Continued on Page 7

Indian firings an eye openerfor MNS................................................How terrorist will leave solidevidence behind?................................................Tarar may invite and listen toPharmaceutical industry

See Page 04

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Although the KSE-100 indexdropped 89 points in the wakeof a slight correction whichwas due yet the bench mark re-mained in bullish mode as longas it was trading above 32,500.

The correction was alsovisible from market volumeswhich also decline a littleto255 million shares tradedTuesday while the index wasclosed at 32668,73 level

The target of 33,500-33,800 area, which is the up-

per monthly Bollinger band, is still intact buta fruitful correction is crucial for the bullish

KSE-100: Slight correctiondrops 89 points

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SARWAR AWAN

ISLAMABAD—The lawmakersapproved two bills in the Parlia-ment to provide constitutionalcover to special courts for con-ducting trials of suspects in-volved in terrorist activities asthe 21st Constitutional Amend-ment and Army Act Amendment2015 were approved by the Na-tional Assembly and Senate onTuesday.

In the National Assembly thebills were approved unopposedas 247 members voted in favourof the laws.

Following approval in theNational Assembly, Senatorsalso approved the amendmentswhich will now be sent to Presi-dent Mamnoon Hussain to besigned into law.

Members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam(Fazl group) abstained from vot-ing over reservations. Lawmak-ers from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were not present in theNational Assembly as their resignations arepending with the speaker.

It will stay on the books for two years,allowing special courts to try anyone accusedof terrorism offences.

Earlier Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif metparliamentarians to convince them to vote

in favour of theproposed constitu-tional amendmentand reiterated thatthe current extraor-dinary circum-stances demande x t r a o r d i n a r ymeasures.

The bill waspresented in theNational Assem-bly seekingchanges in theConstitution andMilitary Act tospeed up trial ofterrorists afterTehreek-e-TalibanPakistan gunmenkilled 149 school-children and teach-ers in an attack onDecember 16,2014 in Peshawar.

Despite po-litical parties ex-tending support tothese steps in an all

parties meeting, many dissenting voicesmarred Monday’s assembly session in whichthe bills were meant to be passed. Voting was

deferred till Tuesday. Prime Minister Nawazheld a meeting with other lawmakers at theSpeaker’s chamber to discuss the bill. Herequested all parliamentarians to inform theirvoters about the measures taken to eliminatethe scourge of terrorism.

Meanwhile, addressing the Senate ses-sion Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said thatthe government would decide that which

Parliament okays military courts to try terrorists21st Constitutional Amendment, Army Act Amendment passed PM says no let up till last terrorist eliminated PTI,JI, JUI-F lawmakers and Sh Rashid abstainBitter pill of ‘new law’ being swallowed for Pakistan’s security: Khursheed

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressing the Senate session at Parliament House.

Continued on Page 7

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chief of his own faction ofJamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehmanaccused on Tuesday the government of “tryingto link religion with terrorism” in reference toan amendment for madrassah reforms.

“Terrorism does not differentiate betweenreligion and secularism,” the JUI-F chief said,while addressing the media shortly after the ap-proval of the 21st Constitutional AmendmentBill and Pakistan Army Act 1952 (Amendment)Bill 2015 in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“We expressed our reservations over thebills, and how they will create a division be-tween religious and non-religious parties,” theJUI-F chief said.

“Pakistan is an Islamic state, and it will notbe made a secular state,” he said.

He reiterated that the prime minister did not

take his party into confidence regarding theamendments.

The JUI-F and the Jamaat-e-Islami abstainedfrom voting for or against the bill, to which Fazlsaid, “We avoided committing a sin today byabstaining from voting.”

“Whether it is a secular country or a non-secular country, the nation should unite to fightagainst terror,” he added.

“We were told on Tuesday that two govern-ment representatives would speak with us, inorder for us to present our reservations. How-ever, when they came to us, the bill was alreadybeing passed,” he said, questioning the sort oftalks they were.

Fazlur Rehman said such bills might causea divide among the people alleging that variousgroups were being treated discriminately under21st Constitutional Amendment Bill and theArmy Act Amendment.

21st Constitutional Amend linksreligion with terrorism: Fazl

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LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The people of Pakistan seethe escalation of tension by India on the Lineof Control and Working Boundary, throughcontinuous unprovoked firing and targetingof civilians, as an attempt todistract our armed forces fromits valiant mission against allterrorists, spokesperson ofForeign Office in response toa question regarding the com-ment by the spokesperson ofIndian External Affairs said onTuesday

The baseless and prepos-terous Indian allegations re-garding the so-called “terrorboat” from Pakistan are also inthe same vein.

The spokesperson said that Pakistan isopposed to terrorism in all its forms andmanifestations and has been the biggest vic-tim of terrorism. The people and Governmentof Pakistan are determined to eradicate thismenace from our territory. The brave armedforces of Pakistan are successfully conduct-ing a comprehensive and across the board

operation Zarb-e-Azb to root out terrorism.The Indian spokesperson also made

equally baseless and malicious allegationsregarding the ‘citings’ of Punjabi/Urduspeaking terrorist elements in Afghanistan.India is reminded to refrain from attemptsto create misunderstanding between Pakistan

and Afghanistan, the twobrotherly nations are bound bycommon destiny, shared cul-ture, history and religion.These efforts are also in vio-lation of all internationalnorms, the spokesperson said.

“The people and govern-ment of Pakistan are deter-mined to eradicate this men-ace from our terr i tory,”Tasnim Aslam added.

Tasnim Aslam also rejected comments ofthe spokesperson of Indian External Affairs.

Rejecting the “smugglers at sea” theory,the Indian government on Monday claimedthat the Pakistani boat which sank in the Ara-bian Sea after being intercepted by the In-dian Coast Guard had “suspected terrorlinks”, a report published on The Times ofIndia said.

Indian firing an attempt to distractPak forces to fight against terrorism ‘Preposterous’ terror boat allegations rejected

PM visit toBahrain to opennew vistasLIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The two-dayvisit of Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif to Bahrain willopen new vistas in Pakistan-Bahrain relationship.

To be accompanied by ahigh-level delegation, thePrime Minister during thevisit will have meetings withthe King and his counterpartbesides calls on him by selectMinisters of Bahrain.

The delegation-level talksand tête-à-tête with the Kingwill focus on further enhance-ment of bilateral relations invarious fields, including energycooperation, manpower em-ployment, trade and invest-ment, and defence.

Continued on Page 7

Rabbani ‘ashamedto vote against

conscience’STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan People’s PartySenator Raza Rabbani was in tears on Tues-day after voting in the upper house on the21st Constitutional Amendment for settingup military courts in the country.

Rabbani said that he voted on the amend-ment against his own conscience, adding thathe had never felt more ashamed in his life.

Meeting to reviewexecution of NAP

summonedOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The govern-ment has summoned a meetingtoday to review execution of

Continued on Page 7

ANKARA—Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan onTuesday warned the EuropeanUnion it should crack down onIslamophobia amid rising anti-

Time to crack down on‘Islamophobia’, Erdogan tells EU

Muslim protests rather than“trying to teach a lesson” toTurkey.

Erdogan told Turkey´s am-bassadors posted abroad in a

speech in Ankara that theyshould pursue an assertive for-eign policy to represent strongand self-confident “new Tur-

John Kerrydue on Jan 12OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—United Statesof America secretary of stateJohn Kerry will pay a two-day visit to Pakistan startingon January 12.

He will meet PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif,Advisor to PM on ForeignAffairs Sartaj Aziz and Chiefof Army Staff General RaheelSharif. John Kerry will visitForeign Office for strategictalks on January 13.

Continued on Page 7

France warnsPalestiniansPARIS—France warned thePalestinians on Tuesdayagainst escalating a diplo-matic battle with Israel afterPresident Mahmoud Abbassaid he would resubmit to theU.N. Security Council aresolution calling for thecreation of a Palestinian state.

The United States helpeddefeat the resolution, whichalso demands an Israeliwithdrawal from the occupiedWest Bank, in a SecurityCouncil vote on Dec. 30.Abbas said on Sunday hehoped to resubmit theresolution “perhaps after a

APTA presidenthails BISE Chitralcampus servicesGUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—President of AllPrimary Teachers Association(APTA) Muhammad Ashrafexpressed his satisfaction onperformance of PeshawarBoard of Intermediate andSecondary Education (BISE)Chitral campus. Talking toChitral union of professionaljournalist’s membersMuhammad Ashraf said thatBISE Chitral campus staffworking hard and providingall possible facilities to stu-dents of Chitral. He thankedChairman BISE Peshawar Pro-fessor Dr. Muhammad ShafiKhan Afridi for establishingBISE campus at Chitral whorended meritorious services tostudents of this backwardand remote district of KPK.

He said that Dr.Muhammad Shafi will fullysupport staff of Chitral cam-pus for facilitating thousandsof students from entire dis-trict. He also demanded fromchairman for enhancing BISEPeshawar capacity and formore authorization of staffworking at Chitral for furtherbeneficiation of students.

He also demanded forgiving of Scholarship to 20position holders studentsaccording to criteria of eachboard policy. MuhamamdAshraf demanded for up-gradation of Chitral campusBISE so as to provide morefacilities to people and stu-dents of Chitral.

FAISALABAD: Residents of Muhammadabad and Dogar Basti burn tyres to block Satiana Road during a protestagainst electricity and gas loadshedding.

I S L A M A B A D — F a i s a l a b a d - M u l t a nMotorway (M-4) would not only reducetravel distance between Faisalabad andMultan but would contribute to nationaland regional trade corridor and providebetter access to the farmers.

An official of National Highway Author-ity (NHA) informed APP said that M-4 con-sists of four sections with the first oneGogra-Faisalabad section, second Gogra-Shorkot section,third Shorkot-Khanewalsection and fourth Khanewal-Multan sec-tion.

The completion all sections of the M-4would not only minimize the distance of 150kilometres between Islamabad and Multanbut would also save operational cost of thevehicles as well as time and fuel.

To a question,he said that ADB hadapproved financing of $170 million for thesection-1 in 2008-09 but the constructionwork started in 2011 owing to land acquisi-tion issues.He said work of 58 kilometreFaisalabad-Gojra section of Faisalabad-Multan Motorway (M-4) has almost beencompleted and its inauguration would bedone soon.

He said that Faisalabad-MultanMotorway would be a four-lane project butthe structure has been prepared with six-lane provision for future expansionrequirements,he added.

He said once the entire M-4 gets com-pleted and is connected with national high-

M-4 to reduce travel time,contribute to trade corridor

way of Multan, then this part of the na-tional trade corridor would yield maximumdividends.

For second section of M-4 (Gojra-Shorkot), the process of land acquisitionhas been completed. Tender documentshave been prepared. Only the green signalis required from the ADB. And for the thirdsector (Shorkot-Khanewal), Islamic devel-opment Bank has committed loan and byend of next year this part of the motorway-4 will become operational.

Motorway-4 includes four inter-changes, 11 bridges, 19 underpasses, 191pipe culverts and 55 WCC box and gas cul-verts.

About 62 km Gojra-Shorkot Section,hesaid that land acquisition process was inadvance stage and Land Acquisition andResettlement Plan was in process of ap-proval by ADP.The official said that con-tract for 64 km Shorkot-Khanewal sectionwas yet to be award.He said that its portionof Abdul Hakim-Khanewal Section-3 of M-4 overlaps the planned Karachi-LahoreMotorway. The segment from Abdul Hakim- Khanewal will be constructed as part ofKLM. Section-3 will be scaled down toShorkot - Abdul Hakeem approx 20 Km.

He said that Khanewal-Multan Sectionof M-4 would cost 12.9 billion and 50 percent of its work has been completed and itis likely to be completed by September thisyear.—APP

Six personsincluding

groom die ofsuffocation

KHANEWAL—Six personsincluding a bridegroom andhis two brother died afterinhaling smoke emitted froma generator at Chak No 51/15-L in Mian Channu onTuesday.

Rescue 1122 and policeofficials said that a girl wasadmitted to MianchannuTHQ hospital in critical con-dition.

A fruit seller Saif UrRahman’s marriage was fixedwith Safia Bibi of villageDahranwala, tahsilHaroonabad. The marriageparty returned toMianchannu. However, ac-cording to family’s tradi-tions, the bridegroom sleptwith his family members andthe bride with her mother.

Bridegroom Saif sleptwith his brothersMuhammad Abbas, Asif,brother-in-law Waheed,Waheed’s sister Samreen,and a guest Nooraan Bibi ina room after turning on agenerator.

They all died of suffo-cation by smoke emittedfrom generator, police andrescuers said.—APP

PESHAWAR—A-15 member contingent ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Bomb Disposal Unitpolice left for Jordan to participate in advancetraining of ATA explosive incident countermeasures course.

As per details in order to further harnessthe professional capabilities of the Bomb Dis-posal Unit and effectively combat terrorism afifteen members contingent of police havebeen nominated through out the province on

Police contingent leavesfor Jordan to get training

merit for the course.In the six week long coursethe American experts will impart training tothem in the relevant field. The contingent in-cluded DSP CTD Niaz Ahmad, sub inspectorGohar Ali, head constables Karamat Shah, GulNaseem, Asad Ullah, Habib Ahmad, IbrahimShah, Muhammad Farooq, Shahzad, NazirAhmad, Wali Muhammad and constablesKaber Khan, Namzed Khan, Fawad Khan andZar Wali of BDU. —APP

ISLAMABAD—Senators onTuesday lauded the efforts

Senators laud Prime Minister’sefforts for eliminating terrorism

of Prime Minister,Muhammad Nawaz Shariffor evolving consensus inexterminating menace of ter-rorism from the country.

Taking part in the debateafter passage of 21st Con-stitutional Amendment, inSenate, leader of opposition,Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan saidPPP supported the amend-ments adding that terroristswould be tried in specialcourts.

Hasil Khan Bazinjo saidthe amendments in consti-tution and establishment ofspecial courts were need ofthe hour. He said strict deci-sions were needed to curbmilitancy in the country,adding that it was goodomen that all parliamentaryparties, army and nationwere on same page for pre-paring strategy against the

menace.Senior leader of Pakistan

Peoples Party (PPP) Sena-tor, Raza Rabbani said thevote he cast in support ofthe Amendment was theparty’s trust. Speaking atthe occasion, Senator ofANP, Afrasiab Khatak saidNational Action Plan shouldbe fully implemented to curbterrorism in the country.

Establishing specialcourts was part of NationalAction Plan, he added. Hesaid action should be takenagainst those “Midaris”(Cemenaries) involved inspreading religious extrem-ism and unrest in the coun-try.

He hoped that strongrelations with Afghanistanwould also prove helpful formaintaining peace and tran-quility in the region. Sena-

tor Tahir Hussain Mashadiof MQM lauded the effortsof Prime Minister for mak-ing policy against terrorism.

He said his party wouldfully support thegovernment’s steps againstterrorist involved in inhu-man incidents.

He said town commit-tees should be formed tomonitor the activities of ter-rorists. Senator SyedMuzafar Hussain Shah saidthe Parliament had passedthe 21th amendment totackle the long standing is-sue of terrorism.

All political parties hadshown unity against anti-peace elements, he added.He lauded the Prime Minis-ter for taking important de-cisions in making policyagainst terrorist groups inthe country.—APP

PESHAWAR—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assem-bly Tuesday passed a unanimous resolu-tion demanding of the federal governmentfor provision of gas to district Karak, Hanguand Kohat on priority basis and other dis-tricts of the province as per spirit of the con-stitution.

The resolution carrying the signaturesof Provincial Minister for Law, Imtiaz Shahid

KP PA demands provision ofnatural gas to Karak, Hangu, Kohat

Qureshi, Amjad Afridi, Shah Faisal Khan,Shahram Khan Tarakai, Mohammad Ali Shah,Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotah, Dina Naz, MalikQasim Khattak, Ziaullah Bangash, MuftiSaid Janan, Provincial Minister InayatullahKhan, Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, SyedJaffar Shah and Najma Shaheen was pre-sented in the house by Advisor to CM onPrisons, Malik Qasim Khattak.—APP

Two allegedmilitants arrested

from MastungQUETTA—Law enforcementagencies (LEAs) busted twoalleged militants during a raidin Killi Kabo area ofMastung district on Tues-day.

Local LEAs sources saidthat acting on a tip-off aboutpresence of alleged militantsin a house in the area, LEAsofficials raided the spot.

The militants entered ahouse and opened fire at themembers of the raiding partyleaving official Saeed Janseriously injured. He suc-cumbed to his injuries aswas being shifted to thehospital.

LEAs team took the mili-tants into custody whoseidentity could not be ascer-tained.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The dense foggy conditionswould continue in plain areas of Punjab,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and upper Sindh dur-ing next 24 hours.

According to met office, dense foggyconditions may affect flight operation atLahore, Sialkot, Multan,Faisalabad airports and flow oftraffic on Motorway M2(Lahore to Pindi Bhattian sec-tion) during night and morninghours.

However, cloudy weatherconditions with chances oflight rain and light snow over hills are ex-pected at isolated places in Malakand divi-sion and Gilgit-Baltistan. Overall, very coldand dry weather is expected in most parts ofPunjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh,Balochistan and Kashmir. The lowest tem-peratures would be expected Skardu -10 C,Hunza, Kalat and Parachinar -6 C, Gilgit -4 C,

Dense foggy conditions to prevailZhob -2 C and Abbottabad and Chitral -1 C.The minimum temperatures of main citieswould be Muzaffarabad 2 C, Islamabad 1 C,Rawalpindi 4 C, Lahore 5 C, Multan 8 C,Karachi 13 C, Hyderabad 10 C, Sukkur 8 C,Larkana 9 C, Jacobabad from 6 C and

Shaheed Benazirabad (NawabShah) 8 C.

Meanwhile, continentalair is prevailing over most partsof the country and a shallowwesterly wave is also prevail-ing over extreme northern partsof the country. The local Met

office has forecast cold and dry weather withchances of fog in the morning for the cityand its suburbs during the next 24 hours.

On Tuesday, maximum and minimum tem-peratures were recorded as 17.2 degreecelsius and 8 degree celsius, respectively.The humidity was recorded 100 per cent at 8am and 84 per cent at 5 pm.—APP

KP Speaker,Deputy

Speaker’ssalaries raised

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa AssemblyTuesday approved a bill toincrease salalries, allowanceand privileges from onehundred thousand to tenhundred thousand with im-mediate effect.

The bill to amend theKhyber PakhtunkhwaSpeaker and DeputySpeaker’s (salaries, allow-ances and privileges) Act1975 was introduced byMinister for Law ImtiazShahid Qureshi.

The amendment bill in-troduced an amendment ofsection 7, in sub-section (2)of the Khyber PakhtunkhwaAct No. III of 1975 and sub-stituted the words “onehundred thousand” with“ten hundred thousand”.The House approved the billunanimously, and implemen-tation with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, another bill,the Khyber PakhtunkhwaSensitive and Vulnerable Es-tablishments and Places (se-curity) bill, 2014 was intro-duced in the House by Min-ister for Law Imtiaz ShahidQureshi and was approvedunanimously with a fewamendments.

Minister for Law on be-half of Provincial Minister forHealth tabled the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Health CareCommission Bill, 2015, topromote and improve patientsafety and health care ser-vice quality in private sec-tor in the province and pro-vide mechanism for restrict-ing quackery in all its formsand manifestations.—APP

10 SDOspromoted

PESHAWAR—The Compe-tent Authority of PeshawarElectric Supply Company(PESCO) has ordered pro-motion of 10 Sub DivisionalOfficers (SDOs) to the rankof Executive EngineersXENs (BPS-18) on the rec-ommendations of Boards ofGovernors.

According to PESCOpress release here on Tues-day, Masood Khan afterpromotion was postedDeputy Manager Surveil-lance Pesco headquarters,Mufti Wiqar was posted asDeputy Manager TariffPesco headquarters follow-ing promotion.

The other promoted of-ficers are Muhammad Javedwho was made XEN SwatDivision-I, Muhammad XENMansehra City Division,Asad Iqbal XEN T&G,GCDivision Peshawar, MujahidKhan Deputy Manager Plan-ning Pesco headquarters,Muhammad Abas AwanDeputy Director TechnicalKhyber Circle, Ajmal KhanXEN Jinnahabad DivisionPeshawar, Altaf HussainXEN Bannu-1 Division andZahid Ali XEN Swabi-1 Di-vision.

These officers have as-sumed charge of the newposts. The Chief ExecutivePesco congratulated thenewly promoted officersand advised them to workwith zeal and sense of re-sponsibility. He stressedthem to work hard and bringgood name for the com-pany.—APP

MULTAN—Agriculture experts have ad-vised farmers to do light irrigation to mini-mize frost related damages and ensure bal-anced application of Nitrogenous and Phos-phorous fertilizers for better productionfrom late wheat varieties.

In a release issued by media liaison unitof Punjab agriculture department here Tues-day, experts said that farmers should do lightirrigation in case they suspect fog plead-ing that light water would not change tem-perature at once.

Sandy and rain-fed area farmers shouldplough the land by Bar Harrow and per-form hoeing. This technique would not onlyremove weeds but would also bring mois-ture to surface that would plug chances ofimmediate temperature fall.

Light water, balanced fertilizerscan save wheat from frost

In case of no Phosphorous fertilizersapplication at the time of sowing, farmersshould apply a bag of Nitrophos per acre atthe time of first irrigation or in the rain-moistfield.

To get better production from a weakercrop, farmers should apply three to four ki-logram of Urea per acre along with spray ofmicronutrient including Zinc and Boron in100 ml water.

Farmers should avoid excessive use ofUrea for wheat crop. Saline area farmersshould apply a bag of Ammonium Nitrateor Ammonium Sulphate per acre. Expertsadvised application of Nitrogenous fertiliz-ers in two to three instalments and comple-tion of this process till early fruit formationstage can give better results.—APP

MU LTA N—Two convictsof terrorism cases would behanged at Multan todayand security of the centraljail has been stepped up forexecutions.

Anti Terrorism Court(ATC) No 1 Multan issueddeath warrants againstconvict Ghulam Shabbiralias doctor alias Nasir aliasZeeshan after rejection ofhis appeals by the superiorcourts and the mercy peti-tion by the President onJanuary 2, 2015.

It may be noted thatAnti Tetrorism Court (ATC)No 2 had issued black war-rants against Ahmad Alialias Sheesh Nag on Sat-urday and January 7 wasset as the date of execution.

January 7 executionwould be the first in lastseven years and since thetime the government with-drew moratorium on imple-mentation on death sen-tence following deadly at-tack at a school inPeshawar.

Kidnapped boyreaches home

KASUR—A thirteen yearold boy kidnapped for ran-som by three miscreantsmanaged to flee from theircustody in Pattoki,districtKasur. According to Res-cue sources,Aqib Zulifqarson of Zulifqar Ali,residentof Lahore,was kidnappedwhile he was in the streetafter being drugged.He wasdriven away in a car bythree unidentified kidnap-pers for ransom.However,the criminalsstopped at a shop inPattoki,and the boy whohad regained conscious-ness ran away from the carand reached Rescue 1122team.—APP

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak chairs a meeting of consultants and Admn Secretaries of various departmentsat CM House.

The ATC-1 had sen-tenced accused GhulamShabbir to death in 2002 onthe charge of killing twopersons Syed Kazim andGhulam Hussain in 1998 inMultan city.

Convict Ahmad Ali, ac-cording to the prosecution,had shot at and killed threepersons and injured twoothers at an iron shop atRailway road in Multan onApril 7, 1998.

Those killed includedshop owner Altaf Hussain,Nasir and Fayyaz whileSiddiq and another personwere injured.

The FIR was registetedwith Bohar Gate police sta-tion under sections of AntiTetrorism Act. The ATC No2 Multan had awarded himdeath sentence on fourcounts .

Meanwhile, troopshave been deployed at thenew central jail to step upsecurity arrangements forexecutions at the prison. —APP

Two convicts to beexecuted today

Man dies inaccident

SARGODHA—A man was killedwhile another sustained inju-ries in a road accident, in thejurisdiction of Jhaveian policestation on Tuesday. Police saidthat Muhammad Amjad resi-dent of Jhaal Chakian alongwith Muhammad Aftab wasriding a motorcycle onSargodha road when a speed-ing car hit them near Dhreema.

As a result, Amjad died onthe spot while Aftab sustainedinjuries. The injured shifted toDHQ hospital. Police have reg-istered the case.—APP

LARKANA—Police raidedvarious places here on Tues-day and arrested many out-laws, criminals, proclaimedoffenders and abscondersalong with weapons andammunition.

SSP Engineer NisarAhmed Channa said that ar-rested accused were in-

Larkana police arrest criminals,seize drugs, weapons

volved in different criminalcases and some of them wereproclaimed absconders,

These criminal elementswill be dealt with stern ac-tion he added. The crackdown will continue againstthe criminal elements tillachieving the desired re-sult—APP

166 educationcentres established

in AttockJAND—As many as 166 NonFormal Basic Education Lit-eracy Centres have been es-tablished across the districtwhere more than six thousandstudents are studying.

District Officer (Literacy)Sohail Khan said this whiletalking to APP during his visitto Jand on Monday.

He said these centershave been established in theareas where no governmentschool was available, adding,the students studying in thesecenters are being provided allfacilities free of cost. Givingdetails, he said 27 were estab-lished in Tehsil Jand, 13 inFatehjang, 38 in Attock, 33 inHazro, 7 in Hassanabdal and48 had been established inPindigheb. He said initially theproject had been launched forfive years and the studentsstudying in these centres willbe awarded primary level cer-tificates on completion oftheir education.—APP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The poor-friendly step byChief Minister, Punjab, MuhammadShahbaz Sharif for providing afford-able houses to low income grouppeople has been widely welcomed asmore than sixty thousand (60,000)families have applied for allotment offlats under Ashiyana HousingScheme. This large scale interest, ex-pressed by the people in this scheme,was also the manifestation of their

confidence in the policies of PunjabGovernment.

Ashiyana Housing Scheme is thelargest public welfare project in thehistory of Pakistan as thousands offlats will be constructed for allotmentto the shelter-less families in the prov-ince under this scheme. An ideallylocated chunk of 3100 kanal of land,situated in the vicinity of Lahore Air-port, DHA, Ring Road and Barki Road,has been allocated for constructionof thousands of ground plus three

storey flats under Ashiyana IqbalProject. The price of these flats willbe recovered in easy and interest-freeinstallments during a long period of10 years.

The Punjab Government will paythe interest on behalf of allottees inorder to facilitate the low incomegroup people for becoming ownersof their own flats.

Moreover, the amount to bepaid by allotees as monthly install-ment will be less than the per month

rent of their houses. The Punjab Gov-ernment will construct a 150 feet wideroad from Barki Road to the AshiyanaIqbal Project besides constructingtrunk sewer up to Charrer Drain.

All utility services like electricity,water supply, sewage, carpeted roads,schools, parks, commercial area andcommunity center will be provided forresidents of these flats which willmake their life easy and comfortable.Flats will be allotted very soon of thebasis of merit.

Ashiyana Housing Schemeattracting public attention

QUETTA—The Balochistan police wouldinstall Biometric system at Arsenal Depotaimed at keep check on issuance of armsand ammunitions, Capital City Police Of-ficer Quetta, Abdul Razaq Cheema told APPhere.

The move came after police officialsdeployed at Balochistan Constabulary’sarsenal depot sold out 750,000 rounds ofSMGs and other weapons in Quetta somedays back.

The police officials and other person-nel involved in the scam set the arsenaldepot of police on fire to remove clues totheir robbery.

“The incident of stealing and sellinground of SMGs is deplorable,” any officialsor personnel of police found guilty wouldnot be spared and to be dealt in accordancewith law, CCPO said.

He noted that to secure the arsenal from

Biometric system being installed atArsenal Depot to curb arms theft

being sold out to arm dealers and keepcheck that the weapons are away from therange of the elements opposed to peace,police department is mulling over to installbiometric system at gun houses.

He noted that under the supervision ofSSP, investigative a team has been consti-tuted to probe into the arm scam and takethe responsible to task.

Police official among two personnel ofLaw enforcement agencies are on physicalremand and soon the facts would be madepublic about the selling of arms.

CCPO said that case has been regis-tered with the police station and efforts areafoot to extract the information from thedetainees.

Abdul Razaq Cheema said that severalmortar shells, rounds of pistols and weaponswere destroyed during the fire ignited by theaccused to conceal their robbery.—APP

SHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Public in generalhas criticized Prosecution department andpolice for delaying investigation and sub-mission police reports in the court for trailof criminal cases. They further complainedthat police involve innocent persons incases for ulterior motives and their investi-gations are faulty lack due to required evi-dence for improving guilt. Some litigantsrevealed that investigation officers getbribe from opposing parties to get the po-lice report passed from prosecution offic-ers.

It is further observed that prosecution

Citizens dissatisfied over police,prosecution performance

branch does not take pain while carryingout scrutiny of the repots and almost thepolice report is passed on to courts as pre-pared by Ios, said Mudassar Iqbal Gondal,a senior advocate of Mandi Bahauddin. Thisresults into involvement of innocent per-sons in false cases who according to himsuffer hardships of prisons and trials forlong time. Another prominent advocateMumtaz Ahmed Ranjha said that it is un-fortunate that our judiciary system was notcoming satisfactorily because which jus-tice suffers the most. He opined that in viewof the deteriorating performance of police,prosecution department and judiciary es-tablishment of courts was the requirement.

PESHAWAR: Policemen bringing arrested target killers at Police Line.

MULTAN: A view of thick fog that engulfed whole city during morning time.

Indian firings an eyeopener for MNS

IT is really shocking as well as perplexing that there is no let up in unprovoked Indian firing on the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary, raising serious doubts about real designs of New Delhi. On Monday

again, shelling by Indian troops along the Working Boundary in Sialkot’sZafarwal and Shakargarh sectors resulted into martyrdom of five civiliansincluding a woman.

