epaper pakistantoday 29th January

DAVOSagencieS

Prime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani on saturday dismissedrecent reports of a coup bythe military, asserting thatdemocracy in Pakistan wasnot in danger and fears of aclash between state institu-tions were baseless.

“all institutions in thecountry are in sync to supportdemocracy; hence; there is nochance at all for the armedforces to step into the power.”“the army desires democracy

and stability in the country,”he said. in an interaction withthe media on the fringes of theongoing annual meeting of theWorld Economic Forum, Gi-lani said, “i don’t think therewill be a coup in Pakistan ever.there is no threat to democ-racy.” He said no state institu-tion, military or the people ofPakistan, wanted a coup andall were in favour of democ-racy. Gilani said there was “atrust deficit” between islam-abad and Washington, as hecriticised the resumption ofUs drone strikes in the coun-

try’s tribal areas. speaking aday after over 100,000 peoplemassed in karachi to protestthe strikes, Gilani said

continued on Page 04

pakistantoday.com.pk sunday, 29 January, 2012 rabi-ul-awal 5, 1433rs22.00 Vol ii no 213 22 Pages lahore edition

LAHORESajjad Hafeez

Pakistan are truly on top ofthe world now: if this windoes not make rankings com-pletely irrelevant, it doesmake them appear more sur-

realistic than ever.the series win over the world’s best sidewould bring enormous statistical gainsfor Misbah’s men, but this monumentalfeat is more symbolic and more reassur-ing. England were on top most of thetime in the match except for the decisive,nerve-wrecking session, in which, ironi-cally, Pakistan were on top of their game.it is only the second time in last 110years that England have lost, havingbeen set a target of less than 150.

Pakistan’ vulnerable batting line upfailed twice; albeit a show of defiance bytheir inspirational skipper in the first in-nings and a spirited display by young gunsasad shafiq and azhar ali in the second.With only 257 on board in the first innings,any test side would be on the defensive.and England overcame their demons to

post 327 on board in reply. Cook’s classy 94proved the classicists right as to why off-spinners are less effective against the left-handers. Misbah’s men were expected tomake up for their first inning misgivings,but they disappointed again. Barring azharali (68) and asad shafiq (43), it was asomewhat familiar scoreboard. But even inthis, there are signs of resurgence, trap-pings of belonging to the elite club.

Having been given just 145 to de-fend, ajmal was asked to summon hisbest. When Hafeez dismissed Cook earlyon, it looked for a moment that ajmaland Hafeez would take it on themselvesto spin England out. But this was abdurRehman’s turn. in recent past he wasovershadowed by ajmal’s unbelievablemarch to glory. Quietly and patiently, hehas seen it from the sidelines and foughtit in his own style. not a sharp turner,but he has guile, nerves and a sharp ob-servation. Match winning six wickets ina test are any bowler’s dream and hewould cherish it for the rest of his life, es-pecially against the best side in theworld. Pakistan have re-emerged onworld stage, not with the help of imran,

Wasim or Waqar, but with a bunch ofspinners who are equally lethal, and in-deed more effective.

Pakistan in many ways have revived theold order; established themselves amongone of the world’s top notch sides. With aus-tralia showing india their true status with a4-0 victory the same day, Pakistan havestaked their claim to the elite club. Pakistanhave shown the world what it takes to be theworld’s best: a bowling line up that can take20 wickets. this may not please the powersthat be in world cricket, but it surely will helpthem realize that the game needs to ac-knowledge Pakistan’s rightful place.

british media, exPerts slam team | 9

detailed story and scoreboard | Page 18

No threat of military coup in Pakistan: PM

DEADLY MEDICINE: CM SACKS HEALTH SECY,PIC TOP HIERARCHY

full story | Page 07

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 1/29/2012 6:54 AM Page 1

02Sunday, 29 January, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

lAhore

Story on Page 08

newS

Story on Page 05

CoMMenT

Page 13

death submerses lahore, again Biden advised against Osama bin laden raid

Asma, PPP-favoured group

wins PBC electionLAHORE: the Friends Group, supported by former supremeCourt Bar association (sCBa) president asma Jahangir and thebigwigs of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), on saturday wonthe Punjab Bar Council (PBC) election for 2012-13. Ghulamabbas niswana was elected the PBC’s new vice chairman with55 votes, while his rival candidate Ghazala khan got 20 votes.Rana Muhammad asif saeed won the seat of the PBC executivecommittee chairman with 56 votes, defeating Mushtaq Mohalwho got 19 votes. the Friends Group’s successful candidateswere supported by asma Jahangir, PPP leader Babar awan, thePeople’s Lawyers Forum (PLF) and other groups of PPP lawyers.the pro-judiciary Professional Group led by Hamid khan lostthe election to the PPP-backed candidates. Staff RepORt

Illegal trade negatively disturbs

Pak economy: report ISLAMABAD: the illegal trade of drugs, arms and naturalresources plunged the nascent Pakistani economy deeper intochaos, a joint report released by the sDPi and UnODCdisclosed. according to the report, the illegal trade of drugs,human beings, arms, natural resources has a multi-faced impacton the legitimate economy, government, society and people,which extends beyond the local context. “the loss for formaleconomy through illegal trade is very high, as it distortsdecision making and the allocation of resources, as well asimpacts effective service delivery,” it said. “it is one of theprimary factors increasing the cost of doing business in Pakistanand discouraging international investors. the illicit money flowscreate real estate bubbles, result in rent seeking activities andcrowds out the documented economy,” the report said. it addedthat the growth of organised crime and related corruptionundermined the very foundation of the state, simply by creatinga parallel infrastructures of governance in which citizensbecame increasingly reliant. Online

Four killed in BalochistanQuEttA: Four people were killed and three others injured inseparate firing incidents in sibi and Quetta on saturday. according toreports, unidentified armed men fired at abdul salam and DinMuhammad in sibi and fled. as a result, both were critically injuredand succumbed to their injuries on way to hospital. Police said thatboth deceased were residents of Mangochar and went to sibi toattend a religious congregation, adding that the incident appeared tobe result of a tribal enmity. in the second incident, two unidentifiedpeople were killed and three others injured on the Eastern Bypassarea in Quetta’s outskirts. Police said that a clash erupted betweentwo groups over a property dispute due to which two people werekilled and three others injured. separately, the Levies foiled aterrorist attack by seizing huge quantity of explosives and arrested aman from Pishin. Levies officials said that on a tip-off, Levies stoppeda Quetta-bound vehicle in tehsil karazat of Pishin and recovered 85landmines, 15 detonators, 60 remote cables and 24 kilogrammefertilizers. Driver Musa khan was also arrested. Staff RepORt

FIA arrests man using Malik’s SIMKARACHI: a man using a siM issued in interior Ministersenator Rehman Malik’s name was arrested on saturday.according to a private tV channel, Federal investigation agency(Fia) karachi Cyber Crime Wing arrested Citizen-Police LiaisonCommittee (CPLC) Controller Javed noor after registering acase against him. sources said that Malik had directed officersto take action against the group involved in getting siMs issuedin name of important people. sources said that the CPLC wasgiven access to the national Database and Registrationauthority (naDRa) for elimination of terrorism in karachi sothat timely action could be taken against terrorists. nni

3 killed over property disputePESHAWAR: three people of the same family were killed over aproperty dispute on saturday, police said. according to details, theincident occurred at Buddha Beer area when Badam sheer and hisaccomplices fired at Gulab sheer’s family. as a result, Gulab, hiswife and son were killed on the spot while the assailants managedto flee. Police registered a case and started investigation. nni

ISLAMABADStaff RepORt

two separate applications were submittedwith the apex court on saturday – one seekingthe closure of Mansoor ijaz’s evidence for hisfailure to appear before the judicial commis-sion and the other requesting the court to di-rect the commission to record his evidenceanywhere outside Pakistan.

Watan Party chief Barrister Zafarullahfiled the application, asking the court to closethe evidence of Mansoor ijaz, one of the maincharacters in the memo case, for not appear-ing before the commission.

He asked the court that a statement of theinter-services intelligence (isi) director gen-

eral be recorded instead.in his petition sent to the court through a

courier service, Zafarullah said ijaz was be-fooling the people of Pakistan, as he had notappeared before the court in three consecutivehearings despite committing that he woulddepose before the commission.

“He was asked by the judicial commissionto appear on January 9, 16 and 24 to recordhis evidence in the memo case. But he did notappear. so i have requested the court that itwould be better to save time and the evidenceof ijaz should be closed as proviso of article46 of the constitution under which, if primaryevidence is delayed or is expensive, the courtmay record the secondary evidence,” said Za-farullah while talking to Pakistan today.

He said in this case, the court may recordthe statement of the isi DG who had visitedijaz and seen the evidence.

“so in order to proceed further, the courtmay record General Pasha’s statement as evi-dence,” he added.

On the other hand, the counsel for Man-soor ijaz, akram shaikh, also filed a petitionwith the court that an order be passed to thememo commission to record the statement ofijaz somewhere abroad due to security threatsto his client.

shaikh also contended that situation re-flected that the army, government and the Usadministration had reached a settlement onthe memo issue, but the court should settlethe controversy.

Terrorists kill

cop, lose

member in chaseDERA ISMAIL KHAN

Online

armed attackers killed a policeman late onsaturday night and lost one gang member inthe chase by Elite Force personnel. Policesources said that four unidentified gunmenarrived on two motorcycles and shot dead anon-duty policeman. Police said the attackerstried to escape but a team of Elite Forcepersonnel chased them down and killed oneterrorist. sources said the terrorist’s corpsewas lying on the road with grenades attachedto it and the police had called in a team of theBomb Disposal squad. the remaining threegang members had taken cover in a privateuniversity’s building, as crossfire continuedbetween them and the besieging policecontingents until the filing of this story. thepolice also launched a search operation in theadjacent areas to find possible accomplices,sources added. Police in the restive district ofsouthern Punjab was targeted by terroristgroups earlier this month, when police foileda terror attempt on January 19 by defusingtwo 20kg bombs. a few days earlier onJanuary 15, four terrorists stormed thedistrict police office, killing four people andinjuring nine others. three of the attackersblew themselves up, while the fourth one waskilled by the police.

Petitions moved for closure of Mansoor Ijaz’s

evidence, recording of statement abroad

NEW DELHIOnline

india’s Home Ministry has acknowledged that amajority of kashmiri people want freedom fromthe indian occupation of their land.

a survey conducted in the indian-held kash-mir (iHk) for the Home Ministry by the institutefor Research on india and international studies(iRiis) has found that 54 percent kashmiri youthdemanded freedom, although independent sur-veys say the percentage is much higher. the min-

istry is expected to release the findings in a fewdays after the survey studied the perception andpsyche of the kashmiri youth as well as the mediaimpact’s at the height of the 2010 uprising, indianmedia reported. While 54 percent identified azadi(the term used by the kashmiris for liberationfrom india) as their preferred final status forJammu and kashmir, the study noted that thegeneral political awareness of the kashmiri youthwas very high. it stated that they accessed multi-ple channels of communication to get news and ifan important event or a crisis was unfolding, they

tended to verify the news from various alternatesources. analysts say it is mainly due to the lackof objectivity and growing bias in the indianmedia. nearly 60 percent of the kashmiri youthread both local English and Urdu dailies, whileonly 17 percent read the indian English dailies.

internet is also gaining popularity, thoughlargely in the urban areas where 31 percent accessit — 77 percent of them on their mobile phonesusing GPRs or 3G services. the Web is usedmainly to access local newspapers and kashmir-specific websites, the survey report said.

Majority of Kashmiris wantfreedom: Indian ministry

FAISALABAD: Children catch fish on Saturday in a

canal which has been closed for desilting. ONLINE

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 1/29/2012 6:54 AM


NewsCoMMenTSimply inexcusable:

Articles on Page 12-13

An attack on an army installation. Yet again.

extending exile: Musharraf has much to answer for.

Humayun gauhar says:

M j akbar says:India’s tortured XI: Ignominy Down Under.

taimoor ashraf says:On the Lotus principle: Respecting international laws.

ForeIgn newS

Story on Page 17

ArTS & enTerTAInMenT

Story on Page 15

SPorTSaustralia end india’s humiliation with whitewash

Story on Page 18

Resurgent Romney regains momentum in florida Unrepentant Maya Khan fired!

The ten pillars of justice: Due process must get due respect.

ISLAMABAD Staff RepORt

PEtROLEUM Minister Dr asimHussain came under fire in thesenate on saturday as the UpperHouse took strong exception tothe minister’s announcement

about increase in the prices of petroleumproducts four days before the Oil and GasRegulatory authority (OGRa)’s determina-tion of the rates for the next month.

While it is OGRa’s mandate to deter-mine the prices of petroleum products at theend of every month, the minister announcedthe increase in fuel prices before time osten-sibly to favour the oil marketing companieswhich would surely reduce the supply toearn billions of rupees when the pricesjump. though the oil marketing companiesmonitor the fluctuation of price in the inter-national market and control the supply ac-cordingly, the minister’s announcement thatthe prices would increase by Rs 5 per litre

will certainly benefit them and further bur-den the consumers particularly in the areaswhere compressed natural gas (CnG) is notavailable. apart from the scathing criticismfrom senators from both the treasury andopposition benches, Law Minister MaulaBakhsh Chandio termed Hussain’s an-nouncement “illegal”. talking to reportersoutside the Parliament House, Chandio saidthe petroleum minister’s statement aboutthe proposed increase in petroleum prod-ucts’ prices would benefit hoarders.

He said it was not the government thatwas empowered to increase the prices of pe-troleum products, it was OGRa’s authorityto take decisions in this regard.

the law minister said Hussain shouldnot have made the announcement beforetime. “i cannot endorse the statement ofthe petroleum minister about increase inthe POL prices,” he said. Chandio said thejoint sitting of parliament could be calledin the first week of February, adding thatthe accountability bill would be brought in

consultation with all political parties.Earlier, speaking on a point of order,

senator ishaq Dar of the PML-n said thepetroleum minister’s statement about hikein POL prices five days before the sched-uled announcement would help hoardersof petroleum products. Dar said it wasOGRa’s job to announce the POL pricesevery month. the PML-n parliamentariansaid the petroleum minister should beasked to explain his statement. Mean-while, the senate deferred the PrivatePower and infrastructure Board Bill, 2011until January 31 for further deliberation.the bill was moved by Minister for Waterand Power naveed Qamar for establish-ment of the Private Power and infrastruc-ture Board.

senator ahmed said the bill hadnot been drafted by keeping the 18thamendment in mind. He was of theview that objectives of the 18thamendment were not taken into con-sideration before moving the bill.

Senators take on Asim overfuel hike announcement

ISLAMABADtaHiR niaz

the Pia management will visit saudi ara-bia in February to meet saudi authoritiesand convince them to take a number ofmeasures, which, it believes, would easepassenger flow at Haj terminals in thenext Haj season.

according to sources in the Ministryof Religious affairs, in the last week of au-gust 2011, a joint delegation of the min-istry and Pia had visited saudi arabia andheld a meeting with the director of saudiGeneral intelligence Directorate (GiD),the main saudi foreign intelligence serv-

ice, at king abdulaziz international air-port in Jeddah.

the delegation was briefed that themajor source of congestion and inconven-ience to passengers was the limited num-ber of security checkpoints, which was 14compared to around 100 immigrationcounters.

this disparity disturbed the passengerflow, as immigration took about a minuteto clear approximately 10 passengers,while the limited number of countersmeant that GiD took about 10 minutes toclear a single passenger.

this situation ultimately disturbed theentire passenger flow and overcrowded

the Haj terminals.arrangements of security counters

with a new security setup were proposedand the GiD director asked the delegationto submit it in writing.

accordingly, a proposal had been sentthrough the Religious affairs Ministry.

However, it could not be materialisedlast year owing to saudi arabia’s hesita-tion in allocating additional funds and re-sources.

after long deliberation, Pia was suc-cessful in getting a dedicated bay out the14 available bays.

the sources said with regard to the ac-quisition of separate terminal for Pia

flights, Pia had requested saudi authori-ties to allocate the West terminal, whichis opposite to the existing Haj terminal butthe request was not acceded to because theinfrastructure of the West terminal wasnot sufficient to cater to pilgrims, as therewere no restaurants, the seating capacitywas insufficient and there were no check-in arrangements.

the saudi authorities did not agreebecause they did not want to discriminatebetween Pia and pilgrims boarding otherairlines.

However, the Pia management wouldagain be meeting the saudi authorities inFebruary in this regard.

ISLAMABADStaff RepORt

the transparency international Pak-istan (tiP) has objected to the gov-ernment’s decision of awarding a$350 million consulting contract toM/s VO tyazhpromexport in viola-tion of the Public Procurement Reg-ulatory authority (PPRa) Rules2004.

in his letter to the chairman ofthe Pakistan steel Mills (PsM), acopy of which is available with Pak-istan today, tiP adviser adil Gilanisaid the PsM had requested the Eco-nomic Coordination Committee(ECC) a waiver from the PPRa rulesto award its technical audit contractworth $0.15 million (Rs 135 million)without withholding tax to the Russ-ian state-owned firm VO tyazhprom-export.

“tyazhpromexport is the originaldesigner and manufacturer of Pak-istan steel, which expressed interestin the technical audit of the politi-

cally controlled and financiallyundisciplined entity. the matter ofexpansion of Pakistan steel’s produc-tion capacity came up for discussionduring the visit of the Pakistani pres-ident to Russia on May 11-13, 2011,”the letter stated.

the tiP informed the PsM chair-man that such an effort was also triedin 2010, but the tiP raised an objec-tion in its letter on May 31, 2010, andthe PsM managing director in his let-ter dated June 10, 2010 had clarifiedthat no such agreement was inprocess with one single party, andthat if and when such a scheme wasfinalised, it would be processed fur-ther, the letter added.

the tiP adviser said that duringthe second meeting of the expansioncommittee in islamabad on May 20,2010, the PsM was directed to workout its comprehensive requirements,including the financing aspect tocarry out the expansion plan. “thecommittee also advised Pakistansteel to contact renowned steel plant

manufacturers. Once approval is ac-corded by the government to thefirmed-up proposal, only then fur-ther process will be followed,” Gilanisaid.

the tiP sought clarification fromthe PsM chairman on how the Russ-ian company could be awarded a con-sulting contract for making theestimates for PsM’s expansion, as thesteel producer was itself being con-sidered for the award of a Us$350million contract.

“is it not a conflict of interest,and collusive practice under the Pub-lic Procurement Rules 2004, Rule2(f), which prohibits collusive prac-tices among bidders (prior to or afterbid submission) designed to establishbid prices at artificial, non-competi-tive levels and to deprive the procur-ing agencies of the benefits of freeand open competition,” Gilani ar-gued. Who has given the PsM the au-thority to request an exemption fromPPRa Rules 2004 in the presence ofthe PPRa Ordinance 2002, he asked.

Firdous urges US

media to portray

balanced image

of Pakistan

ISLAMABADapp

Federal information Minister Dr Firdousaashiq awan on saturday urged the Usmedia to help present an accurate andbalanced image of Pakistan by highlightingits difficulties and concerns. she wastalking to a delegation of americanjournalists. Firdous said that the Us mediaenjoyed unprecedented outreach andinfluence across the world and it shouldportray a positive image of the country.the minister desired persistent mediaexchange programmes between the twocountries, adding that such exchangeshelped to provide an opportunity to learnfrom each others expertise. she said thatPakistan was a democratic, progressivecountry and there was no bar on freedomof expression. Firdous said that Pakistanhighly valued it relations with the Us butthe relationship would be redefined onnew terms of engagement after gettingendorsement of parliament. the delegationappreciated the PPP government’s role ingranting media freedom.

risk to global

financial stability

increases: IMFISLAMABAD: Withintensifying strains in theEurozone weighing on the globaloutlook, the internationalMonetary Fund (iMF) sharplycut its forecast for world growththis year, saying that prospectshave dimmed and risks tofinancial stability haveincreased. in an update to itsWorld Economic Outlook(WEO), the iMF said that theEurozone would fall into a mildrecession this year after thecrisis entered a “perilous newphase” toward the end of lastyear, affecting other parts of theworld, including the Us,emerging markets anddeveloping countries. Online

PIA to convince Saudis on easing passenger flow at Haj terminals

TIP finds violation of PPRA rules in

PSM’s award of consulting contract



News

Professional and technicaltraining, which were createdby prime minister in July toaccommodate PML-Q leaderswho had lost their portfoliosafter the devolution of severalsubjects to the provincesunder the 18th amendment.similarly, standing commit-tees of both Houses are notfunctional for the ministriesof national Food security andResearch, national DisasterManagement, national Her-itage and integration and na-

tional Regulations and serv-ices, which were created inOctober to accommodateportfolio-less ministers, in-cluding samina khalidGhurki of the PPP and Mir is-rarullah Zehri of Balochistannational Party-awami (BnP-a). interestingly, threemonths down the line, theprime minister has yet notmade his mind for appointingministers to the ministries ofnational Disaster Manage-ment and national Regula-tions and services.in its last session of the cur-

rent month, the national as-sembly passed a motion forthe creation of standing com-mittees on these newly-formed division/ministrieswith the approval of theirmembers’ composition, butthe chairpersons of the parlia-mentary bodies have not beenelected yet. Commenting onthe issue, senatorMushahidullah khan, PML-nsecretary information, saidthe scenario indicated gov-ernment’s incapability andnon seriousness. “On onehand they created new min-

istries to please their alliesagainst the spirit of the 18thamendment, but on theother, they have failed tomake them answerable toparliament,” he said.a source in the national as-sembly told Pakistan todaythat race was on between can-didates of various parliamen-tary parties from both thetreasury and oppositionbenches to get the chairman-ship of newly-constitutedstanding committees. He saidthe chairpersons of the newly-created standing committeeswould not be elected by voting,rather the na speaker wouldhave consultations with all

parliamentary party leaders todevelop a consensus for nom-inating chairs of parliamen-tary bodies, in which Mnasfrom all parties would getproper share according totheir strength in the House.the source said Hanif abbasiof the PML-n was likely to getthe chair of standing commit-tee on human resource devel-opment, while samsamBukhari of the PPP could be-come the chairperson ofstanding committee on na-tional disaster management.He said akhunzada Chattan orGhulam Farid kathia of thePPP might be named thechairperson of standing com-

mittee on national food secu-rity and research, while MQMMna Manwar Lal could getthe chair of standing commit-tee on national harmony.

the parliamentary sourcesaid Fiza Junejo of the PML-Q was a strong candidate forthe chair of standing commit-tee on national heritage andintegration, while the chair ofna committee on nationalregulations and servicesmight go to ahsan iqbal of thePML-n. the source saidMalik nauman Langrial of thePML-Q was a strong candi-date for the chair of standingcommittee on professionaland technical training.

senator Professor khur-shid ahmed of Jamaat-e-is-lami (Ji) called thenon-formation of standingcommittees by the senate a“glaring example” of PPP’sbad-governance. He said thePPP government had brokenall previous records of bad-governance and inefficiency.“the PM created new min-istries against the spirit of de-volution of power just toappease coalition partners …now these ministries areworking without any parlia-mentary oversight, which isagainst constitution and spiritof democracy,” Professorkhurshid added.

Seven ministries not made continued from Page 28

KARACHIStaff RepORt

ageneral strike wasobserved in all dis-tricts of sindh,whereas inkarachi division,

sindhi- and Baloch-dominatedareas remained closed.

the Ma Jinnah Road wasalso closed for some hours byprotesters who were staging aprotest on the save sindh Com-mittee (ssC)’s call for a generalstrike against the 20th consti-tutional amendment presentedin the national assembly by theMuttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM). “We congratulate thepeople of sindh who have, onceagain, made a success the strikecall issued for the rights of theprovince,” said ssC convenerJalal Mehmood shah during amedia briefing at his residenceHyder Manzil on saturday.

shah Muhammad shah,Riaz Chandio, Ghulam shahand Qamar Bhatti were alsopresent on the occasion.

“it is the democratic right

of the people of sindh toprotest. We organised a peace-ful strike, but some opponentstried to turn it violent in differ-ent parts of the province,” thessC convener said. He re-peated his demand that theMQM and the governmentmust withdraw the 20thamendment. “We have notcontacted the MQM directly,but we are asking them throughthe media that they shouldwithdraw the 20th amendmentif they consider themselvessindhis, because sindhis havestrong reservations about theamendment,” he added.

