e-paper pakistantoday 30th june, 2012

Saturday, 30 June, 2012 Shaban 9, 1433islamabad — peshawar editionRs 15.00 Vol iii no 5 18 pages

PAGE | PAGE | 03

Afghan refugees face mass deportation from Pakistan

Does Imran Khan really have no plan

for Pakistan?PAGE |04

Asif Zardari must leave one office by September 5: LHC

ISLAMABADShaiq hUSSain

PAkISTAn and the UnitedStates are trying to agree on a“package deal” covering the re-opening of nATO supplies, fu-ture of drone attacks, US

assistance to Islamabad and host of otherimportant issues, a daunting task that iscausing a delay in the restoration of sup-plies to the international forces deployedin Afghanistan through Pakistani soil.

It is not only the nATO supplies that isbeing discussed only through diplomaticchannels as well as informal negotiationsbetween Islamabad and Washington,rather both countries are working on a“package deal” to resolve their most of con-flicting matters, if not all of them.

They then aim to move forward to-wards the objective of common goal, therestoration of peace in Afghanistan, whichwould pave the way for the withdrawal ofbulk of foreign troops from there by 2014.

“Yes it’s a ‘package deal’ that we areworking upon but it a difficult task andthat is why the delay is being witnessed inthe reopening of nATO supplies, which it-self is a very complicated matter and de-pends on host of factors such as a publicapology by US for air assault on Pakistaniborder posts last year and killing of severalof our soldiers,” said a senior governmentofficial on Friday, seeking anonymity.

Defence Minister naveed Qamar alsoreiterated Pakistan’ stance over the demandfor an apology by the US over the Salala in-cident, in which 24 Pakistani soldiers werekilled. He said Pakistan continued to stick

to its demand for a public US apology andall decisions on important matters, includ-ing nATO supplies, would be made in ac-cordance with national interests.

“There will be no compromise on na-tional sovereignty,” he said.

The senior official said that apart fromapology there were other matters as well, assuch as the US’ willingness to reimburse thedues of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) worthbillions of dollars to Islamabad, whichneeded to be resolved before the reopeningof nATO supplies. “Then there is the carpet-ing of Pakistani roads and highways dam-aged by heavy traffic of nATO vehicles andof course we have the issue of future taxationover these containers at hand,” he said.

However, without elaborating, the offi-cial said there had been some progress on theissue of nATO supplies and it was hoped that

the matter would be sorted out in some days.He said the two sides were working on

drone strikes issue as well and trying to set-tle the problem to the mutual satisfaction ofone another. “In the past, there could havebeen some intelligence sharing s for takingout the ‘high value targets’ in the TribalAreas, but now there is so much public op-position to the drone attacks that Pakistanwants to sort that matter as soon as possibleand that too in a way that is acceptable to thecommon people here,” he said.

Pakistan, he said also wanted assur-ance from the US there would be unhin-dered supply of assistance to Islamabadand Washington should be mindful of allthe grave economic problems that itsmajor allied nation in the counter-terror-ism campaign was facing. He said Pak-istan’s role in the efforts to resolve the

Afghanistan issue and the ongoing recon-ciliation process for the purpose was an-other important matter that Islamabadwas currently discussing under the ‘pack-age deal’ with Washington. Another seniorofficial privy to ongoing talks also hinted atconsiderable progress on the nATO supplyrestoration, but admitted at the same timethat the US refusal to tender an apologywas hindering a complete breakthrough.

“We are asking them for an apologywhich they should do and if this demand isaccepted then the breakthrough on nATOsupply routes reopening could be achieved.Though there is unanimity of views thatnATO supplies shall be restored but theUS would have to tender an apology,” hesaid, wishing not to be named.

‘Good thinGs’

come in small

packaGesg Pakistan and US mulling ‘package deal’ for

resolving outstanding issues g Failure to reach agreement on package delaying

resumption of NATO suppliesg Both sides nearing an agreement that could

completely end drone strikes in Tribal Areas

LAHOREUmair aziz

‘Breaking the bowl’, so goes the slogan of thePunjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif. In publiche sermonizes about “ridding the province offoreign aid and loans”. He harangues the fed-eral government forsloshing too muchthrough borrow-ing too much.But underhim theprovince issaid tohave ac-q u i r e dloans to thetune of Rs 80 bil-lion – and this isnot overdraft fromthe federal govern-ment, it is just theforeign borrowings. Andit too squanders themon populist measures. Acase in point: The WorldBank’s fund meant to sup-port the poor get primary edu-cation was diverted to distributelaptops to college and university stu-dents – most of these to the relativelywell-heeled. There is another anomaly.The province has been unable to fully uti-

lize development funds owing to gross ineffi-ciency. Since the incumbent dispensation tookthe reins, every year, year after year, tens of bil-lions of rupees have lapsed owing to remainingunutilized. This borrowing binge while theavailable funds remain unused is indeed is acontradiction that both the finance managers

and their politi-cal masterswould findhard to ex-p l a i n .S o u r c e sprivy to thegoings-on di-vulged to Pak-istan Todaythat politicianshave scant un-derstanding ofcomplicated fi-

nancial matters,leaving the finance

managers to rule theroost. But even thissorry excuse cannot

absolve the politiciansfor not being on top ofcomplex financial mat-

ters for which eventuallythe people suffer.

Punjab govt borrowinglike there’s no tomorrow

Continued on page 04

Continued on page 04

Layout 22 pages LHR_Layout 1 6/30/2012 4:51 AM

ISLAMABADTaYYaB hUSSain

TRAnSPAREnCY International Pakistan (TIP) advisorSyed Adil Gilani has brought the irregularitiescommitted in the appointment of Ismail naveed asCEO GEnCO to the attention of Minister for Waterand Power Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar terming it

“illegal” and “without following the due process”. Gilani, inhis letter, asked the minister to cancel the appointment ofMr Ismail and to find a suitable person for the postfollowing government rules and due process.The TIP letter referred to media reports stating that Ismailnaveed had been appointed without the publishing of arequisite advertisement in the newspapers for theappointment of a suitable candidate for the post. The newsitem claimed that Ismail had been given three most crucialportfolios including Managing Directorship (MD) of thenTDC, Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO), andCEO of Genco Holding Company. “It is also reported that Mrnaveed demanded Rs 4 million as salary, which was refusedby the board. He then reduced it to Rs 2.5 million whichagain was not agreed by the board. The Human ResourceDepartment of the Company, after due directions from thePM’s Secretariat, then proposed a Rs 1.9 million per monthpackage. His appointment letter has been issued in haste.This could be gauged from the fact that even salary, perksand privileges of the appointee were left for a later stage ofnegotiations – which is highly irregular and will causeproblems later on,” said the TIP.Gilani said that when Mr Ahmed Mukhtar was asked by themedia why a person who had failed to deliver in kESC hadbeen hired on such a hefty salary package, he offered noplausible answer. He, however, said that Ismail had workedin many other countries on different power generationtechnologies. “Mukhtar also claimed that he introducedIsmail to naveed Qamar who appointed him as CEOGEnCO. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, as Ministerfor Water and Power, had also criticised Ismail naveed forhis failure to run kESC as per the terms and conditionsagreed upon at the time of privatisation,” said the TIP.The TIP also referred to another news report published in year2009 that stated that Mr naveed Ismail had been appointed asthe CEO of kESC at a whopping salary of Rs 4.2 million. Hewas also the CEO at the time when kESC signed an agreementwith the government of Pakistan (GoP), in which he obtainedsubstantial benefits for kESC ( reported to be Rs 55 billion perannum) illegally, by signing an Amendment Agreement on 13April 2009. “The other party to sign this illegal amendmentagreement was Mr Shahid Rafi, who was the then Director ofkESC as well, and signed off on the agreement as SecretaryMinistry of Water & Power, something which he was notauthorised to do,” the letter added. Mr Ismail resigned as CEOfrom the kESC in October 2009 (but remained a director inAbraj Group and kESC) and has been trying to get a GoP jobsince then. Adil Gilani said that there was a conflict of interestby appointing a person who will have sympathies for the groupand organisation for which he has worked, and his loyaltiesmay be divided between the GoP and Abraj Group.

ILLEGALLY DONE?

Mukhtar asked tocancel Ismail’sappointment as CEO GENCO

AMRITSARagEnciES

Freed after a high decibel drama, Surjeet Singh, whoon Thursday crossed over to India from Pakistan afterspending more than 30 years in prison in Pakistan,on Friday said the Sarabjit Singh had “converted toIslam” and was now known as “Sarfaraz” in Lahore’skot Lakhpat Jail.

Sarabjit Singh is the Indian spy who has beenon a death row in Pakistan for three decades. Sur-jeet also claimed that another Indian prisoner ondeath row in Pakistan, kirpal Singh, had also “con-verted to Islam” and had a new name “MohammedDin”. Talking to reporters at the information cen-tre of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Com-mittee after paying obeisance at Golden Temple,Surjeet said, “Sarabjit Singh and kirpal Singh haveconverted to Islam. They probably did so in hopeof getting mercy. But no mercy was granted tothem. Pakistan authorities do not grant mercyeven to their own nationals.”

When contacted, Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir kaurdenied that Sarabjit had converted to Islam. “This isnot true at all. Sarabjit was a Gursikh, is a Gursikhand will remain a Gursikh. He has kept photos ofSikh gurus in jail and a Sikh religious book. He reg-ularly recites from that book,” she said. Dalbir added

that during her visit to Pakistani jail to meet Sarabjit,she did heard people calling kirpal Singh by a Mus-lim name. “But this is not the case with Sarabjit. Hadhe converted, he would have some Muslim name,”she said. “When I went to meet him in Pakistan, hewas either addressed as Sarabjit or Manjit.” Wheninformed that Surjeet had claimed that Sarabjit hadchanged his name to “Sarfaraz” after “converting toIslam”, Dalbir insisted: “no way, Sarabjit remainsSarabjit and a Sikh and has not changed his nameor converted to Islam.” Dalbir also took exception toSurjeet’s statement that Sarabjit was hale and heartyin jail. “How can a person lodged in solitary confine-ment be happy? If this was the case, why do prison-ers seek release?” she asked.

Meanwhile, Surjeet said that if things fell inplace, he would ensure that Sarabjit was backhome in three months. “Seven to eight MLAs ofPakistan are my very good friends. Even Pak-istani President Asif Ali Zardari is my goodfriend. I have had breakfast with Zardari. And Iwill ensure Sarabjit’s release,” Surjeet said, alleg-ing that the Pakistani media and the ISI wereagainst Sarabjit’s release. “It has to be done atthe presidential level. If ISI comes to know aboutany effort for Sarabjit’s release, the agency willnever allow it to happen,” he added. Saying thathis and Sarabjit’s cases were entirely different,

Surjeet added: “The case of Sarabjit, who facescharges of terrorism, is entirely different frommine. neither India nor Pakistan would like to re-lease terrorists.”

India pressesPakistan on JundalNEW DELHI: Indian Home Minister P.Chidambaram called on Pakistan on Friday toacknowledge that an arrested suspect in the2008 Mumbai attacks had helped coordinatethe assault from a command post in karachi.Sayed Zabiuddin, an Indian-born member ofthe banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba,was detained at Delhi international airport onJune 21 when he arrived from the MiddleEast. Indian police say Zabiuddin, who alsogoes under the names Abu Hamza and AbuJundal, has confessed to being a key handlerfor the 10 militants who attacked India’sfinancial capital in 2008, killing 166 people.Zabiuddin “had found a very safe haven inPakistan,” Chidambaram told reporters.“Pakistan should admit that (he) did go toPakistan, that he was part of the group whichprepared kasab and nine others, that (he)was in the control room among one of thehandlers and masterminds of the attack.“Just as we admit facts, Pakistan should alsoadmit facts,” the minister said. Pakistan hasasked India to share information onZabiuddin and urged new Delhi to refrainfrom blaming Islamabad. “India shouldsupply details... enabling us to take action,”Pakistan’s advisor on interior affairs, RehmanMalik, said Wednesday. “Let us end the blamegame... We have to fight terrorism together,”Malik added. Pakistan has indicted sevenpeople for their alleged role in the Mumbaiattacks but their trial, which began in 2009,has been beset by delays. AFP

FaiSaLaBaD: a man returns with his sick child on Friday as the OPD of allied hospital is closed due

to a strike called by the Young Doctors association. ONLiNe

Sarabjit has converted, Muslim name is Sarfaraz: SurjeetSalman Khan tweetsfor Sarabjit SinghMUMBAI: Bollywood superstar Salman khanhas urged the people of Pakistan to help him inefforts to get freed Sarabjit Singh, an Indianterrorist who is on death row in Pakistan.“Requesting the people of Pakistan to support meto help free Sarabjit, who has been in prison since30 yrs. Please. Allah ka vasta (for god’s sake),”Salman khan tweeted. “Request the awam(people) of Pakistan, members of the press, Govtof Pakistan, President (Asif Ali Zardari) Zardari, ahumble request. It would be the most amazinggesture to send Sarabjit back to his family after 30years. Hope you support me like it’s your owncause,” he added. The actor was upset after he sawSarabjit’s family in despair. “I saw a picture ofSarabjit’s sister, it killed me. Felt real sad for her.Help me, help her,” he tweeted further. ONLiNe

02Saturday, 30 June, 2012

News

Today’s

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newS

Story on Page 05

iSlamabad

Story on Page 07

cartOOn

On Page 11

PmL-q walking on thin ice UaE-funded projects to change people’s lives


QUETTAShahzaDa zULFiqar

Acomplete strike was observed in Quetta on Fridayon the call of Hazara Democratic Party andWahdad-e-Muslimeen backed by PakhtunkhwaMilli Awami Party to protest Thursday’s bombingof a bus carrying Shia pilgrims, as Quetta rounded

up over two dozen suspects from Sariab area of the city inconnection with the Hazar Gunji bombing. Police officialAmanullah kakar said the police party conducted raids inSariab and rounded up two dozen suspects for interrogation.He said the raids aimed at gathering clues through theinterrogation of suspects, and they would be allowed to go ifthey were found innocent.He hoped the police got some information that led them totrack down the real culprits. On Thursday, a car bomb rippedapart a bus carrying Shia pilgrims from Taftan to Quetta,killing 11 pilgrims and two escorting guards. The bannedLashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility and said itsvolunteer Ziaur Rahman Farooqi had carried out a suicideattack on the bus carrying Shia pilgrims. Police are yet toestablish whether it was a suicide blast or remote controlledexplosion. The explosion was so heavy that was heard far andwide and the engine of the car carrying explosives was found50 yards away. “That is why we cannot establish so farwhether it was a remote controlled or suicide blast, as manybodies were blown into pieces, however police experts areinvestigating cautiously,” Amanullah kakar said.On Friday, Capital City Police Officer Mir Zubair Mahmoodalong with DIG Investigation Hamid Shakeel held a meetingwith the notables of Hazara Community at nechariImambargah and apprised them of the security arrangementsmade on the eve of funeral and movement of communitymembers through the sensitive area.They also discussed the modalities of security during themovement of pilgrims in future in the wake of HazarGunji incident.

PERVEZ ELAHI BECOMESDEPUTY PM.SPLENDID!One question, however: what is a DeputyPrime Minister? In the US, the Vice Presidentis the subject of perennial ridicule for notbeing in charge of anything, really. But evenhe/she is at least first-in-line in casesomething were to happen to the President(uneventful when nothing of the sorthappens) and gets to cast a vote if there everis a tie in the Senate. no such thing here. Ifthe incumbent PM goes the Gilani route, thePresident is going to get someone else fromthe PPP. How is the Deputy PM any differentfrom a Senior Minister. And what exactlydoes a Senior Minister do anyway? Onewonders whether the Chaudhrys are happywith the “oooh-shiny” aspect of the portfolioor begrudgingly recognise it for what it is.

KABULaFP

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans face the threat ofdeportation back to their war-torn country from Pak-istan once a deadline expires on Saturday, but kabulis crying foul over the move. Pakistan is home to 1.7million refugees and hundreds of thousands moreunregistered migrants from its neighbour, accordingto the Un High Commissioner for Refugees(UnHCR). But Islamabad says it cannot be expectedto tolerate illegal migrants, and 400,000 undocu-mented Afghans in Pakistan’s northwest province ofkhyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the bulk of the Afghancommunity live, face the imminent prospect of re-moval. The UnHCR describes the situation ofAfghans in Pakistan as the “largest and most pro-tracted refugee crisis in the world” and warned thatthe question of how to deal with it was becoming“increasingly politicised”.

khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information MinisterMian Iftikhar Hussain said that law enforcementagencies had been told to compile lists of illegalAfghans and once the June 30 deadline passes, or-ders will be issued for their arrest, appearance incourt and subsequent deportation to Afghanistan.“no country allows illegal immigrants, how it ispossible to legalise something which is illegal?”Hussain said. “We have been accommodatingAfghan immigrants for 32 years. The provincialgovernment cannot take their burden any more.They should go back to their country.”

But the Afghan government is nervous about wel-coming home so many jobless, impoverished peopleto a country where returnees have in the past strug-gled to find work and roofs over their heads. The gov-ernment in kabul denied the expulsions would takeplace. Afghan Refugee Ministry spokesman Islamud-din Jurat conceded there was a “small problem” inkhyber Pakhtunkhwa, but said the two sides hadagreed to solve the issue and give the Afghans “somelegal status to stay there”. The Afghanistan-Pakistanborder is notoriously porous and even if the deporta-tions were to go into effect there would be little to stopreturnees going back to Pakistan. Pakistan, where theeconomy is also depressed, says it cannot be expectedto tolerate illegal migrants. Hussain claimed that ille-gal Afghans were involved in crime; however some be-lieve such accusations are an excuse to rid the country

of the immigrants. Pakistan has already carried outsome deportations, albeit on a much smaller scale. Be-tween December 2010 and February 2011, some 1,400Afghan families were sent home from Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, according to the InternationalOrganisation for Migration (IOM). It said Afghan andPakistani officials had agreed to offer “safe and digni-fied repatriation” to 7,200 families, or around 50,000people, from Pakistan, if funding can be found.“Afghanistan doesn’t have the capacity to absorb somany people. It doesn’t have the resources in terms ofschools, clinics and especially jobs,” said IOM spokes-woman Aanchal khuranaa. “The gradual return of anestimated 2.4 million undocumented Afghans fromIran and Pakistan will pose serious challenges,” saidIOM Afghanistan country director Marco Boasso.

Since the US-led invasion in 2001, around 5.7million Afghan refugees have returned to theirhome country, many living in destitution.Afghanistan remains the world’s biggest producerof refugees, the UnHCR said last week, puttingtheir number at 2.7 million.

Quetta shutsdown tomourn Shiamassacre

whiteLiESby ess aich

THInGS have changed for the firebrand Sialkoti lawmakerFirdaus Ashiq Awan. not afraid to get her hands dirty onthe talk shows, she was also not shy of crying out of

desperation at a cabinet meeting in former premier Gilani’stenure. The lady, then information minister, had complained ofbeing sidelined at her own ministry and not being allowed to doher work. Well, though she doesn’t hold the coveted information

ministry anymore, she has the national services and regulationsportfolio. Which means she gets everybody from the ministriesdevolved to the provinces under the 18th amendment, all –count them – 17 of them. Her to-ing and fro-ing across thecountry is now accompanied by a posse that would be second toperhaps only the prime minister’s entourage. no more tears.

