E paper pdf 17 07 2014 khi

FRONT PAGE (17-07-2014)_Layout 1 7/17/2014 12:58 AM Page 1

CMYK

NEW ISRAELI STRIKES RAISE GAZA TOLL TO 213 ISRAEL WARNS 100,000 GAZANS TO EVACUATE HOMES TO AVOID‘AERIAL STRIKES AGAINST TERROR SITES AND OPERATIVES’

KHAWAJA ASIF PLACATES AN ANGRY KHATTAK STORY ON PAGE 04

Thursday, 17 July, 2014 Ramazan 18, 1435 Rs 17.00 Vol V No 20 16 Pages Karachi Edition

STORY ON PAGE 02

Syria's Assad sworn in, takes swipe at West over revolt STORY ON PAGE 05

US drone, PAF jets kill 53 terrorists in a day Pakistan Army jets kill 35 suspected terrorists in North Waziristan’s Shawal area while US drone strike eliminates 18 in Dattakhel

PM WANTS TO MARK AUG 14 IN PEACE

IMPLICITLY REFERRING TO PAKISTAN TEHREEK-EINSAF (PTI) CHAIRMAN IMRAN KHAN’S PLAN TO HOLD ‘AZADI MARCH’ ON AUGUST 14, PRIME MINISTER NAWAZ SHARIF WEDNESDAY SAID THAT PEOPLE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO CREATE UNREST IN THE COUNTRY ON INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Mamond tribe vows to fight militancy in Bajaur Over 500 suspected militants taken into custody under PPA: report STORIES ON PAGES 02

Indian forces violate LoC ceasefire at Charwah Sector

STORY ON PAGE 03

STORY ON PAGE 04

CMYK

02 NEWS

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

us drone, PaF jets kill 53 terrorists in a day PAKISTAN ARMY JETS KILL 35 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS IN NORTH WAZIRISTAN’S SHAWAL AREA WHILE US DRONE STRIKE ELIMINATES 18 IN DATTAKHEL PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD

a

STAFF REPORT/AGENCIES

T least 53 suspected terrorists were killed Wednesday in airstrikes carried out separately by Pakistan Army and an unmanned American drone in North Waziristan Agency (NWA).

As missiles fired from a US drone killed around 18 suspected terrorists in NWA’s Dattakhel area, Pakistan Air Force jets eliminated at least 35 terrorists in the Shawal area bordering South Waziristan Agency.

“Early morning today (Wednesday), at least 35 fleeing terrorists were killed through aerial strikes in Shawal valley,” a spokesman for Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) said. On the other hand, security forces are making quick movements in Mirali area in order to completely eliminate terrorists’ sanctuaries and hideouts.

According to army men, Miranshah, which was once a bastion of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has been cleared and the troops have launched a ground

NAWAZ EXPRESSES CONFIDENCE ON PAKISTAN ARMY AS COAS GIVES ZARB-E-AZB PROGRESS REPORT TO PREMIER

offensive in Mirali, a second key insurgent stronghold.

Meanwhile in Dattakhel, a US drone fired missiles on a compound in Saidgai area, destroying a compound and killing 18 suspected militants, sources said. The identities of those killed in the strike have not yet been ascertained. Four missiles were fired from the drone and the death toll was expected to rise, sources said. A vehicle was also destroyed in the strike and at least five drones were seen hovering in the area during the time of the attack.

On July 10, a drone strike in North Waziristan’s Dattakhel area had reportedly killed six militants. This is the fourth drone strike since the US resumed its drone programme in Pakistan following the Karachi attack.

ARMY CHIEF BRIEFS PM ON ZARB-E-AZB: Moreover during the day, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad and briefed him about progress made so far in Operation Zarb-e-Azb. The army chief told the prime minister that the operation was progressing according to set targets. He

TALIBAN ADMIT PAKISTAN ARMY HAS NABBED TERRORIST COMMANDER ADNAN RASHID

said terrorists have been pushed to the wall and they have no other option than to die or surrender.

During the meeting, the prime minister said jawans and officers of armed forces were rendering great sacrifices for the cause of the country, adding that there was nothing parallel to their sacrifices in recent history.

The premier expressed confidence that peace and stability was the country’s destiny. He also reiterated the government’s resolve to provide all possible resources for the rehabilitation of people affected by the operation.

TTP CONFIRMS ADNAN RASHID’S ARREST: In the meanwhile, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has confirmed that Adnan Rashid, a key accused in an assassination attempt on former president Pervez Musharraf was arrested by Pakistan Army in Shakai area of South Waziristan. The TTP accused the Mullah Nazir group of militants of passing the information to the security forces which eventually led to Rashid’s arrest.

Sources said that the militant commander had moved to South Waziristan after being injured by security forces and was taken into custody three days ago.

Asif placates an angry Khattak KP CM, PTI WORKERS PROTEST AT PESCO OFFICE, THREATEN CENTRE THEY WILL CUT OFF ELECTRICITY SUPPLY TO PUNJAB

FEDERAL MINISTER ASSURES RESOLUTION OF POWER-RELATED PROBLEMS IN KP THROUGH A THREE-PHASE PLAN

PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

Led by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) barged into Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) office Wednesday to register their protest against excessive electricity load shedding in the province.

Addressing the procession, Khattak said that he had requested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to provide Rs 3 billion for grid station and warned that if the federal government did not fulfil their demands within a week, they would halt the entire system forcibly. “If Punjab can halt flour supply then we can also cut short electricity supply,” he added.

Khattak demanded the federal government give their province’s due share of electricity or hand over Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) set up to the provincial government. The KP CM also threatened Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to “mend its ways before they

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak accompanied by members of the provincial government and PTI supporters come out of the PESCO office after protesting against excessive load shedding in the province. PPI

deprive them of the provided security”.

“If WAPDA doesn’t solve this issue, I will not cooperate anymore.”

“People of KP are not involved in power theft, Abid Sher Ali should keep his mouth shut and put the evaders of WAPDA in jail,” Khattak said, adding that KP produced over 35,000 MW of electricity but given only 13,000 MW while provincial demand was over 24,000 MW. Moreover, Khattak lamented that KP sold electricity to the Centre at Rs 4 per unit while it purchased electricity from the Centre for over Rs 16 per unit.

ASIF SOOTHES KHATTAK: In a bid to cool down the KP CM after the protest, Federal Minister for Water and

Power Khawaja Asif met Khattak in Peshawar and assured him of immediate resolution of power-related problems in KP, saying that the province’s power issues would be divided into three phases for swift redressal.

During the meeting it was concurred that electricity distribution system in KP had been overloaded and would be upgraded in the first phase. It was informed that work on five proposed grid stations in DI Khan, Kohat, Chakdara, Nowshera and Mansehra would be launched on emergency basis for improving the electricity system in the province. The work on these grid stations would be completed within 12 months. Asif also announced

provision of funds in this regard and assured electricity supply to the province according to its quota after upgrading.

It was stated that in the second phase, net hydel arrears consisting of Rs 680 million, arrears for Pehur High Level Canal and Rs 7 billion capped arrears of Net Hydel Profit would be given to the province. It was further stated that amount was a part of provincial budget and according to KP chief secretary, the province faced shortfall amounting to Rs 60 billion this year.

In third phase, it was decided that the federal government would initiate all the pending hydropower projects in the province to produce inexpensive electricity. During the meeting it was also decided to resolve the KP’s issues regarding annual profit and additional arrears under the agreed formula.

After listening to Asif’s three-phase plan, Khattak expressed the hope that the federal government would invest in KP’s hydropower sector for generation of inexpensive electricity. He said that it would have far-reaching impacts on overall national progress and development.

mamond tribe vows to fight militancy in Bajaur Tribal lashkar torches several houses belonging to suspected militants, kill two and injure six others PESHAWAR: Threats of a looming operation in Bajaur tribal region were momentarily defused on Wednesday after the Mamond tribe announced the formation a tribal lashkar (militia) to fight against terrorists.

The tribesmen along with the district administration reportedly set fire to several houses belonging to suspected militants, killing two ‘militants’ and injuring six others. However, there was no confirmation from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Mamond tribesmen decided to form a peace lashkar against militants to support the administration in tracking down the assailants who had killed three security personnel, including a Pakistan Army captain on July 12 in Gahki Pass area.

Curfew was imposed in parts of Mamond Tehsil of Bajaur tribal agency as the political administration and the security forces with the support of the local tribesmen launched a search operation in the area. The authorities had given a deadline to the Mamond tribesmen to hand over the suspects or an operation would be launched in the area following which a representative jirga of the tribesmen had met the political authorities on Tuesday assuring them of their cooperation in tracking the culprits and action against militants.

Political Tehsildar of Mamond, Haseeb Khan said that the tribesmen are willing to cooperate with the government and those people who had moved out due to the threat of an operation have started returning to their homes.

He said that the Mamond tribesmen had been asked to evacuate their areas but following the jirga they had agreed to form various peace committees and maintain security on the border to stop militant infiltration and cross border attacks.

Thousands of people from five border villages of Mamond tehsil had fled their homes after the expiry of an evacuation deadline set by the political administration of Bajaur because of the likelihood of a military operation in the region.

The political administration of Bajaur Agency on Monday asked people living in five villages of Mamond tehsil — Nakhtar, Ghakhi, Mula Killi, Gohati and Kitkoot — to evacuate their homes by Tuesday morning.

In the past, elders of the Mamond tribe have lent their support to the administration in maintaining the government’s writ in the region. These developments comes as the Pakistan Army is engaged with Taliban terrorists in North Waziristan tribal region. STAFF REPORT

Over 500 suspected militants taken into custody under PPA: report MONITORING DESK More than 500 suspected terrorists belonging to banned outfits have been nabbed by the security forces from across Pakistan including the federal capital, BBC Urdu reported on Wednesday.

Speaking to BBC Urdu on condition of anonymity, and official of the Interior Ministry said these detainees would be treated under the newly legislated Protection of Pakistan Act (PPA) 2014. The arrests have been made against the backdrop of ongoing military operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan to curb the likely backlash from terrorists, he added.

According to the official, more than 300 suspects were arrested from Punjab province mainly from Bahawalpur while more than 100

were arrested from Karachi and around 150 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

A report sent to the federal government by the intelligence agencies cited most number of Taliban and their sympathizers were settled in Karachi after North and South Waziristan tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan, the official revealed.

Law enforcement and secret agencies have apprised the Interior Ministry and NACTA – newly formed government body mandated to form the country’s anti-terrorism policy – about the crackdown against banned outfits.

It may be mentioned that the Islamabad High Court (IHC), invalidating a notification to bring NACTA under the Interior Ministry, had recently ordered it to work under the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

JI challenges PPa In suPreme court ISLAMABAD: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Wednesday challenged the Protection of Pakistan Act 2014 in the Supreme Court. Advocates Taufiq Asif and Ahsan Nadim moved the petition on behalf of JI chief Sirajul Haq under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution. The petition states that PPA is in conflict with fundamental human rights. “The state cannot enact such legislation which affects the rights of the citizens. Safeguarding the rights of citizens enshrined in the constitution is responsibility of the government,” it says. The petitioner took the stance that the legislation runs

CMYK

contrary to articles 4,9, 10 A and 19 and any law which is in derogation of the constitution has no legal standing. It has been further said in the petition that this act can be used for political vendetta therefore it be declared void forthwith. “Fair trial is right of every citizen under Article 10A of the constitution but any possibility of fair trial stands eliminated under this act.

The state institutions have been given free hand under this act to pick up and take away any one at their free will and no one can ask them about it,” the petition added. STAFF REPORT

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

NEWS

03

Pm wants to mark Independence Day in peace NAWAZ SAYS GOVT WON’T ALLOW ‘PEOPLE’ TO CREATE UNREST ON AUGUST 14

LAYS FOUNDATION STONE OF RS 8.5 BILLION CHAKWAL-MANDRA, CHAKWAL-SOHAWA ROADS

SAYS POWER CRISIS CANNOT BE RESOLVED OVERNIGHT AS PREVIOUS GOVTS DID NOT TAKE ANY CONCRETE MEASURE TO RESOLVE ISSUE

CHAKWAL

I

STAFF REPORT

MPLICITLY referring to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s plan to hold ‘Azadi March’ on August 14, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday said that people will not be allowed to create unrest in the country on Independence Day. The premier was speaking in Chakwal after he laid the foundation stone of Chakwal-Sohawa and Chakwal-Mandra roads worth Rs 8.5 million.

Prime Minister Sharif said that the projects were expected to be completed within 12 to 15 months. The 66 kilometres long Chakwal-Sohawa Road will be completed with a cost of Rs 4.34 billion while the 63 kilometres long Chakwal-Mandra Road will be completed with Rs 4.25 billion.

CHAKWAL: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other dignitaries stand in respect of the National Anthem before addressing the gathering. INP

The prime minister also announced to make Chakwal Bypass a part of the project so that the

afghan court jails Pakistani journalist for four years JALALABAD: An Afghan court has sentenced a Pakistani journalist to four years in jail for “contacting terrorists”, officials said on Wednesday.

Faizullah Khan, a reporter with the ARY news channel, was arrested in April by Afghan security forces in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan after contacting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“We have found photos of him showing him with a gun among terrorists,” Wafiullah Usmani, the head of the national security court of Nangarhar, told a foreign news agency. “He is accused of contacting terrorists. He did not have any travel documents on him when he was arrested.”

Khan was arrested with two TTP members on the Afghan side of the border, he said. The sentence was passed on July 9.

Ahmad Zai Abdulzai, a spokesperson for the provincial governor, said the journalist was arrested for “threatening national security”.

Akhtar Munir, an official with the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, said its consulate in Jalalabad was assisting the reporter, who would appeal against the verdict. “The Afghan government has been approached at various levels to help in releasing the journalist,” he added. AGENCIES

inter city traffic density could be minimised. The project would benefit the people of Chakwal,

Khushab, Sohawa, Talagang, Mianwali and DI Khan and would be constructed as dual carriageways.

The prime minister said that the project was of vital importance for the locals and its construction should be carried out at a fast pace. He directed the officials to extend the width of the roads and complete the construction work in one year.

The PM also paid tribute to the people of Chakwal whose soldiers had played an important role for protection of the country. He called it a city of Ghazis (survivors) and Shuhadas (martyrs).

DEVELOPMENT IS IN THE AIR: Addressing the ceremony, Sharif said that the government had made a comprehensive development package for the entire country and mega projects initiated in different sectors were not limited to a specific area.

Speaking on the energy crisis, premier said that 26 power projects had been launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. He said that 10 coal power projects in Gadani, two coal power projects in Port Qasim, four power plants in different locations of Punjab, 10 coal power projects in Thar, Dasu Dam, Diamer Dam and Civil Nuclear Power Project in

ECP gives prime minister’s nomination papers to PTI FORM STATES NAWAZ OWNS NO CAR OR SAVING ACCOUNTS YET HIS ASSETS ARE WORTH RS 360.16M ISLAMABAD ONLINE

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday provided the nomination papers of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) as requested by the party’s lawmakers.

PTI’s Murad Saeed and Ali Muhammad Khan had filed a request before the commission on July 9, seeking Sharif’s disqualification.

They had sought copies of the nomination form, claiming that the premier had lied about his past in the form.

After reviewing the request, ECP gave the copies of Sharif’s nomination form to PTI. PTI had said in its petition with ECP that Sharif was neither saadiq (honest) nor amen (trustworthy), hence not eligible to be an MNA. According to sources, PTI is expected to file a reference based on Sharif’s nomination form, seeking his disqualification from the parliament.

naDra reJects arsalan’s aPPlIcatIon seekIng Imran khan’s ‘FamIly certIFIcate’ ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) on Wednesday rejected an application by former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s son Arsalan Iftikhar seeking the Family Registration Certificate (FRC) of Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. NADRA said that it will not share the private details, including the FCR and family tree, of any citizen with an unrelated person as it is illegal to do so. The only people who can access the FRC forms are the head of the family and the family members, said the Authority. Arsalan had intended to seek proceedings for Imran Khan’s disqualification from the National Assembly allegedly for concealing facts about certain aspects of his personal life in the nomination form. STAFF REPORT

According to the nomination papers filed by the prime minister, he has stated himself to be a graduate engaged in agriculture and politics.

According to the papers, Sharif paid Rs 2.12 million tax in 2010, Rs 2.5 million in 2011 and Rs 2.49 million in 2012. The premier showed his

assets at Rs 50.20 million in 2010, Rs 50.7 million in 2011 and Rs 80.37 million in 2012. According to nomination papers, PM’s total assets are worth Rs 360.16 million.

The nomination papers also show that PM owns no car, saving accounts or any jewellery.