The escalation on the LoC and Working Boundary has increased eversince Indian rulers adopted threatening tone with Prime Minister NarendraModi boasting that ‘any adventurism in Jammu and Kashmir would bemade unaffordable for Pakistan’ and his Home Minister Rajnath Sindh or-dering BSF to give ‘befitting reply’ to Pakistan. The very fact that casual-ties both of civilians and troops are taking place on this side of the LoC andborder, make it absolutely clear as to who is involved in provocation andtherefore, the real motives of these threatening statements stand exposed.But it is not just unprovoked firing but there have been several other incidentsas well that should raise alarm bells in Islamabad. Indians martyred personnelof Chenab Rangers during a scheduled Flag Staff meeting and a Pakistaniboat was destroyed by Indian Navy in Arabian Sea at the start of the NewYear. These extremely provocative incidents are reflective of the Indian mindsetand are contrary to the expectations that Modi would be economy centric.The jingoistic mindset of Modi also confirms that he is hostage in the handsof Hindu extremists and is pursuing an agenda that would endanger peace ofthe region further. His suppressive tactics against Kashmiri people and en-couragement of the extremists seeking total Hinduization of India are alsosufficient to telltale his future plans. Therefore, all this should be an eye-opener to all those, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who are ob-sessed with the notion of having goody goody relations with India at all costs.Mian Nawaz Sharif was so keen in this regard that even before elections hewas jubilant over the very idea of presence of Manmohan Singh on the occa-sion of his oath-taking ceremony. The Indian Premier did not oblige but hehimself dashed to New Delhi to attend oath-taking of Narendra Modi. Ofcourse, no one wants confrontation or tension with India but at the sametime an overwhelming majority of people of Pakistan want to maintainnational dignity and achieve the goal of good neighbourly relations withoutcompromising core interests and through removal of fundamental irritants.

How terrorist will leavesolid evidence behind?

WHILE the civil and the military leadership has forged consensus ontightening of noose around the neck of terrorists, the traditional

system of justice, as usual, is going for loosening of the screws. On Mon-day, another four persons got off the hook after the Lahore High CourtRawalpindi bench annulled their death sentences awarded by theRawalpindi Anti Terrorist Court.

No doubt, the acquittal was done on the pretext of insufficient evidencebut it raises fundamental questions about efficacy of the prevailing judicialsystem under which criminals seldom meet the nemesis. Instead, denial ofjustice or delayed justice creates resentment among aggrieved party andhence a lot of resentment among masses about rigmarole of the judicialprocess. It is quite obvious that the law-enforcing agencies must have roundedup the suspects on the basis of some evidence and that is why they wereawarded death penalty by the ATC. Anyhow, the judgement of the LHCclearly established the fact that the prevailing system of justice has seriousflaws and is unable to deliver. Therefore, this once again reinforces thejustification to have military courts to try terrorists and to serve as deter-rence. However, we should also be mindful of the fact that the militarycourts would remain functional just for two years and after that we wouldrevert back to normal judicial system. With this in view, our law-makers,and policy-makers should start working on reforms in the existing systemin close coordination with Chief Justices of the Supreme Court and HighCourts as well as legal and Constitutional experts.

Tarar may invite andlisten to Pharmaceutical

industryPAKISTAN Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) in a pas

sionate appeal with convincing arguments has urged the government fora meeting to enable them to put across their case about the pricing of medi-cines. It is a common practice world over that stake holders are consultedso that every one is taken on board before arriving at a decision.

At this point of time when business friendly Prime Minister Mian NawazSharif is taking a number of corrective steps to create an enabling environ-ment to put the economy back on track, nothing should be done that sendsnegative signal to industrial sector. Unfortunately in Pakistan, different asso-ciations seek meetings with concerned Ministries to put across their case butthe bureaucracy mostly does not agree with their requests. Ultimately theyare left with no choice but to appeal to the Minister and the Prime Ministerthrough advertisements in newspapers and then go for protests for redressalof their grievances. We strongly believe that this culture should be done awaywith and hope that the Minister for National Health Services Regulation andCoordination, Saira Afzal Tarar, who is known for her hard work and passionto improve the system, would hold an urgent meeting with the representativesof the PPMA. The meeting at the highest level will provide an opportunity tothe PPMA and the Health Ministry officials to discuss the justification forand against increase or decrease in the prices of medicines. The PakistanPharmaceutical Industry is a success story, providing quality essential drugsat affordable prices catering about 90% requirements of the country. Tech-nologically, strong and self reliant National Pharmaceutical Industry is notonly playing a key role in promoting and sustaining development in thevital field of medicine within the country, but is also exporting some of theproducts. Issues are always resolved through negotiations across the tableand we hope this would be done in the case of PPMA because stoppage ofmanufacture of many life saving medicines will force the government forexpensive imports which common man would not be able to pay and it willbe an additional burden on meagre foreign exchange reserves.

The chase after illusions

Afghanistan’spresidentneeds to

prove he’scommittedto progress,

not paralysis

AFGHAN President AshrafGhani appears genuinelycommitted to modernizing

his country’s government andfighting corruption, even as he triesto prevent the resurgence of theTaliban. Reports from Kabul de-scribe him as a feverish workerwho has allowed himself littlesleep in the past three months. ButMr. Ghani’s mix of big ambitionsand micromanagement are startingto ring alarm bells for some whohope he can strengthen and pre-serve the state built so arduouslyover the past 13 years.

Most concerning is the newpresident’s failure to name acabinet three months after his in-auguration, in breach of severaldeadlines he himself set. ThePost’s Pamela Constable re-ported that, with most senior fed-eral and provincial posts unfilled,phones are going unanswered atministries, teachers aren’t beingpaid and Afghans are increas-ingly worried that an alreadydysfunctional government haslost what little direction it had.

The main source of the pa-ralysis is not hard to find, and it’snot all Mr. Ghani’s fault. Havingformed an ad hoc coalition gov-ernment with his chief rival fol-lowing a disputed presidentialelection, Mr. Ghani and primeminister Abdullah Abdullah havebeen struggling to agree on ap-pointments. Mr. Abdullah report-edly wants half for his faction,which is based in the ethnic Tajikcommunity. Mr. Ghani, aPashtun, is trying to impose strictand probably unrealistic stan-dards on all appointees — rulingout dual nationals, former min-isters and parliamentarians in acountry with a shallow pool ofeducated technocrats.

A particular problem is the In-terior Ministry, which controlsAfghanistan’s 150,000 police andis, as Ms. Constable described it,“awash in weapons and riddledwith graft.” While resisting Mr.Abdullah’s bid to install a loyalistin the post, Mr. Ghani is mean-while demanding that the UnitedNations give up its control overinternational funding for the police— a worthy goal that almost cer-tainly cannot be accomplished byhis six-month deadline.

Raising the government’s ca-pacity is critical to stabilizing thecountry, but so is halting the dan-gerous momentum of the Taliban,which has retaken territory pain-fully cleared by US and NATOtroops after 2009. That can’t bedone if key security posts are va-cant, or if Afghans lose confidencein the coalition government’s abil-ity to hold together. Last year wasthe deadliest of the war for Afghansecurity forces, with some 5,000killed — more than twice the totalnumber of US soldier deaths in thecountry since 2001.

Mr. Ghani has made it clearthat he hopes President Obamawill relax his timetable for with-drawing US forces from thecountry, which calls for the cur-rent number of 10,800 to be re-duced by half by the end of thisyear, and then cut to a few hun-dred by the end of 2016. As wehave said, flexibility in thosedeadlines will almost certainly benecessary to ensure that Afghani-stan does not, like Iraq, lose thehard-won gains of recent years.But Mr. Ghani must do his part.“If both parties . . . have donetheir best to achieve the objec-tives and progress is very real,then there should be willingnessto reexamine a deadline,” he saidin an interview with CBS’s “60Minutes” broadcast Sunday. Mr.Ghani needs to begin demon-strating that progress, and not pa-ralysis, will be the mark of hispresidency.— The Washington Post

MEDIA WATCH

WHATEVER happens, youcannot keep the multilateral diplomatists away

from their old tricks. Their merry-go-rounds continue as always; onlythe venues are different but invari-ably exotic. The objectives of thesedevelopment rounds remain thesame. The world’s natural re-sources are to be ‘saved’; povertyand hunger are to be ‘squeezed’.And yet on every much-vauntedoccasion the outcome is the same.The poor of the world keep on get-ting poorer; the rich merrily keepon piling up their ‘subsidies’;while the multilateral diplomatists– who have their toasts buttered atboth ends – have a rollicking goodtime at the expense of their poor,starving compatriots.

One has seen so many UnitedNations World Summits on ‘Sus-tainable Development’, eachmore hilarious than the other. Ineach one of these conferences,one is invariably informed thattalks on a blueprint “to save theworld’s natural resources and re-duce poverty” are snagged despitewarnings that failure would becatastrophic. The deadlock is in-variably on an umpteen-page“Plan of Implementation”- onethat pits haves against have-nots.Now, the perspicacious readermight well argue, does this not

Indo-Pak consensus on J & K?

IT was not plebiscite, as the outgoing Jammu and KashmirChief Minister Omar Abdullah

had cautioned before the polling.Yet the Jammu and Kashmir elec-tion very much tilted towards thePeople’s Democratic Party (PDP)which reminded the Valley of au-tonomy, the kernel of the plebi-scite demand. The PDP, which hasemerged the largest party with 28seats, said during the election cam-paign that it would refurbish thestate’s identity which, accordingto it, had been diluted by the rul-ing National Conference. Perhapsthis paid dividends.

Unfortunately, the State whichhas been an example of secular-ism for the rest of the country hasbeen somewhat polarized. ThePDP won in the Muslim- majorityValley. However, the most blameis that of the Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP). It has tried its best polarisethe society. It’s hush-hush cam-paign that the State’s integrationmeant little when the Hindus hadno say in the affairs of governance.So electrifying has been the resultthat the party has jumped from 11seats in the last election in 2008to 25 seats.

It is obvious that the polariza-tion in the State has changed thecomplexion. Jammu has becomea base of Hindus and the Valleythat of Muslims. Incidentally, theBJP did not get a single seat aspredicted by Omar Abdullah, al-though it has increased the vote.The problem is not new. By elect-ing the Muslims from the Valley,the Kashmiris enjoy a vicarious

Nothing ever

becomes real till it

is experienced —even a proverb is

no proverb to you

till your life hasillustrated it.

satisfaction of being sepa-rate from the rest of India.The candidates who sus-tain this illusion get thesupport. However, this isnothing new.

The National Confer-ence (NC), founded by SheikhAbdullah, a popular leader inKashmir even when it was princelystate, disseminated this idea whenthe state integrated with India af-ter the lapse of British para-mountcy in 1947. Maharaja HariSingh, the Hindu ruler had theopinion to stay independent or joineither India or Pakistan. He pre-ferred to stay independent.

I have no doubt that Jammu andKashmir, a Muslim majority state,would have come to Pakistan if ithad been patient. The Maharaja de-clared independence and enteredinto a standstill agreement with Pa-kistan. India refused to follow suitbecause it appeared to harboursome other ideas.

Impatient Pakistan sent troopsfollowed by the regular forces totake over the Valley by force. TheMaharaja sought India’s militarysupport to ward off the Pakistanonslaught. The then Prime Minis-ter Jawaharlal Nehru refused to ex-tend any help until the State ac-ceded to India.

The Maharaja had no alterna-tive except to signing the instru-ment of accession. The Indianforces flew to Srinagar at the nickof time because the Pakistani troopswere almost in the precinct of air-port. Had the Pakistani forces notindulged in looting and delayedtheir departure from Baramula soas to arrive in Srinagar before theIndian forces, the history of Kash-mir would have been different.

Since the integration of Kash-mir with India was in the hurriedcircumstances, although, Sheikh

Abdullah was fully behind it. Nehrupromised that the wishes of thepeople would be ascertained afterthe things had settled down. Thateventuality never came because ofchanges in the global picture. Pa-kistan which was claiming Kash-mir joined military pacts of theWest and accepted weapons fromit. Those were the days of the ColdWar. The Pakistan’s action wastaken as a step towards joining thewestern bloc.

Nehru said at that time that hispromise to ascertain the wishes ofthe people of Kashmir did not holdgood because of the induction ofweapons by the West. The Pakistan’sgovernment blames Nehru for go-ing back on his promise but its ac-ceptance of weapons by the West-ern bloc changed the situation anddiluted the Pakistan’s claim.

The choice to join either Indiaor Pakistan held the ground for de-cades. For some time the Kashmirishave raised the standard of indepen-dence (Azadi) a sovereign countryof their own. How a land-lockedstate would keep its freedom intactwithout reaching an understandingeither with India or Pakistan for apassage with the outside world isbeyond comprehension. Yet azadi iswhat has swept the Kashmiris offtheir feet. Pakistan, which was onceunequivocal opposed to the pro-posal, has now shed its objection. Itsexpectation is that the Azad Kash-mir would ultimately join their co-religionist, the Muslims, in Pakistan.

Whatever the twist of history,the fact is that India cannot handover Kashmir to Pakistan, nor canPakistan take Kashmir forcibly fromIndia. The two have to reach a peace-ful settlement for the betterment ofthe people and for normalization inthe region. They have fought threewars and a mini one at Kargil. Bothcountries are also nuclear powers.

have a whiff of déjà vuabout it?

What happens at theawesome and awe-inspiringmultilateral conferences isthat all “issues” are reducedto umpteen-page docu-ments, at which our multi-lateral diplomatists matchtheir wits and eloquence.

While the poor and hungry of theblessed earth watch from the side-lines, the pros play their well-worngame of going round and round themulberry bush. Each page of theumpteen-paged draft is honed toextinction until the end result – suchas it is – is so full of holes as to bevirtually undecipherable. It is alsototally impractical.

This rigmarole goes on till thepowers-that-be are satisfied that thedocument is sufficiently riddledwith holes to make it practically un-workable. An “historic” compro-mise is, then, announced with theusual fanfare. The fact that no onehas any intention of ever scanningthe document again is neither herenor there. Another merry-go-roundhas happily come and gone; leav-ing our merry band of multilateraldiplomatists to disperse for a well-earned rest before embarking onanother odyssey to a far off exoticland. All the above is vaunted tobe in the “best interest of the de-prived millions of this blessedearth”. How very moving!

One recalls some years ago, theTimes of London, in a leading ar-ticle at the start of one of these“rounds” pleading for, what it called,a “level playing field”. Rich coun-tries, in the view of that revered pa-per, needed to slash their agriculturesubsidies. The matter of subsidies -

one may add in parentheses – is asore subject in more ways than one;not just because it is the crux of thematter but also because it sticks outlike a sore thumb.

Some years back, the New YorkTimes, through one of its Op-Edwriters, had tried to turn the wholeissue on its head by averring that theenvironmentalists had it wrong allalong. According to his reckoning,“Most forms of environmental pol-lution look as though they have ei-ther been exaggerated or are tran-sient – associated with the earlyphases of industrialization. They arebest cured not by restricting eco-nomic growth but by accelerating it”.There you have it in a nutshell! Themantra is: what is good for the in-dustrialized world is good for therest of the world.

What is most intriguing is the factthat it is always the developed coun-tries that first set the ball rolling bypointing accusing fingers at certaindevelopments and it is them again thatget embarrassed by trying to wriggleout of their own commitments whenthe thing catches on. “Saving the en-vironment” is one outstanding ex-ample of this phenomenon; “defenseof human rights” is another.

The poor and deprived billionsof this world couldn’t care less aboutthe clichés that are bandied about inthese international forums. For themthe fundamental issues relate to food,health care and clean drinking wa-ter, among others. These issues areof a fundamental nature and onesthat cannot just be got rid of eitherthrough paper resolutions or throughoccasional distribution of crumbsfrom the High Table.

It is a great pity that the worldis being asked to accept the policy

of papering over the cracks ratherthan just and durable solutions tothe world’s issues. The United Na-tions – of the Nobel Peace Prizefame – is perhaps the biggest cul-prit in this game.

Reverting back to the humani-tarian issues facing the interna-tional conferences, one wonders ifany one of the multilateral expertswould have the grit to put forwarda revolutionary proposal on thetable. Has anyone given a thoughtas to why the very regions that wereonce considered the bread-basketsof the world are today beset withhunger and famine? What about thebillions that are being spent onkeeping these merry-go-roundsgoing? Should these billions not bebetter spent on tackling the basicissues themselves?

The moot question is: shouldthe nations of the world not be giv-ing serious thought to setting theirpriorities right? The way to goabout doing that would be to tacklethe grassroots issues first beforegoing on to such rosy concepts as“trade liberalization” and “global-ization”. What one pleads for ismerely that the rich nations firstpool their surplus food (instead ofburning it or dumping it into thesea) to ensure that no human beinganywhere goes hungry. Then, thereis the little matter of ensuring pro-vision of clean drinking water toall. Once these little issues are be-hind us, then and then only wouldthe ideal of a “global village” bewell within reach. Failing this, thenever-ending chase after illusionswill continue as heretofore.— The writer is a formerambassador and former assistantsecretary general of OIC.

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John Keats—British poet

But there is no end of hatred. Nodoubt, several futile attempts havebeen made to sort out the problem.The reason is that Pakistan consid-ers Kashmir an unfinished task ofpartition while the state has inte-grated with India legally.

All the formulas and propos-als have failed to produce a solu-tion because the party’s concernedare not really for an agreement butfor the prevalence of their ideas.The two countries have wastedsome sixty seven years in findinga solution to the dispute overKashmir. Both can waste another67 years if they do not come downfrom the pedestal of rigidity onwhich they continue to sit. Paki-stan has brought in the factor ofreligion and has made the problemmore intractable. The proposalthat the Hindu majority Jammujoins India and the Muslim major-ity Valley Pakistan may reopen thewounds of partition.

There cannot be one sided so-lution. There will have to be con-sensus. There can be a solutionon the basis of British cabinetmission plan which envisaged theretention of basic of partition andstill kept the India together. Ulti-mately, the partition formulacame to prevail.

A new proposal, which I sug-gest is that defence and foreign af-fairs of Kashmir under Indiashould vest in New Delhi and like-wise defence and foreign affairsof Kashmir under Pakistan withIslamabad. The rest of the subjectsshould be transferred to theKashmiris and the border betweenthe two Kashmirs should be abol-ished. This maybe initiate a newrelationship, devoid of mistrustand hostility.—The writer is a veteran Indianjournalist, syndicated columnist,human rights activist and author.

Email:kuldipnayar09@gmail.com

Kuldip Nayar

Khalid SaleemEmail: binwakeel@yahoo.com

Friendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly Fire

Voice of the People

A prayer toChief JusticeAMIR AHMED LASHARI

This refers to the grave injustice be-ing meted out to the Parole ProbationOfficers of Sindh, as in the revisedNational Judicial Policy, 2012, accord-ing to Sub/Section IV of Section 19of the D part of chapter 3 (page 29) itis said: “... besides up-gradation to thestaff of Prison Department and theincentive of additional allowanceequivalent to one basic pay salary(shall) be extended to the staff of Rec-lamation and Probation, in line withthe province of Punjab.”

In compliance with the NationalJudicial Policy of the Supreme Courtof Pakistan, the Government ofSindh’s Home Department up-graded all the posts of officers of thePrison Department, except the postsof Probation and Parole officers ofthe Directorate of Reclamation andProbation, Sindh, who have continu-ously been deprived of the right ofupgradation and additional allow-ance mentioned above, which is anopen discrimination and a blatantviolation of Articles 25 and 27 ofthe Constitution.

It may also be mentioned herethat the work of the Probation of-ficers is related to the working ofthe Hon’ble courts. Therefore it isvery earnestly prayed to the Hon’bleChief Justice of Pakistan and ChiefJustice Sindh High Court to kindlyintervene and get the grievances ofthe Probation and Parole officers ofSindh be redressed.—Khairpur

Foreign educationis necessary

MAHEK SHAKEEL RAJPOOT

As education is getting importanceand achieving international dimen-sions and manifestations, it has be-come necessary for any student togain education that is widely ac-cepted for their bright future. Bet-ter education is every one’s dream.One can get good job opportunity.As we all know, concept of educa-tion has become very broad, so onehas to think out of box. Sometimesone cannot imagine how far theworld has gone; one has to go withthe flow in order to build a success-ful career in this competitive world.Studying abroad is a very good op-portunity for any one. Australia,Singapore, China and USA are themost favourite countries to study.Students choose them because theyare developing countries.

United States is the land of op-portunity, is famous for its demo-cratic society and unique culture.This is reflected in the Americaneducational system as well. InAmerican schools, teachers andstudents are at the same social level.Students are encouraged to ex-change their own opinions with theteacher. From an early age, studentsin the American educational systemhave been taught that they have theability to achieve whatever theywant to be. This is because inAmerica there are so many waysto achieve one’s dream. For ex-ample Bill Gates, who dropped outof college, started his own com-pany, now he is one of the richestmen in the world and our youth isvery inspired of him.

Studying abroad is good choicebut there are some advantages anddisadvantages. While studying at ahigher education system, one isforced to develop essential time,management skills and much moreat the high school level. With timeneeded for studying, attendingclasses, completing homework, re-laxation, and doing fun things as well.One needs to manage their time inorder to avoid failing out. These timemanagement skills help out individu-als later on in life. Another impor-tant life skill that individuals who at-tend higher education systems gainis money management skills. In somehigher education system, studentswork part-time jobs. But the major-ity is unable to find the time to do soon top of their schoolwork. The onlymoney they have for spending is ei-ther money their parents give to them,or money that they saved up before

Drought-stricken TharparkarFAIZA SOHAIL

An extreme level of ignorance and negligence by the responsible state organs was displayed in the caseof the disastrous drought in Tharparkar. In the age of science and technology, where man is explor-

ing water and life on other planets, humans still die of hunger and thirst. It is indeed a pitiable situation.Meanwhile, what is commendable is the role of the media. That brought the disastrous case to theattention of stakeholders. Even after the broadcast of stories about deaths and drought, the governmenthas not showed any momentum in taking serious action. Besides the government, other activists, NGOs,philanthropists, volunteers and individuals have not come forward, as the gravity of situation demanded,to rescue the victims of the disastrous drought in the deserted land of Thar. It is an unfortunate fact that,Tharparker issue highlighted by the media remains unsolved and unresolved due to a lack of follow upand consistent watch. The news appears only for a specific period, soon disappears and is forgotten bythe people as well. Government is not taking serious note on that, people are helpless, poor, feeble anddying. There is nothing left for them except false hopes which are keeping them alive. Governmentshould come forward as a stronger source of social service. Drought in Tharparker is a chronic issue thathas to be solved. Immediate remedial action may save us from further losses of precious lives.—Karachi

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THE articles, columns andletters are published on thesepages in good faith. However,the contents of these writingsmay not necessarily match theviews of the newspaper.

—Editor

View From Abroad

A crumbling legacy of tolerance

ONE of the most tragic aspectsof the present explosion of theso-called Islamic State in Syria

and northern Iraq is the ethno-religiouscleansing being perpetrated under thisself-proclaimed Sunni “caliphate.”This echoes the recent repression ofCoptic Christians in Egypt under theMuslim Brotherhood and the increas-ing vulnerability of Syria’s religiousminorities, including Christians, Druzeand the Alawite ruling elite. With manyreports of this violence come adjec-tives such as “barbarous” and “medi-eval,” along with the intimation thatthis sort of intolerance is particularlycharacteristic of Islam and antitheti-cal to the enlightened and rationalsecularism of the West.But brutal asthis sectarian violence may be, the factthat there are so many religious mi-norities in the Middle East stands tes-tament to the reality that, despite long-standing antagonisms, myriad ethnicgroups and religious denominationshave not only survived but eventhrived in this region through some1,500 years of Islamic domination.The richness of the culture, wheremany of the ancient sects and arcanelanguages — often surviving only insmall, highly localized communities— predate Christianity, Islam and evenmodern Judaism, has no parallel inEurope. The Yazidi religion, for ex-ample, goes back to Mesopotamia;Aramaic, the language of Jesus, con-tinues to be spoken in a clutch of vil-lages near Damascus.

This is not to say that the IslamicMiddle East has been a Shangri-La of

tolerance; its history has been punctu-ated by outbreaks of ethno-religiousviolence. But on the whole, these havebeen rare, and rarer still have they beenfatal to the communities concerned.Sunnis and Shiites have intermarriedand intermingled for a thousand years,and Alawites and Druze, consideredheretical by Sunnis, have prospered.Aside from occasional, localized boutsof oppression, Judaism flourished inthe Muslim Middle East until onlyvery recent times, and Christianity hasa diversity unequaled elsewhere.

In modern Western Europe, on theother hand, as the idea of nationalismtook shape and populist democracyemerged, the notion was establishedthat each nation had one language, onepeople and one religion. European rul-ers staked their legitimacy on theirclaim to universal moral authority andreligious orthodoxy. By extension, allthose who were not religiously ortho-dox were considered suspect, perse-cuted and, in some cases, eliminated.Muslim and Jewish communities weretargeted for elimination; hereticalChristian groups were eradicated; andthe Protestant-Catholic split led to aseries of bloody wars. The secularizedideologies that emerged in the last cen-tury, like Stalinism and fascism, wereno more forgiving.

In the Middle East and IslamicEastern Mediterranean, religious di-versity has long been established aspart of the region’s culture as a practi-cal necessity, if not as a virtue in it-self. The state here is traditionally con-ceived of as an aggregate of distinctethnic and religious communities, withone group dominant and the others for-mally subordinate. Historically, theminority dhimmi, or “protected” com-

munities, had rights enshrined by law,and their own parallel systems of jus-tice. The ethno-religious community,rather than the individual, was privi-leged and protected, and while per-sonal liberties may have been re-stricted, social stability was the reward.Equity, rather than equality, is the as-piration in such an arrangement, for itis equity that guarantees the survivalof vulnerable communities. Hence, theCoptic Christians of Egypt have notonly survived but maintained their co-hesiveness, their identity and eventheir influence in the administrationand financial sectors to this day.

This reflects an entirely differentmodel of political compromise thanthat which has developed in the West,and it may seem regressive to us. Butit is an arrangement that developedorganically and has functioned forabout 14 centuries. The breakdown ofreligious tolerance and plurality intoday’s Middle East is not, then, amanifestation of some particularly Is-lamic barbarism or evidence of a re-turn to the Middle Ages. Nor is it reli-gious in motivation, although it maybe in expression. It is a symptom ofwhat we call modernization, and itspolitical framework: nationalism.

European-style nationalism wasnot forced on the Middle East; theemerging native political classes as-pired to nationalism as a model fromthe late 19th century onward becauseof its association with modernity andprosperity. In fact, quite by accident,the imposition of the arbitrary stateboundaries after World War I put abrake on national movements by draw-ing borders that did not coincide withethnically homogenous “nations,”thereby ensuring that many of the new

Making time..!

LAST week I was asked tospeak at a college function,“How will you do it?”

asked my wife, “you don’t havethe time!” I thought about it for aday and decided that if it was forkids then I’d have to make thetime, I used my spare time and Igave the talk, but it also got methinking about time:

Author and lecturer JohnErskine declared that he learnedthe most valuable lesson of his lifewhen he was fourteen years old.His piano teacher asked him howmuch he practised. He replied thathe usually sat at the instrument foran hour or more at a time.

“Don’t do that,” said the pi-

ano teacher. “When you grow up youwill find that time does not come toyou in long stretches like that. Prac-tise in minutes wherever you canfind them- five or ten before school,a few minutes after lunch. Sandwichthem between chores. Spread thepractise throughout the day andmusic will become part of your life.”

Erskine stated later that by fol-lowing this advice he was able to livea fulfilled life as a creative writer,in addition to his regular duties asan instructor. He wrote nearly all ofHelen of Troy, his most famous workon streetcars while commuting be-tween his house and university. Howcan you make good use of your sparemoments? Use spare time to work,It’s the price of success. Spare timeto think, it is the source of power.Time to play, it is the secret of per-petual youth. Time to read, it is thefoundation of wisdom.

Spare time to be friendly, it isthe road to happiness. Time todream, it is hitching your wagon toa star. Spare time off to be loved, itis the privilege of the Gods Timeto look around, the day is too shortto be selfish.

Spare yourself time to laugh,it’s the music of the soul. These areseconds and moments that add upto minutes and hours that add up todays and weeks and total up to alifetime. Start handling those mo-ments and start putting them togood use, or one fine day you willfind that life crashed because timewas not put to use well.

Time is precious and no storycould tell it better than the tragictale below in the Washington Post:‘In the wheel room of the Titanic anattily uniformed officer hummedas he daydreamed. The phone rang.A minute passed! Another minute!

The officer continued humming!The third minute passed. The of-ficer, lazily, stepped to the phone.From the ‘crows nest’ came thecry, “Iceberg ahead! Reverse en-gines!” But too late. As he rushedto the controls, the pride of theseas crashed into the iceberg amida deafening roar. Three preciousminutes late and sixteen hundredpeople lost their lives’ In thosethree precious minutes the officerwas involved with things of noimportance and his spare time be-came a tragedy of magnitude.

Just as Erskine learnt to playthe piano well with his spare timeand wrote Helen of Troy duringhis spare bits and moments, soshould we all make a habit of us-ing our spare time; rememberingthat wasting the gift of time in-sults the Giver of time..!—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

states would remain diverse.Today, we seem to be witness-

ing a process of nationalistic realign-ment in the rest of the Middle East— a process we have hurried alongsince 2002 by undermining the arti-ficially created nations that were thelegacy of European colonialism. Ifthis is the case, we can probably ex-pect a lot more “medieval barbarity”— at least through the medium term.But what is the alternative? Shall weprop up authoritarian regimes that arethemselves oppressive? We say wewant the Muslim Arab countries to“step up,” but do we want a MiddleEast colonized by Wahhabist elites?

The lessons from our past arenot particularly heartening. It tookEurope 500 years (and counting) toestablish her national boundaries —half a millennium of warfare andgenocide on a massive scale. Evennow, the persistence of xenophobiaand racism, anti-Semitism andIslamophobia show that our societ-ies have not fully worked throughthe challenges of diversity. What-ever evil lies at the heart of the Is-lamic State is the same evil that lurksin the heart of all mankind.

Perhaps, all we can do now isencourage the development of in-stitutions based on inclusivenessbut which resonate with the cul-tures of these lands, rather than at-tempt to impose on them imperfectmodels rooted in our own particu-lar experience for which they willfeel no affinity or attraction. That,and brace ourselves for the worst.The writer is a religious studiesprofessor at the University of Colo-rado at Boulder.— Courtesy: The Washington Post

Kashmiris rebuff Modi

INDIA’S arrogant Kashmir policycontinues to nullify all efforts byPakistan to normalize its relations

with India. Abrupt calling off of for-eign secretary level talks by India hasbrought to a grinding halt the boldinitiatives taken by the Prime Minis-ter of Pakistan. Bare shake hand be-tween the two Prime Ministers dur-ing SAARC summit reconfirmed thatthere are no quick fixes to thetroubled relationship between the twocountries. Above all Narendra Modiembarked upon a mission to conquerKashmir for his party through elec-tions. Kashmiris came to vote inflocks to deny a walkover to the BJP.

