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Sectarian-hit Rawalpindilimping back to normalcyCurfew lifted Participants of funeral of three victims dispersed

peacefully Judicial Commission and fact-finding committee formedShahbaz Sharif holds security meeting in city Government accused

of security lapse Ulema appeal people to remain peacefulLIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI—The sectarian hit- Rawalpindicity started limping back to nor-malcy on Sunday as the curfew

was lifted. The day passed with-out any untoward incident. Hun-dreds of participants of funeralof three victims of Friday vio-lence held at Liaquat Bagh dis-persed peacefully. Though cur-

few is still imposed and mobileservices suspended, the authori-ties announced that with theimprovement of security situa-tion these services will be re-stored. However cell phone ser-

vice was restored the afternoon.With the announcement of

offering Namaz-i-Janaza of vic-tims by a group of Ulema atLiaqat Bagh on Sunday, theirfollowers, particularly, studentsof Madrassas in twin cities andsurrounding areas started mov-ing to the venue in the morning.However, initially, the city se-curity managers refused to grantthem permission and tried to haltthem, but later when the crowdswelled, the authorities allowedthem. JUF (S) leader MaulanaSamiul Haq led the prayers.

Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif dashed to thecity and held security meeting.He declared that culprits will bebrought to justice. The govern-

RAWALPINDI: Mourners carry the coffin of a sectarian violence victim during a funeralceremony at Liaquat Bagh on Sunday.—INP photo

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BANGKOK: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif being received by Deputy PrimeMinister of Thailand, Pracha Promnag on arrival at Bangkok Don Mueang Airport on Sun-day. First Lady Begum Kulsoom Nawaz and State Minister for Telecom and IT AnushaRehman are also present.

Musharraf to be triedunder Article 6 for

treason: NisarMusharraf: ‘I am ready to face trial’

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The governmentwill move the court to try formerpresident Pervez Musharraf un-der Article 6 — high treason —for subverting the constitution ofPakistan twice, Interior Minis-ter Chaudhry Nisar announcedon Sunday. In Pakistan, themaximum penalty for treason isdeath.

The interior minister addedthat proceedings will begin fromMonday onward.

The Adiala Jail authoritieshad only recently formally re-leased Musharraf on November6 from his sub-jail after he wasgranted bail by a local court. Theformer military ruler had re-mained under house arrest at hisfarmhouse for over sevenmonths while he faced court tri-als.

Even though he had beengranted bail in all cases,Musharraf’s name is still on theExit Control List.

The high treason case

against Musharraf had beenpending as the Federal Investi-gation Agency had not startedformal proceedings.

The Supreme Court had re-ferred this case to the federalgovernment to initiate the hightreason case against the formerarmy chief for twice holding theConstitution in abeyance.

Meanwhile, former Presi-dent Pervez Musharraf Sundaytermed the government’s an-nouncement to try him underArticle 6 a desperate attempt todivert attention of masses fromRawalpindi carnage.

According to All PakistanMuslim League (APML)sources, Musharraf has decidedto courageously face the trial Hesaid that he had faced other casesagainst him in the courts andwill face this trial as well in thesame way.

The sources said thatMusharraf watched the pressconference of Interior Minister

PTI postpones sit-inagainst Nato supply routes

STAFF REPORT

PESHAWAR—Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf and political parties in thecoalition decided, on Sunday, topostpone a sit-in scheduled totake place on Nov 20, againstNato supply routes because ofthe sectarian clashes inRawalpindi.

Provincial MinisterShahram Tarkaisaid this whileaddressing a press conferencehere.Jamaat-e-Islami andAwami Jamhoori Ittehad werealso present during the press

conference. The connection be-tween the postponement of theprotest and the clashes inRawalpindi was not elaboratedupon.

PTI Chief Imran Khan hadvowed to block Nato suppliesfrom crossing through KhyberPakhtunkhwa in response to theUS drone strike that killed Pa-kistani Taliban chief HakimullahMehsud on November 1 and“sabotaged” peace talks.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is oneof the two key routes Nato sup-plies move in and out of Af-

ghanistan and is seen as crucialas US-led allied forces prepareto draw down from the war-torncountry in 2014.

Opposition parties in Paki-stan have accused the US of us-ing the drone strike to stymie thepeace process before propertalks had even started.

Khan, whose party leads theprovincial government inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, had said:“Even if we lose our provincialgovernment, we will not let Natosupplies pass through as long asdrone strikes do not stop.”

Truckers call off strikeKARACHI—The goods trans-porters on Sunday called offtheir 11-day long strike on con-clusion of the successful talkswith the Federal Finance Min-ister held at the Governor Househere.

The containers held up forsuch a long time, causing ex-treme congestion at the ports,have started moving out on thetrailers. The federal finance min-ister had especially arrived in the

city in view of the grave situa-tion that the trade and industrywas facing due to prolongedstrike of the goods transporters.Later, Ishaq Dar told media thatthe notification relating to thereduction in taxes would be is-sued tomorrow (Monday). Thegoods transporters had placedbefore the government severalof their demands including thewithdrawal of the raise in tax by

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Draft Securitypact givesindefinite stay toUS forces inAfghanistan: WPWASHINGTON/KABU—TheUnited States and Afghanistanhave circulated a completeddraft of a bilateral securityagreement that will indefi-nitely extend the U.S. militarypresence in Afghanistanbeyond next year’s combattroop withdrawal, and theyexpect to sign the document bythe end of the year, accordingto congressional and Obamaadministration officials.

The agreement resolvesthe issue of “immunity” forU.S. troops from Afghanprosecution, a sticking point innegotiations, by stipulating

Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries a one-PageSpecial Report on ‘43rdNational Day of theSultanate of Oman’ onPage 13.

Two cops killedin Swabi checkpost attackOUR CORRESPONDENTS

SWABI, QUETTA—Militantsattacked a security checkpostin Swabi district, the hometown of new deputy amir ofthe outlawed Tehreek-i-TalibanPakistan, which left twopoliceman dead while themilitants also set the checkpostablaze.

The Swabi policeconfirmed that twomotorcylists targeted theDarand police chekpost inBarmola Police Stationjurisdiction in the afternoonkilling two policemen, Nadir

PM inThailand on3-day visit

BANGKOK—Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif ar-rived in Bangkok on Sunday ona 3-day visit to Thailand. TheDeputy Thai Prime Minister re-ceived the Prime Minister at theairport.

The Prime Minister will holdContinued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7

50 dead inRussianairliner crashMOSCOW—A Russianpassenger airliner crashedSunday night while trying toland at the airport in the city ofKazan and officials said all 50people aboard were killed.

The plane belonging toTatarstan Airlines crashedabout 7:20 p.m. local time(1520 GMT; 10:20 a.m. EST).There were no immediateindications of what may havecaused the crash. Weather inthe city soon after the crashwas reported to be lightprecipitation and winds ofabout 8 meters per second (18mph).

Kazan is about 720kilometers (450 miles) east ofMoscow, where the flightoriginated. A spokeswoman forthe Emergencies Ministry,Irina Rossius, said there were44 passengers and six crew

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BATGRAM: Traders on Shahrah-e-Resham listen to their leaders during a protest against the killing of traders inThakot.

HYDERABAD: Security personnel stand alert to avoid anyuntoward incident on the eve of rally taken out by SunniTehreek workers.

ISLAMABAD–Four newpassport and immigrationoffices at Mirpur,Abbottabad, Rawalpindiand Bannu will be com-pleted within one monthwith the assistance of Min-istry of Housing andWorks. At present there are15 customized passport of-fices in various cities, whileeight are under construc-tion which after completionwill be provide state-of-the-art services to the public.

According to DirectorGeneral Immigration andPassports Sikandar SultanRaja, the directorate hastaken steps to providefriendly and corruption-freeenvironment to the publicand improve management.These administrative stepsinclude surprise visits,

crackdown against agentmafia with the help of districtadministrations, disciplinaryproceedings against corruptand inefficient staff, reviewand rationalization of staffposted at regional passportoffices and head office.

Talking to APP, the DGPassports said he recentlypaid a surprise visit to Pass-port Office Peshawar. Whiletaking notice of the disorga-nized working and uncleanli-ness there, he gave 15 daysto office in charge to improveconditions for citizens. About6,000 passports were lyingundelivered in the Peshawaroffice, he told.

The directorate has setup facilitation desk at headoffice and information cen-ters at regional passport of-fices, besides display of

guidelines regarding proce-dure of issuance of pass-ports and fee structure.There are 93 regional pass-port offices all over Pakistanand 32 offices abroad. Paki-stan is under internationalobligation to provide ma-chine readable passport fa-cilities at the remaining 77missions abroad before No-vember 2015, otherwise vi-sas will be refused to Paki-stani nationals living abroadand having manual pass-ports.

The total number ofpassports issued since 2004,when machine readable pass-port facility was initiated is23 million and the number ofapplicants on daily basis isabout 20,000. So far, com-plete replacement of manualpassports with machine read-

able passports has been ac-complished within Pakistan.

Public has respondedwell to the Directorate’sSMS service 9988 for track-ing of passport and onlinecomplaint system throughweb, reducing the time pe-riod for delivery of urgentand ordinary passports. Atotal number of 910 emailswere received in October,2013 containing complaintsand queries and 80 percenthave been resolved andrest are under process.Some 6,588 calls had beenreceived and respondedthrough helpline 0800-34477 in September andOctober, while 62,000 SMSwere received for checkingstatus of passports sincelaunching of the service onOctober 12.—APP

Passport offices in 4 citiesto be ready within month

32 held with drugs

FC seizesprohibited items,

cell phonesQUETTA—Balochistan Fron-tier Corps on Sunday seizedeights cell phones and otherprohibited items from the in-mates during a search opera-tion in District Jail Quetta. Aspokesman for FC told APPhere that the search opera-tion had been launched afterreports that several jail birdsthere were still in connectionwith their accomplices out-side jail. As many as eight cellphone with active sims andother prohibited items wererecovered from the prisoners,he concluded.

Multan: Police on Sun-day arrested 32 ac-cused andseized drugs and illegal weap-ons.

According to the police,the arrested included drugspeddlers, illegal weapon car-riers, power pilferers and pro-claimed offenders.—APP

50,000 to getinternship under

Youth DevProgramme

ISLAMABAD—The YouthDevelopment Programme ofpresent government wouldensure internship/training formore than 50,000 eligible ap-plicants during current fiscalyear. The internship is takenin public and private sectororganizations acros thecountry, official sources saidon Sunday.

The eligibility criteria forthe said programme is thatthe applicant should be HECrecognized degree (16 years)with upper age limit is 25years.

The sources said the up-per age limit is 26 years forLess Developed Areas i.e.Balochistan, SouthernPunjab, Sindh-Rural, AzadJammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Federally Adminis-tered Tribal Areas (FATA,Malakand Division andKohistan & D.I.Khan Dis-tricts. The performance of in-terns will be monitoredthrough periodic checks byfocal persons/mentors to bedesignated by provinces andhost organizations.—APP

One dies ofdengue mosquito

SHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Fatherof eight children died due tobite of dengue mosquito. Ac-cording to details some timeback Ghulam Haider residentof Mangat, a village situatedon outskirts of the city had abite of mosquito carrying den-gue virus, on his nose. Soonafter the bite, he caught bonebreak fever and his skin at theplace of bite turned rash.

He was admitted in DHQhospital for treatment but hiscondition further aggravated.On the ad-vice of hospital au-thorities he was shifted toLahore hospital for specializedtreatment where he remainedunder regular treatment fortwenty days, His condition,however did not improve andfinally he expired.

SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

AN Italian duo ofMaestero MarcoGiliberti and Tenor

Mariano San Filipppothrilled ana u g u s tg a t h e r i n gwith a pianoconcert andc l a s s i c a lsongs at theB e a c hLuxury Ho-tel here Sat-

urday night. Their perfor-mance also hoisted theopening of Italian FoodFestival at the Avaris, forwhich Chef GiancarioPiccarreta had speciallybeen flown in here from

Italy.In his opening remarks,

Avari Hotel boss ByramAvari who now runs a chainof hotels in a number of Paki-stani cities, Dubai andCanada recalled how his latefather D B Avari had arrangedthe Italian cuisine in the busi-ness flagship near the seashores in the 50s “ I havegreat memories of that as ayoung man” and feel happynow to be part of the foodfestival from the Europeancountry, arranged in coopera-tion of the Italian consul gen-eral in Karachi RobertoFranceschinis and his charm-ing wife Juliana. Both havebeen engaged in gigantic ef-forts to build strong culturalbonds between Italy and Pa-

kistan, apart from helpingtrade and investment togrow bilaterally.

“ I love this city” said theItalian consul general in hisremarks, saying that he hadspent larger part of his life, inPakistan.

His father was in Kabul,and therefore he came toKarachi, driving all the wayto Khyber, and into Afghani-stan to be with the parents.His first daughter was bornin Pakistan, so he thought hewas more a Pakistani thanItalian. About the piano con-cert, he said opera started inItaly in 1679, and had builtits own reputation.

While Maestro Marcoplayed the Piano, his col-league Tenor Mariano sang

classical songs to the greatdelight of the select audi-ence, which included topdiplomats of the city, elitebusinessmen and connois-seurs of instrumental music.Marco later told this scribethat he has been playingpiano for ten years and hadperformed in a number ofEuropean countries, whilehis colleague, Mariano wassinging for two years.

For an hour and a half,the entire hall was treatedto delightful performancesand gave a standing ova-tion to the young guo, whoform a great combination.The Qatar Airways had of-fered 4 tickets to any desti-nation on the airline net-work to lucky winners.

Italian concert thrills audience

IS L A M A B A D—The monthlong post-Hajj flights op-eration, which started onOctober 19, wil l end onMonday with the return oflast Hujjaj after performingthe sacred religious obliga-tion. According to an offi-cial of the Ministry of Reli-gious Affairs, 143,368 pil-grims had gone to SaudiArabia for performing theHajj through over 288flights.

A total of 122 buildingswere hired for accommodat-ing 86,021 governmentscheme pilgrims. Onebuilding was hired for bluecategory, six for green cat-egory, and 115 for accom-modating white categorypilgrims.

This year the Hajj quotaof Pakistan was reduced by20 per cent due to the con-struction of more facilitiesat Khana-e-Kaaba. A 540-member Hajj Medical Mis-sion, 230 Mauvineen-e-

Hujjaj, 270 seasonal staffand 900 local Muavneenhad assisted the Hujjaj inSaudia to enable them toperform the obligation in ahassle-free environment.

The ministry had madea special helpline opera-t ional to faci l i tate theHujjaj . The complaintscould have registered at thewebsite of the ministry. Thecomplaints were monitoredpersonally by the ministerand secretary religious af-fairs. The complaint datahas been preserved to helpimproving future Hajj op-erations.

An 11-member Hajj Ad-visory Committee hadmonitored the entire Hajjoperation.

The committee had therepresentation of the min-istry, Hajj Group Organisers,Standing committee of theParliament and Parliamen-tary secretary on ReligiousAffairs.—APP

Post-Hajj flightoperation ends today

11 using directhooks, sent to jailPESHAWAR—During thecampaign to curb the powerpilferage, Pesco SurveillanceWapda House CheckingTeams with the collaborationof Police Station Peshawar,nabbed 11 more persons us-ing direct hooks. Pesco Spe-cial Magistrate sent theseaccused to Central JailPeshawar on judicial remand.

There names are: ZahidHussain S/o MuhammadNasim; Abdul Wakil S/oBakhtiar; Yousaf S/o AbdulHannan; Sardar Alam S/oRaham Din; MuhammadSaqib S/o MuhammadYousaf; Jan Agha; AkhtiarGul S/o Hassan Gul; Faiz S/oMuhammad Ayaz; SyedAbas Ali Shah S/o FazalShah; Muhammad Tariq S/oMuhammad Arif; Rizwan S/oHabib Shah Drive against il-legal use of electricity anddirect hooks will continue,PESCO has once againwarned electricity stealers tostop power pilferage in thelarger interest of the nation,due to which PESCO has toface huge financial losses &line losses on one hand andon the other hand PESCO’swhole distribution systemgets over loaded and thegeneral public faces inconve-nience of frequent powerbreak downs.—Agencies

Universal Children’sDay tomorrow

ISLAMABAD—”The UniversalChildren Day 2013" will be ob-served on November, 20 acrossthe globe including Pakistan topromote international together-ness and awareness among chil-dren worldwide. UNICEF, (theUnited Nations Children’sFund), promotes and coordi-nates this special day, whichalso works towards improvingchildren’s welfare. In some ar-eas UNICEF holds events todraw particular attention tochildren’s rights.—APP

Rs 980m spent on minorities,protection of worship places

ISLAMABAD—The authori-ties have spent Rs.236 millionon scholarships and differentschemes launched for wel-fare and betterment of minori-ties during last three years.During the period, Rs. 123million were spent on 43 de-velopment schemes for mi-norities and Rs. 85.76 millionincurred on providing finan-cial assistance to their 21885persons.

A break-up issued byMinistry of Religious Affairsand Interfaith Harmony onSunday revealed that during2010-2011, 14,556 personsfrom minorities were pro-vided financial assistance ofRs. 61 million, in 2011-2012the authorities provided Rs.21.39 million to 4,491 personsand during 2012-2013, Rs.3.37 million were provided to2,838 persons as financialassistance.

The other initiative takenwas award of scholarshipsfor minority students underwhich 3761 students were

facilitated through scholar-ships of Rs 26.73 million inthree years.

Moreover, the Ministryand Evacuee Trust PropertyBoard (ETPB) have alsoadopted numerous measuresfor protection and mainte-nance of worship places ofminorities in the country.

The major initiative wasestablishment of SecurityWing wherein presently 600permanent personnel havebeen deployed on all reli-gious/worship places allover the country for main-taining the internal security.Generators at GurdawaraDera Sahib, Lahore,Gurdawara Panja Sahib,Hassanabdal and GurdawaraJanam Asthan, NankanaSahib have also been in-stalled while installation ofsecurity system atGurdawara Dera Sahib,Lahore, Gurdawara PanjaSahib, Hassanabdal andGurdawara Janam Asthan,Nankana including CCTV

cameras, luggage scanners,metal detectors, walk-through gates are being un-dertaken.

Similarly, close coordina-tion with respective DCOsand DPOs was being en-sured to have fool-proof se-curity arrangements for theShrines. Furthermore, the fa-cilities are also provided asper requirements to police ofrespective districts for en-hancing security like con-crete barriers, barbed wires,tentage items and sand bags.Solar System has been in-stalled at Gurdawara PanjaSahib, Hassanabdal to avoidload-shedding.

Moreover, the ETP Boardallocated sufficient funds inits budget every year for re-pair and maintenance of mi-norities holy shrines(Gurdawaras and Mandirs).The Board spent Rs. 24 mil-lion on Mandirs and Rs.720million on Gurdawaras to ex-ecute different schemes dur-ing last five years.—APP

FAISALABAD—As many as 12policemen have been bookedon charge of absence fromtheir duty points duringAshura Muharram-ul-Haram.A spokesman of the policedepartment told here that CityPolice Officer (CPO) Dr HaidarAshraf had deputed heavypolice contingents at varioussensitive and other spots inthe district to ensure the fool-proof security arrangementsfor Ashura Muharram-ul-Haram. But 12 policemen re-mained absent from their dutypoints during Ashura days.

Among these policemeninclude Sub Inspector (SI)Naseer Hussain, AsisstantSub Inspector (ASI)Muhammad Ali, constablesMuhammad Akram,Muhammad Khan, QamarAbbas, Asad Zaheer, ShahidAli, Basharat, MuhammadAmeer Khan, Abdul Ghafoor,Muhammad Ali and RustamAli.

Taking serious notice oftheir absence from duty, theCPO ordered for registration

of a case against them. There-fore, Kotwali police registereda case vide FIR No.492/13under section 155-C of PoliceOrder 2002 and started inves-tigation, the spokesmanadded. 645 challaned over pil-lion riding City traffic policehave challaned 645 motorcy-clists on charges of pillionriding during Ashura days.

A spokesman of the po-lice department told here thatthe administration had im-posed a ban on pillion ridingduring Ashura days but someelements violated the ban.

He said, on violation ofpillion riding ban, the city traf-fic police conducted challansof 645 motorcyclists and im-posed a total fine of Rs 129,000on them besides impounding175 vehicles and registeringcases against 51 people. CPOorders for open courts: CityPolice Officer (CPO) Dr HaidarAshraf has ordered the policeofficers to hold open courtsafter Muharram-ul-Haraam intheir respective jurisdic-tion.—APP

Case registered against12 absentee policemen

Police still cluelessabout abducted

ANP leaderQUETTA—The Quetta citypolice have still remainedclueless even after the pas-sage of 24 days since theAwami National Party(ANP) central leader ArbabAbdul Zahir Kasi was ab-ducted from the provincialcapital.

Some unknown personshad abducted Arbab AbdulZahir Kasi on October 23from Patel Road here andthe police had made sometal l claims of recoveringhim soon, but to no availunti l this t ime, whichspeaks volume on their in-eff iciency and incompe-tence in meeting the chal-lenges, relatives said.

The police claimed tohave recovered the videoof the car and motorbikeused in the abduction. Thechief minister ofBalochistan taking noticeof the incident had visitedthe house of the abductedKasi and assured of his re-covery soon.

But even then the in-vest igation into the casehas made no headway, asthe police gave a blanklook on query by the me-dia.

Abducted Kasi familymembers and his partycom-rades are gett ing allthe more worried about hislife with every passing dayand they have remindedthe Chief Minister to fulfillhis promise and ensureearly recovery of MrKasi.—INP

Polio drive tocommencefrom today

FAISALABAD—A three-dayanti polio drive will com-mence in the district fromMonday (November 18). Aspokesman of the healthdepartment told APP hereon Sunday that 1.188 mil-lion children up to an ageof five years would be ad-ministrated polio vaccinewhich would remain con-tinue up to November 20.

He said 2,755 teams, in-cluding 2,240 mobile, 370static and 145 transit teams,had been consti tuted togive polio drops to chil-dren. He said 458 area in-charges and 289 unioncouncil monitoring officerswere also designated tosupervise and monitor theanti polio drive so that 100percent target to anti polioround could be accom-plished.

Larkana: All arrange-ments have been finalisedfor the NationalImmunisat ion Campaignagainst Polio, to be con-ducted from Noverber 18 to20.

More than 316850 chil-dren of Larkana distr ictupto five years of age willbe administered Oral PolioVaccine (OPV) during thethree-day Campaign tosave them from the crip-pling disease of Polio.

This was stated by theExecutive District Officer(Health Services) LarkanaDr Khalilullah Shaikh hereon Sunday.—APP

BANNU: Activists of PPP burning the effigy of US President during protest against theUS drones attacks and NATO supply.

Kuwait to ease visa policySIALKOT—Federal Minister for Sci-ence and Technology Zahid Hamid hassaid that Kuwait will soon ease its visapolicy for overseas Pakistanis, besidesmaking investment in Neelam JhelumHydro Power Project through its dif-ferent Kuwaiti companies to drag Paki-stan out of energy crisis. Talking tothe media at his native city Pasrur, hesaid that Kuwaiti Prime Minister SheikhJabar Al-Mubarak Hamid Al-Sabah’s

recent visit to Pakistan as successful which would be helpfulin strengthening mutual ties between Pakistan and Ku-wait. He said that visa relaxation by Kuwait for Pakistanipeople would be helpful in sending Pakistani people toKuwait for work as well, saying that both Pakistan andKuwait had been enjoying cordial relations. The Ministersaid that Kuwait never left alone Pakistan in time of trialand Pakistan had ever recognized the solemnity, integrity,and independence of Kuwait at every international forum.Zahid Hamid said that Pakistan had become a big countryof exporting the Halal meat to the world, as it had beenincluded in the list of 42 countries exporting the HalalFoods globally, due to effective and positive economicalpolicies of the PML-N government. MPA Munawar AliGill, Prof. Shehzad Ahmed Butt (Chairman Planning andDevelopment Committee Pasrur), AC Pasrur Touqeer IlyasCheema and local PML-N leaders Javaid Iqbal Ghuman,Khawaja Saeed Butt and Ch. Ilyas Ali Jathol were alsopresent on the occasion.—APP

Joint efforts must to promote harmonyHYDERABAD—Sindh Minister for Infor-mation and Local Government SharjeelInam Memon, expressing sorrow overthe Rawalpindi tragedy, stressed theneed for joint efforts to pro-mote peaceand harmony. He was talking to journal-ists at the Karachi Press Club (KPC)where he attended Haleem party organ-ised by KUJ (Dastoor). KPC PresidentImtiaz Khan Faran, KUJ’s (Dastoor) of-ficer- bearers and a large number of jour-

nalists were pre-sent, said a handout issued here. TheMinister said that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shahhas contacted all the Ulema and requested them to ap-pealto the people to remain peaceful. He said that thereshould not be any political point scoring on Rawalpinditragedy. He said that the Punjab Gov-ernment had takenstrict security measures, and it is taking further steps forthe maintenance of peace. Sharjeel Memon said that thePakistan Peoples Party stands by the Federal Governmentand provincial governments, including Punjab for main-taining peace in the country. Sharjeel Memon said theSindh Government has not finalised the date for local gov-ernment elections as yet. The elec-tion date will be an-nounced on November 19 after consultation with the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan, he added. Answering to aquestion, he said that police and Rangers’ targeted actionagainst criminals and terrorists is continuing in Karachi,including Lyari, adding that peace will be restored in thecity soon. He expressed his optimism that with the help ofpeaceful and law-abiding people, all conspiracies wouldbe foiled and harmony between people of various schoolsof thought will be maintained at all cost. The Minister wasinformed by officials of the Local Government that in viewof government directives, all necessary steps have beenundertaken to improve state of cleanliness and provideadequate facilities to mourners in cities and towns acrossthe province on Muharram 9 and 10.—APP

Rawalpindi carnage dangerousBashir Ahmad Rehmani

HAFIZABAD—Addressing a meeting ofDistrict Interfaith Harmony Committee,Hafizabad, MPA Assadullh has declaredthat Rawalpindi carnage is very harmfuland dangerous for law and order situa-tion of the country and called uponUlema and religious leaders not only topromote religious brother-hood, toler-ance and harmony among the peoplebut also remain aware of internal andexternal miscreants and anti-state ele-

ments to avoid any eventuality like Rawalpindi carnage inthe future. District Officer Coordination, Hafizabd, NaumanHafeez, Shabzada Wa-seem-ul-Hassan Naqvi, AllamaNasrulah Bhatti, Allama Ahmad Saeed Awan, Rana AsgharChisti, Zafar Iqbal Ratoo, Abdul Jabbar Ansar, AbdulHameed and Christian representative Master Joseph at-tended the meeting. MPA said that de-spite ideal securityarrangements of the Punjab government Rawalpindi carnagewas occurred due to instant provoking situation and bothgroups could be thwarted this carnage with tolerance andharmony. He said that on the directions of Chief Ministerof the Punjab, Mian Shabaz Sharif, emergency securityarrangements are being reviewed with the consultationsof Ulema be-longs to different schools of thought so thatideal atmosphere of brotherhood, tolerance and harmonycould be maintained in the district. District Officer Coordi-nation, Hafizabad, Nouman Hafeez informed the meetingthat comprehensive strategy has been evolved to calmdown sentiments of the people about Rawalpindi carnageand to counter its’ expected reaction. All the Ulema presentin the meeting assured that they would continue their tra-ditional role for maintain law and order situation in thedistrict to promote harmony, brotherhood and tolerance.

Suchu Parks Model project on the cardLA H O R E—The Punjab governmenthere Sunday decided to adopt SuchuIndustrial Parks Model to establish‘Knowledge Shops’ in various univer-sities of the province with an objec-tive to link knowledge and economywith latest marketing technology formaximum benefit from academia. Thiswas disclosed in a meeting of CabinetCommittee to review roadmap for sus-tainable economy by benefitting from

China. Punjab Education Minister Rana MashhoodAhmed Khan chaired the meeting, while Provincial In-dustries Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Shafiq, FoodMinister Bilal Yasin, eminent educationist Prof ZafarIqbal Qureshi, SME Consultant Siddiq-ur-Rehman andother senior officers from relevant departments attendedthe meeting. On this occasion, Rana Mashhood empha-sized the need for promoting academia-industry link-age, adding that Punjab government would adopt SIPMprogramme as a pilot project and knowledge shopswould be established in Punjab University, UET Lahoreand FAST Lahore in the first phase. Both the privateand public sector universities had a pivotal role in eco-nomic activism through promotion of applied researchin their respective institutions, he said, asserting that aknowledge shop having back linkage with Chinese in-dustry had already been established in Sundar Indus-trial Estate Lahore with Rs 80 million funding from HigherEducation Commission. The establishment of knowl-edge shops in three major universities of Lahore wouldsupplement Punjab government’s efforts to boost na-tional economy being the largest populated province,he maintained.—APP

MULTAN: Army personnel stand high alert to avoid any untoward situation after city administration called the armyin the wake of a clash between two religious groups.

HYDERABAD: Street lights are on during day time at flyover bridge at Latifabad despitethe fact that the country was facing severe shortage of electricity.

Cold, dry weather likelyISLAMABAD—The PakistanMeteorological Department(PMD) on Sunday forecastcold and dry weather for mostparts of the country duringnext few days. The weatherwill remain dry and cold inmost parts of Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Sindh,Balochistan, Kashmir andGilgit Baltistan during next 24hours.

The lowest minimum tem-peratures recorded duringthe last 24 hours were Skardu-9 C, Astor -6 C, Gupis -4 C,and Hunza -3 C. The mini-mum temperatures recordedduring the last 24 hours wereIslamabad 4 C, Lahore 7 C,Karachi 17 C, Peshawar 6 C,Quetta 5 C, Murree 2 C,Muzaffarabad 6 C, Gilgit -02C, Faisalabad 8 C, Multan 13C and Hyderabad 18 C. TheMultan met office has fore-cast dry weather for the cityand its suburbs during thenext 24 hours.

On Sunday, maximum andminimum temperature wasrecorded as 27.5 degreecelsius and 13 degree centi-grade, respectively.

The humidity was re-corded as 88 percent at 8 amand 49 percent 5 pm. Theprovincial capital Quetta andoutskirts received rain onSunday while the Met Officesources forecast more rain in

the city on Sunday. The rainlashed the city on Saturdaynight and Sunday andturned the weather morecold, forcing people to re-main indoor. The vehiculartraffic was thin on city arter-ies and sale of warm clothes,dry fruits and soap increased.

The highest tempera-tures in the city on Sundayis likely between 15 to 17Centigrade and the lowesttemperature between 3 to 5Centigrade. Doctors said thatthe rain would be helpful inovercoming respiratory dis-eases.—APP

Four die in different incidents

Three kids burntalive in Jamshoro

JAMSHORO—Three minorkids were burnt alive whentheir house in a village nearJanshoro caught fire. Accord-ing to details, five-year-oldAbdul Rashid, six-year-oldShabbir Ahmad and three-year-old Sakina were burntalive when their house in SherMuhammad Khoso villagenear Jamshoro caught fire.According to uncle of de-ceased kids, the fire spreadfrom a stove which was leftburning in the house.

