Continued on Page 6

QUETTA: Police officials gather at the site of the suicide bomb attack on Thursday. Inset a man comforts a mourner.

Quetta carnage

DIG among 38killed in blastSuicide explosion in SHO City funeral

QUETTA—The death toll in asuicide bomb blast at the PoliceLines rose to 38 and more than50 were injured on Thursdayafternoon. According to officialsources, the DIG OperationsFayyaz Sumbal, SP Headquar-ters, Mehar Ali and DSP Head-quarters embraced Shahadat inthe incident. Emergency wasimposed in CMH and CivilHospital Quetta.

According to hospitalssources condition of many ofinjured people was serious andthe death figures might go up.According to bomb disposalsquad the 8 to 10 kilograms ex-plosive material was used in thesuicidal attack. The explosion

occurred during funeral prayerof SHO City Mohibullah. Hewas martyred in a firing incidentat Killi Alamo in the outskirtsof Quetta this morning.

Meanwhile, President AsifAli Zardari and Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif have strongly con-demned the Quetta blast. ThePresident termed it an abhorrentact that targeted a funeral andsaid the people of Pakistanstands firm in their resolveagainst terrorism and would notyield to such acts of violence.Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifstrongly condemned the blastand expressed sorrow and griefover the deaths.

In a statement he directed to

provide best medical facilities tothe injured. He said the servicesof martyred DIG and other po-lice personnel will never be for-gotten. The blast was the secondtargeted attack on Thursday onpolice personnel in the provin-cial capital, which has been un-der high security the entire day.SHO Mohibullah was shot deadby unknown gunmen earlier thismorning in Killi Almo areawhile he was reportedly takinghis family for Eid shopping.

No militant group has yetclaimed responsibility for thebombing, one of the worst at-tacks on police personnel in theviolence-hit provincial capi-tal.—Agencies

High rate of silt reduces life of Tarbela Dam

Drifting sand dune endangersmain structure

Mangla Dam becomes largest water reservoirLIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan is ur-gently needed a mega dam tosave wastage of 30 % water an-nually as high rate of silt beingdeposited in Tarbela lake hasreduced its life drastically, anofficial of Tarbela dam said.

Since its commissioning in

1976, the storage capacity of 2.2 million acre feet (MAF) hasbeen curtailed so far and a sanddune created due to deposits inthe lake is also gradually drift-ing towards the main structureposing a great threat to it. Thereis no solution in sight to removethis dune which is expandingday by day, the official said.

A water expert inIslamabad said, despite enjoy-ing best slope from Himalayanregion down to Arabian Sea,the successive governmentsfailed to build required num-ber of dams in the Indus Basinsystem.

Only two mega dams—Continued on Page 6

The offices of PakistanObserver will remain closedtoday and tomorrow (August9 and 10) on account of Eid-ul Fitr. Therefore, there wouldbe no issue of Pakistan Ob-server on Aug 10 and 11.

Pak-India flare-up

Pak, India should not allowsituation to escalate: PM

Mixed signals coming from Delhi about Pak-Indiaengagement; Anthony accuses Pak army for attack

AMMAN—Syrian rebels said onThursday they targeted Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad’s motor-cade heading to a Damascusmosque to mark the Muslimholiday of Eid al-Fitr, but statetelevision showed him un-harmed and the government de-nied he had been attacked.

The Tahrir al-Sham rebelbrigade, a unit of the Free Syr-ian Army, said it fired severalartillery shells towards Assad’s

convoy in the heart of the capi-tal and that at least some hit theirtarget.

If confirmed, the attackwould be one of the most directagainst Assad in two years ofconflict which have pitchedmainly Sunni Muslim rebelsagainst the Alawite president.

Rebels have targetedAssad’s residences in Damascusand a bombing in the capital last

Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 6

Obama felicitatesMuslims onEid-ul FitrISLAMABAD—U.S.PresidentBarack Obama on Thursdaywarmly greeted the Muslims inthe United States and aroundthe world on the occasion ofEid al-Fitr.

“For millions of Ameri-cans, Eid is part of a greattapestry of America’s manytraditions, and I wish allMuslims a blessed and joyful

Delhi HCreleases

Pak womanNEW DELHI—New Delhi HighCourt has ordered for the releaseof Nuzhat Jahan, a Pakistaninational who married an Indiannational Gulfam in 1983 andwas living in India without avisa.

According to The Hindu,Nuzhat was lodged in a beggar’shome since May because of visaviolation.

In 1996, Nuzhat had appliedfor Indian citizenship howeverno decision was given.

Gulfam said the court’s de-cision to allow his wife to stayand seek citizenship is the bestgift of this Eid.

“The Court has restored myContinued on Page 6

Cameron callsfor Pak-India

talksLONDON—British Prime Minis-ter David Cameron has calledfor India-Pakistan talks to re-solve their bilateral issues, in-cluding the killing of five Indiansoldiers in Jammu and Kashmir,a British daily said Thursday.

“Talks can resolve any is-Continued on Page 6

Assad survivesrebels presidential

convoy attackAMMAN—Syrian rebels said onThursday they targeted Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad’s motor-cade heading to a Damascusmosque to mark the Muslimholiday of Eid al-Fitr, but statetelevision showed him un-harmed and the government de-nied he had been attacked.

The Tahrir al-Sham rebelbrigade, a unit of the Free Syr-ian Army, said it fired severalartillery shells towards Assad’sconvoy in the heart of the capi-tal and that at least some hit theirtarget.

If confirmed, the attackwould be one of the most directagainst Assad in two years ofconflict which have pitchedmainly Sunni Muslim rebels

against the Alawite president.Rebels have targeted

Assad’s residences in Damascusand a bombing in the capital lastyear killed four of his innercircle, but there have been noreports of Assad himself com-ing under fire.

Video footage distributedby the Tahrir al-Sham rebelsshowed smoke rising from whatit said was the Malki district,where Assad and his close aideshave homes. Other activistsalso reported rocket fire into thearea.

Syria’s government deniedthe reports. “The news is whollyuntrue,” Information MinisterOmran Zoabi said.Firas al-Bitar,

Continued on Page 6

Firing injuresPakistani

civilian at LoCISLAMABAD—Pakistan mili-tary officials on Thursday saidIndian troops opened fire andseriously wounded a civilianContinued on Page 6

NationcelebratesEid-ul Fitr

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—Eid-ul Fitr is be-ing celebrated across the coun-try today with religious fervourand reverence coupled with re-newed pledge to strengthen thenational cohesion and solidarity.However lives losses in terror at-tacks marred festivity

The believers will throngmosques and Eid Gahs to offerEid prayers in all cities and otherplaces.

The Shawal moon wassighted in different parts of thecountry on Thursday.

The formal announcementwas made by Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee chairman

FAISALABAD: A large number of people return to their native towns to celebrate Eid with their loved ones.

HYDERABAD: Girls applying henna on the hands of each other ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

ISLAMABAD—President AsifAli Zardari Thursday felici-tated the nation on Eid-ul-Fitr and urged the people tofeel and share the pains ofthe victims of terrorism andsectarianism on the festiveoccasion. The President ina message said “we mustnot forget the pains of thosebrothers and sisters whohave fallen a victim to ter-rorism.” “Lets also share ourjoys with those who havesuffered at the cost of sec-tarianism,” President Zardarisaid.

The President exhortedthe nation, not to put asideat any cost the spirit of mu-tual affinity, sharing of pain,tolerance, respect for human-ity and well being of others.

“We should also try to com-pletely eradicate sectarianismand intolerance,” he said. ThePresident felicitated all coun-trymen on the festive occa-sion of Eid ul Fitr and prayedthat may this eid prove to bea source of abundant joy forall. He said the occasion thisyear comes at a time, when thenation has achieved a mile-stone in its journey towardsdemocracy. He said a newdemocratic era has dawnedafter the completion of a termof a government.

The President said thecompletion of democratictransition was an importantachievement of the nationand it deserves to be felici-tated on both these counts.“Lets bow our heads before

Allah Almighty on thisblessed and joyous occa-sion and offer our gratitudefor granting us the gift of Eidul Fitr.” The President askedthe nation to share the hap-piness of Eid with families,friends, neighbours andthose deserving people,who due to some reasonwere unable to fully enjoythe festivity.

He said “we must resolveto share our happiness withthe needy, deserving, poorand the deprived, and to carryforward this tradition.” “Ipray to Allah Almighty thathe protects us all with Hisbenevolence and showersHis blessings on us andmakes this country a centreof peace and security.

Aameen,” President Zardarisaid.

Meanwhile, KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor En-gineer Shaukatullah hasurged the people of countryin general and of KhyberPakhtunkhwa and FATA inparticular, to work tirelesslyfor a secure and prosperousPakistan. The Governor, inhis message on the occasionof Eid-ul-Fitr, also asked thepeople to continue with thespirit of tolerance, accommo-dation and patience andshare the miseries and diffi-culties of the affected ones,especially those whose nearand dear ones have em-braced martyrdom on theauspicious occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.—APP

Democratic transition completion important achievement

Zardari urges nation to shareEid celebrations with terror victims

ISLAMABAD—Minister ofState for Information Tech-nology Anusha Rahman hasdirected to convene InterMinisterial Committee (IMC)for Web Evaluation, whichwill be presented with the find-ings on YouTube situation ina meeting in August after Eidul Fitr for deliberation and dis-cussion. The Inter Ministerialcommittee shall then makerecommendations accord-ingly whether or not to reviewthe restriction of the YouTubewebsite in Pakistan, and thisrecommendation shall there-after be placed for approvalof the Prime Minister.

According to a press re-lease, since the release of theblasphemous movie onYouTube in September 2012,the Government of Pakistan

has taken stringent mea-sures to demand its removaland limit its access on theInternet in Pakistan. The sac-rilegious videos stirred vio-lent protests and public out-cry in Pakistan and the Arabworld. The Inter-MinisterialCommittee (IMC) for WebEvaluation, constituted bythe Prime Minister of Paki-stan in 2006, has the mandateto evaluate and restrict offen-sive online content in Paki-stan. This committee, headedby the Secretary of IT, hasrepresentation from differentGovernment of Pakistan Min-istries, entities and agencies.

The Inter-MinisterialCommittee (IMC) last Sep-tember evaluated the circum-stances and concluded thatPakistan Telecom Authority

(PTA) should block YouTubeand Facebook in Pakistan on17 September, 2012 till furtherorders. In accordance, theMinistry of IT (MoIT) or-dered PTA to block thewebsites. A Policy Directivewas also issued by the Min-istry in May, 2012 to PTA todeploy a state of the art tech-nical solution to proactivelyand independently blockblasphemous and porno-graphic websites. So far, PTAhas not been able to imple-ment this Policy Directive.

PTA falls under the Cabi-net Division and not comeunder the administrative con-trol of Ministry of InformationTechnology. The Ministry ofIT also took matters up withthe management of YouTubeand Facebook for blocking the

blasphemous content. In re-sponse, Facebook restrictedthe access and upload of thevideo. However, Google Inc.,management of YouTube, didnot remove the content stat-ing that YouTube complieswith International laws ofprinciples subject to the lawsof United States that do notcomply with Pakistan-spe-cific content removal request.

After the new govern-ment was sworn in, the is-sue was taken up and theMinister of State for IT in-vited all relevant stakehold-ers to find a solution.Henceforth, the Ministry ofIT and pertinent stakehold-ers under the directions ofthe Minister of State for In-formation Technology,Anusha Rahman.—APP

Inter-ministerial committee toreview YouTube saga: Anusha

ISLAMABAD—Relief opera-tions are continuing in flood-hit areas across the countryand tents, food, medicines,and blankets are being dis-tributed among the affectedpeople. National DisasterManagement Authority(NDMA) has so far distrib-uted 25,898 tents in differentparts of the country. Accord-ing to data released byNDMA, 2330 tents havebeen distributed inBalochistan flood hit areas,8800 in Sindh, 728 in KhyberPakhtunkhwa and 14,040 inPunjab. NDMA has also dis-tributed 2800 food packsamong the flood-hit peopleof Balochistan, 66 in KhyberPakhtunkhwa and 1430 inPunjab.

The authority has distrib-

uted 300 blankets inBalochistan and 200 inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. It hasdistributed ten thousandmosquito nets in Sindh andfour thousand inBalochistan. The NDMA hassaid 84 people have died and44 injured in floods in vari-ous areas of the country. Itsaid fifteen people have diedin Punjab, fourteen in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, twenty-two inSindh, eighteen inBalochistan, twelve in FATAand three in Azad Jammu andKashmir.

Meanwhile, Federal Min-ister for States and FrontierRegion, Lt Gen. (Rtd) AbdulQadir Baloch said the federalgovernment would take allpossible steps to ensure im-mediate relief for the flood

victims of Balochistan. Talk-ing to newsmen after visitingthe flood hit areas of DistrictJhal Magsi at Gandawah hesaid that Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharifhas directed him to visit theareas and assess aftermathsof the calamity in the prov-ince.

Qadir Baloch said thatthe federal government isaware of the challenges andready to help coping withthe difficulties at the hour ofneed. He said that immedi-ate steps will be taken toensure provision of basicfacilities to the victims of theflood. On the occasion thefederal minister announced70 lakh rupees for flood hitareas of District Jhal Magsiand Gandawah.—Online

Flood: Relief operation continues

KARACHI—Pakistan PeaceCoalition (PPC) and PeoplesSAARC (Pakistan Process)on Thursday announced topostpone Pakistan-IndiaJoint Independence DayPeace Celebrations at theSindh-Rajhastan border,scheduled to be held atKhokhrapar in Umerkot dis-trict, Pakistan on August 14,2013. The Peoples SAARC

had taken the initiative of thecelebrations of Pakistani andIndian independence days(August 14-15) as a peaceevent by the people at Sindhand Rajhastan border, said astatement issued here onThursday.

It was the first time suchan initiative has been takenon the soil of Sindh province.Every year a joint Indepen-

dence Day celebration isorganised at the Wagah-Attari border in Punjab bythe civil society of Pakistanand India. PPC and PakistanProcess of Peoples SAARChave decided to convert theevent into a Pak-India PeaceConference simultaneouslyin both India and Pakistan onAugust 24.

These conferences can be

held in New Delhi or any othercity in India (to be decided byIndian Process of PeoplesSAARC) and in Pakistan inKarachi/ Hyderabad/Umerkot (to be decided by theOrganising Committee). “Wepledge to continue our effortsfor bringing peace lovingpeople of both India and Pa-kistan much closer,” the state-ment said.—APP

Joint Pak-India Aug 14 peacecelebrations at border delayedEid gifts

distributedSHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Districtand Sessions Judge SohailAkram visited District JailThursday and distributed Eidgifts and sweets among thejuvenile prisoners and patientsadmitted to the jail hospital inorder to share the joys anddelights of the Eid with them.Speaking on the occasion, hesaid that it was duty of oursociety to help poor and de-serving patients and prisonersaway from their homes andfamilies on the eve of Eid. Heappreciated the affluent andphilanthropists for their fiscalcooperation. The judge talkedwith the prisoners and askedthem to seek forgiveness fromGod over their delinquency.

Pak Brazil tiesISLAMABAD—The historic diplomaticrelations between Pakistan and Brazilcould be translated into strong militaryrelations in future, said Minister for De-fence Production, Rana Tanvir Hussain.Talking to Brazilian Ambassador to Paki-stan, Alfredo Leoni the minister laudedthe effort of Brazil in providing supportto the agriculture sector of Pakistan. Theambassador said the scope of relationsbetween Pakistan and Brazil is quite vast

and the need is to collaborate, extend support and enhancerelations in areas of defence production. The ambassadorcongratulated the minister assuming the charge of such vi-tal ministry. The ambassador said that the cooperation inother fields also the priority of the Brazilian Govt. In the lastyears, there has been a significant increase in the militaryrelations. Both sides have exchanged the visits in this re-gard. At the end the Ambassador thanked the Minister for adetailed and candid briefing. He extended the invitation tothe Minister to visit Brazil for strengthening and continuityof relations between the two countries. Secretary Ministryof Defence Production Lt Gen (Retd) Tanvir Tahir said Paki-stan and Brazil enjoy good relations, therefore visits andexchanges between the two countries can prove beneficialin understanding the work mechanics of both countries.The secretary said that Brazil is a hub of interaction andPakistan welcomes Brazilian interest in our defence market.More frequent interaction between Brazil and Pakistan candraw meaningful contacts which can be beneficial for bothcountries. He said that some contracts of the past needs topace up and materialize. Pakistan’s Defence Industry canoffer a wide variety quantity of defence equipment havingkey features of low cost, high quality, sophistication andprecision.— APP

Energy issueISLAMABAD—Member National Assem-bly (MNA) Tariq Fazal said that thegovernment is making different policiesto meet the challenges confronting thenation. Talking to media, he said thatthe government was taking measuresto bring improvement in the energy sec-tor. Tariq Fazal said that the govern-ment would resolve energy issue assoon as possible. He said that govern-ment had to take loan from IMF to

strengthen country’s economy. The MNA said that thegovernment would show better management, good gover-nance for betterment of the country. The governmentwould make policy on national issues including law andorder situation to provide relief to the people of the coun-try, he added. He said that consensus would be developedamong different political parties on national issues for pros-perity of the country. He said that government was com-mitted to bring economic stability in the country as stepswere being taken to bring maximum people in tax-net. Punjabgovernment is committed to resolve energy crisis and fa-cilitate smooth growth of business and industrial activi-ties in the province, said Tanvir Aslam Malik, ProvincialMinister for Housing Urban Development and PublicHealth Engineering while addressing an Iftar dinner hostedby Zafar Bakhtawari, President Islamabad Chamber of Com-merce & Industry at a local hotel. Presidents of Chakwal,Jhelum and Attock Chambers of Commerce & Industry,large number of business community and some prominentmedia personalities attended the dinner. Tanvir Aslam Maliksaid the Chief Minister Punjab has decided to set up asmall energy secretariat for ensuring investment in energyprojects, provision of facilities to the investors.—APP

India’s double standardsISLAMABAD—The veteran Hurriyetleader, Syed Ali Gilani grilled Indianauthorities and media for raising hue andcry over alleged killing of five of itstroops and maintaining silence overmassacre of civilians in the territory.Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued inSrinagar renewed call for peaceful dem-onstrations against the brutal killingsof Tahir Ahmad Sofi, Mudasir Kamran,Ubair Mushtaq, Tariq Ahmad Bhat,

Abdul Rashid Sheikh, Mohammud Yusuf Sofi, HajraBegum, Riyaz Ahmad khanday and Altaf Ahmad Wani byIndian forces, Markundal Sumbal episode, desecration ofHoly Quran in Gool Ramban, the secret execution ofMohammad Afzal Guru and detention of political prison-ers. He announced to offer Eid prayers at Hazratbal in casethe authorities did not interfere in his religious obligation,Kashmir Media Service reported. He said that the killing ofinnocent people continued unabated and state terrorismwas at its peak. Commenting over uproar in Indian Parlia-ment and rhetoric created by Indian media over the allegedkilling of five Indian troops on the Line of Control (LoC),he criticized New Delhi’s criminal silence over killing ofinnocent civilians by Indian army and police in occupiedKashmir. “I am being denied the right to offer prayers andforcibly confined to my residence,” said Gilani. “This typeof lawlessness though being formulated in Delhi, is prac-ticed by Omar Abdullah.” Syed Ali Gilani said that peoplein occupied Kashmir were being killed with bullets andpellets for throwing stones while in entire civilized world,angry mobs were controlled by harmless measure and tech-niques. “Hundreds of youth were killed in 2008, 2009 and2010 and none of them had gun in their hands.—APP

Jammu Muslims supportedISLAMABAD—Senior APHC leader andDemocratic Freedom Party Chairman,Shabbir Ahmad Shah has said that thepeople of Jammu would never be left atthe mercy of communal elements andmembers of Indian army-backed so-called village defence committees.Shabbir Ahmad Shah in a statement is-sued in Srinagar expressed deep an-guish and grief over the reports that theVDC members were forcibly preventing

Muslims of Doda, Bhaderwah and Kishtwar from offeringprayers and were damaging their properties, Kashmir Me-dia Service reported. He warned that such kind of inhu-man, immoral and undemocratic acts would have seriousrepercussions. He paid glowing tributes to 12th-class stu-dent Farah Bukhari, who laid down his life on 11th Augustin 2010. Commenting over the Gool, Ramban incident, ShabirAhmad Shah said that BSF and Police murdered the peoplethere, and “the so-called Chief Minister instead of actingagainst culprits and murderers is advocating on their be-half.” He said that government has formulated rupees onelakh for one life and now, “under SRO Act, the family ofvictim will get rupees one lakh to put an end to issue.”Shah said it is the fate of subjugated nations that neithertheir lives nor their honor and dignity are secured underslavery. “The price of their life and property has low valuethan cattle. The killing of wild animals is strictly banned inIndia but there is no ban or prohibition of killing innocentMuslims of Jammu Kashmir,” Shah lamented. The Free-dom Party Chairman strongly condemned the curbing ofpeople’s protests against unjustified arrest of a shopkeeperat Palhallan. “If the force on masses and arrests are notstopped at earliest, the people from other areas of Valleywill throng to Palhallan for their support.”—APP

RAHIM YAR KHAN—Threepersonnel of elite force werekilled and five others injuredwhen their vehicle crashed intoa tree near Harappa on Thurs-day morning. According to aspokesman of Rahim YarKhan police, the police offi-cials by an official vehicle werereturning Rahim Yar Khanfrom Lahore when their ve-hicle met accident nearHarappa due to overspeed. Asa result, constable driver Al-lah Bukhsh, head constableAbdul Ghaffar and constableBashir Hussain died on thespot while five others injured.The injured were identified asASI Asad Ali, head constableAtta Muhammad, constableNaeem Akram, SaeedRandhawa and Mushtaq. Theinjured were shifted to hospi-tal where the condition of

Asad and Mushtaq wasstated to be critical.

Khanpur: A man drownedin a canal while rescuing a boy,in a nearby village onWednesday evening. Ac-cording to police, MushtaqAhmed was taking a dip in 3/R canal near chak 29/A whenZohaib, son of a landlord fellinto the canal. Mushtaqplunged into the canal to res-cue the boy when his headstruck on a stone lying in thecanal. He suffered criticalhead injury and drowned.Some women present on theoccasion rescued the boywhile the body of Mushtaqwas fished out after hectic ef-forts of one and a half hours.The body of Mushtaq hasbeen handed over to the heirs.

Arifwala: A trader wasshot dead by robbers in a

nearby village on Thursday.According to police, Hashimof Bahawalnagar districtwhile riding a motorcycle,was intercepted by somerobbers near Chak 30/EB. Therobbers shot at when he putup resistance. He was shiftedto a hospital where he suc-cumbed to his injuries.

****Meanwhile, it is also re-

ported that Speaker, NationalAssembly, Sardar AyazSadiq here on Thursday vis-ited residence of Tahir Hanfi,Director General, NationalAssembly to condole saddemise of his wife RehanaTahir who passed awayfighting liver cancer. TheSpeaker prayed for the de-parted soul and courage tohis family to bear this irrepa-rable loss.—APP

HYDERABAD—An amountof Rs 50.332 million have sofar been recovered with dis-continuation of 2032 illegal(Kunda) connections duringjoint operation of HyderabadElectric Supply Company(HESCO) and Federal Inves-tigation Agency (FIA) in 12districts of HESCO Region.A HESCO spokesman in-formed here on Wednesdaythat joint teams of HESCOand FIA conducted surpriseraids in different areas ofHESCO region and detected2032 illegal connections.

The teams arrested threepower thieves, registered 12

FIRs at the concerned policestations and recovered detec-tion amount of Rs 50.332 mil-lions from power thieves, thespokesman said. As many aseight HESCO employees havealso been placed under sus-pension on charge of negli-gence in duty. However, heregretted that the line lossesstill stood at 27.33 percent.“We have set a target of fur-ther bringing down the lossesby eight percent by the endof this year,” he added.

