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Fate of Gomal Zam Damabductees hangs in balance

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—The fate of theeightofficials of the Gomal Zamdam project D I Khan, abductedby the Taliban more than threemonths ago, still hangs in balanceas the infamous Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) contin-ues to hold them in captivity andreleased their second video onTuesday where in the abductees

were shown begging the govern-ment for their early releases asthe TTP has threatened to kill allthe captives if its demand werenot met within a week time.

Some eight workers of theGomal Zam Dam D I Khan werekidnapped from Tank-Wana roadawhile they were on their wayfrom Gomal Zam Dam to DeraIsmail Khan for Eid-ul-Fitr holi-days on August 15 last.The kid-

naped officials besidesa Sub-Di-visional Officer Engineer ShahidAli Khan of Swat, also include aSub-Engineer Sanaullah, foursecurity personnel and two otherstaffers of the project.

The second video released byTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) Tuesday carried a threatthat all the eight kidnapped em-ployees of the Gomal Zam dam

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LIAQAT TOOR

ABU DHABI—UAE is preparingin a big way to celebrate its 41stNational day as streets, roads,buildings and private houses arebeing decorated with nationalflags, buntings and decorativelight s all over the seven princi-palities of the Emirates.

Plans have been made to holdmajor functions at private and

Moon eclipsein Pak todayKARACHI—Several countriesincluding Pakistan willexperience the last mooneclipse of the year today.

According to the Meteoro-logical Office, the eclipse willstart at 5:15pm (local time).There will be complete eclipseat 7:34pm, while it would beclearly seen in the country at at7:57pm. The eclipse will end at9:51pm here.

The eclipse will take placeon the full-moon night.

The Met Office said thatthe eclipse would also be seenin Alaska, New Zealand,South Asia, Australia,Philippines, Japan, Malaysiaand China. In some countriesof Europe, Middle East andAfrica, it will start right afterthe sunset.—INP

Presidentpolitical but notconspirator: KairaSALIM AHMEDLAHORE—Minister forInformation and BroadcastingQamar Zaman Kaira has saidthat said that the caretakersetup will be established inconsultation with ElectionCommission of Pakistan.

Talking to editors‚columnists and journalists inLahore Tuesday, Kaira saidthat the date of generalelections will not be extendedwhat may be situation in thecountry. He said the govern-ment will extend full coopera-tion to the Election Commis-sion for holding free and fairelections.

He said journalists havebeen made victims of terrorismbut the government is makingall-out efforts to provideprotection to the journalistcommunity. He said that theincident of recovery ofexplosive material from the

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PARIS—France announcedTuesday that it plans to vote infavor of recognizing a Palestin-ian state at the U.N. General As-sembly this week.

With the announcement,France becomes the first majorEuropean country to come outin favor, dealing a setback to Is-rael. The timing of the an-nouncement appears aimed at

swaying other European nations.Foreign Minister Laurent

Fabius told parliament thatFrance has long supported Pal-estinian ambitions for statehoodand “will respond ‘Yes’” whenthe issue comes up for a vote “outof a concern for coherency.”

The Palestinians say the as-sembly is likely to vote Thurs-day on a resolution raising their

status at the U.N. from an ob-server to a nonmember observerstate, a move they believe is animportant step toward a two-statesolution with Israel. A Palestin-ian state would still not be a fullGeneral Assembly member,however.

Unlike the Security Council,there are no vetoes in the Gen-eral Assembly and the resolution

is virtually certain of approval.But such a vote by France — apermanent council member —could weigh on decisions inother European capitals. Eu-rope is divided over the issue.Switzerland and Portugal havesaid they will vote for the mea-sure, but Germany is among thecountries that have opposed the

Continued on Page 7

France to recognise Palestinian state at UN

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)has formally informed the gov-ernment that preparations for thegeneral elections have been com-pleted.

After the meeting of the com-mission chaired by the ChiefElection Commissioner (CEC)Justice (Retd) Fakharuddin GIbrahim, Secretary ElectionCommission Ishtiaq AhmedKhan said CEC would visit thefour provinces to examine thereservations regarding differentinstitutions, beginning fromBalochistan, adding that the CECwould also have meetings withthe nationalist parties’ leaders.

The ECP has started phase-wise consultations with all theinstitutions. The government has

also expressed the desire thatelections would be held on time.

ECP gave approval of regis-tration of 19 new political par-

ties with a total of 216 partiesfor the upcoming elections in-cluding a new party Tehreek-e-Tahafuz- e-Pakistan ofnuclear scientist Dr. AbdulQadeer Khan.

ECP has assigned 171 sym-bols for the elections eliminatedthe ‘cat’ symbol upon the requestof Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) due to its re-semblance with its election sym-bol ‘tiger’.

The ECP rejected eight sym-bols including Lota, carrot, ba-nana and ladyfinger.

The ECP would make deci-sion in its next meeting over in-cluding the weighing scale sym-bol in the election list as to whichparty this symbol would be is-

Electoral symbols finalised

ECP geared upto hold elections

Continued on Page 7

Raja appreciatesECP on pollsarrangements

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minis-ter Raja Pervez Ashraf Tues-day expressed satisfactionthat the Election Commissionof Pakistan has completed ar-rangements for holding thegeneral election in the coun-try. The Prime Minister made

Continued on Page 7

government levels as the 2ndDecember, the National Day isapproaching fast, the ecstasy inthe state is picking up.

About seventy journalistshave already landed at Abu Dhabion the invitation of NationalMedia Council to see the prepa-rations and apprise them of thesocio-economic changes beingtaking place in the UAE.

UAE prepares forNational Day celebrations

Malik announcesRs200m for info on

TTP spokesmanSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Interior MinisterRehman Malik on Tuesday saidanyone providing information onthe whereabouts of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokes-man Ehsanullah Ehsan would be

Nawaz backs SBC’sNov 30 strike call

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—President PakistanMuslim League (N) MuhammadNawaz Sharif has announced hissupport for the peaceful BlackDay and strike call of the SindhBachayo Committee (SBC) to beobserved on 30th November,2012. In a statement here Tues-

Continued on Page 7

Four workersinjured in Hangucoalmine explosionSTAFF REPORTERPESHAWAR—Four workerswere injured in a coalmine blaston Tuesday in the Tull region inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangudistrict. The blast occurred dueto the filling up of gas inside thecoalmine, DSP told newsmen.

The injured workers wereshifted to the District Head-quarters Hospital Hangu.However, later, two of theseverely injured workers wereshifted to the Kohat Hospital.

In a separate incident,militants blew up a boys’primary school in the ChapriNaryab area of Tull.

The blast destroyed threeout of the six rooms of theschool. The number of schoolsdestroyed in the district hasrisen to 10.

LAHORE: Activists of Pasban-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat, PDP and civil society are chanting slogans in favour of their demandsduring a protest demonstration.

bid. Britain’s position remainsunclear. Palestinians say they aredoing this out of frustration overthe four-year deadlock in peaceefforts.

They believe an endorsementof their state will bolster their ne-gotiating position. Israel stronglyopposes the bid, accusing thePalestinians of trying to bypassnegotiations.

The resolution would en-dorse a Palestinian state in theWest Bank, Gaza Strip and eastJerusalem, the territories cap-tured by Israel in the 1967 Mid-east war. Israel opposes a pull-back to the 1967 lines. As French

lawmakers applauded Tuesday—many of them members or alliesof the Socialist-led government— Fabius cautioned against rais-ing Palestinian hopes too high.

“But, but, but, but, but — butat the same time, madame andmonsieur lawmakers, we mustshow in this case a lot of lucid-ity,” he said.

“On the one hand, becausethe text is currently being dis-cussed, and I myself had (Pales-tinian) President MahmoudAbbas on the phone yesterdaymorning,” he said. “On the otherhand, because — let’s not hidefrom this — that this question

will be asked at a very delicatemoment.”He went on to note the“fragile cease-fire” after the re-cent deadly fighting betweenHamas and Israel, the Israeli elec-tion in January, and the upcom-ing “change in composition of theAmerican administration” —with the United States seen bymany as perhaps the most piv-otal player in the region.

“In any case, it’s onlythrough negotiations — that weask for without conditions andimmediately between the twosides — that we will be able toreach the realization of a Pales-tinian state,” Fabius said.—AFP

France to recognise PalestinianFrom Page 1

sued. The commission re-jected the plea of Chief Secre-tary for postponing the by-election in Balochistan.

Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan saidthat record and data of everyvoter is available with the com-mission. He said that the com-mission has prepared the draft atits own level for legalizing theelection reforms.

He said that Senate specialcommittee and the commissionwould jointly finalize the matter,which later on would be sent inSenate. Secretary Election Com-mission said that Prime Ministerhas also been informed of the im-portant points of the election codeof conduct and the Prime Minis-ter was agreed that the venues forelection gatherings and proces-sions should be determined inadvance with the consultations of

the district administration. Hesaid that the government isagreed on the complete ban onthe showing of arms or carryingarms while moving during elec-tions. He said that it was askedthe prime minister that all the in-stitutions maintaining law andorder should assist the ECP.

Earlier, the Chief ElectionCommission of Pakistan (CEC),Fakharuddin G Ibrahim saidvoter lists have been preparedwith the utmost care and anymistakes in the lists would soonbe rectified.

He added that the commis-sion would implement all ordersissued by the Supreme Court.

It was said in the meeting thatcandidates would have to followall the rules and regulations de-vised by the commission duringtheir rallies and public meetings.

CEC said reliable, authen-tic and verified electoral listswill be ensured in the entirecountry including Karachi inthe light of orders given bythe Supreme Court of Pakistan.CEC expressed concern overthe issue of Karachi’s ‘un-verified voters’.

Moreover, the meeting wasbriefed that installing CCTVcameras in every polling stationis not practically possible; add-ing that, funds amounting to 75billion rupees would be requiredfor that purpose, hence, only thesensitive polling stations will befurnished with these surveillancecameras. Transparency interna-tional has assured assistance forthis. The ECP deliberated on ap-plications against 45 MPs of na-tional and provincial assemblieson dual nationality, election sym-bols and other issues.—SANA

ECP geared up to hold electionsFrom Page 1

these remarks while talking toSecretary Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) IshtiaqAhmed Khan here at the PMHouse.

The Secretary ElectionCommission informed thePrime Minister that a code ofconduct has also been preparedby the Election Commissionprohibiting display of weaponsduring election campaign. ThePrime Minister appreciated thedecision.

The Secretary briefed thePrime Minister that candidateswill have to specify venues of

their public meetings and saidthe Election Commission willpermit them to hold meetings inconsultation with the local ad-ministration.

Similarly, rallies and proces-sions brought out by candidateswill have to follow specifiedroutes approved by the ElectionCommission of Pakistan.

Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan alsoinformed the Prime Minister thatthe Election Commission willsoon hold meetings with the fed-eral and provincial governmentsto ensure that the law and orderwas maintained during polling.

Prime Minister Raja PervezAshraf assured the SecretaryECP that the government willextend all administrative and lo-gistical support to ECP to ensuremaximum participation andvoter turnout.

The Prime Minister reiter-ated government’s resolve forholding a free, fair and impar-tial election in the country ontime and expressed the confi-dence that the upcoming elec-tion will further strengthen thedemocratic process by stream-lining the role of state institu-tions in the polity.— APP

Raja appreciates ECPFrom Page 1

would be brutally assassinated ifthe government failed to accepttheir(Taliban) demands by De-cember 3 2012.

The kidnapped workers wereshown in the video, begging of-ficial help and requesting thegovernment to accept the TTPdemands before the deadline inorder to save their lives. One ofthe kidnapped engineers, ShahidAli Khan is seen speaking in thevideo, which has the TTP’s namewritten in the background, as wellas gun-toting men whose faceswere not clearly visible.

Though the 46-minute videoshowed Khan narrating his ordealin Urdu language and the mili-tants’ demands for their release,however, the nature of their de-mands remained unknown. En-gineer Shahid further said thatthey were recording the video onNovember 23, 2012 and thedeadline for acceptance of theTTP demands is December 32012 and government wouldhave to act promptly failingwhich they would be brutallymurdered. The militants in thepast mercilessly murdered andeven slaughtered the abducteeswhen their demands were not metafter the expiry of deadline. Evenin the recent past a number ofgovernment officials as well asthe men in uniform were brutallykilled by the Taliban abductorsin tribal agencies.

Fate of GomalZam Dam

From Page 1

Desert is being convertedinto blooming flowers and theEmirates are giving a look ofmodern state in the south of Arabpeninsula.

The journalists hailing fromdifferent countries on Tuesdayinteracted with some of the topbrass of the government includ-ing high-profile Sheikh Nahyanbin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minis-ter of state for Higher Educationand Scientific Research at SheikhNahyan bin Mubarak’s Palacewhere he said UAE has allocatedtwenty five percent of the na-tional budget to education whichis highest in the world.

When asked about the stu-dents of UAE getting admissionin Pakistan, he said UAE has sentits students to get training in mili-tary and other fields. Pakistan is

my country and both the coun-tries have very cordial and broth-erly relations.

He said UAE using educa-tion and other social instrumentsfor peace and stability in the re-gion. UAE is working with othercountries to achieve this goal, hesaid.

During meeting with in in-teraction with Sultan Nasser AlSuwaidi, Governor of the Cen-tral Bank said UAE has intro-duced liberal policies and the weare even allowing other nation-als to get loans to and start theirbusiness in the UAE.

Dr Nawal Al Hosani,Driector of Sustainability Masadrcity while briefing the journalistssaid UAE is working on a planto use renewable energy sourcesfor future.

UAE prepares forFrom Page 1

awarded rupees 200 million.Speaking to media representa-tives in Islamabad, Malik saidEhsan was working for foreignelements and vowed to soon re-veal all about the TTP spokes-man. The minister added that theTTP was a divided organisationand now constituted of variousgroups, including the WaliurRehman faction, the HakimullahMehsud group and other smallfactions. Malik moreover ques-tioned as to what kind of shariahthe TTP spokesman wanted toenforce in the country whichlegitimised the killings of inno-cent civilians and sanctioned sui-cide bombings.

He said “terrorists” were de-faming the religion and shariahfor money, adding that, the gov-ernment had struck a peaceagreement with the Taliban inSwat which the latter themselvesviolated.

Malik announcesFrom Page 1

vehicle of senior anchorperson Hamid Mir is condem-nable.

The information ministersaid Pakistan People’s Party hasalways worked for stability ofthe country and it will continueto pursue this course in futureas well. He urged the PakistanMuslim League (N) to play posi-tive role in the national politics.

He said that being the Co-Chairman of PPP‚ the Presidentcould also become the PrimeMinister but he chose to be aPresident to end the politics ofconspiracies from thePresident’s House.

He said that President AsifAli Zardari feels very strongpolitically and that is why heshifted all his powers‚ includingthe appointment of Army Chiefand superior judges‚ to thePrime Minister.

Talking about Asghar Khancase‚ he said the case has notonly made the 1992 electionsdoubtful but also put a questionmark on all elections‚ whichwere held in the country. He saidthe use of force during bye elec-tions if not stopped, holding ofgeneral elections will becomedifficult. He said the presidentwas a part of the parliament,adding that, the parliamentwould be incomplete without thehead of state.

PresidentpoliticalFrom Page 1

NAB intensifiesanti-corruption

effortsISLAMABAD—In order to makeits anti-corruption endeavorsmore vigorous and robust,Chairman NAB has instructedfull support to all Judicial Com-missions, organizations andcommittees, formed either onorders of judiciary or the gov-ernment.

In this context implementa-tion of anti-corruption regimebased on orders of courts andautonomous institutions are be-ing synergized.

A case in point is the com-position of Judicial Commissionprobing CDA affairs. NAB un-der its prevention regime initia-tive is currently looking into thevarious projects of CDA includ-ing LED lights project.—Online

For Afghan women, genderequality is still wishful thinking

KABUL—Even after the end ofthe brutal rule of the Taliban inAfghanistan, Afghan women to-day are still yearning for genderequality, something that probablywould remain wishful thinkingfor many years to come.

“Is this our right to beg fromdawn to dusk to feed my chil-dren? Is this the right of womenin Afghanistan to suffer at thehands of men?” asked ShahBegam, a 39-year-old womanbeggar, just a day after the worldmarked the International Day forthe Elimination of Violenceagainst Women.

Panhandling alongside adirty road in Kabul, Begamwondered aloud whether theAfghan government is capableof doing something for womenlike her who are forced to begin order to survive.

She said begging itself is aninsult for women in a countrywhere the constitution guaran-tees women’s rights.

“My husband married an-other girl for the second time and

threw me out of the house,” saidBegum, who wears a burka. Sheadded that since the governmentdoes not have a social welfareprogram for poor or abandonedwomen like her, they have nochoice but to beg in the streets.

In the male-dominated andconservative Afghanistan, theInternational Day for the Elimi-nation of Violence againstWomen was marked on Sunday.

In her remarks on the occa-sion, Afghan Minister forWomen Affairs Husan BanoGhazanfar confirmed that 3,500cases of violence against womenwere registered in Afghanistanin the first six months of Afghanyear which began from March21, 2012.

Ghazanfar has called on thecountry’s religious scholars toplay their a role in eliminatingviolence against Afghanwomen, which has been on therise. Women in Afghanistan arefacing a variety of discrimina-tion and violence ranging fromchild marriage, forced marriage,

rape, polygamy and even“baad,” a tribal custom of giv-ing forcibly the hand of a widowor girl to a man from an oppos-ing tribe to settle a dispute andend enmity.

Afghanistan, according towomen rights activists, is a chal-lenging country for women tolive.

Discrimination againstwomen, particularly in the coun-tryside, is still rampant. A girlcan be forced to marry a boychosen by her parents. Cases ofpublic execution of women,flogging of women by Talibanmilitants and powerful triballeaders have been reported inparts of Afghanistan over thepast year.

Najiba, 22, was publiclyexecuted by Taliban militants inGhorband district of Parwanprovince a couple of months agowhile Sabira was publicly lashedin Jaghori district of Ghazniprovince by local mullahsmonths ago after she eloped withher boyfriend.—NNI

day, he condemned the insultingbehaviour of the PPP ministerswith the female members of thePML-F, during the last session ofSindh Assembly.

He said that since the passingof controversial Sindh People’sLocal Government Ordinance andAct, the people of Sindh havestrongly opposed it and have com-pletely rejected it, as the sameamounts to the enforcing of dualadministrative system and isaimed at creating a state within astate in the province.

Nawaz said that this so-called local government law is anattempt to create a division andconflict among the people ofSindh. He said that the PPP-MQM government, in the nameof reconciliation, has destroyedthe peace, governance, social andeco-nomic structure of Sindh. Hesaid, by this new local govern-ment system, excessive and lim-itless powers have been surren-dered to the mayors of few cit-ies, which is likely to further de-teriorate the law and order situa-tion, particularly in Karachi,where thousands of innocentpeople have been lost in the lastfour years.

He said that the PML (N) hasbeen and will continue to supportthe peaceful political struggle ofthe writers, intellectuals, artists,civil society, journalists and thepeople of Sindh, against theSPLGA, 2012, along with almostall the political parties, and PML(N) Sindh chapter is an activecomponent of the Sindh BachayoCommittee (SBC).

Nawaz backs SBC’sNov 30 strike call

From Page 1

Mian Iftikharcalls on

Governor KPPESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Minister for Infor-mation, Public Relations, Cultureand Transport, Mian IftikharHussain called on the Governor,Barrister Masood Kausar atGovernor’s House, Peshawar onTuesday.

He remained with the Gov-ernor for some time and dis-cussed various matters pertainingto well being of the people of theprovince.

Talking on this occasion, theGovernor also referred to theFATA Festival being held in theprovincial metropolitan shortlyand stressed the need of ensur-ing efficient representation of theprovince and its different orga-nizations in the event.—Online

BRUSSELS—NATO chiefAnders Fogh Rasmussen hassaid the Patriot missiles to bedeployed on the Turkish-Syrianborder to counter threats fromSyria will be under NATO con-trol.

Rasmussen told the NTVnews channel in an interview onTuesday that the Patriot missileswill be installed by NATO alliesand will be under the commandof NATO’s Air Command andControl System. “Of course, Tur-key is a NATO member country,”Rasmussen noted.

Turkey formally askedNATO last Wednesday to deploymissile defense elements on itsborder with Syria to boost its airdefense systems as the conflictin its southern neighbor deepens.

The move highlightsAnkara’s fears that the situationon its border could deterioraterapidly and echoes its calls formilitary support during the twoGulf Wars, when NATO de-ployed surface-to-air missiles onTurkish soil in 1991 and 2003.

Turkey formally made therequest after weeks of talks withNATO allies about how to shore

up security on its 900-kilometerborder. It has repeatedlyscrambled fighter jets along thefrontier and responded in kind tostray Syrian shells flying into itsterritory.

Defense Minister ÝsmetYýlmaz earlier said NATO’s Eu-rope Command Control Systemwill be the responsible for thecommand of the Patriot missilesand that there are Turkish offi-cials in the system. HüseyinÇelik, deputy chairman of theruling Justice and DevelopmentParty (AK Party), said in a pressbriefing that “Turkey will beholding the trigger.”

Rasmussen added that thealliance won’t hesitate to take“further steps” for the protectionof Turkey and that the alliancewill decide on the request byTurkey for Patriot missiles“within days.”

Rasmussen added that agroup of NATO experts alongwith Turkish officials are con-ducting explorations in Turkey todetermine the best sites to deploythe missiles. Speaking aboutRussia’s concern over the de-ployment of the Patriot missiles,

Rasmussen said Moscow’s anxi-ety is not based on legitimateconcerns.

Russia said openly lastThursday that it opposes the de-ployment of NATO Patriot mis-siles on Turkey’s border withSyria, a sign of deepening ten-sions across the region over theSyrian crisis.

Asked about the financing ofthe missiles, Rasmussen said thehost country will take on the fi-nancial burden. He said the mis-siles have sufficient deterrencecapability against any threats inthe region.

Germany, the Netherlandsand the United States, are theonly three NATO allies with ap-propriate Patriot surface-to-airmissile systems available.

The Patriot missiles de-ployed to Turkey during the GulfWars were provided by theNetherlands. Ankara twice thisyear has invoked Article 4 of theNATO charter, which providesfor consultations when a mem-ber state feels that its territorialintegrity, political indepen-dence or security is underthreat.—Turkish News

Nato to deploy missileson Turkish-Syria border

LOS ANGELES—The makers ofa Hollywood movie about the USoperation to kill Osama binLaden denied asking for classi-fied material for their film, butsay they did conduct interviewswith a CIA officer and others atthe heart of the decade-long huntfor the al Qaeda leader.

“It was all based on first-hand accounts so it really feltvery vivid and very vital andvery, very immediate and vis-ceral of course which is veryexciting as a filmmaker,”Kathryn Bigelow, director of“Zero Dark Thirty,” told ABCNews in an interview aired onMonday.

Bigelow and screenwriterMark Boal said in a “Nightline”interview that they were origi-nally working on a film about thefailed bid to find bin Laden in theTora Bora mountains of Afghani-stan during the U.S-led invasionthere in 2001.

But their plans changedswiftly after US President BarackObama announced in May 2011

Bin Laden movie basedon first-hand accounts

that a Navy commando unit hadkilled bin Laden in a compoundin Pakistan.

“I picked up the phone andstarted calling sources and ask-ing them what they knew and tak-ing referrals and knocking ondoors and really approached it ascomprehensively as I could,”Boal told “Nightline” accordingto an advance excerpt.

“I certainly did a lot of home-work, but I never asked for clas-sified material,” he said. “To myknowledge I never received any.”

The release of “Zero DarkThirty” - seen as a strong con-tender for Oscar nominations -was pushed back to Decemberafter the film got caught up ear-lier this year in a US election yearcontroversy.

The film reconstructs thehunt for bin Laden largelythrough the eyes of a young fe-male CIA officer, played by Jes-sica Chastain, who helps find himthrough a long-forgotten courier.Obama only makes a fleeting ap-pearance in the film.—INP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Developmentand installation of 24 lowcost water conditioning andfiltration plants for provisionof safe drinking water to thepublic is in progress. Paki-stan Council of Research inWater Resources (PCRWR)has already installed eightplants in different cities in-cluding Islamabad,Fatehjang, Sahiwal, Sialkot,under the project “Provisionof Safe Drinking Water”.Spokesperson PCRWRLubna Naheed said the needof these filtarion plants wasfelt as 45 per cent of filtrationplants in the federal capitalare providing contaminatedwater, which is used by 75per cent of the citizens.

Many filtration plants areproviding contaminated wa-

ter, which is causing hepati-tis while bacteria were alsofound in some samples ofwater obtained from differ-ent sectors. People in differ-ent sectors of the federalcapital blamed that filtrationplants installed by CapitalDevelopment Authority(CDA) are source of manydiseases including Hepatitis,as they are not maintainedand are supplying contami-nated water.

CDA has set up many fil-tration plants, but they are nomore beneficial for the peopleas they are not checked regu-larly. When conacted, an of-ficial in Pakistan Council ofScientific & Industrial Re-search (PCSIR), confirmedthese facts and said humanwastes were found in thewater obtained from some fil-tration plants.

Some fi l t rat ion plantsare dysfunctional ei therdue to their damaged tapsor taps were stolen. Lubnasaid PCRWR has also de-veloped low cost watertesting and treatment tech-nologies which includefield testing kits for basicdrinking water quality pa-rameters, arsenic removaltechnologies and chlorina-tors for water purificationetc.

She said water pollutionhas become a serious prob-lem in Pakistan. Most of thereported health problems aredirectly or indirectly relatedto water quality. “The quan-titative and qualitative con-cerns related to water, call foran action plan for efficientdevelopment, utilization andmonitoring of the water re-sources of the country”.

SFD Missionvisits quake-

hit areasSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A five-memberdelegation of Saudi FundDevelopment (SFD) on Tues-day visited the earthquake-hit areas of KhyberPakhtunkhwa and inspecteddevelopment activities there.Director General EarthquakeReconstruction and Rehabili-tation authority (ERRA)Captain (R) Tariq Masoodaccompanied the delegation,said a press release.

The delegation headed byEngineer AbdullahMuhammad al Shaibi inaugu-rated Basic Health UnitSachan Kalan, Mansehra.The health centre being con-structed with Rs 29 million. Aresidential colony is also be-ing constructed. The delega-tion also visited Rural HealthCentre NawazabadMansehra.

Captain Tariq said the on-going projects would be com-pleted in time. He lauded thegenerosity of Saudi Arabia forsponsoring mega projectssuch as King Abdullah Univer-sity, District Complex Bagh,Government Girls Post Gradu-ate College Muzaffarabad andKing Abdullah Teaching Hos-pital Mansehra.

Public to resistpolls delaybid: Baloch

OKARA—The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) central secretarygeneral Liaquat Baloch onTuesday said the people ofthe country would stronglyresist if President Asif AliZardari tried to delay generalelections for giving protec-tion his post of Presidency.

Talking to media personshere, the JI leader said gen-eral polls could not be de-layed due to prevailing ofsupremacy of law and inde-pendent judiciary in the coun-try. He said holding of impar-tial and free and fair electionsin the county was only solu-tion of entire challenges be-ing faced by the country.

Liaquat Baloch said par-ticipation of political partiesin the general elections couldstrengthen the democraticsystem in the country, add-ing that political partiesshould not boycott the elec-tions because the victory anddefeat in the polls was a partof election process.—INP

KOTRI: Activists of PML-N holding a rally against Sindh Peoples Local Bodies Ordinance 2012, at Kotri Ralways track.

PESHAWAR: Activist of Chitral Rights Protection Movment chanting slogans in favour of their demands during aprotest outside Press Club.

HYDERABAD: A man showing a symbolic injured girls during protest against Israelattacks on Gaza outside Press Club.

Threat to blow govtbuilding; ATC sendsaccused on remand

MULTA N—Anti-TerrorismCourt (ATC) on Tuesdaysent Tariq Mehmood, an ac-cused who threatened toblow up Interior Ministry’sbuilding with explosive de-vice, to jail on 14 days judi-cial remand. During the hear-ing, the accused told thecourt that he did not give anythreat through telephone toInterior Ministry and the in-cident happened due to mis-understanding.

He further told the courtthat secret agency traced thecall by IMEI number of themobile phone, adding thatmore than one IMEI numberswere used in chain mobile.ATC judge Javed Iqbal sentthe accused to jail on 14 daysjudicial remand. It is worthmentioning that the accused,Tariq Mehmood, was a con-stable in patrolling police andhe allegedly called InteriorMinistry two days ago andthreatened to destroy thebuilding with explosive de-vice. Secret agency person-nel arrested the accused af-ter tracing his call. The ac-cused was presented beforethe court in Vehari on Mon-day and the judge includingsections of terrorism againsthim sent the case to specialanti-terrorism court.—INP

Peace committeessupporting

tribesmen warnedOUR CORRESPONDENT

LANDIKOTAL—The Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), a banned outfitoperating in Khyber Agency,has warned the residents ofBara to stay away from theanti-militants peace commit-tees, otherwise they will haveto face the consequences.The banned outfit has dis-tributed threatening pam-phlets among the local popu-lations while the same arealso pasted on walls.

The pamphlets warned thelocal population that theywould be eliminated if they werefound involved in supportingthe government-backed peacelashkars. It merits mentioninghere that the pamphlets are dis-tributed in the area despite im-position of curfew.

In order to gain publicattention, the pamphlets havealso been pasted with treesat some places. Meanwhile,the political administrationhas sent back for oil tankersto Peshawar from Torkhamafter they were damaged inan explosion.

RAZA NAQVI

ATTOCK—Over 2700 IndianSikh Yatrees arrivingHassanabdal Punja Sahabon 29th November to partici-pate in 544th Birthday cel-ebrations of Guru Nanakwhile hundreds of Sikhs arealso arriving from the differ-ent countries.

They will stay at PunjaSahab for two days andperform their religious ritu-als. Evacuee Trust Boardmade elaborate arrange-ments to facilitate these

Yatrees and, Chairman OfEvacuee Trust Board SyedAsif Hashmi asked the au-thorities to provide betterresidential, medical and se-curity facilities.

Talking to newsmanDeputy Secretary ShrinesSyed Faraz Abbas told thatsecuri ty cameras havebeen instal led in andaround Punja sahab to pro-vide foolproof security tothese Yatrees.

He further told thatthe board will also providemaids to all Yatrees stay-

ing in gurdwara duringbirthday celebrat ions.Juthey Leader JangBahadur Singh ShirmaniGurdawara ParbandakhCommittee Amritsir appre-ciated the faci l i t ies pro-vided to Yatrees.

These Sikh will depart forLahore on 1st December af-ter “Bhog” Ceremony atPunja Sahab. On the occa-sion special security arrange-ments were made more thanhundreds of police personalprovided security cover toSikh Yatrees.

Guru Nanak birth celebrations

Sikh Yatrees arriving tomorrow

ISLAMABAD—Director Gen-eral Pakistan MeteorologicalDepartment (PMD), ArifMehmood on Tuesday saidlight snowfall will occur at thehilly areas of the countryduring the months of Novem-ber and December. However,heavy snowfall will start inthe month of January like thelast year, he informed whiletalking to APP. The DG indi-cated chances of light rain forupper parts of the countryduring the last days of No-vember as well as during De-cember with light snowfall athilly areas.

The two weather sys-tems will enter into the coun-try from December 5 to De-cember 9 which will causenormal rain at the upper partsof the country especiallyUpper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.Similarly on December 3 and4, light rain with snowfall athills is likely at upper parts.According to the records ofprevious years, heavy snow-fall and normal rains occurfrom the month of January toMarch, the DG observed.

The met office will revealthe intensity of this yearsexpected snowfall during thefirst week of January, ArifMehmood added. The low-est minimum temperaturesrecorded during the last 24hours were Skardu -04 C,Kalat -03 C, Gupis -02 C, Dir,

Light rain, snowfallat hills likely

Parachinar, Chitral, Hunza,Rawalakot, Astore andQuetta -01 C. The MultanMet office has forecast partlycloudy weather with chances

of mist in the morning for cityand its suburbs during thenext 24 hours.

On Tuesday, the maxi-mum and minimum tempera-ture was recorded as 25.2degrees celsius and 10.5 de-grees centigrade, respec-tively. Humidity was re-corded 87 per cent at 8 amand 37 per cent at 5 pm. TheKarachi Met Office has fore-cast fair/partly cloudyweather with cool night in thecity over the next 24 hours.According to Met office’sweather report issued onTuesday the minimum tem-perature is expected to re-main in the range of 15 to 17degree centigrade.

The Met Office said lightrain is likely to occur at one ortwo places in Kalat, Quetta,Zhob and Makran divisionsof Balochistan. Cold and dryweather is likely to prevail else-where in the region, theweather report said.—APP

PCRWR to install 24 waterfiltration plants in several cities

ISLAMABAD—The NationalDisaster Management Au-thority (NDMA) and UN-Habitat Pakistan held afundraising event for the “Re-silient Cities” project in 31 cit-ies of Pakistan. The projectaims to establish sustainableDisaster Resilient and Healthycities and townships in thedisaster prone regions of thecountry. Hosted by Dr. ZafarIqbal Qadir, ChairmanNDMA, the fundraisingevent was attended by Gov-ernment officials, Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA),UN Resident Coordinator anddonor agencies.

The Making Cities Resilient:‘My City is getting ready!’ cam-paign, an initiative of UNISDRwas launched in Pakistan in Oc-tober 2011 to address issues oflocal governance and urban

risk. UN-Habitat joined handswith NDMA and ISDR to movethis initiative forward. By 2030,it is estimated that the urbanpopulation of Pakistan willdouble and 50% of the totalpopulation will be residing inurban areas. The rapid popula-tion growth and lack of institu-tional framework contribute tounplanned developments, en-vironmental degradation andpoor services rendering thesecities vulnerable to disastersand the impacts of climatechange.

In his address to the guests,Chairman NDMA acknowl-edged the role of cities in de-velopment, prosperity and in-novation. He further said thatcities and towns will soon behome to two thirds of the glo-bal population which willpresent risk of exposure to natu-

ral hazards. “Having experi-enced large scale disasters inthe last 3 years, it is time to re-model our cities and make themresilient to natural hazards.Through the launch of thisproject, we have identifiedsome of the most vulnerablecities and will try to implementdisaster risk reduction mea-sures in public infrastructures,implement building codes, cli-mate change preparedness; citydevelopment plans and otherareas of urban livelihood,” saidthe NDMA chairman

UN-Habitat CountryProgramme Manager, SiamakMoghaddam explained theNew Habitat Initiative in col-laboration with the UNISDR‘City Resilience ProfilingProgramme’ that provides na-tional and local governmentswith tools for measuring and

increasing resilience to multi-hazard impacts including thoseassociated with climate change.“This project will extend till fouryears and will require patiencefrom the Government of Paki-stan and the community. Thefirst and foremost step is tostrengthen the capacity of thelocal target cities, only then willwe be successful in complet-ing this project,” said Mr.Moghaddam

The project is expected tostart in early January 2013 andwill assimilate DRR strategiesin the respective cities. With atotal requirement of US$20,500,920, UN-Habitat and theimplementing partners hope toraise adequate funds to achievethe project goal through arange of participatory planningprocesses incorporating cli-mate change.—INP

NDMA, UN-Habitatfundraising for ‘Resilient Cities’

13 profiteers heldSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—District admin-istration, Peshawar Tuesdayarrested 13 profiteers in-cluded 7 bakers and sixbutchers for overchargingfrom consumers and handedthem over to police after reg-istering cases under 3/6 FSAagainst them. The action wastaken on the complaint of adelegation from Hayatabad,which called on District Co-ordination Officer (D.C.O)Mohammad Javed Marwatand complained regardingthe loot and plunder of shop-keepers, particularly of over-charging by bakers andbutchers during holidays onaccount of Muharram-ul-Harram. Bakers and butchersduring the holidays sold lessweighing bread and one ki-logram meat from Rs.280 toRs.300.