Faisalabad: Four peoplewere killed whereas two oth-ers sustained injuries in vari-ous incidents here on Sun-day. A spokesman of the po-lice department told here onSunday that MuhammadAfzal of Sabzazar Colony wasgunned down by his friendImran. Separately, Kamranstabbed Ramzan of Al-AzizCotton Colony to death toavenge an old enmity.

Meanwhile, two motorcy-clists collided with each otheron Lahore Road. As a result,Dilmeer of Chak No 645-GBreceived serious injuries anddied whereas Zafar and Wariswere shifted to a hospital. Simi-larly, Qamar Abbas of ChakNo 52-GB was killed in an ac-cident. Police took the bodiesinto custody and started in-

vestigation.Bahawalpur: One person

was killed when he was hit byFarid Express while crossingrailway track some 12 kilome-ters from here in the wee hoursof Sunday. According to po-lice sources, the deceasedcould not be identified. Hisbody was shifted by the po-lice to hospital for medico-le-gal formalities.

Quetta: One person waskilled and three have been in-jured in a road mishap in MachBolan area, on Saturday. Lev-ies sources said that a speedycar fell down from the bridgeof Quetta-Sibi road, resultingin killing of one person andinjuring of three others. Theyadded that the injured includea woman. The dead and in-jured were shifted to hospitalwhere condition of the injuredwas out of danger.

Peshawar: A woman waskilled and four others, includ-ing a man, were injured in agrenade attack on a house inKashkoal Banda of Swabi dis-trict on Sunday. According topolice, the hand grenade waslobbed at the house by un-known attackers in the weehours. The culprits managedto escape. The injured wererushed to the District Head-quarters Hospital.—Agencies

RAFIULLAH MANDOKHAIL

ZHOB—Nawjawanan ActionCommittee (NAC) peaceful‘Long March on Foot’ to fed-eral capital started on Sun-day, from district Zhob. Theyare demanding of the federalgovernment to provide natu-ral gas to the area and to con-nect Zhob grid station toChashma barrage powerplant.

A complete shutter-downstrike observed and a proces-sion was taken out whichculminated at Shams ud DinShaheed chowk before kick-ing off the Long March,where hundreds of peoplefrom different walks of lifeparticipated.

Addressing on the occa-

sion President NACAbdullah Jan Kakar, SheikhAshraf Mandokhail,Muhammad Shah Lawoon,Abdullah Jan Amezai, FazalAmin Mandokhail,Zafarullah Mardanzai,Naqeeb Babar, Meer HassanSherani, Najib Hariphal, Presi-dent Trade union Haji JumaRahim and social leaderMalik Asmatullah Miankhailsaid that Balochistan was themajor gas-producing prov-ince of the country but thesecond largest city Zhob wasstill deprived of the facilitydespite passage of six de-cades.

They went on to saythat, 18 hours long electric-ity load-shedding beingcarried out by the QESCO

on daily basis had devas-tated standing crops in thearea. The authorities con-cerned using delaying tac-tics to put the issue underthe carpet. They alsolashed out the elected rep-resentatives, adding theyhad completely ignoredtheir constituency.

They demanded of thefederal government to con-struct 500 Megawatt highpower transmission line fromChashma to Zhob and pro-vide natural gas to the area.Hundreds of youngstersstated marching towards thefederal capital Islamabad forthe acceptance of their de-mands. They were caringbanner and chanting slogansin favour of their demands.

Gas, uninterrupted power supply to Zhob

NAC youth holds longmarch to federal capital

ISLAMABAD—One hundredand sixty seven departmentsof 31 ministries in the coun-try are working without theirheads and governing bodiesand people appointed on adhock basis were runningthese departments.

According to reports,these 167 departments arerunning under the supervi-sion of people who havebeen appointed on ad hockbasis which lacks the abilityof final decision making, as aresult several most important

matters of these departmentsare being delayed.

Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB), NEPRA, Civil AviationAuthority, Higher EducationCommission (HEC), Securi-ties and Exchange Commis-sion, National Housing Au-thority, PTV, election Com-mission of Pakistan andDrugs regularity Authorityare top of the lists in suchdepartments.

Sources say that 167 divi-sions of important ministriesare working without managing

directors, chairmen and gov-erning bodies. In this list de-partments working under cabi-net division include Intellectualproperty organi-zation, IPRPakistan and National Ar-chives of Pakistan. UnderCapital Development Author-ity Division (CDA) division,Private Education InstitutionRegularity Author-ity, NationalInstitute for Science & Tech-nical education and depart-ment of Directorate on Work-ers Education are being run-ning without heads.—Online

167 govt departmentsworking without heads

MULTAN—Following a tensesituation that emanated afterSaturday’s face-off betweenthe two groups, the law andorder situation in the city wasfast returning to normalcy,but the contingents of Pakarmy still remained deployedin some sensitive areas onSunday here.

The district administra-tion had called the army, asviolence and clashes startedbetween the two groups Sat-urday morning at Bohar Gate,which soon spread over toGhanta Ghar, Galgasht,Hussain Agahi, Dolat Gateand several other areas in thecity, leaving over 20 personsincluding the 3 policemen in-jured. Some unknown per-sons had also torched sev-eral shops, houses and otherproperties.

Talking to media, MultanDCO, Zahid Saleem Gondalsaid that there was no curfewimposed in the city and sec-

tion 144 only has been clampedprohibiting gathering of 5 ormore persons at a place, exhib-iting arms and aerialfiring.

Multan RPO Amin toldthe media that the entire citywas now peaceful and thecitizens could movie aboutanywhere in the city.

The security of mosquesand Imambagahs has beenbeefed up. Earlier, talking tomedia at DCO office, Provin-cial minister ChaudryWaheed Arain said that a 10-member probe committeecomprising of Ulema-e-karamand peace committee hasbeen constituted on whosefindings the miscreantsw o u l dbe taken to task. On the otherhand, Majlis WahdatulMuslemeen leader YasifNadeem Hashmi demanded ajudicial enquiry into the inci-dents of violence and arsonin the city.—INP

Multan law, ordersituation improving

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor, En-gineer Shaukatullah has saidthat FATA Medical College’sestablishment project at Kharin Bajaur Agency would belaunched with an estimatedcost of Rs 3.5 billion addingits basic documentation pro-cess has already been com-pleted. Addressing tribal el-ders during his day long visitto the Agency Headquarter,Khar on Sunday, he observedthat to make it a fully func-tional and one of the best in-stitutions of the country, suf-ficient infrastructural facilitieswith required standard wouldbe made available.

The Governor accompa-nied by MNA Shahabuddin

Khan, Senator, HidayatullahKhan, Additional Chief Sec-retary, FATA, ArbabMuhammad Arif, Commis-sioner, Malakand Divi-sion,Muhammad Afsar Khan andPolitical Agent, Syed AbdulJabbar Shah earlier inspectedthe newly established andwell furnished campus of theCollege of Technology andalso reviewed pace ofprogress on the ongoing an-nual development programmeas well as working of the na-tion building departments inthe agency. The Governorappreciated the good ges-tures of the tribal elders fortheir presence in large num-ber and re-minded them to bealso conscious of their re-

sponsibilities regarding use ofthe facilities being made avail-able by the government.

“We have to protect anddevelop our soil in all re-spects and the people shouldthemselves efficiently proveownership by focusing uponproper utilization of the avail-able resources; the agriculturein particular”, he said. Mean-while during his inspectionvisit to the newly establishedcampus of the College ofTechnology at Khar, the Gov-ernor described it a great gifton part of Pak Army for itsvaluable contribution in mak-ing its materialization pos-sible.

The institution, would in-deed play a useful and highly

FATA MC’s Project to be completedat cost of Rs 3.5b: Governor

productive role in socio-eco-nomic uplift of the respectivepeople, he added. Later on theGovernor had a detail reviewof the pace of progress on theongoing annual developmentprogramme as well as work-ing of the line departmentsand desired that not only effi-cient utilization of resourcesshould be ensured but thereshould be no compromise onquality of work as well.

“87% of the releases madeso far under different headsin various sectors have beenachieved and except a coupleof schemes, work on the en-tire annual developmentprogramme is fully progress-ing”, the governor was in-formed.—APP

ChemistryConferencefrom today

FAISALABAD—The Threeday first international Ap-plied Chemistry Conferencewill commence at Govt Col-lege University Faisalabad(GCUF) here from Monday,November 18. A spokesmanof the university told here onSunday that Applied Chem-istry and Biochemistry De-partment of the GCUF willsponsor the conferencewhich would be inauguratedat 3 pm on the hockey groundof the university.

GCUF Vice ChancellorProfessor Dr Zakir Hussainwill preside over the inaugu-ral session whereas chemis-try experts from Pakistan aswell as abroad will participatein the conference and presenttheir research papers, headded.

***The Faisalabad Electric

Supply Company (FESCO)has issued shutdownprogramme for necessary re-pair, maintenance and expan-sion of electricity lines. Ac-cording to the programme is-sued by the company, powersupply from Sohal,Mansoorwala, Thikriwalaand Al-Khaliq feeders ema-nating from 132-KVThikriwala grid station willremain suspended from 8:30am to 2:30 pm while CrescentMill, Eidgah Road, Faisal, TajColony, New Taj Colony, Is-lam Nagar, Sahil andRasheed Abad feeders origi-nating from 132-KV Agricul-ture University Faisalabadwill observe shutdown from8 am to 2 pm on Monday (No-vember 18).—APP

ZHOB: Participants of Nawjawanan Aaction Committee protesting during a long marchfor Sui gas for their city.

The tragedy of 10th

of MuharramTHE tragedy of 10th of Muharram became more tragic this

year with clashes and tension and what a shame, in thename of sectarianism, 20 people were killed and more than

a hundred injured across the country in addition to massive lossesto property. All this happened in our beloved country, which wascreated in the name of Islam to enable the people to pursue theirdaily activities and perform religious rituals without any fear orpressure.

Serious notice has been taken at the highest level about theunfortunate incident in Rawalpindi in which about nine peoplelost their lives and more than 60 injured in addition to burning ofmarkets in centre of the city causing losses of tens of millions ofrupees. The Prime Minister telephoned Chief Minister Punjabfrom Colombo to seek details of the tragic incident and mea-sures being taken to defuse the tension. Chief Minister MianShahbaz Sharif has also ordered a judicial inquiry and told a highlevel meeting that the government would ensure that the culpritsresponsible for the clash are brought to justice. In the meantimeone thing is certain that it was a pre-planned conspiracy and per-petrators of the crime succeeded due to complete failure of thedistrict administration. We believe in the theory of conspiracybecause as trouble began, a group of miscreants snatched gunsfrom police personnel deployed in the area for security and openedfire. That led to panic and unknown people set a portion of thecloth market in Raja Bazar on fire. As a result situation soon gotout of hand and the army had to be called in to control it. Thearea where the incident took place is traditionally a hot bed oftension and the administration must have anticipated that any-thing could happen there. The question that arises is why timingof the procession and the Juma prayers at the Mosque in FawaraChowk were not taken into consideration. The administrationcould have persuaded organisers of the Muharram procession todelay the passage of mourners from the area till Juma prayerswere over. We are certain that if the managements of the proces-sion and the mosque were approached to sort out timing, somesolution could have been found but it appears that nobody paidany attention to it. Only routine meetings were held with theUlema requesting them to cooperate in maintenance of law andorder but during the peak of an event, things also go out of theirhands and miscreants tasked to create chaos and violence startdictating the charged crowds of people. We are sure that theintelligence agencies might have warned the authorities thatcertain elements could sabotage the event to create law andorder situation at congested and narrow lanes of Raja Bazar.This exactly happened at Fawara Chowk and the situation wentout of control of the law enforcement agencies, as they wereoutnumbered by processionists who were in thousands. Thepossibility of involvement of foreign funded and foreign trainedelements in the incident also can not be ruled out as we wit-nessed in Karachi and Quetta on previous occasions. The en-emy knew that attention of the authorities would be devoted tomaintain law and order in sensitive cities like Karachi,Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore, it chose the soft target and suc-ceeded in its nefarious designs. We would expect a deeper in-quiry from all angles into the whole incident and stress thatparticular attention be given to hate mongers as they are alsoenemies of Pakistan and playing in the hands of inimical forces.While the imposition of curfew enabled the authorities to avoidfurther violence and bloodshed but it has caused immense dif-ficulties to the people at large and is no solution to the problem.The authorities at the highest level will have to take Ulema of allschools of thoughts into confidence urging them to use their in-fluence and keep the tempers down. In order to avoid such trag-edies in future, it would also be appropriate to discuss and changethe routes of Muharram processions in all major cities which isnecessary in view of increasing population and commercial ac-tivities in the old areas. It is not necessary that the processionspass through routes of the past and once this was done, half ofthe security problems would be resolved and occurrence that wewitnessed in Rawalpindi would be avoided.

What an emotionalfarewell to Tendulkar

THE bright star of cricket Sachin Tendulkar was given an emotional farewell by the cricket crazy Indians and fans world

over as he bade farewell to the game after 24 years. His emo-tional farewell speech moved a rapt audience in the Mumbai sta-dium, across India and around the world to tears. Tendulkar re-vealed the special human beneath the legendary cricketer andmade adoring fans fall in love with him all over again.

It touched every heart as he walked off the ground with tearsin his eyes as his glittering 24-year-career came to an end onSaturday at his home ground of Wankhede Stadium. Tendulkarembraced teammates, who tried to give him a guard of honouron his way out, but the most prolific batsman in internationalcricket history went quickly into the pavilion wiping away tears.Tendulkar had become a unifying force for India and whereverhe played, people thronged to the stadium to watch him in ac-tion. Tendulkar’s extraordinary talent only partly explains hisextraordinary stature in his homeland. He established the recordof 200 tests in addition to the number of centuries and runs and itwould perhaps take decades to break the record of this geniusplayer. It was practice as much as his prodigious raw ability thatbrought the diminutive teenager rapid fame. Crucially, despitestardom, wealth and success, Tendulkar remained humble, pro-fessional and grounded. This, as well as his aggressive domina-tion of international star bowlers, was key to his popularity.Tendulkar’s achievements leave a message not only for sports-men but professionals in other fields also that hard work andcommitment leads to excellence and rewards and sky is the limit.

Rawalpindi ravaged why?

Ask no questionsand hear no lies.

The statewe need

ROBBING Peter to pay Peter”: David Cameron’s takeon the state at the lord

mayor’s banquet last week repre-sents a marked shift from his pre-vious declaration that he “didn’tcome into politics to make cuts”and a return to the rhetoric of theright: the state represents a loom-ing threat that takes people’s taxes,churns them through a faceless bu-reaucracy and delivers them backminus a significant cut.

This means regulating power;redistribution is just one part of thatactivity. And it means resolving thedilemmas about collective actionthat would otherwise beset society:providing public goods such as de-fence and education and insuringus from risk through national healthand pension systems; but also tak-ing the risks no one else can andfacilitating the collaboration that isfundamental to progress. Withoutthe state, there would not only beno NHS but no cancer preventiondrugs; no defence but no spacetravel; no postal service but nointernet. A fundamental flaw at theheart of the Reagan-Thatcher con-sensus was its belief in a zero sumrelationship between the state, themarketplace and civil society. Leftand right both believed in a clearfrontier between state and market:what divided them was where thatboundary should be drawn. EvenClinton and Blair’s third way en-shrined the principle that while thestate may set the rules of the mar-ket, it should not mess with the“black box” of what goes on insidefirms. Hence the pursuit of a train-ing policy too divorced from thelabour market, based on state in-vestment in skills, combined withbribes for companies to train, whichresulted in a labour market with aswath of low-skill, low-paid jobs.

The financial crisis offers us anopportunity to revisit some of theseassumptions: the bailout of thebanks significantly increased thesize of the state, but there was neverany doubt that this expansionshould have happened. It has givenour leaders permission to look atother failing markets, such as en-ergy and rail, from which the statehas retreated. Far from improvingoutcomes for consumers, badlystructured privatisations have cre-ated new problems that politiciansare struggling to address. The realtest of whether we have learned thelessons of the crisis, however, willbe whether our politics can embeda new relationship between thestate and business. Take innovation.There are serious issues that get inthe way: for example, the privatesector alone does not have the ca-pacity to place big bets on innova-tions that may be risky but whichprovide huge pay-offs to society,such as touchscreen technology.And the failure by the market toprovide financing for small busi-ness means that potentially high-growth enterprises suffer.

What is really needed, how-ever, are targets focused on the user,not Whitehall; professionals whorespond to consumer feedback;transparency that gives users of ser-vices the information to make in-formed choices; and regulators andcommissioners who start fromwhat people want, not from thestructure of the market. The politi-cal response to the financial crisishas been disappointing: a retreat tocomfort-blanket responses. SoCameron promised in his speech toslash red tape and cut corporationtax; to sack NHS managers andfurther weaken the role of middle-tier education commissioners. Yetit is not red tape that holds busi-ness innovation back and makingpublic services more user-focusedis a challenge whose solution re-quires better management, not anabsence of management. It soundslike the government’s main re-sponse to the Francis inquiry intothe deficiencies of the Mid-StaffsNHS trust, due to be published thisweek, will be to put bad doctors inthe dock. Tough accountabilitywhen things go so badly wrong isone thing. But while few publicservices will ever sink to the nadirof Mid-Staffs, many will be aver-age, unresponsive... just not goodenough. What is the government’sanswer to that? We are governedneither by angels nor demons. Thevalue of the state cannot be mea-sured in percentage points or bal-ance sheets. To govern is to wieldpower: understanding how thatpower can be channelled for thegood of citizens is what politics isfundamentally about. By reducingthe debate to one of size and num-bers, our politicians do us a dis-service. — The Observer

MEDIA WATCH

RAWALPINDI has alwaysbeen relatively a peacefulcity. For it to be engulfed in

flames and fire is a very bad news.The last time Rawalpindi caught theworld attention was when BenazirBhutto was assassinated here inDec 2007.The resulting violencethen had spiraled out of control andspread to the length and breadth ofentire country. Six years down theroad Rawalpindi once again wit-nesses criminals and thugs resort-ing to violence and murdering andransacking the property of the in-nocent people at will. The questionhere is not who is to be blamed butwhy was the state not prepared toput up a strong defence?

One may agree that the likeli-hood of a clash between the tworival factions taking a very ugly anddangerous form has been preventedbut at what cost? Only after thearmy has been called in and onceagain asked to perform a role toaugment the domestic security. Hadthe army been not called in it wouldhave been extremely difficult forthe local administration to keep theviolence localized and contained.

Overall the State response tothe event reveals that there still con-tinue to exist problems with thedomestic security apparatus in ourmajor cities which when challengedby demanding circumstances failsto rise to the occasion and protectthe life and property of the citizens.That the army eventually becomesthe final arbitrator and the trouble-shooter only goes to show the con-

tinued failure ofthe state to investin improving thedomestic secu-rity. Controllingthe violence bycalling in the

army is not the success but failureof any civilian government. The in-ability of the both the PPP and nowPML(N) governments to at leastdevelop and deploy efficient and ef-fective security system in the majorcities of the country only speaks ofthe priority that the political elitegive to safeguarding the life andproperty of the citizenry. On bal-ance the political system that theyhead and lead has failed to place req-uisite state security deterrents to dis-courage extremists from resorting toviolence in the major cities likeRawalpindi and therefore they con-tinue to challenge without any fearthe writ of the state.

We say that joining the ‘Ameri-can war’ has brought the war to ourcities and towns. We even say thatAmericans have contributed to thespread of terrorism in this country.But why don’t we debate the natureof the American aid and the purposefor which it is given to us. In the 1950and 60’s we benefited from ‘US de-velopment aid’ which was focused onhelping the people of this country andsupporting our economic growth. Theaid in the 1980’s was meant tostrengthen our military and the pre-mier intelligence institution. TheAmerican aid that flows in now isprimarily meant to help us andAmerica to counter terrorism.

We hate the Americans and wetalk about breaking the begging bowlbut where has all the aid the Ameri-cans poured in our bowl gone? Hasit been used to help the people?There is a large sum of money that

US has given to Pakistan to counterterrorism. During the period 2002-2010 United States has given Paki-stan almost $19 billion. Part of thismoney comes in the form ofCSF(Coalition Support Fund) which

is being provided to fight terrorism.Nearly two-thirds (60% of themoney) that US gives to Pakistan ispart of CSF. According to RobertGates the former US secretary ofdefence the CSF funds have beenused to support the Pakistan Armyoperations and keep the Pakistanisoldiers deployed in fata in the field.

If the primary purpose of theUS aid given to Pakistan has beento counter terrorism why then arewe still being terrorized in our ma-

Colombo round of Commonwealth Summit

THE 22nd CommonwealthHeads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)-2013 was

formally inaugurated by Prince ofWales, Prince Charles on Novem-ber 15, 2013, at the Nelum PokunaMahinda Rajapaksa Theatre, Co-lombo. The Colombo round of theCHOGM was attended by all headsof the states or governments exceptIndia, Canada and Mauritius.Queen Elizabeth-II could not attendthe meeting, owing to her poorhealth, thus represented by PrinceCharles. The most unflustered andalluring conduct of the Common-wealth meeting in Sri Lanka; aSouth Asian country was criticizedby just few countries including aSouth Asian country and the incum-bent Premier of former Colonialpower. President MahindaRajapaksa, who assumed the officeof the Commonwealth Chairman-in-Office for next two years, re-jected the criticism and questionedthose tried to lecture him on theissue of human rights, during theprolonged insurgency, hardly couldbrought under control in 2009.

With the overarching theme of“Growth and Equity: InclusiveDevelopment,” the heads of del-egations, highlighted the commonproblems, facing the 53 nationsCommonwealth forum, and inter-governmental organization. PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif also high-lighted the challenges, facing thePakistan since last few years. Heidentified that, Pakistan is cur-rently facing the severe problemslike; “a weak economy‚ poverty‚acute energy shortages‚ successive

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—Proverb

jor cities? Why have the civiliangovernments failed to raise thelevel of our domestic security atleast in our major cities? If thearmy is being compensated by theAmericans for the military expen-ditures it is carrying out in fatawhy is the government then shortof money to build an efficient stateresponse against those who terror-ize its citizenry in the cities? If theCSF fund is meant to reimburseto Pakistan military the cost in-curred in fighting terrorism thenwhere is the army plan to counterterrorism in the cities? These aresome pertinent questions, answer-ing which the government maystumble upon finding a ‘ Fixingthose who terrorize us in the cit-ies’ formula.

Incidents like the one inRawalpindi shows how vast re-sources available to the State arebeing wasted. If a State cannot putup a laudable and worthy defencewhen terrorized in a city that housesits military headquarters and neigh-bors its capital where diplomatsnest then surely the money beingspent to counter terror is not beingwell spent. Terror is now visitingmore regularly our cities and ourhomes. The question that the worldasks today is not who is terrorizingus but why we are allowing our-selves to be terrorized?

The security and stability of ourcountry demands that we reviewour strategic priorities. Why all theaid money is being spent to fightterror in fata? Why can’t we spendsome money to develop and im-prove the domestic security in ourmajor cities?— The writer, a retired Lt Col, is aresearch scholar doing PhD incivil-military relations fromKarachi University.

natural calamities and rising mili-tancy.” Since the identification ofthese problems is a proof that, Gov-ernment is cognizant of them,therefore, there is a need of sustain-able effort to overcome them effi-ciently. Premier Sharif showed theresolve of his Government for ad-dressing these challenges ‘urgentlyand simultaneously’.

Premier Nawaz Sharif hadmeeting with many internationalleaders on the sidelines of the Sum-mit, prominent being; President ofSri Lanka, Prime Minister of Aus-tralia, New Zealand, Premier ofMalta and many other heads of del-egates. Premier Sharif suggestedestablishment of a CommonwealthYouth Council. He also donated$100,000 for the Youth Council. Itis worth mentioning that, out of to-tal 2.245 billion populations ofCommonwealth countries, theyouth constitutes 1.20 billion.Quality education, sustainedgrowth and job opportunities forthe youth of Commonwealth coun-tries is a gigantic challenge, facingthese developing nations. Estab-lished in 1949, this 53 members’forum represents countries andpeople from all six inhabited con-tinents of the world.

Though, good governance,democracy, role of civil society,protection of environment, respectfor human rights, freedom of ex-pression and rule of law, constitutesthe Charter of Commonwealth, but,it is not a binding on the memberstates to comply those. UnlikeUNO, its charter cannot be en-forced on its member states. In-dia, Canada and Prime MinisterDavid Cameron criticized the host,Sri Lanka for violation of the hu-man rights during the counter-in-surgency phase, where Tamil rebels

under their militant organization,LTTE ruined the state structure. Itis worth mentioning that, Sri Lankaremained in the grip of LTTE insur-gency from 1980s to 2009. Thishandful population of Sri Lanka,mainly Indian origin, played havocwith the state and society of thecountry for a period of three decades.

Sri Lanka has majority Sinha-lese population of over 73% withTamils forming less than 10% oftotal population. Under the provo-cation of its neighbouring country,India, these Tamil, some of whommoved from India to Sri Lanka, dur-ing colonial period wanted to havetheir own independent homeland. In1987, during the peak days of LTTEinsurgency, India even deployed its45000 peace keeping forces in SriLanka, which indeed was a double-game. Soon the Sri Lankan Gov-ernment and people at large under-stood the hoax and forced the with-drawal of Indian forces from thisisland country. Through the helpof India and some other global ac-tors, the LTTE continued its anti-state activities, until it was crushedin 2009. The credit of this counterinsurgency strategy also goes to thebrave armed forces of Sri Lankaand particularly the current Presi-dent, who finally brought an end tothis bloody domestic infighting forover thirty years.

Surely, Pakistan helped SriLankan Government throughout,during this counter insurgency op-erations. This help was in term offinances, training of it armed forcesand provision of requisite weaponsand equipment. The motive of Paki-stani help was helping its SouthAsian neighbor in the restoration ofpeace and stability in a countrywhich was made to bleed by anotherneighbor. The Government and the

people of Sri Lanka are thanked thePrime Minister of Pakistan.

The Indian criticism about thehuman rights violation by SriLankan Government and its Pre-mier remaining away from the fo-rum in a neighboring state has beenquestioned by many independentscholars and analysts. Scholars likeAnkit Panda, has criticized the In-dian Government and declared thisIndian decision of remaining awayfrom CHOMG-2013, as strategicblunder. This act of Indian Premierand criticism of British Prime Min-ister David Cameron has seriouslyannoyed President MahindaRajapaksa. Indeed, Sri LankanGovernment has done what it wasnecessary to maintain its indepen-dence, national integrity and sov-ereignty of that country. Indiashould have been worried that itsefforts of disintegration of SriLanka have gone waste, but notover the collateral damages, whichis a natural outcome of any suchcounter insurgency drive.

Since the Indian Governmenthas tried to lecture the Sri Lankaon the issue of human rights, whowill lecture India for its unparallelrecord of human rights violationin the Indian occupied state ofJammu and Kashmir. During theUN mandated freedom struggle ofKashmiris starting from 1990, In-dian state forces have killed over100,000 innocent Kashmiris.These Indian brutalities are uniqueand unmatched, perpetrated byworld’s biggest democracy and so-called secular state. Should notDavid Cameron, Commonwealthforum and civilized internationalsociety raise voices against tyrantSouth Asian giant?—The writer is Islamabad-basedIR analyst.

Muhammad Ali EhsanEmail: muhammadaliehsan1@hotmail.com

Dr Muhammad Khan Email: drmk_edu@yahoo.com

Incidents likethe one in

Rawalpindi showshow vast resources

available to theState are being

wasted. If a Statecannot put up a

laudable andworthy defence

when terrorized ina city that houses

its militaryheadquarters and

neighbors itscapital where

diplomats nest thensurely the money

being spent tocounter terror is

not beingwell spent.

Voice of the People

Intoleranceleads to violence

IFTIKHAR MIRZA

The carnage and invaluable loss ofhuman life during Ashura proces-sions in Rawalpindi, due to intoler-ance of different sects, has com-pletely exposed clerics giving longsermons of peace. Riots erupted af-ter clashes among different armedgroups causing heavy loss of life andproperty We have become uncom-promising, extremist and crazywhen it comes to religion, makingmockery of ourselves.

Turning the youth studying inseminaries violent, nonconformist,and dissentient. They go astray, andtheir nexus with terrorists outfits isan open secret. Government hav-ing a soft corner for these terror-ists has paved way for influx of ter-rorism on roads and streets ofRawalpindi. The most peaceful &calm city has been turned into abattlefield in hours, making indig-enous terrorism available every-where. How easily we can chal-lenge government, despite presenceof heavy police contingents!

We have always succumbed toraw terrorism and have never for-mulated any cohesive and coherentstrategy to come over such crises,when it suddenly crops up. Our rul-ers have enough time to visit capi-tals of different countries to discussinternational issues. What to speakof domestic violence and terrorism?These are trivial issues perhaps.—Via email

Civil-militaryrelations?

MUKHTAR AHMED BUTT

Shocking and damaging statementby JUI (F) chief and equally irre-sponsible statement made by JI Amirhas created shock waves through-out the country and has opened aPandora box that involves the mostrespected custodians of our bordersand our national pride - PakistanArmy. These statements at a timewhen Pakistan nation has lost over50000 sons of the soil in protectingthe nation from terrorism deserveda pat, not rebukes.

PM Mian Nawaz Sharif wastedno time in visiting GHQ to repairthe damage and assuring that thepeople of Pakistan are proud of theirsacrifices and they are held in highesteem and added that PakistanArmy’s soldiers and officers haveset a historic example by sacrific-ing their lives for defending themotherland. Those who have foughtfor Pakistan, living and martyred,have sacrificed their today for en-suring a better tomorrow for our fu-ture generations and all of them areour benefactors. Pakistan Army’sreaction is justified and natural andit cannot be termed as interventionin politics. No one has the right totalk against the Army ‘Shuhadas’who are fighting for the country.

What happened to JI inBangladesh or what is happening inEgypt simply reflects that when re-ligious parties cross the red line, theymust face the consequences. JI hasdone great harm to the country bymaking a blunder and it would havebeen more appropriate for the JIShura to condemn their Amir’s ac-tion and extend unconditional apol-ogy but their endorsement is furthershocking. Holding discussion onsuch delicate issues is not in the in-terest of this country and therefore,political leadership and media mustnot develop sadistic attitude againsttheir own Armed Forces and mustlearn how to own their ArmedForces. Efforts must be made to cre-ate a balanced and mature civil mili-tary relationship and acrimony needsto be curbed and healthy atmosphereshould prevail.

