcountries we buy oil from,” Yildiz

said, adding Turkey will partly re-place the oil with 1 million tonnesit expects to buy from libya. Thecountry is also in talks with Saudiarabia on spot oil purchases andlonger term contacts, he added.

Turkey imports around200,000 barrels per day of oilfrom iran, representing 30 percentof its total imports and more than7 percent of iran’s oil exports.EXEMPTIONS: Having beenomitted from a list of countriesgranted exemptions by Washing-ton, Turkey remained hopeful ofobtaining a waiver to avoid U.S. fi-nancial sanctions. The UnitedStates exempted Japan and 10 eUnations from sanctions becausethey have significantly cut pur-chases of iranian crude oil, but leftiran’s top customers china andindia exposed to the possibility ofsuch steps. Tupras, the main Turk-ish customer, currently buys some30 percent of its crude oil fromiran, and it has an 9 milliontonnes annual purchase contract.

Israeli firewounds 45 asPalestiniansmark Land Day

JERUSALEMafp

israeli fire wounded more than 40Palestinians in a series of low-level clasheson Friday as thousands rallied in the WestBank and gaza to mark land Day, medicalsources said. Demonstrations also tookplace in annexed east Jerusalem andacross israel, as well as in Jordan andsouthern lebanon to mark the annualevent that commemorates the deaths of sixarab israelis at the hands of israeli forcesduring protests against land confiscation in1976. Palestinian medical officials said atotal of 311 people were injured in clasheswith the israeli army and police, of whom44 were wounded by israeli fire. and oneman was seriously hurt after being hit inthe head by a tear gas canister. in gaza, 30people were injured by live fire, while inthe West Bank, 13 people were wounded byrubber bullets; in east Jerusalem, a seniorofficial of the Fatah movement ofPalestinian president Mahmud abbas washit in the mouth by a rubber bullet, medicssaid. The israeli army said it was aware ofjust two people injured by live fire in gaza,one of whom rolled a burning tyre attroops near the erez crossing, and anotherwho approached the border fence and setsomething alight near Khan Yunis. atQalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem,Palestinian youths hurled rocks and settyres alight, and troops retaliated with abarrage of tear gas, rubber bullets and stungrenades, an aFP correspondent said. inBethlehem, several hundred people ralliedby the main checkpoint, and a man wasseriously injured by a tear gas canister astroops tried to break up thedemonstration, medics and an aFPcorrespondent said. in the northern WestBank, around 1,000 people rallied at KafrQaddum while another 500 peoplegathered in iraq Burin, with scores ofpeople suffering from tear gas inhalationas troops tried to break up the protests. ingaza, 30 people were injured by livegunfire after thousands joined a march tomark land Day, a spokesman for theHamas emergency services told aFP. Mostof the injuries were in Beit Hanun, with 24people injured near the erez crossing,while another six were hit near Khan Yunisin the south. The army confirmed firingtoward a man who “lit a tyre and rolled itat the soldiers” near the erez crossing,hitting him in the legs. and militarysources confirmed shooting a man in theleg near Khan Yunis after he set somethingalight very close to the border fence. insouth lebanon, hundreds of Palestinianrefugees gathered near the historicBeaufort castle as large numbers oflebanese troops looked on, with barbedwire erected to ensure no one approachedthe flashpoint frontier, an aFPcorrespondent said. and in Jordan, morethan 15,000 people, joined “a peaceful sit-in” at Kafrein, some 10 kilometres (sixmiles) from the allenby crossing, securityofficials said.

JeRuSaleM: an Israeli mounted policeman disperses palestinian protesters during a demonstration marking land day in east Jerusalem on friday. AfP

Annan calls for immediate Syria ceasefire

Turkey to cut Iran oilimports, bows to US pressure

US, Russia to focus

on ‘homework’ until

election: officialMOSCOW

afp

Big breakthroughs between Washingtonand Moscow will have to wait until afterthe november US elections, with the twosides meanwhile doing “homework” onisues such as missile defence, a top USofficial said Friday. “This is an important‘homework’ period in the US-russiarelationship,” acting Undersecretary forarms control and international Securityrose gottemoeller told reporters andstudents at a Moscow university. “now wehave to think about the future,” said theveteran russia expert. “How are we goingto cooperate on missile defences?” USplans to deploy a naTO-backed missiledefence shield in europe has stronglybothered russia, which wants a legallybinding agreement saying the systemwould not be used or aimed against it atany time. gottemoeller’s remarks camejust days after US President BarackObama was overheard telling his russiancounterpart Dmitry Medvedev that hecould be more flexible on thecontroversial issue once he is re-electedin november.

Clinton in Saudi push toend crackdown in Syria

RIYADHafp

US Secretary of State Hillary clinton met King abdullah on Friday in the Saudicapital, state news agency SPa said, as she kicked off a two-country tour aimed atraising pressure on the Syrian regime. it said Defence Minister Salman bin abdulaziz, Foreign Minister Saudi al-Faisal and the kingdom’s intelligence chief,Mogran bin abdul aziz, also took part in the meeting but gave no further details.clinton is due on Saturday to hold talks in riyadh with ministers of Saudiarabia’s five gulf arab neighbours — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and theUnited arab emirates — before broader meetings on Sunday with arab, Turkishand Western officials in istanbul. aides said clinton will discuss how to makePresident Bashar al-assad comply with a new plan to end his crackdown on apro-democracy movement, study further sanctions against his regime andconsider ways to aid the opposition who will be in istanbul.


Foreign News 17Saturday, 31 March, 2012

PARISafp

French police arrested 19 people in acrackdown on suspected islamist net-works Thursday as President nicolasSarkozy made the battle against ex-tremism the keynote of his re-electioncampaign.

arrests took place in several cities,including Toulouse, where extremistgunman Mohamed Merah was shotdead by police last week after a seriesof cold-blooded shootings that leftseven dead, including three Jewishchildren. Sarkozy said the arrests tar-geted “radical islam” and that thetrauma in France after the shootings inToulouse and nearby Montauban waslike that felt in the United States afterthe September 11, 2001 attacks.

agents from the Dcri domestic in-telligence agency and elite police car-ried out the dawn raids in Toulouse inthe southwest, the Paris region, nantesin the west, lyon in the southeast andthe Provence region. Three of the 19suspects arrested were women, policesaid. Judicial sources said 17 of thosearrested were being held for question-ing. in France, suspects in terror-re-

lated cases can be held for up to fourdays without charge.

a senior police source told aFP au-thorities had up to 100 suspected is-lamist radicals in their sights andSarkozy said Friday’s operation wasonly a start. “There will be other oper-ations that will continue and will alsoallow us to expel from our national ter-ritory a certain number of people,” saidSarkozy, in the thick of campaigningfor France’s april-May presidentialelection. “What must be understood isthat the trauma of Montauban andToulouse is profound for our country,a little — i don’t want to compare thehorrors — a little like the trauma thatfollowed in the United States and innew York after the September 11, 2001attacks,” he told europe 1 radio. aftertrailing Socialist candidate FrancoisHollande for months in the polls,Sarkozy has jumped ahead in first-round voter intentions and seen hissupport rise in the wake of the attacks.