Taking notice of the com-plaint, D.C.O directed spe-cially appointed focal personfor arresting artificial price-hike, Assistant CoordinationOfficer (A.C.O) Habib Arif forinitiating action in this regard.The ACO with the support ofpolice arrested 13 personsincluding 7 bakers and 6butchers from Phase-3Chowk, Basharat Market,Bilal Market, Hamza Market,Jamaluddin Market, AfghanMarket and Shama Marketand after registering caseshanded them over to localpolice. During the action, theresidents of Hayatabad alsoaccompanied the ACO.

NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—As many as to-tal 560 unnecessary NorthSindh Urban Services Corpo-ration (NSUSC) staff among60-80 laborers and above 100supervisors found inefficientto remove only solid waste atthe road sides and streets incity, people are suffering aheavy disturbances andhealth hazardous. In meetingMNA Faryal Talpur has alsoexpressed dissatisfactionover the NSUSC performancein the services to the regis-tered complaints by the citi-zens of Larkana, Shikarpur,Khairpur Sukkur, Rohri andothers. She directed theDeputy Commissioner inLarkana for proper function-

Faryal blasts NSUSC for inefficiencying of NSUSC on the occasin.

According to the North

Sindh Urban Services Corpo-ration sources, that Asian De-velopment Bank (ADB)funded organization has allkinds of machinery and equip-

ments with heavy staff andbudget for the delivery ofMunicipal services to removethe solid waste and cleanli-ness in city, but they are com-pletely failed to provide reliefto the common men in Larkana.It is an important to note thatthe department has the capac-ity of 10 hydraulic tractors, 10side-loaders, dumpers, realloader, excavator, bloomersand all other equipments areineffective to remove the roadand streets’ side dumped solidwaste in the city.

The NSUSC in Larkana,Shakarpur and other parts ofprovince, in-spite of theheavy funds and staff, theyare failed to the cleanlinessof the cities or collect andremove the solid waste, the

people suffering from vari-ous nasal and throat dis-eases due to the dumpedwaste material before thehospitals, schools, healthcenters, shops, markets andpresence of drainage wasteand sewerage water in differ-ent parts of Lahori Muhalla,Shaikh Zaid Colony, WaleedMuhalla, Nazar Muhalla,Mirokhan Chowk,Rehamatpur colony, RailwayColony and others, creatinghealth issues of malairea,Typhoid, etc and heavy dustsmoke in the air on city roads.The citizens sufferings fromvarious diseases and peopleare helpless to find any solu-tion against their variouscomplains registered butthere is no way out at the end.

PPP to sweep electionsStaff Reporter

ISLAMABAD—Chairman of PakistanPeoples Party Punjab Mian ManzoorWattoo said that PPP will form govern-ment in Sindh and sweep elections inSouthern Punjab. Talking to a privatenews channel, he said that when PPPwill contact people with its sacrifices,people will vote for it. He said PPP hasinteraction with PML-Q and there is clearstrategy for upcoming general elections.He said cooperation is possible with

PML-N and Teheek Insaaf for formation of the next govern-ment. On query whether he will be candidate of new ChiefMinister of Punjab, he said he will follow party decision.Earlier, talking to media persons after the meeting of the PPPcabinet at the Zardari House former home minister Sindh,Manzoor Husain Wassan has said the general election wouldbe held in the month of April and the PPP would sweep thepolls.Known in the media for his revelations after seeingdreams, Wassan said he would predict about the next primeminister after seeing a dream. He said the aim of the meetingof the PPP leaders was to take a view of the working ofministers and the party’s members of the assemblies. ThePPP leader said the election campaign had been formallylaunched by the PPP from today and Chairman PPP, BilawalBhutto Zardari, has triggered the political activities of theparty. Wassan said he was optimistic that the PPP wouldsweep the coming elections to be held in April. He claimedthe PPP would also win this time on those seats which it hadlost in the previous polls. The people are joining the PPP inlarge numbers not only from Sindh but from all over thecountry, he claimed.

War against terrorism to continueStaff Reporter

ISLAMABAD—Member National As-sembly (MNA) of Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) Shazia Marri said that Pa-kistan was facing war against terror-ism and urged all political parties tocontribute for elimination of this men-ace from the society. Talking to a pri-vate television channel, she said that“we could not compare Pakistan withany other country due to its strategiclocation and challenging situation.”

She said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government wasdecisive to eliminate terrorism to ensure peace in thecountry, adding that Pakistan has made remarkable sac-rifices for peace, which has been recognized world wide.She said that all state institutions and media committedto maintain peace in the country. Earlier, member of theNational Assembly Shazia Marri has expressed deepshock over the blasts in different cities that claimedseveral precious and innocent lives. In a statement is-sued here on Thursday, Marri expressed condolencesand prayed that may Allah Almighty rest the departedsouls in eternal peace and may their mission be takenforward with the same resolve and spirit. She prayedthat may the Almighty grant speedy recovery and healthto those who are injured.”It’s a war between two ideolo-gies and we stand united in combating the enemies ofour nation and children, the cowards will Inshallah bedefeated,” she added. Earlier, Sindh Information Minis-ter Sharjeel Inam Memon said on Tuesday that escalat-ing incidents of target killings in the metropolis werethe part of a pre-planned conspiracy to destabilise thefinancial hub of the country. Speaking at a an emergentpress conference at the committee room of the SindhSecretariat, the minister said that besides Taliban fac-tor, the elements working for external forces were be-hind flaring acts of lawlessness in Karachi.

Badar leaves for AlbaniaStaff Reporter

ISLAMABAD—Leader of the House inSenate Jahangir Badar Tuesday left forAlbania on a three-day visit to attendcelebrations of 100 years of country’sindependence. Badr, who is represent-ing Pakistan in the ceremony, was wel-comed by activists and office bearers ofthe Pakistan Peoples’ Party in Vienna andalso hosted a dinner in his honor. Ad-dressing the reception, Badr stressed theactivists to play their role to promote

democracy and strengthen democratic values, said a pressrelease. He also emphasized upon them to create Pakistan’ssoft image as the expatriates were country’s assets and thegovernment was committed for their welfare. During the visit,Badr would also attend a luncheon to be hosted by Alba-nian Prime Minister and a reception by country’s presidentin the presidential palace. He will also visit the NationalLibrary of Albania and Arts Gallery besides interacting withthe country’s leadership. The 100-year celebrations includemilitary parade in Tirana, concerts of folk and popular musicand Vlor‰, hoisting the flag by the president of the repub-lic, ceremony of hoisting the flag and laying of the wreathsat the Martyrs’ of the Nation Cemetery. On 28 November1912, after centuries of Ottoman rule, Albania finally de-clared independence. It was an emergency decision. Theneighbouring states of Serbia and Macedonia were show-ing strong interest in Albania and, by declaring indepen-dence, Albania was able to circumvent occupation by theirarmies. Nevertheless, with the outbreak of the First WorldWar this young nation once again came under the influenceof foreign powers.

Tribute to Faiz Ahmed FaizOur Correspondent

HYDERABAD—Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) cultural wing Hyderabad has or-ganized a ceremony to celebrate the 28thdeath anniversary of revolutionary poetFaiz Ahmad Faiz here on Monday No-vember 26. According to the press re-lease issued here Tuesday the chiefguest of the ceremony was Sarfaraz Rajaradvisor to chief minister. Speaking at theevent Sarfaraz Rajar has said that FaizAhmad Faiz was one of the most prolific

poets of the 20th century, Faiz was a humble person with anoptimistic approach towards life. His love for humanity wasfree of the prejudice of race,colour or nationality. Apart frombeing an innovative poet, he was the poet of beauty andlove, and for him, there was no difference between the three;love, beauty and revolution had become identical in him.Aziz Memon General Secretary PPP cultural wing Hyderabad,Ghullam Hussain Khaskheli and others also highlighted thelife of revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Faiz Ahmed Faizwas born in 1911 at Sialkot. He began his career as a lecturerin English at Amritsar. After the Second World War, he turnedto journalism and distinguished himself as the editor of ThePakistan Times. He was charged with complicity in theRawalpindi conspiracy case and condemned to four years’imprisonment in 1951. The jail term gave him a first-handexperience of the harsh realities of life. Two of his books,Dast-e-Saba and Zindan-Nama are the products of this pe-riod of imprisonment. As a poet, Faiz began writing on theconventional themes of love and beauty, but soon theseconventional themes got submerged in the larger social andpolitical issues of the day. In the matter of diction and style,Faiz may be called the inheritor of the tradition of Ghalib.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor,Barrister Masood Kausarhas said that teaching is themost honourable professionand to ensure its dignity, thecivilized nations always re-spect their educational insti-tution by extending respectto their respective teachingcommunities. Visiting edu-cational institutions, headded, always make himproud, as it offers him tomeet learned people. Ad-dressing the Convocation2012 of University ofPeshawar at its premises onTuesday, the Governor whois also the Chancellor of theUniversity stressed the needto bring the institutions ofhigher learning in the coun-

try to a level where they comeupto the expectations.

In all more than 481 gradu-ates, eleven each werehonoured with Ph.D andM.Phil degrees while the restbagged masters in almost thirtydisciplines and amongst them31 were awarded gold medalsfor achieving distinctive posi-tions. Referring to the con-fronting challenges, the Gov-ernor said, ensuring establish-ment of a tolerant society isindeed the biggest challengeand there is a need that the in-stitutions of higher learningmust make them open for wis-dom oriented deliberationsand contribute significantlyfor betterment of the nation.

Being Muslims, he added,it is our firm belief that the Reli-gion of Islam has the capacityto meet every challenge of the

time and now it is upto thescholars that how they ensureprotection of constitutional andmoral rights of the people. “In-dividuals could never be al-lowed to impose their ownagenda and this is the aim forwhich we as a nation have beenoffering sacrifices for quitesome time”, the Governor said.

The Governor also high-lighted the importance of eco-nomic development and said,“we live in an age whereknowledge has become moreimportant to economies andsocieties and the rapidly cir-culating capitals and knowl-edge are replacing as tools ofeconomic growth and increas-ingly becoming foundationsfor prosperity and social mo-bility”. Making research andeducational studies more rel-evant to contemporary re-

quirements, he added, hasbecome imperative to bringchange in outlook of the stan-dards of higher education andlearn from the past mistakesto make our workings relevantto current demands.

Promotion of workableacademia- industry linkages,he said, is prime responsibil-ity of higher educational in-stitutions and there is a needto avail the potential of youthlearning at the campuses. TheGovernor also appreciated themanagement of the Universityof Peshawar for taking stepsin collaboration with FATASecretariat and Tribal AreasChamber of Commerce andIndustry for exploration, de-velopment and utilization ofnatural resources in FATA.

Referring to certain pointsraised by the Vice Chancellor,

Prof Dr Qibla Ayaz, the Gov-ernor pointed out that situa-

tion developed in wake of 18thAmendment has indeed led to

generate a changed environ-ment especially in respect of

financial requirements of theuniversities.

Teaching most honourable profession: Kausar

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Two personswere killed and six others in-jured when rivals opened fir-ing on a vehicle on by-passroad near Rajar village inCharssada district. Accord-ing to police, the incidentoccurred in the limits ofCharsadda police station onby-pass road where the ve-hicle of Kausar Khan wasapparently ambushed, killingSakeena wife of Wakeel anda person instantly and injur-ing six others.

The motive behind thegory incident was stated tobe old enmity. Police havestarted investigation.Meanwhilr, the Home and

Tribal Affairs DepartmentKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK)has constituted provincial in-spection team to carry out in-spection of arms and ammu-nition dealers in districts Swat,Buner, Shangla and Chitral.

The team comprisingIncharge Enquiries Wing ofHome Department will carry outinspection of the arms dealer-ship units in District Swat onNovember 28 and 29 and wouldfurnish its inspection reportalong with recommendations tothe competent authority byDecember 5, 2012, said a pressrelease here on Tuesday.

Quetta: Child dies in roadmishap: A child was killed ina road mishap in KillaSaifullah district. Levies

force said on Tuesday thatthe victim identified as DorakKhan was crossing the roadwhen a speedy tractor hithim.Resultantly, he died onthe spot. His body washanded over to the heirs af-ter completion of legal for-malities. Levies force is in-vestigating the matter.

Multan: Man injures ex-wife: A man injured his ex-wife with an axe in City po-lice limits on Tuesday morn-ing. Accused MohammadAslam of Z-Town had di-vorced Zareena Bibi sometime ago. After divorce,Zareena Bibi reportedlyclaimed the ownership of ahouse which was in her namewhich enraged Aslam.

KP teams to inspect arms, ammunition dealers

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Ministry ofCommunications is pursuinga plan to constructHasanabdal-Mansehra Ex-pressway (E-35) in six pack-ages and would complete theproject as per availability ofrequired funds. An officialsource on Sunday said E-35has been planned in two sec-tions with completion periodof four years subject to ap-proval of PC-I and allocationor provision of necessaryfunds.

The first package isHasanabdal-Havelian (58km) under which three sec-tions including Burhan Inter-change-Jarikas 20 km, Jarikas-Sarae Saleh Chowk 18 km andSarae Saleh Chowk-Samlaila20 km. The second packageis Havelian-Mansehra (51km) and its three sections areSamlaila-Dhamtor 15 km,

Hasanabdal-MansehraExpressway funds go short

Dhamtor-Mirpur 11 km andMirpur-Mansehra 25 km.

The official said land ac-quisition of pack-II (Section-I) has been completed andthat for packs-I & III onlypartially completed and isbeing delayed due to paucityof funds. He said NationalHighway Authority (NHA)requires Rs. 500 million forland acquisition proceed-ings. The land acquisition forsection-2 (Havelian-Mansehra) will commenceafter finalization of the align-ment.

He said pre-qualificationnotice for procurement ofconstruction contractors forsection-I (Pack-II, Jarikas-Sarae Saleh Chowk) has al-ready been published forsubmission of applications.The applications receivedare being evaluated and ten-dering is expected by Decem-ber 2012.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

QUETTA—The Protection ofthe Child Rights (SPARC),Tuesday expressing concernover Employment of ChildrenAct 1991 demanded that am-biguities, anomolies and con-tradictions in the said Actshould be rectified. “TheEmployment of Children Act1991 has various confusionsas it simultaneously bansand regulates child labour.”

The National Manager ofSPARC, Child Labour Unit,Gulnaz Zahid, in “Training on

Tackling Child Labour throughEffective Legislative, Imple-mentation and Monitoring”,said the Act should clarify anddefine the issue of Child labourminutely to endorse the inter-national standards. “If a lawhas no clarity to define an is-sue and people take interpre-tation of the law on their ownthen it is a confused law likethat the Employment of Chil-dren Act 1991 that simulta-neously bans and regulateschild labour,” she said.

She disclosed that nosingle definition of child

labour is given in this law. Sheemphasized the need to makedifferentiation between childwork and child labour throughlaw. Abdul Khaliq Dotani,Labour Officer, Governmentof Balochistan said that afterpassage of 18th Amendment,no single law exists inBalochistan at provincial levelto check and stop child labour.He added that according tolaw experts, after passage of18th Amendment, Employ-ment of Children Act 1991 haslost its status and now it couldnot be taken as effective.

UAF to establishbiotech chair

OUR CORRESPONDENT

FAISALABAD—Prof. Dr. IqrarAhmad Khan, Vice Chancel-lor (VC) University of Agricul-ture Faisalabad (UAF), saidthat a state-of-the-art Centerfor Biochemistry as well as aBio-Technology Chair wouldbe established at UAF to pro-mote scientific approachesamong researchers.

Addressing the inaugu-ral session of a 5-day HECworkshop on “Impartingpractical training in molecu-lar and biochemical tech-niques” organized by theChemistry & Bio-ChemistryDepartment in collaborationwith Higher Education Com-mission (HEC) at New Sen-ate Hall UAF on Tuesday, hesaid that transformation wasunderway replacing teachingwith learning to equip youthswith latest innovative tech-nologies being practiced inthe world’s top educationalinstitutions.

Bux, Joyo to gethonorary degreesOUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD—The Syndi-cate of University of SindhJamshoro has decided togrant honorary degrees tolate Dr. Nabi Bux Khan Balochand Muhammad IbrahimJoyo in recognition of theirvaluable services in the fieldof education. The universityspokesman informed here onTuesday that the syndicatemade the decision in its meet-ing held here the other dayunder the chair of the ViceChancellor Prof. Dr. Nazir A.Mughal. The syndicate rec-ognized the valuable servicesof Professor Anwer G. Syedand honoured him as Profes-sor Emeritus of the Universityof Sindh Jamshoro.

SPARC sees ChildrenAct 1991 ambiguousOUR CORRESPONDENT

Q U E T T A — B a l o c h i s t a nHealth Secretary AsmatullahKhan Kakar Tuesday saidhis department has initiatedscrutiny of degrees of thedoctors in the province. Talk-ing to media, Health Secre-tary said that following thesuspension of striking doc-tors, the emergency of allgovernment-run hospitalshave been reopened wherethe doctors were providingtreatment to the patients.

Strategy has been final-ized to take action againstthe private hospitals beingrun without NOC in the pro-vincial capital, he added.“All BHUs and emergency

units are now functional withdoctors performing 24 hoursduties in the province,” hestressed.

He said that fake degreesobtained from Vienna, Russiaand Kabul is not acceptable,as scrutiny in this connectionhas also initiated to take thelegal action against thosefound guilty. Expressing re-sentment over the prolongedstrike of doctors that stretchover a month for the releaseof their colleague, Kakar said,under the directives of ChiefMinister Balochistan, therewould be no relaxation for theprotesting doctors who wouldhave to explain their unpro-fessional and unjustified atti-tude.

Action against fake degreeholder doctors start

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The next roundof Sub National ImmunizationDays (SNIDs) has beenscheduled in the high risk ar-eas of the country from 17 to19th December, 2012 target-ing 17.9 million children agedless than five years. Talkingto APP, Deputy Director Ex-pended Programme on Immu-nization, Dr Jan Baz Afridisaid that the basic objectiveof the SNID is to conducthigh quality vaccination inthe high risk areas of thecountry and the high risk

populations are to be givenspecial focus during the nextround to ensure highest vac-cination rates.

He said that repeatedcampaigns were neededduring this time of the yearsince this was low transmis-sion season and high qual-ity campaigns would set thestage for the next year.Based on the current epide-miology, all agencies ofFATA and FRs have beenincluded in this round and atotal of 979,660 childrenwould be vaccinated in tribalareas, he added. Similarly, he

Eight million kids to bevaccinated next month

went on to say that keepingin view the current outbreaksituation in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, (KPK) all dis-tricts of KPK have been in-cluded in the Decemberround of anti-polio drive.

He informed that a totalof 5.221 million including 1.52million Afghan childrenwould be vaccinated in KPKin the December campaign. Itis pertinent to mention herethat out of 54 polio cases inthe country, KPK has re-corded 24 cases so far while19 cases have been reportedfrom FATA in 2012.

QUETTA: FC personnel searching a patient at the entranceof Civil Hospital.

CHITRAL: Resident of Rumbor valley both Muslims and Kalash community hold a protest demanding for carlyrelease of their timber stopped by Ayun people illegally.

MULTAN: Journalists hold a demonstration in support of their demands outside PressClub.

PESHAWAR: Students of Peshawar University pose for photo-graph after convocation ceremony.

Firing on vehicle leaves 2 dead

MNS rightlyfor speedy justiceIN a television interview, PML (N) Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has

touched upon a number of important issues confronting the country giving idea about what he thinks about them and how he intends

to address them if given opportunity. In a reconciliatory tone that au-gurs well for overall political environment, Nawaz Sharif expressedwillingness to get oath of office from democratically elected PresidentAsif Ali Zardari if elected Prime Minister in the next elections.

The views expressed by PML (N) Chief were welcome as theseare reflective of the political maturity of our leadership and this hasalso been demonstrated successfully during the last about four and ahalf years when politicians did not take their differences to the ex-treme to destabilise each other. This is what real democracy is andwe hope they would continue to tread the same path in the overallinterest of the democratic process. We, however, believe that viewsof Mian Sahib about security and law and order situation and the wayout need to be given attention by all concerned. While referring to theKarachi situation, he talked about the need for purging the policefrom political influence and called for speedy justice. He also re-called that during his tenure as Prime Minister he tried his best tointroduce a system of speedy trial courts but it could not materializefully due to various reasons. However, we must appreciate that Paki-stan is passing through an extraordinary period that requires specialset of measures to address the challenge and speedy trial courts for alimited period could the answer against acts of terrorism, target kill-ings, sabotage, arson, and heinous crimes that are on the rise. Nodoubt, the superior judiciary is focused on establishing rule of lawbut understandably its attention is on high profile cases while thou-sands of cases are lingering on for not years but decades. No to speakof lower judiciary, even high courts have no time to dispose of casesfor decades which virtually means denial of justice. We hope the ChiefJustice of Pakistan, in consultation with Chief Justices of the HighCourt would evolve some workable mechanism to clear the backlogand provide justice to those who are waiting for it for years.

Worrisome attackson journalists

SENIOR journalist and TV anchor Hamid Mir escaped a bid on hislife when a bomb planted under his car was noticed and defused by

the bomb disposal squad. The recovery of the explosive material, ap-parently planted when he stopped at a market in Islamabad highlightedthe fact how the profession of journalism has become dangerous.

Hamid Mir is one of the senior most anchorpersons whose talkshow is viewed by a large number of people and in many ways hesurpasses other colleagues. It is his hallmark that he expresses hisviews without mincing words with revealing information. In viewof his independent views and brave stance, many people and groupswho do not want to be exposed for their acts have turned againsthim. Therefore it is understandable that some extremist elementsthat are devoid of patience and not ready to listen the truth hadkilled several journalists in the past and are bent upon punishingothers whom they consider opposing their view point. It is particu-larly disturbing that the extremist elements are roaming in the mostsecured city of capital with explosive material and are able to fas-ten the material under the car in the market. This also reflects thatthey (extremist) are keeping intelligence about the movement oftheir targets and our agencies are unable to track them. By plantingthe device, the extremists have given a message to not only HamidMir but also the journalist community as a whole that they can strikeat their free will and no one is secure. The incident has been stronglycondemned by Ministers and different journalists bodies and calledupon the government to ensure security of the media persons. Inany case the matter must be thoroughly investigated through an in-ter agency committee in order to immediately arrest the culpritsand to award them exemplary punishment.

Rats bite newbornin hospital

This could happen only in Pakistan: one of the twins born in HolyFamily Hospital of Rawalpindi reportedly breathed his last after

half-eaten by rodents while the other is receiving treatment of the inju-ries caused by rat bites. The ill-fated and grief-stricken parents of thetwins are crying and seeking justice but history tells us nothing wouldhappen to rectify the situation and punish the culprits.

People go to hospitals for safe births and prompt treatment andcare but hospitals are turning into death trap due to poor sanitation,spurious medicines, fake or below standard tests and negligence onthe part of doctors and paramedical staff. There are numerous in-stances of missing of newborn babies or replacement of boy with thegirl with active connivance of the hospital staff but there is no end tothis saga despite hue and cry by the citizens. Punjab Chief MinisterMian Shahbaz Sharif known for his good governance has been tak-ing personal interest so that patients get more attention and facilitiesat emergencies and casualty departments of various government hos-pitals but the situation is far from satisfactory as far as cleanlinessand general delivery of service is concerned. Stinking wards, miss-ing facilities, referral of patients to markets for tests and drugs anddereliction of duties is common feature in all hospitals and this re-flects poorly on the administrative skills of the MS and DMS. Moreor less these scenes can also be witnessed in other government de-partments which are infested with rats and rodents and absenteeismis order of the day. As normal monitoring and supervisory mecha-nism is not delivering, it is duty of elected leadership like MPAs,MNAs and Senators to remain vigilant and ensure that hospitalsdeliver as per their mandate. We would also demand an indepen-dent inquiry into the rat bite incident.

Man’s insensitivity to women’s plight

Everything is goodwhen it leaves theCreator’s hands;everythingdegenerates in thehands of man.

Even as Malala Yousafzai, a14-year-old activist who advocated girls’ education, re-

covers from the bullet shots byTaliban at Swat in Pakistan, thereis no let up in atrocities againstwomen in the subcontinent.Haryana in India witnessed an-other rape of a dalit girl and yetanother honour killing by parentsof their daughter in the northernpart of Pakistan.

In Delhi, the national capital,a married girl committed suicide,with her daughter, because herin-laws had not stopped demand-ing dowry even after five yearsof marriage. These incidents aredistance-wise removed from oneanother and they even differ ingory details. Still they are simi-lar in intent: A woman cannotclaim any right, much less equal-ity, in India, Pakistan orBangladesh. I am sure thatwomen in the West too undergoindignities but their advanced so-cieties have sophisticated waysto humiliate the female.

In this part of the world, a girlis generally considered a curse orburden from birth. While a boy isregarded as a bread-winner, a girlis a damper on ambitions of a fam-ily. The economic factor only ag-gravates the social factor and itwould be wrong to assume that theearning potential of a girl is thereal reason. But the real tragedyis that the women themselves,

MPs ownfailings

Among the most striking recent phenomena in Britishpolitics has been the willing-

ness of Parliament to hold the Gov-ernment to account. Since the 2010election, MPs and select committeeshave displayed a consistent enthusi-asm for uncovering the failings notjust of ministers, but of all parts ofthe public and private sectors. Thereis one area, however, where theirpursuit of truth and justice has beenless than zealous: namely, their ownaffairs. When outsiders attempted todiscover how many MPs were rent-ing property from each other – a le-gal but morally dubious exploitationof the new expenses rules – theSpeaker blocked the disclosure oflandlords’ details on the speciousgrounds of “security”.

Embarrassingly, one of those in-volved in such “rent-swapping”,Kevin Barron, is chairman of thestandards and privileges committee:his landlord was Jon Trickett, theshadow Cabinet Office minister. Noris Mr Barron the only Westminstergrandee to have faced media scru-tiny recently over his personal af-fairs. Keith Vaz, head of the homeaffairs committee, was revealed tohave received undisclosed paymentstotalling almost £500,000; StephenDorrell, his counterpart on health,secretly sold his London flat to theowners of a nursing home chain,before renting it back at public ex-pense. Given that these committeesare among the most powerful inWhitehall, one would have ex-pected searching questions to beasked – or for Messrs Dorrell andVaz to step down while investiga-tions proceed. But in the cosy clubof Westminster, the outrage hasbeen muted. MPs still bruised bythe expenses scandal see little rea-son to hand the press more scalps:witness how long Denis MacShanewas able to string out the probes intohis own fraudulent claims.

This Parliament remains a sig-nificant improvement on its prede-cessor – but the adage about watch-ing the watchmen rings as true asever. Most of the stories above wereuncovered by journalists, includingthose on this newspaper. Yet thisweek, Lord Justice Leveson is tounveil proposals that could makeit harder than ever for the mediato hold the powerful to account.But if the press does not investi-gate politicians’ wrongdoing, whowill? Judging by their currentbehaviour, it is unlikely to be MPsthemselves. — The Telegraph

*****

Stakeholdersmust share

blameFollowing the unfortunate

deaths of at least 120 peoplein the blaze that engulfed a gar-

ment factory in Bangladesh, whatmust be highlighted is that such dan-gers will be an unfortunate fact oflife while the garment industry con-tinues to mushroom to meet theceaseless demands of manufacturersfrom all over the world.

This attitude must change withsome serious prohibitive measuresput in place so that such incidentsdo not happen again. The interna-tional corporate giants, that factoriesin Bangladesh cater to, take the fin-ished products — which they buyfor a pittance from the manufactur-ers — and sell them for huge prof-its. They are bound by law in theircountries to ensure the well-being oftheir employees by providing themwith an environment that is safe andsecure. It is therefore incumbentupon them to be at least be morallyresponsible for the well-being oftheir distributors abroad.

This can be done by extendingtheir policies abroad and enteringinto agreements with factory own-ers and local authorities. The com-pany that was gutted had received a‘high risk’ safety rating after a pro-cess of ‘ethical sourcing’ done by amultinational company. They did notspecify what led to that rating, butthere was a disaster waiting to hap-pen. And it did. All stakeholders —factory owners, local authorities andthe international clients — mustshare proportionate blame. The live-lihoods of thousands has now beenaffected. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

—Jean J RousseauFrench philosopher

mothers or mothers-in-law, are the per-petrators of crimes.They are behind thedowry tragedy orhonour killing. Afeeble protest isseen in a few brutalcases but it is for-gotten the followingday. Then it is busi-

ness as usual. I thought that the at-tack on Malala would unite Paki-stan in pain and it would rise as onenation to intensify operations inWaziristan and Swat to crushTaliban.

No doubt, anger is there but itcannot be channelized without anyconcerted effort or action. Religiousfanatics appear to come in the wayand they are the ones who call theshots. All statements emanatingfrom the army suggest that it willgive no quarter to the terrorists,meaning thereby Taliban, but theoperation against them lacks deter-mination. This may be partly truebecause Taliban are said to havepenetrated the army ranks itself. InIndia, the most developed nation inthe region, the voice against theatrocities on women is probably theloudest. There are many politicaland social women leaders—the all-powerful Sonia Gandhi included.Even then they have not been ableto do much, for example, they havenot been able to secure the 33 per-cent reservations for women. Thebill, after having been in limbo formany years, has only made it to theRajya Sabha. The prospects of itsapproval by this house of parlia-ment are almost nil.

Male chauvinists, particularlyamong the dalits and backwardclasses, are vehemently opposed toreservations to women on theground that the concessions wouldbe cornered by the urbanite edu-

cated. This fear is without any ba-sis because the election of womenheads in half of the panchayatsshows that at the ground level theirconfidence is immense. At least therepresentatives of dalits and OtherBackward Classes have no face totalk about the elite among womengetting the advantage of reserva-tions because they themselves con-stitute a creamy layer which has notallowed the second or third rung tobenefit. Titled Men and Women2012, an official report, indicates amarginal participation of women ingovernance and economy sections.Even the health, education, financeand crime indicators are causes forworry. Under the judiciary, there aretwo woman judges out of 26 judgesin the Supreme Court and only 54women judges out of 634 judges inhigh courts. This lopsided participa-tion is reflected in other echelonstoo. Women only occupied 10 per-cent of the total central jobs in 2009.In institutions such as scheduledcommercial banks, the scenarioslightly bettered to 16.6 percent in2010 from 15.9 percent in 2009.

Even if placement of women isratified some day, they would stillface many handicaps to come up theladder. Religious traditions alsocome in the way of their claim toequality. Manu, a Hindu great pun-dit, has advocated inferior status forwomen and has proposed inhumanpunishments for them if they chal-lenge men to give them an equal sta-tus. Even today the entry of womento a few temples remains barred andeven the treatment meted out tothem has come to have religioussanctions. As for the Muslimwomen, the restrictions are evenwider. That they cannot enter mostreligious places is common. Theshrine at Nizamuddin at Delhi isclosed to them. The custodians ofHaji Ali dargah at Mumbai has is-

sued a fiat a few days ago to dis-allow women from entering theirpremises. This was done for thefirst time since the shrine’s foun-dation hundreds of years ago. Incontrast, Islam is progressiveenough not to have any stigmaagainst widow remarriage.

It is really man’s insensitivityto the feelings of women that isbehind the pitiable plight ofwomen. He neither understandsnor appreciates what his wantonattitude does to her individuality.Violence shows is only part of hisassumption to be superior. Thereason why women are the firsttarget for rape in riots is not somuch avarice as the humiliationsought to be heaped upon them.Unfortunately, the governmenttreats rape as just one of thecrimes. In fact, it is a collectivemurder of a female. The punish-ment should be meted out not onlyto those who commit it but allthose who silently watch the hap-pening. They are as guilty just asthe members of Khap, thepanchayat in Hayarana who sen-tence young girls for wearingclothes they like or wanting tomarry the person they like.

A movement is needed—in allthe three countries of the subcon-tinent—to raise strong protests tomake the public aware of theatrocities committed againstwomen. The purpose is how togive women their rightful place inthe society and make them feelthat they are inferior to none in anyfield, political, economy or social.The development in a country hasno meaning if the society doeslittle against discrimination anddenial to women perpetuated forcenturies.—The writer is a veteran Indianjournalist, syndicated columnist,human right activist and author.

Syed Amir Ali, an Islamicscholar, politician and a greatMuslim leader of the United

India wrote in his illustrious book,‘The Spirit of Islam’ “Alas! that thereligion of humanity and universalbrotherhood should not have es-caped the internecine strife and dis-cord; that the faith which was tobring peace to the distracted worldshould itself be torn to pieces byangry passions and the lust ofpower.” If I have to summarisethe Islamic teachings, the cruxwould be, the best among thehuman beings are those, whosemere existence is beneficial forthe other human beings. This in-deed is the real teaching of Is-lam. There should be no divisionor difference of opinion on thispure philosophy of Islam. If Is-lam gives such a message ofpeace, love and respect for thehumanity, why should its believ-ers become inhuman towardseach other?

This means that, those Muslimsinvolved in the violence againsteach other on the basis of sects ordifference of opinion have gone off-track from the basic teaching oftheir religion and belief; the Islam.What to talk of killing each other,Islam does not allow killing thepeople of other believes or nonebelievers except once there is a de-clared war. Even during the war, itforbids killings of old age people,children, women and those who arenot attacking the Muslims. How

Dynamic of sectarianism in Pakistancan believers of this great religionsnatch for themselves this right ofkilling each other just because theyare Sunni and Shia?

Since there was no such type ofdivision between Muslims duringthe time of Holy Prophet (PBUH),thus, the believers are not expectedto betray themselves on the basis ofany difference of opinion. Islam isa universal religion, thus its teach-ings are valid for all the times, untilthe day of judgement, as it was valid1400 years, ago. What has gonewrong over the period of time that,Muslims rather getting directive andguidance from the Holy Book andthe Sunnah of the Holy Prophet(PBUH), were betrayed by thosewho intended to use the Muslims andIslam for their political gains or at-tainment of power; indeed, the evilgame of power politics.

This process of political use ofIslam then encouraged those reli-gious tutors (Mullahs) to have theirown influence over a Mosque, agroup of people or a particular area.For maintaining their dominance,they interpreted the religion in theirown way and at time against its ba-sic spirit and teachings. In Pakistan,there have been harmonious andpeaceful livings between variousethnic, religious and sectariangroups and communities, ever sinceit came into beings.

Unfortunately, the decade of1980s, brought this menace of sec-tarianism along with many other di-visions and ills in the Pakistani so-ciety. This was indeed, in the back-drop of US led secret war againstformer Soviet Union, where Paki-stani soil and people were used. TheJihadies used for this war, later in-volved in these undesired activities

within Pakistan. Unfortunately, thesuccessive national leadership ofPakistan lacked the vision and theconsequences of these ills, thus ig-nored these wrong doings in Paki-stani society. In the last one de-cade, these people have attained astatus whereby they can challengethe writ of the state and its institu-tions. Today, they are openly roam-ing all around and can kill and at-tack anyone whom they desire toeliminate. Karachi is one such ex-ample, where killings based on sec-tarianism, ethnicity and communal-ism is rampant. The year 2012, hasbeen the bloodiest year with respectto the sectarian violence in thecountry. Whereas the sectarian kill-ing is all over the country, no oneperhaps concentrated on its inten-sity in three strategic locations ofPakistan; Karachi, Quetta andGilgit-Baltistan.

Karachi is the economic hub ofthe country and a metropolitancity. The sectarianism and lawless-ness there have virtually turned thecity into a chaotic situation with atotal uncertainty among its over 20million inhabitants. The economicactivities have reduced to a recordlow in the entire history of Paki-stan. Killing Hazara Community inQuetta means creating discontent-ment and a sense of insecurityamong this patriotic population tolook for elsewhere and towardsothers to give them safety and pro-tection. The Shia-Sunni clashes inGB have created an alarm amongthe local populace for their secu-rity and future. Then killings ofShia while en-route fromRawalpindi to GB or vice versa af-ter identification parade means alot. This would mean that the area

is unsafe for its strategic use andtrade with China by Pakistan.