According to him, the linelosses sustained by HESCOdropped from 28.58 percentin 2010-11 to 27.33 percent in

2012-13. Talking about thereceivables of HESCO fromboth the public sector andprivate sector consumers, hesaid that Rs 39.2 billion wereoutstanding against them.

Earlier, the Federal Inves-tigation Agency (FIA) alongwith officials from thePeshawar Electric Supply Com-pany and Sui Northern GasPipelines Limited continuedraids all over the provincialcapital and disconnected sev-eral illegal connections on Sun-day. A party of the FIA raidedJadoon Hostel on the WarsakRoad and disconnected illegalgas connection.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Thursday forecastmainly hot and humidweather in most parts of thecountry during next 24 hours.However, rain with thunder-shower is expected at iso-lated places of NortheastPunjab (Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Gujranwala,Lahore divisions), D.G Khan,Bahawalpur, Malakand,Hazara, Peshawar, Kalat di-visions, while at few placesof lower/Southeastern Sindhduring next 24 hours

According to synopticsituation, seasonal low liesover northwest Balochistanand adjoining areas. Mon-soonal currents from Arabiansea are penetrating into up-per/eastern parts of the coun-try. In Punjab includingIslamabad, mainly hot and

humid weather is expected inmost parts of the province,however rain-thundershoweris expected at isolated placesof capital. In KhyberPakhtunkhwa, scattered rainwith thundershower is ex-pected in hazara division,

whereas, isolated rain withthundershower is likely tooccur in Malakand, Peshawardivisions during next 24hours. Mainly hot and hu-mid and partly cloudyweather is expected in mostparts of the Sindh andBalochistan.—APP

SIALKOT: Commuters wading through the sewerage water accumulated on Saidpur Road.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Policemen showing bottles of substandard liquor, which was seizedin a raid in Block E Area.

Hot weather predictedMan loses life while saving boy from drowning

3 killed, 5 injured in accidents

Rs 50m recovered, 2032 illegalpower connections disconnected

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab govern-ment has decided to releaseimmediately a huge amountof Rs 1.9 billion regardingpractical preparation for ad-mission of children in schoolsin large numbers during ‘En-rollment Emergency Cam-paign’ to be continued for 3months from August 14 toOctober 21. This amount willbe spent for providing miss-ing facilities in governmentschools while the concernedDCOs have been directed toprovide the amount issuedduring the last fiscal yearwhich could not be used at

the district level for con-struction of new rooms,boundary walls, provision ofelectricity and clean drinkingwater in government schoolsand these amounts wouldnot be lapsed.

This was decided in ameeting of Commissioners,District Coordination Offic-ers and educationists of theprovince presided over byProvincial Minister for Edu-cation Rana MashhoodAhmad Khan at Civil Secre-tariat. Chief SecretaryPunjab Javed Aslam, Secre-tary Information & CultureMomin Agha, SecretaryHigher Education Farhan

Aziz Khawaja, SecretarySchools Education AbdulJabbar Shaheen, SecretaryEnvironment AnwarRasheed, Vice ChancellorLCW University Dr. Sabiha,Vice Chancellor Universityof Gujrat Dr. Nizam ud Din,Principal Queen Marry Col-lege Lahore Dr. IrfanaMaryam, Chairman PunjabExamination Commission Dr.Zafar Iqbal Qureshi andother concerned senior offi-cials presented their propos-als for making Punjab Enroll-ment Emergency Campaigna success.

Rana Mashhood AhmedKhan disclosed that Punjab

Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif will inaugu-rate Punjab Enrollment Emer-gency Campaign on August14 during a colourful func-tion of the students atHazoori Bagh. Divisionalcommissioners, vice chan-cellors of the universities orprincipals of big governmentcolleges situated in the di-visions will also attend thefunction. Similarly, DCOsalong with all elected repre-sentatives of people of thedistricts will launch thiscampaign. At tehsil level,concerned Assistant Com-missioners along with offic-ers of Education Depart-

ment, headmasters ofschools and principals ofcolleges will hold gatheringsof students, boy scouts andgirl guides and will inaugu-rate this campaign.

Master trainers will imparttraining to all schoolteacherson August 15 and 16 in eachdistrict in this regard and af-ter it, various teams will visiteach mohallah and village tillOctober 21 to motivate theparents to send their childrento school continuously. Infor-mative brochures and pam-phlets have been publishedwith the cooperation ofUNICEF, which will be distrib-uted at every house.

Shahbaz to open Rs 1.9b enrollment campaign Unhygienic food:8 of same familyfall unconscious

GUJRANWALA—At least eightpersons of a same family in-cluding seven children wereunconscious due to intake ofcontaminated meal here onThursday. In the area ofGujranwala, the inhabitants ofDhalle namely Nadeem wifeSamina along with her severchildren consume Dhie Bhaleand rice. Suddenly, after eat-ing they felt unconscious.Upon receiving information,the Rescue teams reached onthe spot and shifted the af-fected family into District head-quarters hospital (DHQ) formedical aid..—Online

ISLAMABAD—The NationalHighways & Motorway Po-lice (NH&MP) launchedspecial “Public Friendly SoftPolicing Campaign” for threedays under the direct super-vision of IG, NH&MP on thespecial eve of Eid ul Fitr. Asper directions of IGMotorway Police ZulfiqarAhmad Cheema, all ZonalCommanders of MotorwayPolice distributed ‘Iftar’packets containing juices,biscuits, dates, flowers andEid felicitation pamphletsamong the commuters on allToll Plaza’s on National High-ways and Motorways. Allthe SSPs and DSPs remainedon the road to supervise thecampaign.

Special duties were ar-ranged and extra patrollingvehicles were deployed onpatrolling to lend maximumhelp to the road users es-pecially in the context of

NH&MP launchesspecial Eid campaign

Eid ul Fitr rush. The offic-ers were asked to extendmaximum help to the dis-tress road users and make aprompt response toHelpline 130 calls.

IG, NH&MP directedthe officers of MotorwayPolice to make special ar-rangements in order to copewith the extraordinary rushof vehicles due to Eid ul Fitr.The officers were asked tocheck the overloading andovercharging by the PublicService Vehicles and to en-sure that the passengers donot jeopardize their safetyby traveling on the roof ofthe buses.

He asked the officers totreat the commuters by up-holding high standards ofmorals, exchange Eid greet-ings with them and take alenient view of their minorviolations on this specialeve.—Online

Action againstconfectioners,

butchersPESHAWAR—On the direc-tives of Deputy Commis-sioner (D.C), Peshawar, dis-trict administration con-ducted raids on sweet shopsand arrested three confec-tioners and 12 butchers forlack of cleanliness. Accord-ing to details, Deputy Com-missioner, Peshawar SyedZaheer-ul-Islam had receiveda complaint about selling ofpoor quality confectionaryitems and overcharging bythe butchers. The DeputyCommissioner directed Addi-tional Assistant Commis-sioner (AAC)-VI, MehmoodAhmad who raided aconfectionary shop inHashtnagri, where he foundthe selling of substandardconfectionary.—APP

Outrageous engineeredattack on Pak HC

WEDNESDAY’S attack on Pakistan High Commission in NewDelhi is yet another manifestation of the fact that India wasdeliberately raising tension with Pakistan on flimsy grounds.

The ransacking of the High Commission by about two hundred membersof the ruling party’s youth wing was surely a preposterous and engi-neered plan and Pakistan rightly summoned the Indian Deputy High Com-missioner in Islamabad to lodge protest and remind New Delhi of itsobligations to protect diplomatic staff and facilities.

It is very significant to observe how come the select group ofyoung people representing ruling Congress Party could go to theextent of mounting an attack right in the heart of the capital withouta nod from above on the pretext of killing of Indian soldiers byPakistani troops. It is also strange that on the one side Indian De-fence Minister AK Antony himself told lawmakers on Tuesday thatthe attack was carried out by ‘terrorists along with persons dressedin Pakistani army uniform’, which clearly meant that Pakistan Armyhad nothing to do with the incident but on the other side the rulingparty is encouraging its own men to indulge in such tactics. It isunderstood that the attack plan was motivated by domestic politicalcompulsions as the opposition BJP has adopted extreme posture onthe issue but the Indian leadership must realize that peace talks al-ways become casualty in such circumstances. What Indians are do-ing these days should serve as an eye-opener for all those in Paki-stan, who are unduly obsessed with the idea of seeking normaliza-tion of relations with India ‘at all costs’. No doubt, majority of Pa-kistani people want resumption of peace process and its successfulculmination so that scant resources of the two countries are exploitedfor betterment of the two peoples but obviously that can’t be one-sided or at the cost of national honour and interests.

Is Tunis followingEgyptian episode?

THE Islamist party heading Tunisia’s coalition said on Wednesday itaccepted a decision to suspend the work of the National Constituent

Assembly and urged talks to form a national unity government. This fol-lowed demonstrations a day earlier demanding resignation of the Gov-ernment. Deadlock persisted with opposition refusing talks with the Gov-ernment until it steps down while the ruling coalition is ruling out anydialogue conditional on its ouster.

Tunisia is in turmoil ever since Constituent Assembly’s electionsin 2011 because of lack of consensus on the new Constitution follow-ing a revolution that ousted long-time president Zine El Abidine BenAli the same year. The ruling coalition has offered major concessionsand hopefully the opposition would adopt a cooperative approach totake the country out of the quagmire and instability, which is under-standably being fuelled by some vested internal and external forces.If this was not done, then there are apprehensions of military take-over or intervention as has been done in Egypt but that could triggera new era of instability and chaos. In fact, the Arabian peninsula is inturmoil ever since eruption of sudden and dramatic movements dubbedby the West as Arab Spring but much to the chagrin of the West andthe United States the so-called Spring has led to assumption of powerby Islamists in democratically conducted elections and this reality isnot being swallowed by forces inimical to Islam. This is despite thefact that the outcome of the elections reflected will of the people andit should be respected but secular and pro-West opposition forces arebeing encouraged to destabilize the popularly elected Governments.The enemy is pitting one section of the population against the otherso that the Middle East keeps on boiling and remains destabilized tothe advantage of the Jewish state. We hope people of Tunisia andother states of the region would understand the game plan and seizeopportunities for promoting national solidarity.

Limbs of innocentscontinue to fly

ACTS of terrorism across the country continue to claim many livesalmost on daily basis and in several cases the explosions are so strong

that the limbs of body of innocent people fly far away. Two bomb explo-sions in Sindh on Wednesday, one in Lyari area of Karachi and the otherin Kashmore killed 13 innocent kids for no fault of theirs as they hadgone to watch a football match and to enjoy with friends.

The tragic incidents not only saddened the families of the deceasedon the eve of Eid but also vast majority of Pakistanis who consider andlove the children of the nation like their own. While celebrating Eid,we expect that people would visit those families who have lost theirdear ones during the year in bomb explosions and other acts of terror-ism to share their sorrows. Also on Eid day, we all should seek AllahAlmighty’s help as stated in dozens of verses in Holy Qur’an “ for Godis with those who patiently persevere”. The ongoing wave of terrorismis a phase, which will pass in due course of time because history provesthat such foreign funded movements have never succeeded. As an ex-ample, people of Sri Lanka fought the Tamil Tigers for twenty longyears but ultimately the State succeeded. Pakistan too is fighting thephenomenon of terrorism and people should not get too much perturbed,as such difficult moments come in the history of nations, and it has allthe potential to defeat this scourge. The entire nation is united and stead-fast against the menace and we are confident that Pakistan will foil thedesigns of enemies who are funding militancy and emerge successfulto play its due role in the comity of nations.

Defence Minister Antony & ‘Indian way’

Oh, live is realenough, you willfind it some day, butit has one arch-enemy — and thatis life.

Petersburgtalks on

track

It is a good sign that the UnitedStates is keeping its cool withRussia. The White House de-

cision to go ahead with the talkswith Moscow on Friday — on thesidelines of the G-20 Summit —is a positive development.

The asylum issue of NationalSecurity Agency contractor, Ed-ward Snowden, had strained rela-tions between the two countries.It was widely believed that thefavour done to the fugitivewhistleblower would lead to a rup-ture of diplomatic relations, andPresident Barack Obama wouldcall off talks with his Russiancounterpart Vladimir Putin. Nowwith the talks on track, all that theyneed to do is to buoy the state-to-state understanding and leaveSnowden out of any discussion.Obama has already exhibited hismagnanimity by calling upon theKremlin to look at the bigger pic-ture. Speaking on a local televi-sion show, Obama — disap-pointed over the Snowden issuewith Putin — accused Moscow ofoccasionally adopting a Cold Warmentality. He is right in saying thatas Putin has, time and again,played to the gallery in eulogiz-ing his country’s pride during thehey days of the Soviet Union, andthe latest recourse was when hecontested for another term ofpresidency.

What Obama told the NBCnetwork is worth pondering. Hesaid, “… we’ve to got to thinkabout the future. And there’s noreason why we shouldn’t be ableto cooperate more effectively thanwe do…” In fact, the US has laiddown the hallmarks of interactionfor his St Petersburg’s summit, andRussia could do well by formallykick-starting the composite dia-logue that has been in wings forlong. Secretary of State JohnKerry and Secretary DefenceChuck Hagel are also likely to fur-ther the agenda by making theirrespective counterparts realise thestrength and intensity behind a dia-logue over tricky issues of Iran’snuclear programme and the messin Syria. Russia should realise thatthe buck doesn’t stop withSnowden. —Khaleej Times

*****

Indianrupee is atthe mercyof market

For some it will be the bestof times, for others theworse. The Indian rupee has

reached unprecedented lowsagainst the dollar as investmentinto the country slows due to thestrengthening of the US economyand concerns about India’s eco-nomic and fiscal policies.

In a move that provided aboost to the rupee, the governmenthas appointed Raghuram Rajan, aformer chief economist at the In-ternational Monetary Fund (IMF),to head the Reserve Bank of Indiafrom September.

The appointment of an outsidetechnocrat, especially one who hasindicated that he is aware of the lim-its of the influence of central banks,will strengthen investor confi-dence. While there will be manycalls for action, the fall of the ru-pee is the result of internationalmarket trades and any interventionby the reserve bank is likely tohave very little effect and be pro-hibitively expensive. As manyother countries have learnt, oftenthe best course of action is simplyto ride out currency volatility.

India now faces the danger ofinflation from higher prices onvital imports. At the same time,its exports will become morecompetitive on international mar-kets, which could bring in muchneeded foreign earnings. ThoseIndians working outside the coun-try will also see the value of theirforeign savings increase. If theychoose to repatriate their fundsnow, this will also help strengthenthe rupee.—Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

—Jean AnouilhFrench dramatist

In her wisdom, Congress President Sonia Gandhi chose aknown pacifist, Arecaparambil

Kurian Antony, to be the DefenseMinister of India. Throughout hislife, Antony has been a voluble vo-tary of non-violence, and it is nosecret that he shares with PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh a de-sire to avoid war. Interestingly,after then Finance Minister PranabMukherjee was elected the Presi-dent of India a year ago, it isAntony who was chosen by SoniaGandhi to be the Number Two inthe Union Cabinet.

The mild-mannered DefenseMinister is also known to be afavourite of Congress Vice-Preesident and Heir ApparentRahul Gandhi. Both mother andson have chosen Antony to be oneof their top two political advisersas well, together with the Politi-cal Advisor to the Congress Presi-dent, Ahmed Patel (who is consid-ered in Delhi to be much morepowerful than Manmohan Singh inthat when the PM asks a ministerto get something done,the requestmay or may not get complied with.On the other hand, when AhmedPatel asks a minister to get some-thing done, it almost always is. Inall matters relating to the workingof the Congress Party, decisionsget taken by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul

Restoring Baloch pride

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The strife torn province ofBalochistan has had its fairshare of problems but it is

high time that serious efforts aremade to bring the Balochis backinto the mainstream. It is hearten-ing to note that the newly electedgovernment in Balochistan appearsto be making concerted efforts tothe effect and seems determined torestore peace and maintain law andorder situation in the disturbedprovince while its people are look-ing forward to a positive change.

It cannot be conceived that allBalochis are criminals or evil. Infact their sense of deprivation ow-ing to myopic policies of previ-ous regimes and the exploitationby external forces and internalvested interests caused unrestand mayhem in the past. Suchforces are still active and arefeeling disturbed at the apparentfailure of the fruition of theirmachinations and have gone intooverdrive to continue the chaosand bloodletting.

In addition to the resolve of thenew political dispensation inBalochistan, the constructive roleof the Armed Forces in the upliftof Balochistan has been duly takencognizance of by the serious andpragmatic citizens of Balochistan.In fact the unprecedented sacrificesrendered by the Armed Forces inthe line of duty have also been ac-knowledged by positive mindedobservers.

International players, whowant to have a stake in the min-eral rich as well as strategically

Gandhi, Ahmled Patel, A KAntony and Ambika Soni,another favourite ofmother and son. Indeed,Ambika Soni has been aformidable presence inDelhi for the past thirtyyears. During 1976-80,shewas the confidant of thenPM Indira Gandhi and sonSanjay Gandhi, exactly the

way she is so very close to Soniaand Rahul these days, together withA K Antony, who spends almost asmuch time on political matters asin the running of the Defense Min-istry. Indeed, so busy was Antonywith politics as usual that neitherhe or any of his ministerial col-leagues spared the time needed toattend the solemn function in Delhiairport when the bodies of the sol-diers were sent to their homes indifferent states’

Since the period when she wasin the UK as a young lady. SoniaGandhi has always had friends fromPakistan, whose charm and withave ensured that some of these Pa-kistani friends remained close fordecades.

She knew that in ManmohanSingh she had chosen a PM whowould be ready to walk an extrahundred miles in order to try andensure peace with Pakistan. There-after, by choosing a Defense Min-ister who has been a 100%Gandhian ( following both Ma-hatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhiwith zeal, except during 1977-80when he opposed the latter) all his

life, both the Congress Presi-dent as well as the Prime Ministerknew that Antony would fully backtheir policy of seeking peace withPakistan. It is clear from the eventsof August 6 that Antony has sought

to fulfill their wishes. The DefenseMinister has in effect destroyed hisown political career by stating pub-licly that the killing of five Indiansoldiers that day in a region nearthe Line of Control was done by in-dividuals “in the uniform of the Pa-kistan army”, which is very differ-ent from saying that the action wascarried out by the army itself. Sostrong is the public anger at thekillings that the DefenseMinister’s mild statement (and thecomplete lack of a statement fromthe PM) has resulted in publicopinion turning against him as anindividual who lacks the fire neededto head the Defense Ministry. Sev-eral commentators have placed theblame for Antony’s statement on thekillings on the PM. However, oth-ers say that the mildness of the re-sponse was because of signals fromWashington.

Experience has shown that nomatter how grave the terror attackor the number of soldiers killed,each US administration has alwayscalled on India to “show restraint”,a course of action exactly the op-posite of what they themselves doin such instances. Indeed, the onlyinstance when the US had re-sponded in what may be describedas an “Indian manner” to a provo-cation was its complete lack of aneffective response to the murder atBenghazi of its ambassador. Ironi-cally, Christopher Stevens waskilled by the same groups that hehad empowered and backed justtwo years previously to bring downthe Kaddafy regime. That Washing-ton has as much influence overDelhi since Manmohan Singh be-came PM in 2004 as London hadover India’s capital city during theBritish Raj is a perception widely

shared within the country. TheObama administration is very par-ticular that there should be talksbetween India and Pakistan. Thekilling of five soldiers has the po-tential to create an ugly publicmood sufficient to make it politi-cally hazardous for ManmohanSingh to listen to the Obama ad-ministration and enter into detailedtalks with Prime Minister NawazSharif. The fierce reaction to theDefense Minister’s low-key state-ment has probably been respon-sible for Prime Minister Singh tokeep silent about the episoderather than stand by his minister.

Apart from statements or thetemporary suspension of talks, theManmohan Singh government hasno other way of responding to ac-tions seen as provocative. Fortu-nately for the Congress Party, theBJP-led government of AtalBehari Vajpayee had the samepolicy as Manmohan Singh, ofsymbolic (and futile) gesturesrather than military action.

The swirl of anger that thislongstanding “Indian Way” of re-sponding has created within thecountry opens the way for a futuregovernment to respond in a man-ner that the US administration dis-approves of. Both within the mili-tary as well as in the public, therehas been a hardening of views re-garding talks with Pakistan.Should Manmohan Singh ignorethese trends and meet NawazSharif in New York, his party islikely to face a very hostile reac-tion back home.—The writer is Vice-Chair,Manipal Advanced ResearchGroup, UNESCO Peace Chair &Professor of Geopolitics, ManipalUniversity, Haryana State, India.

located province ofBalochistan, are continuing toharp on propaganda themesand a smear campaign againstthe government and its organslike the law enforcing agen-cies, the armed forces and se-

curity apparatus. The rationale ofthe detractors, however abhorrent itmay appear, is understandable sincethey have an axe to grind.

The regrettable aspect of thissordid misinformation scheme isthat some elements of our own me-dia, comprising a few TV anchorpersons and columnists, are swayedby the disinformation campaignand contribute their two cents’worth to endorsing the negativethemes to reinforce divisive argu-ment which creates a sense of con-flict and promotes the cause ofmilitants and separatists. Whereasthe tirade of criticism by interna-tional players and detractors can bedismissed as propaganda, whenown media subscribes to the scath-ing criticism, the damage caused ismore dangerous than that by thecriminal elements.

Secondly, media coverage to thecriminal elements provides oxygento the miscreants and enables themto send their message across to themasses, which may build confusionand at times create sympathy for theterror mongers. In the case ofBalochistan, enormous media pow-ers enable them to buildmisperceptions in the minds of do-mestic and foreign audience that allis not well in the province. Obvi-ously angry Baloch leaders havetheir grievances which need to beaddressed, but it is incorrect to be-lieve that state of anarchic disorderprevails in Balochistan.

The majority of the people ofBalochistan are bona fide citizensof Pakistan. There are disgruntled

elements, but with the endeavoursof the new government, they aregradually returning to the fold ofthe state. Surely new governmentwill steer the province in the rightdirection. Soon Baloch pride willalso be restored and peace will re-turn to the province.

We need to appreciate that thepeople of Balochistan are loyal Pa-kistanis having well entrenchedcompassion for the state of Pakistan.They cannot be detached from vitaldecision making process as relatedto Pakistan / Balochistan. The estab-lishment of a newly elected / demo-cratic government is a good step for-ward to resolve all issues faced bythe province.

Healing is a process that requirestime and patience but since the prideof the Baloch people has been hurt,there is a dire need to restore thesame at priority. EmpoweringBaloch leaders to manage the affairsof their own province will provecreditable, while the installation ofa democratically elected governingmechanism with consensus whileoverlooking party interests has notonly set a new precedence but willalso help end militancy inBalochistan.

The capacity building of theBaloch nation has already com-menced and the newly elected gov-ernment in Balochistan is progress-ing well. The number of violent in-cidents including target killing, kid-napping for ransom, terrorist attacksand missing persons have reduced,while the government is showing itsfirm resolve to bring all parties in-cluding disgruntled elements / sepa-ratists to the negotiating table tobring peace and tranquility inBalochistan. It must also be appre-ciated that encouraging and enlight-ening trends of present provincialgovernment in Balochistan, espe-

cially their decision to show 4% in-crease in Education Budget will goa long way in boosting their mo-rale. The province is being gov-erned by its own political represen-tatives and political will to bringpeace, address the grievances ofannoyed leaders, end militancy, isencouraging.

The initial goodwill attained bythe provincial government inBalochistan merits disseminationto all. In these trying and testingtime, we the media should avoidcreating unnecessary sense of dis-sent by projecting fictitious storiesof human rights violence and antistate narratives covering emotionalordeals of missing persons. True,the conditions in Balochistan arefar from ideal but there is hope thatthe murky situation is taking a turnfor the better. A positive push andnudge will work wonders.

While the initiatives of the newcivilian government should belauded, the role of the ArmedForces in the development programof Balochistan also deserves appre-ciation Uplift of Baloch youththrough education, establishmentof technical institution, develop-ment of mineral resources, creationof jobs for Baloch youth and manyother projects are not merely shotsin the dark.

