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Riyadh to ‘shift away from US’ over Syria, Iran: BandarNo further coordination with US over war in Syria

DOHA—Saudi Arabia’s intelli-gence chief has said the king-dom will make a “major shift”in relations with the UnitedStates in protest at its perceivedinaction over the Syria war andits overtures to Iran, a sourceclose to Saudi policy said onTuesday.

Prince Bandar bin Sultantold European diplomats thatWashington had failed to acteffectively on the Syria crisisand the Israeli-Palestinian con-

flict, was growing closer toTehran, and had failed to backSaudi support for Bahrain whenit crushed an anti-governmentrevolt in 2011, the source said.

“The shift away from theU.S. is a major one,” the sourceclose to Saudi policy said.“Saudi doesn’t want to find it-self any longer in a situationwhere it is dependent.” TheUnited States and Saudi Arabiahave been allies since the king-dom was declared in 1932, giv-

ing Riyadh a powerful militaryprotector and Washington secureoil supplies.

The prince’s initiative fol-lows a surprise Saudi decisionon Friday to reject a covetedtwo-year term on the U.N. Se-curity Council in protest at“double standards” at the UnitedNations.

Prince Bandar, who wasSaudi ambassador to Washing-ton for 22 years, is seen as a for-eign policy hawk, especially on

Iran. The Sunni Muslimkingdom’s rivalry with Shi’iteIran, an ally of Syria, has am-plified sectarian tensionsacross the Middle East.

“Prince Bandar told dip-lomats that he plans to limitinteraction with the U.S.,” thesource close to Saudi policysaid. “This happens after theU.S. failed to take any effec-tive action on Syria and Pal-estine.

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US drone strikes may be tantamount to war crimes: AmnestyTime for US to come clean about drones programme and hold those responsible for these violations to accountISLAMABAD—New evidenceindicates that the United Statesof America has carried out un-lawful killings in Pakistanthrough drone attacks, some ofwhich could even amount towar crimes, Amnesty Interna-tional said in a major new re-port released Tuesday. The re-port, “’Will I be next’ USdrone strikes in Pakistan”, isone of the most comprehensivestudies to date of the US droneprogramme from a humanrights perspective. It docu-ments recent killings inPakistan’s tribal areas and the

almost complete absence oftransparency around the USdrone programme. “Secrecy sur-

rounding thed r o n e sp r o g r a m m egives the US ad-ministration alicense to killbeyond thereach of thecourts or basicstandards of in-ternational law.

It’s time forthe USA tocome clean

about the drones programme andhold those responsible for theseviolations to account,” said

Mustafa Qadri, AmnestyInternational’s Pakistan Re-searcher. “What hope for redresscan there be for victims of droneattacks and their families whenthe USA won’t even acknowl-edge its responsibility for par-ticular strikes?”

Amnesty International re-viewed all 45 known dronestrikes that took place in NorthWaziristan in northwestern Pa-kistan between January 2012and August 2013.

The region that has seenmore strikes than any other partof the country. The organization

conducted detailed field re-search into nine of these strikes,with the report documenting

killings, which raise seriousquestions about violations ofinternational law that could

amount to war crimes or extra-judicial executions.

have been deteriorating for awhile, as Saudi feels that theU.S. is growing closer withIran and the U.S. also failed tosupport Saudi during theBahrain uprising.”

The source declined to pro-vide more details of Bandar’stalks with the diplomats, whichtook place in the past few days.

But he suggested that theplanned change in ties betweenthe energy superpower and its

India, China to sign landmarkpact on border cooperation

BEIJING—Prime MinisterManmohan Singh arrived hereon Tuesday on a three-day visitduring which India and Chinaare expected to ink several keypacts, including an agreement ona mechanism to prevent incur-sions by Chinese troops alongthe line of actual control.

Singh, who arrived herefrom Russia, will hold talks withChinese President Xi Jinpingand Premier Li Keqiang on

Wednesday on a host of issues.He will also meet ZhangDejiang, chairman of the Na-tional People’s Congress, theChinese parliament.

Besides the Border DefenceCooperation Agreement, a seriesof pacts are expected to besigned after his talks with Li,officials said.

The landmark agreement onborder cooperation — expectedto be signed on Wednesday —

is aimed to avoid face-offs be-tween the arimes of the twocountries like in Depsang val-ley in Ladakh recently. How-ever, plans for putting in place aliberalized visa regime look elu-sive.

Prime Minister ManmohanSingh, who arrived here to awarm reception on his three-dayvisit, will meet Chinese PremierLi Keqiang on Wednesday after

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SC seekstariff formulafrom NEPRAOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad ChaudhryTuesday told National ElectricPower Regulatory Authorityto explain as to how itdetermined the formula forpower tariff hike followingthe directive of the govern-ment.

Presiding over theproceedings of the case inconnection withloadshedding, the ChiefJustice remarked that if thegovernment is unwilling togive subsidy on electricity itmay decide to do so, as primafacie the government is onlyhelping the IPPs through itssubsidy.

He said the apex court willdecide as to whether the power

LPG extractionlicense case:Ruling reservedISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt on Tuesday reserved itsruling on the LiquefiedPetroleum Gas (LPG)extraction license case.

The case was heard byChief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry. Duringthe hearing, Minister for Waterand Power KhawajaMohammad Asif presented hisarguments before the court.Asif said he was not worriedabout losing his post ofminister, adding that he wouldcontinue to perform his dutieswith honesty and would assistthe court on the matter.

After completion of theminister’s arguments, the courtconcluded the case’s hearingand reserved its ruling on thematter.

A three-judge bench ofthe apex court headed by thechief justice had taken up thepetition of Khawaja Asif whoas an opposition member hadchallenged the grant in 2003 of

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Imran: AI hasvindicatedour standABDUL KHALIQ

ABBOTTABAD—PTI Chair-man Imran Khan Tuesdaystated he and the Pakistan

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PML-N alwaysopposes dronecampaign: PR

STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter for Information and Broad-casting, Pervaiz Rashid saidContinued on Page 7

US deniesit violatedint’l law

WASHINGTON—The UnitedStates on Tuesday denied sug-gestions by rightsorganisation Amnesty Inter-

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Drone strikes major irritantin ties with US: Nawaz

Kashmir a flashpoint in the world, ready to go ‘extra mile’ to make peacewith India Pak-US ties should be based on mutual interest and respect

WASHINGTON—Prime Minis-ter Muhammad Nawaz Sharif onTuesday described Pakistan-USrelationship as ‘vital’ that had

scope for building a strong part-nership, but called for endingAmerican drone attacks onPakistan’s territory being a ‘ma-jor irritant’ in the bilateral ties.

He was speaking at the USInstitute of Peace, a think tankwhere the gathering included USAmbassador to Pakistan Rich-

ard Olson, Aid CoordinatorAmbassaodr Robin Raphel, andtop American experts on SouthAsian affairs. The Prime Minis-ter, who is due to meet President

Barack Obama today, said therelationship should be based onmutual interest and respect. Hesaid drone strikes were a viola-tion of Pakistan’s territorial in-tegrity. They were also detri-mental to Islamabad’s resolveand efforts at eliminating terror-ism from the country. The droneoperations, he said, had agitatedand disturbed the Pakistanis.“This issue has become a major

irritant in our bilateral relation-ship — I would, therefore, stressthe need for end to drone at-tacks.”

Contrary to perceptions, hesaid, Pakistan-US relations hadstood the test of time. Despitethe occasional hiccups, the solidfoundation of this vital relation-ship has always weathered theoccasion storms and turbulence,

WASHINGTON—Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharifaddressing a gathering at the US Institute of Peace.

WASHINGTON—On the eveof talks between Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif and PresidentBarack Obama, the WhiteHouse described the U.S.-Pa-kistan relationship as “enor-mously valuable”, saying de-spite some differences Wash-ington wants the ties to proceed

White House: US-Pak ties‘enormously valuable’

Obama, Nawaz to hold talks todayon positive trajectory. “ThePresident looks forward to wel-coming Prime Minister Sharifto the White House on Wednes-day.

The Prime Minister’s offi-cial visit comes as we arestrengthening U.S.-Pakistan re-

PM’s US visit

Opposition not taken intoconfidence: Khurshid

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Expressing dis-may over not been taken intoconfidence before Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif’s visit to theUnited States, the leader of theOpposition in National Assem-bly and Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) stalwart Syed KhurshidShah has claimed that the resto-ration of aid on which the Paki-stan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) led federal govern-ment was making merrimentswas actually part and parcel ofKerry-Lugar Bill.

Talking to media here Mon-day Shah said some of the in-stallments of the Kerry-Lugar

Bill had been blocked over notaccepting the demands of US.He said that the slain leader

Benazir Bhuttohad not signedNRO for thesake of powerbut for the res-toration of de-mocracy. Henoted that itwas BenazirBhutto who

paved the way for Sharif broth-ers to come back to Pakistan.

The PPP veteran leader saidthat the opposition was not takeninto confidence over Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif’s visit to the

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IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Functional (PMLF)Secretary General and SpecialAssistant to the Prime Ministerof Pakistan, Imtiaz Shaikh hasappealed to the former PresidentAsif Ali Zardari to have mercyon the people of the Sindh prov-ince and appoint an active mem-ber of the provincial assemblyas the leader of the House andCaptain.

Shaikh said that Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Qaim Ali Shahhad failed to perform and his

PML-F demandsremoval of Sindh CM

previous 5 year tenure as the CMwas an utter manifest of his fail-ure. The Sindh province wasagain inflicted with lawlessnessand turned into a heap of prob-lems.

He was talking to the news-men at Functional House inClifton Tuesday. Jam MadadAli, Dr Taj, Qasim SirajSoomro, Nadeem MirzarKalarand other PMLF leaders werepresent.

He asked when the CM wasunable to maintain law and or-der in his own district it was

ECP suspends26 MPs forfailing to

declare assetsOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan sus-pended the membership of 26members of parliament and theprovincial assembly for non-declaration of assets on Tuesday.

According to the notifica-tion‚ those suspended includetwo senators‚ three members ofthe National Assembly‚ fourmembers of the Punjab Assem-bly‚ nine members of the SindhAssembly‚ seven members ofthe Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa As-sembly and one member of theBalochistan Assembly.

Aside from those memberswho were suspended, dozens ofothers have yet to declare theirassets. Federal minsters who didnot declare their assets includethe Minister of State KhurrumDastgir, Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs ShaikhAftab Ahmad, Rehman Malik,Mustafa Kamal and Faisal RazaAbidi.

The ECP was supposed toissue a notification on Mondayto suspend membership of 40lawmakers from the NationalAssembly and provincial as-semblies for not submitting de-tails of their assets and liabili-ties.

A weak and vague provi-sion, that seeks the members ofparliament and provincial as-semblies to declare their wealthevery year, was inserted in the

Karachi rape case

Accused handed over topolice on 5-day remandKARACHI—The accused whosexually assaulted a teenage girland later threw her off from thesecond floor in Defence areawas handed over to the policeon five days physical remand onTuesday.

Police presented the ac-cused, Khalid Baloch, in the ju-dicial magistrate East court onTuesday where he pleaded inno-cent. The investigating officertold that the victim is uncon-scious and her statement will be

recorded only after she regainssenses. He added that identifi-cation parade will also be ar-ranged for her to identify theculprit.

The court granted five daysphysical remand of the accused.

It may be mentioned that thegirl was raped and pushed off asecond-floor balcony in Defenceon Monday in an attemptedmurder case.

Police described the suspectContinued on Page 7

PML-N chairman rejectsIndian claim on KashmirKashmir dispute still alive on UN agenda: Zafar

ISLAMABAD—Chairman Paki-stan Muslim League-N andLeeder of the house in SenateRaja Zafarul Haq Tuesday saidKashmir dispute was still aliveon the United Nations agendaand Pakistan wanted to resolveit through peaceful means. Ad-dressing press conference hereat PML-N Secretariat, hesaid,India thinks that Kas mir isits integral part but Pakistan didnot agree to this stance.

He said India needed to re-solve the Kashmir issue accord-ing to the UN resolutions as it isa core issue and can be settled

through resolutions of the inter-national body. Indian foreign

minister, he said, had consis-tently given statementsin re-sponse to the speech made byPrime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif at the United Na-tions General Assembly.

He said Nawaz Sharif ap-pealed to the world communityto help Kashmiris in getting theirright to self- determination.Pakistan is desirous of peace inthe region, he said adding PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif adopteda categorical stand on Kashmirissue. Senator Zafarul Haq saidthat Pakistan would continue to

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Shinde rejectsthird party

interventionJAMMU—Union Home Min-ister Sushilkumar Shinde onTuesday sent a strong mes-sage in Jammu, telling Paki-stan that Jammu and Kashmir

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DefenceSecy tendersapology to SCISLAMABAD—The DefenceSecretary on Tuesday tenderedunconditional apology to theSupreme Court of Pakistanhere over not holding localbodies elections in cantonmentboard areas.

Earlier, the SupremeCourt had issued a contemptof court notice for notholding the local bodies’elections in cantonmentboard areas as per directionof the apex court.

The Defence Secretarywas directed to file a writtenreply within 10 days.

Secretary Defence Lt-Gen(retd) Asif Yasin Maliksubmitting his reply throughhis counsel Iftikhar Gilaniadvocate to the notice

CM for recoveryof looted money

of Nandipurpower project

GUJRANWALA—Punjab ChiefMinister Shahbaz Sharif saidthat National AccountabilityBureau should recover lootedmoney as well as profit from theplunderers.

He was talking to media af-ter a briefing during his visit toNandipur power project nearGujranwala on Tuesday.

He added that Nandipurpower project is of vital nationalimportance but unfortunatelythis splendid project remainedsuspended for two and a halfyears due to greed and lust ofmoney of the former rulers. —Online

I S L A M A B A D — F o r e i g nMinister signals ‘positivehopes’ for neuroscientistDr. Aafia Siddiqui, as hercase summary is sent to theCouncil of Europe for ap-proval , media quotingsources reported on Tues-day.

As reported by Britishbased news website, theCouncil of Europe hasstarted working on the caseof Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s re-lease. Once approved i twould further require sig-nature within 2 months, sothat the process maybe fol-lowed.

According to the re-port, on his trip to the US,Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif will raise theissue of the neurosurgeonwhile his visit.

The FM sent the sum-mary of Dr. Aafia Siddiquibefore Eid ul Azha after theapproval from federal cabi-net .

Sources claim, there is

a fair chance that the neu-roscientist may get a re-lease sooner. Once the caseofficially gets underway inthe Council of Europe, ap-proval will be taken from

the member countries in-cluding the US who has arole of observer. Accordingto the rules and regulationsapproval need to be givenwithin 2 months.

Aafia Siddiqui wascharged as criminal inMarch 2003 and was al-

leged for financing for AlQaida and was placed inmost wanted criminals byFBI. Subsequently, shevanished and was caughtin Ghazni, Afghanistan. InSeptember 2008 she was al-leged to murder and assaultthe authorities of the US,although she denied.

Aafia Siddiqui wascharged 86 years of impris-onment in 2010 which re-sulted in protests in vari-ous parts of Pakistan in herfavour.

Her sister FouziaSiddiqui hopes that she re-turns to Pakistan as soonas possible and for thispurpose she has continu-ously been in contact withpolitical and humanitarianorganizations of the coun-try. She received her PhDin 2001 from Brandeis Uni-versity and came to Paki-stan in early 2003 beforeshe was alleged to be as-sociated with banishedoutfit.—Online

FESCO shutdownF A I S A L A B A D — T h eFaisalabad Electric SupplyCompany (FESCO) has is-sued a shutdown notice forrepair, maintenance and ex-pansion of electricity lines.

According to the noticeissued by the companyhere on Tuesday, powersupply from Liaqat Abad,Lakkhar Mandi, BakkarMandi and Sheikh Colonyfeeders emanating from 132-KV Jhang Road grid stationwill remain suspended from7 am to 1 pm while PindiSheikh Musa, Rehmay Shahand Aalam Shah feedersoriginating from 132-KVTandlianwala grid stationwill observe shutdown from8 am to 2 pm on Wednes-day (October 23).

Similarly, electricity supplyfrom Torianwala, Rajana, Kotla,Aslam Shaheed, Mureedwala,Soondh, Mamonkanjan,Bangla, Noor Mehal, DaryaBal, Lasoori.—APP

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakthunkhwa governmenthas decided to launch spe-cial’ National ImmunizationCampaign’ (NIC) in six dis-tricts of the province to vac-cinate 1.5 million childrenunder five years of age tomake the country polio free.“We have completed all thearrangements to launch spe-cial NICs in six districts fromWednesday. Vaccination of1.5 million children in thesedistricts is our target,” offi-cials at EPI CommunicationCell KP Govt told APP onTuesday.

The campaign would belaunched in Bannu, DI Khan,Kohat, Lakki Marwat,Peshawar and Tank districts.As many as 4343 teams in-cluding 404 fixed, 3678 mo-bile and 261 transits havebeen formed to make the

campaign a success. Theteams would be assisted byvolunteers, lady healthworks and officials of na-tional building departmentsand Deputy Commissionarshave been asked to monitorthe campaigns in their re-spective districts. He saidsufficient vaccination wasavailable for upcoming cam-paigns and foolproof secu-rity is being given to fieldstaff and appreciated the co-operation of polio and othersecurity agencies in this re-gard.

The official said 13 polioworkers including policemenhad lost their lives this yearin line of duty. The officialsaid the polio cases hasstarted significant reductionin Khyber Pakthunkhwa dueto holding of vigorous immu-nization and advocacy cam-

paigns as only seven caseswere reported this yearagainst 27 reported last yearfrom the province. In 2012, atotal of 58 cases had beenreported from the countrywhile only 46 cases reportedthis year. The officials saidtwo cases were reportedfrom Punjab, seven from KP,three from Sindh and 34 fromFata this year.

Two cases were reportedfrom Peshawar, two fromMardan and one each fromBannu, Kohat and Malakandrespectively, showing a sig-nificant reduction. One of themajor reasons in its reduc-tions is regular holding ofNational Immunization Daysand Sub National Immuniza-tion Days, decrease in refusalcases, rising mass aware-ness, he said, adding timewas not for away when this

ailment would be completelywiped out from our province.The official said polio viruscan be transmitted throughuse of contaminated water orfood and spreads primarilythrough the fecal-oral route,especially in areas wheresanitation is inadequate, say-ing polio is so contagiousthat anyone living with a re-cently infected person islikely to become infected too.

However, he said, poliowas not a hereditary diseaseand this virus still exist inAfghanistan, Nigeria andPakistan. He said securitysituation, left out children,refusal cases, crosses bordermovement and religious fac-tor are the major reasons,which are hampering our ef-forts in complete eradicationof this crippling disease. Theofficial said once a child was

attacked by polio viruscould not be recovered andwill spend his/her whole lifein disability.

He said it was the re-sponsibility of the parentsand guardians to bringtheir children to nearesthospitals and BHUs in caseanti polio teams did not ar-rive to their homes. Theyalso appealed parents tocomplete the others preven-tive vaccination courses aswell. The official said greatresponsibilities lied on me-dia persons to write col-umns, features stories andnews articles besides docu-mentaries highlighting thecauses, investigations andtreatment of polio virus onregular basis for informationand education of people tomake Pakistan polio freecountry.—APP

Anti-polio campaign lunched in six districts

Breakthrough expectedfor Aafia Siddiqui

QUETTA—Balochistan gov-ernment once again warnedthe disgruntled Balochs torefrain from attacking inno-cent people and offered themto hold dialogue with thegovernment for the amicablesolution to the issue ofBalochistan.

“Targeting women andchildren is against the normsand traditions of Balochs,and those involved in suchacts were not serving anycause”, said Home MinisterBalochistan, Mir SarfarazBugti while addressing apress conference here at CivilSecretariat.

Expressing his concernover the increasing incidentsof attacks on train and gov-ernment installations, he saidthat inquiry committee hasbeen formed to probe into the

Govt renewsdialogue offer toend insurgency

DMJ train attack and thoseresponsible for the loopholesin the security apparatuswould be taken to task. “Con-certed security plan has beendevised to halt the organizedcrimes such as target killings,kidnapping for ransom andhighway robberies”, he main-tained.

He noted that incum-bent government was pur-suing very clear policy ofreconciliation and believesin dialogue to halt insur-gency more effectively.“We are democratic peopleand seeking way out of theissues only through talks”,he added. To a question,Home minister alleged thatlack of seriousness in pre-vious regimes led to the grimpoor law and order in theprovince.—APP

HYDERABAD—Around 154million people suffer from de-pression in different parts of theworld, among them 25 millionpeople are in grip of schizophre-nia, impairment in the percep-tion of reality. Eminent consult-ant psychiatrist Dr AbdulHameed Memon addressing aseminar on the topic of mentalhealth at S J Institute here saidthat the mental illnesses arecommon to countries of allsorts and people with thesedisorders are often subjectedto social isolation, poor qualityof life and increased death ratesinvolving suicides.

He said that there weremany factors contributory tohigh rates of mental health

problems in Pakistan. Theinter-family marriages, highrates of birth injuries, eco-nomic decline, growing un-employment and rapidlychanging cultural and socialvalues are some of thecauses, he added. Dr Memonsaid that untreated disordersbring about unhealthybehaviour, non-diminishedimmune functioning. He saidPakistan is a country of 160million people and a largesegment of its populationsuffers from mental illnesses.

Dr. Abdul HameedMemon said that due to lackof awareness, people with psy-chological and emotional prob-lems often visit faith healers,

spiritual leaders, homeopathicdoctors, magicians and hakimsonly to be abused by them.There are limited numbers ofmental health professionals inthe country, he said. Dr. AbdulHameed Memon underlinedthe need for improving psychi-atric education at undergradu-ate and postgraduate level,adding the foreign experts par-ticipating in educational re-search workshop recom-mended that one third of finalyear MBBS should be utilisedfor studying psychiatry. Dr.Abdul Hameed Memon sug-gested that steps should betaken to remove the stigma at-tached to mental health prob-lems and their treatment.—APP

Over 154m people sufferfrom depression across world

BATKHELA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Secretary, Syed Akhtar Ali Shah giving Sword of Honour to Levies Cadet,Muhammad Sohail during passing out parade.

MULTAN—Minister for Rail-ways Khawaja Saad RafiqTuesday vowed to turn Pa-kistan Railways (PR) a prof-

Saad offers to quit if failsto make PR profitable

itable department saying thatthe government would utilizeall possible sources to putRailways on track. Address-

ing a press conference hereafter a surprised visit ofMultan Railway Station, theminister said PR was runningin loss since four decades butthe government is trying tomake it a profitable entity.

He said there are lots ofproblems the Pakistan Rail-ways is facing from enginespare parts to stations wash-rooms added that his minis-try looking every problemone by one and his surprisevisits were proof of his de-termination to put PR ontrack of progress. Rafiquesaid he was confident thatthe railways department’slosses would be reduced infour years and vowed to quitthe ministry if he failed todeliver.

He said an operation wasunderway to retrieve hun-dred of acres of illegally oc-cupied railways’ land. He

said good officers would bepromoted for betterment ofRailway Department.Khwaja Saad Rafiq said thegovernment had prepared acomprehensive plan to makethe railways a productiveand profit-earning depart-ment.

When he took over theministry, he said, the rail-ways had swallowed Rs80billion of other departmentsand the process continuedat the rate of Rs30bn a year.Some reforms introduced byhim have led to a revenueincrease of Rs2.18bn overthe past three months.

“I was told that out oforder locomotives could notbe repaired but we workedday and night and succeededin bringing 25 locomotiveson the track, and they are nowbeing used to run freighttrains,” he said.—Online

MULTAN: Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja SaadRafiq visiting Multan Cantonment Railway Station.

QUETTA: Patients looking for doctors in the OPD of Civil Hospital as the doctors inBalochistan’s government-run hospital continued their strike over the abduction ofsenior doctor Munaf Tareen.

Baby born onfootpath dies

FAISALABAD—In Allied Hos-pital Faisalabad a mothergave birth to a child on thepavement outside the hospi-tal emergency. The child diedlater on owing to the negli-gence of the doctors. Therelatives of the womenstaged a protest and blockedthe road. According to re-ports, a resident of Fatehgarhwas expecting and was takento the Allied Hospital inFaisalabad. Owing to the lackof immediate healthcare, shegave birth outside the emer-gency of the hospital.

The enraged relatives ofthe victims staged protestand blocked the road. Theysaid they reached the hospi-tal at 3 pm but they were notallowed to enter the emer-gency, which resulted in thedeath of the newly born. Thehospital administration saidthe pregnant woman wasbrought to the hospital at 7pm and the newly born hadalready died in the womb ofthe mother. The protestersdispersed on the arrival of thepolice.—INP

Persistent LoC violationsISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for GilgitBaltistan and Kashmir Affairs ChaudhryBirjees Tahir Tuesday said that Indianforces continuously violating Line ofControl (LoC) which could cause diffi-cult situation. In a meeting with ChiefMinister GB Syed Mehdi Shah, the min-ister expressed serious concern overthe continuous silence of Internationalcommunity on Kashmir issue. ChiefMinister GB, Syed Mehdi Shah said that

more than 0.7 million Indian Army was busy in torturinginnocent Kashmiris in Indian held Kashmir (IHK). He saidthat Kashmiris are a brave nation and would continuestruggle for their self-determination. The minister for GilgitBaltistan and Kashmir Affairs said that International com-munity should have to play their role for resolving Kash-mir issue for global peace. He said that Kashmir issueshould be resolved according to the UN resolutions andKashmiri’s aspirations for peace in the region. On October19, a Pakistani military official said a civilian was killed andtwo others were injured in the same region. Pakistan ac-cused India of killing a paramilitary soldier in “unprovokedfiring” across the border on October 18, also in the Sialkotarea. On October 15, Indian troops had opened shellingfrom across the LoC, injuring a woman. The Indian shell-ing had hit the civilian population of Datoot village ofNakyal Tehsil of Kotli. On October 11, Indian troops hadfired mortars across the LoC, killing a child and woundingthree other people. Furthermore, on September 2 the In-dian Army had carried out unprovoked shelling in theNakyal sector leaving numerous children stranded insidea local school. On August 27, at least five people, includ-ing two women and a girl, were injured by heavy shellingand unprovoked firing in the same area. The continuousshelling and bombardment across the LoC had forced thenatives to flee.—APP

Anti Terrorism ForcePESHAWAR—The Awami National Party(ANP) parliamentary leader in KhyberPakthunkhwa Assembly, Sardar HussainBabak on Tuesday urged the Governmentto focus on capacity building, training andstrengthening of police force law and or-der situation instead of raising a new AntiTerrorism Force(ATF). In a press statementissued here, the minister said establishmentof the ATF in Khyber Pakthunkhwa wouldbe wastage of time. He said the province

can’t afford new experiences in the prevailing difficult law andorder situation. He suggested the Government to make specialarrangements for the capacity building and training of policeforce for improvement of law and order situation in the prov-ince. To raise the moral of people and forces and improve lawand order, he said, it was the need for the hour that the Govern-ment should fulfill the requirements of the Police Force insteadof raising a new force to counter militancy and terrorism. Hesaid the ANP Government in its tenure had not only fulfilled thepolice’s requirements but also brought goal oriented reformsfor improvement of their training, police stations and policeposts. Babak also suggested a clear policy to counter terror-ism. The KP government October 18 held an emergency meet-ing where cabinet members agreed to launch the new force andrequested the federal government declare KP a “hard area.”That designation is used in cases where the province wants tostep up recruitment of police from other areas of the country.The move came two days after Ansar-ul-Mujahideen, a splin-ter Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, launched a sui-cide attack that killed KP Law Minister Israrullah KhanGandapur.—APP

Action against absent employeesPESHAWAR—Special Assistant to ChiefMinister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa forHousing, Malik Amjad Khan Afridi haswarned all government employees, par-ticularly of the staffers of educationaland health facilities to ensure attendanceon their duties and in case of absencestrict action would be taken againstthem. He issued these warnings duringhis surprise visit District HeadquartersHospital (DHQ), Kohat on Tuesday.

Commissioner, Kohat Division, Syed Jamaluddin Shah alsoaccompanied the special assistant. During the Special As-sistant to the Chief Minister besides checking the atten-dance of doctors, paramedics and nursing staff also paiddetailed visit to all wards of the hospital. Though, he ex-pressed satisfaction over the attendance of doctors andother staff, but for bringing further improvement, he directedthe Medical Superintendent (MS) for preparing a detailedreport in this regard. Amjad Khan Afridi said the provisionof better medical facilities to the people is the top priority ofthe PTI government in the province. For this purpose, hesaid the provincial government has prepared a comprehen-sive plan to guarantee the provision of quality medical fa-cilities in the public sector hospitals. He said the implemen-tation of the plan has already started and attributed theprovision of free emergency services in all hospitals of theprovince part of the plan. The KP government has made allpreparations for the proposed joint police and army opera-tion against criminals and anti-state elements in PeshawarDivision and its suburb as attacks on the personnel of lawenforcing agencies have increased during the recent monthswhereas extortionists in the provincial capital and the ad-joining rural areas are also very active.—APP

Payment of salaries to male-mobilizerPESHAWAR—Special Assistant to ChiefMinister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Popu-lation Welfare, Shakeel Ahmad KhanTuesday directed the authorities of con-cerned department to immediately paythree months salaries to male-mobilizers.In a statement issued here, he warnedstrict action would be taken against theofficials of the department in case ofnon-payment, adding that PTI govern-ment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is com-

mitted to protecting rights of government servants. Hecriticized previous governments of the province for nottaking measures to protect the rights of government em-ployees which resulted in disappointment among the em-ployees. He said the sitting government is making suchpolicies that would resolve the issues of government ser-vants and also protect their rights. He, however, stressedupon civil servants to perform their duties with honestyso that the people might not face difficulties. It was earlierreported from Hyderabad that a large number of lady healthworkers held a protest demonstration outside the localpress club and torched a couple of the hand-carry ice boxesmeant for keeping polio vaccines during the door-to-doorcampaign. LHWY president Rukhsana Mughal, generalsecretary Raheela Shaikh told the media that 1,200 womenworkers and 200 other staff engaged in the anti-polio workhad not been paid their salaries since July although theyhad been doing their jobs to the entire satisfaction of theauthorities concerned. They said they would not resumetheir work until they were assured of the disbursement oftheir dues. During the protest, some of them revealed thatthey were being provided substandard or expired vaccineswhich were ineffective.—APP

HYDERABAD—The increas-ing air pollution and dust haveraised the number of allergicasthmatic patients in urbanpopulace of Hyderabad andthere is the need for forma-tion of effective strategy incontrolling air pollution. Emi-nent pulmonologist and Headof the Department ofPulmonology, Liaquat Uni-versity of Medical and HealthSciences (LUMHS) JamshoroDr. Rashid Ahmed Khan ex-pressed his concern over in-creasing allergic asthmaticdisease in Hyderabad in an in-terview with this scribe onMonday.

He said smoke of increas-ing number of new and unfitvehicles as well as dust,which are in air because ofdevelopment work, were themain reasons for increasingallergic asthmatica amongthe residents of urban locali-ties. Dr Rashid Ahmed saidthe cigarette smoke, animaldander, mold spores, house

dust, feather pillows, somefoods, or other sensitive sub-stance, infections, emotionalstress, fatigue, endocrine andclimate changes are also themain sources of eruption ofthe disease among the people.

He said that asthma is anallergic disorder that ischaracterised by spasm ofthe muscles in the walls ofthe small air passages to thelungs, which results in theshortness of breath andwheezing. About symptoms,he informed that an attackmay begin gradually; result-ing in increasing respiratorydistress and it could also be-gin dramatically with the on-set of severe multiple symp-toms such as tightness in thechest, difficulties in inhalingand exhaling and coughing.Feelings of suffocation anddifficulty in speaking couldalso occur, he added.

Dr Rashid said thatasthma sufferers rarely diefrom an asthma attack, but the

feeling of suffocation as theirairways begin to close oftenmakes them fear that theyhave already gasped their lastbreath. He said that asthma isthe disorder of the respiratorysystem in which the passagesthat enable air to pass into andout of the lungs periodicallynarrow, causing coughing,wheezing, and shortness ofbreath. This narrowing is typi-cally temporary and revers-ible, but in severe attacks,asthma may result in death.

Another type is mostcommonly referred to as bron-chial asthma, an inflammationof the airways, but the term isalso used to refer to cardiacasthma, which developswhen fluid builds up in thelungs as a complication ofheart failure and this articlefocuses on bronchial asthma,Dr. Rashid Ahmed added. Hesaid that every cell in the hu-man body requires oxygen tofunction and the lungs makethat oxygen available.—APP

Two FC soldiersinjured in rocket

attackPESHAWAR—Two personnelof Frontier Constabulary (FC)were injured in rockets firedby Afghan terrorists inMamund tehsil, Bajauragency, said security sourceson Tuesday. According to thesecurity sources, three rock-ets were fired from the Afghanside at a security check postat Sarakai in Bajaur Agency,causing injuries to two FCtroops. The rockets were re-portedly fired from Konarprovince of Afghanistan bythe militants.—APP

52 moreconfirmed withdengue virus

SWAT—As many as 52 morepatients have been con-firmed with dengue virus dur-ing last 24 hours while 32patients of the disease havebeen discharge from hospi-tal in satisfactory health con-ditions. A spokesman SaiduSharif Hospital, Wasil Khaninformed here Tuesday.

