E paper pdf (17 12 2016) (lhr)

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Saturday, 17 december, 2016 I 17 rabi-ul-Awwal, 1438 I rs 20.00 I Vol VII No 168 I 20 Pages I Lahore edition

COAS vows to avenge APS martyrs

Gen Qamar Bajwa confirms death sentences of 13 terrorists Driver killed, 10 children injured in indian firing on school van

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Indian deputy HC summoned, protest lodged

PM says fight against terrorists to be taken to logical end

file photo

STORY ON PAGE 03

Spotlight on rumourS

There’s impression new CJ, COAS favour PML-N: Imran Khan STORY ON PAGE 04

STORIES ON PAGE 02

STORY ON PAGE 02

All bodies of havelian plane crash identified: minister g

Says rs 5.5 million will be given to families of each crash victim STORY ON PAGE 03

CCI AGreeS TO HOLd POPuLATION CeNSuS IN MArCH, 2017

STORY ON PAGE 02

02 NEWS

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Blood of APS MArTyrS WIll Be Avenged: CoAS CeremOny held At APS PeShAwAr On SeCOnd AnniverSAry Of deAdly AttACk thAt mArtyred 142 PESHAWAR

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AGENCIES

E will avenge the blood of victims of the Army Public School Peshawar attack, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Friday.

He was speaking at a ceremony held in APS Peshawar to mark the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on the school.

Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra attended the memorial, along with students and families of the martyred. The COAS laid a floral wreath and offered fateha.

He reiterated the commitment that war against terror would continue till elimination of the last terrorist from the country. “Pakistan will be made a

peaceful country in accordance with the wishes of the father of nation Quaid-eAzam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,” he said.

The army chief said that the country would be made an Islamic welfare state in accordance with the wishes of our forefathers. “The entire Pakistani nation, security forces and other state institutions are standing shoulder to shoulder with the bereaved families. We need to make Pakistan the kind of country that Quaid thought of. We can never forget these children, I have photos of them in my office like general Raheel Sharif and I look at them to remind me of our losses,” he said.

“We need to remember that these children still live on, they are martyrs.

We have organised Quran khwani this year, just like last year, we need to not forget this loss,” he said.

He said that he understood the pain of the parents who lost their loved ones during the attack.

“We have taken some steps to help the families of these children left behind. The siblings of the martyred children are being provided the best-possible education in Pakistan,” said Gen Bajwa.

On December 16, 2014, 144 people, including 131 schoolchildren, were martyred in the deadliest terrorist attack

in the country’s history when terrorists stormed APS Peshawar Cantonment.

On Friday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government announced a holiday for all educational institutions in the province in memory of the martyrs.

Arrangements had been made at educational institutions and other places to pay tribute to the martyrs.

COAS confirms death sentences of 13 terrorists RAWALPINDI APP

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa Friday confirmed death sentences awarded to another 13 hardcore terrorists.

According to an ISPR press release, the terrorists were involved in heinous offences related to terrorism, including killing and slaughtering of innocent civilians, officials of law enforcement agencies and armed forces of Pakistan.

The terrorists also include those who planned and executed attacks on Bacha Khan University in Charsada, Parade Lane Mosque in Rawalpindi, Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, Office of World Vision, an NGO, in Mansehra and educational institution at Nawagai Buner.

They were involved in killing 325 persons and causing injuries to 366 others. Firearms and explosives were also recovered from their possession. These terrorists were tried by military courts.

Following is the detail of terrorists and their crimes: Latif Ullah Mehsud s/o Ramzan: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in killing of innocent civilians and attacking law enforcement agencies of Pakistan which resulted in the deaths of 150 civilians (members and attendees of local jirga) and seven soldiers of Frontier Constabulary.

The convict admitted his offences be-

fore the magistrate and the trial court which awarded him a death sentence.

Arafat s/o Gul Zarin: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in attacking Marriot Hotel, Islamabad, and Parade Lane Mosque, Rawalpindi, which resulted in deaths of 110 persons and injuries to 330 others. The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded a death sentence.

Wahid Ali s/o Abdul Ali, Akbar Ali s/o Kareem Ullah, Muhammad Riaz s/o Muhammad Diyar Khan and Noor Ullah s/o Muhammad Diyar Khan: These four convicts were members of a proscribed organisation. They were involved in attacking Bacha Khan University, Charsada, which resulted in deaths of 17 civilians and injuries to 19 others.