generally seen as stronger on se-curity than Hollande, Sarkozy is keento make law and order a key issue in acampaign that has so far been domi-nated by the economy, jobs andspending power, where the Socialist is

stronger. The latest poll by cSa re-leased Wednesday said 30 percent ofvoters would pick Sarkozy and 26 per-cent would go for Hollande in theapril 22 first round. But all polls stillpredict Hollande winning the May 6second round. Sarkozy said Friday’sraids were not directly linked to theToulouse shootings but targeted at ex-tremists networks. Police said Kalash-nikov assault rifles and other weaponswere seized. among those arrested inthe nantes region was Mohammedachamlane, the head of a suspectedextremist group called Forsane alizza,the sources said. Three Kalashnikovs,a glock pistol and a grenade wereseized from his home. Some ofSarkozy’s opponents branded the ar-rests a public relations stunt, withSteeve Briois, the general secretary ofthe far-right national Front, callingthe raids “an electoral manoeuvre”.“The ‘big haul’ made overnight by theDcri and the raiD — the elite policeunit that shot Merah — doesn’t foolanyone,” he said in a statement.“Waiting for the horror of theToulouse killings to start taking actionshows the cynicism and opportunismof nicolas Sarkozy.”

JaKaRta: an Indonesian policeman fires tear gas during a clash between police andprotesters at a rally against the government’s plan to hike prices of fuel on friday. AfP

french police round upsuspected Islamists as vote looms

US Senate urgesIran to freeBahai leaders

WASHINGTONafp

The US Senate has urged iran to free jailedleaders of the Bahai faith and urgedsanctions against officials in the islamicrepublic over treatment of the religion’sfollowers. in a resolution approved by voicevote late Thursday, the Senate said it“condemns the government of iran for itsstate-sponsored persecution of its Bahaiminority and its continued violation of theinternational covenants on Humanrights.” The Bahais, whose faith wasfounded in iran two centuries ago, havefaced persecution both before and after the1979 islamic revolution. The clericalregime bars Bahais from higher educationand government posts. The resolutionurged iran to free seven Bahai leadersgiven 20-year prison terms in 2010 oncharges that included “spying” for israel.The Bahai global headquarters, whichpredates the Jewish state’s 1948 creation,is in Haifa. The Senate urged PresidentBarack Obama’s administration to“sanction officials of the government ofiran and other individuals directlyresponsible for egregious human rightsviolations in iran, including against theBahai community.” Obama in September2010 announced that the United Stateswould freeze assets of iranian officials overhuman rights violations and took actionagainst eight, largely over the crackdownon opposition protests a year earlier. TheObama administration’s chief focus,however, has been on halting iran’s nuclearprogram which critics of Tehran say isaimed at building an atom bomb. TheBahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, tobe the latest prophet sent by god andbelieve in the spiritual unity of all religionsand all mankind. There are more thanseven million Bahais worldwide, including300,000 in iran, community leaders say.

Hungary presidentcancels plans amidplagiarism scandal

BUDAPESTafp

Hungarian President Pal Schmitt cancelledall his engagements Friday, news agencyMTi reported, amid speculation he couldresign after he was stripped of hisuniversity doctorate over plagiarism.Schmitt’s spokesman also said thepresident would make an announcement onstate television in the evening. “Pal Schmittwill answer all pertinent questions thisevening on national television,” norbertKiss told journalists gathered in front of thepresidency in Budapest, without giving anymore details. The Hungarian press widelyexpected a resignation Friday and wasalready debating possible successors.earlier in the day, Prime Minister ViktorOrban, a close ally of Schmitt, told publicradio that the president alone must decidewhether he should resign from the largelyceremonial post. “nobody except him candecide,” Orban said in his first reaction tothe plagiarism scandal. Schmitt wasstripped of his 1992 doctorate titleThursday after Budapest’s SemmelweisUniversity found he had copied “word-for-word” large passages of another writer’swork in his thesis on the history of theOlympic games. Schmitt returned onThursday from a trip to South Korea butdodged journalists waiting for him at theairport. Opposition parties meanwhilecalled on him to resign. “He must gobecause he has become unworthy of thepost of president,” said Socialist partyleader attila Mesterhazy. an investigativecommittee from Semmelweis Universityhad found Tuesday that Schmitt had copiedlarge parts of his thesis, but ruled that thetext complied with requirements at the timeand put the blame on the university for notnoticing. nevertheless, the university’ssenate decided to strip him of his doctorate.Weekly HVg first outed Schmitt inJanuary, reporting that the “majority” of histhesis was a “word-for-word translation” ofa text written in French in the 1980s by lateBulgarian sports expert and diplomatnikolai georgiev.

KABULafp

an afghan policeman poi-soned and then shot deadnine of his colleagues whilethey were sleeping earlyFriday in the eastern

province of Paktika, police and provin-cial government officials said.

it was the latest in a series of shoot-ings by afghan security personnel oftheir local and foreign colleagues,deaths that have ramped up tensionsbetween the allies even as naTO-ledforces prepare to pull out by the end of2014. Paktika provincial police chiefDawlat Khan said the shooting hap-pened before dawn in Yahyakhil dis-

trict. “a local policeman named asadul-lah was persuaded by Taliban insur-gents to carry out the firing inside thesecurity check post,” he told aFP. “Firsthe poisoned his colleagues and thenlater he woke up for night duty at 3:00am. Then he used his assault rifle to killhis nine colleagues. They were sleepinginside the post.”

asadullah fled the scene after theshooting and is on the run, he added,and there were no survivors. Mokhlisafghan, spokesman for the Paktika gov-ernor, confirmed the attack and thatone policeman had fled, adding that twoothers had been arrested. earlier inMarch, another nine afghan policewere killed, in the southern province ofUruzgan, in an insurgent attack that au-

thorities said was believed to have beenfacilitated by a fellow officer and sus-pected Taliban infiltrator. The gunmanin Friday’s attack and his victims belongto the so-called local afghan police,militias that form part of the govern-ment’s security forces but do not comeunder the national police set-up.