Prime Minister Nadendra Modihad extensively campaigned for hisparty in Kashmir; he addressed atleast four rallies exclusively for thispurpose. However, party didn’t getthe desired results. Modi’s mission44+ failed miserably. Though BJP hasmade significant electoral gains inIHK, it fell short of a majority.Mehbooba Mufti, whose PDP partyhas bagged 28 seats in the 87-mem-ber Assembly, said the mandate wasa “challenge and opportunity” fornational leadership, be it NDA orCongress. “For NDA government, itis a big responsibility, for Modi, it isa big responsibility. Jammu andKashmir has been the biggest chal-lenge for any PM right from Nehrutill date,” Mehbooba said.

Referring to Modi’s “dream” ofdevelopment and addressing theproblem of unemployment, the PDPleader said there cannot be “devel-opment till there is peace on theground”. She has dropped hints thather party is not averse to joininghands with BJP. “PDP’s priority isnot to cobble up a majority for thesake of government formation.”Whatever formation is firmed up, itshould respect the mandate of the

people and have the principle of “rec-onciliation”, she said, adding “till thatis not taken along, forming any gov-ernment will be useless”. She added,“It is not possible till Vajpayeeji’spolitical process is taken forward.”She went on to say that said that forpeace in Jammu and Kashmir,Vajpayee had “started a political pro-cess. Vajpayeeji had started dialoguewith Hurriyat; he had started dialoguewith Pakistan”.

As regards credibility of electionsin IKH, Indian minster of state forforeign affairs and former IndianArmy Chief General VK Singh hadlong ago disclosed the dynamics ofpolitics in IHK. He stated that Indianarmy has been regularly doling pay-outs to IHK ministers for “stabiliz-ing.” He claimed that the army haspaid all ministers in IHK since inde-pendence, and that everyone in thesystem, including the defence minis-try, has been in the know. Army hasbeen giving money to ministers to“ensure that the people are kept to-gether”. “The army transfers moneyto all the ministers... there are vari-ous things to be done. As part of thestabilizing factor in held Kashmir, aspart of the activities to be organized,”VK Singh told a TV channel. Re-sponding to VK Singh’s confession,the veteran Hurriyet leader, Syed AliGilani had commented: “We are notsurprised, and we know that for thelegitimization of forced control ofKashmir, they are regularly beingpaid for their covert services.” He hadfurther said, “VK Singh’s statementsupports our claim that electiondrama in the past was manipulatedand stage-managed through the secretfund supplied by agencies.”

Mehbooba underlined that PDPhad got “majority” in Kashmir val-ley while BJP had got “majority” inJammu region and the mandate of thepeople needs to be respected. Whilereplying to questions, she cited me-dia reports to say that PDP has thesupport of over 55 MLAs. The PDPwill find it easier to form a coalition

government with the Congress be-cause allying with BJP will alienateits constituency in the Kashmir val-ley. BJP’s history also indicates thatit is unlikely to be part of a rulingcoalition with the PDP. Both the BJPand the PDP benefited from wide-spread public discontent over the rul-ing National Conference party’s han-dling of devastating September floodsthat killed over 200 people in Kash-mir. BJP drew blank both in Kash-mir and Ladakh regions and party’svictory in Jammu region was purelyon Modi wave factor and polariza-tion on religious lines.

BJP is celebrating the thumbingvictory as the party has clean sweptthe elections in Hindu majority areasof Jammu region and won most of theseats in Hindu dominated areas. BJPpresident Amit Shah hailed the resultsas a “year of unprecedented poll suc-cess for the BJP”. He said the partywas keeping its options open in Kash-mir. “The BJP has emerged as a rel-evant political force in the state. Wehave kept all our options open as ofnow,” he told reporters in New Delhi.“We can form the government, sup-port a government or take support.”

BJP was initially more aggressivein government formation, but is nowat back foot. The BJP has tried towrest power for the first time in IHK.The party led an ambitious campaignaiming for a majority in India’s onlyMuslim-majority state. The resultsshow that the BJP’s appeal has notgone beyond Hindu-dominated ar-eas,” said Noor Mohammed Baba, apolitical science professor at Kash-mir University. The state’s incumbentchief minister, Omar Abdullah saidthe voting shouldn’t be linked to thedispute over the region.”This is notan election about India and Pakistan.It is not an election about the issueof Kashmir,” Abdullah told report-ers that residents had simply votedfor whichever party they believedcould solve their day-to-day prob-lems—how naïve of Omar.

About 65 percent of nearly 5 mil-

Brain A Catlos

going to college. Either way, most stu-dents are on tight financial budgets thatrequire discipline to maintain. Studentslearn to only spend money on thingsthat they absolutely need, and to saveup their money rather than spending itall at once. These money managementskills help the students later in life.

By moving to other country andliving alone, students can gain moreexperience and broad-mindedness. Itis because they get the qualified edu-cation. Furthermore they can standalone. Living away from home canalso help them to adjust the transi-tion of college and adulthood. It prac-tices them to be independent. Theywill learn to be responsible and ableto take decision by themselves. Thesecond one is, they can practice En-glish, or they can learn another lan-guage. They’ll have the benefit offorced language speaking. For ex-ample, if they study in China, theywill be forced to speak Chinese (man-darin) every time and everywhere.Hopefully, when they come backfrom China, they can speak the lan-guage fluently.

Studying abroad can, however,be really expensive. Everything hastwo sides: advantages and disadvan-tages. Each of us should accept thatstudying abroad has some good aswell as bad side. However, it is some-times exciting but depressing, annoy-ing and uncomforting as well. In ad-dition, classes are much harderabroad than the classes they take intheir own countries. They should un-derstand the advantages of studyingabroad, and realize how hard it canbe before they make such a decision.Therefore, one must remain strongand keep an open mind.—Vvia email

We thepoor souls!

AJMAL SOHAIL

From the story appearing in the NewYork Post (28.12.2014), it appears thatthere was an understanding betweenPakistan and the NATO forces in Af-ghanistan whereby Pakistani Talibanwere allowed to carry out attacks inAfghanistan and the Afghan Taliban (aka NATO in disguise) were permit-ted to launch terrorist attacks insidePakistan. The first part of this pact wasinsignificant in so far as Afghanistanwas under complete control of NATOand they could do there whatever theyliked, but the second part was fraughtwith great significance.

This is because after 9/11, theUS, under the guise of NATO haddecided to attack Iraq and Afghani-stan directly, but a direct attack onthe nuclear-capable Pakistan wouldhave been too costly for US and itsallies in NATO. So a kind of guer-rilla war was designed for Pakistanfor which Afghanistan was to beused as the springboard.

It was thought that having anuclear bomb by an illiterate and re-ligiously fanatic country like Pakistanwas like giving a bomb to a child toplay with and therefore it was neces-sary to hound Pakistan all the time toforce it to behave. And the rest of thestory which includes 60 thousand ofour innocent civilians killed in the lastdecade is an open secret for all to note.But now that the main NATO forceshave left Afghanistan, the same strat-egy against Pakistan is likely to con-tinue indefinitely. So we should beprepared for endless killings like be-fore. We the poor souls!—Multan

Use of naturalresources

SYED ZAMAN ALI KAZMI

While referring to natural re-sources, people often say that Pa-kistan is a rich country in terms ofresources, which is usually misin-terpreted and taken as unlimited.The demands of the rapid popula-tion growth are overlooked; wekeep saying the population is 180million which was a figure given along time ago.

Pakistan is the sixth most popu-lated country in the world with analarming increase in its population,since the last census was conducted.Our citizens lack awareness aboutthe judicious use of natural resources

both at domestic and commerciallevels. And the institutions havefailed to monitor it or launch aware-ness campaigns.

Water has been and continues tobe an issue over which the nation hasfought wars with the neighbouringcountry. It is being misused withoutrealizing the fear of its scarcity inthe near future. On the other hand,natural sources like lakes, rivers andcanals are used as dumping groundsfor industrial and household waste.The few dams we have are experi-encing a drastic decrease in capac-ity as they are silting up. Naturalresources are a gift of nature but itseems we are totally unmindful ofthe value of this gift.—Rawalpindi

Electronic wasteSIDRA TALHA

Pakistan serves as a dumpingground for imported obsolete elec-trical and electronic goods. Welldeveloped countries, in order to getrid of undesirable computers andrelated outdated gadgets, consid-ered as scrap, send shipments con-taining million tons of second handequipment, every year to Pakistan,for recycling and disposal. As a re-sult the problem of electronic wastein Karachi is escalating.

Hundreds of workers earn theirlivelihood by extracting valuablesfrom computers and defunct acces-sories. After dismantling by mechani-cal means, e-waste is often burnedinto open atmosphere. The deadlycompounds present in electronicscrap release harmful pollutants thatcause neurological disorders, allergicmanifestations and various skin con-ditions to both animals and humans.Moreover, remnants of heaped toxicwaste contaminate our water bodies,land, soil and environment.

Thus, there is a dire need to en-force laws regulating the safe han-dling and disposal of e-waste gener-ated internally and traded overseas.—Karachi

2015: New hopes& new promises

LARAIB HAMEED

Another year has elapsed and thecountry continues to bleed. People ofthis country are looking forward to aray of hope in coming year. As theclock ticks 12 at midnight peoplewelcome the NEW YEAR with en-hanced aspirations. Some of us prom-ise to be obedient, commit devotionto career or family. Everybody beginsanew on the journey of life.

On the higher echelon, our poli-ticians have a bag of promises forthe people. They tell people abouttheir sincerity, faithfulness, pros-perity, security and well being. Ev-ery year oaths are made by each ofus out of which only 5% of us ac-tually believe in them. Now it isbecoming a habit of people to makeresolutions and break them nextday. 2015 will be no different thanyears 2010, 2011 and the recentlypassed 2014.

People will make new promisesbut they will not fulfil them becausenow a resolution is not a vow; it ismerely a custom and does not holdany importance. The democraticgovernment of PML-N like allother governments is planning tomake new promises. Police willcontinue to harass people, roadswill continue to be blocked forVVIPs and our streets, markets andhouseholds will continue to be ran-sacked by criminals, thieves, mo-bile and purse snatcher. So this ishow every year is moving on...—Rawalpindi

Iqbal KhanEmail:wonderous101@gmail.com

lion eligible voters cast ballots in theelections. Kashmir state electionshave been subject to boycotts in thepast, but this year saw the highestturnout in over two decades.Kashmiris voted in numbers to stopthe BJP from coming to power; andthey have succeeded. Kashmir’s up-per-caste Hindus, most of whomnow live in New Delhi and Jammuare still allowed to vote in Kashmir’selections. And many Muslims inIHK feared that if they continuedto refuse to vote, the Hindus, knownas Pandits, would provide a com-fortable margin of victory in sev-eral districts to the resurgent BJP,which has long had a difficult rela-tionship with Muslims. Peoplemight have thought that if they didnot vote, the BJP would benefit. Asa result, PDP dominated in the over-whelmingly Muslim Kashmir Val-ley, where the Hindu nationalistsfailed to win a single seat.

For narrow electoral gains,Modi has polarized IHK on com-munal lines; and by resorting to jin-goistic firing along the LoC and theworking boundary, Modi hasbrought Kashmir dispute under in-ternational limelight by invokingstatements from the UN SecretaryGeneral as well as from other im-portant capitals. Year 2014 endedand 2015 began with a sour note inthe context of Pakistan-India rela-tions. Two Pakistani paramilitarysoldiers were killed, on December31, 2014, due to indiscriminate fir-ing by Indian border guards. OnJanuary 02, Adviser to the PrimeMinister on National Security andForeign Affairs Mr Sartaj Aziz ad-dressed a letter to the Minister ofExternal Affairs, India, to lodge pro-test on the killing of two soldiers.For narrow domestic gains, Modihas chosen to let pass an opportu-nity for establishing robust peace-ful relations with Pakistan.— The writer is a ConsultantPolicy & Strategic Response atIPRI.

JOSHUA MURAVCHIK

THE Gaza war of July and August 2014occasioned the sharpest frictions inmemory between the United States and

Israel, highlighted by a cease-fire proposal of-fered by Secretary of State John Kerry thatIsrael’s security cabinet rejected unanimously.Kerry’s plan envisioned a seven-day cease-fire,during which the parties would negotiate “ar-rangements” to meet each of Hamas’s demandsabout the free flow of people and goods into Gazaand the payment of salaries of Hamas’s tens ofthousands of employees. As for Israel’s demandsabout destruction of tunnels and rockets and thedemilitarization of Gaza, these were not men-tioned at all, except in the add-on phrase that thetalks would also “address all security issues.”

The document cited the important role to beplayed by “the United Nations, the Arab League,the European Union, the United States, Turkey,[and] Qatar.” Conspicuous by their absence fromthis list were Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian Au-thority. These three had also not been invited to theParis meetings where Kerry worked on his ideaswith leaders of the countries and bodies mentioned.

Barak Ravid, diplomatic correspondent forthe liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote thatthe proposal “might as well have been pennedby Khaled Meshal [head of Hamas]. It was ev-erything Hamas could have hoped for.” The cen-trist Times of Israel’s characteristically circum-spect editor, David Horovitz, branded Kerry’sinitiative “a betrayal.” And left-leaning authorAri Shavit commented that “Kerry ruined ev-erything. [He] put wind in the sails of Hamas’political leader Khaled Meshal, allowed the

A Sad State of Affairs: The Kerry Record

US troops keep watch at the site of a suicide attack on the outskirts of Jalalabad. A suicide attacker targeted a US convoy on the outskirts of Jalalabad.

ROLAND FLAMINI

NEW Year has always been a bigger celebration than Christmas in Scotland, and the New Year Hogmanay festivitieswere a good time for the Scots to start the process of rec-

onciliation following their unsuccessful and divisive indepen-dence referendum. No less a personage than Queen Elizabeth IIhas warned them they face a challenging year. “After the referen-dum many felt great disappointment while others felt great relief,and bridging those difficulties will take time,” the 88-year-old mon-arch said in her annual Christmas broadcast.The promised increasein autonomy for Scotland will be the dainty dish Prime MinisterDavid Cameron can put before the Scottish voter.

But despite its defeat, the SNP has ironically picked up sup-port since the vote and now has more than 100,000 members(the highest it has ever been), with the consequent likelihood ofmore seats in the new British Parliament. Scottish Labor, whichtechnically won the referendum, has lost ground to the SNP inwhat is historically a Labor stronghold, and could end up withfewer seats than it now has.

But the Scots were already fully aware that what the Scots-man newspaper this week called “the most momentous year inScottish political history” could hardly be shrugged off and for-gotten. While a majority of the population voted not to end threecenturies of union and stayed in the United Kingdom, 45 percentvoted “yes” in favor of secession. As a result families were di-vided, as were communities and regions. For example: Edinburgh,the capital, voted overwhelmingly “no,” but in Glasgow, “yes”voter triumphed.

What had initially been a campaign noted for its civilityhad soured as it reached its climax, with a panicked Westminsterusing a combination of scare tactics and threats, and the “yes”campaign responding in kind. When J. K. Rowling, author ofthe Harry Potter books, wrote a reasoned argument on herwebsite in favor of the “Better Together” movement againstindependence, the public was shocked at the flood of viciousresponses.

So there is a lot to forgive, if not necessarily forget, bothinternally and in Scotland’s relations with Westminster. The post-referendum political fallout started with the immediate resigna-tion of Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmon, leader of the Scot-tish National Party (SNP) and chief architect of the indepen-dence campaign. Then, in December Johann Lamont, leader ofthe Labor Party in Scotland, the country’s second-largest party,quit in protest against the Labor Party in London having tried tomicromanage her campaign against Scottish independence.

To say the issue will loom over the spring 2015 Britishelections is putting it mildly. The promised increase in autonomyfor Scotland will be the dainty dish Prime Minister DavidCameron can put before the Scottish voter. But despite its de-feat, the SNP has ironically picked up support since the voteand now has more than 100,000 members (the highest it hasever been), with the consequent likelihood of more seats in thenew British Parliament. Scottish Labor, which technically wonthe referendum, has lost ground to the SNP in what is histori-cally a Labor stronghold, and could end up with fewer seatsthan it now has.

With Cameron’s Tories facing a serious challenge on the rightfrom the UK Independent Party, some political commentatorssee a Labor-SNP coalition government in London as a possibleelection outcome—making Hogmanay also a good time for theScots to relish the irony that their bid to leave the United King-dom may leave them with a stronger role in governing it.

—Courtesy: World Affairs

Scotland, Afterthe Referendum

Hamas extremists to overcome the Hamas mod-erates, and gave renewed life to the weakenedregional alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Many postcolonial and anti-Israeli senti-ments are predicated on a set of Edward Said’sarguments, which Muravchik carefully dissectsand exposes for their fraudulent scholarship.

Turkey and Qatar are the mainstays of thatalliance and were chosen by Kerry as his prin-cipal interlocutors because they are Hamas’smain backers. This brought protests from thePalestinian Authority, led by PresidentMahmoud Abbas’s movement, Fatah, the secu-larist rival to Hamas. That group declared that“whoever wants Qatar and Turkey to representthem can emigrate and go live there. Our onlylegitimate representative is the PLO.”

The shock of Palestinian and Israeli leaderswould have been less, however, if they had beenmore familiar with the record of John Kerry.Spurning America’s friends in pursuit of dealswith their nemeses was perfectly in character forthe secretary of state. The hallmark of his careerhas been to denigrate America itself, while sup-porting the claims of its enemies.

That career began in 1969, when, monthsafter returning from a tour of duty in Vietnam,Kerry sought and received a military dischargeso that he might run for Congress. His cam-paign as a peace candidate sputtered, but hisauthenticity as a Vietnam vet established himas a presence in the burgeoning antiwar move-ment. In May 1970, he traveled to Paris for anunpublicized meeting with Viet Cong represen-tatives, and, perhaps at their suggestion, hejoined up upon his return with Vietnam Veter-ans Against the War. VVAW was headed by Al

Hubbard, a former Black Panther. Kerry wasinstantly given a top role, twinning withHubbard as the public face of the organization.

At a VVAW protest in Washington, DC, inApril 1971, Kerry joined other veterans inthrowing away their military medals in frontof news cameras. The entire demonstration waspunctuated by Kerry’s appearance before theSenate Foreign Relations Committee, where heoffered dramatic testimony about Americanatrocities in Vietnam based on accounts heardat a VVAW inquest a few months earlier. Hespoke of veterans who said:

They had personally raped, cut off ears, cut offheads, taped wires from portable telephones to hu-man genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs,blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razedvillages?.?.?.?poisoned food stocks, and generallyravaged the countryside. These acts, Kerry empha-sized, “were not isolated incidents but crimes com-mitted on a day-to-day basis with the full aware-ness of officers at all levels of command.”

When, at the behest of aghast senators, theNaval Criminal Investigative Service conducteda formal inquiry into the stories presented at theVVAW inquest, it reported that many of theVVAW witnesses cited by Kerry refused to co-operate, although promised immunity. Otherswere clearly crackpots, and several swore, andprovided witness corroboration, that they had notparticipated at the inquest at all and had no ideawho had appeared in their names. The entireexercise had been inspired and largely engineeredby Mark Lane, whose book on the same subjectearlier that year had been panned by New YorkTimes columnist James Reston Jr. as “a hodge-podge of hearsay,” while that paper’s book re-

viewer, Neil Sheehan, who had reported fromVietnam and would soon break the PentagonPapers, revealed that some of Lane’s “witnesses”had not served in Vietnam. (The political scien-tist Guenter Lewy documents these events in his1978 book America in Vietnam.)

In August 1971, four months after his Sen-ate appearance, Kerry made another trip toParis, to meet with Madame Nguyen Thi Binh,foreign minister of the Viet Cong, this time infull view, for his first exercise in internationaldiplomacy. He returned touting the “peace plan”of the Viet Cong, explaining: “If the UnitedStates were to set a date for withdrawal, theprisoners of war would be returned.” Althoughhe frequently accused American leaders of ly-ing, he took the Communist leaders’ statementsat face value, asserting that their peace plan“negates very clearly the argument of the presi-dent [Nixon] that we have to maintain a pres-ence in Vietnam to use as a negotiating [chip]for the return of those prisoners.”

Kerry’s dismissal of the statements of USleaders as lies and his credulity toward thoseof the Vietnamese Communists reflected abroader difference in attitude toward the twosides to the conflict. Ho Chi Minh, who hadspent long years as a henchman of Stalin’s, serv-ing the Comintern in several countries, was inKerry’s admiring eyes “the George Washing-ton of Vietnam” who aimed only “to install thesame provisions into the government of Viet-nam” that appeared in the American Constitu-tion. America, in contrast, had itself strayed sofar from those principles that it needed a “revo-lution” to restore them.

—Courtesy: WA

HASAN ABU NIMAH

EXPLICIT in all American administration official statements is the fact that the US will do whatever it takes— military option included — to prevent Iran from de-

veloping nuclear capability for military purposes. In otherwords, the US has made it perfectly clear that it is committedto the strategy of prevention rather than containment. Andyet, President Barack Obama’s strategy in dealing with Iranis far from being reassuring. It is as if Iranians do not takeObama’s words and threats seriously. They know very well thatObama wants to leave his own legacy and that he seeks a dealwith Iran as the cornerstone of his legacy in the Middle East.

His hesitant and ineffective policy on Syria has convincedmany Iranians that Obama is also committed to his previousposition about not getting his country involved in another warin the Middle East. For this reason, both Russia and Iran,along with its proxies, felt that they could intervene in Syriaand get away with it. Not surprisingly, the Iranian leadershipis defiant. It uses the negotiations with the P5+1 as a tactic tobuy time.

But on the other hand, the American administration be-lieves that the sanctions imposed on Iran are having a hugeimpact on the country’s economy. The price tag on Iran’s de-fiance is so huge that the Iranian leaders will not be able tokeep up with their programme without running the risk ofcreating all conditions necessary for a domestic upheaval.Therefore, both sides are betting on time. To be sure, Iranmissed the opportunity to reach a deal in November 2014.Much has changed ever since. The Democrats have lost themajority in the Congress and Obama will not be able to con-vince the Congress to relax — let alone lift — the sanctionsimposed on Iran.

Observers believe that the Republican-dominated Con-gress will seek more sanctions on Iran in the months to come.For this reason, the Obama administration cannot accept anydeal with Iran that does not address the main concerns of theinternational community. Hence, it seems that Iran is goingto negotiate from a much weaker position. Iranians now un-derstand that any deal is better than the continuation of thestatus quo. Just a few days ago, Iran and the US agreed tenta-tively on a formula that may reduce Iran’s ability to developnuclear arms.

The understanding entails Iran shipping to Russia muchof the material necessary for developing such weapons. ButIran has always denied that it seeks nuclear weapons and thatit only negotiates with the great powers to assure them thatits programme is for peaceful purposes. Of course, were itnot for the crippling sanctions, Iran would not have startednegotiations in the first place. Comments made by variousUS diplomats show that there are still issues to be resolved.

The US insists that Iran reduces the number of its centri-fuges used to enrich uranium to a level that will deprive thecountry of the ability to build a nuclear bomb. Iran is stillmanoeuvring. It remains to be seen how Iran is going to do atthe next meeting with the P5+1, scheduled for January 15. Thepromised increase in autonomy for Scotland will be the daintydish Prime Minister David Cameron can put before the Scot-tish voter. But despite its defeat, the SNP has ironically pickedup support since the vote and now has more than 100,000 mem-bers (the highest it has ever been), with the consequent likeli-hood of more seats in the new British Parliament. Scottish La-bor, which technically won the referendum, has lost ground tothe SNP in what is historically a Labor stronghold, and couldend up with fewer seats than it now has.

The American administration’s desperate quest for a dealwith Iran has raised the eyebrows of many US allies in theMiddle East. Many suspect that Obama has turned his backon his allies for the sake of a deal with Iran. If this perceptionis to take root in this part of the world, the landscape of alli-ances in the Middle East will most likely take a different shape.

—Courtesy: JT[hassbarari@gmail.com]

The quest for a deal

KABUL—The United States onMonday stood by plans to halvethe number of its troops in Af-ghanistan this year and reducethem further in 2016 followingAfghan President Ashraf Ghani’ssuggestion that President BarackObama review his deadline.

But Ghani’s comment addsto a growing debate over whetherthe White House will stick to itsplans, already amended twice, ofcutting U.S. troops to about5,000 by the end of this year and

US stands by plan towithdraw from Afghanistan

drawing down to a “normal”U.S. embassy presence in Kabulat the end of 2016.

Ghani may have also givenpolitical cover to Obama shouldthe president decide he needs torenege on his withdrawal pledgeto preserve shaky gains madeover 13 years of war and to avoida collapse of local forces that Iraqwitnessed last year.

“My guess is that he prob-ably will re-evaluate these deci-sions in due course,” said James

Dobbins, who was Obama’s spe-cial representative for Afghani-stan and Pakistan until July.

Among the factors at playare the course of the war itself;reconciliation efforts betweenthe government and Taliban; USpublic opinion and the 2016 USpresidential debate. If Obamadecides to change course, hemay find a more receptive do-mestic audience.

American skepticism aboutthe Afghanistan war seems to

be moderating in the face of therise of Islamic State fighterswho have seized swathes ofIraqi and Syrian territory fol-lowing the US withdrawalfrom Iraq in 2011.

According to a WashingtonPost-ABC poll published onMonday, support for the war inAfghanistan has risen since2013. A 56 percent majoritysays it has not been worth fight-ing, but 38 percent said the warwas worth the costs, up 10 per-

centage points from the recordlow in July 2013.

Speaking in a television in-terview on Sunday, Ghani madehis case for a greater US pres-ence in an understated manner.

“Deadlines concentrate themind. But deadlines should notbe dogmas,” Ghani told the “60Minutes” program on CBS. “Ifboth parties, or, in this case, mul-tiple partners, have done theirbest to achieve the objectives andprogress is very real, then there

should be willingness to re-ex-amine a deadline.”

Asked about Ghani’s com-ments, Army Colonel SteveWarren, a Pentagon spokesman,said, “The drawdown plan re-mains in effect and there havebeen no changes to the draw-down timeline.”

When announcing the U.S.

withdrawal from Afghanistanon May 27, Obama gave no hintof flexibility, saying the UnitedStates would have approxi-mately 9,800 troops there at thestart of 2015, roughly half thatnumber at the end of the year,and would be down to “a nor-mal embassy presence” when2016 ended.

While stressing that the U.S.combat mission in Afghanistanwould end in 2014, Obama madetwo exceptions: targeting theremnants of al Qaeda and train-ing Afghan security forces. How-ever, he has already shifted hisMay 27 stance in two respectssince making the speech last year.

Late last year, Obama de-

cided to keep about 10,800military personnel in Af-ghanistan temporarily, 1,000more than originally planned,due to a shortfall in troopsfrom other nations.

He also quietly authorizeda third exception, allowingU.S. troops to act to save Af-ghan forces “in extremis”

from being overwhelmed bythe Taliban.

Ghani is expected to visitWashington in the comingmonths, giving him a chance tomake his case for a longer U.S.presence in private with Obamaand perhaps also to the U.S.public. He may find an ally inthe U.S. military.—Reuters

JERUSALEM—Secretary General of theOrganisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), IyadAmeen Madani, visited the City of Al-Quds onTuesday, the second day of his visit to the Stateof Palestine. Madani and his accompanying del-egation prayed in the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosqueand conducted a tour of the Al-Quds SacredMosque. There he listened to the officials aboutthe Israeli attacks and violations against theBlessed Al-Aqsa Mosque which have not sparedthe Mosque’s foundations.

On hand to receive the Secretary General atthe Al-Quds Mosque were the Governor of theCity of Al-Quds, Adnan Al-Husaini, the Mufti ofAl-Quds, His Eminence Sheikh MuhammadHussein, and Chairman of the Waqf Council, HisEminence Sheikh Abdul Azeem Salhab, as wellas other dignitaries and eminent sheikhs of theAl-Aqsa Mosque. The Mufti of Al-Quds SheikhMuhammad Hussein commended the SecretaryGeneral’s call for the facilitation of Muslims’access to Al-Quds for prayers and residence and

OIC SG visitsAl Aqsa, meets officials

as a tourist destination, having been declared asthe Capital of Tourism in the Muslim World for2015. He expressed the hope that the call, whichhe described as courageous and advanced, wouldbe heeded by all in the Muslim world.

For his part, Madani expressed his delight onthe visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and described thevisit as moment many Muslim have been denied.He added that presence in Al-Quds is one of therights of every Muslim regardless of the sanctionsand hurdles, so that they can see firsthand the con-ditions there. He affirmed the steadfast support ofthe OIC for the Blessed Al-Aqsa, for the inhabit-ants of Al-Quds and for their resilience in the faceof attempts by the occupation forces to Judaize thecity and purge it of its Arab population.

He praised the efforts of the Jordanian mon-arch, His Majesty King Abdullah II and of theHashemite Kingdom of Jordan in maintainingthe Mosque and its compound over many de-cades, and described them as well-appreciatedby every Muslim.—Emailed

Israeli militarydivided over

Gaza war probeJERUSALEM—A fierce debateis raging within Israel’s mili-tary over the extent to whichsoldiers should be held legallyaccountable for their actionsduring last year’s Gaza war,with commanders increasinglyat odds with military lawyers.

The dispute has set off afirestorm in Israel, wheremany say the legal threatwould shackle soldiers in anyfuture battle, lower their mo-rale and shatter a sacred truston which Israel’s compulsorymilitary service relies.

But with the Palestiniansannouncing their applicationlast week to the InternationalCriminal Court, the decision toinvestigate becomes all themore pressing: A robust Israeliinquiry into its military’s ac-tions could be essential inthwarting an embarrassing andpotentially incriminating out-side probe.

Israel launched the opera-tion in Gaza on July 8 in whatit said was a mission to haltrelentless rocket fire byHamas militants. During 50days of fighting, more than2,100 Palestinians werekilled, most of them civilians,according to the Hamas-runHealth Ministry and theUnited Nations. On the Israeliside, 66 soldiers and 6 civil-ians were killed.

