E paper pdf (14 1 2016) khi

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Thursday, 14 January, 2016 I 03 Rabi-us-Sani, 1437 I Rs 17.00 I Vol VI No 195 I 16 Pages I Karachi Edition

Pakistan decides to round up ‘non-state actors’ Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother and close aides taken into custody as Pakistan gets serious about Pathankot ISLAMABAD

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N a major development, security agencies have taken into custody banned Jaish-eMuhammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother Maulana Abdul Rauf, along with around a dozen fellow activists and have moved them to an undisclosed location for investigating their alleged role in the terror attack on Indian air force base in Pathankot, Pakistan Today has learnt on good authority.

A well-placed source told Pakistan Today that the government had acted on the leads provided

by India along with some material passed to it by the United States of America.

“Significant progress has been made into the matter. But we can’t share the details as yet as we need further assistance from India in this regard,” the source said, adding that the suspected jihadi fighters had been taken into custody around four days back and were being interrogated for any

JIT consisting of top counterterror officials constituted to probe Pathankot incident

role in the attack.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday Pakistan setup a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which consists of security and military officials to look into Pakistani individuals or organisations involved in the Pathankot attack.

The JIT is being led by CounterTerrorism Department (CTD) Punjab Additional IG Rai Tahir and will include Intelligence Bureau (IB) Lahore Director Azeem Arshad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD Additional Inspector General Salahuddin Khan, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Punjab Director Dr Usman Anwar, Inter-Services Intelligence’s Brigadier Noman Saeed and Military Intelligence’s (MI) Lt Col Irfan Mirza.

The composition of the team is also unprecedented as the lead role has been given to the civilian security agencies while ISI and MI have taken a supporting role in this investigation.

Previously all such investigations were spearheaded by the ISI.

7 dead, 11 injured in gunbattle near Pak consulate in Afghanistan A four-hour long gunbattle between Afghan security forces and gunmen holed up near the Pakistani consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad came to an end after all attackers were killed.

The self styled Islamic State group has claimed the attack.

STORY ON PAGE 02

MILITANTS fLEEING PAKISTAN JoINEd IS IN AfGhANISTAN, SAyS AfGhAN ENVoy PAKISTANI AND AFGHAN DGMOS TALK MILITARy COOPeRATION STORIES ON PAGE 02

obama vows to ‘take out’ IS in final address

CONTINUED ON PAGE 03

Taliban bomber kills 14 cops guarding polio centre in Quetta

ECC approves 15-year LNG deal with Qatar

President Barack Obama, tackling one of the most vexing foreign policy challenges of his presidency, vowed a robust campaign to “take out” the militant Islamic State (IS) group in his final State of the Union address.

STORY ON PAGE 05

Indian army chief says Pak Army derailed peace process several times The committee has authorised Pakistan State Oil to execute the SPA under government to government arrangement after completing due process.

STORY ON PAGE 11

General Dalbir Singh refuses to comment on whether talks between the foreign secretaries of both countries should be held this week, says it is a diplomatic and political decision.

STORY ON PAGE 03

NAB might use Interpol to bring Kayani home for statement QUETTA: The site of the suicide bombing near the anti-polio immunization centre. INP

At least 14 security personnel were killed and over 10 injured in a suicide bomb attack near a polio centre in the city’s Satellite Town area on Wednesday. The

attack was claimed by the banned terror outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

STORY ON PAGE 03

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will be enlisting Interpol’s help to bring Kamran Kayani, brother of former chief of army staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, back from Dubai if he does not record his statement in

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the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) corruption case voluntarily, INP news agency has claimed in a report on Wednesday.

STORY ON PAGE 02

02 news

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

7 DeAD, 11 INjureD IN GuNBAttle NeAr PAK cONsulAte IN AfGhANIstAN IslamIc state claIms suIcIde and gun attack, bomber had attempted to storm pakIstanI consulate buIldIng but was stopped by securIty personnel JALALABAD

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four-hour long gunbattle between Afghan security forces and gunmen holed up near the Pakistani consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad came to an end after all attackers were killed, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported. The self styled Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement conveyed to Reuters, Tolo News reported that a consulate staff member, three children and seven police officials are also among those injured, but Pakistani Foreign Office Spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said that all Pakistanis working at the consulate were safe.

An Interior Ministry statement said a “group of terrorists targeted a police vehicle near the Pakistan consulate at 8:50am”, while local officials claim the consulate itself was attacked, Tolo News said. Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, earlier said a

suicide bomber had tried to join a queue of people seeking visas to Pakistan and blew himself up after being prevented from entering the building.

Witnesses said they heard heavy gunfire and a series of explosions. Three attackers had barricaded themselves inside a house near the consulate and engaged in a gunbattle with security forces, officials said. Residents and children from a nearby school were evacuated.

Afghan officials sealed off the area around the consulate ─ which is located close to the Indian and Iranian diplomatic missions ─ and said a probe into the attack had been initiated.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani telephoned Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and assured him of further tightening the security of Pakistani missions in Afghanistan. During their conversation, Ghani expressed deep sorrow over the incident and informed the prime minister about details of the terrorist attack that left seven people dead. Sharif said that

securIty of pakIstanI mIssIons beIng beefed up, ghanI tells sharIf terrorism is a mutual threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both the leaders expressed resolve to jointly stamp out terrorism from the region.

Earlier, Pakistan strongly condemned and requested government of Afghanistan to thoroughly investigate this incident and bring the culprits to book.

According to a press release issued from Foreign Office, Pakistan also requested Afghan government to share details of the investigation with Pakistani officials. The Foreign Office confirmed that officials of the Consulate General are safe. Only one official was slightly injured by a broken glass.

The Government of Afghanistan has also been requested to ensure safety and security of Pakistan Missions in Afghanistan and the country’s officials working there. There has been no claim of responsibility for the blast in Jalalabad which is the main trade gateway to the Khyber Pass and Pakistan. Nangarhar province is home to a number of insurgent

groups and criminal gangs. Insurgent attacks are not uncommon in Jalalabad. The militant Islamic State group also has a presence in province. Pakistan says many Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, who are separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, and are fighting against the Pakistani state, have sought refuge in Afghanistan from Pakistani Army offensives against them in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal regions.

There have been several bomb blasts in Afghanistan over recent weeks at a

militants fleeing pakistan joined Is in afghanistan, says afghan envoy Pakistani and Afghan DGMOs talk military cooperation RAWALPINDI STAFF REPORT In pursuance of a decision taken during Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif’s visit to Afghanistan on December 27, 2015, Pakistan’s military operations director general (DGMOs) visited Afghanistan on Wednesday and held a meeting with his Afghan counterpart.

During the meeting, key issues of mutual interest came under discussion. Inter-Services Public Relation (ISPR) said that the DGMOs of both countries discussed bilateral military-to-military cooperation including border coordination, and modalities for meetings of corps commanders and sector commanders from either side.

Earlier on December 30, 2015, DGMO’s of both sides made a hotline contact to discuss matters of mutual interest.

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

A majority of militants fleeing operations in Pakistan’s Mohmand and Orakzai agencies joined the Afghan chapter of the militant Islamic State (IS) group, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Janan Mosazai said on Wednesday.

Addressing a seminar in Islamabad, the Afghan envoy said IS has become a major threat in the region.

About 60 to 70 per cent militants fleeing Pakistan during offensives in Mohmand and Orakzai went on to join IS in Afghanistan, Mosazai claimed.

He said terrorism was a common issue for both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and reiterated the Afghan government’s commitment to not allow anyone to use its territory against Pakistan.

Mosazai said Afghanistan was committed to its policy of noninterference in neighbouring countries, including Pakistan.

Kabul wants good neighbouring relations with Pakistan as it is

important for the economic prosperity of Afghanistan, the envoy said.

Mosazai said Kabul recognises the importance of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which he said will have a positive impact on the economy of Afghanistan as well.

Reports in the past suggested that militants fleeing military operations in different regions of Federally Administered Tribal Areas joined various terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

Security officials have warned against IS gaining a foothold in Afghanistan’s eastern region, where the group reportedly murdered tribal elders, clashed with the rival Taliban, imprisoned families and enforced strict rules on women.

Afghanistan does not provide a natural constituency from which IS can recruit, meaning the group relies heavily on defections from existing insurgent outfits.

Backed by US drone strikes, Afghan security forces last year mobilised and eliminated multiple IS leaders along with dozens, if not hundreds, of militants.

One injured in grenade attack on news channel’s office in Islamabad ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Unidentified attackers hurled a hand grenade on the Islamabad office of local television channel, ARY News, on Wednesday evening, injuring a channel staffer.

According to the TV channel, the attackers also opened fire at the office, injuring a non-linear editor working for the news channel. In December last year, a similar attack outside another news channel, Dunya News’ Faisalabad bureau, had left three of the channel’s employees injured. The attackers had also thrown pamphlets containing

threats from a certain ‘Daulat-i-Islamia Khorasan’ (Islamic State- Khorasan group) claiming responsibility for the attack. While in November, unidentified gunmen had attacked a Dawn News Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) van in the Essa Nagri area of Karachi, leaving one staffer injured. Attackers riding motorcycles fired straight shots at the DSNG van near Essa Nagri, leaving technician Hassan Mateen severely injured. Mateen was taken to a private hospital for treatment.

The attack was widely condemned by all sections of society and journalist organisations had announced protests.

time when efforts are underway to restart a peace process with the Taliban and ease diplomatic tension between Pakistan and India. Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States met this week to try to resurrect efforts to end nearly 15 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan, even as fighting with the Taliban intensifies.

The blast came ten days after 25-hour gun and bomb siege took place near the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

NAB might use Interpol to bring Kayani home for statement LAHORE INP The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will be enlisting Interpol’s help to bring Kamran Kayani, brother of former chief of army staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, back from Dubai if he does not record his statement in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) corruption case voluntarily. In case of non-cooperation, Interpol would be approached with a red warrant for Kamran Kayani, news agency INP has claimed. NAB has been pursuing a reference against Kayani, Hammad Arshad, owner of Globaco (Pvt) Ltd, Muhammad Hussain and others for their alleged embezzlement of around Rs 16 billion while acquiring land for development projects in the Defence area. The project had a quota for heirs of army martyrs. Arshad, who is in NAB custody, has repeatedly changed his statement during interrogation.

He has reportedly confessed to having handed over as many as 120 files of the martyrs to Kayani. It has been revealed that Kayani acquired a loan worth Rs 550 million from the Bank of Punjab in the matter. NAB has extended the scale of investigations and seized as many as 17 accounts belonging to Globaco. It is also reviewing matters involving the former COAS’s brother in the past to simplify the present case. The cases include National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) and Employees OldAge Benefits Institution (EOBI), among others. The deputy prosecutor in the case, General Accountability Khaleeuquz Zaman has said that authorities are digging further for useful records. It may be mentioned that Kamran Kayani is currently residing in Dubai and authorities have decided to approach INTERPOL to bring him back. Hammad Arshad has become an approver in the case and is willing to help. The NAB is making efforts to get the statement of Kamran Kayani recorded. Both Kayani and Arshad were given contracts to launch a housing scheme in the Defence area with plots for army martyrs. They, however, allegedly pocketed billions of rupees, but did not develop the housing scheme.

MQM submits resolution in NA seeking creation of 20 provinces ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Wednesday submitted a resolution in the National Assembly Secretariat seeking the creation of 20 new provinces across the country. The resolution asked the government to take steps to create new provinces based on administrative control “in order to address grievances and to secure the interest of the people of Pakistan”. It suggested that boundaries and names of the new provinces be ascertained by holding a referendum to elicit the opinion of the people of the region.

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Thursday, 14 January, 2016

tAlIBAN BOMBer KIlls 14 cOPs GuArDING POlIO ceNtre IN QuettA offIcIal sources say suIcIde bomber detonated explosIves weIghIng around seven to eIght kIlogrammes

pm says govt commItted to elImInatIng terrorIsm from country

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T least 14 security personnel were killed and over 10 injured in a suicide bomb attack near a polio centre in the city’s Satellite Town area on Wednesday. The attack was claimed by the banned terror outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in an email sent to journalists.

“The blast was apparently carried out by a suicide bomber,” Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said while talking to journalists. Thirteen of the dead are policemen while one of them is an FC official, he said.

“We will not bow down before terrorists,” said Bugti, adding that the blast was an effort to disrupt peace in Balochistan. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Quetta Syed Imtiaz Shah said seven to eight kilogramme of explosives were used in the blast. He said most of the victims were policemen who laid down their lives to guard polio workers. An intelligence officer who

declined to be named confirmed to Pakistan Today that it was a suicide attack.

“Body pieces of the suicide bomber have been collected by security agencies to initiate a probe into the incident,” said the official.

Dr Rasheed Jamali at the Quetta District Hospital said that at least five critically injured victims were shifted to Combined Military Hospital for treatment. Eyewitnesses at the site said they heard firing after a loud blast rocked the

Development in AJK only if PML-N is brought into power, says info minister MIRPUR: Federal Minister for Information Broadcasting and National Heritage (IB&NH) Senator Pervaiz Rashid has alleged that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in Azad Kashmir has miserably failed to deliver, and remove the grievances of the masses during the last five years.

Addressing the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) workers convention in Mirpur Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, Pervaiz Rasheed said that the PPP government despite spending huge funds delayed the Neelum-Jhelum project. He claimed that rapid development in AJK would only be possible if PML-N forms government in the state. The information minister said that the resolution of Kashmir issue and end to ceasefire violation at the Line of Control (LoC) is the top priority of the government. He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had raised these issues in a recent meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan (GB), Chaudhry Barjees Tahir addressing the convention said that PML-N would get a clear victory in the coming elections in Azad Kashmir. APP

area. The glass windows of nearby buildings shattered due to intensity of the blast. Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri condemned the attack and directed police to submit a report about the incident promptly.

“We cannot tolerate terrorism,” he said in a statement issued to press soon after the explosion.

President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also condemned the blast in Quetta.

In his statement, the premier said government is committed to eliminating extremism from the country and operation will continue till elimination of all terrorism.

Meanwhile the three-day anti-polio campaign in Quetta was temporarily suspended following the blast.

Dr. Saif ur Rehman, the head of the Emergency Operation Cell Balochistan said the polio campaign in Quetta was relaunched in Satellite Town and other parts of Quetta on Wednesday afternoon. It will continue for one more day.

“Such terror acts cannot deter our resolve to wipe out polio,” he said.

The campaign is to target 2.4 million children under the age of five. Over 55,000 children of Afghan refugees are to be immunised under the campaign.

Polio teams were being dispatched from the polio centre targeted in the blast on Wednesday, security sources said. Pakistan remains one of only two countries on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of polio-endemic countries.

Polio workers have long been targeted in the country due to rumours that the polio immunisation drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims. The rumours have made inhabitants of lesser-developed parts of the country more wary of allowing immunisation.

sindh govt to clamp down on jaish amid controversy over masood azhar’s arrest maulana masood azhar may have been arrested from sIndh rather than south punjab as reported In medIa KARACHI AAMIR MAJEED

Contrary to official reports, the law enforcement agencies may have arrested Jaish-e-Muhammad Chief Maulana Masood Azhar from Karachi, rather than Bahawalpur in Punjab. Nevertheless, the Sindh government is gearing up for a crackdown against the banned outfit across the province.

While official accounts as well as reports in the media indicate that JeM Chief Mualana Masood Azhar was arrested from Bahawalpur in Southern Punjab, this scribe has learnt that Azhar was taken into custody during a raid on his residence in North Nazimabad, Karachi. The security officials also took his younger

brother Abdur Rauf Azhar into custody. No resistance was offered during the raid and arrest.

Per details, a heavy contingent of security officials raided a house located near Jamia Masjid Bat’haa, in North Nazimabad. They entered the house and took Masood Azhar and Rauf Azhar into custody. Sources told this scribe that the security officials also investigated other brothers and family members of Azhar during the raid.

CRACKDOWN AGAINST JAISH: Following the decision of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of taking action against JeM, the Sindh government has also decided to launch a crackdown against the banned outfit.

The Ministry of Interior has also issued directives to the provincial

jaIsh chIef arrested CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01 SECRETARY-LEVEL TALKS POSTPONEMENT LIKELY: Meanwhile, the formal foreign secretary-level dialogue between Pakistan and India is likely to be postponed. “Pakistan and India are working silently to keep the dialogue on track. But since only a day is left for secretary level talks, the meeting might be postponed for a few days,” a source in the Foreign Office told Pakistan Today. The source added that a proposal is under consideration for a meeting of the National Security Advisers of the two countries.

“If both the countries agree, the national security advisers might meet. In

such a case, NSA Gen (r) Nasser Janjua might leave for India,” the source added.

India has already linked the dialogue process with progress on the probe into Pathankot attack.

TOP HUDDLE REVIEWS PROGRESS: Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was briefed over the ongoing investigation into the matter at the PM’s House. The meeting was attended by COAS General Raheel Sharif, Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, DG ISI Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Corps Commander Lahore, Director General Intelligence Bureau and other

senior civil, military and police officials.

“Considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements reportedly linked to the Pathankot incident. Based on the initial investigations in Pakistan, and the information provided, several individuals belonging to Jaish-e-Muhammad have been apprehended. The offices of the rganization are also being traced and sealed. Further investigations are underway,” an official handout issued by Prime Minister’s office said.