He also said the 20thamendment is a conspiracy tocreate differences betweensindhis and the Urdu-speakingcommunity. activists of theawami tehreek (at) and itswomen’s wing sindhyanitehreek took out a protest rallyin saddar and staged a sit-in atthe Ma Jinnah Road, whichwas blocked by them, as theychanted slogans against the20th amendment and theprobable plan to divide sindh.

a party’s activists who hadapproached the demonstratorson a dozen or so motorcyclesstarted asking at members tostop their protest and vacatethe road, but the protesters re-fused to do so, which resultedin a clash between the malemembers of both parties,whereas the female membersof at’s women’s wing also at-tacked the motorcyclists withtheir flags, forcing them to es-cape without their vehicles.

Public transport remainedthin in many areas, and mainhighways like the nationalHighway, the indus Highwayand the super Highway also re-mained closed; whereas trans-port in and out of sindh alsoremained thin, as Ghotki,sukkur, khairpur Mir’s,naushehro Feroz, Dadu, Jacob-abad, kashmore, kandhkot,shikarpur, kamber-shahdad-kot, Jamshoro, Hyderabad,Matiari, nawabshah, tando al-lahyar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot,Mithi, thatta, Badin and tandoMuhammad khan, and theirtowns remained closed.

QuEttASHaHzada zUlfiqaR

the Balochistan assemblyunanimously adopted a reso-lution on saturday demand-ing the federal governmentaddress the issue of low gaspressure and provide gas todistricts that were deprived ofthe resource for the past sixdecades.

During the session, whichwas held after a two-day breakwith Deputy speaker Matiullahagha in the chair, the govern-ment was severely criticised fora lack of interest shown byprovincial ministers as well asLeader of the House aslamRaisani, who was out of theprovincial capital for the lasttwo months.

noticing the lack of quo-rum, some of the memberstold the chairman that thechief minister and provincialministers should be made

bound to attend assemblysessions.

the proceedings wentuninterrupted before PPPminister tahir Mehmoodpointed out the lack of quo-rum and the session had tobe adjourned for 30 minutesbut it could not be completedeven after the break.

However, the deputyspeaker ignored the lack ofquorum to save the govern-ment from complete embar-rassment.

“the chief minister andother ministers should bebound to attend the sessionsof the assembly,” irrigationMinister sardar aslamBizenjo said.

PML-Q shiekh Jafarkhan Mandokhel said in-stead of sitting in Gwadar,the chief minister should sitin Quetta to resolve the prob-lems of the people.

the House later adopted

an adjournment motion byMandokhel after two hours ofdebate on the long hours ofpower load shedding.

the House also held a de-bate on another adjournmentmotion moved by Mandokhelon the low gas pressure thathad been approved for debateon January 26.

initiating the debate, themover said it was ironic thatmost districts of theprovince were deprived ofnatural gas when theprovince was providing nat-ural gas to entire country.

He said though natural gaswas available to the people ofQuetta, kalat, Mastung, Pishinand some other towns ofBalochistan but people in theseareas were facing serious diffi-culties because of suspensionof gas and its low pressure.

He said the governmentshould ensure that the gaspipelines were not destroyed.

Finance Minister Mirasim kurd said Balochistanwas fed up of the discrimina-tory attitude of the federal gov-ernment and bureaucracy.

Minister for sports andCulture shahnwaz Marri criti-cised the federal government,saying that injustice were theroot cause of deteriorating lawand order in the province.

Minister for LabourMaulvi sarwar Musa khel ofthe JUi-F blamed the provin-cial government for its poorperformance during the pastfour years.

Bizenjo said the Balochis-tan assembly had always sup-ported the president and primeminister but the PPP govern-ment had failed to address theissues of province.

the adjournment wasconverted into a resolutionand unanimously passedwhen it was put before theHouse for voting.

BA resolution demands Centreaddress Balochistan gas shortage

the government on January18 moved a constitutionalamendment bill (20thamendment) in an attemptto provide legal cover to theactions of the chief electioncommissioner while the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan(ECP) was incomplete. thebill is aimed at giving legalcover to over 28 members ofthe national and provincialassemblies elected after thepassage of the 18th amend-ment in april 2010 and be-fore the completion of the

ECP in June 2011. nisar saidthe government had “onlyone manifesto and that wasto stick to its own interestsand power”. He said the gov-ernment had transgressed allbounds in deceiving themasses. “For its vested inter-ests, the government con-venes the parliament’ssessions in no time, but onnational interests, it becomesdeaf and dumb,” he added.

if the government fails toget the 20th amendment billpassed by the parliament, forwhich it requires a two-

thirds majority in bothhouses, the supreme Courtcan declare the election ofthose 28 lawmakers as nulland void. to amend the con-stitution, the government re-quires a two-thirds majority.though it can manage the re-quired number with the sup-port of its allies and theJUi-F and the independentmembers, the PML-n’s deci-sion not to talk to the gov-ernment over theamendment would this time,unlike in the past, not makeit unanimous.

PML-N won’t talk with governmentcontinued from Page 28

the strikes only served to bol-ster militants. “Drones arecounter-productive. We havevery ably isolated militantsfrom the local tribes. Whenthere are drone attacks thatcreates sympathy for themagain,” Gilani told reportersat the Davos forum.“it makes the job of the polit-ical leadership and the mili-tary very difficult. We havenever allowed the drone at-tacks and we have alwaysmaintained that they are un-

acceptable, illegal and coun-terproductive.” Relations be-tween the Us and Pakistanhave deteriorated sharplyover the last year, with islam-abad furious about the sur-prise deadly raid on al Qaedachief Osama bin Laden’shideout in abbottabad lastyear. the two sides have alsobeen at loggerheads over a Usair strike in november inwhich 24 Pakistani soldierswere killed.the Us halted drone strikeson Pakistani soil in the imme-

diate aftermath of that strikebut they have since resumed.

Gilani said Pakistan nowwanted to agree to new rulesof engagement with the Us.

“the unilateral actiontaken in abbottabad, thatwas not liked in any quarter... We need assurances thatsuch a unilateral action willnot be repeated in the fu-ture. there is a trust deficit.”the prime minister said itwas in both countries’ inter-ests to cooperate as partnersand Pakistan had paid a high

price at the hands of militantgroups. “We want to worktogether and we are fightingagainst militants and terror-ists. We have paid a hugeprice for that.” On the sub-ject of neighbours, Gilanisaid Pakistan wanted goodrelations with all negihbour-ing countries, includingafghanistan. He also men-tioned the kashmir issue inhis talk and said dialoguewas the only possible way toresolve all outstanding is-sues with india. the primeminister said democratic in-stitution of the countryshould be respected.

No threat of militarycontinued from Page 1

implementation, after notic-ing that they were not per-forming their tasksprofessionally. instead of pol-icy making, the boards in cer-tain cases, were involved inmicro-managing the issues,which was the company man-agement’s prerogative. “theministry is not satisfied withtheir working, as already in-ternational financial institu-tions are expressing concernon the slow implementation of

power sector reforms”, sourcesaid. the boards were directedto make a policy on receiv-ables of three categories of de-faulters, including current,permanent and disconnected.it should be handed over tothe company management forimplementation and moni-tored on a regular basis. simi-larly, they were directed tomake a policy on reducing sys-tem losses and resultant theft.Boards were asked to collectdata about customer com-

plaints, including nature ofthe complaint, magnitude, re-dressal time and fatal acci-dents. they had not compiledany data since last year.

sources said that themanagement of DisCOs wasopposed to appointment ofnew CEOs and CFOs. theywere pushing the lower cadresto protest against the reformplans. the boards had failed toaddress the issue despite theirduty to improve the com-pany’s working.

Finance, powercontinued from Page 28

Sindh closed toprotest MQM’s 20thamendment billg Jalal Mehmood Shah says peaceful strike organised butopponents tried to turn it violent

daVOS: a pakistani delegation led by prime Minister Yousaf Raza gilani meets World economic forum chairman professor

Klasus Schwab on Saturday. GNI



News

WASHINGtONnni

Pakistan’s ambassador to theUs sherry Rehman has said thatislamabad has given a clear mes-sage to Washington that bilateralties should be based upon mutual

respect and equality. talking to the members of Pakistani

community at the Pakistani embassy, sherrysaid Pakistan-Us relationship was impor-tant through which peace and stability couldbe assured in the region, adding that Pak-istan was not the land of the terrorists.

sherry reached out to the Pakistani-

americans to seek their support towardsbetter Pakistan-Us relations, which she saidmust be based on “mutual respect, interestsand shared values”.

“this embassy is not going to workalone in Washington. it is going to work withmany ambassadors like you to attempt tochange the way this important bilateral re-lationship works,” the ambassador said.

“the relationship between Pakistan andthe Us has never been as important, yet thetensions have never been so grave,” she said,noting that repeated episodes in recenttimes had undermined the bilateral ties.

she said Pakistan was passing throughan important political change, adding that

the government would complete its term.the envoy informed the gathering of

Pakistani-americans that it was for the firsttime in the history of the country that a com-prehensive parliamentary review was un-derway to set up new principles for therelationship.

“the review will reflect a multi-partisanparliamentary consensus and the support ofthe Pakistani people.” “Pakistan speakstoday as one united voice, including the gov-ernment and the people, and will have oneunited policy toward the United states,” shesaid, adding that it was an opportunity toreset the relationship in a transparent, con-sistent and predictable manner.

Pakistan wants ties with US based onmutual respect and equality: Sherryg Pakistan’s envoy to US says Pakistan is not the land of terrorists

Fazlullah behind

targeted killings

in Karachi: Malik

KARACHInni

interior Minister Rehman Malik hassaid that fugitive militantcommander Fazlullah is sendingterrorists from Gilgit to karachi fortargeted killings. talking to reporters on saturday,Malik said a group identified asDeath squad was involved insectarian killing incidents in karachi,and that the law enforcementagencies were about to arrest thekillers. “neither any sunni nor shiais involved in targeted killings,instead a group of some people isinvolved,” Malik said. He said the mother of a terrorist hadtold the agencies that her son hadgone to karachi to kill for Rs 60,000.the minister said the Death squadused motorbikes and burqas (veils)while carrying out attacks. He askedthe sindh government to ban pillionriding in the city for a month.

KARACHIagencieS

a robber was killed and his partnerbrutally beaten when an angry mobcaptured them after a failed rob-bery. Police and eyewitnesses saidthe two robbers were seized by theresidents of the Godhra Colonywhen they attempted to rob a house.

“People lynched one of themand beat another nearly to death,” apolice official said. FIvE InjuRED In KARACHIgREnADE AttACK: at least fivepeople sustained injures in a hand-grenade attack in karachi’s Li-aqatabad Market on saturday.

Police said unknown bikershurled grenades at a shop situatedin a busy market of Liaqatabad no2, injuring five people.

Police parties and rescue teamsarrived at the scene and shifted theinjured to various hospitals. Policesaid a cracker was used in the blastto create panic and fright the arearesidents.

the incident prompted shop-keeper to shutdown shops and closeall business activity in the market.

similar attacks on mobile com-panies’ franchises and other shopshave taken place in karachi, whichlaw enforcement agencies said werecarried out by some elements ofbanned outfits.DOCtOR gunnED DOWn InKARACHI’S guLBERg AREA:

Unidentified attackers shot to deatha 60-year doctor in the Gulberg areaof karachi on saturday, police said.

according to details, Dr JafferMohsin was reading newspaper sit-ting outside his house in Gulbergpolice station precincts when someunidentified saboteurs opened fireat him.

the doctor was rushed to Dr Zi-auddin Hospital, where he was pro-nounced death. the body wasmoved to abbasi shaheed Hospital.Mohsin received two gunshots. Hewas the former secretary of aal-abaimambargah. Police have initiatedinvestigations into the incident. 14 PRISOnERS RELEASEDunDER nEW juDICIAL POL-ICy OF SC: at least 14 prisonerswere released under a new judicialpolicy of the supreme Court of Pak-istan (sCP) on saturday.

the prisoners told the Malir dis-trict and sessions judge that despitecompleting their sentences theywere still in jail as they were unableto pay their fines. saiban interna-tional Welfare Organisation (siWO)Chairman Haq nawaz akhtar paidthe fines on behalf of the prisoners.

the siWO joint secretary heardthe prisoners’ problems and assuredthem of swift justice. a large num-ber of prisoners presented their ap-plications for early hearing of theircases while others submitted appli-cations for reviewing the courts’ de-cisions.

Robber beaten todeath in Karachi

KaRacHi: activists of defence of Human Rights hold a demonstration for recovery of the missing persons on Saturday. ONLINE

‘India showing keeninterest in TAPI gasPipeline Project’

ISLAMABADOnline

india has shown keen interest in theturkmenistan, afghanistan, india andPakistan (taPi) Gas Pipeline Project, asindia is also looking for alternate energysources to fulfill its energy requirements,Petroleum and natural Resources Ministersenator Dr asim Hussain said on saturday.He was talking to journalists outside theParliament House. asim said that ministersof all concerning countries would soon meetto start work on the project.

PeMrA warns TVchannels againstmoral policing

ISLAMABADOnline

the Pakistan Electronic MediaRegulatory authority (PEMRa) hastaken a serious notice of moral policingattempts by certain tV channels, andwarned them against unethicaljournalistic practices that violate thegenerally accepted standards of decency,morality and ethics. “Under the guise ofinvestigative journalism, some tVchannels have gone overboard and haveliterally intruded public privacy which isnot acceptable at all. no mature mediademonstrate such acts whichunfortunately is the case in Pakistan,”said a PEMRa statement on saturday.



News

NEWS DESK

the United states military operationthat resulted in Osama bin Laden’sdeath in Pakistan made an already un-popular Us even less popular withsome Pakistanis, who likely perceivedit as further impingement on theirsovereignty, results from a Gallup pollconducted on May 9-12 immediatelyafter the operation showed.

the results underscored then howdifficult the task would be for Pakistanand the Us to repair relations; now,that task is likely even more difficult.sixty-four percent of Pakistanis sur-veyed who were aware of the Us actionsaid it made them have a more nega-tive opinion of america, while 5 per-cent say it made them have a morepositive opinion.

the 10 percent of Pakistanis whoapproved of Us leadership after themilitary operation was down from 18percent in 2010, but not meaningfullylower than what Gallup measured in2008 and 2009. Disapproval, how-ever, soared to a record-high 85 per-cent.

While few Pakistanis overall ap-proved of Us leadership, those whowere aware of the Us action wereslightly more likely to approve of Usleadership (11 percent) than those whowere not aware (4 percent). But the re-sults also suggested there was resent-ment for the Us action even among thePakistanis who approved of Us leader-ship. a majority of these Pakistanissaid the action made them have morenegative opinions of america.

at the same time, Pakistanis didnot place much faith in their owncountry’s leadership: 25 percent in theMay 9-12 survey said they were confi-dent. the significant pressure the Pak-istani government faces from within -particularly now with its civilian gov-

May 2 raid made unpopular US even less popular in Pakistan

ernment in crisis - likely figures heavily intothe likelihood of any normalcy in the relation-ship between the two nations.PAKIStAnIS’ vIEWS OF tHE WESt:the poll showed that although few Pakistanisgave Us leadership high marks, many morefound it personally very important that Mus-lim societies and Western societies get along.While most of the interviewing for the apriland May 2011 poll in Pakistan took place be-fore bin Laden’s death and it is difficult to tellwhat effect that might have had, 43 percent ofPakistanis at the time said it was very impor-tant to them that the two societies got along,

up from 27 percent in 2010.Pakistanis so far have been more likely to

see Muslim societies investing more in this re-lationship than the West. sixty-two percent ofPakistanis in april and May 2011 said Muslimsocieties respected the West, while 19 percentof Pakistanis said Western societies respectedMuslim ones. a majority (55 percent) of Pak-istanis said they did not believe the West re-spected Muslim societies.

at the same time, Pakistanis remainedmore mixed on what greater interaction be-tween Western and Muslim societies meantfor them. Overall, they leaned more toward

seeing it as offering more of a threat than a benefit. thirty-ninepercent of Pakistanis viewed greater interaction as a threat,while 31 percent viewed it as more of a benefit and another 31percent said they did not know.

the results for the two surveys are based on face-to-face in-terviews conducted between april 25 and May 14, 2011, andMay 9-12, 2011, with approximately 1,000 adults in each sur-vey, aged 15 and older, covering urban and rural areas acrossall four provinces in Pakistan. Federally administered tribalareas and azad Jammu and kashmir were excluded from theMay 9-12 study. For results based on the total sample, one cansay with 95 percent confidence that the maximum margin ofsampling error is ±4 percentage points.

DAVOSapp

the World Health Organisation on satur-day assured Pakistan of its full support ineradicating polio, hepatitis, and denguefever from the country.

Margerat Chan, director general ofthe World Health Organisation (WHO),gave the assurance to Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani in a meeting on thesidelines of the World Economic Forum.

the prime minister said the denguevirus was a serious threat for the peopleof Pakistan, and mentioned the largenumber of deaths caused by the epi-demic.

He praised the WHO’s support toPakistan in natural disasters and othertimes of need. He asked Chan to considersetting up a WHO Dengue CollaborativeCentre at the national institute of Health,islamabad. Gilani said the implementa-tion of international health regulations

remained a priority in Pakistan. He toldChan that Pakistan had taken significantlegislative and enforcement steps to stopthe unethical practices of organ trans-plant and had significantly reduced thetourism for this purpose. He admittedthat there were some difficulties at theinitial stage at the coordination level,however hoped that devolution of powerto people at the local level would eventu-ally lead to better provision of health fa-cilities and services in the public sector.

WASHINGtONnni

Us Vice President JoeBiden said he advisedPresident Barack Obamalast spring not to imme-diately authorise the raid

on the compound in Pakistan whereOsama bin Laden was thought to behiding.

“My suggestion is, don’t go,” Bidenrecalled saying when Obama sought hisopinion on whether to give navy sEaLsthe go-ahead to raid the compound.“We have to do two more things to seeif he s there.” Biden recalled the conver-sation while addressing Democraticmembers of Congress on Friday at a re-treat in Cambridge, Md.

He did not specify which two thingshe had considered necessary for the op-eration against bin Laden to proceed.

Biden said Obama also sought opin-ions from senior advisers, including theJoint Chiefs of staff. Biden did not saywhere the conversations took place, buthe recalled that no one was willing togive a definitive answer except then-Cia Director Leon Panetta, who toldObama to move forward with the sEaLsoperation, Biden said.

“Everyone else said 49, 51, this,”Biden said. “it got to me. He said, Joe,what do you think? and i said, Youknow, i didn t know we have so manyeconomists around the table. We owethe man a direct answer.” Obama thenleft the room, saying he would come toa decision, Biden said. the next morn-ing, as Obama was boarding the presi-dential helicopter, he told nationalsecurity adviser thomas Donilon,

“Go.” as it turned out, the informationthat bin Laden was hiding at the com-pound in abbottabad was correct. thesEaLs team killed him there on May 1.

Biden recalled the conversations tomake a point about Obama’s strength asa leader. He said Obama made his deci-sion knowing that if the operation wentawry, even his most loyal staffers wouldlater say, when books were written, “ididn’t tell him to do that.”

“i hope no one would have donethat,” Biden said.

Biden said Obama knew his deci-sion put at stake not only the lives ofthe sEaLs but also the image of thepresidency.

“and he pulled the trigger,” hesaid. “and that is clear to americanpeople. it says less about bin Ladenthan it does about character, about[Obama] leading from behind.[Obama] doesn’t lead from behind, hejust leads. and that is clear.”

Biden advisedagainst Osamabin Laden raid

WHO assures Gilani of support in

eradicating polio, hepatitis, dengue

KaRacHi: Rescue workers carry an injured robber who was beaten up by an angry mob in godhra colony on Saturday. ONLINE


new Karachi mobthrashes alleged robberto death, accomplice‘unable to speak’

KARACHIStaff RepORt

an angry mob got hold of two alleged bandits during a robberybid in the new karachi area on saturday and gave them a se-vere thrashing, killing one of the suspects on the spot andleaving the other one on the verge of death.

the new karachi industrial area police said three allegedrobbers entered a residential compound in the Godhra Colonyand started looting the residents. However, the residentsoverpowered them and started beating them.

as the people started gathering, one of the alleged banditsmanaged to flee from the spot under the cover of firing whiletwo of his accomplices could not.

the mob started thrashing the suspects with woodensticks and iron rods.

Until the police could reach the spot, the angry mob hadkilled one of the suspected robbers.

talking with Pakistan today, new karachi industrial areasHO said that both robbers had sustained serious wounds andwere shifted to the abbasi shaheed Hospital. “One of themsuccumbed to his injuries while the condition of the other sus-pect is also precarious,” he added. the sHO said the identityof both robbers could not be established as the injured robberis “not in his senses to record his statement”.

the police officer claimed that the area residents and wit-nesses have also refused to cooperate with the police in regis-tration of FiR. “the police did not recover any weapons fromthe spot but the people are claiming that a third bandit fledwith the guns,” he added.

Sunday, 29 January, 2012

lo and behold! 2nd watan Card

tranche only for 260,000

what about the rest?

08

KARACHIqazi aSif

astrike was observedin all districts of theprovince on saturdayon the call of thesave sindh Commit-

tee (ssC) against the 20th con-stitutional amendment billpresented in the national as-sembly by the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM), whereas inkarachi division, the sindhi-and Baloch-dominated areas re-mained closed.

“We congratulate the peopleof sindh who have, once again,made a success the strike call is-sued for the rights of theprovince,” said ssC convener JalalMehmood shah during a mediabriefing at his residence HyderManzil on saturday.

shah Muhammad shah, RiazChandio, Ghulam shah andQamar Bhatti were also present onthe occasion.

“it is the democratic right ofthe people of sindh to protest. Weorganised a peaceful strike, butsome opponents tried to turn it vi-olent in different parts of the

province,” the ssC convener said.He repeated his demand

that the MQM and the govern-ment must withdraw the 20thamendment.

“We have not contacted theMQM directly, but we are askingthem through the media that theyshould withdraw the 20th amend-ment if they consider themselvessindhis, because sindhis havestrong reservations about theamendment,” he added.

He also said the 20th amend-ment is a conspiracy to create dif-ferences between sindhis and theUrdu-speaking community.

activists of the awamitehreek (at) and its women’swing sindhyani tehreek took out aprotest rally in saddar and stageda sit-in at the Ma Jinnah Road,which was blocked by them, asthey chanted slogans against the20th amendment and the probableplan to divide sindh.

a political party’s activists,who had approached the demon-strators on a dozen or so motorcy-cles started asking at members tostop their protest and vacate theroad, but the protesters refused todo so, which resulted in a clash be-

tween the male members of bothparties, whereas the female mem-bers of at’s women’s wing also at-tacked the motorcyclists with theirflags, forcing them to escape with-out their vehicles.

irate at activists continuedtheir demonstration on the MaJinnah Road, blocking it for sev-eral hours.

Malir, Gulshan-e-Hadeed,Pipri, Ghagar Phatak, nationalHighway, Landhi, Gulshan-e-iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Univer-sity Road, saddar, Lyari, sachalGoth, safoora Chowrangi, Bhitta-iabad, shanti nagar, MarooraGoth, Old sabzi Mandi, ibrahimHyderi, kathor Goth, Gulshan-e-Maymar, Gadap, Bilawal Colony,Banaras Chowk, Ma Jinnah Road,Manghopir, khamiso Goth,Chakra Goth, sohrab Goth, GabolColony and several other areas re-mained closed.

Public transport remainedthin in many areas, and mainhighways like the national High-way, the indus Highway and thesuper Highway also remainedclosed; whereas transport in andout of sindh also remained thin,as Ghotki, sukkur, khairpur

Mirs, naushehro Feroz, Dadu,Jacobabad, kashmore, kandhkot,shikarpur, kamber-shahdadkot,

Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Matiari,nawabshah, tando allahyar,Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Mithi,

thatta, Badin and tandoMuhammad khan, and theirtowns remained closed.

