E paper pdf (04 11 2016) lhr

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friday, 4 october, 2016 I 03 safar-ul-Muzaffar, 1438 I rs 20.00 I vol vII No 126 I 20 Pages I lahore edition

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dead as passenger trains collide near Karachi

officials say collision occurred as Zakaria express rammed into stationary coaches of fareed express

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Railways minister says facts will be brought forward and whoever is responsible will not escape legal action

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PM Nawaz orders inquiry into incident, CM Murad orders best possible treatment for injured

techNIcAl error ProbAble, Probe reveAls

STORIES ON PAGE 03

Dawn story probe: Much PM’s scions get last chance to submit replies ado about nothing in Panama leaks case Court constitutes single-member commission for probe into revelations made in Panama Papers.

Govt dIGs Its heel wIth Nov 2 lockdowN over STORY ON PAGE 02

KhaN glaD aboUt SC’S MaiNtaiNability of PaNaMa PetitioNS STORIES ON PAGE 02

Pakistan pushes for Kashmiris’ right to selfdetermination at UN The right to self-determination was sanctified in foundations of United Nation, says Lodhi STORY ON PAGE 03

India recalls 8 officials, Pakistan pulls out six

PtI, PAt leAders squAbble AheAd of khAN’s Address oN sc PreMIses

STORY ON PAGE 03

STORY ON PAGE 02

02 news

Friday, 4 november, 2016

PM’s scions get last chance to subMit rePlies in PanaMa leaks case COURT CONSTITUTES SINGLE-MEMBER COMMISSION FOR PROBE INTO REVELATIONS MADE IN PANAMA PAPERS ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

HE Supreme Court on Thursday instructed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s children – Maryam Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz – to submit their replies by Monday as it resumed hearing of the petitions filed

for disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over corruption charges in the wake of Panama leaks.

The prime minister’s counsel Salman Aslam Butt submitted his written reply in the court, stating that Sharif did not own any offshore companies and flats. The reply added that the prime minister’s name was not mentioned in the Panama Papers and that he regularly submitted his

asset details in the Election Commission and tax returns to the Federal Board of Revenue. A five-member larger bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali conducted the hearing of the case. The court was irked when Sharif family’s lawyer said that replies had yet to be received from Hassan, Hussain and Maryam Nawaz.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said that if the replies are not submitted, the court would accept allegations against the prime minister’s children. “Can you give a written statement that Maryam Nawaz is not under guardianship of the prime minister?”

he said. The court (SC) meanwhile decided that a single-member commission would be formed to probe revelations made in the Panama Papers after reviewing all replies.

The Panamagate commission will be headed by an apex court judge. The individual will hold powers equivalent to the apex court. The SC in its court order said it was competent to hear the petitions as they fell under public importance and fundamental rights. The court meanwhile adjourned the session till Monday, 9:00 AM and directed that the prime minister’s children submit their replies in the next hearing.

PTI, PAT leaders squabble ahead of Khan’s address on SC premises SHEIKH RASHID HELPS DEESCALATE THE SITUATION

Khan glad about SC’S maintainability of Panama PetitionS

ISLAMABAD HAMID KHAN WAZIR

The marriage of convenience between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) faced severe blow because of the heated arguments between Naeemul Haque and General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur outside Supreme Court on Thursday.

A chaotic situation erupted outside the Supreme Court building when PTI Secretary Information Naeemul Haque and PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur hurled abusive language at each other when the latter was barred from speaking to media.

Both the sides adopted a wooden hard approach, due to which there is little chance of immediate rapprochement between them, which could negatively impact the relation of the two parties because both the leaders are close to their respective parties’ chiefs.

Naeemul Haq barred Gandapur from speaking to media when he reached there, and requested that PTI Chairman Imran Khan was coming so please provide him with a space that enraged the latter and, eventually, led to an exchange of abusive language against each other.

Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed immediately stepped in and calmed the situation down. However, the visibly upset PAT leader continued to bash Naeemul Haq and his lawyers.

Gandapur slammed the behaviour of PTI leader, saying this is unacceptable and irresponsible of the PTI leader.

He said mutual respect was vital among political partners. He said Naeemul Haq first shoved him and

ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR

Despite a lapse of around 20 days since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to effectively hold an investigation into the publication of a “planted story” published in a national daily targeting the state institutions, there is a little or absolutely no progress at hand.

The progress, if any, is all about successive press conferences, tall claims and announcement of the formation of a committee, whose members are still under wraps.

While the interior minister has submitted an application to the prime minister seeking leave for medical treatment abroad, the military establishment is concerned and is “inching backwards” from its demand for a conclusive probe into the leak.

Well-placed sources have informed Pakistan Today that the delay in the probe committee formation and a subsequent request by the interior minister for medical treatment abroad reflects that the interior minister was facing a lack of cooperation from the top government officials and was not confident about carrying the probe forward.

“However, one reason for the delay could be that the prime minister’s team is largely focused on legal matters related to the Panama case,” a source in the military

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday voiced exasperation over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif statement in which he said he (PM) had filed his own response leaving out his children. Talking to media on Supreme Court premises, Khan said the court had demanded reply from Nawaz Sharif’s children, but no such reply was submitted in today’s (Thursday) hearing.

The PTI chairman noted that the attorney general for Pakistan could not plead Nawaz Sharif’s case as he took salary from taxpayers’ money.

Contrary to their previous assertions, Khan said, the PML-N challenged the court’s jurisdiction in today’s hearing, adding that “I am pleased that the SC has rejected their objection.”

“Previously, PML-N leaders had said they had no objection to the court’s jurisdiction,” he recalled.

Khan said he was pleased to come to the Supreme Court as his workers were in favour of lockdown.

Khan said tear gas shelling on Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had created hatred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He further said that when the hearing of the case would proceed, it would be known that the PTI had not been spreading chaos in the country. INP

used language that cannot be spoken on-air. “I asked him to apologise or this matter will drag further,” he told.

Naeemul Haque complained that Gandapur was hurling abuses which prompted Sheikh Rashid to inform Naeemul Haque that they were live on TV and he should speak softly.

Naeemul Haque told Gandapur he had to apologise first, as he had used abusive language, to which the PAT leader refused.

“I will not apologise, do we not have the right to speak to the media? Only they have that right?” Gandapur could be heard saying as others around them tried to calm the situation.

Naeemul Haque said he was abused by Gandapur and prior to this incident he did not even know who the PAT leader was.

“We have decided to complain to the leader of his

political party over his use of foul language and attitude,” he added.

Naeemul Haque added that Gandapur had come and stood where Imran Khan was supposed to address.

“I just gestured him (Gandapur) to move and he starting using abusive language.”

On the other hand, the PAT also decided to protest before PTI leadership against Naeemul Haque’s behaviour.

Khurram Nawaz expressed surprise over Naeemul Haq’s remarks that he did not even know him, as they were often sitting on different TV talk shows together.

A senior leader of PTI told Pakistan Today that Naeemul Haq was right and Khurram was responsible for the situation that led to the scuffle; however, the party leadership decided to overlook the issue and wanted to fully concentrate on PanamaLeak probe so as to take it to its logical end.

Dawn story probe: Much ado about nothing circles opined. The source added that if the interior minister leaves for medical treatment abroad, leaving the matter with the government, it would reflect that he had again lost cooperation from the top leadership. “Concerned and perturbed, we are waiting for a few more days,” the source said without elaborating.

The source said there was too much scepticism among the military leadership about the outcome of the probe.

“The way the name of the concerned journalist was cleared from the Exit Control List (ECL), and once the bird flew away, the following unnecessary delay in the formation of the committee has suggested that the government was dragging its feet,” the official said.

The official said that the army chief would take a decision whether or not he would again raise the matter with the prime minister if there was no immediate breakthrough.

“In his meeting with the prime minister, Gen Raheel Sharif had shared a report of an investigation conducted by the ISI, detailing the role of various characters in the leak which included top officials around the prime minister. But the delay reflects that there will be no action or a mere eyewash,” the source added.

NO REACTION FROM INTERIOR MINISTRY: Interior Ministry’s Director Public Relations Sarfraz Hussain did not respond to successive phone calls and questions sent to his cell phone, asking how many more days were needed to announce the rest of the committee members for ‘planted story’ in Dawn. Pakistan Today also asked to confirm whether the minister was leaving abroad for treatment, and what was the nature of the minister’s ailment but to no avail.

GOVT SAVING THOSE INVOLVED: GEN AMJAD SHOAIB: Defence analyst Lt Gen (R) Amjad Shoaib said that the government had made some “smart moves” which reflected that efforts were on to save the culprits.

“As per the investigation of the army, Pervaiz Rasheed was one of those individuals who had provided information to Cyril Almeida. But, Chaudhry Nisar claimed that Pervaiz Rasheed’s fault was that he did not stop the news from publication, and the way he was sidelined, it reflected that Rasheed was being protected,” the former general said.

He said that the ‘planted story’ was a part of a campaign to malign the state of Pakistan, and the recent unmasking of the network of Indian undercover intelligence

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operatives impersonating as diplomats had proved the involvement of influential people in anti-state activities.

He said the presence of Indian intelligence officers in Pakistan reflected connivance of parliamentarians, bureaucrats and media with anti-state actors.

“The publication of anti-state material reflects that all were working in tandem to destabilise Pakistan with impunity,” he added. Asked to elaborate, Gen Amjad said that the ‘planted story’ aimed at proving a nexus between armed forces and proscribed terrorist organisations like Lashkare-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad so that a case could be built at the United Nations against the Pakistan Army as a rogue organisation.

“There is a larger consensus among politicians, media and bureaucracy to malign Pakistan. Just take a cue from the recently held conference in London where top media men from Pakistan gathered just to blame the Pakistan Army. Husain Haqqani was the architect of the event,” Gen Shoaib added.

He said that PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari also had travelled to the US recently, and he also met with Senator John McCain in order to put the blame on the army. “The Zardari-McCain meeting was

unlike Pti, PPP won’t surrender in fight for accountability: bilawal RAHIM YAR KHAN STAFF REPORT

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan may have surrendered on the issue of Panama Papers but his party will keep fighting for accountability of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Addressing party workers at a gathering in Rahim Yar Khan, Bilawal said that Panama Papers were the world’s biggest corruption scandal and Nawaz Sharif would be held accountable for it. “Takht-e-Lahore (Lahore throne) does not care about the poor but BB’s (Benazir Bhutto’s) son is here,” he said, referring to the ruling party’s political bastion. Bilawal again repeated his demand for the resignation of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan over nonimplementation of the National Action Plan (NAP). He deplored that the NAP was being implemented arbitrarily in the country, saying it seemed as if it was being implemented in Karachi alone. He also claimed that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a “gift” from former president Asif Ali Zardari to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

PPP to go on protest if questions put to govt find no explanation: Khursheed Shah SUKKUR INP

Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Thursday warned the government that if Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) questions regarding national security, failure in foreign policy and corruption revealed in the Panama Papers were not answered, it would stage a protest. Talking to media outside his Sukkur residence, Shah came down hard on Imran Khan, saying he was suffering from mental pressure and all politicians should pardon his allegations against them.

The opposition leader said that announcement about new army chief should have been done by October 15, adding that when seniors are neglected and pick and chose policy is followed, one would get army chief like Ziaul Haq. He further said that the PPP supported democracy rather than Nawaz Sharif back in 2014. Shah said that load shedding in the country was on peak, gas prices had also increased. Referring to Yousuf Raza Gillani’s disqualification, Shah recalled that during PPP’s last tenure, there was no pressure on the courts and ultimately party’s premier was disqualified. “Let see what happens this time,” he concluded.

organised by none other than Imad Zubairi who is an Indian mole. Such efforts are on with impunity,” he asserted.

Asked whether the delay in the probe into ‘planted story’ would lead towards civil-military tiff, Gen Amjad Shoaib said that the military was trying to observe restraint and there was no possibility of a collision. “You saw, I had told the media that a deal had been struck between the PPP and PML-N and that Dr Asim would be released,” he concluded.

On October 7, Dawn printed a story claiming that the civilian leadership had blamed the army for Pakistan’s isolation at the international level. Since Pakistani narrative was making progress for the first time in recent history, the story was taken as a surprise.

Later, the army chief took up the matter with the prime minister on October 12, shared army’s probe into the matter and demanded an action against those responsible.

The prime minister directed Chaudhry Nisar to conduct an inquiry. On October 13, the news about putting Cyril Almeida’s name on ECL triggered a storm. The journalist claimed he did not want to leave the country. However, as soon as his name was cleared from the ECL, the journalist quietly left for the US, reflecting that the plot was thickening. In the last week of October, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed was relieved of his post as information minister and a committee was informed to probe into the matter.

Friday, 4 november, 2016

news

22 dead as Passenger trains collide near karachi KARACHI

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STAFF REPORT

N the country’s second major rail collision in less than two months, at least 22 people were killed and over 65 wounded when two trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided Thursday morning near Karachi’s Landhi Railway Station, rescuers and railways officials said.

Railways Divisional Superintendent Nasir Nazeer said the collision occurred as Zakaria Express struck Fareed Express, which was stationary, from behind between Juma Goth and Landhi Railway Station.

Television footage showed mangled and overturned carriages, and media reported rescuers were working to free people trapped in the wreckage.

Witnesses described watching in horror as Zakaria Express from Multan rammed into Fareed Express from Lahore, which was parked there, with the roar of the crash swiftly followed by the screams of people trapped inside.

Railway officials had given green signal to the train coming from behind by mistake, and it went on to hit the train at

rest, said Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Labour Saeed Ghani.

“There were up to 1,000 passengers in both trains,” Divisional Superintendent (DS) Railway Nasir Nazeer said, estimating that up to 60 people could be injured in the accident.

Officials said rescuers armed with metal-cutting equipment and heavy cranes managed to pull all the passengers from the twisted wreckage. “No one is left inside,” Ijaz Ahmad Khan, a Karachi administrative official, told reporters at the site of the accident.

Pakistan army jawans also reached the spot and helped in rescue and relief operation.

Administration officials at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) said 19 bodies were brought to the hospital’s mortuary.

Witnesses said at least four carriages from the trains overturned due to the collision. TV footage showed the trains had suffered heavy damage. The train operation came to a complete halt after the accident.

“There were clouds of dust and smog.

After that we heard screams. People inside the collided trains were screaming

and crying.” Onlookers rushed to their aid, an eye witness said, adding that he had helped pull 17 people, including women and children, from the wreckage.

Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said in a tweet he was in touch with DS Railway who was supervising the emergency activities. He said an “independent inquiry” would be initiated to hold accountable those responsible for the incident. He also announced Rs 1,000,000 as compensation for the dead and Rs 500,000 for the injured.

Talking to media in Islamabad, Rafique said apparently the driver and assistant drivers were responsible for the accident as they ignored two signals. He said they were on the run but would be arrested.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain, the National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker, Sindh chief minister expressed grief over the accident and offered their condolences to the families of the victims.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered an investigation into the incident and announced financial help for the victims’ families. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah issued orders for providing best possible

treatment to the injured.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to inquire after the health of the injured.

Bilawal expressed deep grief and sorrow over the death of 20 passengers and injuries to many others in the tragic accident.

He said that such accidents could be averted with better management of signal systems and technical coordination.

Bilawal sympathized with those who

train ColliSion

Technical error probable, probe reveals KARACHI AAMIR MAJEED

Even though Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique declared the Karachi’s passenger trains collision to be a human error, the initial investigation, however, suggested that technical error was actually behind this accident, Pakistan Today has learnt.

The railways minister, while holding the driver and assistant driver of the Zakaria Express responsible for this incident, claimed that they escaped away to avoid inquiry. Both the driver and the assistant driver of Zakaria Express received injuries in this accident, and were admitted in the Pakistan Railways Hassan Hospital for treatment, he added.

At least 22 people were reportedly

killed and over 60 others sustained injuries when Zakaria Express rammed into Fareed Express near Karachi’s Landhi Railway Station on Thursday.

As per reports, the angle of the investigation into the trains’ collision in Karachi has changed following the appearance of the driver and assistant driver in the Pakistan Railways-run hospital in the city. There were some reports earlier that there was a problem with the brake system of Zakaria Express.

Some railways officials, when contacted, were of the view that there was a possibility there was a problem with the brakes of Zakaria Express.

However, they maintained, that it would be clear only after an investigation that the driver or his assistant complained to the authorities concerned at the time of departure or during travel

that the brakes of the train were not working properly. “We reported to the higher-ups several times that there were problems with the brakes of many trains, and there is a dire need to address this issue,” they recalled.

Another report claimed that there was a problem with the signalling system. During the investigation, it was identified that there were some railway signals in the city which often remained red or green the whole day.

However, Signal Engineer Altaf Chandio wasn’t available for comments. Pakistan Railways Divisional Superintendent (DS) Nasir Nazeer, when approached for comments, refuted the rumours that there was a problem in the signalling system. He claimed that the railway signals in the division are working accordingly and

railways’ officials monitored their performance on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.

When he was asked about the possible reason behind this horrific collision, he claimed that the accident could have taken place due to driver’s negligence and, maintained, “We can’t overlook a possibility of a technical error.”

“We have started an investigation in all directions to ascertain whether it was the negligence of the driver or the collision was due to a problem with the brakes of Zakaria Express,” the DS maintained.

Responding to a question regarding a problem with the brake system of the majority of trains, Nazeer didn’t refute this claim, but maintained that there were a few problems with some of the trains but not all of them.

India recalls 8 officials, Pakistan pulls out six in diplomatic row FO CONFIRMS 8 INDIAN HC STAFFERS AS RAW, IB OPERATIVES NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

In the wake of increasing tension between the two nuclear armed neighbours, each country has accused the other for posting spies in their respective high commissions and over the past few days have identified such officials asking each other to withdraw them.

India decided to withdraw eight officials from its mission in Islamabad on Wednesday, hours after Pakistan called back six of its officials from its high commission here. The Indian officials have been accused of being spies and Pakistani media flashed their names.

The tit-for-tat expulsions would further worsen the chill in India-Pakistan ties, which have been deteriorating since attack on an Army camp at Uri. Pakistan on Wednesday pulled out six employees posted at its high commis-

sion in New Delhi. The six high commission officials returned to Pakistan via the Wagah border. The Foreign Office on Thursday confirmed eight staffers of Indian High Commission in Islamabad as operatives of Indian intelligence agencies and said the same were found involved in coordinating terrorist activities, including handling of factions of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“The activities of these operatives of RAW and IB include espionage, subversion and supporting of terrorist activities in Balochistan and Sindh, especially Karachi,” the Foreign Office said at a media briefing here. FO spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the staffers under the garb of diplomatic assignments were involved in “sabotaging China Pakistan Economic Corridor, creating fuel instability in Balochistan and Sindh”. He mentioned that besides handling the factions of TTP, the staffers were involved in creating unrest in Gilgit Baltistan. The Spokesman said the undercover diplomats as RAW’s operatives included Rajesh Kumar Agnihotri (Commercial Counsellor, RAW’s station chief), Anurag Singh (First Secretary Commercial), Amerdeep Singh Bhatti (Attache

Visa), and staff members Dharmendra Sodhi, Vijay Kumar Verma and Madhavan Nanda Kumar.

Those as operatives of Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) are Balbir Singh (First Secretary Press and Information, IB Station Chief) and Jayabalan Senthil (Assistant Personnel Welfare Officer). He said Surjeet Singh who was declared ‘persona non grata’ a few days back was also an IB operative working under Balbir Singh.

He said Surjeet was using a fake identity as Abdul Hafeez pretending to be a telecommunication company Warid’s employee. “We are disappointed that India has not only been found involved in promoting terrorist activities and terror financing as was disclosed by Kulbhushan Yadav and further confirmed by the statements at the highest political level on August 15th, but also been using its diplomatic mission for nefarious designs,” he said.

About the activities of staffers, Zakaria said they were expanding network of their operatives and agents and were leveraging their position as diplomats for ingress into influential circles for gathering inside information. He said the diplomats were involved in damaging

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Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, infiltrating Indian agents into social, media and political circles for propaganda purposes and promoting activities detrimental to Pakistan’s interests. Also they were fabricating evidences to portray Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism, instigating religious minorities, fueling sectarianism and maligning Pakistan with propaganda on human rights issues, he added.

He further said the staffers were also involved in activities in Azad Jammu Kashmir, detrimental to the Kashmir cause and were misleading international community about indigenous movement for self-determination in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Zakaria said India violated diplomatic norms and Vienna Convention on arresting Pakistani diplomatic staff Mahmood Akhter and also deliberately released the names of six other diplomats and diplomatic staff falsely accusing them, endangering their’s and their families’ lives. “They were unable to perform their diplomatic duties while their families were harassed. Consequently, we had to recall them for their safety. These highly regrettable acts were also part of their desperation to divert World’s attention from atrocities in IoK,” he said. Agencies

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lost their family members in the train collision and asked for the best medical treatment to those injured in the mishap.

Thursday’s crash was the second this year involving the Fareed Express.

In February the north-bound train hit a van at a crossing in southern Pakistan, killing eight people from the same family.

In September four people were killed and more than 100 injured when two trains collided near the central city of Multan.

Pakistan pushes for Kashmiris’ right to selfdetermination at un UNITED NATIONS APP

A Pakistani diplomat has fervently called for a settlement of protracted Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan to establish peace in the region, while denouncing attempts by occupiers to conflate freedom struggles with terrorism.

Speaking in a General Assembly committee, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said the Kashmiri people’s struggle for liberation from illegal occupation was “legitimate” and they had the right to receive moral and political support from the international community.

“Peace in South Asia cannot be achieved without a just resolution of the Kashmir dispute,” the envoy said participating in a debate on the “Right to SelfDetermination”. “Under international law and according to declarations of the United Nations on self-determination, the Kashmiris have the right to struggle for their right to self-determination by all means at their disposal,” Lodhi told the 193-member assembly’s third committee.

Pakistan, she said, remained committed to a just solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, and relevant Security Council resolutions that called for the exercise of right to self-determination by the Kashmiri people.

At the outset, Lodhi recalled that the right to self-determination was sanctified in foundations of United Nations. Yet, for countless people, the promise of freedom remained elusive. Every occupier used the same narrative and means to justify oppression: equating freedom struggles with terrorism, using brute force and blaming others.