He said that at present 131patients of dengue virus includ-ing 31 women and 8 childrenwere under treatment in thehospital among which 13 pa-tients were in critical condi-tions. He said that precariouspatients have been under treat-ment in Intensive Care Unit ofthe Hospital. Dr Wasil said atotal of 4862 patients of den-gue fever were admitted and4575 patients have been re-lieved from the Hospital.—APP

PESHAWAR—The police ar-rested 40 criminals includingthree proclaimed offendersduring search operation indifferent areas of the city onTuesday and recovered armsand drugs from their posses-sion. According to details,heavy contingent of police,on directives of IG KhyberPakhtunkhwa, conductedsearch operations in differentareas of the city includingMathra, Khazana, Dilazak

and Paharipura.During crackdowns, the

police nabbed 40 criminalsincluding three proclaimedoffenders. The police alsoclaimed to have recoveredarms and drugs from the pos-session of the detained cul-prits. Separate cases wereregistered against thenabbed accused at con-cerned police stations andinvestigation was inprogress.—INP

PESHAWAR—Special Assis-tant to Chief MinisterMushtaq Ahmed GhaniTuesday said PTI led provin-cial government is committedto utilizing all available re-sources for promotion ofeducation and maintenanceof peace in the province.

Addressing a delegationof National Youth Assemblyhere at his office, he said thatpeace and prosperity canonly be maintained in thecountry if all the stakehold-ers start promoting dialoguewith honesty. He said thecountry cannot prosperous

until and unless the educa-tion is promoted and peaceis restored, adding that thegovernment of KhyberPakhtunkhwa would notleave any stone unturned toachieve the purpose.

He lauded the membersof National Youth Assemblythat included Minister forInformation TechnologyArshad Khattak and MNAFawad Arshad, for holdingyouth peace conference atuniversities and colleges ofthe province and assured thesupport of the govern-ment.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Chief Min-ister Khyber PakhtunkhwaPervez Khattak Tuesday ex-pressed concern over thecontinuing inaction of thefederal government in com-mencing structured talkswith the Taliban as man-dated by all the political par-ties of the country in theAPC. In as statement theChief Minister said thatTaliban continue to pointout that there has been noformal offer of talks from thegovernment side and “weare also aware of this delay.

“Khattak went on to add

that “unfortunately this inac-tion on the part of the federalgovernment to operationalisethe APC Resolution and moveforward in instituting dialogueis allowing those who wish tosabotage dialogue and peaceto indulge in increasing actsof terrorism”. He stressed theimportance of putting in placea structured dialogue so thattalks are not conductedthrough the media which al-lows those opposed to dia-logue and peace to spreaddisinformation. Khattak re-minded that the people ofKhyber Pukhtunkhwa alongwith the provincial govern-ment are having to bear the

brunt of this federal govern-ment vacillation with increas-ing acts of terrorism takingplace resulting in the loss ofinnocent lives.

To expose the opponentsof peace the APC-mandateddialogue must begin withoutdelay. He demanded that thePrime Minister move immedi-ately on an emergency basis tocommence structured talks togive peace a chance. The ChiefMinister also pointed to therevelations now coming aboutthe unlawful killing of civiliansby US drones. He referred tothe BBC news item of last weekwhere a UN investigation foundthat US drone strikes had killed

at least 400 civilians in Pakistan,far more than the US has everacknowledged.

“Today we have the Am-nesty Report on drone kill-ings stating that the US mustbe held accountable for kill-ings in Pakistan”, Khattakstated, adding that this Re-port once again vindicatesPTI’s principled oppositionto Drones from the start ofthis unlawful CIA operation.He said that the AmnestyReport is a damning condem-nation of the US Drone kill-ings. “We insist the federalgovernment immediatelystop drone attacks”, Khattakconcluded.

Khattak concerned overdelay in talks with Taliban

QUETTA—Federal Investi-gation Agency (FIA) andPakistan TelecommunicationAuthority (PTA) teams con-ducted successful raids inQuetta, recovering thou-sands of illicit SubscriberIdentification Module(SIMs). According to details,PTA and FIA teams in anjoint action in various areasof Quetta confiscated 2571illegal SIMs and arrested six

shopkeepers who were sell-ing illegal SIMs.

Assistant Director of FIANisar Ahmed Baloch saidthat the big department wereinvolved in selling SIMs,adding that the illegal SIMswere being used in acts ofterrorism.

He further said that dur-ing a survey on July 2, thearrested shopkeepers hadbeen found violating the code

of conduct and their licenseswere canceled but they kepton selling the SIMs.

On the occasion, Assis-tant Zonal Director of PTAKaleemullah said that thesurvey on July 2 had re-vealed that the arrested shop-keepers were not followingthe code of conducted afterwhich a case was registeredagainst them under section31-A.—Online

FIA, PTA crack down on illegal sim cards

Need for strategy toreduce air pollution

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Tuesday forecastmainly dry weather for mostparts of the country duringthe next few days. Howeverthere were chances of lightrain at a few places of Gilgit-Baltistan during the next 24hours. According to the syn-optic situation, the continen-tal air was prevailing over themost parts of the country. Theweather would remain dry inmost parts of Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Sindh,Balochistan and Kashmirduring the next 24 hours.

The maximum tempera-tures recorded during the last24 hours were Islamabad 30C, Lahore 34 C, Karachi 33 C,Peshawar 32 C, Quetta 27 C,Skardu 23 C, Murree 22 C,Muzzafarabad 31 C, Gilgit 29C, Faisalabad 34 C, Multan34 C and Hyderabad 37 C.The Met Office has forecastpartly cloudy weather for themetropolis during the next 24hours. The maximum tem-perature will remain in therange of 32 to 34 degree cen-

tigrade. Mainly hot and dryweather will prevail else-where in the region of Sindhand Balochistan.

It said that the night tem-peratures have fallen by 2 to4 degree centigrade at iso-lated places in upper Sindhand have risen by 2 degreecentigrade at isolated places

in Sindh and remained un-changed elsewhere inBalochistan region. The Me-teorological DepartmentTuesday predicated mainlydry weather in most parts ofthe country includingKhyber Pakthunkhwa duringnext 24 hours. According toMet Office, continental air isprevailing over most parts ofthe country whereas weatherin KP would remain dry dur-ing next 24 hours.—APP

40 held in searchoperation, arms recovered

KP Govt taking measures forpromotion of education, peace

Dry weather to prevail inmost parts of country

SHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—DCOImtiaz Khan Niazi has stressedthe need for extensive aware-ness campaign about IodineDeficiency Disorders and im-portance of use of iodized saltat schools and college level.He said use of Iodized salt isvital to prevent iodine defi-ciency. He was presiding ameeting of District Iodine De-ficiency Disorders Committeeat his office the other day.

He said iodine deficiencycauses mental retardation,deafness, mutism, goiter andreproductive failure and use ofiodized salt will prevent thesedisorders. H assured the par-ticipants that strict actionwould be taken against thosesalt processors found negli-gent in salt iodization. EarlierField Officer Micronutrient Ini-tiative Ehtsham ul Haq Tariqin his briefing told the commit-

Iodised salt vital toprevent deficiency

tee that severe Iodine defi-ciency in mothers had reducedfrom 37% (NNS 2001) to 4%,as depicted in National Nutri-tion Survey 2011 due to effec-tive implementation of Univer-sal Salt Iodization Program.

He further added that io-dine deficiency in school agedchildren has reduced from 23%to 2%. Dr Amjad Iqbal, EDOHealth Mandi Bahauddin de-scribed decrease in naturalsource of iodine due to use offertilizers and spray. MrMushtaq Ahmad, District Fo-cal Person, IDD/USI Programtold the committee that moni-toring of salt iodization pro-gram was underway at all lev-els i.e. Production , market andhouseholds level and strin-gent measures are being takenagainst negligent salt proces-sors and market surveys arebeing conducted to bouncethe non-iodized salt back tosalt processors.

KAMRA: Federal Minister for Defence Production, Rana Tanveer Hussain visits Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra.

SHANGLA: People greeting KP Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai during his firstvisit to his hometown after assuming charge as Health Minister.

PESHAWAR: Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah ad-dressing the PPP Youth Wing Convention.

AI exposes USwar crimes

ON the eve of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s all importantmeeting with President Obama, in which he intends to raisethe issue of drone strikes in Pakistan, the Amnesty

International (AI) has detailed a hair raising account of whatWashington has been doing in the name of killing terrorists in so-called precision drone attacks. The report has pointed out that somespecific incidents carried through the US drone attacks in Pakistan,could even amount to war crimes.

A recent report by UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights andCounter Terrorism Ben Emerson too has questioned the validity andlegality of the drone strikes and accused the United States ofdownplaying the number of the civilians killed in such operations,while failing to assist in the investigation by releasing its own figures.It was published to coincide with a related report released earlier onThursday by Professor Christof Heyns, the UN’s special rapporteuron extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, which warned thatthe technology was being misused as a form of “global policing”.The UN report put the figures of total killings in drone strikes inPakistan at 2,200 including at least four hundred civilians. Togetherwith UN reports, the account of the AI should serve as an eye openerfor the civilized world as it cites instances to corroborate its findings.In October 2012, a 68 year old woman was killed in a drone strikewhile she was picking vegetables in the family’s fields and in Julysame year, 18 labourers including a 14 year old boy were killed inmultiple strikes on a village close to border with Afghanistan whenthey were about to enjoy an evening meal. In many instances thosewho ran to the aid of the victims of an initial raid were themselvestargeted in a rapid follow up attack. These reports are sufficient toinitiate firm action against those who perpetrated these crimes but itis doubtful the UN has the will and the courage to take a firm standand that is why Saudi Arabia has lambasted the world body’s lacklusterrole. We hope people of the United States would ponder over thehigher moral values propounded by Abraham Lincoln, fought forhuman rights and equality of human beings and was named as ‘Saviorof Nation’, and oppose their Government’s war-mongering and killingof innocent people on the pretext of fighting terror.

Long detention ofTurkish power ship

THE World Bank-affiliated International Centre for Settlement ofInvestment Disputes has reportedly ruled that the Turkish company

Karkey’s power ship Karadeniz be released immediately. The ship isdetained in Pakistani waters since April 2012 because of legal andfinancial complications and in the face of non-resolution of the issuethe company had knocked the door of the Centre to get it released.

Karkey’s power vessel was part of the Rental Power Projectsinitiated by the previous PPP Government but became controversialdue to reports of massive corruption and inefficiencies and ultimatelyattracted intervention of the Supreme Court. Pakistan and especiallythe apex court might have sufficient justifications to prevent departureof the ship pending resolution of the payments and refund issues butwe wish the problem should have been resolved through bilateralnegotiations. Regrettably, the issue could not be handled appropriatelydespite discussions at the highest levels including latest round of talksbetween Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Turkish leadershipduring former’s visit to Ankara. Pakistan is seeking foreigninvestment and such episodes do not send right kind of signals tothe prospective investors. And as for Turkey, it is our time testedand sincere friend and we must not allow small issues to become asource of irritation especially when a number of Turkish companiesare expressing keen interest for collaboration in different fields.

They are not militants,they are saboteurs

ONCE again miscreants targeted Jaffar Express on Monday using improvised explosive devices in Naseerabad district of Balochistan that

resulted in the death of seven persons and injuries to over 15 others. Thetrain was carrying hundreds of passengers from Punjab Province whowere returning after Eid holidays and the bomb blast was clearly aimed atcausing maximum casualties.

The Taliban militants who have different mindset carry out most ofthe blasts in KPK, Punjab and Sindh to sabotage the dialogue process.However, we are of the firm opinion that attacks on trains, busses and gaspipelines are the handiwork of saboteurs who are playing in the hands oftheir foreign masters and not by Taliban. By going through the previousunfortunate incidents in Balochistan, one comes to a definite conclusionthat the enemy wants to create linguistic and sectarian divisions to weakenand destabilize the country internally. The Government is well aware thatthese saboteurs are being trained in Afghanistan and then sent intoBalochistan to carry out subversive activities here and there. They takeshelter in Farari camps, which have been set up in the mountains wherearms and food items are smuggled through unfrequented routes. The Rail-ways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq was perfectly within his right toquestion from where sophisticated arms worth tens of millions of dol-lars, being used by the outlaws, were coming while the so-called sepa-ratist leaders in Balochistan were claiming to be poor people. The at-tacks on aid convoys for the earthquake stricken people in Awaraandistrict is also a clear proof that these saboteurs have no concern overthe sufferings of fellow Balochs and their only objective is to mint moneyby following the orders of their foreign masters for sabotage activitiesin Pakistan. Therefore, it is time that the Provincial Government headedby a proud Baloch nationalist Dr Abdul Malik must take a final decisionon how to deal with such elements who are not loyal to their people andcountry but playing as a tool of the enemy for pocketing dollars.

One citizenship, many states

One joy scatters ahundred griefs.

Ballot andthe boycott

THE vast majority of Palestinian residents of Jerusalemare expected to boycott

Tuesday’s municipal elections. Thepolling booths of east Jerusalemwill be empty. To cast a vote is toacknowledge the legitimacy of theoccupation, or so it is argued. “Par-ticipating in the process merelygives [the Israelis] political cover,”insists Hanan Ashrawi, from thePLO’s executive committee. “Theywant to create a reality where thePalestinians participate in the oc-cupation of their own country.”This argument has been the domi-nant one since Israel annexed theeastern part of the city in 1967.Which is why, in the last munici-pal elections, in 2008, only 2% ofPalestinians voted.

But this year, for the first timeever, there is a Palestinian candi-date. Fuad Saliman, a hospital tech-nologist, is running as a part of anIsraeli coalition of leftwing parties.Given that Palestinians make upwell over a third of the city’s popu-lation, their participation in the po-litical process could transform apolitical landscape that has allo-cated only 10% of the localcouncil’s budget to 37% of itspeople. Were all such voters tomake a tactical judgment to vote –bracketing out the larger questionof the legitimacy of Israel’s occu-pation – things could be very dif-ferent. No one is disputing that thisis a very big could. And no one isholding their breath that this is go-ing to happen any time soon – notjust because there is no politicalappetite for such a shift but alsobecause there is no political lead-ership on the Palestinian side ca-pable of achieving it.

As a thought experiment, how-ever, it is fascinating. Extrapolatingfrom the local situation in Jerusa-lem, what if all Palestinians made astrategic decision to seek full vot-ing rights within the reality that isIsrael, rather than demanding a sepa-rate Palestinian state? In otherwords, what if they transformedtheir struggle from a nationalist oneinto a civil rights one? It was aformer mayor of Jerusalem, andformer prime minister of Israel,Ehud Olmert, who warned that if thetwo-state solution collapsed Israelwould “face a South African-stylestruggle for equal voting rights, andas soon as that happens, the state ofIsrael is finished.” Of course, Pal-estinians don’t all have the same ac-cess to the ballot box. But far fromlooking to exert their electoral pres-ence on the national stage, those whodo have the right to vote have beenexercising it less and less. Seventy-five per cent voted in the 1999 elec-tions. Ten years later, it was 54%.The fact that it didn’t dip below halfearlier this year was put down to alast-minute intervention by the ArabLeague urging the million or so Pal-estinians living in Israel to get outand vote. Amid deepening despairas to the viability of a two-state so-lution, this is an option that is onlygoing to attract more attention.— The Guardian

*****

Awareness onThalassaemia

THE increasing cost of treating and managingthalassaemia in the UAE re-

iterates the need for creating moreawareness on this highly damag-ing health condition. The statisticsare alarming — one in 12 peoplecarry the thalassaemia gene, ac-cording to Dubai Health Authority(DHA). These figures have far-reaching consequences not only forthose who suffer from the condi-tion but also on the infrastructurein its prevention, management andcare. The UAE government hastaken important steps in empower-ing individuals with the truth aboutthalassaemia and how it can be pre-empted through premarital screen-ing — a critical factor that canmake a big difference to statistics.

But it is also a fact that screen-ings alone cannot stem the tide.Currently, the cost of managingthalassaemia is being jointly borneby DHA and a local charity, butgiven the increase in it due to a sig-nificant percentage of thalassaemiapatients in UAE ageing and requir-ing more attention due to potentialcomplications, it will be beneficialif more charities come forward tosupport the authorities in their en-deavour. The more organisationspitch in, better outcome for pre-venting and managing this debili-tating condition. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

APPARENTLY, CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi,who okayed the creation of

Telangana for formal decision by theCabinet, did not anticipate angryreaction of the rest of Andhra, calledSeemandhra. When there is black-out, no water supply, no transport,no fuel and powerless mobiles, themood in Seemandhra is that of nowor never. The centre could havegauged the sentiment by proceedingwith what the constitution says. It islaid down that the state assemblyshould be consulted. True, in thehouse of 294, the Seemabdhra’s 179members would have stalled a reso-lution on the creation of Telangana.But then the constitution says thatthere should be consultation, notconcurrence.

The exercise would have en-abled to foresee the extent of aggres-siveness which even intelligenceagencies failed to report. Probably,the anger in Telangana was no lesswhen it was up in arms. Yet the cen-tre had resisted the state’s bifurca-tion although the agitation was at itsfieriest during the days of ChennaReddy, once the state’s chief minis-ter. Then the Congress president, K.Kamaraj, from the south had his earsto the ground. Sonia Gandhi, sittingat New Delhi, is not familiar withthe ground realities of the state.

Was it necessary to divideAndhra Pradesh? This was the firstlinguistic state. The States’ Reorga-nization Commission that followed

the creation of AndhraPradesh recommended thecreation of Telangana. Yet thecentre stuck to a unitedAndhra Pradesh in the largerinterest. The Telugus enthu-siastically welcomed the cre-

ation of Andhra Pradesh because theTelugu-speaking areas were retrievedfrom the Madras Presidency andamalgamated with Andhra Pradesh.The question that remains unan-swered is why so much hostility hascome to surface when Telangana isconstituted.

After all, it is going to be part ofIndia. Ambitious politicians are re-sponsible for cultivating hostility.There can be fear that Telangana ismore or less the old state of Nizamwhere razakars (armed men) wereruling the roost. But the state is strongenough to curb such a tendency. Alsothe Nizams encouraged razakars anddreamt of joining Pakistan. Politi-cians eye loaves of office that a newstate would create. That greed maybe reason why state chief ministerKiran Kumar Reddy has not resignedeven when he is for a united AndhraPradesh. Had he resigned it wouldhave come as a jolt to the Congresshigh command and probably thingswould have taken a different turn.

Indeed, the Congress has in mindthe next elections where it expects tosweep Telangana. It is tragic that poli-tics has held its sway over the inter-est of the people of Andhra Pradesh.Its bifurcation would create problemsfor both the states like water disputesbecause River Krishna flows intoboth the proposed states. It is still notlate to annul the decision. Probably,the services of Congress-vice-presi-dent Rahul Gandhi would have to beharnessed. If he could undo the ordi-

nance to shield the convicted politi-cians and force the union cabinet torescind its decision he would be ableto undo the division of AndhraPradesh as well. Indeed, it was ridicu-lous to introduce in parliament a billto overcome a Supreme Court judg-ment that the MPs and MLAs willcease to be members of the respec-tive houses and disqualified the mo-ment they are convicted.

The bone of contention betweenTelangana and Seemandhra isHyderabad. The proposed bifurcationwill have Hyderabad as their jointcapital for 10 years. Why not perma-nently? When Punjab was divided, itwas announced that both Punjab andHaryana would have separate capi-tals and Chandigarh would be a unionterritory. The two states found that ajoint capital was useful and conve-nient. So much so, the lawyers of boththe states opposed to the centre’s pro-posal to have a separate high court inHaryana. The proposal had to bewithdrawn. The argument thatSeemandhra does not touch the bor-der of Telangana where Hyderabadis located is not convincing. Bothstates open in the other states. Allbelong to the Indian nation. Why thenthe opposition to have Hyderabad asthe joint capital? It is, however, un-fortunate that government servants ofthe proposed Telangana have threat-ened that Seemandhra’s governmentservants must have their own setupin Hyderabad itself. Such tendenciesmust be curbed with a strong handbecause they impinge on thecountry’s unity.

The centre has also closed its eyeson the renewal of demand for the cre-ation of other states. Vidarbha,Gorkahaland and some other statesin the northeast have again begun

Dilemmas of talking to Taliban

TTP has once again distanceditself from the suicide attackthat killed KPK law minister

Israrullah Gandapur. Earlier also ithas denied its involvement in someof the high profile acts of terrorism,especially in the KPK. It indicatesthat either there are splinter groupsof TTP, over which it has little con-trol, or there are organizations out-side the ambit of TTP which do notsubscribe to the idea of negotiationsor else, there are local or foreignerspoiler entities which want to derailthe nascent peace process. Given theusual loose command structures oforganizations like the TTP, the cur-rent state of confusion could be anoutcome of a combination of all threeprobables.

TTP is increasingly showingovertures to indicate its intent,rather eagerness, to enter into seri-ous negotiations with the govern-ment. In an interview with the BBC,TTP Chief Hakeemullah Mehsudhad said that Pakistani governmentshould have officially announcedinitiation of peace talks and shouldhave sent a tribal Jirga to them forthat purpose. He said Taliban areready for serious talks with the gov-ernment and would welcome suchan effort from it.

Though these articulations maybe a gimmick, aimed at gaining pub-lic sympathy, however, if correct, itraises many questions on the wayPakistan has handled the TTP issueover the previous years. May be athird party has been doing such ac-tions and hiding behind the TTP’sshadow. The second condition re-garding cessation of drone attackscoincides with the national consen-sus that drone attacks are illegal; they

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agitating after the announcement ofTelangana. The state governmentsare helpless when the centre an-nounces Telangana without bother-ing about repercussions. It is not un-derstandable why New Delhi hascreated another problem when it isalready reeling under deterioratingeconomic conditions on the onehand and uneasy burdens with Chinaand Pakistan on the other. Maybe,the announcement of Telangana ismeant to divert attention from otherpressing problems the country is fac-ing today. This is perhaps the Con-gress way of tackling them.

The government has done wellin resisting the demand for the ap-pointment of another States Reor-ganization Commission. It wouldhave opened a Pandora’s box. I re-call the passions aroused when thecommission was appointed. Therewere so many claims which wereequally conflicting that it was diffi-cult to arrive at any decision whichultimately the commission made.

The commission made twopoints as back as in 1985 when itsubmitted its report. Both points areas truer today as they were then.One, whether the states are reorga-nized or not they will continue to bean integral part of the Union whichis the real political entity and the ba-sis of our nationhood. Two, the con-stitution recognizes only one citizen-ship for the entire people of India,with equal rights and opportunitiesthroughout the union. The proposedstate of Telangana is, no doubt, awrong decision. Yet the 28th state,if constituted, will keep in mind thatcitizenship is one, with equal rights.—The writer is a veteran Indianjournalist, syndicated columnist,human rights activist and author.

violate a number of international lawsand the national sovereignty. Paki-stan has repeatedly protested againstthese attacks. Prime Minister NawazSharif raised the issue at the UNGeneral Assembly on September 29.He intends to discuss the matter withPresident Obama as well, during theongoing summit. Mehsud’s deputy,Waliur Rehman, and predecessor,Baitullah Mehsud, were both killedin drone strikes, and he has himselfsurvived a missile strike by a drone.

Third wish that TPP does notwant to negotiate through media isalso understandable. Major chunk ofour media, especially the electroniccomponent, is infested by variousconflicting influences and cannot betrusted as an honest broker; sombrenational matters certainly need seri-ous, professional and focused ap-proach. Media meddling in LalMasjid (Red Mosque) crisis is stillfresh in public memory. Negotiationprocesses better remain a ‘behind thecurtain activity’ and only essentialsbe brought to public notice.

Though in a face saving rheto-ric, the TTP chief has said that with-drawal of foreign forces from Af-ghanistan will not change anythingin Pakistan and he has vowed to carryon with ‘as usual activities’ in Paki-stan, it is a fact that with the with-drawal of occupation forces, the over-seas pay masters of TTP will nolonger be interested to foot its bill.Nevertheless, it may continue to re-ceive financial and logistics supportfrom regional spoilers, but it wouldbe rather limited in size. Hence, mostanalysts foresee a sharp capacity de-cline in the TTP by 2015. Moreover,due to envisaged squeeze in funding,intra TTP tensions would pick-up onthe issue of sharing the spoils. In allprobability, TTP will not be able tokeep together its nearly 30 compo-nent entities. On September 9, thefederal government had decided to

hold talks with Taliban. Then on, Sep-tember was the deadliest month inPakistan’s decade long ‘fight againstterrorism’. The string of attacks calledinto question the sanity ofgovernment’s initiative to make peacewith the Taliban.

However, all is not well on TTPside. It appears divided over the is-sue of dialogue with the government.While the group’s central leadershipsays it’s amenable to negotiations,its Mohmand Agency chapter saystalks with the government aredoomed. “We demand rewriting ofPakistan’s Constitution”, theMohmand Agency chief of TTP,Umar Khalid Khurasani, said in arecent statement. “We will withdrawsupport from any Taliban com-mander who compromises on thisdemand,” he added. Of late TTP’ssecond in command Lateef Mehsudwas snatched away form Afghanforces by NATO/ISAF, while he wason his way for a debriefing sessionat the Afghan National IntelligenceDirectorate. He has since been in-terned in Bagram jail. Chief of theArmy Staff General Kayani said lastweek that the army fully supportedthe dialogue process initiated by thenational leadership to tackle themenace of terrorism. He cautionedthat terrorism was a big challenge,and it was imperative that the dia-logue process should forge unityamong the nation instead of creat-ing any division and it must bewithin the constitutional parameters.

It is reassuring that while pursu-ing the option of negotiations, gov-ernment is mindful that ultimately itwill have to take on the irreconcil-able elements by force. Thereforeseveral measures have been taken toenhance the state’s capacity to fightthe terrorism. Federal governmenthas toughened its anti-terrorism lawsby introducing around a dozenamendments into the Anti Terrorism

Act 1997, to provide for longer de-tention for suspects and acceptanceof electronic evidence as well as tri-als via video link in serious crimi-nal cases. Now, the investigatingofficer shall be required to completethe investigation of the cases fall-ing, under the mandate of the ATCs,within 30 working days. In turn,ATCs shall conduct the trial on day-to-day basis and decide the casewithin seven days. In addition SindhAssembly has taken the lead byunanimously passing the Sindh Wit-ness Protection Bill 2013. The billprovides protection to witnesses andtheir families, thus enabling them toprovide evidence in criminal pro-ceedings.

During his recent visit to terrorhit city of Peshawar, Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif had said that gov-ernment is making a new law as wellas taking practical steps for improv-ing quality of law enforcement tocurb terrorism. He said that to ef-fectively counter terrorism, there isneed to have special counter terror-ism force along with a strong intel-ligence network. Since then, “Pro-tection of Pakistan Ordinance 2013”has been promulgated to furtherboost the powers of law enforcingagencies. Punjab and KPK govern-ments have already legislated tosetup special anti terrorism forces.

Having mobilized unwaveringnational consensus on the issue oferadicating terrorism, the federal andprovincial governments need to actfast and demonstrate their will toactually combat this menace. Effectsof their efforts must translate intosharp reduction of incidents of ter-rorist attacks. While taking effectiveanti-terrorism measures, an all outeffort should be made to capitalizeon the opportunity thrown up byTTP’s inclination for talks.—The writer is Consultant Policyand Strategic Response, IPRI.

Kuldip NayarEmail:kuldipnayar09@gmail.com

Iqbal KhanEmail:tweets@wonderous101

Voice of the People

India’s wrongstand on KashmirMUKHTAR AHMED BUTT

Apropos to your editorial “India’sunrealistic stand on Kashmir”(Oct22) which highlights the cold shoul-der attitude by India about the mostburning issue of Kashmir betweenIndia and Pakistan. It is incorrect tosuggest that under Simla agreementno third party can intervene. Thevery first clause of the Simla agree-ment says” That the principles andpurposes of the Charter of the UnitedNations shall govern the relationsbetween the two countries” simplynegates Indian stand on Kashmir asthey are violating UN charter on theissue of Kashmir. It is very unfortu-nate that no government has evertried to explain to India that Simlaagreement is no bar on Pakistan totake the issue to UN. Para (ii) re-lates to ceasefire only; it says “Thatthe two countries are resolved tosettle their differences by peacefulmeans through bilateral negotia-tions”, the agreement is silent in casethe negotiations fail.

If Indian held Kashmir was in-tegral part of India why did PM ofIndia accepted J & K as disputed ter-ritory and agreed to hold plebisciteunder auspicious of UN to allowKashmiris to decide their own fate.PM Nawaz Sharif’s possible plea toUS to help resolve the issue, simplyamounts to reminding US about theUN resolution on Kashmir. It is sounfortunate that UN has miserablyfailed to implement its own resolu-tions. The world community shouldintervene and press India to honourits commitments. Indian ForeignMinister’s statement on Kashmircannot stop Nawaz Sharif to raisethe issue on any international forumand with Barrack Obama the custo-dian of UN.

The US argument not to inter-nationalize the Kashmir dispute, initself is flawed as the matter is al-ready pending with the internationaldispute resolving body, i.e. theUnited Nations. What US needs tounderstand is that the world body isgradually losing its importance bynot protecting the rights of smallernations; that is why the Saudi Arabiahas rejected the offer to take up itsseat amongst the UN SecurityCouncil’s 10 non-permanent mem-bers after being elected to the forum.The Saudi refusal provides a foodfor thought for US to change itsstance on international issues. Paki-stan has to move cautiously withIndia, their ultimate aim is to gettransit route to Afghanistan forboosting up its trade. We have al-ready shown enough flexibility, nowit is time to cool down and wait forpositive response before taking anystep further. No one can disagree thatfor durable peace India should moveforward and stop chattering thatKashmir is their integral part and ac-cept the ground reality as rightlyconcluded in the editorial referredto above.—Karachi

An alternative totalks with India

USMAN KHALID

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, atlong last, met the Indian Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh. After hav-ing failed to get him to attend hisswearing in ceremony as PrimeMinister of Pakistan and beingspurned in his desire to visit Indiaeven without an invitation, that mustbe viewed as a success. But Indiahas an agenda and an attitude. Noleader in Pakistan can govern effec-tively and be popular unless he un-derstands both. Indian agenda is toproject Pakistan in a bad light – asproduct of Islamic fanaticism; po-litically unstable and economicallyfailing state; ultimately to challengeits legitimacy as well as viability asa state. The Indian attitude is to in-sult the people of Pakistan and thestate of Pakistan and “get away withit.” Since hostile countries often usevile language for each other, that isneither exceptional nor even unde-sirable. The important thing in thecase of India is to “get away with

Poor people vs ruling eliteHASHIM ABRO

I had the opportunity to meet several people, both common people and the influential lot; I mean Pirs,Politicians and corrupt Provincial functionaries, during the Eid holidays at different places in my

home district Larkano. Every person I came across there was talking about health, happiness, andprosperity but unfortunately the rulers have done nothing concrete for the people to have health facili-ties, happiness and propriety milieu. Despite a plethora of problems being faced by them, I found themlooking at the sunny side of everything. They were thinking only of the best, working only for the best,and expecting only the best. I found them oblivious of the negative and not-so-good acts done againsteach other and were giving everyone a smile. Believe me, a majority of people I found there were totallysatisfied with their life. On the contrary, the ruling elite and the influential lot were found criticizing eachother, they were not found thinking to improve their district, its towns and villages but they were foundwasting time over non-productive activities and doing nothing worthwhile for the common people in theProvince, in the district and even in their native towns and villages. I can honesty say that the poor,destitute deprived and denied people of my country, my Province and those of my district Larkano arereally great but there is a genuine need for our ruling elite to learn to be great and for this they have tochange their thinking, their mindset, their vanities and their hypocrisies.—Islamabad

The future of counter-terrorism

THE use of drone strikesagainst terrorist targets hasbecome one of the most con-

troversial aspects of PresidentObama’s national security efforts.Critics on the left have called Obamathe “drone president,” and even thecelebrated 16-year-old Pakistani ac-tivist, Malala Yousafzai, chided himin the White House recently, tellinghim that “drone attacks are fuellingterrorism.”Yet drones are just one ofthree principal US counter-terrorismtools, and not necessarily the mostimportant. Special Operations forcesare now relying on a more balancedmix of tactics: Launching raids anddeveloping partner forces offer moreversatility than drone strikes and willprobably become the wave of the fu-ture as America’s big wars winddown.