Most in Sindh make clear whose side they are on■ Anti-MQM bill strike successful in most cities and towns of province ■ Sindhi- and Baloch-dominated areas closed in Karachi

■ Awami Tehreek protesters scuffle with activists of a political party ■ SSC convener Jalal Mehmood Shah says peaceful strike

organised, but opponents tried to turn it violent

Awami Tehreek’s activists protest MQM’s new provinces bill outside the Karachi Press Club. ONLINE

rescue workers bring an alleged bandit, who was brutally beaten

up by godhra’s residents, to the Abbasi Shaheed hospital. ONLINE

LyNCHEd!

KARACHIStaff RepORt

another member of the shia commu-nity fell prey to the wave to sectariankillings in the city as unidentified as-sailants gunned down a trustee of theaal-e-aba imambargah in the Gul-berg police station limits on satur-day.

Reportedly, Dr syed Mohsin Jaf-fery was sitting outside his house lo-cated in Block 12, Federal B area andreading a newspaper when unidenti-fied gunmen on a motorcycle openedfire at him and sped away.

the victim was rushed to the DrZiauddin Hospital, where he was pro-nounced dead on arrival by the doc-tors.

the body of the deceased wasshifted to the abbasi shaheed Hospi-tal and handed over to the familyafter post-mortem.

Gulberg sHO told Pakistantoday that Jaffery, 34, son of syedBaqar Jaffery, had come out of hishouse in Block 12, FB area when twoattackers riding pillion on a motorcy-cle sprayed him with bullets. the vic-tim suffered multiple bullets in hishead and chest.

He said the police have recoveredsome empty 9mm bullet shells fromthe spot.

the sHO said that Jaffery was adoctor by profession and belonged tothe Fiqah-e-Jafaria. “the deceasedwas also a trustee of an imambargahlocated in Gulberg,” he added.

the police officer was of the viewthat the incident may be linked withthe recent sectarian killings in thecity, but the law enforcers are inves-tigating Jaffery’s killing from otherangles also.

He added that the family is notcooperating with the police right now

as they are busy with the funeralarrangements of the deceased, but“an FiR will be registered when theheirs give a statement”.

the metropolis has been hit bya spree of sectarian targetedkillings during the week, whichstarted when the ahle sunnat WalJamaat’s legal adviser along withanother party activist was shotdead in the Old City area. the nextday, three shia lawyers weregunned down while another sur-vived the attack as gunmen tar-geted the car they were travelling innear the Pakistan Chowk.

Another Shia man shot dead, this time a doctor

KARACHIStaff RepORt

Five people were wounded in Li-aquatabad iron Market on saturdaywhen a hand grenade was hurled at ashop. Police said the attack could bea reaction to the arrest of an extor-tionist who had been warning themarket’s shopkeepers against failingto pay extortion money.

according to reports, two mo-torcyclists chucked the grenade atthe Green iron shop and sped off,following which the market’s shop-keepers closed their shops andprotested the increasing number ofcrimes in the market.

Police said the attack was carriedout in Liaquatabad C area where twomotorcyclists hurled a grenade at theGreen iron shop in the iron Market.

a Bomb Disposal squad teamarrived on the scene to inspect thesite of the incident, but their exam-ination could not produce any con-clusive result.

the wounded people were initiallytaken to the abbasi shaheed Hospital(asH), and one of them was latershifted to the aga khan UniversityHospital in a precarious condition.

an asH medico-legal officer saidthe injured people had sufferedwounds because of nuts and boltsused in the making of the bomb.

the wounded people were identi-fied as 20-year-old israr aslam Pervez,30-year-old Muhammad sohail, 26-year-old Rasik Ghayasuddin, 27-year-old Mukhtar Hussain, and 20-year-old

Ubaid Muhammad saleem, whosecondition was said to be precarious.

Earlier, some shopkeepers hadprovided the police with a phonenumber that the extortionists wereusing to threaten the traders for pay-ing extortion money.

the law enforcers traced thecaller shakir Baloch, arrested him,

registered a case against him andproduced him before an anti-terror-ism court, which sent him to prison.

Police suspect saturday’s Li-aquatabad incident could be a reac-tion to Baloch’s arrest, but they alsobelieve it is premature to link thegrenade attack with Baloch’s arrestat this time.

Grenade blast shakes Liaquatabad, gashes five■ Police say explosive device chucked at a shop ‘in reaction to an extortionist’s arrest’

Policemen stand outside the shop in liaquatabad that was attacked with a hand grenade. ONLINE


karachi08PakistaN today


Being disabled not the end of the road■ Speakers at seminar encourage people with disabilities to become active members of society

KARACHIpReSS ReleaSe

as people with different kinds of dis-abilities make 10 percent of the coun-try’s total population, it is imperativeto recognise their right to employment,education and healthcare in Pakistan.

almost all disabled people in Pak-istan are completely dependent ontheir families as the majority is illit-erate; hence unable to live like nor-mal people.

this was the crux of a seminar heldat the tradekey on saturday. Peoplewith physical disabilities attended theseminar to learn about how they canlead their lives effectively.

“We must enable people with dis-abilities to realise their rights and en-courage them to become activemembers of the society,” the speakerssaid on the occasion.

“We must realise that these peopleneed our special attention and the ob-jective of this seminar is to develop fu-ture leaders among the disabledpeople,” they added.

“We will be pleased if we can con-vert even a single disabled resourceinto an active member of the society.”

the speakers urged people with dis-abilities to believe in themselves as it isthe first step towards success.

“Realising our responsibility, wehave initiated the project to enablepeople with disabilities to be self-re-liant,” tradekey CEO Junaid Mansoortold the audience. “tradekey feels it isits responsibility and want to play itspart in building the community,” headded.

Brookes Pharmaceuticals CEO anda board member of the indus Hospitalsenator abdul Haseeb khan said on theoccasion the biggest problem in Pak-istan is that there is no concept of so-cial accountability which deals with theproblems of disabled people. “We mustwork on providing disabled people witheasy locomotion that enables them toparticipate in life,” he added.

“it is our social and religious re-sponsibility to help disabled peoplemove forward in the society. i am hope-ful that this workshop will play an im-portant role for their betterment and ioffer my full support to the project.”

Feather Engineering CEO abdullahMansoor said the project of FeatherWheel Chairs 3 was started years agoand the objective of the workshop is todevelop leadership among the disabledpeople. “Leaders are those people whobring a positive change and a success-ful person is the one who attains his orher goals,” he added.

asim Zaffar, a person with disabil-

ity and a social worker who hosts aradio programme, said disabled peoplewould have to love themselves first.

“Disabled people are not to be con-sidered as patients but rather as differ-ent people with different lifestyles,” he

added. “the wheelchair is a basic rightof a disabled people. Disability is an ex-perience and a person who is sufferingfrom it can better guide on the designand features of a wheelchair.”

trade key organised a seminar for

the people with disabilities to educatethem on how to live a progressive life.the picture shows senator abdulHaseeb khan, CEO tradekey JunaidMansoor and other participants of theseminar.

Under the native Jetty bridge, a boy uses plastic plates as oars to row his ‘raft’. ASIM REHMANI

Lo and behold!2nd Watan Card trancheonly for 260,000■ Sindh government to release second financial instalment under the project

■ Alleged corruption by revenue officials leaves many deserving flood

survivors in a lurch

■ over one million flood-affected families were provided rs 20,000 in first

phase of watan Card scheme

KARACHIaftaB cHanna

aFtER helpingout more thanone millionf lood-af fec tedfamilies in the

first phase under the WatanCard scheme last year, thesindh government has fi-nally decided to release thesecond tranche of Rs 40,000under the project... but toonly 260,000 people!

the worst-ever floodsexperienced by the countryin 2010 had brought largescale devastation in theprovince, displacing 1.8 mil-lion families and destroyingaround 11,985 villages. thefederal and provincial gov-ernments had announced anumber of measures for therehabilitation of the dis-placed people.

in september 2011, atleast 1.1 million heads of thefamilies affected by floodswere provided Rs 20,000each, under the first trancheof Watan Card – a projectjointly launched by the fed-eral and provincial govern-ments to help the floodsurvivors meet their finan-cial needs.

However, well-placedsources told Pakistan today,that the number of people tobe given financial assistance

was lowered due to the al-leged corruption of thesindh Revenue Departmentofficials.

supposedly, the federaland provincial governmentshad to contribute equally forthe provision of WatanCards with the initial esti-mate of Rs 190 billion re-quired to ensurecompensation to the flood-affected people in sindh.However, the Centre with-drew from its pledge laterand directed the provincesto rehabilitate the flood sur-vivors on their own.

the sindh governmenthad to arrange Rs 36 billionon its own for the first instal-ment.

and now with the timefor elections approaching,the Pakistan People’s Party-led sindh government hasundertaken a survey throughlocal revenue officials for is-suing the second instalment

under the Watan Card; butthe revenue officials have al-legedly reduced the numberof flood survivors from 1.1million heads of families,who were given Rs 20,000,to only 260,000 people to begiven Rs 40,000.

“While the governmentand naDRa have decided toissue the second instalmentof Watan Card to those iden-tified by the revenue offi-cials, the names of personswho did not grease thepalms of the revenue author-ities have been deleted fromthe actual list,” the sourcessaid. “the district coordina-tion officers (DCOs) werealso involved in massive ir-regularities and misreport-ing the number offlood-affected people, and inthe first stage more than80,000 Watan Cards weredistributed among peoplenot affected by the floods.”

Misreporting to the

higher authorities, the DaduDCO had included morethan 21 dehs of Mehar talukathat remained safe fromfloods in the list of calamity-hit areas. similarly, theDCOs of Jacobabad andBadin had also included sev-eral names of dry areas intothe flood-hit areas.

“the irresponsible be-haviour of the district gov-ernments under strongpolitical influences, hascaused losses in the tune ofmillions of rupees to theprovincial exchequer, be-sides depriving the genuineflood survivors of theirrights to rehabilitation,”the sources said, addingthat the sindh governmenthas also not taken actionagainst the people who re-ceived the Watan Cards outof turn and withdrew thedeposited Rs 20,000 fromthe auto-teller machines.


karachi 09PakistaN today


‘landhi MedicalComplex toget latestequipment’

KARACHIStaff RepORt

the Landhi Medical Complex would beequipped with the latest diagnosisequipment so that patients can availbetter medical treatment there,karachi Metropolitan Corporation(kMC) administrator MuhammadHussain syed said on saturday.He was speaking during his visit tothe complex. He was accompanied byMunicipal Commissioner Matanat alikhan, technical services DirectorGeneral altaf G Memon, sports andCulture Director Muhammad Rehankhan and the Health services seniordirector.“Doctors and paramedical staff would

be deputed at the complex and its on-going construction work should becompleted within the next twomonths,” the administrator said.the Health services senior directorgave a detailed briefing about the treat-ment and diagnosis facilities beingprovided to patients at the outpatientdepartment of the complex.Later, the administrator visited theDrug-Free Hospital in Landhi. speak-ing there, he said after the renovationof this hospital, the kMC would carryout a campaign against drugs in col-laboration with the Drug Free Foun-dation in which 200 drugs addictswould be treated.

KARACHIStaff RepORt

tHE Pharma Bureau has urgedthe government to immedi-ately form an independentcentral drug regulatory au-thority (DRa), adopting the

refined model employed in other nations,to oversee the pharmaceutical industry.

in a statement issued on saturday, therepresentative body of the multinationalpharmaceutical companies operating inPakistan, associated with the Overseas in-vestors Chamber of Commerce, said an in-dependent DRa is urgently needed toensure patients’ welfare and safety and torebuild confidence of the public in thepharmaceutical industry.

“Pakistan is lacking a central regu-lating authority since the devolution ofthe health ministry post-18th amend-ment, which is a major concern for theindustry and the Pharma Bureau inunison with the PPMa has been high-lighting this to the government since2010, the spokesman for the PharmaBureau said in the statement.

“this matter is now taking ongreater urgency, especially in light of

current tragic events.”Expressing extreme concern over the

current tragedy unfolding at the PiC inLahore, the spokesman said that eventhough none of the Pharma Bureau mem-bers’ products are responsible for thedeaths, but the body has proactively been

in touch with the authorities to assist inthe ongoing investigation.

the spokesman said that Pharma Bu-reau’s members take extreme care aboutpatients’ safety and welfare and its repu-tation in Pakistan is built around the sameexacting high quality standards these

multinational concerns employ in othercountries to produce quality medicines.

“all our members follow worldwideGood Manufacturing Practices guidelines,which include full quality certification ofraw material and other inputs in the man-ufacturing of medicines, Quality standardoperating procedures for every step in themanufacturing and selling process, stricttesting of medicines post-production andzero-tolerance of any deviation from stan-dards,” the spokesman said.

Pharma Bureau also strictly monitorsany adverse reports received about themedicines sold in Pakistan including in-ternational coordination with laboratoriesto verify and report on any findings.

the spokesman advised the publicnot to reach extreme conclusions based onevents, which are still not conclusive andthe investigation of which is still in itsearly stages. the issues at hand are com-plex and early conclusions cannot bedrawn without full investigation of facts.

However, the spokesman urged therelevant authorities to expedite the in-vestigation so that rectification stepscan be put in place immediately to en-sure that this kind of event does notrecur in the future.

‘Central drug watchdog needed

to avert another PIC-like fiasco’■ Pharma Bureau says Pakistan lacking central drug regulating authority since devolution of health ministry

post-18th Amendment

Probable future cricket stars of the nation are in the making along the slum of Machhar Colony. ASIM REHMANI

KARACHIStaff RepORt

the sindh government has de-cided to form a committee thatwould monitor the sugar millssituated in Ghotki town and itsadjoining areas for any environ-mental violation.

Provincial EnvironmentMinister shaikh Muhammadafzal visited Ghotki on saturdaywhere various nongovernmentalorganisations and journalistshave complained about environ-mental violations by sugar mills.

taking notice of the issue,the provincial minister directedthe officials of the Environmen-tal Protection agency (EPa) Re-

gional Office sukkur to establisha monitoring committee to checkthe effluent and waste being gen-erated by sugar mills and takenecessary legal action if any ofthem is found involved violatingthe Pakistan Environmental Pro-tection act 1997.

speaking on the occasion,the provincial minister said thatif any sugar mill is found exceed-ing the limits prescribed by thenational Environmental Qualitystandards while disposing of ef-fluent, their owners would beprosecuted under the environ-mental laws. “apart from indus-trial monitoring, other sectorswill also be fully kept in check tocontrol pollution,” he added.

He said it is the duty of allstakeholders that wherever theyfind any business or office pol-luting the natural environment,they must bring it to the notice ofthe authorities concerned to takenecessary action per law.

He assured non-governmen-tal organisations and journalistsof the area that their grievancesregarding polluting sugar millswould be addressed on prioritybasis and the issue would be set-tled accordingly.

afzal also visited the under-construction building of the EPaRegional Office sukkur and di-rected the contractor of thebuilding to immediately com-plete its construction.

Body to monitor polluting sugar mills Fazlullah behind

targeted killings

in Karachi: Malik

KARACHInni

interior Minister Rehman Malik hassaid that fugitive militantcommander Fazlullah is sendingterrorists from Gilgit to karachi fortargeted killings. talking to reporters on saturday,Malik said a group identified asDeath squad was involved insectarian killing incidents inkarachi, and that the lawenforcement agencies were about toarrest the killers. “neither anysunni nor shia is involved intargeted killings, instead a group ofsome people is involved,” Maliksaid. He said the mother of aterrorist had told the agencies thather son had gone to karachi to killfor Rs 60,000. the minister said theDeath squad used motorbikes andburqas (veils) while carrying outattacks. He asked the sindhgovernment to ban pillion riding inthe city for a month.


tHE NEW YORK tIMESdeclan WalSH

OnE morning last week, televisionviewers were treated to a darklycomic sight: a posse of middle-classwomen roaming through a publicpark in karachi, on the hunt for dat-

ing couples engaged in “immoral” behaviour.Panting breathlessly and trailed by a camera-

man, the group of about 15 women chased after –sometimes at jogging pace – girls and boys sittingquietly on benches overlooking the arabian sea orstrolling under the trees. the women pepperedthem with questions: What were they doing? Didtheir parents know? Were they engaged?

some couples reacted with alarm, and tried toscuttle away. a few gave awkward answers. Onecouple claimed to be married. the show’s host,Maya khan, 31, demanded to see proof. “so whereis your marriage certificate?” she asked sternly.

this hour-long spectacle, broadcast live on alocal tV channel on January 17, set off a furiousreaction in parts of Pakistan. Outrage sprang fromthe internet and percolated into the nationalnewspapers, where writers slammed khan’s tac-tics as a “witch hunt.”

“Vigil-aunties”, read one headline, referringto the south asian term “aunty” for older, bossyand often judgmental women.

On Friday, four local non-governmental or-ganisations filed a civil suit against the tV chan-nel in the supreme Court, hoping to galvanise thecountry’s top judges into action.

“Journalists don’t have the right to becomemoral police,” said adnan Rehmat of intermedia,a media development organisation that is amongthe petitioners. “We need to draw a line.”

images of moral vigilantes prowling thestreets have an ominous resonance in Pakistan,where many still recall the dark days of the is-lamist dictator General Muhammad Ziaul Haq inthe 1980s, when the police could demand to see acouple’s nikahnama – wedding papers – underthe threat of imprisonment.

But the strong reaction is also drawn from apressing contemporary worry: that the buddingtelevision media, seen as a force for democracyand greater social freedom for much of the pastdecade, have lost their way as part of a cutthroatbattle for ratings.

“it really aggravates me that the media isusing their power to intrude and invade our pri-vacy, often with no good reason,” said Mehreenkasana, a 22-year-old american-educated bloggerfrom Lahore, who wrote a widely circulatedprotest against the tV show.

the controversy has rekindled a debate aboutthe direction of Pakistan’s tV industry. since lib-eralisation in 2000, the sector has exploded fromone channel – the state-controlled one – to morethan 80 today, 37 of which carry national or localcurrent affairs.

the media revolution has transformed socialand political boundaries: in 2007, feisty coverageplayed a central role in pushing Pervez Musharraftoward the exit; in recent weeks it helped guardagainst a possible military coup.

But television is also a lucrative business con-trolled by powerful, largely unaccountable ty-coons. Last year Pakistan’s television stations had

advertising revenues of more than Rs 18 billion,according to an industry journal – 28 percentmore than the previous year.

amid stiff competition for viewers, channelshave relied on populist measures – rowdy politicaltalk shows and, in recent times, vigilante-style“investigative” shows modelled on programmes inneighbouring india.

some have a noble objective: holding to ac-count crooked public servants, police officers andeven fellow journalists. But others have veeredinto territory that could be described as Pakistan’sanswer to Jerry springer – voyeuristic, mawkishand intrusive.

in recent months, one reporter screamed at aman accused of child rape as he awaited trial out-side a courthouse; another hectored a man said tobe a self-confessed necrophile inside a jail cell;and a tV reporter “raided” a gathering of whiskydrinkers, even though alcohol flows freely at manymedia parties.

abbas nasir, a former head of a news televi-sion channel, said he was “nauseated” by somecoverage.

“Hosts are under pressure to bring in ratings,and there is carte blanche to do the most bizarrethings,” he said.

another critic derided such reporters as“pussycat vigilantes” because they avoid challeng-ing rich or powerful Pakistanis, whose Western-style lifestyles go unexamined.

“they only go after the people they know willnot bite back,” said nadeem Farooq Paracha, aculture writer.

khan’s show touched a raw nerve because itcombined simmering concern over media ethicswith wider fears about society’s conservative tilt.Even General Zia’s son was appalled. in answer toa question on twitter, ijazul Haq, a politicianfrom Punjab, said he was “still in shock by whati’ve heard about her show.”

in a telephone interview on tuesday, khan re-

jected her critics, calling them “an elite class thatdon’t even watch my show”, and said the showmerely intended to highlight the dangers that un-accompanied youths face in karachi.

she also denied that there was anything un-usual about asking couples for their wedding cer-tificate – even though she does not carry one. allof “Pakistan knows me and my wedding pictures,”she said. “so i don’t have to.”

But on Wednesday, the tV channel issued aformal apology for her show, followed by a shortclip of khan, sitting on a bed, offering an apologyof sorts. “i never intended to make you teary-eyedor hurt you,” she said.

the furore has renewed long-standing de-mands for media regulation. With the state-runPakistan Electronic Media Regulatory authorityseen as ineffective, the organisations that ap-proached the supreme Court on Friday hope thejudiciary can help. “We need to hold the media toaccount,” Rehmat said.

But others argue that involving the courts,with their history of heavy-handed interventions,could open the door to state licensing of freespeech. “it could backfire,” said Beena sarwar, ajournalist who helped rally protests against khan’sshow. “the media needs to do this themselves.”

amid the polemic, there is one bright spot:the use of twitter and Facebook to stoke debatehas shown how, even as social space contracts ina turbulent society, the virtual space is opening upnew possibilities.

But so far, the use of social media has beenlargely confined to the country’s English-speakingminority. it was striking how little attentionkhan’s show received in the Urdu media, which isread or watched by the vast majority of Pakistanis.

“My real worry is that Pakistan is movingrightwards, and this time the face won’t have abeard,” said nasir, the former head of a news tel-evision channel. “and before people realise it,they won’t know what’s hit them.”

weATher UPDATeS

low

28°CClear skieshigh

15°C 16%humidity

MonDAy TUeSDAy weDneSDAy27°C I 15°C 28°C I 16°C 28°C I 15°C

PrAyer TIMIngS

Starting time in Karachi

Fajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

5:57 7:15 12:45 3:53 6:15 7:33

CITy DIreCTory

PolICe 15

BoMB DISPoSAl 15, 99212667

FIre BrIgADe 16, 99215007, 99215008

eDhI 115, 32310066-2310077

KhIDMAT-e-KhAlQ FoUnDATIon 36333811

reD CreSCenT 35833973

goVernor’S hoUSe 136

ChIeF MInISTer’S hoUSe 99202051

MoTorwAy PolICe 130

eMergenCy helP

hoSPITAlS

ABBASI ShAheeD 99260400-09

CIVIl 99215749, 99215960

JInnAh 99201300-39

nICVD 99201271-6

AgA KhAn 34930051

TABBA 36811841-50

BlooD BAnK

hUSSAInI 32238405-8

FATIMID 32225284, 32258656

PwA 99215740, 32735214

CoMPlAInT

KeSC 118

PTCl 1218

KwSB 1339

CDgK 134

SUI gAS 1199, 99231603

rAIlwAyS

InQUIry 117, 99213565-6

CITy STATIon 99213538

CAnTT STATIon 99201118

AIrPorT

FlIghT InQUIry 114

PIA reSerVATIon 111786786

CollegeS / UnIVerSITIeS

KArAChI UnIVerSITy 99261300-06

neD UnIVerSITy 99261261-8

FUUAST 99244141-9

DUhS 99215754-7

SMIC 99217501-3

FAST-nU 111128128, 34100541-7

SZABIST 111922478

IoBM 35090961-7

IBA 111422422

IVS 35861039-40

SenSitiVitY and iMpetUOSitY

Group exhibition ‘sensitivity andimpetuosity’ from January 31 toFebruary 7 at the Eye For art gallery.Call 35378368 for more information.

ARt EXHIBItIONStARtS JANuARY 31 At 05:00 PMVENuE: EYE FOR ARt

Bijli, pYaaR aUR aBBa jaan

‘Bijli, Pyaar aur abba Jaan’ at 08:30pm from February 10 to 12 at thekarachi Banquet Hall. Call 0300-2647726 for more information.

tHEAtRE PLAYStARtS FEBRuARY 10 At 08:30 PMVENuE: KBH


dHURpad gaYaKi

an evening of Dhurpad Gayakifeaturing ayesha nadir ali onJanuary 29 at the 2nd Floor. Call35389033 for more information.

PERFORMANCEON JANuARY 29 At 07:00 PMVENuE: t2F 2.0

karachiPakistaN today

10For many, a television

show goes too far


Editor’s mail 11Sunday, 29 January, 2012

Influencing the SC?On sunday, January 22, 2012, a pri-

vate news channel aired an interview ofretired sC justice, khalil-ur-RehmanRamday with kamran khan. it was a de-liberate effort to influence the court incontempt of court proceeding. the mat-ter of the president’s immunity was dis-cussed in detail.

article 248 is self-explanatory andclear on the issue. it does not need anyinterpretation. the judge and the an-chor were trying hard to impose newmeaning on the term, and the article it-self. Justisce Ramday by appearing inthis special programme has sent awrong message. His statements wereabsurd as was his legal reasoning andarguments.