The statement added that the meeting noted with satisfaction that as part of Pakistan’s commitment to eliminate terrorism from our soil and the expressed national

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government of Sindh to initiate a crackdown against JeM. Following the directives, the Sindh government has decided to trace and seal the offices of JeM across the province.

Earlier, a high-level meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Sharif and attended by General Raheel Sharif, reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to cooperate with India on the Pathankot airbase attack incident. Per details, the province-wide crackdown against JeM will be led by Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Special Branch of Sindh Police.

The government has also decided to strictly watch the persons placed in the fourth schedule. The Sindh government has directed the officials concerned to trace the offices of JeM in the province and to seal them till further orders. However, a high-ranking Karachi police official, when asked to verify this information, replied that he had no information in this regard. Requesting anonymity he maintained that he had not received any orders of crackdown against JeM as yet.

resolve not to allow our territory to be used for acts of terrorism anywhere.

“In the spirit of the cooperative approach, it was also decided that in order to carry the process forward, additional information would be required, for which the Government of Pakistan is considering to send a Special Investigation Team to Pathankot, in consultation with the Government of India,” the statement said.

The meeting reiterated that in line with our decision to counter and completely eliminate terrorism, Pakistan would remain engaged with India on this issue.

CONFUSION ABOUT MASOOD AZHAR’S ARREST: However, there was confusion in Bahawalpur whether or not Maulana Masood Azhar had been detained.

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Indian army chief says Pak Army derailed peace process several times NEWS DESK Indian Army chief General Dalbir Singh on Wednesday accused the Pakistan Army of derailing the peace process a “number of times” in the past. “It has done it number of times. I am not saying in this (Pathankot) connection…” he said, while responding to a question whether he felt the Pathankot attack was an attempt by the Pakistan Army and the ISI to disrupt the peace process. General Dalbir who was addressing an annual press conference ahead of the Army Day in New Delhi, also expressed “concern” at the infiltration along the border with Pakistan in Punjab but made it clear that the responsibility lies with the BSF which is manning the area, according to The Hindu. The Indian army chief also rejected allegations about lack of coordination in response to the attack saying there was “complete synergy”.

Refusing to comment on whether the talks between the foreign secretaries of both countries should be held this week, the Indian army chief said it is a diplomatic and political decision. On Pakistan’s role in the attack, General Dalbir asserted that markings on medicines carried by them along with some of the equipment showed that they were from Pakistan. He said the evidence has been shared with the Pakistani authorities but details will come out only after the investigation. The Indian military chief denied the criticism of poor coordination among the country’s different security agencies during the recent terrorist attack on Pathankot air base in the northern state of Punjab.

“Coordination among different agencies wasn’t lacking during the Pathankot operation. There was total synergy. 560 soldiers were part of the operation and a team of Special Forces was also deployed,” Singh claimed at an event in India’s capital, New Delhi, amid growing calls to fix accountability for confusion during the anti-terror operation.

General Dalbir pointed out that his force was not under anybody’s command, except the western army commander, attempting to quash media reports of a tussle for control of the operation between the country’s elite force the National Security Guard (NSG), the army and the air force.

Moderate earthquake jolts parts of KP, Punjab, GB and AJK ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

A moderate earthquake jolted parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab, GilgitBaltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday evening but no loss was reported. According to details, tremours of magnitude 4.9 on the Richter scale were felt in Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Lower Dir, Swat, Hangu, Jhang, Pakpattan, Pind Dadan Khan, Skardu, Bagh and other parts of Azad Kashmir.

People of the areas where the earthquake was felt rushed out of their homes in panic but no property loss or causality was reported due to quake.

The epicentre of the earthquake was stated to be at Afghan-Tajikistan border, deep inside earth crust.

Earlier, on Tuesday-Wednesday night 5.9 magnitude earthquake had jolted different parts of the country.

“In a major action by intelligence agencies operatives, around 13 activists of Jaish-e-Muhammad have been apprehended from South Punjab including Rahimyar Khan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Multan,” Amin Abbasi, a senior journalist in Bahawalpur told Pakistan Today.

He said that the intelligence operatives raided the offices of Jaish in Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan and Bahawalnagar and took into custody equipment and activists.

However, he claimed that Masood Azhar was not among those detained from Bahawalpur. Asked whether or not the Jaish offices had been sealed, Abbasi said that the banned outfit’s office in Bahawalpur city was still open but no one was present there.

04 NEWS

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

Audit report reveAls scAndAls involving Serve your people WAter And poWer Ministry, punjAb govt selflessly, president RS 25 bIllIon SCandal Revealed In MInIStRy oF tells govt servants WateR and PoWeR; Punjab Govt utIlISed RS 230 ISLAMABAD

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huge scandal, possibly worth Rs 25 billion has been revealed in the Ministry of Water and Power as the department’s secretary gave green-signal to Ministry of Finance on a plain paper under the head of payments to NTDC and GENCO. The news agency Online claimed to have documents which revealed that the audit officials had told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the Water and Power secretary confirmed in the departmental committee that payments worth Rs 25 billion had been made on plain receipts. PEPCO had

bIllIon WIthout PRovInCIal aSSeMbly’S aPPRoval record of the cash establishment, the audit officials’ report stated.

According to the report PEPCO officials were directed to submit the record with the Auditor General within two days. However, no receipts have been submitted even after several weeks.

The report indicated that this could be a huge corruption scandal and high officials of the ministry could be key players in it.

Audit officials questioned why the Water and Power secretary had

given a green signal to Ministry of Finance on a plain paper. The report further said that thorough investigation should be made into the matter and action should be taken against corrupt officials.

PUNJAB GOVT BYPASSING PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY: Audit officials, in a report, revealed that the Punjab government had utilised approximately Rs 230 billion rupees without getting the approval of the provincial assembly.

According to the report, the

provincial finance ministry issued Rs 16 billion to various departments over and above the funds allocated in the budget.

The report said that Rs 190billion provided to various departments were never used.

“Punjab government gave Rs 5.5 billion to various departments without the permission of Punjab Provincial Assembly,” the report said.

Audit officials said that the Punjab government spent Rs 420 million, which were not mentioned in the annual budget.

As per report, the provincial departments overspent their allocated budget by Rs 17 billion without getting the approval of the provincial assembly.

SC to indict Sindh IGP in contempt case on Feb 2 ISLAMABAD APP

The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered on Wednesday that Sindh Inspector General (IG) Ghulam Haider Jamali be indicted on February 2, in contempt of court case.

The three-member bench chaired by Justice Amir Hani Muslim resumed the hearing of the case and issued its ruling.

The court also appointed Additional Advocate General Sarwar Khan as prosecutor in the case.

The bench ordered the indictment of the Sindh IG for retaining Saifullah Palphoto on deputation in the Sindh Anti Corruption Department (ACD) of twice in violation of an earlier court order.

The bench also ordered charge sheeting of Saifullah Palphoto.

Earlier, the apex court

turned down Jamali’s unconditional apology filed in the case. Justice Amir Hani Muslim remarked that it was not a mistake but it was contempt of court as a mistake could be corrected in one minute.

He observed that Sindh IG appointed Palphoto in the anti-corruption establishment as circle officer

while ignoring the court’s orders, and he was first promoted to assistant director and later promoted to deputy director in the same year.

It is pertinent to mention that Palphoto was inducted into the police department in 1995 as assistant sub-inspector and was later elevated to the position of inspector in grade-16 in 2002.

He was later promoted in the Sindh ACD in grade-17 and then to 18 as a deputy director.

Later, the hearing of the case was adjourned until February 2.

ISLAMABAD APP

President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday said that officers of Pakistan Administrative Service should discharge their national responsibilities as servants of the people.

Talking to a delegation of probationary officers of Pakistan Administrative Service, which called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president said that it was the responsibility of the civil service officers that they perform their duties effectively, discourage corruption and do not follow any unlawful orders.

They should not under any circumstances indulge in corrupt practices, a press release quoted the president as saying The president noted that progress had been halted in the country due to bad-governance in the past decades, but now the situation was gradually improving.

He called for judicious utilisation of government resources and for delivery of services to the people at their doorsteps.

President Mamnoon Hussain said that officers of administrative service were the backbone of government machinery.

“The purpose of training is to equip you to resolve the problems of the people and always uphold the integrity, security and stability of your country,” the president said.

He expressed the hope that the probationary officers would play an important role in comprehending and resolving the problems being faced by the public in line with contemporary requirements.

The president said that better performance of Pakistan Administrative Service officers was a guarantee for success of the government and hoped that probationary officers would overcome the challenges.

He noted with appreciation that out of 48 probationary officers, 10 belonged to Balochistan, while presence of women in the trainee officers was also a positive development.

He said that progress in Balochistan was the priority of the federal government, adding that the government was working on development projects to provide maximum facilities to the people of the province.

JINNAH NAVAL BASE - NAVY EXPANDS STRATEGIC OUTREACH TO WEST COAST, PERSIAN GULF KARACHI MIAN ABRAR

While China and Pakistan endeavour to develop Gwadar Port as a commercial hub for the entire region, Pakistan Navy is gearing up to new face challenges and threats which might come its way after the port become functional; the navy has fully operationalised its strategic Jinnah Naval Base near Gwadar Port at Ormara, Balochistan.

India has increased its naval strength in recent years and aims at transforming itself into a ‘blue-water navy’ within the next 10 to 15 years. By 2022, the Indian Navy will have 50 warships including three aircraft carriers, five nuclear submarines, 22 conventional submarines and a number of long range maritime patrol aircraft.

India acquired a nuclear submarine (Akula-II) from Russia in April, 2012. A second nuclear submarine of the same class will be inducted soon. Moreover, the sea trials of its indigenous nuclear submarines are also in progress. Pakistani defence establishment is looking at this induction of nuclear submarines in Indian fleet as a cause of great concern.

With minimal budgetary allocations, Pakistan Navy is quietly relying on minimum deterrence to counter any external threat. Jinnah base may just be the answer to Pakistan’s prayers.

The base is situated 350 km west of Karachi and 285 km east of the Gwadar Port, and has been connected with ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“With the development of this base, Pakistan has acquired the capacity to se-

cure naval trade in these waters. Moreover, we have expanded Pakistan naval forces’ outreach towards the west coast into the Strait of Hormuz where all the oil traffic flows in and out,” an officer at the base told Pakistan Today during a recent visit to the base at Ormara which is otherwise restricted for media.

“Karachi would remain our focus for the foreseeable future. However, Jinnah base would reduce reaction time of Pakistan Navy to six to 8 hours in case of any adversity,” the officer said, adding that the base had a berthing facility “for anything from warships to submarines and from heavy ships to warplanes”.

Asked whether or not Gwadar would also act as a naval base for Pakistan, the officer said that Gwadar would act purely as a commercial base.

“Though Pakistan Navy has a small base at Gwadar, its main focus would be security of Gwadar. Jinnah base, on the other hand, would be a purely naval base which would help maritime forces monitor the entire coastal area from Ormara to the Gulf waters,” the officer said.

Rear Admiral (r) Pervez Asghar, an expert on naval defence, told Pakistan Today that Pakistan Navy had developed four bases along the coastal areas of Balochistan including Ormara, Pasni, Jewani and Gwadar which had helped expand its ‘strategic outreach’ towards the west coast.

“In the past, we only had one [naval] base at Karachi and our military installations were vulnerable to any Indian adventure. However, with the development of these new bases towards the west coast, not only do we have alternative op-

tions to defend our positions, our reaction time has also decreased significantly in case of any attack,” the retired naval admiral said.

He said that the navy now also had a submarine base at Ormara. “We have developed Pakistan marine corps to thwart enemy designs of amphibious landing around the coastal areas,” he added.

“Pakistan Navy is now well placed to secure all sea lines of communications (SLOCs) emanating from the Persian gulf towards Pakistan. Moreover, the naval infrastructure including Radars and communication gadgets, have now been able to overlap each other – a capability we had severely missed in the past,” he added.

He said that the new bases had also helped secure Gwadar Port as there was no military presence on the port due to its being commercial in nature.

“Now, navy’s special forces are better placed in Ormara to secure Gwadar Port and nearby sea routes. Moreover, Ormara base would also help neutralise the enemy’s narrative that they would be able to block Karachi’s harbour in case of a showdown,” he added.

Asghar said that Pakistan had also developed a jump-off base for Pakistan’s maritime aircraft at Pasni. He said that Pakistan Navy had recently raised another naval station at Turbat, namely PNS Siddiq for P-3c Orion aircraft.

“These P-3cs are capable of flying over 14 hours nonstop without refueling.

They have stealth technology and can fly below the radar and strike India’s Eastern coast. Pakistan Navy has also developed Naval Base Jewani, about 60 km from

CMYK

Iran to help expand its outreach into the Gulf waters,” he added.

Jinnah base would act as an alternative option for Pakistan Navy to Karachi where all the logistic and technical support for berthing navy’s ships and even submarines were available.

“We have developed the required facilities for technical repair of ships and submarines at the base. It is an alternative arrangement to the Karachi base and can easily meet our defence requirements.

However, Karachi dockyard would still be the center for major overhaul or repair,” the Jinnah base officer said.

The officer said that during the next five years, navy plans to develop huge workshops at Ormara, which would also have the ability to overhaul submarines and warships.

He said that the Jinnah base’s positioning provided cover against natural calamities and enemy’s advances as it was covered by sea on two sides and a 2 km wide hill stood on the third.

On the top of the hill, called `Hammer Mountain’ due to its shape, Navy’s surveillance unit RDS-Mianwali is stationed to help the officers keep an eye on movements taking place in and around the area. Since the Karachi coast has become a hub of commercial activity, making it difficult for the Navy to perform its tasks and the industrial waste in Karachi’s waters has been damaging the Navy’s assets and reducing the life of the ships, Ormara is a better option for future Naval operations.

The law and order situation in the entire coastal belt is far better than other parts of the restive Balochistan province

as well as Karachi where Rangers along with other paramilitary forces is involved in a clean-up operation.

Jewani, with a population of around 100,000 people and approximately 90 km away from Gwadar Port City, serves as a main surveillance point for Pakistan Navy to keep an eye on all the maritime traffic in the Arabian Sea. Due to proximity of the area with Iran, many inhabitants of the area are duel nationals and can freely visit Iran on a mere permit from the deputy commissioner. But navy has also has reached out to the locals in the area to win hearts and minds of the Baloch people. It has set up educational and health facilities, many of which provide free of cost services to the local people. Under Chief of Naval Staff’s scheme ‘Adopt A Child’, navy officers are paying educational and other expenses of 100 children in the area. The navy also provides jobs to locals in their facilities.

The navy operates a PN Hospital in Ormara which contains facilities like emergency department, trauma center, intensive care unit, labour room, operation theatre and a pharmacy.

A Navy Cadet College has also been set up the area, where 50 per cent of the admissions are offered to candidates from within Balochistan under a district-quota system. The other 50 per cent seats are offered to candidates from other provinces of the country.

A Bahria Model School is also working in the area to impart education to Baloch children. The school runs on donations and financial support of the provincial government.

FOREIGN NEWS 05

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

Obama vOws tO ‘take Out’ Is In fInal address WASHINGTON

P

AGENCIES

RESIDENT Barack Obama, tackling one of the most vexing foreign policy challenges of his presidency, vowed a robust campaign to “take out” the militant Islamic State (IS) group in his final State of the Union address. He chastised Republicans for “over the top claims” about the extremist group’s power in his final State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger and must be stopped,” he said. “But they do not threaten our national existence.” The president’s words were unlikely to satisfy Republicans, as well as some Democrats, who say he underestimates IS’s power and is leaving the US vulnerable to attacks at home.

President Barack Obama also urged Americans to rekindle their belief in the promise of change that first carried him to the White House, declaring that the country must not allow election-year fear and division to put economic and security progress at risk.

“All the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air,” Obama said. “So is all the rhetoric

South Korea calls for ‘bone-numbing’ sanctions on North for nuclear test SEOUL AGENCIES

South Korea warned North Korea on Wednesday that the United States and its allies were working on sanctions to inflict “bonenumbing pain” after its latest nuclear test, and called on China to do its part to rein in its isolated neighbor. With tension high on the border after the North’s fourth nuclear test on Wednesday last week, South Korean forces fired shots toward what Yonhap News Agency said was a suspected North Korean drone. It returned to the North after the shots, South Korean military officials told Reuters. The North’s nuclear test has angered both China and the United States and again raised questions about what can be done to stop its development of nuclear weapons. The World Economic Forum withdrew its invitation for North Korea’s foreign minister to attend its annual Davos meeting, which was to have been the country’s first participation in the event in 18 years, because of the nuclear test. North Korea said it had tested a powerful hydrogen bomb but the United States and various experts doubt that, as the blast was roughly the same size as that from its previous test, of an atomic bomb, in 2013. The US House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously on Tuesday to pass legislation to broaden sanctions on the North. But apparently unperturbed by the prospect of further international isolation, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an expansion of the size and power of his country’s nuclear arsenal, urging the “detonation of more powerful Hbombs”, the North’s state media reported.

you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker.”

“The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close,” he said. The president’s address to both chambers of Congress and a prime-time television audience was meant to both shape his legacy and put his imprint squarely on the race to succeed him.

He defended his record - and implicitly urged the public to elect another Democratic president to build on it - but acknowledged the persistent anxieties of Americans who feel shut out of a changing economy or at risk from an evolving terror threat.

Mindful of the scant prospect for major legislative action in an election year, Obama avoided the traditional litany of policy proposals found in State of the Union addresses in which presidents outline their agenda for the coming year.