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at [email protected]

Afghan refugees face mass deportation from Pakistan

drone issue should

be raised at world

forums: PHc cJPESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC)Chief Justice Dost Muhammad khan onFriday said the issue of drone strikes should beraised at an international forum. The PHCchief justice made these remarks while hearinga case pertaining to a March 17 drone attack.The petition was filed by the victims of thefamilies. During the proceedings, the chiefjustice asked why had parliament’s resolutionon drone strikes not being implemented? Theresolution called for a stop to US drone attackswithin Pakistani territory. AgeNcieS

Fazlur rehman

denied british visa ISLAMABAD: The British High Commissionhas refused visa to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlchief Fazlur Rehman. Sources said Fazl hadapplied for the visa on May 15 as he was toparticipate in a party meeting in the Uk.According to the reports, the British HighCommission returned his passport with anexcuse. Last year, the US had also refused visato Fazl. ONLiNe

man strangles wife, 4children in mirpur KhasMIRPUR KHAS: A man strangled his wifeand four children to death in Mirpur khas.According to police, Mohmand Lashari killedhis wife and four children aged between fourand 10 in Jhalori village, 20 kms fromMirpur khas. The deceased children wereidentified as nida, 4, Sabai, 6, AbdulHakeem, 8 and Asif, 10. Police reached thespot and arrested the culprits who was saidto be mentally challenged. He had also beenunemployed for a while. Police took thebodies into custody. Initial investigationsuggested that the man was mentallydisturbed, but facts would be establishedafter a thorough probe, police said. ONLiNe


NewseditOrialKilling fields of quetta:

cOmment

articles on Page 14-15

The rot spreading.

arif nizami says;The charade continues: Save Our System.

raoof hasan says;The growing challenge: And the glaring incapacities.

aziz-ud-Din ahmad says;On judicial (hyper)activism: Some restraint, please.

artS & entertainment

Story on Page 12

newS

Story on Page 18

SPOrtS

Story on Page 14

adnan Sami and Sabah galadari divorce…again handlers deny spy’s confession Sri Lanka need to counter calm misbah: Jayawardene

NO MORE TEARSFOR FIRDAUS



News

NEW DELHIaFP

InDIA on Fridaydenied that an In-dian man freedafter serving threedecades in a Pak-

istani jail on espionagecharges was a spy workingfor new Delhi.

The denial came eventhough the released pris-oner, Surjeet Singh, 69,had told Indian media onThursday that he was spy-ing for India when he wasarrested by Pakistani au-thorities in the 1980s.

Singh, who was sen-tenced to death after beingconvicted by a Pakistanicourt on spying charges,returned to India onThursday after beingfreed.

“We do not accept this(that Singh was a spy). It iscompletely wrong,” IndianHome Secretary Rk Singhtold a news conference innew Delhi. “We deny it(because) we do not dothis kind of thing,” he saidin response to reporters’

questions about whetherthe freed man worked forgovernment agencies.“neither do we do spying,nor we send spies,” thehome secretary added.

Surjeet Singh had toldIndian reporters after re-turning home that he hadgone to Pakistan for “spy-ing” and named the Re-search and Analysis Wing,India’s espionage agency,as his paymaster.

In April 2011, GopalDas, one of Pakistan’slongest-serving Indianprisoners, was releasedafter Pakistan’s PresidentAsif Ali Zardari intervenedin his case. Upon his re-lease, Das admitted he wasan Indian spy and lashedout at the Indian authori-ties for abandoning himduring his 23 years in jail.

According to official docu-ments in possession of thiscorrespondent, the Punjabgovernment on average in-jects about Rs20 billion everyyear in foreign assistance andbudgetary support into its fi-nancial pool.

For the ongoing fiscal,however the foreign borrow-ing has only remained downto Rs13 billion under the for-eign project assistance, whilenothing for the budgetarysupport could be obtained asthe International MonetaryFund (IMF) denied the Pun-jab government its letter ofcomfort. The major donors tothe Punjab include: the AsianDevelopment Bank, the

World Bank, the Un agen-cies, the Canadian Interna-tional Development Agency(CIDA), the Japan Interna-tional Cooperation Agency(JICA) and the Uk’s Depart-ment for International Devel-opment (DFID). The financedepartment spokespersonclaims that most of thismoney is spent on irrigationprojects such as lining ofcanals, rehabilitation of chan-nels, water metering, etc.

The sources howeverclaim that foreign assistedprojects are initiated becausethe officers who serve thereon secondment get paid morethan double of what the gov-ernment offers. And the facil-ities and other benefits –such as plush SUVs – have

their own pull. Moreover, it was gath-

ered that while the paybackterms of foreign loans israther comfortable but thescrutiny and audit is lax.

Furthermore, admittedthe rather candid spokesper-son, the budgetary support in-flow becomes a part of theprovincial kitty and reflectswell on the province’s financialcondition and enhances theutilization as well. Sources inthe Planning and DevelopmentDepartment further disclosedthat the government allocatedRs165 billion for the annualdevelopment plan (ADP) forthe fiscal 2008-09 while onlyRs146 billion was used; in2009-10 the allocation wasRs188 billion while only Rs134

billion was used; in 2010-11 thecorresponding figures wereRs196 and Rs115 billion and in2011-12 a whopping Rs220 bil-lion was announced while ameager Rs104 billion wasspent up till April this year.

“It is also a comment onthe overall performance of fi-nance officials if they keepmajor chunks from the ADP ofthe most populous provinceunutilized, and on the top of itthey are incurring foreign debtwhich makes no sense at alland only forces one to think ofsome ulterior motives behindthis move whatsoever,” a sen-ior official seeking anonymitysaid. “The federal governmentcontributes more than 80 per-cent to the province’s kitty”,said the Finance Department

secretary Tariq Bajwa. “Yetthere is always an ‘operationalshortfall’ and to bridge the gapthe provincial government hasto acquire foreign loans. “Thelocal bank gives us loans at aninterest rate of 15 percent,while the foreign creditorscharge only three percent,making the choice obvious,” hesaid. To a question on the ra-tionale of taking foreign debtswhen the available develop-ment funds have been lapsingevery year for the last fouryears, Bajwa said, the federalgovernment does not alwaysrelease the amount it has com-mitted while we have to planthe budget as per their esti-mated release and hence incase of a shortfall, we have tomake up for the shortfall.

Punjab govt borrowing like there’s no tomorrowContinued fRom page 01

ISLAMABADOnLinE

The Supreme Court has sum-moned the investigation re-port on recent developmentin Haj corruption case fromthe FIA DG.

A three-member benchheaded by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry heardthe haj corruption case on Fri-day. Former investigation offi-cer Hussain Asghar did notappear in court even on Fridaydespite court orders.

The Establishment secre-tary said Hussain Asghar wasinformed about the court or-ders and the inquiry to be ledagainst him if he did not fol-low them, adding that appar-ently, he had violated courtorders. He further told thebench that a summary re-garding the action to be takenagainst Hussain Asghar wasforwarded to the prime min-ister on June 27. The chiefjustice said the absence ofHussain Asghar was affectingthe case, adding that he wascreating problems for himselfby not complying with court

orders. He said the entireservice structure would be af-fected if Hussain Asghar didnot show up. The court latersought the report over the de-velopment in the case fromthe FIA DG on July 2 and ad-journed the case until July 3.

Meanwhile, the FIA sub-mitted a forensic report beforethe court of Special Judge Cen-tral khalid Shabbir in the Hajcorruption case. The 93-pagereport confirmed the link offormer Haj joint secretaryAftabul Islam Raja with Build-ing Hiring Supervisor AhmedFaiz that was denied by Raja inhis preliminary statementrecorded in the case. Accordingto the report, the data anddozens of pictures recoveredfrom the laptop computer ofRaja revealed that Ahmed Faizwas the front man of Raja andformer Haj director generalRao Shakeel. Besides, therewas no evidence against formerminister for religious affairsHamid Saeed kazmi in thegraft case pertaining to hiringof accommodation facilities forPakistani pilgrims in SaudiArabia during Haj 2010.

DADAAB CAMPSaFP

Gunmen kidnapped four for-eign aid workers, including aPakistani, and killed theirdriver on Friday in kenya’sDadaab refugee camp complexnear the border with war-tornSomalia, police and officialssaid. The four, who work withthe norwegian Refugee Council(nRC), come from Canada,norway, Pakistan and thePhilippines, regional police of-ficial Philip ndolo told AFP.

“Four foreign aid workerswere kidnapped... theirkenyan driver died laterwhile receiving treatment at alocal hospital,” ndolo said,

clarifying earlier reports thathe had also been kidnapped.Military helicopters and po-lice chased the gunmen, whodrove off with the hostages intheir vehicle. It was laterfound abandoned, with fearsthe gang are heading towardsSomalia, some 100 kilome-tres (60 miles) from Dadaab.

“We have dispatched mili-tary helicopters to pursue thekidnappers,” kenyan armyspokesman Cyrus Oguna toldAFP. “The vehicle was foundabandoned 30 kilometres (18miles) from Daadab, and we be-lieve the party is still withinkenyan borders, and the cap-tives and their kidnappers areon foot,” he added. nRC is

working to support some465,000 inhabitants in theDadaab complex, which consti-tutes kenya’s third-biggest townin size of population. “A convoyfrom the norwegian RefugeeCouncil was involved in an inci-dent in the refugee campDadaab,” the nRC said in astatement, adding that its headElisabeth Rasmusson had beentravelling with the convoy butwas unhurt and safe. The kid-napping is the latest in a seriesof attacks in the giant Dadaabcomplex, where gunmen lastOctober seized two Spaniardsworking for Medecins sansFrontieres (Doctors WithoutBorders), Montserrat Serra andBlanca Thiebaut.

Zardari must leave one office by Sept 5: lHc

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Fridayissued the detailed verdict on the case of President Asif AliZardari’s holding of two offices. A seven-page verdictstated that even after a year, President Zardari had notcomplied with the court’s previous orders, adding that it isan obligation for the president to follow court orders. Theverdict said that under the law and constitution, themeetings of Zardari’s political party could not be held inthe presidency. The court ruled that the president shouldleave one office by September 5. The court has reissuedthe notice to Zardari’s principal secretary.

‘Good things’come in small packages

The official divulged thatPakistan and the US werealso working on a new andalternative mechanism thatwould lead to completecessation of drone strikes inthe country’s Tribal Areas.He said, “Both sides havemade progress to findalternatives to the droneattacks and the United Stateshas agreed to explore othersoptions after Pakistan cameup with clear stance that anydrone strikes would not beacceptable.”nonetheless, he declined togive the nature ofalternatives to drone strikesand said he couldn’t give anytimeframe about thefinalisation of the newmechanism.On Pakistan’s contacts withthe Haqqani network, theofficial said Pakistan’ssecurity organisationsmight have maintainedcontacts with the Afghaninsurgent groups, but manycountries did that and thatdid not mean thatIslamabad was using thosecontacts for attacks on theUS-led foreign troops inAfghanistan.

Continued fRom page 01

Handlers denyspy’s confession

Six suspectedmilitants founddead in bara

PESHAWARSTaFF rEPOrT

At least six bullet-riddledbodies were found dumpedat karigar Garhi area ofkhyber Agency’s Bara tehsilearly on Friday.Officials said locals spottedthe bodies lying in anunpopulated area in karigarGarhi and informedauthorities.Officials and security forcepersonnel rushed to the siteand retrieved the bodies.Officials said all six personshad been shot dead andtheir ages were between 25to 30 years. So far theidentity of killed personscouldn’t determine but thelocal tribesmen believe theywere militants and had beenkilled by rival militantgroups. A day ago, at least10 people, including eightpersonnel of the securityforces were killed andseveral others injured inthree acts of terrorism in thesame area.

Pakistani among four aidworkers kidnapped in Kenya

ISLAMABADagEnciES

The Supreme Court of Pakistanon Friday fixed the hearing of thememo case on July 12, and issuednotices to various respondents.

The respondents includePakistan’s former ambassadorto the United States HusainHaqqani, and US businessmanMansoor Ijaz. The case will beheard by a nine-memberbench headed by Chief Justice

of Pakistan Iftikhar Muham-mad Chaudhry. The memocommission has already sub-mitted its report in the court.The commission declared thatthe alleged memo was a reality,and its author was Haqqani.

Sc to hear memo case on July 12

Haj scam: Sc summons progressreport from FiA Dg

qUETTa: hazara Shias participate on Friday in the funeral of one of the 15 pilgrims killed in a bus bombing the other day.


Saturday, 30 June, 2012 05

LAHORESTaFF rEPOrT

THE Supreme Court of Pakistan hasbeen nominated in a list, published bythe Foreign Policy magazine, as one ofthe most meddlesome supreme courtsaround the world. The list includes

many apex courts of Egypt, Israel, India andkuwait but surprisingly fails to mention amongmany other western countries the Supreme Courtof US, which has come under fire in the past fewyears for being meddlesome in the executive func-tions of the state.

The report cites certain examples tomake its point. It says that the SupremeCourt of Pakistan on June 19 issued a rulingstating that Yousuf Raza Gilani had “ceasedto be the prime minister of Pakistan.” Gilanihad been held in contempt of court since re-fusing to write a letter to Swiss authorities toreopen cases for corruption against PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, as the court had directed twoyears ago. “Giliani’s sacking is anotherepisode in the escalating power struggle be-tween the military-backed Supreme Courtand the civilian administration, which is con-trolled by Gilani and Zardari’s Pakistan Peo-ples Party (PPP),” the report said.

It said the court and the president havebeen butting heads since 2009 when Zardariopposed the reinstatement of Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who hadbeen sacked by then President PervezMusharraf. Zardari had only allowed IftikharChaudhry to return to power to avoid mas-sive protests led by former Prime Ministernawaz Sharif. “The Supreme Court andZardari’s government have been on a colli-sion course ever since, and Gilani’s dismissalwas yet another judicial attack on Zardari,”the report mentioned. But the court didn’tstop with ousting the prime minister. WhenZardari and PPP leaders selected former fi-nance and health minister Makhdoom Sha-habuddin to replace Gilani as prime minister,the court issued a warrant for his arrest foralleged production of an illegal drug. Just tobe safe, the arrest warrant includes theousted prime minister’s son, too. “Although

critics and activists have denounced thecourt’s actions as a coup, spokesmen fromthe PPP have told their supporters to standdown for the time being.”

On June 25, the report says, the PPP’ssecond choice – Raja Pervaiz Ashraf – tookover as prime minister. “There’s a goodchance Ashraf may also be on a collisioncourse with the court as he is currently fac-ing allegations of corruption and bribe-tak-ing from his time as water and powerminister. His relationship with the courtcould become even more tense if he followsin his predecessor’s footsteps by refusing toinvestigate Zardari,” the report concludes.

A statement of the same nature was alsogiven by a retired justice of the IndianSupreme Court, Markandey katju, who saidthat Pakistan’s Supreme Court had crossedthe limits when it disqualified former PrimeMinister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He told BBCthat the Pakistani Supreme Court disqualifiedthe prime minister just to appease the public.According to katju, there are several cate-gories of contempt and every related casedoes not invoke disqualification. “YousufRaza Gilani didn’t say that the Supreme Courttakes decisions after receiving bribes or itsverdicts are based upon malafide intentions.He could have been declared disqualified if hehad said so.” katju added the Supreme Courtwas just told that the case did not fall into itsdomain and the president enjoyed immunityunder Article 248 of the Constitution.

“How this argument is defaming theSupreme Court. It means that no one canraise objections. If a lawyer tells the courtthat the matter does not fall into your juris-diction, then would he be sent to the prison?He is not abusing you; he is raising a legalpoint,” the retired Indian judge said. katjusaid in case of differences with the president,it was very easy for a chief justice to issue un-constitutional order and then declare theprime minister disqualified when he ob-jected to it. “Democracy doesn’t work in thismanner. Prime minister runs the govern-ment while enjoying the confidence of theParliament and not the Supreme Court orthe chief justice,” katju remarked.

PESHAWARSTaFF rEPOrT

The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid(PML-Q) is likely to be besieged withmore setbacks as their stalwarts fromthe Peshawar valley have been ignoredin the federal cabinet. Insiders toldPakistan Today that PML-Q membershad requested party presidentChaudry Shujaat Hussain toincorporate MPs from Peshawar andthe Malakand region in the newfederal set up. However, instead ofhonouring such a request, the partyleadership recommended residents ofthe Mansehra region; Shah JehanYousaf for the office of minister ofstate and Syed Qasam Shah for theoffice of adviser to the prime minister.Both of these ministers wereoccupants of the same office duringthe administration of former primeminister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Partyinsiders stated that PML-Q khyberPakhtoonkhwa (kP) chapter proposedthe names of former JusticeMohammad Azam khan and Intekhabkhan Chamkani for the office ofadvisors in the federal cabinet,though, both of them have beenignored. Rumours are afloat that bothSardar Shah Jehan Yousaf and SyedQasam Shah have already finalized adeal with the leadership of Jamiat-Ul-Ulema Islam (JUI-F). Both, Yousaf

and Shah are likely to join the JUI-Fupon completion of the currentgovernment As former federalminister Azam Swati has joinedPakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, the JUI-Fneed a heavyweight in Hazara forwinning a seat in the next generalelections. PML-Q was delivered a

setback when Engineer Amir Muqamalong with his supporters from acrosskP, changed parties and joined the PMLfaction led by former prime ministernawaz Sharif. Upon getting officialslots, PML-Q stalwarts from Peshawarwere making attempts to detachsupporters of Engineer Amir Muqam.

Pakistani SC amongmost meddlesome,says FP magazine

PML-Q wALKIng on tHIn ICe

US ‘running a killing

bureaucracy’ with

drones: congressmanWASHINGTON

OnLinE

US President Barack Obama’s continued bombing ofPakistan, despite Islamabad’s repeated calls for the CIA tohalt its attacks, means the two nations may technically be atwar, according to a US Congressman. Dennis kuchinich,who has represented Ohio since 1996, described the UScovert drone programme as “vigilantism conducted byrobots”. In an interview with the Bureau, Democrat kucinichvoices withering criticism of US clandestine operations inPakistan, Yemen and Somalia, saying that America hasfound itself “running a killing bureaucracy”. kucinich toldthe Bureau that he believed the US may in effect be at warwith Pakistan, given that its “ally” has demanded that dronestrikes on its territory stop. In recent months Pakistan hasloudly protested each drone strike, calling them a “totalcontravention of international law” which are a “violation ofits territorial integrity and sovereignty.” kucinich believesthat Islamabad’s recent opposition to the strikes marks anew and worrying chapter in US-Pakistani relations. “If anation, which at one time asked for our help, resents ourhelp, then any action that takes place effectively loses theprotection of the request for cooperation. And then itbecomes a clearly outlined act of aggression. And so, if it is asPakistan says it is, and if in fact Pakistan has made thisrequest and asked us to stop and we continue this bombing,then we are at war with Pakistan,” kucinich told the Bureau.Pakistan has always denied claims that secret agreementswith the US allow Washington to conduct attacks on its soil.The 66-year old Ohio Congressman, who steps down thisnovember, is a long-time critic of US militarism. Hecondemned the covert use of drones, describing them asincendiaries “that spreads war more broadly and incite morepeople to join the cause of those who protest the US policiesand who seek to commit violence.”