Karachi spoke volumes about the government’s commitment to resolve the energy crisis being faced by the country.

“We are striving for long term as well as short term coal, hydel and nuclear power projects so that cheap and abundant electricity is made available for people of Pakistan in the next few years,” he said.

Sharif said power crisis could not be resolved overnight as the previous governments did not take any concrete measure to resolve the issue and it was now Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) government which had taken up this task on war footings.

“We have inherited an empty exchequer. Two previous governments did nothing to get rid of load-shedding, whereas we have started working to eliminate power crisis. This is being done for the first time in country’s history. Only one year has passed, you will see that prosperity will come in next four years.

It will take time to correct past mistakes,” he said.

“We have solution to all the problems faced by our country and we are going step by step to resolve them,” he added.

multan police to probe female cricketer’s suicide case on their own MULTAN: The city police has decided to register a case on its own of the death of a 17-year-old female cricketer, who reportedly committed suicide, after her family refused to file a complaint on Wednesday.

Haleema Rafiq, a resident of Multan and a fast-bowler on the national women’s cricket team, reportedly committed suicide on the night of July 14, around 13 months after she and four other cricketers had levelled harassment charges against top officials of the Multan Cricket Council (MCC). Police had asked Haleema’s family to register a complaint at the station by 12pm on July 15 but they failed to do so, leading to the police’s decision to act as the applicant in the case to investigate the matter. According to sources, Haleema’s body will be exhumed to conduct postmortem examination.

On July 14, Haleema had consumed acid used to sterilise toilets and lost consciousness. She was taken to Nishtar Hospital, where she breathed her last.

Haleema was buried on July 15 and police officials had said family members had declined a post-mortem. At the same time, the police had said that they would be an applicant in a case to conduct a postmortem, if necessary. More than a year ago, Haleema and five other female cricketers had accused officials of the MCC of sexual harassment. The cricketers had told the media that the officials demanded sexual favours in exchange for selection in the team. STAFF REPORT

NADRA denies it is running secret cell in COMSATS SAYS EACH REPORT SUBMITTED BY AUTHORITY IS SUBJECT TO CROSS-EXAMINATION BY COUNCILS OF THE PETITIONER AND RESPONDENTS IN THE COURT OF LAW ISLAMABAD APP

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s statement that it is operating a secret cell in the basement of the COMSATS building in Islamabad.

A NADRA spokesperson said the PTI chief’s assertions were “baseless and unfounded”. He said that NADRA had hired two floors of the COMSATS building in April 2011 to carry out the printing of

Electoral Rolls for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which is still under the use of NADRA. “NADRA sub-contracted printing work to a private company, National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT), through an open tender process.

NIFT installed heavy duty printers in the COMSATS building which were used to print only Electoral Rolls, including Photo Electoral Rolls, that were used in the 2013 general elections,” said the spokesman, adding that the printing facility is managed by NIFT and not by NADRA.

“It is not a printing press, and has never been used [to print] ballot papers or other election material. The printing facility [has not been] functional since December 2013, after the local government elections of Balochistan [which were] held on December 7, 2013,” said the spokesman.

NADRA clarified that the Printing Press of Pakistan had been assigned the task of printing the ballot papers in their facilities in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore by the ECP. The printing process was to take place under the supervision of the Pakistan Army, and NADRA and NIFT were not involved in the process.

“NADRA is carrying out its digitisation process of thumb verification in the presence of the election tribunal’s representative, as per the directives of the election tribunals. During this process, the polling

CMYK

bags were opened and relevant election material was scanned before the polling bags were packed and sealed again.”

“NADRA has [been tasked with] fingerprint verification by election tribunals for 36 constituencies – 15 of National Assembly and 21 of provincial assemblies,” the spokesperson said. “Till date, NADRA has submitted its analysis report on 26 constituencies, while exemption has been granted by competent courts in four constituencies. Work is in process on six constituencies under the ‘First IN, First OUT’ principle,” he said.

Giving details of thumb verification, the spokesperson said that NADRA had returned election material of 26 constituencies to the corresponding election tribunals after submitting its report. Election material pertaining to 10 constituencies, where work

is under process or stay has been granted, is in possession of NADRA, he added.

“In such cases, the proper taking and receiving to the level of serial numbers and counts of each material is provided to the respective election tribunal in advance. There is no question of misappropriating sensitive election material, as its counting is carried out in the presence of a representative of the election tribunal, and then the report is reconciled at the time of returning the material to the respective election tribunal,” he said.

“Moreover, each report submitted by NADRA is subject to cross-examination by councils of the petitioner and respondents in the court of law. NADRA has successfully defended all [the reports submitted] in the respective election tribunals,” the spokesperson said.

04 NEWS Indian forces violate loc ceasefire at charwah sector ISLAMABAD: Indian Border Security Forces on Wednesday resorted to unprovoked firing on Pakistani Rangers posts in Charwah sector near Sialkot.

“Pakistani forces effectively responded to Indian firing. No damage or loss reported,” Pakistan military sources said.

Meanwhile, The Times of India website alleged that one BSF guard was killed and three others, including civilians, were wounded in firing from the Pakistani side of the border. The report further said that this was the third incident during the month, adding that 24 similar crossborder skirmishes had taken between April-June. STAFF REPORT

Indian army truck crash kills seven, ignites kashmir protest SRINAGAR: An army truck collided with a taxi Wednesday in India-held Kashmir, killing seven people, including a pregnant woman, and triggering violent protests.

The accident took place on a busy highway on the outskirts of Srinagar, the region’s main city, a police officer said on customary condition of anonymity.

The Indian army is ubiquitous in Kashmir, and locals make little secret of their fury against its presence in the disputed region.

Two of the taxi’s passengers and the driver died on the spot, while four other passengers, including the pregnant woman, died in a hospital, the officer said.

Shortly afterward, hundreds of local residents, chanting anti-India and proindependence slogans, hurled rocks at the army convoy.

Soldiers fired live ammunition in the air and later used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters. The driver of the army truck was arrested and the cause of the accident is being investigated, said Abdul Ghani Mir, a top local police officer. Traffic along the highway remained suspended for several hours.

Syed Ali Geelani, a separatist leader, called for a general strike on Thursday to mourn the deaths, according to a statement.

Kashmir has been wracked for decades by a conflict stemming from a large, restive population that wants to either secede from India or join Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan claim the region in its entirety, although it’s divided between them.

About 68,000 people have been killed since 1989 in an armed uprising and Indian military crackdown. While the armed rebellion has largely been suppressed, anti-India resentment still runs deep and is mainly expressed through street protests. AGENCIES

three more polio cases reported ISLAMABAD: Three new polio cases have been reported in children from different areas of the country on Wednesday. Two of the affectees have been identified as 16-year-old Hajra from Khyber Agency and six-year-old Habiba from Peshawar. The third affectee is said to be from Sanghar in Sindh. The total number of polio cases in the country for the current year is 93. STAFF REPORT

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

new Israeli strikes raise gaza toll to 213 ISRAEL WARNS 100,000 GAZANS TO EVACUATE HOMES TO AVOID ‘AERIAL STRIKES AGAINST TERROR SITES AND OPERATIVES’ GAZA CITY

n

AGENCIES

EW Israeli air and tank strikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed several people, bringing the death toll from Israel’s operation in the besieged Palestinian territory to 213.

A strike on a house in the southern city of Rafah killed two men, and a separate raid killed a young man who witnesses said was a militant. Another Rafah strike shortly afterwards left one man dead, while a raid on the home of Mohammed al-Arjani in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed his son Abdullah, 19. About an hour later, tank fire from inside Israel hit the eastern part of Khan Yunis, killing one person, Qudra said, later pronouncing the death of another man there, 33-year-old Mahmud

Abu Dakka. An airstrike in the evening killed four children. Some of the first raids on Wednesday morning targeted homes of senior Hamas officials, including Mahmud al-Zahar, but there were no reports of casualties in those strikes.

ISRAEL WARNS 100,000 GAZANS TO LEAVE HOMES: The Israeli army has warned some 100,000 Palestinians in the eastern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes, Israeli military sources said Wednesday.

Media correspondents saw flyers dropped over the Zeitun neighbourhood southeast of Gaza City, and residents there and elsewhere also reported receiv-

ing recorded phone and text messages urging them to evacuate by 0500GMT. The flyers explained that the army would be carrying out “aerial strikes against terror sites and operatives” in Zeitun and Shujaiya, since “a high volume of rocket fire at Israel” was from there.

A similar message was sent to residents of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

“The evacuation is for your own safety,” the leaflet read, warning residents to not return to their homes until further notice. Similar messages had been sent to Beit Lahiya with a Sunday deadline, causing the exodus of 17,000 people who took shelter in United Nations schools.

Israel had resumed its air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday a day after holding its fire in deference to an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire deal. The week-old conflict seemed to be at a turning point on Tuesday, with Israel threatening to step up an offensive that could include an invasion of the densely populated enclave of 1.8 million. But Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas political official who was in Cairo, said the movement, which is seeking a deal that would ease the Egyptian and Israeli border restrictions throttling Gaza’s economy, had made no final decision on Cairo’s proposal.

Israel resumed attacks in Gaza six hours after implementation of the truce was to have begun. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks late on Tuesday that Israel will “expand and intensify” its campaign on Hamas, though he did not specifically mention the possibility of a ground incursion. With Israel’s punishing campaign crossed the death toll to 204, higher than the people killed in the last major round of violence in and around Gaza in November 2012.

Human rights groups say more than 75 per cent of the dead have been noncombatants. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says more than a quarter of them have been children.

Vaidik-Saeed meeting creates rifts in India What’s that BJP SHIV SENA SAYS INDIAN GOVERNMENT ‘MUST NOT’ BE SOFT ON VAIDIK FOR ‘FRATERNISING WITH ENEMY’ AS INDIAN MINISTER DENIES GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN VAIDIK’S MEETING WITH JUD CHIEF NEW DELHI INP

India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideological wing Rashtriya Swayamseva Sangh (RSS) openly backed Indian journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik on Wednesday even as BJP ally Shiv Sena accused him of sedition for meeting Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) Chief Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan, a few days ago.

As opposition parties continued to protest against the Indian government for a third day, RSS leader Indresh Kumar said that Vaidik is a patriot and what he did was for the betterment of the nation.

BJP ally Shiv Sena has also cornered the government for not acting against Vaidik for meeting alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks Hafiz Saeed, in Lahore.

The Sena, in its political mouthpiece Saamana, called Vaidik unpatriotic and accused him of sedition for meeting a terrorist. The editorial said that the government simply cannot dissociate itself from the incident and must not be soft on Vaidik.

“Just saying that the government has nothing to do with the meeting will not suffice. Had it been a Congress

government and any journalist would have met Hafiz or Dawood Ibrahim, the BJP would have attacked the government,” read the editorial in Saamana, adding that the BJP government should get to the bottom of the issue.

The newspaper stated that there should not be any Hindu-Muslim discrimination “as this is a matter of national security”, adding that if Vaidik is let off, anyone will go and visit Dawood, Tiger Memon and Saeed in the future. The Sena stated that the Modi government has begun well and it should not create problems for itself because of the misadventure of an individual.

It is good that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj condemned the meeting in the (Indian) Parliament, the Sena said. Meeting Saeed, the country’s enemy, is “treason” and the government should take stern action against the journalist, said the Sena.

“He should be treated in the same manner as Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab,” said Sena leader Sanjay Raut.

Speaking of his meeting with the JuD chief and the alleged involvement of the Indian government, Vaidik said, “Swaraj is a very intelligent woman. She has told everyone that BJP has got nothing to do with me and has condemned my meeting. By doing this she has closed the debate.”

red dot?

Search operation initiated at Quetta Airport after pilot finds laser light targeting his plane QUETTA: The police Wednesday started a search operation in the precincts of Quetta Airport after a pilot complained of a laser light pointing at the plane while landing.

The sources revealed that the pilot of weekly flight from Mushad to Quetta PK-254 informed the control room about a burst of laser lights at the airliner while landing. The FC and police force, in turn, started the search operation in the adjacent areas of the airport. The flight was later allowed to fly to Lahore after the area was declared clear by the law enforcement agencies.

In a recent incident, a PIA flight from Saudi Arabia was targeted with laser light and gunfire when it was landing at Peshawar’s Bacha Khan International Airport. A woman passenger was killed in the incident while two crew members were seriously injured in the attack. AGENCIES

AIDS could be wiped out by 2030: UN UN AGENCY SAYS AIDS-RELATED DEATHS DROPPED TO 1.5M IN 2013 FROM 1.7M THE PREVIOUS YEAR GENEVA AGENCIES

Global AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections have fallen by over a third in a decade, raising hopes of beat-

ing the killer disease by 2030, the United Nations said Wednesday.

With more than half of the 35 million people living with HIV unaware they are infected, the battle is far from over however, said Michel Sidibe, head of UNAIDS. “If we are smart and scale up fast by 2020, we’ll be on track to end the epidemic by 2030, so that AIDS is no longer a public health threat,” he told reporters.

“We have a fragile window of opportunity, because what we do over the next five years will determine the next 15.” In a report released ahead of the 20th International AIDS Conference in

CMYK

Australia from July 20-25, the UN agency said AIDS-related deaths dropped to 1.5 million in 2013 from 1.7 million the previous year.

That was the sharpest annual decline since the epidemic’s peak in 2004 and 2005, and marked a 35-per cent drop from the 2.4 million deaths seen in both those years. New infections also fell to 2.1 million last year, down 38 per cent compared to the 3.4 million in 2001.

Africa remains the hardest-hit continent, with 1.1 million deaths in 2013, 1.5 million new infections, and 24.7 million people living with HIV. UNAIDS said the battle needed to focus squarely

on 15 countries which accounted for three quarters of new infections.

Nine are in Africa: Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. But the spotlight is also on Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and the United States — where Black women, Hispanics and young gay man are most affected.

Globally, the report said 35 million people were living with the virus in 2013, up from 34.6 million the previous year. A major problem, Sidibe said, is that 19 million do not know that they are HIV-positive.

NEWS 05

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

Syria’s Assad sworn in, takes swipe at West over revolt DAMASCUS

S

AGENCIES

yRIAN President Bashar al Assad was sworn in Wednesday for a new seven-year term, warning Western and Arab governments they will pay dearly for backing those who took up arms against him.

In a confident speech delivered after he took the oath of office at a red carpet ceremony in Damascus, Assad branded the 2011 Arab uprisings a “fake spring”.

Assad, 48, won a June election denounced as a “farce” by his detractors as it was staged more than three years into a devastating war that has killed more than 170,000 people and uprooted millions.

“Syrians, three years and four months … have passed since some cried ‘freedom’,” Assad said, referring to the 2011 revolt.

“They wanted a revolution, but you have been the real revolutionaries. I congratulate you for your revolution and for your victory,” Assad told his supporters.

“Those who lost their way can now see clearly … the monstrous faces have been unveiled, the mask of freedom and the revolution has fallen.”

Rebel mortar fire hit several districts of Damascus, as Assad ended his speech, residents said.

State media said four people were killed.

Assad’s inauguration comes with much of the world’s attention focused elsewhere, as violence engulfs Iraq and Gaza, even though his forces continue to pound rebel-held areas of sec-

Court rules Dutch state liable for 300 Srebrenica deaths THE HAGUE: The Netherlands is liable for about 300 of the more than 8,000 deaths in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, a Dutch court ruled on Wednesday, pinning some of the blame for Europe’s worst massacre since World War Two on the Dutch state. A district court in The Hague said Dutch peacekeepers in Srebrenica, a Bosnian Muslim enclave in Bosnian Serb-held territory, could have known that the 300 men who had sought refuge in their base in the village of Potocari would be murdered if deported from the Dutch compound. The court said the Netherlands was not liable for the deaths of those who had fled into the forests surrounding Srebrenica, where many of the men and boys were later buried in mass graves. The ruling could set a precedent with implications for future peacekeeping deployments by the Netherlands or other countries. During the Bosnian war, the Dutch battalion Dutchbat had been deployed to protect Srebrenica, which had been designated a safe haven by the United Nations, but surrendered to the much larger Bosnian Serb army commanded

by Ratko Mladic, who is on trial for war crimes at an international court in The Hague. AGENCIES

ond city Aleppo.

During the first two years of the Syrian revolt, which began as a peaceful protest movement before transforming into an armed rebellion, the opposition’s Western and Arab supporters repeatedly insisted he must step down.

But the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in both Syria and neighbouring Iraq has turned the tide.

Assad has repeatedly branded the revolt as a foreignbacked “terrorist plot”, refusing to recognise any genuine movement for change.