However, she said, the spirit of a people could not be broken by brutal repression.

The Pakistani envoy expressed concern over the situation of the people of Kashmir, who were waiting for their rights to be realised despite numerous Security Council resolutions. “Today, a new generation of Kashmiris has risen to demand freedom from India’s illegal occupation,” Ambassador Lodhi said. “This uprising is led mainly by Kashmiri youth, armed with nothing more than a hunger of freedom in their hearts and a belief in the righteousness of their cause,” she said.

“Day after day they brave bullets and curfews to press their right to selfdetermination,” she reminded delegates from around the world.

04 NEWS

Friday, 4 November, 2016

ASWJ, not DifA-e-PAkiStAn CounCil, helD rAlly DeSPite bAn, SAyS niSAr INTERIOR MINISTER ASKS CM KHATTAK NOT TO MISGUIDE MASSES ISLAMABAD

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SHAH NAWAZ MOHAL

NTERIoR Minister Chaudhry Nisar, while speaking to police personnel yesterday, came out in defence of a rally held by a proscribed party Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) while Section 144 was in place.

“DPC sought permission from capital administration ahead of their rally, when they asked for permission; the administration did not allow the same place or the number of people that they had asked for.

However, the organisation agreed to the terms of the administration and did not object,” he said at the occasion.

The rally the interior minister was referring to was held on october 28 in Aabpara, Islamabad, under the banner of Difa-e-Pakistan Council, but was attended only by ASWJ, a proscribed or-

ganisation previously functioning by the name of Sipaah-e-Sahaba and Sunni Tehreek. The other parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, PML-Q, Jamait Ulema-eIslami Samiul Haq group, remained away from the gathering.

The government imposed Section 144 in Islamabad on Thursday, october 27 for the next two months in order to curb the ‘lockdown’ of city by PTI and other parties. While the whole might of the government machinery was busy tackling PTI in Bani Gala and workers of AML near Committee Chowk and Lal Haveli, ASWJ and other proscribed parties were having a bike rally, followed by a convention in Hockey Ground, G-6.

According to sources, the NoC obtained by ASWJ, with the imposition of Section 144, had been rendered invalid.

ASWJ Central Chairman Ahmed Ludhianvi, who took shots at both Imran Khan and Sheikh Rasheed while addressing the convention, said, “We’ve invited Difa-e-Pakistan Council, but no one came to attend our rally. Neither Maulana Sami-ul-Haque nor Hafiz Saeed has joined us today.”

Reportedly, slogans against a minority sect were also raised during the rally.

PM’s special assistant briefs OIC ambassadors on human rights violations in IOK ISLAMABAD: The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Foreign Affairs, Syed Tariq Fatemi briefed the Islamabadbased oIC ambassadors on Thursday on the continuing grave human rights violations in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoK), being committed by the Indian occupation forces. The SAPM condemned the Indian brutalities in IoK which resulted in killing of more than 115 innocent people and injuring more than 16000. He noted that more than 1000 people had been injured due to the use of pellet guns by the Indian occupation forces and more than 160 had become permanently blind. While appreciating the continued support of the oIC for the Kashmir cause, as reflected in the unanimous passage of resolution on Kashmir by 43rd oIC council of foreign ministers on october 19, 2016 in Tashkent, he urged the oIC countries to continue to condemn the Indian brutalities in IoK. He referred to Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir as the oldest unresolved disputes on the agenda of the UN Security Council. He called for vigorous efforts for the resolution of both these disputes in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. PPI

Roads leading to Melody and Aabpara area of the capital were entirely blocked and no one was allowed to enter during the rally.

When contacted, SSP operations, Sajid Kiyani, said that the parties had obtained NoC from them. “We’ve provided the security as police and FC personnel were deployed for the security,” he said.

“The rally was held exclusively by ASWJ on october 28 as other parties were absent. We obtained the NoC before the imposition of Section 144 in Islamabad,” said Hafiz Ehtisham of ASWJ, when contacted for a comment. “The administration was willing to give other parties permission as well. We’ve asked permission for a particular spot to hold our rally in. The rally was conducted exclusively by ASWJ as leaders of Difa-ePakistan didn’t come due to fear of FIRs,” he said.

When contacted, Hafiz Uneeb Farooqi, spokesperson for ASWJ, said that ASWJ holds this gathering every year.

“We’ve obtained NoC from local administration and gave them an assurance that we’ll abide by the law and won’t disturb the peace of the city,” he said.

CM Khattak should not misguide

PM has rejected all Panama Papers related allegations, says minister ISLAMABAD APP

State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman, on Thursday, said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had rejected all allegations against him in Panama Papers case and declared that he had no offshore company or any flat in London. Addressing a press conference, she said, “All the allegations against the Prime Minister are merely allegations.”

She said proceedings of the Supreme Court on Panama Papers were being distorted by the opposition. “We have come before the public to put the facts.” She said Nawaz Sharif’s name was not in the Panama Papers. The PTI

lawyer failed to present any evidence in the case, she added. She said the court should investigate the matter of Panama Papers to ascertain the authenticity of all the baseless allegations. She said as the case was of personal nature, the Attorney General was not representing the government. However, the court could call the attorney general for its assistance through a notice, she added. The minister said the lawyer of prime minister did not raise any objection about maintainability of the petitions.

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Capt (R) Muhammad Safdar’s replies were submitted to the court, in which they rejected all the allegations against them. She said in the reply

LAHoRe: Former General Manager (GM) of Pakistan Television (PTV) and renowned drama producer Yawar Hayat passed away on Thursday. Yawar Hayat who was suffering from lungs diseases passed away during treatment. Funeral Prayers of the deceased would be held at Ghalib Market, Gulberg in Lahore. President, PM, ruling ministers, leaders of the political parties, senior actors and actress of Tv and film and other people belonging to showbiz industry condoling the death of the deceased had prayed for the departed soul to rest in peace and for courage of the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with fortitude. INP

submitted by the PM, it was stated that children of prime minister were not dependent on him. The minister said Nawaz Sharif had been filing details of his income and assets before the Election Commission every year, and Imran Khan wanted to give the impression that lawyer of the prime minister had raised any objection about the maintainability of the case.

The minister said it was unfortunate that after hearing all of the proceedings in the Supreme Court, Imran Khan instead of uttering truth, continued with his lies. She said the legal team went to the prime minister and told him that objections could be raised about maintainability of the case but the prime minister stopped them from doing it.

NATO airstrike kills 30 Afghan civilians KABUL AGENCIES

PTV ex-GM Yawar Hayat passes away

masses: Chaudhry Nisar Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan eulogised Islamabad police and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) for establishing the writ of the sate during critical period in the federal capital. Addressing the police, he said that government is well aware of the responsibility of police and LEAs. He said the government has increased salaries and facilities of police and LEAs which will be enhanced further in future.

He rejected KP chief minister’s assertion and said that Frontier Constabulary and other LEAs belong to Pakistan and not to a particular province which maintained law and order. He said these agencies should not be dragged into politics.

He said extra security and full protocol were given to Pervez Khattak as KP CM. The interior minister said salaries of FC personnel were being increased by 50 per cent immediately and the remaining 50 per cent would be hiked in June next year. He said a new recruit would now get about Rs 30,000 a month. He announced award of commendation certificates and prize of Rs 50,000 each for the 10,000 FC personnel deployed for security duties in Islamabad and Punjab during political tension.

A Nato airstrike killed at least 30 Afghan civilians, including women and children, on Thursday in the volatile northern province of Kunduz, officials said, after a Taliban assault there left two American soldiers dead. The airstrike, which occurred early Thursday, triggered emotionally-charged protests in the provincial capital, with the victims' relatives rallying outside the governor's office while carrying the bodies of dead children. The carnage underscores worsening insecurity after the Taliban last month overran Kunduz city for the second time in a year, as Nato-backed Afghan forces struggle to beat back the insurgents.

“Afghan forces and coalition troops conducted a joint operation against the Taliban insurgents,” provincial spokesman Mahmood Danish told AFP. “In the bombardment 30 Afghan civilians were martyred and 25 others were wounded.” Police spokesman Mahmoodullah Akbari gave the same toll to AFP, adding that the dead included infants aged as

young as three months and other children.

“They were asleep when their house came under attack by coalition troops,” Akbari said.

In a brief statement on Twitter, Nato conceded it was behind the airstrike.

“Airstrikes were conducted in #Kunduz to defend friendly forces under fire. All civilian casualty claims will be investigated,” it said.

The strike occurred on the outskirts of the city after a firefight killed two US soldiers and three Afghan special forces during an anti-Taliban operation in Kunduz. It was not immediately clear if the two incidents were related.

The firefight occurred as American soldiers were assisting Afghan troops to clear a Taliban position and disrupt the group's operations in Kunduz, US forces said in a separate statement. “on behalf of all of US Forces - Afghanistan, today's loss is heartbreaking and we offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of our service members who lost their lives today,” said John Nicholson, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan.

CMYK

KP govt to lodge FIR against Nisar over convoy attack ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday decided to lodge an FIR against Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar and other top officials for firing tear gas shells on the convoy of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on october 31 to prevent them from entering Punjab and join Imran Khan’s Islamabad lockdown. According to KP Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani, the interior minister, federal interior secretary, IG Punjab, IG FC and others would be named in the FIR. “Rubber bullets were also fired on us. Under which law, our entry to Punjab was blocked by Punjab police and FC,” he questioned. The convoy led by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak came under heavy tear gas shelling at Swabi Interchange and then at Burhan Interchange. Police and FC personnel fired hundreds of tear gas shells on Khattak’s convoy and forced it to retreat. The convoy was to get to Bani Gali, the residence of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, in Islamabad as part of his announcement to shut down the capital city on November 2. But Khan abruptly called off his protest after the Supreme Court agreed to set up a commission to launch a probe into the Panama Leaks. Chaudhry Nisar defended the use of teargas, saying the chief minister wanted to invade Islamabad. INP

COAS lauds Pak Army team’s performance in Cambrian patrol RAWALPINDI: Army Chief General Raheel Sharif met with Pakistan Army team, which won gold medal in Exercise Cambrian Patrol held in the United Kingdom from 14th to 23rd of the last month. The army chief, while talking to the team members in Rawalpindi on Thursday, appreciated the team for their commendable performance. A total of 122 teams participated in the event known as one of the toughest patrolling test for military personnel.

Cambrian Patrol is physically challenging and arduous exercise which concentrates on teamwork for achieving the mission. The teams of 8 men carrying up to 40 kgs each, crosses some of the most unforgiving mountainous terrain of mid-Wales of the UK amid tactical and technical challenges, testing leadership, selfdiscipline, courage and determination of the participants. This is for the third time that army had won the Cambrian gold medal. PPI

“Despite today's tragic event, we are steadfast in our commitment to help our Afghan partners defend their nation,” he added, without disclosing the names of the dead soldiers.

FoRgotteN coNFLIct: The killings come just days before the US presidential election. During three lengthy debates between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Afghanistan got scarcely a passing mention -even though the situation there will be an urgent matter for the new president. Either one of them will inherit America's longest war with no end in sight.

The US military, which leads a Nato mission to train and assist local forces after their combat mission ended in 2014, often gives upbeat assessments about Afghan military performance. But as Afghan military forces near the end of a second year leading security operations without full NATo assistance, they are sustaining heavy casualties. The Taliban's apparent strategic goal in 2016 is to seize another provincial capital like they briefly did in Kunduz last year, in a stinging blow to Afghan forces. They have launched multiple assaults in recent months including in Kunduz, Lashkar Gar in poppy-growing Helmand province and Tarinkot, the capital of Uruzgan province.

Friday, 4 November, 2016

PeoPle, SuPPoRTeRS moCK IK’S u-TuRN oN loCKDowN LIFE GETS BACK TO NORMALCY AFTER 5 DAYS PEOPLE SAY THEY WERE HELD HOSTAGE FOR A WEEK ISLAMABAD SHAH NAWAZ MOHAL

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ITh the end of PTI’s Yaum-e-Tashukar, the containers were lifted from all over the city, which reverted the lives of locals to normalcy in Islamabad.

As children and their parents head back to schools and offices, many

among them question the strategy and tactics employed by both government and opposition parties that brought the Capital to a halt for 5 days.

‘I don’t understand that why we have to pay the price for the politics that benefit only few. The memories of 2014 dharna were still afresh when Khan gave call for a lockdown. I request both to the government and opposition to please play their petty politics somewhere else. Allow the citizens to carry on their daily lives peacefully,’ said Dr Anum, resident of Chak Shahzad.

On the other hand, after attending the spectacle of November, 2 the supporters of PTI left Yaum-e-Tashakur site covered in tons of trash. City Administration deployed a team of 50 janitors from Metropolitan Corporation who were given the task to clean the area. however, despite working all day long, the sanitation team

KP ehtesab Commission arrests Islamia university’s professor over corruption charges PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on Thursday arrested Islamia Collage University professor Dr Naeem Khalid for alleged embezzlement of millions of rupees in the varsity funds and misuse of authority, said a statement issued by the commission. Dr Naeem Khalid was serving at the Islamia Collage University Peshawar as the chairman of Physics Department. “Ehtesab Commission started investigation against Dr Naeem Khalid on various complaints lodged by varsity employees and during initial investigation, the commission found the accused involved in corruption and misuse of authority,” said an official of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission.

“The most senior staff member of the university was arrested on the charges of corruption and misuse of his authority,” he added. The statement issued by the commission further added that accused would be presented before the court today (Friday) for acquisition of judicial remand. INP

couldn’t clear the Parade Ground of flags, wrappers and tons of garbage spread over a kilometer long stretch.

‘We braved shelling, baton charging and spent 4 nights under the sky because our leader Imran Khan promised to rid us of this corrupt government. We were mentally and physically prepared to lockdown Islamabad, but when the moment came, Imran Khan changed his mind and trusted the courts. We all know that courts of Pakistan don’t give justice, then how can Khan leave the corrupt to be judged by them?,’ asked Muhammad Abbas, a resident of Sahiwal on his way back from Parade Ground.

Many die hard supporters of PTI felt the blues when on November 1, Imran Khan decided to convert his lockdown into thanksgiving day, a decision that has been mocked by many

NEWS as latest U-turn in a long history of similar manoeuvres.

The government didn’t come across as a winner either. Deployment of FC and police on entry and exit points hindered many residents from travelling to Punjab, KPK and other provinces. People had to cancel their business and personal trips due to containers and barriers around Islamabad.

‘A close relative of mine died on October 31. We had to attend his funeral but couldn’t attend in time due to blockades placed by government to keep Parvaiz Khattak and PTI supporters away from the Capital. ‘I ask the government why they had to block entire roads and highways just to keep few thousand people away. I lost a dear relative and despite having the means to see him for the last time, I couldn’t because my government was afraid and had severed off one province from the other’, said Waleed Khan, a lawyer from Islamabad.

With no clear winners and losers, the showdown during the past week laid bare the vulnerable status of Islamabad.

On one hand if the PTI has received a dent in its reputation, many citizens ask government that why were they held hostage to deter a few.

Illegal allotment of state land: SHC grants protective bail to Memon KARACHI PPI

The Sindh high Court (ShC) on Thursday granted projective bail to former provincial information minister and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Sharjeel Inam Memon in another case pertaining to illegal allotment of state land and adjustment of land in 43 Dehs.

Memon moved the court through his counsel, Advocate Faiz Shah, seeking pre-arrest bail in connection with an investigation launched by the NAB into illegal allotment and adjustment of land in 43 Dehs of Malir in favour of Bahria Town. his lawyer informed the judges that the NAB had issued a call-up notice to Memon on Oc-

tober 18, 2016, asking him to appear before it in connection with the investigation. Memon wanted to appear before it and face the investigation but he was apprehended unlawfully. The court was requested to grant bail to Memon.

The bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, approved his protective bail plea against surety bonds of Rs 2 million till 14th November. The court also ex-

Three more dengue cases surface in Tharparkar THARPARKAR: Three new dengue cases surfaced in Tharparkar on Thursday after which the tally had reached to 153. hospital sources said that three people shifted to different hospital of Tharparkar were found affected with dengue virus. With the new cases, the tally of dengue patients had climbed to 153 of which 30 were under treatment at various hospitals across the district. INP

Karachi mayor gets another bail KARACHI: An AntiTerrorism Court-III (ATC-III) Karachi on Thursday granted a bail to Mayor Waseem Akhtar in four cases including 12 May, 2007, massacre and MQM leader’s hate speech.

According to the prosecution, ATC also ordered the release of Akhtar. The mayor, however, will remain in jail as he faces around a dozen of more cases and has to first obtain bail in all the cases to get out of jail. he has already been granted bail in three cases. Akhtar was arrested on July 19 on suspicion of sheltering and providing medical treatment to alleged militants and criminals. he was arrested in several other cases dating back to 2007 when he was the home adviser to the Sindh chief minister. STAFF REPORT

CMYK

tended his pre-arrest bail in Rs5billion corruption case for the same period granted in a corruption case.

The bench observed that Memon had been given almost one month's time to surrender before the trial court; however, he had failed to turn up so far. “Under these circumstances, we consider it appropriate that we grant him the protective bail until November 14 subject to furnishing of solvent surety in sum of Rs2 million,” they ruled. The court was told by Memon's counsel that his client was directed to surrender before the trial court and face charges of corruption in the award of advertisement by October 10, but due to his ailment and subsequent appointments with doctors he could not return to the country.

05

ATC summons five more witnesses in Shahbaz Bhatti murder case ISLAMABAD APP

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad Thursday summoned five more witnesses to record their statements in murder case of the then federal minister Shahbaz Bhatti. ATC Judge Sohail Ikram heard the murder case of former federal minister Shahbaz Bhatti. During the proceeding of the case, the court recorded statement of a witness Moazam Khan and also directed to summon five more witnesses in the same case on next date of hearing. The court adjourned hearing of the case till November 9. It may be mentioned here that the court had so far recorded statements of eight persons out of a total of 29 witnesses. Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead in 2011 in Sector I8/3 Islamabad when he left his residence for office.

Action initiated against NADRA employee in Kuwait over embezzlement ISLAMABAD INP

On the directive of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the action has been initiated against an employee in the NADRA office at Pakistan Embassy in Kuwait for reportedly embezzlement of lakhs of rupees.

The visa of the accused has been cancelled and the embassy officials have taken his passport into custody, however, accused employee Adnan Akram has disappeared. An FIA team has left for Kuwait to arrest him. Adnan Akram was an employee in the NADRA office at Pakistan Embassy in Kuwait and was accused of Rs 82 lakh embezzlement in the NADRA account from 2010 to 2012.

06 LAHORE

Friday, 4 November, 2016

WEATHER UPDATES

FRIDAY

290C 170C

SATURDAY

290C

170C

SUNDAY

290C 170C

MONDAY

290C 150C

‘Khadim-e-Punjab Schools Programme’ to be started from South Punjab: Shehbaz CM SAYS COMMITTEES BEING FORMED TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY IN PROJECT LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

UNJAB Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said that programme of construction of more than 10,000 additional classrooms had been evolved under ‘Khadim-e-Punjab Schools Programme’ which will be started from South Punjab and is to be implemented in phases.

He said that due to this programme, boy and girl students would avail better educational facilities and will be motivated towards their studies due to best educational environment.

He was presiding over a high level

meeting regarding ‘Khadim-e-Punjab Schools Programme’ on Thursday. The meeting reviewed progress of different matters of the programme and gave formal approval to the design of additional classrooms. Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said that the future of the country was linked with best education and training of the youth and equipping them with modern knowledge.

He said that Punjab government was implementing a comprehensive programme for the improvement of educational programme in the province.

He said that ‘Khadim-e-Punjab Schools Programme’ was a splendid example of spending resources of the nation on the youth of the country.

This programme will be unprecedented like other projects with regard to transparency and quality, he added.

Shehbaz Sharif said that committees are being constituted at district and division level to ensure quality and speed of the work. He said that missing facilities will be made available in the schools where additional classrooms are being constructed.

He said that steps were already being taken for providing missing facilities in the schools and billions of rupees have been allocated for this purpose. Secretary Communication and Works gave a briefing on pace of progress on the matters of ‘the project.

Provincial Ministers Rana Mashhood Ahmad, Tanvir Aslam Malik, Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, chief secretary, Planning and Development Commission chairman and concerned officials participated in the meeting.

LAHORE: Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Tayyab Hafeez Cheema distributing masks among motorcyclists during smog awareness campaign. INP

Punjab govt committed to ensuring safety of labour community: minister LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Provincial Minister for Labour and Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said that Punjab government was focusing on capacity development of industry to promote compliance with labour standards, so as to achieve better production and ensure safety of the labour community.

Labour and Human Resource Department has launched a project in this regard with the total amount of Rs.134.16 million to create awareness among different stake holders regarding labour rights and strengthening inspection regime, he said.

He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting in this regard on Thursday. The labour minister said that the department has procured two ambulances for carrying out risk assessment and training along with laboratory equipment. The meeting was informed that the printing of training material on occupational safety and health as well as silicosis has been completed.

Training on OSH is given in collaboration with GIZ regarding textile sector along with completion of procurement of OSH kits and IT equipment. Raja Ashfaq

Sarwar said that development of an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism and simplification as well as consolidation of labour laws were the key factors of this project.

The minister said that Saeed Ahmad Awan Centre for the Implementation of Working Conditions and Environment (SAACIWCE) was providing best professional services in the field of occupational safety, health and environment with its foreign qualified professionals and state of the art equipment, enhancing a strong relationship with industry, business sector, international organisations and government agencies ensuring compliance with national, international as well as corporate environmental occupational safety and health standards.

SAACIWCE has laboratories unique in Pakistan offering complete range of services in the field of EHS for exposure monitoring of workers and safety and physical hazards training, he added. The minister said that the stake holders have been provided necessary training and awareness regarding different diseases along with exposure to noise heat, ventilation, dust, toxic gases in this centre and a free help line 0800-73774 has also been established for any complaints and guidance in SAACIWCE.

Special cell established to ensure accountability in police dept, says IGP LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Inspector General Punjab Police Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera has said that a special cell had been established to make system of internal accountability in police, more transparent and effective.

