Sunday, 1 July, 2012 Shaban 10, 1433islamabad — peshawar editionRs 22.00 Vol iii no 6 18 pages

LAHOREStaFF report

a S a first formal denial to comply withthe Supreme Court which issued ordersthat Swiss authorities be moved to opengraft cases against President Asif AliZardari, Prime Minister Raja PervaizAshraf Saturday said that it was the

constitution that hindered writing of the Swiss letter.Talking to columnists and editors at the GovernorHouse, Ashraf said, “We will not let our first classpresident to capitulate to a third class magistrate,as the constitution stands against it.”The premier, regarding immunity of the president,said that presidents all over the world enjoyimmunity. “The parliament may debate on thematter of presidential immunity,” he responded.Rounding off his reply over the issue, Ashrafasserted that the government’s stance over theSwiss letter will be made public on July 12, “butone thing is for sure that President Zardari enjoysimmunity until he is in office.”The PM said that uncertainty prevailing in thecountry was harmful to the institutions and undueimportance given to a single issue might bedetrimental to democracy.“The institutions should work within their

constitutional ambit and let the people decideabout the future of the democratically electedgovernment since it is they who matter,” he said.The PM said that uncertainty had been damaging

the political system and the opposition should notforget that Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif,in their meetings, had resolved to avoid legpulling for political gains. Ashraf said the

government believes in the supremacy of theconstitution and law. He said if all institutions inthe country worked within their ambit, therewould be no problem in the country.Ashraf said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)wrote the history with blood and blood would onceagain be given if needed in future.Regarding the law and order situation in Karachi,he said that after the NFC award all provinces hadbeen granted powers to maintain law and order.

Now it was the responsibility of the provinces totake care of the law and order.The prime minister said that the federalgovernment was hesitant about sending in thearmy to resolve provincial issues for fear thatsuch measures may turn out to be the “wrongcure” to remedy the situation. He said that thearmy was patriotic and it was renderingenormous sacrifices for the country and hadplayed front role in natural calamities.“The federal government will be willing to help thegovernment of Sindh if they ask for it,” he said.While taking about the severe energy shortfall andload shedding, Ashraf said, “The electricity crisis isthe first priority.”About the Kalabagh Dam, the PM said the projectcould only be undertaken after national consensus,adding that the government had initiated otherpower generation projects like Diamir-Bhasha Dam,Boonji Dam as well as run of the river projects tomeet energy needs. Ashraf said the rental powerprojects (RPPs) were not properly understood,acknowledging he could not accurately clarify hisstatements regarding the energy crisis in the country.“The statement given in December 2009 regardingthe end to load shedding still hounds me,” he said.

LAHOREMuhaMMad azaM

With many calling it a bid to regain popularityamong the masses ahead of the elections, thegovernment slashed petroleum prices by up toRs 6.44 per litre and CNG prices by Rs 4.59per kg on Saturday.A notification issued by the Oil and Gas Regu-latory Authority (OGRA) said petrol price hadbeen reduced by Rs 5.02 per litre, High Oc-tane Blended Component (HOBC) by Rs 6.44per litre, High Speed Diesel (HSD) Rs 2.48,Light Diesel Oil (LDO) by Rs 2.86, while theprice of kerosene oil was cut by Rs 2.54 a litre.Following the announcement, petrol wouldnow be sold for Rs 84.49 per litre, HOBC forRs 106.88 per litre, High Speed Diesel at Rs97.21 per litre, Light Diesel Oil for Rs 83.71per litre, while new price of kerosene oil wouldfall to Rs 86.25 per litre.The new prices would be effective from July 1(today) following the new mechanism of fort-nightly review of prices.Moreover, price of CNG per kilogramme wasslashed by Rs 4.59 for Region 1 and by Rs 4.20for Region 2. The new price of CNG in Region1, including Potohar Region, KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Balochistan would be Rs77.36 per kg, a 7.7 percent reduction, while

CNG would cost Rs 70.63 per kg, an8.3 percent reduction, in Region 2that includes Punjab and Sindh. The government has provided suf-ficient relief to domestic con-sumers with a cut in prices ofbetween 18.7 percent and 51.7 per-cent, while gas price for the industry,power sector, WAPDA and KESC havebeen increased.CNG tariff for a hundred units has beenslashed from Rs 122.95 to Rs 100, for 200units, it has been reduced from Rs 245.89 toRs 200, while it has fallen from Rs 1,015 to Rs500 for 300 units. The CNG price forthe cement sector has been increasedby 0.8 percent, while gas price forthe fertilizer sector has re-mained unchanged. OGRAclaims that the twin re-duction in POLprices in a monthcame after oilprices fell to $5 abarrel in interna-tional market,however, peopleon the streets werenot convinced.

wOuld havewRitten tO theswiss, but...PM says ‘will nOt let fiRstclass PResident suRRendeRtO thiRd class MagistRate’says centRe hesitant abOutsending in aRMy tO ResOlvePROvincial issues

On the roadto repair

WASHINGTONSpecial correSpondent

Signaling that Pakistan-US relations couldbe on the road to repair in the days ahead,US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Sat-urday said the two sides were working ingood faith to try to resolve the issue overrestoration of NATO supply routes into thelandlocked Afghanistan. At a Pentagonbriefing, Panetta also said Pakistan had beena victim of terror. His measured remarksrepresent a ratcheting down from rhetoricalcriticism of Pakistan’s inaction againstAfghan Haqqani militants, who allegedly usethe Tribal Areas for cross-border attacks onAmerican targets in Afghanistan.

The joys of election year

POL prices slashed by upto Rs 6.44 per litre

CNG prices cut by Rs 4.59 per kg

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ANF gets searchwarrants to arrest fugitiveAli Musa Gilani

ISLAMABADStaFF report

The Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) onSaturday obtained search warrants for thearrest of former prime minister’s son AliMusa Gilani over his alleged involvement inthe Rs 7 billion Ephedrine drug scam.Earlier on June 21, an Anti-Narcotics Courtissued the arrest warrants for Ali Musa, buthe managed to dodge the ANF investigatorsand has been evading arrest so far. Afterfailing to arrest the high-profile accused,ANF Deputy Director Abid Zulfiqar, who isinvestigating the ephedrine case, turned tothe court of a special magistrate inRawalpindi and sought the fugitive’s searchwarrants. Special Magistrate ShafqatullahKhan, after hearing the ANF’s argumentsfor speedy completion for the megacorruption scandal, issued Ali Musa’ssearch warrants. The warrants haveenabled the investigators to carry out raidsanywhere in the country at any time toarrest the accused. “Now we have thesearch warrants. We have the right andauthority to conduct raids anywhere toarrest Ali Musa Gilani. We hope to arresthim in a few days,” an ANF official said,requesting anonymity. On June 21, anANF court had issued the arrest warrantsfor Ali Musa Gilani and senior PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) leader MakhdoomShahabuddin in the ephedrine case.However, a day after the warrants wereissued, Shahabuddin acquired a pre-arrest bail from Peshawar High Court. AliMusa also moved an application in thecourt of an additional session judge inRawalpindi, seeking cancellation of hisarrest warrants; however, the courtrejected his plea. Sources in the ANF toldPakistan Today that Shahabuddin, aftergetting the pre-arrest bail, has been incontact with the ANF investigators and iscooperating with them.

LAHOREuMair aziz

AFTER his sacking by theSupreme Court, former primeminister Yousaf Raza Gilanihadn’t spoken much. In hisfirst public appearance sinceGilani left the plush PM’sHouse in Islamabad, at aseminar here on Saturday, hecame out swinging, reciting a

ghazal every simile and everymetaphor of which seemed to

reflect his innermost feelings at hisremoval from office – and more

importantly the verdict that ‘got’him. Hum to gawah hain

ke ghalat tha likhagya, Kya faisla

huwa thaaur kyalikha gya(We are

witness, wrong was whatever theverdict was/All wrong, thisjudgment) was just the beginning.The ghazal, by a poet who haschosen to remain unidentified, isnot really immaculate in terms ofits craft, but aptly communicatedwhat he wished to, to the audienceof the day-long twin-sessionSAFMA seminar on a much talkedabout national issue, “Clash ofInstitutions and Sustainability ofDemocracy”. Gilani read theghazal at the end of his keynoteaddress, with the Maqtaa, the lastverse, as provocative as the otherfour: Yeh kaisi munsifi thee kemunsif ke samnay, Jhutishahadaton ko bhi sacha likhagaya (Dispensation of justice froma judge/who accepts fakewitnesses as true!). Gilani said, hepreferred taking the hemlock likeSocrates so that people may notlose respect for the judiciary.“History and the people willgive their own verdict on theSupreme Court decision[which got him

disqualified] because some peoplehad distributed sweets even whenformer Zulfikar Ali Bhutto washanged but history proved themwrong,” said Gilani, adding, hiscommitment to his leader lateBenazir Bhutto was to restore theConstitution of 1973, which wasachieved under his watch. “If a politician thinks that his partycan rule on his own, he is mistaken.Such a sizable parliament can onlysustain through coalition andreconciliation, without which nogovernment will survive. Andwithout political stability, therewould be no economic stability,”said Gilani. In each of the twosessions, across the board amongstthe speakers the view was: the ruleof law and adherence to the

Constitution should besupreme, that democracy is

essential, consensus should bebuilt on the nomination of an

election commissioner, theinterim set up should take notmore than 90 days andwhichever regime comes to

power in the next electionsshould be given a chance to form

the government. Ahsan Iqbal, thePakistan Muslim League-NawazMNA, said he has 400 percentbelief in the supremacy ofparliament, but all institutions arevying for power, and that includedjudiciary, media and parliament

and it was for the government todefine this new role for theparliament with “consensus”. TheMuttahida Qaumi Movement’sWaseem Akhtar said the directionthe country was heading could“derail” democracy and thecountry. “Altaf Bhai hascategorically said that institutionsshould not transgress their bounds.“Those who ask us to resign shouldresign from the Punjabgovernment. “If the political partieshave waited for four and a halfyears, they should wait for anotherseven months as well,” said Akhtar.“With regards to the disqualificationof the prime minister, allstakeholders in the country havereacted to the verdict keeping inview their own interests. However,international jurists have termedthe action a ‘judicial coup,” saidPakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami.He also requested the lawyers “notto ban entry of lawyers in bar roomson the basis of their clients, as evenwar prisoners are given a counsel”.Ahsan Wayne of the AwamiNational Party said we are headedtowards “judicial dictatorship”,which may lead to anarchy. Prominent amongst the speakersincluded educationist DrMuhammad Waseem, journalistKhaled Ahmed, TV anchorpersonIftikhar Ahmed and lawyerHamid Khan.

gilani cOMes Out swinging

02Sunday, 1 July, 2012

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ppp responsible for economic crisis in country: nawaz Six arrested for swimming in rawal lake

FAISALABAD: Patientsand their relatives awaitmedical care as theYoung DoctorsAssociation continuedwith their strike onSaturday. online

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NEWS DESk

Surjeet Singh, the Indian spy whowas recently released from a Pak-istani jail, has claimed that he waslured into spying by a BSF inspectorin 1968, according to the HindustanTimes. Talking to reporters inPhidde, Indian Punjab on Saturday,he said he had accepted the offer andvisited Pakistan 80-85 times to bringvital information.

Singh said he also managed toget a fake identity card under the

name Anwar when he was on thespying job in Pakistan, the papersaid. He said he had made threefriends who were clerks in a Pak-istan Army office. Surjeet was ar-rested in February 1982 by thePakistan Army. He accused the In-dian government of ignoring himand his family, despite him “sacri-ficing” his life for the country byworking as an intelligence agentand gathering vital information forIndian authorities.

“It is unfortunate that despite

being aware of all the facts, the In-dian government did not botherabout me or my family when I waslanguishing in a jail in Pakistan,” hesaid. Union Home Secretary RajKumar Singh on Friday said it was“completely wrong” to say that Sur-jeet was sent by Indian intelligenceagencies for espionage in Pakistan.To a question, Surjeet said therewere 20 other Indian Punjab-basedprisoners lodged in Lahore’s KotLakhpat jail. Of them, 10 had becomementally “disturbed”, he said.

ISLAMABADStaFF report

NATIONAL Accountability Bureau (NAB) ChairmanAdmiral (r) Fasih Bukhari on Saturday said that theinvestigation into Dr Arsalan Iftikhar’s case wouldbe made transparent as the NAB had no “specificagenda”. Addressing a press conference, Bukhari

also told the media about a letter written to them by Arsalan’scounsel which he claimed was “an effort to influence theproceedings of the case”.“The notice bears threatening language attempting to hamperproceedings. This constitutes offence under the law and thisaspect will also be looked into. NAB considers the contents ofthe notice not only threatening but an attempt to intervene inthe official working of the organisation. As JIT is in the processof complying with the orders of the SC, the ‘notice’ by MrArsalan Iftikhar is tantamount to the contempt of court as well,”he added. “I have constituted the joint investigation team (JIT),headed by DG Financial Crimes, NAB. The team comprises ofmembers from police, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) andNAB. Services of legal, financial and forensic experts can behired by the team if needed. The NAB is conducting theinvestigation into the matter to comply with the orders of theHonourable Supreme Court (SC),”said Bukhari.He emphasised that the investigations into the case would be“impartial, transparent, purely on merit and strictly under thelaws of the land” as NAB had no specific agenda. He said theteam would also visit London while laying focus on the pointthat the investigation may take some time.Asked how he could remain impartial in probe against DrArsalan when Malik Riaz had played a key role in hisappointment, the NAB chief said, “It doesn’t matter if I knowMalik Riaz or Nawaz Sharif, the investigation will be unbiased.”He also added that he had never taken any money from MalikRiaz. The NAB chief explained about the composition and termsof reference (ToR) of the JIT constituted to investigate thematter. He said the court had ordered the federal government toactivate the state machinery to investigate the case and punishthe culprits. “Pursuant to the directives of the SC, the office ofthe Attorney General asked NAB to conduct in-depthinvestigation by constituting a team comprising upon theofficials of NAB, FIA and police”.He said that the JIT would determine whether it was a case ofcollusion between two private individuals or a case of extortionby any of the accused. “The team will look into all the relevanttransactions, money trail, investments, commercial dealings,business profiles, relevant meetings and if required details ofcommunications between those associated, in any manner, withthe case,” he maintained. Responding to a question, thechairman NAB said that the JIT would largely depend ondocumentary evidence; therefore, the question of favour ordisfavour to anyone didn’t arise.

dr arsalan’s‘threats’ won’tdeter nab, saysfasih bukhari

I was lured into spying by BSF inspector: Surjeet

hyderAbAd: A Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) jiyala on Sat-urday was expelled from the Hyderabad Circuit House after hetook off his shoe and attempted it to hurl it at the Sindh LawMinister Ayaz Soomro during his speech. The PPP’s disgruntledactivist Imran said that he was trying to protest the fact that theparty was not fulfilling its promises. Imran shouted at the minis-ter that he was jobless and the party had done nothing to providehim with a job. He also complained that the PPP didn’t help thepeople adequately during the flash floods in the province. INP

g nab chairman says Jit formed

to probe bahriagate

nO fuRy liKe ajiyala scORnedA shoe for sindh’s lAw minister

ONLINEiSlaMabad

Secretary Information Pakistan MuslimLeague and Member National AssemblyKashmala Tariq while opposing AtiaEnayatullah’s Bill on ReproductiveHealth said that it was not in conformitywith Islamic laws. In a press statementissued Saturday, MNA Kashmala Tariqsaid the Bill which was seeking to facili-tate reproductive health and promote re-productive health rights had a lot ofproblematic areas which needed to bedeliberated upon since we live in an Is-lamic Republic and all the laws must be

in conformity with Islam, Quran, Sun-nah and Constitution.

She expressed concerns that that billmight be pursuant of foreign agendassome members of NGOs were hard-push-ing it to bypass the set procedure.

She said that such things that mightbe in contravention of Islamic injunctionsshould be sent to the Council of IslamicIdeology and every party’s opinion shouldbe sought. She said that by using the titleof “reproductive health” as a camouflage,they should not try to obfuscate the realpurpose of the bill from the general publicwhich included dealing with the sensitiveissue of abortion.

Red flagging?

03Sunday, 1 July, 2012

Newseditorialon appointing the cec:

comment

articles on Page 14

Some progress?

humayun Gauhar says;The morphing Leviathan: It’s a mad, mad world

Saad rasool says;Doctor, heal thyself: Promotions over patients?

artS & entertainment

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Katie holmes finds tom cruise is ‘Mission: impossible’ thirty love, apple pakistan revel

Kashmalacriticises reproductivehealth bill

ISLAMABAD: Familyphotographer of the Bhuttos,Agha Feroze shows a historicalpicture of Sir ShahnawazBhutto and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.Agha Feroze says that he hasbrought 2,000 exclusivepictures of the Bhutto familyfrom Sindh but so far no leaderof the PPP has shown interestin arranging an exhibition forhim in the capital. online

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04Sunday, 6 may, 2012

News

NAIROBIaFp

Kenyan security forces onSaturday scoured border re-gions with war-torn Somaliain the hunt for armed kid-nappers who seized four for-eign aid workers fromDadaab, the world’s largestrefugee camp.