He thought that government failedto raise the immunity plea earlier onand the matter was purely civil and notcriminal whereas criminal court pro-ceeding were instituted by swiss casesin fact. His reasoning was askew.

the whole thrust of his argumentwas to give the verdict on the case, sit-ting in the programme. He should re-alise that he has retired from thesupreme Court. instead of wranglingwith the pending case before the court,he should enjoy his retirement.

JAVAID BASHIRLahore

Political moralitythis country desperately requires

enforcement of a code of ethics for allpublic servants, be they elected or mem-bers of the paid civil or khaki bureau-cracy. it is unfortunate that few of ourpoliticians who landed up in jails be-cause they faced criminal charges of cor-ruption and abuse of office, instead ofreforming, glamourised these convic-tions, as if they were all part of a politi-cal victimisation campaign.

in jails, vast majority are commoncriminals, thugs, land grabbers,swindlers, murderers, rapists and con-man who have swindled many innocentpensioners, orphans and widows of theirsavings.

Unfortunately, while trying to painttheir own prison tenures as acts of polit-ical victimisation, our politicians haveromanticised their jail mates as if theywere all Robin Hoods and have ap-pointed few of them to key executive as-signments, for which they neverqualified, and their criminal recordsbarred them from such assignments.

During past four years, this regimehas made many such questionable ap-pointments like those of adnan khwaja,ahmed Riaz, Mian khurran Rasool, andmany others who hold important postsincluding those of federal ministers.these unpardonable acts are not con-fined to this elected government, previ-ous governments have done so too.

Politicians like Wali khan, GM syed,Javed Hashmi, nawaz shariff etc weremade to languish in jail by militaryusurpers, not for allegations of corrup-tion, but for their political roles andhence can qualify as prisoners of con-science.

i do not mean to absolve all thesepoliticians of wrongdoings, but the factthat they were not put behind bars forfinancial crimes, qualifies them as polit-ical prisoners. Remember that it werethe native uniformed services who bru-tally murdered unarmed civilians inwhat is known as Jallian Wala BaghMassacre.

MALIK TARIQ ALILahore

rabbani’s allegationsin the ongoing spate of allegations

made by senator Raza Rabbani aboutkarachi Electric supply Corporation(kEsC), Rabbani has demanded thatthe government should take over theentity in order to improve its perform-ance. Rabbani has gone so far as toterm kEsC bosses as ‘economic terror-ists’.

it is highly surprising that eventhough various state-owned institutionslike Pia, Pakistan Railways, Wapda andPakistan steel Mills (PsM) are goingbankrupt, only kEsC is being targetedby Mr Rabbani.

it is true that kEsC’s privatisationhas been widely criticised and the com-pany’s performance has not been up tostandards but the improvement in theperformance of kEsC is evident nowa-days to the karachiites. there is onlyannounced loadshedding and the timeperiod has also been reduced.

institutes like Pakistan Railways arein great decline and are accused of ram-pant corruption. it is highly pertinentthat the senator pays attention to theseareas as well instead of just focusing onkEsC. He opposed kEsC’s privatisationmainly because it was done duringMusharraf’s time period.

the statement issued by kEsC inreply to Rabbani’s accusations clearlystates that till December last year, thefederal and provincial governmentsowed kEsC a colossal amount of overRs 56 billion under various heads, alarge percentage of which was due tounpaid power bills.

non-payment of such huge out-standing amounts and short supply ofnatural gas on the part of governmenthas been playing havoc to the powergeneration and supply system forkarachi consumers. it would be morefruitful if the senator takes actions toremedy this situation made by his gov-ernment instead of just criticisingkEsC.

MASOOMA IMRANKarachi

Plight of Sindhi youthOur constitution calls upon our

rulers to improve the lives of all citizensand provide them equal opportunities.

the fundamental rights and princi-ples of policy enshrined in the constitu-tion are reflective to it. Butunfortunately, nothing is being done toachieve the well being and welfare ofthe citizens.

Like other segment of Pakistani so-ciety, the youth of sindh are neglected.there are several challenges that cloudsindhi youth today. they are in thecruel clutches of poverty. they do nothave equal access to education.

Like the past unpopular govern-ment, the present elected governmenthas also done nothing to improve theirplight. the relevant provincial depart-ment is in a deep slumber. it has no vi-sion, no programme for the youth.

no one knows when our rulers willbegin to address the plight of the youth,when will they shed sweat and tear inpursuit of overcoming the challengesour youth faces today.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

Contradiction in words and actionthe problems of Pakistan’s ruling

elite is that they all try to emulate alifestyle of Mughal emperors and princes,who other than tales of their opulent liv-ing, have not much to their credit. imrankhan, like other politicians that he criti-cises so much, suffers from the samemental affliction to live in a home spreadover 300 kanals and than talks of cham-pioning for downtrodden masses, whosedaily life is full of misery, aguish and de-nials of basic necessities of life.

For instance, the other day, ik advo-cated celebration of Basant, totally un-mindful of the ground realities thathundreds of poor have had their throatsslit by chemical thread while the fewcould have their moments of ecstasy fly-

ing kites whose thread would cut otherkites.

What imran khan must realise is thatas long as the state cannot enforce disci-pline and regulate import or manufactureof such chemical thread, and punish allthose involved in this ruthless business,ban on kite flying must stay. You cannotjustify provision of such avenues of en-tertainment which result in death of citi-zens just because few dirty rich couldhave kicks.

the same absurd logic was forwardedby members of the so-called misled civilsociety that was discussing the death ofminor girls in a stampede during a musi-cal concert held by a school owned by anaffluent group minting billions engaged

in the business of private education. Justbecause this group runs a media channel,nobody dared point a finger at them.

the issue in this case should havebeen that why such schools and colleges,charging premium fee, are allowed tofunction without provisions of basicrecreation facilities like an auditorium orplaygrounds. Had this music concertbeen held within premises of a school,the sad incident would not have hap-pened.

While hundreds of poor citizens ofPakistan have died from spurious drugshanded out to patients of Punjab insti-tute of Cardiology, Pakistan’s politicalelite, be it those in power or those in op-position, thought it appropriate to go on

foreign tours and continue on suchleisure trips in spite of the gravity of thiscrisis.

the issue here is not PiC, which hasbeen serving the poor afflicted with car-diac illness, but the corruption within thefederal ministry of health which regulatesdrug manufacturers or the federal andprovincial drug inspectors, the police orFia tasked to check manufacture of fakeand spurious life saving medicines.

instead ik was in Davos surroundedby his new courtiers, most of whom hadserved Musharraf or the present regimeand were involved in abuses of office withmany having risen from rags to riches.

GULL ZAMANPeshawar

fuelling the problemMost cruelly, our government is poised to increase petro-

leum prices once again. Our state-economy is now such that ittotally lacks any cushion mechanism to protect our people, amajority of whom are poorer than the poorest in the world,from the daily fluctuations in prices of daily necessities.

this is indeed a sad commentary on the calibre of our na-tional leadership that we have had till today. We need a patri-

otic and sincere leadership to get rid of foreign yoke. We haveenough scientific talent in our country. But if we continue to geta leadership as we have had so far, we might as well give uptalking about independence and accept to remain as miserableslaves to foreign powers for as long as they wish.

ABDUL KARIMMuzaffargarh

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

Mr arif nizami, in his recent article,printed on 28 January in PakistanToday, has drawn a very clear picture ofthe issues that have engulfed the coun-try.

He starts with backtracking state-ment of the prime minister on COasand DG isi, fruits of back channel diplo-macy, continuing stalemate with the Usover natO strikes, Pak-Us relations, es-pecially dominated by military, lack ofauthority on the part of foreign ministryvis-a-vis civil-military relations, futurerelationship with the Us, HusainHaqqani's fate, appointment of sherryRahman as ambassador to the Us, col-lapse of memo case, Mansoor ijaz’s tes-timony, allegations against isi byMansoor ijaz, PML(n)'s lack of interestbeing complainant in Memogate, role ofParliamentary Committee on nationalsecurity, senate elections, general elec-tions, contempt case hearing againstPrime Minister, and debate initiated by

khalil ur Rehman Ramday, the ex-supreme Court judge on president's im-munity and advice to the apex Courtand many more.

Like poor law and order situation,increase in target killings, deaths of over100 people in Punjab institute of Cardi-ology and tussle between centre andPunjab. there is a long list of failures.

any sane person after reading suchserious ailments of the governmentmust be anxious to know if that is thestate of governance, how the govern-ment is surviving. the only plausible an-swer is that army's wings have beenclipped down for their own wrongdo-ings. there should be no doubt in any-body's mind that civil-military relationsare at their worst and there is no likeli-hood of early patch up. You cannotopenly scold army chief and DG isiwhich belong to your own army.

the army has ruled for a consider-able period and when not in power were

doing the same behind the scene. thegovernment wants to keep the army at adistance whereas their acts speak the re-verse. What is the justification of post-ing a retired major general asambassador when you have well quali-fied officers in the ministry of foreign af-fairs? Memogate is a self-created injurynow reaching its logical conclusion. Whyany sane person should come to Pak-istan when interior minister openly saysMansoor will be arrested? Commissionon Memogate and the role of Parliamen-tary Committee on national security is aself-contradiction.

Why should a retired judge, or forthat matter guests appearing in tV talkshows, should discuss the Memogateissue when it is still in the court? Underthe present circumstances, with the rolethe judiciary is playing, opposition's softcorner for the government not to derailthem and various major parties havingoutright confrontation, PPP should have

no problem in smooth sailing of senateelections. the writer has summed up thewhole issue in a very articulate mannerjust in one sentence: "However, theapex Court needs to be cautious regard-ing the president and prime ministerlest it lays itself open to the criticism ofengaging in a witch-hunt."

i would add the word extremely be-fore cautious as prime minister hashinted he is ready to go to jail on Mem-ogate. But the fact of the matter is thatPresident Mr asif ali Zardari has out-manoeuvred all politicians. asghar'skhan’s petition in the supreme Courthas proven to be a blessing in disguiseand the government should have nofears to complete their term of fiveyears. Genuine tragedies in the worldare not conflicts between right andwrong, they are conflicts between tworights.

MUKHTAR AHMEDKarachi

A conflict between two rights

IT genius Arfa KarimGeniuses are a rare breed and are

born in centuries. arfa karim Randhawawas an it genius. she created a signifi-cant place for herself in the it world atthe age of nine, and was declared as theyoungest Microsoft Certified Professional(MCP) by Microsoft Corporation Usa.

arfa was born to a family belongingto village Chak no 4JB, Ram Dewali inFaisalabad, Punjab, in February 1995.she was a brilliant student and an out-standing computer genius, who at a verytender age, in 2004, stunned the entireworld by becoming a MCP – the youngestin the world until 2008. On her remark-able achievement, Bill Gates, ChairmanMicrosoft Corporation Usa extendedarfa an invitation to visit MicrosoftHeadquarters in Redmond, Washington,

Usa. Undoubtedly, her visit to the Mi-crosoft Headquarters in the Usa was amatter of immense pride and honour notonly for herself but the entire Pakistanination.

arfa received numerous awards andhonours during her very short but ex-tremely illustrious lifetime. after return-ing to Pakistan from her visit toMicrosoft Headquarters in august 2005,she was awarded the Fatima Jinnah GoldMedal in the field of science and tech-nology. this award was conferred uponher by a person of not less than thestature of the then Prime Minister ofPakistan, Mr shaukat aziz. Yet anotherprestigious award conferred upon arfawas the civil award of the country, Prideof Performance award. arfa received an-other prestigious award in 2005 –“salaam Pakistan Youth award”. the

Punjab government has honoured arfaby naming a science and it park after herin Lahore “arfa software technologyPark.”

the government of Pakistan is con-templating to confer a prestigious civilaward upon late arfa karim. this is theleast the government could do to ac-knowledge the contribution and bril-liance of arfa who had earned laurels forthis nation and this country, during hervery short life span. arfa deserves more.the government of Pakistan must taketangible measures to fulfil the dreams ofarfa by giving concrete shape to the proj-ects she had planned to implement dur-ing her lifetime. in her death, Pakistanhas indeed lost a genius who, as veryrightly said, is born in centuries.

M FAZAL ELAHIIslamabad


comment12Sunday, 29 January, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Musharraf fearing the welcome he’ll get

extending exile

that General Musharraf has decided to put off hishomecoming hardly comes as a surprise since he hasbeen deferring his plans to return from self-exile onone pretext or the other. the latest excuse is that his

party’s executive committee and ‘‘friends and supporters”have advised him to stay away following repeated threats fromthe ruling leadership.

the announcement in this regard by the secretary Generalof the all Pakistan Muslim League coincided with PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s statement that Musharrafwould be arrested on his arrival because “there have beenmurder charges against him…and the supreme Court hasalready given a verdict against him”. the PM simply reiteratedhis government’s decision in his interview with the BBCduring his current visit to Davos.

Musharraf had also acknowledged in an interviewbroadcast earlier this month that he would be in danger inPakistan. But if he feels endangered, it is not without reason.there are court warrants for his arrest in connection with theassassinations of nawab akbar Bugti and Benazir Bhutto. andhe must also be aware of the deep-rooted hatred against himfor the excesses committed by intelligence agencies inBalochistan on his watch during his nine-year rule. therehave been hundreds of cases of mysterious disappearanceswhich remained untraced despite repeated orders by the apexcourt. the innocent citizens kidnapped from across thecountry on the mere suspicion of their links with the terroristnetworks were subsequently handed over to americans forinterrogation.

no matter what he says, the former president’s decision todefer his homecoming has more to do with his inability tosecure iron-clad guarantees from the world leaders for his safereturn to Pakistan. Perhaps he has not learnt one of the mostimportant lessons of history: Despots and dictators areabandoned by their foreign masters once they lose theirutility.

Musharraf’s dilemma is that his tiny support base inpolitics is also eroding faster than expected. those who wereonce considered his diehard fans have now started quittingthe party. that’s how other ambitious generals wereconsigned to the pages of history in the past.

our defenders need self-defence lessons

Simply inexcusable

something is basically wrong with the security system inthe country, particularly the one under control of thearmed forces. this is what anyone is bound toconclude after the attacks on GHQ attack and Pns

Mehran and now on the country’s premier military academy.abbottabad is no ordinary cantonment city. Besides PakistanMilitary academy, it hosts the Frontier Force Regiment,Baloch Regiment, the army Medical Corps and the Pakistanarmy’s school of Physical Fitness and Warfare training. it is afortunate coincidence that none of the nine rockets causedany human loss or injury as some 700 male and female cadetswere undergoing training courses with a large number oftraining staff when the attack took place. the excuse offeredby an official is nothing but a facile explanation of how itbecame possible for the terrorists to launch the attack. if theexplanation that “the place they used as a launch pad isaccessible from all sides and there are mountains at the back”is accepted, it amounts to admitting that with all the resourcesat the command of the armed forces the institution remainssimply indefensible. When plans to ensure the security for anysensitive installation are made, all possible loopholes are dulyconsidered and provisions made to cover them. throwing uparms in despair can only heighten concerns about the abilityof the planners.

the security lapse has evoked the memory of the swoop byUs commandos on OBL’s abbottabad compound.interestingly, Defence secretary Panetta explained on Fridaywhy Pakistan was not taken on board while conducting theraid on the compound: “i personally have always felt thatsomebody must have had some sense of what was happeningat this compound.” security lapses of the sort are bound toreduce the confidence of our allies, be they americans orChinese.

it has been claimed that unknown terrorists had launchedthe attacks. this raises questions about the talks that havesupposedly been initiated by the agencies with the hope thatthese would dissuade them from launching attacks insidePakistan. the attack leaves little reason for optimism. there isa need to take action against those assigned the task ofsecurity in the cantonment city. Punishing a few juniorofficials would be taken as no more than mere eyewash.

The ten pillars of justice

italked of seven pillars or corner-stones of justice last sunday but leftout three of the most important forwant of space. these are: dueprocess, presumption of innocence,

and absence of emotion, making ten pillarsin all.

Due process is a fundamental right thatincludes the right to defence, the right to callwitnesses in one’s defence, the right tocross-examine witnesses and the right of ap-peal. as officers of the court lawyers shouldknow. Yet, amazingly, lawyers, not rabblerousers, screamed at aitzaz ahsan for tak-ing the prime minister’s case and asma Je-hangir of Hussain Haqqani. Don’t they havethe right to defend themselves? Methinksthat in Pakistan lawyers and rabble-rouserare two names for the same profession. ifHitler had been arrested, the same rights ofdue process would have come into play forhim as for you and me. What america isdoing in Guantanamo and its other concen-tration camps is an abomination to dueprocess.

so important is due process that eventhe almighty deems it necessary to demon-strate that none shall be punished withoutcalling witnesses. Why would God need todo this? Because He wants to impress uponus the importance of due process, so impor-tant that even He who knows everythingalso follows it to satisfy every being that jus-tice has been done to them and they havenot been wrongly punished.

“that Day shall We set a seal on theirmouths. But their hands will speak to Us,and their feet bear witness, to all that theydid.” (Al Quran: XXXVI 65).

God’s witnesses are our skins, handsand feet, our eyes and ears. Frightened?Don’t be, for God is Most Merciful, MostBeneficent. He will be Merciful to us for fail-ing to discharge our duties towards Him –Haqooq Allah – but failing in our duties to-wards His creations – Haqooq-ul-Ibad – isanother matter. if you are of the an al Haqschool of thought like Mansour Hallaj, thenyou will wonder what this Judgment Day isall about for “i am the truth” – ‘Hairanhoon phir yeh mushahida hai kis liyay’ –“What is this observation for?” But that willtake to me to a whole new realm best left toanother time.

Why would human judges sometimesoverlook due process? Far be it for me toeven suggest that they don’t fear God. Darei humbly suggest that it could possibly bebecause of lack of understanding and surfeitof self-importance? they should rememberthat on the Day of Judgment they would notgo to God’s presence in shameful motor-cades, sirens blazing, strobe lights flashing.

Presumption of innocence and dueprocess go together. the onus of proof lies

on the prosecution, not on the accused. theaccused does not have to prove his inno-cence; rather, those accusing him have toprove his guilt, something that was shame-fully overlooked by our national accounta-bility Bureau initially. the rationale is thatit is better to let many go free rather thanunjustly punish even one. the enormity ofthis gets driven home in the case of capitalpunishment: if you hang one innocent per-son and later discover that he was innocent,is there any way you can bring him back tolife and undo the injustice done to him? ifthe supreme Court finds that there was amiscarriage of justice in Mr. Bhutto’s case,who will undo the wrong done him, who willbring him back to life and give him back the32 years he has spent in the grave?

Even someone unjustly deprived of lib-erty or reputation cannot be adequatelycompensated. How do you place a value onlife and liberty or any stigma caused by anunfair loss of reputation? that stigma is notonly on the person unjustly defamed but onhis entire family, which is injustice com-pounded. in islam, it is the duty of theleader and the state to protect the dignityand reputation of its citizens and their fam-ilies. not only do our leaders and state woe-fully fail in this duty, our media flout it dailywith great abandon, but neither our statenor our judiciary take a wit of notice, suomotu forsooth.

absence of emotion means: don’t hateanyone so much that it prevents you fromdoing them justice. nor does it give you theright to take away their right to defendthemselves. You, i and the lawyers have theright to accuse anyone provided we have ev-idence that will stand up in a proper courtof law.

“O you who believe, stand out firmly forGod, as witnesses to fair dealing and let notthe hatred of others to you make youswerve to wrong and depart from justice.Be just; justice is next to piety.” (V: 9). nat-urally, let not your hatred of others preventyou from doing them justice.

“O you who believe, stand out firmly forjustice as witnesses to God, even as againstyourselves, or your parents, or your kith andkin and whether it be against rich or poorfor God can protect both. Follow not thelusts of your hearts lest you swerve and ifyou distort justice or decline to do justice,verily God is well-acquainted with all thatyour do.” (IV: 135).

since most of us are Muslims by acci-dent of birth and take our faith for grantedbelieving what our elders, teachers and cler-

ics tell us while few are Muslims by convic-tion that comes only from knowledge andunderstanding, and we have chosen to callour Pakistan an ‘islamic Republic’, it is use-ful to remember periodically some of whatelse God has said about justice and how im-portant it is.

“God commands that when you judgebetween man and man, judge with justice.”(IV: 135). the word ‘man’ throughout doesnot refer only to the male gender but to allgenders. ‘Man’ is generic for human beings.

“allah has sent down the Book in truthso that you might judge between men asguided by God.” (IV: 105). now ‘in truth’ ismost interesting, because if the translatorhas used the word ‘truth’ for ‘Haq’, it takeson a wholly different dimension. But he hasnot used a capital ‘t’ for it, so perhaps itdoesn’t mean ‘Haq’. Why don’t you thinkabout it? Let me just say that ‘Haq’ has dif-ferent meanings: it is one of God’s names; itmeans the truth; it means rights, duties andobligations, as in Haqooq-ul-Ibad andHaqooq Allah.

“allah has set up the balance of Justice;so establish justice and fall not short in thebalance.” (LV: 7-9). again, capital ‘J’ forGod’s Justice and a small one for man’s jus-tice.

“allah sent aforetime His Prophets withclear signs and sent down with them theBook and the Balance that men stand forthin Justice.” (LVII: 25).

“We sent down with Our apostle theBalance of Justice, so that man may standforth in justice.” (LVII: 25).

there is balance everywhere, in every-thing. any wonder that the symbol of tem-poral justice is a blindfolded lady holdingbalanced scales, to show that justice is un-biased and evenhanded. Balance is Adl,more than simply justice, though justice isa very important element of balance. ifthere were no balance in mass, weight, ve-locity, temperatures, distances, speeds ofexpansion and God alone knows what else,the universe would collapse. there is bal-ance at quantum levels too. thus, Man isenjoined to maintain balance in his life andin society. an unbalanced society is absenceof Adl, where there is no egalitarianism, nodistributive justice and vast differences inwealth, power and influence. absence of Adlmeans absence of islam – Peace – God’sislam, not the cleric’s religions. God help us.

The writer is a political analyst. He can be contacted [email protected]

By Humayun Gauhar

peace is justice. justice is peace.

Well and truly the nucleus of the Memogate saga, amer-ican businessmen of Pakistani ancestry Mansoor ijazhas set out a list of conditions to be fulfilled if he is to

visit Pakistan to appear before the judicial commission investi-gating the memo issue.

in a letter he has sent in this regard, Mansoor ijaz explicitlystated that he would visit Pakistan for a day or two and wouldappear before the judicial commission but he maintained thatbefore doing so, he would need the assurance that the Pakistanigovernment should give him the assurance that he would re-main ‘safe and sound’.

another condition that he has levied is that the schedule

and itinerary of his visit should remain top secret. Mansoor ijazalleged that the former ambassador to america, HussainHaqqani, is certainly involved in the Memogate issue and thathe has solid proof of that to bring before the court of justice.But his dilly-dallying about coming to Pakistan seems to sayotherwise.

the court has also accepted petitions against Mansoor ijazand his arrival in Pakistan could mean that the situation willbecome unpredictable. He is the proverbial spanner in theworks. this case and its proceedings are a matter of seriousconcern for Pakistan and shady characters like Mansoor ijazmust not be allowed to milk the situation for their own benefit.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur RaufKhattak

Mansoor ‘no-show’ IjazDaily Pashtun Post

Regional press


comment 13Sunday, 29 January, 2012

legal violations; political ramifications

On the Lotus principle

One of the most important principlesof the international law on jurisdic-tion, emanating from the famous

Lotus Case (1927) PCiJ ser. a no. 10, isthat while it empowers a sovereign countryto legislate on internal matters, it also al-lows the country to legislate on the affairsof a foreign country, national, living or non-living person, etc. For example, the indianParliament can legislate against Hafizsaeed and his Jamaat-ud-Dawa. similarly,the Pakistani Parliament is completely sov-ereign in passing legislation against Balthackeray and his group of hoodlums,roaming the streets of Mumbai, threateningMuslims.