The cell will work under supervision of Additional IGP Discipline and Inspection, while a DIG along with a team of three AIGs and one PSP level member from each region of the province will work for Discipline and Inspection cell, he said.

Discipline and Inspection Cell will investigate complaints against high handedness of police officers and officials transparently and departmental and legal action will be taken against culprits without any delay. He further said that under supervision of Additional IGP, working of internal accountability in police will be improved.

IGP Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera expressed these views while presiding over a highlevel meeting held at Central Police Office on Thursday. Additional IGP Welfare and Finance, Sohail Khan, Additional IGP Operations and Investigation Punjab, Capt. (r) Arif Nawaz, Additiona IGP Establishment Pun-

jab, Dr. Arif Mushtaq, DIG IT Shahid Hanif, DIG Operations Punjab, Aamir Zulfiqar Khan, DIG Headquarters, B.A Nasir, DIG R & D, Ahmad Ishaque Jehangir, DIG Welfare, Waseem Sial, DIG SPU, Agha Muhammad Yousuf and other senior police officers also attended the meeting.

IGP Directed Additional IG welfare and finance to improve the monitoring system of Guzara Allowance ATM Cards” issued to the widows of martyrs and police officials passed away during service.

He also directed to link details of Dowry Fund, Scholarships and Burial Fund with accounts of Guzara Allowance beneficiaries to avoid any errors in records of welfare projects.

While direction regarding project of trackers installation in police vehicles to stop any illegal use of them at any level, IGP directed to expedite the work and complete the process of trackers installation in police vehicles throughout the province by December 15 2016. He also directed to utilise all available resources to complete the project of establishing front desks in remaining police stations of the province during current financial year and to ensure that these front desks are operational by the end of this financial year.

Electric shock injures 2 children LAHORE: Two children received burn injuries due to electric shock caused by short circuit on Thursday. Rescue 1122 sources said that sparks produced after two power lines touched in Harbanspura area of the provincial capital Lahore fell over two children playing underneath. As a result of the sparks, both the children were scorched and shifted to hospital for treatment. I NP

CMYK

Friday, 4 November, 2016

Govt usinG delayinG tactics in Panama leaks Probe: siraj LAHORE

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INP

AMAAT-E-ISLAMI (JI) chief Senator Sirajul Haq said that the government was wasting the Supreme Court (SC)’s time by adopting delaying tactics in the Panama Leaks probe.

Talking to the media persons outside the SC after the hearing of the case on Thursday, Sirajul Haq said the government would have to face the facts and reveal how the money had been transferred outside the country and why the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investi-

gation Agency (FIA) and others had not taken action against it.

He said that the SC had sought a reply from the prime minister’s children within three days and added that the matter can be decided within 25 days.

Siraj said the masses could not wait for an indefinite period and therefore the JI had already submitted its TORs in the apex court.

The JI said the things were moving in the direction desired by the JI which had been demanding that the judicial commission should be headed by a serving judge of the SC and have full authority. All state institutions should be under it. The

hearing of the case should be made open to public and the commission’s report should be submitted to the SC instead of being thrown in the cupboards of the government, he said.

He said the prime minister’s demand for beginning accountability from Quaid-e-Azam was unjustified as the Quaid-e-Azam was the nation’s founder and benefactor. He said the accountability should start from the present ruling party and then spread to all the parties who had ruled the country in the past. The accountability should be transparent and all embracing, he added.

Sirajul Haq said that some

US consul general meets CM Shehbaz

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

US Consul General Yuriy Fedkiw met Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday. Matters of mutual interest, promotion of Pak-American relations and enhancing cooperation in different sectors were discussed during the meeting.

Talking to American Consul General, the chief minister said that Pakistan and America enjoy friendly relation. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government has achieved prominent successes in various sectors during the last three and a half years.

Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan is being included in emerging economies of the world and foreign exchange reserves have

reached at a record level due to successful economic policies of the government. He said that speedy work was being carried out on different projects including energy projects and fruits of their completion will soon reach the people. He said that the Pakistan of today is safer, peaceful, and prosperous as compared to the one of 2013. He said that the whole nation was united for eliminating terrorism and Pakistan Army, people and other law enforcement agencies have rendered unprecedented sacrifices in the war against terrorism. The chief minister expressed the hope that Pak-America relations will further strengthen in the coming days.

Yuriy Fedkiw appreciated speedy completion of development projects in different sectors in Punjab and lauded the measures taken for elimination of child labour and protection of rights of brick-kiln labourers.

Forge allotment case: LHC cancels bails of ex ACD, 8 others LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab Director General Brig. ® Muzafar Ali Ranjha has issued directions to arrest 9 accused including Ex-ADC Kasur Amir Aqiq, Syed Shehbaz Ali Shah, Girdawar Arif Ali Qadri and patwaris Pervaiz and Abdul Jalil in a case of forge allotment of 1205 kanal of land to the in laws of former Kasur ADC Amir Aqiq.

The anti corruption DG issued directions after cancelation of interim bails of the accused from Lahore High Court on Thursday. Anti Corruption Lahore Region has constituted special teams and raids are being conducted to arrest the accused.

According to details, Ex-ADC Kasur Amir Aqiq, Naib Tehisldar Syed Shehbaz Ali Shah, Girdawar Arif Ali Qadri and Patwaris Pervaiz and Abdul Jalil, Muhammad Aslam, Salman Munawar Manj, Abdul Riaz and Ibrahim Khalid got interim bails from Lahore High Court challenging orders of the Special Judge Anti-Corruption Punjab.

Lahore High Court in its orders cancelled interim bails of all the accused on Thursday and DG Anti-Corruption Punjab directed Director ACE Lahore Region to immediately arrest the accused after Lahore High Court orders. Regional Director ACE Lahore has constituted special teams under the supervision of Assistant Director ACE Umer Maqbool which have started conducting raids for the arrest of the accused.

‘Foolproof security arrangements made for Raiwind congregation’ LAHORE STAFF REPORT

DIG Dr Haider Ashraf said that foolproof security arrangements would be made for the annual religious congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat which is to be held on November 4 in Raiwind.

The security arrangements include walk through gates, barbed wires, sniffer dogs and the participants, who include people from all over the country, will go

through full body search before they are allowed to enter the premises.

The participants will also go through biometric verification, the DIG said. He further told that 3000 police officials would be deployed to perform their duties under the supervision of 2 SSPs, 6 BSPs, and 21 inspectors The annual religious gathering starts November 4 (today) and will continue till November 6. The congregation will take place in two phases.

families had assumed the role of the East India Company , and added that whoever did not have a clean record, should not be allowed to enter the echelons of power.

The JI chief criticised the Election Commission for suspending the hearing of the petitions seeking the disqualification of the prime minister in view of the Supreme Court taking up the Panama Leaks issue.

He said the Election Commission had also shifted its burden to the Supreme Court, and added that the country required a fully independent and autonomous Election Commission.

10 killed as vehicles collide due to dense smog at Sukhekhi Interchange FAISALABAD: As many as 10 people were killed and more than 60 others received injuries as at least 12 vehicles collided with each other due to smog in Pindi Bhatiyan area of Sukhaki on Thursday. Rescue sources said that widespread fog resulted into collision of 10 motor vehicles early Thursday morning in Pindi Bhatiyan area of Sukhaki, killing at least 8 people on the spot while scores of people injured in the accident.

The injured and dead were shifted to the District Headquarter Hospital (DHQ) immediately but later they were transferred to other cities as the required medical facilities were not available in the DHQ. Separately, a collision between cars left two passengers dead and five people injured. The victims were shifted to Allied Hospital for medical assistance. INP

CTD arrests 4 terrorists in Multan MULTAN: Four terrorists and five suspects were taken into custody during separate operations conducted by law enforcement agencies in Multan on Wednesday night. According to details, Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) conducted a raid on a house near Bahauddin Zakariya University on intelligence reports and arrested four terrorists.

The CTD sources said that explosive material, four hand grenades and other arms were recovered from the terrorists. INP

FIA arrests three human traffickers in Gujranwala, Gujrat GUJRANWALA/GUJRAT: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested three human traffickers and recovered passports, fake visas, CNICs and other documents on Thursday. FIA officials said that on public complaints the FIA teams conducted operation against elements involved in people sending people abroad through illegal means and looting huge sum of money by deceiving the people. INP

LAHORE 07 Stalls being reserved for women at Sunday bazaars: minister LAHORE APP

Punjab Minister for Women Development Hameeda Waheed-ud-Din said that stalls were being reserved for women at Sunday and Sastay bazaars across the province. She expressed these views talking to a delegation of Women Chambers of Commerce and Industry (WCCI), led by its President Shazia Suleman, on Thursday. The minister said the government attached high priority to empowerment of women and for the purpose, a number of steps have been taken. She said that in addition to establishing business facilitation centres, a ‘Women Expo’ is also being arranged. She maintained that under interest-free loans scheme, more than 54 per cent of women have been provided loans.

She said the main objective behind setting up of Women Development Department was to safeguard woman rights and ensure implementation of measures in this regard. The minister lauded cooperation of women chambers regarding setting up of stalls for women at Sunday and Sastay bazaars and research study to collect data of women vendors.

08 FOREIGN NEWS

Friday, 4 November, 2016

Obama waRnS US fate in vOteRS' handS aS tRUmp GainS GROUnd WASHINGTON

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AGENCIES

ARACK Obama warned American voters the country's fate is in their hands Wednesday as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's White House battle went down to the wire.

With six days until the election, the world looked on agog as a surge in support for Clinton's 70-year-old Republican rival delighted America's foes, made its allies queasy and spooked financial markets.

"The fate of the republic rests on your shoulders," the US president warned voters in North Carolina, one of a handful of swing states where the tight race will be decided. "The fate of the world is teetering and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction," he declared, rallying support for the Democrat Clinton to become his successor.

"I am not on the ballot, but I tell you what. Fairness is on the ballot. Decency is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot.

Progress is on the ballot. Our democracy is on the ballot."

On Tuesday, Americans will chose between an elaborately-coiffed populist from the world of reality television and a scandal-tainted Democrat vying to be America's first female president.

The Trump-Clinton choice has left many US voters cold and polling numbers volatile, making it hard to predict who has a lock on the key states that will

decide who wins the electoral college.

Clinton remains ahead in most pollbased forecasts, but on Tuesday an ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll gave Trump a narrow lead, sending shock waves through nervous markets.

Trump -- a rambunctious real estate mogul -- has been hit by scandals that would have sunk a less brazen showman: accused of sexual assault, of not paying taxes and of ties to Russia's Vladimir Putin and the mob.

US nuclear weapons facility locked down over bomb fears AUGUSTA

Jitters: US stocks followed the rest of the world's markets lower. The Dow fell 0.4 percent and the broader S&P 500 was off 0.7 percent at the close. Earlier major markets in Asia and Europe had tumbled more than one percent.

The dollar continued to slip against the euro, losing 0.3 percent from Tuesday to $1.1093, while the Mexican peso -- sensitive to Trump's threat to build a wall on the country's US border -- lost one percent.

Amnesty demands probe into killing of Indian Muslim prisoners

AGENCIES

NEW DELHI

The Savannah River Site (SRS) nuclear weapons complex in South Carolina declared a security alert and went into lockdown after it was feared a bomb had been discovered in a restroom. The SRS facility was built in the 1950s to produce materials used in the fabrication of nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonium239 for nuclear weapons and continues to refine materials to support 'the nation’s nuclear deterrent'. Spread over 310-square miles the complex operating under the US Department of Energy went into lockdown on Wednesday after staff discovered a bomb in a toilet. A spokesman for the Department of Energy Jim Giusti said, “we have a suspicious item. We’ve declared a security alert and we’re going through our procedures to do what is right.’’ Authorities later declared the all-clear after the suspicious device turned out to be nothing more than an air freshener. This is the second time the SRS has gone into lockdown. In August 2015 the facility was locked down for five hours after security discovered explosive residue and it was feared a bomb had passed through security.

AGENCIES

Rahul Gandhi taken into police custody

But renewed FBI scrutiny of Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state has helped mobilize the Republican's raucous fan base and underlined public doubts about the Democrat's trustworthiness.

"With less than a week to go, market opinion is coming to the conclusion that a Trump win would create too much uncertainty and is bad for risk sentiment generally," said Kit Juckes, analyst at banker Societe Generale.

The dramatic tightening in the opinion polls also frightened bookmakers.

Ireland's Paddy Power had already paid out $1 million to punters who bet on Clinton, assuming her victory a foregone conclusion.

But on Wednesday, the firm said 91 percent of bets now favor Trump, whose odds have narrowed.

This week, US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted the campaign has been "downright embarrassing" as he deals with America's friends and foes abroad, and the latter were in full voice Wednesday.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- whose regime survives by painting America as a comic-book foe -crowed that the "catastrophic reality" of the two candidates "goes beyond what even we were saying."

In Britain, a giant effigy of Trump wielding the head of his rival Clinton was to be burned during traditional November 5 bonfire night celebrations.

NarrowiNg path: Back in the United States, the long and often unedifying 2016 White House race is now being fought in a few corners of a few states. Trump, Clinton and their most prized surrogates have virtually taken up residence in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina.

These three states offer the best chance for both candidates to cross the winning threshold of 270 out of 538 electoral college votes -- and to lock out their opponent. But the two White House hopefuls have also placed some final long-shot bets.

Clinton was to travel to Arizona, which Democrats haven't won since 1996 when her husband Bill claimed the presidency by a landslide. An Emerson poll on Wednesday had Clinton losing the state by only four percentage points. But both of its Republican US Senators have opposed Trump, offering the tantalizing prospect of a shock Clinton win.

Amnesty International on Wednesday demanded an impartial investigation into the police shooting of eight alleged Muslim radicals accused of escaping from a high-security prison in Bhopal in India’s BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh state.

“The Madhya Pradesh government must ensure an independent, impartial, swift and thorough criminal investigation into the alleged extrajudicial execution of eight under-trial prisoners by the state police on 31 October,” said Amnesty International India in a press statement.

The state police say that the eight prisoners — all members of a banned group, the Students’ Islamic Movement of India — killed a guard at the high-security Bhopal central jail and escaped on the morning of Oct 31. They say that the men were killed in an armed encounter on the outskirts of Bhopal some hours later.

“The contradictory statements issued by authorities on the killings, and video clips which appear to show the prisoners trying to talk to the police before being shot, raise deeply disturbing questions. An independent investigation must determine if the police extra-judicially executed the prisoners,” said Tara Rao, the programmes director at Amnesty International India.

The inspector general of the Bhopal police initially said the men were unarmed and were shot when they resisted capture. He later said they were armed with knives and pistols.

However, the state home minister told journalists that the men had used jail utensils as weapons. The Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad chief told a news channel on Wednesday that the men had no weapons on them at the site of the killing. Local and national media channels had aired video clips, which appeared to have been recorded at the encounter site, Amnesty said. One of the clips appeared to show some of the prisoners waving their hands and attempting to talk to the police officers.

Another clip appeared to show the prisoners lying on the ground after they had been shot, and a police officer shooting at one man who seemed to be alive.

Amnesty said it had not been able to verify the authenticity of the video clips.

The prisoners had been charged with offences, including murder, robbery and terrorism-related offences. A lawyer who had been representing some of them told Amnesty International India: “Why would they want to escape a high-security prison when their court judgement was expected to come out in the next few weeks? There was no evidence against them and we were sure

that the court would release them.”

“All the eight men were shot multiple times, and most of the wounds were above the waist, according to the post-mortem report,” said Tara Rao. “Too often, authorities in India have shown a lack of will in effectively investigating fake encounters and bringing those responsible to justice.

This case must not end the same way.”

On Tuesday, India’s National Human Rights Commission asked senior Madhya Pradesh police and government officials to submit detailed reports on the incident within six weeks.

According to guidelines issued by

the commission in 2010, all alleged ‘fake encounters’ must be investigated by an independent agency. In September 2014, the Supreme Court stated that killings in police encounters required independent investigations.

Amnesty said the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extralegal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions required that “[t]here shall be thorough, impartial investigation of all suspected cases of extralegal, arbitrary and summary executions, including cases where... reliable reports suggest unnatural death in the above circumstances.”

NEW DELHI AGENCIES

Indian Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was taken away by police from New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar area, according to Indian media reports. The Congress Vice President, along with his party supporters had gathered to protest in Jantar Mantar against the suicide of an army man, Subedar Ram Kishen Grewal. Police said that it took away Rahul Gandhi ‘for his own safety’. Police had taken away in a police vehicle to Parliament police station, according to details.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi was taken into police custody twice and taken to several police stations. The leader was reportedly arrested while trying to meet family of the deceased army man.

Louvre Abu Dhabi opening further delayed to 2017 ABU DHABI AGENCIES

The official opening of the Abu Dhabi branch of France´s Louvre museum has been postponed to 2017 due to pending construction work, the latest setback for the long-delayed project, three sources said on Thursday.

The Gulf branch of the famous Paris museum and two other planned museums are part of the oil-rich emirate´s wider push to diversify its economy away from oil, investing billions of dollars in tourism, industry and infrastructure. The local Louvre was originally scheduled to open in 2012 but that target was pushed back to the second half of 2016, the chairman

of state-owned Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) told Reuters last year.

TDIC, the developer, was scheduled to hand over the $650 million museum to Abu Dhabi´s Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA) in mid-2016."First, the museum buildings have to be completed and delivered and then the opening (must take place), which is now some time in 2017," a source close to the project said.

"There is some work to be done - interiors, testing which are critical as the commissioning takes place."

Two other sources confirmed the opening is postponed to an unspecified date next year. All three sources declined to be identified as details about the project are private. A spokeswoman of TDIC declined to comment. A building boom in the United Arab Emi-

rates has created bottlenecks as some construction firms scramble to find labour, supplies and financing to complete huge backlogs of work. TDIC is developing a cultural district in Abu Dhabi that will house branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums, as well as the Zayed National Museum.

The Zayed Museum was scheduled to open this year and the Guggenheim in 2017, but contracts are yet to be awarded for them. Construction of Louvre Abu Dhabi was awarded to an Arabtec-led joint venture with Construction San Jose SA and Oger Abu Dhabi LLC in 2013. Designed by prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, Louvre Abu Dhabi´s dome is supposed to offer museum visitors an enchanting "rain of light" effect.

FOREIGN NEWS 09

Friday, 4 November, 2016

OveR 100 dead in new miGRant tRaGedy, SecOnd wReck feaRed LIBYA

Saad hariri named Lebanon's new prime minister LEBANON AGENCIES

Leading Sunni political figure Saad Hariri was named as Lebanon’s new prime minister on Thursday, the office of President Michel Aoun announced. “After the necessary parliamentary consultations… the president has entrusted Saad Hariri with the formation of a government,” said a statement read by the president’s chief of staff Antoine Choukeir.

The nomination comes days after Aoun was elected, with Hariri’s surprise support, ending a vacuum of more than two years. Hariri was endorsed by 110 members of the 127-seat parliament, with only the Shiite Hezbollah movement, the Syrian Social National Party and the Lebanese Baath party — all supporters of Syria’s government — declining to back him as prime minister. But his return was assured as part of the deal he struck to throw his support behind former general Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally. Hariri returns to the post of prime minister five years after his last cabinet collapsed when his longtime rival Hezbollah and its allies pulled their ministers from a unity government that had taken months to form.

Saudi man gets 15 years for Shia cleric support

a

AGENCIES

T least 110 people are feared to have drowned off Libya when a migrant boat capsized, and more may have died in another stricken vessel, the UN's refugee agency said Thursday, citing survivor testimony.

“A vessel with around 140 people on board overturned Wednesday just a few hours after setting off from Libya, throwing everyone into the water. Only 29 people survived,” UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Sami told AFP. The Norwegian vessel Siem Pilot was first on the scene, some 20 nautical miles off Libya, and rescued the survivors - all of whom were in poor condition after spending hours in the water - and recovered 12 bodies.

Those pulled to safety were transferred to the island of Lampedusa by the Italian coast guard.

In what could be a second incident, which could not be immediately confirmed by the coast guard, two women told the UN agency they believed they were the only survivors in an disaster in which some 125

people drowned.

“They told us they were on a faulty dinghy which began to sank as soon as they set sail. They were the only survivors,” Sami said.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) quoted the same survivors but put the total death toll at around 240 people.

“Not enough has been done so far to avoid these tragedies,” said Flavio di Giacomo, IOM spokesman in Italy.

The Italian coast guard said it had no information on the second reported rescue on Wednesday or the saving of two women.

Over 4,000 migrants have died or

are missing feared drowned after attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing this year.

MigraNts overboard: The rescue situation is often chaotic, with people confused, sick or exhausted after periods in crisis-hit Libya unable to specify how many people were on board their dinghies at the outset or what vessel pulled them from the water.

At least two rescue missions were underway off Libya on Thursday, with close to 180 people pulled to safety according to an AFP photographer aboard the Topaz Responder, run by the Malta-based MOAS (Migrant

Russia seeks ‘honest cooperation in Syria’

Offshore Aid Station).

“Before dawn, we saw a migrant dinghy, lit up by the Responder's search light,” photographer Andreas Solaro said, adding that 31 people, 28 men and three women, one of them elderly, were rescued.

In the second rescue, 147 people from Eritrea, Ghana, Sudan, Mali and Sierra Leone were pulled to safety, including 20 women, though only after some had fallen into the sea.

“The (Responder) crew was shouting at them to sit down and stay calm while the lifejackets were handed out but they were getting agitated, and around 10 of them fell overboard, some without lifejackets on,” Solaro said.

All were pulled to safety. October marked a record monthly high in the number of migrants arriving in Italy in recent years - some 27,000 people - and the departures have showed no sign of slowing, despite worsening weather in the Mediterranean.

Amnesty International warned Thursday the pressure placed on Italy

by Europe to cope alone with the worst migration crisis since World War II had led to “unlawful expulsions and ill-treatment which in some cases may amount to torture”.

british government loses court case on how to trigger brexit LONDON AGENCIES

RIYADH AGENCIES

A court in Riyadh has sentenced a Saudi national to 15 years in prison for supporting executed Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, local media reported on Thursday. Nimr and three other members of the kingdom’s minority Shia community were among 47 people convicted of terrorism and executed on a single day in January. The executions provoked anger among Shias and concern in the West, and raised tensions between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran. Nimr was a driving force behind protests among Shias that began in 2011.