While Obama did not directly call out Republicans, he sharply, and at times sarcastically, struck back at rivals who have challenged his economic and national security stewardship.

In his most pointed swipe at the Republican candidates running to succeed him, Obama warned against “voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us or

pray like us or vote like we do or share the same background.” Focused on his own legacy, Obama ticked off a retrospective of his domestic and foreign policy actions in office, including helping lead the economy back from the brink of depression, taking aggressive action on climate change and ending a Cold War freeze with Cuba.

He touted implementation of the landmark nuclear deal with Iran, but made no mention of the 10 American sailors picked up by Iran Tuesday. Obama was frank about one of his biggest regrets: failing to ease the persistently deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans. The Republican-controlled Congress that Obama stood before Tuesday night is hostile to his ideas and angry about his executive orders on issues from guns to immigration. On the campaign trail, Trump’s heated rhetoric is seen by some voters as a welcome contrast to Obama’s cool calls for civility. On his Twitter account Tuesday night, the candidate dismissed Obama’s speech as “really boring.” Obama specifically called for ending the practice of drawing up some congressional districts in a manner that gives parties an iron grip on House seats. He also urged steps to make voting easier and reduce the influence of money in politics.

Obama did reiterate his call for working with Re-

Iran releases US sailors seized in Gulf TEHRAN AGENCIES

Iran on Wednesday released 10 US sailors it had detained in the Gulf, moving within hours to head off a potential crisis as it prepares for the lifting of sanctions. A dramatic series of events started with the sailors – nine men and a woman – being taken into custody after their two Navy patrol boats drifted into Iranian territory late on Tuesday.

US and Iranian officials scrambled to defuse the situation, which unfolded as Iran prepares to finally implement a nuclear deal with world powers aimed at ending the Islamic republic’s long international isolation. After informal talks between Washington and Tehran, a statement from the Guards, describing the sailors as Marines, was read out on state television confirming they were free. “It was determined that the detained American Marines did not enter Iranian waters intentionally.

Following their apology, they have been released to international waters in the Gulf,” it said.

Still images used in the report showed the sailors sitting calmly on Persian rugs. Iran had earlier said they were being well treated. Pictures of the US boats, which had green-and-black

camouflage patterns, were also shown by state television. Admiral Ali Fadavi, the naval commander of the Guards, said that an investigation established that “this trespassing was not hostile or for spying purposes” and the sailors had entered Iranian territory “due to a broken navigation system”.

US officials had said one or both of the boats had suffered mechanical problems and been taken to Farsi Island, which lies roughly midway between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Gulf and houses a base of the Guards, which has its own naval units. Radio contact was lost with the two vessels – which US officials said were riverine patrol boats under 65 feet (20 meters) in length – while they were en

route from Kuwait to Bahrain. American officials did not dispute that the vessels appeared to have been in Iranian territorial waters when they were intercepted. They also said they had received assurances from Tehran that the crews would be allowed to sail onwards come first light.

Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic relations but US Secretary of State John Kerry called Iranian counterpart Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to discuss the incident.

The two developed a close working relationship during the nuclear talks, which concluded in July with a deal between Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers of the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany.

MUSLIM TEEN SAYS ‘PROUD’ OF ATTACK ON JEWISH TEACHER MARSEILLE AGENCIES

A 15-year-old supporter of the Islamic State group who slashed a Jewish teacher with a machete in southern France has said he was “proud” of his attack, ahead of a court appearance Wednesday.

The teenager, an ethnic Kurd from Turkey, told police he did not regret the assault on a Jewish teacher in Marseille, the latest in a string of such attacks in recent months. A source close to the investigation told local media the boy had said he was “ashamed” that he did not manage to kill the 35-year-old teacher, Benjamin Amsellem.

The teenager, who was to appear in front of a judge on Wednesday where he faces terrorism charges, said he became interested in militant theories in March 2014 after seeing documentaries arguing that Muslims were persecuting Westerners.

“One thing led to another and he came upon militant websites” arguing that in fact it was Westerners that were persecuting Muslims and he “agreed”, said the police source. “I don’t represent Daesh, they

represent me,” the teenager reportedly told investigators. Prosecutors have described the teenager as a good student, from a normal

background who self-radicalised via the internet, highlighting the challenge to French authorities in identifying extremists.

The attack has sparked debate in France’s Jewish community over whether men and boys should stop wearing the skullcap identifying their religion.

Zvi Ammar, the leader of Marseille’s Jewish community, urged male Jews to stop wearing the kippa “until better days”, because of fears for their safety.

“Unfortunately for us, we are targeted,” he told AFP. “As soon as we are identified as Jewish we can be assaulted and even risk death.”

However other Jewish leaders rejected the call, with France’s chief rabbi Haim Korsia telling AFP: “We should not give an inch, we should continue wearing the kippa.”

The attack was the third in recent months on Jews in Marseille, the Mediterranean city that is home to the second-largest Jewish population in France after Paris with some 70,000.

In October a knife-wielding, drunken assailant attacked three Jews near a synagogue in the city.

publicans on criminal justice reform and finalising an Asia-Pacific trade pact, and he also vowed to keep pushing for action on politically fraught issues such as curbing gun violence and fixing the nation’s fractured immigration laws.

The president also touted a new effort led by Vice President Joe Biden to fight cancer, aimed at increasing public and private resources and breaking down barriers to collaboration among researchers.

Yet Obama was eager to look beyond his own presidency, casting the actions he’s taken as a springboard for future economic progress and national security. His optimism was meant to draw a contrast with what the White House sees as doom-and-gloom scenarios peddled by Republicans.

Republicans were largely dismissive of the president’s address. The president himself appeared to get momentarily caught up in the emotion of the moment.

As he walked toward the exit after his hour-long speech, he turned back to the crowded House chamber and said, “Let me take one more look at this thing.”

In US, Muslims will outnumber Jews by 2040: study NEWS DESK With approximately 3.3 million Muslims currently residing in the United States, an American-based think tank estimates the proportion of Muslim-American population is expected to double by 2050. The Washingtonbased Pew Research Centre has predicted that the American-Muslim population will grow faster than the Jewish population, meaning Muslims will become the second-largest religious group in the country before 2040. The research centre also estimates the proportion of the Muslim-American population is expected to double from its current one per cent.

Between 2010 and 2015, just over half of the estimated growth of the Muslim population was the result of immigration, the think tank said, adding that overall Muslims in the United States have higher than average birthrates. The findings are part of a demographic projection of religious groups in the US, which also estimates there are 5.7 million “Jews by religion” across the country. “In some cities Muslims comprise significantly more than 1% of the community,” the report said. “And even at the state-level Muslims are not evenly distributed. Certain states, such as New Jersey, have two or three times as many Muslim adults per capita as the national average.” “Recent political debates in the US over Muslim immigration and related issues have prompted many to ask how many Muslims actually live in the US. But coming up with an answer is not easy, in part because the US Census Bureau does not ask questions about religion – there is no official government count of the US Muslim population,” the centre explained.

France bans 3 extremist groups following November attacks PARIS AGENCIES

France has banned three extremist cultural associations which ran a mosque in the Paris area that was shut down following November’s extremist attacks on the capital, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday. “There is no place in the French republic for groups which provoke and which call for terrorism or call for hate,” Cazeneuve said. Earlier, in December Police shut a mosque east of Paris and arrested the owner of a revolver found in related raids on Wednesday as part of a crackdown called after the November 13 attacks on the capital, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

It was the first time France had taken such action against places of worship suspected of nurturing what the Interior Minister called “extremist radicalisation”.

06 KARACHI PRAyER TImIngS Fajr SunriSe

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Special funds being allocated for Thar: Dahar KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Sindh Minister for Health Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar on Wednesday said that special funds were being allocated for Thar to cope with the current situation and to provide better health facilities to the people.

Presiding over a meeting on Wednesday, he directed the provincial secretary health to immediately transfer more funds to DHOs (district health officers) accounts so that ambulances and other vehicles could run on roads for emergency purposes.

The meeting was also attended by Hepatitis Programme Manager Dr Khaliq Sheikh.

Meanwhile, the health minister expressed his dissatisfaction over slow and poor construction work at Korangi 5 hospital and directed the secretary health to write a letter to the chairman anti-corruption against XEN and contractor for negligence and poor quality work to take legal action against them. He also directed the hepatitis programme manager to focus on high risk areas and vaccine the targeted people. He asked him to launch pilot project in certain areas to prevent this deadly disease.

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

WEATHER UPDATES

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270C 130C

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RetuRn illegally-Retained official vehicles oR face law, cM tells officeRs s KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

INDH Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has issued directives to the officers to return vehicles of their previous departments within a week and he warned of stern legal action against them in case of non-compliance with the orders.

The CM took serious notice of the reports and inquiries that some senior

officers, even after their transfer from one department to another, were still occupying the vehicles of their former departments.

He directed Chief Secretary Siddique Memon to take immediate steps in this regard. “This is unwarranted and cannot be tolerated. This practice must be brought to an end. Otherwise, criminal cases would be registered against the delinquent officers.”

He said the government had handed over vehicles to concerned officers ac-

cording to their entitlement with the purpose to facilitate them in discharging their duties. “This is public property and it can be utilised only in the public interest. Misuse of official vehicles is dishonesty and shows lack of professionalism among the concerned officers,” he said. Talking about the vehicles of S&GAD, Sindh Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA), police department, education, local government and local bodies and various other depart-

ments, provincial authorities and autonomous bodies of the provincial government, the chief minister urged the chief secretary to compile a computerised list of their vehicles along with the allottee/officer using it. “There are reports that some private people are using government vehicles. How it is possible that without any justification or authority they have been given government vehicles,” he wondered and added that a thorough inquiry into the matter must be conducted.

No hepatitis medicines available for patients LARKANA PPI

Acute shortage of hepatitis C treatment medicines is being faced by the poor patients at the site established in Larkana for the benefit of affected positive patients as new patients are given one month date for the medicines.

This grave situation surfaced when a poor female patient complained about this delay who was later accommodated after interference by a senior doctor. At this site, the under-treatment patients of hepatitis C are 405 and 165 of hepatitis B, according to a report sent to provincial programme manager at Hyderabad.

Previous balance at this site of injection Interferon was 827, as many as 4,800 injections were received out of which 5,331 were utilised and now only 296 injections are in stock which is insufficient, the report added, and 7,000 of 03ml are required to meet the requirement. Likewise, 1,260 tablets Entecavir 0.5mg were in stock which have been utilised and now 6,000 are required, the report further said.

No HDV Elisa kits are available at this site since last six months, the report further disclosed. So, all the affected patients are forced to get it done from outside. Some 60 new hepatitis C patients were registered in December 2015 and 13 of hepatitis B. The total number of registered patients for treatment at this site has increased to 4,722 of hepatitis C and 1059 of hepatitis B and undertreatment patients of hepatitis C at this site are 405 and hepatitis B are 165.

Deputationists: SC seeks report from Sindh govt KARACHI OnlInE

The Supreme Court (SC) has sought a report from the Sindh government about officials who have been sent on deputation.

When a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim took up the case for hearing on Wednesday, Sindh Chief Secretary Siddique Memon and Secretary Services Jamal Mustafa sought time from the court to ascertain the number of deputationist officers. The two officials also tendered apology on the matter assuring the court that its orders regarding deputation would be complied with in future.

Justice Muslim remarked: “Sending officers on deputation despite court’s orders is a contempt of court. Such permissions cannot be given.” The chief secretary assured the court that the record of deputationist officers would be ascertained and those on deputation would be called back. The court while giving a month time ordered that the list of deputationist officers should be presented before it.

KARACHI: Commuters face hardships due to water accumulated on University Road after a water supply line was damaged few days back. OnlInE

KIHD urgently needs doctors, skilled staff KARACHI PPI

The Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) urgently needs specialist doctors, skilled staff nurses and technicians to run newly-established private ward and operation theaters more effectively. An administrative official at the KIHD told PPI on Wednesday that the institute management urgently needed cardiologists, staff nurses and paramedical staff. He informed that a private ward had already been established in the institute, comprising 48 rooms, two ICUs and five angiography machines. He said initially 24 rooms of the private ward had been made functional with an aim to generate more revenue for the institute.

He further said that the hospital management was also planning to open more operation theaters and another new ward; therefore, there was urgent need of doctors, technicians and skilled nurses to make the private ward and operation theaters fully operational. The official said that the number of visiting patients in the hospital had declined for last few years due to non-supply of medicines. He said city’s second largest heart disease healthcare run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had also been facing severe financial crisis for the last many years and it could not provide the free of cost healthcare facilities to the patients of cardiovascular diseases.

He said the patients had to buy costly medicines from private medical stores due to shortage of medicines in the hospital store. He said the healthcare administration was

Two alleged bandits killed in encounter RATODERO PPI

providing available treatment facilities to the poor patients from its limited resources. However, due to non-supply of medicines the number of visiting patients had declined in the institution, he added. He informed that the KIHD was a teaching hospital fully equipped with emergency room, CCU, medical wards, surgical wards, private wards, intensive care unit, two cardiac catheterization laboratories, two surgical theatres, a rehabilitation centre, research department and laboratory for routine blood investigations.

The KIHD caters to the needs of heart patients of not only Karachi but also from interior Sindh and Balochistan.

He said due to the non-supply of drugs and financial crisis the poor and needy patients now preferred to visit other government cardio-care hospitals. Senior Director Health & Medical Services Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Dr Salma Kausar Ali, when contacted, said the hospital administration had not sent any request for additional staff, adding that adequate staff was available in the institution.

CMYK

Police claimed to have killed two bandits in encounter in Ratodero area in the wee hours of Wednesday.

According to details, police received information about the availability of criminals near Joyo Bridge. Police contingents, headed by ASP Tauqeer Naeem and SHO Ratodero PS Nawaz Malhan, surrounded the entire area which resulted in shootout between criminals and the police. As a result, both hardened gangsters were killed who were identified as Wajid alias Wajoo Joyo and Ali Khan Jatoi. Wajoo was wanted to police in more than 100 cases of heinous crimes including murder, robberies, kidnapping, and extortion.

Wajoo was carrying head money of Rs 1.5 million and was absconding since long. The bodies were brought to Raluka Hospital Ratodero by police for fulfillment of legal formalities. The bodies were later handed over to their heirs. Police also recovered weapons from their possession.

KARACHI 07

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

Fire guts dozens of unclaimed vehicles KARACHI: A fire broke out on Wednesday during auction of unclaimed cars in Karachi with no casualties reported so far. The fire erupted in unclaimed vehicles, mostly scrap, in the central vehicle pool commonly known as Nazarat near Aziz Bhatti Park at Gulshane-Iqbal area. Dozens of cars parked at the ground were burnt down when officials were auctioning the vehicles. Fire fighters reached the scene and tried to douse the blaze. No loss of life was reported as nearby shanties were evacuated by police. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. The centralised vehicles’ pool supervised by city district management and police enables citizens to locate their vehicles recovered after being stolen or snatched. STAFF REPORT

Youth dead, 12 hurt as roof collapses

KARACHI: Smoke billows out from cars which caught fire near Aziz Bhatti Park. OnlInE

contaMination of Phuleli canal continues desPite govt’s ReMedial actions HYDERABAD

t

APP

HE contamination of the Phuleli Canal, a 60-mile long drinking and irrigation water source for three districts, continues even after the provincial government’s assurance for swift remedial actions.

The canal’s agricultural command area spreads over 629,650 acres in Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin districts. After a meeting with the concerned government departments a month ago, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) announced that the district administration would take immediate measures to stop the pollution. However, more than a month

has passed but the steps to address the environmental and contamination problems attached with the canal are yet to be taken. Sindh Environment Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro had announced after the meeting that the dumping of the solid waste on the canal’s banks would be stopped and the existing solid waste would be lifted.

He had also assured that the district administration would take steps for removal of illegal slaughter houses, cattle pens, poultry farms and other small businesses which dump solid and liquid waste in the canal.

Similarly, a committee was formed to survey all the 313 industries in the SITE area to check installation of the in-house waste treatment facilities and

the committee was directed to submit the report within a week.

“The district administration and the municipal officials are yet to begin lifting of the hundreds of tons of garbage from the canal’s banks and the removal of the slaughter houses, cattle pens and poultry farms had still not started,” the SEPA’s Regional Director Munir Abbassi confirmed while talking to APP. An official of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, who requested anonymity, told APP that the HMC lacks resources to lift thousands of tons of solid waste lying in the canal.

“The city taluka generates around 660 tons of solid waste daily and a large part of that waste is used to be dumped on the canal,” the official said. He

claimed that after the meeting with the environment minister last month the dumping of the waste on the canal had stopped. However, he admitted that the slaughter houses, cattle pens and poultry forms could not be removed.

Dr Ahsan Siddiqui, water technologist who heads the committee surveying SITE area industries, told APP that a survey had been completed. “It took us a little longer because we had to go to each of the industrial unit in SITE for examining the nature of the waste they generate as well as the installation of the in-house treatment facilities,” he said, adding that one-week time was too short to complete the exercise. He informed that the report would soon be submitted to the environment ministry.

igP orders strict security for polio teams

CoMPuteriSation oF land reCord

KARACHI: After the terror attack on a polio center in Satellite Town in Quetta, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ghulam Haider Jamali on Wednesday issued directives to officials concerned to take extraordinary measures to strengthen security for the ongoing polio drive in the metropolis. According to a statement issued by Sindh policess spokesman, the IGP directed officials to ensure security of polio teams and increase police patrolling and snap checking in the surrounding of polio centers, particularly in sensitive areas. He also directed officials to boost the information system with other law enforcement agencies to ensure better law and order situation in the city.