They are part of a well thoughtout strategy to restore the pride ofthe Baloch nation and are aimed atnot just creating goodwill but willcreate confidence in them to takecharge of their own future with dig-nity and ownership, which will leadto prosperity. The key is to enhanceBaloch pride, compassion and loy-alty to Pakistan. To dismiss themand incarcerate the Balochis is notthe answer. The prudent course ofaction is integration and assimila-tion in the whole.

M D NalapatEmail: mgnalapat@gmail.com

GeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalnotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from India

Sultan M HaliEmail: sm_hali@yahoo.com

Voice of the PeopleLet Imranapologise

ALI HASHIM

Imran Khan needs to apologies un-conditionally to the Supreme Courtand promise not to behave in the samemanner again. We may recall GeorgeW Bush’s first election, when he hadrun against Al Gore. The latter gotthe majority of popular votes but lostthe election due to vote counting ir-regularities in Florida.

The US Supreme Court ruledin favour of Bush and, despite muchcriticism of the judgement, Al Goretold his supporters that he wouldaccept the decision – no ifs or buts.This is how you build real respectfor the judiciary – by accepting andobeying its decisions even thoughthey may be against you.—Fairfax, US

*****HAMEED AKHTAR NIAZI

It takes a brave man to accept hismistake. Imran Khan is definitelya brave man. I am sure he willrealise his folly of castigating theSupreme Court for whose indepen-dence he has even been to jail. Hecertainly would not like to bedubbed as stubborn by unnecessar-ily persisting in his folly. He shouldquickly wind up this show byapologising to the Supreme Court.

By so doing he will enhance hisalready high stature. It is time heconcentrated on the burning ques-tion of terrorism that severely af-fects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, theprovince where his party rules. Hemust ready himself to contribute hisinput to the all-parties conferencethat was seemingly postponed tillhis return from Britain. Lastly, heshouldn’t claim exclusivity by de-manding a separate meeting withthe PM and the COAS.—Islamabad

Torturoustaxation

IFTIKHAR KHAN

This refers to Dr Nisar’s letter ‘Tech-savvy taxation’ (Aug 1). I own a six-year-old Toyota car with Punjab’snumber plate and pay an annual to-ken tax of Rs8,700 on it. I have beendepositing the tax at the GPOIslamabad for the last three years.This year, when I went to the samepost office, I found a notice statingthat it had stopped taking token taxof vehicles with Punjab numberplate. The next day, I went toRawalpindi, and showed my regis-tration at a post office there.

I was shocked when the postoffice employee told me that I hadto pay Rs26,100 as arrears for thepast three years although I had paidthe tax at the GPO Islamabad. Ichecked my car’s record at thePunjab Excise and TaxationDepartment’s website and accord-ing to it I hadn’t paid any tax forthe last three years. I’m sure manyothers must have gone through thesame torture. The FBR needs tobring changes in the revenue col-lection system to save people fromdouble taxation.—Islamabad

Floods, aneye-opener

KHALID IDREES

The devastation caused by the re-cent heavy rains in Karachi shouldserve as an eye opener for the CDAwhich, over the years, has allowedencroachments on, and along, thenullahs and natural water courseslocated in Islamabad. What is moreunfortunate is that the residents ofthe capital have been using thesenullahs and water courses to dumpsewage and industrial waste. As aconsequence, their drainage capac-ity has significantly decreased, af-fecting the natural drainage systemof the city.

Islamabad is thus susceptible toflooding if a heavy downpour hitsthe city. This demands that all thecivic agencies equip themselves tocope with all kinds of eventualitiesthat heavy rains might cause sincethe met department has already fore-cast heavy rains in September. TheCDA must undertake the cleaningand dredging of nullahs and naturalwatercourses on an urgent basis.—Islamabad

Petrol & powerprice hikeASHFAQ SHARIF

I want to ask simple question fromthe PML-N President Mr. NawazSharif what message your Govtwants to convey by increasing theprices of petrol and electricitywhich have evoted strong reaction

The change has comeFATIMA HASAN ZAIDI

The slogan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that “Changehas come.” Oh yes it came. Countless people speak against PTI

just because it did not win the overall elections 2013, but if we thinkas a nation the change has really come. As it was beyond our imagi-nation that Ramadan in all over Pakistan will begin on same dateand festivity of Eid will be observed equally in KPK and other prov-inces. This ensued after years in the history of Pakistan one Eid willbe celebrated and for this we must be thankful to the governmentof KPK for upholding the nation together. How many of critics willrefute this accomplished truth. Imran Khan, the lumber house ofknowledge proved his words into ultimate reality. Still if people blababout him then we can’t turn haters into lovers.—Rawalpindi

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—Editor

Helping people of Syria in their time of need

I know Muslims all over the region will have spent the month ofRamadan fasting, so I would like

to take the chance to wish “EidMubarak” to everyone celebrating thisweekend. Ramadan is a time of reflec-tion, when Muslims think of those lessfortunate than themselves the worldover. I’m sure many of you will havebeen thinking, in particular, of the suf-fering of those caught up in the Syriacrisis, with many zakat donations go-ing to help Syrians in need.

My thoughts at this time havealso been very much with the millionsof ordinary Syrians who have beeninjured or driven out of their homesby the continuing violence. I think,as well, of those people in neighbor-ing countries who have been so gen-erous in opening their homes andcommunities, often to total strangers.At the start of Ramadan, I went toLebanon to see for myself the effectthat more than two years of fightinghas had, not only on Syria but on theregion as a whole. I spoke to familieswho had fled their homes with noth-ing and heard some truly harrowingstories of suffering and hardship.

The numbers are shocking andcontinue to mount. The UN estimatesthat over 100,000 people have nowdied and over 4.25 million have fled

their homes inside Syria. Refugeenumbers in neighboring countries arenow close to 2 million, which also cre-ates pressures on host communities.

I am particularly worried aboutwhat the fighting means for girls andwomen, many of whom now findthemselves at greater risk of violenceand exploitation. An estimated one in10 female refugees has experiencedsome form of violence. Children areamong the most at risk, with over 50percent of refugees under 18 years ofage. As I saw, both in Lebanon, andearlier this year when I met Syrianrefugees in Jordan, behind each oneof those numbers is an individual hu-man tragedy. That is why I am deter-mined that the UK’s immediate pri-ority in this conflict has got to remainsquarely on providing humanitarianassistance. Since the start of the fight-ing, the UK has been at the forefrontof the humanitarian response. Ourfunding has helped to provide food,water, medicine and shelter to hun-dreds of thousands of people.

Just over a month ago, DavidCameron stood up at the meeting ofG8 leaders in Ireland and announcedthat the UK will be providing a fur-ther £175 million for the Syrian cri-sis. That is the largest single fundingcommitment ever made by the UKin response to a humanitarian disas-ter. It more than doubled our fund-ing, bringing the UK’s total commit-ment to £348 million. This is the

UK’s biggest response to a singlehumanitarian crisis. This reflects thesize of the crisis — and the scale ofthe suffering. It is a signal of just howserious this Government is about do-ing everything we can to alleviate thesuffering. We have also consistentlypushed other donor countries to en-sure that they have stepped up andplayed their part, and we will con-tinue to call on them to honor thefunding promises they have made.UK support has provided over285,000 people a month are gettingfood. Our support is helping to getwater for almost 1 million people andalmost 300,000 medical consulta-tions, helping people across Syria andin neighboring countries.

Our support is also providingschool materials and training teach-ers to ensure that refugee childrendon’t miss out on an education. Andwe are providing support kits for newmothers, reproductive health servicesfor refugee women and financial sup-port to vulnerable women at risk ofcoerced marriage. So we know thathelp is getting through, that it is sav-ing lives. But we must also recog-nize that it isn’t reaching all thosewho need it, all of the time. TheSyrian government continues to im-pose bureaucratic hurdles on hu-manitarian agencies which must belifted. Humanitarian workers are alsofacing interference and threat of vio-lence. This has to stop. All sides to

Views From Abroad

The significance of Eid festivalThe end of Ramadan marks the

Eid festivity. There are twoEids. The first Eid is called Eid-

ul-Fitr. It falls on the first day ofshawaal, the tenth month of the Mus-lim year, following the month ofRamadan in which the Qur’an wasrevealed and which is the month offasting. The second is called Eid-ul-Adha (the festival of sacrifice). It fallson the tenth day of Zil-Hijjah, the lastmonth of the Muslim year. The Is-lamic Eids are unique in every way.To them, there can be nothing simi-lar in any other religion or any othersocio-political system. Besides theirhighly spiritual and moral character-istics, they have matched qualities.Each Eid is a wholesome celebrationof a remarkable achievement of theindividual Muslim in the service ofAllah. The first Eid comes after anentire month of ‘absolute’ fasting dur-ing the days of the month. The sec-ond Eid marks the completion ofHadj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, a coursein which the Muslim handsomelydemonstrates his renouncement of themundane concerns and hearkens onlyto the Eternal voice of Allah.

The festival of Eid is also athanksgiving day where the muslimsassemble in a brotherly and joyful at-mosphere to offer their gratitude toAllah for helping them to fulfill theirspiritual obligations prior to the Eid.

This form of thanksgiving is not con-fined to spiritual devotion and ver-bal expressions. It goes far beyondthat to manifest it-self in a handsomeshape of social hu-manitarian spirit.

The Muslimswho have com-pleted fasting ofRamadan expresstheir thanks to Allahby means of distrib-uting alms amongthe poor and needyon the first Eid.Similarly, the Mus-lims who have com-pleted the course ofHadj at Mecca, aswell as those who are at home, offertheir sacrifices by slaughtering obla-tions to be distributed among the poorand needy. The distribution of almsand oblations constitutes a mayor partof the Eids highlights. This Islamicform of combination cannot be foundexcept in Islam. Eid is a day of re-membrance. Even in the most joyfultimes the Muslims make a fresh startof the day by a plural session of wor-ship to Allah. They pray to Allah andglorify His name to demonstrate theirremembrance of His favours. Alongwith that course, they remember thedeceased by prayer for their souls, the

needy by extending a hand of help,the grieved by showing them sympa-thy and consolation, the sick by cheer-

ful visits and utter-ances of goodwishes, the absen-tees by cordialgreetings and sin-cere considerationsetc... Thus themeaning of re-membrance on theday transcends alllimits and expandsover far reachingdimensions of hu-man life.

Each Eid is aday of victory. Theindividual who

succeeds in securing his spiritualrights and growth receives the Eidwith a victorious spirit. Those whofaithfully observe the duties, whichare associated with Eid are the trium-phant ones.

When Muslims assemble in thecongregation of Eid day, they allwhole-heartedly pray for forgivenessand strength in faith. And Allah hasassured those who approach Himwith sincerity of His mercy and for-giveness. In that pure assembly andhighly spiritual congregation any trueMuslim would feel ashamed of him-self before Allah to hold any enmity

or ill-feelings towards his brethren.A true Muslim would be deeply im-pressed by this brotherly and spiri-tual assembly, and would overcomehid feting if he has been exposed toany. Consequently, he would findhimself moving along with othersresponding to the spirit of the dayto purify his heart and soul. In anycase, he would forgive those whomight have wronged him, becausehe himself would be praying forAllah’s forgiveness, and would dohis best to acquire it. The spirit ofthis highly devotional assemblywould teach him that if he forgiveshe would be forgiven. And when heforgives, the virtue of forgivenesswill be mercifully exercised by Al-lah and widely exchanged betweenthe Muslims. And that marks theday as a day of forgiveness.

When a Muslim establishespeace within his heart by obeyingthe law of Allah and leading a dis-ciplinary life, he has certainly con-cluded a most sacred treaty of peacewith Allah. Once a person is atpeace with Allah, he is at peace withhimself and, consequently, with therest of the Universe. So when hecelebrates the Eid in the right man-ner, he is actually celebrating theconclusion of a peace treaty be-tween himself and Allah, and thismarks the Eid as a day of Peace

Justine Greeningthe conflict must recognize and re-spect that. We must also start think-ing about meeting long term needs.At the June launch of the new UN-led Appeal, Baroness Amos, wholeads the UN’s Syria response, esti-mated that two years of conflict haveset back Syria’s development by twodecades. Increasingly, we are pro-viding long term funding to help aidagencies plan better and maintain ex-isting key infrastructure and ser-vices. That means ensuring thingslike health and education serviceskeep running and water and sewageinfrastructure doesn’t fail.

Ultimately, the internationalcommunity must do more to end thecrisis in Syria and move toward apolitical resolution. Until then, hu-manitarian workers must have freeaccess to get to where they areneeded and get on with the job theyare there to do, without threat to life,while the international communitymust provide them with the fund-ing they need to do it. The UK willkeep pushing for this on the inter-national stage. The support beinggiven to the charities and organiza-tions doing such vital work in andaround Syria is making a real dif-ference. Together, we will continueto stand alongside the people ofSyria during their time of need.—The author is the Britishsecretary of state for internationaldevelopment. Courtesy Arab News

The Spirit Of Islam

Ahmad Macky

Kerry’s success worse than his failure

The critical issue of the ever expanding illegal Israeli colonialsettlements on the Occupied

Palestinian Territories (OPT) in theWest Bank (WB), which are peacekilling in eastern Jerusalem in par-ticular, will make or break the newlyresumed Palestinian – Israeli nego-tiations. On July 29, 2013, those ne-gotiations were resumed in Washing-ton, DC; they are scheduled to beginin earnest in mid-August. PresidentBarak Obama hailed them as a“promising step forward.” However,in view of more than twenty years offailed U.S. – sponsored peace mak-ing, the new talks “promise” nothingmore than being a new round of fail-ure and “conflict management,” inspite of Obama’s belief that “peaceis both possible and necessary.”

According to Albert Einstein,“doing the same thing over and overagain and expecting different results”is “insanity,” but that is exactly whatJohn Kerry seems to have achievedafter six tours of shuttle diplomacyin the Middle East since he was swornin as the U.S. Secretary of State. Un-less the issue of settlements is ad-dressed in accordance with interna-tional and humanitarian law as wellas in compliance with the resolutionsof the United Nations, Kerry will beshooting himself in the legs and hissuccess in his peace mission wouldbe worse than his failure.

However, Kerry seems andsounds determined to pursue his mis-sion on the basis of contradictoryterms of reference, laid down by theofficial letter sent by the former U.S.president George W. Bush to formerIsraeli premier Ariel Sharon in April

2004, whereby the United Statespledged to annex the major Jewishsettlements to Israel, to redraw itsborders accordingly and to excludethe right of return of Palestinian refu-gees from any agreement in the fu-ture on solving the Arab – Israeli con-flict in Palestine peacefully.

Top on the agenda of the resumednegotiations are borders and security;Israel has never defined its bordersnor respected the borders set by theUnited Nations resolution No. 181 of1947; in the name of security, it de-mands borders that compromise theviability of any independent Pales-tinian state on the WB. From U.S.and Israeli perspectives, “the resump-tion of negotiations is seen as an ob-jective in itself,” in words of Ghassanal-Khatib, the former spokesman ofthe Palestinian Authority.

David Ignatius on August 2 de-scribed kerry’s efforts as a “missionimpossible,” which if it fails “thistime, it will cost the parties dearly;”he described the ensuing negotiationsas “a kind of a benign trap, once theprey have been lured inside, it’s dif-ficult for them to escape without ei-ther accomplishing .. peace or dam-aging themselves.” Indeed in the longrun, success of the resumed negotia-tions warn of creating a political en-vironment that would give “legiti-macy” to a new Israeli military as-sault on the Gaza Strip to remove the“armed resistance” there to their out-come, with the overt blessing of theU,S. sponsor of the negotiations andthe discreet blessing of the Arab“peace partners.”

However, the expected failure ofkerry’s efforts could be worse thanthe failure of the Camp David sum-mit meeting in September 2000 oflate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat,former Israeli prime minister EhudBarak and U.S. former president Bill

Clinton. By sending his negotiatorsto Washington, Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas is again compro-mising his personal credibility, butworse still he risks a Palestinian im-plosion in the case of success, but incase the negotiations fail he risks aPalestinian explosion in rebellionagainst both his PA and the Israelioccupation. Abbas has already an-tagonized his old allies among themembers of the Palestine LiberationOrganization (PLO) - including thePopular Front for the Liberation ofPalestine (PFLP), which is consid-ered the third influential Palestinianpower after the two rivals of Fatahand Hamas - who accuse him of re-neging on their consensus not to re-sume negotiations without a stop tothe expansion of Israeli colonialsettlements first.

National reconciliation betweenthe PLO and Hamas will be put onhold for at least the nine monthswhich the negotiators set as the timeframe for their negotiations. His de-cision put on hold as well any Pales-tinian new attempt to join interna-tional organizations to build on theUN General Assembly’s recognitionof Palestine as a non-member statein September 2012. The new talks aremerely “the beginning of the begin-ning” of “a long process” in which“there is no guarantee” for success,according to former U.S. Secretaryof State Madeleine Albright.

All this boils down to winning Is-rael more time to dictate whatever bor-ders it deems “secured,” by creatingmore facts on the OPT. For Palestin-ians, this is a waste of time that makestheir dream of a national homeland inan independent state more remote. Nosurprise then Israeli premier BenjaminNetanyahu on July 27 saw in resump-tion of negotiations “a vital strategicinterest of state of Israel.” Kerry’s per-

sonal success seems to have pres-sured Palestinians into being fooledagain into jumping to “final status”negotiations as best way to absolveIsrael from honouring its commit-ments in compliance with “interim”accords it had signed with PLO.

The Palestinian wide –spreadopposition to the resumption of talksis accusing Abbas of being a “be-liever” in peace who is about to get“stung from the same hole twice,”in reference to the bloody outcomeof the U.S. – hosted Camp Davidsummit in September 2000. Then,the U.S. administration of Clintonpressured Arafat into “final status”negotiations. Barak, then the Israeliprime minister, found in the CampDavid final status talks a golden pre-text not to implement the third stageof the Oslo accords, namely to with-draw the Israeli Occupation Forces(IOF) from about 95% of the WestBank area and hand it over to thePA. Linking the WB and Gaza by a“corridor” that allows free move-ment of people and goods betweenthem was another commitment thathas yet to be honored by Israel.

The critical issue of the illegalIsraeli colonial settlements on theWB will make or break the newKerry – sponsored talks. On July 29,James M. Wall wrote: “Israel playsthe peace process game not to giveaway ill-gotten gains, but to protectthem;” settlements come on top ofthose “gains;” they were “gained”under the umbrella of the “peaceprocess,” with the tacit blessing ofwell - intentioned Palestinian nego-tiator who did not make their re-moval a precondition to the resump-tion of peace talks right from start.—The writer is a veteran Arabjournalist based in Bir Zeit, WestBank of the Israeli-occupiedPalestinian territories.

Nicola NasserEmail: nassernicola@ymail.com

from all groups of people who haveprotested and condemned recent in-crease. Hike in price of Petrol andelectricity badly hit our existence.Price rise will lead to more and moreinflation. Why not think how toeliminate inflation.

Due to hike in petrol and elec-tricity all leading trade bodes spe-cially FPCCI, SITE and KCCIshould register a protest and con-demn and ask the Govt to immedi-ate withdraw the recent hike ANDfurther reduce the prices of electric-ity and petrol if our newly Govtwants to run economy cycle with-out any hurdle.—Karachi

Coal-basedpower plants

HUMAYUN ZAFAR

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hasdeclared that 10 power plants with atotal generation capacity of6,600MW will be established atGadani. This is good news but thereis one concern. The Pakistan SteelMills was first planned in that areabut it was later changed to PortQasim after it was discovered thatpolluted wind-flowing from theSteel Mills in an easterly directionwould reach Karachi and pollute itsatmosphere.

Coal-based power generationemits substantial pollution and thatis one of the reasons why power gen-erators in the US are being switchedfrom coal to gas. Pollution from gas-fired power generators is much less.Environmentalists’ advice should besought first before deciding the lo-cation of the proposed power park.—Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Agriculture &water allocation

AIJAZ A NIZAMANI

A press reporter, has recently writtena good piece about water below theKotri barrage (July 14). The pieceextensively got opinions from irriga-tion experts and farmers of Sindh andPunjab. The farmers, particularly feu-dal, of Sindh and Punjab are in per-petual quarrel to get more and morewater and use it for an outdated irri-gation management system.

Prior to the modern canal andbarrage-based irrigation, almost theentire water used to flow its naturalcourse through riverine forest areas(southern Punjab and Sindh) into thedelta. Agriculture was practicedthrough inundation canals with lim-ited cultivation in low-lying areas.Since the cotton-based agriculturaleconomy suited colonial rulers theychanged the agricultural pattern tosupply cotton raw material to tex-tile mills in Manchester. There wasa British Cotton Growers Associa-tion which lobbied for this changein the cropping pattern. This neededa new class and new economy basedon the “desert bloom syndrome”, i.e.bringing as much area under canalirrigation as possible and divertingas much water as technology al-lowed from its natural course.

With every diversion in the formof a barrage, the people in riverineand delta areas (which at one timeused to be the richest in the subcon-tinent) were deprived of their natu-ral access to fresh water which hadbeen with them for hundreds of thou-sands of years. A dam is not harm-ful to riverine and delta areas if itdoes not have a diversion design.Compared to it, barrages are solelymeant for diversion and it has a sig-nificant negative impact on natureand the people living in delta andriverine areas of both Sindh andsouthern Punjab.

People (and experts) often de-bate and estimate how much Induswater should be allocated for a delta.The answer, depending on schoolsof thought, ranges from none (assome feudal lords tend to think inPunjab) to 10MAF under the 1991water accord to 27MAF by IUCN.Some local experts put the figure at35MAF. I think the question shouldbe the other way around. How muchis fresh water actually needed byagriculture in Indus command areas(where over a 41m-acre area is com-manded in 19 barrage areas), and nothow much is required by riverineareas or delta? The argument would

be that water belongs to nature andit should be calculated how muchwater is needed for agriculture toachieve current and future levels ofagricultural output. The water allo-cation estimate should be based oncurrent technologies and should in-volve a full-cost recovery for irriga-tion supplies. Water withdrawals foragriculture are based on the tech-nologies or systems of the late 19thcentury or early 20th century whilethe farmers (the lot of them certainlyfeudal) continue to waste water pro-vided to them at 99pc subsidy! Forthis, my favourite analogy is thatpetrol allocation for your car todayis based on fuel needs of a Prius (ahigh-efficiency hybrid car) and noton a 1930s Cadillac.

Despite this ‘powerful’ argu-ment, our economy is elitist. Thepoor people in delta and riverine ar-eas are economically a very weaksegment in the political economy ofPakistan where a water policy ‘ex-pert’ invariably means an irrigation(civil) engineering professional andwater ‘stakeholder’ means a feudallord. To add further woe to the mis-ery, those feudal lords may now besitting in the National Assembly orthe Senate of Pakistan.—Karachi

BuildingWaran Canal

INAYAT ATTA

Located in the South Waziristan areaof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the multi-purpose Gomal Zam Dam isPakistan’s first roller compact con-crete (RCC) dam. It will not onlyirrigate 191,000 acres barren land ofTank district and Kulachi tehsil ofD.I.Khan, but will also generate 17.5MW of low-cost hydel power.

According to a report by the Plan-ning Commission, D.I. Khan andTank are among the 25 poorest dis-tricts of the country. The agriculturalland either remains ‘barani’ (rain-fed)or the farmers are dependent on in-digenous irrigation system known as‘rod kohi’ (hill torrent). But the com-mencement of the project will helpstore the water for irrigation, mitigatefloods, and provide the employmentopportunities for youth and also bol-ster the income of poor segments ofsociety. One integral part of theproject plan, when it was first con-ceived in 1880, is the construction of164km-long Waran Canal system.Last year when Wapda complainedabout the shortage of funds for theWaran Canal, the USAID came for-ward and opined in its favour afterthoroughly assessing its historicalimportance and current relevance. Itis pertinent to note that in September2012 the USAID, in addition to theprovision of $80m to help completethe main dam, further provided $12mfor the construction of the WaranCanal system.