Those protests later developed into a call for equality in the kingdom where Shias, most of whom live in the kingdom’s east, complain of marginalisation. Al-Riyadh newspaper did not name the convicted man, who it said took part “in rallies and marches” in the Shia-dominated Gulf coast district of Qatif. He was also convicted of “chanting anti-state slogans and sympathising with the deceased Nimr”, as well as helping to block roads and burn tyres, it said. Among other accusations, the newspaper said he was willing to provide “the materials needed to make explosives” for attacks in the kingdom. Nimr’s Qatif-area hometown of Awamiya has been the scene of repeated security incidents since 2011.

RUSSIA AGENCIES

Russia seeks “honest cooperation” for a political solution in Syria — “the sooner the better”, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday as Moscow declared a brief truce in the war-ravaged city of Aleppo. “We hope our partners will draw the necessary conclusions [so that] we will all aim for honest cooperation ... for a political process involving both the government and opposition forces,” Lavrov said at the start of an official visit to Greece. “We must come to an agreement, the sooner the better,” he said.

However, Lavrov insisted that Washington help enforce a November 2015 UN Security Council resolution condemning support for extremist groups in Syria. “When we adopted this resolution, I remember US Secretary of State John Kerry’s words. He said: ‘Whoever wants to be part of [the political] process must sever links to terrorists’,” Lavrov said through a trans-

lator. “Almost a year has passed and we await these words to be carried out,” he added.

Russia has accused the US-led coalition of failing to rein in hard-line Syrian rebels, warning that the chances of a political settlement to the crisis were now remote. “The United States are a great power, but that does not mean that everyone else must play by America’s terms,” Lavrov said. “If they follow this policy we will not be able to do anything in the world.”

In turn, the West has accused Moscow of committing possible war crimes in Aleppo through indiscriminate bombing to support a brutal Syrian government offensive. Moscow has been conducting a bombing campaign in Syria in support of long-time ally Bashar alAssad since September 2015.

More than 300,000 people have been killed since Syria’s war devolved from a widespread protest movement against Assad’s rule in March 2011 to a multi-front war between rebels, militants, Kurds and regime forces.

England´s High Court ruled on Thursday that the British government requires parliamentary approval to trigger the process of exiting the European Union, a major upset for Prime Minister Theresa May´s plans for Brexit. Sterling rose on the news, with many investors taking the view that lawmakers would temper the government´s policies and make an economically disruptive "hard Brexit" less likely.

The court said it had granted the government permission to appeal against the ruling before the Supreme Court, which has set aside Dec. 5-8 to deal with the matter. A panel of three of the most senior judges in the country ruled that the government could not trigger Article 50 of the EU´s Lisbon Treaty, the formal step needed to start negotiations on the terms of Brexit, without approval from parliament.

"The court does not accept the argument put forward by the government," said Lord Chief Justice John Thomas, reading out the three judges´ ruling. "For the reasons set out in the judgment, we decide that the government does not have power ... to give notice pursuant to Article 50 for the UK to withdraw from the European Union."

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said the government was disappointed with the court ruling and would consider it carefully before deciding how to proceed.

"The country voted to leave the European Union in a referendum approved by acts of parliament.

The government is determined to respect the result of the referendum," Fox told parliament.

BRITAIN'S GAFFE-PRONE BORIS JOHNSON HITS AN ICEBERG LONDON AGENCIES

Britain’s gaffe-prone foreign minister Boris Johnson seemed to compare Britain’s exit from the European Union to the 1912 sinking of the ill-fated Titanic cruise liner, saying Brexit would be a “titanic success”.

Johnson, who is known in Britain and beyond for his often-outlandish persona and disheveled mop of platinum hair, made the remark while presenting an award to former finance minister George Osborne at the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards.

“Brexit means Brexit, and we’re going to make a titanic, er titanic success

of it,” Boris, who campaigned for Brexit, said, according to a recording of the speech posted by the Spectator’s editor.

After being informed that he had used the word “titanic”, Boris told the audience that a Titanic exhibition in Northern Ireland was the most popular tourist attractions of the province. It was unclear why the exhibition was important.

Boris then clarified the remark by saying: “We are going to make a colossal, a colossal success of Brexit.”

Prime Minister Theresa May’s appointment of a man who in the run-up to the referendum compared the goals of the EU to those of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon caused consternation in European capitals.

Johnson originally made his name as

an EU-bashing journalist in Brussels, then entered politics in the Conservative Party while also raising his profile through a series of appearances on a television comedy.

Johnson drew accusations of racism during the Brexit campaign by suggesting in a newspaper article that US President Barack Obama, whom he described as “part-Kenyan”, was biased against Britain because of an “ancestral dislike of the British empire”. He also drew the ire of Russia last month when he said he would like to see demonstrations outside its embassy in London. Russia said the comments were shameful, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault questioned the wisdom of Johnson’s remark about a demonstration.

CMYK

10 COMMENT

Friday, 4 November, 2016

A brief history of chai and chaiwalas

Politicians and Panamagate

Cultural implications and precedents that developed our tastes

The arc of the moral universe is long - but it bends

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HE government and the opposition parties failed to formulate consensus toRs for the proposed inquiry commission for more than half a year. the opposition blamed Nawaz Sharif of resorting to delaying tactics to keep the issue unresolved till the public forgot about it. Relying on the Panama Papers Imran Khan petitioned the SC to disqualify the Prime minister on the grounds of setting up a business empire abroad in the name of his children through money laundering. Khan also launched an agitation on his own which finally took the form of a march on Islamabad with the intent to lockdown the capital. While standing by the agreed toRs the opposition did not join Imran Khan’s adventure.

Instead the Leader of the Opposition maintained that PtI’s move would strengthen Nawaz Sharif. the Supreme Court’s orders to Nawaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar and three of the Prime minister’s scions to file their replies in writing must have come to them as an unpleasant surprise. the Court was displeased when told a day earlier by NaB and FIa that they had no jurisdiction to conduct inquiries against the holders of public office. On thursday the court was told that statements had not been filed by the three children of the Prime minister for being out of the country. this led the SC to order that the statements must be submitted on monday. Further that in case of a lack of response, it would be considered that the respondents had accepted the charges. Leaders of both the PtI and the PmL-N were already strung up before the proceedings started. this led to unseemly incidents where they were seen shouting at their own allies. On monday the SC is likely to announce a high powered single man enquiry commission.

Politicians from the two sides have failed to reach a consensus among themselves. they should now be ready to abide by whatever verdict is delivered by the court.

Pakistan Railways tragedy

FArAz tAlAt

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N the wake of the social media storm that caught the unnamed ‘chaiwala’ in its eye, it’s important to reflect on what precisely it is that we find impressive or revolting; and why. these are not random occurrences. there’s a formula, albeit a complex one, as to what goes ‘viral’ on the Internet and what doesn’t. a successful entrepreneur can hardly flood a market with his product, without some initial research on what kind of demographic it ought to be aimed at, and what kind of things they like. Popularity is hence, to a vast degree, predictable. and the parameters that determine fame and popularity are handpicked by the powerful themselves. to understand our obsession with the blueeyed “chaiwala”, it is perhaps useful to consider the history of tea in the subcontinent itself. and the origin of the tea culture in the Indian subcontinent, quite expectedly, may be traced back to the world’s most renowned civilisation of tea-drinkers. the British empire, by the mid 1700s, had realised the exorbitant costs of its gentry’s addiction to tea. much of it was imported from China, and although the opium trade helped cover some of the costs, the lifestyles of the anglo-theophile were becoming increasingly unsustainable.

Eminent British explorers, botanists, and traders were entrusted with the task of helping

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Arif Nizami Editor

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

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the ‘chaiwalas’ too have been vastly influenced by our colonial history. It is no wonder that when many of us speak of ‘beauty’, the archetype sashaying elegantly across our minds is a fairskinned cross between a British and a Persian; both of whom have helped shape our understanding of desirability for the past several hundred years.

For the Pakistani class-conscious gentry, the presence of ‘beauty’ - as conventionally defined - among the downtrodden “servant” class defies sense. It comes as a pleasant surprise that not all those among the labour class bear the ghastly sun-kissed complexion of a tireless worker, who cannot afford ultra-protective sun screen. and it’s even more surprising that the worker bears the unmistakable insignia of the ultimate ruler class; a dazzling sapphire iris as rare to the Pakistani senses as garam masala was to the British before the East India Company came to being.

While the “chaiwala” enjoys male privilege, there ought to be some shame felt among the upper class Pakistanis - men or women - feasting upon the socioeconomically underprivileged for their own amusement. the indigenous look is unsightly, we have learned. and learning to feel dissatisfied with our natural skin tones or our usual eye colours, is a tremendous feat. to favour the melanin-impoverished beings in a climate where the dark pigment is an indispensable barrier against skin damage, evolved through thousands of years of human evolution; this beauty standard must surely require an impressive degree of self-loathing. It’s almost as if the Polish decided that they had way too many fingers, and having two fewer fingers on each hand (like 40% less melanin in the skin), makes far more aesthetic sense. there’s nothing wrong with having preferences. But maybe it’s worth questioning how we developed these specific tastes in the first place.

Faraz Talat is a medical doctor from Rawalpindi and an ardent traveller who writes frequently about science, social politics and international relations.

Let good sense prevail

Not again HE train collusion near Karachi’s Landi Railway Station has resulted in 20 dead with 60 injured.

Human error is to blame for the incident as both drivers of the oncoming train which hit a stationary train ignored signals to stop. the drivers who are on the run will eventually be caught and prosecuted for criminal negligence but what of the top management led by Railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his party that vowed to turn around the fledgling state owned enterprise without the need to privatise it? an action plan has been in place since 2013 to revamp Pakistan Railways but very little seems to have been achieved. as evidenced by the accident today the faulty signal system that still relies more on human awareness than technology has not been updated as promised. In august, under CPEC, an additional $8 billion has been approved to upgrade and modernise main railway lines by 2020 which means we are still stuck with the same lines that the government failed to upgrade and now under CPEC an additional four years are required. Considering two more train accidents this year – the multan collusion in September and the collapse of a railway bridge in July – safety has not improved the slightest. the status of the financial health of the institution is no different. In fiscal year 2015-16, Pakistan Railways made a staggering loss of Rs 28 Billion and increase of 12.64% over last year. an annual conference held to announce results was not even held this year. While the revenue side has shown marked improvement (17% increase over last year) the expenses have grown tremendously (25% increase over last year) resulting in a net loss.

Pakistan Railways is a strategic institution where passenger commute is just one aspect. It is used for transfer of goods and services both imported and domestically produced. It is also essential for logistics of our army. the government needs to take a long hard look at the situation at hand and reassess their plan given that they really want this important institution to improve and survive.

the empire decrease its dependency on Chinese tea, by cultivating its own. attempts were made to procure Chinese seeds, which regrettably, did not grow well in the mostly hot and arid climate of India. an indigenous assamese variety, although considered inferior, served its purpose well; until the Chinese variety too was able to be cultivated in Darjeeling. although evidence of the use of tea leaves in India may be found as far back as 750 BC, its commercial use and did not begin until the Indian markets began flooding with tea around the 1830s.

It may be noted by any casual observer that the general preference for the consumption of tea in Pakistan isn’t quite the same as that of the British.

‘Chai’ in the subcontinent is generally stronger, creamier, sweeter, and often served in handle-less glasses at the tea shops. However, the very culture of tea-drinking in the subcontinent is owed largely to the influence of the British rulers and traders.

Following the mass-production of tea in assam and Darjeeling, and the clinking of teacups by the British elites in celebration of an end to the Chinese monopoly; the British business sought to expand its market to the very country that helped quench the English people’s legendary thirst for tea. tea was widely advertised as a healthy beverage with medicinal properties, as well as an enjoyable beverage to be consumed on a regular basis. Free tea samples were widely distributed in major Indian cities. the love for chai wasn’t instantaneous; it was manufactured. this historical factoid is particularly fascinating in light of the present conception of chai culture as a quintessentially ‘Pakistani’ wonder; as opposed to the growing fondness for coffee among the Pakistani upper-class, which is believed to be inspired by the West. the coffee culture, interestingly, was ignited by the arab civilisation after it began importing large quantities of coffee beans from Ethiopia. In a larger historical context, the ‘West’ merely caught on to aroma emanating from arabian coffee houses.

Just as we owe our boundless affection for tea largely to the British empire, our preferences for

Pakistan needs to come to terms with reality globally for the legends of its massive wealth of gold and diamonds accumulated in its grand temples and palaces and for its mystic culture. Pakistan, on the other hand, faced the burden of introducing itself to the world as a new country won in the name of religion lying in the shadow of its giant neighbour always seeking to dismember it.

Such are coincidences in life that may sometimes breed frustration. However, these are of little consideration to men and nations of consequence that believe in their own strengths, destiny and sense of purpose.

India proceeded to systematically build and expand on its inherited light, heavy and cottage industrial base and the nationalism that its people had cultivated during the long struggle for independence from the British. Its ‘banya’ population had an uncanny trading acumen and an unmatched mindset of frugal lifestyle content with bare necessities. With the renewed ownership of nationhood, they now set out to reinvest their funds in increasingly vast ventures. the political class embarked on consistent policies that have now forged a niche for the new India as a regional power. they aggressively marketed ethnic products accentuated by a pride in introducing the Hindu traditions and culture of song and dance, meditation, Yoga and its century’s old traditions that captivated the West for its novelty. the government ensured a conducive environment for profit making and protected local manufacturing base by placing severe restrictions on the import of consumer goods. the British public’s familiarity of India as the jewel in the crown of its vast empire (where the sun never set) afforded Indian business and public relations a head-start to flourish on which they successfully capitalised. the land area allocated to Pak-

Khurshid AKhtAr KhAn

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amata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal has been seeking to change the name of her province to a word beginning higher in alphabetical order such as Bengal or Bangla. the reason - speakers are called in the (Lok Sabha) national assembly debates in the alphabetical order.

She feels deprived of productive speaking time as West Bengal (beginning with W) is called when the session is about to conclude and the listeners have lost interest.

Likewise, my four years old grandson grew increasingly impatient and agitated waiting for Pakistan during the spectacular opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, as other nations with names beginning with the letter ‘a’ commenced marching at a snail’s pace. It seemed like eternity when finally the Pakistan flag did appear leading our contingent greeted by his enthusiasm and slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. (Little did his yet small mind realise that his pride did not match the shame that a nation of 200 million was represented by a few men and women, none of which had qualified for the event!)

Similarly, the Hindu majority shrewdly retained the name ‘India’ for its share of the subcontinent at the time of partition securing them several more significant advantages other than being in higher alphabetical order. India was a name already on the world map and renowned

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istan thrived on its agrarian economy supported by the five rivers and an excellent network of canal irrigation system. Its strongly built rugged men were the pride of the Indian army.

However, industry was non-existent and the trade was overwhelmingly in the hands of the Hindus and Sikh population that migrated to India following the partition. It is no surprise that our country was destined to be controlled by the land owners and the military. Neither of them possessed any political acumen nor had they made any significant contribution in the formation of the state of Pakistan. their extravagant personal well being overrode the national interest - that has remained undefined to this day.

Since the treasury was empty, our economy became dependent on heavy loans. the flow of easy money was manipulated by the bureaucracy leading to increasingly financial irregularities and favouritism in its dispersion.

Religious organisations soon crept into our political structure (opponents of an independent Pakistan). this sector did little to enhance the cause of nation building or to infuse ideology and morality in the minds of the public based on Islamic teachings, undermining any efforts of human progress, dividing the social structure with ignorance and sectarian infighting.

Successive political governments were dismissed by the army chiefs on a single charge of financial corruption. Yet each that followed also faced the same accusations. (the present government included).

In addition, political immaturity, personal greed, unwise international alliances and patronage of militant groups for short term gains over the years have rendered our country domestically unstable and bankrupt.

India has transformed itself into a regional economic and military power and a diplomatic bully during the last seven decades. meanwhile, we have mounted our national debt

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due to reckless spending and declining productivity in all sectors except human population. Our timid and ambiguous foreign relations have failed to win any friends or business partners overseas. those still communicating with us patronise with an eye towards our geographical location.

Recent events of Indian hostility have demonstrated the mindset of the Indian nation and its media. Pakistan has stayed as a thorn in India’s eye due mainly to our support for the Kashmiri’s right of self determination. the Indians become hysterical and set aside mutual differences and personal preferences when war drums are beaten against Pakistan. they unite and stand firmly behind an unpopular, illiterate and extremist Prime minister who is ostensibly staging frivolous Kashmir border violations that are crafted for domestic political gains in coming state elections. Even the Indian film industry towed the national line by renouncing the hiring of Pakistani artists. at home, we witness our political parties engaged in fierce infighting, millions of real issues other than corruption, confronting the public needing to be resolved, are relegated to back burner. Our media has gleefully acted as a catalyst to field one against the other in petty squabbles without any thought of national cohesion. Even the tragic massacre at the Quetta police training institute has failed to evolve any compassion in their hearts and minds. the nation is waiting for good sense to prevail and an across the board effort to lift the sinking national values. We need to review our seven decades old history and rise to the Indian challenge by promoting self sufficiency, solidarity, objectivity and nationalism amongst us that we keep sabotaging. We need to expose our incompetence and disloyalty to our nation and present ourselves to ruthless accountability. Our leaders must stop hiding behind excuses (like Cm Banerjee) and start delivering.

Khurshid Akhtar Khan is an engineer and an entrepreneur. He can be contacted at: k.a.k786@hotmail.com.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

COMMENT 11

Friday, 4 November, 2016

Editor’s mail

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan today exclusively

Construct pedestrians’ bridges in RWP/ISB tHE 24 kilometer long RawalpindiIslamabad metro bus service with 14 bus terminals in Islamabad and 10 in Rawalpindi is providing top class commuting services to the people of twin cities. However, it seems like the city planners have ill-advisedly reduced turns and cuts on the road to add to the woes of commuters and motorists. absence of pedestrian bridges on metro tracks has created pronounced difficulties for the walkers resulting in loss of many precious human lives.

Hundreds of people cross road in

Shamsabad for their business activities or to reach to the mosque in Gulshan Dadan Khan but the hurtling traffic does not allow any pedestrian to cross the road unless there is a traffic signal, underpass or overhead pedestrian bridge to help them. also, in Islamabad youngsters are seen playing cricket along Jinnah avenue at night and jay walkers dot the track. also, cyclists use the bus track, finding it convenient and safe. With no u-turn on Jinnah avenue and no overhead bridges for pedestrians, people have no choice but to walk across the track at this stage.

Pedestrian bridges are now an absolute necessity at the busy roads in the twin cities. Due to the construction of metro terminals and widening of roads, crossing the road has become hazardous.

Hence, to minimise the risk of accidents and to facilitate the pedestrians, it is recommended to construct pedestrians’ bridges on metro bus route.

MuHAMMAd HASHAM KHAn Islamabad

Leading economists challenge IMF’s portrayal of Pak economy So much for Dar-nomics

sultAn M hAli

D

uRING her recent visit to Islamabad, Christine Lagarde, ImF’s managing Director, praised Pakistan for “successfully completing” a three-year programme under which Islamabad received $6.7 billion after signing a bailout package with the fund amid fears of default. She also stated that Pakistan’s economy is improving but she urged Pakistan to continue efforts on “more private sector job creation and higher living standards.”

Quick to take credit even where it is not due, Federal finance minister Ishaq Dar claimed that Pakistan was being considered one of the emerging economies of the world owing to good decisions and management since the past three years. Patting his own back, Dar claimed that during the past three years, he had taken decisions for the betterment of the country’s economy and owing to that, Pakistan had ridden itself of macro-economic instability.

Dar’s euphoria was short lived because three prominent Pakistani economists wrote an open letter to ImF challenging ImF’s portrayal of the health of Pakistan’s economy. the letter has been published in Weekly Corporate Ambassador of 24 October 2016, titled ‘Wrong Sides of the Picture’. the three eminent economists, Dr ashfaque H Khan, former Federal Secretary Finance, Dr Hafeez a Pasha and Dr Salman Shah, former Finance ministers, have exposed the wrong picture presented by the Dar-led economic team about Pakistan’s economy. the three year programme under the ImF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF), has just concluded. Pakistan has received $6.1 billion loan from the ImF under this programme and pocketed the last tranche of $102 million under this package in September 2016. During the tenure of the programme, Pakistan was required to undertake wide – ranging structural reforms and implement the type of macroeconomic policy that would restore macroeconomic stability, gradually promote economic growth and build foreign exchange reserves to bolster external buffers. unfortunately, the exposé by the trio discloses that ImF was complicit in the eyewash.

after the completion of the twelfth and the final Review, the ImF Staff mission Report declared ‘victory’ and stated that “the Fund Supported Programme has helped the country restore macroeconomic stability, reduce vulnerabilities and make progress in tackling key structural challenges. Economic growth has gradually increased and inflation has declined.

External buffers have been bolstered, financial sector resilience has been reinforced, and the fiscal deficit has been reduced while social safety nets have been strengthened”.

In the realm of “reform”, the Report stated that “tax policy and administration reforms allowed for further revenue mobilisation. Steps have been taken to strengthen the State Bank of Pakistan’s autonomy. Energy sector reform allowed a reduction of power outages, energy subsidies, and accumulation of power sector arrears. a country – wide strategy to improve the business climate was adopted”. the Staff Report contains the views of the ImF on the “success” of the programme. the three independent economists, through their open letter have presented the obverse view of the picture. they have gone to great lengths to identify the extent of the success, how these “successes” have been achieved and express their disappointment with the failure to implement reforms that are critical for achieving higher economic growth.

Firstly, building foreign exchange reserves to bolster the external buffer was the main pillar of the hurriedly put together ImF Programme. the idea was to build reserves and repay the then ImF loan on time. that is why many independent economists including the ones who remained associated with the ImF for a long time termed the programme as ‘Self-Serving Programme’.