PM orders forimmediaterelease offunds to Hec

ISLAMABADOnLinE

Prime Minister Raja PervaizAshraf has directed theFinance Ministry to release thefunds allocated for the HigherEducation Commission (HEC).The general body of theFederation of All PakistanUniversities Academic StaffAssociations (FAPUASA) hadset June 30 as deadline for thefederal government to releasefunds worth Rs 6 billion for the(HEC). They had threatened tolaunch countrywide agitation ifthe government failed torelease the amount. A total ofRs 12 billion were not releasedduring the fiscal year 2011-12.Of the total amount, Rs 6billion were meant fordevelopment and another Rs 6billion for recurringexpenditures. For the fiscalyear 2012-2013, thegovernment allocated anamount Rs 10 billion less thanthe HEC’s demand. Aspokesman for the PM’s Housesaid that Prime Minister RajaPervez Ashraf had telephonedthe finance secretary andordered him to immediatelyrelease the HEC funds.


Saturday, 30 June, 2012

iSLamaBaD: PTDc mD mir Shahjahan Khetran and others participate in PTDc Eco-Tourism Walk at Fatima Jinnah Park F-9. STAFF PHOTO

ISLAMABADSTaFF rEPOrT

The Damaan Development Organiza-tion organised one-day seminar withthe title of ‘Discourse on SustainableAgriculture’ to explore different mod-els of sustainable agriculture chal-lenges and opportunities, loss oftraditional knowledge, impact on farm-ers and food security.

The seminar was held in collabora-tion with Sustainable Agriculture Ac-tion Group (SAAG), Action Aid andSungi Development Foundation.

Shoaib Aziz, project manager,Damaan Development Organisation,

highlighted impact of climate change onsustainable agriculture and called forrevival and promotion of sustainableagriculture.

He said since climate change is a bigthreat to Pakistan, therefore, farmersshould practise traditional knowledgeand improve food security through sus-tainable agriculture.

He said the increasing populationand decreasing resources may posethreat to our future generation. He saidthere is a need for setting up market in-frastructure for the promotion of or-ganic produce.

Speaking on the occasion, khadimHussain highlighted the role of civil so-

ciety for the promotion of agriculture.He said that SAAG and other partnernGOS are striving hard for awarenesscreation and promotion of sustainableagriculture.

Gulfam Dogar said the farmers frommountains in Pakhtoonkhwa are grow-ing medicinal plants and earning goodamount for their produce.

He stressed the need for establish-ment of plant health clinic and re-quested farmers to link their agricultureto lunar calendar to counter rapidlychanging climate in Pakistan. He saidalien plant species are destroying ecol-ogy and new pests are creeping up todestroy local plant species.

Mehnaz Ajmal Paracha from Oxfamnovib said that present agriculture sys-tem is creating inequality and food in-security. She said forty percent ofpeople are food insecure in Pakistanand small farmers have no say in deci-sion making.

She pointed out that farmers are notgetting their rights under labour laws.She lamented that big farmers have rep-resentation in legislation process andare getting all benefits from the govern-ment but agriculture is no longer prof-itable for small farmers.

She called for organising a farmers’association so that they could fight fortheir rights.

tma to demolish

illegal structures

at nullah lai RAWALPINDI

OnLinE

The Tehsil Municipal Authority (TMA)Rawal Town has decided to demolish all il-legal structures set up at the bank of nullahLai aiming at to avoid monsoon disaster. The TMA directed the enforcement inspec-tors to bulldoze illegal houses setup at thelow laying area near the nullah and to sub-mit their report in this regard.The TMA said that stern action would betaken against the inspectors who failed tocomply with the direction.Meanwhile, hundreds of illegal houses wereset up at the bank of the nullah Lai whilethe inhabitants also dumped the material ofold house in the nullah which would createhindrance in the flow of water during therainy season.

renovation work

interrupts water

supplyRAWALPINDI

OnLinE

Water supply to the cantonment area hasbeen interrupted as underground supplyline has cracked at several places due to therenovation work going on at Chohr Chowk. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif inau-gurated the extension plan of Chohr Chowkon March 3, 2012, and the work was startedafter a delay of two months. However, thewater supply network was badly affecteddue to excessive digging and use of heavymachinery. Sources said water supply was restoredmany times through repair of water supplynetwork, but every now and then heavy ma-chinery destroys the supply line. This has caused the water shortage problemfor local residents to face and in addition, alarge quantity of water is wasted.

illegal soda waterplant sealed

ISLAMABADOnLinE

An illegal soda water plant has beensealed in naz Market of I-9 Sector of thefederal capital.Industrial Area Assistant CommissionerImran Ali Sultan, in a raid, along with staffof Margalla police station, the districthealth department and the labour inspec-tor concerned sealed an illegal soda waterplant here the other day for preparing un-hygienic soda water.All equipment was also taken into custody.


THE city police on Fri-day rounded up 12 sus-pects from MargallahHills and 10 othersfrom Bhara kahu and

Bani Gala areas.Police commandos, including

women cparticipated in searchoperation while searching teamalso used sniffer dogs to searchvillages near Margalla Hills.

The teams of Margallah policestation, headed by Station HouseOfficer Inspector MuhammadHussain Lassi, conducted asearch operation in villageskalinger, Chontra, Gandhian

around Margallah hills andnabbed 12 suspects.

Likewise, SHO Inspectornazeer from Bhara kahu policestation along with police teamsalso conducted a search operationin villages Athal and Sari Chowkand nabbed 10 suspects. Anothersearch operation was also con-ducted in the jurisidiction of BaniGala and strict vigilance is beingensured there.

During the search operations,the police arrested those whocould not furnish proof of theiridentity and any solid justifica-tion for staying in Islamabad.

Islamabad SSP MuhammadYousuf Malik has directed headsof all police stations to main-

tain high vigilance in their re-spective areas and screenhouses, workshops, markets,under-construction buildingsand residential areas.

Following the directions of IGPIslamabad Bani Amin khan andSSP Islamabad Muhammad YousufMalik, policemen in the form ofteams would continue search oper-ation in the coming days. The SSPsaid that these measures are beingtaken to ensure foolproof securityand keep a vigilant eye on the sus-pected elements.

A spokesman for Islamabadpolice said that search opera-tions would continue and a com-plete combing would be held insensitive areas.

22 suspects arrested duringsearch operations in capital

Revival and promotion of sustainable agriculture stressed

confucius institute

VP back to chinaISLAMABAD

STaFF rEPOrT

A simple but graceful farewell ceremony inthe honour of Dr Ge Lisheng, vice presidentof Confucius Institute, Islamabad, at thenational University of Modern Languages(nUML), Islamabad, was held to pay tributeto him for his services for the promotion ofChinese language in Pakistan. Dr Ge Lisheng, vice president, Confucius In-stitute at nUML, joined the university on 1stAugust, 2008, and managed the academic,administrative, cultural and public affairs ofthe institute very successfully. During histenure as the vice president of Confucius In-stitute, he arranged many teachers and stu-dents. He also held cultural and socialexchanges between China and Pakistan suc-cessfully to improve Pak-China relations. DrGe holds the degree of doctorate in ChineseLanguage and Applied Linguistics fromChina. Speaking on the occasion, nUMLRector Maj-Gen (retd) Masood Hasan saidthat Dr Ge has rendered meritorious servicesfor the promotion of Chinese language, Chi-nese culture and bilateral relations betweenPakistan and China. Dr Ge, while speaking onthe occasion, said that the love and affectionof his Pakistani colleagues and brotherswould stay with him forever and he would re-member his stay at the nUML. In the end,the nUML rector presented him a universityshield and a gift to Dr Ge.

lower judiciary staff

continues pen-down strikeISLAMABAD: The lower judiciary staff inthe capital on Friday continued a pen-downstrike for fifth consecutive day to registertheir protest against the behaviour of the Is-lamabad District Court Bar Association(IDCBA) president. According to Rana Dil-shad Ahmed, a reader of Civil Judge (West)Rasool Bakhsh Mirjat and Mumtaz Ahmed,also a reader of Civil Judge (West) Hu-mayun Dilawar khan, said IDCBA PresidentSyed Javed Akbar Mashhadi on June 25.



Islamabad

iSLamaBaD: activists of Joint christian action committee protest outside the press club against mna malik ibrar for stopping

St Joseph Free hospital construction. STAFF PHOTO

MINGORA

Several UAE-funded projects, in-cluding schools, health facilities andbridges in flood-hit areas of thecountry, which have either beencompleted or are under completionwill help the affected people resumetheir normal lives.

The devastating floods of 2009destroyed the infrastructure ofSwat. Realising the difficulties, theUAE government decided to con-struct the most modern bridge atthe site of the formerly knownGammon Bridge which connectsBarikot to kabul across the RiverSwat to facilitate 70,000 people.

Sheikh khalifa bin Zayed Al-nahyan Bridge is the first of thebridges completed under the UAEPakistan Assistance Programme.

A visit to the site and interactionwith the locals showed how the peo-ple of the area appreciate this giftwhich they said is a symbol of truebrotherhood and friendship. Sheikhkhalifa bin Zayed Al nahyan bridgeis the symbol of love and care ex-pressed by Sheikh khalifa bin Zayedfor Pakistan. khalifa bin Zayed Char-

ity Foundation provided funds for thebridge and Pakistan Army providedtechnical support for its completeconstruction resulting in its comple-tion in record time, which will pro-vide access to 5,000 vehicles daily.

The 5-span Sheikh khalifaBridge is not only the first multi-span delta bridge ever to be erectedin Pakistan but has also become thelongest delta bridge erected any-where in the world, with a totallength of 328 meters. Its rapid speedof erection, long span capability, aes-thetically pleasing appearance, dura-bility and seismic responsecapabilities has made this bridge notonly an architectural wonder but asource of pride for the friendship be-tween UAE and Pakistan.

On the directives of Sheikhkhalifa Bin Zayed Al nahyan, thePresident of United Arab Emirates,the UAE Pakistan Assistance Pro-gramme was launched to reduce thenegative impact of natural disasterof floods and its effect on the infra-structure. The UAEPAP consists ofcomprehensive development planto serve the society and citizens ofkhyber Pukhtoon khwa and South

Waziristan where developmentaland life-oriented projects are beingexecuted in the field of education,health, water, roads and bridgeswith a total cost currently reachedup till now 110 million US Dollars.

The UAEPAP includes buildingand reconstruction of a number ofschools in addition to rehabilitatinginstitutes and educational and tech-nical colleges for students atdiploma level in the area of scien-tific rehabilitation and technicaltraining. For health sector, the pro-gramme covers building, recon-structing and rehabilitating sevenhospitals and OPDs. To meet theneeds of water, water purificationplants, water treatment and layingdown water supply system to sup-ply pure water for the needy areasare under execution. In addition,work is in progress on two bridgesdestroyed by floods in khyberPakhtoonkhwa. A study is alsogoing on to construct a road of50km. in South Waziristan. Overall,51 educational, 64 water, sevenhealth and three roads and bridgesare being executed by the UAE gov-ernment at a cost of $ 110 million.

ISLAMABADOnLinE

THE Capital DevelopmentAuthority (CDA) and thePakistan Railways arelaunching a joint ventureto run shuttle train be-

tween Rawalpindi Railway Stationand Golra Sharif.

The decision was taken by theCDA and railway authority in ameeting held in the CDA headquar-ters the other day. Senior officials ofthe CDA and Railways were presentin the meeting.

The meeting has decided that 1-9railway station, which is now beingused as a dry port would be upgradedfor passenger train service.

Meanwhile, it was said in the meet-ing the 1-9 railway station would belinked with 9th Avenue by laying rail-way track while the CDA would buildbus terminal at that point and fromthere bus service would be ply for BlueArea, Secretariat and several other des-

tinations. During the meeting it was decided

that the railway track would be laiddown between 9th avenue and FaisalAvenue in second phase of the project. SEcURIty HEIgHtENED AtRAWALPINDI RAILWAy StAtION: Security has been placedon high alert at Rawalpindi and Chak-lala Railway stations after the bombexplosion in Sibbi Railway station

IG Railways has directed for de-ployment of police constables andcommandoes at the entrance and plat-forms of stations who will strictly mon-itor all activities.

While all close circuit camerashave also been installed to monitor anysuspicious activity. Women police con-stables have also been deployed.cLERK SAcKED fOR MAKINgBOgUS MEDIcAL cERtIfIcAtE:Executive Education Officer,Rawalpindi, has dismissed a juniorclerk, a subordinate of Deputy DEO(women), Iffat Shaheen, for making afake medical certificate of a class-4 em-

ployee.An inquiry committee has been

constituted for investigations againstthe junior clerk, namely Zubair.

According to details, the clerkworking under Deputy DEO (women)made a bogus medical certificate ofAmeer khan to benefit his son, namelyImran.

The district education departmentwas also apprised through an applica-tion about the fake medical examina-tion.

Sources said if there were any evi-dence for involvement of Deputy DEO(women), Iffat Shaheen, in the scandal,action would also be taken against herin accordance with the rules of educa-tion department.

Meanwhile, Imran, who is son ofthe class-4 employee, Ameer khan, hasregistered a case against the educationdepartment in the High Court.

Deputy DEO, Iffat Shaheen wasphoned to take her stance over thematter but she could not be reached.

Shuttle train betweenPindi, Golra Sharif soon

UAE-funded projects to change people’s lives

teams formed to look

into oil theft reportsRAWALPINDI

aPP

Divisional Superintendent of PakistanRailways Munwar Shah said on Fridaythat special teams have been constitutedto look into the oil theft repots at Lahoreand Rawalpindi areas. Talking to APP, he said the teams havebeen constituted on the directives ofMinister for Railways Haji GhulamAhmed Bilour and Chairman RailwaysArif Azeem. He said special directiveshave been issued to the police personneldeputed at various trains to keep an eyeon all activities taking in their respectivetrains. “If anyone is found involved inthis crime, he will be dealt with ironhands and will be awarded exemplarypunishment,” he said. However, he said,an effective system has also been de-vised to check quantity of oil in thetrains at all the major railways stations.

Snoring problemlinked to depression

ISLAMABADaPP

Experiencing breathing problems dur-ing sleep may raise your risk of depres-sion, a new study suggests. Women with sleep apnea, in whichbreathing becomes shallow or pausesbriefly during sleep, were 5.2 times aslikely to have depression compared withwomen without the condition, Healthnews reported. Men with sleep apneawere 2.4 times as likely to have depres-sion as men without the condition, ac-cording to the study from researchers atthe Centres for Disease Control and Pre-vention (CDC). Participants in the study who had otherbreathing problems during sleep alsohad an increased risk of depression.However, the researchers found no in-creased likelihood of depression amongpeople who snore. “Snorting, gasping orstopping breathing while asleep was as-sociated with nearly all depressionsymptoms, including feeling hopelessand feeling like a failure,” said study re-searcher Anne Wheaton, an epidemiolo-gist with the CDC. “We expected personswith sleep-disordered breathing to re-port trouble sleeping or sleeping toomuch, or feeling tired and having littleenergy, but not the other symptoms.”Both depression and breathing problemsduring sleep are common, and both areunder-diagnosed, the researchers wrote.Screening people who have for one dis-order for the other could lead to betterdiagnosis and treatments, they said.

iHc cJ constitutes

eight benches

for next weekISLAMABAD

aPP

Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Jus-tice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman has con-stituted six single and two divisionbenches to hear over 275 cases duringthe next week starting from Monday(July 2). Six single benches include ChiefJustice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman, Jus-tice Riaz Ahmed khan, Justice Muham-mad Anwar khan kasi, Justice noorulHaq n Qureshi, Justice Shaukat AzizSiddiqui and Justice Muhammad Azimkhan Afridi. The first division benchcomprises Chief Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman and Justice noorul Haq nQureshi while the second bench consistsof Justice Riaz Ahmed khan and JusticeMuhammad Azim khan Afridi.

Vitamin d doesn’t

ease lung disease

symptoms: studyISLAMABAD

aPP

Researchers previously thought the anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin Dsupplements might reduce symptomsfor the patients with COPD. A new studyshows little difference between the pa-tients receiving vitamin D and aplacebo. In a new study of people withmoderate or severe lung disease, takinglarge amounts of vitamin D was notlinked to any symptom of relief, re-searchers from Belgium report, MedicalHealth news said. Prior research sug-gested that up to three quarters of peo-ple with severe chronic obstructivepulmonary disease, or COPD, are defi-cient in the vitamin. So it was thoughtthat giving them extra vitamin D mighthelp prevent exacerbations in symptomsor trips to the hospital because of short-ness of breath or mucus in the airwaysbut that turned out not to be the case. “Supplementation with vitamin D is notgoing to cure their disease,” said Dr WimJanssens, one of the study’s authors fromUniversity Hospitals Leuven. “It is againclear for COPD patients that these exacer-bations are really hard to treat and pre-vent. There are a lot of relapses. We’rebasically failing in treating these,”Janssens said. Though vitamin D is mostoften associated with bone health and os-teoporosis, Janssens said the theory hasbeen that the vitamin may help reduce in-flammation, including inflammation inthe airways that worsen COPD symptoms,such as coughing and trouble breathing.


08 Saturday, 30 June, 2012

Islamabad

low

High

Sunday mOnday tueSday43°c i 27°c 44°c i 27°c 45°c i 27°c

Prayer timinGSFajr Sunrise Zuhr asr maghrib isha

03:34 05:10 12:13 15:50 19:16 20:52

city directOry

POlice emerGency 15

ambulance 115

reScue 1122

Hilal-e-aHmer 9250488

edHi FOundatiOn 2827844

bOmb diSPOSal 9270698

Fire briGade centre 16

ciVil deFence 9262830

emerGency HelP

HOSPitalS

blOOd banK

PimS blOOd banK 9261272

POly clinic blOOd banK 9209123

cOmPlaint

waPda 111-000-118

Sui GaS 1199

railwayS

city StatiOn (enquiry) 117

reSerVatiOn 9273614

railway POlice 1333

airPOrt

FliGHt enquiry 114

Pia reSerVatiOn 111-786-786

cOlleGeS / uniVerSitieS

internatiOnal iSlamic uniVerSity 9260765

baHria uniVerSity 9260002

numl 9257677

quaid-e-aZam uniVerSity 90642098

arid aGriculture uniVerSity 9290151

FJwu 9273235

riPHa internatiOnal uniVerSity 111510510

nca rawalPindi 5770423

PunJab law cOlleGe 4421347

maHrOOF int 2222920

PimS 9261170

POly clinic 9218300

cda 9221334

SHiFa internatiOnal 4603666

ali 4444435

diStrict HqS 5556311-14

ultraSOnic clinic 2824862

HOly Family 9290319

IT'S SUmmeR AGAIN!

it's the summer again & Kuch Khaas is back with all things awesome! June 18th - July 31st. For more details call 051-8357483

DRUmmING CIRCLe

date and time: 05:00 Pm, weeKly eVentVenue: tHe centre FOr artS & culture

Our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoingevent and is held every Friday from 5pmto 6pmwe are having a great time, and want toshare the good time with you! Ourdrumming circle has children ...