The two men and twowomen who work with theNorwegian Refugee Council(NRC), come from Canada,Norway, Pakistan and thePhilippines. A Kenyan driverwas killed and two others werewounded during Friday’s at-tack. “The search is intensify-ing and more security forceshave been sent to make everyeffort possible but, so far, noone has been recovered,”Kenyan army spokesmanCyrus Oguna told AFP. Aerialsearches were ongoing usingboth military helicopters andaircraft, while vehicles andtroops on foot searched the re-

mote scrubland either side ofthe porous border with Soma-lia. Kenya, which invadedsouthern Somalia in Octoberto attack Al-Qaeda linked Is-lamist insurgents, has troopssome 120 kilometres (75miles) deep into Somalia.However, the forces controlonly pockets of the vast terri-tory. While many fear the gun-men and their hostagescrossed swiftly into Somalia —only some 100 kilometresfrom Dadaab — Oguna said hewas still hopeful they re-mained inside Kenya.

“We are thinking thatthey are in Kenya, we aremaking every effort that wecan, and we are hopeful of apositive outcome,” he added.The aid workers’ vehicle,which the gunmen stole afterkilling the driver, was foundabandoned a few hours afterthe attack. Similar abduc-tions in the past have seenthe gunmen disappear intothe bush to evade capture.

NRC is working to sup-port some 465,000 inhabi-tants in the Dadaabcomplex, which constitutesKenya’s third-biggest townin terms of population.

The kidnapping is thelatest in a series of attacks inDadaab, where gunmen lastOctober seized twoSpaniards working forMedecins sans Frontieres(Doctors Without Borders).They are still being heldhostage in Somalia.

The abduction of theSpaniards was one of the in-cidents that spurred Kenyato send troops and tanksinto Somalia to fight theShebab insurgents Nairobiblames for abductions andfor cross-border raids.

However, Kenya has alsovoiced concern that Dadaab,too, poses a security threat,and has blocked registrationof new refugees to the camp.

“The information wehave is that the attackers

came from the camp, and itraises serious questions thatif they were refugees, howthey got into the camparmed,” Kenyan DefenceMinister Yusuf Haji said.

The Shebab still controllarge parts of southern So-malia, despite recent lossesto African Union troops,government forces andEthiopian soldiers, who havewrested several key basesfrom the insurgents.

Representatives of thecountries of those kid-napped said they were en-suring every effort wasbeing made to secure the re-lease of the aid workers.“We are pursuing all appro-priate channels... We willnot comment or release anyinformation which maycompromise these efforts,”said Canadian foreign min-istry spokesman Claude Ro-chon, adding that the “firstpriority is the safety and se-curity” of its citizens.

GENEVAaFp

WORLD powers onSaturday agreed toa plan for a transi-tion in Syria thatcould include cur-

rent regime members, butenvoy Kofi Annan doubted ifSyrians would pick leaders“with blood on their hands”.

US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton made it clearthat Washington did not seeany role for President Basharal-Assad in the new regime,even though there was no ex-plicit call for him to cedepower. “Assad will still haveto go. He will never pass themutual consent test,” saidClinton.

While Annan did notname names and said it wasup to the Syrians to decidewho they want in a unity gov-ernment, he added, “I woulddoubt that Syrians... wouldselect people with blood ontheir hands to lead them.”The deal came despite initialpessimism from participantsabout the prospects of the

Geneva talks due to deep di-visions between the West andChina and Russia on the fu-ture of Assad.

Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov said followingthe meeting that Moscow hadconvinced other parties to ac-cept that the transition wouldbe decided by Syrians andthat no party should be ex-cluded from the process.“How exactly the work on atransition to a new stage isconducted will be decided bythe Syrians themselves,” hesaid. “There are no demandsto exclude from this processany one group. This aspecthad been present in many ofour partners’ proposals. Wehave convinced them that thisis unacceptable,” Lavrov said.A long-time Syria ally, Russiais loathe to cast Assad aside,even as relations betweenMoscow and Damascus havecooled. Chinese Foreign Min-ister Yang Jiechi also stressedthat “outsiders cannot make

decisions for the Syrian peo-ple”. As divisions threatenedto scupper talks earlier Satur-day, Annan had warned at theopening of the meeting thathistory “will judge us allharshly” if world powersfailed to bridge their gaps onhow to end the bloodshed inSyria and chart a transition.

A failure to unite alsoraised the spectre that theconflict that has claimed15,800 lives over 16 monthsin the strategic Middle Eastcountry could spill over to theregion and expose the worldto fresh threats, said the for-mer UN chief.

“History is a sombrejudge – and it will judge us allharshly if we prove incapableof taking the right pathtoday,” Annan told the fivepermanent Security Councilmembers – the United States,Russia, Britain, China andFrance — as well as regionalpowers Qatar, Turkey, Kuwaitand Iraq.

“There continue to be discus-sions in this area. We con-tinue to have a line ofcommunication with Pakista-nis to try to see if we can takesteps to reopen the GLOCs(ground lines of communica-tion). The good news is thatthere continue to be thosediscussions,” he said.

At the same time, he ac-knowledged that “there arestill some tough issues (be-tween the two countries) to…resolve”. “But I think the im-portant thing right now isthat both sides, in good faith,keep working to see if we canresolve this,” he added, ap-pearing jointly with US Chair-man Joint Chiefs of Staff GenMartin Dempsey.

The US defence secretarynoted that the Pakistani offi-cials understood Washington’sconcern over cross-border at-tacks by the Haqqani mili-tants. He referred to thisweek’s meeting between UStop commander inAfghanistan, General JohnAllen and Pakistan army chiefGeneral Ashfaq Kayani, em-phasising that the US and Pak-istan should work together tocurb cross-border activities ofthe Haqqani militants.

“After all, they too havebeen the victim of terrorism.They lost 17 Pakistanis on a pa-trol to the TTP. And so every-day they too are the victims ofterrorism. So we have a com-mon enemy. It would makesense if we could work to-gether to confront that com-mon enemy,” he said.Panetta’s restrained com-ments appeared to be an at-tempt to give diplomacy achance to work between thetwo nations. He angered Pak-istanis on recent visits to Kabuland New Delhi by using someblistering language to expressWashington’s dissatisfactionwith Islamabad’s counterter-rorism performance.

In Kabul, he went on to saythat the US was reaching limitsof its patience with Pakistan’slack of action against theHaqqani network, which USsays, targets American forcesdeployed in Afghanistan.

Officials in both Islamabadand Washington have adopted

a conciliatory tone, in a breakwith their previous hardenedarticulations. In the last cou-ple of days, Pakistan’s ForeignMinistry has said restorationof NATO supply routes wouldbe in Pakistan’s interests whilethe military described thisweek’s talks between GeneralAllen and General Kayani asconstructive.

Pakistan Today reportedon Friday that the two sideswere working on a packagedeal which would address Is-lamabad’s longstanding con-cerns on drone strikes in theTribal Areas and allow the re-lations to move forward.

For the United States, re-opening of the supply routesremains a priority as it hasbeen paying an additional$100 million a month to flyand transport supplies intoAfghanistan via a muchlonger northern route.

Islamabad, meanwhile,has been demanding a USapology over the Salala in-cident to help revive rela-tions between the twocountries, which workedclosely in the last 10 yearsto get rid of several alQaeda-linked militants.

But relations staggeredfrom one crisis to another lastyear, with the discovery ofOsama bin Laden in Abbot-tabad and the subsequentunilateral American raid thattook out the al Qaeda chiefcausing a significantdownslide in bilateral ties.

In addition to lingeringmutual frustrations on somecounterterrorism issues, thetwo countries are trying to se-cure their interests in politi-cally charged environmentsas both US President BarackObama and President AsifZardari’ government faceelections

ON the rOADtO repAir

Continued fRom page 1

WASHINGTONaGencieS

More than 1.5 million homesand businesses across Mary-land and Virginia lost powerFriday night as one of themost powerful and punishingstorms in months sweptacross the Washington region.

Two deaths were re-ported in the Springfieldarea of Fairfax County. Afalling tree struck a car atOld Keene Mill Road andBauer Drive, killing the maledriver, said Officer Don Got-thardt, a Fairfax County po-lice spokesman. A90-year-old woman, whowas sleeping, was killed aftera tree fell on her house. Inaddition, a park police offi-cer was injured by a fallingtree and an 18-year-old manwas struck by a power line.The ferocity of the storm ap-peared to reflect the inten-

sity of the daytime heat thatset records across the region,as the mercury at ReaganNational Airport rose to 104degrees Fahrenheit.

As the storm raced east-ward, fuelled by heat andhumidity, wind gusts wereestimated as high as 80mph. Lightning flashed,winds rose to tornadic lev-els, and rain and hail peltedone spot after another,striking many areas. EarlySaturday, Pepco reportedmore than 400,000 homesand businesses were with-out electricity in its servicearea, which includes Mont-gomery and Prince George’scounties and the District ofColumbia. The largest num-ber of outages was reportedin Montgomery. DominionVirginia Power gave a figureof 750,000, which includedcustomers throughout Vir-ginia.

would have written

to the Swiss but...

Regarding the cooperationof PML-N in theappointment of ChiefElection Commissioner(CEC), the PM said he wassure to have a positiveresponse from the PML-Nleadership. The CECshould be a consensuscandidate, who would goby the book, he added.The premier urged all thepolitical parties to shunoff their differences andwork together forstrengthening the country.He said on its part thePPP was committed toavoid politics ofconfrontation. The groupof senior editors withwhom the PM had aninteraction includedSaleem Bukhari‚Mujeebur Rehman Shami‚Arif Nizami‚ Zia Shahid‚PJ Mir and others.

storm batters washington,leaves 1.5m without power

June 30 was asecond longerThe planet’s timekeepersadded an extra second to theclock at midnight universaltime Saturday night. The so-called leap second wasneeded to synchronise theworld’s official atomic clocks,said John Lowe, who headsthe time and frequencyservices group at the NationalInstitute of Standards andTechnology. The reason?Earth is spinning just a bitslowly. The time it takesEarth to rotate on its axis —which is the definition of aday — is now about twomilliseconds longer than itwas 100 years ago, said GeoffChester, spokesman at theUS Naval Observatory, in aninterview with theAssociated Press. Over thecourse of a year, that adds upto nearly three-quarters of asecond. News DesK

Continued fRom page 1

the joyS oF election year

A majority of the population called the decision an electionstunt by the incumbent government and an attempt to salvagelost pride. Asked about the CNG price cut, a motorist at afilling station said it was the only thing the government coulddo in the current circumstances to appease the raging masses.“They have failed to restore order, failed in securing people’slife and property, commodity prices are going through theroof, there is a shortage of almost everything useful and theyhave even taxed listening to the radio on a cell phone. I amsurprised they even bothered lowering the POL/CNG prices,whatever the reason for their global fall was,” he said. “I don’tthink they have managed to secure my vote,” he added with agrin. A motorcyclist, Ahmed, at a petrol station said the POLprice cut was not a good sign. “With such a drastic cut now,people must get ready for a shocker of a raise in POL pricesonce the elections are over,” he said. “God help us.” “At lastthey [rulers] have done something positive,” ShahnazWaseem, a female commuter said. “I hope it translates intolower prices of everything else as well, as everyone attributesthe general rising price level to costly fuel.”

lahore: concerned citizens of pakistan (ccp) protesting atthe liberty roundabout on Saturday against lawlessness andtargeted killing of Shias in Quetta. STaFF PhoTo

World powers agreeon Syria deal

g Kofi annan doubts if Syrians will pickleaders ‘with blood on their hands’

Kenyan army hunts kidnappers

of four foreign aid workers

FallS church: a downed tree damages a truck after a powerful overnight storm in the Washington, dc region on Saturday. aFP

Continued fRom page 1

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Sunday, 1 July, 2012 05

ISLAMABADaGencieS

INTERIOR Minister Rehman Malik hascalled on India to provide more detailsabout the 26/11 key handler Abu Jundal,

saying criminals using “fake” passports couldnot be Pakistanis.

“Pakistan expects to receive a copy of thestatement of (Jundal). I expect to have originalpassport claimed to have been allegedly givenby (Pakistan),” Malik wrote in a messageposted on Twitter late on Friday night. Indianauthorities have said Ansari alias Abu Jundal– who is an Indian citizen – had travelled toSaudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport.

In recent interactions with the media,Malik has questioned whether the passportused by Ansari was genuine. In another mes-sage posted on Twitter, Malik noted that“India had claimed earlier that (Jundal) had aPakistani passport”, adding criminals using“fake” passports “cannot be Pakistani”. In yetanother message, Malik said Pakistan “willcontinue to fully cooperate with India in theinvestigation of Mumbai terrorist attacks. Pakand India need to identify their real enemy.”

He said the two countries “need to knowtheir real common enemy”. He also raisedquestions about Pakistan-American terror sus-pect David Headley, asking “who funded himto produce movies of locations” in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, in yet another delay in the trial ofseven Pakistani suspects charged with involve-ment in the Mumbai attacks, the matter hasbeen adjourned until July 14 when the courtwill take up an application filed by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

Chaudhry Habibur Rehman, who was re-cently appointed judge of the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court no 1, began hearingthe case on Saturday. He said arguments byLakhvi’s lawyer on the application will beheard at the next hearing. The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operations commander has filed anapplication asking the court not to make thereport of the Judicial Commission part of theproceedings as it has “no legal value”. Theeight-member commission, which includedprosecutors and defence lawyers, visitedMumbai earlier this year and interviewed ajudge, a senior police officer and two doctorswho conducted the autopsies of the terroristsinvolved in the attacks and their victims.

Defence lawyers have contended that thecommission’s report has no legal value as thepanel did not have the right to cross-examine wit-nesses in India. Lakhvi’s lawyer Khwaja HarisAhmed has said the commission’s visit to Indiawas an exercise in futility. The anti-terrorismcourt no 1 is conducting the trial of those chargedwith involvement in the Mumbai attacks andhearings are held behind closed doors at AdialaJail in Rawalpindi due to security reasons.

lAhore: PML-N President Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said the country wasfacing acute economic crises due to mass corruption and wrong policies of the

PPP government. Talking to former federal minister of the PML-Q, Ali NawazMehr at his residence on Saturday, Nawaz criticised the PPP and its partners,

saying they responsible for the current deteriorating situation in the coun-try. He claimed the PML-N had an experienced team of experts and

professionals that could help Pakistan get out of the difficul-ties. He said he could not forget the love and affectionate

welcome accorded to him during visit to Sindh. Bothsides exchanged views on the overall political sce-

nario in the country. During the meeting, theoverall political situation in the country came

under review. Sources said Mehr sup-ported the policies of Nawaz. They said hewas also likely to join the PML-N very

soon. Senior PML-N leader Imdad Chandioand others were also present. ageNcIeS

SANGLA HILLonline

The widow of one of the victims of train blastnear Sangla Hill in 1990, which was carriedout by Indian spy Sarabjit Singh, has made itclear upon President Asif Ali Zardari and thegovernment that she would commit self im-molation in front of the President House ifthe killer was released. Talking to reporterson Saturday, Shamim Bibi, widow of MirzaTufail who was among the 14 victims of theterror attacks by Sarabjit Singh, said she andher five daughters were mourning the deathof Mirza Tufail for the last 22 years, and theonly consolation to them could come in formof the killer’s hanging. She said Indian actorSalman Khan, who had shown sympathywith the family of Sarabjit Singh, should alsofeel the agony of victim families. She said shewould never pardon the Indian spy andwould commit self immolation if he was re-leased. Bibi said her family wanted to see theIndian spy hanged in public.

Jc recommends

extension for

four PHc judgesISLAMABAD

inp

The Judicial Commission ofPakistan on Saturdayrecommended one-yearextension in the services offour additional judges of thePeshawar High Court (PHC).A meeting of the commissionwas held in this regard at theSupreme Court building. ChiefJustice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry chaired themeeting, which was attendedby the members of thecommission from KhyberPakhtunkhwa, attorneygeneral and Law MinisterFarooq Naek.The commissionproposed four new judges forthe PHC, namely AsadullahChamkani, Rohul Amin,Irshad Qaisar and ShahjahanAkhund.It recommended theappointment of ShahjahanKhanzada and Mrs IrshadQaisar as additional judges ofthe PHC, and proposed one-year extension in the service ofJustice Khalid Mehmood,Justice Nisar Hussain, JusticeWaqar Ahmed Seth andJustice QaisarRasheed.According to sources,the commission deliberatedon nine names and laterfinalised four names for thePHC.Following thecommission’s approval, thesenames would be sent to aparliamentary committee andlater to the president ofPakistan for approval.

Pakistan demands moredetails on Abu Jundalg mumbai case trial adjourned till July 14

PPP responsible for economiccrisis in country: nawaz

Victim widow threatens selfimmolation if Sarabjit released

LONDONaGencieS

President Asif Ali Zardari held a meetingwith Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)chief Altaf Hussain here on Friday night.During the meeting, they discussed thecurrent political and security situation inKarachi, and matters regarding the rulingcoalition. Zardari thanked Altaf for thesupport extended by the MQM to thePakistan People’s Party (PPP) for the

election of Prime Minister Raja PervezAshraf. Sources said the two leaders spentconsiderable time on discussing theKarachi situation, and agreed to strictlydeal with the criminals irrespective of theiraffiliation with any political party. The twopoliticians also discussed possiblecooperation for the next general elections.Meanwhile, Zardari also met MohammedBurhanuddin, leader of the Dawoodi Bohracommunity, and enquired about his health.Zardari also invited him to visit Pakistan.