What the law, however, does not allowis the enforcement of said legislation out-side its territorial boundaries, unless thereis an agreement between the countries, toallow the contrary. simply put, india can-not violate the territorial sovereignty ofPakistan in arresting Hafiz saeed to enforceits legislation and the same goes for Pak-istan in terms of Bal thackeray.

Lately, a joke has been making roundsinside the policy making circles of Wash-ington and tel aviv that the rate at whichiran is “losing” its nuclear scientists, theremay not be a need for a military action after

all! Joke aside, such behav-iour may have serious polit-ical ramifications for theinternational order as iranhas publicly at the highestlevel accused both the coun-tries for killing its nuclearscientists. as you would re-call, some iranian nuclearscientists have died undermysterious circumstanceslately! the fact that both theintelligence agencies of theUs and israel, Cia andMossad, respectively, havein the past pursued killingof foreign nationals in for-eign lands to advance theirnational security strategies,lend credence to iran’sclaims. Furthermore, israelhas not unequivocally de-nied charges levelledagainst it by tehran, furtherbolsters the iranian case. ifiranian rhetoric is to be be-lieved, then both the amer-icans and israelis haveabused the application ofinternational law.

iran’s relations with theUs have been frosty, to putit mildly, ever since 1979.the Us, has since passednumber of legislationsagainst iran, its people,

companies, curtailing iran’s economic cloutin the world. the strategy has been toweaken the iranian regime. the Us Con-gress has passed these legislations underprescriptive jurisdiction, allowing it toapply its national law to any iranian event,territory, property, person, wherever theymay be present inside iran. to that end,President Carter, in 1979, issued ExecutiveOrder 12170, freezing iranian assets worthbillions of dollars inside the United states.this was done in pursuance of the funda-mental rule of international law that thestate has absolute jurisdiction over its ter-ritory.

More recently, exercising the above-mentioned fundamental rule, PresidentObama has signed the Comprehensive iransanctions, accountability, and Divestmentact of 2010 (CisaDa), wherein the Us hasfurther restricted imports of caviar, pista-chios, and rugs of iranian-origin. this how-ever does not mean that the Us inpursuance of its laws can violate the sover-eign territory of iran and shut down iran-ian carpet weavers, factories, or forcefullystop iranian farmers from growing pista-chio.

the same Lotus Case, which empowersa sovereign state to legislate on mattersoutside of its territorial boundaries, also re-stricts the enforcement of such law outsideof its boundaries. ‘the first and foremostrestriction imposed by international lawupon a state is that – failing the existenceof a permissive rule to the contrary – it maynot exercise its power in any form in theterritory of another state’, reads a few linesfrom the judgment in the Lotus Case. theUnited states and israel, prima facie, haveviolated this fundamental principle of in-ternational law either directly or indirectly.Under the law, both the Us and israel couldhave arrested and tried these scientists, ifand when they had entered their physicalterritories. By using to its advantage theprescriptive jurisdiction to legislate againstiran and by ditching the responsibility thatcomes with it; not to violate the sovereignterritory of iran, it has set a bad precedencefor others.

aspiring regional powers like india, byciting this behavior, may further destabilisethe south asian region. indeed an argu-ment was advanced by new Delhi, in thewake of american occupation ofafghanistan due to the september 11, 2001,tragedy, that if the Us has the right to huntits enemies outside of its borders, whyshould india not adopt the same path vis-à-vis Pakistan and its alleged harbouring ofpersons wanted under indian laws.

indeed, it is foremost the responsibilityof bigger nations to behave in accordancewith the law, so that others could follow,making this world a better place.

the historic moment has ar-rived for a radical revolutionin the rules of the game.

there is no other option, if we wantto protect hapless indian massesfrom severe bouts of depression,leading directly to loss of nationalvigour and collapse of carefully nur-tured pride. Cricket must now beplayed according to the laws of box-ing.

Compared to cricket, boxing isa humane and civilised sport. itknows when to stop. if the refereefeels that a contest has become aone-sided exercise in hammering,and infers that while a boxer mightremain technically on his feet buthis brain has become softer than anelection candidate's morals, he ar-bitrarily stops a bout. By all normsof decency, the australia-india se-ries should have been halted. it isimmoral to see eleven mature men,a fusion of superb spirit and indi-vidual brilliance, pummel a patch-work coalition of Dad's army andMum's Brats with ruthless ease andconsistency.

One of the significant successesof 20th century diplomacy was theGeneva Pact. it has banned torture.Why then does this callous worldpermit such unbridled torture onthe cricket field? Why doesn't thesPCa (society for the Prevention ofCruelty to amateurs) intervene insuch a humanitarian crisis?

Purists will argue that india lostits way when Rahul Dravid droppedMike Hussey at Melbourne in thefirst test, and australia recoveredfrom 27 for 4 to an unbeatable 240in the second innings. that sort ofcomment might, at best, fetch you afree coffee from naive friends. Warsare not lost because an officerdropped a flag.

Every indian journalist on tourhas by now met the australian taxidriver who asked the question,

"What's gone wrong with yourteam, mate?" that question missesthe point as inevitably as indianbatsmen miss the ball. india doesnot have a team. it has half-a-dozenplayers who are punishing theirageing limbs in search of even morecash from an indefatigable lottery.some batsmen are more anxiousabout the prospect of free land fromchief ministers under the spuriousexcuse that they are setting upcricket academies, than about theirnext score. a heretical question iscircling around even the finest wehave seen: are you playing forBharat or for the Bharat Ratna?

the formidable patrician Dr W

G Grace, whose beard was as longas his wit was sharp, once told anuppity bowler who had the temerityto get him out that the British spec-tator had come to see Grace bat,and an upstart bowl. He continuedat the crease. We should now applythat useful principle to sachin ten-dulkar: let him get his 100th 100,and get on with stitching together atotally new team, including at leastone 17-year-old who can becomeour next sachin.

Perhaps it is wrong to get harshwith sachin tendulkar, who stillhas runs to offer. Cricket is not agame you can play alone. Butsachin might yet want to recallwhat Vijay Merchant, the greatMumbai sportsman, once said:“You should retire when the publicstill asks why, not when.” But Mer-chant belonged to a generationwhen a test player got one poundsterling as spending money per dayon a foreign tour. those playersdidn't know how to spell a five-let-ter word called 'crore'.

Don't get me wrong. there isnothing unethical about the wealththat now dominates the game. Butmoney increases accountability. in-dian cricket is, instead, controlled

by a crony system in which admin-istrators, selectors, players andtheir chosen commentators protectone another. australia became in-vincible in my book on the day itscaptain Michael Clarke refused tocross Don Bradman's score when hecould have easily done so. that wasnot merely team before self; it washomage to australia's history, anda young genius telling us, with as-tonishing humility, that he wouldnot break an implicit honour code.

if there was a Border-Gavaskartrophy for alibis, however, indianswould have returned with heaps ofsilver. Gautam Gambhir's throw-away accusation that the hosts had

fixed the pitch was beneath con-tempt. Lose, but don't cry. it wasnot defeat that shamed india, butthe manner in which the side crum-bled repeatedly.

Of course, the players never al-lowed their performance to affecttheir camera-perfect preening.these guys are professional. afterall, they spend more time on televi-sion than soap opera stars. Even anewcomer grimaces with distaste atthe umpire after having pitchedfour balls short and one full in a sin-gle over. nothing is ever his fault.and he either already has or willsoon get an advertising contract toprove it.

the majestic Dr Grace hadsome useful advice for fellow crick-eters faced with columns such asthis one. "never read print, it spoilsone's eye for the ball." if india'spresent eleven had any eye left forthe ball, there wouldn't be suchprint either.

The columnist is editor of thesunday Guardian, published fromDelhi, india on sunday, publishedfrom London and Editorial Direc-tor, india today and Headlinestoday.

Why didn’t somebody put them out of their misery?

India’s tortured XI

By taimoor Ashraf

third eyeBy M J Akbar

if there was a Border-gavaskar trophyfor alibis, indians would have returnedwith heaps of silver. gambhir's accusa-tion that the hosts had fixed the pitchwas beneath contempt. lose, but don'tcry. it was not defeat that shamed india,but how the side crumbled repeatedly.


MUMBai: The beginning of the year saw thebiggest opening ever. Karan Johar’s‘Agneepath’ has set a new record on itsopening day and promises to pick up in theweekend like never before. The team ofAgneepath gathered on the set of yashraj to celebrate the success with themedia. Unlike, Karan Johar’s otherlove stories, ‘Agneepath’ seemed tohave more brawl and violence in it.Karan Johar said, “The dongries andmandwa is a bit new to Dharmaproductions. The other actionsequence I ever had in my filmwas hrithik being slappedby Amith uncle. That’s theonly action sequence Ihad in my 15 year career.I have tasted blood; nowI don’t know what’snext.” The original‘Agneepath’ which didn’tclick at the box officewasn’t a safe bet to playfor. Karan Johar told thereporters, “It’s my ownrevenge-a son avenging hisfather’s flop. It’s strangething that in perception

‘Agneepath’ is not a flop. There are few filmslike ‘lamhe’ and ‘Agneepath’ that the worlddoesn’t acknowledge as a failure. The youthloved it virally on videos and on DVDs.” headded, “The film is a tribute to my father. It’s

a special film for us; it was not an easytask. To make a cult classic comeswith a lot of expectations andbaggage. I think Karan Malhotra hasmade this film with his convictionand he is the reason why all of usare here today.” Besides, the success,the press conference also introduced

debutant director Karan Malhotrawho was kept away from themedia all this while. Amongother stars it was rishi Kapoor`sperformance which was praisedby one and all. however, rishiKapoor was sceptical beforedoing ‘Agneepath’. rishi Kapoorsaid, “If I get any credit for thisfilm then that belongs to KaranJohar and Karan Malhotrabecause their confidence inme convinced me to do therole. The credit goes to them.They choose me for thisfilm.” agencieS

MUMBai: In July this year, Friday the 13th, tobe precise, ranbir Kapoor will return to thetheatre. This time the ‘rockstar’, whowowed us with ‘Sadda haq’, will be seenplaying a deaf-mute with co-star PriyankaChopra, who plays Jhilmil, an autistic girl.The film will also mark the debut of Southstar Ileana D’Cruz in a parallel role. The pre-conceived notion is that ‘Barfi!’ earlier titled‘Silence’, is heavy on melodrama. But ranbiris quick to dispel the misconception. ‘Barfi!’is a fun, family film, a romantic thriller,”asserts the actor. “It’s about twodysfunctional people who bond together inthe nicest of relationships, one that issweet, touching and heart-warming.” whileranbir admits that he had to resort to a lotof sign language in the film given that hischaracter, fondly called Barfi, doesn’t have avoice, he clarifies that it won’t be difficult tointerpret his lingo. “It’s more like a game ofdumb charades that we play at picnics andparties.” UTV endorses the fact that Barfi!is a “happy” film, primarily targeting theyouth. with this in mind UTV, whichproduced the film, is trying to enlist thesupport of the youth. It got youngsters fromIndia’s top 20 business schools to come upwith some interesting ideas to promote thefilm. The student crowd was informed thateven though ranbir is a deaf-mute he’s nota lachaar Bechara.with this in mind, theywere asked to come up with a marketingpitch for Barfi! “we’ve picked the 10 best andplan to involve them while brainstorming onpromotional activities.” agencieS

14 Sunday, 29 January, 2012

MUMBai: Actor-filmmaker Arbaaz Khan,whose debut production ‘Dabangg’ rockedthe box office in 2010, says he is attemptingto make its sequel diametrically differentfrom the original. There is going to be nocompetition between the two, says Arbaaz.“when I did the first one, my intention wasto tell a story which I believe in, which Iwas excited about. That is what exactly I amgoing to take it forward. I have a story totell but I amnot worriedabout thepast,” hesaid. “withthat sincerityand honesty,if I take careof the script Iam sure resteverythingwill fall inplace. I amnotcompetingwith theoriginal‘Dabangg’,but I amtrying to

create another ‘Dabangg’,” he added.Arbaaz, who will take the reigns of directionin his hands for the sequel of the actionfilm, is yet to lock locations for the shooting.“Dabangg 2’ is starting in March. I have notfinalised my locations. There are couple oflocations I am thinking of. But I will finalisethem in a short while,” he said. ‘Dabangg 2’will star Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha andsouthern star Prakash raj. agencieS

IN LIMELIGHT

Jawad Ahmad, Tariq Farmani and a guest

Ghulam Ali

Hadiqa Kiyani, Sanam Marvi to sing for

Ali Zafar’s next

Colour Studio launches Crackle Colours

‘Not competing with original ‘Dabangg’I have tasted blood; now don’t know what’s next:

Karan Johar

Nida, Nuzzat and Maheen

Afsheen with Sidra

loS AngeleS: recording artist rihanna and Michael jackson’s

children, Prince Michael, Paris Jackson and Blanket Jackson

arrive at the ‘Michael Jackson: The Immortal world Tour’. AFP

KABUl: Foreign models present Afghan dresses

created by razia’s ray of hope Foundation during

a fashion show at ‘le Jardin de Taimani’. AFP

MeXICo CITy: US actor and wrestler

Dwayne Johnson aka ‘The rock’ and

Vanessa hudgens pose at a press

conference to present ‘Journey 2:

The Mysterious Island’ movie. AFP

new yorK: Actress Sarah

Jessica Parker attends the

premiere of ‘Smash’. AFP

MUMBAI: hrithik roshan, Priyanka Chopra,

producer Karan Johar, Sanjay Dutt and

rishi Kapoor attend a press conference to

promote their last movie ‘Agneepath’. AFP

gC University organised a musical evening to pay tribute to Tariq Farmani. PHOTOS By MuRTAzA ALI

NEWS DESK

POP singer-turned-actor aliZafar is eagerly waiting forthe release of the musicalbum of his next movie-‘London Paris new York’.

the reason being that ali has composedseven tracks in this film. interestingly, alihas not only composed these songs, buthas also sung a track along with twoartistes from Pakistan. ali has recorded aspecial fusion track that is a mix of popand sufi music. He said, “sanamMarvi is a trained sufi, ghazal andfolk singer. Hadiqa kiyani is aleading pop singer who was ajudge on ‘Pakistan idol’. it is aninteresting track and it will berefreshing for the audience to lis-ten to a different kind of a song in aBollywood movie.” ali hadtweeted, “Honoured to haveHadika kiani and sanamMarvi feature on the sound-track of LPnY music albumto be released on the 30thof this month(sic).” Hisco-star aditi Rao Hydaritoo, is on a high as shehas turned singer inLPnY. the actor reveals thather co-star ali Zafar encour-aged her to sing. “ali was al-ways singing on the sets andi would casually join him. He

is the one who encouraged me to sing andbuilt up my confidence.” she adds that shehas always had a penchant for singing. “ican’t imagine a life without singing.though others say my voice is good, i wasnot confident of it being used for record-ing a professional song.” Hydari admitsher co-star also guided her through therecordings. “He brought out the best inme. He’d say ‘if God has given you a gift,then use it’. that worked!” Hydari hassung a rock ballad and a club song alongwith ali for the film’s soundtrack, which

also boasts of varied music genres likepop, electronica and blues. the pro-

motional activities for the film in-volve gigs in Delhi, Hyderabad andPune, and that it is scheduled tostart in March. Directed by anuMenon, the film is about a couple

that meets at the bridges ofthree rivers thames,siene and Hudson, inLondon, Paris andnew York respec-tively. Hydari has alsobeen approached byZafar to be a part of his

forthcoming album,which may also feature

katrina kaif as a singer.she says, “i would behappy to be a part of it. iwould love to sing for myother films as well, ifthere is an opportunity.”

NEWS DESK

Colour studio, Pakistan’s most innovativeand exciting make-up brand, haslaunched an exciting range of nail colours-Crackle Colour looks almost like nail artwhen applied. annie Mansoor, CEO of al-lenora annie’s signature salon, was allpraise for Crackle nail Colours. “Cracklenail Colours are unique, and fun and ex-citing and these truly add oomphto any get-up,” she said. Cracklenail Colours work per-fectly if you applythem over completeddried nail polish.there is no need toapply multiple coatsof the nail colour. Onecoat is enough to givethe crackle effect.Crackle nail Coloursare part of the exten-sive range of productsput forth by Colourstudio, Pakistan’spremier brand ofmakeup. the Colour

studio range also includes lipsticks, lipliners and eye shadows. Designed formake up artists and make up addicts, theColour studio professional products aredesigned to be “feel good skin products”.infused with vitamins and created withpatented ingredients and the backing ofhundreds of years of cosmetic researchand development the brand symboliseshigh performance make up at a great

value for consumers. its innovativefoundation provides effec-

tive sun protectionfrom UVa and UVBrays as well as fromphoto aging. the Pronail Lacquer is cre-ated to be chip resist-ant and long lasting.the Colour studioProfessional exclu-sively showcases itsnew productsthrough fashionshows, while sellingthrough salons andby independentmake up artists.


MUMBai: Shah rukh Khan, Salman Khan andAnurag Kashyap are among the nominees for thisyear's ghanta and golden Kela Awards, which areIndia's version of the razzies. Salman and Shahrukh have been nominated in the worst actorcategories at The ghantas while ‘Don 2’ has beennominated in the ‘worstrip-off’ category forimitating “every hollywoodaction film”. Anurag Kashyaptweeted he would collect hisghanta award in person if hisfilm, ‘That girl in yellowBoots’, wins in the “holier-than-thou” films category.here are some of the othernominations:worstFilm: ‘ra.one’,‘Bodyguard’‘ready’, ‘Mausam’. worstholier-Than-Thou Movie: ‘Dhobighat’, ‘no one Killed Jessica’,‘That girl in yellow Boots’,‘Memories in March’,‘Shaitan’. worst Actor:Salman Khan –‘Bodyguard’, ‘ready’, Shah rukh Khan– ‘ra.one’, ‘Don 2’, Ajay Devgn –‘rascals’, ‘Singham’, ‘Dil Toh Bacchahai Ji’, Sanjay Dutt – ‘ra.one’,‘rascals’, ‘Chatur Singh 2 Star’, ‘Double Dhamaal’,‘Desi Boyz’, Vinay Pathak –‘Utt Patang’, ‘Tere MerePhere’, ‘Chalo Dilli’, ‘Bheja Fry 2’. worst Actress:

Kangna ranaut- ‘game’, ‘Miley na Miley hum’,‘Double Dhamaal’, ‘Tanu weds Manu’, ‘ready’,‘rascals’, nargis Fakhri- ‘rockstar’, Jacqueline

Fernandez – ‘Murder 2’, gul Panag-‘Turning 30’, Bipasha Basu- ‘Dum

Maaro Dum’. worst Song: ‘DhinkaChika’, ‘Jalebi Bai’, ‘Bodyguard’title track, ‘Dum Maaro Dum’,

‘Chammak Challo’.wTF was That:

Akshay Kumargoing to oxford

University in DesiBoyz, ghost rape in

haunted 3D, Theunexplained

science behind thescience fiction part of

‘ra.one’. how SonamKapoor and Shahid

Kapoor don’t manage toexchange a measlyphone number over 10

years in Mausam. ThatsAnything But Sexy: 3 girlsconned by ranveer Singh’slooks and acting abilities.ram gopal Verma’s cameraangles in ‘not A love Story’.

Anything involving Kangana ranaut in ‘rascals’.Akshay Kumar as london’s most in-demand maleescort in ‘Desi Boyz’. Any time Shahrukh Khansays “Junglee Billi” in ‘Don 2’. agencieS

NEWS DESK

adocumentary, made by afilm-maker and activistammar aziz has beenselected at the talentCampus of the Berlin

international Film Festival 2012 which isone of the world’s leading film-relatedevents. aziz, the only filmmaker to beselected from Pakistan, was chosen fromover 4300 applicants from 137 countries.

the documentary, ‘Rise of the Oppressed’is a strikingly realistic portrayal of the lifeand struggle of the power-loom workers ofFaisalabad which takes us into their darklives. Produced by a non-governmentlabour organisation, Labour EducationFoundation, it reflects the miseries,oppression and exploitation of the workingclass while it also celebrates their hopesand struggle for a society free ofexploitation. the film was also screened inBrussels, Belgium at an event of sOLiDaR,a European network of 52 nGOs, wherethe Labour Education Foundation wasawarded with the silver Rose award for2011. to his credit, ammar aziz has madevarious documentaries on social issueswhich have been screened at various filmand cause-related events all over the world.His interests include music and hecontributed to Laal band’s recent hit‘inqalab’ as a composer, vocalist anddirector. the 23 year old film-maker wasrecently included in the internationalChristian science Monitor’s ’30 under 30’people from all over the world for his artand activism. ammar will be representingPakistan’s leftist cultural activists in theBerlin international Film Festival which isgoing to take place in Germany’s capitalfrom 11th- 17th February.

15

help‘Barfi!’ turns toB-schools for

Wajiha and Sana

Shafqat Amanat Ali

deepika-Sidharthaheading towardsspiltsville?

MuMBAIzeeneWS

Reports about the growing closenessbetween Deepika Padukone and Ranbirkapoor have been coming in as the formerlovers signed up for ayan Mukherjee’snext and have become quite the bumchums off late. so much so that Ranbir iswooing his ex girlfriend back with lavishgifts. the new found friendship hasdefinitely given a blow to the Deepika-sidhartha Mallya relationship. the couplewho were seen in every event hand in handtill last year have suddenly been makingsolo appearances at events. a source said,“since august 2010, they have madeseveral appearances together. they havebeen strangely cold and aloof while talkingabout their relationship.” apparently,cracks started appearing when Deepikastarted talking to Ranbir again. sidharthahas apparently confided to some of hisclose pals that “the relationship is notworking and heading nowhere.” WhileDeepika refused to comment, it seems theactress hasn’t even been in touch with sidfor a significant amount of time.

i didn't expect ‘Harrypotter’ to get anOscar nomination:daniel Radcliffe

tORONtO agencieS

Muggles theworld over wereupset anddismayed by thelack of ‘HarryPotter and theDeathly HallowsPart 2’ BestPicture Oscarnomination thisyear, but it seemsthe film’s star, Daniel Radcliffe, isn’tthat disappointed. in torontopromoting ‘the Woman in Black,’Radcliffe seemed positively Zen aboutthe lack of academy recognition. “ididn't expect it to be nominated forBest Picture, and no, it doesn’t fazeus,” Radcliffe told Moviefone. notsurprisingly, Radcliffe doesn’t reallyplace a lot of weight on the academyawards as a whole and sits on thefence when it comes to winning one asan individual. “i have mixed feelingsabout awards for actors in general,” hesaid. “Obviously it's a lovely thing tobe recognised by the public or by yourpeers, but it’s all very self-congratulatory.” as for some Britishpress talk of him winning an Oscar for‘Woman in Black’? “that's very kind,but very insane.”

Sarah jessica parkerto star in ‘lovelace’

LOS ANGELES cBS

Filmmakers Rob Epstein and JeffreyFriedman confirmed toEntertainment Weekly on Friday thatthe ‘sex and the City’ star will portrayfeminist icon Gloria steinem in thefilm. Demi Moore, who had beenroped in to play steinem, pulled outof the film on tuesday, after she washospitalised following a 911 call fromher home the night before. theactress’ rep said she was beingtreated for “exhaustion” and to“improve her overall health.” Mooresplit from husband ashton kutcher innovember. EW reports that Parkerwill begin shooting scenes for‘Lovelace’ on Monday in new York.the film stars amanda seyfried as X-rated actress Linda Lovelace, whobecame famous for her role in the1972 film ‘Deep throat.’ the cast alsoincludes Peter sarsgaard, JamesFranco and Chloe sevingy.