Nonetheless, sectarian clashesare taking place locally in Paki-stan, but their impacts are globaland long lasting. Indeed, today, thegreatest danger to Pakistan comesnot from outside but from within,in the form of religious extrem-ism and sectarianism. Despite kill-ings of thousands of people in thesectarians’ clashes, we have notbeen able to identify the forces andfactors behind them Or else, if weknow that, then there is some ra-tionale and mystery behind nottaking actions against these crimi-nal and killers. If we think that,through enhanced security mea-sures during Muharram and otherfew religious occasions, we willbe able to confront and control thisthreat, perhaps, it would be wrongassumption.

The need of the hour is that, wemust formulate the national policyto deal with this menace, decayingPakistani society through a rapidtermite. The menace is spoilingand splitting the youth of nationthrough undesired division andhate. These people must be dealtwith iron hands. Since we haveflexibility in our law, thus in thefirst instance, we must legislate andformulate new set of law to dealwith such criminals. In the subse-quent step, through an across theboard security operation, all thoseinvolved in the Sectarianism shouldbe brought to face this law. Forsuch an act, there would be a needof political and religious unityamong all political and religiousparties, factions and groups.—The writer is Islamabad-basedanalyst of international relations.

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Voice of the People

A splintered Syrian revolt

The Syrian opposition took a bigstep forward this month byforming a broad political coa-

lition that includes local activists whostarted the revolution. But theopposition’s military command is stilla mess, and until it’s fixed, jihadistextremists will keep getting morepowerful. As I wrote after my tripinside Syria in early October, a stron-ger command-and-control structure iscrucial in creating an opposition forcethat can accomplish two essentialtasks: defeating President Bashar al-Assad and maintaining order in Syriaafter he falls. The United States hadencouraged the rebels to form pro-vincial “military councils” to achievebetter coordination. But the rebelforces have continued to splinter inrecent weeks.

Talking with some of the FreeSyrian Army activists who arrangedmy trip into Syria, I’ve heard ex-amples of the chaos caused by by-passing the military council (MC)structure. Maj. Mohammed Ali and

Maj. Maher Noaimi, two rebel com-manders from Hama, are said to bereceiving money directly from gulfnations. “Ali and Noaimi are stillserving as middlemen for all sorts offolks, and they’re working outside theMCs,” complained one report lastmonth to the State Department aboutthe confused funding. Another ex-ample is Sheik Adnan Mohammed al-Aroor, an extremist cleric from Hamawho receives money from SaudiArabia and appears often on Arabtelevision. He is said to have under-cut the military councils’ coordina-tion in northern Syria. The UnitedStates have urged the Saudis to cutsupport for Aroor, but activists saythat his followers remain potent onthe ground.

A third example of confusioncited by rebel sources is the Faroukbattalion, originally from Homs,which controls major northern bor-der crossings into Syria. This groupis said to have especially strong sup-port from Turkey that allows it tooperate outside the military councilstructure. Most dangerous of all is thecontinuing growth of extremist Jabhatal-Nusra, an al-Qaeda-linked group

President Obama has won thesecond Presidential term despite painful slow economic

growth, high unemployment andwidespread unease about thecountry’s future. As hard fought asthe campaign was, the task of gov-erning a dividing country is evenmore difficult. Not to mention, thepolitical racism that figured signifi-cantly in Mr Obama’s re-election.The foreign tests that await Obamaas he tries to juggle America’s For-eign Policy especially in the MiddleEast, it has yet to be seen if MrObama can meet up these dauntingchallenges?

President Obama’s victory wasover shadowed by the bitter realitythat he was to lead a nation that wasdivided from Maine to San Francisco,Miami to Fairbanks, Long Island tothe Islands of Hawaii. However, theimmediate challenge facing Obamais to help defuse a fiscal time bombthat’s set to go off at the end of theyear, before the next presidential termbegins. It is estimated that more than$570 billion worth of tax increasesand spending cuts are scheduled tokick in automatically. This will po-

US economy & ‘fiscal cliff’tentially send the economy back intorecession. The ‘Fiscal cliff’ is theproduct of America’s repeated fail-ure to come up with a credible long-term plan for closing the enormousfederal budget gap caused by the re-cession, two wars and the Bush taxcuts. Though avoiding this disasterwould require Democrats and Repub-licans to compromise over issues thathave tied Congress in knots. Even ifthe fiscal cliff is avoided, the govern-ment would be faced with a massivedebt load of $16.2 trillion and a deficitthat has topped $ 1 trillion a year forfour years running. Debt rating agen-cies like Standard & Poor’s andMoody’s have warned that the US facesa possible downgrade this year if itdoesn’t get the deficit under control.

Though Mr Obama claims to bethe first African-American presidentwho has brought together an impres-sive coalition of black, white andLatino voters, the truth is otherwise.The fact remains that he is still a‘Negre’ and most of the Republicanvoters expressed their deep concernwith ‘black’ claims to political inclu-sion and leadership. This politicalracism can be traced back 150 yearsto the time of Reconstruction, whenAfrican-Americans won citizenshiprights, the right to vote and contestfor power where they had previouslybeen enslaved. The repercussions of

Suggestion formobile companies

NAYLA KHAN

I have suggestion, about balancereversal facility, for higher manage-ment of relevant departments ofcellular companies. Its an observa-tion that while recharging balancefrom retailer ,if number told to re-tailer is not correct ,balance istransferred to wrong number andretailer does not inform customerthat this transferred balance to in-correct number can be reversed,customer is informed that suchbalance can not be reverted. Socustomer recharges again on his/her own number by paying amountagain for next attempt.when suchcustomer leaves ,retailer gets backthat balance.

Suggestion Mobile companiesmust force the retailers to paste anotice on wall of shop that “ bal-ance transferred to wrong numbercan be reverted back”. With details,notice must be copy of “informa-tion chapter and customers’ cogni-zance” from mobile companies.—Lahore

Violenceagainst women

TAHIRA MUSHTAQ

Sunday was the day to mark Inter-national Day on the Elimination ofViolence against Women, yet wesee that with each passing year theratio of this violence is continu-ously rising. According to the re-port “Incidents of Violence againstWomen in 2011” by Aurat Foun-dation, 2341 females were killed inthe name of honor, 8096 femaleswere kidnapped and the registeredcases of domestic violence were1985, which showed 25 % increasefrom the last year. It is quite shock-ing. Violence against women alsotakes place in developed countries.However in Pakistan it is moreproblematic as there is no systemto redress this issue effectively.

Enough said about the state’sresponsibility to protect womenagainst violence, yet violence com-mitted on the domestic level keepson increasing. This issue can besolved by bringing awareness ondomestic level. It is the responsi-bility of every individual present inevery home to provide protectionand respect to the female members.Above all it is the duty of all thoseprivileged females who can haveinfluence on the under-privilegedfemales of the society to make surethat they never let any female getverbally or physically abused.

I believe and others may dis-agree, that nobody would give theseprivileged females the role of atorch-bearer, as this role is givento them by nature by placing themin a more respectable place in so-ciety. It is their prime responsibil-ity to stand up and say no to allforms of violence against their fel-low women. Together these voiceswill turn into a force that would behard to ignore or sideline.—Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir

Educationneglected in Sindh

HASHIM ABRO

Sindh has a long rich tradition ofeducation especially in theology,philosophy, philology, and musi-cology. For centuries, various cit-ies of Indus valley civilizationsuch as Thatto, Arore, Rohri,Sehwan, Pir jo goth etc. and itserudite scholars have served ascustodians and keepers of knowl-edge. The most remarkable thingabout ancient Sindh, even beforethe partition of subcontinent, edu-cation was the fact that in mostcases teachers were unpaid profes-sional who chose to be teachers forits intrinsic value.

Hindu, Parsi and teachers fromother religious minorities were onvolunteerism. We believe that hefundamental prerequisite to anyintellectual endeavor is indepen-dent critical thinking. Educationalinstitutions used to enrich traditionof independent critical thinking.For quite some, University ofSindh, Jamshoro, continued thisnoble tradition of promoting criti-cal thinking and intellectualiza-

Two notables mournedASGHAR MAHMOOD

A highly respected journalist and columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee breathed his last at the age of 86 inKarachi before Ashura day (Saturday). Mr. Iqbal Haider, an illustrious son of Karachi also

called it a day, a few weeks ago. Seen retrospectively, an Islamabad -based darvesh had predicted notlong ago that a respectable personality will fade out of national scene. It is sad that not one but twonational personalities have left us in quick succession. Both of them belonged to Karachi, but in a waythey were national figures. Late Ardeshir Cowasjee was a remarkable individual, in professional aswell as personal life. Iqbal Haider was a tireless worker in the domain of human rights and liberites.Their fans will miss them. Another important prediction of the darvesh is that a lady will rule thecountry for a long time.—Islamabad

Views From Abroad

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

political racism are ever present andthe campaigns of both parties showedan obsessive concern with the fate ofthe ‘middle class,’ an artificially ho-mogenized category mostly codedwhite, while resolutely refusing toaddress the deepening morass of pov-erty, marginality and limited oppor-tunity that disproportionately engulfsAfrican-American and Latino com-munities. Infact, the election returnsof Obama indicate a drop in his shareof the white vote, especially the voteof white men. So, the attitude thatblack people don’t belong in Ameri-can political society may have diedhard, but is not dead.

As far as the American ForeignPolicy is concerned, be it a Republi-can or a Democrat, it more or lessremains the same. The Jewish Lobbyin the US is the ‘King Maker.’ Sur-prisingly, this time they had backedMitt Romney, Obama’s opponent,and therefore, Obama’s victory wasput to immediate test in the shape ofIsrael’s blatant attack on innocentPalestinians. Obama showed his in-capacity to act by not even having theguts to condemn this Israeli brutalbarbarianism. The message is loudand clear-No matter who may be theAmerican President, he/she remainssubservient to Israeli commands. Anyrhetoric that there may be a changein Obama’s Foreign Policy is a wish-

tion. It produced towering intellec-tuals , creative thinkers and writersbut unfortunately, nowadays thisprestigious varsity has fallen on itsevil days and our ruling elite is in-different to its state of affairs andloss of education. Whenever I travelto my home province and visit vari-ous villages in different upperSindh district I do not witness anychange there.

These days have also wit-nessed a significant decline in theeducation system of the province.The system has failed miserably tokeep up with demand. The presentgovernment has not made anypragmatic attempt to improvechildren’s education. Misguidedpolicies have caused very few chil-dren to receive an education. Ourrulers have not tried to improve theschool system in the province. Lit-eracy and enrollment rates are stilllow. The government has not re-vised its curriculum so as to makeeducation more practical and rel-evant to children’s lives.

Before the educational system inupper and lower Sindh regions getsbetter, there are many factors thatneed to be addressed and improved.Sindh government must change theimportance of education in their so-cial structure, and children should beencouraged and required to attendschool and become educated.

This would not only improve thelevel of awareness in the provinceand the opportunity for advancementbut also it would improve manyother aspects of Sindhi society.However, the present rulers and rel-evant authorities are requested torevive and promote this noble prin-ciple which reads as “”let the edu-cated teach and let the uneducatedlearn” in the Sindhi society and alsomake genuine efforts for the promo-tion of distance education in theprovince so as to promote literaryand education in today’s resources-rich but deprived and denied Sindhprovince.—Islamabad

Muharramin Gaza

ALI ASHRAF KHAN

The Israeli air force for more than60 hours has been bombarding theGaza strip with a short break onlyduring the visit of Egyptian PrimeMinister, who had come to defusethe situation from escalating to visitthe victims of Israel’s recent aggres-sion in hospitals in Gaza. Muslimsall over the world are enraged to seethe complicity of Muslim rulers inthis hour of Israeli genocide? EvenEgyptian Prime Minister wasshocked to see the wounds of thecivilians hit by Israel bombs callingit an outright aggression.

After he left Gaza the air strikescontinued full blast with the de-clared aim to destroy Hamas mili-tary installations and especiallythose ramps from where Hamas islaunching the long-range missilesand ‘teach them a lesson’ as to whois the boss.

The very fact that Hamas despitethe ceaseless pounding of Israeli airforce managed to launch 340 mis-siles some of them reaching the heartof Israel is in a way a victory forHamas and it will create respect andadmiration for them. It clearly showsthat an Israeli ground attack will notbe a Sunday walk along the beachand given Hamas resolve by peopleof Gaza who will close the lines be-hind them and join Hamas in the fi-nal fight: if we have to die let’s diefighting. Not caring for US Congressextending support to Israeli aggres-sion, which exposes the real face ofperpetrators of genocide and warcrimes. Muslim leaders not support-ing Hamas at this point of time willface the consequences after an ulti-mate resolution of the crises.

This is more so that the timechosen by Israeli for this aggressionis the month of Muharram whenShias and many Muslims rememberthe sacrifice of Imam Husseinagainst the forces of evil that is un-til today inspiring Muslims to do thesame. One outcome of the currentcrisis might be not only a closing ofthe ranks between Hamas and thePalestinian population; it might re-sult in a closing of ranks in the Arabworld as such.

The so-called Arab spring hasbrought governments into power thathardly can turn their backs on theconflict in Palestine. The Egyptian

‘A judge never on leave’

On Oct 25thSupreme CourtJudgment became the basisfor huge reduction in the

price of CNG is a pleasant surprisefor the common people coincidingwith Eid. Buying new clothes, ani-mals for sacrifice has become moredifficult and many people could nolonger afford such luxury. The ad-verse economic situation and the ris-ing levels of poverty is a major prob-lem for the country. The rising faresof airlines, trains and buses furtherexacerbated the situation by makingit more difficult for the people to seetheir loved ones.

At such a time, it was only Su-preme Court who felt about the mis-eries of the common man, sinceCNG being a cheaper fuel is thenatural choice of middle and lowermiddle income group. This was pro-moted during the tenure of PrimeMinister Shaukat Aziz. The trans-porters also use CNG as a fuel. Theunfair business practices such asextracting the operational costs from

the poor consumers was not noticedbut allowed the concerned govern-ment authorities and this became alucrative business as the rate of re-turn is too high. It is often arguedthat Supreme Court interferes in ex-ecutive authority, but to all such crit-ics one question needs to be asked,Why only Supreme Court cared forthe common people, why did theexecutive never took notice of thesepractices, why it was only yesterdaythat the Secretary Petroleum tookaction? Such indifference and inac-tion on the part of the executive isnot desirable.

But this is not the first time, thatSupreme Court took notice ofsomething that affects commonpeople. Under the dynamic, wiseand courageous leadership ofIftikhar Chauhdary, several historicjudgments have been passed. Thelist of those judgments is exhaus-tive, but few such decisions includereimbursement of funds to Hajiswhere an amount of 470 millionrupees was returned to about 25000Hujjaj. This amount was chargedfrom them towards rent but theywere not provided accommodationand were made to suffer the agony

of non-accommodation. Who werethe beneficiaries of thisdecision….The common peoplewho were exploited and defraudedby the ruling government’s minis-ter. Take the example of pensioners,prior to Supreme Court’s decision in2011 only selective banks were en-tertaining the pensioners to receivetheir pension. The quality of servicewas very poor. These people whostand in long lines to get their pen-sion have served the government ofPakistan over their lifetimes and theywere not even treated with respectat the end of their service careers.

They were made to wait forlong hours before their pensionwas given to them, but their plightremained unnoticed till the Su-preme Court came to their relief.Yet another case is of the “KhwajaSaras”. They are human beingsand God’s creation. Wasn’t it a his-toric judgment that NADRA wasinstructed to make their IdentityCards?? The state didn’t realizedin 63 years to do anything forthem. Only the Supreme Court re-alized the importance of this hu-manitarian issue, but who ben-efited from this judgment? An op-

pressed class of citizens of thiscountry. The list of decisions istoo long to be reproduced here,but one thing which is commonis the underlying spirit behindsuch decisions. The beneficiariesare the common people, who areoppressed in different ways andno door is open for them.

In the entire career IftikharMuhammad Chauhdary never tooka day off and worked 99.99%. Heonly took one leave in his careerwhen his health did not permit himto come to office. A gracious ladyMohtarma Rasheeda begum and ahard working individual ChaudaryJan Mohammad were very luckyparents to have a son like IftikharChaudary who is doing muchmore than what he was expectedto do. How fortunate were theparents of Iftikhar MohammadChaudary that their son is mov-ing with lumens following thefootstep of greatest personalityand his true followers in his ev-eryday working. Whenever thehistory of Pakistan will be writ-ten, the name of Iftikhar Chaudarywill always be remembered bygenerations to come.

that receives funding from wealthyindividuals in the gulf. One exampleof the destructive, sectarian roleplayed by Jabhat al-Nusra is that itsfighters are said to have attackedKurdish rebels recently in Ras al-Ain,in northeastern Syria. The extremistgroup’s influence is also growingbecause its fighters, eager for mar-tyrdom, are the toughest.

Syrian activists warn that chaoswill continue until the various gov-ernments that support the oppositionpool their money and disseminate itthrough the provincial councils. “Stopasking us to unify until you unifyyourselves,” a Syrian activist warneda US official recently. The UnitedStates plans to step up its work withkey opposition backers — such asSaudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey andFrance — to build a stronger com-mand structure. US officials applaudthe efforts of several military coun-cil commanders who have tried tofoster unity, such as Col. Abdul-Jabbar Akidi in Aleppo, Col. AfifSuleiman in Idlib and Gen. Ziad al-Fahd and Col. Khalid Alhoubos inDamascus. One key role for thesecouncils is to broaden the opposition

ful thinking as he, for present, is topursue those policies vis-à-vis otherStates. President Obama has had aweak record on human rights andhe openly now embraces the con-cept of a global ‘war on terror’ asgrounds to override internationalhuman rights norms. He broke hisfirst term promise to close down il-legal Guantanamo prison and itseems unlikely to be done so in thefuture. It seems that the US foreignpolicy is being reoriented to promoteAmerican economic interests asthey believe, now, that their ‘globalleadership depends on their eco-nomic strength.’

The question remains whetherPresident Obama would be able tomeet all the challenges in his sec-ond term? Would he be able to con-vince Israel to accept PalestinianAuthority and become a member ofthe United Nations? Would he beable to dodge the fiscal cliff, whichnot only threatens the US economybut the world economy as well? Thefact remains that Obama’s secondterm would be faced with economicand political turbulence. This is au-tomatically going to have dominosaffect on all its global trading part-ners. So, its high time that all whohave stacked their wealth in dollarsto re-evaluate the fate of dollar andthe US crumbling economy.

president Mursi has made this clearand the Tunisian Foreign Ministerhas not only condemned Israel butsaid; “What Israel is doing is not le-gitimate and is not acceptable at all,”The emergency meeting of the ArabLeague today will show the direc-tion the future course could take.

Hamas has to its credit the visitof the Amir of Qatar and the finan-cial support he had promised tothem. It is the new leading power inPalestine. All other Muslim coun-tries of the world will have to comeforward and put pressure on US tostop Israel from committing geno-cide by attacking and killing womenand children otherwise OIC shouldunanimously condemn US and Is-rael and pass resolutions of warcrimes in their parliaments. UN Se-curity Council is a toothless lion thatonly works as a second fiddler toUnited States.—Via email

Medicinesor death callSANAULLAH ATTIQUE

Heartbreakingly, it is bad news in-deed as dozens of cough patientshave been halted under toxic attackof cough syrup at Lahore. Actually,in Pakistan it is very depressing situ-ation as repeatedly such incidents’have taken place. Health and hy-giene conditions are under miserablethreats due to utter negligence bothmedically and professionally. Espe-cially, continuous pulls and pushesin various medicines had created fearabout validation of available medi-cines. Actually, medicine syrup isalmost expensive for millions ofpeople due to poverty and after get-ting treatment somewhere it alsobecome juicy poison when itsnatches lives in name of cure.

In Lahore nearly 100 heart pa-tients died in January 2012 due tofaulty medicine. And, it has shockedwhole country especially heart pa-tients using such medicine. So, it isanother sad saga consider about suchwrong happenings’.

President has recently signed avery comprehensive document guid-ing both professionals and authori-ties to combat against complex is-sues relevant to illegal usage ofmedicine. It is onus upon doctors tofight professionally against suchcheap medicines and never ever rec-ognized or prescribed as a treatmentto patient.

Repeated sad occurrences de-mand National campaign to providenation with huge information, properusage of drug, to know about expiredmedicines all relevant mattersshould ministry of health throughmedia and involving every citizenthrough goal oriented messages inpamphlets.—Islamabad

Effectivesecurity planDR SAIF UR REHMAN

All sections of society including me-dia harshly cristicised RehmanMalik for his security plan forAshura. Newspapers editorials werecaptioned as disgusting securityplan. But Rehman Malik set asideall reservations and furore and he gota go-ahead with his security plan forAshura because he was well awarethat terrorists use modern gagdets i.ecelluar phones, hence he suspendedcelluar services in fifty cities to stopterrorism on the occasion ashura. Itwas best available option.

By his strategy many innocentpakistani souls remained safe and Iwould like to thank Dr A. RehmanMalik and applaud him too. Honor-ary doctorate degree was rightlyawarded to him for his matchlessservices to the country in the war onterror and restoring peace to the citi-zens of Pakistan in general. He hasdone well for nation. Congratula-tions Dr. A. Rehman Malik.—Islamabad

beyond its Sunni jihadist roots.Akidi, for example, is said to havetwice met recently with a SyrianChristian bishop in Aleppo to as-sure Christians that they will be safeif the opposition wins. “If this is thefuture, we can work with it,” thebishop reportedly said afterward.

Unfortunately, the rebel mili-tary council leadership was not in-cluded in the Doha effort. Militaryleaders such as Akidi thought theywould be invited, but the invitationsnever came. US and Syrian sourcesagree that to create military unity,the CIA will have to push friendlyintelligence services to pool fund-ing and other support behind a uni-fied command. US officials hopethat process will happen over thenext month, but rebel leaders fearthat this could be too late. A coher-ent, non-extremist military structureis crucial, finally, because it couldprovide the path for an eventualsettlement that halts all-out sectar-ian war. Otherwise, this will be afight to the death between Assad’sgoons and radical jihadists — withpoor Syria shattered in the process.— Courtesy: The Washington Post

Tom came over to my home.He walked with a pronounced limp, dragging his

leg behind him, his right hand hang-ing useless at his side. He sat downand his eyes were wet with tears.“Why doesn’t God heal me?” heasked bitterly. “Why should He?” Iasked. “You don’t believe God canheal?” “Of course I do,” I said, “butwhy should He heal you?” “Be-cause I ask for healing day andnight. Ask my wife. I get up in themorning and spend an hour in

prayer, same in the afternoon and inthe evening. Sometimes when I can’tget sleep at midnight too.”

“So it’s not for lack of asking thatyou are not healed” I said matter offactly. “That’s what I mean,” saidTom, “so why doesn’t God heal me?I wonder whether He is punishing mefor something I have done?” “Haveyou asked His forgiveness for what-ever you have done?” I asked. “Yes,”said Tom nodding vigorously. “ThenI doubt that’s the reason.” I said. “Sowhat’s the reason?” he asked angrily.“I think of God as a father,” I said. “And sometimes in our role as earthlyfathers we can try to understand Hima little.” “Shoot,” said Tom noddinghis head a little, wondering where thisconversation was going. “We earthlyfathers,” I said, “want the best for our

children, don’t we?” Tom nodded hishead even more vigorously, “but wealso want our children to be the best,”“Sure,” said Tom, who was also afather of three little children. “Bestmeans strong.” “Sure it does,” saidTom again. “Are you strong Tom?”“What d’you mean?” he asked. “Eversince you had the stroke, have youbecome a stronger person or weakerman. Have you worked at limp leg anduseless hand, pushing muscle to movewith movement and exercise or haveyou sat at home whining and crying?”

“I have prayed.” “Cried to God,would be a better phrase,” I said. “Ifyou as a father saw your toddler try-ing to stand what would you do?Would you pick him up and carry himfor the rest of your life? And therebymake a cripple of him? You would

New healing..!have to watch him crawl for the restof his life because he never learntto stand.” “What are you trying tosay?” asked Tom uncertainly. “ThatGod the Father wants you to stopwhining like a baby and start mak-ing efforts to move on.”

“He wants me to stand? Towalk?” “Maybe not in the samemanner you have been walking tillnow,” I said. “Do you think you canmove forward in life despite thelimp? To hold onto a dream with auseless hand?” I saw him this morn-ing, he was downstairs early, strug-gling to exercise one leg after theother, moving torturously, slowlyforward, but there was a gleam inthe eye, and a determination on face.I felt God look down with pride..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

David Ignatius

Fauzia QureshiEmail: fauzia_786@yahoo.com

Faiqa Abdul HayeeEmail: faiqaabdulhaye@hotmail.com

MICHAEL BOSKIN

POLITICAL leadership transitions typically signal either achange in direction or continuity. But the mere prospect of

such a transition usually postponessome important political decisions andfreezes some economic activity, pend-ing the resolution of the accompany-ing uncertainty. China’s decennial lead-ership transition, culminating at theChinese Communist Party’s 18th Con-gress, is a case in point. And, whilemany will remember when a Chineseleadership transition was a political andcultural curiosity that had few directeconomic implications for the world’smajor powers, those days are long gone.

China is now the world’s second-largest economy, and, despite a recentslowdown to 7 percent annual GDPgrowth, it is outperforming all othermajor players. It remains the vital as-sembly center of the global supplychain for many manufactured goods,such as computers and cell phones,enabling lower prices for the world’sconsumers. That has made China a keytrade partner for the United States, mostEuropean countries and many othereconomies, in addition to placing it atthe center of intra-Asian trade and sup-ply-chain dynamics. Moreover, Chinasits on roughly $3.3 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves — much of it in dol-lars, but also in other major currencies— owing to its large trade surplus inrecent decades. It helps to finance othercountries’ trade deficits and domesticinvestment (many of its beneficiarieshave large budget deficits that decreasenational saving below domestic invest-ment).

Deng Xiaoping’s reforms ignitedthe most rapid economic improvementin human history and, with it, the emer-gence of a large and growing middleclass. That makes China an importantmarket opportunity for a broad rangeof foreign firms — including car pro-ducers, technology suppliers, financialinstitutions, energy companies and ag-ricultural exporters. And Chinese firms— too often state-owned — are seek-ing greater investment opportunitiesabroad in major industries, particularlyenergy. A byproduct of China’s spec-tacular growth has been rising eco-nomic tensions with other countries.China’s exchange-rate policy and itsbilateral trade surplus with the U.S. weremajor issues in America’s presidentialelection, and concerns over Chineseforeign investment are ubiquitous. TheWorld Trade Organization upheldAmerica’s duties on Chinese tires, andCanada has extended its review of theChina National Offshore OilCorporation’s bid to acquire Nexen, aCanadian oil and gas producer. DespiteChina’s WTO membership, many for-eign companies face restrictions on ex-panding in China or must cooperate with

Something new for China? Weeds of changea Chinese company.

The Chinese, for their part, com-plain about foreign trade practices andare taking some cases (for example, along-running dispute with the Euro-pean Union over solar panels) to theWTO, where cases brought againstChina by other countries are proliferat-

ing. All sides, however, must bear inmind that China is too important to theglobal economy and trading system toallow these disputes to spin out of con-trol. Meanwhile, China’s economicslowdown — the result of global weak-ness and efforts to cool the country’sinflation and overheated asset markets— threatens to slow the pace of jobcreation for the millions moving annu-ally from rural poverty to greater pros-perity in China’s expanding urban ar-eas. And it comes at a time when the

pace of market opening and reductionof state control has slowed, followingsubstantial reforms under former Presi-dent Jiang Zemin and former PremierZhu Rongji. While outgoing PresidentHu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabaostruck reformist chords in public state-ments and in China’s 12th Five-YearPlan, many inside China including, re-portedly, Jiang are disappointed.

Thus, incoming President Xi Jinpingand Premier Li Keqiang are beingwatched closely for signs of what theywill do. It is rare for a successor in busi-ness or government to usurp the cur-

rent leader’s lame-duck status by tip-ping his hand, so no one can yet saywith any certainty whether the new lead-ership will push for a reformist leap for-ward or seek to maintain the status quo.In addition to a new president and pre-mier, other members of the StandingCommittee of the Politburo have been

named and a vast array of ministerialpositions are being filled. With China’s“up or out” system for senior leaders,those who are not promoted will be re-placed. From the new governor of thePeople’s Bank of China to the Cabinetand leading regulators, the new cohorthas an opportunity to move China for-ward by promoting competition, de-creasing the power of state enterprises,boosting household consumption andreducing reliance on exports.

Earlier this year, the China Devel-

opment Research Center of the StateCouncil and the World Bank issued anexcellent report on opportunities for,and challenges to, China’s policyagenda. They concluded that Chinashould complete its transition to a mar-ket economy with land, labor, financialand enterprise reforms. Managers,workers, consumers, investors andgovernments in every corner of theworld, many reeling from their own eco-nomic problems, have a lot riding onChina’s new leadership navigating re-form sensibly.

—Courtesy - Japan Times

NEHA SAIGAL

THE importance of agriculturecannot be over emphasised inan agrarian country such asIndia that faces the challenge

of alleviating crippling poverty. The ap-proach paper to the 12th Five Year Plannotes: “Growth in agriculture is at leasttwo to three times more effective in re-ducing poverty than the same magni-tude of growth emanating from non-agriculture sector.” The same paperalso notes that agriculture is an impor-tant component of faster and more in-clusive sustainable growth. But sadly,the central character of Indian agricul-ture, the farmer, is forever burdenedby ever-increasing cost of cultivation,over-dependence on industry for ag-ricultural input and lack of adequategovernment policy support.

Unfortunately for the Indian farmer,real long term sustainable solutionsremain a dream as the agro-input in-dustry and its cronies in the govern-ment are using every opportunity topush through false solutions that areonly profitable to the company and notthe farmer. One such delusional ‘solu-tion’ proposed is herbicide-tolerant(HT) genetically modified (GM) cropspeddled by multinational biotech seedcompanies which they insist workswonders for weed management. Thetechnology of genetic modification hasbeen deployed to create HT cropswherein the plant develops the capa-bility to withstand herbicides withoutgetting destroyed. For instance, incase of Roundup Ready GM crops (thebrand name for Monsanto’s trait of her-bicide tolerant GM crops), a gene fromAgrobacterium strain CP4 (CP4EPSPS), that is resistant to glyphosate(a chemical compound in Monsantoherbicides) is inserted.

Over-simplification of weed man-agement with the promise of reductionof toxic herbicides by biotechnologycompanies that are into both the busi-ness of trait/seed development andagro-chemicals, had attracted farmersin the North and South America. Thus,today, three fourths of the world’s GMcrops are herbicide tolerant and mostof the HT trait is incorporated intoMonsanto’s proprietary seed soldunder the brand-name Round-upReady GM crops. But after 16 years ofthe introduction of HT crops in Northand South America, horror stories oftheir impacts on health and environ-ment are coming to the fore. Increasedusage of herbicides such asglyphosate has been associated withbirth defects, abnormalities in vital re-productive hormones as well as can-cers.

It is important for the decision mak-ers in India to factor in all these experi-ences as HT crops are in various stagesof open-field trials in the country andthere is also a push to commercialise

HT-GM crops. Most importantly, In-dian farmers are about to be putthrough another treadmill technologythat will further add to the country’sagrarian crisis. Recently Dr CharlesBenbrook, an agricultural economistbased in the USA, published a peer-reviewed study on 16 years of HTcrops in that country. The evidencepresented in his study is a strong re-minder that HT-GM crops and GMcrops are in general no panacea forfarmers and the agrarian crisis. Dr

Benbrook’s study highlights thestruggles faced by the farmer’s heavyreliance on HT-GM crops and theglyphosate-based herbicides that hascaused glyphosate-resistant weeds to

abound, resulting in an increase in thecost of farm production. In 1996-97,when companies such as Monsantopromised farmers that there would beno glyphosate-resistant weeds, Dr IanHeap, long-time manager of the Inter-national Survey on Herbicide Resis-tant Weeds (ISHRW), US, had warnedof weeds getting resistant toglyphosate in the absence of resis-tance-management plans. It comes asno surprise that today, the ISHRW lists23 glyphosate-resistant weed speciesacross the US, which has only driventhe cost of weed management upward.The facts don’t stop there: owing toincreasing resistance to glyphosate,farmers are now being forced to use acocktail of lethal herbicides such asthe infamous Agent Orange (used bythe US military during the VietnamWar) to control weeds.

The increased use of glyphosatenot only resulted in increased cost forthe American farmer but the monopolyof companies such as Monsanto onseeds also caused an increase in seedprices. For example, the cost of con-ventional corn seed purchased in theUSA in 2010 comprised 11 per cent ofthe farmers’ gross income but cost ofcorn seed purchased from Monsantoor DowAgro Sciences comprised 23of the farmers’ income in the same year.Dr Benbrook also highlights that an

overall increase in the usage ofglyphosate has played a huge role inaltering the American landscape andbiodiversity for the worse. This shouldbe a wakeup call for Indian lawmakers

who believe that GM crops wouldwork well for India as they had for farm-ers in the USA!

he experience of HT-GM crops inAmerica is also a reassertion of thefact that chemical-based weed controlis not a permanent solution. It is alsouneconomical to eradicate all weedsas some of them are home to beneficialinsects and there is a lot of food andfodder value in weeds, a potential thathas not been explored to its fullest andone that never might be if Indiachooses the HT-GM crops route. InIndia, one of the biggest socio-eco-nomic dangers of introduction of HT-GM crops, unlike in the USA, wouldbe the loss of livelihoods of the poor-est as the agricultural workforce de-rives the largest number of employ-ment days from deweeding.—Courtesy GPF

GUY TAYLOR

EGYPTIAN President MohammedMorsi’s power grab presents aunique opportunity for the Obamaadministration to take a firm position

on what the United States will tolerate frompost-Arab Spring governments, foreign-policy analysts say. Meanwhile, on the eveof a mass demonstration against him, Mr.Morsi told his country’s highest court onMonday that he did not usurp its authoritywhen he claimed near-absolute power tochange laws and issue judicial decrees lastweek. What’s happening in Egypt is “a criti-cal test of how Islamist parties behave inpower,” said Robert M. Danin, a senior fel-low for Middle East and Africa studies at theWashington-based Council on Foreign Rela-tions.

Safer Shehata, who teaches Arab politicsat Georgetown University, said the U.S.“should not be quiet or silent about movesthat threaten a democratic transition to de-mocracy.” He added that the U.S. also shouldavoid appearing as a bully on the subject. Amember of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mr.Morsi is Egypt’s first popularly elected presi-dent, but his decree late Thursday sparkedangry protests across the nation that haveleft one person dead and hundreds injured.Many fear the country might regress to theauthoritarianism of longtime former presidentHosni Mubarak, who was overthrown amid apopular uprising in February 2011.

The Obama administration has been cau-tious in referring to the situation and the Egyp-tian president, who announced his new pow-

Morsi’s power grab tests US post-revolt tolerance

Very recently, the technical expert committee appointedby the Supreme Court of India to look into the matter of fieldtrials of GM crops furnished its interim report last month witha recommendation for a moratorium on field trials of HT-GM

crops until an independent committee had examined andassessed their potential impacts as well as their suitability in

the Indian context.

Opening markets to greater competition and rebalancingthe roles of government and markets is the most promising

strategy to achieve high-income status in the coming decades.It would be hard to find a better framework for Xi and Li asthey put their imprint on China’s economic policy. In particu-lar, Chinese consumption as a share of GDP is very low byinternational standards and relative to the historical experi-ence of other countries at a similar stage of development.

CIELITO F HABITO

BIG money is about to descend onceagain upon the media industry, if ithasn’t already. Election campaignseasons always bring the industry a

windfall, via both legitimate political ads andillicit payments to buy favourable coveragefrom members of the press. The magnitudesare now so staggering that in the last electionyear of 2010, the recreational services sector,which includes the broadcast industry, leapedfrom the previous year by a zooming 30.4 percent in our gross domestic product (GDP) ac-counts. To show how unusual this was, thegrowth rate stabilised back to 7.2 per cent in2011, and had ranged from only 3 to 11 percent in the past decade (with that previouspeak also posted in the election year of 2007).