Such an objective of the programme forced the government to borrow extensively to build foreign exchange reserves and in the process accumulate net external debt of over $12 billion during the programme period. Incidentally, Pakistan added exactly the same amount to its foreign exchange reserves, that is, from $6 billion in end-June 2013 to $18.0 billion in end-June 2016. the above facts clearly suggest that we improved the external buffer entirely through adding external debt. this is tantamount to simply postponing the current problem of insolvency to a future date.

Secondly, in a three year programme, the ImF has extended sixteen waivers, which is unprecedented and diluted the purpose of the programme and also reflected on the lack of emphasis towards implementing and achieving the stated goals of the programme.

Sadly, the ImF Staff mission has selectively highlighted the improvement in some economic indicators from 2012-13 to 2015-16. this includes rising economic growth, falling rate of inflation,

rising tax-to-GDP ratio, higher spending under BISP and private sector credit and falling subsidies as percentage of GDP. the rate of economic growth achieved in the last three years remains contentious. the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has estimated the GDP growth rate as 4 per cent or above each year, reaching 4.7 per cent in 2015-16. the authors have presented contrary evidence that the growth rate has been exaggerated each year, and it has ranged between 3.1 & 3.7 per cent during the programme periods. the Data Quality assessment Framework (DQaF) of the ImF should have been used to check the reliability of the national income estimates. the authors have quoted the recent statement of the managing Director of the ImF as posted on September 1, 2016 by ImF direct. In her words “the longer demand weakness lasts, the more it threatens to harm long-term growth as firms reduce production capacity and unemployed workers are leaving the labour force and critical skills are eroding. Weak demand also depresses trade, which adds to disappointing productivity growth”. this statement clearly depicts the current state of economic growth and unemployment in Pakistan in terms of the social costs of the excessive focus on stabilisation policy. the persistence of lower economic growth has failed to create enough jobs. People in general and youth in particular, are finding difficulties to get jobs. People remaining unemployed for a longer duration are becoming unemployable, with all its social and economic consequences. Not only that the unemployment rate has surged to a 13 years high at over 8.0 per cent (including the ‘discouraged worker’ effect), youth unemployment rate has also increased to over 11 per cent in 2014-15. Furthermore, between 2012-13 and 2014-15, the annual number of entrants into the labour force has been approximately 650,000 as against 1.3 million during 2008-13. a particularly worrying feature of the current employment situation is the extremely high unemployment rate of 20 per cent of workers with either graduate or post graduate degrees. there are 2.4 million educated workers with bad employment prospects. this is the unfortunate outcome of the ImF Programme.

On the size of the fiscal deficit, the ImF Report claims that this has been reduced from 8.5 per cent to 4.6 per cent of the GDP. a number of steps have been taken to report smaller deficits. For example, holding back refunds and forcing commercial entities to pay taxes in advance to jack up revenue, privatisation proceeds and foreign grants treated as non-tax revenue to inflate overall revenue rather than treating them as financing items, engaging in quasi-fiscal operations outside the budget, allowing for large statistical discrepancy each year (cumulatively Rs 600 billion in three years) to show lower expenditures, exaggerating

the size of the Provincial cash surplus, retaining earmarked revenues in the Federal consolidated Fund and building up large contingent liabilities (over Rs 1400 billion of power sector circular debt, accumulation of debt in commodity financing and pending tax refunds). the ImF staff has either been blissfully unaware of or has condoned this creative accounting. adjusting for these practices implies a fiscal deficit each year in the range of 7.0 to 8.0 per cent of the GDP. Other areas, where serious distortions exist, are: the estimates of the GDP deflator; investment and saving rates and rate of inflation, especially for poor households. a case ought to have been made for complete operational autonomy of the PBS. Yet another “success” of the programme being touted by the ImF Staff mission is the sharp reduction in inflation rate. It has declined from 7.4 per cent in 2012-13 to 2.9 per cent in 2015-16. this decline is not due to the ‘prudent’ fiscal and monetary policy pursued during the programme period. the international oil and commodity prices started collapsing since June 2014. Such a collapse in the oil and commodities prices led to a worldwide decline in inflation, including in Pakistan. Furthermore, as stated above, the pursuance of stabilisation policy for a prolonged period weakened the domestic demand, resulting into deceleration of prices. thus, the sharp decline in inflation during the programme period owes to the weakening of domestic demand, as well as a collapse in the international prices of oil and commodities and not to the prudent use of monetary and fiscal policy. In fact, when inflation rate was rapidly on the decline, the SBP was pursing an easy monetary policy. the quarterly reviews have ignored the deterioration in key economic indicators. they failed to discuss big decline in exports – to – GDP ratio, stagnation in the overall and private investment – to – GDP ratio, fall in FDI, rise in external debt and public debt – to – GDP ratios, fall in total PRSP pro-poor expenditure to GDP and very importantly, a rise in the rate of unemployment especially among young, educated, and female workforce.

Only 750,000 jobs were created annually in 2013-14 and 2014-15 as against 1.1 million jobs annually earlier. as far as the reforms are concerned, in the Power Sector, the glaring failure of the Fund programme is in the implementation of power sector reforms. the 12th Review Report declares victory primarily by demonstrating that the subsidy to the sector has fallen massively from 2 per cent of the GDP in 2012-13 to only 0.6 per cent of the GDP in 2015-16.

ImF claims on behalf of the Government, that power load-shedding has been substantially reduced, especially in industry. Evidence to the contrary is the large continuing demand-supply gap according to NEPRa, and the fact that electricity consumption per industrial consumer has

fallen in nine out of ten distribution companies, in comparison to the level achieved in the pre-load-shedding years. under tax reforms, which are being highlighted, as one of the key successes of the Programme, the over two per cent points increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio. much of the improvement has come in 2015-16, which came about from enhancement in effective tax rates and not by broadening of the various tax bases. the biggest failure is in lack of development of the direct tax system. the elite continues to enjoy wide ranging tax exemptions and concessions like the virtually no or low taxation of global income, profits of private companies, agricultural income and unearned capital incomes. the ImF clearly prefers not to antagonise the ruling elite through its reform agenda.

Contrary to the claims by the ImF, living standards have probably fallen in Pakistan during the tenure of the Programme. a number of reforms undertaken have contributed to rising unemployment and poverty. the anti-poor actions include, firstly, the rise in input costs of fertiliser and electricity in agriculture due to hike in power and gas tariffs and additional taxation in the form of the GIDC. the result is that food prices have risen faster than the overall CPI and wages of unskilled workers. today, Pakistan has the extremely serious problem of malnutrition. In the 2016 ranking of the Global Hunger Index, Pakistan has the 11th lowest position, even below Bangladesh, out of 118 countries. the non-implementation of the Pms agricultural package of September 2015 under the ImF pressure has contributed to the recent debacle in the sector.

Secondly, the primary adjustment mechanism for achieving the fiscal deficit targets in the Programme has been large cut backs of up to 30 per cent in budgeted development spending by the Federal and Provincial governments. In 2015-16 alone these cuts have implied less employment generation of almost 300,000 jobs. thirdly, hikes in indirect taxes have affected the cost of living adversely. this includes the levy of minimum import tariffs on basic food and other items and jump in GSt rates on petroleum products, especially HSD oil. Fourthly, the decline in exports has contributed to loss of employment in labour-intensive sectors like SmEs and textiles. Consequently, as highlighted earlier, the underlying unemployment rate has gone beyond 8 per cent. Fifthly, social indicators have shown only minor improvement in three years. this is due particularly to the pressure on Provincial governments to spend less on social and other sectors so as to generate large cash surpluses.

One can continue to fool oneself at the peril of disaster or wake up with the reality check presented.

Sultan M Hali is a retired Group Captain and author of the book Defence & Diplomacy. Currently he is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host.

12 WORLD VIEW

Friday, 4 November 2016

A TROUBLING CULTURE WAR BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN New yorker

T

RozInA AlI

HIS past weekend, the Bollywood production company Fox Star Studios released a longawaited film, “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil,” by Karan Johar, one of India’s leading directors. Johar has made some of Bollywood’s highest-grossing blockbusters, but less than two weeks ago he was pleading with people to watch his new movie. “Over three hundred people in my crew have put their blood, sweat, and tears into my film,” he said in a video statement, clad in black against a black backdrop. Then Johar promised not to work with talent from India’s neighbor, Pakistan, anymore. “I salute the Indian Army,” he reassured his audience.

The moment was astonishing and chilling, the direct result of criticism from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (M.N.S.), a right-wing Hindu political party. The party and its supporters were angry that Johar had cast the Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in his film. Cinemas in several states said they would not screen the movie. Even more astonishing was that Khan was already well-known in Indian movies. He made his Bollywood début a couple of years ago, become a heartthrob in India, co-hosted a filmawards show, and, earlier this spring, starred in another Johar film—one of the most popular of the year. What series of events led to Johar vowing not to engage with Pakistani artists?

In the past several years, the cultural collaboration between Pakistan and India has strengthened, with Bollywood stars appearing in commercials aired on Pakistani TV; musicians from both countries collaborating on Coke Studio, a television series featuring live music performances; and Pakistani soap operas gaining a loyal fan base across the border. In 2014, an Indian television channel was launched to air these soap operas. The fandom was large enough that Bollywood started cast-

ing Pakistani television stars in movies.

Meanwhile, another trend was taking shape in India, a version of nationalism that threatened political dissent. In February, students at Jawaharlal Nehru University, in Delhi, held protests against India’s treatment of Kashmiris, and were met with retaliation by a Hindu-nationalist student group. As the issue widened, police arrested several pro-Kashmir student protesters, even charging one of the leaders with sedition. Government officials of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (B.J.P.), which is pro-Hindu-nationalist, backed the move, and one leader in particular called for “stringent action” against anyone raising “anti-national slogans,” fuelling the charge against the student protesters. “The B.J.P. discovered for the first time the potency of hypernationalism as a political weapon,” Siddharth Varadarajan, a founding editor of The Wire, an online English publication in India, told me.

A few months later, that hypernationalism was amplified by renewed tensions with Pakistan. During the summer, protests in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK)

against Indian security forces and Pakistan’s decision to get involved started a crescendo of hostile measures, including an attack on an Indian Army base in IHK and a surgical strike by India on Pakistan.

The Indian government’s position was firm. “Pakistan is a terrorist state and it should be identified and isolated as such,” India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, tweeted shortly afterward.

This surge of nationalism quickly spread to the entertainment industry. The M.N.S. used the attack on the Army base to issue a forty-eight-hour deadline to Pakistani artists to “leave India or MNS will push them out.” Right-wing groups like the M.N.S. and Shiv Sena have a “long history of targeting the film industry,” Manishita Dass, who teaches film and global media at Royal Holloway, University of London, told me. Using thugs and violence, these groups have forced the censorship of films they consider anti-national, and recently succeeded in getting a popular Pakistani singer’s concert in India cancelled. But the latest developments mark a dangerous

Zuma, the cornered president of a rudderless state Daily Maverick JUDITH FEBRUARY

The President has been put on notice. South Africans are not ready or willing to give up on this democracy yet. They are in the trenches and taking to the streets.

What happened in the North Gauteng High Court this week was massively significant.

President Jacob Zuma’s application to prevent the release of the State of Capture report failed spectacularly. While it would appear that sections of the report have been leaked to the press in some way, Zuma and his sidekicks Des Van Rooyen and Mosebenzi Zwane seemed very keen to keep it out of the public domain.

That the report was under lock and key did not stop former ANC MP and stalwart (though the president claims not to know her) Vytjie Mentor from singing like a canary. Mentor appears to have indepth knowledge of the Guptas’ role in influencing Cabinet appointments and policy. Deputy Finance minister Mcebisi Jonas has also been frank about Gupta interference in executive decision-making.

But everything came to a head on Wednesday November 2, 2016, making it a pretty bad week for the president.

It started when the head of the NPA, the compromised Shaun Abrahams, was forced to do the inevitable and withdraw the criminal charges against Finance minister Pravin Gordhan. Inevitable because it was clear that Gordhan had no case to answer.

Abrahams has spent much of this week trying to convince us of his independence. In his case the facts speak for themselves and mostly it’s what one does and not what one says, in such times as these, that counts. He ought to follow his conscience and vacate his position.

The integrity of the NPA is in tatters and Abrahams cannot restore it. In terms of s 12 (6) of the National Prosecuting Authority Act 32 of 1998, the president himself is allowed to suspend the NDPP provisionally, pending an enquiry. This could be done for reasons of misconduct, ill health, incapacity or if they are no longer a “fit and proper person’” The matter is then referred to Parliament in accordance with s 12 (6)(c) and (d). Alternatively, the president can remove the NDPP in terms of s12 (7) of the NPA Act that requires both Houses of Parliament to ad-

dress the president regarding which grounds in s 12 (6) would apply. S8 allows the NDPP to vacate his/ her office voluntarily for reasons of “ill-health” or “any other reason the president deems fit”.

So here we have an opportunity for Parliament to resolve that Abrahams’ conduct renders him unfit for the position or the president himself may wish to come to that conclusion. This seems unlikely despite the incalculable damage Abrahams has wrought both to the NPA as an institution and to public trust in democratic institutions.

The Constitution also gives the Minister of Justice “final responsibility” over the NPA in terms of 179 (6) so rightfully Minister Masutha should himself be pressured to deal with the matter too. Given the divisions within the ANC, it is hard to see Parliament being able to come to any resolution regarding Abrahams. And expecting Zuma to act would be like waiting for Godot. He is entirely vested in an NPA head who is pliable given the “spy tapes” filibustering he is currently involved in.

But back to Zuma’s legal travails in the North Gauteng High Court this week. His counsel was compelled to do the usual legal gymnastics required to save his skin and again that strategy failed. Given the legal hurdle that seemed almost insurmountable, Zuma was forced to backtrack and withdraw his application to interdict the report. How could Zuma make the case that the release of the State of Capture report would not be in the public interest? The separate question of course is how it is possible for Zuma to be receiving such poor legal advice and why is the public paying for it?

Of course, this case was not only about the law and it was not being heard in a political vacuum. On the streets on Tshwane the #SaveSouthAfrica campaign had organised a march against state capture and called for Zuma to go. It was a mixed bag of ordinary citizens, the great and the good and CEOs of listed companies.

Interestingly, too, this week Gwede Mantashe called on Zuma to follow “his conscience” and Nehawu openly called on Zuma to stand down, declaring their support for deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation also made its voice heard this week and spoke out against the deleterious impact Zuma’s leadership was having on South Africa.

The pressure is thus mounting on Zuma and his

shift. When the M.N.S. announced its threat to Pakistani artists, the B.J.P. largely remained silent, tacitly condoning any measures the extremist party might take. Along with Johar’s video statement came a deal between the M.N.S., Johar, and the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association, which was brokered by the chief minister of Maharashtra, a B.J.P. member, at his residence. The M.N.S. agreed to let Johar’s movie be released without incident, and Johar and the Producers Association agreed to no longer cast Pakistani actors. Johar would also pay more than a million dollars to the Army Welfare Fund, which helps relatives of soldiers who had been killed in combat. That the entertainment industry could be bullied to such extremes was frightening, but that such a move would be sanctioned by the government signalled a level of legitimacy for the M.N.S. “When bullies appropriate the national flag, as the M.N.S. has sought to do, using the B.J.P.’s own language to score points for itself, they need to be placated and coöpted,” Varadarajan said.

“This is what has happened.”

Some actors and producers in Bollywood condemned the M.N.S. and ridiculed the move, while others have agreed not to work with Pakistanis until tensions between the two countries dissipate. One actor, Ajay Devgn, conceded that fear played a role in his decision not to work with Pakistanis. “When it comes to nationalism . . . I stand by the country. When it comes to politics, an industry man gets a little scared,” he said in an interview.

Meanwhile, members from the Indian Army reportedly refused to accept Johar’s “penalty” fee, saying that the Army is an apolitical organization and that Johar was exploited for political gain. On social media, viewers praised Johar’s film. The editor of an entertainment magazine noted on Twitter that Khan’s performance in the film “shows us what we are going to miss.”

Culture and cinema have long been a way to thaw the frosty relations between

merry band of corrupt cronies for whom much is at stake. Pravin Gordhan himself has provided some evidence of money-laundering activities by those linked to Zuma and no doubt he has more up his sleeve.

The question of course is where all this leaves us? Whatever evidence there is of criminal activity in the report will have to be examined by the NPA. Enter Shaun Abrahams yet again. Quite how that will play out is anyone’s guess given how compromised Abrahams is.

Madonsela has recommended that the Commission of Inquiry has to be appointed to investigate the allegations. While the technical duty to appoint the Commission of Inquiry will rest with Zuma as President in terms of s84 (f) of the Constitution, the Chief Justice must select the specific judge to conduct the inquiry within 30 days. She raises questions regarding Zuma’s own adherence to the Executive Members’ Ethics Act too.

Now that all the information is in the public domain how will accountability be extracted? Certainly momentum seems to be building against Zuma outside of the ANC in particular. There is an overwhelming sense that the social justice project which the Constitution demands cannot be effectively implemented with Zuma at the helm. The ongoing universities crisis, the shameful decision to leave the International Criminal Court, the pending nuclear deal and the ongoing corruption and waste show us how rudderless we are.

In Zuma we have a leader for whom matters of state are entirely peripheral to his own personal interests. Zuma has a great deal to lose though. The next big court case will be the so-called “spy tapes” matter and with more than 700 charges of fraud hovering over him, he cannot really afford to give up without a fight. Those who have built their fortunes as a result of their proximity to Zuma will also have much to lose.

Yet, what we have seen this week is a substantially weakened president who is slowly but surely having to rely on the spineless “deplorables” to protect him. So, the notion of the all-powerful Zuma is a fallacious one and the nearer we edge to 2017, the more power ebbs away from him. His image is more tarnished than that of the organisation he purports to lead. Even ridding ourselves of Zuma will not save the ANC and the rot that is so pervasive, but it will be a very helpful start.

This week Zuma was forced to bow to a full frontal assault by the rule of law and constitutional democracy at work-- and not for the first time.

Judith February is a governance specialist, columnist and lawyer. She was previously executive director of the HSRC’s Democracy and Governance unit and also head of the Idasa’s South African Governance programme for 12 years.

the two countries—one of last year’s most popular Bollywood films was about a Hindu man helping a lost Pakistani girl find her way home. Today, the cultural bridge has been severed by what Dass calls a patriotism that is “defined according to jingoist terms.” Not long after the M.N.S.enforced ban on Pakistani actors, Pakistan responded by declaring a blanket ban on Indian content on its radio and television.

Meanwhile, the tensions between the two countries have worsened. In a recent incident, India expelled an officer from the Pakistani embassy after accusing him of being a spy. Pakistan retaliated in kind.

The ban on Pakistani talent seems like the latest iteration of the cold war between the two South Asian countries. But this row doesn’t reflect their long-standing conflict so much as it casts light on the struggle to define nationalism in India. Johar’s video and his deal with the M.N.S. have set a dangerous precedent.

The incident has validated the leap a politician can make from a militant attack to a forceful censorship of the arts. It has left many artists uncertain about what will be considered “anti-Indian.” Varadarajan, the Wire editor, responding to the nationalist sentiment amid the Johar controversy, wrote a “confession” about his relations with Pakistanis, a beautiful ode to some of his friendships with his neighboring country. But, elsewhere, his colleague Sidharth Bhatia was more anxious.

“Don’t be surprised if soon, reading Pakistani authors or being Facebook friends with Pakistanis . . . could be declared antinational,” Bhatia wrote. That a leading democracy could quell such expression seems implausible, but nationalism is a potent force, especially when it’s considered under threat. And, for many, the present is already shocking. “A few years ago, Johar issuing a statement like this would be unthinkable,” Dass said. “Now this is the new normal, and they’ve gotten away with it.”

Rozina Ali is a member of The New Yorker’s editorial staff.

Parliament should defend free speech, not attack Britain's free press TeleGraPH, Uk For the second day running the Commons chamber echoed to the thunderous hypocrisy of the Labour Party. On Monday they wanted an inquiry into the so-called Battle of Orgreave to right a perceived “injustice” that never happened. The next day, Labour MPs demanded fresh curbs on the press because some feel aggrieved at their treatment by a few newspapers.

Fortunately, as with Amber Rudd in rejecting the Orgreave inquiry, so Karen Bradley, the Culture Minister, faced down the Opposition’s faux outrage as she announced a further consultation on measures affecting the press. Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader who encouraged the police hunt for a non-existent establishment paedophile ring, said the victims of press intrusion were being “thrown to the wolves” – seemingly oblivious to the impact of his accusations on innocent people.

At issue is whether to proceed with stage two of the Leveson Inquiry and whether newspapers failing to sign up to the officially recognised regulator Impress should pay court costs even in libel actions that they win. Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act – a blatant attempt to blackmail newspapers to join Impress, bankrolled by Max Mosley, and desert the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) – has yet to be triggered and in our view it should not be.

Nor is there any public interest in holding another inquiry. Section 40 would further damage an industry in financial difficulties, especially local papers, while leaving online media giants like Facebook unregulated.

More importantly, it is an attack on a viable free press. We look to Parliament to uphold our liberties, not undermine them.

LEISURE 13

Friday, 4 November, 2016

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

It's easier to dream about success than to achieve it today. Your thoughts present an interesting dilemma because they seem so brilliant until you try to turn them into something tangible.

Unfortunately,

Pulling up the drawbridge to protect your castle may sound like a good idea now because you really don't want outsiders to know what you're feeling.

However, your defensive tactics could backfire, creating.

A current relationship dilemma may seem larger than it really is today, and avoiding the issue won't make it go away. This is tricky territory because turning a molehill into a mountain only wastes time.

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

You might be struggling to get out of a hole you dug yourself but, thankfully, you have more power and determination than you realize. Instead of wondering why others haven't come to your rescue, make.

You grow more contemplative as the day wears on and you might worry about your lack of energy or your current disinterest in social activities.

However, this is an unexpected opportunity to recharge your.

You may experience a strong emotional charge today, but sharing your feelings openly is an entirely different matter.

Your unexpressed passions could grow out of hand as you feed your fantasies with the.

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

Your preoccupation with home and family issues could put you in an awkward situation today, especially if others are expecting you to show up with a smile on your face. But you don't necessarily feel all.

