epaper PakistanToday Karachi 15th Nov, 2011

ISLAMABAD AmeR SIAl

IN a major leap forward, Pakistanand Turkmenistan on Mondaysigned the Gas Sale PurchaseAgreement (GSPA) for the pro-posed $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-

Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gaspipeline that will pave the way for the sup-ply of 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gasper day (bcfd) from the SouthYolotan/Osman and adjacent gas fields tosouth Asian states.

Both countries have agreed on the gassale price of $360 million cubic meter(mcm) at the Turkmenistan-Afghanistanborder after deduction of $29 mcm astransit and transportation cost throughAfghanistan. The cost will be $10.28mmBTU. The base price comes to 70 per-cent of Brent oil parity in the mid countrydelivery point of Multan. The contractprice formula comprises basket fuels ofHSFO 380 centistokes (cst), HSFO 180 cstand Gasoil 0.5 sulphur, is based on pricesof Singapore quotation of Platts oil gram.To share the risk of transportation andtransit variability through Afghan terri-tory, both countries agreed to a risk-shar-ing formula. The agreement also containsclause for gas price review after five years.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani andTurkmen President GurbangulyBerdimuhammadov witnessed the signing

of the agreement on GSPA relating to TAPIgas pipeline by the Managing Director ofInter-State Gas System Mubeen Saulat andChairman of Turkmenistan Gas TradeConcern Amanali Hanalyev. An officialsource said the price of gas had remainedthe major outstanding issue. Pakistanwanted the buyers to negotiate pricejointly with the seller, but Afghanistan andIndia negotiated a price on bilateral basiswith Turkmenistan. The base price num-ber agreed by the countries would be ten-dered at the final signing of GSPA by thefour participating countries, which is ex-pected to be signed in the next few weeksin Ashgabat. The process for hiring trans-action adviser is expected to be completedby December 2011. The project will takebetween four to five years to complete aftersigning of all the contracts.

Initial feasibility study of the projectwas conducted in 2004. The momentumon TAPI project negotiations picked upafter mid 2010 and in December 2010Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA), GasPipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA)and Heads of Agreement (HOA) weresigned in Turkmenistan. Several rounds ofbilateral negotiations were held betweenTurkmenistan and Pakistan on TAPI gasprice ending in October, 2011.

tuesday, 15 november, 2011 Zul-Haj 19, 1432

Wedding bells for Reema as cardiologist ‘steals her heart away’

Obama to China:Behave like a ‘grown up’PROFIT | PAGE 05PAGE 18

Qureshileaves PPP,targetsZardarig Former FM also

resigns from NA,asks ‘patriotic’ MNAsto seek fresh mandate

ISLAMABADARIF TAJ

Urging the “patriotic” members of the National Assemblyas well as the opposition to resign and seek a fresh mandatefrom the people, former foreign minister Shah MehmoodQureshi announced on Monday his resignation from the Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP) and the National Assembly.“I am announcing this with a heavy heart today because it is noteasy to break away from long-time relations. It was the most dif-ficult decision of my life. I am resigning from the Zardari Leagueand the membership of the National Assembly,” Qureshi said ina press conference outside Parliament House. Reportedly,Qureshi is set to join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) at itspublic gathering in Ghotki on November 27. Qureshi said the cur-rent PPP was not the party of slain former prime minister BenazirBhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari had buried her politics alongwith her at Ghari Khuda Bux. “Zardari has disowned and driftedaway from the vision of Benazir Bhutto. The PPP existing at pres-ent is not the PPP of Benazir Bhutto, this is Zardari League.Zardari is following politics of capitulation. He has converted Be-nazir’s politics of resistance into politics of perpetuation of hisrule. Zardari is ready to put everything, the party, its ideologyand its workers at the altar of perpetuating his rule,” said theformer foreign minister. Giving reasons for his resignationfrom the National Assembly, Qureshi said the House had failedto implement resolutions passed unanimously by parliament.

Pakistan and Turkmenistan signGSPA on gasline

pakistantoday.com.pkrs15.00 Vol ii no 140 32 pages islamabad — peshawar edition

g Pakistan interested in importing 1,000MW of electricity

piCture | page 24

Continued on page 04

to greener pastures | page o4

Continued on page 04

KHI pages 15-11-2011_Layout 1 11/15/2011 1:57 AM

02Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

News

Today’s

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WorlD vieW

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CDA’s imported electric cars out of order TTp chief warns govt of more attacks Fed up with Netanyahu

ATToCK: The wreckage of the JF-17 Thunder aircraft of the pakistan Air Force (pAF), which crashed in Attock on monday. ONLINE

NEW DELHIAFp

TOP officials of India andPakistan began talks onMonday to flesh out a planto open up trade betweenthe countries, after Islam-

abad said it would grant Most FavouredNation (MFN) status to its arch rival.

Commerce Secretary Zafar Mah-mood and his Indian counterpart RahulKhullar are holding two days of discus-sions in New Delhi aimed at doublingannual trade in the next three years to$6 billion.

The visit followed the federal cabi-

net’s decision on November 2 to grantMFN status to India, reciprocating amove made by New Delhi in 1996. “Thecabinet not only gave its full approvalbut also mandated the Commerce Min-istry to achieve complete normalisationof trade” with India, Mahmood told themeeting in New Delhi.

Mahmood said Pakistan “hopes tocover a lot of distance” in this week’stalks. “We will have interactions in thespirit of mutual cooperation and confi-dence so please have trust and faith inthe process (as) times have changed andthe world is coming closer,” he said.

“Through this meeting we want tocreate an atmosphere through which

the composite dialogue can go forward,”Mahmood said.

Khullar said India welcomed theMFN status that was intended to re-move discriminatory higher pricing andduty tariffs that stood as barriers to ex-ports between the South Asian neigh-bours.

“Our business communities, ourpoliticians and our citizens are lookingto both our delegations to deliver a sub-stantial breakthrough - not only for fullnormalisation of our trade relationship,but to go beyond and lay a strong foun-dation for preferential trading arrange-ments,” Khullar said.

Analysts have said the decision to

ease trade barriers could open enor-mous opportunities in sectors such asagriculture, textiles and pharmaceuti-cals for the two countries.

Khullar also said India and Pakistanhad reached a “broad agreement” to lib-eralise business visas which would helpspur cross-border trade. “We are hope-ful that an agreement shall be finalisedduring the next round of home secretarylevel talks, slated for December,” he toldthe delegates.

India’s Commerce Minister AnandSharma has said he would lead a tradedelegation to Islamabad next Februaryat the invitation of his Pakistani coun-terpart, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

Pakistan, India begin trade talksg Commerce secretaries are holding two days of discussions in New Delhi aimed at doubling annualtrade in the next three years to $6 billion

ISLAMABADSTAFF RepoRT

The Supreme Court on Monday sought areply from the finance secretary within fourweeks on who financed the advertisementsthat appeared in the print media in favourof Zaka Ashraf, former head of the ZaraiTaraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) and the in-cumbent chairman of the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB).

A two-member SC bench comprisingChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry and Justice Khilji Arif Hussainwas hearing a petition filed by the senior ex-ecutive vice president of ZTBL, NadeemChohan through his counsel Abdul Raufchallenging Ashraf’s appointment as head ofZTBL. Zaka Ashraf, who is also chairman of

the Ashraf Group of Industries, is consid-ered a close friend of President Asif AliZardari. The petitioner also sought recoveryof huge losses suffered by the nation be-cause of irregularities and corruption al-legedly committed by Ashraf as ZTBL head.

The court was informed that the peti-tion had become ineffective as Ashraf hadnow been appointed the PCB chairman.

The chief justice asked when Ashraf wasno more the ZTBL chairman, how come ad-vertisements were being published in hisfavour. He said if Ashraf’s appointment asthe ZTBL head was illegal, the court couldexamine it.

Meanwhile, the court was informed thata case was pending adjudication in the Is-lamabad High Court (IHC) against ZakaAshraf. The court then directed the IHC to

dispose of the pending case within fourweeks. The court adjourned further hearingfor an indefinite period.

According to the petition, on August 30,2008, the Finance Division had nominatedAshraf as president of the ZTBL and thebank’s board of directors confirmed his ap-pointment on September 3, 2008. But thecentral bank declared him unfit to hold thepost. Subsequently, challenged before theRawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court,the appointment was declared illegal,prompting Ashraf to institute an intra-courtappeal that was transferred to the IHC andis still pending there.

After his term as ZTBL president ex-pired on September 3, 2011, the Finance Di-vision issued a notification on September28, allowing him to continue to hold the

post. His appointment, the petition alleged,was illegal and malafide and a result of hisdirect influence with the person at the helmof affairs. The petition accused Ashraf ofbeing involved in corruption, committing ir-regularities and serious violations of law andindulging in favouritism and discrimination.

The petition said despite a ban imposedby the federal government on fresh recruit-ments from April 2008 to February 2009,Ashraf illegally employed 11 officials in theKissan Support Services (Pvt) Ltd withoutany advertisement in the newspapers andopen competition. The Auditor General ofPakistan also objected to the appointmentsfor creating a liability of Rs 23.9 million.These officers were later reappointed in thebank with the same designations knowingwell that two of them had been fined by the

Securities and Exchange Commission of Pak-istan. Ashraf allegedly awarded Rs 100 mil-lion contract of designing and consultancy ofZTBL building in Abbottabad in violation ofprocurement rules and transparent processto a firm owned by his brother-in-law. Like-wise, he got his Secretariat on the 12th floorof the building in Islamabad renovated by-passing procurement rules. He also allegedlyawarded a contract for supply of fertilizer toa single company in violation of rules andcreated exclusive franchise/monopoly atpublic cost, the petition contends. He said asZTBL president. Ashraf exposed the agricul-ture sector to immense losses and the growthlevel witnessed a slide resulting in decline inlending. The tractor loans scheme alone reg-istered a negative trend by 93 percent, the pe-titioner contended.

SC seeks reply over advertisements in favour of former ZTBL chairman

Afghan forces

kill suicide

attacker near

loya jirga venueKABUL

ReuTeRS

Afghan security forces killed an allegedsuicide bomber on Monday near thelocation of a major meeting of tribalelders and political leaders set to beginin two days. President Hamid Karzai has called theloya jirga, or the traditional assembly,to discuss among other issues apossible US military presence after2014 when foreign combat troops leave. “A suicide bomber who was carrying abag of explosives was shot dead nearthe loya jirga tent,” Sediq Sediqqi said.“He was killed before he could carry outhis mission.”The four-day gathering in Kabul, due tostart on Wednesday, will bring togethermore than 2,000 politicians, tribalelders, community leaders,businessmen and civil societyrepresentatives from across thecountry. Last month, the Afghan Taliban said itwould target participants in theassembly which will deliberate uponthe possibility of long-term U.S.military bases in Afghanistan.The Taliban have long fought againstpresence of foreign troops in thecountry. On Sunday, the Taliban said they hadobtained a copy of the detailed securityplan for the loya jirga, a claim theNATO-led International SecurityAssistance Force (ISAF), responsiblefor security in much of the country,dismissed as “fabricated propaganda”. Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for theNational Directorate of Security, toldjournalists the alleged security plan wasnot genuine, and was instead a Talibanreaction to successful security measureswhich had prevented insurgents frombringing explosives into Kabul. Earlier on Monday, National SecurityAdvisor to Karzai, Rangan Spanta, saidan investigation was underway, but didnot rule out the possibility thedocument may have been genuine. “Afghan security forces areinvestigating that and it is a matter ofconcern and regret for us,” he toldparliament.



NewsCoMMeNTIn quest of Holy Grail

Articles on Page 12-13

Another futile attempt, or?

ConstitutionalismHiding behind the unknown factor

Dr Faisal Bari says:

Rabia Ahmed says:Not the great unwashed: Who is the real educated class?

Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi says:nYou dare speak against us!

foreiGN NeWS

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ArTS & eNTerTAiNMeNTemraan and Imran

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SPorTSmickey Arthur says no to pakistan coaching

Story on Page 20

europe could be in worst hour since WWII: merkel

Don’t you know who I am?: Power, influence and class

LAHORE: Over 250,000 applications fornew gas connections are lying unattended atthe head office of the Sui Northern GasPipelines Limited (SNGPL) for the last twomonths, gas officials told Pakistan Today onMonday. The applications were submittedmanually before May 2010 at SNGPL officesin areas including Shahdara, Harbanspura,Okara, Sahiwal and Kasur. In June 2010 thecompany introduced a computerised methodof filing applications. However, the manually-filed applications were not entertained andremained unattended in the respectiveoffices. Some two months ago, the companydecided to move all the records from regionaloffices to the head office in order to end thebacklog and issue demand notices to theapplicants. Despite a lapse of two months, theSNGPL authorities are not interested inattending these applications. Sources said thestaff at regional offices had been telling theapplicants that their requests for gasconnection had been sent to the head officeand that they could not do anything about it.The applicants who proceed to contact thehead office are told that their requests wereunder process, sources said. According toofficial standards, the SNGPL issues ademand note six weeks after receiving theapplication and tells the applicant to depositthe required amount in the bank. Afterreceiving the money, the gas connection is

approved and the company is bound to installa gas metre at the consumer’s premises.However, this procedure is not followed andthe consumers are waiting for more than oneand a half years. An SNGPL officialconfidently said that there was no chance ofentertaining the pending applications, addingthat since the company was not giving newconnections, the applications would not bepossibly addressed in the coming months.The recently introduced computerisedsystem for filing applications is not workingproperly either. The applicants have to waitfor hours to file a single application. “Thecomputer system seldom works and only afew applications are accepted,” said anothergas official, adding that the computerisationof record had created problems for theconsumers. Mukhar Ali, a consumer whoclaimed to have been visiting the SNGPLoffice at Multan Road for one month to file anapplication, also appeared disgruntled withthe computerised system at the gas company.“Often the SNGPL employees say that thecomputer is not working, therefore theapplication cannot be accepted. When thesystem starts to work, office time ends,” hesaid, adding that freelance agents weredemanding Rs 2,000 from the consumers tofile an application with the SNGPL. Thepublic relations officer of the SNGPL was notavailable for comments. NAumAN TASleem


Atwo-member SupremeCourt bench on Mondaytook up a petition againstthe government’s failureto appoint a federal om-

budsman and asked the federal govern-ment to submit its reply within 15 days.

The bench comprising Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry andJustice Khilji Arif Hussain ordered At-torney General Moulvi Anwarul Haq toseek a reply from the federal govern-ment for delaying the appointment of afederal ombudsman. The court ob-served that the vacant position was avery important constitutional office

and could not be left empty for such along time.

The ombudsman’s office is lying va-cant since October 27, 2010. Almost50,000 complainants against the mal-administration of various governmentdepartments’ officials are lying pend-ing. Petitioner Dr Muhammad AslamKhaki argued that the federal govern-ment had shown grave negligence in itsmandatory duty of appointing a federalombudsman, or at least an acting om-budsman under Article 3 or 7 of the Es-tablishment of the Office of the WafaqiMohtasib Order, 1983, (President’sOrder No 1 of 1983). He said the cur-rently non-functional secretariat of theombudsman was the only inexpensiveand speedy source of justice for the

poor people.In his petition, Khaki stated that

the ombudsman’s office was globallyrecognised as a credible means to ad-dress the aggrieved citizens’ complaintsagainst maladministration and injus-tices of federal ministries, divisions andautonomous bodies. He said the officewas essential in ensuring accountabilityand transparency in the everyday pub-lic service delivery throughout theworld. Under Articles 3 and 4 of theOmbudsman Order, 1983, the presi-dent of Pakistan appoints a federal om-budsman for a term of four years.Former federal ombudsman JavedSadiq Malik completed his tenure onOctober 27, 2010, and the office is lyingvacant for over a year.

SC seeks govt’s reply over

not appointing ombudsmang 50,000 complaints pending against various government officials

KP has producedgreat wisdom,says governor

PESHAWARSTAFF RepoRT

Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP)has produced men ofintellect, wisdom, andleadership qualities andmust be depicted in thecorrect perception, KPGovernor Barrister MasoodKausar said on Monday.Kausar was chief guest atthe 2-day AnnualConference on “Dynamics ofChange in Conflict Societies;Pakhtun Region inPerspective” jointlyarranged by the Universityof Peshawar PoliticalScience Department and theHanns Seidel Foundation ofGermany at the university.Kausar said the current darkperiod in KP history wouldcome to pass and there waslight at the end of thetunnel. He said he saw hopein the “many bright andenergetic youth” who couldtransform the future. Theinaugural session of theconference was attended byBritish, German and Italianscholars and renownededucationists andresearchers from Pakistanwas also addressed byUniversity of Peshawar ViceChancellor Prof Dr AzmatHayat and Hanns SeidelFoundation CountryDirector Martan. He saidthe people’s history of KPwent back thousands ofyears and their “bravery,steadfastness andhospitality was legendary.”He said the people of KPhave should greatperseverance and wouldreturn to normal soon.

ISLAMABAD: National Database and Reg-istration Authority (NADRA) on Monday fileda civil suit against the leader of the oppositionin the National Assembly and Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) leader ChaudhryNisar Ali Khan for damaging the credibility ofthe organisation by leveling ‘false’ allegationsof issuing fake CNICs in Rawalpindi.

NADRA, in its petition made PML-Nleader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Punjab ChiefSectary, SHO Civil Line police station and oth-

ers respondents.In the petition, NADRA contended that

the PML-N leader had badly damaged the rep-utation of the government organization by put-ting false allegations of issuing fake CNICs inNA 52 Rawalpindi. It also alleged that duringMarch 2011, some unidentified people, on thedirections of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, pickedup the NADRA officials by attacking on MRVs,alleging that the officials were issuing fakeCNICs in the said locality. STAFF RepoRT

250,000 applications pending with SNGPl

NADRA sues Nisar for ‘defamation’



News

LAHORENASIR BuTT

THIS will be thethird timeMakhdoom ShahM a h m o o dQureshi has de-

cided to switch his politicalaffiliation since he began hiscareer in politics in 1985.

Qureshi first supportedGeneral Ziaul Haq, then be-came a part of the PakistanMuslim League (PML) underthe leadership of NawazSharif, and later joined thePakistan People’s Party. He isnow likely to join ImranKhan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. PPP circles are abuzzwith the fact that Qureshi hasalways been a fickle politi-cian. “Qureshi is now ex-pressing chagrin at the PPP’salliance with the PML-Q, butthis didn’t seem to botherhim when he was with thePML-Q people for years,”said a PPP leader. Now hehas pushed aside his old love

for the PPP, even though hewas never a stalwart of theBhuttos’ party. He was just apart of the PPP and now hewill comfortably be a part ofthe PTI, he added.

Qureshi’s fatherMakhdoom Sajjad HussainQureshi had been similarlyfickle. He joined Ziaul Haq’sgovernment as Punjab gover-nor and enjoyed the post foryears. “The lady doth protesttoo much,” commented an-other PPP leader on Qureshi’sresignation from the party aswell as his National Assemblyseat. Qureshi started his polit-ical career in 1985 when hewas elected to the Punjab As-sembly in the 1985, 1988 and1990 elections. He was alsoelected Multan District Coun-cil chairman from 1987 to1991, MNA from 1993 to 1996and Multan nazim from 2001to 2002. He served as Punjabfinance minister from 1990 to1993 and minister of state forparliamentary affairs from1994 to 1996.

To greener pastures

The TAPI pipeline will cover1,680kms from Turk-menistan through Herat andKandahar in Afghanistan,cross the Pakistani bordernear Chaman to pass nearZhob, DG Khan, Multan, andonwards to Fazilka nearPak-India border. The AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) isacting as the facilitator andcoordinator for the projectand had funded the feasibil-ity study of the project.

Both countries alsosigned accords to enhancebilateral cooperation intrade, energy, media andculture.

Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khar and TurkmenMinister Rashid Meredovsigned an MoU on coopera-

tion between the foreignministries of the two coun-tries. Hina and TurkmenCulture Minister GulmuradMuradov signed a MoU oncultural cooperation. Minis-ter for Information Dr Fir-dous Ashiq Awan andTurkmen Minister for Cul-ture Gulmurad Muradovinked an agreement on co-operation between the Asso-ciated Press of Pakistan(APP) and Turkmen NewsState Service, while andMoU on cooperation be-tween Pakistan’s Ministry ofCommerce and Ministry ofTrade and Foreign Eco-nomic Relations of Turk-menistan was signed byFederal Minister for Com-merce Makhdoom AminFahim and Turkmen Minis-

ter Byar Abayev. MEETING WITHZARDARI: During hismeeting with the Turkmenpresident, President Asif AliZardari said Turkmenistanhad the capacity to meetPakistan’s growing energyrequirements, whereas theycould provide trade corridorto Turkmenistan, over bothland and sea.

He called for an early re-alisation of the TAPI project,as it had the potential tospur growth and transformthe region’s economic land-scape. He proposed that thetwo countries enter into acurrency swap agreement,preferential tariff arrange-ment and a free trade agree-ment to enhance bilateraltrade and investment ties.

Zardari urged for estab-lishing rail and air links be-tween Pakistan andTurkmenistan to the mutualbenefit of the two countries.He called upon the businesscommunities, trade facilita-tion bodies and chambers ofcommerce and industries ofthe two countries to estab-lish and advance communi-cations to further enhancebilateral trade. MEETING WITH GI-LANI: During the Turkmenpresident’s meeting withPrime Minister Gilani, bothleaders agreed to strengthenbilateral relations throughincreased cooperation in di-verse fields. They empha-sised that the jointministerial commission(JMC) should hold regular

meetings to explore the av-enues of enhancing coopera-tion in the fields of energy,trade, science and technol-ogy, railways, exchange ofparliamentary delegations,cultural exchanges and peo-ple-to-people contacts.

The prime minister of-fered Turkmenistan corridorover land and sea routes.

He said the Pakistanisenior minister would visitTurkmenistan to discuss ex-port and manufacturing ofcement in Turkmenistan. Hesaid Pakistan wanted to im-port 1,000MW of electricityfrom Turkmenistan.

The Turkmen presidentsaid his country was ready toexport electricity to Pakistanand also gas from newly-dis-covered gas fields.

