Rs 17.00 Vol III No 218 19 Pages Lahore — Peshawar Edition Monday, 4 February, 2013 Rabiul Awal 22, 1434

n the tehreek-e-talibanPakistan has expressedwillingness to hold dialoguewith the government only ifPMl-n chief nawaz Sharif,JUi-f chief fazlur rehman andJi chief Syed Munawar hasanare guarantors for the talksand some detained talibanleaders are freed.

n as the US drawdown in afghanistan nears, topUS officials have begun crucial talks withPakistani authorities for the withdrawal ofthousands of US-led foreign troops andmilitary equipment through nato supply lines.

US eyeS PakiStani SUPPly roUteS for afghan PUlloUt

story on page 24

story on page 19

Former editor ofThe Nation andThe NewsAyesha Haroonpassed away inNew York earlyon Sunday aftera four-yearbattle withcancer.

Called off sit-in to avoidcoup: Qadri

Misbah andShafiq keephopes alive

Attack on north Iraqpolice HQ kills 33

Noted journalist AyeshaHaroon passes away

Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran (TMQ)chief Dr Tahirul Qadri says martial lawwould have been imposed inthe country withinfive minuteshad he notcalled off hislast month’ssit-in inIslamabad.

An unbeaten 101-run standfor the fifth wicketbetween CaptainMisbahul Haq andAsad Shafiq keptPakistan’s hopes alivein the first cricket testagainst South Africa, asthe visitors chase a mammothtotal of 480 tosave the match.

story on page 18

story on page 21

story on page 07

story on page 24

A suicide car bomb followed by anassault by grenade-throwing gunmen on

police headquarters in a disputedethnically-mixed city in north Iraq killed

33 people on Sunday.

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Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems

like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems

like a minute. That’s relativity.— Albert EinsteinNEWSN

04

Monday, 4 February, 2013

RAIN, HeAvy SNowfAll pRedICted ACRoSS CouNtRy IN Next

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has predictedheavy rainfall during the next 24 hours. PMD sources said due to the currentweather system, scattered rainfall and heavy snowfall was expected inMalakand, Hazara, Murree, Galiyat, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir in the nexttwo days. Hailstorm was expected in isolated locations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand Punjab including Islamabad, during the next 24 hours. A PMD spokesmansaid heavy snowfall ranging from three to four feet might occur over hills higherthan 7,000 feet, while two-three feet of snowfall was expected over hills at alower altitude of 5,000-7,000 feet, during the period. The snowfall may causeclosure of routes and create a possibility of avalanches as well. Scattered lightrain had been recorded in Punjab, KP, Balochistan and Upper Sindh during thepast 24 hours. Parachinar had received 10mm of rain, Khudar had 6mm, Jewani4mm, while Bannu, Qalat and Zhob had 3mm, and Larkana received 2mm ofrainfall. The lowest temperatures were recorded in Parachinar with -10C,Astore -7C, Gopas and Skardu -3C, and Hunza with -2C. inP

An increasing number of Pakistaniwomen say they have been forcibly sepa-rated from their children in the UK, andabandoned in their country of birth bytheir British husbands, according to aBBC report. When Shagufta’s family toldher she was marrying a young Britishman, and moving to Britain to start awhole new life there, she says she felt “ex-cited”. “At that time I was very happy. Ithought life in the UK would be verygood. I thought my husband’sfamily would be nice tome.” That is not howthings turned out. Sh-agufta has not seenher daughter for 10years Almost 11years

since she married and moved to the UK,she is back in Mirpur reminiscing overphotos of her baby girl. She says her hus-band has left her stranded in Pakistan, andforcibly taken their only child. “The prob-lems started as soon as I got to the UKwhere I lived with my husband and my in-laws,” she says. “My husband treated mevery badly. He used to beat me and even

threaten to kill me. I wasn’t allowedout of the house, and I was

banned from speaking toanyone outside the fam-

ily.” Shagufta saysafter her daughterwas born, things got

even worse.Then one

day, soonafter her

little girl had celebrated her first birthday,she says her bags were packed and shewas taken to the airport. She was told shewas going to see her family because hermother had died. “When I arrived in Pak-istan, I was met by my in-laws. Theysnatched my passport and told my broth-ers to come and take me away. I have beenliving without my daughter ever since.”We traced Shagufta’s husband back to theUK, but he refused to speak to us.‘TIp oF ICEBERg’: Shagufta’s story isbecoming an increasingly familiar one.Lawyers, charities and the British HighCommission in Islamabad say they arecoming across more women who say theirBritish husbands have dumped them inPakistan. Whilst a minority of women dospeak out, it is believed hundreds morestay silent. Solicitor and chairperson ofparental abduction charity Reunite, Anne-Marie Hutchinson, says she dealt withabout 20 abandoned spouses cases in2012, but says that’s just “the tip of theiceberg”. “Very few manage to actuallyget assistance, the majority - I anticipate -are just dumped and that’s it,” she says. “Ifthey were in the UK they could get di-vorced, they could get maintenance… butif they’re in Pakistan, they have no claims.

“The other thing is, when they dodump her back in Pakistan, she is oftenostracised in the community… Peoplewill say ‘she’s been sent back, she musthave behaved terribly in England’.”There can be enormous family pressureon British-born Pakistani men to come totheir native country to find a traditionalPakistani bride. The wife will not gener-ally speak very much English and willhave little in common with her Britishhusband. Aurangzeb Khan from Brad-ford, who was visiting family in Mirpur,

says his “hands were tied” when he wasmade to marry his first cousin. “We

were totally different people. I wasborn and brought up in Britain

with my English friends.” Heabandoned his wife for

five years after theywere married,

b e f o r et h e y

had any children, although he later al-lowed her to join him in the UK. “Iwouldn’t say it’s cruel. I was forced intothe marriage and I retaliated,” he says.‘TRICKED’: Nearby, I met anotherwoman, Sadia. She says after she gavebirth to her three sons in the UK, her in-laws made it very clear she was no longerof use to them. “They would say we havegot the children now, we don’t need you.You should just work in the house. Awife’s place is under her husband’s feet.”

She says she was eventually trickedinto coming back to Pakistan on a familyholiday, but when she arrived her pass-port was confiscated by her in-laws, andshe was thrown out of their home, whilstthey kept the children. She says she even-tually agreed to a divorce because shewas told she would be allowed to keepher children if she signed the papers. Butshe says her husband’s family took theboys back to the UK. Sadia says her fa-ther has since forced her to remarry be-cause he could not afford to look afterher. We spoke to Sadia’s husband inBritain. He denied abandoning her andsaid she had chosen to leave the childrenwith his family. He described her as“crazy” and said that she had been a badwife. There is limited help on hand forwomen like Shagufta and Sadia. The UKForeign and Commonwealth Office saysthat it can put women like them in touchwith charities and lawyers in the UK andPakistan, but it cannot offer consular as-sistance to people who are not British na-tionals. Most of these women were neverin the UK long enough to get UK citizen-ship. Azhar Mehmood runs a women’swelfare group and works with the BritishHigh Commission in Mirpur to raiseawareness about forced marriage - but isincreasingly hearing from women whosay they’ve been abandoned. “There is athinking in a few families that they wanta good, pure Pakistani child so they havegood heirs to their properties. They knowthey can leave these girls in Pakistan -and they won’t be able to get much help.”Both Shagufta and Sadia would like touse the UK courts to get access to theirchildren. MOniTORinG DESK

miserY oFpakistan’sabandonedWivesa number of Pakistani-bornwomen narrate the ordealof abandonment by theirBritish husabnds

KARACHI: Jam Muhammad Yousaf, federal minister for privati-sation and former chief minister of Balochistan, was laid to reston Sunday afternoon in his ancestral graveyard Bara Bagh in BellaTown of Lasbella district of Balochistan. A large number of peopleincluding ministers, parliamentarians and politicians attended hisfuneral. Prominent among them were State Minister for Privatisa-tion Saeed Mandokhel, Sindh Minister Mir Nadir Khan Magsi, Sen-ator Mushahid Hussain, Senator Yousaf Baloch, Senator MuhammadIsmail Buledi, former federal ministers Nasir Mengal, Akbar Lasi andTariq Magsi, former Balochistan Assembly speaker MuhammadAslam Bhotani, and a politician from Gwadar and an old fam-ily friend of late Jam, Ashraf Iqbal Baloch. Jam Muham-mad Yousaf died of heart attack in Islamabad atmidnight between Saturday and Sunday. He was 59years old. He has left behind a widow, twodaughters and one son, Jam Kamal, who hasbeen the district nazim of Lasbella. APP

Jam muhammadYousaF laid to rest

india drops nineplaces inreportersWithout borders

Washington

OnLinE

According to the latest World Press Indexby Reporters Without Borders revealed onFriday, India dropped nine places to therank of 140th in the list of 179 countries.According to the report, violence againstjournalists had gone unpunished in thecountry. Furthermore, the report revealedthat Kashmir and Chhattisgarh werebecoming increasingly isolated regions.Reporters Without Borders in its WorldPress Freedom Index for the year 2013 said,“In Asia, India is at its lowest since 2002because of increasing impunity for violenceagainst journalists and because internetcensorship continues to grow.” Like theprevious year, the countries on top of thelist were three European countries, Finland,Netherlands and Norway. Turkmenistan,North Korea and Eritrea continued to be atthe bottom of the list. The three countrieshave been at the bottom of the list for thelast three years. “The Press Freedom Indexpublished by Reporters Without Bordersdoes not take direct account of the kind ofpolitical system but it is clear thatdemocracies provide better protection forthe freedom to produce and circulateaccurate news and information thancountries where human rights are flouted,”Reporters Without Borders SecretaryGeneral Christophe Deloire said. Accordingto the report, in almost all parts of theworld, influential countries including Indiahad fallen in the index. Observing that therehad been a general decline in freedom ofinformation in South Asia, the report saidthe Indian subcontinent was the Asianregion that saw the sharpest deterioration inthe climate for those involved in news andinformation in 2012. The report said that inIndia, the “world’s biggest democracy”, theauthorities insisted on censoring the Weband imposing more and more taboos, whileviolence against journalists had goneunpunished. Furthermore, the regions ofKashmir and Chhattisgarh becomeincreasingly isolated, it said.Coinciding with the release of its 2013Press Freedom Index, Reporters WithoutBorders published an annual global“indicator” of worldwide media freedom.

7 killed in violenceacross FaisalabadFAISALABAD: The Thikrwala Police inFaisalabad district on Sunday said sevenpeople were killed in separate incidents in thearea in the last 24 hours. According toThikriwala Police, 20-year-old Waqas ofChak No 74-JB was shot dead by his rivalslate on Saturday. In another incident,Muhammad Lateef of Chak No 8-JB wasasleep in his house when his rivals broke inand shot him dead. Another man Shahzadwas hit with an iron rod by his rival Naveedin Chak No 100-RB in Khuraraiwala policeprecincts. In Jaranwala police limits, 25-year-old Muhammad Imtiaz was shot dead byunidentified assailants in Chak No 257-GB,whereas Sagheer Ahmad was killed in ChakNo 89-GB. In Tandlianwala, an unidentifiedcyclist (30) was run over by a speeding truckon the Samundari-Tandlianwala Road,whereas a factory worker, Qaisar, of ChakNo 202-RB was reportedly killed by his co-worker Abid. APP

indian presidentsigns govt ordinanceon sexual crimesNEW DELHI: Indian President PranabMukherjee on Sunday signed a governmentordinance on sexual crimes, the CriminalLaw (Amendment) Ordinance, whichwould lead to changes in laws againstsexual crimes, said official sources. Theordinance was adopted by the governmenton Friday. Based on recommendations by ajudicial experts’ commission, the VermaCommission, it proposes harsherpunishment, including death penalty forrapists who cause grievous harms to theirvictims, as well as acid attacks, voyeurismand trafficking. This came after thehorrifying gang rape in the Indian capital inDecember last year, in which a 23-year-oldwoman was brutally assaulted by six menon a moving bus and later died of innerinjuries. However, some women’s groupshave planned a protest at Jantar Mantartoday (Monday) against the ordinance,saying the ordinance lacked teeth to fightsexual crimes against women. nni

index

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:48 AM Page 4

Polarisation, divisions, tearing apart people from

each other, fighting for seats and ministries is not

what we take as politics — JuD chief Hafiz Saeed

LAHORE

LMonday, 4 February, 2013

low

high

100C

tUesday Wednesday thUrsday

18°C I 10°C 18°C I09°C 19°CI07°C

PRAyER TiMinGS

Fajr sunrise Zuhr asr Maghrib Isha

5:31 6:53 12:17 3:18 5:39 7:02

partly CloUdy

Weather Updates

170C

05

Lahore

STAff REPORT

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifvisited the metro bus project withoutany security and protocol for threehours during the rain. He started histour from Shahdara and reviewed thepace of work up to the Ittefaq busstation. LDA Director General AhadCheema, Punjab Managing DirectorMetro Bus Authority and provincial

authorities also accompanied the chiefminister.

Talking to people who had gatheredat various bus stations, the CM said thePunjab government had written a newhistory by completing a project worthRs 30 billion in a record time.

He said Zardari and his cronies hadlooted national resources and filledtheir pockets during the last five years,while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nhad undertaken ground breaking

development activities in Punjab. He said the metro bus service was

a masterpiece of architecture and aunique example of transparency,standard and speed. He said Zardari andhis cronies cannot execute such aproject even by spending 200 billionrupees as their only interest wascorruption.

The chief minister said the elite hadtravelled in expensive cars since the last65 years whereas the poor had suffered.

“The metro bus service would nowchange this tradition,” he added.

Shahbaz said the BRTS was beinginaugurated on February 10 and wouldgive a new identity to Lahore.

He said the modern metro busservice would rid the people of trafficproblems.

“We will give certificates toengineers and cash prizes to labourerswho have worked on the metro busproject,” he said.

Shahbaz visits metro bus project for three hours in rain

Lahore

UMAiR Aziz

CHIEF Minister ShahbazSharif would commuteto and from his office onthe Bus Rapid Transit

System (BRTS) after itsinauguration on February 10 topromote the use of public transport,Pakistan Today has learnt.

Sources revealed on Sunday thatthe decision had been taken to makethe multi-billion rupees project“successful”. The step was aimed atmaking use of public transportpopular among the people. Accordingto details, the CM would use thenewly launched buses, along with thepeople, to go to his office in the

Punjab Civil Secretariat for one week.However, it is not clear whether othersenior officials would follow the chiefminister’s footsteps and use publictransport instead of their cars.

Senator Pervaiz Rasheed,Punjab government’s spokesman,said the chief minister would notuse the BRTS for a week, but wouldcommute on the bus as long as hewas the chief minister.

“Chief minister’s using ofpublic transport was a message forother officials to leave behind theircars and travel via public transport.We cannot restrict anyone fromusing cars, as this is not acommunist country. The CM wantsto make the BRTS popular amongthe masses,” he added.

brts to be the cm’s dailYtransport to oFFice

Metro BUS SerViCe faCtSn BRTS is the biggest development project in

Lahore’s history.n Total length of the project is 27km from

Gajju Matta to Shahdra.n Total cost is Rs 29.8 billion while that of the

underground project was Rs 250 million,which is very hard to bear.

n This project has been completed at a recordpace of 1 year.

n An 8.6km-long bridge, which is the longestin Asia, has been constructed for the project.

n Special bridges, at a distance of every 500 to700 meters, have been set up for theconvenience of pedestrians.

n The buses cost Rs 1 billion 26 crore, whilethe cost of one bus is Rs 2 crore 80 lakh.

n A bus will arrive after every 3 minutes ateach station and 8,000 will travel in thebuses every hour

n The buses will complete the journey in 45minutes

‘strict actionto be taken ontyno deathsin gujranwala’

LAHoRE: Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif said on Sunday that theloss of human lives due to consumptionof intoxicated cough syrups was tragicand the government would take a strongaction against the elements responsiblefor these deaths. Presiding over a high level meeting at hisModel Town residence, he said those whodisplayed criminal negligence in thisregard would be put behind the bars. Shahbaz said that every human life wasprecious and its protection was acollective responsibility of the society.“I am answerable to Allah as well as tothe people. Had the concerned authoritiesdischarged their responsibilities properly,deaths in Gujranwala could have beenprevented,” he said. The chief ministersaid although calamities were a naturalphenomenon but adoption of preventivemeasures was always necessary. Themeeting was attended by Chief Minister’sSpecial Assistant on Health, Khawaja

Salman Rafique,secretaries of home,

health, law andinformationdepartments,CommissionerLahore andForensic Science

LaboratoryDirector General

Dr Faisal Masoodamong others.