Israel has defended the op-eration as an act of self-defenseand blamed Hamas for theheavy civilian death toll, say-ing the militant group used resi-dential areas for cover. But crit-ics have pointed to the heavyPalestinian civilian death tolland questioned whether Israel’sresponse was proportionate.

Israel has also come underfire from critics who say it failsto thoroughly investigate itsmilitary operations or pros-ecute soldiers for abuses.

Israel says it does investi-gate its actions, although thoseinquiries rarely lead to crimi-nal punishment. Following asimilar operation in Gaza inearly 2009, the army convicteda total of four soldiers on vari-ous charges, including looting,improper use of a weapon andlife-endangering conduct. Themost serious sentence was athree-and-a-half month prisonterm.—AP

JEDDAH—A wave of bitterlycold weather accompanied bywind, sub-zero temperaturesand snow is expected to hit theKingdom on Wednesday andlast until Sunday, the Presidencyof Meteorology and Environ-mental Protection (PME) said.

The extreme cold is fore-cast strike the north and north-west areas of the Kingdom asa result of storms coming fromEurope and America. The in-clement weather is expected tomove across the entire country.

Hussain Al-Qahtani,spokesperson of the PME, saidthis would be the coldestweather for the year. The north-ern areas would be struck first,including Tabuk, Turaif and Al-Jouf, where sub-zero tempera-

Cold wave to lash KSAwith snow, wind

tures and light snow is expected.The PME also expects wind thatwould limit visibility.

The temperatures wouldlikely drop in Madinah, Jeddahand Makkah, accompanied bystrong winds. The cold wavewould reach its peak on Thurs-day in Hail, Qassim, the East-ern Province and Riyadh.

On Friday, the storm wouldreach the Kingdom’s southernareas such as Najran, Jazan, Asirand Baha, said Al-Qahtani.

He urged fishermen, driv-ers using mountain roads andthe Kingdom’s residents andcitizens to take extra precautionsto prevent accidents. He advisedpeople to wear warm clothes,especially those suffering fromasthma and rheumatism. Al-

Qahtani said citizens and expa-triates must also keep a close eyeon weather forecasts on theInternet and look out for anySMS messages sent out by thevarious government agencies.

According to weather.com,the temperature in Madinahwas 20 degrees Celsius onMonday and would becomepartly cloudy and drop byThursday to 18 during the dayand 8 at night.

In Riyadh, the weatherwas 21 degrees Celsius andwould drop to 16 during theday and 4 at night by Thurs-day. In Jeddah, the tempera-ture was 25 degrees Celsius,and would hover at this levelthroughout the week, andaround 16 at night.—AN

The visit is taking placeat the invitations of His Maj-esty King Hamad bin Isa AlKhalifa, King of the King-dom of Bahrain, and HisRoyal Highness ShaikhKhalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, Prime Minister ofBahrain.

Pakistan and Bahrain en-joy excellent bilateral rela-tions in all fields. The twocountries also closely coop-erate at international forumslike the UN and OIC.Bahrain hosts over 100,000Pakistanis, who are contrib-uting to the development ofthe Kingdom and are a bridgebetween the peoples of twocountries.

The King of Bahrain paidhis first State visit to Paki-stan in March 2014 at the in-vitation of the Prime Minis-ter.

During the visit, severalAgreements/Memorandumsof Understanding on coop-eration in the fields of eco-nomic development, foodsecurity, investment, labour,and water and power, etc.were signed.

PM visitFrom Page 1 Parliament okays military courts

From Page 1cases would be tried in the mili-tary courts.

He said that the nation hasresolved to root-out terrorismfrom the country. Terrorism hasclaimed lives of thousands of in-nocent children. The Prime Min-ister said that the economy of thecountry is destroyed and the gov-ernment is making efforts to putit back on track. Nawaz Sharifsaid that they would not sit withpeace until the killing of the verylast terrorist in the country.

He admired the leaders of allpolitical parties and parliamen-tary leaders for standing by thegovernment to have these impor-tant Amendments approvedunanimously and giving theirvaluable suggestions regardingthe matter. He congratulated allthe members of the National As-sembly and the Senators forunanimously approving the billswhich are of extreme importanceto the country. He also said thatthe tenure of these Amendmentsis at least two years.

The Premier further said thatthe government was making allout efforts to get the partieswhich have issues with the billson the same page with the gov-ernment.

The premier said all partieswere a part of the decision-mak-ing process. He said these billswould play an important role inthe fight against terror.

Nawaz further expressedconfidence that the 20-point Na-tional Action Plan against terror-ism would help restore durablepeace in the country.

The prime minister said the21st Constitutional AmendmentBill 2015 and the Pakistan ArmyAct 1952 (Amendment) Bill2015 would go a long way in ef-fectively trying hardcore terror-ists.

“Everyone gave advice re-garding the amendments, and allparties unanimously agreed tothem,” the prime minister said,adding that he was hopeful of thebills being passed in the UpperHouse as well.

Further, the prime ministeraddressed the abstinence of votesin the NA, saying, “If they didn’tvote in the NA, they should atleast vote in the Senate. Theyhave been harmed by terroristsas well.”

Later, the session of NationalAssembly was adjourned until11am Wednesday.

The provisions of the Actshall remain in force for a periodof two years from the date of itscommencement. The constitu-tional amendment bill was re-quired to be passed by two-thirdsof the total participants in boththe 342-seat National Assemblyand the 104-seat Senate; how-ever, for amendment in the ArmyAct, a simple majority was re-quired.

The two bills — the Consti-tution (Twenty-first Amend-ment) Bill and the Pakistan Army(Amendment) — were expectedto have been passed a day earlierbut voting was deferred after thegovernment fell short of the re-quired two-thirds majority —228 members — for the passageof the amendments.

Delivering the openingspeech in the National Assem-bly, Leader of Opposition in theNational Assembly, SyedKhursheed Ahmed Shah, said thebitter pill of new law for estab-lishment of military courts is be-ing swallowed for the security ofPakistan.

Syed Khursheed AhmedShah said that, “We have notbeen in favour of military courtsin the past but the Pakistanipublic’s safety is our priority andit is the government’s responsi-bility to keep the masses safe inthis country.

“No matter who it is, no onecan speak against religion. Thecountry has been a victim of ter-rorism for a long time. It is a sinfor us to even pass laws herewhich go against the teachingsof Prophet Muhammad(PBUH).”

The opposition leader saidthat the Pakistani nation believesin unity and that terrorism mustbe dealt with an iron hand.

“The Parliament is going tovote to save Pakistan. The bitterpill of this new law is being swal-lowed for the security of Paki-stan. Murdering one person islike killing all humanity,” Shahsaid. “It doesn’t matter if the per-son is from grammar school,Aitchison or a governmentschool – there will be no differ-ences between any terrorist.”

He added that the proposed

law is against those who carriedout a suicide attack against lateQazi Hussain and against thosewho had recently carried outthree suicide attacks against JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

“We are confident that mili-tary courts will function strictlyaccording to their mandate,”Syed Khursheed Shah said. Hesaid need of the hour is to sup-port the government to curb ter-rorism.

Khursheed Shah further saidthe whole nation was unitedagainst terrorism and wanted toeliminate the menace of terror-ism from the country.

The opposition leader saidhe was proud of the democraticsystem which owes its existenceto PPP leadership ShaheedZulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Furthermore, two religiousparties and two smaller govern-ment allies seemingly rattled thegovernment in the National As-sembly on Monday, opposingsome religion-related passages ofone of the amendment bills de-spite assurances from InteriorMinister Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan that speedy trial militarycourts sought to be set up to tryterrorists would be no kangaroocourts.

Moreover, main oppositionPakistan People’s Party also con-veyed to the government its hesi-tation to vote for military courtson the 87th birth anniversary ofits founder and former primeminister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Meanwhile, around 150 par-liamentarians from various po-litical parties attended the break-fast meeting called by the primeminister on Tuesday. JUI-F chiefMaulana Fazlur Rehman andQaumi Watan Party chairmanAftab Ahmad Khan Sherpaowere among those absent fromthe meeting which was beingheld in the Speaker’s Lounge.

Premier Nawaz Sharif tookthe guest parliamentarians intoconfidence on bills empoweringmilitary courts and assured themthat the law would not be mis-used. He stressed that the mea-sures were the need of the hourand reservations held by JUI-Fwould be adequately addressed.

Separately, a governmentdelegation comprising KamranMurtaza, Barrister Zafarullah

and Pervaiz Rashid also met theJUI-F chief in order to convincehim to vote in favour of theamendment bills. Fazl’s objec-tion remains on the specificationof religious and sectarian groupsin the bills.

Meanwhile, sources saidlawmakers from MuttahidaQaumi Movement and PakistanPeople’s Party have said that ifspecifications in relation to reli-gious and sectarian groups en-gaged in terrorist activities wereremoved, the amendmentswould have no real meaning.

The preambles to both thebills were largely identical, cit-ing “extraordinary situation andcircumstances” that they saiddemanded “special measures forspeedy trial of certain offencesrelating to terrorism, waging ofwar or insurrection against Pa-kistan” and prevention of actsthreatening the country’s securityby “any terrorist or terroristgroup using the name of religionor a sect and members of sucharmed groups, wings and mili-tias”.

However, the Pakistan Army(Amendment) added two keynew sub-clauses in the existingact describing people or groupsthat could be punished under thenew law.

MirwaizFrom Back Page

KNS adds: Mirwaiz pointedout that ‘those who have ex-hausted in the struggle for free-dom should stay at home and bidfarewell to their respective posi-tions they have in the Huriyatcamp’. Mirwaiz while speakingat the seminar said the delay inthe resolution of Kashmir is notthe failure of the people or theleadership of Kashmir “but theonus lies with the United Nationswhich despite passing the reso-lutions has so far failed to imple-ment them on ground.”

Imran givesFrom Back Page

Khan said that they agreedto go against democracy for atleast two years for the sake ofthe country. He also said thatthey never became a hurdle inthe government’s struggle toend terrorism because it is a bigissue that concerns the futureof Pakistan.

However, strong democ-racy is also important for thecountry, he added. Khan saidthat the kind of judicial com-mission the governmentwanted to set up was weak andof no use in the matter regard-ing probing the rigging.

Khan said that the Speakerhid behind the stay orders of thecourt. He said that the counterfiles in the NA-122 neitherhave signatures nor stamps.

Form 14 is not there in atleast 100 polling stationswhereas Form 14 and 15 areneed of the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan.

Meeting to reviewFrom Page 1

the national action plan, and todiscuss how to form militarycourts to try jet black terrorists,officials said.

The meeting, which will bechaired by Interior MinisterChaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, isalso expected to discuss thenext stage of this issue as Presi-dent Mamnoon Hussain signsthe constitutional amendmentspassed by the Parliament.

Officials said that heads ofintelligence agencies and otherlaw enforcements agencies willbrief Ch Nisar. The NationalCounter Terrorism Authority,National Crisis ManagementCell and coordinators of pro-vincial home departments willupdate the meeting about theimplementation over nationalaction plan.

Time to crack downFrom Page 1

key” under his rule. In a new attack on the EU, Erdogan called on the 28-

member bloc to “revisit its Turkey policy”, accusing Eu-rope of dragging its feet on Ankara´s decade-old member-ship bid.

“Believe me it is regrettable that the EU is trying teacha lesson to Turkey instead of trying to tackle very seriousthreats it is facing,” he said.

Erdogan said racist, discriminatory activities andIslamophobia were on the rise in Europe, complaining thatracist organisations won sympathy in some Western societ-ies with “each passing day”.

“The Islamophobia — which we constantly draw atten-tion to and warn of — represents a serious threat in Eu-rope.”

“If the issue is not dealt with seriously today, and ifpopulism takes European politicians captive, the EU andEuropean values will come into question,” he said.

His comments came a day after controversial Germangroup PEGIDA rallied thousands of people for a new rallyin Dresden for a demonstration against what it calls the“Islamisation of the Occident.”

Erdogan told the ambassadors Turkey needed to see it-self as a great country.

“Turkey is not a country which anyone can accuse bywagging their finger in big arrogance.

Those who have such habits should abandon them,” headded. “Those who shake their finger and reprimand Tur-key must see that they are dealing with a new Turkey,big Turkey, with its economy, democracy and foreignpolicy.”

Erdogan in August moved to the presidency after overa decade as prime minister in a period during which heworked to earn Turkey respect as a global Islamic power.—Agencies

week”.France, one of the

Council’s five permanentmembers, backed the resolu-tion despite some reservations.France’s parliament alsobacked Palestinian indepen-dence in a symbolic vote onDec. 2 that underlinedEurope’s impatience with astalled Middle East peace pro-cess.

But Paris signaled concernthat Abbas’ diplomatic offen-sive — he has also signed upto 20 international conventionsincluding the Rome Statute ofthe International CriminalCourt — could harm chancesfor peace by antagonizing Is-rael.

“We are against the logicof letting this spiral (out ofcontrol),” Foreign MinisterLaurent Fabius told report-ers.

“While we think the Pal-estinians have the right tomove the status quo, at thesame time there has to be aneffort to find a consensus so-lution.

Once you set this cycleoff, you get results that youdon’t want one way or an-other.”—Reuters

France warnsPalestinians

From Page 1

RabbaniFrom Page 1

“I have been in the Senatefor more than 12 years, buthave never been as ashamed asI am today and I cast my voteagainst my conscious,” said thePPP leader. The senator said thevote that he had cast in supportof the amendment was on thePPP’s behalf.

Rabbani had recently saidthat parliament has had thehonour of not validating illegalacts of military dictators in thepast, but was now “taking itslast breath”.

He has been of the viewthat after the passage of the 21stAmendment bill, the constitu-tion would no more remain“pure”.

FoundationFrom Back Page

be constructed in the mosquewhere 1500 students would beenrolled. This would be thirdlargest mosque in the worldafter Haram Sharif and Masjid-e-Nabvi.—Online trend to continue smoothly.

The much expected cut inthe Policy Rate of the StateBank of Pakistan due thismonth will certainly have apositive impact on invest-ment provided the MonetaryPolicy meets to the widespread expectations in thebackdrop a major drop in oilprices.

Pak Electron was how-ever the volume leader witha trade over 24.65 millionshares while K Electric con-tinued to attract investorswhere 19.37 million shareswere trade. JahanagirSiPddiqi Company whichcurrently in due diligence ofKASB Bank remain thirdvolume leader with 16.57million shares traded in thisstock.

KSE-100From Page 1

M-4 to reducetravel time,

contribute totrade corridorISLAMABAD—Faisalabad-Multan Motorway (M-4)would not only reduce traveldistance between Faisalabadand Multan but would con-tribute to national and re-gional trade corridor and pro-vide better access to the farm-ers.

An official of NationalHighway Authority (NHA)informed APP said that M-4consists of four sections withthe first one Gogra-Faisalabad section, secondGogra-Shorkot section,thirdShorkot-Khanewal sectionand fourth Khanewal-Multansection.

The completion all sec-tions of the M-4 would notonly minimize the distance of150 kilometres betweenIslamabad and Multan butwould also save operationalcost of the vehicles as well astime and fuel.

To a question,he said thatADB had approved financing

of $170 million for the sec-tion-1 in 2008-09 but the con-struction work started in 2011owing to land acquisition is-sues.

He said work of 58

kilometre Faisalabad-Gojrasection of Faisalabad-MultanMotorway (M-4) has almostbeen completed and its inau-guration would be donesoon.—APP

Continued on Page 7

Sartaj onissues withIndiaISLAMABAD—Adviser onForeign Affairs Sartaj Azizsays all issues betweenPakistan and India can beresolved through dialogue.Talking to a private TVchannel, he said it wasIndia which suspendedforeign secretary-leveltalks without any reason.Sartaj Aziz said it wasexpected that afterelections in occupiedKashmir, there would beimprovement in Pakistan-India ties, but it did nothappen; rather, Indiaincreased workingboundary violations,which is regrettable. Hesaid India should havewelcomed the operation ofPakistan Army in NorthWaziristan againstterrorists.—Online

Prayuthurges actionon humantraffickingBANGKOK—Thai Prime Minister PrayuthChan-ocha said on Tuesdayhis government would stepup measures against humantrafficking as the countryscrambles to improve itsrecord in fighting the illegaltrade before a U.S. deadlineto show improvement.Thailand is ranked one ofthe world’s worst centers ofhuman trafficking. It wasdowngraded to the lowest“Tier 3” status last June onthe U.S. State Department’sannual Trafficking inPersons Report for not fullycomplying with minimumstandards for its elimination.Prayuth, who as army chiefseized power from anelected government in acoup in May, said Thailandwould work on areasflagged by the UnitedStates before submitting itsrecord for 2014 to the U.S.State Department by aMarch deadline.—Reuters

AltafcondemnsIndianfiringLONDON—Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment chief Altaf Hussainon Tuesday condemnedthe unprovoked firing byIndian Border Forces inShakargarh and Zafarwalsectors in which fourPakistanis were martyred.According to a statementissued here, MQM chiefAltaf Hussain expressedsorrow over the martyr-dom of four civilians as aresult of unprovokedfiring by Indian Forces.He said the whole nationstand behind thecountry’s armed forces inthe ongoing battle againstthe terrorists.

ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain administering the oath of office to Mushahidullah Khan as FederalMinister at a ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

BRUSSELS—Leaving combat operationsin Afghanistan behind, NATO is shift-ing its focus to Europe in 2015 and thecreation of its new ultra-rapid-reactionforce, designed as a deterrent to Russia.

The priority for the 28-member alli-ance will be to get the new agile expedi-tionary force into operation, but also set-tling the question of who will pay for it,analysts say.

The multinational force, often calledthe “spearhead,” was ordered into exist-ence by President Obama and otherNATO leaders in September so it couldbe deployed to reinforce alliance mem-bers feeling threatened by the actions orambitions of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.NATO Secretary-General JensStoltenberg has called the new force andother components of the reboot of alli-ance capabilities “the biggest reinforce-ment of our collective defense since theend of the Cold War.”

Stoltenberg, now in his third monthas the alliance’s top-ranking civilian of-ficial, said it is his “top priority to imple-

‘Reaction force in Europe’NATO’s 2015 priority

ment this plan in full and on time.”With NATO officially out of combat op-erations in Afghanistan as of Jan. 1, thealliance’s agenda is expected to be domi-nated by the new strategic realities in Eu-rope conjured up by Moscow’s annex-ation of Crimea and alleged proxy war ineastern Ukraine, and what the Westshould do in response.

“NATO’s biggest challenge in 2015will be focusing on and advancing itscore mission — ensuring the security ofthe alliance’s members and promotingstability in Europe,” said Michael Brown,dean of the Elliot School of InternationalAffairs at George Washington Univer-sity.

“This will be a challenge because thealliance’s leaders have taken collectivedefense for granted for many years, be-cause Russia has developed an array ofunconventional tactics that will requirenew and unconventional responses, andbecause NATO will continue to be in-volved in training activities in Afghani-stan,” Brown said.—AP

HAMEED SHAHEEN

ISLAMABAD—Mirwaiz UmarFarooq, chairman of APHC(All Parties Huyrriet Confer-ence), has suggested a freshformula to settle down the67-year old bloodied dis-pute over Jammu and Kash-mir, urging a ‘united’ lead-ership for both parts of thedivided State. For this pur-pose he proposes a joint andnew solution strategywhich will deliver optimismto all segments of Kashmirisociety. Kashmiris on bothsides of the menaced divid-ing line have started lend-ing serious consideration,an observer told PakistanObserver here Tuesday.

Mirwaiz wants United State of J&KMirwaiz Farooq who is

highly respectable Kashmirileader and influential clericurged the pro-freedom po-litical/religious parties/groups to get closer to ini-tiative dialogue amongthem. “Let us give what heis quoted to have said a be-fitting reply to the right wingparties’ invasion.

Mirwaiz’s own party isthe Awami Action Partywhich his martyred fatherMaulana Farooq Ahmedhad formed with roots inpolitico-religious masses ofKashmir.

He was addressing aseminar connected with theUN Kashmir resolution ofJanuary 5, 1948 which gives

Kashmiris right to determinetheir future by themselves.Kashmiris take it as a politi-cal magna carta in theirstruggle.

He was categorical thatrecent polls in Kashmir havenothing to impact the UNresolutions in Kashmir; 75percent of polling was re-corded in 1987 and just af-ter two years, people inlakhs across Kashmir wereon streets - demanding theirbirth right. The most impor-tant thing the Mirwaizpointed out in his addresswas that ‘finding the waysfor Kashmir resolution is theresponsibility of Kashmir’sleadership and the uncer-tainty needs to end at the

earliest’.

DESDEN—A record 18,000people turned out for an anti-immigrant rally by a right-wing populist movement ineastern German city ofDesden, prompting thou-sands to join counter-demon-strations in several cities.

The movement that be-gan with just a few hundredin October against percieved“Islamisation of Europe”drew huge crowds on Mon-day despite calls by Chancel-lor Angela Merkel to snubsuch street protests.

Alarmed at the rising xe-nophobia, an estimated

Germans protest againstanti-Islam rallies

30,000 people rallied againstthe “Patriotic EuropeansAgainst the Islamisation ofthe Occident”, or PEGIDAgroup across several cities.

Several thousand anti-PEGIDA protestors turnedout in Cologne, some carry-ing placards stating “for-eigner hatred is inhuman” or“shame for our country”while one held by supportersof the group read “think ofyour children”. Cologne’slandmark Gothic cathedraldimmed its outdoor lights ina stand against the anti-Islamgroup.—Agencies

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nTehreek-e-Insaf chairmanImran Khan on Tuesday saidthat he would break newsabout his marriage within aweek. He expressed theseviews addressing a press con-ference in Bani Gala.

He said that media shouldnot make a fuss out of this asit is the sunnat of the Prophet(PBUH) and there is nothingwrong with it. He said that hewanted to take his children inconfidence before taking suchan important step. PTI chair-man said that he was planning to meet hischildren in London for a while but due toseveral incidents including the sadPeshawar attack he was tied down to hisresponsibilities so he could not go.

Khan’s marriage news with a Britishtelevision anchorperson Reham Khan hasbeen making rounds in media for quitesome time now.

Imran Khan also gave the governmenta deadline of January 18 for the establish-ment of the judicial commission to probethe matter of the rigging in the General

Elections 2013. He said that at least 30,000bogus votes were cast in the constituency

NA-122, whereas, in the constituency ofPTI secretary general Jahangir Tareen, asmany as 49,000 bogus votes were cast inthe elections.

PTI chairman said that they have theproofs of printing of fake ballot papers.

He also said that unity among en-tire nation is required in this difficultsi tuation and that their stance on theestabl ishment of mil i tary courts wasthat Army Act 1952 must be broughtAmendment in.

Imran gives Jan 18 deadline toset up judicial commission

—to break news about marriage within week

Continued on Page 7

Foundation ofGrand JamiaMasjid laid

KARACHI—The groundbreaking of Grand JamiaMasjid Bahria Town washeld here on Tuesday. Thefoundation stone wasplaced by a 73-year old la-borer.

Speaking on the occa-sion, General Manager Con-struction Bahria TownRiazur Rehman said that themosque would be built on 2lac square feet atop a 60 feethill.

The mosque will have acapacity of 200,000 Namiziswhile a university will also

Continued on Page 7

THE use of a class of drugs called statinswhich treat high levels of cholesterol hasbeen associated with increased muscle

pain. The finding comes from a study publishedin the Journal of American College of Cardi-ology carried out by researchers at the Centerfor Healthy Aging at theUniversity of Copenhagen.

Statins are the most ef-fective drugs for loweringbad cholesterol (LDL cho-lesterol). They achieve thisby inhibiting the amount ofcholesterol produced by theliver. In the Netherlandsaround 40 percent of thepopulation over the age of65 take statins, with close to600,000 taking the medica-tion.

One of the main side ef-fects of statin treatment isthe increased risk of devel-oping muscle pain. An esti-mated 75 percent of peopleon the medication reportsymptoms of muscle painwhich can lead to problems with compliance(adherence). According to Professor FlemmingDela from the Centre for Healthy Aging at theUniversity of Copenhagen:

“A well-known side effect of statin therapyis muscle pain. Up to 75 per cent of the physi-cally active patients undergoing treatment forhigh cholesterol experience pain. This maykeep people away from either taking theirmedicine or from taking exercise - both ofwhich are bad choices. We have now shownthat statin treatment affects the energy produc-tion in muscles. We are working on the assump-tion that this can be the direct cause of muscleweakness and pain in the patients.”

The researchers found that patients onstatin therapy had low levels of the key pro-tein Q10 which along with energy depletioncould be the main reason for the develop-ment of muscle pain. A previous study car-ried out by researchers from the University

of California, San DiegoSchool of Medicine found thatthe severity of muscle problemsassociated with use of statins isrelated to the strength or po-tency of the drug.

Nearly half of all patientsin Denmark on statin treatmentare only prescribed this drug.This means that they are solelybeing treated for high choles-terol and do not have any otherconditions that could affecttheir heart: ProfessorFlemming Dela adds: “The ef-fect of statins is marginal forthese patients in a previous pub-lished Cochrane analysis only0.5% reduction in all-causemortality was detected, indicat-ing that for every 200 patients

taking statins daily for five years, one deathwould be prevented. This patient group isobviously interesting in light of the side ef-fects of statin therapy.”

“The new study is the basis for a largeplanned research project, where we will fo-cus broadly on patients undergoing statintreatment. We will look at statin consump-tion from a medical point of view, and willalso investigate the media’s influence on pa-tients’ acceptance or rejection of statins as atreatment option. Many contradictory viewsfind their way into the public forum, and itcan be difficult for patients to distinguish be-tween fact and fiction.”

Statin treatment associatedwith muscle pain

ISLAMABAD—The Capital Develop-ment Authority (CDA) has decided toupgrade the Sanitation Directorate inline with modern techniques.

The purpose of up-gradation ofSanitation Directorate is to bring fur-ther improvement in sanitation systemof the Federal Capital. It was decidedin the meeting held here at CDA Head-

CDA to upgrade sanitation operation with modern techniquesquarters.

It was decided that the dumpingsite for disposal of garbage will beshifted from its existing site i.e. Sec-tor I-12 as Capital Development Au-thority is starting the development ac-tivities in this sector.

The new site for dumping of gar-bage will be demarcated in Zone-II or

V, where natural compost dumping sitewould be established for proper dis-posal of garbage in line with latest andmodern scientific techniques.

The new dumping site would be es-tablished in minimum space where gar-bage would be dumped. To avoid theenvironmental pollution and otherhealth hazard issues, the dumping site

would not be open rather it would beproper landfill site to meet the require-ments of this era.

The meeting also decided to com-plete the necessary repair/maintenanceand painting work on existing skipswithin 20 days and its cleanliness ondaily basis would also be ensured. Toensure the attendance of sanitation

workers, biometric system is being in-troduced.

Under the biometric system, atten-dance of the supervisory staff and sani-tation workers would be checked twicea day to overcome the absence of work-ers.

Two mechanical sweepers wouldalso be added in the existing sanitation

machinery to bring further improve-ment in the sanitation system.

The Authority has already accordapproval for purchase of two (02) Hy-draulic Refuse Packers (Garbage Com-pactors), two (02) Skips (Large Gar-bage Containers) Lifting Vehicles andfour (04) Tractors towed MechanicalSweepers.—APP

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—A division bench of Islamabad HighCourt (IHC) Tuesday issued notices to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of theMumbai attacks of 2008, seeking his reply afterFederal Investigation Agency (FIA) challenged thegrant of post-arrest bail to him by an Anti-Terror-ism Court (ATC).

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice AmirFarooq are hearing the FIA appeal against ATC or-der.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was granted bail byATC on December 18, 2014 against Rs1 millionsurety bonds. Later, the federal government issuedLakhvi’s detention orders under section ‘3’ of themaintenance of public order (MPO) that were alsosuspended by an IHC bench on December 29, 2014.

Govt appeal againstLakhvi’s bail cancellation

IHC directs alleged terror mastermind to submit replyOn January 3, 2015, Federal Investigation Agencyhad filed an appeal before the IHC seeking to can-cellation of the post-arrest bail.

FIA special public prosecutor Chaudhry Azharcontended before the court that the accused Lakhviwas an influential person and if his bail order wasnot revoked he would likely influence the trial pro-ceedings of the Mumbai attacks case pending be-fore the ATC. IHC bench inquired the FIA pros-ecutor why the prosecution failed to conclude thetrial even after six years of the case.

FIA prosecutor replied it was due to the nu-merous applications that the accused had been fil-ing before the ATC. Prosecution despite all oddscompleted trial of the 50 witnesses in this case,however it filed four applications before the ATCseeking speedy trial, the prosecutor Azhar told thecourt.

FIA in its recent petition for bail cancellationhas adopted before the IHC that prosecution in ter-rorism related cases was not an easy task. Bothprosecution and witnesses were receiving threatsand the witnesses in particular felt reluctant to tes-tify against the accused due to security apprehen-sions.

FIA in its petition maintained that the ATCjudge overlooked the evidence submitted in thecourt by FIA. FIA had submitted forensic evidenceand DNA reports.

The accused Lakhvi is an operation commanderof the banned militant outfit and a mastermind ofthe Mumbai terror attacks. The prosecutor said theATC judge had not mentioned solid reasons forgranting bail to Lakhvi. FIA prayed to the IHC tocancel the bail of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. Thematter is fixed for hearing next week.

Five peoplekidnapped

RAWALPINDI—Five peoplehave been kidnapped from dif-ferent area of city. AkbarShireen filed a complaint withWaris Khan Police that his sonEthesham Akbar didn’t reachhome last night and his mobilephone is also powered off.

He told the police hethinks his son has been kid-napped. Kogal Rahim filingreport in Chunitara police sta-tion told that his wife Badr urNisha and her daughter NaizZojah Habib ur Rehman hasbeen kidnapped by Rahmiullah, Farid ullah, Usman Andkhan G. A case in police sta-tion Sadiqabad was filed that14 year old girl kidnappedfrom the area.

Syed Qamar Ali Shah toldpolice his daughter Mahnoorhas been kidnapped by un-known person from home. Acase was reported in Bara koahPolice station that PervezAkhtar’s 15 year daughter waskidnapped from area of NewColony. —Online

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—A judge ofIslamabad High Court (IHC)on Tuesday asked the Inter-national Islamic UniversityIslamabad (IIUI) Presidentnot to be harsh on studentsand “if they tender apology,forgive them.”