But it’s not only politicians who pay themedia, legitimately or otherwise. Business in-terests promoting their particular product, orlobbying for or against a particular policy (sintaxes being the latest example), are known topay big bucks to get their way. And like thehandlers of politicians, their public relationsunits know the tricks of the trade only too well

including anything from free rides and trips,raffles where everyone wins a valuable prize,free product samples “for review,” lavish gifts,and up to regular deposits made to one’s ATMbank account (rendering the phrase“envelopmental journalism” passé, giving wayto the new de rigueur tag of “ATM journal-

ism”). Last weekend saw media practitionersgathering for the 9th Media Nation conference,which has become an annual occasion for self-examination. It was remarkable in its choice ofthe highly sensitive theme of corruption in themedia.

Together with transparency championVince Lazatin, I was tasked to trigger discus-sion on the question “How can we push me-dia corruption out of the market?” We positedthat media ethics and integrity (or lack of it) arebasically a cost-benefit proposition. Whileusually an economist’s tool, cost-benefit analy-

sis is a universal (often subconscious) prin-ciple that governs the choices all of us makefully recognising that not all costs and ben-efits are measured in pesos and centavos. Asfor media ethics and integrity, the benefits andcosts may be examined at two levels: the ag-

gregate/public level and the individual/per-sonal level. At the public level, what does itbenefit society to have a professional, inde-pendent and honest media? I can think of atleast three social benefits. First is upholdingthe truthabout public policy issues and aboutindividuals or objects. This presupposes that

upholding truth is a universally held value thateveryone sees as a benefit, at least at the soci-etal level. The truth, after all, guides us to theright choices in life. A second benefit is that ofhaving the “right” public policies prevail. Tomy mind, “right” policies are those that pro-

mote the greatest good for the greatest num-ber (now also fashionably called “inclusivegrowth”), as against what I call for lack of abetter term oligarchy-perpetuating policies. Sintaxes and the competition policy are examplesthat provoke intense debate and unleash sub-stantial lobby money directed at bothpolicymakers and opinion makers in media.

The third public benefit is attaining a levelplaying field, against gaining unfair market orelectoral advantage that biased reporting caneasily achieve for anyone willing to pay theprice. among other things, such level playingfield in the economy is a basic prerequisite toproviding an attractive investment climate forall enterprises domestic or foreign, large orsmall which in turn promotes wide job-genera-tion. In the arena of politics, better governancewill more likely emerge where a level playingfield ensures that election results are not drivenby money and access to media.

Unfortunately, the cost-benefit balance isdramatically different at the personal level forthe media practitioner. The benefits of main-taining one’s integrity include personal fulfill-ment and a clean conscience.

—Courtesy - Daily Inquirer

The economics of media integrity

Unfortunately, the cost-benefit balance is dramatically different at the personal level for the media practitio-ner. The benefits of maintaining one’s integrity include personal fulfillment and a clean conscience,

uncompromised integrity and respect from others, high stature in the profession (perhaps), and (hopefully) greatermarketability and with it, higher (formal) compensation. The last two are not even assured, and the first two, as

they say, are hindi nakakain (cannot be eaten) when the media worker’s primary concern may be his/her family’svery survival.

ers after helping to broker a cease-fire be-tween Israel and Hamas militants in the GazaStrip. State Department spokeswomanVictoria Nuland on Monday said the admin-istration is “encouraged” by reports that Mr.

Morsi had entered into a “dialogue” withopposition figures, but that U.S. officials are“not going to prejudge where that’s going togo.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clintonvoiced concerns during a phone call Mon-day with Egyptian Foreign MinisterMohamed Kamel Amr, Mrs. Nuland said, re-fusing to characterize Mr. Morsi’s actions asundemocratic or say that they may disqualifyEgypt from U.S. aid. The circumspect natureof the administration’s posture has discom-fited some foreign-policy analysts, who sug-gest that Mrs. Clinton may have inadvertentlyencouraged Mr. Morsi’s action last week.

Appearing Wednesday in Cairo, Mrs.Clinton thanked the Egyptian president forhis “personal leadership” in de-escalating Is-raeli-Palestinian violence. She went on to saythat “Egypt’s new government is assumingthe responsibility and leadership that haslong made this country a cornerstone of re-

gional stability and peace.” “It seems that,intentionally or not, the message Morsi tookfrom Hillary Clinton is that stability trumpsdemocracy,” said Michael R. Rubin, a resi-dent scholar focusing on the Middle East at

the American Enterprise Institute.“What Morsi has done is show the Mus-

lim Brotherhood’s true colors,” Mr. Rubinsaid. “All this talk of democracy was justmanna for the useful idiots outside of Egypt.”While Mr. Morsi’s decree may appear to bedriven by Muslim Brotherhood desires toimpose Shariah, or Islamic law, across Egypt,others suggest that what’s more troubling toEgyptians is the prospect of a return to theauthoritarian era. With that in mind, Mr. Daninof the Council on Foreign Relations said theObama administration risks missing an op-portunity to redefine Washington’s relation-ship with Cairo, which had been warped andmisguided during Mr. Mubarak’s reign.

Egypt’s authoritarian era was marked by“an unspoken deal,” in which U.S. leaderswould ignore Mr. Mubarak’s autocratic waysas his regime worked toward facilitating U.S.foreign-policy goals in the region, Mr. Daninsaid. The overthrow of Mr. Mubarak created

“an opportunity to develop and define a newrelationship where that’s no longer the bar-gain,” he said, adding that how Washington

conducts itself in response to Mr. Morsi’spower grab will have regional consequences.

“The way in which these issues are sortedout now is very important, not just for Egyptbut for the region, especially as others lookto Egypt as a critical test of the future and

possibilities for real democratic institutionsto develop in the Arab world,” Mr. Danin said.Mr. Shehata said the Obama administration’s

plight is complicated by the fact that “theUnited States is not looked at very favorablyby the majority of Egyptians since in the pastit was seen as supporting an authoritarianregime.”

—Courtesy - Washington Time

Mr. Morsi has said his action is a temporary means to implementreforms and ensure Egypt’s shift to democracy, and that he will relinquish

his new powers after a new constitution is enacted and parliamentaryelections are held sometime next year. But Egypt’s Supreme Judiciary

Council has called his move an “assault” on the judiciary, and the opposi-tion has denounced his action and called for a massive protest

in Cairo on Tuesday.

LAHORE: Activists of Pasban-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat, PDP and civil society are chanting slogans in favour of their demandsduring a protest demonstration.

bid. Britain’s position remainsunclear. Palestinians say they aredoing this out of frustration overthe four-year deadlock in peaceefforts.

They believe an endorsementof their state will bolster their ne-gotiating position. Israel stronglyopposes the bid, accusing thePalestinians of trying to bypassnegotiations.

The resolution would en-dorse a Palestinian state in theWest Bank, Gaza Strip and eastJerusalem, the territories cap-tured by Israel in the 1967 Mid-east war. Israel opposes a pull-back to the 1967 lines. As French

lawmakers applauded Tuesday—many of them members or alliesof the Socialist-led government— Fabius cautioned against rais-ing Palestinian hopes too high.

“But, but, but, but, but — butat the same time, madame andmonsieur lawmakers, we mustshow in this case a lot of lucid-ity,” he said.

“On the one hand, becausethe text is currently being dis-cussed, and I myself had (Pales-tinian) President MahmoudAbbas on the phone yesterdaymorning,” he said. “On the otherhand, because — let’s not hidefrom this — that this question

will be asked at a very delicatemoment.”He went on to note the“fragile cease-fire” after the re-cent deadly fighting betweenHamas and Israel, the Israeli elec-tion in January, and the upcom-ing “change in composition of theAmerican administration” —with the United States seen bymany as perhaps the most piv-otal player in the region.

“In any case, it’s onlythrough negotiations — that weask for without conditions andimmediately between the twosides — that we will be able toreach the realization of a Pales-tinian state,” Fabius said.—AFP

France to recognise PalestinianFrom Page 1

sued. The commission re-jected the plea of Chief Secre-tary for postponing the by-election in Balochistan.

Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan saidthat record and data of everyvoter is available with the com-mission. He said that the com-mission has prepared the draft atits own level for legalizing theelection reforms.

He said that Senate specialcommittee and the commissionwould jointly finalize the matter,which later on would be sent inSenate. Secretary Election Com-mission said that Prime Ministerhas also been informed of the im-portant points of the election codeof conduct and the Prime Minis-ter was agreed that the venues forelection gatherings and proces-sions should be determined inadvance with the consultations of

the district administration. Hesaid that the government isagreed on the complete ban onthe showing of arms or carryingarms while moving during elec-tions. He said that it was askedthe prime minister that all the in-stitutions maintaining law andorder should assist the ECP.

Earlier, the Chief ElectionCommission of Pakistan (CEC),Fakharuddin G Ibrahim saidvoter lists have been preparedwith the utmost care and anymistakes in the lists would soonbe rectified.

He added that the commis-sion would implement all ordersissued by the Supreme Court.

It was said in the meeting thatcandidates would have to followall the rules and regulations de-vised by the commission duringtheir rallies and public meetings.

CEC said reliable, authen-tic and verified electoral listswill be ensured in the entirecountry including Karachi inthe light of orders given bythe Supreme Court of Pakistan.CEC expressed concern overthe issue of Karachi’s ‘un-verified voters’.

Moreover, the meeting wasbriefed that installing CCTVcameras in every polling stationis not practically possible; add-ing that, funds amounting to 75billion rupees would be requiredfor that purpose, hence, only thesensitive polling stations will befurnished with these surveillancecameras. Transparency interna-tional has assured assistance forthis. The ECP deliberated on ap-plications against 45 MPs of na-tional and provincial assemblieson dual nationality, election sym-bols and other issues.—SANA

ECP geared up to hold electionsFrom Page 1

these remarks while talking toSecretary Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) IshtiaqAhmed Khan here at the PMHouse.

The Secretary ElectionCommission informed thePrime Minister that a code ofconduct has also been preparedby the Election Commissionprohibiting display of weaponsduring election campaign. ThePrime Minister appreciated thedecision.

The Secretary briefed thePrime Minister that candidateswill have to specify venues of

their public meetings and saidthe Election Commission willpermit them to hold meetings inconsultation with the local ad-ministration.

Similarly, rallies and proces-sions brought out by candidateswill have to follow specifiedroutes approved by the ElectionCommission of Pakistan.

Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan alsoinformed the Prime Minister thatthe Election Commission willsoon hold meetings with the fed-eral and provincial governmentsto ensure that the law and orderwas maintained during polling.

Prime Minister Raja PervezAshraf assured the SecretaryECP that the government willextend all administrative and lo-gistical support to ECP to ensuremaximum participation andvoter turnout.

The Prime Minister reiter-ated government’s resolve forholding a free, fair and impar-tial election in the country ontime and expressed the confi-dence that the upcoming elec-tion will further strengthen thedemocratic process by stream-lining the role of state institu-tions in the polity.— APP

Raja appreciates ECPFrom Page 1

would be brutally assassinated ifthe government failed to accepttheir(Taliban) demands by De-cember 3 2012.

The kidnapped workers wereshown in the video, begging of-ficial help and requesting thegovernment to accept the TTPdemands before the deadline inorder to save their lives. One ofthe kidnapped engineers, ShahidAli Khan is seen speaking in thevideo, which has the TTP’s namewritten in the background, as wellas gun-toting men whose faceswere not clearly visible.

Though the 46-minute videoshowed Khan narrating his ordealin Urdu language and the mili-tants’ demands for their release,however, the nature of their de-mands remained unknown. En-gineer Shahid further said thatthey were recording the video onNovember 23, 2012 and thedeadline for acceptance of theTTP demands is December 32012 and government wouldhave to act promptly failingwhich they would be brutallymurdered. The militants in thepast mercilessly murdered andeven slaughtered the abducteeswhen their demands were not metafter the expiry of deadline. Evenin the recent past a number ofgovernment officials as well asthe men in uniform were brutallykilled by the Taliban abductorsin tribal agencies.

Fate of GomalZam Dam

From Page 1

Desert is being convertedinto blooming flowers and theEmirates are giving a look ofmodern state in the south of Arabpeninsula.

The journalists hailing fromdifferent countries on Tuesdayinteracted with some of the topbrass of the government includ-ing high-profile Sheikh Nahyanbin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minis-ter of state for Higher Educationand Scientific Research at SheikhNahyan bin Mubarak’s Palacewhere he said UAE has allocatedtwenty five percent of the na-tional budget to education whichis highest in the world.

When asked about the stu-dents of UAE getting admissionin Pakistan, he said UAE has sentits students to get training in mili-tary and other fields. Pakistan is

my country and both the coun-tries have very cordial and broth-erly relations.

He said UAE using educa-tion and other social instrumentsfor peace and stability in the re-gion. UAE is working with othercountries to achieve this goal, hesaid.

During meeting with in in-teraction with Sultan Nasser AlSuwaidi, Governor of the Cen-tral Bank said UAE has intro-duced liberal policies and the weare even allowing other nation-als to get loans to and start theirbusiness in the UAE.

Dr Nawal Al Hosani,Driector of Sustainability Masadrcity while briefing the journalistssaid UAE is working on a planto use renewable energy sourcesfor future.

UAE prepares forFrom Page 1

awarded rupees 200 million.Speaking to media representa-tives in Islamabad, Malik saidEhsan was working for foreignelements and vowed to soon re-veal all about the TTP spokes-man. The minister added that theTTP was a divided organisationand now constituted of variousgroups, including the WaliurRehman faction, the HakimullahMehsud group and other smallfactions. Malik moreover ques-tioned as to what kind of shariahthe TTP spokesman wanted toenforce in the country whichlegitimised the killings of inno-cent civilians and sanctioned sui-cide bombings.

He said “terrorists” were de-faming the religion and shariahfor money, adding that, the gov-ernment had struck a peaceagreement with the Taliban inSwat which the latter themselvesviolated.

Malik announcesFrom Page 1

vehicle of senior anchorperson Hamid Mir is condem-nable.

The information ministersaid Pakistan People’s Party hasalways worked for stability ofthe country and it will continueto pursue this course in futureas well. He urged the PakistanMuslim League (N) to play posi-tive role in the national politics.

He said that being the Co-Chairman of PPP‚ the Presidentcould also become the PrimeMinister but he chose to be aPresident to end the politics ofconspiracies from thePresident’s House.

He said that President AsifAli Zardari feels very strongpolitically and that is why heshifted all his powers‚ includingthe appointment of Army Chiefand superior judges‚ to thePrime Minister.

Talking about Asghar Khancase‚ he said the case has notonly made the 1992 electionsdoubtful but also put a questionmark on all elections‚ whichwere held in the country. He saidthe use of force during bye elec-tions if not stopped, holding ofgeneral elections will becomedifficult. He said the presidentwas a part of the parliament,adding that, the parliamentwould be incomplete without thehead of state.

PresidentpoliticalFrom Page 1

NAB intensifiesanti-corruption

effortsISLAMABAD—In order to makeits anti-corruption endeavorsmore vigorous and robust,Chairman NAB has instructedfull support to all Judicial Com-missions, organizations andcommittees, formed either onorders of judiciary or the gov-ernment.

In this context implementa-tion of anti-corruption regimebased on orders of courts andautonomous institutions are be-ing synergized.

A case in point is the com-position of Judicial Commissionprobing CDA affairs. NAB un-der its prevention regime initia-tive is currently looking into thevarious projects of CDA includ-ing LED lights project.—Online

For Afghan women, genderequality is still wishful thinking

KABUL—Even after the end ofthe brutal rule of the Taliban inAfghanistan, Afghan women to-day are still yearning for genderequality, something that probablywould remain wishful thinkingfor many years to come.

“Is this our right to beg fromdawn to dusk to feed my chil-dren? Is this the right of womenin Afghanistan to suffer at thehands of men?” asked ShahBegam, a 39-year-old womanbeggar, just a day after the worldmarked the International Day forthe Elimination of Violenceagainst Women.

Panhandling alongside adirty road in Kabul, Begamwondered aloud whether theAfghan government is capableof doing something for womenlike her who are forced to begin order to survive.

She said begging itself is aninsult for women in a countrywhere the constitution guaran-tees women’s rights.

“My husband married an-other girl for the second time and

threw me out of the house,” saidBegum, who wears a burka. Sheadded that since the governmentdoes not have a social welfareprogram for poor or abandonedwomen like her, they have nochoice but to beg in the streets.

In the male-dominated andconservative Afghanistan, theInternational Day for the Elimi-nation of Violence againstWomen was marked on Sunday.

In her remarks on the occa-sion, Afghan Minister forWomen Affairs Husan BanoGhazanfar confirmed that 3,500cases of violence against womenwere registered in Afghanistanin the first six months of Afghanyear which began from March21, 2012.

Ghazanfar has called on thecountry’s religious scholars toplay their a role in eliminatingviolence against Afghanwomen, which has been on therise. Women in Afghanistan arefacing a variety of discrimina-tion and violence ranging fromchild marriage, forced marriage,

rape, polygamy and even“baad,” a tribal custom of giv-ing forcibly the hand of a widowor girl to a man from an oppos-ing tribe to settle a dispute andend enmity.

Afghanistan, according towomen rights activists, is a chal-lenging country for women tolive.

Discrimination againstwomen, particularly in the coun-tryside, is still rampant. A girlcan be forced to marry a boychosen by her parents. Cases ofpublic execution of women,flogging of women by Talibanmilitants and powerful triballeaders have been reported inparts of Afghanistan over thepast year.

Najiba, 22, was publiclyexecuted by Taliban militants inGhorband district of Parwanprovince a couple of months agowhile Sabira was publicly lashedin Jaghori district of Ghazniprovince by local mullahsmonths ago after she eloped withher boyfriend.—NNI

day, he condemned the insultingbehaviour of the PPP ministerswith the female members of thePML-F, during the last session ofSindh Assembly.

He said that since the passingof controversial Sindh People’sLocal Government Ordinance andAct, the people of Sindh havestrongly opposed it and have com-pletely rejected it, as the sameamounts to the enforcing of dualadministrative system and isaimed at creating a state within astate in the province.

Nawaz said that this so-called local government law is anattempt to create a division andconflict among the people ofSindh. He said that the PPP-MQM government, in the nameof reconciliation, has destroyedthe peace, governance, social andeco-nomic structure of Sindh. Hesaid, by this new local govern-ment system, excessive and lim-itless powers have been surren-dered to the mayors of few cit-ies, which is likely to further de-teriorate the law and order situa-tion, particularly in Karachi,where thousands of innocentpeople have been lost in the lastfour years.

He said that the PML (N) hasbeen and will continue to supportthe peaceful political struggle ofthe writers, intellectuals, artists,civil society, journalists and thepeople of Sindh, against theSPLGA, 2012, along with almostall the political parties, and PML(N) Sindh chapter is an activecomponent of the Sindh BachayoCommittee (SBC).

Nawaz backs SBC’sNov 30 strike call

From Page 1

Mian Iftikharcalls on

Governor KPPESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Minister for Infor-mation, Public Relations, Cultureand Transport, Mian IftikharHussain called on the Governor,Barrister Masood Kausar atGovernor’s House, Peshawar onTuesday.

He remained with the Gov-ernor for some time and dis-cussed various matters pertainingto well being of the people of theprovince.

Talking on this occasion, theGovernor also referred to theFATA Festival being held in theprovincial metropolitan shortlyand stressed the need of ensur-ing efficient representation of theprovince and its different orga-nizations in the event.—Online

BRUSSELS—NATO chiefAnders Fogh Rasmussen hassaid the Patriot missiles to bedeployed on the Turkish-Syrianborder to counter threats fromSyria will be under NATO con-trol.

Rasmussen told the NTVnews channel in an interview onTuesday that the Patriot missileswill be installed by NATO alliesand will be under the commandof NATO’s Air Command andControl System. “Of course, Tur-key is a NATO member country,”Rasmussen noted.

Turkey formally askedNATO last Wednesday to deploymissile defense elements on itsborder with Syria to boost its airdefense systems as the conflictin its southern neighbor deepens.

The move highlightsAnkara’s fears that the situationon its border could deterioraterapidly and echoes its calls formilitary support during the twoGulf Wars, when NATO de-ployed surface-to-air missiles onTurkish soil in 1991 and 2003.

Turkey formally made therequest after weeks of talks withNATO allies about how to shore

up security on its 900-kilometerborder. It has repeatedlyscrambled fighter jets along thefrontier and responded in kind tostray Syrian shells flying into itsterritory.

Defense Minister ÝsmetYýlmaz earlier said NATO’s Eu-rope Command Control Systemwill be the responsible for thecommand of the Patriot missilesand that there are Turkish offi-cials in the system. HüseyinÇelik, deputy chairman of theruling Justice and DevelopmentParty (AK Party), said in a pressbriefing that “Turkey will beholding the trigger.”

Rasmussen added that thealliance won’t hesitate to take“further steps” for the protectionof Turkey and that the alliancewill decide on the request byTurkey for Patriot missiles“within days.”

Rasmussen added that agroup of NATO experts alongwith Turkish officials are con-ducting explorations in Turkey todetermine the best sites to deploythe missiles. Speaking aboutRussia’s concern over the de-ployment of the Patriot missiles,

Rasmussen said Moscow’s anxi-ety is not based on legitimateconcerns.

Russia said openly lastThursday that it opposes the de-ployment of NATO Patriot mis-siles on Turkey’s border withSyria, a sign of deepening ten-sions across the region over theSyrian crisis.

Asked about the financing ofthe missiles, Rasmussen said thehost country will take on the fi-nancial burden. He said the mis-siles have sufficient deterrencecapability against any threats inthe region.

Germany, the Netherlandsand the United States, are theonly three NATO allies with ap-propriate Patriot surface-to-airmissile systems available.

The Patriot missiles de-ployed to Turkey during the GulfWars were provided by theNetherlands. Ankara twice thisyear has invoked Article 4 of theNATO charter, which providesfor consultations when a mem-ber state feels that its territorialintegrity, political indepen-dence or security is underthreat.—Turkish News

Nato to deploy missileson Turkish-Syria border

LOS ANGELES—The makers ofa Hollywood movie about the USoperation to kill Osama binLaden denied asking for classi-fied material for their film, butsay they did conduct interviewswith a CIA officer and others atthe heart of the decade-long huntfor the al Qaeda leader.

“It was all based on first-hand accounts so it really feltvery vivid and very vital andvery, very immediate and vis-ceral of course which is veryexciting as a filmmaker,”Kathryn Bigelow, director of“Zero Dark Thirty,” told ABCNews in an interview aired onMonday.

Bigelow and screenwriterMark Boal said in a “Nightline”interview that they were origi-nally working on a film about thefailed bid to find bin Laden in theTora Bora mountains of Afghani-stan during the U.S-led invasionthere in 2001.

But their plans changedswiftly after US President BarackObama announced in May 2011

Bin Laden movie basedon first-hand accounts

that a Navy commando unit hadkilled bin Laden in a compoundin Pakistan.

“I picked up the phone andstarted calling sources and ask-ing them what they knew and tak-ing referrals and knocking ondoors and really approached it ascomprehensively as I could,”Boal told “Nightline” accordingto an advance excerpt.

“I certainly did a lot of home-work, but I never asked for clas-sified material,” he said. “To myknowledge I never received any.”

The release of “Zero DarkThirty” - seen as a strong con-tender for Oscar nominations -was pushed back to Decemberafter the film got caught up ear-lier this year in a US election yearcontroversy.

The film reconstructs thehunt for bin Laden largelythrough the eyes of a young fe-male CIA officer, played by Jes-sica Chastain, who helps find himthrough a long-forgotten courier.Obama only makes a fleeting ap-pearance in the film.—INP

QUETTA—Chief MinisterBalochistan NawabMuhammad Aslam Raisiani onTuesday warned the defyingdoctors to call their strike offlest it proved injurious to theirhealth forcing the governmentto prescribe a bitter pill forthem.

“I’m warning the doctorsto go back to work before theyget to taste their own medi-cine”, he said during a visit toCivil Hospital’s emergency de-partment.

Raisani said doctors shouldreturn to the hospitals uncon-ditionally otherwise their defi-ance would get them into seri-ous trouble.

“The doctors who will re-assume their duties without anyconditions are more than wel-come but those who will not arenot”, said CM Balochistan.

CM also paid a visit toCombined Military Hospitaland thanked the authorities overthere for providing medicalcare to the patients at large inthe absence of civilian doctors.

On the flip-side, Pakistan

Strike may affectdoctors’ health: Raisani

Medical AssociationBalochistan (PMABalochistan) has decided tocontinue with its strike in hos-pitals of the province, stressinggovernment to accept its de-mands.

OPDs are closed whileemergency services are un-available in both private andgovernment hospitals.

On the other hand, PMABalochistan has called an emer-gency meeting to discuss thefuture line of action in the lightof government actions. Presi-dent of PMA Doctor SultanTareen has said that the govern-ment is trying to harass the doc-tors. However, they are not go-ing to be deterred and will con-tinue with their strike till theirdemands are met.

The government ofBalochistan has decided to takeback the official residencesfrom the on-strike doctors af-ter they declined to resume theirhealthcare responsibilities.

According to the govern-ment sources, the decision wasmade in a late night meeting of

provincial high-ups.The officials, on this occa-

sion, said the on-strike doctorswill be driven out of the offi-cial residences.

Meantime, Deputy Com-missioner Quetta HashimGhalazai and Assistant Com-missioner Quetta sent heavycontingent of police to CivilHospital of city to re-open itsemergency ward.

Secretary HealthIsmatullah Kakar said if youngdoctors do not show up at theirduty places, they will besacked.

The Health Secretary alsostruck down the deputation ofYoung Doctors Association(YDA) President Dr. AbdusSamad Panezai to Jinnah Post-graduate Medical College.

He also cancelled the joborders of on-strike house offic-ers posted at Civil Hospital andBolan Medical Complex.

The provincial Home De-partment also imposed a banon the on-strike doctors to en-ter the government hospi-tals.—Agencies

MPA Khichipasses awayVEHARI—Pakistan People’sParty MPA from Vehari SardarMuhammad Khan Khichi diedof heart attack here on Tuesday.He was 54 years old. SardarMuhammad Khan Khichi wasborn on September 1, 1958 inLahore and graduated fromGovernment College in 1983.He was elected as member ofPunjab Assembly from PP-239on PPP ticket in 2008 generalelections. Meanwhile, PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, Prime Minis-ter Raja Pervez Ahrsaf, leadersof ruling and opposition partieshave expressed profound griefover the sudden death of SardarMuhammad Khichi. —INP

BB mudercaseRAWALPINDI—An Anti Ter-rorism Court of Rawalpindi onTuesday adjourned the hearingof Benazir Bhutto assassina-tion case without any proceed-ings to December 08. Due toabsence of defence counsels,witnesses in the case includ-ing Magistrate ChaudhryTaufiq and Magistrate MasoodJanjua were not cross-exam-ined.—NNI

Journalistshot deadGUJRANWALA—A local jour-nalist Saadi Butt was shot dead byunknown gunmen here on Tues-day. According to details, the in-cident took place in MohallahNoor Baba area. Saadi Butt wasstanding outside his house whenarmed persons riding on a motor-cycle sprayed bullets at him. Hedied on the spot. —INP

Shazia resignsfrom PML-NPESHAWAR—Pakistan MuslimLeague(N) member of KhyberPakhtoonkhwa AssemblyShazia Aurangzeb has resignedfrom the basic membership ofthe party. Announcing here de-cision, she said that the workerswere not being given due respectin the party. She said she has notyet decided whether to join anyparty or not. —INP

Woman dies inroof collapseFAISALABAD—A woman diedwhile three labourers were injuredwhen roof of a dilapidated housecaved in here on Tuesday. Accord-ing to details, roof of a houseowned by labourers engaged inamassing clothe cut pieces locatedin Sir Syed Town of Faisalabadsuddenly came down when theywere busy in repair work. —INP

WASHINGTON—The US hadplanned to blow up the moonwith a nuclear bomb in the1950s.

At the height of the spacerace, the US considered detonat-ing an atom bomb on the Moonas a display of America’s ColdWar muscle. The secret project,named ‘A Study of Lunar Re-search Flights’ and nicknamed‘Project A119’, however wasnever carried out.America’splanning included calculationsby astronomer Carl Sagan, thena young graduate student, of thebehaviour of dust and gas gen-erated by the blast, the DailyMail reports.

According to the report,viewing the nuclear flash fromthe Earth might have intimidatedthe Soviet Union and boosted

US confidence after the launchof Sputnik, physicist LeonardReiffel said.

Under the scenario, a mis-sile carrying a small nuclear de-vice was to be launched from anundisclosed location and travel238,000 miles to the moon,where it would be detonatedupon impact.The planners de-cided it would have to be anatom bomb because a hydrogenbomb would have been tooheavy for the missile, the reportsaid. Military officials appar-ently abandoned the idea be-cause of the danger to people onEarth in case the mission failed,the report added.

The scientists also regis-tered concerns about contami-nating the moon with radioac-tive material, Reiffel said.—AP

US planned to blow upMoon with nuclear bomb

Banned outfitmember arrestedKARACHI—The security forcesarrested a member of defunctreligious organization during araid at a house here on Tuesday.

According to details, the se-curity forces on a tip off con-ducted raid at a house located inOrangi Town area of city dur-ing which a member of bannedoutfit was arrested. The securityforces also recovered arms andexplosives from the house.

The detainee was wanted bypolice in various cases of attackson security forces and othercrimes.—INP

Queen receivesEmir of Kuwait

LONDON —The emir of Kuwaitis in Britain as an official guestof Queen Elizabeth II.

Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed AlSabah was greeted Tuesday witha military ceremony at WindsorCastle to mark the official startof a three-day state visit.

The queen, her husbandPrince Philip and eldest sonPrince Charles greeted the Arableader. The queen arrived in acarriage procession with an es-cort provided by the HouseholdCavalry Mounted Regimentdressed in breastplates andplumed helmets. —AP

PM urges MPs toregularly monitor

development projectsISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf on Tues-day urged the national and pro-vincial legislators to activelyplay their role for bringingabout positive changes in thelives of people at grassrootslevel.

The Prime Minister wastalking to Jamshed AhmedDasti, MNA, Anwar Saifullah,MPA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pir Syed Nazim Hussein Shah,member Federal Council PPP,Mirza Fazle Haq, Ex MPA andSalis Kayani who called onhim at the Prime MinisterHouse here to discuss issuespertaining to their constituen-cies. The Prime Minister urgedthem to regularly monitor theimplementation of ongoing de-velopmental projects and en-sure their timely completion forthe benefit of the people.—APP

57 PML-Q Sindhoffice-bearers

tender resignationsKARACHI—At least 57 office-bearers of PML-Q in Sindh sub-mitted their resignations toparty’s provincial president,Ghous Bux Khan Mahar, threedays after he quit asPrivatisation Minister, citingthe PPP leaders’ non-coopera-tion.

PML-Q is an ally of the rul-ing Pakistan People’s Party inSindh and the centre.

Mahar, who was electedMNA on PML-Q’s ticket fromSindh, claimed that he had al-ready resigned due to PPPleadership’s ‘lack of coopera-tion’. Earlier, he was believedto be joining PML-N in thewake of his meetings with theopposition party big-wigs.However, the former ministeron Tuesday vowed to throwweight behind Pir Pagara, thespiritual leader of Hurs andchief of Pakistan MuslimLeague-Functional (PML-F).

“From now, my politicalfuture is attached with PirPagara. The People’s Partydidn’t fulfill its pledges itmade with the people,” Maharsaid.

He said PML-Q’s 57 of-fice-bearers of different levelshad submitted their resignationsto him in protest against thePPP’s misconduct. —INP

Pak govt todecide on NW

operation: OlsonLAHORE—US Ambassador toPakistan, Richard Olson saidTuesday the decision to conductan operation in NorthWaziristan Agency (SWA) wasPakistan’s internal matter andwould be made by the country’sgovernment.

Olson added that both the USand Pakistan were in agreementin regard to eliminating terrorism.The US Ambassador further saidthat steps taken to ensure peacein Pakistan and Afghanistan wereappreciable. —INP

FAISALABAD—Pakistan Mus-lim League Q leaders Ch Shujaatand Pervez Elahi held a meetingwith Pakistan Sunni IttehadCouncil leader Sahibzada FazlKareem in this connection onTuesday.

After the meeting the threeleaders announced the decisionto contest the general electionsjointly. Addressing a press con-ference after the meeting ChShujaat Husain said no singlepolitical party could solve theproblems of the country and col-lective efforts were required toovercome the crises.

“We shall take the religiousparties on board for the peace andstability in the country,” he said.

“No party alone can see this

country through, all the politicalas well as religious parties willhave to join their hands togetherto row the boat out of troubledwaters”, he said. He said PML-Q was ready to work with thereligious parties in the broaderinterest of the country.

Deputy Prime MinisterPervaiz Elahi on the occasionsaid the objective of the alliancebetween the two parties was toforge national unity and makecollective efforts for country’swellbeing. Talking to media per-sons Sahibzada Fazl Kareem saidPakistan was going through criti-cal times due to international con-spiracies, adding these conspira-cies could be foiled only throughnational unity. “We have entered

PML-Q, Sunni Ittehad Councilform electoral alliance

into alliance with PML-Q not forany political gain,” he said.

SIC General Secretary HajiHaneef Syed said that the seatadjustment was for the imple-mentation of a system put for-ward by the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH). “Both the parties agreethat Pakistan is an Islamic Re-public. Pakistan is not a secularstate.”He added that it was theparty’s top-most priority to rid thecountry of terrorism.Earlier boththe Chaudhry brothers called onKarim at his residence here tohash out a political alliance forthe polls to come. Dropping clueson extending alliances with otherpolitical parties as well, Karimsaid SIC’s doors were open foreveryone.—Online

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Judicial Magis-trate Waseem Anjam on Tuesdaysent the three arrested persons,accused of involvement in sale ofthe poisonous cough syrup thatkilled at least 17 people in Lahore,on a four-day physical remand.

Judicial Magistrate WakeelAnjum heard the case pertainingto the sale of poisonous cough

Cough syrup accused sent on4-day physical remand

syrup. An initial autopsy reportof two the deceased victims wassubmitted in court. Police in-formed the court that a case hadbeen registered under sections 302and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Codeafter 17 people died of consum-ing poisonous cough syrup andthat three suspects, including a dis-tributor Abdur Rauf and two shop-keepers Sada Hussain and MalikRizwan, were taken into custody.

According to the sources, theowner of the manufacturing coughsyrup Ricko PharmaceuticalCompnay, Khalid Saleem, got in-terim bail till November 30. Po-lice produced the suspects in courtand requested for a seven-dayphysical remand for further inves-tigations. The court after the ini-tial hearing sent the suspects intocustody of Shahdara Town policeon a four-day physical remand.

I S L A M A B A D — N a t i o n a lAssembly’s Public AccountsCommittee (PAC) has issuednotices to officials of Presidency,Prime Minister’s House, andSupreme Court of Pakistan toappear before it to give reply toaudit objections. .

Source said PAC has issuedspecial directive to Registrar Su-preme Court to appear before thecommittee in December’s secondweek, and clarify position for notgiving reply with reference toaudit objections. .

PAC also directed FrontierWorks Organisation, NADRA,and National Press Trust to stateits stance in the second week ofDecember.

A meeting of PAC, presidedby its Chairman, Nadeem AfzalChan, was held on Tuesday in theParliament House. In the meet-ing, the objections about audit offinancial accounts of Ministry ofDefence Production and otherministries for the year 2004-05and 2006-07 were analysed.

The meeting was told thatthere are 16 such organisations,

which are working under certainministries but claim indepen-dence and also refuse to let Au-ditor General of Pakistan do theiraudit. During the meeting, twoorganisations including VirtualUniversity Lahore and PakistanPoverty-alleviation Fund showedconsent in connection with auditof their accounts by AuditorGeneral of Pakistan under PACdirectives.

The remaining 14organisations hold the stance thatthey are independent privateorganisations therefore, govern-mental rules and regulations donot apply to them.