Pakistan and Turkmenistan sign GSPA on gaslineContinued from page 1

“The House has becomeirrelevant as it has failed toimplement its resolutions. Noone is serious in theirimplementation. It has nowbeen more than two monthssince the APC (All-PartiesConference) was held. Thegovernment has failed toresolve the crises and revivethe economy. Talks with theIMF (International MonetaryFund) have almost failed andthe deficit is in double digits,”he said. He said further that noone was interested inrestructuring the PakistanInternational Airlines (PIA),Pakistan Railways, Water andPower Development Authority(WAPDA) and Pakistan SteelMills, all of which had eaten upover Rs 1 trillion. He saidPrime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani claimed to protect theinterests of the people ofsouthern Punjab, who had nochoice but to sell their cottonat the rate of Rs 1,500 or Rs2,000. Farmers had to buyurea fertiliser at the rate of Rs2,000 or Rs 2,200, he added.“Now I appeal to all thepatriotic members of theNational Assembly and theopposition parties to resignand approach the people andseek a fresh mandate throughnew elections in the countryunder an independent ElectionCommission and impartialcaretaker government,” saidQureshi. He said PPP workerstoday were suffering fromhopelessness and it wasBenazir Bhutto who, being acharismatic leader, alwaysinvoked the spirit of resistanceand kept the party alive. Hesaid he had accepted theForeign Ministry on theinsistence of President Zardari,not by his own choice. He alsoasked the government tochallenge the claims ofMansoor Ijaz that PresidentZardari had sought US helpagainst the Pakistan Army. “Ireplied that only the partyleadership could decide if itwanted an alliance with thePML-Q or not. I later toldZardari everything and he saidthat PPP could not make analliance with the ‘Qatil League’(Murderous League) and thePPP workers would not acceptthis kind of alliance,” theformer foreign minister said.He said he had opposed thealliance the two parties hadstruck later on. Qureshi alsosaid Gilani’s government hadfailed to expose the murderersof Benazir Bhutto despitebeing in power. “You have thegovernment, theadministration and the secretagencies at your disposal butyou have not exposed thekillers of Benazir Bhutto,”Qureshi said.

QureshiContinued from page 1


PRESIDENT Asif AliZardari and PrimeMinister YousafRaza Gilani onMonday discussed a

host of issues, including do-mestic political developmentsand regional situation in thecontext of the prime minister’smeeting with his Indian coun-terpart on the sidelines of theSAARC summit.

Later, the meeting wasjoined by some selected min-isters at the Presidency underthe chairmanship of Presi-

dent Zardari.Briefing reporters, Presi-

dent’s spokesman FarhatullahBabar said the prime ministerbriefed the meeting about hisrecent visits to Australia, Rus-sia and Maldives and his meet-ings with the leadership of thehost countries, Indian PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhand other dignitaries on thesideline of the events. Themeeting expressed satisfactionand felicitated the prime min-ister on his successful visitswhich helped highlightingPakistan’s role and position onimportant issues of regional aswell as international outlook

and also pleading Pakistan’scase for SCO’s full member-ship. Discussing the primeminister’s visit to Maldives toattend 17th SAARC summitand his meeting with his In-dian counterpart and otherleadership of the SAARC coun-tries, the meeting welcomedthe desire of the countries inthe region to move forwardterming it hopeful for peaceand stability of the region.

The meeting expressedsatisfaction over the forwardmovement in the process ofpromoting regional peace andliberalisation of regional trade.The meeting also welcomed

forward movement in the re-gion for peace. The presidentalso briefed the meeting abouthis visits to Jordan to attendWorld Economic Forum andto Istanbul to participate in 6thTrilateral Summit of Pakistan,Afghanistan and Turkeyhosted by the Turkish govern-ment where, among others,one of the important decisionstaken between Pakistan andAfghanistan was to evolve ajoint mechanism to investigatethe assassination of Burhanud-din Rabbani.

The current political situa-tion and coalition matters werealso discussed during the

meeting. Relief and rehabilita-tion measures taken so far forthe flood-hit people in variousparts of the country, especiallyin Sindh, were also discussed.

Babar said the meeting re-posed full confidence in theleadership of PPP Co-chair-man Asif Ali Zardari and PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilaniand expressed satisfaction overthe party’s policy of reconcilia-tion. During the meeting, Pres-ident Zardari directed for partymobilisation and completingthe party’s organisationalstructure. He directed theMNAs to be present in theirconstituencies particularly in

the flood-affected areas and toaddress the issues of their peo-ple. He directed for the party’smanifesto be implemented andall measures be taken to pro-vide relief to the common citi-zens. The meeting also advisedthe Law Ministry and Ministryof Parliamentary Affairs to ex-pedite finalisation of NAB law.

Babur said the meetingalso decided to call Ambassa-dor Hussain Haqqani, Pak-istan’s Ambassador inWashington, to Islamabad tobrief the country’s leadershipon a host of issues impactingon Pak-US relations and therecent developments.

President, PM take up critical matters

reactions to Qureshi’s resignationFormer foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s resignation from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the

National Assembly drew ire from PPP circles, even as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan

welcomed Qureshi with arms wide open.

He has written

his ‘obituary’ISLAMABAD: FederalInformation Minister DrF i r d o u sA s h i qAwan saidon Mondaythat by re-s i g n i n gfrom theN a t i o n a lA s s e m b l yand the PPP, ShahMehmood Qureshi hadwritten his political obitu-ary and political wildernesswas his destiny.

Qureshi to joinPTi on Nov 27ISLAMABAD: PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)ChairmanI m r a nKhan saidon Mondaythat hisparty wouldhold a mas-sive publicmeeting in Ghotki on No-vember 27 and predictedthat it would be attended bymore than 100,000 people.In an interview with a pri-vate TV channel, whenImran was told that ShahMehmood Qureshi was alsoholding a public meeting atGhotki the same day to an-nounce his political deci-sions, he said the formerforeign minister and the PTIwere one, and Qureshi

would announce his deci-sion to join the PTI.

Power-hungry mancan never be loyalIn reaction to ShahMehmood Qureshi’s resigna-tion from thePPP and theNational As-sembly, Pun-jab GovernorSardar LatifKhosa saidon Mondaythat thosequitting the PPP had lost allcredibility and “a man with alust for power can never beloyal to anyone”, a private TVchannel reported.

Qureshi has no

principles

ISLAMABAD: Reacting toShah Mehmood Qureshi’sresignation,PPP centralleader RajaP e r v a i zAshraf saidon Mondaythat thosewho believedin politics ofpower had no principles.“Some politicians change po-litical parties for psychologi-cal reasons too,” he toldreporters outside ParliamentHouse. He said Qureshishould say when he firstlearnt that President Asif AliZardari had side-tracked

from the vision of former pre-mier Benazir Bhutto.

Charges baselessGUJRANWALA: PPPPunjab President ImtiazS a f d a rW a r r i a c htold re-porters at apress con-ference onM o n d a ythat theresignationof Shah Mehmood Qureshifrom the PPP was his reac-tion to not getting a minis-terial post. Warriach saidthe charges Qureshi hadlevelled against the presi-dent and the PM werebaseless.

resignationastonishing

ISLAMABAD: PPP Cen-tral Information SecretaryQ a m a rZ a m a nKaira saidon Mondaythat ShahM e h m o o dQureshi re-signed be-cause hewas stripped of his foreignminister portfolio, whichwas astonishing. He saidQureshi violated partyrules by rejecting theWater and Power Ministrywhen he was offered thecharge.

Somersaultsfamily traditionMUZAFFARGARH: Re-acting to the resignation ofS h a hM e h m o o dQ u r e s h i ,PPP leaderand NationalA s s e m b l yM e m b e rJ a m s h a i dDasti said onMonday that political somer-saults were a tradition of theQureshi family. Dasti saidQureshi wanted to leave theparty when President AsifAli Zardari nominatedYousaf Raza Gilani forprime minister.

He trying to regainpopularity: PPPKARACHI: The PPP con-demned the allegations madeby former FM ShahMehmood Qureshi, who re-signed from the party and theNational Assembly on Mon-day, against President Asif AliZardari and the Bhutto fam-ily. In a statement issued bythe PPP Media Cell, BilawalHouse spokesman Aijaz Dur-rani likened Qureshi to thecharacters of Mir Jaafar andMir Sadiq. “Qureshi is tryingto regain his lost popularitywith his politics as done byMumtaz Bhutto, GhulamMustafa Khar, FarooqLeghari, Jam Sadiq and otherenemies of the Bhutto fam-ily,” the spokesman added.STAFF RepoRT/AGeNCIeS


The Pakistan International Air-lines (PIA) delayed or cancelled103 domestic and internationalflights during August and Sep-tember, 2011, because of techni-cal reasons or aircraft inspection,Defence Minister AhmadMukhtar said on Monday in awritten reply to the National As-

sembly. In another written state-ment, Minister for Petroleum andNatural Resources Dr Asim Hus-sain said that 8,741 gas pilferershad been punished during July 1,2010, to October 28, 2011. TheNational Assembly also unani-mously passed a motion to paytribute to late Begum NusratBhutto for her services and sacri-fices to restore democracy in thecountry.

PIA delayed 103 flights fortechnical reasons, NA told


KARACHIRAZZAK ABRo

WITH the re-moval ofSadiq AliMemon asthe Sindh

Prisons Minister on Monday,the ruling Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) has startedreshuffling the provincialcabinet. Chief Minister QaimAli Shah has removedMemon from his office andtemporarily handed over thecharge of the Prisons Depart-ment to Law Minister AyazSoomro.

This change is a result ofa PPP meeting recently heldin Karachi with PresidentAsif Ali Zardari in chair. Theparticipants of that meetinghad decided to make changesin the provincial cabinet andthe party’s organisation aspart of preparations for the

upcoming general elections.According to sources,

more changes in the Sindhcabinet are expected in thenext few days. Moreover,sources added, some impor-tant changes would also bemade in the PPP’s organisa-tion, including the Karachidivision.

It was decided in the

meeting that the party’s va-cant posts at district andtehsil levels would also befilled soon. Additionally, thePPP leaders also decided toactivate the inactive office-bearers and take disciplinaryaction against party leadersand members of the provin-cial assembly found to be vi-olating the party’s discipline.

Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

futuristic cars may

ply Pakistan’s roads

Distant dreaming

06

Prisons minister

gone, who’s next?■ reshuffling of Sindh cabinet starts with

Sadiq Ali Memon’s removal

‘Coalition partners still caught

in new LG system debate’■ Sindh law Minister Ayaz Soomro says talks with allies continuing;

assembly session to be convened after settling all issuesKaraChi:Consultations with othercoalition government partners on thenew local government system are stillcontinuing and the Sindh Assemblysession will be convened after these is-sues are finalised, Sindh Law MinisterAyaz Soomro said on Monday.

He said this while talking to jour-nalists after presiding over a meetingheld to review implementation on theSupreme Court’s judgment given in thesuo motu case on Karachi violence.

Soomro was of the view that thecommissionerate system and thelocal bodies’ system are two separatethings and the government allies areengaged in consultations on a newLG system.

Dismissing the impression that theSindh Assembly could not complete therequired number of days in proceed-ings this year, the provincial minister,responding to a question, said the leg-islative assembly’s session could not beconvened on a single point agenda.

The government has completed im-plementation on around 16 points thatwere mentioned in the Supreme Courtverdict on Karachi violence and has ac-celerated efforts for action on the re-maining matters, Soomro said. “The

government has removed 37 law offi-cers, and appointed commissioned of-ficers. A commission headed by Justice(retd) Zahid Qurban Alvi has also beenset up for scrutinising political appoint-ments in the Sindh police,” he added,referring to some of the implementedpoints.

“In compliance with the court’sverdict, operations are being conductedin the city and terrorists as well as ele-ments involved in crimes being appre-hended,” he said.

“The exercise of ongoing opera-tions and immediate action is beingcarried out on the basis of intelligencereports,” he said in reply to a question.

The minister said that the details ofthe arrests and related reports arebeing sent to the Supreme Courtthrough the Sindh High Court chief jus-tice. “All other relevant details aboutthe implementation on the court deci-sion are also being regularly dis-patched.”

He added that the Sindh HighCourt chief justice is also holdingmonthly meetings to review the pace ofaction on the Supreme Court’s decisionregarding Karachi.

At the meeting, he said, the Sindh

inspector general of police had in-formed the participants that there areno ‘no-go areas’ in Karachi now.

“The provincial government, incompliance to the Supreme Court’s de-cision, will also issue letters to all polit-ical parties asking them to expelcriminal elements from their partycadres or within associated bodies.”

The minister said the Sindh LawDepartment has prepared a draft billfor providing protection to witnesses incriminal and other cases. “The bill isready and will be presented in theSindh Assembly’s forthcoming sessionfor approval.”

In reply to a question regarding ap-pointment of Waseem Ahmed as spe-cial home secretary, the law ministersaid his appointment was done accord-ing to the law.

Answering another question, hesaid that the government has alreadypresented the Joint InterrogationTeam’s investigation report of an al-leged target killer named Ajmal Pahariin the Supreme Court.

Soomro said the government isworking in collaboration with intelli-gence agencies on a plan to purgeKarachi of arms. RAZZAK ABRo

KARACHIApp

A full bench of the SindhHigh Court (SHC) on Mondaycalled for the record of the ju-dicial commission pertainingto non-confirmation of twoadditional judges.

The bench including jus-tices Maqbool Baqar, FaisalArab and Sajjad Ali Shahwas hearing the identical pe-titions moved by the SHCBar Association (SHCBA)-Sukkur and Syed MahmoodAkhter Naqvi, a representa-tive of a non-governmentalorganisation, against the de-cision of the parliamentarycommittee for non-confir-mation of two additionalSHC judges – Ghulam Sar-war and Irfan Saadat.

When the petition cameup for hearing, Barr FaroughNaseem and SHCBA Presi-dent Anwar Mansoor Khan,representing the bar associa-tion, submitted that the mat-ter is of public importance asdispensation of justice isbeing delayed due to shortageof judges in the court. Theyprayed to hear the petition onurgent basis.

The bench reviewed therecord of the parliamentarycommittee produced by thedeputy attorney general onthe order of the bench.

The bench called for therecord of the judicial com-mission related to the con-firmation of the additionaljudges of the SHC and putoff the hearing until Novem-ber 28.

‘Quality, not number ofjudges, to ensure justice’

KaraChi: Preferenceshould be given to quality inappointment of judges asdispensation of justice couldnot be ensured merely byincreasing their number, saidSindh High Court (SHC) ChiefJustice (CJ) Mushir Alam onMonday.

He was speaking at a fullcourt reference held in honourof Justice Gulzar Ahmed on hisappointment as a judge of theSupreme Court of Pakistan.

The CJ advised senior, eli-gible and honest lawyers tojoin the SHC as judges for de-livering speedy justice to the

people.He said the existing inde-

pendent judicial system wasestablished through a jointlong struggle of the bench, barand civil society. The CJ alsopaid rich tributes to JusticeAhmed for his services as anSHC judge.

Justice Ahmed expressedgratitude to his fellow judgesfor their cooperation duringhis tenure as an SHC judge.

The reference was at-tended by the judges of theSHC, representatives of the barassociations and seniorlawyers. APP

Sindh High Court judges during a full court reference of the court

on Monday. ONLINE

electricity supply managment at its horrific worst in Kati Pahari. ASIM REHMANI

NON-CONFIRMATION OF TwO juDGES

SHC seeks judicial

commission’s record


karachi06PakistaN today


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With preparations for Muharram in full swing, KMC workers set up surveillance cameras along the MA Jinnah road - the main route of Muharram processions. ONLINE

baby abduction case: accused remanded

KARACHIApp

Judicial Magistrate (South) Mumtaz Solangi granted thephysical remand of a man, accused of involvement in theabduction of newborn, till November 16 on Monday andalso sent two co-accused women to judicial custody. TheSaddar police presented a trainee nurse, Sobia Saleem, anda couple, Akbar Awan and Farzana, for their alleged in-volvement in kidnapping of a newborn boy from the Na-tional Institute of Child Health (NICH), Karachi. The babywas abducted on the first day of his birth on November 4after he was shifted to the nursery of the hospital for treat-ment. The police, on the complaint of the baby’s father,Rahib, registered a case and after hectic efforts, succeededin recovering the newborn from the house of Akbar Awan inModel Colony on November 13. In the remand papers, thepolice stated that the nurse, after kidnapping the child fromthe NICH, handed him over to the couple for Rs 30,000.

indian journalists arrive in city

KARACHIApp

A 22-member delegation of Indian journalists includingmembers of the Mumbai Press Club arrived in the city onMonday. The delegation, led by Jatin Desai, was extendeda warm welcome by the members of Karachi Press Cluband activists representing different nongovernmental or-ganisations at the airport. The Karachi Press Club hasarranged a reception in their honour on Tuesday (today)during which a memorandum of understanding will besigned by the office-bearers of the two press clubs. Around table conference will also be held to discuss provi-sion of opportunities to the journalists of the two coun-tries for restoring mutual confidence among masses andbringing the people of India and Pakistan closer to eachother. The Mumbai Press Club members will later visitHyderabad on Wednesday and attend a reception organ-ised by the members of Hyderabad Press Club.

KARACHISTAFF RepoRT

The promotion of the air cars in Pakistancan provide relief to the common man,said Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shahon Monday.

He was speaking at a presentation onthe “Air Car Project” at the Chief Minis-ter’s House.

“There is an acute need for finding al-ternate resources of energy so as to meetthe increasing demand,” he said.

He said that the provincial governmenthas made efforts to generate power throughthe “Thar Coal and Energy Project”.

Shah said that a committee would beformed to thoroughly study the feasibilityof the Air Car Project t.

Earlier, Iman Investments Chief Exec-utive Officer Jaffery Raschid in the presen-tation highlighted the compressed airtechnology production concept and themotor development international businessmodel.

He said 80 percent parts of the air carcan be manufactured in the country whileonly 20 percent parts would be foreign.

“Air cars are successfully beingrun in France and Holland,” he

added.Raschid further saidthat in the first phase,

7,500 air cars willbe prepared. In

the nextp h a s e s ,3 7 5 , 0 0 0cars can be

m a n u f a c -tured and

this numbercan also be en-

hanced up to 750,000.

Commissioner orders foolproof Muharram security

KARACHI STAFF RepoRT

To ensure foolproof secu-rity during Muharram,control rooms will be setup at the Commis-sioner’s House and of-

fices of all deputy commissioners,Commissioner Roshan Ali Shaikhsaid on Monday.

He said this while presidingover a meeting to draft a compre-hensive security plan for Muhar-ram in collaboration with ulemasand officers at the CommissionerHouse’s on Monday.

Besides the deputy commis-sioners and assistant deputy com-missioners of all five districtsAdditional Inspector General(AIG) of Police Ghulam ShabbirShaikh, deputy inspector generals(DIGs) of South and East zonesand the Traffic DIG, representa-tives of Pakistan Rangers, KarachiMunicipal Corporation (KMC),Karachi Water and SewerageBoard (KWSB), Karachi ElectricSupply Company, PakistanTelecommunication CompanyLimited and 5 Corps, Karachi alsoattended the meeting.

“The main Ashura procession

will be monitored directly from theCommand and Control Room inCivic Centre,” the commissionersaid at the meeting, assuring thereligious leaders that the govern-ment would provide all possible fa-cilities for mourners during thesacred month. “The ulema shouldalso promote synchronisation andharmony among the people.”

Shaikh directed the KMC andKWSB officials to ensure immedi-ate repairing and maintenance ofstreetlights and water and sewer-age system especially on the routealong the Ashura procession.

The Karachi commissioner

asked the KMC to remove all en-croachments along the route of themain Ashura procession at MA Jin-nah Road and Saddar, and arrangefumigation drives in the area.

He also instructed the police toremain in contact with the reli-gious scholars during the holymonth of Muharram.

At the meeting, the AIG saidthat for monitoring the proces-sions on the 9th and 10th ofMuharram, the police have ac-quired four special mobile vansthat have been equipped withvideo cameras and linked to thecentral control room.

Futuristic cars might beplying Pakistan’s roads■ Presentation on ‘Air

Car Project’ at the

Chief Minister’s House


karachi 07PakistaN today


KARACHISTAFF RepoRT

The venue of the Faiz Centennial has beenshifted from Kashmir Road to Bagh IbneQasim in Clifton.

This decision was made in a meetingof the Faiz Centennial Ceremonies Com-mittee held on Sunday under the chair-manship of its president Zafrullah Poshniat the PMA House.

The three-day programme will beheld from November 18 to 20. Theprovincial government, the Karachi Met-ropolitan Corporation and variousKarachi-based nongovernmental organi-sations are cooperating with the commit-tee in the arrangements for theprogramme.

The participants of the meeting wereinformed that summary has been sent tothe University of Karachi for the estab-lishment of a Faiz Chair.

It was also decided that a Faiz Li-brary would be set at Abdullah HaroonCollege in Lyari. The committee’s sec-retary Rahat Saeed informed the par-ticipants of the meeting that a mediacentre has been set up at Bagh IbneQasim for the event and about 52 del-egates from nine countries have alsoagreed to participate in it. “Variouscommittees have been set up to holdthe Faiz Centennial.”

The Sindh government’s specialrepresentative, Taj Haider said on theoccasion that the provincial govern-ment has passed a resolution on FaizCentennial ceremonies and thereforeproviding all possible support forholding the event.

Saeed said that many decisions havebeen made to stage the event in a befittingmanner and more details about it wouldbe announced at a conference scheduledto be held on Wednesday (tomorrow).

A mini-cinema at the MA Jinnah road destroyed by fire on Monday. ONLINE

KARACHISTAFF RepoRT

AND the Make-A-Wish Foun-dation Pakistan’s ‘Interna-tional Impact Award-2010’for helping to grant wishesof 50 Pakistani children

goes to US Ambassador to PakistanCameron Munter.

This was announced at the WishLeader Conference held in Dublin, Ire-land, where over 200 Make-A-Wish del-egates from 50 countries – includingPakistan – attended the ceremony.

A statement issued on Monday by

US Consulate-Karachi Public AffairsSection stated that the award was pre-sented to Munter for the US govern-ment’s support in granting the wishes of50 Pakistani children with life-threaten-ing illnesses.

In September 2011, USAID –through the US Ambassador’s Fund –had supported the Make-A-Wish Foun-dation Pakistan with a grant to supportthe fulfillment of the wishes.

The foundation – an affiliate ofMake-A-Wish Foundation International– has 200 volunteers operating in hos-pitals throughout Pakistan helping iden-tify children with life-threatening

diseases so that they can be supportedby granting their most cherished wishes.The Make-A-Wish Foundation Pakistanis primarily funded via private, non-gov-ernmental contributions.

Following the conferring of the Inter-national Impact Award, US Ambassadorto Pakistan presided over the grant of ad-ditional three wishes, which included adollhouse, a toy motorcycle and a televi-sion, to children with critical ailments.

In addition to the award, the Make-A-Wish Foundation Pakistan also pre-sented Ambassador Munter and his wife,Dr Marilyn Wyatt, with certificates ofappreciation.

What a ‘granting’ impact Cameron Munter!■ Make-A-Wish foundation Pakistan confers ‘international impact Award-2010’ to US ambassador to Pakistan

Housing societyfor lawmakers:Qaim wants quickallotments

■ Says encroachments in the limits

of the project should be removed

KARACHISTAFF RepoRT

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah directed the officersof the Revenue Department on Monday to speed up theprocess of allotting land in the “Ghaghar MultipurposeCooperative Housing Society” - a project in Karachiaimed at facilitating the elected representatives of theprovince and the notables of the city.During a meeting held at the Chief Minister’s House, healso told the officers to remove any hindrances that standin the way of the project.“Encroachments, if any, within the limits of the approvedsociety, should be removed and the anti-encroachmentforce can be used for this purpose,” he said.Sindh Board of Revenue Senior Member ShahzarShamoon, Karachi Commissioner Roshan Ali Shaikh,Deputy Commissioner (East) Qazi Jan Muhammad andSindh Board of Revenue Member (LU) informed the chiefminister that the process will be completed as soon aspossible and allotment will be started immediately afterpayment of the land’s cost. The meeting was also attended by provincial LocalGovernment Minister Agha Siraj Durrani, Dr Sikan-dar Mandhro, Anwar Khan Mahar, Chief Minister’sSpecial Secretary Hafeezullah Abbasi and SSP EastJaved Alam Odho.