He further instructed official to ensure strict checks at the city’s all entry and exit points and border areas of the province at police station level and ensure monitoring process as per the law.

The IGP directed officials to strengthen the better wireless system so that the flow of information pertaining to security complaints could not be affected. STAFF REPORT

SC orders to remove two ACs for non-cooperation KARACHI OnlInE

The Supreme Court has ordered for removing the assistant commissioners (ACs) of Thatta and Mirpur Sakro for not extending cooperation in computerisation of land record.

When a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim took up the case for hearing on Wednesday, Nazar Laghari, consultant of revenue department Sindh, complained that assistant

commissioners of the two districts were refusing to cooperate in the process of computerisation of land record. Justice Muslim remarked that allotment of land was continuing in Sindh despite a stay order.

“No one will be allowed to do illegal work. With the computerisation of land record, fake allotment of land and other problems will come to end. Record should be computerised as soon as possible.” The court gave three months time to Sindh, Balochistan and K-P governments to computerise all their land record and adjourned the case for three months.

SHIKARPUR: At least one person died and 12 others were wounded when roof of a factory collapsed on Wednesday. Police said the roof of biscuit baking factory suddenly came down in Hubdar Mangi Industry Area at Khanpur Road in Shikarpur district. As many as 13 employees of factory were buried under the debris of which one identified as Roshan Mangi 25, died while 12 others were seriously wounded. The injured factory workers were pulled out from the rubble and shifted to Civil Hospital Shikarpur where condition of some wounded people was serious. InP

eight Safoora attack suspects handed over to military KARACHI: Eight suspects involved in Safoora bus attack were transferred from Central Prison Karachi to Malir Cantt for their trial before Special Military Court on Wednesday. The suspects are accused of attacking a bus on May 13, 2015, and killing at least 45 people who belonged to the Ismaili community in Karachi. According to the shifting order, prisoners should be returned after their trial at the Special Military Court since there are about 10 cases against the suspects pending in other courts. Suspects will only be presented before other courts once the military court completes the trial, adds the letter. The accused include Saad Aziz, Tahir Hussain Minhas and Hafiz Nasir, among others. STAFF REPORT

two women die after falling from roofs KARACHI: As many as two women died on Wednesday after falling from roofs of houses in different areas of the metropolis. According to rescue sources, Fatima, 50, wife of Noor Shah, died when she fell from the roof of her house near New Kumar Warah area of Lyari. The body was shifted to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) for an autopsy. In a separate incident, a woman, identified as Humaira, 40, daughter of Ismail, died when she fell from her house roof near Bhit, an area of Keamari. The body was shifted to (CHK) for an autopsy. STAFF REPORT

aSi arrested for taking ransom from citizen KARACHI: An assistant sub inspector (ASI) of Karachi police has been arrested for taking ransom from a citizen in Ghareebabad. Police arrested ASI Muhammad Akram, deployed at the Pakistan Bazaar Police Station in Orangi Town, red handed while taking ransom from a citizen for releasing a kidnapped man.

According to the police, seven illegally detained citizens were also recovered. The police said that a police mobile, ammunition and bullet-proof jackets had also been seized from the ASI’s possession. OnlInE

Police gun down two lyari gangsters

PSM’s gratuity fund case: ShC summons secretary finance KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday summoned the ministry of finance secretary to inform it on efforts taken for the payment of gratuity funds to 70 retired employees of Pakistan Steel Mills. The SHC bench, headed by Justice

Muhammad Ali Mazhar, was hearing the petition filed by 70 retired employees of Pakistan Steel Mills including Syed Umer Baqi and Muhammad Shafi who moved the court against the department for not paying their gratuity funds.

In Wednesday’s hearing, the secretary gratuity department of Pakistan Steel Mills appeared before the court and sub-

mitted office memorandum regarding the gratuity funds. The court issued notices to the secretary ministry of finance to appear in the next hearing and enlighten the court about the payment of gratuity funds.

Earlier, the petitioners submitted that they had completed the requisite time required to be the eligible to get gratuity funds but they were still de-

CMYK

prived of it. “Our children are in final stages of education or about to be married but deprivation of funds is causing financial problems for us,” they submitted. Citing the ministry of production, chief executive officer of Pakistan Steel Mill as respondents, the petitioners prayed the court to direct the respondents to pay their gratuity funds.

KARACHI: Police on Wednesday killed two alleged criminals of Lyari Gang War (LGW) near Kalakot area of the metropolis. According to police, it conducted a search operation on a tip off in Kalakot. However, during the search operation the criminals opened fire, and police gunned down two criminals identified as Asif and Faizan alias Shakil after the encounter and also recovered weapons from their possession.

According to the police, the criminals were involved in several cases of murder, extortion and cracker bomb attacks. STAFF REPORT

08 COMMENT

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

CPEC: the way forward

Regional security cooperation

Do we have the financial discipline to carry out this project?

Some good steps

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HiLE Pakistan and Afghanistan have been dealing with terrorists attacks for the last many years, the attack in Pathankot has once again exposed the vulnerability of india. there is a dire need, therefore, on the part of the three countries to work together to eradicate the menace from the region. A meeting of the topmost civil and military leaders was held yesterday in islamabad to review the response to national and regional security issues. the items on the agenda included action against the perpetrators of Pathankot attack, relations with Afghanistan, conduct of the operation Zarb-e-Azb, and implementation of National Action Plan (NAP). that this was the fourth high level meeting in a week underlines that the government is pursuing the current security threats with a sense of urgency never seen before. What is more, there is a consensus among the civil and military leadership that it is not possible to deal with terrorism in isolation. the high level meeting has expressed national resolve not to allow anyone to use Pakistan’s territory as a staging ground to export terrorism to any country. investigation conducted by Pakistan has linked JeM with Pathankot attack, leading to the arrests of the network’s leaders. JeMs offices all over the country are being searched and sealed. it has also been decided to send a special investigation team to Pathankot in consultation with india to gather information required to carry forward the process of cooperation with the neighbouring country. Mixed signals meanwhile continue to emerge from india. While indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar talked of revenge a couple of days back, Home Minister Rajnath Singh issued a more level headed statement.

What is needed on the part of New Delhi is to fully cooperate with Pakistan in investigations. india also needs to facilitate holding the Foreign Secretary level talks on time instead of resorting to delaying tactics. this is required to create confidence in New Delhi’s seriousness in promoting friendly relations with Pakistan by resolving mutual disputes.

Typical AfPak problems In a new setting

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HE one-step-forward-two-steps-back scenario is not new to the Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship, especially in the long years of the war on terror. And once again diplomatic progress has led to terror attacks in both countries; the typical reflexaction of the usual suspects to thwart any advances.

Usually this would lead to finger pointing from both sides, and the only assured outcome would be suspension of whatever talks were taking place. yet much is changed in this new setting. Both Nawaz and Ghani have overcome internal and external forces to keep their strong friendship and resolve intact. the Americans also realise that peace is essential for them to finally wrap up their longest war in history. And if a deal is not clinched now, Washington will have to cave into Pentagon demands for yet more troops to control a strengthening insurgency the Chinese, too, require an end to the fighting for their New Silk Route project to take off properly. And the taliban know that no matter how strong their offensive gets, they will never get anywhere near Kabul again, not without a powersharing arrangement. the chips, therefore, are in place for a historic deal. All that remains is the will. that is why the reaction from Kabul, particularly, is different this time. it recognises that the attack outside the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad came from ‘enemies of both countries’, not just Afghanistan. it seems, finally, that all sides have overcome playing into terrorists’ tactics by calling off talks whenever there is an attack. this will deprive the enemy of a far more potent weapon than its bombs and bullets. But once the blame game is over, a far more difficult part of the process will present itself; how to bring groups with such diverse ideologies to agreement, for example. All parties must, therefore, redouble their efforts in light of the recent attacks.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor

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

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dr Kamal monnoo

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itH $46 billion under ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) promised to trickle into Pakistan from China in the coming 15 years, the excitement here is quite understandable. For right or wrong reasons, comparison is being drawn with the colonial (European and primarily British) infrastructure and corporate investments in the country post partition (1947) and with similar neo-colonial (USA) investments post 1958, which for a long time went on to serve as incubators in our manufacturing sector’s growth and as the mainstay of our infrastructure development. Now China, the latest economic success story of the world, wants to assume the mantle of Pakistan’s economic patron – a strategy that also fits well with its larger vision of One Belt, One Road aimed at reviving the oriental glory days of the Silk Route trade.

Since Pakistan, on the other hand, has literally been starved of any real big-ticket underlying financial investment for almost over three decades now – partly owing to evolving regional geopolitical developments and partly due to sheer incompetence cum mismanagement of our economic managers – it almost seems over-eager to make CPEC happen at any cost; even if that cost in some areas threatens to be unsustainable for the country’s economic health in the long-run.

Everyone from politicians to bureaucrats to military hierarchy and to the self-styled business experts are busy singing endless praises for China’s generosity as if some divine windfall seems headed Pakistan’s way, in the process making CPEC a sacrosanct initiative where even slight or rational criticism is being regarded as sinful.

While not denying, even for a minute, China’s long-standing friendship, its support to us in difficult times and its favour to put investment per se back on the centre of our economic plate at a time when most western investors are treating Pakistan as a pariah, the reality remains that at the end of the day CPEC is a business proposition and needs to be looked as such. the reason, ‘business’, because the project does not involve outright grants or aid, but instead relies on business principles of interest based lending and borrowing underwritten by payback collaterals, which in this case happen to be sovereign guarantees of the state of Pakistan.

So, naturally if things were to go wrong, the implications could be grave. A failure would not

only deprive Pakistan of a rare opportunity to post significant growth and development, but also leave us in a financial quagmire, proving right those ‘naysayers’ who doubt our very ability to micromanage national projects. term it any which way you like, a sovereign guarantee is tantamount to external debt and at the end of the day a fiscal burden. And remember these loans - from the little information that has been released - carry a rather healthy ROi (return on investment) and tend to be front loaded, meaning before we know we can be confronted with huge obligations on external foreign exchange outflows. China is Pakistan’s well meaning timetested friend, but at the same time it is also the new global economic force that has rewritten management books with its peculiar successful business model of combining its state’s might and resources with corporate professionalism.

Not doubting its sincerity towards Pakistan but in this new Chinese corporate culture the fiduciary duty of safeguarding China’s interest before anyone else’s is taken quite seriously by its modern day economic managers. Likewise, we need to do the same. Basically, we need to learn from them how to corporatise economic propositions in order to overcome concerns on lack of transparency, political bickering, general public mistrust, and operational hazards. Regrettably, misplaced perceptions, innuendos and politicisation of CPEC seem to be taking root and unless (like in China) CPEC in Pakistan is also quickly put under professional control these emerging controversies carry the danger of undermining the entire programme.

Ahsan iqbal, arguably PML-N cabinet’s most committed and competent minister, seems headed on the wrong track. the fact is that he has a political leaning (even if it is by default) and given that his party’s record on transparency, merit and conflict-of-interest is far from stellar, no amount of press conferences, television shows or public explanations will end the brewing controversies. the only solution is to give CPEC’s decision making and its implementation control under an autonomous, non-political and professional Board.

And God knows the selection of an effective board of directors for an initiative of this magnitude is going to be a challenge in itself. Assuming responsibility of $46 billion is no mean task, because in the process lie the critical choices of balancing development and investments needs with the new evolving climate-change responsibilities; creating space for Pakistani private sector to partner in resultant economic activity from CPEC spending, so that maximum benefits accrue at home; evaluating project costs, returns and equipment sourcing from an arms length to ensure not only value for money but minimum project costs; undertaking decisions purely on economic grounds to put an end to provincial disharmony; and last but not least, prioritise and control the pace of spending in a way that safeguards sustainability of each investment project separately. History tells us

ABC for adults Recommendations for accelerated learning the English alphabet employing the exact same books used to teach toddlers. No wonder the school, along with similar schools around the country, was forced to shut down owing to exorbitant dropout rates.

Educational psychologists, after conducting extensive scientific research, have demonstrated that making use of concepts familiar to pupils markedly accelerates the learning process, something that might have been guessed without so much effort. if more adults are to be hooked to Facebook and the social media in general (which will keep them away from gossip and a life of crime), adult education has to be once again made a national priority.

Keeping the Pakistani society and psyche in mind, i have prepared a guideline for the preparation of an improved ABC book for adults, in the hope that it’s only a matter of time before institutions of adult learning blossom across the nation.

Most of the suggestions are self-explanatory and have been listed without comment. However, i have added a few words where i felt my choices needed some justification. this is nothing more than a rough, first attempt that inevitably leaves a lot of room for improvement. i realise that there are multitudes more qualified for this sort of

Hasan aftab saeed

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ixty eight years after independence, the literacy rate in Pakistan is still hovering around the 50% mark. Having obviously failed the nation, our education system needs to be revamped.

But it is not education in general that i wish to address here – that discussion is for another day. instead, my subject today is adult education. the more mature among my readers will doubtlessly recall the sorry fate of the Nayi Roshni Schools in the otherwise glorious eighties. the other day i accidently came across teaching material used at a now defunct adult school – a first floor room at a friend’s house (now serving as a storeroom). i was shocked to learn that adults had been made to learn

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Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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that it does not take long for unmonitored inflow/loans to turn from joy to pain; Greece, Portugal, and Spain, all being recent examples. the real challenge will be to select a board of directors which can achieve all the above. As it is imperative that we do not repeat past mistakes of appointing merely ‘trophy’ boards, an error that over years has played havoc with our public sector enterprises and in turn reduced them to naught. the government this time will, therefore, be well advised to avoid politicians, bureaucrats, friends, relatives, bankers and ex-multinational executives (often devoid of true spirit of nationalism) and instead opt for clean and competent private sector entrepreneurs from home who not only understand the role of board in a modern enterprise, but are also able to distinguish between different codes of governance and possess the skills to only select that very form of programme governance that adds value to the overall CPEC vision. As we know that no major investment can yield its due dividends unless its management (board) has the ability to identify the fundamentals for an effective performance, learn through global networking to add exceptional value, and to always put itself up for performance measurement to instill continuous excellence.

Lastly, like it or not, economic decisions and their outcomes cannot be frozen in a time warp.

Fifteen years is a long time and local, bilateral, regional and global economic events will keep on evolving during this period. it will be up to us to act proactively and chalk out policy and agreements that serve us well even with altered global realities. For example, it will be worth a ponder to determine that with fuel and energy prices crashing internationally, how prudent is our choice of coal as the main fuel in a potentially $34 billion investment proposal and what possible financial repercussions could we face say if the power tariff drops to a point that can no longer justify the returns being promised to our investors? After all, we have a recent example where the Chinese companies have threatened to walk away in the wake of reduction in the pre-fixed tariff for wind power. the thing is that Chinese generosity may not last endlessly. Already their patience is running out and they are asking Pakistani government to act professionally and avoid making CPEC controversial.

Also, lately the Chinese internal economic situation looks fairly grim and the worry in this for Pakistan could be that the Middle Kingdom’s troubles may one way or other have the effect of depressing its investment spending in countries that fail to live up to the operational and financial discipline it seeks in return. And for this reason alone we must act quickly to not only convince our Chinese friends that we have a sound structure in place to judiciously use its allocated funds, but to also satisfy ourselves that a professional team is indeed in place to manage these investments prudently regardless of changing political dispensations over time.

study than i am. it is in the hope of receiving invaluable feedback from some of those individuals that i am presenting the following, in order to set the ball rolling so to speak: A is for America.

B is for blasphemy.

C is for conspiracy.

D is for the doctrine of necessity. Democracy may be the best form of revenge in ordinary times, but extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. thanks to our excellent judges, this fact has been etched indelibly in the collective consciousness of the nation.

E is for emergency.

F is for FiR. G is for Governor’s rule.

H is for Hindustan. For a nation that agrees on very few things, there’s amazing consensus on the question of our arch-enemy. And God be praised for it.

I is for insha’Allah.

J is for judicial commission.

Judicial commissions are integral parts of our preferred mechanism for dispensation of speedy justice (incident happening, the PM taking notice, formation of judicial commission, the Jit, publication of report provided no detriment to national security).

K is for kaafir.

L is for LPG quota.

M is for Martial Law. N is for NRO. O is for operation.

P is for police.

Q is for Qarz utaro mulk sanwaro, a landmark in our history. it’s

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a reminder of the heights a nation can scale, given sincerity and outof-the-box thinking on the part of its leaders.

R is for Raheel Sharif.

S is for Saudi Arabia. China is a lifelong friend and ally, but it’s the Saudis who are our brothers. they are so brotherly and hospitable to their Pakistani brothers that they lovingly confiscate their passports immediately upon arrival in the Kingdom, lest a guest, by flying back to Pakistan, robs them of the opportunity to showcase their famous hospitality. Bless them!

T is for trump.

U is for umma, the Muslim umma. After all, how many adults have ever seen a real unicorn (the usual entry for U)?

V is for voodoo.

W is for World Bank.

X is for xanthippe. this was a hard nut, considering the paucity of words starting with an x. the usual entry in most books is xmas or xylophone – neither is acceptable for solid religious reasons. ‘xanthippe’ may not be a word many adults are familiar with, but given the large number of xanthippes going around, i am sure a man of average luck would have encountered at least one or two.

Y is for youthia.

