LAHORENAumAN TASLeem

US Ambassador Cameron Munter hassaid that the US had not set any bountyon Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

Speaking at the second annual din-ner of American Business Forum(ABF) on Saturday, he said the SC de-cision against Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani was an internal matter ofPakistan and the US respected everyinstitution of Pakistan.

“The relations of US and Pakistanare improving and many seniors fromthe US have come to Pakistan in recentdays and relations are getting normal,”he said. Munter said despite differ-ences of both countries in the recentmonths, the situation was improvingand things would hopefully get better.

He said the US had not fixed anyhead money for Hafiz Saeed, rather theannouncement was made by the Re-ward for Justice Programme.

Per the announcement, the personwho provided any information regard-ing terrorism in any country of the

world and this information led to the ar-rest of terrorists would be rewarded, headded. To a question regarding trilateraltalks of Pakistan, Afghanistan and theUS, he said Washington and Islamabadwere the supporters of dialogue and thereal stakeholders i.e the Afghan govern-ment and Taliban would themselves re-solve their issues bilaterally.

He said the US was firmly commit-ted to its partnership with Pakistan, arelation built on a foundation of mu-

tual interests, respect and trust.Munter said there was trust deficit

between both countries but it could bebridged through people-to-people con-tacts and continuous dialogue.

He appreciated the role of media inPakistan and said that in Hafiz Saeedcase, there was a bit of misjudgment bythe media. The US ambassador said thebounty was not for Hafiz Saeed ratherit was for establishing any contact be-tween Jamaatud Dawa and Mumbai at-tacks. He said there have been talksamong US, Pakistan and Afghan dele-gations for peace in the region.

KARACHIAAmIR mAjeed

AT least 11 people, including twopolicemen, a gangster and awoman, were killed on Satur-day in the ongoing battle be-tween law enforcement

agencies (LEAs) and criminal gangs forKarachi’s troubled Lyari area, a strong-hold of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The operation started after Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari ordered authori-ties to purge the area of criminalsahead of the general elections in 2013.

At least 19 people have so far beenkilled during two days of violence and morethan 50 others have been left injured.

The operation is being led by Crim-inal Investigation Department (CID)chief SSP Chaudhry Aslam. The FC, po-lice and Elite Force is taking part in theLyari operation.

Lyari has turned into a battlefieldand routine life in the town has cometo a standstill. Shops and markets inthe area have been closed down andpeople have been forced to remain in-side their houses amid frequent ex-change of heavy gunfire between LEAsand criminals.

On Saturday, residents of Lyaristaged a protest demonstration at themain football ground against the opera-tion and chanted slogans against LEAs.

They claimed that the LEAs hadstarted looting their houses in the nameof operation. They demanded PresidentZardari look into the matter and stopthe operation in the PPP stronghold.Some leaders of the Peoples AmanCommittee (PAC) have announcedtheir disassociation with the PPP.

Zaffar Baloch, Habib Jan and UzairBaloch were among those who announcedtheir disassociation with the PPP.

Office-goers found it impossible toreach work, while the Board of SecondaryEducation Karachi (BSEK) postponedexams in all six centres set up in Lyari.

Among those killed, at least ninepeople, including a Station House Offi-cer (SHO), a woman, a policeman andthe brother of a notorious criminal Mul-lah Nisar were killed in the jurisdictionof Kalakot police station. Killings alsotook place at Cheel Chowk, Afshani Gali,Gabol Park and Nawa Lane. Kalakot po-lice SHO Azam Gopang refused to takepart in the operation and relieved thecharge of his police station.

At Afshani Gali, Jogi Chowk, mis-

creants equipped with sophisticatedweapons attacked an armored person-nel carrier (APC) of police and killedCivil Lines SHO Fawad Khan.

Kalakot police head moharir Wa-heed confirmed the killing. He said themiscreants fired rockets at the APC dueto which the wind screen of the APCbroke, after which they opened blatantfire and killed the SHO.

Waheed said an ASI of Civil Lines po-lice station, Iftikhar and a head constable(HC) of Kalakot police, Syed Intizar AliShah, were also injured in the attack. Headded that three men were also killed inNawa Lane and were identified as Akhtar,Luqman and Wahid Bux.

Waheed added that two men, in-cluding a HC, were gunned down atCheel Chowk. Another man, who wasidentified as Muhammad Azeem, wasalso killed at Cheel Chowk. Separately,a woman and a man were shot deadnear Gabol Park. “Two others, includ-ing the brother of notorious Lyarigangster Mullah Nisar, Mullah Sohailand Akhtar Hussain were killed dur-ing the operation in Afshani Gali,”Waheed concluded.

WASHINGTONAFP

High-level talks on ending a diplomatic dead-lock between the United States and Pakistanhave ended in failure over Pakistani demandsfor an apology from the United States, TheNew York Times reported Saturday.

The newspaper said US special envoy toAfghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman leftIslamabad on Friday night with no agreement.

The departure followed two days of discus-sions aimed at patching up the damage causedby a US air strike last November that killed 24Pakistani soldiers on the Afghanistan border, thereport said. The United States refuses to apol-ogize for the strike.

The United States and Pakistan disagree

about the precise sequence of events in thedeadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan. Pakistan deniesshooting first, and has accused the Americansof an intentional attack on its troops.

The administration of President BarackObama had been seriously debating whetherto say “I’m sorry” to Pakistan’s satisfaction —until April 15, when multiple simultaneous at-tacks struck Kabul and other Afghan cities,The Times said. “What changed was the 15thof April,” the paper quotes an unnamed senioradministration official as saying. US militaryand intelligence officials concluded that the at-tacks were directed by the Haqqani network.

That swung the raging debate on whetherObama or another senior US official should gobeyond the expression of regret that the ad-ministration had already given, and apologize,the paper said. Without the apology, Pakistaniofficials say they cannot reopen the NATOsupply routes into Afghanistan that have beenclosed since November, the report said.

The United States, in turn, is withholdingfrom Pakistan between $1.18 billion and $3billion (2.26 billion euros) of promised mili-tary aid. The continuing deadlock does notbode well for Pakistan’s attendance at a NATOmeeting in Chicago in three weeks, assumingit is even invited, The Times said. US admin-istration officials acknowledged Friday thatthe stalemate would not be resolved quickly,the paper noted.

Karachi edition Sunday, 29 april, 2012 Jamadi-ul-Sani 7, 1433Rs 22.00 Vol ii no 302 22 pages

Today 'Sab Keh Do' is being celebrated with full enthusiasm across the country

Battle for Lyariclaims 11 more livesg 2 policemen, woman among those killed in fierce clashes on Saturday

no bounty on Hafiz Saeed: Munter

Talks between US,Pakistan fail: NYT

KARACHI: Residents of Lyari transport on a handcart the body of a victim of the ensuing

clashes between gangsters and the police on Saturday. inp

Continued on page 04

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News

Today’s

LookQuick

LaHore

Story on Page 08

newS

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cartoon

Page 13

International IT companies lend hand to Punjab govt’s IT initiative Parliament can undo SC verdict: Khosa

Shahzain Bugti surrenders to policeQUETTA: NawabzadaShahzain Bugti, provin-cial president of theJamhoori Watan Party(JWP) and grandson oflate Baloch leader NawabAkbar Khan Bugti, on Sat-urday surrendered him-self to police for arrestalong with his compan-ions. The arrest warrantsof the JWP leader were issued after the Supreme Court of Pak-istan cancelled his bail on April 7, 2012. Talking to reporters, hesaid, “We did not commit any crime.” “All cases, especially thearms recovery case, made against us are baseless and have nolegal ground.” He said on one side the government was makingtall claims of withdrawing all cases against Baloch leaders, buton the other false and baseless cases were being lodged againstthem. Shahzain rejected expressed grave concern over the base-less cases against Baloch leaders. He claimed that intelligenceagencies kidnapped his counsellor Advocate Mukesh Kohli sothat no one could follow my petition in arms recovery case. How-ever, “We would continue our struggle for our rights,” he said.“We respect and honour the decisions of the court, even thoughwe would follow up our cases to proof ourselves innocent in falsecases.” To a question regarding talks with Balochistan HomeMinister Mir Zafarullah Khan Zehri, Shahzain Bugti confirmedthat no talks have been held with the home minister. STAFF RePoRT

Gilani still PM, will

continue to work

with him: USWASHINGTON: The United States onFriday night said it continued to workwith Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilaniand believed he remained leader of thePakistani democratic government, aftera brief sentencing and conviction in acontempt of court case. “There was acourt decision, he was given a 30 secondsentence, I believe, and he remains thePrime Minister of Pakistan,” State De-partment spokesperson Victoria Nulandsaid, responding to a question at thedaily briefing. She said, “And, as such,we continue to work with him (PrimeMinister Gilani) and Ambassador Gross-man did meet with him in Pakistan.”Marc Grossman, who is special US envoyfor Pakistan and Afghanistan, also metwith President Asif Ali Zardari and For-eign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar duringhis visit, aimed at repairing the strainedties between two countries and movingforward in the light of Pakistani parlia-mentary guidelines. APP

ISLAMABADINP

FEDERAL MinistersQamar ZamanKaira and Farooq HNaik have said thatthe statement by

Nawaz Sharif was an attack onthe Supreme Court and an at-tempt to influence it before theissuance of a detailed judg-ment in the contempt caseagainst the prime minister.

Addressing a joint pressconference, Naik said it wasalso an attempt on the part ofNawaz Sharif to divert thecourt’s attention from theMehran Bank Scandal.

The minister expressedthe hope that the court would

not come under any influence.He said the supreme court

in its verdict of April 26 didnot disqualify the prime min-ister nor his membership ofthe National Assembly.

He said powers rested withthe NA speaker, chairman ofthe Senate and chief electioncommissioner to disqualify amember of the parliament.

Naik said Nawaz, his col-leagues and the SC registrarwere in a hurry to send YousafRaza Gilani home, but hecould not be sent to Multanwithout completing the legalprocesses.

The law minister said aprivilege motion would bemoved in the National Assem-bly against the registrar for his

writing of letter to the speakerand the election commission.

Kaira said after the apexcourt verdict in the contemptcase, certain opposition leadersand some TV anchors were con-tinuously talking against the re-ality. He said the PPP was notthe party that attacked theSupreme Court, rather it ac-corded due respect to the judi-ciary. Kaira said nineteen yearsago, Nawaz attacked theSupreme Court and he had onceagain launched an attack on it.

He said all political lead-ers, including Imran Khan,had spoken of devising theircourse of action after detailedjudgment, but “Nawaz andChaudhry Nisar have a diver-gent view point”.

Nawaz’s statement anattack on SC: Kaira

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03Sunday, 29 april, 2012

NewscoMMentRecipe for disaster:

articles on Page 12-13

This is a recipe for disaster.

uncompromising:Grossman did not go beyond offering his regrets.

Humayun Gauhar says:

Arif Ansar says:

foreiGn newS

Story on Page 18

artS & entertainMent

Story on Page 15

SPortS

Story on Page 18

Clashes as malaysians rally for clean elections Lindsanity hits the ‘Glee’ set

It’s ‘it’: The contempt case was a sideshow.

Indian threat moves to space: The changing nature of Pakistan’s external threats.

Saad Rasool says:A disappointing climax: Let’s get the facts out of the way first.

No conflict between coach, selectors: Qasim

KARACHI: Policemen escort a mourning colleague

after gangsters shot dead a police officer during

a search operation in Lyari on Saturday. OnLine

JEDDAHAFP

SAUDI Arabia has allowed the threewidows and children of slain Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden en-trance into the kingdom onhumanitarian grounds, a Saudi-

owned daily reported on Saturday. Citing asenior Saudi official, the London-basedAsharq al-Awsat said the kingdom “dealt withbin Laden’s wives on humanitarian grounds,”adding that authorities were confident thatthey and the children “were not involved in”the operations of the extremist group.

The widows — two Saudis and a Yemeni— arrived on Friday with their 10 children,after being expelled from Pakistan, Mo-hammed Naji Allaw, head of the Yemeninon-governmental group Hood, told AFP.

Saudi Arabia has kept totally silent onthe issue and so far has not officially con-firmed their arrival.

Yemen’s ambassador to Islamabad,Abdo Abdulrahman, however told the news-paper “bin Laden’s family arrived in Saudi

Arabia on Friday morning ... on a privateplane provided by the bin Laden family.”

He said Amal al-Sadaa, the Yemeni wifewho fathered five of bin Laden’s childrenand is said to have been his favourite, leftPakistan on Yemeni travel documents and“could return to Yemen” after a brief visitwith her husband’s extended family.

The senior Saudi official told the dailySaada was granted “a visitor’s visa to passthrough Saudi Arabia.” Allaw told AFP onFriday that preparations for Sadaa’s returnto Yemen were already underway.

Hood, which deals with human rightscases in Yemen, especially those concerningchildren, has been tasked by the widow’sbrother, Zakaria Abdulfattah al-Sadaa, withlooking after her case. Last week, familylawyer Atif Ali Khan said Sadaa and her chil-dren might be sent to Yemen after SaudiArabia. The United States declined to com-ment on the deportation.

“We see that as a matter between thePakistanis and the Saudis,” State Depart-ment spokeswoman Victoria Nuland saidin Washington.

Saudi Arabia receivedBin Ladens on ‘humanitarian grounds’

BATHINDAReuTeRS

India has held talks over exporting re-fined fuels to its neighbour Pakistan,the head of Hindustan Mittal Energysaid on Saturday, at the opening ofthe company’s new refinery close tothe border between the two countries.

Moves to stimulate trade flowsand liberalise restricted investmentrules have emerged as the keydriver of peace efforts between theneighbours, whose fragile ties wereshattered when Pakistani militantsattacked the Indian city of Mumbaiin 2008.

“There were government-to-gov-ernment discussions. A delegationfrom Pakistan came but nothing hasbeen finalised,” said S. Roy Choud-hury, chairman of Hindustan Petro-leum Corp Ltd (HPCL) <HPCL.NS>and Hindustan Mittal Energy.

“Any decision has to make eco-nomic sense,” he added.

Pakistan said last month it wasclose to removing gasoline from a listof banned imports from India. It al-lowed diesel imports in 2009, but noIndian supplies were sent in the faceof preferential prices offered by alliessuch as Kuwait.

“We have significant refining ca-

pacity to enable us to export petro-leum products,” Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh said at the officialinauguration of the Bathinda refinery.

Industry experts say fuel exportsby India to Pakistan could be diffi-cult as India’s own fuel demand isrising, and Pakistan uses fuel oflower specification than what isbeing produced in Bathinda andother Indian refineries.

The $4 billion Bathinda refinery,located 100 kilometres from the bor-der with Pakistan and 175 kilometresfrom the city of Lahore, is operatedby Hindustan Mittal Energy, a jointventure of state-run HPCL and Mit-tal Energy, owned by billionaire Lak-shmi Mittal.

Hindustan Mittal Energy is intalks with Kuwait and Saudi Arabiafor long-term crude supplies,Choudhury said.

The refinery will help to meetfuel demand in the India’s northernregion, which is short of refinedproducts.

India’s current refining capacityis close to 4.3 million barrels perday (bpd), including Bathinda’s180,000 bpd.

The plant may eventually dou-ble capacity to 360,000 barrels perday, said Mittal, also chairman of

steel giant ArcelorMittal.India’s oil minister S. Jaipal

Reddy said in January the countrywas examining a proposal to exportpetroleum products and gasoline toPakistan.

India decided to permit foreigndirect investment from Pakistanthis month, in the latest sign ofthawing economic ties between twonuclear-armed foes that havefought three wars since their inde-pendence from Britain in 1947.

India and other emerging marketsare boosting refining capacity to feedrising regional demand, while theircounterparts in the United States andEurope restructure or shut plants asfuel sales slow.

The country, which importsaround 80 percent of its oil demand,needs appropriate retail prices of fuel,the prime minister said.

“We also need to rationalizeprices and at the same time ensurethat the poor and needy are shieldedfrom the effects of such a rationaliza-tion,” said Singh.

India’s fuel retailers sell cookinggas, kerosene and diesel at belowmarket prices set by the govern-ment, and threatened to hike gaso-line prices this month in the face ofmounting losses.

india holds talks overfuel exports to pakistan

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04Sunday, 29 april, 2012

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KARACHI: Police use water canon to disperse protesting employees of NCHd during a demonstration outside Karachi Press

Club on Saturday. OnLine

ISLAMABADoNL INe

FORMER am-bassador to theUS HussainHaqqani onSaturday said

there were threats to hislife in Pakistan so hecould not appear beforethe Memo Commissionbut he said he was readyto record his statementthrough a video link.

Talking to a privateTV channel, he said afterthe memo scandal, someelements declared himtraitor of the country,however he said the threatto his life was a reality.

“The second reasonfor not coming Pakistan isbad health and my doc-tors have advised merest,” he said.

“The lawyers whoshowered the murderer ofSalmaan Taseer with rosepetals did not have theirlicences cancelled… evena retired judge, JusticeKhawaja Sharif becamehis lawyer. I do not wantto take the risk of coming

to Pakistan where somefanatic could gun medown by declaring metraitor of the country andone of the retired judgeswould take the killer’scase to the court,”Haqqani said.

He said he should getthe same right whichMansoor Ijaz was given.“The Supreme Court al-lowed him to go abroadon January30. There isnot any case against him.The people belonged tothe party of Zulfikar AliBhutto should also be dis-pensed of the justice.”

He said, “I thoughtafter the incident of May2, the US will adopt ahard stance to ask Pak-istan that what wasOsama was doing in Pak-istan and under whomarrangements he wasstaying there. But somepeople did not like myopinion and I was trappedin the memo scandal. Idid not say that I wouldnever come to Pakistan. Iwould travel when mydoctor allows me to,” headded.

Haqqani hints atlife threats tohim in Pakistan

ISLAMABADoNL INe

The Afghan Taliban onSaturday rejected the tri-lateral forum agreementin Islamabad to give asafe passage to those mili-tants willing to talk to theAfghan government.

In a message, TalibanSpokesman ZabihullahMujahid called the deci-sion a US tactic to surren-der jihadis.

In the wake of theKarzai’s administrationquest for holding directtalks with the Taliban andthe desire of Washingtonto resume the stalled talkswith them in Qatar, thehigh-level delegationfrom the US, Afghanistanand officials from Pak-istan met on Friday todiscuss the challenges andopportunities in reconcili-ation as well as peace inAfghanistan and other is-sues.

The meeting of the tri-lateral forum also knownas core group agreed toform a sub-group at UNlevel to coordinate activi-ties at New York and an-other group wouldcomprises of experts tofind out ways and meansto provide the negotiableTaliban with safe passageincluding delisting theirnames from the UN ter-rorists’ list.

Mujahid said the USand its al l ies were en-gaged in self-deceptionby applying such tacticsin the face of their de-feat.

“The US and its allieshave so far not recognizedmujahideen, who are notfighting for positions orgreed. Rather we aredoing jihad as an inde-pendent nation and repre-sentatives of Pakhtuns forfreedom.”

“The US is on run andon the verge of defeat and

it is trying to secure itsstatus quo in the world,”he said, “as according tothe meeting in Islamabadthe Mujahideen wouldsurrender in the name ofreconciliation.”

He said they (the USand its allies) should notexpect anyone fromamong the mujahideen tosurrender.

“We have not yetreached to the stage ofholding peace talks withthe international commu-nity. The focus is on initi-ation of CBMs before thetalks for peace, consensusin this connection is indeveloping process but sofar even implementationof the measures have notbeen started,” Mujahidsaid.

Releasing Talibanleadership detainedGuantanamo militaryprison was one of the im-portant conditions of Tal-iban for CBMs.

WASHINGTONAFP

Pakistan’s intelligence serv-ice believes it deservescredit for helping US spyagencies locate the hideoutof Osama bin Laden, whowas killed by US comman-dos nearly a year ago, TheWashington Post reported.

“The lead and the infor-mation actually came fromus,” an unnamed senior offi-cial with Pakistan’s Inter-Ser-vices Intelligence Directorate(ISI) told The Post.

The al-Qaeda founderand 9/11 mastermind waskilled on May 2 last year ina secret US Navy SEAL op-

eration in a walled-off com-pound in the Pakistani gar-rison town of Abbottabad,north of the Pakistani capi-tal.

Washington and Islam-abad are now working to re-pair their relationship,which was badly damagedby the revelation that theworld’s most wanted manwas living a stone’s throwfrom Pakistan’s elite mili-tary academy.

“Any hit on al-Qaedaanywhere in the world hashappened with our help,”The Post quotes one of thePakistani intelligence offi-cials as saying.

The other official, who

said he had been intimatelyinvolved in the hunt for sen-ior al-Qaeda operatives, in-cluding bin Laden, said theISI provided the CIA with acellphone number thateventually led to an al-Qaeda courier using thenom de guerre of AbuAhmed al-Kuwaiti, thepaper said.

The officials said that inNovember 2010, theyturned over the number tothe CIA, along with informa-tion that it had last been de-tected in Abbottabad, thereport said.

The ISI said it did notknow then that the numberwas Kuwaiti’s, but that CIA

analysts did, without how-ever relaying that informa-tion back to the Pakistanis,The Post noted.

“They knew who thenumber belonged to,” thepaper quoted one official assaying. “But after that theircooperation with us ended.”“It is the story of an extremetrust deficit and betrayal,”complained the other ISI of-ficial, the paper pointed out.

However a US officialdisputed the ISI version,The Post said.

“The fact is, our knowl-edge of the number didn’tcome from them telling usabout it,” the paper quotedthe US official as saying.

no silver bullet

to destroy al-

Qaeda: PanettaABOARD US MILITARY PLANE

AFP

US Defense SecretaryLeon Panetta said Fridaythere is “no silver bullet”to completely destroy al-Qaeda but argued thatkilling Osama bin Ladenhelped set the networkback.Panetta spoke to reportersaboard a military plane onhis way from Latin America,where he visited Colombia,Brazil and Chile to bolsterbilateral military coopera-tion and regional securityties.“Having been involved inthe operations, even beforewe did bin Laden, it’s clearthat there is no kind of sil-ver bullet here to suddenlybeing able to destroy al-Qaeda, and that includeseven going after bin Laden,”he said.“But the way this works isthat the more successfulwe are at taking downthose who represent theirspiritual and ideologicalleadership, the greater ourability to weaken theirthreat to this country andto other countries.”