The tender of Waran Canal sys-tem took place in January this year,but the too high bidding competitionled to its cancellation. Now the re-tendering is taking an unnecessarilylong time despite 10 months after theallocation of funds by the USAID.What the authorities concerned arefailing to realise is that long delaysare not only adding to the misery ofthe people but are also discriminatoryand against the basic vision of thedam of bringing the benefits to all thecommunities. The residents of D.I.Khan and Tank districts strongly sup-port the Waran Canal project and re-quest the prime minister to look intothe matter. The PTI’s provincial gov-ernment -– with its holistic economicand social vision – should also takeinterest in the construction of theWaran Canal system. This calls forimmediate re-tendering of the projectso that work on it should begin assoon as possible. The authorities con-cerned are expected to take specialmeasures to complete the Waran Ca-nal system on time.—D I Khan

year killed four of his innercircle, but there have been noreports of Assad himself com-ing under fire.

Video footage distributedby the Tahrir al-Sham rebelsshowed smoke rising from whatit said was the Malki district,where Assad and his close aideshave homes. Other activistsalso reported rocket fire into thearea.

Syria’s government deniedthe reports. “The news is whollyuntrue,” Information MinisterOmran Zoabi said.Firas al-Bitar,head of the Tahrir al-Sham bri-gade, said his fighters had car-ried out reconnaissance of theroute of Assad’s motorcade andfired 120 mm artillery towards

Pak, India should not allowsituation to escalate: PM

From Page 1the president’s convoy early onThursday.”The attack rattled theregime, even if Assad was nothit,” he told Reuters from anundisclosed location in the capi-tal. “There were two motor-cades, one containing Assad anda decoy. We targeted the correctone.” Bitar’s brigade operatesmainly in the Ghouta region onthe eastern outskirts of the capi-tal. Another official in Tahrir al-Sham said Assad’s forces firedrockets and artillery “like rain”on the region in response to thereported attack.

Following the statement,Syrian state television showedfootage of Assad praying along-side ministers and other top of-

ficials. It said the footage wasfrom Thursday’s Eid prayers atthe Anas bin Malek Mosque inMalki. Assad appeared un-harmed and smiled at the wor-shippers as he entered themosque.

Islam Alloush of the Liwaal-Islam, another rebel brigade,told Reuters earlier on Thursdaythat rebels fired rockets whichstruck Assad’s motorcade.

“Assad was not hit but theinformation we have based fromsources within the regime is thatthere were casualties within hisentourage,” Allooush said.

Other activists also reportedrockets were fired into the Malkiarea, which was sealed off bysecurity forces.—Reuters

Tarbela and Mangla are quiteinsufficient to save wastage of30 % water annually valuing $10 billion.

The raising of 30 feetMangla dam which was pro-vided in its original design hasindeed enlarged its storage ca-pacity to 7.392 MAF from 6.7million acre feet (MAF) makingit the largest water reservoir inthe country as compared toTarbela dam having capacity of6.581 MAF which is reducingdrastically due to high rate of siltdeposit.

According to WAPDA , for

Drifting sand dune endangersmain structure

From Page 1

the first time after raising it to30 feet, water in Mangla Damhas reached a historic high at1,213 feet above mean sea levela few days ago.

With this, water storage hasincreased to 5.21 MAF. Previ-ously, Mangla Dam reached themaximum level of 1,210 feettwo years ago in 2011.This yearMangla Dam will be filled to itsmaximum level of 1,242 feet.This decision will increase wa-ter storage by 2.88 MAF andpower generation by about 110megawatts.

Additional benefits of theproject have been estimated atRs18 billion per year. Despitethis fresh addition, Pakistan re-quires big reservoirs to preventwastage of an estimated 30 %of the total water available in thecountry, particularly duringMonsoon season, which goesdown to the Arabian Sea.

An expert said with the pas-sage of time, building of damshave become a cumbersome af-fair as scores of NOCs will berequired by the donor countriesincluding environmental certifi-cate to build water reservoirs.

ISLAMABAD: Ladies are busy in buying bangles from Jinnah Super Market for Eid-ul Fitr on Thursday.

celebration. Eid Mubarak,”President Obama said in a mes-sage, released here by the USembassy.

President Obama recalledthat at this year’s White HouseIftar, he was proud to spend timewith some of the many Ameri-can Muslims whose contribu-tions enrich the US democracyand strengthen its economy.

He said during the pastmonth, Muslims have honouredtheir faith through prayer andservice, fasting and time spentwith loved ones.

“Many of us have had theopportunity to break fast withour Muslim friends and col-leagues - a tradition that remindsus to be grateful for our bless-ings and to show compassion tothe less fortunate among us, in-cluding millions of Syrians whospent Ramadan displaced fromtheir homes, their families, andtheir loved ones.”

President Obama said to helpthe many Syrians in need this Eidul-Fitr, the United States was pro-viding an additional $195 millionin food aid and other humanitar-ian aid, bringing its humanitar-ian contribution to the Syrianpeople to over $1 billion since thecrisis began.—APP

faith in my country, its judicialsystem and in humanity. Mywife has been allowed to stay inIndia. Having her back at homeis the best gift ever,’’ Gulfamsaid.—Agencies

sues in a democratic system,”Cameron was quoted as sayingby Manchester’s Asian Litenewspaper.

“As leaders of two greatdemocracies, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif will soonlaunch bilateral talks to resolveall the issues in between thenuclear armed countries for thewelfare of the billion pluspeople,” the British prime min-ister said.

Cameron said ManmohanSingh was an example for otherworld leaders to emulate for hisdetermination and knowledge toturn India an economic globalpower.

He also praised NawazSharif as a seasoned politicianwho would definitely bring re-markable changes to Pakistan’sdemocratic system.

“I met Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif just after the Pa-kistan elections, and I am surethe new leader of Pakistan willensure peace and stability in theregion,” the British prime min-ister said.—Online

Delhi HCFrom Page 1

Obama felicitatesMuslimsFrom Page 1

Cameron callsFrom Page 1

KARACHI: Ladies busy in selecting artificial jewelery for the preparation to celebrateEid-ul Fitr on Thursday.

Altaf, Bilawal condemnQuetta suicide blast

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Muttahida QuamiMovement (MQM) leader AltafHussain strongly condemned thebomb explosion during funeralprayer of SHO Quetta City inpolice line, Quetta. Expressinghis profound grief and sorrowover the killing and woundingof several people including DIGOperations, SP Headquarters,DSP Headquarters and manypolice officers and personnel. Ina condolence message

He termed the Quetta blastas a brutal act of absolute ter-rorism and said “merciless ter-rorists targeting mosques, imamBargahs, school, playgroundsand even funeral gatheringswere the enemies of humanityand spilling innocent blood fortheir nefarious designs in theholy month of ‘Ramadan’, andsuch terrorists deserves no sym-

pathy.He demanded of President,

Prime Minister, Federal InteriorMinister, Governor and ChiefMinister’s Balochistan to imme-diately arrest and give exemplarypunishment to the barbaric ter-rorists and their supporters in-volved in this outrageous attack.

He called upon steps to pro-vide the sense of security to thepeople and demanded that effec-tive measures had to be taken tosafeguard the lives and proper-ties of the innocent people.

He extended his sympathiesto the aggrieved families.

Pakistan People’s Party Par-liamentarian (PPPP) Patron-in-Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardaristrongly condemned the bombblast at Police civil lines inQuetta, which resulted into lossof precious human lives includ-ing DIG Operations QuettaFayyaz Ahmed Sumbal while

injuring many others.While expressing profound

grief and shock over the inci-dent, Bilawal said that the ele-ments spilling the blood of in-nocent people by carrying outacts of terrorism were open en-emies of democracy and thecountry.

He said that anti-democraticand extremist mindset was be-hind such barbaric acts of ter-rorism, which needs to bestopped with firmness and unity.

“We will not be intimidatedby such cowardly acts and suchacts will not deter our resolveto fight terrorism,” he added.

He offered condolences tothe grieving families and prayedfor the eternal peace of the de-parted souls and grant courageto the bereaved families to bearthis irreparable loss with forti-tude. He also prayed for thespeedy recovery of the injured.

Assad survives rebelspresidential convoy attack

From Page 1head of the Tahrir al-Sham bri-gade, said his fighters had car-ried out reconnaissance of theroute of Assad’s motorcade andfired 120 mm artillery towardsthe president’s convoy early onThursday.”

The attack rattled the re-gime, even if Assad was not hit,”he told Reuters from an undis-closed location in the capital.“There were two motorcades,one containing Assad and a de-coy. We targeted the correctone.”Bitar’s brigade operates mainlyin the Ghouta region on the east-

ern outskirts of the capital. An-other official in Tahrir al-Shamsaid Assad’s forces fired rock-ets and artillery “like rain” onthe region in response to the re-ported attack.

Following the statement,Syrian state television showedfootage of Assad praying along-side ministers and other top of-ficials. It said the footage wasfrom Thursday’s Eid prayers atthe Anas bin Malek Mosque inMalki.

Assad appeared unharmed

and smiled at the worshippers ashe entered the mosque.

Islam Alloush of the Liwaal-Islam, another rebel brigade,told Reuters earlier on Thurs-day that rebels fired rocketswhich struck Assad’s motor-cade.

“Assad was not hit but theinformation we have based fromsources within the regime is thatthere were casualties within hisentourage,” Allooush said.

Other activists also reportedrockets were fired into the Malkiarea, which was sealed off bysecurity forces.—Reuters

Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman in apress conference at Met Com-plex Karachi after conveningmeeting of the body for sight-ing the moon and gathering evi-dences.

The body gathered evi-dences about moon sightingfrom all the four provinces ofthe country and meeting ofZonal moon-sighting commit-tees were held simultaneouslyin their respective headquar-ters.

Eidul Fitr was celebrated intribal areas on Thursday in viewof Eid celebration in SaudiArabia.

Eid prayers were offered inPeshawar’s Afghan refugeecamps, Bannu, Khyber Agencyand various tribal areas after lo-cal Ulema decided to mark theEid day with Saudi Arabia.

Eid-ul Fitr was celebratedin Saudi Arabia and parts ofGulf countries, Europe and theUnited States on Thursdaywith religious zeal and enthu-siasm.

The biggest Eid congrega-tion was held at Masjid-e-Haram. Hundreds of thousandsof Muslims offered Eid-ul Fitrprayers and prayed for theprogress and prosperity of Mus-lim ummah.

Bangladesh and India alsocelebrate Eid-ul Fitr today.

In Indonesia, the world’smost populous Muslim nation,throngs of believers made theirway to Eid congregations yes-terday.

In the Vietnamese capital,Hanoi, about 100 Muslimsbraved a stormy morning topray at the city’s sole mosqueon the edge of the city’s oldquarter.

The Vietnamese imam gavea sermon in Arabic and then En-glish to the congregation, mostof whom were expatriates. Viet-nam is also home to some60,000 indigenous Muslims,most of them in the south.

Meanwhile, in the Philip-pines, government troops andpolice strengthened security inthe southern province ofMaguindanao and outlying re-gions due to a spate of deadlybombings and other attacks dur-ing Ramadan that were blamedon a breakaway Muslim groupcalled the Bangsamoro IslamicFreedom Movement.

Thailand’s security agen-cies had warned about morefrequent, escalated insurgencyattacks at the end of theRamadan period in the threeMuslim-dominated southern-most provinces that border withMalaysia, despite the ongoingpeace talks with Muslim sepa-ratists facilitated by its south-ern neighbour.

NationcelebratesEid-ul Fitr

From Page 1

Former Balkan guerrillasjoin Syria rebels

PRISTINA — Some fought asguerrillas during the bloodyBalkans wars of the 1990s,battling powerful tanks and ar-tillery. Others grew up underthe influence of radical Islamthat has gained ground in pov-erty-hit areas in the Balkancountries and regions popu-lated by Muslims. Today, bothexperienced fighters and theiryounger followers are leavingthe Balkans to join Syrianrebels on the front line.

Many return home in bodybags with their families oftenunaware they had even joinedthe fight. Migena Maliqaj, anAlbanian, had not heard fromher husband Halil since No-vember, when he told her hewas leaving their home inPrush, outside the capitalTirana, to try to find work inTurkey. In June, she receiveda text message from an un-known number saying thatHalil had been killed in Syria.

Maliqaj was reluctant totalk to AFP. “Leave me alone,I do not know anything,” shesaid in a trembling voice,pushing her three children in-side a two-storey house. Thefirst Ermal Xhelo’s motherknew of her son’s involvementin Syria was when the 35-year-old’s remains were broughthome to her in Albania’ssouthern city of Vlora. He toohad said he was going to workin Turkey. The Xhelo familyalso refused to talk. “My sonhad nothing to do with extrem-ists,” the mother told AFP,abruptly ending the phone call.

Illir Kulla, a security ex-pert from Albania, estimatesthat “at least 300 Albaniansfrom Albania, Kosovo andMacedonia have left for Syriato fight in the name of a ‘sa-cred war ’” over the pastmonths.

Their conviction comesfrom their Islamic faith, Kullastressed. “They are not merce-naries, but volunteers con-vinced that they are fightingfor a good cause... prone to re-ligious manipulation that thewar in Syria is truly a sacred

war,” Kulla said. A classifiedintelligence report by Kosovansecurity services described“Islamic extremists” going toSyria in small groups “claim-ing they are helping out theirbrothers”.

They travel in “smallgroups of two or three, in or-der not to look suspicious”,said the report seen by AFP. InMay, street signs in NoviPazar, the main town inSerbia’s Muslim-majoritysouthern region of Sandzak,were covered with obituariesfor Eldar Kudakovic, a 27-year-old killed in Syria duringa raid by rebels on a prisonnear the key city of Aleppo,reportedly with another manfrom the area. “All of us arewith them. And all of us areMujahideen,” read a messageposted on a Sandzak radicalIslam web portal, praising thevictims as “martyrs”.

Since the start of hostili-ties 28 months ago, more than100,000 people, mostly civil-ians, have been killed in Syria,the UN says. Millions morehave been forced by violenceto flee their homes. Thousandsof foreign fighters haveflocked to Syria to join rebelsfighting to bring down Basharal-Assad’s regime, travellingacross the Turkish, Iraqi, Jor-danian and Lebanese bordersinto the strife-torn country.While many of Syria’s rebelsstarted off as inexperiencedfighters, they have to an extentbenefited from the experienceof radical Islamists, many ofwho had already fought inother wars. Jihadists have trav-elled to Syria mainly fromArab states — Saudi Arabia,Tunisia, Libya and Iraq in par-ticular — but also from acrossEurope, the Caucasus andsouth Asia. Reports of jihadistsdying in Syria have not de-terred Balkans fighters.

One father-of-three fromPodujevo, a small town innorthern Kosovo, was makingthe final preparations for hisjourney to Syria, which he wasto enter illegally. “If Russia,Iran and Hezbollah do nothesitate to defend (PresidentBashar) al-Assad’s regimewhich murders its own citi-zens, even children, whyshould we hesitate to help theSyrians?” argued the 40-year-old, a jobless constructionworker who wanted to remainanonymous. His wordsmuffled by the call for noon

prayer from a nearby mosque,he was nevertheless adamanthis decision was final.

“Once I am gone, I will notreturn until the end of the war,”he told AFP, adding that hiswife and young children wouldbe taken care of by his twobrothers. Also planning to de-part for Syria was a formersniper in the ethnic AlbanianKosovo Liberation Army, theseparatist guerillas whichfought against then Serbianstrongman SlobodanMilosevic’s forces in the 1998-1999 war.

After spending two weeksin Aleppo to “assess the situa-tion”, he now planned to jointhe rebels along “with about adozen war comrades, expertsin different weaponry if peacetalks fail”. Religious expertVisar Duriqi said recruitmentof future fighters has been tak-ing place in Kosovo through aset-up allegedly run by a Salafisect known for its strict ap-proach to Islam.

Recruitment is voluntary,experts agree, with Salafistsmeeting far from the eyes ofthe community, and often lateat night. The Islamic Commu-nity of Kosovo, a body repre-senting Muslims, denies anyinvolvement in the Syria re-cruitment. “I am all for help-ing the (Syrian) people to es-cape from this bloody mess,not individually, but as it wasdone in Libya” with help fromthe international community,its representative ResulRexhepi said.

Observers say that theworsening economic crisis inthe Balkans — compoundedby an unemployment rate thattops 20 percent in most coun-tries in the region — has con-tributed to the radicalisation ofyouth. Experts believe that theSalafist presence is strongestin Bosnia, as many foreignfighters joined Muslim forcesagainst Bosnian Serb troopsand settled there after thebloody 1992-1995 war. EsadHecimovic, a Bosnian securityexpert, told AFP that volun-teers for the war in Syria saidthey were motivated by thefight for what they describe asa single “Islamic homeland”.

“This is the original mo-tive, the same one which mo-tivated some foreigners tocome and fight in Bosnia, andnow motivates Bosnians to goto Syria,” Hecimovic said.—AFP

along the Line of Control inKashmir.

Officials said Indiantroops opened fire at around8:30 am in the Tatta Pani sec-tor, “seriously” wounding onecivilian who was evacuated toa military hospital.

“Today (in the) morning atabout 0830 hours, Indiantroops resorted to unprovokedfiring at the LoC (Line of Con-trol) ... One civilian Kaka SanaMuhammad ... was seriouslywounded due to the unpro-voked firing by Indian troops,”the official said.

“The injured Kaka Sanawas evacuated to a militaryhospital,” said the source whospoke on condition of anonym-ity.

The incident comes amida recent spike in tension acrossthe heavily militarised borderas India accused Pakistaniforces of being involved in anattack on one of its army postsin which five of its soldierswere killed.

Under the Nov 25, 2003ceasefire agreement, Pakistanand India are committed not totarget each other’s posts andpersonnel.

The agreement has largelyheld and was considered as oneof the main successes in thepeace process. However, vio-lations increased in Januarythis year and have been hold-ing up the third round of theresumed peace dialogue be-tween the two countries.

The two sides are now pre-paring to restart the round anddates for talks on Wullar Bar-rage and Sir Creek have beenproposed by Pakistan.

Analysts say the attack hasalso complicated efforts to ar-range a meeting betweenIndia’s veteran Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and Paki-stani premier Nawaz Sharif.

Firing injuresPakistani

civilian at LoCFrom Page 1

Japan protests to China overships overstay in isles

TOKYO—Four Chinese shipsspent more than 24 hours in whatJapan sees as its territorial waters,prompting a Japanese protest toChina on Thursday at a time whenJapan has been signaling its de-sire for a summit. Relations be-tween the world’s second- andthird-largest economies have beenstrained for months, largely be-cause of a dispute over a group ofislands in the East China Sea.

But Japanese Prime Minis-ter Shinzo Abe, fresh from anelection victory last month thatstrengthened his hold on power,is keen to improve relations andhas called for dialogue withChina, although he has rejected

any conditions on talks.Chinese ships have previ-

ously been in waters near theuninhabited East China Sea is-lands that are controlled by Ja-pan but claimed by both coun-tries, but they have usually leftafter several hours.

“This is extremely regret-table and totally unacceptable,”Japan’s chief cabinet secretary,Yoshihide Suga, told a news con-ference. He said Japan had sum-moned an envoy from the Chi-nese embassy early on Thursdayto protest “strongly” and demandthe ships immediately leave.

The ships withdrew ataround noon, Japan’s coastguard

said. It was the longest stay byChinese ships in waters near theislands since the dispute flaredanew last September, after Ja-pan bought several of the islandsfrom a private owner, angeringChina. China’s Foreign Minis-try did not immediately respondto a request for comment.

However, the country’s StateOceanic Administration said in astatement posted on its website onWednesday that four coastguardships were conducting a patrolaround the islands. The ships hadspotted Japanese ships “infringingChina’s sovereignty” and toldthem to leave, the Chinese agencysaid.—Reuters

Floodwaterdestroys crops,

inundatesvillages

SIALKOT/ ROJHAN— 45 vil-lages have been inundated whilestanding crops on hundreds ofacres of land were destroyedowing to an increase in the wa-ter level of Nullah Dek.

A young boy drowned inthe fast flow of floodwater ofNullah Dek. 2 children wereinjured when a wall of a housecollapsed in village GadyalaGarbi in Tehsil Sambrial.

According to details 16 yearold Ali Raza, resident of villageGadala, slipped down andwashed away in the fast flow offloodwater. Search for his bodywas underway.

The standing crops on hun-dreds of acres of land were de-stroyed by flood water. Fivefeet deep floodwater was alsoplaying havoc in these vil-lages.

Villagers complained thatthere was no rescue effort in theaffected villages.—INP

PARIS—Tennis stars domi-nated the list of the world’s 10best-paid female athletes,Forbes magazine said on Tues-day, but highlighted the yawn-ing earnings gap with theirmale counterparts in mostsports.

Russia’s Maria Sharapovaheaded the list, published onforbes.com, earning a total of$29 million (#18.9 million, 21.9million euros) between June2012 and June this year.

Tennis took the top fourpositions, with world numberone Serena Williams of theUnited States second ($20.5million), China’s Li Na third($18.2 million) and VictoriaAzarenka of Belarus fourth($15.7 million).

Caroline Wozniacki ofDenmark was in seventh ($13.6million), followed byAgnieszka Radwanska of Po-land ($7.4 million) and Serbia’sAna Ivanovic ($7 million). USNascar driver Danica Patrick(fifth with $15 million), SouthKorean figure skater Kim Yuna(sixth with $14 million)andAmerican golfer Paula Creamer(10th with $5.5 million), werethe only non-tennis stars inthe top 10.

But the business maga-zine said disparities remainedbetween men and women interms of earnings in sport.

World number one golferTiger Woods, for example, wasthe highest-paid athlete on theplanet with earnings of $78million in the 12 months be-tween June 1, 2012 and June 1this year.

Los Angeles Laker basket-ball star Kobe Bryant will earn$30.5 million next season butthe highest salary in thewomen’s equivalent of theNBA is $107,000.

Park Inbee of South Koreawon $585,000 for winning thewomen’s US Open but men’swinner Justin Rose wasawarded $1.4 million, the maga-zine noted.

Forbes said that there was

increasing parity in terms ofpay in tennis, after moves inrecent years to put prize moneyon a more equal footing.

Endorsements that comeon the back of Grand Slam winssuch as Sharapova’s 2012French Open title dwarf mostplayers’ winnings.

The 26-year-old, for ex-ample, earned $23 million inendorsements with sportswearmanufacturers Head and Nikeafter her victory at RolandGarros.

She has also launched herown brand of sweets,Sugarpova.

Nevertheless, in Forbes’June 24 list of the world’s 100

highest-paid athletes, multipletennis Grand Slam winnerRoger Federer of Switzerlandearned $71.5 million, secondonly to Woods.

Sharapova, number 22 inthe top 100 list, earned morethan the current men’s num-ber one Novak Djokovic ofSerbia ($26.9 million) andSpain’s Rafael Nadal ($26.4million).

But in a sign of the groundto be made up, Williams’ earn-ings were only enough to placeher 68th in the top 100, whileLi Na was 85th—and all threewere the only women in the list.Forbes list of the world’s high-est-paid female athletes 2013:

Sharapova tops Forbesrich list of women athletes

ISLAMABAD—Former TestCricketer Sarfraz NawazWednesday said the Paki-stan Cricket Board (PCB)should have rested captainMisbah ul haq for Zimbabwetour and instead had nameda new young captain as toprepare for the 2015 WorldCup.

Talking to APP, SarfrazNawaz said the PCB musthave kept in mind that seriesagainst Zimbabwe is a low-profile series against in mind,therefore they should havepicked up a squad compris-ing of new faces with a newcaptain in order to groom theteam for the 2015 World Cup.

New captain needs to be groomed: SarfrazResponding to a ques-

tion, he said it is upto the PCBto whomever they want togive the captaincy in future.“I am just saying that theboard should start preparingfor the 2015 mega event withnew young faces so thatthey a new captain can begroomed till then,” he said.

Sarfraz recalled that theIndian Cricket Board hadrested captain MS Dhoni intheir series against Zimba-bwe and picked a squadcomprising of new faces ledby Virat Kohli. “PCB shouldhave done the same as theplanning for the mega eventhas to start right now. The

selectors need to think aboutwho is going to be playing atthe 2015 World Cup,” hesaid.