The outlines of Obama’s newapproach, which he sketched in hisMay speech at the National DefenceUniversity, have become clearer inrecent months, especially in the twinraids in Libya and Somalia on Oct.5. The first raid snatched up Anasal-Libi , an al-Qaeda member in-dicted in the 1998 bombings of theUS Embassies in Kenya and Tanza-nia. The second was an unsuccess-ful attempt to capture Ikrima, amember of the al-Qaeda-affiliatedal-Shabab group who is reputedlyresponsible for plotting attacksaround East Africa.

Raids have several advantagesover drones. The targets can be in-terrogated for further intelligence,laptops and other physical evidencecan be scooped up, and perhaps mostimportant, the capture can result inwhat operators call a “judicial fin-ish,” with the terrorist tried and con-victed in a court of law.

Of course, Special Operationsforces, along with the CIA, will stilluse drones when a threat is deemedso imminent that taking out a sus-pect is the best way to stop an attackon vital US interests. That was the

case in August when a barrage ofdrone strikes pummelled the netherprovinces of Yemen to foil a reportedplot on oil terminals and ports by themost active terrorist group today, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula .

But the drone’s disadvantages,primarily political and diplomatic,are now widely recognized. Even ifa strike takes out a target, the appar-ent unilateralism of the attack (localleaders often give tacit support) canlead to popular resentment againstthe United States. In Yemen, Presi-dent Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi haspublicly endorsed drone strikes, butsuch a stance can undermine aleader’s legitimacy at home. Finally,even if civilian casualties are mini-mal, just a few deaths can tarnishAmerica’s image — and fuel terror-ist recruitment.

The third tool in the anti-terror-ism toolkit is the use of partneredforces. Somalia is a good example:Special Operations troops haveworked with a variety of partners toretake the country from al-Shabab,restoring government there for thefirst time in two decades and creat-ing a network of allies to push al-Qaeda out of East Africa. Amid awider peace enforcement operation,US troops have helped train forcesfrom Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya andDjibouti. High-end Ugandan unitsplayed a key role in pushing al-Shabab out of Mogadishu, andSEAL-trained Kenyan boat unitsand infantry conducted a joint op-eration to retake the port city ofKismayo from al-Shabab, thus de-nying the terrorist group a key rev-enue source. Partner forces also re-portedly played a role in the raid twoweekends ago.

Today, Special Operationsforces are engaged in some level ofpartnering in more than 70 countries,with an increasing focus on joint op-erations — or even raids conductedmainly by partners with a support-ing US role — to capture or kill ter-rorists. The bulk of America’s33,000 uniformed Special Opera-tions forces, including the most eliteunits, will be engaged in partnering,

Views From Abroad

but need time to develop their part-ners’ combat skills and intelligencecapacity.

This quiet partnering gets lessattention than drone attacks, but itis the long game that will ensure thatUS troops can go home and leavebehind forces capable of keeping thepeace in bad neighbourhoods. In So-malia, the training, advising and as-sisting of partner forces has helpedbring some order to one of the mostfamous ungoverned spaces on theplanet.

Of course, just as drone attackshave their downsides, raids andpartnering don’t always work. TheSomalia raid revealed the inherentrisk in putting even highly skilledcombat troops on the ground. TheSEALs did not lose anyone in theheavy fighting, but they did abort themission rather than call in airstrikes,which would have certainly killedSomali civilians. The tactical failurewas not compounded by a strategicblunder, and the SEALs will con-tinue to track their quarry for anothertry, with the support of partnerforces.

There are many challenges topartnering. Sceptics doubt the capac-ity of countries such as Somalia,Kenya and Afghanistan to defendthemselves, and they rightly criticizethe rights abuses that can occur whilelocal forces are not fullyprofessionalized. It takes a long timefor US Special Operations troops toimpart ethics and competence totheir partners. Sometimes the UnitedStates has taken an expedient ap-proach, with dismal results. This wasthe case in the Cold War, when theUnited States armed the Afghanmujahideen through Pakistan’s intel-ligence service — the samemujahideen who fuelled aninternecine war and fed the ranks ofal-Qaeda a decade later.

But in the most recent chapterof US involvement in Afghanistan,the results of Special Operationspartnering have been vastly under-played. In a major commitment,more than four dozen Special Opsteams spread out over the country’s

Linda Robinson

DISCLAIMER

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

insurgent belt from 2009 to 2012to raise volunteers for a civil de-fence force to guard villages — aforce that is now more than25,000 strong. Special Operationstroops have also trained Afghancommandos, special forces andrangers in their own image. Thiseffort may not continue if the twocountries cannot reach an agree-ment on US troop presence in thecoming months, but it does showwhat a concerted partnering effortcan produce. The Afghan specialoperations forces are the bestunits in the Afghan military, andkey parts of the insurgent belt,such as Konar province andPaktika province, are now securelargely thanks to the civilian de-fence initiative.

Most significant, after yearsof focusing on unilateral dronestrikes and raids, US Special Op-erations forces have regained acritical skill set of working withlocal populations, as they did inVietnam, where they raised thou-sands of civil defenders in thecentral highlands. This is a highlytransferable tool; many troubledcountries have vast rural areaswhere terrorists find ready sanc-tuary, and lending a helping handto those who find the courage tofend off attackers is one of themost productive uses of our Spe-cial Operations forces. It relievesthe United States of the burden ofdoing so or intervening abruptlyin a crisis.

The partnering approach maynot be easy, and it does take yearsto produce results, but it is the mostsustainable security solutionaround. The United States stillneeds to develop credible means ofmeasuring the effectiveness of thisapproach, but don’t be surprised ifit becomes the future of America’sfight against terrorism. The writeris a senior policy analyst at theRand Corporation and the authorof “One Hundred Victories: SpecialOps and the Future of AmericanWarfare.”— Courtesy: The Washington Post

Malala Yusafzai: Debating real rightwing

THE attack on the youngMalala Yusafzai has morphedinto a debate about the future

direction of Pakistan. Such debatesare healthy for a society which ismarred in all sorts of problems andissues and hence any such initiativeabout discussing ideas and solutionsto the problems felt by the societyshould be encouraged. But before weenter into debates and discussionsabout ideas we need to agree to somefundamental rules about debates.Ideas need to be stated clearly andexplicitly. You cannot deceivesomeone in accepting ideas. Sec-ondly the debate needs to be real.Being real means a few things. Itmeans that both sides should beheard and given a fair chance at ex-plaining themselves.

This is important because if anidea has taken root in the society andenjoys the support of the masses,then that very support (of themasses) makes the idea eligible tobe heard, no matter how irrationaland how inappropriate the idea mayappear. This is because these ideasand these debates are not academicdiscussions for the intellectual plea-sure of the thinkers and philosophersof the society. These ideas are re-lated to the organization of the soci-ety, the management of the relation-ships which exist between its inhab-itants and the relationship betweenthe ruling and the ruled. Secondly,

and which is very important in thecontext of the attack on MalalaYusafzai, debates should be betweenthe actual stakeholders. And finally,who decides who wins the debate?Who’s the judge? In debates aboutideas, which govern the society, thejudges are the masses, because theauthority lies with them. It is themasses who decide who wins bysupporting the ideas which they be-lieve should be implemented in thesociety.

We have heard the liberal intel-ligentsia on the issue of MalalaYusfazai. Here is the case for theright wing. That female members ofthe society should have a right togood education is not only some-thing which majority in the rightwing supports, but they stronglybelieve in it. Of course there is a dif-ference of opinion on how the edu-cation curriculum should be set andwhat values it should seek to pro-mote but the right of education forall women is supported by a bigmajority. But the attack on Malalais not about the right of educationfor women; rather it is about abroader vision about the comprehen-sive structuring of the society andthe state. What the liberals want isto use the Malala incident to pushtheir viewpoint about the compre-hensive structuring of the state andsociety. That is fair enough, if it islimited to this. But in their attemptto do so, they have unilaterally de-fined the debate. So they want notto just define and promote what theyadvocate and believe in, but theyalso want to define and present what

the alternative to their vision aboutsociety and the state is. This is notdebate. This is unilateral impositionof the liberal agenda.

To present the intellectual battlefor the soul of Pakistan as a battlebetween urban liberal elite armedwith ideas against a rural Talibanforce which wants to fight ideas withviolence is grossly misleading. TheTaliban are not the intellectual lead-ers of the right wing, neither are theirviews dominant in right wing circles.So it could be argued that this de-bate, about the soul of Pakistan isnot taking place between the realstakeholders. The liberals don’t getto define the right wing.

The fact that urban Pakistan isoverwhelmingly moving towardsthe right and yet liberals choose ru-ral Pashtun tribes as their ideologi-cal adversaries suggests that perhapsthe liberals want to avoid a debatewith the “urban political right wing”and hence choose the “rural violentrightwing”. It is therefore interest-ing to note that the liberals present avision for Pakistan, a secular Paki-stan as an alternative to Taliban’svision for Pakistan. But this is a falsechoice. It is a false choice becausemajority of Pakistan is conservativeand they believe in a strong role forreligion in politics and yet they don’tbelieve that it is Taliban’s visionwhich is the only model for the roleof religion in politics. Infact major-ity of urban Pakistan believes inpolitical Islam which in the earlydays of the Pakistani state meant theIslamization of the Pakistani statethrough Islamic democracy. Such a

vision has lost support amongst themasses due to its complete failure.The advocates of a modern caliph-ate in Pakistan are the true stake-holders in the debate for the soul ofPakistan, yet we see liberals avoid-ing them and realizing that thisgroup, at the moment represents therightwing and leads it. So really thedebate about the future of Pakistanis about two visions, a liberal Secu-lar Pakistan and a Pakistan with anew governance model, the mod-ern caliphate.

Here is a thing about politicalorganization of societies. Thosewho have the final say are themasses. And if an idea has takenroot in the society, State power andmedia censorship will not stop itsspread. The secular Arab despots,who were overthrown during theArab spring, learnt it the hard way.The idea of unification of the tem-poral with the religious has stronglytaken root in the Muslim Worldwith modern caliphate as a modelof governance becoming increas-ingly popular by the day. The liber-als have a choice. To continue tofeign their intellectual superiorityby refusing to debate with the realstake holders and thus risk beingoverwhelmed in to ideologicaloblivion by a society moving to-wards the right or bring their ideason the table and in to the societyfor scrutiny and critique. Scaringthe people is not an option anymore.Let’s have a fair debate.—The author is Islamabad-basedfreelance columnist and writesregularly on Muslim affairs.

MY daughter in the US hasjust managed to get herlearner’s license, and

knows she will have to put a lot ofeffort to get her drivers license,because they are very strict overthere, whereas in our country letme tell you how it could take place:

The instructor at the drivingschool looked up from the roadmap, he was trying to read, “don’tworry sir,” he said giving me a biggrin, “we will get your daughterher driving license within a month.

“What are the timings for herclasses everyday?” I asked. “Noclasses sir!” “How does she get her

license if she doesn’t attend yourdriving classes?” I asked quite con-fused. “Ah!” said the instructor giv-ing me a smile and then looking upat a picture on the wall of a man witheven a bigger smile. “That’s ourboss, and he is very well connected.His second wife’s brother’s bestfriend works in the licensing officeand with a small fee, the work isdone.”

“I see”, I said without really see-ing anything. “And do you knowsomething”, said the instructor mov-ing little closer towards me, “wedon’t even charge extra for this ex-tra service.” “How d’you managethat?” I asked.

“We’ve found that any extra ef-fort on our part to get a license iscompensated by the petrol and in-structors time we save. You see, oncewe had six cars and nearly eight in-structors. Now we need to keep only

one car and it is hardly ever used,and I am the only instructor. We getyou your license without you hav-ing to learn anything! No tension onthe road for you! Its so simple now.We have doubled and tripled thenumber of students.”

“Amazing,” I said. “You will seemost of the students in the afternoonfor our theory class,” hesaid.”Good,” I said, “I’m glad theydo learn some aspects of driving.”“No, no,” said the instructor, “wehave completely changed our sylla-bus lately; we do not teach them roadrules or road signs; that wouldfrighten away our customers. Wehave to be more practical.

We have an ex-traffic inspectorwho teaches them how to cross redlights without getting caught. Whatexact amount to pay a constable forany offence committed. You shouldsee the numbers attending our

Drivers licence..!classes. “I can imagine,” I saidagain. “Your daughter will benefitimmensely from our driving les-sons,” said the man folding hisroad map and shoving a form infront of me. “Just fill in her nameand age and we will do the rest. Infact don’t worry if she is under age,we can manage everything. Lastweek we had a twelve year oldwho….”

“Thank you,” I said shovingthe form back to him and trying tomove away. “Where are you go-ing,” asked the instructor. “Don’tyou want a license for your daugh-ter?” Yes,” I said, “I do, but I don’tneed a license to kill, I wanted herto learn how to drive.”

“Learn to drive,” whisperedthe instructor, “please don’t scarethe other students away. You havecome to the wrong school..!”—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Moez MobeenEmail:moezmobeen@gmail.com

it”. The expected breakfast meetingof the two PMs was cancelled. Butto add insult to injury, there was nojoint communiqué, not even a jointpress conference. The two leadersagreed only on one thing – violationof the LoC by the two sides was un-acceptable. The fact is that the troopsdeployed on both sides of the LoCare under orders to give a ‘robust re-sponse’ to any violation. It is also afact that there is an active resistancemovement against the occupation ofJammu and Kashmir by the IndianArmy which uses force including re-sort to wanton murder and rape toquell the resistance. The Indian Armyblames every incident of resistanceon ‘cross border terrorism’ by Paki-stan. By accepting responsibility tostop violation of the LoC, Pakistanaccepted the charge of ‘cross borderterrorism’. India went further in itswar of words and called Pakistan an‘epicenter of terrorism’ without anyresponse from Prime Minister NawazSharif.

India got away with sendingtroops into Jammu and Kashmir in1948 without formal accession of thestate to India. India got away with theinvasion of Hyderabad State whichhad opted to stay independent as pro-vided for in the Independence of In-dia Act of the British Parliament - thelegal instrument that created India andPakistan. India got away with inva-sion and annexation of PortugueseColony of Goa. India got away withinvasion of East Pakistan making itBangladesh in 1971. India got awaywith “Peelkhana Massacre” of offic-ers and wives of Bangladesh Rifles(BDR) in 2009. Bangladesh has sen-tenced many elderly political leadersto death forty years after the so called‘war of liberation’ in which they areaccused of helping the Pakistan Army– the legitimate defenders of the le-gitimate state of Pakistan. The fact isthat Bangladeshi war of liberationwas treason far more horrendous thanthe treachery of Mir Jaffer in theBattle of Plessey. And the protégésof India ruling Bangladesh get awaywith that too.

On his way back from NewYork, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifasked the pressmen, “Is there an al-ternative to talks”? He probablymeant that ‘war’ would result if therewere no talks with India. He couldnot be more wrong. At the presentmoment neither India nor Pakistanare ready for war; the game in whichthey are engaged is diplomacy. Thisgame is played in an environmentof ambiguity; the two sides sendmessages short of war and try to hurteach other and improve their inter-national standing. Getting away withPakistan putting up with humilia-tion, insults and hurt underlines thatPakistan gets what it deserves. Moreof the same or much worse followsand the world looks on perplexed asPakistan appears unable even to pro-test properly. Such inability to re-spond characterizes defeat or utterlyincompetent leadership. Since Paki-stan has brave people and many sin-cere friends ‘no alternative to talks’means the first or the latter — mostlikely the latter.—Via email

A micro carfor Pakistan

S R H HASHMI

There have been various attempts tomanufacture automobiles locally.Going back about thirty years, an at-tempt was made to manufacture,mainly vans, under the brand nameProficient. Even though the vehicleswere of a fairly good quality, and Istill see them on road, but these couldnot compete with foreign makes be-ing assembled in the country.

Usually, the vested interests usetheir influence and money and cre-ate circumstances which force freshstarters to fold up. I also saw goodcars made by a Pakistani companyunder the brand name Revo but thesealso did not last long. Later, anotherattempt was made by a companywhich manufactured mainly vansand pick ups with I think a 200 ccengine, under the name Aliff andBay. These four-seater, four-wheelvehicles were supposed to replaceauto rickshaws but these also did notmeet with success and production

was discontinued. However, Paki-stan has done quite well in the fieldof motor cycles and auto rickshawswith varying seating capacities.Quite a few brands are on the roadsand these CNG rickshaws haveeclipsed old rickshaws with two-stroke petrol engines, which werenoisy and emitted lot of smoke. Oflate, in addition to the usual two-passenger CNG rickshaws, somefour-passengers auto rickshaws arealso hitting the road. And of coursethere are motor-cycle based six-pas-senger rickshaws. So we can rest as-sured that indigenous auto rickshawindustry is now well-established inPakistan and is here to stay.

So, along with auto rickshaws,why not introduce another product,like a micro car with a 200 cc en-gine. For a few years now, we havebeen experiencing constant escala-tion in the price of fuel; the trendseems likely to continue due mainlyto constant drop in the exchangevalue of rupee, but also because ofuncertain and disturbed situation inMiddle East, with risks of furtherflare ups. In these circumstances,micro cars with around 200 cc en-gine, which could give thirty tothirty-five kilometres per liter offuel, and similar savings in case ofCNG engines, could become verypopular. In addition to savings onfuel costs, such vehicles could alsobe lighter on pocket as compared tothe existing small cars available inthe market.

Since manufacturers have be-come quite proficient with the pro-duction of CNG auto rickshaws, theycould base the micro car on the de-sign of their rickshaws, subject tonecessary modifications like makingit a four-wheel vehicle instead of threewheels that rickshaws have, and put-ting a steering wheel in place of theusual handle-bars. As for seating, theycould retain the three seat arrange-ment as in rickshaws, with thedriver’s seat in the centre. With thisseating arrangement, the car wouldneed to have just two doors insteadof four, thus reducing its overall costsas also making the structure strongeras compared to a four-door automo-bile. As for the car body, glass fibrecould be used as much as possible,which would save costs and also keepthe vehicle light-weight.

As for the design of the car, themanufacturers could develop theirown, keeping in mind Piaggio NT3micro car design which is a four-wheel, three passenger, two-door car,with rickshaw like seating arrange-ment designed by Vespa people. Thepresent rickshaws chassis could beconverted to this car design withouttoo much of alteration, saving design-ing and development costs. I havegreat confidence in the improvisingcapability of our people and I am sureif they get set on it, they can accom-plish the job and without too muchtrouble.

Obviously, the job of designingand developing a proto-type couldinvolve substantial costs if it is un-dertaken by highly paid profession-als. Luckily, a more economical al-ternative is available. The manufac-turer could assign this job to engi-neering university students, givingthem a rickshaw chassis, a reason-able grant and essential specifica-tions about the product. This way,the manufacturer could get a proto-type at a reasonable cost. Our stu-dents have talent, which they haveamply demonstrated by winningprizes in various international com-petitions. As a matter of fact, col-laboration between industry and uni-versities is a common phenomenonin developed countries which ben-efits both parties, and also the pub-lic when the product designed is ofconsumer use.—Karachi

H.A. HELLYER

SEEING as there arethose who wantonlybelieve the most ab-

surd tales imaginable, it seemsnecessary to point out thatthe quotes above are fic-tional. No one said or did that– because it would havebeen preposterous. But itwasn’t preposterous for theEgyptian government todraft such a law to signifi-cantly circumscribe protests,and deliver it to the interimpresident for considerationapparently under the as-sumption that such a lawwould actually stop protest-ers from protesting. It’s notutterly clear why, particularlygiven widespread opposi-

The Egyptian people demand the right to demandtion from within and outsidethe government but then, verylittle seems to be completelyclear in this “transitional” pro-cess.

Protest movements overthe past three years in Egypthave been involved in someof the most critical (albeit notalways wise) political state-ments in Egyptian modern his-tory. Those statements wereinvariably not aimed at encour-aging the Egyptian state tocontinue on the path it hadchosen for itself they wereaimed at demandingacknowledgement and recog-nition since a significant num-ber of people disagreed withthe state. By its very nature,protest is controversial anddisorderly. The test of the state

in this regard is not to see howquickly or easily they can re-move that controversy or dis-orderliness, but to see how ef-fectively it can remove the rea-son for that disagreement fromthe street. The easiest way isto respond (if not alwaysagree), from within the corri-dors of power and authority,so as not to remove the abilityof those on the street to re-spond.

On this law, it is not simplya few unruly revolutionarytypes that are dissatisfied withthe law. The deputy primeminister’s objections wereoverruled in the cabinet – notleast due to an interventionfrom the ministry of the inte-rior who, naturally, advocatedthat the law was “necessary.”

The irony of ironies is that theSalafist party al-Nour ex-pressed its opposition thesame al-Nour Party that report-edly blocked Ziad Baha al-Dinfrom becoming prime minister.How different things mighthave turned out over the pastfew months had al-Din beenappointed.

The question is aboutwhat the aim of the law oughtto be. Is it to ensure that theright to freedom of assemblyand protest is protected? H.A.Hellyer

But not to worry, the im-mensely pro-government“Tamarod” movement hasalso come out against the mea-sure. Irony is not in short sup-ply in Egypt. A group partiallyresponsible for a road-map that

created an interim government,may find the measures it usedto push that road-map forwardimpossible, due to that sameinterim government.

It is not simply a singlelone voice within the cabinetthat opposed this draft thatInterim President AdlyMansour received for consid-eration former presidentialcandidate, and leader of theStrong Egypt Party, AbdelMoneim Abul Futuh attackedthe draft, as did the April 6Youth Movement, former MPMustafa al-Naggar and noteddiplomat and writer EzzedineChoukri. Of course, it is highlylikely that large portions of theintelligentsia will deepen theirattacks of these individualsand others as “secretly” sup-

portive of the Muslim Brother-hood and/or terrorism. Thatdoes seem to be the smear ofchoice nowadays.

Indeed, Gamal Eid, the ex-ecutive director of the ArabNetwork for Human Rights In-formation, indicated his ownconcerns that the measure willbe presented as a necessarytool in the “war on terror.” TheSocial Democrats Party “cat-egorically” rejected the law,calling on “all other democraticforces to stand togetheragainst the issuance of thisrepressive law and to stayunited against the counter-revolutionary forces and theadvocates of the return of thesecurity state.” When the po-litical party of the prime minis-ter and the deputy prime min-

ister say something like that,you have to stop and wonderif someone missed the memo.

It is not that there shouldnot be a law relating to pro-tests, sit-ins and assemblies.There should indeed be oneevery country ought to haveone. The question is aboutwhat the aim of the law oughtto be. Is it to ensure that theright to freedom of assemblyand protest is protected,alongside the rights of thosewho may be impacted by suchgatherings? In this case, is itabout protecting the rights,freedoms and dignity of Egyp-tians? Or, as the critics claim,is such a law about enforcingthe power of the state, overand beyond the natural rightsof the individual and civil so-

ciety? Moreover beyond theneed to regulate such thingsthis is Egypt. The phenom-enon of the “protest” is in-delibly responsible for thenature of this polity. Thepeople of Egypt have boughtthe right to the freedom topeacefully protest againstone’s leaders with their blood,sweat and tears. It’s not aright that any governmentought to simply sign away.

At present, the interimpresident has indicated he’dprefer to have the law put toa “national dialogue.” Let ushope that this “national dia-logue” consigns this draftlaw to where it ought to be-long under the feet of Egyp-tian protesters.—Courtesy Alarabiya

Al-Shabaab takes ‘LastGasps’ in Ethiopia

JACEY FORTIN

THE explosion went off at 2:40 on a Sunday afternoon,on a tree-lined side street in Ethiopia’s capital city ofAddis Ababa. The area was a quiet one - home to for-

eign diplomats, domestic civil servants and several embas-sies - and the blast was strong enough to kill two men, startlethe neighbours, and demolish a small home. Police tape marksthe compound where a bomb explosion killed two men onSunday, Oct. 13, 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Credit: JaceyFortin/IPS But if the government’s current theory is correct,the carnage could have been much worse. Sunday, Oct. 13,was the day of a big football match - a rare shot at the WorldCup playoffs for Ethiopia, which ultimately lost against Ni-geria in Addis Ababa. Given the debris found at the site ofthe explosion, including suicide belts and an Ethiopian teamjersey, investigators think the men may have been planningto detonate near the football stadium in central Addis, wherethousands of fans and security workers had gathered. Butsomething went wrong, and the two suspects - Somali na-tionals, according to the government - never made it out ofthe house before their explosives went off.

Al-Shabaab, a militant group based in Somalia, claimedresponsibility for the attack on its Twitter account, but itsdetails were off. “We Claim Responsibility for Today’s BombBlast in #AddisAbaba, #Ethiopia, that Left Nearly 10 KuffarDead,” said the Monday tweet, which greatly exaggeratedthe number of casualties and was not posted until the dayafter the actual explosion. “It is a plausible assumption thatAl-Shabaab may be connected to the crime,” Kjetil Tronvoll,an Ethiopia expert and senior partner at the InternationalLaw and Policy Institute, told IPS, noting that Al-Shabaabhas repeatedly denounced Ethiopia and threatened to carryout attacks. “Ethiopia has a standing high-alert security vis-a-vis Somalia,” he added. “ gives justification to such alert-ness.” The Ethiopian government is adamant about clamp-ing down on extremism in all its forms, said Prime MinisterHailemariam Desalegn at a press conference this month. “Ex-tremism often degenerates into terrorism, so we have to fightextremism as much as we can, and that has no compromise atall.” This approach has garnered criticism from some Ethio-pian Muslims - including ethnic Somalis - who claim theircommunities are unfairly targeted.

“The terrorist incident, if connected to Al-Shabaab, maysadly contribute to a possible stigmatisation of the Somalipopulation at large in Ethiopia,” said Tronvoll. The Ethio-pian government said it would not change its approach tonational security on its own soil, and would focus instead onits borders, since the two suspects in the Sunday explosionarrived illegally.

“We will not make any changes to domestic security -that situation is already intact,” government spokesmanRedwan Hussein told IPS. “We will only make sure we aremore secure when it comes to people getting into the coun-try in the first place.” In Somalia, Al-Shabaab has positioneditself as a bulwark against Ethiopian and Western influenceever since its inception as the military wing of the IslamicCourts Union (ICU), an Islamist governing body that rose topower in Somalia in early 2006. In its early days, it garneredsome public support as a counterweight to the Ethiopiantroops that effectively ousted the ICU from Mogadishu inlate 2006 with backing from the United States.

Over the next few years, Al-Shabaab set up a governingsystem based on Shariah, or Islamic law. Its territory expandedacross most of southern Somalia and the group forged closerbonds with Al-Qaeda, formally linking with it in 2012. Butthat process wrought some discord between those Al-Shabaab leaders who envisioned a global Islamist move-ment and those who sought to focus on domestic issuesfirst and foremost.

The cracks began to show after 2011, when Ethiopianand Kenyan troops moved in to bolster troops from the Af-rican Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). At the sametime, Al-Shabaab’s refusal of humanitarian aid during a dev-astating famine was already eroding its public support. Inthe two years since, Al-Shabaab has been pushed out of itsformer strongholds in the capital city of Mogadishu and theport city of Kismayo, and vicious leadership scuffles havebecome a threat to cohesion. More and more, the organisationhas struggled to conscript voluntary fighters, relying insteadon forced recruitment. Some analysts see the attacks Al-Shabaab has taken credit for - including the Addis Abababomb this week and the massacre that killed 67 at a Nairobimall last month - as last gasps rather than shows of power.The organisation remains a very real threat, but it no longerenjoys the level of support it once did.

“There might be some fringe elements here and there onboth sides, who could use to air some grievances,” AlulaAlex Iyasu, an Ethiopia-based analyst at the Institute forPeace and Security Studies, told IPS. “But Muslims and Chris-tians have been living side-by-side in Ethiopia, and in Soma-lia the vast majority despise Al-Shabaab and affiliated groups.So I’d imagine they’d condemn the Addis bomb wholeheart-edly just as if it had happened on their own soil.” Somaliahas lately been making strides in its effort to end two de-cades of failed statehood. A new constitution and federalgovernment were established last year, with President HassanSheikh Mohamud at the helm.

The international community has pledged billions of dol-lars to rebuild the war-torn country, and the United NationsSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon called this week for AMISOMto bolster its troops in Somalia, already numbering about18,000, with another 4,400. As Somalia struggles toward or-der, peace reigns around the explosion site on Rwanda Streetin Addis Ababa’s Bole neighbourhood, where a high con-centration of ethnic Somalis live side-by-side with Ethiopi-ans, and where children of both ethnicities used to play to-gether in the very compound where the perpetrators ofSunday’s bomb lived and died.

In the days following the blast, police tape was stretchedacross the gate and a few federal policemen guarded the site.But other than that, life along the leafy street was progress-ing largely as normal, with ethnic Somali and Ethiopian resi-dents mingling at small shops and stopping to chat on streetcorners.

—Inter Press Service

Afghan children sit on a bullet-riddled concrete block in Kabul.

LONDON—Britain may re-cruit convicted computerhackers to a new military unitdedicated to combattingcyber-attacks, Defence Sec-retary Philip Hammond said.

Hammond announcedplans last month to recruithundreds of computer ex-perts to work as military re-servists for at least 19 days ayear in a new Joint CyberReserve unit. “As a matter ofpolicy the armed forces don’tnecessarily exclude peoplewho have criminal convic-tions. Each individual casewould be looked at on itsmerits,” Hammond told BBCtelevision late Monday.

“The conviction wouldbe examined in terms of howlong ago it was, how seriousit was, what sort of sentencehad followed. So I can’t rule

Britain may hire hackersfor Cyber-defence

it out.”Lieutenant Colonel

Michael White, the head ofthe new cyber unit, told thesame programme: “We’relooking at capability devel-opment, rather than settinghard and fast rules about in-dividual personality traits.”

Britain’s new cyber unitwill work alongside regularforces to protect againstcyber attacks and if neces-sary launch counter-attacks.The reservists could becalled up for full-time dutiesif required.

Recuitment opened thismonth for the unit, which isopen to any adult British orCommonwealth citizens whohave lived in Britain for thelast five years and who canpass the security clearanceprocess.—AP

WASHINGTON—The recentshutdown of the US govern-ment has taken a stinging tollon the image of the Republi-can Party, according to a pollpublished on Tuesday.

The Washington Post-ABC News survey showedthe public’s opinion of theparty has sunk to an all-timelow, with nearly two-thirds(63 percent) saying they heldan unfavorable view, com-pared to 32 percent who viewit favorably.

The government shut-down was sparked after Re-publicans driven by the ul-tra-conservative Tea Partyfaction tried to make a bill to

US government shutdown hurtRepublicans’ image: Poll

keep funding the governmentcontingent on gutting Presi-dent Barack Obama’s signa-ture health care law.

The messy 16-day shut-down ended only when Con-gress was staring at an immi-nent deadline to raise thegovernment’s borrowing au-thority or face the prospectof a debt default and ulti-mately passed a bill to fundthe government and raisethat debt limit, albeit in bothcases just for a few moremonths.

According to the poll,only one quarter of theAmerican public hold a posi-tive view of the Tea Party fac-

tion in the wake of the shut-down. However, Obama’sDemocrats did not emergeunscathed from the Wash-ington gridlock.

More than six in 10people polled disapproved ofhow the party handled bud-get negotiations.

Unfavorable ratings ofthe party rose to a recordhigh of 49 percent, althoughObama’s overall ratings heldsteady. More than half of thepeople polled (53 percent)blamed Republicans for thedeadlock, 29 percent blamedObama and 15 percent saidboth sides were equally toblame.—AP

GAZA CITY—Salih Alwadiyais among Gaza Strip’s poorest.The 61-year-old’s home con-sists of a kitchen, several smallrooms and a space devoted tocages full of pigeons and agoose. Many of his 20 chil-dren, from three wives, livewith him near a sewage plant.In all, more than 50 people livein the small compound.

Their only form of trans-portation is a donkey cart, ashis motorcycle is broken. Withthe house’s roof made of scrapmetal, his only escape from thestifling heat is to lie down inthe dark room with the pi-geons.

“When electricity cuts off,as happens every day, I go tothe bed in front of the pigeoncage,” Alwadiya says. “In theday, we suffer from flies and atnight, we suffer from mosqui-

Gaza’s pooreststruggle to survive

toes.” While Gaza has alwaysbeen poor, conditions in thecrowded seaside territory haveworsened since Hamas mili-tants seized power in 2007. Is-rael, which considers Hamas aterrorist group, along withEgypt imposed a blockade thatgreatly restricted imports andexports out of the area. Al-though the blockade has beeneased, the economy remainsstagnant.

Roughly 70 percent ofGaza’s 1.7 million people relyon handouts, and per capitalGDP, a measure of economicactivity, is lower today than itwas in 1994, according to thePalestinian Central Bureau ofStatistics.

Nearly half the populationlives in dire poverty, definedby the U.N. as living on lessthan $2 a day.—AP

LONDON—Western nationsand their Middle Eastern alliespressed Syria’s fractured op-position on Tuesday to joinproposed peace talks, al-though President Bashar al-Assad has made clear he willnot step down - which is theircondition for participating.The United States and Russiasaid in May they would con-vene a “Geneva 2” conferenceto try to end a conflict that haskilled well over 100,000 peopleand forced millions from theirhomes, but it faces huge ob-stacles and no firm date hasbeen set.

British Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague, hosting the

West pushes Syrian opposition to attend peace talksmeeting of 11 nations, saidbeforehand that it was vitalthat all elements of the West-ern-backed Syrian oppositionjoin the talks.

“If they are not part of apeace process in Syria then allthe Syrian people have got leftis to choose between Assadon the one hand and extrem-ists,” he told BBC Radio.

However, opposition fac-tions are loathe to discussanything except the immediatedeparture of Assad - who saidon Monday he saw no reasonwhy he should not run for re-election next year.

And many of the mostlyIslamist rebels fighting in Syria

refuse to recognize the exiledopposition favored by theWest.

U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry met Ahmad Jarba,the head of the umbrella op-position Syrian National Coa-lition, before the London talksbegan, but there was no wordon the outcome. Kerry said onMonday events may havemoved in Assad’s favor sincehe and Russian Foreign Min-ister Sergei Lavrov announcedplans for the peace conferencefive months ago, but that theaim remained to get both sidesto choose a transitional gov-ernment.

“I don’t know anybody

who believes that the opposi-tion will ever consent toBashar al-Assad being part ofthat government,” Kerry said,adding:

“If he thinks he is going tosolve problems by running forre-election, I can say to him ...this war will not end.” Haguesaid no military solution ex-isted and urged Syrians to“make the compromises nec-essary for a peace process towork”.

Several officials, includingArab League chief NabilElaraby, have said they expectthe Geneva 2 conference toconvene on November 23,though the United States, Rus-

sia and the United Nationshave all said no date has beenofficially set. In London, Brit-ain, Egypt, France, Germany,Italy, Jordan, Qatar, SaudiArabia, Turkey, the UnitedArab Emirates and the UnitedStates were to discuss theagenda for the peace talks andto help the opposition preparefor them, a U.S. official said.

While Washington hassaid it is open to the possibil-ity of Iran, which has sup-ported Assad, coming to aGeneva conference, Kerry saidit was hard to see Tehran play-ing a constructive role unlessit backs the idea of a transi-tional government. Hague said

Iran must support a proposedinterim government in Syriaincluding figures from Assad’sadministration and the oppo-sition as the way to politicaldialogue and free elections.

“If Iran could start fromthat position as well as the restof us, then Iran would be moreeasily included in internationaldiscussions on the subject,”he said.

However, the West and itsArab allies are divided on Ira-nian involvement. SaudiArabia, which backs Syria’smostly Sunni Muslim rebels,vehemently opposes any in-clusion of Shi’ite Iran, its re-gional arch-rival.—Reuters

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN—Oil-rich Brunei will enforcesharia criminal law next year,the Islamic kingdom’s sultanannounced on Tuesday, withpossible punishments in-cluding stoning to death foradultery and flogging fordrinking alcohol.

The law would be en-forced from April, said the 67-year-old sovereign, HassanalBolkiah, one of the world’swealthiest people, who haspresided over a shift to moreconservative Islam and anti-sedition laws in recent years.

Power is concentratedwith the monarchy and thecountry does not hold elec-tions. “It is because of ourneed that Allah the Almighty,in all his generosity, has cre-

Oil kingdom Brunei tointroduce sharia criminal law

ated laws for us, so that wecan utilize them to obtain jus-tice,” said the sultan, whoalso holds the post of primeminister.

Many crimes under thenew code have a high bur-den of proof and sharia courtjudges would have discretionover punishments, whichcould also include amputa-tions for theft.

The tiny kingdom, whichhas Southeast Asia’s highestper-capita income afterSingapore, has been prepar-ing to introduce the shariapenal code for years. In thepast, the sultan has said thatsharia criminal law should beestablished to work along-side the country’s civil lawmore prominently.—AP

BRUSSELS—The EuropeanUnion will launch a new roundof accession talks with Tur-key next month following athree-year hiatus after Ger-many dropped oppositionprompted by Ankara’s crack-down on street protests.

Turkey began negotia-tions to join the EU in 2005,18 years after applying, but aseries of political obstacles,notably over Cyprus and re-sistance to Turkish member-ship in Germany and France,have slowed progress.

The new “chapter” of ne-gotiations with the 28-mem-ber bloc will open on Novem-ber 5 and the process shouldbe accelerated to help Ankaraimplement democratic re-forms, EU enlargement com-missioner Stefan Fuele said.

EU revives membershiptalks with Turkey

“Recent developments inTurkey underline the impor-tance of EU engagement andof the EU remaining thebenchmark for reform in Tur-key,” he said.

Many EU capitals want totake the long-awaited step onTurkey’s path towards theEU, arguing Europe shouldcapitalize on Ankara’s rapidgrowth and rising influence inthe Middle East. Others arenervous about an expansionthat would see the bloc bor-dering countries includingSyria, Iraq and Iran.

Earlier this month, the Eu-ropean Commission praisedrecent judicial reforms in Tur-key and the government’s an-nouncement last month of apackage of laws designed tosalvage a peace process with

Kurdish insurgents.In its progress report it

accused Turkish police, how-ever, of using excessive forceto quell protests that startedat the end of May, urging thegovernment to strengthenoversight of the police andpress ahead with investiga-tions into their conduct.

Six people were killed andabout 8,000 were wounded inviolence as the protestsagainst Prime Minister TayyipErdogan’s government sweptTurkish cities and police usedteargas and water cannon todisperse a sit-in in an Istanbulpark.

EU governments, led byBerlin, had postponed plansto launch new talks in June asa rebuke for the handling ofthe unrest.—AP

Russians hunthusband of

suicide bomberVOLGOGRAD—Russian se-curity forces hunted Tues-day for the husband of a sui-cide bomber a day after sheblew herself up on a bus insouthern Russia, killing sixpeople and wounding morethan 30 others. They alsoraised the possibility thatMoscow, not Volgograd, wasthe bomber’s original target.

Investigators say 30-year-old Naida Asiyalova, anative of the volatile prov-ince of Dagestan in Russia’sNorth Caucasus region, wasmarried to an ethnic Russianman who had joined Islamicmilitants. They say her hus-band, Dmitry Sokolov, hasbecome a top rebel expert inexplosives and could havebeen involved in equippinghis wife for the suicide mis-sion.

Sokolov has been on therun since he left his home in aMoscow suburb in the sum-mer of 2012. The bombingMonday in the southernVolgograd region was the firstattack against a civilian tar-get outside the volatile NorthCaucasus region in years, rais-ing fears of a new wave of ter-ror just three-and-half monthsbefore the start of the 2014Winter Games in Sochi.

Volgograd lies 650 kilome-ters (400 miles) northeast ofthe North Caucasus, wherean Islamic insurgency hasbeen simmering for more thana decade after two separatistwars in Chechnya. InDagestan, the center of theinsurgency, bombings andshootings occur almost daily.The Tsarnaev brothers, ac-cused of carrying out the Bos-ton Marathon bombings,have roots in Dagestan andChechnya.—AP

which the border agreement isexpected to be signed.

Giving indications thatdecks have been cleared forsigning of BDCA, sources said,“Don’t ask about the outcomesnow. We will give you detailstomorrow.”

The BDCA was cleared bythe Cabinet committee on secu-rity last week as part of furtherconfidence building measures toavoid incidents along the LAC

India, China to sign landmark pactFrom Page 1

which has seen many intrusionsfrom the Chinese side.

The BDCA also provides forsetting up of a hotline betweenthe DGMOs of the two countrieson the lines of the mechanismIndia has with Pakistan.

The deal is expected to becleared after talks betweenSingh and Li, who will host alunch for the Prime Minister.This is the second meeting be-tween the two leaders in five

months after the Chinese Pre-mier visited India in May.

On Wednesday, President XiJinping will also host a banquetdinner for Singh, signifying theimportance attached to the In-dian leader’s visit.

Along with Li, Singh willaddress business leaders attend-ing the second India-ChinaCEOs Forum being held on thesidelines of the Indian PrimeMinister’s visit.—PTI

Representation of the PeopleAct, 1976 in 2002. However,since its inception it has neverbeen implemented and widelyflaunted by the members of as-semblies and Senate.

ECP suspendsFrom Page 1

LPG extraction license toJamshoro Joint Venture Limitedin what he called a non-trans-parent manner.

On Monday, AdvocateIrfan Qadir, representing twomarketing companies Tez Gasand Pioneer Gas, had accusedthe minister of trying to get thecourt involved by seeking anorder in the case because beinga minister he did not want to takeresponsibility for certain deci-sions.

“By repeatedly appearingin courts in governmental mat-ters the petitioner is compromis-ing his position as minister,”Qadir had said.

LPG extractionFrom Page 1

was an integral part of India andno third party intervention wasacceptable.

Speaking to media, Shindemade it clear that Pakistan’s sug-gestion of third party interven-tion was completely unaccept-able to New Delhi. “It has beenour unflinching stand sinceNehru’s period that Kashmir isIndia’s integral part,” he said andadded that all issues betweenIndia and Pakistan could be re-solved bilaterally as per theShimlh Agreement. —Online

Shinde rejectsFrom Page 1

United States. “It would have beenmuch better if the PML-N govern-ment had continued the trend oftaking opposition into confidenceahead of making any decision ofnational and masses interest”.Maintained Khurshid Shah. He,However, expressed the optimismthat PM and his delegation willarrive back with positive results.

Advocating the negotiatedsettlement of the militancy issue

Opposition not taken into confidenceFrom Page 1

the opposition leader in the Na-tional Assembly lamented it wasa matter of grave concern thatdespite fact that the governmentwas given open mandate ontalks with the Taliban, noprogress had been made.

“The vision of the PakistanArmy was clear and the govern-ment had the authority to makedecisions, yet talks could not beinitiated”. Khurshid Shah said.

The opposition leader contendedthat no dictator could now dareto come to power from backdoor or by force.

“Now the politics would beexercised in the field rather thancomputers”, he said adding thechapter of Swiss cases againstformer president Asif Zardari isclosed and there was nothing tobe worried if the cases were re-opened.

tariff could be fixed on thebasis of discretion.

This is an inappropriatemanner of doing things, headded. The Chief Justice said ifNEPRA wants to hire its coun-sel, it could do so. Later, theChairman presented the recentnotification of power tariff hiketo the court.

SC seeksFrom Page 1

he added.“As democracy takes root in

Pakistan, there is a scope forbuilding a strong and stable part-nership between the two coun-tries. They should be based onmutual respect and mutual inter-est as so clearly articulated byPresident Obama in his Cairospeech.”

The two countries shareperceptions and interests on awide range of issues, includingAfghanistan, peace and stabil-ity in South Asia and theMiddle East, as well as extrem-ism and terrorism, he noted.Despite the planned drawdown,there would be continuing needfor close cooperation betweenthe two countries, especially inAfghanistan, Nawaz Sharif em-phasized.

The Prime Minister also re-iterated his call for greater tradeaccess for Pakistan to the UnitedStates and invited American en-trepreneurs to invest inPakistan’s energy and other sec-tors.

The new PML-N govern-ment, he said, was resolved toput the Pakistani economy,which it inherited in a shambles,on a strong footing. Economicdevelopment and security situ-ation are interlinked, he added.

He also underscored hiscommitment to regional peace,

Drone strikes major irritantFrom Page 1

saying Pakistan wanted a peace-ful Afghanistan and desired im-provement of relations with In-dia.

He also said the UnitedStates, as it advances relationswith India, would be in a po-sition to help Pakistan and In-dia resolve their outstandingissues.

Nawaz Sharif appreciatedWashington’s past role in defus-ing Pakistan-India tensions.

He termed Kashmir as aflashpoint and saw no difficultyin resolving the longstandingdispute once Islamabad andNew Delhi engage in dialogue.

Sharif also vowed to go the“extra mile” to make peace withIndia, saying the historic rivalscan resolve all issues throughdialogue.

The prime minister, address-ing the US Institute of Peace inWashington, said that Pakistan“will not be found wanting inwalking the extra mile” withIndia.

He regretted that periodicincidents such as violence on thedisputed border in Kashmir hadset back peace attempts.

“I wish to assure this augustaudience that Pakistan desires tolive in peace with its neighbor.We would not be found wantingin walking the extra mile,” said

the Pakistani premier.“If we sit down together, if

we seriously address these is-sues, I don’t think we will faceany problem.”

“Kashmir, of course, is avery difficult issue and very dif-ficult to resolve but I think, bysitting and talking, we will beable to find some way of resolv-ing that, too,” he said.

“Because that is a flashpointnot only in the region, but thewhole world,” he said of Kash-mir.—Agencies

lations,” Obama’s spokesmanJay Carney said. The WhiteHouse press secretary said aheadof the leaders’ summit, the Pa-kistani leader is meeting the se-nior Obama Administration of-ficials at the State Department,the Department of Defense, De-partment of Energy, Departmentof Treasury, and the U.S. TradeRepresentative.

“These meetings provide anopportunity to discuss concretecooperation on issues of mutualconcern such as energy, trade,and economic development, re-

White House: US-Pak tiesFrom Page 1

gional stability, and, of course,countering violent extremism,”Carney added, as Premier Sharifheld a series of discussions onwide-ranging cooperative tieswith American officials duringhis four-day official visit.

“We want to advance ourshared interest of a stable, se-cure, and prosperous Pakistanthat is contributing to regionaland international security andprosperity.

“We want to find ways forour countries to cooperate, evenas we have differences on some

In October 2012, 68-year-old grandmother Mamana Bibiwas killed in a double strike, ap-parently by a Hellfire missile,as she picked vegetables in thefamily’s fields while surroundedby a handful of her grandchil-dren. In July 2012, 18 laborers,including a 14-year-old boy,were killed in multiple strikes ona impoverished village close tothe border with Afghanistan asthey were about to enjoy anevening meal at the end of along day of work. Contrary toofficial claims that those killedwere “terrorists”, AmnestyInternational’s research indi-cates that the victims of theseattacks were not involved infighting and posed no threat tolife. “It is hard to believe that agroup of labourers, or an elderlywoman surrounded by hergrandchildren, were endanger-ing anyone at all, let alone pos-ing an imminent threat to theUnited States,” said Qadri.

The USA’s promise to in-crease transparency arounddrone strikes, underscored by amajor policy speech by Presi-dent Barack Obama in May2013, has yet to become a real-ity, and the US still refuses todivulge even basic factual andlegal information,said the re-port.—APP

US droneFrom Page 1

Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) felt vindi-cated again with the publicationof the Amnesty InternationalReport on drones. The Reportpoints out that the US must beheld accountable for drone kill-ings in Pakistan, and as Khanpointed out, it also suggests thatthese unlawful killings couldamount to war crimes. Khan re-minded that PTI has consistentlyheld that drones were a viola-tion of Pakistan’s sovereigntyand was a violation of interna-tional law including HumanRights laws.

Khan demanded the judge-ment of the Peshawar HighCourt on drones earlier this year,should also be implementedimmediately....“The governmenthas been mandated by all thepolitical parties to stop dronesover FATA and the PMLN itselfcommitted to doing the same ifelected to power. Now the timehas come to implement the APCmandate and its own electoralcommitment to the people ofPakistan”, Khan added.

Khan condemned the con-spiracy of deliberate confusionand duplicity on drone attacksagainst Pakistan’s FATA regionwhich was now being exposedinternationally and he said, “itis sad to learn of our own lead-ers and other elements being partof this conspiracy - a point thatis highlighted in the AmnestyInternational Report as well, anda point which the PTI had beenraising since drone attacks be-gan.”

on Tuesday that prime minister,Muhammad Nawaz Sharif wouldtry to convince president BarackObama for halting drone attacksin the tribal areas of Pakistan.Pakistan Muslim League Nawazalways had been opposing theseattacks as it was against the na-tional security, he added.

Talking to a private TVchannel, Rashid said that PML-N government had raised the is-sue of drone campaign to theUnited Nations Security Coun-cil as it was illegal and counterproductive. He said that Paki-stan was pursuing the policy ofnon- interference in any country’saffairs and also expect the samefrom others. Strong and prosper-ous Afghanistan was in best in-terest of Pakistan, he said.

The minister said that nocountry should interfere in theaffairs of Afghanistan. To aquestion, he said that terrorismhad become an international is-sue and the whole world shouldwork collectively for rooting outthis menace.

ImranFrom Page 1

PML-N alwaysFrom Page 1

national that drone strikes inYemen and Pakistan and else-where infringed internationallaw, and said it did all it couldto avoid civilian casualities.

The comments followed thepublication of reports on the USdrone war by two human rightsgroups, and came a day beforePrime Minister Nawaz Sharif isexpected to bring up concernsabout the US tactic in talks withUS President Barack Obama atthe White House.—AFP

US deniesFrom Page 1

regretted for not holding thelocal bodies’ elections in thecantonment board areas despitecourt orders and tendered hisunconditional apology to thecourt.—INP

Defence SecyFrom Page 1

as a habitual rapist, who threwthe girl down from his apartmentin Phase II, Defence, after rap-ing her. The girl suffered seri-ous head and backbone injuries.

The accused, KhalidBaloch, was arrested later. Thegirl was brought to the JinnahPostgraduate Medical Centre inan unconscious state, wheredoctors confirmed she was sexu-ally assaulted. Scans of thevictim’s body revealed she hadsustained multiple fractures inthe backbone owing to her fall.

SP South Munir Shaikh toldthat the rape survivor in her ini-tial statement had said she waslured by the man at the AbdullahShah Ghazi shrine, who thentook her to his residence where

possible for him to ensure main-tenance of law and order in thewhole of the province.

He alleged the Sindh provin-cial government of political victim-ization of workers of the PMLFand leaders and workers of Sindhinationalist parties prior to holdingof the local body elections.

The provincial governmenthad during political victimiza-tion of the PMLF workers andthose belonging to Sindhi na-tionalist parties had put themunder tremendous physical tor-ture compelling them to changetheir political affiliations andloyalty.

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AccusedFrom Page 1

raise the Kashmir issue at theforums available at the UnitedNations.

He said there are 23 agree-ments between Pakistan and In-dia on the issue of Kashmir andIndia had agreed to them that itwould not take any step whichwas against the United Nationsresolutions.—APP

ZafarFrom Page 1

issues, and we want to makesure that the trajectory of thisrelationship is a positive one,”the press secretary remarked.

Continuing his emphasis onthe importance of the relation-ship, Carney said:

“It’s obviously a very im-portant relationship—the UnitedStates and Pakistan. It’s onethat’s obviously got a lot of com-plexity to it, but it’s enormouslyvaluable when it comes to U.S.national security and to thesafety and security of the Ameri-can people.”—APP

He further alleged the Sindhprovincial government of carry-ing out the delimitation processas per its interests as the Paki-stan People’s Party Parliamen-tarian (PPPP) leaders were car-rying out demarcations on elec-toral constituencies with theconnivance of the deputy com-missioners of their respectiveprecincts.

The PPPP-led Sindh provin-cial government had started pre-poll rigging prior to holding ofthe local body polls.He warnedofficials concerned to stay andavoid playing under hands of the

Sindh provincial government.He said the PPPP had never

been ready to hold the local bodypolls in its entire history and therecent preparations were beingcommenced owing to sternorders given by the SupremeCourt of Pakistan.

He said that the PMLF wasconfident that the provincialelection commission wouldfulfill i ts constitutionalresponsibilities diligently toensure the local body pollswould be held free, fair andtransparent. He said that thePMLF would take parts inlocal body polls with fullforce.

he raped her.The girl, who looks to be

between 18 and 20 years of age,said she was thrown off the bal-cony after she raised hue andcry. Police arrested the allegedrapist, who owned the apartmentalso. The man was out on bailin another rape case in Defenceregistered in 2010.

traditional U.S. ally would havewide-ranging consequences, in-cluding on arms purchases andoil sales. Saudi Arabia, theworld’s biggest oil exporter,ploughs much of its earningsback into U.S. assets.—Reuters

RiyadhFrom Page 1

BEIJING—Thick, chokingsmog enveloped cities innortheast China for a sec-ond day Tuesday, closingschools, airports and high-ways, snarling traffic andreducing visibility in someplaces to a few yards.

In the industrial city ofHarbin, home to more than10 million people, the PM2.5 level of fine particulatematter in the air reached1,000 micrograms per cubicmeter in parts of the cityMonday, 50 times abovewhat the World Health Or-ganization considers safe. Itis the first major pollutionemergency of the comingwinter

Vehicles crawledthrough the smog with foglights on or emergencylights flashing. Buses werecanceled and a major high-way was closed, while hos-pital admissions soared by30 percent, local media re-ported.

Visibility was so low inthe city, about 780 milesnortheast of Beijing, thattwo city buses got lostwhile plying their regularroutes. Pedestrians woremasks or clutched theirhands in front of their facesin an effort to breathe moreeasily.

“I did not even dare tocross the street,” said

Zhang Xiaofeng, a 24-year-old bulldozer driver whosaid his eyes hurt and hewas coughing as a result ofthe smog. “I waited andwaited at the intersectionand looked again and again,but I couldn’t see if any carswere coming. Even the traf-fic lights were invisible.”

While the air quality hadimproved by lunchtime, thefog descended again in theafternoon; primary andmiddle schools and the air-port remained closed.

“I can’t even see thenext apartment building nextto mine, which is only 10 or20 meters away,” said 42-year-old housewife Li Li.

“I’m not going out, and Iwon’t let my child go out.”

In the city ofChangchun, which lies 180miles closer to Beijing byroad, the PM 2.5 readingpeaked at 700 in some areasTuesday, and the airportwas closed for severalhours. On the weibomicroblogging service, oneresident of Harbin com-plained of having beenforced to walk to workthrough the smog withstinging eyes and throat be-cause buses were canceledand cabs hard to find.

“The weather made mepanic, I even wonder if hu-man beings will become ex-

tinct or not,” she posted un-der the user name“AlwaysBelieveIn.”

The local governmentblamed the widespread useof coal-fired heaters for thesmog as temperaturesdropped in China’s coldernortheast, as well as straw-burning in surrounding vil-lages at the end of the har-vest season.

“I live in a country mak-ing people desperate,”posted another Weibo user.“The environmental pollu-tion is not scary. What’sscary is the no-action gov-ernment and the silence ofpeople like slaves.”

China’s breakneck dash

for economic growth hasbadly damaged the envi-ronment, and the rapid de-terioration in air and waterquality increasingly hasbecome a source of publicunrest. As a result, improv-ing environmental stan-dards has become a majorpriority for the govern-ment.

Last month, China un-veiled its most ambitiousplan yet to reduce air pol-lution, calling for signifi-cant cuts in coal use in in-dustrial regions in thecountry’s north, and target-ing an overall improvementin PM 2.5 levels of 10 per-cent over five years.—WP

Choking smog paralyzes cities in northeast China

COAS farewelltoursRAWALPINDI—In view of re-tirement of Chief of ArmyStaff Gen Ashfaq ParvezKayani on Nov 29 prepara-tions are underway for hisfarewell visits to various for-mations and cantonments asper army tradition. TheCOAS would soon start hisfarewell visits. As per armytradition the COAS wouldfirst visit the formations andthan cantonments prior to hisretirement. With the an-nouncement of new armychief Gen Kayani would em-bark on his visit. He wouldalso visit naval and air head-quarters and would chair hislast corps commanders mootin November. He would alsopay farewell calls on thePresident and PM.—Online

PIA’s privatizationchallengedLAHORE—The suggestedprivatization of the PakistanInternational Airlines hasbeen challenged in the Su-preme Court where the peti-tioner Barrister Zafarullahtook the stance that the PIAis grand institution as well asnational asset of the coun-try. Its privatization standsagainst the national interests.He argued that the perfor-mance and progress of insti-tution should be enhancedrather than privatizing it forthe interests of handful per-sons who have nothing to dowith national interests; rathertheir aim is to collect wealthfor the sake of their vestedbenefits. —INP

Man killed,daughter injuredKHANEWAL—A man wasshot dead while his minordaughter sustained bulletinjuries over an old enmityhere at hussainabad. Ac-cording to police, ManzarMohil (36) resident ofHussainabad had a disputewith Mubashir ,Muhammad Amir and oth-ers over some issues. OnTuesday, he was standingoutside his house when hisrivals allegedlly opened fireand killed him on the spotand injured his minordaughter Aqsa (3). She wasshifted to the hospitalwhere her condit ion wasout of danger, doctorssaid.—APP

Killed by straybulletFAISALABAD— A minor boywas killed after being hit by astray bullet in the area of RazaAbad police station. Ashfaqand his three friends shot firein the air in jubilation at a mar-riage function in Raza Abad.A stray bullet hit 8-year-oldHamza and injured him seri-ously. He was being shiftedto hospital when he died onthe way. The police, on thecomplaint of Imran, brother ofill-fated Hamza, registered acase against 4 accused. —APP

Mr. Zahid Malik, Editor-in-Chief, Pakistan Observer called on the President Mr. Mamnoon Hussain at the Presi-dency, Tuesday. Mr. Gauhar Zahid Malik, Executive Editor of Pakistan Observer and Mr. Omar Zahid Malik, CEO ofRoots and Herbs (Pvt) Limited also accompanied him.

QUETTA—An anti-terrorismcourt Tuesday reservedjudgement over exemption ofParvez Musharraf presencebefore the court in murder ofAkbar Bugti case.

On Tuesday Judge TariqAnwar Kasi heard the case.

Nominated accusedformer interior minister AftabAhmad Khan Sherpao andformer provincial home min-ister Shoaib Nowsherwanialso appeared in the courtand presented their pleas forinterim bail.

Former military ruler Gen-

ATC reserves judgement overexemption of Musharraf

Arrest warrants of Shaukat, Owais re-issuederal (retd) Musharraf, themain accused in the case, didnot appear before the court.According to his counselParvez Musharraf could notbe produced in view of secu-rity threats to his life and re-quested the court for his ex-emption.

The court reserved thejudgement over this till Nov26.

While arguments for in-terim bail would be held in thenext hearing.

The court also reissuedarrest warrants against former

prime minister Shaukat Aziz,former Balochistan governorOwais Ahmed Ghani and formerDistrict Coordination Officerfor Dera Bugti Abdul Samad Lasifor non appearance and orderedauthorities to produce theaccused persons at its nexthearing on Nov 26.

Earlier on Oct 9, the Su-preme Court had grantedParvez Musharraf bail inthe Bugti murder case afteraccepting his appealagainst rejection of a simi-lar plea by the BalochistanHigh Court.—Online

UFA, Russia— PresidentVladimir Putin accused for-eign rivals on Tuesday ofusing radical Islam to weakenthe Russian state, a day aftera suicide bombing blamed ona Muslim woman.

“Some political forcesuse Islam, the radical cur-rents within it ... to weakenour state and create conflictson Russian soil that can bemanaged from abroad,” Putintold Muslim clerics at a meet-ing in the Russian city of Ufa.

He was speaking about1,000 km northeast ofVolgograd, where the ladysuicide bomber from Russia’smainly Muslim NorthCaucasus killed six people on

a bus on Monday.Putin did not say which

foreign rivals he was referringto and portrayed Russia as aforce for peace in the MiddleEast at what he said was atime of meddling by othercountries.

He has often accusedcountries, including theUnited States, of trying tointerfere in Russia’s affairssince he secured a six-yearthird term as president lastyear.

Speaking after race riotsin Moscow this month, Putinalso urged the clerics to helpMuslim immigrants adapt tolife in Russia to reduce the like-lihood of violence.”—Reuters

Foreign rivals use radicalIslam to weaken Russia: Putin

Ombudsmanorders RBISE topay Rs 48,500 to

girl studentL A H O R E — O m b u d s m a nPunjab Javed Mehmood hasordered Chairman Board ofIntermediate and SecondaryEducation Rawalpindi (RBISE)to pay compensation of Rs.48500 to a girl student.

According to reports,Ombudsman Punjab issuedorder on complaint of a stu-dent girl, Shabana Mehnaz,resident of Tala Gang districtChakwal, in which she statedthat marks of her computerscience subject were missingin internet results and the is-sue was taken up with RBISEimmediately.

Later on, RBISE informedher that she will be awardedwith average marks as herrecord was missing at BISEoffice. Controller of Examina-tion, BISE Rawalpindi for-warded the case to DisciplineCommittee which after threemonths directed SecrecyBranch to trace the record.

She stated that she wasmade a rolling stone betweenher concerned school andBISE Rawalpindi office.

Result Card has not beenissued even after lapse ofmore than one year, she com-plained. Ombudsman Punjabdirected member InchargeRawalpindi to probe the is-sue, following the directions,he sent a notice to RBISEand called for report.

BISE immediately issuedResult Card to the complain-ant but after 15 months.

Although the Result Cardwas issued but OmbudsmanPunjab directed ChairmanBISE Rawalpindi to pay com-pensation for issuing resultcard too late.—Online

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI.—Sindh Senior Edu-cation Minister Nisar AhmedKhuhru said that the Sindhprovincial government wasfully prepared for holding thelocal body polls in the prov-ince. Therefore, the Sindh pro-vincial government had ap-proached the provincial elec-tion commission to announcethe schedule of the LB polls.

Khuhru said this whiletalking to the media in hischamber in Sindh AssemblyBuilding Tuesday.

It the privilege of the prov-ince to decide about mattersregarding the LB polls underthe 18thconstitutional amend-ment and the Supreme Courtof Pakistan should not inter-fere in this affair. “ If the gen-eral elections would have beenheld in accordance to the cen-sus done in 1998, the LB pollscould also be held, as well. Theobjections raised by the politi-cal parties that the LB pollsshould not be held withoutfresh census were without anysense.”

The LB polls would beheld on party basis in the prov-ince and in this regard, theSindh provincial governmenthad fits necessary prepara-tions and that the LB pollswould only be held under the

aegis of the provincial electioncommission.

Pakistan People’s PartyParliamentarian (PPPP) was infavour of devolution of pow-ers to the grass root level andhad never escaped from theLB polls and only for once hadboycotted the LB polls on therecommendations of theMovement for the Restorationof the Democracy), which wasa mistake and the party hadwith open heart admitted thatmistake was made. The PPPPhad also participated in the LBpolls held under the Militarydictators’ rule and hence theallegations on the party forescaping the holding of the LBpolls were baseless.

reply to a question, theMinister said that the PPPP didnot believe in solo flights andwanted to keep the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) andother parties should join thePPPP-led Sindh provincialgovernment as the copartners.The PPPP and the MQM hadheld talks on that matter butthose were not fruitful but thePPPP had not closed itsdoors for further talks. How-ever, it would the sole dis-cretion of any political partywhether it would join thePPPP-led Sindh provincialgovernment or not.

He said that the Sindh

provincial government hadtaken decisions about resto-ration of the law and order,targeted operation, LB andother issues after consulta-tion with the MQM.

While responding to an-other question, the ministersaid that officers were pro-moted in accordance to theirseniority and eligibility andif any police officer believedhe was ignored, he mightcome forward with an appealfor the review of the decisionas the options for onwardreview were still valid.

The minister also refutedclaims about his confrontationwith the Sindh educationSecretary and said that theSecretary had flanked him whilehe was talking to the journalists

He said that stern lawswould be promulgated in or-der to eliminate terrorism be-cause no positive changewas resulted even after theannouncement was made forholding peace talks withTaliban.

The minister regrettedthe federal Finance Ministerwas not responsive to SindhEducation department ac-cord with the World Bank andthe UNESCO for $ 400 millionaid for the improvements inthe education sector of theprovince.

Holding of LB polls discretion ofprovince: Nisar Khuhru

OBSERVER REPORT

QUETTA—One Levies manwas killed on Tuesday whenthe convoy of an Arab princewas attacked in Kech district,in Balochistan.

According to sources, anArab prince and his convoywere on a hunting trip inBuleda, an area near Kechdistrict’s administrative cen-tre Turbat, under securityprovided by Levies forces

Levies man killed in attackon Arab prince’s convoy

when armed men opened fireat them. The attackers set onevehicle on fire and also stolethe weapons which were be-ing carried by Levies forcesand other ammunition in theprince’s convoy before es-caping. No Arabs were hurtin the attack.

In an unrelated incident,a man was killed from firingat a petrol pump near theEastern Bypass in the Dukiarea of Loralai district.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN—The Sultan of Brunei onTuesday introduced toughIslamic punishments in-cluding death by stoningfor crimes such as adultery,making his oil-rich realm thefirst East Asian country todo so at the national level.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah— one of the world’swealthiest men — said anew Sharia Penal Code inthe works for years was of-ficially introduced Tuesdayand would “come into forcesix months hereafter and inphases”, sparking sharpcriticism from rightsgroups.

Under the code, which

Sultan of Brunei introducesIslamic punishments

applies only to Muslims,punishments can includestoning to death for adul-tery, severing of limbs fortheft, and flogging for vio-lations ranging from abor-tion to alcohol consump-tion.

“By the grace of Allah,with the coming into effectof this legislation, our dutyto Allah is therefore beingfulfilled,” the sultan, 67,said in a speech. An abso-lute monarch whose familyhas tightly controlled thetiny, languid realm of400,000 people for six cen-turies, the sultan first calledin 1996 for sharia criminalpunishments He called

the legal change “rights-abusing, abhorrent, andabsolutely unjustifiable”.