Audit informed PAC thatfunds worth billions of rupeeshave been kept in other than gov-ernmental bank accounts. At this,the committee directed SecretaryMinistry of Defence Production,Lt. Gen. Shahid Iqbal to presentreport on these accounts to thecommittee. Moreover, the com-mittee decided to declare its de-cision regarding allotment of twoplots to government officers onDecember 4. —Online

PAC summons Presidency, PMHouse officials, SC registrar

ISLAMABAD—Unannouncedstrike by the CNG stations con-tinued on Tuesday on second con-secutive day across the countryposing serious troubles to thecommuters following the failureof talks that were held on Mon-day between the CNG owners andOil and Gas Regulatory Author-ity (OGRA); meanwhile the gascompanies disconnected the con-nections of 400 CNG stations.

While talking to a private TVchannel Chairman Pakistan CNGAssociation Ghayas Paracha saidthat on the protest of differentthings the gas companies havedisconnected the connections of400 CNG stations in differentparts of the country, adding thatthe connections have been discon-nected for reasons of providingCNG to public transport, selling

CNG strike continuesof less than the load and lack offulfilment of documental proce-dures. He said the CNG could besold at the present prices becausethe CNG owners could not bearthe loss by selling Gas on such alow price. He said that the gov-ernment should decrease the gasrates and taxes on the CNG. Hesaid that the CNG stations own-ers want to sell the CNG but couldnot sell on low price, adding thateven the stations owners are notable to pay the bills of the stations.

He said that one million ru-pees are needed by the owners ofthe CNG stations for the paymentof bills but even the banks are notready to give loan to the CNG sta-tions owners.On the other handthe Commissioner of KarachiHasim Raza Zaidi said they haveasked the CNG stations owners to

open their stations immediatelyand if they will not do this thecases would be registered againstthem and their connections wouldbe disconnected. He said that thedeputy commissioners have beenasked to ensure reopening of theCNG stations otherwise the actionshould be taken against them.

On the other hand CNG Deal-ers Association Chairman AbdusSami Khan said that the unan-nounced strike by CNG stationswill continue. Deputy Chairmanof OGRA Sabir Hussain has saidthat the regulatory authority wasconsidering over various pointsof the formula and will hold nexthearing in Karachi tomorrow.He said the OGRA has alsowrote the two Sui Gas compa-nies about the low pressure gasproblem. —SANA

FAISALABAD: PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain flanked by Sunni Ittehad Council chief and MNA SahibzadaFazal Karim talking to media persons after meeting at his residence. Deputy Prime Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi is alsopresent.

PHYSICIANS in Germany who say theyhave “functionally cured” a patient withHIV/AIDS are warning that their acciden-

tal breakthrough is effective for only about onepercent of patients who suffer from AIDS.

Headlines in November heralded an “AIDScure” after Gero Huetter andEckhard Thiel, blood-cancerspecialists at Charite Hospi-tal in Berlin, reported thatthey had seemingly cured a 42-year-old US patient of HIV/AIDS by giving him a bone-marrow transplant whilsttreating him for cancer.

Their breakthrough wasmade possible by studies inthe late 1990s revealing thatsome people were resistant toHIV/AIDS, according to a re-port in New Scientist maga-zine on the Berlinhaematologists’ discovery.

In these people, the viruscannot enter and destroy thewhite blood cells that it in-fects and destroys in mostother people. They owedtheir resistance to a mutation in the gene thatmakes the molecular “door handle” by whichHIV/AIDS gains access to cells.

Called CCR5, the protein door handle wasmisshapen in the immune individuals, lockingHIV/AIDS out of their white blood cells, theNew Scientist report noted.

Since the discovery, it has been establishedthat about one percent of Europeans have thesame mutation, making them resistant to HIV/AIDS. To be resistant, they had to inherit thesame mutation from both parents.

Huetter and Thiel made use of this whentreating their patient for leukaemia, which hehad developed in addition to HIV/AIDS. Totreat the leukaemia, the two doctors did the

usual thing and sought a bone-marrow donorto replenish the patient’s blood supply fol-lowing chemotherapy to kill the existing, can-cerous blood cells.

But the Berlin doctors’ new approachwas to get a donor who had the double HIV-

resistant CCR5 mutation. Thismeant that the patient’s replen-ished blood system would ef-fectively be resistant to HIV/AIDS, locking out the virus forgood.

This is what appears tohave happened, according to theNew Scientist analysis, andHuetter declared his patient“functionally cured”.

Attempts to use bone-mar-row transplants in HIV/AIDStreatment have been made sincethe 1980s. In one case, a pa-tient with both HIV/AIDS andlymphoma died of the cancertwo months later, but wasfound to harbour no HIV/AIDS. It was not known ifsomething in the transplant hadprotected him.

And in a famous 1995 case, Jeff Getty, aprominent San Francisco advocate for HIV/AIDS patients, received bone marrow from ababoon, which is resistant to the human vi-rus. The New York Times reported that hesurvived for 11 years, but died of HIV/AIDSand cancer. The Times said the transplant hadnot protected him but anti-retroviral tripletherapy had been invented in time to help.

Hotter and Thiel have been quick to saythat it is far too early to speak of a wide-spread general cure for HIV/AIDS.

They stress that their breakthrough is asound proof of principle, demonstrating thatthere is hope for treatments that literally lockHIV/AIDS out in the cold.

‘AIDS cure’ good for only oneper cent of patients: experts

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—The Charge’d’Affaires of Lebanon Mr. AliAl Ghazzawi hosted a recep-tion at a local hotel to celebrateIndependence Day of hiscountry. A large number ofguests graced the function in-cluding ambassadors, seniordiplomats, officials and promi-nent people of the federal capi-tal belonging to various walksof life.

Among the guests wereUS ambassador Mr. Olson,Ambassador of Saudi ArabiaAbdul Aziz Ibrahim Al-Ghadeer, Ambassador ofEgypt Mohamed El-SaidHindam, Ambassador of QatarSayar Abdul Rahman Al-Mawdah, Ambassador ofBahrain Mr. MohammedEbraheem Mohammed, Am-bassador of Tunisia Mr.Mourad Bourehla and Ambas-sador of Argentine MrRodolfo Martin Saravia, Deanof Diplomatic Corps.

Dr. Asim Hussain Advisorto the Prime Minister onetroleum & Natural Re-sources was the Chief Guest

at the Independence Day re-ception of Lebanon. The func-

tion began with the playing ofnational anthems of Pakistan

and Lebanon.Pakistan and Lebanon en-

joy close friendly and broth-erly relations.

The two countries are co-operating with each other inseveral fields.

The Charge’d’ Affaires ofLebanon Mr. Ali Al Ghazzawisaid there was vast scope ofs t r e n g t h e n i n gcooperation be-tween the twocountries.

Dr. AsimHussain while talking to Pa-kistan Observer said that Pa-kistan has always taken inter-est in the well being of theLebanese people and wants toboost its relations with Leba-non in economic and otherfields.

The national flag of Leba-non is unique in its design. Itprominently depicts CedarTree.

The tree symbolizes an-cient culture of Lebanonsteeped in dense green Cedarforests.

Today this tree on the na-tional flag of Lebanon reflectscommitment of the country toattaining prosperity throughpeace and harmony. The Ce-

ISLAMABAD: Gypsy women busy in cutting grass from a roadside greenbelt to feed domestic animals.

Lebanon celebrates Independence Day

ISLAMABAD: Chief guest Advisor to PM on Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr AsimHussain, Head of Mission of Lebanon Ali Al-Ghazzawi, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia AbdulAziz Ibrahim Al-Ghadeer, Ambassador of Egypt Said Hindam, Ambassador of Iraq Dr RushdiAl-Ani, Ambassador of Tunisia Mourad Bourehla, Ambassador of Algeria Dr Ahmad Benflis,Ambassador of Oman Riyadh Yousuf Alraisi and Anjum Aqeel Khan cutting the cake to markthe Independence Day of Republic of Lebanon, at a local hotel.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

dar is an historical entitymentioned often in the Bibleand other ancient texts, play-ing an important part in theculture, trade and religiousobservances of the ancientMiddle East.

Lebanon is not un-famil-iar in Pakistan.It’s a countrywhich is gener-ally known tothe people be-cause of i ts

proximity to Palestine andits ancient history. Beirut,the capital of Lebanon is re-nowned for i ts location,splendour and popular tour-ist destination.

A large number of Paki-stani students prefer tostudy at the Beirut Univer-sity.

The national museum ofBeirut is a great attractionfor the tourists being an in-troduction to Lebanon’s his-tory, its ancient people andits great civilization.

The museum was se-verely damaged duringLebanon’s war, 1975-91 butit has now been restored.

ISLAMABAD: MD Dar-e-Arqam School Yaseen Khan and Regional Director Malik Azharwith 90 students who completed Hifz-e-Quran at AIOU.

RAWALPINDI: Jahanara Manzoor Wattoo, Ambassador for Orphan Children visiting thenew born baby which was bitten by rats in Holy Family Hospital.

RAWALPINDI—Medical Super-intendent (MS) of the HolyFamily Hospital Dr MuhammadFayyaz on Tuesday formed aninquiry committee to probe therat biting incident and fix the re-sponsibility against staffersshowing negligence.

Talking to APP, he said thecommittee comprising Addi-tional MS (AMS) Dr TariqMasood Niazi, AdministrationDeputy (MS) Dr Farooq

Probe into rat bite incident

Five staffers suspended,committee formed

Khasana, AMS Asima Ahsanand Nursing SuperintendentPrem Rose would investigatethe negligence of the attendingstaff.

He also suspended fivestaffers of the gynecology wardincluding Incharge nurse, twonurses and two sanitary work-ers.

Meanwhile Goodwill Am-bassador for orphan childrenJahanara Manzoor Watoo vis-

ited the hospital and inquiredafter health of the injured new-born baby.

She announced Rs50,000for the newborn and directed thehospital administration to pro-vide best medical facilities to thebaby.

A newborn baby was bittenby a rat soon after birth in thenight between Sunday and Mon-day here at Labour Room of theHospital.—APP PTDC to organize

photographicexhibition

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tour-ism Development Corporation(PTDC) in collaboration withPakistan National Council ofthe Arts (PNCA) would orga-nize three days Photo Exhibi-tion to promote tourism atPNCA from Wednesday to Fri-day.

Photographs depictingculture, scenic beauty and tour-ist attractions etc. fromPTDC’s collection and photojournalists from Rawalpindi/Islamabad will be exhibited inthe exhibition.

Managing Director PTDCMir Shahjahan Khetran, willinaugurate the exhibition. Theentry in the exhibition wouldbe free for students and fami-lies.—APP

Cuban Jazz groupto perform at PBCISLAMABAD—Pakistan Broad-casting Corporation (PBC) isorganizing live performance ofrenowned Cuban Jazz Group onFriday,(November 30), espe-cially for Jazz lovers in twin cit-ies.

The band is currently inPakistan to teach at the NationalCollege of Arts, Lahore. AlbertoBatista Hernandez, drums; AnaMaria caluff Oropesa, piano andAriel Jorge P‚rez Caballero,trombone are the members of theteam.

The trio mixes jazz withtraditional Latin and Cubanrhythms to create a music thatdelights the music lovers.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf has said thatPakistan always attached greatimportance to its time-testedrelationship with China and thisfriendship is an integral part ofPakistan’s foreign policy.

The Prime Minister ex-pressed these views while talk-ing to Ambassador designate to

Friendship with China integralpart of Pak foreign policy: PM

China, Mr. Masood khalid, whocalled on him here on Tuesday.

Expressing satisfaction overpresent trade relations, the primeMinister directed the Ambassa-dor designate to work for fur-ther expansion in trade betweenthe two countries.

He underlined the need totransform the friendship be-

tween the two countries intostrong business partnership.

The prime Minister said,“We are proud of our excellentrelations with China, withwhich we have a strategic part-nership.” Our cooperation withChina on regional and interna-tional levels is exemplary, headded.—INP

Good ties betweenBench, Bar

important: CJPISLAMABAD—Chief JusticeSupreme Court IftikharMuhammad Chaudhary has saidthat there is a close relationshipbetween bench and bar which isbased on mutual respect and forthe cause of administration ofjustice in society

He was talking to a 15-mem-ber delegation of Phalia Bar As-sociation headed by its Presi-dent Chaudhary Asif Mehmood,which called on him on Tues-day in the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice emphasizedthe lawyers’ community thatthey should appear before thecourt fully prepared to assistcourts and should work hard tomake their career bright and fruit-ful for society.—Online

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Capital Administration and Development, Riffat Shaheen Qaziinaugurating free medical camp at Punjgran.

ISLAMABAD: Activists of Defence of Human Rights protesting against abortive at-tempt on the life of Hamid Mir outside National Press Club.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal De-fence Minister, NaveedQamar on Tuesday as-sured that the governmentwould provide all possiblesupport to Pakistan Navyenabling it to materializedevelopmental plans ac-cording to the timeline.

During his visit to Na-val Headquarters (NHQs)here, he appreciated PN’sinitiatives at regional andinternational levelthrough participation inTask Forces to curb men-ace of piracy and terror-ism.

The Defence Minis-ter also acknowledgedPN’s efforts in develop-ing various facilit ies incoastal areas which ishelping in uplifting socio-

Pak Navy to be supported in development planseconomic condit ion ofBaloch people.

Earlier, upon his arrivalat NHQs, the Defence Min-ister was received by Chiefof the Naval Staff, AdmiralMohammad Asif Sandila.

The Minister was givenan extensive brief on preva-lent Maritime Security situ-ation.

The dignitary was ap-prised on Pakistan Navy’sefforts to maintain stabilityand peace in the region, de-spite its resource con-straints.

The Defence Ministerwas also apprised about theimportance of participationin the international effortsagainst crimes at sea.

He was informed thatPakistan Navy will Inshallahtake over the Command ofAnti Piracy Force TF-151 in

RAWALPINDI: Pir Muhammad Naqib-ur-Rehman, custodian of Eidgah Shrine address-ing the ‘Martyrs of Karbala’ conference.

RAWALPINDI: A view of eight CNG cylinders fixed on the rooftop of a passenger buswhich may cause any mishap.

ISLAMABAD: Admiral Mohammad Asif Sandila, Chief of the Naval Staff presentingsouvenir to Naveed Qamar, Minister for Defence at Naval Headquarters.

December this year andthis would be third time PNhas had the honour ofcommanding the TaskForce 151.

Naveed Qamar waselaborately briefed on Pa-kistan Navy’s Develop-mental Plans and the bud-getary constraints effect-ing the realization of theDevelopmental Plans.

He was also apprised ofPakistan Navy’s Nationbuilding efforts in theCoastal Areas of Balochistanand Sind provinces.

PN’s project of build-ing Cadet College atOrmara was also high-lighted during the Brief andthe dignitary was apprisedthat the Cadet Collegewould start its First aca-demic session from April2013.

PPP to observe45th Foundation

DayCITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—President Pa-kistan Peoples PartyRawalpindi Chapter AmirFida Paracha, here on Tues-day said that the 45th Foun-dation Day of PakistanPeoples Party would be cel-ebrated on November 30 withzeal and zest.

A seminar would be heldhere at Laiquat Bagh officein which services ofShaheed Quaid Zulfiqar AliBhutto would be remem-bered.

He said that founderchairman of Pakistan PeoplesParty and former Prime Min-ister Shaheed Zulfiqar AliBhutto was a genuine leaderand statesman of this coun-try.

His struggle for provid-ing rights to the people wereunprecedented in the politi-cal history of Pakistan,headded.

He expressed these viewswhile talking to various del-egations of Pakistan PeoplesParty at his office during theday.

He said that ShaheedZulfiqar Ali Bhutto was thevoice of the poor and heworked hard for the welfareof the poor in the country.

Party leaders and work-ers will also pay homage toPPP founder Zulfikar AliBhutto and former premierBenazir Bhutto, he added.

STAFF REPORTER

R A W A L P N I D I — T h eunmatchable sacrifices of-fered by Hazrat ImamHussain (AS) along with his72 loyal companions in theplain of Karbala for the gloryof Islam are a glorious andperpetual motivation for therighteous people to riseagainst the falsehood.

Pir Muhammad Naqib-ur-Rehman, custodian of Eidgahshrine, stated this while ad-dressing at ‘Martyrs ofKarbala Conference’ as partof monthly congregation ofBarhveen Sharif at EidgahSharif here on Tuesday.

“Islam is a complete codeof life while the life of theHoly Prophet (peace be uponhim) is an all-inclusive modelfor practising and implement-ing this code, which is theonly way to absolution,” he

Imam Hussain (AS) sacrifices forIslam are unparalleled: Pir Naqib

said.The custodian of Eidgah

shrine said that the abidanceby the teachings of the HolyProphet (peace be upon him)and adherence to the prin-ciples followed and upheldby the heirs and companionsof the Holy Prophet (peacebe upon him) lead the Mus-lims, individually as well ascollectively, to the achieve-ment of ultimate goal of pleas-ing Almighty Allah.

Paying tributes to theHoly Prophet (peace be uponhim) and Hazrat ImamHussain (AS), PirMuhammad Hassaan Hasib-ur-Rehman said that ImamHussain (AS) was not a help-less person, rather he offeredevery sacrifice, despite hav-ing a great deal of strength,with the exalted and ultimateobjective of pleasing Al-mighty Allah. He said the

sacrifices of Imam Hussain(AS) would be guiding theMuslims for all times to come.

Mufti MuhammadSulaiman Rizvi, MaulanaZiaur Rehman Ziaee, AllamaMuhammad Usman Farooqi,Maulana Bashir AhmedSialvi, Maulana HafizMuhammad Iqbal Rizvi,Allama Masood Rizvi,Maulana Faisal and KhawajaWajahat Jameel were promi-nent among others whospoke on the occasion.

Several Naat Khawansfrom far and wide paid trib-utes to the Holy Prophet(peace be upon him).

In the end, PirMuhammad Naqib-ur-Rehman prayed for the unityamong Muslims; progress,prosperity and solidarity ofPakistan and liberation ofKashmiri and PalestinianMuslims.

Illegal hutsdemolished

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The CapitalDevelopment Authority(CDA) with the cooperationof capital police has demol-ished 60 illegal huts duringoperation in slum areas.

It should be mentionedthat more than 600 illegalhouses were still present inthe slum areas of the federalcapital.

The dwellers of the de-molished huts staged a pro-test demonstration againstthe operation. They were ofthe opinion that theyhaven’t been given deadlineto vacate the land beforelaunching operation so thatthey could shift to alternatelocation.

CDA sources said thatpeople had illegally occupiedthe Government land in Sec-tor H-9 and build up shelters.

Deputy Director CDAsaid that the operation waslaunched to clear the federalcapital of illegal huts as mostof the criminals and drug traf-fickers were residing in theslum areas and were securitythreat for the city.

AIOUreschedules exams

ISLAMABAD—Due to un-avoidable circumstances, fi-nal exams of the AllamaIqbal Open University(AIOU) for the SemesterSpring, 2012 were postponedin only the urban areas ofIslamabad which werescheduled to be held on22nd November.

Now the University hasrescheduled these exams onSaturday 8th December inonly the urban areas ofIslamabad, correspondinglythe exams which were sched-uled to be held on Friday 23rdNovember had also beenpostponed across the coun-try which would now be heldon Tuesday 1st January,2013 simultaneously all overthe country.

This was announced byController of Exams AIOU,Muhammad BashirChaudhry.—INP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prices of win-ter clothes including, jacketsand blankets are registeringupward trends in the twin cit-ies of Islamabad andRawalpindi as the winter sea-son has set in with the de-mand for the items shootingrapidly.

All kinds of wears andaccessories includinggloves, woolen hats, muf-flers, pullovers, sweater shirtsand jackets can be seen dis-played in front of shops andbooths of weekly bazaars,attracting the customers.

“The poor people getwarm clothes from laundabazaars or secondhandclothes markets at muchcheaper prices,” said AsmatShah a shopper at Faizabad

Prices of warm clotheson rise as winter sets in

launda bazaar. Stall of winter clothes

and sales points of shoescan be witnessed at differentshopping malls and marketsof the twin cities.

Piles of secondhandquilts, blankets and rugs areup for sale here in the weeklymarkets with crowds ofpeople, both poor and rich canbe seen bargaining with retail-ers in markets and weekly ba-zaars where heaps of quilts,bedcovers, blankets and rugsare displayed for sale.

A shopkeeperMuhammad Nasir said: “wehave no other option but tosell clothes on high rates aswe also have bought them onhigh prices.” Vendors anddealers are doing brisk busi-ness as their clothes are sell-ing like hot cakes.

FUI, COMSATSink MoU

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—FoundationUniversity Islamabad (FUI)and COMSATS Institute ofInformation Technology(CIIT) on Tuesday signeda Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) with anaim to benefi t from eachother ’s initiatives, exper-tise and working procedureand to support and assistthe researchers associatedwith both the universities.

Dr. S. M. Junaid Zaidi(S.I.), Rector, CIIT and Maj.Gen. Gul Muhammad, HI(M), (Retd), Rector, FUIinked the MoU.

The purpose of theMOU is to define the areasof collaboration both at un-dergraduate and post-graduate levels , profes-sional t raining, joint re-search and other academicservices including FacultyDevelopment Program(FDP), Supervision andEvaluation of PhD Re-search Work, GuestSpeaker Sessions andSeminars.

Annualflower show

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D —IslamabadHorticultural Society in col-laboration with CDA is orga-nizing Chrysanthemum andAutumn flower’s show from30th November to 2nd De-cember at Rose & jasmineGarden.

It was decided at the ex-ecutive council meeting ofIslamabad Horticultural Soci-ety.

The main purpose of theshow is to promoteHorticultur and providehealthy entertainment to theresidents and organization ofRawalpindi and Islamabad.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The affecteeshave again stopped develop-ment work on the roads ofCapital Development Author-ity in sectors I-11/1 & 2 as theyhave not been allotted the rightof ownership of their lands.

According to details,CDA has restarted the con-struction of roads in sectorsI-11/1 and 2 of the federal capi-tal developed in 1991 but dueto mismanagement and poorperformance of the authority,the dwellers have not beengiven ownership rights yet.

CDA has allocated Rs180million for construction of roadsin the said sector in 2011 but

Construction of roads insectors I-11/1 & 2 halted

despite passage of one and ahalf years only 20% on groundwok of the project has beencompleted.Though CDA hascompensated all the affecteesof the two sectors but they havestopped the construction ofroads several times.

The enforcement staff ofthe civic body despite havingpowers neither take actionagainst the dwellers nor anyFIR against them has beenregistered so far.Meanwhile,standing committees of Sen-ate and National Assemblyhave directed the CDA andlocal administration to demol-ish all the illegal slum areas butboth are playing the role of si-lent spectators in this regard.

RTMA removesillegal hoardingsRAWALPINDI—Rawal TownMunicipal Administration(RTMA) has started opera-tion against illegal hoarding.Anti-encroachment team ofRTMA in its operation re-moved 50 hoarding boardsfrom various locations onSaidpur Road, Sixth Road,New Katarian and adjoiningbazaars.

The team also erasedwall chalking on MurreeRoad, Saddiqabad, andCommercial Market.

The administrator urgedcitizens to cooperate with thecivic body in order to keepthe city clean and identifythose involved in wall chalk-ing and other illegal activi-ties.

Meanwhile, the con-tract of the hoarding boardinstalled on Murree Road,Laiquat Road, Tipu Road,Saidpur Road, CommercialMarket , Khyaban-e-SirSyed and Cricket StadiumRoad was awarded atRs6.25 million.—INP

Bakers,restaurants issued

chalan slipsRAWALPINDI—On the direc-tives of the Executive DistrictOfficer (Health) Dr ZaffarIqbal Gondal, the Health De-partment team raided kitch-ens of bakers and restaurantsbesides issuing chalan slipsover poor hygiene.

District Food InspectorMalik Abdul Aziz and DistrictHealth Officer Dr Ansar Ishaqalong with the Health Depart-ment team raided four bakersand a restaurant located inCommercial Market. Samplesof edibles were sent to foodtesting laboratory and chalanslips were issued over poorhygiene condition in kitchensof the said bakers.—INP

CDA to awardcontract of toll

plaza on IJP RoadCITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The CapitalDevelopment Authority hasdecided to award the contractof toll plazas on IslamabadHighway and IJ PrincipalRoad through open auction-ing after termination of five-year contracts of the sameunder built-operate-transfer.

CDA Director Revenuehas invited applications frominterested firms, saying thatthe contract of the toll pla-zas would be awarded for theperiod of one year. He saidthat auctioning of Rawat TollPlaza on Islamabad Highwaywill be conducted on Nov 29while that of Pirwadhai TollPlaza will be conducted onIJP Road on Nov 30.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Secretary Capi-tal Administration & Devel-opment (CAD), Ms. RiffatShaheen Qazi has said that itis the collective responsibil-ity of the entire society tohelp and look after the needyand poor people.

She said this while inau-gurating Free Medical Campat Punjgran, Islamabad.

“Government alone is notthe solution of all issues. Weneed to work together andunited for the noble cause ofserving humanity. The poorpatients deserve our atten-tion and help. More free medi-cal camps shall be held in fu-ture to provide medical assis-tance to the poor patients”,said Ms. Qazi.

The Rural Community De-

Govt endeavouring to providemaximum health facilities

velopment Centre Punjgranhas arranged the Free General& Eye Camp at Punjgran toprovide free eyes check up,optical glasses and cataractoperation. Free blood test ofHepatitis B & C and free checkups for seasonal diseaseswas provided at the camp. Ateam of qualified and expertdoctors from Population Wel-fare Department providedfamily planning counselingand treatment.

Mrs.Riffat Shaheen Qazicommitted to continue suchkind of camps with more im-provement in future. She ap-preciated the Rural Commu-nity Development Centre forits efforts and promised thelocal community for provi-sion of better services fromsocial welfare department ofthe ministry.

Crisis if judges’strength notincreased

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadHigh Court Bar Association(IHCBA) president SyedNayyab Gardaizi has said judi-cial crisis in the federal capitalwas inevitable in January if thesanctioned strength of judgeswas not increased and the samenot timely appointed.Nayyabsaid under the National Judi-cial Policy all the cases regis-tered before 2008 in lowercourts were supposed to be de-cided by December 31. In thissort of situation, thousands oflitigants would visit IHCwhereas over 11,000 cases havealready been pending in IHC.

He suggested that 11judges instead of sevenjudges should be appointedin IHC but at present, lessthan the sanctioned strengthwas serving in IHC owing towhich thousands of caseswere lying pending.—INP

06:1001:3003:45

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Zohr

November 28

PUNJABI MuzahiaMushaira will be held at10:00 am on Wednesdayat IT Hall, Islam Block bythe Department of Paki-stani Languages in Na-tional University of Mod-ern Languages (NUML),Islamabad.

November 29

FACULTY of Manage-ment Sciences (FMS) ofthe International IslamicUniversity (IIUI) hasscheduled a seminar on“Leadership; The Art ofManagement”. The semi-nar would be held at 10:30am, at Quaid-e-Azam Au-ditorium, Faisal MasjidCampus of the university.

November 29-30

NATIONAL media con-ference titled ‘Dissect-ing Pakistan’s media’will be held at the SerenaHotel, Islamabad from 10am to 5 pm.

December 5

THE Josh Adabi Founda-tion will organize ‘Josh Lit-erary Conference’ on De-cember 5 in collaborationwith Pakistan Academy ofLetters (PAL) to mark 116thbirth anniversary of greatrevolutionary poet JoshMalihabadi. The confer-ence will be held at Paki-stan Academy of Letters(PAL). Federal Minister forOverseas Pakistanis, DrFarooq Sattar will be thechief guest.

MOHAMMAD ISHAQBEGH

KASHMIR alsoknown as the flashpoint betweenthree nuclear

powers(India, Pakistan andChina). All these three nuclearpowers have controlled someland of Jammu and Kashmir,but World is realizing only twonations as the controllers ofthis state and those are Indiaand Pakistan.

Being very close neigh-bors these two countries havefought three wars over the is-sue of Kashmir, which tookthousands of lives of these twonations. And Kashmir itselflost thousands of preciouslives over this dispute.

The origin of this disputelies in disintegration of subcontinent occurred in 1947,and since then this heaven onEarth became the hell for its

habitants. Right from early 90’sall people of this state have wit-nessed violations of their rightsand property because militancyerupted and guerilla war was atthe peak. The Kashmiris sawkillings, rapes, disappearancesand many more because thisdispute was not resolved by itsstake holders. This problem aswe saw gave birth to the mili-tants and pro freedom Hurriyatof this state.

During the past 22 yearspeople saw blood more and theresolving efforts less. This strat-egy of keeping Kashmir disputeunresolved gave rise to povertyand unemployment. Aspirationsof the common people wereburied. No doubt many roundsof talks were held in order toresolve this long pending dis-pute but no out come has beenrevealed. After getting indepen-dence in 1947, the Prime Min-ister of India Late Jawaharlal

Nehru on 26th of October 1947said “………..that I should liketo make it clear that questionof aiding Kashmir in this emer-gency is not designed in anyway to influence the State toaccede to India.

Our view which we haverepeatedly made public is thatthe question of accession in anydisputed territory or state mustbe decided in accordance withwishes of people and we adhereto this view, it is quite clear. Ihave thought it desirable to in-form you of situation becauseof its threat of internationalcomplications.” ?

(Excerpts of telegramdated 26 October 1947 fromJawaharlal Nehru to the Brit-ish Prime Minister, ClementAttlee). Nehru further says“”...our assurance that we shall

withdraw our troops from Kash-mir as soon as peace and orderis restored and leave the deci-sion regarding the future of theState to the people of the Stateis not merely a promise to yourGovernment but also to thepeople of Kashmir and to theworld.”(Jawahar Lal Nehru,Telegram No. 25, October 31,1947, to Liaqat Ali Khan, PMof Pakistan).Nehru again saidthat “”…….I wish to draw yourattention to broadcast on Kash-mir which I made last evening.

I have stated ourgovernment’s policy and madeit clear that we have no desireto impose our will on Kashmirbut to leave final decision topeople of Kashmir. I furtherstated that we have agreed onimpartial international agencylike United Nations supervising

referendum.”(Nehru’s reiteration of

plebiscite pledge in a telegramto Liaqat Ali Khan, November03, 1947).

Leaders like Nehru re-mained in touch with this dis-pute but time was going on atvery high speed. After takingthe case of Kashmir to UnitedNations Late Jawarlal Nehrudeclared that “Kashmir hasbeen wrongly looked upon asa prize for India or Pakistan.People seem to forget that

Kashmir is not a commod-ity for sale or to be bartered. Ithas an individual existence andits people must be the final ar-biters of their future.”

(Addressing the All IndiaCongress Committee on 6thJuly 1951, Pandit JawaharlalNehru, Prime Minister of In-

Conflict within conflictdia) After Nehru no one triedto come forward to solve thisdispute of nuclear flash point.Pakistan have fought intermit-tently since April 13, 1984.Both countries maintain per-manent military presence in theregion at a height of over 6,000meters (20,000?ft). More than2000 people have died in thisinhospitable terrain, mostlydue to weather extremes andthe natural hazards of themountain warfare.

Agreement” Shim laAgreement did not clearlymention who controlled theglacier, merely stating thatfrom the NJ9842 location theboundary would proceed“thence north to the glaciers.”UN officials presumed therewould be no dispute betweenIndia and Pakistan over such a

cold and barren region. ButSiachen remained a militaryconflict betweenHYPERLINK. This is a regionwere Pakistan spends morethan 5 arab rupees and Indiamore than 30 arab rupees ontheir military personals. Re-cently a snow avalanche killedalmost 140 soldiers of Pakistanin Giary sector of this SiachenGlacier. Only one thing is go-ing on and on and that is theloss of precious lives whetherof the Pakistanis or the Indians.So Siachen became a conflictwithin a conflict.

Both these countriesshould take some bold steps inorder to solve the conflict. Buthere arises a question whenSiachen is present in Kashmirwhich is a conflict of all otherconflicts then why Siachen gotplace with Sarkreek. s sarkreekhas no mother conflict thatshould de discussed and must be

discussed for peace , and in or-der to solve the Siachen theyshould focus on the mother ofall conflicts and that is Kash-mir.

I have thought it desirableto inform you of situation be-cause of its threat of interna-tional complications.” ?(Ex-cerpts of telegram dated 26 Oc-tober 1947 from JawaharlalNehru to the British Prime Min-ister, Clement Attlee).

Nehru further says “”...ourassurance that we shall with-draw our troops from Kashmiras soon as peace and order is re-stored and leave the decision re-garding the future of the Stateto the people of the State is notmerely a promise to your Gov-ernment but also to the peopleof Kashmir and to theworld.”Because Kashmirsolved every thing solved. Au-thor is Kashmir based politicalanalyst.

—Kashmir Watch

ISLAMABAD: AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed meeting with Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babr.

Intellectuals demandwithdrawal of troops from IHK

Concern raised over deteriorating health of detaineesSRINAGAR—In Srinagar, theKashmiri intellectuals have de-manded withdrawal of Indiantroops from occupied Kashmirto stop further massacre of theKashmiris in the territory.

The demand was made in ameeting of the intellectuals withthe APHC leaders in Srinagar,today. The meeting was chairedby the APHC Chairman,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and at-tended by Professor AbdulGhani Butt, Bilal Ghani Lone,Musaddiq Aadil, HakeemAbdur Rasheed, Zafar AkbarButt, Syed Saleem Gilani andBashir Ahmad Andrabi.

The intellectuals who hadrepresentation from differentparts of the territory in the meet-ing included Ghulam HassanZareen, Ghulam Hassan Khan,Abdul Rasheed Aafaq, DrImran, Muhammad YousufMashhoor and Dr Naseer. Theycalled for granting theKashmiris free access to anypart of the Jammu and Kashmiracross the Line of Control.

On the occasion, MirwaizUmar Farooq assured the intel-lectuals that the Hurriyet beingcustodian of the sacrifices ren-dered by the people of Kashmirwould continue to fight for the

settlement of the Kashmir dis-pute as per the Kashmiris’ aspi-rations.

The veteran KashmiriHurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilaniin a statement expressed seriousconcern over the deterioratinghealth of illegally detainedHurriyet leaders and activistsincluding Ghulam Qadir Butt.He urged the world humanrights organisations to impressupon India to release the detain-ees forthwith.

APHC leader, NayeemAhmad Khan addressing a pro-cession at Magam in Badgamstrongly condemned the contin-

ued detention of Hurriyet leader,Masroor Abbas, and restrictionsimposed by the authorities onMuharram processions in theterritory.

Anti-India protest demon-stration was held at Magam inTangmarg. Various humanrights organisations through aresolution passed during a con-ference on ‘Human rights andlaws’ at Amritsar in the Indianstate of Punjab called for aboli-tion of capital punishment andstopping misuse of laws aimedat suppressing right to self-de-termination movements inKashmir and India.—KMS

India to movemore troops toLadakh againstChina: Farooq

NEW DELHI—In occupiedKashmir, former puppet ChiefMinister and the President ofpro-India National Conference,Farooq Abdullah has said thatIndia is deploying more troopsin Ladakh region.

Farooq Abdullah who alsocurrently holds portfolio of anIndian cabinet minister address-ing young students, scholars andscientists at the Northern Re-gional Science Congress in NewDelhi broached the topic whenhe was referring to the abundantwind energy resources availablein Ladakh region. “Wepeople have Army there (inLadakh). (We have) one full di-vision there and now we areputting another division therebecause we have threat fromChina and I don’t say that out-side but I am telling you becauseyou are Indians. I want to tellyou that in one place we arebefriending China but we havealso learnt a lesson from Chinaand that is why we remain cau-tious as well because we hadone division we will be keep-ing another one there,” hesaid.—KMS

Er Rasheed reactssharply to Indian army

officer’s remarksSRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the independent mem-ber of so-called Kashmir Leg-islative Assembly, EngineerAbdur Rasheed has reactedstrongly to the assertion of asenior officer of Indian armysaying that it has added insultto the injuries of the Kashmiris.The General Officer Command-ing of Indian Army’s Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, GeneralPrakash had asked theKashmiris to forget the past.