CID Chief SSP ChaudhryAslam told PakistanToday that the operationwas still going on andLEAs had cleared manyareas of Lyari from crimi-nals. He said LEAs hadcleared Nawa Lane, CheelChowk and Afshani Galiand established its pick-ets.

He said two cops andthree gangsters had beenkilled in the operation,adding that several inno-cent people had alsofallen prey to the vio-lence.

“I will not give a dead-line for completion of theoperation but I am hope-ful that the operationwould be concluded in acouple of days.” Addi-tional Inspector General(AIG) Sindh Akhtar Ghor-

chani said that the crimi-nals had sophisticatedweapons and LEAs werefacing difficulties in theoperation. He said thecriminals had the supportof banned outfits andsome anti-state elements,“but we will complete thisoperation soon”.

“We have put extraforce on alert and ifneeded send it to Lyari tocomplete operation,” hesaid.

TV channels, mean-while, reported that thepolice were being helpedby the Arshad Pappu gangand they were activelyparticipating in the“search operation”.

Uzair Baloch told aprivate TV channel thatthe search operation wasin fact an attempt to handover Lyari’s control to theArshad Pappu gang.

Militants blowup makeshiftschool inLandikotal

LANDIKOTALINP

A building temporarilybeing used as a girls’ pri-mary school was blown upby militants in Landikotalon Friday.According to sources in thepolitical administration ofKhyber Agency, militantsplanted explosive in thegirls’ primary school build-ing located in SheikhMalkhel area of Landikotaland blew it up at around2am.The building comprisingfour classrooms, a hall andboundary wall was com-pletely destroyed after theblast, the sources said.Around 75 schools, mostlygirls’ primary schools havebeen destroyed so far by themilitants in Khyber Agency,among them 25 institutionsin Landikotal alone.

indian politician

jailed for four

years for briberyNEW DELHI

AFP

A former top leader ofIndia’s main oppositionHindu nationalist party wasjailed for four years on Sat-urday for accepting a bribeto swing a fake arms deal ina media sting operation.Bangaru Laxman, formerchief of the main oppositionBharatiya Janata Party(BJP), was secretly video-taped accepting the bribefrom journalists pretendingto be arms dealers 11 yearsago. The sting footage wasaired on television channelsnationwide, creating a polit-ical storm for the then BJPgovernment, headed by for-mer prime minister Atal Bi-hari Vajpayee.Additional Sessions CourtJudge Kanwaljeet Arorasentenced the 72-year-oldLaxman to four years “rigor-ous imprisonment” and im-posed a 100,000 rupee($2,000) fine on the politi-cian under India’s anti-cor-ruption act.

4 killed, 10 injured

in charsadda

grenade attack

CHARSADDAoNLINe

At least four people, includ-ing three children werekilled, while 10 others in-jured in a hand grenade at-tack during a marriageceremony in the Chato Ko-rona area of Charsadda hereon Saturday. According to police sources,unknown men hurled ahand grenade during a mar-riage ceremony, as a resultof which four persons in-cluding three children died.Ten others were injured inthe attack. The injured were shifted toDistrict Headquarter Hospi-tal for treatment. Police said that the attackwas motivated by an old en-mity.

Battle for Lyari

pakistan tipped off US on bin Laden: Wp

Taliban reject safepassage agreed inislamabad moot

Continued fRom page 1

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05Sunday, 29 april, 2012

News

LAHOREAGeNCIeS

PUNJAB Governor LatifKhosa on Saturday said par-liament could undo theSupreme Court verdict ascourt orders fall under par-

liament’s jurisdiction.Addressing a “meet the press” pro-

gramme at the Lahore Press Club, he saidpeople who were a product of martial lawdid not know about the significance ofdemocracy and the constitution. “NawazSharif talks about an independent judici-ary and a free media but it were PML-Nworkers who had attacked the daily Jangoffice and opened fire on it and journal-ists were attacked by PML-N activists atMuslim League House on Davis Roadwhen they took out a rally against the in-cident,” he added.

He said, “During the recent period ofChhotay Mughal-e-Azam, journalistswere treated harshly at the Punjab As-sembly.” He said until today the walls ofthe Supreme Court testified a PML-N at-tack on the building. “We know howmuch they respect the Supreme Court,”he said. He said huge amendments hadbeen made to the Contempt of Court Act1976 and 11 A were added to it in theNawaz period. “The same law existed inNawaz and Musharraf eras and it still ex-ists in the country today but the lawunder which the prime minister has beenconvicted does not exist at all,” he added.

He said the PPP had always respectedthe judiciary and PPP workers were askednot to raise any slogan and do anythingto ridicule the judiciary after the verdict.“We still have the right to appeal,” headded. He said there was no emergencyin the country which prompted the

Supreme Court to issue a short order. “Itshould have been better if the completedecision of the court had been an-nounced,” he added.

He said only the people could elect aprime minister and they had the right toremove him. He said, “The Punjab chiefminister does not accept the presidentand his brother Nawaz Sharif is againstthe prime minister. Does it happen any-where in the world?” He said on the daywhen the Supreme Court announced itsdecision, people positively responded inthe evening in the favour of the PPP can-didate who won by-elections in Multan.

“The Sharif brothers are asking forremoving the prime minister because hewas following the constitution,” headded. He said the PPP believed in thepeople and transparent elections and al-ways wanted to strengthen the country.To a question, he said it was not men-

tioned in the short order that the primeminister had been disqualified. He said,“If the prime minister writes a letter toSwiss courts, it will degrade the entirepeople of Pakistan, parliament and thearmed forces because under the constitu-tion the president has immunity.”

He said the PML-N always wanted tocome to power through backdoors but itwould not happen now as the people werefully aware and the media was vibrant.He said former minister Babar Awan andformer law secretary Masood Chishtistabbed the PPP in the back. The gover-nor said the court focused its full atten-tion towards making cases against theleadership of PPP during last four years.The behaviour of the court was inappro-priate, which should be mended. Thecourt should fix its affairs. Later, he an-nounced Rs 2 million for the extension ofthe Lahore Press Club cafeteria.

A convicted criminal is clinging to pM’s office: Ji chief

LAHORENNI

Jamaat-e-Islami chief MunawarHasan has said a convictedcriminal’s clinging to the office ofthe prime minister was setting anovel and shameful precedent inthe country. He has counseledYousaf Raza Gilani toimmediately resign as a face-saving measure and announceelections because he and hiscabinet did not have anyconstitutional status now nor wasanybody bound to obey theirorders. Talking to differentdelegations at Mansoora after hisreturn from Quetta on Saturday,Hasan said ridiculing thejudiciary and mocking at itsdecisions was in the PPP’s nature.Gilani’s claims of loyalty and protection of the constitution were ridiculous ashe had been making a mockery of the apex court decisions for the last fouryears. The JI chief also blamed the PML-N, saying it was equally responsiblefor the present mess in the country. He said the PML-N had not only providedthe convicted man an opportunity to enter parliament but had also providedthe PPP a free hand by staging a walk out. Hasan said practically, there wasno government in the country at present and if the situation continued,disorder and anarchy would prevail. He advised Gilani to at least have mercyon himself if not the country and bow to the SC decision, giving upstubbornness adding that the government could not last long and time wouldsoon come when millions of people would be on roads to demand hisresignation. The JI chief also slated the Presidential Ordinance for whiteningthe black money and said at a time when the PPP government was on its wayout, the ordinance was only a trick to protect the loot and plunder of thenational wealth by the ministers. He also slated Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khar’s complaint of the US not stopping drone attacks and said thegovernment making the country a battle front and causing the killing ofnearly 40,000 innocent people on the US’ dictation could not befool themasses by shedding crocodile tears. He said if the nation wanted to protectthe country’s integrity and sovereignty, it must change its attitude. The PPPhad made the country a slave of the IMF and the World Bank by burdening itunder huge loans. The masses who had tried the PPP and the PML-N timeand again should now be wise enough not vote for them.

SHC says plea

against Gilani for

working as pM

maintainable KARACHI: The Sindh High Court(SHC) on Saturday accepted as maintain-able a constitutional petition againstPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani oncontinuing his duties after his convictionin the contempt of court case. The highcourt will begin hearing the petition fromMonday. The constitutional petition filedby Maulvi Iqbal Haider sought from courtto stop Gilani from functioning as premierof the country. Haider’s plea says Gilanicould not run the affairs of the countryafter the ruling of the Supreme Court con-victing him of contempt of court. inp

‘n’ to decide on reference

against pM on 30th

ISLAMABADoNLINe

The PML-N would decide to forward theineligibility reference against PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani to theNational Assembly speaker during theExecutive Committee meeting on April 30.Ahsan Iqbal told Online that the NawazSharif had instructed the PML-Nleadership to contact civil society, lawyers,traders and media to pave the publicopinion before forwarding the reference tothe speaker. He said this was decided in ameeting of PML-N, which was held underthe chairmanship of Nawaz Sharif. He saidthe consultation would also be made withthe general council of the party.

ISLAMABADoNLINe

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman ImranKhan has said that Yousaf Raza Gilani wasno longer a prime minister and he shouldimmediately step down from his post.Speaking to media on Saturday, Khanreiterated that nobody could remain theprime minister after being convicted by acourt of law.“Those who are busy supporting Gilani areafraid of being convicted too for theirdeeds,” he said. “They know it would betheir turn after Zardari.”Khan on Thursday dubbed Gilani’sconviction in contempt case a gift by anindependent judiciary. The PTI chairmancalled upon the PM to immediately stepdown. He claimed that he would arrangemassive show in Islamabad in response toPPP demonstrations against the SC ruling.“I challenge the PPP, take as many peopleas you can to the streets against theSupreme Court, then I will show you how

massive a rally you arranged,” Khan added.He said he would show the rulers what thepeople’s will was. The PTI chief said thatthe government had nothing to do with thepeople as it was busy in making fortune.Imran Khan said the government washiding corruption in the name ofdemocracy. Meanwhile, Khan made formerforeign minister Khursheed Kasuri hisadviser on foreign affairs. Besides being anadviser to the PTI chairman, Kasuri willalso chair the PTI Kashmir committee.

ISLAmABAd: PPP activists burn tyres on Islamabad expressway during a demonstration on Saturday against the Pm’s conviction. OnLine

Parliament can undo SC verdict: Khosa

Imran urges Gilani toimmediately cede office

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:12 AM Page 5

06Sunday, 29 april, 2012

News

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

PML-Q President ShujaatHussain has said the PML-Nleadership is interpretingthe Supreme Court verdictthe way it wants to as it is

not written anywhere in the verdict thatYousaf Raza Gilani is no more the primeminister.

Talking to reporters on Saturdayafter visiting the Lahore Museum alongwith Gandhara Art Peace Mission fromKorea, Shujaat said all including the gov-ernment were bound by the verdict of theSupreme Court.

He said an appeal against the verdictwas being filed, final decision on whichthe question of Gilani remaining thePrime Minister or not will arise.

He said contempt of court of shouldbe imposed on PML-N chief NawazSharif when he had stormed theSupreme Court and humiliated it. Hesaid the people still remember the attackon the Supreme Court when the nameplates of the judges were also removedfrom the Punjab House, and ShahbazSharif was asking the attackers on loud-

speaker to return to Lahore after havingqeema-filled naans.

To a question, Shujat said theSupreme Court had not charged Gilaniwith corruption or embezzlement,adding that Nawaz should not use the ju-diciary’s name for political purposes. Hesaid Nawaz had a habit of causing con-frontation between the constitution andinstitutions and wanted to exploit the

opportunity for his political gains. Hesaid well-known money laundering andHudaibia Paper Mills cases were lying inthe cold storage along with evidence.

In response to a question, Shujaatsaid elections should be held when theywere due. Nawaz was in habit of turningpolitical opposition into personal enmityand had repeatedly confronted duringhis tenures not only with the judiciarybut with the army and the media.

He said Nawaz referred to the con-stitution and law every now and then andthen asked whether he could mentionany article of the constitution which al-lowed him confrontation with any insti-tution or attacking the Supreme Court.

Earlier, Shujaat visited the LahoreMuseum with the Korean delegation.Members of the delegation thanked Shu-jaat for his hospitality and said they werevery happy to see that their scared placeswere being well kept and maintained inPakistan. Later, the delegation visitedGandhara Art Gallery and performedtheir religious rites in front of the statueof Buddha. Mowahid Hussain Shah,Imran Masood, MPA Amna Ulfat andformer MPA Shazia Chand were alsopresent.

ISLAMABADoNLINe

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilaniwould participate in the upcomingNATO summit on the future ofAfghanistan in Chicago on thespecial invitation of the USPresident Barack Obama, who ishosting the event.Earlier, Pakistan had boycottedthe Bonn conference onAfghanistan as a mark of protestfollowing the Salala check postattack which had killed 26Pakistani soldiers.Well-placed sources told Online

on Saturday that the US PresidentObama had invited his Pakistanicounterpart President Asif AliZardari to participate in the 2-dayhigh level gathering through hisspecial representative for theregion Marc Grossman; howeverthe president suggested thatprime minister should representthe country in the summit.Sources maintained that though,the invitation was directlyaddressed to the president butpresident Zardari has named theprime minister for theparticipation in the NATOsummit.

“Following the conviction of thePrime Minister by the apex court,President Zardari has directed tosend him to the summit in a bid toconvey a strong massage to theopposition that Gilani is still apowerful prime minister,” theyadded.Sources said a meeting betweenthe prime minister and the USpresident could also took placeduring the sideline of the summit..Leaders from all around the worldare gathering in the summitstarting from May 20 and beinghosted by President Obama.“Since, President Obama is

hosting the event; therefore hewanted the participation ofPakistan to make the eventsuccessful for the future ofAfghanistan,” sources said.Sources claimed that PresidentObama’s move to specially invitethe Pakistani President is a bid todefuse the tension between boththe allies following Salala checkpost attack. The Pakistanleadership ,however had alreadyconveyed a strong message toWashington that until apology onSalala check post attack, Pakistanwould not proceed further interms of Pak-US relation.

ppp, pML-Q mull

bringing 21st

amendment for

new provincesLAHORE

INP

The Pakistan People’s Party and PakistanMuslim League-Quaid are contemplatingbringing 21st amendment in theconstitution aimed at changing themethod of carving out new provinces.According to sources, both parties whoare anxious to create the Seraiki provincebefore the general elections and areconsidering bringing 21st amendment inthe constitution aimed at altering theexisting procedure for creating newprovinces. Sources said the two coalitionpartners shared this plan regarding the21st amendment among themselves,adding that the ruling party would alsoconsult other allies soon.

Chief justice toget internationalJurist Award

LONDONAPP

The International Council of Jurists (ICJP)has conferred the prestigious InternationalJurists Award, 2012 on Chief Justice ofPakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, inrecognition of his contributions to theadministration of justice. A spokesman forthe association said on Saturday that theaward ceremony is scheduled to be held inLondon on May 28th in which the awardwill be presented by Chief Justice of UnitedKingdom Rt Hon Lord Phillips in thepresence of chief justices, law ministers,members of the parliament, bar leaders,law teachers and journalists from differentcountries who have been invited for theprestigious occasion. The award is a regularfeature of the International Council ofJurists and some of its earlier recipientsinclude International Court of JusticePresident Justice Rosalyn Higgins; ChiefJustice of United Kingdom Rt. LordPhillips, Chief Justice of Canada JusticeBeverley McLachlin; International Court ofJustice Vice President Justice Awn S Al-Khasawneh. The Chief Justice IftikharChaudhry had put up resistance againstformer military dictator, Gen PervaizMusharraf and became the inspiring iconfor the historical movement of therestoration of the judiciary. He wasdeposed by the military dictator in March,2007 when he refused to relinquish thepost. Pakistan witnessed a historicallawyers’ movement after Musharraf sackedthe chief justice.He was restored on July20th, 2007 and was again sacked alongwith other judges of the superior judiciaryon November 3rd, 2009 when Musharrafimposed emergency in the country. IftikharChaudhry and other judges were reinstatedby the democratic government in March,2009. Iftikhar Chaudhry was also awardedThe Medal of Freedom, by the Harvard LawSchool Association in 2007.

Three killed intwo incidents in Karak

KARAKSTAFF RePoRT

Three men died and three wereseriously injured in two separateincidents on Saturday. Police sourcessaid in the first incident a car goingfrom Kundi to Teri, Banda DaudShah tehsil, met with an accident inMardankhel area and two young menHadaytullah and Shahid died on thespot while their two colleaguesidentified as Qadir Khan and ArsalKhan sustained critical injuries. Thebodies and the injured wereimmediately shifted to civil hospitalTeri where the doctors stated theconditions of injured serious. Theywere later referred to a hospital inKohat. The sources said the incidentoccurred as the motorcar overturneddue to over speeding. Meanwhile, inthe second incident a retired bankmanager Nawab Khan resident ofTaki Mithakhel was washed away byseasonal water nullah while he wascrossing it after torrential rain withhis nephew on motorcycle. Bothwere stranded in the water and thelocal people tried to save their livesbut could not save the manager. Hismotorcycle was also washed away bythe gushing water. Arshad was takento district headquarter hospital fromwhere he was relieved after first aid.The local people said the cause of theaccident was absence of a culvert onthe water channel and demandedthat a culvert be constructed on thenullah in the under constructionroad. Meanwhile dozens of houses inShamshaki, Dora Algadda and WalayBanda partially damaged by theheavy downpour but fortunately nolose of life has been reported. It wasalso learnt that dozens of cattle andhundreds of hens and chicken werekilled by the rain coupled withhailstorm in the hilly areas ofZarakhel, Channikhel, Daraki Bandaand Kandokhel. A big portion oflands have been eroded by thegushing water in Ghundi MirKhankhel and Badeen Khel areas.

SWAT: Former militants sing national songs during a ceremony at Khawazakhela Petam on Saturday. OnLine

PM’s disqualification notmentioned in verdict: Shujaat

pM to attend nATO summit in US

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:12 AM Page 6

KARACHIQAZI ASIF

THE Sindh governmentand the traders’ com-munity of the city havemutually agreed to closedown all business activ-

ities in the metropolis by 8:30 inthe night and not to allow anyshop to remain open after 9:00pm.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim AliShah held a meeting with the busi-ness community of Karachi on Sat-urday to discuss the time of closingshops in light of the National En-ergy Commission’s recommenda-tions.

On April 12, the chief ministerhad also held a meeting with vari-ous business associations in whichthey had discussed their views re-garding the 8:00 pm closure time.

The business community hasexpressed displeasure over the8:00 pm closure time and in-formed the chief minister that themetropolitan is an economic huband the retail markets here haveusually operate until late hours ofthe evening.

They had expressed concernover as well as registered com-

plaints regarding the deterioratinglaw and order situation, and thechief minister took immediate no-tice of all the complaints.

The business community ap-preciated the efforts of the provin-cial government and thanked thechief minister for his prompt di-rectives to the police, resulting invisits to various markets byKarachi Additional Inspector Gen-eral of Police Akhtar Gorchani.

The businessmen stressedupon the need of Rangers person-nel for vigilance along with the po-lice as discussed in the previousmeeting as well.

“This issue is not political andwe must work together to resolvethis national crisis of energy,” thechief minister said.

He apprised the businessmencommunity that the need to ensureearly closure was to meet the en-ergy shortage, which is only possi-ble when the whole communitytakes steps to save it.

He appreciated the sagacity ofthe city’s businessmen who, re-gardless of the inconveniences tothem, are willing to cooperate withthe provincial government forearly closure of shops.

The chief minister, Sindh

Power Minister Shazia Marri,Rashid Rabbani and Zubair Moti-wala held a detailed discussionwith representatives of the busi-ness community, including SirajQasim Teli, Majeed, Javed, MeerAteeq and Idrees.

The businessmen informedthe chief minister that they hadconstituted a committee of like-minded traders and were focusingon creating a healthy business at-mosphere with a positive attitude.

They assured that no negativeelements would be allowed to foilthe business environment or cre-ate rifts among traders.

The participants of the meet-ing suggested that keeping in mindKarachi’s economic importanceand current crisis, any time forearly closure be announced in lightof ground realities.

It was decided that 8:30 pmwould be considered as the closuretime, but no shop would be al-lowed to remain open after 9:00pm.

Siraj Qasim Teli suggestedthat a committee comprising rep-resentatives of the business com-munity would be constituted toensure the implementation of thedecision and requested the chief

minister to ensure that no repre-sentative of the administrationwould needlessly harass thetraders, since the business com-munity is willing to take the re-sponsibility of implementation ofthe announcement.

It was also decided that com-plaints regarding harassmentwould be communicated to thecompetent authority.

The power minister suggested

that the implementation commit-tee be approached if there is anycomplaint regarding non-imple-mentation of the decision.

The business community alsoraised the issue of the KarachiElectric Supply Company (KESC)and registered their problemsabout notices issued by the powercompany to various cottage indus-tries on the pretext of excessiveload.

The chief minister asked thebusiness community to providehim with the details of the issueand ensured them that he wouldtake necessary steps to address theissues regarding the KESC.

He appreciated the role of thebusiness community and ex-pressed his satisfaction over theirwillingness to close shops early inthe national spirit to address thechallenges of energy.

Sunday, 29 april, 2012

Music can erase all

barriers: rohail Hyatt

coke studio 5 next month

7

all cnG stations in the city remained closed on Saturday due to the gas holiday in the province. OnLine

KARACHISTAFF RePoRT

The Sindh High Court (SHC) admit-ted for hearing on Saturday thedefamation lawsuit filed by Dr Fa-rooq Sattar, Deputy Convener of the

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)Coordination Committee, against aTV channel’s anchorperson.

