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Echo of Mumbaiin New Delhi................................................Are we a nation devoidof understanding?................................................Powering ofNandipur Power Plant

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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif chairing a meeting with Parliamentarians from Sindhwho called on him at PM Office. Federal Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan, Federal Minister for RailwaysKhawaja Saad Rafique and Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif are also present.—APP photo

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—An account-ability court on Wednes-day acquitted former presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari in thepolo ground corruption ref-erence.

The court announcedthe verdict saying the ac-cused had not been provenguilty so far.

It further stated thatevidence against theformer president was not

Zardari acquitted inPolo Ground graft case

sufficient for further pro-ceedings.

This reference buildsupon the construction of apolo ground along withancillary works at the PrimeMinister House, whichNAB says are illegal and inviolation of the rights andprivileges that were af-forded to Zardari.

In February, the courthad reserved its judgmenton the application of the

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SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif onWednesday on the occasion of Youm-e-Takbeer said that Pakistan is fully capableof defending itself against any possibleaggressive designs.

The premier congratulated the nationon the event and said that the country’snuclear assets were in safe hands, addingthat it was for peaceful purposes.

Nawaz said the plans of those who holdprotests, long marches and train marchesare not understandable. “I fail to under-stand what is their agenda,” he said. Hesaid that the government’s agenda was thedevelopment of Pakistan.

The premier also expressed resolve tomake Pakistan economically viable and self-

Pak fully capable ofdefending itself: PMOur agenda is country’s development

reliant and vows to focus on economicgrowth and elimination of power outagesfrom the country. “We are self-sufficient indefence field and now time has come to be-come self-reliant on economic front,” thePM said.

The premier said that he would not sitidle till the elimination of load-sheddingfrom the country. The present governmentwas setting up small power generation unitsto produce electricity. “One power unit isbeing built at the cost of Rs100 billion,” hesaid, adding that it was his government’sresponsibility to generate electricity for thenext 20 years. “We need Rs1000 billion togenerate 5000 megawatts of electricitywhich will be enough to our needs.”

MANGALORE—In a controversialdemand that may spark widespreaduproar, a less popular Hindutva out-fit has called for a strict ban on dawnAzan (Fajr prayer call from Masjids)across India.

Recently, dozens of Hindutvaactivists including a controversialswamiji, who had earlier tried to com-mit suicide, staged a protest in frontof the office of Deputy Commis-sioner in Mangalore to pressurizethe authorities concerned to strictlyimpose ban on Azan during earlymorning.

The protest was held under thebanner of Rashtriya Hindu Andolan

Hindutva for ban on Fajr Azan in Indiaand some of the protesters were dis-playing the banner of HinduJanjagruti Samiti, an extremistHindutva outfit. The protest comesa day ahead of Prime Minister-des-ignate Narendra Modi’s swearing-inceremony.

Speaking on the occasion,Sanatan Sanstha activistVijayalakshmi said that even thoughIndia has granted religious freedomfor all the people, followers of onereligion should not misuse this free-dom to disturb the followers of otherreligions in the society.

Using a derogatory word forAzan, she said that when Muslims

shout using loudspeakers everymorning they should know that itwould disturb sleep of a majority ofpeople in the society.

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti activistVivek Pai said that the right to sleeppeacefully is also comes under theambit of fundamental rights of ev-ery Indian citizen. The use of loud-speakers should not be permittedfrom 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The supremecourt also had directed to imposeban on playing loud music or mak-ing any type of noise between 10p.m. and 6 a.m. However, this banhas not been applied to the early

Nawaz maynow go foreconomicexplosionZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Mr. ZahidMalik, Editor-in-Chief, Pa-kistan Observer, has sug-gested that the Prime Min-ister, Mian MuhammadNawaz Sharif, who has sixhistoric Chaghai atomic ex-plosions of May 28 to his

ALI SYED

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s size of economy islikely to go up to $245 billion in the currentfinancial year of 2013-14 with the increasein per capita income up to close to $1415, asenior official told Pakistan Observer.

“We have adopted the population fig-ure of 188 million and based on this figurewe have worked out the per capita incomeat $ 1415 keeping in view the 4.14 percentgrowth in GDP growth,” the official said.

This will be unveiled in the economicsurvey for 2013-14 to be announced a daybefore the announcement of the budget.

Per capita incometo touch $1415Size of economy to be $245b

The size of Pakistan’s economy, the of-ficial said, ha jumped to $245 billion duringthe outgoing fiscal year (2013-14) against arevised estimate of $232 billion in the lastfiscal year (2012-13. However, size of theeconomy has been projected to go up to$267 billion in the next fiscal year 2014-15.

The Prime Minister is set approve themacroeconomic figures in the supremebody of National Economic Council that isto meet today (Thursday). The NEC willalso approve the country’s consolidatedevelopment budget for 2014-15.

It is pertinent to mention that Annual

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TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—The Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki-stan (TTP), that is already confronting se-rious internal rifts and two of its groups areengaged in bloody infighting for the lastcouple of months, Wednesday receivedanother serious blow when a key com-mander Khan Said alias Sajna who domi-nates most of the Mehsud tribe presum-ably a largest group of Taliban, announcedparting ways with the TTP, a move that leftthe defunct militant organization fight thebattle of its existence.

“We have serious difference over peacetalks between the government and the TTPwith Mullah Fazlullah the chief of Tehreek-

TTP in disarray asSajna part ways

e-Taliban Pakistan that has now become acriminal organization”. Declared formerTTP spokesman and an important memberof the TTP shoora Maulana Azam Tariq ina press conference addressed from an un-disclosed location. He they tried their levelbest to improve the affairs of the organiza-tion and unite the set up but to no avail.

“We have tried our level best for reformsand forging maximum unity within the TTPranks but the gang of plotters seemed tohave succeeded”. Azam Tariq, now spokes-man for Khan Said Sajna said adding theTTP’s control has literally fallen into thehands of invisible hands due to a gang ofplotters within. He said that the controversy

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Two Americanswounded inAfghan attackHEART—At least twoAmerican civilance havebeen wounded when aRocket Propelled Grenade(RPG) hit a convoy of USdiplomats in the westernAfghan city of Herat onWednesday, officials said.

The rocket hit one ofthe vehicles in the convoyand left two civiliancewounded. The woundedAmericans were taken tothe Spanish-run militaryhospital in the province,said Mr Naeem Hussani, amedia officer at the USconsulate in Herat. Theconvoy was attacked onits way to the Heratairport, which is justoutside the city, he added.The US embassy in Kabulconfirms the attack, sayingan investigation hasbegun.

No group, includingthe Taliban, have claimedresponsibility for theattack. The attack comes aweek after four insurgentslaunched a pre-dawn raidon the Indian consulate inHerat city.—NNI

US hailsModi-SharifmeetingWASHINGTON—Applaud-ing the meeting betweenPrime Minister NawazSharif, and his Indiancounterpart NarendraModi, the US has said itwas “cautiously hopeful”about the improvement inthe ties between the twoneighbours.

“We are cautiouslyhopeful that that (Modi-Sharif meeting) could be apositive indicator, butwe’re also mindful that thiswill be very important tothe dynamic goingforward,” a senior Obamaadministration said whenasked about the meetingbetween the two SouthAsian leaders in Delhi.Responding to a question,the official said the Obamaadministration is hopefulthat the initial indicationbetween both Islamabadand New Delhi is apositive one.

Five Hinduchildrenabducted inBalochistanSTAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—Armed menkidnapped five childrenbelonging to minorityHindu community fromBalochistan’s volatileJaffarabad district onWednesday, seniorofficials said.

Syed Zafar Ali Shah,the Deputy CommissionerJaffarabad said that thechildren were going toschool when abducted bythe armed men near DeraAllah Yar. He, however,added that four accusedbelonging to a local tribewere arrested in connec-tion with the kidnapping.

“The ages of childrenare between five to 10,”Syed Ashfaq Ahmed, theDistrict Police OfficerJaffarabad said. He said

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ISLAMABAD—Though it is still a conun-drum as what had transpired in their firstmeeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, but itis a good beginning that both Prime Min-isters —Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modihad decided to open dialogue at ForeignSecretary level as way forward.

Though in India, as an old practice,news was leaked to the Indian media thatModi made five demands from NawazSharif relating to 2008 Mumbai attacks. Itwas a good ‘Masala’ for hungry Indianmedia to play with it. But, certainly NawazSharif was not there to take this ‘chargesheet’ as both the leaders enjoying heavymandates agreed to start dialogue, after a

New beginning in South AsiaComments

Liaqat Toor

long pause to settle issues including Kash-mir dispute.

It can not be described a breakthroughbut it is a modest beginning which wasonly possible way in the prevailing situa-tion when India is still entrenched in syn-drome of 2008 Mumbai terror strikes.

Sharif paid a courtesy call on ailingAtal Bihari Vajpayee, with whom he hadworked to resolve outstanding issues.During the brief meeting they shared greatmoments when they secretly tried to ad-dress issues including Kashmir disputein a stipulated time which failed tomaterialise due to Kargil conflict.

Since much water has flown down thebridge, the Tuesday meeting was quitedifferent from 1999 Bus Yatra, when

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Nawaz: Govtengaged inpolitics of

reconciliationISLAMABAD—Prime Min-ister Muhammad NawazSharif says PML-N gov-ernment is engaged in poli-tics of reconciliation andstrengthening democracy.

He was talking to a del-egation of parliamentar-ians from Sindh, whichcalled on him in Islamabadon Wednesday.

Parliamentarians fromSindh apprised the PrimeMinister about development

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OBSERVER REPORT

SLAMABAD—The government on Wednes-day approved new policy guidelines for thenational power regulator, asking it recovercost of circular debt from the consumers,while it allowed a 2.93% relaxation in its settransmission and distribution loss target.

During the meeting between the Eco-nomic Coordination Committee of the Cabi-net on Wednesday with Finance MinisterIshaq Dar in chair, it decided to approve asummary for issuing new policy guidelinesto the National Electric Power Regulatory

NEPRA allowed passing circulardebt burden on to consumers

Authority (NEPRA).According to the new policy, the power

regulator will be directed to incorporate cir-cular debt servicing on actual basis in rev-enue requirements of distribution compa-nies. This would then be adjusted in powertariffs for DISCOs on an annual basis.

Further, the government told NEPRAto rationalise transmission and distributionlosses to 15.75%, down from the 17.55%claimed by DISCOs for fiscal year 2013-2014.The new policy guidelines thoughrationalise T&D losses above the set tar-

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GUJARAT—ReciprocatingPakistan’s gesture, India onWednesday released 32 Pa-kistani fishermen lodged inKutch district and theywere already on their wayto Wagah border in Punjabto return to their country.Pakistan released 151 Indianfishermen before the visit ofPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifto Delhi to attend NarendraModi’s swearing-in.

India releases 32Pakistani fishermen

11.5m jobs tobe created in

S Asia: ReportGENEVA —As many as 11.5million jobs will be createdin the South Asian regionduring 2014-2019, said a re-port by the the InternationalLabour Organisation (ILO).

While the average em-ployment growth in theSouth Asian region during2009-2014 was 8.5 million,the ILO has predicted that

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“These 32 fishermenfrom Pakistan have been inJoint Interrogation Centrefor almost six months. Theywere captured while fishinginside the Indian maritimeboundary and kept in Bhuj-based JIC. We have releasedthem today. Our team hasalready left for Wagah bor-der with these fishermen,”Kutch-West Superinten-

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SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

SAUDI Arabia and Pakistan are two different countries but in fact are one nation,declared the Kingdom’s ambassador,

Abdul Aziz Ibrahim Al-Ghadeer in Karachi Tues-day night.

He was giving his farewell ad-dress at a reception in hishonour arranged by the SaudiConsul General in Karachi FalehMohammad Al Rohaili. MrGhadeer is leaving Pakistan af-ter doing a yeomen service toPak-Saudi relations for a recordfive years.

He remarked that not onlyhim but all those envoys from his country as-signed to Pakistan since its inception in 1947,treated Pakistan as their own homeland, andworked as brothers.

Saudis, Pakistanis one nation: EnvoySaudi Arabia, he said stood behind Paki-

stan and will maintain that cherished traditionsin futue also.

The reception, wasattended by large num-ber of guests, includingSindh AssemblySpeaker AghaSirajuddin, and the pro-vincial minister RaufSiddiqi. A number ofspeakers spoke in Ara-bic language to high-light the fraternal rela-tions between Pakistanand Saudia, and also thetremendous servicesrendered by the outgo-ing ambassador.

Mr Ghadeer spoke in English for the entiregathering to understand, while Rauf Siddiqi

spoke in urdu. The consul general paid rich trib-utes to the people of Pakistan, Karachiites, itsbusiness leaders, and also the ambassador say-

ing he had done remarkable service to buildstronger ties between the two countries,bonded by the unbreakable faith.

Rauf Siddiqi, who has lived for long timein Saudi Arabia as engineering consultant toa number of Saudi companies, paid tributesto the custodian of holy shrines of Kaabaand Madinah and said whether in earthquakeor floods, the Saudi ambassador was therefor the relief and succour of the people

Trophies and awards were distributedby the envoy to Saudis and children fortheir valuable contributions in variousfields. A sumptuous dinner was served tothe guests of both Arabic and Pakistanidishes, but the Arabic desserts excelled in

quality. The function will long be rememberedby those present there.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor, SardarMehtab Ahmad Khan has said thatmismatching state of circumstances inbetween the needs and the availableresources always remained a majorhurdle in overcoming the difficultieswhich the people are faced with. Keep-ing in view the ground realities atpresent too, he added, there is direneed that the charity based non gov-ernment organization must play morevigorous role to supplement the on-going efforts of the government ofensuring better health care and edu-cational facilities to the people of farflung areas in particular.

He was addressing as the chiefguest at the launching ceremony of anewly established state of the art andwell equipped eye care hospital underthe aegis of The Layton RahmatullahBenevolent Trust Hospital (LRBT); acharity organization at VillageOdhigram situation in vicinity of

NGOs role pivotal to ensurebetter healthcare: Mehtab

Mangora in District Swat on Wednes-day. At the hospital; completed at acost of Rs.25 millions over a vast chunkof land donated by local people at ahighly scenic point of the valley, firstever Cornea Transplant was conductedon the 2nd of this month which wasalso the first every treatment initiativeof its nature in entire Malakand Divi-sion as well. “We have planned toinvest an additional amount of Rs.25million in near future to further developand modernize the hospital”, Mr. Najam-us-Saqib, Vice Chairman and Chief Ex-ecutive of the Trust said while welcom-ing the Governor at the vanue”.

Highly eulogizing the role and ser-vices of the LRBT, the Governor said,indeed people have great regard forthe charity based such like non-gov-ernment organizations and every pos-sible step will be taken to encourageinstitutions of similar nature to helpthem in proving more beneficial orga-nizations. The Governor describedthe establishment of the hospital a biginitiative on part of LRBT in Swat

which, he added, will prove a greatasset in this historic valley; bearingone of the most impressive nationalimpacts, as far as national identity fromtourism point of views is concerned,he remarked.

The Governor said, impressed by theappreciable role of the non-governmen-tal organizations in sharing the respon-sibilities of the government of provid-ing better educational and healthcarefacilities in the province; the MalakandDivision in particular, we are also con-templating upon a proposal to entrustbigger role to efficient and well managednon-governmental organizations inFATA to make them a fully productivecontributors in this respect as well.

In FATA, the Governor furtherpointed out, serious efforts are under-way to make the government officesfully responsive to the needs of thepeople. “We want to develop a trustworthy system; and make people real-ize that their hard earned resources areproperly utilized in their best interests”,he said.

CHAMAN: Commander Southern Command Lt General Nasir Khan Janjua meets with officers during his visit to Chaman Scouts Headquarterson Wednesday.

QUETTA—Abdul Sattar, Coordinator ChildRights Movement Balochistan, on Wednes-day urged the provincial government toincrease budgetary allocations for childrenin the budget for 2014-15.

Addressing a press conference here atQuetta Press Club, he said the Balochistangovernment should allocate resources forimproving the child health and survival situ-ation. There was a need to strengthen rou-tine immunization system with enough vac-cinators (at least two per UC), strong moni-toring and accountability systems with afocus on the far flung areas and the poorpeople, he added.

He said the budgetary allocation wasalso necessary to ensure provision of medi-cines and other essential item to lady healthworkers (LHWs) serving the people at theirdoorsteps. The federal government waspaying only for the salaries of LHWs tillNFC award in 2015, he added.

He said the provincial governmentshould also invest more in the communitymidwives so that maternal and newbornmortality ratios could be controlled.

Hafiz Rehmatullah, Member CRM, saideducation was a fundamental right of chil-dren 5 to 16 years of age under Article 25 Aof the Constitution. He lauded theBalochistan government for enacting theBalochistan Right to Free and CompulsoryEducation Act 2014.

“Balochistan has failed to achieve MDGrelated to achieving gender parity in edu-

Balochistan govt urged toincrease funds for children

cation by 2005 and is still not on track asonly 39% of the students enrolled in theprovince are females. Similarly, the ratio ofschools is also 28% for girls and 72% forboys. There are 10554 primary schools inthe province of which only 2,773 are forgirls. Similarly, out of 17,264 primary schoolteachers, only 5,001 are females and 12263males.”

He said the provincial governmentshould respond to this situation in the 2014-15 budget for education and should allo-cate resources specifically focusing on gen-der disparity. More resources should be al-located for recruiting female teachers, build-ing female schools and introducing incen-tives for girls in the areas where girls’ en-rollment was still poor, he added.

Nadeem Shahid Baloch, Manager Savethe Children Balochistan, emphasized theneed for the implementation of the JuvenileJustice System Ordinance (JJSO) 2000 inthe province. Under the JJSO every child incontact with the law was entitled to freelegal aid at state’s expense.

Syed Yar Muhammad, Member CRM,said budgetary allocation was also requiredfor appointment of probation officers in dis-tricts and establishment of at least oneBorstal Institution. Appointment of proba-tion officers would not only help reducethe number of juveniles but also the num-ber of other prisoners, who are in jails forminor offenses or were first offenders, saidthe CRM representatives.—APP

Annual parentsday celebrated atGCMHS ChitralGUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

C H I T R A L — A n n u a lparent’s day was celebratedat Government Centennialmodel high School Chitral.Member Provincial Assem-bly Miss Fouzia Bibi waschief guest on the occasionwhile the ceremony was pre-sided over by NisarMuhammad Khan DistrictEducation Officer. Studentsof different classes pre-sented Qirat, Naath Sharifand national songs. As wellas some students also de-livered speech in Englishand Urdu on the title of “livenation” which was highlyappreciated by the partici-pants.

Students performed intablue and stage drama in-scribing the message to theparticipants to never wasteyour time. Addressing on theoccasion MPA Miss FouziaBibi said that provincial gov-ernment of KPK fully supporteducation and bring positivechanges in existing systemfor betterment in education.She said that PakistanTahreeki Insaf is trying of itsbest to impose equal educa-tion system in the countryand to eliminate discrimina-tion in the present system.She said that some 28000schools would be con-structed. We appoint some8000 teachers where posts of14000 were lying vacant andthe remaining vacant postsof 6000 will be fulfilled afterJune 2014 through NTS toselect talented teachers.

She said that some 600female teachers were termi-nated who not perform theirduty and PTI has zero toler-ance for corrupt people. Wecheck performance of teach-ers and schools through ourindependent monitoring unitand cash award will be givento best teacher Fouzia added.

Teen torturedfor three hours

on theft chargesMULTAN—A 16-year-oldboy was tortured and beatenfor three hours by four menafter being accused of thefthere on Wednesday. Thevictim was picked up from hisworkplace and forcefullydragged to his house wherehe was beaten with rods andelectrocuted by the four men.

According to reports, theneighbours called the policeafter three hours of the abusedespite hearing the boy’sscreams the entire time. Whenthe police arrived at the scene,they found the accused tiedup on a bed. He had to be car-ried to the police car as he couldnot even walk having sus-tained serious injuries.—INP

QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik awarding trophy to a winner ofSpring Olympiad-2014 on Wednesday.

QUETTA: FC officials presenting arrested culprits with large number of fake CNICs,passports during FC’s raid in Nawa Kalli area on Wednesday.

Gang involvedin making fake

NICs bustedQUETTA—Frontier Corpshas busted a gang involvedin making counterfeit Na-tional Identity Cards (NICs)and recovered hundreds offake NICs, stamps of deputycommissioner Qilla Abdullahand other officials.“ Actingon a tip off, We conductedraids and apprehended twomembers of a group who hada mechanized setup of pre-paring and issuing the NIC,got clue to their accomplicesin the government depart-ments extending support tothe group,” Major Owais ofFrontier Corps said whilebriefing media persons.

Commandant GhazabandScouts Colonel Maqbooland Deputy Secretary HomeAbdul Quddus were alsopresent.He said that de-tainee Abdul Qayum andAbdul Wali have confessedto have printing over 3,000counterfeit NICs.—APP

ANF recovers 3273kg charas,arrests 7 smugglers

ISLAMABAD—Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) conducted opera-tions in different parts of the country and recovered 3273 kgcharas and 3 kg heroin, while arrested seven persons includingtwo lady smugglers. According to details, ANF Quetta seizeda huge consignment containing 3268 kg charas dumped atTehsil Gulistan, District Qila Abdullah. Reportedly, the con-signment was to be smuggled to Iran, said a press release.

ANF Rawalpindi arrested two accused lady smug-glers namely Ayesha Bibi r/o Nowshera and KhanamBibi r/o Karachi and recovered 3 kg heroin from theirpossession. They were travelling by public transportnear Mulla Mansoor Toll Plaza, GT Raod Attock.

ANF Rawalpindi arrested Ishtiaq r/o District Ghizer andrecovered 2 kg charas (Garda) from his personal posses-sion. He was arrested at Baseen, Gilgit.

ANF Rawalpindi Airport Team intercepted a Pakistaninational namely Syed Rizwan r/o Karachi at Benazir BhuttoInternational Airport, Islamabad and recovered 90 heroinfilled ingested capsules from the accused. He was to travelto Malaysia via Bangkok by Flight No.TG-350.

ANF Karachi arrested Yasin and Mudassar Shah bothresidents of Karachi and Shahab Khan r/o Swabi and re-covered 3.250 kg charas and 40 gram opium from their pos-session. They were arrested at Shirin Jinnah Colony,Karachi. Most of the seized drugs were destined for abroad.Cases have been registered at ANF Police Stations andfurther investigations are under process.—APP

PESHAWAR—Director General (DG) Na-tional Accountability Bureau (NAB),Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shahzad SaleemWednesday said that the recovery of themoney looted from the masses in fakeMudariba and Musharika business andtheir return to the affectees is top priorityof the anti-graft agency.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Corruption inIslamic Perspective and Mudariba Businessat NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said it isalso concurrently is the responsibility of re-ligious scholars to educate general publicabout fake Mudariba / Musharika businessthrough mosques and maddrassas.

He emphasized that scholars should dis-cuss such schemes in their Friday sermonsto educate people about the misuse ofMudariba in the society.

He further informed that the mandate ofNAB is not only to arrest accused personsbut also to educate them for avoiding ar-

rest/loss to government exchequer. He saidthat since its inception the bureau has re-covered Rs. 258.00 billion. However, dur-ing the period of 15 years only an amountof Rs.12 billion had been spent on in headsof administrative and salaries.

He said that NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwais carrying its business within the ambit ofNational Accountability Ordinance (NAO)1999, saying Chairman NAB Qamar ZamanChaudhary has very clearly mandated tofollow the merit, without fear and favour.

The seminar was also addressed by QariRoohullah Madani, Provincial Khateeb/Ex-Provincial Minister (KP), Qari Fayaz-ur-Rehman Alvi, ex-member National Assem-bly, Mufti Ghulam-ur-Rehman, MohtamimMadrassa Usamania Nothia Road,Peshawar, Dr. Fakhar-ul-Islam, Director Pa-kistan Studies Center, University ofPeshawar and Dr. Shams-ul-Haq, PeshawarMedical College, Peshawar.—APP

Recovery of looted money in fakebusiness schemes top priority: NAB

Hot, dry weather tocontinue next 24 hours

ISLAMABAD—Mainly hot and dry weather is expected inmost parts of the country during next 24 hours.

Met office reported here on Wednesday a seasonallow lies over Balochistan and adjoining areas and conti-nental air is prevailing overmost parts of the country.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,mainly hot and dry weather isexpected in most parts of theprovince during the same timespan.

In Sindh and Balochistan very hot and dry weather isexpected in most parts of the provinces during next 24hours. While in Kashmir, dry weather is expected in mostparts of Kashmir during next 24 hours.

In Gilgit-Baltistan, partly cloudy/dry weather is ex-pected in most parts of Gilgit-Baltistan during next 24hours.

The highest temperature recorded during last 24 hoursremains Sh. Benazirabad 48øC, Sukkur, Turbat, Mithi, Dadu47øC, Moenjodaro, Padidan, Larkana, Rohri, Jacobabad,Hyderabad 46øC. Islamabad 37øC, Lahore 40øC, Karachi40 øC, Peshawar 39øC, Quetta 34øC, Skardu 25øC, Murree25øC, Muzaffarabad 38øC, Gilgit 32øC, Faisalabad 41øC,Multan 42øC and Hyderabad 46øC.—APP

LUMHS dept ofcommunity

medicine to beupgraded as

instituteHYDERABAD—The Depart-ment of Community Medi-cine and Public Health Sci-ences Liaquat University ofMedical and Health Sci-ences (LUMHS), Jamshoro,will be upgraded as the In-stitute of Community HealthSciences in the near future.

Vice Chancellor ProfNoshad A Shaikh an-nounced here on Tuesdayon the visit of the Commu-nity Medicine Department.

He expressed that the aimis to improve health, especiallyin under served populations,by conducting interdiscipli-nary research and educationto empower individuals, pro-viders, organisations, andcommunities to practice andpromote healthier behaviorsand environments.

He further informed thatit is high time that “we shouldunderstand the root causesof public health issueswithin communities and todraw on the best availableresearch and local knowl-edge to effect meaningfulaction”.The Institute forCommunity Health Scienceswill be a nationally recog-nized catalyst for sustainablecommunity health improve-ment, uniting academic re-search with real world prac-tice to deliver expert profes-sional services and build thecapacity of community serv-ing organisations.—APP

PESHAWAR—The Political Parties JointCommittee on FATA Reforms presentthis week their consensus 11-pointrecommendations to the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor and politicalparty leaders in Peshawar, stated in apress release issued here on Wednes-day.

Seeking additional support fromSenator Haji Adeel and MNAs AftabAhmad Khan Sherpao and MaulanaFazl-ur-Rehman, the FATA Committeeis holding meetings with the centralleadership of ANP, JUI-F and QWP topromote the united political party re-forms demands. After these meetings,the party representatives on the FATACommittee will also meet with Gover-nor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan thisweek to ask government to begin en-actment and implementation of theirreforms recommendations.

Established in 2010, the FATACommittee developed the 11-point re-forms in 2013 based on consultationswith the people of FATA and with thegoal to bring peace, prosperity, trans-parency and good governance to theregion. The political parties on thecommittee-including each party lead-ership-all agree with these important

Political parties to present consensusFATA reforms to Governor

and urgent reforms. The consensuswas discussed and agreed to by ANPJI, JUI-F, MQM, NP, PML-N, PML,PPP, PTI and QWP.

In line with the historic April 7,2014 judgment of the Peshawar HighCourt, the political parties’ reformsclearly state that article 247 of the con-stitution must be amended to shift leg-islative powers from the President ofPakistan to the parliament. The tenparties also agree on the urgent needto hold local bodies’ elections in FATAas are planned in the rest of Pakistan.Regarding this point, the FATA Com-mittee has submitted to government aseparate set of 19 recommendationsfor improving the current draft FATALocal Government Regulation.

The multi-party FATA Committeealso highlights the need to separateexecutive and judicial powers and theresponsibility of government to guar-antee the fundamental rights of peoplefrom FATA just like all other citizensof Pakistan. Parties argue that exten-sion of PEMRA jurisdiction to FATAis also required to allow media to op-erate without undue pressure in FATA,provide greater access to informationfor FATA citizens and increased op-

portunities for media interaction andparticipation. Other points in the rec-ommendations include relying directlyon tribal people for a decision regard-ing the future status of FATA, exten-sion of the inheritance law and mak-ing the Jirga system more democraticand independent from the political ad-ministration.

In a series of meetings and mediabriefings with leaders of other memberpolitical parties, the FATA Committeevisited former JI Ameer MunawwarHassan in Lahore, GovernorBalochistan Muhammad KhanAchakzai and Chief MinisterBalochistan Abdul Malik Baloch inQuetta, as well as former President AsifAli Zardari, PPP Patron-in-Chief BilawalBhutto Zardari, and MQM MNA Dr.Farooq Sattar in Karachi. Meeting withmembers of the Senate defence andhuman rights committees, SenatorsShujaat Hussain of PML and AfrasiabKhattak of ANP ensured their supportand action on the Senate floor for thereforms. In November 2013, the FATACommittee also met and presented the11-point reforms to the Minister forStates and Frontier Regions Lt. Gen-eral (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch.—NNI

BuildingInspector bookedFAISALABAD—The anticorruption establishmentarrested a building depart-ment inspector on thecharge of taking illegalgratification.

A citizen Akram filed acomplaint with the anti cor-ruption establishment alleg-ing that building inspectorof Faisalabad DevelopmentAuthority (FDA)Muhammad Aslam was de-manding Rs.5000/- as bribefrom him.

A team of anti corrup-t ion department officersconducted a surprise raidand arrested building in-spector MuhammadAslam while was receivingbribe.

The raiding team alsorecovered marked cur-rency notes from his pos-session and sent the ac-cused official behind barsin Civil Line police stationfor further invest iga-tion.—APP

Ghakhicheck post

becomes majorsmuggling point

LANDI KOTAL—Smugglingof different goods includingIndian cloth, tyres medicines,Japanese, Chinese and Ma-laysian electronic goodshave reached to peak fromAfghanistan via Ghakhicheck post Loe ShalmanLandi Kotal,which is causinga loss of Rs 4 million to thegovernment every week areliable source of politicaladministration told INP.

Sources said that 10 to15 trucks daily enter Paki-stan from Afghanistanloaded with unpaidsmuggled goods entere viaGhakhi check post a com-bined post of FC andKhassadar force of politicalAdministration Landi kotal.

The smuggled goods,sources said include autoparts ,juice, crockery , refrig-erators, air conditioners,LCD, LED, TV sets, mobiles,soaps, batteries, waterpumps, lap tops, Americanand Chinese generators,solars panels,hard ware,tea,shampo,radio,ghee,oil.noncustom paid vehicles. Indianmedicine, cloth and tyreswere being smuggled fromAfghanistan were also beingsmuggled into Pakistanthrough this check post.

According to reports,corrupt officials collect 5million rupees every dayfrom the trucks loaded withsmuggled goods and noncustom paid vehicles. —INP

KP Speaker assuresresolution of collegeteachers’ problems

PESHAWAR—Speaker, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly,Asad Qaiser has said that teaching is honourable profes-sion and teachers enjoy high esteem in the society, add-ing all requirement of justice would be fulfilled ot resolvetheir genuine problems.