OnLinE

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LAHORELMonday, 4 February, 2013

06Weather will remain cold and it could also snow

in some parts of the country. This is the beginning

of another cold spell — Met DG Muhammad Hanif

Afire broke out in Aiwan-e-Iqbalon Egertan Road on Sunday.Rescue sources said a firebroke out in a software office

on the 7th floor of Awan-e-Iqbal due toshort circuit. Firefighter teams reached

the spot and started a rescue operationand were able to control the fire after

one hour. No death or injury wasreported in the incident.

Lahore

STAff REPORT

a i W a n - e - i q b a l

catches Fire

tWo killed in rooF collapse LAHoRE: Two persons were killed and eight others seriously injured when a flour mill collapsednear Ferozepur Road on Sunday. According to Rescue 1122 sources, a two-storey flour millcollapsed near Atari Darbar on Ferozpur Road. According to report, construction of flats was goingon in a building near Atari Dabar and half of the work was done when suddenly the second floor ofthe building collapsed. Two men named Safdar, 27, and Tariq, 25, died on the spot and other tenwere badly injured along with the contractor named Liaqat. The rescue teams reached the spot andwere only able to locate the victims with the help of sensors after several hours. The dead andinjured were shifted to General Hospital. The family members of Safdar and Tariq said that thecontractor had used low quality material mark to save the money and that was why the building hadcollapsed. They demanded to the high officials to take strong action against the Liaqat. STAff REPORT

ishaq dar says new province

‘stunt’ aimed at breaking punjab

LAHoRE: Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) leader Senator Ishaq Dar said on Sunday thatpolitician’s stunt of new provinces was started to breakPunjab into pieces. “Pakistan People’s Party knows thatthe bill cannot be approved from the house. PML-N willalso bring its own bill on new provinces if PPP tablesthe bill,” he told reporters after opening the Data DarbarDispensary and Blood Bank in Lahore. Dar repeated hisparty’s stance on the issue of creation of new provincesin Punjab. He said that the prime minister andopposition leader would hold consultations on theinstallation of a caretaker set-up in the country. “If bothleaders fail to reach a consensus, a committee will beformed to discuss the issue,” he said. The PML-N calledthe demands to dissolve the Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) as unconstitutional. To a question, hesaid that more than 40, 000 lives were lost in waragainst terrorism. He urged the need to hold talks tocontrol the scourge of terrorism. STAff REPORT

Five injured in

different incidentsLAHoRE: Four members of the family were injuredon Sunday when the roof of a house collapsed in thearea of Sherakot of Lahore. The injured were shiftedto Mayo Hospital. In another incident, a motorcyclistwas injured in South Cantonment when an over-speeding car ran him over. The injured was taken toCMH. Robbery: Robbers took away valuables worthmillions on Sunday from a dry fruit factory in theGujarpura area of Lahore and managed to escapefrom the scene. STAff REPORT

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:49 AM Page 6

NEWS NMonday, 4 February, 2013

07It’s pretty obvious that the — political knives

were out for — Chuck Hagel, Defence

Secretary Leon Panetta on his successor

KirKUK

APP

Asuicide car bomb followed by an as-sault by grenade-throwing gunmenon a police headquarters in a dis-puted ethnically-mixed city in northIraq killed 33 people on Sunday.

The vehicle that was detonated in central Kirkukwas painted to appear as though it was a police car,and the militants who sought to seize the compoundwere dressed as policemen, witnesses said.

No organisation immediately claimed responsi-bility for the attack.

The initial suicide car bomb was set off duringmorning rush hour, and was quickly followed bythree gunmen dressed in police uniforms, armedwith hand grenades and suicide vests, burstingthrough the main gate of the Kirkuk police com-pound in the direction of the headquarters building.

They threw multiple grenades as they sought toreach the building, but were killed before they couldget there, witnesses said.

“I saw a vehicle stop at the checkpoint at themain entrance, and the police started checking it,”said Kosrat Hassan Karim, who was nearby whenthe attack took place

“Suddenly, a loud explosion happened, it wasterrifying.”

“I saw many people killed inside their cars — Ihave never seen such a big explosion in my life.”

Brigadier General Natah Mohammed Sabr, thehead of Kirkuk city’s emergency services depart-ment, put the toll at 30 dead and 70 wounded.

In addition to the casualties, the attack causedmassive damage to nearby buildings and shops, ac-cording to a journalist at the scene.

The massive explosion also killed people innearby buildings. Mohammed Aziz, who works inan office building adjacent to the police headquar-ters, said at least two of his colleagues died in theblast. Police largely cut off traffic in the centre ofthe city and evacuated offices and businesses in thearea. They managed to defuse one of the attackers’suicide vests, but were still working to disarm theother two. Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed city 240kilometres north of Baghdad.

attack on north iraq police hq kills 33

DaMasCUs

inP

Embattled President Bashar al-Assadaccused Israel on Sunday of trying todestabilize Syria following reportedattacks on a weapons convoy and amilitary research base outside Damascuslast week. Assad vowed that his regimewill

retaliate as his allies rushed to denouncethe strike which threatened to take theconflict beyond Syria’s borders. Syria’sstate news agency SANA said Assadmade the remarks in a meeting withSaeed Jalili, Iran’s national securitycouncil secretary, at meeting in theSyrian capital. It was Assad’s firstreported response to Wednesday’s attack.Syria’s foreign ministry had said Israel

“and the states that protect it” areresponsible for the air strike, and

“affirms Syria’s right to defenditself and its territory andsovereignty,” the agency said.It called on “all the competentU.N. bodies to take thenecessary steps given this

grave Israeli violation, andto guarantee that it willnot happen again.” UNchief Ban Ki-moonexpressed “graveconcern” and called onall parties to “preventtensions or theirescalation in the region.”He called on all sides to“strictly abide byinternational law, inparticular in

respect of

territorial integrity and sovereignty of allcountries in the region,” deputy U.N.spokesman Eduardo del Buey said.Damascus’s ambassador to Lebanon, AliAbdel Karim Ali, stressed Syria’s right torespond to “the Zionist aggression.”“The Israelis, and the United Statesbehind them, along with their Arab andregional accomplices, realize that Syria,which defends its sovereignty andterritory, may decide to respond bysurprise to this aggression.” “It is up tothe competent powers to choose theappropriate answer, and to determine themeans and the place,” Ali added inremarks to Lebanese website Al-Ahad,which is close to the powerful Shiitegroup Hezbollah. Reaction from closeDamascus ally Iran was strident. DeputyForeign Minister Hossein AmirAbdollahian warned, withoutelaborating, that the “Zionist regime’sattack on the outskirts of Damascus willhave grave consequences for Tel Aviv.”In the past, Tehran has said any Israeliattack on Syria would be considered anattack on Iran. Russia’s foreignministry said it was “deeplyconcerned” but was still trying toverify Syria’s allegations. “If this

information isconfirmed, then weare dealing withunprovoked strikesagainst targetslocated on theterritory of asovereign state,which brazenlyinfringes on theU.N. Charter

and isunacceptable, nomatter the motiveused for itsjustification,” itsaid.

iran Welcomes sYrian opp

chieF’s readiness to talkMUNICH: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi welcomed Sunday Syr-

ian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib’s readiness to hold talks

under conditions with the Syrian regime. “It’s a good step forward,” Salehi

said at the Munich Security Conference where he said he had held a “very

good meeting” with Khatib. APP

iran minister saYs kazakhstan

to host nuclear talks Feb 25MUNICH: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday

that talks with world powers on Iran’s nuclear drive would be held in

Kazakhstan on February 25. “I have good news, I’ve heard yesterday

that 5+1 or EU3+3 will be meeting in Kazakhstan 25th of February,”

Salehi said during a panel discussion at the Munich Security

Conference. He said he took with “positive consideration” comments by

US President Joe Biden on Saturday in which he held out the possibility

of direct talks with Iran. APP

30 French Warplanes blast

extremists targets in maliPARIS: Thirty French warplanes on Sunday blasted extremist training

and centres and logistics centres in northeast Mali, just hours after

President Francois Hollande visited the country, the military said. Fighter

jets, refuelling and reconnaissance planes took part in the “major”

overnight operation in the Tessalit area north of Kidal, military

spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said in Paris. Kidal is the last

bastion of radicals who occupied the desert north for months before

France’s surprise intervention. Tessalit, near the border with Algeria, is

believed to be where seven French nationals captured by Islamists are

being held. Hollande received a rapturous welcome in Mali on Saturday

as he promised that France would stay as long as necessary to continue

the fight against rebels in the north. APP

us sanctions not to aFFect

tehran-kabul ties: spokesmanKABUL: Afghan Foreign Ministry Spokesman Janan Mosazai has said that

the US sanctions against Iran will not affect the existing friendly relations

between Kabul and Tehran The spokesman made the remarks here

Sunday while talking to reporters. He said that the ancient and long-

standing relations between the two nations were founded on national

sovereignty. He further described bilateral ties as friendly. inP

Assad threatens to retaliateover Israel airstrikes

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:49 AM Page 7

COMMENT

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Never think that war, no matter how

necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

–Ernest Hemingway

C

FIGURES have a rather interest-ing way of ruffling feathers.Those who have them on theirside find a kind of smug-on ef-fect while those at the receiving

end tend to find refuge in its infallibility.By no means is opinion poll an exact sci-

ence but the margin of error in the developedcountries does give the impression they havethe arithmetic pretty much close to theground. For instance, the single digit — infact, single point — difference that separatedBarack Obama and Mitt Romney in opinionpolls a few times during last year’s U.S. pres-idential race brought home the reliability fac-tor in spectacular fashion. Even the figuresseemed to relate the turnaround Obama wasable to fashion closer to the vote.

That however, is not the case with coun-tries like Pakistan, where far from getting sci-entific results in a given experiment, thesetend to be undermined by vague determi-nants. Even who conducts the exercise mat-ters because there have been instances whenNGOs attempting to make a count have notcovered themselves with glory. Some havebeen known to have manipulated the results.

Admittedly, it is a huge call — the man-power, the resources, the reach and even adecent ability to make the questionnaire ac-cessible to the semi and downright illiteratefolk in a way that leaves no doubt about thespecifics, including the context and timeframe of the query, for instance. To be sure,yours truly is not the first one to conjectureon the subject but it begs repetition becauseit rarely passes muster.

While local surveys often run the risk of

some sort of prejudice in one form or theother — when not laid back by a lack ofhuman and financial resource — the foreignaffair is impeded by insufficient local knowl-edge of issues, including cultural restrictionsin terms of accessibility.

Then, there is the issue of sampling. InPakistan’s rather limited poll stratosphere,often one comes across underwhelming sam-ples where the dexterity of “diversity” isplayed out but figures don’t give much awayabout the real nautanki.

Having said that foreign surveys likethe one attributed to International Republi-can Institute (IRI) do manage to arouselocal interest for the simple reason that theystill enjoy a modicum of respectability —credibility would be too encompassing aterm for the kind of reliability that sticks inthe local milieu.

Whatever figures IRI comes up with todraw the chart toppers every quarter, it man-ages to lure one partyand draw the ire of theother. And so with thelatest sample. This time,Imran Khan and hisPakistan Tehrik-e-Insafis not happy and the rea-son is obvious: hisnemesis Nawaz Sharif’sPakistan MuslimLeague has shot to thetop of the table witheverything to play for.

Khan’s example isinteresting becausepredictably, he de-scribed the findings asdevoid of credibility.The PTI chief also questioned why the IRIhad not named the most popular leader ofPakistan (Khan has often won the ratingshands down).

When the IRI survey showed the PTI tobe the top of the pile between February 9 andMarch 8 last year, the Kaptaan had excitedlytweeted about the results! Logic would sug-gest his indifferent air to the findings thistime may, in fact, be a reflection of how thegame is slipping away from PTI, and eventhe figures have begun to tell.

Even though one would insist the latestIRI sample — with just 4997 respondents (ir-respective of the claim to representative de-mography) — was smallish, the findings do

appear to reflect the changing scenario awayfrom the much promised tsunami.

Consider: the findings in the period PTIwas the numero uno — Feb. 9-March 8, 2012— was indeed the time, the party was shak-ing the rafters. The rush of the October 31Lahore jalsa and December 25 Karachi showwas palpable. The charged crowds and thetremulous pull that sucked in hordes of ‘elec-tables’ had begun to raise the heat and the IRIsurvey clearly reflected this radio gaga.

However, the momentum was lost a fewmonths there hence — also resulting in theexit of a slew of ‘electables’ who Khan sawas fair weather friends, but it nevertheless diddampen things.

The game-changer was how the PPP andPML-N joined forces to ring in constitutionalamendments to reinforce their power to over-see a caretaker setup that suited them.

This effectively took the wind out of theKaptaan’s sails. In the gravitational pull of

the likely winningticket, wannabe parlia-mentarians found theirnew trajectory and soPML-N rebounded.The PPP will probablystill pay for its lack ofgovernance, the chessplayed out fromAiwan-e-Sadr notwith-standing — but that’sanother story.

To come back to thepublic survey, thechange of guard at thetop was amply reflectedin the last findings inAugust 2012 as well as

the latest — both of which corroborate theshift. The PML-N has more than just re-gained ground; it has lured plentiful of ‘elec-tables’, struck a significant deal with theLikeminded group of Muslim Leaguers andforged alliances across the spectrum.

True to form, the wannabe voters in theopinion poll have noticed the shift and seemwilling to set store by PML-N. So if one wereto draw a conclusion from the IRI patternover time, the figures — for all their intrigue— do offer a vista, regardless of who em-braces or rejects them.

The writer is Editor, Pique Magazine. Hecan be reached at kaamyabi@gmail.com

ttp comes forward with a planpeace offer

What’s the math?

epidemics

THE measles outbreak in the country, first in Sindh, and now in thePunjab, has highlighted certain important deficits in the country’spublic health apparatus.

First and foremost, and let no one lose sight of it, is the inadequacies atthe district and provincial levels. Health is a provincial subject andproblems like epidemics are to be ably handled by the department. TheSindh health minister said his department didn’t have adequate equipment,a claim which federal sources say is not entirely correct. Either way, theprovincial department should have been prepared for the situation evenbefore the outbreak.

But epidemics in particular are a different animal altogether whencompared to, say cardiac diseases or problem arising from unclean water.They have a large footprint and districts are helpless when it comes tothem. As are, it is becoming clear, the provinces: the Punjab outbreak hasalready started claiming lives.

So, off to two federal ministries: inter-provincial coordination portfolioand natural regulations and services. The first is to provide interfaces forthe provinces to interact with each other and cooperate in all matters, bethey related to irrigation, forestry or, in this case, health. The nationalregulations ministry is in charge of regulating, in particular, the ministriesthat have been devolved to the provincial levels. This ministry does thework required to undertake the sort of regulations that provinces simplycannot tackle, not because of a lack of capacity (though a lack of capacity,there most definitely is) but because of the impracticality of it: if provinceswere to, say, announce their separate drug policies and they were to resultin different rates for those drugs, there would be much interprovincialarbitrage and pilferage.