The hearing of the case shall startfrom May 15.

In the petition, Sattar’s counselBarrister Farogh Naseem submit-

ted that the host of a programmeon a television channel had dis-torted facts to smear the politicalimage MQM chief Altaf Hussaindeliberately.

“The anchorperson persisted inmaking baseless allegations in spite

of clear and unequivocal statementsto the contrary by the main charac-ters involved in the infamous AsgharKhan case,” it was stated. “The un-founded allegations have hurt thesentiments of millions of supportersof Hussain.”

By 9 o’ clock, City of Lights to fall into darkness■ Sindh govt, businessmen decide to close down all markets, shops by 8:30 pm

eneRGY COnSeRVATiOn

Two ‘pakistani

Taliban’ get

life sentences■ Pia hijacker remanded to police

custody until May 4

■ Bhoja air management files

petition at SHc against registering

fir of plane crash

SHC admits MQM’s defamation lawsuit■ anchorperson deliberately distorted facts: Barrister farogh naseem

KARACHIImdAd SoomRo

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC)-I awarded life imprisonmentto two militants of the banned organisation Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan in a case of kidnapping for ransom.

According to the prosecution, Qari Amin al Haq and FazalRahim had kidnapped Muhammadi Gul, a local businessman,from the Sohrab Goth area.

Police arrested the accused men with the assistance of theCitizens-Police Liaison Committee and recovered the ab-ducted man, after which a case was registered against the Tal-iban who had demanded Rs 2 million as ransom.

After hearing the final arguments, ATC-I Judge BashirAhmed Khoso awarded life imprisonment to Haq and Rahim.PIA: The same court remanded into police custody on Satur-day Javed Ansari, the alleged accused who threatened to hi-jack a domestic Pakistan International Airline (PIA) flight onApril 27, until May 4.

The suspect, a passenger in the Bahawalpur-bound flight,was arrested by the police on the complaint of Airport Author-ities that he had threatened to hijack the plane during theflight.

The flight had returned to the Karachi airport soon aftertake-off, when the alleged accused reportedly misbehavedwith an airhostess and threatened to hijack the plane of thenational airline.

The Airport police registered a case under Section 402Bof the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 7E of the Anti-Terrorism Act.BHOJA AIR: The management of Bhoja Air filed a constitu-tional petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the reg-istration of the First Information Report (FIR) of the airline’splane crash.

In the petition, the management submitted that the reg-istration of the case against Bhoja Air was against the basichuman rights and illegal as well.

The petitioners added that in the past, many airplanes hadcrashed, but no such case was registered against any airline.

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Sunday, 29 april, 2012

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karachi 09PakistaN today

Sunday, 29 april, 2012

woman slashed by husband lies helpless at JPMc

KARACHISTAFF RePoRT

A female patient was found lying in the corridor of the JinnahPostgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC)’s main building. Accord-ing to her mother, the woman was slashed with a sickle by herhusband, causing serious wounds on her head and neck as wellas her limbs. She and her family are from Sanghar and belongto the lower caste of Hindus called Bheel, working as agricul-tural workers in Gadap Town. The incident took place on April18, but the police are reluctant to register the First InformationReport against the accused husband. The mother of the womansaid that the police had arrested the accused on the day of theincident and kept him in the lockup overnight, but they re-leased him the next day. Now the Gadap Town police haveasked them to produce a medico-legal certificate for the regis-tration of the case, but it has not been issued by the JPMC au-thorities. The woman was treated in the neurosurgery ward anddischarged by the doctors at the JPMC after a few days. Thefamily is poor and illiterate, and the woman’s uncle, who wasalso at the hospital, lost his mobile phone when someonesnatched it among other valuables one night. The woman has a14-month-old boy who is suffering from starvation because ofnon-availability of mother’s milk. Her mother has been provid-ing the boy powered milk, but the child is anaemic and weak.The family is in dire need of help, and they also need legal sup-port from the police, which has so far been denied.

KARACHIAPP

SINDH Chief Minister Qaim AliShah has criticised the state-ments of Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) chiefNawaz Sharif on not recognis-

ing the prime minister and threats of re-sorting to protests as well as a longmarch.

He was addressing a press confer-ence at the Chief Minister’s House onFriday night along with the provincialministers.

Shah was of the view that the finaljudgement [on PM’s contempt of courtcase] was pending with the SupremeCourt and before the decision, it is im-proper to give opinions that he has been

disqualified and Sharif does not recog-nise the prime minister.

He exhorted the PML-N to look intothe democratic values and avoid anystance in haste as they cannot derive anybenefits. “Such acts can be harmful forthe country,” he cautioned the elderSharif brother.

Stating that there is also a provisionfor appeal in the SC case, the chief min-ister said that Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani is popular among the peopleand has served the people for more thanfour years now and also fulfilled thecommitment of Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) with the masses.

Shah thanked the allied parties forextending support in a difficult situationlike in the past.

Replying to a question, he said that

if one is talking of resorting to an act vi-olating the law, then “we have the rightto take action in accordance with thelaw”.

“We will move ahead in accordancewith the constitution and the law as wellas democratic values,” he added.

To another question, Shah said thatSharif has not given any reason and atonce said that the prime minister is dis-qualified and that he does not recogniseGilani as the prime minister or the cabi-net.

“We are democratic and have ren-dered immense sacrifices for thisdemocracy,” he said. “For the cause ofdemocracy, rule of law, rights of the peo-ple and constitution, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,Benazir Bhutto and a large number ofPPP workers have rendered their lives.”

Shah said the PPP has not come tothe power through backdoors and hasfulfilled all democratic and constitu-tional provisions. “The elections of thepresident and the prime minister werecarried out in accordance with the con-stitution and democratic values.”

The chief minister said that in theelections, the prime minister got a unan-imous vote which means he has the con-fidence of the entire assembly and the180 million people of the country.

“It is a constitutional requirementthat the prime minister should serve thefull five-year term,” he said.

Shah said the detailed judgement ofthe SC has not been announced and thatthere was only a short order. “The SChas not given a clear view and has spo-ken of likely repercussions,” he added.

He said the party that enjoys the ma-jority wants to take the opposition inconfidence but attempts are being madeto destabilise the federal government.“The PPP would not tolerate any suchunconstitutional moves.”

Shah, also the provincial chief of thePPP, said the general elections would beheld according to the scheduled time.“The elections would be conducted in afree, fair and independent manner ashas already been declared by the presi-dent and the prime minister.”

Provincial ministers Agha Siraj Dur-rani, Murad Ali Shah, Nadir Magsi, Sai-fullah Dharejo, Ali Mardan Shah, AyazSoomro, Shazia Marri, Ali Nawaz Shahand Special Assistants to Chief Minister,Waqar Mehdi and Siddiq Abu Bhai werealso present at the press conference.

Qaim flays Nawaz’s ‘disqualified PM’ mantra

KARACHISTAFF RePoRT

The British Deputy HighCommissioner in Karachi,Francis Campbell, hosted areception on Friday eveningto celebrate the diamond ju-bilee of the reign of QueenElizabeth II.

UK High CommissionerThomson and Deputy HighCommissioner Campbellwelcomed the guests.

The reception at theBritish Deputy High Com-

mission premises was at-tended among others bySindh Governor Dr IshratulEbad, Chief Minister QaimAli Shah, UK High Commis-sioner in Pakistan AdamThomson, federal andprovincial ministers andmembers of the diplomaticcorps.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Ebad said that the Pres-ident of Pakistan hadespecially asked him to rep-resent him at the Queen’sbirth anniversary and dia-

mond jubilee party.He said the United King-

dom is an important countryall-weather friend of Pak-istan, which is an ally and afriend of the country. “Overthe years the relationship be-tween the two countries hasgone from strength tostrength,” he added.

The governor stated thatthis year marks the 60th yearof Queen Elizabeth II as thehead of Commonwealth,which has been an importantsymbolic and unifying role.

KARACHISTAFF RePoRT

AHAN – Aik Hunar AikNagar – organised an exhi-bition to display ruralhandmade products of Pak-istan at the London HighCommission for Pakistan,United Kingdom.

The event ‘HandmadePakistan Exhibition’marked the first occasionwhen AHAN exhibited

handicrafts from Pakistanunder its brand name“Handmade by AHAN” inUK.

The products on displayat the exhibition repre-sented a small segment ofthe vast range of handmadeproducts ranging from re-gional hand embroidery,Ajrak, patch work (Rilli),accessories (apparels, homedecor), lacquer art, silverjewellery and leather.

This was the first timethat AHAN, a public limitedcompany operating as sub-sidiary of Pakistan

Industrial DevelopmentCorporation under the Pro-duction Ministry, displayedthe rural crafts of Pakistanin UK with the hope ofopening further avenues forexport of such products,benefiting the poor ruralartisans and craft personsin the country.

The exhibition was ex-tremely successful withdozens of visitors turningup to buy and inquire aboutthe unique products andthe stunning handiworks.Amongst the most appreci-ated products were embroi-dered truck-art cushionsfrom Balochistan, SindhiAjraks and Rillis, beadedjewellery from KhyberPakhtunkhwa and lacqueritems from Sillanwali.

Aik Hunar, Aik Nagar ■ aHan organises ‘Handmade Pakistan exhibition’ at London High commission

rotaract club of Karachi Bay President athar ali Khan, Vice President Mehak Qazi and GeneralSecretary Hasan Saeed held a medical camp for the residents of Shamspir island. Medicines weredonated by opal Laboratories’ tariq ikram, atco Laboratories’ Saeed allahwala and Dr SamrinaHashmi of the Pakistan Medical association (PMa). STAFF pHOTO

Queen elizabeth ii’s diamondjubilee celebrated

woman strangled to deathKARACHI: A woman was murdered allegedly by her husband in the Mauripur area onSaturday. Mauripur police said the mother of three, identified as Nahid Bibi, wife ofShah Hussain, was strangled by her husband at their residence located near HanfiaMasjid in Mauripur. The alleged murderer, Hussain, son of Akbar Hussain, was statedto be on the run. The body of the deceased was shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate MedicalCentre (JPMC). No case was registered until the filing of this report, as the police werewaiting for the post-mortem report. STAFF RePoRT

additional inspector General Sindh akhtar Hussain Gorchani lays a floral wreath on the coffin of the police inspector who was killed

in the Lyari operation on Saturday. OnLine

‘Distribution of wB’srs 27bn as per nfc’

KARACHISTAFF RePoRT

Federal minister and Higher Education Commission(HEC) Chairman Dr Javed Leghari called on SindhChief Minister Qaim Ali Shah at the Chief Minis-ter’s House on Saturday. The chief minister saidthat after the National Finance Commission (NFC)Award, the devolution of federal ministries toprovincial departments and the decision of themeeting of the Council of Common Interests, theadministrative control of universities has beentransferred to provincial governments. The HECchairman informed the chief minister that underthe United States Agency for International Develop-ment programme, an amount of $127 million (Rs11.56 billion) has been granted for the energy, waterand agriculture sectors. He said that the task of thewater centre project would be assigned toJamshoro’s Mehran University of Engineering andTechnology. He apprised the chief minister that theWorld Bank has provided an amount of $300 mil-lion (Rs 27.3 billion), which would be distributedand allocated according to the NFC formula. Alsounder the NFC, funds are being provided for theHEC scholarship programme for students as well,he added. He also informed the chief minister aboutthe issues of the University of Sindh and the educa-tional institutions of Shaheed Benazirabad.

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:12 AM Page 9

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THE TIMES NEWS NETWORKPIYALI dASGuPTA

ROHAIL Hyatt is notonly the man behindthe famous Coke Stu-dio, but also one of thefinest musicians in

Pakistan today.Hyatt has consciously tried to be

away from the media, so when ourreporter tried to get in touch withhim over the phone, we were toldthat he would avoid giving inter-views.

But things looked very differentwhen we actually caught up withhim at his studio residence in theDefence Housing Authority inKarachi.

He warmly welcomed us andspoke at length about his musicaljourney, rediscovering eastern clas-sical music and the promotion of up-coming talented singers in Pakistan.

Sitting relaxed in his studioroom, Hyatt looked cool in his or-ange tee and shorts. He took usaround his studio and pointed outthat things were scattered allaround, as work was in progress.

“The entire team is busy with thepost-production work of the CokeStudio Season 5 collection. Just afew days left for the new season to bereleased. Most probably, the promoshould begin from the first week ofthe next month and it should be onair by mid-May,” he said.

Hyatt said that it was untrue

that he tries to avoid the media. Toomuch work stress does not leave himany time to socialise or give inter-views, he explained.

Talking about his musical jour-ney, he said that it has been a longone. He strongly believes that youwould do whatever it takes toachieve that which you want themost in your life.

“I was totally from a differentera of music. I remember when Istarted playing music, I was moreinfluenced with the western kind,”he said.

He had no idea about the kindof music in Pakistan. However, headded, the popularity of listeningto western music did not clickmuch among the general mass inPakistan.

“It was only after I left my band‘Vital Signs’ that I realised exploringthe music industry in Pakistan andmore. And Coke Studio was the wayto reinvent and rediscover the fieldof music here,” he said.

Today, he said, Coke Studio istranscending societal barriers toreinvent itself. It is almost like apalette of raw talents with unique-ness, he added.

Hyatt said, “Coke Studio hasbecome a global name and is notonly popular in Pakistan, but alsoin other regions. We are pleased tosee the overwhelming response ofaudience from all over the globe.Hence, we have tried to createnew, innovative kind of music in

every season.”Talking about the idea of redis-

covering and exploring new talentsin Pakistan, he said, “I have exploredall boundaries. We have picked upraw talents from all corners, frommusicians to singers.”

The main philosophy of CokeStudio, he said, is based on easternvalues; hence, “we have tried to re-vive the old traditional songs andSufi songs into modern songs.”

He said, “We have a talentedpool of house band members likeKamran Mannu Zafar on bass guitar,Asad Ahmed on guitar, Babar AliKhanna on dholak, Javed Iqbal onviolin, Omran ‘Momo’ Shafique onguitar, Rachel Viccaji and Zoe Vic-caji on backing vocals and so on.”

Their effort is to make differentmusic that is refreshing and soulfulat the same time, he said, addingthat they try their best not to repeatmusic that has already been playedin a season.

Hyatt said, “The Season 5 col-lection will include various artistslike Bilal Khan, Fareed Ayaz &Abu Muhammad and many more.In Coke Studio clips, you will ob-serve that the beauty of everysong is that we try to highlight notonly the singers, but also the mu-sicians.”

He talked about this from per-sonal experience, because as a bandmember, he always missed being inthe limelight while the singer re-ceived all the attention.

“In Coke Studio, I have tried tochange the format and you will seethat we have always focused onevery musician and singer in everysong,” Hyatt said.

He said that bass guitaristMannu has done an incredible job ina qawali number, but Hyatt was sad-dened after watching the final shootbecause Mannu was not focused inthat.

When asked about the selectioncriteria, he said, “Our major attemptevery season is to focus on some ofthe dying languages of our country –Balochi, Sindhi, Urdu, etc. Coke Stu-dio has offered a huge platform to alltraditional artistes, especially folksingers who were fading away.”

Coke Studio has given theseartistes the right exposure, so nowthey are in demand and are globallyknown by all, he said.

“We have also combined tradi-tional singers with modern singers,which has been the main highlight ofevery season,” he added.

Are there any plans to collabo-rate with Indian artists? “Yes, talksare going on. We are soon planningto do a combined series for our nextseason, in which we shall include In-dian and Pakistani singers and mu-sicians.”

He said that it would be a greatblend of music from both countries.If things get finalised on time, theshoot might probably be started inAugust, and the recordings wouldtake place in Dubai, he added.

Music can

erase all

barriers:

Rohail

Hyatt

■ the musician says an indo-Pak coke Studio is on the cards; ‘if things finalise on time,

recordings will start in august in Dubai’

COKe STUDiO 5 neXT MOnTH

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:12 AM Page 10

Send your letters to:Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey fatima Jinnah, Lahore, PakistanFax: +92-42-36298302E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters may be edited for length and clarity.It would be appreciated if letters were ad-dressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

Editor’s mail 11Sunday, 29 april, 2012

free books and uniformsThe decision of distribution of free

books and uniforms is a good and appre-ciable step of the government. However,it needs to be reviewed.

On the occasion of “Sub Kah Do”, Iwant to draw the attention of the govern-ment high-ups that the free books anduniforms are being sold at shops in dif-ferent cities. I appeal to the concernedofficials to uproot the menace of corrup-tion from the process and make it trans-parent.

MINHAJ SHAfIQKarachi

Help others smileLast night, I went to sleep thinking

how much we hurt people everyday with-out even knowing we did it. It is neverjustified to hurt someone. At the end ofthe day, in the heart of our hearts, thereshould be a regret for all our sinful actsthroughout the day.

And this is not something just typedfor the sake of writing a letter. Bullying isthe most culpable and sinful act that canever be. I have been a victim myself andtrust me, it hurts. But yet again, it helpedme grow stronger.

Every now and then, we see peoplebeing bullied and leading lives of miseryand we do not really bother. Life is notpredictable. You never know what trou-ble befalls you and when. Just one simpleact of love from us can help someonesmile. Is it not worth it?

Shedding a tear for someone is fardifferent from shedding a tear because ofsomeone. Do not be the cause of some-one's damp eyes. All of us, at our ownpersonal level, should take at least onemoment out of our moribund lives tohelp someone feel good. Is it too much toask for? I guess not!

KAINAT SHAIKHKarachi

a request to cJPHonourable Chief Justice of Pak-

istan, my brother was working as chiefengineer for the company undertakingmining at Reko Diq.

The case against the company hasnot only placed our future at stake,considering the dearth of employmentopportunities, but has also closed thedoor of development and opportunitiesdirely needed in the underdevelopedprovince. Employees have lost theirjobs and their families suffer in theseinflationary times adding to the griev-ances of the already aggrieved peopleof Balochistan.

With estimated $3.3 billion invest-ment at stake and 83 percent of em-ployees at Reko Diq from the provinceof Balochistan, the ongoing litigationhas aggravated to the sufferings of peo-ple as several employees including mybrother have lost their hard earnedjobs not to mention the overall eco-nomic and financial opportunity lostfor the most backward province of Pak-istan.

I, therefore, request the Hon-ourable Chief Justice of Pakistan to dis-pose of the case early in the bestinterest of the people of Balochistanand Pakistan.

QADIR MAGSIQuetta

awam ki adalat?The term “awam ki adalat” is in-

creasingly being used in TV programmesand even by politicians in the NationalAssembly in contradiction to the role ofsuperior courts. This wrong trend hasbeen accentuated in the wake of the lat-est judgement by the Supreme Court inpunishing the Prime Minister Mr YousafRaza Gilani in a historic decision of con-tempt of court. The PM has gone onrecord to address the Speaker of the Na-tional Assembly in a mode as if she cansit over the judgement of Apex Court as afinal arbiter and interpreter of constitu-tion and the law which is not right asSupreme Court is the final arbiter and in-terpreter of constitution.

There are no two opinions on thiscardinal issue. The Khulfa-i-Rashideenappointed the Qazis but they were sub-ject to the decision made by the Qaziseven in their own cases. When a disputearose in the election of George W Bushand Algore as to who had got maximumvotes it was the US Supreme Courtjudges who decided the issue betweenthe contending parties.The PM is notright by imagining that he can get awaywith slogans and rose petals showered byhis party workers while he has become acommon criminal now after being pun-ished by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.

He must realise the seriousness ofhis position and not complicate his caseby playing to the gallery packed by hiscohorts. If he has an iota of self respecthe ought to resign forthwith and sparethe nation of his histrionic addresses thatdo not convince the people of Pakistan.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

our brave soldersThe moral that we can gain from the

courage of the relatives and family mem-bers of the soldiers who are buried underthe snow after an avalanche hit them atSiechan is so high and noble that I feelproud being mother of a solider.

I salute to the mothers, daughtersand sisters of those soldiers buried undersnow for their courage and tolerance onthe occasion of “Sub Kah Do”.

SAMIA KHANSailkot

our securityLahore railway station blast is a

major blow to the Pakistani governmentand law enforcement agencies. Peoplehad moved from air to train due to therecent Bhoja tragedy and subsequentnear misses by Shaheen airlines. Noweven the trains are risky.

The recent incident had killed inno-cent civilians. The blast site and platform2 is the space for Awami Express whichis mostly used by poor of Pakistan, eventhey are not spared with these terroracts. It seems that all our transport net-works are being deliberately targeted.SSP Railways Police has said that secu-rity at the station was infallible and satis-factory, despite the fact that there were16 to 17 CCTV cameras installed at thestation and all of them were inactive.Satisfactory security outcomes are likethis? It is high time our security shouldbe taken seriously.

ZEESHAN AHMEDKarachi

follow your oathThe oaths for various appointments

including that of president, prime minis-ter, governors and army chief as given inthe constitution clearly spell out that theywould uphold the constitution of Pak-istan and keep the national interestabove their personal interest. This oath istaken by an individual at the time ofhis/her appointment to a key post in thepresence of entire nation. Unfortunately,the constitution does not lay down anypunishment for those who violate theoath which is taken as a solemn pledgewith Allah, the Supreme Authority. Aftertaking the oath, one sees that person (es-pecially at the helm of affairs) doing

nothing in the national interest but em-barks on a path of loot and plunder tobuild his own empire destroying the veryfoundation of the country. Not only hehimself does it but his entire family andhis/her coteries also join him/her in thisloot and plunder.

The case in point is the conduct ofour Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilaniafter hearing the verdict on his well con-tested case (given full chance by sevenhonourable judges of the Supreme courtto his lawyer). His smile on hearing thesentence and later his speech in the par-liament was tantamount to yet anothercontempt of the court. His continuance

in the office is also a clear violation of theconstitution. The constitution lays downthat the convicted person cannot be amember of the assembly and if one isconvicted as an assembly member,he/she not only loses his/her seat but isdebarred from contesting election fornext five years.