According to details ,IIUI management on chargesof riding bicycles inside theuniversity premises had con-fiscated degree of a studentfor a year and banned theother two from appearing inexams.

The students FurqanShabbir, Waqas Akbar and

Court asks IIU to be kind to‘motorcyclist’ students

Asif after failing to get theuniversity’s action waivedsought Islamabad HighCourt’s intervention. In theirpetition they held that theuniversity’s action was toostrict and it could deprivethem of their bright futureprospects. Through Syed

Amir Khawar Bukhari andQazi Rafiuddin Babar, thepetitioners had requested thecourt to direct the IIU towithdraw its punishment.

Justice Amir Farooq ofthe IHC while hearing thepetition remarked that teach-ers were like parents and if

children commit some mis-take, they should be con-vinced rather than punished.Instead of treating them withlove and kindness adoptingharsh attitude could put theirfuture at stake, remarked thejudge. He directed the uni-versity administration to re-

voke the said action and par-don the students if they ten-dered any apology.

After Rehan Golra, coun-sel for the IIU assured thecourt the university’s com-pliance in letter and spirit,the court adjourned the hear-ing until January 14.

ISLAMABAD—The residents of thefederal capital has demanded theautorities concerned to controlinreasing trend of garbage burning inthe city which is causing environmen-tal pollution.

The residents has complained thatgarbage and solid waste were burntruthlessly and thick black smoke pol-luted the environment.

The city is getting cover withheavily polluted smoke in the morningand evening which is causing serioushealth hazards to people.

The residents, especially asthmaand allergy patients, in the capital, at-tribute their problem to the presence ofheavy smoke and dust in the industrialand gabage burning areasarea.

Shokat Ali, an asthma patient al-leged that the Capital Development Au-

Burning of garbage causingenvironmental pollution in the capital

thority did not ensure cleanliness in thecapital.

Commenting on the situation,ECO Green Society president MalikSafwan said pollution of any form wasposing serious health threats and it wasa duty of the civic body to provide pol-lution free environment to people.

He said burning of garbage was acriminal act and the ICT managementmust take an action against elementswho burnt garbage and solid waste in-stead of dumping.

On contact, a senior official ofCapital Development Authority toldAPP that there was no precedent ofburning garbage by sweeping staff,however, if there was any complaint,the responsible staff would be broughtto book.

Subhan Ali, an I-9 resident said,

throat, nasal and lung problems arevery common in the area, adding thatthe government should not built apart-ments in localities adjacent to the in-dustrial area particularly.

National Institute of Health (NIH)Allergy Centre’s laboratory expert saidthat the air quality in a city can bejudged by measuring the levels of par-ticulate matters in the air.

Polyclinic Exective Director, Doc-tor Zahid said that air pollution is in-jurious to health and smoking emittedby trucks could cause respiratory in-fections, exacerbations of bronchialasthma, and high blood pressure also.

Further, he added the smoke con-tained carcinogens that could causecancer. He said the garbage burningsmoke could cause respiratory prob-lems.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Capital Development Authority’s(CDA) anti-encroachment campaign is continuingindiscriminately with full zeal. On the directions ofChairman CDA, Maroof Afzal, Enforcement Di-rectorate of the Authority carried out an operationin Dhok Chora sector F-12 and demolished five il-legally constructed shops, four rooms, four illegallyconstructed boundary walls and retrieved 2.5 kanalsof CDA land from illegal occupants.

During the operation, some miscreants re-sisted the operation but the staff of EnforcementDirectorate continued the operation and demol-ished all illegal constructions on CDA land. Dur-ing another operation along the Kashmir High-

Anti-encroachment operationunderway in Capital

way, Enforcement Directorate along with the staffof roads Directorate closed illegally constructedapproach roads connecting sector G-12 withKashmir High and blocked one kilometer longroad by erecting solid iron hurdles and barriers.

Moreover, one illegally constructed bound-ary wall on one kanal of CDA land in MuslimColony, one boundary wall in Noori Bagh, oneillegally constructed room adjacent to a govern-ment accommodation in sector G-6/1, one roomin Katchi Abadi near (Aam Saraey) sector G-7/3, one boundary wall constructed illegally on foot-path and one illegally constructed boundary wallnear Jhangi Syedaan Buss Stop.—Online

RAWALPINDI—A Mehfil-e-Milad of ladies washeld on Tuesday in connection with Eid Milad-u-Nabi celebrations under the auspices ofRawalpindi Arts Council.The ‘Mehfil-e-Milad’began with the recitation from the Holy Quranfollowed by ‘Hamd’. ‘Durood-o-Salams’ wereoffered to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) aftereach ‘Naat’.

The prominent among participants includedMrs Shakeel Awan and Naheed Manzoor. Those

RAC arrangesMehfil-e-Milad for ladies

Pakistan’s High Commissioner-designate to Bangladesh Shuja Alam called on PresidentMamnoon Hussain at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Tuesday.

Workers fixing wires on the outer wall of Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2 for security of APS Peshawar carnage.

who recited Naats included Dr Ayesha, ZuhraHyderi, Dr Afshan, Maryam Saba, MishalTayyab, Frhana Ali, Aleena Tariq, FarkhandaShamim, Aqsa Sultan, Rubina, Sonia Zaib,Sehrish Malik, Fouzia Kausar, Babra Batool andHamna Babar.

The ‘Mehfil-e-Milad’ ended with an over-whelming and heart-rending ‘Dua’ by NaheedManzoor for the prosperity of the country andfor the unity of the Muslim Ummah.—INP

06:25 01:3003:45

07:00

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

January 7Inauguration ceremony

INAUGURATION cer-emony of Children’s GlobalNetwork Pakistan ‘ParwaanE9 ECED Centre of Excel-lence’ will take place at theAcademy of EducationalPlanning and Managementon January 7, 2015 at 11:00am. Minister of State forFederal Education and Pro-fessional Trainings Mr.Baligh-ur-Rehman will per-form the ribbon cutting cer-emony.

ISLAMABAD—The 3rd Vice Chancellors’Forum on ‘Universities in the Islamic World:Facing Global Challenges’ will be held onFebruary 23 - 24, 2015 in Islamabad. The3rdVice Chancellors’ Forum (VC Forum) isjointly being organized by the COMSATSInstitute of Information Technology, Paki-stan; Ministry of Science and Technology,Government of Pakistan; Ministry of Fed-eral Education and Professional Trainings,Government of Pakistan; Higher EducationCommission, Pakistan; Islamic Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization, Mo-rocco; and the Federation of Universitiesof the Islamic World, Morocco.

The VC Forum is the congregation ofthe Vice Chancellors/ Rectors/ Presidentsof the universities /higher education insti-tutions of the Islamic world. It is expectedthat over 300 Vice Chancellors/ Rectors/Presidents of the universities /higher edu-

3rd Vice Chancellors’ Forumto be held on Feb 23-24

cation institutions of the Islamic world willattend the VC Forum.

The VC Forum is aimed to provide aplatform to the university leaders in the Is-lamic world in forging linkages for initiat-ing joint academic programs; promotingresearch; pooling resources; offering schol-arships; promoting exchange of students;establishing centers of excellence; and soforth. The participating universities are ex-pected to sign memoranda of understand-ing (MoUs) among them. Bi/multilateralmeetings would be convened on areas ofmutual interest to the universities. The sign-ing of the MoUs will open new avenues ofmutual cooperation, networking and under-standing among the universities. An exhi-bition is also planned in the VC Forum. Itwill provide excellent platform to the uni-versities to showcase themselves and theirresearch.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The students, hailingfrom far flung areas of the country,studying in different institutions ofthe twin cities of Rawalpindi andIslamabad are facing accommodationproblems.

Talking to APP here on Tuesday,a number of students complainedagainst the educational intuitions inthe twin cities for not having the hos-tel facility to meet the growing de-

Students face accommodationproblems in twin cities

mand of new students. Zafar Khan, a student of National

University of Modern Languages(NUML) said that the public sectorsuniversity should build more hostelsfor the students coming from othercities of the country. He said in se-mester system, “We are always shortof time, and it is not easy to stay in aprivate hostel, away from the univer-sity”.

Muhammad Hanif, a student fromInternational Islamic University

Islamabad (IIUI) said, “The educationalinstitutes should give admission onlyto those students to whom they can pro-vide hostel accommodation”.

He said that the students have tomake their own arrangement of pri-vate hostels for availing the accom-modation facility in the twin cities.

The private hostels are not onlylacking proper cleanliness but provid-ing sub-standard food and chargingextra amount on account of utility andelectricity bills.

It is not possible for a student toafford such a huge amount of expenseonly for availing the hostel facility,he added.

The students have urged the gov-ernment to address their problems byproviding sufficient accommodationfacilities to them, as most of the uni-versities and colleges in the twin cit-ies either have insufficient hostel fa-cilities or having no such arrange-ments at all.

Zahoor Ahmad, a student of Arid

Agriculture University urged the au-thorities concerned to establish moregovernment hostels, with basic facili-ties for students at affordable rates.He said, “The students need a con-ducive environment to study, whichis not possible in private hostels”.

Nazish Khan, a student ofCOMSATS University, stressed theneed that the educational institutionsshould be bound by the authoritiesconcerned to provide boarding, lodg-ing and other facilities to their students.

RAWALPINDI—The PresidentRawalpindi Chamber of Commerce andindustry (RCCI) Syed Asad Mashadi,lauding services of police officialswho arrested wanted criminals, saidpolice should be rewarded for its tre-mendous achievements.

RCCI, he said, will continue to sup-port police who is making efforts toeradicate crime from the society. Hewas addressing a ceremony arrangedby RCCI to recognise services of thepolicemen who arrested wanted crimi-nals of extortion and theft held hereon Monday.

RCCI President termed people’strust on police force a vital element forinstitution’s better performance while

Services of police officials who arrestedwanted criminals lauded: RCCI

saying that the whole departmentshould never be blamed for the wrong-doings of some black sheeps.

He presented a Rs 50,000 cheaqueand conferred recognition certificatesto the members of police party andurged them to carry their spirit. He as-sured the participants that RCCI wouldbe carrying this tradition of acknowl-edging the good deeds of the protec-tors of general public.

On this occasion, the recognitioncertificates were conferred upon SPRawal Karamat Ullah Malik, WarisKhan’s ASP Behram Khan, DSP CityBabar Mumtaz, Waris Khan SHO Al-lah Yar Malik, SI Mazhar of PS banni,ASI Mazhar Qadri of IT, ASI Mehbub

ul Rehman, ASI Khalid Yar, Head Con-stable Ejaz Ahmed, Head ConstableShakil Chiragh, Constable ImtiazAhmed, and Constable Khalid. Whileaddressing on the occasion, RPOAkhtar Umar Hayat Lalika lauded RCCIfor the good gesture and said thatpolice department was always criti-cized for misconducts but its successstories were never recognized in sucha way.

He termed RCCI’s step a uniqueidea to boost the morale of not onlyofficers but lower ranks as well. Onthis occasion, CPO Humayun BashirTarar also showed its commitment tocurb the criminal elements and ensuredtraders his full support.—APPPeanuts most affordable dry fruit

in high demand in twin citiesISLAMABAD—As the winter season is in fullswing, the most affordable dry fruit for poor‘peanuts’ sale has significantly increased intwin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Peanuts are not only delicious in tastebut also considered to be healthy and warmand its reasonable prices made it in acces-sible for people as it’s rates varies from Rs120 to Rs 200 per kilogram in market.

Peanuts have strong association withthe winter season. Most of the peoplewhether rich or poor like to eat peanuts toenjoy the season, a wholesaler Jamil Khanat Abpara Market, said.

He said that peanuts are not only tasty,but also nutritious and provide necessaryenergy to the body and particularly itsaffordablity, adding that high prices of otherdry fruits, helped multiply the demand forthis commodity manifold.

Moeen Abbasi a shopkeeper said that

RAWALPINDI—The City Traffic Police (CTP)arrested 3505 beggars from the main cityroads in 2014 while 38 cases were regis-tered against the beggars during the pe-riod.

Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Rawalpindi,Senior Superintendent Police (SSP), ShoaibKhurram Janbaz said that city traffic policewas trying to eliminate the begging fromcity roads and during its efforts, as manyas 3505 beggars were arrested and handedover to district police in 12 months of 2014.

He said, 298 beggars were netted inJanuary 2014 while 286 beggars were sentbehind the bars during February.

As many as 302 in March, 243 in Apriland 422 beggars in May were rounded up.

Similarly, 401 beggars were nabbed inJune, 213 in July, 307 in August, 283 in Sep-tember, 253 in October, while the CTP ar-

rested 244 beggars in November and 253 inDecember, 2014.

He informed that a total of 41 beggarchildren netted from city roads were laterhanded over to Child Protection Bureau.

He further said that two special squadscomprising an Assistant Sub-Inspector(ASI), six constables and a lady constablewere working to nab the beggars.

Directives had also been issued to thesquads to register cases against the beg-gars and the report in this regard should besent to him, he said.

The CTO said concerted efforts shouldbe made by the police and administrationto eliminate the menace.

In the past, departments concernedwere reluctant to take any action againstbeggars particularly professional ones.—APP

CTP arrest 3505 beggarsduring operations in 2014

CPO transfersfour SHOs

RAWALPINDI—City PoliceOfficer (CPO) Rawalpindioffice on Tuesday notifiedthe transfer and posting offour Station House Officers(SHOs) to improve policeefficiency and control crimein the city.

According to details, Al-lah Yar, SHO Waris Khanpolice station has beentransferred to Saddar Baronipolice station.

Raja Abdul Rasheed whowas serving at Police Lines,has been appointed as SHOWaris Khan.

Malik Arshad Mehmoodwho was SHO Civil Lines,has been posted as SHOSadiqabad police station.

Similarly, Abdul Sattarwho was SHO Sadiqabadhas been transferred to CivilLines.

The CPO ordered thenewly posted officers to re-sume their duties and sub-mit report in CPO office.—APP

RAZA UR REHMAN

RAWALPINDI—Pakistan’s Centre ofExcellence for Nuclear Security(PCENS), in collaboration with Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), Tuesday organized an inter-national course on Security of Radio-active Sources at its academy.

Thirteen participants from eightcountries alongwith a number of Paki-stani experts participated in the fiveday course that aimed at enhancing

International course on Securityof Radioactive Sources

understanding and sharing of bestinternational practices regarding ra-dioactive sources.

PCENS is the state of the art trainingfacility, established by Pakistan to imparttraining on nuclear security issues.

At the 2012 Nuclear Security Sum-mit (NSS) held at Seoul, South Korea,the Prime Minister of Pakistan had of-fered PCENS for conduct of regionaland international courses, said anISPR press release issued here.

Pakistan’s experience of last 40

years in a highly efficient managementof its nuclear security apparatus, inline with its national and internationalobligations, makes it one of the lead-ing countries with technical andinfrastructural support for conduct ofsuch courses.

The IAEA, whose Director GeneralYukia Amano also visited PCENS ear-lier this year, has appreciated Pakistan’scontribution in enhancing awarenesson nuclear security issues at national,regional and international levels.

Participants of an international course on Security of Radioactive Sources organized by Pakistan’s Centre of Excel-lence for Nuclear Security.

they earn more money in winter season frompeanut sales.

From morning till night people come hereand they buy mostly peanuts, he added.

With the advent of winter season, manyvendors on pushcarts are seen selling theseasonal delight of crispy peanuts at everycorner of the cities.

Sajid Khan, a student of class tenth whowas buying peanuts at Sittara market said,“When my friends and I do combine study,we include a half an hour break for peanutsin our timetable to keep our mind relax after asession of serious and intense study.”

A dry fruit seller at Aabpara market said,throughout winter season, peanuts are inhigh demand and he earns daily Rs 1000 toRs 1,200 profits only from it as other dryfruits are out of range from common man.He said it is a good source of munching athomes sitting with family or friends.—APP

Police operationin Munwar

Colony,adjoining areas

RAWALPINDI—The Policeon special directive of CityPolice Officer (CPO)Rawalpindi Humayun BashirTarar on Tuesday launchedspecial search operation inMunwar Colony and its ad-joining areas in the limits ofSaddar Baroni police stationto purge the localities fromsuspected elements.

Heavy police contin-gents, police commandos,special branch personnel,Elite Force, Muhafiz Squadand Ladies police conductedsearch operation in the area.

According toRawalpindi Police Spokes-man, a total of 42 houseswere checked while 151people were interrogated.He informed that specialsearch operations to net thecriminals would also belaunched in other areas ofthe district.—APP

Chairman PTI Imran Khan speaks during a press conference at his residence on Tuesday.

Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Mohammad Yousaf addressing during a receptionin honour of Dr Husevin Kavapinar President High Board of Religious Affairs Turkey.

NAYEEMA AHMAD MAHJOOR

THE well managed, lengthy election processfollowed by surprising mandate has broughtMuslims of the State at crossroads. Has it,

in fact initiated the process of trifurcation ofJammu and Kashmir? This thought is hammeringin everybody’s mind. If we look back, the seedsof division had been sown decades earlier whenUS based some Kashmiri think tanks proposedthe modified version of “Dixon plan” as a finalsolution to Kashmir dispute. In the early ninety’swhen State was under the grip of armed move-ment and India was looking for support to curb itforcefully, some US and British diplomats in con-sultation with regional politicians/Think tankswere suggesting that the movement should be re-stricted to “Valley” only. The message was to getJammu and ladakh out of the borders of the State.

The process gained momentum when Hindupolitical parties overtook the better part of thepolitical space in India. Some Hindutva leadersbecame emboldened, and are even trying to de-clare India “Hindu Rashtra” after Modi waveswept the country from North to South. Themindset of even those who were considered theface of Indian secularism changed in the blink ofan eye. Muslims and other minorities have be-come restless since then, yet more divided than

Does recent polls bifurcate Jammu from Kashmir?before. Because of poor and paralytic governanceof the Congress, the BJP started to engulf the re-gional parties, ultimately reaching Jammu andKashmir, thus shrinking space, policies and in-fluence of local mainstream parties whose des-tiny now seems only linked to BJP. The situationhas become precarious. if Kashmiri political par-ties prefer to stay out of BJP, they run the risk oflosing the political space that they have gained sofar, but if they do become part of it, they run therisk of self-annihilation.

If the mandate was a shock to the mainstreampolitics, it also managed to cause ripples amongthe separatists. The reasons being (a) that the “callfor boycott” had a minimal response which In-dian media took every chance to project it a re-jection of “Azadi”: (b) because the movementseems to have run out of steam due to Pakistan’sinternal problem and distrust created by differentagencies against the credibility of separatist lead-ership.

There can be many arguments, excuses ortheories in support of fractured mandate, or onecan plead for being “ignorant voters” or one candare to say vote was cast only for basic facilities,or vote was given to local politicians to look afterthe particular constituencies but these hardly carryweight to convince the “democratic world” wherevote is being considered the most powerful tool

for demanding constitutional and political rights.Also, then taking big processions, listening toleader’s promises or standing in long queues’ out-side the polling booths could hardly hoodwinkoutside world for being “driven as cattle” by In-dian politicians. It was a completely different bal-lot from the one held in ninety six when the In-dian forces has to forcibly drove the people out.

Muslims of the State of Jammu and Kashmirhave to question themselves as to what it is thatthey voted for. If it was for development, then theValley should have co-opted with Jammu to ac-cept Modi’s mantra of “Vikas for all”. If it was tokeep BJP at bay, then the Muslims should havetaken a leaf out of their Hindu brother’s book andvoted for local political party.

If people wanted to punish NC/Congress coa-lition for its bad governance, their rival partyshould have got comfortable seats for govt for-mation on the basis of its good performance dur-ing its previous government. Had people sup-ported the separatists ideology, Sopore, the home-town of Afzal Guru should not have voted forCongress which has been responsible for hisshoddy execution. Does it mean that Muslims ofthe region have voted carelessly or they wantedto punish all those in political hemisphere. What-ever their reasons for fractured mandate, the se-lection has created further gap between different

divisions, pushing them towards the well thoughtout programme of disintegration.

Any party can succeed in govt formation, whatit cannot stop the dangerous trend of divisive poli-tics. The question remains for the Muslims ofChenab particularly, are they happy to stay withJammu because most of the seats there have goneto BJP. Political analysts believe this as an indi-cation that they too have looked towards Jammurather than Kashmir. Many Muslims feel in thenot so distant future, “Ghar Wapsi” may becomea reality in Chenab also.

The game of polarization will not stop here,it has much more deeper and hidden dimensions.Kashmir Valley, has been further targeted on reli-gious and Ethnic lines, Pundits/Sikhs, Sunni/ Shia,Gujjar/Pahari etc....Among all these, Muslims areto be grounded, punished and confined to pock-ets of Valley to remain the most disturbed areaswhere movement of every single soul will bemonitored vigorously.

For all this misery or misfortune or misad-venture, can all others are to be blamed exceptourselves, because the habit of passing the buckhas entered our DNA Or there is still some wis-dom left to accept the reality and the confusionwithin the society/leadership/people before look-ing for what future has put in store for us.

Kashmir, being the only Muslim majority

state of the region, has been the sole and unitedagenda of Indian politics , first to eliminate itsMuslim character and second to reduce State to“Kashmir valley” only. Congress cannot escapethe responsibility of diluting Art.370/ installingpuppet governments or reducing State to beggingbowl.

The clandestine policies of settling nonstate subjects , keeping non Kashmiri admin-istrators at the helm of affairs or humiliatingstudents outside Kashmir, have been in prac-tice much earlier than people started to noticeabout them. This has hardly irked Kashmiripoliticians. What only irks them is when theyfind somebody from other camp stepping intotheir territory. The irony of Kashmir is thatthe Muslim leaders have built their separateempire. Because of the callous, secluded andegoistic attitude of leadership, people havealso started to behave like them, keeping per-sonal interests the only consideration ratherthan the collective destiny of the state. Timeis not too far when Kashmir will be dividedinto small “Rajwardas” the blame for whichwill be put on “outside forces” instead of look-ing within. Emailed.

[The writer was Editor of News/Current Affairsin BBC Urdu, London. nayeema7@gmail.com]

SRINAGAR— President Pranab Mukherjee hasappointed Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir asthe Chief Justice of the Jammu and KashmirHigh Court. According to a statement by the De-partment of Justice, the Ministry of Law andJustice, the appointment is effective as of Janu-ary 5. “In exercise of the powers conferred bySection 100 of the Constitution of Jammu andKashmir, the President is pleased to appoint Jus-tice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, the senior mostJudge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to

Justice Yaqoob Mir appointedas JK Chief Justice

perform the duties of the Office of the ChiefJustice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court,” thestatement read.

“[This appointment is effective] from Janu-ary 5, 2015, consequent upon the retirement ofJustice Mahesh Mittal Kumar, Chief Justice ofthe Jammu and Kashmir High Court,” it added.

Earlier this week, Justice Mir had been ap-pointed as the acting Chief Justice of the HighCourt after Justice Kumar confirmed he wouldretire on January 5.—KD

SRINAGAR—The US has expressed concernover rising India-Pakistan tensions and the ex-change of fire along the working boundary,which claimed four Pakistani civilian lives,media reported Tuesday. Washington encouragesIslamabad and New Delhi to engage in a dia-logue. “We certainly remain concerned andwatch over tensions along the border. We en-courage dialogue between the (two) countries,”State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

When her attention was drawn to the reportsof four Pakistanis deaths in Indian fire in Sialkotsectors, the spokesperson said she did not have

US wants Pak-Indiatalks to settle dispute

any confirmation but added the US would obvi-ously sympathise with families on loss of anylives. “Our hearts will go out to the families”for any lives lost.

In response to another question, the spokes-person noted that Washington has been support-ing dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi.There have been some steps in the past and posi-tive exchanges over the years but “obviouslymore work needs to be done.”On US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, she said thetwo sides work on a range of issues includingcounter-terrorism and security issues.—KD

Where is accessiondocument? APHC

asks DelhiSRINAGAR—At Huriyat (M)seminar, the veiled attacks, allega-tions and counter allegations re-mained dominant on Tuesday withsome leaders of the amalgam ac-cusing others getting exhausted inthe struggle and some accusingothers of making emotional re-marks sans rationality. Accordingto the KNS correspondent, Profes-sor Abdul Gani Bhat- the Huriyatexecutive member who grabbedheadlines after terming.—KW

SRINAGAR—Azam Inqilabi, patron JK Mahaz-e-Azadi,while castigating and lambasting UNO over its failure infacilitating the implementation of UN resolutions on Kash-mir, has said in his statement: “Jan 5, 2015 reminds us ofthe moment when UNCIP passed a resolution which em-phasized a referendum and plebiscite in Kashmir to deter-mine the political future of Kashmir. Alas!, UNO failed infacilitating the implementation of UNCIP resolutions onKashmir viz. Aug. 13, 1948 and Jan 5, 1949 resolution – thetwo important resolutions which guaranteed Kashmiris rightto self-determination.

Thus the dereliction and failure of UNO cannot be con-doned. In fact, the indifference and ineptitude of this worldbody constrained the revolutionaries of Kashmir resistancemovement to think in terms of resurrection and revolt inKashmir against the military occupation of imperialist In-dia. Maqbool Butt, the resistance icon of Kashmir, orga-nized the brave and intrepid revolutionaries of Kashmir fora sustained armed resistance against the stranglehold of In-dia.

Maqbool Butt was arrested by Indian police and lodgedin Tihar jail Delhi where he remained languishing for longeight years. He was gibbeted on Feb. 11, 1984 by the ruth-less Indian authorities. And he was buried in the cell com-pound of the same jail. Kashmiri youth felt infuriated andexasperated; the resilient uncompromising young revolution-aries eventually and inevitably got fulminated to the extentthat they literally started armed resistance under the com-mand of chivalrous Gen. Ashfaq Majeed Wani, who died asa martyr on March 30, 1990.

The undaunted Kashmiri youth followed in the footstepsof Maqbool Butt and Ashfaq Majeed Wani. Thousands ofKashmiris got martyred by Indian armed personnel. The In-dian army too lost its thirty thousand soldiers in the up-heaval and uprising especially in early nineties.

The domineering and hubristic attitude of Indian impe-rialists does not allow then to recognize the ground realityof Kashmir. The Indian dictatorial rulers with overbearingdemeanour blatantly reneged on their commitment andpledge to hold referendum and plebiscite in Kashmir. In-dian rulers used all the repressive and coercive modes ofdispensation to corner the Kashmiri resistance movement.

Indian hawks could not corner the resistance movement.Kashmiri iconic leaders like Moulvi Farooq, Abdul GaniLone, Jaleel Andrabi, Dr. Qazi Nisar, S. Hameed, SheikhAbdul Aziz, Dr. Gh. Qadir Wani and Moulana Showkat toofell a prey to the vandalism and barbarism of Indian sol-diers who have been indemnified against accountability bythe draconian laws like AFSPA and DAA.

These fascist laws guarantee their impunity and immu-

Address Kashmir issue to avertnukes holocaust: Inqilabi

nity. Six-lakh Kashmiris were slaughtered by the Indianarmed personnel during the past 67 years. Afzal Guru, theKashmiri freedom zealot was hanged on Feb. 9, 2013 byIndian imperialists. Innumerable incidents of carnage, may-hem, rampage and scourge can be cited to show how cal-lous, arrogant depredatory and predatory the Indian canni-bals are in Kashmir when they deal with the resistance move-ment here. The incidents of human rights abuse are, in fact,ineffable. It was on Jan. 6, 1993 that Indian armed person-nel while running amok and going berserk killed 80 civil-ians at Sopore and four hundred houses and shops were setablaze.

It was on Jan. 21, 1990 that the Indian armed cannibals,in a fit of fury and frenzy, killed 50 civilians at Gawkadal.It was on Jan. 25, 1990 that the armed fanatics of India killed26 civilians at Handwara. And on Jan.27 1994 these vam-pires killed 27 civilians at Kupwara. Pakistan and India, thetwo nuclear powers of South Asia, are pitted against eachother on LOC in Kashmir.

The border skirmishes can anytime trigger off a full-fledged and all out war between the two belligerentneighbours of South Asia. Pakistan, as a committed propo-nent of Kashmiris’ movement for right to self-determina-tion can go to any extent to frustrate the imperialist andexpansionistic nefarious designs of India in South Asia es-pecially in Kashmir.

So Kashmiris feel emboldened when Pakistan asserts onKashmir front. Kashmiri Mujahedeen too are poised to takeon Indian imperialists with added resolve and innovativemodes of guerrilla operation. So the situation in Kashmir isreally fluid and volatile. Unpredictability has become a per-manent feature of the uncertainty here.

Why should USA, UNO, OIC and other world bodies’act as mute spectators in such a situation of vulnerability ofSouth Asia? Please address Kashmir issue to avert nuclearholocaust. It is incumbent on Pakistan, as the prestigiousnuclear power, to take China, Muslim countries and otherworld powers into confidence to apprise the world commu-nity of the imperialist arrogance of Indian rules. Their in-transigence and obduracy on Kashmir front has created avery dangerous situation here.

Opprobrium of opportunism which symbolizes the hypo-critic political skullduggery of the pro-India Kashmiri lead-ers is the source of civil unrest in Kashmir.

These opportunists are interested more in their personalaggrandizement and ease and comfort than the altruistic andpopulistic cause to mitigate the sufferings of the impover-ished people. Two million people of Kashmir suffered dueto the devastating flood fury of Sept. 2014. The opportun-ists are busy in appeasing their Delhi mentors.—KW

Geelani termsKashmir politicalscene alarming

S R I N A G A R — C h a i r m a nhurriyat Syed Ali Geelani to-day chaired an Executive Bodymeeting (Majlish Shoora) ofAll Parties Hurriyat Confer-ence at Hyderpora head office,the meeting was attended bythe heads or representatives ofall its constituents.

The meeting has detaileddiscussion over the latest po-litical developments of thestate and members of the ex-ecutive body also put forwardtheir view point regarding thefuture strategies.

In his presidential ad-dress, while terming thepresent situation as alarming,Geelani sahib cautioned thatthe communal forces of Indiaare planning a major and de-structive offensive against thefreedom struggle and theMuslim identity of theKashmiri nation and for thispurpose the national enemiesfrom the tribe of Mir Jaffarand Mir Sadiq are in queue toco-operate with them in theirmission.