Z is for Zionism.

Hasan Aftab Saeed is a connoisseur of music, literature, and food (but not drinks). He can be reached at hasanas@live.jp.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

COMMENT 09

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today,

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

DHA Lahore controversy

Pakistan’s economy On the revival come has increased to US$1513, foreign exchange reserves have reached the highest ever US$ 20 billion mark and stock exchange has touched new heights. this success story has repeatedly been endorsed by the international rating agencies iMF, the World Bank and the international media, lending credence to the government maliK muHammad asHraf claims. Bloomberg in a report observed “Nawaz ANAGiNG an economy government took charge like Pakistan’s is probably in the highly unfavourthe most excruciating and ble situation yet it has convoluted responsibility. been able to put the When the PML-N govern- country on the path of economic progress”. ment was installed in May 2013, the econ- Forbes observed “Macro-economic and omy of the country was on the verge of structural reforms over the last couple of collapse. the country faced a severe energy years have narrowed the budget deficit and crisis. Economic growth was below 3%, in- raised GDP to a stable level of 4.5%. Stanflation was at double digits, interest rates dards and Poor’s upgraded Pakistan’s credit were high, budget deficit was at 8.8% of rating from stable to positive. Explaining the GDP, investments were abysmally low, for- rationale for this up-gradation the report said, eign currency reserves stood at the lowest “the positive outlook reflects our expectation ever level and the country faced the prospect of Pakistan’s improved economic growth of an ignominious default on iMF loans. prospects, fiscal and external performance Now after two and half years the government and the supportive relationship of external can rightly boast of putting the economy donors over the next 12 months.” Moody’s, back on track. another credible rating agency, also upgraded to save the country from default on iMF credit rating of Pakistan. loans, the government accorded top priority the Wall Street Journal maintained that to negotiating US$6.4 billion Extended Fund Pakistan’s economy has improved, thanks to Facility (EFF) with the agency and was able the prudent monetary and fiscal policies of the to avert a catastrophic situation for the coun- government. Similarly, The Economist in a retry. iMF has already released nine tranches of cent report said, “there were some indications the EFF and negotiations for the tenth are of upturn in spending as the state bank has cut currently in progress. it lost no time in putting its bench mark interest rate to 7%, the lowest in place measures to address other aberrations in 42 years. those in search of a thriving stock in the economy. through prudent, rational market, a stable currency market and low inand visionary management of the economy flation would not normally pitch up in Pakthat focused on macro-economic structural istan. yet Pakistan is enjoying a rare period of reforms, expansion in tax net, investment in optimism about its economy. the economy is infrastructure and energy projects and initia- likely to grow by 4.7 %, the fastest rate in eight tives aimed at reducing budget deficit, the years. the government of Nawaz Sharif degovernment has been able to orchestrate a serves credit for the new stability in the econdiscernible turn around in the economy, omy. it has stuck to an iMF programme and notwithstanding the devastation wrought by consequently foreign exchange reserves have floods and expenditure on military operation more than doubled. the new stability is enZarb-e-Azb and volatile political conditions. couraging.” the iMF and World Bank are also there are credible and verifiable signs of on record to have endorsed claims of recovery revival in the economy by the government. the owing to the steps taken World Bank, reportedly, by the government. the also has agreed to probudget deficit which vide US$ 10.2 billion to stood at 8.8% in 2013 The Wall Street Journal Pakistan during the next has been brought down five year for policy reto 4.8%, inflation has maintained that Pakistan’s forms in the energy secbeen reduced to 4.53%, revenue economy has improved, tor, credit to agriculture secmobilisation, govertor has increased to nance, social sectors and thanks to the prudent Rs515.87 billion, develinvestment in hymonetary and fiscal opment spending has dropower. touched Rs427.67 bilAnother strong and lion, GDP growth which policies of the government. irrefutable evidence of was in the vicinity of the revival of the econ3.1% has been enhanced omy and the opportunito 4.24%, per capita inties thrown open for

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foreign investors was the overwhelming response that Pakistan received on the issuance of Eurobonds. For the five years bonds, the response came from all geographical regions.

Nearly 59 percent were subscribed in US, 19 percent in UK, 10 percent in other European countries, 10 percent in Asia, 8 per cent by banks, 7 percent by hedge fund and 1 percent by insurance companies and pension funds. in respect of 10year bonds also most of the money came from US. this response undoubtedly was a result of strenuous and consistent efforts of the economic managers of Pakistan to showcase the marked improvement in economic indicators and the success of the economic reforms introduced by the present government at all the international economic forums.

Apart from the foregoing achievements, the government, honestly speaking, has shown remarkable sense of urgency and commitment in tiding over the energy crisis. Under the China-Pak Economic Corridor, China has committed to make an investment of $34 billion in the power producing ventures with a cumulative power generating capacity of 10,600 MW to be completed between 201718. Another 6,645 MWs of early harvest projects in the energy sector are on the actively promoted list. the Prime Minister inaugurated 100 MW solar power unit at Bahawalpur recently which will come on stream by the end of December and would eventually produce 1,000 MW electricity. two more units with power producing capacity of 300 MW and 400 MW which were jointly inaugurated by the visiting Chinese President and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will also be constructed on the same site which will become operational by the end of next year. these are all very auspicious developments and would go a long way in boosting the already buoyant economy. the government has already added 3,000 MW electricity to the system due to which power outages have been drastically reduced. the government is also focusing on improving the distribution network and is encouraging the private sector to invest in the projects related to electricity transmission which needs a complete overhaul to be able to carry the existing power producing capacity as well as the electricity which is likely to be added to the system in the future. these achievements despite the formidable challenges and debilitating variables inherited by the government are commendable to say the least. they promise a great economic future for Pakistan.

To save the country from default on IMF loans, the government accorded top priority to negotiating US$6.4 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the agency and was able to avert a catastrophic situation for the country.

Malik Muhammad Ashraf is an academic. He can be contacted at: ashpak10@gmail.com

REFERENCE retired Brigadier Amjad Kayani’s unconvincing arguments on numerous channels. the decision by Gen Raheel Sharif to prosecute corrupt khaki officers involved in irregular activities will restore army’s prestige and dignity. it is too important an institution to be made hostage to greed of few within its ranks. they owe it to thousands of valiant soldiers who offered supreme sacrifice.

Universally accepted code of morals and ethics for men of honour, such as the principle of conflict of interests, have been trampled by the likes of Kamran Kayani and a few members of this family. they should have given a thought to prevent the blowback their conducting of real estate business within cantonments, especially DHA, a subsidiary of an organisation that their elder brother headed, would create. is it mere coincidence that huge construction contracts were awarded to them during the tenure of their brother while he held important assignments? this abuse of late has become very profound by those holding important paid or elected public offices in this country where corruption has become so rampant that it has eroded our moral values and harmed economy, resulting in booming of criminal economy which offers perfect environment for terrorism to spread.

Political and paid public office which is voluntarily acquired with an oath to uphold constitution in letter and spirit has been reduced to an instrument for abuse by submitting to insatiable greed for money and assets. DHA established as welfare housing society for the next of kin of shaheeds and injured ghazis has become a commercial venture often tainted with controversies, ever since Musharraf introduced points system for multiple plot allotments to individuals who retired unhurt after gainful employment with perks and pension. it was during his tenure that “File System” was introduced and plots existing only on paper, with not sufficient physical acquisition of land by DHA became a scam involving a former officer nicknamed Zar-Zameen. this irregularity should have been nipped in the bud, instead of being regularised with disastrous consequences such as DHA Lahore expanding into what constituted almost our Second Line of Defence in 1965, should have raised alarm bells. the controversy involving DHA Valley islamabad’s allotment of plots for general public is unacceptable and culprits must be punished.

ALI MALIK TARIQ Lahore

Flawed thought process i do not know how much of the criticism of the proposed GwadarKashgar motorway is valid and how much is not, but going by past experience i can safely say that most of it must be pure fantasy. tarbela dam was opposed because it would reduce flow in the indus, but the flow actually increased and Sindh was able to cultivate an additional 27 lakh acres. However, the naysayers did not allow this simple fact to interfere with their thought process. Kalabagh dam is being opposed for the same reason, and also because Punjab will take too much water from it as it is in Punjab although nothing could be more absurd than this. if the same thought process is in play now, then we might as well say goodbye to the Gwadar-Kashgar motorway.

ENGR KHURSHID ANWER Lahore

A menace for Karachiites i want to draw the attention of the concerned authorities over a grave matter of concern affecting the general public. the menace of stray-dogs has assumed an alarming proportion as one can see pye-dogs roaming freely on streets, main thoroughfares and residential areas of Karachi. i fail to comprehend as to why the district administration has failed to launch an anti-pye-dog campaign and curb the growing menace of stray dogs despite the increase in dog bite cases across the city. these stray dogs have become a huge of concern and nuisance for the citizens as it has become almost impossible for children to play and the elderly people to continue with their morning-evening-night walks. Private schools in residential areas are common in Karachi and i myself have witnessed dogs chasing school kids both in the morning and afternoon. No one seems bothered about the psychological trauma that children who walk to school go through daily because of these dogs. the worst affected are the people who are either going to work or returning home after performing night duty and those visiting their local mosques particularly during isha and Fajr prayers on foot. Scores of stray dogs are seen roaming freely and they even attack the wayfarers in broad daylight. important to mention that not everyone can afford the anti-rabies vaccine administered to dog-bite victims. A full-fledged campaign against stray dogs Karachiwide is imperative and need of the hour. i shall be grateful to the district administration to look into the matter are do the needful at the earliest.

MUHAMMED ZAFIR ZIA Karachi

Fedayeen of modern times MytH is that the word ‘assassin’ was derived from the Arabic word haschishin, the hashish user. it is said that Hassan ibn Sabbah built a ‘paradise’ in his mountain fortress Alamut and under the influence of hashish, his fedayeen used to occasionally visit the paradise for few nights and then proceed on a mission to assassinate some high official or ruling elite in the neighbouring governorates and states. it was Hassan’s doctrine for his fedayeen to murder the target in a public place, to let everyone be terrorised, but at same time win the hearts of the masses by dying courageously if caught by the security forces. that was 1100s when Hassan was terrorising the Middle East of his time, now it’s 2016. Anything changed? i doubt it. if Hassan was using hashish to control his fedayeen, Daesh is using its own interpretation of religion to brainwash educated and civilised masses to become animals to assassinate even their mothers to please their masters. Al Saqr AlQasem, a Daesh fighter shot dead his mother, Leena, in a public place.

What was her fault? She wanted her son to leave Raqqa, Daesh’s socalled capital. instead he turned her in to his followers ruling Raqqa nowadays. She was charged with apostasy and was sentenced to death.

She was executed by her own son. Who said ibn Sabbah died in 1124?

He is very much alive and taking far uglier forms. the world is facing ‘assassins’ who are now on a new type of ‘hashish’.

MASOOD KHAN Jubail, Saudi Arabia

10 BUSINESS

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

CORPORATE CORNER Meezan Bank and TPL Direct Takaful enter alliance for Car Ijarah customers

GovT ASSureS IMF oF PrIvATISInG STATe enTITIeS ThIS yeAr ISLAMABAD

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KARACHI: Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s first and largest Islamic bank has announced its strategic alliance with TPL Direct Insurance Limited, Pakistan’s first direct insurance, for providing Takaful Coverage of Meezan Bank’s Car Ijarah vehicles. The agreement was recently signed by Mr. Mohammad Raza, Group Head Customer Support - Meezan Bank and Mr. Saad Nissar, Chief Executive Officer - TPL Direct Insurance in Karachi. Commenting on this signing, Mr. Mohammad Raza said: “This powerful collaboration between Meezan Bank’s premium product Car Ijarah and TPL Direct Takaful’s exemplary service standards will enable both the companies to maximize their opportunities in reaching out to segments that want Shariah-compliant alternatives to conventional insurance.’’ PReSS ReleASe

Turkey’s top Industrialist hails Pakistan’s potential for economic development LAHORE: A leading Turkish Industrial Giant, Kale Group, with a growing worldwide footprint and diverse portfolio of interests including ceramics, machinery and equipment manufacturing, defense, chemistry, electrical appliances, energy, IT, transport, tourism and food industries, is the latest overseas investor to enter the Pakistan market. Joining hands with the El Nafey Group, one of Pakistan’s leading entrepreneurships, the Kale Group company, Kaleseramik has openeda spanking new seven story exclusive showroom in Lahore to display and market the complete range of Kale brand Ceramic tiles and bathroom furniture and fixtures. The opening ceremony was attended by leading businessmen, builders, architects and socialites comprising of Pakistan’s renowned personalities from the business, professional and trend setting community at a glittering affair that attracted hoards of citizens and the media. PReSS ReleASe

MD SnGPL visits Multan road office LAHORE: MD SNGPL AmerTufail visited sub office Multan road and expressed his displeasure on the lack of provision of quality services to the consumers. Accordingly, he suspended Incharge Sub-office Multan road. He further directed that all employees shall ensure provision of expeditious service to public at large, on immediate basis. PReSS ReleASe

STAFF RePORT

HE Pakistani government on Wednesday assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLIC) in the ongoing year.

Pakistan has provided a roadmap of the privatisation spree under IMF’s Economic Reforms Programme.

According to the blueprint, steel mills would be privatised by September 2016, while by June, at least 26 per cent shares of the national airlines would also be sold.

Meanwhile, the government is also planning to sell 10 per cent to 15 per cent shares of State Life Insurance, Kot Addu Power Company’s 40 per cent and Mari Petroleum Limited’s 18 per cent shares in the ongoing year.

Meanwhile, the number of Personal Income Tax (PIT) filers has increased by more than 200,000 over the last two years in Pakistan due to a variety of measures introduced by the authorities.

The Executive Board of International

Monetary Fund has also welcomed improvement in Pakistan`s economy as a result of economic reforms, reported a private news channel quoting IMF statement.

The board said despite difficult circumstances, Pakistan has made substantial progress in reducing near-term economic vulnerabilities.

“Economic growth gradually increased from 3.7 per cent in fiscal year (FY) 2012/13 to 4.2 per cent in FY2014/15. During the same period, efforts to reduce power subsidies and raise tax revenue have lowered the budget deficit from 8.4 to 5.4 per cent of GDP, although part of this adjustment reflected clearance of quasi-fiscal liabilities in the energy sector in 2013.”

The board said that there was a clear decrease in inflation in the recent years and Pakistan`s foreign exchange reserves had also shown steady increase.

The directors welcomed Pakistan`s continued improvement in economic activity and the fiscal and external positions, on the back of low oil prices and strong remittances.

They commended the authorities for significantly reducing near-term vulnerabilities in recent years.

Oil prices rebound after falling below $30 SINGAPORE AGenCieS

Oil prices rebounded in Asia Wednesday, halting a plunge that saw them fall below $30 a barrel for the first time in more than 12 years but analysts warned of further pressure on the commodity.

Investors had an eye on the release later in the day of the US commercial crude stockpiles data, which is expected to show another increase, further exacerbating a global supply glut that has hammered the market for 18 months. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in February rose 26 cents, or 0.85 percent, to $30.70 per barrel at around 0330 GMT. European benchmark Brent rose 10 cents, or 0.32 per cent, to $30.96. On Tuesday, WTI fell at one point to $29.93, a level last seen in December 2003, although they were given a lift later by a private report pointing to a drop in inventories. However, experts warned that prices remained fragile.

“The supply and demand landscape for

oil continues being bearish as prices continue to take discounts,” Daniel Ang, an analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore said in a market commentary. “US oil supply continues to remain strong despite reports of US shale production being one of the higher end from a cost perspective.”

Bernard Aw, a market strategist with IG Markets Singapore said, that if the market continues to test the $30 price level, “it is possible that the mark might eventually break”.

He said the long-term trend is for prices to fall, with the supply glut not showing any let up. Oil-reliant OPEC member Nigeria on Tuesday called for an emergency meeting of the cartel to address collapsing prices, which have rattled world stock markets and hammered energy firms. The Nigerian Petroleum Resources Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said he expected an extraordinary meeting of the group in “early March” to discuss the crisis. “We did say that if it hits the $35 (per barrel level), we will begin to look (at)... an extraordinary meeting,” Kachikwu said at the Gulf Intelligence UAE Energy Forum.

Pakistan proposed initiatiation of talks on PTA with Afghanistan, Senate informed RAWALPINDI: Models on ramp during “Fashion Wave and Musical evening” organised by the Pearl Continental Hotel, Rawalpindi. PR

Islamabad: Pakistan has proposed to initiate negotiations on Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Afghanistan. Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir said that a draft text of PTA had been shared with Afghanistan through diplomatic channels. The Afghan side is expected to convey its response this month. Online

DAR TO REPRESENT PAKISTAN AT AIIB’S OPENING CEREMONY IN BEIJING ISLAMABAD inP

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar will represent Pakistan at the high-profile launch of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is becoming operational from this week.

Top Chinese leadership will be present at the opening ceremony, scheduled to take place in Beijing on Saturday. AIIB will be a source of funding for infrastructure projects in Pakistan and other regional countries. The finance minister is expected to avail the opportunity to brief the Chinese leaders about the implementation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Agreement on AIIB was signed by 57 prospective founding members including Pakistan in June last year on the initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

With authorised capital of $100 billion, the AIIB will initially prioritize investment in energy, power generation, transportation, rural infrastructure, envi-

ronmental protection and logistics.