Unrepentant Maya Khan fired!g Morning show host refuses to apologise for chasing dating couples in Karachi

Ammar Aziz: A progressive Pakistani voice

MUMBai: The Badshah of Bollywood seemsto be losing out on his friends and fans oflate. rumours are abuzz that Vidya Balan, ahuge fan of Shah rukh till a few days ago,has now begun to talk about Salman Khanover him. The actress was heard saying thatSalman is the ‘biggest star and my dad’sfavourite too’. Speculations abound as towhat might have been the reason behindVidya’s dramatic change of track regardingfavourites. now, the rivalry between Shahrukh and Salman being a fact almost castin concrete, Vidya talking about Salmanbeing her ‘favourite’ might actually offer onean insight into what might have been theissue behind the scenes. word has it thatShah rukh has been paying too muchattention to actress Priyanka Choprarecently, and thereby sidelining Vidya atawards events. The latter is obviously notvery happy with being ignored by Shahrukh, and hence she has taken to talkingabout Salman over Shah rukh. An allegedaffair and rehearsals at 3am in the morningdown the line, Shah rukh and Priyanka havehad a tough time wading through rumoursand speculations. Speaking to a daily aninsider said, “It’s clearly a Vidya vs PC face-

off as far as awards this year for the BestActress go. But while Priyanka’s ‘Saat KhoonMaaf’ flopped, Vidya’s ‘The Dirty Picture’ is asuperhit. not only that, even the industry isunanimous in their choice of who’s provento be a better actress this year. Butapparently this hasn’t gone down too wellwith Shah rukh, who’s been trying to pitchPC over her at every occasion possible.”Vidya or Priyanka – that seems to be thequestion for Shah rukh now. And on theother side, Shah rukh or Salman- is thequestion for Vidya. will the two make it upin time? or will their relation too, turn intosomething sour? zeeneWS

Vidya-the ‘other woman’ in

Shah Rukh-Priyanka’s life?

MUMBAI: Vidya Balan poses

during the promotion of her

new movie ‘Kahaani’. AFP

LAHOREStaff RepORt

MaYa kHan, a morningshow host who earnedthe ire of people acrossthe country when she ac-costed ''immoral'' couples

dating in karachi's parks has been fired byher channel, samaa tV. the channel actedagainst Maya khan after she failed to offeran unconditional apology for her show thatwas criticised by ordinary Pakistanis andmedia analysts. scores of people signed pe-titions asking samaa to take action againsther for harassing dating couples on hershow "subha savera Maya khan ke saath".

in response to numerous complaintsagainst khan over the week, samaa's chair-man Zafar siddiqi wrote in an email: "Weasked Maya to apologise unconditionallywhich she did not. the CEO asked her to dothat on Friday which she refused". siddiqi,also the founder of CnBC africa and CnBCPakistan, said khan and her team would"receive termination notices" on January30 and her show would be stopped thesame day. khan initially refused to apolo-gise for her show against dating, in whichshe was seen asking couples to prove theywere married by showing their 'nikahnama'

or marriage certificate. samaa subse-quently aired a formal apology for the showand beamed a short clip in which khan saidshe had never intended to hurt anyone.Many noted that khan had shown no re-morse for her actions. she was also quoted

by the media as saying that the "elite" whodo not watch her show were the ones ob-jecting to it. Media analysts said khan's ac-tions were probably driven by the race forratings among Pakistan's dozens of tVchannels. some nGOs highlighted the lackof media regulations and said they intendedto approach the courts to take actionagainst samaa tV. khan invited the wrathof hundreds of Pakistanis when she and herteam tried to drill moral sense into youngcouples dating in parks. she chased couplesalong with a posse of young and not-so-young women and two "analysts" who gaveinsight into the dating behaviour of couplesand commented on their body language.While most couples made good their escapeseeing a horde of women approach them,some countered them bravely. "Do yourparents know that you are here?" Mayakhan asked a couple perched on a bench."Do you know what people think of coupleswho date like this? Do you know how bad itis for the reputation of girls to be seen likethis?" she charged. samaa chairman sid-diqi said he hoped the action taken by hischannel against khan would settle theissue. But media analysts said the episodehad only highlighted the need for self-reg-ulation by Pakistan's news and entertain-ment channels.

Ghanta awards to ‘celebrate’ Bollywood’s worst



16 Foreign News

VIENNAafp

the chief Un nuclear inspector saidsaturday that a dialogue with iranover its atomic programme was longoverdue, as he prepared to depart fora visit to the islamic republic.

“We are trying to resolve all theoutstanding issues with iran,”international atomic Energy agencychief inspector Herman nackaerts toldreporters at Vienna airport. “inparticular we hope that iran willengage with us on the possible militarydimensions of iran’s nuclearprogramme. We are looking forwardto the start of a dialogue, a dialoguethat is overdue since very long.”nackaerts was leading a six-personiaEa team that was due to hold talks

with iranian officials from sundayuntil tuesday. they were expected toarrive in tehran in the early hours ofsunday morning. the delegation alsoincluded iaEa number two RafaelGrossi, an argentine, and the iaEa’ssenior legal official Peri LynneJohnson, a Us citizen, according todiplomats.

nackaerts, who is Belgian,declined to comment on whom hewould meet during the trip, which isaimed at clearing up what the iaEacalled this week “outstandingsubstantive issues” on tehran’snuclear programme. Expectations arehowever low, with the delegation notexpected to be given access to any sitesmentioned in a damning iaEa reportin november that raised suspicionsiran had done work developing

nuclear weapons.iran’s envoy to the iaEa, ali

asghar soltanieh, said on tuesdaythat tehran hoped the trip would“resolve any ambiguity and show (our)transparency and cooperation with theagency.” With iran denyingrepeatedly that it wants nuclearweapons and dismissing the iaEareport as baseless, the watchdog’schief Yukiya amano on Friday urgedthe islamic republic to show“substantial cooperation” during thevisit. the report, which has led to asubstantial increase in pressure oniran from the United states, theEuropean Union and others, detaileda string of areas in which it saidiranian activities were highlysuspicious. “We have information thatindicates that iran has engaged in

activities relevant to the development ofa nuclear explosive device,” amano saidon Friday at the World Economic Forumin Davos, switzerland. “We arerequesting that iran clarifies thesituation. We proposed to make amission and they agreed to accept themission. the preparations have gone wellbut we need to see what actually happenswhen the mission arrives.” iran’sPresident Mahmoud ahmadinejad hasinsisted that tehran is not dodgingnegotiations and was ready to sit downwith world powers Britain, China,France, Russia, the United states, andGermany for talks. the six powers arewaiting for tehran to reply to an Octoberletter sent by EU foreign policy chiefCatherine ashton that stresses thatdiscussions should focus on the “keyquestion” of the iranian nuclear issue.

IStANBuLafp

tHE Gulf arab states andturkey, which have spear-headed regional condem-nation of the syrian regimefor its deadly crackdown,

urged Damascus saturday to acceptan arab League plan to stop thebloodshed “without delay.”

the arab plan, which envisagesPresident Bashar al-assad transfer-ring power to his deputy and the for-mation of a national unitygovernment within two months, hasbeen rejected by syria. the foreignministers of the six Gulf arab statesand turkey, in a final declaration,said no significant progress was madeon the arab League peace plan“mostly due to the intransigent atti-tude displayed by the syrian adminis-tration.” the ministers “strongly

urged the syrian administration tofulfill without delay all of its commit-ments and obligations under the arabLeague peace initiative.”

saudi arabia is the largest mem-ber of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) and other members includeBahrain, kuwait, Oman, Qatar andthe United arab Emirates. “We hopesyria seriously evaluates the decisionsof the arab League, puts an end to re-pression against its people and start areform process in line with the de-mands of the people,” turkish For-eign Minister ahmet Davutoglu saidafter the meeting. turkey, once a closeally of syria, has been at the forefrontof international criticism over theDamascus regime’s crackdown onprotests and has also become a havenfor syrian opposition activists. the is-tanbul meeting comes amid a newarab and European quest to secureUn action over syria’s crackdown,

which is opposed by Russia. the Unsecurity Council has been deadlockedfor months on syria. Russia andChina vetoed a previous Europeanresolution in October, accusing theWest of seeking regime change.

in the final declaration, the minis-ters also agreed that international ef-forts should be focused on bringing thebloodshed in syria to an “immediateend” and paving the way for the initia-tion of a political transition process inline with “legitimate demands of thepeople.” international pressure on thesyrian regime has been mounting, asmore than 5,400 people have beenkilled since anti-government protestsbroke out last March, according to Unfigures. GCC secretary-General abdulLatif al Zayani will travel to Brussels onMonday for talks with natO chief an-ders Fogh Rasmussen. On tuesday, hewill meet with the European Union’sforeign policy chief Catherine ashton.

Barack obama calls for

bipartisan cooperation

in CongressWASHINGtON

afp

Us President Barack Obama calledsaturday for Democrats and Republicansto cooperate in Congress, saying theyshould put aside personal ambition totackle important issues together. “Weweren’t sent here to wage perpetualpolitical campaigns against each other,”Obama said in his weekly radio andinternet address. “We were sent here toserve the american people. and theydeserve better than gridlock and games.”Obama cited a threat issued earlier thisweek by freshman Republican senatorMike Lee of Utah, who said he would try toblock the president’s judicial nominees thisyear. Lee was outraged by Obama’s recentrecess appointment of Richard Cordray ashead of a new consumer watchdog agency.the senator and some other Republicansclaimed the president disregarded thesenate’s advice-and-consent role in makingthis move. Obama took issue with thisapproach, arguing that “one senatorgumming up the works for the wholecountry is certainly not what our foundingfathers envisioned.” He said neither of thetwo parties has been blameless in usingobstructionist tactics, and it was time toput an end to them. “i’m asking Congress,both Democrats and Republicans, to stopthis kind of behavior by passing a rule thatallows all judicial and public servicenominations a simple up-or-down votewithin 90 days,” he said.

Thousands back

Putin in ‘russian

workers’ protestMOSCOW

afp

around 15,000 people saturday thronged acity in the Russian Urals in rally organisedby labour groups to show mass workingclass support for Vladimir Putin’s bid for anew kremlin term, police said. the rally inYekaterinburg appeared to be a move bythe authorities and trade unions to showPutin retains broad workers’ support afterthe mass protests against his rule mainlyattended by the Moscow middle class. thedemonstrators held up pro-Putin bannersincluding “Russia needs a strong president”and “We support a stable future” as well asones expressing pride at being workers —“a metal worker — something to be proudof”, television pictures showed. Regionalpolice spokesman Valery Gorelykh told theinterfax news agency that the “meeting hadproceeded calmly without any violations ofthe public order” and attracted some15,000 people. the rally took place on themassive square in front of the railwaystation in Yekakerinburg, a position thatallowed other workers to be easily broughtin by train or bus in from the neighbouringChelyabinsk and Perm regions. themeeting was presented as the brainchild ofworkers from the Uralvagonzavod factoryin Yekaterinburg, a plant famed worldwideas the producer of the t-90 tank. One ofthe factory’s workers, a man named igorkholmanskikh, had told Putin during hisphone-in with the nation on December 15that he was ready with his colleagues tohelp implement security in the oppositionprotests. “if our police are unable to workor cope then myself and my mates areready to come ourselves and ensurestability — of course within the limits of thelaw,” he said in comments that have nowbecome famous across Russia. the Russiantrade Union Federation — a body thatgroups around 25 million workers — isplanning pro-Putin meetings acrossRussian in the run-up to the March 4presidential elections in a bid to outshinethe opposition protests. a mass pro-Putinrally is expected in Moscow on February 4,the same day when the opposition isplanning a huge march though the south ofthe capital expected to be attended by tensof thousands of people. analysts have saidthe protest wave has shown a split inRussian society with the middle class —who now holiday abroad and access theinternet through smartphones — far moreinclined to back the anti-Putin movement.

IrAN DIALoGue ‘LoNG overDue’: IAeA oFFICIAL

HeRat: afghan wrestlers compete as spectators watch during a traditional outdoor wrestling match on Saturday. AFP

Gulf states, Turkey urgeSyria to accept AL plan

15 dead, 40 lost

from boat off libyatRIPOLI

afp

at least 15 somali migrants were killedand 40 left missing after their boatcapsized off the coast of Libya this week,the somali ambassador to tripoli saidsaturday. “Fifteen bodies, including onechild and 12 women, were recovered offthe coast of Misrata after their boatsank,” ambassador abdelghami Waistold aFP, adding the bodies were foundWednesday on the shore of the westernport city. the boat had been carrying 55somalis, Wais said, and the otherpassengers were still missing. “i’ve justreturned from Misrata after the burials,”the envoy said. the internationalOrganisation of Migration, contacted byaFP, said it was unaware of the accident.Libya has for decades been a destinationand a transit country to European shoresfor hundreds of thousands of africanmigrants seeking jobs and a better life.the ousted regime of slain dictatorMoamer kadhafi used the issue to exertpressure on Europe and asked for fivebillion euros (more than 6.5 billiondollars) from the European Union lastyear to stem the flow of illegals.


Foreign News 17Sunday, 29 January, 2012

KANOafp

GUnMEn in nigeria havekilled at least one officerafter opening fire on a policestation in the city of kano,where attacks claimed by is-

lamists left 185 dead last week, police saidsaturday. security forces in africa’s mostpopulous nation and top oil producer arestruggling to contain the menace by theBoko Haram islamist sect that has used in-creasingly bold tactics to kill more than200 people this year alone.

the latest attack in kano, the eco-nomic heart of nigeria’s mainly Muslim

north, occurred just before 7:00 pm (1800GMt) on Friday, police said on saturday,confirming the assault first reported byresidents. Gunmen “opened fire on ourmen and the policemen on duty fired backleading to a shootout,” city policespokesman Magaji Majia said, adding thatone officer was killed. Witnesses had pre-viously told aFP two officers had died.

the attack came at the start of a night-time curfew that has been in effect in thenorthern city since a January 20 assault byBoko Haram killed 185 people. kano hadpreviously escaped the worst of BokoHaram’s violence, and the brazen, coordi-nated strikes that primarily targetted po-lice stations in a major city highlighted the

group’s renewed strength. since then inkano, another police station was attackedon tuesday night, with authorities report-ing three people wounded and a Germanengineer was kidnapped on the outskirts ofcity on thursday. the Friday night attackhappened in the Mandawari neighbour-hood. Residents said they heard the gun-men shouting “allahu akbar” as theyconverged on the police station, travellingon motorcyles and in an all-terrain vehicle.

the purported head of Boko Haram,abubakar Muhammad shekau, threatenedmore violence in an audio recording re-cently posted on Youtube. shekau hasbeen seen by some as more eager to resortto violence than his predecessor, Mo-

hammed Yusuf, and under his leadership,Boko Haram is seemingly able to strike atwill. nigerian President GoodluckJonathan has faced scathing criticism forfailures to stem the violence and fired thecountry’s police chief this week, vowing tooverhaul a force that had lost public trustamid the deepening security crisis.

the police in southeastern Enugustate told aFP on saturday that 25 armedmen believed to have come from the vio-lence-plagued predominantly Muslimnorth were arrested Friday while travel-ling on a bus headed to the mainly Chris-tian south. the men were found with 19home-made guns and some machetes dur-ing a search at a highway police check-

point. there were no initial indications themen were islamist fighters, saidspokesman Ebere amaraizu, but added“the timing (of their trip) is wrong,” clari-fying that the arrests were made amidheightened security concerns. BokoHaram has previously said that it wants tocreate an islamic state in nigeria’s deeply-impoverished mainly Muslim north, andhas charged the government with harass-ing Muslims and raiding islamic schools.the group was also blamed for coordi-nated attacks on Christmas Day, themostly deadly at a Catholic Church nearthe capital abuja where at least 44 peoplewere killed, but the group’s victims in gen-eral, also include scores of Muslims.

Gunmen attack police post in flashpoint Nigerian city

Kyrgyz prisoners

end ‘lip-sewing’

hunger strikeBISHKEK

afp

thousands of kyrgyz prisoners haveended a 10-day hunger strike against jailconditions that saw 1,200 inmates sewup their lips in protest, an official said onsaturday. “all the prisoners inkyrgyzstan have ceased their hungerstrike,” the deputy head of the prisonsservice kubanychbek kenenbayev toldreporters, saying that a women’s prisonin the village of stepnoe was the last toagree. the hunger strike came after theprison authorities tightened the regimein kyrgyz jails following riots that brokeout in a Bishkek prison on January 16,apparently over the transfer of a criminalboss to a different jail. almost 1,200 ofthe hunger-strikers took the extrememeasure of sewing their lips togetherwith thread, needle and even staples. Butthe authorities insisted their duty was toprotect the rule of law against organisedcrime and claimed the prisoners werestriking in solidarity with convictedcriminal boss Damir saparbayev ratherthan over human rights. “they ended thehunger strike after being convinced thatthere would be no more excesses on thepart of their guards,” added kyrgyzstan’srights ombudsman tursunbek akun,without giving further details. He saidthat around midnight the prisoners hadhelped each other to un-sew their lipsbut they were now turning to medicaltreatment to ensure that their mouthswere not infected.

resurgent romney

regains momentum

in Florida

CAPE CANAVERALafp

Republican White House hopeful MittRomney stepped up his campaign inFlorida saturday after a new opinion pollshowed he was gaining momentum in arace against archrival newt Gingrich. Withonly three days to go until the vital Floridaprimary, the two rivals barnstormed thehuge battleground state which could provea make-or-break stop in their battle for theRepublican Party crown. after a shockdefeat by Gingrich in south Carolina lastweekend and a slew of attacks, Romney’scampaign got a fresh boost as he bids to bethe party’s nominee to take on DemocraticPresident Barack Obama in the novemberelections. a Quinnipiac University surveyshowed the former Massachusetts governorat 38-29 percent over former House ofRepresentatives speaker Gingrich inFlorida, re-capturing the lead after slippingbadly over recent days. the poll of likelyRepublican voters was taken before thecandidates’ televised debate on thursday,but it indicated the race may be swingingback in favor of multimillionairebusinessman and former venture capitalistRomney. “newt Gingrich’s momentumfrom his south Carolina victory appears tohave stalled and governor Mitt Romneyseems to be pulling away in Florida,” saidPeter Brown, assistant director of theQuinnipiac University Polling institute.texas congressman Ron Paul, who hasdone virtually no campaigning in thesunshine state, was on 14 percent, andformer Pennsylvania senator Ricksantorum was in fourth place, with 12percent, the survey said. the field has nownarrowed in Florida to a two-man racebetween Romney and Gingrich, who tradedbitter attacks in a debate late thursday.Gingrich supporters were still firmlybehind their man, manning the phones andhanding out pamphlets in the finalcountdown towards tuesday’s Republicanpresidential primary here. “the country isunderwater, the house is flooded, we wantthe best plumber regardless of the flaws hecan have,” said campaign official BertRalston at Gingrich’s Jacksonvilleheadquarters. after a string of debateswhere he was criticized for lacking passion,Romney came out swinging, rounding onGingrich for alleging he was againstimmigrants and dodged his taxes. “We arenot anti-immigrant. We are not anti-immigration,” the former Massachusettsgovernor said.

BiSHnUpUR: an election official takes a photograph of a voter as at least five people were killed and two injured in india’s restive north-eastern state of Manipur in election-relatedviolence on Saturday. AFP

NEW DELHIafp

Rebels shot dead five people at apolling station in india’s northeaston saturday as voting began in thefirst of five local elections seen as apopularity test for the nationalCongress government.

the separatist rebels sprayedthe voting booth with bullets, killingthree election officials, aparamilitary trooper and a civilianin thangpi, a village south ofManipur state capital imphal, policechief Priya singh said. “themilitants opened random fire,”singh told aFP, adding two otherpeople were hurt in the attack whichcame despite tens of thousands ofsecurity forces deployed in a bid tothwart attacks during the voting fora new assembly.

the rebels who staged the attackon the crowded polling booth in far-flung Manipur were believed to befrom the national socialist Councilof nagaland, singh said, but addedno group had claimed responsibility.the voting in Manipur was the firstof five assembly elections viewed as amini-referendum for PremierManmohan singh’s embattledCongress coalition which is at thecentre of a storm of corruption and

mismanagement scandals. national polls are due in 2014.

tensions were already elevated inimpoverished Manipur after fiveexplosions in the run-up to the pollskilled two people, along with rebelcalls for a boycott of the election,police said. india’s northeast hasbeen wracked by deadly separatistinsurgencies since the country’sindependence in 1947. at least 30ethnic rebel groups are active inhighly militarised Manipur, a state ofjust 2.7 million people.

the voting in the states ofManipur, Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa isbeing staggered through Februaryand early March with the results tobe announced in early March. Whileregional issues will weigh heavily inthe five elections, the polls areputting to the test not only thestanding of Congress but also of 41-year-old Rahul Gandhi, tipped as afuture prime minister.

Gandhi, scion of the nehru-Gandhi political dynasty that hasdominated india for most of its post-independence history, has takencentre stage during campaigning forthe elections. next weekend’selections take place in caste-rivenUttar Pradesh which traditionallyinfluences the formation of the

national government and whereGandhi has been focusing hiscampaigning energies. the pivotalstate of 200 million people, governedby the mercurial chief ministerMayawati — known as india’s “DalitQueen” — will send 80 members tothe 552-seat parliament in the nextnational elections in 2014.

Mayawati, who comes from an“untouchable” or Dalit communityon the bottom of india’s castehierarchy, has built up a reputationas a populist leader who taps intomassive support among low-casteindians, who are often marginalised.Congress is not tipped to win inUttar Pradesh, but if the bachelorGandhi can improve on his party’swoeful performance in the lastelections in 2007, he can lookforward to a shot of “politicalViagra,” said analyst Uday Bhaskar.But the party is expected by somecommentators to regain power in thekey agricultural heartland of Punjaband the mountainous state ofUttarakhand. Congress is also seenas virtually certain to extend its rulein Manipur after winning all but oneelection there since 1984. the fifthregion in play is Goa, the coastalresort where Congress has long beendominant and where it is currentlyholds power in a coalition.

Rebels shoot dead five inIndian election violence


MobiliNk Jazz CuP

Page 19


Imperious Azarenkacrowned women’s queen

ABu DHABIafp

LEFt-aRM spinner abdulRehman took a career best 6-25to help Pakistan humble Englandby 72 runs in the second testhere on saturday, to give them an

unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match se-ries. the 31-year-old twice took two wicketsin successive overs to dent England's chaseafter they were set a 145-run target on aweary fourth day abu Dhabi stadium pitch,bowling them out for 72 - their lowestagainst Pakistan in all tests. Rehman's ef-fort overshadowed Monty Panesar's 6-62,in his first test for 30 months, which fin-ished Pakistan's second innings at 214 inthe morning. this is England's first seriesdefeat after being unbeaten in their previ-

ous nine since their loss to the West indiesin early 2009 -- a sequence which saw themrise to world number one in the test rank-ings in august last year.

Pakistan won the first test in Dubai byten wickets. the third test will also be playedin Dubai from February 3. skipper Misbah-ul Haq said Pakistan wanted to make amatch out of it after setting a tricky target."We knew that it would be difficult so wewanted to make a match out of it," said Mis-bah, who has now won eight tests with onedefeat since taking over in October 2010."Our bowlers led by Rehman responded welland this is a great win." strauss showed hisdisappointment at the woeful effort. "it'spretty disappointing," said strauss, whoseside last lost two tests in a row against southafrica in July 2008. "We must acknowledgehow well Pakistan bowled and they thor-

oughly deserved the series win." Rehmanwas ably assisted by off-spinners saeedajmal (3-22) and Mohammad Hafeez (1-11)in a match which saw spinners dominatefrom the first day. England lost their top fourbatsmen in the space of just 37 balls after anextra cautious start on a difficult pitch. Eng-land captain andrew strauss topscored with32 before he became one of Rehman's vic-tims during his maiden five-wicket haul.

in the penultimate over before tea,Rehman trapped kevin Pietersen (one) andtwo balls later bowled Eoin Morgan(nought) to raise hopes of an unlikely winfor Pakistan. sensing they could only upsettheir rivals through early wickets, Pakistanopened the bowling with off-spinner Mo-hammad Hafeez who responded well bycatching alastair Cook (seven) off his ownbowling after England had edged cautiously

to 21 by the 15th over. Bell, promoted tonumber three after Jonathan trott was un-well, was all at sea against master spinnerajmal and his tentative push went throughhis legs to hit the stumps. He made onlythree. Pietersen, who has been woefully outof form making just 16 runs in the series,managed one before Rehman trapped himand in the same over had the equally out ofform Morgan bowled to dent England'shopes of a victory. Rehman then accountedfor trott (one) and stuart Broad (nought)in the same over to leave England 7-68.ajmal dismissed Graeme swann (nought)and Matt Prior (18) to complete his 100 testwickets in his 19th match before andersonwas caught off Rehman to give Pakistan asensational win. England's previous lowestagainst Pakistan was 130 -- made on two oc-casions at the Oval in 1954 and Lahore in

1987. Earlier, Pakistan lost their last sixwickets with the addition of 89 runs afterresuming at 125-4, with all hopes pinned onazhar ali and asad shafiq.