He expressed these views while talking to a delegationof the principals of colleges and schools which met underthe leadership of the president, College Professors Asso-ciation, Nasrullah Khan Yusufzai here on Wednesday.

The speaker urged the members of delegation to con-centrate full attention on the provision of better educationof students. He also assured them of utilizing all possibleresources in seeking solution to their problems.

He assured the delegation that authorities concernedwould be contacted for the appointment of educationistsas chairmen in secondary boards and textbook boards.

The delegation while expressing their views againstthe decision taken in last cabinet meeting of the previousgovernment and said that declaring vacancies in all postsin boards as schedule sheer injustice and termed it pureright of the experts, saying only educationists can runthese vacancies in better manner. Therefore, they calledfor appointment of senior and competent BPS-20 officerson basis of merit.

The speaker said that for the resolution of their genu-ine demands, he would contact chief minister and ministerconcerned and a meeting of the delegation would also bearranged with them.—APP

US consulate imparts Englishlanguage skills to students

MULTAN—US Consulate General imparted English lan-guage training to 3,335 students of government schools,said English Programme Coordinator US Consulate Gen-eral Lahore, Muhammad Iqbal.

He was chairing a special graduation ceremony heldunder the auspices of Indus Research and DevelopmentOrganisation (IRDO) where 300 students of governmentschools were awarded certificates in English ACCESSMicrosholarship Programme-2012-14.

The English language programme was launched inseven government schools of Multan in which 300 stu-dents got training of language skills for two years.

Addressing the graduation ceremony, Muhammad Iqbalsaid the US State Department had provided Rs 2.26 millionfor the project across the province and they imparted En-glish language skills to 3,335 students. He said teachershad also been imparted special skills for training of schoolkids. He said libraries and books were also provided toschools to facilitate teachers.

Chief Executive Officer IRDO, Uzma Rubab, said stu-dents linguistic skills, character building and social confi-dence had improved under the training course.

Brilliant students were also awarded cash prizes. Thestudents also presented special dramatic performances andamused the audiences. Director BZU Language centre DrNaveed, government officers and parents of the studentswere also present.—APP

Qaim announcesRs300m for

forcesKARACHI—Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Qaim AliShah on Wednesday saidthat Rs 60 million have beenallocated to buy arms forthe provincial securityforces. Addressing a pass-ing out parade he congratu-lated the forces and saidthat the sacrifices of themartyrs would not go invain. The CM announcedRs 150 million each forRazzaqabad and SaeedabadTraining Centers, that weretargeted by the militants.

“The forces will get themodern weapons and train-ing for better performanceand fighting against terror-ism”, he added.

Appreciating the ser-vices of Rangers in Karachioperation, Shah vowed toprovide more facilities toRangers.—INP

Shutdownnotice

F A I S A L A B A D — T h eFaisalabad Electric SupplyCompany (Fesco) issued ashutdown notice for re-pair, maintenance and ex-pansion of electr ici tylines.

According to the no-t ice issued by the com-pany here on Wednesday,power supply fromRangpur, Pir AbdurRehman and GM Raja feed-ers emanating from 66-KVAhmad Pur grid stat ionwill remain suspendedfrom 10:00am to 4:00pmwhile Gulistan Colonyfeeder originating from132-KV OTP grid stationwill observe shutdownfrom 9:00am to 1:00pm onThursday (May 29).

Similarly, electr ici tysupply from 66-KV Athara-Hazari and GM Raja gridstat ion wil l also remainsuspended from 10:00amto 2:00pm on May 29.—APP

Youm-e-Takbeerobserved inHyderabad

HYDERABAD—People cel-ebrated Youm-e-Takbeerhere on Wednesday withnational fervor and enthusi-asm to remember the historicnuclear tests conducted bythe country in 1998 that madeit the seventh nuclear nationof the world.

President PML (N), Dis-trict Hyderabad HaneefSiddiqui highlighting theachievements said nucleardetonations proved to theworld that Pakistan was fullycapable to defend its sover-eignty and security.

Talking to APP, HaneefSiddiqui said the nation wouldalways remember the servicesof the politicians, scientistsand army officers who workedfor materializing the dream ofmaking Pakistan an atomicpower.He said the nation wasproud of the services of hun-dreds of engineers and emi-nent scientists, who throughtheir untiring efforts, madePakistan’s defence invincible.

Siddiqui said that May28 has become a historic dayfor the country and is calledYoum-e-Takbeer.It is on thisday that the nation remem-bers its great achievement,he said.—APP

Three peopledie in roadaccidents

LAHORE—As many asthree people reported tohave been killed in total 511road traffic accidents in Res-cue 1122’s Provincial Moni-toring Cell during last 24hours in all 36 Districts ofPunjab.

The four hundred thirtysix seriously injured wereshifted to different hospitalsof relevant districts by Res-cue Ambulances. Some 166victims sustaining minor in-juries were provided first aidon the spot.

According to data, 238drivers, 21 underage drivers,64 pedestrians and 303 pas-sengers were among thevictims of these road trafficaccidents.

The statistics show 86RTAs were reported inLahore Control Room,which affected 85 personsplacing the ProvincialCapital at top of the list,fol lowed by 50 RTAs inFaisalabad with 57 victimsand Multan at third posi-tion with 39 RTAs and 44victims.—NNI

Anti-measles drive continuesHYDERABAD—Anti-measles campaign is in progressacross Sindh province with full swing.

Talking to this scribe here on Wednesday, DirectorGeneral Health Sindh, Dr Hafeez ul Haq Memon said that13.3 million children will be given vaccine during the cam-paign.

He urged the people to come forward and play theirrole in eradication of measles.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif shaking hands with Major General Matar Bin Salim BinRashid Albalushi, Commander of Royal Army of Oman who called on him at PM House.

MULTAN: PML-N women workers cutting cake to mark Youm-e-Takbeer.

QUETTA: Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali visiting WAPDA Hospi-tal after inauguration.

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif on Wednesday said the geo-graphical proximity between Pakistan andOman can offer them a great scope to stepup their bilateral relations. The Prime Min-ister said in a meeting with Major GeneralMatar Bin Salim Bin Rashid Albalushi, Com-mander of Royal Army of Oman who calledon him here at the PM’s House.

The Prime Minister said, “Pakistan at-taches immense importance to its fraternalrelations with Oman. The bilateral relationsare historical, deep-rooted and based oncommonalities of faith, culture and tradi-tions,”

Sharif stressed the need to increase mili-tary exchanges between the two countries

PM for enhancedties with Oman

and emphasized the role that the traininginstitutions can play role in providing train-ing to Oman’s military.

The Prime Minister cited the contribu-tions made by Pakistani expatriates inOman’s development and lauded the Gov-ernment of Oman’s efforts in facilitatingPakistani workers.

Brigadier Mohammad Bin Saleh Bin AlShibli, Commander Sultan of Oman’s Army,Colonel Said Bin Bakhit Masood Tabook,Deputy Commandant Border Guards,Ryadh Yousaf Al-Raisi, Ambassador ofOman to Pakistan, Javaid Aslam Secretaryto PM, Lt General (R) M. Asif Yasin MalikSecretary Defense were also present in themeeting.—APP

HAFIZABAD—The Election Commission ofPakistan and district administration havemade foolproof arrangements to hold peace-ful by-election in PP-107 (Pindi Bhattian)on May 29 in a free, fair and transparentmanner.

According to official sources, 175,339male and female registered voters wouldcast their votes at 154 polling stations.

By-election arrangements finalizedAs many as 1629 policemen have been

deputed at polling stations to ensure peace-ful polling. Sixteen polling stations havebeen declared sensitive where strict secu-rity arrangements are being made. Mean-while, arrangements are being made totransport ballot boxes, ballot papers andpolling staff to the respective polling sta-tions.—APP

Mango orchards’inspectionunderway

MULTAN—The FederalPlant Protection Department(FPPD) has completed in-spection of 58 mango or-chards in South Punjab andthe 25-day process wouldcomplete on May 30 to filterout and register orchardsmeeting international stan-dards for export of fruit-fly-free healthy mangoes toEuropean countries.

Mango orchards spreadover 50 acre or more werebeing inspected by an offi-cial team of experts and in-spection of 58 orchards hasbeen completed so far inmango areas includingMultan, Rahimyar Khan,Muzaffargarh, Khanewal,Bahawalpur besidesShorkot and Vehari.

Only those orchards willbe registered which wouldmeet the parameters basedon the inspection and wouldbe eligible to export man-goes, said a press release is-sued by media liaison unit ofPunjab agriculture depart-ment on Wednesday.—APP

Echo of Mumbaiin New Delhi

PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif became first leader in Pakistan-Indiahistory to have attended the oath-taking ceremony of the chief executive of the other country. The visit was indeed a productive one as it

led to melting of ice that prevented the two countries from moving forwardon the path of conflict resolution and proceeding onto cooperative mode.

India’s decision to extend invitation to the Pakistan Prime Minister andMian Nawaz Sharif’s positive response to participate in the oath-takingceremony of Narendra Modi, was distinctly appreciated by the internationalcommunity. In this backdrop, it was hoped that the first interaction betweenthe leadership of the two countries would help create salutary environmentfor much-needed resumption of the composite dialogue. In fact, they didagree that Foreign Secretaries of the two countries would meet soon toreview the process and how to move forward. It was, however, unfortunatethat echoes of Mumbai attacks reverberated throughout the visit of the PrimeMinister to the Indian capital. Indian media hammered out the point againand again that the Indian leaders raised the issue of terror attack in Mumbaiwith the Pakistani leader. But it was all the more ironical that the issuereportedly figured during meeting of Modi with Sharif and the Indian For-eign Secretary made it number one point to share with media in the briefingheld after meeting of eight nations with the new Indian Prime Minister. Itseems that deliberate and calculated attempts were made to belittle the visitof the Pakistani Prime Minister. There was absolutely no justification tomention Mumbai incident on this occasion keeping in view the generousattitude demonstrated by Nawaz Sharif by taking the bold step of embark-ing on the Indian visit despite many complications and ramifications.Strangely enough Afghan President Hamid Karzai, on the basis of briefinghe got from Indian intelligence, claimed that Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LT) wasinvolved in attack on Indian consulate in Herat. It was clearly an attempt toput maximum pressure on Pakistan and embarrass the Pakistani leader whenhe was discussing peace and friendship with Indian leaders. We believe thatIndians should not have tried to pollute atmosphere but what they did ex-posed their claims about their peaceful intentions and credentials.

Are we a nation devoidof understanding?

THE outcome of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to India has become a subject of heated debate in Pakistan. It appears that the nation is

divided over whether the visit was successful and productive or was devoidof any substance.

Leaving aside a few elements who were against Sharif’s decisions toattend the oath-taking ceremony of Modi from the very beginning, most ofPakistanis were by and large supportive of the decision. They consideredthe initiative of the Prime Minister as positive and appropriate. However,diverse opinions are being expressed by some segments of the populationand in a sentimental approach they are viewing the visit as dismal as, ac-cording to them, it could not help achieve progress on the issues of concernto Pakistan. This approach is immature as it is against the ground realities.The visit was definitely important but no saner element expected any break-through in the first and that too informal interaction between Pakistan PrimeMinister and the new Indian PM, who was just taking oath. The issuesinvolved are complex and serious and it was unfair to expect that the lead-ership of the two countries would move ahead significantly in just one go.Such is the nature of the disputes and differences that the two countriesfought three wars and have almost always remained scary of each other’sintentions. The dimension that Pakistan-India relationship has assumed,requires patience and maturity. There can be no two opinions that onlyavailable option for both countries is to keep on talking. To expect thatmiracles would happen is nothing but superficiality, which needs to beshunned for sake of promoting the realistic approach for resolution of is-sues of divergence and proceed on path of cooperation. It is good that visitprovided an opportunity to PM Sharif to establish personal rapport with hisIndian counterpart and speak his mind to the leadership in New Delhi.

Powering of NandipurPower Plant

The first 95 MW unit of 425 MW Nandipur Power Plant has startedpower generation but would be formally inaugurated on 31st May. The

completion of the first unit reflects the determination of Chief MinisterPunjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif to rid the people of crippling energy crisis.

The powering of the Nandipur power plant is one of the several initia-tives of the PML-N government with focussed attention though other projectsof national importance are also getting due attention as per commitmentmade by the party in the election manifesto. The Quaid-i-Azam Solar En-ergy Park in Bahawalpur with an investment of more than Rs 200 billion inthe area, which is the biggest investment in the history of the country, willgenerate 1000 megawatt electricity. In addition to several other projects inPunjab that would be based on coal to generate cheap electricity, the groundbreaking of yet another mega power project is being made in the next fewdays in Sahiwal that would generate 1320 MW. These initiatives of thePunjab Chief Minister with the backing of the Prime Minister Mian NawazSharif are worth emulation by other Provinces. We are certain that when thepower projects being set up in Punjab are complete, the people of the Prov-ince would heave a sigh of relief from load shedding. The Gaddani energypark being set up by the Federal government envisaged the establishmentof eight coal fired power plants but a few days ago the Prime Minister gaveapproval of two additional coal fired plants under IPP mode to increasegeneration to 6600 MW. Also the Prime Minister while giving approval ofthe PSDP for the next financial year approved substantial allocations forthe construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Dassu hydel power projects, thoughthe mega projects would take another ten years but under the long termenergy security of the country these are of utmost importance. There aremany sites in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan where the Provin-cial governments can set up small hydel power plants to generate cheapelectricity. We would impress upon them to set aside a part of their annualbudget to exploit the God given gift of hydel power.

Media wars

Trappedin

Afghanistan

FOR years, the Americanpeople have been askingwhen the war in Afghani-

stan will end. On Tuesday, Presi-dent Obama said not for at leasttwo and a half more years. Mr.Obama reaffirmed that he wouldmeet his commitment to removethe last 32,000 combat troopsfrom Afghanistan at the end of theyear, a pace that was too slowfrom the start. But don’t think thisis the end of the American mili-tary involvement in the Afghanquagmire.

After months of hemming andhawing, Mr. Obama also an-nounced that he intends to retaina residual force beyond 2014. Ac-cording to this plan, 9,800 troopswould remain in Afghanistan af-ter 2014, and the number wouldbe cut by half by the end of 2015.By the end of 2016, the force willbe cut further, enough to protectthe embassy in Kabul and help theAfghans with outfitting their mili-tary and other security matters. Itis reasonable to ask how two moreyears of a sizable American trooppresence — which one officialsaid could cost $20 billion in 2015— will advance a stable Afghani-stan in a way that 13 years of warand the 100,000 troops deployedthere at the peak were unable toguarantee.

Mr. Obama insists the objec-tives will be limited to using Spe-cial Operations forces to disruptthreats posed by Al Qaeda and totrain and advise Afghan securitypersonnel, pursuits Americantroops have been deeply engagedin throughout the war. He does notclaim that the residual force willensure Afghanistan’s success. Butadministration officials say —and this is the only argument thatmakes some sense — that a con-tinued, albeit much smaller,American military role wouldprovide a stabilizing bridge at asensitive time when Afghanistanis choosing a new leader to suc-ceed President Hamid Karzai.There also are doubts about howmuch Congress and the interna-tional community will be willingto invest in Afghanistan if Ameri-can troops, along with a muchsmaller contingent of NATOforces, are not in the country.

The election is a cause forsome optimism about Afghani-stan, which has been burdened byinept and corrupt governance. Thetop two candidates to succeed Mr.Karzai — Abdullah Abdullah, aformer foreign minister, andAshraf Ghani, a former WorldBank official — are viewed ascompetent, pro-Western andstable, unlike Mr. Karzai. BothMr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani havealso said they would sign a bilat-eral security agreement that Mr.Karzai refused to sign and that Mr.Obama insists is a prerequisite fora continued troop presence. Theadministration says it has alsobeen encouraged by improve-ments in the Afghan securityforces, which the United Statesand NATO built and trained overthe past decade. Initial news re-ports suggested the forces contrib-uted to the reasonably peacefuloutcome of the first round ofpresidential voting in April. Morethan 350,000 military and policeunits were deployed for the vote.But it was later reported that Af-ghan news media played down theincidence of violence and manyexperts still have serious ques-tions about the competency ofmost Afghan units.

The country’s gross domesticproduct has grown an average of9.4 percent annually from 2003 to2012, and life expectancy has in-creased by more than 20 years to62 years. Yet the United Statesremains trapped there, putting itsyoung men and women in harm’sway. Mr. Obama has dragged outthe biggest part of the withdrawalfrom Afghanistan for two yearsand now wants to leave moretroops there until the end of 2016.His promise to end the war, madeyears ago, won’t be honoured un-til he’s practically out of office.— The New York Times

MEDIA WATCH

IT is essential to seek out enemyagents who have come to conduct espionage against you and

to bribe them to serve you. Givethem instructions and care for them.Thus doubled agents are recruitedand used. [Sun Tzu]

Before March 9, 2007, it was alldark on the horizon of Pakistan. Amilitary dictator was ruling whiledressed in khaki uniform; he wasintent upon continuing his rule forthe next 5 years; and the criminalpoliticians were all ready to help himrule for more than a hundred years.Such was the hopelessness that norational being could dream of a sil-ver lining. One could only fear whathappened to Iraq after it grabbedKuwait, may not happen to Pakistan.

All of a sudden, and it was justlike a bolt from the blue, a hopestarted taking shape. First time inPakistan, the point was made thatthe government must be run by thebook. So, the lawyers’ movementtaught the people of Pakistan threelessons in democracy: constitu-tionalism, rule of law, and funda-mental rights. During this move-ment, the dynamics of Pakistanisociety changed the repercussionsof which will be felt far deeper intothe future.

One of the new forces thatemerged in the midst of that move-ment is electronic media. Rather itmay rightly be asserted that not onlythe plethora of TV channels got al-lied and aligned with the people atlarge, but they realized their power

Western media lacks interest in Kashmir dispute

IT is instructive and somewhatdisturbing to see which oftoday’s on-going liberation

struggles are regarded by the inter-national media as being newswor-thy and which are essentially ig-nored. Take the events in the MiddleEast which have become knowncollectively as the Arab Spring. Theexcesses of the dictatorial regimesin Tunis, Libya and Egypt and themass protests that they gave rise tohave been and continue to be exten-sively covered in the press, on theradio and on TV.

As these protests have turnedinto movements for democratic free-dom and for change their progresshas been monitored and analyzedboth by the media and by Westerngovernments. Indeed the Westernworld was quick to express its moraloutrage at the oppression, humanrights abuses and widespread cor-ruption of the old regimes of theMiddle East and have provided atleast moral support and in somecases material support to the emerg-ing democratic movements thatsought to overthrow them. Clearlythe Arab Spring is newsworthy.

On the other hand the disputebetween India and Pakistan overKashmir and occupation of parts ofKashmir by the Indian army isclearly not something that journal-ists feel that their readers wouldwish to be informed about.

The UN, Amnesty Internationaland Human Rights Watch have allrepeatedly criticized India’s draco-nian laws in the parts of Kashmirunder their control. Despite this no

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com

Make it a rule oflife never to regretand never to lookback. Regret is anappalling waste ofenergy; you can’tbuild on it; it’sonly good forwallowing in.

plans have been made to ad-dress the issue at the govern-ment level. Neither have themajor international organiza-tions, international NGOs orthe international media placedthe Kashmir question firmly

on their agendas.The available evidence raises se-

rious questions concerning the lawsimposed by India on the local popu-lation in the occupied and disputedterritory of Kashmir. In particular,the question must be asked whetherthese laws are in fact based on uni-versally accepted norms of justice andequality before the law?

Three of these laws have been thesubject of especial concern on the partof the international NGOs and theUN. These are the Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act, the Public SafetyAct, and the Disturbed Areas Act.

The Armed Forces Special Pow-ers Act grants Indian security forcesimmunity from arrest irrespective ofwhat crimes may have been commit-ted. Thus cases of extra-judicial kill-ings, rape and other human rightsabuses go unpunished. One particu-larly dreadful example took place in1991 when Indian security forces al-legedly mass raped at least 53women in KunanPoshpora. No ar-rests have been made in connectionwith this crime.

The Public Safety Act allows forthe detention of a person without trialfor two years under the pretext ofmaintaining public order. The Dis-turbed Areas Act grants the Indiansecurity forces the right to use force,or to shoot a person who in the opin-ion of the security forces could pro-voke a serious breach of social order.

These laws have been used to im-prison thousands of civil rights activ-ists, lawyers, and pro-independenceleaders. Detainees have been kept incamps and detention centers in J&K

often in remote areas far away fromfamilies, relatives and friends. Condi-tions in the camps are often very poor.Evidence gathered from exiledKashmiris now resident in other coun-tries yields frequent accounts of longperiods in solitary confinement, sys-tematic torture, beatings and the ad-ministration of electric shocks.

Needless to say, such humanrights violations do irreparable psy-chological damage to the local popu-lation especially to the current gen-eration of Kashmiri youth which has

been deprived of any real possibilityof social or economic advancement.

An estimated 7,00,000 Indiansecurity forces are stationed in Kash-mir to keep a population of sevenmillion Kashmiris until tight control.India proudly bears the label of be-ing the world’s largest democracy.‘What’ one could simply ask ‘hashappened to these celebrated demo-cratic values in the disputed Kashmir

Katherine Mansfield — British writer

region?’ The majority of Kashmirisare Muslim and live concentrated inthe Kashmir Valley. In 1947, at Par-tition, these people had no intentionof joining India. Neither have theyany desire to be a part of India to-day. This explains why India’s oc-cupation of Kashmir creates a deephostility in the region’s political en-vironment and makes Kashmir aconflict zone with two nuclear pow-ers regarding each other across theline of control. The ultimate vic-tims of this conflict are the peopleof Kashmir who to date have neverbeen allowed a place at the table ofany formal peace talks between In-dia and Pakistan.

The future for the Kashmirisdoes not look very bright! Thismonth India’s Hindu nationalistBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won alandslide victory in national elec-tions. Mr Narendra Modi has be-come the new Prime Minister. USSecretary of State John Kerry con-gratulated Modi on his victory andtweeted that he looks forward toworking together with the world’slargest democracy.

Mr Kerry chooses to forget thatMr Modi’s US visa was revoked in2005 on grounds of his alleged in-volvement in the anti-Muslim riotsin Gujarat where he was state Gov-ernor. In these riots more than 1000civilians, mostly Muslims, died.Despite the fact that this mass kill-ing has been repeatedly brought tothe attention of the internationalmedia, the media has decided thatthis is definitely un- newsworthy.There seems little possibility too ofthe media breaking its stoic silenceabout the inhuman laws imposed bythe Indian State on the occupied ter-ritories of Kashmir.—The writer, a Jakarta-basedresearch analyst, writes exclusivelyfor Pakistan Observer.

also. That made them self-conscious elephantine!Ensuing of a fierce com-petition among them wasquite natural. In aRobbinsian economicsense, viewership as well

as advertisement revenue wasscarce, and they fought for a largershare forgetting all the norms andrules of the game. The one whichwon not only a larger portion of theviewership but revenue also becamethe target of envy and conspiraciesby other lesser obtainers.

Previously, it was all melodrama.There was only one TV channel, thestate-run PTV. For its survival, it wasdependent on the doles from the state,and it blew the state’s trumpet. In or-der to survive, it’s still extorting Rs.35every month from every TV setowner by using the might of the state.Emergence of dozens of new TV chan-nels, which of course were to be runlike businesses, completely altered thescene on the stage. The state-run PTVslipped behind the curtain, and lostboth its viewership and revenue to thenew breed of TV channels, which inno way were dependent on the state.Instead they depend on their marketof viewers who indirectly yield rev-enue to them. Thus, in the world ofelectronic media in Pakistan loyalty tothe market is the rule, and loyalty tothe state and its institutions is an ex-ception (loyalty to the constitution isquite something else).

As the art of the statecraft re-quires, the private TV channels werebrought under a regulator, PakistanElectronic Media Regulatory Author-ity (PEMRA). However, in essencethe ruling political parties came tocontrol these channels for politicalgains and privileges. That the regu-lator in this case, as in so many other

cases, was not given autonomy andthe government kept it under its au-thority, it remained spineless, result-ing in a chaotic broadcasting envi-ronment. A number of attempts onthe part of these private TV chan-nels to self-regulate failed, whichprovided ample space to the stateand its various institutions and agen-cies to dictate their agenda items tothis or that TV channel.

But that was not like PTV days,the golden days of melodrama andhappy eulogies. The competitionamong these channels drove them touncharted territories and unfathomeddepths. They have already realizedtheir elephantine powerfulness dur-ing the lawyers’ movement when theyhelped defeat a military dictator. Nowthey have their own fish to fry. Theystarted questioning every practice ofthe state, its various institutions, in-cluding the security entities; the pivotand the point of reference was and isthe constitution of Pakistan. The sto-ries and acts which previously wentuntold and unheard, now foundtongues and ears. The tales of SaleemShahzad, Umar Cheema, and HamidMir had a rebellious tone, and chal-lenged the perpetrators. It may alsobe explained thus that where politi-cians were required to act boldly wastaken up by a TV channel itself. Thisshows the utter desperation of thosewho have no hope of justice.

Under the circumstances, themost relevant question is about therole of the state and the politicians.Related with it are other crucial ques-tions, such as: why the constitutionis not followed in letter and in spiritby the various institutions and enti-ties, be they security or otherwise. Orwhy the politicians fail to enforce aconstitutional rule in Pakistan. Whythere is blatant power play which in

fact repudiates the spirit and provi-sions of the constitution. Why thepoliticians fail in securing the fun-damental rights to the citizens, bethey journalists. Why the politiciansfail to set up independent and au-tonomous regulators and let themdo their job.

In other words, it means hadthere been rule of law in Pakistan,no institution and entity would haveengaged itself in un-constitutionalactivities. Had there been indepen-dent and autonomous courts, nosuppressing of the fundamentalrights would have been possible.Had there been due accountabilitymechanisms existent at every levelof the state institutions including theArmy and the intelligence agencies,there would have been no casessuch as of Saleem Shahzad, UmarCheema and Hamid Mir on the onehand, and on the other, no mediacampaigns against any security en-tity may have been unleashed. Butall that remains completely absentin Pakistan; which emboldens ev-ery individual and every institutionto do what they like.

No doubt, the anarchy prevail-ing in the realm of electronic mediain Pakistan at the moment may nothave been the case, had there beenan independent and autonomousPEMRA, which would have actedin the nick of time in case of anyirregularity committed by any me-dia house. However, the PEMRA isstill conspicuously absent from thescene whereas weeks have passedthat a media war has been raging inPakistan. That speaks volume aboutthe failure of the ruling PML-N’sleadership!—The writer is Lahore-basedpolitical analyst and author ofseveral books.

Laura SchuurmansEmail:schuurmans.laura@gmail.com

Dr Khalil AhmadEmal:khalilkf@gmail.com

An estimated7,00,000 Indian

security forces arestationed in

Kashmir to keep apopulation of seven

million Kashmirisuntil tight control.

India proudly bearsthe label of being

the world’s largestdemocracy. ‘What’one could simply

ask ‘has happenedto these celebrateddemocratic values

in the disputedKashmir region?’

Voice of the PeopleIslamabad

tourismBADEE UZ ZAMAN BADAR

Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan issituated among the back drop ofMargalla Hills. Islamabad holds thedistinction of a leading city in tour-ism industry of Pakistan. The citywas built in 1960s as a meticulouslyplanned city. It is reckoned amongthe well developed and planned cit-ies of the world. The city is locatedin Pothohar plateau and the climateis a typical version of humid sub-tropical climate with five seasons.

The Lok Versa museum is a de-piction of rich cultural heritage ofPakistan. The blooming flowers’shape of the the Monument of Paki-stan represents the nation’s fourProvinces. The great walls ofMargalla hills surrounding the cityand are excellent sites for traking,hiking and also for camping.Daman-e Koh and Pir Sohawa arepopular destinations for the localresidents as well as the foreign tour-ists. But due to some resent recentincidents of snatching and muggingthe tourisms has affected the tour-ism the most. The CDA and the gov-ernment should take serious actionagainst such incidents to promote thetourism industry in the area for thewell being of Country.—Islamabad

Radio Pakistan addsnew feather to its cap

MAHMOOD RIAZUDDIN

RADIO Pakistan entered into ageof digitisation on Monday, May 26,2014, with the inauguration of a400 kilowatt new digital transmit-ter at its Chugalpura transmitterPeshawar. The project is part of theplan to mod-ernize, upgrade andrevamp the national broadcaster soas to meet the modern day require-ments and to disseminate informa-tion, education and entertainmentto the listeners. The installation ofthe new transmitter at the oldest andthe first ever radio station of Paki-stan will replace the exist-ing morethan 20 years old 100 kilowatttransmitter, and besides addedvoice quality, it will have an out-reach as far as up to parts of Af-ghanistan.

According to a survey, with theinstallation of the new digital trans-mit-ter, the programmes being airedby Radio Pakistan Peshawar in sixlan-guages that is Urdu, Pushto,Hindko, Khor (Chitrali), Kohistani(Hazara) and Dari on the frequency1260 KHz, would be clearly lis-tened in Bajaur Agency, KurramAgency, Khyber Agency,Mohmand Agency, OrakzaiAgency, Malakand Agency, Up-per Dir, Lower Dir (Chakdara),Buner, Hangu, Mardan, Shangla(Swat), Swabi, Kohat, DeraIsmail Khan, Man-sehra,Abbottabad, Garam Chashma(Chitral), Azad Kashmir, parts ofHunza, Islamabad, Rawalpindi,and up to Kunar and NangarharProvinces of Afghanistan.

In this way, Peshawar radiowhich had started its journey witha small one kilowatt medium wavetransmitter in 1935, will have themost power-ful transmitter fromnow on. During its almost 80 years’journey, Pesha-war Radio Stationhas played an active role in promot-ing local traditions and culture,educating the people and socio-eco-nomic uplift of the area. After thecreation of Pakistan, this emergedas the only source to encour-age themigrants and help them rehabilitatein the then North-West Fron-tierProvince [NWFP]. It also high-lighted through its news bulletinsand programmes the socio-eco-nomic activities in the region. Itpromoted na-tional unity and co-hesion among different communi-ties particularly those who had mi-grated from India.

Radio Pakistan Peshawar in-fused a new spirit among the peopleof the area during 1965 war, andthe people of NWFP alongside theircounter-parts in other Provincesstood shoulder to shoulder with theArmed forces thereby boostingtheir morale. Similarly, this radiostation has played a leading role inproviding updates on the latest situ-ations of natural calamities –whether it is 2005 catastrophicearthquake which caused the worstdisaster particularly in Balakot orthe floods that hit different parts ofthe Province from time to time –and contributed to the rehabilitationof the affected people.