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date: June 18 tO July 31, 2012 Venue: centre FOr artS and culture

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TOUR TO KHILASH, CHITRAL,SHANDOOR, GILGIT, eTC

every month, Fac organizes several tripsand expeditions to various locations inPakistan. For more updates like our communitypage:www.facebook.com/falconadventureclub

date: July 06 tO 14, 2012 Venue: FalcOn adVenture club

iSLamaBaD: a fruit vendor sleeps under the shadow of a tree during the hot day on Friday. STAFF PHOTO

ISLAMABADOnLinE

THE national Assembly StandingCommittee on Information Technol-ogy on Friday showed annoyanceover adhocism in the Ministry of In-formation Technology, saying that

discriminatory attitude towards the ministry waspromoting corruption and big scams.

A meeting of the national Assembly Stand-ing Committee on Information Technology, heldunder the chair of Ch Muhammad Barjees Tahir,strongly criticised the performance of the Infor-mation Technology secretary and said that cor-ruption was prevailing in the ministry while nosteps has been seen by him to address it.

The committee also showed resentment overadhocism in different departments of the ministryas most of its attached departments are function-ing without their heads and officials are working

on contract basis. The committee asked the ITsecretary for how much time they would run thebusiness of these departments on adhocism. Thestanding committee recommended immediate ap-pointment of federal minister for informationtechnology and an end to discriminatory attitudetowards the ministry which is paying hugeamount of tax to the national exchequer.

The chairman of the committee said that forlast nine years the committee has been seekingthe inquiry report on the project of establish-ment of optical fiber transmission link betweenketi Bunder and the costal highway while offi-cials are using different delaying tactics regard-ing it and no action has been taken by theministry against those responsible for it.

The officials of the ministry are waiting forcompletion of tenure of the present governmentso that they would get rid of this situation, thecommittee observed.

The committee directed the information

technology secretary to submit the report on in-vestigation conducted so far in optical fiber casewithin one month.

The members of the committee advised thesecretary to fix responsibility within one monthotherwise the matter would be referred to thenational Accountability Bureau (nAB).

The IT secretary told the committee that na-tion Telecommunication Corporation (nTC) isworking without its chairman, however, the min-istry has given an ad in the newspapers for thispost and the process in progress. The committeesaid that the ministry is just giving ads and nopractical work is being done. The committee di-rected the secretary to give details of process re-garding the nTC chairman’s recruitment alongwith a copy of the ad.

The nA body directed officials to provideall the details about the nTC gateway ex-change case which is being referred the FIAon the PM’s orders.


Riphah Academy of Research andEducation(RARE), a constituent institute ofRiphah International University, organised afour-day workshop on ‘Constructing an EffectiveProblem-Based Learning Package’ for facultymembers of different medical colleges ofRawalpindi and Islamabad at Al-Mizan campusin Rawalpindi. The aim of workshop was to helpthe educators in developing the skill to write ef-fective cases, triggers and problem based learn-

ing packages to support learning and conductPBL session for undergraduate medical curricu-lum. It provides a credible platform for healthprofessionals for learning so as to face challengesin educational trends.

The workshop was conducted by a renownededucator Rukhsana Hussain Malik from Univer-sity of Teknologi, MARA and Malaysia.

It was attended by faculty members of Is-lamic International Medical College (IIMC)Rawalpindi, Islamic International Dental CollegeIslamabad, Peshawar Medical College, Pe-shawar, Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad,

Rawalpindi Medical College, Rawalpindi, YusraMedical and Dental College Islamabad and Mar-galla Institute of Health Sciences Islamabad.

IIMC Principal Prof Masood Anwar ex-pressed the resolve that RARE attached high pri-ority to the faculty development at theuniversities and the health education institu-tions. He said this learning exercise would proveextremely useful to prepare the faculty for thecontemporary needs of the medical education.Prof Dr Anis Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of RiphahInternational University, distributed certificatesamong the participants of the workshop.

NA body annoyed over adhocism in IT Ministry

RARE holds workshop to train medical faculty



Foreign Newsindian security

forces kill 21

maoist rebelsRAIPUR

aFP

At least 21 Maoist rebels were killed in aseries of violent clashes with securityforces in the central state ofChhattisgarh, a hotbed of left-wingextremism, police said Friday. In oneattack, 17 guerrillas were killed in anight-time gun battle with securityforces in a thickly forested area ofChhattisgarh’s Bastar region, about 295kilometres (184 miles) south of the statecapital Raipur. Four more were shotdead in two separate incidents in thesame region. “A large number of forcesare searching the forest to capture moreMaoists sheltering there,” district policesuperintendent Prashant Agrawal toldAFP by phone. A further 19 rebels werecaptured and taken into custody,Agrawal said. It was a rare success forthe security forces who have struggledto strike back at the rebels since thelaunch of a counter-insurgency driveknown as “Operation Greenhunt” in2009. The guerrillas meanwhile havecarried out repeated attacks on policeand paramilitary targets, inflictingheavy casualties. In new Delhi, HomeMinister P. Chidambaram praised the“courage and great skill” of the policeunits involved in the overnightshootouts. Chhattisgarh is one ofseveral states where Maoist guerrillas,who say they are fighting for the rightsof poor tribals and farmers, have wageda decades-long battle to overthrow stateand national authorities.

turkey coup trial

resumes without

ailing defendantsANKARA

aFP

Turkey’s landmark trial into the bloody1980 coup resumed on Friday in theabsence of the two defendants, whoseold age and frail health is stillpreventing them from appearing incourt. The two generals, kenan Evren,94, and Tahsin Sahinkaya, 86, areconsidered unfit to appear in the dockbecause of their age and physicalcondition, according to a report by theInstitute of Forensic Medicine inIstanbul. Evren and Sahinkaya are beingtreated in military hospitals for medicalcomplications arising from chronicdiseases, which the report said “could belife threatening” under stress. It is thefirst time that the perpetrators of one ofthe country’s several military coups havefaced justice, and lawyers for theplaintiffs are keen for the defendants toappear in the dock. The trial opened inAnkara in April, but Evren, the juntaleader who was declared president afterthe coup, and Sahinkaya, then air forcecommander, have been absent from thehearings pending the medicalassessments. Lawyers for the civilplaintiffs in the case — victims of thecoup — have asked judges to reject thereport and are seeking an independentcommission to examine the condition ofthe two generals.

WASHINGTONaFP

US law-m a k e r so nThursdaytook the

historic, controver-sial step of holdingAttorney GeneralEric Holder incontempt, sharp-ening the election-year discord

between the Obama administra-tion and its Republican foes inCongress.

Some 100 furious Democratsled by nancy Pelosi, the party’stop member in the House ofRepresentatives, stormed out ofthe chamber at the start of thevote, called because Holder haswithheld documents related to abotched gun-tracking operation.

They were protesting whatthey described as highly partisanaction to railroad the contemptvote through the House — dis-

crediting both Holder and Pres-ident Barack Obama ahead ofthe november elections.

The resolution was adopted255-67 in the Republican-ledHouse. Several dozen Democratsrefused to participate, while 17in Obama’s party voted to findthe nation’s top justice official incriminal contempt.

The move paves the way forlegal action over a probe into thegun-tracking Operation Fast andFurious, and Holder’s failure toturn over internal Justice De-

partment documents and emailssought through subpoena by acongressional panel conductingthe investigation.

The House also passed a civilcontempt resolution, whichwould authorize the panel to suethe Justice Department in fed-eral court over the documents.

The contempt finding, thefirst for a sitting member of apresident’s cabinet, was imme-diately branded by the WhiteHouse as a “transparently polit-ical stunt.”

WEST BanK: a Palestinian protester kicks a tear gas canister fired by israeli soldiers during the weekly demonstration against

the expropriation of Palestinian land by israel in the village of Kfar qaddum on Friday. AFP

TOKYOaFP

Tens of thousands of people ralliedoutside the Japanese prime minister’sresidence in Tokyo Friday in one ofthe largest demonstrations heldagainst the restart of nuclear reactors.

The protesters, carrying plac-ards which read “Rise up againstthe restart” and “The nuclear era isover,” lined the streets aroundPrime Minister Yoshihiko noda’sresidence in central Tokyo as policewatched on, according to an AFPphotographer. The main entranceto the residence was seen guarded

by armoured vehicles and barri-cades of uniformed police.

Organisers quoted in localmedia estimated turnout exceeded100,000 people, over double theturnout they estimated at a similarprotest last week. LawmakerYoshisu Arita, however, placed thefigure at closer to 20,000 on Twitter.

On June 16, noda gave thegreen light to start work to restarttwo reactors at the Oi plant in west-ern Japan, despite public mistrustin the technology following lastyear’s meltdowns at Fukushima.

The demonstration had beencalled by liberal writers Takashi Hi-

rose and Satoshi kamata in an onlinemessage which spread on Twitter andFacebook in what was likened by apopular tabloid to the “Arab Spring,”a wave of protests that topped gov-ernments in the Arab world last year.

“Down with the noda govern-ment,” read a sign held by a pro-tester. A similar protest outsidenoda’s home last week saw aturnout of 45,000, according to or-ganisers, though the media issued amore conservative figure of 20,000.

Smaller scale protests had beenheld every Friday outside the pre-mier’s residence since late March,and have been led in part by nobel

Prize-winning author kenzaburoOe, who started an anti-nuclear pe-tition that has so far gathered morethan 7.5 million signatures.

Japan had been left without nu-clear power since early May when thelast of its 50 working reactors wasshut down. Authorities took the deci-sion to restart the two reactors asthey seek to head off a summer powercrunch. Radiation was spread overhomes and farmland in a largeswathe of Japan’s northeast when a9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensu-ing tsunami in March last year crip-pled the cooling system of theFukushima Daiichi plant.

Tens of thousands protest Japan nuclear restart

TOKYO: Anti-nuclear protesters stage a demonstration

outside the prime minister’s official residence on

Friday to protest against his decision to restart two

nuclear reactors. AFP

Top Obama aide Holder heldin contempt in US first

CAIROaFP

Crowds thronged Cairo’s iconic TahrirSquare on Friday as Islamist MohamedMorsi prepared to address supporterson the eve of his swearing-in as Egypt’sfirst civilian president.

Hundreds gathered from mid-morn-ing braving the searing heat, hours beforeMorsi was expected to arrive in the hugecentral plaza that was the epicentre of theprotest movement that ousted veteranstrongman Hosni Mubarak last year.

Chants against the ruling militarywhich took over on Mubarak’s over-throw rang out from among the crowd.

Even after taking the oath, Morsiwill still have to contend with theSupreme Council of the Armed Forces,headed by Mubarak’s longtime defenceminister Field Marshal Hussein

Tantawi, which will retain broad pow-ers after it formally transfers power.The liberal Wafd newspaper reportedthat Tantawi will stay on as defenceminister in Morsi’s new government.

“Down with the power of the mili-tary,” the demonstrators chanted. “Fieldmarshal, tell us the truth — is Morsi yourpresident or not?” The slogans dentedhopes expressed in an editorial in theflagship state-owned daily Al-Ahram Fri-day that announcement of the details ofMorsi’s swearing-in would end specula-tion about the military’s real intentions.

“The swearing-in should dispelonce and for all the doubts raised bythose who have used every means toquestion the military’s readiness tohand over power,” the paper said.

Morsi spokesman Yasser Ali toldstate MEnA news agency the president-elect would “make a speech to the great

Egyptian people” in which he wouldspeak about “efforts to launch his pro-gramme for the rebirth of Egypt.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, fromwhich Morsi resigned after winning thepresidency, had called for a hugedemonstration in Tahrir, under the slo-gan: “Day of the transfer of power.”

The presidency announced late onThursday that Morsi would be sworn inSaturday before the ConstitutionalCourt, after differences with the armyover the transfer of power to the na-tion’s first civilian president.

Morsi “will go at 11 am (0900 GMT)Saturday to the Constitutional Court totake the oath before the Court’s generalassembly”, said a statement released byMEnA. Traditionally the president takesthe oath in parliament, but Egypt’s topcourt has ordered the disbanding of theIslamist-dominated legislature.

Syrian forces pounddamascus suburb

BEIRUTaFP

Regime forces pounded the Damascussuburb of Douma and the central city ofHoms on Friday, after one of thebloodiest days of the Syrian uprising inwhich more than 180 people were killed,a monitor said. At least 25 people werekilled across Syria on Friday — 11 civilians,one rebel and 13 soldiers — the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights said, addingthat anti-regime protests were staged acrossthe country. Security forces dispersed ademonstration outside a mosque in theMazzeh district of Damascus, arrestingfour people, the Britain-based watchdogsaid. “Regime troops surrounded anumber of mosques in the capital toprevent protests after Friday prayers,” itsaid. Other demonstrations calling forthe ouster of President Bashar al-Assadtook place in Aleppo, Daraa, Deir Ezzor,Idlib, Homs and Latakia provinces.Protesters demonstrated under theslogan “Confident in the victory fromGod,” an apparent reference toresentment of international effortswhich have yet to find a solution to thecrisis or to stop the escalating bloodshed.Activists uploaded videos of the protests toYouTube, one of which showeddemonstrators in the heart of the capitalshouting: “Douma, Douma, Douma!” and“Freedom, Freedom Freedom!” Innorthwest Idlib province, hundreds ofpeople gathered in the town of kfarnubul, chanting against anti-Assadslogans. They criticised US unwillingnessto intervene in Syria, holding a largebanner that read: “kfar nubul asks foran early presidential election in America.Obama isn’t doing well!” TheObservatory said two civilians were killedin “shelling on Douma and itssurrounding areas, under continuedbombardment by regime forcesattempting to gain control” of the capital’ssuburb. On Thursday, the highest deathtoll was in Damascus province with 46people killed — 41 in Douma alone — theObservatory said. On Friday, threepeople died in Deir Ezzor province in theeast, where the Local CoordinationCommittees reported “violent clashesbetween regime forces and Free SyrianArmy fighters.” Clashes also took placein the southern city of Daraa near acamp for displaced people, while twopeople were killed in shooting elsewherein the city and the province.

Huge crowds throng Tahriron eve of Morsi swearing-in


Comment10Saturday, 30 June, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

The rot spreading

Killing fields of quetta

The much targeted Hazara community of Quetta wassubjected to another brutal attack on Thursday. Atleast 11 Shia pilgrims returning from Iran were killedand 30 others injured as their bus entered the

precincts of the city. The number of those killed is likely to riseon account of the precarious condition of some of these lyinginjured in hospitals. Over the last many months, hardly a dayhas passed without an attack on the high peaceful and lawabiding Hazara community. If something is not doneimmediately to stop the killings, the Hazaras will either beforced to undertake a mass migration or be wiped outcompletely.

What one sees happening amounts to no less than ethniccleansing. That this is happening in the presence of 50,000 FCpersonnel in the province is a reflection of the performance ofthe force. Recently, hundreds of Hazaras and Shias fromkurrum Agency have tried to migrate to other countries attimes risking their lives. In the latest incident of the type, a boatcarrying 151 Shias met with an accident near Australia early thisweek leading to the confirmed death of 17 while the fate of 49remains still unknown. Tragic incidents of the type have takenplace during the last two years also. This shows that thecommunity is losing all hope. The port city of karachi, which isthe industrial hub of Pakistan, is also in the grip of communaland sectarian violence. The Shia community remains the targetof the LeJ and the Jundullah.

The security agencies accuse foreign powers of involvementin the killings to malign Pakistan. Even if this were the case,was it not their duty to foil the enemies’ plot? Where is thecounter intelligence, one may ask? The talk shows on private TVchannels too continue to claim that India is behind the killings.It is intriguing that nobody sees the elephant in the room.Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has again claimed responsibility for thedastardly act. Such is the conspiracy of silence that intelligenceagencies, TV anchors and their guests remain tight lipped aboutthe communal terrorists.

Many think that the LeJ which fought against the northernAlliance is the late 1990’s is considered an asset like theHaqqani network. Grandiose strategic plans have alreadyisolated the country in the region and within the comity ofnations. In case they are allowed to stand in the way of therestoration of law and order, the country could turn into a failedstate where the government is unable to establish its writ.

The charade continuesSave Our System

Back to square one! TheSupreme Court has askedthe new prime ministerabout his intention of writ-ing ‘the letter’ to the Swiss

authorities against his own presidentwithin two weeks. If the intention was towrite the elusive letter, Gilani wouldhave obliged instead of falling on hissword. The Lahore High Court giving adeadline of two months to the presidentto relinquish his party post has furtherraised the ante.

neither of the above is going to hap-pen. This means the crisis of the state isto continue unabated. The worthy courtscould not be oblivious to the impacttheir edicts are having on our bodypolitic, in the name of restoring the ruleof law.

An increasingly belligerent opposi-tion, an overbearing court and an incom-petent government have exacerbatedPakistan’s endemic internal instability.There is the external crisis looming largeas well. Thanks to its inward-lookingself-serving strategic paradigms, Pak-istan is becoming internationally and re-gionally increasingly isolated.

The standoff with Washington con-tinues unabated while relations withIndia are on a one step forward and twosteps backward mode. Like previous vis-its by US emissaries, top military com-mander in Afghanistan General GeorgeAllen’s recent sojourn to Rawalpindiamounted to naught.

The US with increasing emphasis ispushing Pakistan to move against theHaqqani network holed up in n Waziris-tan. Islamabad is unwilling to reopennATO supply routes suspended sincethe Salala incident last november with-out an apology from Washington for theloss of 24 Pakistani soldiers in the at-tack.

With a wider consensus building inWashington that Pakistan is a part of theproblem rather than the solution to the

Afghan imbroglio, an apology any timesoon seems out of the question. In themeanwhile, the number of friends Islam-abad has in Washington are decreasing.

Previously, the State Departmentwas sympathetic to Islamabad’s con-cerns. Similarly there was a lobbyfavouring Pakistan at the Pentagon.now Leon Panetta the Defence Secretaryhas emerged as the biggest hawk withregards to Pakistan. neither does Presi-dent Obama - who personally supervisesdrone attacks – mince any words whenspeaking about Pakistan.

There are moves afoot in the USCongress to declare the Haqqani net-work a foreign terrorist organisation. Ifboth Republicans and Democrats agreeon the move, this would spell disasterfor Pakistan with all its appended conse-quences.

Pakistani policy makers have boxedthemselves in to a corner. The resolutionin the joint houses of the parliament lay-ing down terms of engagement with theUS has become an albatross aroundtheir neck.

The cabinet represents the parlia-ment and as such the will of the major-ity. Hence, foreign policy and securityissues are decided on that forum obviat-ing the need to go to the parliament.

neither are matters with states (es-pecially if one is dealing with a super-power) decided on the basis of jingoismand emotions. Perhaps policymakers inIslamabad, and more so at the GHQ,have an exaggerated sense of the coun-try’s strategic importance.

Thanks to the parliamentary resolu-tion of the parliament, no one is willingto bite the bullet to break the impasse. Itis obvious that without some sort ofagreement on reopening of nATO sup-plies and decisively moving against theHaqqani network in our badlands, thestalemate will continue.

The US being an imperial power hasways and means to punish Pakistan forits intransigence. We can keep com-plaining about the unfairness of it all,but there is nothing much we can doabout it. nor can we continue to defy theWest including the European Union andexpect to be rewarded for our flawedpolicies.