Sarfraz said bringingYounis Khan, Faisal Iqbaland Imran Farhat in the testsquad was not a good deci-sion by PCB. “If you keeppicking players, then drop-ping them, then bringing themback that is not going towork. Pakistan needs to havea settled squad going intothe World Cup rather thangoing into the tournamentwith rookies and untried play-ers,” he added.

He further said the PCBshould show confidence in

Centurion Imam,pacer Aftab excelin Pak U-19 win

in tri seriesKA R A C H I—Imam-ul-Haqsmashed a superb hundredand pacer Muhammad Aftabsnapped-up four wickets tolead Pakistan Under-19 to 46runs victory over England byin the second match of thetri-series played at LondonRoad Sleaford (England) onTuesday.

Left handed Imam, anephew of former Pakistancaptain Inzamam-ul-Haq,played a brilliant knock of 120off 142-ball with 10 fours andtwo sixes.

Imam gave his team in-nings an impetus by sharing145 runs for the secondwicket with captain SamiAslam, who made 60 with halfa dozen boundaries and onesix.

Lately Farhan Nazirbanged 22-ball cameo of 46studded with three fours andfour sixes to steer Pakistanto healthy total of 288-5 intheir 50 overs after sent to batfirst.

England’s top orderstruggled and they slippedto 60 for 4. But Harry Finchstood firm and found a part-ner in Will Rhodes. The pairadded 134 but slipped be-hind the rate.—APP

SYDNEY—Cricket officialsare investigating whetherplayers in the Ashes serieshave been using silicone tapeon their bats to avoid nicksbeing detected by “HotSpot” technology, an Austra-lian TV station reportedWednesday.

Australian skipperMichael Clarke and Englandbatsman Kevin Pietersenboth denied any knowledgeof the use of silicone-basedtape, saying such a practicewould amount to cheating.

Australia’s Channel Ninesaid the International CricketCouncil (ICC) general man-ager of cricket, GeoffAllardice, would be investi-gating the matter in Durham,where the fourth Test beginson Friday.

An ICC spokesmanconfirmed that Allardicewould be arr iving inDurham on Thursday tomeet the two teams to ad-dress their concerns on thecontroversial Decision Re-view System (DRS) but de-clined to comment on thealleged use of si l icone-based tape.

Nine did not providesources and gave no de-tails of whether the Austra-l ian or England batsmenmay have been using thetape to fool Hot Spot,which uses thermal cameras

Ashes batsmen under investigationto see if a batsman has hitthe ball, either with his bator pad.

But it suggested bothsides were under suspicion.

Australian skipperMichael Clarke told the

Sydney Morning Herald hehad no knowledge of tapebeing used to fox the tech-nology, which is often usedto review dismissals.

“If that’s the case, thenwe’re talking about cheatingand I can guarantee there isnot one person in the Aus-tralian change room that willcheat,” Clarke said.

“That’s not the way weplay cricket.

“It’s hard for me to talk

for other players but I’venever heard any conversa-tion about that in the Aus-tralian change room and I canguarantee you my bat manu-facturer (doesn’t do that). Ididn’t know there was such

a thing you could do to hidenicking the ball on HotSpot.”

Controversy has ragedover the effectiveness of theDecision Review Systemduring the five-match series,in which England retainedthe Ashes after winning thefirst two games and drawingthe third.

Hot Spot technologyuses an infra-red imagingsystem to determine whether

a batsman has made contactwith a ball—with a brightmark often detected on thebat where the ball has hit.

Channel Nine said therewas concern regardingPietersen’s dismissal in thesecond innings of the thirdTest, when a noise was heardindicating a nick but no HotSpot was detected on the bat.

Pietersen described thereport as “horrible journal-ism” and “hurtful lies”.

“I am never afraid of get-ting out! If I nick it, I’ll walk.To suggest I cheat by cover-ing my bat with silicon infu-riates me,” he tweeted.

“How stupid would I beto try & hide a nick when itcould save me on an LBWappeal, like in 1st inningswhere hotspot showed Inicked it,” he added.

The Australian newspa-per said Nine sources hadindicated that the coating onmodern bats could have beenthe reason that some faintedges were not detected byHot Spot.

Cricket Australia said ithad no immediate commenton the report.

“Until such time as wehave clarification from theICC and further detai ls ,then we are not in a posi-t ion to make any furthercomment,” a spokesmantold AFP.—AFP

WASHINGTON—Juan Mar-tin del Potro showed he de-serves to be among the fa-vorites to win the US Openby rallying to beat John Isnerin final of the WashingtonOpen.

The 24-year-old top seedfrom Argentina shook off asluggish start to beat the USeighth seed 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 forhis third title in six years atthe $1.76 million ATP andWTA hardcourt event, atuneup for the year’s finalGrand Slam event beginningin New York in three weeks.

World number oneNovak Djokovic, defendingchampion Andy Murray,five-time US Open winnerRoger Federer and 2010 USOpen champion Rafael Nadalwere del Potro’s picks as theplayers to beat at Flushing

Del Potro beats Isner towin Washington title

Meadows.In his first event since an

epic five-set loss to Djokovicin the longest semi-final inWimbledon history, delPotro showed his left kneewas fine after an injury atWimbledon.

Del Potro stretched hisWashington win streak to 14matches by adding to thetitles he won in the US capi-tal in 2008 and 2009. The lasttime he won in Washingtonhe went on to win the USOpen, the only Grand Slamtitle since the 2005 Austra-lian Open not taken byFederer, Nadal, Djokovic orMurray.

Seventh-ranked delPotro won his 15th careerATP title, his second of theyear after Rotterdam in Feb-ruary, and improved to 4-0

all-time against Isner, theATP season aces leader, de-spite not getting to sleepuntil 3 am after a rain-inter-rupted semi-final.

Isner, ranked 20th,missed out on his thirdcrown of the year after titleruns last week in Atlanta andin April at Houston.

Del Potro broke Isner inthe fourth and sixth games ofthe second set, in each tak-ing an Isner overhead smashand firing back a lightning-like forehand winner.

Isner netted a forehandto surrender a break in theseventh game of the thirdset and del Potro savedthree break points in the fi-nal game before taking thetitle after 89 minutes on abackhand cross-court win-ner.—AFP

PARIS: Tennis stars dominated the list of the world’s 10 best-paid women athletesaccording to Forbes magazine.

1. Maria Sharapova (RUS), ten-nis, $29 million2. Serena Williams (USA), ten-nis, $20.5 million3. Li Na (CHN), tennis, $18.2million4. Victoria Azarenka (BLR), ten-nis, $15.7 million5. Danica Patrick (USA),Nascar, $15 million6. Kim Yuna (KOR), figure skat-ing, $14 million7. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN),tennis, $13.6 million8. Agnieszka Radwanska(POL), tennis, $7.4 million9. Ana Ivanovic (SRB), tennis,$7 million10. Paula Creamer (USA), golf,$5.5 million.—AFP

WASHINGTON: Juan Martin del Potro kissing the trophy after beating John Isner infinal of the Washington Open.

SAN ANTONIO—Jesus SotoKarass stopped Andre Bertowith a left hook in the 12thround of their welterweightfight Thursday night, possi-bly ending Berto’s once-prom-ising career.

Soto Karass (28-8-3, 18KOs) surged in the fight fromthe fourth round as Berto be-gan to lose effectiveness fromhis dominant right side.Though Berto (28-3) flooredSoto Karass with a left-handbody shot in the 11th, Bertocouldn’t sustain the rally.

‘’In the fourth round I tore(something) in my shoulder,’’Berto said. ‘’I’m a warrior. Idon’t quit. I’m always goingto put it all on the line.’’

By the end of the 11th,Soto Karass recovered fromthe knockdown and bloodiedBerto’s lip, and the Mexicanended it on a technical knock-

Jesus Soto Karass stopsAndre Berto in 12th round

out with the left hand 48 sec-onds into the final round. Thereferee stopped the fight im-mediately when Berto hit themat - to Berto’s dismay.

Soto Karass led on onecard, Berto on another, andthe third judge had it even.

‘’I thought I was winningthe fight,’’ Soto Karass said.‘’But my corner told me to gowith everything. I had to gowith the knockout to avoidany problems with thejudges.’’ Berto, who won hisfirst 27 professional fights,has lost three of his last fourbouts. At one time, enjoyinghis status as WBC and IBFwelterweight champion, hewas mentioned as a possibleopponent for FloydMayweather.

Soto Karass used a strongfourth round, when heswitched from long overhand

rights and moved in for a se-ries of strong punches. Priorto that, Berto was scoring withshort rights to the head thatstunned Soto Karass.

But that attacked endedquickly. He appeared to loseeffectiveness with his righthand. He counted on his leftso much that when he swunga wild overhand from that sidein the fifth round, he missedSoto Karass and fell off bal-ance and slipped to the mat.Just a few moments earlier,Berto has cringed as he wasleading with his right shoul-der while he had Soto Karasson the ropes.

On the undercard, OmarFigueroa Jr. of Weslaco (22-0-1) became the interim WBClightweight champion in aunanimous decision overJapan’s Nihito Arakawa (24-3-1).

SAN ANTONIO: Diego Chaves of Argentina and Keith Thurman exchange punchesduring a welterweight title boxing match.

Office-bearersof Punjab

cycling electedL A H O R E — C h a u d h a r yKamran Amin and Waqar Aliwere elected the Presidentand Secretary of the PunjabCycling Association here atthe general council meet-ing.

The representatives of allthe affiliated units of PCAattended the meeting whichelected the fresh office bear-ers for a next term of fouryears.

Following were elected,Muhammad Saleem Butt,Patron,Ch.Kamran Amin,President, (Lahore), IdrisHaider Khawaja, Sr.VicePresident, (Lahore), (VicePresidents) Shaukat AliPrizada, (Bahawalpur),Khadim Ali Khadim, (Gujrat)Ashiq Kanju, (Rahim YarKhan), Ayman Mushtaq Ali,Lady Vice President,(Coaches Association),Akbar Murad, Vice Presi-dent, (Kasur), Waqar Ali,Secretary (Coaches Assn).Mohammad, Yousaf Chishti,Associate Secretary(Gujranwala) Syed Abbas AliShah, Associate Secretary,(Sialkot) Fayyaz Ahmed,Associate Secretary,(Sargodha), DawoodAhmed, Associate Secre-tary, (Gujrat), QaisarSiddique Bhatti, AssociateSecretary, (Technical Assn),Khalid Mahmood, Trea-surer, (Lahore), MalikMuhammad Aslam, LegalAdvisor, Ismail-ul-Rehman,Press Secretary.—APP

the youngsters as this is theonly way we can groom a newformidable team for future.

Young all-rounderHammad Azam is omittedfrom the Twenty20 squad andthe Test squad, however,sees opening batsman NasirJamshed and tall fast bowlerMohammad Irfan left outwith Mohammad Hafeez,Khurram Manzoor and ImranFarhat preferred at the top ofthe order.

Pakistan will play twoTwenty20, three ODI andtwo Test matches. Two yearsago, Pakistan toured Zimba-bwe and won everymatch.—APP

ZimbabweCricket Board

issues Pakseries scheduleHARARE—The ZimbabweCricket Board has issued theschedule for the seriesagainst Pakistan. The teamswill play two T20s, three One

Day Internationals (ODI) andtwo test matches.

The Pakistan team willarrive in Zimbabwe on Au-gust 19 and the T20 matcheswill be played on August 23and 24.

The ODI matches will beplayed on August 27, 29 and31 while the team will playtheir test matches on Septem-ber 3 and 10.—AFP

NATIONAL BRIE

PESHAWAR: Afghan refugees exchanging greeting after Eid-ul-Fitr prayers at a refugee camp on Kacha Garhi.

UNITED NATIONS—OsamaBin Laden’s successor as theleader of Al Qaeda hasstruggled to unite its variousfactions, a UN report saidWednesday, but the group re-mains an evolving threat. Thereport, delivered to the UN Se-curity Council by a group ofexperts, said Al Qaeda’s Egyp-tian leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri had failed to rebuildthe group’s core leadership inPakistan.

But it said various groups

affiliated with Al Qaeda are stilladapting their tactics and seek-ing new targets, while retainingthe ability to conduct deadlystrikes. And, while the French-led military operation in Maliand an African Union campaignin Somalia have pushed back AlQaeda militants, the Syrian civilwar has seen hundreds of for-eign volunteers join the causethere.“Al Qaeda and its affiliatesare more diverse and differenti-ated than before, united only bya loose ideology and a commit-

ment to terrorist violence,” thereport said. “A fragmented andweakened Al Qaeda has notbeen extinguished,” it said, add-ing: “the reality of Al Qaeda’sdiminished capabilities and lim-ited appeal does not mean thatthe threat of Al-Qaeda attackshas passed.

“Individuals and cells asso-ciated with Al Qaeda and its af-filiates continue to innovate withregard to targets, tactics andtechnology.”

The UN report tallies with

claims made by US officials,including President BarackObama, that so-called “core Al-Qaeda” has been weakenedsince Bin Laden’s death in May2011, while its regional wingscontinue to fight.

But it also flies in the faceof reports on Wednesday that asecurity alert declared for USmissions in the Middle Eastwas triggered when Zawahiricontacted Al Qaeda’s regionalcommanders and ordered an at-tack.—INP

Zawahiri fails to rebuild Al-Qaeda core leadership in Pak: UN

KABUL—A bomb planted inan Afghan graveyard killed 14women and children on Thurs-day, many of them picnickingat the graveside of a familymember during the MuslimEid al-Fitr holiday, officialssaid.

The bomb exploded in arural district of easternNangarhar province, said theprovincial governor’s spokes-man, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

Nangarhar and its capital,Jalalabad, have been racked bya series of bombings and sui-cide attacks over the last week.

It is common in Afghani-stan on the first day of Eid forpeople to pay their respects atthe graves of loved ones. The

victims were mainly from onefamily, Abdulzai said.

Three women and onechild were wounded, he added.

Three Afghan bodyguardsfor the Helmand province po-lice chief, Mohammad HakimAngaar, were killed onWednesday in a suicide bomb-ing, the provincial governor’sspokesman, Omar Zwak, said.

In June, a suicide bomberrammed an explosives-ladencar into the former Helmandpolice chief’s convoy, wound-ing three.

In a speech for the start ofa Eid holiday, the Afghanpresident has urged the Talibanto lay down their arms, join thepolitical process and stop kill-

ing innocent civilians.Hamid Karzai spoke

Thursday after prayers for theEid al-Fitr holiday that marksthe end of the Muslim holymonth of Ramadan.

He thanked the Afghan se-curity forces for their sacri-fices in the war against the in-surgency.

He says too many Afghanshave lost their lives to roadsidebombs during this year ’sRamadan and that the violenceshould end.

He says the Talibanshould, instead of opening anoffice in the Gulf state ofQatar, open one in Afghani-stan, just like any other politi-cal party.—Agencies

Afghan graveyard picnic bombkills 14 women, children

CAIRO—Islamist supporters ofousted Egyptian PresidentMohamed Morsi began march-ing to demand his restoration onThursday after the military-ledauthorities that removed himheld off from carrying out athreat to clear protest sit-ins byforce. Interim President AdlyMansour declared on Wednes-day that international diplomaticefforts to resolve the politicalcrisis had failed and the govern-ment warned protesters to leavetheir protest camps, saying thedecision to remove them wasfinal.

U.S. and European Unionenvoys left Cairo on Wednesdayafter the breakdown of their at-tempts to broker a solution,which had also involved Qatarand the United Arab Emirates.

However, a person involvedin the mediation effort said theauthorities and Mursi’s MuslimBrotherhood might yet step backfrom confrontation and imple-ment mutual confidence build-ing steps that could lead to anegotiated settlement.

“It’s not over yet,” the dip-lomat said. “It could work butwe don’t have any guarantees.Everything is very fragile.”Egyptian government and mili-tary sources also said the talks

were not finished for good buthad been frozen to assuage pub-lic anger over perceived foreigninterference in Egypt’s affairsand among some at the authori-ties’ willingness to negotiatewith the Brotherhood aftermonths of demonizing them.

A military source said theauthorities were holding backfrom using force to clear the pro-test camps partly due to fear thatliberal Vice President MohamedElBaradei would resign, remov-ing a key source of political le-gitimacy for army rule.

Interim Prime MinisterHazem el-Beblawi visited theCentral Security Forces with theinterior minister in an apparenteffort to calm hardliners impa-tient for tougher action.

“He assured them that thegovernment places security atthe top of its priorities and thatthere is no stable society with-out security that is founded onthe law, and that protects thesovereignty of the state and thelives of its citizens and theirpossessions,” a statement fromBeblawi’s office said. Thou-sands of demonstrators con-verged on a Brotherhood protestcamp in northeastern Cairo in afestive atmosphere to attendprayers and a rally on the first

day of the Eid al-Fitr holidayafter the end of the fasting monthof Ramadan.

“I came here because I wantto make a small difference,” saidGhada Idriss, 35, who travelledfrom the rural province ofMinya by car with her husband,two young sons, and two-month-old daughter Lougine.“By sitting here peacefully, theywill understand and know thatwe refuse the return of the sys-tem of Hosni (Mubarak).”

Secular and leftist groupshave also called for mass dem-onstrations and public prayersacross Egypt to support whatthey see as a popular revolutionthat led to the overthrow ofMursi by the military on July 3after just a year in office.

In one apparent conciliatorygesture, prosecutors dropped themain charge against the head ofthe Brotherhood’s politicalwing, Saad El-Katatni, onWednesday in a possible preludeto releasing him.

The Brotherhood alloweda human rights organizationand a European Parliamentdelegation to visit the mainRabaa al-Adawiya sit-in,where anti-Mursi media havealleged that weapons had beenstockpiled.—Reuters

Egyptians stage Morsirestoration Eid protests

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif will celebrateEid at his residence in Raiwindwhile former president PervezMusharraf will observe the oc-casion in sub-jail ChakShahzad Islamabad.

President Asif Ali Zardariwill celebrate Eid in Aiwan-e-Sadr while the newly electedpresident Mamnoon Hussain inKarachi.

Opposition leader in Na-

Nawaz to celebrate Eid athome, Musharraf in sub-jail

Imran to meet AGISLAMABAD—Chief, PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), ImranKhan is likely to meet AG MunirA. Malik prior to preparation ofhis reply in contempt of courtcase. Imran will begin consul-tative process with PTA Law-yers’ Wing next week to discusslegal and constitutional aspectsin connection with preparation ofhis reply in contempt of courtcase. The final reply is expectedto be filed in Supreme Court(SC) after August, 25. Sourcessaid Imran Khan intends to startlegal and constitutional consul-tation with lawyers’ wing andsenior lawyers next week in theperspective of filing final replyto the contempt of court noticein SC. —Online

DemilitarizeLOC, ensure

Kashmirissafety: Mirwaiz

SRINAGAR—Hurriyat Confer-ence leader Mirwaiz UmarFarooq Wednesday said the re-cent flare -up on the LOC be-tween India and Pakistan has thepotential to harm the improvingrelations between the two coun-tries.

Addressing a gathering inSrinagar, Mirwaiz urged bothcountries to demilitarize the bor-ders and ensure safety ofKashmiris living along the LOCon both sides of the dividedKashmir.

He said that killing of Indianor Pakistani soldiers during bor-der tension has always remaineda cause of concern for Kashmirisas they have to face the brunt.Hence, Mirwaiz, said Kashmirishave repeatedly stressed uponboth nations to solve Kashmirdispute to stop the wastage oflives.

APHC leader said a condu-cive atmosphere was needed tosolve the Kashmir issue. He saidthat till basic issue of Kashmirwas not solved, all other stepsto stabilize the relations wouldprove to be a futile exercise.

Mirwaiz said that improvingtrade relations, water, Sir Creek,and Siachen issues can’t besolved till creation of afavourable atmosphere. He saidlasting solution of Kashmir is-sue would create a conduciveatmosphere for addressing otherproblems existing between thetwo countries. He said theKashmiris are the worst victimsof tense relations between Indiaand Pakistan.—KO

tional Assembly (NA) SyedKhurshid Shah will celebratehis Eid in Karachi.

Governor PunjabChaudhry Sarwar, chief min-ister Punjab Mian ShahbazSharif and railway ministerKhawaja Saad Rafiq will cel-ebrate Eid in Lahore.

Majority of political lead-ers, federal and provincialministers will celebrate Eid attheir ancestral villages.—INP

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD/DERA GHAZI

KHAN—At least 12 personswere drowned in two boat sink-ing incidents in Tando Allahyarand Dera Ghazi Khan on Thurs-day.

In the first incident eightmembers of a family, includingtwo women and two children,drowned when the fishing-boatthey were travelling in sank in alake near Tando Allahyar area ofSindh.

Reports say a family, fromTando Allahyar district of Sindhprovince, was aboard a smallboat on a fishing trip in TandoSoomro lake when the boat lostbalance and capsized.

Eight members of the fam-ily, including two women andtwo children, lost their lives asthere were no safety measuresavailable at the spot.

Area locals reached the spot

and recovered the bodies of eightvictims on a self-help basis.

Deputy Commissioner ofTando Allahyar, Agha RahimPathan, reached the site and in-structed for the shifting of thebodies to Tando Adam for con-ducting autopsy under his ownsupervision.

Rescuers said that two per-sons managed to save their livesduring the incident.In the second incident four per-sons were drowned in DeraGhazi Khan when a boat theywere traveling capsized in flood-water on Thursday.

According to reports, a hilltorrent passed through TaunsaTehsil of Dera Ghazi Khan dis-trict, swamping nearby villagesand forcing residents to migrateto higher ground.

These unfor-tunate peoplewere moving to a safer placesthrough a boat when the boat cap-sized in the water.

12 drown asboats capsize

Iran has builtrocket launchsite: Report

DUBAI—Iran has constructeda rocket-launching site thatcould be used for testing bal-listic missiles, a report from amilitary intelligence publica-tion said on Thursday.

Satellite imagery analyzedby Jane’s Intelligence Reviewshowed extensive constructionover the last three years at asite of what Jane’s says is alaunch tower and pad, an areato prepare rockets for launchand an administration and sup-port section.

The Islamic Republic haspursued ambitious goals to de-velop its space program in re-cent years.

In January this year it dem-onstrated its missile deliverysystems by launching a livemonkey into space and return-ing it safely, officials said.

Western countries are con-cerned that long-range ballis-tic technology used to propelIranian satellites into orbitcould be put to deliveringnuclear warheads.

Assertions about the site,near the town of Shahrud some100 km (62 miles) northeast ofTehran, come weeks after Ira-nian officials said they wouldinaugurate a new space centreto launch satellites.

Jane’s says the Shahrudsite is one of three that will ul-timately serve Iran’s spaceprogram.

“Imagery analysis of theShahrud site suggests it will bea strategic facility used to testballistic missiles, leaving theother two sites free to handleIran’s ambitious program ofsatellite launches,” said Jane’seditor Matthew Clements.

Iranian officials were notimmediately available forcomment. Iran’s efforts to de-velop and test ballistic missilesand build a space launch capa-bility have contributed to Is-raeli calls for pre-emptivestrikes on Iranian nuclear sitesand billions of dollars of U.S.ball is t ic missi le defensespending.—Reuters

IT APPEARS that knee pain of some kindis a common complaint in middle-aged andmature women, with varying possible

causes leading to varying types of pain. A newstudy on knee-pain patterns assessed periodi-cally over 12 years in a rep-resentative UK populationfinds that nearly two-thirds(63%) of women aged 50and over experience kneepain at least once, persis-tently, or intermittently oversuch a period.

The authors found thesepatterns were more likely inwomen with higher BMI,with a previous knee injury,or whose scans showed theyhad osteoarthritis (OA).They write about their find-ings in the 19 Decemberonline issue of the journalArthritis & Rheumatism.

Senior author Dr NigelArden, a Professor of Rheu-matology at the Universityof Oxford in the UK, told the media that thiswas the first study involving community-based participants that investigates patternsof knee pain using “multiple assessmentpoints” over a period of 12 years:

“Understanding the prevalence and pre-dictors of knee pain is the first step in devel-oping comprehensive pain assessment plansthat could lead to more targeted treatmentoptions for those burdened by OA.”