Zardari, Altaf discuss political situation, future cooperation

FaiSalabad: a marriage registrar and thefather of a 10-year-old girl in police custody after they forced the young girl tomarry a 32-year-old man on Saturday.

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Sunday, 1 July, 2012

no water supply to cantt board

RAWALPINDIonline

A special anti-terrorism court has summoned recordof joint account of former president Gen (retd) Per-vez Musharraf and his wife Sehba Musharraf whilehearing a petition filed by Sehba Musharraf.

The court Saturday heard the proceedings of thepetition filed by Sehba Musharraf against freezing ofassets and bank accounts in Shaheed BenazirBhutto’s murder case. During the course of hearing,Special Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar, on be-half of FIA, told the court that investigation officerof the case, Khalid Rasool, has been transered toDera Ismail Khan as a deputy director and no officerhas been placed for the investigation of this case.

Ilyas Siddiqui who is counsel for SehbaMusharraf said the court has frozen accounts bydeclaring Pervez Musharraf a proclaimed offenderin Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s murder case. Hestated that these accounts were joint types, so thecourt should reopen those accounts.

Special Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqarsaid, “According to law, no action could be taken oversuch petitions until the proclaimed offender is ar-rested.” He added that they had written to the Britishgovernment and Interpol for arresting Parvez

Musharraf, but he hadnot been arrested norhad he surrendered sofar. He presented refer-ences of previous judg-ments and PLD 2010.

The court or-dered the specialpublic prosecu-tor to producerecord of thejoint accounton the nexthearing. Thecourt also di-rected the FIAto get recordof accountsfrom the in-vestigation of-ficer andsubmit it to thecourt. Later,the court ad-journed thehearing tillJuly 14.

Court seeks record ofMusharraf, Sehba’sjoint account

RAWALPINDIonline

PUNJAB Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif on Saturday set upa tent office in Rawalpindi inprotest over load shedding.In an attempt to solve

masses’ problems, Chief Minister ShahbazSharif chaired a meeting in his tent officein Liaqat Bagh.

Addressing the session, ShahbazSharif said all assurances of the federalgovernment regarding uniform load shed-ding in all the provinces proved wrong,adding that it was very difficult to sit in thetent in the scorching sun, but he would notleave the masses at the mercy of the gov-ernment.

He wowed to sit in the tent office untilthe government carried out uniform loadshedding in all the provinces.

A huge crowd gathered outside Li-aquat Bagh in a bid to see the chief minis-ter to redress their complaints.

The police stopped people from gettingin the CM’s tent office. Baton charge andother typical tactics were seen when thepolice were handling the mass gathering.

Shahbaz Sharif also met the heirs ofthe two people who were murdered in thecity and announced a compensation of Rs1 million for the children of the victimsand ordered arrest of the murdererswithin a week.

Shahbaz pitches his tent in Pindino to load SHedding!

ISLAMABADapp

The Government of Pakistan has of-fered 600 scholarships for the Afghanstudents to study in different disciplinesin the prominent educational institu-tions of Pakistan for the current aca-demic year, 2012-2013.

According to a statement issuedhere from Kabul, Pakistan has been of-fering fully-funded scholarships since

2009 under `The Prime Minister ofPakistan’s 2000 Scholarships Schemefor Afghan Students’ and nearly 1500Afghan students are already benefitingfrom this scheme. The objective to startthis scheme is to promote education inAfghanistan, people to people contactbetween the two neighboring countries.

In this regard, the Embassy of Pak-istan held a written test on Saturdayand the successful candidates would beable to benefit from the scheme to study

in the professional colleges and univer-sities of Pakistan.

All the expenses including tuitionfee, boarding and lodging, traveling toand from Afghanistan will be born bythe Government of Pakistan.

It may be mentioned that over30,000 Afghan nationals have gradu-ated from Pakistan Universities andProfessional colleges in the last threedecades and playing now active role inthe reconstruction and socio-economic

development of their country.Keeping in view the vital educa-

tional requirements of Afghanistan, thegovernment offered the scholarships toAfghan students in the fields of Medi-cine, Engineering, Information Tech-nology, Business Administration,Agriculture, Economics, Natural Sci-ences and Teaching. Government ofPakistan has also planned to increasethe number of scholarships for Afghanstudents in the coming years.

cM approves

multi-billion plan

for Leh Nullah

expressway RAWALPINDI

app

Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharifhas accorded approval to multi-billionrupees project of Leh Nullah expressway.A committee headed by Chairman Planningand Development Punjab has beenformulated to assess design and cost of LehNullah project. On Saturday, DirectorGeneral Rawalpindi Development AuthorityChaudhry Naseer gave a briefing about Lehexpressway to Chief Minister Punjab MianShahbaz Sharif at the camp office set up atLiaquat Bagh. The Director General RDA toldthat in the first phase, Rs 2 billion were to bespent for construction of road from AmmarChowk to IJ Principal Road. The Leh Nullahis an old project which was stopped in 2008due to paucity of funds. At that time servicesof Frontier Works Organisation FWO werehired for the project. The project cost wasestimated at Rs. 18 billion in 2007. Under theproject two signal-free roads were to beconstructed on both sides of Leh Nullah(drain) to provide hassle-free vehicularmovement from Rawalpindi to Islamabad. Itmay be mentioned that in previous yearsfloods in Leh Nullah devastated the low lyingareas along the busy Murree Road resultingin loss of precious lives and damages toworth billions of rupees property.

Pindi bench to go on

summer break from

tomorrowRAWALPINDI

online

Summer vacation of Lahore High Court(LHC) Rawalpindi Bench will start fromMonday. Justice Shahid Hameed Dar andJustice Chaudhry Muhammad Younas willperform duty during the summer break andwould hear urgent cases only.

Six arrested for swimmingin rawal lake

ISLAMABADonline

The Islamabad police have arrested at least six peoplefor swimming in Rawal Dam. According to sources, thepolice arrested the six persons under Section 144 asthey had violated the ban imposed by DeputyCommissioner Amir Ali Ahmed. Under Section 144,swimming and bathing in streams, rivers and damshave been banned. It is pertinent to mention that everyyear around a dozen of people drown while bathing inRawal Dam.

600 Afghan students to get higher education scholarships

Page 06

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07Sunday, 1 July, 2012

Islamabad

RAWALPINDIonline

tHE citizens living in the CanttBoard area are facing severewater shortage. The supplywas interrupted due to burst-ing of supply lines during exca-

vation work for extension of Peshawar Road.Due to interruption of water supply

people living in Chohar Chaki, Lane No 4, 5and 6 are facing hardships in different areasof the Cantt Board. They have demanded ofthe higher officials to take notice of the crisisand ensure resumption of water supplies.10 more disPensAries uPgrAded: Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif has approved upgradationof 10 more dispensaries in Rawalpindi.

In line with this ap-proval, chairman ofthe municipal com-mittee dispensaries,MPA SheharyarRiaz, has issued anotification, upgradingdispensaries in RataAmral, Bani mullah,Ammar Purra specially in ChamanzarColony along with four dispensaries inRawalpindi to meet the medical needs ofthe people. Under this plan, dispen-saries would be equipped with the latestultrasound and other facilities. PunjAb to hire 996 teAchers:Under the direction of Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif, the provincial govern-ment will start recruitment of science

t e a c h e r sagainst 996 vacant seats inRawalpindi division. The Punjab govern-ment has reserved 2% and 5% quota fordisabled and minorities, respectively.Potential candidates between 20 to 35years would submit challan forms worthRs 100 along with their educational doc-uments to the government while the re-cruitment of the teachers would becompleted by the end of July.

Meanwhile, the government someyears back had stopped recruitmentagainst 1,100 vacant seats of arts teachers.

ISLAMABADapp

Dentists may be able to help spot un-diagnosed diabetes or identify peoplewith pre-diabetes. By identifying thepeople with the disease who are un-aware of their condition, routine den-tal checkups provide an opportunityfor dentists to help fight diabetes.

Oral healthcare settings have notbeen evaluated before, nor have thecontributions of oral findings everbeen tested prospectively, HealthNews reported. Researchers re-cruited 601 people visiting a dentalclinic who had never been told theyhad diabetes or pre-diabetes. Of thatgroup, roughly 530 patients reportedhaving at least one risk factor for thedisease, such as high blood pressureor obesity.

The patients were given a peri-odontal examination and blood teststo evaluate for diabetes. The re-searchers found that just the numberof missing teeth and the percentageof deep periodontal pockets might beeffective in identifying people with

unrecognised pre-diabetes or dia-betes.

Since one in four Americans withtype 2 diabetes remains undiagnosedand those with pre-diabetes are atrisk for type 2 diabetes as well asheart disease, stroke and other vas-cular problems, the findings couldprovide a relatively simple way tohelp fight diabetes. Early recognitionof diabetes has been the focus of ef-forts from medical and public healthcolleagues for years as early treat-ment of affected individuals can limitthe development of many seriouscomplications.

Relatively, simple lifestylechanges in pre-diabetic individualscan prevent progression to frank di-abetes, so identifying this group ofindividuals is also important.

Early life adversitieslinked to stress

ISLAMABADonline

A new study has found that peoplebecome more easily depressedfollowing minor life stresses, partlybecause they have experienced earlylife adversities or prior depressiveepisodes. According to researchersat the University of California, LosAngeles (UCLA), both thesesituations may make people moresensitive to later life stresses.Although, most people are pulleddown by significant adversities likethe death of a loved one or gettingfired, roughly 30 percent with first-time depression and 60pc of peoplewith a history of depression developthe disorder following relativelyminor misfortunes. “We have knownfor a long time that some people aremore likely to experience mental andphysical health problems thanothers,” said George Slavich, anassistant professor at the UCLACousins Center forPsychoneuroimmunology. “Forexample, while some people getdepressed following a relationshipbreakup, others do not. In this study,we aimed to identify factors that areassociated with this phenomenonand to examine whether increasedsensitivity to stress might be playinga role,” he added.

18,800 housesbeing constructedfor flood victims

ISLAMABADapp

A total of 18,800 houses are being constructed for the poor and deserving floodhit people of Sindh in collaboration with government of Sindh, NGOs, andinternational organizations with the cost of Rs 3 billion. According to arepresentative of an NGO, the houses are being constructed in Jacobabad,Shikarpur, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Tharparkar and Mirpur Khas areas. Thheconstruction (of the houses) would be completed in a period of next two years. Atotal of 8500 houses have already been handed over to the deserving and poor invarious flood hit areas of Sindh while 5,810 houses are near completion in variousflood hit areas. Likewise, the remaining 4490 houses would be completed in nexttwo years. The construction of houses is being supervised jointly by therepresentatives of non governmental organizations, representatives ofinternational organizations and local community, he said.

No water supplyto Cantt Board

Dentists can

spot undiagnosed

diabetes

raWalpindi: residents of dhoke charaghdin demonstrate in support of their demands. oNLINe

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08 Sunday, 1 July, 2012

Islamabad

low

High

monday tueSday wedneSday45°c i 27°c 44°c i 28°c 40°c i 27°c

Prayer timingSFajr Sunrise zuhr asr maghrib isha

03:34 05:10 12:13 15:50 19:16 20:52

city directory

Police emergency 15

ambulance 115

reScue 1122

Hilal-e-aHmer 9250488

edHi Foundation 2827844

bomb diSPoSal 9270698

Fire brigade centre 16

ciVil deFence 9262830

emergency HelP

HoSPitalS

blood banK

PimS blood banK 9261272

Poly clinic blood banK 9209123

comPlaint

waPda 111-000-118

Sui gaS 1199

railwayS

city Station (enquiry) 117

reSerVation 9273614

railway Police 1333

airPort

FligHt enquiry 114

Pia reSerVation 111-786-786

collegeS / uniVerSitieS

international iSlamic uniVerSity 9260765

baHria uniVerSity 9260002

numl 9257677

quaid-e-azam uniVerSity 90642098

arid agriculture uniVerSity 9290151

FJwu 9273235

riPHa international uniVerSity 111510510

nca rawalPindi 5770423

PunJab law college 4421347

maHrooF int 2222920

PimS 9261170

Poly clinic 9218300

cda 9221334

SHiFa international 4603666

ali 4444435

diStrict HqS 5556311-14

ultraSonic clinic 2824862

Holy Family 9290319

it's sUMMer AGAiN!

it's the summer again & Kuch Khaas is back with all things awesome! June 18th - July 31st. For more details call 051-8357483

DrUMMiNG CirCLe

date and time: 05:00 Pm, weeKly eVentVenue: tHe centre For artS & culture

our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoingevent and is held every Friday from 5pmto 6pmwe are having a great time, and want toshare the good time with you! ourdrumming circle has children ...

Partly cloudy

weatHer uPdateS

43°c

date: June 18 to July 31, 2012 Venue: centre For artS and culture

26°c

tOUr tO KhiLAsh, ChitrAL,shANDOOr, GiLGit, etC

every month, Fac organizes several tripsand expeditions to various locations inPakistan. For more updates like our communitypage:www.facebook.com/falconadventureclub

date: July 06 to 14, 2012 Venue: Falcon adVenture club

ISLAMABADaGencieS

fEDERAL Minister for Capital Admin-istration and Development NazarMuhammad Gondal on Saturday saidthe Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)government would successfully com-

plete five years term with the support of masses. Talking to APP, he said provision of basic

amenities to the people was top priority of thePPP government. He said PPP believed in thepolitics of reconciliation and would not fuel con-frontation and always try to save the countryfrom any crisis. Replying to a question, he saidthe continuity of political stability was necessaryfor strengthening democratic institutions. NazarMuhammad Gondal said PPP would continue toserve the people as per vision of Shaheed BenazirBhutto. He said Pakistan People’s Party-ledcoalition had given a clear-cut roadmap and putthe country in the right direction to save the fu-ture of the nation.PunjAb sets Age limit for clAss 9exAminAtion: The Punjab Boards’ Commit-tee of Chairmen has banned the registration ofchildren less than 13 years of age for class 9 ex-amination and has stopped them from taking ex-

amination. According to details, the Punjabboards’ committee of chairmen has mademandatory the minimum age limit of 13 years for9th class examination for the year 2012-13.

Students with age less than the prescribedlimit would be considered eligible for registra-tion and would be declared ineligible for 2012-13 exams. The rule would be implemented in alleducation boards of Punjab.

Meanwhile, the registration date for the exami-nation has been extended along with date of regularregistration, which is also expected to be extended. shAndur Polo festivAl from july-7: Shandur polo festival will be held from July 7to 9 with the collaboration of KhyberPakhtunkhwa tourism corporation (TCKPK).

According to private news channel, arrange-ments for daily flights have been made from Is-lamabad and Peshawar. Polo is known as theKing of the games. Gilgit is the home of this spir-ited game where the British rediscovered andpromoted it. Today polo is played in Gilgit andChitral enthusiastically in its original trillingform. For the last few years, a polo tournamentwas organized between the traditional rival poloteams of Gilgit Region and Chitral at the highplateau of Shandur Pass (3734 m) every year insummer. The festival also includes Folk music,

dancing and a camping village is set up.‘snAcking not linked to weightgAin’: US researchers have indicated thatconsuming snacks cannot be blamed for therise in obesity. Their research revealed thatsnacks and beverage consumption betweenmeals continue to increase among Americans,accounting for more than 25 percent of calorieintake each day.

Between 1977 and 2006, snacking in theAmerican diet has grown to constitute ‘a full eat-ing event’, or a fourth meal, averaging about 580calories each day, said Richard D. Mattes, Ph.D.,professor of foods and nutrition at Purdue Uni-versity. While snacking has increased in general,“there has been a significant increase in theamount of calories consumed through bever-ages,” he said. In general, however, snacking isnot linked with weight gain, according to G.Harvey Anderson, Department of NutritionalSciences at the University of Toronto. “The lit-erature does not support the intuitive notionthat increased consumption of snack foods is anindependent cause of obesity,” said Anderson.In fact for some age groups - young children andolder adults, for example – “foods consumedoutside a meal are important sources of nutri-ents as well as energy.”

Govt to complete tenure withpeople’s support: Gondal

iSlaMabad: camel milk vendors walk on jinnah avenue along with their camels. oNLINe

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09Sunday, 1 July, 2012

Foreign NewsAnnan warns‘history willjudge’ failure onSyrian conflict

GENEVAaFp

INTERNATIONAL envoy Kofi Annan warned dividedworld powers Saturday that history “will judge us allharshly” if no deal was struck to end the bloodshed inSyria and chart a transition. As the West pointed topersistent opposition from Beijing and Moscow to a

transition deal, Annan told a meeting in Geneva that theworld would be partly responsible for further deaths if itfailed to agree on a roadmap. “It is the Syrian people whowill be the greatest victims, and their deaths will be theconsequence of not only the acts of killers on the ground butalso your inability to bridge the divisions between you,” hesaid. “History is a sombre judge — and it will judge us all

harshly if we prove incapable of taking the rightpath today,” he said. Annan had convened

the meeting of foreign ministers from thefive permanent Security Council states,the United States, Russia, Britain, Chinaand France, as well as regional powersQatar, Turkey, Kuwait and Iraq, whileconspicuously leaving out Iran andSaudi Arabia. A key sticking point in the

talks was Annan’s proposal on how apower transition could be organised in

Syria, where violence has claimed 15,800lives since March last year. Moscow and

Beijing were against Annan’sproposal envisaging a

handover to an interimteam that excludesthose “whose continuedpresence andparticipation wouldundermine thecredibility of thetransition andjeopardise stabilityand reconciliation”.The wording appearsto imply that SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad would have torelinquish his gripon power for theidea to succeed, a

proposal backed bythe West.