The federating units need to work with each other to control the spreadof epidemics.

This has grave repercussions for the country as well. Egypt, consideredto be polio-free, has had a case recently, allegedly of Pakistani origins. Indiais also considering halting visas to Pakistanis for this reason specifically. And,horror of horrors, there are voices within Saudi Arabia that speak of haltingHajj visas to the country if they don’t get their vaccination drives in order.

IF you have a problem, you have a problem; there is no way around itother than tackling it head on. Pakistan has been ignoring the problemof terrorism and its perpetrators inside its borders for quite some time

now. The situation escalated to such levels at times that militants seemed tohave an upper hand, thus forcing the state to settle for peace offers. Thesepeace offers were nothing more than a ploy to regroup, re-arm, re-plan andattack anew. This happened every single time such a deal was made, givingcredence to the perception that the terrorists were not serious for peace.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the umbrella organisation for allterrorist organisations inside the country, has come forward with anotherpeace offer, with two pre-conditions this time. First, they want a guarantorfor the talks. Interestingly they know exactly who they want it to be. Theydemand that Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazalur Rehman or Syed MunawarHasan be the person that guarantees the talks. How is that going to turn outto their advantage is yet to be seen, for even though all three have rightleaning, they support the present political system, follow the constitution,and have declared to work under its ambit. Moreover, none of them hasanything to force the government with to even come to the negotiatingtable, let alone finalise any deal. The card can though be countered with anequally strong one by the government. It can ask for the same from theTTP, but that’s where it gets tricky. Who can guarantee that they wouldhold their end of the bargain? It’s not like they are known for honouring adeal. Many in the government want peace talks, including the ANP, but thegovernment cannot afford to be seen coming from a position of weakness.

If the first condition is a slap on the wrist, the second is a slap in theface. The TTP wants Maulvi Omar, Muslim Khan and other capturedleaders freed. As if that isn’t enough, they want the same two to sit with thegovernment for negotiations. Surely, who would want to miss a chance tocasually chit chat on weather and make a peace deal on the sideline withthe murderers!

The government can in no way give in to either of the above pre-conditions. Yes, there should be peace dialogue but only after the militantsgive up arms, cease terror activities, accept the constitution and submit tothe political system. Military, security and law enforcement agencies andother stakeholders may also be involved to bind various factions of theTTP to the deal, if it goes ahead. And if the TTP doesn’t agree with thesepre-conditions, which unfortunately is a likely case, there would be nopoint in holding any peace dialogue.

Monday MusingsKAMRAn REhMAT

More coordination, please

Monday, 4 February, 2013

08

IrI survey may not be neat but it reflects the shift on ground

VIOLENCE against women(VAW) is rooted in gender-based intolerance and genderdiscrimination. AddressingVAW without taking into ac-

count the wider background in which womencan advance and the need to protect women’sbasic rights is hopeless. The laws and poli-cies formulated should be geared towards as-sisting women victims and making sure thatthey are protected. Putting an end to VAW isnot the task of one individual, actor or fac-tion, but requires a shared support. Ultimateeradication will need a shared rejoinder inwhich everybody has a role to play. It is im-portant to engage all stakeholders, men andwomen, in both growing and developedcountries, parliament, judiciary, law enforce-ment entities, civil society, private sector andinternational associations.

In Pakistan, women’s chances of inherit-ing property, getting education and employ-ment remain significantly lower as comparedto men’s. The communal and cultural frame-work of Pakistani society is principally patri-archal. Women have a squat proportion ofcontribution in society outside of the family.Despite the enhancement in Pakistan’s liter-acy rate since its independence, the literacyrate of Pakistani women is amongst the low-est in the world. The literacy rate of urbanwomen is more than five times than the rateof rural women. The educational achieve-ments of female students are high as com-

pared with male students at diverse levels ofeducation. Women in Pakistan are mostly at-tached to a few typical professions, mostlynarrated by their family and the society liketeaching, banking, medicine etc. We have tobreak this mindset and step forward.

The violence against women in Pakistanis a foremost dilemma. This problem ismounting rapidly within our society, and asa result the social fragment is getting moreand more distorted. Women in Pakistan con-stitute almost 50 percent of the population,and if they are positively guided they canplay an active role in the development of thecountry. Women are linked with differentprofessions and are playing an active role indifferent social spheres. Educated and em-powered women have the capacity to changethe course of the history by uplifting our up-coming generations.

Our country is facing diverse challengesin many sectors. We have to bring womento the mainstream professions so as to getmaximum benefits from their expertise. Theterm women policing is not new to theworld, but for us this is new. The results ofdifferent surveys reveal that at present onlyone percent women are a part of police de-partment in Pakistan out of a 50 percent oftotal population. These results are quitealarming, and it is very important to navi-gate in a direction where we can create newavenues of growth and empowerment forthe women of Pakistan.

Women in Pakistan can contribute pos-itively to the state and society. Women inthe police department can become role mod-els for our educated women. Women police

officers can pave the way for the educatedwomen of Pakistan to join different profes-sions and excel in the right direction. Thepolice department in Pakistan has always re-ceived criticism from the society due to dif-ferent reasons. The police system inPakistan is still working with a commandand control model where the males domi-nate the overall structure. It needs our imm-diate attention in order to become moreflexible, efficient and effective.

The present structure of police depart-ment does not provide a level playing fieldfor more educated women to be inducted athigher positions. This lack of empowermentis a great hurdle for the women police offi-cers where they are not in a position to exe-cute certain job duties. It is this type of biasthat makes it near impossible to attract youngwomen to enter any department. The societystarts questioning the motives and characterof a woman who enters police or any othergovernment department, other than a fewconsidered to be kosher departments.

We have to change the overall environ-ment of police department, not just more ac-ceptable to women officers but the overallstructure. This will be a positive developmentas it will help in eradicating the problems ofcorruption, the image of the police, and ofcourse the violence against women from oursociety. Women police officers are in a betterposition to understand the issues of women,both victims and criminals, as compared tomen. It is important that the educated womenof our society must be facilitated. This facil-itation will help in creating a positive futurefor our coming generations.

Women and policeMUhAMMAD UzAiR niAzi

somethings need our immediate attention

The game-changer was

how the PPP and PML-N

joined forces to ring in

constitutional amendments

to reinforce their power to

oversee a caretaker setup

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:49 AM Page 8

Man is condemned to be free; because once

thrown into the world, he is responsible for

everything he does. –Jean Paul SartreCOMMENT C

Monday, 4 February, 2013

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today,

4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan

Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pkLetters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

AL-QAEDA linked extremists carriedout a deadly attack against the Al-gerian Amenas gas filed on 16 Jan-uary. Reportedly, the strike was

conducted in retaliation for the military interven-tion France has initiated in its former colonyMali. French planes had used Algerian airspacefor carrying out the strikes. The event hasdemonstrated the acute risks faced by the energyfacilities located throughout the region, includ-ing the Gulf states. More importantly, the attackhas triggered a renewed phase of European in-tervention in northern Africa.

AQ linked extremists routinely carry out re-taliatory attacks around the globe. Over time, thetypes of targets selected have evolved. Obviously,the target selection is based on the strategic intentand the message the extremists want to convey.Additionally, it’s also a reflection of their capabil-ity and the vulnerability of a target.

For example, in revenge for Pakistan’s coop-eration with NATO forces in Afghanistan, in 2012a number of sensitive military installations havebeen targeted. This includes air bases in Kamra,Peshawar, and a naval facility located in Karachi.In a high profile attack in Benghazi last year, theUS embassy was targeted, leading to the death ofAmbassador Christopher Stevens. Last Friday, an-other US embassy was struck, this time in Ankara.

In the Middle East, Saudi national oil com-pany Aramco came under a serious cyber attackin August of last year that damaged more than30,000 computers. Reportedly, the attempt was todent the Saudi oil and gas production. The target-ing of Amenas gas field in Algeria had a similarambition. It supplies about 25 percent of the gasfor Western Europe and the country is the fourthlargest producer of gas in Africa. This poses agrave worry for the Europeans, as there appearsto be concerted efforts by the AQ-linked extrem-

ists to disrupt the energy supplies.Despite the economic pressures and the emer-

gence of more strategic threats in the Pacific,events related to the Arab Spring and extremismhave pulled western attention back to the core Is-lamic regions.

As US winds down its military campaign inAfghanistan, it has been reluctant to get involvedin the developing North African theatre of opera-tion, where its interests are less clear. Like in thecase of Libya, the US is resorting to provide morelogistical support, while the French and theBritish are taking the lead. At the same time, thereis a growing discussion about a new businessmodel through which the US can lend its awe-some logistical capabilities, acquired overdecades of large investments in defence researchand development, to the Europeans.

The challenge is not all European members ofNATO are on the same page on how to deal withfuture threats. The dynamics that may evolve inEurope may not be much different from what oc-curred earlier in the last century and in the seven-teen and eighteen hundreds. During thistimeframe, the major European powers were con-stantly at each other and these tussles were trans-ferred to their respective colonies. Preventing anysingle power from dominating Europe caused al-most constant shuffling of alliances.

As is the case now, even then the challengewas how to pay for the constant wars: the questionof raising taxes and competition over trade andmarket access. The NATO alliance is alreadygrappling with these tough questions. Over time,the present European stagnation is likely to playout in a manner similar to the past.

In this respect, the French military interven-tion in Mali might be the initiation of bigger fis-sures within Europe. For now, the British haveannounced that they will be sending about 360troops to support the French in Mali. In PoliTact’sforecast for 2012, it was noted that the decline ofEuropean Union, the rise of Germany, and theresurgence of Russia were fundamentally alteringthe balance of powerin Europe. More-over, the Germansand the Russianshave also been mov-ing closer. Thist r a n s f o r m a t i o nmakes the Frenchand the British un-easy and causesthem to look towardsthe US to counter.However, the US,for the first time,does not want toplay a leading role.

F u r t h e r m o r e ,PoliTact had alsopointed out: “TheseEuropean tensions

are already playing out in other regions of theworld, especially in South Asia, Middle East andNorth Africa. In the chaos that has resulted fromthe Arab Spring, the European powers appear tobe establishing their zones of influence.”

The spheres of influence conceptualisationmakes further sense as the writ of the states inthese regions is fast evaporating. These fears wereaggravated this week when protests in Egyptflared up once more causing Defence MinisterGeneral Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to warn on 29th Jan-uary about the potential collapse of the state. Hisstatement was reinforced by a similar message byIsraeli Air Force Chief Major General Amir Eshela few hours later, presenting grave concerns aboutSyria and Egypt. On the 30th January, Israel con-ducted an air strike near Damascus, reportedly toprevent proliferation of chemical weapons andgetting in the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

If the disturbance in Pakistan continues un-abated, the events of Middle East and NorthAfrica may provide a model for what can be thecase. This further raises the importance of SCOalliance, and escalates the significance of thenews that Pakistan has decided to handover theoperation of Gwadar port to a Chinese firm.Even more startling was the statement that camefrom the Turkish foreign ministry, whosespokesman stated on 31st January that Ankara,like Pakistan and India, also desires to attain anobserver status on the SCO.

It’s becoming clearer by the day that the ex-isting order has become unsustainable, and at-tempts to resist the rapid transformation willprove to be ineffective. The key is not only toadapt but also be in a position to shape and in-fluence what is emerging. While the emergingorder is not clear yet, the lessons of historyshould not be taken lightly.

The writer is chief analyst at PoliTact, aWashington based futurist advisory firm(www.PoliTact.com and http:twitter.com/politact)and can be reached at aansar@politact.com

europe and north africarepercussions of algerian gas field attack

09

an iceberg of corruptionThe blatant case of corruption in OGDC running into tens ofbillions of rupees is truly on iceberg of corruption that candestroy a titanic of any state but is scarcely noticed by the rulingparty of PPP. Every trick of the trade is tried to give shelter anddelay the culpability of main actors of this horrendous corruptionthat is akin to robbing the Bank of England. The PPP has beenidentified as the master of plundering party in view of megascams instead of mega dams that have sucked the country dry bytheir tentacles of corruption like a huge octopus.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan is showing proverbialpatience in pursuing the mega corruption cases, be it theephedrine case or OGRA case. What is required is doubling thesize of apex court to deal effectively with the corruption andmisgovernance of Himalayan proportions so that the robbers ofpublic money are brought to justice in our lifetime.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

network problemsSometimes mobile use gets very frustrating and one wants torevert the whole world to the old ways when work pace wasaccordingly. With various technological developments, workpace and people’s expectations have increased too. And no oneis ready to buy any excuses, especially delays caused by badnetworks. I am a businessman and facing huge network problemsdue to my Norwegian operator. Whenever I am in the middle ofan important call, it gets dropped unexpectedly. Sometimes weare in the conference call with our clients and the call getsdisconnected. And it reconnects with great difficulty. It wastesso much of time.

Also, it has happened so many times with me that I getconnected to wrong numbers. Another worst issue is of delaysin messages. One assumes that the person must have receivedthe message and must have acted upon the given instructions,and one gets to know that he received it so late that was uselessanyway.

MUSTAFA KHURRAMA businessman, Karachi

the crux of our problemsWe crib about this problem or that, about one act ofmisgovernance or that, and so on but we have never tried to lookat the mother of all problems. The real problem in our country isthat we have failed and miserably failed in structuring our lawswhich over all govern us. Laws are made in every society toregulate society interaction and for rulers to punish those whoviolate them. Our laws, whether they be criminal or civil, are oldand primitive, made by the British Raj and have run out of use.No amendments have been done, no revisit has ever been madeand no new substantial legislation has been done.

Every law, repeat every law, has a leakage through which ifthe criminal is caught or apprehended by our police or securityforces escapes. How many terrorists have we punished? Howmany rapists have we sent to jails when and if caught? How manypeople have we put behind bars for taking and accepting bribesor defalcating public funds, except for a few on political rivalry?

The weaknesses in these laws have made criminals activeand well versed with the loopholes, hence they get away with acrime easily. ‘You want to get acquitted, buy the judge, not alawyer’ is a common saying. Even amongst lawyers some namesare prominent for getting acquittal and they charge their share ofthe deal. These champions of law are actually who excel in theirawareness of the loopholes.

We will have to work on this area if we want Pakistan tobecome a country of peace. Of course once the laws arerestructured and brought in consonance with the need of the time,we will have to implement them in true their letter and spirit. Ifand when, I pray this becomes true, some cases are adjudgedcorrectly and criminals sent to gallows, even a first rate criminalwill think twice before indulging in crime.

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

replace the coachThe nation demands from Mr Zaka Ashraf, chairman PCB, toimmediately sack this much hyped professional coach ofPakistani cricket team Dav Whatmore, for being directlyresponsible of the ever declining standards of team’s batting, asour cricket team got out in the first innings of the first Test matchagainst South Africa on the lowest ever Test score of just 49 runs.In fact, 2 February, 2013, will be remembered as a black day inPakistan cricket’s history.

It is seriously apprehended that if PCB persists with DavWhatmore any further, soon our team’s Test status may berevoked by the ICC.

As such, in the larger national interest, the countrymen arefully justified in demanding immediate appointment of MrMohsin Hassan Khan, who lately proved with results to be themost successful coach in the cricketing history of Pakistan, ashead coach of Pakistan cricket team. Moreover, he should beadvised to take over the charge of his job in South Africa as soonas possible. In case MHK is not available for any reasonswhatsoever, either Mr Wasim Bari or Mr Abdul Qadir, fullydeserves to be appointed as head coach of Pakistan cricket team.