Our bargaining position has notbeen strengthened by recent events. Theouster of Gilani as prime minister by theSupreme Court is being touted as a vin-dication of the rule of law within Pak-istan by part of the legal fraternity aswell as the opposition. But, unfortu-nately, the international media, analystsand prominent jurists have termed themove as a clash of institutions and a

weakening of civilian rule.Vali nasr, Dean of the Paul nitze

School of Advanced International Stud-ies at the John Hopkins University, in arecent article penned after the SupremeCourt’s decision to axe Gilani hastermed Pakistan as a failing state. Ac-cording to him, the firing of Gilani epit-omises the two decades of this charadeof tinkering with democracy that hasmade for a weak country, infested withcorruption and extremism.

Mr nasr is not alone. This is the viewbeing increasingly held abroad as well aswithin Pakistan. The democratic civilianfaçade is faltering, falling under its ownweight. It’s much like throwing the babywith the bathwater; constant squabblingwith a quixotic superior judiciary hasweakened the state rather than strength-ening it.

If events go unchecked, we could seethe ouster of another prime minister bythe apex court. no tears have been shedfor Gilani and neither any will be shedfor Raja, if and when he is made to leave.But a more axiomatic question is howlong can the system survive this cha-rade?

Despite the countries provinces bor-dering with Afghanistan infested with afresh wave of terrorism, the economyfaltering and the opposition up in arms,the PPP-led government still insists oncompleting its remaining term. It hasthe constitutional and the moral right todo so. But it perhaps does not realisethat it is in a political cul-de-sac partlyof its own making.

There are those who even accuse thesuperior judiciary (perhaps without evi-dence) of having a nod from the estab-lishment to undo the system. The ideabeing to replace it with a caretaker setupcomprising of technocrats to fix thingswithout any elections in sight. All thosewho believe in a democratic civilian rulefeel that the PPP-led coalition and theopposition must reach a consensus tosave the system from being hijacked byBonapartists.

For that to happen, the PPP has toclimb down of its mantra of completingits term and the PML(n) from its intran-sigent stance as being perennially es-poused by Shahbaz Sharif. In order toappoint a Chief Election Commissionerand a caretaker government for the pur-pose of elections, the PPP-led govern-ment and the opposition need to talk.

In any case, logistically speaking,elections are not possible before earlywinter. Which brings the PPP closer tothe end of its term.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today

By Arif Nizami

Every institution of the state andorganisation of civil society hasenjoyed maximum freedomduring the last four years and

misused it. It is time they all learn thatthe continuity of freedom cannot be en-sured until its exercise is accompaniedby restraint.

The way freedom of action has beenenjoyed by the security agencies in thecountry at large and the FC in Balochis-tan in particular has been horrendous.They have taken away citizens withoutdue process, kept them incognito, tor-

tured and killed them. Politicians in power tend to think

that since they have been given the man-date to rule they can lord over the people,defy laws, misuse authority and indulgein financial irregularities.

The media anchors feel free to levelunfounded accusations, sermonise to thenation while playing in the hands ofshady tycoons.

The lawyers are free to beat up jour-nalists, police officials and hurl shoes onjudges.

The judiciary thinks the sky is thelimit for its activism.

Judges were initially praised forcoming to the rescue of the common.They initiated cases against the high andmighty criminals and provided relief tothe poor and helpless. They also took no-tice of the heart-rending excesses com-mitted by the security agencies, an issuethat courts in the past would not touchwith a ten-foot pole.

The judges however sometime bit offmore than they could chew. They took upcomplex matters whose resolution re-quired much more than legal wisdomlike regulating the traffic jams in karachi

and bringing down the prices of sugarand petroleum in the country.

Seeing the way the courts are acting,the opposition parties now take politicalissues to the courts that need to be re-solved politically in parliament, throughmedia or public protests. Thus while thepoliticians yield their own turf to judiciary,they also take away precious time from itthat the judiciary could use to dispose offthe piles of undecided cases gatheringdust. In the 1990’s, opposition partieswould approach the ISI or the army to set-tle scores with the government in power.now they knock at the doors of the courtsfor the same purpose. How long will thiscontinue depends on the courts.

The courts have taken up cases thatbrought them on collision course with theexecutive. The Supreme Court introduced anovel way of removing an elected primeminister who still enjoyed the support of thenational Assembly. One prime minister wasremoved for failing to write a letter, anotheris about to be fired on the same charge.

Apparently it matters little to thecourts what happens if the chief execu-tive was giving to the running of thecountry is consumed by meetings to de-

vise ways and means for his survival. Orif inter-governmental issues that need tobe urgently resolved are delayed becauseforeign governments are reluctant toenter into talks with a government thatcan be packed off any time.

The court has yet to decide if thereare any limits to judicial activism. Thereare reports of the Defence Council ofPakistan preparing to approach theSupreme Court against a possible deci-sion by the government to open the natoroutes. Thus, the court would be involvedin an issue that can have grave signifi-cance for Pak-US relations.

The direction the judiciary has takenis fraught with dangers. Last week, ChiefJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhrysaid that the parliament cannot legislateany law repugnant to the constitution,injunctions of Islam and contrary to fun-damental laws. While one can under-stand that no law should be repugnant tothe constitution and fundamental rights,the Supreme Court judges would enter athorny area if they were to arbitrate onwhat constitutes an un-Islamic law.

The Constitution needs to beamended with the march of time to take

into consideration changes in the valuesystem or newly emerging needs. Sup-pose the legislature decided to replacethe controversial Objectives Resolutionwhich is out of sync with the times witha more meaningful and relevant sectionfrom Jinnah’s speech in the ConstituentAssembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947.

What about replacing the ObjectivesResolution with these seminal observa-tions of the Founding Father: “You arefree; you are free to go to your temples,you are free to go to your mosques or toany other place or worship in this State ofPakistan. You may belong to any religionor caste or creed that has nothing to dowith the business of the State…now Ithink we should keep that in front of us asour ideal and you will find that in courseof time Hindus would cease to be Hindusand Muslims would cease to be Muslims,not in the religious sense, because that isthe personal faith of each individual, butin the political sense as citizens of theState.” Would the replacement be in linewith Islamic injunctions or against it?

The writer is a former academic anda political analyst.

Some restraint, please

On judicial (hyper)activism

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad


truth and justiceAccording to a press report, Dr

Arsalan, the son of CJ has expressed hisdoubts about the impartiality ofChairman national AccountabilityBureau and asked the nAB to halt theprocess of initiating inquiry againsthim on the application of propertytycoon of Bahria Town. Dr Arsalanwarned nAB that it would beoverstepping its jurisdiction as well asviolating the nAB Ordinance and SC’sdirection. Dr Arsalan through hiscounsel termed Attorney General’sletter to the Chairman for forming aninvestigation team as biased and withmalafide attention on the part of theattorney. Another report is that the SCregistrar has asked the AttorneyGeneral for the details of progress onthe case which the Attorney Generalhas refused to oblige with.

Many questions arise regarding whyDr Arsalan and his lawyers are raisingobjections about nAB and jointinvestigation teams which still has tostart investigation? Is it a part of thedefence plan to prove Dr Arsalaninnocent? Why is the registrar asking forthe progress report even before the jointinvestigation team is formed?

Why are Dr Arsalan and his counseldeclaring the Attorney General asbiased and not impartial? Why did theSC ask the Attorney General to set thestate machinery in motion toinvestigate the case? Why has theSupreme Court not ordered directly thenAB, FIA, ISF or IB to investigate thecase?

How can one believe that the CJ wasunaware of his son’s businesstransactions? Why was GeneralMusharraf’s reference to the judicialcommission never investigated in whichDr Arsalan was implicated in anunlawful deed? How is a free and fairtrial possible in our country when thehead of an institution’s family memberis charged of bribery? Is it not a factthat favouritism, nepotism andcorruption have become a hallmark inour society?

S T HUSSAINLahore

Of collapsing bridgesBridges built almost a century ago

such as karachi’s Drigh Road Bridge orthe one connecting Lahore City toCantonment survive because of properdesign, quality of construction, award ofcontracts on merit and supervisorycontrol by qualified engineers withintegrity. Unfortunately in Pakistancontracts are awarded solely onrecommendations, kickbacks andconnections without regard to publicinterest. When contractors becomemore powerful than those awardingcontracts, bridges will fall, publicbuildings collapse and wirings inhospital nurseries will short circuit,killing hundreds.

It has become almost a routine affairto read about under constructionbridges in karachi collapsing. Justyesterday, the overhead bridge nearLahore’s Harbanspura built in 2010collapsed. It is shocking to know thatlucrative contracts for bridges weregiven to powerful nLC, a subsidiary ofthe Army Welfare Trust, which shouldexplain why no punitive action has beentaken against the primary contractor,who had sublet the contract to othercompanies. There is a conflict of interestwhen a retired khaki appointed asDirector Operations and Maintenance ofRing Road Lahore with the contractawarded to AWT subsidiary nLC.

It is the responsibility of the maincontractor when there are anydeficiencies in the completion of a jobthat they may have outsourced to subcontractors. Major constructioncontract worth billions of rupees arebeing awarded on politicalconsideration to contractors sopowerful, that the state machinerytasked with inspection is helpless andthe corrupt within them are facilitatedto head these departments so that thisnexus between contractors,supervisory engineers and civilbureaucrats thrives, while tax payerfunded projects suffer.

What can you expect in a countrywhere corruption is rewarded withpromotions and extensions as was donein the case of former Chairman nHA ChAltaf. So entrenched and powerful is thisconstruction mafia that an elected MnAfrom PML(n) was trying to put theblame for the collapse of overheadbridge on 28 June 2012 to the collisionof the truck with the bridge. If bridgeson roads are designed to collapse bymere impact of a truck, then GodAlmighty have mercy upon us. Thoseresponsible are guilty must be punishedappropriately. Otherwise, such incidentswill increase in frequency because of thegreed of a few.

RAHAT SIDDIQIKarachi

Comment 11Saturday, 30 June, 2012

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

Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima

Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302.

E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan

Today exclusively.

The reality that Pakistan is effectively perceivedas the leading proponent of using the extremistphilosophy as an essential tool for policy-mak-ing is evident every time you step out at a for-

eign port. The colour green of the national passport hasbecome synonymous with things vile and violent andthe line of questioning says it all. Going past the recep-tion desk at every airport, there is little ambiguity leftthat you are recognised as a commodity the world wouldprefer to stay away from.

There is something weird about this growing per-ception. On the face of it, Pakistan has taken the maxi-mum badgering as a consequence for being partners inthe US-led war on terror. Having sacrificed over forty-thousand people in this pursuit, suffered a staggeringloss exceeding US$ 75 billion and having lived perpetu-ally in fear of violent reprisals for its support to the anti-terror offensive, the country should be applauded forthis unmatched effort to make the world a secure place.On the contrary, it is looked upon as a breeding groundfor terrorism in the world and its border areas perceivedas the launching pad for most of the violent activity.

The flaws of the initial policy notwithstanding whena dictator, craving for legitimacy from the West, waswilling to pay any price for that, Pakistan has continuedfollowing an erratic course which makes for little soundreasoning by way of convincing the world that it is a se-rious partner in the anti-terror effort. The gaping holesin its policy paradigm, the growing violence syndromegripping its people and an unending spate of war pon-

tificating by its religious clergy make fora lethal potion to convince the world ofan inherent flaw in the way we are andthe way we think and do our things.

Instead of formulating and follow-ing a rational policy that, besides servingour strategic interests, would also con-vince the world of our sincerity as a part-ner in the war against terror, theleadership appears dogged with internalcontradictions and a lack of resolve toaddress the growing international scep-ticism about our intensions. The knee-jerk reaction that led to blocking thenATO supply routes is one glaring ex-ample of just how little goes in thinkingout these moves. While our economic in-terests and military sustainability re-main predominantly dependant on USpatronage, we cave in to the popularmusings in pursuing an affront that isabysmally disproportionate with ournatural priorities. The fact that we havepersisted in following a policy expectedto deliver little in the future also makesus not only naïve, but also displays apropensity that is non-conducive to ei-ther salvaging our name or deliveringlong-term dividends.

The internal contradictions that havegrown with the passage of time emanatefrom the division of the society along mil-itary, political and religious contours witheach endeavouring to assert its authority.

The military mindset remains India-centric and sees littleby way of salvaging in the post-withdrawal landscapethat the US is trying to paint with a heavy dossier of re-sponsibilities (hence influence) resting with India. Thepolitical leadership, corrupt and weak that it is, would bemore inclined to following the external diktat that wouldcome laced with economic aid and continuing patronageala nRO. These have been understandable manifesta-tions of the national policy paradigm that Pakistan hassuffered from through most of its years as an independ-ent country. But it is the growing intensity and severityof the religious message that is a cause of grave concernfor the country. The conviction that it is only throughconfronting the arch Satan that Pakistan can move tosome level of salvation is inherently flawed that maylaunch the country into an unknown orbit entailing pro-hibitively dangerous consequences.

The war for winning ascendancy in the country isgaining in bitterness. Judiciary, being the new player inthe arena, has only accentuated the divide further. Thequest for the rule of law being spearheaded by the apexcourt is predominantly perceived as an attack on theparliament and the proponents of its ‘supremacy’ asagainst the more acceptable concept of supremacy be-longing to the constitution and all institutions derivingtheir strength from it as demarcated. The security insti-tutions also don’t appear to be happy with the no-holds-barred approach of the judiciary in the missing-personscase and there have been palpable signs of uneasinessin the recent past. While people, by and large, standwith judicial activism, there are sections that perceivethis as a heavy dose for a society that is woefully dividedalong religious, sectarian, ethnic, economic and politicallines. What we need, many say, is a healing touch.

Societies that have progressed have first acceptedthe primacy of the rule of law while those that havethwarted the effort have been devoured by its rampagingconsequences. In Pakistan, this struggle is paramount.The traditional ruling mafia believes that the judiciaryshould not have sent the prime minister packing, but thesane majority that values the need for establishing anoverseeing check on a corrupt executive believes thatthis is the only viable course to keep a perpetually-errantgovernment on track. Amid fears of the judiciary-exec-utive tussle peaking, and with another prime ministerlikely to get the sack, there are few options in the currentmix left for sanity to return to the mainstream.

With the religious juggernaut in full flow, there ap-pears little prospect that Pakistan would be able tochisel out a course that would be commensurate withits strengths and weaknesses on the one hand and moresuited to addressing the growing international percep-tion of the country capitulating before obscurantismand intolerance. nothing would be more unfortunateat a defining moment like this when, if it plays its cardsintelligently, Pakistan can establish for itself a leader-ship position that would earn it respect and gratitudein the future. More than anything else, the challengerequires a credible and competent leadership. Did I sayleadership? Oh!

The writer is a political analyst and a member ofthe Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reached [email protected]

and the glaring incapacities

The growing challenge

candid cornerBy Raoof Hasan


12 Saturday, 30 June, 2012

In LIMeLIgHt

new YOrK: Jennifer Lopez is collaborating with an

entertainment startup firm called Moonshark to

launch a mobile “finger dancing game for the iPad,”

called DancePad. According to a leading daily,

DancePad will feature “100 levels”-the first 20 are

free and a soundtrack that includes Mayer

Hawthorne, Vintage Trouble and the Bangerz, a

website has reported. The Latin Diva is acting as a

“producer” and is involved in the creative direction

and marketing of the game. The app will hit by the

end of the year. Moonshark also has plans to launch

a comedy app in partnership with YouTube celebrity

Philip DeFranco. agEnciES

NEWS DESK

It was year 2007 when Marvel’s superheroSpider-Man had his last outing on thesilver screen. Since then, manysuperheroes have come and gone.However, Spider-Man’s story remains thesame, with Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield)living with his aunt May and Uncle Ben(Sally Field and Martin Sheen). He is inhigh school and an awkward teenager whodoesn’t have the courage to ask hisclassmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) out.The discovery of his super powers happensafter a visit to the research organisationOscorp Industries where he is predictablybitten by one of those spiders kept therefor tests. Oscorp is headed by one limbedDr Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifan). Meanwhile,Connor is in search of a solution thatwould enable humans to grow back their

limbs, just like lizards do. Connortransforms himself into a viciouslizard who now wants tomultiply his own kind bytransforming others. Petertakes up theresponsibility to stop themenace, partly because heis guilty that he gave Connor the formulawhich set the ball rolling in the first place.The plot is predictable – good vs. evil –with the underlying theme of ‘with greatpower comes great responsibility’. Insteadof having any of characters speak it, Webbmakes his superhero enact it in eachframe. Andrew Garfield plays thesuperhero in his own style. He is brashsometimes and defends his own deeds.Unlike Tobey, this one isn’t a ‘loser’, and infact enjoys his superhero powers. EmmaStone, as Gwen Stacy, makes for a

delightfulwatch and the

two share an adorablechemistry. The specialeffects are neatly done andbackground score by JamesHorner fits perfectly with thescenes. The street fighting sequences,the beautifully intimidating skyscrapersthrough which Parker swings are shotbeautifully and give the film a grand feel.Watch it for a new, transformed Spider-Man. Ratings: Four cheers for this one!

RevIew

‘the Amazing Spider-Man’spins a smart web!

Jennifer to launch ‘fingerdancing’ app for iPad

LOs AngeLes: Drew Barrymore, who is expecting a

child, has stepped behind the camera once again to

photograph up-and-coming Hollywood stars for

America’s V Magazine. The ‘Charlie’s Angels’ star shot

a group of budding talents, including Victoria Justice

and ‘The Hunger Games’ co-stars Amandla Stenberg

and Isabelle Fuhrman, for the special feature, titled

‘Drew’s Angels’, Contactmusic reported. It’s not the

first time Barrymore has shown off her photography

skills - she previously snapped ‘The Descendants’

Shailene Woodley for US magazine Vs and took the

pictures of nine different bands for another V

Magazine project earlier this year. agEnciES

Drew Barrymore goesbehind the lens

Adnan Sami and Sabahgaladari divorce…againPakistani singer Adnan Sami Khan and his second

wife Sabah Galadari have once again divorced

officially through the Bombay High Court after the

papers were filed by Sabah. Adnan Sami Khan and

Sabah Galadari were going through a rough patch in

their marriage leading Sabah, who is a UAE citizen,

to file for divorce. She also registered a complaint

against Adnan Sami for domestic violence. Both of

them were apparently in agreement over the

dissolution of the marriage for which the High Court

gave its approval. Anyhow, Adnan Sami Khan is

having a very good time after the split. “Let me

dance and sing with my family and friends. This

torture has been going on from February 2009. My

wife Roya Faryabi and I, and my mother have

suffered so much. I had full faith in God and the

Indian judiciary. I feel like throwing off my shoes

like Waheeda Rehman in ‘Guide’ and singing ‘Kaaton

Se Kheench Ke Yeh Aanchal’,” he said. Adnan Sami

Khan married Sabah Galadari in 2001 and got

divorced in 2004. Later on, in 2007, they tied the

knot once again but things could apparently not

work out between the two. nEWS DESK


13

MuMbAi: ‘Rockstar’ fame Nargis Fakhri was in buzz

for her three-film-deal with Akshay Kumar’s

production house Hari Om Productions. But it seems

the deal has been called off due to some reasons. In

the first film of the deal, ‘Khiladi 786’, Nargis was

replaced by Asin. Nargis has also been replaced by a

half-Brit-half-Afghan model Maasha who has signed

three films with Akshay Kumar’s production company.

Maasha is a new face from the fashion world and has

recently moved to Mumbai. It is believed that Akshay

might introduce her by announcing his next venture.