Assad won the election, held in government-controlled areas only, with 88.7% of the vote, defeating two other candidates seen as figureheads, rather than genuine challengers.

He issued a fresh call on Wednesday for “national dialogue”, but warned against talks with “those who have not proven their patriotism”, referring to the exiled opposition.

“We stress the need to press on with national reconciliations to stop the bloodshed,” he added, referring to a string of local truces reached around Damascus that activists have said remain fragile.

The opposition National Coalition branded the election a “farce” even before it was held, in a statement later echoed by US Secretary of State John Kerry and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Samir Nashar, a veteran dissident and member of the coalition, admitted the world’s attention has since turned away from Syria.

“Unfortunately for Syrians, the

Britain arrests 660 suspected paedophiles during six-month operation NCA SAYS MORE THAN 400 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN ‘SAFEGUARDED’ THANKS TO THE OPERATION LONDON AGENCIES

Police forces across Britain have arrested 660 suspected paedophiles during a six-month covert operation to find people accessing indecent images of children online, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday. Doctors, teachers, scout leaders, care workers and former police officers were among those detained in the action, which involved 45 police forces around the United Kingdom.

The NCA said more than 400 children had been “safeguarded” thanks to the operation.

“This is the first time the UK has had the capability to coordinate a single targeted operation of this nature,” NCA Deputy Director General Phil

Gormley said in a statement. “Some of the people who start by accessing indecent images online go on to abuse children directly. So the operation is not only about catching people who have already offended – it is about influencing potential offenders before they cross that line.”

Of the 660 people arrested, 39 were Registered Sex Offenders, meaning they already had a conviction for a sex crime. However, the majority, some of whom had unsupervised access to children, were not known to authorities.

The NCA, Britain’s equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, came into operation last October with the aim of better coordinating police action on issues such as child sex abuse and organised crime. Britain has been shaken in recent years by revelations that some of its best known celebrities from the 1970s and 1980s were involved in child sex abuse. Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris was jailed this month for repeatedly abusing young girls, while police revealed in 2012 that the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile had been a prolific child abuser. The revelations have prompted a flood of accusations from people who say they were sexually abused as children.

instability (across the Middle East) has distracted the international community’s attention,” he said.

Analysts say the rise of the militants has been a “gift” for Assad, who will try to take advantage of the West’s fear of extremism and present himself as a bulwark against it.

Following in the footsteps of his father and predecessor Hafez, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for 30 years, Assad has ignored the calls for his ouster. After the inauguration, the government has to resign and Assad will appoint a new prime minister to replace Wael al Halqi. But for the new exiled opposition chief, Hadi al Bahra, Assad “is at the core of the Syrian conflict (and) is still the main reason behind the unprecedented humanitarian crisis that is affecting the country.”

Assad, 48, won a June election denounced as a “farce” by his detractors as it was staged more than three years into a devastating war that has killed more than 170,000 people and uprooted millions

Fresh attacks on Libya airport kill 30 TRIPOLI: Libya’s international airport in capital Tripoli came under renewed attack Wednesday with the death toll reaching 30, according to security sources.

Heavy weapons were used in the attack and dozens of rocket-propelled grenades were fired into the airport, Xinhua reported citing a commander for Zintan militia which were guarding the air hub.

Intense fighting has been going on in Tripoli since early Sunday when Islamist armed groups launched attacks on Tripoli International Airport and some key road intersections.

Medical sources said the fighting so far has killed nearly 30 people and injured over 40.

A witness said the clashes damaged 90 percent of the aircraft parked at the airport and the control tower was severely damaged. The Libyan government Wednesday opened the Mitiga military airport to manage civil flights.

Libya has witnessed a drastic escalation of violence and political instability since the toppling of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Libya’s central government has failed to control the former rebels and militia, many of whom now operate with impunity. AGENCIES

AFGHAN FUTURE HANGS ON FRAGILE VOTE DEAL KABUL AGENCIES

Every single vote cast in Afghanistan’s run-off presidential election will be checked for signs of fraud in a painstaking process set to begin this week — and the stakes could not be higher.

Transported to Kabul under armed guard, these 8.1 million pieces of paper hold the key to which of the two men vying to replace President Hamid Karzai will lead Afghanistan into a new era as US-led troops withdraw.

The operation is set to get under way on Thursday after a historic deal last weekend between presidential candidates Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah — whose rival victory claims, amid allegations of massive fraud, pushed the nation to the brink of disaster.

“There was a fear that this was getting out of control,” said James Cunningham, the US ambassador to Kabul.

Ghani was last week announced the winner of the June 14 vote according to preliminary results, with 56.4% against Abdullah’s 43.5%. But Abdullah, accusing Ghani of massive ballot-stuffing, swiftly claimed he was the real victor —

ASIDE FROM THE FRAUD CHECKS, THE HISTORIC DEAL BETWEEN GHANI AND ABDULLAH ALSO OPENS THE PANDORA’S BOX OF HOW THE NEW NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE STRUCTURED AND MADE UP plunging Afghanistan’s first democratic transfer of power into crisis.

Rumours swirled that Abdullah’s supporters were planning to march on the presidential palace in Kabul, with some in his camp raising the prospect of forming a “parallel government”.

With the two rivals’ support largely split along ethnic lines, fears grew of a return to the brutal violence of the 19921996 civil war.

The United States, haunted by the recent turmoil in Iraq as well as the spectre of more bloodshed in Afghanistan, dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to find a way out.

“The reason we intervened so rapidly was to urge people to stop even thinking about going down that road,” said Cunningham.

Under the deal forged by Kerry after two frantic days of talks, both candidates have agreed to accept the result of the vote audit, while the deal paves the way

for a government of national unity, including a role for the losing side.

After weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts, it was hailed as a triumph.

“Whatever we tried before Kerry came, there were red lines,” said one diplomatic source close to the negotiations.

But both candidates have realised the deal was “the only chance they have” to end the deadlock, the source added.

The logistics of the operation, set to last three weeks or more, are daunting.

Some 23,000 ballot boxes are being transported by the Afghan army and NATO forces to the capital, where they will be examined at 100 verification stations.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it would play a “supporting role” in the process, providing air transport for less than 40% of the votes.

The United Nations (UN), which is

CMYK

overseeing the audit, hopes to post an international observer in each verification station, with most to be drawn from foreign embassies in Kabul.

The first technical details were being worked out on Wednesday, according to Ahmad yusuf Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC).

The ballots will be scrutinised against a checklist, with IEC members — under the watch of the international observers — checking for patterns that could indicate voting fraud.

Officials will be looking for similarities in the way ballots have been filled in, for example. They will also be checking that the number of ballots matches the figure on the official results sheet.

Aside from the fraud checks, the historic deal between Ghani and Abdullah also opens the Pandora’s box of how the new national unity government should be structured and made up.

Crucial details — including

whether the government will be based on a parliamentary system, which could mean the delegation of some presidential powers — remain unclear, while the fact that the deal has been agreed but not signed by the rival candidates adds further uncertainty.

The candidates met Tuesday to discuss further details, with Ghani’s spokesperson Hamidullah Farooqi saying both candidates had agreed to give posts in their government to members of the losing team.

Farooqi said if Ghani wins, they would convene a “loya jirga” or grand assembly of elders to create a new post for the losing side and work out how such a job would work.

The inauguration of the new president, which was due on August 2, has now been delayed to allow time for the audit.

But instability could surge again at any moment in a country where the Taliban remain a potent and deadly force 13 years after they were toppled from power.

On Tuesday a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck into a busy market in Paktika in the country’s southeast, killing at least 42 people.

06 KARACHI Prayer TImINgs FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

4:24

12:38

5:19

5:51

fIqAH-e-HAnfIA

7:25

8:51

fIqAH-e-jAfARIA

seHR 4:26Am IfTAR 7:25Pm

seHR 4:16Am IfTAR 7:35Pm

WEATHER UPDATES

WEDNESDAY

360C 280C

THURSDAY

360C 280C

FRIDAY

350C 270C

SATURDAY

340C 280C

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

PPP Protests against gaza killings SENATOR RAZA RABBANI CRITICISES ARAB LEAGUE, ORGANISATION FOR ISLAMIC CONFERENCE, PM NAWAZ SHAIRF FOR NOT TAKING CONCRETE STEPS TO PRESSURISE ISRAEL INTO STOPPING BOMBINGS

NADIA GABOL SAYS ISRAELI AGGRESSION IS NOT ONLY AN ISSUE FOR MUSLIMS BUT ALSO A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

PPP KARACHI DIVISION PRESIDENT QADIR PATEL SAYS GOVERNMENT SHOULD FOCUS ON ISSUE OF PALESTINIANS INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON IMRAN KHAN AND TAHIRUL QADRI

girls take the lead in hssC exam results KARACHI: Keeping in line with the Secondary School Certificate results this year, girls have maintained their lead overall, besides securing the top three positions in the Higher Secondary School Certificate exams, as shown by the results announced by Aga Khan University Examination Board on Wednesday. Afshan Hussain of Habib Girls School obtained the first position with 87.72 percent marks. Both second and third positions were secured by candidates from Aga Khan Higher Secondary School, Karachi. Sadori obtained the second position by securing 87.54 percent marks and Sadaf Batool Rizvi bagged the third position with 86.45 percent marks.

The overall pass percentage in HSSC PartI and -II was 91 percent with 13.1 percent candidates scoring Grade A1 in HSSC PartI and 15.8 percent scoring Grade A1 in HSSC Part-II. AKU-EB Associate Director Karima Kara congratulated the teachers and affiliated schools for their efforts in preparing students for the examinations, adding that it would further lead the students to success in university entrance tests and higher studies. PPI

handCuffs fail to stoP esCaPe of 2 Prisoners KHAIRPUR: Two under trial prisoners (UTPs) escaped from police custody in Pir jo Goth on Wednesday. According to details, a police party was shifting prisoners from Central Jail, Khairpur to Pir Jo Goth Court for hearing of their cases, when two handcuffed UTPs, Sadaam Udho and Karim Dino Khawaja, managed to escaped from police custody outside the court. The escaped prisoners were involved in heinous crimes, including robberies. Police are conducting raids for their arrest. PPI

3 labourers killed as tharParkar well Caves in THARPARKAR: Three labourers were killed when the side walls of a well in Tharparkur caved in during digging operation on Wednesday. Police said that three labourers were digging a well in Onorru area of Tharparkar when the sidewalls of the well collapsed. As a result, all three labourers, namely Ram Chand, Maan Singh and Altaf Bhail were killed on the spot. The locals extracted the bodies from the debris and shifted them to a local hospital for medico-legal formalities. INP

KARACHI PPI

P

AKiSTAn People’s Party (PPP) on Wednesday staged a protest against israeli aggression in Gaza outside the Karachi Press Club and demanded Prime Minister nawaz Sharif and islamic and Arab organisations to play their role to support the Palestinians.

Hundreds of PPP workers, activists and leaders carrying banners inscribed with slogans expressing solidarity with Palestinians, participated in the rally and chanted slogans against israel.

Addressing the rally, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said that entire nation stands behind the Palestinians who are

facing “brutal israeli bombardment” in which more than 200 people, including women and children, have been killed.

He criticised the Arab League (AL) and Organisation of islamic Cooperation (OiC) for not playing a role in helping Palestinians against israeli aggression. “instead of playing their part to support Palestinians, AL and OiC are appealing to end the massacre from israel,” he said, adding that if these organisations should be shut down if they cannot play their role.

He said that Prime Minister nawaz Sharif has limited himself to issuing statements in support of Palestinians instead of activating the Foreign Office and other bureaucrats to play their part

on the diplomatic front.

Rabbani said that the role of nations that raise voices against human rights violations across the globe is disappointing and their silence on Palestinian deaths is also disturbing.

Rabbani said that the PPP had a special relationship with Palestinian people since the time of PPP’s founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who called for unity among Muslims to combat israeli terror. He said that the party would continue to support the Palestinians who are facing brutal israeli aggression.

Coordinator to Sindh Chief Minister on Human Rights nadia Gabol said that PPP had arranged the public gathering on a short notice to express solidarity with Palestinians.

Gabol said that the israeli aggression was not only an issue against Muslims but was also creating a humanitarian crisis. She said that PPP was ready to go and provide medicine and other necessities to Palestinian people. She also called for donations from people in order to send relief goods to the Palestinians.

PPP Karachi Division President Qadir Patel said it was unfortunate that despite such a vibrant media worldwide, no influential voice was being raised against israeli “brutality”. He said that the Pakistani government should focus on the issue of Palestinians instead of focusing more on political leaders imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri.

Notice issued to KMC for flouting court orders KARACHI PPI

The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued a notice to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administrator and deputy director land for flouting the court’s order that restrained them from dispossessing transporters of their plots at a new truck stand along Hawksbay Road.

A division bench headed by Justice Munib

Akhtar heard the application seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against KMC administrator and deputy director land for disobeying the court order.

Applicant Muhammad Saleem and others submitted that on December 24, 2013 the division bench of the high court had barred the KMC officials from cancelling 99-year lease of plots allotted to them and other transporters and dispossessing them of their lands. They told judges that despite the courts stay

order, the KMC officials have ordered the cancellation of lease and its anti-encroachment force had demolished some structures built at the plots.

Applicants said that they were lawful lease holders and have invested money in building the structures.

According to reports, the applicants said that the illegal action of KMC officials would cause financial loss to them and requested the court to restrain the authorities from taking any adverse action against them.

SHC adjourNS HeariNg of KMC appeal till aug 8 KARACHI PPI The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday adjourned till August 8 the appeal filed by Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and real estate concerned seeking resumption of the construction work on a flyover and two

under passes in Clifton area.

A SHC division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar put off the matter because of the suspension of court work following the strike call given

by SHC Bar Association to protest the Israeli aggression in Gaza. The KMC had approached the court challenging the SHCs single bench order barring Bahria

Town from carrying out construction on a flyover and two underpasses in Clifton. Bahria Town had also filed an application requesting the court to allow it to resume construction work at its own risk. Earlier, a single bench of the SHC had ruled that all construction in relation to the project be immediately stopped and had asked the KMC to

CMYK

obtain a mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report from the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) on the project.

Counsel for Bahria Town filed an application stating that following the SHC’s order, a court official was appointed to inspect the construction sites in Clifton area.

The official’s report has confirmed that the construction was at a fairly advanced stage when it was stopped following the high court’s order. The report stated that if the construction is not started before the arrival of heavy rains expected in the next few days, the life and property of citizens living in the vicinity might be harmed.

KARACHI 07

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

KARACHI: Demonstrators blocked the road during a protest against killing of a shopkeeper in New Preedy Street. OnLIne

here’s a first: female PoliCe offiCer aPPointed head muharar KARACHI: A female police officer has been appointed as head muharar in a police station for the first time in the history of Pakistan. A notification issued by the Sindh Police on Wednesday states that lady officer of Sindh Police ASI Naseem Malik has been appointed as head muharar in Risala Police Station Old City area. It should be mentioned that the designation of head muharar is extremely vital and termed as the mother of a police station in police language. The head muharar’s duties include ensuring the implementation of all orders of the SHO, managing all the records of registers and to assign duties to police personnel in the whole area. ONLINe

woman, her son killed over ‘old enmity’ KHAIRPUR: A woman and her son were killed near Khairpur on Wednesday allegedly over an old enmity between Junejo and Kalhoro communities over a land issue. According to details, armed men opened indiscriminate firing at a house in village Saleh Kalhoro. As a result, a woman Taajul Khatoon Kalhoro and her son Muhammad Alam Kalhoro, died on the spot while a minor girl Irshad Khatoon Kalhoro was injured. The bodies and injured were shifted to Civil Hospital, Khairpur. The bodies were handed over to the heirs after post-mortem while the injured is still under treatment. PPI

saddar shooting injures 3 KARACHI: At least three people were injured during a firing incident in Saddar area. According to sources, unidentified armed men opened fire on a shop in Saddar area of Karachi, injuring three people. According to reports, SSP East Peer Muhammad Shah said that the accused had came to rob the vegetable shop but opened fire when the vendor tried to oppose them, injuring a vendor, a customer identified as Javed and a passerby. The injured have been shifted to hospital, while the assailants managed to flee. Vendors and members of the traders’ community blocked Parade Street to protest against the incident. ONLINe

it’s hot and dark in 500 Sindh villages KARACHI/PANGRIO PPI

C

ITIzENS of Pangrio are facing power cuts even during Sehr and Iftar timings in the holy month of Ramazan. According to reports on Wednesday, more than

five hundred villages of the area are facing hardships due to the suspension of electricity for the past couple of days.