Paktika is a hotbed of the Haqqaninetwork, essentially a faction of the Tal-iban allied to al-Qaeda, and neighboursPakistan’s tribal belt, which Washing-ton considers to be a global hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. TheTaliban, who have been fighting an in-surgency against Hamid Karzai’s gov-ernment in Kabul and its Western alliesfor more than a decade, claimed re-sponsibility for the attack. Spokesman

Zabihullah Mujahid said in a text mes-sage to aFP: “last night, a mujahidfighter attacked a security check post.as a result, he killed nine puppet localpolicemen. “The mujahid fighter hasmanaged to escape and joined the Tal-iban ranks.” naTO troops have been or-dered to adopt strict new securityprecautions to counter the threat. iSaFcommander US general John allen or-dered some advisers to carry weaponsand for naTO units to designate oneteam member as a “guardian angel” tostay armed and on alert for possiblefratricidal attacks, officials said. coali-tion troops working at afghan govern-ment or military buildings are requiredto move desks to make sure their backsdo not face the door.

Afghan policeman shootsdead nine colleagues

United Nation official raps India over ‘extrajudicial killings’

NEW DELHIafp

a top Un official called on india on Fridayto investigate allegations of rampantextrajudicial killings and abolish asweeping law that allows security forces toshoot on sight. christof Heyns, a UnSpecial rapporteur, issued the call aftertravelling for 12 days through india’sinsurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir stateand the northeast, as well as the states ofKerala, gujarat and West Bengal. Heyns,the Un expert on extrajudicial, summaryor arbitrary executions, urged the indiangovernment to set up a commission ofinquiry into widespread allegations ofwhat he dubbed “so-called fakeencounters”. “Despite constitutionalguarantees and a robust human rightsjurisprudence, extrajudicial killings are amatter of serious concern in india,” Heynssaid. in a statement he described “fakeencounters” as: “a scene of a shootout iscreated in which people who have beentargeted are projected as the aggressorswho shot at the police and were then killedin self-defence.” india must tackle aculture of impunity that protects troops,police and public officials fromprosecution over illegal killings, custodialdeaths and detentions, as well as improverights for women and children, he added.


Saturday, 31 March, 2012

Page 21

Sharapova beats wozniackito reach Miami final

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

THe new Pakistan cricket teamcoach Dav Whatmore hasshown he meant business as hespent most of his time this

week at the rawalpindi cricket stadiumwhere the national Super eights T20championship is underway. Whatmorealong with fielding coach, Julian Fountainhave been present at the Pindi stadiumfor all the matches since Monday. "Theycome to the stadium before the start ofthe first match and leave late night all thewhile watching the players in action andtaking down notes," a board official said.

The official said that Whatmore wasexpected to have a meeting with thechairman of the Pakistan cricket Board(PcB) Zaka ashraf after the tournamentas he was planning to set up a condition-ing and training camp for a shortlisted

players picked from the national Supereights event. "it is clear that Whatmorewants to have a close look at the youngtalent in Pakistan and get a chance to

work on them with Fountain," anotherofficial said. Whatmore's presence atthe national tournament has alsoprompted national selectors to be pres-ent at the venue. Pakistan's next inter-national assignment is tour to Sri lanka,starting late May. Whatmore took overas Pakistan coach before the asia cup,where Pakistan beat Bangladesh in thefinal to win the title after 12 years.

The board has given him an initialtwo-year contract to work with the teambut officials say the contract can be ex-tended depending on the results What-more produces. a board official alsoconfirmed that they have got encourag-ing response for the position of bowlingcoach with the national team, which wasadvertised with a deadline of March 23."Mostly local coaches have applied butthere are also some foreigners interestedin the job," he said. The PcB advertisedfor a bowling coach after aaqib Javed's

resignation from the position. The PcBchief has said that he was keen to ap-point another professional coach, whocan help Pakistan produce the bestbowlers. "The committee is handlingthe appointment of the bowling coach.We have experts on that committee whowill be dealing with that matter. i don'tinvolve myself in their day to day work,but just ensure that they are doing theirjob properly," ashraf said.

"My personal preference is to ap-point the best person for the job, irre-spective of whether that individual isfrom Pakistan or outside. We want who-ever is appointed to be a professionalcoach and help us in producing the bestbowlers and to give those bowlers thebest techniques," he added. Sources saidthat the board would be taking What-more's input before appointing a bowl-ing coach as he has to work on thesupport team under the australian.

Whatmore observesyoung talent in hand

ISLAMABADaGenCIeS

The three schoolboys jumped a barrier andwalked nearly a mile to buy tickets to aTwenty20 at rawalpindi cricket Stadium.

Truth be told, 14-year-old classmatesazizullah Khan, Zubair Khan and nomanKhalid would have been happy to walk al-most any distance to see their heroes upclose; Saeed ajmal and Umar gul takingwickets and Umar akmal whacking bound-aries.

The boys had only ever seen them ontelevision for the last three years, ever sinceforeign teams refused to tour Pakistan aftergunmen attacked the Sri lanka team bus onthe morning of a 2009 test in lahore.

The ambush killed six police officialsand a van driver, wounded and scarredmembers of the Sri lanka tour party, andshut the door on Pakistan hosting interna-tional cricket.

"i have not seen international matcheshere," azizullah said as he bought three tick-ets for 300 rupees from a makeshift ticket

booth in a container beside the road. "everyone here is thinking, when will

international cricket return to Pakistan?" good question. The Pakistan cricket Board still hopes it

will be next month. Bangladesh accepted an invitation to

visit Pakistan in april for the first time since2008 and play three one-day internationalsor two ODis and a Twenty20. a high-pow-ered Bangladesh delegation - led by thecountry's cricket board head Mustafa Kamal- was briefed on security by top officials ofthe Pakistan government. But the PcB is stillwaiting for a response from Bangladesh.

in the meantime, the PcB and govern-ment have been working to make cricket asafe haven for their own people.

For the Super eight Twenty20 tourna-ment in rawalpindi, which featured most ofPakistan's international players, all eightteams were given beefed up security.

about two dozen armed guards in twovans escorted each team from the hotel tothe stadium and back, and 1,400 securitypersonnel were posted in a three-kilometer

(two-mile) radius of the stadium. everything went off without a hitch, ex-

cept for the fate of the home team, the de-fending Super eight champion rawalpindirams, who were knocked out after losingtheir group matches to the Sialkot Stallionsand lahore eagles.

"(For) the last three years there has beenapprehension regarding security measures,"said Malik Matloob, a senior rawalpindi po-lice official. "Whether it's a local or interna-tional (event), we consider it as aninternational challenge for us, that's whywe're arranging (security) like it is an inter-national cricket event.

"now we are in a position ... we canmake any arrangements for national as wellas international cricket."

new Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore andfielding coach Julian Fountain regularlywatched the sold-out matches from ViPboxes and the PcB felt the tournamentserved a dual purpose in delivering high-class matches to local fans.

"i think it's very important for our ownsurvival to have these events," PcB director

Zakir Khan said. "it's for the international community to

see that cricket is safe and at the same timewe are producing quality cricketers and weare competitive in the world arena.

Pakistan test spinner Danish Kaneria,who played for one of the two teams fromKarachi, hoped Bangladesh will come toPakistan and help break the ice.