Panesar took three of those wickets tofinish with his eighth five-wicket haul intests. azhar ali (68) and asad shafiq (43)added 88 for the fifth wicket before Panesarstruck. But England's decision to take thesecond new ball as soon as it was due paidrich dividends as anderson removed thedangerman ali with a sharp rising deliverywhich caught the edge and was caught be-hind by Prior. Broad then had adnanakmal (13) caught by strauss in the slips offan ambitious drive in the next over as Pak-istan wilted. Rehman (10) and ajmal (17)added an invaluable 36 for the eighthwicket before Panesar wrapped up the in-nings by taking the last two wickets.

Rehman makes England crumble in the desertg Pakistan clinch series with yet another show of spin

paKiStan 1st innings 257 (Misbah-ul Haq 84, asad Shafiq 58;

S. Broad 4-47, g. Swann 3-52)

england 1st innings 327 (a. cook 94, S. Broad 58 not out;

Saeed ajmal 4-108, Mohammad Hafeez 3-54)

paKiStan 2nd innings (overnight 125-4)

Mohammad Hafeez lbw b panesar 22

taufiq Umar b Swann 7

azhar ali c prior b anderson 68

Younis Khan b panesar 1

Misbah-ul Haq lbw b panesar 12

asad Shafiq c anderson b panesar 43

adnan akmal c Strauss b Broad 13

abdul Rehman lbw b Swann 10

Saeed ajmal c anderson b panesar 17

Umar gul not out 10

junaid Khan b panesar 0

eXtRaS: (b5, lb6) 11

tOtal: 214

fall of wickets: 1-29 (Hafeez), 2-29 (Umar), 3-36 (Younis), 4-54

(Misbah), 5-142 (Shafiq), 6-170 (ali), 7-172 (adnan), 8-198

(Rehman), 9-208 (ajmal).

BOWling:

anderson 14-3-39-1

Broad 20-9-36-1

panesar 38.2-18-62-6

Swann 27-5-66-2

Overs: 99.2

england 2nd innings

a. Strauss lbw b Rehman 32

a. cook c and b Hafeez 7

i. Bell b ajmal 3

K. pietersen lbw b Rehman 1

e. Morgan b Rehman 0

M. prior c Shafiq b ajmal 18

j. trott lbw b Rehman 1

S. Broad b Rehman 0

g. Swann lbw b ajmal 0

j. anderson c gul b Rehman 1

M. panesar not out 0

eXtRaS: (lb9) 9

tOtal: 72

fall of wickets: 1-21 (cook), 2-26 (Bell), 3-33 (pietersen), 4-33

(Morgan), 5-56 (Strauss), 6-68 (trott), 7-68 (Broad), 8-71

(Swann), 9-72 (prior)

BOWling: Hafeez 8-3-11-1, gul 3-0-5-0, ajmal 15-7-22-3,

Rehman 10.1-4-25-6.

Overs: 36.1, toss: pakistan won by 72 runs, Umpires: Steve

davis (aUS) and Bruce Oxenford (aUS), tV umpire: Billy

Bowden (nzl), Match referee: javagal Srinath (ind).

ScOReBOaRd

aBU dHaBi: Abdur rehman (2nd l) is congratulated after dismissing england's eoin Morgan during the second Test at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. REuTERS

ADELAIDEafp

a resurgent australia wrapped up an em-phatic 4-0 series humiliation of india onsaturday after sealing a 298-run win in thefourth and final test at the adelaide Oval.the end of another one-sided contest wasswift with the australians snapping up thefinal four wickets in an hour to skittle indiafor 201 and inflict an eighth away test de-feat on the trot for the demoralised tourists.

Despite the series drubbing, whichcomes after they were similarly hammered4-0 in England last year, india, once ratedthe best in the world, cling on to third placeon the iCC test rankings by a decimal pointover the hosts. "i said at the start of the se-ries our goal was to win every test matchwe played," said skipper Michael Clarke,whose promotion to the top job at the ex-pense of Ricky Ponting has resulted in asignificant improvement.

"a lot of hard work has gone in to getthis result. it looks convincing, the end re-sult winning 4-0, but i can guarantee therewere certainly a lot of tough times through-out this test series," said man-of-the-seriesClarke. "We've played some really goodcricket, we've played some very consistentcricket, and that's very satisfying." aus-tralia's dominance over a hugely disap-

pointing india comes just a year after theashes series humiliation at home to Eng-land. there would be no repeat of that fi-asco, however, as the hosts won by 122 runsin Melbourne in the first test, an inningsand 68 runs in sydney and an innings and37 runs in Perth, before the adelaide anni-

hilation. australia's bowlers, led by pace-men Ben Hilfenhaus (27 wickets) and Petersiddle (23), put a huge hole in the reputa-tions of india's decorated batting lineup. inthe end it was the eight-test youngsterVirat kohli who topped the beleagueredtourists' batting averages with 37.50. He

scored the only century of the series for histeam as the feted top order failed miser-ably. "it's difficult to explain what wentwrong," stand-in india captain Virendersehwag said. "We didn't bat well, we didn'tgive a good start as openers, hopefully wewill do well in coming series.

win delights MisbahABu DHABI

agencieS

after leading jubilant Pakistan celebrations,skipper Misbah-ul-Haq said: "that was amuch-needed victory for us. that's whywe're so happy. "it was a wonderful team ef-fort, everyone performed, everyone put100% effort in." Misbah was impressed inparticular with the younger members of hissquad, adding: "One thing you want fromthe youngsters is the temperament, espe-cially in pressure situations. England is thenumber one team but they crumbled underpressure." England captain andrew strausswas determined to praise Pakistan ratherthan question his own side's efforts after the72-run defeat in abu Dhabi. needing 145 towin, England were skittled out for just 72,their third poor batting performance in fourinnings on this tour, giving their opponentsan unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-matchseries. strauss, who top scored with 32,said: "i wish i could explain it. Ultimately itwas about very good bowling from bothends, applying pressure, making it hard forus to score and maybe we didn't take as maygood options as we should have done. "We'llhave some regrets about that but it was anoutstanding game of cricket. We came upshort, but ultimately you've got to congratu-late Pakistan. they were outstanding."

Australia end India’s humiliation with whitewash

aUStRalia 1st innings 604 for 7 declared (R. ponting 221, M.clarke 210; R. ashwin 3-194)india 1st innings 272 (V. Kohli 116; p. Siddle 5-49)aUStRalia 2nd innings 167 for 5 declared (R. ponting 60 notout; R. ashwin 2-73)india 2nd innings (166 for 6 overnight)g. gambhir c Haddin b Harris 3V. Sehwag c ponting b lyon 62R. dravid c Hussey b Harris 25S. tendulkar c cowan b lyon 13V.V.S. laxman c Marsh b lyon 35V. Kohli run out (Hilfenhaus) 22i. Sharma c Haddin b Harris 2W. Saha c Haddin b Siddle 3R. ashwin not out 15z. Khan c Warner b Hilfenhaus 15U. Yadav c Haddin b lyon 1eXtRaS (lb3, w2) 5tOtal (all out; 69.4 overs) 201fall of wickets: 1-14 (gambhir), 2-80 (Sehwag), 3-100 (dravid),4-110 (tendulkar), 5-162 (laxman), 6-166 (Kohli), 7-166(Sharma), 8-170 (Saha), 9-193 (zaheer), 10-201 (Yadav)BOWling: Harris 19-5-41-3 (1w), Hilfenhaus 11-2-35-1 (1w), Siddle14-5-47-1, lyon 21.4-4-63-4, Hussey 2-0-3-0, clarke 2-0-9-0australia won by 298 runs, australia won series 4-0, Man-of-the-match: peter Siddle (aUS), Man-of-the-series: Michaelclarke (aUS), toss: australia, Umpires: aleem dar (paK),Kumar dharmasena (SRi), Video umpire: Simon fry (aUS), Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRi).

ScOReBOaRd

adelaide: Michael Clarke (2nd r) and the Australian team celebrate with thetrophy after winning the fourth Test. AFP


sports 19Sunday, 29 January, 2012

MELBOuRNEafp

viCtORia azarenka won herfirst grand slam title and be-came the new world numberone when she thrashed a dis-appointing Maria sharapova

in the australian Open final on satur-day. the third-seeded Belarusian over-powered sharapova to win 6-3, 6-0 in82 minutes to lift the trophy and be-come women's tennis's fourth first-timegrand slam winner in a row.

azarenka came from 0-2 down inthe first set to win 12 of the next 13games for a comprehensive victory assharapova's game disintegrated in theface of all-out aggression from the Be-larusian.

sharapova made 30 unforced er-rors, while azarenka played almostflawlessly at times with only 12 errorsacross the two sets.

azarenka won the toss and chose toserve, but she started nervously anddished up two double faults on her wayto dropping the first game.

sharapova consolidated to open a2-0 lead and got to 0-30 on azarenka'snext game, but the Belarusian seemedto shake off her nerves and began toslowly take control.

she stepped up to the baseline andtook the ball early, pressuring shara-pova into mistakes. soon azarenka wasdominating in all departments, match-ing the Russian's power from the base-line and volleying confidently.

the 22-year-old broke back in thefourth game and broke again in theeighth before confidently serving forthe first set.

and the third seed started the sec-ond set with the same self-belief, break-ing sharapova's first serve and comingback from 15-40 to hold her own and

open a 2-0 lead. sharapova was becom-ing increasingly frustrated and, unusu-ally for the three-time grand slamwinner, she began to look to her coachthomas Hogstedt in frustration.

azarenka was in full control, how-

ever, and she broke sharapova twicemore to go to 5-0 lead. the Belarusianstepped up to serve for the champi-onship, saving a break point and fallingto her knees in delight when a shara-pova backhand crashed into the net

Imperious Azarenkacrowned women’s queen

Sharapovainsists best isyet to come

MELBOuRnE: Russia's Maria shara-pova insisted the best was still ahead of herdespite a devastating australian Open lossto exciting young Belarusian Victoriaazarenka on saturday. the three-timegrand slam winner went into the final fullof confidence against azarenka, who wasplaying her first major title match, but hergame went to pieces for a 6-3, 6-0 loss injust 82 minutes. Despite being only twoyears older than azarenka at 24, sharapovahas far more experience than azarenka andhas been playing on the big stages since herteens and won Wimbledon in 2004 as a 17-year-old. But with some of the greatestnames in the sport watching on, includingRod Laver and Margaret Court, it wasazarenka who played like the veteran andsharapova the nervous debutante. "she dideverything better than i did today. i had agood first couple of games, and that wasabout it," sharapova said bluntly. afp

LAHOREStaff RepORt

Former Pakistan captain Rameez Rajahailed Pakistan's team spirit after they beatEngland in the second test to clinch thethree-match series.

"it is only because of the happy environ-ment that Pakistan went out there believingthey could win and they floored the bestteam in the world. it was an outstandingperformance."

Misbah-ul-Haq's charges bowled thevisitors out for 72 in their second innings,with spinner abdur Rehman taking 6-25 ina stunning 10.1 over spell. Pakistan cricketwas rocked by a spot-fixing scandal duringtheir 2010 tour of England which led tosalman Butt, Mohammad asifand Moham-mad amir being imprisoned.

Raja reckons the squad have recoveredfrom that dark episode and reckons that wasevident by the way they blew away andrewstrauss' men in abu Dhabi.

"Pakistan learnt a lesson from that 2010controversy and i think the players took itupon themselves to redeem the country'simage," sky sports quoted the former Pak-istan batsman as saying.

"the only way out for Pakistan was towin every match and that got them fo-cussed.

"Cricket is a great bonder and this teamhas been very special in the last 12 monthsor so. they've been consistent with the se-lection process, the dressing room is ahappy place and there are no politics.

"it is only because of the happy environ-ment that the team went out there believingthey could win and they floored the bestteam in the world. it was an outstandingperformance."

Batsman Misbah was instilled as Pak-istan captain before the side's test serieswith south africa in the autumn of 2010.

Raja believes the 37-year-old has played

a crucial role in knitting the team togethersince then, while he also praised the wayMisbah utilised his talented arsenal of spin-ners in abu Dhabi.

"the captaincy has made a big differ-ence," added Raja.

"Misbah-ul-Haq has led them verycalmly and the boys have responded splen-didly. He may come across as a flamboyantcaptain but he gets the job done.

Raja continued: "Playing three spinners(Rehman, saeed ajmal, MohammadHafeez) can be a defensive approach but heturned it into an attacking one because heused them beautifully.

"saeed ajmal is a difficult bowler tohandle because unlike Muttiah Muralitha-ran, who pitched the ball wide to hit thestumps, ajmal doesn't do that; he gets anangle by bowling the same way as he bowlshis doosra. "Meanwhile, abdur Rehman hasbeen the silent partner."

LAHOREStaff RepORt

note of congratulations and praise startedpouring in the very time the team trampledEngland in the arabian desert and it keptcoming from different quarters.

People from all walks of life celebratedthe momentous victory in their own styleand in the Lahore city the atmosphere waselectric with sounds of gun shots amidsights of sweets being distributed by thecricket fans and enthusiasts.

the first note of congratulation camefrom President asif ali Zardari and was fol-lowed by Prime Minister syed Yusuf RazaGilani. Zaka ashraf, PCB chairman, QasimZia, PHF President and Mobilink, the mainsponsor of the series were prominentamong the felicitators. the President andthe Prime Minister felicitated the nationalcricket team over their convincing 72 runsvictory in the second test match againstEngland in abu Dhabi on saturday.

the President and the Prime Ministerin their separate messages lauded the out-standing performance of the national teamin the second test against England, whichgave Pakistan a decisive 2-0 win in thethree-test series. the President and thePrime Minister hoped that Pakistan cricketteam will continue to perform well to bringmore laurels for the country and nation.

PCB chairman while congratulating theteam said that the win would pave a way forthe revival of cricket in Pakistan.

“it was a great the team work andgreat captaincy from Misbahul Haq thatmade the entire nation proud,” he added.Mobilink extends congratulations to thePakistan team on its win in the Jazz Cup2012 in the UaE. Jazz partnered with thePCB to organize ‘the Mobilink Jazz Cup2012’ in the UaE as the home series forPakistan. the two tests held so far haveprovided an impressive exhibition ofteamwork, commendable leadership byMisbah, and sterling performances by

both batsmen and bowlers alike, with thespinners saeed ajmal and abdur Rehmanbeing the most notable. Moied Javeed,Mobilink’s Director Marketing (Jazz),added: “Pakistan’s national cricket teamhas made the entire country proud withtheir passion and commitment to theirsport. i would like to extend heartiest con-gratulations to team Green on behalf ofMobilnk and the entire Pakistani nationfor their commendable performance andwish them the best for the last test match,and upcoming ODi and t20 series!”

President PHF Qasim Zia and secre-tary asif Bajwa also congratulated thecricket team for its excellent performancein the Emirates. in a statement the PHFPresident chief showered praise on show-ing of the team in test and attributed thesuccess to collective team efforts.

He also congratulated the ChairmanPCB Chaudhary Zaka asrhaf on the recentachievements of the team and hoped thatunder his dynamic leadership the game ofcricket will continue to flourish. Qasim Ziawished Pakistan cricket team good luck inits coming One day and t20 series againstEngland and expressed the hope that it willdemonstrate a higher level of performanceto maintain the flow of its recent victories.

Meanwhile, Pakistan former captainand flamboyant shahid afridi has congrat-ulated his team for grabbing splendid vic-tory against world’s number one sideEngland in test series abu Dahbi.

When tV anchor called the star all-rounder Boom Boom afridi, the former cap-tain who led the team from front in WorldCup contest, said he would like to call teamPakistan Boom Boom Pakistan. afridi gavecredit to Pakistani spinners who shatteredEngland batting line in last two matches andbrining historical victory for their team,which had been deprived of playing cricketinside the country on security grounds.afridi resolved that Pakistan team will con-tinue its journey of victories in upcominggames. He said the team needs consistency.

British media,experts slamengland team

LAHOREStaff RepORt

the British media and cricket experts onsaturday lamented the England team fortheir capitulation to the spin duo of abdulRehman and saeed ajmal and pointed thatyou can’t teach ‘old dogs new tricks’.alan tYeRS WROte in telegRapH: you can criti-

cise england, and that certainly has its part to play,

but what a fantastic bowling effort by Pakistan.

Abdur rehman and Saeed Ajmal were brilliant. eng-

land failed it miserably.

MiKe SelVeY WROte in tHe gUaRdian: "It is

blindingly obvious: england just cannot play spin.

"It will be down to england's batsmen to work out a

way to master the magicians, but it will be hard to

teach old dogs new tricks."

geOffReY BOYcOtt, fORMeR england captain

On BBc: england's performance in the 72-run Test

defeat by Pakistan as one of the worst he has ever

witnessed.

"I've seen some poor performances in 25 years of

playing and 23 years of commentating and that's as

bad as I've seen. what a load of rubbish. you have to

see it to believe it how poor it was."

BOB WilliS Said On SKYSpORtS: I am worried by

england's inability to combat slow bowling after they

fell to defeat in the second Test against Pakistan.

Former england seamer willis had plenty of praise

for Pakistan's high-calibre bowling attack but told

Sky Sports that england's method of playing spin-

ners is a concern.

"Apart from the Indian line-up at its best, I don't

think any batting side in the world would be able to

cope with that attack in these conditions, he said.

"But some of the dismissals were very disappointing.

jOnatHan agneW, BBc cRicKet cORReSpOndent

in HiS cOlUMn WROte: "only two england batsmen

have scored more than 100 runs in the series and

england's defeat by Pakistan in the second Test in

Abu Dhabi was a throwback to the bad old days of

chaotic, mindless batting collapses that produced a

series of embarrassing defeats. "looking ahead to

the last Test, there are people not only playing for

their places but also playing for their credibility."

MiKe atHeRtOn, fORMeR england captain

BelieVeS: england buckled under pressure during

their defeat to Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

Misbah galvanisedPakistan: Rameez

Felicitations, accolades, praisesfor Boom Boom Pakistan

nZ rout Zimbabweby record marginnAPIER: new Zealand postedtheir biggest winning test marginwhen they demolished Zimbabwe byan innings and 301 runs on the thirdday of their one-off test at napier'sMcLean Park saturday. afp

ScOReBOaRdneW zealand 1st innings (392 for five overnight)

B. Mccullum lbw b jarvis 83

M. guptill c taibu b S. Masakadza 51

K. Williamson run out 4

R. taylor retired hurt 122

d. Brownlie c taibu b H. Masakadza 0

d. Vettori stumped taibu b cremer 38

B.j. Watling not out 102

d. Bracewell b Vitori 11

t. Southee c Waller b cremer 44

t. Boult not out 5

eXtRaS (b 1, lb 21, w 2, nb 11) 35

tOtal (7 wickets, 123.4 overs) 495

fOW: 1-124, 2-131, 3-195, 4-196, 5-278, 6-392, 7-466

BOWling: jarvis 32.4-7-120-1, Vitori 25-3-94-1 (8nb), S.

Masakadza 23-2-102-1 (3nb, 2w), H. Masakadza 21-6-45-

1, cremer 22-2-112-2

ziMBaBWe 1st innings

t. Mawoyo b Martin 2

H. Masakadza c Brownlie b Boult 0

f. Mutizwa b Martin 6

B. taylor c guptill b Bracewell 9

t. taibu c Brownlie b Boult 2

M. Waller c Brownlie b Southee 23

R. chakabva lbw b Bracewell 3

a. cremer lbw b Vettori 3

S. Masakadza not out 3

K. jarvis run out (Bracewell/Southee) 0

B. Vitori c Brownlie b Southee 0

eXtRaS 0

tOtal (all out; 28.5 overs) 51

fOW: 1-2, 2-8, 3-8, 4-19, 5-19, 6-24, 7-46, 8-50, 9-50, 10-51

BOWling: Martin 6-2-5-2, Boult 9-3-24-2, Bracewell 6-

2-12-2, Vettori 4-3-2-1, Southee 3.5-0-8-2

ziMBaBWe 2nd innings (following on)

t. Mawoyo c guptill b Martin 2

H. Masakadza c Mccullum b Martin 0

f. Mutizwa c Watling b Bracewell 18

B. taylor c Watling b Martin 2

t. taibu c Williamson b Bracewell 4

M. Waller lbw Bracewell 0

R. chakabva c Brownlie b Martin 63

a. cremer c Bracewell b Williamson 26

S. Masakadza c Watling b Martin 21

K. jarvis not out 0

B. Vitori c Watling b Martin 0

eXtRaS (lb 7) 7

tOtal (all out; 48.3 overs) 143

fOW: 1-2, 2-3, 3-5, 4-12, 5-12, 6-37, 7-100, 8-134, 9-143, 10-143

BOWling: Martin 8.3-3-26-6, Southee 8-2-20-0,

Bracewell 10-4-26-3, Vettori 10-1-25-0, Boult 9-4-15-0,

guptill 1-0-12-0, Williamson 2-0-12-1

new zealand won by an innings and 301 runs, Man-of-

the-match: chris Martin (nzl), toss: zimbabwe, Umpires:

Rod tucker (aUS) enamul Haque (Ban), Match referee:

david Boon (aUS), third umpire: nigel llong (eng).


sports20Sunday, 29 January, 2012

S WasHBUCkLinG is possiblytoo mild a word to express thesporting action in the last fewdays. Pakistan humbled England

in what was a breathtaking test matchperformance; novak Djokovic and Rafaelnadal came out on top of two epic semifi-nal encounters, while Real Madrid andBarcelona played out one of the most en-tertaining El-Clascios in recent memory.Plus there is the small matter of a Miami-Chicago encounter tonight.

tORMenting tHe BeSt

if Pakistan made a mockery of England’snumber one ranking during the first testmatch; they have made it a very patentbutt of global ridicule for ages to comeafter the second. the only face savingthat the English side can sermon is viathe fact that their close rivals india weredumped in a washing machine DownUnder themselves. Both these sides havebeen given a good old swab and would beleft to dry for some time to come.

Watching England try and figure outour spinners was like watching clumsy ba-boons vying to solve 14th grade calculus.abdur Rehman’s six wicket haul wouldmake one and all forget about the sametally of his counterpart in the Englishranks; and when it wasn’t Rehman, it wasajmal – the acclaimed tormentor-in-chief– and if not him, it was Hafeez – the Eng-lish batting was completely at oddsagainst the best spinning repertoire in thegame – by some distance. and some oftheir universally extolled batsmen wouldhave made school kids look like DonBradman for crying out loud!

Winning the match, and in turn theseries, has completed a massive turn-around in fortunes for our side. We weremocked at, we were ridiculed, we werehauled over a wide gamut of coals not solong ago, and this is the answer of Pak-istan cricket team – and the best one pos-sible. Being deprived of cricket in ourhomeland, shrouded by all sorts of scan-dals, the target of global bias; we havebeen playing with a handicap for ages –some owing to our own mistakes andsome because of blatant rose-tintedglasses. and to think that despite theodds being firmly stacked against us, weutterly humiliated the best in the worldtells you everything you want to knowabout the current Pakistan team.

Broken record time; but the biggestshare of credit goes to the skipper Mis-bah-ul-Haq, who has synthesised this en-semble of champions, by purging out thearray of absurdity within the team, and

letting the cricket do the talking. Only ifwe were to sort out the scores of chinks inout batting armour, we would be a toughnut to crack – against any one, in any con-ditions. Well done team Pakistan!