When contacted, local HESCO officials said the power supply was disconnected from the main line which has been restored but feeders could not be managed

properly due to overload.

Meanwhile, the Met Office has forecast partly cloudy to cloudy weather with chances of light rain in Karachi on Thursday while the maximum temperature is expected to remain between 33 C and 35 C. Dust storms and thundershowers have been forecasted at isolated

Court seeks whereabouts of 4 illegal detainees KARACHI PPI

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday repeated notice to home secretary, Rangers director general, provincial police chief and others on a petition seeking whereabouts of four people illegally detained by paramilitary troops.

A division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar was hearing a petition filed by Shah nawaz Siddiqui and three others who have taken law enforcement

agencies to the court against illegal detention of their relatives.

The petitioners submitted that Rangers personnel picked up Sarmad Ahmed Siddiqui, Mohammad Umer, Majid Khan and Abdul Hameed Khan from the office of Advocate naseer Shah near Tariq Road on July 7.

They submitted that they approached the police station concerned and Rangers officials but they were not disclosing any information of the whereabouts of the missing men. They requested the

court to direct the law enforcement agencies to produce all detainees in the court.

Meanwhile, the same bench issued notice to Rangers DG and Sindh iG to file comments on a petition of Farzana against illegal detention of her husband Muhammad Javed Baloch. The woman petitioner submitted that paramilitary forces took away her husband from Landhi area on July 13 when he was playing cricket with his friends and since then there was no clue about him.

Police nets three, including criminal involved in EOBI AD’s killing KARACHI PPI

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Special investigation Unit (SiU) Muhammad Farooq Awan on Wednesday claimed to have arrested three criminals from Karachi’s Shahrah-eQuaideen.

The SSP said that the SiU conducted a raid at Shahrah-e-Quaideen near Khudadad Colony and arrested three criminals Akbar, naveed alias naveedi, and Danish alias Rehan. He said that the arrested criminals were involved in various cases of murders, attempts to murder,

robberies and other crimes.

The SSP said that Akbar was involved in the killing of Employees Old-Age Benefits institution Assistant Director Qamar Abbas in 2013. Three pistols with bullets were also recovered from the possession of the arrested men, said the police. Further investigation is underway.

Karachi violence kills six, injures four KARACHI: Six people were killed and four others were injured in separate incidents of violence in the city on Wednesday. Two men were shot dead and three others were injured by unidentified assailants near Abbas Imam Bargah in Gulistan-e-Johar. The bodies were shifted to Jinnah

Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and the injured were taken to Liaquat National Hospital for treatment. In another incident, an unidentified youth was shot dead by gunmen in Street 7, Daryabad, Lyari. The body was taken to Civil Hospital Karachi for an autopsy.

Meanwhile, the four-day-old body of a 40-year-old unidentified man was recovered near Boat Basin, Clifton and was shifted to JPMC for autopsy. In a separate incident, two unidentified men, aged 25 and 30, were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Superhighway in Jamali Goth.

CMYK

The bodies were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medicolegal formalities. Twenty-five year old Faizullah, resident of Lyari, was injured by unidentified gunmen near Khattak Chowk in Bilal Colony, Korangi. The body was taken to JPMC for medical treatment. PPI

places in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions while the weather is expected to remain hot in Sukkur and Larkana divisions.

On Wednesday, the highest maximum temperature, 46 C, was recorded at Sibi and the lowest minimum temperature, 19 C, was recorded in Kalat and Quetta.

No pillioN ridiNg iN KaraCHi, SuKKur froM july 18 to 20 KARACHI: Sindh Government Home Department has imposed a ban on pillion riding of motorbikes and scooters under section 144 (6) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The ban shall be into effect from Ramazan 19 to 21 - July 18 to 20, in Karachi and Sukkur divisions. The ban shall not be applicable to women, children below the age of 12 years, senior citizens, journalists, personnel of law enforcement agencies and security agencies in uniform and employees of essential services. PPI

08 COMMENT

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

Averting a crisis Is Imran Khan pushing PML-N towards being more transparent?

A

head on clash was expected in case the PMLN’s Independence Day celebrations and PTI rally were held at the same place and time. The prime minister has reportedly decided to hold the traditional ceremony with only 6,000 participants which would end long before the arrival of the PTI rally. In case the report is correct this would be considered a step in the right direction. Nawaz Sharif has done well to ignore the PML-N hardliners’ demand not to show any flexibility to the PTI. Any confrontation between the two parties could have led to unintended consequences, vitiating the political atmosphere and damaging the government’s ongoing attempts to build up the business community’s confidence. The move would however only avert the impending crisis for the time being. What needs to be done is to tackle the root cause of the issues with Imran Khan.

Imran Khan too needs to avoid upping the ante.

Taking a leaf out of the settlement between the protagonists in Afghanistan, brokered by Secretary Kerry, Khan too has demanded a complete auditing of results of last year’s elections. He forgets that in Afghanistan the decision was made possible because of foreign mediation which none would like in Pakistan.

Further, the results of the runoff elections were against everybody’s expectations and a civil war on ethnic and regional basis was inevitable if the agreement was not reached. What is more both the rivals agreed on total auditing. None of these conditions is available in Pakistan. What is needed on the part of the PTI is to avoid recourse to the streets and instead take its disputes to the NA. Meanwhile it should pay greater attention to providing relief to thousands of IDPs taking shelter in KP. There is a need on the part of the PPP to act as an honest broker between the PML-N and PTI. Nawaz Sharif should agree to the demand for recount in the four constituencies. The parties should concentrate on electoral reforms to make the next elections transparent.

Back to Bajaur

A nod in the wrong direction Democracy, budget, and Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha

m J AkbAr

M

y sympathies are entirely with Rahul Gandhi in the Curious Case of the Sleeping Leader.

The great inner chamber of the temple of Indian democracy, the Lok Sabha, can be infected with a languorous air during a hot Delhi summer afternoon. Some of the speeches do not help. Better parliamentarians than Rahul Gandhi have had to fight off a dangerous yawn during those critical hours after lunch when the body, drugged by food, and the mind, poisoned by torpor, yearns for a nap.

This used to be a consciously protected secret, in the best traditions of a cosy club, in that remote age before Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, seeking greater visible glory for MPs, permitted real time television recording of speeches. MPs welcomed the opportunity to become screen idols. What they did not fully appreciate is that cameras have no soul, and their handlers, cameramen, are wicked by nature. They wait for their brief moment, and pounce.

Perhaps Rahul Gandhi could have ordered suitable flunkeys in the information and broad-

casting department to censor those startling images of him dropping off into sleep as soundly as a baby after a feed, during the debate on the price rise. It is possible that the bureaucrats would not have even needed to check; they would have blanked the screen without being told, such is the culture of sycophancy in Delhi. But that was when Congress was in power. The same lot are ready to show his neck tilted somewhere close to 90 degrees when he should have been alertly leading the Congress charge on an issue at the top of the party’s counteroffensive against NDA. I don’t know if Rahul Gandhi has fully absorbed the meaning of defeat or not. His tragic nap in Parliament, to twist a metaphor, is his wake-up call.

It was touching to watch Parliament next morning, when finance minister Arun Jaitley rose to deliver his marathon Budget speech. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, like a very concerned mother, was taking no chances. She made her son sit beside her, on the front benches, where the chances of nodding off are negligible. Rahul Gandhi had spent his time during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long reply to the debate on the President’s address cleaning his mobile phone, or tinkering with it.

This time he was on best behaviour. He had even come armed with pen and pad to make notes.

It would be interesting to discover what notes Rahul Gandhi actually made during Jaitley’s oration, but one doubts that history will get that document for its archives. However, if Congress reactions to the Budget are any reflection, then those pages might well have been full of doodles.

Democracy is a partisan business. To that extent Congress hostility to the first NDA Budget is both predictable and understandable. But at the least Congress could have opted for a better line of fire. Its response was lazy, knee-jerk and thereby counter-productive.

Its first salvo accused NDA of merely copying UPA budgets. If that was indeed true then Congress should have praised Jaitley. Or has Congress now taken the position that Budgets produced by Dr Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram were

a load of rubbish? Look before you leap, and think before you talk. The more likely reason for this misfire is that Congress propaganda had built up the argument that this Budget would be anti-poor.

This was astonishing misjudgement given the consistency with which PM Modi has said that if government does not serve the poorest of the poor first, then it is no government at all. The best positive-discrimination welfare schemes today are being run in BJP states like Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, not Congress provinces like Maharashtra or Karnataka. The Budget exposed such propaganda as the lie it was.

The second charge was that the Budget lacked any big ticket vision. This too is a bit absurd. The Budget promised proper housing for every Indian by 2022; electricity in every home; sanctioned seed money for a hundred new satellite cities; opened up foreign direct investment in housing, defence; expanded infrastructure spending to add roads and link rivers; promised return of growth to 8% or 9%; and began the drive to create a clean India, with a pristine Ganga, by 2019, which is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Is that too little for a first Budget that had to factor in an empty treasury, left desolate through reckless spending by desperate Congress governments?

Delhi’s thinking is largely in the hands of those who think a power cut is a calamity, rather than those who have never seen power in their huts; those fantasizing about palaces in Lutyens’ Delhi dying instead of living without a roof; those who love a siesta instead of thirsting for clean water or slaving for a morsel of simple sustenance.

The promise is there in the Budget. The articulation is there. The vision exists. Now comes the tough part: the government has to deliver on a nation’s dreams.

Mobashar Jawed Akbar is a leading Indian journalist and author. He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Sunday Guardian. He has also served as Editorial Director of India Today.

Where it all started

W

ITH fresh intel from Zarb-e-Azb pointing to Bajaur, and talk of a targeted military sweep of the agency, the local jirga’s success in leveraging indigenous peace committees and getting the military to postpone another incursion is beneficial on two counts. One, it delays, at least, more unintended consequences and more refugees. And two, more importantly, it gives the local tribal structure a greater, more significant role within the COIN (counterinsurgency) framework. Clearly, NW’s spillover has been instructive. And it is for good reason that military and intelligence officials have seen fit to trust tribal strategy for the time being; which means local militias will man the border, patrol villages, and remove TTP, especially foreign, militants from their areas.

Bajaur’s significance is easily forgotten in the many twists and turns of the long war against the TTP. It was here, not in north or south Waziristan, that the TTP multi-party conglomerate was first stitched together by al Qaeda’s financial largess following their (Arabs’) split with Mulla Omer’s Afghan Taliban. And it was here, in 2010, that intelligence officers reached a ceasefire arrangement with former TTP number-2 Molvi Faqeer – one of the so called good Taliban – that lasted for more than a year. There was chatter at the time that Faqeer had gathered a group of like-minded commanders and was trying to persuade Hakeemullah into a negotiated end to the fighting. What followed is still hazy, but a number of good Taliban suddenly departed from the scene – Mulla Nazeer killed in a drone strike and Molve Faqeer captured in Afghanistan – and the peace in Bajaur was broken.

It was, however, at the same time that peace committees were formed. And thought their members suffered endlessly from TTP persecution in their early days, it is again these committees that are being leveraged to ‘cleanse’ Bajaur once and for all. If this experiment – of local militias working under military patronage – proves successful, an important precedent will be set; one based on building on previous policies.

The government should give this process a try and preferably contain the situation with minimal violence.

If the resistance persists, however, then there is only one way to go, that is, an extension of Zarb-e-Azb into Bajaur.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad Joint Editor Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963, 042-36375965

I

Rules of recruitment Or a lack thereof in the Pakistani job market

Anum PAshA

P

AKISTANI students fresh out of university dream big; armed with a degree and lots of ambition, fresh graduates set their eyes on nothing less than the top few names in the job market – some selling beverages, others boxes of milk.

A few have their hearts set on international and local nonprofit organisations working in women empowerment, education, and healthcare among other causes, for the greater benefit of Pakistan.

Usually, there are more qualified candidates than there are jobs and that is the bitter truth in Pakistan.

One would presume that multinational corporations and other international organisations in Pakistan have praise-worthy and model-worthy international best practices for human resource recruitment. One of the key attractions of joining an international organisation is the good practices of human resource management that are generally expected to be implemented in Pakistan as well, especially during the recruitment phase.

HR is the first impression that a prospective employee will have of the organisation. During an interview with the head of human resource management at a milk/beverage packaging multinational giant in Lahore, I was asked if I planned to say single all my life – perhaps as a response to my current marital status stated in the curriculum vitae. Thereafter, I was shortlisted for the assessment round, and before this litmus test actually

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208

I

commenced, I was promptly told to ‘act more corporate’, since I hailed from the development sector unfortunately. Later, my employer started belittling the development sector in which I had experience in, implying that there was a world of difference between those working in the corporate sector compared to the nonprofit field. I would have never taken the offer, even if this multinational company’s president begged me; my initial impression of this company had already gone down the drain given the profile of professionals (or lack thereof) running the local show.

Recently, a friend was interviewed for a local section 42 nonprofit company, where the chairman started off by not introducing himself and instead began shooting off a series of quick questions. This lasted five minutes until he asked about her current remuneration package, to which she answered as honestly as she could. In the very next moment, she was asked to leave.

An example of a good interview that complies with best practices would perhaps be one which begins with introductions, followed by the recruiter delivering a brief on the job description and questions for the candidate; a good interviewer will always give the interviewee a chance to ask their questions towards the end as well. A good company will also be courteous enough to inform candidates if they have not been selected for a particular position that they applied for.

Candidates who are new to the job hunt must be aware of this existing mechanism. While the excitement of landing a high-paying job at a large company is extremely enticing during the initial years of employment, there are certain signs that may be a red flag for an employee who feels they might not be a good fit for unprofessional environments where compliance is a general issue.

Seasoned candidates who have had the displeasure of sitting through job interviews complain that it is a norm for organisations to advertise vacancies that have already been filled, in order to comply with ‘transparency’. Some organisations go as far as interviewing a large pool of candidates who arrive at the venue after travelling long distances, even while the position has already been filled by an internal candidate or through reference. Obviously, no travel allowance and accommodation is given to these shortlisted candidates.

If this doesn’t speak about the volumes of unprofessionalism and shady recruitments, what else

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

CMYK

I

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

does? According to Peter Orszag, vice chairman of corporate and investment banking and chairman of the financial strategy and solutions group at Citigroup Inc, companies have reduced their “recruiting intensity”. They advertise jobs but don’t have much interest in filling them.

Lou Adler, bestselling author of the book ‘The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired’, believes that applying for jobs in this day and age is an absolute waste of time. “Networking is the entry-point into the hidden job market, it is hard work, but necessary work for those that want to get a job they deserve or a better job than the one they have now.” This draws attention towards referral-based hiring, which has been a trend in Pakistan for too long, but creates a problem for fresh graduates who have very few contacts in the job market. Moreover, referred or recommended candidates are judged on their past performance, so fresh graduates inevitably have to apply for jobs and maybe it is not a waste of time for them as Adler would really like to believe.

My experiences with employers during interview sessions might reflect a certain genderbias and I wonder if this is an issue of direct relevance. For instance, most job advertisements encourage Pakistani females and minorities to apply for a certain position, which is fantastic.

The trend is encouraging, but it is often strange that in Islamabad, for instance, many organisations are virtually packed with males from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with average competence, poor skill set and ordinary educational backgrounds. Some of my friends, who have applied for international fellowships and scholarships, are confident they have an edge over others only because their domicile belongs to KP. World over interview durations have doubled, more vacancies are cropping up and employees are usually held for not one but marathon interview sessions and assessments. Competition is cutthroat, the search for the ideal candidate is eternal, and job hiring is often delayed. While both the employer and employee are looking for perfection, some basic standard operating procedures during recruitment should be implemented, those which reflect transparency, good values and strong ethics.

Anum Pasha is a freelance writer and an experienced communications professional. She can be reached at: anumpashaa@gmail.com.

I

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

WORLD VIEW 09

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

Disrupting Parliament over a journalist meeting Hafiz Saeed Times of india For the second day in a row, Parliament was disrupted by opposition members over the meeting between journalist and Baba Ramdev associate Ved Pratap Vaidik with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed. The opposition accused Vaidik of being an RSS man and meeting Saeed on behest of the government. It also pointed to Vaidik’s supposed comment that Kashmir be made an ‘independent nation’ to allude to a sinister conspiracy. However, the government has clarified that it had nothing to do with Vaidik’s recent trip to Pakistan or his meeting with Saeed. Vaidik himself has asserted that he acted as a journalist, in which capacity he has also met Maoist leaders and LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran.

There would be merit in opposition charges if the government is indeed trying to open channels of communication with the master-mind of 26/11.

If the opposition has evidence to support this claim, it must make it public.