This outlet of the Radio Paki-stan has a leading role in raisingthe mo-rale of the people particu-larly those living in militancy-in-fested Federally-AdministeredTribal Areas [FATA]. Its correspon-dents provided the spot coverage ofevents at the risk of their lives soas to keep the audience abreast withthe latest situation and to share theirsufferings and miseries. The con-

Injustice and incompetenceHASHIM ABRO

Injustice and incompetence reign in Pakistan. One who speaks ofjustice has to pay the price and one is competent in his work, in

his/her field, stands isolated, deprived of his right to promotion, orbears the brunt because in an ignorant and unjust society, flatteryof boss is essential to flourish, rather than fear of God. Indeed,ignorant societies and their ignorant, incompetent, corrupt andcrude individuals never bother about the disastrous consequencesthe country, the society has to face because of their corruptionwhich is a form of injustice, they become self-centred, hence,always worry to have more material gains. Where Pakistanstands today? This sordid state of affairs, it is all because ofinjustice and incompetence, which rules in Pakistan.—Islamabad

DISCLAIMER

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

THE articles, columns andletters are published on thesepages in good faith. However,the contents of these writingsmay not necessarily match theviews of the newspaper.

—Editor

Imran Khan under the spotlight

THE PTI rallies of May 11 andMay 25 have turned the spotlight on Imran Khan once

again. The timings of the rallies –ostensibly held against election rig-ging – was quite intriguing to saythe least. These anti-election riggingrallies were being held exactly oneyear after the election of 2014, andfour years before the next elections;that is if they are held on time. Imranalso spoke about election reform andthe dissolution of the Election Com-mission. Now the Election Commis-sion is a constitutional body, and thegovernment has no authority to dis-solve its arbitrarily. Imran’s demandof election reforms is a valid one; butthe right forum for that would be theNational Assembly, where he has asubstantial number of legislators.

Many analysts also question hisskewed priorities. According tothem, the fixing of the broken downlaw and order in KPK, a provinceruled by PTI, should be Imran’s firstpriority. Not only is Taliban relatedviolence a major menace; but alsoordinary crime, especially extortionis rampant, in KPK, which was notthe case before. To understand ImranKhan’s brand of Politics a cursorylook at his political career would beinstructive. Imran Khan is anythingbut a conventional political leader.His political career started quickly,on the heals of Pakistani cricketteam’s win of the 1992 world cup.As a Captain of the winning team,Imran skillfully tapped the Eupho-ria of the Masses, on winning theworld cup; coupled with his ownsubstantial charisma, and gatheredbillion of Rupees in charity, for, hiscancer hospital, named after hismother “Shaukat Khanum’’.

After commissioning of the hos-pital in a record time, Imran’s repu-tation as a doer cemented further.Imran was now just one step awayfrom joining politics, a prediction,which he initially denied. Imran’sCharisma; his reputation as a doer;and his integrity were, however, notmatched by deep thought, and po-litical vision, which come only af-

ter in depth study and observa-tion. A pattern that one has ob-served in his decision makingprocess is: that Most of his im-portant political decisions aremade more on intuition andimpulse rather then detailed and

objective analysis. As a politicalleader he has shown the tendency tosee things in black and white, avoid-ing the complexity of the grey shade.

It was around this time thatImran’s spiritual awaking, as a bornagain Muslim also started. Thistransformation, as per Imran Khanhimself, was also based more uponhis interaction with a certain retiredWAPDA official; rather than indepth study of religion. This intro-duction and understanding of Islam,to which Imran was exposed, wasmostly in the verbal tradition and notthrough extensive reading about re-ligion. This understanding of Islamwas to persuade Imran to embracesome extreme right wing and reac-tionary causes in his future politics.

Soon Tehrik-e-Insaf as a politi-cal movement was launched. Ini-tially Islamists like Hamid Gul triedto use Imran as a poster boy for theirversion of Islam. But after seeingImran,s independence of mind; andhis unwillingness to play secondfiddle to any one, many initial pa-trons soon parted ways with him.Some other very senior and balancedintellectuals and former bureaucratslike Abdul Sattar, (former foreignminister) and Dr. Amir Mohammadalso joined Imran Khan. Their stayin Imran’s camp also proved to be abrief one, supposedly due to Imran’slack of flexibility and overbearingstyle of leadership.

In 1997 general elections Imrancould not do well at all, and couldnot even win a single seat. AfterMusharraf took over Imran was ini-tially very close to him, and evensupported his controversial referen-dum. Just before the 2002 elections,when the ISI, was cobbling up a ProMusharraf alliance, Imran Khan re-fused to be a part of it. Thus in the2002 elections the PTI again did notdo too well and Imran won only hisown seat from Mianwali. His criticspoint out that the break withMusharraf, was over the fact, thatImran was not being made the P.M,as promised earlier. After 2002,elections Imran became part of op-

position in the national assembly;and turned all his guns on Musharrafand his supporters. Imran’s PTIalong with JI, and some Nationalistparties boycotted the 2008 election;when it was felt, that PTI, was quiteready to do well in the elections. Thisboycott of the 2008 election seemsto be a classical example of instincttaking precedence over reason.From 2008 till 2012, Imran playedthe role of a very active and dynamicpolitical leader of the opposition,from outside the assembly.

Just before the 2012, generalelections the PTI started peaking.Many opposition stalwarts frommajor political parties joined PTI. Itwas openly alleged the ex-DG, ISI,General Pasha had a soft corner forPTI. After his retirement these alle-gations stopped. No doubt peoplestarted joining PTI in droves beforethe 2012 elections; which created astrong hype that PTI was going tosweep the elections. This hype wasparticularly strong in KPK, and ma-jor urban centres of Punjab. Imran’scategorical predictions that PTI wasgoing to sweep the elections like atsunami also raised expectationsamong party workers to an unreal-istic level. When the PTI did not doas well as it was expected to; theresentment and frustration amongPTI workers, reached a crescendo.They felt as if they were cheated ofa victory, which was rightfullytheirs. The election commission, theinterim governments and the judi-ciary all became suspects in theireyes. Although PTI swept KPK, itcould not do as well against the well-funded and much entrenched PML-N in Punjab. PTI did win seats fromurban centres, but patronage politicsworked against them in the rural ar-eas, where PML-N had presence forthe last twenty-five years.

PTI reluctantly accepted the re-sults and formed its government inKPK. It can, of course not be de-nied that in 2013, election no rig-ging took place; but the resultsroughly approximated to the respec-tive strengths of the various parties.

In the KPK, PTI in coalitionwith Jamat Islami is ruling the prov-ince. The government has to a greatextent over come corruption in thepolitical domain; and made sure thatteachers, patwari’s and doctors regu-larly attend their jobs, which was not

the case before.The biggest lacuna in Imran’s

thinking seems to be his policyabout Taliban. The false narrativecreated by PTI, about Pakistanfighting some body else’s war, isnot only incorrect but has led to alot of demoralization and confusionamongst our youth. Imran’s is stick-ing to his simple and naive narra-tive that suicide attacks started onlyafter American drone attacks, whileevidence clearly shown otherwise.

Another huge contradiction inPTI seems to be the rainbow coali-tion of Yuppies and very modernprofessional men and women onone side; and ex-Jamat –e-Islamiworkers occupying the second tierof leadership in PTI on the otherside. This contradiction is bound tocome to a head sooner rather thenlatter. It seems that the only thingin common among these incompat-ible groups, is their desire to cometo power as quickly as possible.

Insistence on talks with Talibanat any coast seems to be a policy,the PTI, has in common with PML-N. But where as with PTI, it seemsto be an ideologist position; in caseof PML-N it is based more on prag-matism and personal cowardice ofits leadership.

Imran Khan would do well, toimprove the situation in KPK, aprovince in his watch. In fact he hadpromised to make KPK a modelprovince. He should concentrate onreaching out to people in ruralPunjab where his party has onlytoken presence. Similarly if Imranwants to make his party a truly na-tional level party, he has to startworking in Sind and Balochistanalso, where his presence is almostnegligible. In short Imran Khanshould start preparing for electionsin 2018. Politics of disruption andagitation will not help the politicalprocess one bit. Imran should alsotemper his extreme right wingviews, and move more towards thecentre of the political spectrum.Imran may be getting advanced inyears, but he is still fit, and can af-ford to wait for the natural term ofthe present government to end. Buthaving said all that; Imran Khanbeing Imran Khan, will do what hisinstincts tell him.—The writer is author, citizenjournalist and entrepreneur.

Views From Abroad

Indo-US ties under Modi

NARENDRA Modi’s rise tothe Prime Minister officerepresents a decisive break

from Indian politics of the past. Theresounding mandate voters gave himwill have implications not only do-mestically but on the global stage.While some view his historicallyshaky relationship with Washingtonwith suspicion, it is much morelikely Mr. Modi will be a big ben-efit to long-flagging US-India ties.

Washington revoked Mr. Modi’svisa in 2005, citing an obscure lawbanning visits by foreign officials re-sponsible for serious violations ofreligious freedom. As the chief min-ister of Gujarat state, Mr. Modi wasaccused of being complicit in thedeadly communal conflagration in2002 that left at least 1000 peopledead, most of them Muslims. Thisdespite the fact that the Indian judi-cial system failed to find any evi-dence against Mr. Modi over the lastseveral years in any of the numberof cases filed against him.

The US only ended its decade-long boycott this past February –long after European countries hadalready done so –when then-US Am-bassador to India, Nancy Powell,visited Mr. Modi. Now that Mr.Modi has one of the largest mandates

in Indian electoral history, it mayseem like US-Indian ties will con-tinue to be rocky. Some strategistshave suggested that Mr. Modi’swarmth will be reserved for coun-tries like Japan, Israel and Chinawho went out of the way to accom-modate him when the West shunnedhim. Even the fact that Mr. Moditook longer to mention a call fromBarack Obama or a tweet from JohnKerry has incurred speculation.

The Obama Administration hasmoved swiftly to restore some sem-blance of normalcy in its dealingswith Mr. Modi. President Obamapersonally called Mr. Modi to invitehim to Washington, and Secretary ofState John Kerry followed this upwith a statement underliningWashington’s readiness “to workclosely with Prime Minister Modiand the new government to promoteshared prosperity and strengthen oursecurity.”

Under outgoing Prime Minis-ter Manmohan Singh, the US-Indiapartnership has been steadily los-ing momentum over the past fewyears. The December 2013 arrestand strip-search of India’s deputyconsul general, DevyaniKhobragade, in New York sank re-lations even further.

Washington’s attitude towardIndia has soured for a number of rea-sons. There is a sense of betrayal onthe nuclear front. After the US in-

vested significant diplomatic capi-tal in getting the civil nuclear dealthrough in 2008, India reciprocatedby passing a nuclear liability law thatmakes it virtually impossible for USnuclear operators to go to India. NewDelhi’s stance on regional securityissues, especially pertaining to theMiddle East, also alienated a signifi-cant portion of Americans. India hasbeen unable to emerge as a credibleregional balancer, which many in theUS were expecting.

A lack of political directionwithin the US and Indian bureaucra-cies has allowed the relationship todrift. Washington has not prioritisedIndia, given its trade-related irritantsand visa restrictions on IT profes-sionals. Both Mr. Obama and Mr.Singh have had other priorities.

There are good reasons to worryabout the future of US-India part-nership but Mr. Modi at the helm isnot one of them. In fact, this is per-haps the best news that Washingtoncould have hoped for. Mr. Modi haspublicly stated that “relations be-tween the two countries cannot bedetermined or be even remotely in-fluenced by incidents related to in-dividuals.” His policy vision anddecisive mandate make him the bestpossible partner for the US.

Mr. Modi’s emphasis on putting“our own house in order so that theworld is attracted to us” should comeas a welcome change to Washing-

ton. So should his view that “thecurrent dysfunction in Delhi hasprevented even much-needed mili-tary modernization and theupgradation of India’s defence in-frastructure.”

Mr. Modi’s priorities will cer-tainly be domestic but a conduciveexternal environment is essentialfor achieving his highly ambitiousdomestic agenda. An India that isgrowing economically will auto-matically impart a new dynamismto its foreign policy. Mr. Modi willsoon recognize, if he has not al-ready, that the challenges that In-dia faces –a domestically fragilePakistan, political uncertainty inAfghanistan and an ever more as-sertive China –cannot be managedwithout a productive US-India re-lationship. Strong ties with the USwill help sustain Mr. Modi’s visionof an economically advanced andmilitarily robust India.

Washington needs to reach outto Mr. Modi and assure him thatwhile the past cannot be swept un-der, the future of US-India relationscan be bright if managed produc-tively. There is no reason to bealarmist. If his past is any guide,Mr. Modi is the man best-placed toturn the tide around on US-Indiarelations. The writer is a professorof defence studies at King’s College,London. — Courtesy: The WallStreet Journal

Harsh V Pant

Integrity..!

MOST companies todaylook for men and womenof integrity! Are you that

ideal person they all seek? A suc-cessful businessman was growingold and knew it was time to choosea successor. He called all the youngexecutives in his company to-gether. “I’m going to give each ofyou a seed today - a very specialseed. I want you to plant the seed,water it, and come back here oneyear from today with what youhave grown. I will then judge theplants you bring, and the one Ichoose will be the next CEO.” Jim,was there that day and received his

seed. He went home and excitedly,told his wife the story. She helped himget a pot, soil and compost and heplanted the seed. Every day, he wouldwater it and watch to see if it hadgrown. After about three weeks, someof the other executives began to talkabout their seeds and the plants thatwere beginning to grow. Jim keptchecking his seed, but nothing evergrew. Three weeks, four weeks, fiveweeks went by, still nothing.

Six months went by - still noth-ing in Jim’s pot. Everyone else talkedabout trees and tall plants, but he hadnothing. Jim didn’t say anything tohis colleagues, however. He just keptwatering and fertilizing the soil – heso wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all theyoung executives of the companybrought their plants to the CEO for

inspection. Jim told his wife that hewasn’t going to take an empty pot.But she asked him to be honest aboutwhat happened.

Jim felt sick in his stomach. Itwas going to be the most embarrass-ing moment of his life. He took hisempty pot to the boardroom wherehe was amazed at the variety of plantsgrown by the others. They were beau-tiful —in all shapes and sizes. Jimput his empty pot on the floor andmany of his colleagues laughed. Afew felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he sur-veyed the room and greeted his youngexecutives. Jim just tried to hide inthe back. “My, what great plants,trees, and flowers you have grown,”said the CEO. “Today one of you willbe appointed the next CEO!”All of asudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the

back of the room with his emptypot. He ordered the financial direc-tor to bring him to the front. “Hereis your next Chief Executive!” hetold the others, “One year ago to-day, I gave everyone a seed. But Igave you all boiled seeds; they weredead! But when you found the seednot growing, you substituted an-other seed for the one I gave you.Jim was the only one with the cour-age and honesty to bring me a potwith my seed in it. Therefore, he isthe one who will be the new ChiefExecutive!”

I know the slick, glib tongued,aspiring executive is going to laughat this story, but I’ll bet my last dol-lar that the man who finally pipshim to the top post is the one whohas something called integrity..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

tribution of Peshawar radio stationtowards this end can be gauged fromthe feedback from the listeners. Onthe cultural and literary front, Ra-dio Pakistan Peshawar has the dis-tinction of introducing legend poets,writers, artistes, musicians, andbroadcasters. It has produced leg-endary figures like Ahmed Faraz,Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, NoonMeem Rashid, Farigh Bukhari,Khatir Ghaznavi, Amir HamzaShinwari, Mosin Ehsan, SamundarKhan Samundar, KhayalMuhammad, Munir Sarhadi, GulnarBegum, Mehjabeen Qazalbash andMashooq Sultan any many otherstars of the galaxy of writers, vocal-ists, artists and broadcasting icons.Besides serving as a cultural hub ofthe Province, Peshawar Radio hasbeen a centre of the promotion oflocal arts and languages such asPushto, Hindko, Kohistani and Dari.

Radio Pakistan Peshawar hasalso helped raise literacy rate in theProv-ince. Through its programmessuch as dramas and educationalchunks, it has created awarenessamong the people about educationparticularly in the fields of scienceand technology. It has also playedrole in women’s empowerment andencouraged the female folk to geteducation while up-holding their lo-cal cultural traditions.

The Pushto news bulletins be-ing aired by Peshawar radio, giveexten-sive coverage to events andactivities taking place throughout theProv-ince as well as FATA. RadioPakistan Peshawar has emerged asthe voice of the valiant people ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa whether theylive in the Province, Tribal areas orother parts of the country. The giftof 400 kilo-watt digital transmitterwill certainly bring a revolution infield of broadcasting in this region.—Islamabad

Funeralof dreams

ALI RAZA

During medical camp in Deeplo(thar) with “Sindhi facebookfriends” – a social organisation, Isaw a child (RAI DIYACH) work-ing at a hotel as a waiter, I asked himabout his studies, he said: I studiedupto 5th class and then quitted myeducation; he further said that hewanted to be a Doctor but could notcontinue his studies.

I ask from Rai Diyach’s fatherwho was the owner of that café, as towhy he did not allow his child to con-tinue his study, he replied: “I amalone here and earn money by dailywages, and there is no value of stud-ies in Pakistan; many degree holdersare jobless, jobs are only for thefeudals or their puppets and I couldnot afford expenses of his study”.This was the moment of death of thatchild’s dreams, who wanted to servehis land and nation. There are thou-sands of similar examples in Pakistan,thousands of students adorn dreamsin their eyes but because of povertythey themselves prepare the grave oftheir dreams with their own hands.—Karachi

Brand orthe qualityAIMEN TEHSEEN

These days’ brands are influencingthe minds of people. In the past, la-dies were so conscious about theirbudgets that never ever even thoughtabout spending too much money be-yond their limits of budgets on ne-cessities; but scenario is totally op-posite now. Shopping is loved by alarge number of people throughoutthe world. The people are now brandobsessed and label-driven compul-sive buyers. The brand consciousbuyers are the ones likely to buy prod-ucts made by certain renowned com-panies. The increasing likeness andpreference for particular brand can beespecially seen in the purchase ofclothes, accessories and perfumes.This development also depicts thechange in shopping trends of peoplewhose preference for designer clothesand accessories has increased.

I would like to ask my brand con-scious sisters, is it a show off or ourinner satisfaction of buying brandedthings always? Because for a medio-cre or high class person, time on anunbranded wrist watch or on branded

watch is the same. We should be con-scious about our husbands, brothers,fathers and all earning sources thatspend their whole day in fetchingmoney to meet our needs which wehave made so difficult for them, as80% of males are suffering highblood pressure due to this strenuoushectic routine of earning money andjust money!—Karachi

ElectionCommissionSYEDA RABAB FATIMA

Reformation of Election Commis-sion is necessary to avoid allegationsof rigging by political parties. Theset up must be strong Constitution-ally and legally, headed by an hon-est person of the Judicial fraternity.Competent personnel should behired for a limited tenure and givencomplete training for performinghigh quality duties.

Government should import elec-tronic counting machine to countvotes. Elections in our country shouldbe conducted by Election Commis-sion in phases to avoid any untowardincidents, as in India and some othercountries of the world. Political par-ties should concentrate more inimplementing and practicing thepeaceful and practical way outs andreforms instead of demonstrating toregister their protest.—Karachi

Corruption isa social evil

PONUM HUMZA

Corrupt nation never progress. Cor-ruption is dishonesty and illegalbehaviour by people in position ofauthority and power. Corruption hasbecome the headlines in news chan-nels more often than ever. Every in-dividual has become the victim ofcorruption, right from their birth tilldeath. When a child is born corrup-tion starts from getting his/her birthcertificate and proceeds till gettinghis/her death certificate. Corruptionhas slowly turned into a habit in one’slife, that we never realized it as ille-gal. Where ever we go corruptionfollows us like hutch dog. It hasspread worldwide like an epidemic.

When we say corruption, it notonly means act of bribing or inducebribing corrupt officials and politi-cians, but comes from all platformsof society, in many forms like theimmoral or unauthorized act done indue course of employment, misuse ofpower and authority, violate one’sduty etc. Thus it has become a com-pulsion in every sphere of life thatone has to face corruption or indulgein corruption. Basically the “want formore” is the root cause for briberythat leads to corruption

The social evils are one of thebiggest curses to any nation, whichplays the vital role in the destructionof the society in any state or country.One of most critical social evil inPakistan is corruption, as unfortu-nately Pakistan is in the list of the topcountries having huge corruption inthe system and establishment. Cor-ruption has strengthened its root notonly in the government organizationsbut at the same time private sectorsis also victim of this social evil, dueto which the justice and equality hasdispersed from the country as peoplecan do anything with the help ofpower of money at any level. Themain cause for this social evil is greedfor money and power and at the sametime unfair and unpatriotic intentionsnot only of the officials but also in-cluding the government officials andpoliticians. Corruption is the enemyof development, and of good gover-nance. It must be got rid of.—Islamabad

Akbar Jan MarwatEmail:marwat.akbarjan@gmail.com

Chinese President Xi Jinping witnesses the signing of a contract to import natural gas from Russia’s Siberia along withvisiting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shanghai.(PANG ZINGLEI).

GEORGE N. TZOGOPOULOS

TENSIONS between the US and Russia on Ukraine remindsome scholars of the hostility of the Cold War era. Such acomparison is rather unsuccessful. The current period has

a different nature from the one which ended with the fall of theBerlin Wall in 1989. The structure of the world nowadays can-not be considered as bipolar because other actors such as Chinaand the EU are also highly influential. But while China keeps acautious stance in the case of Ukraine, the EU is largely involvedin ongoing developments.

In theory, the EU attempts to play an important role in put-ting pressure on Russia and blocking the alleged “aggression” ofits President Vladimir Putin. A recent European Council, for in-stance, decided to broaden sanctions against Moscow by freez-ing assets of a significant number of companies in Crimea andSevastopol and expanding its travel ban list.

The anti-Russian climate dominating the Old Continent isapparent in not only politics but also in various aspects of cul-tural life. A remarkable case was the Eurovision song contestorganized in Copenhagen this month.

On that occasion, the European audience disapproved of theRussian team as if it had been responsible for the continuousviolence in Ukraine. When attention, however, is turned towardthe real determination of Brussels, setbacks should not be ig-nored.

The lack of cohesion has come to the forefront due to thedecisiveness of France to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers toRussia. The contract was originally signed in 2011 and will hardlybe reconsidered in spite of Washington’s intense pressure. Theprincipal argument is that a potential cancellation would requirethe return of the payment to Moscow and might lead to financialpenalties.

Britain constitutes another example. The country supportsthe policy of sanctions against Russia only if they will not harmthe City of London. This provision suggested by the British gov-ernment outlines its passion in protecting the country’s financialcenter.

Likewise, raising voices against the policy of sanctions canbe heard in Germany. Business elites in the country are not en-thusiastic as numerous German companies are active and suc-cessful in Russia. The bilateral trade volume of the two states in2013 reached 76.5 million euros ($106.1 million).

The energy cooperation network between several Europeancountries and Russia makes them hesitant. Specifically, the planof Moscow to build the so-called South Stream pipeline trans-porting gas from the Black Sea to Austria via Bulgaria, Italy,Slovenia, Greece and Serbia, has generated contradictory reac-tions.

On the one hand, the European Commission and the Euro-pean Parliament seek to thwart the project in order to hitGazprom’s monopoly. On the other, the countries which benefitfrom its implementation are attempting to overlook Brussels’policy. Bulgaria, for instance, is prepared to amend its energylaw and exempt South Stream from EU rules.

On the same wavelength, Italian company Saipem has al-ready signed a contract with Gazprom for constructing the firstof the four offshore lines of this pipeline. All in all, it seems thatthe EU does not only suffer from miscalculations in the case ofUkraine. It also lacks the appropriate cohesion to speak with onevoice and critically influence the course of the crisis.

Although the policy of sanctions will arguably yield posi-tive results in the end, it cannot be tested without painful deci-sions which go beyond symbolism. These mainly include theembargo on Russian gas in Europe as well as the freeze on ex-porting advanced technology to the country.

Is the EU prepared to bear the cost? And does it have alter-natives to cover losses and diversify its energy sources? As longas the answer to these questions is tough for Brussels, its goal toincrease its foreign policy capabilities in the new multipolar worldwill remain unrealistic.

—Courtesy: GT

Lack of cohesion thwartsEU foreign policy ambitions

in multipolar world

DING YING

CHINESE and Russian leaders haveproclaimed to the world that their relationship is at a high point. The two ma-

jor neighboring powers have now illustratedthis claim by expanding ties in the fields ofenergy and security..

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Rus-sian counterpart Vladimir Putin jointly releaseda statement on May 20 during the latter’s firststate visit to China since China’s leadershiptransition in March 2013. Both showed eager-ness to bring bilateral relations into a new phasewherein the two countries’ economic and se-curity cooperation will become as close as theirpolitical relationship.

Pipeline partners: In the joint statement, thetwo sides pledged to promote cooperation notonly in a bilateral way, but also in multiple re-gional platforms, creating a detailed blueprintfor their practical cooperation. China and Rus-sia also signed dozens of cooperative agree-ments during Putin’s two-day state visit dur-ing the Fourth Summit of the Conference onInteraction and Confidence Building Measuresin Asia (CICA) in Shanghai.

“China is our reliable friend. To expandcooperation with China is undoubtedly Russia’sdiplomatic priority,” Putin said to the Chinesepress on May 20 before attending the CICASummit. The Russian president said he believedthat it was of crucial significance for the two

A Historic Deal: Putin’s visit upgrades China-Russia energy and security cooperation

countries to strengthen mutually beneficial eco-nomic and trade relations and boost mutual in-vestment, claiming it is the way forward againstthe backdrop of global economic turbulence.

In the joint statement, they set a target ofincreasing their trade volume to $100 billionby 2015 and to $200 billion by 2020. China iscurrently Russia’s largest trading partner, withthe trade volume between the two countriesnearing $90 billion in 2013. Moreover, the twosides are on their way to implementing 40 ma-jor projects worth $20 billion.

As a major step of expanding economiccooperation, China and Russia inked a long-awaited natural gas deal in Shanghai on May21, finalizing a negotiation process that haslasted over two decades. Xi and Putin witnessedthe signing of two related documents—Chinaand Russia Purchase and Sales Contract on EastRoute Gas Project and a memorandum.

According to the contract signed by theChina National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) andRussia’s Gazprom, the east route pipeline willprovide China with 38 billion cubic meters ofnatural gas annually from 2018. The gas willcome from the Kovyktin and Chayandin gasfields in eastern Siberia and will be piped toChina’s northeast, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebeimetropolitan area in the north and the YangtzeRiver Delta in the east. Some media reportedthat the contract could be worth as much as$456 billion.

Observers considered the gas deal a land-

mark in the growing ties between the two coun-tries. “The deal has cemented a very steady ba-sis for bilateral cooperation,” said Qu Xing,President of the China Institute of InternationalStudies (CIIS). He noted that it will help Chinato diversify its energy import sources, whileextending Russia’s export markets.

Qu believes that the deal is a natural resultof the continuing development in Russia’s po-litical and economic demands. Politically, Rus-sia needs to find a reliable partner after decadesof tussling with Europe and the United States.Economically, it has to find a big and stablemarket like China to counterbalance sanctionson importing Russian oil and gas from the Westdue to the Ukrainian crisis, he added.

According to statistics from the CNPC,natural gas consumption in China reached 167.6billion cubic meters in 2013, up 13.9 percentyear on year, and the annual growth rate is es-timated to be 10 percent in the next few yearsdue to the country’s need for clean energy totackle air pollution and pursue sustainable de-velopment. The gas deal with Russia will sat-isfy China’s energy demands.

Professor Yang Chuang of the China For-eign Affairs University said bilateral coopera-tion in natural gas is a project of long-term stra-tegic significance. The cooperation meets the twocountries’ common interests, said Yang, and willdrive bilateral cooperation in other fields.

Security ties: Another highlight of Putin’s statevisit to China had to do with bilateral security co-

operation, as Beijing and Moscow promoted mili-tary mutual trust. China and Russia began jointnaval drills in the East China Sea off Shanghai onMay 20, with presidents of the two countries at-tending the launch of the naval exercise.

The rehearsal demonstrated the new levelof strategic mutual trust and coordination be-tween the two countries, said Xi, stressing thejoint exercise would showcase the two sides’resolve in responding to threats and challengesas well as safeguarding regional security andstability. Putin agreed that closer military tiesare an important part of the bilateral compre-hensive strategic partnership.

A total of 14 vessels, two submarines, ninefixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters andSpecial Forces took part in the weeklong “JointSea-2014” exercise. Both China and Russiadispatched ships, including China’s Zhengzhouand Ningbo missile destroyers and Russia’sVaryag missile cruiser. This was the thirdChina-Russia joint naval exercise after jointdrills off the coast of Russia’s Far East in July2013 and the Yellow Sea in April 2012.

“This is a clear show of enhanced mutualtrust between the two militaries, and of in-creased transparency,” said Li Shuyin, a re-search fellow with the Academy of MilitarySciences of the Chinese People’s LiberationArmy. He added that the exercise also high-lighted that the strategic partnership betweenBeijing and Moscow has reached a new high.

—Courtesy: Beijing Review

MANILA—At least 21 people were killed andeight others injured in a fire that occurred at asanatorium in Jangseong, some 300 kms southof the South Korean capital city of Seoul, earlyon Wednesday, local broadcaster YTN reported.

The fire started at an empty sickroom in the farright side of the sanatorium’s annex building, andhadn’t moved to the main building as the passagelinking the two is in the far left of the annex build-ing. The fire, which broke out at 00:27 am localtime, was put out in less than 30 minutes. Theinitial fire was brought under control in just sixminutes, and put out completely in 28 minutes.

But the nursing home had scores of old pa-tients who have problems with mobility, con-tributing to the rise in the death toll.

When the fire broke out, a total of 324 pa-

KABUL—Top US Commander in Af-ghanistan General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr.on Wednesday reaffirmed his country ‘scommitment to Afghans.

The move came after US PresidentBarack Obama announced Tuesday tokeep about 9,800 troops after 2014 in Af-ghanistan which put an end to uncertaintyabout the presence of US forces in the war-torn country.

“General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., thetop US commander in Afghanistan, reaf-firmed the US military’s commitment toAfghanistan following a decision by Presi-dent Barack Obama yesterday,” theNATO-led International Security Assis-tance Force ( ISAF) said in a statementissued here Wednesday.

Obama announced the drawdown plantwo days after he made a surprise visit toAfghanistan where he met with US com-

US reaffirms commitment to Afghanistan

manders and forces.“The people of Afghanistan and their

government should be reassured with thiscommitment to their continued progressand development,” Dunford, also com-mander of ISAF said. “I see this as rein-forcing success.”

On Tuesday, Obama also emphasizedthat the presence of US troops is tied tothe signing of the Bilateral Security Agree-ment (BSA) with the Afghan government.Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzaihas refused to sign the accord.

“Obama offered a conditional commit-ment of 9,800 troops with the assumptionthat the legal framework, or bilateral se-curity agreement, will be in place shortlyafter the inauguration of the soon-to-be-elected Afghan president. The elections arescheduled for June 14, with final resultsexpected in late July,” the ISAF statement

reads.Former foreign minister Abdullah

Abdullah and former finance ministerAshraf Ghani Ahmadzai who will com-pete in the second round elections haveboth expressed their readiness to sign thecontroversial BSA if they win the elec-tions.