JI and JUI (F) chiefs have cre-ated serious problem for the coun-try and Pakistan may face more dif-ficulties to convince the world ei-ther we are with Taliban or againstthem. To overcome this problemgovernment must appoint a Com-

Violent media & video gamesAIZA EHSAN

Role of parents play vital role in grooming the personality of their children. Parents are responsiblefor the acts of their child because child itself has no knowing of what is right and wrong. So behavior

of child is directly dependent on the behavior of his/her parent. Usually, Parents allow their child towatch television whole day without even monitoring what they are watching on television, internet andwhile playing game. Number of researchers agreed that watching television for four hours or more thanfour hours, make your child put less effort at school, have poorer reading skills, play less with friends,and have fewer hobbies, activities and is overweight. According to American Psychological Association,there are three major effects of watching violence in the media on children; they may become less sensi-tive to the pain and suffering of others, more fearful of the world around them and more likely to behavein aggressive or hurtful ways toward others. Critics of video games argue that watching violent contenton television is less harmful as compared to physically playing out violence. Violent video games couldcause the child to think as violently all the time, as he thinks to play that game. Parents who allow theirchild to play violent video games in early age when he/she has no sense of how to do out in the worldcould cause huge damage to his innocent mind. Playing violent video games increases aggressive thoughts,feelings, and behaviors, increases arousal, and decreases helping behavior. Research has proved thatvariety of physical and mental health problems for children and adolescents associated with watchingviolence content on media such as aggressive and violent behavior, bullying, and desensitization to vio-lence, fear, depression, nightmares and sleep disturbances.—Islamabad

Rampant human rights abuses in Burma

I am a Shan ethnic woman fromBurma who has been working forhuman rights and democracy in my

homeland for decades. I had the op-portunity this year to spend time at theNational Endowment for Democracyas a visiting fellow, researching therole of women in Burma’s democratictransition. During my time in Wash-ington, I remained in touch with mycolleagues in Burma and areas alongthe border to keep track of the changesthat were taking place. But instead ofhearing excitement in their voicesabout democratic openings, I heardgrowing fear.

While there has been much changein Burma over the past two years, theglowing talk one hears in Washingtonis at odds with the reality on theground. Shan state, where I am from,and other ethnic areas continue to ex-perience intense political and armedconflicts. Across the country, humanrights abuses are rampant, perpetratedwith impunity. Activists and even or-dinary farmers and villagers have beenarrested, beaten and jailed for engag-ing in non-violent efforts to challengemega-projects such as mining, gas

pipelines and dams. Police routinelycrack down on peaceful demonstratorswith excessive force.

Yet these same authorities are un-willing to stop violence that genuinelythreatens Burma’s future. Their fail-ure to intervene in attacks on Burma’sminority Muslims — including inLashio, a beautiful city in the heartof northern Shan state — has beenespecially shocking. Even though Ihave seen terrible violence in myhomeland, I never expected to seeanti-Muslim attacks of the kind thattook place in May. Friends, relativesand colleagues talk about an atmo-sphere of pervasive fear. They specu-late about the “strangers” and “out-siders” they saw among the mob,people who disappeared after the vio-lence was over. They express dreadthat such a riot could happen again,anywhere and at anytime. They la-ment a climate of extremism unlikeanything in their memories.

I am Buddhist, and I learned fromearliest childhood that hate is a nega-tive, destructive emotion that weshould strive to eliminate through thespread of metta, or “loving-kind-ness,” and compassion for others. Itherefore cannot understand how the969 Movement, which serves to fos-ter division and hatred, can be de-

Views From Abroad

fended in the name of “Buddhism.”Yet instead of rejecting the views ofmonks such as U Wirathu , the fiery969 Movement leader, the Burmesegovernment and political elite havesupported and cultivated him.

As I studied the recent violencemore closely, I began seeing a patternto attacks across Burma. First, awoman or girl is brutally attacked orraped by an individual of a differentfaith. This incident triggers broaderviolence by organized “Buddhist”mobs that attack local Muslims: torch-ing their homes, businesses, schoolsand places of worship; beating and kill-ing civilians, including burning themalive; and destroying the social fabricof communities. Security forces standby as violence rages. While there areoften efforts to investigate the initialincident, the instigators and perpetra-tors of violence remain at large, liter-ally getting away with murder.

Burma’s leaders, who ignoreUnited Nations resolutions with im-punity, have increased their engage-ment with the outside world, makingan all-out effort through media, di-plomacy and peace missions to pol-ish the country’s image. It seems tobe working: Former military officialshave been welcomed to Western capi-tals and treated as honoured guests

Nang Lao Liang Won

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

Who is a Shaheed?

THE remarks of two leaders ofIslamic parties of our countryare moving the hearts and

minds of the people. First, leader ofthe JUI (F) Maulana Fazalur Rehmancalled former leader of the TTP killedin a US drone attack a shaheed, whilestating that everybody killed by theAmericans even if it was a dog wouldbe called ‘shaheed’ by him. TheAmeer of the Jamaat-i-Islami Paki-stan Syed Munawar Hassan has saidthat he considers Hakimullah Mehsudas a martyr while those soldiers ofthe Pakistani army who were killedin the war on terror are not Shaheeds.In the wake of these pronouncementswe are now greeted by statements ofthe PPP, MQM and the ANP – repre-sentatives of ‘secular’ parties- that theopposite is true and condemned state-ments of the religious leaders anddemand their apologies.

This debate is clear sign of a deepand fundamental split in our societythat has been persisting for a long timeif not from the beginning of Pakistan’sexistence: What role should Islam playin our State? While Pakistan is namedan Islamic Republic and its constitu-tion says that sovereignty belongs to

Almighty God and our laws aresupposed to be in accordancewith Islam. Yet we are ruled bya Government and a Parliamentthe members of which are notcomplying to Articles 62 and 63of the Constitution which defines

moral standards the compliance withwhich only makes them eligible andmany of them are even unable to saysimple prayers or quotes from theQur’an. This kind of hypocrisy hasbeen persisting over the years andsince Pakistan’s involvement in Jihadin Afghanistan in the 1980 it becameworse. At that time when usurper Gen.Ziaul Haq on his own jumped to be-come a US conduit to facilitate Islamicjihadis loaded with US dollars andweapons to fight against USSR forcesthat were invited by the then lawfulAfghan govt to help maintain law &order in the country.

I fully remember when in the sec-ond week of January 1980 an ExtraOrdinary Session of OIC Foreign Min-isters was held in Islamabad to endorsethis American game plan to instigateIslamic Jihadis to settle scores withUSSR. Iran had raised serious objec-tions about the convening of OIC For-eign Ministers meeting, as a membercountry has invited USSR to their as-sistance. But where was the same OICwhen the US imposed sanctions onanother OIC member country – Iran?My this point of view was also pub-lished in the daily Mashriq of Lahore

on 10th of January 1980 suggesting toour rulers not to get involved in thisElephant’s feud. Twenty years lateranother usurper Gen Musharraf sacri-ficed our vital national interest to per-petuate in power and legitimize hisown rule by joining another war in Af-ghanistan and the developments un-folding after 9/11. It not only sharp-ened the tools of war but have resultedin breaking back of our nation. With-out any rhyme or reason the burden ofthis war has exceeded $ 100 billionand the sword of financial default islooming over our head without any re-course from those whose pawn wehave become on this chess board andthat is now threatening to break up thecountry and society.

The gallantry of our jawans andofficers in wars has been overwhelm-ingly supported by the nation in 1948,1965 and 1971 when the entire nationstood behind the armed forces like awall of steel. The motto of the Paki-stani army is based on Eman, Taqwaand Jihad-e-Fisabililla and its rainingis designed to fighting in the name ofAllah to protect Pakistan, if he hiskilled as a result of war he is a martyrof Islam and if he returns alive he isconsidered Ghazi. History is full ofindividual and collective gallantry ofour jawans and officers but it is unfor-tunate that the people of Pakistanhardly know about the Padam PariMahaz in Gilgit-Baltistan in 1948, theretreating attack on our International

with seemingly little regard forwhether they have blood on theirhands. Burmese authorities’ dis-missal of an outrageous Aug. 19 mobattack on Tomás Ojea Quintana, theUnited Nations’ special human rightsrapporteur in Burma, should havedrawn condemnation from the inter-national community rather than si-lence — or, worse, sympathy for the“challenges” authorities face.

Human rights violators havegotten away with crimes in Burmafor decades. The Burmese peoplehad hope for justice as long as theinternational community docu-mented and condemned theirabuses. As the UN General Assem-bly writes its annual resolutionagainst Burma, it must make seri-ous recommendations that accu-rately reflect the realities in my coun-try. If countries that long supportedour struggle for human rights anddemocracy instead decide that the sta-tus quo is “good enough” and turn ablind eye to ongoing abuses, ourdream of justice may never be part ofBurma’s future. The writer Won wasa 2013 Reagan Fascell democracyfellow at the International Forum forDemocracy of the National Endow-ment for Democracy.— Courtesy: The Washington Post

border in Lahore in 1965 and the un-fortunate situation that developed dur-ing ZA Bhutto’s rule when for the firsttime forces were mobilized on our Af-ghan border on both sides, withoutthinking that this time both countries’armies will be fighting in the nameof Allah with high spirit of defend-ing its territory. So it is time for usthat we do little brain storming on ournational requirements and evolveconsensus on the methods of GoodGovernance, absence of which is theroot cause of all the ills and cursesthat afflict Pakistan.

Blunder after blunder has beencommitted including this recent onein which I consider both parties havetransgressed their limits without con-sidering the serious consequencesarising in a situation when the coun-try is already confronted with a sta-tus quo system that is eroding the veryfoundations of Pakistan. We still standby our candid opinion that Pakistanhas to reconsider its involvement inthe proxy war and has to be more se-rious in handling the affairs of ourstatecraft, which has become fragiledue to prevailing adhocracy and me-diocrity compromising our vital na-tional interest. Machiavellianadventurism is destroying the nationalfabric, which we have to protect with-out further dividing the nation forpetty personal gains.—The writer is Karachi-based se-nior columnist.

IN the serial I watch nowadayson my iPad, I watch with delighta deep friendship forming be-

tween a grandfather who is slowlygoing down with Alzheimer’s dis-ease and his eight year old grand-daughter. One can see the joy inboth their eyes as their love for eachother grows stronger, and I don’thave to look far for the reason, both

make the other feel important:There was a woman from New

York who, on her 80th birthday, de-cided to prepare her last will andtestament. She went to her rabbi tomake two final requests. First, sheinsisted on cremation. “What isyour second request?” the rabbiasked. “I want my ashes scatteredover the local mall.”

“Why a mall?” he asked sur-prised. “Then I’ll be sure that mydaughters visit me twice a week.” shesaid tearfully. I know we can’t en-sure others will show they care in theway we expect, though we all wantto know that people do care. Maybe

it’s about being assured that we arenot alone in this world. For that rea-son, we are drawn to those who makeus feel as if we matter.

That grandfather in the serialdoes that for the little girl, He makesher feel important to him. When theyget together you know he has trulymissed her. Some days he slips herlittle gifts – like chewing gum, ahomemade cookie or money, “so youcan buy yourself a treat.”He whis-pers with a grin. And he made theeffort to be present at the importanttimes in her life.

Remember: “People will forgetwhat you said People will forget what

Making people feel special..!

mission to decide the fate of JI andJUI (F) before it gets too late.—Karachi

Inoperativeonline banking

ASHFAQ SHARIF

I want to drawn the attention of SBP(State Bank of Pakistan), regardingwhen ONLINE banking is not work-ing then it should be determined asto whose fault is there for which theclients are suffering.

When a banker says that theonline service is not available or isnot working, then it means that thebranch Manager is responsible for thefault and inconvenience to the cus-tomers. The Bank perhaps does notrealize the problem of the customerif they are going to some other branchfor drawing or depositing cash for hisown safety or convenience.

What is the solution? How a cus-tomer can complain to State Bank ofPakistan when a banker says thatonline is not working?

I suggest that an inspecting of-ficer from State Bank of Pakistanshould visit randomly, minimum 7 to12 branches of any bank to determinewhether its ONLINE is working ornot. I expect State Bank can resolvethe issues faced by customers fromtime to time.—Karachi

Cricket indire strait

SARA RIZVI

Ian Botham, the legendary all rounderof England, who took 383 wicketsand scored 14 centuries in test cricket,once said about Pakistan Cricket team“ It is a bunch of scuffling wives”. Afierce battle ensued after his remarksbut the performance of Pakistancricket team was same as it is now.Presently, we have left no stoneunturned to fetch shameful defeatsone after other without any remorseor penitence. Serious politics is be-ing played inside the team by differ-ent players and below average per-formance is an endeavor to let downone another.

These selfish players are playingpranks on each other. Eventually, theyhave proverbially slaughtered thecow for a pound of flesh. What Morehas no more role in cricket team. Onecan see how lonely and marooned hesits during matches. Not to speak ofmillions of foreign exchange spent onhim and cricketers who otherwise donot qualify for an average job in Pa-kistan. To bring the team out of thispredicament, complete overhauling isrequired. Mohsin Hassan Khan, in myopinion, is the best of available lot ofcoaches.

All the oldies and failed newcom-ers should be sent packing immedi-ately, India, Australia, and Englandhave tried this technique. No one wasindispensable for them. We shouldnurture new players under the guid-ance of ex-cricketers like Inzimam ulHaq, and Mohammad Yousaf andestablish a team that may not bringshame and ignominy to home.—Karachi

Foreign contentin dramas

SARAH DAUD

Pakistani drama industry has done agreat effort in spreading a positiveimage of Pakistan around the world.Some years back Pakistani film BOLmade a huge success and showed thatPakistan film industry has got im-mense talent. Sarmad Khoosat’s se-rial Humsafar attained widespreadpopularity. It raised the standard ofPakistani Dramas. It wasn’t onlywatched nationally but it had a hugeinternational audience. Many otherdramas like Meri Zaat Zara-e-Benishaan, Zindagi Gulzar Hai, andMata-e-Jan etc. have attained greatpopularity.

With the introduction of Turkishdramas our local drama industry issuffering a lot. Turkish dramas are a

Ali Ashraf KhanEmail:balti@super.net.pk

you did But people will never for-get how you made them feel.” Iwonder what would happen if I setout to make everyone in my pres-ence feel as the girl felt round hergrandpa – like they matter. Howwould that change the way I treatothers and what difference might itmake to them?

Who doesn’t want to know thatwe notice them and value them?And who might respond to us bet-ter when they feel that they matter?It probably cannot be overstated –it matters...that you make peoplefeel special..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Environmental challenges in Pakistan

WE should definitely like tosee Pakistan without anyenvironmental issue but

currently there are lots of challenges.Now the Government must showscores of commitment to guaranteethat as we grow, we also ensure thatthe quality of life of our citizens ismade better and we, as a country,might be called an environmentfriendly country. Let us have a lookat some of our burning environmen-tal issues.

Yes the most important Environ-mental challenge is Pollution fromfactories “We need a cooperativecompliance from the factories. Nowthere’s a lot of pressure on factoriesfrom law of the land and from buyerbecause buyers are not buying fromthe parties who are not meeting en-vironmental criteria. Environment isgoing to be a non-tariff barrier for allour exports and sooner the industries

realize this the better it would be forthem. There is also pressure from thelenders; almost all the banks of theworld say that the industries that don’tmeet the environmental criteria willnot be given money. We must try toenforce the law of land and for thatwe have to start a voluntary self-monitoring program because it is notpossible to send inspectors to everyindustry in the country. The industryowners should take the responsibil-ity and provide data in this regard torelevant government agencies”

Government is hardly using ITtechnology in this regard. There mustbe software programs developed forregistering industrial data on environ-ment. This program should be linkedto every industry with the Internet andit may be given access to a central-ized database in Islamabad. Otherthan that, the government can also beadvised that all the ministries shouldstart adopting similar IT programsand train their staff for e-governance.

I think the second most impor-tant challenge is forest trees are be-ing cut in northern areas for timber

as well as fuel wood. People must notcut trees and use wood as fuel. Thereare various biodiversities, climatechange and other environmental is-sues which are linked with forestry.In 1992 Government announced apolicy against forest cutting and thecutting of forest was banned but thatpolicy doesn’t seem to have beensuccessful. The government shouldannounce the strategy to make surethat investment comes in and treesare treated as the environmentalcommodity not just as the item offuel. There is no doubt that plantingtrees help in maintaining good en-vironment. Trees in urban centershelp clean environment and reducepollution. We do plant lots of treesevery year but the problem is thenurturing of the plants. Trees must beconsidered as an essential item of en-vironmental service. Even in our re-ligion, trees have been given enor-mous importance.

Carbon monoxide emission lev-els in different cities have consider-ably exceeded WHO’s recommendedlevels. In my opinion the other chal-

lenge is pollution (noise pollution -air pollution) in the cities. Besidesother dilemmas, we have the prob-lems of transport and industrial pol-lution because we are economicallygrowing very fast and all these is-sues arise from that. To tackle thesituation we need to develop a‘Clean Air Program’. Major part ofthis program should include convert-ing public transport on to CNG andremoving 2 strokes engines like rick-shaws & converting them to 4strokes engines etc.

Running of old vehicles on roadalso one of the causes of air pollu-tion as these cars are not discardedand thus add their share in increas-ing the pollution. In Pakistan, lowincome groups keep old vehicles thathave no accurate standard of pollu-tion controlling.

Youngsters, both male/female,should do Masters in environmentalstudies as this field has a great fu-ture in Pakistan. It is a new field andis going to grow without any doubt.— The writer is a freelancecolumnist.

threat to local media industry. Thesedramas are a mixture of differentideas and culture. These dramas arealso affecting the economy. Morepreference is given to the foreign tal-ent and that has taken away some bestsingers, actors and directors who arenow serving other countries. Peopleare getting more attracted towardsthose stories and our own industry isleft behind.

Even high quality dramas areproduced locally but our audienceshave shown interest towards foreignserials. They regard their story asmore captivating and interesting.They get influenced by their culture,their values, dressing sense etc. ourown talent is left behind and foreignactors are praised. Turkish dramas aregiven high ratings, which is not goodfor our industry. Foreign contentposes a threat to local efforts, muchlike the effect Bollywood had onLollywood. But it is human nature tobe excited about new things; Paki-stani dramas will still have a sizeableaudience. It’s the duty of PEMRA tolook deep into this issue to save thelocal drama industry from foreigninvasion.—Lahore

Low gaspressureALI HASSAN

I would like to draw attention of theSSGCL management to look into theproblem of low Gas pressure to do-mestic customers of Jacobabad city,facing for last couple of weeks. Al-most all localities of city are facingdifficulties in preparing meals atbreakfast and lunch times. we useLPG as an alternative but it is quiteexpensive and not affordable. It hasbecome an uphill task to even cookmeals because of low gas pressure.

Lot of complaints were Regis-tered at zonal office SSGCLJacobabad but no response as yet.We domestic customers demand im-mediate steps for smooth provisionof Gas in all localities of the city.Suspension in gas supplies couldresult in unfortunate incident of fireat homes.—Jacobabad

Dengue spreadIQRA FAROOQUI

There are various issues prevailing inour society such as increase in costof living, load shedding, target kill-ing and several others but one issuethat is increasing day by day is Den-gue fever. Almost every other day risein number of dengue patients is ob-served in hospitals. News reports re-garding this infection can also be seenin almost every news bulletin of ra-dio and television and in newspapersas well. It is not just Karachi that isbeing affected by such infection butthis fever has made its roots in almostevery city of Pakistan.

In order to eradicate this issuefrom our society, Government needsto take special precautionary mea-sures such as fumigating every nookand corner of our city; special aware-ness and cleanliness programs shouldbe run on media. Whereas citizensshould also take safety measures suchas using mosquito repellents, wear-ing full sleeved shirts, long pants,keeping unscreened windows anddoors closed and avoid keeping stand-ing water in homes. It is an issue forwhich combined efforts from the gov-ernment as well as from citizensneeds to be taken in order to avoidbeing bitten by the mosquitoes.—Via email

Rehmani Ashfaq Emiail:mediamanfrompk@gmail.com

ABDEL AZIZ ALUWAISHEG

EARLIER this month,at an electricity conference attended by

senior Saudi officials, a re-porter from Al-Watan dailyasked the minister of waterand electricity about thequality of electricity ser-vices.

To answer his question,the minister made this chal-lenge: Could anyone remem-ber the last time electricitywas out? Without waitingfor an answer, he said thatthey would certainly find it

difficult to remember.Al-Watan took up the

challenge and asked readersto answer the question. First,it asked some residents of thecapital city, Riyadh, if theycould remember the last timeelectricity supply to theirneighborhoods was inter-rupted. Over 64 percent saidthey could. The results werenot surprising, as electricityoutages are quite common inthe capital, especially duringthe summer.

The responses on thenewspaper’s website weremore resounding, because it

was not limited to the capital.A whopping 92 percent of therespondents said they re-membered blackouts. Somesaid outages still took placein their areas, twice a daysometimes!

The minister pointed toan important factor in assess-ing performance of this sec-tor: Demand for electricity in-creases at an annual rate of 8percent. The Saudi ElectricityCompany (SEC) chief putsfuture rates at 9 percent.Those growth rates mean thatSaudi Arabia has to add onaverage an annual capacity of

3,500 Megawatts of electric-ity!

The high growth rates areclearly much higher than theinternational average, andmore than the rate of eco-nomic growth in Saudi Arabia.It is over three times the rateof population growth. Assuch, such expansion wouldstrain the ability of any com-pany to cope.

But does Saudi Arabianeed to add so much capac-ity? Are we not better off re-ducing demand for electricityinstead of increasing it?

During 2012, Saudi Arabia

consumed daily about 4.3 bar-rels of oil and equivalents.Energy production accountsfor about half of that total.About 80 percent of energyis consumed by residentialconsumers, mostly for air con-ditioning.

The low price of electric-ity has something to do withthe steady increase in de-mand. On average, a kilo-watt/hour costs about fivecents, on average, in SaudiArabia. The averagemonthly bill for 65 percentof consumers is less thanSR100 ($27). By comparison,

a KWH costs over 12 centsin the US, 18 cents in Aus-tralia, 33 cents in Germanyand 34 cents in Brazil. Inother words, a KWH costsmore than twice as much inthe US, four times in Aus-tralia, and six times in Ger-many and Brazil, as it doesin Saudi Arabia.

Low prices of electricitydo not encourage energyconservation on the part ofthe consumers, and ad-versely affect the financialhealth of the electricity pro-ducers.

To make up for that po-

Effective energy saving plan is need of the hour

Israel’s other silent warBELEN FERNANDEZ

A recent Jerusalem Post op-ed on “South Africa’s obsession with Israel” resurrects complaints regarding theRussell Tribunal on Palestine, which during its 2011

session in Cape Town concluded that “Israel’s rule over thePalestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amountsto a single integrated regime of apartheid.”

The op-ed author reasons that, “[i]f… supporters of thetribunal were honestly concerned with the lives of Palestin-ians, why then was there not a single word mentioned aboutthe abuse of Palestinians by Arab regimes such as Syria, Leba-non, Jordan and Kuwait, who keep them stateless, refuse themaccess to higher education and do not allow them the vote?”

This critique conveniently ignores the fact that Palestin-ian statelessness is a direct result of the establishment of Is-rael, whose initial crime of ethnic cleansing granted Arab re-gimes the opportunity to engage in such abuses. Further-more, none of these regimes is portrayed by the US politicalclass and media as a highly ethical democracy meritingmultibillion-dollar annual donations.

As it turns out, South Africa’s alleged “obsession” withIsrael extends beyond the treatment of Palestinians. In 2012, aresolution was passed “abhor[ring] the recent Israeli state-sponsored xenophobic attacks and deportation of Africans”.One could argue that, because Africans are also treated likeexcrement in other places around the globe, Israel is beingunfairly singled out for criticism.

However, this debate is generally averted thanks to therelative silence surrounding the plight of Africans in Israel.Among the diminutive ranks of the vocal minority is Israeli-Canadian journalist David Sheen, who reports relentlessly onthe hazards to African existence in the Jewish state.

These range from verbal and physical abuse - including,for example, the pelting of African women and children withbottles, cassette players, and other impromptu projectiles andthe firebombing of homes and daycares - to long-term incar-ceration in inhumane conditions without trial, to the mass se-cret forcible repatriation of Sudanese asylum seekers in viola-tion of the UN convention on the status of refugees. WhenIsrael rounds up and deports African refugees, it makes amockery of the millions of Jews who died during World War IIbecause no one would grant them shelter.

In a May blog post for +972 Magazine, Sheen marked theone-year anniversary of the “anti-African pogrom” in Tel Aviv,when “a thousand Jewish Israelis ran rampant through thestreets… smashing and looting African-operated businessesand physically assaulting any dark-skinned person they cameacross.” The rioters were encouraged by the likes of lawmakerMiri Regev, who announced that African migrants are “a can-cer in the body” of the nation - terminology generally reservedfor Palestinians.

As Sheen notes, Regev “apologised after the violence,not to African asylum seekers, but to Israeli cancer victims, forcomparing them to Africans - [and] was appointed by [PMBenjamin] Netanyahu to head the Knesset Interior Commit-tee, the very body that decides the fate of those asylum seek-ers”. Sheen’s fundraising campaign to write a book on theplight of African refugees in Israel has been met with wide-spread vitriol, including from Amir Mizroch, editor-in-chief ofIsrael Hayom English.

In an email, Sheen shared his response to Mizroch’s alle-gation that writing a book about racism against Africans inIsrael without also discussing racism against Africans in Arabcountries constitutes racism against Israelis: “When I mockedhis logic, asking him if it was necessary, in order to put thereports in their proper context, for me to also be locked up in anunderground jail and tortured - sadly, the fate of many of theseAfrican refugees before they arrive in Israel - Mizroch tweeted:“now THAT I’d pay to see ;)”.

It’s worth reiterating that the mistreatment of Africans innon-Israeli locales often occurs in the countries from whichthey have fled and to which Israel has no qualms about ille-gally deporting them. Netanyahu has pledged to rid the coun-try of its “tens of thousands of infiltrators” from Africa. Thedeployment of the term “infiltrators” to denote Africans ingeneral, who are caricaturised as animalistic criminals respon-sible for many of Israel’s ills, is disturbingly reminiscent ofother historical periods involving the scapegoating of ethnicminorities.

Deputy Defence Minister Danny Danon’s suggestion thatthe presence of Africans in Israel constitutes the establish-ment of “an enemy state of infiltrators” fails to account for thefact that the award for setting up adversarial countries onother people’s land goes to Israel itself. Although the funda-mental reason for restricting African access to Israel is to pre-vent a tipping of the demographic balance in favour of non-Jews, the circumstances facing Ethiopian Jewish immigrantsindicate that religion only gets you so far. Lest the target na-tional colour scheme be irreparably disrupted as well, Israelhas been known to forcibly inject Ethiopian females with con-traceptives.

Other partial exceptions to the goal of monochrome Juda-ism do, however, exist. Sheen noted in May: “Since Israel tookover responsibility for reviewing refugee status requests fromUNHCR, out of the 60,000 non-Jewish African asylum seekersliving in Israel, Israel has approved only one single solitaryapplication. And that one African woman that the State ofIsrael… has deigned to bequeath refugee status upon - is analbino”. As for the hyper-paranoid ruckus concerning the al-legedly inherent criminality of Africans, such allegations don’tjibe with the statistics. As Sheen has documented, criminalbehaviour is more prevalent among “veteran Israelis” thanasylum seekers, but, while instances in which Africans ac-cused of raping Jews produce calls for the indiscriminate de-portation of refugees, no such hysteria is generated when therapist is Jewish.

The hypocrisy is rendered even more acute by Israel’sinstitutionalised rape culture, of which Sheen provides afew contemporary examples: “The Jerusalem chief of po-lice was indicted for sex crimes involving nine female of-ficers. An Israeli mayor charged with ‘repeatedly raping afemale subordinate over a lengthy period of time was givenno jail time, and [was] instead invited to attend an eventorganised by the municipality marking ‘InternationalWomen’s Day’.”

A new video produced by Sheen and bestselling authorMax Blumenthal features footage of Israeli defenders of Afri-can rights being serenaded by other members of the publicwith shouts like “May you be raped!” Originally solicited andthen rejected by the New York Times, the video also includesan interview with former Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari,who declares: “We are waging a war against the phenomenonof assimilation.”

—Courtesy Aljazeera

The Dutch version of Santa Claus and his blackface sidekicks arrive by steamboat in Hoorn, Netherlands.

tential loss for Saudi electric-ity producers, they have in-sisted on getting fuel at re-duced prices, way below in-ternational levels. As a result,the price the Saudi energyproducers pay for crude oil isonly four percent of its inter-national price! Similarly theypay for diesel and heavy fueloil just three percent of theirinternational prices, and fornatural gas six percent of itsinternational price.

At these prices, there islittle incentive for consumersto economize and reducewaste. Similarly the cheap

cost of fuel does not encour-age utility producers to switchto more efficient productionprocesses. In sum, weneed to think in terms of re-ducing energy consumption,instead of complying with theever-increasing demand forenergy, which has gone outof bounds, whether in termsof per capita usage or in rela-tion to economic growthrates. Our rate of consump-tion has surpassed most othercountries’ and is seriouslythreatening the future eco-nomic health of Saudi Arabia.

—Courtesy Arabnews

MITROVICA—NATO sol-diers and EU police securedpolling stations in theflashpoint Kosovo town ofMitrovica for a re-run elec-tion central to a Western-sponsored plan to end thecountry’s ethnic partition.

Masked men lobbing teargas halted voting in Mitrovicatwo weeks ago, during a mu-nicipal election held for thefirst time in a northern, mainlySerb pocket of majority-Alba-nian Kosovo.

Ethnic Serb participationis central to an EU-brokeredaccord between Serbia andKosovo aimed at integratingthe mainly Serb north withthe rest of Kosovo, morethan five years since theformer Serbian province de-clared independence.

The EU wants to see apeaceful and orderly votethat will elect a local council

NATO, EU secure pollingstations in Kosovo

that will operate underKosovo law, an outcome thatlocal Serbs say will result indiscrimination.

For years the north hasfunctioned in a legal limbo,part of Kosovo but de factounder the control of Serbiain defiance of Kosovo’sNATO and European Unionoverseers.

Serbia in April agreed torecognize Kosovo’s legalauthority over the north inexchange for accession talkswith the EU, expected to be-gin in January.

Some 23,000 people, thevast majority of them Serbs,are eligible to vote on Sun-day in the re-run, at three lo-cations on the mainly Serbnorthern side of Mitrovica, aformer mining town splitlargely between Serbs andAlbanians since Kosovo’s1998-99 war.—Reuters

ABU DHABI—Syrian bankaccounts frozen abroad aregradually being freed up foruse to fund food purchases,the head of Syria’s GeneralForeign Trade Organisation(GFTO) told Reuters, withFrance being the most com-mitted to releasing themoney.

The European Union,United States and otherWestern countries have im-posed sanctions on Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad’sgovernment over his crack-down on the revolt in hiscountry, but these do notapply to food.

The Paris-based UnionDe Banques ArabesFrancaises (UBAF) has ap-proved the release of fundsfor purchases, Tarek alTaweel, Director General ofGFTO, said over the tele-phone.

“UBAF bank in Francehas been very coopera-tive,” Taweel said.

France in Septembercleared the use of frozenSyrian bank assets to fundthe export of food to thecountry as part of a Euro-pean Union system that al-lows such funds to be usedfor humanitarian ends.

UBAF was not immedi-ately available for commentwhen contacted throughphone and e-mail.

Syria’s GFTO has been

Syria: UBAF bank unlockingfrozen funds for food

trying in vain for severalmonths to buy sugar andrice in international tendersusing funds frozen abroad.One of the reasons cited bytraders was a failure to se-cure permission from gov-ernments to free the funds.