While instructing for hav-ing a close watch over the situ-ations, Geelani sahib said thatif the state is handed over to thepeople having fascist ideolo-gies, then a “do or die” like situ-ation will be created for ournation and our everything ourlives, our property, our faithand our culture will be in dan-ger and with the help of armedforces, the Kashmir would bemade a testing lab for theprojects like “Home Coming”and “save daughter and bringdaughter-in-law”.—KW

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK leaders presenting the memorandum to UN observer after a rally to mark Right to Self-Determination Day.

An elderly man is roving a Shikara while crossing Dal lake in Srinagar on Tuesday morning.

JAMMU—Amid government formation in J&K,senior BJP leader and Union Minister ArunJaitley Monday said it was “very difficult” forpolitical parties to give up their ideological po-sition but hinted that controversial issues couldbe set aside.

He underlined that a government in the sen-sitive state should be based on three issues: sov-ereignty, good governance for developmentalactivities and regional balance—and hoped that“parties involved” would put their “heads to-gether” for the larger interest of the state.

As the stalemate over government formationcontinued for the 13th day in a state where Assem-bly polls threw up a hung verdict, the Finance Min-ister said the task is a “much larger battle” betweendemocratic parties and the Indian state versus sepa-ratists supported from across the border.

He said the BJP-led government at the Centrewould not be happy to impose Governor’s Rule inthe state as “I think if there is one state which needsa popular government, it is Jammu and Kashmir.”

Task in J&K ‘muchlarger battle’: Jaitly

Jaitley did not disclose details about the talksbeing held between BJP and PDP, saying he wasnot aware. Asked whether BJP would be able togive up its stand on Article 370 and revoking ofcontroversial Armed Forces Special Powers Actas demanded by the PDP, he said, “It is verydifficult for political parties to give up their ideo-logical positions. Can I expect PDP or NC togive up their ideological positions? Similarly, ifthey ask BJP to give up its ideological position,the answer is no.”

At the same time, he told NDTV, “Once anygovernment is formed keeping in mind these threeaspects (sovereignty, good governance and re-gional balance), then we can work out what is tobe said and what is not to be said without dis-owning the ideology”, an indication that the con-troversial issues could be put on the back burner.“I hope that the parties involved in the processwill put their heads together and in the largerinterest that Kashmir needs a government, wework in that direction,” he added.—GK

BRUSSELS—The Chairman of Kashmir Coun-cil European Union (KCEU), Ali Raza Syed,has urged the UN to resolve the Kashmir dis-pute by implementing its relevant resolutions onthe issue. Ali Raza Syed in a statement issued inBrussels said that durable peace and stability inthe region were linked to the settlement of thedispute as per the aspirations of the Kashmiripeople and the relevant UN resolutions.

He said that the UN charter had accepted theright to self-determination of the nations and thoughthe right had been provided to East Timor and SouthSudan but Kashmir was being ignored. “Kashmirisshould be allowed in a free environment to decidetheir political destiny. They should be provided anopportunity to choose their political fate,” he said,adding that the Kashmiris were determined to con-

UN urged to implement itsKashmir resolutions

tinue their struggle till complete success.The KCEU Chairman urged the international

community particularly the US and the EuropeanUnion to play an effective role for settling the lin-gering dispute, once and for all. Expressing con-cern over the worsening human rights situation inoccupied Kashmir and continued ceasefire violationsby Indian troops on the Working Boundary and theLine of Control, he asked the world community totake serious notice of the matters.

Ali Raza Syed also paid glowing tributes tothe martyrs of Sopore who were killed on 6thJanuary 1993. “We can not forget massacred of55 innocent people by Indian forces in Sopore.These martyrs sacrificed their precious lives forthe Kashmir cause and we will always remem-ber them,” he stated.—KMS

Shabbir Shah,others arrested

in IOKSRINAGAR—In occupied Kash-mir, the Hurriyet ConferenceJammu Kashmir leader andChairman of Democratic Free-dom Party, Shabbir Ahmad Shahwas arrested today at Mirgundwhile he was on his way toSopore. Shabbir Shah was heldalong with JKLF-R General Sec-retary Wajahat Qureshi, JavedAhmad, Islamic Political PartyGeneral Secretary, MohammadYusuf Mir and Freedom Partyactivists.

Shabbir Shah, according to astatement, on the occasion said,“We will continue to pursue thepath of our martyrs” and thankedpeople of Sopore over observingcomplete shutdown in memory of1993 Sopore martyrs.

However, as per programme,HCJK senior leader ShabbirAhmad Dar along with others suc-ceeded in reaching Sopore wherethey addressed the public gather-ing. In his speech, Shabbir AhmadDar said that this day was a blackchapter in Kashmir’s history.

Remembering Sopore mar-tyrs, Dar said, “Today, we pledgeto take the mission of our mar-tyrs to its logical conclusion. Itis the responsibility of all pro-freedom leaders to exhibit uni-formity in charting out strategyto take the mission of martyrsforward.”

Meanwhile, the spokesper-son of HCJK while condemn-ing the arrest of Shabbir AhmadShah said the freedom lovingpeople of Sopore were eagerlywaiting for Shabbir AhmadShah but the so- called admin-istration, as routine, arrestedhim on his way along with as-sociates. “This is extremelycondemnable,” he said.—KMS

In this business,my business, I getto meet all kinds ofincredible people,fascinating people,glamorous peopleand sexy people

and highly intellec-tual people. And

you meet them andyou go ‘interesting,interesting, inter-

esting’. They’reinteresting, but notvery many peoplestop you in your

tracks.

—Madonna Ciccone

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—President MamnoonHussain Tuesday appreciated the role ofTribal Area Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry Khyber Pakhtunkhawa(TACCIKP) for promotion of trade andeconomic growth in the tribal areas. Talk-ing to a delegation of TACCIKP here atthe Aiwan-e-Sadr the President com-mended the efforts and contributions ofprivate sector and business communitytowards attaining goals of economic pros-perity and development of the country.The members of delegation includedSenator Haji Ghulam Ali, Founder Presi-dent TACCIKP, Shaihd Ur Rehman, Presi-dent TACCIKP, and Muhammad ShoaibKhan, Senior Vice President TACCIKP.Muhammad Shehzad Arbab, SecretaryCommerce and senior officials ofPresident’s Secretariat were also presentin the meeting.

The President said the present gov-ernment was undertaking all possiblemeasures to improve law and order situa-tion in the country to provide conducive

ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain talking to a delegation of Tribal Area Chamber of Commerce & Indus-try Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (TACCIKP) at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—President of the Karachi Chamber ofCommerce and Industry, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra,while welcoming Pakistan Rangers Sindh’s warn-ing to all mobile phone companies about the saleof unregistered/ illegal SIMs, reiterated KCCI’s six-year old demand to shut down all prepaid SIMs inone go and reissue them to subscribers’ postaladdresses which would get rid of all illegal SIMs.Advocating Pakistan Rangers Sindh’s warning tobook executives of mobile phone companies if anyillegal SIM is found to have been used in any ter-ror activity, President KCCI recalled that Chair-man Businessmen Group & Former PresidentKCCI, Siraj Kassam Teli has been raising this par-ticular issue since past six years and urging thegovernments from time to time to order all mobilephone companies to shut down all prepaid SIMsand reissue them to subscribers’ postal addresseswhich would get rid of illegal SIMs.

BMG Chairman believes that this entire pro-cess of reissuing prepaid SIMs to subscribers’

KCCI reiterates demand to ban distributionof unregistered SIMs

postal addresses through courier service can becompleted within two to three days as all mobilephone companies operating in Pakistan were fullyequipped and using state-of-the-art IT solutionsto maintain their database, President KCCI noted,adding that this was the only way to effectivelydeal all those terrorism and criminal activitieswhich were being carried out with the help ofillegal SIMs.

Slamming cellular companies’ viewpoint thatsuch a ‘tone and approach’ may hamper the confi-dence of the foreign operators who have investedbillions of dollars in the country, President KCCIstated that the entire country was in a state of warparticularly after the Peshawar School incident yetthe mobile phone companies were concernedabout their businesses and profitability. “We sim-ply do not understand whether lives are more im-portant or the businesses of these mobile compa-nies. In such a dire situation, no leniency shouldbe granted and no compromises be made at anycost with a single intention to provide relief to theentire nation who are fearlessly being threatenedwith the help illegal SIMs”, he added.

The Karachi Chamber has never missed asingle opportunity to bring this serious issueto the notice of decision makers during the pastsix years. BMG Chairman, Siraj Kassam Teli hasbeen reiterating many a times that over 70 per-cent of crimes of all kinds and terrorists activi-ties take place using mobile phones and theonly solution is to shut down all the prepaidSims in one go and get them reissued to theirpostal addresses as per CNIC through courierservices which would get rid of illegal SIMs.He believes that mobile phone companies areproviding other solutions which actually arenot perfect and are kind of delaying tacticsmeanwhile people are dying. This is the onlysolution, unti l and unless this is done, thecrimes will continue.

It is pertinent to mention here that Siraj KassamTeli raised this serious issue in front of Prime Min-ister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif during meet-ings held at Governor House on 3rd September2013 and 10th July, 2014 while the same demandwas once again made when Prime Minister visitedKarachi to attend KCCI Export Trophy Awards on

March 14, 2014.Moreover, BMG Leadership and KCCI Office

Bearers have been frequently repeating the de-mand to shut down all prepaid SIMs in front of allHeads of Law Enforcing Agencies during theirmeetings on various occasions whereas dozensof press statements along with letters to the con-cerned authorities including Prime Minister, Fed-eral and Provincial Interior Ministries, Heads ofvarious Law Enforcing Agencies have also beenissued but to no avail.

Keeping in view the overall security situationand the deterioration of law and order situationbeing caused due to illegal SIMs, BMG Chairman,Siraj Teli and President KCCI, Iftikhar Vohra hopedthat this time mobile phone companies will be urgedto strictly implement business community’s de-mand to shut down all prepaid SIMs and reissuethem to postal addresses of subscribers which wasinitially demanded by business community fromKCCI’s platform and now the negative conse-quences have also been realized by Pakistan Rang-ers Sindh who deserve to be appreciated for theirrole being played to restore peace in Karachi.

KARACHI—Dubai Islamic Bank PakistanLimited (DIBPL), a wholly-owned subsid-iary of Dubai Islamic Bank UAE, world’sfirst Islamic Bank and Novatex Limited, in-dustry leader in PET Resin and Plastic Prod-ucts have entered into a project financingagreement amounting to PKR 1,000 Millionfor expansion of the PET Resin Plant at

Novatex.Mr. Abdul Razak Diwan (CEO of

Novatex Limited), Mr. Junaid Ahmed (CEOof DIBPL) and senior Directors of the Groupincluding Mr. Peer Mohammad Diwan, Mr.Iqbal Bilwani , Mr. Rizwan Diwan & Mr.Shabbir Diwan were present at the occa-sion along with Senior Management ofDIBPL. The event was also attended byDIBPL’s Director Mr. Naved A. Khan.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. AbdulRazak Diwan said “DIBPL and Novatexshare the same vision to promote IslamicBanking in Pakistan and commended theefforts of DIBPL in providing World Class

President encourages TribalChamber of Commerce for

promotion of tradeatmosphere to both domestic and foreigninvestors. He said the security apparatusand armed forces of the country werevaliantly fighting the militants to wipe outterrorist infrastructure. The Presidentstated that the present government wastrying its best to resolve the energy cri-sis as it has top prioritized the address-ing of energy issue and in this regardwork on numerous energy projects hasalready begun. The President emphasizedthat reliable and uninterrupted supply ofenergy is vital for the economic and so-cial development of Pakistan.

The President expressedgovernment’s resolve and commitment totackle all issues of business communitywith active support of all segments ofsociety. The President reiterated the re-solve for providing an enabling environ-ment for growth of business activities intribal areas. The President also urged theMinistry of Commerce to look into andresolve the issues of TACCIKP on prior-ity basis. The delegation from TACCIKPassured that it would continue makingcontributions toward national economy.

Dubai Islamic bank Pakistan & Novatexlimited sign project financing agreement

Banking the Islamic Way.” The project fi-nance agreement executed by DIBPL andNovatex for the PET Resin Plant is the lat-est milestone between the two institutions.

Mr. Junaid Ahmed said that Dubai Is-lamic Bank being the pioneer Islamic Bank-ing institution globally is committed to thelong term prosperity of Pakistan and Islamic

Banking as a whole. He further said,Alhamdulillah, DIBPL is a Minimum Capi-tal Requirement (MCR) compliant Bank thatenjoys a short-term credit rating of ‘A-1’and long-term credit rating of ‘A+’, with a“stable” outlook from JCR-VIS.

Mr. Junaid Ahmed further said thatDIBPL intends to keep its growth momen-tum going for 2015 as well, aiming to fur-ther grow its existing branch network toover 250 locations nationwide. This willenable more customer convenience andhighlight the Bank’s endeavor to bringworld class Islamic Banking at thecustomer’s doorstep.—PR

KARACHI—Khalid Rahmanhas been appointed asManaging Director of SuiSouthern Gas Company byMinistry of Petroleum andNatural Resources w.e.f.January 2, 2015. He took thecharge of the coveted officefrom the former MD, ShoaibWarsi on Monday, January5, 2015.

Khalid Rahman’s pro-fessional experience spansover 35 years in senior man-agement positions in oil andgas and banking industriesand the accounting profes-sion in Pakistan and abroad,including Europe and FarEast. He worked in UnitedKingdom and Hong Kongfor 17 years, handling re-gional responsibilities.

He worked in PakistanPetroleum Limited foraround 20 years in varioussenior management posi-tions including Chief Execu-tive Officer and ManagingDirector, Deputy ManagingDirector, Chief Financial Of-ficer and Company Secre-

Shipping activity atPort QasimKARACHI—Four shipcarrying containers andsunflower seeds berthedat Qasim InternationalContainer Terminalrespectively. Meanwhilethree ships carrying andcoal also arrived at outeranchorage of Port Qasimduring last 24 hours.Berth occupancy was75% at the port onTuesday where eightships namely SafmarineNgmai, Posen, MSCCarolina, Commen Sprit,Elina-B, Yasa Aysen,Pacific Sun and ECE Nur-K are currently occupy-ing berth to load/offloadcontainers, cement, coal,sunflower seeds,chemical and edible oilrespectively during last24 hours. A cargo volumeof 74624 tonnes compris-ing 4645 containers(TEUs) were handled atthe port during last 24hours.—APP

ICCI, TEVTAagree to promotetech educationStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—heIslamabad Chamber ofCommerce and Industry(ICCI) and TechnicalEducation and VocationalTraining Authority(TEVTA) Tuesdayagreed to promotetechnical and vocationaleducation in the country.During a meetingbetween ConsultantTEVTA Col.(Ret) AamirHassan and ICCIPresident, MuzammilHussain Sabri, both thesides agreed that thepromotion of technicaland vocational educationwas a pre-requisite topromote industrializationand accelerate the paceof GDP growth. AamirHassan apprised thatTEVTA has developed anonline web portal toprovide detail of TEVTAgraduates and added thatbusiness and industrialorganizations couldbenefit of this databaseto find out manpower ofrequired skills. He saidTEVTA was providingdemand driven, standard-ized and integratedtechnical education andvocational training inabout 100 categories tomeet the domesticdemand and enhance theglobal competitivenessof Pakistani manpower.

Asian stocks sink, euronear nine-year lowHONG KONG—Tokyo’sNikkei led an Asian shareslump Tuesday followingpainful losses in New Yorkand Europe, with fearssparked by the globalslump in oil prices and theGreek political crisis. Theeuro sat near nine-yearlows as the uncertainty inGreece raised the prospectit could leave theeurozone. Investor fearsintensified after oil pricesfell below the psychologi-cal $50 a barrel mark in UStrade. Prices edged upmarginally but remainedunder pressure owing to aglobal supply glut, weakdemand and a strongerdollar.—AFP

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Federal Secretary for National FoodSecurity & Research Seerat Asghar has saidthat livestock is a rapidly growing sub-sectorof agriculture and it can play a more vibrantrole in economic development, employmentgeneration and socio-economic stability of ru-ral areas provided a level-playing field is avail-able to its stakeholders. Seerat Asghar presid-ing over the inaugural session of a two-day“National Consultation on Livestock Devel-opment in Pakistan – Way Forward” organisedby the University of Veterinary and Animal Sci-ences Lahore in collaboration with the Minis-try of National Food Security & ResearchIslamabad here on Tuesday.

Dean faculty of Bio-sciences Prof Dr Habib-ur-Rehman, Dr Qurban Ali Animal HusbandryCommissioner, NFS&R, Islamabad and provin-cial livestock secretaries, stakeholders and ex-perts were present on the occasion. Speakingon the occasion Seerat Asghar saying that thegovernment is taking various steps for the de-velopment of livestock sector and sought co-operation from stakeholders to make the sec-tor perform to its maximum potential during the

Livestock sector key to economicdevelopment, employment generation

coming years. He said that the national con-sultation is aimed to formulate doable policiesand create enabling environment for the de-velopment of livestock sector.

He said that the growth in population,urbanization, increase in per capita incomeand export opportunities are increasing thedemand for livestock and livestock products.However development of livestock is con-strained by low productivity per animal,prevalence of livestock diseases, poor ani-mal husbandry practices in terms of livestockmanagement, nutrition and animal health. Healso said adding that present government fo-cused on Halal food products and livestockproductivity which is a tool for economicgrowth and development in Pakistan. Helauded the organizers for bringing the stake-holders on one table on the issues related tolivestock sector. “Through recommendationsfrom this forum after in-depth discussions forthe sustainable development of livestock sec-tor with the inputs from the stakeholders willhelp us to develop viable policies and strongenabling environment for livestock growersand businesses in order to register tangibleprogress and visible change in the sector.

Khalid Rahman appointed asManaging Director of SSGC

tary. His last position waswith the Institute of Char-

tered Accountants of Paki-stan as the Chief OperatingOfficer.

Khalid has also servedon various professional andbusiness forums. He was aCouncil Member of ICAPand served on the Boardsof Overseas InvestorsChamber of Commerce andIndustry, LUMS, PIP, Petro-leum Exploration and Pro-duction Companies Asso-ciation and Community De-velopment Board of Gov-ernment of Sindh.—PR

MD/CEO OGDCLhonoured with bestCEO Award 2014COMMERCE REPORTER

KARACHI—Managing Direc-tor/ Chief Executive Officer(MD/CEO) Oil & Gas Devel-opment Company Limited(OGDCL) Muhammad Rafihas been honored with theBest CEO Award 2014 in Oil& Gas Producers Category.

He was presented with ashield in this connection in aceremony held at organizedunder the auspices of Karachi& Islamabad Stock Exchangesin collaboration with KarachiMass Human Resources Ser-vices. The jury for the selec-tion of the best CEO com-prised members of Karachi &Islamabad Stock Exchangesand Federation of PakistanChambers of Commerce & In-dustry (FPCCI).

It is worth mentioningthat here that under the lead-ership of Muhammad Rafi,OGDCL has recently won the30th Corporate ExcellenceAward organized by Manage-ment Association of Pakistanbesides 11th Annual Environ-ment Excellence Award.

Businesscommunity

pinning hopes for150-200 bps cutin interest rate

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Lasbela Cham-ber of Commerce and In-dustry (LCCI) has de-manded of the State Bankof Pakistan to bring downinterest rate by at least 150to 200 basis points in forth-coming Monetary Policy togive a jumpstart to the eco-nomic activities and revivethe industrial sector.

In a statement issuedhere on , President LCCI,Yakoob H Karim said thatinterest rate is an impor-tant input for the industrialsector and always influ-ences the cost of produc-tion. He said that how wecan even imagine to com-pete the countries like Ja-pan, Sweden and Switzer-land in the internationalmarket where industry isbeing financed at 0% inter-est rates.

He also cited the ex-amples of Austria, Belgium,Canada, France, Germany,Greece, Hong Kong, Italy,Malaysia, Singapore, Spain,Thailand, United Kingdomand United States where in-terest rates are very low.Yakoob said that the bench-mark interest rate in Pakistanwas last recorded at 10 per-cent.

He said that interest ratein Pakistan averaged 12.55percent from 1992 until 2014,reaching an all time high of20 percent in October of 1996and a record low of 7.50 per-cent in November of 2002.He said that the State Bankof Pakistan has to broughtdown the interest rates keep-ing in view the ground reali-ties and strict competition inthe international market. Hesaid that a cut of 50 to 100basis points would not bedoing any service to thechallenging economy.

He said that it was veryunfortunate that we havefailed to learn any lessonfrom the tighter monetarypolicy stance adopted bythe State Bank of Pakistanin the yester years.

COTTONUSA at

Heimtextil2015

L A H O R E — C O T T O NUSA debuts a new globalcampaign at the Heimtextiltrade show from Jan. 14-17, 2015 in Hall 8.0/ H60 atthe Frankfurt ExhibitionCenter in Frankfurt, Ger-many. Heimtextil will markthe start of the first globaladvertising campaign forthe new COTTON USAlogo, a global brand forquality U.S. cotton prod-ucts. The COTTON USApavilion will also serve asan international meetingpoint for the entire cottontrade at Heimtextil 2015.

The new COTTONUSA global campaign pro-motes a revitalized brand vi-sion emphasizing U.S.cotton’s purity, quality andresponsibility: a natural in-gredient for today’s hometextiles born in the USA fromseed, sun and soil. At theCOTTON USA booth, Cot-ton Council International(CCI), Cotton Incorporatedand Supima will provide in-formation about the globalcotton market and sourcing,as well as about the market-ing and promotional ser-vices that the U.S. cottonindustry offers.

Responsible, transpar-ent fiber sourcing is an in-tegral part of the COTTONUSA marketing and licens-ing program, which oper-ates globally and offers awide range of services.CCI’s Sourcing Programsupports buyers in sourc-ing COTTON USA, fromraw material to the endproduct, with a focus onresponsible cotton produc-tion and sourcing throughparticipation in the CottonLEADS™ program.—PR

Oil pricesrebound inAsian trade

SINGAPORE—US oil pricesrecovered slightly in AsiaTuesday after the US con-tract fell below the psycho-logical $50 mark in NewYork on demand worries, astrong dollar and a globalsupply glut. West TexasIntermediate (WTI) for Feb-ruary, the US benchmark,rose 24 cents to $50.28 inlate-morning trade. Brentcrude rose for Februaryrose 39 cents to $53.50.

WTI hit as low as$49.95—a level not seensince May 2009— Mondaybefore closing at $50.04,down $2.65 from Friday.Brent fell $3.31 to $53.11.“The price rebound (in Asia)is likely to be provisional astraders anticipate short-termmoves in the oil market inthis blow-off phase,”Michael McCarthy, chiefmarket strategist at CMCMarkets in Sydney, toldAFP. Monday’s slide fol-lowed indications of risingoutput from key producersRussia and Iraq at a timewhen forecasters havetrimmed their demand pro-jections due to weak globaleconomic growth.

A long rally in thegreenback, which gained11 percent last yearagainst a basket of majorcurrencies, has alsoweighed on the dollar-priced oil market by mak-ing crude more expensivefor buyers using weakerunits.—AFP

Currency Selling Buying

Daily opening& closing ratesPMEX Index 2,595Total Volume (Lots): 12,076Traded Value (Rs): 1,898,262,845

Commodity -------------------- Price Quotation --------------- Open ----------- CloseCRUDE OIL ------------------- $ Per Barrel ---------------------- 52.64 ------------ 49.89SILVER ------------------------- $ Per Ounce --------------------- 15.718 ---------- 16.213GOLD --------------------------- $ Per Ounce --------------------- 1,186.4 --------- 1,206.8GOLD --------------------------- Rs Per 10 gms ------------------ 38,506 ---------- 39,205MTOLAGOLD --------------- Rs Per Tola ---------------------- 46,192 ---------- 46,772GOLD --------------------------- Rs Per Tola ---------------------- 46,192 ---------- 46,772RICEIRRI6 --------------------- Rs Per 100 kg ------------------- 3,211 ------------ 3,210PALMOLEIN ----------------- Rs Per Maund ------------------ 3,813 ------------ 3,812SUGAR ------------------------- Rs Per kg ------------------------ 45.88 ------------ 45.87ICOTTON --------------------- US Cents per pound ---------- 59.59 ------------ 60.59WHEAT ------------------------ Rs Per 100 kg ------------------- 3,417 ------------ 3,417

The total value traded was PKR 1.898 billion and number of lots traded was 12,076.PMEX Commodity Index closed at 2,595. Major business was contributed by crudeoil amounting to PKR 967 million followed by gold (PKR 847 million) and silver(PKR 84 million).

USA 100.60 100.40

UK 153.51 153.20

Euro 120.15 119.91

Canada 85.66 85.49

Switzerland 99.99 99.79

Australia 81.73 81.57

Sweden 12.71 12.68

Japan 0.8441 0.8424

Norway 13.19 13.16

Singapore 75.38 75.23

Denmark 16.15 16.11

Saudi Arabia 26.80 26.75

Hong Kong 12.97 12.95

Kuwait 342.65 341.97

Malaysia 28.30 28.24

Newzealand 77.67 77.52

Qatar 27.63 27.58

UAE 27.39 27.33

Kr Won 0.0912 0.0910

Thailand 3.053 3.047

KARACHI—Microsoft Devices Pakistanrecently collaborated with Nestle Pakistan,according to which Nestle Pakistan chosethe Windows Phone platform to providesupport to their field force teams. Nestleexplored different platforms that providefield force solutions and integration withbackend systems and selected Lumia 630,after stringent deliberations.

The Windows Phone platform will pro-vide integration to Nestle’s sales teams withbackend systems such as ordering, inven-tory management and security solutions.The WP platform was finalized after it metNestle’s expectations and performed seam-less and faster application syncing versusother platforms. Moreover, WindowsPhone OS provided a remarkable user ex-perience and emerged as a clear winneragainst its competitors.

ISLAMABAD—Ufone, a prominent player inthe telecom industry has entered into a stra-tegic partnership with Livestock and Dairydevelopment department, Government ofthe Punjab under which it would help inimplementing the first ever virtual gover-nance project under the slogan ’SadiyunKaSafar Lamhonmein’, conceived and devel-oped by the latter. Under the agreement,Ufone would provide its expertise in thetelecom sector to help the department inimplementing and shifting from RTA (Re-stricted by Time activity- 9-5) to round theclock availability(24/7), making it tireless,effortless and flawless.

Regarding the Project, CCO Ufone, Mr.Asher Yaqub Khan said, “We are extend-ing our all-out support to the Livestock andDairy development in implementing whatthey’ve envisioned. Both of us share thesame vision for development, of making iteffortless for the livestock and Dairy de-velopment Department to carry out their

First everexhibition for

Coating IndustriesLAHORE—In the very be-ginning of the year 2015, BinRasheed Group is going toorganize first ever coatingshow of Pakistan. PakistanCoatingShow (PCS) will pro-vide opportunity to Coatingindustries of Pakistan toshowcase their productsand technology at a platformwhere National & Interna-tional Suppliers will intro-duce latest tools & innova-tions for coatings.

This is for the first timethat Pakistan is going throughthis novel experience and BinRasheed Group holds anhonor to organize this Megaevent Bin Rasheed Group hastaken the initiative to providea platform to thecoatingindustry f Pakistan toexhibit themselves and gaincompetitive advantage overtheir competitors.—PR

LAHORE—Warid Telecom yet again bringsan exciting offer for its valuable customers.Now all Warid prepaid and postpaid cus-tomers can enjoy a free 7 days LTE trial witha data allowance of 500MB, following achange or purchase of the new LTE SIM.This can be done by either visiting the WaridBusiness Center or one of the franchises.These free trials are presently being offeredby the company in six cities includingKarachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi,Gujranwala and Faisalabad. Warid custom-ers who have enjoyed these free trials arevery satisfied with the service.

A unique feature has been introduced tohelp customers track their mobile data us-age involving notifications as data is con-sumed. This is especially useful as the datausage reaches the set limit. Warid postpaidcustomers get notifications as they are ap-proaching their data limit so as to not availany extra charges. Warid prepaid custom-ers, however, receive notifications with ev-ery MB consumed and get bonuses as more

Ufone initiates strategic partnershipwith Livestock, Dairy

tasks viasolutions provided by Ufone.” Mr.Naseem Sadiq, Secretary Livestock & DairyDevelopment Department expressed hisviews saying that, “The implementation ofthis e-governance project would open newhorizons for the agriculture sector, whichhas the highest contribution to the GDP,but due to several loopholes we haven’tbeen able to properly utilize it to its truepotential.”

“We congratulate Ufone on this newventure, extending all expertise on the tech-nical side in making this dream a reality.”About Ufone: Ufone the leader in innova-tion is an Etisalat Group Company with itspresence in all the major cities of Pakistanalong with a comprehensive coverageacross all major towns, villages and tehsilheadquarters of the country. The companyemploys more than 4,780 people and oper-ates with a network of more than 388 fran-chises and 23 company-owned customerservice centers.

Microsoft lumia selected by NestlePakistan for sales support integration

Commenting at the induction ofMicrosoft Lumia smartphones, JamesRutherfoord, Vice President, Microsoft De-vices North Africa, Levant and Near Eastsaid: “Microsoft Lumia smartphones offer aunique user experience and seamlessly inte-grate with various business applications,making them perfect for business. Therefore,the Windows Phone platform is the bestchoice for corporations looking to gain abusiness edge in their respective industriesand providing outstanding business sup-port to their teams. I further laud TelenorPakistan for their support to this collabora-tion between Microsoft Devices and NestlePakistan.” According to the agreement, 3,500Microsoft Lumia smartphones will be in-ducted by Nestle Pakistan, which will besupported by Telenor Pakistan as thetelecom partner.—PR

Warid offers free 7 days LTEtrial upon SIM upgrade

data is consumed – for example after 10MBof data is consumed, an additional 10MB ofdata allowance is made free to the mobileuser. Moreover, Warid also offers its userscredit protection whereby once a customerhas consumed data worth PKR 200, internetdata is made unlimited till midnight.

To ensure that Warid continues to offerits users the most advanced technologies,the company is investing approximatelyUS$500 million over the next five years to ex-pand its network across the country. Waridhas a reputation for using only the best oftelecom technologies: it has partnered withEricsson, the world leader in LTE/wirelessbroadband technology, as its sole technol-ogy partner for the launch of its LTE network.