"Once a smaller team (like Bangladesh)comes to Pakistan then automatically theother teams will get to know what our secu-rity is like," Kaneria said. "The security pro-vided by the PcB and the administrationover here is wonderful. They are taking careof us as if we are playing internationalmatches."

PcB hired DgM Securities to liaise withlocal police. The company has worked withthe PcB for 10 years, looking after stadiumsecurity for series against new Zealand,Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, india and the 2008asia cup.

"after 2001 (and the 9/11 attacks),things changed," company chief executiveSyed nadeem Mansur said. "We have

started to install metal detectors to scanevery single visitor at every entrance andthen we have started to scan their luggagewith x-rays, too."

closed circuit cameras are also aroundthe stadium to watch the crowd.

"anybody can come here and see the se-curity measures, and if they find any gap inthe security measures we would be sur-prised," Mansur said.

He added he briefed the Bangladeshdelegation and said the visitors were con-vinced the security was sufficient.

"if somehow they don't come ... i am al-ways interested to know if it is a securitymatter," Mansur said.

Shariq ahmed, a fan at the Super eightwearing the green jersey of Pakistan, be-lieved the tournament's successful securityshould send positive signals abroad.

"This gives us a chance to show interna-tional players that Pakistan is a safe coun-try," ahmed said. "There's a huge responsefrom the crowd with the stadium full inevery match, and that's a good sign for Pak-istan cricket."

Pakistan showcase security and passion for cricket

Cancer-hit Yuvraj

Singh gets

Tendulkar boostNEW DELHI

afp

indian World cup hero Yuvraj Singh, who isrecovering after cancer treatment, received aboost when batting superstar Sachin Ten-dulkar visited him in london. The duo metfor an hour at an apartment of Yuvraj's friendon Wednesday, the Press Trust of india newsagency said Friday, adding the all-roundergot a warm embrace from Tendulkar andthey posed for photographs. Tendulkar, theworld's leading scorer in both Test and one-day cricket, wished Yuvraj a speedy recoveryand an early return to the game. Yuvraj wasdischarged on March 18 from a hospital inthe United States, where he had been under-going chemotherapy for a malignant tumourbetween his lungs. Thousands of well-wish-ers, including US cycling great lance arm-strong, have sent messages to the 30-year-oldYuvraj, who is known for his aggressive bat-ting and disciplined spin bowling. Yuvraj,who has scored 8,051 runs in 274 one-dayers and 1,775 runs in 37 Tests sincemaking his international debut in 2000,is expected to return to the field in May.

GALLEafp

england captain andrew Strauss faces close scrutiny of his bat-ting and leadership skills as he attempts to keep his spin-shat-tered team on top of the world Test rankings. england, whotoppled india from the mantle with a memorable 4-0 white-wash on seaming wickets at home last year, have comeunstuck on the spinner-friendly tracks of asia over thelast three months. The 75-run defeat to Sri lanka in thefirst Test in galle on Thursday was england's fourthconsecutive loss, following the embarrassing 3-0hammering by Pakistan in the United arab emirates.if Saeed ajmal and abdur rehman wrecked englandin the Uae with a combined haul of 43 wickets in theseries, Sri lanka's rangana Herath and Suraj ran-div grabbed 18 of the 20 wickets in galle.england are already assured of a bonusof $175,000 from the internationalcricket council as the numberone side on the cut-off date ofapril 1, but their future at thetop remains perilous.Strauss' men will slip tonumber two behind Southafrica if they fail to winthe second and final

Test in colombo from Tuesday. among mounting concern for abadly bruised england is the form of their captain. Strauss hasnow gone 23 innings without adding to his 19 Test centuries, av-eraging a poor 28.52, and has managed just one three-figureknock in his last 48 innings. He made 26 and 27 in galle, fallingboth times to Herath, but the left-hander put on a brave face. "i

feel in good form, but you're judged on your perform-ances and i have not performed well enough," the 35-

year-old admitted. "My job in the side is to scoreruns, the same as any other batsman, and i havenot scored as many as i would have liked in the last12 months or so. "That's very frustrating, but hope-fully i will put it right next week." Strauss admittedhis team's inability to put runs on the board had

proved costly, both against Pakistan and Sri lanka.england's batting coach and former Test skipper gra-ham gooch backed Strauss to come good as a bats-

man and saw no threat to his captaincy. "as faras i am concerned, andrew Strauss is the

best guy to captain england," gooch saidon Friday. "He is also one of the twobest opening batsmen in the countryalong with alastair cook. "i haveevery confidence in him. i see thepassion in him. i see the commit-ment every day on the trainingpitch trying to improve his game.

england’s Broadout of final Test

COLOMBOafp

england seamer Stuart Broad was onFriday ruled out of the second and finalTest against Sri lanka with a calf strainand will immediately fly home, dealing afurther blow to the tourists. The 25-year-old is also a doubt for the indianPremier league, which starts next week,where he has signed up for Kings xiPunjab. Broad played in the first Test ingalle, which england lost by 75 runs,despite struggling with a sprain in hisleft ankle. He suffered the calf injuryduring the match. "Broad has been ruledout of the final Test against Sri lankaafter a scan today confirmed a right calfstrain," england and Wales cricketBoard (ecB) said in a statement. "Broadwill return to the UK immediately forfurther assessment before beginning arehabilitation programme which will de-termine his availability for allcricket, including the iPl."england will not seek areplacement for Broad forthe Test starting at the P.Sara Oval in colombo onTuesday, leaving TimBresnan and StevenFinn in the reckoning tofill the vacant spot.england need a win tostay on top of the Testrankings. a draw or adefeat willsee Southafricatakeoveras thenum-beroneside.

Strauss under scrutinyas England slump


FAySAl bANK T20

lahoRe eaGleS InnInGStaufeeq umar c Shahzaib hasan b tanvir ahmed 30adnan akmal b haaris ayaz 9Imran farhat b Mohammad Sami 41azhar ali c Rameez Raja b haaris ayaz 23humayun farhat b faraz ahmed 3ali azmat c tariq haroon b Rumman Raees 11Saad nasim run out Sarfraz ahmed 19Junaid zia b Rumman Raees 0Mohammad Khalil not out 1extra lb 3, w 6, nb 2 11total 8 wickets; 20.0 overs; 148fall of wickets 1-46; 2-48; 3-112; 4-115; 5-119; 6-146; 7-147; 8-148Bowling: Mohammad Sami 4.0-0-35-1, tanvir ahmed 4.0-0-34-1, Rumman Raees 4.0-0-27-2, haaris ayaz 4.0-0-25-2, farazahmed 4.0-0-24-1KaRaChI dolphInS InnInGSShahzaib hasan c S-aad nasim b Mustafa Iqbal 19Khalid latif c I-mran farhat b emmad ali 14Rameez Raja b Mustafa Iqbal 2asad Shafiq c taufeeq umar b Mustafa Iqbal 58Sheharyar Ghani not out 44Sarfraz ahmed c Saad nasim b taufeeq umar 1Mohammad Sami not out 3extra lb 1, w 5, nb 2 8total 5 wickets; 18.1 overs; 149fall of wickets: 1-22; 2-24; 3-74; 4-136; 5-143 Bowling: Mohammad Khalil 2.0-0-19-0, Junaid zia 2.0-0-24-0,Mustafa Iqbal 4.0-0-26-3, ali azmat 1.0-0-15-0, emmad ali 3.0-0-18-1, Saad nasim 4.0-0-34-0, taufeeq umar 2.0-0-10-1, azharali 0.1-0-2-0toss: Karachi dolphins, who chose to field, umpires: ahmedShahab and nadeem Ghauri, Match Referee: Ishtiaq ahmed