“The problem is not withus, the problem is that thetraders have to seek the ap-proval for unlocking the as-sets,” Taweel said.

GFTO is seeking 135,000tonnes of long or shortgrain white rice and 276,000tonnes of white sugar intwo separate tenders. Thedeadline for sugar offers isNovember 27, while that forrice is November 26.

GFTO has asked for thesame amounts of sugar andrice with the same condi-tions four times, and Taweelsaid he expected to face thesame issues that hamperedprevious tenders when thenew bids are reviewed at theend of the month.

“We have to ask that thetraders have the approvalto unlock funds alongsidetheir offer, otherwise wecannot do business,” hesaid.

“This is what is hinder-ing the process and theproblem still exists.”

Apart from requiringprior approval to unlock fro-zen assets, traders havealso said the low number of

offers was due to tenderconditions that do not re-flect the risk involved indoing business with a coun-try embroiled in civil war.

The requirement toplace a one million euro($1.4 million) bid bond waslisted as one of the tenderterms keeping traders away.

A bid bond is a form ofguarantee which tenderparticipants must give toensure they will deliver un-der the terms of their offer.

Taweel said the one mil-lion euro bid bond condi-tion would remain as longas some traders continuedto make offers based on it.

“We might considerchanging that term if it be-comes an issue but so fartraders have been willing tooffer under these condi-tions,” he said.

Despite difficulties inbuying food through gov-ernment tenders, somedeals struck throughmiddlemen outside of thetender process have se-cured food for the country.

The Syrian state grainagency Hoboob said in Oc-tober it concluded a deal toimport 500,000 tonnes ofwheat of which around150,000 tonnes had arrivedin Syria. That purchase wasdone outside the tenderprocess through a local Syr-ian firm.—Reuters

MALE—The brother of theMaldives’ former authoritar-ian ruler was sworn as thecountry’s new president, aday after his runoff victorycapped a messy election thatraised concerns that the tinyarchipelago nation’s fragilenew democracy was in jeop-ardy.

In a close runoff on Sat-urday, voters chose YaaminAbdul Gayoom, the brotherof former autocrat MaumoonAbdul Gayoom, who ruledthe Indian Ocean nation for30 years, over the Maldives’first democratically electedleader.

Gayoom received 51.4percent of the vote Saturday,according to the ElectionsCommission. MohamedNasheed, who led theMaldives’ struggle for de-mocracy and was electedpresident in the country’sfirst multiparty election in2008, had 48.6 percent.

Nasheed, who resignedlast year amid protests, was

Maldive’s Yaamin AbdulGayoom sworn in as President

the leading vote-getter in theNov. 9 first round, with 47percent to Gayoom’s 30 per-cent, but a runoff was re-quired because no candidategot 50 percent.

Gayoom improved on hisfirst-round performance bycourting supporters of tour-ist resort owner QasimIbrahim, who finished third inthe first round with 23 per-cent of the vote. Ibrahim drewhis support from conserva-tive Muslims who accusedNasheed of undermining Is-lam because of his friendlyrelations with Israel andWestern nations.

Addressing the nation af-ter being sworn in, Gayoomsaid his main priority wouldbe to “increase the love of thereligion and the nation” andbring back stability. He alsopromised economic policychanges that would give moreopportunities to youth, fish-ermen and farmers.

Nasheed was the clearpre-election favorite, but lost

his momentum amid long de-lays to complete the election.

He conceded the electionSaturday and said he wouldnot challenge the results.

“This is a very happy dayfor all of us. We now have anelected president,” he said.“We don’t want to go to thecourts.”

The Maldives had failedto elect a president in threeattempts since September,raising international con-cerns that the fledgling de-mocracy may slip back toauthoritarian rule.

Nasheed received 45 per-cent in a Sept. 7 election, butthe result was annulled bythe Supreme Court afterIbrahim complained that thevoters’ register containedmade up names and those ofdead people.

Last month, policestopped a second attempt atholding the election becauseall the candidates did not ac-cept a new voters’ list as thecourt had mandated.

The court intervenedagain to change the runoffelection date, which had beenset for the day after the Nov.9 vote. It also ordered incum-bent President MohamedWaheed Hassan to continuein office despite the officialend of his term on Nov. 11,purportedly to avoid a con-stitutional void because thecountry was past the legaldeadline to elect and seat anew president.

The U.S. Embassy in SriLanka congratulatedGayoom and said it lookedforward to working in part-nership with him.

The Maldives has seenmuch upheaval in the fiveyears since its first multipartyelection. There has been con-flict between the judiciary,Parliament and the presi-dency, which often worked indifferent directions. The ju-diciary and bureaucracywere often accused of beingloyal to Gayoom, the formerautocratic ruler.—AP

CABUNGAAN—Mobbed byhungry villagers, U.S. militaryhelicopters dropped desper-ately needed aid into remoteareas of the typhoon-ravagedcentral Philippines, as survi-vors of the disaster flocked toruined churches to pray fortheir uncertain future.

The Philippines is facingup to an enormous rebuildingtask from Typhoon Haiyan,which killed at least 3,974people and left 1,186 missing,with many isolated communi-ties yet to receive significantaid despite a massive interna-tional relief effort.

Philippine authorities andinternational aid agencies facea mounting humanitarian cri-sis, with the number of peopledisplaced by the catastropheestimated at 4 million, up from900,000 late last week.

President BenignoAquino, caught off guard bythe scale of the disaster andcriticized by some for thesometimes chaotic response,visited affected areas on Sun-day. Not for the first time, hesought to deflect blame forthe problems onto local au-thorities whose preparationshe said had fallen short.

In Guiuan, a hard-hitcoastal town in eastern Samar

Philippine relief effort

Hungry villagers mobUS aid choppers

province, he praised the citymayor for conducting aproper evacuation that hadlimited deaths to less than 100,saying that was a contrast toother towns.

“In other places, I prefernot to talk about it. As yourpresident, I am not allowed toget angry even if I am alreadyupset. I’ll just suffer throughit with an acidic stomach,” saidAquino. “Until I am satisfiedwith what I am seeing, I willstay here for a while.”

While aid packages havebegun to reach more remoteareas, much of it carried byhelicopters brought by theUSS George Washington air-craft carrier, the United Na-tions said people were stillgoing hungry in some moun-tainous provinces. It said in-formation about several prov-inces in the west of theVisayas region remained “lim-ited”, with 60 percent ofpeople in towns in the north-east part of Capiz provinceneeding food support. “I re-main concerned about thehealth and well-being of themillions of men, women andchildren who are still in des-perate need,” U.N. humanitar-ian chief Valerie Amos said ina statement.—Reuters

Libya’s capital goeson strike overmilitia attack

TRIPOLI—Residents of theLibyan capital launched ageneral strike over a militiaviolence that killed nearly 50people this weekend.

The streets of Tripoliwere deserted as the vastmajority of the city’s busi-nesses and schools wereclosed. Bakeries, pharma-cies, hospitals and gas sta-tions remained open. Al-Sadat al-Badri, who is headof Tripoli’s city council, saidthe strike is to last threedays .

Armed residents set upcheckpoints throughout thecity to protect their neighbor-hoods, fearing renewed vio-lence. Libya’s state newsagency LANA also said Sun-day the Misrata militia ac-cused of being responsible forFriday’s killing of 43 people ata protest abandoned its head-quarters in the southern Tri-poli neighborhood ofGharghour.

Late Saturday, a govern-ment-affiliated militia, theLibya Shield-Central Com-mand, said it was in controlof Gharghour. In a statementread on Libya’s private al-Ahrar television channel, themilitia declared it a militaryzone and vowed to turn itover to the government.

The majority of LibyaShield’s militiamen also hailfrom Misrata. Militias fromMisrata have a powerfulpresence in Tripoli.—AP

KABUL—Afghan villagersdiscovered the beheaded bod-ies of six government contrac-tors in the country’s insur-gency-racked south, the ap-parent victims of Taliban insur-gents who regularly targetstate projects, officials said.

Meanwhile, the death tollfrom a suicide vehicle bombattack on the site of a key na-tional council in the capitalKabul has risen to 12, officialssaid, while NATO said an in-ternational service memberwas killed by a roadside bomb.

The Taliban took creditfor the Saturday blast out-side the huge tent where theLoya Jirga is to be held laterthis week, during which thou-sands of prominent Afghansare scheduled to meet to de-bate a contentious securityagreement with the UnitedStates.

The suicide bomber deto-nated his explosive-ladenvehicle after being spottedby Afghan security person-nel guarding the site, saidInterior Ministry spokesmanSediq Sediqqi. He said threeof the 12 dead were membersof Afghanistan’s NationalSecurity Force with most ofthe rest civilians. The Talibangave the bomber’s name asSaeed Kabuli, but providedfew other details.

6 contractors foundbeheaded in Afghanistan

Hours before the blast,President Hamid Karzai an-nounced that U.S. and Af-ghan negotiators had com-pleted a final draft of the Bi-lateral Security Agreement tobe presented to the gather-ing for debate. If approved,it would allow U.S. troops tostay in Afghanistan after thefinal withdrawal of interna-tional combat forces in 2014.

NATO did not announcethe nationality of the servicemember killed in the south,according to its rules. Mosttroops serving in southernAfghanistan are from Britainand the United States.

So far this year 139NATO service members havebeen killed in Afghanistan,according to AssociatedPress figures. This comparesto 394 troops of the NATO-led coalition killed in 2012.

Also in southern Af-ghanistan, where a stubborninsurgency flourishes, policesaid they recovered the de-capitated bodies of six gov-ernment contractors.

Kandahar police spokes-man Ahmed Durrani said vil-lagers found the bodies. Hesaid the men were involvedin building police com-pounds and checkpoints inKandahar, the birthplace ofthe Taliban.—AP

that the United States willhave exclusive legal juris-

diction over American militarypersonnel and Defence Depart-ment civilians working withthem. At the same time, it makesclear that no one is exempt fromprosecution for wrongdoing,Washington Post said quoting asenior administration official“That has been one of the hard-est issues - how to translate theconcept” of legal jurisdictioninto Pashto or Dari, the two Af-ghan languages, said the official,who was not authorized to dis-cuss the negotiations for attribu-tion. Just hours after PresidentHamid Karzai announcedcompletion of the agreementSaturday, a powerful car bombdetonated in Kabul just a fewhundred yards from the sitewhere Afghan tribal elders andcivil leaders will gather to voteon it.

The explosion, the first ma-jor incident in the capital in sev-eral months, killed at least sixpeople, according to officials.Karzai declined to offer specif-ics about the agreement, but of-ficials said the roughly two-dozen-page accord falls wellshort of his demand that the

Draft Security pact gives indefinite stayFrom Page 1

United States commit to protect-ing Afghan territory against anyoutside attack, a condition thatwould have required a Senate-ratified treaty.

Instead, it expresses a strongU.S. interest in Afghanistan’sstability and security, and prom-ises consultation and consider-ation of unspecified assistance.In a preamble, the document re-peats language from a broaderstrategic partnership agreementsigned last year in which theUnited States pledged not to useAfghan territory or facilities “asa launching point for attacksagainst other countries.” But thatlanguage is not expected to pro-hibit U.S. drone strikes againstal-Qaeda and other insurgentgroups in neighboring Pakistan.The administration began brief-ing lawmakers on the accord latelast week.

Beginning Thursday, itsterms will be considered by upto 3,000 tribal elders and civilleaders as part of a multidaygathering known as a loya jirga.Although some objections arelikely, U.S. officials are confi-dent that any changes will beminor, and Karzai has said hewill abide by the loya jirga’s

decision.The document does not in-

clude troop numbers for a re-sidual U.S. presence. PresidentObama is likely to announce aplan for troop levels, to be de-termined unilaterally by theUnited States early in 2014, ac-cording to senior administrationofficials. Most estimates haveindicated that the administrationwill retain 5,000 to 10,000 U.S.personnel in Afghanistan afterthe end of combat operations toadvise and train local forces andconduct some counterterrorismmissions. Failure to agree wouldhave put at risk a significantportion of the $4 billion NATOhas agreed to spend annually inAfghanistan after 2014; NATOcountries and others that alsoplan to leave training contin-gents have said they would leavewithout a U.S. deal.

Once the U.S.-Afghan docu-ment is signed, NATO will be-gin negotiating its own long-term arrangement. Members ofthe House Foreign Affairs andArmed Services committeeswere shown the draft and briefedby State and Defense depart-ment officials, congressionalaides said. —INP

RIYADH: NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq called on Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, DeputyPremier and Minister for Defence on Sunday.

ment also set up a judicial com-mission under Justice MamoonRashid Sheikh and also an-nounced fact finding committeeon the incident.

Justice Mamoon RashidSheikh is expected to start en-quiry today.

Meanwhile, protests werestaged in different cities againstRawalpindi violence. Ulemahave appealed the people to re-main calm. Political and reli-gious leaders have accused ofPunjab government of securitylapse.

A spokesman of InteriorMinistry in Islamabad said“situation in Rawalpindi is un-der control.”

He appealed the people toshow restraint and cooperatewith the government for peace

Sectarian-hit RawalpindiFrom Page 1

in the city.According to Control Room

established in District Coordina-tion Office Rawalpindi‚ theoverall situation of the city wascompletely under control. Armytroops, Rangers and police werepatrolling the city to avert anyuntoward incident.

Sectarian clashes inRawalpindi, on Friday left ninepeople dead and more than 60injured, causing retaliatory vio-lence in at least two other cities.Army was called in to quell sec-tarian unrest in three cities ofPunjab.

Interior Minister ChaudhryNisar Ali Khan told journalistsin Islamabad Sunday that thesituation was improving in thecountry after the unfortunateRawalpindi incident occurred on

Friday.The Minister said negotia-

tions were held with Ulema ofall schools of thought, who dem-onstrated their prudence. He saidNamaz-e-Janaza of three personsof the tragedy was offered in anatmosphere of understanding.

Chaudhry Nisar said somedecisions had been made to stoprecurrence of such incidents infuture. The Minister said thisincident left a scar on the peace-ful situation during the first tendays of Muharram.

He said there was coordina-tion among the Government,Army, law enforcement agen-cies, intelligence agencies andother departments. He said ex-plosive material and bombswere recovered at some placesand damages were avoided.

PlightFrom Back Page

emerged from a half-century ofmilitary rule in 2011, but it’s tran-sition to democracy has beenmarred by sectarian violence thathas left more than 240 people deadand sent another 240,000 fleeingtheir homes. Most of the victimshave been Rohingya.

Though many of their fami-lies arrived generations ago, allhave been denied citizenship bythe government. Many children indisplacement camps have notgone to school for more than ayear. Those who wish to leave -for medical treatment or otherwise- have to pay hefty bribes.

Humanitarian aid workersface constant threats by BuddhistRakhine, who accuse them of be-ing biased in favour of Rohingya.Ihsanoglu said, when visiting theSittwe camps, he and other mem-bers of the IOC delegation weremet by crowds of 5,000, swellingwith emotion, but due to the lan-guage barrier, unable to commu-nicate.

“They were desperate. Theywere afraid. They were happy wewere there, but it was a happinessexpressed in crying,” he said, add-ing that he was eventually able tooffer the Islamic greeting,“Assalam Alaikum,” or “MayGod grant protection and secu-rity,” and the crowd responded inkind. “I can’t explain the feeling Ihad,” he said.

“It was very moving.” TheOIC visit to Myanmar was marredby frequent demonstrations, thou-sands turning out to meet the del-egates when they landed inYangon and then Sittwe, somecarrying banners that said “OICget out” or chanting “Stop inter-fering in our internal affairs.” Still,Ihsanoglu called it a success -mostly because it came at the in-vitation of a government that haslargely remained silent about therepeated attacks on minority Mus-lims. He said he received assur-ances the government was seek-ing to resolve issues of citizenshipfor its 800,000 Rohingya, but gaveno details. “If this issue is notsolved it will be a big problem,”he said. Opposition leader AungSan Suu Kyi - who has said littlein defence of the religious minor-ity - declined to meet with the OICdelegation. —INP

Air ChiefFrom Back Page

Super Mushshak aircraft of Paki-stan Air Force have been put upfor static as well as aerial displayin the Air Show.

Rana Tanveer Hussain, Fed-eral Minister for Defence Produc-tion also visited the air show andmet with Air Chief Marshal TahirRafique Butt, Chief of the AirStaff, Pakistan Air Force. JF-17Thunder was the main attractionof the event and defence delega-tions from all over the worldshowed their interest in this multi-role, cost effective combat aircraftof the 21st century. Air ChiefMarshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chiefof the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Forcealso visited various stalls at theshow and met with high rankingofficials of the air forces of vari-ous countries. The Air Chief hada meeting with Mr. Li Yuhai, Cen-tral Executive Vice President ofAviation Industry of China anddiscussed matters regarding theperformance of JF-17 Thunder.The most awaited aerial displaycould not be conducted due to duststorm and the flight control com-mittee of the show decided to post-pone it for a day.

Pakistan Air Force has in-ducted JF-17 Thunder in its fleetand with the co-production in fullswing the aircraft are rolling outfrom Pakistan Aeronautical Com-plex (PAC) Kamra. The JF-17Programme has been a successstory since its inception in 1998.Developmental work on the air-craft commenced in the year-1999and detailed design was finalizedin September, 2001. After flighttesting, a Small Batch of 08 air-craft was produced in year-2007and finally serial co-production ofthe aircraft started in Pakistan inthe Year-2009. So far PAF’s twoSquadrons have been equippedwith JF-17 Thunders, while thethird is planned to be raised bynext year.—NNI

Pakistan facingchallenges

From Back Page

He regretted that “ processionsdo not remain peaceful in Pakistanwhich is a very dangerous trend.What is more worrisome is thatsectarianism has crept into stateinstitutions and personnel.” Hesaid as a result no place, includingplaces of worship, is safe. He saidthe people of Pakistan are facingthe consequences of mistakes com-mitted by the state.

When asked about foreigntours of the prime minister in quicksuccession, he said the prime min-ister has to fulfil his national re-sponsibilities and pointed out thatthe Commonwealth Summit wasattended by heads of govts of othermember countries. —INP

Six members of a family riding a motorbike, a young boy sitting on mudguard, are passingthrough a busy road putting their lives in danger.

and Sajjad.Swabi is the hometown of

the new TTP amir KhalidHaqqani, and presently also theacting amir of the TTP in theabsence of Mullah Fazlullahwho is in Afghanistan.

Attack on security forces inKP has increased after the hand-ing over of TTP leadership to thesettled areas Taliban as three at-tacks took place on Friday inBannu, Dera Ismail Khan andPeshawar which left two secu-rity personnel dead and at leasteight others injured.

Earlier, a hand grenade at-tack on a house in Bamkhel areaof Swabi killed a woman andinjured four people includingthree women.

Meanwhile, six officials ofPakistan customs were kid-napped by unknown persons onSunday from Balochistan’scoastal city of Jiwany.

The kidnappers also report-edly made away with the vehicleand weapons of the custom of-ficials. Authorities were cluelessabout the incident. No one hadclaimed responsibility for thekidnapping.

Jiwany is the coastal borderarea between Iran and Pakistanand lies in the restiveBalochistan province’s Gwadardistrict.

Another report says FC per-sonnel launched a search opera-tion in Hudda district jail and re-covered eight mobilephone setsand other prohibited materialfrom the inmates.

In another incident securitypersonnel arrested seven sus-pects from Garamkan area in theoutskirts of Balochistan’sPanjgur district.

Relatives of the arrested sus-pects staged a protest against theauthorities and claimed that thepersons who were picked upwere innocent.

Two cops killedin Swabi check

post attackFrom Page 1

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Punjab govern-ment has decided to adopt SuchuIndustrial Parks Model to estab-lish “Knowledge Shops” in vari-ous universities of the province.This project is aimed at linkingknowledge and economy with thelatest marketing technology tomaximally benefit from academiain kick starting the economy ofPakistan.

This was disclosed in a meet-ing of Cabinet Committee to re-view road map for sustainableeconomy by benefitting fromChina. The meeting was headed

by the Provincial EducationMinister Rana MashhoodAhmed Khan while ProvincialMinister for Industries Ch.Muhammad Shafiq, Minister forFood Bilal Yasin, eminent edu-cationist Prof. Zafar IqbalQureshi, SME ConsultantSiddiq-ur-Rehman and other se-nior officers representing the rel-evant departments attended themeeting.

While addressing the partici-pants, Rana Mashhood AhmedKhan emphasized the need togive preferential attention to pro-mote academia-industry linkage.The Punjab government will

adopt this programme as a pilotproject. Knowledge shops will beestablished in Punjab University,UET Lahore and FAST Lahorein the first phase, he added. TheMinister said that both privateand public sector universitieshave a pivotal role in economicactivism through promotion ofapplied research in their respec-tive institutions. A knowledgeshop having back linkage withChinese industry has alreadybeen established in Sundar In-dustrial Estate Lahore with thefunding from Higher EducationCommission to the tune of Rs.80million.

Knowledge shops to beset up in universities

The activists of Muslim Students Organization protesting against Rawalpindi tragedy.

Taliban warn of causingmore disaster in country

From Back Page

we planned against the Pakistangovernment and its armed forcesto avenge the killing of ourAmeer Hakimullah Mehsud.”

“As we have stated wewould teach a lesson to the Pa-kistan government for helpingthe US to kill our leader,” theTaliban spokesman ShahidullahShahid said. He said the nextfew days and weeks would be“disastrous” for the governmentand its security agencies..

The Taliban spokesman saidthey had already sent their sui-cide bombers to various parts ofthe country to target top govern-ment and military officials andthe leadership of the PPP, ANPand MQM.

“The leadership of the threepolitical parties justified the kill-ing of Hakimullah Mehsud andthat’s why they deserved to bekilled,” he maintained.

In the Bannu suicide attackby the terrorists, seven people,including three personnel of theTochi Scouts.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Ali

Inteqami, claiming to be theTTP Rawalpindi’s divisionleader, threatened they wouldsoon target the DIG and DCRawalpindi for their allegedsupport to the attackers inRawalpindi on Friday.

“We will target these twotop government officials withinthree days as they patronised theattack in Fawwara Chowk inRawalpindi. We will teach thema lesson,” the TTP leader said.

In a phone call to reportersfrom an undisclosed place,Ahmad Ali Inteqami alleged thatinnocent people were killed inRawalpindi and their deathswould be avenged within threedays.

“We urge the ulema in Pa-kistan to support the TTP in theaftermath of this incident,” hesaid.

Inteqami alleged that theincident took place under the pa-tronage of the government.

“The blood of the innocentsshed would not go waste,” hesaid.—Online

Commonwealth nations to help post-war Sri LankaFrom Back Page

with the Sri Lankan govern-ment.

“We have some experienceto offer,” Zuma said, adding thathis country was ready to helpfurther “if there’s a need forSouth Africa to play a role.”

Rights groups questionedSri Lanka’s resolve in address-ing the rights issues, noting a de-terioration in the rule of law inrecent years and ongoing mediaharassment. Since Rajapaksabecame president in 2005, morethan 80 journalists have fled —26 of them in the last five years.

Leaders who attended de-scribed the summit as a successand emphasized the importanceof keeping the group of Britainand its former territories togetherin order to lobby in other inter-national forums as one unit thatshares linguistic and judicial co-lonial residues, while represent-ing a third of the world’s popula-tion and a fifth of its economy.

“We should not be di-vided,” Malaysian Prime Min-ister Najib Razak said, addingthat the 27 leaders who attendedout of 53 Commonwealth na-

tions expressed a “sense ofwanting to stay together.”

“We can benefit from sit-ting down and learning fromeach other,” he said.

The Commonwealth leadersproduced a final document com-mitting once more to the group’score values, including democ-racy and human rights, as wellas outlining plans to push forchanges to international lendingthat would help small nationsaccess loans and financing forprojects to help cope with theeffects of climate change.

Truckers call off strikeFrom Page 1

FBR on top of the list, whichwas accepted by the financeminister and the relevant notifi-cation would be issued today.

Goods transporters’ Presi-dent, Khalid Khan said that thematters relating to the paymentof compensations for torchedtrailers on December 27 after theassassination of the formerprime minister Benazir Bhutto,removal of the encroachment onKPT land given to them forparking of the trailers and sei-zure of containers by police forsecurity reasons also came un-der discussions during the nego-tiations.

Acting Governor, AghaSiraj Durrani, Federal Ministerfor ports and shipping, KamranMichael, Sindh Chief Secretary,Sajjad Saleem Hotiana, KarachiPolice Chief, Shahid Hayat andCommissioner Shoaib Siddiquialso represented the governmentin the meeting, while the GoodsTransporters Association presi-dent, Khalid was leading the 30-

member delegation of his team.Besides, Goods TransportersAssociation chairman, GhulamYasin and General SecretaryShoaib Khan also participated inthe negotiation.

A spokesman for the GoodsTransporters Association saidthe Finance Minister assuredthem to reduce taxes and acceptother demands.

He said they have decidedto immediately end the strikeand start transportation of goodsto interior of the country. TheFinance Minister talking to themedia emphasized that suchstrikes weaken the economy ofthe country and if the issueswere not resolved through dia-logue, they get further aggra-vated.

He said the matter could notbe resolved earlier due toMuharram holidays. He askedtransporters to forget the ten-sions of the past and make a newbeginning to strengthen theeconomy of the country. —INP

meeting and delegation leveltalks with his Thai counterpartwho will also host a Gala Dinnerin honour of Muhammad NawazSharif and his spouse during thevisit.

The Prime Minister will alsoaddress the inaugural session ofConnect Asia Pacific Summit2013 and will visit the IMPACTExhibition in Bangkok.

The Prime Minister will alsoattend a luncheon meeting withprominent Thai and Pakistanibusinessmen. Executive Secre-tary of United Nations Eco-nomic & Social Commission forAsia and the Pacific(UNESCAP), Ms. NoeleenHeyzer, will call on Prime Min-ister Muhammad Nawaz Sharifduring his visit. The First LadyBegum Kulsoom Nawaz, Min-ister for Information TechnologyAnusha Rehman, Special Assis-tant to the Prime Minister TariqFatemi and Foreign SecretaryJalil Abbas Jilani are accompa-nying the Prime Minister. —INP

PM in ThailandFrom Page 1

Choudhry Nisar Ali Khan at hisfarm house in Shahzad Town ofthe federal capital on Sundayevening along with his wifeSehba Musharraf, daughter DrAyla, son Bilal and other closerelatives.

Musharraf said that theRawalpindi incident has revealedthe inability of the federal andprovincial government to controlthe law and order and the wholepress conference was arrangedagainst him to hide the govt’s fail-ure.

He said that such accusationscould not break him and forcehim to leave the country.

members aboard and all hadbeen killed.

Russia’s last plane crashcame in January, when a Rus-sian-made Tupolev belonging toRed Wings airline careered offthe runway at Moscow’sVnukovo airport, rolled acrossa snowy field and slammed intothe slope of a nearby highway,breaking into pieces and catch-ing fire. Investigators say equip-ment failure caused the crash,which killed five people.—AP

50 dead inRussian

airliner crashFrom Page 1

Musharraf tobe tried underArticle 6 for

treason: NisarFrom Page 1

89 new cases confirmed

Eighty-nine more tested dengue positiveLAHORE—Eighty nine morepeople were tested dengue posi-tive on Sunday, taking the num-ber of confirmed cases in theprovince to 1,912. Out of 89 newcases, 70 were reported fromLahore, Medics said.

The number of victims hasbeen known to have risen to asfar as 70 in a single day forLahore-based victims, out of 89patients in Punjab during past 24

hours.Punjab government has as-

sured that it was taking all pos-sible safety precautionary mea-sures to stem the never-endingnightmare of Dengue virus,while government has also ap-pealed to masses to play its duepart in awareness about the sofar uncontrollable disease.

Meanwhile, the citizens haveexpressed their concern over the

surge in dengue virus and treat-ment facilities at government-runhospitals across the province.They urged the provincial gov-ernment and health authorities fortaking on ground steps to controlthe disease instead of making tallclaims and issuing statements tosatisfy the masses. Dengue usu-ally starts with fever within fourto seven days of the mosquitobite.—Agencies

Rs1600m forAzadi Chowk

shiftingLAHORE—The Punjab govern-ment has given the go-ahead to theLahore Development Authority(LDA) to initiate a project of shift-ing the Azadi Chowk Crossingand construction of a four-lanedual carriageway from the exist-ing junction to Masti Gate to easethe traffic flow.

Under the project, namedAlternate Route to Outer Cir-cular Road from Azadi Chowkto Masti Gate, the LDA willshift the existing crossing 500metres back from the LadyWilligdon Hospital Chowk to-ward the shrine of Baba Chatriwala. After shifting the cross-ing from the existing point, afour-lane two kilometre longdual carriageway would be con-structed from Ahmad Ali Roadtoward Lorry Adda and MastiGate.

The Planning and Develop-ment Working Party (PDWP) ofthe Punjab Planning and Devel-opment Department has approvedthe project design.—APP

BEIJING—Eleven people werekilled and two injured inChina’s troubled far-west re-gion of Xinjiang when a groupof people armed with axes andknifes attacked a police stationon Saturday, state media re-ported on Sunday.

“Nine mobs holdingknives and axes attacked apolice station at Bachu county,killing two auxiliary policemenand injuring another two po-licemen,” according to a reporton xinhuanet.com, which citeda web report from the Xinjianggovernment.

“The nine mobs weregunned down on the site andlocal social orders restored tonormal,” said the report, whichidentified one of the attackerswith an apparent Uighur name.

Many Uighurs callXinjiang East Turkestan, andthe government often blamesthe frequent outbreaks of vio-lence there on extremists agi-tating for an independent state.

China’s domestic securitychief in November blamed aMuslim Uighur separatistgroup for a fatal vehicle crashin Beijing’s Tiananmen Squarein which five died.In April, 21 people died inBachu county in what thegovernment called a “terror-ist attack”.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokes-man for the main Uighur ex-ile group, the World UyghurCongress, said the last vio-lence occurred after the po-lice used electric rods tobeat Uighurs, who went to

Attack on police stationkills 11 in China

SIMI VALLEY (UNITED

STATES)—Defense SecretaryChuck Hagel sounded analarm bell Saturday aboutbudget cuts he said threatenAmerica’s security and globalmilitary role, while “gambling”over the risk of an unexpectedthreat.

The cuts, which amountto nearly $1 trillion for theDepartment of Defense (DoD)over a decade, were “toosteep, too deep and tooabrupt,” Hagel told a defenseconference in California.

“This is an irresponsibleway to govern, and it forcesthe department into a verybad set of choices,” he said

Automatic cuts of $52 bil-lion set to take place in fiscal2014 represent 10 percent ofthe Pentagon budget.The Navy’s global presenceis already down 10 percentsince sequestration began inMarch, while the Army has

canceled training rotations for15 percent of its forces andthe Air Force 25 percent of itstraining events.

“The effects will be felt fora long period of time to come.By continuing to cancel train-ing for non-deploying per-sonnel, we will create a back-log of training requirementsthat could take years to re-cover from,” Hagel said.

“These cuts are too steep,too deep, too abrupt.”