SYED NAYYAR UDDIN AHMADLahore

ARif AnSAR

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:50 AM Page 9

Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we

do skeet shooting all the time,

— United States President Barack Obama NEWSN

Monday, 4 February, 2013

10

Lahore

inP

TEHREEK-E-MINHAJUL Quran (TMQ)chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on Sunday said if hehad not ended the sit-in in Islamabad, mar-tial law would have been imposed in thecountry within the next five minutes.

Addressing the Central Executive Committee of thePakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Qadri announced thatthe next phase of his march would begin soon, addingthat it would be countrywide, and tens of thousands ofpeople would come out of their homes to get rid of thecorrupt politicians.

He said he would not allow thieves to come intopower in the name of democracy. “Corrupt politicianshave been robbing the country for the last 65 years,” hesaid. Qadri added that he was in favour of a new SouthPunjab province, but “new provinces should not beformed on the basis of political aspirations”. “A refer-endum should be conducted to know the wishes of the

people of south Punjab regarding the formation of a newprovince,” Qadri said.

Regarding contesting elections, Qadri said his partywas going to conduct a survey at the union council levelto know whether people wanted his party to contest theupcoming general election. He said he had received themandate, but a decision would be taken after conductingthe survey. He said that he had retired from the post ofPAT president.

He said he did not want elections to be delayed inthe country, adding that he could not see corrupt politi-cians get re-elected through a “fake election process”.

‘martial law wouldhave been imposedif sit-in continued’

conspiracies cannot

weaken islamic

revolution: hassanisLaMaBaD

nin

Jamaat-e-Islamichief MunawarHassan has saidwestern effortsto weaken theIslamicrevolution havefailed and Iran isstill strong andflourishing. Hassansaid Iran was the onlyMuslim country that was notyielding to the western pressure. The first day of the 10day long ceremonies coincided with the anniversary ofreturn home of the late founder of the Islamic republicImam Khomeini from exile. He said the US and its allieswere hatching conspiracies to destabilise the Muslims. Hestressed the need for forging unity among them tofrustrate anti-Islam designs of western states. He was ofthe view that western conspiracies against the Muslimworld were increasing day-by-day. “No doubt that IslamicRevolution of Iran has been a source of inspiration forawakening movements in the Islamic world,” he said. Thepolitician paid homage to the founder of IslamicRevolution Imam Khomeini for his role in leading Iraniannation. “Islamic Revolution in Iran is a major mile stoneof twentieth century”, he added.

tMQ chIef says wIlllaunch next phaseof long March soon

LonDon

inP

A senior Afghan commander who has advised theBritish prime minister has warned that withdrawingBritish troops from Afghanistan will spark a “globaljihad”.

The damaging comments come the day DavidCameron hosted a high-profile summit at Chequers todiscuss plans to combat the Taliban and other terroristthreats after American and British troops pull out nextyear. But in an interview with The Mail on Sunday,Colonel Amin Jan of the Afghan National Army (ANA)said that removing British forces from Afghanistanwould allow al Qaeda and the Taliban to seize power.

The officer also claimed that ANA troops were notgood enough to defeat the insurgents – a statement thatis politically embarrassing for the prime minister, asthese troops had been trained by UK mentors for thepast three years.

Britain’s exit strategy hinges on national forcesbeing able to combat the Taliban. But Col Jan – the sec-ond most senior Afghan commander in Helmandprovince – accused politicians of making misleadingassessments of Afghan troops’ capabilities to justifytheir decision to accelerate the pull out of internationalforces. The British prime minister has pledged to pullout all troops next year, before the next election. Butalready numbers are being cut back and bases in tacti-cally crucial areas being closed down.

Asked if 2014 was the right time for a handover,Col Jan said: “No, I would say that it is too early, be-cause the situation will not have ended. If the British

leave, the jihadists will see it as a good sign.A worldwide jihad will take place. That ismy view.” And when asked if the ANAcould defeat the Taliban without interna-tional help, he said: “Our leaders might saywe are able to do the task, but it will be diffi-cult.” “We have enough soldiers, we have thequantity, but we need the quality. We needmore professional and better trained com-manders,” he said.

“Do the British want Afghanistan toreturn to being a Taliban state? That is theprospect.” As recently as December,Cameron praised the Afghan forces fortheir readiness to tackle the Taliban afterthe withdrawal. Addressing British troopsin Camp Bastion, he said: “Frankly, theAfghan Army is doing better than we ex-pected, there’s more of them than we ex-pected and that’s why we are able to bringhome so many troops.” Col Jan, 55, is thedeputy commander of a brigade of 4,500 sol-diers in Helmand, where fighting against theTaliban has been most intense. He is alsorespected for his resistance to the Sovietoccupation of Afghanistan during the1980s. He is in no doubt that pressurefrom the British public is the drivingforce behind the withdrawal oftroops from Helmand, but warned:“People in Britain should considerwhat the future is forAfghanistan and the world.”

‘If UK leaves Afghanistan, Taliban will return for global jihad’Fire at karachimilitary barracksput out

KaraChi

AGEnciES

A fire that broke out in a vacant militarybarrack in Karachi near Luck Star onShahra-e-Faisal in the wee hours of Sundaywas brought under control, a statementissued by the Inter Services Public Relations(ISPR) said. The ISPR added the barrackswere unoccupied when they caught fire andno injuries were reported. It said the fireappeared to have started a result of a shortcircuiting, adding that cause would beconfirmed. It also said the personnel on dutyinformed the officials about the incident,adding that over 18 fire brigades andsnorkels helped extinguish the fire. The firehad erupted in the unoccupied barracksearly on Sunday which shortly engulfed theentire building. Rescue and fire teamsrushed to the spot upon receivinginformation. The third-degree-fire wasbrought under control after three hours ofefforts. An emergency was declared atKarachi’s Jinnah Hospital, fortunately noinjuries were reported. Vehicular traffic onthe Shahra-e-Faisal was suspended for a fewhours as a result of the fire.

SHANGLA: Snow covers hills and houses in the area on Sunday as the winter looks to ease its grip on the country. OnLinE

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:50 AM Page 10

A lie gets halfway around the world

before the truth has a chance to get its

pants on — Winston ChurchillNEWS N

11

Monday, 4 February, 2013

isLaMaBaD

ShAiq hUSSAin

WITH a sense of urgency ontheir minds, top US officialshave begun crucial talks withPakistani authorities for thewithdrawal of thousands of

US-led foreign troops and military equipment fromAfghanistan through NATO supply lines.

While the US authorities are engaged with Pak-istan, Afghanistan, Qatar and other facilitators ofpeace talks with the Taliban, they have started im-portant talks on the plan to ensure smooth and safeexit of NATO troops and war equipment fromAfghanistan. In this connection, senior US officialPeter Lavoy visited Islamabad at the end of lastmonth and met senior Pakistani civilian and militaryofficials.

Although not much was released to the mediaabout his visit, but officials privy to latest develop-ments on US-Pakistan relations said that Lavoy andhis delegation was here primarily to chalk out a planfor the use of NATO supply lines through Pakistan

for the exit of NATO troops from Afghanistan.“Lavoy’s visit was the beginning of a very impor-tant process and it is aimed at working out a strategyto ensure the safety of withdrawing US troops andmilitary equipment,” said an official here seekinganonymity.

Lavoy, who is the principal deputy assistant sec-retary of defecse for Asian and Pacific security af-fairs, would discuss the outcome of his talks withtop US officials in Washington, he said.

Pakistan had angrily blocked NATO supplylines in November 2011 following deadly strikes byUS-NATO aircraft on Pakistani border posts thatkilled several Pakistani soldiers. However, the sup-ply lines were restored after seven months follow-ing an apology from former US secretary of stateHillary Clinton on July 3, 2012.

An agreement was signed on July 31, 2012, be-tween US and Pakistan, which allowed NATO sup-ply convoys to cross into Afghanistan from Pakistanup to the end of 2015 – one year beyond the dead-line for the withdrawal of US combat forces. Theagreement also prohibited the transportation of armsand ammunition for NATO troops through Pakistan,

but exception was given to military equipmentmeant for the Afghan National Army. The agree-ment was said to be valid until December 31, 2015,and could be extended for one year after mutualconsultations.

A diplomatic source said the US and Pakistaniauthorities would also have to work out an accept-able formula for the passage of arms and ammuni-tion through NATO supply lines during the troops’withdrawal. “The supply of arms to Afghanistanwas banned and the matter of withdrawing arms andammunition through these supply lines would alsohave to be sorted out,” he said, requestinganonymity. He said that Pakistani ports were seenas the most efficient route for the withdrawal ofNATO troops and equipment, adding that the USwould like to ensure that there was no blockade ofthe supply lines on their way back as it happened in2011. He said the Obama administration had an-nounced to withdraw the majority of its 68,000-strong military stationed in Afghanistan by the endof 2014, and the NATO supply lines through Pak-istan would play a key role in realising the strategyfor pullout from Afghanistan.

us eyeing pakistansupply routes forpullout from afghanistan

isLaMaBaD

OnLinE

The National Accountability Bureau(NAB) has initiated investigation into thealleged changing made in duties, by theFederal Board of Revenue, through SROsand other means, aimed at benefiting spe-cific companies.

NAB has sought record from the FBRand other departments concerned and hasformally sent them a letter in this regard.NAB sources said that the bureau has re-

ceived complaints regarding the aforesaidissues against the FBR chairman andbrother of an important government offi-cial. Sources also said that a body underNAB ‘Pre Vento’ is being made activeto counter corruption and financial em-bezzlement in government institutions,about which the NAB chairman had an-nounced earlier. They said further it hasbeen noticed that the FBR sometimesmisused its responsibilities and issuedspecial SRO and made changes in theduties, which apparently benefited somespecific organisation, which did not pro-vide equal opportunities to the investors.The investors have expressed reserva-tions on the alleged changes in the du-ties, while some investors have planedto shift their investments from the coun-try, which would cause a massive lossto the country, sources said. On a recentcomplaint NAB has taken notice, underwhich some plastic manufacturing com-panies have been allegedly benefited.

Sources said that there was only onecompany in the country which providedraw material to the plastic manufactur-ing companies, for benefiting the com-

pany the FBR had increased the dutiesand taxes over import of plastic raw ma-terial, so that any other company couldnot import plastic raw material.

ecp not to be dissolved,cec not to be removed:law minister

KaraChi

AGEnciES

Federal Minister for Law Farooq H Naik said on Sundaythat the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had beenformed in the light of the constitution, therefore, neither thebody would be dissolved nor the chief electioncommissioner would be removed. Talking to reporters, thelaw minister said that it was the president’s discretion toannounce the date for the next general elections, and thathe (president) would himself make the announcement inthis regard. He said the president would dissolve theassemblies on the advice of the prime minister. Naek saidthat the consensus of the chief ministers of the fourprovinces was mandatory to hold elections of national andprovincial assemblies on the same day. Naik further saidthat the prime minister and the opposition leader wouldhold consultations for the caretaker set up. He said that theagreement with Dr Tahirul Qadri was intact.

uk hosts thirdtrilateral summit onafghanistan peace

LonDon

AGEnciES

The trilateral summit involving Pakistan‚ Afghanistan andBritain is being held here on Sunday to discuss peace inthe Central Asian region. President Asif Ali Zardari,British Prime Minister David Cameron and AfghanPresident Hamid Karzai will attend the summit. The threeleaders will assess the joint strategy for giving impetus toreconciliation process to ensure long-term stability inAfghanistan. A spokesman of the British prime ministersaid that for the first time the political and securityestablishments from both Afghanistan and Pakistan‚including foreign ministers‚ chiefs of army staff‚ chiefs ofintelligence and the chief of the Afghan High PeaceCouncil were attending the meeting. Discussions areexpected to focus on the Afghan-led peace process andhow Pakistan and the international community can supportit. As the deadline for the withdrawal of NATO and ISAFforces draws near‚ there is added urgency in the efforts ofthe international community to foster a political settlementbetween the Afghan government and the Taliban to keepAfghanistan peaceful and stable, the spokesman added.This will be the third trilateral meeting hosted by the UK.The first was held in Kabul in July when Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf visited theAfghan capital. The secondwas held in the US at thesidelines of the UNGeneral Assembly in NewYork in September. Afghanofficials attending theconference includeForeign Minister ZalmaiRasoul, National SecurityAdviser Rangin DadfarSpanta, Afghan NationalArmy Chief of Staff ShirMohammad Karimi, Chairmanof the High Peace CouncilSalahuddin Rabbani, Director ofTransition Commission DrAshraf Ghani Ahmadzai,Karzai’s internationalrelations adviser YahyaMarofiand, and Karzai’sspokesman Aimal Faizi.President Asif Ali Zardarihas already reachedLondon for thesummit.

presIdent ZardarIreaches london toattend the suMMIt

NAB starts probe into FBR’sillegal increase in taxes

fBr has IncreaseddutIes and taxes onIMport of plastIcraw MaterIal to Barothers froMIMportIng MaterIal

LAHORE: Activists of Ahl-e-Hadees Youth Force burn an effigy of Indian PM during a demonstration to show solidarity with the Kashmiris at Ravi Road on Sunday. OnLinE

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:51 AM Page 11

Just heard Moeed Pirzada (is) in process of

working with NAB on media accountability

for Rs 1 million. — Ayesha Siddiqa

ranBir kaPoorto not aCt in reMakeSO

n one hand, where established

Bollywood

stars like

Aamir Khan,

Akshay Kumar,

Salman

Khanand Ajay

Devgn have

set the cash

registers at the

box office ringing

with Bollywood

remakes of South flicks,

youth icon Ranbir Kapoor is one actor

who wants to stay away from remakes,

it seems. Sources close to the Barfi!

boy claim that Ranbir has been

approached by many producers, who

want him to act in South remakes, but

the actor keeps turning them down

firmly. Buzz has it that the Kapoor

Prince has a policy of not working in

remakes. Kapoor, who won accolades

for his role in Barfi!, will be next seen

in Abhinav Kashyap's Besharam and

Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai

Deewani. nEwS DESK

Chitrangda to participate in national level shooting

AFTER receiving rave reviews for

her latest releaseInkaar,

Chitrangda Singh is now all set

to don yet another hat. This time that

of a shooter, as she is getting all

geared to participate at the national

level skeet shooting (aka target

shooting) competition. Talking about

the same, Chitrangda said that she has

just started training for skeet shooting.

While she is using her brother's gun

(as he is a national level shooter

himself), she is getting her gun

custom-made. From bollywood

hungama nEwS DESK

artS

AMonday, 4 February, 2013

12

theo

Dore

rooS

eVel

t

Like no other president, TheodoreRoosevelt consumed books at an awe-inspiring rate of one a day when busyand two to three when he had a freeevening, according to biographerEdmund Morris. He was an omnivorousreader, happy to consume any sort ofbook because it both satisfied his naturalcuriosity and afforded him a fewmoments of “complete rest and completedetachment from the fighting of themoment.” But few authors influenced hismilitary career and presidency more thanAdmiral Alfred Thayer Mahan. Hisseminal military text, The Influence ofSea Power Upon History, was largelyresponsible for shaping Roosevelt’simperialistic thought. Naturalist writers,such as Audubon and Spencer FullertonBaird, also spoke to his penchant for thenatural sciences and made thepreservation of America’s natural beautyone of his priorities.

thoM

aS Je

ffer

Son

When the British burned the3,000-volume Library of Congress,the president with a self-described“canine appetite for reading”stepped in. He immediately offeredCongress between 9,000 and10,000 volumes from his personalcollection as a replacement—Congress ultimately took the entirecollection, which amounted to6,487. Jefferson read so copiously,even in languages like French,Italian, and Spanish, that he oncedesigned a rotating bookstand thatallowed him to consult five booksat a time. He also devoted thelatter years of his life tocollecting, building relationshipswith every bookseller in NewYork and Philadelphia, along withmany more across the Atlantic.For the range of his reading, hecomes in third.

aBra

haM

linCo

ln

Few presidents are as famous fortheir elegant a d profound writingand speeches as Lincoln and yet noother president had as little formaleducation as he did. But from anearly age he read and reread ThePilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyanand Aesop’s Fables, before movingon to Thomas Paine’s CommonSense, Shakespeare and theRomantic poets. Lincoln read deeplyin the classics but, according toDavid Herbert Donald’s Lincoln,“fiction did not interest him.” Whilehe had a small library compared toothers, he was the deepest reader ofthe lot. Lincoln’s favourite booksincluded Aesop's Fables, Hamlet,Macbeth, Pilgrim's Progress by JohnBunyon, A History of GeneralGeorge Washington by ParsonWeems and The Bible.