You feel the familiar stirrings of deep emotions bubble up into awareness as the mystical Moon returns to fellow water sign Cancer. But all is not perfect when the strong currents shake up enough debris.

You're approaching the end of the road, but you are confident that another route will soon appear to take you in a different direction. In fact, you have been eagerly anticipating this change and now that.

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Your uncertain future reflects your lingering fears. Even if you think you know what's best for you and your loved ones, everything seems to be blown out of proportion now and you are having a tough time.

Normally, you're attracted to the unconventional and the unexpected, but traveling unfamiliar highways may be slightly unsettling today.

Thankfully, there are no immediate dangers -- just your free-floating.

The oddest thing about your current situation is that the more you accomplish, the more you realize how much work there is still left to do. Unfortunately, you can't just walk away from your obligations.

cRosswoRd

ACROSS 1 Sound practical judgement (5,5) 7 Tut, in brief, was one (7) 8 deception — hearty (5) 10 Expletive (4) 11 Snowstorm (8) 13 Train (6) 15 In the style of black American folk music (6) 17 Thread used to constrict the flow of blood (8) 18 Sanskrit language (4) 21 Origin (5) 22 Sporting event supervisor (7) 23 Old anaesthetic (10) DOwn

woRd sEaRcH

1 Core — card (5) 2 Lion's sound (4) 3 Breathe out (6) 4 fraudulently take money or property (8) 5 Minced meat in a skin (7) 6 Medicine taken for heartburn and constipation (5,5) 9 Square (5-5) 12 douglas Adams' numerical Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything (5-3) 14 Balderdash — pigswill (7) 16 To be played quickly (6) 19 Sphere (5) 20 0 (4)

HaGaR tHE HoRRIblE

dIlbERt

GaRFIEld

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PILOT POLE ROUNd SEVER SPARk SPELL SPINE SPRAy TABLE TASTE TEAM TENd TINE TORE TRENd VEhICLE wAVER whOLE wISE wORLd

white tO PLAY AND MAte iN twO MOVes 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A

B

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Today’s soluTions

bRIdGE ExpIRatIon datEs

sUdokU crossword solution sudoku solution

1.Qxh7+ Rxh7 2.Ng6# * chess solution

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.

14

Friday, 4 November, 2016

ARTS

MusliM beauty blogger becoMes brand aMbassador for cover girl

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news Desk

overGirl is continuing to lead the way for representing diversity in the beauty industry by revealing Muslim beauty blogger Nura Afia as their new brand ambassador.

Nura who is known for her make-up tutorials is different from other vloggers as she wears a hijab in all her videos.

“It feels so surreal,” Afia, who has over 200,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, said. “I never thought I would see

Muslim women represented on such a large scale.”

She further confessed that she was insecure about wearing a hijab, especially as she was growing up. But she dons it proudly now.

Nura Afia's popular makeup channel has racked up over 200,000 subscribers who faithfully watch her share unique beauty hacks and creative ways to rock a hijab.

Nura’s candidness has made her a member of Cover Girl’s #Lashequality campaign, Glamour Magazine re-

ported. The brand stresses on inclusivity within beauty and celebrates the launch of the brand’s ‘So Lashy! BlastPro Mascara’ which is designed to flatter every lash type.

Afia’s make-up skills will soon be on giant billboards in Times Square. Big league brands like Cover Girl continue to represent beauty in diversity and this is breaking the norms of general beauty standards in a fantastic way.

The group of brand ambassadors also include actor Sofia vergara and singer Katy Perry.

apple watch gets rear, front cameras; thanks to glide's band The Apple Watch is slowly evolving from a notifications toy into a full-fledged tool for staying in touch. While some questioned the purpose of the Apple Watch, it seems we finally may have an answer. Former Apple engineer Shawn Grening has developed a new camera band called CMrA which allows users to take selfies and record HD videos. The innovation was launched by a startup called Glide, which counts erstwhile Apple Watch engineer Shawn Greening as the cofounder.

The company is calling its product the CMrA band and is being sold with a unique charging dock that can power both the strap and the smartwatch at the same time.

Based on the promotional video released, the dual camera technology is cleverly positioned to simulate smartphone shooters. one camera is frontfacing or outward-facing, capturing the action before the user while the other acts as a selfie shooter. The former sports an 8-megapixel sensor capable of capturing HD photo and video, while the self-facing module has a 2-megapixel Sony sensor. The band allows up to 30 minutes of video to be saved. Creators of this innovative band have also come up with a new charging dock that can charge both the device and the band simultaneously. Apple released its smart wearable watch amid great fanfare last year and we saw only minor updates to it at this year’s Apple event. The tech giant hasn’t yet released unit sales numbers for the device which might suggest declining sales. NEwS dESk

Giant Donald trump to be torched in uk bonfire party LONDON: A giant effigy of US presidential candidate Donald Trump wielding the head of rival Hillary Clinton is to go up in flames during traditional British bonfire celebrations this week.

The 36-foot (11-metre) high model of Trump dressed in shorts decorated with images of Mexicans will be packed with fireworks and set alight in edenbridge, southeast england, on Saturday as part of the annual Bonfire Night celebrations, organisers announced Wednesday. Across Britain, bonfires will be lit, effigies torched and fireworks let off to mark the moment when Guy Fawkes was thwarted in a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 5, 1605. "We are literally helping Trump to live out his own catchphrase ‘burn it down’ by exploding the 11-metre effigy as the opening act for our fireworks display," explained edenbridge Bonfire Society spokesman Jeni Fox. "It only seemed fair that Hillary Clinton took some of the limelight, and we are sure the presidential candidates will be pleased to see they are both featured," she added. The town has been setting alight effigies of people who have riled the British public for more than 20 years, with then FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the firing line last year. other victims include Cherie Blair, Gordon Brown, comedian russell Brand and Jose Manuel Barroso, former chief of the european Commission. Traditionally it is Guy Fawkes, leader of the "Gunpowder Plot", who gets thrown on the bonfire. AGENCIES

Christianity’s holiest shrine guarded by two Muslim families news Desk The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's old City is Christianity's most hallowed shrine. It's believed that the rock-cut tomb at the heart of the church was where the body of Jesus Christ was once laid.

The key to one of Christianity’s holiest sites is held by Muslims.

For centuries the church has been shared by six old Christian congregations — Latin (roman Catholic), Greek orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syrian orthodox, ethiopian orthodox and egyptian Copts. However, disputes among these sects over the sharing of the church have sparked conflicts and street riots from time to time.

Strong rivalries such as these led to a rather exceptional arrangement that dates to the 12th century — two Muslim families were entrusted by an Arab monarch to be the gatekeepers of the church. The Joudeh family

keeps the key, while the Nuseibeh family opens the church door every morning and locks it in the evening.

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Adeeb Joudeh, the current keeper of the key said he considers his family’s hereditary task to be a symbol for religious tolerance.

“For me, the source of coexistence for Islamic and Christian religions is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” he said.

Wajeeh Nuseibeh, whose family is entrusted with opening and closing of the church described the vital role of these two Muslim families in Jerusalem to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005.

“Like all brothers, they sometimes have problems,” he said, referring to the feuding Christian sects. “We help them settle their disputes. We are the neutral people in the church. We are the United Nations. We help preserve peace in this holy place.”

Microsoft takes on slack with new workplace app Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled its “Teams” tool for workplace collaboration, taking on rising star Slack in a hot market. “Microsoft Teams is an entirely new experience that brings together people, conversations and content — along with the tools that teams need — so they can easily collaborate to achieve more,” Microsoft office team corporate vice president Kirk Koenigsbauer said in a blog post announcing the new product. Teams is built into office 365, which includes popular applications such as Word and excel as services hosted in the internet cloud. Skype internet voice and video calling service is also integrated into Teams. A preview version of Teams is available to businesses in 181 countries, with general availability expected early next year. “We aspire to create a more open, digital environment that makes work visible, integrated and accessible — across the team — so everyone can stay in the know,” Koenigsbauer said. Microsoft’s offering is a direct challenge to Slack, a three-year-old company that has become a leader in a crowded field of new applications aimed at helping workplaces move away from email. Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president, Microsoft office Division Facebook last month also jumped headlong into this segment with its Workplace application, aiming to leverage the popularity of the leading social network used by some 1.7 billion people. With some three million active users, including nearly one million paying for “premium” service, Slack has become one of the fastest-growing business applications as it focuses on workplaces coping with email overload. Slack, Hipchat and similar applications offer instant messages and social network-style interfaces that allow for collaboration while bypassing often-clogged email inboxes. Microsoft acquired one rival, enterprise collaboration group Yammer, in 2012. AGENCIES

Mobile boosts Facebook quarterly proFit

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AGenCIes

ACeBooK on Wednesday delivered another blockbuster earnings performance, showing solid growth in mobile ad revenues as the social network expands into new services.

While Facebook topped Wall Street expectations in the quarter, shares dove more than eight per cent to $116.54 after an earnings call during which executives warned that revenue growth should be more tempered next year and that the company planned to invest heavily in engineers and data-centers for longterm goals.

“People were expecting them to hit it out of the park, and it is hard to sustain that,” Silicon valley analyst rob enderle of enderle Group said of the market reaction to what appeared to be a stellar earnings report.

Profit leapt 166 per cent to

$2.4 billion on revenue that surged to $7 billion from $4.5 billion during the same period a year earlier, third quarter results showed.

“We had another good quarter,” Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in the earnings release.

“We’re making progress putting video first across our apps and executing our 10 year technology roadmap.”

Zuckerberg has laid out a long-term vision for Facebook that includes virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and even providing internet service to remote areas using self-flying drones.

Facebook’s third quarter earnings results “displayed strong topline momentum and improved profitability,” Baird equity research said in a note to investors.

The social network had an average of 1.79 billion monthly users as of the end of September in a 16 per cent jump from a year earlier, according to the earnings report.

The number of people accessing Facebook from mobile devices monthly climbed 20 per cent to 1.66 million. revenue from mobile advertising accounted for about 84 per cent of the ad money taken in by Facebook during the quarter, up from 78 per cent during the same three-month period last year, according to the social network.

Facebook has become a powerhouse in online advertising, getting traction from new formats on mobile and its ability to glean data to deliver personalized or targeted marketing messages.

The research firm eMarketer estimates that worldwide ad revenues at Facebook will reach nearly $26 billion this year, up from $17.08 billion in 2015, and hit more than $33 billion in 2017.

It is also starting to bring in ad revenue from its Instagram photoand video-sharing application.

Facebook recently took direct aim at video-loving adolescents,

and Snapchat, with the release of a Lifestage iPhone app that allows teens to watch clips about the lives of their classmates. video sharing has been among nearer-term priorities for the Silicon valley-based company, which has seen sharing of that kind of content climb.

“People are creating and sharing more video,” Zuckerberg said

during an earnings call.

“It is pretty clear video is only going to become more important.”

The number of people broadcasting video in real time using a Facebook Live feature launched earlier this year has already quadrupled, according to Zuckerberg, who did not disclose numbers.

He said Facebook is experimenting in some markets with

new ways to use smartphone cameras to directly share video at the social network or in its messaging applications such as WhatsApp. Facebook is also testing an online Home venue designed as a place specifically for video. video is also becoming a large share of the content on the Facebook News Feed, according to Zuckerberg.

Facebook is among internet giants which have made artificial intelligences a priority, seeing it as a way to make features better understand and cater to needs of users.

The social network already uses artificial intelligence to find terrorist propaganda and identify hoax stories in Facebook news feed, Zuckerberg said.

“Facebook seems to be focused like a laser on improving their overall operations and making sure their revenue never dies,” analyst enderle said. “That all bodes well for Facebook longterm; they are not just sitting back.”

Friday, 4 November, 2016

ARTS

Lisa Haydon lashes out at Indian media for wrongly naming her husband as ‘Pakistani’ ENTERTAINMENT DESK Bollywood actor Lisa Haydon perfectly shut down an Indian newspaper after they called her out for marrying a ‘Pakistani.’

Haydon recently tied the knot with her boyfriend Dino Lalvani in a dreamy private wedding in Thailand. But things did not settle well with an Indian paper. DNA India published a feature on cross-border marriages and called Lisa’s new family ‘Pakistanis’ although they are Indians. In addition to that, they added quotes on how she was a misfit in the industry and how Bollywood wouldn’t mind bidding her goodbye post marriage. Naturally, this did not go down too well with Haydon and she slammed the article by tweeting a thread on Twitter. “Dear @dna my husband is Indian. My father in law - Gulu Lalvani, was born in pre partition India and was thrown out of what is today,” she tweeted. “Called Pakistan - to call someone who has gone through the struggles of partition non Indian is absurd,” she continued. “Lisa will happily bid goodbye to Bollywood and Bollywood won’t mind saying goodbye to her,” reported DNA India. The Queen actor responded saying: “How nice to be on set today STILL working in "Bollywood" post marriage,” Lisa further tweeted. “The world needs lovers not haters,” she concluded.

Paul Feig’s wife is all praise for ADHM LOS ANGELES AGENCIES

Acclaimed Hollywood director Paul Feig’s wife Laurie is quite impressed with recent Bollywood relationship drama Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and says the movie made her laugh and cry. Laurie also praised the film’s cast, which boasts of Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Anushka Sharma. Lauried tweeted, “Saw a brilliant film today #AeDilHaiMushkil -Laughed and cried and fell in love with all the actors. Please run to see it. You will love it.” The film’s director Karan Johar re-tweeted her post. The film features a cameo by superstar Shah Rukh Khan, whom Paul and Laurie are good friends with.

OZYMANDIAS Nothing like the smell of fresh smog in the morning.

WORLD CHANGING WOMEN Patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.

JINNAH'S REPUBLIC So this #weldoneasadkharal trend besides being wrong spellings is just stupid because his intervener was not entertained by Supreme Court

Ali ZAfAr hAsn’t been Axed from srK-AliA’s deAr ZindAgi MUMBAI

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AGENCIES

AKISTANI actor Ali Zafar does not feature in a promotional song of upcoming film Dear Zindagi but is part of the movie’s cast, sources close to its producers said today.

There was speculation that amid a row over the inclusion of Pakistani artistes in Bollywood, 36-year-old Zafar was replaced by Tahir Raj Bhasin in the movie.

The shooting of the mentioned track with the film’s lead actress Alia Bhatt and Bhasin further fuelled the rumour mills.

The darkness of the night is always followed by dawn...Never lose hope.

REHAM KHAN We live in a world with more passwords than we can remember yet less privacy than we would like.

A source close to film’s production house Dharma Productions,

however, refuted replacement reports and said Tahir has shot only

for the promotional song.

Tahir is best known for his negative role in Rani Mukerji-starrer Mardaani.

Sources close to the 29-year-old actor maintain a “no- comments” stand. Gauri Shinde-directorial venture Dear Zindagi also features superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Angad Bedi, Aditya Roy Kapur, Kunal Kapoor.

Only recently Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil had to bear the brunt of resistance as it starred Pakistani actor Fawad Khan.

Many groups, including Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, had asked for a boycott of Pakistani artists from the Indian film industry post the Uri attack.

Taylor Swift tops Forbes' 2016 list of highest paid women in music With earnings of $170 million, pop singer Taylor Swift was 2016's highest-paid woman in music, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday.

Swift, 26, smashed the Rolling Stones' North American touring record, pulling in a total of more than $200 million on the North American portion of her "1989" world tour.

Last year, the "Bad Blood" singer came in second to Katy Perry with an estimated $80 million.

Swift was honoured with the first-ever "Taylor Swift Award" at the BMI Pop Awards in May, quipping that she "would be kind of bummed" if the award had gone to someone else.

British "Hello" singer Adele, 28, ranked second on Forbes' list with $80.5 million in earnings, her highest total yet. Adele, whose album "25" swiftly became the biggest seller of 2015, enjoyed continued success with album sales this year and grossed millions per night for her arena shows.

Madonna, who was named the

highest-paid woman in music in 2013, ranked third this year. Her recent "Rebel Heart" tour grossed $170 million, bringing her career total on the road to $1.4 billion pretax, according to the magazine.

In the past 12 months, Madonna, 58, earned a total of $76.5 million.

That was slightly more than Barbados-born Rihanna, who earned $75 million and also received a lifetime achievement award at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 28.

"Lemonade" artist Beyonce, who was 2014's top earner, ranked fifth at $54 million.

Collectively, the 10 women on Forbes' list earned more than $600 million this year.

Forbes compiled the list after estimating pretax income for the 12 months from June 2015 to 2016 based on interviews with managers, agents, lawyers and some of the stars. It also looked at data from the Pollstar, the Recording Industry Association of America and tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. AGENCIES

Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively welcomes their second child After a recent appearance on a TV show, Ryan Reynolds shared some very exciting news about his new family of four with Blake Lively. The actor revealed that his beautiful wife gave birth to their second daughter, but didn’t tattle about any details regarding their second daughter’s name.

“Two (kids) under two is tough,” he shared with Conan and further adding saying, “Yeah, a lot of oestrogens. It’s like an American Girl doll took a s—t on my life.” Earlier, Ryan tweeted revealing that his little bundle of joy was a baby girl, saying, “The mobile above my daughter's crib is just a whole bunch of NuvaRings. So she remembers how lucky she is.” In January 2015, the famous twosome became parents for the first time after the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl star gave birth to her precious daughter James. Heartiest congratulations to the proud couple once again! ENTERTAINMENT DESK

Catherine Deneuve says age no barrier to success At 73, French film goddess Catherine Deneuve is plenty busy -acting, scooping up awards, dipping a toe in social causes. But one thing she is not fussing over? Ageing. Having worked for more than five decades, the screen siren said she was happy to still be active in Europe, where older actresses face less discrimination than their Hollywood counterparts. "There's a very big challenge in the United States when it comes to ageing, especially for actors and actresses," Deneuve told a foreign media agency in Hanoi, ahead of the digital re-release of her 1992 film "Indochine" set in Vietnam, a former French colony. "I'm not saying it's easy in Europe, but in Europe, we accept more readily to make movies with women in leading roles who are 40, 45, 50 years old. That is still very rarely seen in the United States," added Deneuve, speaking Wednesday in the famed Metropole Hotel. She has appeared in more than 100 films, including as a bisexual vampire opposite David Bowie and a high-end prostitute in "Belle de Jour", and continues to break gender boundaries in an industry notorious for sidelining female actresses beyond a certain age. "You have to try to age as graciously as possible, to not be obsessed with your own image because there is a lot of pressure to do that and actors can easily fall into the trap of thinking just about this," she added. She even had a thought to spare about one woman shattering glass ceilings of her own across the pond: Hillary Clinton. "I think it's great that there is already an American president that is black, and today there is a big chance -- I hope at least -- that it will be a woman who will be the leader of America." - Return to Hanoi - Deneuve is showing no signs of slowing down after half a century of work. She stars in an upcoming film "Bonne Pomme" with Gerard Depardieu and was recently awarded the Lumiere Award in France, which she dedicated to French farmers. The actress is in Hanoi to promote the newly remastered "Indochine" about a French plantation owner, played by her, and her adopted daughter in French-ruled Vietnam. It premiered this week at the Hanoi International Film Festival, which is in its fourth edition and seeking to showcase Vietnam's little-known cinema industry at home and abroad. Of all the films she has worked on Deneuve said "Indochine", the only movie to ever earn her an Oscar nod, maintained a special place in her storied career. "It's a movie that's had a lot of success, the release of the film, taking the film all the way to the Oscars, plus the countries that I brought the film to overseas, this was something very special," she said, a few hours before hitting the red carpet in Hanoi for the debut. Deneuve said she was happy to find Hanoi as charming as it was 25 years ago, admiring its tree-lined boulevards and decaying French villas. AGENCIES

VIN AND SAMANTHA ARE FAMILY TO ME: DEEPIKA PADUKONE ENTERTAINMENT DESK

KOMAL QURESHI

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Ever since the release of xXx: Return of Xander Cage’s trailer, fans have been swooning over Deepika Padukone and Vin Diesel’s chemistry.

The two give us some major friendship goals as they gush over their off-screen relationship time and again. And now, Deepika has revealed that Hindustan Times reported.

“He and his sister, Samantha, are to me what Shah Rukh

Khan and Farah Khan were when I started out here. They are family,” she said.

Deepika shared that Vin is the first person she calls every time she comes to Los Angeles.

Deepika first worked with Shah Rukh in the Bollywood film Om Shanti Om in 2007, and their bond has grown leaps and bounds since.

The 30-year-old actor said she learnt the key to a conducive working environment is good relationships which she shares with Vin and his

CMYK

sister. “I was a bundle of nerves on my first day on set because I was so far away from home and everyone was new and everything felt unfamiliar. But early on I realised that the process is exactly the same. People are different. If you can make the relationships work, it’s all smooth sailing,” she said.

Deeps and Vin will be sharing screen space in the upcoming film xXx: Return of Xander Cage slated to release in January 2017.