Russia insists thatAssad’s fate “must be

decided within theframework of a Syriandialogue by the Syrian peoplethemselves.” British ForeignSecretary William Hagueheaded into the meeting,saying it “remains verydifficult” to bridge the gapand that “I don’t know if thiswill be possible.” A senior US

official also said Saturday’sbid to find a political end tothe war in Syria “remainchallenging” and a deal mayprove elusive.

BAMAkOaFp

Hardline Islamists occupyingnorthern Mali went on the ram-page in Timbuktu on Saturday,destroying ancient tombs ofMuslim saints and threateningto wipe out every religious shrinein the fabled city. The onslaughtby armed militants from the fun-damentalist Ansar Dine groupwas launched just two days afterUNESCO named the city an en-dangered world heritage site be-cause of the unrest in the vastdesert north of Mali. “They haveraped Timbuktu today. It is acrime,” said a source close to alocal imam in the town known asthe “City of 333 Saints”.

Witnesses said the Islamistshad destroyed the ancient tomb ofone revered Muslim figure afterencircling a cemetery in the northof the Timbuktu, and were on theattack against another in the east.“This is tragic news for us all,”Alissandra Cummins, chair ofUNESCO’s executive committee,said in a statement to AFP in Rus-sia, where the body is meeting thisweek, describing the attacks as

“wanton damage”. “I appeal to allthose engaged in the conflict inTimbuktu to exercise their re-sponsibility.” Ansar Dine, one ofthe hardline Islamist groupswhich seized control of the vastdesert north of Mali in the chaoticaftermath of a March coup in Ba-mako, said no site would be safe inTimbuktu. “Ansar Dine will todaydestroy every mausoleum in thecity. All of them, without excep-tion,” spokesman Sanda OuldBoumama told AFP through aninterpreter from the city.

The Ansar Dine spokesmansuggested Saturday’s action was inretaliation for the UNESCO deci-sion to put the World Heritage site,a cradle of Islamic learningfounded in the fifth century, on itsendangered list on Thursday “Godis unique. All of this is haram (orforbidden in Islam). We are allMuslims. UNESCO is what?” hesaid, declaring that Ansar Dine —which wants to impose sharia lawin the region — was acting “in thename of God.” Witnesses in Tim-buktu said the gangs had destroyedthe mausoleum of a saint whose15th century tomb was alreadydesecrated in May by mem-

bers of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Ma-greb, another of the groups in con-trol in the north. “As I am speakingto you, Islamists from Ansar Dinehave destroyed the mausoleum ofsaint Sidi Mahmoud,” one witnesstold AFP.“They are now in theprocess of destroying the mau-soleum (of Sidi Moctar),” added alocal journalist. “They have saidthey will destroy everything.” UN-ESCO said its decision to placeboth the town and the nearbyTomb of Askia in Gao on its List ofWorld Heritage in Danger “aims toraise cooperation and support forthe sites threatened by the armedconflict in the region.” Mali hasbeen gripped by chaos since dis-gruntled troops swarmed the capi-tal Bamako in the south in Marchand ousted the elected president ofwhat had been seen as one ofAfrica’s model democracies. Is-lamic and tribal Tuareg groupsseized on the power vacuum pushgovernment forces out of northernMali, an area the size of France andBelgium, including Timbuktu andthe cities of Gao and Kidal.

4 afghan children killedby unexploded weaponry

kANDAHARaFp

Four children have been killed and onewounded in southern Afghanistan whenunexploded weaponry they were playingwith blew up, an official said Saturday. Thechildren aged between six and ten foundthe “unexploded ordnance” in Pajwayidistrict of volatile Kandahar province onFriday and brought it home, provincialspokesman Jawed Faisal told AFP. “Theywere playing with the unexplodedordnance at home when it exploded, killingfour of them” he said, adding the injuredchild was taken to hospital and was in goodcondition. Blasts caused by unexplodedweaponry left in Afghanistan from threedecades of war have caused the deaths andinjuries of many children and adults in thecountry. According to a recent UN report,child casualties from Afghan conflicts roseby over a quarter last year with an averageof nearly five children killed or injuredevery day in 2011. Tens of thousands ofAfghan children are forced by poverty towork on the streets and collect metalscraps to sell and support their families.They often fall prey to Taliban bombings,as well as other violence and abuse.

qaeda mines killover 70 in yemen

SANAAaFp

More than 50 civilians and 23 militarypersonnel have been killed by mines sownby Al-Qaeda since the militants werechased out of areas of south Yemen onJune 13, the defence ministry reported onSaturday. “More than 50 citizens havebeen killed by mines planted by theterrorists before they fled Zinjibar, Jaarand other localities” in Abyan province,ministry website 26sept.net reported,citing the province’s deputy governor. Thewebsite quoted Colonel Said Ali Meshaal,head of a demining unit, as saying minesin Abyan had also claimed the lives of 23soldiers, among them two officers. OnJune 23, local officials had put the deathtoll from mine blasts at 35. The deputygovernor, Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahwi, wasquoted as saying that demining hadallowed “60 to 70 percent of thosedisplaced from Jaar and its suburbs toreturn home,” adding that electricity andwater supplies had been restored.However, he cautioned against a rapidreturn to Zinjibar, the provincial capital,from where 100,000 residents had fled tothe port city of Aden, until “the thousandsof mines placed there have been defused.”

Islamists destroy Timbuktureligious treasures

WASHINGTONaFp

If WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ever endsup in a US courtroom, prosecutors could face anuphill struggle trying to convict him, givenAmerica’s legal safeguards for publishers,analysts say. Citing fears of prosecution in theUnited States, Assange remained holed up atEcuador’s embassy in London on Saturday,defying a British police order to turn himself infor extradition to Sweden. Assange faces sexualassault allegations in Sweden but has refused toset foot there, saying he runs the risk ofextradition to the United States, which he insistsis intent on charging him with espionage or otherserious crimes for releasing troves of once-secretfiles to the public.Assange’s lawyers and

supporters say his concerns are justified and notdriven by paranoia. They cite tough statementsfrom senior US officials, interrogations ofAssange’s colleagues and a grand juryinvestigation that has reportedly questionedassociates of Bradley Manning, the soldieraccused of passing hundreds of classifieddocuments to WikiLeaks. “The grand jury is aserious business,” said Michael Ratner, a humanrights lawyer advising Assange. referring to thediscussions to determine whether a criminalindictment will be issued. Some with links toAssange have reportedly faced questioning whentrying to travel outside the United States andfederal authorities at one point demandedTwitter open the accounts of WikiLeaks figures.“They’re all over this case,” Ratner told AFP. TheUS Justice Department will not comment on the

grand jury probe and says it has norole in the extraditionproceedings in London. Butspokesman Dean Boyd said:“There continues to be aninvestigation into theWikiLeaks matter.” SomeUS lawmakers andcommentators have called forAssange to be charged withespionage or for conspiracy toobtain secret documents, arguingthat he intended to sabotageAmerica’s foreign policy andendangered lives by revealing theidentities of informants. Charging Assangeunder the Espionage Act — a vaguely wordedWorld War I-era law — would be a difficultchallenge, as it requires the governmentto show the accused intended to harmthe US government or aid a foreignpower, analysts said. Withoutknowing the evidence held by USinvestigators, it’s difficult topredict how the governmentwill pursue Assange’s case,said Charles Stimson, aformer federal prosecutor.

LONDON: Residentsprotest on Saturday againstgovernment plansto station surface-to-air missiles onthe roof of theirrented flats in theFred Wigg Tower inLeytonstone, eastLondon, nearLondon’s OlympicPark. Lawyers forthe residents,launched legalaction on June 28,saying proposals todeploy the missileson the block ofmore than 100local-authorityowned flats is abreach of tenants’human rights.Britain’s Ministry ofDefense isconsideringdeploying theweapons across sixsites in the capitalduring the Gamesto help combat anypossible airborneterror threats tothe Olympic Games.

AFp

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Comment10Sunday, 1 July, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Some progress?

on appointing the cec

With the induction of the new PM, the chances of theresumption of working relations between the PPPand PML(N) have suddenly brightened up. The twoparties which were hitherto on a collision course

have agreed to initiate talks. While one cautiously welcomes thepositive vibes emanating from both sides, it remains to be seen ifthe traditional rivals can reach some of the most needed accordsbefore the elections are announced. Raja Pervez Ashraf hopesthat that the elections would be held this year. It is therefore ofutmost importance that the two parties settle the issues of theappointment of Chief Election Commissioner and setting up of aneutral caretaker setup at the earliest. Keeping in view the po-larisation between the PPP, PML(N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the claims by each one of enjoying enough electoralsupport to form the next government, things could take a nastyturn if there was a perception of elections having been stolen.

The appointment of the CEC is the first important move toensure free and fair elections. While other four members of thecommission have already been appointed in accordance with thelaw, the post of the CEC, vacant since March, remains to befilled. Talks broke down between the PPP and PML(N) on theissue in the wake of the SC verdict against Gilani. With thePML(N) questioning the legality of his continuing to hold theportfolio of the chief executive, working relations between thetwo parties broke down. Henceforth Gilani was not accordedeven the formal welcome when he came to Lahore. The positivegesture by Punjab government which sent two of its ministers toreceive Raja Pervez Ashraf at the airport indicates a thaw in ties.According to Article 213(2A), the PM and the leader of the oppo-sition play the crucial role in the selection of the CEC. The PPP,however, is reportedly in favour of a consensus candidate com-manding the support of all political parties. The issue must nothowever be allowed to become a roadblock.

The role of the Election Commission begins mainly after thedate for the elections is announced. There are complaints how-ever which the government alone address. For this there is aneed for a caretaker setup considered widely to be impartial.Once the issue of the new CEC is resolved, the two parties haveto reach an agreement on the caretaker setup. It would be idealif a consensus could be evolved between the three major partieson the matter. In case this fails to happen, the issue should beresolved in accordance with the 20th Amendment.

The morphing Leviathanit’s a mad, mad world

Not so long ago, I likenedglobal societal change to aLeviathan convulsing andmorphing, shedding its out-dated skin to grow a new

one. We are in the throes of such change.Global power is shifting from west back toeast again while everywhere in between isgetting trammeled by the Leviathan’s con-vulsing tail. This trammeling catalyseslocal internal convulsions and changes, aswitness what is happening in virtuallyevery country to varying degrees. TheLeviathan convulses and so does theworld. It is a global philosophical, politi-cal, economic and societal meltdown.Once holy cows like ‘Free Market Capital-ism’ are under threat, as are the holy cowsprotecting capitalism’s spawn, the iniqui-tous status quo, like electoral and legalsystems, executive power, the media andthe military. They won’t disappear butthey will have to adapt and change. Simul-taneously, the Leviathan is crafting newsocietal mores, new political constructsand new economic dispensations. Moderndoctrines and philosophies emerge and re-place old ones, like the concept of divineright of kings gave way to people’s tempo-ral sovereignty. It’s early days yet, but itseems that in the new dispensation tem-poral sovereignty is devolving on special-isation that we call technocracy, a newword for meritocracy. How merit is to bedetermined remains to be seen, but ifmarkets become the determinant then weare in for more greed-driven troubles.

Sure the morphing process is painfulfor people and societies, but for the stu-dent of history it is a wondrous sight to be-hold. In the pain of the Leviathan’sconvulsions desperate people imagine dif-ferent nostrums, looking for messiahs totake them out of their mental, physicaland emotional pain. Unable to see the big

picture, they bank on one inevitably falli-ble man, not realising that these false mes-siahs are actually the Leviathan’s agentsproduced by its convulsions. They help itmorph: they cannot stop or divert the bigshift. Such people – and they are in themajority – end up in tears when the falli-bility of their false messiahs is inevitablyexposed and they are shown to be gods ofclay. Still, it is natural for humans to han-ker nostalgically for “the good old days”that never return. New days arrive andpeople and societies have to adjust andadapt and make the most of them.

Wondrous is the seeming madness ofcountries trying to fight the Leviathan’sconvulsions and morphing, the inevitablechange driven by historical forces, by so-cieties and systems gone out of date andadapting and modernising. So far, Chinais the only country that seems to escapethis madness of fighting the dialectic, andfor good reason. Apart from havingcrafted a native dialectic-based ideology ofits own, it is the centre of where globalpower is shifting.

Currently, the United States of Amer-ica is the sole head honcho. It is at theheart of the Leviathan, the most importantchromosome in its genetic programming.It seems to have gone mad, committingsuicide and taking the world with it, be-cause it cannot help but fight change for itis programmed to do so, as other headhonchos did before it. This fight is impor-tant because it is the fuel that drives andaccelerates the Leviathan. America cannotmeekly submit to unavoidable, certainchange for no society is programmed to doso, be it a honcho or its underlings.

The US is still trapped in its military-industrial complex syndrome to drive itseconomy, not realising that while itworked in the past the world has movedon. First, in 1971, the global economy wastrapped in the dollar when Nixondropped the gold standard and placed in-ordinate strain on the dollar as a reservecurrency based on nothing but assur-ances. Then, the US economy and therebythe global economy were pocketed byWall Street bankers and financiers withthe advent of Reagan in 1980. Wars nolonger drive the military-industrial com-plex that used to be the engine of the USeconomy, which is the engine of the worldeconomy. To the contrary, they increaseindebtedness that is now irredeemable.The dollar would be dead but for Chinapropping it up in its self-interest becauseAmerica owes it trillions. The day the Chi-nese realise that their money will never be

returned, they will either go for debt-eq-uity swaps in a receding economy or sim-ply drop it and launch a new globalreserve currency backed by the Yuan andby the member states of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.

The incredible knowledge bank of theUS is limited to science and technologyand incapable of understanding andadapting to inevitable global power shiftsin a dynamic world. The cosmos are notstatic; neither is the world. It’s going to beinteresting to watch. In any case, knowl-edge alone is not enough if it is misappliedand misused to destroy other peoples. TheSoviet Union could not save itself despiteits awesome military machine. In fact, itwas its occupation of Afghanistan thatshook awake the Leviathan; America’sabandonment of Afghan and Muslim free-dom fighters turned them into terroriststhat led to 9/11. America’s destruction andoccupation of Afghanistan and Iraq gotthe Leviathan convulsing rapidly. Worseis to come before the Leviathan stops be-cause America and its allies won’t stop.They are too human to learn simple les-sons, that Muslim anger was cooked in theboiling cauldron of injustices.

If the crash of 2008 didn’t convinceyou, recent events should. The Euro isdying. It could take the European Dreamwith it or at the very least revert it to acommon market again. A European fiscaland monetary union seems a pipedream,despite the tinkering in last Friday’s sum-mit. Euro’s failure actually symbolizesGermany’s third failure to establish itshegemony over Europe: the first two weremilitary; this third was economic. Thecriminality and incompetence of Ameri-can, British and European banks is beingexposed daily. Why, they were even in ca-hoots with the Bank of England to engi-neer LIBOR, the base rate. Wouldn’t yousay that’s the same as spot fixing incricket? Or worse?

Now do they seem any less mad thanwe do? Or more? Don’t get misled by theircreature comforts and cold statistics of ed-ucation and per capita incomes and thelike. These things go very fast. If they wereso good why are they in the thick of thedung heap today?

The hackneyed saying is correct,which is probably why it is hackneyed:“Those whom the gods would destroy theyfirst make mad.”

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

By Humayun Gauhar

Writing somewhere in the late5th Century BC, Hippocrates(widely regarded as the fatherof modern medicine) penned

down an oath in Ionic Greek. Known, for-ever after as the Hippocratic Oath, it is apledge that every doctor takes to practicemedicine ethically, honestly, and (most im-portantly) to never turn away a patient with-out treatment or advice.

In Pakistan, however, the young doctorswho are protesting in the streets, leaving thesick at the mercy of… well, no one… clearlydid not take this oath. Or even if they did,they mistook the Hippocratic Oath for ‘Hyp-ocritical oath’ instead.

The facts, in case you haven’t been fol-lowing, are rather sad: this is the third time,

in the recent past, that the young doctorsacross Punjab have announced a strike andboycotted hospitals. Initially, their con-tention was to have an increase in theirsalaries (fair enough). The provincial gov-ernment, faced with the anguish of the pa-tients (who are their constituents) accededto the demands of Young Doctors Associa-tion (YDA). As a result, whereas the monthlysalary of a common BS-17 grade official is Rs30,000 per months, the salary of a BS-17grade doctor was increased by 100% to Rs60,000. While this is not comparable to thesalary standards in the West, but for a cash-strapped country this increase was signifi-cant (to say the least). And with it, thegovernment and the people, asserted theirbelief in the importance of the education,talent and service that the doctors render inan ailing society. However, the YDA’s de-mands did not stop here. This time theprotest involves the more esoteric demandof reforming and restructuring the servicecadre of government doctors. And havingtasted success as a result of their earlierprotests, these young doctors seem confi-dent in their belief that if they could just pro-long the strike for long enough, causingenough inconvenience (and loss of life) tothe patients, the government and the peoplewill have no choice but to surrender to theirdemands once again.