John

f ken

neDy

Known forever for his youthful looksand racy behavior, Kennedy mightseem a surprising inclusion in this list,but he is one of the few presidents tohave a bona fide bestseller, Profiles inCourage, before he even served. Anyman that asked Robert Frost to read athis inauguration and ArthurSchlesinger Jr. to join his Cabinetmust have a passion for literature, andKennedy was an impressive and wide-ranging reader, with an Anglophilebent in his taste for John Buchan’sthrillers, Edward Gibbon’s TheDecline and Fall of the RomanEmpire, and Churchill’s biography ofMarlborough.

riCh

arD n

ixon

“As you know, I kind of like toread books. I am not educated,but I do read books.” In hisfarewell speech as president,Richard Nixon took the time tomake this defensive but trueremark. While no intellectual, ashe was fond of pointing out,Nixon was an avid reader, who,according to Conrad Black,would often retreat to a secretroom in the Old ExecutiveOffice to read and nap. Hisfavorite authors were Tolstoyand the conservative historianPaul Johnson.

Well-reaDaMeriCanPreSiDentS

8 at a panel at the los angeles times festival of Books this year, three distinguishedauthors discussed their work. after about 45 minutes of talk of craft and inspiration, thepanel was opened up to questions from the audience. one by one the readers and writers(you are either or both if you hold a ticket to this panel) stood up from creaking UClalecture hall seats to inquire about character development or how to query an agent.toward the end, a twenty-something man popped up from his seat and, in a tone of puredesperation, asked the three fiction writers where they did their writing. nEwS DESK

"I do most of my writing in my home office, at myunbelievably messy desk. It's by far my favorite placeto write--my cats and my music are there, and it's avery peaceful room. I live in Brooklyn and work at auniversity in Manhattan, and I get off work in themid-afternoon. Often if I have theatre tickets or someother plans that require me to be in Manhattan thatevening, I'll linger at work for a few hours. When thathappens, I go to the library at the university where Iwork and write there for a while. Often, very often,I'll find myself writing in the subway. I spend twohours a day on the F train, five days a week, and Ialways carry a notebook with me."

emily St John MandelaUthor of laSt night in Montreal anD the Singer'S gUn

"Usually it's trains where I get the most writing

done--I wish I could get a residency from Amtrak

on a sleeper car, or an office booth in a cafe car. I

recently had a residency at a colony in Florida,

where I had two days of writing 17 pages a day,

and it would have continued if I hadn't had to

leave. I think anonymity and displacement help me

no matter where I am--I need to feel like I've van-

ished and no one can find me."

alexander CheeaUthor of eDinBUrgh anD the forthCoMing theQUeen of the night

"I live in a tiny apartment in New York and can some-

times be found writing first thing in the mornings at a

cafe, if I can find a good table, but I don't stay there for

long. There are the crowds. The noise. I can't control the

music on the stereo. The real place where I get most of

my writing done is called the Writers Room. Billed as an

urban writers' colony in New York City, it's a place for

writers of all genres to go for space, quiet, and uninter-

rupted time to work. At various desks in the giant loft

space of the Writers Room, I've written, no exaggeration,

thousands of pages. When you pay for an 'office space'

like this and have a dedicated place to go, one filled with

other working writers typing up their own pages, it makes

you all the more motivated to do your own work."

nova ren SumaaUthor of Dani noir anD iMaginary girlS

Simon Pegg and NickFrost decide to rideout the zombieapocalypse in thebooze-filled, if hard todefend, environs of aLondon pub indirector EdgarWright's delightful,and delightfullyunpleasant, rom-zom-com. Watch out forcameos from half ofColdplay and all ofMartin Freeman.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)Like a few other films onthis list, Sam Raimi'scabin-in-the-woods taleis not a zombie movie inthe strict, as framed byGeorge A. Romero,definition of the genreand we could spend acouple of hours arguingas to whether it should befeatured here. Or wecould spend the timewatching BruceCampbell hilariouslybattle possessed corpses.

evil Dead ii (1987)A bunch of college kids— including ChrisHemsworth, Fran Kranz,and Kristen Connolly —face off against a familyof undead redneck craziesduring a weekend awayin the woods. Although,as fans of Joss Whedonand Drew Goddard'sgenre-subvertingcomedy-horror moviewill be aware, that'sreally just the tip of themonster-berg.

the Cabin in the WoodsThe first and best, ofthe Return... moviesbegan life as a novelpenned by Night of theLiving Dead cocreatorJohn Russo but theresult is a world awayfrom that film's grimnightmares thanks towriter-director DanO'Bannon'sdementedly hilarioushelming. A Return ofthe Living Deaddocumentary.

the return of the living

nEw

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ES

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nEw

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ESK

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:51 AM Page 12

So Kashmiri girls don’t have the right to

sing? Since when? Music will prevail as will

their freedom. — Barkha Dutt

13ARTSMonday, 4 February, 2013

A

The magical word for Bollywood in 2012was the 100-crore-club, as more than halfa dozen films made it in the club.

Films like Agneepath, Housefull 2, EkTha Tiger, Rowdy Rathore, Jab Tak HaiJaan and Son of Sardaar were the filmswhich entered the club, and were declaredas the biggest hit of the year. The successof these films based on the collection atthe domestic box office and overseas mar-ket, glorifies its mass appeal, but, doesn'treally decide the quality of the films.

Most films which were panned by thefilm reviewers went on to become thebiggest hits at the box office. In the lastfew years, inane, mindless and masalamovies have hit the 100 crore club whichonly underlines the fact that the averagemovie-goer enjoys the regular entertain-ment. Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Ra Onewith a weak script or a mindless masalafilm Son of Sardaar or a cheap comedyHousefull 2, Rohit Shetty's Golmaal seriesdespite its flaws managed to make a lot ofmoney at the box office.

"We need to bow down to the audi-ence and their verdict at the box office. In-

dian audience enjoys films which are fullof entertainment and high on emotionsand that's the reason that such film be-come a hit at the box office," says tradeanalyst Taran Adarsh. "Star power is an-other major factor that dominates the mar-ket. Indian audience worships their staricons. The star power too helps in pump-ing the success rate," he goes on to add.

Adarsh points at the trend in the 80swhen art filmmakers like Shyam Benegal,Govind Nihlani, Prakash Jha and KetanMehta came up with strong art house cin-ema, Amitabh Bachchan ruled the box of-fice with his mass entertainers."Bachchan's masala films which werecriticized to be trite were the one's whichmade maximum profit at the box office asthe audience loved it," he adds.

In the current scenario, Bollywood ismaking place for both small and big budgetfilm. The strategy of filmmakers making afilm on shoestring budget is simple-theywant to narrate a good story on celluloidand make profit based on their limited pro-duction cost. Ranbir Kapoor starrer Barfi!blurred the thin lining between the two cat-

egories. The film made on a budget ofRs.30 crore went on to make a profit ofRs.175 crore. "I would rather touch a 100hearts than bother about a making a mean-ingless film which makes a 100 croreclub," Anurag Basu, director of Barfi! hadsaid at the release of the film. Anurag

Kashyap who released several small filmslike Gangs of Wasseypur series, Luv ShuvTey Chicken Khurana and Aiyyaa wantsBollywood to think beyond the 100 croreclub. "I want the films to enter 500 croreclub but only by elevating the quality of thefilm. nEwS DESK

mindless movies with superstar power makeit to the rs 100-crore-club of bollywood

The man who oversaw the raid thatkilled Osama bin Laden, ex-CIAdirector Leon Panetta, vouched Friday

for "Zero Dark Thirty," calling it a"good movie" even though the taleof the biggest manhunt in historyhad to be simplified for the bigscreen. "It's a movie," Panettasaid, laughing. "And it's a goodmovie. But I lived the real story,"he told AFP in an interview.Panetta, who is due to step downas US defense secretary thismonth, said the film should notbe seen as a historical account ofthe secret operation that he wasintimately involved with as thehead of the CIA from 2009 to2011. "It's a little tough for me totake everything I saw and all ofthe work that was done and thatwas involved in that operation...

and all of the people that worked atit and think you could put that all into

a two-hour movie. You really can't."But Panetta indicated that the Oscar-nominated film did convey some senseof the years of legwork it took the CIAto track down the Al-Qaedamastermind. "I think people ought tomake their own judgments. There areparts of it that give you a good senseof how the intelligence operations dowork. But I also think people in theend have to understand that it isn't adocumentary, it's a movie." The film,starring Jessica Chastain as arelentless CIA officer, suggests thattorture and abuse of some suspectshelped generate information that ledto the May 2011 raid that ultimatelytook out bin Laden. The portrayal has

sparked criticism from some senators,rights advocates and even the actinghead of the CIA, Michael Morell. ButPanetta said harsh interrogationmethods, including water boarding orsimulated drowning, did play a role inlocating bin Laden, though not adecisive one. "The whole effort ingoing after bin Laden involved 10years of work, in piecing togethervarious pieces of intelligence that weregathered. And there's no question thatsome of the intelligence gathered wasa result of some of these methods," hesaid. "But I think it's difficult to saythat they were the critical element. Ithink they were part of the vast puzzlethat you had to put together in orderto ultimately locate where bin Ladenwas." Asked if the Al-Qaeda leaderwould have been discovered evenwithout the interrogation methodswidely condemned as torture, Panettasaid: "I think we would have foundhim, even without that piece of thepuzzle." The CIA and the Pentagoncooperated heavily with thefilmmakers, who were given access toofficials and even offered a meetingwith a Navy SEAL commando familiarwith the raid. Panetta declined tooffer a critique of how he wasportrayed on screen by Hollywoodstar James Gandolfini. "Somebodycame up to me and said I saw you inthat movie but you lost a lot ofweight," he joked And Panetta, whooften speaks of his Italian immigrantparents, said he was grateful the actorchosen to play him shared his Italian-American heritage. "You know, I'mglad that it was an Italian." nEwS DESK

NOTABLE

if ure child contracts #polio u willrealize how terrible disease is-he/she can never run- will b ridiculedin school- handicapped 4ever

SharMeen oBaiD

Donate some money to promotewomen in the media! your daughterswill thank you.

Bina Shah

riP good friend, fellow journalist, theever-smiling ayesha haroon. you weretoo young to go ayesha. What a loss.

aBBaS naSir

Who started this 'don't enforce thefollow-on' malaise which afflicts testcricket? Don't teams like the sound of'inning's defeat' anymore?

kaMila ShaMSie

TWEETS

Channing Tatum:Preparing forfatherhood's like warIf People magazine's Sexiest Man Alivelooks a little rough around the edges thenext time you see him, it's because he'spreparing for war. Er, we mean fatherhood -which, to Channing Tatum, is sort of likepreparing for battle. “I shaved my head. I'vegot a year's supply of food in thebasement," Tatum joked with CNN whilespeaking about his new movie with RooneyMara, "Side Effects." The 32-year-oldearned his People magazine title inNovember, and it wasn't long after that herevealed he's expecting his first child withwife Jenna Dewan-Tatum. But in allseriousness, "I'm literally just enjoyingevery single day of it," Tatum continued."It's been awesome. I don't have to carrythe baby. So I've been sort of, like, playingbaby catcher. Just in case she sneezes and itpops out.” nEwS DESK

Vidya Balan to play Indira Gandhi in biopic?Vidya Balan, who is considered one of themost talented actresses after her mind-blowing performance in films like Ishqiya,The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, recentlyrevealed that she will be a part of a biopicsoon. Though she did not divulge muchabout the project, sources claim that thefilm would be about the life of the lateIndira Gandhi. Vidya Balan, who recentlytied the knot with UTV Motion Pictureshead honcho Siddharth Roy Kapur,confirmed that she would be a part of abiopic, though claimed that she cannotreveal much as she is bound by contract.Balan will be next seen in Ghanchakkaropposite Emraan Hashmi and in the sequelto Kahaani, which willalso be set inKolkata. In thepast, actressSuchitra Senhad played arole said tobe looselyinspired byIndiraGandhi inthe 1975filmAandhi.nEwS DESK

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:51 AM Page 13

onLine

SO you might not be anewspaper who plans to runan expose on the finances ofthe Chinese centralcommittee. But if you’re a

journalist, an academic, or a nationalsecurity professional, there’s a startlinglydecent chance that the Chinese intelligenceapparatus wants to get inside your brain.

There’s an information asymmetry,though. Regular folks know only as muchas our government tells us about thetactics, techniques, and procedures used byforeign governments to spy on us.Investigative journalism helps fill in partof the picture, but huge gaps remain. Ourspies don’t want THEIR spies to knowhow much WE know about them. And yetthose who might have access to thatinformation still live most of their lives inan unclassified world. How do they protectthemselves?

What follows are tips from the pros.All of it is unclassified, but it’s straight upknowledge from those whose job it is toprotect servers and domains fromsophisticated cyber criminals and spies.

1. MAKE youRSELF A HARD

TARgET

* Use a VPN service as anintermediary (eg: anonymizer.com). Interms of remote exploitation, this canmake things harder (sometimesimpossible) for a state actor unless they’vegot a lot of data on your online presencealready. At the very minimum, you’reremoving the easy options from the tableand making them decided if they reallywant to work for it.

* Use Chrome. It’s not perfect, butit’s less likely to get you successfullyremotely exploited by orders of

magnitude. You also benefit from a smallerand typically personal (in other words,non-corporate) and more savvy user base.

In aggregate, these make it hard tojustify development resources againstInternet Explorer/Firefox, which are likelybeing used in the corporate networks thatstates want access to, and 50-year-old orolder users who financial scammers andspammers are hoping for.

Or — use Linux (Ubuntu, for day-to-day desktop use). Again, it’s not perfect,but much of the same logic behind Chromeapplies (especially for web-based remoteexploitation). The small installed base ofdesktop users really helps here. This is stilltrue for Macs, but not to the same degreedue to increasing market share (the soledriver of increased development interest).Perhaps you could say, then, ‘don’t useWindows.’

2. DoN’T JAILBREAK

* Seriously, don’t jailbreak yoursmartphone. If you do, you’re pretty muchasking for any random drive-by remoteexploit if you do it, and this is quadruplytrue for Androidplatforms. If you don’tjailbreak phones, stickwith an iPhone. Unlessyou’re logging into aservice and providingpersonal data, it’s nearlyimpossible to tell oneiPhone user from anotherover cellular or common-use WiFi networks.

3. uSE youR

SMARTpHoNE AS

oFTEN AS you CAN

* When a smartphone ortablet app equivalent exists fora website, particularly a commonone (eg, gmail), use it instead.

Remote exploits that get people in troubleare all targeting PC web browsers becauseof their ubiquity in day-to-day use and thelimited target set to develop to (IE,Firefox, Safari, Chrome). It is extremelyresource intensive to target apps one-by-one, and they’re improved so frequentlythat the return on interest doesn’t exist tokeep up. If you’re surfing the web, useyour smartphone or tablet then too. Thesesystems are substantially more lockeddown than PCs, so any access that aremote exploit may attain is likely to bemore limited. Also, these devices arerarely given full access to valuablenetwork services or data the same way PCsare in Windows domains. So it’s not thatthere aren’t actual riskshere, but the valuepropositiontypicallyresults ineffortsbeingfocused onlower

hanging fruit that can bear out more accessgrowth opportunities.