His supporters are taking out proces-sions condemning the judgement whichis definitely on the behest of their lead-ers. Is he doing all this for the nationalinterest or personal interest? Where ishis oath of protecting the constitutionand keeping national interest above hispersonal interest? He is destroying the

institutions by sticking to his covetedpost on which he stands disqualifiednow. If he feels that he has beenwronged, he should first resign and thencontest his case in the court. He talks ofbeing elected by 180 million of Pakistan.It is a wrong statement. Out of eightcrore registered voters only 40 percentexercised their polling right and out ofthat 38 million voters were bogus. So heis wrong in his claim. Let the fresh elec-tions be held under fair system to seewho the genuine representatives of 180million people are.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJALahore

Give peace a chanceWhat a tragedy of this nation that none of the political lead-

ers, except Mian Nawaz Sharif, has announced that they willvisit Gayari sector to show solidarity with the troops. We allknow there cannot be any survivors but they can at least healtheir wounds by showing concern for these brave soldiers whohave sacrificed their lives in the most difficult conditions infighting the enemy and weather. It is not about the death of 139soldiers but the honour they have earned. They lie buried underheavy snow and all efforts to trace their bodies have met no suc-cess yet.

Imagine the condition of 139 families, the agony, the pains,

their hue and cry and children eager to see their beloved fa-thers. We are all busy in the hustle bustle of life. We are worriedabout defence budget, we are not happy with the ISI and we areworried about their plots. Soldiers serving in Siachen were notborn there. They have no personal enmity with the Indians. It isbecause of us that they are there; only to protect us and ourmotherland. Let us salute these brave soldiers who have laidtheir lives and those deployed in the highest glaciers. They arethere to keep us safe here.

LT COL (retd) MUKHTAR AHMED BUTTKarachi

Education is the right of everyhuman but unfortunately in Pakistanwomen are still deprived of education.For a prosperous society a role of an edu-cated woman is very important. Educa-tion is the only tool that can break thisintergenerational cycle of oppression,abuse, and poverty of women. It has thepower to transform societies. Educatedwomen are more aware of their rights. Agreater participation of educated womenin the economy and political processwould lead to a better world today as wellas future generations.

Today, Pakistan is far from meetingits international education obligations.One in ten of the world’s primary agechildren who are not in schools live inPakistan, placing Pakistan second in theglobal ranking of out-of-school children.According to UNESCO, meanwhile 30percent of Pakistanis live in extreme edu-cational poverty having received lessthan two years of education.

In Pakistan, there are about 19.5 mil-lion children of primary age group, out of

which 6.8 million are out of school and60 percent of these are females. At least,seven million children are not in primaryschools. That’s around as many people aslive in the city of Lahore. Three millionwill never see the inside of a classroom atall.

In Pakistan, girls face some of thehighest barriers in education. It has beenestimated that nearly 62 percent of out ofschool girls are unlikely ever to enrol inschools as compared to 27 percent ofboys in the country. 43 percent of womenfaced religious discrimination at work-place, educational institutions and neigh-bourhood. Pakistan is committed tospending at least 4 percent of GDP on ed-ucation.

Major cause of women illiteracy isthe increase in population, which is play-ing a negative role in this deprivation offemale education. A family having morenumber of children and less income willprefer to educate the boys of the family,while the girls will be given embroideryor sewing skills.

Traditionally, women are consideredas an asset of males of the family. Sothese males are responsible for takingdecisions of their lives. In most cases,males do not allow their sisters or daugh-ters to go to schools or universities. Addi-tionally, some families do not like theirdaughters to study in co-education insti-tutes thus depriving them of higher edu-cation. Parents do not want girls’education.

Co-education is not acceptable in anIslamic country. The courses for womenshould include subjects relating to theirneeds in life: beliefs, rituals, domesticduties and rights, raising children, solu-tion of domestic problems, rules of Pur-dah, nursing, home economics, budget,sewing, embroidery, industrial skills suchas carpet, poultry, preservation of foodand so on.

Every government talks about theimportance of female education but noneof them has given attention to it. In Mul-tan, the plan of a separate women univer-sity and women medical college was

announced yet these plans have not seenthe light of the day.

Initial step is the decentralisation ofdecision-making, which means govern-ment should develop partnerships withNGOs and the private sector to hand overresponsibility effectively to achieve uni-versal primary education. It can improveeducation administration.

The most important factor in improv-ing education in Pakistan is to spreadawareness amongst the rural populationabout the necessity of education for girls.Then annual research should be con-ducted to compare figures and to learn-ing achievement across schools, districtsand regions over time.

Last but not the least, no society canprogress by restricting more than half ofits population in the abyss of ignoranceand a maze of undue limits. If Pakistanfollowed the path forged by other pioneersof education reforms, it could expect tostart seeing results within two years.

WAJIHA KHALIDLahore

Lack of education is adversely affecting girls

There are many critics especially inPakistan who feel that it was the US whoabandoned Afghanistan in late 80s to itsfate and that was the sole reason for allthe evils we are today witnessing in theregion.

Recently drafted Strategic Partner-ship agreement between Kabul andWashington stipulates that Americanscan keep their military presence inAfghanistan for another decade after thebattle-zone soldiers withdrawal sched-uled 2014.

Though Americans’ main task wouldbe to train and support the Afghan forcesto take over the country’ security respon-

sibility, however, it’s a clear message forAfghan-Pak Taliban that game is not yetover. Americans are not going to let Tal-iban to take over Kabul to makeAfghanistan a launching pad for terror-ism across the globe.

Though the agreement forbids Amer-icans to use Afghan soil for attacks onneighbouring countries but same time itgives them right to take action against athird party interference in Afghanistan –means status quo to continue betweenthe US and Pakistan.

Regardless of any strategic partner-ship, peace may remain elusive forAfghanistan unless a basic mistake is cor-

rected. Having only a Pashtun Presidentis not going to satisfy the political aspira-tions of Pashtuns (who are around 42percent of the entire population). Afghangovernment has to give Pashtuns dueshare in governance, otherwise, Talibanwill continue to exploit the nationalismfor their own interests.

A wide range, open-minded politicalagreement with Pashtuns is the key toisolate Taliban. Pakistan also needs to re-view its position vis-à-vis Americanspresence in the region. They are notgoing back this time!

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

they are not going back

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:13 AM Page 11

comment12Sunday, 29 april, 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: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Something’s gotta give

Uncompromising

The parliamentary review to ensure credibility tothe new rules of engagement with the UnitedStates doesn’t seem to have made any headwaytowards normalisation of relations between the

two countries. The sticking point remains Washington’sreluctance to apologise over last year’s airstrikes at Salalacheckpost which resulted in the killing of 24 soldiers.

The issue figured prominently during a meetingbetween President Zardari and an American delegationled by special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan MarcGrossman in Islamabad on Friday. The president wasquoted as having told the visiting delegation that afterPakistan had followed the democratic course for re-engagement with the United States to be based onmutual respect, it was now Washington’s turn to helpIslamabad in reaching a closure on Salala. Notunexpectedly, Grossman did not go beyond offering hisregrets.

The issue of drone attacks also came under discussionat a time when the US had already refused to negotiateon it, leaving Pakistan to push for alternatives that couldsatisfy its security concerns. Mr Zardari very rightlypointed out that since drone strikes were highlycounterproductive in the ongoing war on terror, bothcountries should consider setting up a framework ofmechanism to find out an acceptable alternative. Theinteraction at the presidency was followed by meetings ofsub-groups which were reportedly confined to exchangeof notes on the resumption of Nato supplies, counter-terrorism cooperation, CSF reimbursements revival ofstrategic dialogue and Kerry-Lugar assistance.

That the United States has reneged on its earliercommitment to tender an apology over the Salala attackis understandable in the wake of President Obama’sdomestic political compulsions. But then withoutshowing flexibility or trying to find a mutually agreeableway forward, it cannot expect the democratically electedgovernment of Pakistan to re-open the Nato supplyroutes in total disregard of the parliamentaryrecommendations.

No-holds-barred?

recipe for disaster

Provocative statements from the oppositionfollowed by an equally stronger response fromthe PPP indicate that henceforth it is just touchand go. Unless better sense prevails, one might

see a replay of the no-holds-barred strugglecharacterising the 90’s and leading to a similardenouement. That this should happen at a time whenparliament was in the process of reclaiming its rightfulturf is all the more unfortunate.

It all started with the short order passed by theSupreme Court sentencing Gilani in the contempt casewithout specifically de-notifying him. Instead of waitingfor the outcome of the appeal being prepared by Gilani’slegal team, Nawaz Sharif declared the prime minister ausurper. He maintained that his continuation in theoffice was unconstitutional, illegal, and unethical andthat all orders given by him after April 26 were null andvoid in the eyes of the law. Not to be left behind, Ch Nisarmaintained that Gilani had sneaked into the parliamenthouse to deliver a speech when the opposition hadboycotted the proceedings. He vowed that a stranger likeGilani will not be allowed to enter the house at the nextsitting. Nawaz Sharif has threatened to use all optionsincluding protest in and out of parliament as well as longmarch. In a tit for tat response, Chief Minister Sindh hasthreatened to march on Lahore. This is a recipe fordisaster.

What needs to be recognised is that every citizen hasa right to take recourse to all legal remedies before apunishment is carried out. Even a death sentence cannotbe executed till the disposal of the final appeal. ThePML(N) should have waited, as Imran has decided to do,for a few more weeks. The Supreme Court has initiatedthe process of implementing the verdict by sendingcopies of its short order to both the National AssemblySpeaker and the Election Commission of Pakistan. Gilanineeds to consider meanwhile if a simultaneousconfrontation with the Supreme Court and opposition isin the benefit of the system.

Regional Press

it’s ‘it’

When I heard the verdictagainst the prime minis-ter in the contempt ofcourt case, Akbar Alla-habadi’s verse came to

mind: Muzzakar kay liyay ‘he’ hai, mouan-

nas kay liyay ‘she’ hai;Magar Hazrat mukhannas hain, na

heeon mein na sheon main.It’s a parody on the English words

‘he’ and ‘she’, while ‘mukhannas’ refers toeunuchs.

for male it is ‘he’, for females ‘she’;But esquire is sexless, neither in the

‘hees’ nor the ‘shes’The verdict is neither he nor she. It’s

‘it’. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilaniwas convicted, but his punishment wasdetention in court till the judges chooseto ‘rise’. It lasted 39 seconds. Havinggiven their short order, the judges col-lected their wigs and gowns, rose and left,leaving the defence counsel speechless, tohave his say later in a press conference.We are moving towards trial in mediarather than by media.

What can I say? Why didn’t thejudges go the whole hog, sentence theprime minister to six months and say thatas a convict he is no longer eligible to bea member of parliament and thus nolonger prime minister? It would havebeen clear and we would have gone onwith our wretched existence. Instead, ourconfusion has been further compounded.

If the judges just wanted to make atoken example of the high and mighty byshowing them that they are not above thelaw, they only made our uncertainty moreuncertain. If they sidestepped the issue ofeligibility and threw the ball into parlia-ment’s court, then we are in for the longhaul and much errant nonsense. Perhapsthe bench divided, resulting in somethingfor everyone – punish the prime ministerwithout really punishing him.

The contempt case was a sideshow.The real show is to get President Zardarithorough the Swiss courts and make himreturn the $60 million that he and hiswife stole from the people.

Not a bad thought, but why dependon a foreign court? Why not order the La-hore High Court to start the retrial of thecase that the Supreme Court had asked itto years ago? That court had foundZardari and Benazir guilty of corruption,but because of a taped telephone conver-sation between a judge adjudicating thecase and a government official, it wasrightly declared a mistrial by theSupreme Court, which asked the High

Court for a retrial. It didn’t throw thejudgment out. Why has that been hang-ing fire for years? Why throw the ball intothe Swiss court instead?

The prime minister’s refusal to writea letter to the Swiss authorities to reopencorruption cases against President AsifZardari despite repeated orders by theSupreme Court over two years led to thecontempt. Gilani’s reasoning is not with-out merit: the president has immunityunder the constitution while in office. Bywriting the letter, he would be violatinghis constitutional oath to preserve andprotect the constitution by violating itsArticle about immunity. Those opposedto the Prime Minister’s contention dugup history: two of Islam’s greatest caliphshad presented themselves before a court.They forget that it was a court of theirown state, not a foreign court of a non-Muslim country.

Those great caliphs would never havecountenanced going to a foreign courtnor been sent there by their own court.Forgotten is something more important:the concept of immunity does not exist inIslam. To provide constitutional immu-nity to certain state office holders in anIslamic republic is a violation of the faith.What is needed is an amendment of theconstitution, instead of tying ourselvesinto knots.

The net result is that convicted primeminister or not, new prime minister outof this National Assembly or not, the let-ter will not get written so long as there isa People’s Party led government headedby a People’s Party prime minister.Q.E.D.

Our confusion gets further com-pounded while urgent cases remainpending and Pakistan hurtles into incre-mental chaos. This is what happens whena country is being led in every branch andat every level by hollow men, more inter-ested in creating optics, enhancing theirimportance and expanding their jurisdic-tions than in solving the people’s basicproblem of abject deprivation. Such peo-ple are themselves mukhannas ‘its’.

It would be unfair to write about theverdict until one has read the full judg-ment. But the question cries out: why didthe Supreme Court reserve judgment inthe first place? One would have thoughtthat they did because they wanted to de-liberate before arriving at a conclusionand release the full judgment the sameday as the verdict was handed down.After all, this is not a case of Gangu Tailicommitting contempt.

It is the Prime Minister of Pakistanfor God’s sake. Not good for the countryor the democratic process that is evolvingin fits and starts and which all today’sprotagonists made such a big deal of inPresident Musharraf’s time. We are toldthat the judgment was delivered to theSpeaker of the National Assembly thatelects the prime minister and to the Elec-tion Commission last Friday, but Ihaven’t seen it yet.

How can the prime minister be re-moved?1. He can be persuaded to resign by the

president or his party for the greatergood to avoid a tamasha. No surprisethat many in the People’s Party arepreening their feathers for the job, but

only the one who pleases the presidentwill wear this crown of thorns.

2. Being an ex-convict, does he attract thearticle in the constitution pertaining toineligibility? The Election Commissioncan determine this but only if theSpeaker of the National Assemblyrefers the matter to it. The Speaker canonly do so if parliament asks her to.And then she can take a month to de-cide.

3. He loses a no-confidence vote, which isup to the opposition that doesn’t havethe numbers.

What are the prime ministers op-tions? He can buy time, but only for atime. It seems difficult how he will getout of this one for long. He has made adefiant speech in the National Assemblysaying that he will not leave office unlessthe Speaker asks him to. He can buy timeby: 1. Going into an intra-court appeal, which

means to another bench in theSupreme Court comprising otherjudges. It is unlikely that anotherbench will embarrass its brother bencheven if the prime minister’s appeal hasmerit. But the PM could buy a lot oftime in so doing.

2.He asks the National Assembly for avote of confidence which he will get.

3.He calls elections; the People’s Partyplays victim-victim at which it is cham-pion, and wins. However, that doesn’tget rid of his conviction so whether Gi-lani can contest or not is moot.

4.He gets super defiant and asks parlia-ment to ratify his Executive Orderrestoring the sacked judges. Parlia-ment refuses to do so and the judgesare out again. That would mean war,serious war, between the threebranches of government.

The National Assembly, representingthe will of the people, elects the primeminister and only the National Assemblycan throw him out. Parliament is the onlyinstitution higher than the SupremeCourt and that is where the PM can andshould go. It is about time parliamentstamped its authority on the state insteadof being a rubber stamp.

It would make for a head-on-clashbetween the legislature and the judiciarybut it’s also about time that we clearly de-marcate the boundaries of the jurisdic-tions of the three branches government.It’s not the Durand Line. Let’s determinewho runs the country, the executive, thelegislature or the judiciary or all three to-gether within their strictly demarcateddomains. Just when the country needsstability most, the three branches of gov-ernment are busy destabilising it likeMafiosi in turf battles. But they’re notMafiosi, they’re institutions that some ig-noramuses call ‘pillars of the state’, for-getting that an Islamic state has only twopillars, God and the people, Hisvicegerent.

They should realise that they’repreparing the ground for yet anotherextra-constitutional intervention thatpeople will welcome. But this time it maynot be led by a four-star general.

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

By Humayun Gauhar

No closure

In the past few days, Afghanistan saw an increasingnumber of their countrymen being killed at thehands of foreign troops, along with another tragic

and sad episode of desecration of Quran by the foreigntroops. But no step has been taken on the part of Afghangovernment to help stop such occurrences.

The silence of Afghan government further embittersthe enraged masses. When America attacked the region,it pretended that militants were carrying out excessesagainst Afghan common people but even after a lapse often years, action against the former is of lesser degreethan against the latter.

These are the acts that have forced the Afghans to

rise against foreign troops. America, in fact, does notwant to see peace flourish in the region and is attempt-ing to somehow change its defeat to success. The ig-nominy that it has faced in the region has createdproblems for America on the foreign and domestic frontsand it is now in damage control mode. It is in this veinthat when innocent people are killed, America apologisesin order to take away from its image as an oppressiveforce.

There is no other way out for America now, except tochange their policies for the region. Any obstinacy wouldfurther spell out negative results not only for Americabut for the Afghan government as well.

– Translated from the original Pashto by AbdurRauf Khattak

the afghanistan quagmireDaily Khabroona

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:13 AM Page 12

comment 13Sunday, 29 april, 2012

As the saga of Prime MinisterGilani’s contempt case con-tinued, some other crucial

developments were taking place inthe region. The first everBangladesh-US security dialoguewas initiated on April 19th inDhaka, the same day the countrybowed out of its cricket tour to Pak-istan even after assurances. Coinci-dentally, India lunched its Agni-Vlong-range ballistic missile, whichit claims to be an Inter ContinentalBallistic Missile (ICBM), on April19th as well. While the domesticpolitical scene of Pakistan is mov-ing excruciatingly slow, the natureof its external security environmentremains as dynamic as ever and isshifting from the realms of land,sea and air, to the final frontier, thespace.

After the April 19th Agni-V test,India launched the RISAT-1 radarimaging satellite on April 26.RISAT-1 usefulness will be in disas-ter prediction and for agriculture,forestry and defence purposes.However, Chinese media has calledit a spy satellite. Not long ago, in2009 India had acquired Israelimanufactured RISAT-2 that hasnight scanning capability. The ca-pabilities of these satellites makethem instrumental in monitoringthe moves of unfriendly neighbourssuch as Pakistan and China 24/7.Reportedly, India has the world’shighest number of remote sensingsatellites (11) in orbit and is a leaderin the remote sensing data market.

These recent moves are part ofIndian focus to modernise its mili-tary based on cutting edge warfarestrategies and tactics, such as theNetwork Centric Warfare (NCW).This ambition was reflected in thecomments made by Indian ArmySpokesman Colonel JagdeepDahiya, as he talked about thelarge-scale military exerciseShoorveer (Brave Warrior) that ispresently ongoing,

"Battlefield transparency andoperational plans based on real-time situational awareness will beenhanced using intelligence, sur-

veillance and reconnaissance (ISR)inputs from Unmanned Aerial Ve-hicles (Drones), radars and satel-lites," he stated.

Space based assets have be-come an integral part of a strategyto maintain a control and domi-nance over land, sea and air. Allleading world powers are in theprocess of developing technologiesfor its surveillance, through SpaceSituational Awareness (SSA) andAnti Satellite (ASAT) capabilities.Mainly because the geospatial in-telligence, missile defense systems,global positioning and targetingmechanisms used by ground andair forces, are dependent on thesesatellites.

India has also shown interest indeveloping Anti Satellite (ASAT)weapons. According to the Indianmedia, this focus developed afterChina's 2007 use of an ASATweapon to destroy an old satellite.The Director General of Indian De-fence Research and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) VK Saraswathad stated in 2010,

"India is putting togetherbuilding blocks of technology thatcould be used to neutralise enemysatellites. We are working to ensurespace security and protect oursatellites. At the same time we arealso working on how to deny theenemy access to its space assets."

Moreover, India performed itslatest test for Anti Ballistic MissileSystem in February. The nationsuccessfully tested the interceptordefence shield, which detects anddestroys incoming ballistic mis-siles. DRDO jointly developed thesystem’s tracking and fire controlradar with Israel and France. Indiais the fifth state to achieve this mis-sile defence technology.

While India conducted itsAgni-V test and launched RISAT-1satellite, Pakistan successfullytested a nuclear capable-intermedi-ate range ballistic missile Hatf IV(Shaheen-1A) on April 25th. Theexact range of the missile was notannounced. A few unconfirmedmedia reports have claimed therange to be around 4,500 km. OnApril 26th, Pakistan had also com-missioned its first fast attack craft,PNS Azmat, built in cooperationwith China.

“Its immense firepower cou-pled with stealthy features makes ita real versatile platform whichwould not only prove vital for en-suring effective presence in ourarea of operations, but would bringa new dimension of operation of

stealthy platform of this tonnage,”Admiral Muhammad Sandila ofPakistan Navy stated at the com-missioning ceremony.

The key word in Pakistan’sstrategy to counter Indian spaceadvancements is ‘stealth’. WhilePakistan’s space program(SPARCO) and capabilities have re-mained highly secretive and lim-ited, the country has focused ondeveloping stealth missiles andtechnologies to avoid detection byIndian missile defence system.This, in addition to concerns ofChinese getting access, were per-haps the reasons US was emphaticabout the return of its stealth BlackHawk helicopter that went down inAbbottabad during the Osama op-eration.