They were also found in possession of firearms and explosives. These convicts admitted their offences before the magistrate and the trial court and were awarded death sentences.

Abdul Rehman s/o Abdul Majeed: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in attacking armed forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan.

He was also involved in slaughtering Capt Najam Riaz Raja, Capt Juniad Khan, Naik Shahid Rasool, Lance Naik Shakeel Ahmed and in injuring 2 police officials. He was involved in the destruc-

CCI approves to start census from mid March 2017 ISLAMABAD INP

The Council of Common Interests (CCI) has agreed to begin population census on the 15th of March next year.

During a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on Friday, the council decided that house listing and census operation may be carried out in one go.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a meeting with the chief ministers before chairing CCI meeting.

The meeting also decided that the census may be held in two phases and each phase may be carried out in all the provinces simultaneously. Moreover, the CCI agreed that census will be carried out in close coordination with

provincial governments.

There will be a committee of secretary statistics and four chief secretaries to address all the implementation issues. Agenda item pertaining to establishment of National Security Fund was discussed and it was decided to refer it to National Finance Commission for a decision, it being the competent forum.

The CCI approved National Forest Policy in principle and directed the minister of climate change to sit with the provincial governments to ensure no encroachment on provincial powers is made. The National Forest Policy will enable the federal government to provide technical and financial assistance to the provincial governments in line with their own provincial policy framework and to ensure compliance

tion of an educational institution as well.

The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded a death sentence. Mian Said Raheem s/o Mian Aqal Jan: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation.

He was involved in killing of 15 civilians including members of local jirga and civilian Imran who was slaughtered by another terrorist with his assistance. He was also found in possession of firearms.

The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded a death sentence.

Noor Muhammad s/o Shah Wali: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in attacking armed forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan, which resulted in the death of Naik Nadeem Yousaf and injuries to seven soldiers of Frontier Constabulary.

He was also involved in the abduction of civilian Dr Syed Jamshed Haider for ransom. The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded a death sentence.

Sher Ali s/o Mambar: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in attacking armed forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan, which resulted in the deaths of Naib Subedar Abdul Khaliq, Naik Qaiser Khan, Sepoy Mohsin Khan, Sepoy Imran Khan, Sepoy Sarfraz Ahmed, Sepoy Muhammad Ali, Sepoy Sajid Khan and

with international conventions.

It ratified payment of net hydel profit to government of Punjab in the amount of Rs 38.12 billion by issuance of irrevocable promissory note of oneyear duration to Punjab government by December 2016. The balance Rs 44.59 will be paid in three equal installments after tariff determination by CCI/NEPRA. The last census was carried out in 1998 when the population was counted at 132 million people. It is since believed to have crossed the 200 million mark, an estimate based on figures from yearly growth statements issued by the country’s Statistics Bureau and survey work, making Pakistan the sixth most populous country in the world. Pakistan was due to conduct a census in 2008 and 2010 but political unrest, conflict, and natural disasters contributed to delays.

The census is also a sensitive issue politically because it determines the amount of development budget allocated to each of the country’s provinces.

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injuries to five soldiers. The convict also abetted other terrorists in killing of civilians Muhammad Afzal Khan, Shah Dawran and Aman Ullah. He was also found in possession of fire arms. The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded a death sentence.

Syed Qasim Shah s/o Syed Amin Shah: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in attacking Office of World Vision NGO, which resulted in the deaths of six employees of the said NGO. He was also found in possession of explosives. The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded death sentence.

Muhammad Usman s/o Khair Ali Khan: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in the killing of civilians Abdul Rehman, Jamshed, Naheed Bibi and Nasreen Bibi.

He was also found in possession of firearms and explosives. The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded a death sentence. Muhammad Waqar Faisal s/o Ghulam Sadiq: The convict was a member of a proscribed organisation. He was involved in the killing of police constable Asad Abbas and in injuring a police constable and two civilians.

The convict admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court and was awarded a death sentence.