The top US commander also pointedout in the statement that new troops’ deci-sion will keeps pressure on Taliban, al-Qaida and its affiliates in the region.“The current ISAF mission ends in De-cember, and the decision by the US elimi-nates uncertainty as NATO Allies and part-ners finalize planning for the ResoluteSupport mission to train, advise and as-sist Afghan security forces from the be-ginning of 2015 to cement coalition gainsmade during the previous 13 years,” theISAF statement added.—Xinhua

21 killed in hospital fire in S.Koreatients were in the sanatorium where 15 nursesand nurse aides were on duty.

The auxiliary building accommodated 34patients, mostly in their 70s to 90s bedriddenfor Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and other dis-eases. At that time, only one nurse and one nurseassistant were on duty.

The dead included 20 patients and one nurseaide. All the dead were suffocated by poisonousgas. Among the wounded, six people sustainedserious injury, boosting fears for a gain in thedeath toll. Two suffered a minor injury.

The fire was believed to have been causedby a short circuit as there were no inflammablesin the patient room where the fire started. Po-lice and fire department officials were underinvestigation.—AP

New round ofIran nukes talkson June 16-20 in

ViennaANKARA—The next round oftalks between six world pow-ers and Iran on resolving a dis-pute over Tehran’s nuclear pro-gram will be held in Viennafrom June 16 to 20, the Euro-pean Union said on Tuesday.

EU foreign policy chiefCatherine Ashton held “verylong and useful discussions”with Iranian Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif in Tur-key on Monday and Tuesday onways of advancing the nucleartalks, Ashton’s spokesmanMichael Mann said.

“They explored differentpossibilities as part of an on-going process. The next formalround of (six-power) talks withIran will be from 16-20 Junein Vienna,” Mann said in astatement.

Ashton coordinates withIran in the long-running nego-tiations on behalf of the sixpowers; the US, Russia, China,Britain, France and Germany.

The powers want Iran toagree to scale back enrichmentand other proliferation-pronenuclear activity and accepttougher UN inspections to denyit any capability of quickly pro-ducing atomic bombs, in ex-change for an end to sanctions.

Ashton and Zarif recom-mended that an expert-levelmeeting should take placesoon, Mann said, adding thatother political discussionswould continue as and whenneeded.

Meanwhile, Iran urgedWestern powers to resist anypressure from third parties notdirectly involved in negotia-tions over its nuclear activities,in a clear reference to Israeli-led influence. Tehran and thesix powers made little progressin the latest round of talks ear-lier this month in Vienna onending their stand-off overIran’s nuclear activities.

Iran said on Monday thatworld powers were “demand-ing too much” in the negotia-tions, but hurdles could beovercome.—AFP

DAMASCUS—Overseas Syr-ians started to cast ballotsWednesday in the presidentialelection, the state SANA newsagency reported.

Syrian nationals, mainlyin Malaysia, China, South Ko-rea, India, Indonesia, Leba-non, Venezuela, Jordan, Iranand Oman, would vote at Syr-ian embassies and consulatesin these countries, the reportsaid.

Those abroad can vote onlyif they have a valid passport, le-gal residence in the countries theylive, and had legally left Syria.

The overseas voting wasset Wednesday while the do-mestic one was scheduled fornext Tuesday.

The number of eligible vot-ers in and outside Syria hasexceeded 15 million.

The Interior Ministry saidit had undertaken all necessaryprocedures and made all pos-sible efforts to secure the vot-ing in Syria.

Electoral campaignsstarted on May 11 and wouldend 24 hours ahead of the vot-

Overseas Syrians cast ballotsin presidential poll

ing next Tuesday.The threecandidates — incumbent Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad, formerminister Hassan al-Nouri andlawmaker Maher Hajjar —have already put forth theirelectoral platforms that carrynearly the same political head-lines with different visions onhow to rescue the collapsedeconomy.

The election will be the firstto be held in half a century. Pre-viously, there were only refer-endums to support Assad or hislate father Hafez al-Assad whowas in office from 1971 to 2000.In 2007, the junior Assad wonanother seven years in officewith 97 percent of the vote in anationwide referendum on hisleadership in which he was theonly candidate.

The Syrian opposition andWestern powers have dis-missed the 2014 voting as afarce. Most of the Europeancountries and many Arabcountries said they would notallow the voting process to becarried out on their territo-ries.—AFP

Palestinians agreeon Hamdallah asunity govt PM

Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Partyand the Hamas movementagreed late on Tuesday night onRami Hamdallah as the primeminister of the transitionalunity government, Hamas of-ficial said.

“We officially agreed thatRami Hamdallah will be thepremier of the unity govern-ment ... We also agreed on anumber of ministers and wewill continue our discussionon the others on Tuesday,”Hamas spokesman in GazaSami Abu Zuhrisaid said in apress statement.

The spokesman addedthat “the two sides will holda final meeting to agree on thefinal form of the new govern-ment.”

But an official closed tothe dialogue between the twosides said that they are stillunable to agree on whoshould be the interior minis-ter to be in charge of securityin both Gaza and the WestBank.

The official, who spokeon condition of anonymity,told Xinhua that chief of theFatah delegation Azzam el-Ahmad suggested thatHamdallah should take theposition concurrently.

“Hamas officials told el-Ahmad that they need tostudy the suggestion and willgive an answer during the fi-nal session on Tuesday,” theofficial said.—Xinhua

Prince Turkiasks Israel toaccept 2002

Arabpeace plan

RIYADH—Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former intelligencechief of Saudi Arabia, hasurged Israel to accept the 2002Arab Peace Initiative, whichhad been originally proposedby Custodian of the Two HolyMosques King Abdullah.

“It was a great move onthe part of Arab countries toestablish peace with Israel,”Prince Turki said during a re-cent dialogue with former Is-raeli military intelligencechief Amos Yadlin in Brus-sels.

It was a mostly amiable,hour-long conversation,marked by more agreementthan disagreement as theydiscussed Iran, Syria, reli-gious radicalism and the re-gional arms race, said a pressreport. Prince Turki said the2002 peace offer was themost explicit public Saudideclaration to date of Saudiwillingness to make peaceand end the conflict.

Yaldin said three-fourthsof Israelis had never heard ofthe 2002 peace plan and askedthe prince to visit Jerusalemand address the Knesset.

Prince Turki replied thatit was the Israeli leadership’sjob to “explain to their peoplewhat the Arab Peace Initia-tive is” and urged Israel toagree to enter discussionsbased on the proposal.

The dialogue was hostedby the Brussels-based Ger-man Marshall Fund and mod-erated by Washington Postcolumnist David Ignatius.—AN

TOKYO—The Japanesemilitary’s top officer held meet-ings with his Myanmar coun-terpart Tuesday, officials said,the first visit of Japan’s high-est-ranking army officer to thecountry since World War II.

General Shigeru Iwasaki,chief of staff of the JapaneseSelf Defense Forces Joint Staff,met Myanmar army chief Min

Japanese army chief meetsMyanmar officials

Aung Hlaing in the capital NayPyi Taw as part of a four-daytrip to the nation, according toan information ministry offi-cial.

He will on Wednesdaymeet President Thein Sein,who has been credited for po-litical and economic reformsthat have seen the formerlyjunta-run country shed its pa-

riah image.Japan has had no military

ties with Myanmar since 1945,when its three-year occupationof the country came to an endwith an Allied counter-attack.Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe visited Myanmar inMay 2013, the first visit by aJapanese premier since1977.—AFP

ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM

Since its inception in 1947, the US Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA) faced many challenges. In addition to focusing on the then Soviet bloc, it had to confront issues

emanating from the US itself mainly from the American media.A study of media reports about CIA would reveal that the

organization had most of the times been criticized for “mishan-dling” a certain situation or for its “failure” to contain some cri-sis. The highlights are: CIA’s failure to anticipate the 1968 So-viet intervention in Czechoslovakia, the fall of Shah of Iran, theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan, 9/11 and the most recent is theUkraine crisis.

The resultant chaos in the wake of Arab Spring, however,tops the chart. In other words, it is very rare to read anythingpositive about the CIA in any US paper. So, from where doesthese sleuths receive positive reports about their achievementsto satisfy the US Senate Intelligence Committee or the WhiteHouse?

Ironically, the CIA receives these positive reports from manydeveloping countries wherein it has become fashionable to blameit even for natural disasters. Apparently, many CIA sleuths loveit; as such accusations paint a good picture of their capabilities.

Undoubtedly, the CIA is one of the most modern organiza-tions with world-class technical capabilities and highly trainedagents and carries out overt and covert operations. It is no secret,it is its job but the CIA should not be used as a scapegoat in thewake of failure of a system or an accident caused by humanerror or natural causes. Undeniably, the CIA sometimes inter-vene in other nation’s policies but most of those countries areinept in handling their own affairs or there are deep divisionsamong the masses.

A few days ago, the CIA was accused of something unbe-lievable. This time around the accusation did not come from anyjournalist but from an influential political figure of Malaysia andthe world. He blamed the CIA for the disappearance of FlightMH370. He spoke about CIA’s ability to remotely takeover acommercial flight at 30,000 feet and to make it land at some pre-designated airstrip.

Is such a feat possible? Political analysts and aviation ex-perts may question CIA’s capability to make a passenger jet van-ish from the sky without any trace. And what would be the mo-tive. Some people say that the plane was transporting highly so-phisticated equipment to the Chinese and the Americans wantedto get hold of the equipment. But, if the CIA has the ability toremotely hijack a plane without a trace, then I think there is noneed for them to steal any Chinese technology. I am not doubt-ing the Malaysian politician’s assessment or trying to underesti-mate the CIA’s capabilities but it is more important to know thattechnology has certain limits and we have to always take humanfactor into account. Humans could resort to anything for severalreasons, be it emotional, financial or just suicidal tendencies.Flight MH370 will continue to be a mystery but we don’t haveto go wild in our assessments.

The only logical explanation of the disappearance of the jetis that someone from the crew for whatever reason had playedaround with the internal avionics, continued the flight and sim-ply ditched the plane into the ocean before the passengers or thecrew realized the chain of events. The heavy parts of the planewould have sunk to the bottom of the ocean and the debris musthave been dispersed in the vast ocean.

—Courtesy:Arab News

Oops ... the CIA doesit again!?

“Sharif responded tothe invite in attending theinauguration, the first suchvisit in many years, and aswell, reminiscent of the lasttime there was significantprogress between the twocountries when the BJPcame to power during PrimeMinister Sharif ’s previousterm as Prime Minister in thelate ’90s, and they madeprogress along lines thatlooked very much like whatwe have now,” the officialsaid. Another senior offi-cial said the White Househas seen a constructivetone set from the very be-ginning by Mr Sharif andMr Modi, who was one ofthe first leaders to speakto the Indian Prime Minis-ter after his victory in theelections. —INP

US hailsFrom Page 1

Plan Coordination Commit-tee (APCC) has earlier rec-ommended to NEC the totaloutlay development budgetat Rs1310 billion that in-clude the federal componentof Rs 525 billion and provin-cial share of Rs 650 billionand Rs 135 billion to be gen-erated by Wapda, NTDCand Pepco for someprojects.

However, the NEC islikely to increase the devel-opment budget by Rs 15 bil-lion to Rs 1325 billion aschief ministers of the fourprovince who will attend theNEC meeting may come upwith more projects owing towhich the proposed outlayof development budget maygo up by RS 10-15 billionmore.

Coming to the size of theeconomy of the country, theofficial said that in rupeeterm, the size of theeconomy is projected totouch Rs28,901 billion in theFY15 budget.

The sources calculatedone percent of gross do-mestic product at Rs289 bil-lion. Thus, the country’s fis-cal deficit of 4.8 percent ofGDP will require bridge fi-nancing of Rs1,387 billion inthe next fiscal year. The Fed-eral Board of Revenue willhave to collect Rs2,800 bil-lion next year to bring tax toGDP ratio close to 9.7 per-cent, said the sources.

The present govern-ment calculated the size ofthe economy at Rs25,402billion, based on marketprice, for the ongoing fiscalyear as against the revisedestimate of Rs22,489 billionin the last fiscal year.

Per capitaincomeFrom Page 1

credit, may now venture foran economic explosion.

Mr. Malik, who is alsoChairman, Nazriya PakistanCouncil, Islamabad, in hispresidential address to a bigfunction held at the Aiwan-i-Quaid, said as the incum-bent Prime Minister dis-played a remarkable leader-ship by not yielding to theworld pressure and went foran atomic explosion, simi-larly he has now all the req-uisite vision, will and capac-ity to turn Pakistan into afast growing economy. “Oneshould not continue to beproud of just past laurels,therefore, now time hascome for Nawaz Sharif tohave another feather in hisdistinguished cap by con-ducting an economic explo-sion,” he said.

NawazFrom Page 1

former president seeking acquittal in thecorruption reference.

The reference filed in 2000 alleged thatthe polo ground at the Prime MinisterHouse was constructed during the secondtenure of former prime minister BenazirBhutto on the verbal orders of her husbandAsif Ali Zardari to CDA chairmen SaeedMehdi and Shafi Sehwani at an estimatedcost of Rs52.29 million.

The NAB in the reference nominatedthe two former CDA chairmen as the princi-pal accused. It was alleged that both theformer CDA chiefs got sheds constructedand carried out landscaping in a portion ofthe Prime Minister House and converted itinto a polo ground. The other references

Zardari acquitted in Polo GroundFrom Page 1

filed against Zardari are:SGS: This corruption case is the con-

tinuance of a reference filed in 1997 thataccused the late Benazir Bhutto and herspouse Zardari to have gained off a con-tract between the SGS and the government.

ARY: This reference revolves aroundgranting of trade licenses to ARY Tradersfor importing gold and silver which NABsays has caused losses to the treasury.

Ursus tractors: This reference deals withalleged corruption during the import ofRussian and Polish tractors.

Cotecna: This case is about the awardof a contract to the Swiss company afterallegedly receiving six per cent bribe on therevenue proceeds.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Provincial Minis-ter for Law, Rana SanaullahKhan has said that thosedealing in property in RingRoad and Industrial Estatesshould peep into their con-science before criticizing. Hesaid that by issuing baselessstatements, ChaudharyPervaiz Elahi cannot hood-wink the people. Everyoneis aware of the stories of hiscorruption, loot and plunder,therefore, people rejected Qleague in the elections, headded.

Commenting upon thestatement of Pervaiz Elahi

Sanaullah blames Elahifor corruption

sided over the function.Dr AQ Khan who had

the distinguished honour tolead the Pakistan nuclearProgramme from its incep-tion to the successful con-duct of nuclear tests, sharedwith the audience some fondmemories of the days whenhe had to start from scratch.

Dr AQ Khan said he wasin Europe in 1971 workingon a project that was moni-tored jointly by the nuclearscientists of Holland, Ger-many and the UK and be-ing a nuclear project it hadbeen declared a top secret.He was in Europe when helearned the disturbing newsof separation of East Paki-stan from the Western wing.This was a deep shock forthe patriotic Dr AQ Khan. Afew years later, India testedfirst nuclear explosion inMarch 1974. Dr Khan whowas already disturbedabout the future of hiscountry that had been de-prived of its eastern partdue to the conspiracies of aclever and hostileneighbour, at once decidedto come into action. Theenemy had gone nuclearand Pakistan’s redemptiontoo lay in acquiring nuclearcapability.

Dr AQ Khan went on totell the jam-packed hall of theAiwan-e-Quaid the story ofatomic bomb. In December1974, a meeting was arrangedbetween the young AQKhan and the then PrimeMinister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.Dr Khan gave him a numberof proposals and havingdone so, he returned to Hol-land. Again in December1975, he returned to his home-land and after spending a

Dr AQ Khan unfurls sagaFrom Back Page

month or so in Pakistanwhen he was preparing toreturn, ZAB asked him tostay in Pakistan and work onits nuclear programme. Ac-cording to Dr Khan, it wasindeed a test for him as quit-ting a lucrative job, a peace-ful and prosperous life wasnot easy. However, his wifeturned out to be a source ofstrength for him and askedhim to stay in Pakistan if hiscountry needed him. Dr AQKhan paid tributes to ZABhutto who initiated thenuclear programme of thecountry. However, it was notBhutto alone as all the suc-cessive rulers approved theprogramme and gave theirfull support, said Dr AQKhan.

Dr Khan was allotted aland in Kahuta to set up labo-ratories there. Then hesearched for competent pa-triotic Pakistani scientistsfrom across the world andin this way a team of dedi-cated scientists came intobeing.

“I can still remember weworked for 20 hours a dayfor weeks and months,”shared Dr Khan with theaudience. Gen Zia once ona visit to Kahuta laborato-ries was so much impressedthat in the visitors’ book hewrote “These laboratoriesshould be titled as KhanResearch Laboratories in-stead of Kahuta ResearchLaboratories,” said Dr AQKhan while turning anotherpage of history.

However, Dr Khan re-gretted that the present gov-ernment that claims thecredit for the nuclear testshas not for once remem-

bered scientists who realizedthe dream of making Paki-stan a nuclear power. “I don’tneed any credit as people’slove is more than any worldlywealth, name or fame,” hesaid. Dr Khan was givenstanding ovation for theseremarks and youth especiallystudents of various schoolsof Haripur and Hazara whohad come all the way to at-tend the function vigorouslycheered the ageing father ofPakistan’s nuclearprogramme. He shrugged therumours about security andsafety of Pakistan’s nuclearprogramme. “Our nuclearprogramme is in safe hands,”he said. Dr Khan said if onewanted to know the com-plete story of Pakistan’satom bomb and evolution ofPakistan’s nuclearprogramme, one should readZahid Malik’s book “Dr AQKhan and Islamic Bomb”.Zahid Malik has given de-tails of our nuclear historyand “has suffered for doingso,” Dr Khan lightly sharedwith the audience.

Gen Retired Hameed Gulsaid Dr AQ Khan is a coura-geous man and keeps thecountry in his highest es-teem. He regretted that thegovernment did not ac-knowledge Dr Khan’s ser-vices. “They fear lest thenation should follow DrKhan Sb,” said Gul.Pakistan’s nuclearprogramme is for peace, hesaid but for those who areagainst Pakistan’s securityand integrity it serves as awarning. The entire Islamicworld is proud of Pakistan’snuclear programme, he said.

Senator Razina Alam

Nawaz said several projects have beenlaunched in power sector not only to en-hance power generation but also providethe same to consumers on reduced rates.Ten power plants will be installed atGaddani coal based power projects, headded.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said ensur-ing durable peace with eradication of ter-rorism and extremism in the country andgood relations with neighbours were im-perative for progress and prosperity. “Weneed to have good ties with all theneighbouring countries to reap the fruit ofprogress and prosperity,” he said.

Nawaz said China has always stoodPakistan in the hour of trial. Had there was

Pak fully capable of defendingFrom Page 1

no Chinese cooperation, we were not ableto set up even a single power generationunit. He said that Lahore Karachi Motorwayproject will also be launched soon. He saidthat Metro Bus Project, after its success inLahore, is being completed in Rawalpindi-Islamabad to provide international leveltransport facilities to people. He an-nounced that present government wouldplay a role for construction of Karachi masstransit system.

Nawaz Sahirf said, politics of the 1980’sand 90’s would no longer work and thoseholding protests and rallies should comeout of the politics of that era and wait forfour years and let the people decide whothey want to elect.

get of 12.82%.The Minister for water

and power though informedthe ECC that the govern-ment had managed to im-prove recovery and containline losses up to 2% over thepast year.

Gas allocations forpower sector

In a bid to tackle the men-ace of load shedding, theECC considered and ap-proved allocating gas fromdormant gas fields of SARAand SURI in district Ghotki,to GENCO-II on mutuallyagreed terms and conditions.

The two gas fields haveapproximately 14-15 BCFgas reserves. However, itremains unexploited due tolack of investment.

ECC also approved asummary for re-allocation oflow BTU gas from Bahu gasfield to Fauji Kabirawalapower company limited(FKPCL). The allocation tothe project will be for theremaining term of its PPA i.e.till October 29, 2029. Tax ex-emption to Gwadar projects

NEPRAFrom Page 1

over sect, cult and ideologyhas given rise to distrustsand misgivings among othersections of Taliban.

Apparently perturbedover his removal from the slotof TTP Amir of SouthWaziristan agency by theorganization chief MullahFazlullah sometime back,Khan said alias Sajna is head-ing Wali Ur Rehman groupof Taliban and heaving seri-ous difference over territorial

TTP in disarray as SajnaFrom Page 1

interference and Amaarat ofTTP SWA with ShehryarMehsud who is leadingHakimullah Mehsud group.

The bloody clashes be-tween the groups belong-ing to former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)Chief Hakimullah Mehsudand another important com-mander Wali Ur Rehman, itmay be recalled were startedin the first week of April lastand more than 50 militantsfrom both sides includingkey commander AsmatullahShaheen were killed alone inthe month of April.

The two groups had dur-ing the last month launchedattacks on each other usingmost sophisticated weaponsand even went for heavybombardment on each otherpositions inflicting heavylosses to both sides. Thissituation had forced theTaliban top leadership to in-tervene in the affairs as theinfighting started spreading

to other areas of the NorthWaziristan agency even upto Tank yet it finally managedto affect one month ceasefirebetween the two sides. In theprocess Mullah Fazlullahremoved Sajna from theAmaarat of SWA chapter ofTaliban and handed over theadministrative affairs of theTTP SWA to another keycommander Khalid Haqqanifor two months. However,the sources within Talibansaid Sajna found it really hardto digest his ouster.

As a matter of fact whilethe infighting within the TTPranks has on one hand ex-posed the loose control ofthe top leadership of the mili-tant organization with par-ticular reference to its chiefMullah Fazlullah over morethan two dozen factions ofTaliban, on the other it hasalso badly affected the gov-ernment –TTP Peace Nego-tiations which were alreadyhitting the snags owing toone reason or the other.

Khan paid tribute to Dr AQKhan in verse. She had com-posed the poem on May 28,1998. The poem was well re-ceived and appreciated by allincluding Dr Khan. SeniorVice President NPC MianMuhammad Javed said thegovernment should utilize thetalent of Dr AQ Khan. Suchpersonalities are our asset andwe should take maximum ad-vantage of their foresight,creative genius and scientificinnovative ideas. He said theentire nation and the succes-sive rulers had consensus onPakistan’s nuclearprogramme. It is for peace andprosperity of the country.

At the end, students hadgroup photo with Dr AQKhan while President NPCHaripur Chapter and Presi-dent Private Education Net-work Khyber Pakhtunkhwapresented flowers to Dr AQKhan.

issues of their respective con-stituencies. They lauded thesuccess of Karachi operationand congratulated the PrimeMinister on his successfulvisit to India. The issue ofdesecration of religious sitesof minorities in Sindh wasalso highlighted.

The Prime Minister ex-pressed serious concernover acts of vandalism overreligious sites in Sindh anddirected to hold inquiry intothe matter. PM also said thatFederal Government wouldundertake rehabilitation of re-ligious sites that are dam-aged.

Nawaz Sharif also directedto establish a dedicated cellat the Prime Minister Officefor Sindh affairs. Moreover,PM said that the position ofprovincial party leader andother vacant provincial partyposts would be filled soon.“We have always respectedmandate of other parties andexpect the same from them”,said the Prime Minister. PrimeMinister said that it is ourcommitment to the people ofSindh that law & order situa-

Nawaz: Govt engagedFrom Page 1

tion would improve. Bringingback normalcy in Karachi ismy priority as it is the eco-nomic hub of Pakistan, saidthe PM.

The Prime Minister fur-ther said that majority ofmega-development projectslike Karachi-LahoreMotorway, Thar Coal PowerProject, Jamshoro PowerPlant, Gaddani power park,Port Qasim Power Plant andKarachi circular railway aresituated inside Sindh andthese projects would not onlybe a source of economic pros-perity but would also createmillions of employment op-portunities for locals. ChiefMinister Punjab MuhammadShahbaz Sharif, Federal Inte-rior Minister Chaudhry NisarAli Khan, Minister RailwaysKhawaja Saad Rafiq, Ministerof State for Railways AbdulHakeem Baloch and SenatorMushahid Ullah Khan werealso present in the meeting.

The delegation of Parlia-mentarians from Sindhh whocalled on PM included AmirBakhsh Bhutto, Ms. MarviMemon, Shah MuhammadShah, Ismail Rahu, ImdadHussain Chandio, ZainMagsi, Dr. Rahila Gul Magsi,Saleem Zia, Syed Zafar AliShah, Aslam Abro, GhulamMustafa, Munawar Raza,Haji Hanif Memon, AsgharRind, Ayaz Ali Sheerazi, Dr.Darshan Punchi, BhawanDas, Dr. Ramesh Lal, IrfanMarwat, Hamayoun Khan,Haji Shafi Jamoot, Mrs. SorethThebo, Shah Hussain ShahSherazi, Ejaz Shah Sherazi,Ameer Haider Sherazi, AqilJatoi, Masroor Jatoi and Dr.Arbab Ghulam Rahim. —NNI

one of the local journalistswas also arrested duringpolice raid with regard tothe incident. The deputycommissioner stated thatthe kidnappers had shiftedall five children to RatoDero area of Sindh. “Verysoon, we will recover themunharmed,” vowed Shah.

Five HinduFrom Page 1

here today, Rana Sanaullahsaid that the achievementsabout which Pervaiz Elahi istalking were graveyards ofcorruption and PML-N gov-ernment transformed theminto minarets of develop-ment. He said that projectsof Sundar Industrial Estate,Ring Road, Lahore-KasurRoad and Thokar Niazbegflyover are examples of cor-ruption of Pervaiz Elahi. Hesaid that those indulged incorruption and promotednepotism under the um-brella of dictatorship, arecriticizing public welfareprojects of present govern-ment.

Vajpayee also daringly vis-ited Minar-e-Pakistan, a firstnational level politicalleader from India since1947.

Since then, the mistrustdeveloped due to danger-ous happenings at inter-vals after 1999 Lahore dec-laration, did not allow boththe countries to settledown.

Another stumblingblock in moving forward isa particular mindset in In-dia which forces leaders ofpolitical spectrum to speakits language vis-a-vis Pa-kistan.

Narendra Modi is alsocarrying its legacy. It willtake him long time to getout of his ‘sweet anti-Paki-stan rhetoric’ as he has tokeep his party rankspleased carrying saffronphilosophy.

The visit of NawazSharif was basically a good-will mission and there is noneed to read much in it asModii’s government willtake some time to come outof its election rhetoric. Pa-kistan has to wait till thenfor any meaningful dia-logue.

Newbeginning inSouth Asia

From Page 1

dent of Police VidhiChaudhari said.

The 32 fishermen willbe handed over to Pakistanauthorities at the Wagahborder. Gujarat Chief Min-ister Anandiben Patel hadon Tuesday announced

India releasesFrom Page 1

that officials of the Statefisheries department willarrive at Veraval on Thurs-day with the 151 fishermenwho were handed over toIndian authorities atWagah border by Pakistan.—INP

morning Azan, he said add-ing that in some placesMuslims deliberately causenoise pollution throughloudspeakers in the earlymorning.

He said that those whouse loudspeakers for Azanbefore 6 a.m. in the morn-ing should be arrested and

Hindutva for banFrom Page 1

punished. Rashtriya HinduAndolan activist RameshNayak said that manyMasjids are located in thearea of schools, colleges,hostels and hospitals.Loudspeakers used by suchMasjids will always causeproblems for students andpatients, he added.—NNI

as much as 11.5 million newjobs will be created in theregion over next five years.

The report, World ofWork Report 2014, placedPakistan in the lowermiddle countries (LMIs), agroup which includeeconomies where averageper capita income rangesbetween US$1,000 andUS$4,000.

According to the reportthe informal employment,which remains largely out-side labour and social pro-tection institutions, is wide-spread and even predomi-nant in low-income coun-tries like Pakistan and In-dia.

Informal employmentaccounts for a significantshare of total non-agricul-tural employment in Paki-stan with as much as 73 percent of the work force em-ployed in the non-agricul-ture informal sector while inIndia it prevails at around84 per cent.—AFP

11.5m jobsFrom Page 1

I S L A M A B A D — P r i m eMinister’s advisor on For-eign Affairs and NationalSecurity Sartaj AzizWednesday said that theimpression created of IndianPrime Minister NarendraModi handing over a chargesheet to Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif during theirmeeting in New Delhi wasnot correct. During a newsconference at the ForeignOffice, Aziz said India andPakistan had been holding

Nawaz’s India visitabove expectations: Sartaj

discussions on terrorismand the Mumbai attacks forthe last five years.

He told reporters that is-sues pertaining to anti-ter-rorism were also discussedduring the Sharif-Modimeeting.

Aziz clarified that theKashmir issue had not beensidelined during the primeminister’s visit to India. “PrimeMinister Sharif discussed theKashmir issue during his meet-ing with Modi.” Sartaj Aziz

said Nawaz Sharif undertookthe visit to India with a clearvision based on strategic cal-culations and not just for aphoto session.

In order to make this vi-sion a reality the starting pointof talks with the Indian lead-ership was economic revivaland development.

He said a robust eco-nomic agenda which is prior-ity of both the governmentscan not be advanced withoutpeace in the region.—INP

ISLAMABAD: Father of Pakistan ‘s Nuclear Programme, Dr. A.Q. Khan addressinga function Wednesday marking Takbeer Day at Aiwan-e- Quaid. The function wasarranged by the Nazriya Pakistan Council Trust (NPC). Sitting on the dais (from Lto R) are Dr. Mohammad Tufail, Mian Mohammad Javed, Senior Vice ChairmanNPC, Mr. Zahid Malik, Chairman NPC and Editor-in- Chief, Pakistan Observer andMohtarma Razina Alam. —PO photo by Sultan Bashir

ZUBAIR QURESHI

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a n inuclear scientists wereready to conduct nucleartests even back in 1984.What they waited for wasa go ahead signal by thethen government led byGen Zia-ul-Haq Presidentand Chief of the ArmyStaff. However, the historicmoment came fourteenyears later in 1998 whenPakistan was compelled toconduct nuclear tests onMay 28 as a prompt replyto India’s 11 May tests.

This was revealed bythe Father of Pakistan’sNuclear Programme Dr AQKhan at a ceremony titled“Atom Bomb ki Kahani——Dr AQ Khan ki Zubani”marking Youm-e-Takbeer atAiwan-e-Quaid here onWednesday. Nazriya Paki-stan Council (NPC) had ar-ranged the function.

NPC Chairman and Edi-tor-in-Chief of PakistanObserver Zahid Malik pre

NPC organizes Youm-e-Takbeer function

Dr AQ Khan unfurls saga of atomic bombPakistani scientists were ready for nuclear explosions in 1984

Continued on Page 7

JC recommendselevation of CJLHC Umar AtaBandiyal to SC

ISLAMABAD—A meeting ofJudicial Commission washeld here Wednesday withChief Justice TassaduqHussain Jillani in the chair.

The Commission rec-ommended that Chief Jus-tice Lahore High CourtUmar Ata Bandiyal shouldbe elevated to Justice ofSupreme Court. The Com-mission recommended ap-pointment of Senior Judgeof Lahore High Court Jus-tice Khwaja Imtiaz as theChief Justice of LahoreHigh Court.

The Commission alsorecommended appointingAthar Minallah as the Ad-ditional Judge of IslamabadHigh Court. —INP

Sultan AzlanShah dies at 86

KUALA KANGSAR —TheSultan of Perak, SultanAzlan Shah, passed awayon Wednesday at the age of86, Malaysia’s state-runBERNAMA news agencyreported.