With the launch of its LTE services, Waridbecomes Pakistan’s first operator to transformfrom 2G to LTE technology. The company ispersistently working to expand its LTE foot-print in Pakistan further and aims to cover 10more cities within the next 10 months and 20cities in the next 20 months.—PR

KARACHI: At the occasion of reception in honor of S.M.Muneer and Naveed Bukhari, hostedby Shaikh Mohammad Tehseen, a group photo of Mian Zahid Hussain, Khalid Tawab, RashidAhmed Siddiqui, Syed Farukh Mazhar, Mehtabuddin Chawla, Noor Ahmed Khan, RehanZeeshan, Ehtesham Uddin, Rasheed Fooderwala, Rashid Hashmi and others.—PO Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Livestock and Dairy Development department, Government of Punjabwill implement the first ever virtual governance project ‘Sadiyun Ka Safr LamhonMein’. Naseem Sadiq, Secretary Livestock & Dairy Development Department and COOUfone, Asher Yaqub Khan exchanging the documents.

KARACHI: Chairman PakGulf Saradr Muhammad Ilyas Khan inaugurating famousBritish ladies brand ‘QUIZ’ outlet in the Centaurus Mall, President PakGulf SradarTanveer Ilyas Khan and Sardar Yasir Ilyas also present on the occasion.

KARCHI: Chairman, Special Committee for My Karachi Exhibition of KCCI Muhammad Idreespresenting brochure of 12th My Karachi Exhibition to Deputy High Commisioner for the PeoplesRepublic of Bangladesh in Karachi, Ruhul Alam Siddique with a view to seek participation ofBangladeshi companies at KCCI’s exhibition scheduled to be staged at Karachi Expo Centerfrom April 10th to April 12th, 2015. President KCCI, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, Vice PresidentKCCI, Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, Chairman, Diplomatic Missions and Embassies Liaison Sub-Committee KCCI, Muhammad Naeem Sharif and others are also seen in the picture.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Agha Steel becomes thefirst Pakistani company to introduce‘ASTM A706 Grade 60’ steel for thelocal market which is Earth Quake re-sistant approved steel according toAmerican Standards. Constructionexperts recommend ASTM 706 gradein the earthquake prone areas likeKarachi due to its advanced seismicresistant properties and realizing theresponsibility of steel sector to manu-facture earthquake resistant steel,Agha Steel Industries, one of the larg-est private steel mill, is pleased to in-troduce ‘ASTM 706 grade’ which hasproven to have higher strength andductility as well as high fatigue resis-

Pakistan produces earthquake resistant steel rebars

tance to Seismic loads due to itshigher Ultimate Tensile Strength toYield Strength ratio said Director AghaSteel Hussain Agha.

teel is essential for constructingany structure and if applied smartlyusing quality rebars, it can assureductility of the structure and con-sequently protect and save pre-cious human lives. Therefore it isvery vital that steel used in con-struction should be conforming tointernational grades. Hussain Aghasaid that according to GeologicalSurvey of Pakistan, entire Sindhcoastline including Karachi is in azone of seismic danger. Karachi isvery close to major fault line. Met-ropolitan cities like Karachi could

have grave effects if God Forbid anysuch earthquake occurs due to us-age of substandard steel bars inbuilding structures and other infra-structures.

For that purpose, planning com-mission and relevant authorities mustensure that the building and other in-frastructures build top quality stan-dard rebars to minimize the risks. Paki-stan has suffered valuable human lossbecause of earthquakes in the past yetno formidable strategy has been madetill today. It is the need of time for au-thorities to focus on quality graderebars and implements rigorous pro-cedures for steel manufacturers to pro-duce steel grades conforming to in-ternational grades.

TEVTA to offercourses in plastic

manufacturingMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—TEVTA will offercourses in the field of plas-tic manufacturing industrybecause provision andavailability of trained man-power is vital for smoothrunning of the industry.TEVTA is offering three andsix months duration shortcourses during the currentmonth in consultation withthe relevant industry so thatskilled manpower may beprovided in shortest time asper their requirements. In-dustrialists, entrepreneurs,manufacturers and serviceproviders are the back boneof the national economy,”these views were expressedby Chairperson TEVTAIrfan Qaiser Sheikh whileaddressing the delegation ofPakistan Plastic Manufac-turers Association (PPMA)here on Tuesday at TEVTASecretariat.

he delegation consistedof its representativesChoudhary Wajid Ali,Mehmood Ghazanvi,Choudhary MuhammadMoubin, Javaid Jilani, IqbalBaig, Muhammad Shoaib,Munawar Hussain Malik,S.M. Tariq, Shaikh Pervaiz,Khalid Masood andShahnawaz. Chief Operat-ing Officer TEVTA JawadAhmed Qureshi and highmanagement of TEVTA wasalso present on the occa-sion. Irfan Qaiser Sahikhsaid that TEVTA is playingpivotal role in training ofmanpower across the prov-ince of the Punjab to offerthree months to six months,and one to four years dura-tion courses.

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan, Tuesday, emphasized broadeningexport-base to China by encouraging exports from all thesectors under Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and soughtenhancement of facilities and concessions on high value-added products. Pakistan also expressed concern over thedilution of margin of preference due to China’s FTAs withother countries especially the ASEAN countries.

Due course of talks with China to assess the perfor-mance of Pak-China Free Trade Agreement (PCFTA) andto propose necessary changes of mutual benefit for thetwo countries, both sides agreed that the concerns ex-pressed by the two countries will be taken into consid-eration on mutual benefit basis by readjustment andreview of the FTA through provisions of the FTA. Min-istry of Commerce (MoC) expressed concern over theinsufficient utilization of the facilities provided underthe PCFTA in which only few sectors have been able toreap the fruits of the favorable tariffs.

Pak, China held talks to reviewFree Trade Agreement

PCFTA is in effect since 2006 and this is the third meetingof the second phase negotiations of the Agreement in whichPakistan’s delegation was headed by Additional SecretaryMinistry of Commerce Robina Ather and accompanied byofficials from Federal Board of Revenue, Ministry of Indus-tries, Ministry of Textile Industry and Ministry of Food Secu-rity and National Research. The 10-member Chinese delega-tion, which will hold three-day FTA-review, talks was headedby, Deputy Director General of Ministry of Commerce of ChinaYao Wenliang while other participants of the Chinese delega-tion include officials from Chinese Ministry of Industry andInformation Technology, Finance, Agriculture, Customs anddepartment of Quality Supervision.

In its assessment of the PCFTA, the Ministry of Com-merce (MoC) expressed its concern over the insufficientutilization of the facilities provided under the PCFTA inwhich only few sectors have been able to reap the fruits ofthe favorable tariffs. Pakistan emphasized the importanceto broaden its export-base to China by encouraging ex-ports from all the sectors which falls under FTA.

LARKANA: A group of youngsters playing cricket during thick fog that engulfed the whole city during morning time.

RAWALPINDI: Famous model Natasha Hussain and chief exectuvie Fitness AnytimeFarhan with the models during the Red Carpet launch event of fitness anytime.

ISLAMABAD—Former captain ZaheerAbbas sees Pakistan not favorites for

the 2015 World Cup but believes thegreen-shirts chances of winning the

Pak capable of winningcricket WC: Zaheer Abbas

mega event cannot be written-off aswhen it comes to major tournamentsthe national team has always per-formed with all its might.

The 2015 WC will be staged inAustralia and New Zealand from Feb-ruary 14 to March 29. The PakistanCricket Board (PCB) selection commit-tee is expected to announce the finalsquad on January 6. However the ICChas set deadline for final team squadannouncement on January 7.

Talking to APP, Zaheer said theselectors have taken enough time tofinalize the squad for the extravaganzawhich is good. “Taking good deci-sions need time and I hope the selec-tors would come up with a very well-balanced squad at the end,” he said.

Speaking about the bowlingstrength of the green-shirts in the 2015WC, Zaheer said he has high hopesfrom the tall-pacer Muhammad Irfanand feels with this tall height Irfan hasan edge in bowling on the pitches atAustralia and New Zealand.

“I feel Irfan will fill the gap of SaeedAjmal and he should be played in allthe matches of the mega event,” hesaid adding Irfan needs to be fullyphysically fit as he is an asset for theWC.

However, Zaheer said Ajmal’s ab-sence would be widely felt in the WCas is one of the greatest bowlers Paki-stan has got. “But nothing can be doneas his bowling action is not right ac-cording to the ICC rules,” he said.

Talking about Shahid Afridi,Zaheer said we cannot fully dependon the all-rounder for the mega event.“Afridi has performed tremendouslywell in the UAE but he has yet to per-form on the pitches in Australia andNew Zealand,” he said.

Zaheer said Muhammad Hafeezalso deserves a place in the 2015 WCsquad as he is the best opener Paki-stan has got for the mega event.“Hafeez is an out-class opener and onecannot discard him from the WCsquad,” he said.—APP

SPORTS REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Launching of FITNESSANYTIME in Rawalpindi today is an amaz-ing gift of new year for the citizen ofRawalpindi.

Owner of FITNESS ANYTIME saysthat we got proper health and physical as-sessment of our clients and provide themmoney back guarantee if they didn’tachieve their result as per their instruc-tions.

And also design proper nutrition aswell under the supervision of qualified andinternational nutrients. All staff of FIT-NESS ANYTIME is qualified from ISSA (In-ternational Sports Science Association)USA.

FITNESS ANYTIME provides ad-vanced f i tness technologies and de-vices. All equipment are based on inter-national standard to provide real-time

Personal training FitnessAnytime launched

feedback to help users perform exercisesproperly and get maximum results fromtheir workouts.

FITNESS ANYTIME also offering in-ternational steam rooms, Sohana Rooms,Jacuzzi Bath and bio-metric locker systemfirst time in Pakistan.

“FITNESS ANYTIME is equipped witha wide range of top-end equipment andwe have gone for a luxurious feel and fin-ish. We want to help people enjoy exer-cise by bringing back a level of servicethat isn’t really available in most standardgyms. We will have high staffing levels,including a number of “experts”, whichreflects our results-focused approach,” hesaid.

FITNESS ANYTIME believes that thehealth and fitness of our society can besignificantly improved by our students’success as health, sports and fitness pro-fessionals.

KARACHI—Punjab Badshah defeated Fed-eral United by three wickets after an excitingfinish in the Pentangular Cup One-dayLeague Cricket Tournament at National Sta-dium on Monday night despite Umar Aminton. Batting under lights Ali Waqas was ar-chitect of his team’s victory with a dazzling99 off as many balls with 11 boundaries andbrace of sixes. Shahid Yousuf scored a 85ball 75 with ten fours and Umar Akmal blasted70 off 50 balls with half a dozen boundariesand three sixes in day/night encounter.

Waqas, who caught behind while tryingto hook paceman Umar Gul. He added 146runs for the second wicket with ShahidYousuf after Nasir Jamshed went for 15 inthe 7th over.

Ali Waqas won the man of the matchaward for his superb knock. Ali Waqas lateshared a match winning 59 runs with Umarwhich changed the course of the game.

Earlier electing to bat first, Federal United

Ali’s 99 powers Badshahto thrilling victory

mustered a healthy total of 312 for the lossof eight wickets in their 50 overs. Umar Aminsmashed a brilliant 110 in 96 balls with ninefours and one six.

Umar Amin was involved in two centurystands. He with Azam put on 104 runs forthe 4th wicket and later added 107th runs forthe fifth wicket.

Babar Azam made a steady 59 in 83 ballswith four fours and brace of sixes and AwaisZia hit seven boundaries in his 49.

International left arm spinner Hasan Razacaptured five wickets for 61 runs in ten overwhile Pakistan paceman Wahab Riaz claimedtwo wickets for 58 runs in his ten overs. Sum-marized scores: Federal United 312-8 in 50overs (Umar Amin 110, Babar Azam 59, AwaisZia 49, Ali Sarfraz 39, Imran Farhat 24, RazaHasan 5-61, Wahab Riaz 2-58) PunjabBadshsh 313-7 in 49.4 over (Ali Waqas 99,Shahid Yousuf 75, Umar Akmal 70, SaadNasim 21, Umar Amin 2-26).—APP

French F1driver Beltoise

dies at 77PARIS—Former FormulaOne driver Jean-PierreBeltoise, whose biggest wincame at the 1972 MonacoGrand Prix, has died from astroke in Dakar at the age of77, family sources said onMonday

After a successful careerin motorbike racing, French-man Beltoise switched tofour wheels in 1966, even-tually joining Ken Tyrrell’sMatra team alongside JackieStewart.

He took second place atthe 1969 French Grand Prix,but had to wait three yearsto win his first Grand Prixunder the rain at Monacoafter his change to the BRMteam.

He retired from Formula1 at the end of the 1974 sea-son, turning his attention totouring car racing in France.

He twice won the Frenchtitle for BMW before enter-ing rallycross in an Alpine-Renault with which he wonanother French title.—AFP

PESHAWAR—The eight edition of the NBPAll-Pakistan Men Squash Championship,carrying a prize money of Rs 0.1 million,got under way here at PAF Hashim KhanSquash Complex on Tuesday.

Regional Head NBP Syed WaseemAkhtar was the chief guest on this occa-sion who formally inaugurated the Cham-pionship in which top ranking playersfrom all across the country are taking part.

Former World Champion QamarZaman, who is also Vice President of Pa-kistan Squash Federation, Chief RefereesMunawar Zaman and Mehboob Khan,former skipper national football teamBasit Kamal, officials, players and largenumber of spectators were also present.

Qamar Zaman thanked NBP for repos-ing confidence in him as it would be thefirst National event of the country in 2015,is hosting by Khyber PakhtunkhwaSquash Association.

Nasir Iqbal of Pakistan Wapda isseeded No. 1, followed by Farhan Zaman(PAF), Danish Atlas Khan (KhyberPakhtunkhwa), Farhan Mehboob(Wapda), Sehikh Saqib (Punjab), AmaadFareed (Punjab), Bilal Zakir (PakistanArmy), Waqas Mehmoob (ZTBL), ZahidKhan (KP), Mansoor Zaman (KP), AhsanAyaz (KP), Munir Zaman KP (Wild Cardentry)

The other top ranking players com-prising Sadam Ul Haq (Army), Nasir Khan(Punjab), Owais Khan (PAF), Yasir Khan(KP), Umar Balaj (Punjab), Salman Zeb(Army), Adil Atlas (KP), Raees Khan(Army), Tariq Khan (Punjab), Adil Faqir

8th NBP All-Pakistan MenSquash Championship begins

(KP), Waqar Mehboob ZTBL, Rizwan Gul(KP), Safeer Ullah Khan (PAF).

Qamar Zaman disclosed that there willbe 16 draw for the main round, after quali-fying round, out of which four playerswould be included in the top 12 rankingplayers to make it a 16 players Champion-ship.

He also lauded the efforts of the Presi-dent Pakistan Squash Federation and PAFSports Control Board for extending all outsupport to the association in holding vari-ous tournaments.

In the first round of the qualifyingRaees Khan of Army defeated IbrahimNoorani of KP by 3-0, the score 12-10, 11-4, 11-7, Abbas Shoukat of KP beat YasirKhan of KP by 3-0, the score was 11-9,13-11, 11-6, Haroon Khan KP beat AdilFaqir KP, the score was 11-7, 5-11, 11-8and 11-7, Safeer Ullah Khan of PAF beatOwais Khan PAF by 3-0, Sadam Ul HaqArmy beat Farhan Ahmad KP by 3-0, 11-8, 11-5 and 11-9, Waqar Mehboob ofZTBL beat Salman Zeb of Army by 11-4,11-5 2-11 and 11-5, Rizwan Gul KP beatUmar Balaj Punjab, the score was 11-8,11-7 and 11-8, Babrak Khan of KP beatTariq Khan of Punjab by 3-1, 4-11, 12-10,11-7 and 11-7.

In the second qualifying roundSaddam Ullah Khan beat Raees Khan ofArmy by 3-0, the score was 11-7, 11-7 and11-9, Abbas Shoukat beat Haroon Khanof KP by 7-11, 11-5, 4-11 and 11-5, WaqarMehboob of ZTYBL beat Rizwan Gul ofKP by 3-0, Safeer Khan PAF beat BabrakKhan KP by 3-0.—APP

PESHAWAR—West Indies XI club clinched thetrophy after defeating Australia XI Club by 3wickets in the final of the Sharjah Twenty20Cricket Tournament played here at LalazarCricket Ground, University Campus on Tues-day. Secretary FATA Olympic AssociationShahid Khan Shiwnari was the chief guest onthis occasion. President PTI Sports and Cul-ture Forum District FR Lakki Zafar Khattak,Secretary FATA Swimming Association NawazOrakzai and large number of spectators werealso present.

Australia XI club skipper won the toss andelected to bat first by setting up 82 runs inwhich Imran struck 22, Yousaf made 19 run

Windies XI club clinch SharjahTwenty20 Cricket trophy

and Iftikhar scored 20. For West Indies XI clubHaris, Iqbal and Sajid got three wickets each.

In reply, West Indies XI club chased thetarget for the loss of seven wickets after play-ing 17.5 overs of the allotted 20 overs. OpenerJawad Khan hammered a cracking 33 runs andmiddle order Fawad Khan made 27 runs. ForAustralia XI club Tahir and Usman got twowickets each while Shakir, Bilal took one wicketeach. At the end, the chief guest gave awaytrophies and cash prizes. He also announcedRs. 5000 for the organizing committee and Rs.3000 for the winners and Rs. 2000 for the run-ners-up team. A total of 21 clubs took in thetournament.—APP

Japan squadcomplete after

Shibasaki comesin from the cold

JAPAN—Japan midfielderGaku Shibasaki joined upwith his team mates in Aus-tralia on Tuesday after re-covering from a bout of fluto complete the holders’ 23-man Asian Cup squad.

The 22-year-oldKashima Antlers midfielderhad been left behind in Ja-pan to avoid passing on thebug to his team mates, whocontinued preparing fortheir Group D openeragainst Palestine on Mon-day.

“I’ve been ill but that isthe way it goes sometimes,”the midfielder was quotedas saying by Kyodo News.“Hopefully I will be able toacclimatise and get in theright condition and ready toplay. “These are going tobe my first competitivematches and so it will bespecial. Hopefully the teamcan perform well and getgood results.”

IS L A M A B A D—Pakistan Blind CricketCouncil (PBCC) on Tuesday said the an-nouncement of a new captain to lead thenational team will be made in the mid ofthis year before June as this time the fo-cus is to give the responsibil i ty to ayounger player.

Former captain Zeeshan Abbasi re-signed from his post after Pakistan failedto win the final of the Blind Cricket WorldCup. The 32 years old Zeeshan had beenrepresenting Pakistan for the last 14years.

Talking to APP, a PBCC official saidwe have three four names in focus fromwhom we will pick the new captain. “Thenew captain will be announced beforeJune as we have a lot of cricket comingafter the mid of this year,” he said.

Speaking about women’s cricket, hesaid the women’s blind cricket team of

PBCC to announce a youngcaptain before June

Nepal will be touring Pakistan in Novem-ber this year for a series. “A total of fiveTwenty-20 matches will be played be-tween both the countries in five differ-ent cities,” he said.

He said it will be the first series ofInternational Women Blind Cricket andit is an honour that it will be started andhosted through Pakistan.

“Three camps for women will be keptin three different ci t ies includingIslamabad, Lahore and Karachi. A totalof 30 women players will be shortlistedfor these camps,” he said.

He said at the end a total of 15 finalwomen players will be selected for thefinal squad to be played against theNepali team. “PBCC is working hard forwomen blind cricket as we don’t wantour ladies to be left isolated from thisgame,” he said.—APP

Czechs cashin on Italian

woesPERTH (Australia)—Little-known youngster AdamPavlasek stunned FabioFognini as the Czech Re-public remained unbeatenat the Hopman Cup with a3-0 clean sweep of Italy atthe mixed teams tourna-ment on Tuesday.

The 239th-rankedPavlasek has never played inan ATP event, but fought backfrom a set down to beat theworld number 19 in Perth andsecure a second successivewin for the Czechs. Earlier,15th-ranked Lucie Safarovahad notched her second winover a higher-ranked oppo-nent in as many matches in thewomen’s singles to give theCzechs the lead.

Having trounced worldnumber six EugenieBouchard on the openingday of the tournament,Safarova opened the tie byprevailing over 12th-rankedFlavia Pennetta in straightsets, 7-5, 6-3.—AFP

LAWRENCE—There is a floor-to-ceil-ing graphic pasted onto the wall out-side the Kansas locker room, just be-yond the tunnel leading to the hallowedfloor of Allen Fieldhouse.

On Wednesday night, the No. 12Jayhawks head to No. 21 Baylor to be-gin pursuit of their 11th straight. Thatwould tie Gonzaga for the second-mostin major college basketball, and movewithin two of matching the 13 straightPac-10 championships that UCLA wonin the 1960s and ’70s.

But listening to Bill Self, this maybe the most difficult yet. Given a chanceon Monday afternoon, the Kansascoach rattled off four other teams thathe thinks have shots at the Big 12 cham-pionship. Texas, he said, could win thenational title. And given their unsteadynon-conference performance, theJayhawks - for once - may not be thefavorites.

‘’There’s multiple teams,’’ he said,‘’but the great thing about it is, frommy standpoint, if you’re good enoughto be considered in winning our league,you’re probably good enough to beconsidered a contender to make a greatrun in the NCAA tournament, too.’’

Kansas head coach Bill Self, left,has words with referee Gerry Pollard,right, during the second ha …Not ev-ery year has been an outright title. Kan-

Jayhawks set aim on 11th straight Big 12 titlesas (11-2) has shared the crown in fiveof those seasons. But not since IowaState won the second of its back-to-back championships in 2001 has oneof those glitzy title rings not been de-livered to each member of theJayhawks.

To put that into perspective, fourteams that were in the Big 12 back thenare in different conferences, and twothat were in different conferences arenow in the Big 12.The dominance ofKansas during ‘’The Streak’’ is star-tling: 25 first-team All-Big 12 picks,double that of any other program; fiveconference players of the year, mostrecently Thomas Robinson in 2012; andat least one first-team all-conferenceselection in each of those years.

There are signs that the Jayhawks’supremacy will continue, too.

They are vastly improved from anearly season shellacking at the handsof top-ranked Kentucky, beating Michi-gan State, Florida, Georgetown andUtah in succession. If not for a dud atTemple just before Christmas, that lossin the Champions Classic would be theironly one.

Kansas forward Perry Ellis (34)catches a pass while covered by UNLVforward Christian Wood, back, d …Key freshmen are starting to contrib-ute, including lengthy swingman Kelly

Oubre and power forward CliffAlexander. Frank Mason III is stamp-ing himself a favorite to continue theJayhawks’ run of first-team All-Big 12players, and veterans such as PerryEllis and Wayne Selden - if you can calla junior and sophomore veterans - arebeginning to provide some leadership.

‘’I don’t ever go through and say,‘We should win this one,’ or, ‘This is acoin-flip game,’’’ Self said. ‘’But weweren’t ready to play with Kentuckyand we’ve improved a lot since then.’’

That doesn’t mean Self is content.Consistency has been an issue. Out-side shooting has been spotty and in-terior offense hard to establish. Defen-sive intensity tends to wane.

All of those things can cause prob-lems in the pressure-cooker of the Big12.‘’It’s real different,’’ Selden said,‘’the intensity, the fans, the awaycrowds, the home crowds, everythingabout it is different.’’

Selden said that ‘’some of us wentin blind last year,’’ unaware of just howmuch the pressure builds in leagueplay. A team full of freshmen wasn’tprepared for it, and it showed in somesloppy and embarrassing moments.But when the final week of the seasonrolled around, the Jayhawks had stillrisen to the top, just as they alwaysseem to do.—AP

Fifa VP tochallenge

Sepp BlatterLONDON—Prince Ali, who isalso a member of the Fifa Ex-ecutive Committee and thehead of the Jordan FootballAssociation, will standagainst incumbent SeppBlatter and FrenchmanJerome Champagne for thetop job in May this year.

“I am seeking the presi-dency of Fifa because I be-lieve it is time to shift the fo-cus away from administrativecontroversy and back tosport,” he said in a statement.

“This was not an easydecision. It came after carefulconsideration and many dis-cussions with respected Fifacolleagues over the last fewmonths.

“The message I heard,over and over, was that it istime for a change. The world’sgame deserves a world-classgoverning body – an Inter-national Federation that is aservice organisation and amodel of ethics, transparencyand good governance.

“The headlines should beabout football, not aboutFifa,” he said.

Prince Ali, also head ofthe West Asian Football Fed-eration, was one of a numberof officials who called for thepublication of ethics investi-gator, Michael Garcia’s reportinto allegations of corruptionsurrounding the 2018 and2022 World Cup bids.

UEFA President, MichelPlatini, is said to be“pleased” that Prince Ali hasdecided to enter the race andwill attempt to get the Jorda-nian as many votes as pos-sible in Europe.

Blatter has held his posi-tion as Fifa President since1998 and will be running for afifth term at the 65th Fifa con-gress in Zurich on May 29.

Fifa has suffered a num-ber of damaging corruptionallegations during Blatter’s17-year reign.

Last month, former En-gland captain Gary Linekerdescribed the way Fifa wasrunning world football as “afarce” after the governingbody became embroiled inmore allegations of World Cupbidding corruption.—AFP

Bipin DaniOBSERVER CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Ravi Shastri, the former In-dia all-rounder and Team India’s cricketdirector may be holding the highest po-sition in the dressing room, but appar-ently he was not directed consulted forthe selection of two ODI teams-one forthe tri-nation series to follow immediatelyafter the ongoing Test match and theother for the World Cup- to be playedthereafter.

It may be recalled here that in Augustlast year, the TV commentator Shastri wasappointed as director of the Indian cricketteam for the ODI series after team’s de-bacle in the Test matches in England.

Subsequently, his contract has beenextended till the World Cup.

It was an arrangement with the un-derstanding that coach Duncan Fletcherwould report to Shahstri and that hewould be in overall charge of the team.

Shastri was not consulted forselection of two teams?

“There were deliberations betweenfive zonal selectors and captain MahednraSingh Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcherwere on the tele-conference call,” Patelsaid without naming the role Shastri inthe team selection.

“The selectors chose the team in theselection committee meetings where con-vener (secretary Sanjay Patel) is the boss.The views of the captain and coach areheard (but) it is not binding on them (se-lectors) to chose the players suggestedby captain or coach”, Sanjay Patel, in ex-clusive conversation added.

“Who knows the captain and coachmay have had Shastri’s feedback beforethe call”, he further added.Interestingly, Shastri’s views were soughtwhile offering jobs to Sanjay Bangar,Bhaarat Arun and R. Sridhar for thespecilaist coach positions with the team.He was also consulted for deciding fu-ture of Joe Dawes (bowling coach) andthe fielding coach, Mr. Trevor Penney.

CAPE TOWN: Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla embrace as they secure victory duringSouth Africa and West Indies third and final Test on Tuesday.

CAPE TOWN—Dean Elgar guidedSouth Africa to a series-clinching vic-tory by eight wickets on the fifth day

West Indies first innings: .... 329South Africa first innings: ... 421West Indies second innings: 215South Africa second innings (over-night 9-1)D. Elgar not out .......................... 60Petersen b Benn ........................... 0du Plessis c Blackwood b Benn14H. Amla not out .......................... 38Extras: (b8, lb2, nb2) .................. 12Total: (2 wkts) ........................... 124Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-51Bowling: ........................ O-M-R-WTaylor ................................. 7-3-20-0Samuels .......................... 3.4-0-24-0Benn ................................. 17-8-24-2Holder ................................ 5-0-19-0Gabriel ................................ 5-1-27-0

Victory keeps S Africa as No 1of the third and final Test against theWest Indies at Newlands on Tuesday.

South Africa won the series by twomatches to nil, with one match finish-ing in a rain-affected draw.

The left-handed Elgar made 60 notout as South Africa reached a victorytarget of 124 shortly before lunch.

It was tough going for South Af-rica at the start of the day after theyresumed on nine for one.

Fast bowler Jerome Taylor and left-arm spinner Suleiman Benn did notconcede a run until Elgar pulled Tay-lor for four after 26 minutes and offthe 45th ball of the day.

The tall Benn was particularly dif-ficult to score off, getting turn andbounce from a wearing pitch, with Fafdu Plessis completely tied down.

Benn, who bowled Alviro Petersenwith the last ball of the fourth day, didnot give up a run until Du Plessis tooka single off the fifth ball of his sixthover.

Du Plessis struggled to 14 off 69balls before a ball from Benn kickedviciously and took the shoulder of hisbat for Jermaine Blackwood to take acatch running back from gully.

Benn took two for 24 in an unbro-ken spell of 17 overs.

Elgar, who spoiled Benn’s figuresslightly by hitting him for six, went tohis fifty off 86 balls with six fours anda six.

The scoring rate accelerated whencaptain Hashim Amla joined Elgar inan unbeaten partnership of 73 off 91balls. Amla made 38 not out.

South Africa won the first Testin Centurion by an innings and 220runs. The second match in PortElizabeth was drawn after more thantwo days of playing time was lostto rain.

The sides start a three-matchTwenty20 international series atNewlands on Friday, to be followed byfive one-day internationals.—AFP

Ruthless Sharapova brushesShvedova aside in Brisbane

saved a few important break points,which was crucial. That gave megood confidence towards the end ofthat second set.”

Sharapova will now play the win-ner of the clash between seventh

seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spainand Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

Earlier, third-seeded GermanAngelique Kerber remained on

course for a semi-finalshowdown againstSharapova when shecrushed Russian qualifierDaria Gavrilova in straightsets .Kerber needed just 90

minutes to see offBrisbane-based Gavrilova6-3, 7-5.“I think it’s good to be

now in the quarters andhave a lot of matches be-fore Melbourne,” Kerbersaid.“I think that was my goal,

and right now it looksgood.”She will now take on

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, a6-3, 6-2 winner overCroatian Ajla Tomljanovic.Defending men’s cham-

pion Lleyton Hewitt suf-fered a shock loss at thehands of big-serving fel-low Australian Sam Groth.Groth blasted 14 aces and

won 89 percent of his firstserves to overpowerHewitt 6-3, 6-2 in just 58minutes.Sharapova had not playeda competitive match sincethe WTA Finals in October.But there were no signs ofrust as she cruised into thequarter-finals.Fifth seed Kevin Ander-

son was another casualtyin the men’s draw, with theSouth African falling toPolish qualifier LukaszKubot 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.Seventh seed Alexandr

Dolgopolov, a finalist inBrisbane in 2012, cruisedinto the second round with

a 6-2, 6-3 win over Argentina’s CarlosBerlocq.—AFP

BR I S B A N E (Australia)—Top seedMaria Sharapova began her 2015campaign in ruthless fashion as shebrushed aside Yaroslava Shvedova6-0, 6-1 in the second roundof the Brisbane Interna-tional Tuesday.