Brunei already practicesa brand of Islam that is rela-tively conservative com-pared to its Muslimneighbours Malaysia andIndonesia, banning the saleand public consumption ofalcohol and closely restrict-ing other religions.

But sharia has been arare point of contention ina land where the sultan’sword is unquestioned, withmany Bruneians quietlygrumbling that the conceptis out of step with the afflu-ent country’s laid-back eth-nic Malay society.

NA-71 by-election

ECP dismissesPTI’s claim of rigging

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan dis-missed Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf’s claim that the by-elec-tion held in NA-71 Mianwaliwas rigged.

Last month, PTI had fileda petition with the ECP chal-lenging the victory of PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz’s(PML-N) Obaidullah ShadiKhel with claims of rigging inNA-71.Obaidullah had wonwith 69,799 votes while MalikWaheed managed to get56,504. PTI had accused thefederal and Punjab govern-ments of committing vote fraudin the constituency, submit-ting video recordings of alleg-edly rigged polling at differentstations as evidence.

They had also claimed thattheir original candidate for NA-71 Ayla Malik, was kept out ofthe race through connivancewith the Rawalpindi Board ofEducation, which raised objec-tions to her degree. Accusingthe returning officer from NA-71, provincial government of-ficials, ministers and membersof provincial and the NationalAssembly of being complicitin the act.”

60% of CNGstations owners are

thieves: PHCPESHAWAR—PHC has dis-missed the case filed againstOGRA by CNG stations own-ers. Two-member bench com-prising Chief Justice DostMohammad and JusticeAssadullah Chimkani heardthe case filed against OGRAby CNG owners.

The CJ remarked “60 % ofCNG stations owner arethieves, court had ordered todisconnect the illegal CNGconnections in Mardan, Kohatand Karak because they couldlead to any major incident anytime. Dismissing the case, CJsaid if fire erupted due to theseconnections, fire brigade ve-hicles of entire country will re-main unsuccessful in prevent-ing the incident.—Online

OLDER adults who don’t sleep wellhave more of the brain plaques that arehallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, a

new study suggests. The finding doesn’t provethat not getting enough shut-eye causes thebuild-up of beta-amyloid plaques and leadsto dementia rather than theother way around.

The researchers can’t besure which came first be-cause they asked about sleepproblems and took brainimages at around the sametime. But, the study’s leadauthor said, “It’s excitingthat our findings … maypoint to sleep disturbance assomething that can be amodifiable risk factor thatcan be leveraged to preventAlzheimer’s disease.”

Adam Spira from theJohns Hopkins BloombergSchool of Public Health inBaltimore said past studieshave found sleep quality isrelated to thinking andmemory skills. “We’ve known for a long timethat people with Alzheimer’s disease havereally disturbed sleep patterns,” he toldReuters Health. “People have wondered, well,is it possible that poor sleep is actually lead-ing to cognitive decline?”

In the new study, “We were able to lookunder the hood and see what’s going on inthe brain,” Spira said. He and his colleaguesasked 70 adults, ages 53 to 91 years, howmany hours they slept each night and howoften they woke up during the night or hadotherwise disrupted sleep.

Then they scanned each person’s brain tolook for clusters of beta-amyloid. The clumps

of protein pieces are present in the brains ofpeople with Alzheimer’s disease in muchhigher quantities than among healthy people.The researchers wrote in JAMA Neurologythat the amount of beta-amyloid plaquescorrelated with both the amount of sleep and

sleep quality.Average levels of beta-

amyloid rose with every hourless that participants reportedsleeping every night and witheach additional point theyscored on a question aboutpoor sleep quality. That wasstill true after Spira’s teamtook the four people who haddeveloped cognitive impair-ment or Alzheimer’s diseaseduring the study out of theequation.

Depending on the re-gion of the brain they lookedat, between one quarter andone third of the participantshad higher than normalamounts of plaque. Neurolo-gist and sleep medicine re-

searcher Dr. Yo-El Ju said the findings areconsistent with other recent research.

“All of the studies so far are kind ofshowing the same thing, that there is an as-sociation between disrupted sleep andAlzheimer’s pathology, meaning brainchanges,” Ju, from the Washington Univer-sity School of Medicine in St. Louis, said.None of those studies can prove whichcomes first, brain changes or sleep problems.

But research in animals suggests the linkgoes both ways: that sleep problems candrive the build-up of beta-amyloid and morebeta-amyloid then contributes to worseningsleep, she told Reuters Health.

Poor sleep tied toAlzheimer’s-like brain changes

High Commissioner of Nigeria, Dauda Danladi called on President Mamnoon Hussain at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Takashi Katae, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan, witnessing sculpture exhibitionby new talent Muhammad Shahid Yousaf, at Rawalpindi Arts Council.

Youth Model United Nations depicts desireof interconnection among new generation

ISLAMABAD—Students, andworking women are facing ac-commodation problems due toacute shortage of residential fa-cilities in twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad.

Most of the educational in-stitutes have not proper livingfacility for their students at theircampuses, which creates prob-lems for students. Saqib, a stu-dent living in a single room atSector G-6 talking to APP saidthat improper planning was themajor cause for bachelor’s hos-tels in the city. In the past manytimes I have changed my resi-dence due to bad attitude ofhouse owners or lack of basicfacilities in hostels, he added.

He stressed the need forsetting up more hostels to pro-vide relief to bachelors whocome for jobs and educationfrom other areas of the country.

Students, working women facingaccommodation problem

Arshad, a private companyemployee said that rents ofrooms and houses had surged inthe last few years due to unprec-edented influx of students andjob seekers in twin cities.

He said that in the recentpast many universities and col-leges were established withoutproper hostel’s arrangements,which causing great residentialproblems for students.

“I am residing in a smallroom of a private hostel withthree other girls and pay Rs7000each due to paucity of hostels forgirls in Islamabad”, said Nailaan employee of a semi-govern-ment organization. She said thatthere was no proper arrangementof cleanliness and the food wasalso substandard, she appealedto the authorities concerned totake steps for setting up newgirls’ hostels in twin cities to

overcome shortage of residen-tial facilities.

A property dealer, Hashim,said that bachelors facing a lotof problems in finding accom-modation, as owners preferredto rent out houses to families andavoid from bachelors due to se-curity issues. Many private andcommercial hostels never both-ered rules and regulations tomaintain moral standards to pre-vent illegal activities.

These hostels are located indifferent sectors of Islamabadand Asghar Mall Road, Saddar,Satellite Town, CommercialMarket and Raja BazaarRawalpindi.

Students acknowledgedabout unchecked and substan-dard private hostels but theyhave no second option until theireducational institutes offered ad-equate housing for them.—APP

Pakistan toenhance tieswith Nigeria

I S L A M A B A D — P r e s i d e n tMamnoon Hussain has saidthat Pakistan values its rela-tions with Nigeria and waskeen to further enhance bilat-eral trade and commercial tiesto the mutual benefit of thetwo countries.

He expressed these viewswhile talking to DaudaDanladi, High Commissionerof Nigeria to Pakistan whocalled on President MamnoonHussain at Aiwan-e-Sadr onTuesday

Pakistan - Nigeria bilat-eral relations were discussedduring the meeting.

The High Commissioneralso conveyed to the Presidentthe greetings and good wishesof the President of Nigeria.

Thanking the High Com-missioner, the President saidthat Pakistan values its rela-tions with Nigeria and waskeen to further enhance bilat-eral trade and commercial tiesto the mutual benefit of thetwo countries.

The President on his ownbehalf and behalf of thepeople of Pakistan conveyedbest wishes to the Presidentand People of Nigeria.—Online

ISLAMABAD—Inspector Gen-eral (IG) of federal capital po-lice Sikandar Hayat has saidthat Islamabad police madebest possible security arrange-ments on Eid-ul-Azha in regardto ensure the protection to thelives and property of the citi-zens.

Reviewing the overall per-formance of Islamabad Policeduring Eid ul Azha, he said ef-fective patrolling was made inthe city in order to avoid anyunpleasant incident.

IGP said “I can feel that it

Security to protectlives of citizens

is very difficult for policemento remain away from theirfamily on this glad occasionbut it is in our duty to protectthe country and serve thepeople”.

IGP was told that 15 teamsof ATS Commandos per-formed duties at importantplaces while special deploy-ment was ensured at FaisalMasjid. As many as 60 crimi-nal elements were also ar-rested during the Eid holidays.

IG lauded the vigilance ofofficers and jawans of

Islamabad police on this spe-cial occasion and hoped thesimilar performance fromthem in future also.

Around 650 policemenperformed special vigilance atentry and exit points of the citywhile bomb disposal squadalso conducted checking invarious areas.

Additional deployment wasalso made at various parks in-cluding Lake View Park,Chathar park, Daman-e-Koh.Pir Sohawa,Fatima Jinnah parkand Centaurus Mall.—Online

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Capital Devel-opment Authori ty (CDA)Chairman Nadeem HassanAsif on Tuesday said the au-thority would utilize all avail-able resources to further beau-tifying the Federal Capital.

The CDA Chairman saidthis during a visit to differentsites in the Capital selected forbeautification.

He was accompanied byMember Environment AhsanAli Mangi and other seniorofficers of EnvironmentWing.

Naddem Asi said thegreen character of the city

CDA to utilize all resourcesto beautify Capital

made it different from othercities and more steps wouldbe taken to further beautifyit.

He directed the Environ-ment Wing to beautify majorhighways, avenues and se-lected points with plantingseasonal flowers and ever-green plants.

He said trees such asSukhchain, Feedle wood,Cassia Glauca, Jacoranda,Arjun etc would be plantedalong Seventh Avenue,Islamabad Expressway, NinthAvenue, Constitution Avenue,Zero Point Interchange andShakerparian Chowk.

He also directed for in-

stallation of large basketscontaining colourful flowerson selected points. He said hehimself would monitor thebeautification work and nonegligence would be toleratedin this ragard.

He directed the MemberEnvironment to ensure earlycompletion of up-gradationwork in Marghazar Zoo andinstallation of fabricated dino-saurs so that it could providemore entertainment to thevisitors.

Nadeem Hassan Asif alsovisited inquiry office of Sec-tor G-9 and listened to thecomplaints of residents andordered for their redressal.

AIOU to holdexams from

Oct 29ISLAMABAD—Allama IqbalOpen Universi ty (AIOU)would conduct final examina-tions of Matric, FA/F.Sc andBA programmes for the Se-mester Spring, 2013 from Oc-tober 29.

Controller of Exams,AIOU Dr Hamid Khan Niazisaid that the university hassent roll number sl ips ofMatric, FA/F.Sc and BAProgrammes for the SemesterSpring, 2013 to its studentsacross the country and alsoplaced on i ts websitewww.aiou.edu.pk for conve-nience of the students.

He further said that thestudents who have not re-ceived their roll number slipsso far are advised to contactthe nearest regional office ofthe university or Abid HussainSatti, Deputy Controller ofExams (Conduct) personallyor at his Ph.No. 051-9250051,9057648 for issuance of du-plicate roll number slip.

For duplicate roll numberslip students are required tobring two passport size pho-tographs duly attested by thegazetted officer, he added.

The Controller of Exams,AIOU has advised all the stu-dents to read the instructionsmentioned on Roll No. Slipcarefully before entering intothe Examination Center.—APP

47.77pc passPart-I exam

RAWALPINDI—RawalpindiBoard of Intermediate and sec-ondary Education (RBISE)Tuesday announced annual re-sult of Intermediate Part-I ex-amination-2013, declaring 47.77per cent candidates successful.

A total of 52,878 studentswere appeared in the examina-tion, out of which 24,759 re-mained successful, while 26,825were declared fail.Announcingthe result, Chairman RBISEJawad Haider Sherazi said girlstudents have taken lead by se-curing higher passing percent-age than their male counterparts.

As many as 23,328 boy stu-dents were appeared in the ex-amination, out of which 8,481were declared successful with apercentage of 37.42.While, girlstudents’ passing percentagestood at 51.81 per cent as 16,278girls remained successful out ofthe total 29,550—APP

Children enjoying a ride on marry-go-round in a local park.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Committeesessions of Roots YouthModel United Nations havestarted with sophisticated de-bates and refined exchange ofdialogues between 1000 stu-dents hailing from variouscities of Pakistan.

The event was attendedby around 1000 students fromvarious institutions acrossPakistan. Moving on to thesecond day, two consecutivecommittee sessions tookplace.

The committee sessionsstarted with conflicts to theissues pertaining to eachcommittee.

The day started off witha slow pace since delegateswere just getting their feetbarely wet into each of theirrespective committees, by theend of the day the issues tothe concerned topics wererecognized in each commit-

tee.Five international del-

egates participated in the ses-sions. They were impressedby the knowledge base of Pa-kistani delegates and theirpositive, problem solving ap-proach of students towardsthe global issues.

They appreciated the ini-tiatives taken by Roots Inter-national Schools and provid-ing the youth with holistic ex-perience and Internationalparadigm.

The delegates fromMauritius, Mr. MohammadAzmat and Ms. Lubna andcommittee chairs teamed uptheir International MUNmethods with the RYMUNteam to conduct enthralling,intellectual, mind challengingcommittee discussions.

On this occasion CEORoots International SchoolsMr. Walid Mushtaq addressedthe delegates and expressedhis expectations from this

conference.He believes in the holis-

tic development of studentswith latest academic, socialapproaches and global expo-sure.

He applauded the unprec-edented zeal, enthusiasm andpositivity that all the del-egates brought to this confer-ence.

The participants of othercommittees designed strate-gies, held caucus meetings,networked about the variousagenda items being negoti-ated in the different commit-tees, and worked as informedby the lobbyists at the con-ferences themselves.

After a daylong debatingexperience the delegateswere going home with newexposure and better ideas ofthe global agendas.

They were highly en-thralled by the internationalexposure given to them forthe first time in Pakistan.

Cases against 18policemen

RAWALPINDI—The Anti-Cor-ruption EstablishmentRawalpindi Region, during thecurrent month, has registeredcases against a sub-inspector and17 constables for their allegedinvolvement in corrupt practices.

The cases have been framedunder Section 10 of the AntiCorruption Establishment Rulesand the police personnel havebeen directed to appear beforetheir respective investigationofficers to record their state-ments, said a press release is-sued by the Punjab InformationDepartment here Tuesday.

The Investigation Officers(IOs) have been appointed at theAnti-Corruption DirectorateRawalpini and the Circle OfficeChakwal to probe the casesagainst sub-inspector RashidAhmed and 17 constables includ-ing Muzaffar Ali, Qamar Zaman,Nasir Mehmood, Raza Abbas,Bashir Akhtar, Mazhat Hussain,Muhammad Sheraz, MuhammadSaleem, Muhammad Bilal, MalikSaeed, Muhammad Ajmal,Muhammad Yousaf, SaleemAfzal, Muhammad Ayub,Muhammad Akram, Malik Javedand Amjad Ali.—APP

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal addressing during Youthand Agriculture Challenges and Opportunities organized by PARC.

Noshi Qadir of Tanzara Art Gallery giving a painting’s gift to Ambassador of Italy Adriano Chiodi Cianfarani on the occasion of launch of cafe-cum-art gallery.

05:40

01:30

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Zohr

Brothers in Islam establishregular prayers and charity

Women purchasing woollen quilts for upcoming winter season from a roadside ven-dor in G-7.Traffic police checking over speeding vehicles through speed gun at Islamabad Highway.

Investigationof RPPs,

OGRA casesISLAMABAD—Chairman Na-tional Accountability Bu-reau, Qamar Zaman Chaudryon Tuesday directed theNAB Rawalpindi officials tocomplete investigations inthe ongoing cases includingthe Rental Power Projects(RPPs), OGRA and Modarbascams so that appropriateaction could be taken, andimplementation report besubmitted to the SupremeCourt.

He passed the orderswhile chairing a briefing dur-ing his first visit to NABRawalpindi Regional Office.

He said that all NAB of-ficers should follow orders ofthe Court in letter and spirit,and to meet the given dead-lines.

Chairman directed thatOperations and ProsecutionDivisions should work inclose collaboration so as toachieve desired results incases of corruption.

He said that he would ex-tend all out support to theRegions but field offices mustreciprocate by producing re-sults.—APP

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—The Rescue-1122 will conduct two train-ing sessions for police offi-cials at the Sihala Police Col-lege aimed at equipping themwith basic life support andfirst-aid skills so that theycould play an effective rolein emergencies and save pre-cious lives.

The Training Wing ofRescue-1122 will impart ba-sic techniques of the rescueand relief operations to po-lice personnel, enabling them

Rescue-1122 to conducttraining sessions

to respond in a more profes-sional manner especially inemergencies and natural ca-lamities, said a press releaseissued here.

The first two-day courseis starting from October 23 inwhich 470 Assistant Sub In-spectors will participate.While the second coursefrom October 25 to 26 will beattended by 360 police offi-cials of promotional phase atInspector and Deputy Super-intendent of Police level.

The Rescue team, undersupervision of Emergency

Officer Community TrainingDeeba Shahnaz Akhter, willimpart emergency manage-ment training through lec-tures, presentations and prac-tical demonstrations to po-lice personnel.

The Police force will betrained on Foreign BodyAirway Obstruction(FBAO), Cardio PulmonaryResuscitation (CPR), man-agement of medical andtraumatic emergencies likewounds, fractures, electricshocks, snake bite and burnemergencies.

I S L A M A B A D — I n t e r - c i t ytransporters are still over-charging the commuters re-turning from their hometownwith their families after cel-ebrating Eid-ul-Azha. Thetransporters of most of thecities bus terminals havebeen reportedly creatingshortage of vehicles tocharge exorbitant fares fromthe passengers after Eid-ul-Azha.

A number of passengersat various bus stands com-plained that the transporterswere informing them thatthere was shortage of ve-hicles while they park themat the hidden places to cheat

Transporters stillfleecing passengers

the passengers who are inhurry to leave for duty sta-tions.

“We have no option butto pay three-fold fares tocatch buses to reach twin cit-ies of Islamabad andRawalpindi in time”, SamoodKhattak who was waiting forhis family at Pirwadahi busstand.

The residents and pas-sengers of the twin citieshave demanded of the au-thorities concerned to takestrict action against thetransporters, who have in-creased inter-city fares evenafter Eid ul Adha.

The passengers said that

the transporters were takingfull advantage of the specialoccasion of Eid-ul-Azha anddemanding high fares.

The commuters com-plained that there is nomechanism or coordinationto control the illegal over-charging of the transporterscoming from other cities totwin cities of Islamabad andRawalpindi.

An official of the DistrictRegional Transport Author-ity (DRTA), whencontacted,said that specialteams were checking the fareviolations and artificialshortage of the trans-ports.—APP

Workshop onsafety of

journalistsIS L A M A B A D—Journalis tsSafety Center at NationalPress Club (NPC) Islamabadis organizing a day-longworkshop on safety of Jour-nalists on October 30.

This first-ever moot isaimed at providing acquain-tance on safety to the work-ing journalists based atRawalpindi and Islamabad. Anumber of renowned expertshave been invited to holdvarious interactive sessionswith the fraternity on the sub-ject, said a press release is-sued here on Monday.

NPC President FarooqFaisal Khan said the journal-ists Safety Centre was estab-lished in August 2013, withthe mandate to providesafety to the working jour-nalists of twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad.

He urged the journalistfraternity for maximum par-ticipation in the workshopand have full grasp on thesubject thereby ensuringtheir own security by adopt-ing various pre-emotive mea-sures.—APP

ISLAMABAD—As winter sea-son approaching, the sale ofwinter clothes has set in mar-kets, weekly bazaars andshopping malls of the twincities of Islamabad andRawalpindi.

People throng in marketsfor winter shopping to buytheir own choices keeping inview the high prices of win-ter stuff.

Warm clothes includingthe second-hand variety par-ticularly in the ‘Lunda Ba-zaars’ has increased in thetwin cities. Stall of clothesand sales points of shoescan be witnessed at AabparaMarket, Madina Market,Melody Market, Super Mar-ket, Jinnah Super Market,Sittara Marker, PeshawarMor, Karachi Company,Faizabad, Commercial Mar-

Sale of winter stuff onrise in twin cities

ket and Raja Bazar and inother big shopping malls andmarkets of the twin cities,meanwhile shopkeepershave also decreased theprices of summer stock.

“I am here to buy clothesfor my family members aswinter season is coming nearand prices of the stuff arequite low presently beforearrival of the winter season”,said Ayesha Khan a visitorof F-6 Super Market.

She said that the winterseason of Islamabad has al-ways very severe and cool.‘Snowfall at Murree Hillsalso affects the weather ofthe capital city, which ulti-mately pushes the prices ofwinter stuff upwards’, shesaid.

“Sale of winter clothes isgoing on as cold becomes

closer”, said Asim Khan, ashopkeeper at Aabpara Mar-ket.

Adeel Ishaq a shop-keeper at Jinnah Super Mar-ket while talking to APPclaimed that owing to lowprices this time, people arefeeling quite comfortable tobuy clothes.

“Our winter stuff sale ison rise and we expect that inthe coming days this will es-calate further.

He said that almosttwenty to fifty percent in-crease has been observed insale of winter clothes andshoes in Super Market. Dif-ferent kinds of wears and ac-cessories for coming chill areseen hanging in front ofshops and weekly bazaar’sstalls to attract the custom-ers.—APP

OBSERVER REPORT

RAWALPINDI—Due to neg-ligence of the RawalpindiCantonment Board, illegalcommercial and residentialconstructions are on therise while commercial ac-tivities also continue in theresidential areas in manyparts of the Cantt.

According to a surveyconducted by INP, despitehigh claims of the Canton-ment Board of act ionagainst illegal commercialand residential construc-

Illegal constructions inCantonment area

tion, the board has failedto curb i l legal construc-tion.

I l legal constructionsare on the r ise in manyparts of the Cantt Boardincluding Tench Bhatta,Saddar, Shallay Valley,Range Road, AfshanColony, Gawalmandi,Peoples Colony, BakraMandi, Quid-e-AzamColony, Misriyal Road,Chakara and Naseerabad.

The survey revealedthat building maps ap-proved from Cantt Board

were not followed when thebuildings were con-structed while illegal com-mercial activities were un-derway in residential areasof Saddar.

People have set up pri-vate schools, boutiques,beauty parlours etc in resi-dential units without tak-ing permission from theconcerned authorities.

Residents of variousareas demanded strict ac-tion against the violatorsof building bylaws of theCantonment board.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Press Councilof Pakistan has stressedupon maximum disclosure ofofficial information and aswift mechanism for com-plaint redressal under Rightto Information (RTI) laws inorder to ensure transparencyand accountability.

PCP for maximum disclosureof information

The meeting expressedsatisfaction over the promul-gation of RTI laws in Punjaband Khyber Pakhtunkhwabut suggested that indepen-dent information commis-sions may be appointed in-stead of Ombudsmen. PCPhas urged the KP and PunjabGovernments to enact theRTI laws through the provin-

cial assemblies and not asordinances.

The Council also askedfor review of Sindh andBalochistan Freedom of In-formation laws. It also rec-ommended involvement ofthe civil society, sensitiza-tion of the officials and con-formity with internationalstandards.

Govt to buildsmall‚ big dams

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter for Water and PowerKhawaja Muhammad Asifhas said that the governmentis well aware of the energycrisis which was not only irk-ing the domestic consumersbut also adversely hurtingcommercial and industrialactivities.

Talking to media personshere on Tuesday, KhawajaAsif said that in order to over-come the energy crisis, thegovernment has planned tobuild small and big dams.

He said that constructionof new dams will help in gen-erating cheaper electricity tomeet the growing domesticand commercial demands.

Duration of loadsheddingis being reduced gradually,the minister said. He said anoperation has been launchedto nab the elements allegedlyinvolved in power theft.Theminister said subsidy is be-ing given on electricity tothose people who are usingless units.—INP

Teachersshowing

poor resultRAWALPINDI—District Edu-cation DepartmentRawalpindi has decided tostop 3 increments of theteachers who have shownresult below 80 percent inprimary and middle standardexaminations.

The decision has beentaken in pursuance of the di-rectives issued by the Sec-retary Schools Punjab.Sources said that DeputyDEO secondary (Males)Rawalpindi has decided tostop 3 increments in respectof the teachers who haveyielded below 80 percent re-sult in primary and middlestandard examination 2013.The teachers among thosewho have shown below 80percent result and have re-tired from service during 2013will be imposed fine to thetune of Rs 3000.—Online

IncompletePIMS website

ISLAMABAD—Website of thelargest hospital of IslamabadPakistan Institute of MedicalSciences (PIMS) has notbeen completed despite lapseof one year due to lack of in-terest by the administration.

Thousands of visitorsfrom in and outside Pakistanvisit this website daily to ac-quire information about theirpatients and facilities in thehospital but the hospitalmanagement is paying no at-tention to ensure feeding ofinformation from the respec-tive departments and admin-istration related matters tothis website. Even contactnumbers of the concerneddepartments are not placedon the website.—Online

Upgradationof dispensariesRAWALPINDI—Up gradationof 10 Municipal dispensariesof the city has been shelveddue to negligence of admin-istration.

Millions of worth machin-ery, which was imported, forthese dispensaries is becom-ing dysfunctional due to thisnegligence.

As per details, with theefforts of former MPAShehriyar Riaz, 10 dispensa-ries of the city were to bechanged into mini hospitalswhere facility of maternityward was also to be pro-vided.

But after the term offormer MPA completed, thematter of these dispensarieson which millions of rupeeshave been spent has beenput under the shelf, whilethese dispensaries could be-came functional by spendingjust Rs 3.5 million more.

In dispensaries machineryof ultra sound including otherhas been purchased whichhad cost Rs 8 million. Sourcessaid, no one including politi-cal or administrative authorityis paying attention to this is-sue, which has raised the threatof sinking of money spent onthe machinery.—Online

Anti-rabiesvaccine notavailable

ISLAMABAD—Hospitals offederal capital are facing se-vere shortage of anti-rabiesvaccine, while Capital Devel-opment Authority (CDA) isalso showing negligence ineliminating the stray dogs.

Details said, Pakistan Insti-tute of Medical Sciences (PIMS)and Polyclinic hospital are de-prived of anti-rabies vaccineand National Institute of Health(NIH) has failed in providingthe vaccine to both hospitals.

Sources from PIMS said,many patients have been seenin miserable condition due tonon-availability of anti-rabiesvaccine, however hospitaladministration is vaccinatingthe dog bite patients with lo-cal made vaccine.

Sources said that, PIMSadministration has severaltimes wrote the letter to NIHin this regard to provide antirabies and anti venom vac-cine but NIH administrationhas not given any positiveresponse. Polyclinic Hospi-tal administration said thatthere is no anti rabies vac-cine available in hospital sopatients are forced to pur-chase this vaccine from openmarket.—Online

Stadium Roadproject approvedRAWALPINDI—The Punjabgovernment has approvedthe Stadium Road projectthat will cost Rs150 million.

According to RawalpindiDevelopment Authority(RDA) officials, under theproject, the road would beexpanded and footpathwould be constructed on itsboth sides. Proper drainagesystem will be constructedbeside the road, while vacantplaces will be left for parking.

The officials said thatRs20 million had already beenallocated for the project in theprovincial budget for the cur-rent fiscal year. The authorityis doing its best to completeas much work as possible onthe project during the currentyear, they added.—INP

Rs200m approvedfor facilities ingirls schools

RAWALPINDI—Following thedirectives of Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif, EducationDepartment Punjab has sanc-tioned Rs200 million for theprovision of basic facilities inthe girls’ schools ofRawalpindi district.

The department has allo-cated Rs8 billion for the pro-vision of basic facilities in-cluding washrooms, bound-ary walls, electricity, wateretc in the girls schools thatis expected to be completedtill June 2014. According tothe officials of the EducationDepartment Rawalpindi,Rs100 million out of totalRs200 million have been re-leased for the district.—INP

KHALID IQBAL

THE democratic freedomthat India prides itselfhas been missing from

the Indian Held Kashmir(IHK) since 1947. The voiceof Kashmiris has been por-trayed as a threat to its terri-torial integrity, rather thantreating it as a whistle-blower’s call to mend theways. IHK has, indeed, beenan open cage for the last sixdecades or so.

The UN Special Rappor-teur, Christof Heyns, has yetonce again urged India to re-peal the controversial law thatgives its military special pow-ers to act in troubled areas.On extrajudicial, summary orarbitrary executions, Heyns

Simmering Kashmirsaid that the Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act (AFSPA)has become a “symbol of ex-cessive state power” and “hasno role to play in a democ-racy.” These comments cameafter the conclusion of his 12-day fact-finding mission toIndia.

The AFSPA has been inforce in different parts of In-dia since 1958 and is currentlyenforced in IHK, Manipur andNagaland. Human rightsworkers have accused the In-dian troops of illegally detain-ing, torturing and killing rebelsuspects; sometimes evenstaging gun battles as a pre-text to kill. The law also pro-hibits soldiers from beingprosecuted for alleged viola-tions, unless permitted by the

federal government. Accord-ing to official documents, theIHK government sought per-mission to try soldiers in 50cases in the last two decades,but New Delhi has refused therequest.

“Immunity provision ef-fectively blocks any prosecu-tion of members of the armedforces…….During my visit toKashmir, the AFSPA was de-scribed to me as ‘hated’ and‘draconian’. It clearly violatesthe international law. A num-ber of UN treaty bodies havepronounced it to be in viola-tion of international law aswell…….The main finding inmy report is that despite con-stitutional guarantees and ro-bust human rights jurispru-dence, extrajudicial killings

continue in India and it is amatter of seriousconcern…….The guidelineslaid down by the SupremeCourt, many of which havebeen incorporated throughamendments in the Code ofCriminal procedure, are notsufficiently complied with,”Heyns claimed. Also, theprevalence of communal vio-lence, encounters, custodialdeaths and the plight of dalitsand adivasis are other areasof concern mentioned in thereport.

He has proposed a num-ber of provisional steps to betaken to address these con-cerns, including the estab-lishment of a Commission ofInquiry, consisting of re-spected lawyers and other

community leaders. “Indiaalso should ratify a numberof international treaties, in-cluding the ConventionAgainst Torture and the In-ternational Convention for theProtection of All Persons fromEnforced Disappearance,” hemaintained. His final recom-mendations, however, will besubmitted as a comprehen-sive report to the HumanRights Council. Earlier on,successive UN SpecialRapporteurs have demandedinvestigations to trace thou-sands of missing persons inthe occupied valley and ac-count for the mass graves of2,700 Kashmiris.

Moreover, Amnesty Inter-national has urged India toscrap the Public Safety Act

(PSA) that allows the policeto detain a person up to twoyears without charge or trialif he or she is deemed a threatto the state.

“Kashmir authorities areusing PSA detentions as a re-volving door to keep peoplethey can’t or won’t convictthrough proper legal channelslocked up and out of the way,”said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty’sAsia-Pacific Director. A newreport from the group said thatup to 20,000 people had beenheld under the law, since thestart of insurgency in 1989.The Indian authorities de-tained hundreds of peopleeach year without charge ortrial in order to “keep them outof circulation,” it said. Ac-cording to an official count,

47,000 people have died inover two decades of rebellion.Amnesty has called for “anindependent, impartial andcomprehensive investiga-tion” into reports of tortureand ill-treatment of detainees.

In January, Special Rap-porteur on human rights de-fenders, Margaret Sekaggya,too, demanded a repeal of thedraconian laws.

India’s record about hu-man rights violations in Kash-mir also came under scrutinyin December 2011, when theleaked diplomatic cables saidthat the International Commit-tee of the Red Cross (ICRC)had evidence of systematictorture by Indian securityforces. The ICRC, accordingto Wikileaks, told US diplo-

mats in 2005 about 177 visitsit had made to Kashmir’s de-tention centres that revealed“stable trend lines” of pris-oner abuses.

Stanley Wolpert. in hisbook entitled India and Paki-stan, writes: “The people ofKashmir themselves must bepermitted to choose theirown leaders in free and fairelections, as do the Indiansin other states in that union,and New Delhi solemnlycommit to supportingKashmir’s provincial au-tonomy and rights of itspeople, as it does to the au-tonomy and rights of thepeople of Punjab,Maharashtra or West Ben-gal.”—Courtesy cssforum

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK President Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan handing over cheque to President Central BarAssociation for Bar’s library.

Indian police arrest APHC leaders and activists including Shabbir Ahmed Shah, NayeemAhmed Khan and Muhammad Yousuf Naqash along with others from Pampore.

MUZAFFARABAD: Chairperson Kashmir Cultural Academy Prof Tasaddaq Gilani alongwith women participants of a workshop holding certificates.

SRINAGAR—The Vice Chair-man of Jammu and KashmirLiberation Front (JKLF), ad-vocate Bashir Ahmad Butt,has said that Bijbehara mas-sacre is a glaring example ofIndian aggression that hasexposed ugliness of Indiandemocracy.