However, linking Vaidik’s meeting with Saeed with the journalist’s ties with Baba Ramdev — a known supporter of PM Narendra Modi — is tenuous. It hardly counts as proof that Vaidik is acting as an agent of the government. It’s not unnatural for a journalist to interview people considered terrorists or enemies of the state.

Nor does Vaidik’s view that Kashmir be given autonomy or independence amount to breaking any law. Even assuming that he advocated independence for Kashmir — which he disputes — it’s an opinion that thousands of people, especially in the Valley, share. It’s not particularly feasible, as it would leave a vacuum which radical Islamist forces — not least Hafiz Saeed’s LeT -- would be happy to fill. It’s not an option that any Indian government can ever seriously countenance. But in India’s democratic system, airing such views is not a crime.

Part of the reason Congress and other opposition parties are making a mountain out of a molehill is to hoist the right wing on its own petard. It’s resorting to the same shrill tactics that BJP and its right wing allies adopted when they were in the opposition. However, it’s somewhat incoherent to say, in the same breath, that Vaidik is an RSS man and he’s planning to give away Kashmir. Such tactics may serve the purpose of disrupting Parliament for a while but don’t carry much credibility in the long run.

Vaidik-Saeed meet raises questions asian age For a journalist, it is no crime to meet a criminal or a terrorist just as it is no infringement of any kind for a lawyer to defend the worst law-breaker.

Indeed, civilised society proceeds on the assumption that the most wanted criminals are entitled to legal defence (which only lawyers can provide), and any news that is fit to print needs a journalist who will go and get it.

Thus, if Ved Pratap Vaidik — a former editor at Navbharat Times and at PTI Bhasha, and a Hindi columnist of long standing — has met Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Lahore-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa that supplies the ideological underpinning to the anti-India terrorist outfit Lashkar-eTayyaba which is seen as an instrument of the ISI, in discharge of a journalistic function (and lands a scoop in the bargain), he would be contributing to our understanding of current realities. There is, however, no evidence yet that Mr Vaidik, a prominent supporter of the yoga teachercum-businessman Baba Ramdev and of right-wing causes associated with him, met Saeed in course of a journalistic assignment.

It is also a mystery who funded Mr Vaidik’s three-week stay in Pakistan, how the visa was arranged (it is seldom easy for an Indian scribe to have a visa that extends many weeks), or for that matter the meeting with Saeed (which seems improbable without the ISI’s go-ahead). The government, answering strong Opposition voices in Parliament, did quite robustly reject the suggestion that the senior journalist had met the JuD supremo at the behest of the official machinery. This is unlikely to placate the government’s opponents or satisfy other sceptics, though. After all, journalists (and other professionals) are known to be sometimes used by intelligence agencies — on a deniable basis, of course. This happens everywhere in the world.

Even so, it is strikingly bad form for the Congress Party to demand Mr Vaidik’s arrest, even if Saeed has been declared a terrorist by India (and, indeed, the United States). True, in the first NDA government then law minister Arun Jaitley wasn’t in the mood to show mercy — while extolling the virtues of Pota — to journalists who might want to meet terrorists in the line of duty. We can only hope the Congress isn’t barking up that tree. That would be quite simply ridiculous. Instead of focusing on the person of Mr Vaidik, it may be profitable to wonder if the Modi government is engaged in looking for unconventional openings with Pakistan that supplement the standing diplomatic route or even the Track-II channel (which typically uses former officials, public figures, and frequently journalists as well). If so, there could be a price to pay, should things go wrong.

Track II, a la Vaidik indian express Now that the intrepid Ved Pratap Vaidik is back from his travels among the Jamat-ud-Dawa, the government version of Track II diplomacy looks as boring. This is the real thing — flying under the radar, making contact with South Asia’s most wanted man and getting him to express an interest in visiting India to argue his case.

One only wishes that Vaidik had taken advantage of the fruity air of bonhomie and escorted Hafiz Saeed back to India, to make his case in the highest courts.

Saeed’s protege Ajmal Kasab almost had to do that, when Mumbai lawyers refused to serve as his counsel. Or, Vaidik could have shared his travel plans with the Americans, who are sometimes willing to put the drone before the law in such matters. He really should work on his follow-through, for in a persistently troubled world, the possibilities of tackling intractable international issues by blundering into them is almost endless.

In his maiden venture in metre gauge Track II diplomacy, Vaidik, who has been a journalist and is an aide of Baba Ramdev, has caused collateral damage to the government he supports. It is like a self-goal, only more impressive. The Rajya Sabha was adjourned following an uproar.

Prominent ministers like Arun Jaitley and Prakash Javadekar had to distance the government from Vaidik’s Pakistan visit. Ramdev rustled up covering fire. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju clarified that “a journalist can’t be regulated”. Maybe this is the secret weapon to address vexed cross-border issues — an unregulated journalist with a loose cannon in each hand. The outcome may be unpredictable and inconclusive, but at least something lively happens — if only in Parliament.

THE WEST SHOULD RETHINK THE ROLE OF SAUDI AND IRAN

financiaL Times

T

AHMEd RASHId

HE most strident debate among western intelligence agencies is whether the reported thousands of foreign fighters involved in fighting in Syria and Iraq, which include 3,000 Europeans and Americans, are going to return home and bomb their own countries.

A more important question may be whether the war launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, and other militant groups is primarily a Sunni extremist campaign against Shias – in other words, a war internal to the Muslim world. In this case, the key players who need to be restrained are not those fighting, but their sponsors Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia in particular has a wider responsibility in the Islamic world to act as a bridge between the sects rather than fuel Sunni extremism.

The shrill statements by western leaders have given no room for doubt that they believe the jihadis are on their doorstep and a bombing campaign in major western cities is imminent. However it appears that a much more sensible appraisal is coming from some western intelligence officials, none more so than from the former head of Britain’s MI6.

Sir Richard Dearlove, now master of Pembroke College, Cambridge told an audience at in London in early July that the west has grossly exaggerated the threat posed by Islamic terrorism. The reality, he said, is that Europe and the US are essentially “bystanders” in what is an internal war between Sunnis and Shias.

He laid much of the blame on Saudi Arabia for funding militant Sunni groups over the years. Riyadh, he said, is “deeply attracted to any militancy which can effectively challenge Shiadom”.

For those arguing the opposite, a paper published in June by the Soufan Group, a security consultancy. The report was written by Richard Barrett, a former British intelligence official who for ten years headed the UN team monitoring alQaeda, and it provides some alarming information.

Mr Barrett says more than 12,000 foreign fighters have gone to Syria, more than the number of jihadis who trav-

elled to Afghanistan during its entire ten year war against the Soviet Union. The fighters are from at least 81 countries, and for the first time they include militants from around the world, including countries such as New Zealand, all five of the Central Asian Republics and Chile.

He believes that al-Qaeda sees this as a major opportunity to recover the power it has lost since 2001 and that even if returning foreign fighters do not act as terrorists in their home countries immediately, all have been exposed to war, radicalisation and military training.

Mr Barrett details the extensive use of social media by jihadis and says that “even a very small percentage of returning foreign fighters could have a major impact on their homelands”. Intelligence resources in most countries are insufficient to monitor all the returnees.

Those countries hosting Syrian refugees face the additional danger of having to keep young people cooped up in tents for long periods of time, making them a pool of potential militant recruits.

Most moderate Muslims would agree with Sir Richard’s assessment of the brutal war within Islam. ISIS troops are massacring every Shia they meet on their advance to Baghdad. The majority of foreign fighters are Arabs imbued with some kind

of anti-Shia hatred.

This is not new. The civil wars in Afghanistan and Lebanon, Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980, and the campaigns against Shia populations in Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain by Sunni extremists have all been helped along by official and unofficial Saudi and other Sunni fund raisers.

But persuading Saudi Arabia to change its ways would also have to mean it changes the tenets of Wahabbism, the extreme Sunni interpretation that the country practices. That appears next to impossible.

Mr Barrett offers several policy prescriptions, one of which involves governments being less focused on “prevention and punishment than on dissuasion and reintegration”. Western policy-makers have no policy prescriptions apart from the big stick.

An overarching need is for the US and Europe to put their weight behind a policy that at least begins to see a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Both countries need to stop their religious wars against one another using other people’s territory. Heavy doses of western diplomacy will be needed because none of the internal players has shown any capacity to act as peace maker. The tragedy is that no diplomatic initiative is being taken by any power, Muslim or non-Muslim.

ISRAEL CAN'T WIN THIS OR ANY FUTURE CONFLICTS Los angeLes Times IBRAHIM SHARQIEH

A popular colloquial definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Israel launched military campaigns in 2008 and 2012, purportedly to eliminate Hamas' rocket-launching capabilities from the Gaza Strip.

Obviously, the campaigns failed: Hamas is again unleashing a barrage of rockets and Israel is again bombarding Gaza. Israel cannot win this war, primarily because it is fighting only the symptoms of the conflict with the Palestinians — rocket launching — not the underlying causes, which are the Gaza blockade and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The range of Hamas' rockets was about 50 miles in 2012, reaching cities such as Ashdod.

Today, some rockets have traveled nearly 100 miles, targeting Tel Aviv and even Haifa.

Hamas launched more than 800 rockets in the first six days — more than it did in 21 days in 2008. Israel has launched more than 1,300 airstrikes on Gaza in those first six days.

Seventeen members of the extended family of Tayseer Batsh, the Hamas police chief, were killed by one such airstrike — the largest number from one family in a single attack in the three conflicts.

The heavy bombardment of Gaza only deepens the Israelis' problem rather than solving it. Over the last 47 years, Israel has systematically created one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world in the Gaza Strip. The more targets Israel destroys, the more frustration grows

among the Gazans. The surviving relatives, neighbors and friends of those killed, and the rest of Gazan society, are more exasperated than ever by the Israeli blockade. Increased frustration within a besieged Gaza is what pushed things to the edge in the first place.

It is delusional to assume that when the current battle ends, both parties will return to their communities to resume normal lives. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has created two meanings of normality. The 40,000 Israeli reservists who were called up this time will,

for the most part, go back to their jobs and homes when the fighting ends. But Gazans, 39% of whom are unemployed, will go back to their "normal" lives under the brutal conditions of the Gaza blockade and be at the mercy of Israel's rules about what type and quantity of food and other basics are allowed into Gaza. The Palestinians in the West Bank will go back to their daily humiliation of roadblocks and expanding Israeli settlements at the expense of their livelihoods.

In fact, the two sides are more equal under the condi-

tions of war than those of peace; although the Israelis are much stronger militarily and inflict more damage, both sides feel the effects of being under attack. But when the fighting ends, the Palestinians' version of normality gives them every incentive to defy Israeli roadblocks and blockades. When the choice for Gazans is either accepting the blockade and life in what some have called the largest open-air prison in the world or fighting back, no sane person would consider anything other than the latter option.

To prevent another tragic war in the future, things must change. Palestinians mainly need two things: dignity and bread. Israel must end the occupation in general and the Gaza blockade in particular.

The mistake of the 2008 and 2012 mediation efforts was that they produced cease-fires that allowed the Israelis to go back to business as usual — but left the Gaza blockade intact and perpetuated untenable conditions, which led to further and bloodier fighting.

Israel cannot win this or any future conflicts by bombing Gaza. Without addressing the root causes, even crippling Hamas — which was able to impose calm after 2012 — would not be a victory. Instead, it would merely set the stage for the next time, against whatever group or groups — perhaps even more radical than Hamas — that would inevitably emerge to take up its mantle.

Ibrahim Sharqieh is a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution's Doha Center and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.

10 BUSINESS CORPORATE CORNER Silkbank to open Zakat collection accounts of charitable/non-profit organisations KArAChi: Silkbank, in its endeavour to contribute towards the welfare of the society and facilitate its socially responsible customers, has joined hands with Edhi Foundation, Aman Foundation, SIUT (Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation) and Shaukat Khanam Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre by opening their respective Zakat and donation collection accounts. Now, Silkbank customers can easily pay Zakat or make donations to their preferred NGO/charitable organization by visiting any branch of the Bank or through Silk Direct Internet Banking or any Silkbank ATM. On this socially responsible move by Silkbank, Head, Marketing Services, Naiyar Saif expressed that alongside the vision to be premier and upscale, the Bank strongly believes in promoting social and economic welfare and growth by focusing essentially on health. Silkbank has also placed boxes of Aman Foundation in its branches in Karachi for collecting donations providing a channel for customers to give charity generously. PRESS RELEASE

Islamabad Marriott beckons diners this Ramazan isLAmABAd: The Islamabad Marriott Hotel beckons diners this Ramazan to experience the true spirit of the Holy Month while enjoying sumptuous Iftar and Sohour selections at the elegant Marquee and the Nadia all-daydining restaurant respectively. In addition to the Iftar buffet at the Marquee, there are also private venues such as the Crystal Ballroom for corporate iftars and large family gatherings. PRESS RELEASE

Mahvash & Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation sponsor students KArAChi: Ali Siddiqui, CEO Mahvash & Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation (MJSF) and MJSF representatives met with the NUS Summer Entrepreneurship Program participants prior to their departure for the NUS Summer Program on Economic and Enterprise Development. These 15 students were selected after extensive interview sessions from universities nationwide. This is the 7th year for Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation and Sajjad Foundation (Singapore) sponsoring the NUS Summer program on Economic and Enterprise Development as a continuous effort in making investments into various educational initiatives in Pakistan. These Foundations sponsor the entire cost of the Pakistani students at this program as their endeavor to invest in education and to initiate and encourage entrepreneurship among the youth of today. PRESS RELEASE

Fashion Pakistan Council signs Latitude as exclusive PR agency LAhore: Fashion Pakistan Council, one of the leading national platforms for Pakistani designers, today announced it has signed on Lahore-based Latitude CRS as its exclusive PR agency. The contract was signed at the Fashion Pakistan head office in Karachi by Wardha Saleem, CEO Fashion Pakistan, and Omar Jamil, CEO Latitude CRS. The PR programme will incorporate a mix of traditional PR and online brand reputation management, and will look to develop provoking thought leadership on fashion as a growing industry in Pakistan. Commenting on occasion, Saleem said, “Fashion today is about so much more than ‘glitz and glamour’ - globally this is a multi-trillion dollar market. While Pakistan still has a long way to go, we want to show that we are committed to becoming part of this international paradigm. We believe it is essential that we communicate to our audiences how a serious a business fashion really is.” PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

OGRA imposes ban on LPG for public transport LPG DISTRIBUTOR ASSOCIATION CHIEF PROTESTS BAN, SAYS 300 TONS OF LPG WERE BEING USED ON DAILY BASIS ONLY IN KARACHI AND 600 TONS IN LAHORE ISLAMABAD

T

STAFF REPORT

HE Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Wednesday issued a notification imposing a ban on the usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in

public transport.

The declaration came after the approval of the federal government, OGRA officials said, adding that the usage of LPG could be extremely dangerous.

Official documents disclosed that the government has approved changes in LPG Rules 2002 and

with effect to this change in the rules, the regulator has issued notification under which filling and use of LPG in the PSVs has been banned.

OGRA terming the usage of LPG as illegal said that buses, coaches, wagons, auto rickshaws and motor cycles would be restricted in using it as means of fuel.

In Pakistan, LPG is being widely used in auto rickshaws as it is considered a cheaper source of fuel in comparison with the mileage provided by its counterparts petrol or diesel. OGRA also said that the violators of this ban would face a severe inquiry.

Meanwhile, rejecting the imposition of ban on use and filling of LPG in PSVs, LPG Distributor Association Chairman Irfan Khokar said that no other country has restricted the use of LPG except Pakistan.

“OGRA cannot stop the masses from using LPG as millions of rickshaws run with this cheap fuel,” he said. Khokar said 300 tons of LPG was being used on daily basis only in Karachi and 600 tons in Lahore.

He threatened to stage a sit-in protest in front of the OGRA head office if the regulatory authority failed to lift the ban.

Pakistan gemstone industry struggles with unrest PESHAWAR AGENCIES

For 400 years the craftsmen and traders of Peshawar’s jewellery bazaar have cut, polished, set and haggled over precious gems dug from the rugged mountains of northwest Pakistan.

Pakistan’s gem and jewellery exports have boomed in recent years but Taliban violence, a crippling power crisis and outdated production methods are taking their toll in Peshawar, where traders say business has slumped alarmingly in the past 12 months.

As dusk settles over Peshawar, the gateway to Pakistan’s wild and restive northwest, the stalls and narrow lanes of Namakmandi bazaar in the heart of the city bustle with activity.