4. ASSuME THAT EVERy NoN-

SECuRE CoMpuTER IS ALREADy

CoMpRoMISED

* Change the default password onyour ISP’s cable/fibre box and turn off theremote access features. They’re all stillthere for the ISP, but at least you’ve madeit harder. At the minimum, put a firewall(another access point like an AirportExtreme, for example) between you andthat box and do not use any of its services(eg, DHCP). You will *never* be able tosecure it.

* Things that protect you only fromnewbies and script kiddies but, for thisreason, you should still do: anti-virus, long

passwords, firewalls.Finally, NEVER check your

email or Facebook or somethingfrom a public computer — it is

worth waiting. Assume thatcomputer is compromised.

etch a sketchcreator andrecassagnes diesWhile tinkering in his garage, French

electrician Andre Cassagnes dreamed

up a drawing toy that kids could

shake up and start over. Little did he

know that more than 50 years later,

the toy that became the Etch A

Sketch would continue to delight

children. Cassagnes died January 16

in a Paris suburb at age 86, according

to a statement released Saturday by

The Ohio Art Company. His cause of

his death was not disclosed.

Cassagnes created what would

become the Etch A Sketch in his

garage in 1950. The drawing toy was

made up of a joystick, glass and

aluminum powder. Initially dubbed

the Telecran, the toy was renamed

L'Ecran Magique, or 'The Magic

Screen,' and made its debut at a toy

fair in nuremberg, Germany, in 1959.

Fascinated by the invention, American

Henry Winzeler, founder and

president of The Ohio Art Company,

licensed L'Ecran Magique for $25,000

and introduced it as Etch A Sketch in

the United States in 1960. cnn

physicists createworld’s firstmultiverse ofuniverses in the labResearchers at the University of

Maryland, College Park and Towson

University are reporting that they

have created multiple universes

inside a laboratory-created multiverse

— a world first.

To be exact, the researchers created

a metamaterial — like those used to

fashion invisibility cloaks — that,

when light passes through it, multiple

universes are formed within it. These

universes, called Minkowski

spacetimes, are similar to our own,

except they more neatly tie up

Einstein’s theory of special relativity by

including time as a fourth dimension.

While this is rather extraordinary, the

experimental setup is actually quite

simple — though definitely rather

unconventional. The multiverse is

created inside a solution of cobalt in

kerosene. This fluid isn’t usually

considered a metamaterial, but lead

researcher Igor Smolyaninov and co

found that by applying a magnetic

field, the ferromagnetic nanoparticles

of cobalt line up in neat columns.

When light passes through these

columns, it behaves as if it’s in a

Minkowski universe. To create multiple

universes, the researchers fine-tuned

the amount of cobalt in the fluid until

there wasn’t quite enough to form the

nanocolumns. natural variations in

the fluid mean that some regions still

have enough cobalt to form the

columns, and thus new universes. As

the fluid moves the columns collapse,

multiple universes constantly pop in

and out of existence. There are two

key takeaways here: First,

metamaterials are usually rather hard

to manufacture — and yet here the

researchers have seemingly discovered

a self-organizing metamaterial.

Second, this is the first ever time that

new universes have been created in a

laboratory setting. nEwS DESK

The intuitive mind is sacred gift and the rational

mind its faithful servant. Our society honours the

servant and has forgotten the gift –Albert Einstein

infotainMent

IMonday, 4 February, 2013

14

The approaching year of the snake on theChinese calendar will ring in a new era ofopulence for DARTZ Motorz Company,the Latvia-based luxury tank manufacturer.The Black Snake, the company’s first non-armoured vehicle, is based on theMercedes GL 63 AMG and is geared onlyat the Chinese market with an even moresybaritic model, the Black Falcon, to arrivein the Middle East later this year.

The Black Snake is now thecentrepiece of the brand with highperformance, all-wheel drive offerings andthe usual garnishing of diamond-encrustedhood ornaments. No price has beennamed, but it’s expected to cost well over$1,000,000. The Black Snake tries tomimic the first-rate comfort of the S-Classwith the performance of an AMG vehicle.The AMG 5.5-litre V8 bi-turbo engine has557 hp and a maximum torque of 560 lb-ft of torque. The AMG RIDE CONTROLsports suspension provides high-leveldriving dynamics. It goes 0 to 60 in 4.9seconds–enough to get your garden varietyoligarch out of trouble in a hurry.

Run by Leonard F Yankelovich,DARTZ goes by the tagline “Bullet ProofTrend Setters” and operates out of the oldRusso-Balt factory in Riga. The company

makes armoured tanks like the T-98 Kombat(which goes for a measly $225,000) and the$1-million Prombron, which has the famousaccoutrements like whale foreskin leather,the same as used on Aristotle Onassis’syacht. The company, which also builds the$1.6 million Dartz Prombron Monaco RedDiamond Edition, outfitted armouredvehicles for Czar Nicholas II, VladimirLenin and Leon Trotsky. Fittingly, AdmiralGeneral Aladeen, Sacha Baron Cohen’scharacter in his film The Dictator, drives onesuch DARTZ vehicle, the auto distributorfor princes, titans of industry, and(historically) Soviet leaders.

SupERFLuouS opuLENCE

The body of the Black Snake is madefrom space aluminium using the Soviet“kapsula” technology first employed forJoseph Stalin’s armoured car. The vehiclehas a radiator grille with golden flourishes,and the hood of this Chinese edition vehiclewill be covered with leaf gold formed likesnakeskin. There’s even an optionaldiamond hood ornament from SmolenskKristall. The lap of luxury has seats madeout of the exotic leather of your choice–snake, crocodile belly, ostrich, and whalepenis. The seats feature double topstitchingin contrasting colours and DARTZ badges

to commemorate the year of the snake. Thedashboard, armrests and door panellingcome in snake wood. The floor mats madefrom white shark skin. Yankelovich despisesthe term SUV when used about his vehicles.“For DARTZ customers who don’t use theirbig cars for off-loading, don’t deliver a messfrom the farms or weekly food from thesupermarket, why do they still have to driveSUVs?” he asks. Instead, he calls themBNOs (Bespoke, Noble, and Opulent). Theostentation of the Black Snake will cater tothe tastes Chinese market, but the price tag,with six zeroes safely slapped on the end,is a far cry from the average price for a newvehicle in the US–just a hair under $30,000,according to the National AutomobileDealers Association.

So WHy Do pEopLE NEED

SuCH A BESpoKE CAR?

“A lady will never go to party in thesame dress as another,” Yankelovich said.“But still she will easily come to a party inthe same black S500, or the same whiteBentley GT, or the same grey PorscheCayenne? It will be a serial car in serialstyle.” That’s the wrong approach and plaincomplacency, according to Yankelovich.The hunger for distinctive elements in avehicle, he feels, is necessary andsymptomatic of a country like China withvastly expanding wealth and consumerswho increasingly yearn to be unique.

For sports car lovers there are tons oflabels that make bespoke cars like Pagani,Koeniggsegg, Zenvo, Panoz and so on. ButDARTZ is the only company that dubs upyour big car. “It will be your bullet-proofinvestment–and not because it will protectyou from bullets,” Yankelovich said. “Butbecause it will save your money, as the caris a 21-century masterpiece.” In otherwords, paying a premium for a car is invain if it’s just like another Rolls-RoycePhantom Drophead Coupé pulling up tothe Ritz. If that’s not convincing enough,there’s something to sweeten the deal:Every owner gets 56 g of premium Mottracaviar delivered monthly for the two-yearwarranty time. There’s also the chance topurchase three types of RussoBaltiqueVodka with your choice of a diamond filter.

Ready to roll? nEwS DESK

$1m luxury vehicle designedfor China's year of the snake

how to not get hacked by china

sick of yourcolleagues?Why not workin a bubble!It would have taken a brave soul

to first bring one of these into

the office, but the French-

designed bubble desk has just

taken off in Paris and protects

the worker under a plexiglas

dome, cutting them off from the

rest of their colleagues. It

comes as part of a complete

office design that includes a

giant communal desk, eight

Ficus Panda Trees, a cloakroom

and a kitchen. It ensures the

worker remains detached from

the sneezes and banter of daily

office life although quite what it

does for one's popularity

remains to be seen

The Bubble Desk Office designed

by Christian Pottgiesser ensures

you no longer have to hear or

laugh at your colleagues' jokes.

The thinking behind the bubble

desk is that offers the worker

privacy while still being

connected to a large, communal

desk. It is a modern take on

partitioned office space popular

in the 1980s and which offered

privacy but no visibility or

sense of connection to

colleagues. The trees are

designed to compensate for the

lack of scenery and are rooted

into beds of soil buried out of

sight. cOURTESy DAiLyMAiL

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:52 AM Page 14

WoMen WorlD CUP(

(

australia prevail oversouth africa

CUttaCK

AGEnciES

Australia Women sealed their spot in

the Super Six stage of the ICC

Women’s World Cup with a three-

wicket win over South Africa in Cuttack

on Sunday. Set a target of only 189 to

chase, the Australian innings looked a

little shaky before partnerships

between opener Rachael Haynes and

middle-order batsmen Lisa Sthalekar

and skipper Jodie Fields sealed the

match for Australia.

Fast bowler Shabnim Ismail was the

most effective fast bowler for South

Africa, pegging back the Australian

chase with quick top-order strikes. A

59-run partnership between Haynes

and Sthalekar steadied the innings.

Haynes then added another 57 runs

with Jodie Fields before the former was

dismissed for 83. Erin Osborne and

Ellyse Perry then combined to take

their side home in the 46th over.

South Africa, who chose to bat first,

were two wickets down without a run

on the board after fast bowler Perry

struck quickly to dismiss opener

Yolandi Potgieter and captain Mignon

du Preez. Trisha Chetty and Marizanne

Kapp then added 122 runs for the third

wicket to lend some stability to their

side’s effort. Their dismissals in the

space of four overs, however, put the

brakes on the South African innings,

which eventually ended at 188.

SCoreS: australIawoMen 190 for 7

(haynes 83, IsMaIl 4-41)Beat south afrIca

woMen 188 for 9 (kapp61, chetty 59, perry 3-35) By three wIckets

Of course I will be supporting United

when they take on Real Madrid. It would

be another two games for them. – Mancini

SPORTS

SMonday, 4 February, 2013

15

taylor, dottin batsl out of match

MUMBai

AGEnciES

West Indies’ Merissa Aguilleira and Sri

Lanka’s Shashikala Siriwardene ahead of

their World Cup match, West Indies v Sri

Lanka, Women’s World Cup 2013,

Mumbai, February 3, 2013

The West Indies-Sri Lanka game turned

out to be not much of a contest © MIG

Club

A flamboyant knock of 171 from opener

Stafanie Taylor helped West Indies

Women crush Sri Lanka Women by 209

runs in a Group A match at the MIG

Ground in Mumbai. Taylor’s hundred and

a powerful, 20-ball 50 from Deandra

Dottin took West Indies to 368 for 8, their

highest ODI score. In reply, Sri Lanka

were dismissed for 159 runs with ten

overs to spare, giving the West Indies

their first win of the tournament.

Taylor, who was named the ICC Women’s

ODI Cricketer of the Year in 2012 and the

Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2011,

also broke her own record for the highest

individual score by a West Indian batsman

in women’s cricket, surpassing her innings

of 147 against netherlands in 2010.

Scores: West Indies Women 368 for 8

(Taylor 171, Dottin 50, Siriwardene 2-58)

beat Sri Lanka Women 159 (Rasangika

28, Quintyne 3-32) by 209 runs

CUttaCK

AGEnciES

RACHEL Candy’s maidenfive-wicket haul ininternational cricket setup New Zealand’s seven-wicket victory against

Pakistan in a Group B Women’s WorldCup game at the Barabati Stadium onSunday. The win ensured the White Fernsa place in Super Six.

Candy was the star of the day, forcinga breakthrough in each of her three spells todismiss Pakistan for a paltry 104. Havingbeen dismissed for 84, chasing Australia’stotal of 175, Pakistan adopted a cautiousapproach after choosing to bat first. The toporder seemed to be concentrating more onoccupying the crease rather than scoringruns. Accurate spells by Candy and LeaTahuhu put pressure on the batsmen. Theopeners, Javeria Khan and Sidra Amin,hardly looked comfortable at the crease andCandy got her first wicket when Javeria’sattempted square cut lobbed to Bates atpoint.

The early wicket put captain Sana Mirand Amin on the defensive and the duoscored only six runs in the next five overs.Amin was the first to be dismissed, caughtby Amy Satterthwaite off Broadmore’sbowling. Her 35-ball vigil at the creaseyielded only four runs. Mir followed inthe next over, trapped leg before by Candyand Pakistan were 18 for 3 in 10 overs.Pakistan’s innings never recovered fromthat situation and the side was dismissedcheaply for the second time in three days.

New Zealand lived up to the tag ofbeing the favourites by coming up with asecond formidable performance. Their

bowlers struck at regular intervals andPakistan would have struggled to reach thethree-figure mark if the bowlers had notconceded 11 wides. New Zealand’s chasestuttered a little when Sana Mir picked uptwo wickets in two balls, leaving the

batting side at 39 for 3. It was left to captainSuzie Bates to lead her side’s innings withan unbeaten knock of 65. With SophieDevine, the star of the opening matchmissing, Katie Perkins stepped up andprovided some much-needed support to

Bates to ensure that New Zealand strodehome with more than 20 overs to spare.

Scores: New Zealand Women 108 for3 (Bates 65*, Perkins 25*) beat Pakistan104 (Asmavia 21, Candy 5-19, Browne 2-12) by seven wickets

candY shines For nz

CUttaCK

AGEnciES

For every tourist in Cuttack, a visit to theremains of the Barabati Fort and theDeer Park not very far from it, on thebanks of the Mahanadi River, is a must.However, despite being based at walkingdistance from both, the PakistanWomen’s team can’t take a trip to either.

Not just because they are focused onmaking their presence felt at the ongoingWomen’s World Cup. It has more to dowith security reasons, after tension onthe Indo-Pak border in the lead-up to thetournament had put a question mark overtheir participation.

As a result, Pakistan has had to stayapart from the other three teams in theirgroup, who are all put up in the same hotelin Cuttack’s twin city of Bhubaneswar;Pakistan stay within the Barabati Stadiumpremises, at the adjoining Odisha CricketAssociation Academy. On the upside, theacademy’s accommodation boasts

facilities as good as any other hotel intown and the team doesn’t have to take theone-hour bus ride to and from the stadiumevery day. “Everything is good over here,but we wouldn’t mind that [bus journey],”Pakistan captain Sana Mir toldESPNcricinfo after their training at theBarabati Stadium on Friday, the eve oftheir second group tie against NewZealand.

Mir, one of the senior most pros inthe team, had a taste of Indian cultureduring the Asia Cup in 2006. Now, shefeels for the “fourto five girls whoare visiting Indiafor the first time”.“It’s a shamebecause the lasttime when I cameto India, my imageof India changed alot,” she said.“Despite thehistoric rivalrybetween the twocountries, thepeople here werereally amazing.And we took a lotof love back toPakistan. And I justwanted this newgeneration of Pakistan girls to feel thatlove and warmth. Unfortunately, due tothe circumstances, we can’t have that.”

Moreover, Mir and her team-matesare missing out on savouring thecompany of the other teams - thediscussions about the game and thesampling of new cultures, which usuallygo with the territory of a big, globalsporting event. “Our pool has wonderfulteams like Australia, New Zealand andSouth Africa. New Zealanders,especially, have been really friendlyalways,” Mir said. “When we stay at the

same hotel, we walk up to senior playersand learn a lot from them. “That hasbeen taken away [this time around].Hopefully we can sit together with thembefore the group stage finishes and wehead off to the next stage.”