Akshay Kumar is known for promoting newcomers in

Bollywood. Before this he promoted Sonakshi Sinha

and Katrina Kaif. Meanwhile Nargis Fakhri has no film

in her hands yet after ‘Rockstar’. agEnciES

LOS ANGELESagEnciES

Based on the novel by Matthew Quick,‘Silver Linings Playbook’ stars Bradley Cooper as

Pat, a man recently released from a mentalinstitution who goes back to live with

his parents (Robert De niro andJacki Weaver). While in hisold neighbourhood-where hewears a garbage bag while

jogging, Pat connects withTiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a youngwoman with issues of her own and a

recently deceased husband. Meet-cutesand montages abound, as does some dancing andthe best Ernest Hemingway joke this side of‘Midnight in Paris’. What makes ‘Silver Linings

Playbook’ look so interesting, though, is thereal-life stakes for its cast. Lawrence, freshfrom breaking out as katniss Everdeen in‘The Hunger Games’, returns to her indie-ishroots with a messy character that might notcome her way again in the near future.Cooper, long the next great Hollywoodleading man, finally seems to have a chanceto showcase his pre-‘Hangover’ everyman-ness (see ‘Alias’) instead of hispost-‘Hangover’ snark (see ‘Limitless’). AndDe niro; oh, De niro! He appears to be atthe top of his game here. Serious question:Is De niro better in the ‘Silver LiningsPlaybook’ than in any movie in the lastdecade? Plus, there’s Chris Tucker, co-starring in his first non-‘Rush Hour’movie since ‘Jackie Brown’ in 1997.

NEWS DESK

t HREE years ago Ali Zafar wasjust starting to make his namein Indian cinema. Today, he’sa household name. Some say

he’s Pakistan’s most famous export toIndia. He hasn’t made a misstep sincehe sidled up on screen with ‘Tere BinLaden’ three years ago. ‘London Parisnew York’ (LPnY) has ratcheted hiscareer up another notch. Okay, so themovie didn’t do too well. But it didwell enough for Ali Zafar. He insiststhere’s a huge populace that loved thefilm. If the messages he received onTwitter are anything to go by. Hesmiles, “It was heart-warming whenpeople appreciated the film, my per-formance and my music. It was an ex-perimental film. It was risky to makea film with only two people.” But therisk seems to have paid off. LPnY didphenomenally well in Pakistan, heclaims. It ran for four solid weekshere. The actor is buoyant at the turnof events, naturally. He seems to havetasted blood with his modest success.For now he wants to go commercialwith a vengeance. “That’s the way togo,” he says. “I want to do differentkinds of movies. I believe in the com-mercial aspect of cinema.” Well, youcan’t get more commercial than DavidDhawan. His next film ‘ChashmeBuddoor’, a remake of Sai Paranjpe’s1983 classic is being directed by noneother than David Dhawan himself.He’s just back from Mauritius aftercompleting a schedule of the movieand he can’t stop grinning at the expe-rience. This is the first time he’s work-ing with an experienced director likeDavid Dhawan and he can’t stopsinging his praises. “David Dhawan isa gem of a person. He’s sweet, fun andentertaining. I really enjoy workingwith him. And it’s easy working withhim because he’s so experienced.Having said that, I’ve been lucky tohave worked with first time directorswho are so good at the craft. Butagain, there’s no substitute to expe-rience.” The actor, who has justfinished dubbing for the film, iswell aware of the downsideof touching a classic. He’sseen the original andtells you at the outsetthat the newer versionis so much different

from the original. And there was noquestion about copying FarookhSheikh’s style. Says he, “FarookhSheikh is a class apart. There was noway I could have done what he’s done.So, I didn’t take that route at all. I’vegiven the character my own style andtreatment. The film has been changedkeeping the modern times in mind.It’s definitely more fun but at thesame time we’ve kept the soul of theoriginal intact. We’ve retained itsearthiness.” The actor who’s also asinger, composer, painter seems tobe minted with a special lustre.He started out by paintingportraits in a 5 starlobby. His good lookscaught the eye ofgirls who’d cometo get their por-traits done justso that theycould chat himup. He smiles atthe memory. Soonhe hit the music scenewith his compositions. As asinger-composer, he hit thecharts regularly. He composedthe music of LPnY. He dis-cusses his love for music withgiddy excitement. “In aday and age wheremusic albums don’tmake the cut, mysong Jhoomzoomed to popular-ity heights. It had15 lakh hits onYouTube.” Thathe’s the firstPakistani to ac-tually make itin Indiahasn’te s -

caped him. But it doesn’t surprisehim. “I think the time was ripe forme,” he points out. Here, his successon Indian ground is a matter of pridefor the Pakistani people. He gives thattrademark lopsided smile, “They likethe way I have conducted my careerout here. I have broken a myth that aPakistani can’t make it big in Bolly-wood.” He’s married to his childhoodsweetheart Ayesha. And he says shetrusts him completely. Quiz himabout the kissing scene in LPnY and

he says his wife has no issueswith it. “I had discussed

the scene with her. Soshe knew. But I did-

n’t actually kissAditi. A bodydouble wasused.” Theactor says heisn’t comfort-able doing inti-

mate sceneson the

screen.

Ali Zafar on Music,Movies & Marriage

‘SILveR LInIngS’Lawrence leaves ‘Hunger Games’ behind for

Is nargis Fakhri out ofAkshay’s three-film-deal?

MuMbAi: The past shared by Salman Khan and

Abhishek Bachchan is not unknown to anyone. The

tale of their supposed antipathy entails a common

thread which at this stage is no point discussing, as

the issue has long been burnt to ‘ash’es! Much to the

surprise of onlookers at the Mehboob studio in

Mumbai recently, Salman Khan and Abhishek

Bachchan bonded as they caught up while shooting at

the same location. Instead of avoiding each other, the

two apparently met and chatted for quite some time,

as if they have remained friends forever. A witness

close to the studio said, “The crew knew that both

stars are shooting for their respective films, but

everyone was shocked when Abhishek came to meet

Salman, who was busy in a shot. Abhishek preferred

waiting for him till the shot was over. When Salman

came to know about this, he at once went to meet

him. Seems like Salman and Abhi have decided to

bury their old hatchets. agEnciES

Salman, AbhishekBachchan – cold war ends?

LOs AngeLes: Two police officers who allegedly

leaked a photo of Rihanna after she was assaulted by

Chris Brown will not face criminal charges, officials

have said. The 2009 photo, which showed the singer’s

bruised face, was published on US gossip site TMZ.

However, prosecutors said they did not have enough

evidence to show TMZ paid the accused officers for

the image. Rihanna’s lawyer said he did not know

whether the singer intended to pursue any further

legal action. Officers Blanca Lopez and Rebecca Reyes

are due to appear before disciplinary panels in August

and may lose their jobs. An internal report, obtained

showed that the alleged the image was leaked after a

stack of photos of the singer’s injuries was left lying

on a desk at the Wilshire police station, and Reyes

took a picture of one with her phone. Prosecutors

claim she later emailed the image from her work email

address to her personal email address. Brown, who

was Rihanna’s boyfriend at the time, was sentenced to

180 hours community service and five years probation

after admitting the attack in February 2009.agEnciES

Rihanna photo: nocharges over leak



Page 17

djokovic avoids falling into newczech trap at the wimbledon

COLOMBOaFP

PAkISTAn are confident ofbouncing back in the secondTest against Sri Lanka start-ing on Saturday despite play-ing the crucial game at the

hosts’ favourite venue.Sri Lanka, who lead 1-0 in the three-

match series, have not lost a Test at theSinhalese Sports Club in Colombo since2004 and have won six of their last 11matches there.

It was at the same venue in 2006against South Africa that current SriLankan captain Mahela Jayawardeneand senior pro kumar Sangakkara puton Test cricket’s world record partner-ship of 624.

Sangakkara scored 287 and Jayawar-dene made 374 as Sri Lanka won by aninnings and 153 runs against a SouthAfrican attack that included Makhayantini, Dale Steyn and Andre nel.

But Misbah-ul Haq, returning asPakistan captain after missing the firstTest in Galle due to a one-match ban forslow over-rates, was unfazed by thehosts’ ominous record at the SSC.

“We know Sri Lanka play well athome, they know the conditions well,” hesaid. “But this is a new Test match andboth sides will go out there to win.”

Misbah wanted his team to get overthe massive 209-run defeat at Galle,where the tourists were bowled out for100 in the first innings, and concentrateon the two Tests ahead.

“We have to forget the past and be

positive going into the match,” he said.“This is how cricket goes, you justcan’t afford to remember the gamesyou have lost.

“I am confident this team can comeback hard and win matches. We haveshown that in the last couple of years.”

Pakistan had won seven of their lastnine Tests before the Galle defeat, an im-pressive run that included a 3-0 white-wash of top-ranked England in theUnited Arab Emirates earlier this year.

Jayawardene conceded Sri Lankaliked playing at the SSC, but warned thatbowlers would find it difficult to take 20match-winning wickets on what prom-ises to be a good batting pitch.

“You do feel confident at a venuewhere you have done well in the past, butit’s not about one particular ground,” he

said. “We don’t like to be beaten at home.“It’s a new game and we know that

Pakistan will come hard at us. We haveto be on our toes.”

Jayawardene said his team wanted totarget Pakistan’s bowling attack to securetheir first Test series win since beatingnew Zealand 2-0 at home in 2009.

Sri Lanka did well to dent the rivals’confidence at Galle by scoring 472 in thefirst innings on the back of an unbeaten199 from Sangakkara and 101 byTillakaratne Dilshan. “I read in the pa-pers that it was their bowling against our

batting and we have won that battle tillnow,” he said. “If we can put runs on theboard, we can probably put their battingunder pressure. “That has been ourgameplan, there is no secret about it.”

Pakistan’s spinners claimed 11 ofthe 14 Sri Lankan wickets to fall to thebowlers at Galle, with prolific off-spin-ner Saeed Ajmal picking up seven inthe match. But the batting failed spec-tacularly in the first innings and onlyveteran Younis khan (87) and youngAsad Shafiq (80) provided any real re-sistance in the second.

Sri lanka need to countercalm misbah: JayawardenecOLOMBO: Sri Lanka willneed to counter the influence ofreturning Pakistan captainMisbah-ul-Haq in the secondtest, home skipper MahelaJayawardene said on Friday.Misbah was suspended forPakistan’s 209-run defeat in thefirst test as punishment for histeam’s slow over-rate in the finalmatch of the one-day series.“”Misbah is an experienced guyand a very calm character. Theywill have that influence on thefield with his batting as well,”said Jayawardene. ““That’s a factthat we have to counter.” SriLanka are likely to make onechange to their fast bowling lineup for the test, which starts onSaturday, with either DilharaFernando or Thisara Pererareplacing nuwan Pradeep.Mohammad Hafeez, who ledPakistan in the absence ofMisbah, or Mohammad Ayub will make way for the return of their captain. Misbahsaid Pakistan needed to forget about the first test in Galle, where they were set atarget of 510 runs and lost in four days. “”We need to regroup and put our 100percent effort and try and win this game,” said Misbah. “You can’t worry about thegames you lose but you need to put 100 percent and win the next game. “”Whenyou let someone score close to 500 runs you are always under pressure and you arealmost out of the game. We have to consider that fact as well,” he added. rEUTErS

cOLOmBO: Sri Lanka cricket captain mahela Jayawardene plays a

shot during a practice session at the Sinhalese Sports club. AFP

Pakistan seek revival in Sri Lanka’s den

LAHORESTaFF rEPOrT

Disgraced Pakistani cricketer Salman Buttwants an open trial in his homeland saying hedidn’t get justice in a corruption case whichled to a jail term.

Former captain Salman Butt has called foran open trial against him in Pakistan sayinghe didn’t get justice in a cricket corruptioncase which led to a lengthy ban and jail time.

The 27-year-old was found guilty by boththe game’s governing body and a British courtof orchestrating deliberateno-balls through two ofhis bowlers duringthe 2010 Lord’sTest against Eng-land, in returnfor money. Thedeal was organ-ised betweenButt’s agentMazhar Majeedand an under-cover reporter forthe now defunct

news of the World, in a sting operation whichexposed corruption in international cricket.

All three players were banned for a mini-mum of five years by the International CricketCouncil and were subsequently convicted andjailed by a British court for corruption.

Butt, who was the last of the three re-leased from the Uk prison last week afterserving less than a quarter of his 30 monthsentence, protested his innocence.

“If you look at the evidence you can judgethat I didn’t get justice,” Butt said in his firstpress conference after release.

“I had to make a sacrifice because I didn’ttake anyone’s name, it didn’t suit me. It’s notabout me or anyone else, it’s about Pakistan.I would like Pakistani courts, the SupremeCourt, to hold an open trial and I am sure theywill clear me. “Idon’t accept any-thing against me.If you look at theevidence againstme, I had nolinks to spot-fixing. Whodid and whoplanned it (I

d o n ’ t

know), but certainly I didn’t do that. I playedfor my country and respected that (honour).”When asked about the discovery in his hotelroom of notes marked by the news of theWorld, Butt replied: “Yes there were 4,500pounds and that was my money. I had to in-augurate an ice cream parlour and got 2,500pounds (from Majeed) in advance.

“I didn’t know that he had paid me noteswhich were marked. That was my money andthat’s why I got them back (when I was re-leased) and I have receipt of all that.”

Butt said the welcome he received in La-hore suggested people still loved him.

“It was an unexpected welcome. Peopleshowed they still love me. I wasn’t expectingit because I was coming from such a place,”said Butt of the welcome in Lahore last week.He also vowed to represent Pakistan again. “Iwill do my best to become a good humanbeing and represent Pakistan again. It seemsa long shot but I will do my best,” said Butt,who apologised for his actions on arrival lastweek. “The people in Pakistan are very good,and the way they welcomed me, I am surethey will forgive me,” he added.

Butt said the welcome he received in La-hore suggested people still loved him. “It wasan unexpected welcome. People showed theystill love me. I wasn’t expecting it because Iwas coming from such a place,” said Butt ofhis return to Lahore last week. He also vowedto represent Pakistan again. “I will do my bestto become a good human being and representPakistan again. It seems a long shot but I willdo my best,” said Butt, who apologized for hisactions on arrival last week. “The people inPakistan are very good, and the way they wel-comed me, I am sure they will forgive me.”

Salman wants open trials at homeengland release bairstow

and Patel for county dutyLONDON: England have released, temporarily, bothJonathan Bairstow and Samit Patel from their one-day squadfor the series with Australia so the duo can play Twenty20cricket for their counties on Friday. All-rounder Patel willfeature for nottinghamshire in their match at home toDurham, while batsman Bairstow returns to his nativeYorkshire for their clash with arch-rivals Lancashire atHeadingley. Bairstow, Patel and fast bowler Jade Dernbachwere the three players in England’s squad omitted from thefinal XI to face Australia in the first one-day international atLord’s here on Friday. Bairstow and Patel are due to reportback to London on Saturday with the teams travelling acrossLondon for the second one-dayer at The Oval on Sunday. aFP

Khawaja, Hauritz join nSw exodusSyDNEy: Australian state side new South Wales lost two more topplayers to a rival on Friday, with former Test players Usmankhawaja and nathan Hauritz joining reigning Sheffield Shieldchampions Queensland. Queensland said they had signed theplayers on two-year deals a day after it was announced that formerTest opening batsman Phillip Hughes had left nSW for SouthAustralia. khawaja and Hauritz agreed terms after each approachedQueensland about the opportunity to continue their careers with theBulls, Queensland Cricket said. Off-spinner Hauritz will start pre-season training with Queensland next week while khawaja, 25, isplaying for Derbyshire in England and is expected to join his newteam-mates in September. khawaja and Hauritz, along withHughes, all missed out on central contracts with Cricket Australialast week. Pakistan-born khawaja, a left-handed top order batsmanwho has played six Tests for Australia, said: “The decision to joinQueensland has been the toughest decision of my career,particularly because I had to leave my home, my mates, my family.”“I’m extremely excited about joining Queensland and taking mycricket to the next level. I have a big role and it’s a perfectenvironment for me to grow as a player and a person.” aFP

phOTO bYMURTAZA ALI

cOLOmBO: (L) Pakistan cricket captain misbah-ul-haq (r), teammate Umar gul (c) and coach Dav Whatmore watch the players during a practice session at

the Sinhalese Sports club (SSc) while (r) Younus Khan plays a shot in the nets. AFP


Sports 15Saturday, 30 June, 2012

LONDONaFP

EnGLAnD beat Australia by 15 runs towin the first one-day international atLord’s here on Friday and so take a 1-0lead in the five-match series.

Earlier, Eoin Morgan’s rapid 89 not out took Eng-land to 272 for five against Australia. England, forwhom a 5-0 series sweep would see them replace Aus-tralia at the top of the one-day international rankings,had largely been kept in check by their oldest rivalsuntil left-hander Morgan, on his Middlesex homeground, came in at 121 for three.

The former Ireland international loosened Aus-tralia’s grip on the game with a 63-ball innings featur-ing four sixes and five fours, sharing stands of 68 withJonathan Trott (54) and 83 with Craig kieswetter, outfor 25 off the last ball of the innings.

Australia’s five bowlers all took a wicket apiecewith seamer Clint Mckay returning figures of one for43 in his 10 overs and fast bowlers Brett Lee and PatCummins both impressing before the late surge.

England’s innings was interrupted several times byrain early on after Australia captain Michael Clarkewon the toss and looked to his attack to make the most

of any assistance from the overcast conditions.Mckay thought he had Ian Bell caught behind for

just three. But the opener challenged English umpireRichard kettleborough’s verdict and, with replaysshowing the ball had hit his leg, was reprieved.

But Bell, who in his two previous innings as anEngland one-day opener following the retirement ofkevin Pietersen had made a hundred and a fifty, waseventually out for 41 when lbw to Lee.

And 74 for one became 89 for two when Cumminstook his first wicket against England. The 19-year-oldhad home captain Alastair Cook — who’d scored threehundreds in his six previous ODI innings — caught be-hind for 40. Trott was reprieved on 38 when Cumminsdropped a caught and bowled chance. next ball Trottflayed him through the offside for four and later thatsame over, which cost 13 runs in all, Morgan struck theteenager for a straight six.

The ever steady Trott completed a 65-ball fifty withjust three fours.

But with England 189 for three entering the final10 overs, Trott effectively yorked himself as he wasbowled by left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty.

However, Morgan upped the tempo by smiting suc-cessive Lee deliveries for six over long-on. And hemade it three sixes in as many balls faced with a pulloff all-rounder Shane Watson.

SPervez Qaiser

Sri Lanka have won 17, lost six and drew 12in 35 Test matches played at SinhaleseSports Club Ground, Colombo where thesecond Test match of the series betweenPakistan and Sri Lanka will be played fromJune 30 to July 4.

Pakistan have won one and drew threein four Test matches played against SriLanka. Their only victory against the Is-landers at this ground came in June 2000under Moin khan

Pakistan could lose their fifth spot onthe ICC Test ranking if they lost this Testmatch. According to the ICC ranking pre-dictor, Sri Lanka will take over as numberfifth if they are to win the series 2-0. Pak-istan who lost the first Test match at Galle

are currently on 108 rating points and ifthey lose the series 0-2, they will drop to103 rating points to down to sixth place. SriLanka who currently sixth with 99 ratingpoints will jump to 104 raking points.