Bashir Ahmad Butt lead-ing a party delegation whichincluded Mohammad YasinButt, Mohammad SideeqShah, Basher Kashmiri,

Bijbehara massacre example ofIndian state terrorism: JKLF

Mohammad Haneef,Mohammad Ishaq Ganai andGhulam Qadir Haider reachedMazar-e-Shuhada Bijbaharaand participated in a condo-lence meeting held in memoryof Bijbehara martyrs.

Addressing the condo-lence meeting, Bashir AhmedButt said that firing on inno-cent and unarmed people andkilling more than four dozenspeople at once was a crimethat Indian leadership would

have to repent on one day.Speaking on the occasion, theJKLF leaders said thatBijbehara martyrs laid downtheir lives for truth. “Theystood in front of Indian ag-gression and faced bullets butnever showed any sign ofcowardice,” they said.

The JKLF leaders saidthat massacres like Bijibehara,Batamaloo bypass, Gawkadal,Sailan Poonch, Bhaderwah,Zakoora and other places were

glaring examples of Indianoppression in occupied Kash-mir.

Meanwhile, a JKLF del-egation visited Sopore andcondoled the sad accidentaldemise of a woman from. Shewas hit by a fast running ve-hicle and died on the spot.The delegation was led byMir Mohammad Zaman andincluded Abdul RashidMagloo, Moulvi Reyaz andMuhammad Altaf.—KMS

Continued housearrest affects

Gilani’s healthSRINAGAR—The family mem-bers of the veteran Hurriyetleader, Syed Ali Gilani, haveexpressed serious concernover his continued house ar-rest saying that it is affectinghis health badly.Dr NayeemGilani, the son of Syed AliGilani, in an interview inSrinagar said that the contin-ued house detention of hisfather had affected his health.He said that the veteranleader’s feet and legs hadswollen and it had becomedifficult for him to walk prop-erly. Dr Nayeem maintainedthat when the veteran leaderwas not permitted to offer Eidand Friday prayers, it wasbound to affect him physi-ologically.

Meanwhile, the spokes-man of Syed Ali Gilani’s fo-rum in an interview said thatthe veteran leader had con-tinuously been placed underhouse arrest since March, thisyear. He said that this hadbeen the longest house de-tention of Syed Ali Gilanithroughout his entire life.

“He has been placed un-der house detention continu-ously for more than 228 daysduring which he was only al-lowed thrice to visit hospitalhere for his checkups,” thespokesman added.—KMS

India has convertedIOK into militarygarrison: JKPFL

SRINAGAR—The Jammu andKashmir Peoples FreedomLeague (JKPFL) has said thatIndia has converted the terri-tory into a military garrisonwhere the human rights arebeing violated massively.

The JKPFL General Sec-retary, Ghulam Ahmad Parrayaddressing a public gatheringat Palhalan in Pattan said thatNew Delhi was using everytactic to suppress theKashmiris’ liberation move-ment but it would never suc-ceed in its nefarious designs.

He said that tense situa-tion on the Line of Controlwould continue till Kashmirdispute was settled in accor-dance with the Kashmiris’ as-pirations. He appealed to theinternational community toplay an effective role in settlingthe Kashmir dispute as per theUN resolutions.—KMS

SRINAGAR—India and Paki-stan can have prosperous re-lations by way of dialogue, butIslamabad cannot use pres-sure tactics to make New Delhiaccept anything, JKPCCpresident Saifuddin Soz said.

“Pakistan cannot makeIndia accept anything by wayof pressure and both coun-tries can have prosperous re-lations by way of a dialogue.India is strongly adhering tothe path of dialogue,” theJammu and Kashmir PradeshCongress Committee presi-dent told reporters here.

Soz said if Pakistan treadsthe path of animosity with In-dia, it will adversely affect itsdevelopment.

Indo-Pak ties can be improvedthrough dialogue: Soz

“The moment they (Paki-stan) tread the path of ani-mosity, the development ofPakistan will be impacted in abad way and their social lifewill be hampered,” he said.

The JKPCC leader saidthe civil society of theneighbouring country hasunderstood that they have tolive with India in a friendlymanner.

“There are many layers ofpower in Pakistan. There isArmy, there are those who areon the path of violence andthen there is (Prime Minister)Nawaz Sharif as well.

Now, Sharif has to proveif the real power in his handsis strong or not...That is his

problem, but the civil societyin Pakistan has understoodthat they have to live with In-dia in a friendly manner,” hesaid.

Soz said Pakistan did notget any benefit by support-ing militancy and it shouldfind out who is behind thecontinued ceasefire viola-tions and infiltration along theLine of Control.

The JKPCC presidentsaid India is giving a strongresponse to Pakistan. “Paki-stan is getting a strong re-sponse. Many of the people(infiltrators) have died andstopped from crossing over.If some did cross, they arebeing tackled,” he said.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Commenting onthe escalating tensions be-tween India and Pakistan onKashmir issue, senior sepa-ratist leader and chairmanDemocratic Freedom PartyShabir Ahmad Shah said that‘Jammu and Kashmir is oneamong those 565 territorieswhich according to their wishhad to join either India orPakistan but Jammu andKashmir is the only unfortu-nate State which was notgiven this option to choosebetween the two countries.

“In fact, Kashmiris weresubjugated by military might.Even Indian first Prime Min-ister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehruhad promised in parliamentthat Kashmiris will be giventhe option to choose theirdestiny but Indian intentionschanged with time and thatis why Kashmir issue is stillthe bone of contention be-tween India and Pakistan.And it was Pandit Nehru whotook Kashmir issue to UNSecurity Council,” Shah’sstatement said.

Terming Foreign Minister

Kashmir belongs toKashmiris: Shah

Salman Khurshid’s statementthat Kashmir is integral partof India as ‘childish’, Shahsaid that Kashmir is not theproperty of any country butbelongs to Kashmiris. Term-ing ‘India’s stubbornness’ asthe reason behind Indo-Paktensions, Shah said that In-dia has been ruling Kashmirsince 1947 by force andKashmiris have never ac-cepted it.

“India is suppressing theKashmir movement. Morethan five lakh Kashmiris havesacrificed their lives whilefighting for right to self de-termination. Lakhs havebeen subjected to atrocitiesin jails and dozens have beenawarded life sentences,”statement added.

God forbid, if a nuclearwar breaks out between twoneighboring countries it willnot only create destructionhere but will create catastro-phe in whole of the SouthAsia, shah said, adding that“It would be a great blunderto move to battle field fromthe table. —NNI

SRINAGAR—Seeking where-abouts of their loved ones,who they said have beenforced into disappearance bysecurity forces during the pasttwo decades, scores of men,women and children haveswarmed Press Enclave to seekjustice.

Holding utensils, whichthe families said were onceused by their missing mem-bers, displayed infront ofthem, the protestors sat on theground carrying photographsof their loved ones.

Gulshan Banoo fromGangbou, Batamaloo with adistraught face cries as shewanted to know about her son,Manzoor Ahmed Dar, whowent missing in 1997. “He wasa shopkeeper who was picked

Kashmiri families waitfor disappeared sons

up by 20 Grenade RR person-nel in 1997 when he was re-turning to his home,” she said.

Bano said Manzoor wastaken to an Army Camp lo-cated in nearby Bemina areaand “when we paid a visit therewe were told to come back thenext day to take him along withus,” she adds.

The Forum for Justice ToEnforced Disappeared Per-sons (FJEDP) under the chairof Zahoor Ahmad Mir met atBrain, Nishat office and dis-cussed the future course ofaction nith regard to fightagainst custodial disappear-ance and the state impunity tohuman rights violators.

All the members resolvedto fight against the curse ofcustodial disappearance and

state’s support to the perpe-trators of the crimes againsthumanity. The parents,daughters, sisters, and broth-ers were carrying photographsof their loved ones and nar-rated woeful tales before re-porters.

Abdul Aziz Pir while narrat-ing her woeful tale about herson told Rising Kashmir thatthey are looking for FarooqAhmad Pir from past 20 yearsand he is still untraced. Whilepresenting utensils used bytheir missing Children, scoresof men, women and children ap-peared in Press EnclaveSrinagar seeking whereaboutsof their loved ones who got dis-appeared during militancy al-legedly at the hands of differ-ent security agencies.—NNI

Nawaz visit to US leaves positiveimpact on Kashmir issue: AJK PM

‘Mission ofKashmiri martyrs

to continue tilllogical end’

SRINAGAR—Hurriyet leadershave reaffirmed the Kashmiris’resolve to continue the mis-sion of their martyrs till its logi-cal conclusion, against allodds.

The leaders includingYasmeen Raja, MukhtarAhmed Waza, MusaddiqAadil, Syed Bashir AhmedAndrabi, Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi,Abdul Majeed Wani and QaziYasir led a rally from BijbeharaChowk to Mazar-e-Shuhadaon the occasion of the 20thmartyrdom anniversary ofBijbehara martyrs.

Addressing on the occa-sion, the leaders paid glow-ing tributes to the martyrs ofBijbehara.

They said, “Our martyrshave laid down their preciouslives only to get freedom fromIndia, and our struggle willcontinue till the goal isachieved, come what may.”

They maintained that thesacrifices of martyrs, whichhad centre-staged the Kash-mir dispute at the world level,would not be allowed to gowaste.

Their addresses werepunctuated by high-pitchedanti-India and pro-liberationslogans.

Meanwhile, a delegationof Jammu and Kashmir Libera-tion Front led by Bashir AhmedButt visited Mazar-e-ShuhadaBijbehara and offered fatehafor the martyrs.—KMS

Peace will remainelusive till

Kahsmir issueresolved: Javaid

SRINAGAR—The Jammu andKashmir Liberation Front (H)has slammed the world commu-nity for overlooking countlesssacrifices made by Kashmirisover the years.

Paying tributes to the ‘vic-tims of Bijbehara and ofHazratbal siege’, senior sepa-ratist leader Javaid Ahmad Mirappealed to the internationalcommunity to press for theresolution of Kashmir issuewhich he said is the main im-pediment to the peace betweenthe two countries.

In a statement, he saidpeace will remain elusive till theissue of Kashmir is resolved.He also condemned the hesita-tion of India to make UnitedStates a party to solve thelongstanding Kashmir issue.

“It was United States thatintervened when Indian andPakistani troopers were face toface on the LoC and interna-tional borders and that pre-vented the imminent catastro-phe.

Mir in his statement whilepraising the Pakistan PrimeMinister’s initiative of asking forUnited State’s intervention inresolving the Kashmir issueasked the leadership of boththe countries to resolve Kash-mir issue according to the aspi-rations of Kashmiris.—NNI

Probe into Soporemassacre couldnot yield anyresult: CBI

SRINAGAR—Twenty yearsafter paramilitary BSF troop-ers gunned down more than50 civilians in the Sopore mas-sacre, the Indian Central Bu-reau of Investigation (CBI)has filed closure report in twoseparate cases related to theincident, saying that the in-vestigation could not yieldany result.

The CBI in the status re-port submitted before theHuman Rights Commission ofoccupied Kashmir said, “Inview of the facts and circum-stances, it was decided to fileclosure reports in both thecases. Accordingly, two sepa-rate closure reports were filedin the court of competent ju-risdiction on July 17, 2013.Thus, investigation in both thecases stands closed.” OnJanuary 6, 1993, the BSF troop-ers went berserk and shot dead55 civilians, injured scores andtorched nearly 200 structuresin vengeance of the killing ofone of their colleagues in a mili-tant attack.—KMS

MIRPUR—The current visit ofPrime Minister MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharif tothe United States would leavefar-reaching positive impact onPakistan’s just and principledstance on the Kashmir issue.

Azad Jammu & Kashmir(AJK) Prime Minister Ch.Abdul Majeed expressedthese views while addressinga news conference at KashmirPress Club here on Monday.

The AJK Prime Ministerappreciated the recent state-ment of Prime Minister NawazSharif while leaving for USseeking support of the US for

its due support to the earlypeaceful solution of Kashmirissue. Ch. Majeed said thatrecent address by Prime Min-ister Nawaz to the General As-sembly of the United Nationswas highly praiseworthywhich depicts the categoricalsupport to Kashmiris strugglefor right to self determinationand Pakistan’s earnest desirefor early peaceful settlementof the Kashmir issue, he added.

Ch. Majeed said that thegovernment as well as peopleof AJK were fully satisfied ofthe Kashmir policy of thenewly-elected democratic gov-

ernment of PML(N) in Pakistan.

He was flanked by AJKminister of Education Ch.Matloob Inqlabi, Political Ad-visor Shoukat Raja Advocate,city Administrator GhulamRasool Awami and other localparty leaders.

He further said thatPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifwill perform the groundbreaking ceremony of thetwo mega projects includingthe international airport andthe 5-star Pearl ContinentalHotel in Mirpur in the nearfuture.—APP

Choose a job that youlike and you will

never have to work aday in your life

—Confucius

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Ministerof State for Commerce andTextile Industry, EngineerKhurram Dastagir Khan iscurrently undertaking a visitof four European countriesto lobby for Generalized Sys-tem of Preferences Plus(GSP+) status for Pakistan.The Minister, accompaniedby the Secretary, CommerceDivision, will hold meetingswith European Parliamentmembers, leading businessgroups and influential mem-bers of Pakistani diaspora inBrussels, Paris, Madrid andRome. During his interaction

with key figures, the Minis-ter will seek support fromEuropean Union (EU) mem-bers for the Pakistan’s appli-cation for GSP+.

The GSP+ scheme of EUprovides zero duty treatmentto items of export interest ofthe beneficiary country. Byqualifying for GSP+,Pakistan’s exports to EU willincrease significantly. Paki-stan is quite hopeful to gainmarket access in EU underthis scheme which would im-prove its competitivenessviz-a viz other beneficiarycountries.

After endorsement ofPakistan’s application by the

EU Commission, the processhas now entered the nextphase where Pakistan’s ap-plication would be consid-ered by the European Parlia-ment. The high level delega-tion led by the Minister ofState for Commerce and Tex-tile Industry would be instru-mental in lobbying to securePakistan’s commercial inter-ests in their meetings withEU’s political leadership.Pakistan’s Missions in thesecountries are being activelyinvolved in the planning andcoordination of the meetingsof the visiting delegationwith European parliamentar-ians and businessmen.

Dastgir seekingsupport for GSP plus

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Gulzar Firoz,Acting President of the Fed-eration of Pakistan Chambersof Commerce and Industry(FPCCI) has asked the SindhGovernment to pay attentionto problems faced by tradeand industry in Sindh, in par-ticular the issue of watershortage in SITE IndustrialArea while holding a meet-ing with Sharjeel Memom,Sindh Minister for Informa-tion and Industries at Federa-tion House Karachi. S.M.Muneer and Naveed JanBaloch also spoke on theoccasion.

Firoz said that industrial-

ists were facing problemswith regard to the sales taxon services which had beenintroduced by the Sindh gov-ernment which should beaddressed. For instance, pri-vate security companieswere faced with the issue of10% sales tax which was un-just, because they were ful-filling the government’s dutyof providing law and order.He said that five reverse os-mosis plants for providingclean water to industrial ar-eas had been sanctioned bythe Governor Sindh but thescheme was yet to be imple-mented because it was stillseeking approval from theSindh Government. Similarly,

he raised the issue of non-adjustment of withholdingtax due to lack of coordina-tion between FBR and theSindh Revenue Board.

While responding to thebusinessmen’s concerns, Mr.Sharjeel Memon said that theSindh Government hadlaunched a campaign againstillegal hydrants due to whichthe water situation was ex-pected to improve shortly. Heasked industry to cooperatein identifying violations of lawand also asked the businesscommunity to support hisgovernment in taking toughdecisions which were impera-tive to improve the businessenvironment in Sindh.

FPCCI asks provincial govt toresolve problems of businessmen

Ambassador of Italy to Pakistan, Adriano Chiodi Cianfarani called on Federal Minister for Water and Power KhawajaMuhammad Asif.

Italian Ambassadormeets Asif

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Ambassadorof Italy, Adriano ChiodiCianfarani called on FederalMinister for Water andPower, Khawaja MuhammadAsif Tuesday and discussedmatters pertaining to energysector.

The Minister said Paki-stan and Italy enjoy goodrelations and they wouldcontinue to maintain thisrelationship.He mentionedthe key steps taken by thegovernment to overcomeprevailing energy crisis andexpressed his resolve thatthe government would soonovercome this crisis by en-hancing power generation.He further said that his gov-ernment gives top priority toenergy sector.

Mr. Adriano ChiodiCianfarani appreciated ef-forts of the present govern-ment for overcoming the en-ergy crisis and said that Ital-ian investors would be en-couraged to invest in Paki-stan in energy sector.

Belgium offersservices to localfishing industry

ISLAMABAD—Brussels hasformally offered Pakistan itsservices and expertise in Fishpacking and preserving atInternational standards andto improve cold storage fa-cilities at Gwadar Port. Am-bassador of Belgium in Paki-stan Peter Claes called onFederal Minister for Portsand Shipping, SenatorKamran Michael on Tuesdayhere, said a press release is-sued here.

Federal Minister said thatthe Ministry would purchasefish from domestic fishermenand after packing and pre-serving it at Internationalstandards, it would be ex-ported to European Market,particularly to Belgium.

The Minister said, “thisjoint venture of two friendlystates will be worth of millionof Euros to Pakistan Exche-quer.

He appreciated the offerof Belgium to offer scholar-ships to Pakistan Marine Of-ficers into Belgium on whichhome work had been com-pleted. Belgium Ambassadorformally invited the Ministerto visit Belgium and to meetbusiness community of Bel-gium.—APP

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid chairing a meeting of theCommittee constituted by ECC to discuss policy for regulation of International Non-Governmental Organizations.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—President of Paki-stan Chamber of Commerce,United States of America (PCC-USA), Khalid Kazi has said thatPCC-USA was planning to ar-range visit of a 20-member USbusiness delegation to Paki-stan in the month of March2014 but in this regard, noprogress has been witnessedso far due to TDAP’s total fail-ure to promptly respond tovarious communications in-cluding phone calls andemails.

“Besides 03 Americanbusinessmen of Pakistani ori-gin, the US delegation will alsocomprise of 17 American busi-nessmen and the Mayor ofHouston as well but we arehaving very poor and sour ex-

perience in communicatingwith Trade Development Au-thority of Pakistan due to theirsheer slackness.We have sentthree emails and made manyphone calls to TDAP so far butto no avail”, Khalid Kazi addedwhile speaking at a meetingduring his visit to KarachiChamber of Commerce and In-dustry (KCCI) on Tuesday.

President PCC-USA re-quested KCCI to act as in-charge of the entire arrange-ment and effectively intervenein this matter so that this high-powered US delegation couldsuccessfully pay a visit toPakistan.Acting PresidentKCCI Muffasar A. Malik, inresponse, assured full supportto PCC-USA in bringing thisdelegation to Pakistan. In thisregard, the Karachi Chamber

of Commerce and Industry willutilize all its resources and in-fluence to ensure that PCC-USA does not face any issuesin bringing this delegation toPakistan and everything isdone on time, he added.

Vice President KCCI M.Idrees, Former President KCCIHaroon Agar, Former Presi-dent KCCI MianAbrar, FormerPresident KCCI Majyd Azizand other prominent membersof the managing committeewere also present at the meet-ing.

Highlighting various initia-tives undertaken by PCC-USAto strengthen ties with variouschambers around the world,Khalid Kazi stressed the needto reduce communication gapbetween PCC-USA and theKarachi Chamber.

US trade delegation to visit Pakistan

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Brisk tradingactivity was observed atKarachi Stock market and itsbench mark-100 indexcrossed five psychologicallimits to close higher by 475points on Tuesday.

KSE-100 index closed at22230.43 as compared toprevious 21784.95 pointswhile KSE-30 index alsoclosed up by 16847.25 as

compared to previous16421.13 points.

Stocks of 305 companieswere traded, of which 194closed higher, 91 shed valuewhile 20 remained un-changed.

Highest increase of Rs 25per share was recorded inIndus Dyeing to close at Rs994.15 and Rs 15.22 in PakOilfields’ stocks to close atRs 465.42.

Nestle Pak shed value by

Rs 150 to close at Rs 6400while Wyeth Pak Ltd de-creased by Rs 50 to close atRs 4100. Highest trading of30970000 shares was re-corded in the scrips of FaujiCement.

Total market turnover re-mained 167244660 shareswith trading value of Rs6364752453. In future trad-ing the stocks of 132 com-panies closed up while 23others closed lower.

KSE closes 475 points higher

LSE gains 83.40pointsLAHORE—Lahore StockExchange on Tuesdaywitnessed bullish trend bygaining 83.40 points as theLSE-25 Index opened with4340.60 and closed at4424.00 points. Themarket’s overall situation,however, did not corre-spond to an upward trendas it remained at 2.509million shares to closeagainst previous turnoverof 3.300 million shares,showing a downward slideof 790,700 shares. While,out of the total 84 activescrips, 32 moved up, 47remained equal with 5 shedvalues. Muslim CommercialBank Limited, EngroCorporation Limited andPakistan Petroleum Limitedwere major gainers of theday by recording increasein their per share value byRs 5.30, Rs 3.55 and Rs 3.00respectively. Engro FoodsLimited, Askari BankLimited and Byco PetroleumPakistan lost their per sharevalue by Rs 3.84, Re 0.27and Re 0.12 respectively.The Volume Leader of theday included Fauji CementCompany Limited with792,500 shares, The Bank ofPunjab Limited with 375,000shares and Faysal BankLimited with 353,000share.—APP

Conversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Coveron Foreign CurrencyDeposits (excluding F.E- 25deposits) by the State Bankon October 23, 2013. Therates are U.S. Dollar Rs106.3693, Japanese Yen Rs1.0810, Pound Sterling Rs171.5418 and Euro Rs145.4387.—APP

PQ shipping activityKARACHI—Three shipscarrying containers andcement were berthed atQasim InternationalContainers Terminal andMulti Purpose Terminal onMonday, Port sources saidhere on Tuesday. Four moreships carrying containers,furnace oil and edible oilalso arrived at the outeranchorage of Port Qasimduring the last 24 hours.Berth occupancy was 45%at the port on Tuesdaywhere total seven shipsnamely Maersk Chicago,Nysted Maersk, ContilLapislazuli, ILC Friend Ship,Thor Harmony, BungaAlamanda and SuccessMarlina are currentlyoccupying berths to load/offload containers, cement,wheat, urea and edible oilrespectively.—APP

MCCI, PTBA to signMoUMULTAN—Multan Cham-ber of Commerce andIndustry (MCCI) and Pak-Turk Business Association(PTBA) will sign a Memo-randum of Understanding(MoU) for the promotion ofmutual business soon. Thiswas decided in a meetingbetween president MCCI,Khawaja MuhammadUsman and GeneralSecretary PTBA, Tanerkocygit at former’s office.Secretary General PTBAsaid that with joint effortsof MCCI and PTBA, acomprehensive strategywould be devised forbusiness of products ofboth the countries. AnMoU of will be inked in thisconnection soon.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—InternationalCotton Advisory Committee(ICAC) has projected thatthe world cotton consump-tion during the year 2013-14will remain below productionfor the fourth consecutiveseason. The Committee alsoobserved that stocks are ex-pected to reach a recordlevel and cotton prices areabove their long-term aver-age, supported by the pro-curement policy of the gov-

ernment of the largest cottonproducing and consumingcountry in the world.

In the 72nd plenary meet-ing on “Emergent ChallengesFacing the Cotton ValueChain”, the ICAC was in-formed that land tenure af-fects agricultural productiv-ity.

The meeting which washeld at Cartagena de Indias,Colombia was attended bythe representatives from 35governments and 10 interna-tional organizations, Cotton

Commissioer Ministry ofTextile Industry Dr. KhalidAbdullah who also partici-pated told APP here on Tues-day. He said that ICAC wasinformed that in many coun-tries more than half of theland used to grow cotton isrented or held in common atthe village level, with nega-tive implications for invest-ments in irrigation, soil con-servation practices, andother infrastructure.

The Committee, he saidhas also urged the respec-

tive governments to facili-tate investments in land pro-ductivity by ensuring thatfarmers have clear, enforce-able titles or leases to land,by encouraging long termleases in place of annualleases and by ensuring thatproducers have access totraining, financing and in-puts to enable them to beproductive. The ICAC, hesaid has also asked for en-couraging young entrepre-neurs in cotton market as theaverage age of cotton farm-

ers in many countries is ris-ing and noted that youngpeople often see greater eco-nomic opportunities in ur-ban professions and that inmany countries public ser-vices are better in urbanthan in rural areas.

Cotton Committee alsourged for increasing thevisibility of women in thecotton industry as thewomen provide most of thelabor in smallholder cottonproduction, includingplanting, weeding, spray-

ing, and harvesting. How-ever, women often lack ac-cess to inputs, credit, ex-tension services and mar-kets, and that work-lifebalance issues often placegreater stress on womenthan men in jobs within thevalue chain.

Governments were en-couraged to ensure thatwomen have access to creditand inputs, are eligible forland ownership, and aresupported with gender-sensitive technical support.

ICAC projects cotton consumption below production

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan has avery vibrant information tech-nology industry and can ca-ter to the demands of the in-ternational market by offer-ing quality products and ser-vices, said Pakistan’s ConsulGeneral in Dubai Javed JalilKhattak. Visiting variousstalls at the Pakistan’s pavil-ion set up at Dubai WorldTrade Centre in connectionwith Gitex Technology Week,the Consul General said thecountry could provide skilledlabour and information tech-nology (IT).

“Today, about 12 Paki-stani companies are partici-pating in this leading globalIT industry event to explorebusiness opportunities andexpand their operations inthe region,” he added.

The diplomat said thePakistan Consulate in Dubaiand its commercial section

were very active in ensuringall-out support to local com-panies for exploring new mar-kets by participating in suchmega international events.Gitex is the leading global ITindustry event where profes-sionals are involved in buy-ing and selling products, ser-vices and equipment to seenew ideas, innovation and toconduct direct business faceto face. Dr Saeed Qadir, Com-mercial Counsellor of Paki-stan to Dubai who also vis-ited the stall, said Pakistanicompanies participating inGitex Technology Week hadreceived encouraging feed-back from local and regionalcompanies. “Some of the par-ticipating companies are intouch with local and regionalbusiness groups that willhelp build up their base inDubai and expand opera-tions in other Gulf countries,”he added.

Pakistan is fast becoming

the destination of choice fora significant number of inter-national IT companies look-ing to relocate their opera-tions offshore. Nearly 1,500IT companies are operatingin the country and some ofthem are even listed on na-tional and internationalbourses including Nasdaqand Dubai International Fi-nancial Exchange (DIFX).“Pakistani IT industry’s glo-bal share is estimated at $2.8billion and there is still po-tential to explore more busi-ness opportunities for localIT firms,” Dr Qadir said.Pakistan’s global exports ofcomputer and informationservices are estimated at $266million.

Pakistani exports of com-puter and information ser-vices to the United Arab Emir-ates (UAE) are estimated at$16.8 million while exports ofcommunications servicesamounted to $17.487 million.

Pakistan’s IT firms eyeGulf market

Minister of State for IT and Telecom Ms. Anusha Rehman chairing a meeting of Univer-sal Services Fund company on Tele Centers projects.

Dollar risesTOKYO—The dollar rose inAsian trade Tuesday as in-vestors looked to key US jobsdata later in the day as a gaugeof the state of the world’slargest economy. The green-back changed hands at 98.32yen in Tokyo midday trade,up from 98.15 yen in New YorkMonday afternoon, partiallyshored up by speculationover strong jobs data, deal-ers said.

The euro weakened to$1.3661 from $1.3681 while itrose to 134.36 yen from 134.26yen. All eyes were on the Sep-tember jobs report, which wasdelayed by a two-week US gov-ernment shutdown .—AFP

Gold Tezab 45,685.00Silver Tezabi 728.57

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct)45,430.00Gold 22 Ct 41,540.00SilverTezabi 770.00Silver Thobi 710.00

USA 106.20 106.00

UK 171.22 170.89

Euro 145.11 144.84

Canada 103.04 102.85

Switzerland 117.55 117.33

Australia 102.46 102.27

Sweden 16.59 16.56

Japan 1.0800 1.0780

Norway 17.93 17.89

Singapore 85.48 85.32

Denmark 19.46 19.42

Saudi Arabia 28.32 28.26

Hong Kong 13.70 13.67

Kuwait 376.26 375.55

Malaysia 33.36 33.30

Newzealand 89.69 89.52

Qatar 29.17 29.12

Uae 28.91 28.86

Kr. Won 0.1001 0.0999

Thailand 3.409 3.403

Pak, Korea tiesto strengthen

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Parliamentis the supreme forum thatreflects true aspirations ofthe people as well as na-tional ideals and commit-ments in all areas of hu-man endeavour, even bi-lateral relations. ChairmanSenate Syed NayyerHussain Bokhari address-ing a reception hosted inhonour of the Pakistanidelegation by the Speakerof National Assembly ofSouth Korea in Seoul saidthat through enhancedinter-parliamentary coop-eration, Pakistan-Korearelations could be furtherstrengthened and deep-ened.

It is indeed a greathonour and privilege to bein the midst of our re-spected Korean friends,colleagues and partnersfrom the parliamentary fra-ternity at this stately re-ception hosted in ourhonour, the Chairman ob-served.

He extended gratitudeto Kang Chang-heeSpeaker of South KoreanParliament for the invita-tion and for the excep-tional hospitality.

Capturing the spirit ofthis momentous occasion,he said, “I am privilegedto extend, on behalf of themembers of Pakistan Sen-ate delegation and thewhole Pakistani nation,heartiest greetings, bestwishes and warmest sen-timents to Kang Chang-hee, members of Parlia-ment and whole Koreannation”.

Both Pakistan andSouth Korea are celebrat-ing 30th anniversary ofdiplomatic relations. Heexpressed satisfactionfriendship and coopera-tion in various areas havedeepened and that wewish to further strengthenand expand our fraternalrelations with a specialfocus on political, eco-nomic, trade and defencefields.

We look forward toworking together withyou to achieve the fullpotential of our partner-ship”, he observed. Heexpressed optimism thisvisit would contribute to-wards greater cooperationand connectivity betweenour two fraternal countriesand help tap the phenom-enal potential to maximiseour linkages in all areas ofmutual interest and ben-efit.

In a meeting with KangChang-hee he exchangedviews on matters of mu-tual interests and bilateralsignificance. The Chair-man Senate appreciatedthe South Korean assis-tance. He underscored theneed for more cooperationto learn from each otherexperiences in differentfields. Chairman Senatealso held meeting withCho Nam wook Chairmanof Sambu ConstructionCompany.

Lan Buchan, GM new markets MEA, Mondelez International, Hasan Ali Khan, MD andChairman, Continental Biscuits Limited and Alan Smith, Directory Supply Chain KraftFoods GCC and New Markets MEA, speaking to the media at Pakistan’s Press Launchof Oreo-the World’s No. 1 Biscuit.

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Information, Archives, Commerce and Industries, Sharjeel Memon addressing the 6th

Consumers Food Safety and Quality Conference 2013.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter for Planning and Devel-opment, Professor AhsanIqbal Tuesday stressed theneed for promoting appliedresearch having practical ap-plication on various sectorsof economy including agri-culture besides introducingyouth entrepreneurships inrural areas to boost ruraleconomy. “Our researchmust be applied with stronglink with the developmentgoals of the country,” thefederal minister said whileaddressing “Interactive Ses-sion of Consultative Groupon International Agricultural

Research (CGIAR) and Na-tional Agricultural ResearchSystems (NARS) forStrengthening Partnershipon Agriculture Research forDevelopment (AR4D) andRegional Workshop onYouth and Agriculture: Chal-lenges and Opportunities”here at NARC.

He was of the view thatresearchers must not only fo-cus on publications of theirresearch papers in reputedjournals, rather they mustconduct research that havepractical application and uti-lization for the developmentof respective sectors ofeconomy. He said that ap-plied research is needed to

find solutions for the prob-lems keeping in view the in-creasing population andstressed the need for properimplementation of researchand policies to benefit thecountry. Terming the youthas demographic dividend, theminister said that Pakistanhas one of the largest youthbulges, with 35 percent of thepopulation aged 15 years orunder and 21.7 percent be-tween the age group of 15-24 years while upto the ageof 35, the youth comprisesaround 60 percent of thepopulation.