For their analysis, Arden and colleaguesused data gathered in the Chingford Study, aprospective population-based study of OA andosteoporosis established in 1989. This startedwith more than 1,000 women aged from 44

to 57 (median 52) years.The cohort is described as representa-

tive of women in the UK in general in termsof height, weight, and smoking status. Atfour times over the 12 years of the study, the

participants completed ques-tionnaires about their kneepain.

From their responses theresearchers classed the 489participants who were still inthe study at the end into oneof four groups, depending ontheir pain characteristics: as-ymptomatic, persistent, inci-dent, and intermittent.

44% of women reportedexperiencing “any days ofpain”.

23% reported experienc-ing “pain on most days of theprevious month”.

Of those experiencing“any pain”, 9% had persistentpain, 24% had incident pain,and 29% had intermittent

pain.Of those experiencing “pain on most

days”, these figures were 2%, 16% and 18%respectively.

A higher BMI predicted persistent andincident patterns of pain, while radiographicOA predicted persistent pain.

Those who reported a previous knee in-jury were more likely to have persistent orintermittent patterns of pain.The research-ers conclude the results show a “significantvariability” in patterns of knee pain over timein this representative population, with fewparticipants “consistently reporting knee painat each time point”.

Knee pain common inolder women

Islamabad roads presenting a deserted look as most of the people have already left for their hometowns to celebrate Eid.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

CDA Chairman Mr. Nadeem Hassan Asif is being informed about Field Survey Force estab-lished to redress grievances of Islamabad’s citizens.

Eid Day

EID-ul-Fitr prayer will beoffered at Faisal Mosque,Islamabad at 08:00 am.Prof. Dr. Tahir Hakeem ofFaculty of Shariah and Law,International Islamic Uni-versity, Islamabad shall de-liver Khutaba-e-Eid-ul-Fitr.The citizens are advised toreach the mosque in time.

August 12-13

PAKISTAN National Coun-cil of the Arts, Ministry ofInformation, Broadcastingand National Heritage inconnection with Indepen-dence Day celebrations hasscheduled screening of film‘Jinnah’ on August 12-13 at3 pm at PNCA Auditorium,F-5/1, Islamabad.

ITP to performspecial duties

ISLAMABAD—Prioritizing ser-vice to people and accomplish-ment of their responsibilities,cops of Islamabad Traffic Police(ITP) will perform special dutieson Eid day to maintain traffic dis-cipline in the city especially forreligious congregations and atpublic places. A special trafficplan has been chalked out by SSP(Traffic) Dr. Moeen Masood forEid day following which over250 traffic cops will perform theirduties at religious congregationsand public places to ensuresmooth flow of traffic there.

SSP (Traffic) has also con-stituted special teams to checkone-wheeling and driving motor-bikes without silencers by young-sters on the boulevards of the city.He said special vigilance wouldbe maintained against vehicleshaving non-pattern numberplates, tinted glasses as well non-registered vehicles so as to avoidany untoward incident. In theseefforts, Islamabad Police (Opera-tions) would also assist ITP andto ensure action as per law againstthe violators.—INP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chairman Capi-tal Development Authority(CDA), Nadeem Hassan Asifdirected for constitution of FieldSurvey Force, which would en-sure quick disposal of com-plaints of citizens of the federalcapital. The force would enter-tain complaints about seweragesystem, water supply, roadmaintenance and street lights ina quick and efficient manner.

Shafiullah Marwat, DeputyDirector has been designated asIncharge of the Field SurveyForce, while headquarter ofField Survey Force would beestablished in Enquiry Office inSector G-9. Motorcycles would

also be provided to staff de-ployed in the said force.

Member Engineering,Sanaullah Aman briefed theChairman CDA about the re-sponsibilities and functions ofthe force. He apprised the Chair-man CDA that Field SurveyForce would carry out survey ofthe city and would entertaincomplaints of the citizens aftercoordinating the concerned for-mations of the authority.

Chairman CDA examinedthe facilities provided to the en-tire staff of Field Survey Forceand said that force would servethe residents of the federal capi-tal with their best professionalabilities, enthusiasm and hardwork.

Quick disposal ofcitizens’ complaints

Railway stationEid security

RAWALPINDI—Railway policeRawalpindi has issued specialsecurity plan to ward off any ter-ror incident on Rawalpindi rail-way station on the occasion ofEid. Under this plan the Eid holi-days of the Railway police hasbeen cancelled and Shaford dogshave been hired from the armyto ensure fool proof security ofthe passengers on railway station.

A special railway policecounter has been established onthe railway station under the di-rectives of IG Railway police.

Additional strength of rail-way police has also been de-ployed on railway station as partof security plan for the securityof the passengers.—Online

Special squadset up to checkovercharging

RAWALPINDI—Secretary Re-gional Transport Authority(RTA) Rawalpindi has set up spe-cial squad to take action againstthe transporters found involvedin overcharging the commuterson the eve of Eid ul Fitr.

The squad has been estab-lished under the special direc-tives of chief minister PunjabMian Shahbaz Sharif. The squadwill conduct surprise raids onthe bus and wagon terminals andwill charge on the spot fine onthe complaint from any com-muter in connection with over-charging by the transporters anddrivers on urban and inter-cityroutes. The transporters startcharging the commuters particu-larly on inter city routes fourfold than the original fare in theirlust for money minting on theeve of Eid.—Online

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Traffic war-dens have been directed totake strict action against theyoungsters found indulged inone-wheeling, rash, danger-ous driving and car skating onEid ul Fitr.

Chief Traffic Officer(CTO) Rawalpindi, Superin-tendent Police (SP) SyedIshtiaq Hussain Shah told thatcases would also be registeredand the violators will be sentbehind the bars.

Syed Ishtiaq HussainShah said that special ar-rangements have been made

Strict action againstone-wheeling, car skating on Eid

to control one-wheeling and carskating on Eid-ul-Fitr whilespecial squads consist of traf-fic wardens and inspectors havebeen constituted to coverMurree Road, CommitteeChowk underpass, ChandniChowk flyover, Sixth Roadflyover, Airport Road,Peshawar Road, Jhelum Roadnear Ayub Park and other areas.

Special operations will beconducted to curb the activityand the traffic officers, speciallythose performing point duties onroads and chowks, have beendirected that no relaxationshould be given to anyone whileunder section 99/A, cases should

also be registered against theviolators.

The youngsters found in-dulged in one-wheeling, rashand dangerous driving will bebooked.

The CTO said the activitywas being checked by specialsquads of traffic officials de-puted on the city roads but nowspecial arrangements have alsobeen made to check the activity.He said the motorcycles andvehicles of the violators wouldbe impounded during specialcampaign.

The SP informed that traf-fic police officers have been di-rected to keep a vigilant eye on

the one-wheelers so that actionin accordance with the lawcould be taken against them.The traffic officers and circleheads have been directed totake stern action against theone-wheelers without discrimi-nation and no one should bespared if found involved in thisdangerous act, which is a causeof deaths and severe injuries forthe riders.

He said the citizens par-ticularly parents should comeforward and play an active roleto curb the activity as onewheeling, rash and negligentdriving are the main causes forfatal accidents.

Provision ofelectricityduring Eid

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Elec-tric Supply Company (IESCO)has finalized the special arrange-ments regarding the provision ofelectricity during Eid holidays.

To ensure electricity unin-terruptedly, staff is being de-ployed on duties in this regardwho will take notice of con-sumer complaints and try to re-solve it immediately.

Meanwhile, they also said toconsumers that in case of anycomplaint they would contactwith Consumer distribution cen-ter Islamabad and dial follow-ing number 0300-9860192,0333-0055300 and 0332-8502872 while they also estab-lished complaint-monitoringcell in IESCO Head office in thisregard.—Online

RAWALPINDI—Rawalpindi po-lice, City Traffic Police (CTP)and Rescue 1122 have finalizedall the arrangements for Eid-ul-Fitr while as many as 3200 po-licemen to guard the lives andproperties of the public on theeve of Eid ul Fitr.

Police holidays have beencancelled to ensure the securityof the citizens in the city whileadditional forces will be de-ployed for sensitive areas, graveyards, mosques, Eidgahs, ImamBargahs and picnic points as partof a special security plan for Eid.

All out efforts would bemade to avoid any untoward in-cident on the eve of Eid ul Fitr,said police spokesman.

He further informed thatpolice’s prime responsibility isto protect the lives and propertyof pubic. He said that as manyas 2300 police officers andJawans were deployed in all thesensitive places including ba-zaars and shopping malls tomaintain law and order situation.

Similarly, 3200 law enforc-

Police, CTP, Rescue 1122finalize arrangements for Eid

ers to guard public on Eid day,he added. Officials of SpecialBranch, Elite Force Comman-does, Ladies Police, MuhafizForce and Police QaumiRazkars would also performsecurity duty.

The security plan will con-tinue throughout the days of Eidal-Fitr under the supervision ofCity Police Officer (CPO) IsrarAhmed Khan Abbasi said thespookesman.

He said the citizens shouldcooperate with the securityforces by informing them aboutany suspicious situation.

City Traffic Police (CTP)have also made special arrange-ments for Eid and traffic war-dens would be deployed to con-trol traffic near Eidgahs,mosques and Imam Bargahs.CTO ordered strict action

against one-wheeling and ve-hicles moving with taintedglasses.

In Rawalpindi, the Rescue1122 staff would also remain onspecial duties in the district con-trol room, emergency rescue sta-tions with 14 equipped emer-gency ambulances, 10 fire ve-hicles, two rescue vehicles, twowater bowzers and two specialvehicles. Rescue posts would beestablished at Ayub Park, NawazSharif Park, Jinnah Park, GPOChowk Saddar and whereas keypoints to cover Eid prayer wouldbe established at Children ParkGawalmandi, Liaquat BaghPark, Rawal Chowk and 22Number Chungi Tench Bhatta.In Murree, 150 rescuers wouldremain on high alert with eightfully equipped ambulances andthree fire vehicles.—APP

Briefs

When you really wantto do something, theentire Universe con-spires in helping you

to achieve it…”

— Paulo Coelho

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The governmentis needed to give better exposureto Pakistan’s exports by fulfill-ing requirements of the global“Halal” market. “Pakistan hasgreat potential to become the“Halal” hub of the South Asiaregion due to its geo-economicposition” said Chief ExecutiveOfficer Harvest Tradings, AhmadJawad while talking to mediahere on Thursday. He said about30-35 million rural population isengaged with the sector, as it con-tributes approximately 55.1 percent to the agriculture valueadded and 11.6 per cent to thenational GDP during 2010-12.

Jawad briefed that Pakistanis still developing its own

Live stock sector needsimprovement to enrich economy

‘Halal’ standards and there is noofficial ‘halal’ certification bodyin Pakistan despite the fact thatthe country animal population isaround 159 million.

The countries with a Mus-lim majority are the most obvi-ous target markets for halalproducts, especially for meatproducts. However Muslims liv-ing outside the sub-continentand Middle East are more inneed of halal products and ser-vices, which creates a big oppor-tunity for suppliers of halalproducts, he said. As Meat in-dustry in Pakistan is developingthese days. The export of meat(beef, mutton, and camel) hasincreased from $ 08.54 million(2010-11) to $123.61 million in2011-12 showing an increase of

13.9 per cent.The country can fulfil the

ever increasing meat demandinside the country and can earna handful foreign exchange byexporting the meat as free of dis-ease. Similarly poultry is thesecond largest industry of Paki-stan. This sector generates em-ployment direct,indirect and in-come for about 1.5 millionpeople. The poultry sector is oneof the most organized and vi-brant segments of the agricultureindustry of the country.

Value Added of the live-stock sector at constant factorcost has increased from Rs 672billion (2010-11) to Rs 700 bil-lion (2011- 12) showing an in-crease of 4.0 per cent as com-pared to previous year.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The UnitedStates Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) hascollaborated in establishing afurnished accommodation fa-cility for the students of onlytechnical training college situ-ated in one of the largest oiland gas clusters of Pakistan,comprising 14 projects areas inDaharki, Sindh.

Despite having rich poten-tial for jobs in energy sectorand industries, the residents ofthese areas were deprived of

USAID sets up hostel for Technical Training College Daharkitechnical education until theTechnical Training CollegeDaharki was established to im-prove their employability in en-ergy sector, local industries aswell as in international market,said a press release on Thursday.

The TTC and a vocationaltraining center was establishedby Pakistan Chemical and En-ergy Sector Skill DevelopmentCompany with the support ofkey players in Pakistan’s chemi-cal and energy sector includingEngro Foundation, Pakistan In-dustrial Development Corpora-tion (PIDC), Mari Petroleum,

STEVTA, ENI-Saipem of Itlay,DEG of Germany andDesconEnginering.

The students coming fromfar flung areas had been facingissues of accommodations andcould not afford to hire theirown.

The hostel facility has beendeveloped under USAmbassador’s Fund Programmethrough National Rural SupportProgramme in collaborationwith local partner PakistanChemical and Energy SectorSkill Development Company forthe students of Technical Train-

ing College, Daharki.Since its inception in Sep-

tember 2010 to March 2013,the five- year U.S.Ambassador ’s Fund

Programme has awarded USD7.4 million in funding to 84local community-based andnon-governmental organiza-tions all across Pakistan in-cluding AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan working with com-munities facing issues ofhealth, hygiene, economicgrowth, cultural preservation,gender entrepreneurship andstabilization.

The hostel facility has beencompleted within six monthsagainst the cost of Rs12.47 mil-lion with Rs.8.9 million borneby USAID and Rs.3.9 million

by the PCESSDC.Having the capacity to ac-

commodate 50 students, the hos-tel building features six hostelrooms, two instructor’s rooms,eight bathrooms, and a corridorand lobby area.

“After having hostel accom-modation, I feel comfortable asnow I will not have to travel longway to reach my remote village.This facility will also improvemy concentration on studies,”said Sohail Kamran, a TTC stu-dent hailing from remote local-ity of Ghotki district.

In his comments, Chief Ex-

ecutive Officer PCESSDCBrig. (R) Raja Muhammad AliSI(M) said the Technical Train-ing College was the first degreeawarding institution in Daharkidistrict and was a nationallyand internationally accreditedinstitute offering three- year di-plomas to young people inskills needed in mechanicaland chemical industries.

He said the TTC providesexcellent infrastructural facili-ties including laboratories,digital library, dedicated andcompetent faculty and techni-cal staff.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Steel consumers inPakistan are going to feel themaximum heat of power tariffhike announced by the Govern-ment as steel prices would go upby Rs. 5,000 per ton.

Over 90% Pakistani steelmelters and re-rollers are B3category electricity consumersand according to revised tariffthe B-3 TOD peak rate has beenincreased by 48% to Rs18.81from Rs12.68 while its off-peakrate would rise by 68% to Rs13per unit from previous Rs7.75.

Pakistan Steel ManufacturerAssociation said that theweighted average unit tariff in-

Steel prices to go up by Rs5,000 pertonne after power tariff increase

crease for peak and off peak isRs 5.4/unit. The off peak hoursare 20 hours per day, whereaspeak hours are 4 hours per day.

PSMA spokesman said thatas per S.R.O. 862(I)/2008, “(c)the production subject to salestax liability shall be determinedat one metric ton of billets oringots per 800 KWH of electric-ity consumed for steel meltersand at one metric ton of mildsteel products per 130 KWH ofelectricity consumed for steel re-rollers”. He said that a billet con-sumes 800KWH/ton electricitywhich means the cost of billetwould increase by Rs 4320(800kwh X Rs5.4/unit).

He said that as per SRO the

cost of manufacturing deformedrebars/wire, rods, girders, angles,T-iron and sections consumes 930KWH of electricity (800kwh bil-let and 130kwh re-rolled product).This means the cost of Rebars andWire Rods are to be increased byat least Rs. 5022/ton.

He said that this is just thedirect cost of the rerolled prod-uct that does not account forvalue of falling dollar by over4% in the last few months. Allraw materials for rebar and wirerods are imported such as scrap,ferroalloys and other goodshence manufacturers would beforced to increase the price oftheir steel products further.

The Rs 5,000/ton increment

in the steel prices would be aminimum cost pass over that theconsumers are to feel after theunit tariff increment, he added.The historic rise in power tariffwould also promote electricitytheft among the steel sector thatis already plagued with numer-ous small to medium size com-panies stealing electricity.

He said that gas load shed-ding had also increased the costof production and this furtherincrease of power tariff wouldbadly affect the steel manufac-turing industry in Pakistan, andconsumers at large would beburdened, especially construc-tion cost would increase sub-stantially in the country.

President FPCCI Zubair Ahmed Malik with diplomats and leaders of business communityat a reception.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The dollar edgedup against the rupee in the in-terbank market, dealers said. Itopened the day’s trading at Rs102.26 for buying, rose twopaisas and closed at Rs 102.28for buying and Rs 102.33 forselling. The euro retreatedagainst the local currency as itinitiated the day’s trading at Rs135.77 for buying, fell sixpaisas and closed at Rs 135.71for buying and Rs 135.91 forselling. Similarly, the Britishpound depreciated versus therupee as it started the day’strading at Rs 157.22 for buy-ing, lost 79 paisas and closedat Rs 156.43 for buying and Rs

Dollar edges upagainst rupee

157.63 for selling.Open market: The dollar

gained profits against the rupee,dealers said. It began the day’strading at Rs 102.30 for buying,gained 15 paisas and closed atRs 102.45 for buying and Rs102.70 for selling. The Euro-pean currency continued to ap-preciate against the rupee as itstarted the day’s trading at Rs134.50 for buying, increased by20 paisas and closed at Rs134.70 for buying and Rs 134.95for selling. The pound sterlingrebounded versus the local cur-rency as it opened the day’s trad-ing at Rs 155.50, surged 10paisas and closed at Rs 155.60for buying and Rs 155.85 forselling.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The commercialbanks customers complainedabout the poor performance ofonline banking and malfunction-ing of Automated Teller Ma-chines (ATMs) at several com-mercial banks.

Despite instructions by theState Bank of Pakistan (SBP) toall commercial banks to keeptheir online banking and ATMsystems in order duringRamazan and Eid holidays,many complaints of malfunc-tioning of ATMs and poor onlinebanking system have been re-

ATMs malfunctioningat various places

ported.Claims of commercial

banks that they would make spe-cial arrangements to ensureavailability of currency throughtheir ATMs across the countryduring Eid days have provedfruitless.

Banks usually assure thison every Eid that the ATMnetwork’s availability was en-sured to facilitate the custom-ers. The inefficient ATM net-work of several commercialbanks for money transactionsthrough ATM network has cre-ated panic among the custom-ers, as Eidul Fitr is only a day

away.Around 180,000 customers

per day are expected to visitATMs during Eid holidays, asenior executive of a commer-cial bank said.

The SBP has set up Con-sumer Facility Centres after itreceived many complaints fromcustomers. These centres aim toensure the ATMs work properlyacross the country.

The Consumer Facility Cen-tre will also remain open onEidul Fitr and the consumers canalso contact the SBP officials intheir respective towns if theyhave further complaints.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The PlanningCommission of Pakistan has sofar released Rs 14.508 billionunder its Public Sector Devel-opment Programme (PSDP)against the total allocations ofRs 540 billion for the fiscal year2013-14.

According the latest dataof Planning Commission ofPakistan, out of the total allo-cations Rs 13.008 million have

Planning Commission givesRs14.51b for various projects

been released for variousprojects of federal ministries.Similarly, the commission re-leased Rs 1.5 billion for Earth-quake Reconstruction and Re-habilitation Authority(ERRA).

The government has ear-marked allocations of Rs362.427 billion for federalministries during the currentfiscal year where as the fundsfor ERRA have been fixed asRs 10 billion for the year.

Among the federal ministries,an amount of Rs 13,433 mil-lion have been released for In-terior Division where as Rs264.762 million have been re-leased for Law, Justice andParliamentary Affairs Divi-sion. The total allocations forInterior Division for the FY2013-14 have been fixed at Rs6,259 million whereas Rs2,363.974 has been earmarkedfor, Justice and ParliamentaryAffairs Division for the year.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s cash-strapped government has prom-ised to sell 3G mobile telephonelicences to raise revenue, matchregional rivals and drive pros-perity, but the process has beenbeset by delays.

Even Afghanistan,Pakistan’s far less developedwestern neighbour with aweaker economy and more frag-ile state, has the technology.

But Pakistani consumersstruggle to transfer data byphone, video streaming is ofteninterrupted — although techni-cally YouTube is banned — andvideo calls problematic.

Two months after the newgovernment took office, there islittle sign that the process willstart soon. Pakistan’s state min-ister for information technologyAnusha Rehman told AFP that

Delays hang overPakistan 3G lifeline

the auction alone could take sixto eight months.

“The base price for 3G li-cences is not set yet. Only onceit is done will I be able to give afigure on how much revenuewill be generated by the licencessale,” she said.

But first the Pakistan Tele-communication Authority(PTA) needs to be constitutedand Rehman conceded therecould be substantial delays. “Iam not sure how long it is go-ing to take because the ap-pointment of members have tobe made by the cabinet,” shesaid.

A senior civil servant ini-tially told AFP that key appoint-ments to the PTA were expectedto be finalised in July. The firsthalf of August in Pakistan isdominated by religious and na-tional holidays.

Prime Minister Nawaz

Sharif, elected for a historic thirdterm in May, faces the dauntingchallenge of bringing down an8.8 percent budget deficit, yethis first budget was conserva-tive.

He offered no major tax re-forms and within weeks, hisgovernment was forced to seeka $5.3 billion loan from the In-ternational Monetary Fund:enough only to keep on top ofold loan repayments.

Finance Minister Ishaq Darsought to fend off some criticismabout the lack of tax reform bysaying that a 3G auction wouldfetch a “considerable amount offoreign exchange”.

Cheap mobile phone tele-phony took Pakistan by storm inthe early 2000s and according tothe PTA there are more than 122million mobile phone subscrib-ers — or 68.6 percent of the

Continued on Page 11

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanMuslim League-led governmenthas reportedly prepared a list ofloss making Public Sector En-terprises (PSEs) for privatisationincluding Pakistan InternationalAirlines (PIA) and PakistanSteel Mills (PSM) as commit-ted with the International Mon-etary Fund (IMF).

Sources said that govern-ment is likely to privatise 34public sector entities during thecurrent financial year 2013-14mainly included banking, petro-leum and energy sector compa-nies. Sources further said that

Govt to sell 34 enterprisesduring 2013-14

government would privatise keyentities like PIA and PSM in thesecond stage of privatization, asgovernment would first bringreforms in these two corpora-tions. Similarly, privatisation ofinsurance companies, UtilitiesStores Corporation, Power Dis-tribution Companies and Na-tional Insurance Companies arealso on top of the privatisationpriority list, sources added.

However, sources in financeministry informed The Nationthat government has planned toprivatise 64 PSEs in which 34entities would be privatised dur-ing the current financial year2013-14. “Privatisation of SOEs

will be carried out on fast trackbasis without compromising onrules and regulations and in atransparent manner”, he noted.The economic experts are of theview that the several key state-owned institutions like PIA,Railways, Pakistan Steel Mills,WAPDA and other institutionsare a major drag on Pakistan’seconomy. These loss-makingentities are presently bleeding tothe tune of Rs 400 billion perannum. Therefore, reformingthese state-owned institutionsthrough a combination ofprivatisation and restructuring isfundamental, they added.

Continued on Page 11

Traders for armycontrol in KarachiStaff ReporterKARACHI—The KorangiAssociation of Trade andIndustry (Kati) has demandedarmy intervention to deal withthe law and order situation inKarachi. In a statement issuedby its top officials, Katicondemned the bomb blast inLyari that claimed severalprecious lives. They expressedserious concern over rapiddeteriorating of the law-and-order situation in Karachi, inspite of efforts by the policeand the Rangers. Theydemanded that Chief MinisterSindh Syed Qaim Ali Shahshould immediately call theArmy for a few weeks tocontrol law and order inKarachi. Otherwise thebusiness community will haveno choice but to close theirbusinesses, they added.Referring to extortion andkidnapping for ransom, 12persons were kidnapped onlyon Wednesday. In thisscenario, meeting of exporttargets and revenue generationare impossible tasks. Karachiis the hub of Pakistan’sbusiness activities and then theentire Pakistan would suffer ifthe situation in the city did notimprove.