In October last year, Pakistantested a stealth cruise missile, HatfVII (Babur). The Hatf VII is specu-lated to be a copy of AmericanTomahawk cruise missile. A few ofthese missiles had crashed in Pak-istani territory in 1998 when UStargeted militant camps inAfghanistan, in retaliation for at-tack on its embassies in Kenya andTanzania. Hatf VII has a range ofabout 700 km and is capable of car-rying a nuclear warhead with mul-tiple tube missile launch vehicle(MLV). MLV considerably in-creases the targeting and deploy-ment options. The country is alsoreportedly working on a stealthversion of its fighter jet J17 Thun-der.

Pakistan has adopted a strategysimilar to Russia, to counter thecontroversial American missile de-fence system being deployed in Eu-rope, and other regions of theworld. Russian ICBMs areequipped with Multiple Independ-ently Targeted Reentry Vehicles(MIRV), which makes the Anti Bal-listic Missile Systems (ABMs) inef-fective. Commander of the RussianStrategic Missile Forces LieutenantGeneral Sergey Karakayev stated inMay 2011 that the new Russian RS-24 ICBMs will become ‘invincible’as they will be capable of overcom-ing any missile defence system forthe next 15 or 20 years.

In short, the scope of Pakistan-India rivalry that was once limitedto land, sea and air, have nowclearly entered the domain ofspace. Although major world pow-ers are against militarisation ofspace, they are nonetheless not ret-icent in outdoing each other inspace, the final frontier. It is not amatter of choice but survival.

The court doesn’t victimise or compromise

A disappointing climaxThe changing nature of Pakistan’s external threats

indian threat moves to space

In juggling, right before theactor catches the objects,there is a moment when all

the pieces are in the air. Andwith bated breath, everyone –including the juggler – waits inanticipation of whether thepieces will land safely, or willthere be a fumble. The judicio-political saga of the PM’s con-tempt proceedings has justexperienced such a moment. Butsurprisingly, at the end of it, noone is really sure whether theconclusion has been a momentof triumph for the juggler, or afumble of embarrassment.

The short-order of theSupreme Court has been an-nounced. And a cursory glanceat the electronic and print mediawill reveal that it has not beenwell received by either side of thepolitical and legal divide. Forone it is too little, while for theother it is too much! And regard-less of which interpretation iscorrect, the judicial currency(which, in effect, is the moral au-thority of law) has taken a hit.

Let’s get the facts out of theway first. The short-order of theapex court, does two things: 1) itfinds the PM “guilty” and holdshim “convicted” for contempt ofcourt under Article 204(2) of theConstitution (and the Contemptof Court Ordinance), and 2) itsentences him to “imprison-ment”.

The first of these – convic-tion itself – has two parts: 1) thePM has been convicted “for will-ful flouting, disregard and dis-obedience” of court’s directionsin the NRO case, and 2) thecourt goes a step further to de-clare that this disobedience “issubstantially detrimental to theadministration of justice andtends to bring this Court and thejudiciary of this country intoridicule.”

The second part of the judg-ment – sentencing – also hastwo parts: 1) the court punishedthe PM “with imprisonment tillthe rising of the Court”, and 2)

the order expresses that a re-straint has been shown in pre-scribing this light sentencebecause, the judges “note”, thisconviction is “likely to entailsome serious consequences interms of Article 63(1)(g) of theConstitution” (disqualification).In other words, the court revealsits mind in almost saying that‘even though the crime itself de-served a graver sentence, wehave decided to go easy since theconvict is the PM and this deci-sion will have political ramifica-tions for him’.

This carefully drafted short-order, prima facie, seems a rea-sonable one. In fact, it can beargued that the judiciary has ex-ercised wisdom in coming to aconclusion that upholds the lawand protects the sanctity of judi-cial orders, while still makingsure that the Chief Executive ofour country is not handcuffed onthe front-page of all local and in-ternational media.

Still, both sides of the legaland political gulf seem unhappywith the outcome. The PM’scamp (and therefore, by exten-sion, the PPP, its supporters andthe allies), while holding theirstance that the Prime Minister isnot guilty, are criticizing thisorder on the basis that it goesbeyond the ambit of the ‘charge’against the accused. AitzazAhsan has gone to all lengths inexplaining that the PM wasnever tried for ‘scandalising thecourt’, and therefore a convic-tion in this regard falls outsidethe parameters of law, and vio-lates the fair trial requirementsof Article 10A of the Constitu-tion. (Though it should bepointed out that the charge men-tions Article 204 of the Constitu-tion, which includes‘scandalising’ the court).

On the other hand, elementsin the opposition parties and acertain segment of the media, isdisappointed that the courtshowed restraint in the sentenc-ing just because the convict isthe prime minister. They wouldrather have seen handcuffs anda possible wrapping-up of theexisting political dispensation. Afew have gone as far as callingthis restraint of the court a new‘doctrine of necessity’. (That’sokay because the bigwigs ofmedia are beyond the reaches ofcontempt law).

In the larger scheme ofthings, it is less important whichside one agrees with. The worry-ing part is that a large fractionfrom all sides of the political di-vide, views the court’s judgmentas either victimisation or a com-promise. This would not be aproblem in societies that havestable institutions and an en-trenched sense of constitutional-ism because a decision of thecourt, so long as it is within theambit of the law, should not beconcerned with the socio-politi-cal consequences (Fiat justitiaruat caelum – let justice be donethough heavens may fall). InPakistan, however, at a timewhen all institutions (includingthe judiciary) are searching forlegitimacy, public acceptance ofa court judgment that has politi-cal consequences, matters agreat deal. And our restored ju-diciary has been conscientious ofthis fact over the past some years(asserting its relevance and legit-imacy by taking on issues of‘public importance’ through theexercise of suo moto powers).

The binding authority oflaw, and of court orders, is amoral authority. Unlike the ex-ecutive, the courts do not havean army or administrative ma-chinery at their disposal to en-force their verdicts. It is only theimpartiality and correctness ofthe court that lends it the neces-sary moral currency to makes itbinding on all others to followjudicial pronouncements. Peoplemust see the court has unbiasedand unflinching, because ofwhich the executive will have toimplement the court’s orders,lest they face the wrath of theelectorate for judicial disobedi-ence. And this moral currencyerodes if the court is seen as vic-timising by one side, and com-promising by the other.

Right or wrong, the rhetoricfrom either side – of doctrine ofnecessity or of judicial martyr-dom – resonates with themasses who are unable to nu-ance between civil, criminal orjudicial contempt. It damagesthe legitimacy of the court. Andif all sides of the partisan divideand its supporters are alienatedby judicial verdicts, it couldundo the moral authority of law,and squander the gains of thelawyer’s movement for restora-tion of judiciary.

By Saad RasoolPoliTactBy Arif Ansar

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:13 AM Page 13

mumBAI: akshay Kumar seems to have beenfacing dancing dilemma off late. akshayKhiladi Kumar is sweating it out on the setsof ‘rowdy rathore’, his forthcoming actioncomedy directed by Prabhu Deva. Howeverdancing in the heat is what is killing himmore than executing the high octane stunts.akshay is being trained by none other thanPrabhu Deva himself and meeting PrabhuDeva's dance expectations is no joke. akki isslogging it out to catch with up Deva and hisdancing. akshay blogged, "waiting forSonakshi madam! Prabhu sir is truly killingus, making us dance like true South indianwhich is why Sonakshi Sinha is hiding." it isnot the first time that Prabhu Deva hasmade an actor nervous. Dancing queenMadhuri Dixit too had said, "i was nervouswhen i was told, i'll be dancing on PrabhuDeva's tunes in ‘Que Sera Sera’, song from‘Pukar’. i got cold feet. i wasn't sure if i couldexecute what he taught. He is a fantasticdancer." Looks like Prabhu, the choreographeris quite a task master otherwise why wouldSalman Khan who generally doesn't bothereven changing his expressions did a fullfledged jalwa in ‘wanted’. AGeNCIeS

14 Sunday, 29 april, 2012

‘Rowdy Rathore’s

gruelling schedule Abhishek’s ‘BolBachchan’ eyesJuly release mumBAI: Bollywood starAbhishek Bachchan, who iscurrently busy shooting hiscomedy flick ‘Bol Bachchan’,says he is excited that the filmwill hit screens on july 6. Thefilm, which is inspired by AmolPalekar starrer 1978 film ‘Golmaal’, is being directed byRohit Shetty and starsBachchan and Ajay devgn inthe lead role. “Back on the setsof Bol Bachchan. Few moredays and it’s a wrap on thefilm. Releases 6th july.excitement is becoming!”Bachchan posted on Twitter.Bachchan, 36, had met with aminor accident last year whileshooting for the film in jaipurlast year. After his stint as anaction hero in ‘Players’ and‘Game’, Bachchan will be backin comedy with ‘Bol Bachchan’after three years. AGeNCIeS

mumBAI: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is ahands-on mummy to baby daughterAaradhya. The actress plans all her outings,professional and personal, around the baby'stimings. Says a friend of Aishwarya, "Lastweek, Ash and Abhishek went out for dinnerwith close friends to celebrate their fifthwedding anniversary, but they returnedhome before their baby's next feed. Theywent for only a couple of hours to anearby venue to save commuting time."Recently, when she was busy with an adcommitment in the afternoon, thebaby's sleep timings were strictlyadhered to. "even when she went todubai for an endorsement appearancelast month, she took her little onealong. Her interviews were held in asuite next to her own so that she

could keep a check on the baby.Though Ash has a nanny for the

baby she prefers to doeverything herself," says a

source. every year, Ashand Abhishek go outon a holiday abroadon their anniversary,but this year theywere in the city. Butwe are sure they'llmake up for thatwhen they go toCannes nextmonth with thebaby. AGeNCIeS

NEWS DESK

Grandeur CEO NeshmiaAhmed organised an exclu-sive fashion exhibition inwhich different designersparticipated. Among the de-signers who set up theirstall, Talha Patel’s sterlingsilver stole the show. Hisunique modern designs withreal stones and silver werevery popular at the show.Ladies thronged at his stalland he was by far thebiggest seller. Abeera Jay’slabel launched in 2010 andincludes both, prêt & cou-ture. Her latest summer col-lection is all about colours,

cuts and contemporary em-broideries. Hira Arif is thebrand launched by HiraArif, that brings its springcollection 2012. The collec-tion includes casual linewith different cuts and de-signs also designs formalwear with unique style andcuts. Rabiah Patel’s TheLabel now includes bothprêt & culture. Since fouryears this label includes awearable range of casualsand semi-formals. The SMby Sana collection is allabout making practical forreal women. Its silhouettessuit a variety of body types.Touche by Sumaiya Iqbal

has introduced prêt for thefirst time. The collectionconsists of both Eastern andWestern clothing and also afusion of both with an inter-esting colour palette.Umama Farrukh’s latest col-lection consists of beautifuldaywear. Zarghoon by Nau-reen Naqvi brings the latestspring collection of casualwear and semi-formals withunique designs and prints.Dazzing Duo is a dynamiccombination of Zaraafat,hand crafted accessoriesand Naseem Ali fashion ac-cessories that bring con-temporary, uniquejewellery, clutches and bags.

Grandeur holds exclusive fashion exhibition

KARACHI: Grandeur CEO Neshmia Ahmed organised an exclusive exhibition in which different designers participated. PR

LImA: A model

presents a creation

by a Peruvian

designer during

the 2012 Peru

moda Fashion

Week. AFP

new yorK: freida Pinto attends

the ‘trishna’ premiere during the

2012 tribeca film festival. AFp

waSHinGton: Kate Upton and cnn's Piers Morgan arrive at a red

carpet event hosted by Google and the Hollywood reporter, on the eve

of the annual white House correspondents’ association dinner. AFp

Ali Zafar saysyes to action

After having won accolades play-

ing the romantic hero in ‘London

Paris New York’, Ali Zafar is all

set to try his hand at some hard-

core action buff. Buzz has it that

the actor has been pencilled in to

play one of the leads in the Hindi

remake of the Tamil action flick

‘Vettai’, and will essay the role

played by Madhavan in the orig-

inal. Zafar is training for the ac-

tion sequences to prepare for his

part. When asked about the ven-

ture, Ali diplomatically replies, "I

can only comment on it in due

time." He, however, adds, "I

would love to explore the action

genre. In fact, I used to create

and write comic books as a child.

Action gives me a high." Mean-

while, the actor is looking for-

ward to David Dhawan's

‘Chashme Buddoor’, remake of

the 1981 cult film. "I have just

completed the film. I've seen the

original, and though I have en-

acted Farooque Shaikh's part in

my own way, I've retained the

character's earthiness," he

smiles. Zafar has also sung a few

numbers in the comedy flick.

"But why only sing? Didn't I

write, compose and sing for

‘London Paris New York’? I be-

lieve in being versatile," he says.

Talking about that film, was he

comfortable doing the intimate

scenes? "The scenes were shot

in extreme close-up, so my

discomfort did not come across

on screen!" he laughs. "The kiss-

ing scene was done by some-

body else too," he grins. Ah,

finally a confession. NeWS deSK

IN LIMELIGHT

eDinBUrGH: colin firth, nicole Kidman and Stellan Skarsgard pose for

photographs during a media call for their film ‘the railway Man’. ReUTeRS

SOCIETY

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:13 AM Page 14

Adam Levine calls Jennifer ‘aggressive’ flirt

LOS ANGELESAGeNCIeS

Adam Levine, whom Jennifer Love He-witt had publicly set her sights on be-fore she began cozying up to her 'ClientList' co-star Colin Egglesfield, has saidthat he is impressed by the actressesdetermination. Then single Hewitt saidon 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' that shealways has her eyes out. "I just read twodays ago that Adam Levine is singleagain. I'm just saying," Us magazinequoted her as saying. She even jokedthat Levine would "probably neverspeak to me" after professing her loveon national TV. "I heard about that.That was aggressive," Levine said on'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'. "It was re-ally sweet and flattering. Beautiful life,you know, when a beautiful womansays nice things about you," he said.When the show host offered to set themup, Levine laughed and said, "I'm cool".The musician, after all, is still recover-ing from his recent breakup with SportsIllustrated model Anne Vyalitsyna.

Multi-designer furniture store Jeuni launched

NEWS DESK

After many multi-designer fashionstores, a multi-designer furniture store,Jeuni was launched in Lahore wherebuyers can get a variety of designer fur-niture under one roof. At Jeuni differ-ent top furniture designers along withemerging furniture designers will nowhave the opportunity to exhibit theirfurniture creations. The launch of thestore was attended by many designerfurniture lovers such as furniture de-signers Ayesha Khurram, Amina Saeed,fashion models Natasha Hussain, AmnaBabar, fashion designer Saim Ali, film-star Resham, makeup artists Babloo,Khawar Riaz, and many others. Interiordesigning services are also available atJeuni by furniture designer AminaSaeed. The launching was organised byAmir Mazhar of Savvy PR and Events.

15

Around the world with Adnan Sami

Avoid promotionsif they bother you:Imran KhanmumBAI: Actor Imran Khan has a piece ofadvice for people who complain of filmpromotions going over-the-top - if too muchpromotions bother, just ignore them. “Ifsomething bothers you, like I say that someads bother me, I put the television off. So, ifpeople think that promotions are getting outof hand, they don't have to pay attention,they don't have to watch the film,” Imran saidat the mTV power 1 Youth forum event. “It'sultimately someone's freedom and it's theirway of promoting the film. They are takingnothing away from you,” he added. Imran saidas an actor, it is his responsibility to supportthe producer and participate in a film'spromotions. “I think it is ultimately thepersonal choice. There is a producer, who isinvesting crores of rupees in a product. As anactor, it is my responsibility to make sure thatthis guy gets his money's worth," he said. Lastseen in ‘ekk main aur ek Tu’, Imran is currentlybusy preparing for Vishal Bhardwaj's 'matru KiBijli Ka mandola' opposite Anushka Sharma.The film will also see Pankaj Kapoor andShabana Azmi together on screen. AGeNCIeS

LOS ANGELES AGeNCIeS

We've followed their adventures withexcitement, secretly wished to havetheir superpowers, good looks orcharm. Kid or adult, these fictionalcharacters have been at the centre ofthousands of comic book pages, filmreels, television shorts, pop culture andthe like for half a century. Let's wishthese superheroes a very happy 50thbirth year. Spider-Man: Created in Au-gust, 1962, by Stan Lee and writer-artistSteve Ditko, Spiderman became the firstever teen superhero. Peter Parker was acharacter many teens identified with,also dealing with issues such as loneli-ness, social awkwardness, girl issuesand rejection. One of the most commer-cially successful superhero franchises ofall time, Spider-Man was adapted onscreen by Tobey Maguire with AndrewGarfield taking over the spider suit inthe to-be-released reboot ‘The AmazingSpider-Man’. Thor: Based on the thun-der god from Norse mythology, Thordebuted in August, 1962 with the sci-

ence fiction title ‘Journey into Mystery#83’. Banished to earth by the king ofNorse gods, for being too arrogant, Thorfinds his place among the mortals, fi-nally being part of the super-group ‘TheAvengers’. The Hulk: The man bestknown for his anger issues, The Hulk isthe emotional and impulsive monster ofan alter ego of Dr Bruce Banner. TheHulk has been represented in variousmedia from television series to threefilms-‘Hulk’ (played by Eric Bana), ‘TheIncredible Hulk’ (with Edward Norton)and he will appear in ‘The Avengers’played by Mark Ruffalo. James Bond (ofthe film series): The first film adapta-tion from Ian Fleming's James Bond se-ries of novels, Dr No, premiered inBritish theatres in October, 1962. Now,fifty years later, James Bond, the wom-anising, deadly yet affable British MI6agent has come to stand for class, style,and suavity. Portrayed first by Scottishactor Sean Connery, 007 has since beenplayed by George Lazenby, RogerMoore, Pierce Brosnan and currently,by Daniel Craig who will return on-screen with the new Bond film, ‘Skyfall’.

adnan Sami has taken off to the UK on thefirst leg of a world tour that will also see himtravelling to the US, canada, africa,Scandinavia, far east and the Middle eastover the next four months. His first concertwas at London’s famous wembley stadium. “iwill be back in india by the end of the month.i’ll take a break, then fly off to anothercountry. Going around the world at a stretchwill be tiring and tedious which is why ithought of taking a break for a couple ofweeks in between,” says the singer-composer. Meanwhile, adnan has beenworking on an album for yash raj films Musicthat should be out by the end of next month.titled ‘Press Play’, the singer says that eachof the nine songs belong to a different genre,which is why he didn’t want to label hisalbum after any one track or have it peggedas a romantic, Sufi or pop compilation. “i havesung a Sufi song; it’s extremely trippy. i’vealways loved that music but this is the firsttime i’ve tackled the genre. it’s one of myfavourite tracks,” says adnan, who has alsoattempted another first with this album, aPunjabi number. “i have lots of Punjabi friendsand i speak the language with them. theyalways ask me when i would sing in Punjabi. i

finally have and it’s a pretty outrageous song,with an up-beat tempo,” he adds. the 38-year-old is also gearing up for his actingcareer, having zeroed in on two scripts. “theBollywood film is likely to roll post summer,”he says, adding that it will have elements ofromance and comedy. “it’s not slapstick, butsituational comedy. and no, i won’t produce it,i’m just the actor.” NeWS deSK

LOS ANGELESAGeNCIeS

I F her panned performanceon ‘Saturday Night Live’ wasthe first stumble of LindsayLohan’s long-awaited careercomeback and alleged bar

dust-ups were the second, a three-episode guest spot on ‘Glee’ mighthave been strike three. A source saidLohan was six hours late to work onthe show and her “diva” behaviourirritated cast and crew alike.

“One of her demands has to dowith her trailer size,” said the spy.“The cast is already worked to deathand then she puts everything behind.She is a diva!” Lindsay’s tardinesswas initially hinted at by cast mem-ber Dot Marie Jones, who tweeted-then deleted-“Gonna be a long day!!Some ppl show up late and justthrow a wrench in things. Not cool!I’d rather be an hour early (I was)than 5 minutes late.” The troubledactress was also slammed for arriv-ing unprepared. When Lohan did ar-

rive hours late, she was in no moodto act and even had not prepared herscript or remembered her lines.When her rep was contacted to get aconfirmation, he did admit that shewas late but said that it was becausethere was a miscommunication re-garding the timings. According tosome sources, when Lindsay Lohancame to the set, she just did not wantto be there. She did not want to work,kept forgetting her lines and evenkept disappearing from the set. Sheeven had a “million demands”. In theshow, Lindsay Lohan is playing thecharacter of a celebrity judge, whohas come to McKinley High toanalyse the teams there. Alongsideher, Perez Hilton and Rex Lee arealso cast as celebrity judges and bothof them were also irked by her atti-tude on the set. Lohan has recentlybeen steered clear of her probation bya judge in California and in the court-room, LiLo vowed on leading a moresober life. However, it seems that itwill be quite some time before she re-ally does lead a decent life again.

Rolling Stone overhauls album ranking, Kanye stars

LONDON ReuTeRS

Three Kanye West albumshave made it on to the lat-est edition of RollingStone magazine's authori-tative ‘500 Greatest Al-bums of All Time’ list,placing him among thegreats of popular music.The new ranking, whichcombines a 2003 list (up-dated in 2005) with a later survey of the2000s, saw two Radiohead records join theelite club, while long-established names in-cluding Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan alsohad albums added. Rolling Stone has publishedthe list, along with details of the albums andseveral new recording histories based on first-hand accounts. The big beneficiary was US hip-hop star West, who saw 2005 album ‘LateRegistration’, ‘The College Dropout’ (2004) and‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ (2010)make it to the top 500. Canadian band ArcadeFire's Funeral is among the 30 additions, as isBritish act Arctic Monkeys for their 2005 hit‘Whatever People Say I Am’, ‘That's What I'mNot’. Radiohead features twice -- for ‘Amnesiac’(2001) and ‘In Rainbows’ (2007), Jay-Z isadded for ‘The Black Album’ (2003), Lil Waynemakes it with ‘Tha Carter III’ (2008) and thelate Amy Winehouse for ‘Back to Black’. TheBeatles feature no less than four times in thefirst 10; at number one (‘Sgt. Pepper's LonelyHearts Club Band’), three (‘Revolver’), five(‘Rubber Soul’) and 10 (‘The White Album’).

mumBAI: Neil Nitin

mukesh poses during

a promotional event

for Volkswagen. AFP

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:14 AM Page 15

Sunday, 29 april, 2012

16 Foreign News

KUALA LUMPURAFP

Malaysian police fired teargas and water cannonSaturday as thousands of protesters took to thestreets of the capital to demand sweeping elec-toral reforms ahead of widely expected polls.