What a way to hold a gun to soci-

ety’s head.To give perspective to this issue, it needs

to be understood that doctors in Pakistancan be broadly bifurcated into two cate-gories: government doctors, and privatepractitioners. While there is some overlapamong doctors who are government em-ployees during the day and run their ownprivate practice in the evenings, for the mostpart, this bifurcation is a useful tool to assessthe problem at hand.

With regards to private doctors, theissue is rather straightforward. A personwho, having gone through the long and rig-orous process of becoming a doctor, maychoose to practice medicine in his/her indi-vidual capacity, or become associated with anon-governmental clinic or hospital. Theequation: patients, out of their own choice,come to see this doctor and the doctor inturn is free charge whatever fee he/shechooses. It is simple demand and supply.There is no cadre of promotions (except theincrease in fee), and no structure of the job(except for hard work). This doctor is not outon the streets protesting because it is a wasteof time. Every minute that this doctor is notin the clinic is a rupee wasted in real terms.

The problem rests squarely in thesphere of government doctors. These are in-dividuals who (also having gone through thesame rigorous process as the private-prac-tice doctors) have chosen to join govern-

ment service under the ministry of health.Let me reemphasize: chosen to do so! Whatmight be the reasons behind this choice areirrelevant. But as a result of this choice, thegovernment doctor is assigned a bureau-cratic grade, gets a government salary irre-spective of how many patients he/she treats,is promoted from time to time and retireswith a pension. In essence, this doctor wearstwo hats – a government servant, and a doc-tor – and therefore has double the respon-sibility (to the government and to his/herprofession). And having been employed agovernment servant, this doctor is assignedthe critical responsibility of treating (poor)patients in rural parts of Pakistan, or in thegovernment hospitals in urban centres(where the poorest of our society go insearch of affordable medical treatment).

Sadly, this government doctor has, for awhile now, been unhappy with the salaryscale and service structure. And to addressthese grievances, this doctor has decided totake to the streets, leaving the patients at thestretcher in the meanwhile.

From a purely legal perspective, thisdoctor is in violation of his/her responsibil-ities as a government employee. Govern-ment service entails following all lawfuldirections of the government. More specifi-cally, to the extent of doctors, nurses, emer-gency work personnel and law enforcement,The Punjab Essential Services Act, 1958

mandates that these professionals will not“disobey any lawful order given in the courseof such employment, or attempt to persuadeany person to disobey any such order”. Thespectrum of penalties includes dismissalfrom service, fine, and even imprisonment.Given the fact that these doctors chose tojoin government service, they cannot be al-lowed to fall outside the fold of law in termsof their employment.

Perhaps more important, however, isthe moral obligation at stake here. The re-quirements of Hippocratic Oath, even if onehas never cared to read it, seep through themedical profession. How can an individualdeny saving the life of an elderly woman ona hospital bed, on the pretext that the struc-ture of his/her job should be ‘improved’ be-fore an ounce of morphine is prescribed?Where is a moral argument in contesting thespeed of one’s promotion in the job (whichis all that is at stake here, since the salarieshave already been increased) at the cost ofletting a child suffer from pneumonia? Andif this the deprecated state of an individual’smorality and compassion, how can such anindividual be trusted with a stethoscope ora surgeon’s knife?

The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore.He has a Masters in Constitutional Lawfrom Harvard Law School. He can bereached at: saad@post.harvard.edu

promotions over patients?

Doctor, heal thyself

By Saad Rasool

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Comment 11Sunday, 1 July, 2012

Within moments of an overhead bridge collapsingnear Harbanspura on Lahore Ring Road, an MNAfrom PML(N) (famous for claiming to win prize bondsworth Rs 25 million almost every year) came out indefence of the contractor by stating that failure was onpart of the truck driver, who is no longer alive to de-fend himself. The CM Punjab who has a relativelycleaner record of good governance than that in otherprovinces of federation, should ensure that a transpar-ent investigation be conducted to restore his credibil-ity, which has been eroded by this MNA. What is thestake of this MNA and how does he come up with suchan assessment? Was he there on the scene as a wit-ness? Is the MNA involved in the construction busi-

ness directly or indirectly? If bridges constructed onhighways are to collapse upon collision with a truck,than such bridges cannot be declared safe and surelythere was a deficiency in either design or quality ofconstruction.

Accidents, earthquake shocks and floods are part ofroutine load stresses that bridges, over head by-passroads and walkway bridges are designed to withstand. Ifproperly constructed and designed, bridges survive forover 50 years and more.

Bridge such as the one near Fortress StadiumLahore or the one on Main Sharah-e-Faisal nearKarachi Airport are living proofs of longevity. Wehave witnessed bridges collapsing in Karachi

within months and weeks of completion and nomeaningful investigation ever being conducted northe guilty being punished.

They are not supposed to be fragile ornaments. Thisinvestigation must be free from bureaucratic or politicalinterference especially when an elected representative isfound to be overzealous in bailing out a contractorunder investigation. It is time that public developmentwork be given on contract more transparently and thiscompany, even if it is the NLC, be delisted from the ap-proved list of contractors, in the interest of public safetyand safeguarding tax payer’s funded projects.

MALIK TARIQ ALILahore

the Pm’s full plateOn June 19, one Pakistani PM was

removed in a contempt of court case.June 22 another PM took oathpresuming that courts would let thedemocratic system run. But that waswishful thinking. While he was busyforming his cabinet, he received theorders from the Supreme Court, June 27,to write a letter to Swiss authorities orface the same consequences as thepreviously dismissed PM.

I was just wondering what shouldbe his priorities: should he not lookinginto the consequences of Abu Jandal’confessions regarding 26/11 Mumbaiattacks; should he not take up therecent Taliban attacks from Kunarprovince with Afghan authorities; postthe Kayani-Allen’ positive meeting,should he not focus on the restorationof Nato supplies, should he not give hisattention to the unabated killing andethnic cleansing of Hazara people inQuetta and the lawlessness, targetkillings and extortion in Sindh’ urbancentres? What about shortage of fuel,gas and power hitting the industry andpublic life? What about preparations toface another heavy monsoon rainyseason?

Or should he spend the next ten daysworking with the Attorney General,lawyers and counsels to prepare his case.

MASOOD KHANSaudi Arabia

on butt's rebuttal

Salman Butt, the former captain ofPakistan cricket team, after being re-leased from an English jail has reachedPakistan and is now trying to prove hisinnocence in the entire spot-fixing saga.He is holding a series of press confer-ences in addition to appearing on talkshows of different television channels and

trying to justify his actions and telling thenation that he had nothing to do with theno-balls. He should know that actionsspeak louder than words and the public isnot a pack of fools. He was not alone inthe spot fixing case and the investigationsprocess was reasonably long where allthree of them failed to prove their inno-cence. All the three Pakistani stars werefinally convicted and jailed. The point iswhy only these three were involved andnot the other players? Salman says thatMazhar Majeed was merely his agent andit is customary for all players to haveagents to get them sponsorship deals andcommercial benefits. Even if true, this isno excuse.

Being captain, he should have beenextra careful in selecting his agent andthen making deals with him. GivenMazhar Majeed’s shady reputation, whydid Salman Butt choose to mingle withhim at all let alone pick him as his agent?As the famous saying goes, "An acid testof a person's integrity is to judge his con-duct during money dealings".

Moreover, where there is smoke,there must be fire. The video clips thatwere released show Mazhar Majeed withbagfuls of money and a jacket full ofmoney being worn by Wahab Riaz andother such fishy activities. Why was allthis gimmickry going on? And that toowith members of the Pakistan cricketteam? We don’t see such things happen-ing to any other European or Asianteams.

Our players are frequently caught fortheir misdemeanours and indiscretions.It shows poor control of the team by themanagers and other officials who accom-pany the team.

I recommend strict disciplinary ac-tion should also be taken against all theofficials who accompanied Salman Butt,Aamir and Asif. These officials should bepermanently debarred to go abroad with

the teams rather they should be dis-missed from service as well. In days oflate Air Martial Nur Khan, no such thingever happened.

We need professional chairmen,managers and other office holders andnot political appointees or non profes-sionals if we want the state of our cricket-ing affairs to improve.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJALahore

clean cheat

On June 26, a written test for the postof Grade 17 officer was held in Sindh Uni-versity in which was taken by a few short-listed candidates. Strangely, theadditional registrar of the university sud-denly appeared and asked one of the can-didates to sit in the last row and he infront of everybody gave him some papersthat were obviously the answers of thequestions being asked in the test. Somecandidates objected on this but to in vain.Strangely, the result was declared in thehaste on the same evening and only thesaid person who had been favoured wasdeclared successful whereas all the othercandidates were given very low marks.

I request the higher authorities inSindh government to cancel the said testand order an impartial inquiry into thematter.

MOHAMMAD KHAN SIALKarachi

black coats or black sheep?

There are two parts of the judiciary:the bench and the bar. The former’s mainjob is to dispense fair and impartial justicewhile the lawyers ha to argue their casesin the courts in order to help court arriveat a just conclusion. For this they charge a

fee from their clients and are bound to bepresent on every date of hearing and dis-charge there professional duties. Theyought to be more concerned about the in-terest of their clients. But after restorationof judiciary, the legal fraternity whichstruggled for its restoration seems to havegone off track.

They have forgotten that they foughtfor the rule of law. Instead, the younglawyers are neglectful of their real dutiesand perceive themselves to be a force ofthe judiciary every time there is some ju-dicial crisis or a standoff between the gov-ernment and judiciary.

Their behaviour with lower courtjudges, with police, prosecution andmedia men is most objectionable. Everytime lawyers brawl with a judge, they takethe law into their own hands, come out ofthe courts sloganeering, protesting againstthe presiding officer and demanding histransfer. A few days ago, such an incidentoccurred in Lahore.

The Bar declared a boycott of thecourts across the country. On that day,around fifteen thousand cases were to beheard in Punjab Courts. In these cases,parties with their witnesses attendedcourts only to get another date. Such an-tics will only promote more corruption inthe lower courts.

Can anyone realise the difficulties thepeople and common litigants due to suchstrikes? Because of the rowdysim oflawyers, people are losing confidence inthe judiciary.

A pertinent question arises here:where should victims of members of thebar go to seek relief? The HonourableChief Justice should give direction to thebars to avoid boycotting courts becausethere are other sophisticated ways ofprotests. This is ripe for suo moto notice,if ever anything was.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAH

Islamabad

Peccavi

The people of Sindh are, indeed, un-fortunate because what they are witness-ing in their home province during thisdemocratic dispensation in the country isnothing short of ruinous. It is no wonderthey have a spineless chief executive andstreet urchins at the helm of affairs. Cor-ruption has become the creed of our cur-rent rulers in the province and organisedcrime has become the order of the day inthe province.

The upper Sindh districts includingmy home district t Larkano, and otherdistricts such as Kashmor/ Kandh Kot,Jacobabad and Ghotki have becomebreeding grounds for hardened criminals.

It is reported that the local politicalleadership, pirs and local police stationconstables on duty are partners in crime.The brazenness of our provincial rulerswho obviously are well aware of this per-vasive crime and corruption (and thosethat are partners in it) pains me a lot. Isthis revenge of feudal lords and provin-cial bureaucracy from the democracy lov-ing people of the province? If so, then, itis the ‘best revenge’ indeed.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

the caretaker

The PM has approached the PML(N)leadership for consultation on the ap-pointment of new election commission.PML(N) welcomed the PM’s move. Al-though it is good gesture by the new PM,but there is a need of national consensusin this regard. The PM should consult allstakeholders and evolve a consensus pol-icy before taking such decisions. The PMcan resolve the ongoing political crisis bytaking all politicians in confidence. Simi-larly, a neutral caretaker setup is a keyissue and needs to be settled with amica-bly. Resolving the ongoing issues is thewish of everyone.

TARIQ HUSAIN KHANKarachi

Falling down bridges...

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Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302.

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Today exclusively.

ISB 01-07-2012_Layout 1 7/1/2012 2:31 AM Page 11

12 Sunday, 1 July, 2012

in liMelight

LOS ANGELESaGencieS

The 2012 BET Awards has already labeleditself as “too big to miss,” but thenetwork’s annual event might have justgotten a tad bit bigger. With a simpletweet from wardrobe team memberManuel Mendez, fans are buzzing about asuspected appearance by Beyonce atSunday’s show. Manuel wrote: “Whatwould the hottest chick in the game wearat #BETAwards? The hive is workingworking!! #Behive you wont bedisappointed.” While there has been noofficial confirmation, it would only befitting that the ‘Love on Top’ singerattend. Beyonce follows behind KanyeWest with six nominations that includeBest Female R&B Artist and Video of theYear. Beyonce will battle her husband forvideo of the year at the BET Awards, andnow both performers are confirmed to

attend. Beyonce is the second mostnominated act. She’s up for sixawards. Jay-Z is nominated for five.Kanye West leads the pack withseven. Two of West and Jay-Z’scollaborative songs are up for videoof the year. Beyonce is alsonominated twice in the category. Thefinal nominee is Usher. Chris Brown,Nicki Minaj, Usher, Yolanda Adams,Jamie Foxx, Brandy, MelanieFiona, Laz Alonso, Tyler Perry, aspecial tribute to WhitneyHouston by Cissy Houston andmore are set to perform. AndWhitney Houston’s mother ispart of a tribute for the latesuperstar that will includeother singers. Jamie Foxx,Quentin Tarantino andTyler Perry will presentawards. Samuel L Jacksonwill host the show.

beyonce and jay-Z gohead-to-head

ahsan Khan-On the wayto stardom

AHSAN Khan, the charming and talentedPakistani actor has recently won PTVviewers’ Choice Award for ‘Tera Pyar Nahi

Bhoolay’. The young actor has proved himself overa short span of time and he has also beennominated for Lux Style Awards 2011. Ahsanstarted his career from Sangeeta’s movie ‘Nikkah’and made his way to success at the small screen.Ahsan has shown his determination to create adifference in society through his acting. Thesedays, Ahsan is busy doing a romantic-SufiPakistani film that is directed by Shahzad Rafique.He is trying his acting skills again in Lollywoodmovies when most of the artists have left theindustry due to its downfall. Ahsan believes inmaking things better with hard work anddetermination and this is the reason he is venturinginto movies again. He is also doing a project withYousaf Sallahuddin that is known as ‘Heer Ranjha’and will be aired soon on PTV. neWS deSK

Parineeti chopra droppedfrom Ranbir starrer

ROLL out the red carpet and welcome RanbirKapoor’s new (on-screen) girl. For AbhinavKashyap’s Besharm, the makers have zeroed

in on Indo-Australian actor-dancer Pallavi Sharda.Apparently, Parineeti Chopra was also in therunning, but things didn’t work out. “Pallavi hasbeen confirmed for ‘Besharm’. As for Parineeti, shehad auditioned for the part, but the makers weren’tconvinced. Later, when they came across Pallavi,they unanimously agreed that she fit the roleperfectly. She signed the contract a few days ago,”says an insider close to the production house.Pallavi has been seen in small roles in films like‘Love Breakups Zindagi’ (2011), ‘Dus Tola’ (2010)and ‘My Name Is Khan’ (2010). “This is her bigbreak. Besides the makers, Ranbir also feels thatPallavi fits the bill,” says the insider, adding that thefilm’s shooting starts around October-November.Interestingly, Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter Alia (whomakes her debut in Karan Johar’s Student of TheYear) and Sonakshi Sinha’s name were also doingthe rounds for the role. aGencieS

beatles in the running forbest thing about britain title

ADeLe, The Beatles and Susan Boyle are amongthe stars competing to be named GreatBritain’s ‘top cultural offering’ in a new poll.