Engineer Abdur Rasheedaddressing public meetings inSopore reminded GeneralPrakash that troops were roam-ing in Kashmir and had got pro-motions and awards for killinginnocent Kashmiris.

“If India cannot forget itsnational heroes like Raj Guru,Sukhdev and Bhagat Singh,how can the Kashmiris forgetone lakh people who lost theirlives for the resolution of Kash-mir issue?” he questioned. En-gineer Rasheed said, theKashmiris can never forgetKunan Poshpora, Pathribal,Machil, Nadihal,Chattisinghpora and othercountless incidents which arenow a part of history. “Even ifpeople like General Prakash canforget the history but historycannot forget them,” headded.—KMS

Amarnath planconcerns IHK

civil society groupSRINAGAR—In occupied Kash-mir, a civil society group hastaken exception to the extensivedamage to ecology of the Kash-mir Valley by construction of theroad leading to Amarnath Cave.The Kashmir Centre for Socialand Development Studies(KCDS) in a statement said thatthe “collective conscience of theKashmiris is outraged by what-ever is happening with the envi-ronment and ecology of Kash-mir in general and along the roadthat leads to Amarnath Cave inparticular because the goings-onin relation to the road toAmarnath Cave are happeningbehind the backs of principalstakeholders to the issue.” “It isdetrimental to fragile ecologyand environment of the area,” theKCDS spokesman said. Thespokesman criticized the authori-ties in occupied Kashmir for be-ing abysmally ignorant and cal-lous to the developments takingplace.

The KCDS said that the lo-cal authorities were “at best ac-quiescing and at worst collabo-rating in the vandalism of theprecious and delicate environ-ment.” “It is highly disturbingthat the press reports suggestthat the clearance for the planwill come within seven daysfrom the Forest Department. Weimpress upon the Department tocome out with facts about thewhole issue,” the statementadded.—KMS

AJK HC acceptspetition on

Sharda antiquesMUZAFFARABAD—The AzadKashmir High Court on Tues-day accepted the writ petitionfiled by the Kashmir VirsaBachao Committee regardingthe return of precious antiquesof Sharda, alleged to have beenillegally removed from NeelumValley to Muzaffarabad, forregular hearing. The full benchof the court headed by ChiefJustice Ghulam MustafaMughal heard the writ petition.

Lawyer for the civil societyKaram Dad Khan in his argu-ments said it was the responsi-bility of the government to pre-serve all the antiques andartefacts. He said there are clearlaws of the federal and AJKgovernments in this regardwhich need to be implemented.Government lawyers arguedthat the matter at hand is notabout the antiques but these aredaily use items. They said theKunday artefacts are used inNeelum to give water to cattle.They said the issue is needlesslyraised in the media.—INP

SRINAGAR—In an appeal to allPanchs and Sarpanchs for pollboycott, Coalition party’s Na-tional confrence, Congress andthe opposition PDP for theirdetrimental role in Jammu andKashmir. All these parties havegrabbed the freedom of state,while the PDP was sponsoredby the agencies, Hurriyat Con-ference (G) spokesman AyazAkbar said in a statement toValley Media Service.

“All these parties are ideo-logically the same and have nodifference; they are powerthirsty and this is the main is-sue and concern for their exist-ence”, Hurriyat spokesmanwhile addressing the recentlyselected Panch’s and sarpanch ,

Hurriyat appeals Panchs,Sarpanchs to boycott polls

said, “don’t be misled, you arethe part of our nation, and dis-associate your affiliation fromruling as well and oppositionparties”, spokesman added.

Nation has laid sacrificsesfor a just cause and it is our dutyto take care of this. Anybody whohas no regarded for these sacri-fices has no value for his faith,nor he understands that he is do-ing harm not only to himself butalso does harm to the next gen-eration. Spokesman criticizingthe role of ruling and oppositionparties said that noble souls al-ways do have regard for theirconscience, have value for moralcharacter and will never justifyhis misconduct, lest he may betreated as traitor. Administration

may provide the security but thestigma due to their anti-move-ment activities, they may attract,will haunt them and will remainthere.

Commenting on OmerAbdullah’s assertion of handand plough as election symbola trouble for opposition, spokes-man added that the combinationof “plough and hand” has al-ready proved a malignant head-ache for state and is main causeof political instability in Jammuand Kashmir.

The custodians of Ploughhave handed over the state to thecongress only for power and to-gether the two parties have sup-pressed the aspirations of peopleof Jammu and Kashmir.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Experts attrib-uted the escalation in cancerdeaths in Kashmir to delay incurative treatment due to its latedetection in the patients. Ac-cording to oncologists, inad-equate cancer-related infrastruc-ture in the Valley and lack ofawareness about the diseaseamong people has compoundedthe problem.

Addressing ‘Autumn Semi-nar in Medicine’ wherein doc-tors including Cardiologists,Neurologists, Urologists,Orthopaedicians, Oncologists,Surgeons and other Super-spe-cialists from across the countrydeliberated on the treatmentadvances in their respectivefields. The seminar was orga-nized by Indraprastha ApolloHospitals in association with

Cancer on rise in held ValleyHealtheon Private Limited,Doctors Association Kashmir,Resident Doctors Associationand GK Communications Pri-vate Limited at the SK Interna-tional Convention Centre here.

In his paper ‘Scenario ofCancer in Kashmir—Limita-tions in Curative Treatment’, DrSanaullah Kuchai, Head andConsultant at the Department ofRadiation Oncology, Govern-ment Medical College, Srinagarsaid that five years ago (in 2007-08) the number of cancer patientsregistered at SMHS hospitalwere 352. “It has seen an abruptincrease in last one year (2011-2012) with nearly 1357 casesregistered,” he said. Quotingdata, Dr Kuchai said the Esoph-ageal Cancer figured at the topfollowed by Breast and Stomach

cancer. “Among total cancer pa-tients in valley around 66 percentget treatment at the RegionalCancer Center at SKIMS, 35percent at GMC, Srinagar whileonly 5 percent of patients ap-proach either to outside hospitalsor NGOs,” he claimed.

According to him there islack of awareness among peopleabout the symptoms and possi-bility of cancer. “This leads toseveral misconceptions and in-creases the risk of the disease,”Dr Kuchai said. The oncologistsaid another major cause of can-cer deaths was its late presenta-tion before the practitioner.“The involvement of quacks,inexperienced medical practi-tioners and post-referral delaysmake the situation difficult tohandle,” he said.—NNI

SRINAGAR—The Hurriyat (G)chairman, Syed Ali ShahGeelani has said that the peopleof Kashmir do not have the re-sources to wage an armedstruggle against India to securefreedom. “No country is readyto provide us any armed sup-port, so we must gain our inde-pendence from Indian rule bypeaceful resistance. We mustcontinue our struggle for theright to self-determination,”Geelani said.

“The sacrifices offered bythe martyrs of Karbala shouldbe a source of strength and re-solve for the people of Jammuand Kashmir who have been

Geelani: Kashmir not equippedfor armed struggle against India

suffering under oppressive In-dian rule,” he said. “Unless weget independence from India,we can’t establish an Islamicsociety in our state.

Independence and an Is-lamic society are the essentialrequirements for the welfare ofthe people of Jammu and Kash-mir.” he said.

Geelani also said that theUnited Nations had failed tomaintain peace and security inIslamic countries where, ac-cording to him, heinous crimesof human rights violations werebeing committed. “In India,people especially Muslims,were slaughtered in Assam and

Gujarat,” he said. “In 1947, five lakh Mus-

lims were massacred in Jammualone by the troops of the Ma-haraja,, the police of Patiala, andJana Sangh and RSS workers,”he said. “NC , Congress andother parties claim themselvesto be protecting the identity ofthe people. They actually backthe forces who are committinghuman rights violations in thestate. Those who vote and sup-port these people are answer-able before Allah,” he said.

He said that the peopleshould not support those pro-moting the open sale of liquorin Kashmir.—NNI

ACHABAL—Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) patron MuftiMuhammad Sayeed has an-nounced that the future be-longed to his party.

He also accused the rulingdispensation of being “imma-ture” while dealing with theadministration stating that pre-vious regime worked in a “greatcoordination” with the samepeople. Addressing a gatheringhere in north Kashmir Muftisaid grabbing power has neverbeen the aim of his party. “Myultimate aim is to restore thedignity and honour of the peopleof JK. Until it is restored, nei-ther Government of India norPakistan would be satisfied,” hesaid. Mufti did not touch the up-coming LC elections and in-stead shifted his focus towardsstrengthening the party and un-

PDP to form next government,work for Kashmir resolution: Mufti

veiling the party’s vision for2014 elections. “Let me assureyou, future is ours, not for justforming the government but towork for the peaceful settlementof Kashmir issue,” he said.

Accusing the NC-Congressgovernment of not dealing prop-erly with the administration, theformer Chief Minister said if “amason makes lot of noise withhis tools; he is not a good ma-son.” “We were working withthe same people from 2002 to2008,”said Mufti, who was ac-companied by senior PDPleader Muzaffar Hussain Beigh,former MLA RafiabadMuhammad Dilawar Mir,PDP’s national spokesman DrSameer Kaul and party’s chiefspokesman Nayeem Akhter.

He said Kashmiri peopleshould not be blamed for the

faults and mistakes of the suc-cessive regimes. “In 1990, situ-ation was so tense. Some mis-takes may have happened asKashmir was burning from allsides,” Mufti said. He said theUnited Jehad Council (UJC)chief Salahudin was known asMuhammad Yousuf and “thereis no fault of people” in makinghim a militant. “Right from1987, there has been no trust onthe vote. But when PDP cameinto power, we showed the realpower of the vote,” he said. “Weappointed 70,000 Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers, 30,000Angawadi workers, and ensuredthe pension to widows throughmoney order.”

He criticized the govern-ment for arresting youth andputting the separatist leadersunder house arrest.—NNI

ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan, Syed Mehdi Shah called on Federal Minis-ter for Kashmir Affairs & Gilgit-Baltistan Mian Manzoor Ahmad Watto in Islamabad onTuesday.

RAWALAKOT: AJK Social Welfare Minister Ms Farza Yaqub inaugurating constructionof Luxury Flats on Tuesday.

The avoidance of taxesis the only intellectual

pursuit that still carriesany reward.

— John MaynardKeynes

PACA inks airservices MoUStaff ReporterMUSCAT—Oman’s PublicAuthority for Civil Aviation(PACA) has signed a memo-randum of understanding withaviation authorities inPakistan, Times of Oman hasreported. The agreement withthe Pakistan Civil AviationAuthority (PCAA) allows forincreasing the number of seatsto 2,600 between the Sultanateand Karachi airport as well asoperating 16 weekly flights toa number of cities includingLahore, Peshawar, Sialkot andMultan.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Naeem YahyaMir, CEO & MD of PakistanState Oil (PSO), the nation’slargest Energy Company helda press conference at a localhotel to highlight his future ex-pansion strategy for the oil gi-ant.

Speaking at the occasion,Mr. Naeem stated that as partof his dream vision for PSO,he aimed to make the nationalgiant an integrated energycompany by incorporating allaspects of the product supplychain including exploration,

PSO on the road to integration

Cutting the fat by eliminating middle-menrefining, distribution and ship-ping. Through this, the companywill minimize dependence onforeign supply chains and fol-low the model of successfulcompanies which have inte-grated multiple supply chain as-pects within themselves. Mr.Naeem also said that PSO canonly achieve this dream by con-necting with upstream partners,introducing innovative ideas tobeat the competition down-stream and establishing controlof its own product supply chain.Furthermore, the CEO&MDoutlined his goals of establish-ing PSO as the leading company

in Pakistan within a period oftwo years, a regional player infour years and a member of theranks of global oil conglomer-ates such as PETROCHINA,P E T R O N A S - M a l a y s i a ,PETROBRAS -Brazil etcwithin six years.

Moving forward, the MD-PSO outlined some of the newinitiatives PSO has undertakenunder his leadership includingsigning a Contract of Af-freightment (COA) with Paki-stan National Shipping Corpo-ration (PNSC) for importingfurnace oil from foreign ports,development of a new oil

tanker mooring point and stor-

age facility at Hub which willincrease national storage ca-pacity and reduce congestionat the existing jetties, estab-lishment of over 100 LPG

Autogas stations in the upcom-ing year and agreements withPARCO, BYCO and BakriTrading for the acquisition ofPOL products. Other majorprojects listed at the confer-ence included establishment ofa modern EURO IV capacityrefinery in Khyber Pakhtunwa,acquisition of a refinery in thesouth of the country and set-ting up a Base II lubricant re-finery. He also plans to estab-lish a regional JV AviationCompany in the Middle Eastand is looking to expand intothe coal business in partner-ship with other companies.

Furthermore, the MDstated that he had embarked ona program of cutting outmiddle-men and cost rational-ization at PSO. He stated thatby eliminating the addition ofdetergent additives in Mogasand Diesel, the Companywould save approximately Rs.635 Million/year, savings ofRs. 450 Million/year were alsoexpected through the stoppageof war premium insurancepayments on POL product im-ports. Additionally by uplift-ing products from localsources/ refineries, foreign ex-change of approximately $200

Million would be saved annu-ally and a further Rs. 500 Mil-lion will be saved by engag-ing the national flag carrierPNSC for transport of furnaceoil.

Naeem further spoke onPSO’s enhanced customer focusactivities which consisted of es-tablishing VIP lanes for motor-cyclists at retail outlets and de-velopment of a flagship retailoutlet designed for premiumcustomers which would offeronly HOBC and branded con-sumer items at its store shop. Healso commented upon some ofthe Company’s recent CSR ini-

tiatives including the estab-lishment of ten (two in eachprovince) Corporate SocialPumps in low income areas inpartnership with the localpopulace and development oftwo streets in every provincewith state-of-the-art infra-structure and facilities in de-veloping areas under its StreetSupport Program.

Committed to providingquality products and customerservices to the citizens of Pa-kistan, PSO, the national en-ergy giant remains committedto serving the fuel needs of thenation.

Naeem Yahya Mir, CEO &MD of Pakistan State Oil

Nabil Habayeb President and CEO General Electric Company of Middle East called onFederal Minister for Water and Power Ch Ahmed Mukhtar.

Dauda Danladi, Ambassador of Nigeria to Pakistan called on Dr Asim Hussain, Advisor toPM on Petroleum and Natural Resources.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Prime Minister RajaPervez Ashraf has said that USand Pakistan are working to cre-ate an economic partnershipbased on trade, not just aid.

He was speaking to theclosing ceremony of PakistanDairy Industry Conference hereon Tuesday to highlight Pak-U.S. cooperation to help dairyfarmers in growing their busi-nesses.

US Ambassador RichardOlson said on the occasion that

Pak-US working to improvedairy farming: Raja

Pakistan is one of the largestdairy producers in the world,and the United States is commit-ted to working with dairy farm-ers to help them protect theirlivestock from disease, improvethe quality of their products, andincrease their profits.

Olson highlighted two U.S.assistance programs designed toachieve those objectives, theentrepreneurs project and thedairy project. The Entrepre-neurs Project offers workshopsto help Pakistani dairy farmerssharpen their business skills,

develop new products and ser-vices, and raise their incomes.

The Dairy Project is a pub-lic-private partnership withNestle Pakistan and the Dairyand Rural Development Foun-dation that has trained 9,000dairy farmers and 5,000 smallagribusinesses to help themprotect their livestock, improvethe quality of their products,and increase revenue. Thesepartnerships have produced re-sults.

He told the audiences thatthrough other initiatives that

support the agricultural sector,the United States has trainedmore than 750 veterinarians andlab technicians to prevent thespread of the deadly Foot andMouth Virus, and provided vac-cinations to protect 110,000dairy cows, buffalo, and yaksfrom the disease.

“Since 2010, more than22,000 dairy farmers affected bythe devastating floods have beenable to double their incomesthrough the U.S.-funded Entre-preneurs Project,” said Ambas-sador Olson.

DOHA—Despite severe flood-ing in 2011, Pakistan managedto drop itself from first, last yearto third position this year in theleague table for countries thatwere worst hit by extremeweather events in 2011, accord-ing to a ‘climate risk index 2013’published here on Tuesday.

In 2011, the ranking of themost affected countries is led byThailand, Cambodia, Pakistan,El Salvador and the Philippines.

The index, compiled by aEuropean NGO, Germanwatch,was announced during an ad-dress at the United Nations Cli-

Pak ranks 3rd in climate-risk indexmate Summit in Doha, Qatar.

This is an annual pointer ofwhich countries are most in needof shoring up defences against theextreme weather, which climateexpert believed are expected to fur-ther increase, potentially with largescale dangerous impacts if the glo-bal community does not immedi-ately scale up its action to mitigateclimate change and to adaptation.

An exceptional accumula-tion of very severe natural ca-tastrophes makes 2011 one ofthe highest-ever loss years onrecord. Remarkably, wheneveran event of 2011 is addressed the

attribute “worst in countries’ his-tory” is awarded, the index says.

According to the index in to-tal, more than 530,000 peopledied as a direct consequence fromalmost 15,000 extreme weatherevents, and losses of more than2.5 trillion USD occurred from1992 to 2011. The tough mon-soon season in Southeast Asiaalso caused substantial damagein Thailand’s neighbours. InCambodia, the extreme rainfallsresulted in the worst floodings indecades killing about 250 peoplejust as destroying houses and ru-ining rice crops.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Chairman SkillDevelopment Council (SDC)Peshawar Haji MuhammadJaved has announced to hold atwo-day seminar on technicaleducation and vocational train-ing to be started from today(Wednesday).

The chairman stated thisduring a press conference hereat a local hotel on Tuesday, inwhich he said that the seminarsaimed at promoting technicaleducation and vocational train-ing in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa(KP).

Giving details of the two-day seminar, he informed thatexperts, people from the indus-try and public sector institutesare going to participate in theseminars and deliberate on im-proving the current state of theaffairs of TEVT.

He said that the first dayof the national level event,scheduled 28th November is

Two-day seminar on technicaleducation from today

on ‘Public partnership for vo-cational training’ which headded would enrich the expe-riences of different stakehold-ers, government officials,trainers, national skill develop-ment experts to join hands withprivate sector so that their in-frastructure, experiences couldbe utilized for producingskilled workforce not only forlocal industry but regionalmarket would also take advan-tage of the skills availability.

In the second day, hemaintained legislators, civilsocieties and other expertseven from other provinces ofthe country were invited in theevent and he added dialogueon skill development, politi-cal priority for developing thefuture generation would betaken to help to have betterunderstanding for a skilledworkforce and preference tothe technical education andskilled development sector inKP.

Mobile phoneservice suspensionaffects 3G auctionsISLAMABAD—Due to suspen-sion of cellular services, inter-national investors reduced theirinterest in the process of auctionof 3-G (Third Generation) li-censes and the government willpossibly face another Rs 80 bil-lion loss in this regard.

It is said that the suspensionof mobile phone service in thecountry, would further push thecountry to face Rs 80 billionduring the fiscal year 2012-13.

The recent fact-finding sur-vey revealed that frequent sus-pension of cellular services coun-trywide for the last three monthsaffected the foreign investmentas the investor were afraid of ter-rorism and suspension of service.They were reluctant to invest inthe information technology andits related sectors.

The businessmen expressedgrave concern over the suspensionof mobile phone service on Eiddays and on other festivals becausepeople excessively use mobilephones on these events. It wouldbe difficult for the government tocope with the gap of Rs 80 billionin budget deficit after lacking in-terest of foreign investors in theauction of 3G licenses.—Online

Pakistan welcomesinterest of Nigeriain oil, gas sector

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Dr. Asim HussainAdvisor to the Prime Minister onPetroleum and Natural Resourceshas said that the Government ofPakistan has provided friendlyopportunities to foreign investorsin the oil and gas sector under thenew Petroleum Policy 2012.

Dr Asim Hussain stated thisin a meeting with the Ambassa-dor of Nigeria to Pakistan H.E.Mr. Dauda Danladi, who calledon the Advisor here on Tuesday.The Nigerian Ambassador ap-prised the Advisor that Nigeriais enriched with oil and gas re-sources and it has an estimated184 TCF gas reserves.

The Government of Nigeriasupports deregulation of the Petro-leum Sector so that healthy com-petition is encouraged. H.E. Mr.Dauda Danladi, while referring tothe recent D-8 conference, empha-sized that in the spirit of mutualcooperation direct intervention onGovernment to Government basisis required in the Oil and Gas sec-tor. The Ambassador also informedthat Nigeria has established FreeZones for International E&P com-panies, which provides beneficialopportunities for Pakistani compa-nies.

India notserious in tradewith Pakistan

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chairman AgriForum Ibrahim Mughal has saidIndia was not serious in traderelations with Pakistan, which isevident from its move of impos-ing 100 percent raise on duty onimport of sugar from Pakistan.

Talking to media persons, hesaid India will have to import 2.5million tones sugar this year dueto decline in its domestic produc-tion. He said India was supposedto import sugar from Pakistan, butit chose to increase the import dutyby 100 percent, hereby showingthat it was not serious in trade withPakistan. He said this move of In-dia should serve an eye opener forPakistani rulers, who were bentupon giving Most Favoured Na-tion (MFN) status to India. He saidPakistan was in a position to ex-port 700,000 tones sugar to Indiathis year, but India imposed sucha heavy duty to deprive Pakistanof this advantage.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KARACHI—Despite positiveslike the inflow of $ 1.8 billionfrom the United States in Augustthis year under the long-with-held Coalition Support Fund(CSF), the country’s fiscal defi-cit for fiscal year 2012-13 isexpected to swell by Rs 1.5 tril-lion or 6.5 percent of the GrossDomestic Product (GDP).

The official quarterly data,however, shows that fiscal gapbetween the federalgovernment’s revenues and ex-penditures during July-OctFY13set at Rs 284 billion comparedRs 257 billion of the correspond-ing quarter last year.

Latest fiscal operation num-bers released by Ministry of Fi-nance (MoF) depict a relativelycurtailed fiscal deficit in1QFY13, thanks to the CSF.

The analysts believe thatdespite the subdued 1Q num-

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The Consul Gen-eral of Iran Abbas Ali Abdollahihas expressed his confidence thatPakistan Iran Gas Pipeline willgo a long way in promotion ofnew investment opportunitiesand increase in mutual trade vol-ume between the two countries.

Speaking at a reception inhonor of the outgoing Iraniandiplomat said that Iran has al-ready laid 1200 Kilometer pipe-line from Bunder Abbas toBalochistan Border; however,Pakistan has yet to implementthe project in its area.

He said that Iran Bank Milliand National Bank of Pakistanshould establish their branchesin Iran and Pakistan respec-

IP gas pipeline project to createinvestment opportunities

tively. He offered to supplycheaper electricity to power rid-den Pakistan. He proposed thatPakistani investors and export-ers should hold exhibition atZahidan, Iran and other parts ofthe Iran, for which Iranian gov-ernment would extend full sup-port and cooperation.

Speaking on the occasionTariq Sayeed, Chairman, Pak-Iran Business Council andFormer Vice President ofSAARC CCI underscored theneed to further strengthening ofeconomic and political relationsbetween both the brotherlycountries ofPakistan and Iran,and said that increase in bilat-eral trade can further promoteregional trade. He hoped thatmega joint investment projects,

like Iran-Pakistan (IP) Gas Pipe-line, would pave the way forfurther exploiting joint ventureopportunities.

This was stated by him in areception hosted in honour ofConsul General of Iran, Abbas AliAbdollahi to bid farewell uponcompletion of his assignment inPakistan and acclaim services ren-dered by him during his stay inKarachi. Commercial Consulateof Iran Sultan Shahi, VisaConsellor Mr. Mahadi, PublicRelation Officer Mr. Abidi, VicePresident FPCCI Iqbal DawoodPakwala, Khurram Sayeed, Dr.Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, ZakaryaUsman, Mazhar Ali Nasir,Dawood Usman Jakhura, ShaukatAhmed, Waheed Shah etc werealso present on the occasion.

Fiscal gap seen at 6.5pcof GDP in FY13

bers, the full year fiscal deficitwas likely to stand around at 6.5percent. According to Toplineanalyst Nauman Khan, thiswould be on the back of a likelyshortfall in tax revenue, highersubsidy outlay and higher devel-opment expenditures in the elec-tion year.

Khan said the full year num-bers fare better than last yeardeficit of 8.4 percent but com-pares unfavorably with last 10years and 20 years average of5.1 percent and 5.6 percent, re-spectively.

“Further, with threats per-sistent on the external account,financing of fiscal deficit wouldremain a major concern for thepolicy makers, particularly in2HFY13,” said the analyst.

As per the latest fiscal op-eration numbers, 93 percentgrowth in non-tax revenue in1QFY13 helped the deficit toremain at 1.2 percent of GDP

similar to the one registered inthe same period last year.

Receipts of $1.8 billion CSFstood out as the single largestfactor in growth in non-tax rev-enue, he said.

Resultantly, thegovernment’s total revenue in-creased by 30 percent to Rs 692billion with 10 percent growthalso witnessed in tax collections.

On the other side, total ex-penditure grew by 23 percentwith 24 percent increase in cur-rent expenditure and 15 percentdecline coming in developmentexpenditure. Digging in currentexpenditure, the increase cameprimarily from 76 percent in-crease in debt servicing, while 82percent increase was witnessedin general public services (this in-cludes subsidy payments). Dis-bursement in Public Sector De-velopment Programme expendi-ture declined by 15 percent, dur-ing 1QFY13.

ADB regional forumtodayStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—A two-dayRegional Forum on “Investingin Inclusive Business in Asia”will start from today(Wednesday)in Philippianswhich will highlight theinnovative and impactfulinclusive business modelsfrom across the region. Theforum will review thegrowing interest of privateinvestors in this marketplace,and discuss the important roledevelopment financeinstitutions (DFIs) can play inaccelerating the growth andimpact of this field in theregion. The Forum will alsodiscuss the findings andrecommendations of variousinclusive business marketstudies Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB) has done in 10Asian countries. The Forumwill offer expert-led discus-sions for both experiencedand new investors, inclusivebusiness practitioners, thoughtleaders from academia andcivil society, as well represen-tatives of the developmentassistance community.

Rs 25m donatedto IBAStaff ReporterKARACHI—A local companydonated Rs. 25 million to theIBA for promoting qualityeducation in Pakistan. Dean& Director IBA, Dr. IshratHusain and ManagingDirector & Chief ExecutiveOfficer Getz Pharma, Mr.Khalid Mahmood signed aMemorandum of Understand-ing at a simple but impres-sive ceremony at the Instituteof Business Administration(IBA). The understandingaimed to establish strategicpartnership between both theparties to promote academicand applied research in thecountry. This collaborationwill focus on supportingstudents with financial needsto succeed in their academicand professional pursuits andwill also be used in advanc-ing social applications ofresearch and fostering thegrowth of promisingstudents. Emphasizing theimportance of this strategicagreement.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The SeventhMeeting of National Agricul-ture Education AccreditationCouncil (NAEAC) was heldhere on Tuesday under theChairmanship of Dr. M.E.Tusneem, Chairman NAEAC.

Dr. Riaz Qureshi, Advisor,HEC and other Council Mem-bers representing the agricul-ture universities leading agro-industries and R&D institu-tions in public and private sec-tors also attended this meeting.

The Council approved the

NAEAC approves 46 degreeprogrammes of agri institutions

recommendations of the Ac-creditation Inspection Commit-tees (AICs) of 46 degree pro-grams of different agricultureinstitutions including Universityof Agriculture, Faisalabad; Uni-versity of the Punjab, Lahore;KPK Agricultural University,Peshawar; Faculty of Agricul-ture, Rawalakot; Islamia Uni-versity, Bahawalpur; UniversityCollege of Agriculture, BZU,Multan; Sindh Agriculture Uni-versity, Tandojam and Univer-sity College of Agriculture,Sargodha University, Sargodha.besides the confirmation of the

minutes of the sixth meeting ofthe Council.

Annual Work Plan for FY2012-13 was endorsed subjectto minor modifications. Ap-proval of the budget for FY2012-13 was also accorded.The Council members empha-sized that Council may be pro-vided adequate funds to imple-ment its mandate to carry-outits major activities effectivelyincluding external evaluationand accreditation of degree pro-grams, conduct of awarenessseminars, strengthening of in-stitutional database, etc.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Chief ExecutiveOfficer Punjab Livestock andDairy Development Board, Maj.Gen. (R) Muhammad Ali Khanhas said that as a result of train-ing and research agreement be-tween Punjab government andAmerican company World WideSire, betterment would be reg-istered in the livestock sector byincreasing genealogical capacityof animals, increasing their pro-duction and availability of qual-ity semen which will lead toboosting milk and meat produc-tivity.

He expressed these viewsduring the signing ceremony ofmemorandum of understandingbetween Punjab government and

MoU signed with American Cofor cooperation in livestock sector

World Wide Sires, which wasattended by Secretary Livestockand Dairy Development IrfanElahi, officers of Livestock De-partment and other importantpersonalities. Maj. Gen. (R)Muhammad Ali Khan appraisedthe delegation about the activi-ties of livestock sector throughhis detailed briefing. He said,under the agreement, both insti-tutions will work in Punjab,which will make the farmers ofPunjab prosperous, alongwithachieving self-sufficiency in theproductivity of meat and milk.

The Chief Executive Officerinformed that the delegationhave visited Semen ProductionUnit Khizarabad Sargodha, Pa-kistan Army Semen ProductionUnit Okara, Safaher Dairy

Farm, AE Training Center BurjAttari, Nestle Dairy FarmSukhaiki, over which the del-egation have expressed their sat-isfaction.

Expressing their opinion, themembers of the delegation saidthat Punjab has best breedinganimals, and by improving theirgenealogical capability, Pakistancan achieve an important positionin the livestock sector in theworld. The delegation appreci-ated the efforts of Chief MinisterPunjab for promotion andprogress of livestock sector andpraised the ongoing activities ofPunjab Livestock and Dairy De-velopment Board. The delegationalso thanked Punjab Livestockand Dairy Development Boardover their successful visit.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A four-memberUSAID team Tuesday listened tothe business community point ofview on issues coming in the wayof Pak-India trade through Wagah.

The team headed by JimSutton and comprising JohnWalker, Saradr Humayun andAhsan Nadeem called on LCCIPresident Farooq Iftikhar andExecutive Committee Membersand shared salient features ofthe USAID Project on Pak-In-dia trade. The LCCI formerSenior Vice President AbdulBasit, former Vice PresidentsAftab Ahmad Vohra, SaeedaNazar, Executive Committeemembers Aasia Saail Khan,Hassan Amjad, Amjad

Pak-India tradeUSAID team holds

interaction with businessmenChaudhry, Mian Zahid Javedwere prominent among the par-ticipants.

The team leader informedthe LCCI President that theUSAID Project is aimed at im-proving the customs system bygetting implemented E-gover-nance system that is universallyaccepted and recognized by allthe countries. He said that theUSAID team had meetings withFederal Minister for Commerce,Chairman FBR and they arewilling to extend every possiblehelp for the implementation ofthe system in letter and spirit.

The USAID is presentlyworking on updating its WaghaBorder Assessment Study witha view to catering the expectedsearch in overland trade between

India and Pakistan. The updat-ing version of the assessmentwill be providing the latest po-sition covering the movement offreight by road and rail, theUSAID team leader said. LCCIPresident Farooq Iftikhar appre-ciated ongoing USAID TradeProject for capacity buildingprogramme of concerned gov-ernment departments includingFederal Board of Revenue andCustoms to improve regionaland cross-border trade particu-larly with Afghanistan and In-dia.

The LCCI President in-formed the USAID team that theslow pace of infrastructure devel-opment at Wagah is a matter ofgrave concern and needs to beexpedited.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—ZONG - the in-ternational brand of China Mo-bile and Huawei - a leading glo-bal information and communi-cations technology (ICT) solu-tions provider have establisheda state-of-the-art GSM labora-tory and training center at Na-tional University of Science andTechnology (NUST) to liaisonwith the telecom industry’sneeds by creating a bridge be-tween the academia and the cor-porate world.

With the expertise of ChinaMobile Pakistan and Huawei’sinvestment of US$ 1.3 millionin hardware, the GSM labora-tory will be providing exposureand hands-on experience of op-erating high-tech GSM equip-ments which can be used asplatform for further Researchand Development (R&D) forValue Added Services (VAS).This lab is to be used for studypurposes; the lab is a completetelephone network including aGSM mobile infrastructurewith one MSC, one BSC and

ZONG, Huawei establish GSMlaboratory at NUST

one BTS, HLR and media gate-way.

The lab will also providethe platform for development ofsoftware, tools and patches toremove discrepancies. It willfamiliarize students with thefault, configuration, security,network performance manage-ment of telecom infrastructure.Mr. Fan Yunjun, CEO, ZONGsaid that the GSM lab createdby ZONG is a fundamental partof their corporate social respon-

sibility as helping young peopleaccess quality technologicaleducation will lay the founda-tion of cultivating talent neces-sary for the advancement of in-dustry and development in Pa-kistan.

Speaking at the launch Chi-nese Ambassador to PakistanMr. Liu Jian said “I am pleasedto learn that ZONG has initiatedsuch a marvelous project to helpthe talented students accomplishtheir goals.

Air separationplant started

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Linde Pakistan to-day inaugurated its new air sepa-ration plant installed at SunderIndustrial Estate in Lahore.

This new state-of-the-art plantis now the largest air separationplant in Pakistan, capable of pro-ducing 150 tons per day (tpd) ofgaseous oxygen, nitrogen and ar-gon for the merchant gases mar-ket. The investment value of theplant, along with related supplychain equipment, is more than Rs2 billion.

Yousuf Mirza, Chief Execu-tive of Linde Pakistan said, “Ournew air separation plant in Lahorerepresents a milestone for ourbusiness as this is Linde’s fourthand largest air separation plant inPakistan. The additional supplyfrom this plant significantly en-hances our ability to respondquickly and effectively to meet thegases requirements of our custom-ers in the north, and further rein-forces our position as the leadingindustrial gases player in Paki-stan.”

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jian, Eng Mohd Asghar, Rector,NUST, Fan Yunjun, CEO, Zong and Geng Simeng, CEO,Huawei at the opening ceremony.

ISMAT SABIR

TO create awarenessabout the scarcity ofwater and importance of

its conservation, World WaterDay is celebrated every yearacross the world in March. Wa-ter is life but its scarcity ismaking lives of the people mis-erable day by day. The WorldBank warned that in the nextcentury wars will be for water,may be not directly. The worldis moving fast towards re-gional and global conflictsabout water. The world waterconsumption is doubling every20 years that is twice thegrowth rate of population.

About 884 million peopledo not have access to safe drink-ing water and more than 2.6 bil-

lion people do not have access tobasic sanitation. About 1.5 millionchildren, under the age of five, dieeach year due to water borne dis-eases. Almost 443 million schooldays are lost because of water andsanitation related diseases.

Personal and domestic uses ofwater account for less than tenpercent of the total amount ofwater , while it should be signifi-cantly lower percentage. How-ever, water scarcity is mainly dueto unequal distribution of watercausing insufficient access to wa-ter. Over 1.1 billion people lackedaccess to supply of clean water.The figure does not include ma-jority of people living in rural ar-eas who are unable to afford wa-ter, who are facing prohibitivewaiting times for collecting wa-ter, who receive water at occa-

sional intervals or have to collectwater from dangerous and unsafewater reservoirs, WHO andUNICEF report indicated.

Moreover, about 700 millionpeople in 43 countries suffer fromwater scarcity. By 2025, 1.8 bil-lion people will be living in coun-tries with absolute water scarcityand two thirds of the world’spopulation would be living underwater stressed conditions. Almosthalf the world’s population will beliving in areas of high water stressby 2030, including between 75million and 250 million people inAfrica. In addition, water scarcityin some arid and semi arid placeswill displace people between 24to 700 million people. Sub-Sa-haran Africa has the largest num-ber of water stressed countries ofany region.