War against terrorism to be taken to logical end: PM ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday assured the nation that the government would take the war against terrorism to its logical conclusion to guarantee a peaceful and stable Pakistan for the future generations. In his message on the second anniversary of the attack on the Army Public School Peshawar, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif extended his heartfelt sympathies to the families of the martyred students and all those who became victims of the tragic incident. “I share the pain and grief with the bereaved families. The entire Pakistani nation feels and shares the pain of the tragedy and stand by the mourning families,” the PM said. “16th December reminds us of the most painful tragedy of our lives when our innocent students were mercilessly killed at the place of their studies. It was a day when the heartless enemy committed an act of barbarism and savagery against defenceless school boys. We cannot forget the agony of this day,” said the prime minister. The prime minister said the Pakistani nation and leadership took a clear and categorical decision for an indiscriminate action against terrorists after the APS incident.

“We decided to act with our full might for elimination of terrorism and extremism from our society; showing no mercy for those who martyred our little angels. The world has seen that we have dismantled the terrorists’ networks and broken their back by rendering matchless sacrifices in this war of our survival,” he said. INP

TTP commander confirms Indian, Afghan backing Latifullah Mehsud, whose death sentence was ratified by the army chief on Friday, revealed in his confessional statement that New Delhi and Kabul worked together against Pakistan.

Latifullah Mehsud, a close aide of former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, would receive ransom from the families of people abducted by the militant group. He gained significance within the TTP after Hakeemullah Mehsud took over the reins of the militant organisation following the death of Baitullah Mehsud, and became a close aide of the new chief. A video of Mehsud confessing to his crimes surfaced in January this year. “The Indian and Afghan secret agencies both fanned terrorism in Pakistan,” he revealed, substantiating Pakistan’s claims of Afghan soil being used for subversive activities inside its territory.

“These foreign agencies used the TTP and other militant outfits as a means for spreading terrorism inside Pakistan,” Mehsud told investigators. Latifullah moved to Afghanistan after the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud in a drone strike in Dande Darpa Khel village in North Waziristan in November 2013. He was apprehended by the United States (US) forces from Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and handed over to Pakistan in 2014. The highly wanted terrorist made shocking revelations while in custody of the Pakistani forces. He was involved in an attack which resulted in the death of 150 civilians (members and attendees of a local jirga) and seven soldiers of the Frontier Constabulary, according to a Inter Services Public Relations spokesperson. The convict confessed to his offences before a court, according to an ISPR statement released on Friday. MONITORING dESk

ChinA’S nAvy SeizeS AmeriCAn underwAter drOne in SOuth ChinA SeA WASHINGTON AGENCIES

A Chinese Navy warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by an American oceanographic vessel in international waters in the South China Sea, triggering a formal diplomatic protest from the United States and a demand for its return, a US defense official said on Friday.

The incident, the first of its kind in recent memory, took place on Dec. 15 northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was about to retrieve the unmanned, underwater vehicle (UUV), the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The UUV was lawfully conducting a military survey in the waters of the South China Sea,” the official said. “It’s a sovereign immune vessel, clearly marked in English not to be removed from the water - that it was US prop-

erty.” The Chinese seizure will add to concerns about China’s growing military presence and aggressive posture in the disputed South China Sea, including its militarisation of maritime outposts. A US think tank reported this week that new satellite imagery indicated that China has installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, on all seven artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea. The seized underwater drone was part of an unclassified program to collect oceanographic data, including salinity, temperature and clarity of the water, the official added. Such data can help inform US military sonar data, since sound is affected by such factors. The United States issued the formal demarche, as such protests are known, through diplomatic channels and included a demand that China immediately return the underwater drone. The Chinese have acknowledged the demarche but not responded to it, the official added.

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

one CIvIlIAn kIlled, 10 ChIldren InjUred In IndIAn fIrIng on SChool vAn In nAkyAl SeCTor MUZAFFARABAD

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INP

school van of a private school along the Line of Control (LoC) came under attack on Friday in Nakyal sector of Kotli district as the Indian troops open fired, killing the driver of the van and injuring at least 10 children.

The attack took place in Mohra Sharif village of Nakyal sector, in which, driver of the school van identified as Afzal was killed while 10 minors sustained injuries.

“Pakistani troops effectively responded and targeted Indian posts from where the fire was coming,” said a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Months of tension between India and Pakistan have erupted into shelling

and gunfire across the disputed Kashmir frontier, claiming the lives of dozens of people, including civilians.