Protesters marched to Independence Squarein central Kuala Lumpur, defying a lockdownand a ban on gatherings in the area that hadraised questions about a pledge by Prime Min-ister Najib Razak to expand civil liberties.

The otherwise peaceful rally was disruptedwhen hundreds of protesters angry at being de-nied access to the square trampled razor wire,pushed aside barricades and were met with tear-gas and chemical-laced water.

National police spokesman Ramli Yoosufsaid at least 222 people were arrested but ex-pected the figure to rise.

The fracas marked the second straight yearthat police clashed with a pro-democracy rallyorganised by the election reform pressure groupBersih. A protest march last year was crushed bypolice with 1,600 people arrested.

Bersih and the political opposition are de-manding far-reaching reforms by Najib to endwhat they say has been decades of manipulation

by the ruling coalition aimed at keeping itself inpower. “The message we are sending to Najib isthat we must have clean elections!” oppositionleader Anwar Ibrahim shouted to a crowd justbefore the clashes began.

Najib denied any electoral bias. “We do notwant to be elected through cheating. We are agovernment chosen by the people,” the officialBernama news agency quoted him as saying.

Bersih demands a thorough vetting of thevoter roll following revelations of widespreadphantom or duplicate voter registrations, a com-plete overhaul of the national Election Commis-sion, which it accuses of bias, and other reforms.

Criticism of the harsh response to last year’srally stung Najib, who shortly afterward imple-mented a series of political reform steps to shore upvoter support. But he faces fresh criticism after thegovernment banned rallying at the square and al-legations of harassment of activists in recent days.

“Despite all the talk of ‘reform’ over the pastyear, we’re seeing a repeat of repressive actionsby a government that does not hesitate to useforce when it feels its prerogatives are chal-lenged,” Human Rights Watch said in responseto the clashes at the square.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said“despite claims to the contrary, the government

fully respects peoples’ right to peaceful protest”.“Overall... this afternoon’s protest passed offwithout major incident,” he said in a statement.

Police estimated at least 30,000 people par-ticipated in the rally, while independentMalaysian media put the number at more thantwice that. As white teargas smoke filled the airand drifted down nearby streets, riot policequickly forced back the protesters who had en-tered the square and regained control.

Nearby, protesters retaliated by throwingempty water bottles at police. An AFP reportersaw a police car that had been turned on its sideand its windshield smashed, with streaks ofblood visible on the pavement.

“We want peace, we want justice for ourcountry. We don’t want to make any trouble,”said housewife Carmen Yap, 42, her eyes water-ing and bloodshot from the teargas. The crowdhad mostly dispersed by late afternoon.

Protesters, many dressed in the yellow of theBersih clean-election movement -- Bersihmeans “clean” in Malay -- had marched towardthe square but were thwarted by a lockdown thatincluded about 2,000 armed police.

After last year’s rally was crushed, publicoutrage moved Najib to set up a panel to exploreelectoral reforms.

KABULAFP

TEN policemen werekilled after a roadsidebomb ripped throughtheir patrol vehicle incentral Afghanistan, an

official said Saturday.The bomb struck their pickup

truck in the restive Chak district ofMaidan Wardak province on Friday,ministry of interior spokesman SediqSediqqi told AFP.

“Yesterday afternoon a local po-lice vehicle was hit by a roadsidebomb that unfortunately left all tenlocal police dead,” he said.

The Taliban immediately claimedresponsibility for the attack, but putthe death toll at seven.

“The roadside bomb wasplanted by our mujahideen in Chakdistrict of Wardak yesterday,” Tal-iban spokesman Zabihullah Mu-jahid told AFP.

Earlier on Saturday, two gunmenhiding pistols in their shoes snuck in-side a provincial governor’s high-se-curity compound in southernAfghanistan killing two guards in afierce gun battle.

The Taliban claimed responsibil-ity for the attack, saying their maintarget was the provincial GovernorTooryalai Weesa.

“After killing two bodyguards, theattackers seized their rifles and openedfire on other bodyguards, injuringone,” Weesa told AFP, confirming thathe was not hurt in the incident.

The attackers were eventuallykilled, Kandahar governmentspokesman Zalmay Ayobi told AFP.Security forces also found a vehicleladen with explosives abandoned out-side the compound.

The insurgents somehow madeit through the tight security at thecompound with pistols tucked intheir sandals, Weesa said, and thegun fight that ensued lasted forabout 30 minutes before the attack-ers were subdued.

ashton urges ‘irreversible’Myanmar reforms

YANGONAFP

The EU’s top diplomat urged Myanmar tomake its political reforms “irreversible”and called for an end to bloody ethnicconflict after talks with pro-democracyleader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday.Catherine Ashton’s visit for meetings withthe newly-elected opposition leader andthe reformist regime follows the recentsuspension of European Union sanctionsagainst the long-isolated country to re-ward political changes. It also comes amida political stalemate as Suu Kyi and herparty refuse to take their seats in parlia-ment over a dispute about the swearing-inoath -- an issue Ashton said she hopedwould be resolved to allow reforms toprogress. “This is a process of change. Ihope that we will see all the elementscome into place to make it an irreversibleprocess that can move forward,” she saidat a press conference. “On that journeythere will be many things that need to bedone, many things that need to be workedout,” the EU’s high representative for for-eign affairs added. Myanmar, which lan-guished for decades under a repressivejunta, has seen a thaw in its relations withthe international community since a con-troversial 2010 election brought a civiliangovernment to power -- albeit one withclose links to the military. The EuropeanUnion has responded to what it said were“historic changes” by suspending for oneyear a wide range of trade, economic andindividual sanctions, although it left intactan arms embargo. In a first step towardsestablishing a full diplomatic mission,Ashton on Saturday opened a new EU of-fice in Yangon that will mostly oversee themanagement of aid programmes but alsohave a political role. The top diplomat,who will hold talks with President TheinSein in the capital Naypyidaw on Monday,told reporters that she would “welcomethe way in which he is moving forward”and “urge him to do more” at the meeting.A major concern for the West is the fight-ing raging between the military and ethnicminority rebels in northernmost KachinState, despite the government’s insistencethat it wants peace with the country’s vari-ous armed groups. “The killing has tostop,” Ashton said. “It is important andthe president will be the one -- I hope,when I discuss with him -- to tell me howhe sees that going forward.” The formerarmy general has ushered through a broadrange of changes since coming to powerlast year, including welcoming Suu Kyi’sparty into the political mainstream andfreeing political prisoners. But in an earlysign of tension with the regime, Suu Kyiand other members of her NationalLeague for Democracy (NLD) party -- whowon seats in a historic April 1 by-election -- declined to attend a new session of par-liament on Monday.

Clashes as Malaysians rally for clean elections

jejRe: men dressed as warriors fight on Saturday during a battle between Christian knights and heathen Icelandic Vikings, as hundreds of role players fought together in Lejre, theLand of Legends, south of Copenhagen. AFp

Roadside bomb ‘kills 10policemen’ in Afghanistan

tehran police in newdress code crackdown

TEHRANAFP

Police in Tehran are conducting a newcrackdown on women wearing mandatoryheadscarves improperly or in “vulgar”dress, the city’s police chief said, accord-ing to media reports on Saturday.Such operations, which see police screen-ing foot and vehicle traffic at major junc-tions and shopping centres, are conductedfairly often in Iran. The latest one was or-dered days ahead of the May 4 secondround of parliamentary elections, and asthe onset of warm spring weather promptsIranian women to don lighter clothing. Thepolice chief, Hossein Sajedinia, said thecrackdown was “asked for by the people,”the Fars news agency reported. Womenwearing “bad headscarves, bad dress, andmodel-type women in vulgar dress” wouldbe stopped, he said. Typically, such womenare fined or detained in police stationsuntil relatives collect them hours later withmore modest clothing. Sajedinia said thatcompanies importing “illegal clothes” thatdo not comply with Islamic dress stan-dards would be given a warning or closed.

g Gunmen kill two guards in attack on governor

KuALA LAmPuR: malaysian police drag away a protestor during

an anti-government rally on Saturday. AFp

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:14 AM Page 16

Foreign News 17Sunday, 29 april, 2012

KHARTOUMAFP

SUDAN on Saturday ruled outUN Security Council involve-ment in efforts to end weeksof border clashes with SouthSudan, which said it repelled

an attack by Khartoum-backed rebels.“Sudan confirms that it rejects any

efforts to disturb the African Union roleand take the situation between Sudanand South Sudan to the UN SecurityCouncil,” Foreign Minister Ali Karti saidafter a month of deadly clashes whichhave raised fears of a wider war.

The African Union itself, in a deci-sion last Tuesday, asked the SecurityCouncil to endorse its demand that the

two Sudans halt hostilities in 48 hours,start talks within two weeks and com-plete a peace accord in three months.

But Karti -- while expressing fullconfidence in the AU’s role -- said in astatement that Security Council involve-ment would “give priority to a politicalposition which was announced beforeand has a hidden agenda.”

He did not elaborate.The South Sudanese army said on

Saturday it had repelled an attack byrebels backed by Sudan outsideMalakal, capital of the South’s UpperNile State.

“It was Sudan-supported militiasthat attacked SPLA (South Sudan army)positions” on Friday, Colonel PhilipAguer told AFP. He said his forces re-

pulsed the attack, with an unknownnumber of casualties.

But the rebels claimed in a statementthat the “South Sudan Democratic Army(SSDA) launched Operation Ending Cor-ruption and surrounded Malakal... andcaptured its surroundings.” Aguer saidSouth Sudan’s forces had detained threerebel fighters and one vehicle. The Secu-rity Council on Thursday started talkson a resolution that could allow sanc-tions against Sudan and South Sudan ifthey do not meet the AU demands toend their fighting.

A resolution drafted by the UnitedStates backs the AU decision and callsfor the two sides to “immediately” halthostilities and pull their forces back intotheir own territory.

The text says the Security Councilwould review the rivals’ implementationof AU demands and could “take appro-priate additional measures” under Arti-cle 41 of Chapter VII of the UN charterthat allows for sanctions but not mili-tary force. On Tuesday, the AU’s secu-rity body adopted a roadmap calling foran end to fighting, including aerial bom-bardments. “Since they (Sudan) cannotbomb us, they are arming and sendingmilitias and mercenaries now,” SouthSudan government spokesman BarnabaMarial Benjamin said.

The roadmap also urged both sidesto withdraw troops from the other’s ter-ritory, stop supporting rebel groups andrefrain from making “inflammatory”public statements.

Sudan rejects Security Council role in South rowSaudi arabia recalls

ambassador to

egypt in lawyer rowRIYADH

AFP

Saudi Arabia has decided to recall its am-bassador to Cairo and close its diplomaticmissions in Egypt after protests outside itsembassy over an arrested Egyptian lawyer,state news agency SPA said Saturday.The embassy as well as consulates in theMediterranean cities of Alexandria andSuez were closed. An official spokesman,quoted by SPA, said the measures were de-cided in response to demonstrations out-side its missions in Egypt and threatsfollowing the announcement of the arrestof the Egyptian lawyer in Saudi Arabia. Theprotests were “unjustified,” the spokesmansaid, adding that Saudi and Egyptian em-ployees of its diplomatic missions had beenthreatened. “Hostile slogans were shoutedout and the immunity of the diplomaticrepresentations was violated, contrary toall international regulations,” thespokesman said. He said the violence hadled to the suspension of diplomatic andconsular services for Egyptian workers andMuslim pilgrims headed for Islam’s holiestsites, located in western Saudi Arabia. OnTuesday, hundreds of Egyptians protestedoutside the embassy demanding the releaseof an Egyptian human rights activist heldby Saudi authorities who claim he pos-sessed banned drugs. The protesterschanted slogans against the Saudi regimeas they called for the “immediate” releaseof Ahmed Mohammed al-Gizawi, who wasarrested on arrival at Jeddah airport onApril 17. The Arabic Network for HumanRights Information, an Egyptian organisa-tion, said Gizawi was detained following asentence of one year in prison and 20lashes delivered against him in absentia forcriticism of the Saudi government.

egypt’s elBaradei

unveils new partyCAIRO

AFP

Leading Egyptian dissident Mohamed El-Baradei on Saturday unveiled a new partyhe said was aimed at rescuing last year’suprising from a “tragic” transitional periodunder the ruling military.The former UN nuclear watchdog chief andNobel Laureate said the goal of his newConstitution Party was to “to rescue thegreat January revolution that has divertedfrom its course.”ElBaradei, who had considered standing innext month’s presidential election but ulti-mately decided against it, called the mili-tary-led transitional period since theuprising ousted president Hosni Mubarakin February 2011 “tragic.”“When we undertook the revolution, we didnot imagine the situation we are in today,nor the tragic transitional period we are liv-ing today,” he said at a news conference.The outspoken dissident and critic of theruling generals said the economy had dete-riorated while the elected parliament wasnot fully representative of all Egyptians.He also criticised next month’s presidentialelection, which will be held before a newconstitution defining the leader’s role is inplace. “For these reasons, and others, wedecided the time has come to start organ-ised political work,” he said.

DNIPROPETROVSKAFP

President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturdayvisited Ukraine’s industrial heartland aftera wave of blasts injured dozens of peopleahead of the Euro 2012 football tourna-ment. The unclaimed attack came aftertensions over the fate of jailed oppositionleader Yulia Tymoshenko drew calls fromsome European leaders to strip the ex-So-viet nation of the prestigious event aheadof the June 8 kickoff.

Yanukovych, taking personal charge ofthe blasts probe, held a closed securitymeeting at the scene and announced a two-million-hryvnia ($250,000, 190,000euros) reward “for information that will

help solve the crime.”“We must do all we can to find the

criminals and establish the motives of thecrime and its aim,” he said at the start ofthe meeting, adding that investigatorsfrom neighbouring countries were also tak-ing part. He visited victims in several hos-pitals, meeting patients including a16-year-old girl who suffered most in theblasts, his office said, adding that doctorsoperated on her and managed to save hersight. “Our main task today is to preventsuch a thing happening again,”Yanukovych said, warning that “it’s possi-ble that we are talking about an attempt todestabilise the situation in the country.”

On Saturday, 22 victims remained inhospital, with four in a serious condition,

the health ministry said, putting the totalnumber of injured at 30 as opposed to the26 reported by the emergencies ministry.

One male victim had to have an armamputated, a spokeswoman for the city’shealth department told the Interfax newsagency. The rare attacks have shockedUkraine, which has witnessed no majoracts of terror in its modern history andwhere political violence is rare.

“A terrorist attack in Dnipropetrovsk:who needs this?” the mass-circulatedKomsomolskaya Pravda daily asked.

“A tram stop blew up into the air, andpassersby bandaged the wounded,” wrotethe Segodnya daily. “There was panic inDnipropetrovsk and people were weepingon the streets.” The attacks came as the

nation puts the finishing touches on itspreparations for Euro 2012, an event it isco-hosting with Poland and is hoping touse to showcase the strides it has madesince the Soviet era.

Although Dnipropetrovsk is not a hostcity in the country’s first major interna-tional sports event, it lies on the route of atour the trophy will be taken on, visitingthe city of one million on May 21. Europe’sfootball governing body UEFA has said itis confident Ukraine will be able to ensuresecurity, although Donald Tusk, primeminister of co-host Poland, said: “Thisissue needs to be treated with the utmostseriousness.”

The head of the Football Federation ofUkraine Grigory Surkis told AFP he be-

lieved the blasts aimed “to torpedo thetournament in Ukraine at all costs andcompromise our country in the eyes of theinternational community.” Some suspecta political motive since Dnipropetrovsk isthe home town of Yanukovych’s arch-foe,the 2004 Orange Revolution leader Ty-moshenko, who is serving a disputed jailterm that has strained Kiev’s ties with theEuropean Union.The blasts rang out on thesame day that she publicised photographsof bruises and scratches she says werecaused by prison guards forcibly hospital-ising her at a local clinic against her will.

She has now been on hunger strike formore than a week and has appealed to beallowed to have treatment abroad forchronic back pain.

UKRAine pROBeS BLASTS AHeAD OF eURO 2012

Syria condemns Turkey for nATO talkDAMASCUS

AFP

The foreign ministry on Saturday accused Turkey ofprovocation with its talk of asking NATO to help pro-tect its border with Syria, saying such action wentagainst the UN-backed peace plan.

“Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoganand Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu continue tomake provocative statements aimed at aggravating thesituation in Syria and harming bilateral ties,” foreignministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said.

“It is disturbing that Erdogan threatened to bring

in NATO to protect its borders with Syria. This demon-strates a lack of a genuine commitment to the terms ofthe (Kofi) Annan plan and policies of good neighbourli-ness.” Makdisi also accused Erdogan of hosting armedgroups “that do not believe in the political process”. OnApril 9, four Syrian refugees and two Turks, a police-man and a translator, were wounded in the Kilisrefugee camp in southeastern Turkey when they werehit by gunfire from across the border. When asked onApril 12 what Turkey’s response would be to conflictspilling over the Syrian-Turkish border, Erdogan re-sponded by saying that “we have several options.”

“First of all, there is an option of invoking Article

5 of the NATO treaty,” he said of NATO clause whichstipulates that an attack against a NATO member isconsidered an attack against all members.

NATO action, however, requires unanimous sup-port from members of the North Atlantic Council, thedecision-making body of the group.

Davutoglu too said Thursday that Turkey is con-sidering “all possibilities in order to protect nationalsecurity” if the violence continues to bring tens ofthousands of Syrian refugees into its territory.

The media interpreted this as a possible declara-tion of a buffer zone along the 560 mile (910 kilome-tre) Syria-Turkey border for sheltering refugees.

jeNIN: Palestinian and foreign peace activists release balloons carrying leaflets calling for the revival of the Arab Peace Initiative, seeking to end Israeli occupation and establish anindependent Palestinian state, during a rally marking the 10th anniversary of the initiative in the West Bank village of Faquaa on Saturday. AFp

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:14 AM Page 17

Sunday, 29 April, 2012

Page 21

the return ofthe Prodigal?

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

IQBAL Qasim, Pakistan's chiefselector, has said that there areno points of conflict betweenthe national selection commit-

tee and coach Dav Whatmore. Qasimwas referring to media speculationabout a possible disagreementprompted by Whatmore working withdiscarded Test players at the NationalCricket Academy earlier this week. Hesaid that communication between theselectors and the coach is important,though, and will help both partiesavoid a clash in strategy.

Acording to Cricinfo, Pakistan'scricketers have not had any assignmentssince March's successful Asia Cup cam-paign, and will next be in action againonly a month from now in Sri Lanka.Whatmore, who had taken over coach-ing the team only before the Asia Cup,has used the break to collect data onplayers around the country. He hadworked with players like MohammadYousuf and Kamran Akmal at the NCA,prompting talk of potential comebacks.

The selectors, meanwhile, havenamed 12 fast bowlers to be supervisedby Whatmore at the NCA. The list in-cludes promising youngsters, as well asplayers like Mohammad Sami andIftikhar Anjum who have been out of thenational set-up for a couple of years.

"I am in contact with Whatmoreon a constant basis and I don't think

we are facing any points of conflict atthe moment," Qasim said. "He [What-more] is new in Pakistan and wants tounderstand the system and wants tosee what [players] we have. There is noharm in this, [in fact] we are helpinghim in this regard by giving him play-ers [the 12 fast bowlers] to assess. Thisis the part of his strategy."

"I know players who are out ofcontention are there, practising withhim. There is no harm in this, but weshould ensure no communication gapcrops us, sparking a clash with our[the selection committee's] strategy."

Pakistan have been in fine from overthe past 18 months, losing only the ODIseries to England in the UAE during thisperiod. It was important to keep movingahead, Qasim said. "Our vision is quiteclear, we have to look forward.

"But our doors aren't shut on play-ers who are on the fringes. There is al-ways a criterion for every player [tomake their way back into the team]. Ifthey have fallen out of contention butare the part of coach's strategy, then wewill definitely will consider them with anopen mind. We cannot decide that XYZplayer is finished and won't return."

No conflict betweencoach, selectors: Qasim

ST JOHN'SAFP

West Indies recalled wicket-keeper De-nesh Ramdin and big-hitting batsmanMarlon Samuels for their three-Test tourof England next month while also sum-moning uncapped paceman ShannonGabriel.

Ramdin replaces Carlton Baugh whileSamuels has returned from a stint in theIndian Premier League to take over fromopener Kraigg Brathwaite.

Both Baugh and Brathwaite featuredin the three-Test series against Australiawhich finished on Friday.

"We are going to England early in theseason, where the conditions tend tofavour the quick bowlers more than thespinners," said Clyde Butts, the chairmanof the West Indies selectors.

"Young Gabriel continues to impressthe selectors in both regional and A-Team

cricket, and we feel it is a good time to in-troduce him. We feel he will be an asset tothe team in England and has a bright fu-ture in West Indies cricket."

Off-spinner Shane Shillingford, who

became the first West Indian spinnersince Lance Gibbs in 1966 to claim a 10-wicket match haul in the third Test againstAustralia, keeps his place in the squad.

"Shillingford has bowled very wellagainst the Australians and we expect a lotfrom him in England," added Butts, afterAustralia won the thid Test in Dominicaon Friday to clinch a 2-0 series win.

"We have got to continue to build forthe future and we believe that Barath andPowell have bright futures in the game.

"We also feel this way about KraiggBrathwaite, but he too, has lost some ofhis conviction and the selectors also feelplaying him in the A-Team against India-A will give him the chance to regain thatconfidence."