Sultan Azlan Shah, whoreigned over the Malaystate of Perak for three de-cades, was an avid fan offield hockey and was knownfor the Azlan Shah Cup an-nual hockey tournament,which was named after him.

In 1997, Sultan AzlanShah was elected the Presi-dent of the Asian HockeyFederation, a position heheld until his demise. He alsoserved as the President ofthe Malaysian Hockey Fed-eration until 2005.

Azlan will be laid to restThursday afternoon at theroyal mausoleum in KualaKangsar.—Bernama

Senator Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq, leader of the house in Senate, with delegation ofChinese Communist Party led by Tian Duanhui at Parliament House.

FOR some women with breast cancer,changes in brain activity whilemultitasking could explain “chemo brain”

– reduced mental functioning that many expe-rience after chemotherapy, Belgian research-ers say. “Cognitive com-plaints of people increasewith chemotherapy and weare trying to find out why,”said Sabine Deprez, wholed the new study. “Diffi-culty multitasking is one ofthe biggest complaints.”

Past research has docu-mented changes in mentalperformance followingchemotherapy – and insome cases, in cancer pa-tients before chemotherapy,suggesting disease-relatedprocesses may also play arole, according to Deprez’steam. Other studies haveused imaging to show dif-ferences in brain activitybetween cancer patientswho had chemotherapy and healthy people notbeing treated for cancer, the researchers writein the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

To compare women with themselves be-fore and after chemo, as well as with otherwomen, Deprez and her colleagues at the Uni-versity Hospital Gasthuisberg of the KatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven, used functional MagneticResonance Imaging (fMRI). The imaging tech-nique indirectly assesses brain activity by sig-naling changes in blood and oxygen deliveredto various regions of the brain.

Eighteen women with breast cancer sched-uled to receive chemotherapy performed amultitasking exercise in an MRI machine be-

fore starting treatment and four to six monthsafter treatment ended. Two comparisongroups - one of women with breast cancernot scheduled to receive chemotherapy andanother of healthy women - also performed

the tasks. “The special thing about howwe did the design was that be-fore we did it we adjusted thedifficulty for each patient, andthe performance of everyonewas between 70 and 80 percent,”Deprez said. That meant pa-tients’ performance on the test,which included indicating if twosounds were the same frequencyand if two moving circles withlines through them were at thesame orientation or not, whileremembering two symbols pre-sented earlier, did not changeover time. This allowed the re-searchers to measure changes inbrain activity levels during thetask, not in the women’s abilityto complete the task, Deprez

said.Neither of the two comparison groups

seemed to change in terms of the parts ofthe brain activated by the tasks or their levelof activation, while in the chemotherapygroup brain activation significantly de-creased, the authors report. Meanwhile, pa-tients in the chemotherapy group also com-plained of “foggy thinking” more than thosein the other groups. Before the chemotherapystarted, all the participants had about thesame amount of cognitive complaints.

“The important thing that we found wasa relation with subjective cognitive com-plaint,” Deprez told Reuters Health.

Brain activitychanges seen after chemo

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—AmbassadorDashgin Shikarov ofAzerbaijan arranged acolourful reception to celebratethe Republic Day of his coun-try. A large number of ambas-sadors and other diplomatsgraced the occasion. FormerChairman Joint Chiefs of StaffCommittee General (Retd)Ehsan Ul Haq, senior in serviceand retired officials and promi-nent people belonging to vari-ous segments of society at-tended the function. The fed-eral minister for religious af-fairs and interfaith harmony,Sardar Muhammad YousafKhan was the chief guest at thereception who joined the hostin cutting the ceremonial cake.The function began with theplaying of anthems of the twocountries.

Relations between Paki-stan and Azerbaijan have beengrowing steadily over the years

since Azerbaijan emerged as anindependent country after thecollapse of the erstwhile SovietUnion. The two countries arebound by history, religion andculture. Azerbaijan has beenmaking rapid progress in allfields of national life. Eco-

nomic relations between Paki-stan and Azerbaijan havegrown to quite some extent butthere are possibilities of greatercooperation between the twocountries. AmbassadorDashgin Shikarov has beenvery active in promoting rela-tions between Pakistan and hiscountry.

Azerbaijan pursues bal-anced foreign policy, based onthe interests of the country.Situated on the geographicalborder of Europe and Asia,

Azerbaijan is integrated in thepolitical structures of bothcontinents. Being a memberof the Council of Europe andthe OSCE, Azerbaijan playsan active role in the OIC,ECO. It is also a member ofNon-Aligned Movement, andlast year completed its tenureas a non-permanent memberof UN Security Council. “Weare proud to say that Pakistanand Azerbaijan enjoy closeand cordial relations charac-terized by shared perceptionon major global and regionalissues,” says the Azeri am-bassador.

The two countries signednumber of agreements toprovide a framework for bi-lateral cooperation in allspheres including economy,trade, finance, information,culture and military fields.Both countries closely coop-erate in international forumsand support each other ontheir core issues.

Azerbaijan celebrates Republic Day

Pakistan, Azerbaijan friendly relations growing in vital areas

Ambassador of Azerbaijan Dashgin Shikarov, chief guest Federal Minister for ReligiousAffairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, Senator Haji Adeel, Akram Zaki and other dignitariescutting cake to mark 96th Anniversary of Republic Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan heldat a local hotel.—PO photo Sultan Bashir

Major General Matar Bin Salim Bin Rashid Albalushi, Commander of Royal Army of Oman along with Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharifsaluting after laying floral wreath at Yadgar-e-Shuhada at General Headquarters.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—It was the reform and openingup policy initiated in 1978 that led to majoreconomic progress and prosperity in China.

This was stated by Tian Duanhui, DirectorGeneral of the Communist Party of China (CPC)Center for International Exchanges in Beijing.The members of the delegation elaborated that itwas the reform and opening up policy initiatedin 1978 that led to major economic progress.

He was heading a delegation to partici-pate in a public talk, titled - Governance, Ca-pability Building and National Development- here at Institute of Strategic Studies,Islamabad (ISSI) on Wednesday.

The discussion examined the role of theCPC in providing governance at the local and

national level and transforming China from adeveloping country to a major military, eco-nomic and technological power. The role ofthe CPC in increasing the quality, skills andcommitment of party leaders at the local levelwas one of the main topics under consider-ation, as the local governments’ leadership andownership of the central government’s plansprovides an excellent example for countrieslike Pakistan to follow.

The members of the delegation elaboratedthat it was the reform and opening up policyinitiated in 1978 that led to major economicprogress and that the CPC has been able tocarry out this transformation because of itscapacity, emphasis on the rule of law and rec-ognition of social stability as a necessary con-dition for economic growth.

Reform opening up policy, led toChinese economic progress

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Emergency and Disaster Man-agement (E&DM) of Capital DevelopmentAuthority (CDA) had declared number of highrise buildings vulnerable to fire incidents asthese are not meeting prescribed fire preven-tion standards.

During a survey E&DM had issued no-tices to about 450 high rise buildings, com-plexes and plazas of capital including Marriot,Holiday Inn, Serena Hotels etc to adopt firesafety measures for securing lives of peoplein case of any mishap.

Talking to reporters, an official of Emer-gency & Disaster Management said that theauthority had also issued recommendationsto several government institutions includingSupreme Court, Parliament, Prime MinisterHouse and various block of ministries be-side notices to private buildings to adopt firesafety standards for ensuring Fire Free capi-tal.

According to the Fire Prevention and LifeSafety (FPLS) regulation 2010, number of

safety measures were required in high risebuildings of capital, including fire extinguish-ers, dedicated water tanks at basements androofs, floor plan, exit plan, centralized mikesystem, fire party at every floor, disconnec-tion system of electricity and gas.

He claimed that various government in-stitutions were reluctant to implement thesafety recommendations due to lack of funds.

He said that according to the new safetyregulations-2010, every building in federalcapital was bound to improve the standard ofsafety measures to save lives.

Unfortunately no building was meetingthe safety standards according to the new law,he added. He said that on November 28, 2013,CDA through an advertisement announced tostrictly enforce FPLS-2010 regulation, anddirected the high rise occupants of federal capi-tal to install the safety measures as per law forensuring Fire Free Capital. It was declaredthat failure to meet the standard would be se-verely penalized to the extent of 500,000 withdaily penalty of 3,000.

The official claimed no challan tickets

were being given to the violators due to thelack of coordination between Emergency andDisaster Management and Building ControlSection of CDA. Citing example of build-ing of Shaheed-e-Millat, parts of which weredestroyed in fire, he said still safety recom-mendations in the buildings were not imple-mented.

Another official said that Capital Devel-opment Authority (CDA) approved Rs. twomillion for carrying a survey of the buildings,complexes and plazas to evaluate safety mea-sures but unfortunately the amount could notbe released so far. He said E&DM was carry-ing its survey at slow pace due to lack of funds,staff and other equipments.

Talking about the new buildings andplazas, he claimed that CDA’s BuildingControl Section was issuing NOCs andcompletion certificates for new buildingswithout consulting Emergency and Disas-ter Management that is clear violation oflaw. He said in case of any mishap theNOCs and completion certificates issuingauthority would be held responsible.

High rise buildings declaredvulnerable to fire incidents

Abbasi rejectscriticism on Metro

Bus projectSTAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—ChairmanRawalpindi-Islamabad MetroBus Project Muhammad HanifAbbasi Wednesday rejectedundue and unjustified criti-cism on the under constructionmass transit plan, saying someelements did not want decentand cheap transport service forpublic due to personal inter-ests.

Addressing participants ofa reception here, he said theproject was being appreciatedby world institutions as theyhave complete knowledgeabout its importance for publicwelfare.

Punjab government,Abbasi said, has initiated theproject keeping in view the dif-ficulties being faced by com-muters traveling between thetwin cities.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Newly elected members ofAcademic Staff Association (ASA) of In-ternational Islamic University Islamabad(IIUI) took oath in a ceremony held hereon Wednesday. President IIUI Dr. AhmedYousif Al-Draiweesh administrated the oathto the newly elected ASA members whojoined the ASA panel after unopposed an-nouncement and consensus in the associa-tion and academic community of the uni-versity.

Dr. AtiqulZafar was announced thePresident of the association consecutivelyfor the second time.

The ceremony was also attended byVice President Academics Dr MuhammadBashir Khan, Director General AF&PGulzar Ahmed Khwaja, Director GeneralShariah Academy Dr. Tahir Mansoori, Di-rector Institute for Professional Develop-ment Dr. Saeed ul Hassan Chishti, Deans,Directors, Former ASA members and alarge number of academic community.

Dr Muhammad Akram has joined ASAas Vice President, Dr Husnain Naqvi as Sec-retary General, Rooh ul Amin Khan as In-formation Secretary, Aleem Khaliq as JointSecretary, Haseb Sajjad Finance Secretary,Zaren Musharaf as Vice President (female)and Ghazala Ghalib Khan as Joint Secre-

tary.Speaking on the occasion, Dr Al-

Draiweesh said teachers have a vital role indissemination of knowledge in the societyand spreading knowledge, involving peoplein education is actually equal to followingof the teachings of Holy Prophet (PBUH).

“IIUI is heading towards a destinationof success and achievements of its loftygoals, it’s becoming possible with the ef-forts by the administration and academicstaff,” he added.

He said that “IIUI is like a boat andif we manage to put it on the right direc-tion it would be our success and this mustbe our ultimate goal too.”

Academic Staff Association members take oath

04:30 01:3005:30

09:00

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

May 29

TO celebrate 204th Anniver-sary of the First NationalGovernment the Ambassadorof the Argentine Republicand Mrs. Rodolfo MartinSaravia have arranged a re-ception on Thursday, 29th

May 2014 from 7:00 p.m. to9:00 p.m. at Marquee HallMarriott Hall.

****

DEVOLUTION Trust of Com-munity Empowerment is goingto organize a one day workshopon identification of CitizenDemands for implementationof Article 140-A under 18th

Amendment of Constitution ofIslamic Republic of Pakistan atHotel Hill view, F-7 Islamabadat 9:30 am on May 29th, 2014.

June 6

TO celebrate the Republic Dayand National Day of Nepal TheAmbassador and Mrs. BharatRaj Poudyal will hold a recep-tion on Friday 6th June 2014 from19:30 hrs to 21:30 hrs, at SheeshMahal Hall, Serena Hotel.

Deputy Attorney General Haji Fazal ur Rehman and others cutting cake to mark 16th Youm-e-Takbeer at DistrictCourt on Wednesday.

Residents of slums of Federal Capital stage a protest against proposed operation against slums, outside National Press Club.

Rector NUML Maj Gen (R) Masood Hasan is presenting shield to Maj Gen (R) Saeed Aloeem, Chairman NDMA, after hislecture on Disaster Management System in Pakistan at NUML on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD—The sale of mosquitorepellent sprays, coils, lotions andelectric devices have witnessed sharpincrease due to onset of summer sea-son in the twin cities of Islamabad andRawalpindi.

Various shopkeepers in twin mar-kets have made available these itemsin bulk nowadays as their demand haveincreased manifold. There are alsocomplaints of overcharging by thetraders.

A shopkeeper, Asim Kha whiletalking to APP that safety nets and

spray are being sold daily these days,adding demand for safety nets was ona constant rise due to long hours load-shedding, irregular fumigation cam-paign and fear of dengue fever.

Shopkeeper said most of peopletake interest in nets for infants andchildren these days.

Mosquito repellent companieshave also increased their advertisingspends during the period,” said indus-try analyst. “Further, the fear of den-gue has helped improve their sales.”

Although, the capital Develop-

ment Authority (CDA) administra-tions are carrying out fumigationcampaign in various areas from timeto time, but it should be done on regu-lar basis to protect the residents fromdengue and other infections.

The dengue mosquito is morepowerful than other types of mosqui-toes, a health expert said adding if aperson gets fever, headache, redspots on the body, vomiting and painin eyes, he should get his blood testdone and consult the doctor imme-diately.—APP

Mosquito repellents salesescalate in twin cities

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—In order to develop understand-ing of Disaster Management Systems of Pa-kistan besides building capacity andsensitising students and academia on disasterprevention and management so to make themeffective member of society, Department ofGovernance and Public Policy (G&PP) ar-ranged a lecture on “Disaster Managementsystem in Pakistan” at National University ofModern Languages (NUML) here on Wednes-day.

Maj Gen (R) Saeed Aleem, Chairman Na-t ional Disaster Management Authori ty(NDMA) was keynote speaker at the lecture.A large number of students and faculty mem-bers attended the talk while Rector NUML MajGen (R) Masood Hassan, HoD G&PP Maj Gen(R) Syed Usman Shah, heads and deans of dif-ferent departments were also present at the oc-casion.

Speaking at the occasion, Chairman ofNDMA, Maj. Gen. (R) Muhammad SaeedAleem, highlighted the comprehensive disas-ter management strategy in Pakistan and de-termined the roles and responsibilities of rel-evant ministries and authorities to disastermanagement and mitigation.

He also underscored in his talk the impor-tant role of provincial and district governmentsin managing various disasters since he be-

Development of disastermanagement system stressed

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad High Court onWednesday ordered to avoid damage to privategraveyard which falls in the way of the multi-billion metro bus project.

The court granted the stay to the petitionerGulam Fareed, till June 12 and issued notices tothe Chairman Capital development Authority,Project Director Metro Bus, Chief Commission-ers of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

He took the plea that the project maycause demolition of the graveyard of his fore-fathers.

During the course of hearing, Raja ShakeelAbbasi, counsel for petitioner apprised the benchabout the apprehensions in this regard.

He said contractors has already begun dig-ging the green belt adjoining 9th Avenue, andaround 20 graves came in the way.

To this, the Judge remarked that the con-struction of the metro bus project should be con-fined to the boundary of graveyard, which is situ-ated on a green belt on 9th Avenue in I-8 sector.

Justice Shaukat Siddiqui further observedthat he would not allow the desecration of thegraves.

The graveyard, owned by Raja Kaleem, iswhere his family members were being buriedsince 1945. Kaleem said, that his family hadrelinquished their claim on compensation for an-cestral land and asked Capital DevelopmentAuthority (CDA) to let them retain ownershipof the graveyard in 1960.

Metro Bus Project

IHC orders to avoid damageto local graveyard

lieved that disaster management was now a“devolved subject” and both provincial anddistrict governments have key and profoundrole in managing disasters effectively.

Aleem also made a comprehensive brief-ing on Disaster Management System in Pa-kistan highlighted all relevant departmentsresponsible for hazard, initial rapid anddamage assessment to ascertain the vulner-ability of area, relief requirements lossesand damaged for re-construction purpose re-spectively.

He said that role of academia was im-mense in generating academic debate andendeavouring to build capacity impart train-ing and developing necessary skills of theconcerned government officers and civil so-ciety organizations with regard to assess-ment methodology and its utilization for ef-fective disaster risk reduction, relief and re-construction activities.

He stressed the need to foster partner-ships and enhance collaboration amongcountries in order to enhance resilience andmeet common challenges.

Rector NUML while thanking the guestspeaker highlighted the need for educatingand enlightening students and faculty onsuch an important topic. He stated that roleof civil society and academia was impor-tant in creating awareness and in capacitybuilding.

ISLAMABAD—The local traders have strongly op-posed the construction of a new slaughter house inthe middle of the city (in H-9 Sector) and have calledupon the CDA to cancel this project to save the cityfrom bad smell and environment pollution.

Khalid Mehmood Mian, President, ICT Cham-ber of Small Traders have said that a slaughter housefor Islamabad was constructed on partnership basisat an area of 50 acre in Humak, but Punjab Govern-ment has taken over its possession. He stressed uponthe CDA to take back the said slaughter house fromPunjab Government instead of spending millionsof rupees on the construction of a new one in H-9Sector, Islamabad. He said if the new slaughter housewas constructed, traders would strongly oppose thisproject. He was talking to a delegation of ButchersUnion. Khalid Mian said that construction of slaugh-ter house in the middle of city would create health

problems for the citizens. Environment ProtectionAgency has already termed the construction ofslaughter house in the city harmful for the citizensas it could cause many diseases. If CDA did notcancel this project, traders would resort to the courtand would launch a protest campaign against thisanti-environment and anti-people project.

He said metro bus project is beneficial for thecommuters and those who are opposing it are notpeople-friendly. He said construction of slaughterhouse in near Metro Bus Terminal at Peshawar Morewould badly affect life citizens as it would spreadbad smell and generate health problems. He appealedto the Chairman CDA, Member Admin and Mem-ber Environment CDA to take notice of this situa-tion and cancel the slaughter house project in H-9 tosave the environment of Islamabad from further pol-lution.—INP

Traders oppose newslaughter house in city

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—The suspension of gas supply toJatli, suburban area of Rawalpindi, has made thelives of the residents miserable but the concernedauthorities are not paying heed to the citizens’troubles.

The residents of Jatli including Raja Idrees, AmirMehmood, Naeem and others, expressing their re-sentment, said that thousands of dwellers have been

deprived of gas supply for the last many days. Theysaid that most of

the households who lack facility to use woodfor cooking purposes, have been facing serious nui-sance due to outage of gas. The residents said thatCNG stations in their areas are being provided gassupply according to the schedule and only domesticconsumers are left without the basic facility. Theydemanded the gas supply company to immediatelyresume gas supply to the village.

Jatli residents demandresumption of gas supply

ISLAMABAD—Rich tributes were paidto late senior officer of the Ministry ofInformation, Broadcasting and NationalHeritage, Muhammad Khalid Sarwar ata condolence reference held here at theInformation Service Academy onWednesday.

Muhammad Khalid Sarwar, who wasserving as Director General of the In-formation Service Academy and Man-aging Director of the Associated Pressof Pakistan (APP) passed away on May11.

Senior serving and retired officers ofthe Ministry of Information includingformer scretaries Khawaja Ejaz Sarwar,Ashfaq Gondal, Additional SecretaryMuhammad Azam, Principal Informa-

tion Officer (PIO) Rao Tehsin Ali Khan,Managing Director APP, Miss NuzhatYasmeen, Director General Radio Paki-stan, Samina Pervez, Director GeneralDirectorate of Electronic Media andPublication (DEMP), Shiraz Lateef,Mubashra Bajwa, A.S. Abbassi, formerManaging Directors of APP, FazalurRehman Malik, Rai Riaz, GhulamHazoor Bajwa and other officers at-tended the reference.

Besides the family members of lateKhalid Sarwar, the reference was alsoattended by a large number of officersand employees of the Ministry of Infor-mation and journalists and workers ofAPP.

Speakers including former Secretary

Information Ashfaq Gondal, a former of-ficer of the ministry Malik Ashraf, Ex-ecutive Director APP, MuhammadNaeem Chaudhry and senior journalist,Khushnood Ali Khan paid tributes to lateKhalid Sarwar and eulogized his ser-vices in the field of information in vari-ous positions at home and abroad.

They recalled their experiences ofworking with late Khalid Sarwar and de-scribed him as “a hard working, upright,dedicated and professional officer,” whoalways spent his time for the bettermentof the institutions where he served tilldeath. At the conclusion, former Secre-tary Information, Ashfaq Gondal led theprayers for the peace of departed soul andcourage to the bereaved family.—APP

Late Khalid Sarwar remembered; hisservices eulogized

RAWALPINDI—City-chapter leaders ofPakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday renewed the pledge tomake the country’s defence impregnable.

Talking to APP in connection withYoum-e-Takbeer, the day Pakistan be-came the first nuclear Islamic state, thePML-N leadership never compromisedon national issues and always kept themsupreme.

Vice President PML-N Youth WingMalik Shakeel Awan said Prime Minis-

PML-N’s local leaders renew pledge tomake country’s defence stronger

ter Nawaz Sharif took a bold decision onMay 28, 1998 despite great internationalpressure.

PML-N, he said, believes in maintain-ing minimum credible deterrence to en-sure peace in the south Asian region.

“The credit goes to PML leadershipfor making the country a nuclear powerand now no one can dare cast an evil eyeon Pakistan,” he maintained.

Chairman Pakistan Green Task ForceDr Jamal Nasir said May 28 is a impor-

tant day in the country’s political and de-fence history.

He said the whole nation was proudof this historic achievement and there wasa need to celebrate this important day ofnational history in a befitting manner.

He said the entire nation was unitedunder the dynamic leadership of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif to render any sac-rifice for protection of ideological fron-tiers of the country and coping with thechallenge of terrorism.—APP

PAC directs CDA toensure transparency,avoid post bidding

changes in contractsISLAMABAD—Public Ac-counts Committee (PAC) onWednesday directed the Capi-tal Development Authority(CDA) to ensure transparencyin its bidding process, followPublic Procurement Regula-tory Authority (Pepra) rulesand submit its rules and pow-ers of board of directors byThursday.

A meeting of the PACchaired by chairman SyedKhursheed Shah was held toperuse audit objections onCDA. PAC expressed shockand dismay over undue favoursgiven by Capital DevelopmentAuthority (CDA) to variouscontractors and grant of certaincontracts sans any bidding pro-cess in sheer violation of rules.

PAC directed CDA to en-sure provision of basic ameni-ties, utility services to the suc-cessful bidders of plot to avoidrefusal of installments paymentby allottee saying that utilityservices have not been pro-vided as per agreement.

PAC directed the CDA togive possession of land or plotto a successful bidder after pay-ment of 100 percent cost ofland and also allot plots onlyafter open and transparent bid-ding in future. Post biddingchanges in contracts must beavoided at any cost.

PAC directed CDA to de-vise a system to provide citi-zens secure parking by charg-ing nominal rates in variousshopping centres.—APP

MUZAFFARABAD: Work in progress of under-construction Saeen Saheeli SarkarBridge over the river Jhelum under City Development Project.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister AJK Ch Abdul Majeed called on Secretary Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan,Shahid Ulla Baig on Wednesday.

DR SHIEKH SHOWKAT HUSSAIN

For most of the analystsascendance of Narendra Modias leader of single party to

power was a surprise. Given the factthat for past three decades coalitionhas been the grand norm of Indianpolitics and Indian society remainedpolarized on caste & regional linesnone anticipated it. For those vision-aries who had first encounter withIndian nationalism on its inceptionIndia becoming Hindu state was aforegone conclusion. Sir SyedAhmad Khan once persuaded by hisfriends to develop a positive ap-proach towards Indian NationalCongress out rightly rejected thesuggestion saying that it is incon-ceivable to perceive a state belong-ing to two different communities andone has surely to subdue anotherto constitute a polity.

It was this idea which was articu-lated by his colleague Nawab Mohsinul Mulk that led to emergence of Mus-

Kashmir and challenges to Modi-fied Indialim League as a separate party in 1906barely three years after the death of greatSir Syed. Some liberal Muslims often at-tribute ascendance of Hindu fascism topartition. It is a wrong notion contrary totheir perception India could have becomeRSS dominated much earlier in an undi-vided India. Partition rescued 66% of thefaithful to the eastern and western Paki-stan there by reduced Muslims in India.

Hindus should have been relievedof Muslim phobia but contrary to theseexpectations Muslim phobia remainedpart of Hindu psyche and was cultivatedby Hindu right-wing parties owing alle-giance to RSS. Partition simply deferredthe emergence of Hindu extremism. Itcould have otherwise emerged in muchmore lethal way and far earlier had therebeen no partition and India as a home ofmore than 400 million Muslims. Now allthe illusions about India emerging as asecular nation have dissipated and Modiremains Indian prime minister.

Ascendance of Modi to power maybedetrimental to the interests of Muslims inmainland India, Modi-ficaton of India has

however several positives for Kashmirresistance. Kashmiris, now, do not needto convince the world that they are sub-jugated under a fascist majoritarian setupbecause notoriety of Modi and Hindutvaforces is too obvious to whole of the worldto need any introduction. There are otherpositives in ascendance of Modi forKashmiris. Ever since insurgency eruptedin Kashmir, India often experienced coa-lition governments. Every governmentprojected coalition politics as an impedi-ment in the way of its efforts towardsresolution of Kashmir problem. Modidoesn’t have any baggage of coalitioncompulsions to use them as a pretext fordeferring resolution of Kashmir. Theirpresence in power augers well as it is theHindu extreme right that often paralyzedthe UPA government from embarkingupon any initiatives on Kashmir.

Locally the election has been an av-enue of assertion of the dominant senti-ment of Kashmir. After a long time Kash-mir experienced an overwhelming boy-cott of elections as propagated and de-sired by various segments of Hurriyat.

Through this boycott people of Kashmirhave made it amply clear that they aren’tsatisfied with status-quo. The boycottwas not result of any coercion as por-trayed by some fifth columnists whothrough their writings had consistentlypredicted a doomsday scenario for thepro-freedom camp on election days.

This interpretation remains either anexcuse for their ill-conceived predictionsor an alibi for providing a face saving forthe status quo whose beneficiaries theyremain. The boycott was complete inmainland Kashmir whereas in militarisedhinterland it was less. People in those ar-eas can’t take the risk of endangeringtheir existence by defying the writ of thesecurity apparatus with which they haveto co-exist. While participating they usedtheir vote as an instrument of penalizingthose who have been responsible forlarge-scale killings of youth and hangingof Afzal Guru. Modi can’t overlook thisphenomenon he has to take initiatives toaddress it. He can’t afford invest in un-productive exercise of keeping one thirdof Indian army in a perpetual state of mo-

bilization within a hostile population anddream of vikas of India.

At global level, dominance ofblood-tainted extremists at Delhi cre-ates a possibility of a reaction fromthe Muslim world. Israeli Prime Minis-ter has further expanded this avenuethrough public appreciation ofNarendra Modi’s ascendance. Goneare the days when Nehru used to out-wit Pakistan as ‘messenger of peace’in the Middle East. Modi and his Indianow blatantly remain part and parcelof US containment zone against theMuslims world. Given the fact thatrecords of Modi as Chief Minister havebeen negative towards Muslims hecan’t remain in good books of theMuslim community across the globe.

If he pursues the same agenda toappease the RSS he can invoke retalia-tion from the Muslim world. Given thefact that Muslim nation states face theproblems of extremism domestically theycan overlook such a reaction from thenon-state actors in order to deflect at-tention from their own failures and mis-

deeds. If Modi becomes a cause ofprovocation for extremism it can ruinthe prospects of peace and invest-ment within India, thus blunting theexpectations of the Multinationals foran investment friendly atmosphere.Invite to Nawaz Sharif on oath takingceremony is an effort to evade possi-bility of such a reaction.

Given the fact that Punjab over-whelmingly didn’t vote in favour ofBJP is clear indication of the factthat they refused to become instru-ment in the hands of BJP for defeatof Manmohan Singh led govern-ment in Delhi. Apart from his cre-dentials as an economist consola-tion of raj karega khalesa aspirationof Sikhs remained one of the rea-sons for elevation of Manmohan tothe position of PM. Punjab, too,may not remain comfortable withthe successor of Manmohan Singhin Delhi. Akalis under pressure fromtheir voters are shying away fromjoining the Modi cabinet.

—Courtesy: Kashmir Dispatch

SRINAGAR—Jama’at-e-Islami Jammu andKashmir has strongly condemned the un-justified, undemocratic and whimsical sus-pension of Dr. Nissar-ul-Hassan, presidentof Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK).Dr. Nissar was first arrested on baselesscharges and then suspended from the ser-vice. This is a blatant injustice which shouldbe condemned in strongest possible terms.

Dr. Nissar’s only fault was that he raisedvoice against spurious drug scam, pro-tested against highhandedness and harass-ment of patients admitted in hospitals bypolice and forces. This is not only the demo-cratic right of every citizen but legal dutyof any person holding higher position inany organization.

But unfortunately, here in Jammu andKashmir whenever any citizen raises theissue of human rights by exercising hisdemocratic right, he is dubbed as anti-na-tional and implicated in baseless and frivo-lous cases to suppress his voice for ever.Since 1947, the so-called democracy was

DAK chief penalisedfor exposing medi-scam

not allowed to cross the Madhav Pur Bridgeas a result, tyranny and oppression pre-vails in the state.

This has resulted into state police andstate machinery dancing to the tunes ofruling elite who often trample the law undertheir feet. In Dr. Nissar’s case, the state ad-ministration acted on same lines which areemployed to suppress any person raisingvoice against state oppression and tyranny.

Contrarily, convicted criminal and peoplewho are involved in big scams are roamingfreely and also provided with higher posi-tions but those talking about human rightsof people is punished. Jama’at-e-IslamiJammu and Kashmir strongly condemns therepressive act of suspension of Dr Nissar-ul-Hassan and demands immediate revoca-tion of this imperialistic order.

Jama’at also impresses the administra-tion to play their positive and people-friendlyrole in order to safeguard the democratic prin-ciples instead of blindly following the tyran-nical diktats of the ruling elite.—KW

SRINAGAR—Chief Patron JammuKashmir Mahaz-e-Azadi (MeA)Muhammad Azam Inqilabi today saidPakistan’s stance in the bilateral talksheld between Prime Minister NawazSharif and his Indian counterpartNarendra Modi on Tuesday was “un-appealing”. In a statement issued here,Inqilabi said the meeting betweenIndia’s new P.M. Modi and Sharif wereof “limited diplomatic dialogue”.