AIIB President Jin Liqun has expressed interest in financing infrastructure projects in Pakistan in various sectors including energy, transport, seaports and urban development. During his recent meeting with Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, the AIIB president had praised Pakistan’s rich potential in infrastructure sector.

According to Liqun, the bank was looking forward to closer cooperation with Pakistan’s public and private sectors. The bank’s officials will be visiting Pakistan soon to discuss collaboration in dif-

ferent projects. It will work with other world institutions, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to achieve the objective of progress and prosperity.

According to sources in the Finance Ministry, Chinese banks are already financing the projects under CPEC. AIIB, on the other hand, will meet about 70 per cent of the infrastructure funding needs of Asia.

Pakistan signed the articles of agreement (AoA) of the AIIB during a ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in June last year.

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The board lauded steps of the government to increase revenue collection and decreasing subsidy on electricity. The IMF Board also appreciated restructuring of institutions running in losses.

Directors stressed the importance of further reducing public debt to more sustainable levels, while preserving room for higher spending on critical infrastructure, educational, and social programmes.

They welcomed the additional measures taken to close the revenue shortfall and encouraged comprehensive, front-loaded reforms to mobilise revenue, including broadening the base, streamlining concessions and exemptions, improving tax compliance and enhancing coordination with provincial tax authorities.

SeCP proposes amendments in Companies (General Provisions & Forms) rules, 1985 Islamabad: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has proposed amendments in the Companies (General Provisions & Forms) Rules, 1985 to minimise the growing incidents of corporate disputes between the shareholders and the management or within the management. The proposed amendment has been notified in the official gazette for solicit of public opinion.

The proposed amendments prescribe detailed procedure for transfer of shareholding in a private company. The shareholders of a private company shall have pre-emptive right to buy shares offered by any other shareholder. Moreover, in case of all private and public unlisted companies the amendments also prescribe the returns for notifying transfer of shares to the registrar within 15 days from such transfer. Regarding further allotments of shares, the proposed amendments bind the company to send offer for new shares to the existing members at least 15 days before the last date of the acceptance of offer. The payment of the shares so accepted by the member shall only be made through normal banking channel. In case of removal of directors under section 181 of the Companies Ordinance, the proposed amendments prescribe certain documents to be annexed with the prescribed form-29 to be filed with the registrar for notification of such removal. STAFF RePORT

Garment exporters complain of delay in sales tax refunds KaRaCHI: Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Chairman Shaikh Mohammad Shafiq said on Wednesday that the government had not given any price cushion to the consumers for many months despite the fact that oil prices had been falling constantly which were as low as $30 per barrel on Tuesday. He said the government should take drastic steps for enhancing exports and addressing the problems faced by industrial sector on top priority basis. Despite certain hurdles, the business community engaged with readymade garments was making strenuous efforts for enhancing the export in the larger national interests and provided huge employment in this sector, he said. However it’s a drop in the Ocean as the value-added export-oriented industrial sector of the country has still urged the authorities responsible for the implementation of the power tariff cut to ensure deduction of Rs 3 per unit for industries as announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. STAFF RePORT

BUSINESS 11

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

PoL prices likely to be cut by rs 13 in Feb ISLAMABAD inP

The petroleum prices are likely to cut by Rs 13 as Arab light crude oil has reached a new low in last 13 years. Sources in the ministry of petroleum said on Wednesday that a cut was expected in petrol price by Rs 9 per litre, high speed diesel by Rs 8.74, light diesel by Rs 8.56, kerosene oil

by Rs 9.77 and high octane by Rs 13 per liter. In February, the prices of petroleum products should at least go down by Rs 10 following the sudden decline in the price of crude oil in international market to 13year-low, observers said.

Private sector borrowing shoots up to rs 212b KARACHI STAFF RePORT

Private sector borrowing from banks during the six months to December stood at Rs212 billion, higher than Rs208bn the sector borrowed during the entire previous fiscal year. The country’s economy, which grew at 4.2 per cent during FY15 despite low credit off-take, is expected to achieve a growth rate of 5pc if the pace of borrowing continues with the same pace. Low interest rate, which still has no chance to see an upward move due to prevailing historically low inflation, is the major reason behind the rise in private sector borrowing.

Another reason is improving law and order across the country which has helped restore investors’ confidence. Cheaper money also has great attraction for the government as it has been reducing its interest payments through borrowing from cheaper sources.

During the first half of this fiscal year, the government changed its borrowing pattern from the scheduled banks. It started borrowing through short-term cheaper treasury bills (T-bills) compared to highyield Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs). In the third quarter (January to March) of this fiscal year, the government plans to borrow Rs1.6 trillion through T-bills and Rs200bn through PIBs. A recently issued report of the State Bank of Pakistan indicated that the banks were also lending for the long term while most of the money goes for working capital. Long-term borrowing for the manufacturing sector would yield better results for the overall economic growth. If the pace of borrowing continues for the next six months, the credit off-take will surpass the borrowing made in FY14 that was Rs371bn. For the last eight years, the country has been facing a declining trend of credit-to-GDP ratio which fell to as low as 13pc in FY15 from 27pc in FY08. If this ratio increases, it will also help attract foreign investment which is negligibly small at present.

eCC APProveS 15-yeAr LnG DeAL wITh QATAr COMMITTEE AUTHORISES SINDH SUGAR MILLS MAY NOT QUALIFY FOR SUGAR PSO TO EXECUTE AGREEMENT SUBSIDY AS ECC WILL OFFER FEDERAL SUBSIDY ONLY WITH QATARI AUTHORITIES TO THOSE BUYING SUGARCANE AT PUNJAB’S PRICES ISLAMABAD

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STAFF RePORT

meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet was held on Wednesday with Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar in the chair to review key economic indicators.

The committee also took decisions regarding export of sugar and wheat and import of LNG from Qatar.

On a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Commerce, the ECC decided that federal share of cash support on export of sugar will be allowed only to those sugar mills which purchase sugarcane at a minimum price of Rs 180 per 40 kg from the farmers. The Committee emphasised that millers who do not pay the full price to the farmers should not benefit from government support for the exports.

Sindh government has set sugar-

cane price at Rs 172 per 40 kg, which means that sugar mill owners in Sindh would not qualify for subsidy on sugar.

The committee approved a proposal from Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources for signing of the LNG Sale Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Qatar Gas Operating Company-2 for a period of 15 years and authorised the PSO to execute the SPA under government to government arrangement after completing the due process.

On another proposal from the Min-

istry of National Food Security the committee also approved the export of surplus wheat by the provinces of Sindh and Punjab to the tune of 200,000 tonnes and 400,000 tonnes respectively.

Considering the low prices of the commodity in the international market, the committee also decided that subsidy would be provided to the exporters on the same lines as under the previous scheme which expired in September 2015. The new scheme will be implemented with immediate effect and will

PARC develops 10 hybrids of 4 crops to increase production, NA told ISLAMABAD STAFF RePORT

The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) had developed 10 hybrids of maize, sunflower, canola and fodder to increase their production.

Parliamentary Secretary for National Food Security and Research Rajab Ali Baloch told the House during question hour that efforts were underway to develop rice and cotton hybrids. He said benefits of these hybrids depended on the vol-

ume of investments.

To a question, Rajab Ali Baloch said the National Agricultural Research Centre had developed a bioradiation model for waste water treatment for irrigation. He pointed out that this technology reduced water-related and water-borne crop diseases and damages to national bio-diversity.

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the House that the government was trying hard to make the recovery of electricity bills from consumers. Answering a question,

the minister said that the ministry of water and power was sponsoring a number of water sector development projects pertaining to small dams.

He said so far about 30 small dams had been built in different provinces.

Parliamentary Secretary for Industries and Production Rao Ajmal said that during the last two years Pakistan Steel had suffered losses due to interrupted supply chain of raw material and insufficient fund position. He said at present Pakistan Steel was closed due to non-supply of gas. He hoped that gas supply would be restored next month.

Chinese companies due on Jan 18 for ‘matchmaking’ ISLAMABAD AMeR SiAl

While there may be many reservations on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the political circles in Pakistan, the Chinese side remains committed to the project as a large delegation of the Chinese corporate sector is coming to hold talks with Pakistani companies on joint ventures, outsourcing and green field investments on January 18.

Around 100 prominent Chinese companies from energy, textiles, agriculture, engineering, telecommunication, mining and construction sectors are due for a week-long visit where they will hold B2B talks with Pakistani corporate sector on trade and investment related issues. Their visit will kick off with a Business

Opportunities Conference on January 18-19 at Islamabad. The conference is being organised by the Ministry of Commerce with the support of Board of Investment, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and the World Bank.

The Chinese delegation consisting of CEOs and corporate executives will then proceed to Lahore where B2B sessions will be held with prominent industrials and businessmen of the province on January 20. The Chinese delegation will also visit the industrial areas in Punjab on January 21. On the final leg of their journey, the Chinese delegation will have a meeting with officials of the Pakistan Business Council on January 22 in Karachi.

China is a major trading partner of Pakistan and their bilateral trade was $12.29 billion in fiscal year 2014-15.

continue till March 15.

The finance secretary presented to the committee a review of key economic indicators. It was informed that the positive trends in the economic indicators had continued during the last quarter. During the last six months Inflation remained at 2.08 per cent compared with 6.08 per cent during the same period of last year. Large scale manufacturing sector registered a growth of 4.2 per cent in July-October 2015-16 as compared to 2.5 per cent in the same period last year. As a result of decline in imports the trade deficit during July-December 2015-16 stood at $ 11.9 billion compared to $ 12.1 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

Workers’ remittances received during July-December 2015-16 amounted to $ 9.735 billion against $ 9.162 billion last year, showing an increase of 6.3 per cent. Foreign exchange reserves crossed an all time high of $21 billion in December 2015. FBR tax collection during July-December 2015-16 increased to Rs 1,385.2 billion compared to Rs 1,171.9 billion in the same period of 2014-15 thus registering an increase of 18.2 per cent. Net inflow of foreign investment during July-November 2015-16 was recorded at $824.9 million, the ECC was informed.

Several provincial depts defaulted on electricity bills, says Shahid Khaqan ISLAMABAD APP

Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said that several provincial departments were defaulters of electricity bills worth billions of rupees. Replying to a question on behalf of Minister for Water and Power in the National Assembly, he, however, said that the Ministry had also succeeded to recover bills from some departments but several institutions were still among the defaulters. Giving an example, the minister said that electricity connection of WASA Haiderabad was disconnected due to nonpayment of more than Rs 1 billion but that the said department succeeded in getting a stay order and its connection was ultimately restored. He admitted that some institutions were also involved in extravagant consumption of electricity. Replying to another question, Abbasi informed the House that 25-30 small dams were being constructed in various provinces. Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the provinces were jointly executing the projects of small dams, he added.

Merchandise exports dip 14pc to $10.3b ISLAMABAD

ECONOMY ON RIGHT TRACK TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE GROWTH: PM ISLAMABAD APP

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday said that the present government has put the national economy on the right track to achieve sustainable growth.

He said it ensured absolute transparency and merit in the financial transactions, which encouraged the investors to invest in Pakistan.

“The government’s economic policies are aimed at improving the overall economy for which the key issue of energy shortfall is addressed on priority basis,” he said in a meeting with a delegation of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) led by its president Atif Bajwa.

The Prime Minister further said the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the economy was phenomenal and

the present government was ensuring all necessary steps to attract further FDI. “We are determined to pursue investors’ friendly policies and provide an ideal environment to local and foreign investors,” a press release quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

President OICCI Atif Bajwa said that the ease of doing business in Pakistan has improved under the present government and majority members of OICCI planned to invest more in Pakistan. He further said that 82% members foresaw continuing growth in the

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next 2-3 years, 79% members would advocate for more FDI while 69% members of OICCI expected to contribute more taxes and employed more people.

Thanking the Prime Minister for his business-friendly and investors’ friendly policies, the president OICCI said that the investment risk profile substantially improved during the present government. The meeting was also attended by Minister for Commerce Engr.

Khurram Dastgir Khan, Mifta Ismail, SAPM/Chairman BOI and other senior officials of the government and members of OICCI.

STAFF RePORT

Merchandise exports fell by 14.40 per cent in the first six months (July-December) of 2015-16 to $10.322 billion from $12.058 billion in the same period last year. During December 2015, exports declined by 16.80pc to $1.788bn from $2.149bn in the same month last year, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data. Decline in exports was mainly attributed to the textile sector and other products like petroleum (naphtha and petroleum products), jewellery, leather products, engineering goods, furniture, cement and guar. Government has worked out a three-year Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF) 2015-18. The draft was already approved by the prime minister, but awaiting federal cabinet approval.

Meanwhile, imports also fell by 7.86pc to $22.246bn during July-December 2015-16 from $24.145bn in the same period last year.

However, imports slightly increased by 0.23pc to $3.843bn during December 2015 from $3.834bn in the same month last year.

The decline in import bill was mainly driven by lower oil prices in international market.

The trade deficit contracted by 1.35pc to $11.924bn from $12.087bn in JulyDecember 2014-15. In December 2015, trade deficit surged by 21.96pc year-on-year.

12 WORLD VIEW national review

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Jay HaLLEn

S the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis metastasize, we need a new approach for these unfolding human tragedies. To date, the Obama administration has mostly sat on the sidelines, in part because of war fatigue, but mostly because in the crowded mix of factions fighting in Syria, there are no good actors to support.

After the Pentagon’s embarrassing admission that $500 million put only “four or five” Syrian opposition fighters on the ground, it is clear that it’s fantasy to think we can find reliable Syrian allies who are both anti-ISIS and anti-Assad — which is the official policy of the administration and most leading presidential candidates.

It would require threading a needle that is impossibly thin, with the assumption that we could vet and then arm rebels who might claim loyalty to the U.S. one day, but who resort to sectarian and tribal vendettas the next. And even in the event that we did find such a group and it assumed control, we’d still have a long way to go before consolidating power and making the transition to relative peace.

But the gravity of the Syria crisis is such that we no longer have the luxury of holding out for a solution that is ideologically appealing. Realpolitik is the only option.

Throwing U.S. support behind President Bashar al-Assad is simply the best, or least bad, option left. Supporting Assad means confronting three uncomfortable truths, all of which simmer just beneath the policy debates on the airwaves and at Capitol Hill.

First is the admission that the Middle East was a safer and more stable place with Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi in power. To be clear, both had murdered their own people en masse and were megalomaniacs of the first order.

However, they were also secular despots who kept jihadism and sectarian violence in check. Power vacuums stemming from the demise of both tyrants have incubated some of the worst chaos, hatred, and human misery that the world has ever seen. If ISIS represents the worst-case scenario, then Assad is preferable. The second uncomfortable truth is that realist foreign policy has triumphed over an idealistic one, at least when the Middle East

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

AccepT The uncomforTAble TruTh: iT’s Time To supporT AssAd

is concerned. The idealist policy reached its high-water mark at the end of the Cold War, when the spreading of Americanstyle democracy and capitalism won hearts, minds, and substantive geopolitical gains throughout Eastern Europe. On 9/11, the tide turned toward a realist policy, particularly when the world learned that many of the hijackers had been middle-class university graduates residing in Germany. Later, realism’s supremacy became apparent as efforts to build a representative democracy in Iraq faltered under the harsh realities of sectarianism and corruption, despite America’s best efforts.

Not only did Iraqi democracy become a conduit for sects and ethnic groups to promote their own interests at the expense of others, but it also fomented civil war and strengthened Iran’s strategic position, working directly against American interests. To support Assad, therefore, is to accept that our idealistic goals are unachievable and that only hard-nosed realism can support our strategic interests, at least in the Middle East.

One should note that there is a longterm sustainable, idealist solution to Middle East sectarianism, but it involves erasing and redrawing the ill-conceived borders of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon that the Sykes-Picot agreement

by Britain and France cemented in 1916, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Sykes-Picot ignored tribal and religious affinities, while imposing the foreign concept of the nation-state on groups of people with little in common. Many, even most, Middle East observers long for an idealist final solution that rewrites current boundaries.

Supporting Assad remains the only realistic path that will return us to the relative stability of the pre–Arab Spring days, and that will defeat ISIS. No one is more motivated to defeat ISIS than Assad, who would like to reassume Syria’s internationally recognized borders and seek re-

venge on atrocities that ISIS has committed against captured Syrian soldiers. In return for supporting Assad, the U.S.-led coalition could lobby for amnesty for other fighters — such as Kurds, Turkmen, and non-ISIS-aligned Sunni groups — who are willing to put down their arms.

Assad is a viable source of stability also because of his unconditional support from Iran, which fears and detests ISIS for the threat it poses to Shiite dominance of the region. To reiterate, strengthening Iran’s strategic position is no one’s leading choice, and Tehran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah destabilizes Lebanon and threatens Israel. But since the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah has mostly kept its ambitions in check and has made efforts to gain political legitimacy. More broadly, since the fall of Saddam, the specter of a Shiite hegemony that spreads across the Levant has paled in comparison with the horrors wracked by Sunni extremist terrorism. We face two undesirable choices, and one is clearly better than the other.

Supporting Assad requires us to face a third uncomfortable truth: Vladimir Putin, for all of his faults, is pursuing the right strategy. Despite the benefits of supporting Assad, the idea is a non-starter

Exporting the Chinese model

Project Syndicate Francis Fukuyama

As 2016 begins, an historic contest is underway over competing development models – that is, strategies to promote economic growth – between China, on the one hand, and the US and other Western countries on the other. Although this contest has been largely hidden from public view, the outcome will determine the fate of much of Eurasia for decades to come.