16 BUSINESS SECP eases listed companies with online filing process ISLAMABAD: To further its endeavour of promoting ease in doing business, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has taken a step forward by developing a system for online filing of Form 4. It is a requirement under the Securities Act, 2015, for every listed company to submit to the SECP details of the securities beneficially held by its directors, executive officers, and substantial shareholders. Form 4 has been uploaded on the E-Services portal of the SECP and listed companies now have the option to file this form online at a reduced cost of Rs 3,000 as opposed to Rs 5,000 for physical filing. The measure will provide hassle-free filing opportunity to listed companies in addition to saving cost incurred on such filing. INP

PIa appoints new GM for food services KARACHI: The PIA management has appointed Azim Abbas as head of Food Services Division after promoting him as General Manager (GM). CEO Bernd Hildenbrand is laying special emphasis on revitalising the food Services Division in the airline. He directed the new GM to ensure that menus on PIA flights are changed regularly and also to ensure the highest standards of taste and hygiene keeping in view the public feedback. Hildenbrand asked him to encourage innovation and improvisation in menus for both business and economy classes on domestic as well as international flights. He also asked the Food Services Division to strengthen its mechanism for registering feedback from the passengers so that decision making could be done accordingly. INP

liquid foreign reserves hit $24,189.3m mark KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday announced that the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $24,189.3 million on October 28, 2016. The break-up of the foreign reserves is as under: Foreign reserves held by SBP were recorded at $19,130.5 million; Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks reached $5,058.8 million, and total liquid foreign reserves stood at $24,189.3 million. During the week ending in October, the country’s total reserves decreased by $138 million to $24,189 million. The decrease in reserves was due to external debt servicing and other official payments. PPI

Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan agree to pursue QaTT BISHKEK: Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation and develop connectivity projects for the mutual benefit of the two countries. This was discussed when Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Abdyldaev Erlan Bekeshovich, met in Bishkek on the sidelines of the 15th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of Government’s Council meeting. Stressing the importance of connectivity projects, the two sides expressed satisfaction that all necessary agreements regarding CASA-1000 Project have been concluded. They also agreed to earnestly pursue ‘Quadrilateral Agreement for Traffic and Transit’ among Pakistan, China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to give impetus to enhance regional economic and trade activities. AGENCIES

Friday, 4 November, 2016

KSE-100 INdEx BouNCES BaCK aBovE 42,000 lEvElS KARACHI

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NIDA JAFFERY

MIDST Supreme Court’s announcement to form single-member commission for Panama investigations, the Benchmark KSE-100-Share Index continued its rally from the last two days and crossed 42,000 mark for the first time. The bourse staged an all time intraday high of 42,107.99 points.

Testing new highs every day after PTI Chief Imran Khan called off the protest in Islamabad on Tuesday, the stock market delved deeper into greens by the end of the session on Thursday. Investors’ sentiment grew stronger after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif submitted his response in court and denied holding any offshore companies. The PM maintained that he was a regular taxpayer of the country.

The equity market closed at 41,974 points, up 231.71 points or 0.56% on Thursday. Banks extended gains from the previous session with Muslim Commercial Bank (+1.13%), Habib Bank Limited (+3.58%), United Bank Limited (+1.87%), Allied Bank Limited (+2.34%) and Bank Alfalah Limited (+1.37%) trading deep into green. Steel shined again

with Mughal Steel (+5%), Amreli Steel Limited (+5%), and International Steel Limited (+5%) topping the investors’ charts for a 3rd consecutive day amid news flow of increase in prices of cold rolled coil and galvanised products by Rs3,000/ton.

Cements retreated amid profit taking with DG Khan Cement (1.10%), Lucky Cement (0.59%) and Maple Leaf Cement (1.71%) trading in red.

Dewan Cement Limited (4.57%) closed on its lower circuit limit as market negotiations with Chi-

‘Renault to start assembling cars in Pakistan by 2018’ Renault, a French car manufacturing company, is expected to start assembling cars in Pakistan by 2018.

The government was wooing foreign car makers like Renault and Nissan with generous import duties earlier this year.

After approval of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s economic policy and vision, Special Assistant to the PM and Chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI) Miftah Ismail held meetings with stakeholders in Pakistan and foreign companies in the automobile sector, the BoI said in a statement released on Thursday.

Ismail earlier said it was expected one or two foreign investors would be coming to Pakistan.

He had said that new entrants would be able to import machinery for plants duty free. Customs duty for importing car parts has been set at 10 per cent, while existing players will have to pay 30pc.

“We want greater competition, and we expect with greater competition consumers will be offered better choices,” he had said.

A source close to Renault told Reuters earlier this year that Pakistan was under consideration for new production investment, along with other potential locations, but added that discussions were at a very early stage.

Nissan chief spokesman Jonathan Adashek had said: “Pakistan is certainly a market of interest for us at present”, but added no final decision had been made at the time.

Ismail met with foreign companies like Volkswagen, Peugeot, Renault and Nissan. During the Eid holidays, the BoI chairman and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar visited France and met Renault’s top leadership.

The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet headed by the finance minister constituted a committee to review the Auto Policy and recommend new measures for expansion, investment and consumer protection in auto sector of Pakistan.

The committee was headed by Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif and included Ismail.

The committee held several meetings and interacted with all stakeholders and came up with new policy package to attract greenfield investment as well as revive existing closed auto units in the country.

Odds stacked against Pakistan, analysts say Analysts say the odds are stacked against Pakistan finalising deals, despite the concessions on offer.

A major obstacle is the perennial concern about political stability in a country

where the military has staged several coups since independence and attempted others.

The threat of militancy also remains high, despite the armed forces’ long-running campaign against groups including the Taliban. Foreign companies have been reluctant to invest large sums when the long-term outlook is so uncertain.

“There is potential in Pakistan. There is no doubt about that,” said Puneet Gupta, associate director at consultant IHS Automotive said earlier this year. “(But) we really don’t feel Pakistan is in a relatively stable condition, from a mid to long-term perspective.”

Another potential turn off for investors is the size of Pakistan’s car market, where 180,000 cars were sold in the 2014/2015 fiscal year. That compares with more than 2 million passenger vehicles a year in neighbouring India.

Some Pakistanis are frustrated by high prices and the quality of locally produced cars, which tend not to have airbags, anti-lock breaking systems (ABS) and other features considered standard elsewhere.

The cheapest Pakistani car, the Suzuki Mehran, sells for Rs 650,000 ($6,200), or about double the price of a comparable model in India. AGENCIES

nese investors for divestment of a substantial stake failed to materialise.

Exploration and Production sector declined in line with overnight retreat in crude oil price. However, Oil and Gas Development Company (+0.02%) stood out as an exception amid announcements of recent discoveries in Mithri, Khairpur, Khamiso districts in southern Sindh. Others like Pakistan Oilfields Limited (1.14%) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (0.01%) traded in red despite an overall improving market sentiment.

“A retreat in the next few sessions cannot be ruled out,” said a report by Insight Securities. Analysts expect the market to resist northbound moves in the days to come.

Market participation remained high for KSE-100 Index and clocked in at 243 million shares vs 231 million shares yesterday. The daily traded value for the declined to $139.7 million compared to $149.3 million shares in the previous session. The share price of 179 stocks went up, that of 201 depreciated and that of 21 stocks remained unchanged. The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s market capitalisation stood at Rs8.4 trillion ($80.9 billion) at the end of the day.

National security, war course participants visit State Bank KARACHI: A delegation of National Security and War Course 2017, led by Maj General Khalid Zia, on Thursday visited State Bank of Pakistan. The delegation members, consisted of more than hundred senior military officials of Pakistan armed forces and 40 foreign countries, got themselves acquainted with the working of the central bank. The course is being conducted at National Defence University, Islamabad. Welcoming the delegation, State Bank Governor Ashraf Mahmood in his keynote address stated that their study tour of State Bank of Pakistan would offer them an insight into working of Pakistan’s central bank and how it was contributing to the financial stability and overall well being of the people of the country.

The keynote address of the governor traversed many themes. The governor explained that besides carrying out traditional functions, SBP also performed non-traditional development functions like broadening the access and usage of the financial system through promotion of microfinance, SME finance, Islamic banking and agricultural finance. He said that over the past three years, key macroeconomic indicators have shown significant improvement which bodes well for country’s economy. The governor also stated that a key reform instituted by SBP was the formulation of an independent Monetary Policy Committee in FY16, thus making Pakistan the first major country in South Asia to do so. The governor stated that in terms of broadening access to financial services, the implementation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) championed by SBP continued with full vigour. The governor also stated that the interests of small depositors would also be safeguarded with the establishment of the Deposit Protection Corporation as a subsidiary of SBP. Dr Omar Farooq Saqib, Director, Monetary Policy Department, State Bank of Pakistan, delivered a detailed presentation on monetary policy and other functions of the SBP. At the end, Major-Gen Khalid Zia thanked the governor for providing the opportunity of great learning to the course participants. STAFF REPORT

Economic Coordination Committee reviews auto policy ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, constituted a committee to review the Auto Policy and recommended new measures for expansion, investment and consumer protection in Auto Sector of Pakistan. The committee was headed by Federal Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and included Dr Miftah Ismail, Minister of State /Chairman Board of Investment. The committee held several meetings and interacted with all stakeholders and under the guidance of Khawaja Asif came up with new policy package to attract Greenfield investment as well as revive the existing closed auto units in the country. PPI

WORLD BANK REPORTS ‘FREELANCING’ TAKING OFF IN KP ISLAMABAD AMER SIAL

The restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province may seem an unlikely place for digital workers to thrive but a World Bank report contrarily finds that the provincial government’s initiative of offering free training for youth in freelancing is paying off. The report says, the provincial government together with the World Bank in 2015, conducted a series of pilot programmes to test a model of digital skill training for youth. The province with nearly 16 million youth and few available jobs locally, there was a pressing need to think outside the box in terms of equip-

ping young people with the skills, knowledge and capabilities to take on the future.

Based on the results of this collaboration, the provincial government launched the Youth Employment Programme (YEP) in early 2016, offering free training for youth in freelancing. Around 50 students were accepted per training, and based on their academic profiles classified into technical and non-technical groups.

YEP was piloted in seven districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Abbottabad, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, Malakand, Mardan and Peshawar. The pilot phase will run until January 2017 with an aim to train 2100 students in digital freelancing, and will develop models

to eventually expand digital skills to all youth in the province. YEP is the first publicly funded programme in Pakistan that focuses on building practical skills to link youth with international job markets through cloud-based technology.

In this way, the government aims to bridge the widening gap between students who are graduating every year and jobs that are available locally. Growing connectivity, cloud technology, and the emergence of new business outsourcing models have lowered the barriers to entry for global employment, even for youth in remote parts of Pakistan. The key ingredients to accessing this employment: access to the internet, basic skills, and awareness,

and the pilot programme tested different approaches to supporting youth to develop online work skills, the report said.

Samia Saeed is from Dir Lower, one of the remotest parts of the province. With MA in English Literature and teaching grade 2 students at a local private school, she always had the skills for content writing but lacked the knowledge of utilising it to earn money. As she does a second review of her 800 words write-up on “Effectiveness of Online Learning”, Samia is excited about the prospect and potential of freelancing. “My first client was overall happy about the quality of the content I have drafted. I have been asked to review it further so that it becomes fit to print.

That would be my first freelance working experience and I attribute this to YEP”.

For Muhammad Uzair Khan, logging into Fiverr every morning to review the status update on all the creative write-ups that he has posted on his profile has become a work ritual. Living in Peshawar and doing an MPhil in Biotechnology, he has learnt a great deal about content writing by polishing his skills for developing web blogs and digital content. “I always looked out for an opening that would enable me to offer my writing services to earn, but I just didn’t know how to make that work. With YEP, I have gained the practical knowledge and improved my writing skills to reach out to the world”.

BUSINESS 17

Friday, 4 November, 2016

IMf pats Nawaz on completion of economic reforms programme ISLAMABAD: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde has congratulated Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz on the completion of country’s IMF-supported economic reforms programme. “Pakistan has achieved a great deal over the past three years, and I congratulate you and your colleagues on the completion of your IMF-supported economic reform programme which helped restore macroeconomic stability and strengthen economy’s resilience,” the IMF MD said in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Sharif. Christine Lagarde, who recently visited Pakistan, said she was encouraged to see that Prime Minister Sharif planned to continue pushing ahead with reforms to facilitate a deeper structural transformation of the economy and set it on a path of higher and more inclusive growth. The IMF would be ready to support Pakistan in its endeavours in any way possible, she assured. Referring to her recent visit, the MD said, “It was a pleasure for me to visit Pakistan and meet with you and your economic team. I truly enjoyed my first visit to Pakistan and the engaging conversations we have had about the progress and future direction of your economic reform programme.”

“Allow me to express my gratitude for your hospitality, and the excellent cooperation between Pakistan and IMF,” she added. She also wrote a letter to Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar after her visit to Pakistan and assured that IMF would be ready to support Pakistan in its endeavours in any way possible. She said that she had engaging conversations with both sides about the progress and future direction of Pakistan’s economic reform programme. She congratulated the Finance minister and his colleagues on the completion of IMF supported economic reform programme which helped restore macroeconomic stability and strengthened the country’s resilience. AGENCIES

Dar stresses efforts to increase revenue mobilisation for higher GDP ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has stressed on doubling efforts both at the federal and provincial level to increase revenue mobilisation in order to achieve the higher GDP growth. The minister expressed these views while chairing a meeting here on Thursday to review the progress achieved by the working groups constituted by the National Finance Commission for the next NFC Award. During the meeting, Dar was briefed on the progress of the four working groups which were established in the first NFC meeting on April 28 last year.

He was briefed that draft reports of the four working groups on (i) Resource Mobilisation (ii) Devolved Vs Integrated Tax Structure (iii) Allocation Efficiency and Expenditure Analysis and (iv) Rationalisation of Subsidies and Grants had been completed. The initial reports of the three groups were discussed in a meeting on September 5, this year in Lahore. The fourth report is complete for sharing with the provincial governments. Dar emphasised that since the initial work had been completed, it was now time to expeditiously move to the next steps for completion of the Award. The minister said that all stakeholders needed to focus on resource mobilisation and strengthening of relations between the federation and the provinces to achieve national harmony and partnership on the path to development and progress. He directed the relevant federal ministries to complete inter-ministerial consultation on recommendations of the four working groups by the end of next week. The minister further directed that the next NFC meeting should be convened by November-end. Senior officers of the Ministry of Finance and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) attended the meeting. AGENCIES

Major Gainers COMPANY Nestle Pakistan Sanofi-Aventis Rafhan Maize Philip Morris Pak. Sapphire Tex.

OPEN 7455.00 1285.00 7330.00 1588.00 804.03

HIGH 8072.00 1286.25 7950.00 1650.68 804.03

LOW 7455.00 1250.00 7330.00 1588.00 804.03

CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVER 7899.20 209.20 120 1286.25 61.25 2,050 7755.19 55.19 660 1623.98 51.90 900 804.03 38.28 1,350

5300.00 1150.00 1550.00 449.00 1412.00

5300.00 1139.06 1510.00 422.75 1380.00

5300.00 1150.00 1532.50 422.75 1395.55

-133.76 -49.00 -23.52 -22.25 -16.30

16.55 6.94 46.33 58.91 41.80

15.58 6.46 45.15 57.00 40.65

16.55 6.72 45.85 58.67 40.97

1.00 0.28 0.37 2.56 0.33

GovT IN a fIx ovEr daSu HydroPowEr ProjECT LAHORE

T

MONEM FAROOQI

HE inability of resolving petty issues within 18 months of its one of the top priorities 4,320 megawatt (MW) Dasu Hydropower Project (DHPP) has landed the government into frustration as it could not acquire the required land before the World Bank’s deadline.

The situation ended up in a mess as primary condition of implementing $266. 5 million social and environmental management plans, a critical component for the timely completion of the project’s first phase could not be implemented till mid-term review by Oct 31 of $4.5 billion loan agreements that was approved in November 2014, the sources told Pakistan Today adding the acquisition of about 80,000 kanals was a basic component of the World Bank financing before going into the review.

The sources said that the World Bank had been seeking Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s intervention to resolve the issues. Whereas KP government’s claim of charging 2.5 per cent as service charges for land acquisition also made things worse.

Additionally, the sources said that the KP government failure in ceasing locals for illegal construction on the marked land further aggregated problems in already negotiated prices that would go beyond Rs 10 billion now.

The federal government also took more than 15 months in finalising property rates to acquire land for the project.

However, the nation would have to bear the loss of Rs 335 million on daily basis for the delay besides the KP government would

face loss of Rs 37 million per day.

The sources said that was the first attempt by the World Bank to finance a large infrastructure project on a sequential basis through a combination of credits and guarantees to mobilise the full financing over the construction period. They said that the credit was financed from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s grant and low-interest arm.

The project documents revealed that the cost of land acquisition has been reduced from Rs 17 billion to Rs 12 billion. However the cost of other components has gone up. The cost of relocation has been increased to Rs 13.5 billion from Rs 12 billion. The internal roads will be completed at an inflated cost of Rs 10.5 billion. The cost of main dam is approved at Rs 101 billion while an underground powerhouse will cost Rs60 billion.

On the other hand, the sources said that negotiations on $800 million components were still going on with foreign creditors and another $1.4 billion with domestic commercial banks, however, any agreement has not been finalised yet.

The documents also indicated that the WB has affirmed for extending guarantees for obtaining $1.9 billion of commercial loans.

In addition to this, it also planned to approve another loan of $533.4 million for the project by next year provided the scheme advances as per schedule.

The KP government spokesman did not reply when requested for comment over the issue, however, Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif and Minister of State Abid Sher Ali have been busy with their schedules till filing of this report despite several reminders.

Major Losers Unilever FoodsXD Pak Tobacco Hinopak Motor Ismail Industr Service Ind.LtdXD

5300.00 1139.06 1510.00 449.00 1400.11

20 7,340 820 2,200 7,000

Volume Leaders B.O.Punjab Japan Power TRG Pak Ltd Sui North Gas Sui South Gas

15.71 6.60 45.78 58.00 41.75

Interbank Rates USD GBP JPY EURO

PKR 104.6496 PKR 129.8910 PKR 1.0139 PKR 116.8831

Forex Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar China Yuan Euro Japanese Yen Saudi Riyal U.A.E Dirham UK Pound Sterling US Dollar

BUY

SELL

79 79.7 15.5 117.2 1 27.75 28.5 131 105.3

79.45 80.25 15.65 117.7 1.03 27.9 28.65 131.7 105.55

33,428,500 19,180,500 13,161,500 12,147,500 11,481,000

oGdCl has made three oil, gas discoveries ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi announced that the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has made three discoveries of oil and gas from its exploratory wells namely Gundanwari-1, Mithri-1 and Khamiso well-1, which are located in districts Ghotki and Khairpur of Sindh province. These discoveries will result in an increase of 30 MMSCFD gas in total output of the country. Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that exploration and production activities have increased by 40 % during the current government’s tenure, despite downward pull due to falling oil prices. He further said that 90 discoveries have been made during the current government’s tenure and the success ratio has also jumped from 31% to 55%. While praising OGDCL, the minister said that OGDCL along with PPL has led the efforts of exploration in the field of oil and gas. OGDCL, the largest listed Company of Pakistan and leader in E&P sector is moving ahead with aggressive exploratory activities by vigorously pursuing operations in Balochistan, KP, Sindh and Punjab provinces. Company holds 33% of exploration acreage of Pakistan and accounts for 55% of oil and 28% of gas being produced in the Country. PRESS RELEASE

CORPORATE CORNER

LAHORE: Chairman PITB Dr Umar Saif addresses launch ceremony of Facebook's "SheMeansBusiness" programme at Arfa Tower. PR

aBl completes half century of solar powered branches LAHORE: Allied Bank has completed the supply, installation and commissioning of its 50th Solar Branch on October 25, 2016. The 50th branch was completed with a 15kW solar powered system at newly constructed Sargodha Road, Faisalabad branch. The benefits of a solar powered system include discontinuation of the use of diesel fuel generators as backup power, pollution and noise-free environment, reducing the burden on National Grid and 24/7 uninterrupted banking services to customers. ABL was the first Pakistani bank to convert its Jhang Road, Faisalabad branch on solar power in 2013.

ABL has come a long way since Pakistan’s first ever Solar Branch in 2013 to its 50th solar powered branch demonstrating Allied Bank’s continued commitment towards green environment, energy efficiency and uninterrupted banking experience for customers. ABL’s green initiative has created awareness for effective utilisation of solar power opportunities in Pakistan and has been widely followed by the banking industry in Pakistan. ABL will continue its drive towards a greener Pakistan by increasing the number of branches operating on solar power and hopes to achieve a century of Solar Branches in the near future. PRESS RELEASE

uBl declared ‘best bank of the year’

KARACHI: UBL has been declared the ‘Best Bank of the Year’ in the large size banks category by the CFA Society Pakistan, a member of the CFA Institute, USA. CFA Society Pakistan is an organisation of analysts, portfolio managers and finance professionals. The Award recognises excellence achieved by financial institutions and professionals. It also applauds institutions providing value enhancing services to the investing public in Pakistan. Wajahat Husain, President & CEO UBL received this Award on behalf of UBL. Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister Sindh was the Chief Guest at the Prize Distribution Ceremony and presented the Award to UBL. Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq Hijazi, Chairman SECP, was also present at the occasion. UBL leads the banking and financial services sector in Pakistan. Over the course of its 57 years of existence, the Bank has come to be acknowledged as a Progressive and Innovative bank.

These two identities of the Bank have seen it contribute greatly towards financial inclusion and economic development of Pakistan. PRESS RELEASE

NrSP Microfinance Bank rating upgrade KARACHI: NRSP Microfinance Bank Limited (NRSPB)’s entity credit ratings have been upgraded by JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company Limited (JCR-VIS) to ‘A (LT) /A1 (ST)’ (Single A /A-One) from ‘A- (LT)/A-2(ST)’ (Single A Minus/ A-Two) on 28th October 2016. The rating of Privately Placed Term Finance Certificate (PPTFC) has also been upgraded to ‘A’ (Single A). Outlook on the assigned rating is ‘Stable’. The ratings assigned to NRSP Bank takes into account growing market share of the institution and sustained improvement across key performance areas including asset quality, liquidity and internal capital generation. NRSP Bank is one of the leading Microfinance Banks in the country. The ratings also take into consideration presence of reputable sponsors carrying experience and understanding of the microfinance sector. Sponsor’s commitment has been demonstrated in the recent years in the form of both technical knowledge transfer and financial support. PRESS RELEASE

18 SPORTS

Friday, 4 November, 2016

Sri Lanka overcome Zimbabwe’S reSiStance in LaSt-hour win Harare

G

Agencies

RAEME Cremer soaked up 175 balls and 121 dots to lead another lower-order rally and raise Zimbabwe’s hopes of saving their 100th Test, but Sri Lanka dug deep into their reserves to secure a hard-earned victory with 45 balls to spare.

When the last hour began, Zimbabwe needed to bat out 15 overs with Cremer on 41 and No. 10 Carl Mumba on 3. Both batsmen played close to their bodies with a straight bat, blocking single-mindedly, and leaving Sri Lanka on the tenterhooks. They negotiated four more overs before Cremer jumped out of the crease and attempted an injudicious flick against the turn, off Rangana Herath, and was stumped for 43. He had faced 351 balls across both innings, the second-most by a No. 8 in

a Test behind Wasim Akram’s 363, which incidentally came against Zimbabwe in 1996.