“If limited dialogue was to be held,this would have been aptly done byany Pakistani diplomat as well,” headded. He said the role of NawazSharif in the talks was “unbecomingof head of a nuclear armed country.”“He (Sharif) should have told Indianleaders that Pakistan has same num-ber of nuclear weapons and missilesas India has. If Kashmir dispute re-mains lingering then Muslim warriorsfrom across the globe will come for-ward to resolve it,” he said.

Nawaz-Modi lukewarm meet toescalate Jihad in Kashmir, MeA

Warning of escalation in militancyafter 2014, the date set for US ledNATO withdrawal from Afghanistan,Inqilabi said, “Afghan mujahedeen willfind their way in Kashmir struggle.”“Situation in Kashmir will get out ofcontrol and even UJC supremo SyedSalahu-ud-din will become irrelevantin such a scenario,” he added.

He advised Salah-ud-din to ap-point any young Kashmir Ph.D.scholar as UJC chief and himself beits patron. “There is urgent need of ayoung and courageous ‘ameer’ whocan walk 20 or 30 km’s on foot. If thisdoesn’t happen then Kashmirmujahedeen will feel compelled to workunder Afghan commanders,” he saidin the statement.

MeA patron welcomed comments ofPakistan President Mamnoon Hussainwhich he made during his meeting withenvoys of OIC countries. “If OICdoesn’t assert on political, diplomatic,

military and economic fronts then what-ever gains Muslim warriors haveachieved on Afghanistan, Kashmir andPalestine front will go in vain,” he said.

He said there will be a backlashagainst Muslim rulers. “To avoid sucha situation Muslim rulers, Ulemas andpolitical leaders should convene a ses-sion which will make clear to India tostop oppression in Kashmir or oil sup-ply will be stopped.” He asked ‘pro-India’ Kashmir organizations to quitelection politics.

“Pro-India groups in Kashmirshouldn’t bow before Delhi and shunhypocrisy and join freedom struggle.This will force India to stop its imperi-alistic attitude and give Kashmiris achance to decide their political fu-ture,” he added. He strongly con-demned the suspension of Dr. Nisar-ul-Hassan, president Doctors Asso-ciation Kashmir, and termed it as a dic-tatorial act.—KNS

HYDERPORA (IHK)—With the instructionsof chairman Syed Ali Geelani Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) is going to organize a semi-nar in the remembrance of disappeared per-sons under title “memories of disappearedpersons of freedom struggle” on 31st May2014, 11:00 am at its headquarters HyderporaSrinagar.

In a statement, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat saidthat During last 23 years, ten thousand peoplewere arrested and disappeared in forces cus-tody. Their close relatives are in a state of fixand no information with this regard is beingprovided to them. Hundreds and thousandsof people have been subjected to enforceddisappearance so far and equal numbers ofunmarked graves have been discovered andthe families whose members are missing arefacing severe miseries and agonies.

TeH holding seminaron disappeared persons

The uncertainty about identification ofpersons buried in these graves has castedserious concern for the concerned families.Concerned families are serious enoughabout the identity of the persons buried inthese graves and it is a matter of concernand depressing the families. The end weekof May is used to memorize the disappearedpersons and public processions, seminarsand other programmes are organized in theworld. In this regard with the instructionsof its chairman Syed Ali Geelani Tehreek-e-Hurriyat is going to organize a seminar inthe remembrance of disappeared personsunder title “memories of disappeared per-sons of freedom struggle” on 31st May2014, 11:00 am at its headquartersHyderpora. People from every walk of lifeare appealed to attend the seminar.—KO

KULGAM (IHK)—United Jihad Council (UJC) chief Syed Sallah-ud-din has asked PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to accept ground realities vis-à-vis Kashmir unlike the ‘dual’policies of Congress, so that people of Kashmir could be allowed to decide their fate.UJC chief also paid tributes to the militants killed during the gun battle at Kulgam duringthe recent fight- maintaining that the ongoing struggle will continue on diplomatic andarmed front.

According to a statement by UJC spokesman Syed Sadaqat Hussian issued to KNS,Syed Sallah-ud-din while chairing a meeting of UJC stated that history bears witness tothe fact that the blood of ‘martyrs ’ never go waste and the ‘oppressors’ always turnirrelevant by this ‘sacred blood.’ “The sacrifices rendered by the martyrs since 1947 inKashmir and in particular the sacrifices at Kulgam vindicates that the resistance move-ment is treading towards success.”

Sallah-ud-din stated that the new government at New Delhi must read the writing onthe wall and unlike the dual policies of Congress; it should accept the ground realities ofKashmir and must allow people to exercise their birth right. The UJC chief according tothe statement reiterated his stand on Kashmir that the resistance will continue on Politi-cal, diplomatic and armed front will absolute vigor.—KD

UJC to Modi: Acceptground realities in Kashmir

WULLAR (IHK)—The veteran Hurriyetleader, Syed Ali Gilani, while rememberingthe martyred children of Wullar tragedy ontheir eighth anniversary, has appealed to thepeople of Handwara tehsil to hold specialprayer meetings for the victims on May 30.

Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued inSrinagar expressed sympathy with the fami-lies of the martyred children. “The Wullartragedy is among those incidents which aredirectly linked with the freedom movementof Kashmir. It can’t be neglected in any caseor any way as 21 innocent students and anemployee lost their lives due to criminal neg-ligence of Indian Navy. We can’t rule outconspiracy into this incident,” he added.

Geelani remembersWullar tragedy victims

The veteran leader said that the tragedyshould be mentioned in every Masjid ofHandwara on Friday (May 30) and then af-ter the Juma prayers, people should visit thefamilies, whose dear ones were martyred inthe incident and express solidarity with them.

Syed Ali Gilani also urged the leadersand activists of his party, Tehreek-e-Hurriyet Jammu and Kashmir, in Kupwaradistrict to fulfill their responsibilities in thisregard. It is to mention here that 22 personsincluding 20 children of Burning CandlePublic School Handwara were drowned inWullar Lake On May 30, 2006, due to thenegligence of Marcos, an elite operationunit of Navy.—KMS

SRINAGAR—Just three days after Narendra Modi took oathas India’s 14th Prime Minster, BJP has again set the catamong the pigeons- stating that Article 370 is a ‘physi-ological’ barrier and process to repeal it has began.

According to the details, Lok Sabha MP fromUdhampur and Minister of State in Modi’s cabinet JitendraSingh stated that the BJP had already started the processof repealing Article 370 and that it is in the continuoustalks with the stakeholders. Jitendera stated that the partyhas won more than half of the seats from Jammu and Kash-mir and that repealing of Article 370 is an endorsement ofBJP’s stand.

“Article 370 has become more like the psychologicalbarrier. We have started the process of its repealing. Weare talking to the stakeholders for the purpose,” saidJitendera Singh. Pertinently, earlier as BJP’s prime ministe-rial candidate Narendra Modi while holding a public rallyin Jammu stated that his party is ready to debate over thepresence of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Modi’s comments generated heated arguments in Kashmirwith chief minister Omar Abdullah directly challenging Modito discuss with him the relevance of Article 370- that providesspecial status to Jammu and Kashmir in entire India.—KO

BJP to quash Kashmir-centric Article 370

IHK Hurriyetappreciates

Nawaz-Modimeet

RAJBAGH (IHK)—Hurriyetleaders and organizationswhile welcoming the meet-ing between prime ministersof Pakistan and India havestressed that the Kashmirdispute needs to be ad-dressed for better bilateralrelations between the twocountries. The two PrimeMinisters, MohammadNawaz Sharif and NarendraModi, met in New Delhi aday after Modi too oath asthe 16th Prime Minister ofIndia.

The Chairman of All Par-ties Hurriyet Conference,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, com-menting on Nawaz-Modimeeting in a media interviewsaid that it was a good be-ginning to rejuvenate thefrosty relations between thetwo neighbouring coun-tries. He, however, stressedthat for any movement for-ward, the Kashmir disputeneeded to be discussed be-tween the leaderships of thetwo countries.

Senior leader of HurriyetConference, Shabbir AhmadShah in a statement said thatthe meeting that took placebetween Modi and Sharifshould not be for the sake ofmeeting but both the sidesshould focus on resolutionof the Kashmir issue. “Meet-ings that will focus on trade,travel and commerce will yieldnothing concrete for the twocountries unless heads ofthe two countries makeKashmir as a core issue onthe agenda of their meet-ings,” he observed.

The Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami of occupied Kashmir,Mohammad Abdullah Wani,in a media interview inSrinagar termed the meetinga good beginning butstressed that all such meet-ings could prove futile un-less the Kashmir disputewas discussed. He said thatNarendra Modi’s invitationto all SAARC heads espe-cially Nawaz Sharif to attendhis swearing-in ceremonywas a good diplomatic sig-nal from Modi.

“Kashmir being a core is-sue should be focus of anymeeting between the headsof India and Pakistan or oth-erwise discussing trade, traveland other related issues willonly prove a futile exercise,”Wani observed. The Jammuand Kashmir LiberationFront-R Chief Patron, Barris-ter Abdul Majeed Tramboo,in a statement welcomed themeeting, saying that it wouldhelp defuse tension betweenthe two countries.—KMS

Zafar Butt paystributes to Aasia

and NeelofarSRINAGAR—APHC leaderand the Chairman of Jammuand Kashmir SalvationMovement, Zafar Akbar Butt,has paid glowing tributes toAasia and Neelofar on theirmartyrdom anniversary. Re-membering the two martyredwomen, Zafar Akbar Butt in astatement issued in Srinagarexpressed sympathy and soli-darity with their family andurged the people not to loseheart due to these inhumanacts of oppression and sup-pression.

Maintaining the Indiangovernment was shieldingthe culprits involved thedouble rape and murder ofAsia and Nelofar, he statedthat India was using rape asthe instrument of oppressionagainst the people to crushtheir freedom sentiments. “Itis shame on India’s part thatperpetrators of Shopian trag-edy were roaming scot-freeeven after five years,” hesaid.—KMS

Kashmiri martyrs’sacrifices not to go

waste: NayeemSRINAGAR—The Chairmanof Jammu and Kashmir Na-tional Front, Nayeem AhmedKhan, has said that the sacri-fices of Kashmiri martyrs willnot be allowed to go waste.Nayeem Ahmed Khan visitedChandilora area of Tangmargto condole the death of themother of Shaheed ProfessorWaheed. Addressing on theoccasion, he said that the de-ceased lady lived a life of trueresistance woman and theKashmiris owed a lot to heras she had given her great sonShaheed Professor Waheedto the freedom movement.

Deliberating on the phi-losophy of life and death,Nayeem Khan said that Mus-lims lived for a cause that’swhy the Kashmiri martyrshad chosen a special way tolive and die. He paid glowingtributes to Zubair Ahmad andAshfaq Ahmad, who weremartyred by Indian troops inKulgam recently. Later,Nayeem Khan along with adelegation visited Khor areaof Pattan to condole withHurriyet activist, BashirAhmad Butt, over the deathof his father, MuhammadIsmail Butt. He prayed for thedeparted soul.—KMS

Hurriyet leadersincluding Shabir

Shah arrestedSRINAGAR—The authoritieshave arrested severalHurriyet leaders, includingsenior Hurriyet Conferenceleader, Shabbir AhmadShah. The detained leaderswere arrested at Pamporewhile they were on their wayto Shopian and Kulgam toexpress solidarity with thefamilies of Ishfaq Ahmad

Butt and Zubair AhmadButt, who were recentlymartyred by Indian troopsat Nowpora in Kulgam dis-trict. The other leaders whowere detained on the occa-sion included ShabbirAhmad Dar, MuhammadYusuf Naqash, Ajaz AhmadMir and Muhammad YasinAtaai.—KMS

Economic depres-sion cannot be

cured by legisla-tive action or

executive pro-nouncement.

Economic woundsmust be healed bythe action of thecells of the eco-nomic body - theproducers and

consumers them-selves.

—Herbert Hoover

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar in a meeting with Philip Barton BritishHigh Commissioner and Richard Montgomery Head of DFID.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Polythene bags the great-est polluters of the environment caus-ing serious sewerage problems as wellthey could be replaced only when thepaper bags are made affordable. Al-though the authorities banned the useof plastic bags many times yet itsmanufacturing and sale continue to hitenvironment because alternative pa-per sack is not feasible for smallershopkeepers and vendors. Sack KraftManufacturers Association has pro-posed FBR to rationalize and reducethe current custom duty on sack craftpaper to 5% in the upcoming budgetof 2014-2015 as an initiative to pro-mote the environmental friendly pack-aging material. The Association men-tioned that Custom Duty on Sack KraftPaper under PCT Code: 48042100 &4804.2900 — is being charged at 15%while the same on Polypropylene Gran-ules is charged at 5% thus enablingthe PP Granule importers to enjoy theduty benefit of 10% despite the factthat both the products are the basic

Reduce duty on sack paper canreplace the polythene bags

raw material for the finished products.Sources said that WPP bags are nei-

ther environment friendly nor biode-gradable because it is impossible to re-cycle WPP bags as cancerous dioxinsare released in the process. Moreover,the raw material for WPP (being polypro-pylene granules) is derived from oilwhich itself is becoming scarce. Theymentioned, “In developed countries onlysack kraft paper bags are used for ce-ment packaging whereas WovenPolypropylene (WPP) bags are hardlyused on account of environmental con-siderations. The WPP bags are mainlyused in developing countries of Asiaand Africa where the environmentalconsiderations are still not on the prior-ity list.”

It is worth mentioning that thepolypropylene sacks were introducedas the concept of Oxo Degradable plas-tic that provides the solution to thelittering problem but it does not makeplastic degradable. The breakdownprocess of plastic compound to mi-croscopic level is considered danger-ous and is banned in European coun-

tries. On the contrary, Sack Kraft pa-per is recognized globally as environ-mentally friendly packaging due to itsrecyclable nature and it does not con-tribute to any deforestation, as it isnot produced locally on behalf of thescarcity of long fibre wood and pro-duction process requirement.

They said that Sack Kraft Paper isbeing imported for the production ofhigh quality performance grade multi-ply paper sacks for packaging & safehandling of voluminous weights un-der demanding conditions, primarilyto meet the requirement of the localcement industry. They further addedthat paper sacks, after serving theirprimary purpose, are reused to makeother paper products and recycled bythe local paper industry to producedifferent grades of paper for local con-sumption. By rationalizing the cus-toms duty, FBR can eliminate taxanomaly that has put the paper bagmanufacturers at disadvantage as theWPP bag makers have been able tosell their bags at relatively lower priceson account of this duty advantage.

ISLAMABAD: Dr Miftah Ismail, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Chairman,Board of Investment, meeting with French Ambassador to discuss the preparation forbusiness delegation visit to France.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The Commissioner Karachi said thatSMEs are the important factor of the economiccircle, which provides basis for industrializationand mass production. He further said that SMEscan play pivotal role in the development of tradeand economic activities besides this most of theproblems in the social sectors can be addressedby promotion of SMEs. He said that the popula-tion of Pakistan consists of more than 50% onyouths but majority of them are unemployed dueto which they involved in criminal activities creat-ing law and order situation which ultimately ham-per the trade and economic activities as idle mindis a devil workshop.

He said that we have to change our prioritiesand focus has to be given for the promotion ofSMEs in the country to curtail the problem of un-employment. The government cannot provideemployment to a rapidly growing population andit is private sector particularly the SMEs whichcan cater the need. He said that FPCCI should makea strategy for the promotion of SMEs and createawareness on the importance of SMEs amongst

SME sector can play vital role to combat unemploymentthe concerned quarters and we should not leavethis campaign till a network of SMEs is vastly ex-panded along with the infrastructure and otherfacilities.

Zakaria Usman, President FPCCI said SMEsare the backbone of the economy but unfortu-nately this sector had been ignored and neglectedand no importance had been given for the promo-tion of SMEs in Pakistan. He gave the example ofJapan, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan and other coun-tries, which are the developed economies of theworld just because of their SMEs. They are stillpromoting their SMEs as generally they work asvendor for large-scale industries. He further saidthat the expansion of the SME sector is essentialfor an economic revolution in Pakistan as loan re-covery in the sector is 100 percent as compared tolarge-scale industries.

The President FPCCI emphasized the need ofpoly-technique institutions and said that we needtechnicians so that the major part of our popula-tion, which consists of youths, can be made skilledto enable them to work as SMEs with financialhelp from banks. He said that State Bank of Paki-stan should instruct the commercial banks to allo-

cate separate funds for SMEs for their financialassistance. He warned that if we failed to gainfullyutilize the capabilities of our youth then any otherelse can utilize them for their ulterior motives.

Zakaria Usman suggested that the governmentshould make Commissions for the promotion ofSMEs in all provinces, which should include theofficials of State Bank and other leading commer-cial banks and SME Bank along with other mem-bers from private and public sectors. He furthersuggested that before bringing the SMEs into therevenue net of the government they should befacilitated in terms of finance, infrastructure andsecurity because the fearful atmosphere of taxes,duties and inspections by the authorities none ofSMEs can survive in the country.

While discussing the hurdles and barriers inthe line of promotion of SMEs Dr. Mirza IkhtiarBaig said that the SBP has already devised sepa-rate Prudential Regulations for SMEs throughwhich SMEs can get finance from commercial bankson their cash flow basis. He regretted that the com-mercial banks refrain from advancing fund to SMEsunder the prudential regulation of SMEs. Hestressed on the immediate implementation of the

said rules and issuance of necessary instructionsto commercial banks to arrange separate funds forSMEs so that their financial problems can be re-solved. Dr. Baig further recalled the governmentscheme of “One Town One Product” and urged toinitiate the scheme in the rural areas and small cit-ies with proper awareness to the public. He saidwe can make the SMEs as our vendor industries tosupport our large scale industries to enhance theirproduction capacity and export surplus.

Shaukat Ahmed, Senior Vice President FPCCIsaid that we cannot move towards industrializa-tion without promotion of SMEs. He suggestedthat city wise commissions under the head of rel-evant Commissioner should be established for pro-motion and facilitation of SMEs. The PresidentFPCCI, Commissioner Karachi and other partici-pants of the above conference appreciated the ef-forts of Ms. Maryam Chaudhri, CEO of Mass Hu-man Resources Services for holding a successfulseminar and acknowledged her efforts which shehas been making for last four years for the promo-tion of SMEs all over the country. Mr. Tariq Sayeedalso expressed his gratitude on holding such asuccessful seminar on SMEs by this dynamic lady.

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Finance,Mohammad Ishaq Dar here on Wednesdaysaid that government believes in povertyalleviation and will take all necessary stepsto help the vulnerable people in the coun-try. Talking to British High Commissionerto Pakistan, Philip Barton who called on him,the minister said that these steps will helpreduce the poverty and promote economicactivity in the country.

Ishaq Dar said that government willcontinue with its reform agenda for the sakeof the people of Pakistan. The High Com-missioner informed that the visit of thePrime Minister and the Finance Minister toUnited Kingdom had a very positive im-pact on enhancing cooperation between thetwo countries. He also informed that thebusiness meeting held in London went verywell and provided an opportunity to stock

Govt believes in povertyalleviation, economic

independence: Darmarkets and fund managers to know aboutthe development-taking place in Pakistan.

He said that it reflects the confidenceof the international investors, which is grow-ing each day in favour of Pakistan becauseof the prudent economic policies of thegovernment. Country Head of Departmentfor International Development (DFID), Ri-chard Montgomery who accompanied theHigh Commissioner discussed issues re-lated to aid from UK and social safetyprogrammes.

He said that with the focus of the presentgovernment to social safety programmes,we are encouraged that the government isnot only pro-business but it is also pro-people. The meeting was also attended byRana Assad Amin, Advisor to Finance Di-vision and other senior officials of the Fi-nance Ministry. —APP

LSE gains 120.42pointsLAHORE—The LahoreStock Exchange hereWednesday witnessedbullish trend by gaining120.42 points as the LSEIndex-25 opened with5591.58 points and closedat 5712.00 points. Themarket’s overall situationalso corresponded to anupward trend as itremained at 1.707 millionshares to close againstprevious turnover of1.053 million shares,showing an upward moveof 653,600 shares. While,out of the total 98 activescrips 23 moved up, 14shed values and 61remained equal.—APP

Conversion ratesKARACHI—The follow-ing rates will be appli-cable for conversion intorupees of ForeignCurrency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certifi-cates, Foreign CurrencyBearer Certificates,Special U.S. DollarBonds and profitsthereon by all banks andfor providing ForwardCover on ForeignCurrency Deposits(excluding F.E- 25deposits) by the StateBank on May 29, 2014.The rates are U.S. DollarRs. 98.7614, JapaneseYen Rs. 0.9693, PoundSterling Rs. 165.5636 andEuro Rs. 134.5031.—APP

Port Qasimshipping activityKARACHI—Six shipscarrying containers,cement, chemical, furnaceoil and edible oil wereberthed at Qasim Interna-tional Containers Terminal,Multi Purpose TerminalEngro Vopak Terminal,FOTCO Terminal andLiquid Cargo Terminalrespectively. Meanwhilefour more ships carryingcontainers, furnace oil andedible oil also arrived atouter anchorage of PortQasim during last 24 hours.Berth occupancy was 65%at the port on Tuesdaywhere seven ships namelySudair, Maersk Kalomata,Safmarine Ngami, IkanPerang, Interpid Republic,RBD Anina e Core andDonga Peneus arecurrently occupying berthsto load/offload containers,cement, chemical, furnaceoil and edible oil respec-tively during last 24hours.—APP

4069 metric tonwheat procuredRAWALPINDI—Punjabgovernment has pro-cured 4069 metric tonswheat against a target of5000 metric tons fixed forRawalpindi division atrate of Rs 1260 per 40kilogram. According to aspokesman of Fooddepartment, 384 metrictons wheat has beenprocured in Rawalpindidistrict against the targetof 415 while 1454 metrictons against the target of1865 fixed for Attock hasbeen purchased so far.The target for Jhelum is1300 metric tons and thefood department hasprocured 1138 tons.Similarly, 1093 tons wheathas also been procuredin Chakwal against theset target of 1420.—APP

RCCI welcomesintroduction ofdirect taxation

systemRAWALPINDI—RawalpindiChamber of Commerce andIndustry (RCCI) onWednesday advocated forintroduction of direct taxa-tion system instead of exist-ing indirect tax collection.The Federal Board of Rev-enue (FBR) needs to reviseits policy for tax collectionfor the next fiscal 2014-15 tohelp enhance the size of taxcollection, said PresidentRCCI Dr. Shmial Daud Arainwhile talking to a delegationof industrialists and busi-nessmen drawn from differ-ent parts of the Division.

He said that all develop-ing as well as developed na-tions mostly rely on collec-tion of taxes directly whereasthe FBR had been mostly re-lying on indirect collection oftaxes. At present around 80% of tax is collected indirectly,he pointed out. The Chamberchief said that if tax policiesare revisited these would helprestore the confidence of thetaxpayer besides enhancingthe volume of tax collectionto a considerable level. —APP

ISLAMABAD—SAARC Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (SCCI), an apex bodyof chambers in the region, Wednesdaytermed Pakistan and Indian Prime Minis-ters’ meeting at New Delhi as “optimisticoutcome”. The top leadership of SCCI in-cluding its President and all Vice Presidentsone each from India, Maldives, Bangladesh,Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhuttan, Afghanistan andPakistan termed it a positive change in theperception of political leadership of boththe countries.

“Durable harmony and resolution of allcore issue through peaceful parleys is pre-requisite for stability and economic growthin the region”, SCCI Chief Pak chapter andveteran trade leader Iftikhar Ali Malik saidin a statement here. He said that the con-structive discussion in congenial atmo-sphere at meeting held between both pre-miers on all-important issues confrontingthe two nuclear powers is a good omen forthe region.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said that SCCI has fullysupported the government-industry part-nership and remained engaged in dialoguewith governments of the SAARC region.He said bold initiative taken by the PrimeMinister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for vis-iting India was a one good step towardsnormalization of relations between the twonuclear states. He stressed an urgent needfor promotion of regional and economic

Indo-Pak premiersmeeting optimistic: SCCI

cooperation in South Asia; however, po-litical tensions and development con-straints that the region has faced over theyears played a decelerating role in economicintegration of South Asia.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said that if all SAARCmember countries pool and harness theirindigenous resources, it will definitely helpimprove socio economic conditions andwelfare of their respective people. The in-tra-regional trade figures for South Asia aredisappointing as trade in the region consti-tutes only 1.4 per cent of the total worldimports and 1.2 per cent of exports, whereasmerchandise trade is only 27.9 per cent ofGDP, the lowest in the world.

Iftikhar said that World DevelopmentIndicators have revealed South Asia houses1.4 billion world’s population thus repre-senting a large workforce, tremendous busi-ness and investment opportunities. Al-though South Asia has significantly re-duced import tariffs, the cost of tradingacross its borders is one of the highest inthe world. A number of non-tariff barriershave been identified which hamper tradeand increase cost. He said all out effortswill be made that SAFTA could help buildconfidence among the business communi-ties of Pakistan and India. He concludedthat all out efforts would be made to acceler-ate the process of economic and social de-velopment in South Asian countries. —APP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The third Africa how by LahoreChamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)Wednesday attracted a large number ofbusinessmen, government functionaries,politicians and people from other walks oflife. The show having an exhibition and aconference in its fold continued the daylongto satiate the information needs of the busi-nessmen intend to do business with Afri-can Union.

The exhibition was inaugurated byPunjab Minister Hameeda Waheeduddin,while the conference was jointly opened bythe LCCI President Engineer Sohail Lashariand Dean of African Group in Islamabad, theAmbassador of Algeria, Dr Ahmed Benflis.The members of the African Union-Sudan,Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritius,Morocco, South Africa, Somalia, Kenya andLibya participated in the exhibition.

On this occasion, Punjab Finance Min-ister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman lauded theLCCI for holding the show for the cause ofthe economy, citing that interaction withforeign Ambassadors working in Pakistanwas a prerequisite to increase business withthe world. He said the African region had agreat potential, besides having a number ofuntapped markets; therefore Pakistani busi-ness community should join hands withtheir African counterparts in the larger in-terests of people living in Pakistan and Af-

LCCI holds 3rd AfricaShow for trade promotion

rica. He hoped that Africa Show wouldprove to be helpful in trade between Paki-stan and African countries.

Mujtaba said, the government is extend-ing all out cooperation to investors for pro-motion of trade and industry, and takingshort and long-term measures in energysector to bridge the power demand and sup-ply gap that will definitely help revive theindustry and bring economic turnaround inPakistan. The Dean of African Group andAmbassador of Algeria Dr Ahmed Benflisin his remarks said that the African Unionwith its 55-member states had moved onthe path of political, economic, social andcultural development of the African coun-tries aiming to coordinate and intensify theircooperation and efforts to achieve a betterlife for the people of Africa to defend theirsovereignty, territorial integrity, indepen-dence and to eradicate all forms of colonial-ism from Africa.

To attain these objectives, he added, theAfrican people and Heads of African Mis-sions in Islamabad were playing their vitalroles to further consolidate the multilateralrelations in the fields of trade, commerceand industry with Pakistan. “We all areworking hard with the cooperation of allChambers of Commerce and Industries ofPakistan with the purpose to improvingcooperation and enhancing opportunitiesfor more trade and investment among ourcountries,” he maintained.

Zameen.comcloses key

investment dealOBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Zameen.com,Pakistan’s leading prop-erty portal, has closed aventure round withSingapore-based CatchaGroup and Frontier DigitalVentures. Following thisdeal, both Catcha Groupand Frontier Digital Ven-tures have acquired a sub-stantial but non-control-ling interest inZameen.com. Zameen.comwas founded in 2006 bytwo Pakistani entrepreneurbrothers, Zeeshan AliKhan and Imran Ali Khan.In 2012, Gilles Blanchard,co-founder of SeLoger.com– France’s largest propertyportal – came on board asan angel investor and tookup the role of Chairman atZameen.com. Since then,Zameen.com has grown ex-ponentially and has furtherconsolidated its positionas the leading propertyportal in the country.Catcha Group is a vastlyexperienced entrepreneur-ial corporation that investsheavily in new media ideas.

The largest online in-vestor in the ASEAN re-gion, the group controls anextensive portfolio oflisted and unlisted assetsin excess of $1 billion. Itowns and operates a hostof business concerns suchas iProperty Group,iCarAsia, iBuy, and CatchaMedia, all of which arepublic listed companies forwhich the group has heldinitial public offerings(IPOs). Frontier DigitalVentures has also partici-pated in the investmentround. Frontier DV wasfounded in May 2014 byShaun Di Gregorio – formerCEO of the iPropertyGroup - and is headquar-tered in Kuala Lumpur. It isan expert organisation inthe online classifiedsspace with a particular fo-cus on automotive andproperty verticals andgeneral classifiedswebsites, and boasts anamazing track record inbuilding and supportinggreat companies.

The iProperty Groupruns Malaysia’s largestproperty portal,iProperty.com.my, and isthe region’s market leader.Zameen.com has wel-comed Patrick Grove, Co-founder & CEO of CatchaGroup, and Di Gregorio onto its Board of Directorsat the conclusion of thisdeal. Both gentlemen com-mand immense respectand renown in the entre-preneurial world, espe-cially when it comes toproperty portals.“Zameen.com epitomizesthe kind of business thatFrontier Digital Venturesis seeking to invest in. Welove frontier and emergingmarkets and have a wealthof expertise and a proventrack record of extractingvalue in the opportunitiesthese markets present, sowe are really looking for-ward to working with theteam to take the portal toits full potential,” said DiGregorio.

Zameen.com Co-Founder & CEO ZeeshanAli Khan said the deal wasextremely significant in thatit was the first major invest-ment by a foreign conglom-erate in Pakistan through alocal organisation insteadof a direct entry into the mar-ket.

Currency Selling Buying

USA 98.60 98.40

UK 165.79 165.45

Euro 134.44 134.17

Canada 90.83 90.64

Switzerland 109.94 109.72

Australia 91.32 91.13

Sweden 14.90 14.87

Japan 0.9672 0.9653

Norway 16.56 16.53

Singapore 78.54 78.38

Denmark 18.01 17.98

Saudi Arabia 26.29 26.24

Hong Kong 12.72 12.69

Kuwait 349.63 348.92

Malaysia 30.61 30.54

Newzealand 84.23 84.06

Qatar 27.08 27.03

UAE 26.84 26.79

Kr. Won 0.0964 0.0962

Thailand 3.019 3.013

Daily opening& closing ratesPMEX Index 3,021Total Volume (Lots): 12,361Traded Value (Rs): 2,338,237,914

Commodity .......................... Price Quotation ................... Open CloseCRUDE OIL ......................... $ Per Barrel ............................ 104.04 104.28SILVER ................................. $ Per Ounce ........................... 19.255 19.092GOLD ................................... $ Per Ounce ........................... 1,283.6 1,266.1GOLD ................................... Rs Per 10 gms ........................ 41,182 40,624MTOLAGOLD .................... Rs Per Tola ............................ 49,296 48,616GOLD ................................... Rs Per Tola ............................ 49,296 48,616RICEIRRI6 ........................... Rs Per 100 kg......................... 3,671 3,669PALMOLEIN ...................... Rs Per Maund ....................... 4,460 4,459SUGAR ................................ Rs Per kg ................................ 45.28 45.27ICOTTON ............................ US Cents per pound ............ 85.67 85.42WHEAT ............................... Rs Per 100 kg......................... 3,371 3,370

The total value traded increased by 27.11 percent to PKR 2,338m from PKR 1,839m.Number of lots traded were reported at 12,361 and PMEX Commodity Index closed at3,021. Major business was contributed by gold amounting to PKR 1,291m, followedby crude oil (PKR 694m) and silver (PKR 351m). There was 110 percent increase incrude oil volume to PKR 694m from PKR 331m.