Most Westerners are aware that growth has slowed substantially in China, from over 10% per year in recent decades to below 7% today (and possibly lower). The country’s leaders have not been sitting still in response, seeking to accelerate the shift from an exportoriented, environmentally damaging growth model based on heavy manufacturing to one based on domestic consumption and services.

But there is a large external dimension to China’s plans as well. In 2013, President Xi Jinping announced a massive initiative called “One Belt, One Road,” which would transform the economic core of Eurasia. The One Belt component consists of rail links from western China through Central Asia and thence to Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. The strangely named One Road component consists of ports and facilities to increase seaborne traffic from East Asia and connect these countries to the One Belt, giving them a way to move their goods overland, rather than across two oceans, as they currently do.

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which the US earlier this year refused to join, is designed, in part, to finance One Belt, One Road. But the project’s investment requirements will dwarf the resources of the proposed new institution.

Indeed, One Belt, One Road represents a

striking departure in Chinese policy. For the first time, China is seeking to export its development model to other countries. Chinese companies, of course, have been hugely active throughout Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade, investing in commodities and extractive industries and the infrastructure needed to move them to China.

But One Belt, One Road is different: its purpose is to develop industrial capacity and consumer demand in countries outside of China.

Rather than extracting raw materials, China is seeking to shift its heavy industry to less developed countries, making them richer and encouraging demand for Chinese products.

China’s development model is different from the one currently fashionable in the West. It is based on massive state-led investments in infrastructure – roads, ports, electricity, railways, and airports – that facilitate industrial development. American economists abjure this build-it-and-they-will-come path, owing to concerns about corruption and self-dealing when the state is so heavily involved. In recent years, by contrast, US and European development strategy has focused on large investments in public health, women’s empowerment, support for global civil society, and anti-corruption measures.

Laudable as these Western goals are, no country has ever gotten rich by investing in them alone. Public health is an important background condition for sustained growth; but if a clinic lacks reliable electricity and clean water, or there are no good roads leading to it, it won’t do much good. China’s infrastructure-based strategy has worked remarkably well in China itself, and was an important component of the strategies pursued by other East Asian countries, from Japan to South Korea to Singapore.

The big question for the future of global politics is straightforward: Whose model will prevail? If One Belt, One Road meets Chinese planners’ expectations, the whole of Eurasia, from Indonesia to Poland will be transformed in the coming generation. China’s model will blossom outside of China, raising incomes and thus demand for Chinese products to replace stagnating markets in other parts of the world. Polluting industries, too, will be of-

within Washington’s foreign-policy establishment and among nearly all the presidential candidates. I recently posed the question to a Middle East expert at the center-left Atlantic Council, and to a prominent writer at Commentary magazine. Both reacted incredulously, dismissing it out of hand. “Impossible. Assad has to go — he just has to,” remains the bipartisan refrain. When I pressed, both started down the well-worn path, arguing that we must find the “moderate Syrian opposition.” The think-tank expert at the Atlantic Council went on to claim that the moderate opposition would not actually need to conquer and govern the country, only to rebel enough to entice a coalition of “stakeholders,” including the U.S., Russia, and Iran, to come to the table for a grand agreement that would have Assad step down, with a transition to a consensus successor. This is unrealistic, wideeyed idealism.

Meanwhile, the Commentary writer asserted that Assad had lost all moral authority and that the other ethnic groups would never accept him again as their president. This line of thinking offers no constructive alternative to calming the current chaos, and it ignores the fact that Syria was never a

floaded to other parts of the world. Rather than being at the periphery of the global economy, Central Asia will be at its core. And China’s form of authoritarian government will gain immense prestige, implying a large negative effect on democracy worldwide.

But there are important reasons to question whether One Belt, One Road will succeed. Infrastructure-led growth has worked well in China up to now because the Chinese government could control the political environment. This will not be the case abroad, where instability, conflict, and corruption will interfere with Chinese plans.

Indeed, China has already found itself confronting angry stakeholders, nationalistic legislators, and fickle friends in places like Ecuador and Venezuela, where it already has massive investments. China has dealt with restive Muslims in its own Xinjiang province largely through denial and repression; similar tactics won’t work in Pakistan or Kazakhstan.

This does not mean, however, that the US and other Western governments should sit by complacently and wait for China to fail. The strategy of massive infrastructure development may have reached a limit inside China, and it may not work in foreign countries, but it is still critical to global growth.

The US used to build massive dams and road networks back in the 1950s and 1960s, until such projects fell out of fashion. Today, the US has relatively little to offer developing countries in this regard. President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative is a good one, but it has been slow to get off the ground; efforts to build the Fort Liberté port in Haiti have been a fiasco.

The US should have become a founding member of the AIIB; it could yet join and move China toward greater compliance with international environmental, safety, and labor standards. At the same time, the US and other Western countries need to ask themselves why infrastructure has become so difficult to build, not just in developing countries but at home as well. Unless we do, we risk ceding the future of Eurasia and other important parts of the world to China and its development model.

Francis Fukuyama is a senior fellow at Stanford University and Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. His most recent book is Political Order and Political Decay.

democracy of the governed, and that the Assad family never held moral authority in their four decades in power.

Finally, supporting Assad requires us to face a third uncomfortable truth: Vladimir Putin, for all of his faults, is pursuing the right strategy. It is understandably difficult for the administration to publicly align with Russia and Iran, but the least we can do is offer tacit support. This means we should stop offering nonstop criticism of Russia’s activities in Syria, and halt obstructive moves such as persuading Greece and Bulgaria to close their airspace to Russian planes flying in arms.

In the year I spent in post-war Iraq, I met many Iraqis who told me that as terrible as Saddam was, they preferred him over the anarchy, sectarian militias, and death squads that followed. Saddam was predictable: Everyone knew what they could and could not do to stay in the regime’s good graces and avoid becoming a political prisoner (or worse). In the current environment, the lack of predictability and the never-before-seen sectarian violence are deeply disturbing to Iraqis and Syrians alike. They contribute significantly to the fracturing of the region. Supporting Assad’s diminishing grasp on power gives us one more chance to act on the lessons learned from the recent past. All of this raises a core question: Do the administration and foreign-policy community genuinely think it is “impossible” to support Assad? Or have the grim realities detailed above simply made the prospect too unpalatable? No doubt a reversal of course would make for uncomfortable speeches and mockery from pundits. None of that will compare, though, to the death and misery resulting from the status quo.

Jay Hallen has advised financial institutions in Iraq and Egypt. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and part of the Leadership Network of the Foreign Policy Initiative.

Turkey's Terrorism problem BloomBerg Tuesday’s terrorist bombing in Istanbul wasn’t as deadly as last year’s in Ankara, and there’s at least one other difference that’s encouraging -- if such a word can be used for an attack that killed at least 10 people and injured 15 more: This time, President RecepTayyip Erdogan hasn’t tried to blame it on Kurdish militants.

Turkey deserves all the help and sympathy it can get after this attack on the heart of the country’s vital tourist industry. While the details remain sketchy, it appears that a Syrian-born man carried out a suicide attack next to the 3,500-year-old Obelisk of Theodosius, in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district.

Afterward, Erdogan warned his people that they must now stand either with the government against terrorists -- including both Islamic State and the insurgent Kurdistan Workers’ Party -- or with the terrorists. But the government would do well to consider its priorities, too: It can focus on the crucial fight against Islamic State or allow itself to be perpetually distracted by the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq and eastern Turkey.

If Erdogan sounds defensive, it’s because many Turks hold him personally responsible for what they see as blowback from both the PKK and Islamic State. In the case of the PKK, that’s because Erdogan ended the peace process he had been fitfully pursuing until last summer, a decision that -- whether by accident or design -- helped him to claw back votes for his party ahead of parliamentary elections last year.

As for Islamic State, its adherents hide in plain sight among the 2 million or more Syrian refugees in Turkey. In his attempts to dislodge President Bashar Al-Assad from power in Syria, Erdogan turned a blind eye to extremist fighters crossing the border, including Islamic State fighters. This allowed the group to put down roots in Turkey.

In recent months, security forces have at last begun to sweep up Islamic State cells in Turkey and close the border. But as the response to last year’s suicide bombing in Ankara -- the worst in modern Turkish history -- showed, the government remains consumed by its focus on a war with Kurds it did much to fan.

In truth, Turkey was always going to be caught up in Syria’s civil war simply because of geography. Yet the best way for Erdogan to demonstrate his determination to take on Islamic State now would be to de-escalate the Kurdish conflict. Turkey’s Kurds have negotiable demands on language rights and autonomy. And while the PKK carries out terrorist attacks, too, its leader -- Abdullah Ocalan -- is in Turkish custody and available for talks. Peace-minded Kurds are represented by elected politicians in the Turkish parliament, and rather than continue to accuse them of “treason,” Erdogan should talk with them about cooperation. Turkey’s Kurdish problem, in other words, is difficult, but solvable.

Islamic State’s goals, in contrast, can never be accommodated.

Rather than fight a war on two fronts, Turkey’s security forces should be able to focus all their resources and efforts toward eliminating Islamic State.

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

ARTS

Ghulam Ali performs in India despite Shiv Sena protests last year Are there clear skies ahead for Pakistani artistes visiting India?

Legendary ghazal singer Ghulam Ali was finally able to perform in Kolkata after his earlier concert was cancelled in Mumbai last year due to security threats, reported IANS The maestro expressed his gratitude and happiness at the beginning of the concert: “I am very happy today. I have been coming to Kolkata for 30 to 35 years. But this time it feels like I have come back after 50 years. I was so sad and today my sadness ends.” He also lauded the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as he performed with his son Aamir at Netaji Indoor Stadium. He referred to Banerjee as Saraswati who is the Hindu goddess of wisdom and music: “I am grateful to her. She has done us a favour in the form of Saraswati.” The minister welcomed the singer by gifting him a shawl and scarf and also requested Ghulam Ali to revisit Kolkata. He has previously performed in the city in 1981. Agencies

FASI ZAKA Time to give another species a chance to evolve. Humans seem hell bent on their own extinction and taking down as many others as possible.

13

Ainy JAffri, OsmAn KhAlid Butt tO stAr in upcOming film ‘BAlu mAhi’

A

EntErtainmEnt DEsk

CTOR Ainy Jaffri and Aunn Zara star Osman Khalid Butt have been finalized as leads in upcoming rom-com Balu Mahi. The film will be directed by Haissam Hussain of Dastaan, Dureshawar and Aunn Zara fame and produced by Mera Naam Yousuf Haproducer Sadia Jabbar.

The shoot is slated to begin later this month.

Ainy, is the vocals for lead character Jiya in animated TV serial Burka Avenger, she made her film debut with Main Hoon Shahid Afridi the same year.

Osman, on the other hand, has amassed a large fan base after his hugely popular TV shows Aunn Zara (2013) — which was a hit across the border as well — and Diyar-e-Dil (2015).

Music composer Sahir Ali Bagga has been hired to produce the soundtrack for the film.

‘Mira is my wife, she is not an actress’: Shahid Kapoor

NICHOLAS KRISTOF

David Bowie predicted future of internet 16 years ago

Sad to see Obama citing US approach to Syria as a "smarter approach." Syria is Obama's greatest foreign policy failure.

FAISAL JAVED KHAN There's a shadow on the faces Of the men who send the guns To the wars that are fought in places Where their business interests run

VICEPRESIDENTPPPP Strongly condemn cowardly attack near polio centre Quetta.

We can't allow daily martyrdoms to be lost in this selective action plan

MUNAZA HASSAN Vital institutions like PIA, WAPDA,Pak Railways & Pak Steel Mills are being privatised despite the fact that they were earning profits.

Pan Am pilot’s daughter’s touching letter to ‘Neerja’ makers EntErtainmEnt DEsk The intensely disturbing and emotional trailer of the biopic on Pan Am flight purser Neerja Bhanot has touched a chord with not just moviegoers but actual survivors of the ill-fated flight, which was hijacked in Karachi in 1986. The makers of the film have received tons of emails and over 200 odd survivors of the tragic incident have conveyed their gratitude for dedicating this biopic to their hero, the 23-year old Neerja Bhanot.

EntErtainmEnt DEsk Shahid Kapoor is still remembered for his brilliant performance in Haider and people are more than willing to forgive him for the Shaandaar debacle as they look forward to his multiple releases in 2016. The actor has several impressive films lined up starting with Udta Punjab, Rangoon and AK Vs. SK, where allegedly wife Mira is rumoured to be making her debut.

In a recent interview published in Bollywood Life, Shahid openly speaks about

his choice of roles, the films and unexpectedly even his fears. He says, “Fears are to repeat myself and to focus on the wrong things because the focus should not be resultoriented. The focus should be on the process because if you work in a result-oriented manner, in a profession that’s so unpredictable, you usually become frustrated, unhappy and blame other people for the failures that you go through. Again, when success comes your way, you start behaving like you’re the king of the world. It’s a wrong approach to life. Rather, if you

enjoy what you’re doing, then regardless of the result, you would feel satisfied with the experiences that you had while making the movies that you made, the people that you connected with, the journeys that you took, the attempts you made.”

Regarding the rumour surrounding his wife Mira Kapoor’s debut, Sasha is more guarded. However, he does say, “I am loving all the stuff that I have been reading everywhere. I won’t tell you what’s true and what’s not.

Aap log socho. Mira is my wife, she is not an actress.”

I AM AMAZED I HAVE BECOME A STAR: SHAH RUKH KHAN People love him, fans are obsessed with him, and mothers adore him — yet King Khan claims he is “not a fan of himself”.

“Before I could become a fan, I became a star. I still don’t understand how people love me so much… care for me, and their mothers and children and families [also shower affection]. It is quite a responsibility for me sometimes,” said Shah Rukh Khan. The actor had been shooting for Maneesh Sharma’s film Fan, and admitted that the upcoming release was a dif-

ficult journey.

In the film SRK essays a fan who is obsessed with a reigning superstar who looks just like him, and travels to Mumbai to meet the actor.

When asked how he juggled playing the roles of an obsessed fan and a superstar, the megastar said it felt “quite schizophrenic”. “One has to

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maintain a dignity of what a fan is.

That part I have kept in mind. It’s been a difficult journey as an actor… quite schizophrenic… quite dichotomous,” he said.

The Dilwale star is still puzzled as to how he has become a star, and reveals that he does not love himself. Agencies

Who knew the rock legend was also an internet visionary? Fifteen years ago, David Bowie explained that the “alien life form” we call the internet would soon become a giant, capable of bringing artists and audiences together and changing the landscape of media altogether. In an interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight, the music and fashion icon, who lost his battle with cancer just a few days ago, believed then that the internet had a lot more to offer in terms of content and context and that we were at “the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying”. “We haven’t even seen the tip of the ice berg,” he said. “I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable.” In his eyes, the internet has taken the role of being “subversive, possibly rebellious, chaotic and nihilistic”.

While Paxman didn’t seem too convinced, David explained that the internet ‘demystified’ the process between the artist and the audience.

Before, it was about single artists and separate entities, but with the advent of the internet it was more about the genre — playing a communal part between audiences and musicians and allowing the former to become a part of the latter, possibly playing just an important part as the artist. “Because the point of having somebody who led the forces has disappeared, the vocab of rock is only a conveyor of information, not information, the internet has taken on that,” he added. From absolutism, to fragmentation, the singer broke down how the internet has changed the construct of society.

“The singularity [and duality in the way of life in the 70s] disappeared and that has produced such a medium as the internet which established that we live in total fragmentation.” “It’s just a tool though, isn’t it?” questioned a confused Paxman. “No, it’s not… no. It’s an alien life form,” replied David. “The actual context and the state of content is going to be so different than what we can envision at the moment, where the interplay between the user and the provider will be so in simpatico it’s going to crush our ideas what the mediums are all about,” he said. Agencies

14 LEISURE

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

HaGaR tHE HoRRIblE

aries

taurus

gemini

Even the best-laid plans may fall apart while trickster Mercury retrogrades through your 11th House of Community over the next three weeks. It's no fun to discover that you made two social commitments.

Career objectives are overdue for reconsideration but you don't have to make a final decision today. Mercury's threeweek retrograde in your 10th House of Public Responsibility kicks off a serious reevaluation.

Your political opinions might be up for debate, but rather than defending your ideas, try keeping an open mind instead.

It's not that you should blindly adopt a point of view different from yours. Just.

cancer

leo

virgo

You could feel misunderstood after taking a risk and baring your soul to a trusted friend or companion. Faulty assumptions might increase the gulf even further if you try to talk it out.

Mercury turns..

Interpersonal dynamics are bent out of shape today as messenger Mercury turns retrograde in your 7th House of Significant Others.

Unfortunately, using the silent treatment isn't a very effective way to.

If you recently made resolutions to improve your lifestyle, you might realize that you're on the verge of slipping or, perhaps, you have already missed your target. Mercury's retrograde turn in your 6th.

libra

scorpio

sagittarius

A romantic relationship may run into troubled waters now that mischievous Mercury is retrograding through your 5th House of Love. Something you said recently can come back to haunt you. But rather than.

It might not matter how many times you go over the details on a project at home; Mercury's retrograde through your 4th House of Domestic Conditions may still reveal more loose ends. However, there's no.

You're easily distracted by someone's ingenious idea, whether or not it has practical merit. Unfortunately, you might commit resources to a job that ends up being a waste of your time. Mental Mercury turns.

dIlbERt

GaRFIEld

baldo

capricorn

aquarius

pisces

You bring more to the table than you realize, but it might require some time before others acknowledge your value while Mercury retrogrades through your 2nd House of SelfEsteem. Fortunately, you don't.