Samuels gets a place despite missingthe Australian series to play in the IPLwhere controversial teammate, and for-mer West Indies skipper, Chris Gayle isstill involved.

WEST INdIES 15-mAN SQUAdFOR ENGlANd TOUR:Darren Sammy (captain), Kirk Edwards(vice-captain), Adrian Barath, DarrenBravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, NarsinghDeonarine, Fidel Edwards, Assad Fudadin,Shannon Gabriel, Kieran Powell, KemarRoach, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul,Marlon Samuels, Shane ShillingfordSCHEdUlEmay5-7: Sussex v West Indies - Hove10-13: England Lions v WI - Northampton17-21: 1st Test - Lord's25-29: 2nd Test - Trent BridgeJune2-3: Leicestershire v WI - Grace Road7-11: 3rd Test - Edgbaston13: Middlesex v West Indies - Lord's16: 1st One-day Int’l - The Rose Bowl19: 2nd One-day International - The Oval22: 3rd One-day International - Leeds24: Twenty20 International - Nottingham

ROSEAUAFP

Michael Clarke celebrated a year incharge of Australia with a 75-run vic-tory over West Indies in the third andfinal Test, but insisted his team is farfrom the finished article.

Since succeeding Ricky Pontingas skipper, Clarke has built an im-pressive record with nine wins, threedraws and just two defeats in 14Tests. "A lot more grey hairs, but I'vereally enjoyed it," said Clarke, afterAustralia wrapped-up theirCaribbean series 2-0.

"I've been very lucky to havesome other great leaders around me,wonderful support staff who haveplayed a part in me having success.And the captain is only as good as hisstock.

"Come our next tour to England,the one-day series, we'll be looking tocontinue to play some really good

cricket and keep Australain cricket inthe right direction."

Clarke has been through the millduring his time in charge, with a se-ries of great highs and embarrassinglows.

He led Australia to an impressive4-0 home win over India, scoring 626runs at an average of 125.20.

He also became only the thirdplayer after Don Bradman and WallyHammond to have made a triple cen-tury and a double century in the sameseries.

But he also saw his team bowledout for just 47 by South Africa inCape Town, before squaring the se-ries in Johannesburg just days later.

Then came the shock defeat toNew Zealand in Hobart in Decemberlast year.

Those ups and downs have forcedClarke not to get too carried away bymaking predictions over what the fu-ture may hold for Australia.

"Cape Town showed us howquickly things can change for theworse and then to be able to pull offa win in Jo'burg -- and we're talkingabout a very strong Test team in theirown back yard -- so to be able to levelthat series was a great learning curvefor us.

"And we continue to learn, espe-cially, from those two games, CapeTown and Hobart.

"I still think we're a way off thenumber one spot. We have a lot ofimprovement to become the numberone team. It's not just about one se-ries or one summer. It's about consis-tency over a period of time."

Australia's South African coachMickey Arthur praised the contribu-tions of Matthew Wade, who made amaiden Test century here and spin-ner Nathan Lyon, who was his team'sleading wicket-taker in the serieswith 13.

Ed Cowan also won plaudits from

Arthur after the opener made a bat-tling 55 in the first innings of the finalTest.

"It's been excellent for the devel-opment of a lot of players whohaven't played out of Australia be-fore. I'm thinking of the likes ofMatthew Wade, Ed Cowan, NathanLyon," said Arthur.

"I think we've played solidcricket, we've had a lot of young play-ers that are playing in these condi-tions for the first time and I thinkthey all go back to Australia betterplayers.

"We go back to Australia with alot of answers as to where we're goingas a squad and I'm very, very happythat we're just creating depth withinour structures because with theamount of cricket we play these daysthere's going to be injuries and we'vegot guys that are going to be match-hardened and ready to step up to theplate."

Clarke keeps lid on great Aussie expectations

Ramdin, Samuels return for Windies’ england tour

railways, Punjab,wapda win inGirls Hockey

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Railways, Punjab, Wapda win in 2ndPHF U-21 Girls Hockey Championshipwhich is in progress at National HockeyStadium, Lahore. Asif Hashmi, ChairmanEvacuee Trust Property Board was theChief Guest and announced Rs 200,000for the PHF Women Wing.ReSuLTS: railway beat Pak-Board 7-0 (full time)2-0 (Half time)railway: Zakia nawaz 2 Goals 27th & 39th minutes(Pc), Mayira Sabir 3 Goals 30th & 42nd minutes (fG)& 44thminute (Pc) & Maria anwar 2 Goals 60thminute (fG) & 70th minute (Pc).Punjab (w) beat Balochistan 7-0 (full time), 3-0 (Half time)Punjab (w): tehmina 6th minute (fG), afsha 3 Goals25th& 26th minutes (fG) & 43rd minute (Pc) & iqra Javed3 Goals 37th & 47th minutes (fG) & 51st minute (Pc).waPDa beat Punjab (c) 1-0 (full time) 0-0 (Half time)waPDa: iram Shahzadi 38th minute (fG).

its all wapdafinal in rokhriBadminton

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Wajid Ali (Wapda) and Attique Ch(Wapda) reached the final of Men Sin-gles and Palwasha Bashir (NBP) andSara Mohmand (NBP) reached theWomen Singles Final of the 14th AllPakistan Aamer Hayat Khan RokhriBadminton Tournament 2012.ReSuLT Men Singles Semi final: wajid ali (wapda) beat Shab-

bar Hussain (wapda) by 21-11, 21-17; atique ch (wapda)

beat Hashir Bashir (wapda) by 21-15, 21-18

women Singles Semi final: Palwasha Bashir (nBP) beat

Mehmoona ameer (Punjab) by 21-7, 21-9; Sara

Mohmand (nBP) beat Ghazala Siddique (Punjab) by 21-

7, 19-21, 21-16

Men Singles Quarter final: wajid ali ch (wapda) beat

Shoaib Hafeez (Punjab) by 21-9, 21-8; Shabbar Hussain

(wapda) beat waqas ahmed (wapda) by 19-21, 21-12, 21-

19; attique ch (wapda) beat Subhan Jameel (Punjab) by

20-10, 20-18; Hashir Bashir (wapda) beat Kashif Sulehri

(nBP) by 17-21, 21-18, 21-19

Men Doubles Quarter final: rizwan azam & Kashif

Sulehri beat P.a nabeel & Muhammad akhtar by 21-15,

21-17; Zafar tasneem & Hashir Bashir beat Muhammad

Masood & tahir Khan by 21-15, 21-14; Shabbar Hussain

& tahir ishaq beat Zohaib Qamar & Shoaib Hafeez by

21-9, 21-23-21, 21-13; attique ch & Muhammad waqas

ahmed beat Haroon Khan & Hayat Ullah by 21-9, 21-17

women Doubles Semi final: Palwasha Bashir & Sara

Mohmand beat Bisma idrees & Sumaira Sittar by 21-9,

21-9; Ghazala & fareeha (Punjab) beat nida & Salma

(railway) by 21-14, 21-18

Mixed Doubles Semi final: rizwan azam & Sara Muh-

mand beat nabeel & Bisma by 16-21, 21-13, 21-18; at-

tique ch & Palwasha beat Hafiz irfan & Ghazala

Siddique by 23-21, 21-17

women road cyclerace at Kasur

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Road events of the 10th Women Na-tional Cycling Championship From 1-3-May, 2012 will be held at Kasur. As a part of the Championships theRoad events will be organized at Kasurin two sessions, morning and evening atGanda Sindh Wala Border where theroad is safe and smooth for the riders. The event is being held in fullest coop-eration and with collaboration of DCOAhsan Waheed and District Sports Offi-cer Kasur Akbar Murad. Ahsan Waheed will be the chief guestand give start to the race at 8.00 A.M.The track events will be held at Velo-drome Lahore on 2nd May at 4.00 P.M.and the final track events will be heldon May 3. The Closing Ceremony will be held atvelodrome on 3.5.2012 at 4.00 P.M.

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:14 AM Page 18

sports 19Sunday, 29 april, 2012

CHENNAICRICINFo

Kings XI Punjab were disconsolate aftertheir previous match, when they leaked 32runs in the final two overs of the chase togift victory to Mumbai Indians. Three dayslater, they were faced with the same situa-tion, but this time there were no goof-upsas they upset Chennai Super Kings and si-lenced the crowd at the MA ChidambaramStadium.

Punjab seemed to have scored too littleafter choosing to bat first, ending on 156after 20-year-old opener Mandeep Singhmade his first half-century of the season.They lost 6 for 27 towards the end of theinnings, which meant there was no lateflourish, leaving Chennai the happier sideat the halfway stage.

When Faf du Plessis confidently strodedown the track to hammer Punjab's quickbowlers, Chennai were galloping along atnine an over. With Chennai possessing aline-up that had hitters down to No. 10, thegame was slipping away but Punjab didn'tlose faith. They caused a Chennai collapseto match their own - 5 for 38 - to scrap theirway back into the game.

Of Piyush Chawla's IPL performancesthis season, most people only remember thecaning he received at the hands of Robin Pe-terson and Ambati Rayudu, but he has alsobeen one of the most economical bowlers ofthe tournament. He showed that the Mum-bai mauling was an aberration, with a su-perb spell in the middle that put the brakeson Chennai. He had Suresh Raina stumped,getting a delivery to slant past the outsideedge, and then had Ravindra Jadeja slicingto cover to finish with 4-0-20-2.

Still, Chennai had two power-hitters,Dwayne Bravo and Albie Morkel, in themiddle after 15 overs, and the target was 58away, certainly not beyond their reach. Bothhad choked Punjab with the ball, and werenow seemingly ready to finish the job withthe bat. Azhar Mahmood then showed offhis Twenty20 experience, bowling a mix ofslower balls and yorkers in the 16th over tostifle Chennai. Praveen Kumar followed upwith a series of low full tosses, which alsoproved hard to put away. Parvinder Awana,the least experienced of the lot, also kept his

cool, regularly find the blockhole and fol-lowing the batsmen as they backed away.With 32 needed off the final two overs,Praveen stuck to the low-full-toss strategy,and though Bravo smacked a straight six, heholed out three deliveries later. An inside-edge for four brought it down to 17 off thelast over, with Mahmood given the respon-sibility of bowling it. He was spot-on, dis-missing Morkel first ball and dishing out theyorkers. Chennai were nearly out of it, with11 needed off two deliveries. The batsmanNuwan Kulasekara then backed away fromthe stumps, Mahmood followed him butKulasekara shuffled across towards off andthe ball went down leg to the keeper. Theyscrambled a run, and expected a wide to besignalled. There wasn't one, though, muchto Chennai's consternation. R Ashwin had aheated argument with Praveen Kumar, butthere was no change in the umpire's deci-sion, and the game was finally Punjab's.Mahmood had been instrumental to chang-ing the game earlier on as well, removing

both set openers, du Plessis and S Badri-nath. MS Dhoni promoted both Jadeja andWriddhiman Saha ahead of himself, butneither could make an impact. Dhoni him-self was run-out in 14th over, charging outafter under-edging a ball and not realisingit was right next to the keeper. With Chen-nai at 88 for 5, not only had Punjab foughtback, they were ahead.

It hadn't seemed that they would top-ple Chennai when they wasted the startprovided by Mandeep, who wilted underthe heat and humidity of the afternoon. Hehad begun well, avoiding the slogs andheaves that are integral to Twenty20, andfavouring inside-out drives to provide theinitial acceleration. He faded, though,managing only one boundary in the 11overs after the Powerplay. Punjab's cap-tain, David Hussey, also decided to demotehimself, sending Mahmood and DavidMiller ahead of him, another move thatdidn't work. That left Hussey only fourovers to bat at the end, and needing to

swing from ball one, he failed. Punjabseemingly ended well short of a total tochallenge Chennai, but their bowlers got itright to pull off an unlikely victory.SCORES: Kings XI Punjab 156 for 8(Mandeep 56, Morkel 3-29) beat ChennaiSuper Kings 149 for 8 (Mahmood 3-35) byseven runsdElHI OPEN GAP AT TOP WITHBIG WIN: Just in case there had been anydoubts about it, Delhi Daredevils showedthey are the team to beat this season bythumping pre-tournament favouritesMumbai Indians. Two of their high-profilenew recruits, Mahela Jayawardene andKevin Pietersen, contributed half-centurieswhile Virender Sehwag made his third suc-cessive fifty to power Daredevils past 200.Even the return of the world's bestTwenty20 bowler, Lasith Malinga, couldn'tprevent Daredevils from reaching the sec-ond highest total of the season.

Mumbai's batting has been their biggestfrailty this season, and their top order failed

again. The game seemed virtually over inthe fourth over of the chase with Mumbai at19 for 3 before Ambati Rayudu and DineshKarthik resurrected Mumbai hopes with afast-paced 96-run stand. Their chanceswere finally finished off by unheralded left-arm spinner, Shahbaz Nadeem, who contin-ued his golden run this season by removingRayudu and the dangerous Kieron Pollardoff successive deliveries in the 16th over.

Daredevils dominated right from thebeginning with Jayawardene and Sehwagputting on a 135-run opening stand.Jayawardene ripped into his Sri Lanka col-league, Malinga, in the third over, taking15 off it with three boundaries. The Dare-devils openers feasted on some waywardMumbai bowling, flicking full tosses off thepads and slashing the wide ones. Jayawar-dene was the early aggressor, outscoringSehwag before the captain opened upagainst RP Singh, slashing over point andflat-batting a six over long-off. Mumbaishould have had Sehwag on 40, when heskipped down the track to Robin Peterson,only for Karthik to fluff the stumping. Se-hwag made Mumbai pay by ransackingPollard for two fours and two sixes in anover which cost 23. There were more wor-ries for Mumbai as Pollard later walked offwith an injured shoulder after attemptingan almost impossible catch at point,though he returned later to bat.

There was no let-up even after theopeners departed as Pietersen and RossTaylor added 41 in just 2.4 overs. Pietersenbrought out his signature switch hit, off hisnamesake who pulled off the same shot inMumbai's last game. A boundary to extracover in the final over brought up the 200and dented Mumbai's hopes of revenge forthe humiliating defeat at home last week.

Mumbai tried their sixth new openingpartnership in eight matches, and this oneflopped as well. Aiden Blizzard went for aduck in his first game of the season and big-ger blows quickly followed. Morne Morkelgot Sachin Tendulkar to chip a catch to mid-off and Irfan Pathan sent back RohitSharma, who holed out to mid-on for 12.SCORES: Delhi Daredevils 207 for 5 (Se-hwag 73, Jayawardene 55, Pietersen 50*)beat Mumbai Indians 170 for 9 (Rayudu 62,Karthik 40) by 37 runs.

Japan hammerchamp relishesolympic challenge

TOKYOAFP

Japan's world hammer throw championKoji Murofushi has said he is thrilled atthe chance of competing for a secondOlympic gold this year, and may evencontinue his career until the next Games."It feels great and thrilling that I canthrow in London. My life has never beenso full as now," the 37-year-old toldJapanese media in San Jose, California,where he has been preparing for hisfourth Olympics.He said that he aimed to compete at the2013 world championships in Moscow,and held up the prospect of taking part inthe 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.Asked if he would compete in the Gamesin Brazil, he responded: "I will thinkabout it after London. I think I can makethat challenge depending on how I do." He referred to his father Shigenobu, whoearned the nickname the "Iron Man ofAsia" after winning the hammer throwgold medal at the Asian Games five timesand remaining in competition until theage of 41.The senior Murofushi held Japan's na-tional record for 23 years until his sonbroke it."I have the Iron Man's blood in my veins.I am following in his footsteps," said theyounger Murofushi, who won the worldtitle in Daegu, South Korea, last yearwith a throw of 81.24 metres.Murofushi, now an assistant professor ofsports science at Chukyo University inNagoya, also has two world champi-onship medals in his collection -- the2001 silver and the 2003 bronze.He won the gold medal at the 2004Athens Olympics after he finished secondto Adrian Annus but the Hungarian wasdisqualified for refusing a doping test.His personal best is 84.86m he recordedin 2003.

nadal cruises,raonic routs Murrayin Barcelona

BARCELONAAFP

Rafael Nadal served up back-to-back finish-ing aces on Friday as the Spaniard's claycourtjuggernaut headed closer to a seventh title atthe Barcelona Open with a 6-2, 6-2 thrashingof Janko Tipsarevic. Nadal's quarter-final winin 83 minutes, with five breaks of serve,helped the French Open champion take hisrecord here to 33-1, with 32 straight wins.Top seed Nadal will play compatriot Fer-nando Verdasco, the 2010 winner whenNadal did not compete due to injury, after Keiof Japan was forced to retire from their quar-ter-final with a side-strain in the first set.

Bank al-falahbeat UBL in Bankerst-20 League

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

First Bankers T-20 Cricket League matchBank Al-Falah VS UBL played at ModelTown Green Cricket Ground. Bank Al-Falahbatting first 204/6 after 20 overs. YaseenCheema batting well 92, Safdar Ali 47, SyedSalman 27 & Yousaf Iftkhar 20 runs. UBLbowling Muhammad Naeem 2/38, TayyabRaza 2/40 & Imran Kashif 1/44 wickets. Inreply UBL batting 186/7 after 20 overs. TahirGulzar 46, Amir Khan 26, Imran Kashif 20 &Tayyab Raza 29 runs not out. Bank Al-Falahbowling Yaseen Cheema 2/20, Basit Ali 1/17,Rashid Rouf 1/15, Babar Ali 1/26 & YousafIftkhar 1/8 wickets. Anees-ur-rehman Sid-diqui, Masood Umpire & Waqar Ahmad wasthe scorer. End of the match Chief GuestIftkhar Hameed give away man of the matchaward to Yaseen Cheema. Former First ClassCricketer Ejaz Ahmad is also present.

STUTTGARTAFP

mARIA Sharapova neededmore than three hours tocomplete a marathonthree-set comeback

against US Open winner Sam Stosur toreach Saturday's semi-finals at theStuttgart WTA clay-court tournament.With Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka,Petra Kvitova and Agnieszka Radwanskaall in Saturday's semi-finals, this is thefirst time since Wimbledon in 2009 thatthe world's top four players have reachedthe last four at a WTA tournament. Hav-ing won the first set tie-breaker, Stosurserved for the match at 5-4 in the secondonly for Sharapova to hit back to claim a6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 victory afterthree hours, one minute on court.

The world number two hit 11 aces,compared to Stosur's seven, and as thequarter-final finished at just before2300 local time, the Russian said recov-ery was her main concern.

"She has a great serve and sheserved as well as she ever has againstme," said Sharapova, who faces third-seed Kvitova in Saturday's semi-finalafter the Wimbledon champion's 6-4, 6-4 win over Germany's Angelique Kerber."It was pretty difficult to play againsther, so I am very happy with the win. It'snot over until the last point has beenplayed and you've shaken hands. "Shehad her chances to win, so I am justhappy to have reached the last four. Ihave a second chance now and I intendto use it."

Stosur was in philosophical moodafter a high-quality match when the onlybreak point came in the third set.

"It sucks to lose, but when you playas well as I did tonight, you can't be toohard on yourself," she said. "It was a

very good match, we both played welland there wasn't much in it. Towards theend of the third set, she started servingvery well and put me under pressure toget the only break point. "The last gamewas the cherry on top for her winning at40-0 with some very good serving."

In the other semi-final, top seed andworld number one Azarenka will playfourth-seed Radwanska of Poland.

All of Radwanska's four losses thisyear have come at the hands of Azarenkaand having also reached the semi-finalshere last year, the Polish number onesaid it takes a special effort to beat theworld's top female player. "You have tobe at the top of your game and play somegreat tennis to beat her," admitted Rad-wanska. Azarenka needed nearly threehours to see off German wildcard MonaBarthel 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5 as her big-hit-ting opponent smashed down 13 aces.

Having already beaten ex-world

number one Ana Ivanovic and seventh-seed Marion Bartoli on the way to thequarters, Barthel put up another bat-tling performance to take the match tothree sets. This was Azarenka's fourthwin over the 21-year-old German thisyear, but she had to work for it.

"She keeps producing some greattennis and she showed again today whyshe is a tough one to beat," saidAzarenka. "Her serve is definitely upthere with the best, after more than two-and-a-half hours she was still blastingdown aces. I have been saying for awhile she is one to watch."

Radwanska booked her place in thesemis by beating French Open cham-pion Li Na of China 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. TheChinese struggled to cope as Radwan-ska raised her game with a series ofdrop shots and strong returns in thesecond set before carrying her im-proved form into the third.

Sharapova into semisafter Stosur marathon

StUttGart: russia's Maria Sharapova returns the ball to australia's Samantha Stosurduring their quarterfinal at the wta Porsche tennis Grand Prix. AFp

Punjab win to join Indian League mid-table scrum

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:14 AM Page 19

T HE end of April is always the hub ofsporting drama. We have a hugematch, followed by a gargantuanmatchup and then another mas-

sive moment… and so on, and so forth. It’sbecause European leagues are reaching theirclimax, the UEFA Champions League is look-ing for its finalists, F1 is up and running, theplayoff dogfight is boiling up in the NBA,tennis players are playing dirty littlegames with an eye on Roland Garrosand Wimbledon and then there’s theIPL as well (for those who care; al-though considering that ourplayers don’t get to be a part ofit, none of us should care).And so, in complete syn-chrony with the April pigeon-hole some of the leadingsportsmen and teams pulledout season defining – and forsome epoch defining – triumphs.