Traders peer beadily to check the quality of emeralds, rubies and lapis lazuli, plying customers with green tea while food sellers roam about, the aroma of spices scenting the air. But traders like Shehzad Sabz Ali say business is collapsing, and foreign buyers in particular have been scared off, a major problem in a sector where exports account for 95 percent of the market.

“I have been in this business for the last 25 years but the slump that we are witnessing these days because of unrest and Talibanisation is unprecedented,” he told a foreign news agency.

The buyers from the United States, Thailand, France, Germany and Dubai who once thronged the packed market are largely a thing of the past. “The bomb blasts and suicide attacks have turned our businesses upside down, leaving us no option but to interact with our buyers through the Internet,” Ali said as employees in his small shop cut and polished delicate rose-pink kunzite stones.

Online dealing may be the thing of the moment, but traders like Ali, whose businesses have been built on generations of salesmanship and personal relationships, feel it is ineffective. For fellow trader Sheharyar Ahmad, the solution is to hold more trade shows in Pakistan’s other cities. “I have attended a few exhibitions in Islamabad and La-

Employability skills institutional model for varsities KArAChi: Raza Abbas, Assistant Director Student Affairs, Bahria University recently represented Pakistan at the IAEVG International Conference in Guidance and Career Development held in Quebec, Canada. IAEVG is the premier global forum for career guidance where 1,250 delegates attended the conference and more than 200 symposiums, workshops, paper communications and posters were presented by scholars from more than 50 countries. PRESS RELEASE

LG redefines typing experience with smart keyboard update LAhore: LG Electronics’ (LG) universally praised Smart Keyboard for G3 will receive a significant update following its global rollout. The additional features will give G3 owners a host of enhancements which have rarely been found on OEM keyboards. LG Smart Keyboard has been praised for its adaptive technology of analyzing the typing habits of its users to facilitate faster typing with fewer mistakes. Smart Keyboard intuitively predicts words and lets users personalize the keyboard by adjusting the height to better fit their hands and position of their thumbs. PRESS RELEASE

hore where foreign buyers showed great deal of interest in the stones such as emerald, ruby and sapphire,” he said.

Primitive methods Most of Pakistan’s gemstones are found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan-administered Kashmir region and Balochistan.

The reserves of precious and semi-precious stones in Pakistan are worth trillions of dollars, according to Peshawar-based gemologist Ilyas Ali Shah.

But much of this potential remains untapped as the stones lie buried in the seven restive tribal areas along the Afghan border, where militancy and poor infrastructure have restricted access.

“Pakistan could triple its current gemstone exports if these reserves are fully tapped,” he said.

While the quality of stones from Pakistan is good and they sell well at international trade shows, Peshawar trader Sheharyar Ahmad said, the primitive cutting and polishing techniques are not up to international standards.

“That is why when our stones go to Thailand, they are re-faceted and polished again,” he said.

Shah, who heads the Gem and Jewellery Training and Manufacturing Centre in Peshawar, said the manual equipment Pakistani traders are still using did not allow the same precision and delicacy of workmanship as modern machinery. His training centre aims to bring Pakistani jewellery techniques up to date.

“Our institute has been set up to train traders in cutting and polishing of gemstones through scientific means and we have so far trained over 1,000 students in Peshawar,” he said. The government-run Pakistan Gems and Jewellery Development Company (PGJDC) is also trying to raise skill levels to allow the country to compete better with the likes of Thailand and India.

Gem and jewellery exports have risen enormously in recent years to stand at $1.3 billion in 2013, and PGJDC general manager Khalid Aziz said they were aiming for a target of $1.7 billion by 2017.

TAPI gas pipeline: ADB to charge $30 million ‘success fee’ NEW DELHI INP

Asian Development Bank (ADB) would charge a ‘success fee’ of $30 million and a retainer fee of $50,000 per month for helping build the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-PakistanIndia (TAPI) gas pipeline project.

The ADB was appointed transaction adviser by the four nations to the pipeline project in December 2013. Its main task towards the 1,735 kilometers long TAPI pipeline is helping to set up an international consortium, including a leader with the experience of constructing and operating transnational pipelines.

Indian media quoted sources privy to the development as saying that the ADB had initially demanded 1 percent of the cost as success fee for helping set up a pipeline consortium and selecting a leader. The four nations, which are to bear these expenses, opposed it and brought the fee down to $30 million. Other than the success fee, ADB will also get a retainer fee of $50,000 every month till such time that a consor-

tium is put and its leader selected.

Billed as the peace pipeline for the troubled South-Asia region, the US backed TAPI gas pipeline has not yet taken off as no international pipeline company is willing to implement it unless Turkmenistan gives a share in the gas fields.

The four nations are looking for an international reputed firm with experience in building and operating cross-country pipeline to lead the pipeline construction consortium that may include national oil companies like GAIL India, which otherwise neither have the financial muscle nor experience of cross-country line.

Sources said that while several financial institutions have expressed interest in financing the project, no pipeline company has so far come forward to take up the project.

The ADB will help the four nations put up a credible consortium that would build and operate the line passing through volatile Afghanistan and Pakistan territories. The TAPI pipeline would originate from Turkmenistan and pass through Afghanistan and Pakistan before entering India.

LEISURE 11

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

HaGaR tHE HoRRIblE

aries

taurus

gemini

You need to step up to the front of the line and take your rightful place. Your amazing energy should help you to leap over any barriers in your way and keep your peers from grumbling.

Don't feel too bad if others are moving faster than you -sometimes you would rather get things done right than get them in on time. It should all even out in the long run, so just poke along for now.

It's entirely up to you to make things happen today -- though others may seem like they're just about to get the ball rolling on their own. They don't have what you have, so let loose!

cancer

leo

virgo

You need to chill out a bit and make sure that you're not speaking out of turn -it's way too easy for you to offend the wrong people today!

Things may seem a little wacky, but you can manage.

Your good mood can't really be spoiled by anything today, so live it up! Even if you're stuck doing drudge work or get bad news, your core of good energy is still fired up and helping you out.

This is not the best time for sharing resources -- in fact, you may want to duck away if others come looking for what they think ought to be theirs. Things may look better in a few days.

libra

scorpio

sagittarius

Your social life is heating up -- which could also mean that you need to broaden your horizons.

Things are good, so make sure that you're open to all sorts of new arrangements.

You are genuinely trying to help -- but someone close thinks that you're trying to take advantage of the situation. You may just have to wait and let time prove you right, hard as that may be.

Your creative energy is fully engaged today -- so make art, confuse strangers or just find new ways to enjoy your everyday life. It's almost impossible to bring you down on a day like today.

dIlbERt

GaRFIEld

baldo

capricorn

aquarius

pisces

You're not quite sure you've got time for everyone -- so be as direct as you can and ask for an extension or postponement. It's much easier than dealing with anger or hurt feelings later!

Your big ideas may be too much for some people -- but the right folks are sure to see them for the gems they are. Don't ever shut up about them, and look for opportunities to advance them today.

You are hidden behind layers of camouflage today -- which is perfect! You may not feel quite right about deceiving others, but it's for the best and it shouldn't have to last for much longer.

cRosswoRd

sUdokU

woRd sEaRcH

ACROSS

bRIdGE

How to play fill in all the squares in the grid so that each row, column and each of the squares contains all the digits. the object is to insert the numbers in the boxes to satisfy only one condition: each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the digits 1 through 9 exactly once.

look never

attempt

peace

consequence

physiology

crack

right

deposit

settle

engage

small

error

speak

false

spiritual

gets

testimony

grief

things

growth

tore

habit

trust

heart

truth

honest

waste

issue

witness

Today’s soluTions

sEcondHand RosE

cHEss black TO PlaY aND MaTE IN fOur MOVEs 8

DOWN

crossword solution

1 film script (10) 7 country formerly ruled by antonio de oliveira salazar (8) 8 company car, for example (4) 9 concealed ditch in landscape gardening (2-2) 10 equine leg joint (7) 12 become ruined (2,2,3,4) 14 short post barring traffic (7) 16 make eyes at (4) 19 diesel fuel (4) 20 heightened (8) 21 very noticeable (10)

about appear

7 6 5 4 3 2

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

chess solution

A

1...be7 2.Rdh1 Rh8 3.Qxg5 bxg5+ 4.f4 bxh4 *

1

sudoku solution

1 sluggish creature (5) 2 chatter (anag) (7) 3 boundary (4) 4 petty thief (8) 5 horrify (5) 6 summary (6) 11 fish yielding caviar (8) 12 abase oneself (6) 13 naturally grown (7) 15 bile-secreting organ (5) 17 make changes to (5) 18 1,000 (abbr) (4)

12

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

ARTS

‘Friends are the family you choose’: new study

Y

OU consider your friends family, you may be on to something. A study from the University of California, San Diego, and Yale University finds that friends who are not biologically related still resemble each other genetically.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study is coauthored by James Fowler, professor of medical genetics and political science at UC San Diego, and Nicholas Christakis, professor of sociology, evolutionary biology, and medicine at Yale.

“Looking across the whole genome,” Fowler said, “we find that, on average, we are genetically similar to our friends.

We have more DNA in common with the people we pick as friends than we do with strangers in the same population.”

The researchers focused on 1,932 unique subjects and compared pairs of unrelated friends against pairs of unrelated strangers. The same people, who were neither kin nor spouses, were used in both types of samples. The only thing that differed between them was their social relationship.

The findings are not, the researchers say, an artifact of people’s tendency to befriend those of similar ethnic backgrounds. The Framingham data is dominated by people of European extraction. While this is a drawback for some research, it may be advantageous to the study here: because all the subjects, friends and not, were drawn from the same population. The researchers also

controlled for ancestry, they say, by using the most conservative techniques currently available. The observed genetic go beyond what you would expect to find among people of shared heritage - these results are “net of ancestry,” Fowler said.

How similar are friends? On average, Fowler and Christakis find, friends are as “related” as fourth cousins or people who share great-great-great grandparents. That translates to about 1 percent of our genes.

“One percent may not sound like much to the layperson,” Christakis said, “but to geneticists it is a significant number. And how remarkable: Most people

don’t even know who their fourth cousins are! Yet we are somehow, among a myriad of possibilities, managing to select as friends the people who resemble our kin.”

In the study, Fowler and Christakis also develop what they call a “friendship score,” which they can use to predict who will be friends at about the same level of confidence that scientists currently have for predicting, on the basis of genes, a person’s chances of obesity or schizophrenia.

Shared attributes among friends or “functional kinship” can confer a variety of evolutionary advantages. In the sim-

plest terms: If your friend feels cold when you do and builds a fire, you both benefit.

It is also the case that some traits only work if your friend also has them, Fowler said: “The first mutant to speak needed someone else to speak to. The ability is useless if there’s no one who shares it.

These types of traits in people are a kind of social network effect.”

Beyond the average similarities across the whole genome, Fowler and Christakis looked in the study at focused sets of genes. They find that friends are most similar in genes affecting the sense

of smell. The opposite holds for genes controlling immunity. That is, friends are relatively more dissimilar in their genetic protection against various diseases.

The immunity finding supports what others have recently found in regards to spouses. And there is a fairly straightforward evolutionary advantage to this, Fowler and Christakis say: Having connections to people who are able to withstand different pathogens reduces interpersonal spread. But how it is that we select people for this benefit of immunity? The mechanism still remains unclear.

Also open to debate and also needing further research is why we might be most similar in our olfactory genes. It could be, Fowler said, that our sense of smell draws us to similar environments. It is not hard to imagine that people who like the scent of coffee, for example, hang out at cafes more and so meet and befriend each other. But the researchers suspect there is more to the story than that.

They note, too, that most likely there are several mechanisms, operating both in concert and in parallel, driving us to choose genetically similar friends.

Perhaps the most intriguing result in the study is that genes that were more similar between friends seem to be evolving faster than other genes.

Fowler and Christakis say this may help to explain why human evolution appears to have speeded up over the last 30,000 years, and they suggest that the social environment itself is an evolutionary force. VIA SCIENCE DAILY

DOING A PUZZLE OR PLAYING CARDS CAN HELP FIGHT OFF DEMENTIA

Google+ will stop forcing you to use your real name After years of receiving complaints that its policies put users at risk, Google said today that it has eliminated the requirement that people use their real names on Google+. The real-name policy, which debuted with the launch of Google+ three years ago, was designed to create a network that looked like Facebook. “But it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names,” the company said today in an unsigned post on Google+.

The policy generated criticism from privacy advocates and journalists who argued that it threatened to expose people who had valid reasons for wanting to use pseudonyms.

The company noted that it has gradually relaxed restrictions on the policy, allowing YouTube users and brand pages to pick any names they want. But that only made the realname requirement more confusing for Google+ users. “We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users,” the company said. “For this we apologize, and we hope that today’s change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be.” The future of Google+ has been uncertain since Vic Gundotra abruptly stepped down and Sergey Brin openly lamented getting involved with it in the first place. Today’s move is a nice nod to inclusion — but it may have come too late. COURTESY THE VERGE

Playing cards and draughts and doing crossword puzzles could help stave off Alzheimer’s disease, scientists say. New research shows brain-stimulating activities could help to preserve vulnerable structures and cognitive functions in regions of the brain involved in the disease. Research suggests people who spend more time playing these games are also more likely to perform better in learning, memory and information processing tests. But charity Alzheimer’s Research UK said that the study - while ‘useful for identifying factors that may influence our risk of memory decline’ - does not confirm whether or not playing such games actively prevents the condition. As part of the study, scientists from the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute and the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in the US performed a series of tests on 329 people with an average age of 60. Those taking part were healthy but deemed to be at a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease due to their genetic background or family history.

As well as giving them brain scans, scientists also asked the participants how often they took part in activities such as reading books, going to museums and playing card games or doing puzzles.

The researchers, who presented their findings to the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Copenhagen, found those who reported playing games were more likely to have a greater brain volume. They also scored higher on cognitive tests. The researchers concluded that, for some individuals, participating in

such games could help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Laura Phipps, science communications manager at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘Observational studies like this are not able to pinpoint cause and effect, but they can be useful for identifying factors that may influence our risk of memory decline and dementia.

‘Previous evidence has suggested that keeping the brain active may help boost ‘cognitive reserve’, allowing the brain to resist damage for longer, and this study adds to the ongoing ‘use it or lose it’ debate.

‘It’s important to note that the people in this study did not have dementia, and we can’t say from these results that playing card games, reading books or doing crosswords will prevent the condition.

‘The best evidence suggests that we can reduce our risk of dementia with a healthy lifestyle - eating a bal-

anced, healthy diet, exercising regularly, not smoking, and keeping blood pressure and weight in check.’

Dr Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Alzheimer’s Society charity, added: ‘This research shows an interesting association between the size of certain brain areas, memory performance and time spent challenging the brain with games and puzzles.

‘However, it doesn’t tell us that playing mind-stimulating games can cause positive changes in brain volume or memory- this needs to be tested in longer term studies or clinical trials. ‘Although there is no harm in playing games and puzzles, research shows that the best steps you can take to reduce your risk of developing dementia is taking regular exercise, eating a healthy balanced diet, not smoking and keeping cholesterol and blood pressure under control.’ COURTESY DAILY MAIL

Full moon looms large over your sleep Some folk stories and superstitions hold that a full moon affects people’s sleep, and new research lends support to this idea. In the study, researchers found that people slept for 20 to 25 minutes less on average on nights with a full moon, compared with how long they slept on nights with a quarter moon. The people in the study also said they had more trouble falling asleep during the full moon than the quarter moon, according to the results, published July 8 in the journal Current Biology.

One explanation for a relationship between sleep patterns and moon phases “could be that we have a built-in biological lunar clock, similar to our circadian clock that regulates our daily rhythms,” said study author Michael Smith of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

“An alternative explanation is that increased light during the evening, before participants arrived at the laboratory, somehow impacted upon their wake behavior, which then had carry-over ef-

CMYK

fects on their sleep,” Smith said.

In the study, the researchers looked at sleep data from 47 healthy people ages 18 to 30. The data were collected during a separate sleep study, which was done to analyze how noise can disturb sleep.

Participants slept in a sleep lab designed to resemble an apartment, the researchers wrote in the study.

The new results are in line with findings from another Current Biology study on the relationship between sleep patterns and the full moon published last year. In that study, researchers found that people slept for 20 minutes less, and took longer to fall asleep, during a full moon compared with other moon phases.