It is the best of times and the worst of times as clever Mercury turns retrograde in community-minded Aquarius.

Communication takes center stage as you engage with others who can help you achieve success.

Although you normally take your dreams to heart, Mercury's current retrograde in your 12th House of Spiritual Mysteries warps the information you receive from the imaginal realms. Ironically, your instincts.

cRosswoRd

sUdoKU

woRd sEaRcH

ACROSS

bRIdGE

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

hose instrument internet lies pivotal plane porcine putty rapier scar scimitar squeal steal sting thrive tied tiff tine trounce

Today’s soluTions

loUIE's dEbt sERvIcE

cHEss Black TO PlaY aND MaTE IN ThrEE MOVEs 8

crossword solution

7 6 5 4 3 2

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

chess solution

A

1...Rb1 2.bxd6 f3+ 3.Kxf3 Rxb3+

1

sudoku solution

1 draw in by creating a vacuum (4) 3 relating to sound (8) 9 Japanese portable barbecue (7) 10 general meaning of an utterance (5) 11 blow one's own trumpet (5) 12 bosom (6) 14 crude but effective (5,3,5) 17 marijuana cigarette (6) 19 relinquish (3,2) 22 spotted scavenger (5) 23 person using statistics to calculate insurance premiums (7) 24 morning-after problem (8) 25 suez (anag) (4) DOwn 1 austrian composer of the trout piano quintet (8) 2 hooded snake (5) 4 playground structure (8,5) 5 loosen (5) 6 north african country (7) 7 heart (4) 8 whisky (6) 13 words with the same meaning (8) 15 very many (7) 16 tell (6) 18 us state, capital boise (5) 20 vestige (5) 21 former ruler of iran (4)

activate blip branch brand brass card celery clever crown drift enter epicure fence gather glade gleam gorgeous grind hinder

SPORTS 15

Thursday, 14 January, 2016

De Villiersunsure of long-term future A

SportS DeSk

B DE VILLIERS has refused to commit his long-term future to Test cricket despite being named South Africa’s stand-in captain and has warned that leading players will leave international cricket behind unless there are significant changes within the game. De Villiers, who was reported to be considering early retirement at the start of the England series when he also spoke about managing his workload, has once again emphasised the need for time off and explained his own uncertainty in the current set-up.

“There have been a few rumours floating around, and in most rumours there is always a little bit of truth,” de Villiers said. “It’s not just in the last while; it’s for two or three years I’ve been searching for the right answers, to play a little bit less cricket in one way or another, to keep myself fresh and to keep enjoying the game. Every now and then in the past few years I’ve found myself on the pitch not enjoying myself as much as I should be, and that raises concerns

within myself. I’ve been searching for answers and speaking to people and obviously that’s leaked a bit.”

That also means de Villiers is not sure whether he will want to lead South Africa’s Test team permanently, even though he earlier said that being given the captaincy was the “fulfilment of a lifelong dream.” The decision on who will take over as long-term successor to Hashim Amla, who stepped down after the Newlands Test, will be made during the winter break which is also when de Villiers will decide on his own future.

“I’m still very committed, to the job I’m not sure - obviously the two Test matches for now are all I’m focusing on and then there’s a nice big break of six months before we play Test cricket again.

Lots of things can happen before then so I don’t want to commit myself too much to everything before that. But for now, I’m as committed as I can be and very, very hungry to make a success of the next two Test matches,” de Villiers said.

Asked what he will consider in that period, de Villiers was unsure but mentioned the things that he would still like

to achieve as an international cricketer, which stretch across various formats.

“I honestly don’t know. But I’ve got some good advice around me, good people who have my best interests at heart, and we’ll just try to make the right kind of call on which direction I want to go,” he said.

“My focus is on international cricket and I want to play for as long as possible. I’ve got dreams of winning World Cups and maintaining this No.1 status in Test cricket for as long as possible. Obviously I want to get my experience across to some of the youngsters. There are so many dreams that

I’d like to follow. I’d just like to sit down, take some time away from the game and discuss all these things and make the right call.” For the next four months, de Villiers will find it difficult to get away from the game. After the Tests against England, South Africa play five ODIs and two T20s against the same opponents and three T20s against Australia before the World T20 in March and early April, which will be closely followed by the IPL. De Villiers is contracted to Royal Challengers Bangalore until the end of 2017 on a deal worth Rs 9.5 crore (US$1.5 million). At today’s exchange rate, that is 23.45 million rand, which is at least ten times more than his national contract which is believed to be between 2 and 3 million rand. The financial implications of that gulf against the backdrop of the congested international schedule is the biggest challenge facing the games’ global organisers, according to de Villiers.

“I think it’s a growing concern for the ICC and they’ve been talking about it for the last few years to find the right structure to keep all the guys fresh.

Former South Africa cricketer charged with matchfixing SportS DeSk A former South African national player has been charged with corruption involving match-fixing.

The player, who has yet to be named, is understood to be the same “intermediary” who was the subject of a CSA press release in December, following attempts to influence results in South Africa’s domestic competition, the Ram Slam T20 Challenge.

In their original statement, CSA said the intermediary had been charged under its anti-corruption code with “contriving to fix, or otherwise improperly influence aspects” of the 2014-15 domestic Twenty20 competition.

The person involved had also been charged with “failing, or refusing without compelling justification, to cooperate with an investigation carried out by an anticorruption official.”

South Africa’s Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act Law was introduced in 2004 and included a so-called “Hansie clause” to tackle corruption in sporting events, such as those for which Hansie Cronje, South Africa’s former captain, received a life ban from cricket in 2000.

Rain forces OtagoWellington tie SportS DeSk

The players involved in the competition will face the lesser charge of failing to report an approach, a breach of the ICC anti-corruption code that carries a ban of up to five years if found guilty.

“Our attitude to corruption will always be one of zero tolerance and we are confident that we have the necessary structures in place to effectively deal with

any corrupt activity,” said Haroon Lorgat, the CSA chief executive, in December.

“We will relentlessly pursue under our code and the law of the land any persons we believe to be involved in corrupting the game and, with assistance from the police, we will also seek criminal prosecution.”

UNCONTRACTED PLAYERS STILL ELIGIBLE FOR SELECTION: WICB

SportS DeSk Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy will be eligible for selection for upcoming tournaments, including the World Twenty20, despite not being given annual retainer contracts by the West Indies Cricket Board. The only condition the WICB has placed is that the players will need to meet criteria set

in place by the selection panel, led by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd.

The six players are not part of the group of 15 who were given retainer contracts for the period between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016.

According to Michael Muirhead, the WICB’s chief executive, the selectors had shortlisted 15 players for the contracts based on certain criteria that were drawn keeping in mind the future

of West Indies cricket. Muirhead pointed out that the aforementioned six players - including Sammy who captains the West Indies T20 side did not fit into the selection panel’s vision and hence were not given a contract.

“The selectors did the retainers based on where they saw West Indies cricket going and the philosophy which they wanted to encourage and adopt, principally being loyal to commitment

CMYK

and really build for the longer form of the game,” said Muirhead. “Lloyd had previously said how and where he was projecting our cricket to go, and how he wanted to build it.”

According to Muirhead, the 15 players were shortlisted by the panel and endorsed by the WICB based on the “combination of their performances in the regional tournaments as well as their attitude”. Still, Muirhead insisted the six players should not misread the situation as they would be eligible for forthcoming series, if the selectors deemed fit.

Some of the six players have failed to feature in the list of contracted players in the past, for reasons ranging from disputes with the WICB to voluntarily declining the retainer. In January 2015, Gayle and Narine had refused the retainer contracts as they wanted to focus on playing domestic Twenty20 leagues around the world, where they are marquee players. “When Chris Gayle and Narine refused our retainer contracts some years ago it was so that they had the freedom to do what they wanted,” Muirhead said. “But they are eligible to play all our games if they meet our criteria. This not a penalty.”

Muirhead said most of the players had made the decision to make themselves unavailable because they wanted to be free to play in T20 leagues to earn more. “And they took that business decision to do so,” Muirhead said.

Wellington and Otago, the two teams bringing up the rear of the Ford Trophy points table, played out a tie at Basin Reserve. Set 250 to win, Wellington’s lineup could only accelerate at a run-rate of 3.21. They had made 74 off 23 overs when rain arrived, stayed and put an end to the match. In the end, the two teams had to share two points each. Otago, who had won the toss, but had only one batsman capitalising on it even though six of the top eight got off to starts. Neil Broom made 54 off 57, with eight fours but his wicket paved way for a mini-collapse. Otago slipped from 147 for 2 to 172 for 6 before Mark Craig at No. 8 hit 46 off 41, with three fours and two sixes. They were all out for 249 without batting their full quota of overs, and the main reasons for that were seamer Brent Arnel and offspinner Jeetan Patel. The duo claimed four wickets and gave away only 54 runs in 19 overs, a combined economy rate of 2.84. Their colleagues, however, went at well more than double that rate. Matt McEwan, Anurag Verma and Alecz Day bowled 29.5 overs and leaked 196 runs. Otago’s bowlers, however, were able to put up a miserly display from all sides. Jacob Duffy, the 21-year old seamer, came away with figures of 5-1-8-1 and their most expensive bowler, Craig, still only conceded 25 runs in five overs, one of which was a maiden.

Perhaps that was because Wellington were trying to build a solid enough base first, believing they had 50 overs to chase down 250. Captain Michael Papps and Stephen Murdoch were in the middle of a 69-run partnership when bad weather broke out and Wellington had to settle for a tie. At the time, they had nine batsmen left to tackle an equation that read 176 off 27 overs and an asking rate of 6.5. Tom Latham strengthened his bid to claim a permanent place as New Zealand’s one-day opener with a fluent 96 off 111 balls that helped his state side and table-toppers Canterbury to a 98-run victory over Auckland at Hagley Oval. Latham batted through to the 38th over to set a strong foundation, and though his team lost all six remaining wickets and were all out in the 49th over, they had a formidable 265 on the board.

SPORTS Thursday, 14 January, 2016

Amir’s return will tAke pressure off me, sAys wAhAb

p

AKISTAN already have a bowler who is quick and hostile, and another who specialises in yorkers and reverse swing, but the return of Mohammad Amir may help round out the pace attack’s threat, Wahab Riaz said. The visitors have brought a pace-heavy squad to New Zealand - Anwar Ali and Aamer Yamin also in the mix, while Umar Gul, Amir and Wahab himself make up the more high-profile seam options.

“Amir is a great introduction to the team,” Wahab said. “He’s getting a chance. He’s a great fast bowler he’s proved that in the past. It’s time for him to prove here as well. And he will prove it.

With him there’s less pressure on me as a bowler, because I’m getting his support.

Umar Gul is back and is doing really well.

It’s going to be a good combination for Pakistan.” Amir’s return to national team had in part been paved by his outstanding returns in the Bangladesh Premier League late last year. He took 14 wickets at an average of 12.64 and an economy rate of

5.56 in that tournament, where his swing and seam movement appeared largely undiminished by five years of suspension.

“Amir is a good inswing bowler, bowling with the new ball,” Wahab said.

“He can bowl outswing as well. If you can take wickets with the new ball the pressure will always be on the batsmen.

That’s I’m saying that him coming into the team will help us more.”

On paper, Pakistan’s attack appears stronger than the Sri Lanka bowling unit New Zealand plundered 147 for 2 against on Sunday. New Zealand’s top order has been in excellent form, but Wahab suggested Pakistan’s attack would present them with a sterner challenge.

“It seems like cricket is very easy these days for the New Zealand batsmen,” he said. “They’ve been hitting balls really well. It’s going to be a different challenge because we have much more good bowlers than Sri Lanka. They lacked experience, but we have experience and some quality bowlers as well.

It’s not going to be easy for them to score

runs against us. “We cannot sit back and see what they are doing. We will definitely attack, and let’s see. If they can play good cricket - hats off to them.”

Sri Lanka had struggled to contend with the small dimensions of Eden Park, but Pakistan have had recent success at the

Umar Akmal suspension put on hold

Umar Akmal’s one-match suspension has been put on hold, which means he will be available to play the T20 against New Zealand in Auckland on Friday. The decision was made after the player appealed against the suspension; the PCB confirmed that his penalty stands suspended till his appeal is decided upon by a tribunal.

Umar was handed the one-match suspension last week for a clothing breach in Pakistan’s domestic first-class tournament, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. He had been reprimanded twice earlier for the same offence, before being given the ban, which

was applicable to his very next game any official level of cricket scheduled to be Friday’s T20. All through, Umar had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“Umar has advised PCB that he wishes to appeal against the ban,” the PCB said. “Since Umar has opted to appeal against the decision, hence as per the PCB’s regulations, the penalty of one match will remain suspended until the decision of appellate tribunal.”

The PCB had found a flaw in procedure days after the team management was informed not to play him in the opening

game of the New Zealand tour. It is understood that there is a procedure in place that requires a match referee to conduct a formal hearing in any case where the player pleads not guilty to the offence. However that procedure was not followed, with the match referee handing out the penalty and taking the signature of team manager without hearing out the player. He was officially found to have breached the PCB code of conduct for players, relating to “abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings during a match”. Agencies

ground, having defeated South Africa there by 29 runs, during last year’s World Cup.* “We have some good memories here,” he said. “The World Cup game we played here were very successful for us.

“It’s a great preparation for the World T20. Winning here against the Black

‘Perfect’ Djokovic raises hopes of Golden Slam SpOrtS DeSk Novak Djokovic is hitting ever greater heights ahead of the Australian Open posing problems for his rivals, and raising distant hopes of the first ever men’s “Golden Slam”. Picking up where he left off after a blistering 2015, Djokovic destroyed Rafael Nadal in last week’s Qatar Open final, in a performance the Spaniard called “stratospheric”. “I played against a player who did everything perfect. I know nobody playing tennis like this ever,” said the 14-time Grand Slam-winner.

No male player, and only Steffi Graf on the women’s side, has ever achieved the “Golden Slam”: winning all four major titles and Olympic singles gold in a single year.

Last season Djokovic fell just one victory short of the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Rod Laver in 1969, after losing the French Open final to Stan Wawrinka.

Acknowledging his form, the 28-year-old said in Doha: “I’m hoping that I can actually peak and play as well as I did today in Melbourne.” A strong performance looks likely in Melbourne, Djokovic’s most successful Grand Slam where he has won five out of five finals, including last year against Andy Murray. But the 10-time major champion will not be looking too far beyond the year’s opening Grand Slam, which starts on Monday. “My thoughts are only directed to Melbourne and what I need to do there,” he said.

SRI LANKA SKIPPER PLEDGES ACTION OVER ‘MISCONDUCT’ SpOrtS DeSk Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews Wednesday promised “no mercy” for any team mates found guilty of misconduct during a disastrous tour of New Zealand after the sports minister raised allegations of drunken behaviour and squabbling.

Dayasiri Jayasekera said he had seen photos of national players at all-night drinking parties just before crucial matches against hosts New Zealand who achieved a virtual clean sweep in the just-ended tour.

Mathews, 28, said an official probe had begun into the allegations that players attended parties until 3 or 4am, and of tension within the team and with interim coach Jerome Jayaratne.

“I can’t deny or accept that these things happened,” said Mathews. “But, I can promise that there will be no mercy for any member found guilty of misconduct.” He said the team could have done better and admitted the New Zealand tour was “demoralising”.

Sri Lankan spectators heckled the national team as it lost the final T20 match while social media sites showed footage of player Tillakaratne Dilshan engaging in an angry exchange with a spectator who asked him to retire.

“As players, we don’t play to lose and you get hurt when spectators say things like this,” Mathews said.

“Fans are also hurt when we lose and you have to look at it from both ways.”

Sri Lanka went to New Zealand as defending champions of the shortest form of the game, but slipped to

Caps could be a great confidence booster for the team. The way they are playing right now - if we get the series win here, it will be great for Pakistan cricket. “ This article had said Pakistan won their most recent T20 series in the country, but New Zealand had been victors. Agencies

Ronaldo statue in Madeira tagged with Messi’s name LISBON Agencies

third position this month behind the West Indies and Australia after a resounding defeat in the T20 matches.

Sri Lanka also lost the Tests 0-2 and the one-day series 1-3 to the hosts.

The sports minister said Sri Lanka would also focus on finding a long-term coach after Marvan Atapattu quit weeks before his contract was due to expire in Sep-

tember last year.

Sri Lanka appointed Jayaratne as interim coach, initially for the home series against the West Indies and then for the New Zealand tour.

Jayaratne, 49, had been head of coaching at Sri Lanka Cricket but his elevation to oversee the national team was seen as a stop-gap arrangement.

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi.

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Cristiano Ronaldo’s statue in Funchal, capital of his home island of Madeira, has been tagged with the name and shirt number of arch-rival Lionel Messi, according to local press reports. The graffiti was put on the statue overnight on Tuesday, just hours after Barcelona’s Argentine star Messi claimed a fifth world player of the year award, beating out Real Madrid’s Portuguese striker and three-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo in the process. The name Messi and the number 10, both scrawled in red, had already been cleaned off the statue, the Diario de Noticias da Madeira said.

“It’s a shameful act committed out of jealousy towards him,” said Ronaldo’s sister Katia Aveiro, with pictures of the tagged statue predictably doing the rounds on social media.