The defense chief wasspeaking at the RonaldReagan Defense Forum, aone-day event hosted at thelate US leader’s presidentiallibrary northwest of Los An-geles. The Pentagon hasmade clear to Congress andthe White House “the grow-ing difficulties we face in train-ing, equipping and preparingour forces under a cloud ofbudget restraints and uncer-tainty,” Hagel said.

Pentagon chief soundsalarm over US budget cuts

protest at the police station,and then shot a protester dead.

“China’s so-called judicialreform is leading to local armedstaff using excessive violenceto repress Uighur protesters,”he said in an email. He did notsay what the protest wasabout.

Many of the Turkic-speak-ing Uighurs chafe at Beijing’srestrictions on their culture,language and religion, thoughthe government insists itgrants them broad free-doms. Xinjiang is asprawling, desert-like re-gion that borders CentralAsian na t ions tha t wereonce pa r t o f the fo rmerSovie t Union as wel l a sAfghan is tan and Pak i -s t an .—Reute r s

“These challenges are of-ten not visible, but they arevery very real, and they willbecome more visible as theyfurther jeopardize the securityof our country as our readi-ness, capability, and capacitycontinue to deteriorate.” Thebudget crisis comes as the USmilitary is drawing back aftermore than a decade of war inIraq and Afghanistan that fol-lowed the September 11, 2011attacks.

But Hagel warned that, ifa deal is not reached to staveoff the deepest cuts, USforces might not be ready ifanother major conflict eruptsunexpectedly.“If sequester-level cuts per-sist, we risk fielding a forcethat is unprepared,” he said.

“In effect, we would begambling that we will not facea major contingency opera-tion against a capable adver-sary in the near-term.”—AFP

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar talking to media along with the United Goods TransportersAlliance representatives after a meeting at Governor House.

2 security meninjured inroadside blastMIRANSHAH—Two soldierswere injured on Sundaywhen security forces con-voy came under bomb at-tack in North Waziristan.Officials said the incidenttook place near Karam Kotarea in Mirali sub division ofthe tribal agency where in-surgents targeted a vehicleof security convoy with re-mote-controlled IED. Curfewhas been imposed acrossNorth Waziristan since Sat-urday evening. —INP

Mandela unableto speak: Ex-wifeCAPE TOWN—South Africa’sNelson Mandela remains“quite ill” and is unable tospeak, using facial expressionsto communicate as he receivesintensive medical care at home,his ex-wife told Sunday media.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said the 95-year-oldwas not on life support but hewas no longer talking “be-cause of all the tubes that arein his mouth to clear (fluidfrom) the lungs”.“He can’t actually articulateanything” as a result, she toldThe Sunday Independentnewspaper.

“He communicates withthe face, you see.—AFP

Afghan seniorofficial escapessuicide attack

KABUL—A senior official innorthern Afghanistan escapeda suicide attack Sunday, po-lice said. The attacker carry-ing bombs on his bodyjumped out of a roadside ditch

and ran into the motorcade ofBalkh province’s deputy gov-ernor before detonating the ex-plosives. The deputy gover-nor, Mohammad ZahirWahdat, survived unhurt inhis armoured vehicle but twoof his bodyguards werewounded, provincial policechief Abdul Rahman Rahimitold AFP.— AFP

COLOMBO— Leaders in-cluding South Africa’s presi-dent said Sunday that theyare ready to help Sri Lankaachieve postwar healing, asthe island nation closed aCommonwealth summit heldamid international outcryover its human rights record.

The summit was doggedby constant attention to SriLanka’s refusal to allow in-ternational inquiries into al-leged atrocities committedduring and after its 27-yearcivil war, which ended in2009.

President MahindaRajapaksa has said histroops committed no abuses

during or since the country’sbrutal civil war against ethnicTamils fighting for a homelandin the island’s north.Rajapaksa has also said hiscountry’s institutions are ac-tively processing mountingabuse complaints that includereports of missing people, at-tacks against journalists andharassment of governmentcritics.

“It will take time,” he saidduring a news conferenceclosing the summit. “We haveto change the minds andthinking of the people, notonly in the north, but in thesouth, too.”

Rajapaksa’s government

has staunchly refused inter-national calls for an indepen-dent inquiry, seeing it as aninvasion into domestic mat-ters.

“You must respect ourviews also, without trying toput us in the corner,” he said.

On Saturday, British PrimeMinister David Cameron gaveSri Lanka a March deadline forshowing progress on postwarreconciliation, after which hesaid he would press the issuewith the United Nations.

“You can’t say do it in oneweek or four months. That’svery unfair,” Rajapaksa said.

The leaders of Canadaand Mauritius boycotted the

summit over Sri Lanka’s hu-man rights record. India’sprime minister sent his foreignminister in his place, with In-dian Tamil voters demandinga boycott.

But Cameron and otherleaders who defied calls toboycott the summit arguedthat engaging Sri Lanka wasa better plan.

South African PresidentJacob Zuma, whose countryis still working on reconcilingits minority white and major-ity black populations afterabolishing apartheid in 1990,said he shared lessons onreconciliation

Commonwealth nations to help post-war Sri Lanka

YANGON—The secretary gen-eral of the world’s largest blocof Islamic countries said emo-tional visits with members ofthe long-persecutedRohingya Muslim community,chased from their homes Bud-dhist mobs and arsonists,brought him to tears. “I’venever had such a feeling,” saidEkmeleddin Ihsanoglu, as heand other delegates from theOrganization of Islamic Coop-eration wrapped up a four-daytour to Myanmar that includedtalks with the president, min-isters, interfaith groups andU.N. agencies.

But it was the huge, emo-tional crowds living in trash-strewn camps outside theRakhine state capital, Sittwethat made the biggest impres-

Plight of displaced Rohingya Muslims inMyanmar brings tears to OIC SG eyes

sion, he said: “I was crying.”Myanmar, a predominantly

Buddhist nation of 60 million,

LAHORE—Federal Ministerfor Informa-tion andB r o a d c a s t -ing SenatorP e r v a i zRashid hassaid that thea n n o u n c e -ment of newArmy Chief

would be made by the primeminister according to thetimeframe given in the con-stitution.

In an interview, theinformation minister said thatthe government is confrontingchallenges on all fronts including

economy, politics, law and orderand international relations.Referring to Rawalpindi,information minister saideveryone should condole theincident in which precious liveswere lost. He said those killedin the tragedy were Pakistanisand it does not make anydifference to which sect theybelonged.

Pervaiz Rashid said, ChiefMinister Punjab Mian ShahbazSharif has already ordered ajudicial inquiry to arrive at aconclusion and those foundresponsible would be made toface law of the land.

Pakistan facing challengeson all fronts: PR

Continued on Page 7

PPP to discussLG electionsK A R A C H I — P a k i s t a nPeoples Party (PPP) Sindhwill discuss the matters re-lated to the local bodies elec-tions at its meeting sched-uled to be held in Hyderabadon November 20. The meet-ing of PPP Sindh will be heldin Hyderabad, with, ChiefMinister of Sindh, Syed QaimAli Shah in chair. This wasannounced by Secretary In-formation PPP Sindh, WaqarMedhi, said a statement onSunday. —APP Continued on Page 7

Earlier story on Page 6

Birth anniversaryof Guru NanakLAHORE—Three-day cel-ebrations of the 544th birthanniversary of Guru NanakDev Jee concluded atNankana Sahib on Sunday.Thousands of Sikh Yatreesbelonging to Pakistan, Indiaand other countries per-formed religious rituals inGurdwara Janam Asthan.They also participated in aPalki procession. On the oc-casion, a religious seminarwas arranged in which speak-ers highlighted the life andteachings of Guru Nanak DevJee. The Yatrees thanked theEvacuee Trust PropertyBoard (ETPB) and the gov-ernment Pakistan for theirhospitality. ETPB ChairmanSikandar Ismael Khan saidthey had made foolproof se-curity arrangements besidestransport, accommodationand medical facilities for theYatrees.—APP

DUBAI: Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force along with Li Yuhai, CentralExecutive Vice President of Aviation Industry of China, at the inaugural ceremony of Dubai Air Show.

KARACHI—Federal FinanceMinister Senator Ishaq Daron Sunday presided over ahigh level meeting at the StateBank of Pakistan here to re-view the progress on mea-sures taken to increase remit-tances to the country.

The meeting was at-tended by SBP GovernorYaseen Anwar, chief execu-tives of private banks and se-nior officials of Ministry ofFinance, said a statement is-sued here.

The Finance Minister di-rected the SBP to release a

sum of Rs 5 billion to privatebanks in lieu of remittancecharges due to them. Thisamount, the Finance Minis-ter said, would be reimbursedby the Ministry of Financeby Monday positively.

Ishaq Dar expressed sat-isfaction over the increasein remittances by Pakistanisworking abroad.

He said that the PakistanRemittance Initiative shouldredouble its efforts so thatthe remittances exceed thetarget set by the govern-ment.—APP

Rs5b to be releasedto private banks

Dubai Air show

Air chief attendsinaugural ceremony

DUBAI—Air Chief MarshalTahir Rafique Butt, Chief of theAir Staff, Pakistan Air Forceattended the inaugural cer-emony of Dubai Air Show-2013. A large number of del-egations from different coun-tries including Air Chiefs of anumber of Air Forces were alsopresent at the occasion.

The Dubai Air Show wasinaugurated by His ExcellencySheikh Mohammad bin RashidAl-Maktoum, Ruler of Dubaiand Prime Minister of UAE onSunday. JF-17 Thunder and

Taliban warn ofcausing more

disaster in countryPESHAWAR—Pakistani Talibanhave warned that the next fewdays and weeks would be “di-sastrous” for the country asthe banned outfit vowed to“teach” the government andits security agencies a lessonover the killing of its leaderHakimullah Mehsud in a USdrone strike.

Claiming responsibility forBannu suicide attack, theTehrik-e-Taliban said, “Westarted our campaign with asuicide attack on military offi-cials in Bannu on Saturday. Itwas the first attack of a series

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

MAINTAINING a healthy weight after menopause may improvewomen’s chances of living into their

mid-80s while keeping their health and mo-bility, a new study shows. Women tend to puton weight after menopause.But not much was knownabout how extra pounds af-fect their ability to getaround in old age.

“We chose to do thisstudy because we wanted tolearn more about the healthstatus of older women, whorepresent a growing segmentof the U.S. population,”Eileen Rillamas-Sun toldReuters Health in an email.Rillamas-Sun led the studyat the Fred Hutchinson Can-cer Research Center in Se-attle, Washington.

“We recognized that thehealth status of older womenvaries widely and we fo-cused on obesity because ofthe high rates of obesity in this country,” shesaid. The researchers looked at 36,611 womenwho enrolled in a large, long-term health studybetween 1993 and 1998, when they were 66to 81 years old.

The researchers followed the women fornearly 19 years. They wanted to see howwomen’s body mass index (BMI) - a mea-sure of weight in relation to height - and waistsize were associated with their chances ofdying or developing chronic diseases or mo-bility problems by age 85. As it turned out,women who were obese at the beginning ofthe study were more likely to have troublegetting around. Of women who lived to be 85

years old, 6,702 were disabled.About 12 percent of those who started

the study at a healthy weight were disabledby age 85. That compared to 18 percent ofoverweight women and between 26 and 34

percent of obese women whohad mobility problems, theresearchers reported in JAMAInternal Medicine.

Similarly, 25 percent ofwomen with a waist circum-ference greater than 88 centi-meters (about 35 inches) weredisabled at age 85 comparedto 14 percent of women whohad smaller waists. “This wasan important finding becauseI believe that maintaining theability to walk is very impor-tant to older adults, especiallybecause it is useful for retain-ing one’s independence,”Rillamas-Sun said.

Compared to women ofa healthy weight, overweightand obese women were also

at a higher risk of dying or developingchronic diseases like diabetes, heart diseaseand cancer. Luckily, Rillamas-Sun said, it’seasy for people to learn both their BMI andwaist circumference. Then they can assesstheir own risks.

“For BMI, one only needs to know theirheight and weight and for waist circumfer-ence, a tape measure is all that is needed.There are many resources online, includingBMI calculators and guides for how to ac-curately measure one’s waist circumfer-ence,” she said. The National Heart, Lung,and Blood Institute has a BMI calculatorhere: 1.usa.gov/XBIO5L.

Obesity tied to trouble movingaround for elderly women

A deserted view of Jinnah Avenue due to curfew in Rawalpindi.

People seen at the road not caring about curfew at Chitian Hattian.

Diplomats’ life in Islamabad-Copingwith growing security concerns

A helicopter hovering over Rawalpindi city during curfew hours to check law and ordersituation.

SHARMEEN ALI

ISLAMABAD—A diplomat inIslamabad is typically viewedto have a high-profile, high fly-ing life of extreme privilege.Undoubtedly, as the envoys oftheir respective countries, theyare given a multitude of perks,but the practical realities of dip-lomatic life in Islamabad maketheir station much harder thanwe think. Growing securityconcerns are a major obstaclefor any citizen in Pakistan try-ing to live a normal life, andthe problem is much more ex-treme for diplomats.

According to the perceivedmeasure of threat, for certainembassies such as the Dutchmission, Pakistan is considereda non-family post where fam-ily members of diplomats arenot permitted to accompanythem at all for the duration oftheir posting.

Other embassies such as theBelgian, French, British andGerman do allow families butstrict security precautions haveto be maintained.In many ofthese cases,the families of cer-tain ambassadors or the ambas-sadors themselves are not per-mitted to move outside the dip-lomatic enclave or even to leavethe enclave at all,such as in thecase of Canadian embassy dip-lomats.

According to a senior diplo-mat, security measures in someof the embassies, although nec-essary, can make life extremelydifficult. Where most of us areable to enjoy an evening out withfriends with a certain measure ofprivacy, many senior diplomatsmust have a constant team ofsecurity personnel followingthem everywhere, and the onlytime they have alone is whenthey are watching television athome in the evening.

While the rest of us canmake impromptu plans, mostsenior diplomats have to informtheir security teams a day in

advance prior to any visit orexcursion. A visit to certain cit-ies such as Peshawar requires aNo Objection Certificate(NOC) from the Ministry ofForeign Affairs, and delays inissuing these NOC’s add to the

perceived threat of danger.There is a general percep-

tion in the diplomatic commu-nity that perhaps the securitystaff that maintain security pro-tocol for the Heads of Missionpurposefully restrict the move-ments of these senior diplomatsin order to make their job of pro-tecting them less of a hassle.

Although not as much of aprecarious location as Egypt orSyria, where no families are al-lowed at all, Pakistan is still rifewith security concerns. DuringMuharram and especially afterthe killing of PTT leaderHakimullah Mehsud, high pro-file events are being cancelledin the capital and embassies areissuing warnings to avoid cer-tain areas in the city. InIslamabad, over 909 religiousgatherings and 177 processionswere scheduled to take placeduring the month of Muharram,and these processions and

majlis’ are considered primetargets for sectarian terrorism.

US embassy staff are notpermitted to visit mosques orother places of worship locatedoutside the Diplomatic En-clave, and all embassies advisetheir staff to avoid large publicgatherings.

According to the Dean ofthe Diplomatic Corps, who,amidst all the security hypesand reproaches, has visitedChitral, Gilgit and Hunza sixtimes, Skardu five times, aswell as Swat, Khyber Pass andKohat, places where most lo-cals would hesitate to ventureat all these days, “the bestpolicy is a low profile.”

To allay the difficulties ofliving in such a high risk sta-tion, another senior diplomatsays that “Pakistan is an ex-tremely interesting country, andlife is made much easier by thehospitality of Pakistani people.”

RAWALPINDI—A three-mem-ber delegation of Ulema calledon Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif here on Sun-day and discussed the post-Ashura incident situation.

The delegation comprisingMaulana Hanif Jalandhri, AhleSunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ)chief Maulana Mohammad

Rawalpindi mayhem

Ulema delegationcalls on Shahbaz

Ahmed Ludhianvi and AbulKhair Azad demanded of thegovernment to compensatethe victim families and trad-ers of the Madina Market.

The Ulema also de-manded that the governmentshould bear expenses for therepair of Madrasa, besidesmaking efforts to bring the

culprits to justice. The ChiefMinister assured his all-outcooperation to the religiousleaders.

Earlier, the Chief Minis-ter presided over a high-levelmeeting in the city and re-viewed the situation devel-oped after the Ashura inci-dent.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Capital Devel-opment Authority (CDA) hasinstalled two waste water treat-ment plants with capacity of 17and 5 million gallons per dayin Sector I-9 to treat sewage ofthe city.

The capacity of these sew-erage treatment plants is suffi-cient to treat city sewage.

However, there is noproper system of severs ortreatment facility in areas likeBara Kahu, Bani Gala, MuslimColony, Bari Imam and theyare dumping their raw sewageinto fresh water streams ofRawal Lake.

According to officialsouces, CDA has been asked tostop sewage directly beingthrown in the fresh streams of

CDA installs waste watertreatment plants in I-9

Rawal Lake by the illegal, un-lawful settlements.

After carrying out com-prehensive study of the RawalLake catchment areas, CDAhas identified four seweragetreatment plants and prepareda PC-1 and submitted it to thePlanning & Development Di-vision for securing funds forthe purpose.

“134 cases were regis-tered in the EnvironmentalProtection Tribunal (EPT)against the residents of BariImam, Bhara Kahu, Bani Galaand Muslim Colony who weredumping raw sewage into thefresh water streams of catch-ment areas of Rawal Lake”,sources said.

Legal Notices have been

issued to 5 housing societiesfor discharging untreatedwaste water into rainwaterstream.

Besides, Climate ChangeDivision has adopted a twopronged strategy to control anddiscourage use of polythenebags.

Under the campaign, “SayNo to Plastic Bag” biodegrad-able plastic bags Regulationwas notified, banningnoncdegradable plastic bagsand only allowed manufactur-ing, sale and usage ofoxobiodegradable bags in thelimits of ICT.

The Provincial Govern-ments have also been re-quested to follow the same,sources said.—APP

Six IHC benches tohear over 300 cases

next weekISLAMABAD—Chief Justice ofIslamabad High Court (IHC)Justice Muhammad AnwarKhan Kasi has constituted foursingle and two division benchesto hear over 300 cases during thenext week starting from Mon-day.

Four single benches includethe Chief Justice, Justice RiazAhmed Khan, Justice NoorulHaq N Qureshi and JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiqui. The firstdivision bench comprises theChief Justice and JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiqui while thesecond one includes Justice RiazAhmed Khan and Justice NoorulHaq N Qureshi.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Rangers havebeen deployed on the security offour Imambargahs of the federalcapital to avoid any untowardincident after Rawalpindi may-hem. According to Interior Min-istry sources, in order to controlthe backlashes of the gory inci-dent of clash between two groupsin Rawalpindi on Youm-e-Ashur,Rangers personnel have beendeputed at Imambargah in Sec-tor G-6/2, Imambargah in SectorG-9/2, Imambargah Mosa Kazimin Sector I-10/1 and another.

Meanwhile, Red Zone of the

Rangers deployed at fourImambargah in Capital

Islamabad’s Red Zone sealed offfederal capital was also sealed offafter reports of arrangements be-ing made for a protest in the areafollowing the funerals of thosekilled in the Rawalpindi clash.

Meanwhile, the capital’ssensitive Red Zone was sealedoff on Sunday following the vio-lent clash in neighbouringRawalpindi which left ninepeople dead on Muharram 10.

According to reports, au-thorities took this added mea-sure after reports of arrange-ments being made for a protestin the Red Zone following the

funerals of those killed in theRawalpindi clash.

At least three funerals wereheld under high security atLiaquat Bagh Sunday evening.Maulana Samiul Haq led funeralprayers, while other clerics inattendance made calls for main-taining peace.

Empty containers wereplaced to block key entry pointsof the Red Zone, which housesAiwan-e-Sadr, Prime Minister’sHouse, PM Secretariat and Par-liament House, along with thediplomatic enclave.—INP

20 bikes, 3 vehiclesimpounded

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Capi-tal Territory Police on Sundayimpounded 20 bikes and 3 ve-hicles during general hold upwhile black sheets from 11 ve-hicles were also removed be-sides fine to them, a policespokesman said.

According to details, SSPIslamabad Muhammad Rizwanhas directed all police officialsto ensure effective security andpatrolling measures in their re-spective areas. Police officialshave been directed to take strictaction against vehicles beingdriven without documents andcriminal elements.

In compliance of these direc-tions, Islamabad police impounded20 bikes and 3 vehicles during gen-eral hold up. Black sheets were re-moved from 11 tinted glasses ve-hicles while police also appre-hended three suspects duringsearch operation in various areasof the city. IGP Islamabad SikandarHayat and SSP IslamabadMuhammad Rizwan have appre-ciated this performance of policeofficers.—Online

Anti-dengue,polio activities

haltedRAWALPINDI—The anti-den-gue, anti-polio and anti-measlescampaigns have come to a haltin the garrison city due to theimposition of curfew after theclash between two groups onYoum-e-Ashur.

According to health depart-ment sources, no work has beendone pertaining to the drives tocurb the diseases for last threedays.The closure of educational in-tuitions also contributed in thehindrance to the campaigns. Itis pertinent to mention here thatowing to the curfew and section144 imposition, army and policepersonnel are not allowing any-one, even government officialand media persons to move inthe city that have brought allactivities to standstill.—INP

A man crossing the road along with his family despite curfew while security personnelare standing beside.

Police patrolling Murree Road during curfew on Sunday.

06:00

01:30

03:45

07:00

Zohr

Brothers in Islam establishregular prayers and charity

November 19

TALENT carnival for stu-dents, organised by thestudent Affairs Forum, atthe Rawalpindi Arts Coun-cil, Cultural Complex,Shamsabad, Rawalpindi.

Continuing

EXHIBITION of paintingsby Najmul Hasan Kazmi, atthe Nomad Art Gallery,House 72, Street 32, Sec-tor F-6/1, Islamabad, 10 a.m- 7 p.m, continuing up toNovember 20.

People buying flour bags from mobile shop on 2nd day of curfew in city.A soldier diverting people riding motorbikes during second day of curfew in the city.

CDA toconstruct twonew overhead

bridgesISLAMABAD—Capital Devel-opment Authority (CDA) willconstruct two more over-head bridges in different sec-tors of federal capital to fa-cilitate pedestrians to crossthe roads.

According to CDA offi-cial construction work onthese two bridges will startsoon.

These two overheadbridges will be constructedat the cost of Rs 8 million.CDA will build these twobridges near Weekly Bazaarlocated in H-9 and over IJPRoad in front of I-10. H-9weekly bazaar is the largestever bazaar which remainsopen 3 days a week and largenumber of residents fromtwin cities of Rawalpindi andIslamabad visit the bazaar topurchase essential commodi-ties particularly fruit, veg-etables and garments, headdded.

They remain at risk ofconfronting road accidentswhile crossing the doubleroad to step in the bazaar.

He said civic bodytherefore has taken deci-sion to erect overheadbridges for the safety ofl ives of the visi tors par-ticularly children, old agepeople and ladies.

The official added thatconstruction work on over-head bridge on KashmirHighway near Shakarparianis also underway.

This project will be com-pleted at the cost of Rs 4 mil-lion.—APP

ISLAMABAD—With the ad-vent of winter season, saleof dry fruits has increased intwin cities of Islamabad andRawalpindi, giving boost tothis buisness.

The number of custom-ers, buying dry fruits at vari-ous markets is on the in-crease and vendors are alsoexploiting the opportunitywith high prices.

However, with the in-creasing demand, the priceshave also gone up beyondthe reach of common man.Apart from regular shop-keeper, dry fruit vendors

Surge in sale of dry fruitshave also raised prices of dryfruits.

The prices of dry fruitsincluding almond, pistachio,walnut, pine nut (chilghoza),date, cashew nut (Kaju),dried apricot, coconut, figand peanut increase as theseare mostly demanded in win-ter season, said a vendor atG-9 markaz.

A dry fruit shop owner,Gul Khan in Aabpara Markettold that dry fruits are usedin winter season to get somerelief from cold and arguedthat the rates were normal butbuyers mainly complain

about the high prices of dryfruits.

Most of these fruits aregrown in hilly areas likeNorthern Areas, Azad Jammuand Kashmir (AJK),Balochistan, FATA andNWFP.

In the winter season,people generally serve dryfruits to their guests and al-mond is the most favoriteamong the list. The medicalexperts have advised thepeople to use these items inlimited amount as highernumber may raise fatty acidsin the blood.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—In order tomaintain law and order in thefederal capital after clashesbetween two groups onYoum-e-Ashur, the mobilephone services remainedsuspended till 2:00 pm in thefederal capital on Sundaywhich gave a look of hauntedcity with very minor move-ment of traffic and peopledespite the fact that therewas no curfew or other re-strictions.

There appeared to begloom all over in Islamabadand sister city of Rawalpindiafter Friday’s tragedy on theoccasion of Ashura. Eventeenagers who use such anopportunity to play cricket instreets and parks were ab-sent. Commercial centres,which are thronged by thepeople for shopping on Sun-days and restaurants weredeserted.

Though the governmentand private offices wereclosed in Islamabad on Sun-

Islamabad becomes a haunted city

Cellular servicessuspension perturbs

capital residentsday but media persons facedlot of difficulties to reachtheir offices. Journalists andother workers of The Newsand Jang publications werenot allowed to enter their of-fice near Mareer Chowk evenduring the curfew relaxationhours. The suspension ofmobile phone service alsomade their job difficult.

Senior journalists saidthat the police and armyshould have deployed atleast one officer with theirteams at pickets to permit thejournalists and other needypeople to go to their placesof work. Patients coming fromthe rural areas and adjoiningdistricts faced more troubleas they were not aware of thealternate routes and had toeither return or spent hoursin reaching hospitals.

The situation was mademore difficult by the TrafficPolice at the junction ofRawalpindi, Islamabad andMotorway. Traffic comingtowards Rawalpindi wascompletely stopped and to

make things worse, loadedtrucks and trawlers wereparked on the roads creatinghindrance in smooth move-ment of traffic towardsIslamabad. Some of thehighly annoyed motoristscoming from Lahore andPeshawar told INP that it wasthe mismanagement of theelite capital traffic police.

They said that thougheducated people have beenrecruited, but they have startedadopting the mentality of theirfellows in other police depart-ments and at police stationsconsidering themselves asabove the law and answerableto none. Meanwhile, cellularservices were kept blocked inRawalpindi for the third day onSunday and will remain sus-pended until further orders.

The suspension of mo-bile services created panicamong the residents. The citi-zens were of the view that inthe absence of cellular ser-vices, they would not be ableto contact rescue 1122 or 15in case of any emergency.

ISLAMABAD—The Ulema ofWafaqul Madaris Al-Arabiaon Sunday said theRawalpindi incident was anational tragedy and its im-pact will be felt for long.

In their statement after themeeting of various religiousorganisations, the Ulema in-cluding Maulana MuhammadHanif Jalandhry, MaulanaZahoor Ahmed Alvi, MaulanaNazeer Ahmed Farooqui andMaulana Abdul Ghaffar saidthe government needs to take‘steps’ rather than makingstatements. They warned thatif the government remainedconfined to giving statements

Rawalpindi tragedy

Action againstculprits demanded

then the Ulema can’t guaran-tee peace.

The statement said theadministration should be dis-missed forthwith and thoseresponsible for the tragedyshould be publicly punished.It alleged that the incident wasnot accidental, rather it waspre-planned. The Ulema saidthe victims of the tragedyshould be paid compensationforthwith and the real factsshould be brought before thepublic. The Ulema in theirstatement expressed heartfeltsympathies with the familiesof the victims.

They said the incident

speaks volumes about thegovernment’s failure and theincompetence of theRawalpindi administration.They said innocent peoplewere killed and property worthbillions of rupees was burntdown.

They said ambulancesand rescue officials were notallowed to go to the tragedysite which further worsenedthe situation. The statementalso criticised the media forwhat it said not bringing realfacts to the knowledge of themasses. It also demanded lift-ing of curfew to restore nor-mal life in Rawalpindi.—INP

AIOU MA/MSc,PGD examsfrom today

ISLAMABAD—Final exams ofPGD, MA and MScprogrammes for the Semes-ter Spring, 2013 of the AllamaIqbal Open University(AIOU) will start today (Monday) across the countrysimultaneously.

This was announced by Dr.Hamid Khan Niazi, Controllerof Exams. He said that rollnumber slips have been sent toall the enrolled students by postat their given addresses as wellas roll number slips of all theeligible candidates have also beenplaced at its websitewww.aiou.edu.pk.

Those students, he said,who have not received theirroll number slips so far areadvised to contact the near-est Regional Office of theUniversity 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 bythe gazetted officer. roll num-ber slips along with datesheet are also being placedon AIOU websitewww.aiou.edu.pk for theconvenience of students, headded.—INP

ISLAMABAD—The former gov-ernment of Pakistan PeoplesParty had doled out 257 ve-hicles worth Rs 271 million (Rs276,002,500) to its five legisla-tors during its tenure, revealsa document of the Ministry ofIndustries and Production.

According to the docu-ment, a total of 200 auto rick-shaws, 16 Hino busses, 14Toyota Hiace vans, 12 coffincarrier buses, 11 Suzuki Bolans,02 double cabin ambulancesand 02 Isuzu Mini buses hadbeen distributed among theformer PPP legislators includedRaja Pervaiz Ashraf, SardarNabeel Ahmed Gabol,Jamshed Ahmed Dasti and DrFirdous Ashiq Awan on the di-rectives of Syed Yousuf RazaGilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

PPP Governmentdoled out 257 vehicles

According to thebreakup, former Prime Min-ister Raja Pervaiz Ashrafdoled himself out 02 Isuzumini buses, 11 Suzuki Bolansand 08 Toyota Hiace vans forapparently onward distribu-tion among the dear-ones.

As many as 12 coffin car-rier buses, 200 auto rickshaws,2 double cabin ambulances and06 Hiace vans had been dishedout to Sardar Nabeel AhmedGabol MNA for onward distri-bution among various peopleand NGOs of his constituency.Moreover, 10 Hino buses hadbeen bestowed to former min-ister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awanfor providing transportationfacilities to the women fromrural areas to urban centers,Sialkot.—APP

Roadmap devisedto open 30,000literacy centres

ISLAMABAD—Ministry ofEducation and Trainings hasdevised roadmap for next fiveyears to open 30,000 literacycentres annually, ensuring ad-missions for approximately0.75 million students eachyear.

According to reports, theMinistry in collaboration withNational Commission for Hu-man Development (NCHD)has also established morethan 0.15 million literacy cen-tres during the last ten yearsin which 3.2 million studentswere imparted literacy skills.

According to officialsources on Sunday, NationalPlan of Action has already beenlaunched in September this yearin coordination with Provincialand Area Departments of Edu-cations to achieve MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs)targets and accelerate efforts to-wards achieving Universal Pri-mary Education in shortest pos-sible time.

The consultative meet-ings were attended by Pro-vincial Secretaries of Educa-tion, representatives of civilsocieties, UN agencies, anddonors.—Online

Opposition tosubmit adjournment

motionIS L A M A B A D—Opposit ionparties have decided to dis-cuss Rawalpindi tragedy inboth houses of the Parliamentand it is expected that oppo-sition would submit adjourn-ment motion in National As-sembly and Senate today(Monday).