‘Short circuit’ fireguts mini-cinema

KARACHIoNlINe

A fire erupted at a mini-cinema located at the MA Jin-nah Road on Monday.By the time police and rescue teams arrived there, theentire cinema was engulfed in flames. The blaze wasbelieved to be caused by a short circuit.The cinema had the capacity to seat 142 people. Almosthalf of it was completely destroyed as fire-fighters tookeight hours to douse the fire.

Faiz Centennial event’s venueshifted to Bagh Ibne Qasim■ Programme to be held from 18th to 20th


karachiPakistaN today

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Diabetes is manageable…we just have to learn to do it■ Health experts say healthy diet and physical activity essential to prevent or manage the disease

■ 90 percent diabetics around the world suffer from ‘type 2 diabetes’

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KARACHI STAFF RepoRT

TYPE 2 diabetes - the mostcommon type of the dis-ease that can develop atany age - can be pre-vented by adopting a

healthy diet, exercising regularlyand maintaining a normal bodyweight, said experts while speakingat a public health awareness pro-gramme held at the Aga Khan Uni-versity on Monday to commemoratethe World Diabetes Day.

“Diabetes is a chronic diseasethat affects how the body utilisesblood glucose,” said Dr NajmulIslam, professor and consultant en-docrinologist at the Aga Khan Uni-versity Hospital (AKUH), whiledefining the disease and its effect onthe body.

The two most common types ofdiabetes are type 1 and type 2. “Intype 1 diabetes, the body’s own im-mune system attacks and destroysthe insulin-producing cells in thepancreas; insulin is a hormone thatregulates blood sugar,” said DrIslam. “It is unclear why this type ofdiabetes occurs though a person’sfamily history and environmentalfactors may play a role. Its symp-toms include excessive urination,thirst, constant hunger, weight loss,blurred vision and fatigue.”

Type 2 diabetes is when the bodycannot effectively use insulin or thepancreas cannot produce sufficientinsulin to cover this inability. “Ap-proximately 90 percent of peoplewith diabetes around the world sufferfrom type 2 and the risk factors, be-sides being overweight and physicallyinactive, include race – Asians, His-

panics, American Indians and blacksare at a higher risk – and age. Itssymptoms may be similar to those oftype 1, but are often less marked; thismeans that the disease may be diag-nosed several years after its onset.”

Gestational diabetes is firstrecognised during pregnancy, andits symptoms are similar to type 2.

“The number of people sufferingfrom diabetes in Pakistan is increasingat an alarming rate and it is impera-tive that we adopt preventive meas-ures if we are to stop the rapid spreadof this disease,” warned Dr Islam.

Sumaira Naseem, clinical nutri-tionist at the AKUH, spoke at lengthabout the importance of a balanceddiet as perhaps the most effectivepreventive tool available.

“We are beginning to see un-healthy lifestyles develop in Pakistan,as we are consuming more fatty foods

and becoming less mobile,” she said.“The whole family needs to eat amore balanced diet not only to pre-vent future cases of diabetes, but alsoto help diabetics feel less isolated.”

Stressing the need for diabeticsto be vigilant about their feet, FarzanaRafiq, a diabetes education nurse,said that foot problems are commonand can become serious. “This makesit essential for diabetics to get theirfeet checked by their health careprovider at least once a year and learnwhether they have nerve damage. Pa-tients with known nerve or blood ves-sel damage should check and care fortheir feet every single day. This can bedone by examining the feet thor-oughly and washing them in luke-warm water using a mild soap.”

Rafiq stressed the need for diabet-ics to dry their feet thoroughly as wetareas are more prone to infection.

how does type 2 diabetesdevelop?

Type 2 diabetes does not develop overnight. It usually begins with insulinresistance, where the body’s cells cannot use insulin properly. Glucosebuilds up in the bloodstream. The pancreas keeps on producing insulinto try and get the blood glucose level down. Over time the pancreas losesits ability to secrete enough insulin. This can sometimes result in the per-son with type 2 diabetes having to inject insulin every day.

The good news is that because it doesn’t develop overnight, if peopleat risk of developing type 2 diabetes are identified early enough, they maybe able to take measures to avoid it.

This is why having your blood glucose level tested is a good idea. Aslightly raised blood glucose level that is above normal, but below the cutoff point for a diabetes diagnosis, may be a sign of glucose intolerance orwhat doctors have named ‘pre-diabetes’. This puts you at risk of devel-oping not only diabetes, but also heart disease.

how insulin works and whatgoes wrong in type 2 diabetes

Insulin is produced in the pancreas, a large, long gland that sits behindyour stomach. After you eat a meal, carbohydrates are broken down intoglucose and passed into the bloodstream. The pancreas detects the risinglevel of glucose in your blood (called blood glucose or blood sugar level)and releases insulin. Insulin helps to take glucose out of the bloodstreamby promoting its uptake into fat and muscle cells. Once in the cells, theglucose is used as the energy to fuel the cells doing their different jobs,for instance the muscles working, or is stored in the liver or muscles foruse later. In people with type 2 diabetes one of 2 things goes wrong: ei-ther the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin; or the body’s cells are re-sistant to the effects of insulin.

Both of these faults lead to glucose accumulating in the bloodstream. Doc-tors call this hyperglycaemia. If left untreated, high blood glucose can lead tocomplications caused by nerve and blood vessel damage, or even death.



News


MORE than two-thirds ofthe 152 boys’ primaryschools in 89 districtsacross the country havebeen found having a

shortage of non-teaching staff likepeons, sanitary workers and securityguards.

According to a monitoring reportissued by Free and Fair Election Net-work (FAFEN) on Monday, 82 percentof the monitored schools were found tobe operating without sanitary workers,75 percent did not have securityguards, while there were no peons in70 percent of the schools.

FAFEN Governance Monitors vis-ited 152 boys’ primary schools in 89districts across Pakistan in September2011. In Punjab, 79 schools were vis-

ited in 35 districts; 29 in Sindh across19 districts, 27 in 18 districts of KhyberPakhtunkhwa and 14, two and oneschool in as many districts of Balochis-tan, FATA and Islamabad Capital Ter-ritory (ICT), respectively.

However, the report added that thehygienic conditions of classrooms in 73percent of the monitored schools werefound to be satisfactory despite the un-availability of sanitary workers, sug-gesting the responsibility of keepingthe classrooms clean had been taken upeither by the teachers or the studentsthemselves.

Among the 152 schools monitored,a serious lack of transparency of infor-mation and availability of non-teachingstaff was observed. As many as 82schools failed to share information re-garding the number of sanctionedposts and the appointed non-teachingstaff. However, among the monitored

schools in Balochistan, ICT and FATAthat did provide information, all sanc-tioned posts for non-teaching staffwere occupied. In Punjab, Sindh andKP, the occupancy rate stood compara-tively lower at 86 percent, 77 percentand 96 percent respectively.

Nationwide, the report said the sit-uation appeared to be better with re-spect to the teaching staff, as 144 of theschools monitored provided informa-tion on sanctioned posts and appointedteaching staff. As far as the availabilityof teachers was concerned, 76 percentto 100 percent of the posted teacherswere present in 113 of the monitoredschools. A similar level of students’ at-tendance was observed in 104 of theschools monitored in September 2011.

The report further said that thehighest number of students-per-teacher (47) was observed in schoolsmonitored in KP - higher than the stan-

dard official limit of 40 students-per-teacher for all government-run primaryschools. In the remaining regions, thenumber of students-per-teacher waslower than the standard official limit -36 in Punjab, 34 in Sindh and Balochis-tan, 35 in FATA and 21 in ICT.

Contrary to government policy,four of the schools monitored inBalochistan, three in Punjab and one inSindh charged students for textbooks,which were supposed to be providedfree of cost. All the schools monitoredin September 2011 were housed inproper buildings, except for three inPunjab and one in KP.

Clean drinking water was notavailable in 41 of the monitoredschools. Despite the importance ofphysical education for children, 60percent of the 152 boys primaryschools monitored nationwide did nothave playgrounds.

g free and fair election Network report says 82% schools found without sanitary workers, 75% withoutsecurity guards, 70% without peons g Serious lack of transparency of information also observed

70% of boys’ primary schoolslack non-teaching staff

Pakistan and

Afghanistan

must avoid bad

blood: KhattakPESHAWAR

STAFF RepoRT

Awami National Party (ANP) ProvincialPresident Senator Afrasiyab Khattak saidthe governments of Pakistan andAfghanistan should not allow ‘space’ forelements on their soil that may cause badblood between the two neighbours. He saidthere was a need to bring moreamendments to the Frontier CrimesRegulation (FCR) act to restore the rightsof tribal people. Addressing a pressconference at Officers Mess Peshawar onMonday, Khattak said about 2.3 millionpeople in the region had obtained ANPmembership in the last four years.Responding to a question, he said, “We donot fear nomadic political parties.”Commenting on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf gathering in Lahore, he said a singlepublic meeting was not enough to bringchange to the country. He said the ANP hadlost 500 workers to the war on terror. Hesaid when the ANP inherited KhyberPakhtunkhwa it had 30 illegal FM radiostations run by militants and more than10,000 terrorist training camps.

Cracker blastin DG Khan

DERA GHAZI KHANoNlINe

A low-intensity explosion occurred at theDera Ghazi Khan district courts on Monday.No causalities were reported. The blast sentlawyers and other staff running from theiroffices and the court premise was evacuatedsoon after the explosion. Police arrived thescene and cordoned off the area. Nocasualties are reported. The bomb disposalsquad said the blast was caused by a crackerthrown by unknown miscreants.

rabbani appointedcorps commander


Lt General Khalid Rabbani has beenappointed Corps Commander Peshawar toreplace current corps commander GeneralAsif Yasin Malik who will retire atNovember end. General Rabbani wasserving as Commandant Command andStaff College Quetta. The post of corpscommander Peshawar is important sincethe Pakistan army has been engaged inmilitary operations in different tribal areasfor the last decade.

ISLAMABADTAHIR NIAZ

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) seems to have lost interest inthe office of the Senate leader of oppo-sition, despite the fact that it is in abetter position now to claim it afterthe MQM, which had supported JUI-F’s Abdul Ghafoor Haideri for the slot,has rejoined treasury benches.

The office which remained a boneof contention between the PML-N andits supporters in the Upper House andthe Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) for weeks, had finally gone to theFazl-led party after the Senate Chair-man Farooq H Naik ruled in JUI-F’sfavour. The controversy which contin-ued to dominate the House proceed-

ings in several sittings came to an endwith the chairman ruling that JUI-Fparliamentarian Maulana AbdulGhafoor Haideri enjoyed the supportof the majority of opposition membersin the Upper House.

In July, the chairman ruled thatHaideri enjoyed the support of 25members of the House, including sixMQM members, while Senator IshaqDar had the support of 15 oppositionmembers. The chairman had stuck tohis June 6 decision.

Annoyed with the chairman, thePML-N had at the time decided tochallenge the chairman’s ruling in theSupreme Court. The PML-N believedthat the ruling was not given on meritand also leveled allegations of tamper-ing with the record of the Senate infavour of Haideri.

Keeping in mind the MQM’s polit-ical somersaults, the PML-N later de-cided to hold its decision ofchallenging the chairman’s ruling in

the apex court. They were of the viewthat if the MQM rejoined the treasurybenches, Haideri would lose confi-dence of a majority of the oppositionsenators in the House and Ishaq Darwould be in a better position to pleadhis case in the court.

Per PML-N expectations, the MQMagain left the opposition benches andjoined treasury as a result of its patchup with the PPP, but the PML-N nowseems not interested in the office.

According to a source in the SenateSecretariat, the PML-N has decidednot to raise the issue again with justaround three months left in the nextsenate election.

Asked about the logic behind thePML-N’s decision, the source said thatat a time when the Nawaz-led partywas striving hard to block the comingSenate election, the office of the oppo-sition leader has no attraction for it.

Rather, the PML-N is focusing notto let the PPP gain majority in the

Upper House as a result of comingSenate election.

It is striving to dislodge the in-cumbent PPP-led government as earlyas March 2012. The Nawaz-led partyis hopeful that prior to the next Sen-ate election, it would manage to oustthe PPP-led government. The otheroption of the PML-N could be the dis-solution of the provincial assembly ofPunjab to block the Senate election,the source further said. Though thePML-N is denying any move to dis-rupt Senate elections fearing the PPPmajority in the Upper House withcurrent provincial assemblies intact,but the recent PML-N statementssuggest that it wanted to wind up theincumbent political dispensation be-fore March 2012. The change in thePML-N decision regarding challeng-ing the Senate chairman’s ruling inthe SC speaks volumes of the chang-ing priorities of the party ahead of thenext Senate election.

PML-N has lost interest in Senate opposition leader’s office

DeRA AllAH YAR: Tyres are being burnt on the Sindh-Balochistan National Highway during a demonstration by the Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat and other religious parties against

kidnappings for ransom. ONLINE

NAb seeks transfer ofPr pending casesISLAMABAD: NationalAccountability Bureau ChairmanAdm (r) Fasih Bokhari has askedauthorities concerned to transfer allproceedings pertaining to corruptionin Pakistan Railways and pendingwith FIA to the NAB. According to apress release issued by NAB,Bokhari has ordered an inquiryagainst the officials of PakistanRailways who were presumablyinvolved in the mega corruptionscandal pertaining to massivemisappropriation, embezzlementand misuse of authority. The inquiryhas been ordered by the NABchairman in compliance with an SCorder and a high-level team has beentasked to carry out the inquiry. Theinquiry so conducted woulddetermine the amount embezzledand the extent of responsibility ofthe railways officials as well asothers. STAFF RepoRT


10 Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

News


Atwo-member SupremeCourt bench told the Elec-tion Commission of Pak-istan (ECP) on Monday toregister eunuchs as legiti-

mate voters and submit a report on thematter to the apex court within twoweeks.

The bench, comprising Chief Jus-tice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry andJustice Khilji Arif Hussain, ruled thatthe eunuchs who had ComputerisedNational Identity Cards (CNICs) wouldbe eligible to cast their votes in the nextgeneral elections. The court directedthe National Database and RegistrationAuthority (NADRA) to collect data ofremaining eunuchs and issue themCNICs.

The court also asked the eunuchs tosubmit their claims forms to the officesof the deputy commissioners con-cerned in order to get their rights in in-

heritance. According to the record sub-mitted to the Supreme Court, there are80,000 registered eunuchs in the coun-try. The court told the ECP and NADRAto submit the report by December 12detailing the steps taken to implementthe court’s orders.

During the hearing, the court wastold that the process of issuance ofCNICs to the eunuchs was not beingcarried out effectively. The court thendirected NADRA authorities to acceler-ate the process. All the provinces sub-mitted their reports to the court aboutthe steps being taken for the welfare ofeunuchs, including transfer of inher-ited land to them. A representative ofthe Sindh government told the courtthat employment had been provided tothe eunuchs in the provincial HealthDepartment. He said a piece of landhad also been allocated to a residentialcolony for eunuchs. The court appreci-ated the Sindh government’s steps andtold the other provinces to take similarmeasures for the welfare of eunuchs.

The chief justice said eunuchs werepart of our society and could not be de-prived of their right to inherit. Later,the court adjourned further hearing tillNovember 14.

Meanwhile, Almas Bobby, presi-dent of the She-Male Association ofPakistan, told reporters that the creditof registration of eunuchs as voterswent to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muham-

mad Chaudhry. She said the federaland provincial governments should im-plement the apex court’s orders and ex-pressed gratitude to the court forgranting the eunuchs their rights.

SC orders ECP to register eunuchs as voters

ISLAMABAD: All registered eunuchs will be eligible to castvotes as citizens of Pakistan in general elections, as theirnames have already been added to the electoral rolls, aNational Database and Registration Authority (NADRA)spokesman said on Monday. He said the authority ensuredthe registration of all citizens irrespective of their caste,creed or gender. He said NADRA was the first organisationin Pakistan that was providing job opportunities to the thirdgender at its regional offices in order to engage them asproductive citizens of society. He said NADRA issuedComputerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) to eunuchs inaccordance with the instructions of the Supreme Court, and

the authority was also extending registration facilities to thethird gender at its mobile registration vans (MRVs) tofacilitate eunuchs in remote areas. Their registration wascarried out without any medical proof of their givenparticulars and details at the time of registration, he added.He said according to Supreme Court instructions, theeunuchs could choose to have “male transgender”, “femaletransgender” or “Khinsa-e-Mushkil” written on their CNICs.He said after the registration of the third gender as eunuchs,their rights were more protected and it would pave the wayfor more job opportunities for them in the public and privatesector. STAFF RepoRT

registered eunuchs eligible to vote in

general elections: Nadra

NEW DELHIoNlINe

Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) Chief Min-ister Omar Abdullah on Monday metIndian Prime Minister ManmohanSingh and Union Home Minister PChidambaram amid the ongoing con-troversy over the issue of withdrawalof the Armed Forces Special PowersAct (AFSPA) from some parts of theoccupied valley.

Abdullah, who is pitching for re-moval of the AFSPA from those areaswhere normalcy has returned, dis-cussed the issue during his half-an-hour-long meeting with the primeminister, sources said.

The two leaders also discussed thesecurity situation in the occupied val-ley, they said.

After his meeting with Singh,Omar met Home Minister P Chi-dambaram.

The meeting with the Prime Minis-ter comes a day after Omar had discus-sions with Indian Defence Minister AKAntony and Indian Army Chief VKSingh to press for early removal of theAct from certain parts of the state.

At the meeting with Antony, Omarhad presented his case for removal ofAFSPA from at least four districts twoeach in occupied Kashmir and Jammu.

While Antony conveyed the reser-vations of the army over such a move,Omar emphasised the need to trans-late the promises made by the Na-tional Conference-Congress allianceon ground and reward the people ofthe state for maintaining a peacefulyear.

The Indian Army has voiced its se-rious reservations over withdrawal ofAFSPA from certain parts citing secu-rity concerns.

After meeting Indian defence min-ister, Omar had tweeted on Sunday,“Yes, I have just finished meeting thedefence minister & no, I don’t intendto speak to the media for the timebeing.”

Omar will also be meeting IndianFinance Minister Pranab Mukherjeeon the AFSPA issue.

IHK government has been pressingfor partial removal of AFSPA and sug-gested that it could be removed fromSrinagar and Budgam areas besidesJammu city and Sambha.

Omar meets Manmohan, Chidambaram over AFSPA issue

NEW DELHI: As many as 7,691 Pakistanis and 32,644 Bangladeshis were found to beoverstaying in India even after their visas expired, a Right to Information (RTI) replyhas revealed, Indian media reported on Monday. The information was given by IndianMinistry of Home Affairs (MHA), foreigners division, in response to an RTI applicationby activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal. The foreigners division of MHA has informedthat the data is available only until 2009 and the data for last year and this year has notbeen compiled yet. “It is not possible to estimate the total number of such foreignnationals, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals, who have entered into thecountry without valid travel documents and are staying in the country since the entry ofsuch foreign nationals into the country is clandestine and surreptitious,” the MHA saidin the RTI reply. According to December 31, 2009 statistics of MHA, 7,691 Pakistanis,many of them Hindus and Sikhs, were overstaying in India. “A number of Pakistaninationals belonging to the minority community in Pakistan, the Hindus and Sikhs, havecome to India with a desire to get Indian citizenship. But the central database aboutHindus who have come from Pakistan and Bangladesh in anticipation of IndianCitizenship is not maintained,” the MHA has said in the RTI reply. Almost 32,644,Bangladeshi nationals have overstayed in India. Apart from Pakistan and Bangladesh,33,106 individuals of other nationalities were also found to be overstaying in India. TheRTI data indicate that after Pakistan and Bangladesh, the other nationals belong toAfghanistan (13,569), Sri Lanka (2,490), US (1,535) and Nigeria (1,121). The ministryhas also revealed that during 2009, 12,147 foreign nationals, including five Pakistaninationals and 10,602 Bangladeshi nationals, were deported from the country. oNlINe

Over 7,500 Pakistanisoverstayed in india: rti

Pakistan-China

military exercise

kicks off in JhelumISLAMABAD

STAFF RepoRT

The two-week long Pakistan and China JointMilitary Exercise YOUYI-IV commenced onMonday near Jhelum. “The joint exercise,spread over a period of two weeks, is aimedat sharing mutual exchange of experienceand information through a comprehensivetraining programme in real time. Thisexercise is fourth in the series in whichSpecial Forces from both sides willparticipate,” an ISPR statement said.“Exercise YOUYI-IV is a Brigade-level jointexercise between the two armies. TheChinese Army being well equipped andhighly technical in nature is very meticulous,keen and equally professional in theirapproach. During last joint exercise in Chinathey demonstrated high sense ofprofessionalism and friendship towardsPakistan,” it said. Exercise YOUYI, whichliterally translates into “friendship”, startedin 2004. So far three exercises have beenconducted with two in China and one inPakistan. These exercises were mandated toboost existing professional relationshipbetween the two friendly armies. Theforthcoming joint military exercise YOUYI-IV will certainly pave the way for furthercementing the existing bilateral relationsbetween the two countries. Senior Militaryleadership from both sides will also attendthe Exercise. The YOUYI-IV exercise will be atrue manifestation to a famous Chinesephrase “Pakistan China friendship is higherthan the mountains and deeper than oceans”.

TTP chief warns govtof more attacks

DOHAoNlINe

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chiefHakimullah Mehsud has warned that hisfighters are planning orchestrated attacksagainst the government and the military, anArab TV reported on Monday. In an Eidmessage posted on the organisation’swebsite, Mehsud claimed his fighters hadwithdrawn from certain areas as part of a“war strategy” and were planning attacks toregain areas they had lost control of inSwat, Malakand and the Tribal Areas. Heclaimed some of the areas vacated byTaliban fighters had again fallen into theirhands. The militants were waging aguerrilla war and inflicting losses onPakistani security personnel and USelements, he claimed. Mehsud has rarelybeen seen in public since the US stepped updrone strikes targeting him and thePakistani military launched operationsagainst him and his fighters. However, heclaimed that the TTP was continuing the“open war” that was declared by slain TTPfounder Baitullah Mehsud against thePakistani state in January 2008 due to thecountry’s alliance with the US.

SuKKuR: Fishermen have tied birds on the bank of the River Sindh to lure other birds. ONLINE


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.

Editor’s mail 11Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

Another act of brutalityReligious intolerance and violence

against the rights of religious minoritieshas become trend in our country. Recentincident of killing of three Hindus inShikarpur in the name of honor by theBhaya Muslim tribe is shameful and wethe citizens of democratic Pakistanstrongly condemn this criminal act.