SEVP/Group Chief & Chairman NBP Exchange Co. Ltd, Mr. Khalid Bin Shaheen (left)along with Senior NBP Officials is seen in the picture distributing gifts to HomeRemittance customers in Muzaffarabad.

Shell luckydraw begins

awarding prizesMULTAN—Shell Pakistan’sRimula “JeetDouble Hai”c a m p a i g n ,which waslaunched inMarch hasbegun an-n o u n c i n gthe winnersof its lucky draw.

The winners of this ex-citing campaign will beawarded brand new ToyotaCorollas, tractors and mo-torcycle prizes. One of thewinners of a Toyota Corolla,Mohammad Arshad fromKotri Hyderabad said, “thisis the first time any companyhas fulfilled their promiseson such amazing offer.”

On successful entries inlucky draw customers have achance to win one of 20Toyota corollas, 30 tractors or150 motorcycles.—PR

LAHORE: Minister for Mines and Minerals Govt of Punjab Sher Ali Khan, cutting theribbon to inaugurate the 12th Energy Exhibition POGEE-2014, at Expo Center.

Dawlance and Brite signed an MoU to jointly promote their fabric care products inorder to leverage market share and credibility. Seen here in the picture are HasanJamil, GM Marketing, Dawlance with Omer Qadri, GM Marketing, and ColgatePalmolive along with Dawlance-Brite Fabric Care Team.

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Genesys announced thatBahria Town has become the first companyin Pakistan to adapt Genesys Social MediaEngagement Tools. The new collaboration,done through C Square Consulting, aGenesys Bronze Partner, has resulted in thedeployment of Genesys Contact CenterSolution which enables Bahria to servicecustomers through Voice, Web Chat, Email,SMS, and Social Media.

“With the deployment of Genesyssolutions, Bahria Town will now be ableto easily identify customer sentimentsand engage with them when necessaryusing the right platform,” said MohamedAfifi, Managing Director of the MiddleEast, Genesys. “Being the largest realestate development company in Paki-stan, Bahria Town has many of its in-vestors residing abroad who prefer tocommunicate via social media forums,web-chat and emails. We are confidentthat our solutions are capable to ensure

Genesys establishes Social MediaContact Center in Bahria Town

the level of experience which both thecompany and i ts s takeholders aim toachieve.”

In its drive to facilitate its customers’experience even further, Bahria Town hasalso taken the initiative to deploy“Avantage” a fully automated ComplaintManagement Solution powered by C SquareConsulting, that allows customers to logcomplaints and ensure smooth tracking untilthe resolution of an issue. The objective isto clearly enhance customer experience byengaging customers on multiple channelsand provide consistent service across theentire organization.

“Previously, we were only handlingvoice calls. Over the years, however, thenumber of phone calls has increased, alongwith alternate channel interactions, saidMalik Riaz Hussain, Chairman of BahriaTown. “With this new reality, we were un-able to obtain a single view of interactionsacross all channels, hence arose the needto deploy a multi-channel customer engage-ment solution from Genesys.”

Bank Alfalahintroduces

futuristic cardsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Bank Alfalah,Pakistan’s largest issuer andacquirer of credit cards, hasannounced an upgrade to itscustomer services and tech-nology platform by commis-sioning a futuristic CardsMerchant Acquiring networkfor its credit cards. This newnetwork enhances the speedof credit card transactionsbeing conducted at BankAlfalah retail partner outlets,whilst doubling transactionalcapacity.

Bank Alfalah’s GroupHead Retail (Central & North)and Consumer Banking,Khurram Hussain said, “Thisinvestment in strengtheningour payments platform sig-nals improved customer ser-vice through reduced turn-around time of credit cardtransactions at retail mer-chants, real time monitoringfor prompt resolution of com-plaints and enhanced capac-ity to enable greater transac-tional volumes.

The Nilson Report, aleading publication cover-ing payment systems world-wide for the last 42 years,ranked Bank Alfalahamongst the top merchantacquiring companies in theMiddle East and Africa re-gions for the year 2012. AsBank Alfalah looks to thefuture, it continues to inno-vate with the view to im-proving transacting conve-nience for its customersthrough 574 branches, 500ATMs and doorstep bank-ing facilities including mo-bile and internet banking.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Agricultural Re-search Council (PARC) and Yunnan Acad-emy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS)Yunnan Province, China have signed aMemorandum of Understanding (MoU)here to promote the development orientedscientific research in the field of agricul-ture, and to strengthen partnership be-tween the two countries. The MoU will fa-cilitate further collaboration between bothcountries in the activities based on theirrespective academic and technical needsand other priorities, said a statement hereWednesday.

It will enable the representative agen-cies, PARC and YAAS, jointly to developorganization of joint collaborative researchprograms on themes of mutual interest; or-ganization of joint academic activities suchas training courses, seminars, workshopsand conferences; exchange of scientists,research scholars and students; exchangeof research and scientific materials, publi-

ISLAMABAD—President Mamnoon Hussain Wednesdayemphasized the need for providing best possible facilitiesto the exporters at Dry Ports to ensure prompt delivery ofexport orders and enable them to take optimum benefitfrom trade concessions offered by the international com-munity to Pakistan. The timely delivery of export orders,he said, has become the essential feature of the globaltrade and urged for more vigorous steps and initiatives toboost country’s exports.

The President said this while speaking to a delegation ofSialkot Dry Port Trust (SDPT), that called on him here at theAiwan-e-Sadr. The delegation headed by Chairman, SialkotDry Port Trust and Chairman, All Pakistan Dry Ports Associa-tion, Mohammad Ishaque Butt included among others Chair-man, Multan Dry Port Trust, Khawaja Muhammad Younus,Chairman, Committee of Small Industrial Estates/ EPZ (ExportProcessing Zone), Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try, Dr. Mohammad Aslam Dar, and Secretary General, All Paki-stan Dry Ports Association and General Manager, Sialkot DryPort Trust, Mohammad Khalid Butt. The President underscoredthe important role of the business community and exporters inthe ongoing economic turnaround of the country.

ISLAMABAD—The mobile phone importsinto the country increased by 0.48 percentduring first 10 months of the year 2013-14over the same period of last year. The im-ports of mobile phone into the country dur-ing July-April (2013-14) were recorded at$516.239 million against the imports of$513.772 million during July-April (2012-13),according to the data of Pakistan Bureau ofStatistics (PBS).

Similarly the mobile phone importsinto the country during the month ofApril 2014 increased by 0.31 percent anddecreased by 13.06 percent when com-pared to the imports in April 2013 andMarch 2014 respectively. The mobilephone imports during April 2014 stood at$38.967 million against the imports of$38.848 million in April 2013 and $44.82million in March 2014, the data revealed.It is pertinent to mention here that the

Oil prices mixwith Ukrainecrisis in focus

SINGAPORE—Oil prices weremixed in Asia Wednesday,underpinned by concernsabout the Ukraine crisis asfierce armed confrontationbetween government forcesand pro-Moscow separatistscontinued unabated, leavingdozens dead. US benchmark,West Texas Intermediate fordelivery in July, eased fourcents to $104.07. Brent NorthSea crude for July gained 13cents to $110.15 per barrel.

Ukraine’s interim pro-Western government said ithad recaptured an airport inthe eastern city of Donetskfrom pro-Russian.—AFP

President stresses best facilitiesto exporters at dry ports

He called upon them to step up efforts and comple-ment government’s measures to fully exploit the geo-stra-tegic location of the country and take benefit from theliberal incentive packages being offered by the govern-ment for export promotion and attracting foreign and do-mestic investment in various sectors. Commenting on vari-ous challenges confronting business community, he saidthe government was fully alive to the problems and con-cerns of the businessmen and all possible steps were be-ing taken at fast track basis to provide an enabling andconducive environment for robust trade and investmentin the country. Referring to the recent turnaround in vari-ous sectors of the economy, the President said that due tocorrective measures and business policies of the govern-ment, economic indicators were showing positive trendsand the confidence of both domestic and foreign inves-tors was also being restored. Highlighting the importantrole played by Dry Ports in handling imports and exports,he observed that Sialkot Dry Port Trust was pre-domi-nantly engaged in exports and appreciated the servicesrendered by country’s exporters by earning valuable for-eign exchange for the country.—APP

PARC, YAAS ink MoU to promotescientific research in agriculture

cations and information; and exchange ofcooperation deemed appropriate by bothinstitutions.

The major fields of collaboration in-clude crop production research which in-clude cereal crops (rice, maize and wheat),food legumes, industrial crops (potato, sug-arcane, tea and sericulture), oil seed cropsand horticultural crops (vegetables, ba-nana, flowers and tropical fruits); plant pro-tection research (development of IPM pro-tocols); Biotechnology development; andcollaboration on socio-economic research.

Dr. Muhammad Munir, Secretary PARCand Li Xuelin, Vice-President YAAS, Chinasigned this MoU whereas Dr. NadeemAmjad, Member (NRD) / Acting ChairmanPARC, Dr. Muhammad Sharif, Member (SSD)PARC, Lin Kun, Director (Tea Research In-stitute), Li Rong Fu, Director (Coffee Re-search Centre), Feng Lu (YAAS) China andother senior management of PARC / NARCwitnessed the ceremony.—APP

Mobile phone imports increases 0.48 pccountry’s trade deficit narrowed by 2.51percent during first 10 months of currentfiscal year as exports expanded by 12.21percent while imports witnessing agrowth of 8.81 percent as compared tothe same period of last year.

On year-on-year basis, the trade defi-cit increased by 20.76 percent in April2014 when compared to the deficit of thesame month of last year, according to thelatest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statis-tics (PBS). According to break up figures,the exports from the country during July-April (2013-14) were recorded at $20.997billion against the exports of $20.143 bil-lion recorded during July-April 2012-13.

On the other hand, the imports into thecountry during the period under reviewwere recorded at $37.105 billion against theimports of $36.665 billion during the cor-responding period of last year. —APP

KARACHI: Acting President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)present memento to Honorary Consul General of Romania. Tariq Saud, Senior VicePresident KCCI, Shamim Ahmed Firpo, Chairman of Pakistan Romania Business Coun-cil, Sohail Ahmed Firpo and Member Managing Committee KCCI, Muhammad Ali arealso seen in the picture.

ISLAMABAD: MD OPF Iftikhar Babar and Chairman PESSI Khawaja Farhan Azizexchanging documents after singing MoU between OPF and PESSI.

KARACHI: Mr Kaukab Iqbal, Chairman Consumers Association of Pakistan with the winners of 1st KBT BowlingTournament with Tariq Parvez, Farhan Riaz, Shabbir lashkarwala, Rameez Muhammad, Abid Ahmedd, NaseemQureshi, Jawwad Usman, Nadeem, Fazil Maniya, Sajjad Shah and Ansar.

KARACHI: President Sindh Athletics Association Zahid Ali Rizvi presenting inter province under 16 athleteschampion winning Trophy to Punjab athlete Team.—PO Photo Sultan Chaki

All PakistanKabbadi

Tournamenton June 1

SARGODHA—All PakistanKabbadi Tournament will beheld on June 1 (Sunday) atShahpur Tehsil.

According to a handoutissued on Wednesday,Organiser MuhammadAbbas Sheikh and Secre-tary District Kabbadi Asso-ciation Habibur Rehmansaid match would be playedbetween teams of PakistanArmy and Pakistan Railwayson June 1 at SultanpurBanglow Shahpur tehsil.

MNA Shafqat HayatBaloch and MPA BahadurAbbas would be specialguests.—APP

KA R A C H I —Brill iant Hasan Farooqshocked his own coach Vinod Das in asuper tie-breaker to sail into the last fourstage of Anti Tobacco Day Tennis Tour-nament at the Karachi Club hard courtshere on Wednesday.

15-year-old Hasan played some su-perb stroke and forceful winner to over-power Vinod Das after a gruelling overtwo hours contest.

Vinod battled hard in the opening setto win 7-5 with some brilliant shot allaround the courts.

However Hasan came back stronglyto win the second set with an identicalshoreline of 7-5. Hasan produced qual-ity game to level the terms and set anexciting finish in a super tie-breaker.

Both Hasan and Vinod played neckto neck before two forceful winnershelped him to seize a place in the semi-finals.

Top seed Yasir Khan, his brother JalilKhan and veteran Nomi Qamar also ad-vanced in the last four stage with com-fortable victories.

Hasan shocks coachVinod to sail in Anti

Tobacco Tennis semisHasan Farooq also moved into the

quarter-finals of Junior Under-18 singleswith 6-1, 7-5 victory over Ajay Lal. Fol-lowing are results: Men’s singles Quar-ter-finals: Yasir Khan bt Robin Das 6-0,6-1, Nomi Qamar bt Aqeel Shabbir 6-0, 6-1, Hasan Farooq bt Vinod Das 5-7, 7-5,10-8, Jalil Khan bt Zaid Noor 6-0, 6-2.Juniors U18 singles (2nd rd): TalhaZabair bt Nauman Aftab 6-3, 6-1, AqeelShabbir bt Taha Bande Ali 6-1, 4-1 Rtd,Murad Khan bt Shehartar Chamdia 6-4,4-3 Rtd, Sahibzada M.Ali bt Shabbir 6-1,6-2, Marid Malik bt Amin Shafi 6-0, 7-5,Nazif Ahmed bt Bilal Imran 6-3, 6-1, SaadMuhamad Ali bt Yawar Abbas 6-4, 7-6(7-3), Hasan Farooq bt Ajay Lal 6-1, 7-5.Boys U14 (2nd rd): Nauman Aftab btAftab Ali 6-2, 6-3, Rayyan Imran btMujahiddullah 6-0, 6-2, Shazil Malik btAbdulah Khan 6-3, 6-0, Fahad Haider btMustfa Faisal 6-0, 6-2, Ebad Ahmed btAbdullah Ahmedani 6-2, 6-0, RayyanJawad bt Summit 6-2, 6-3, MuhamadAhmed bt Ibrahim Khan 6-0, 6-0, AminShafi bt Sameer 6-1, 6-0.—APP

Mepco to hostWapda Lawn

TennisTournament

MULTAN—Wapda SportsBoard has assigned the taskof hosting All PakistanWapda Inter-Unit LawnTennis Tournament 2014 toMultan Electric Power Com-pany (Mepco).

The event will be held atthe tennis courts of Mepcoand Wapda Town Multanfrom June 2 to 6.

Teams of all distributioncompanies, besides hydalteams, will participate in theevent.

Secretary Mepco sportsAli Akram Gujjar said thatofficials had been assignedresponsibilities regardingreception of teams, pur-chases, transport, security,and medical facilities for theplayers to hold the event ina befitting manner.—APP

KARACHI—Competing from East -Westdirection, Tahir Dada and Abdul Muqeetaccumulated 63.10% to win the MonthlyPairs Bridge Tournament at the Karachi GolfClub Hall on Tuesday night.

Playing brilliant hands, Muqeet andTahir weeded convincing victory by push-ing all opposition and coming at the topwith a good score, Karachi Bridge Asso-ciation said in a news release issued onWednesday.

Their main targets were Board 6 and 7where they allowed their opponentsShahina - Chino to play 2Nt, getting +200down two instead of playing 2S for 140.

On Board 7, against Zulfi-Siraj Salamthey netted two overtricks in 4H which wasa top score. However, same pair forced azero to Muqeet and Tahir Dada when theydoubled 2C by Zulfi-Siraj and the declarermade two overtricks.

Against a steady pair of Gulzar Bilal -

Muqeet, Tahir win Pairs contestShahin Iqbal, Tahir Dada and Muqeet gottwo 83% score, restricting opponents to tentricks in a heart game on Board 10, and onBoard 12, opponents stopped below game.

Very well settled partnership of Azwerand Bobby Sheikh once again broughtthem up to finish on second position with ascore of 61.41%.

Their best scores were on Board 7, 5D,minus one, Board 21 3NT by opponents,minus one, which was made at other tablesby overtricks. It was their outstanding per-formance since they did not get a clear bot-tom on any board, with the exception ofBoard 12, where they got only 8%, and thatwas the only bad board for them.

A.K. Bhurgri - Muhammed Zubairclaimed third position with the score of59.92% just an hair line difference with thepair of Ahsan Zahir Rizvi- Anwer Kizilbashas they finished fourth with the score of59.1%.—APP

SPORTS REPORTER

PESHAWAR—National Paralympics MaleGames will commence from Thursday hereat Qayyum Sports Complex with 300 maleplayers will vie for the top honor.

This was stated by Adviser to the ChiefMinister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on SocialWelfare Dr. Mehar Taj Roghani while ad-dressing a press conference on Wednes-day. Director General Sports RashidaGhaznavi, Director Information ImdadUllah, Chairman Tobacco Board AzmatHanif Orakzai, Organizing Secretary KifayatUllah Orakzai, Director DevelopmentArshad Hussain, Coordinator UpliftProgramme US Aid Salahuddin were alsopresent.

Dr Mehar Taj said that for the smoothconduct of the Games, all arrangementshave been finalised. She also lauded the

National Paralympics Gamesstart today: Mehar Taj

efforts of the Peshawar Uplift ProgrammeUS Aid for extending all out financial sup-port. She said around 300 handicap play-ers from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, FATA,Islamabad, FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwaare taking part.

She said that apart from Cricket, hand-ball, table tennis, lawn tennis, and athleticwill be organized inside Qayyum SportsComplex. The Cricket event will be orga-nized at Gymkhana ground and Hostel No.2 ground.

Dr. Mahar Taj disclosed that out of thesame Games a team of Pakistan would formto represent in the forthcoming ParalympicsGames. The players would be provided allfacilities including full uniform.

Chief Minister Khyber PakhtunkhwaPervez Khattak will formally grace the oc-casion as chief guest on this occasion whileChairman PTI Imran Khan will be the chiefguest at the closing ceremony.

SPORTS REPORTER

LAHORE—The Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) Wednesday announced the sched-ule of country-wide trials for RegionalCricket Acadmies from May 31 to June 8.

Trials of 15 regional acadmies will beheld throughout the country, includingHyderabad, Larkana and Karachi fromSindh.

Chairman of National Junior SelectionCommittee headed by former Test batsmanBasit Ali with co-selectors Ali Naqvi,Farrukh Zaman and Ali Zia with localcoaches will watch the trials at differentcentres and select the regional teams.

Basit Ali said that he would be person-ally supervising the trials at Lahore, Sialkot,Hyderabad and Larkana.

Farrukh Zaman will conduct the trialsof Karachi, DM Jamali, Quetta and FATA

PCB Regional U-19 Academies trialsregions while Ali Naqvi will supervise thetrials of Peshawar, Islamabad, Abbotabadand Rawalpindi and Ali Zia is responsiblefor trials of Faisalabad, Multan andBahawalpur. Following is complete sched-ule of trials. May 31 : Lahore - LCCAGround Lahore Peshawar- Arbab NiazStadium Peshawar June 1: Karachi - Na-tional Stadium Karachi. Islamabad- Dia-mond Ground Islamabad Faisalabad -Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad June 2: Sialkot-VIP Ground Sialkot Abbotabad -Abbotabad Stadium June 3: Dera MuradJamali - DM Stadium DM Jamali Multan -Multan Stadium June 4: Hyderabad- NiazStadium Hyderabad Rawalpindi- PindiStadium Rawalpindi Bahawalpur- DringStadium Bahawalpur June 5: Quetta-Bughti Stadium Quetta Larkana- MBBSLarkana June 8: FATA- Arbab Niaz Sta-dium Peshawar.

Punjab beatFATA 3-1 inU14 football

LAHORE—Sports BoardPunjab (SBP) young foot-ball team continued theirwinning streak when theydefeated Fata 3-1 in a matchof Inter-Provincial U-14Boys Football Champion-ship at Boys Degree Collegeground, Rawalakot, AzadKashmir on Wednesday.

SBP’s Mehran was insuperb form and it was quitedifficult for Fata defendersto halt his onslaught, saidthe information made avail-able here. Though he net-ted only one goal but hekept the opposite side un-der pressure throughoutthe match with his agilityand accuracy. He was ablysupported by Shahid andUsman, who both contrib-uted one goal each for thewinning team. Fata’s soli-tary goal was scored byHamza.

In the earlier matches,Sindh and Azad Kashmir re-turned triumphant but incontrasting manner. Sindhedged out spirited KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) 2-1 inthe first league round matchof the day. Aaqib nettedboth the goals for the win-ning team while KP’s onlygoal was scored by SyedKhurram Shah. Azad Kash-mir trounced Islamabad 5-1in the second match of theday.—APP

IS L A M A B A D—Pakistan Blind Cricketteam Captain Zeeshan Abbasi onWednesday said the national team is fac-ing hurdles for its World Cup prepara-t ions due to the unavailabil i ty of aproper ground for the green-shirts in thecountry.

The Blind Cricket World Cup(BCWC) will be staged in Cape Town,South Africa from November 25.

Talking to APP, Zeeshan Abbasi, whomade his international debut in 2000, saidevery time we have to go from pillar topost for arranging grounds for trainingor organizing matches.

Zeeshan, who became captain of thenational blind cricket team in 2011, saidwe have won two back-to-back BlindCricket World Cups in 2002 and in 2006and still we don’t have anybody to helpus in constructing a ground which isvery disappointing.

“I request the government to pleasehelp in this regard so that we can be moreaggressive in the game,” he said addingwhat more achievements we need moreto show in getting a ground.

Unavailability of aground troubles Blindteam WC preparations

“We have got 45 kanals of land atFerozepur, Lahore but the Pakistan BlindCricket Council (PBCC) doesn’t havesufficient funds to build a stadium andhostel therefore a helping in this regardby the higher authorities will solve allour problems,” he said.

Zeeshan, who comes in the B2 cat-egory said blind players need encour-agement and should be treated as nor-mal people.

Speaking about the preparations forthe mega event, Zeeshan said we will beorganizing training camps for the teamafter Ramzan.

“The players who will be perfectlyphysically fit prior to the tournament willonly be considered in the World Cupsquad,” he said.

Zeeshan, who with a group of friendsfounded the first ever Islamabad blindcricket club, said teams of India andSouth Africa are a tough competition inthe World Cup. “But we will be fully pre-pared for them in the mega event andhopefully will win the third one too,” hesaid.—APP

BZU SportsComplex

inauguratedMULTAN—Sports Complexcompleted at BahauddinZakariya University wouldnot only facilitate students,but also industrialists andchamber of commerce andindustry members.

Vice Chancellor BZU, DrKhawaja Alqama expressedthese views after jointlyopening Squash and multi-purpose halls of SportsComplex of the varsity withPresident DG Khan Cham-ber of Commerce and Indus-try Khawaja M Anees hereon Wednesday.

The project costing Rs40 million has been com-pleted with three monthstime and funds for theproject were allocated byPunjab government.

The VC appreciatedProject Director AftabAhmed Sahu and PD Engi-neer Malik Muhammad Rafiqefforts for executing theplan. Briefing the VC, MalikRafiq said that a sum of Rs20 million has been spent onsquash court, Rs 20.3 mil-lion on multipurpose hall.

Present on the occasionwere Dr Saeed Malik, Dr EjazAhmed, Dr Aman ullah, DrImran Sharif and MunirMalik others.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Blind Cricketteam Captain Zeeshan Abbasi onWednesday said the national teamis facing hurdles for its World Cuppreparations due to the unavailabil-ity of a proper ground for the green-shirts in the country.

The Blind Cricket World Cup(BCWC) will be staged in CapeTown, South Africa from November25.

Talking to APP, Zeeshan Abbasi,who made his international debut in2000, said every time we have to gofrom pillar to post for arranginggrounds for training or organizingmatches.

Zeeshan, who became captain ofthe national blind cricket team in2011, said we have won two back-

Unavailability of ground troubles Blindteam WC preparations

to-back Blind Cricket World Cups in2002 and in 2006 and still we don’thave anybody to help us in con-structing a ground which is very dis-appointing.

“I request the government toplease help in this regard so that wecan be more aggressive in thegame,” he said adding what moreachievements we need more to showin getting a ground.

“We have got 45 kanals of landat Ferozepur, Lahore but the Paki-stan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC)doesn’t have sufficient funds tobuild a stadium and hostel thereforea helping in this regard by the higherauthorities will solve all our prob-lems,” he said.

Zeeshan, who comes in the B2

category said blind players need en-couragement and should be treatedas normal people.

Speaking about the preparationsfor the mega event, Zeeshan said wewill be organizing training camps forthe team after Ramzan. “The playerswho will be perfectly physically fitprior to the tournament will only beconsidered in the World Cup squad,”he said.

Zeeshan, who with a group offriends founded the first everIslamabad blind cricket club, saidteams of India and South Africa area tough competition in the WorldCup. “But we will be fully preparedfor them in the mega event and hope-fully will win the third one too,” hesaid.—APP

RAWALPINDI: Chief guest giving away runner up trophy of CNS Golf Championshipto Hadeed Abbas.

Big win forRoyal CC

KARACHI—Opener UmarImtiaz scored a fine half-cen-tury while Taha Mamsa andSyed Shariq Ali shared six wick-ets between them to helpRoyal Cricket Club thrashLines Area Gymkhana byseven wickets in the openingmatch of super eight round ofAhmed Mustufa MemorialCricket Tournament at theUBL Sports Complex.

Umar belted seven bound-aries in his 58-ball knock of 51and first class cricketer whileShahzar Mohammad, thegrandson of Little MasterHanif Mohammad, made a flu-ent 38 with three fours asRoyal CC reached the targetfor the loss of just three wick-ets in the 30th over.

Earlier, batting first, LinesAreas Gym was bowled outfor 136 in the 32nd over. MajidAli top-scored with 43 withfive hits to the boundary andKashif Habib hit three bound-aries in his 38. Off-breakbowler Taha Mamsa capturedthree wickets for 13 runs in 5.4overs and Shariq Ali claimedthree wickets for 25 runs in fiveovers.—APP

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—India has chosen a “weak”side to tour Bangladesh next month, be-lieves Faruk Ahmed, the chief selector ofthe Bangladesh Cricket Board.

Speaking exclusively over telephonefrom Dhaka, he said, “in the absence ofregular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoniand vice captain Virat Kohli, the teamchosen by Indian selectors is certainly aweak side. I don’t say that the BCB shouldlodge protest against sending relativelya weak team as it is the prerogative of theIndian cricket board, but....”.

“We are not happy with the decisionof Dhoni and Kohli to skip the tour. Wedon’t say we are happy but it is unfortu-nate to see them not touring our coun-try”, he added.

“Yes, in the absence of these seniorplayers, our team will benefit. TheBangladesh team has now edge overTeam India. It should be little advanta-geous now”.

India sending ‘weak’ team, Bangladeshwill benefit says BCB chief selector

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahimdidn’t wish to comment on India selec-tion. ‘I am not allowed to talk with any-one regarding this”, he sent the messageto us.

“Our captain is recovering well”, thechief selector added.

Rahim was ill with hepatitis and wasadmitted in the Apollo Hospital.

Apparently, the most delighted manwas Akshar Patel, the 21-year-old allrounder, who got news in Kolkata whileplaying an IPL match for Kings Eleven,Punjab.

“Akshar has done well in under-19matches and we were thinking him to playin Under-25 before pushing him for theRanji Trophy, Vijay patel, the Gujaratcoach said from Ahmedabad.

“This year when he left to play atRajkot, we, while watching the wicket atSurat, felt, the rough wicket would suithim against Delhi’s senior player and soswas sent to him. He took 10 wicketsagainst Delhi and has never looked backsince then”, Patel added.

PARIS—Defending champion andworld number one Serena Williamswas knocked out of the French Openon Wednesday by Spain’s GarbineMuguruza as the women’s tournamentwas thrown wide open.

The top seed lost 6-2, 6-2 in thesecond round to the world number 35with her defeat coming just an hourafter sister Venus also went out 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Slovak teenager AnnaSchmiedlova.

It was the earliest exit for a defend-ing champion at Roland Garros since2005 when Anastasia Myskina of Rus-sia went out in the first round.

Wednesday’s defeat was Serena’sworst at a Grand Slam in terms of gameswon and was only the second time inher career she had been beaten at amajor in the round of 64.

The last time that happened wason her debut at the 1998 AustralianOpen.

It was also just the fourth time theWilliams sisters had lost on the sameday at a major.

“Nothing worked today,” said 17-time major winner Serena who hit justeight winners and a huge 29 unforcederrors with five double faults.

“I just couldn’t serve. But youcan’t be on form every day. I hate tobe off at a Grand Slam but it happens,it’s not the end of the world.

“I will have to work five times ashard to make sure it doesn’t happenagain,” added the 32-year-old Ameri-can who suffered her only Grand Slamfirst round loss in Paris in 2012.

Muguruza immediately won praisefor her performance.

“Shocker at the French - Serenaloses to Garbine Muguruza. Garbineis here to stay, that’s for sure, quite a

Serena crashes in FrenchOpen sensation

talent,” tweeted Martina Navratilova.The young Spaniard was over-

joyed by her performance.“Today’s a great day,” she said.Serena’a defeat was good news for

Maria Sharapova who is now the over-whelming title favourite with secondseed Li Na having been knocked outin the first round on Tuesday.

The Williams sisters had beenscheduled to meet in the third round.

Instead the tournament will getMuguruza against Schmiedlova, the19-year-old Slovak who ended 32-year-old Venus’s 17th French Openwith a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.

Schmiedlova was just a month oldwhen the American made her profes-sional debut back in 1994.

‘My biggest win’ : “It’s the biggestwin of my career,” said world number56 Schmiedlova who had lost to Ve-nus in straight sets in Miami this sea-son.

“I have big respect for her. She’s agreat player and I still cannot believe Iwon.”

Defeat for Venus, the 29th seed,meant she has now failed to get be-yond the second round in Paris on herlast three visits.

She was undone by 47 unforcederrors on a half-full Philippe Chatriercourt and despite saving two matchpoints it was all too much for motherOracene who was caught on TV nap-ping as Venus slipped to defeat.

“I think she’s very good already,and she’s going to be even better asshe continues to play. I see wonderfulthings for her,” said Venus of her op-ponent.

Later Wednesday, second seedNovak Djokovic, the 2012 runner-up

who needs a French Open title tocomplete a career Grand Slam, facesJeremy Chardy of France for a place inthe last 32.

Djokovic holds an 8-0 career leadover the world number 42 with hisstranglehold illustrated by never sur-rendering a single set to Chardy.

However, the Frenchman cameinto Roland Garros with a win overRoger Federer in Rome under his belt.

Federer, the fourth seed, looks toclaim his 60th win at the tournamentwhen he takes on 21-year-old Argen-tine qualifier Diego SebastianSchwartzman.

Maria Sharapova, the seventhseeded 2012 champion, facesBulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova, aWimbledon semi-finalist in 2010.