This is the headquarters of Sri LankaCricket, with the main administration of-fices located at the ground, but it has beensuperseded by the Premadasa as the pre-mier venue in Colombo. The ground, whichhas belonged to the SSC since 1952, wasused as an aerodrome by Allied forces dur-ing the Second World War, but hosted itsfirst Sri Lanka match (against an Indian XI)in 1974.

Sri Lanka recorded their first ever oneday international win, here, against a Test-playing country during the Asia Cup 1986,when they defeated Pakistan by five wick-

ets. Sri Lanka achieved their biggest victoryand third biggest overall by beating India by

an innings and 239 runs in the lTest matchplayed between the two teams in 2008.

Sl enjoy good record at Sinhalese Sports clubSUmmarY OF rESULTS:team P w d l Success%Sri lanka 35 17 12 6 65.71Pakistan 4 1 3 - 62.50australia 4 2 2 - 75.00india 7 1 4 2 42.85england 4 1 1 2 37.50South africa 4 1 1 2 37.50new Zealand 4 - 1 3 12.50west indies 2 - - 2 00.00bangladesh 3 - - 3 00.00Zimbabwe 3 - - 3 00.00

highEST inningS TOTaLS:756-5 dec Sri lanka v South africa 2006-07707 india v Sri lanka 2010-11642-4 dec Sri lanka v india 2010-11628-8 dec Sri lanka v england 2003-04627-9 dec Sri lanka v west indies 2001-02

LOWEST inningS TOTaLS:81 Sri lanka v england 2000-0189 bangladesh v Sri lanka 2007-0890 bangladesh v Sri lanka 2001-02102 new Zealand v Sri lanka 1992-93113 west indies v Sri lanka 2005-06

highEST inDiViDUaL ScOrES:374 m Jayawardene (Sri lanka) v S.africa 2006-07287 K Sangakkara (Sri lanka) v South africa 2006-07242 m Jayawardene (Sri lanka) v india 1998-99232 K Sangakkara (Sri lanka) v South africa 2004-05221 brian lara (west indies) v Sri lanka 2001-02

BEST BOWLing in an inningS:8-87 mmuralitharan (Sri lanka) v india 2001-027-71 chaminda Vaas (Sri lanka) v west indies 2001-027-120 chaminda Vaas (Sri lanka) v west indies 2001-027-157 rangana Herath (Sri lanka) v australia 2011-126-26 m muralitharan (Sri lanka) v india 2008-09

BEST BOWLing in a maTch:14-191 chaminda Vaas (Sri lanka) v west indies 2001-0211-110 m muralitharan (Sri lanka) v india 2008-0911-196 m muralitharan (Sri lanka) v india 2001-0210-111 mmuralitharan (S.lanka) v b’desh 2001-0210-172 m muralitharan (Sri lanka) v S.africa 2006-07

PaKiSTan-Sri LanKa aT SinhaLESE SPOrTS cLUB:year toss result1996 Sri lanka draw2000 Sri lanka Pakistan won by 5 wickets2006 Pakistan draw2009 Sri lanka draw

England draw first blood

against AustraliaEngLanD

a. cook c wade b cummins 40

i. bell lbw b lee 41

J. trott b doherty 54

r. bopara c clarke b mcKay 15

e. morgan not out 89

c. Kieswetter c warner b watson 25

Extras (lb4, w4) 8

Total (5 wkts, 50 overs) 272

Fall of wickets: 1-74 (bell), 2-89 (cook), 3-121 (bopara), 4-189 (trott), 5-272

Did not bat: t bresnan, S broad, G Swann, S Finn, J anderson

Bowling: lee 10-1-57-1; mcKay 10-1-43-1 (1w); cummins 10-0-53-1 (1w); doherty 10-0-50-1

(1w); watson 10-0-65-1 (1w)

aUSTraLia

Sr watson c †Kieswetter b Finn 12

da warner c †Kieswetter b anderson 56

GJ bailey b anderson 29

mJ clarke* lbw b bresnan 61

dJ Hussey b Finn 13

SPd Smith c †Kieswetter b bresnan 8

mS wade† run out (sub [roy]/Swann) 27

b lee not out 29

cJ mcKay c †Kieswetter b broad 2

PJ cummins lbw b broad 4

XJ doherty not out 6

Extras (lb 3, w 7) 10

Total (9 wickets; 50 overs) 257

Fall of wickets 1-20 (watson, 5.4 ov), 2-96 (bailey, 18.6 ov), 3-102 (warner, 20.2 ov), 4-132

(Hussey, 29.1 ov), 5-147 (Smith, 32.5 ov), 6-204 (wade, 41.5 ov), 7-214 (clarke, 42.6 ov), 8-226

(mcKay, 45.1 ov), 9-231 (cummins, 45.6 ov)

Bowling: Jm anderson 9-0-55-2, St Finn 10-0-47-2, tt bresnan 10-0-54-2, ScJ broad 10-0-

47-2, GP Swann 10-0-47-0, rS bopara 1-0-4-0

toss australia, who chose to field

Series england led the 5-match series 1-0

Player of the match eaon moran

umpires: aleem dar (PaK) and richard Kettleborough (enG)

tV umpire: marais erasmus (rSa)

match referee: Javagal Srinath (ind)

ScOrEBOarD

LAHORESTaFF rEPOrT

national selectors have recom-mended wicketkeeper-batsman kam-ran Akmal’s name in Pakistan’spreliminary squad of 30 players forthe Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lankain September, despite the confusionon whether the Board has cleared himfor selection or not.

A national selector confirmed thatthey had sent the name of kamran inthe preliminary list of players but hisfinal inclusion would be subject toclearance from the Pakistan CricketBoard.

“The selectors are unanimous thatif he is available for selection he cer-tainly deserves a chance to make acomeback in the T20 format and soon,” the selector said.

kamran, who last played for Pak-istan in the 2011 World Cup, has sincebeen sidelined by the Board which

has not given clearance to the selec-tors to consider him for selection,mainly due to integrity issues.

The selectors have also recalledand included the names of dashingall-rounder, Abdul Razzaq andopener, Imran nazir in the prelimi-nary list of players for the Twenty20World Cup.

Razzaq has not been selected forPakistan since appearing against SriLanka last year while Imran nazir hasbeen ignored for the last two years de-spite doing well in domestic cricket.

“Yes we have included them in thelist besides other good T20 perform-ers like Shahzaib Hasan, Ovais Zia,Sharjeel khan,” the selector saidwhile declining to be named.

He said the final preliminary listhad to be sent to the ICC around July5 and the selectors were now waitingfor the Board Chairman to returnfrom abroad and give his approval,particularly in kamran’s case.

kamran’s name cropped up fre-quently during the selection processlast month for the tour to Sri Lankabut he was sidelined again as confu-sion prevailed over whether the Boardhad cleared him.

Kamran in provisional World T20 team

MUMBAIBiPin Dani

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hasagreed to host the forthcoming“home” series against Australia in theUAE in the months of August and Sep-tember 2012.

According to sources, both coun-tries have agreed in principle to playthree ODIs’ and three Twety20matches in the UAE. This, despite theICC sanctioning six ODIs’ under “ex-ceptional circumstances”.

However, the Australian Crick-

eters’ Association (ACA) has onceagain expressed its reservations. “TheACA continues to have concerns aboutthe weather conditions expected in theUAE at the time of the proposed se-ries”, Paul Marsh, the CEO, said ex-clusively from Melbourne.

“now that the PCB and CA haveagreed to a schedule of matches, wewill undertake a process to assesswhether or not these conditions inUAE will provide a safe environmentfor the players to play cricket in”.

“This will be inclusive of consul-tation with various experts and a pre-

tour visit to the venues”, Marshadded.

Sadly, there is no active associa-tion for Pakistan cricketers, theirplayers have not been kept in loop.

According to the sources in Pakistancricket, all three UAE venues will hostthe six matches. “Abu Dhabi being cost-lier than other two venues and more ex-pensive in terms of hotelaccommodation etc; we have proposedonly one Twenty20 match at Abu Dhabi.Rest all the matches have been proposedto be played at Dubai and Sharjah”.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt

that the ODIs’ will be tried andscheduled during Fridays and Satur-days, the weekend in the UAE. “Weare trying to schedule the ODIs’ onFridays and Saturdays, which areholidays in the UAE. This is to garnermore public inside the stadia andhence more generation of revenue forthe PCB ”. “We also expect the Pak-istani media groups, coming here tocover the matches, to have a latenight dead-line so as to report thematch results to the common Pak-istani here in our country”, said ZakaAshraf, the PCB chairman.

AcA seeks expert opinion on harsh playing conditions in UAe

Pakistan totake on indiancolts in asiacup final

LAHORESTaFF rEPOrT

Captain Unmukt Chand (116) slammed asparkling century as India spanked Sri Lankaby six wickets to storm into the final of theUnder-19 Asia Cup. Chand, who opened withManan Vohra (17), led from the front with astrokeful innings as India chased down thetarget of 245 with 2.5 overs to spare at thekinrara Academy Oval. India will now take onPakistan in the final on Sunday. A powerfulbatting display set the tone for Pakistan’scommanding victory in the first semifinal atthe kinrara Academy Oval. In Sunday’s final,Pakistan will take on the winners of Friday’ssecond semifinal, between India and SriLanka. Pakistan, opting to bat, amassed 296for 3 from their 50 overs on the back of threehalf-centuries. needing nearly six runs anover, Afghanistan were shot out for 145,Azizullah, the new-ball bowler, doing the bulkof the damage with figures of 4 for 44. SamiAslam and Babar Azam, the captain, gotPakistan off to the perfect start, putting on 69for the first wicket, a platform on which therest of the batsmen built admirably. Pakistanwere well served by stands of 76 for thesecond wicket, 71 for the third and anunbroken 80 for the fourth as they battedAfghanistan out of the game. Aslam andUmar Waheed both made 77, the latter atbetter than a run a ball, and Imam-ul-Haq,batting at no. 3, chipped in with 69.Afghanistan were rocked by Azizullah andEhsan Adil, his new-ball partner, andslumped to 55 for four midway through the11th over. Mohibullah Paak waged a lonebattle in top-scoring with 41, but it was toolittle to make a genuine dent in Pakistan’sprogress. The bedrock of India’s run chasewas a steady third-wicket partnership of 105between Chand and Vijay Zol (54). Chandfaced 141 balls and hit 11 fours and a sixduring his innings. Chand was the last manout in the 47th over but by then he had takenIndia to the threshold of victory at 239 forfour. Akshdeep nath (15 not out) and SanjuSamson (5 not out) then took India to 247 forfour in 47.1 overs with the latter ending therun chase with a four. Zol consumed 71 ballsfor his 54 and hit six fours before he was outin the 39th over. For Sri Lanka, Tharindukaushal took two wickets for 20 runs whileSanitha del Mel and Lahiru Madushanka gotone apiece. Earlier, opting to bat, Sri Lankanever really had a grip on the game with theIndian bowlers keeping them in check.

East Zone Whites,North Zone Bluesmatch drawnLAHORE: The match between East ZoneWhites U-19 and north Zone Blues U-19has drawn in Regional Inter District U-19 Cricket Event played at LCCA groundon Friday. Resuming north Zone Blues93/6 was all out on 161 in 51.3 overs. SoEast Zone Whites has got 56 runs lead inist innings. In the 2nd innings East Zonehas declared on 204/6 and give 261 runstarget to win the match to north ZoneBlues but at the end of the play northZone Blues has made 62/2.Scores: north Zone Blues 161 in 51.3 overs. Ibrahim

khan 47, M Hamid Liaqat 23, kamran Shokat 28, Agha

Shamsheer 20. Zafar Gohar 6/46, M Aftab 3/50, M

Rameez 1/18.

East Zone Whites 204/6 declared in 50.1 overs (2nd in-

nings). Gul khan Afridi 50, Ameer Hamza 82, Ahsan

Raza 20, Zafar Gohar 19, Hassan Raza 20, M Qasim 22.

Shoaib Ahmed 3/60, M Waleed khan 2/49, kamran

Shokat 1/27. north Zone Blues 62/2 in 20 overs (2nd In-

nings). Ataurehman 31(no), Zaheer Abas 15. Zafar Gohar

2/17.

East Zone Whites 217/8, 204/6. north Zone Blues 161,

62/2.

WESt ZONE BLUES, EASt ZONEBLUES MAtcH DRAWN: The matchbetween West Zone Blues U-19 and EastZone Blues U-19 has also drawn in Re-gional Inter District U-19 Cricket Eventplayed at at Iteefaq Hospital ground onFriday. Resuming East Zone Blues 93/2has made 284 runs in 62.4 overs. SoWest Zone Blues has got 7 runs lead in1st innings. At the end of the play WestZone Blues has made 97/4.Scores: East Zone Blues 284 in 62.4 overs in 1st in-

nings. Daniyal Rana 45, Salman Ateeq 46, Zeeshan

Mughal 46, nisar Ahmed 21, Sadam ul haq 20, Shakir

Mushtaq 12. Waqar 3/84, Shehbaz 2/55, Qamber Ali

Shah 1/46, Umer Zahoor 1/14. West Zone Blues 97/4 in

2nd innings. Fahad usman 21, Umer Zahoor 38,

Haseeb ur rehman 28. Sadam ul haq 4/20.

Final scores: West Zone Blues 291/7, 97/4. East Zone

Blues 284. STaFF rEPOrT

Pakistan, Australiaseries dates announcedLAHORE: The Pakistan CricketBoard has announced the dates ofthe three One-day Internationalsand three T20 games series againstAustralia. The series will be playedin the United Arab Emirates with theopening ODI scheduled for August28 at Abu Dhabi while the secondand third ODIs will be played atSharjah on August 31 and September3. Meanwhile contrary to theexpectations, the six-match T20series plans has been shelved andthe PCB has scheduled threematches on September 5, 7 and 10 atDubai. STaFF rEPOrT


Sports16Saturday, 30 June, 2012

WARSAWaFP

MARIO Balotelli finally delivered on hispromise as he took centre-stage in thebiggest match of his young life to sendItaly into the Euro 2012 final againstSpain on Sunday.

The Azzurri proved once again they have the In-dian sign on Germany as a superb double by Balotellisaw them to a 2-1 win - the third time they have beatenDie Mannschaft in a major tournament semi-final.

They are now unbeaten in eight competitivematches against Germany and the enigmatic 21-year-old Balotelli was the major reason for that.

In Italy his coaches have been saying for years thathe has the potential to become one of the best playersin the world but until Thursday, he had yet to prove it.But in two moments of clinical brilliance in thefirst half, the Manchester City star buried Ger-many and made a mockery of the pre-matchbetting odds. On 20 minutes he showed astriker’s instinct to find a yard of space be-hind Holger Badstuber to head home An-tonio Cassano’s left wing cross from sixyards out.

And then nine minutes from thebreak he gambled and won asPhilipp Lahm failed to cut outRiccardo Montolivo’s long balland the forward was awayand running in on Manuelneuer before smashingthe ball into the topcorner with unerringconfidence. That showedhe is learning and indeed listening to his coach CesarePrandelli who has been urging him all tournament totry to get behind the defence to stretch the opposition.

And when Prandelli decided to switch to a moredefensive five-man midfield 10 minutes into the secondperiod, it was Cassano who was hauled off leavingBalotelli to play the disciplined lone frontman role untilcramp ended his night 20 minutes from time. In truthhe wasn’t the only hero in a blue shirt as Andrea Pirlowas majestic in dictating play and tempo while Cassanowas a constant thorn in the side of the German defence.In fact it was his fancy footwork and pirouette to escapethe attentions of Mats Hummels and Jerome Boatengthat created the space from which he could pick outBalotelli with a cross on the first goal.

And in the build-up it was Pirlo’s ability to retainpossession and find space with a feint here and twist ofthe hips there that left Mesut Ozil backing off. That al-lowed the Juventus playmaker to rake a long ball outto Giorgio Chiellini on the left, stretching the play be-

fore the full-back passed to Cassano to dance throughthe right side of the defence. Despite their importantcontributions, it was only right that Balotelli shouldsteal the show with his cool brace. His team-mateDaniele De Rossi had called him an “ometto” last week,an Italian word that means someone who is becominga man and starting to take responsibility.

That he certainly did but he then stripped off hisshirt to celebrate his second goal, a move that earned a

booking, demonstrating that he is notyet the finished article, either as aplayer or a man.

On the hour mark he was guiltyof going for glory and screwing ashot wide when two runners hadscampered into better positions

screaming for a pass.But Italy held on

and Balotelli, the er-rant wildman moreknown for hismadcap anticsthan his foot-balling prowess,

finally madehis biggestheadlines onthe pitch.

wArsAw: italian

midfielder Andrea pirlo

(back) stops the ball

infront of the nets of

italian goalkeeper gianluigi

buffon (C) during the euro

2012 football

championships semi-final

match. AFp

Enfant terrible

BaLoteLLiconquers man’s world

LISBONaFP

Cristiano Ronaldo and his beaten Portuguese team-mates received a tumultuous welcome home whenthey touched down at Lisbon airport Thursday afterflying back from Ukraine.

“Portugal ole! Portugal ole! Portugal ole!,” fansshouted as the squad emerged with Ronaldo in theirmidst following their Euro 2012 semi-final defeat onpenalties to holders Spain.

Paulo Bento’s team smiled as fans held aloftscarves and flags while some sang the national an-them. Several players stopped to sign autographs be-fore heading off for a summer break after the team’snarrow elimination when a potential final against Ger-many or Italy and a possible first major trophy successhad been coming into view.

“This reception gives me goosebumps. You canfeel their affection and we want to thank them,” saiddefender Pepe. “They know we deserved to be in thefinal.” “It’s super - the people are behind us. Thanksfor everything,” said Miguel Lopes, before boarding acoach to spirit the squad into the city.

“We are very proud of what we achieved. They

were all fantastic,” said Humberto Coelho, vice-chair-man of the Portuguese Football Federation.

“We are so very proud of this team,” cried out onefan in his 50s. “We know they gave everything.”

A young woman agreed: “We are out but it wasgreat while it lasted. They gave us great pleasure andwe are very proud. I wanted to say bravo,” she said, abouquet of flowers in her hand. Another young fansaid: “We want to tell Ronaldo he did very well. theyall played very well and they will go far.” Few fans hadseen the team off amid general pessimism after a finalwarm-up brought a home loss to Turkey.

Portuguese squad returnto heroes return

KINGSTONaFP

Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake easily won theirheats Thursday night to qualify for the 100metre semi-finals at the Jamaican Olympic Ath-letic Trials.

Reigning world champion Blake was thefastest of the quarter-finalists with a time of10.00 seconds.

Bolt, the Olympic champion and worldrecord holder in the 100m, also won his quarter-final by easing to a 10.06. nesta Carter and AsafaPowell were the fastest finishers in the thirdquarter-final as both were credited with a timeof 10.19. The last quarter-final was won byMichael Frater who finished in 10.09.

The semi-finals and finals are scheduled forFriday at the sold-out national Stadium.

The top three finishers in the final will punchtheir tickets to the London Games.

Powell said after his race that he expectsfireworks in the final. Bolt and Blake declined tocomment to reporters.

Powell, who held off Blake to win the titlelast year, plans to “go all out” in the semi-finalsand finals. He said he didn’t push the paceThursday because “it is the heats and so we aretaking it easy.”