Religious violence has increased inour country in the last few years becausean adequate attention was not being paidby the authorities despite the increasedkillings and discrimination of religiousminorities. The government, law en-forcement agencies, HRCP, and otherconcerned departments should have pro-tected the rights of minorities, if they arethreatened by any religious extremism.No one would have dared to commit thisbrutal act had such elements been pun-ished earlier.Sherry Rahman has con-demned the brutal act and movedadjournment motion in the National As-sembly. She said that “This kind of openbias on the part of a state institution to-wards a minorities group not onlyamounts to violation of constitutionalrights of minorities, it also creates mis-trust over the state’s role as guarantor ofa citizen’s protection.”

Amendments in the constitutionwere made for the protection of life,property and dignity of minorities, butwere never implemented effectively andgovernment has failed to prevent dis-crimination against religious minorities.The government, law enforcement agen-cies, liberal institutions and the nation aswhole should work together to reducehuman rights violations in the country tomake minorities feel safe and secure inthe Pakistan.

IRSHAD KHATOON SOLANGIIslamabad

Dialysis unitsSome time back a disturbing report

appeared in the media which said that 10out of 14 dialysis units at Chandka werefound not functioning. The rural Sindhalready has meagre health care facilities;non-functioning of life saving machineswould certainly increase the sufferings ofneedful people.

If such pathetic condition an impor-tant city is left with, what about otherless significant towns. Due to worseningstate of public health organization, thepeople have no other alternative exceptto look for the private medication. Oflate, there has been mushroom growth inprivate clinics, pathology laboratories,and they are fleecing the public at theirterms. General conditions of sanitation isfar from satisfactory in our towns andvillages across the country, yet what I ob-served in Larkana during 1989, for aday's stay is bitter memory.

In those summer days, no sooner thenight fell swarms of mosquitoes invadedthe city, and were looking around todrinking human blood. The invasioncontinued until sunrise. The host madebest efforts to make me comfortable byswitching on air-conditioner on full butfrequent power failure did not allowroom temperature to cool down even fora little time. We sure don’t want areprisal of any such period.

S BUKHARIKarachi

Pak-Turkmenistan tiesPakistan and Turkmenistan enjoy ex-

cellent economic, social, cultural and po-litical relations since 1991 when Pakistanrecognised the independence of Turk-menistan. For the last two decades, Pak-istan and Turkmenistan have beendeveloping good diplomatic relations.

In October 1994, the then PrimeMinister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto hadvisited Turkmenistan and subsequentlyNawaz Sharif also visited Turkmenistanin October 1997. The President of Turk-menistan, Gurbanguly Berdy-mukhammedov’s current visit toPakistan would boost these bilateral rela-tions. “Presidents of Pakistan and Turk-menistan expressed the resolve toexpedite the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gaspipeline project, which was inked lastDecember in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.The two sides agreed to start direct air-links between Pakistan and Turk-menistan which would develop a tradecorridor in the region.”

Pakistan is currently suffering fromenergy crisis and TAPI gas pipeline proj-ect will prove one the remedies to Pak-istan’s energy crisis. This Central Asianstate also wants to build this pipeline tosale energy to energy hungry countrieslike Pakistan. TAPI gas pipeline projectwould surely provide energy security inthe region.

It is welcoming to note that the gov-ernment is strengthening its relationswith Central Asian states which wouldhelp to counter terrorism, enhance re-gional trade and development.

HAFIZ MUHAMMAD IRFANIslamabad

The role of SAArCSouth Asian Association for Regional

Co-operation (SAARC) was establishedin 1985. Initially, it was comprised ofseven members: Pakistan, India,Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives,and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan due to its po-litical influence on the region was alsoincluded as 8th member during 14thSAARC summit at India.

The main purpose of SAARC is topromote cooperation and friendly rela-tions among member states. To some ex-tent SAARC has made progress andbrought the member states together butdue to conflicting relations between twostrong states (India and Pakistan),SAARC was unable to be much produc-tive and couldn’t move in a smooth wayas it should have moved.

During this summit, Pakistan andIndia got an opportunity to improve theirties and there seems to be a hope that theprocess of table talk will continue in thefuture as well.

All South Asian states need to coop-erate in all aspects because it is going tohave a positive impact on this SouthAsian region which is full of natural re-sources. Member states should enhancetrade within regional states. They shouldgive priority to neighboring states.

Climate is also major concern ofstates; it affects the whole region equally.Apart from that, we have issues of terror-ism, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy,gender discrimination and many others.They can be solved through mutual willwhich they have shown during this sum-mit.

Now, all member states should im-plement decisions taken during this sum-mit to make this region prosperous anddeveloped.

SABA SAHAR SOLANGIIslamabad

implications of MfN statusIndia granted Pakistan MFN status in

1995-96, the cabinet division of Pakistanunanimously reciprocated this moveafter 16 years. Although the Parliamentwas not given an opportunity to debatethe MFN issue as what politicalconsequences may be found for thisdecision? In SAARC conference DrManmohan Singh, the Prime Minister ofIndia stressed the need that bothPakistan and India should jointly workfor economic prosperity of the poormasses of this region. The ministers ofboth sides agreed to jointly work formore than doubling bilateral trade withinthree years, from the current level of 2.7billion US dollars per annum to about 6billion dollars.

These actions and responses seemmeaningful for the people of this regionbut granting India as MFN should notdistract from political issues likeKashmir; rather bilateral tradeagreements should ease and mobilise theefforts to resolve political conflicts

between India and Pakistan. Supportivetrade relationships should be used as aninstrument to resolve political conflictsbetween both countries. These conflictshave been impediment in awarding IndiaMFN status by Pakistan.

Pakistan steadily softened the bilat-eral trade policy by increasing the num-ber of items in the list of importablegoods from India. The list had 1,075items as part of the South Asian FreeTrade Area (SAFTA) process. Despitehaving a large number of items, the listremained restrictive and rather ambigu-ous. To strengthen the relationshipsnumber of items was increased

A questionable point is would it beadvantageous granting MFN to eachother in the presence tariff and non-tariffbarriers in both nations. Though, Indiaappreciated Pakistan’s decision but therehas been a more restrictive trade policyin India than any other large emergingeconomies such as China, Mexico, Brazil.

Highest Trade Tariff Restrictiveness

Index (TTRI) of India than Pakistan asdepicted by World Bank may beimpediment in achieving tradeliberalisation objectives for bothcountries. Further highest tariff in Indiaparticularly on agricultural, textile,automobile and apparel goods are stillbarriers for Pakistani exporters to accessthe Indian market. These areconsiderable obstacles in tradeliberalisation without removing thesebarriers targeted results may not beachieved to both countries.

Among many other measures, adialogue should continue to ease themobility of goods and services across theborders and further to make MFNsuccessful, both countries shouldmitigate visa restrictions. Otherhindrances for traders of both sides arefinancial and logistic problems. Toencounter these problems both countriesshould set up ware houses, ElectronicData Interchange system, and bankbraches at their borders to financially

facilitate their traders.A status of MFN to India is the part

of debate among politicians, traders,business communities now days inPakistan. Would present government beable to get support from military highupson the issue? A recent meeting of militaryauthorities, DG, ISI with foreign ministerHina Rabani Khar at foreign office issignificant. The information ministerFirdous Ashiq Awan declared this aunanimous decision of the cabinet, butwithout the opinion of the Kashmircommittee chairman would it be worthy,unless the reservations about its impacton the Kashmir policy are ruled out.

Anyhow this time it is different moveinstead of discussing political conflicts,trade related issues are on priority, whichmay lead both countries to resolve theirother conflicts through dialogue, if thegranting of the MFN turns out to have apositive outcome.

NAWAZ AHMADLahore

Police brutalityThere is no end to grisly reports of police brutality on sus-

pects that shows a picture of an ignorant society. The graphicpictures of police beatings displayed on TV channels are repul-sive. It is suggested that CM Punjab may deliver such policemento Shariah Courts for beating them blue and black on the princi-ple of an eye for an eye as per Shariah norms.

Unless and until exemplary punishments are not given totyrant policemen, the atrocities on poor people would continuefor which square responsibility falls on the Khadim-i-Punjabwho claims to vouch for stern accountability.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

listen to Arundhati royA renowned Indian novelist and po-

litical activist Arundhati Roy has onceagain demanded for Kashmiri people’sright to self-determination before anAmerican audience, with an impassionedcall for an end to the “brutal” Indian oc-cupation of Kashmir. She had time andagain demanded the same but Indiangovernment is not interested to listen toher voice which is actually a voice of hun-dreds and thousands of Kashmir’s whohave lost their identity and are livingmiserable life in IHK. I don’t know whythe world is gone hypocritical while ad-dressing issues of brutality in Kashmir.

The world is conscious about minorissues but is blind when it comes to theissue of massacre in Kashmir. Indianbrutalities in Kashmir have gone high tothe extent that its own citizens, like

Arundhati Roy, couldn’t resist their pas-sion and have gathered the courage tostand by with the oppressed.

DR HASNAT NABIIslamabad

Pleasure of readingExercise is to the body what reading

is to the mind. A cultured mind, trulyfinds immense pleasure in reading. Byreading we get information, facts andknowledge of the affairs of the world. It isreading that broadens our outlook by re-moving narrow thinking.

The books prescribed for our formaleducation do not sometimes providepleasure to us. The books that provide uspleasure are the books of liking and in-terest. Good books are better than ourbest friends. Our friends may ditch us,they may leave us in the lurch, but books

can never desert us. They remain alwayswith us as true guides. The habit of read-ing good books not only enriches ourmind but enriches our experience too.

There are some readers who want toread what is romantic, thrilling and fullof suspense. But the pleasure of readingthese types of books is momentary. Inthis age of cheap printing and mass out-put, we should develop a good taste forreading. We must select good books tofind real and permanent pleasure.

Hence, we should be careful whilemaking selection of books. We must notforget the words of Milton in this regard,"A good book is the precious life blood ofa master spirit, embalmed and treasuredupon purpose to a life beyond life". Thuswe can elevate our life and can make itmeaningful.

SHOAIB SHAHKandiaro

Advertising tactics in this post mod-ern era have taken a linguistic turn andthe mode of communicating ideas tendsto shape our views of reality. Productsare advertised through television andconsequently we see human life disband-ing into TV; TV watches us, TV alienatesus, TV manipulates us, TV informs us.

There are games in which each state-ment or utterance is a move that may aidthe participants in trying to win the game– to get their version of what is true orright. If this is true then the notion offreedom fashioned by free-market econ-omy is nothing but an illusion; at the endof the day it is the consumer that gets ex-ploited as they fall prey to these profes-

sional “spin doctors” as they thrive at theexpense of scrutinising individual liberty.

Entrepreneurs and advertising agen-cies form an “emergent shared culture”and this tactic enables them to discloseselective attributes of the products andconsequently promote them by stimulat-ing aspirations, lifestyles and way of be-having generally. They append“connotative codes” to material objects;in other words the advertised productsare laden with a range of positive atti-tudes, feelings and desires within the tar-geted group which exacerbates the sale ofthe preferred product.

The images in advertising are a meresimulacra; the whole world of make-be-

lieve is conjured where there is noground to reality. In other worlds the 2-3minutes of advertising is nothing morethan an immerse script and a perpetualmotion picture.

This is evident typically in whiteningcreams advertisement. The notion ofwhite skin which attracts marriage pro-posals and is a symbol of magnificence intruer sense is conveyed effectively andhave a catalytic impact of the mind of theviewers, especially young girls who getmore beauty conscious and frustrated tobring their appearance, if not, to correctperfection.

The folly, however, lies in the factthat the audience cannot distinguish be-

tween image and reality, no cream canguarantee flawless beauty and that thewhiteness is in reality the result of thelightening thrown on the model face andhow the camera is positioned to exhibitthe targeted features.

In essence, these advertisementsshows how consumer is made powerlessagainst these advertisements and howthe consumer culture propagated bythese skilled advertising agencies perpet-uate their own interests; consumers con-sume not through their choice butthrough unprecedented power exerted onthem which they are oblivious to.

HADIA MUKHTAR SINGAPURIKarachi

language-games in advertising


comment12Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

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

following the well-trodden path?

in quest of Holy Grail

While few would disagree that corruption needs tobe weeded out from national politics, to manyImran’s search for pure politicians is nothing

short of a quest for the Holy Grail. Corruption among thepolitical elite is by and large a gift of the successivemilitary regimes who debarred genuine politicians criticalof military takeovers from participation in politics andraised political nurseries of their own to recruit all sorts offortune hunters for political support. It is comforting tonote that the PTI has politicised a considerable section ofhighly educated urban middle class disillusioned byrampant corruption in rulers which mostly abstained fromcasting votes. Finding that few among them might be ableto get elected, Imran has opened the door of his party toeveryone with the condition that only those found honestwould be given party tickets. Does it mean there is no barfor the corrupt to be a part of the party hierarchy? It isunderstandable to find lawyers and even former NABofficials in the committee formed by Imran to probe thepoliticians’ assets. The presence in the committee ofretired army officers who have little expertise in probingcorruption is however surprising. What would matter inthe long run is how far our political parties succeed increating independent and powerful institutions ofaccountability which alone can bring down the level ofcorruption in politics.

The Election Commission was unanimously formedearly this year by a parliamentary committee comprisingboth the treasury and opposition members. Hopes werethus roused that unlike its processor, the new ECP wouldbe able to hold free, fair and transparent elections. Insteadof rejecting the Commission out of hand as not beingindependent, the PTI leader should have suggestedmeasures to further ensure its nonpartisan character.

Imran has announced to hold the next big rally inKarachi which he hopes would be bigger than the one inLahore. While this would be a challenging task in view ofthe position enjoyed by the MQM, PPP and ANP in themega city, this would also prove that Imran’s party is notconfined to Punjab and KP alone. What is more it wouldalso disprove those who maintain that Imran has beenassigned the task of luring away the PML(N) votes inPunjab.

…and bad governance

Constitutionalism

They won’t allow anyone take unconstitutional steps,PPP leaders keep telling us, but fall short of sayingwhat exactly those are. Whereas the PML(N) keeps

bringing up the establishment bogeyman, the federalgovernment doesn’t do even that.

Is the PPP, like the League, hiding behind the threat ofthe unknown every instance it possibly can? Perhaps if themore established political parties stop grabbing atphantoms and start looking at the malaise inside, we canmove on. The rifts within the PPP cannot be attributed toany “third force.” True, in any political party, there arebound to be cases of alienation of between certain groupsand individuals at certain tiers of the party structure. Thatis the cost of empowering other, more promisingindividuals more than others. It is only when these casesincrease in frequency when a genuine disconnect betweenthe party leadership and cadre becomes a distinctpossibility. The party’s problems in Sindh, in theaftermath of force-of-nature Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, show thesigns of turbulence come next elections. Though the Badinpolitician has insisted he will play no role in dividing theparty in any way, there are many fissures that will revealthemselves as the elections comes closer. A lot of themwill do with the nature of the party’s relationship with theMQM. And, consequently, with the smattering of Sindhinationalists.

There is also the issue of a rift within the PPP’s Punjabset up. With former foreign minister Shah MehmoodQureshi having resigned from the PPP, there is muchtumult expected there. There might be a forward blocwithin the party from south Punjab to deal with.

The peculiar nature of politics within the countryensures that there is no such thing as politics-as-usual inthe traditional sense of the term. Parties deemed as anti-establishment (and the N League is, now, under NawazSharif’s newest avatar, firmly in that category) seem to beable to get away with a level of incompetence, corruptionor inability to rein in wily party members by citing thatever-ready scare. Matters are further compounded, ofcourse, on account of that scare being genuine.

Afew years back, I was at the La-hore airport to pick someonewho was arriving from an inter-national flight. There was ahuge rush of people around the

arrival doors. I think it was post-Hajj seasonand Hajj flights were coming quite regularly.It was also right after a bomb explosion inLahore or another city, so there was a secu-rity alert too. There were a bunch of police-men, airport security and para-militarypersonnel around who were all trying tomaintain some order. They would ask peo-ple to move back from the gate and pushthem if they did not move, but after a whilethe people would creep closer again. So thisgame of pushing and shoving was going onregularly with the usual intermittent flairups between the police and the people everyso often.

There was a suited-booted guy standingnext to me. In one of the to-and-fros he alsogot pushed back by a policeman quite rudely.They started exchanging the usual salutarygreetings that Punjabis do on such occa-sions. The voices got raised, they challengedeach others paternity and so on. And thensuddenly the young man said, "What is yourname, I will see to it that you pay for your in-solence." The policeman replied, "Tanvir,and you can do whatever you want with myname." "Don’t you know who I am," theyoung man shouted. The policeman cameback with a gem: "If you were really someoneyou would not be standing here. You wouldhave gone through the VIP entrance. So, dowhat you want but just step back." Theyoung man was livid but the dialogue endedwith the brilliant line from the policewala.

Dipankar Gupta, a professor of sociologyat Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi,wrote a book in 2000 titled “MistakenModernity”. He argued in the book thatIndia was actually not modern even today.Forget the gadgetry, the amenities that mod-ern science and technology have bestowedupon the rich and middle classes of the coun-try, as that was no way to judge modernity.

Modernity, for Gupta, has to do withhuman interrelationships. Is the societybased on universalistic principles, does it ac-cept human dignity as a basic value, does itdemand accountability from public life andis human interaction based on basic tenantsof human equality or not? Are rights ex-tended to all on the basis of citizenship ornot? If human interaction in our society isstill based on caste, family, creed, ethnicity,religious affiliation, and other such charac-teristics that lie outside of the individual andover which the individual has little control,then the society is not really modern. Andthis has tremendous implications for every-thing that happens in that society.

Using the same lens Pakistani societyseems to be primitive. It is an exceptionallydivided society. Though we take pride in howIslam did away with castes and other divi-sions in human interaction (not identity butas a basis for interaction) in a society, we livein a completely fractured and division-dri-ven society. The gentleman mentioned in theabove paragraphs was very aware of beingfrom the ‘elite’ of the country. The policewalawas also very aware of the fact that wherethis gentleman might have been from some‘elite’, he was not from the ‘elite’ in power.So he need not have worried about him.

It does not matter which field one looksat, we see the effects of class in Pakistan. Ineducation whether you go to private schoolor public, whether the private school is Eng-lish medium or not, whether it is an eliteschool or not, what kind of accent do youspeak English with, and even Urdu, whetheryou went abroad for your undergraduate orfor graduate studies, all determine grada-tions of class and how people will interactwith you, and even more importantly andsadly, how even institutions of the state willinteract with you.

If you are from the elite you will obey norules, break all rules, in fact your status in

society is determined by your ability to floutrules publicly – the more publicly, the better.The bigger the car you travel in, the fewer thetraffic rules you will obey. And so on and soforth. If you happen to be a minister or a sen-ior bureaucrat you will be one of the last peo-ple to board the PIA flight, and you might bethe cause of the delay too, but you will ofcourse sit right at the front where you will actin a way that signals: “We may be equal butI am way more equal than you.” Our societyis a beautiful and symptomatic example oftribalism and primitive relationships.

But it should be borne in mind that thisis neither accidental nor irrational. In a statewhere resources are constrained and compe-tition for them strong, and state institutionsare weak and there is no understanding insociety or state institutions that rights are onthe basis of citizenship and not on the basisof class, people survive through patronagenetworks based on non-universalistic char-acteristics. We talked of this in detail lastweek. Today we are linking these patronagenetworks to lack of modernity and the spiritof modernity.

Once returning from overseas, I wasstopped by Customs officers and asked toopen my bags. While they were lookingthrough my books and clothes and dis-cussing various books with me a gentlemanpassed through Customs with a lot more lug-gage. When asked to stop, he just said ‘thePrime Minister is my mamoo’. The officerjust waved him through. I asked the officerif he knew the gentlemen or how did heknow he was not bluffing. The officer’s logicwas simple. ‘If he is not, we might have lostsome money, but if he was, though that wasunlikely, but if he was and I stopped him Icould lose my posting.’

Just for comparison, at that very minute,each worker coming in from the Gulf, even ifhe was just bringing a few toys for his chil-dren, had to pay something to get throughthe same officer. It is hard for me to come upwith a more telling example of the elitist, pa-tronage based, tribal society we live in.

The writer is an Associate Professor ofEconomics at LUMS (currently on leave)and a Senior Advisor at Open SocietyFoundation (OSF). He can be reached [email protected]

By Dr Faisal Bari

Don’t you know who I am?Where patronage rules the roost

Is there a reason to celebrate?

Not the great unwashed

The fact that an educatedclass of persons, those otherthan the ‘great unwashed’

had a prominent presence atImran Khan’s rally in Lahore ap-pears to give heart to the millionslonging for social and politicalchange in Pakistan.

It is interesting though. Who,after all, are these educated per-sons amongst us who are sup-posed to enable change in oursociety? Are they the lawyers? Thejudges? The doctors?

In a country where up to tenpercent of the parliament is saidto be composed of persons hold-ing fake degrees, where manyschools exist only on paper, whereacademic excellence is assessedon the basis of the best memoryfor useless, tedious facts, whatdifference can this education andthose who possess it, make?

Musharraf overreached him-self in many ways, but it waswhen he messed with the judici-ary back in 2007 that things be-

came tough for him. Lawyers,mobilised by Chaudhry AitzazAhsan, began protests, includinga Long March. There is littledoubt that the judiciary found itsvoice once again as a result oftheir efforts. It is quite anothermatter that the judiciary has usedthis voice since with a degree ofdisorientation, appearing at timesto confuse itself with the police, atothers with various political andgovernment departments andoften simply issuing mystifyingstatements.

The hero of the piece,Chaudhry Iftikhar, presumablythe most learned of them all givenhis position as Chief Justice, wasresponsible for a court ruling in2002 because of which Musharrafgot to keep both his uniform andthe presidency simultaneously. Asfor the lawyers who attain theirstatus after years of study, manyviolent protests, tantrums andunreasonable displays of piquehave arisen from that quarter.

In September, this newspaperreported that ‘a group of lawyersthrashed two motorway police in-spectors for confiscating alawyer’s car on the motorway andimposing a fine for violations oftraffic rules.’

The following month, ‘dozensof furious lawyers ransacked thecourtroom of the judge whopassed a verdict against SalmaanTaseer’s killer Mumtaz Qadri,smashing windows to protestagainst the judgment.’ Earlier on

these same lawyers had garlandedMr Qadri for assassinating theGovernor.

Maybe these supposedly edu-cated professionals are simply, asAmbrose Bierce says, “personsskilled in the circumvention of thelaw,” and nothing more.

Another bastion of profes-sional, educated society is themedical brotherhood, which in re-cent years has also proceeded tospit the dummy several times.Doctors on strike do not need tobe violent to cause grievous bodilyharm; when doctors go on strikepeople die, as in May of this year,when several people died as a re-sult of young doctors’ strike. InQuetta, it was said that strikingdoctors were also preventing sen-ior doctors from working.