Queen elizabeth II, One Direction, the Harry Potterbooks and Dusty Springfield have also been shortlistedin the ‘Greats of Great Britain’ survey, which aims tofind the public’s favourite performers, sites, food andattractions, reported Daily Star. Individuals with thehighest numbers of votes will have the opportunity toperform live at the ‘Great exhibition’ event later thisyear. And the competition is stiff - the British sarcasm,fish and chips, pubs, the BBC, William Shakespeare,the Union Jack and a cup of tea have all beennominated as the best thing about Britain. aGencieS

KARLOvy vARy: Helen Mirren signs autographsbefore the press conference during the 47thKarlovy Vary International Film Festival. aFp

KARLOvy vARy: US actress and model AimeeMullins arrives at the opening of the 47thKarlovy Vary International Film Festival. aFp

MuMBAI: Abhay Deolposes as he arrives forthe unveiling of ‘The PureConcept’ 2012, a luxuryhome decorationcollection. aFp

MuMBAI: Sonam Kapoorposes as she arrives forthe unveiling of ‘The PureConcept’ 2012, a luxuryhome decorationcollection. aFp

MuMBAI: Jiah Khanposes as she arrives forthe unveiling of ‘ThePure Concept’ 2012, aluxury home decorationcollection. aFp

ISB 01-07-2012_Layout 1 7/1/2012 2:31 AM Page 12

13

LOS ANGELESreuterS

Actress Katie Holmes has filed fordivorce from her superstarhusband Tom Cruise, ending asix-year marriage that producedone daughter and captivatedcelebrity watchers worldwide.Holmes filed papers in New YorkCity, citing irreconcilabledifferences and seeking solecustody of the couple’s six-year-old daughter Suri in a move thatcame “out of the blue” for the‘Mission: Impossible’ actor, saidone source with knowledge of thesituation. The source said Cruiseis out of the country filming amovie in Iceland and the filingcame as a surprise. The actor’sspokeswoman issued a briefstatement, saying: “Kate has filedfor divorce and Tom is deeplysaddened and is concentrating onhis three children. Please allow

them their privacy to work thisout.” No further comment wasmade. Earlier on Friday, Peoplemagazine quoted Holmes’attorney Jonathan Wolfe as

calling it “a personal and privatematter for Katie and her family…Katie’s primary concern remains,as it always has been, herdaughter’s best interest.” The

couple’s marriage, which began atan elaborate, Italian castlewedding in November 2006, hasbeen closely followed by thecelebrity press ever since the pair,dubbed TomKat, began dating in2005. At the time, Holmes, now33, was a rising star andHollywood ingénue who foundfame on TV’s ‘Dawson’s Creek’and earned her acting chops inindependent films such as ‘Piecesof April’. Cruise, 16 years hersenior, was among Hollywood’shighest paid stars who enjoyed astring of box office blockbustersin action flicks ranging from1986’s ‘Top Gun’ to his ‘Mission:Impossible’ movies that began in1996 and continue today. Cruise, apractitioner of Scientology, waspreviously married to actressMimi Rogers and actress NicoleKidman, with whom he has twochildren. Holmes’ marriage toCruise was her first.

biographies for the summer soul

adele announces she’sexpecting first child

RUMOUR has it that Adele is going to be amom. The Grammy-winning singerannounced Friday that she is expecting her

first child with boyfriend Simon Konecki. “I’mdelighted to announce that Simon and I areexpecting our first child together,” the singer, 24,wrote on her website. “I wanted you to hear thenews direct from me, obviously we’re over themoon and very excited but please respect ourprivacy at this precious time.” The Britishsongstress made her relationship public in Januarywhen she was photographed out with Konecki, 38,in London. Konecki, the CeO of Drop4Drop charityand divorced father, then accompanied Adele tothe Grammy Awards in February, where the singernabbed six trophies for her album ‘21’. The‘Rolling in the Deep’ singer sparked engagementrumours later that month when she was spottedwearing a yellow diamond on her engagementfinger at the BRIT awards. Though she eventuallydenied the engagement rumours, Adele expressedher desire to have children. “I really want to be amum,” she told People, adding that her goal wasto have three sons by the age of 30. “I betterstart getting on with it!” aGencieS

cyrus and hemsworthmarried?

AUSTRALIAN actor Liam Hemsworth set tongueswagging after he accidentally let slip that heand his fiancée singer Miley Cyrus are married.

Hemsworth was being honoured at the Australian FilmAwards and benefit dinner in Los Angeles when the22-year-old said they are married, before quicklycorrecting himself, reports contactmusic.com. “I wasfortunate enough to get called back in and read withmy now fiancée, who I recently got engaged to andwe read together and fell in love and now we’remarried. We’re not married yet, but we will be,” saidHemsworth. The representatives of the couple deniedreports that they have exchanged wedding vows.They’ve also dismissed rumours suggesting Cyrus andHemsworth were planning to wed quietly thisweekend. The couple had announced theirengagement in early June. aGencieS

jennifer lopez tops list ofperfume makers

SINGeR Jennifer Lopez has topped a list ofmaking the most profitable range of perfumes,earning $80 million out of it. The singer banked

the amount from her range of 18 perfumes that shereleased in the past 10 years, reportscontactmusic.com. The 42-year-old defeated actressSarah Jessica Parker and singer Madonna. SingerBritney Spears` range which includes ‘Believe’ and‘Fantasy’ was the fourth largest selling range. SingerAvril Lavigne came fifth, reports online beautyproducts retailer escentual.com. The company’sfounder Rakesh Aggarwal said Lopez’s role as judge in‘America Idol’ helped her raise the sales. neWS deSK

Here are a few Hollywood movies basedon real-life people and incidents to catchup on this summer: neWS deSK

‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)- Starring Liam Neeson,this movie is based on thelife of Oskar Schindler ofPoland and howpersecution of the Jewishworkforce by the Nazisaffects him. The moviewon seven AcademyAwards out of the 12 itwas nominated for.

‘The Fighter’(2010)-Basedon the life ofboxer Micky Ward,Christian Bale andMark Wahlberg’simpressiveperformances wonthe movie twoOscars.

‘Erin Brockovich’

(2000) - With the

breathtakingly-

beautiful actress

Julia Roberts, this

movie focuses on

how a single

mother brings

down a power

company.

‘The Pursuit ofHappyness’(2006) - Will Smithimpeccable portrayalof Chris Gardner andhis life-changingprofessionalendeavour is onemovie that will trulymove you.

‘The SocialNetwork’ (2010) -The amazing storyof Facebook founderMark Zuckerbergand the birth of thesocial networkingwebsite with Jesseeisenberg is onemovie you shouldnot miss.

‘The Last KingOf Scotland’(2006) - Basedon the true lifeevents of brutalUgandan dictatorIdi Amin and hismerciless killingsis a must-watchfor all moviebuffs.

‘Into The Wild’

(2007) - A must-

watch movie for

youngsters, the

movie is about the

journey of a good

student, who

abandons everything

he has to live in the

wilderness.

‘Girl,

Interrupted’

(1999) - Based

on a writer’s

account of her 18-

month stay in a

mental hospital,

this is a movie of

strong

performances.

‘Chaplin’ (1992)

- The story of the

legendary comic

actor/filmmaker

Charlie Chaplin

and his troubled

life as portrayed

by Robert Downey

Jr makes this film

a must-see.

‘The Other Boleyn Girl’

(2008) - The story of

love, hatred, revenge and

power as two sisters fight

for the love of King Henry

VIII. Scarlett Johansson

and Natalie Portman along

with eric Bana make this

movie a favourite in

historical films.

‘MissiOn: iMPOssible’Katie hOlMes finds tOM cRuise is

ISB 01-07-2012_Layout 1 7/1/2012 2:32 AM Page 13

Sunday, 1 july, 2012

Page 17

rosol’s dream wimbledon ends,Kvitova strolls on

COLOMBOaFp

MOHAMMADH a f e e zroared backto formwith a ca-

reer-best 172 not out asPakistan made Sri Lankapay for a failed gamble inthe second Test inColombo on Satur-day.

Pakistan, trail-ing 1-0 in the three-match series, tookadvantage of SriLankan captain MahelaJayawardene’s surprise de-cision to field first on a goodbatting track at the Sin-halese Sports Club.

Hafeez led theP a k i s t a n ic h a r g ew i t hh i s

fifth Test century — and the first after 10 innings— as the tourists moved to a commanding 334 forone by stumps on the opening day.

The Pakistan vice-captain has put on 256 runsfor the unbroken second wicket with Azhar Ali (92not out) after sharing an opening stand of 78 withTaufeeq Umar (65).

It was the first time since making 379-4 againstIndia in Faisalabad in 2006 that Pakistan scoredover 300 runs on the first day of a Test match.

The century helped Hafeez overcome the dis-appointment of losing the first Test

in Galle by 209 runs, where heled Pakistan in the absence of

the banned Misbah-ulHaq.

The all-rounder had

b e e n

under pres-sure to retain his

place in the Test side after a barrenrun of 10 innings since making his pre-vious best of 143 against Bangladesh in Chit-tagong last year.

But Hafeez answered his critics instyle, smashing 18 boundaries and a six

off Suraj Randiv that sailed over themid-wicket fence.

Azhar was content toplay second fiddle at theother end, scoring just six

fours, as the second-wicketpair laid the foundation for a big firstinnings total.

Azhar will resume on Mondayneeding just eight runs to complete histhird Test century.

Hafeez earned a lucky break justbefore tea when he was caughtdown the leg-side by wicket-

keeper Prasanna Jayawardene, but television re-plays confirmed Angelo Mathews had sent down ano-ball.

When Hafeez was on 171, umpire Simon Taufelturned down Rangana Herath’s confident appealfor a catch at the wicket even as television replaysindicated the ball may have gone off the bat.

Hafeez took time to settle down, making only20 till lunch, before opening out after the breakwith attractive strokeplay on both sides of thewicket.

He had scored only 12 when Taufeeq raced tohis 14th Test half-century in the 18th over with twosuccessive boundaries off Mathews.

Taufeeq fell just when he had mastered the SriLankan attack, edging an intended cut off Mathewsto the wicket-keeper.

Hafeez began the post-lunch session by sweep-ing Herath for two fours to bring up Pakistan’s 100and then drove Nuwan Kulasekara to the pointfence to reach his eighth half-century.

Misbah returned to lead Pakistan after miss-ing the Galle Test due to a one-match ban forslow over-rates. Middle-order batsman Moham-

mad Ayub was dropped to accommodate the skip-per.

But the tourists were without frontline seamerUmar Gul, who was ruled out with an ankle injury.He was replaced by fast bowler Aizaz Cheema.

Sri Lanka retained the same side that won thefirst Test to take the lead in the three-match series.

Hafeez makeshighest Test score

S.perVez QaiSer

Mohammed Hafeez recorded his highest ever score in Testcricket by making an unbeaten 172 off 281 balls with 18fours and one six on the opening day of the second Testmatch against Sri Lanka at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground,Colombo on Saturday (June 30).It was the second highest score by a Pakistani batsman onthe opening day of the Test match after Aamir Sohail’s 205against England at Manchester on July 2,1991.Mohammed Hafeez’s previous highest was 143 in 353 min-utes off 237 balls with 14 fours against Bangaldesh at Chit-tagong in 2011-12.This is Pakistani opener’s maiden century against Sri Lankain nine innings of five Test matches and fifth overall in 53innings of 28 Test matches.The right hand opening batsman’s previous highest againstthe Islanders was 75 in 158 minutes off 127 balls with eightfours and one six at Abu Dhabi in 2011-12.There was neither juice in the pitch nor brittleness in thevisitors’ batting as Pakistan went on to score over 300 runsin the first innings of a Test for the first time since January2007. The last time Pakistan scored over 300 in the first in-nings of a Test match was 313 in 96.5 overs against SouthAfrica at Centurion in January 2007.Mohammed Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar opened the inningsof Pakistan. This was the 17th straight Test they are openingin, easily a Pakistan record. They have responded with fivecentury stands, another record for Pakistan, and today’s wastheir sixth half-century association.The undefeated 256-run stand between Mohammed Hafeezand Azhar Ali is the highest second wicket stand for Pakistanagainst Sri Lanka and third highest overall after ZaheerAbbas and Mushtaq Mohammed’s 291-run stand againstEngland at Birmingham in 1971 and 262-run partnershipbetween Ijaz Ahmed and Saeed Anwar against New Zealandat Rawalpindi in 1996-97.Highest score on the opening day of the test for Pakistan

205 aamir Sohail england manchester 02-07-1991

172* m Hafeez Sri lanka colombo 39-06-2012

166 K abadullah australia Karach 24-10-1964

163 J miandad nz lahore 09-10-1976

159* inzamam nz lahore 01-05-2000

Pakistan revelHafeez, azhar, taufeeq punish Sl for failed gamble

paKiStan 1St inninGS:

Mohammad hafeez not out 172

taufeeq umar c p. jayawardene b Mathews 65

azhar ali not out 92

extras: (lb3, nb2) 5

total (for one wicket, 90 overs) 334

Fall of wicket: 1-78 (taufeeq).

bowling: Kulasekara 20-4-60-0, Mathews 12-1-45-1 (nb1), pradeep 13-3-52-0 (nb1), ran-

div 20-0-83-0, herath 24-3-82-0, dilshan 1-0-9-0.

toss: Sri lanka

umpires: ian Gould (enG) and Simon taufel (auS)

tV umpire: ruchira palliyaguruge (Sri)

Match referee: david boon (auS)

Scoreboard

PCB in search ofcommissioner forPremier League

LAHOREStaFF report

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has advertisedfor the post of commissioner for its proposedPakistan T20 Premier League to be held later thisyear. A senior PCB official confirmed that the boardhad placed an advertisement inviting applicationsfrom interested and qualified candidates. “We haveinvited applications for the commissioner of thePPL who will be responsible for monitoring andmanaging the league,” the official said. He said theboard had done a lot of homework on the proposedleague which it plans to hold in November-December this year. “The time slot we see best tolaunch the league is at the end of the year becausein this period the national team is also free ofinternational commitments and players of someother countries would also be available,” the officialsaid. Reports said that Sarwar Salman Butt, whohad also served as managing director of the PCB’sChampions Trophy secretariat in 2008, is likely tobe appointed as the commissioner of the PPL.“Sarwar Butt is a strong candidate and is alsobacked by board officials,” the official said. “He hasthe required background in managing a event ofthis magnitude as he has served in senior positionsin international banks as well.” The PCB has beenbolstered in its bid to launch the PPL after signingan exchange agreement with the Sri Lanka Cricketunder which both countries will make their playersavailable for each other’s T20 leagues. Pakistan hasalso spoken to the Bangladesh Cricket Board aboutsigning a similar exchange programme and sourcessaid they are also trying to convince the BCCI tohave some Indian presence and backing in the PPL.“The PCB has got offers to buy the franchises andfor sponsorship from abroad and that hasencouraged them a lot,” the official said.

NEW DELHIaFp

India’s uncapped fast bowler T. P. Sudhindra has beenhanded a life ban for spot-fixing in a local match, the coun-try’s cricket chiefs announced on Saturday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) alsopunished four other domestic players, with Shalabh Srivas-tava banned for five years, and Mohnish Mishra, AbhinavBali and Amit Yadav each for one year.

“The disciplinary committee held Sudhindra guilty of ac-tually receiving a consideration to spot-fix in a domesticcricket match, and hence imposed an exemplary penalty onhim,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a statement.

The BCCI last month suspended the players from allcricket after a sting operation by a local TV channel duringthis season’s Indian Premier League (IPL) highlighted al-leged fixing and corruption in domestic matches.

The inquiry was carried out by former police officer RaviSawani, who had previously served on the InternationalCricket Council’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit.

“Sudhindra has been debarred for life, from playing anycricket matches conducted or authorised by the ICC (Inter-national Cricket Council) or BCCI, or any affiliated unit of theBCCI,” Jagdale said in the statement. Hindi-language IndiaTV last month showed Sudhindra, of IPL’s team DeccanChargers, allegedly agreeing to bowl pre-arranged no-ballsin a local amateur match. Kings XI Punjab player Srivastavawas reportedly heard boasting he could do the same in theIPL. The channel reported it had taped seamer Srivastavatelling its reporters he could deliver a no-ball in the IPL forone million rupees (about $18,500).

“Srivastava was held guilty of agreeing to fix a match andnegotiate terms for the same, even though no actual match-fixing or spot fixing took place,” said Jagdale.

“He has been debarred for a period of five years.”Mishra, Bali and Yadav were found guilty of bringing

“the game into disrepute”. “The three players, through loosetalk and unsubstantiated bragging, brought the game intodisrepute, and hence, have been held guilty of the lesser of-fence,” said Jagdale. “They have been debarred for a period

of one year.”There was no immediate comment from the players. The

five are all first-class players, but have yet to break into in-ternational cricket. The IPL, which began in 2008 as a high-octane mix of glamour, entertainment, rich purses for playersand the excitement of slam-bang T20 cricket, has endured adifficult ride over the past four years.

The tournament, which features world stars playing forrich franchise owners, is also being investigated by govern-ment agencies for alleged fraud and foreign exchange viola-tions. Its founder Lalit Modi, who was suspended from theleague in 2010, is holed up in London facing Indian govern-ment and BCCI charges of misappropriation of funds.

Three Pakistan players — Test captain Salman Buttand fast bowlers Mohammad Aamer and MohammadAsif — plus their agent Mazhar Majeed were last yearfound guilty of spot-fixing during the 2010 Lord’s Testagainst England and jailed.

India’s Sudhindra gets lifeban for spot-fixing

Score batsman oppoenent Venue date

ISB 01-07-2012_Layout 1 7/1/2012 2:36 AM Page 14

Sports 15Sunday, 1 July, 2012

Dar honoured for becomingonly seventh umpire tostand in 150 ODIs

LAHOREStaFF report

Aleem Dar of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICCUmpires was yesterday honoured for becoming onlythe seventh umpire in the history of the sport toofficiate in 150 ODIs when he took the field for thefive-ODI series opener between England andAustralia at Lord’s on Friday. To mark theachievement, Javagal Srinath of the Emirates ElitePanel of ICC Match referees presented a memento tothe umpire at the post-match presentation ceremony.The 44-year-old, who won the David ShepherdTrophy for the third successive year by winning theICC Umpire of the Year award at the LG ICC Awardsin London in 2011, made his umpiring debut inFebruary 2000 when he umpired in an ODI betweenPakistan and Sri Lanka in Gujranwala. After beingpromoted to the elite panel in 2002, he officiated inhis first Test between Bangladesh and England inDhaka in October 2003. Aleem has supervised thefinals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 and 2011,and also umpired in the ICC Cricket World Cup2003. Besides 150 ODIs, Aleem has also stood in 74Tests which makes him the sixth most experiencedofficial on the circuit. Reflecting on his achievement,Aleem said: “I am honoured and humbled to join theexclusive 150-ODI club which includes some of themost respected gentlemen in this noble profession.To get to the landmark at the home of cricket in amatch featuring the oldest opponents in the sportmakes this occasion more memorable. Mostappearances by umpires (as of 30 June 2012):

umpire span odisRudi Koertzen 1992-2010 209Steve Bucknor 1989-2009 181Daryl Harper 1994-2011 174David Shepherd 1983-2005 172Simon Taufel 1999- to date 172Billy Bowden 1995- to date 170Aleem Dar 2000- to date 150

LAHOREStaFF report

PAKISTAN cricket chief ZakaAshraf Saturday rejectedspot-fixing convict SalmanButt’s claims of innocence,saying the former captain was

just expressing his personal views.The 27-year-old ex-Pakistan captain,

found guilty in a spot-fixing scandal thatrocked the sport, Friday called for anopen trial in his home country, sayingjustice was not done in the case leadingto his ban and jail time.