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP), Awami National Party(ANP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam(JUI-F) and Pakistan Mus-lim League-Q (PML-Q) hasdecided to discuss the inci-dent in details in parliament.

Sources told Online onSunday, all major politicalparties decided to submitadjournment motion againstsectarian clash in Rawalpindiand demanded of the gov-ernment that culprits in-volved in the massacre mustbe brought to justice so thatthe country may no furtherfall prey to fire of sectarian-ism, sources added.

Moreover, Sourcesadded that these politicalparties asked the governmentto pay compensation to heirsof all those who weremartyred or sustained inju-ries or to those whom shopswere set on fire.—Online

Taxi driverscharging

exorbitant faresISLAMABAD—Taxi driversseem to be rolling in money,after doubling their fares un-der the available pretext ofCNG holiday(s).

The attitude is moreprevalent among taxi driversoutside hospitals, who arecharging as expensive faresas Rs100 for travel route ofG-8 to PIMS.—Online

Students’demands

hostel facilityISLAMABAD—Non availabil-ity of hostels with educa-tional institutions of federalcapital has increased the mis-eries of students from out-side the city.

Details said studentsfrom other areas of the coun-try are forced to take shelterin private hostels and rentedhouses where they are boundto pay heavy amount in re-gard of rent.

Other than financial prob-lems students also face thedifficulties like uneducatedenvironment and security inthese private hostels.

“There are some col-leges which provide the fa-cility of hostel to studentsbut the condition of thosehostels forces us to keepour residences in privatehostels,” a student fromMultan expressed hisviews.

Another student residingin private hostel said that al-though private hostels pro-vide the facilities of food,laundry and internet but theyalso charges heavily alongwith facilities.

Majori ty of s tudentsfrom outside the city resid-ing in private hostels havedemanded from concernedauthorities of educationalinsti tutions to ensure theprovision of hostel facilityto reduce the problems ofstudents.—Online

Police arrestsuspects

CRIME REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Thirteen sus-pects including an Afghanfugit ive were arrestedduring a search operationcarried put by Islamabadpolice.

Four more were ar-rested under various cir-cumstances, while 36 mo-torbikes and seven ve-hicles were also im-pounded by police, due tonon-availabil i ty of regis-tration papers, while policealso peeled off many blackreflective papers from cov-ered vehicles.

Traffic police is alsocarrying out a vigilant out-look for transport wagonsloaded with cylinders notcertified as reliable.

Shibli Nomani’sdeath anniversaryISLAMABAD—The 99thdeath anniversary of versa-tile scholar and poet AllamaShibli Nomani will be ob-served on Monday, (Novem-ber, 18).

Allama Shibli Nomani(June 3, 1857 - November 18,1914,) was a respectedscholar of Islam from IndianSub-Continent during BritishRaj.

He was born at Bindwalin Azamgarh district ofpresent-day Uttar Pradesh.

He is known for thefounding of the Shibli Na-tional College in 1883 and theDarul Mussanifin inAzamgarh.

Shibli was a versatilescholar in Arabic, Persian,Hindi, Turkish and Urdu. Hewas also a poet.

He collected much mate-rial on life of the ProphetMuhammad (Peace Be UponHim) but could write only firsttwo volumes of the plannedwork “the Sirat-un-Nabi”.

His disciple, SyedSulaiman Nadvi, made use ofthis material and added hisown and wrote remainingfive volumes of the work, “theSirat-un-Nabi” after the deathof his mentor.—APP

KHALID IQBAL

THE democratic freedom that India pridesitself has been miss-

ing from the Indian HeldKashmir (IHK) since 1947.The voice of Kashmiris hasbeen portrayed as a threatto its territorial integrity,rather than treating it as awhistle-blower’s call tomend the ways. IHK has, in-deed, been an open cage forthe last six decades or so.

The UN Special Rap-porteur, Christof Heyns, hasyet once again urged Indiato repeal the controversiallaw that gives its militaryspecial powers to act introubled areas. On extraju-dicial, summary or arbitrary

executions, Heyns said thatthe Armed Forces SpecialPowers Act (AFSPA) has be-come a “symbol of excessivestate power” and “has norole to play in a democracy.”These comments came afterthe conclusion of his 12-dayfact-finding mission to India.

The AFSPA has been inforce in different parts of In-dia since 1958 and is cur-rently enforced in IHK,Manipur and Nagaland. Hu-man rights workers have ac-cused the Indian troops ofillegally detaining, torturingand killing rebel suspects;sometimes even staging gunbattles as a pretext to kill. Thelaw also prohibits soldiersfrom being prosecuted for al-leged violations, unless per-

mitted by the federal govern-ment. According to officialdocuments, the IHK govern-ment sought permission totry soldiers in 50 cases in thelast two decades, but NewDelhi has refused the re-quest.

“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 killingscontinue in India and it is amatter of serious concern.

The guidelines laid downby the Supreme Court, manyof which have been incorpo-rated through amendments inthe Code of Criminal proce-dure, are not sufficiently com-plied with,” Heyns claimed.Also, the prevalence of com-munal violence, encounters,custodial deaths and theplight of dalits and adivasisare other areas of concernmentioned in the report.

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 forthe Protection of All Personsfrom Enforced Disappear-ance,” he maintained. His fi-nal recommendations, how-ever, will be submitted as acomprehensive report to theHuman Rights Council. Ear-lier on, successive UN Spe-cial Rapporteurs have de-manded investigations totrace thousands of missingpersons in the occupied val-ley and account for themass graves of 2,700Kashmiris.

Moreover, Amnesty In-ternational has urged India

Simmering Kashmirto scrap the Public SafetyAct (PSA) that allows thepolice to detain a person upto two years without chargeor trial if he or she is deemeda threat to the state. “Kash-mir authorities are usingPSA detentions as a revolv-ing door to keep peoplethey can’t or won’t convictthrough proper legal chan-nels locked up and out of theway,” said Sam Zarifi,Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific Di-rector. A new report from thegroup said that up to 20,000people had been held underthe law, since the start of in-surgency in 1989. The Indianauthorities detained hun-dreds of people each yearwithout charge or trial in or-der to “keep them out of cir-

culation,” it said. Accordingto an official count, 47,000people have died in over twodecades of rebellion. Am-nesty has called for “an in-dependent, 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’srecord about human rightsviolations in Kashmir alsocame under scrutiny in De-cember 2011, when the leakeddiplomatic cables said thatthe International Committeeof the Red Cross (ICRC) hadevidence of systematic tor-ture by Indian security

forces. The ICRC, accordingto Wikileaks, told US diplo-mats in 2005 about 177 vis-its it had made to Kashmir’sdetention centres that re-vealed “stable trend lines”of prisoner abuses.

Stanley Wolpert. in hisbook entitled India and Pa-kistan, writes: “The peopleof Kashmir themselves mustbe permitted 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, Mah-arashtra or West Bengal.”

Indian troops use brute force against peaceful protestors in Srinagar.

BARNALA: AJK former President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry being wel-comed on his arrival to Barnala.

SRINAGAR—In a bid to moveforward from the status quo,New Delhi and Hurriyat Con-ference led by Mirwaiz UmarFarooq have restarted track-II dialogue on the Kashmirissue.

Senior conglomerateleader Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhatis camping in New Delhi forthe purpose and has report-edly met several mediators.Mirwaiz is convening a meet-ing today here to discuss thenew developments.

Insiders in Hurriyat (M)said Executive Council mem-ber Professor Abdul GhaniBhat is in New Delhi for thepast one week and has metseveral people previouslyinvolved in track-II talks. Thepeople who have met Bhathave been reportedly taskedby the Government of Indiato build bridges betweenKashmir separatists and NewDelhi.

Prof Bhat has reportedlyheld negotiations with former

RAW chief A S Dulat, AshokBhan, Prem Shankar Jha andPM’s Advisor Satish Lambabesides others.

Bhat has been asked byHurriyat (M) chairmanMirwaiz Umar Farooq to re-main in New Delhi in this con-nection. Mirwaiz had earlierconfirmed that he also met AS Dulat recently in NewDelhi.

“During Prof. Bhat’s stayin Delhi he was advised tomeet all the players who haveearlier played important rolein track-II talks,” a Hurriyat(M) insider told GreaterKashmir.

“Efforts are afoot fromboth sides to end the statusquo,” he revealed.

Sources said the track-IItalks are likely to prepareground for direct talks be-tween New Delhi and Hurriyat(M) at the higher level.

“Track-II talks brokedown over the past two yearsand no real effort was made

to reach out to the separatistcamp following the fact thatinterlocutors were also tryingthe same. Since the inter-locutors failed to take theseparatists on board, there isa need for track-II dialogue,”sources in the central gov-ernment revealed.

“Dialogue is important tomove forward but there is aneed to involve all the threeparties to the issue in thetalks. Only then the thingswill start to move,” Mirwaiztold Greater Kashmir.

“Our meeting with Dulatstands already reported bysome newspapers. Every ef-fort of Hurriyat Conference(M) is a joint step andHurriyat is working under theleadership of Mirwaiz Sahib,”Prof Bhat told Greater Kash-mir over telephone from NewDelhi. “I am meeting a doctorand will be back soon. I havenothing more to say.”

Hurriyat Conference (M)has convened a crucial meet-

ing on Monday. The meetingwould be attended by theExecutive Council, WorkingCommittee and GeneralCouncil members.

Sources said Hurriyatleaders’ recent meeting withPakistan PM’s Advisor SartajAziz and track-II talks wouldbe discussed threadbare inthe meet. “Suggestionswould be sought from mem-bers of the amalgam over thenew developments,”Hurriyat sources said.

It needs to be mentionedhere that less than a weekafter Kashmir separatists metPakistan Prime Minister ’sAdvisor Sartaj Aziz in NewDelhi, Mirwaiz Umar Farooqsaid there is scope for dia-logue with Government ofIndia. He asked for revisitingVajpayee-type dialogue pro-cess on Kashmir in which theformer Prime Minister hademphasized on resolving thedispute “within the ambit ofhumanity.”—NNI

Delhi, Hurriyat (M) renew track-II dialogue

Mirwaiz calls crucial meetingto discuss new developments

Indian troopsabuse, harass

photojournalistsISLAMABAD—Indian troopssnatched cameras and de-leted pictures taken by twophotojournalists in occupiedKashmir, when they weretaking photographs after anattack by unknown attackerson an Army convoy inDarugmulla area of Kupwara.

“An Army major abusedus and snatched our camerawhen he saw us taking pic-tures. We told him that we areperforming our professionalduty but he didn’t listen anddeleted the pictures by for-matting camera memorycards,” the two photojour-nalists, Abid and Firdous,told media men. Five Indiantroops were injured in the at-tack in Darugmulla area ofKupwara.

Meanwhile, North Kash-mir Journalists Associationin a statement condemnedthe Army’shighhandedness, demand-ing probe into the incident.

On the other hand, In-dian Army and policelaunched a massive searchoperation in many villagesof the district includingDrugmulla, Chayelpati,Dogermohalla and Water-khani after the attack totrack down the assail-ants.—APP

JKLF chairmanpays homage tomartyrs of Kadal

ISLAMABAD—The Chairmanof Jammu and Kashmir Libera-tion Front (JKLF), MuhammadYasin Malik, has paid tributeto Sheikh Abdul Hameed andother martyrs of Aali Kadal.

Sheikh Abdul Hameedalong with his associates,Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Advo-cate Jamil Chawdhry, FayazAhmad Sheikh, MushtaqAhmad Kuttay, MustaqAhmad khan and GhulamMuhammad was martyred byIndian troops at Aali Kadal inSrinagar on November 19,1992.

Yasin Malik said in a state-ment that the Kashmiris couldnot forget the sacrifices ren-dered by the martyrs and theywould always rememberthose who laid down theirlives for the Kashmir cause.

“In connection with themartyrdom anniversary of AlliKadal martyrs, a condolencemeeting will be held at Mar-tyrs’ Graveyard, Eidgah inSrinagar on Tuesday in whichJKLF leaders, friends and ad-mirers of martyrs will partici-pate and pay their homage tothem,” he said.

He said that on the sameday, a blood donation campwould be organized under thebanner of Hameed BloodBank at Aabi Guzar from 11:00AM onwards and JKLF lead-ers, activists and other peoplewould donate blood for thewelfare of humanity.—APP

SRINAGAR—Influential po-litico-religious organizationJamaat-e-Islami came in sup-port of Hurriyat Conference(G) Chairman Syed AliGeelani and categoricallystated that it would not par-ticipate in the 2014 Assem-bly and Parliament electionsin Jammu and Kashmir.

Jamaat-e-Islami ChiefMuhammad Abdullah Wanitold CNS that it has asked itscadre to stay away fromforthcoming elections.

“Jamaat has asked itscadres to stay away fromforthcoming parliamentaryand Assembly elections inthe State. We appeal peopleof Kashmir to boycott theelections as they did in thepast,” Wani said.

JI not to participate inforthcoming IHK polls

He said it is policy ofJamaat to stay away from thepolls since 1987 and this timealso they will adhere to thispolicy. “Jamaat will boycottthe elections but it will notstart anti-election campaignas it has limited time to do so.Propagation of religion is ourbasic priority but as Kashmiri,we support Kashmir causeand favour its immediate reso-lution,” Wani said.

He said Jamaat favoursimplementation of UN reso-lutions on Kashmir. “In caseIndia does not do so then itshould include Kashmirileadership in any result ori-ented dialogue process.”

“I do agree with MirwaizUmar Farooq that Kashmirissue could be resolved ei-

ther through UN resolutionsor triangular dialogue. How-ever, any dialogue betweenIndia and Pakistan will be fu-tile unless Kashmiri leader-ship are involved in the exer-cise and their aspirationshonoured,” Jamaat chief said.

Jamaat-e-Islami ChiefMuhammad Abdullah Wanicastigated Government forpatronizing liquor trade inKashmir.

“We will soon convene aseminar in this regard andchalk out strategy to curbthis menace in our Valley,” hesaid and appealed religiousorganizations to find waysand means and saveKashmiri society from get-ting socially and morally de-graded.—NNI

Geelaniplaced underhouse arrest

SRINAGAR—Hurriyat Con-ference leader Syed Ali ShahGeelani has been placed un-der house arrest, two weeksafter authorities allowed himto move out of his Hyderporaresidence following eightmonths of curbs.

“Geelani was placed underhouse arrest last evening anda posse of police personnel hasbeen deployed outside his resi-dence at Hyderpora to preventhim from moving out,” aspokesman of the Geelani-ledHurriyat said.

He said the Hurriyathawk was scheduled to ad-dress a public ral ly atPalhallan in volatile Pattantown in north Kashmir ’sBaramulla district.

When asked about themove, a police spokesmandeclined to comment whiledistr ict magistrate,Srinagar, could not bereached.—INP

NEW DELHI—People’sDemocratic Party chiefMehbooba Mufti hasstressed the need for creatinga congenial atmospherewherein democratic institu-tions are seen by Kashmirisin the same light as in the restof India.

“What is good for rest ofthe country should be con-sidered good for Kashmiralso,” she said, adding itcould be achieved onlythrough restoring credibilityof the system.

Interacting with media-persons at the Foreign Corre-spondents Club here, she re-ferred to a recent electoral re-form providing for a new op-tion whereby voters can pressthe NOTA button to reject allcandidates. Describing it as agood measure, she wonderedwhy this was being viewedskeptically by some people inKashmir.

However, to a pointedquestion whether the NOTAprovision, in the context ofJammu and Kashmir, would

Restore Kashmiris’ credibilityin institutions: Mehbooba

be used to manipulate the elec-toral process, she replied innegative. But she insisted thatproper conditions be createdby restoring confidence of thepeople in the system.

Further elaborating on thetheme, she said that stepsshould be taken to ensure thatKashmir experiences properdemocracy in its true spirit.“No attempt should be madeto fudge democracy,” sheobserved.

Mufti ruled out support-ing either Narendra Modi orthe NDA in the formation ofgovernment at the Centre.This observation came in thebackdrop of her praise forformer Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee’s peace ef-forts towards Pakistan.

Significantly, Muftipraised efforts made by thethen Prime Minister Vajpayeein holding peace talks withPakistan and felt that dialogueshould be continued with thesame spirit to resolve Kash-mir issue.

She strongly felt that the

mindset in Delhi towardsKashmir should change andpeople should admit that thereis a problem in Kashmir. Thereis a section of the populationwhich is committed to a par-ticular thinking but the ques-tion arises that why suchthought process was allowedto further foment.

Referring to the PDP’scharter for irrelevant bordersand self-rule, she said thatthese ideas germinated out ofher party’s chief patron MuftiMuhammad Sayed’s experi-ence over the decades. Sheinsisted that the reports of thefive working groups set up bythe Centre were all about self-rule. “It is unfortunate thatthese reports have not beenimplemented,” she said.

Reiterating that the think-ing of people in rest of thecountry about Kashmir shouldchange, she wondered whythe human rights violations ofKashmiris are not talked aboutin the same spirit as has hap-pened in the case of Sri LankanTamils.—NNI

AAC condemns siege aroundhistoric Jamia Masjid

SRINAGAR—Terming thehouse arrest of Huriyat (M)Chairman Mirwaiz UmarFarooq as ‘worst’ form of ‘au-thoritarian rule, Jammu andKashmir Awami Action Com-mittee (AAC) has con-demned the siege of historicJamia Masjid, Srinagar

In a statement, AAC saidit was a planned unsuccess-ful conspiracy of authoritiesto put Mirwaiz under housearrest so as to stop the spreadof Islamic teachings, stop so-

cial reforms according to Is-lamic teaching, and to weakenthe peoples resolve for free-dom struggle. “Such dirtytactics would never be al-lowed to succeed.”

AAC has also expressedregret and shock over theauthorities preventing thecenturies old practice of pay-ing rich tributes to theQarbala martyrs at AlamSahab (RA) Shrine Narwara.“The committee saidKashmir’s political and social

rights were already violatedand now authorities wereusurping their political rights.It said such an act was intol-erable and condemnable in allrespects,” reads the issuedstatement.

Meanwhile, MirwaizUmar Farooq has thanked allthe Hurriyat leaders, schol-ars, Ulemas and people whoparticipated in Ashura pro-cessions and maintained theage old tradition of sectarianbonhomie.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Senior pro-free-dom leader and DemocraticFreedom Party (DFP) chairmanShabbir Ahmed Shah has saidthat our stand on Kashmir is-sue is clear and it should ei-ther be resolved as per UNResolutions or through tripar-tite talks.

Kashmir issue was taken tothe United Nations SecurityCouncil by the then IndianPrime Minister PanditJawaharlal Nehru himself, hesaid.

In a statement, Shah said

Indian rulers breached theirpledges with Kashmiris: Shabbir

Indian rulers breached theirpledges with Kashmiri peopleand showed disinterest in re-solving such a longstandingissue and suppressed the voiceof people by the dint of force.

“But Kashmiri peoplenever gave up their struggle;instead thousands of peoplehave laid down their lives forthis cause and thousands suf-fered illegal harassment andwere subjected to illegal deten-tions,” he said.

Shah said that we ex-pressed satisfaction over the

tripartite talks but it is unfortu-nate that whenever dialogueprocess is started, India showsits stubbornness and disinter-est in resolving this issue.

“It is because of the factthat India declines to considerKashmir as a dispute. It treatsKashmir as an internal issue,”he further said.

Blaming mainstream partiesof following the interests ofNews Delhi over that of Kash-mir, Shah said that these par-ties are playing a double gamewith Kashmiris.—NNI

Murder accusedDutch prisonerembraces Islam

SRINAGAR—A Dutch na-tional accused of murderinga British woman at in ahouseboat in Srinagar hasembraced Islam in Central Jail.

43-year-old Dutch touristDe-wit Richard recitedKalima- a sentence to agreeto oneness of Allah and theprophethood of Muhammad(pbuh), in the Central Jail,where he has been lodgedafter he was arrested for mur-dering a British tourist.

He has taken the nameMohammad Abdullah. Hecertainly accepted Islam ofhis own free-will after mak-ing a thorough search intovarious religions of the world,sources said. His critical in-vestigations did reveal tohim the truth of Islam, theyadded.—NNI

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK Senior Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin talking to advi-sor to president Raja Sajid Hussain Khan.

Gold Tezab 47142.00Silver Tezabi 788.75

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 46030.00Gold 22 Ct 42090.00SilverTezabi 789.00Silver Thobi 760.00

USA 105.40 105.20

UK 169.96 169.64

EURO 142.60 142.33

Canada 103.11 102.92

Switzerland 115.56 115.34

Australia 100.05 99.86

Sweden 16.56 16.52

Japan 1.0706 1.0686

Norway 18.11 18.08

Singapore 84.70 84.54

Denmark 19.12 19.09

Omani Riyal 256.00 253.00

Saudi Arabia 28.10 28.05

Hong Kong 13.59 13.57

Kuwait 371.93 371.22

Malaysia 33.33 33.26

Newzeland 88.47 88.30

Qatar 28.95 28.90

UAE 28.70 28.64

KR WON 0.0985 0.0983

Thailand 3.398 3.391

SCTDA laudsnew Al Majaz

propertyDUBAI—Al Majaz PremiereHotel Apartments is a wel-come and valuable additionto Sharjah’s growing hotelindustry, said Mohamed AliAl Noman, chairman of theSharjah Commerce andTourism Development Au-thority, or SCTDA.

He was speaking duringhis visit on Saturday to AlMajaz Premiere Hotel Apart-ments, the latest hotel prop-erty in the emirate that is setto open its doors to gueststhis week.

Al Noman was accom-panied by Khalid Jasim AlMidfa, director-general ofthe SCTDA, and other seniorofficials from the authority.

Al Majaz Premiere Ho-tel Apartments is a 22-storeydeluxe hotel property with atotal of 75 apartments of one,two and three bedrooms withen-suite bathrooms designedwith the latest in modernamenities and comfort.

The SCTDA team wasreceived by Al Majaz Pre-miere management and wasbriefed about the hotel prop-erty and its various featuresand amenities. Speaking onthe occasion, Al Noman saidthat with its convenient lo-cation and world-classamenities and services, AlMajaz Premiere added valueto the emirate’s fast-growinghotel industry.

The SCTDA chairmansaid that Sharjah is actively en-couraging investments in thehospitality and tourism sectorto meet the growing demandfrom its increasing tourist popu-lation. He said that the emiratewould in near future see manymore such world-class hotelsand projects grace its skyline toserve international visitors, inaddition to massive ecotourismprojects.—Agencies

Noor Islamic Bankoffers off-plan

realty financingDUBAI—The service makesNoor the only bank in theUAE to offer financing op-tions on off-plan projects.

Noor Islamic Bank hasrolled out attractiveShariah-compliant home fi-nance solutions for off-planproperties to non-UAE resi-dents across the region, aswell as potential investorsworldwide seeking a sec-ond home in the UAE orlooking for rewarding in-vestment options. The ser-vice makes Noor the onlybank in the UAE to offerfinancing options on off-plan projects.

Home finance is pro-vided at a profit rate of 5.75per cent for both purchasesand buyouts of ready and off-plan properties. Potential in-vestors that are residents ofthe GCC and most G-20countries can obtain financefor up to 65 per cent of thevalue on ready properties and50 per cent on off-plan prop-erties, with a maximum fi-nance amount of up to Dh5million.—Agencies

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

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

Currency Selling Buying

Bullion Rates

RS PER 10 GRAMS

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The UnitedStates is ready to cooperate withPakistan for entrepreneurshipdevelopment in the country toput it on the path of sustainableeconomic growth, said Advisorto US President on Entrepre-neurship and Founding Manag-ing Director of MIT Entrepre-neurship Center Ken Morse onSunday.

“Entrepreneurship offersbest option to Pakistan for en-gaging its youth in productiveactivities and to create morejobs,” he said while addressingthe business community here.

He said Pakistan should cel-ebrate entrepreneurship day tocreate awareness in society andmotivate its youth for becomingentrepreneurs.

He was of the view that Pa-kistan should focus on encour-aging its youth towards entre-preneurship to help them haverespectable jobs and help pro-mote economic growth.

Ken Morse is member of a

US ready to help Pakistan inentrepreneurship development

delegation visiting Pakistan. Theother delegation members in-clude Jason Pontin Editor inChief MIT Technology Review,Ms. Deirdre Coyle Co CEO ofAll World Network.

The delegation membersalong with Azhar Rizvi Chair-man FPCCI Standing Commit-tee on Innovation visitedIslamabad Chamber of Com-merce and Industry to discussthe importance of entrepreneur-ship development for Pakistan.

Morse said 65 per cent ofsmall hotels and single personstores in the US were owned bySouth Asians, which showedthat they had great potential forthis profession.

Speaking on the occasion,ICCI President Shaban Khalidbriefed the delegation about theICCI activities for entrepreneur-ship and youth development.

He said ICCI had formed aYoung Entrepreneurs Forum(YEF) to focus on encouragingyouth towards entrepreneurshipadding YEF organizes work-shops, trainings and mentorship

programs for youth developmentas well as promotes the network-ing of young entrepreneurs at lo-cal and international level.

The YEF recently organizedan Indo-Pak Young Entrepre-neurs Bilateral at Islamabad topromote linkages in youth ofboth countries, he said addingboth the sides signed a jointstatement which also declared toestablish a Peace University topromote people-to-people rela-tions between the two countries.

Jason Pontin, Editor inChief of MIT Technology Re-view, said entrepreneurship hadbeen identified as one of themost important vehicles for eco-nomic wellbeing of individualsand communities and added thatMIT Enterprise Forum Pakistan(MITEFP) had been establishedto develop an entrepreneurialeco-system in the country.

He was of the view that fos-tering entrepreneurship in Paki-stan would create greater employ-ment, growth and competitivenessin the country and engage youthin economic activities.

He said,” We are planningto start MIT Technology Reviewin Pakistan and its publicationwill highlight Pakistani entre-preneurs’ success stories at in-ternational level giving them aninternational exposure.”

Ms Deirdre Coyle Co, ChiefExecutive Officer of All WorldNetwork, said Pakistan hadgreat potential for entrepreneur-ship and “we are trying to putPakistani companies on globalstage by announcing the rank-ing of 100 fastest growing com-panies of Pakistan.”

This would help Pakistanicompanies to get internationalrecognition and we want toshow the world that Pakistan isvery much open to business andhelp change perception about it,she added.

She hoped that joining theAll World ranking, Pakistanicompanies would get global vis-ibility, attract new customers,investors and talent all over theworld and become part of a pres-tigious group of successful en-trepreneurs.

LAHORE—A project has beenapproved to set up an SME clubat a cost of Rs 100 million forthe promotion of industrial sec-tor and small and medium en-terprises (SMEs).

Over 10,000 SMEs willbenefit from the club, saidhead of E-Business Director-ate SMEDA, Salman Khalid,talking to APP here on Sun-day.

He said the project wouldhelp SMEs to get informationand share knowledge about busi-ness ventures inside the countryand in international markets.The club will also enable themto get research based reports ondifferent topics of their interest,he added.

Rs100m SMEsclub approved

In this regard,, SalmanKhalid said, mobile short mes-saging service (SMS) alertswould also be available toSMEs. Facilities and discountson software development, cou-rier services and other valueadded services will also be ar-ranged for business entrepre-neurs through the SMEs club, hesaid.

The club will be formed bythe end of January, he said. Hesaid that SMEDA was workingto enable SMEs to face globalchallenges by adopting mostmodern techniques.

The club will also make ar-rangements for internationalfairs and exhibitions, headded.—APP

Businessmen urgedto provide skill dev

opportunitiesto youth

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Member of theNational Assembly (MNA)Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh has urgedbusinessmen to provide oppor-tunities to the youth for gettingexperience and skill develop-ment.

He said the youth would getloan facility as announced byPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif, toinitiate small business for thebenefit of their families.

He said that starting busi-ness without experience andskill development could not pro-duce results in any field.

Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh saidthat corporate sector should re-alize the responsibility and helpthe youth in developing skillsand getting experience in thebusiness sector.

Talking to Pakistan Televi-sion, he appreciated the PrimeMinister’s scheme for grantingloan to the youth at low markup rate to start small businesses.

He said that providing loanfacility on easy terms and con-ditions to the youth would helpstrengthen the economy, besidesreducing the focus of people ongovernment jobs.

Metro Kaufhofchain gains fromKarstadt troublesFRANKFURT—German depart-ment store chain Kaufhof is ben-efiting from troubles at rivalchain Karstadt and is not inter-ested in a merger with its com-petitor, Kaufhof boss LovroMandac told a magazine.

“The customers are alsoaware of the problems atKarstadt and that has certainlybrought us sales,” Focus maga-zine quoted Mandac as sayingon Saturday, as retailers gear upfor Christmas.

Businessman NicolasBerggruen rescued heavily-in-debted Karstadt from insolvencyin 2010 but has come under firefrom union representatives inrecent months over pay propos-als for employees and for notinvesting enough in the chain.

Services union Verdi thisweek said there had beenprogress in pay talks withKarstadt management, diminish-ing the prospect of strikes head-ing into the all-important Christ-mas sales season.—Agencies

Cash remainsking in UAE

DUBAI—Although mobilephones, laptop or other elec-tronic devices are increasinglybeing used to make payments,cash remains king in the UAEand in most markets around theworld.

According to FrancescoBurelli of Value Partners, cashstill accounts for approximately85 per cent of total consumer orretail payments globally.

“It is still the vastly pre-dominant payment instrument inuse. There are a number of rea-sons for this, ranging from fa-miliarity and habit, to the factthat often cash is preferred be-cause it enables tax evasion dueto its anonymous and not di-rectly-auditable nature,” he said.“This is the case in every geog-raphy, including low-tax envi-ronments like the UAE, for ex-ample in the case of small en-terprises,” he added.—Agencies

NEW YORK—Forbes Media,famous for tracking the wealthof billionaires across the globe,will now get to see how muchits 96-year-old brand, dented bythe rise of digital media, mightfetch in the marketplace.

The New York-based pub-lisher of Forbes magazine andForbes.com hired DeutscheBank to examine a sale afterreceiving interest from poten-tial buyers, according to amemo sent to employees bychief executive officer MikePerlis.

The announcement followsyears of dwindling profits as thefounding Forbes family, a pio-neer in business journalism,tried to stabilise its fortune byselling a stake in 2006, raisingmoney through asset sales in-cluding its Manhattan headquar-ters building, and moving ag-gressively into digital publish-ing.

While Forbes is seeking atleast $400 million in a sale, ac-cording to a person familiar withthe matter, the company willstruggle to land more than $200million, another person said.

Forbes brand to be tested ascompany explores sale

The people asked not to be iden-tified discussing a private mat-ter.

Among potential buyers arebillionaires who have been en-amored of Forbes ever since itbegan ranking the world’s rich,according to Stewart Pinkerton,who wrote about the family inhis 2011 book “The Fall of theHouse of Forbes.”

“The thought has alwaysbeen that some rich guy in theMiddle East, or some guy inHong Kong, or a Russian oli-garch would buy it,” he said inan interview.

Billionaires have snappedup other well-known mediaproperties this year.Amazon.com founder JeffBezos acquired the WashingtonPost for $250 million, and Bos-ton Red Sox owner John Henrypaid $70 million for the BostonGlobe.