Recently, doctors in Lahore’steaching hospitals went on striketo protest against a murder caselodged against one of their col-leagues, causing untold hardshipto those requiring medical care.In the midst of a dengue epi-demic, dengue centres of somehospitals failed to function as aresult of this strike.

It makes one ponder the dis-tinction between being ‘educated’and being merely ‘instructed’ in acertain field alone, law, medicine,or any other field of science, com-merce, or humanities. If educatedpersons are supposed to makesuch a difference, why have theynot done so already in Pakistan?Where is the research or the in-

ventions? Where is the applica-tion of this education in our lives,social, political, religious, or anyother?

Some 36 percent of Pakistan’stotal population lives in its cities.For the rest of the 64 percent thereal power lies with the wealthyfeudals, who in the main are no-torious for not having personaleducation, nor for the support ofeducation for others. The edu-cated therefore constitute a smallfraction of the population.

If our education is poor and isrestricted to only a few persons, itis perplexing why the fact thatthese limited people have finallyemerged from their turpitude totake interest in political issues isperceived as being cause to cele-brate?

And yet life is full of tantalis-ing contradictions. A great changefor us as a nation was wrought bya wealthy, urbane lawyer comfort-able mainly in English, extremelyill versed in any ‘native’ language.

The other change with fargreater consequences, of course,was wrought by a man who wasnot educated in the academicsense of the word, who hadamassed no personal wealthwhatsoever, and was illiterate toboot.

It is a puzzle. Clearly, otherfactors do and are expected tocome into play. So, let us wait forthe elections to see what effect his‘educated’ supporters have onImran’s campaign, if any.

By Rabia Ahmed


comment 13Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

Gone are the days when bold journalists spoke out against injustice

or corruption; now anyone critical of Imran Khan is considered brave

Valued at cost price

The few friends that I have left have nowall but sworn off PTI-related discus-sion. This is because every time we

start talking about Imran Khan’s chances inthe next elections, someone looses a limb. Itis also advisable not to bring up the subjectof Imran Khan during high pressure situa-tions, such as paintball matches, where onestands to lose more than just an eye. Gener-ally speaking, steer clear of any PTI-double-speak and you should be fine.

A lot of people are writing, ranting, rav-ing and regurgitating hackneyed witticismsabout how Tehreek-e-Insaf is just anotherbubble and that all the coyotes signing up arethe same farm hands that have milked us dryin the past. There are also accusations thatthe party is merely an establishment tool;that they do not have a strong policy guide-line on any issue; that they are suspiciouslysoft on the Taliban and unnecessarily hardon the US, and so on. Then there are the cau-tious stoics, who advocate the asking of‘tough questions’ from the PTI high com-mand – tough questions that are designed toextract real answers to burning questions,not meant for rhetorical purposes but policydecisions.

A lot of people have tried to reason withthese Insafians, or PTI trolls. But the con-

sensus seems to bethat there is now aclear ‘us and them’ di-vide in contemporaryPakistani society:Those that are ‘with’Imran Khan and thosethat will be burnt atstake when the PTIhordes sweep the nextelections. This narra-tive is disturbinglyprevalent among thepeople I hang outwith, so I might haveto move to Barbadosand change my middlename to ‘Johnston’ ifthe hordes do ascendto power. I hear Re-porters Without Bor-ders will soon beissuing an advisoryand before we can say“Big Brother is aPathan from Mian-wali”, we will hear thatthe US is granting asy-lum to writers such asthe right honourableWaqqas Mir because apost-jalsa Pakistan isnot a safe place for anyPTI-skeptic. Gone are

the days when bold journalists spoke outagainst injustice or corruption or the estab-lishment or irregularities within the armedforces; now anyone critical of Imran Khan isconsidered brave.

Such dogmatic disdain for constructivecriticism would be troubling if not for the factthat this is Pakistan. Indeed, anyone whodares to speak against the rising tide of pub-lic opinion/ignorance should be prepared forreprisals. Fellow revolutionaries may re-member Habib Jalib’s epilogue to his iconicreading of the epic ‘Mein ney uss sey yehkaha’ (available with subtitles on YouTube),where he recounts a meeting with the poetHafeez Jallundari, who was then adviser todespot-extraordinaire Ayub Khan. TheBritish social scientist and filmmaker AdamCurtis also refers to the supplanting of oneautocratic social order with another revolu-tionary one in his tour de force ‘The Trap:What Happened to our Dream of Freedom?’The clear and present danger here is that themob which will rally behind Imran’s so-called revolutionary manifesto might end upcreating and perpetuating the same inequal-ities that they are campaigning against. Ithappened in the French Revolution, what’sto stop it from happening here?

Speaking of asset declaration, a neat lit-tle trick that many rich and famous peoplepull when trying to evade taxes or too manyquestions, is the valuation of immovable as-sets at cost price. This means that if a partic-ularly wealthy scion wants to write off his20-acre mansion, which daddy built himsometime during the early 70s, he will valuesaid property at a ridiculously low Rs 1,000per acre, or something like that. This is espe-cially true for land that has been obtained on99-year leases or other similar deals. So eventhe great Khan Mansion in the swanky (andrural) Islamabad suburb of Bani Gala can bevalued at next to nothing, since it was “a gift”.

There would be nothing wrong with this,if the average Joe on the street were also ableto do such things. Unfortunately, those whowork hard for their money also have the dis-advantage of buying things at full price. Thismeans that even if I wanted to write off thathouse my dad brought in 1999 after havingworked for 25 straight years, I couldn’t be-cause my dad, not being a scion of a feudalfamily, did not acquire it on a 100-year leaseat Rs 50 per year.

Come to think about it, this is exactly thekind of inequality Imran Khan says he will befighting against. And I for one support himin this noble endeavour. I’ll just go now andget my papers ready, so when the mobsweeps into power, I too will have the rightto value my Suzuki Cultus at Rs 20,000, be-cause that’s how much I pay for it… everymonth.

mighty obviousBy Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi

“My heart garden garden” isa phrase jokingly usedamongst my group of

friends. It is a literal translation of theUrdu phrase “Dil Bagh Bagh Hona” –the crassness of translation providingus many a laugh. And yet, my heartwent garden garden last Sunday, thedeath anniversary of Hassan Nasir, aniconic figure in the Pakistani Left. TheNational Students Federation (NSF),the students group of the Left, had puttogether a great show to commemorateNasir’s martyrdom. Whisper it now,the NSF is back, at least in Karachi.

Hassan Nasir Day is an annualevent in the Left, almost kick-startingnationwide activism that lasts tillspring. Such is the influence that Nasir(along with Nazeer Abbasi, a studentleader) wields over the Left, even inmartyrdom. Nasir’s politics were ofcourse about socialism and anti-impe-rialism; he was after all the secretary-general of the Communist Party ofPakistan. In the era of two superpow-ers, it was his practical advances thatturned him into a threat significantenough for his silencing to become anecessity. Nasir was arrested in 1960 –incidentally after disregarding partyadvice, chucked in a tiny cell in LahoreFort, and brutally tortured to death.

Last Sunday, as I attended whatused to be a customary and staid com-memoration, filled by narratives of val-our of have-beens, and hollow andempty rhetoric, I realised things hadchanged. This truly is a new NSF, dis-sociated and hence unburdened by theusually reductive and reactive politicsof the Left parties and groups. Theirevent had attracted about 100 follow-ers, a significant show that promptedShahram Azhar (of Laal fame) – tunedin to the event from the United Statesvia Skype – to comment that theseyoungsters were leaders of tomorrow.

The current NSF in Karachi isbroadly divided into three units. One ofthose units operates in the Universityof Karachi, with a young woman lead-ing the charge. I mention this fact be-

cause this is a break from the currentpractice in Left parties: leadershipstructures in parties are not as encour-aging for women to step forward andtake control, while affirmative action isalmost non-existent. NSF leaders ex-plained that although women assum-ing control “just happened naturally”,there were no barriers to women’sentry as had become the norm in thepast. There was no need felt by the NSFto create a separate wing for youngwomen, since young men and womenacted in the spirit of gender equity. Nocompartmentalisation, they argued.

The NSF’s reliance on youth is ad-mirable too. With no ideological qiblas,the students themselves are decisionmakers. It is because of this youth thatthe event started 15 minutes late owingto some technical glitches at the venue,as opposed to the customary hour or sodelay at Left events. Among the staidnarratives, it was the youth of the NSFthat captured the audience’s imagina-tion with a skit about Hassan Nasir. Iwas told later on that the skit was pre-pared by one of the three units, whoseprimary task is to create and enactstreet theatre. Such division of labourhad been planned and implemented bythe NSF-Karachi’s organising commit-tee whose decisions are binding.

Those who started this NSF were infact members of a communist party,the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party(CMKP). Some 24 young men had ap-proached the CMKP to seek their sup-port in building the NSF. Some of themwere even prepared to join the partyproper. The CMKP, however, deniedentry to all on the pretext that theywere concerned with the quality of theentrant, not the numbers. Only fourwere let in; of them, only two are polit-ically active today, both members of theNSF-Karachi. They are close to gradu-ating from the NSF now, having com-pleted their journey as students.

But graduating to what, should bethe question.

With their model of ensuring noLeft parties can ever “control” theirgroup, the NSF-Karachi’s organisa-tional setup mirrors that of Dr Sarwar’sDemocratic Students Federation. De-spite that, the usual motley crew was allthere at the event: a vice-president of aparty, trade union leaders, activists.Some were there to check progress,others to network, some to report toparty superiors and some elsewhere.

The Left’s historical bond with theNSF is emotional, yet the assumptionthat the NSF will join or graduate intoa wing of any particular party is all toopresumptuous. Left parties have shown

little capacity to be able to capture theyouth’s imagination; the youth’s attrac-tion to Imran Khan is but one phenom-enon that explains the Left parties’seemingly unending slide into redun-dancy and their failure to attract andeven politicise a younger generation.

But there are factors such as partyculture, party institutions and cama-raderie that help build a party. Thosefactors are at play in student groups inLahore as well, with the ProgressiveYouth Front and NSF trying to createspace for themselves. These factors arenot yet at play across major parties inPunjab; till complete generationalchanges take place in parties’ leader-ships, political culture will be rootedbetween personality cults, caste associ-ations, and talk of the glory days of the1960s and 1970s, and the persecutionof the 1980s. The NSF and PYF havegrown precisely for their emphasis onthe youth, not the converted.

Left parties will also have to re-evaluate their definitions of class, ofwho forms the vanguard of change, andof what needs to be pled to those theyclaim to represent. Such questionsneed to be asked for Left parties torecreate themselves and their image.Only then can they become viable po-litical alternatives for politicized youth.Failure to do so means that relying on“capturing” someone else’s work andeffort will remain the modus operandi.

For all of the NSK-Karachi’s suc-cess in developing a model, and carry-ing out genuine grassroots activism, theresult is the creation of members polit-ically aware not to be either fickle ortrapped in a leader’s cult of personality.But they should now be asking them-selves, what next? For those who wantto continue their activism, the NSF is atraining ground. Values of social justiceand equality of opportunity for all arenoble; yet, these are political demandsand will inevitably be carried forwardby a political party.

Whether the NSF forms a party,joins one, or remains dissociated is adecision their committees will have totake. What the NSF currently enjoysover almost all Left parties is a strongerpolitical culture and adherence to theirinstitutions. In eventual calculations,groups with stronger political culturesand institutions will absorb the weak.Not the other way around, as seems tobe the calculation of Left parties. Thisis a new NSF, and this might just be thebeginning of a new Left in Pakistan.

The author is a Karachi-basedjournalist. Connect with him on Twitter@ASYusuf

By Ahmed Yusuf

The NSF seems to be back

whispers of a new Left


Tuesday, 15 Novermber, 2011

14 Foreign News

BRUSSELSAFp

EUROPEAN Union nationstightened the noose on Syriaon Monday, slapping newsanctions on PresidantBashar al-Assad's regime and

urging UN action to protect civilians aftereight months of bloodshed.

Foreign ministers from the 27-na-tion bloc blacklisted a further 18 Syrians,mostly members of the military, bring-ing to 74 the members of Assad's innercircle hit in past months by an EU assetsfreeze and travel ban.

Fresh pressure was needed due to the"bloody stubbornness" of the regime, saidFrench Foreign Minister Alain Juppe onjoining talks with counterparts. The min-isters also agreed to stop Syria accessingfunds from the European InvestmentBank (EIB), the latest move by the EU totighten economic pressure on Damascus.

"The EU will continue to impose ad-ditional and more comprehensive meas-ures against the regime as long as therepression of the civilian population con-tinues," the ministers said in a joint state-ment. EIB loans to Syria between 1978and 2010 totalled over 1.7 billion euros,more than half in the energy sector. It hasearmarked 10.7 billion euros in the 2007-2013 period for projects in nine Mediter-ranean countries, including Syria.

To date, the EU has passed sevenrounds of sanctions against the Assadregime, including an arms embargo, and

bans on imports of Syrian crude oil andnew investments and credits to the Syrianpetrol sector. It previously blacklisted 56people and 19 companies or utilities in-volved in the crackdown.

"It's very important in the EuropeanUnion that we consider additional meas-ures to add to the pressure on the Assadregime to stop the unacceptable vio-lence," said Britain's Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague. The EU also "salutes andfull supports" the Arab League's weekendsuspension of Syria for failing to imple-ment a plan to end violence that has left3,500 dead since mid-March, accordingto the United Nations.

The suspension "shows the increasingisolation of the Syrian regime," the EUsaid, adding that the bloc "stands readyto engage with representative membersof the opposition ... such as the SyrianNational Council."

In a move that triggered anger andmob violence in Damascus, the ArabLeague also urged economic and politi-cal sanctions against the regime, failingenactment of an Arab plan for resolvingthe crisis accepted by Damascus on No-vember 2.

Under the deal, the Assad regimeagreed to release detainees, withdrawthe army from urban areas, allow freemovement for observers and media andnegotiate with the opposition.

"It's very good that they havedemonstrated the muscle that is neces-sary," Sweden's Carl Bildt said of theArab League.

EU, Arab League tighten noose on Syriag eU slaps more sanctions, Arab league calls for more economic, political punitive measures

LONDONReuTeRS

News Corp's James Murdoch was "keptin the dark" about the scale of phonehacking at the News of the World by hissubordinates who tried to manage theproblem, the newspaper's former chiefreporter said on Monday. Neville Thurl-beck has become a key figure in thescandal because he appears to be namedin a crucial piece of evidence that criticsof the company have seized on as proofthe problem is widespread.

The evidence -- an email addressed'for Neville' -- included the transcriptsof voicemail messages and resulted in

James Murdoch agreeing to make apayout of around 750,000 sterling ($1.2million) to an early hacking victim, thesoccer union boss Gordon Taylor.

Critics of the company have said themuch larger than normal payout was in-tended to buy the victim's silence andprevent the scale of the problem frombeing made public because Taylor hadsecured a copy of the email. HoweverJames Murdoch has consistently arguedhe was not made aware of the relevanceof the email and said he simply followedlegal advice in agreeing to the payout.

News Corp's British newspaper armNews International had long arguedthat the hacking of phones to secure

stories was carried out by one rogue re-porter, Clive Goodman, with the help ofprivate investigator Glenn Mulcaire.That defence crumbled earlier this yearunder a host of disclosures.

"Mr Murdoch had been kept in thedark and deprived of vital evidence show-ing phone hacking went far wider thanthe Goodman/Mulcaire issue," Thurl-beck said in a statement to Reuters.Thurlbeck said he had sent a memo to thethen editor Colin Myler and legal man-ager Tom Crone which also implicatedanother senior executive at the paper.

"Myler and Crone failed to disclosethis critical evidence to Mr Murdoch,"Thurlbeck said in the statement. He said

he had also recorded another reporterand another executive discussing the caseand asked to speak to the News Interna-tional Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks,but had been rejected on all counts.

"The contents of the taped call hadexonerated me and identified the exec-utive responsible. I offered this to TomCrone but he refused to take the tape."

"Mr Murdoch has been kept in thedark by those who he trusted most,"Thurlbeck said. "Based upon my firsthand experience of the chronic lack offull disclosure over the past two and ahalf years, (Murdoch's) account to theCMS (Culture Media and Sport) com-mittee seems entirely credible to me."

james Murdoch ‘kept in dark’ on hacking: reporter

europe could be in

worst hour since

WWii: MerkelROME/ATHENS

ReuTeRS

German Chancellor Angela Merkelsaid on Monday that Europe could beliving through its toughest hour sinceWorld War Two as new leaders inItaly and Greece rushed to form gov-ernments and limit the damage fromthe euro zone debt crisis. Financialmarkets on Monday took heart on re-lief that a key Italian bond auctiondrew decent demand from investorsand hopes that new leaders in Greeceand Italy would take decisive action tobreathe new life into their sickeconomies. "Europe is in one of itstoughest, perhaps the toughest hoursince World War Two," Merkel toldher conservative party in Leipzig, say-ing she feared Europe would fail if theeuro failed and vowing to do anythingto stop this from happening. But in aone-hour address to the Christian De-mocrats (CDU), Merkel offered nonew ideas for resolving the crisis thathas forced bailouts of Greece, Irelandand Portugal, and has raised fearsabout the survival of the 17-state cur-rency zone. "If the euro fails then Eu-rope fails, and we want to prevent andwe will prevent this, this is what weare working for, because it is such ahuge historical project," Merkel saidin the east German city of Leipzig.

NATo chief falls off bike,breaks arm

BRUSSELSReuTeRS

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Ras-mussen fell off his bicycle and broke hisarm at the weekend, forcing him to call offa planned visit to the Baltic states thisweek, a NATO spokeswoman said. "He was biking in the woods in Brussels onSunday and crashed," NATO spokeswomanOana Lungescu said on Monday. She said he had broken his left arm inthree places, near the shoulder. "He's fine,but he's going to be away from the officefor a few days, resting." Rasmussen had been scheduled to visitLatvia, Lithuania and Estonia this week.Officials will try to reschedule the trip for alater date, Lungescu said.

bomb kills 10,

wounds 27 in

northern MyanmarYANGONReuTeRS

At least 10 people were killed and 27wounded from a bomb blast in the capi-tal of Myanmar's northern Kachin Statebordering China, local sources said onMonday. The blast took place late evening on Sun-day in the city of Myitkyinar and caused ablaze at three houses. Those killed in-cluded nine orphaned students and a child,local residents told Reuters. "A study group was taking place at the timeof the bombing, that was why the numberof casualties was high," a resident toldReuters, requesting anonymity. It was not immediately known why the or-phan homes were targeted, or who was be-hind the bombing. Monday's official newspapers did not re-port the incident, but said a bomb went offand another was defused in Myitkyinar onSaturday, and there were no injuries. Kachin state is one of Myanmar's mostdangerous regions, plagued by decades ofconflict between ethnic separatists andgovernment troops.

DAMASCUS: Syrians hold up their national flag and images of President

bashar al-Assad as they rally in front of the foreign Ministry. aFP

XIAN: A Chinese man walks past the site of an explosion that ripped through a fast-food restaurant in a high-rise building in

northwest China's Shanxi province on monday, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens, while shattering windows

up to three kilometres away. AFP

BEIRUT: Syria said on Monday an Arab League decision tosuspend it was "an extremely dangerous step" at a time whenit was implementing a deal with the organisation to end vio-lence and start a dialogue with the opposition. Syria had with-drawn troops from urban areas, released prisoners and offeredan amnesty to armed insurgents under the terms of the initia-tive agreed with the Arab League two weeks ago to end eightmonths of unrest, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told atelevised news conference in Damascus. Moualem describedWashington's welcome of the Arab League move as "incite-

ment". He apologised for attacks on diplomatic missions inSyria after the suspension was announced. "As for attacks onforeign embassies, as the foreign minister I apologise for theseaggressions," he said. Moualem expressed confidence thatRussia and China would continue to block Western efforts atthe United Nations to condemn Syrian actions, and alsoplayed down the prospect of any Western military interven-tion in Syria. "The Libya scenario will not be repeated", hesaid, arguing that Arab and Western countries knew they maypay a higher military price to confront the Syrian Army.

syria says arab league suspension ‘dangerous step’

JERUSALEMReuTeRS

Israel's military must not give in to Jewish religious de-mands to prevent the mixing of men and women in theranks, a group of reservist generals told the country's de-fence minister on Monday.

The 19 generals, among them former army, air forceand navy commanders, listed times when they saidwomen had been sidelined or segregated during militaryevents because of pressure from male Orthodox soldiers.

"These include ... the separation of women soldiers

from their units during ceremonies as a result of reli-gious considerations, demands to prevent women fromsinging at such events and the demand that women befenced in a closed, isolated area when (holiday) danceswere held," they said. The letter called on Defence Min-ister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lieutenant-GeneralBenny Gantz "to issue immediate, detailed directives to(Israeli military) units to refrain from imposing religiousnorms on male and female soldiers". The appeal, printedin the Haaretz newspaper, opened a new front in an emo-tional public battle over what the military has acknowl-edged is a growing influence of religion in its ranks.

Israeli generals fight gender segregation


Foreign News 15Tuesday, 15 Novermber, 2011

ANKARAReuTeRS

RISING Middle East power Turkey saidon Monday it would galvanise a globalcampaign to halt Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad's repression of his peo-ple, adding that Damascus could no

longer be trusted after attacks on diplomatic mis-sions in Syria. "Turkey's policy on this issue is openand clear. We will stand by the people's just demandsand we will mobilise the necessary regional and interna-tional platforms to counter this Syrian pressure," For-eign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Turkishparliament. Davutoglu is due to meet Arab foreign min-isters in Rabat on Wednesday, on the sidelines of aArab-Turkish forum. Non-Arab Turkey, after longcourting Assad, has lost patience with its neighbour'sfailure to end an eight-month crackdown and implementpromised democratic reforms.

Turkey now hosts the main Syrian opposition andhas given refuge to defecting Syrian soldiers, and Davu-toglu on Monday praised an Arab League decision tosuspend Syria. Despite tough talk, Turkey has movedcautiously, compared to its European Union and U.S. al-lies, which have been swift to approve sanctions againstDamascus, as Ankara weighs the domestic and regionalchallenges involved.