SCoReBoaRd

Sports 19Saturday, 31 March, 2012

Dolphins down eagles,Stallions win over Rams

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Karachi Dolphins defeated lahore eagles byfive wickets in the ongoing Faysal Bank T20cup at rawalpindi Stadium on Friday whileSialkot Stallions defeated rawalpindi ramsby seven wickets in the second match of theday. Put into bat lahore reached 148 foreight in with imran Farhat being the highestscorer for lahore but asad Shafiq with hishalf century got Karachi a five wickets win.lahore eagles reached 50 runs in 7.1 oversand 100 runs in 13.3 overs. azhar ali 30 ,imran Farhat 19 a scored 50 runs for thethird wickets in 41 balls. But Karachi gotits 50 runs in 5.2 overs and 100 runs in12.0 overs. later asad Shafiq reached his50 off 39 balls to ensure win for Karachi.

LAHoRe: Salman Akeel Butt lifts 126 kg in jerk in the 77 kg class duringthe naqi Butt Memorial weightlifting Championship. STAff PHOTOLAHoRe: The students and teachers of Lahore College University compete in tug of war during the annual sports. STAff PHOTO

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

in all 10 sports events were held onthe opening day of the lahore col-lege of University annual sportsbeing held at the institute ground.

ReSultS200 Meter race, iqbal Bano, Hinaiqbal, Bisma afzalObstacle race, Faiza aslam, SairaZulfiqar, Javeria rafique400 Meter race, Bisma afzal, asiaSattar, ghazala Siddiquechatti race, Humaira Yasmin, ra-heen Khalid, rabia Sharif4x100 Meter relay race, ghalazaSiddique, Bisma afzal, asia SattarBalance race, Hira Shahid, asiaSattar, Maria nazirStaff vs Students Tug of War, , , class iV employees race, Mubeenali, Muhammad azam, M. Javedadmin Staff Sack race, M. asif, M.nadeem, Shahbaz MajeedMusical chair for guests, KhalidaMalik, Faiza niazi, Tayyaba Malik.

LCU annual sports held

LAHORE: guard group its match of the Summer cupPolo to qualify for the main final to be played on Sundayhere at the aibak ground of the lPc. guard group hav-

ing five goals from previous four chukkers added anotherfive to beat newage which added another five to its previ-ous four goals. Thus guard group won the match 10-9.

raja Samiullah and Taimur ali Malik played a winningrole while abdul rehman Monnoo and Shah Shamylalam performed from the losing side. Staff RepoRt

Guard Group in Summer Cup final

LAHoRe: Guard Group and newage riders in action during the Summer Cup Polo. NADEEM IjAz

Lahore whites beatLahore Shaheen

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

lahore Whites beat lahore Shaheen by10 wickets and qualified for the regionalprequarterfinal of the 14th national Vet-eran Senior cricket cup.at race course Park ground, lahoreShaheen batting first 109 all out after24.4 overs. Shokat ali Junior 50 &Javeed Orangzaib 11 runs. lahore WhiteBowling asim Sheikh right arm legSpinner bowling well 5/25 wickets, TariqSiddiqui 2/17, Mohtasham rasheed2/30 & Shahid aslam 1/19 wickets. inreply lahore White 110 without loss anywicket after 13 overs. Test cricketerSaleem Malik played well 61 runs not out& ghaffar Kazmi 47 runs not out. Javeedashraf, Muhammad Kaleem Umpire &abdul Hameed was the scorer.

JOHANNESBURGafp

InDia were at 71 for no loss by theseventh over when rain halted theplay in a one-off Twenty20 interna-tional with india at the Wanderers

Stadium on Friday. india required another149 runs with 10 wickets in hand and 12.1overs to be bowled. gautam gambhir 49 androbin Uthappa 18 were at the crease at thetime the games was stopped. earlier,Jacques Kallis and colin ingram shared arapid century partnership as South africaposted a formidable total of 219 for four.Kallis made 61 off 42 balls and the left-handed ingram raced to 78 off 50 deliveriesafter South africa were sent in to bat.

The pair put on 119 of 80 balls for thesecond wicket. indian captain MS Dhoniused eight bowlers but runs flowed as thebatsmen took advantage of a good battingpitch, short boundaries and a fast outfield.richard levi gave the hosts a fast start, hit-ting four boundaries before being caught at

slip for 19 off seven balls. The Kallis-ingramstand enabled the later batsmen to go fortheir shots, with new cap Farhaan Behardienhitting an unbeaten 20 off 11 balls and JustinOntong 22 off seven before albie Morkel,coming in with only three balls remaining,hit Suresh raina for two sixes and a four.

Kallis, Ingram punish IndiaSouth afRICaR. levi c Sharma b I. pathan 19J. Kallis c Sharma b ashwin 61C. Ingram c Sharma b Raina 78f. Behardien not out 20J. ontong b Raina 22a. Morkel not out 16extras (lb1, w2) 3total (4 wkts, 20 overs) 219foW: 1-22 (levi), 2-141 (Kallis), 3-168 (Ingram), 4-203 (ontong)Bowling: p. Kumar 2-0-22-0 (1w), I. pathan 4-0-44-1 (1w), V.Kumar 3-0-32-0, ashwin 4-0-33-1, Y. pathan 1-0-9-0, Raina 4-0-49-2, Sharma 1-0-14-0, Kohli 1-0-15-0did not bat: d. Vilas, J. Botha, W. parnell, J. theron, l. tsotsobeIndia: MS dhoni (capt), Virat Kohli, Robin uthappa, GautamGambhir, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf pathan,Ravichandran ashwin, Irfan pathan, Vinay Kumar, praveen Kumar.toss: India, umpires: Johan Cloete, Shaun George (both RSa).tV umpire: adrian holdstock (RSa), Match referee: Chris Broad.