Bloomberg News, whichpublishes its own ranking of theworld’s billionaires, competeswith Forbes.

B.C. Forbes founded thenamesake magazine in 1917 andit prospered under his son

Malcolm, becoming a championof capitalism and a showcase forAmerican wealth — includingMalcolm’s. Steve, B.C.’s grand-son, ascended to president andCEO of Forbes and editor-in-chief of the magazine in 1990.He twice ran unsuccessfully forUS president as a Republicancandidate in the 1996 and 2000primaries.

While the company pros-pered during the dot-com boom,the subsequent bust in 2000 andmigration of advertising fromprint to online sites slammed itsfinances.

The Forbes family sold offits collection of Faberge eggs,Victorian art and a raft of high-end real estate including a171,400-acre ranch in Coloradothat sold for $175 million. NewYork University bought its head-quarters in 2010, home to Forbessince 1962.

The family got a $400million buyout offer fromfashion publisher Conde Nastin 2004, which it turned downbecause i t wasn’t highenough, according toPinkerton’s book.—Agencies

KARACHI—Four ships arrivedat the Port to load/ offload con-tainers at QICT, cement at MW-II, project cargo at MW-IV,chemical at EVTL on Novem-ber 16, 2013, Port sources saidhere on Sunday.

Berth occupancy wasmaintained at 57% at the Porton Saturday where a total ofseven ships namely M.V KPS-I Alican BEY- Powership, M.VCMB Coralie, M.V AlamSayang, M.V Tian Wang Xing,M.V MSC Kerry, M.T ZaoGalaxy, M.T SEA Ambition,M.V Lito, are currently occu-pying berths to load/ offload,

Shipping activityat Port Qasim

containers, cement, projectcargo, paim oil, chemical, sun-flower seed.

Cargp handling oparationswere carried out smoothly at thePort where a cargo volume of56238 tonnes comprising 25261tonnes import, 30977 tonnesexport and (2383) TUEs washandled at the Port during thelast 24 hours.

M.T Zao Galaxy sailed onSaturday afternoon. M.V TianWang Xing sailed on Sundaymorning.

M.T Stolt Viking at EVTLarrived on November 17, 2013as per arrival schedule.—APP

PERTH—Australia and NewZealand Banking Group Ltdsaid on Sunday it had approvalfrom Chinese authorities to setup a sub-branch in the newShanghai free-trade zone, fol-lowing several other major in-ternational lenders into the pi-lot project.

ANZ, the most Asia-fo-cused of Australia’s four largestlenders, will offer a range ofbanking products to companiesin the free-trade zone, in bothyuan and foreign currencies. Thebank plans to open the sub-branch in 2014.

ANZ Bank wins approval forsub-branch in Shanghai

The free-trade zone, whichcovers an area of nearly 29 sqkm on the eastern outskirts ofShanghai, was launched in lateSeptember.

“We look forward to con-tributing to its success by sup-porting cross border trade andinvestment flows, as well as pro-moting the development ofRMB (renminbi) financial mar-kets,” Charles Li, Chief Execu-tive of ANZ China, said in astatement.

Australia’s third-largestbank by market value followsDeutsche Bank, Citibank, DBS,

Hang Seng Bank, HSBC andBank of East Asia in receivingapprovals to start operations inthe pilot free trade zone.

China’s State Council saidit would open up its largely shel-tered services sector to foreigncompetition in the zone and useit as a testing ground for re-forms, including a convertibleyuan and liberalised interestrates. ANZ has stood apart fromits Australian rivals by seekingto position itself as a pan-Asianplayer. It has been in China since1986 and was locally incorpo-rated in 2010.—Agencies

WELLINGTON—The NewZealand government confirmedSunday the partial sell-off ofnational flag carrier Air NewZealand to local and offshoreinstitutions. It did not say howmuch it expected to raise fromthe long-expected sale but mar-ket analysts have previouslyforecast about NZ$400 million(US$330 million).

The government will reduceits holding from 73 percent to 53percent in the sale which will com-mence on Monday, Finance Min-ister Bill English said. “We expectthe transaction to be completed byTuesday evening,” added English,without saying who might buy theshares. Craigs Investment Partners,Deutsche Bank and GoldmanSachs have been appointed to un-dertake the transaction and work

NZ govt confirmspartial Air sale

with New Zealand stockbrokers.Air New Zealand, which is listedon both the New Zealand and Aus-tralian stock exchanges (NZX andASX), has been trading in recentweeks around a five-year high andclosed in New Zealand on Fridayat NZ$1.65. The airline said itwould request a trading halt on thetwo exchanges while the sale pro-cess was carried out.

“Shareholding sell-downsof this type are typically con-ducted off-market when thecompany’s shares are not trad-ing on a stock exchange, to en-sure the company’s share priceis not affected by speculativetrading,” English said.

“We expect Air NewZealand’s shares to resume trad-ing on the NZX and ASX onWednesday.”—Agencies

WASHINGTON—JPMorganChase & Co has reached a $4.5billion settlement with investorswho said the bank deceivedthem about bad mortgage invest-ments.

The settlement covers 21major institutional investors,including competitor GoldmanSachs, BlackRock FinancialManagement and MetropolitanLife Insurance. The mortgage-backed securities were sold byJPMorgan — the biggest USbank — and Bear Stearns be-tween 2005 and 2008.

The deal is the latest in aseries of legal settlements overJPMorgan’s sales of mortgage-backed securities in the yearspreceding the financial crisis. As

JPMorgan settles for$4.5b with investors

the housing market collapsedbetween 2006 and 2008, mil-lions of homeowners defaultedon high-risk mortgages.

That led to billions of dol-lars in losses for investors whobought securities created frombundles of mortgages. Thosesecurities were sold byJPMorgan and other big WallStreet banks.

New York-based JPMorganhas said that most of its mort-gage-backed securities camefrom investment bank BearStearns and savings and loanWashington Mutual, troubledcompanies that JPMorgan ac-quired in 2008.

Separately, JPMorgan hasbeen negotiating with the US

Justice Department to settle acivil inquiry into its sales ofmortgage-backed securities. Thebank reached a tentative deal lastmonth to pay $13 billion, but thenegotiations have hit a stum-bling block.

As part of the $13 billiondeal, $4 billion will resolve USgovernment claims thatJPMorgan misled mortgage fi-nance giants Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac about risky mort-gage-backed securities. Thatpart of the deal was announcedon October 25.

Still to be decided is whetherthe Justice Department will filecriminal charges againstJPMorgan in the mortgage se-curities debacle.—Agencies

ISLAMABAD: President ICCI Shaban Khalid expressing views on the importance of pro-moting entrepreneurship in Pakistan.

China to expandfarmers’ land right’s

BEIJING—In the biggest expan-sion of economic freedoms sinceat least the 1990s, China’s lead-ers vowed to expand farmers’land rights, loosen the one-childpolicy and encourage privateinvestment in state businesses.

Couples can have two chil-dren if either parent is an onlychild, the Communist Party saidin a statement fleshing out poli-cies set at a four-day conclavethis month. Farmers will getmore rights over collectivelyowned rural land, while thehousehold registration systemthat impedes internal migrationwill be scrapped in towns andsmall cities.

The new leadership ofPresident Xi Jinping and Pre-mier Li Keqiang, installed inMarch, is accelerating an un-winding of Communist Partyeconomic policies that origi-nated during or shortly after thereign of Chairman MaoZedong. The party needs to fuelgrowth to cement its grip onpower in the face of economicheadwinds ranging from local-government debt to an ageingpopulation that is set to shrinkthe nation’s workforce.

“The bottom line is thatthere’s a sweeping reform plan,”said Wang Tao, a Hong Kong-based economist for UBS who

formerly worked for the Inter-national Monetary Fund. “Atleast from the blueprint, it seemsvery exciting.”

The family-planning policy,put in place three years afterMao’s death in 1976, was in-tended to alleviate poverty. It hassaddled the nation with a declin-ing labour force: The UnitedNations estimates that the num-ber of 15- to 24-year-olds, themainstay of factories that drovegrowth for two decades, willshrink by about 67 million by2030. Under the current policy,couples are only allowed to havea second child if both parents areonly children..—Agencies

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s Am-bassador to Thailand Dr SohailKhan on Sunday said that thevisit of Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif toThailand would accelerate eco-nomic activity in the area.

Talking to Pakistan Tele-vision, he said that the PrimeMinister ’s visit would en-hance relations between thetwo countries in agriculture,defence, information technol-ogy and telecommunicationsectors.

He said that vast opportuni-ties were available in differentsectors of Pakistan including

PM’s Thailand visit toboost economic activity

agriculture and telecommunica-tion.

He said that the Asia-Pacificsummit would boost businessactivity in the region. The am-bassador said that businesscouncil and investors meetingswould also be held to discussways for improving trade in theregion.

Dr Sohail Khan said that anumber of products could beexported to Thailand, whichwould increase business vol-ume. Replying to a question,he said that different businessdelegations, including LahoreChamber of Commerce and In-dustry would soon visit Thai-land.

Textile exporterswelcome end oftruckers’ strike

OBSERVER REPORT

FAISALABAD—Textile export-ers Sunday welcomed the end ofgoods transporters’ strike thatwas not only causing delay ofinland supplies and export con-signments but also incurring bil-lions of rupees loss to thecountry’s economy. Talking tonewsmen here, Sheikh IlyasMahmood, chairman, and AdilTahir, vice chairman PakistanTextile Exporters Association,appreciated the efforts of thegovernment to end the goodstransporters’ strike in order tosave economy from the loss ofbillions of dollars.

The industry was facingshortage of raw materials forpast 10 days and goods whichwere to be exported to Europeand other countries in the eve ofChristmas and New Year werewithheld as truck owners wereobserving strike against the ram-pant incidents of theft, extortion,and frequent challans ofmotorway police, they added.They said that the economic ac-tivities had come to a grindinghalt due to the strike while anumber of industrial units werefast heading towards closure dueto non availability of raw mate-rials.

They appreciated the gov-ernment to take matter of goods’transporters strike seriously andsolve the issue on war footingas non availability of industrialgoods was hampering the eco-nomic activities and exporterswere not be able to fulfill theircommitments with their foreignbuyers. There were hundreds ofcontainers parked at ports forclearance and transportation onone hand and on the other theforeign buyers were cancellingthe orders, they said.

They appreciated the PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif, FederalMinister for Finance SenatorIshaq Dar and Federal Ministerfor Ports and Shipping KamranMicheal for considering thegenuine demands of goodstransporters in the greater inter-est of the country and to revivethe economic activities. ThePTEA also urged the govern-ment to adopt pro economicmeasures to avoid such type ofstrikes in the future.

Siemens chairmanplans to stayuntil 2018

FRANKFURT—Siemens chair-man Gerhard Cromme plans tostay in his post until his con-tract ends in 2018, Germanmagazine Focus reported onSaturday, saying he had madehis intention clear to close col-leagues inside the engineeringconglomerate.

The magazine said therehad been increasing speculationthat the 70-year-old might stepdown from office early, aftercritics argued his departurewould afford the company afresh start.

Cromme, in contrast, seeshis chairmanship as adding tocontinuity and stability at Si-emens, the magazine said.

Siemens has been reshapingits management organisationunder Chief Executive JoeKaeser, who took over in Julyafter the company dumpedformer chief Peter Loescher fouryears before the end of his con-tract, following a series of profitwarnings. A Siemens spokes-man declined comment.—Agencies

KARACHI: Rafay Salahuddin giving away winning trophy to BV SPC High School team.

ISLAMABAD: Young boys busy in a cricket proactice session at a local park.

KARACHI—Skipper ImadWasim led from the front witha fighting unbeaten centuryto guide Islamabad to 274-7in their first innings againstLahore Shalimar on the firstday of their four-day fourthround Group II match of theQuaid-e-Azam Trophy 2013-14 at the Diamond ClubGround here.

The left-hander smashed106 to propel the hosts to arespectable total with threewickets still in hand after opt-ing to bat first.

He added 66 runs for thefifth wicket with MoedAhmad, who scored 34.

Earlier, opener AfaqRahim belted 38 with fourfours and Faizan Riaz made29 with five hits to the fence.Waqar Ahmed (2-78),Mohammad Saeed (2-58) andMohammad Irfan (2-29)bowled impressively.

At the Iqbal Stadium inFaisalabad, Naseer Akram

Imad hits ton tolift Islamabad

picked 5-58 and AdnanMunir captured 2-36 to helpFaisalabad dismiss Quetta for167 in their first innings.

Opener Mohibullah top-scored with 39. Umar Qasimcracked 37 off 36 balls. TaimurKhan made 35. Faisalabadwere at 31-2 in response.

At the Multan CricketStadium, Multan dismissedHyderabad for 227 in theirfirst innings.

Haris Khan hammered 58with seven fours. The left-hander put on 114 runs forthe fourth wicket with wicket-keeper Zafar Ali, who made45 with six fours.

Aamir Yamin was the pickof the bowlers with figuresof 4-41.

He was supported byHaziq Habibullah (3-61) andMohammad Rameez (3-64).

Multan, in reply, were at14-2.

In a Group I clash, Sialkotwere at 221-5 in their first in-

nings against Rawalpindi atthe Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot.

Faisal Khan smashed fine84 with 15 fours. Nabeel Malikbanged eight fours in his 45-ball 42, while Naved Sarwarwas at the crease on 53 inwhich he had hit seven fours.Left-arm pacer Nasir Malikgot 3-56.

At the Arbab Niaz Sta-dium, Peshawar, openerIsrarullah slammed 101 andSajjad Ahmed belted 88 toenable Peshawar to reach317-6 in their first inningsagainst Abbottabad atstumps after opting to batfirst.

At the LCCA Ground inLahore, Lahore Ravi were at278-9 in their first inningsagainst Bahawalpur after de-ciding to bat first.

Jehangir Mirza hit glori-ous 116 while Zeeshan Alimade 46. Abdul Rehman got3-54, while Afraseem Hussainpicked 2-61.—APP

SHAelectionstomorrow

KARACHI—The elections ofSindh Hockey Associations(SHA) will be held at HockeyClub of Pakistan on Tuesdayfrom 10 a.m. onward, SindhElection CommissionerLatafat Hussain Shah an-nounced on Sunday.

Representatives fromten district hockey associa-tions of interior of Sindhand four from Karachi willcast their votes in the elec-tions.

The elections for SindhWomen’s Hockey Associa-t ion wil l be held onWednesday after 11.00 a.m.at same venue on Wednes-day.—APP

Taimur electedSecretary AsiaPacific Golf

LAHORE—Pakistan earned ahuge honour as TaimurHassan, Vice President ofPakistan Golf Federation waselected as the Secretary ofAsia Pacific Golf Confedera-tion in the election held in thecity of Changrai in Thailand.

A total of 38 countriestook part in the election andTaimur Hassan’s successbrings good tidings for golfin Pakistan and in the AsiaPacific region. TaimurHassan will be responsiblefor golf development andpromotion in the Asia Pacificand he will hold this portfo-lio for a period of two years.

Speaking on the phone,Taimur said that “For me andfor my country it is a bighonour as I have beenelected to respectable posi-tion in the Asian body and Iwill endeavour to bring inter-national golf to my country“, he said. David Cherry ofAustralia was elected as thePresident of Asia Pacific GolfConfederation.—APP

LAHORE—In what can becharitably termed a bizarreoccurrence, the PCB headNajam Sethi donned his otherhat as a journalist on Satur-day night and interviewedPakistan’s captain Misbah-ul-Haq on his political TVshow, Aapas ki Baat.

Sethi asked Misbah allthe questions a growingnumber of critics have beenasking as the team hasstumbled its way through thelimited-overs leg of the SouthAfrica series in the UAE:about the general troublesPakistan has been havingwith the batting, aboutMisbah’s own approach andthe influence it has had onyounger batsmen, aboutMisbah’s preferences forspecific combinations andhis inability to win games.Misbah answered whatevercame his way.

But the very fact that asitting board head was usinghis own alternative platformas a journalist to allow a cap-tain is bound to raise furtherquestions about the conflictof interest inherent in Sethi’sdual roles. There is nothingamiss about a chairman de-fending a captain of the side:as one cricket official pointedout, the Pakistan board couldhave recorded an in-house

Misbah interview raisesquestions on Sethi’s role

interview with Misbah andput it up on its website.

“The selection committeeand I as PCB chairman con-tinue to back Misbah as cap-tain despite the usual crit-ics,” Sethi told ESPNcricinfo.“He spoke to the media inLahore earlier and was grilledby them. But his critics raisedfresh questions, which is fairenough. So he was given achance on my live show toanswer his critics. This is amore effective way of com-municating than puttingsomething on a website.

“I don’t see anythingwrong in this. Some peren-nial naysayers say there is aconflict of interest. I say thiswas in the public interest. Ipersonally gained nothingfrom it. But cricket fans havebeen reassured that there ismore to the story than put outby some people. Surely thisis good for the motivationand cohesion of the PakistanCricket Team.”

But to use the platform ofone of Pakistan’s most popu-lar channels, when the chair-man happens to be one of itsleading anchors, brings backthose very questions thatwere asked when, for ex-ample, Geo Super (one of thechannels of the network) wasawarded broadcast rights to

Pakistan’s series against SriLanka in the UAE nextmonth. At the time, Sethi dis-missed accusations of a con-flict by claiming that the bid-ding process was fair andwas carried out by a neutral,independent arbitrator in theform of former ICC PresidentEhsan Mani.

Sethi’s own position ashead of the Interim Manage-ment Committee (IMC) - andde facto board head - that iscurrently running the boardis on shaky ground. The PCBis the subject of a convolutedand ongoing legal dispute inthe Islamabad High Court(IHC) in which one judge hasrepeatedly tried to disbandthe board and bring in a newchairman via an election pro-cess. Essentially Sethi’s ad-ministration is existing onborrowed time, from onecourt date to the next: the nexthearing is in the first week ofDecember.

Such a stunt is unlikelyto have gone unnoticed bycritics, or, in this case, peti-tioners who have filed casesagainst him. Sethi himself isambiguous about his dualroles.

In Abu Dhabi recently, hewas asked at a press confer-ence whether he intended tostay on as the board head

once the legal mess was over.His reply, particularly its de-nouement, was telling.

“I was asked by the PrimeMinister (Nawaz Sharif) tocome and clean up thismess,” he said of his appoint-ment in June this year. “I hadno idea how deep this messwas. I am only now begin-ning to understand it. But themore one understands it themore one realises a, how im-portant it is to clear up thismess and b, it’s not reallycricket, cricket is part of na-tionalism now. So thereforeif the courts allow me and thePM insists that I carry on, Iwill try and do my best. Butat the end of the day I am stilla media man.”

Similar conflicts of inter-est have arisen in the past,though never at the apex ad-ministrative level within thePCB. During the tenures ofTauqir Zia and ShaharyarKhan in the early 2000s, forexample, Ramiz Raja andAamer Sohail held seniorpositions in the board whilealso working as TV com-mentators (Sohail, briefly,was chief selector and acommentator). UltimatelyRaja resigned because ofthe conflict while Sohailwas removed for other rea-sons.—APP

KARACHI: Youngsters seen practising gymnastics at sea view.

K A R A C H I — P a k i s t a nHockey Federation (PHF) onSaturday announced 29probable players for the Jun-ior World Cup to be held inNew Delhi from December 6-15. The training camp ofthese players will begin atNational Hockey Stadium inLahore on November 18.

Camp commandantManzoor-ul Hassan will alsobe the head coach of the teamduring the tournament.

Olympians Anjum Saeedand Danish Kaleem will bethe assistant coaches.

Olympian Tahir Zaman,who is Consultant PHF Man-ager and head coach of Paki-stan senior hockey team, will

PHF announceprobables for

Junior World Cupalso accompany the team.

Probables: Mazhar Abbas(GK), Amin Yousaf (GK),Amjad Ali (GK), MuhammadKhalid, Syed Kashif Shah,Kashif Javed, Aleem Bilal,Muhammad Faisal Qadir,Zohaib Ashraf, MuhammadRizwan Jr, Muhammad Tousiq,Ammad Shakeel Butt, TasawarAbbas, Muhammad Mushtaq,Muhammad Sohaib,Muhammad Umair,Muhammad Umar Bhutta,Muhammad Dilber, Ali Shan,Ahmed Zubair, MuhammadSuleman, Muhammad Irfan,Hafiz Rizwan Ali, Arslan Qadir,Adnan Anwar, Ayub Ali,Rizwan Ali, Asad Bashir andAbdul Kareem Khan.—APP

LAHORE—For a batting line-up that is struggling and justarrived to play a series in whatis widely acknowledged oneof the toughest places tomake runs, Pakistan have anunusual amount of confi-dence. Mohammad Hafeez,their T20 captain, said theirshowing on this soil earlierthis year will serve as inspi-ration for the upcoming se-ries.

“We put up a good showin the shorter formats and webelieve in this part of theworld, we’ve done reason-ably well.,” Hafeez said aheadof the team’s first practicesession at the Wanderers inJohannesburg. Pakistan wonthe only Twenty20 that wasplayed - the first was a wash-out - by 95 runs and cameback twice in the ODI seriesto level it at two-all going intothe final match, which theylost.

What is perhaps moreimportant than how theycompeted in that series washow they batted. Hafeezstarred with a 51-ball 86 in theT20 to lead the side to vic-tory in that format, while there

Pakistan focus on batting improvementwere fifties from Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi and ImranFarhat. In their two ODI vic-tories of the tour, Pakistansuccessfully chased the tar-gets at hand.

None of that form wasevident in the way theyplayed recently in the UAE.Pakistan could not musterone score above 250 andalarming batting collapses -six for 17 to lose the first ODIby a single run. 3 for 17upfront to put themselves inno position to win the finalODI. They only mustered 98in the first T20, and then lostsix for 38 in the second. Theyhave left the impression thatthey will be easy pickings onspicy surfaces, and againstSouth Africa’s unforgivingattack.

Dav Whatmore admittedthat this is an area of con-cern. He has emphasised tohis charges the need to ap-ply themselves and showgreater patience and tem-perament.

“From the depths of vic-tory, we managed to losegames,” Whatmore said.“We’re painfully aware that

we need to keep our heads alittle longer and finishmatches. They know thetheory, we speak about thatall the time. They need tounderstand to take it one ballat a time.”

One player who seems tohave learned that is SohaibMaqsood. After debutingagainst Zimbabwe, he an-nounced himself in the re-cently concluded series inthe UAE as a clean strikerwho can hit the ball hard andwork it around as well.Whatmore celebratedMasqood’s coming of age as“one of the best positives,”of the last six weeks.

“We’ve all known that heis potentially a very goodplayer,” Whatmore said. “Hehas had some fitness issues,but anybody who drops 10kilograms is showing every-body he wants to play. We’reall very pleased for him.”

Now it will be up to therest to follow Maqsood’s ex-ample and display the typeof commitment that can helpPakistan rebuild their one-day side and plan for nextyear’s World T20.

“The more we practice,the more we can get goodcombinations before themega event,” Hafeez said.

An opposition like SouthAfrica, who are on an upwardcurve, will also help Pakistanmeasure their players devel-opment. The teams haveclashed 20 times across allformats this year and Hafeezadmitted it can get tedious,but said the familiarity canhelp Pakistan develop a yard-stick for their own progress.“When you play too muchwith each other, sometimesyou enjoy and sometimesyou are fed up. We are verymuch ready for this. We’reboth competitive enoughteams to make this a goodseries.”

Pakistan will have theedge on South Africa prepa-ration-wise. They will holdthree training session beforethe first T20 on Wednesday,while South Africa only re-group in Johannesburg onTuesday and will have asingle net. Rain is forecastfor match day, but bothteams will hope it staysaway.—APP

RAWALPINDI: Youngsters playing cricket in a market which was closed after clashbetween two groups.

It was perfecttime to retire,

says TendulkarMU M B A I—Newly-ret i redcricket legend SachinTendulkar said on Sundaythat it was the “perfect time”for him to leave the game af-ter his body began tostruggle with the physicalpressure.

The record-breakingbatsmen made a tearful finaldeparture from the field onSaturday after his 200th Testmatch, bringing to an end anunusually long and glitteringcareer spanning 24 years.

The 40-year-old, theworlds leading scorer in bothTest and one-day cricket anda national hero in India, saidhis body had told him that itwas time to put away his bat.

“I have had a lot of inju-ries. Its not easy to overcomeall those injuries,” he told re-porters in his hometownMumbai, where he playedhis final match.”

Somewhere in life andyou reach a stage when yourbody gives you a message,enough of this physical load.I think the body requires rest.

“The only batsman everto score 100 internationalcenturies, he admitted it was“becoming an effort” to com-plete training sessions.

“This is the perfect timeto leave the game,” he added.

With his last internationalcentury nearly three yearsago, some had suggestedTendulkars retirement shouldhave come sooner, but the“Little Master” bowed outwith his god-like popularityintact across India. The crowdat the Wankhede stadiumwept with him on Saturdayand deafeningly cheered hisname after the match againstthe West Indies came to aclose.—AFP

European Tour toreview Final Series asbig names miss out

DUBAI—The European Tourwill review the qualifyingrules for its Final Series afterthree of the circuit’s mostnotable golfers failed to com-pete in the season-ending fi-nale in Dubai, its chief execu-tive said on Sunday.

Struggling to keep upwith its richer U.S. rival asmore non-American playersopt to play primarily in theUnited States, the EuropeanTour introduced the four-tournament series this year,offering combined prizemoney of $30.5 million in asimilar format to the PGA’sFedExCup.

The four Final Seriesevents - two in Shanghai, theTurkish Airlines Open andthe DP World Tour Champi-onship.—AFP

CALIFORNIA: Andre Ward punches Edwin Rodriguez to a unanimous victory for the WBA super middleweightchampionship at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.

CHENNAI (India)—Norwe-gian sensation MagnusCarlsen resumes his quest fora maiden world chess crownon Monday after grabbing aformidable 4-2 lead at the half-way stage of his title duelwith reigning championViswanathan Anand.

Carlsen tilted the scalesin his favour with two con-secutive wins in the fifthand sixth games of the 12-round world championshipbeing played in Anand’shome city of Chennai afterthe first four games weredrawn.

The 22-year-old Norwe-gian, the current world num-ber one and pre-eventfavourite, needs two winsand a draw in the remaining

six games to seal the title heldby Anand since 2007.

With one point gained fora win and half a point for adraw, the pressure is onAnand as even five draws inthe rest of the match will en-able Carlsen reach the win-ning tally of 6.5 points.

If points are equal afterthe 12th game on November26, the match will be decidedby a tie-break or sudden-death on November 28.

“I wanted to capitalise onmy victory in the fifth gameand so pressed for anotherwin in the sixth,” Carlsen toldreporters after winning thesixth round late Saturday.

“I am obviously in a goodmood now. With six gamesto go, it is a healthy lead.”

Anand, who at 43 is 21years older than his rival,conceded it may need a mi-raculous turnaround to keephis chances alive.

“Losing the sixth gamewas a heavy blow, I won’tpretend otherwise,” the In-dian wizard said. “I have justgot to carry on. He has takenhis chances, I have also gotto do that.”

Indian chess experts heldout little hope for their com-patriot with grandmasterParimarjan Negi saying: “Itwill be very hard for him tocome back now.”

The total prize fund forthe title clash is about $2.24million with the winner get-ting 60 percent and the losertaking home the rest.—AFP

LOS ANGELES—Worldchampion Andre Ward madea triumphant return after a14-month layoff, downingDominican challenger EdwinRodriguez by unanimousdecision in a showdown ofunbeaten super middle-weight boxers.

Judges awarded Wardthe victory by scores of 118-106, 117-107, 116-108, boost-ing the US fighter’s recordto 27-0 while Rodriguez fellto 24-1.

The fight was the firstfor Ward in 14 months, thelongest break of his careerafter right shoulder surgeryin January.

Ward had already beenassured of keeping hisWorld Boxing Associationcrown because Rodriguezfailed to make weight, tip-

Ward stays unbeaten withunanimous decision win

ping the scales Friday at 170pounds, two pounds overthe weight division limit.

For failing to makeweight, Rodriguez was fined$200,000, half of that goingto Ward to boost his totaltake from the bout to $2 mil-lion and half to California’sboxing commission, leavingRodriguez with $800,000.

“In my first world cham-pionship fight, there’s no wayI wouldn’t make weight. I’m aprofessional,” Ward said.

“He didn’t even try tomake weight. He didn’t cometo win. He came to get luckyand hold and find a way towin.

“Against a fighter likethat, it’s not always going tobe a spectacular perfor-mance, but it’s nice to beback after 14 months and it

was a great performance.”Rodriguez tried in vain

to assert himself in the firstround and Ward took com-mand in the second and thirdwith strong jabs and bodyblows.

Referee Jack Reissstopped the fight early in thefourth round and warnedboth fighters about ques-tionable moves, sayingRodriguez was instigatingmuch of the trouble.

Reiss took two pointsfrom each man for unsports-manlike conduct and askedeach be fined.

“Jack set us straightright away,” Ward said.“Boxing is a tough enoughbusiness not to have to putup with illegal blows. I don’tmind if it’s accidental, but Idon’t like when it’s inten-

tional illegal blows. Jack putit right.”

Ward pounded the Do-minican with left hooks andhard rights to the head in thesixth round and continuedto fire punches beforeRodriguez and thwart anycounterattacks.

“He wants to win thelottery,” Ward said. “Evenwhen he’s hurt he is stilllooking for that one punchso you have to be smartabout it.”

Left hooks by Wardstung Rodriguez in the 10thand 12th rounds andRodriguez suffered a cutover his left eye on an acci-dental head butt with 83 sec-onds remaining in the lastround, but he was able tostay with the champion tothe bell.—AFP

BARCELONA (Spain)—Usain Bolt won the IAAFWorld Athlete of the Yearaward for the fourth timeSaturday after defending his100 and 200 meter gold med-als at last summer’s Olym-pic Games in London.

The Jamaican sprinter,who beat out American hur-dler Aries Merritt andKenyan runner DavidRudisha, had previouslywon the award in 2008, 2009,and 2011.

“For me this is a greathonor to win a fourth time. Ireally worked hard and I was

really focused this year. Thisseason was one of mytoughest. I had my ups anddowns, even though wedon’t like to talk aboutthem,” said Bolt, whothanked his coach and thefans at the Olympics.

Bolt, Felix named IAAFWorld Athletes of the Year

“The London gameswere magnificent. Fans werethere in the stadium from 10in the morning. I had neverseen anything like that.”

Sprinter Allyson Felix ofthe United States took homethe women’s award.

In 2003, Bolt and Felixwon the Rising Star awardsfor the most promisingyoung athletes of the year.

“Nine years ago I washere with Allyson, now I amback, that means I am gettingold, which is slightly worry-ing,” said the 26-year-oldBolt. “But I will continue to

work hard.” Felix won the 200-meter gold medal in Londonafter settling for silver fouryears earlier in Beijing.

“My biggest defeatshave come at the OlympicGames. After Beijing I wasdevastated, I had worked as

hard as possible but I cameup short,” she said. “But Idecided to rededicate myselfeven harder and it was ablessing in disguise. I wasable to work harder than everbefore and finally it all cametogether.”