India has committed more than two hundred ceasefire violations this year, targeting Bhimber, Nakial, Battal, Jandrot, Neza Pir, Chakothi, Lipa, Taobat, Keran

Pakistan says willing to discuss Afridi’s release with new US admin ISLAMABAD

sector and other areas. Reportedly, 39 people including 10 women were killed and more than 120 injured in unprovoked fire by Indian forces. Around 77 houses were also damaged, whereas 300 families were forced to migrate to safer places. On December 3, the newly-elected Chief of

Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa vowed that any LoC violation will be responded with full force in the most effective manner. Indian Deputy HC summoned, protest lodged Pakistan lodged a strong protest with India over the shelling on a school van in Azad Jammu and Kashmir along the Line of Control (LoC) on Friday.

The Foreign Office’s Director General for South Asia and SAARC Dr Mohammad Faisal summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh to strongly condemn the attack on the school van by Indian troops. He said that the attack was in violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws. The director general urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 ceasefire agreement and investigate this morning’s incident and other incidents of ceasefire violations.

Pakistan calls for equitable approach for nSg membership UNITED NATIONS INP

AGENCIES

Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi has said that Pakistan would be willing to discuss with US president-elect Donald Trump’s administration the matter of release of jailed Pakistani doctor Dr Shakil Afridi who ran a fake polio compaign to help the US track down al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

“We are not holding on to Dr Afridi because of some personal animosity. Pakistan would be willing to look at how we could move forward in a resolution of this problem,” Fatemi said in a conversation with VOA Urdu service. Fatemi said that a presidential pardon could be sought for the doctor under Pakistani laws but only after judicial proceedings were concluded. “The whole process has to go through the judiciary, and it is for the judiciary then to decide whether a case is ripe or not ripe for it to be sent to before the president for a possible exercise of the powers of the president to give pardon,” Fatemi said. He also reiterated that Afridi’s fake immunization drive seriously hurt and raised suspicions about vaccination programs the World Health Organization is running in Pakistan. Afridi was hailed as a hero in the US for helping the CIA obtain the Bin Laden family’s DNA by running a fake immunisation campaign in the garrison city of Abbottabad. Shakil Afridi is serving 33 years of jail term on treason charges.

Pakistan on Thursday presented strong arguments for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group at the UN Security Council.

Speaking in a debate on “Preventing Catastrophe: A global Agenda for Stopping the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction by Non-State Actors”, Pakistan’s senior diplomat and Acting Permanent Representative Nabeel Munir underscored Pakistan’s commitment to its non-proliferation obligations, including steps taken for 1540 resolution implementation.

While calling for an equitable, non-discriminatory and criteria-based approach to promote civil nuclear cooperation and membership of export controls regimes, in particular that of the NSG, Pakistani envoy warned that the grant of waivers to long-held non-proliferation norms and rules carried “obvious proliferation risks” and also “undermined regional strategic stability”.

Nabeel Munir said that Pakistan has been a consistent supporter of the objectives of Resolution 1540 and committed to its implementation. “It is in the interest of all states to prevent proliferation of WMDs to states as well as non-state actors”, he added.

Pakistan, he said, has submitted four national implementation reports.

“Our fifth report on 1540 implementation will be submitted shortly. We are also organizing a regional seminar in February 2017 on promoting its better implementation at the regional level”, he added.

Pakistani envoy told the 15-member Council that Pakistan has elaborated and implemented a comprehensive export control regime, fully harmonized with those of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Australia Group. “We have also declared voluntary adherence to NSG guidelines”, he added.

Pakistan, he said was not only participating in the IAEA’s Incident and Trafficking Database but also ac-

tively participated in and contributed to the NSS process. He referred to Pakistan’s ratification of the 2005 amendment to the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) and declaring adherence to NSG Guidelines as among the recent steps taken by Pakistan.

He said that Pakistan has been an active partner of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) since its inception in 2007, and has contributed to the development of its guidelines. Pakistan called for closer cooperation between the council and international and regional organisations to coordinate activities, to avoid duplication and focus on the most important areas.