SCoReBoaRd South Africa launchesreforms after bonus scandalJOHANNESBURg: The board of cricket South africa on Friday agreed tolaunch a series of reforms recommended by a ministerial panel that investigateda $600,000 bonus scandal. The board had already suspended chief executivegerald Majola for one year, but on Friday it agreed to overhaul its governingstructures to avoid a repeat of the saga that has damaged cricket's image inSouth africa. acting cSa president Willie Basson said the board will "apply therecommendations from there in the best interest of cricket South africa with theinfluence and contribution of independent and outside members to enrich theprocess". Basson said all cSa affiliates would be asked to provide input to a newsteering committee, which would provide guidelines for a meeting later this yeargathering the board, sponsors and other interested parties who will decide onhow to reform South african cricket. "This is a matter of urgency. i would likethis matter to be finished before our annual meeting in September," Basson saidafter the board meeting. a government-initiated inquiry headed by retired judgechris nicholson in March recommended prosecutors open a case against Majolaover a scandal that has dogged the national cricket body for several years. com-panies have been reluctant to sponsor the national team and tournaments, andSports Minister Fikile Mbalula said last week that cSa needed fresh leadershipto create "a new era of hope and clean governance". afp


Sports20Saturday, 31 March, 2012

Rallying: Hirvonenin lead as fordduo spin off

FAROafp

citroen's new recruit Mikko Hirvonen in-herited the lead in the rally of Portugal onFriday after Ford duo Jari-Matti latvalaand Petter Solberg spun off in treacherousconditions. after the second day's firstthree special stages Hirvonen improvedfrom his third place overnight to top theoverall standings. The Finn's closest pur-suer is russia's evgeny novikov who isover 36 seconds back with norwegianMads Ostberg (41s) in third. Overnightleader latvala left the road and ended upin a ditch towards the end of the fifth stagewith former world champion Solberg, whohad briefly held the lead, suffering thesame fate in the sixth stage.

Army-PAf inneelum-JhelumBasketball final

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

army and PaF have reached the final ofthe WaPDa Sport Board-organisedneelum-Jhelum Men’s national Basket-ball championship being played here atthe WaPDa Sports complex. in the semi-final PaF beat railways with 88-61 scoreand army defeated Wapda 74-64. ReSultS: PAf scorers were Ahmad Jan 28, M. Akhtar20, M. Praim Shahzad 17 while Raiwlays got its pointsfrom Shan Malik 15 Allah Baksh 12, Asher Gil 7. Armygot its score from Pervaiz Hussain 29, nawazish Ali 16,Mudassir Khan 14, waheed Akhtar 09 and wapda scor-ers were Jahangir Ahmed 12, Atif Mukhtar 09, falakfarid 07, Amir Iqbal 05. The final will be played todayat 4 pm while the 3rd and 4th Position March betweenRailways and wAPDA will be played at 9:00am.

Jr Talent Hunt camp LAHORE

Staff RepoRt

The Punjab lawn Tennis associationhas announced the junior talent-hunttennis camp for boys and girls that willget underway at the PlTa Tennisacademy from Monday (april 2).Khawaja Mohammad Bakhsh, secre-tary PlTa, said that the object of thecamp is to promote that game at thegrass root level and develop interest ofthe youngsters towards the sport. The secretary himself will supervisethe camp and for further details con-tact Mohamamd ayub 0322 4097256.

United might havebenefited from a refereeingclanger on Monday, butthat is not the reason whythey’re the frontrunnersfor the league title

and another controversial decision goesin Manchester United’s favour at OldTrafford, and in turn instigates anothertrain of “why don’t you just hand them thetitle” chants. it is true thatMichael carrick’s challengeon Danny Murphy late on inthe United-Fulham game was astonewall penalty, and it is alsopretty obvious that another referee bot-tled it big time at the Theatre of Dreams,but to say that United would go on to winthe title because of refereeing gifts isstretching the clamour a bit too far.

granted, United tend to get refereeingblunders more often in their favour, thanagainst them at Old Trafford, but that’ssomething all home sides benefit from.

There is not a single ground in anydivision of any league in the worldwhere the officiating errors aren’tskewed towards the home side.except that in the case of United– with all their success – this tiltis touted as a conspiracy theoryby the opposing fans, the mediaand quite often rival managers aswell. it’s human nature to be in-timidated by thousands offans constantly behind yourback. it shouldn’t be thecase with someone offici-ating at Premier leaguelevel, but it doesn’t meanthat this manifestationof incompetence onMichael Oliver’s part

was intentional. and to suggestthat if the english championsgo on to defend their title itwould be because of a collectivescheme of the referees union isnot only the quintessentialdemonstration of paranoia italso shows total discard of

the efforts of a team that has been onthe up since December, and madea tough run of fixtures look like acakewalk – at least in terms of the

points accumulated. in factUnited have had quite a few de-

cisions going against them thisseason at Old Trafford as well.

Off the top of my head; thepenalty kick awarded

for the foul that neverwas against Ben

arfa, possibly thebest tackle that

rio Ferdi-nand has

c o n j u r e dup this sea-

son in thematch againstnewcastle and

also the horren-dous challenge on JavierHernandez that ashleycole got away with, aretwo major incidentsthat spring to mind.Yes the cliché thatthings ‘even thingsout’ over the courseof the season, isn’texactly true – for

the rub of the greenalmost always tendsto favour someone– but over thecourse of 38 gamesthe luck factor issignificantly re-duced than say in acup final, hence theother cliché that ‘theleague table neverlies’ is spot on.

Sir alex’s pressconference or indeedhis general personaquite often smacks ofarrogance, and heknows his wayaround intimidatingpeople as well. Buthe hasn’t built hisempire solely byshouting his dis-pleasure in thereferees’ eyes.even the factthat this Unitedside, which isquite a fewnotches belowthe Unitedteams of years

gone – and as their european misadven-ture divulged – below the standard othertop european teams are setting, finds it-

self three points clear at the top of thetable is proof of the resilience of thisgroup of players. and this again is

mostly due to the ethos created bySir alex at Old Trafford. United

have been on the up since theturn of the year – following the

back to back defeats againstBlackburn and newcastle

in December –, whichhas seen them over-

take Manchestercity at the summitof the league. and

while United gotaway with

M i c h a e lO l i v e rpulling outa referee-i n gclanger onM o n d a y ,

that will notbe the reason

behind the de-fence of their title –if it materializses of

course…

Of conspiracy theories and referees winning titles

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

EPL CRYSTAL BALL

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The 14th aamer Hayat Khan rokhri Bad-minton Tournament will start from March23 to 29 here at the new Khan Hall withan aim to lift the standard of the sport.

addressing a press conference hereon Friday, Shahrez abdullah Khanrokhri, president Punjab Badminton as-sociation and chairman organizing com-mittee, said that all the four provinces,Fata, gilgit Baltistan, islamabad and de-partments including Wapda, Police and

nBP are taking part in this tournament.He further informed that a total of rs150,000 will be distributed among thewinners of the event to be contested inmen’s, ladies, singles, doubles and mixeddoubles categories. Wajid ali and Pal-washa Basheer are the defending cham-pions of the tournament which is to beparticipated by around 150 players fromacross the country, he maintained.