Rafa’S ReVenge

it was 6-0 in favour of Djokovic last year.6-0 has a humbling connotation in ten-nis, but for nadal it was the differencebetween conjuring up the greatest seasonin the history of tennis and watchingDjokovic do the exact same. all six drub-bings – and they were that – at the handsof Djokovic last year came in finals – twomajor finals and four atP 1000 finals –and the serbian clearly had a voodooover Rafa throughout the year.Will the spaniard be able tochange that? that’s the ques-tion that encircles the aus-tralian Open final today.

to get the better ofDjokovic this time round,nadal would have to show thesame tenacity he showed fromthe 2nd set onwards againstBerdych and then against Fed-erer, and take it up manynotches. He has to be more ag-gressive – that’s a given – andhe would need to serve well andnot let no-Djo stamp hisauthority on a rathervulnerable secondserve of the spaniard.What was commonin all of Djokovic’sc o n q u e s t sagainst nadallast yearwas thathis servewas at itsv e r yb e s t ,

and he didn’t give many looks on hissecond serve. Bolstering his service hasbeen the final piece of jigsaw that haspropelled the serbian towards the apexof world tennis. However, Djokovic hasbeen struggling with his serve in the lastcouple of rounds, and if that’s the casetoday, nadal would have to ensure that hepounces at second serve opportunities –possibly the only relative weak link inthe World number One’s repertoire.

However, if matters on the courtbegin to bear a resemblance to their en-counters from last year, nadal might findit difficult to break Djokovic’s strangle-hold. this is an intriguing moment in con-

temporary tennis, if Djokovic downsnadal yet again, he would begin to stakea claim for all-time greatness – and ofone-sided domination in possibly themost competitive epoch in the Open era.au contraire, if nadal stages an act ofvengeance he would be staking his claimof gunning down Federer’s tally of 16 ma-jors – most of which were won when thecompetition was like a sunday afternoonstroll in the neighbourhood.

pUlSating el-claSicO

that’s that for El-Clasico for the next fewmonths at least. Considering the fre-quency of El-Clasicos over the last year orso, a gap of a couple of months would bea massive oddity for the fixture, beforethe return match at nou Camp in La Liga.However, we never know the ChampionsLeague might throw them together againand there could be a new record for El-Classico in a two year period – if that has-n’t already been tumbled. nevertheless,

the latest edition was one pulsatinggame! and it’s no coincidence that

the most memorable Real-Barcamatches in the Mourinho erahave come when Real have had to

chase games and have showcasedan attacking intent. this was

exactly the case in the secondleg of the Copa Del Rey quar-terfinal at Camp nou, asMadrid knew that they

needed a two goal clean sheetwin or a triumph with a marginof three goals or more to gothrough to the semis – and theynearly pulled it off!

Fielding an attacking 4-2-3-1,Real made their intentions prettyconspicuous from the veryonset. and with Madrid quickoff the blocks, they simply over-

ran Barcelona in the early skir-mishes and throughout the 90minutes they didn’t stop threaten-ing Pinto’s goal. Madrid con-trolled everything barring thescore count in the first 42 points,however with Pedro’s introduc-tion around the 30 minute mark,owing to iniesta’s injury, thingsbegan to tick for the home sidewhich eventually culminated inthe substitute putting a neat fin-

ish past Casillas to stamp the Cata-lan authority on the game againstthe run of play. Even so, while

Madrid were busy mulling over howthey were a goal down in lieu of beingthree goals to the good, Dani alves struckthe telling blow to give Barca a 4-1 leadon aggregate and put the tie to rest.

With nothing to lose in the second

half, Mourinho threw on Benzema andCallejon for Higuain and kaka, and whatresulted was a truly vivacious second half.Ronaldo finished off a sublime Madridmove in the 68th minute to bring Madridback in the game, even if not in the overalltie. Benzema’s goal in the 72nd minuteseemed to give Madrid a lifeline but thematch ended 2-2, with Mourinho fa-mously claiming that, “it is impossible towin at the nou Camp” – a not-so-indirectjibe at the officials.

BUllS taKe On Heat

it’s the Big three vs the Big One intonight’s – or tomorrow morning in ourpart of the world – scrumptious clash be-tween the two Eastern Conference pow-erhouses. Chicago Bulls and Miami heathave formulated the most marketable ri-valry in nBa at the moment, and withthe matchup being such a gargantuangame, the ratings are expected to followsuit and blow the lid off the roof. How-ever, the two sides – Chicago especially– must realise that while a win over theirclosest rivals would be a major moralebooster, it’s getting the better of theother side come May that would be moreimportant. take last year’s example,when Chicago swept Miami in the regu-lar season, only to come unstuck in theplayoffs with a cumbersome weight ofexpectation undoing the Bulls charge.

the worrisome aspect for Bulls fans isDerrick Rose’s lingering toe injury, whichcould linger on for the entire season, if nothandled meticulously. Miami have theirown injury concerns to be anxious about,with Dwayne Wade scheduled to make areturn against the Bulls from an ankle in-jury. and with injuries to star playersmaking the headlines, the magnitude ofthe game has somewhat diminished. thisinjury hullabaloo is a throwback to lastseason’s first clash at the United Center,when LeBron James missed the game,and Bulls duly complied with a 99-96 win.

in the other two Chicago wins, theydidn’t let the Heat top the 90 point mark.all the same, the Heat paid back of all thatin the playoffs – and with interest.

sunday’s game would be the startingpoint of the road to redemption for theBulls and they should treat it just likethat: the launching pad for righting thewrongs from last season. it is under-standable that Bulls would be all out forvengeance against the Heat, but theymust realise that one game doesn’t makea season, and that their endeavour forreprisal should be flaunted during the en-tire season. they should focus on the big-ger goal of topping the charts in the East,rather than funneling in their anger onlyin the encounter against Miami.

Dishing out vengeancePakistan wallop England, Nadal looks to solve Djokovic riddle, El-Classicoserves up a humdinger and the top two in the East go head to head in NBA

KuNWAR KHuLDuNE SHAHID

ALL BASES COVERED

Australian Open

Diary

of Djokovic,Murray and

Bryan BrothersfROM ali aKBaR at MelBOURne

the Bryan brothers are the second pair oftwins to play professional doubles. thefirst were tim and tom Gullickson whowere identical twins except that theyplayed lefty and righty. as the story goes,an up and coming German player had themisfortune of playing the Gullicksons inhis first two singles matches on the tour.after losing to each brother he almost quitthe game. He could not understand howthe same player could beat him righthanded and left handed. the Bryans are almost that identical, withMike an inch taller than Bob. Extremelypersonable to talk to, the Bryans are onthe verge of becoming the greatest teamin the history of the game. they have beennumber one for over five years now andhave eleven Grand slam titles to theirname. they stand on the verge of creatinghistory on saturday night as they play Le-ander Paes and Radek stepanek for theaustralian Open title. this is also a land-mark final for Paes as he looks to collect acareer Grand slam, the aussie Openbeing the only jewel missing in his crown. these are the events that go along on thefringes of the main events at these majorevents. the doubles, the mixed the wheelchair and the juniors. these are eventsthat the top singles players have forsakenin their bid to preserve their bodies for themajor challenges that they face week inand week out. But, for the Bryans, thePaes and the Qureshis, the money is goodand so is the life style.a lot of top singles plays take up the dou-bles game as time takes it's toll on theirbodies. they can coax an extra five yearsand enough money to retire on. Playerslike kuznetsova and Zvonareva, two Rus-sians who were stars on the singles sceneare now on the verge of winning the sin-gles title here as this is written. a fewnervous points from the duo and theitalians Errani and Vinci are on the vergeof tying up the third set. kuznetsova, aformer UsOpen champion and thedaughter of an Olympic cyclist, holds hernerve and serves out for the win.the addition of ivan Lendl to andy Mur-ray's camp has certainly made differencein Murray's outlook on the court. Gone arethe imploring glances to his coaches atcourt side. the shoulders are not droppingafter every error and even though he stillmight not win this match against novakDjokovic, he is certainly in there fighting itout. Murray fought back after being a setand a break down and led 3-2. He stayedin the rallies and the errors started comingfrom Djokovic.Murray was making Djokovic hit closer tothe lines. Djokovic started missing andhis confidence eroded. Making very fewunforced errors, Murray took a two set toone lead but Djokovic stormed back totake the fourth and lead 5-2 in the fifthset. But Murray was not finished yet. Hebroke back and then had several breakpoints on Djokovic's serve at 5-5. ButDjokovic was not to be denied. He heldserve and then broke Murray to win anextraordinary, fluctuating match lastingalmost five hours.


sports 21Sunday, 29 January, 2012

P akistan prevailed over Englandin the second test match at abuDhabi though the match re-mained at knife's edge for a long

time – the knife evidently was skewed to-wards England most of the time. Pakistanwon but there is one facet of Pakistancricket that does not look like going any-where, and it’s the batting. Pakistansomehow managed to overcome theodds and beat England, they wouldagain require their bowlers to pull off vic-tory. Our reliance on our bowlers to winmatches for us, and their habitual complianceto the call of duty has masked the shortcomingsof our batsmen. Our batting, especially the middleorder, might be a blend of youth and experience,but their batting repertoire is very similar – theyhave a very similar tendency to go in their shellsfor ages and when they are ostensibly set for abig score, they somehow give their wicketaway. there is absolutely no variety amongstour batting ranks and this monotony meansthat the bowling side finds it easy to get theupper hand on matters, without any inklingof counter attacking instincts in the side. thisis where one feels that Umar akmal should bea part of the test side. it was adnan akmal’scounter punching half century in the first testthat provided the much needed impetus, andgave us a substantial lead in the end, and weneed to instill something similar in the middleorder to purge out the predictable conservative-ness. One believes it’s safe to say that spinnerswould once again be the main striking weapons

in the last test match, and if there is one player in oursquad that can unsettle spin bowlers it’s Umarakmal. He can dominate spin bowling like no oneelse in our squad, and the likes of Panesar andswann can easily go the distance on a regular basis.as things stand, and as our players play, the cautiousapproach of our batsmen gives the spinners a stran-

glehold over matters and they can dictate matterswithout overstressing their cerebrum. Umarakmal, on the other hand, would give the Englishbowlers a lot to think about, and he has thewherewithal to upset the line and length of anybowler in the world. Yes, he has that frustration

inducing tendency of throwing his wicket awayas well, but this is where team managementcomes into play. instead of keeping a worldclass talent on the sidelines because of his

naïveté, we should rather look to groom himinto fulfilling the talent that he undoubtedly has. the

safety first approach was the logical stratagem, whenPakistan cricket was traversing their transitoryphase, but now we need to take it up a few notches.in fact, the current Pakistan side is exactly where

England was in 2009. andrew strauss was quiteoften criticised back then for being overly defensive,

which might have cost his side a series of two. Butgradually as England stabilised matters, a more ag-gressive approach to the game arrived for the Englishside, which eventually took them to the summit of

test cricket. Misbah’s men have realised steadinessand now they should be looking to assert

themselves on the play, rather than takethe back seat and let other sides dic-

tate terms. We have the dic-tatorial instincts in thebowling department,we need to translate

that in the batting as well.

Monotonousmiddleorder needs Umar AkmalPakistan cricket needs an influx of counter-attacking talent in the batting department

J.K WALI

Comment

MELBOuRNEafp

SERBia's novak Djokoviccan sunday seal his fourthgrand slam in five andstamp his authority on thenew tennis season, but

blocking his way to the australianOpen title is a revenge-hungry Rafaelnadal. Djokovic replaced nadal asworld number one after he beat him inlast year's Wimbledon final, and he de-feated the spaniard again in the UsOpen decider as he took the season bystorm.

those two victories were among sixconsecutive wins over nadal -- all in fi-nals -- during one of the greatest cam-paigns in tennis history which includedthe australian Open, Wimbledon andUs Open titles.

the defending champion, whoreached the final in Melbourne afterfive gruelling sets against Britain'sandy Murray late on Friday, is expect-ing another tough, physical battleagainst second-seeded nadal.

"i think that's going to be crucial,you know, for me to recover and to beable to perform my best, because Rafa

is fit. He's been playing well. He had anextra day. He definitely wants to winthis title," Djokovic said.

the 24-year-old, chasing his thirdaustralian Open title after wins in2008 and 2011, and his fifth grandslam overall, admits he may have anadvantage over the 10-time major win-ner after his stunning record againsthim last year.

"i maybe have a mental edge be-cause i've won six finals the five or sixtimes we played in 2011 and i've hadlots of success against him," he said.

"On the other hand, it's a new year.it's a new challenge. it's a different sit-uation. as i said, he has maybe a dayadvantage over me for recovery and forgetting ready for the finals." Djokovicdescribed nadal's comeback from a setdown to beat Roger Federer in hissemi-final as an "incredible effort".the spaniard wore down the swissafter losing the first set to once againprove his grand slam nemesis.

"that's why he's a champion. that'swhy he's one of the best players to everplay this game. He's never giving up.He has a fighting spirit. He has veryfew weaknesses," said the top seed.

nadal, 25, suffered severe pains in

his troublesome right knee on the eveof the tournament but after frantictreatment he recovered and he has im-pressed in Melbourne, particularly inhis win over Federer on thursday.

the spaniard, who won the aus-tralian Open title in 2009, said he washappy to be playing in his fourth grandslam final in a row but admittedDjokovic was the favourite.

"the opponent at the end is thebest player of the world today, so that'swhy i played the last few finals againsthim," nadal said.

"so it will always be a really toughmatch for me. He is the favourite afterbeing number one in the world andafter playing fantastic and beating methe last six times. so i'm just happy tobe there.

"For me, the tournament is really,really good. Right now i'm going to tryto play my best tennis and fight forevery ball knowing that it's going to bea tough one."

Djokovic can become only the fifthman to win three straight grand slamtitles in the open era, while nadal canmatch Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver withhis 11th major win, and move to jointfourth on the all-time list.

Penpix of Novak Djokovic and RafaelNadal ahead of their Australian Openmen's final on Sunday (x denotes seeding):NOVAK DJOKOVIC (SRB X1)World ranking: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Born: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .May 22, 1987Birthplace: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BelgradeResidence: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Monte CarloHeight: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6ft 2in (1.88m)Weight: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176 lbs (80 kg)Plays: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Right-handed

Turned pro: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2003Career singles titles: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Career prize money: . . . . . . . . . .US$32,882,760Grand slam singles titles: 4 (Australian Open2008, 2011, Wimbledon 2011, US Open 2011)

BEST AUSTRALIAN OPEN RESULT:Champion (2008, 2011)n Beat Rafael Nadal in six finals in a stellar

2011, winning 10 titles after starting the yearwith a 41-match unbeaten run. Won three ofthe four grand slams last year and was the

first player other than Roger Federer orNadal to finish a season as number onesince 2003. Favoured by hardcourt surface atAustralian Open.

RAFAEL NADAL (ESP X2)World ranking: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Born: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .June 3, 1986Birthplace: . . . . . . . . . .Manacor, Mallorca, SpainResidence: . . . . . . . . . .Manacor, Mallorca, SpainHeight: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6ft 1in (185 cm)Weight: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .188 lbs (85 kg)Plays: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Left-handedTurned pro: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2001Career singles titles: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Career prize money: . . . . . . . . . .US$45,114,407Grand slam singles titles: 10 (Australian Open2009; French Open 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,2010, 2011; Wimbledon 2008, 2010; USOpen 2010)

BEST AUSTRALIAN OPEN RESULT:Champion (2009)n The Spanish 10-time grand slam champion,

who lost his number one ranking to NovakDjokovic last year, is playing his fourth con-secutive major final. In 2011 he won his sixthFrench Open title, equalling Bjorn Borg'srecord, but finished runner-up to the Serb atWimbledon and the US Open.

NADAL HUNGRYFOR REVENGE

DJOKOVIC, NADAL PENPIX

THE abuDhabi pitchwas easing

up, the heavy rollerwould flatten it fur-ther. team Misbahhad batted too Mis-bah-ly, going at acrawl when a thrashor two would haveeased nerves. Eng-land bat deep and145 was a trifling target for the world’s no. 1test team, which boasts some of the planet’sleading batsmen. think again. Misbah-ul-Haq’s Pakistan has a layer of ice smotheringthe fire in its veins, unlike any Pakistan teamthat has blown hot and cold before it. Forgetrankings, Pakistan cricket and its supportersare feeling on top of the world.

For a cricket nation exiled from its home,a home ravaged by conflict and political insta-bility, a team decimated by controversy andskulduggery, this series victory is a momen-tous triumph, earned through relentless grindand magical spin bowling. Pakistan’s spinnershave been irresistible in this series; runningthrough England’s batting order in three in-nings out of four is an outstanding achieve-ment, one that not many could have predicted.

today belonged to abdur Rehman — hehad just reward for many days of unwaveringsupport of his spin partner, the poker-facedwizard saeed ajmal. Rehman doesn’t alwaysextract turn, but he did here — at speed. Eng-land’s batsmen were trapped on the crease,bamboozled and beaten. Meanwhile ajmal, al-most silently, became the fastest Pakistanbowler to a hundred test wickets. Hailing fromthe nation of imran khan, Wasim akram, andWaqar Younis, ajmal’s record is as stunning asPakistan’s success. But ajmal’s ascent would

have been difficult without the stability of Mis-bah’s captaincy. Misbah has flirted with Pak-istani hearts before, only to break them. in testcricket, as captain of his country, he has discov-ered a river of love. the only debate about Mis-bah’s captaincy is the run-rate of his batsmen,such a trifling matter in the grand order of Pak-istani controversies that it speaks volumesabout the success of his methods.

Misbah has brought tenacity to Pakistancricket, best exemplified by the fascinatingpartnership between azhar ali and asad shafiqin Pakistan’s second innings. Previous Pakistanteams would have succumbed to a base instinctto blast their way out of trouble, yet Misbah’syoung troopers dug in, deeper and deeper. apartnership alien to the Pakistani spirit, albeithewn of Misbah’s cool resolve, forged the win-ning margin. Pakistan’s rejuvenation, however,isn’t exclusively made in Mianwali, home ofMisbah. From his pavilion, Mohsin khan, hasbeen watching keenly, urging, cajoling, hug-ging, even kissing. an unlikely and unpopularselection as interim coach, Mohsin has wonover his critics and left Pakistan’s cricket boardwith an unexpected dilemma. When captainand coach combine in such spectacular fashion,why change the formula?

World cricket is a more exciting place withPakistan cricket a powerhouse again. successhas come on pitches reminiscent of home, butthe same could be said of all the countriesabove them in the test rankings. the first ofthese countries that begins to dominate abroadwill emerge from the pack. it is a pleasant sur-prise to count Pakistan among them. Englandwere good in abu Dhabi but Pakistan were bet-ter, ripping an absorbing test match from thegrip of their formidable opponents. a serieswin in such a thrilling manner has surprisedeven Pakistan’s careworn supporters. Misbah’sPakistan, of steel, unity, and joy, has given thewhole nation a cause to celebrate.

if anybody was in any doubt, Pakistancricket zindabad. (Cricinfo)

Team Misbah gives usthe reason to smile

KAMRAN ABBASI

COmmEnt


Sunday, 29 January, 2012 22

WASHINGtONafp

us Defence secretary LeonPanetta still believes someonein authority in Pakistan knewwhere Osama bin Laden washiding before Us forces went

in to find him, he said in a tV interview toair on sunday.

intelligence reports found Pakistanimilitary helicopters had passed over thecompound in abbottabad, where Us navysEaLs discovered and killed bin Laden lastyear, according to excerpts of an interviewPanetta gave to CBs news. “i personallyhave always felt that somebody must havehad some sense of what was happening at

this compound. Don’t forget, this com-pound had 18-foot walls... it was the largestcompound in the area.” “so you would havethought that somebody would have askedthe question, ‘What the hell’s going onthere?’” Panetta told CBs. the Pentagonchief said concern played a significant fac-tor in Washington not warning Pakistan of-ficials of the impending raid, “it concernedus that, if we, in fact, brought (Pakistan)into it, that—they might... give bin Laden aheads up”, he said. Panetta acknowledgedhe did not have “hard evidence” Pakistanknew of the al Qaeda leader’s whereabouts.DOCtOR: Panetta also expressed con-cern about Pakistan’s treatment of a doctorwho helped the Us find bin Laden.

the doctor, shakeel afridi, has been

arrested and charged with treason by thegovernment. Panetta acknowledged thatafridi, a doctor in abbottabad had in factbeen working for Us intelligence, collect-ing Dna to verify the 9/11 mastermind’spresence. “i’m very concerned about whatthe Pakistanis did with this individual...who in fact helped provide intelligence thatwas very helpful with regards to this oper-ation,” Panetta said, according to excerptsof the interview. “He was not in any waytreasonous towards Pakistan,” the Us de-fence secretary said. “Pakistan and theUnited states have a common cause hereagainst terrorism ... and for them to takethis kind of action against somebody whowas helping to go after terrorism, i justthink is a real mistake on their part.”

Panetta adamant Pakistan knew of bin Laden hideoutg uS defence secretary acknowledges he doesn’t have

‘hard evidence’ to suggest islamabad’s complicity

ISLAMABADiRfan BUKHaRi

seven new federal ministries –Human Resource Development,national Harmony, Professionaland technical training, na-tional Food security and Re-search, national DisasterManagement, national Heritageand integration and nationalRegulations and services – cre-ated in two phases in July andOctober last year by the primeminister to accommodate hisgovernment’s allies, have nooversight from the national as-

sembly, as despite the formationof new standing committees afew days ago, their chairpersonshave not been elected as yet,while the senate has even failedto form the standing committeesfor the said ministries. Despitethe passage of around sixmonths, both Houses of theparliament have failed to es-tablish a mechanism for par-liamentary oversight on overthe ministries of Human Re-source Development, nationalHarmony and

ISLAMABADaMeR Sial

the Water and Power Ministryhas sought powers to makechanges in the board of directors(BoD) of power distribution com-panies (DisCOs), as non profes-sionals were said to beobstructing the power sector re-forms, Pakistan today has learnt.

sources said that BoDs werenominated by the Planning Com-mission and finance ministrywithout consulting the water andpower ministry and now theirfailure was being attributed tothe ministry. they said that own-ership of power sector reformsmust be given to the ministryotherwise it was bound to fail.sources said that removal of nonprofessionals from BoDs willhelp improve their performanceeven though the finance ministry

and Planning Commission werestill seeking more time for in-cumbent BoDs.

they said that BoDs wereeven defying government direc-tives, as only three boards hadmet the deadline to nominate apanel of candidates for appoint-ing CEOs and the rest of theboards were not even botheredyet. the government had soughtpanels by October last year sothat the new management couldbe in place by beginning of thisyear. the ministry had referredthe panel of three DisCOs to theCabinet Committee on Restruc-turing while the remaining sixhad to finalise their lists yet.

Last year, the governmenthad inducted private sector pro-fessionals in boards with the ob-jective to improve DisCOs. theirperformance had not improvedeven though the boards had

complete powers under the Com-panies Ordinance 1984. theboards were introduced to bringcorporate governance by effec-tive monitoring of managementand accountability. their taskwas to optimise operational andfinancial efficiency, streamlinesbusiness processes to improvethe company’s profitability andaccess to outside capital. the di-rectors were responsible to de-vise policy, business practices,approve plans and budgets, es-tablishment of adequate andsound internal controls, trans-parent financial statements,maintenance of proper records,accounting policies and safe-guarding company’s assets. theministry had sent a list of 89 keyperformance indicators (kPi) toboards for immediate

PMl-n won’t talk

with govt over 20th

Amendment: nisarISLAMABAD

Staff RepORt

no smooth sailing this time! as thegovernment has planned to convene ajoint session of parliament to amend theconstitution for giving a legal cover to 28members elected to the national andprovincial assemblies when the ElectionCommission was incomplete, the PakistanMuslim League-nawaz (PML-n) hasdecided not to vote in favor of theamendment. Leader of the Opposition inthe national assembly Chaudhry nisarali khan on saturday announced that thePML-n would not enter into talks withthe government over the 20thConstitutional amendment. “We will nothold talks with the government over the20th Constitutional amendment bill aswell as the situation developed after thenatO attacks,” nisar said in a statementissued from his office.

Seven ministries not made answerable to parliament

Finance, power ministries at loggerheads over dISCO boards

SUKKUR: city streets wear a deserted look as Sindhi nationalist parties observed a shutter-down strike across the province on Saturday. AFP | STORy ON PAGE 04

continued on Page 04 continued on Page 04

continued on Page 04


epaper pakistantoday 29th January

Documents

Transcript of epaper pakistantoday 29th January