Fatima Fertilizerposts profitSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Fatima Fertilizer(FATIMA) posted net earningsof Rs3.4 billion, translating intoearning per share (eps) at Rs1.6for the first half of 2013 againstRs2.6 billion (earnings per shareof Rs1.24) in the same periodlast year, up almost 30 percent.During the period, FATIMAearned revenue of Rs1.5 billionagainst Rs1.2 billion during thesame period last year, up 25 per-cent.

Although company’s grossprofitability rose by eight per-cent to Rs8.8 billion, its grossmargins remained depressedduring the first half of 2013,mostly due to the seven percentrupee depreciation against theUS dollar.

Pakistan asked toimprove disaster

managementSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A World Bankpolicy note has asked the gov-ernment to improve the nationaldisaster management fund andcreate city emergency centres inmajor urban centres.

The policy note also recom-mends establishing linkages be-tween city emergency centresand current disaster manage-ment structures at federal, pro-vincial and district levels to en-sure timely response in case ofany natural disasters such asfloods, earthquake, excess rain-falls, cyclones, tsunamis etc.

Heavy rains last week re-sulted in the death of more than50 lives in different parts of thecountry. According to WB’spolicy note, there has been lackof coordination and clarity ofroles in disaster risk manage-ment work undertaken by rel-evant departments.

The World Bank also askedthe government to undertake anational rapid risk assessmentusing existing data and tools.“There is also a need to ensuresystematic methods are in placefor collecting disaster risk infor-mation in future,” said the note.

The policy note titled “Man-aging Natural Disaster” written byHaris Khan and Marc Forni, acopy of which is exclusively avail-able with The News, asked thenewly elected PML-N-led gov-ernment to support the PDMAs.

PQ handles 100,927tons of cargo

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

KARACHI—Port Qasimhandled a cargo volume of100,927 tons during the last 24hours that included 66,385 tonsof imports and 34,542 tons ofexports, the Port Qasim Author-ity reported.

Accordingly, the porthandled imports, including fur-nace oil (21,674 tons), palm oil(14,000 tons), urea (3,750 tons)and containerised cargo (26,961tons). It handled exports, includ-ing containerised cargo (34,542tons).

Berth occupancy was mea-sured at 50 percent at the porton Tuesday, the Port Qasim Au-thority reported.

It said that it moored fourships during the last 24 hours,which were carrying containers,furnace oil and palm oil.

With this, a total of sevenships loaded and offloaded con-tainers, wheat, urea, furnace oiland palm oil.

Powers of ChiefCollectors revisedStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—The FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR) hasrevised the administrativepowers of the Chief Collectorsof Customs North and Southfor inter-Collectorate postingsof tax officers for smoothfunctioning of the department.The Federal Board of Revenue(FBR) has issued a customsgeneral order 8 of 2013. TheChief Collectors of CustomsNorth and South would havethe legal authority and powersof inter-Collectorate postingsof personnel up to Grade-16within their jurisdiction.According to the CGO, ChiefCollectors of Customs Northand South shall have thepowers of inter-Collectoratepostings of personnel up toGrade-16 within theirjurisdiction. The placementswithin the Collectorates willstay with the Collectors.However, Inter-regionaltransfer/posting of BS-16 andabove officers would continueto be made by the Board, CGOadded.

Prices of Eid-specific items riseStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—Traders haveincreased the prices ofessential kitchen items as wellas Eid-specific items such asclothes, shoes, hosiery, toys,etc, saying that the manufac-turers and suppliers haveincreased the prices with theplea that the government hasmassively raised electricitytariff. The retailers have notonly increased the prices offood items on their own, buthave also jacked up the pricesof Eid-specific items. Forinstance, onions, potatoes,tomatoes, ginger and garlicare selling at Rs 50 per kg, Rs30 per kg, Rs 100 per kg, Rs120 per kg and Rs 110 per kgin the fruit and vegetablemarkets of the twin cities,which also supply fruits andvegetables to entire KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP), Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir andTribal Areas. In the retailmarkets potatoes are selling atRs 40 per kg, onions at Rs 60per kg, tomatoes at Rs 120per kg (which earlier wereavailable at Rs 90 per kg),ginger at Rs 160 per kg andgarlic at Rs 180 per kg. Thedifference between the pricesof wholesale and retailmarkets show that the tradersare fleecing the poor consum-ers.

Gold Tezab 45000.00Silver Tezabi 737.14

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 44580.00Gold 22 Ct 40750.00SilverTezabi 690.00Silver Thobi 630.00

USA 101.80 101.60

UK 156.29 155.99

EURO 135.03 134.76

Canada 98.33 98.14

Switzerland 109.84 109.62

Australia 90.86 90.68

Sweden 15.50 15.47

Japan 1.0398 1.0377

Norway 17.21 17.17

Singapore 80.37 80.21

Denmark 18.11 18.08

Omani Riyal 256.00 253.00

Saudi Arabia 27.14 27.09

Hong Kong 13.12 13.10

Kuwait 358.07 357.37

Malaysia 31.52 31.46

Newzeland 79.75 79.59

Qatar 27.96 27.90

UAE 27.72 27.66

KR WON 0.0913 0.0911

Thailand 3.246 3.239

Unisame lodgescomplaint

against cartelSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Union ofSmall and Medium Enter-prises (Unisame) has lodgeda complaint with the Com-petition Commission of Pa-kistan (CCP) against the car-tel of middlemen operatingmore as money lenders thanas professional middlemen orfacilitators in the commodi-ties market. The cartel isdominating rice, wheat,maize, spices and sugar sup-ply chains and controllingprices by manipulating themarkets.

President UnisameZulfikar Thaver pointed outthat the SME farmers arefleeced by the middlemenwho take huge profits fromthe SME farmers and controltheir activities by subduingthem with advance moneyfor purchase of seeds, fumi-gation and fertilizers and dic-tate them at the time of har-vesting by compelling themto hand over the produce atdeliberately lowered rates.

Unfortunately only Na-tional Bank of Pakistan andZaria Tarakiyati Bank are fi-nancing the farmers and inmany cases the banks are fi-nancing landlords under ag-ricultural loans quota but themoney is used to buy big ve-hicles rather than farm ma-chinery or modernization, headded.

He informed the CCPthat Unisame to overcomethe harsh treatment of themiddlemen is in contactwith a collateral manage-ment company of interna-tional repute and is in theprocess of signing memo-randum of understandingwith them to liberate theSME farmers and proces-sors from the clutches of themiddlemen.

The union requestedsupport of the CCP to liber-ate the SME farmers andurged CCP to conduct an in-quiry and confirm the mal-practice to the ministries ofcommerce, finance and agri-culture to enable them for-mulate rules and regulationsto discourage the tendency.

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

Currency Selling Buying

Bullion Rates

RS PER 10 GRAMS

HONG KONG—Oil pricesturned higher in Asian tradeThursday on upbeat trade datafrom China which bolstered theoutlook for the world’s secondlargest economy, analysts said.

New York’s main contract,West Texas Intermediate for de-livery in September, rose 44cents to $104.81 a barrel in af-ternoon Asian trade and BrentNorth Sea crude for Septemberwas up 27 cents at $107.71.

“It’s a positive response toChina’s balance of trade num-bers,” Ric Spooner, chief mar-ket analyst at CMC Markets inSydney, told AFP.

China’s monthly trade sur-

Oil prices up on Chinatrade data

plus fell 29.6 percent in Julyyear-on-year to $17.8 billion,government data showed Thurs-day as imports and exports bothrose.

Imports rose 10.9 percent to$168.2 billion while exports in-creased 5.1 percent to $186.0billion year on year.

The numbers “generallysuggest that there has been a rea-sonable amount of commoditiesimporting during the month aswell”, Spooner said, adding thatthe numbers were “encourag-ing” for Chinese growth.

On Wednesday the US En-ergy Information Administra-tion reported US oil stockpiles

fell 1.3 million barrels in theweek ended Friday. The declinewas in line with a survey of ana-lysts by Dow Jones Newswires.

Overall US stockpiles havedropped sharply in recent weeks,with the country still in the peak-demand summer driving seasonwhen Americans take to theroads for their holidays.

Oil prices had rallied lastweek on the back of strongmanufacturing data from oilguzzlers the US and China, withBrent crude reaching a nearfour-month high above $110 abarrel before giving way in thewake of last Friday’s US em-ployment data.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The historic dip-lomatic relations between Paki-stan and Brazil could be trans-lated into strong military rela-tions in future, said Minister forDefence Production, RanaTanvir Hussain.

Talking to Brazilian Ambas-sador to Pakistan, Alfredo Leonithe minister lauded the effort ofBrazil in providing support tothe agriculture sector of Paki-stan.

The ambassador said thescope of relations between Pa-kistan and Brazil is quite vastand the need is to collaborate,extend support and enhance re-lations in areas of defence pro-duction.

The ambassador congratu-

Rana Tanveer lauds Braziliansupport in agriculture sector

lated the minister assuming thecharge of such vital ministry. Theambassador said that the coop-eration in other fields also thepriority of the Brazilian Govt.

In the last years, there hasbeen a significant increase in themilitary relations. Both sideshave exchanged the visits in thisregard.

At the end the Ambassadorthanked the Minister for a de-tailed and candid briefing. Heextended the invitation to theMinister to visit Brazil forstrengthening and continuity ofrelations between the two coun-tries.

Secretary Ministry of De-fence Production Lt Gen (Retd)Tanvir Tahir said Pakistan andBrazil enjoy good relations,therefore visits and exchanges

between the two countries canprove beneficial in understand-ing the work mechanics of bothcountries.

The secretary said that Bra-zil is a hub of interaction andPakistan welcomes Brazilianinterest in our defence market.More frequent interaction be-tween Brazil and Pakistan candraw meaningful contacts whichcan be beneficial for both coun-tries. He said that some contractsof the past needs to pace up andmaterialize. Pakistan’s DefenceIndustry can offer a wide vari-ety quantity of defence equip-ment having key features of lowcost, high quality, sophisticationand precision. Therefore,strengthening of contacts be-tween the two countries willhelp gain future collaborations.

TOKYO—The yen weakened inAsia Thursday as the Bank ofJapan opted to keep its hugemonetary easing scheme inplace.

In Tokyo midday trading,the dollar fetched 96.76 yenfrom 96.39 yen in New YorkWednesday, while the euro alsostrengthened to 129.07 yenfrom 128.55 yen in US trading.The European single currencywas flat at $1.3334.

In a widely expected move,Japan’s central bank said itsboard voted unanimously tokeep the existing policy in placeafter a two-day policy meeting.

Yen weakens as BoJ sticksto easing policy

Investors are also keeping aclose eye on the US FederalReserve, with growing specula-tion it would soon start taperingits own huge stimulusprogramme.

A pull-back on the Fed’smonetary easing would shrinkthe number of dollars in the fi-nancial system, boosting de-mand and the greenback’svalue.

The Bank of Japan, whichunveiled its own giganticbond-buying scheme in April,said the outlook for theworld’s third-biggesteconomy was looking

brighter, while early signs ofrising prices were good newsfor its efforts to hit a two-per-cent inflation target in asmany years.

Easing tends to weigh on acurrency so the BoJ’s decision tokeep its policy in place draggedthe yen lower. Currency marketswere also keeping a close eye onbetter-than-expected Chinesetrade data.

Investors are also keeping aclose eye on the United StateFederal Reserve, with growingspeculation it would soon starttapering its own huge stimulusprogramme.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Zafar Bakhtawari President ICCI and others at a reception.—PO photo bySultan Bashir

STAFF REPORTER

LA H O R E—The PakistanEconomy Watch (PEW) onThursday said Pakistan can-not afford the luxury of wast-ing Rs500 billion annually oninefficient state-run-enter-prises (SOEs).

“Successive governmentshave been mixing politicswith business which havetransformed state-run corpo-rations into most unproduc-tive segment wasting almostRs 1.5 billion daily, said DrMurtaza Mughal,” PresidentPEW in a statement. Almostall the entities created by thegovernment in order to par-take in commercial activitieson the government’s behalfhave proved to be white el-ephants in absence of a properaccountability mechanism, he

PML-N led govt can steer countryout of economic mess: PEW

said.Dr Murtaza Mughal said

the government should bringan end to political interferencein the corporations or priva-tize them on fast pace if it can-not shield them from unnec-essary interventions. He saidthat the environment of ma-jority of corporation has de-teriorated to an extent that re-puted professionals from pri-vate sector would fail to givepositive results when en-trusted for top slots. Time hascome when we should admitthat these valuable assets havebecome burdensome posses-sion while the cost of upkeephas surpassed its worth, headded.

He said that PML-N ledgovernment can steer thecountry out of economic messto put it on the path of sus-

tainable economic growth forwhich bold decisions areneeded.

Lauding the difficult de-cisions like upward revisionof electricity tariff and petro-leum prices, he said that moremeaningful reforms areneeded like that announcedfor the ailing energy sector.

He said the governmentshould also revisit policies re-garding taxation, exemptionsand subsidies which haveeroded its ability to initiatemega projects without foreignaid.

He said good governance,true accountability and justtaxes on all sectors includingagricultural income can helpgovernment earn reputationwhich is essential to push re-forms agenda without opposi-tion from masses.

Strong iPhonesales buoy Apple’s

third quarter,shares climb

SAN FRANCISCO—Sales ofApple Inc’s iPhone trumpedWall Street estimates after U.S.shipments soared 51 percent inthe third quarter, lifting its stock5 percent even as profit fell.

The world’s largest technol-ogy company said that profit fell22 percent as gross margins slidbelow 37 percent from morethan 42 percent in the year-agoquarter.

The iPhone’s solid showingeased concerns that growingcompetition is hurting demandfor Apple’s top-selling productas the global smartphone mar-ket matures. Rival SamsungElectronics Co Ltd, which over-took Apple to become theworld’s largest smartphonemaker in 2012, fueled thosefears when it issued a disap-pointing earnings forecast ear-lier this month.—Newswire

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Lint trading activ-ity in Sindh and Punjab stationsremained dull, as majority of theworkforce of the ginneries leftfor their respective native placesto celebrate Eidul Fitr.

Lack of interest by leadingand general buyers kept the trad-ing dull in all stations and trad-ers at the Karachi Cotton Asso-ciation (KCA) also did not con-duct active business.

Shrinking stocks in Punjaband Sindh stations kept theprices of all grades at the lowerside while KCA kept the spotrate unchanged at Rs 6,550 permaund in order to provide sup-port to raw grade sellers for get-ting better prices, floor brokerssaid.

During the trading session,spinners in Punjab stationsbought selective lots with lim-ited number of bales besides

Lint trading stays dullmills also purchased fewerstocks of all grades, floor bro-kers said.

Grade issue remained a ma-jor hurdle in firm trading as sell-ers and buyers were entangledin price war on back of shrink-ing stocks, floor brokers said.

General buyers made lim-ited deals for all grades on com-petitive prices at around Rs5,475 per maund to Rs 6,100 permaund while buyers with lessliquidity made deals in all gradesin Punjab stations at around Rs5,400 per maund, traders said.

Sellers withholding finegrades asked slightly higherprices for their stocks on backof shrinking fine grades, as somedeals changed hands at aroundRs 6,975 per maund in Punjabstations, floor brokers said.

Private sector commercialexporters bought lint of allgrades in Punjab stations ataround Rs 5,825 per maund to

Rs 5,875 per maund in order tofortify their long positions inanticipation of increase in pricesin the next coming trading ses-sions.

More than 1,000 baleschanged hands with more than75 percent of Punjab’s share intrading. “The domestic fine lintstocks are on depletion and theNew York Futures market’s sen-timents are still under a correc-tional phase,” said an analyst.“In this scenario domestic lintprices remained under pressureon dry export orders besidesgrade issue.”

Transport for goods is alsonot available as majority of thevehicles staff went for Eid holi-days. New York October 2013Futures stood at around 84 centsper pound and December 2013Futures at around 83.70 centsper pound. Cotlook A index washovering around 92 cents perpound.

STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The Ministryof Finance has released Rs19.5 billion power tariff sub-sidy to Pakistan ElectricPower Company (PEPCO) tobridge the gap between powerpurchase and power sale priceto the consumers during themonth of July 2013, being firstmonth of this fiscal year 2013-14.

To bring the power tariffsubsidy for the industrial andcommercial consumers of thecountry to zero, the federalgovernment has recently in-creased the electricity tariff forindustrial consumers by 25percent to 98.42 percent andcommercial consumers up to22 percent.

The federal government hasset a target of generating Rs 137billion during the current finan-cial year through a two-phasetariff rationalisation plan.

According to officials of theMinistry of Water and Power,the tariff for industrial and com-mercial sectors has been in-creased by up to 99 percent fromAugust 1. In the second phase,the rates for domestic and agri-cultural consumers will beraised by up to 117 percent fromOctober 1.

This tariff increase will takethe total revenue of all distribu-tion companies (excludingKESC) to over Rs 1 trillion fromRs 875 billion under the exist-ing tariff. Three basic principleshave been adopted in the plan.

The industrial tariff has been

increased by between 25 percentand 98.42 percent depending onvarious slabs and categories sothat there is ‘zero subsidy onbudget’ for the industrial sector.To achieve this, the NationalElectric Power Regulatory Au-thority (NEPRA) has approvedthe minimum determined tariff(MDT) of the best performingdistribution company plus 81paisas penalty in the name ofequalisation charge on each unitof electricity to cross-subsidiesinefficient power companies.

The tariff for commercial,bulk and other consumers hasbeen jacked up to the level ofMDT for the best distributioncompany (generally theIslamabad Electric Supply Com-pany) so that the overall bud-geted subsidy in these sectors

comes down, but not completelyeliminated as in the case of in-dustry.

Citing example, the officialexplained that Azad Kashmirwill see the highest gross tariffincrease of about 117 percent,although a part of it will besettled through a special ar-rangement with the federal gov-ernment. Azad Kashmir’s peaktime-of-day (TOD) will be in-creased by 35 percent to Rs 18per unit, and off-peak rate by51.5 percent to Rs 12 per unit.The commercial tariff has beenincreased between 22 percentand 65 percent.

The tariff for agriculturaland domestic consumers willremain unchanged, but in somecases will go up by more than72 percent in October. Despite

the massive jump in rates, thedomestic sector will still getaround Rs 50 billion subsidy.

Commercial: The tariff forcommercial consumers has beenincreased to Rs 18 per unit fromthe current notified tariff of Rs14.77, up 22 percent.

Regular 20 KW commercialrates have been increased by al-most 65 percent to Rs 16 per unitfrom Rs 9.72. The TOD rate forcommercial consumers has beenincreased to Rs 18 per unit fromRs 13.20 for peak consumptionwhile off-peak rates have beenincreased to Rs 12.50 per unitfrom Rs 8.01. Temporary com-mercial rates will remain un-changed at Rs 15 per unit.

Industrial: With the additionof 81 paisas per unit equalisationsurcharge for all industrial con-

sumers, the tariff for B-1 con-sumers will increase to Rs 15.31per unit from Rs 10.51. The B-1 TOD peak rate will increaseto Rs 18.81 per unit from Rs13.99 while off-peak rate willjump to Rs 16.31 per unit fromRs 8.22. The B-2 tariff will goup to Rs 14.81 per unit from Rs9.14; B-2 TOD peak rate to Rs18.81 per unit from Rs 12.77 andoff-peak rate to Rs 13.11 per unitfrom Rs 8.01. The B-3 TODpeak rate will increase to Rs18.81 per unit from Rs 12.68 andoff-peak rate to Rs 10 per unitfrom Rs 7.75.

The B-4 TOD peak rate willincrease to Rs 15.31 per unitfrom Rs 12.37 and off-peak rateto Rs 9.91 per unit from Rs 7.46.

Single-point bulk: The C-1(A) tariff has been increased to

Rs 13 per unit from Rs 11.50 andC-1 (B) rate to Rs 11.50 per unit.Its TOD peak rate will increaseto Rs 15 per unit and off-peakrate to Rs 9.30. The highest in-crease in this category has beenmade for C-3 of 60/132kv sup-ply by 24 percent to Rs 9.10 perunit and C-2 of 11/33kv will beincreased by 17 percent to Rs14.70.

The implementation of theplan will reduce subsidy to Rs252 billion from Rs 396 billion(estimated without tariff in-crease), the official explained.

In the second phase, therates for domestic and agricul-tural consumers will be raisedby up to 117 percent from Oc-tober 1.

Residential: Althoughpower rates for domestic con-

sumers will be increased fromOctober 1, the highest hike of73 percent will be for con-sumption of more than 200 and300 units per month – the tar-iff will go up from Rs 8.11 perunit to Rs 14. For consumersusing less than 200 units thetariff will remain unchanged,but this will require an amend-ment in rules and hence a de-lay of two months. For con-sumers using 301 to 700 unitsthe tariff will be increased byabout 30 percent to Rs 16 perunit from Rs 12.33. Those us-ing more than 700 units willface an increase of 20 percentto Rs 18 per unit from Rs15.07. The rate for peak loadexceeding 20KW will increaseby 52 percent to Rs 12.50 perunit from Rs 8.22.

Ministry of Finance releases Rs19.5b to PEPCO

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The value-addedtextile sector has shown itssheer concern over the indif-ferent attitude by the govern-ment for not appointing Com-merce Minister even after thegovernment is near to com-plete its 100 days.

The Acting Chairman Pa-kistan Readymade GarmentsManufacturers and ExportersAssociation (PRGMEA) IrfanAli said it’s really surprisingthat the Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif has yet to namecommerce minister or evendecide the fate of textile min-istry despite that fact that heis known as pro-businessleader of PLM-N.

The economic revival

Concern over non-appointmentof commerce minister

should be the first priority af-ter law and order of any newlyformed government but thereis no commerce minister ortextile minister has been ap-pointed so far while the exportsector particularly textile sec-tor has been left to suffer andall the macro and micro issuesof the trade and commerce arenot being addressed.

Irfan further stated thatthe government has appointedstaunch bureaucrats as secre-tary commerce and secretaryof Trade Development Au-thority of Pakistan (TDAP)who are oblivious of the is-sues and problems beingfaced by the exports sector.

“At this juncture when thecountry’s exports are at thelowest ebb, industries are

closing down, exports targethas become impossible toachieve and rulers are negoti-at ing with the IMF onceagain, the trade and industryhas been left to suffer whichwas already battling for itssurvival”, Irfan said addingthat the priorities of the gov-ernment which is not newanymore, are unknown. Hesaid the pathetic attitude bythe PML-N government alsoreflects from the sorry state ofgovernment’s several organi-zations that are lying idle dueto non-appointment of theirheads.

He demanded of the gov-ernment to immediately namecommerce and textile minis-ter instead of abolishing thetextile ministry.

population.PTA officials estimate that

a 3G auction could raise $1 bil-lion in annual licence fees,which could be ploughed backinto reducing the crippling $5billion circular debt in the en-ergy sector.

But delays are not the onlyproblem.

“The previous governmentcould not auction 3G licencesbecause it wanted to bypass thestandard tendering practices,”the official said on condition ofanonymity.

“There was infightingwithin the PTA over the auction-ing of licences as the previousgovernment wanted to bypassstandard procedures and therewas resistance by the memberswhich delayed the process,” theofficial said.

Raza Rabbani, a leadingsenator from the opposition Pa-kistan People’s Party, hascriticised the inclusion of 3G li-cence sale proceeds in the firstbudget of the Sharif govern-ment.

Delays hangFrom Page 10

The IMF also has stressedthe country for privatisation ofloss making institutions. IMFMission chief Jeffery Franksduring his visit to Pakistan hassaid restructuring andprivatisation of public enter-prises - including those in en-ergy sector - are intended to helprestore fiscal stability as well asboosting investors confidence inPakistan’s future economicprospects and opportunitiesleading to higher growth and jobcreation.