He also announced the organizingcommittee that have naqi Mohsin, ranaishtiaq, Shahnawaz Malik, Tayyab So-hail, liaqat ali, Khawaja akhtar abbas,

azhar Javed and rafeeq Babar. He further informed that chinese

shuttlecocks will be provided in the tour-nament. “i have joined the sport as itspresident once officiated by my fatherjust to keep it from decaying and lead itonce again to sky high.

“Pakistan players were among tohundred but now none of the Pakistanisis among top 500 in the world. and evendue to the parallel body the World feder-ation has banned Pakistan and for that iwould try my best to get the country itslost status,” he maintained.

LUMS Super 10’s Rugby

LAHORE: The Pakistan rugby unions incollaboration with the Punjab rugby as-sociation lums University will hostslUMS Super 10’s rugby Tournamentwhich is being held from april 14-15. Pak-istan rugby Union Development officerJamal Quersi said that that lums organ-izes this tournament every year. This isten a side tournament full of great rugbymatches. this is came at very importantmoment when Pakistan team prepara-tions on ground to Play asian 5 nationstournament in May. Staff RepoRt

14th Aamer Hayat Khan Rokhri Badminton from 23rd


Sports 21Saturday, 31 March, 2012

watCh it Live

ESPNSports Center

07:30PM

LiSbON: Finish pilot Mikko

Hirvonen and co-pilot Jarmo

Lehtinen compete in their

Citroen DS 3 WRC during

the second stage of the

2012 Portugal Rally. AfP

Radwanskareaches Miami final

MIAMIafp

World number four agnieszka radwan-ska beat French seventh seed MarionBartoli 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday to reach thewomen's final of the Miami hardcourttennis tournament. Poland's radwanska,who shrugged off a power outage thathalted the match for more than 30 min-utes to wrap up the victory, will faceworld number two Maria Sharapova inthe championship match on Saturday.radwanska ended an impressive runby Bartoli, who had handed worldnumber one Victoria azarenka her firstdefeat of 2012 in the quarter-finals.

Model Town Gymcrush Shah Kamal

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Model Town gymkhana crushed ShahKamal club in the lahore regioncricket association Sprite lahorecricket league 2011-12. Model Town gymkhana got 10 wicketswin at the ittefaq cricket ground. ShahKamal club made 98 in 35.2 overs. ar-slan Sher remained top scorer with 21runs. Basit Saeed (right arm Fast) ofMTg took 3/17, imran iftikhar (offSpinner) took 2/1 and abdul rehman(OS) also took 2/14 for his team.in reply Model Town gym chasedthe small target in 10 overs withoutlosing any wicket. Jamil Khan andaimad ul Haq remained unbeaten on54 and 35 runs.

MIAMIafp

THree-TiMe runner-up Maria Sharapovabooked her second straight Miami finalThursday, rallying to beat disgruntledcaroline Wozniacki and set up a title clash

with agnieszka radwanska. Sharapova clinched a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 semi-final victory over the Dane after twohours, 34 minutes, the match ending in acrimony asWozniacki objected to the chair umpire's overrule of

a call to Sharapova's benefit on match point.World number four radwanska's 6-4, 6-2 vic-

tory over Marion Bartoli was more straightforward,but included an injury to the seventh-seeded Frenchplayer as well as a power outage that held up pro-ceedings in the second set. "For sure one of theweirdest matches, especially the lights," saidPoland's radwanska, who led 4-2 in the second setwhen the court went dark. "You're really focusedon the match and really want to finish in two sets.Suddenly, the lights go off." She kept her concen-tration and returned to finish off Bartoli, whoreached the semi-finals by handing world numberone Victoria azarenka her first defeat of 2012.

a day after that triumph, Bartoli was hinderedby a left thigh injury and had 35 unforced errors, fail-ing to hold serve once. radwanska's reward was ameeting with Sharapova, who has won seven of theireight encounters. "i'm just going to try to play ag-gressive and mix everything," radwanska said."We'll see what's going to work." Sharapova wasserving for the match and up 40-30 when her secondserve was called long -- a call overruled by the chairumpire, who ordered the point replayed.

Wozniacki did not like it, but was out of videochallenges. Sharapova stepped up to serve again,working her way into position to put away a forehandfor the victory. Wozniacki, who declined to shakehands with the chair umpire after the match, said itdid not matter that television replays showed he wascorrect. "i think when the ball is so close that i thinkhe should give her a chance to challenge at least wheni don't have any challenges," Wozniacki said. "Shewas going to challenge it, anyways. So if it shows it'sgood, it's good. if it shows it's out, it's out. The ballwas so close that it might as well have been out."

Sharapova said she would have certainly chal-lenged the call if the umpire had not overruled it. "itis a tough situation to be in because it is close to theend of the match and both of us fought so hard forover two hours and you don't want the match to endlike that," she said. Sharapova is now a perfect 4-0in semi-finals in Miami -- but 0-3 in finals.

Sharapova beatsWozniacki toreach Miami final

KeY BISCAYne: Maria Sharapova celebrates a pointagainst Caroline wozniacki during the Sony ericssonopen semi-final at the Crandon Park Tennis Center. AfP

MIAMIafp

argentina's Juan Monaco celebrated his28th birthday in style by surprisingeighth-seeded american Mardy Fish 6-1,6-3 in the quarter-finals of the WTa/aTPMiami Masters tournament on Thursday.not many people gave underdog Monacoa chance against Fish, but the 21st seedhas now won three straight against theamerican after dropping their first twomatches back in 2005 and 2006.

"i can't believe it," Monaco said. "i havea lot of emotions it is good to celebrate thisway, playing unbelievable tennis on mybirthday. "every shot i wanted to play i did.it was a perfect match for me. i returnedwell and then i served very, very good." in

the semi-finals Monaco will face eitherworld no. 1 novak Djokovic or fifth seeded

Spaniard David Ferrer, who were playing inthe night session. Fish broke Monaco in the

sixth game of the second set to make it 3-3but Monaco responded by winning threestraight, closing it out on the first of threematch points with a backhand drop shot.This is Monaco's ninth appearance inMiami but the first time he has reached thesemis. Monaco, of Buenos aires, improvedto 11-4 on the year and is chasing his secondtitle of 2012 after capturing his fourth careercrown in Vina del Mar in February. Monacoput on an impressive serving display by win-ning 71 percent of his first serve points as heneeded just 82 minutes to oust Fish. The30-year-old Fish, who lost in the secondround at the australian Open and in thethird round at the indian Wells Masters, fellto 7-5 in 2012. The hard-serving Fish fin-ished with just one ace, one double fault andwon 40 percent of his second-serve points.