On the women’s side, the Olympic championShelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the former worldchampion Veronica Campbell-Brown andOlympic silver medalist kerron Stewart will bat-tle in the 100m.

nearly 400 athletes are competing for about60 berths in London in what could be the largestJamaican athletics delegation ever sent to anOlympics.

Spain and italy emulate 2004 finalistsWARSAW: Italy booking their place in Sunday’s Euro 2012 final with holders Spain after beatingGermany 2-1 on Thursday is the second time in three Euros that two sides who met each other intheir opening game will renew acquaintance in the final. In the Euro 2004 edition Greece spoilthosts Portugal’s party on both occasions beating them 2-1 in the opener before taking the trophywith a 1-0 win in the final. Spain - who beat Portugal 4-2 on penalties in Wednesday’s semi-final -had to come from behind to force a 1-1 draw with Italy in the opening game, Cesc Fabregas firinghome their equaliser after Antonio de natale gave the Italians the lead. aFP

italy’s press revels inbalotelli brilliance

ROMEaFP

Italy’s press on Friday celebrated the national side’s 2-1Euro 2012 semi-final victory against Germany and inparticular the double by “stratospheric” striker MarioBalotelli. “A strong Italy and a stratospheric Balotelli sunkGermany and took Italy to seventh heaven,” the Corrierredello sport said in its online edition, reminding readers thatGermany had been favourites to win Thursday’s tie inWarsaw, Poland. The daily added that the Azzurri had put ina “mind-blowing performance” while Balotelli’s two first-half goals were “splendid”. Gazzetta.it, in particular, hailed amasterful performance from midfield playmaker and officialman of the match Andrea Pirlo, saying that he “directedoperations and was, as usual, the lynchpin of the side”. LaRepubblica called the match “a masterpiece”, particularly inthe “perfect” first-half “which showed everyone who thoughtthat Balotelli couldn’t play at centre-forward or that (coachCesare) Prandelli had problems that they were wrong”.

Bolt, Blake ease throughto 100m semis

KingsTOn: Jamaican sprinter usain

bolt runs during the100m men’s

qualification heat at the Jamaican

Olympic Athletic Trials at the national

stadium in Kingston. AFP


watch it Live

TEN SPORTS2nd Test: Pakistan vs SriLanka 09:30AM

STAR SPORTSWimbledonTennis04:00PM

Tigers win PremierT20 Women CricketLAHORE: Lahore Tigers defeated LahoreEagles by eight runs to lift the PremierTwenty20 Women Cricket Championshiptrophy here at the kinnaird College groundon Thursday. Batting first, Lahore Tigersscored 101 runs for the loss of six wickets in20 overs. Sania khan scored 32 runs andSidra Ameen 25. nida Dar claimed ninewickets for three runs while nimra Imrangot one. In reply, Lahore Eagles couldmanage 93 runs for the loss of sevenwickets in 20 overs. komal made 44 runsand Hina added 14. Hafsa got two wickets.Sania khan was named player of the finalmatch. MPA khawaja Imran nazir waschief guest at the colorful concludingceremony and distributed prizes among thetop performers. LRCA Secretary MianJaved Ali, Treasurer Sarfraz Ahmad, formerteam manager Azhar Zaidi, cricketerWahab Riaz, kC sports head Ms nausheen,kC coaches Irfan Ullah and nadeem Zafarand others were also present on theoccasion. STaFF rEPOrT

Diya, Vehari, TC qualifyfor National C’shipLAHORE: Diya of group A, Vehari UnitedWFC Vehari and TC of group B havequalified for 8thnational Women FootballsChampionship-2012 On Friday, two morematches were decided with Diya Starsbeating TC WFC by seven goals at the kPTFootball Stadium, karachi. The scorer ofDiya were kiran Ali 3 Goals @ 26, 47, 49Minutes, Afshan Altaf 2 Goals @ 17, 40Minutes, Rukhsar Rashid 1 Goal @ 20Minute and Hajra khan 1 Goal @ 29Minutes. At Bahawalpur, Young IslamiaWFC Bahawalpur and Islamia SportsScience WFC Bahawalpur played a goallessDraw @ Satellite Town, Higher SecondarySchool Ground, Bahawalpur. STaFF rEPOrT

Sports 17Saturday, 30 June, 2012

LONDONaFP

DEFEnDInG Wimble-don champion novakDjokovic avoided an-other Czech RepublicCentre Court ambush

when he reached the last 16 with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 win over veteranRadek Stepanek on Friday.

Top seed Djokovic, playing onthe same court where Rafael nadalhad been stunned by world 100Czech Lukas Rosol on Thursday,overcame dropping his first set ofthe tournament to see off 33-year-old Stepanek.

The Serb goes on to play compa-triot Victor Troicki, who put out Ar-gentine 15th seed Juan Monaco 7-5,7-5, 6-3 for a place in the quarter-fi-nals. Troicki will be playing in hisfirst last 16 tie at Wimbledon.

Djokovic found wily Stepanek, aquarter-finalist in 2006, hard to readin the first set as the Czech kept thechampion pinned back by servingand volleying, almost an extinct tech-

nique on the slowing All EnglandClub lawns. But he won 18 of the next24 games to storm to victory, takinganother step closer to a sixth careerGrand Slam title.

“I had break points in the first setbut he came up with the big serves. Itwas a tough match, but I played re-ally well in the second, third andfourth sets,” said Djokovic.

The Serb insisted nadal’s fate,which was also played out under theCentre Court roof, had not entered histhoughts. “I was focused on my owngame. I knew Radek is a tricky oppo-nent and very experienced,” he said.

“He’s one of the few players whocomes to the net after every firstserve. He has the variety of game tohurt anyone.” Stepanek, playing inhis 10th Wimbledon, was watched bywife nicole Vaidisova, a former worldnumber seven, and she joined thecrowd in polite bemusement whenher husband was ordered to changehis shoes at the start.

His bright red and blue footwearwere deemed to have breached thetournament’s strict predominantly

white clothing and gear rule. Instead,under the chair umpire’s orders, heopted for white and green on his feet.

Later Friday, six-time championRoger Federer, who is seeded to faceDjokovic in the semi-finals, takes onFrench 29th seed Julien Benneteau.

Meanwhile, fourth seed AndyMurray refused to accept thatnadal’s shock 6-7 (9/11), 6-4, 6-4,2-6, 6-4 defeat to journeyman Rosolhad meant his possible path to afirst final had been cleared. For thelast two years, nadal had proved abridge too far for world numberfour Murray, winning semi-finals in2010 and 2011. nadal had also wontheir quarter-final meeting in 2008.But with nadal out of the equation,the 25-year-old Briton can start plan-ning realistically to become the firstBritish finalist since Bunny Austin in1938, even of becoming the country’sfirst champion since Fred Perry in1936. next up for Murray is CypriotMarcos Baghdatis who beat the Scotat the All England Club in 2006.“It’s irrelevant to me unless I reachthe semi-finals.

Djokovic avoids fallinginto new Czech trap

wiMbLeDOn:

serbia’s novak

Djokovic plays a

double-handed

backhand shot

against Czech

republic’s radek

stepanek during the

2012 wimbledon

Championships. AFP

LONDONaFP

Wimbledon giantkiller Lukas Rosol admit-ted he was surprised by Rafael nadal’s un-characteristic shoulder charge in the thirdset of his stunning second round triumphover the great Spaniard.

A clearly rattled nadal, who had playedin the last five Grand Slam finals, slumpedto his worst defeat at a major in seven yearswhen Rosol, the world 100, clinched an his-toric 6-7 (9/11), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 CentreCourt triumph. nadal had become clearlyirritated by Rosol’s constant movementduring his service motion and made hisanger clear to the umpire. After the Czechhad broken for a 2-1 lead in the third set, thetwo players collided at the changeover.

“I was surprised that he can do it on theCentre Court at Wimbledon. I didn’t expectit, it was his choice,” said the 26-year-oldCzech. “I thought that he wants to let me gofirst, you know, but then he start to walkfast. I stop because I don’t want to hit me.He hit me, and then three times he apolo-gize. And I say, Okay, okay, okay. It wasokay.”

Rosol, whose five previous visits toWimbledon had all ended in first round de-feats in qualifying, believes the incident wasnadal’s way of trying to break his stride ashe took an iron grip on the match.

“He wanted to take my concentration. Iknew that he will try something. He talkedto me a little bit. I think it’s normal some-body do it like this.” nadal, the 2008 and2010 champion, refused to make excuses

for his defeat and would not discuss why hehad complained to the chair umpire.

“The bad thing of this is anything that Iwill say now will sound against me,” saidnadal, the 11-time Grand Slam title winner,who captured a record seventh FrenchOpen earlier this month.

“So is not the right moment for me tosay what happened out there because it’sgonna sound an excuse, and I never want toput an excuse after a match like today. Butthe umpire say a few things weren’t right.”Rosol’s triumph won immediate praisefrom American legend Jimmy Connors, aformer Wimbledon champion. “Rosolwasn’t scared of nadal tonight, he took ballon the rise & didn’t give a $hit.Had ab-solutely nothing 2 lose by doing so,” saidConnors on Twitter.

Opportunity knocks forMurray after Nadal exitLONDON: Rafael nadal’s nightmare on Centre Court waslooking like Andy Murray’s dream Wimbledon scenario onFriday as the All England Club came to terms with one ofthe biggest shocks in its 126-year history. World numbertwo nadal, the champion in 2008 and 2010, and 11 times aGrand Slam title winner, was knocked out of Wimbledonby world number 100 Lukas Rosol, 6-7 (9/11), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6,6-4 in a Thursday night sensation. While the great Spaniardretreated to Mallorca to lick his wounds, Murray wassuddenly enjoying a clear sight of a first Wimbledon finalhaving seen his long-time nemesis knocked out. For the lasttwo years, nadal had proved a bridge too far for the worldnumber four, winning semi-finals in 2010 and 2011. nadalhad also won their quarter-final meeting in 2008. But withnadal out of the equation, the 25-year-old Briton can startplanning realistically to become the first British finalistsince Bunny Austin in 1938, even of becoming the country’sfirst champion since Fred Perry in 1936. next up forMurray is Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis who beat the Scot atthe All England Club in 2006. After that, he could face big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic before the likes of AndyRoddick, the three-time runner-up, who beat him in the2009 semi-finals, seventh seed David Ferrer and ninth seedJuan Martin del Potro present themselves as potential lasteight opponents. Murray reached the third round bycutting Croat giant Ivo karlovic down to size, and hebelieves that surviving such a barrage of big serving willwork in his favour as the tournament heads for a secondweek. “You need to show good patience, mental strength. Ithink I did a good job of that,” said Murray. aFP

Rosol surprised by Nadal shoulder charge wiMbLeDOn:

spain’s rafael

nadal speaks

during a press

conference after

he was beaten

in his second

round men’s

singles match

by Czech

republic’s Lukas

rosol. AFp

LONDONaFP

Defending champion Petra kvitovafired a warning to her Wimbledontitle rivals as the Czech raced intothe third round with a 6-0, 6-4demolition of Britain’s Elena Bal-tacha on Thursday.

On her arrival at the All Eng-land Club last week, kvitova ad-mitted she wasn’t in the best formto retain the Venus RosewaterDish after losing in the first roundof the Wimbledon warm-up atEastbourne.

But the 22-year-old, who de-feated Maria Sharapova in lastyear’s Wimbledon final, erasedthose doubts in convincing style inthe evening sunshine on CourtTwo.

Fourth seeded kvitova, whofaces America’s Varvara Lep-chenko for a place in the last 16,won 10 games in a row to takecomplete control before the out-classed Baltacha finally got on thescoreboard.

Baltacha had conceded in thebuild-up that she probably had nochance of shocking kvitova if the

Czech was on top form, but eventhe 28-year-old couldn’t haveimagined just how difficult shewould find it.

The first set passed by in aflurry of kvitova winners from thebaseline and the second was head-ing the same way until the worldnumber four eased up with the fin-ish line in sight.

That allowed the world number101 to preserve some pride with arun of three games in a row, butkvitova, beaten in the semi-finalsof both grand slams this year, re-gained her focus to seal the win.

champ Kvitova races into third round

wiMbLeDOn: Czech republic’s

petra Kvitova celebrates her second

round victory over britain’s elena

baltacha. AFp



24

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami, Resident Editor: Rana Qaisar

Troops foilanother

cross-borderraid, kill 6militantsDIR

agEnciES

Security forces countered yet anothercross-border attack on a check post in Dir,

killing up to six militants in retaliatory fire.Officials said that dozens of armed mili-

tants crossed into Pakistani territory fromAfghanistan on Friday and attacked a secu-

rity check post in the karkay area. How-ever, the assault was foiled by alert troopsand six militants were killed, while the re-

maining escaped, officials added. With theadvent of summer, militants holed up in

Afghanistan have started launching attackson Pakistani forces. Officials say militants

loyal to hardliner Mullah Fazlullah, themilitant commander who fled after forcesquashed an uprising in Swat valley, is be-

hind the fresh wave of attacks. OnWednesday, security forces thwarted a

similar cross-border attack and claimedkilling seven insurgents. Last Friday, Tal-

iban stormed a security check post andkidnapped 17 Pakistani soldiers. Five dayslater, the militants released a video show-

ing severed heads of the abducted soldiers.The beheading, as claimed by the Taliban,

took place on Sunday. The Foreign Min-istry summoned the deputy head of the

Afghan mission to lodge a formal protestagainst “the intrusion of militants from the

Afghan side into Pakistani territory”, offi-cials said. The Afghan diplomat was in-

formed that “the government ofAfghanistan should take appropriate meas-

ures to prevent the recurrence of similarincidents in the future”, it said

WASHINGTONOnLinE

OnLY one in five Pakistanis has afavourable view of India, with al-most six in ten considering it a big-

ger threat to the country than the Taliban,or al Qaeda, according to a new survey.

But the survey by the Pew ResearchCentre’s Global Attitudes Project, whichnotes 22 percent of Pakistanis having afavorable view of India, is actually a slightimprovement from 14 percent last year.

Pakistanis have consistently identi-fied India as the top threat since the ques-tion was first asked in 2009, it noted. Thepercentage fearing India has increased by11 points to 59 percent since then, whilethe percentage naming the Taliban has

decreased by nine points. Despite thesenegative sentiments, 62 percent of Pak-istanis say it is important to improve re-lations with India, the survey found. Androughly two-thirds support more bilateraltrade and further talks to try to reducetensions between the two nations.

Most Indians also want better rela-tions, more trade, and further talks betweenthe two nations, Pew reported. Still, Indianattitudes toward Pakistan remain largelynegative. Roughly six in ten Indians (59percent) express an unfavorable opinion ofPakistan, although this is down slightlyfrom 65 percent in 2011. India is not theonly country, however, where negativeviews of Pakistan prevail, the survey found.

Majorities or pluralities give Pakistan anegative rating in six of the seven other

countries where this question was asked,including China, Japan, and three predom-inantly Muslim nations - Egypt, Jordan andTunisia. Pakistanis and Indians agree thatkashmir should be a priority for their coun-tries. Roughly eight in 10 Pakistanis andabout six in 10 Indians say it is very impor-tant to resolve the dispute over kashmir.

The survey also found that followinga year of tensions between their countryand the United States, Pakistanis con-tinue to hold highly unfavorable views ofthe US and offer bleak assessments of therelationship between the two nations.Roughly three in four Pakistanis (74 per-cent) consider the US an enemy, up from69 percent last year and 64 percent threeyears ago. And President Barack Obamais held in exceedingly low regard.

Indeed, among the 15 nations sur-veyed in both 2008 and 2012 by the PewGlobal Attitudes Project, Pakistan is theonly country where ratings for Obamaare no better than the ratings PresidentGeorge W Bush received during his finalyear in office. According to Pew ResearchCentre, the survey in Pakistan is part ofthe larger Spring 2012 Pew Global Atti-tudes survey conducted in 21 countriesunder the direction of Princeton SurveyResearch Associates International. Re-sults for the survey in Pakistan are basedon 1,206 face-to-face interviews of adultsconducted from March 28 to April 13,2012. The sample is disproportionallyurban, but the data are weighted to re-flect the actual urban/rural distributionin Pakistan, Pew said

g Only 22 percent have favorable view of india g 62 percent of Pakistanisbelieve it’s important to improverelations with india g 59% of indianshave unfavorable opinion of Pakistan

LAHORESTaFF rEPOrT

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf hasextended a formal invitation to the op-position regarding the early appoint-ment of the chief election commissioner,saying an independent and autonomouselection commission was prerequisitefor transparent elections.

Addressing a meeting of PakistanPeople’s Party provincial executivecommittee members at the PunjabGovernor’s House on Friday, Ashrafsaid fair and transparent elections re-quired the government and oppositionagree on an independent election com-missioner. The PM said he did not wantpolitics of confrontation and any clashamong institutions, asking the Pakistan

Muslim League-nawaz to do away withits the current policy of confrontationwith the federal government.

He urged promoting politics of rec-onciliation and to abstain from tradi-tional leg pulling. Ashraf asked theSharif brothers to let the incumbentgovernment complete its constitutionalterm in the light of Charter of Democ-racy (CoD) and wait until general elec-tions. He warned that in casedemocracy was derailed, it would notonly endanger the PPP, but all otherpolitical parties as well.

The PM made it clear that the PPPdid not want confrontation with any in-stitution, including the Supreme Court,as it was a tradition of the party to takemeasure leading to strengthening ofthe institutions. The PM said that his

government wished to resolve all na-tional issues and matters with the helpof all political parties, saying one an-other’s mandate should be respectedfor strengthening democracy.

Sources said the meeting decidedto gear up efforts for general electionsand all members of parliament were di-rected to launch mass contact cam-paign vigorously. They said the primeminister also took members on boardsabout the understanding reached withthe PML-Q recently which led to theformation of new cabinet and carvingof new office of the deputy prime min-ister. He thanked the Punjab govern-ment for sending a delegation at theairport as part of protocol on his arrivalin Lahore, saying the gesture wouldhelp strengthen democracy.

PESHAWARagEnciES

The Finance Ministry onFriday approved areduction in the prices ofpetroleum products,announcing that the newprices would be effectivefrom July 1. On Thursday, the Oil andGas Regulatory Authority(OGRA) had sent asummary to the ministry

for its approval on reducedprices. According to the new rates,the price of Petrol has beenreduced by Rs 5.20 perlitre, High Octane by Rs6.44, High Speed Diesel byRs 2.48, Light Diesel by Rs2.86, and kerosene Oil byRs 2.54 per litre. Meanwhile, the Ministry ofPetroleum has approved adecrease in CnG prices bymore than Rs 4 per

kilogramme. According tothe details, the ministryhas approved to cut CnGprices by Rs 4.59 in Region1, and Rs 4.20 in Region 2.Region 1 includes khyberPakhtunkhwa, Balochistanand Potohar area, whileRegion 2 includes Sindhand Punjab.The new prices will beeffective after anotification by OGRA on July 1.

government approves reduced POL prices

PM to Opp: Want transparentpolls? Let’s finalise the cecg ashraf says independent, autonomous election commission prerequisite for transparent polls g PPP did not want confrontation with any institution, including Sc

LahOrE: Prime minister raja Pervaiz ashraf offers fateha at Data Darbar on Friday.


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