In the first half of their tournamentopener against formidable Australia onThursday, Pakistan produced one of theirbest performances with the ball but thenlet themselves down with the bat. Mir isdoing everything she can to keep theirmorale up after that mediocre showing

with the bat; afterthe team trained forwell over 90minutes, thePakistan captaingave them a longpep-talk.

“I justreminded them thatit has been a longjourney for thisPakistan team tocome and play inthis World Cup. Wehave tried hard andshowed againstAustralia that weare capable ofstretching anyteam. We just need

to apply ourselves better with the bat andthat’s what the emphasis would be onagainst New Zealand tomorrow.”

Their subcontinent counterparts SriLanka surprising England in Mumbaiwas encouraging for her team, Mir said:“We have a lot to draw from what theyhave achieved, it was great to see SriLanka beating England yesterday. Theirvictory and our performance with theball has shown that the gap between thetop four and the bottom four is reducing.We just hope we can narrow it downfurther going ahead in the tournament.”

million for maxwellon day of surprises

MeLBoUrne

AGEnciES

The IPL 2013 auction was supposed to be

a relatively quiet one where settled

franchises looked to fill in a couple of

holes in their squads but, as is the case

every year, it had plenty of surprises.

Most of the biggest earners were players

barely known outside their home

countries, while marquee names like

Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting

attracted only one bid each.

Australia’s Glenn Maxwell talked himself

up as his side’s X-factor at the World

Twenty20 last year, and though he

flopped there, Mumbai Indians splurged a

million dollars for his services. “He is an

upcoming youngster,” nita Ambani, owner

of the Mumbai Indians, said. “He can bat,

bowl and I think he is a great fielder. We

had thought of some names before we

came here and he was one of them.”

Australia have a wealth of young fast

bowlers but few would have bet that the

one getting the largest paycheque would

be 21-year-old South Australian Kane

Richardson, who was bought by Pune

Warriors for $700,000.

iPl 2013 aUCtion(

(

Sana regrets herteam’s seclusion

Sana MirpakIstan captaIn

Pakistan’s bowlingperformance showed ‘the gap’ between the

top four and the bottom four is

reducing

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:52 AM Page 16

I have never seen two hours of such relentless attack,

it was incredible pace bowling. Most of our batsman

were out to terrific balls. – Dave WhatmoreSPORTS SMonday, 4 February, 2013

16

Perth

AGEnciES

Seamer Mitchell Starc grabbed a second successive five-wicket haul and George Bailey his maiden internationalcentury as Australia beat West Indies by 54 runs in thesecond one-dayer at the WACA on Sunday.

West Indies put up a better fight than in the nine-wicket defeat in Friday’s opener but Bailey’s unbeaten125 pushed Australia to 266 for seven and Starc (5-32)helped dismiss the islanders for 212 to give the hosts a2-0 series lead. There was controversy too, when thetelevision review system was employed to help Starcclaim the wickets of Kieran Powell (83) and DevonThomas (0) in successive balls, the latter given out caughtbehind to much disbelief.

A promising but ultimately unsuccessful day at theWACA for West Indies was summed up by tailenderSunil Narine, who smashed sixes off the first four ballsof one Glenn Maxwell over but was stumped on the sixth.

Maxwell finished with figures of four for 63 but Starcwas again the pick of the bowlers after skittling the toporder with three early wickets and returning later as WestIndies lost five men for 20 runs.

Australia suffered a collapse early in their inningsand Bailey had to put on 100 from 123 balls for theseventh wicket with James Faulkner (39) to rescue themfrom 98 for six less than half way through their 50 overs.

The 30-year-old saved his best until the end of theinnings, however.

After reaching his century with a six over long-on inthe penultimate over, he hammered three sixes, a four andtwo runs off the last six balls to finish unbeaten on 125.

“Few bonus ones at the end there,” Bailey said in atelevised interview. “It was just about getting apartnership when James Faulkner came out. We werelooking at 200. “We were backed up again with the ball,Mitchell Starc is on fire at the moment.”

Powell and Dwayne Bravo (45) looked like doing asimilar job for West Indies when they put on 126 for the

fourth wicket but the latter’s dismissal prompted a majorcollapse.

The Caribbean islanders were highly embarrassed bytheir humbling in the opening clash of the five-matchseries and their fielding at least was much improved.

Four of the first five Australian batsmen to fall werecaught while the fifth, skipper Michael Clarke, was cleanbowled for 16 by Dwayne Bravo. For pure reflexes,Darren Sammy’s effort to dismiss Matthew Wade (16)was the pick of the bunch as the skipper snatched a rocketof a ball out of the air with one hand.

Starc, Bailey shine as Australia beat West Indies

malik ‘bats’ for a bat

LUCKNOW: Former captain of the Pakistan cricket

team and famed all-rounder Shoaib Malik was in Meerut

in western Uttar Pradesh for a very different purpose -

looking for a lucky bat to play with.

Meerut is renowned as a major centre of production of

cricket bats, and bats made here are used by players of

almost all major cricketing teams in the world.

There is a locality in the Sports City area of Meerut

where one can find a large number of outlets where

bats are available.

Shoaib Malik reached Meerut on February 1 and went to

a major manufacturer of cricket bats in the Sports City,

where he placed an order for five bats, each of different

weights. He later returned to Delhi the same evening.

Cricket bats are different in the terms of weight, length

and width, and players choose one which is convenient

for them for making their favourite shots.

Shoaib Malik was initially known as an off-break bowler

but has lately evolved as an all-rounder. He has

however not managed to find his form and his

performance during the recent series against India was

not very impressive.

It remains to be seen whether a bat from Meerut will

change his fortunes.

It is mostly family businesses that are engaged in bat

making, and in Meerut alone, dozens of workers are

engaged in cutting, gluing and bending of hundreds of

bats everyday to the exact specifications of

international superstars.

Incidentally, their bat-making techniques have been

appreciated internationally for decades. Bats made in

Meerut are exported to many countries as well. AGEnciES

JohannesBUrg

AGEnciES

AN unbeaten 101-run stand for thefifth wicket between Misbah-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq keptPakistan alive in the first test asthey reached 183 for four at theclose of play on day three

against South Africa at the Wanderers.The visitors looked to be heading for

a heavy defeat when they slumped to 82-4 before tea chasing down 480, but thepair batted through the final session togive Pakistan hope.

They still need 297 runs to winbut with the rain predicted on the finaltwo days all results remain possible.

Misbah (44 not out) and Shafiq (53not out) batted patiently, seeing out 45overs in their partnership as South Africastruggled to find a breakthrough.

In part the home side have only themselves toblame. Vernon Philander thought he had Shafiqcaught at slip by Graeme Smith when the batsmanwas on 40, but the Pakistan right-hander was recalledafter a check with the third umpireshowed it was a no-ball.

In the next over RobinPeterson dropped a simplechance offered by Misbah atpoint off the bowling ofKallis.

With the new ball

due in just five overs on Monday morning, SouthAfrica will still be confident of forcing a result if theweather holds.

Things did not start as well for Pakistan in theirsecond innings though. Mohammed Hafeez made justtwo as he glanced a leg-side ball from Philander, butsucceeded only in providing wicketkeeper AB deVilliers with a catch behind the stumps.

Debutant Nasir Jamshed’s stoic resistancecame to an end when he attempted a pull

off Dale Steyn, but got his timing allwrong and picked out Robin Peterson

at mid-on four runs short of amaiden test half-century.

Azhar Ali (18) was trapped infront by Kallis and although hechose to review the decision, the

TV umpire upheld his dismissal.Younus Khan (15) was not sure

whether to play or leave a MorneMorkel delivery and in the end did neither,

a faint edge being snapped up by De Villiers toleave his side four down.

Earlier in the day, South Africa made a fast startwhen they resumed their secondinnings, scoring 68 runs in justnine overs before declaring on275 for the loss of threewickets.

Resuming on hisovernight 63, de Villiers ledthe charge with asparkling unbeatencentury off 117

balls.He was ably supported by Hashim Amla, who

moved from his overnight 50 to 74 not out by the timeSmith called the players in with 50 minutes of themorning session gone.

By that time the pair had put on a Wanderersrecord fourth wicket test partnership of 176,

beating the previous mark of 147 they had setagainst Australia in the 2011/12 season.

misbah, shaFiq keep pakistan aFloat

SOUTh AfRicA fiRST inninGS: 253 (j. KALLiS 50; M. hAfEEz

4-16)

PAKiSTAn fiRST inninGS: 49 (D. STEyn 6-8)

SOUTh AfRicA SEcOnD inninGS (OvERniGhT 207-3):

A. PETERSEn c. hAfEEz b. GUL 27

G. SMiTh c AhMED b GUL 52

h. AMLA nOT OUT 74

j. KALLiS c ShAfiq b AjMAL 7

A. DE viLLiERS nOT OUT 103

ExTRAS (Lb4, w-3, nb-5) 12

TOTAL (fOR ThREE wicKETS DEcLARED, 62 OvERS) 275

fALL Of wicKETS: 1-82, 2-87, 3-99

TO bAT: f. DU PLESSiS, D. ELGAR, R. PETERSOn, v. PhiLAnDER, D. STEyn, M.

MORKEL

bOwLinG: GUL 14-2-58-2 (w-3), jUnAiD KhAn 13-1-63-0 (nb-5), RAhAT ALi

11-1-44-0, hAfEEz 5-0-32-0, AjMAL 18-1-74-1, yOUniS KhAn 1-1-0-0

PAKiSTAn SEcOnD inninGS

M. hAfEEz c DE viLLiERS b PhiLAnDER 2

n. jAMShED c PETERSOn b STEyn 46

A. ALi Lbw KALLiS 18

yOUnUS KhAn c DE viLLiERS b MORKEL 15

MiSbAh-UL-hAq nOT OUT 44

A. ShAfiq nOT OUT 53

ExTRAS (Lb2, nb-3) 5

TOTAL (fOR fOUR wicKETS, 75 OvERS) 183

fALL Of wicKETS: 1-7, 2-64, 3-70, 4-82

TO bAT: SARfRAz AhMED, U. GUL, S. AjMAL, jUnAiD KhAn, RAhAT ALi

bOwLinG: D. STEyn 18-7-26-1, v. PhiLAnDER 17-3-39-1 (nb-1), M. MORKEL 18-

5-65-1 (nb-2), j. KALLiS 12-3-27-1, R. PETERSOn 10-3-24-0

ScOREbOARD

wEST inDiES wOn ThE TOSS AnD ELEcTED TO bOwL fiRST.

AUSTRALiA inninGS

A. finch c DM bRAvO b hOLDER 11

U. KhAwAjA c POwELL b ROAch 3

P. hUGhES c DM bRAvO b SAMMy 21

M. cLARKE b Dj bRAvO 16

G. bAiLEy nOT OUT 125

M. wADE c SAMMy b nARinE 16

G. MAxwELL b SAMMy 0

j. fAULKnER c POwELL b SAMMy 39

M. jOhnSOn nOT OUT 16

ExTRAS (Lb-10, w-9) 19

TOTAL (fOR SEvEn wicKETS, 50 OvERS) 266

DiD nOT bAT: M. STARc, c. McKAy

fALL Of wicKETS: 1-16 2-25 3-56 4-56 5-93 6-98 7-198

bOwLinG: ROAch 10-0-51-1, hOLDER 10-1-56-1 (w-5), SAMMy 10-0-48-3 (w-2),

Dj bRAvO 10-0-67-1 (w-2), nARinE 10-0-34-1

wEST inDiES inninGS

c. GAyLE Lbw STARc 4

K. POwELL Lbw b STARc 83

R. SARwAn Lbw STARc 0

DM bRAvO Lbw STARc 14

Dj bRAvO c wADE b MAxwELL 45

K. POLLARD c finch b MAxwELL 1

D. ThOMAS c wADE b STARc 0

D. SAMMy c fAULKnER b MAxwELL 8

j. hOLDER RUn OUT 9

S. nARinE ST wADE b MAxwELL 24

K. ROAch nOT OUT 0

ExTRAS (Lb-13 w-11) 24

TOTAL (ALL OUT, 38.1 OvERS) 212

fALL Of wicKETS: 1-10 2-10 3-33 4-159 5-166 6-166 7-168 8-179 9-209

bOwLinG: McKAy 6-0-32-0 (w-3), STARc 8-1-32-5 (w-4),

fAULKnER 7-0-40-0 (w-1), jOhnSOn 9-0-32-0 (w-3), MAxwELL 8.1-1-63-4

AUSTRALiA LEAD fivE-MATch SERiES 2-0.

ScOREbOARD

MIsBah (44 not out)and shafIQ (53 not out)Batted patIently, seeIng

out 45 overs In theIrpartnershIp as south

afrIca struggled to fInd aBreakthrough.

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:52 AM Page 17

Junaid Khan is mistaken if he thinks he is Wasim Akram by

taking wickets in limited-overs and in the sub-continent.

Bowling at 130kph in test matches is just absurd – Shoaib AkhtarSPORTSS

Monday, 4 February, 2013

17

MaDriD

AGEnciES

Luis Leon Sanchez hasbeen indefinitely suspendedby Team Blanco over his links tothe controversial doctor EufemianoFuentes.

Reports in the Netherlands last weekclaimed that the 29-year-old Spaniard wasone of Fuentes’ clients when his officeswere raided and doping products found byOperation Puerto officers in 2006.

Sanchez at the time rode for LibertySeguros, who were heavily implicated in thescandal, but he has always denied anywrongdoing and no action has ever been

taken againsthim. However,following

fresh reportsin the

newspaperNRCHandelsblad,

Blanco mounted aninternalinvestigation and

have removed Sanchez fromtheir race roster until further

notice. A team statementsaid: “Team Blanco has

started an investigation

against rider Luis Leon Sanchez afterstories in the media about hispossible involvement in the caseFuentes. “Until there is clarityabout the outcome of theinvestigation, Luis LeonSanchez is not included in aselection of Blanco.” Almost 200bags of blood, 40 bags ofplasma and a stash ofperformance-enhancing drugswere found in Fuentes’ offices duringthe Operation Puerto raids. Sanchez, whohas won four stages of the Tour de Franceand claimed overall victory in Paris-Nice

in 2009, was nevernamed in the

scandal, but with Fuentes going on trial in Madridlast week on charges of breaking public health

laws, the case and the Spaniard’s potentialinvolvement in it have returned to the public

eye. Along with the doping products,codenamed lists of Fuentes’ clients werealso recovered in the raids and NRCHandelsblad claimed to have matchedSanchez to the alias Huerto and thenumber 26.

Sanchez was also linked toanother infamous doping director, Dr

Michele Ferrari, during his time with theCaisse d’Epargne team, but Blanco - thenknown as Rabobank - later insisted no

doping had been involved and backedtheir rider.

Sanchez suspended by Blanco

i have to takeit sloW: nadal

ChiLe

AGEnciES

RAFAEL Nadal acceptshe will have to bepatient as he looks torebuild his careerfollowing eight monthsaway from the ATP

Tour.The 26-year-old 11-time major winner

begins his comeback this week at Chile’sVTR Open in Vina del Mar after a lengthyabsence due to injury and illness, butbelieves it will be some time before he isback to his best.

“I need weeks of working (on) thecircuit,” the world number five said onwww.atpworldtour.com. “This is my firstweek and I don’t think the goals are thesame that the ones I will have in two moremonths.

“I have to take it slowly and be humbleto know that things won’t be as good as theywere before my injury. I need to be patient.”

The former world number one, whoselast outing came in a shock second-rounddefeat to Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon inJune, was forced to abort his return from aknee injury in December after being struckdown by a stomach virus - an illness whichruled him out of last month’s Australian

Open.Nadal has not contested an ATP

tournament in South America since 2005.He is scheduled to play a first-round

doubles match alongside Argentinian JuanMonaco on Tuesday, against Czech secondseeds Frantisek Cermak and Lukas Dlouhy,before opening his singles campaign onWednesday.