“Whatever denial Butt is giving now,it is his personal view,” Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) chairman Ashraf said at La-hore airport after returning from the In-ternational Cricket Council annualconference in Kuala Lumpur.

“Butt was convicted in a UK court sothe matter was related to the UK.”

The cricketer was found guilty byboth the game’s governing body and aBritish court of receiving money in returnfor orchestrating deliberate no-balls dur-ing the Lord’s Test against England in2010.

The bowlers Mohammed Aamer andMohammad Asif were also charged relat-ing to deliberate no-balls they bowled butthat were allegedly contrived by Butt inassociation with agent Mazhar Majeed,also sentenced to 32 months in jail.

The deal was organised by Majeedand an undercover reporter for the nowdefunct News of the World, in a sting op-eration which exposed corruption in in-

ternational cricket.“If the chief justice of Pakistan’s

Supreme Court decides to take up thematter it is up to him, but the PCB has nolink and no role in all this,” said Ashraf,who took over in October, a month beforethe players were sentenced.

Butt was the last of the threeplayers released from prison lastweek after serving less than aquarter of his 30-month sen-tence.

All three players werebanned for a minimum of fiveyears by the InternationalCricket Council (ICC).

The trio has a right toappeal against the ICC rul-ing, and while Aamer, whopleaded guilty during thetrial, has decided not toappeal, Butt and Asif havehinted they may challengethe bans.

The 27-year-old ex-Pakistan captain, foundguilty in a spot-fixing scan-dal that rocked the sport, Fri-day called for an open trial inhis home country, saying jus-tice was not done in the caseleading to his ban and jail time.

“If the chief justice of Pak-istan’s Supreme Court decides totake up the matter it is up to him, butthe PCB has no link and no role in allthis,” said Ashraf, who took over inOctober, a month before the playerswere sentenced.

banned Kaneria unlikelyto play in PakistankArAchi: former test bowler danish kaneria is

unlikely to be allowed to resume his career

in Pakistan after being banned for life

by the england and wales cricket

board, the Pakistan board (Pcb)

said on saturday. kaneria was

banned for life from any

involvement in cricket under the

jurisdiction of the ecb earlier this month after

being found guilty of corruption while playing for

county side essex. “we have an obligation to the

icc anti-corruption code which states clearly

that member countries must also

implement decisions relating to

corruption against any player in

their jurisdictions,” Pcb chief

operating officer, subhan Ahmed said.

the international cricket council at its executive

board meeting urged all member countries for a

worldwide ban on kaneria. “it is highly

unlikely he will be allowed to play now even if

he appeals the decision,” Ahmed said.

kaneria, who has played 61 tests and taken

261 wickets for Pakistan, has said he is

innocent and will appeal the life ban. the 31-

year-old was found guilty by the ecb of

encouraging or attempting to encourage essex

team mate mervyn westfield to underperform

in a match in 2009. kaneria was named in a

london court in february as a go-between in a

spot-fixing scandal that resulted in westfield going

to jail for four months. three other Pakistani players,

former captain salman butt, mohammad Asif and

mohammad Amir were jailed last year for their part

in a separate spot-fixing scandal during the fourth test

against england at lords in 2010. the trio were also

given minimum five-year bans by the icc. reuterS

PCB rejects Salman’s

innocence claims

S Pervez Qaiser

Spain and Italy will face each other in the final match of theEuro 2012 to be held at Olympic Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine onSunday (July 1). This match will start at 11.45 hours (PST)

The two Mediterranean countries will face each other asecond time during this European Championship.

Spain tied Italy and defeated Ireland and Croatia in itsgroup matches before defeating France in the quarterfinalsand Portugal (on penalties) in the semifinals.

Italy tied Spain and Croatia and defeated Ireland in itsgroup matches. Italy defeated England in the quarterfinals(on penalties) before defeating a stunned Germany in thesemifinals. Spain are in their fourth European Championshipfinal while Italy are in the showpiece for the third time. Spaindefeated Soviet Union 2-1 at Madrid in 1964 while lost toFrance at Paris in 1984. They beat Germany 1-0 at Vienna in2008. Italy defeated Yugoslavia 2-0 in reply after first finalended 1-1 at Rome in 1968 while Frace defeated Italy 1-2 atRotterdam eight years ago.

Italy may have a great team, but the possibility of Spainpulling a third consecutive victory in a row is great.

It will be the fourth time a European Cup final takes placebetween teams who met earlier in the tournament. It hap-pened in 1988 (Netherlands-Soviet Union), 1996 (Germany-Czech Republic) and 2004 (Greece-Portugal).

Italy and Spain are facing each other for the 31st timein their history. The Italians hold the advantage with 10wins to Spain’s eight. 12 draws complete the picture. Italyscored 39 and conceded 30 goals in these matches. Italyare unbeaten against Spain at major tournaments (penal-ties shoot-outs excluded), with three wins and four draws.Nevertheless, Spain managed to qualify in their last en-counter in knockout games, it was at the quarter-finals of2008 European Cup, 0-0 after 120 minutes, 4-2 afterpenalties. In World Cup and European Championship fi-

nals matches, Italy have won three and draw four in sevenmatch against Spain – three of those draws and one wincoming in the continental competition.

Cesare Prandelli has faced Spain twice as Italy head-coach and has never lost. Italy beat them in a friendlymatch 2-1 on August 10 2011,before drawing in theiropening game of European Cup 1-1, Spain haven’t con-ceded a single goal in their last 900 minutes of action inmajor tournament knockout games, a streak whichstarted in the quarter finals of 2008 European Cup. Spainare the second European side to reach the final of threeconsecutive major tournaments, after West Germany, Eu-ropean Cup 1972, World Cup 19 74 and European Cup1976. Spain could become the first team in history to suc-cessfully defend their European Championship title. Theywould also become the first European side to win threeconsecutive major tournaments.

Pakistan expecthealthy earningfrom seriesagainst AustralialAhore: The Pakistan Cricket Board isexpecting a profit of around Rs. 450 millionfrom its ‘home’ series against Australia thatis likely to be organised in the United ArabEmirates. Although the Australians have ex-pressed reservations over playing a series ofthree one-dayers and three Twenty20matches in the warm months of August-Sep-tember and are pushing for six T20s, a PCBofficial said profits can be netted if the seriesincludes both formats. “We have startedwork on a series of ODIs and T20 matcheseven though the ICC at its meeting in KualaLumpur gave approval for having a sixmatch T20 series,” the official said. He saidthat initial estimates suggest that the serieslikely to be held immediately after Ramazanwill earn the board approximately Rs. 649million. Expenditures for the Australian se-ries have been estimated at around Rs. 187million if it is held in the United Arab Emi-rates. StaFF report

Pak cricketer seeksasylum in Ozsydney: Pakistani cricketer FawadAhmed, who now plays in Australia, hassaid he was threatened by religiousextremists back home for playing andcoaching the sport he loves. Ahmed livedin Swabi, a city of about one millionpeople in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince, near the Afghanistan border. Hegraduated from Peshawar University witha master``s degree in internationalrelations and political science. Ahmed,30, is seeking asylum in Australia,awaiting a decision on his claim forprotection. “I got death threats fromthem. They say I am promoting aWestern culture and bringing kids out oftheir homes for recreational activity andif you continue this it might be reallydifficult for you,” he said. “I quitcoaching, but I got [picked] for [first-class] cricket and the matches were allaround Pakistan. aGencieS

U19 aSIa cUP PreVIew: INDIa V PakISTaN

LAHOREStaFF report

Pakistan is in all readiness to takeon India when the two powerhousesclash in the final of the 2012 AsianCricket Council Under-19s Asia Cupin Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

And India will be fully aware ofthe task that lies ahead of themwhen they take on their unbeatenarch rivals. India’s only loss cameagainst Pakistan where the team fellshort by an excruciating run.

Pakistan however have enjoyeda successful tournament given theirwin margins. Convincing clobberingof the opposition makes themfavourites entering the summitclash against the defending champi-ons. While India’s batting has strug-gled, the bowling has beenrefreshingly up and about rescuingthe team on more than one occa-sion. Left-arm spinner VikasSharma has particularly stood outwith his performances.

And with Sandeep Sharma

and Mohsin Sayyed added to themix, Pakistan would be far fromcomplacent against the commend-able attack.

As for the batting, India willbe wary of crumbling against thePakistani attack. With barely anyruns under his belt, skipper Un-mukt Chand came out on top inthe semifinal with a gutsy knock tolead the team to their third con-secutive final. All in all, this onepromises to be a cracker of a clash.Expect fireworks.

A cracker of a clash

Spain, italy face final reckoningsPAin v itAly :heAd to heAd:

internAtionAl mAtches:Played: 30

Italy won: 10Spain won: 8

Drawn: 12Goals for Italy: 39

Goals for Spain: 30euroPeAn cuP mAtches:

Played: 4Italy won: 1Spain won: -

Drawn: 3Goals for Italy: 2Goals for Spain: 1

ISB 01-07-2012_Layout 1 7/1/2012 2:36 AM Page 15

watch it Live

TEN SPORTS2nd Test: Pakistan vs SriLanka 09:30AM

STAR SPORTSWimbledonTennis04:00PM

Unheralded Felibertleads in Arkansasrogers: Venezuela rookie VeronicaFelibert fired a career-best six-under65 to seize a one-shot lead after theopening round of the LPGA Tour’s NWArkansas Championship on Friday.Felibert got into the tournament as asecond alternate after she missed thecut in her three previous events. This isjust her fifth official start on the Tour.“I think I was hitting the ball prettygood,” said Felibert. “I remember justmissing one green, just chipping onceand just hitting fairways and greens.“I’ve been working really hard on myputter. I just switched a week ago, sothis will be my second week with theputter. I don’t know, I’m feeling prettyconfident and I would say that waswhat made the difference.” She hadseven birdies and needed only 27 puttsFriday at the Pinnacle Country Clubcourse. Her previous best round was asecond round 71 at the Mobile BayClassic two months ago. aFp

Sports16Sunday, 1 July, 2012

kIEVaFp

EURO 2012 reaches its climax inSunday’s final in Kiev, when de-fending champions Spain will bidto hold off an Italy side who havesteadily eased into form in trade-

mark fashion.Having beaten strongly fancied Germany

2-1 in Thursday’s second semi-final in Warsaw,1968 title-winners Italy will contest a Euro finalfor the first time since their extra-time loss toFrance in 2000.

Reigning world and European championsSpain are seeking to become the first team inhistory to win three consecutive major titles,but they required a penalty shoot-out to edgePortugal in the last four in Donetsk.

Despite dominating possession, as they didin the 2-0 quarter-final success over France,Spain laboured in attack against the Portugueseand have started to face accusations that their‘tika-taka’ style has become sterile.

Italy, in contrast, have confounded low pre-tournament expectations to eliminate first Eng-

land and then Germany, and they have notbeen beaten by Spain over 90 minutes in acompetitive match since the 1920 Olympics.

Italy’s preparations for the tournamenthaving been clouded by the Calcioscommessematch-fixing affair, the Azzurri could be poisedto triumph in the face of adversity once again.

Their World Cup successes in both 1982and 2006 were prefaced by match-fixing scan-dals, but coach Cesare Prandelli has cooled talkof omens by insisting that his side will be theunderdogs at Kiev’s Olympic Stadium.

“We are looking for Spain’s weak pointsand we’ll be working on that, but it won’t beeasy,” said Prandelli, whose side beat Spain 2-1in a friendly in August last year. “They are worldand European champions.”

Spain and Italy drew 1-1 in their openingGroup C game — Cesc Fabregas cancelling outAntonio di Natale’s opener — and it will be thefourth time that two teams who have met intheir first game resume hostilities in the final.

The last occasion was at Euro 2004, whenGreece twice upset hosts Portugal.

Italy successfully stifled Spain three weeksago in Gdansk, as Prandelli opted for a 3-5-2

formation that afforded his defenders extraroom to manoeuvre against Spain’s fluid frontthree.

Fabregas was used as a ‘false nine’ in thatgame, but Spain coach Vicente del Bosque ap-pears to have doubts over who is the best playerto spearhead his attack.

Fernando Torres played up front in the 4-0 win over Ireland and the 1-0 defeat of Croatia,while Alvaro Negredo started in the 0-0 drawwith Portugal but was replaced by Fabregasearly in the second half.

One striker brimming with confidence isItaly’s Mario Balotelli, who came of age in thesemi-final against Germany with a confidentlytaken first-half brace.

The controversy-prone 21-year-old pro-vided one of the images of the tournament byembracing his adoptive mother in the crowdafter the final whistle, and he will enter Sun-day’s game as the tournament’s joint-top scorerwith three goals.

“Balotelli is a great player,” said Fabregas.“He showed that (on Thursday) by scoring

two superb goals in a semi-final against a verystrong team like Germany.”

Italy bid to topple Spain as

european kings

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Yohan Blake served notice he will be ready to challenge forthe Olympic 100m title, upstaging world record holder UsainBolt to win in 9.75 seconds at the Jamaican Olympic AthleticTrials.

Just one month before the start of the London Games,Blake became the fourth-fastest man ever in the event as heran a personal best and the fastest time in the world this yearwith a legal wind of +1.1 m/sec. “Coach (Glen) Mills told meI can do it and I believed,” said an elated Blake after Friday’svictory. “The Olympics is the focus right now.”

Bolt, the reigning Olympic champion, was second in9.86 seconds after a poor start and Asafa Powell snatchedthe third and final Olympic spot with a time of 9.88 secondsin a star-studded final. “He’s a class runner without a doubtand I have said it over the years that he is one of the best.So for me it’s just one of those things,” Bolt said of Blake.Blake was not the only 100m hero Friday at the NationalStadium as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clocked a world lead-ing 10.70 seconds to beat Veronica Campbell-Brown

(10.82) and Kerron Stewart (10.94). “This is the first hurdleand I crossed it and I am just looking forward to theOlympics,” Fraser-Pryce said. Bolt said he was distractedin the blocks and it affected his start. “In the finals Nesta

(Carter) moved beside me and when the gun went I was notfocussed,” Bolt said. “It is kinda hard to run down peoplelike Asafa and Blake with his top end speed. But for me toget left in the blocks like that is really bad.

Lochte looks good in semis,adrian wins 100 free

OMAHAaFp

Ryan Lochte came out on top in anothersemi-final tussle with Michael PhelpsFriday at the US Olympic swimmingtrials as he set himself up for a tilt at a200m backstroke-medley double. Lochtesettled for bronze in the 200m medley atthe Beijing Olympics behind Phelps andHungary’s Laszlo Cseh, then eclipsedPhelps — and his own world record — atthe World Championships in Shanghailast year. He signalled his intentions forthe final with a victory over Phelps in thefirst semi-final in 1min 55.51sec — thefastest time in the world this year. Phelpswas second, and second-fastest overallinto the final, in 1:56.66. The clash was

part of a busy night for Lochte, who led the way into the final of the200m backstroke in 1:55.73. “I knew he kind of took off, so I was like Iprobably should save something for tomorrow,” Phelps said. “I kind ofshut it down once the race was kind of over.” So far this week, Phelpsand Lochte are 1-1 in finals as the trials offered a glimpse of a rivalrythat will be on display at the London Aquatics Centre. As always, theduel between the superstars drew the spotlight on a night when threefinals decided six spots on the team for London.

Platini rides to defence of ‘boring’ Spainkiev: UEFA president Michel Platini has defended Euro 2012 finalists Spain againstaccusations that their famous ‘tiki-taka’ possession-based approach has become boring.Spain can become the first team in history to win three consecutive major internationaltournaments by beating Italy in Sunday’s final in Kiev, but they have been criticised forthe quality of their football. Swashbuckling champions at Euro 2008, La Roja havepresented a more pragmatic face at Euro 2012, and needed penalties to edge Portugal inthe semi-finals. But Platini, who knows what it takes to win a European Championship,having inspired France to victory on home soil in 1984, says Spain should becongratulated for the evolution in their style. “I don’t agree at all that Spain are boring,” hesaid on Saturday. “They’ve got to the final this time with a different style, based on tacticalintelligence and technical ability. “They complete a huge number of passes, although nowit’s mainly in midfield, as opposed to in the final third. aFp

blake beats bolt in 9.75sec at Jamaican olympic trials

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Sports 17Sunday, 1 July, 2012

LONDONaFp

LUKAS Rosol, the shock Wimble-don conqueror of Rafael Nadal,returned to familiar anonymityon Saturday when Germany’sPhilipp Kohlschreiber sent him

crashing out in the third round.Czech world 100 Rosol had caused one

of the greatest upsets in the history of thesport when he beat world number twoNadal in five sets in the second roundunder the Centre Court roof on Thursday.