Sharapova dominatedher opponent in every de-partment as she racedthrough the first set in just23 minutes.

Shvedova, a qualifierfrom Kazakhstan, offeredmore resistance in the sec-ond but was no match forthe world number two.

Sharapova had notplayed a competitive matchsince the WTA Finals inOctober. But there were nosigns of rust as she cruisedinto the quarter-finals.

“It certainly felt goodto start (well) after not play-ing a match for a couple ofmonths,” Sharapova said.

“Despite all the train-ing, it’s such a differentfeeling to go out on thecourt and play in front of acrowd in an actual match at-mosphere.

“I wanted to start offsharp and try to do theright things.”

Sharapova broke heropponent five timesthroughout the match, buthad to save two breakpoints on her own serve inthe second set.

She said this was impor-tant in stopping anychance of a Shvedovacomeback.

“She lost the first set inher previous match(against Sabine Lisicki) 6-0and ended up winning thematch in a tough three-setbattle, so you never know,”Sharapova said.

“There were moments where I

Sachin Tendulkar flanked by former Australian cricketers Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee pose with the CricketWorld Cup trophy during a sporting event.

The stage is all set for the ICC WorldCup 2015 that begins February 14 inAustralia and New Zealand. The inau-gural match will be played between lastWorld Cup’s runners-up Sri Lanka andco-host New Zealand.

Teams are required to name a 30-man provisional squad before finalisinga 15-strong squad for the competitionby 7 January.

All fourteen teams are nowshortlisting their 15 members for themega event from their list of probables.Teams had to name a 30-man provi-sional squad before finalising a 15-strong squad for the competition by 7January.

Team India, who will announce their15-member World Cup squad today,play arch-rivals Pakistan in their firstmatch of the tournament on February15.Afghanistan: Final squad: Afsar Zazai(wk), Aftab Alam, Asghar Stanekzai,Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, HamidHassan, Javed Ahmadi, MerwaisAshraf, Mohammad Nabi (capt),Najibullah Zadran, Nasir Jamal, NawrozMangal, Samiullah Shinwari, ShapoorZadran, Usman Ghani.

Standby: Hashmatullah Shahidi,Izatullah, Shafiqullah Shafaq (wk),Sharafudin Ashraf.Australia: Australia have submittedtheir 30-man squad to the ICC but haveopted not to release the players’ namespublicly.Bangladesh: Provisional squad: AbdurRazzak, Abul Hasan, Al-Amin Hossain,Anamul Haque, Arafat Sunny, EliasSunny, Imrul Kayes, Jubair Hossain,Litton Das (wk), Mahmudullah, MarshallAyub, Mashrafe Mortaza, MohammadMithun (wk), Mohammad Shahid,Mominul Haque, Muktar Ali, MushfiqurRahim (wk), Naeem Islam, Nasir Hossain,Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, ShafiulIslam, Shakib Al Hasan, ShamsurRahman, Shuvagata Hom, SoumyaSarkar, Taijul Islam, Tamim Iqbal, TaskinAhmed, Ziaur Rahman.England: Final squad: Moeen Ali,James Anderson, Gary Ballance, IanBell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, JosButtler (wk), Steven Finn, Alex Hales,Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan (capt), JoeRoot, James Taylor, James Tredwell,Chris Woakes.India: Final squad: MS Dhoni (Captain),Virat Kohli (V Captain), Ajinkya Rahane,Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, StuartBinny, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja,Ambati Rayudu, Axar Patel, R Ashwin,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Shami,

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Teams & SquadsUmesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, IshantSharma, Dhawal Kulkarni.Ireland: Final squad: Andrew Balbirnie,Peter Chase, Alex Cusack, GeorgeDockrell, Ed Joyce, Andrew McBrine,John Mooney, Tim Murtagh, KevinO’Brien, Niall O’Brien (wk), WilliamPorterfield (capt), Paul Stirling, StuartThompson, Gary Wilson (wk), CraigYoung.New Zealand: Provisional squad: CoreyAnderson, Hamish Bennett, TrentBoult, Doug Bracewell, Neil Broom,Dean Brownlie, Colin de Grandhomme,Anton Devcich, Grant Elliott, AndrewEllis, James Franklin, Martin Guptill,Matt Henry, Ronnie Hira, Tom Latham,Mitchell McClenaghan, BrendonMcCullum (capt), Nathan McCullum,Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Colin Munro,Jimmy Neesham, Rob Nicol, LukeRonchi (wk), Hamish Rutherford, TimSouthee, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori,BJ Watling (wk), Kane Williamson.Pakistan: Provisional squad: AhmedShehzad, Anwar Ali, Asad Shafiq, AzharAli, Bilawal Bhatti, Ehsan Adil, FawadAlam, Haris Sohail, Junaid Khan, KamranAkmal (wk), Misbah-ul-Haq (capt),Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan,Mohammad Talha, Nasir Jamshed, RazaHasan, Sami Alam, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk),Shahid Afridi, Sharjeel Khan, ShoaibMalik, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Tanvir,Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, YasirShah, Younus Khan, Zulfiqar Babar.*Saeed Ajmal withdrew on 27 NovemberScotland: Provisional squad (24):Richie Berrington, Kyle Coetzer (vice-capt), Freddie Coleman, Matthew Cross(wk), Josh Davey, Alasdair Evans,Hamish Gardiner, Gordon Goudie,Majid Haq, Moneeb Iqbal, MichaelLeask, Matt Machan, Calum MacLeod,Gavin Main, Preston Mommsen (capt),George Munsey, David Murphy,Safyaan Sharif, Ruaidhri Smith, RobTaylor, Andrew Umeed, Craig Wallace(wk), Iain Wardlaw, Mark Watt.South Africa: Provisional squad: KyleAbbott, Hashim Amla (vice capt),Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock(wk), Marchant de Lange, AB de Villiers(capt & wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis,Dean Elgar, Beuran Hendricks, ReezaHendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, RyanMclaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel,Chris Morris, Justin Ontong, WayneParnell, Robin Peterson, AaronPhangiso, Vernon Philander, AndrewPuttick, Kagiso Rabada, RileeRossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi, DaleSteyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe,Morne van Wyk (wk), David Wiese.

Sri Lanka: Provisional squad: DineshChandimal (wk), Niroshan Dickwella(wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, ShamindaEranga, Lahiru Gamage, RanganaHerath, Mahela Jayawardene, DimuthKarunaratne, Tharindu Kaushal,Nuwan Kulasekara, Suranga Lakmal,Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga,Angelo Mathews (capt), AjanthaMendis, Jeevan Mendis, DilruwanPerera, Kusal Perera (wk), ThisaraPerera, Nuwan Pradeep, DhammikaPrasad, Seekakuge Prasanna, AshanPriyanjan, Ramith Rambukwella,Lakshan Sandakan, Kumar Sangakkara(wk), Sachithra Senanayake, UpulTharanga, Lahiru Thirimanne,Kithuruwan Vithanage.United Arab Emirates (UAE): Provi-sional squad: Ahmed Raza, Ahsan Suri,Amjad Ali, Amjad Javed, AndriRaffaelo, Asadullah Shareef, ChiragSuri, Fahad Alhasimi, Faizan Asif,Fayyaz Ahmed, Irfan Sajid, K Karate,Kamran Shahzad, Khurram Khan,Manjula Guruge, Mohamed Tauqir,Muhammad Naveed, MuhammadShahzad, Nasir Aziz, Noor ul Amin,Rohit Singh, Roshan Mustafa, SalmanFarooq, Saqib Ali, Saqlain Haider,Shaiman Anwar, Swapnil Patil, UmairAli, Usman Mustaq, Yodhin Punja.West Indies: Provisional squad:Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite,Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo,Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell,Miguel Cummins, Narsingh Deonarine,Andre Fletcher (wk), Chris Gayle, Ja-son Holder, Imran Khan, LeonJohnson, Evin Lewis, Nikita Miller,Marquino Mindley, Sunil Narine,Ashley Nurse, Versammy Permaul,Kenroy Peters, Kieron Pollard, DeneshRamdin (wk), Kemar Roach, AndreRussell, Darren Sammy, MarlonSamuels, Lendl Simmons, DevonSmith, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor.Zimbabwe: Provisional squad:Elton Chigumbura, Sikandar Raza, RegisChakabva (wk), Brian Chari, TendaiChatara, Chamunorwa Chibhabha,Craig Ervine, Luke Jongwe, TafadzwaKamungozi, Neville Madziva, TimycenMaruma, Hamilton Masakadza,Shingirai Masakadza, StuartMatsikenyeri, Tinotenda Mawoyo,Solomon Mire, Peter Moore, TawandaMupariwa, Natsai M’shangwe,Cuthbert Musoko, RichmondMutumbami (wk), John Nyumbu,Tinashe Panyangara, VusimuziSibanda, Brendan Taylor (wk), ProsperUtseya, Brian Vitori, Malcolm Waller,Sean Williams, Cephas Zhuwao.—AFP

Guinea nameBecker ascoach for

Nations CupMALABO—Hosts Equato-rial Guinea have namedEsteban Becker as coach forthis month’s African Na-tions Cup after moving himacross from managing theirwomen’s team, the country’sfootball federation said onTuesday.

It is the first major ap-pointment in men’s soccerfor the 50-year-old Argen-tine, who worked with vari-ous lower league Spanishclubs before helping theEquatorial Guinea women’steam win the African cham-pionship in 2012.

Becker takes charge ofthe men’s side two weeksbefore they begin the tour-nament against Congo inBata on Jan. 17. No detailsof his terms were given.

A change of leadershipat the federation last monthcaused new presidentAndres Jorge Mbomio tofire coach AndoniGoikoetxea last week.

Equatorial Guinea’ssquad have been preparingfor the tournament in Portu-gal since mid-December.—Agencies

Hayman set toend playing

careerTOULON (France)—AllBlack prop Carl Hayman hassaid he will retire from rugbyat the end of the Top-14 sea-son in France but is stillhoping for an unlikely callupfor New Zealand’s WorldCup squad.

The 35-year-old tight-head has been in Francesince 2010 and has playedan integral part in Toulon’scash-fuelled drive to theforefront of Europeanrugby.

But he has been side-lined by a succession of in-juries of late, especially tohis back and believes thatthe time is ripe to call it aday.

“I have enjoyed an ex-ceptional career but I do notwant to play on for a yeartoo long,” he said.—AFP

SCOREBOARD

THE use of a class of drugs called statinswhich treat high levels of cholesterol hasbeen associated with increased muscle

pain. The finding comes from a study publishedin the Journal of American College of Cardi-ology carried out by research-ers at the Center for HealthyAging at the University ofCopenhagen.

Statins are the most effec-tive drugs for lowering badcholesterol (LDL cholesterol).They achieve this by inhibit-ing the amount of cholesterolproduced by the liver. In theNetherlands around 40 percentof the population over the ageof 65 take statins, with closeto 600,000 taking the medica-tion.

One of the main side ef-fects of statin treatment is theincreased risk of developingmuscle pain. An estimated 75percent of people on the medi-cation report symptoms ofmuscle pain which can lead to problems withcompliance (adherence). According to Profes-sor Flemming Dela from the Centre for HealthyAging at the University of Copenhagen:

“A well-known side effect of statin therapyis muscle pain. Up to 75 per cent of the physi-cally active patients undergoing treatment forhigh cholesterol experience pain. This maykeep people away from either taking theirmedicine or from taking exercise - both ofwhich are bad choices. We have now shownthat statin treatment affects the energy produc-tion in muscles. We are working on the assump-tion that this can be the direct cause of muscleweakness and pain in the patients.”

Statin treatment associatedwith muscle pain

Rangers destroying weapons which were seized during operations in different areas of the port city.

The researchers found that patients onstatin therapy had low levels of the key pro-tein Q10 which along with energy depletioncould be the main reason for the developmentof muscle pain. A previous study carried out

by researchers from the Uni-versity of California, San Di-ego School of Medicine foundthat the severity of muscleproblems associated with useof statins is related to thestrength or potency of thedrug.

Nearly half of all patientsin Denmark on statin treat-ment are only prescribed thisdrug. This means that they aresolely being treated for highcholesterol and do not haveany other conditions thatcould affect their heart: Pro-fessor Flemming Dela adds:“The effect of statins is mar-ginal for these patients in aprevious published Cochraneanalysis only 0.5% reduction

in all-cause mortality was detected, indicatingthat for every 200 patients taking statins dailyfor five years, one death would be prevented.This patient group is obviously interesting inlight of the side effects of statin therapy.”

“The new study is the basis for a largeplanned research project, where we will focusbroadly on patients undergoing statin treatment.We will look at statin consumption from a medi-cal point of view, and will also investigate themedia’s influence on patients’ acceptance orrejection of statins as a treatment option. Manycontradictory views find their way into the pub-lic forum, and it can be difficult for patients todistinguish between fact and fiction.”

Former President General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf with friends during a function.

Ahsan Mukhtar Zubairi, Secretary General of Karachi Council on Foreign Relations, hosted a farewell luncheon in honourof Rohul Alam Siddiqui. out going Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh, at a local club. Picture shows Senior Min-ister of Sindh Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Justice (R) Saeed Uz Zaman Siddiqui, Mushtaq Vali Muhammed, Ikram Saigal, anddiplomat’s from, America, Srilanka, with other guests.—PO photo

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The Chief Justice of Pakistan hadtaken Suo Motto notice on illegal water hydrantsworking in the metropolis. The expected hear-ing on the Suo Motto would be at the SupremeCourt of Pakistan at its Karachi Registry on Sat-urday next week. The Sc had in this regard is-sued notices to the Sindh government, KarachiWater and Sewerage board, Karachi Metropoli-tan Corporation and other respondents.

It would be pertinent to mention that the CJhad taken the Suo Motto on a letter written tohim by the Human Rights Cell of the SC in

CJ takes suo mottonotice on illegal hydrants

which the Cell had stated to the CJ that the in-fluential water hydrant mafia had establishedillegal water hydrants in nook and cranny of themetropolis owing to which the people of the citywere facing acute water crisis.

It was further stated that the water utilityand other institutions responsible for water sup-ply to the people of the city had utterly failed inexecuting their assigned tasks. It also said thatthe illegal water hydrants were creating envi-ronmental issues in the city while they were alsosupplying contaminated water top the needyconsumers. The overall situation had also in-flicted financial damages to the water utility.

KARACHI—President, Karachi Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI),Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra has welcomed Pa-kistan Rangers Sindh’s warning to allmobile phone companies about sale ofunregistered / illegal SIMs.

He, in a statement here on Tuesday,also reiterated KCCI’s six-year old de-mand to shut down all prepaid SIMs inone go and reissue them to subscribers’postal addresses which will help get ridof all illegal SIMs. Supporting PakistanRangers Sindh’s warning to book the

KCCI welcomes Rangers’warning to mobile phone firms

Executives of mobile phone companies ifany illegal SIM is found to have been usedin any terror activity.

President KCCI recalled that Chair-man Businessmen Group and former presi-dent KCCI, Siraj Kassam Teli has beenraising this particular issue for past sixyears. He has been urging the Federal andprovincial governments from time to timeto order all mobile phone companies toshut down all prepaid SIMs and reissuethem to subscribers at their postal ad-dresses through courier services for get-

ting rid of illegal SIMs.BMG Chairman believes that this

entire process of reissuing prepaid SIMscan be completed within two to threedays as all mobile phone companiesoperating in Pakistan were fullyequipped and using state-of-the-art ITsolutions to maintain their database,President KCCI mentioned. This wasthe only way to effectively deal will allthose terrorism and criminal activitieswhich were being carried out with thehelp of illegal SIMs.—APP

KARACHI—Inspector General of Police-Sindh,Ghulam Haider Jamali Tuesday recommendedQuaid-e-Azam Police Gold Medal (QPM) forHead Constable, Peeral Shah for setting a pre-cedence of bravery and compliance to ones pro-fessional obligation. Police sources sharing

IGP recommends QPM for copkilled in encounter with criminals

CITY REPORTER

KARACHI—Commissioner Karachi, Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui has said that the government employeesshould perform their responsibilities with honesty anddedication. He was addressing at the programme ofAyesha Bawany Old Boys Association’s 32nd anni-

Commissioner awardedfor best performance

KARACHI—A policeman was martyred and twoother police personnel, including an Station HouseOfficer (SHO), sustained injuries in an encounterwith robbers in the limits of the Gulistan-e- JoharPolice Station of the metropolis on Monday night.

According to the IG Police Sindh office the

Police foil robbery bidpolice received a phone call on Madadgar-15Helpline that some robbers have barged into abungalow in Block-II of Gulistan-e-Johar. Apolice party led by SHO Ijaz Rajpar rushed tothe spot where an encounter ensued with thebandits.—APP

versary, which was organised to honour the commis-sioner, said a statement on Tuesday.

The commissioner said that the government em-ployees should ensure that the lack of time and re-sources may not become the hurdle in serving thenation. He said that people have many expectationsfrom the government employees.

On the occasion, he was presented with a bestperformance award as a commissioner by AyeshaBawany Old Boys Association. Advisor to Chief Min-ister Sindh for Human Rights Nadia Gabol, IsmailBawany, President Ayesha Bawany Old Boys Asso-ciation Asif Haroon, Secretary Nadeem Sheikh andothers also addressed the programme.

details of the recommendation said Peeral Shahhad lost his life in an encounter with criminals,last night, at Kamran Chowrangi, in the jurisdic-tion of Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

The Sindh police chief was stated to have also rec-ommended Pakistan Police Medal (PPM) for SHO

Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Sub Inspector, Ejaz Rajpar. The SHOwas severely injured during the same encounter and ispresently under treatment. The IGP in recognition ofthe excellent performance shown by cops of the areahas announced Rs 500,000 prize for the PS Gulistan-e-Jauhar police party that countered the criminals.—APP

KARACHI—Experts havesought concerned authorities toensure urgent development ofan integrated Master Plan ofThar coal basin spreading overan area of around 9000 sq km.

Addressing a seminar“Coal: From Thar to Gadani”,

Thar coal reserves termed as‘Game Changer’ by energy experts

organised by Institute of PolicyStudies, they said “Thar” coalcould be a game changer forPakistan’s energy needs if ex-ploited efficiently.

The speakers lamentedthat Thar coal development,despite its absolute relevance tothe country’s energy needs, hasnot been carried out under amaster plan, said the eventorganisers in a communicationreceived here on Tuesday.

They stressed on adoptinga holistic approach where allaspects of geology, e.g. coalexploration, various miningoptions, infrastructure develop-ment, availability, condition ofsurface, ground water and the

requirement of electricityshould be incorporated.

Organisers said the eventwas chaired by UsmanAminuddin, former FederalMinister for Petroleum andNatural Resources while MirzaTalib Hassan, former DirectorGeneral, Geological Survey ofPakistan was the keynotespeakers.

The other experts to maketheir presentations on the oc-casion included AshfaqMehmood and Mirza HamidHasan alongwith DG-IPSKhalid Rahman and Sr IPS as-sociate Ameena Sohail.

The experts rued that vari-ous assessments and projec-

tions of Thar coal developmenthave termed its potential fromhighly optimistic to below-pes-simistic, putting the realisticpicture of its prospects in am-biguity.

Mirza Talib Hassan was ofthe view that the potential andefficiency of Thar coal has beendebated for over three decadesand yet no concrete measureswere taken to exploit the re-source.

He said that it was alreadyvery late to take the action andany further “over-study” willonly hurt the cause.

The senior geologist urgedthe government to start thedrilling and exploration

projects on the basis of readilyavailable studies, while carry-ing out the evaluation pro-cesses alongside.

Ashfaq Mahmood was alsoof the opinion that there was noneed to waste any further timeon experiments and studies,stressing upon bringing firstclass mining facilities in Paki-stan on urgent basis, be itthrough the private investments.

He suggested launching ofa full-fledged public sectorproject with assistance of AsianDevelopment Bank.

The capacity building of lo-cal resource, according to him,was also mandatory for long-term sustainability.—APP

THE use of a class of drugs called statinswhich treat high levels of cholesterol hasbeen associated with increased muscle

pain. The finding comes from a study publishedin the Journal of American College of Cardi-ology carried out by research-ers at the Center for HealthyAging at the University ofCopenhagen.

Statins are the most effec-tive drugs for lowering badcholesterol (LDL cholesterol).They achieve this by inhibit-ing the amount of cholesterolproduced by the liver. In theNetherlands around 40 percentof the population over the ageof 65 take statins, with closeto 600,000 taking the medica-tion.

One of the main side ef-fects of statin treatment is theincreased risk of developingmuscle pain. An estimated 75percent of people on the medi-cation report symptoms ofmuscle pain which can lead to problems withcompliance (adherence). According to Profes-sor Flemming Dela from the Centre for HealthyAging at the University of Copenhagen:

“A well-known side effect of statin therapyis muscle pain. Up to 75 per cent of the physi-cally active patients undergoing treatment forhigh cholesterol experience pain. This maykeep people away from either taking theirmedicine or from taking exercise - both ofwhich are bad choices. We have now shownthat statin treatment affects the energy produc-tion in muscles. We are working on the assump-tion that this can be the direct cause of muscleweakness and pain in the patients.”

Statin treatment associatedwith muscle pain

Punjab Labour Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar giving away shield to Athar Ali Yaad who stopped an out of control 22 wheeler trailer on Motorway byleaving his own car and family to prevent any dangerous mishap, on behalf of Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif.

The researchers found that patients onstatin therapy had low levels of the key pro-tein Q10 which along with energy depletioncould be the main reason for the developmentof muscle pain. A previous study carried out

by researchers from the Uni-versity of California, San Di-ego School of Medicine foundthat the severity of muscleproblems associated with useof statins is related to thestrength or potency of thedrug.

Nearly half of all patientsin Denmark on statin treat-ment are only prescribed thisdrug. This means that they aresolely being treated for highcholesterol and do not haveany other conditions thatcould affect their heart: Pro-fessor Flemming Dela adds:“The effect of statins is mar-ginal for these patients in aprevious published Cochraneanalysis only 0.5% reduction

in all-cause mortality was detected, indicatingthat for every 200 patients taking statins dailyfor five years, one death would be prevented.This patient group is obviously interesting inlight of the side effects of statin therapy.”

“The new study is the basis for a largeplanned research project, where we will focusbroadly on patients undergoing statin treatment.We will look at statin consumption from a medi-cal point of view, and will also investigate themedia’s influence on patients’ acceptance orrejection of statins as a treatment option. Manycontradictory views find their way into the pub-lic forum, and it can be difficult for patients todistinguish between fact and fiction.”

Gardeners rearranging flower pots at Mall Road to beautify Provincial Capital.

Chairman Evacuee Trust Siddiq-ul-Farooq speaks during Eid Milad-un-Nabi (SAWW) ceremony organised by the Trust.

Modern techniques to be adopted tosolve issue of terrorism: VC UET

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has said that national consensus ondealing effectively with terrorism is a good omen. Hesaid that Pakistan is in a state of war and the existingsituation demands extraordinary measures. He saidthat Pakistan can be made a strong and prosperouscountry only through eradication of terrorism. He saidthat every member of the society will have to play an

National consensus on dealing withterrorism a good omen: Shahbaz

active role for rooting out the menace of terrorism asthe wars are won with national unity and support ofthe masses.

He was talking to assembly members of vari-ous districts who met him, here Tuesday. TheChief Minister said that elimination of terrorismis essential for survival, stability and progress ofthe country besides ensuring a safe future for thecoming generations. He said that peace and lawand order will be restored in the country with the

speedy implementation of national action planagainst terrorism.

He said that elements playing with the innocentlives will meet their logical end while terrorism andextremism will be eliminated from the country at anycost. Those who met the Chief Minister includedAkhtar Bosal, Shaukat Manzoor Cheema, MunawarAhmed Gul, Malik Iftikhar Ahmed, Ch. MuhammadYousaf, Muhammad Saqlain Anwar Sipra, FaqirHusain Dogar and Ajmal Asif.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Provincial Minis-ter for Labour & Human Re-source Raja Ashfaq Sarwarpresented a shield to a bravecitizen Athar Ali Yaad on be-half of Punjab government inrecognition of his bravery.Athar Ali Yaad had risked hislife and stopped an out of con-trol trailer on motorway.

Addressing a functionheld in honor of a brave citi-zen Athar Ali Yaad arrangedby Punjab government at a lo-cal restaurant in Gulberg,Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said thatPunjab government highlyvalues the services of nationalheroes like Athar Ali whorisked his life for others. Hesaid that without caring own

Raja Ashfaq Sarwar presentshonourary shield to Athar Ali Yaad

life for the sake of others inthe society is the hallmark ofbrave people and such peopleare winning laurels for thecountry inside and abroad.

Talking to media on thisoccasion, Raja Ashfaq Sarwarsaid that Athar Ali tried tostop an out of control traileron a busiest road likemotorway upto two miles has

proved that Pakistani youthare very brave and capableand such people are pride forthe country and highlightingits positive image in theworld. He said that Athar AliYaad has saved a number ofprecious lives through hisbravery. Raja Ashfaq Sarwarsaid that he will recommendfederal and Punjab govern-

ment to award Athar Ali Yaadhighest civil award in recog-nition of his bravery.

Talking to journalists onthe occasion, Athar Ali Yaadsaid that seeing an out of con-trol trailer, he thought that itmight happen a serious acci-dent, therefore, despite stop-ping by his family, he tookthis step without caring his

life and succeeded in prevent-ing a serious accident. Hethanked Chief MinisterPunjab Muhammad ShahbazSharif on giving him a shield.Wife of Athar Ali Yaad, chil-dren Arsh Yaad Ali, AsarYaad Ali and prominent per-sonalities from various walksof life were present on theoccasion.

Comprehensive security plan forService Hospital finalized: MS

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Medical Superintendent (MS) Services Hospital Dr.Umer Farooq Baloch has said that a comprehensive security planfor the hospital has been finalized. In a statement issued here onTuesday, Dr Umer Farooq Baloch said that the plan has been pre-pared with the consultancy of security experts according to whichall the patients would be shifted to emergency and other wardsthrough by the staff and gate No 4 would be used for.

He further said that a monitoring room has been preparedfrom where all the wards and area within premises of hospitalwould be watched through cameras. He also told that more CCTv. Cameras are being installed in various parts of the hospital.Moreover, shuttle ambulance from Gate No 4 has also beenstarted. He told that Dr. Amir Mirza has been posted as the inCharge of security affairs.

Dr. Umer Farooq said that CC cameras have been installed atsecret spots of the hospital and security guards have also been givenwalky Talky sets to be contacted with each other. He also told thatthe back ground of newly appointed security guards would also beconfirmed from their police stations of their native towns.

He said that security arrangements for Doctors and Nursinghostel have also been improved and no one except employees ofthe hospital would be allowed to stay there. Even the parents orbrothers or sisters of the concerned doctors would be required toget approval from administration to stay there for one or towdays, he added.

Dr Umer directed the works department to complete the projectof raising the hospital walls and put barbed wire as early as possible.He said that venders and beggars would not be allowed to get in thehospital. He also directed the staff to immediately inform the ad-ministration if they find some one or some thing suspicious.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—University of Engineeringand Technology (UET) Vice-Chan-cellor Prof. Dr. Fazal Ahmad Khalidsaid that we should adopt advancedtechniques of research in Islamic per-spective specially to solve the issuesof terrorism and extremism.

He expressed his views while vis-iting department of Islamic Studies,Laser and Optronics Centre and AutoMotive Centre here on Tuesday.

During the visit of Islamic StudiesDepartment Hafiz Dr. Israeel Farooqiwarmly welcomed the Vice-Chancellor.VC Dr. Fazal Ahmad Khalid said ourattitude should be balanced.

“Tolerance is the best policy to sur-vive as the Islam is the religion ofPeace. We must know the social ethicsand importance of cultural values,” headded.

Prof. Dr. Shahid Rafique, DirectorLaser and Optronics Centre gave thebriefing to the Vice-Chacellor about the

research activities of the centre. Prof.Dr. Fazal Ahmad Khalid said that weshould contribute in the solution ofMedical problems to use the advancetechniques of Laser and Plasma.

Prof. Dr. Fiaz Hussain Shah DeanMechanical Engineering Departmentwelcomed the Vice-Chancellor in Au-tomotive Centre. Keeping in view theimportance of Mechanical Engineer-ing the VC said that we should es-tablish such kinds of centres for thepromotion of technical education.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Lahore Waste Management Com-pany (LWMC) has launched a massive cleanli-ness and awareness campaign in the northernLahore, mainly in 16 Union Councils of Wahga& Aziz Bhatti Town, in order to improve state ofcleanliness and mobilize local residents on theuse of waste containers. Campaign will last till28th January and will be comprised of cleanupoperations, removal of waste from open plots,

LWMC launches month longcleanliness campaign in northern Lahore

setting up camps for awareness and on spotredressal of complaints and awareness walks.

On the first day of campaign at Darogha Wala,an awareness walk was carried out which waslead by Senior Manager Operation LWMC SuhailAnwar Malik, Senior Manager OperationsAlbayrak Hussain Kartal and CommunicationHead LWMC Jamil Khawar. Local residents weresensitised on sanitation & use of waste binsthrough briefing, distribution of leaflets and ac-tivities by mascot characters.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has said that National Assem-bly has performed a great national obligationby unanimously approving 21st constitutionalamendment. He said parliamentarians haveproved that they are fully aware of peoples’ prob-

National assembly hasperformed national obligation

lems and the critical nature of the situation.He said that extraordinary measures are

needed in extraordinary situation. The ChiefMinister said that national leadership has giventhe message of exemplary unity and consensusin the war against terrorism and unanimous ap-proval of 21st constitutional amendment is animportant step in the war against terrorists.