MIAMIafp

Defending champion novak Djokovicbooked a semi-final match with JuanMonaco at the Miami Masters onThursday, holding off a determinedDavid Ferrer of Spain to win 6-2, 7-6(7/1). The Serbian world number onestarted the match playing superb ten-nis, dictating the rallies and givingfifth-seed Ferrer few chances to gain afoothold.

He took the first set in just 32 min-utes and broke Ferrer in the first gameof the second, but the tenaciousSpaniard refused to go down withouta fight. Ferrer regained the early breakand was holding his own until a looseservice effort from the Spaniard sawDjokovic break for a 5-4 lead and achance to serve out the match.

Ferrer denied him and the set thenwent to a tie-break. Djokovic claimedan early advantage as Ferrer swatted

an ill-judged forehand into the net tofall behind on his serve on the firstpoint. Djokovic, 24, was firmly in con-trol during the tie-break as he ad-vanced to a meeting with Monaco,who celebrated his 28th birthday bysurprising eighth-seeded americanMardy Fish 6-1, 6-3.

"it's always going to be toughagainst David. He's one of the greatestcompetitors on the circuit," saidDjokovic, the winner of the past threegrand Slams. "i didn't want to get tothe third set because physically he's al-ways there."

"i had a fantastic first set, break upin the second twice, serving for thematch, and then in some moments,you know, i allowed him to take con-trol in the rallies," Djokovic said."luckily for me, it was decided in a tie-break," he added. in the other quarter-final, Fish broke Monaco in the sixthgame of the second set to make it 3-3but Monaco responded by winning

three straight games, closing it out onthe first of three match points with abackhand drop shot.

it is Monaco's ninth appearance inMiami but the first time he hasreached the semis. "i can't believe it,"said Monaco, the 21st seed. "i have alot of emotions. it is good to celebratethis way, playing unbelievable tennison my birthday. "every shot i wantedto play i did. it was a perfect match forme. i returned well and then i servedvery, very good."

Fish said Monaco's all-aroundgame was too much for him. "He did alot of things well and i think morethan anything else, he shrunk thecourt extremely well with his move-ment and that's why i think you saw aton of errors from me," the americansaid. "i was pressing a lot just becausehe wasn't giving me anything." Fri-day's other semi-final will pit second-seeded Spaniard rafael nadal againstBritish fourth seed andy Murray.

KeY BISCAYne: Agnieszka Radwanska reactsto a lost point against Marion Bartoli of franceduring the Sony ericsson open. AfP

Djokovic downs determined Ferrer

KeY BISCAYne: novak Djokovic of Serbia in action against David ferrer of Spain during the Sony ericsson open. AfP

Birthday boy Monaco sinks fish



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

PESHAWARStaff RepoRt

claiMing to have killed 35miscreants and getting con-trol of militant strongholds

in Upper Orakzai, officials on Fridaysaid two security personnel hadbeen killed and 11 others injured inclashes with the militants.

an official said security forcesstarted advancing to gain hold of theBarlaas area of Upper Orakzai in thenight between Thursday and Friday.The operation continued until Fridaymorning. Officials said during theclash, the militant strongholds weretargeted, resulting in the killing of 35miscreants. The official said 32 deadbodies were in their possession and

identified, while three had been leftbeyond recognition. During the mili-tary action, 13 dens of militants atBarlaas were also destroyed. as a re-sult of severe resistance, two person-nel of the security forces were killedand 11 others injured. The killed wereidentified as Frontier corps consta-bles Wakeel ahmad and Sher nawaz.The officials said advancement con-

tinued in the area and claimed fur-ther increase in casualties of the mil-itants. They also informed thatsecurity forces, with the help of heli-copter gunships, also got hold ofDaboori, Badama, Sandoori and Sragarhi areas of Upper Orakzai.US drone kills four in NwA:at least four suspected militantswere killed when a US drone fired

four missiles on a hideout in mainbazaar of Miranshah, headquartersof north Waziristan agency, in theearly hours of Friday. Tribesmen inMiranshah said some suspectedmilitants were sleeping inside abuilding in Sarafa Bazaar when theywere struck by four missiles fired bya US drone. Officials confirmed thekilling of four militants.

Two soldiers, 35 militants killed in Orakzai operation fai gets 2-yearterm for lobbying for ISI

WASHINGTONReuteRS

a US judge on Friday gave anamerican of Kashmiri origina two-year prison sentenceafter he admitted secretlyreceiving millions of dollarsfrom Pakistan and its spyservice while lobbying in theUnited States. Syed ghulamnabi Fai, 62, a naturalizedUS citizen, pleaded guilty inDecember to conspiracy andtax violations dating back to1990 for a scheme to concealsome $3.5 million that camefrom Pakistan to fund hislobbying efforts over thedisputed territory ofKashmir. US District Judgeliam O’grady in alexandria,Virginia, handed down theprison sentence for Fai, to befollowed by three years ofprobation. Prosecutors hadurged the judge to sentencehim to four years in prisonwhile Fai argued he shouldbe sentenced to homeconfinement. Fai served asthe executive director of theKashmiri american council,which described itself as anonprofit organization runby Kashmiris and funded byamericans. But USauthorities have said some ofthe money came fromPakistan’s intelligenceservice, iSi, and that hefailed to register as an agentof a foreign government asrequired under US law.Prosecutors said Fai tried todraw the attention of USofficials to india’s actions inthe disputed territory ofKashmir and away fromPakistan’s own actions in thedivided mountain area. Thetwo nations have fought twowars over it. “Syed Fai istoday being held accountablefor his role in a decades-longscheme to conceal the factthat the government ofPakistan was secretlyfunding his efforts toinfluence US policy onKashmir,” said assistantattorney general lisaMonaco, head of the JusticeDepartment’s nationalSecurity Division.

US to rely on Indiaif Pakistan does notopen supply routes

WASHINGTONonlIne

US will have to default andrely on india and the northerndistribution network ifPakistan does not open up itscrucial afghan supply route, atop Pentagon official toldlawmakers Friday. However,the Pentagon official testifyingbefore a congressionalsubcommittee did not gavedetails of the indian network,on which it can depend for itscrucial supplies toafghanistan. “if we can’tnegotiate or successfullynegotiate the reopening ofthe PaK glOc (groundlines of communication) wehave to default and rely onindia and the northernDistribution network, ourincreased strat airlift,”Marine corps lieutenantgeneral Frank Panter, theDeputy commandant forinstallations and logistics,told lawmakers. Both areexpensive propositions and itincreases the deployment orredeployment, Panter said inhis testimony before thereadiness Subcommittee ofthe House armed Servicescommittee.at the same time,the Pentagon officialindicated that this (india) is asensitive issue.


e-paper pakistantoday 31st march, 2012

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