The other finalists forthe women’s award wereNew Zealand shot putterValerie Adams and Britishheptathlete Jessica Ennis -both gold medalists in Lon-don.

Merritt won the Inspira-tion Award for his season,which included a gold medal

and a world record in the110-meter hurdles.

Rudisha, who wasnamed Athlete of the Year in2010, won the Performanceof the Year award for hisrecord-setting gold medalrun in the 800 meters.—AP

Advantage Carlsen in worldchess duel with Anand

LOS ANGELES: Brooklyn Nets’ Mason Plumlee, centre, jumps for a rebound afterTornike Shengelia, right, of Georgia, missed the shot during the first half of an NBAbasketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.

US riderCaselli dies inMexico crash

LA PAZ—American motor-cyclist Kurt Caselli was killedon Saturday during a desertraid race on the Baja Califor-nia peninsula after sufferingserious head injuries in a fall,organisers said.

The 30-year-old Califor-nian had been favourite towin the the SCORE Baja 1000race which was due to finishin La Paz, Bolivia.

He suffered fatal injurieswhen he fell off his KTMmachine as he chased downrace leader Colton Udal.

The SCORE Baja 1000 iscelebrating its 40th anniver-sary.—AFP

CO L O M B O —Offspinningallrounder RamithRambukwella and legspinnerSeekkuge Prasanna havebeen named in Sri Lanka’ssquad for the two Twenty20sagainst New Zealand inPallekele. Rambukwella, 22,had been selected in the na-tional squad during theBangladesh series in March,but did not get a match.Prasanna, however, hasplayed a Test and nine ODIs,with the most recent inMarch 2012.

Both men had been pen-etrative with the ball duringKenya’s recent Twenty20series against the Sri LankaA team. They had also eachwon a List A match againstNew Zealand A in early Oc-tober. Rambukwella took fivewickets at 11.60 in that series,and Prasanna took six at 16.That New Zealand A teamfeatured Colin Munro, GrantElliott, Anton Devcich, An-drew Ellis and Luke Ronchi,all of whom are in the NewZealand squad for theTwenty20s.

Opener DimuthKarunaratne, middle-orderbatsman Ashan Priyanjanand spinner Rangana Herathwere omitted from the squad,having been with the team

Sri Lanka bring in Rambukwella,Prasanna for T20s

Ramith Rambukwella Seekkuge Prasanna

for the ODI series.Karunaratne had failed in twoattempts in the series, whileHerath has increasingly beenleft out of the T20 team.

Priyanjan is yet to make hisinternational debut.

Sri Lanka had rotated itssenior batsmen during their lastTwenty20 series against SouthAfrica, but Kumar Sangakkara,Mahela Jayawardene andTillakaratne Dilshan have allbeen named in the side. KusalPerera has also been retained

from the ODI side.The series is set to begin

on Tuesday.Sri Lanka squad: Dinesh

Chandimal (capt.), Kumar

Sangakkara, Lasith Malinga,Mahela Jayawardene,Tillakaratne Dilshan, KusalPerera, Angelo Mathews,Lahiru Thirimanne, SachithraSenanayake, Ajantha Mendis,Seekkuge Prasanna, RamithRambukwella, SurangaLakmal, Thisara Perera,Nuwan Kulasekara.—AFP

Samuels,Shillingfordreported for

suspect actionsCHAGUARAMA—West Indies’Marlon Samuels and ShaneShillingford have been reportedfor suspect bowling actions bythe ICC and are required to gettheir actions independentlytested within the next 21 days.The bowlers are also requiredto submit the results of the testswithin a further 14 days failingwhich both could be sus-pended from bowling in inter-national cricket till remedial ac-tion has been taken. The twocan, however, continue bowl-ing in international cricket dur-ing this period.

The bowlers’ actions werereported at the end of the sec-ond day’s play of the MumbaiTest by umpires Nigel Llong,Richard Kettleborough, VineetKulkarni and match refereeAndy Pycroft, with particularreferences to the quicker de-liveries and the doosras.

Both bowlers have beensuspended from bowling in in-ternational cricket because ofillegal actions in the past.Samuels was first reported in2008 after which he didn’t bowlfor the next three years.Shillingford was also bannedfrom bowling in 2010 but re-turned to bowl in 2011 after un-dergoing remedial work.—AFP

Injury could ruleSami Khediraout of WorldCup football

BE R L I N —Germany andReal Madrid midfielderSami Khedira‘s World Cuphopes hang in the balanceafter he was ruled out foraround six months with atorn cruciate ligament suf-fered in Friday‘s 1-1 drawagainst Italy.

Coach Joachim Loewsaid.”This is a bitter set-back for Sami. But he al-ways thinks positively andthat is why I am optimistiche wil l be ready and f i twhen the World Cupstar ts .”

Khedira had formed asuperb holding midfieldpartnership with BastianSchweinsteiger, who him-self underwent surgery thisweek for a persistent ankleinjury.

Loew said he had de-cided to travel to Londonwithout captain Phil ippLahm, first-choice keeperManuel Neuer andplaymaker Mesut Ozil inorder to give other playersa chance.

“They are absolutelypart of the main structureof this team and what is im-portant for me now is togive other players in thesekey positions a chance toshow what they can doagainst a big opponent likeEngland,” he said.

Central defender PerMertesacker, however, willreturn after sitting out theItaly game with f lu. —Online

Davis Cupfinal doubles:Djokovic out

BELGRADE—World numbertwo Serbia’s Novak Djokovichas been left out in the doublesof Davis Cup final againstholders Czech Republic, withNenad Zimonjic and IlijaBozoljac named to play againstTomas Berdych and RadekStepanek.

Teams were locked at 1-1after Friday’s opening singles,with Djokovic beatingStepanek in straight sets be-fore Berdych redressed thebalance against late replace-ment Dusan Lajovic, whostepped in for the injured JankoTipsarevic. Djokovic facesBerdych in Sunday’s openingreverse singles before worldnumber 117 Lajovic takes onStepanek in a potentially deci-sive fifth rubber in the impos-ing Kombank Arena.

The Czechs are vying tobecome the first nation to re-tain the trophy since Spainwon back-to-back titles in2008 and 2009, while hostsSerbia are bidding for their sec-ond cup after winning it at thesame venue in 2010.—Online

Golf: Scott winsAustralian MastersMELBOURNE—World num-ber two and defending cham-pion Adam Scott won theAustralian Masters at RoyalMelbourne on Sunday forback-to-back tournamentvictories.

The US Masters cham-pion held off American MattKuchar by two shots to con-tinue his red-hot form afterclaiming last week’s Austra-lian PGA event on the GoldCoast.

Australia’s Scott cardeda closing round of even par71 to finish the tournamenton 14-under 270.

Kuchar was tied withScott to the 17th hole but adouble-bogey at the last costhim his winning chance withthe Australian parring the fi-nal three holes to close outthe win.—AFP

MONACO: Jamaican sprint duo Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce with their awardsafter being named as the IAAF’s male and female World Athletes of the Year for 2013.

MAINTAINING a healthy weight after menopause may improvewomen’s chances of living into their

mid-80s while keeping their health and mo-bility, a new study shows. Women tend to puton weight after menopause.But not much was knownabout how extra pounds af-fect their ability to getaround in old age.

“We chose to do thisstudy because we wanted tolearn more about the healthstatus of older women, whorepresent a growing segmentof the U.S. population,”Eileen Rillamas-Sun toldReuters Health in an email.Rillamas-Sun led the studyat the Fred Hutchinson Can-cer Research Center in Se-attle, Washington.

“We recognized that thehealth status of older womenvaries widely and we fo-cused on obesity because ofthe high rates of obesity in this country,” shesaid. The researchers looked at 36,611 womenwho enrolled in a large, long-term health studybetween 1993 and 1998, when they were 66to 81 years old.

The researchers followed the women fornearly 19 years. They wanted to see howwomen’s body mass index (BMI) - a mea-sure of weight in relation to height - and waistsize were associated with their chances ofdying or developing chronic diseases or mo-bility problems by age 85. As it turned out,women who were obese at the beginning ofthe study were more likely to have troublegetting around. Of women who lived to be 85

years old, 6,702 were disabled.About 12 percent of those who started

the study at a healthy weight were disabledby age 85. That compared to 18 percent ofoverweight women and between 26 and 34

percent of obese women whohad mobility problems, theresearchers reported in JAMAInternal Medicine.

Similarly, 25 percent ofwomen with a waist circum-ference greater than 88 centi-meters (about 35 inches) weredisabled at age 85 comparedto 14 percent of women whohad smaller waists. “This wasan important finding becauseI believe that maintaining theability to walk is very impor-tant to older adults, especiallybecause it is useful for retain-ing one’s independence,”Rillamas-Sun said.

Compared to women ofa healthy weight, overweightand obese women were also

at a higher risk of dying or developingchronic diseases like diabetes, heart diseaseand cancer. Luckily, Rillamas-Sun said, it’seasy for people to learn both their BMI andwaist circumference. Then they can assesstheir own risks.

“For BMI, one only needs to know theirheight and weight and for waist circumfer-ence, a tape measure is all that is needed.There are many resources online, includingBMI calculators and guides for how to ac-curately measure one’s waist circumfer-ence,” she said. The National Heart, Lung,and Blood Institute has a BMI calculatorhere: 1.usa.gov/XBIO5L.

Obesity tied to trouble movingaround for elderly women

Diplomats’ life in Islamabad—Coping withgrowing security concerns

SHARMEEN ALI

ISLAMABAD—A diplomat inIslamabad is typically viewedto have a high-profile, high fly-ing life of extreme privilege.Undoubtedly, as the envoys oftheir respective countries, theyare given a multitude of perks,but the practical realities of dip-lomatic life in Islamabad maketheir station much harder thanwe think. Growing securityconcerns are a major obstaclefor any citizen in Pakistan try-ing to live a normal life, andthe problem is much more ex-treme for diplomats.

According to the perceivedmeasure of threat, for certainembassies such as the Dutchmission, Pakistan is considereda non-family post where fam-ily members of diplomats arenot permitted to accompanythem at all for the duration oftheir posting.

Other embassies such as theBelgian, French, British andGerman do allow families butstrict security precautions haveto be maintained.In many ofthese cases,the families of cer-tain ambassadors or the ambas-sadors themselves are not per-mitted to move outside the dip-lomatic enclave or even to leavethe enclave at all,such as in thecase of Canadian embassy dip-lomats.

According to a senior diplo-mat, security measures in someof the embassies, although nec-essary, can make life extremelydifficult. Where most of us areable to enjoy an evening out withfriends with a certain measure ofprivacy, many senior diplomatsmust have a constant team ofsecurity personnel followingthem everywhere, and the onlytime they have alone is whenthey are watching television athome in the evening.

While the rest of us canmake impromptu plans, mostsenior diplomats have to informtheir security teams a day in

advance prior to any visit orexcursion. A visit to certain cit-ies such as Peshawar requires aNo Objection Certificate(NOC) from the Ministry ofForeign Affairs, and delays inissuing these NOC’s add to the

perceived threat of danger.There is a general percep-

tion in the diplomatic commu-nity that perhaps the securitystaff that maintain security pro-tocol for the Heads of Missionpurposefully restrict the move-ments of these senior diplomatsin order to make their job of pro-tecting them less of a hassle.

Although not as much of aprecarious location as Egypt orSyria, where no families are al-lowed at all, Pakistan is still rifewith security concerns. DuringMuharram and especially afterthe killing of PTT leaderHakimullah Mehsud, high pro-file events are being cancelledin the capital and embassies areissuing warnings to avoid cer-tain areas in the city. InIslamabad, over 909 religiousgatherings and 177 processionswere scheduled to take placeduring the month of Muharram,and these processions and

majlis’ are considered primetargets for sectarian terrorism.

US embassy staff are notpermitted to visit mosques orother places of worship locatedoutside the Diplomatic En-clave, and all embassies advisetheir staff to avoid large publicgatherings.

According to the Dean ofthe Diplomatic Corps, who,amidst all the security hypesand reproaches, has visitedChitral, Gilgit and Hunza sixtimes, Skardu five times, aswell as Swat, Khyber Pass andKohat, places where most lo-cals would hesitate to ventureat all these days, “the bestpolicy is a low profile.”

To allay the difficulties ofliving in such a high risk sta-tion, another senior diplomatsays that “Pakistan is an ex-tremely interesting country, andlife is made much easier by thehospitality of Pakistani people.”

Three killed inKarachi gas

cylinder explosionKARACHI—Three people in-cluding two children were killedand five others injured in gascylinder explosion in Cliftonarea of Karachi. Police saideight people including threechildren sustained injuries aftergas cylinder exploded due toleakage in a house in Neelamcolony area. Two children and aman succumbed to injuries whenthey were being shifted to hos-pital.

Bomb disposal squad wasalso called in for further inves-tigation.

The victims were identifiedas 55-year old Ghulam Haider,eight-year old Sagheer andChahat, 5.

SP Clifton Nadeem Ahmedsaid the blast occurred whilemelting scrap in the house, be-ing used for storage. —INP

Altaf appealsUlema to form

peace committeesKARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) chief AltafHussain on Sunday appealedSunni and Shiite scholars toform committees for establish-ing peace in the country.

In a statement, Hussain saidthat the country was goingthrough a critical period and thenation must play a wise role.

The MQM chief also askedthe scholars to keep an eye onthe miscreants who create un-rest.

“Sectarian harmony isneeded in the country.” headded. It is pertinent to men-tion here that the law and ordersituation in the country is dete-riorated following the clash be-tween two groups in Rawalpindion Friday.

The clashes also erupted inMultan, Chistian, Faisalabadand other cities, and Army wascalled in to assist the adminis-trations and police in maintain-ing peace.—INP

Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui presiding over a meeting of ulema and mashaikih at Commissioner’s House.

KARACHI—CommissionerKarachi Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqihas said that unity among Mus-lims, inter-faith harmony andunity is need of the hour, peopleand Ulema are united in Karachito foil conspiracies to disturbpeace in the metropolis.

The Commissioner said thiswhile addressing a meeting ofUlema belonging to differentschools of thought at his officehere on Sunday.

Shoaib Siddiqi said all Ulemashould maintain unity, toleranceand brotherhood for the cause ofpeace and in the interest of thecountry.

Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqi saidthat Ulema should play their roleto maintain environment of peace,tolerance, unity and brotherhoodamong people and should keep aneye on those elements who stimu-late hatred and disturb peace.

He said that the goals of de-

Ulema, people unitedto foil conspiracies

velopment and economic stabil-ity cannot be achieved withoutestablishing long lasting peace.

The Commissioner said thatthe government will support pro-peace efforts of the Ulema be-cause peace is imperative forpromotion of trade and businessactivities.

He lauded the efforts of po-lice, rangers, Ulema and all au-thorities concerned for maintain-ing peace and harmony on theeve of Ashura-e-Muharram.

He said the people alongwith the Ulema will foil the con-spiracies to disturb peace withtheir unity.

Shoaib Siddiqi said thatthrough this meeting we want togive message to the whole coun-try that the Ulema and people areunited and they will not allowany body to disturb peace in thecity. In the end, well knownscholar, Maulana Kaukab

Noorani Okarvi prayed for Mus-lim unity and peace in the coun-try.

The participants of the meet-ing highly appreciated the pro-peace steps of the present gov-ernment.

Prominent scholars includ-ing Maulana Kaukab Noorani,Haji Muhammad Hanif Tayyab,Siddique Rathore, MaulanaYaqoob Attari, Maulana AkberDars, Muhammad Aatif HanifBlue, Allama Abbas Kumeli,Syed Waqar Hussain Naqvi,Maulana Mirza Yousuf Hussain,Allama Ather Mashhadi,Maulana Deedar Ali Jalbani,Syed Waheed-ul-Hasan,Suleman Mujtaba, SyedShabbar Raza, Moosa Abidi,Abbas Badami, MaulanaTanveer-ul-Haq Thanvi, QariMuhammad Iqbal and MaulanaAbdul Rehman Sulfi attendedthe meeting. —APP

Mourner’s rally with 72 coffin boxes passing through Soldier Bazar on 3rd day (soyem) ofMoharramul Haram. —PO Photo by Sultan Chaki

CM condemnsRawalpindi incidentKARACHI—Sindh Chief Min-ister Syed Qaim Ali Shah hasstrongly condemned Rawalpinditragedy, which took place on theeve of Ashura procession.

In a statement issued onSunday, the Sindh CM said thatthe elements involved in the in-cident are the enemy of thepeople. The Sindh CM ex-pressed deep grief over the in-cident and condoled with thefamilies of the victims.

He appealed to the Ulema toplay their role for promotion ofinter-faith harmony. The SindhCM also called upon the peopleto remain peaceful and united tofoil the conspiracy of anti-Islamand anti-state elements. APP

Residents of Ali Town stage a demonstration against water shortage in the area.

KARACHI—Sindh Chief MinisterSyed Qaim Ali Shah on Sundayurged to the ulema of differentschools of thought to maintain anenvironment of inter-faith har-mony, brotherhood, unity andtolerance.

The Sindh CM made thisappeal to Ulema while talking tothem on telephone, said a state-ment. Syed Qaim Ali Shah talked

Qaim urges Ulema tohelp maintain harmony

to prominent Ulema includingAllama Talib Johri, MaulanaUmer Sadiq, Maulana HasanZafar Naqvi, Haji Hanif Tayyab,Owais Noorani and ShahidGhauri. He said no untoward in-cident occurred during first tendays of Muharram-ul-Harramdue to steps taken by the Sindhgovernment with the coordina-tion of Ulema and masses.

He said the provincial gov-ernment has taken all precaution-ary measures to maintain law andorder and Ulema should also playtheir role to maintain harmony.

The statement said thatUlema expressed gratitude to theSindh CM for making foolproofsecurity arrangements on the oc-casion of Ashura- e-Muharram.—APP

KARACHI—Four gang war ac-cused were killed in an encoun-ter with Rangers in Lyari onearly Sunday morning, officialssaid.

After a few days pause,Lyari turned into a battle fieldagain on early Sunday morningwhen an encounter betweengang war accused and Rangersleft four accused dead.

According to officials theaccused belonged to BabaLadla, Faisal Pathan andWasiullah Lakho groups. Two ofthe deceased identified asHakim Baloch and Mohsin be-longed to Baba Ladla group.

Four gang war accusedkilled in encounter

Another deceased identified asShabbir alias Goga was mem-ber of Faisal Pathan group whilethe fourth deceased identified asUmar alias Jadoo belonged toWasiullah Lakho group.

Large quantity of arms wasalso recovered. Reinforcementwas also called in after the en-counter in Lyari.

Earlier on Saturday, fourpeople including a police offi-cial were killed in clashes be-tween two rival groups of gangwar accused while a key figureof gang war, Karim Baloch, waskilled in encounter with po-lice.—Online

Anti-polio driveKARACHI—Anti- Polio cam-paign is being launched in ShahFaisal Zone of the metropolisfrom November 18 to 21. A pressrelease issued here on Sundaysaid that arrangements have beencompleted by the Health Depart-ment of the Zone to administeranti-polio vaccine to more than75000 children under five years’age.

The arrangements regardingthe campaign were finalised at ameeting, chaired by MPA NishatZia Qadri and attended by the of-ficers concerned.

The meeting was informedthat 200 mobile teams havebeen formed to administer anti-polio drops to the children un-der the supervision of MedicalOfficers. The teams will con-duct door-to-door visit in allunion committees.—APP

MAINTAINING a healthy weight aftermenopause may improve women’schances of living into their mid-80s

while keeping their health and mobility, a newstudy shows. Women tend to put on weight aftermenopause. But not muchwas known about how extrapounds affect their ability toget around in old age.

“We chose to do thisstudy because we wanted tolearn more about the healthstatus of older women, whorepresent a growing segmentof the U.S. population,”Eileen Rillamas-Sun toldReuters Health in an email.Rillamas-Sun led the study atthe Fred Hutchinson CancerResearch Center in Seattle,Washington.

“We recognized that thehealth status of older womenvaries widely and we focusedon obesity because of the highrates of obesity in this coun-try,” she said. The research-ers looked at 36,611 women who enrolled in alarge, long-term health study between 1993 and1998, when they were 66 to 81 years old.

The researchers followed the women fornearly 19 years. They wanted to see howwomen’s body mass index (BMI) - a measureof weight in relation to height - and waist sizewere associated with their chances of dying ordeveloping chronic diseases or mobility prob-lems by age 85. As it turned out, women whowere obese at the beginning of the study weremore likely to have trouble getting around. Ofwomen who lived to be 85 years old, 6,702were disabled.

About 12 percent of those who startedthe study at a healthy weight were disabledby age 85. That compared to 18 percent ofoverweight women and between 26 and 34percent of obese women who had mobility

problems, the researchers re-ported in JAMA Internal Medi-cine.

Similarly, 25 percent ofwomen with a waist circumfer-ence greater than 88 centime-ters (about 35 inches) were dis-abled at age 85 compared to 14percent of women who hadsmaller waists. “This was animportant finding because Ibelieve that maintaining theability to walk is very impor-tant to older adults, especiallybecause it is useful for retain-ing one’s independence,”Rillamas-Sun said.

Compared to women ofa healthy weight, overweightand obese women were also ata higher risk of dying or devel-oping chronic diseases like dia-

betes, heart disease and cancer.Luckily, Rillamas-Sun said, it’s easy for

people to learn both their BMI and waist cir-cumference. Then they can assess their ownrisks.

“For BMI, one only needs to know theirheight and weight and for waist circumfer-ence, a tape measure is all that is needed.There are many resources online, includingBMI calculators and guides for how to ac-curately measure one’s waist circumfer-ence,” she said. The National Heart, Lung,and Blood Institute has a BMI calculatorhere: 1.usa.gov/XBIO5L.

Obesity tied to trouble movingaround for elderly women

Six members of a family riding a motorbike, a young boy sitting on mudguard, are passing through a busy road putting their lives in danger.

Diplomats’ live in Islamabad—Coping withgrowing security concerns

SHARMEEN ALI

ISLAMABAD—A diplomat inIslamabad is typically viewedto have a high-profile, high fly-ing life of extreme privilege.Undoubtedly, as the envoys oftheir respective countries, theyare given a multitude of perks,but the practical realities of dip-lomatic life in Islamabad maketheir station much harder thanwe think. Growing securityconcerns are a major obstaclefor any citizen in Pakistan try-ing to live a normal life, andthe problem is much more ex-treme for diplomats.

According to the perceivedmeasure of threat, for certainembassies such as the Dutchmission, Pakistan is considereda non-family post where fam-ily members of diplomats arenot permitted to accompanythem at all for the duration oftheir posting.

Other embassies such as theBelgian, French, British andGerman do allow families butstrict security precautions haveto be maintained.In many ofthese cases,the families of cer-tain ambassadors or the ambas-sadors themselves are not per-mitted to move outside the dip-lomatic enclave or even to leavethe enclave at all,such as in thecase of Canadian embassy dip-lomats.

According to a senior diplo-mat, security measures in someof the embassies, although nec-essary, can make life extremelydifficult. Where most of us areable to enjoy an evening out withfriends with a certain measure ofprivacy, many senior diplomatsmust have a constant team ofsecurity personnel followingthem everywhere, and the onlytime they have alone is whenthey are watching television athome in the evening.

While the rest of us canmake impromptu plans, mostsenior diplomats have to informtheir security teams a day in

advance prior to any visit orexcursion. A visit to certain cit-ies such as Peshawar requires aNo Objection Certificate(NOC) from the Ministry ofForeign Affairs, and delays inissuing these NOC’s add to the

perceived threat of danger.There is a general percep-

tion in the diplomatic commu-nity that perhaps the securitystaff that maintain security pro-tocol for the Heads of Missionpurposefully restrict the move-ments of these senior diplomatsin order to make their job of pro-tecting them less of a hassle.

Although not as much of aprecarious location as Egypt orSyria, where no families are al-lowed at all, Pakistan is still rifewith security concerns. DuringMuharram and especially afterthe killing of PTT leaderHakimullah Mehsud, high pro-file events are being cancelledin the capital and embassies areissuing warnings to avoid cer-tain areas in the city. InIslamabad, over 909 religiousgatherings and 177 processionswere scheduled to take placeduring the month of Muharram,and these processions and

majlis’ are considered primetargets for sectarian terrorism.

US embassy staff are notpermitted to visit mosques orother places of worship locatedoutside the Diplomatic En-clave, and all embassies advisetheir staff to avoid large publicgatherings.

According to the Dean ofthe Diplomatic Corps, who,amidst all the security hypesand reproaches, has visitedChitral, Gilgit and Hunza sixtimes, Skardu five times, aswell as Swat, Khyber Pass andKohat, places where most lo-cals would hesitate to ventureat all these days, “the bestpolicy is a low profile.”

To allay the difficulties ofliving in such a high risk sta-tion, another senior diplomatsays that “Pakistan is an ex-tremely interesting country, andlife is made much easier by thehospitality of Pakistani people.”

A view of under-construction work to cover Samanabad Nullah which is slow and creatingproblems for people.

The activists of Muslim Students Organization protesting against Rawalpindi tragedy.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Punjab govern-ment has decided to adopt SuchuIndustrial Parks Model to estab-lish “Knowledge Shops” in vari-ous universities of the province.This project is aimed at linkingknowledge and economy with thelatest marketing technology tomaximally benefit from academiain kick starting the economy ofPakistan.

This was disclosed in a meet-ing of Cabinet Committee to re-view road map for sustainableeconomy by benefitting fromChina. The meeting was headed

by the Provincial EducationMinister Rana MashhoodAhmed Khan while ProvincialMinister for Industries Ch.Muhammad Shafiq, Minister forFood Bilal Yasin, eminent edu-cationist Prof. Zafar IqbalQureshi, SME ConsultantSiddiq-ur-Rehman and other se-nior officers representing the rel-evant departments attended themeeting.

While addressing the partici-pants, Rana Mashhood AhmedKhan emphasized the need togive preferential attention to pro-mote academia-industry linkage.The Punjab government will

adopt this programme as a pilotproject. Knowledge shops will beestablished in Punjab University,UET Lahore and FAST Lahorein the first phase, he added. TheMinister said that both privateand public sector universitieshave a pivotal role in economicactivism through promotion ofapplied research in their respec-tive institutions. A knowledgeshop having back linkage withChinese industry has alreadybeen established in Sundar In-dustrial Estate Lahore with thefunding from Higher EducationCommission to the tune of Rs.80million.

Knowledge shops to beset up in universities

LAHORE—Eighty nine morepeople were tested dengue posi-tive on Sunday, taking the num-ber of confirmed cases in theprovince to 1,912. Out of 89 newcases, 70 were reported fromLahore, Medics said.

The number of victims hasbeen known to have risen to asfar as 70 in a single day forLahore-based victims, out of 89patients in Punjab during past 24hours.

Punjab government has as-sured that it was taking all pos-sible safety precautionary mea-sures to stem the never-endingnightmare of Dengue virus,while government has also ap-pealed to masses to play its duepart in awareness about the sofar uncontrollable disease.

Meanwhile, the citizenshave expressed their concern

89 new cases confirmed

Eighty-nine moretested dengue positive

over the surge in dengue virusand treatment facilities at gov-ernment-run hospitals acrossthe province.

They urged the provincialgovernment and health authori-ties for taking on ground stepsto control the disease instead ofmaking tall claims and issuingstatements to satisfy the masses.

Dengue usually starts withfever within four to seven daysof the mosquito bite. The patientwould have flu-like high fever,accompanied by muscular andjoint pains.

According to the doctors, itis easy to differentiate betweenviral fever and dengue. In viralinfection, the patient wouldhave running nose, throat pain,mild body ache and weakness.In dengue, the patient wouldhave high-grade fever, severe

body ache, joint pains andrashes, which may turn pinkwithin 24 to 48 hours of con-tracting fever.

Instructions has been givento cover oneself with properclothing and discourage breed-ing of Dengue within homes,since the forthcoming few colddays are conducive for thegrowth of this menace.

Meanwhile, 89 more peoplewere tested dengue positive onSunday, taking the number ofconfirmed cases in the provinceto 1,912. Out of 89 new cases,70 were reported from Lahore.

Meanwhile, the citizenshave expressed concern over thesurge in dengue virus and treat-ment facilities at government-run hospitals across the prov-ince.—Agencies

CPO visitsimambargahs,

madarisLAHORE—Capital City PoliceOfficer Ch Shafiq on Sundayvisited different imambarghasand madaras in the city to checksecurity arrangements.

He visited Darbar Bibi PakDaman, Ayesha Siddiqamadrasa, Baitul Quran madrasaand ordered the SP security todeploy 10 more officials for se-curity.

Adminstration ofimambarghas, mosques andmadaras expressed satisfactionover security arrangementsmade by police.

The CCPO directed officialsdeputed in different majalis andprocessions to perform duty withhonestly and devotion. He saidsecurity had already been beefedup in the city to foil nefarious de-signs of terrorists—APP

LAHORE—The Punjab govern-ment has given the go-ahead to theLahore Development Authority(LDA) to initiate a project of shift-ing the Azadi Chowk Crossing andconstruction of a four-lane dualcarriageway from the existingjunction to Masti Gate to ease thetraffic flow. Under the project,

Rs1600m for AzadiChowk shifting

named Alternate Route to OuterCircular Road from Azadi Chowkto Masti Gate, the LDA will shiftthe existing crossing 500 metresback from the Lady WilligdonHospital Chowk toward theshrine of Baba Chatri wala. Aftershifting the crossing from the ex-isting point, a four-lane two

kilometre long dual carriagewaywould be constructed fromAhmad Ali Road toward LorryAdda and Masti Gate.

The Planning and Develop-ment Working Party (PDWP) ofthe Punjab Planning and Devel-opment Department has approvedthe project design.—APP

Birth anniversaryof Guru Nanak

LAHORE—Three-day celebra-tions of the 544th birth anniver-sary of Guru Nanak Dev Jee con-cluded at Nankana Sahib on Sun-day.

Thousands of Sikh Yatreesbelonging to Pakistan, India andother countries performed reli-gious rituals in Gurdwara JanamAsthan. They also participated ina Palki procession. On the occa-sion, a religious seminar was ar-ranged in which speakers high-lighted the life and teachings ofGuru Nanak Dev Jee. TheYatrees thanked the EvacueeTrust Property Board (ETPB)and the government Pakistan fortheir hospitality.

ETPB Chairman SikandarIsmael Khan said they had madefoolproof security arrangementsbesides transport, accommoda-tion and medical facilities for theYatrees.

The Sikh community gaveaway a silver shield to DeputySecretary Shirian Faraz Abbasfor his 14 years of service for thegurdwara.—APP

Drive againsttinted glasses

LAHORE—Chief Traffic Of-ficer Sohail Chaudhry on Sun-day said a comprehensive strat-egy had been evolved to ensuresmooth flow of traffic on busyhours after Ashura-e-Muharram.Talking to APP, the CTO saidthat drive against tinted glassand unregistered number plateswould continue in the city.

To a question, he said theCTP would utilize all availableresources to facilitate the massesby making the licence processeasy.

He said the CTP had madea plan to distribute cash prizesand commendation certificatesbesides training courses for war-dens to improve their perfor-mance.—APP