Nineteen balls after the key wicket

of Cremer, Dilruwan Perera knocked out Chris Mpofu’s off stump to wrap up Sri Lanka’s 225-run victory.

Cremer entered the fray at 100 for

6, seven overs after lunch, after Zimbabwe had lost their last five wickets for 32 runs. He first added 39 for the seventh wicket with Sean Williams in 19.4 overs before marshalling Mumba in a 38-run ninth-wicket stand that lasted 19.1 overs.

It was Williams who laid the groundwork for Zimbabwe’s fightback. He showed restraint, taking 21 balls to get off the mark, before unfurling his range with paddle-sweeps and even reverse-sweeps against the spinners.

Williams went onto make 40 off 92 balls, before Herath struck with the fourth ball after tea, getting him to nick to slip.

Zimbabwe lost four wickets for only six runs and later Herath worked his way past Cremer and the tail to give Sri Lanka their first away Test win after seven matches, on captaincy debut.

Bangladesh batsmen ready for turning pitches Courtesy esPN Pitches that start turning quite early could become the norm in the Test matches Bangladesh play at home. The series against England was played on such surfaces, and Bangladesh competed admirably. They came within 23 runs of victory in Chittagong before taking all 10 wickets in single session to level the series in Dhaka.

While it would certainly enhance their biggest strength - spin bowling - it may also pose a challenge to the batsmen. But Bangladesh’s top three have showed signs of being up for it.

Tamim Iqbal avoided some shots, assessing their risk to be too much, on a turning pitch but still made a cen-

tury at a strike-rate of 70.74 in the second Test. His opening partner Imrul Kayes was fully committed to being aggressive, his 78 off only 120 balls in the second innings helped set a target beyond England’s reach. Mominul Haque, at No. 3, was his usual composed self and contributed with his 10th half-century.

With confidence that their batsman can handle it, Bangladesh are set to welcome touring sides - especially those with a reputation of struggling in the subcontinent - with tailor-made pitches for the spinners.

“I think wickets at home will be made according to our opponents,” Tamim told ESPNcricinfo. “If we are playing against teams from the subcontinent, then I don’t think

playing on such wickets will help us, but it will be different when we play against teams like Australia, England and New Zealand.”

Tamim added that standing up to tough conditions was quite pleasing. He was the

only batsman from either side to score a hundred in the two Tests. “It feels really good to have made runs in these kinds of difficult tracks. The team took a decision, and we stuck by it. The planning meant that we had to work hard, so scor-

ing around 230 runs is something good.

“I think my 78 in Chittagong has its own value. The ball spun a lot with many things out of the batsman’s control. The 104 in the second Test is most valuable among my hundreds against England, considering the conditions and the fact that we won the game.”

Mominul’s had an additional challenge. He isn’t a regular in ODIs and T20Is and was coming into the Tests having not batted in international cricket for over a year. He got a three-ball duck in his first innings of the series, the outside edge carrying off the wicketkeeper’s leg to gully, but adjusted better later on with help from batting consultant Thilan Samaraweera.

Gambia goalkeeper dies trying to reach Europe Courtesy BBC The 19-year-old goalkeeper of Gambia’s national women’s football team has drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe.

Fatim Jawara was on board a boat that ran into trouble last month while crossing from Libya to Europe, the country’s football association says.

Her family confirmed news of her death, according to association president Lamin Kaba Bajo. Many of the undocumented migrants who arrive in Italy are Gambians. Jawara made her debut with the women’s side a year ago, after playing in the national junior team. “She will be remembered for saving a penalty kick in a friendly encounter involving the national soccer team and the Glasgow Girls from Scotland,” Bajo told agencies. More than 4,200 migrants fleeing conflict and poverty have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean this year, figures from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) show.

Could Mourinho have ended up in Turkey?

Courtesy MarCa

Schmeichel out with fractured hand Yasir Shah with the Man-of-the-Series award for his 21 wickets, Pakistan v West Indies, 3rd Test, Sharjah.

Leicester City will be without Kasper Schmeichel for an extended spell after the goalkeeper fractured his hand during Wednesday night’s goalless draw with FC Copenhagen, the Premier League club said on Thursday. The Denmark international picked up the injury in the first half of the Group G encounter in Copenhagen, but played on regardless, helping his team become the first in Champions League history to keep clean sheets in their first four games. Agencies

After earning his stripes as Sir Bobby Robson’s assistant at Barcelona, moved back to Portugal to step into the managerial hotseat before an incredible career, and yet it could all have gone so differently. Taking charge of Porto in January 2002, the following season saw the Dragoes win the Primeira Liga and Taca de Portugal, leading to a possible career path that tempted Mourinho. “The first offer I had from a club abroad was a Turkish club [which remained unnamed] in 2002/03 while I was with Porto,” the Manchester United boss told reporters ahead of playing Fenerbahce in the Europa League. “We didn’t reach an agreement and ever since I’ve had no more offers from Turkey.” The Portuguese tactician couldn’t dismiss the notion of taking charge of one of Turkey’s biggest clubs in the future. “Who knows?” said Mourinho. “I’m a football man, I’m still young and Turkey has so much passion for football, so why not?”

UNDERSTUDY RAMOS HEADS DORTMUND INTO KNOCKOUT STAGE DortMuND Agencies

Last-minute starter Adrian Ramos scored a first-half header to give Borussia Dortmund a narrow 1-0 victory over Sporting on Wednesday and earn a spot in the knockout stage of the Champions League with two Group F matches to spare.

The 30-year-old Colombian was slipped into the starting lineup an hour before the start after top striker PierreEmerick Aubameyang was surprisingly dropped, and he headed in the winner in the 12th minute.

Dortmund, without a win in their last four league matches, are on 10 points and are certain of a top-two finish and a spot in the knockout stage.

Sporting’s second defeat to the Ger-

mans means the Portuguese team, on three points, must win their remaining games with second-placed Real Madrid now on eight points after their 3-3 draw at Legia Warsaw.

“You could see it was hard for us tonight,” said Dortmund’s Matthias Ginter. “We are not brimming with confidence based on our recent results. But we are happy with the win even if it was no gala performance.”

Gabon international Aubameyang, who has scored three goals in three games in the competition, was a surprise omission for what Dortmund described as “internal reasons”.

Yet with Gonzalo Castro and Raphael Guerreiro back from injury, Dortmund enjoyed the better start. Ramos made the most of his rare start, rising high to con-

nect with a floating Ginter cross to give Dortmund the lead.

Sporting gradually found their feet and repeatedly split open the Dortmund defence with Gelson Martins failing to beat keeper Roman Buerki in a one-onone in the 27th minute.

The hosts, however, went close themselves minutes later with Christian Pulisic rattling the crossbar from close range.

The Portuguese brought on Dutch forward Bas Dost after the break and Dortmund were quickly on the backfoot.

The German side’s backline was forced into some desperate defending and coach Thomas Tuchel responded by bringing on defender Lukasz Piszczek.

Sporting’s Bryan Ruiz should have done better with a close-range diving header in the 78th that sailed over the bar

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but the Germans managed to hold on for a victory that ensures their Champions

League campaign will continue into the next year.

Friday, 4 November, 2016

warner dominateS after Sa diSmiSSed for 242 PertH

t

Agencies

HE first day of Australia’s Test summer began with Mitchell Starc striking in the opening over. It ended with David Warner racing to a brisk half-century. In between, South Africa faltered and fought back, but not enough to be comfortable with their position at stumps. Four years ago they won at the WACA having been bowled out for 225 in the first innings. This time they reached 242, but Warner’s late-afternoon efforts ensured Australia were firmly on top.

It was not what Faf du Plessis would have envisaged from the day, after he won the toss on a good pitch for batting. Still, South Africa’s recovery from 4 for 32 meant they were still in with a chance in the match. And they had two of their most inexperienced Test batsmen - Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma, in their 11th and 12th Tests respectively - to thank. Had Vernon Philander not overstepped early in Australia’s innings, things could have been very different.

On 17, Warner survived an lbw shout from Philander, who convinced du Plessis to ask for a review. Indeed, the ball was pitching in line, hitting in line, and the decision would have been overturned - except it was a no-ball.

Eventually, Warner went to stumps un-

AUSTRALIA 0 FOR 105 (WARNER 73*, S MARSH 29*) TRAIL SOUTH AFRICA 242 (DE KOCK 84, BAVUMA 51, STARC 4-71, HAZLEWOOD 3-70) BY 137 RUNS

beaten on 73 with his new opening partner, Shaun Marsh, on 29 and Australia’s total had moved on to 0 for 105. It meant their deficit was already eroded to 137. By stumps, he was only six runs away from overtaking Matthew Hayden as the all-time most prolific Test opener at the venue, no mean feat considering he has played barely half as many WACA innings as Hayden, who broke the Test record score there with

SPORTS 19

Bangladesh PM promises new home for teenage sensation Mehedi Hasan DHaka Agencies

one half-century stand, the 71-run combination from Bavuma and de Kock, which came after some serious top-order wobbles.

Australia’s home summer usually begins at the Gabba - or the Gabbatoir - where they have not lost a Test since 1988. Their record at the WACA is much more mixed, but after one day of the Test season, they have made a fine start regardless of the venue.

380 against Zimbabwe.

Dale Steyn bowled quick, reaching 150kph, but was not consistent enough, and Kagiso Rabada took a little while to find his best. Philander was perhaps the best of the bowlers, but wasted his best chance with a no-ball.

By stumps, Australia’s openers had a century partnership, something that no pair achieved during the South Africa innings. There was, in fact, only

Bangladesh’s teenage spin sensation Mehedi Hasan is to have a new home built for him on the orders of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after his match-winning heroics in the historic Test victory over England. The 19-year-old off-spinner took 12 wickets in the second Test as Bangladesh wrapped up a 108-run victory in Dhaka on Sunday — their first ever Test triumph for the cricketing minnows over England. Hasan had been living with his parents in a basic home in a working-class district of Khulna but Hasina, who is a keen cricket fan, told local authorities to build something more befitting a national hero. “We are now trying to find a good spot to build Mehedi a new home following the prime minister’s directive,” said Khulna district administrator Nazmul Ahsan. While there was no immediate word from Hasan himself, Bangladesh Cricket Board chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said it should help drive Hasan — who is the son of a taxi-driver — to greater heights. “It is a gift to the wonderboy from our premier for the brilliant performance in the Test series against England,” Chowdhury told agencies. “It will surely inspire him to work hard and do better in the future.” Hasan, who only made his Test debut in the opening Test in Chittagong, was named both the man of the match after his performance in Dhaka and the man of the series.

REAL MADRID SLAPPED IN WARSAW WarsaW Agencies

Morne Morkel’s fitness at ‘90-95%’, misses WACA Test PertH Agencies

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj was picked ahead of fast bowler Morne Morkel because Morkel is not yet fully matchfit following a back injury that has sidelined him for the last two months and also because South Africa expect the WACA pitch to break up.

“Keshav has done quite well domestically and with Morne Morkel coming back from injury, he is not100% fit,” South Africa batsman Temba Bavuma, who scored a half-century on the first day of the Perth Test, said. “Also considering the wicket might break down, it would be good to have a spinner.”

Bavuma, who spent more time than any of his team-mates bar Quinton de Kock in the middle, said that cracks may only show up much later in the game though. “When I was batting, I didn’t see any substantial breaking down of the wicket,” he said, in reference to South Africa’s hopes of making amends for being dismissed for 242. “The wicket still looks true. The ball is starting to skid on, which is a good sign.

“What’s happened has happened. We can’t do anything to change it. Its quite obvious they have the upper hand but there will be an opportunity to knuckle down in the second innings.”

Before they get there, South Africa will have to bowl Australia out for what Bavuma hoped would be “as low a total as possible,” without Morkel, whose absence on a bouncy surface was glaring. At the toss, du Plessis explained that though he had declared Morkel “fit and in contention,” pre-match, there were concerns about his ability to sustain a heavy workload.

“Morne has been bowling well. He’s actually coming off an injury, so he’s probably about 90-95% ready. Bowling long spells for him is still a little bit of a concern,” du Plessis said. “We just want to give him a couple of days to make sure that back gets fully fit. But I think a spinner in these conditions will be perfect.”

Alate strike from Mateo Kovacic avoided an embarrassing defeat for on Wednesday night in front of an empty Polish Army Stadium in Warsaw.

Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema gave Los Blancos a 2-0 first half lead in what appeared to be another routine victory, but the Polish side stormed back with three goals before Kovacic’s late score. With the result, Real sit on eight points in the group, two points behind first place Borussia Dortmund with two matches to play.

There was a different look to manager Zinedine Zidane’s starting XI, as Alvaro Morata enjoyed a rare start. However, instead of sacrificing one of his beloved BBC, Zidane retained the renowned attacking trio and slotted them to play with the former Juventus man. Kovacic also got the nod, joining mainstay Toni Kroos as the anchors in midfield, while an illness to Marcelo paved the way for Fabio Coentrao to start at left-back.

It was fascinating to see the four Real attackers work up front and how they interchanged positions. Most of the time Bale was stationed on the right, would freely drift into the middle or left when necessary. Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema played more centrally, the latter unafraid to creep out wide left, while

Morata did most of his work on the left and sometimes in the middle. , by hammering a stunning volley that earned Real a 1-0 lead even before a minute had elapsed. A long flicked-on header from Ronaldo arrived to Bale at just the right angle, and the Welshman’s strike was a sight to behold for the few people in attendance as it went whistling into the top right corner of the goal.

Two weeks ago in the Bernabeu Legia had shown that they were a plucky bunch, and the Poles played with the same heart on Wednesday. They themselves were a bit unfortunate when Coentrao avoided being called for a penalty in the area. That was followed by some heads-up goalkeeper from Arkadiusz Malarz, who prevented a second Bale goal with a diving save on a header from the former Tottenham man. The rebound fell to Benzema, but inexplicably the Frenchman failed to pull the trigger.

Bale and Benzema would hook up again and this time it yielded a 2-0 advantage for Los Blancos. Kovacic lofted a deep ball into Bale, who dished to his left to an unmarked Benzema and it was an easy seep into net for the goal.

With the second goal Real went to sleep thinking the match was already over, but they were jolted awake by an excellent goal from Vadis Odjidja, who was allowed to waltz into the area by the Real defence and curl a right-footer

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in past Keylor Navas to make it a 2-1 game.

Real looked to reassert themselves to start the second half, but again slack defending from Zidane’s men would rear its head and it allowed Legia to draw level 2-2. Miroslav Radovic collected a ball and was hardly pressured before unleashing a right-footer to which Navas reacted late and suddenly the match was a tossup with just over a half-hour to play.

Legia had Real’s full attention after the equaliser, and the intensity of the match ratcheted up several notches. Zidane made his first change soon thereafter, bringing on Lucas Vázquez for Benzema and it was Coentrao making way for Marco Asensio. But it did little to change Real’s fortunes and eight minutes from time, the unthinkable happened: Legia scored to take a 3-2 lead.

Legia had been threatening all night long on the counter-attack and it bore the juiciest fruit the Polish club could have ever tasted as Thibault Moulin polished off a run with a superb finish past Navas to send shockwaves across Europe.

But Real are never down and out until the final whistle is blown, and they responded like champions just two minutes later. Dani Carvajal played a smart back-heel to the waiting Kovacic and the Croatia international rocketed in a shot to make it a 3-3 contest.

sPorts Friday, 4 November, 2016

KrAiGG BrAThWAiTe - reMeMBer The nAMe!

Brathwaite leads windies to famous win sharjah

K

Agencies

RAIGG Brathwaite became the first opener to be unbeaten in both innings of a Test, as he led West Indies to an absorbing five-wicket win over Pakistan in Sharjah - their first Test win outside the West Indies and Bangladesh since 2007. It was also West Indies’ first win in 14 Tests and their first under the captaincy of Jason Holder.

Yet, resuming on 114 for 5, with 39 runs to win, overnight batsmen Brathwaite and Shane Dowrich showed no sign of letting the occasion get to them.

Brathwaite opened proceedings with a crisp drive to the cover boundary off Wahab Riaz on the first ball of the day. Dowrich smacked a half-tracker from Yasir Shah to the midwicket boundary in the next over. That set the tone as the pair took just 7.5 overs to knock down the tar-

get in clinical fashion on the fifth morning.

While neither batsman looked to force the pace, they were not afraid to put away bad balls either. Late cuts and drives through the off side featured prominently as the pair glided past the finish line with minimum fuss. Dowrich sealed the win, slashing a short ball from Mohammad Amir towards the third-man boundary for the sixth four of the morning.

Pakistan’s bowlers were unable to create any pressure on a pitch that was still rather placid.

Neither Wahab nor Amir got much swing or movement off the surface, and Yasir was ineffective and inconsistent in the two overs he bowled. The batsmen seemed to have little trouble in keeping the straight ones out and punishing anything that was too short or too wide.

It was all a far cry from West Indies’ wobble the previous evening, as they slid to 67 for 5

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has said that his team “went on making mistakes” that led them to miss out on a chance to remain unbeaten against the visitors. They had whitewashed them in the ODIs and T20Is and won the first two Tests, before being upset in the third Test in Sharjah.Pakistan put up only 281 in their first innings. Four players made halfcenturies but none of them got past 74 and scored a hundred. In the second innings, they lost four of their top five

after a rather shaky 29-run opening partnership. But Brathwaite

WE WENT ON MAKING MISTAKES: MISBAH batsmen before the deficit of 56 could be erased. Then, having recovered with the help of Azhar Ali’s 91, Pakistan lost their last five wickets for 33 runs and could only set a target of 153. West Indies won the match with five wickets and more than two sessions to spare. “It was disappointing that we didn’t win,” Misbah said. “Overall, we didn’t play up to our standards. Our

and Dowrich scored unbeaten half-centuries, combining for a

batting was bad, and so was our fielding.

“West Indies played with discipline and we went on making mistakes and lost it.

It’s a setback losing a Test match in your own conditions, where you are so good, and to a team ranked lower than us. No matter how good the opposition plays, you really need to come back strongly after that.” Agencies

nerveless 87-run stand to steer their side to a memorable vic-

tory and finish a tough tour of the UAE on a high.

Must not get complacent: Holder sharjah Agencies

West Indies captain Jason Holder has said that his side has what it takes to win a Test match, but insisted they must not get complacent after winning only one match.

Holder said he was a “proud” captain to pull off such a fight and beat Pakistan by five wickets in Sharjah. West Indies, after being whitewashed in the ODI and T20I series, showed more resistance than most would have expected to finish the Test series 1-2.

“This is a very good group of guys,” Holder said after the fifth day’s play. “We showed glimpses that we can have what

Leicester made to wait after goalless draw in Copenhagen

it takes to compete at this level. For us, it is just a matter of consistency. We must not get complacent; we have no reason to be complacent. One Test victory is by all means not enough. We have to stay hungry, and that is something I really believe we have in the group.”

West Indies tested Pakistan in phases in the entire Test series; they nearly won the Dubai Test and put on a late fight in Abu Dhabi too. The third Test saw Holder’s men find gaps in Pakistan’s complacency and carelessness, and went on to win without any troubles on the last day. “My message is simple; stay with us and keep supporting us,”

Marin Cilic beats David Goffin in Paris to qualify for ATP World Tour Finals

CoPenhagen Agencies

Leicester City missed the chance to book an early spot in the Champions League’s knockout stages as they were held to a scoreless draw by FC Copenhagen in Group G on Wednesday. Having won their previous three group games, the Premier League champions stood on the brink of reaching the last 16, but Copenhagen denied them the victory they needed, while improving their own qualification hopes. The Danish side’s only previous loss in 27 competitive games was a 1-0 reverse to Leicester in their Champions League clash two weeks ago, and on several occasions they threatened to take all three points on home turf. Their best chance came in the 70th minute when Leicester defender Christian Fuchs cleared Benjamin Verbic’s effort off the line as the home side pressed forward while the visitors’ keeper Kasper Schmeichel made a smart save from Andreas Cornelius in the dying minutes. Riyad Mahrez was once again the most influential creative presence in Claudio Ranieri’s side, but the Foxes had to settle for a draw on a chilly night in Copenhagen. With the top two qualifying for the knockouts and two rounds of group matches remaining, Leicester top the standings with 10 points from four games, while Copenhagen are third on five, two behind Porto, who beat Club Bruges 1-0.

Paris Agencies

Croatia’s Marin Cilic won a tense encounter with Belgian David Goffin at the Paris Masters to qualify for ATP World Tour Finals. Cilic needed six match points before finally seeing off Goffin 6-3 7-6 (119) to reach the last eight in Paris. The 2014 US Open champion joins Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Gael Monfils in the line-up for London.

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore.

CMYK

Holder said. “One Test match victory doesn’t make us a world beating side, but we have showed people that we can do it. We have what it takes.”

“We have competed with Pakistan throughout this series. We fell short in Dubai, were outplayed in Abu Dhabi, but to finish the last Test on the winning side is a wonderful feeling. For the fans back home, and West Indies fans in general, just keep supporting us, keeping giving us that love, and hopefully this team can turn things around for West Indies. It was extremely important, especially after the Dubai Test match, where many people felt we could have won the game.”

PCB must find a way out for me: Kaneria Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria believes Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) must find a way out for him so that he could continue with the game of cricket to earn for a living. Kaneria, was life banned by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in June 2012. Kaneria said that ECB had banned him from playing cricket based on the mere false statements of convicted English Country cricketer, Mervyn Westfield. Talking to APP, Kaneria said he cannot earn for a living without cricket and PCB must help him in this regard. Earlier the National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) had also recommended PCB to review Kaneria’s case as it is a matter of his bread and butter (cricket). It was stressed in the meeting that cricket is everything for the leg-spinner therefore PCB must look into his matter again. Kaneria said PCB must respect the NA Standing Committee on IPC’s decision and should sort some way out for him. “If PCB allows me to play domestic cricket then it will be a great help for me,” he said. Responding to a question, Kaneria said if PCB’s helps him in getting some managerial job other than cricket then it would be difficult for him as the only thing in his whole life he has worked for is cricket and nothing else. Agencies