A 2011 UN report has placedPakistan among the water hotspots‘ of the region. It said that thecountry is facing major threat ofincreasing water scarcity. Pakistanis among the countries that hadbadly affected due to the changesin weather which have increasedrain, floods, droughts and cyclones.Pakistan‘s economy has been fac-ing damages from natural disasterssince 1991-95 the loss was $248million or 0.4 percent of GDP. Thewater availability in Pakistan iscontinuously declining, both in to-tal amount of water and the percapita water availability. In 1951,when population was 34 million,per capita availability of water was5,300 cubic meters, which has nowdecreased to 1,105 cubic meters,reached water scarcity level of1,000 cubic meters. This level

reached in 2010 instead of 2015,table-1.

The existing water storagesare depleting rapidly and groundwater level has also dropped inmany areas of the country. Atpresent, the country is facing wa-ter shortage of 13 percent, whichwas to increase to 21 percent in2011 and 50 percent in 2025. Thereports show that water shortageis a problem but contaminatedwater is another serious problemin Pakistan. In some areas con-taminated water percentage is ashigh as 100 percent, e.g. in Ziaratit is 92 percent, in Sargodha 87percent, Hyderabad 77 percentand 75 percent in Karachi andSukkur. Contaminated water isamongst the ten greatest risks tohuman health.

Due to contaminated water

over 10,000 people die every yearof renal infections. Patients withwater borne diseases admitted tohospitals and occupy about 40percent beds in the hospitals.Medical experts say, 80 percent ofall Pakistani children admittedinto hospitals are suffering fromwater borne diseases. The Paki-stan Government also said provid-ing clean drinking water is theconstitutional responsibility of allthe provincial governments andcompanies to make all the cleanwater plants operational that wereinstalled under CDWI.

To improve water availabil-ity WAPDA Vision 2025 wasmade but the delays in timelyimplementation has created prob-lem in water availability. The cur-rent water shortage of 9 millionacre feet would further increase

to 25 MAF, if all planned damsare not constructed until 2016.

The world is also facing agrowing water and sanitation cri-sis that is killing more than 5,000children a day in poor developingcountries. The world over nearly3 million people die, majority ofthem are women and children,every year due to contaminatedwater. . While each year about 1.8million children die from diarrhea.The Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs) were agreed by theleaders of 190 nations at a UNsummit in New York in 2000,among other things, call for cleandrinking water and sanitation forall people by 2015.

To avoid future water warsmeasures should be taken otherwise over 50 countries in five con-tinents could soon be in conflict,

if they do not agree for sharingrivers, aquifers and other sourcesof water. Already there is tensionbrewing in parts of Africa, theMiddle East, specifically be-tween Israel and Arabs.

Water is scarce in Pakistanwhile 92 percent of the land iscovered by arid or semi arid re-gions. Moreover, the water re-sources are originated from therivers of Indus that are season-ally fluctuated. About 25 percentof the GDP comes from agricul-ture that can not be done withoutwater. Industrial usage of wateris 1.6 million acre feet while 30percent of country’s electricity isgenerated from water. However,the government claimed that thereis no scarcity of water in the coun-try. While annual loss of water isabout $5 billion.

Water is becoming scarce

Members of CNG Dealers Association led by Chairman Abdul Sami Khan called on ZuhairSiddiqui, MD SSGC at the Company’s head office to congratulate him on his appointmentas MD.

Bankingspreads slide

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Latest figures re-leased by the central bank showthat the banking spreads for out-standing lending and depositsfor the overall banking sectordeclined by 13 basis pointsmonth-on-month (MoM) duringthe month of October to reachat 6.77 percent.

The outstanding loans anddeposits show the same trend, as24bpsMoM decline was wit-nessed in loan rates while11bpsMoM decline observed indeposits rate during the monthin review.

“The declining trend ismainly due to the reduction of200bps cut in DR by SBP sinceAug-12,” said InvestCap analystMazhar A Sabir.

The average spreads of thebanking sector during10MCY12, Jan-Oct2012, stoodat 7.11 percent as compared to7.65 percent in the same periodlast year, registering a decline ofmassive 54bpsYoY.

“Whereas, on comparing thecurrent spreads (Oct-12) againstthe spreads of correspondingperiod previous year, we dis-cover them wavered by90bpsYoY,” said Sabir.

The weighted average de-posit rates on outstanding depos-its including zero markup, de-clined by 11bpsMoM to settle at5.64 percent during Octobercompared to deposit rate of 5.75percent last month.

KARACHI: Muhammad Haroon Agar, President KCCI presenting crest to Akira Ouchi. Shamim Ahmed Firpo, NasirMehmood, Vice President, Majyd Aziz, A.Q. Khalil, Asif Sheikh Javaid, Zahid Iqbal, Azhar Waseem, Ateeq ur Rehman,Durre Shahwar Nisar and Naeem Ahmed, are also seen in the picture.

President RCCI Muzaffar Khurshid Shaikh presenting bou-quet to Chairman BoI Saleem H Mandviwalla.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry(LCCI) Tuesday expressedgrave concern over deterioratinglaw and order situation andcalled for stringent measures tocontrol the situation that is get-ting out of hand with every pass-ing day.

In a statement issued here,the LCCI President FarooqIftikhar, Senior Vice PresidentIrfan Iqbal Sheikh and VicePresident Mian Abuzar Shadsaid that an alarming increasedaylight robberies and dacoitiesis not only hitting businesses

LCCI worried oversurge in crime rate

hard but also causing flight ofcapital. The LCCI office-bear-ers said that the Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce and Industryis under tremendous pressureover law and order situation andwants of the government to an-nounce formation of Business-men-Police Liaison Committeesat district level.

They said that provision ofsecurity to the citizens isgovernment’s responsibility butunfortunately it has miserablyfailed to fulfill its responsibil-ity. Business-friendly atmo-sphere is a pre-requisite to in-vestment and industrialization.Therefore the government

would have to listen to the busi-ness community point of viewfor bringing peace back to thisland of opportunities.

The countries that were farbehind us a few decades ago arenow progressing leaps and boundwhile the economic situation inPakistan is not satisfactory andthis is only because of bad lawand order situation. In 60s thecollective exports of a number ofFar Eastern Countries were muchsmaller than Pakistan and todayeach country has bigger exportthan Pakistan, They achieved thisgoal by giving due considerationto the proposals of their businesscommunities.

PTCL’ssponsors sportsat local school

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—As part of itsCorporate Social Responsibility(CSR) initiatives, Pakistan Tele-communications Company(PTCL) sponsored the sportsday at Kainat Public School,Islamabad.

PTCL sponsored the eventto spread awareness about im-portance of extracurricular andsporting activities amongst theyouth. The event provided a tre-mendous opportunity to theyouth to showcase their skillsand talents through Football andCricket Matches, Skits, Quizshows and Art Competitions.

“Positive entertainment andsporting activities are imperativefor the development of ouryouth,” said PTCL ExecutiveVice President (EVP) BusinessZone North, Abdul SattarNaeem. “PTCL is striving tocreate a better tomorrow for thecountry’s youth by connectingthem with the international in-formation highway.”

Asian shares riseon positive U.S.tone, yen slips

TOKYO—Asian shares rose,boosted by a positive tone in U.S.equities last week, while the yenfell to a near seven-month lowagainst the dollar on expectationsa new government after nextmonth’s election in Japan maydeliver more stimulus.

MSCI’s broadest index ofAsia-Pacific shares outside Ja-pan rose 0.6 percent, recoveringfrom the nine-week low.

Its energy sector outper-formed as mounting supply con-cerns on escalating tension fromIsraeli air strikes on the GazaStrip and Hamas rocket attackson Israel underpinned oil prices.

The material sector alsowere among top gainers as Lon-don copper rallied 1 percent to$7.684 a tonne on expectationsfor economic measures in Chinaand hopes for a solution to theU.S. fiscal crisis. (MTL)

Australian shares (.AXJO)inched up 0.2 percent but Shang-hai shares (.SSEC)underperformed with a 0.3 percentdrop, hovering near the seven-week low touched.—Newswire

Doublenumber offer

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Leading the inno-vation with many firsts in thetelecom industry of Pakistan,Warid Telecom brings yet an-other exciting Double NumberOffer which allows Warid usersto get two numbers on one SIMwithout carrying two handsets ordual SIM handsets.

All Warid prepaid customerscan avail this exciting offer. Waridcustomers can activate DoubleNumber on their existing SIM bysending SMS SUB to 3311.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The pavilion ofPakistan was opened at the SIALMiddle East Exhibition foodexhibition being held in AbuDhabi, that attracted visitorsfrom different countries.

Jamil Ahmed Khan, Am-bassador of Pakistan to UnitedArab Emirates while talking toreporters after inaugurating thePakistan Pavilion said UAEwas an important regional hubbut Pakistani exports does notbenefit from opportunities of-fered here.

Pakistani food like rice, veg-etables, fruits, spice, jams, pick-les, and other food products arehighly popular among the localsowing to there extraordinarynatural taste.

Jamil Khan pointed out that

Pak pavilion opened atAbu Dhabi’s food exhibition

it was a matter of great pride andhonour for Pakistan pavilion thatit was specially visited bySheikh Mansour Bin Zayed AlNahyan, Deputy Prime Minis-ter and Minister for PresidentialAffairs and Chairman of AbuDhabi Food Control Authorityand other members of the RoyalFamily. Both took keen interestin organic food and herbaldrinks.

Ambassador Khan said thatUAE is currently importingproducts around US$ 5 billionout of which Pakistani Marketis only US$ 500 million whichcan be raised up to US$ 1 bil-lion easily by establishing ourbrands in the region and spend-ing on improving quality ofpackaging up to internationalstandards.

He said the Chambers of

Commerce and the Trade Devel-opment Authority of Pakistanhas to promote business tradeand project quality products atthe International level by ensur-ing the participation of Pakistanicompanies in these exhibitionsand providing them space to dis-play their products.

The Ambassador assuredthat all those visiting the Paki-stan Pavilion will have a chanceto meet with the leading foodsuppliers during the three-dayevent at this dedicated businessplatform.

Renowned food companiesfrom Pakistan like Pakistan Ricecomplex, National Graze PvtLtd, Taj food Pvt Ltd, Aliza foodPvt Ltd, Mitco rice processingLtd, Sufi group of companies,Quershi food pvt Ltd, have ex-hibited their products.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—President, SarhadChamber of Commerce & Indus-try (SCCI), Dr Mohammad YusufSarwar while terming the direc-tives of Collector Customs Ap-praisement (CADs), Karachi forfiling transshipment permit andwriting of item-wise details ofimported goods by both bandedcarriers and clearing agents in theelectronic system as illegal has de-manded its immediate with-drawal.

Withdrawal of CADs demandedIn a statement issued here

Monday, the SCCI chief said thatclearing agents at the time of gooddeclaration give full details ofgoods in their packing list.

He said that the making of thewriting of the details of transship-ment will not only cause delay inthe clearing process, but alsocause the burden of demurrageand detention expenditures on im-porters.

The decision, he said hadtaken in haste and without takingbusiness community into confi-

dence. He said that delaying tac-tics in the clearance of goods willharm the utility of the dry portsand the importers of KhyberPakhtunkhwa will also have toface severe difficulties. The mea-sure, he said will also affect therevenue of the state. He said thatall details of the imported goodsuse to already register in importgeneral manifest (IGM) while 100per cent checking of TP consign-ment and the process of loadingand unloading also damaged thepacking of goods.

Ufone Winnersof ‘10 say10 lakh’

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Ufone has an-nounced the winners for the“10say 10 lakh” offer and the tenlucky recipients of Rs.10 Lakhgot to experience a lifetime op-portunity which would changetheir lives.

It may be recalled here thatUfone had provided a chance forcustomers to win Rs 10 Lakhsimply by consuming a balanceof Rs.10 any day till November10. Interestingly the more bal-ance any customer consumedduring this promotional period,the more chances accrued to thecustomer for winning cashprizes through a lucky draw. Thelucky winners are MuhammadUsman (Kohat), Abdul Rasool(Shahdad Kot), Safeer AhmedSajan (Multan), Khalid IqbalBurney (Karachi), JunaidSukkur, Syed Khalid Hussain(Lahore), Shahid Iqbal (Jhang),Shabbir Hussain (Gujranwala),Qasim Jan (Swabi) and ShabanaBano (Karachi).

This offer was valid forexisting, new prepaid custom-ers and all those customerswho reactivated their UfoneSIMs to cash in on the oppor-tunity.

Qasim Jan from Swabi whoreceived the prize of Rs 10Lakh said, “I feel myself on topof this world after receiving thefabulous gift of Rs 10 lacs,”adding, “at the time of purchaseof SIM, I preferred Ufone onlybecause it offers low call rates,but I had no idea it offers tre-mendous prizes to its custom-ers as well!”

About Ufone: Ufone is anEtisalat Group Company withits presence in all the major cit-ies of Pakistan along with acomprehensive coverage acrossall major towns, villages andtehsil headquarters of the coun-try.

‘Voice of reason’TOKYO—Japan’s ruling Democrats castthemselves on Tuesday as the voice ofreason on diplomacy and the economy asthey headed for a general election, high-lighting a contrast with the hawkish rheto-ric and aggressive monetary policy reci-pes of their rivals. Prime MinisterYoshihiko Noda and his party vowed todefend national interests, including achain of rocky East China Sea islets con-trolled by Japan but also claimed by China

and Taiwan, but would do so with diplomacy and “respon-sible defence.” “There are issues concerning sovereignty,territories and territorial waters, but we must adhere to thepeaceful path we have followed since World War Two,” Nodatold journalists while unveiling the manifesto for the Decem-ber 16 general election. “At the same time, we must respondin a cool-headed, practical and strategic manner.” Noda’s Demo-crats trail the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP),whose leader Shinzo Abe, 58, stole the thunder early on withpromises to stand up to Beijing and calls for “unlimited” mon-etary stimulus from the central bank. Abe, who hopes to re-turn to the prime minister’s post he quit in 2007 after just oneyear on office, has called for reversing a long decline in Japan’sdefence spending and changes in its pacifist constitution toallow its military to play a more active role. He also wants theBank of Japan to agree with the government on an inflationtarget. Despite criticism that this could infringe on centralbank independence, Abe repeated his call on Tuesday. “The1 percent ‘goal’ already announced by the bank won’t do. Itmust instead be a ‘target’ of 2 percent,” Abe told a sympo-sium on Japan’s growth strategy.—Reuters

Belarus dictatorMINSK—He is a pariah in the West,viewed suspiciously by Russia andloathed by opponents in exile or jail, butBelarussian President AlexanderLukashenko is relishing his notoriety asEurope’s last dictator. After 18 years inpower, the blunt, forceful and heavily builtformer state farm manager shows no signof bowing to Western pressure to relaxhis grip on the former Soviet republicsqueezed between Russia and the Euro-

pean Union. Always defiant, often cantankerous and some-times provocative, Lukashenko has added irony to hisarmoury to deflect Western politicians’ criticism, touting theirdictator tag as a badge of honour. “I am the last and onlydictator in Europe. Indeed there are none anywhere else inthe world,” he told Reuters in a rare interview in the capitalMinsk in which he repeatedly referred to himself as a dictatorand to his rule as a dictatorship. “You came here and lookedat a living dictator. Where else would you see one? There issomething in this. They say that even bad publicity is goodpublicity.” Lukashenko’s words are delivered with a wry grinand a wave of his immense hands, and appear intended totaunt the critics whose calls for more economic and po-litical freedom have gone largely unheeded since he firstbecame president in 1994. The 58-year-old leader doesnot tire of telling guests that Belarus is the geographicalcentre of Europe. But the country of 9.5 million does notshare the same democratic values as its westernneighbours. Minsk’s broad thoroughfares are still linedwith monolithic Soviet-era buildings.—Reuters

Tzipi Livn to contest polls JERUSALEM—Former Foreign MinisterTzipi Livni announced her candidacy onTuesday in a January general election,pledging to “fight for peace” with the Pal-estinians as a centrist alternative toIsrael’s right-wing leadership. 22 electionby running for office as head of a newpolitical party she vowed would “fight forpeace.” Livni, voted out as the head ofthe main opposition Kadima party in aninternal ballot in March, told a news con-

ference she had formed a new party, “Hat’nua” (The Move-ment). Opinion polls predict Livni will win seven to nine ofparliament’s 120-seats, grabbing votes from left-of-centre fac-tions and not generating enough support to unseat PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc. Livni, a 54-year-old corporate lawyer, was once touted as Israel’s nextGolda Meir—the only woman who ever served as prime min-ister. As foreign minister from 2006 to 2009, during EhudOlmert’s premiership, she was appointed to the high-profiletask of heading peace talks with the Palestinians. But thenegotiations failed, Olmert was forced to step down in a cor-ruption scandal, and while Kadima won more votes than Likudin the ensuing 2009 parliamentary election, Netanyahuoutmanoeuvred Livni to form a broad coalition government.Her return to frontline politics will further fracture Israel’scentre-left, with a slew of parties courting the same pool ofvoters and rejecting suggestions that they should merge toform a stronger.—Reuters

Two Korea end car warSEOUL—One of the more bizarre joint ven-tures in car-making is set to come to anend following the death of the head ofSouth Korea’s Unification Church whichit is to give its stake in the PyeonghwaMotors operation to North Korea.Pyeonghwa, which produces modelsbased on ageing Fiat SpA designs as wellas those of Brilliance China AutomotiveHoldings, is the sole carmaker in isolatedNorth Korea, although few of its impov-

erished citizens are able to afford its products. “PyeonghwaMotors’ South Korean side is planning to pull out from thejoint automaker and donate its 70 percent stake to the North,”said a source familiar with the transaction, who declined to beidentified due to the sensitivity of the issue. Spokesmen forthe church were not immediately available for comment. SunMyung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church and asprawling business empire, died in September aged 92. Hewas born in what is now North Korea The church’s jointventure with North Korea, set up in 2002, was one of the fewto survive a freeze in relations between the North and Southfollowing the shooting of a South Korean tourist in 2008 byNorth Korean troops. “The Unification Church’s Moon madea will to give back the auto business with the North before hepassed away. It is not because its business wasn’t doingwell,” said the source.—Reuters

Rice to discuss Libya with McCainWASHINGTON—U.S. Ambassador to theUnited Nations Susan Rice will meet withlawmakers this week to discuss her con-troversial remarks about the Septemberattack in Benghazi, Libya, that havecaused hurdles for her potential promo-tion to secretary of state. The move, an-nounced shortly after a top critic said hewould be open to speaking to her, couldfuel speculation that she is gunning forthe nation’s top diplomatic job.A Senate

aide said that Rice would meet with McCain as well as Sena-tors Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, fellow Republicanswho have also criticized Rice. An Obama administration offi-cial said Rice and Michael Morell, CIA’s acting director, wouldmeet with officials on Capitol Hill but declined to give detailsabout timing. “She and Mike Morell are meeting with folks onthe Hill about Libya this week,” the official said.—Reuters

Egyptians carry a protester wounded in clashes with security forces near Tahrir Square, where an opposition rallywas called for to voice rejection of President Morsi’s seizure of absolute powers, in Cairo.

CAIRO—Egyptian protest-ers and police clashed inCairo on Tuesday justhours ahead of a plannedmassive rally by opponentsof the country’s Islamistpresident demanding he re-scind decrees that grantedhim near-absolute powers.Police fired tear gas andhundreds of protesterspelted them with rocks at astreet between the U.S. Em-bassy and Tahrir Square,birthplace of the uprisingthat toppled presidentHosni Mubarak’s authoritar-ian regime nearly two yearsago.

The protesters havebeen staging a sit-in at thesquare since Friday night todemand PresidentMohammed Morsi revokehis decrees. By mid-day,hundreds were starting togather in Tahrir, chantingagainst Morsi’s decrees andthe Brotherhood. A newbanner in the square pro-claimed, “The Brotherhoodstole the country.” “We arehere to bring down the con-stitutional declaration is-sued by Morsi,” said oneprotester at Tahrir,Mahmoud Youssef.

Hundreds of lawyersmeanwhile gathered outside

Clashes resume in Cairoahead of opposition rally

their union building in down-town Cairo ahead of theirmarch to Tahrir. “Leave,leave,” they chanted, ad-dressing Morsi. The rallyplanned for later Tuesday,with marches from variousparts of Cairo to converge onTahrir, is to be a significanttest of the opposition’s abil-ity to bring out supportersand the public againstMorsi’s edicts issued lastweek. The opposition saysthe decrees give Morsi neardictatorial powers by neu-tralizing the judiciary at atime when he already holdsexecutive and legislativepowers. Key parts of the ju-dicial system have de-nounced the measures.Morsi, in office since June,says the decrees are neces-sary to protect the “revolu-tion” and the nation’s tran-sition to democratic rule. Hisdeclaration made all his de-cisions immune to judicialreview and banned thecourts from dissolving theupper house of parliamentand an assembly writing thenew constitution, both ofwhich are dominated by Is-lamists. The decree also gaveMorsi sweeping authority tostop any “threats” to therevolution.

Morsi’s supporters can-celed a massive rally theyhad planned for Tuesday,citing the need to “defusetension” after a series ofclashes between the twocamps since the decreeswere issued Thursday. But aspokesman for the MuslimBrotherhood, the fundamen-talist group from whichMorsi hails, said demonstra-tions supporting the presi-dent could go ahead outsidethe capital and that support-ers would form humanchains in some provinces toprotect Brotherhood offices.Morsi’s supporters say morethan a dozen of their officeshave been ransacked or setablaze since Friday.

On Monday, Morsi metwith the nation’s top judgesand tried to win their accep-tance of his decrees.

But the move was dis-missed by many in the op-position and the judiciary asproviding no real conces-sions. Presidentialspokeman Yasser Ali, saidMorsi told the judges that heacted within his rights as thenation’s sole source of leg-islation, assuring them thatthe decrees were temporaryand did not in any way in-fringe on the judiciary.—AP

RAMALLAH—Forensic ex-perts took samples fromYasser Arafat’s buried corpsein the West Bank on Tues-day, trying to determine if hewas murdered by Israeliagents using the hard-to-trace radioactive poison,Polonium. Palestinians wit-nessed the funeral of theirhero and longtime leader eightyears ago, but conspiracytheories surrounding hisdeath have never been laidto rest.

Many are convinced theiricon was the victim of a cow-ardly assassination, and maystay convinced whatever theoutcome of this autopsy. Butsome in the city of Ramallahwhere he lies deplored the ex-humation. “This is wrong.

Arafat’s remains to be exhumed for poison checkAfter all this time, today theysuddenly want to find out thetruth?” said constructionworker Ahmad Yousef, 31,who stopped to watch thedisinterment, carried out be-hind a wall of blue plastic nearthe Palestinian presidencyheadquarters. “ T h e yshould have done it eightyears ago,” he said. Frenchmagistrates in Augustopened a murder inquiry intoArafat’s death in Paris in 2004after a Swiss institute said ithad discovered high levels ofpolonium on clothing of hiswhich was supplied by hiswidow, Suha, for a televisiondocumentary. “Samples willbe taken according to a verystrict protocol and thesesamples will be analyzed,”

said Darcy Christen, spokes-man for Lausanne UniversityHospital in Switzerland thatcarried out the original testson Arafat’s clothes.

“In order to do theseanalyses, to check, cross-check and double cross-check, it will take severalmonths and I don’t think we’llhave anything tangible avail-able before March or Aprilnext year,” he added. Arafatwas always a freedom fighterto Palestinians but a terroristto Israelis first, and a partnerfor peace only later.

He led the bid for a Pales-tinian state through years ofwar and peacemaking, thendied in a French hospital aged75 after a short, mysteriousillness.

No autopsy was carriedout at the time, at the requestof Suha, and French doctorswho treated him said theywere unable to determine thecause of death. But allega-tions of foul play immediatelysurfaced, and many Palestin-ians pointed the finger at Is-rael, which confined Arafat tohis West Bank headquartersin Ramallah for the final twoand a half years of his life af-ter a Palestinian uprisingerupted.

Israel denies murderinghim. Its leader at the time, ArielSharon, now lies in a comafrom which he is expectednever to awake. Israel invitedthe Palestinian leadership torelease all Arafat’s medicalrecords, which were never

made public following hisdeath and still have not beenopene Polonium, apparentlyingested with food, wasfound to have caused thedeath of former Russian spyAlexander Litvinenko in Lon-don in 2006. But some expertshave questioned whetherArafat could have died in thisway, pointing to a brief recov-ery during his illness thatthey said was not consistentwith radioactive poisoning.They also noted he did notlose all his hair.

Eight years is consideredthe limit to detect any tracesof the fast-decaying polo-nium and Lausanne hospitalquestioned in August if itwould be worth seeking anysamples, if access to Arafat’s

body was delayed as late as“October or November.” Notall of Arafat’s family agreedto the exhumation, and hiswife Suha chose not to attendthe operation she hadprompted.

Working in parallel withthe forensic team, Frenchmagistrates were in Ramallahthis week to ask if membersof Arafat’s inner circle mightbe able to shed light on hisdeath. One source toldReuters the French had a listof 60 questions, and hadquestioned one man for fivehours. Many Palestiniansacknowledge that a Palestin-ian would almost certainlyhave had to administer anypoison, wittingly or unwit-tingly.—Reuters

20 dead, severalhurt in Syrian

forces raidBEIRUT—Activists say Syr-ian warplanes have bombedan olive press factory in thecountry’s north, killing andwounding dozens of people.Two activist groups the Brit-ain-based Syrian Observa-tory for Human Rights andthe Local Coordination Com-mittees say the factory iswest of the city of Idlib.

The LCC says at least 20people were killed and manyothers wounded inTuesday’s raid, while theObservatory says “tens werekilled or wounded.” Bothgroups depend on a networkof activists on the groundaround the country.

President BasharAssad’s regime has beenlaunching intense raids onrebels in recent months.Syria’s conflict started inMarch 2011 as an uprisingagainst Assad’s regime, butquickly morphed into a civilwar that has since killed morethan 40,000 people, accord-ing to activists.—Reuters

Putin injuredspine in judo boutMINSK—Russian PresidentVladimir Putin’s backtroubles stem from a recentbout of judo, according to theleader of the neighbouringstate of Belarus. “I know hehas this problem. He lovesjudo. He lifted a guy, threwhim, and twisted his spine,”Belarussian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko toldReuters in an interview.

Lukashenko had beenhoping to play ice hockeywith Putin but the Kremlinleader postponed the match,he said. “He tells me: ‘We arenot prepared yet to take onyour team.’ He has damagedhis spine somewhere. In ajudo match. He was on themat and hurt his spine,”Lukashenko said. Putin’sspokesman Dmitry Peskovdeclined to comment. Theformer Soviet republic ofBelarus has close but some-times rocky relations with itsformer colonial master.

Putin, a judo black beltwho began a six-year presi-dential term in May andturned 60 in October, wasseen limping at an Asia-Pa-cific summit in the Russianport of Vladivostok in earlySeptember.

A former KGB officer whoenjoys vast authority at thehead of Russia’s so-called‘vertical’ power structure,Putin has long cultivated atough-guy image thatwouldn’t sit well with pro-longed illness.—Reuters

BISHKEK—Security issuesdominated talks between theEuropean Union’s top envoyand Central Asian diplomatsTuesday as the looming with-drawal of the internationalmilitary coalition from Af-ghanistan raises the specterof regional instability.

EU foreign policy chiefCatherine Ashton said after ameeting with regional foreignministers in Kyrgyzstan, hostof a vital U.S. air base, thatEurope’s growing interest inCentral Asia was based onshared security challenges.

“In this region, we faceincreasing and new chal-lenges. We talked about de-velopments in Afghanistanand the importance of the fu-ture of that country,” Ashtonsaid. Ashton said she wantedto see deeper cooperation onenergy and trade with Eu-rope, but avoided addressingwhat advocacy groups sayare worsening political free-doms in Central Asia.

“We want to support you

Security dominates EUtalks in Central Asia

on the efforts that you’remaking on political and eco-nomic reform, so that we canunlock the potential in therelationship between us,”Ashton said. Ashton will alsovisit Uzbekistan, Kazakhstanand Tajikistan over the com-ing week.

All these countries haveexpressed anxiety about thepotential for spillover fromunrest in Afghanistan afterthe U.S. drawdown in 2014.Another threat to the stabil-ity of the region discussedTuesday was the rivalry overwater resources betweenUzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan andTajikistan, which has testedrelations among the mainlyMuslim former Soviet statesto breaking point.Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’shopes of developing hydro-power are resisted byUzbekistan, a populous na-tion of almost 30 million thatsees the creation of dams asa threat to its substantial ag-ricultural industry.—AP

GOMA—Rebels in Demo-cratic Republic of Congosaid on Tuesday they wouldwithdraw from the easterncity of Goma only if Presi-dent Joseph Kabila agreedto their demands, which theCongolese government wasquick to dismiss as a farce.The deadlock raises the riskthat the eight-month-old in-surgency could turn into anall-out war in a regiondogged by nearly two de-cades of conflict that haskilled more than 5 millionpeople, fuelled by competi-tion over mineral resources.

The M23 rebels, whoU.N. experts say are backedby Rwanda and who saythey want to “liberate” all ofCongo, captured Goma lastweek after Congolese sol-diers withdrew and U.N.peacekeepers gave up de-fending the city. The Ugan-dan military, which has beencoordinating talks with M23,said earlier on Tuesday thatM23 leader Colonel SultaniMakenga had agreed to with-draw from Goma with noconditions.

Congo rebels set conditionsfor Goma withdrawal

But the political chief ofM23, Jean-Marie Runiga, toldreporters in Goma his forceswould withdraw only if Kabilaheld national talks, releasedpolitical prisoners and dis-solved the electoral commis-sion, a body accused byWestern powers of deliveringKabila a second term inflawed 2011 polls. “The with-drawal, yes. If Kabila agreesto our demands then we’ll goquickly,” Runiga told report-ers in a hotel in Goma, flankedby senior M23 officials in ci-vilian clothes and rebels inmilitary fatigues.

Runiga said Kabila’s gov-ernment was rotten with cor-ruption, lamented thecountry’s dilapidated roads,and said Congo’s onlyschools and hospitals hadbeen left by Belgian formercolonial rulers. He said anytalks would have to tacklesuch issues. “We want theinvolvement of the politicalopposition, civil society andthe diaspora so we can tacklethese issues together, so thatthe people hear the truth andthat once and for all we find a

solution to the problems thathave poisoned our societyand politics,” he said.

“We are fighting to findsolutions to Congo’s prob-lems. Withdrawal from Gomais not a precondition to ne-gotiations but a result ofthem,” he said. The conflict-ing statements indicated asolution to the insurgency ineastern Congo, which hasdisplaced 140,000 civiliansaccording to the United Na-tions, was not close.

Lambert Mende, Congo’sgovernment spokesman,quickly dismissed M23’s de-mands. “It’s a farce, that’s theword. There’s been a docu-ment adopted by the region.If each day they’re going tocome back with new demandsit becomes ridiculous. We’reno longer in the realm of se-riousness,” Mende toldReuters from Kinshasa.Later in the day, Ugandanmilitary chief ArondaNyakayirima read out thewithdrawal plan to reporters,but made no mention ofM23’s apparent rejection ofthe plan.—Reuters

MADRID—Ever since herfather had his heart attackyears ago, 76-year-old Mariahas been fiercely devoted toSpain’s public hospitals.Now that authorities areplanning to privatize parts ofthem, she is outraged. “Athalf past three I saw he wasnot well. I called our privatehealth care provider and theytold me they had no doctorsavailable,” she said, stand-ing in her local Madrid hos-pital, festooned with angryred-painted banners.

“So I called the publichealth service. They sent anambulance. He got to hospi-tal by ten to four. They savedhis life by being so quick,”added Maria, who would notgive her surname. “We havea health system that is theenvy of the world and theywant to dismantle it, and wewill be the ones to pay.”Maria attends daily meetingsof concerned citizens atMadrid’s La Princesa Uni-versity Hospital, where sheand her family have beentreated — and now she andother users have been joinedin their outcry by doctors.

Madrid’s conservativeregional government insistsits hospitals plan is neces-sary for Madrid to meet itstough deficit targets and de-

Doctors, patients rage atMadrid hospital cuts

nies it is privatizing or dis-mantling La Princesa. “Wehave an excellent system ofquality public health for all,but in the current situationwe do not have enough rev-enue for it all to keep work-ing as it does,” it said in astatement. “The reductionwe have to make in healthspending in Madrid isequivalent to the currentbudget of two hospitals. Themost direct route would havebeen to close hospitals, butthis government believesthere are alternatives.”

The Madrid governmentsaid it planned to make sav-ings in the 2013 budget byoutsourcing non-health ser-vices such as cleaning to pri-vate companies and hiringprivate firms of doctors toprovide health care in somecenters. That “is a commonmodel in Europe” and “gen-erates greater incentives andmotivation for profession-als,” it said. On Monday mini-mum services were in opera-tion to ensure emergencyrooms stayed open as doc-tors demonstrated at hospi-tals such as La Princesa andLa Paz in northern Madrid.

Appointments to see thedoctor were disrupted, how-ever, with long queues insome waiting rooms.—AP

HANOI—Vietnamese immigra-tion officers said Tuesdaythey were refusing to stampentry visas into controversialnew Chinese passports whichfeature a map of Beijing’sclaim to almost all of the SouthChina Sea. Vietnam has saidthe computer-chipped pass-ports violate its sovereigntyand has demanded Beijingwithdraw the documents,which show the contestedParacel and Spratly Islands asChinese territory.

“We do not stamp the newChinese passports,” said anofficial at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Air-port, the country’s main inter-national gateway. “We issuethem a separate visa,” said theofficial, who did not want tobe named. A border guard innorthern Lang Son provincesaid they were also not stamp-ing the new passports but is-suing separate visas to Chi-nese arrivals. Even with thenew passports, however,“Chinese citizens can stilltravel normally through the

Vietnam refuses to stampnew Chinese passport

border gate,” the guard added.Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Hong Lei saidTuesday that he was notaware of Vietnam’s refusal tostamp visas in China’s newpassports. Beijing has at-tempted to downplay the dip-lomatic fallout from the re-cently introduced passports,with the foreign ministry argu-ing the maps were “not madeto target any specific coun-try.”

Microblog users in Chinacomplained the immigrationrules for the new passportswere causing inconvenienceand delays on arri. India hasstarted stamping its own maponto visas issued to Chinesevisitors as the map shows thedisputed border areas ofArunachal Pradesh and AksaiChin as part of Chinese terri-tory. Manila, which claims partof the Spratlys, sent Beijing aformal protest letter last week,calling the maps “an exces-sive declaration of maritimespace in violation.—AP

BIPIN DANIOBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—New ZealandCricket Players’ Associa-tion (NZCPA) has reactedstrongly to the possiblecancellation of India’s tourof New Zealand which isscheduled to take place inFeb-March 2014.

In order to give playersa break before the 2014summer tour of England, itis reported that the BCCI isconsidering to cancel thistour.

“These reports stagger

New Zealand Cricket PlayersAssociation reacts strongly to India’spossible cancellation of tour in 2014

me and I couldn’t believe thatthe BCCI would contemplatenot touring NZ”, HeathMills, the players associationchief said exclusively fromAuckland.

“The tour to NewZealand is part of the FutureTours Programme (FTP) andnot an ‘add on’ series sothere are obligations on In-dia to tour. The whole inter-national programme is basedon the FTP and that is howcountries plan for the future.If people can pick andchoose if they play or notthen we might as well nothave the FTP”, Mills added.

“Workload is an issuein cricket for everyone butyou can’t pull out of toursfor that reason. NZ recentlycompleted a tour to Indiaand our guys have prettymuch been on the roadnon-stop since June….butwe haven’t pulled out of ob-ligations to other countriesin spite of how tough theworkload has been”, he fur-ther added.

“I am sure sanity willprevail”, he signed off.

If the media rights for theseries is sold out, then theNew Zealand Cricket (NZC)may insist for the tour.

COLOMBO: Thilan Samaraweera and Suraj Randiv punch gloves during their stand, Sri Lanka vs New Zealand, 2nd Test, 3rd day.