Turkey to take ‘resolutestance’ against Syria

BANGKOKReuTeRS

The centre of Thailand's capital,Bangkok, looks like it will escape theflooding that has hit some suburbsand provinces to its north, but evacu-ation orders are still issued each dayin outer districts and many residentsface weeks of hardship. The Depart-ment of Disaster Prevention and Mit-igation said on Monday 562 peoplehad died in the flooding since lateJuly and that 22 of Thailand's 77provinces were still affected. Flood-ing is receding in parts of Bangkok

but remains high on the west bank ofthe Chao Phraya river, swollen byhigh tides in the Gulf of Thailand,and to the east of the capital, whereauthorities have diverted run-offfloodwater from the north to try toprotect the heart of densely popu-lated Bangkok. Kawin Prachanukul, a 21-year-oldstudent at Bangkok's ThammasatUniversity, decided to stay with hisdog in his home in Nong Kham dis-trict in the west of Bangkok, when itflooded in early November. "My food supplies are starting to runout. Now I've just got some packs of

instant noodles left. But it's not toobad for me -- at least I'm able to walkthrough the knee-deep water in mystreet to the main road, where thereare a few food vendors," he said,adding that only a few men remainedin his neighbourhood. Krissana Laongkaew, 54, had to leaveher house in western Bangkok onNov. 2 with her husband and twosons after the floodwater rose towaist level. She has also lost the traditional Thaimassage shop nearby that she put allher life savings into. "The shop had only been open for

three months. We only finished deco-rating it in late October. Everythingis gone," Krissana said, close to tears. "It's very stressful for me ... My hus-band and I started everything fromscratch and now we're back to zero,"she said. "I don't know how much Ican salvage from the shop. The watercame in so quickly and I had no realtime to prepare. They told me thewater would be knee-high. Initially, Iplanned to stay at my house, but thewater just kept rising." BIG CLEAN-UP: Many main roadsremain closed in the western Thon-buri area. A limited bus service oper-

ates on some routes but most peoplehave to rely on army trucks or smallboats, always packed. In the parts ofthe capital that have remained dry,drinking water is back on shelves ofsupermarkets but still rationed inplaces. The overhead Skytrain and under-ground railway have stayed openthroughout, even in flooded areas. Inone such area in the north of the city,Chatuchak, a big market popular withtourists was closed at the weekendbut the floodwater had started to re-cede in some streets after almost twoweeks, a Reuters reporter said.

Thai floods recede in places, weeks of hardship ahead

OSLOReuTeRS

The anti-Muslim militant whokilled 77 people in attacks in Nor-way on July 22 acknowledged car-rying out the massacre but refusedto plead guilty in his first publiccourt appearance since the attacks. Anders Behring Breivik, speakingon Monday at a court just twoblocks from where he detonated ahuge home-made bomb beforeshooting 69 people at the rulingLabour Party's summer camp, alsorejected the court's authority tohear his case. "I am a military commander in theNorwegian resistance movementand Knights Templar Norway. Re-garding the competence (of thecourt), I object to it because youreceived your mandate from or-ganisations that support hate ide-ology (and) because it supportsmulticulturalism," Breivik told thecourt. "I acknowledge the acts butI do not plead guilty," Breivik toldthe court. The killings shattered a nationknown for its open society, peaceand relative prosperity, sparking adebate about immigration and se-curity. Breivik, speaking at a courtpicketed by a group of protestersholding a banner that read "Nospeakers' platform for fascists", at-tempted to address survivors andvictims' relatives but the court de-nied his request. The hearing was the first opportu-nity for the media, surviving vic-tims and victims' relatives to hearBreivik, 32, speak publicly. The hearing, required under Nor-wegian law to keep a suspect inprison before trial, was Breivik'sfourth, and as expected, the courtdecided to keep him in custody. Hewill likely remain in prison untilhe goes to trial, probably in thefirst half of next year.

BANGKoK: local residents travel in a boat against the current of floodwaters after angry villagers partially destroyed a sand bag wall in front of Don muang airport on monday. AFP

Jordan king calls

for syria’s assad

to step downDAMASCUS

AFp

Jordan's King Abdullah on Mondaycalled for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, the first Arableader to do so after his regime said itwill not budge despite mounting in-ternational pressure. "I believe, if Iwere in his shoes, I would step down,"said King Abdullah. "I would stepdown and make sure whoever comesbehind me has the ability to changethe status quo that we're seeing." Hisremarks were aired on the BBC afterAssad's foreign minister, WalidMuallem, said the Syrian governmentwould not budge despite being sus-pended from the Arab League.

OiC head warns syria’sregime of‘internationalisation’

JEDDAHAFp

The head of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation onMonday warned of a possible internationalisation of the Syr-ian crisis if the regime does not comply with calls for reformand end the bloodshed. If Syria "does not comply with the le-gitimate demands of the Syrian people and international callsby the OIC, the Arab League and the United Nations, it willrisk the internationalisation of its crisis," Ekmeleddin Ih-sanoglu said. The secretary general said internationalisingSyria's crisis will "not be in anybody's interest and will havedangerous outcomes on the security in Syria and in other(OIC) member states." The pan-Islamic 57-nation organisa-tion is ready to "support all efforts seeking to work out apeaceful solution to the crisis in order to ensure the securityand stability of Syria as well as respond to the legitimate de-mands of the Syrian people," he said in a statement. "In thiscontext, the OIC general secretariat is conducting consulta-tions to convene a meeting of the OIC executive committee atthe ministerial level," the English-language statement added.

Norway killer

admits July

massacre


mumBAI: Megastar Amitabh bachchan, whosedaughter-in-law Aishwarya rai is expected to give birthmid-November, can't wait to see the new arrival andsays he is enjoying the hustle bustle in the house. "Thefamily gathers together from all over as we wait forthe 'arrival' ... Greatest joy for me - a full house and the'chahel - pahel' (hustle bustle)," the 69-year-old postedon micro-blogging site Twitter. Aishwarya is expectingher first child with actor-husband Abhishek bachchan.Apart from waiting excitedly for the baby, Amitabhalso took some time off to watch ranbir Kapoor-

starrer ‘rockstar’ which released fridayand the actor says he is impressed

with the entire team. "it's latebut not without cause...

just back from 'rockStar' andliving in the brilliance of all -imtiaz Ali, ranbir, Ar andNargis... Still with 'rockStar'and its beauty," he furtherposted. Directed by imtiazAli, ‘rockstar’ chronicles thejourney of an aspiring

singer Janardhan Jakhar, whowants to make it big in the

music world. itintroduces two

new faces -Pakistani-AmericanmodelNargis fakhriand brazilianmodelMoufid Aziz.AGeNCIeS

16 Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

IN LIMELIGHTMUMbAi: Deepika

Padukone attends

the first D y Patil

Annual ‘Achiever’s

Awards’ ceremony.

loNDoN: Tension is growing between supermodel Kate Mossand her new husband Jamie Hince less than five months intotheir marriage. The 37-year-old catwalk queen has already toldfriends that she is suffering from marriage shock,reported Daily Mail online. Now a delay in plans forMoss and her rocker husband to move into aneight million pounds new home is causingfurther strain. The newlyweds should alreadybe settled in at the townhouse in Highgate inNorth london as it was due to be ready lastmonth. but a number of setbacks during its 2.5million-pound renovation mean they are unlikelyto move in before Christmas. "The house iscausing a lot of problems and a great deal oftension between them. They were meant tomove in last month but Jamie has been awayon tour and the building works have run over.Kate has been complaining she has been left tosort out everything, from dealing with thearchitect to planning permission. She thoughtthis is what husbands are for," a friend said.Hince, 42, was on tour in South America andis now in europe, so Moss has been liaisingwith Camden Council, which has justgranted planning permission for CCTvcameras, along with a steam room andbasement gym. AGeNCIeS

Supermodel Kate Moss suffering from

marriage shockmumBAI: Salman Khan mightbe one of the mostcontroversial celebrities butwhat one can’t deny is that thehunk has a heart of gold.Salman and Katrina, who wereshooting in Turkey for yashraj’s ‘ek Tha Tiger’ directed byKabir Khan decided to makethis Diwali extra special for thecrew members. it was Kat’sidea to gift her personal staffand the crew members goldcoins as a token of love. WhenKhan learnt of his ex-ladylove’splan, he decided to follow inher footsteps. A source said,“The crew was shooting inTurkey around Diwali. Katrinawanted to do somethingspecial for her staff and thecrew. The crew was away fromhome shooting during thefestival, instead of celebratingit with their respectivefamilies. She decided to giftthem gold coins. When Salmanfound out about Katrina’sgenerous gesture, he also gotinspired and decided to giftthem gold coins. everyone inthe unit from the direction andthe production team and thespot boys got two gold coinseach.” ZeeNeWS

ColoMbo: A Sri lankan modelshows off a bridal creationduring a fashion show.

loS

ANGeleS:

Singer

Gwen

Stefani

arrives at

2011 MoCA

Gala, ‘An

Artist's life

Manifesto’,

directed by

Marina

Abramovic.

HollyWooD: oscar-nominated

actress Sharon Stone poses at

the 3rd Annual Governors Awards.

MUMbAi: Salman Khan

and Dr Ajeenkya D y Patil

onstage at the first D y

Patil Annual ‘Achiever’s

Awards’ ceremony.

in family

Amitabh lookingforward to

new addition

john Abraham spottedwith new ladylove

MUMBAI ZeeNeWS

It has been a while since Bi-pasha Basu and John Abra-ham broke up after being ina relationship for over nineyears. Since their break-up,both have been linked with

co-stars and gossip millshave been relentlesslyworking overtime to juiceout on their love lives.While Bips has been linkedwith Shahid Kapur, JoshHarnett and Rana Dugga-bati, John’s relationship‘status’ escaped constant

vigilance. However, therewere speculations of himdating a banker chic. Butnow the time has comewhen this Bollywood hunkhas no qualms unfoldinghis new love story. Johnarrived at a book launch inthe city with 26-year-oldformer banker Priya Run-chal last Friday evening.And his arrival with a ladyby his side raised manyeyebrows and the pa-parazzi were quick enoughto grab them their lenses.John was very much atease being with his ladylove in public. While talk-ing to reporters, the hunksaid, “There is someonespecial in my life, but Idon’t want to say any-thing more than that. Itis extremely personal.”Hmmm….we wonder whatBipasha has to say!

MONITORING DESK

Lollywood actress-turned-director Reemais all set to get married.According to reports, theinternationally knownPakistani celebrity willtie the knot on Novem-ber 18, 2011 with US-based Pakistani, DrTariq Shahab. Reema iscurrently in Washingtonwith family and friendsfor pre-wedding celebra-tions (dholkis). Hermayoun will take placetoday and mehndi onNovember 16. Nikah andrukhsati are scheduled for November 18. Reemawill remain in Washing-ton for a couple of weeksafter the marriage before

returning to Pakistan.

Reema to

tie the knotwith US-based Pakistani doctor


17

Audience, pirzada laud‘Romeo and Juliet’

LAHORESTAFF RepoRT

The English Dramatics Society ofDefence Degree College forWomen, DHA Lahore received agreat acclaim for its annualproduction’ Romeo and Juliet’staged at the DHA Tanzeem Hall.The chief guest, Usman Pirzada, aseasoned TV and film actorappreciated the wonderfulpresentation of theShakespearean classic,encouraged other such futureartistic endeavours and invitedthe college to participate in theYouth Drama Festival. The aptuse of lights, creative backdrops,elegant costumes and the uniqueelement of royal music created aclassical Elizabethan ambiance.The audience highly appreciatedtouching performance and thepowerful narration whichenhanced the effect of thetragedy. The entire play arrestedthe attention of the audience andcreated a spellbound atmosphere.Director Education was alsopresent on the occasion.

loS ANGeleS: big-budget 3-D epic ‘immortals’ toppedthe top of the box office this weekend, beating anAdam Sandler comedy and a leonardo DiCaprio biopic,industry estimates showed Sunday. Set in ancientGreece, ‘immortals’ scored $32 million in weekendreceipts, pushing it past Sandler's ‘Jack and Jill,’ inwhich he plays both a successful los Angelesadvertising executive and his needy identical twin sisterJill. The comedy came in second with $26 million,according to monitor exhibitor relations. Animated kids'romp ‘Puss in boots,’ last week's leader, took third place.The flick features voice work by Antonio banderas,Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis and billy bobThornton. in fourth was ‘Tower Heist,’ with anall-star cast led by eddie Murphy. it wastrailed by Clint eastwood's ‘J. edgar,’ whichstars DiCaprio as late fbi director J. edgarHoover. Comedy sequel ‘A very Haroldand Kumar 3D Christmas’ fell to sixthplace, besting futuristic thriller ‘in Time’starring Justin Timberlake and AmandaSeyfield. ‘Paranormal Activity 3’,‘footloose’ and ‘real Steel’ rounded offthe top ten. AGeNCIeS

Salman, Kat rain gold on

‘Ek ThaTiger’

crew

mumBAI: She is bollywood's very own fashionista. but itseems that the iT girl, Sonam Kapoor, will have to turnher style quotient several notches down to get intocharacter for rakeysh omprakash Mehra's ‘bhaagMilkha bhaag’. And to essay a village girl residingin Punjab during the 1950s also means that theactress will have to do without her gizmos andgadgets. Mehra has asked Sonam to sweat itout without air conditioners and mobilephones and live like the village belle she issupposed to play in the film. An entirevillage on the indo-Pak border, a fewkilometres away from ferozpur is nowbeing transformed, to represent 1930s indiaby art director Sumit basu. No cellphones,no computers, no gadgets, not evenair-conditioners that's the ruleMehra has laid down for thelead actors. "Sonam and farhanhave to feel like they belong tothe 1950s, just as i've startedfeeling. Nowadays when i wakeup, i am shocked to feel thechill of the air conditioner inmy house. i am graduallycutting myself loose from allthe luxuries we take forgranted," he says. mIRRoR

No more luxuries forSonamKapoor

DiCaprio fails to beat

'Immortals'

MUMbAi: vidya balan

dances during the

seventh anniversary

party of indian Tv

programme 'Saas

bahu aur Saazish'.

HollyWooD: Actress Sofia vergara

poses at the world premiere of the

movie 'Happy feet Two'.

at box office

MUMBAI ZeeNeWS

THE serial kisser tag might have been slappedhard on Emraan Hashmi in Bollywood, butPakistan sees the actor in a different lightaltogether. Emraan is equally popular as theKhans across the border and more so for the

chartbusters pictured on him. The actor is perhaps the onlyone in the current lot to have had the maximum number ofhit songs to his credit. Reportedly, a prime time TV show inPakistan has Emraan’s name in the title. The producers ofthe show have been wise enough to spell the namedifferently to prevent copyright infringement. The showtitled ‘Main Tum Aur Imran Hashmi’ has popular PakistaniTV artists that include Noor Ul Hassan, Neelum Munir,Rubina Ashraf and Tipu Shah. The show revolves roundChanda, the protagonist, who is in love with the Indianactor. She is so crazy about Emraan that she keeps humminghis songs all day. A source said, “Clearly, Emraan’s namehas been spelt wrong to evade copyright issues. However,if you watch the show once, you will immediately knowthat the producers wanted to capitalise on EmraanHashmi’s popularity in the country. Surprisingly, Hashmi’spermission wasn’t taken on this. This is the second timethat a show has been named after an actor, the first being‘Kya Meri Shaadi Shah Rukh Se Hogi?’.” The actor himselfis amused to hear the news. He tweeted, "Ha ha! So i heard& read about a serial in Pakistan with my name in itstitle ! Flattering !" And now that Emraan’s film ‘TheDirty Picture’ is nearing its release, the producers willcertainly cash in on, for the sun is shining very bright!

HONOLULUAGeNCIeS

A popular Hawaiian recording artist turned a top-security dinner of Pacific Rim leaders hosted byPresident Barack Obama into a subtle protestwith a song in support of the "Occupy" movement.Makana, who goes by one name, was enlisted toplay a luau, or Hawaiian feast, Saturday night forleaders assembled in Obama's birthplace Hon-olulu for an annual summit that is formulatingplans for a Pacific free-trade pact. But in the midstof the dinner on the resort strip Waikiki Beach, hepulled open his jacket to reveal a T-shirt that read"Occupy with Aloha," using the Hawaiian word

whose various meanings include love and peace.He then sang a marathon version of his new song‘We Are The Many’. "I was pretty nervous. In factI was terrified. I kept thinking 'what are the con-sequences going to be?'" Makana, 33, told AFP."It was incredibly comical. I was terrified but alsoenjoying it," he said. Makana, who was bornMatthew Swalinkavich, said the song promptedawkward stares from a few of those present butthe Obamas appeared too absorbed with theirguests to notice what was happening. The per-formance occurred at a dinner for summmit par-ticipants from 21 economies around theAsia-Pacific, including Chinese President Hu Jin-tao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,

amid a security lockdown in Waikiki. As Makanasang, about 400 protesters including anti-global-ization and native Hawaiian rights activists stageda protest march toward the dinner site but turnedback after encountering the smothering security.Makana released the song on the Internet the daybefore and decided to play it at the urging of fans,he said. The song features the refrain, "We’ll oc-cupy the streets, we’ll occupy the courts, we’ll oc-cupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding ofthe many, not the few." He sang it "over and over"for 40 minutes, varying his tempo and delivery toavoid triggering an overt reaction. "Whenever Ifelt the heat might come down, I would ease off.It was a very careful procedure," he said.

Singer crashes Obama summit with 'Occupy' song



Castano clinchesstorm-hit play-off

Mickey Arthur says noto Pakistan coaching

LAHORESTAFF RepoRT

Former South African coach MickeyArthur has reportedly turned downan offer from the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) to succeed Waqar You-nis as national coach, it was learnton Monday. The PCB had heldtalks with Arthur’s agent, but hemade it clear that his client was notinterested in making a move tocoach the troubled team. “The agentfor Arthur turned down the offerfrom the outset,” a website reportedMonday. The source also revealed that the board many notend up signing a foreign coach. “Dean Jones and DermotReeve are no longer in the run and the PCB apparently hashad a change of plan and is now looking at hiring specialistcoaches for batting, fielding and bowling instead of hiring ahead coach,” the source said. According to reports, the PCB isnow considering the names of Moin Khan, Aaqib Javed andSabih Azhar for the national coach position.

Amir moved to Portland Prison LAHORE

STAFF RepoRT

Former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Amir has been movedto a safer seaside prison days after his conviction in a spot-fix-ing scandal. Amir, who began serving his six-month sentenceat Feltham Young Offenders Institution in West London onNovember 3, has been transferred to Portland Prison on theDorset coast. "Feltham is a grim place to be - especially for ayoung international sports star. Amir will be glad to get out.And Portland is a walk in the park by comparison," the Sunquoted a source as saying. Feltham had earlier come underscanner after a racist inmate murdered his Muslim inmate. A2010 report had pointed out "frequent" fights and "gang cul-ture" in the jail. Amir is expected to appeal against his sen-tence for bowling deliberate no-balls in exchange for paymentsat a Lord's match against England in August 2010.

Assault twist in roebuck death SYDNEY

AFp

Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck plunged to his deathfrom a hotel window in South Africa after being questioned bypolice about an alleged sexual assault, his employer said onMonday. The English-born Roebuck, 55 and a former first-class cricketer, was covering the ongoing Test series betweenSouth Africa and Australia when he died on Saturday night.South African police confirmed he committed suicide and theAustralian newspaper group he worked for, Fairfax Media,said he fell to his death from the Southern Sun Hotel in CapeTown. Roebuck had written on cricket for The Sydney Morn-ing Herald and The Age in Melbourne since 1984, and thenewspapers said his death followed questioning by police fromthe sexual crimes unit about an alleged sexual assault. Theyprovided no further details although. Fairfax said Roebuck wasagitated and asked a fellow cricket journalist for help. "Canyou come down to my room quickly? I've got a problem," hesaid and asked for help to find a lawyer. Fairfax said it was be-lieved a uniformed police officer was in the room at the time.

KOLKATAAFp

RAHUL Dravid cracked a brilliant 119to put India on course for a big totalon the opening day of the second Testagainst the West Indies at the EdenGardens in Kolkata on Monday. The

38-year-old batsman hit two sixes and ninefours in his 36th Test hundred, and the fifth ofthe year, as the hosts reached 346-5 in theirfirst innings at stumps after winning the toss ona good batting pitch. Only India's Sachin Ten-dulkar (51), South African Jacques Kallis (40)and Australian Ricky Ponting (39) have scoredmore Test centuries than Dravid.

India lead 1-0 in the three-Test series follow-ing their five-wicket win in the opening match inNew Delhi. Dravid never looked in trouble in his207-ball knock, impressing with his shot-selec-tion during his long stay at the crease to put Indiain a strong position with three valuable partner-ships. He added 83 runs for the second wicketwith Gautam Gambhir (65), 56 for the next withSachin Tendulkar and 140 for the fourth wicketwith Venkatsai Laxman, who was unbeaten witha solid 73 when bad light stopped play.

Dravid completed his hundred when heturned a no-ball from paceman Kemar Roachbehind square-leg for a four before inside-edgingpart-time spinner Kraigg Brathwaite's deliveryon to his stumps in the day's penultimate over."It feels that I am in some good form. I have hit

a good patch and I am in a good space with mygame, so I am really trying to make it count,"said Dravid. "Cricket is a funny game and younever know when the tough time is around thecorner, but as long as you have the good timegoing, you have to keep it going.

"(Getting out in closing overs) was a little dis-appointing. It would have been nice to start freshtomorrow. It's always better to come back freshthe next day with a hundred behind you."

India lost one more wicket when nightwatch-man Ishant Sharma was caught behind off Roach.Laxman, who made an unbeaten 58 in the lastTest, has so far hit five fours in his second succes-sive half-century. Tendulkar, who needs just onehundred to complete an unprecedented 100th in-ternational century, had been batting confidentlybefore falling for 38, pulling leg-spinner Devendra

Bishoo to Marlon Samuels at mid-wicket.Dravid continued to bat comfortably against

both pace and spin, lofting Bishoo over long-offand part-time spinner Samuels over long-on forsixes. Tendulkar, who has also scored 48 hun-dreds in one-day internationals, looked in excel-lent form as he turned Fidel Edwards to fine-legfor his first four and then drove Roach throughthe covers for another boundary. He survived aconfident appeal for leg-before on 25 while at-tempting to sweep Bishoo before being dismissedby the same bowler in the afternoon session,much to the disappointment of nearly 10,000spectators. The West Indies struggled for successon a pitch which had little in it for the bowlers,with seamer Darren Sammy, Edwards, Bishoo,Roach and Brathwaite each taking one wicket.

"It was a tough day for us because there wasnothing in the pitch for the bowlers," said WestIndies coach Ottis Gibson. "But India did collapsein the first innings of the last Test and we are hop-ing something like that happens here too."

Gambhir fell to a loose shot, driving an Ed-wards delivery straight to Adrian Barath at shortcover after adding eight runs to his lunch scoreof 57. He hit eight fours in his 17th half-centuryin 43 Tests. India got off to a solid start asGambhir and aggressive Virender Sehwag (38)put on 66 in 12.1 overs for the opening wicket.Sehwag played some handsome shots againstthe West Indies pace attack, hitting eight foursin his brisk 33-ball knock before driving Sammystraight to Barath at short mid-wicket.