The country also has aprogramme to restructure andeven privatise public sector en-terprises, which would gener-ate significant revenues, headded.

Govt may sellFrom Page 10

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

LAHORE—As Britain’s firstMuslim parliamentarianMohammad Sarwar’s, recentappointment as the Punjab Gov-ernor has widely been hailed, theInstitute of Engineers Pakistan,Lahore Centre Chairman SyedKhalid Sajjad has also wel-comed his appointment andwished him luck.

Khalid Sajjad welcomed thesupport committed by thenewly-appointed Punjab gover-nor for construction of KalabaghDam, saying that PTI ChairmanImran Khan whose party is inpower in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,is also in favour of the multi-bil-lion dollar project.

He said it was regrettablethat such an important projecthad been politicised, althoughKPK and Sindh would havebeen its major beneficiaries.

He said that he hopes thatMohammad Sarwar will riseto the challenges of the role

Governor’s supportfor KBD lauded

and he will also help in build-ing upon the strong relation-ship between the UK and Pa-kistan. He said that the newgovernor career in public lifehas been distinguished by hislong-term commitment to so-cial justice. He will now beable to make his mark inPunjab province, home to 100million people.

At a time when most peopleare willing to give up their Pa-kistan passports to come to theUK, we have an individual whois willing to give up his Britishpassport to go to Pakistan andto play a role in its development,observed Khalid Sajjad. IEPLahore centre chief maintainedthat Sarwar has the integrity,skills, experience and vision tomake a real difference to thelives of people in Pakistan. Thegovernor will be a bridge be-tween Pakistan and the UK andwe look forward to support thegovernment to build strongerPakistan.

Director Finance ofPunjab Beverages

Company convictedOUR STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt has convicted DirectorFinance of Punjab BeveragesCompany Limited under Con-tempt of Court Ordinance 2003over the charges of impersonat-ing himself as a Federal Boardof Revenue (FBR) official in acase.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shahalso imposed fine of Rs100,000and directed him to deposit theamount to the treasure of thecourt.

When hearing resumed, Di-rector Finance Fayyaz Hussainadmitted his guilt of imperson-ating himself as Dr. AshfaqAhmed Tunio, Chief Tax of FBRand thrown himself at the mercyof the court.

Some senior lawyers includ-ing Abdul Hafeez Peerzada,Shahid Pervez Jami andKhawaja Tariq Raheem whilesitting in the courtroom also re-quested the court to accept hismercy plea and grant him par-don.

Rejecting the pleas of seniorlawyers and unconditional apol-ogy of Fayyaz Hussain and con-victed him for contempt of courtunder Section 5(1) of the ordi-nance and sentenced him to apunishment till the rising of thecourt.

The court order said that theaction of the contemnor in im-personating as Chief Tax, PBRwas a brazen display of decep-tion in the face of the Court andamounted to diverting to thecourse of justice.

The action of the contem-nor, therefore, constitutedcriminal contempt under Sec-tion 6(1)(c) of the Contempt ofCount Ordinance, 2003, thecourt order added. The courtalso directed the ministry of in-terior to remove the name of thecontemnor from the Exit Con-trol List as the punishment hadbeen served.

Knee pain common inolder women

KARACHI: People board a train as they leave for their home towns for Eid-ul-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

IT appears that knee pain of some kindis a common complaint in middle-agedand mature women, with varying pos-

sible causes leading to varying types ofpain. A new study on knee-pain patternsassessed periodically over 12 years in arepresentative UK popu-lation finds that nearlytwo-thirds (63%) ofwomen aged 50 and overexperience knee pain atleast once, persistently, orintermittently over such aperiod. The authorsfound these patterns weremore likely in women withhigher BMI, with a previ-ous knee injury, or whosescans showed they hadosteoarthritis (OA). Theywrite about their findingsin the 19 December onlineissue of the journal Arthri-tis & Rheumatism. Seniorauthor Dr Nigel Arden, aProfessor of Rheumatol-ogy at the University ofOxford in the UK, told the media that thiswas the first study involving community-based participants that investigates pat-terns of knee pain using “multiple assess-ment points” over a period of 12 years:

“Understanding the prevalence andpredictors of knee pain is the first step indeveloping comprehensive pain assess-ment plans that could lead to more tar-geted treatment options for those bur-dened by OA.”

For their analysis, Arden and col-leagues used data gathered in theChingford Study, a prospective popula-tion-based study of OA and osteoporo-

sis established in 1989. This started withmore than 1,000 women aged from 44 to57 (median 52) years. The cohort is de-scribed as representative of women inthe UK in general in terms of height,weight, and smoking status. At four

times over the 12 years ofthe study, the participantscompleted questionnairesabout their knee pain.

From their responsesthe researchers classedthe 489 participants whowere still in the study at theend into one of fourgroups, depending on theirpain characteristics: as-ymptomatic, persistent, in-cident, and intermittent.44% of women reportedexperiencing “any days ofpain”. 23% reported expe-riencing “pain on mostdays of the previousmonth”.

Of those experiencing“any pain”, 9% had persis-

tent pain, 24% had incident pain, and 29%had intermittent pain. Of those experienc-ing “pain on most days”, these figureswere 2%, 16% and 18% respectively. Ahigher BMI predicted persistent and in-cident patterns of pain, while radiographicOA predicted persistent pain. Those whoreported a previous knee injury were morelikely to have persistent or intermittentpatterns of pain. The researchers con-clude the results show a “significant vari-ability” in patterns of knee pain over timein this representative population, withfew participants “consistently reportingknee pain at each time point”.

KARACHI: A girl showing henna applied on her hands ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

KARACHI: Relatives of the prisoners are perturbed after ban on meeting them inCentral Jail, before Eid.

KARACHI—Inspector Gen-eral of Sindh Police, ShahidNadeem Baloch has ob-served that the deploymentof policemen at mainmosques, open venues ofNamaz-e-Eid and eidgahs bemade visible and briefedabout the security duties. Healso said that no policemanshould leave his spot of de-ployment while concernedSSPs will be responsible toensure availability of theSHOs in their respective con-stituencies and continuouslycheck deployment.

The IG Sindh directedthis while reviewing the se-curity arrangements adoptedby the police in view of theEid contingency plan, said astatement on Thursday. TheSindh Police chief was in-formed in the contingencyplan that the police will re-main on high-alert in view oflaw and order situation in thecity. The police will also per-form snap checking and pa-trolling in the sensitive areasto ensure protection of lifeand property of the masses.

The law enforcers will put

strict watch on suspectedactivities and will also takesteps for checking on entryand exit points of the citybesides, police picketing,snap checking and patrollingby the police van and motor-cycle riders. Arrangementswill also be made for moni-toring of the law and ordersituation from the Commandand Control SurveillanceCenters set up at the CentralPolice Officer.

The technical sweepingclearance and availability ofbomb disposal squad at mainvenues of Namaz-e-Eid,mosques and imambargahswill also be ensured. It addedthat the steps were also be-ing taken to launch targetedoperation against criminal el-ements in different areas ofthe city to control law andorder and to maintain peacein the metropolis.—APP

IGP reviews Eid-ul-Fitrcontingency plan

KARACHI—Eid is in the airas shoppers including fromall age groups throng to mar-kets in hunt of good bargainsfor Eid related stuff to cel-ebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, in befittingmanner. Families are fre-quently visiting shoppingcenters and enquiring aboutprices of different items andbargaining with shopkeepersdespite scorching heat.

Though ladies and chil-dren stuff is in great demandbut the price hike has createda certain gap between thebuyers and Eid related stuffand many items have gonebeyond their purchasingpower as many of the cus-tomers leaving after askingthe price of various prod-ucts.

All lanes, roads andstreets situated in the sur-roundings of the shoppingcenters are packed with

shoppers and vehicles.Charged parking arrange-ments have also been madeto manage the parking of thevehicles because unorga-nized parking obstructingsmooth flow of traffic result-ing in frequent traffic jamaround the city’s busy mar-kets, especially in front of theshopping malls.

Major shopping centresand markets which are wit-nessing a big attendance, in-clude main Tariq Road shop-ping centre, Jamia Cloth Mar-ket, Bohri Bazaar Saddar,Zamzama market, Shon CircleClifton, Boultan Market, Ju-bilee Cinema, Hoti Market,

Haidery market NorthNazimabad, Karimabad’sMeena Bazaar, Bazaar-e-Faisal, Anarkali market FBArea, Liaquat Market Malir,Babar Market Landhi, K-Areamarket Korangi, Nishan-i-Haider Chowk Orangi andNew Karachi market. The lawenforcement agencies havealso adopted strict securitymeasures to avoid any unto-ward incident.

The complain centershave also been set up out-side the shopping markets bythe local administrations,welfare organizations and lo-cal police to facilitate themasses. —APP

People throng marketsfor brisk Eid shopping

DMCs finalizeEid arrangementsKARACHI—The DistrictsMunicipal Corporations(DMCs) have made neces-sary arrangements to facili-tate people and promptly re-spond to complaints regard-ing civic services on the oc-casion of Eid-ul-Fitr. Besidescleaning, lighting arrange-ments and fumigation in thesurroundings of mosques,Imambargahs and eidgahs,cutting of bushes has alsobeen performed.

Administrator East,Manzoor Abbasi and Admin-istrator West, Imran Aslamalong with officials con-cerned visited different areasin their respective DMCs toreview the Eid arrangements.

They directed the officialsconcerned that no negli-gence will be tolerated re-garding provision of civicservices. They also directedto maintain cleanliness in thesurroundings of mosques,imambargahs and eidgahs,particularly, on the eve ofNamaz-e- Eid.—APP

Two Eid prayersat Masjid

MasoominKARACHI—Two Eid prayerswill be offered at Masjid-e-Masoomin Block-14 FederalB Area on Eid day.

The first prayer will beofferd at 8.30 a.m. while thesecond will follow soon af-ter to be led by MaulanaAkbar Vilayeti, a press re-lease of Anjuman-e-M u h i b b a n - e - M a s o o m i nhere Thursday said.—APP

Police arrestalleged extortionistKARACHI—An alleged ex-tortionist identified as Majid,son of Gul Nabi was arrestedby the Station House Officer,Police Station Mominabad,Ahmed Butt on Thursday.The accused was arrestedwhen he was allegedly col-lecting extortion from a trans-porter in the area near routeN-4 bus stop PareshanChowk, Orangi Town here.

A T.T. pistol along withbullets were also recoveredfrom the accused.—APP

Shafqat calls onMamnoon

KARACHI—The head of theShirazi Group, Shafqat ShahShirazi along with a notableof Shirazi family, Syed AyazShah Shirazi called on thecountry’s President-electMamnoon Hussain at theState Guest House here onThursday. Chairman PakistanBoard of Investment, ZubairUmer also called on thecountry’s President-elect.

A delegation comprisingnotables from district Malirled by a representative ofbusiness community, JavedArsala also called on thecountry’s President-elect.They felicitated MamnoonHussain on his election asPresident of Pakistan.—APP

KARACHI—Deputy Con-vener of Muttahida QaumiMovement’s Rabita Commit-tee, Dr Khalid MaqboolSiddiqui said that the Khidmat-e-Khalaq Foundation (KKF)being a purely non-politicalwelfare organization had beendistributing relief goods eachyear among needy, handi-capped, widows and orphanssince long in cooperation withHaq Parast people, particularlywith the assistance of philan-thropists.

He was speaking to theparticipants of annual reliefgoods distribution programmeheld here on Wednesday un-der the aegis of KKF atAzizabad’s Jinnah ground, saida statement issued onWednesday evening.

He said that the MQM wasthe brainchild of Altaf Hussainwhile Khidmat-i-Khalq Foun-dation (KKF) which was es-tablished prior to the partycame into being was an ampleproof of Altaf Hussain’s self-less services towards the ail-ing humanity.

The relief goods worth mil-lions of rupees distributedamong thousands of poor,widows, orphans, and otherdeserving people includedsewing machines, grocery,cycle, fans, blankets, wheel-chairs, clothes, pushcartsloaded with fruits and veg-etables and even the cash. Ex-pressing his satisfaction thatthe KKP keeping its traditionalive had organized its annualrelief goods programme as perits schedule, Dr Siddiqui, whois also Member of the NationalAssembly, said that the reliefgoods distributed on Wednes-day was not even 5 per cent ofwhat MQM had been doingunder its humanitarian ser-vices throughout the year.

He said that MQM did notbelieve in publicizing its hu-manitarian services merely of itsfaith that there should not beany exhibition of such welfare-oriented programmes. In fact,the purpose of organizing thisprogram was to tell the philan-thropists that whatever theyhad donated to the KKF was

carrying out the gigantic itstask of distributing relief goodsamong needy people.—APP

KKF distributes reliefgoods among needy people

Knee pain commonin older women

LAHORE: A large number of people travelling on the rooftop of the buses as they return to their native towns tocelebrate Eid relatives.

IT APPEARS that knee pain of somekind is a common complaint inmiddle-aged and mature women, with

varying possible causes leading tovarying types of pain. A new study onknee-pain patterns assessed periodi-cally over 12 years in arepresentative UK popu-lation finds that nearlytwo-thirds (63%) ofwomen aged 50 and overexperience knee pain atleast once, persistently,or intermittently oversuch a period.

The authors foundthese patterns were morelikely in women withhigher BMI, with a previ-ous knee injury, orwhose scans showedthey had osteoarthritis(OA). They write abouttheir findings in the 19December online issue ofthe journal Arthritis &Rheumatism.

Senior author Dr Nigel Arden, aProfessor of Rheumatology at the Uni-versity of Oxford in the UK, told themedia that this was the first study in-volving community-based participantsthat investigates patterns of knee painusing “mult iple assessment points”over a period of 12 years:

“Understanding the prevalenceand predictors of knee pain is the firsts tep in developing comprehensivepain assessment plans that could leadto more targeted treatment options forthose burdened by OA.”

For their analysis, Arden and col-

leagues used data gathered in theChingford Study, a prospective popu-lation-based study of OA and os-teoporosis established in 1989.

This started with more than 1,000women aged from 44 to 57 (median 52)

years.The cohort is de-

scribed as representativeof women in the UK ingeneral in terms of height,weight, and smoking sta-tus. At four times over the12 years of the study, theparticipants completedquestionnaires about theirknee pain.

From their responsesthe researchers classedthe 489 participants whowere still in the study atthe end into one of fourgroups, depending ontheir pain characteristics:asymptomatic, persis-tent, incident, and inter-mittent.

44% of women reported experienc-ing “any days of pain”.

23% reported experiencing “pain onmost days of the previous month”.

Of those experiencing “any pain”,9% had persistent pain, 24% had inci-dent pain, and 29% had intermittentpain.

Of those experiencing “pain on mostdays”, these figures were 2%, 16% and18% respectively.

A higher BMI predicted persistentand incident patterns of pain, while ra-diographic OA predicted persistentpain.

LAHORE: Girls showing their hands decorated with henna at a beauty parlor ahead ofEid-ul-Fitr.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—As many as 20confirmed dengue caseshave been reported through-out the province during thelast six months, while the pro-vincial government has de-cided to continue vector sur-veillance and larvaecidingactivities during Eid holidays.

Due to the heavy rains,the chances of dengue mos-quito breeding have in-creased and during the vec-tor surveillance, dengue lar-vae are being detected. Thegovernment has asked theconcerned department to en-hance their vector surveil-lance activities apart from in-tensifying disease surveil-lance.

Health professionalshave advised people to pre-vent themselves from mos-quito bite and use anti-mos-quito spray, mat in theirhouses and wear full clotheswhile going outside thehouse.

Vector surveillance, larvaeciding activities to continue during Eid holidays

20 confirmed dengue cases reportedPunjab Minister for

Health Khalil Tahir Sindhuchaired a meeting of cabinetcommittee to review the den-gue situation in Punjab andsteps taken by the variousdepartments for its controlhere Wednesday.

Addressing the meeting,the minister directed thatvector surveillance andlarvaeciding activitiesshould continue during Eidholidays for which Eid holi-days of dengue staff havebeen cancelled.

Special Secretary HealthBabar Hayyat Tarrar, Secre-taries, Addl. Secretaries ofconcerned departments,Convener Dengue ExpertsAdvisory Group (DEAG) andVC KEMU Prof. Dr. FaisalMasood and elected repre-sentatives attended the meet-ing. The senior officers ofLocal Government, HigherEducation, School Education,Food Department, Forestsand Fisheries, Cooperative,Information, Culture Depart-

ment, Additional Commis-sioner Lahore, SpecialBranch and other officersbriefed the meeting about theactivities regarding dengueeradication campaign.

The meeting was in-formed that spray and fog-ging machines in all the dis-tricts are fully functional andsufficient stock of medicines/chemicals for spray and fog-ging is available and as perdirections of the experts,spray would be carried-out.

While briefing the partici-pants of the meeting, SpecialSecretary Health informedthat so far during the last sixmonths, only 20 confirmeddengue cases have been re-ported throughout the prov-ince.

Prof. Faisal Masood dis-closed that more than 500dengue cases have been re-ported only in Karachi andin order to control denguefever it is necessary thatpeople should refrain fromtravelling during Eid holi-

days, especially people suf-fering from any kind of fevershould avoid from intercitytravelling so that denguecould not spread.

Health Minister directedthat all DCOs should arrangeawareness campaign regard-ing dengue through cableoperators in their respectivedistricts for sensitization ofthe masses.

DCO Lahore informedthat special instructions forcleanliness and solid wastemanagement have been is-sued during Eid holidays andall sanitary staff is already onduty. He disclosed that ser-vices of civil defense staffhas also been included inanti-dengue activities.

Minister Health said thatall departments are discharg-ing their anti-dengue dutieswith full zeal and commit-ment. He said that these ef-forts and steps should befurther intensified so thatdengue could be controlledin this season.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Govern-ment has decided to revive“Heer Recitation” competitionin Jandiala Sher Khan, the birthplace of Legendry poet ofPunjab on the occasion of thecoming Urs of Pir Waris Shah.It has also been decided toconvene Basant Bahar KiteFlying competition at ChangaManga forest in the comingseason of Basant i.e. end ofMarch 2014. However, the pro-hibition on kite flying inLahore and other urban areasof the province will be strictly

followed and implemented.This was disclosed by Pro-

vincial Minister for Education,Sports and Tourism PunjabRana Mashhood Ahmad Khanwhile presiding over a highlevel meeting held at PunjabTourism Complex, Lahore. TheMinister informed the meetingthat the beautiful kites andstring made of harmless yarnmaterial will be provided by theTDCP to the kite flyers and thetourists with the financial as-sistance by various corporatecompanies. Managing Direc-tor Tourism Development Cor-poration Punjab (TDCP) Habib

ur Rehman Gillani apprised themeeting of the changes incor-porated in the syllabi of primaryand elementary level whichwould help familiarize the newgeneration with the worth see-ing places of Pakistan particu-larly that of the province ofPunjab in a novel manner.

Rana Mashhood AhmadKhan while presiding overthe meeting said every nookand corner of Pakistan isworth seeing provided weglorify it in a way that theforeign tourists would cometo see our civilization whichis no doubt our pride.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Chief OperatingOfficer of the PunjabHealthcare Commission (HCC)Dr. Ajmal Khan has said thatthe Commission in pursuanceof its mission to raise the stan-dards of healthcare deliverythroughout Punjab has beenworking to foster a culture offairness in the partnership be-tween patients and profession-als.

The commission acts as aspecialized tribunal for receiv-ing and investigating com-plaints and pronouncing aris-ing from alleged maladminis-tration, malpractice, or medicalnegligence. While our para-mount concern is to ensure thesafety of the patient, we arealso mindful of the need to pre-serve the confidence of thehealthcare professional, a goalthat we hope to achievethrough demonstrable impar-

HCC starts taking actionon public complaints

tiality.He said that the Director-

ate of Patient Rights and Com-plaints, Punjab HealthcareCommission has receivedmany complaints since the in-ception of the Commission,and has dealt with them withall possible expediency with-out compromising the integ-rity of the investigation pro-cess. Out of these, certaincomplaints have been dis-missed on account of beingtime barred, or having beeninstituted without insufficientgrounds, or due to a failure onthe part of complainant to fol-low up on the complaint andprovide us with proper docu-mentation.

Decisions have been

taken on a number of othercomplaints instituted againstboth public and private sectorhealthcare establishments, af-ter due investigation of thecompeting claims. These in-clude, inter alia, a decision re-garding a major public sectorhospital in Lahore, for mani-fest negligence in the surgicaltreatment of a female patient,whereby names of the doctorsinvolved in the treatment havebeen referred to the HealthDepartment for disciplinaryaction.

The hospital administra-tion has been instructed toimplement the Minimum Ser-vice Delivery Standards(MSDS) recommended byPHC in letter and spirit.

Urs of Pir Waris Shah

Govt decides to revive ‘HeerRecitation’ competition: Mashhood

IT Universitygets grantfrom WBSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The InformationTechnology University (ITU)of the Punjab has received agrant from the World Bank(WB), the largest ever madeto a public university, to es-tablish the Centre for Tech-nology in Governance.

This centre focuses onthree projects, GovernmentInnovation Workspace(GIW)-Incubator, MobileGovernance Framework andan Open Government Initia-tive in Punjab. The projectwill be executed by ITU’snewly hired team of world-class researchers, entrepre-neurs, government sectorparticipants, academics andpolicy-makers. The projectduration is 18 months.

ITU’s research philoso-phy aims at integrating com-puter science education andInformation and Communica-tion Technology (ICT) re-search to fostermultidisciplinary innovationand entrepreneurship. Theteam of technologists will beworking closely with PunjabInformation TechnologyBoard(PITB) and other gov-ernment bodies to roll outdiverse mobile governanceplatforms and frameworks tofacilitate effective servicedelivery. ITU is also workingwith additional donor agen-cies to kick-start complemen-tary projects.

Khosa welcomesECP army

deploymentmove

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Secretary GeneralPakistan People’s Party andformer Punjab governorSardar Latif Khosa has wel-comed the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan(ECP)’s de-cision of army deployment atsensitive polling stationsduring forthcoming by-elec-tions.

He said the Commissionshould have decided so inMay elections 2013 as well,as all political parties havereservations over credibilityof May 11 elections.

He said after the enforce-ment of the judicial policy allthe Session Judges and theAdditional Session Judgesholding administrative postswere recalled by the SupremeCourt to resume their judicialresponsibilities as per the ju-dicial policy.

He pointed out that theJudicial Policy given by theSupreme Court contained thatno judicial officer will holdadministrative post as it wascritical for the sake of uphold-ing the cause of administra-tion of justice, fair applicationof law and above all the inde-pendence of judiciary.

He recalled that the Jus-tice Khawja Sharif could notbe appointed as provincialOmbudsman because JudicialPolicy prohibited the judge ofthe Supreme Court to acceptany subservient position.

He expressed his surpriseand shock over the deploy-ment of the judicial officersas the Returning Officers toconduct the May 2013 elec-tions in the country.

Building collapseinjures 7 labourersLAHORE—At least sevenlabourers were injured whenan under-construction build-ing collapsed near MozanAdda here.

According to details,laboures were busy remov-ing the lift from the upperstorey of an under-construc-tion building near MozanAdda when the building col-lapsed, burying sevenlabourers under the debris.

Rescue teams reachedthe spot and shifted the in-jured labourers to MayoHospital. According to hos-pital sources, condition ofone injured person is statedto be critical while four weredischarged from hospital af-ter initial treatment.—INP

2,677 Wardensdeployed for

Eid dutyLAHORE—City traffic policehave deployed 2677 War-dens, 121 Inspectors and 11DSPs under the supervisionof divisional SPs to regulatetraffic at routes leading to Eidcongregations, publicplaces, commercial centresand during the eid holidays.

Chief Traffic Officer Capt(retd) Sohail Ch on Thursdayissued instructions to theCircle Incharges to ensuresmooth flow of traffic duringEid days.

On the first day of Eid,1520 Wardens alongwith 9Emergency squads wouldperform duty at different lo-cations under the supervi-sion of 72 Inspectors and 13DSPs.—APP