N Zealand 1st innings: 412Sri Lanka 1st innings(overnight 43-3):Paranavitana c van Wykb Southee ....................... 40T. Dilshan b Southee ...... 5Sangakkara c Boultb Southee ......................... 0Jayawardene c Williamsonb Boult .............................. 4A. Mathews c Guptillb Southee ....................... 47T. Samaraweera not out 76Jayawardene c Williamsonb Patel ............................. 12S. Randiv not out .......... 34Extras: (lb3, nb3, w1) ....... 7Total: (for six wickets) 225Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-7, 3-12, 4-102, 5-103, 6-128Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WSouthee .............. 19-3-51-4Boult ................... 17-5-34-1Patel .................... 22-3-47-1Astle ................... 13-2-41-0Bracewell ............ 13-1-44-0Williamson .......... 2.2-1-5-0

C O L O M B O — T h i l a nSamaraweera hit a half-cen-tury under pressure to leadSri Lanka’s recovery on thethird day of the second andfinal Test against NewZealand at the P. Sara Oval inColombo on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka were in bigtrouble on 103-5 before fin-ishing the day on 225-6 inreply to New Zealand’s first-innings 412, thanks to themiddle-order batsman’s defi-ant 76 not out off 156 deliv-eries.

Samaraweera, who hadinjured his finger while field-

Samaraweera keepsKiwi attack at bay

ing, received valuable sup-port from lower-order bats-man Suraj Randiv, who madea resolute 102-ball 34 not out,his highest score in 12 Tests.

The pair had added 97and helped their team avoidthe follow-on when bad lightstopped play with 25.4 oversremaining in the day, but thetourists were in control.

Sri Lanka, leading the se-ries 1-0 following their 10-wicket win in the openingTest, were still 187 behindwith four wickets in hand.

“He (Samaraweera) didn’ttake an injection but tooksome oral pain killers.

He had some strappingand some stitches yester-day,” said Sri Lanka coachGraham Ford. “It hasn’t beencomfortable for him but itgoes on to prove how toughthe man is both mentally andphysically. He got out thereand did the job for us.

“I am feeling a lot happierthan I was in the first session.

It’s been pleasing to seethe way the boys dug deepand fought really hard to getus into a much more respect-able position.”

Fast bowler Tim Southee,who took two wickets in anover on Monday, had SriLanka—resuming on 43-3—in trouble in the morningwhen he struck twice beforeSamaraweera and Randivsteadied the innings.

“It would have been niceto have a couple of more(wickets) today to really getinto their tail, but it’s a toughbatting line-up.

They keep coming one

after another and it justshows their great battingdepth,” said Southee.

“It’s a massive hour to-morrow morning and if wecan pick a couple of wicketsand run through them, thenwho knows. I hope we canmake the most of the posi-tion we got them in.” AngeloMathews and openerTharanga Paranavitana puton 90 after three wickets hadfallen for just 12 on Mondaybut Southee dismissed themin successive overs.

Paranavitana (40) edgedthe paceman to wicket-keeper Kruger van Wyk whileMathews (47) fell to a superbone-handed catch by MartinGuptill, who held the ball lowto his right in the slips.

New Zealand had wastedan earlier chance to break thefourth-wicket stand whenskipper Ross Taylor droppedParanavitana at first slip offfast bowler Trent Boult whenthe batsman was on 32.

Mathews played someaggressive shots in the morn-ing, lofting off-spinner JeetanPatel over wide long-on forthe first six of the innings andthen cutting the bowler pastpoint for four. Southee hadtaken four wickets for 51 off19 overs by the close of play.

The paceman dismissedAngelo Mathews (47) andopener Tharanga Paranavitana(40) in successive overs beforeSri Lanka reached 107-5 in theirfirst innings at lunch in reply toNew Zealand’s 412. The hostsadded 64 to their overnight to-tal of 43-3 in the morning ses-sion.—APP

MULTAN: Players in action during Inter-School and College Basketball Tournamenton Tuesday.

RAWALPINDI: Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee with members of PakistanTri Service Cricket team who won International Defence Cricket Challenge-2012.

Gen Wynne lauds PakTri Service CricketTeam for winning

IDCC-2012RAWA L P I N D I—ChairmanJoint Chiefs of Staff Commit-tee (CJCSC), General KhalidShameem Wynne on Tues-day met the members of Pa-kistan Tri Service cricket teamwho have recently won In-ternational Defence CricketChallenge-2012 which washeld in Australia.

The Chairman appreci-ated the performance of Pa-kistani team and congratu-lated the members for secur-ing their place in World De-fence Eleven.

According to ISPR here,a total of eight teams fromfive countries participated.Pakistani team won all theseven league matches beforewinning the finals.—APP

Asif storms inWorld Snooker

knock-out roundsKARACHI—Demonstratinganother powerful showPakistan’s Muhammad Asifstormed into the knock-outrounds of IBSF WorldSnooker Championship inSofia (Bulgaria) when he out-potted Fabian Louison ofFrance 4-0 on Tuesdayevening.

With his third straightwin in pool “H”, Asif main-tained his top spot in the five-men group.

30-year-old Asif, who lostin the last 32 rounds in theworld championship inHyderabad, India, last yearproduced a spectacular pot-ting and safety play againstLouison.—APP

NEW DELHI/LAHORE—Some franchises of the IndianPremier League (IPL) havereportedly begun search forsignings from Pakistan aheadof the players auction of thetournament that is due to beheld in January.

Sources close to some ofthe national team players toldmedia that inquiries had al-ready started coming in frominterested franchises in theIPL.

“Rajasthan Royals andPunjab Kings are amongthose said to be making in-quiries in the initial stagesover the availability of Paki-stani players and their baseprices,” one source stated.

The BCCI, which ownsthe IPL, is yet to announce apolicy over the participationof Pakistani players in the

IPL franchises begin searchfor Pakistani players

league. Pakistani playershave not been able to takepart in the lucrative leaguesince the Mumbai terror at-tacks in 2008 although in theinaugural edition, a numberof them featured for differentteams.

Some of the Pakistaniplayers have made no bonesof the fact that they are keento be part of the IPL, whichoffers lucrative money. ” Ifwe get a chance to play inthe IPL it would be great as itis not only about the moneybut also about being able tocompete against and along-side top players of theworld,” a national teamplayer said. ” It all dependson what our board says. If itgives us clearance fine but ifit says no we can’t do any-thing directly,” another

player said.Sources in the board said

that they had asked the BCCIfor clarity on whether Paki-stani players would be partof the players auction. ”

The board will decideafter getting a reply from theBCCI since it is their tour-nament,” a source said. Hesaid as a policy matter itwas decided that playerswould be able to sign upwith franchises through theboards.

“I think once the clear-ance comes it will be theboard which will sendnames of players who canbe part of the auction andeven if some franchise ap-proaches anyone directly,he will have to get clearancefrom the board,” the sourcestated.—INP

Chinese coachfor badmintonto arrive soon

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nBadminton Federation(PBF) is in negotiation withthe Badminton Asia Con-federation (BAC) to hire acompetent Chinese coachfor national outfit gearingup for the South AsianGames, scheduled to beheld in New Delhi in Febru-ary, next year.

Two national coachesare already providing train-ing to the national playersat a camp setup in SportsComplex Islamabad lastweek.

However, according toPBF Secretary Imtiaz Gill, aChinese coach would arrivein Pakistan in the countrysoon.

“We are in talks with theBAC and Chinese Badmin-ton Federation and are ex-pecting the coach will arrivewithin two weeks,” Gill toldAPP on Monday.—APP

PentangularCup DisabledT20 Cricketopens today

KARACHI—The third editionof Pentangular Cup DisabledTwenty20 Cricket Tourna-ment will explode into actionat two grounds of the citytoday (Wednesday).

The event was originallyto be held from November 28to December 1. But due tosome avoidablecircumstances,the dates andslight alterations have alsobeen made in venues,Secretary,Pakistan DisableCricket Association (PICA)Amiruddin Ansari said onTuesday.

Other league matches willbe played at RLCA GroundGulberg, TMC Ground and atVital-V Ground DefenceHousing Authority.—APP

ADELAIDE—Selection panelsupport for Ricky Ponting’splace in the Australian Testteam remains unanimous, andthe coach Mickey Arthur hasstated emphatically that theformer captain is still a much-needed component in plansfor next year’s Ashes series.

In a staunch defence ofPonting, Arthur said there hadbeen no discussion about hisplace in the team in the selec-tion meeting to choose an ex-tended squad for the third Testagainst South Africa in Perth,and that the panel’s eyes werestill on Ponting’s usefulnessover the next six months, lead-ing into the first of two back-to-back bouts with England.

“All I know is inside thatdressing room, and privately,we’ve all backed Ricky

Ponting’s Ashes avenue kept open

Ponting,” Arthur said. “IfRicky’s scoring runs, we cer-tainly want Ricky Pontingaround for the next six months.We want Ricky Ponting to goto the Ashes, there’s no doubt

about that. Like any batsman,though, you’ve got to keepscoring runs, and that’s byRicky’s own admission. I’m100% sure and confidentRicky will come through inPerth.

“We’re hoping, we backRicky, we unanimously backRicky Ponting to get us someruns. By his own admissionPerth is a big test for him ... butRicky’s prepared brilliantly,he’s really given us everythingwe can possibly ask for.”

Ponting, who has beennamed captain of the PrimeMinister’s XI to play WestIndies in Canberra on January29, had said he expected to dis-cuss his future with the selec-tors ahead of the Perth Test,given a poor run of scores inthis series.—Agencies

All-Pakistan Inter-University MenAthletic C’ship

PESHAWAR—The 36th edi-tion of the All-Pakistan Inter-University Men AthleticChampionship will start un-der the aegis of Sarhad Uni-versity for Science & Infor-mation TechnologyPeshawar from December 6-7 here at the Tartan Track,Qayyum Sports Complex.

This was stated by ViceChancellor of the SarhadUniversity PeshawarDr.Salim-ur-Rehman whileaddressing a press confer-ence here on Tuesday.

Director of the UniversityDr. Wahid Mughal, DirectorSports and former Interna-tional Athlete MuhammadShah, other faculty memberswere also present during thepress conference.—APP

PHYSICIANS in Germany who say theyhave “functionally cured” a patient withHIV/AIDS are warning that their acci-

dental breakthrough is effective for only aboutone percent of patients who suffer from AIDS.

Headlines in November heralded an“AIDS cure” after GeroHuetter and Eckhard Thiel,blood-cancer specialists atCharite Hospital in Berlin,reported that they had seem-ingly cured a 42-year-old USpatient of HIV/AIDS by giv-ing him a bone-marrow trans-plant whilst treating him forcancer. Their breakthroughwas made possible by studiesin the late 1990s revealing thatsome people were resistant toHIV/AIDS, according to a re-port in New Scientist maga-zine on the Berlinhaematologists’ discovery.

In these people, the viruscannot enter and destroy thewhite blood cells that it infectsand destroys in most otherpeople. They owed their resistance to a muta-tion in the gene that makes the molecular “doorhandle” by which HIV/AIDS gains access tocells.

Called CCR5, the protein door handle wasmisshapen in the immune individuals, lock-ing HIV/AIDS out of their white blood cells,the New Scientist report noted. Since the dis-covery, it has been established that about onepercent of Europeans have the same mutation,making them resistant to HIV/AIDS. To beresistant, they had to inherit the same muta-tion from both parents.

Huetter and Thiel made use of this when

treating their patient for leukaemia, which hehad developed in addition to HIV/AIDS. Totreat the leukaemia, the two doctors did theusual thing and sought a bone-marrow donorto replenish the patient’s blood supply fol-lowing chemotherapy to kill the existing, can-

cerous blood cells.But the Berlin doctors’

new approach was to get a do-nor who had the double HIV-resistant CCR5 mutation. Thismeant that the patient’s replen-ished blood system would ef-fectively be resistant to HIV/AIDS, locking out the virus forgood. This is what appears tohave happened, according tothe New Scientist analysis, andHuetter declared his patient“functionally cured”.

Attempts to use bone-mar-row transplants in HIV/AIDStreatment have been made sincethe 1980s. In one case, a patientwith both HIV/AIDS and lym-phoma died of the cancer twomonths later, but was found to

harbour no HIV/AIDS. It was not known ifsomething in the transplant had protected him.

And in a famous 1995 case, Jeff Getty, aprominent San Francisco advocate for HIV/AIDS patients, received bone marrow from ababoon, which is resistant to the human vi-rus. The New York Times reported that hesurvived for 11 years, but died of HIV/AIDSand cancer. The Times said the transplant hadnot protected him but anti-retroviral tripletherapy had been invented in time to help.

Hotter and Thiel have been quick to saythat it is far too early to speak of a widespreadgeneral cure for HIV/AIDS.

‘AIDS cure’ good for only onepercent of patients: experts

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presiding over law and order meeting at CM House.

SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

KARACHI—It was a lovelyevening at the Russian Con-sulate general in Karachi attthe week end. Although itwas a film show of animatedcartoons, but the efforts ofthe Russian Consul GeneralAndrey Demidov and hiswife, need to be appreciatedfor promoting goodwill withthe Pakistanis.

They left nothing to spareto collect people from differ-ent walks of life at their offi-cial residence from time totime to enhance relationswith them. It is indeed laud-able, and must be encour-aged. Pak-Russian relations(with former Soviet Union)had been at their peak in the60s, but USSR’s open

assisstance to India in aggres-sion on Pakistan in 1971 whichsaw the separation of formerEast Pakistan, had soured theseties, a situation mended onlyby the visit to Moscow by theformer President GeneralPevez Musharraf, and helpedit further with the visit to Mos-cow by President Asif Zardari.

Both these visits helpedturn a new leaf into bilateralrelationship with the RussianFederation, which has againbegun to occupy an importantplace in comity of nations.

Russia has overcome mostof its problems, and is fastemerging as a State to reckonwith in world affairs.

Pakistan’s improved tieswith Russia which is ready tohelp in rebuilding the PakistanSteel Mill, in trouble since long,

and assistance in otherspheres is the need of thehour. At the Russianreception,Ghinva Bhutto,widow of late Mir MurtazaBhutto with her daughterFatima was a delight for many.

They all were happy to seeher reemergence i n public life.Fatima at the same time her madename internationally known withthe famous book Songs andSwords, anda second one alsowhich raises her high in esteemin public eye, including the intel-lectuals, thinkers and politicians.

Also present were edi-tors, like Kazi Asad Abid,journalists and the GermanConsul General Dr Klinnerand his Russian wife. It wasindeed a happy occasion forall those who had turned upat the call of their hosts.

KARACHI: CNG users block MA Jinnah Road as they protest against strike of CNG deal-ers.—Photo Imran Gilani

KARACHI: Provincial Minister for Eeducation & Literacy Pir Mazhar ul Haq awardingcertificate to Shaheer Ahmed student of Behria School Karsaz who participated in Art Com-petition organized by UNESCO.

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Senior Provin-cial Minister for Educationand Literacy Pir Mazhar ulHaq Monday said tests for theposts of 19000 teachers ineducation department wouldbe conducted in December.While offer letters to the suc-cessful candidates would beissued next year in January.

This he said while talkingto media here at his office in aceremony which marked theaward of certificate, shieldand cash prize to a 12-year-oldstudent of Bharia SchoolKarsaz, Shaheer Ahmed, whohas participated in the Artcompetition organized by the

Tests for 19,000 teachersin December: Pir Mazhar

UNESCO.He said our new genera-

tion was second to none intalents and the present demo-cratic government was en-couraging them at all plat-forms and trying to improveeducational standard in theprovince, especially in gov-ernment schools. DuringFY13, allocation for educa-tion amounted to 20 percentof the total provincial budget,he said.

He said present govern-ment was fully committed toenhance education and wel-comes health criticism, pri-vate and public both sectorscan promote education inSindh.

The minister educationsaid on the directives of chiefminister Sindh fake appoint-ments in Shikarpur andJacobabad had been cancelledand those who were found in-volved in corruption would bedealt strictly.

He informed that he hadvisited Kotwali Schools thatday and ordered to merge allsix schools there under a headaccording to the consolidatedpolicy of education depart-ment and all detailment orderhad been cancelled.

Present among others onthe occasion were dramatistFatima Suruya Bujya, ShujaatBaig, Principal Captain TariqRasheed and others.

PPP to continuestruggle for people’s

rights: SharjeelSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—PPP CentralDeputy Information Secretaryand Sindh Information MinisterSharjeel Inam Memon on Tues-day said his party will nevercompromise on rights of thepeople and will continue itsstruggle for their rights.

Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) has a long history of sac-rifices to protect rights of thepeople especially the depressedones, to safeguard andstrengthen democracy and touphold the constitution, he saidin a statement here. He de-scribed the propaganda againstPPP by certain frustrated quar-ters as totally baseless and falseand said PPP has always beenon the fore-front for the rightsof Sindh and its people.

He said that in the next gen-eral elections PPP would returnwith a big majority throughout thecountry especially in Sindh. Theanti-Sindh forces would be plainlyrejected by people of the province,he said.

Jails managementsystem to be

improved: WassanSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Minister forPrisons, Manzoor HussainWassan said that the manage-ment system of jails would bestreamlined and improved. Hewas presiding over a meeting ofthe senior officers of the Depart-ment here on Tuesday. The Min-ister said that for overcoming theshortage of staff, new recruit-ment would be made. He saidthat steps would also be under-taken for strengthening of thejails’ security. Manzoor Wassansaid that the inmates of the pris-ons would be provided in accor-dance with the jail manual.

500gm heroinrecovered

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—An excise teamheaded by Inspector AamirKhan Kalwar Tuesday raided apassenger coach bounded fromPeshawar to Karachi and recov-ered some 500 grams heroin.The team claimed to have ar-rested two accused from thecoach.

According to an officialstatement, Kalwar raided coachMR-XA072 on the Indus High-way near Sada Behar MoreKashmore and when searched itrecovered the drugs.

Two people arrested wereRehmanullah and Khalid Shah.Cases have been registeredagainst them and they have beenhanded over to the police.

Corruption case

NAB grants15-day physical

remand to accusedSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Accountabil-ity Court, Karachi on Tuesdaygranted 15 days physical remandof accused Sikandar Ali Abroand Ali Hasan in Rs 500 millioncorruption case. The accusedSikandar Ali Abro (a CSP Of-ficer of Accounts Cadre) and hisaccomplice, Accountant AliHasan were arrested by the Na-tional Accountability Bureau(NAB- Sindh) on charges of Rs500 million corruption in Ac-countant General (AG) SindhOffice, an official press releasesaid here.

The NAB Sindh is investi-gating the Hyderabad AccountsOffice case in which huge fraudwas detected in the heads ofPension, General ProvidentFund and Wages account. Dur-ing the course of the inquiry Rs.200 million were recoveredfrom the accused and efforts arebeing made to trace out the bal-ance amount. The case was ini-tiated in March this year inwhich government officialposted in DAO Hyderabad withthe help of other people system-atically plundered the govern-ment funds. The accused alsomade several unauthorized pay-ments to bogus companies fromthe pay heads reserved for thegovernment officials allegedly.

Super Highwaydevelopment

activitiesSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI–DHA CityKarachi’s (DCK) Steering Com-mittee Meeting chaired by Ad-ministrator DHA, BrigMuhammad Abdullah was heldat DHA’s Main Office to reviewthe progress of the ongoing de-velopment activities at DCK siteon Super Highway.

Project Director DCK, Brig(R) Muhammad Rafique ap-prised the Steering Committeeabout the progress of ongoingprojects under Immediate Ac-tion Plan at DCK site.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Distressed by thescarcity of compressed naturalgas (CNG), transporters blockedMA Jinnah Road - the main ar-tery of the city early Tuesdaymorning.

According to media reports,the portion of MA Jinnah Roadfrom Gurumandir to NumaishChowrangi was barricaded withrickshaws and taxis for at leastfour hours, after the owner of aCNG station ordered to closedown his fuel station late nightwith people in long queues of

Transporters block MA JinnahRoad in protest over CNG crisis

vehicles waiting for their turnfor hours. Meantime, massivetraffic jams were seen on othermain roads including Shahra-e-Faisal owing to long rows ofmotorists at the CNG stations,as a large number of the CNGstations are closed in protest.The CNG stations’ owners as-serted that they cannot sell thefuel gas on the cut prices assanctioned by the SupremeCourt of Pakistan.

The citizens lashed out at thepoliticians who raised the sloganof environment friendly to trans-fer the vehicles on CNG; now

creating an artificial shortage ofthe gas, they have deprived thelivelihood from a common man.It should be mentioned here thaton October 25, the apex courtdeclared the formula to link theCNG price with oil prices as “il-legal”. The court also directedOGRA to announce revisedprices minus surcharges and cess.

The OGRA subsequentlyannounced the reduced prices ofthe CNG. However, the CNG sta-tions, in opposition to the newlyannounced prices, began unilat-erally shutting down their fuelpumps as a sign of protest.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Min-ister Syed Qaim Ali Shah onTuesday chaired a high levelmeeting regarding law and or-der in the province specially inKarachi.

The meeting was attendedby Law Minister Ayaz Somor,Sindh Information MinisterSharjeel Inam Memon, SindhFinance Minister Syed MuradAli Shah, Chief SecretarySindh Raja Muhammad Abbas, ACS (Home) WaseemAhmed, I.G Police SindhFayaz Ahmed Leghari, DeputyD.G Rangers Brig MuhammadRafique Khan, AIG PoliceKarachi Iqbal Mehmood, Ad-vocate General Sindh Fatha

CM lauds LEAs for maintainingpeace during Ashura

Malik, Prosecutor GeneralSindh Shahdat Awan, Secre-tary Law Ghulam Nabi Shahand others.

The Chief Minister re-viewing the performance andresults during Moharam-ul-Harram/Youm-e-Ashura, con-gratulated the Police, Rangersand other law enforcing agen-cies.

He appreciated the promptmeasures, coordinated effortsand other vigilance adopted byall forces and agencies, withthe results the Ashra-e-Muharam passed peacefullyand no untoward incident tookplace.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah alsoappreciated efforts of CID Po-lice, who’s efforts achieved

detection of subversive explo-sive material and other crimi-nals.

The meeting discussedvarious issues, progress, per-formance and achievements ofHome department, police,rangers, law department, pros-ecution department and LEAs.

Sindh Law Minister,Sindh Information Minister,Sindh Finance Minister, ChiefSecretary Sindh, ACS(Home),I.G Police Sindh, Deputy D.GRangers Sindh, AIG PoliceKarachi, Prosecutor GeneralSindh, Advocate GeneralSindh and others highlighteddetailed reports, performance,and various issues were also inthe light of situation after pass-ing of 18th Amendment.

Joyful evening at Russian Consulate

SUGARY drinks are linked to a heightened risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, but a large U.S. study that confirmed

this shed little light on whether caffeine -suggested in past studies to have a link tosugar processing - helps or hinders. Amongmore than 100,000 men andwomen followed for 22years, those who dranksugar-sweetened drinkswere as much as 23 percentmore likely to develop dia-betes than those who didn’t,but the risk was about thesame whether the drinkscontained caffeine or not,according to the study thatappeared in The AmericanJournal of Clinical Nutrition.

“We found that caffeinedoesn’t make a difference atall,” said lead author FrankHu of Harvard University.“Coffee can be beneficialand the caffeine doesn’t ap-pear to have a positive ornegative effect on diabetesrisk.” Numerous past studies have linkedregular consumption of soft drinks, bothsugar- and artificially-sweetened, to an in-creased risk of diabetes. Research over thepast decade has also suggested that caffeinetemporarily prevents the body from process-ing sugar efficiently - a problem that thosewho live with diabetes deal with all the time.That at least suggests that caffeine in con-junction with sweetened drinks might raisediabetes risk even further. However, otherresearch has found a protective effect fromcoffee and tea, suggesting caffeine does theopposite.

Hu and his coauthors wanted to know

Caffeine-diabetes linkstill unresolved

if people who regularly drink sugary andcaffeinated beverages might only be ex-aggerating their risk of developing a dis-ease that affects nearly 26 million adultsand children, or about 8 percent of theU.S. population, according to the Ameri-

can Diabetes Association.They examined the healthhabits of 75,000 women and39,000 men involved in long-term health studies that be-gan in the mid-1980s. Com-pared to people who didn’tconsume sugary drinks, thelikelihood of developing dia-betes over the years for thosewho did was higher by 13percent for caffeinated sug-ary drinks and 11 percent fordecaffeinated amongwomen, and by 16 percent or23 percent among men, re-spectively. Caffeine-free ar-tificially sweetened drinkswere also linked to a 6 per-cent increase in risk amongwomen.

However, coffee drinkers showedslightly lower risks compared to non-drink-ers. The chances of developing diabeteswere 8 percent lower among women,whether they drank decaf or regular cof-fee, and for men, 4 percent lower with regu-lar coffee and 7 percent lower with decaf.Hu and his team have used this samedataset, which contains the health habitsof mostly white health professional, tosuggest that regular coffee drinking ingeneral is tied to a lower risk of diabetes.But past studies, like the current one, havealso found that the risk falls even lower ifadults drink decaffeinated coffee.

LAHORE: Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira talking to senior jour-nalists on Tuesday.

LAHORE: Chief Mobilizer on Dengue Awareness Programme, Begum Shaista ParvezMalik visiting the Day Care Centre of Qasiri Bahbood Centre Model Town.

LAHORE: Activists of Pasban-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat, Civil Society, PDP are chanting slogans in favour of their de-mands during a protest demonstration.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—District Coordina-tion Officer (DCO) LahoreNoor-ul-Amin Mengal has in-augurated 3 days anti- poliocampaign in 50 sensitive unioncouncils by administratingpolio drops to below 5 yearschildren of Khan Colony in thejurisdiction of Gulberg Townhere on Tuesday.

DCO Lahore administratedpolio drops to more than dozenof children and marked blackimpression on their thumbs.

On this occasion, repre-sentatives of WHO, UNICEF,health and EDO(Health) werealso with him.

Robbers gundown man

L A H O R E — R o b b e r sgunned down one personand injured another uponresistance during a robberyattempt here late Mondaynight.

According to police,two real brothers who run ageneral store in Small In-dustrial Cooperative Hous-ing Society, Defence-B po-lice station jurisdiction werereturning home after clos-ing shop when armed rob-bers tried to snatch cashand mobile phones fromthem.

Upon resistance the rob-bers opened fire killingIrshad on the spot and in-juring his real brotherShahzad and fled the scenewith looted cash.

The body and injuredwere shifted to General Hos-pital Lahore for medico legalrequirements.

The police registered acase against unknown ac-cused and started search forthem.—INP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has directedthe concerned authorities toexpedite the process of pro-vision of tractors to farmers,which should be completedby December 31 at all cost.The Chief Minister also di-rected to constitute a high-level committee in this re-gard, which will oversee theprocess of transparent distri-bution of tractors.

He said that self-suffi-ciency can be achieved in theagriculture sector at the na-tional level by promoting ag-riculture economy on con-crete and sustainable foun-dations.

He said Punjab govern-ment has initiated many de-velopment programmesaimed at welfare and uplift offarming community, in addi-tion to increasing agricultureproductivity to realize thedream of self-autarky in agri-culture sector. He said posi-tive and encouraging results

have been produced as a re-sult of farmer-friendly stepstaken by the Punjab govern-ment, which has resulted inboosting per acre productiv-ity.

He said Punjab govern-ment has initiated the pro-cess of provision of subsi-dized tractors, under theGreen Tractor Scheme, tofarmers, throughout theprovince, whereas these trac-tors are being given to thefarming community, after atransparent balloting pro-cess.

He expressed these viewswhile presiding over a highlevel meeting regardingprogress in provision of trac-tors under Green TractorScheme. Senator PervaizRashid, Special AssistantZaeem Hussain Qadri, Chair-man Planning & Develop-ment, Secretaries of Agricul-ture, Finance, Industry andauthorities concerned at-tended the meeting.

The Chief Minister saidthat, during the current year,as many as 10048 tractors are

being distributed among thefarmers while the Punjab gov-ernment is extending a sub-sidy of Rs.2 lakh on everytractor.

He said as many as tenthousand tractors are beingdistributed throughout theprovince, after a transparentballoting and merit, while 48tractors would be distributedat Dera Ghazi Khan and tribalareas of Rajanpur.

He said tractors distribu-tion process has been initi-ated purely on the basis ofmerit, and after conductingtransparent balloting.

He said quota for SouthPunjab districts has beenfixed to be more than theproportion of their popula-tion, in order to providemaximum agriculture facili-ties to the farmers of SouthPunjab.

Secretary Agriculture in-formed the Chief Minister,during his briefing, that over5000 tractors have been dis-tributed, while the remainingwould also be distributedbefore December 31.

To messify farming

Shahbaz orders speedyprovision of tractors

Punjab’s pleato cancel

Madhiana’sbail rejected

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Tuesday hasrejected the Punjabgovernment’s plea to cancelAslam Madhiana bail.

The Punjab governmentfiled a petition in the LHC,seeking the cancellation ofbail granted to AslamMadhiana, main accused ofteacher torture case inSargodha, by the trial court.

LHC judge JusticeMuzhar Ali Naqvi heard thecase.

The counsel for the gov-ernment informed the courtthat Aslam Madhiana alongwith his accomplices brutallytortured a school teacher,Muhammad Nafees.

Madhiana’s lawyer toldthe court that his client wasnot involved any torturecase, adding that the casewas fake and registered onpolitical bases.

After hearing the argu-ments, the court maintainedthe trial court’s decision.

Kalma Chowk trafficdiversion plan

LAHORE—City traffic policehave finalised a diversionplan for traffic during theconstruction of an under-pass at Kalma Chowk.

Chief Traffic Officer SuhailChaudhry alongwith circleheads inspected areas linkingKalma Chowk on Tuesdayand ordered wardens to en-sure the implementation onthe diversion plan. He di-rected the circle heads to moni-tor duty officers especiallyduring rush hours to ensuresmooth flow of traffic.—APP

Lecture on ‘Iqbaland Quran’

LAHORE—Iqbal AcademyPakistan will organise a lec-ture on “Iqbal and Quran” onWednesday here at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. Vice Chancellor ofUniversity of Gujrat, DrMuhammad IkramChaudhary will deliver key-note address on the occa-sion.—APP

Illegal constructions demolishedLAHORE—Lahore Develop-ment Authority during a spe-cial drive against land grabbersin various areas of city onTuesday retrieved preciousland worth tens of millions ofrupees after demolishing anumber of unlawful structures.

According to LDA offi-cials, the Estate ManagementDirectorate retrieved a plotmeasuring 19 kanlas in CBlock of Johar Town from il-legal occupants.

The plot had been ear-marked as a public utility sitefor setting up a building forthe benefit of the generalpublic. The land grabbershad set up more than 40 con-crete structures at the placewhich were razed during theoperation. Meanwhile, TownPlanning Wing sealed a pizzashop on Main BoulevardGhulshan-e-Ravi as the man-agement of the shop hadmade addition to the existing

Drug factoryseized

LAHORE—The health au-thorities during a raid seizedan illegal drug factory hereon Tuesday and took intocustody huge quantity offake medicines but the fac-tory owner managed to es-cape. According to details, ateam of health departmentraided an illegal drug factorylocated in Sheraz Park area ofShahdara, Lahore.

During raid huge quan-tity of substandard medi-cines mostly cough syrupswere seized.

Talking to media personson the occasion, DCOLahore said that health de-partment and districtadminstration was alert andraids were being conductedat illegal drugs factories inthe city.—INP

CNG supplyresumes

tomorrowLAHORE—The CNG supplyto filling stations in Lahoreregion would resume onThursday after three-dayweekly closure.

The Compress NaturalGas (CNG) supply to fillingstations in Lahore,Gujranwala, Sheikhupura,Sahiwal and Multan regionswas closed on Monday un-der government’s load-man-agement plan.

It will resume at 6 pmThursday, followed by athree-day closure inFaisalabad, Bahawalpur andIslamabad from Thursday.

CNG stations went on anunannounced strike onMonday across the country,posing serious troubles tothe commuters following in-conclusive talks between theCNG Dealers Associationand the Oil and Gas Regula-tory Authority (OGRA).

The CNG closure addedto miseries of people usingCNG-powered vehicles or re-lying on CNG-run transportas public transport turnedthin on roads, making it hardfor office workers and stu-dents to reach their desti-nies.—Online

DCO opens 3-dayanti-polio drive

Mengal appealed the citi-zens to administrate poliodrops to their children who arebelow 5 years. Before that,DCO Lahore met students ofPashto language and admiredtheir work in last anti-poliodrive. He enquired from all stu-dents one by one about work-ing of polio teams. He distrib-uted cash prizes and apprecia-tion letters among those stu-dents who worked in last anti-polio drive.

Moreover, DCO Lahoredirected the officers of CDGLto pay their full attention andwork whole heartedly in anti-polio drive.

He was presiding a meet-

ing here at Town Hall here onTuesday. He directed DO(C) tomonitor polio campaign andappoint MEOs of DMO officeto check the performance andattendance of polio teams.

He directed DO(M&I)Amin Akbar Chopra to sent allteams in field at 8am regularlyand to deploy special teams inBus stands, Zoo and other pic-nic points in city.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Special Assistantto Chief Minister on Health,Khawaja Salman Rafique hassaid that there is a need tolaunch an effective move-ment to create health aware-ness among the general pub-lic in order to eradicate vari-ous illnesses. He said if at-tention is not paid to preventdiseases, then the number ofpatients would keep increas-ing, while the health budgetand hospitals would not beable to meet the demand.

He expressed these viewswhile talking to an advisorymeeting between public rep-resentatives, Ulema and me-dia personnel, regarding pre-venting the growth of AIDsin the country, here today.Khawaja Salman Rafique saidthat increasing population isthe biggest hurdle in plan-ning the health-relatedneeds.

He called upon theUlema, media and public rep-

Spread of health awarenesshelps remedy illnesses

resentatives to play their vig-orous role in controllingpopulation increase and pre-venting deadly diseases, likeAIDs. He said the govern-ment is discharging its dutieseffectively to ensure denguecontrol on permanent basis.

Khawaja Salman Rafiquesaid that the health sector isabove politics, as the patientand the disease have no reli-gion. He said we would haveto concentrate on practicalsteps, rather than just mak-ing speeches, for which ev-ery person has to play its duerole.

Addressing the meeting,Parliamentary SecretaryHealth Dr. Saeed Elahi saidthat there is a need for thepublic representatives forensuring legislation in thisregard, besides keepingclose liaison with the peopleof their constitutions, so thatgreater awareness can be cre-ated among the general pub-lic against the AIDs and otherillness.

The meeting was alsoaddressed by Begum ShaistaPervaiz Malik, Arifa KhalidMPA, Maulana RaghibNaeemi and senior journalistSohail Warriach, who pre-sented their suggestions re-garding prevention of AIDs.Special Secretary HealthBabar Hayat Tarar said on theoccasion that Punjab is theonly province which is effec-tively running its AIDs Con-trol Programme, without anyforeign aid, while the Punjabgovernment is providingfunds in this regard for thelast three years.

He said that governmentwould continue to supportAIDs Control Programme, infuture as well. ShaistaPerviaz Malik said that thereis a need to come out of semi-nar rooms in order to preventAIDs, with the similar spiritas dengue virus was con-trolled, collectively. She saidthere is a need to stop dis-criminatory attitude towardsthe AIDs patients.

premises without getting ap-proval from LDA.

In another incident, LDAstaff demolished a workshopas well as two shops in Rev-enue Employees HousingSociety, Johar Town, as thestructures had been illegallyconstructed by grabbing aplot. LDA staff also demol-ished an illegal constructionwhich had been establishedin the parking area of LDAFlats, Lawrence Road.—APP

FIR registeredagainst

Senator’s sonSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Civil Lines policeregistered a case againstRizwan Hameed, a son ofSenator Najma Hameed ofPakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and his twofriends for allegedly selling aplot to an England-returnedwoman Rukhsana Kusarthrough a bogus registry.

Ali Aslam, a main accusedin this alleged fraud case, wasarrested and under interroga-tion while the police are stillreluctant to question RizwanHameed in regard of his im-plication in alleged FIR be-cause of his family’s politicalbackground.

According to the inves-tigation officer of the CivilLines Police Station,Mehboob Ahmed, prior toregistering this fresh FIRagainst the accused.