KolKATA: india's rahul Dravid plays a shot as West indies wicketkeeper Carlton baugh looks on. AFP

Dravid puts India in control

INDIA, 1ST INNINGS:G. Gambhir c Barath b F. edwards 65V. Sehwag c Barath b Sammy 38R. Dravid b Brathwaite 119S. Tendulkar c Samuels b Bishoo 38V. laxman not out 73I. Sharma c Baugh b Roach 0eXTRAS: (lb5, nb6, w2) 13ToTAl: (for five wickets; 87.3 overs) 346Fall of wickets: 1-66 (Sehwag), 2-149 (Gambhir), 3-205 (Tendulkar),4-345 (Dravid), 5-346 (Sharma).BoWlING: F. edwards 13-0-45-1 (nb1), Sammy 14-0-78-1 (w1), Roach 15.3-1-57-1 (nb4, w1), Samuels 16-0-65-0, Bishoo 27-1-87-1 (nb1), Brathwaite 2-0-9-1.Toss: India, umpires: Rod Tucker (AuS) and Bruce oxenford (AuS), TVumpire: S. Ravi (IND), match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZl)

SCoReBoARD

HUMAN beings are hypocrites, lackreasoning and can be easily manip-ulated. This was my conclusion after

running through the thousands of updateson social media on Asif, Amir and Salman- the three cricketers banned in cricket's yetanother match fixing saga. The updates ranfrom hanging them, to life imprisonment,to public prosecution, to whipping, to burn-ing their homes with families!

For a start, people need to gauge themagnitude of crime involved - the financialvalue is said to be around 150K pounds -peanuts when compared to scams in whichpoliticians, industrialists, bureaucrats andcorporatrs get involved. Sums of this mag-nitude seldom even get reported. If your

brother was involved in a money launder-ing scam of this amount, would you haverecommended the same treatment? Be-sides, if jail terms were to start for this sumof money, there would be more jails re-quired than houses across the world!

But then, sports (along with movies)touch the masses like nothing else. Fans likeus are passionate to the point of eating,drinking and sleeping the game. In the sub-continent, the cricket team's performance,reflect our own identity, our pride of placein the world. We have stronger opinionsabout people involved in sports. And Amir,Asif and Salman tried to make money byplaying a 'gentleman's game' in a non-gen-tlemanly manner. Jailing Asif, Amir, Salmanfor the said terms won't wipe away fixing. Itwill just destroy three careers and give Pak-istan more belief that the world is againstthem. After all it's the same world which

brushed aside claims that Mark Waugh andShane Warne made money by playing a'gentleman's game' in a non-gentlemanlymanner. Even the ACB had managed to ef-fectively hide it for a long time.

Amir, Asif and Salman can at best becharged for taking undue and unfair advan-tage of a precious cap, a responsible position,handed over by the nation and in processtarnished the sport and the country. No, theyweren't selling their country - thats an over-statement. Pakistan and cricket surely havebeen embarrassed, since this incident! How-ever, that brings us to this question; did boththese entities do enough to ensure preven-tion? Pakistan is a state media has made syn-onymous with terrorists, jihadis, extremists,bomb blasts and hell. It's unfair, disgracefuland the truth lies somewhere in between.Any budding Pakistan cricketer indirectlybecomes a victim of this perception. Thanks

to a few connected unfortunate incidents,Pakistan cricket didn't find much room inthe heavily active ICC future tours pro-gramme. In short, Pakistan was at mercy ofcertain nations and neutral venues to get agame of cricket. For an average twenty yearold, coming from challenging backgrounds,with limited education and knowing onlyone art to survive, it isn't the best of times. Ina sport, where the average career spansbarely half a decade, time was and is runningout for their community. Imagine the stateof a world class bowler like Mohammad Asif- sitting at home and awaiting the next seriesto play, when a lesser talented, Shanthaku-maran Sreesanth was leading the life of a su-perstar and an unknown, Manpreet Gony,was minting money, just across the border!Certain boards have invested and given astructure to their domestic cricket, enough togive an average domestic cricketer a living.

Let’s not be vindictive of the fixing triog big daddy iCC takes equal blame for the fiasco

AVIJIT PATNAIK

Comment


sports 19Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

EVEN the ICC will concede the cur-rent situation in internationalcricket is far from ideal. Some se-

ries are played with the Decision ReviewSystem (DRS) in place, with all the avail-able technology, some with the DRS butwith limited use of technology, while inothers there are no reviews at all. How-ever, this enforced compromise in inter-national cricket allows us to watch andcompare the effects of these different ap-proaches to the game.

The West Indies tour of India, broad-cast under the direction of the BCCI, has noDRS, and minimal use of technology in itstelevision coverage, while Australia's tourof South Africa is being played with theDRS, using all the technology available.

As for my stand on the DRS, to startwith, like a typical cricketer, I was op-posed to technology. But when technol-ogy became an integral part ofdecision-making, I started to see somebenefits and joined the masses who had

begun to support the DRS. But now,watching the India-West Indies series,which takes you back to a time whenthere was limited use of technology, I ambeginning to see some positives in theold-fashioned approach to cricket.

The BCCI's stand on the DRS is wellknown, but during the India-England one-day series the board went a step furtherand decided that the ball-tracking resultsfor lbws wouldn't be broadcast for the ben-efit of television viewers either. I was out-raged when I first learnt of this decision,but with time I began to understand thelogic behind it. Why show the viewers whatthe board considers a flawed piece of tech-nology and mislead them? Of course, thecounter-argument would be: why not con-tinue showing it as a viewing enhancement,as it was originally meant to be? But let'snot forget that what started off as a "value-add" on TV had such a powerful effect onfans, players and administrators that itforced its way into the core of the game.This viewing enhancement was too potentto be used as just a television graphic.

The one thing I particularly likedabout the DRS-free, ball-tracking-freecoverage of the India-West Indies serieswas illustrated by the decision againstGautam Gambhir. He was given out leg-before by Rod Tucker in the second in-nings at the Kotla. It looked to many likethe ball could have been slipping downleg. A review may have given Gambhir alifeline, but because there was no DRS toconfirm the line of the delivery, everyone- the players and the fans watching on TV

- just moved on. Without ball-trackingtechnology, which could have thrown upfurther doubts, the dismissal incident didnot become an issue. Obviously Gambhirwould feel hard done by that there was noDRS, but his was one of the 40 wicketsthat can fall in a Test. Is one wicket thatbig a deal in the larger scheme of things?

Gambhir was out, not so much becausethe umpire decided it wasn't going downleg, but because he played across the line.And with no one making a fuss about thedecision, that is what he would have con-cluded himself in the dressing room.

Those who tend to be dramatic andsuggest that one wicket can indeedchange the course of the game are lookingat it the wrong way. A team never loses amatch because of one moment in thegame; it's always more than one event - infact, a series of events - that determines ateam's defeat. But often, taking our angerout on the umpires after a game is lostseems to give us greater relief.

The BCCI's decision has also made theumpire the boss again, as it should be. Istill can't come to terms with the fact thatthe umpire's finger going up is not the endof the matter, as it once was. I also stronglybelieve that umpiring has become betterover the years, and we have to thank TVtechnology for it. So maybe it's time to givethe umpires the final authority again. Con-sidering the number of decisions an um-pire gives in one Test, howlers are rare.

Once again, we are reminded of thevirtues of the old methods, which cannotbe dismissed as signs of old-fashioned,

rigid thinking. It's about which is betterfor the game as a whole in the long run. Torubbish this approach because it's beingled by the BCCI is not right.

Of course, there are obvious advan-tages of using technology, and we saw itsbest endorsement at Newlands. Having anall-inclusive DRS helps keep calm amongplayers in a high-intensity contest, be-cause they feel the best possible effort hasbeen made to arrive at the right decision.Secondly, the viewers, who drive thecricket market, love a DRS situation. Theylean forward on their sofas with great ex-citement to see what transpires as tech-nology takes its course. What the DRS alsodoes well is help balance the game out bytaking much of the human element out ofdecision-making, which has always beenbased on the principle that the batsmanshould get the benefit of the doubt.

But I don't like how the DRS gets fartoo much attention during a match. Whena not-out decision gets reviewed and over-turned, and the batman starts walking backto the dressing room, the talk revolvesaround the DRS rather than how good theball was or what mistake the batsmanmade. Cricket should always be about theplayers, not umpires and video evidence.And like cricketers, technology can have agood or a bad game; it had a good run atNewlands but it failed in England.

We are running out of time on thisissue. Very soon the ICC will have to stan-dardise playing conditions in internationalcricket: it has to be DRS for all or for none.I am glad I don't have to vote on this.

No DRS, no dramaeXpeRT CommeNT

SANJAy MANJreKAr

Phelps rompsto fifth winin Minnesota

MINNEAPOLISAFp

Michael Phelps captured his fifth goldmedal of the weekend, dominating the200 metre individual medley Sunday atthe Minnesota Grand Prix meet.Phelps, the most decorated Olympicswimmer in history, is stepping up histraining and getting ready for the 2012London Olympics. "It feels good to sort ofhave things going in the right directionagain," Phelps said. "It's been so long thatI've been able to swim halfway decent in-season. Being able to kind of get back tothose times is definitely good for me rightnow. "I'm happy to just be able to com-pete how I used to."The 14-time Olympic gold medal winnerPhelps crushed the 200 individual med-ley field, winning by almost four secondsand touching the wall in two minutes,2.23 seconds. Phelps also swam thefastest time in the morning preliminaries.The 26-year-old American had alreadywon the 100 and 200 butterfly events, aswell as the 200 freestyle and 100 back-stroke during the three-day competitionat the University of Minnesota pool.South Africa's Darian Townsend finishedwell back in second in the medley with atime of 2:01.55 and China's Wu Peng wasthird in 2:01.97. Six-time Olympic medal-list Ryan Lochte, of the US, swam thethird-fastest preliminary time in the 200individual medley and the top prelimi-nary time in the 200 backstroke, butchose not to compete the evening finals.While Phelps was the top male swimmerof the meet, his American compatriotMelissa Franklin was the leading femalescorer after winning five medals.Franklin captured the 200 backstrokeon Sunday, finishing in 2:08.03 andlater won the 100 freestyle with a time of54.27. She also placed third in the 200individual medley in 2:13.12 Sunday.The 16-year-old is chasing her firstOlympic berth. "We're in really toughtraining right now; everyone is,"Franklin said. "To be able to come outhere and go some of my best in-seasontimes is really good. I'm thrilled."

Portugal look to avoid euro slip-upPARIS

AFp

Portugal will look to justify their tag as favourites in theEuro 2012 play-off second leg match with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday and seal their place in a fifthsuccessive European championships. The Portuguese --finalists when hosts in 2004 -- largely dominated thefirst leg which finished in a 0-0 draw in Zenica on Fri-day but will be counting on stars such as CristianoRonaldo to see them safely on the plane to Poland andUkraine next year. The two sides know each other well,having also faced each other in the play-off for a placeat the 2010 World Cup which the Portuguese took onlyto disappoint at the finals themselves.

We have a very long way to go. I wouldnot have been surprised if we won thegame in India because I know whatwe are capable of - sporadic, good spo-radic performances - one here, onenext year, but in terms of consistency,Trinidad, West Indies lack that, andthat is not something that you regainovernight. I think our infrastructureis terrible administratively, we havegot it wrong on many occasions. Our

player-board relationship - that hasgone wrong for many years, gone sourand we need to improve these things,fix it, set a base, get the infrastructurein and then think about five, 10 yearsdown the line. So it might be a dismaloutlook, but if we keep just trying toput a plaster on every sore that wehave, it's not going to work. So, I hopeone day somebody's going to take it upand really get things going. As I said,on any given day, I think we've got thebest talented cricketers in the world.It's always been the case over the

years, since even before my days ...cricket has gone a long way now. Tal-ent is only a very small part comparedto 20, 30 years ago, when it was amajor part - your physical fitness, yourtalent - that played a bigger role. Now(with) technology, there is a lot ofthings coming into play and I say it allthe time - we in the West Indies takevery good talent and make it averageand people (in places) like Australiaand England and India take averagetalent and make it very, very good,and that is where the problem lies.

Only talent can’t save wI cricket

BRIAN LARA

Comment

DUBAIAFp

SLING-ACTION paceman Lasith Ma-linga took three wickets to help SriLanka to a 25-run win over Pakistanin the second one day internationalto level the five-match series 1-1 here

on Monday. Malinga took two wickets in thefirst over and then returned in his secondspell to finish with 3-36 to help dismiss Pak-istan for 210 in 46.3 overs after setting thema target of 236 runs at Dubai stadium.

Pakistan won the first match by eightwickets, also played here on Friday. UmarAkmal led the chase with a brilliant 102-ball91 but Pakistan lost three wickets in succes-sion in the batting power-play, includingthat of Akmal which saw them lose theirway. Akmal hit one six and eight boundaries-- three of them in Dilhara Fernando's 38thover -- before hitting the sixth delivery of thesame over straight into the hands of mid-onto end Pakistan's hopes of winning.

Earlier the 28-year-old Malinga removedopener Mohammad Hafeez (four) with thethird delivery of his first over -- his 150th one-day wicket in his 96th match -- and then You-nis Khan (nought) off the fifth -- both caughtbehind. Thisara Perera, who finished with 2-30, removed Imran Farhat (three) beforeAkmal steadied the innings through a 64-runfourth wicket stand with Misbah-ul Haq (21)and another 62-run stand for the next wicketwith Sarfraz Ahmed (24).

Shahid Afridi, who hit a 14-ball 29, andSaeed Ajmal added a quickfire 30 in fourovers before Afridi was run out byTillakaratne Dilshan, much to the relief ofthe Sri Lankans. Earlier Sri Lankan openerUpul Tharanga (77) and Mahela Jayawar-dene (50) set the foundations for the SriLankan total. Dilshan and Tharanga gave asolid 56-run start to their team by the 12thover when leg-spinner Shahid Afridi, man-of-the-match in the first game for his 3-27,

provided Pakistan with a breakthrough.Afridi bowled Sri Lanka captain Dilshanwith a sharp googly after he had threatenedto make a big score by hitting four bound-aries. He fell for a 40-ball 28. Kumar San-gakkara made just five. It became 3-94 whenDinesh Chandimal (15) fell to off-spinner

Saeed Ajmal, leaving Tharanga andJayawardene to give the innings some re-spectability. Tharanga hit eight boundariesduring his 120-ball knock before he wascaught off Afridi. Jayawardene, who waslacklustre in the Tests as well as in the firstone-dayer, hit five boundaries during his 57-

ball knock before he was bowled by Ajmal.Ajmal finished with 3-61 while Afridi bagged2-35. The remaining matches in the serieswill be played in Dubai (November 18),Sharjah (November 20) and Abu Dhabi(November 23). Both teams will also play aTwenty20 in Abu Dhabi on November 25.

DUbAi: Umar Akmal played valiantly for his 91. AFP

Pakistan fall to Malinga’s paceSRI lANKA:u. Tharanga c Younis b Afridi 77T. Dilshan b Afridi 28K. Sangakkara c and b Razzaq 5D. Chandimal b Ajmal 15m. Jayawardene b Ajmal 50A. mathews c Ahmed b Cheema 3J. mendis not out 17T. perera st Ahmed b Ajmal 13l. malinga not out 2eXTRAS: (lb8, nb1, w16) 25ToTAl: (for seven wkts) 235Fall of wickets: 1-56 (Dilshan), 2-65 (Sangakkara), 3-94(Chandimal), 4-179 (Tharanga), 5-189 (mathews), 6-210(Jayawardene), 7-233 (perera)BoWlING: Gul 7-1-35-0 (nb1, w5), Cheema 8-0-56-1(w4), Ajmal 10-0-61-3 (6w), Razzaq 7-1-18-1 (w1), Afridi10-1-35-2, Hafeez 8-1-22-0overs: 50pAKISTANm Hafeez c Sangakkara b malinga 4Imran Farhat lbw b perera 3Younus Khan c Sangakkara b malinga 0misbah-ul Haq lbw b Fernando 21umar Akmal c Chandimal b Fernando 91Abdul Razzaq run out 11Sarfraz Ahmed lbw b malinga 24Shahid Afridi run out 29umar Gul lbw b perera 0Saeed Ajmal not out 8Aizaz Cheema run out 6eXTRAS: (b1, lb5, w7) 13ToTAl: 210Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Hafeez), 2-4 (Younus), 3-11 (Farhat),4-75 (misbah), 5-102 (Razzaq), 6-164 (Akmal), 7-164(Sarfraz), 8-169 (Gul), 9-199 (Afridi)BoWlING: malinga 9-1-36-3 (w5), perera 9-1-30-2,Fernando 9-0-54-2 (w2), prasanna 9.3-1-38-0, Dilshan 1-0-3-0, mendis 9-0-43-0overs: 46.3Result: Sri lanka won by 25 runs, Toss: Sri lanka,umpires: Richard Illingworth (eNG) and ZameerHaider (pAK), TV umpire: marais erasmus (RSA),match referee: Andy pycroft (ZIm).

SCoReBoARD

Pacquiao’s strugglecould spurMayweather fight

LAS VEGASAFp

Manny Pacquiao's struggle to a contro-versial victory over Juan Manuel Mar-quez could nudge the Filipino boxingicon closer to a megafight showdownagainst unbeaten US star Floyd May-weather. Pacquiao stretched his winstreak to 15 fights with a majority deci-sion over Marquez on Saturday at LasVegas, but lacked the overpoweringform he had shown in seven fightssince a previous controversial triumphover Marquez in 2008. "PacMan"needed 28 stitches to close a cut overhis right eye suffered in a 10th-roundhead-butt and had two judges whogave him the final round scored it theother way, the fight would have beenscored a draw. Pacquiao promoter BobArum dismissed Marquez's talk that hemight retire, saying the likely $10 mil-lion payday for a fourth fight couldchange his mind and that he would tryto stage a fourth Marquez-Pacquiaofight next May. Freddie Roach, Pac-quiao's trainer, said he felt Marquezdeserved a rematch before the Asiansouthpaw faced Mayweather. Andwhile Pacquiao was open to a Marquezrematch, he made it clear he was alsoready to face Mayweather, saying whenasked about the prospect, "Let's get iton. Let's make the fight happen." May-weather, through advisor LeonardEllerbe, has said he wants to fight Pac-quiao next May. Arum dismissed May-weather having already set a date andsite for the fight and Roach said May-weather has no business trying to setterms. "I'm kind of tired of Floyd. Shutup and fight or don't," Roach said.


iCC WOmeN’s WOrld CuP QualiFiers

sports20Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

DUBAIAFp

PAKISTAN'S new cricket chiefZaka Ashraf Monday vowedto bring international cricketback to the country, suggest-ing the game's governing

body could form a board to assess securitybefore teams' tours. International crickethas been suspended in Pakistan since ter-rorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team inLahore in March 2009, which left eightpeople dead and seven visiting players andtheir assistant coach injured.

Those incidents, coupled with contin-ued security fears in Pakistan, have led to re-fusals by international teams to tour thetroubled country. Ashraf, who replaced IjazButt as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chair-man last month, said his first task is to bringinternational cricket back to the country."We are doing our level best to bring inter-national cricket back to Pakistan," Ashraf,who met International Cricket Council (ICC)officials, told AFP. "I have suggested the ICCshould form a board to assess security inPakistan." After the terrorist attacks of2009, the ICC was forced to strip Pakistanof its share of matches in the 2011 WorldCup. Sri Lanka also turned down an invita-

tion to tour Pakistan after a military basewas attacked in Karachi in May this year,forcing them to play the series in the UnitedArab Emirates. Ashraf, regarded as a closefriend of President Asif Ali Zardari, said hecan take help from the government on im-plementing security for international teams.

"Once the ICC forms a security board wecan also take help from the government andimplement the best arrangements for inter-national teams," said Ashraf. Ashraf saidPakistani fans are deprived of internationalcricket. "What happened in Pakistan wasdisappointing and that left millions of fans

in our country deprived of internationalcricket and we now seek help from thecricket world to restore activity so that ourfans get to see that," said Ashraf.

International Cricket Council (ICC) chiefexecutive Haroon Lorgat, who met Ashraf onMonday, said the ICC was doing its best torevive cricket in Pakistan. "It was somethingthat could not get much time (for considera-tion) due to the spot-fixing issue, but now inorder to have some teams playing in Pakistanthe security situation has to be considered,"said Lorgat. Ashraf said he has also writtento Indian cricket chiefs to revive what hetermed the "mother of all cricket" series. "Ihave written to Narayan Srinivasan (Presi-dent of the Board of Control for Cricket inIndia) to revive the series between the twocountries because it's a game and should bekept away from politics," said Ashraf. It is amove backed by Lorgat. "India-Pakistan is aseriously important fixture. It is also some-thing which Ashraf has uppermost in hismind and we will support that. We can makea request to India, it is up to India to decidewhere they want to play." Ashraf said he hasalso met Bangladesh Cricket Board officialsto break the ice. "I have also met Bangladeshofficials and in order to break the ice. I haveinvited them to tour Pakistan and I hope theyreply in a positive way."

Zaka vows to lure world’sbest back to Pakistan

DUbAi: PCb chairman Zaka Ashraf (r), iCC President Sharad Pawar (C) and iCC Chief executiveHaroon lorgat (l) pose for photographers at the Dubai Cricket Stadium. AFP

No Testchampionshipuntil 2017: lorgat

DUBAIAFp

International Cricket Council (ICC) chiefexecutive Haroon Lorgat on Monday ruledout the possibility of holding an ICC WorldTest championship until 2017. The game'sgoverning body considered the Test cham-pionship between the top four teams in2013 instead of the 50-over ICC Champi-ons Trophy, which is scheduled for Eng-land, but Lorgat said the event is notpossible until 2017. "I am afraid that's nolonger going to happen in 2013," Lorgattold media on the sidelines of the secondday-night international between Pakistanand Sri Lanka in Dubai. "At the last boardmeeting we decided that the first opportu-nity that we can play the World Test Cham-pionship is 2017. So I am disappointed thatit is not going to take place sooner." Lorgatsaid the delay was due to prior ICC com-mitments. "It is a reality of the commit-ments that we have got already through to2015," he explained. Lorgat said a Testchampionship would ensure the status ofthe longer version of the game, widely re-garded as under threat from 50-overmatches and now from more popularTwenty20 cricket. "We attempted to formthe World Test Championship which Ithink would have been a very good contextto ensuring the primacy of Test matchcricket. But again we will have wait for2017 to see that as a reality," he added.

fernandez Castanoclinches storm-hitSingapore play-off

SINGAPOREAFp

Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castanowon the US$1 million Barclays Singa-pore Open play-off on the second extrahole early on Monday after stormsforced the players to endure an agonis-ing overnight wait. The 31-year-oldfrom Madrid seized victory with a nine-foot birdie putt on the par-five 18thhole as opponent Juvic Pagunsan of thePhilippines pushed his effort just wide.The conclusion was witnessed by just asmattering of fans at Sentosa Golf Clubwho braved a 7:30 am start after theplay-off was twice interrupted and fi-nally postponed a day earlier amid tor-rential rain and lightning strikes.

LAHORESTAFF RepoRT

Pakistan, West Indies, the Netherlandsand South Africa all claimed victorieson the opening day of the ICC Women’sWorld Cup Qualifier in Dhaka,Bangladesh today.

Sana Mir’s Pakistan defeated hostsBangladesh by 73 runs in a hard-foughtgame played in front of strong home sup-port. Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Sta-dium saw over 4000 supporters fill thestands to cheer on the Bangladeshwomen’s side in its first round of the tour-nament that could see it qualify for theICC Women’s World Cup in 2013.