But out on Court 12, normal servicewas resumed as German 27th seedKohlschreiber, who had also beaten Nadalon grass at Halle two weeks ago, eased to a6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) victory and a first ap-pearance in the fourth round.Kohlschreiber, who claimed victory on afourth match point, will tackle Americanqualifier Brian Baker for a place in thequarter-finals. Baker’s fairytale return hita new high when he enjoyed a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over France’s Benoit Paire.

Baker lost six years of his career to anassortment of injuries that left him needingfive different operations on a hernia, leftand right hips and right elbow.

The 27-year-old, who started the yearranked 458, will rise to at least 78 after hisperformances at Wimbledon. “It’s beenunreal,” said Baker, who took a job as a col-lege tennis coach to maintain his feel forthe sport during his lengthy lay-off. “Oncourt I still have nerves when you knowwhat’s on the table and what you have ac-complished. It’s crazy what’s been goingon.” Defending women’s champion PetraKvitova wasted little time moving intofourth round as the Czech took just 53minutes to crush America’s Varvara Lep-chenko 6-1, 6-0.

Kvitova has yet to drop a set in defenceof the title she won with a shock triumphagainst Maria Sharapova and Lepchenko,ranked 53rd, had no answer to the worldnumber four’s power. The 22-year-old,who has lost just 13 games in her threematches, blasted 15 winners and forced theout-classed Lepchenko to make 38 errorsin a brutal demolition on Court One. Kvi-tova, seeded fourth, will play formerFrench Open champion Francesca Schi-avone for a place in the quarter-finals.

“I’m feeling better with every match Iplay here. The third round today was muchbetter than the first round,” Kvitova said.“I’m so happy that I played well and I’mglad that I made so few unforced errors.”

Kazakh wildcard Yaroslava Shvedovadefeated Italian 10th seed and FrenchOpen runner-up Sara Errani 6-0, 6-4 toreach the last 16 for the first time. Shve-dova also made history by winning all 24points in the opener to achieve a rareGolden Set. Former world number one

Ana Ivanovic, the 14th seed, reached thelast 16, coming from behind to clinch a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Germany’s JuliaGoerges. Ivanovic will play second seedVictoria Azarenka or Slovakian qualifierJana Cepelova for a place in the quarter-fi-nals. Also going through was Austria’s

Tamira Paszek, the first round conquerorof former number one Caroline Wozniacki.

Paszek enjoyed a 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5win over Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer andwill face either Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic orItalian 21st seed Roberta Vinci for a placein the quarter-finals.

FOR a while it looked like open

season on the top three seeds. Just

as Wimbledon was still echoing from

the exploits of Lukas Rosol and his

defeat of Rafael Nadal, Novak

Djokovic found himself one set down against

Czech veteran Radek Stepanek. But then

Djokovic found the range on his passing shots

and it was business as usual. It was then

Roger Federer’s turn, facing Julien

Benneteau, the 29th ranked Frenchman. The

two have known each other since they were

12-year olds playing in France, but you

wouldn’t have known it as Julien attacked

Roger with an array of aces and groundstroke

winners that made Federer look flatfooted.

Soon it was one set to love to Benneteau and

the second set followed a similar pattern with

Federer under pressure. Federer fought his

way to two set points but could not convert.

Bennetteau took the set in the tie break.

Suddenly alarm bells were ringing. Roger

Federer was on the ropes and was primed for

an upset against an opponent who was giving

nothing away. But Roger fought back, taking

the third set with two breaks and the battle

was joined in the fourth. At four games to

five, Federer was down 15-30 and a couple of

his shots were close to going out. Again in

the tie break, Bennetteau was within two

points of winning but never could reach

match point as Federer scraped through the

fourth. The fifth was all Federer as

Bennetteau cramped badly.

This win could be good for Federer as he

has escaped a tough situation and his mental

toughness has received a work out. He might.

Also feel that he is destined for another crown

after this escape. But Djokovic awaits in the

semi finals and it would take a Herculean

effort for Roger to get by him should he, as

expected, get by Xavier Malisse and Michael

youzhney.The bottom half of the men’s

singles is wide open with the departure of

Nadal. Two players who would be looking to

seize the opportunity would be Andy Murray

and Joe Phillipe Tsonga. Neither has ever won

a Grand Slam and would dearly love to make

inroads here. Juan Martin Del Potro has won

one and looking to do well here. Grass is not

his best surface, but the sheer weight and

power of his game should see him through to

the quarters for a meeting with Murray. The

most interesting quarter is the bottom one

where Tsonga and Phillip Kohlschreiber are

seeded to meet, with the departure of Nadal.

Kohlschreiber brought Lukas Rosol

crashing down to earth with a clinical display

of serving and returning. Rosol tried to

emulate his heroics of two nights ago, but the

conditions were different. The wind was

blowing and his early ball tactics were

missing, where, against Nadal, under the

covered roof, everything was going in.

The human interest story of the day is

that of Brian Baker, an American player who

was kept out of the game for seven years

because of injuries and surgeries. Baker, in

his first year after his recovery, has reached

the last sixteen and will play Kohlschreiber

for a place in the quarters. In a surprise

result in the men’s doubles, Jonathan Marray

and Fredrick Nielsen defeated Ivo Karlovic

and Frank Moser in straight sets and will next

play Aisam Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer for

a place in the quarterfinals. Aisam and Rojer

have been combining well with Aisam going

for his shots and Rojer being the steadying

influence. They have gotten past the first two

rounds with something to spare. Should they

get by Marray and Nielsen, they will play the

winner of Cerretani-vasselin and Marrero-

Seppi. This is well within their capabilities

and should they play the big points well and

have luck on their side, they would most

likely face the Bryans in the semifinals. Aisam

and Rojer have a recent win over the Bryans,

but at Wimbledon and in the best of five sets

format, the Bryans would be the decided

favourites. But then, a few points here or

there and anything could happen.

The team to look out for is the current

Australian Open champions, Stepanek/Paes.

They have formed a formidable partnership

and would be the team to beat in the top half,

with the loss of the top seeds Mirnyi and

Nestor. But the doubles match of the

tournament, should both teams get there,

would be the quarterfinal between Paes-

Stepanek and Bhupathi-Bopanna. With the

background of the Olympic entries scandal,

this match could provide some real fireworks

and not just with the tennis.

In the mixed doubles, Mahesh Bhupathi

and Sania Mirza have crashed out, losing to

Paul Hanley and Kudryavtseva in straight

sets. The Indians had won the French Open

earlier this month but were outplayed here.

Sania, meanwhile, has aimed a broadside in

the continuing row over Olympic entries with

the Indian Tennis Federation. Sania has been

entered with Leander Paes in the Olympic

event whereas she is the French Open

champion with Bhupathi. With Bhupathi and

Paes at daggers drawn, Sania felt aggrieved

at being cast with a player other than her

regular partner. She accused the AITA of

being racist and of using her as a pawn in the

ongoing row. Things are getting ugly here

and the AITA is besieged by the controversy.

Aisam Qureshi and Andrea Hlavackova have a

bye in the first round of the mixed doubles.

They will play the winners of the Fleming-

Hsieh/Sa Rodionova match. Aisam and

Andrea have done well at the majors without

really setting the world on fire. They are in a

tough half and would do well to reach the

later stages.

Rosol’s dream Wimbledon

ends, Kvitova strolls on

london

aFp

Four-time champion Serena Williams held off a gutsy challenge fromChina’s Zheng Jie for a 6-7 (7/5), 6-2, 9-7 win on Centre Court to propelher into the fourth round at Wimbledon. The Chinese 25th seedprovided the American with a serious examination over nearly two and ahalf hours but Williams showed she has lost none of her grittydetermination as she finally made the breakthrough in the third set. “Itwas good to win that. I needed a tough match like that and she’s alwaysplaying me incredibly well,” said the sixth seed. “We always haveunbelievable matches together. I thought I definitely want to go out witha bang. “I’m just fighting everything and playing hard. She’s playingunbelievable on grass so I’m just doing the best I can.” Williams facesYaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan for a place in the quarter-finals afterthe wildcard knocked out 10th seed Sara Errani of Italy, the French Openrunner-up, 6-0, 6-4, taking every point in the first set. Zheng hadn’tbeen past the Wimbledon second round since becoming the firstwildcard to reach the semi-finals at the All England Club four years ago.The 28-year-old, who was beaten by Williams on that occasion, wasmaking only her second appearance in the last 32 of a Grand Slam since2010. Williams opened the serving and comfortably took the first gameto love but Zheng responded in kind, showing she was prepared tomatch her trophy-laden opponent. The Chinese was 40-0 up in the sixthgame when, with the sun in her eyes, she served into her own half of thecourt, the ball bouncing over the net like a ping-pong serve. But sherecovered to take the game. Both players were holding serve in style,with just five points conceded in the first eight games. Zheng was leftserving to stay in the set at 6-5 down and was pegged back to deuce.However, she won the game with an aggressive charge to the net. In thetie-break, Zheng got 5-2 up but Williams levelled matters. TheAmerican then hit the net to give Zheng set point and then shot wide toconcede the set. Williams dominated the second set, which went withserve until she broke in the fifth game, taking it when Zheng hit the net.Stepping it up a gear, Williams won the next game to love and thenbroke to love and served for the set without conceding. The Chinese hadthree break points in the fourth game of a pulsating final set but someWilliams aces and Zheng errors took it to 2-2. Once it got to 5-6 andbeyond, the pressure was always on Williams to hold her serve.Williams had a break point on a deuce at 7-7 when Zheng shot longand then won the game when the Chinese sent a shot ballooningskywards. Serving for the match, the American was not found wanting.Zheng held off the first match point with an excellent return of serve andsurvived the second when Williams overhit. But the Chinese could holdout no more, leaving Williams looking somewhat relieved.

Serena survives scare from Zheng

WiMbledon: uS player Serena Williams warms up in her white

jacket during her third round match. aFP

WIMBLEDON: Czech

Republic’s Petra Kvitova

celebrates her third round

women’s singles victory

over uS player varvara

Lepchenko during the

Wimbledon

Championships. AFP

Fireworks at the championshipsFROM ALI AkBAR

at Wimbledon

Shvedova’s historic golden

Set helps sink errani london: Yaroslava Shvedova completedthe first Golden Set in Grand Slam history asthe Kazakh wildcard won all 24 points andconceded none in a 6-0 first set whitewash enroute to defeating French Open runner-upSara Errani in the Wimbledon third round onSaturday. hvedova, the world number 65, hit14 winners and took just 15 minutes todemolish Italian 10th seed Errani in anincredible first set on Court Three. The 24-year-old, the Wimbledon doubles championin 2010 and twice a French Open quarter-finalist, couldn’t dominate quite soemphatically in the second set. aFp

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Sunday, 1 July, 2012

18

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami, Resident Editor: Rana Qaisar

ISLAMABADtayyab huSSain

n ATIONAL Accountability Bureau(NAB) Chairman Fasih Bukhari onSaturday said that due to unabatedcorruption, the national treasury wasfacing losses of worth 6-8 billion

rupees per day.The NAB chairman said that the bureau’s job wasto recover the ‘stolen’ money, not prosecute. Hehowever added that if anyone was found guilty,they would be prosecuted.He also made an effort to portray the NAB asunbiased, stating that no political cases would beopened against PML-N leadership for the timebeing as the country had already entered theelection year.

NAB chief also made an effort to take credit of theNAB’s achievements made under GeneralMusharraf’s era and claimed that the NAB hadrecovered Rs 235 billion from the corrupt till date.“However, let me admit that this is not enough,”he said, adding that the government had givenapproval for recruiting 300 new investigators forthe ‘under-staffed’ NAB.He also made an effort to distance the NAB fromthe government-judiciary confrontation and saidthat the investigation into Dr Iftikhar’s case wasbeing made on the orders of the apex court.Responding to a query about opening of moneylaundering case against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif and Punjab ChiefMinister Shahbaz Sharif, Bukhari stated that NABwas reviewing the references put forward byRehman Malik against Sharif brothers. However,

he made it clear that the NAB would not open anypolitical case for the time being as the country hadalready entered an election year.Bukhari said that even though the Sharif brothers’case could yield three billion rupees and the Swissletter case some six billion rupees, but it was thecase of former Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority(OGRA) chairman, Tauqeer Sadiq, that couldretrieve some 55 billion rupees to the treasury. Hetold media that a warrant would be issued forTauqeer Sadiq’s arrest.Referring to the rental power project case, Bukhariexpressed ignorance about Prime Minister RajaPervaiz Ashraf’s name being put on the ExitControl List by the FIA, even though he admittedto the fact that the Raja Pervaiz was interrogatedfor three hours by the NAB before he assumedcharge as prime minister.

Rs 6-8b eveRy dayCorruption eating away

natO blockadecosting us an extra$2.1 billion: report

WASHINGTONSpecial correSpondent

Pakistan’s months-long blockade of NATOsupply routes through its ports and roadsinto Afghanistan is incurring the US DefenceDepartment more than $2.1 billion in extratransportation costs to move supplies andequipment in and out of the country,Defense News reported on Saturday.The stunning revelation of the exorbitantcost comes as the Pentagon continues tonegotiate with Islamabad to regain access tothe supply routes, the weekly publicationreported on its website.Islamabad closed the ground lines ofcommunication in reaction to a cross-borderUS airstrike on Salala border posts thatresulted in deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers onNovember 26, 2011.Since then the US and NATO allies havebeen transporting supplies to the landlockedAfghanistan through a much longer andexpensive Northern Distribution Network,that covers a series of roads through Russiaand Central Asia states.This month, US Defence Secretary LeonPanetta told the Senate AppropriationsCommittee that the closure of the Pakistaniroutes was costing the US military about anextra $100 million per month. On Friday, he said the United States andPakistan continued to work in good faithtowards restoration of key Pakistani routes,although some tough issues remain to beresolved.The new transportation-related costs weredisclosed in a Pentagon budget document –called the omnibus reprogramming request– sent to Congress on Friday.In the document, which is traditionally sentto lawmakers at the end of each June, DoDasks for permission to shift alreadyappropriated money within its own accounts.According to the Defence News report, thearmy asked Congress to shift $1.7 billion dueto “shortfalls that resulted from increasedfuel costs and continued closure of thePakistan Ground Lines of Communication”,the document states.The other, that is the most expensivetransport option, is to airlift supplies andequipment into Afghanistan.The Defence News report said the Air Forcehas requested the transfer of $369.2 millionof airlift, “partially due to the closure of thePakistan Ground Lines of Communicationand the need for additional theater expresssupport”, the document states.This increased airlift requirement inAfghanistan has taken its toll on the BoeingC-17. The Pentagon has asked Congress toshift $136.9 million to repair 21 C-17 engines,“due to increased wear and accelerated partsdamage”, the document states.The funding transfer request for supplytransport is only part of the $7.9 billionreprogramming action, the report said.

CAIROaFp

Mohamed Morsi took the oath of officeon Saturday to become Egypt’s first Is-lamist president and its first electedhead of state since Hosni Mubarak’soverthrow last year.

The ceremony took place in the con-stitutional court rather than parliament,the result of an ongoing tussle with themilitary that took charge after Mubarak’soverthrow and insists on retaining broadpowers now. “I swear by the Almighty Godto sincerely preserve the republican orderand to respect the constitution and law,and completely care for the people’s inter-est,” he said at the ceremony at the court.Morsi had wanted to take the oath beforeparliament, but the military has dis-banded the Islamist-dominated Housefollowing a court order.

In an address at Cairo Universityfollowing his swearing-in, Morsi

thanked the military for seeing throughthe presidential elections but pointedlymentioned the “elected parliament”several times.hint: “The elected institutions willreturn to fulfilling their roles. And thegreat military will devote itself to thetask of protecting the country,” he toldhis audience, which included the mili-tary’s leader, Field Marshal HusseinTantawi. He then set out some of hisinternational and domestic objectives,saying he would be a “servant of thepeople” in a “democratic, modern andconstitutional state”.PAlestiniAns: Internationally, hesaid Egypt would back the Palestiniansand called for an end to the bloodshedin Syria. “I announce from here thatEgypt, its people and presidential insti-tution stand with the Palestinian peopleuntil they regain all their rights,” hesaid. “We support the Syrian people. Wewant the bloodshed to stop,” he added.

He repeated that Egypt would re-spect its international treaties, in an al-lusion to its 1979 peace accord withIsrael. “We carry a message of peace tothe world, accompanied and precededby a message of right and justice.”

Morsi, who resigned from the Mus-lim Brotherhood after winning theelection this month, had spoken outforcefully in support of Palestiniansduring his campaign. The Brotherhoodis vehemently opposed to Syrian presi-dent Bashar al-Asad and supports theuprising against him. But as president,Morsi is not expected to radicallychange his country’s foreign policy, es-pecially towards Israel, in which themilitary is expected to exercise its clout.

In a Friday speech before tens ofthousands of supporters in Cairo’sTahrir Square, the epicentre of the re-volt that ousted Mubarak, he said hewould insist on retaining all the presi-dency’s powers.

Morsi sworn in as Egypt’sfirst Islamist president

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