He said the demographicbulge is a great opportunityfor the country to lead to-

wards sustainable growth,however warned if we fail toprovide opportunities to tapthe youth potential, this divi-dend may prove to be cursefor the country. He said thatmore than 70 percent of thecountry’s youth populationwas residing in rural areas,which work primarily in theagricultural sectors addingthe youth of the rural areasmust be provided opportuni-ties through rural entreprizesto boost agriculture sector.With the provision of ruralyouth enterprises, the youthwould not only be able toearn livelihood for them-selves but could generateemployment opportunities

for other youth of their areas,he added. He said that devel-oping world has great oppor-tunities and great challengesahead as 90 percent of itspopulation was youth. Hesaid that despite increase inoverall growth rate, the ma-jority of people in South Asialive in poverty, deprived ofglobal standards of life andare far behind in achievingMillennium DevelopmentGoals. He also stressed theneed for focusing on valueaddition as the country hasstill commodity basedeconomy and no attentionhas been given towardsvalue addition. He furthersaid we are ignoring textile

sector which has 62% con-tribution. We need to devel-opment HR. He also said theyoung delegates and scien-tist to work on AR4D toAR4R and value additionproducts and also for results.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Chairman Pakistan Ag-ricultural Research Council(PARC), Dr. Iftikhar Ahmedsaid that 67 percent of the ruralpopulation was dependent onagriculture and this sectorcontributes 20% to GDP andabsorbs about 44 percentlabour force. He said that at atime when knowledge and in-novations has become vitalfor development of varioussectors of economy,

Pakistan’s investment in theknowledge innovations werethe lowest in the region. Hesaid that country has hugematerial as well as human re-sources and if tapped prop-erly, these may become greatsources for development ofcountry. He also stressed theneed for entrepreneurship totap the potential of youth andencourage them boost the ag-riculture field.

Dr. Simon Hearn, DirectorGeneral, Asia Pacific Associa-tion of Agricultural ResearchInstitutions (APAARI), whilespeaking on the occasionhighlighted the need for re-gional research partnershipsfor the benefit of all.

Ahsan for promoting applied research

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Indus Motors’revenues slightly improvedin the first quarter of the fis-cal 2013. The Board of Direc-tors of Indus Motor Com-pany Limited met on October21, 2013 to review theCompany’s financial and op-erating performance for thefirst quarter ended Septem-ber 30, 2013.

As per the statement ofthe BOD, the industry salesof locally manufactured ve-hicles slightly recovered by5% to 32,841 units as com-pared to 31,020 units soldduring the same period last

year. Commenting on the re-sults, the IMC spokespersonsaid that during the quarterthe combined sales ofToyota and Daihatsu brands,both in CKD and CBU, for thequarter ended September 30,2013, marginally increasedby 2% to 8,553 units, as com-pared to 8,419 units for thecorresponding period in FY2012-13.

Overall the Company’snet revenues for the firstquarter increased from Rs13.5 billion to Rs 14.3 billion,up by 5.6%, while profit aftertax for the first quarter alsoincreased by 27.5%, from Rs0.69 billion to Rs 0.88 billion.

IMC announces firstquarter results

FWBL organisingnetworking meeting

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—First WomenBank Ltd. is organizing aTrainee Networking Meeting(TNM) for its Karachi Busi-ness Development & Train-ing Centre trainees on Octo-ber 24, 2013 at Hotel BeachLuxury Karachi. This pro-gram is being organized un-der the AF GEP USAIDFunded Project and the over-all umbrella of FWBL’s Ca-pacity Building & Skill Devel-opment training Program.

Ms. Rubina Qaim KhaniMinister for Women Devel-opment Sindh and Ms.Rabiya Javeri Agha SecretaryTrade Development Author-ity of Pakistan (TDAP)would be the chief Guest formorning and afternoon ses-sions respectively.

A taleperseverance- Mai

MuneeranSTAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — T h i n k i n gabout change helps us be-lieving in ourselves, andgives us the hope to makeplans bigger than our exist-ing circumstances. But whenit comes to the womenfolk inPakistan, all their aspirationsbecome more difficult to re-alize compared to the malemembers of the society, un-fortunately. In the most of theunderdeveloped areas,women have to struggle morefor everything, starting fromdeveloping an identity oftheir own to getting them-selves established finan-cially.

The story of MaiMuneeran, resident ofPanu Aqil, is no exception.Her Husband was the pri-mary breadwinner for thefamily and when he becameunable to do so due to lackof job opportunities avail-able, things went from badto worse for the whole fam-ily. Her children were pulledout of school and evenbare sanitary matters be-came hard to deal with,such desperate times calledonly for desperate mea-sures .

One thing distinguishedMai Muneeran from the av-erage women was- instead offalling apart in the face hard-ship- she had a strong re-solve to support her familyand to give them a chance tobuild a brighter future free offinancial dependence.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Continental Bis-cuits Ltd. (CBL), the makersof the LU brand of biscuitsand an exclusive affiliate ofglobal snacks groupMondelçz International hasannounced that it hasbrought the iconic Oreo bis-cuit brand to Pakistan.

Oreo is the world’sfavourite biscuit; CBL nowplans to make Oreo afavourite in Pakistan by le-veraging the global scaleand expertise of MondelçzInternational, along withCBL‘s strong track record,excellence in biscuit manu-facturing and marketing, anda splendid history in Paki-stan.

Oreo is being made inPakistan by CBL with sameworld class quality stan-dards, magic formula and in-gredients, while being sold ataffordable prices to a widevariety of consumers – rea-sons due to which it is fastbecoming as much loved inPakistan as it is around theworld.

CBL invested PKR 1.1billion (USD 11 millionapprox.) to build a state-of-the-art Oreo production lineat its manufacturing plant inSukkur, making it the largestbiscuit-production facility inthe country. As the produc-tion line is fully automatedfrom the initial productionprocess to the biscuit’s pack-aging, with no human inter-

action, the facility is the firstof its kind in Pakistan. Theline can produce as many as4 million biscuits per day or 3tonnes of biscuits per hour!

Speaking on the occa-sion of Oreo’s debut in Paki-stan, Mr. Hasan Ali Khan,Managing Director andChairman of CBL, said: “Weare delighted to bring theworld’s favourite biscuit toPakistan. For us, this is thebeginning of another won-derful journey to make Oreothe no.1 biscuit brand in Pa-kistan. Our vision of locallyproducing Oreos clearly sig-nals our intent at dominatingthe local biscuit market andalso highlights the impor-tance of Pakistan as a biscuitmanufacturing base.”

‘Continental Biscuits’ bringsOreo, world’s favourite biscuit

ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of Belgium Peter Claes called on Federal Minister for Portand Shipping Senator Kamran Michael.

ISE-10 indexstays bullish

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadStock Exchange (ISE) Tues-day witnessed a bullishtrend as the ISE-10 index wasup by 97.88 points to closeat 4106.2 points. A total of19,500 shares were traded,which showed growth of11,800 shares when com-pared to previous day’s trad-ing of 7,700.

Out of 135 companies,share prices of 95 recordedincrease while those of 40companies decreased. Theshare price of PakistanOilfields increased by Rs15.22 while that of AttockRefinery decreased by Rs9.42 per share.

Fauji Cement Company,Lafrage Pakistan Cement,Silk Bank and NationalBank of Pakistan remainedthe top trading companieswith 10,000, 5,000, 3,000and 1,500 shares respec-tively.—APP

Two-day Int’lYouth Agriculture

moot todayISLAMABAD—A two-day in-ternational workshop on“Youth and Agriculture: Chal-lenges and Opportunities”will begin here on October 23with an aim to encourageyouth participation in agri-culture.

Representatives from asmany as twenty four coun-tries, specially from the Asia-Pecific region are participat-ing in the two day moot, topromote cooperation amongregional countries for thedevelopment of agriculturesector.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Sui Northern GasPipeline Limited (SNGPL) willre-examine the APTMA’s (AllPakistan Textile Mills Associa-tion) demand of continuousgas supply of 200MMCFDduring upcoming winter sea-son. The SNGPL ManagingDirector Arif Hameed alongwith his team of senior man-agement visited the APTMAHouse here on Tuesday, wherePunjab APTMA ChairmanS.M. Tanveer along with se-nior leadership and newly-elected office-bearers of theAssociation welcomed theSNGPL team.

During the meeting, theSNGPL team listened to theAPTMA’s grievances regard-ing gas supply and other re-lated matters and assured themto facilitate the textile industryin the best national interest.

On this occasion, theAPTMA appreciated the MDArif Hameed and his team forcontinuous hourly-based gassupply during last threemonths to Punjab-based tex-tile mills. While, Arif Hameedthanked APTMA members foracknowledging their efforts.

The APTMA members,however, urged the SNGPLchief to continue with similararrangement throughout theyear to enable the Punjab-based textile industry to oper-ate to its optimum level. S.M.Tanveer said that APTMA hada vision of doubling the textileindustry exports to $26 billionin next five years from existinglevel of $13 billion. He claimedthat APTMA was a premier andresponsible industry associa-tion contributing heavily ineconomic uplift of the countryand providing employment to10 million people.

‘APTMA’s gas demand to bere-examined’

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—NESPAK has suc-cessfully completed 40 yearsof its establishment and dur-ing the last four decades it hasundertaken 3,400 major engi-neering projects costing $195billion in Pakistan and 36 othercountries in the Middle East,Africa, Asia and the Arabworld. A total of 2,900 projectsare located all over Pakistanand 500 in the foreign coun-tries.

NESPAK Managing Di-rector Amjad Khan said theseprojects have played a signifi-cant role in the developmentof these countries andNESPAK has emerged as theleading firm of consulting en-gineers in Pakistan and one ofthe top consultancy firms inthe world.

He said NESPAK was es-tablished in 1973 primarily to

replace the foreign consultantswho were working in a largenumber on engineeringprojects including the IndusBasin Project, which includedMangla and Tarbela Dams, 6barrages and 8 link canals.

He said NESPAK under-took its first project relating tothe design and construction of2,065 feet long and 36 feet fin-ished diameter 5th Left BankIrrigation Tunnel at Tarbela.This huge tunnel was suc-cessfully completed ahead oftime by Pakistani engineersmuch to the surprise of foreignconsultants and contractorsworking at Tarbela DamProject. Within a year,NESPAK undertook the de-sign and construction super-vision of Pakistan Steel Milland Port Qasim in Karachi.

With the magnificent start,the Company rapidly ex-panded its business and car-

ried out several more projectsat home and abroad. MD saidthese include Metro Bus Ser-vice and Ring Road in Lahore,969 megawatts (MW) NeelumJhelum Hydropower Project,Mangla Dam Raising Project,Gadani Power Park Project, 747MW Combined Cycle PowerPlant Guddu, 425 MW Com-bined Cycle Power PlantNandipur, Solar EnergyProjects, Iran Pakistan GasPipeline Project, New BenazirBhutto International AirportIslamabad, Sindh and PunjabWater Sector ImprovementProjects, Textile City at PortQasim Karachi and govern-ment of Pakistan fundedprojects in Afghanistan, PowerPlants in Saudi Arabia, RoadProjects in Oman, ArchitecturalProjects in Qatar and IrrigationProjects in Nigeria, Iraq andAfghanistan as well as PortProjects in Yemen.

NESPAK completes3,400 projects

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

KARACHI—The trading ac-tivities in the cotton marketremained dull with firm spotrate amid higher demand forall grades, traders at KarachiCotton Association (KCA)said. The KCA kept the spotrate unchanged at Rs 6,900per maund in order to sup-port sellers having lowergrades to maximise betterprices on their stocks, trad-ers added.

Majority of the buyersand sellers were entangled inprice war while deals for allgrades changed hands oncompetitive prices in Sindhand Punjab stations ataround Rs 6,475 per maundto Rs 6,775 per maund whileproduction of the lint in the

ginneries of Sindh andPunjab remained slow onfirst working day after aweeklong holidays, howeveraround 15,000 bales were pro-duced, floor brokers said.

Higher demand for finegrades in Punjab and Sindhstations was still providingstrength to the overall pricesof lint while sellers withhold-ing raw grades in some trad-ing stations were askingslightly lower rates at aroundRs 6,050 per maund in orderto fetch maximum price, saidtraders.

The general prices of allgrades remained on firm foot-ings on increasing demand asdeals also changed hands ataround Rs 6,875 per maundto Rs 6,975 per maund, floorbrokers said.

In Punjab and Sindh sta-tions mills purchased allgrades of lint at around Rs6,650 per maund to Rs 6,875per maund on back of grow-ing demand of cloth, theyadded.

The secondary buyersbought all grades of lint in-cluding second grades forblending purposes at aroundRs 6,350 per maund to Rs6,525 per maund while theraw grade stuff was avail-able at around Rs 6,000 permaund depending on trashlevel, floor brokers said. Pri-vate sector commercial ex-porters in Sindh and Punjabstations made deals for allgrades as deals changedhands at around Rs 6,150 permaund to Rs 6,175 permaund, they added.

Dull trading at cotton market

RAWALPINDI: Chief guest Malik Ibrar giving Man of the Match Trophy to Media Eleven Muzaffarabad player Kashif Javed.

MULTAN: Women players in action in the hand ball match between Govt Girls High School Shamsabad and Govt GirlsHigh School Comprehensive during Inter-School Hand Ball Tournament.

ISLAMABAD—Former TestCricketer Sarfraz Nawaz onTuesday urged the PakistanCricket Board (PCB) to pleathe cases of other country’s

cricketers as well in front ofthe International CricketCouncil (ICC) as for the re-duction of their bans.

Talking to APP, Sarfraz

Sarfraz urges PCB toappeal for other banned

cricketers as wellsaid Danish Kaneria is too aPakistani cricketer and needsPCB’s support. After allega-tions of being involved inspot fixing, Kaneria was given

a lifetime ban by the Englandand Wales Cricket Board(ECB), preventing him fromplaying in matches undertheir jurisdiction. He subse-

quently filed an appealagainst the ban, but this wasrejected in July 2013.

Speaking of the ODIsquad, Sarfraz said KhurramManzoor, Zulfiqar Babar andHammad Azam should havebeen included in the ODIsquad against South Africa.The first ODI of five-matchseries will be played on Oc-tober 30 in Sharjah.

He further said thatAnwar Ali should have beenincluded in the squad insteadof Sohail Tanvir. “Khurramperformed extra-ordinary wellin the Test, he should havealso been included in theteam,” he said adding thatSohail Tanvir should havebeen inducted in the Twenty-20 squad.

Sarfraz said the morechances we give to youngplayers the better they will begroomed. “Zulfiqar Babarshould also have beenbrought in the team insteadof Abdul Rehman,” he said.

Sarfraz while parsing thereturn of Umar Akmal in theteam said Umar should havealso be given wicket-keepingresponsibility. “If not Umarthan Adnan Akmal shouldhave kept the wickets,” hesaid.—APP

LAHORE—Two nationalranking women squash play-ers, Rushna Mehboob andSaima Shoukat have calledfor establishing a womensquash academy to arrest thedecline in women squash,besides widening the base ofthe game.

“Our squash revolvesaround 10 to 15 female play-ers who have reached theirprime, and with no young tal-ent in sight the future of thegame hangs in balance.Thereis a dire need to setup an ex-clusive female squash acad-emy to revive the game onlong term basis”, said na-tional number two Rushnafrom ZTBL and number fourranked Saima of WAPDAwhile talking to APP here onTuesday.

They were of the view thatthe present lot of the femalesquash players have passedtheir best and due to that alarm-ing factor the base of femalesquash has started shrinkingand if efforts were not made toarrest the cause then the fu-ture of women squash in Paki-stan will be in shambles.

Both the players whorepresented the country in a

‘Women squash academyimperative to widen base’

number of internationalsquash events home andabroad said Pakistan squashfederation should addressthis issue on priority basis byestablishing a squash acad-emy under the watchful eyesof professional coaches andphysical trainers.

“Take the example of de-veloped countries which aregrooming their femalesquash talent by providingall necessary facilities underone roof and countries likeIndia and Sri Lanka and evenUnited Arab Emirates are pol-ishing their talent in squashacademies and that is the rea-son that players from thesecountries are fast coming upin squash”, said the femalesquash players who are get-ting training from nationaland seasoned squash coach,Fahim Gul for the past fouryears. They said they aim toserve the game for anothertwo years to regain previousworld ranking of 128th by lift-ing the level of their gamewith sheer hard work andcommitment.

“We don’t have muchtime left but we are fully con-fident to once again make our

mark in the international rank-ing and our coach Fahim ishelping us by imparting thefiner points of the game.Heis the best choice to run fe-male squash academy be-cause of being former worldnumber six and his standingin the game”, they main-tained. They said the timehas come for the young gen-eration to take over but sadlythere are lesser young femaleplayers who are interested inthe game and this objectivecan only be achieved by pro-viding them incentives interms of their education andmonthly stipends.

Rushna and Saima saidspecial emphasis should belaid on promoting squash inthe educational institutionsand U13 and U15 female play-ers be picked to attend thesquash academy under thesupervision of Pakistan’sformer top ranked players ofthe game. “These coachesshould be paid handsomepackage and there should bea proper system of check andbalance to judge the indi-vidual performance of eachcoach working in the acad-emy”, they added.—APP

KARACHI: DSP Traffic East Yaqoob Mahr is opening Aggar Bati Aman CricketTournament.

ISLAMABAD—Former chiefselector and coach MohsinHasan Khan likely to contestthe Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) chairmanship elec-tions as ordered by theIslamabad High Court (IHC)to be held on November 2.

The IHC has directed thePakistan’s Election Commis-sion to hold the election fora new PCB chairman by No-

vember 2. However on Octo-ber 15, the governing boardof the PCB was dissolved anda five-member interim man-agement committee (IMC)was formed to run the cricketaffairs. According to a PCBofficial the candidates whohave played first class cricketand hold a Bachelors degreeare eligible to contest thePCB elections.

Najam Sethi, ex-chairmanShahryar Khan, former playersZaheer Abbas and HaroonRasheed and former team man-ager Naved Cheema were in-

cluded in the committee.Talking to APP on Tues-

day, Mohsin Hasan Khansaid he hasn’t given it a finalthought to run as candidatefor the chairmanship but itcan be considered as the datefor the elections come close.

“If the people think that Iam capable enough to run thecricket affairs than I mightgive it a thought,” he saidadding that but no suchplans are there yet.

Mohsin, who had played48 Tests and 75 ODIs from1977 to 1986 mainly as anopening batsman, said hecoached the national cricketteam and achieved many suc-cessful stints under his lead-ership. “I believe a cricketercan handle the board matterswell if gets elected,” headded.

Talking about the na-tional ODI team announcedfor the South Africa series,he said experienced YounisKhan deserved a chance inthe ODI squad as he has as Ifeel his presence in the teambrings stability and content-ment to the players.

However Younis Khanwas shocked from his omis-sion from Pakistan’s limited-overs teams. He has been outof the running in limited-overs cricket since the Cham-pions Trophy.

Mohsin further said thatAbdul Razzaq also deserveda chance in the team. “Razzaqis a very good player and hasbeen long gone from the lim-ited overs squads,” he saidadding that Razzaq definitelydeserved a comeback.—APP

Mohsin may contest PCBchairmanship elections

Ill-maintainedswings pose threatto children safety

ISLAMABAD—The dilapi-dated condition of play-grounds and swings in theFDE’ run educational institu-tions are posing seriousthreat to the safety of thechildren, causing injuries tothem.

Majority of the institutesworking under Federal Di-rectorate of Education(FDE) are lacking the basicfacilities of clean drinkingwater, canteens with hy-gienic food, quality trans-port system as well as properplaygrounds for the childrenwhere they can enjoy theirfree time.

A number of incidentshave been reported duringthe last few years in whichchildren fell down from theswings especially slides inthe playgrounds which haveno grassy area and receivedserious injuries.

Fahad Shah, a parent,said that his daughter felldown from a slide due to it’sdilapidated condition in oneof the model institutes andthere was no first aid facilityin the institute.

“My daughter receivedinjury on head due to the im-proper playground surfacewith no grass. I fear the in-jury could have been severeand impact her mental health,if she was not taken to thenearest hospital urgently”,he said.

Tahir, a lecturer at a localcollege said sports activitieshave greater importance inthe education and these col-leges have no proper play-grounds to involve the stu-dents in healthy physical ac-tivities.

And where the play-grounds exists are not well-maintained, posing risk tothe safety of the studentsespecially of juniorclasses.—APP

All KarachiInter SchoolT20 cricket

from next monthKARACHI—All KarachiNadeem Omar Inter SchoolT20 Cricket Tournament willbe held at different turfgrounds of the city on No-vember 5.

24 schools have been ex-tended invitation to take partin the event which will beplayed on the knock-outsystem, said a press releaseof the organisers issued onTuesday.

A prize money of Rs50,000 will be at the offer withwinners taking Rs 25,000 andrunners-up grab Rs10,000.Man of the matchawards will also be given tothe best players of eachmatch.

Further details can be hadfrom Organising SecretaryAmir Akram on phone 0345-2179822.—APP

KCCA Zonalpolls on Oct 23

KA R A C H I—The electionsof all seven zones of theKarachi City Cricket Asso-ciation (KCCA) will be heldhere on October 23-24 as perthe schedule announced byPakistan Cricket Board(PCB).

President, Secretary andTreasurers of seven zoneswill be elected during thetwo-day elections con-ducted here at the NationalStadium.

Elections will be super-vised by PCB appointedElection CommissionerMuhammad Siddique.

“We have received thefinal list of the contestingcandidates of KCCA Zonalelections,” Member KCCAInterim Committee BadarJafri told APP on Tuesday.He said as per the list pro-vided by the PCB 46 candi-dates are in the field to con-test for different positions.

According to informa-tion gathered there is a like-lihood that some officebearers may be elected un-opposed.

Elected office bearerswill later elect office bearsof KCCA for which dateswill be announced by thePCB. Prof Ejaz Faruqi andNadeem Omar have alreadyannounced their candida-ture as the President ofKCCA.

Elections schedule: Oct23. Zone-I: 9:00 am Zone-II:10:30 am Zone-III: 12:00 pmZone-IV: 1:30 pm Oct 24.Zone-V: 9:00 am Zone-VI:10:30 am Zone-VII: 12:00pm.—APP

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nJudo Federat ion (PJF) isgoing to organize a varietyof sports events all acrossthe country to mark theWorld Judo Day on Octo-ber 28.

The World Judo Day isan initiate of the Interna-tional Judo Federation thataims to promote the valuesof our sport as they havebeen designed from its in-ception.

With this event, the IJFalso wants to eventuallycome closer to people whomake judo alive on a daily

PJF to mark Judo Daywith sports activities

basis in all the dojo aroundthe world.

Talking to APP, Secre-tary, PJF Masood Ahmadat Punjab the celebrationof the World Judo Day willtake place in Rawalpindiand Gujranwala; In Sindhthe destination of celebra-tion will start from Karachiat North NazimabadWomen Sports Complexwhile in Baluchistan at Rail-way Stadium in Quetta; InKPK the event will be cel-ebrated in Khyber GuloonaSchool at Peshawar. “Inthese celebrat ions, the

judokas of the PJF wil lpresent different judo tech-niques alongwith a displaymatch between top profes-sional players of the coun-try,” he added.

Masood Ahmed saidnowadays there is a direneed to fill the playgroundsby arranging differentsporting activities for theencouragement of sportsactivities for children.

“Our objective is to cre-ate awareness on the val-ues of judo all judo clubsand all judoka,” he said.—APP

Pak may gowith same

team in 2ndTest: Aamir

KARACHI—Former skipperAamir Sohail believed that Pa-kistan would not going intothe second Test with same kindof track in Dubai, prepared forfirst Test in Sheikh Zayad Sta-dium in Abu Dhabi.

“I don’t see attackingmindset despite reports thatSouth Africa may miss twobest players in Amla andSteyn” he said ahead of 2ndTest starting in Dubai’s SportsCity on Wednesday.

“I could see a flat track withtall scoring in the second Testmatch,” he predicted.

“Will Misbah take risk ofdrawing the series instead ofwinning 1-0,” he questioned.

“Despite defeat Proteaseare quite capable of comingback. Pakistan team manage-ment would not like to see theireffort go to waste,” he com-mented. “Personally I wouldlike to see Pakistan going for awin in Dubai “, he added.

He said left arm slowbowler Zulfiqar Babar playedinstrumental role with twinstrikes in his one over by re-moving well set JP Duminyand du Plessis.

“Zulfiqar’s double strike inthird session of first day of thefirst Test was turning point inPakistan’s victory,” he said.

Aamir Sohail said at thatpoint South Africans seems tobuild a good total of over, butZulfiqar’s three wicketchanged the complexion ofgame. Commenting on veteranYounis Khan’s ouster from theone- day squad, he said hedropped because of recentperformances in the previousseries. “It was not surprise forme,” he maintained.—APP

DHAKA: Bangladeshi players go up for an appeal, during day 2 of 2nd Test between Bangladesh and New Zealandon Tuesday.

DUBAI—A confident Paki-stan will look to their spin-ners to sweep the two-matchseries against a depletedSouth Africa when the sec-ond and final Test starts inDubai on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s spin duo ofSaeed Ajmal and left-armerZulfiqar Babar shared 11wickets between them toguide their team to a seven-wicket win in the first Test inAbu Dhabi, only their fourthwin in 22 Tests againstSouth Africa.

Even the pacemenMohammad Irfan and JunaidKhan took four wicketsapiece as a formidable SouthAfrica batting slumped to 249and 232 in the two innings,with only Hashim Amla (118)and AB de Villiers (90) show-ing some resistance.

Pakistan rode on a bril-liant 146 by opener KhurramManzoor — the highest by aPakistani batsman in a Testagainst South Africa — anda responsible 100 by captainMisbah-ul Haq to post a big442-run total.

South Africa will be hardpressed to maintain their un-beaten run in an away seriessince losing in Sri Lanka in2006.

More so as Amla and DaleSteyn, respectively theworld’s top Test batsman andbowler, may not be available

Smith vows South Africa will keep pride

Pakistan target serieswin over South Africa

for the match. Amla has re-turned home for the birth ofhis child while Steyn is nurs-ing a hamstring injury.

Left-hander Dean Elgar isdue to replace Amla whileRory Kleinveldt is likely to fillin for Steyn.

South Africa will also lookat their spin option to replaceleft-armer Robin Peterson,who failed to get a singlewicket in the first Test, withPakistan born leg-spinnerImran Tahir.

South African captainGraeme Smith expressed con-fidence his team can bounceback.

“We haven’t been in thisposition too often,” saidSmith. “And with the stan-dards that we set ourselves,we should have the ability tobounce back.

“The motivation is there.We are really motivated towin the next Test match.That’s got to be our ultimategoal. We have to focus onmaking sure our plans arebetter.”On the contrary, Pa-kistan have a settled squadand will not tinker with thewinning combination.

But despite all theplusses, Misbah warnedagainst complacency.

“We are really playingthe top side in the world, soour focus is on the nextgame,” said Misbah, aiming

to add to Pakistan’s only se-ries win over South Africaway back in 2003.

Misbah denied he wantsa batting track in Dubai todraw the Test.

South African captainGraeme Smith vowed histeam will look to keep theirpride and an unbeatenseven-year away record bywinning the second Testagainst Pakistan startinghere on Wednesday.

Smith’s men have not lostan away series since losingin Sri Lanka in 2006 on theirway to becoming the world’stop team in the Test rankings.

But that pride and recordwill be at stake as they seekto level the two-match seriesafter losing the first Test byseven wickets in Abu Dhabilast week.

Their task get sterner askey players Hashim Amlaand Dale Steyn — both num-ber one batsman and bowlerrespectively in Test rankings— will be missing in action.

Amla was ruled out as hefailed to make it back in timeafter returning home for thebirth of his second child,while Steyn is a seriousdoubt after suffering a ham-string injury.

Smith is hopeful his teamwill overcome the obstacles.

“I think if we are going tomaintain a standard over the

next period of time we needto be able to meet those ob-stacles and hopefully the re-placed players provide theperformances that is neededto win the Test,” said Smithon Tuesday.

Smith said he looks for-ward to an improved show-ing.

“I would love to see thegraph going on an upwardcurve in this Test, from thebatting perspective we needto be posting more solid to-tals and that is something wehave prided ourselves onover a period of time,” saidSmith.

South Africa: GraemeSmith (Capt), Hashim Amla,AB de Villiers, JP Duminy,Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar,Imran Tahir, Jacques Kallis,Rory Kleinveldt, MorneMorkel, Alviro Petersen, RobinPeterson, Vernon Philander,Dale Steyn, Thami Tsolekile.

Pakistan: KhurramManzoor, Azhar Ali, YounisKhan, Misbah-ul-Haq (Capt),Umar Amin, Adnan Akmal,Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar,Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan,Mohammad Irfan, Rahat Ali,Asad Shafiq, AhmedShehzad, Shan Masood.

Umpires: Rod Tucker(AUS) and Ian Gould (ENG),TV Umpire: Paul Reiffel(AUS), Match Referee: DavidBoon (AUS) .—AFP

DHAKA—Shakib Al Hasanclaimed three wickets asBangladesh reduced NewZealand to 107-3 on Tuesdaybefore rain forced an earlyclose on the second day ofthe second Test in Dhaka.

A downpour led the um-pires to suspend and thencall off play after an early teabreak with the game evenlypoised.

New Zealand had dis-missed the hosts for 282 earlyin the morning thanks to NeilWagner’s maiden five-wickethaul, but Bangladesh struckback through Shakib.

He took two wickets inhis first two overs, with NewZealand in trouble at 32-2 atlunch before KaneWilliamson and Ross Taylorrebuilt.

Williamson had to leavethe field after Rubel Hossainstruck him with a bouncer, buthe returned soon afterwardsas Shakib removed incomingbatsman Brendon McCullum.

Rubel took a stunningcatch at deep square leg asthe New Zealand captain fellfor 11.

Resuming on 228-5 atstart of play, Bangladeshmanaged to add only 54 moreruns in the face of tight bowl-ing.

Wagner finished with 5-64, making full use of over-cast conditions to inducesome edges from the bats-men, after play resumed 30minutes early to make up forovers lost on the opening daydue to rain.

“I take quite a bit of con-fidence out of that and that’ssomething I think that anybowler works hard for in theircareer,” Wagener said of hisfirst five-wicket haul in nineTests.

“So I’m pleased withthat,” he said.

Rain forces early stumpsafter Shakib strikes

Bangladesh first innings(overnight 228-5)Tamim b Wagner ............. 95Anamul Haque b Boult .. 7Marshall b Wagner ....... 41Mominul b Anderson ... 47Shakib lbw b Sodhi ....... 20Mushfiqur b Wagner .... 18Nasir c Taylor b Sodhi .. 19Sohag Gazi b Wagner ... 14Abdur Razzak b Sodhi .. 13Rubel c Watlingb Wagner ........................... 4Al-Amin Hossainnot out ............................. 0Extras: (b2,lb1, w1) .......... 4Total: (all out,74.5 overs)282Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-90, 3-166, 4-208, 5-228, 6-246, 7-252, 8-266, 9-274, 10-282Bowling: ........... O-M-R-W

Boult ................... 16-2-55-1Bracewell ............ 14-1-57-0Wegner ............... 19-5-64-5Sodhi ................ 18.5-3-59-3Williamson ........... 4-0-30-0Anderson ............. 3-0-14-1New Zealand first innings:P. Fulton lbw b Shakib .. 14H. Rutherford b Shakib 13K. Williamson not out .. 28R. Taylor not out ........... 37McCullum b Shakib ...... 11Extras: (b4) ....................... 4Total: (for 3 wkts) ........ 107Fall of wkts: 1-31, 2-32, 3-101Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WAl-Amim ............... 6-3-14-0Sohag Gazi ........... 6-0-13-0Shakib ................. 11-1-25-3Razzak ................... 5-1-33-0Rubel .................. 5.3-0-18-0

“Every opportunity youget, you want to put yourhand up and make the mostof it,” said Wagner, who re-placed left-arm spinner BruceMartin for this Test.

“For me personally it wastough to miss out on the firstTest, but it’s one of thosethings; that’s the nature ofthe game.”

“When you get anotherchance you’ve got to use itand you’ve got to grab it withboth hands.”

The pitch provided somevicious turn as New Zealandleg-spinner Ish Sodhichipped in with two wicketsto finish with 3-59.

Wagner had Bangladeshskipper Mushfiqur Rahimcaught at gully for 18 beforeSodhi dismissed NasirHossain, caught at slip for 19.

Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazilaunched a counter-attack,hitting a four and a six butcould not repeat his heroicsin the first Test when hescored an unbeaten century

and claimed a hat-trick. He fellfor 14.

Wagner completed hishaul with the wicket of Rubelfor four while Sodhi bowledAbdur Razzak for 13 to wrapup the innings.

Williamson (28 not out)was batting alongside Tay-lor (37 not out) when playwas called off. Shakib saidBangladesh must take thosetwo wickets on Wednesdayif they want to take the leadand put New Zealand underpressure.

“We need to pick up thetwo wickets at the creasenow because they are themost important batsmen,” hesaid. “They are the seniorplayers and can always playbig innings.”�

The first Test ended in adraw.

Scores at stumps on thesecond day of the secondTest between Bangladeshand New Zealand at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium inDhaka on Tuesday.—APP

ISTANBUL—Serena Williams’verdict that she is “a bit dis-appointed” with her 2013 sea-son indicates her urgency toovertake the 18 Grand Slamtitles of Martina Navratilovaand Chris Evert and to get onwith chasing Steffi Graf ’sOpen era record of 22.

Whether the 32-year-oldstill has time to achieve thatmay be suggested by herperformances at the season-ending climax, the WTAChampionships which startson Tuesday.