Elsewhere, centuries from West In-dians Juliana Nero and ICC Women’sCricketer of the Year 2011 Stafanie Tay-lor showed Ireland the Americas side’s

intentions for the event are serious anda superior bowling attack saw IsobelJoyce’s side defeated by 213 runs atBKSP* 3. At Khanshaheb Osman Ali Sta-dium, Sri Lanka had South Africa all outfor 114 but fell short of reaching the tar-get by just six runs after Sunette Loubsertook an impressive 5-27 to secure victoryfor the Africans.

Meanwhile Netherlands defeatedZimbabwe by six wickets after putting ona superior batting display led by Kerry-Anne Tomlinson and Miranda Vering-meier at BKSP 2.

In front of a lively crowd and playinglive on national television, Bangladeshlost the toss and were put into field firstin Mirpur – a decision that Mir may haveregretted after some tight bowling fromSalma Khatun and her bowling attack.Khatun was instrumental in the dismissal

of the opener, Mir, after the 25-year-oldmistimed a hit off the bowling of LataMondol to give the captain a nifty catch.

The rest of the Pakistan top order per-formed well with the bat, with the stand-out performance coming from BismahMaroof with her patient 79 off a 106 balls,the 20-year-old from Lahore was dis-missed by in-form bowler Khadiza TulKubra who had Bismah caught byKhatun. The Bangladeshi captain had astrong game in the field, claiming twowickets and three catches to see Pakistan197 all out in its allotted overs.

In reply, Bangladesh’s batting attackfailed to have a response to the strongbowling from the Pakistanis, with theside managing to make just 99 runs,while Pakistan’s bowlers gave away some15 extras to give the Bangladeshis a totalof 114 all out in just 42.4 overs. Nida

Rashid proved to be the star bowler ofthe side with four wickets for just 29runs, however, Bismah also claimed 2-16and was judged by the on-field umpiresto be most deserving candidate for Playerof the Match award.

Bangladesh’s coach Mamatha Mabenadmitted that the Group B game hadbeen tough with some areas needing tobe worked, especially the middle orderbatting performance.

“We let too many extras go todaywhich helped Pakistan in creating theirtotal and we missed out on some chancesto have them on the back-foot, whetherit be with missed catches or poor fieldingon our part. We let the Pakistanis createa partnership in the middle with Bismahand also Qanita Jalil showed some goodbatting which meant our bowlerscouldn’t finish what they had started.

Pakistan prevail over hosts Bangladesh

AMRITSARAGeNCIeS

Pakistan qualified for the semi-finalsof the World Cup Kabaddi in Indiaafter they topped their group on Mon-day. The United States team werescrapped after their players refused toundergo dope tests by the organizers.

AUSTRALIA'S national team hasbeen already thrown out. After fiveplayers failed drug tests and two morefled from testers, Australia were leftwithout enough players to field a team,

and Afghanistan was awarded theirgroup match in a walk-over. Australiahas been officially kicked out of thetournament, the first team ever sus-pended. ''Five of Australia's playerstested positive in anti-dope tests andtwo absconded, maybe out of fear offacing such a test,'' organising secre-tary Pargat Singh told reporters.

''Since eight players have to be onthe ground, Australia failed to have aquorum at a group stage match yester-day and so have been disqualified.They are out of the tournament.''

Australian coach Ravinder Singhhas said his team would accept its ex-pulsion. ''We cannot protest the ban …the doping scandal should not havehappened. It is very unfortunate butwe didn't have enough time to conducttests before departing for the WorldCup.'' The Kabaddi World Cup isbeing played in the sport's spiritualhomeland, the Punjab in north-west-ern India.

Almost unknown to Australian au-diences but hugely popular in SouthAsia, kabaddi is a physical, often vio-lent, game played between two teamsof between six and nine players, occu-pying opposite halves of a small field.

His opponents, who hold hands,try to snare the raider, tackling him tostop him returning to his team's half.This World Cup has staggered fromcontroversy to controversy, its credibil-ity annihilated by near-daily reports ofpositive drug tests.

So far, 29 players, from Canada,Britain, the US, Norway, Spain, andIndia, have tested positive to bannedsubstances. US team member ManjinderSingh allegedly tried to substitute hisurine samples with water and verballyabused National Anti-Doping Agency(NADA) staff when he was caught. Offi-cials have refused to disclose whichbanned substances have been detected,but it is understood several playerstested positive to the steroid nandrolone.

Pakistan reach semisg Doping mars Kabaddi World Cup

This World Cup has staggered from controversy to controversy, its credibilityannihilated by near-daily reports of positive drug tests. FILE PHOTO


sports 21Tuesday, 15 November, 2011

watcH it LivE

ESPNSportscentre

08:00PM

NEO CRICKETIndia v West Indies2nd Test Day 208:30AM

DUBAI: Pakistan’s cricketer

Shahid Afridi (C) celebrates

with teammates after

dismissing Sri Lanka’s captain

Tillakaratne Dilshan. AFP

WAPDA downAfghan in PPl

LAHORESTAFF RepoRT

As many as four matches were decidedin the 8th Pakistan Premier FootballLeague on Monday. WAPDA beat Afghan FC 2-1at the Rail-way Stadium, Lahore. WAPDA facedtough resistance after dominating thefirst half of the match. MuhammadAfzal scored the first goal for WAPDAin the 16th minute and Arif Mahmood(captain) doubled the lead in the 29thminute. From thereon, Afgha Club keptmounting attacks and counter-attacksbut the Wapda defence kept them atbay. However, by the 76th minuteAfgha Club’s Haneef Ullah found thenet and the score was reduced.KRL and Muslim FC played a goal-lessdraw at the Municipal Football Sta-dium, Rawalpindi in the second matchof the day. Later at the same venue, Army beatBaloch FC 3-1. Army conceded the goalto Balochs in the 30th minute into thegame when losing side’s Habib Ullahsuccessfully netted the goal. But theirone-goal lead did not last long andArmy’s Sarjeel brought the equalizer inthe 64th minute which was doubled byMuhammad Shabeer in the 83rdMinute and Mubashar Hussain foundthe bars just before close of the matchto provide Army clear win. In the fourth match, PMC Athelco Clubbeat Police by two goals at the Agricul-ture University, Faisalabad. Muhammad Rashid and HaroonYousuf scored the winner teams’ goalsin the 27th and 61st minutes of thegame.

Peter Roebuck possessed one of the keen-est, most analytical minds of his genera-tion, and one not easily swayed oncemade up. What made him consider alloutcomes bleak enough to launch himselffrom the sixth floor of a Cape Town hotelon Saturday night is not yet fully under-stood, only that the fall ended a life astroubled as it was rich with talent.

Suicide is something Roebuck, 55when he died, predicted would never takehim, though those who had known himsince his youth were less certain. In hisforeword for the reprint of David Frith’sbook on cricket suicides, Silence of theHeart, he wrote: “Some people have pre-dicted a gloomy end for this writer. Oneformer colleague said so to my face inSeptember 1986. It will not be so. The artis to find other things that matter just asmuch as cricket, which stretch you just asfar. “Certainly a man needs beliefs. Prin-ciples are not enough. But belief canspring from satisfaction in his own work,for to believe in your self is an act of faith.Since 1983 I have led a stable, remarkably

untroubled life, and such vicissitudes ashave occurred have been connected withcricket form rather than temperament.”

Roebuck wrote that early in 2001, afew months before the scandal of him can-ing three 19-year-old boys in his care inTaunton came to court and he was forcedto admit common assault. Like his contro-versial move in 1986, when he replacedSomerset’s overseas players VivianRichards and Joel Garner with MartinCrowe, a tempestuous time that saw himbranded as “Judas” by Ian Botham, wholeft Somerset in protest, the stain never re-ally faded. Time usually dilutes suchthings but with Roebuck, who shunnedEngland as a result to become an Aus-tralian citizen based in Bondi, you sensedthese were seminal moments in which theshame and controversy were accretingwith age not dissipating. Suggestions thathe was gay have circulated since his play-ing days, but if true he has never acknowl-edged it to anyone I know. In any case, hedid not crave partners on an equal footingbut followers. An intense, driven man,Roebuck was never destined to have aneasy life and in a way he resented thosewho did. He despised sloppiness of anykind, though that contradicts his heroworship of RJO Meyer, the controversialfounder of Millfield School in Somerset,which Roebuck and his younger brother,Paul, attended on scholarships. Meyer, aformer Somerset cricketer, would thinknothing of gambling school fees on thestock market or a horse race, any winningsproviding extra bursaries for the talentedbut less well heeled. Roebuck acquiredMeyer’s educationalist zeal, setting up

scholarships for the underprivileged inSouth Africa, but not his raffish touch.

Roebuck was a fine cricketer; a brave,organised batsman who could have consid-ered himself unlucky not to have been oneof Graham Gooch’s opening partners forEngland in the late 1980s. He probablycame closest when asked to captain an Eng-land side, in which your correspondent alsoplayed, in two one-day matches againstHolland in Amsterdam during 1989. Eng-land lost the first game but won the second,though the lack of faith in Roebuck was im-mediately apparent when Mickey Stewart,the coach, rushed up to journalists after thedefeat and told them to discount everythingRoebuck had said at the press conference.He had the sharpest of minds (he took adouble first in law at Cambridge) and, whenthe mood overcame him, a laceratingtongue as well. A brilliant writer on cricketfor among others The Sunday Times andthe Sydney Morning Herald, he was onceaccosted by Mark Nicholas, who penned aregular column himself at the time and in-formed Roebuck that they were the bestcricket writers around. “Who told you that”quipped Roebuck, “your mother?”

I first encountered him on anOxbridge tour of Australia in 1979/80,where he and Paul Parker, both playingclub cricket in Sydney at the time, weredrafted in to strengthen our team. Roe-buck’s disdain for most of the opposition(he was a Somerset regular at this stagewho had shared record batting stands withViv Richards) was obvious and in onegame against Monash University, he hadcompleted at least two crosswords at sec-ond slip before we had bowled them out.

Peter Roebuck: A brilliantbrain but a tortured soul

4th inter-school,Collegiate Gamesfrom today

LAHORESTAFF RepoRT

The 4th Inter-school and CollegiateGames are set to glisten the PunjabStadium from today (November 15)with around 2000 boys and girls of dif-ferent institutions displaying theirskills in around 27 disciplines. On Monday, a full dress rehearsal wascarried out here at the Stadium underlights and Secretary Punjab Olympics As-sociation Khawaja Idris Haider reviewedthe performance of the athletes so thatthere won’t be any anomalies before theypresent their performance in front of thechief guest Punjab’s Chief Minister MianShahbaz Sharif on Tuesday. According to an organising committeemember, Tania Malik, students ofaround 270 schools and colleges are tak-ing part in the games while contingentsof Sindh and Khyber PK have also ar-rived here to compete in different events. In hockey, which started before the for-mal start of the event, Government Col-lege University Lahore beat SuperiorCollege 3-2 to clinch the title. Govern-ment College of Science defeated Garri-son College 5-2 to secure third place. Meanwhile, on the opening day of thewomen’s hockey, Baghbanpura Collegebeat Himayat-e-Islam College 6-0, Kin-naird and Jinnah Colleges played a 1-1draw, APWA and Lahore Universityplayed a 1-all draw while Wahdat RoadCollege beat Model Town College 1-0. Thebadminton and basketball competitionsalso started on Monday while contest inother 23 disciplines will start on Tuesday.

lahore Shalimarin sight of victory

LAHORESTAFF RepoRT

Hasan Dar with his six wickets brought La-hore Shalimar in sight of victory on daythree of the Division II Quaid-i-Azam Tro-phy match here at the LCCA ground onMonday. Hyderabad, resuming innings at205 for five, were left stunned by Dar andwere bundled out for 266. Dar gave 67 runsto take six wickets that also pushed thematch into an interesting phase with La-hore needing another four wicket to winand Hyderabad require about 64 runs forthe same. At Gaddafi Stadium, SNGPLforced Lahore Ravi to follow-on. SNGPLfirst scored 491 for eight declared and thenbowled out Lahore at 242 in its first in-nings and by the close of play took anothertwo second innings wickets of Lahore at 25to consolidate their chances of win.

National Women’sHockey from Dec 9

LAHORESTAFF RepoRT

The 27th National Women’s HockeyChampionship will be played at NationalHockey Stadium here from December 9 to18. The women hockey teams from eachregion of Punjab (8), Sindh (5), KPK (1),Balochistan (2) and Islamabad (1) as wellas Departmental teams of WAPDA, Rail-ways, Army, HEC & Police will partici-pate. The Championship will beorganised by the Punjab Women HockeyAssociation on behalf of the PHFWomen’s Wing. The PHF Women’s Wingwill comprise a panel of technical officialsfor the smooth conduct of the premiereevent. All the have been asked to makepreparations for the event.

eXpeRT CommeNT

DereK PriNGle


Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. Printed by Ghulam Akbar, AA & NHT Group, Plot 24, Shalimar Road, Lilly Market, Soan Garden, Islamabad.

Tuesday, 15 November, 2011 22


The Supreme Court on Monday ques-tioned Moonis Elahi’s acquittal in the Na-tional Insurance Company Limited(NICL) scam case without a regular trialand his visit abroad despite being on theExit Control List.

The court also sought the attorney gen-eral’s opinion on transferring the investi-gation of the case from the FederalInvestigation Agency (FIA) to the NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB). A three-member special SC bench of Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, JusticeTariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Mus-lim was hearing the mega scam case in-

volving over Rs 5 billion. During the hear-ing, Attorney General Moulvi Anwarul Haqcould not give a satisfactory reply when thecourt asked him about the government’snext step after the main accused in theNICL scam, Moonis Elahi, was acquittedon October 21 by Lahore District and Ses-sions Judge Mujahid Mustaqim. The courtthen asked the AG to submit his opinion bytoday (Tuesday) for transferring the probefrom the FIA to NAB. It also directed theAG to submit the details by today (Tues-day) about Moonis’ visit abroad.

During the hearing, former FIA addi-tional director general Zafar Qureshi,who was the chief investigator of NICLscam, told the court that Rs 420 millionhad yet to be recovered from Moonis and

Mohsin Warraich. He said Moonis’ namewas on the ECL, but still he was allowedto go abroad. The chief justice inquiredwhether an accused could be acquittedwithout a regular trial. Qureshi con-tended that he was pressurised for releas-ing Habib Warraich. However, he said hewas committed to rendering duties as-signed to him by the SC. Justice Muslimasked why the government had not filedan appeal against Moonis’ acquittal.

Babar Awan, counsel for Moonis, toldthe court that wrong statements had beensubmitted before the court, adding thatconcrete evidence had been given to dis-trict and sessions court in the case. Thecourt also took up the matter pertainingto the allegations levelled by Qureshi

against the Chaudhry brothers. WasimSajjad, counsel for the Chaudhry broth-ers, termed the allegations biased, sayingQureshi had not yet filed his reply overthe plea of his clients. He said Qureshihad not told the court how he was threat-ened, despite the fact that the Chaudhrybrothers had already denied the allega-tions. “I need to know who is blaming myclient,” said Sajjad to which Qureshi said“a reliable source” had informed himabout it and he was willing to tell thecourt about the person at some othertime. “Nothing is confidential in front ofthe court and you can tell us in the cham-ber,” the chief justice told Qureshi. Thecourt later adjourned proceedings untiltoday (Tuesday).

ISLAMABADmASooD ReHmAN

CHIEF Justice (CJ) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhrysaid on Monday that thegovernment’s writ couldnot be established without

good governance, and illegal appoint-ments and political compromiseswould never bring good governance.

“We are astonished that when peo-ple came out onto the roads, just onestatement came from the prime minis-ter and finished load shedding,” saidChaudhry, who was heading a two-member Supreme Court bench, alsocomprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain,hearing a suo motu case and two iden-tical petitions filed by Federal HousingMinister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Pak-istan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asifagainst corruption in the award of con-tracts for Rental Power Projects(RPPs). “If the government worked inaccordance with law and honesty, all is-

sues could be resolved,” the chief jus-tice said, adding that if the governmenthad any morality, it would havestepped down or started hiring honestpeople on key posts and started a newhistory of good governance.

The court also rejected a proposalto constitute a commission to identifydysfunctional RPPs. The chief justicesaid if the government could maintainits writ, it could get 100 percent elec-tricity bills from the consumers. Hequestioned how load shedding wasended in a single day. At the onset ofhearing, Khawaja Tariq Rahim, counselfor the Water and Power Ministry, toldthe court that all the RPPs were estab-lished in accordance with the NationalElectric Power Regulatory Authority(NEPRA) rules after approval from thecabinet. He said advertisements weregiven not only in the national mediabut also in the international media forthese RPPs. “The companies that didnot produce anything were given per-mission and were given 14 percent mo-bilisation advance instead of 7 percent,

and the cabinet was not consulted,” thecourt noted, adding that the machinerywas not checked deliberately and ad-vertisements were also not transparent.However, Rahim stated that theseagreements were made with good in-tentions and the companies that failedto fulfil their commitments were pe-nalised. The court noted that penaltieswere not enough and enquired why thepeople responsible for load sheddingwere not being prosecuted by the ac-countability bureau.

The counsel sated that Rs 70 billionwere due from Water and Power Devel-opment Authority (WAPDA) con-sumers and cases were pending incourt. The chief justice noted that thegovernment should approach theSupreme Court and the court wouldorder the disposal of such cases on apriority basis. He said if the govern-ment maintained its writ, such prob-lems would never occur.

The court said the governmentmust rely on honest people and stoppolitical transfers.

Pilgrim dies in Jeddahas PiA sticks to delays

LAHOREImRAN ADNAN

There was no respite for pilgrims even onthe fifth day of the national flag carrier’spost Haj-operation on Monday, as almostall Haj and routine flights were delayed forhours due to ill planning andmismanagement by the PakistanInternational Airlines (PIA). PIA sourcestold Pakistan Today that the airline had tobear great embarrassment when a pilgrim,Abdul Rehman, passed away at KingAbdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah,while waiting for PIA’s delayed flightPK2010 that was scheduled to land atKarachi airport at 12pm. PIA PublicRelations General Manager Sultan Hasanconfirmed the death, saying Rehman wasaccompanied by his Moallam, who broughthim to Jeddah airport where he breathedhis last. He said the body of the deceasedhad been handed over to local authorities,who would contact the Pakistani embassyfor its transfer, he added. Meanwhile,statistics reveal that not even a singlereturn Haj flight could match its scheduledtime during the last five days. Sources saidPIA had so far operated 45 return Hajflights, of which most were delayed by over10 hours. Around 11 aircraft have beengrounded because of the non-availability ofspare parts. Two Boeing 747s weregrounded in Karachi, while two AirbusA310s and one AP BFT have beengrounded due to various reasons.Similarly, five Boeing 737s were groundedin Islamabad. One AP BCD is grounded inLahore after a bird-hit incident. The PIAspokesman categorically denied the factabout grounded aircraft, saying, “It hasnever happened in any single time thatsome six or seven aircraft get out of order.Right now only three aircraft, includingone Boeing 747 and two Boeing 737s, aregrounded. However, they will join theoperations in a day or two after gettingcertification from the Civil AviationAuthority (CAA).” To a query, he saidextraordinary crowding at Jeddah airportwas the root cause of the delay in PIA’spost-Haj operation, while an unavailabilityof aircrafts was the reason for domesticdelays. Meanwhile, PIA flight PK-7441carrying more than 400 pilgrims, includingfederal ministers and parliamentarians,reached Karachi after eight hours delay onMonday. The flight, which was scheduledto reach at 8pm on Sunday, landed at theKarachi Airport at 4am on Monday.Federal Minister for Religious AffairsKhursheed Shah,National AssemblyDeputy Speaker Faisal Kareem Kundi andseveral parliamentarians were among thepassengers. Talking to reporters at theairport, Shah blamed Saudi authorities for80 percent of delays in PIA Haj flights.

PAf jet crashes in

Attock, pilot killedISLAMABAD

STAFF RepoRT

A Pakistani Air Force (PAF) jet crashed duringa training flight on Monday in northernPakistan, killing the pilot, the air force said. “APAF jet aircraft, while on a routine trainingmission, crashed due to technical malfunctionnear Attock,” said a PAF statement, withoutspecifying the aircraft’s type. “The pilot wasfatally injured. No loss of civilian life orproperty has been reported on ground. Aboard of inquiry has been ordered todetermine the cause of accident,” thestatement added. Reportedly, the body ofSquadron Leader Hussain was recoveredsome three kilometres from the crash site.Earlier media reports said the pilot remainedsafe after the plane crashed in Mulla Mansoormountains near Attock soon after it left theKamra airbase. The PAF has a fleet of Chineseaircraft, including F-7PGs and A-5s, plus US-built F-16s and French Mirages. It recentlyacquired medium-tech JF-17 or Thunder jets,manufactured jointly by China and Pakistan.

Pakistan trying to get

$3.5b loan from iMf DUBAI/ISLAMABAD: In a desperatemove to steer Pakistan out of the capitalcrunch, the government is striving hard toconvince International Monetary Fund(IMF) for a fresh loan programme to thetune of $3.5 billion. According to sources, a22-member Pakistani delegation, currentlyengaged in two rounds of talks with IMF,was primarily looking for an endorsementof a medium-term macroeconomic frame-work. Besides a clean chit under Article IVconsultation, Pakistan is also seeking anagreement on macroeconomic and fiscalframework, which is a pre-requisite to ne-gotiations for a fresh loan programme, thesources added. However, the governmentdelegation was still insistent upon its earlierstance that they were not looking for a freshloan programme. “Federal Minister for Fi-nance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and I haverepeatedly said that neither a fund pro-gramme has been asked nor is there a needfor it now,” said Finance Secretary WaqarMasood. The secretary was leading the del-egation until the arrival of finance ministeron Monday night or Tuesday. ONLINE

4 soldiers killed by

militants in KhyberPESHAWAR

AFp

Four paramilitary soldiers were killed onMonday when militants attacked theirconvoy in Khyber Agency, officials said. Theattackers opened fire on the paramilitaryconvoy in the Nala area, five kilometres westof Bara, the district headquarters of Khyber.“The militants opened fire at the convoywhen it passed from the area and killed foursecurity personnel,” Rehan Gul Khattak, alocal administration official told AFP. “Thesecurity forces fired back but the militantsmanaged to escape,” he said. In theneighbouring Mohmand Agency, securityforces said they killed four militants andinjured five others who were later arrested,as the group tried to enter Pakistan fromacross the unmarked border in Afghanistan.“Those who have been arrested were injuredduring the exchange of fire as the militantsattacked Pakistan forces and they retaliated,”said Maqsood Hassan, a local administrationofficial. Security officials in Peshawarconfirmed both incidents.

SC questions Moonis’s acquittal without regular trial

Govt’s writ can’t be establishedwithout good governance: CJPg Chaudhry expresses surprise at swift end to load sheddingg Says all issues can be resolved if govt works with honesty

ISlAmABAD: Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani look on as Turkmen Foreign minister

Rashid meredov and Foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar shake hands after signing an agreement at the prime minister’s House on monday. AFP


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