Latvian 18th seed Ernests Gulbiseased past Argentine qualifierFacundo Bagnis 6-2, 7-5, 6-0 and willnext face Czech veteran RadekStepanek who knocked out Russian15th seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-0, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

In a first round match held overfrom Tuesday night, American SteveJohnson completed a 4-6, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-3 comeback win overFrench world number 406 LaurentLokoli.

The teenage Frenchman had twomatch points in the third set.

Italian women’s 12th seed FlaviaPennetta was knocked out bySweden’s Johanna Larsson who nowfaces 18th seed Eugenie Bouchard.

The highly-rated 20-year-old Ca-nadian, who made the AustralianOpen semi-finals this year and cap-tured her first title in Nuremberg at theweekend, put out Germany’s JuliaGoerges 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.—AFP

ISLAMABAD—An iron man suit is thenew technology that will allow a para-lyzed teenager to stand up and kick thefirst ball at the 2014 World Cup, theBleacher Report website reported onWednesday.

Ashley Burns of UpRoxx brings newsof the “Walk Again Project”-a collabo-ration between scientists from the Tech-nical University of Munich, the Edmondand Lily Safra International Institute ofNeuroscience of Natal in Brazil and Colo-rado State University.

The project is headed by MiguelNicolelis, a Brazilian scientist and phy-sician known for his work in “monkeythought” and neurobiology.

In short , there are a lot of smartpeople working in different time zonesto help a handicapped youngster walkover the pitch in Brazil this June.

I’d need several days and a room full

PARIS: Serena Williams reacts after being defeated by Spain’s Garbine Muguruza at the end of their French Opensecond round match at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Wednesday.

SkipperMisbahul Haq

turns 40LAHORE—Pakistan’s ODIand Test skipper MisbahulHaq is celebrating his 40thbirthday today (Wednes-day).

The Pakistani skipperwas born in Mianwali on 28May, 1974 and had his testdebut against New Zealandwhen he was 27-years-old.

In 2007, Misbah made acomeback to the Pakistanisquad during the 2007 T20World Cup. He was ap-pointed the skipper in 2010following the spot-fixingscandal and Shahid Afridistepping down as the testcaptain. In 2012 Misbahsuccessfully led Pakistan toa 3-0 test series win and de-feated India in an ODI se-ries on their home soil.

The often criticized skip-per has been referred to as‘Tuk Tuk’ for his battingstyle but his supporters seeMisbah as the foundation ofthe Pakistan middle order inrecent years.—APP

Paralyzed teen to kick firstball at FIFA World Cup 2014

of abacuses to explain the science atwork here, but let’s just say this: They’reconnecting the human brain with ma-chines, with the hopes of using brainwaves to allow the paralyzed to commu-nicate with a robotic exoskeleton. Thisexoskeleton, in turn, will allow the indi-vidual to stand up like soccer Voltronand kick the first ball in Sao Paulo.

The teen who will kick the ball hasyet to be selected, but a number of pros-pects are working with the technologyand learning to use i t . I t ’s basical lyEnder’s Game, but more awesome andproductive.

David Prawel, one of the many intel-l igent minds behind the Walk AgainProject, says their work is just the be-ginning of brain-machine communicationand its applications. The world will seea paralyzed person stand up and take akick that will change lives.—APP

India recallGambhir, drop

Khan forEngland TestsNEW DELHI—India onWednesday brought backopening batsman GautamGambhir and axed fragile pacespearhead Zaheer Khan fortheir first five-Test tour of En-gland in 55 years starting inJuly.

The selectors, who pickeda 18-man squad for the back-to-back Tests, included sevenseamers and WriddhimanSaha as reserve wicket-keeperfor skipper Mahendra SinghDhoni.

Left-handed Gambhir re-turns to the Test arena for thefirst time since December 2012,having been ignored for thehome series against Australiaand the West Indies last yearand the tour of New Zealandthis January.

Gambhir, with 4,021 runsand nine centuries from 54Tests, is one of the three open-ers in the squad alongsideShikhar Dhawan and MuraliVijay. Khan, India’s most ex-perienced new ball bowlerwith 311 wickets in 92 Tests,was not considered after miss-ing a major part of the ongo-ing Indian Premier League dueto a hamstring injury.

India’s Test squad:Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt),Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan,Gautam Gambhir, CheteshwarPujara, Virat Kohli, AjinkyaRahane, Rohit Sharma,Ravindra Jadeja,Ravichandran Ashwin,Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Mohammad Shami, IshwarPandey, Ishant Sharma, StuartBinny, Varun Aaron,Wriddhiman Saha, PankajSingh. Coach: DuncanFletcher.—AFP

MOBILE (United States)—Jessica Korda,the 21-year-old daughter of retired tennisstar Petr Korda, birdied four of the last fiveholes to win the Airbus LPGA Classic.

Korda fired a bogey-free seven-underpar 65, playing the last nine holes in six-under 30, to finish 72 holes on 20-under par268 and defeat Sweden´s Anna Nordqvistby one stroke. It was the third career LPGAvictory for Korda, who won the 2012 Austra-lian Women´s Open and this year´s seasonopener in the Bahamas.Kordagave much of the credit to howwell the Robert Trent JonesTrail Crossings coursematched up with her skills.

Korda birdied the par-4seventh but was still well offthe pace until the back nine,when her putts began to fall.She began the back ninewith a birdie, added anotherat 12 and sank a curvy 12-footer at the 14th to begin arun of three in a row, includ-ing a tense 15-footer at 15and a tap-in at the par-5 16thto seize a two-stroke lead.

At 18, Korda curled in abirdie putt that forcedNordqvist to make an eagleto match her. The Swededropped a long birdie puttbut it only trimmed Korda´svictory margin.

Korda became the thirdmulti-event winner on theLPGA Tour this season, join-ing Nordqvist and Austra-lian Karrie Webb.

England´s Charley Hull, Scotland´sCatriona Matthew and American MichelleWie shared third on 270, with South Ko-

Korda wins third LPGA titlewith fantastic finish

rean Jenny Shin on 271 and American LexiThompson, South Korean Ji Eun-Hee andEngland´s Jodi Ewart Shadoff on 272.

American world number two StacyLewis, who had the chance to overtakeSouth Korean Park In-Bee atop the rankingsthis week, failed in her bid at the top spot.Lewis, who needed a solo third-place fin-ish or better to become number one, fired a71 — the worst final round of anyone inthe top 18 — to settle for share of 10th on

273. Along finishing on 273 were Spain´sBelen Mozo, American Brittany Lincicomeand South Korean Ryu So-Yeon.—AFP

MOBILE, United States: Jessica Korda with her trophyafter winning the Airbus LPGA Classic.

SEOUL—Tunisia beat South Korea 1-0Wednesday in a psychological setback forthe former World Cup semi-finalists beforethey leave for the June-July edition in Bra-zil.

Midfielder Zouhaier Dhaouadi nettedthe game’s only goal late in the first half atSeoul World Cup Stadium, as the visitorshanded Georges Leekens a victory on hisdebut as coach.

While Tunisia celebrated, this was notthe send-off the Taeguk Warriors wouldhave wanted as the 2002 semi-finalists setoff for their eighth consecutive World Cup.

Goal-shy South Korea, who will faceBelgium, Algeria and Russia in Group H,travel to Miami on Friday where they willplay another friendly against Ghana on June9.

After a cautious start, South Koreancaptain Koo Ja-Cheol had the first danger-ous attempt from outside the box in the 14thminute, but fired just wide of the right post.

The hosts were shading possession butwere not able to threaten. Bayer

Tunisia beat South Koreain World Cup send-off

Leverkusen’s Son Heung-Min got a sightof goal on the half-hour but his shot wentstraight at goalkeeper Farouk BenMustapha.

Tunisia came into the game late in thefirst half, with Wissem Yahya forcing SouthKorean ‘keeper Jung Sung-Ryong into asharp save in the 42nd minute.

And the visitors broke the deadlock twominutes later, when Dhaouadi took the ballin midfield and sprinted virtually uncon-tested into the area before putting it pastthe diving Jung.

South Korea came out with more lifeafter the break. On-loan Arsenal striker ParkChu-Young struck a low shot from the edgeof the box, but Ben Mustapha parried.

And the home team found themselvesfrustrated by Tunisia, who put bodies be-hind the ball to make sure of holding on totheir slim lead.

Second-half substitute Ha Dae-Sungnearly equalised at the death, but his shotmoments before the whistle skidded wideof the left post.—AFP

PARIS: Norway´s midfielder Ruben Yttergard Jenssen vies France´s defender MathieuDebuchy during a friendly football match between France and Norway at the Stade deFrance in Saint-Denis near Paris, ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup football tournament.

Ronaldo crownedworld’s most

marketable playerPA R I S—Portugal starCristiano Ronaldo is theworld’s most marketablefootballer, according to a

study released by an inter-national sports market re-search company Wednes-day.

Barcelona and Argen-tina forward Lionel Messiranked second in thestudy conducted byRepucom, ahead of clubteammate and surprisethird-placed entry GerardPique of Spain.

The data measured theperceptions of over 6,500people in 13 countries, in-cluding Britain, the UnitedStates, Brazil, China andIndia, which was report-edly claimed to representthe views of more than 1.5billion people world-wide.—AFP

Raina to leadIndia in

BangladeshNEW DELHI—Left-handedbatsman Suresh Raina wason Wednesday picked tolead an under-strength In-dian team for a three-matchone-day series inBangladesh next month.

Seven senior players—skipper Mahendra SinghDhoni, Virat Kohli, RohitSharma, RavichandranAshwin, Ravindra Jadeja,Mohammad Shami andShikhar Dhawan—do notfigure in the new-look 15-man squad.

Varun Aaron, StuartBinny, Amit Mishra,Cheteshwar Pujara, AjinkyaRahane and Ambati Rayuduare the only players to beretained from the squad thattook part in the Asia Cup inBangladesh in February-March.—AFP

FOR some women with breast cancer,changes in brain activity whilemultitasking could explain “chemo brain”

– reduced mental functioning that many experi-ence after chemotherapy, Belgian researcherssay. “Cognitive complaintsof people increase with che-motherapy and we are tryingto find out why,” said SabineDeprez, who led the newstudy. “Difficultymultitasking is one of the big-gest complaints.”

Past research has docu-mented changes in mentalperformance following che-motherapy – and in somecases, in cancer patients be-fore chemotherapy, suggest-ing disease-related processesmay also play a role, accord-ing to Deprez’s team. Otherstudies have used imaging toshow differences in brain ac-tivity between cancer pa-tients who had chemotherapyand healthy people not being treated for cancer,the researchers write in the Journal of ClinicalOncology. To compare women with themselvesbefore and after chemo, as well as with otherwomen, Deprez and her colleagues at the Uni-versity Hospital Gasthuisberg of the KatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven, used functional MagneticResonance Imaging (fMRI). The imaging tech-nique indirectly assesses brain activity by sig-naling changes in blood and oxygen deliveredto various regions of the brain.

Eighteen women with breast cancer sched-uled to receive chemotherapy performed amultitasking exercise in an MRI machine be-fore starting treatment and four to six months

after treatment ended. Two comparison groups- one of women with breast cancer not sched-uled to receive chemotherapy and another ofhealthy women - also performed the tasks.

“The special thing about how we did thedesign was that before we did itwe adjusted the difficulty foreach patient, and the perfor-mance of everyone was between70 and 80 percent,” Deprez said.That meant patients’ perfor-mance on the test, which in-cluded indicating if two soundswere the same frequency and iftwo moving circles with linesthrough them were at the sameorientation or not, while remem-bering two symbols presentedearlier, did not change over time.This allowed the researchers tomeasure changes in brain activ-ity levels during the task, not inthe women’s ability to completethe task, Deprez said.

Neither of the two com-parison groups seemed to

change in terms of the parts of the brain acti-vated by the tasks or their level of activation,while in the chemotherapy group brain acti-vation significantly decreased, the authorsreport. Meanwhile, patients in the chemo-therapy group also complained of “foggythinking” more than those in the other groups.Before the chemotherapy started, all the par-ticipants had about the same amount of cog-nitive complaints. “The important thing thatwe found was a relation with subjective cog-nitive complaint,” Deprez told Reuters Health.The decreased brain activation seen withfMRI may help explain why many chemo-therapy patients complain of chemo brain.

Brain activity changesseen after chemo

Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Maalik meets Baloch Students Organisation activist LatifJohar observing hunger strike during a protest on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah attending 22nd Eaglet passing out parade of 29th Elite Force at SBBTC, Razakabad Training Centre.

Guests hold new book of Nilofer Abbasi during launching ceremony at Arts Council on Wednesday.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh High Court (SHC)Chief Justice, Justice Maqbool Baqar hadon a petition filed by advocate Rana FaizUl Hassan ordered Sindh Chief Secre-tary Sajjad Saleem Hotyana, KarachiCommissioner and other respondents tofile their explanation in the SHC on saleof milk at hiked prices in Karachi.

The petitioner had in his petitionstated that milk retailers were mintingabove Rs 60 million from the consumersby selling milk at hiked price. Around 5million litre milk was being sold to theconsumers in Karachi city and themonthly profit through sale of milk athiked price had accumulated to above Rs

1.8 billion. The petitioner had furtherstated in his petition that Karachi Com-missioner had constituted a committeeto maintain milk prices and in that re-gard a notification was issued on Apr 9,2014 according to which milk price wasfixed as Rs 70 per litre but retailers werecharging Rs 80 from the consumers forone litre of milk.

The counsel on behalf of Sindh gov-ernment Meeran Shah informed the SHCthat Sindh gov-ernment had given pow-ers to Karachi Commissioner for main-taining milk price while it was alreadyin notice of Sindh government that milkwas being sold in Karachi at hiked price.The Chief Justice had having heard ar-guments from both sides asked Sindh

government, Sindh Chief Secretary,Karachi Commissioner, Consumers As-sociation of Pakistan, Karachi dairyFarmers Association and other respon-dents to file their explanations in thehigher court on hiked milk price in 2weeks.

It is pertinent to mention that a 2-member bench of the SHC headed byJustice Aqeel Abbasi had on Aug 23,2013 ordered for testing 10 samples ofmilk sold to the consumers by milk re-tailers and the report had disclosed that 9sample were found adulterated uponwhich the bench had declared milk re-tailers as mafia and vowed that nonewould be allowed to wreak havoc onpeople’s health.

SHC seeks Govt’s explanation on milk price

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Police had executedFaisal in an alleged Police encounter.The deceased militant was wanted toPolice for various heinous crimes andwas one of top shooter belonging toWasi Lakho gang, a faction of Lyarigang war.

The encounter was reported inKharadar and was wanted to Police formore than 50 heinous crimes includ-ing murder, extortion, attempt to mur-der, kidnapping for ransom and attackson Police and Pakistan Rangers Sindh.

According to details, CID Police hadon information obtained from ArshadJakhoi, a Lyari gang war militant inPolice’s custody, conducted raid inKhadda Market near Peshawari Hoteland held Zohaib alias Langra. CID Po-lice had on Zohaib’s information,raided at the garage of Yousuf Koraifrom where large cache of arms andammunition including grenades andAwan shells were recovered.

Zohaib is a close aide to IrfanYamaha, a gangster in Lyari, who livedon fifth flour of Saeed Corner and col-lected money in extortion from trans-

porters, shopkeepers and restaurantsowners, which he handed to IrfanYamaha in jail.

Other aides including Altaf GutkaWala, Yousuf Korai and Zohaib Sindhiin association with Hameed VideoGame wala had killed Ashfaq Paki andUmair Singara on failing to pay moneyin extortion.

Meanwhile, 7 were gunned downin Karachi on Wednesday. Three wereshot dead near Cheel Chowk in Lyariafter some unidentified armed assail-ants on 2 motorcycles had opened fireon three persons.

Gang war being renewed inLyari, armed clash claims 7 lives

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh High Court (SHC) ChiefJustice, Justice Maqbool Baqar had made itclear that the lower courts situated within thepremise of City Court would not be allowedto shifted to any other district of Karachi whileabove 30 vacant seats of Judicial Magistrates,Civil Judges and others would be filled soon.

Chief Justice Baqar said this in a meetingwith Sindh Bar Council Vice Chairman AbdulSattar Qazi, Executive Vice Chairman AbdulHaleem Siddiqui, SBC member Mehmood UlHassan, Khalid Nawaz Marwat and othersWednesday.

The meeting discussed about various is-sues and maters pertaining to lower court withthe Chief Justice Baqar.

The meeting informed the Chief Justicethat government was planning for shiftingthe lower courts from the premise of CityCourt to other districts of the city, especiallyto district Malir, which had dissipated utter

state of insecurity among the lawyer frater-nity. The meeting informed the Chief Jus-tice about shortage of lower courts in the me-tropolis and suggested that number of lowercourt should be increased in the city becausethe population of the city had increasedabove 20 million.

They also suggested that number ofJudges at lower courts should also be in-creased to meet the needs for settling the pend-ing cases, which had hugely piled up.

The meeting also suggested to the ChiefJustice that a judicial complex should be con-structed at an appropriate location in the cityand the lower courts could then be shifted tothat Judicial Complex, which would addressthe premonitions and sense of insecurityamong the lawyer fraternity.

The Chief Justice told the meeting thathe was in favour of constructing the proposedJudicial Complex and efforts would be initi-ated for the commencement of its construc-tion at the earliest.

Lower Courts not tobe shifted to Malir

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—In its press statement K-Electric (KE) has clarified regarding theoutage that took place Monday night say-ing that humidity levels along with ris-ing thermometer led to tripping that af-fected its 220 KV extra-high tension line.

Due to this tripping, out of a total 62grid stations 11 were affected, but the KEteam along with its engineers immedi-ately started rectifying the situation, and

soon these grids were restored. The af-fected grids were Garden, Gizri, Clifton,Defence, Elander Road, Jacoblines,Korangi West, Lyari, Old Town, QueensRoad & West Wharf.

KE through the press statementwould also like to clarify and inform itsconsumers that starting today, there willbe maintenance work on the above men-tioned grids that got affected yesterday,till the 30th of this month and due to thismaintenance shutdown, Low-Loss feed-

ers which were fed through the abovementioned grids and which previouslyhad zero load-shed would face up to 1.5hours of load-shed in a day, whereas feed-ers such as Medium Loss, High-Loss andVery High-Loss will face a change oftime in their scheduled load shed timings.

K-Electric apologizes for this addi-tional shed of load but wants all stake-holders to understand that this is onlybeing done to improve and rectify itscurrent network.

220 KV EHT line tripping:11 grid stations restored

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Punjab Social welfare Department had con-firmed that 16 children that had gone missing from Sindhwere it its custody.

This was revealed during hearing of a case pertaining to16 missing children at Sindh High Court. Roshni Help Linehad filed a petition in the higher court on the said matter.Counsels for the petitioner advocate Zubair Hashmi andadvocate Nadeem had apprised the higher court that chil-dren were disappearing from Sindh province while Police

were refusing to register FIR. Hence the higher court shoulddirect Police to register FIR in any case of disappearance ofany child. The counsels stated before the higher court thatonce FIRs were registered, the numbers of missing childrenin Sindh province would drastically escalate from hundredsto thousands.

Public prosecutor had during the hearing submitted areport, which revealed that 16 children, who had disappearedin Sindh province, were in custody of Punjab Social Wel-fare Department, which were recovered from different dis-tricts of Punjab.

16 missing children from Sindh traced

Education Deptnot releasingoffer lettersSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—NTS qualifiedcandidates for the posts of jun-ior school teachers and primaryschool teachers were still wan-dering to get their offer lettersbut Sindh education depart-ment was not issuing such of-fer letters.

Sindh senior Minister foreducation Nisar AhmedKhuhro had in this past March,2014 ordered Sindh educationdepartment officials concernedto issue offer letters to thosecandidates, who had qualifiedNTS for JST and PST but theeducation department had ig-nored orders of the boss, theMinister.

In this regard, candidatessaid that a faction of candidateshad received offer letters whilethe majority was yet in di-lemma as the education depart-ment showed no inclination ofissuing offer letters to the re-maining candidates.

They said that Sindh edu-cation department had ridiculedthe process of teachers’ ap-pointment as JST and PST anddeliberate delay in issuance ofoffer letter had also instilledfury and unrest among the can-didates so far being deprived oftheir right, the offer letters forpast 6 months.

FOR some women with breast cancer,changes in brain activity whilemultitasking could explain “chemo brain”

– reduced mental functioning that many experi-ence after chemotherapy, Belgian researcherssay. “Cognitive complaintsof people increase with che-motherapy and we are tryingto find out why,” said SabineDeprez, who led the newstudy. “Difficultymultitasking is one of the big-gest complaints.”

Past research has docu-mented changes in mentalperformance following che-motherapy – and in somecases, in cancer patients be-fore chemotherapy, suggest-ing disease-related processesmay also play a role, accord-ing to Deprez’s team. Otherstudies have used imaging toshow differences in brain ac-tivity between cancer pa-tients who had chemotherapyand healthy people not being treated for cancer,the researchers write in the Journal of ClinicalOncology. To compare women with themselvesbefore and after chemo, as well as with otherwomen, Deprez and her colleagues at the Uni-versity Hospital Gasthuisberg of the KatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven, used functional MagneticResonance Imaging (fMRI). The imaging tech-nique indirectly assesses brain activity by sig-naling changes in blood and oxygen deliveredto various regions of the brain.

Eighteen women with breast cancer sched-uled to receive chemotherapy performed amultitasking exercise in an MRI machine be-fore starting treatment and four to six months

after treatment ended. Two comparison groups- one of women with breast cancer not sched-uled to receive chemotherapy and another ofhealthy women - also performed the tasks.

“The special thing about how we did thedesign was that before we did itwe adjusted the difficulty foreach patient, and the perfor-mance of everyone was between70 and 80 percent,” Deprez said.That meant patients’ perfor-mance on the test, which in-cluded indicating if two soundswere the same frequency and iftwo moving circles with linesthrough them were at the sameorientation or not, while remem-bering two symbols presentedearlier, did not change over time.This allowed the researchers tomeasure changes in brain activ-ity levels during the task, not inthe women’s ability to completethe task, Deprez said.

Neither of the two com-parison groups seemed to

change in terms of the parts of the brain acti-vated by the tasks or their level of activation,while in the chemotherapy group brain acti-vation significantly decreased, the authorsreport. Meanwhile, patients in the chemo-therapy group also complained of “foggythinking” more than those in the other groups.Before the chemotherapy started, all the par-ticipants had about the same amount of cog-nitive complaints. “The important thing thatwe found was a relation with subjective cog-nitive complaint,” Deprez told Reuters Health.The decreased brain activation seen withfMRI may help explain why many chemo-therapy patients complain of chemo brain.

Brain activity changesseen after chemo

Minister for Mines and Minerals Sher Ali Khan cutting ribbon to inaugurate 12th EnergyExhibition POGEE-2014.

Hamza Shahbaz MNA, addressing the ceremony to mark 16th Youm-e-Takbeer at Aiwan-e-Iqbal on Wednesday.

Opposition parties in the Punjab Assembly protesting against non-releasing of development funds, outside Assemblybuilding on Wednesday.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Advisor to Chief MinisterPunjab on Health Khwaja SalmanRafique has said that in view of polio situ-ation, polio emergency has been enforcedin the province under which vaccinationof children coming to or leaving Punjabhas been made compulsory at bus standsand entry and exit points of the province.He said that transporters and owners ofbus stands has assured full cooperationon this national issue.

He was addressing advocacy semi-nar for transporters and bus stand own-ers for the elimination of polio and talk-ing to media men here Wednesday.

Secretary Transport Punjab Shaukat Ali,Director General Health Dr. ZahidPervaiz, Incharge WHO Punjab Dr.Ubaid-ul-Islam, Dr. Aslam Chaudhry ofMalinda Gates Foundation, UNICEFrepresentatives, EDO Health Lahore Dr.Zulfiqar Ali, Health Department officers,prominent transporters of Lahore, busstand owners and General Managers ofTransport companies were also presenton the occasion.

Khawaja Salman Rafique said thatdue to effective measures no polio casehas been detected in Punjab so far but asno province can live isolation and casesof polio are being reported from otherprovinces, this virus can be spread to any

area, therefore, condition of administra-tion of polio drops have been imposedon Pakistanis travelling to other coun-tries. He said that polio is an issue of allthe provinces and the whole nation.

Kh Salman Rafique said that Punjabgovernment has ensured effective mea-sures for polio vaccination and strict sur-veillance and polio drops are being ad-ministered to all children traveling byroad or train. Secretary Transport PunjabShaukat Ali while addressing the meet-ing pointed out all entry and exits pointsfrom the province and assured TransportDepartment will fully support Health De-partment in anti-polio campaign as wellas cooperate in monitoring of polio teams.

Polio emergency has been enforced in Province

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Punjab Parliamentarianshave stressed the need for addressing is-sues relating to religious freedoms andfundamental rights of minorities throughdirely needed steps including: educa-tional reforms, ending systemic patternsof persecution, protecting and providingburial places and ensuring the rule of lawin Pakistan. They expressed these con-cerns in a panel discussion “ReligiousFreedoms and Minority Rights” whichSouth Asia Partnership-Pakistan (SAP-PK) organized under REAT Networkhere at a local hotel on Wednesday.

More than sixteen members ofPunjab Assembly hailing from PMLN,PTI and PPP attended this discussion.

These members also unanimouslyemphasized over the need for establish-ing powerful and independent minority

rights commissions at federal and pro-vincial levels to help protect and promoterights of religious minorities besides say-ing that framing and implementation oftheir family laws should be ensured.Addressing them at this event Mr. I.ARehman of the Human Rights Commis-sion of Pakistan (HRCP) said that thereis a need to promote the concept thatproblems and issues of minorities are theproblems and issues of majority. No jus-tice for minorities will result into anyjustice of majority; he adding said thatongoing persecution of minorities willultimately lead towards the ending ofother sects of majority group.

He said that it is very unfortunate thatreligious minorities are discriminated ineducation, their fixed quotas are ignored,their educational institutions are not re-turned to them and over all there is a com-plete uncertainty and fear among them

due to the absence of rule of law. Wor-ship places of minorities are not protectedwhere as the role of state and non stateactors over all this not fair at all, he added.

He said that the role of political par-ties concerning minorities is opposite tothat what is said in their manifestoes, thelevel of tolerance in society is at the low-est levels. Moreover, the wave of reli-gious extremism is further getting thenoose tight around the necks of minori-ties. He expressed that four bills relatingto minorities are lying in the doldrumsafter being introduced in the NationalAssembly. Punjab Assembly membersRamesh Sing Arora, Kanji Ram andMary Gill urged on reforms in educationsystem and curriculum to let people knowthat how minorities living in Pakistanhave struggled for the creation of Paki-stan and are contributing in the economyand development of the country.

Parliamentarians stress needto address minorities’ rights

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—British High Commissioner toPakistan, Philip Barton met Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, hereWednesday. Matters of mutual interest, bilat-eral relations and cooperation in education,health and other social sectors were discussedin the meeting.

Talking to the British High Commissioner,the Chief Minister said that there are histori-cal friendly relations between Pakistan andBritain and cooperation of Britain in educa-tion, health and social sectors is highly com-mendable.

He said that schools reforms roadmapprogramme with the cooperation of British De-partment for International Development(DFID) is continuing successfully in Punjabwhile a massive programme in health sectorwill also be launched in Punjab with the col-laboration of DFID. He said that DFID andPunjab government are moving forward un-der a comprehensive roadmap with regard toskills development and the scope of thisprogramme will soon be extended to the whole

province. British High Commissioner PhilipBarton said that cooperation with Punjab gov-ernment in education, health and social sec-tors will be continued. He said that Chief Min-ister Shahbaz Sharif is making commendableefforts for the uplift of education, health andsocial sectors in Punjab.

Meanwhile, a delegation of a prominentGerman company associated with mining sec-tor met Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif. Matters regarding coopera-tion in mining sector were discussed in themeeting. Talking to the German delegation,the Chief Minister said that there are vast re-serves of coal and iron ore in Punjab and theprovincial government wants to benefit fromthe expertise and services of foreign expertsfor utilizing these resources.

He said that the German company cancooperate with Punjab in the mining of coalreserves in Salt Range. He said that coopera-tion of the German company with regard togeophysical mapping of the mining area willbe welcomed. The German delegation assuredthat cooperation with Punjab government inmining sector will be promoted.

British HC, Germandelegation call on Shahbaz OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Secretary Health Punjab DrIjaz Munir has said that the promotionof doctors in next grades and resolvingtheir service problems on priority basiswas also the part of health sector reformsprogramme so that doctors communitycould perform their professional dutieswith more dedication and satisfaction.

He said that the process of promo-tions of doctors in next grades wouldbe further accelerated. He stated thiswhile talking to a delegation of Gen-eral Cadre Doctors’ Association whichcalled on him at Civil Secretariat hereWednesday.

Headed by Dr. Masood Sheikh, thedelegation included Dr. Asad AbbasShah, Dr. Ijaz, Dr. Ashraf, Dr. Naeem,

Dr. Shahid, Dr. Sher Afghan and otheroffice-bearers. Secretary Health in-formed the delegation that the processof promotions of the doctors in nextgrades and updating of seniority list isin progress and a large number of doc-tors would be promoted within a periodof six months in the next grades. Onthis occasion, Deputy Secretary Health(Establishment) Adnan Zafar informedthat cases of promotion of doctors from18 to grade 19 has already been sent andthe date of holding PSB-II would beannounced very soon. Similarly, promo-tion case from 19 to 20 is also beingprepared which would be sent to thegovernment at the end of June.

Secretary Health directed that thepromotion cases of such doctors should

be given priority who have been stuckup at their present grades for a long time.

He further informed that 4-Tier ser-vice structure formula of General Cadredoctors have been sent to the FinanceDepartment.

He said that doctors representa-tives may be included in the team ofHealth Department to further acceler-ate the work of preparation of promo-tion cases of doctors. Secretary Healthassured that the process of promotionof GC doctors from grade 18, 19 and20 would be completed during the cur-rent year. He said that seniority list ofGC doctors would be updated and heis ready to meet the office-bearers ofGeneral Cadre Doctors Associationevery month to further expedite theirpromotion cases.

Promotion process of doctors innext grades to be accelerated

Youm-e-Takbeer a

memorableday: PU VC

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Punjab Univer-sity Vice Chancellor Prof DrMujahid Kamran has statedthat “Youm-e-Takbeer” is amemorable day in the historyof Pakistan and Islam onwhich Pakistan emerged asthe only nuclear power of theIslamic world.

In a press statement is-sued here on Wednesday, DrMujahid Kamran said thatPrime Minister Mian NawazSharif, Mohsin-e-Pakistan DrAbdul Qadeer Khan, AtomicEnergy Commission and Pa-kistan Army played impor-tant role in making the coun-try a nuclear state and wewere living as an independentnation only because of atombomb.

Dr Kamran said that bymaking nuclear bombs, Paki-stan had proved that if some-thing was a priority of theleadership with continuity ofpatronage, Pakistani nationcould achieve the toughesttargets. He said that Pakistanileadership must keep in mindthat Pakistan was a nuclearpower so that our enemies donot mistake our desire forpeace as weakness.