However, other research has shown no link between sleep and moon phases. For instance, a study also published in the current issue of Current Biology did not find a correlation between people’s sleep duration and moon phases. COUTESY LIVE SCIENCE

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

ARTS

13

paKiStan iS a grEat placE for filmmaKErS: chinoy elebrated documentary filmmaker Sharmeen ObaidChinoy is set to make Pakistan’s first animated feature film. In a dW interview, the Oscar winner says that her commercial venture seeks to motivate the country’s youth. the 36year-old filmmaker got her first break in 2001. She was offered a chance by the New York times television production company to make her film terror’s Children. In the film, she documented the lives of eight afghan children that were refugees in the city of Karachi and showcased their daily struggles. In 2012, eleven years after that first chance, Chinoy won an Oscar for her film Saving Face, which chronicles the journey of a plastic surgeon who treats acid attack victims. Her work’s main focus is on human rights and gender issues. Her film Pakistan’s

C

taliban Generation won an emmy in 2010. Chinoy has, meanwhile, produced 12 award winning

documentaries in 10 countries. She is also the founder of the Citizens archive of Pakistan (CaP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultural and historic preservation which educates citizens about their heritage. In a dW interview, Chinoy talks about her latest project three braves (teen bahadur), an animation film for children, and the changing face of Pakistan’s film industry. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy said three braves is a quintessentially a Pakistani story replete with unlikely heroes, menacing villains, fumbling thugs, dark horses, and moments of triumph and bouts of despair. based in a fictional town in Pakistan, eleven-year-old amna, Saadi and Kamil set out to save their community from the many evils that plague it. I had wanted to do something for children for a long time

because we, as a nation, have completely neglected this demographic. Our youth makes up the largest and, undoubtedly, the most important section of our society and now more than ever, they need local heroes to look up to. after experimenting with many mediums, we settled on animation because its creative freedom allows us to speak to children in a way that no other medium can. I want Pakistani children from every nook and cranny to see three braves and be entertained and inspired. I want them to finally be able to see their reflection in movies, with superheroes that look and speak like them. She said Pakistan has a very young population, but its media industry is only catering to adults.

Most of the content for children is imported and thus our youth grows up

KURDISH SINGER HELLY TO ‘RISK IT ALL’ FOR FREEDOM AGENCIES Kurdish pop singer Helly Luv says she will not be put off by death threats from Iraqi Islamist militants since release of her first music video but, drawing on its title, insists she will ‘Risk It All’ to help a push for an independent Kurdistan.

Iraqi-born Luv, 25, has seen her video rack up more than 2.5 million views on YouTube since its release in February; but she has faced criticism for what some see as provocative imagery in the clip accompanying the modern mix of dance, hip-hop and traditional Middle Eastern music. Luv said the video, which includes exploding petrol bombs, backing dancers with AK-47 rifles, and the singer dancing in a mid-thigh silver dress atop a citadel, represents the Kurdish spirit and struggle for an independent state.

‘There were death threats from many Islamic

Salman Khan iS doing ‘Shhuddhi’, confirmS Karan Johar

groups it was a really hard time for me,’ Luv said in an interview in Arbil, the autonomous Kurdistan region’s capital. ‘(But) my whole message is that, Kurdish people, we need to risk everything for our dreams and fight for our country.’

Iraqi Kurdistan’s population of roughly 5 million people has enjoyed a degree of independence from Baghdad since the end of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s. But the Kurds are now closer than ever to leaving Iraq altogether, with Massoud Barzani, leader of their autonomous region, calling on his parliament to ready a referendum on independence after the latest violence in the country.

Her management team declined to say whether any of the death threats she had received came from the Islamic State, the group previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), saying they did not want to give any of the groups or individuals publicity.

AGENCIES Bollywood superstar Salman Khan confirmed that he will be a part of filmmaker and friend Karan Johar’s ambitious project ‘Shhuddhi’, which has been in news for a long time now. Salman Khan revealed that he will be a part of one of Karan Johar’s films at a recent press conference for ‘Kick’. When asked which film would that be, he said, “Shhuddhi”. The actor, who is currently gearing up his next action thriller ‘Kick’, has replaced Bollywood hunk Hrithik Roshan in the role. Meanwhile film’s producer Karan Johar also confirmed the report saying that Salman will be a part of the project which will release on Deiwali 2016. Last year, Hrithik Roshan had walked out of the project citing date issues. The film was already delayed as Hrithik was recuperating from a brain surgery. Post that the actor had given bulk dates for the filming of ‘Bang Bang’. Soon after Hrithik Roshan’s departure, the film’s lead actress Kareena Kapoor Khan had also walked out of the film. There were reports that Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone may replace them but Karan later denied the news.

Justin Bieber has been ordered to sit for another deposition after refusing to answer several questions at his last on-camera legal interrogation The 'Believe' hitmaker was ordered to answer questions from lawyers in March as part of an ongoing law-

national Exhibition of calligraphy thiS month ISLAMABAD APP

National Exhibition of Calligraphy will be held at the Pakistan National Council of Arts by the end of this month.

Calligraphists from all over the country have been invited to participate in the exhibition. They have been asked to send at least two of their fresh art works with particulars including title, medium, and size, along with their CVs, said a press release on Wednesday.

The exhibition is a regular feature of the PNCA, held every year to provide opportunity to the young and master calligraphists to showcase their fresh works.

Justin Bieber to be deposed again

VIA BANG SHOWBIZ

with role models and heroes that they cannot relate to culturally. I felt that it was about time we produced lighthearted, quality content for children locally so that they can finally see characters that look and speak like them on the big screen. the fact that we are giving our children local mentors and heroes is one of my proudest accomplishments. three braves is a story of three kids who set out to save their community in a fictional town in Pakistan She said Pakistan is a great place to be for budding filmmakers and I believe that our film industry stands to be a formidable force in the near future. the media industry is booming; there is plenty of fresh talent and an audience that is waiting to be entertained. We have a beautiful country where every street and every corner has a story waiting to be told. INP

suit relating to his bodyguardallegedly beating up a photographer, but after he refused to respond to several queries, a judge has insisted he must repeat the interrogation, with the same lawyer.

Several of the questions Justin refused to answer related to his on/off girlfriend, with thelawyer - representing the photographer, Jeffrey Binion - insisting Justin and Selena's relationship is relevant to the case because she was with him at the scene of another apparent attack on a paparazzo in 2012.

However, after refusing to answer several times, the 20-year-old star eventually exploded, saying: ''Don't ask me about her! Do not ask me about her!''

The 'Beauty and a Beat' singer then stormed out of the room, and was said to have been ''on edge'' when he returned a few minutes later and angered the lawyer with his surly responses. The sarcastic star remained unimpressed by the cross-examination.

The star is accused of ordering his bodyguard Hugo Hesny to choke Binion and steal his camera equipment last June outside a Miami recording studio.

According to TMZ, no date has yet been set for the new deposition, but it will be videotaped again.

thor gEtS a comic booK maKEovEr aS a Woman

BY WENN Comic book superhero Thor has had a sex change - Marvel bosses have recreated the character as a woman. The Marvel masterminds hope that by recasting Thor they will encourage more women and girls to read comics. Thor debuted as a time-travelling Norse god in 1962, and recently hit the big screen as part of Marvel's run of successful comic book superheroes. He is portrayed onscreen by Australian hunk Chris Hemsworth. The new female Thor will debut in her first adventure in October. Buffy The Vampire Slayer creator and The Avengers director Joss Whedon already has an actress in mind should the female Thor grace the big screen. He took to Twitter.com and posted a photo of Battlestar Gallactica and 24 action star Katee Sackhoff, along with the caption, "A female Thor? What the hell makes them think That would be cool?"

KATY PERRY’S SONG MAKES YOU HAPPY: RESEARCH Katy Perry’s latest hit ‘birthday’ has been ‘scientifically proven’ to make you happy, according to new research.

Music streaming service Spotify has teamed up with cognitive psychology and neuroscience expert Jacob Jolij from the University of Groningen to discover the top emotioninducing tracks.’Music can have powerful effects on our emotions: from making us happy, to enabling the ability to overcome fear, certain music can trigger emotions and hormones that directly affect our moods,’ Jolij explained. ‘the list of tracks compiled with Spotify highlight some of the

most effective songs to take us from sad to happy or angry to optimistic.’

Perry’s ‘birthday’ has been aligned with happiness, with Jolij reporting: ‘Happy songs are up-tempo, have strong rhythm, positive lyrics, and are typically in a major key. ‘the up-tempo rhythm of Katy Perry’s ‘birthday’ will encourage active movement, which is good for your mood.

‘Furthermore some research suggests that the major key unconsciously reminds you of a falling pitch - a feature which in both human and animal vocalisations asserts dominance and confidence.’

CMYK

Onerepublic’s ‘I Need’ has been linked to sadness because it is ‘slower and in a minor key’, while Coldplay’s ‘Magic’ has been named the perfect song to overcome fear.’Music that can help you to overcome fear needs to be slow, relaxing, but have major chords to evoke positive feelings and lyrics that deal with your negative thoughts, such as Coldplay’s ‘Magic’,’ Jolij said.

What’s more, avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up’ was linked to excitement, John legend’s ‘all of Me’ could provoke nostalgia, david Guetta’s ‘bad’ may cause anger and american authors’ ‘best day of My life’ may provide optimism. AGENCIES

14 SPORTS

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

SerieS crying out for more than off-field drama e SPORTS DESK

PAKISTAN'S TOP STRIKER KALEEMULLAH EXTENDS CONTRACT WITH KYRGYZ TEAM ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

Former Asian Football Confederation President's Cup champions FC Dordoi have secured the services of Pakistan's top striker Kaleemullah for the next two years.

The former Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) striker, who was instrumental in the Rawalpindi club's journey to the final of last year's AFC President's Cup, had joined Kyrgyzstan's FC Dordoi on a five-month contract in February but a series of impressive performances helped him secure a contract which will see him playing for the Kyrgyz champions until 2016, fifa.com reported. The 22-year-old scored 17 goals in 16 matches to become the highest scorer in the Kyrgyzstan national league. He also struck the net in the final of the local Super Cup, leading FC Dordoi to a 3-2 victory against Alga FC. The striker is also the only player in the Pakistan Premier Football League history to score 35 goals in a single campaign and was the league's player of the year for 2012/13. “It's a big honour to become the first Pakistani to sign a contract like this, and I think it's the right decision for me,” said Kaleemullah.

FIA THINKS SIMPLER F1 RULES UNREALISTIC SPORTS DESK Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, thinks it is unrealistic to expect the sport’s rules to be made simpler to help boost the show. There have been a number of complaints in recent weeks that F1’s regulations are detracting from the spectacle because they are so restrictive. Red Bull design genius Adrian Newey said that his plan to step back from F1 was fuelled by the fact that he had got frustrated by ever tighter rules. Two-time world champion Niki Lauda also suggested recently that F1 needed to end its ‘nanny-state’ approach so drivers could race harder. Charlie Whiting grilled by the F1 paddock But F1 race director Charlie Whiting thinks that although having simpler rules would be a good thing for the sport, achieving it would be almost impossible.

NGLAND have endured three footslogging Tests this summer against Sri Lanka and India on unresponsive pitches. Something was bound to give - if not the interest of the crowds then the patience of the players. So it is perhaps understandable to some degree that the build-up to the Lord’s Test has been dominated by allegations of an unseemly spat between James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja in the drawn first Test at Trent Bridge. Welcome it or not, it will add additional edge to the series.

Whatever conclusion the ICC draws, England’s sense of well being will only be lifted by pitches less subcontinental in nature. To suspect vestiges of colonial arrogance in those who complain they do not want to see Indian-type pitches in England is to miss the point. England cricket watchers want conditions that suit their Test traditions and, indeed, their landscape: surfaces with a bit of life, occasionally periods of swing, seam and eventually spin. Patience might well be a virtue but it is not patience that has kept Test cricket in England alive, but activity.

To contest the entire series on surfaces discouraging for pace bowlers would be to play into India’s hands, especially as England have no specialist spinner of ready-made Test standard.

The call up of Simon Kerrigan to the squad for the first time since his nerveridden debut at The Oval last season does not change that. Kerrigan is the leading English-qualified wicket-taker in Division One of the Championship, but it is a thin field. India’s unsuccessful run of away Tests since their last victory, against West Indies in Kingston in June 2011, now stretches to 15. Any continued absence of R Ashwin would delight England no matter what surface they play on; it does not require too many subtle variations for spinners to receive the “mystery” accolade as England agonise over the eventual successor to Graeme Swann.

Form guide England: DLDLL India: DDLLD

Players to watch: Ian Bell has not adapted happily to his role of England’s most treasured batsman since Kevin Pietersen found himself forced into exile. Bell is now perceived as England’s chief entertainer, but for all those deft back-foot cuts, his form since the end of England’s victorious Ashes series is mediocre. It all suggests that England’s new order is not resting entirely easily with him. Suggestions that he should bat at No 3 were resisted, but life at No 4 is beginning to look a little insouciant. England need a response - and quickly.

Two Sri Lankans have already got their name on the Lord’s honours board this summer - Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews - and both celebrated in a manner that suggested this tradition really does matter to the players. Virat Kohli, as would any world-class batsman, must share ambitions to be present there. This is his first Test at Lord’s and everybody expects him to combust sooner or later. We await to see if he can produce an innings to grace the summer. team news: Rotation has been a word much in vogue for England since the national selector, James Whitaker, hinted that five Tests in 42 days might entail that England use all six pace

bowlers at some point during the series.

But when and who? Anderson’s ICC charge has clouded the picture and nobody wants to be rotated out of a game at Lord’s. It would be no surprise if Kerrigan’s place in the squad as a specialist spinner was to appease Alastair Cook, such has been his limited faith in Moeen Ali, but to play him would be a high risk. England (probable) 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Sam Robson, 3 Gary Ballance, 4 Ian Bell, 5 Joe Root, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Matt Prior, 8 Ben Stokes, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 James Anderson.

Keen students of India’s net session saw enough to convince them that Stuart Binny would retain his place ahead of Ashwin. Binny made runs at Trent Bridge, but that did not remove the feeling that Ashwin would have been an infinitely better bowling option. Ashwin could theoretically replace Jadeja as well - though India are hardly likely to drop an individual they are presenting as wronged, in the form of Anderson’s alleged physical threat, at Trent Bridge.

Unchanged seems likely. India (probable) 1 M Vijay, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 MS Dhoni, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Stuart Binny, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Mohammed Shami.

Pitch and conditions: Mick Hunt, the Lord’s groundsman, has a bottomless independent spirit and he will not be influenced by the debate about pitches going on around him. The considerable amount of green left in the surface two days out was probably a joke dreamed up in a local hostelry. But he will not have been happy about the lack of carry in the Lord’s surface against Sri Lanka last month and he will not want a return to the run of six Test draws between 2006-08. The forecast is for warm temperatures, as high as 29C on Friday, slight risk of thundery showers over the weekend, but it generally looks like the summer has come to St John’s Wood. stats and trivia: Ian Bell’s average in the last 17 Test innings without Pietersen in the side is 28. However, he enjoys batting at Lord’s, where he averages 57. England’s winless run now extends to nine Tests since their victory against Australia at Chester-le-Street last August, their worst run since 1992-93.

Mick Hunt, the Lord’s groundsman, or “head of grass” as he sometimes puts it, extended his range of expertise beyond cricket last winter when he visited a school in Donaghmore, Northern Ireland, to advise on the state of their muddy gaelic football pitches.

Quotes “It is probably a little bit of a tactic

by India. We are surprised it is a Level 3 incident after hearing both sides of it.

Both MS and I have responsibilities as captains of the sides to make sure [a deterioration in relationships] does not happen. We have a responsibility to people watching the game.”

England captain Alastair Cook on the Anderson-Jadeja issue “In cricket you won’t hear me ever say something like that. It’s a difficult sport. People talk a lot about form, but you can be in bad form and regain it in 10 minutes. We have our own process, we have our own plans. What is important is for us to execute those plans.”

MS Dhoni, on whether India feel they can get Cook out early again

Bangladesh to host Zimbabwe in October SPORTS DESK Zimbabwe will play their first three-match Test series in more than 13 years when they tour Bangladesh in October later this year. They last played three Tests against Sri Lanka in December 2001. For Bangladesh, this will mark the third time that they have played three Tests in a series since becoming a Test nation in 2000, having last done so in July 2007. This is also

the first of six possible series between the two sides till 2022.

The two sides met last year in Zimbabwe when they drew the twoTest series 1-1, while Zimbabwe took ODIs 2-1. Zimbabwe arrive in Dhaka on October 17 and after playing a three-day match in Fatullah, they will contest the first Test in Chittagong from October 26. The second Test will also be held in Chittagong from November 3, after which the teams will

travel back to the capital for the third Test from November 11 at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.

The first three matches of the ODI series will be held in Dhaka after which the teams will go back to Chittagong to play the last two ODIs. The BCB decided to stick to only Dhaka and Chittagong this time because the Sylhet Stadium will be undergoing ground work in the coming months, making it unsuitable for cricket.