It was an extraordinarilycritical self-judgement byWilliams on a season inwhich she has won anothertwo Grand Slam titles andtaken her total to 17 — per-haps caused by a fear thattime is short.

More than that, Williamshas lost only four matches,taken her career earningspast $50 million, and become

Serena aims to end 2013 on high

the oldest woman to hold theworld number one ranking.

She claims not to be mind-ful of such records, but nev-ertheless volunteered that:“I’m excited about the possi-bilities.”

Retaining the title thisweek will be a great momen-tum builder for her off-sea-son work — increasingly im-portant as Williams gets older— just as it was, she says,when she regained the titleat the 2012 WTA Champion-ships.

Williams is probably astronger favourite now thanthen, partly because of theabsence of Maria Sharapova,who is rehabilitating her vul-nerable shoulder.

The player most capableof upsetting her is VictoriaAzarenka who has no doubtover where the Americanstands in the history of thesport.

“She can be the greatestof all time,” Azarenka reck-oned after losing to Williamsin the longest US Openwomen’s singles final in 30years last month. “Serena’sstill not done.”

The Belarusian also sug-gested that the Americannow focuses more intensely,and raises her level more dan-gerously when it really mat-ters.

Judging from the GrandSlam wins in Paris and NewYork, that level is sometimeshigher than ever. On the evi-dence of setbacks atMelbourne and Wimbledonit can also be variable.

Williams has lost twice toAzarenka this year — inDoha in February the day af-ter having regained the num-ber one ranking from her ri-val — and in Cincinnati inAugust after leading for mostof the match.—AFP

LONDON—Wayne Rooneychallenged Sir Alex Fergusonover why he hadn’t pursuedMesut Özil at the height ofthe standoff that almost sawthe striker leave forManchester City in 2010, theformer Manchester Unitedmanager has revealed.

Ferguson, who also reit-erates that Rooney “askedaway” the day after the finalgame of last season amid frus-tration at being left out of theside and substituted, gavethe centre-forward shortshrift at the meeting.

In his press conferenceto launch the book on Tues-day, Ferguson expanded onthat allegation, saying:“Wayne asked away becausehe felt he was playing out ofposition.

“I can understand that.My judgement was thatWayne wasn’t playing well

Rooney wanted Ozil signing: Fergusonenough.

“But when you see himplaying like he is, do youthink I would drop him? Noway.

“He is England’s greatwhite hope and a great playerfor Manchester United. Theplayer who is playing now isa different player.”

In his book, My Autobi-ography, Ferguson says hefelt Rooney was being con-trolled by his agent PaulStretford during the pro-tracted episode in 2010,which ended with the playersigning a new contract.

Ferguson felt Rooneywas “sheepish” during theconfrontation, in which hesaid United should have pur-sued Özil when he signed forReal Madrid from WerderBremen, and had been “pro-grammed in what he was try-ing to say”.

Ferguson is full of praisefor Rooney’s natural ability,revealing that United tried tosnatch him from Everton at14 and 16, but also makes fre-quent reference to his phy-sique.

“With that kind of phy-sique it was hard to imaginehim playing into his 30s,”says Ferguson, revealing thatwhen he re-signed in 2010 heimagined him morphing intoa midfielder.

Ferguson claims it was amistake for Roy Hodgson toallow Rooney to take aweek’s holiday before Euro2012 because “he was neverthe sort who could take daysoff”. “He would receive noleniency from me. I wouldhammer him for any drop incondition,” writes Ferguson,who is withering about hiscontribution in his final sea-son.—AFP

95 Indian playerspart of HockeyIndia League

mini auction poolNEW DELHI—The HockeyIndia League’s mini playersauction will feature 95 Indi-ans, including promising for-wards such as RamandeepSingh and Affan Yousuf,when it is conducted here onNovember 18.

Hockey India SecretaryGeneral and Hero HockeyIndia League Chairman Dr.Narinder Batra said the qual-ity of competition and suc-cess of the inaugural seasonof the league has generatedinterest among Indian play-ers.

“We are confident thatfranchises will complete theirteams with the best availableIndian talent,” he said.

Releasing the list of 95Indian players who havesigned up for the mini auc-tion or closed bid, Batra saidthe list of players is a combi-nation of youth and experi-ence.

The list of Indians hassome young talented playerswho have recently performedwell at various tournaments.

Among them is forwardAffan Yousuf, who was vice-captain of the Indian juniormen’s team that won gold inthe third Sultan of Johar Cuplast month.—AFP

Take the pressureoff Bale: RonaldoMADRID—Real Madrid starCristiano Ronaldo believesthere has been too muchpressure heaped upon hisnew teammate Gareth Baledue to his enormous pricetag.

The Welshman arrivedfrom Tottenham Hotspur inSeptember for a fee of 91 mil-lion euros ($124.5 million, #77million), according to Realpresident Florentino Perez.

And a series of nigglinginjuries have meant the 24-year-old hasn’t yet com-pleted 90 minutes for his newemployers.

However, Ronaldo, whosuccessfully made the tran-sition from the PremierLeague to La Liga when hejoined Madrid fromManchester United in 2009,is sure Bale will come good.

“I think Gareth Bale hasdone well,” he told a pressconference on Tuesday.

“He had a difficult timebecause he didn’t do a pre-season. I understand thatand if you speak with himyou can see he is very excitedto help the team, but it is bet-ter to leave him alone and notadd pressure. “He is a fan-tastic player, a fantastic boyand he always wants to learn.

“People put pressure onhim because of how much hecost. I leave him alone be-cause I am sure 100 percentthat he is going to do well forthe club.”

Due to Bale’s lack of play-ing time so far, the twohaven’t been able to build upany sort of partnership onthe field. However, Ronaldodismissed any suggestionsthat their similar style maymake them incompatible inthe same team.

“I think all the good play-ers can play together. I wantto play with good players, nomatter who they are, and Ithink we can win importantthings together.”

Meanwhile, Madridcoach Carlo Ancelotti backedup his Portuguese star andsaid Bale’s return to full fit-ness following a slight thighinjury would not mean achange of position forRonaldo. “In general I thinkgood players can play to-gether and it is good for theteam if they play together.

“The debate (about Baleand Ronaldo) is outside ofReal Madrid, not inside. Evenobjectively, one is used toplaying on the left and oneon the right.—AFP

Golf: Give Asiansa chance, says

struggling IsmailKUALA LUMPUR—Asiangolfers desperately needmore opportunities to play atthe top tournaments if theyare to become world-beaters,Malaysia’s Rashid Ismail saidTuesday.

Ismail, one of only twoMalaysians at this week’sCIMB Classic in KualaLumpur, said talent was go-ing to waste with promisingplayers not getting thechance to move to the nextlevel.

“Obviously we shouldhave more slots for Asians,especially Malaysians, be-cause we put so much moneyinto this event yet we don’thave enough opportunitiesfor local talent to partici-pate,” said Ismail, 33.

“So I hope next year weget something better thanthis.” Ismail exemplifies thestruggles of a journeymanpro in Asia, where a boom inthe number of top qualitycourses and tournamentshas outstripped the develop-ment of players.

The mustachioed Malay-sian, ranked at 1,532 in theworld, last teed off in suchexalted company at the 2000World Cup, where TigerWoods and David Duvalwere representing the UnitedStates.—AFP

OLDER adults who don’t sleep well havemore of the brain plaques that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, a new

study suggests. The finding doesn’t prove thatnot getting enough shut-eye causes the build-up of beta-amyloid plaques and leads to de-mentia rather than the otherway around.

The researchers can’t besure which came first be-cause they asked about sleepproblems and took brain im-ages at around the same time.But, the study’s lead authorsaid, “It’s exciting that ourfindings … may point tosleep disturbance as some-thing that can be a modifiablerisk factor that can be lever-aged to prevent Alzheimer’sdisease.”

Adam Spira from theJohns Hopkins BloombergSchool of Public Health inBaltimore said past studieshave found sleep quality isrelated to thinking andmemory skills.

“We’ve known for a long time that peoplewith Alzheimer’s disease have really disturbedsleep patterns,” he told Reuters Health. “Peoplehave wondered, well, is it possible that poorsleep is actually leading to cognitive decline?”

In the new study, “We were able to lookunder the hood and see what’s going on inthe brain,” Spira said. He and his colleaguesasked 70 adults, ages 53 to 91 years, howmany hours they slept each night and howoften they woke up during the night or hadotherwise disrupted sleep. Then they scannedeach person’s brain to look for clusters ofbeta-amyloid. The clumps of protein pieces

are present in the brains of people withAlzheimer’s disease in much higher quan-tities than among healthy people. The re-searchers wrote in JAMA Neurology thatthe amount of beta-amyloid plaques corre-lated with both the amount of sleep and

sleep quality.Average levels of beta-

amyloid rose with every hourless that participants reportedsleeping every night and witheach additional point theyscored on a question about poorsleep quality. That was still trueafter Spira’s team took the fourpeople who had developedcognitive impairment orAlzheimer’s disease during thestudy out of the equation.

Depending on the regionof the brain they looked at, be-tween one quarter and one thirdof the participants had higherthan normal amounts ofplaque. Neurologist and sleepmedicine researcher Dr. Yo-ElJu said the findings are consis-

tent with other recent research.“All of the studies so far are kind of show-

ing the same thing, that there is an associa-tion between disrupted sleep and Alzheimer’spathology, meaning brain changes,” Ju, fromthe Washington University School of Medi-cine in St. Louis, said. None of those studiescan prove which comes first, brain changesor sleep problems.

Lim told Reuters Health the next step willbe to follow people with sleep troubles overtime to see if they develop brain plaques morequickly than others. If that’s the case, research-ers could then test whether improving sleepmight help prevent Alzheimer’s.

Poor sleep tied toAlzheimer’s-like brain changes

Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan talking to Senior Minister Nisar Khuhru during a meeting at Governor House.

OPD of Jinnah Hospital is seen closed due to strike by the doctors.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Pearl ContinentalHotels has launched a diplo-matic enclave aimed at promot-ing soft and clean image of Pa-kistan.

Muhammad AzeemQureshi, general manager PCHotel while addressing a PressConference said that the cam-paign is beginning with theweek long program “Dekho Ja-pan” which will be inauguratedby Consul General of Japanduring which besides Japanesefood, different cultural activi-ties including Ikeban, Judu Ka-rate and other cultural showsetc of Japan will also be dem-onstrated which will be serv-ing dual purpose of creatingawareness of Japanese food andcultural as well as introductionPakistani food and culture to thevisitors hence PC will be actingas the ambassador of Pakistan

Diplomatic enclave to projectsoft image of Pakistan

to project a soft image of thecountry.

Dekho Japan campaign isbeginning from Oct 24, he saidand disclosed that similar festi-

val shows of different countriesare also in the pipeline such asof Indonesia, Switzerland, Mo-rocco besides celebrating foodweeks from different gulf states.

This diplomatic enclave isbeginning with Japan at KarachiPC while other shows will alsobe organized at other places atPC Lahore and Islamabad.

KARACHI—Provincial Minis-ter for Information SharjeelInam Memon on Tuesday saidthat targeted operation againstcriminals will continue inKarachi till restoration of com-plete peace.

“Peace will be restored atall cost”, he said while address-ing as chief guest at a confer-ence on Food Safety and Qual-ity at a hotel.

He appreciated the effortsof police and rangers for main-taining peace and said that theyare working against criminal el-ements despite all unfavourablechallenges.

He said that the MinisterialTask Force on Consumers’

products and rights and FoodSecurity Council would be es-tablished soon.

Representatives of Food,Agriculture and Industries de-partments and private sectorswould be inducted in the pro-posed task force Council, hesaid adding that legal actionwill be taken against the com-panies found involved in vio-lation of consumers rights.

He lauded the role of theindustrialists who were run-ning industries in difficulttimes and serving the nationand the country. The Govern-ment would provide completeprotection to them, he assuredSharjeel Memon called upon

the Federal Government to re-duce tariff of electricity, gasand petrol so that the wheel ofthe industries could move on.

He said that the govern-ment has conducted an inquiryinto corruption related to Rs680 million Kotri effluent plantproject.He said so far Rs 750million had been released butthe project is not completed yet.All those responsible for cor-ruption in the project would betaken to task, he said.

On this occasion Commis-sioner Karachi Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui, well know industrial-ists S.M. Muneer, Mian Zahid,a former minister Khalid Tawaband others also spoke.—APP

Targeted operation tillrestoration of peace

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Offal disposal op-eration had cost the Karachi Met-ropolitan Corporation (KMC)above Rs 250 million while eachof five the district municipal cor-porations (DMC) had spent Rs 5million approximately. This hugesum of money was spent on hir-ing mini loading vehicles dump-ers and loaders.

The DMCs had hired 3000small loading trucks and 1dumper and 1 loader at the rateof Rs 1000 per hour for three dayswhile each DMC had hired aminimum of 2 dumpers and load-ers for shifting the collected hidesof the sacrificial animals from

major collection points towardthe offal burial sites. It had beenroughly estimated that the DMCshad spent around Rs 36000. Thesmall loading trucks were hiredat the rate of Rs 2000 per day,which amounted to Rs 18000000approximately.

As far as the KMC was con-cerned, it had the responsibilityto keep 27 and 9 corridors tidyand offal-free for three days. Thefleet of vehicles that the KMChad at hand were 25 of whichonly 104 were in working con-dition. Only 20 of the remaining146 vehicles were out of orderwith major mechanical faultswhile 126 were out of order forminor faults.

KMC vehicles out of order

Hefty amount paid toprivate contractors

PPP to continuelegacy of

Bhutto familySTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Bilawal BhuttoZardari, Patron-In-Chief of Pa-kistan People’s Party has paidglowing tributes to BegumNusrat Bhutto on her seconddeath anniversary and termed heras Mother of Democracy whofought valiantly for the nationagainst the dictatorship.

In his message on the occa-sion, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari saidBegum Nusrat Bhutto lost herhusband Shaheed Zulfikar AliBhutto, two sons Shaheed MirMurtaza Bhutto, ShaheedShahnawaz Bhutto and a daugh-ter Shaheed Mohtarma BenazirBhutto in the struggle of nationfor restoration of democracy andpeople’s rights.

“Despite the martyrdom ofalmost entire family, she contin-ued to play motherly role for allthe Party workers.

150 suspendedPolicemen restored

KARACHI—The majority ofpolice personnel, suspended pre-vious month on a report of intel-ligence agency, were restored andjoined several police stationsacross the city.

Following an Intelligencereport, the department of policehad suspended more than 150policemen from all zones ofKarachi but after few days, themajority of sacked policemenwere declared innocent and re-stored to their previous positions.

According to details, all 37suspended policemen of Eastzone were restored and 16 ofthem were also posted to the po-lice stations.—Online

Fire erupts atcar showroom

KARACHI—A fire erupted at acar showroom located near ExpoCentre on University Road onTuesday.

According to reports, FireBrigade authorities said fire ten-ders were dispatched to the areato extinguish the blaze.

They said that the fire brokeout at a two-storey building nearExpo Centre which wasdoused.—Online

Action againstirregular

promotionsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Local Gov-ernment Minister Syed OwaisMuzaffar asked all the heads oflocal government to prepare a listof all those officers, who werepromoted in next cadre startingfrom basic pay scale (BPS) 16.

The heads of the LG institu-tions had also been directed tosubmit the required list withinthree days failing which sternaction would be initiated againstthem.

The list that the Minister hadasked the LG institutions headsto make available in 3 days wasmeant to if officer was promotedin contrast to rules and regula-tions and would include all pro-motions and upgradation that hadtaken place in past 10 years.

The situation had dissipatedpanic among the officers that hadsough promotions out of turn andsecured hefty pecuniary perksand benefits as a result of theirout of turn promotions.

There long list of officers inLG institutions such as KarachiMetropolitan Corporation(KMC), defunct KDA, KarachiWater and sewerage Board(KW&SB), district municipalcorporations (DMC) where em-ployees in grade 5 to grade 11 hadsought out of turn promotions.The LG institutions that wouldfall under that directives of theMinister included KMC, SindhBuilding Control Authority(SBCA), DMCs, Malir Develop-ment Authority (MDA), Lyaridevelopment Authority (LDA),municipal corporations ofHyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur andall the province.

The LG institutional headshad promptly commenced thework for the preparation of ofthose officers that had soughtpromotions in past 10 years.

3 killers arrested,two die in

Police custodyKARACHI—Police on Tuesdayclaimed to have arrested threetarget-killers in Karachi, whiletwo other outlaws were killed inpolice custody.

Officials said police raidedhideout of criminals somewherein Karachi and arrested two sus-pected target-killers BazMuhammad and Younus.

They were later taken toSharafi Goth locality in policecustody to indicate their otherassociates, however two bikerriders appeared suddenly andopened fires on the arrested kill-ers and the police party, killingboth Baz Muhammad andYounus on the spot and injuringan ASI.

Motives behind the attack arebeing investigated.—Online

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—The mother ofFormer Advisor to PM, CentralLeader PPP, Hon Consul Generalof Yemen and renowned eco-nomic columnist Dr Mirza IkhtiarBaig and Hon Consul GeneralMorocco, prominent Industrialistand columnist Ishtiaq Baig haspassed away.

Namaz-e-Janaza was held on21st October 2013 at SultanMasjid and burial at Gizri Grave-yard. The funeral was attended byprominent personalities namely:Nisar Khoro Sr Minister Educa-tion, Manzoor Wassan MinisterPrison, Anti-Corruption andMines, Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman,Mir Ibrahim Rehman, BashirKhan ANP, Muhammad HussainMahenti Jamat-e-Islami, WaseemAkhtar, MNA M. Ali Rashid and

Haider Abbas Rizvi of MQM,Rashid Rabbani & Waqar Mehdiof PPP, Jam Madad Ali, ImtiazSheikh Advisor to PM, TariqSayeed, S. M. Muneer, ShoaibSiddiqui Commissioner Karachi,Sharfuddin Memon, SenatorAbdul Haseeb Khan, KhalidTawab, Mian Zahid Hussain,Yasin Malik, Justice (R) Saeed uzZaman Siddiqui, Capt. HaleemSiddiqui, Gulzar Feroz VPFPCCI, Haroon Agar Ex-Presi-dent KCCI, Yasin Siddik Chair-man APTMA, Tariq Saud Chair-man Sindh-Balochistan RegionAPTMA, Farukh Mazhar Chair-man KATI, Mubeen Jumani, Brig.Anis, Prof. Pirzada Qasim RazaSiddiqui Vice Chancellor Dr.Ziauddin University, Asim KhanMD PPL, Sohail Butt DMD PSO,Dr. Saif, Nasir Scon, Tahir Schon,Kalim Siddiqui, Col. Tahir DG

Operation ASF, Col Asif Zaidi Dy.DG ASF, Dr Asif Brohi Ex-Presi-dent NBP, Saad-ur-Rehman,Faran Farooqi, Consul GeneralThailand, and large number ofleading businessmen and distin-guished personalities from diplo-matic core, media and businesscommunity attended the funeral.

MQM chief Altaf Hussaincalled Dr Ikhtiar Baig and IshtiaqBaig and expressed condolenceand prayed for the departed soulas well as the bereaved family tobear this irreparable loss. Gover-nor Punjab Ch MuhammadSarwar, Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan and Moulana Fazal-ur-Rehman Ameer JUI also calledthem and expressed deep sorrowon the sad demise.

Dr Baig called it a great lossto the family and said that todayhe is the poorest man in the world.

Funeral prayer of IkhtiarBaig’s mother held

A view of burning garbage near the newly constructed CCPO Complex causing pollutionneeds attention of the authority concerned.

OLDER adults who don’t sleep well havemore of the brain plaques that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, a new

study suggests. The finding doesn’t prove thatnot getting enough shut-eye causes the build-up of beta-amyloid plaques and leads to de-mentia rather than the otherway around.

The researchers can’t besure which came first be-cause they asked about sleepproblems and took brain im-ages at around the same time.But, the study’s lead authorsaid, “It’s exciting that ourfindings … may point tosleep disturbance as some-thing that can be a modifiablerisk factor that can be lever-aged to prevent Alzheimer’sdisease.”

Adam Spira from theJohns Hopkins BloombergSchool of Public Health inBaltimore said past studieshave found sleep quality isrelated to thinking andmemory skills.

“We’ve known for a long time that peoplewith Alzheimer’s disease have really disturbedsleep patterns,” he told Reuters Health. “Peoplehave wondered, well, is it possible that poorsleep is actually leading to cognitive decline?”

In the new study, “We were able to lookunder the hood and see what’s going on inthe brain,” Spira said. He and his colleaguesasked 70 adults, ages 53 to 91 years, howmany hours they slept each night and howoften they woke up during the night or hadotherwise disrupted sleep. Then they scannedeach person’s brain to look for clusters ofbeta-amyloid. The clumps of protein pieces

are present in the brains of people withAlzheimer’s disease in much higher quan-tities than among healthy people. The re-searchers wrote in JAMA Neurology thatthe amount of beta-amyloid plaques corre-lated with both the amount of sleep and

sleep quality.Average levels of beta-

amyloid rose with every hourless that participants reportedsleeping every night and witheach additional point theyscored on a question about poorsleep quality. That was still trueafter Spira’s team took the fourpeople who had developedcognitive impairment orAlzheimer’s disease during thestudy out of the equation.

Depending on the regionof the brain they looked at, be-tween one quarter and one thirdof the participants had higherthan normal amounts ofplaque. Neurologist and sleepmedicine researcher Dr. Yo-ElJu said the findings are consis-tent with other recent research.

“All of the studies so far are kind of show-ing the same thing, that there is an associa-tion between disrupted sleep and Alzheimer’spathology, meaning brain changes,” Ju, fromthe Washington University School of Medi-cine in St. Louis, said. None of those studiescan prove which comes first, brain changesor sleep problems.

Lim told Reuters Health the next step willbe to follow people with sleep troubles overtime to see if they develop brain plaques morequickly than others. If that’s the case, research-ers could then test whether improving sleepmight help prevent Alzheimer’s.

Poor sleep tied toAlzheimer’s-like brain changes

Provincial Minister for Industries Chaudhry Muhammad Shafiq inaugurating the All Pakistan Carpet Exhibition 2013.

A delegation of Bahawalnagar Bar Association meeting with Chief Justice of Lahore HighCourt Mr Justice Umar Atta Bandiyal

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Steering Commit-tee of the United Nations Indus-trial Development Organization(UNIDO) held a meeting todayat the Small and Medium En-terprises Development Author-ity (SMEDA) head office toreview the “Joint UNIDO-SMEDA-Italia program” to es-tablish an Investment Promo-tion Unit (IPU) in Lahore withemphasis on Italian Investmentin Pakistan. The meeting waschaired by Sardar AhmadNawaz Sukhera, Chief Execu-tive Officer, SMEDA beinghead of the host country’s coun-terpart agency.

From UNIDO, a five-mem-ber team of experts led by Ms.

Monica Carco, Unit Chief In-vestment and Technology Unitattended the meeting. Othermembers of the team includedUNIDO Headquarters experts;Mr. Brian Portell, Mr. DinoFortunato, Mr. DomenicoBruzzone, Director, OverseasTechnical Unit, Italian Develop-ment Cooperation based inIslamabad and his FinancialExpert Dr. Antonio Piccinni.

On behalf of the Govern-ment of Pakistan, Mr.Muhammad Ashfaq Ghumman,Joint Secretary Ministry of In-dustries and Production and Mr.Zafar Yab Khan, Deputy Secre-tary Economic Affairs Divisionattended the meeting.

The Steering Committeediscussed the work plan of the

said program for the period of2013-2014 and granted approvalfor its implementation. Themeeting also decided to precedethe program by conducting twoawareness seminars. The firstseminar will be held on Octo-ber 25, 2013 and the secondseminar would be held on Oc-tober 28, 2013 on SMEs’ accessto finance.

The UNIDO steering Com-mittee was informed on this oc-casion that the project; “JointUNIDO-SMEDA-Italia pro-gram” to establish an IPU inLahore was originally started inFebruary 2006. But, due to in-creased security risk in Pakistanin the year 2009, the project op-eration was interrupted. Theproject was, however, reviewed

in a meeting held betweenUNIDO and the Italian authori-ties at UNIDO Headquarters inMarch 2011, which decided toresume and extend the projectuntil end of 2014.

Earlier, Sardar AhmadNawaz Sukhera, Chief Execu-tive Officer, SMEDA deliveredaddress of welcome to the par-ticipants and apprised themabout the five year SME De-velopment Plan evolved bySMEDA.

He expressed deep grati-tude to UNIDO and Italian gov-ernment officials for setting upInvestment Unit in Pakistan.He assured of the fullest coop-eration and commitment ofSMEDA to make the proposedIPU successful.

UNIDO-SMEDA-Italiaprogramme reviewed

People are travelling at the rooftop of a bus in the city due to shortage of public transport.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minis-ter Muhammad Shahbaz Sharifhas said that traders’ communityis the backbone of the economyof a country. He said that traders’community has always played animportant role in the developmentof the country and resolution oftheir genuine problems is the re-sponsibility of the government.

Shahbaz Sharif said that hewill himself raise voice for reso-lution of genuine problems of thetraders. He stressed upon the trad-ers’ community to fully supportgovernment in increasing nationalresources. He said that the prop-erty survey is being carried outand final decision will be takenin consultation with traders.

The Chief Minister whileconstituting a committee com-prising Law Minister, IndustryMinister, concerned officials andrepresentatives of traders’ orga-nizations, said that this commit-tee will formulate practicableproposals with regard to allgenuine demands. He said thatafter formulating final proposals,a meeting will be held with Fed-

eral Finance Minister Ishaq Darfor resolving the problems ofthe traders.

He expressed these viewswhile addressing a meeting ofrepresentatives of traders’ orga-nizations from all over the prov-ince in Lahore. Members Na-tional Assembly Pervaiz Malik,Mian Abdul Manan, ProvincialMinister for Law RanaSanaullah, Minister for IndustryCh Muhammad Shafiq, Chair-man FBR, concerned secretaries,President Anjuman Tajran CityFaisalabad, Khawaja ShahidRazaq Saqa, President All Pa-kistan Anjuman Tajran KhalidPervaiz, Secretary GeneralAbdul Razaq Babber besidesPresidents of traders’ organiza-tions from various cities ofPunjab attended the meeting.Traders presented their prob-lems regarding taxes and putforth various proposals for theirresolution.

Addressing the meeting oftraders, Muhammad ShahbazSharif said that he considers theproblems being faced by traders’community as his own problemsand will take all possible steps

for their resolution. He also ear-nestly appealed to the traders toplay their effective role for sur-vival of the country, strengthen-ing national economy and wel-fare of the common man.

He said that the generationof additional resources is essen-tial for public welfare programs,achieving self-reliance and elimi-nating beggary. He stressed uponthe traders and industrialists toplay their due role for generatingadditional resources. The ChiefMinister said that despite beingatomic power, the country is stillin debt of sixty billion dollars. Hesaid that increase in the resourcesis utmost essential for achievingthe status of a dignified nation inthe comity of nations. He saidthat indigenous resources willhave to be developed for achiev-ing the goal of self-reliance.

Shahbaz Sharif assured thetraders of resolution of their prob-lems and said that the decisionwith regard to extending the datefor submission of wealth state-ment and income tax returns willbe taken within a few days afterconsultation with Federal Fi-nance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Representatives of traders’organizations paid rich tributes toChief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif for listening totheir problems sympatheticallyand taking steps for public wel-fare. They said that listening tothe problems of traders byShahbaz Sharif attentively isproof of the fact that he is trad-ers’ friendly Chief Minister andhas sympathies with them. Theyassured the Chief Minister tofully support the steps taken byPunjab government for eliminat-ing electricity and gas theft.

They said that traders’ com-munity is ready to pay taxes asexpanding tax net is vital forgenerating additional resources.They said that the dream of de-velopment of the country can-not be materialized without ex-pansion of tax net. They also de-manded resolution of variousproblems being confronted bytraders’ community regardingtaxes. Chairman FBR TariqBajwa informed about the taxsystem. Members National As-sembly Mian Abdul Manan andPervaiz Malik also addressed themeeting.

Shahbaz assures resolutionof traders’ problems

LHC seeksreport on acid

throwingSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore High Courthas directed District and SessionsJudge, Toba Tek Singh to sendfresh report regarding submissionof police report before the trialcourt within a week regardingacid attack on husband and hissecond wife so that the investi-gation could be concluded trans-parently.

According to details, Altafgot second marriage with AzraBibi. In order to avenge this,Shaheen Bibi along with hercompanions threw acid on herhusband and his second wife. Shewas badly burnt. Injured couplewas shifted to hospital. Com-plaint Cell has directed con-cerned D&SJ to immediatelycomply with orders regardingsubmission of latest police reportin a week so that justice could beassured to aggrieved family.

LAHORE—A special divisionbench of the Lahore High Courton Tuesday adjourning the hear-ing of petitions against inadequatesecurity measures in the court pre-mises sought report from policeauthorities till November 19.

The special division benchheaded by LHC Chief JusticeUmar Ata Bandial passed direc-tions on two petitions filed bySajid Iqbal and Abbas AliChaudhry.

As proceedings started, a re-port regarding SOPs for improv-ing coordination between policeand prosecution department was

presented before the bench. How-ever, the bench after reviewing thereport stressed the need to im-prove it. The police authoritiessubmitted a chart of steps beingtaken to ensure the security ofcourt premises.

The bench directed officialsto ensure implementation of stepsmentioned in the chart. But, itobserved that the police had notsubmitted a compact plan forcourts security across Punjab yetdespite orders. The bench directedthe police to submit the plan onnext date of hearing. The benchadjourning the hearing till No-

vember 19 ordered the police tosubmit report regarding arrest ofproclaimed offenders involved incases committed at court pre-mises.

The bench also directed po-lice authorities to submit reportregarding progress in submissionof challan of offenses committedinside court premises.

The petitioners through theirpetitions voiced concern regard-ing inefficiency on the part of con-cerned agencies about inadequatesecurity measures in the Courtpremises resulting in continuousuntoward incidents.—APP

Security in courts

LHC adjourns hearing

Govt committedto promotion ofcarpet industry

LAHORE—Government is com-mitted to resolve the issues of car-pet industry, while the TDAP(Trade Development Authorityof Pakistan) and PCMEA (Paki-stan Carpet Manufacturers andExporters Association) willjointly facilitate flow of foreigndirect investment; establish part-nerships; expand market shareand develop domestic commerce.

Punjab Minister of Industriesand Commerce Ch MuhammadShafique stated this at the inau-gural ceremony of four-day Pa-kistan Hand-knotted Carpet Ex-hibition 2013 jointly organizedby the TDAP and PCMEA at lo-cal hotel on Tuesday.

The Minister said the gov-ernment was determined to en-hance export of handmade car-pets and rugs to allover the world,as this sector could play an im-portant role in uplifting of thecountry’s economy. Carpet fairwould not only facilitate the en-trepreneurs and business ownersbut also highlight the soft imageof the country, he observed.

The carpet exhibition, hesaid, could help put theeconomy on track because fairswere the key to exhibit the un-tapped potentials of Pakistan aswell as introduce Pakistanproducts in the world market.Pakistan has to make an extraeffort in promoting exports byarranging trade fairs and exhi-bitions, he emphasized.

Chaudhry Shafique ac-knowledged the role of hand-knotted industry in job creationand strengthening the economyand said that government wouldsupport industry as hundreds ofthousands of people were at-tached with it, which would ulti-mately improve lives of citizens.

While, the PCMEA Chair-man Akhtar Nazir Cooki urgedthe government to organize suchevents regularly that would notonly help Pakistan in accelerat-ing trade and investment.—APP

PIC drug case:Accused declared

absconderMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt on Tuesday declared theGeneral Manager ShakilAhmed, of the PharmaceuticalAfroze Pharma, absconder fornot being present in the court onthe due date.

The government prosecutorinformed the court that the ac-cused of PIC spurious drug casehas been proved to be guilty bythe police but he did not comeon the date of hearing for thetrial.

The court also ordered thepolice to present the details ofthe property of the accused inthe court.

LAHORE—A patient who hadsymptoms of the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever(Congo fever) died on Tuesdayin Lahore, Medics said.

Congo fever is a tick-borneviral disease which is mainlytransferred to humans from pets.Its symptoms include fever, flu,bloody urine, vomiting and nosebleeding. Thirty percent of thecases result in death on the sec-ond week of the illness.

According to media reports,31-year-old Zeeshan, a sus-pected patient of the fever wasunder treatment at a privateclinic in Lahore’s Ferozepur

Road area. He was brought tothe hospital five days back, butdied of the illness on Tuesdaymorning.

Medics said blood samplesof the patient have been sent toNational Institute of Health.

His family member saidZeeshan’s health destabilizedafter he visited local cattle mar-ket to purchase sacrificial ani-mal.

It was first death caused bythe Congo fever in Punjab;however, the provincial healthdepartment has not so far con-firmed diagnosis and today’sdeath officially.—Online

Man dies ofCongo virus