“I hope the tournament will help me toget the feeling I need to add week after weekafter a long period without competition,” hesaid. “Results are the least important thingright now.”

He added: “If my knee doesn’t hurt, Ihave no fear. I’ve had had more seriousinjuries in the past and I got stronger afterthem.

“This is the injury that has sidelined methe longest so maybe it will take me a bitlonger to get back my confidence, the goodfeeling on court, but if my knee doesn’t hurtI don’t see why I couldn’t get back mymovements and game style.”

kirilenko fightbacksews up pattaya winPATTAYA: Second seed Maria Kirilenko battled

from a set down to defeat Sabini Lisicki in the

final of the WTA PTT Pattaya Women’s Open in

Thailand. The 26-year-old Russian overcame

the fifth-seeded German 5-7 6-1 7-6 (7/1) in

Pattaya City in two hours 37 minutes.The

victory handed the world number 15 her sixth

WTA Tour title. AGEnciES

errani to meet barthel in paris finalPARIS: Top seed Sara Errani will

face Mona Barthel in the final of the

WTA Open GDF Suez in Paris on

Sunday. Errani, the world number

seven from Italy, was leading Kiki

Bertens 5-0 in the first set when the

Dutch player retired due to back

pains. Germany’s Barthel was a

convincing winner in the second

semi-final, seeing off Frenchwoman

Kristina Mladenovic 6-1 6-4 in just

65 minutes. AGEnciES

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:53 AM Page 18

Good day of test cricket 4 (for) us. Congrats 2 (to) AB deVilliers

on a wonderful innings as usual. Truly a pleasure watchin(g)

him from d (the) other end – Hashim Amla’s tweetSPORTS SMonday, 4 February, 2013

18

wAtCh It LIvePTV SPORTS1st Test: Pakistanv South Africa01:30PM

STAR SPORTSFIELD HOCKEY: Jalandhar vRanchi07:30 PM

banario is first one

Fc featherweight

champLONDON: A new One FC featherweight

champion was crowned on Saturday as

Honorio Banario defeated Eric Kelly at

Return Of Warriors.

The two Filipino warriors went back and

forth in a striking duel. The finish came in

the fourth round as Banario won the

striking battle with a punch that

staggered Kelly in front of a sold-out

crowd at Stadium Putra, Malaysia and

achieving a TKO win in the process.

In the co-main event of the night, Shinichi

Kojima defeated Rey Docyogen via

submission. The Japanese veteran showed

toughness in defeating his Filipino

opponent, who was largely winning the

standup battle.

Kojima showed his experience by pulling

off a guillotine choke in the clinch and

pulled guard to finish the fight. By

emerging victorious, Kojima guaranteed

himself a future flyweight title

opportunity.

Vuyisile Colossa and Lowen Tynanes put

on a showcase that exhibited the many

facets of MMA. Tynanes utilized his

wrestling to subdue Colossa in the first

round, coming close to finishing the

contest with several submission attempts.

The South African Muay Thai champion

Colossa came storming back in the

second round as he peppered Tynanes

with leg kicks and elbows. Tynanes

returned to his wrestling roots in the third

stanza as he secured a takedown and

eventually tightened a rear naked choke

that forced Colossa to concede defeat.

Malaysians Peter Davis and Adam Kayoom

emerged victorious in front of a

boisterous Malaysian crowd that was

definitively behind their compatriots in the

cage. AGEnciES

MUMBai

biPin DAni

Some 12 years ago, the two Pakistanipacers, Waim Akram and Ata-ur-Rehmandidn’t see eye to eye. It was when duringJustice Qayyum’s match-fixing enquiryAta had claimed that Wasim had paid himRs 100,000 to bowl badly in a one-daymatch held in New Zealand(Christchurch), in March 1994.

Ata was banned for life, but inNovember 2006, the ban was lifted by theICC. The two have become friends sincethen.

“We are jointly launching an on-linecoaching academy next week”, Rehman,said on phone from London.

“We have identified the body powergenerators for speed in a human body, thepower wastage movements in a bowlingaction, and the same will be put intoimplementation”, he said.

The two claim having carefullyworked with a team of dedicated

nutritionists, fitness trainers, physios, anIndian sports psychologist based in UK(Dr. Anand), a sports doctor and a Sydney-based researcher (Mazhar Idris) who hasstudied the human movement in fastbowling action for last 10 years, and theyall aim to bring expertise and a newrevolution into the fast bowling.

“Our soon to be published book inEnglish and Urdu shows how the scienceand arts and crafts can be combinedtogether in becoming the fast bower”, headded.

Wasim’s services have not beensought regularly by the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB), but the 47-year-old formerPakistani captain has always been helpfulto the young bowlers worldwide.

“We aim to approachvarious boards andassociationsto provideour

coaching theme and hold talent spotcamps for them”, Ata added.

“In our online coachingthe people will be asked tosend us a video ofmaximum 5 mins fromfront side and rearview and we willprovide them withan assessmentreport studiedby our expertpanel”, hesigned off.

Wasim, Ata aim torevolutionise fast bowling

LonDon

AGEnciES

JUVENTUS went threepoints clear at the top ofSerie A thanks to a 2-1win over mid-tableChievo at the StadioMarc’Antonio Bentegodi.

An early strike by Alessandro Matriwas followed by a second just before thebreak from Stephan Lichtsteiner, puttingthe visitors in control before CyrilThereau reduced the arrears early in thesecond half.

Thereau had a chance to level thescores shortly after, but in truth it was avictory the league leaders deserved withAntonio Conte’s side missing chances toextend their lead late on.

New signing Nicolas Anelka was anunused substitute for Juventus, who werewithout Mirko Vucinic and LeonardoBonucci due to suspension, whilemidfielder Simone Pepe, striker Nicklas

Bendtner and defender Giorgio Chielliniwere out because of injury. Thoseabsences coupled with a victory at Laziolast time out would have buoyed thehome side, but their hopes of any shocksuffered a blow when Juventus took thelead after just 10 minutes.

Arturo Vidal’s cross from the rightwas met by Matri, who volleyed into thebottom right-hand corner of the net.

They almost extended their lead 10minutes later when Matri linked up withSebastian Giovinco who, after weavinghis way past defenders in the box, failedto find a finish and blazed his effort over.

After 23 minutes visiting stopperGianluigi Buffon was forced into his firstsave, keeping out Alberto Paloschi’seffort which had looked destined to fallinside the near post.

Paloschi should have levelled thescores just after the half-hour mark, butthe striker could not got on the end ofThereau’s low cross when any touchwould have resulted in a goal.

The home side were made to regretthat missed opportunity three minutesbefore the break when Matri fedGiovinco, whose backheel foundLichtsteiner and the Swiss made nomistake from close range.

Chievo struck back seven minutesinto the second period when PerparimHetemaj found Thereau, who turned andfinished neatly past Buffon. Thereauwent close to equalising just five minuteslater, but his shot from the edge of thearea was well saved by Buffon.

It was to be as close as Chievowould get to levelling the scores asJuventus went on the attack.

Paul Pogba’s backheeled effort wentwide after 61 minutes before Chievokeeper Christian Puggioni had to be atfull stretch to keep out Paolo De Ceglie’seffort 15 minutes from time.

Andrea Pirlo’s late free-kick fizzedjust over the bar, but it mattered not asJuventus moved clear of second-placedNapoli.

dominant Juventusease past chievo

eagle cements

gallacher’s first tour

win in nine yearsDUBAI: Briton Stephen Gallacher ended

his nine-year wait for a second European

Tour title in stunning fashion with a

three-shot victory at the Dubai Desert

Classic on Sunday. Gallacher holed his

approach to the par-four 16th in the final

round for his fifth eagle of the week to

shake off the persistent challenge of

South African Richard Sterne. “I’m

obviously delighted,” said Gallacher after

carding one-under-par 71 in the final

round. AGEnciES

davis cupwinners returnLAHORE: The winner Pakistan Davis

Cup Team after beating Sri Lanka at

Colombo in the first Round of Asia

Oceana Davis Cup group 2 tie

returned.

The tem landed at Karachi’s Quaid-i-

Azam Airport from Sri Lanka.

The Pakistan team consisted of

Aisamul Haq, Aqeel Khan, Yasir Khan

and Abid Mushtaq, Muhammad Khalid

Siddiqu is the non playing Captain.

Pakistan beat Sri Lanka 3-2 at

Colombo. STAff REPORT

groupsannouncedLAHORE: The 16th Tauseef Trophy cricket

championship, 10th M Siddiq Memorial

event and 28th M Yaseen Akhtar Memorial

events teams have divided into different

groups, these events will start in this

month.

All teams have been asked to submit the

names of their player with data and

nominations of players till Feb 05.

Further information will collect from

Sheraz Waqar in LCCA office. Teams data

can also be send to

w_sheeraz@yahoo.com. STAff REPORT

KHI 04-02-2013_Layout 1 2/4/2013 6:53 AM Page 19

Monday, 4 February, 2013

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami

PeshaWar

ShAMiM ShAhiD/AGEnciES

BANNED outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) onSunday showed flexibilityin holding talks with thegovernment provided

conditional guarantee of threepoliticians. In a video tape, TTPspokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said talkswith the government were only possibleif PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, JUI-Fchief Fazlur Rehman and JI chiefMunawar Hasan offered guarantees.“We are ready for negotiations withgovernment if these politiciansguarantee,” he added. Ehsan whose realname is Yaseen Safi was alsoaccompanied by former PAF officialAdnan Rashid. Rashid was sentenced todeath for carrying an attack on formerpresident Pervez Musharraf. He escapedfrom Bannu Central Jail in April 2012. Similarly, Ehsan demanded release ofMuslim Khan and Malik Mahmood fromSwat and Maulvi Omar from Bajaur.

Muslim Khan and Malik Mahmood wereapprehended from Swat during 2009military operation whereas Omar wasarrested from Mohmand Agency.Omar’s real name is Abdul Wali and hewas handed over to security forces bysome tribal elders. Later,most of the elders werekilled. The TTPspokesman said, “We haveno trust inarmedforces as itviolatedalmost allagreementsmade inpast.” He,

however, welcomed nuclear scientist DrAbdul Qadeer Khan’s proposal forresolving of the dispute throughdialogue. “Dr Abdul Qadeer is national asset andwe consider his proposal for dialogue,”he added. The TTP spokesman said, “Wehave decided eliminating of theMuttahida Qaumi Movement. First,we attacked MQM public meetingand later killed its MPA. The TTP isdetermined to go ahead againstMQM.” The TTP spokesman said

that Maulvi Omar and MuslimKhan would lead the

Talibandelegation to

hold thetalks.

Ehsan alleged that the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) was responsible forthe killing of clerics in Karachi, addingthat the killers would be dealt withsternly. The TTP spokesman discardedrumours of differences betweenHakimullah Mehsud and Waliur

Rehman and said there were nodifferences between both topTTP leaders. Separately, theKhyber Pakhtunkhwagovernment on Sunday

welcomed banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s conditional

willingness for

negotiations and termed it a positivedevelopment. “In fact, banned TTPexpressed willingness for dialogue inresponse of Awami National Partyoffer,” KP Information Minister MianIftikhar Hussain told Pakistan Today.He said the government is not onlywelcoming such offer but determined toextend every sort of facilities and help topoliticians such as Fazlur Rehman,Munawar Hassan and Nawaz Sharif. KPInformation Minister Mian Iftikhartermed TTP’s conditional offer a positivedevelopment in response of what he said“Awami National Party’s offer fordialogue”. He said that now wheneverthe two sides commence dialogue thenall matters, including release of threeinmates, disassociation from violenceand others could be discussed. He saidthat all such matters could be settled indialogue. So far, Pakistan MuslimLeague Senator Raja Zafarul Haq haswelcomed the TTP statement, saying,“Dialogues should be held without priorterms and conditions.” Leaders of theJUI-F and JI are yet to respond.

ttp spokesMan says they wantguarantee of faZlur rehMan,Munawar hassan and nawaZsharIf for talks wIth govt

says talIBanhave decIdedto elIMInateMQM

kp Info MInIsterterMs ttp’scondItIonal offerposItIve developMent

aYesha haroon passes aWaYLahore

AzAM bUTT

Noted journalist Ayesha Haroonpassed away in New York earlyon Sunday after a four-yearbattle with cancer. She was 46.Her body will be transported toPakistan, likely on Wednesday,and the burial will take place onThursday in Lahore at MianiSaheb Graveyard. A thoroughly respected figure inthe media, Ayesha was theformer Lahore Resident Editorfor The News International andhad earlier served The Nation asits editor. She was one of thecountry’s most senior andrenowned journalists. In herstint at The Nation, Ayesha waseditorial writer for the English

daily and later its editor. Shealso played a key role in settingup and launching the Waqt TVchannel for The Nation group.Ayesha garnered many a praiseand accolade for being thepioneer and an example for notonly working women, but formembers of the country’s mediaas well. Politicians, pressorganisations and Ayesha’scolleagues expressed deepsorrow and condolences with herfamily over the irreparable loss.Pakistan Today Editor ArifNizami also expressed deepsorrow over the demise of hisformer colleague. Nizami saidapart from being a thorough andgifted professional, Ayesha was aloyal friend and a trustedcolleague who could be depended

upon in adverse times. Heprayed for eternal peace for hersoul. Senior journalist HamidMir expressed his sorrows on hisTwitter account saying: “Amemory of old colleague AyeshaHaroon who died of cancer thismorning in New York. Shedreamed of a new morning.”Nasim Zehra said on her Twitteraccount: Ayesha Haroon,journalist & friend passed awayin NY last night after bravelybattling a prolonged illness. Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsaafChairman Imran Khan alsoexpressed sorrow upon hearingthe news.In his condolence message sentto Dr Faisal Bari, spouse ofAyesha Haroon, her brothersHassan Haroon and Usman

Haroon, Imran paid tribute toAyesha Haroon, who was anaccomplished journalist by allmeans.He prayed to almighty Allah torest the departed soul in eternalpeace and grant courage tobereaved family to bear theirreparable loss with equanimity.Ayesha was 42-years-old whenher cancer was diagnosed. Shegot her initial treatment atShaukat Khanum HospitalLahore but was taken to MountSinai Hospital in New Yorkwhere she went through a longprocess of treatment and was onher way to recovery when thedisease recurred in June lastyear. Her health keptdeteriorating for the last few moths.

ISLAMABAD: The PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)will stage a sit-in outside theParliament House on Monday(today) in support of what ittermed empowerment of theElection Commission of Pakistan(ECP). Several other politicalparties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the Jamhoori WatanParty, the Awami Tehreek Sindh,the Sunni Tehreek and theFunctional League are likely tojoin the sit-in. Participants of thesit-in will also hold a protestagainst lack of action on theSupreme Court’s decisionregarding new delimitation ofconstituencies in Karachi. Underthe plan, PML-N-led parties will

gather outside the ParliamentHouse. They will take out a rallyfrom the Parliament House tothe ECP, where a two-day sit-inwill be held. PML-N office-bearers from Sindh will also jointhe protest sit-in. PML-N leaderChaudhry Nisar has describedthe planned sit-in as a symbolicexercise. Although FazlurRehman’s JUI-F has alsosupported the PML-N’s agenda,it fell short of practically joiningthe protest. Fazl said that theirnon-participation would be inreaction to PML-N’s decision notto support the JUI-F walkoutfrom Senate against theimposition of governor’s rule inBalochistan. nni

PML-N to stage sit-into ‘empower’ ECP

TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan and Adnan Rasheed, a former member of the air force sentenced to death for an attempt to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf, lay out their demands in a video message.

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