Stern punishment if Anderson is guilty: Boycott SPORTS DESK Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott has said James Anderson should be given a “stern punishment” if he is found guilty of having abused and pushed Ravindra Jadeja on the second day of the first Investec Test at Trent Bridge.

“If anybody’s found guilty, and if I had a say in it, I believe he should be punished and punished harshly, that will stop it,” Boycott said. “I think everybody [found guilty] deserves a stern punishment. I didn’t see any pushing and I could have easily missed it. If he’s found guilty of that, then there’s no excuse.”

The alleged incident took place when the players left the field for lunch on the second day. There was reportedly a verbal altercation between Anderson and Jadeja that continued as they walked towards the dressing room. Jadeja was unbeaten on 24, and MS Dhoni on 81, and Anderson had bowled the last over

CMYK

before lunch. Anderson was charged under Level 3 of the ICC Code of Conduct after India team manager Sunil Dev lodged the complaint.

“What is going on in cricket, verbals between players, and particularly bowlers trying to rile batsmen by flagging them off, I don’t like it,” Boycott said. “I’ve never agreed with it, I don’t think there’s a place for it in cricket. The modern player, in a lot of countries, accepts it as a norm as if they are growing up with it and everybody does it and everybody should do it. They believe it is not hurting cricket. Well, I believe it is. Jimmy [Anderson] is known to be one that talks to players. Now what he actually says I don’t know, I’m not near enough to hear it and I certainly can’t lip-read. But he is known to do a lot of talking. I don’t agree with it.

“I’ve been against some of the great fast bowlers in the world, the great West Indians, they didn’t have to flag you off

and make crude remarks. They just tried to bowl you out, they tried to knock you out sometimes but that’s part of the game. They never got involved - [Denniss] Lillee, [Jeff] Thomson. Thomson used to swear under his breath but he never swore at the batsman, he just swore at himself and made expletives when he got a thick edge and it went between slip and gully for four. He’d be annoyed and irritated but he wouldn’t swear at the batsman. Fred Trueman used to swear and make funny remarks and make you laugh.”

Anderson scored a fighting 81 in England’s only innings and took four wickets in the match, including Jadeja’s in the second innings. He faces a ban of at least two Tests if he is found guilty because the minimum sanction for a Level 3 violation is four suspension points and two points equates to missing one Test.

He faces a hearing that will take place within 14 days.

Thursday, 17 July, 2014

ferrer fightS back to win in hamburg t

SPORTS 15 roSberg all Set to keep germany celebrating

SPORTS DESK

op seed David Ferrer came from behind to beat Mikhail Kukushkin 2-6 6-3 6-2 and advance into the second round of the Hamburg Open.

The world number seven, who held a 4-0 record over Kazakh Kukushkin, struggled during the first set as he made a number of errors to concede an early break.

Kukushkin, ranked 46 places below the Spaniard, didn’t relinquish the early advantage and held his serve and his nerve to take the opening set.

However, Ferrer showed his experience during the second stanza to break his opponent and level the match at one set each.

With the momentum behind him, Ferrer claimed the final five games of the contest to claim victory in one hour and 56 minutes.

The Spaniard will now face either Juan Monaco or Andreas Seppi.

Earlier in the day youngster Dominic Thiem saved a match point and fought from 3-5 down in the final set to beat Marcel Granollers 2-6 6-3 7-5.

SPORTS DESK

FARAH FIT TO COMPETE IN COMMONWEALTH GAMES

I don’t want to leave City: Negredo SPORTS DESK

SPORTS DESK Double Olympic and world champion Mo Farah confirmed he will be fit to take part in this month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after recovering from abdominal pains. The 31-year-old, who is due to represent England in the 5,000m and 10,000m, pulled out of last weekend’s Diamond League meeting in Glasgow because of illness. Farah was admitted to hospital in the United States with abdominal pains at the start of the month but after coming through a series of medical tests, he was given the all-clear to resume training. “Training is going good!

Next stop Commonwealth Games,” Farah tweeted on Wednesday from his Pyrenean training base in Font Romeu. Farah is scheduled to race in the London Anniversary Games on Sunday. The Commonwealth Games run from July 23 to Aug. 3. The 5,000m final is on July 27 and the 10,000m on Aug. 1.

Striker Alvaro Negredo insists he is happy at Manchester City and is not looking to leave the club. The 28-year-old has been linked with a move back to Spain only a year after leaving Sevilla for the Premier League. But in a Q&A on City’s website, Negredo denied he was homesick and said: “ I don’t

want to leave City.

“I’m very happy and very settled here. I had a difficult end to the season and that’s why there has been a lot of talking, but I’ve been very happy here from the first day I arrived.” Negredo made an immediate impact at the Etihad Stadium last season and finished the campaign with 23 goals in all competitions.

The last of those strikes, however,

came in January after he lost form in the second half of the campaign following a shoulder injury. That slump cost him a place in the Spain squad for the World Cup in Brazil.

Atletico Madrid was reported to be a possible destination for Negredo following Diego Costa’s departure to Chelsea, but it is understood City would not welcome any approach even if he had wanted to leave.

Nou Camp due to the ban, which Barca are appealing against. “Luis Suarez is

WE HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE: QATAR CHIEF

SPORTS DESK

Barca icon Zubizarreta defends Luis Suarez over biting scandal SPORTS DESK

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg can keep Germany on a winning roll on Sunday by becoming the first German driver in the history of the Formula One world championship to win his home grand prix with a German car. It has been 60 years since a Mercedes works team last won at home - and it was the late Argentine great Juan Manuel Fangio they had to thank for that in 1954. The historians would have to delve back to 1939, before the outbreak of World War Two, to find the last all-German home triumph - Rudolf Caracciola for Mercedes-Benz at the Nuerburgring. Now, after Fangio’s compatriots failed to deny Germany victory in last Sunday’s World Cup final, Rosberg arrives at Hockenheim with the party well underway and fans keen to keep the beer flowing in the forest campsites as F1 reaches the halfway point in the season. He has plenty to celebrate himself, having signed a new multi-year contract after getting married last week and, even if his team are British based, a win for the ‘Silver Arrows’ in Germany will be something special. Rosberg knows he has a real chance, even if he may have lost some of the momentum after suffering his first retirement of the season in the previous race at Silverstone won by team mate Lewis Hamilton.

a Barcelona player but aside from that we have been told by our lawyers to be

Barcelona sports director Andoni Zubizarreta defended new signing Luis Suarez over his World Cup biting scandal on Wednesday, saying that nobody was perfect. Suarez joined the Catalan club in a five-year-deal last week from Liverpool despite receiving a nine-match international ban and a four-month suspension from all football related activities for biting Giorgio Chiellini in Uruguay’s group stage clash with Italy. “We accept that we are all humans and that we have our imperfections. We try to learn from when we make mistakes,” said Zubizarreta.

“Our history is full of bad days as well as good days. Luis Suarez will be a star at Barcelona although Barcelona is more important than one player.”

Suarez, who cost 81 million euros ($110 million) according to Spanish media, has yet to be presented at the

CMYK

discreet,” said Zubizarreta. Zubizarreta added that signing a defender before the end of the transfer window remained a priority for the club. They have brought in keepers Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo but have yet to sign a defender.

Last season Barcelona struggled at the back and failed to win any major trophy. “This is a necessity for us. Last year we had a good nucleus of centre-halves but (the now retired Carles) Puyol is no longer with us and we will try to cover his loss. Hopefully we will have good news soon,” said Zubizarreta.

Barca are believed to be close to agreeing a deal with Valencia for Jeremy Mathieu. “Valencia received our proposal and now they have to make a decision,” said Zubizarreta.

“It is a problem for 80 or 90 percent of the big clubs who are looking for players in this position. On certain occasions we have not been able to arrive at agreements that we wanted.”

The 2022 World Cup will take place as planned in Qatar and the country has nothing to hide over allegations of corruption during the bid process, the tournament communications director Nasser Al Khater said on Wednesday.

“We’ve held ourselves to the highest ethical standards. We are confident of how we’ve behaved,” Al Khater said on Al Jazeera television. “We are not worried.

The World Cup will take place in Qatar.”

Al Khater said his country would comply with the FIFA investigation into possible bid corruption but stressed Qatar had nothing to hide. “Qatar is part of the investigation and so is Russia (2018). The whole process is part of that. It’s unfortunate that people single out Qatar every time they discuss it,” he said. He also distanced himself from disgraced former FIFA executive Mohamed Bin Hammam, saying he was not representing the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee in the bid process. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said before the Brazil World Cup that it may have been a mistake to award the tournament to Qatar due to the intense heat in the summer, when temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, and winter may be a better option. Al Khater said either way his country can host the World Cup in the summer or winter. “We are waiting on a task force to come back and make recommendations. Our plans won’t change, we are going to be ready whether it is the winter or summer,” he said.

SPORTS Thursday, 17 July, 2014

A TEAM OF OFFICIALS WITH A TEAM OF PLAYERS! AKHTAR LASHES OUT AT PAKISTAN CRICKET BOARD FOR SENDING 10 OFFICIALS TO SRI LANKA

s

sPORTs dEsK

HOAIB Akhtar said that the culture of appointing so many officials for foreign tours was mainly to reward one's favorites. Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for deciding to send 10 officials with the national team in its upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. "I don't

A KICK-OFF THAT AWAITED NINE YEARS

PAKISTAN FOOTBALL TEAM TO VISIT INDIA FROM AUG 16 TO 21

know what they are trying to do but this board is full of ignorant people and it is useless tying to talk sense into them," Akhtar said. (Pakistan invited to play in Champions League T20: Report) The fast bowler said he didn't understand the purpose of appointing so many officials with the team. "This board is spending 150 million rupees just on salaries and it has more than 700 employees and what is the net result...nothing," he told Geo News.

(Also read: BCCI not sitting on pots of money, says N Srinivasan) "When I was playing there were lesser employees in the board and the money was well spent on cricket and we were doing well in international cricket." (Pakistan teen female cricketer dies under mysterious circumstances) The former pacer said that

Lahore Lions to roar in Champions League

Islamabad AGENCIES

The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) – like the Pakistan Cricket Board which is making its all-out efforts for the revival of cricketing ties with India – has struggled a lot and succeeded as a two-match bilateral series is scheduled to be held in August after a gap of nine years.

The Pakistan team will visit India from August 16 to 21 and play matches on August 17 and 20. Federation’s Secretary Ahmed Yar Lodhi said that the series would prove to be a landmark in the sports relations of the two countries. “Pakistan and India last played a three-match series here in June 2005 which was won by us on goal-average,” he said, adding the upcoming series was a return series.

In 2011, an English company planned a football series between Pakistan and India in England but it was cancelled at the eleventh hour due to failure in getting sponsorship. In 2013, a triangular series in England, involving India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was cancelled because of the same problem. Lodhi said the series was being held after nine years, which showed that India too was eager to play against Pakistan for the betterment of game.

Islamabad AGENCIES

Pakistan will send its domestic Twenty20 champions Lahore Lions to play in the Champions League to be held in India in September, an official said on Wednesday. The Lions, led by former Pakistan Twenty20 captain Mohammad Hafeez, beat Misbah-ul Haq's Faisalabad Wolves in the final of the event held in February.

The Twenty20 champions of Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies will also take part in the event.

"We have received an invitation to send our Twenty20 champion team so Lahore Lions will be participating in the event in September,"

a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman said. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) earlier this month announced the event will take place on its grounds, ruling out a possible neutral venue in the United Arab Emirates.

The event is likely to start on September 7 although no final dates have yet been announced. The Lions also include international stars Ahmed Shahzad, Nasir Jamshed, Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz. No Pakistan team featured in the first three editions of the Champions League, which started in 2009. The Sialkot Stallions, led by Shoaib Malik, played in the qualifying stages of the event held in South Africa in 2012 but failed to progress to the main rounds.

the culture of appointing so many officials for foreign tours was mainly to reward one's favorites.

"I don't see any reason for sending a assistant coach or a spin bowling coach. In the past only a manager, physio and trainer travelled with the team. So many officials is a waste of money in my mind because we are getting no positive results at all," Akhtar stated. Akhtar said if he had his way he would appoint just a manager to look after all administrative affairs and one coach or mentor.

"There is also no need for a chief selector. The captain should be so strong like Imran Khan was that he can himself guide the players and lead the way. In the recent years the board has sent so many officials with the team and I have seen as a member of the team their contribution is zero," he

PCB Plans not to over-Burden Irfan KaRachI

AGENCIES

Pakistan team management has decided to restrict tall paceman Mohammed Irfan to only ODIs and T20s, keeping in mind team's interest in the next year's World Cup. Injuryprone Irfan was stopped from participating in any Ramazan tournament as coach Waqar Younis called him back to the national cricket academy to concentrate on fitness.

"Waqar, who himself has been a fast bowler, has made it clear to Irfan that he should just work on his fitness and training at the NCA till the next domestic season starts in September," a source close to Irfan revealed. Irfan said that he had been told that the Pakistan management had prepared a proper schedule for him and he would only be playing in the one-dayers and T20 matches in future. "I have been informed that I will make my return to the Pakistan team for the home series against Australia in October and before that I should just train and work on my fitness," he said.

Porto sign Barca striker Tello on loan sPORTs dEsK Barcelona forward Cristian Tello has joined Porto on a two-year-loan deal, the La Liga club said on Wednesday. The 22-year-old made only a handful of first team appearances last season and following the arrival of Luis Suarez from Liverpool, those chances were expected to dry up further and hence prompted the move.

“Barcelona and Porto have reached an agreement for the loan of Cristian Tello for the next two seasons with the option to buy for the Portuguese club,” the Catalan club said in a statement. “FC Barcelona can cancel the buy option in the agreement after the first season.” Barca missed out on the major trophies last season and the side are undergoing extensive restructuring under Luis Enrique. So far Ivan Rakitic and keepers Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo have signed, along with Suarez. While Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez are two of those leaving in big money moves to Chelsea and Arsenal respectively.

THREE NEW NAMES IN PAKISTAN WOMEN SQUAD The PCB have announced their women squads for the tour of Australia and Asian Games. Three new players have been included in the 14-member team for Australia. Sidra Nawaz, Aliya Riaz and Maham Rafiq have replaced wicketkeeper Batool Fatima, Nahida Khan, Sidra Ameen and Anam Amin from the squad of 15 that played the World T20s in Bangladesh in March. Pakistan Women are scheduled to play four ODIs and four T20Is in Australia from August 21 till September 5. For the Asian Games, the PCB named a 15-member contingent. While the only change in the squad compared to the one touring Australia was Anam Amin coming in to replace Maham Rafiq, one additional player - Kainat Imtiaz - was also included. Pakistan squad for Australia tour: Sana Mir (capt), Bismah Maroof (vc), Nain Abidi, Nida Dar, Javeria Khan, Sidra Nawaz (wk), Asmavia Iqbal, Qanita Jalil, Sumaiya Siddiqi, Sadia Yousuf, Aliya Riaz, Sania Khan, Maham Rafiq, Marina Iqbal Pakistan squad for Asian Games: Sana Mir (capt), Bismah Maroof (vc), Nain Abidi, Nida Dar, Javeria Khan, Sidra Nawaz (wk), Asmavia Iqbal, Qanita Jalil, Sumaiya Siddiqi, Sadia Yousuf, Aliya Riaz, Sania Khan, Anam Amin, Marina Iqbal, Kainat Imtiaz. SPORTS DESK Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi.

CMYK

said. Akhtar lamented that Pakistan cricket was just going from bad to worse despite so many high profile appointments in recent days.

"There is no improvement at all.

Already as a nation we are criticised daily and the same thing is now happening with our cricket because ignorant people are running cricket affairs."

Asked about the Sri Lanka tour, the former pacer said that the selectors had done the right thing by not picking left-arm pacer Muhammad Irfan for the series. "The conditions in Sri Lanka at this time of the year are very humid and the grounds are soft. Bowling in the final two sessions takes a toll on the leg muscles and back and I just hope the fast bowlers, who have been picked are used properly. There should be more dependence on the spinners to bowl long spells," he said.

A PCB source said the team management had decided that Irfan could play a key role for Pakistan in the World Cup and should be nursed through accordingly. "He is injury prone and has had fitness issues and the feeling is it is best if he is kept for the shorter format of the game," he added. Irfan and Umar Gul were not picked for the Test or one-dayers in Sri Lanka last week because of fitness issues. Irfan has not played for Pakistan since last October when he suffered a hairline fracture in his hip bone while playing against South Africa in the UAE.