Of all the ‘massive’ momentsover the week, it would be hard to

earmark the one that should sit at the top of the pile.In the end we might have to narrow it down to RafaelNadal’s triumph at Monte Carlo and Chelsea’s win

over Barcelona in the Champions League.Nadal conjured up his eighth – yes eighth

– title on the bounce at Monte Carlo, whichshould’ve been THE tennis highlight in mostother cases. However, as things turned outthe fact that he stopped Novak Djokovicfrom doing one over him for the eighth – yeseighth – consecutive time, eventually be-

came the talking point – and rightly so. Al-though Djokovic was miles away from what

he normally is nowadays, owing to his grand-father’s death a week back, one can’t stress how

much Nadal needed that win. No-Djo hadcompletely blanked Rafa over the past 18-months – which included two final winson clay (Rafa’s realm) last year as well –and now after the triumph on Sunday theSpaniard would be assured that he’s theman to beat on clay. And in my humbleopinion had he had even half of that as-surance in Melbourne this year, he wouldnot have missed THAT backhand pass at4-2, 30-15 in the fifth in the final.

While Rafa’s victory last Sundayhad more to do with psychological

barrier removal, and stop-ping a monotonous land-slide, Chelsea Football Club,pulled off one of the most as-tounding away performancesagainst what is touted as the‘greatest team of all time’, at one ofthe most intimidating arenas and themost crucial of times possible. 2-0down (2-1 on aggregate) and a mandown – thanks to John ‘Ironman’Terry’s brain going on a walk-around – it would have taken theperformance of a lifetime tofind a way out of thatlabyrinth. And in my opinionChelsea conjured up exactlythat. It was the quintessen-tial team performance,capped off by a FernandoTorres goal; I mean youcan’t possibly writesuch scripts –Gary

Neville’s ‘ecstasy moment’ would bear testament tothat. And now the Blues have to outdo Bayern Munichon the German side’s home turf to culminate their longyearn for the Holy Grail of European football and inturn guarantee that they’d be a part of the competitionnext year. For, let’s be honest, their league exploitsaren’t exactly helping that particular cause.

(Understatement alert) Bayern Munich wouldn’tbe easy to beat at the Allianz Arena. In fact this cur-rent Munich side would be hard to beat at any givenarena. Why they’d be harder to beat for RobertoMartinez’s men than the mighty Catalonians is be-cause they don’t have a monotonous game plan – un-like the Spanish champions. Franck Ribery andArjen Robben on the wings, with one of the beststrikers in Europe – Mario Gomez – leading the line,the German side would have much more versatilityin attack than the tried and tested – albeit unbeliev-ably effective over the recent past – monotonousBarca play. Munich are in the final, after pulling offan amazing away performance of their own inMadrid, and are favourites to lift the trophy at home.A detailed preview of the final would be there on theeve of the match in Saturday’s football column.

Real Madrid, after losing out on a dramaticpenalty shootout, ended up being on both ends of the‘massive result’ scale this week. Their win at the NouCamp on Saturday, which has surely sealed the LaLiga title, has signaled the change of guard in Spain– and Pep Guardiola’s departure from Barcelona haspossibly rubberstamped that. However, for Madrid,the high of Saturday was coupled with the low ofWednesday, where going into a shell cost them aplace in the final. Amidst all the U-turns in football

and tennis, Sebastian Vettel Bahrain expeditionhas somewhat taken backstage. With his

first victory of 2012, the two-time F1Champion has shushed the noise of

him feeling the pressure and offalling short of his own prettyhigh standards. The Germanbuilt on an early lead from thepole and had an intriguing

dual with KimiRaikkonen. TheFinn started 11th,

and eventuallycaught Vettelafter half dis-tance before

the latter pulledaway after the

final pit stops. Vettel andRed Bull now have their re-

spective title defences back ontrack, Nadal looks good to domi-

nate the clay season like he is accustomed to, Chelseaare one step away from winning the ChampionsLeague after enduring possibly their worst season inrecent memory and Barcelona would neither win theLa Liga, nor the Champions League this year – whatan absolute monster of a week it was…

sports20Sunday, 29 april, 2012

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Nawaz Gohar, former special bad-minton champion, who turned bad-minton and cricket coach, is carrying hisdream of training special children as amission. Gohar despite being handi-capped due to polio, kept his spirits highand became the champion in badmintonand also played cricket despite his dis-ability and had now become a bad-minton and cricket coach.

“I have spent all of struggling but Ikept my spirits going on. I was aroundfive years old when I was hit by the polioepidemic. But a badminton player in-spired to the game and since my child-

hood I played badminton and becamethe champion. “I got rid of the clutchesad the game gave me ample strengthwhich is not only keep me active in thegame but have also started transfer the

knowledge to youngsters who are alsohaving the same problem. Speakingabout the problems, Gohar said that firstthere is no separate ground or sports fa-cility for the disabled people where theycould go and play freely. “Its hard tomingle with the normal people and trainwith them. All we need is a place whereyoung children could be given trainingto cope with the hardships of the life.“Second there is no special fund for thedisabled persons grooming and thereshould also be academies for themwhere they could practice because itwould make them overcome their dis-ability,” he maintained.

He also has urged President Asif AliZardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza

Gilani to provide him job and a groundwhere he may train the disabled chil-dren free of cost. He said that disabledpersons were bringing laurels to thecountry and recently 75 disabled playerswent to Athens and won 57 medalswhich was a great honour for the coun-try. “A huge budget is being spent onnormal players but the result is not sat-isfactory while on the other hand, dis-abled players without good financialaids, striving hard and earning goodname for the country,” he claimed.

He also urged the parents of physicalhandicap and MR children to send theirhandicapped children to the groundswhich will help in improving their healthand removing their disability.

Belight Gohar aims to serve the special

Punjab grab winin U-22 football

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Punjab grab win in the National U-22Football Championship-2012 beingplayed at Bahawalpur while the othermatch of the day ended in a draw on Sat-urday. Punjab beat Wohaib 3:1 at theDring Football Stadium. Punjab got itsgoals through Naeem Raza (FW) 2 Goalsin the 12 and 37 Minutes and MuhammadAtif (FW) 1 Goal in the 81 Minute while itwas not clear who scored from the losingside. Sindh and Baloch FC (Noushki)played a goalless draw at the same venue.

Super Series rankingtennis from 5th

KARACHISTAFF RePoRT

The Sindh Tennis Association will organ-ize the 9th Pizza Hut Open Super SeriesRanking Tennis Championship from May5 at Karachi Club Tennis Courts. PizzaHut is the sponsor of this prestigiousweek long championship , Karachi club isthe host and a total prize money is75000 will be given to the winners. Theevents which will be contested includesmen s singles, ladies singles, juniorsunder 17 singles (boys/girls),under 15boys & girls, under 13 boys & girls, under11 boys& girls under 9 boys& girls, men sdoubles, under 15 doubles, mix doubles,& seniors 45 plus doubles. The entriesshould be sent to M. Khalid Rehmani,Secretary STA at cell; 0300-3607209 oremail, sindhtennis@gmail.com, or toSaqib Hussain at Karachi club.

Samir steers new

Mexico into ncaa

west tennis semisLAHORE

STAFF RePoRT

Pakistan’s future hope Samir Iftikharsteered UNM Lobos team thrash Air forceFalcons 4-0 and guided his team to thesemifinals of the NCAA in Mountain WestTournament being held at Aztec Tennis-Center San Diego California. UNM willhave to bring out everything out of their ar-mory to tame hosts San Diego and avengetheir 3-4 loss in neck and neck battle. In theregular season Samir beat Rickey Baylon ofSan Diego State University in a nail-biting3 setter 7/5, 6/7 6/2. In the other SemifinalBoise State University will play Universityof Las Vegas and The best regional Univer-sity team will qualify for NCAA Play offs.

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Pakistan Cricket Board ChairmanZaka Ashraf has reiterated that he hasno plans of changing Misbah-ul-Haqas the captain of the national team.

“We have not decided about theselection of the captain,” reportsquoted him, as saying.

Ashraf’s statement comes afterspeculation in the media that the PCBmay opt for three different captainsfor Tests, ODIs and T20s.

Misbah too has had to fend offquestions from the media and mostrecently said: “I don’t want to just playTest cricket. I want to lead the team atthe World Twenty20 as well but obvi-ously that’s up to the selectors. As faras people calling my batting too defen-sive is concerned, I play according tothe situation. I’m the captain and I

have an added responsibility.” “WhenI made my debut, people called me oldand said I have little future in the

game. But I’ve been able to provethem wrong with my performances.Now I’m confident of doing the same,”the 38-year-old added.

Comments from new coach DavWhatmore and former captain YounisKhan last week, have added to thebuzz circling the PCB headquarters.

Khan reportedly expressed a de-sire to the lead the team again if of-fered the role while Whatmore hadbacked another former captain,Shoaib Malik, to lead Pakistan inT20s on the back of his recent title-winning performance in the SuperEight T20 Championship held inRawalpindi.

Pakistan’s selection committee isset to announce the squad for the up-coming tour of Sri Lanka in a fewdays, and if tradition is to go by, theremaybe a few surprises in the offing,despite Ashraf’s remarks.

Zaka puts weight behind Misbah

U-turns left,right and

centre overthe past

seven days

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

ROW Z DIARIES

KHI 29-04-2012_Layout 1 4/29/2012 2:14 AM Page 20

sports 21Sunday, 29 april, 2012

THE return of the prodigal? Per-haps, yes. One had thought thatMohammad Yousuf, one of thevery finest batsmen that Pak-

istan has produced, was dead and gone –albeit strictly in cricketing terms. Butthere once again, was Yousuf, having a fit-ness test conducted by new coach DavWhatmore. One hopes that Whatmore cansqueeze a couple of years more out of theman who had more time to play his shotsthan almost anybody else.

Yousuf’s career numbers are really im-pressive: 90 Tests (scoring 7530 runs atan average of 52.29) and 288 ODIs (scor-ing 9720 at 41.71). This comparesfavourably with Ricky Ponting and ap-proaches Tendulkar. And, on paper,Yousuf is younger than either of theabove. The question remains whetherYousuf’s hand-eye coordination has beeneroded by time, not having played at thehighest level for two years.

That is a long time to be away from thecutting edge of a sport. Whether Yousuf’stechnique and temperament can hone it-self back to that edge is a million dollarquestion. It would also be an early test ofWhatmore’s motivational and coachingskills. Whether Whatmore’s fielding coachcan wring some more athleticism out ofhim in the outfield, could be the coach’sultimate challenge.

The other question that arises is as towhy Yousuf, one of the world’s best, albeitone of the world’s worst fielders, was side-lined for two years following the disastrousAustralian tour under his captaincy.Granted, his captaincy was an unmitigateddisaster, but the punishment should havebeen given to Ijaz Butt, who made such aninadequate choice. Yousuf is no captain ma-terial, but no one will question that his bat-ting is out of this world. So why, in spite ofthe captaincy issues, was one of the world’sgreat batsmen forced out of the game? Theselectors have a lot to answer for.

Talking about coaches, this scribe triedon several occasions to contact Whatmorebut all calls remained unanswered. Itseems the coach of coaches may bein need for some coaching in pub-lic relations. This column tries itsbest to stay above these petty mat-ters, but there are plentyof others who would nottake this kindly at all.NAdAl,dOmINATIONOvER dJOKER

The Europeanclay court seasonhas started withRafael Nadal win-ning the MonteCarlo Open forthe umpteenthtime, beatinga listlessN o v a kDjokovic inthe finals.Djokovic wascertainly offcolour, hav-ing suffereda family be-r e a v e m e n t .He stated atthe end of thematch that hehad no emo-tional energyleft. It is doubtfulhowever, whetherhe could havebeaten Nadal onthe Monte Carloclay, so dominanthas the Spaniard beenat the event.

Roger Federer wasconspicuous for his ab-sence, preferring to savehis strength for the FrenchOpen as well as to work onhis game. Federer has longsince given up the race for ATPpoints and is now focusingon winning major events.

He would dearly like to win the French orWimbledon as well as the Olympics. Thisamounts to a lot of tennis to be played thissummer and at 30-plus, Federer is lookingto preserve his energy.

Another significant player missingfrom the draw was the giant AmericanJohn Isner. Already having defeated Fed-erer, Djokovic and Nadal this year, the 6ft 9 inches tall Isner is one of the mostfeared players in any draw. The angle andpower he gets on his serve makes it almostunplayable when he is in the groove. Henow has the ground stroke power and con-trol that makes him a complete package.Isner is a threat on any surface.

Significantly, he beat Federer on clayover five sets in Davis Cup. The surfacesuits his game because his serve kicks highand wide and the opponents topspin ballsare right in his strike zone. Isner has pre-ferred to stay back in the USA and train forthe French Open. He will play a couple ofevents prior to the French and will be therewith a big chance to go deep into the draw,

p e r h a p seven winthe wholething. Thesame goes

for Wimble-don and the

Olympics. InBarcelona, thenext stop onthe clay cir-

cuit, Nadal andMurray arecruising through

the draw and lookto be meeting in the

finals. Aisam Qureshiand partner Rojerhave also won theirinitial match, 10-8 in

the deciding tiebreak.They were subsequently edged

out by the Polish team of Fyrsten-berg, Matkowski for a place in the

semifinals. This match, had Aisamgotten through it, could have been a

huge momentum builder for a teamthat has been having a subpar season.

PAKISTAN TENNIS IN A BlACK HOlEIn local tennis, it was business as

usual, with the evergreen Aqeel Khancruising to yet another title in Lahore, de-feating his usual opponent, youngerbrother Jaleel Khan in the finals. Thebrothers are both over thirty years old nowand still there is no replacement in sight.

Many experienced onlookers cite thereason for this to be what they call, the“Black Hole” of the first decade of thiscentury when tennis was riddled withincompetence, favouritism, and nepo-tism. It might take another decade to

bring tennis back to what it was in the1990s and before.

The new administration has goodleadership at the top, but the PTF is

still being run by the same people fromthe dark decade, the ones who valuetheir badges and use the sport for in-

come enhancement. The sooner thisissue is addressed, the better offPakistan tennis will be.

The Return ofthe Prodigal?

ALI AKBAR

SpORtS thIS WEEk

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Pakistan is one of those countrieswhere sports psychology is none exis-tence but Dr. Ejaz Mughal, who hasspecialized in the field sees a verybright future in it. In an interview, hesaid being the first sport psychologistof Pakistan he wants to raise the sportsresearch center in the country.

At the age of 40, Dr. Ejaz AsgharMughal became the first Pakistani to getPhD in Sport Psychology and was alsothe youngest PhD Doctor in the field ofSport Psychology. Now working at theG.C University Lahore as a faculty mem-ber, and he is very enthusiastic about hissubject and wants to improve Sport Psy-chology area at National level.

He pointed out that Sports Psychol-ogy is an area of study which is concernwith the behavior of sportsman.

“It’s a compulsory part of athletestraining in Europe, normally theyworked 60% on psychological skills andcoping strategies to improve the per-

formance without the help of all four do-mains psychological, physical, physio-logical and sociological. “In Pakistan noone has worked on this area yet, whichis the main cause of decline in perform-ance of athletes,” he maintained.

“The future is very bright becausewithout the help of psychological areawe can’t enhance the performance ofathlete. It’s an integral part of an athletetraining. Unless we will start psycholog-ical skill training from initiation stage

will not be able to produce performanceathlete those able to cope with situationrelated problem.” “The sports trainersare unaware of the benefits. Maybe theydon’t know about my presence in Pak-istan,” he added.

“That was why I plan to raise the re-search center to analyze the perform-ance of athlete and to work at the talentdevelopment stage in grooming the ath-letes through psychological skill.

“With the help of GCU Vice Chancel-lor, I plan to develop a department ofsports sciences and physical education,MS / M. Phil, BS Hons 4 year programand Diploma in Sports Physiology.

“In 2007, I applied for the Diplomain Sport Psychology at University ofLeipzig Germany and during the staythere I got opportunity to present a pro-posal to start PhD in the field. “And nowthey are, despite reservations about Pak-istanis, up to help us promote the area ofsport sciences in Pakistan, in this re-gards we are in a process to sign MOUbetween the University of Leipzig andG.C. University Lahore,” he concluded.

Dr ejaz looks to open sportspsychology centre at GCU

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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

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani saidhe did not require permission from theopposition leader to enter the NationalAssembly because he was a unani-mously elected prime minister and amember of parliament.

He was talking to a lawyers’ delega-tion at the Punjab Governor’s House onSaturday. Gilani said the finality of thecontempt case had yet to come and thecase was still sub judice, adding, “Wewill appeal, challenging the convictionand it is well known that proceedingsunder the appeal are considered thecontinuity of the original case. The PPPleadership did not raise the question re-garding the Mehran Bank scandal sincethe matter is still sub judice.”

The prime minister said he woulduphold the supremacy of the constitu-tion come what may, because the PPPhad restored the constitution and could

not violate it. “The president of Pak-istan enjoys immunity under Article248,” he said, adding that how could hewrite a letter to Swiss authorities foropening cases against an elected presi-dent. “I followed the advice not to writea letter (to Swiss authorities) as theconstitution provides immunity to thepresident,” he said.

He said he, as the prime minister,had the legacy of Zulfikar Ali Bhuttoand Benazir Bhutto. “We respect our in-stitutions including the judiciary, be-cause under instructions of BB, we leda campaign for restoration of the judi-ciary,” he maintained. The prime min-ister said though cases were registeredagainst him in anti-terrorist courts, hewas strictly following the law of the landand the constitution. Gilani said NawazSharif was desperate because after los-ing popularity, as bye-election in Mul-tan proved, his apprehensions werewell founded. “Nawaz also has appre-hensions that the PPP is going to pres-

ent a people-friendly budget for thefifth time as well as PPP’s focus on cre-ation of a Seraiki province,” he asserted.

He said, “Under the Charter ofDemocracy (CoD), the PPP favoured athird time prime minister only forNawaz Sharif. Had we not favouredthis, Nawaz would have been irrelevantin national politics.” Referring to theNRO, the prime minister said the firstNRO was under which Nawaz went intoan exile after an agreement that hewould not take part in politics for 10years. “First, Nawaz vociferously deniedthe existence of the agreement but laterconfessed that it was not 10 years butfive,” Gilani added. Gilani mentionedthat he was the longest serving primeminister and the president had ad-dressed the joint session of parliamentfor the fifth time which was unprece-dented in the history of Pakistan.

“It is a matter of pride that at pres-ent there is no political prisoner in thecountry and the media is free,” he said.

ISLAMABADAGeNCIeS

INTERIOR Minister Rehman Malik onSaturday alleged that Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chiefNawaz Sharif was involved in moneylaundering.

Addressing a news conference ‚ he saidproof against Nawaz would be placed beforethe Supreme Court and National Accountabil-ity Bureau (NAB). Malik said a commissionmay be formed to investigate the alleged in-volvement of Nawaz in money laundering.

He further alleged that Nawaz signed anNRO with former president, late FarooqAhmed Leghari and as a result the elected gov-ernment of Benazir Bhutto’s was unconstitu-tionally dismissed in November 1996. Malikalleged that Nawaz was a defaulter of Rs 6 bil-lion and signed an NRO with Farooq Leghariwhen investigation was initiated in this regard.He asked the PML-N chief to reveal fromwhere he had got $32 million. Malik addedthat Nawaz signed the second NRO with Per-vez Musharraf and went abroad after signingan agreement and violated the Charter ofDemocracy (COD) he signed with BenazirBhutto in year 2006. He said he would bringevidences against Nawaz in parliament as well.Malik added that the president, prime minister,JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and seniorauthorities of the Pakistan Army were on the hitlist of terrorists. Talking to reporters after at-

tending a high-level meeting at the Interior Min-istry on law and order in Gilgit-Baltistan with theGB chief minister, he said different sort of solu-tions and suggestions were taken into account tocurb the insurgency in GB. Curfew was removedafter the clearance of intelligence.

About the cooperation provided by armedforces, he said, “I am thankful to army chief Gen-eral Ashfaq Kayani for equipping the securitypersonnel. Now, situation in GB is quite favor-able for any kind of positive activity.” People whoare under the custody of law and enforcementagencies would be freed if not found guilty, hesaid. “Terrorist would be tackled with iron hands.Flight schedule to Gilgit has been revised and thethree extra flights have been induced to facilitatethe people.” Asked about the causes behind thecurrent insurgency in GB, he said the situationwas going to improve in the next few days. Thereare, he added, foreign hand and agencies in-volved in all these riots. “These are the agents,which are responsible for the bloodshed inBalochistan now they want to spread their activ-ities to the rest of country.” He said during hismeeting with the Indian delegation n appeal wasmade to release Sarabjeet Singh and “we told theIndians to ask for appeal in written and their re-quest would be considered as per the law”. Hesaid a peaceful Afghanistan was in the interest ofboth of the countries. “The Haqqani network isoperating from Afghanistan,” Malik said.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Pervaiz Rasheedasked Rehman Malik to approach the courts if hehad any evidence against Nawaz Sharif.

ISLAMABADINP

The Punjab government has decided not to ex-tend protocol facilities to Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani during his visit to Punjabafter his conviction by the Supreme Court inthe contempt of court case.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition inthe National Assembly Nisar Ali Khan has de-cided not to engage in consultations on the ap-pointment of the chief election commissionerwith Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani after hisconviction by the Supreme Court. Sources saidNisar told Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lead-ers Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore

on Friday that the prime minister contacted himover the telephone and again during the NationalAssembly session and spoke about the appoint-ment of the new chief election commissioner.

The PML-N leaders told Nisar that as Gilanihad been convicted by the Supreme Court and theparty did not recognise him as prime minister, theleader of the opposition should not consult himover the appointment of the chief election commis-sioner. Nisar also took the Sharifs into confidenceover his telephonic interaction with FazlurRehman, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Salim Sai-fullah and Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo and informedthem that the opposition parties would devise theircourse of action over the situation arising after theconviction of Gilani in their meetings soon.

Nawaz Sharif involved inlaundering $32b: Malikg interior minister says president, pM and seniorarmy officials on terrorists’ hit-list

no protocol for ‘convict pM’ in punjab

pM says needs no permissionto enter parliamentg Gilani says he restored constitution, won’t violate it g Will challenge his conviction in court

ISLAmABAd: Interior minister Rehman malik shows evidence of PmL-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s alleged money laundering

during a press conference on Saturday. OnLine

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