NEWS

03

India ready to resolve differences over Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan bilaterally NEW DELHI: In its detailed response to the World Bank’s announcement pausing two separate processes to resolve the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kishenganga and Ratle projects, New Delhi expressed its readiness to bilaterally resolve its differences with Islamabad over the implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty.

“India has always believed that the implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty, which includes the redressal of the technical questions and differences, should be done bilaterally between India and Pakistan,’’ Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing.

He noted that there were examples available where such matters had been successfully resolved bilaterally within the Permanent Indus Commission (such as the height of the freeboard for Kishan Ganga) or between the two governments as seen in the Salal Hydro Electric Project in 1978.

Given the will to address these matters through the appropriate mechanisms provided for in the Indus Waters Treaty, there was no reason why the technical design parameters on which Pakistan had raised objections could not be sorted out by professional, technical experts from both sides, the Indian spokesperson said. He said India had advised the World Bank not to rush for initiating two parallel processes simultaneously and hold more consultations. “It is a matter of satisfaction that this point has now been recognised by the World Bank. We believe that these consultations should be given adequate time,” he added. INP

Pakistan, russia making efforts for restoration of peace in Afghanistan: envoy ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia closely cooperating in efforts for restoration of peace in Afghanistan as well as supporting China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as it is crucial for Pakistan’s economy and regional connectivity. This was stated by Russian Ambassador to Pakistan Alexey Y Dedov in an interview here on Friday. He pointed out that CPEC was component of China’s Silk Road and his country was also working on a similar Eurasian Economic Union and China and Russia were holding discussions to merge the two projects. Asked about NorthSouth gas pipeline project of Pakistan government, the Russian ambassador said they were eager to realize the project at the earliest. The ambassador said the two countries were closely cooperating in different areas but there was need to enhance the volume of bilateral trade. About MI35 gunship helicopter deal between the two countries, he said the contract has already been signed and it was now for the officials concerned to define a timeframe for the purpose. Replying to a question, he said his country wanted Pakistan and India to resolve all issues including Jammu and Kashmir through peaceful means. He said Pakistan and Russia were also closely cooperating in efforts for restoration of peace in Afghanistan. INP

All dead bodies of Havelian plane crash identified: CADD minister SAyS rS 5.5 milliOn SuPPOrt mOney, inCluding inSurAnCe, will be given tO SurvivOrS Of eACh viCtim ISLAMABAD HAMId kHAN WAzIR

The dead bodies of all the victims of Havelian plane crash have been handed over to their relatives, except the three foreigners, as the identification process of the dead bodies has been completed on Friday. Talking to media here at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said that the dead bodies of all the victims of the ill-fated plane have been identified.

He said that the dead bodies of all the Pakistanis have been handed over to their heirs except the three foreigners, how-

ever, he added they are in close contact with the relevant embassies for handing over their dead bodies to their relatives.

Dr Tariq Fazal said that Rs 5.5 million support money, including insurance, will be given to the survivors of each victim. The identification process of plane crash victims was supposed to be completed by December 17; however, it was completed earlier because of the hard work of the PIMS doctors and the forensic experts.

The minister said that 14 dead bodies were identified on Friday, of which 12 dead bodies belonged to Chitral, while one each from Peshawar and Rawalpindi.

All arrangements were made to send the 12 dead bodies and their relatives

through C-130; however, due to cloudy weather they could not be sent, the minister added. Shamshad Begum’s dead body was handed over to her relatives, while the remaining 11 dead bodies and their relatives would be sent through C130 jet tomorrow.

A senior official in CADD ministry told Pakistan Today that Abid Qaiser’s body, who was a resident of Peshawar, was handed over to his relatives and another victim Asim Waqas’ body, who was a resident of Rawalpindi, has also been handed over to his heirs.

He said that relatives of Chinese national Han Quiang have already reached Pakistan; however, relatives of two Austrian nationals Herald Kessler and Herwing Eichelbenger have yet to reach Pakistan.

On the other hand, he said, the ministry was in contact with the concerned embassies so as to hand over them to their

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relatives.

The official said that Austrian nationals were identified through blood samples of their relatives who sent those through their embassy.

Dr Tariq appreciated the PIMS administration and forensic team, who he said played appreciable role in providing the best services to the family members of victims, besides completing identification procedure in a timely manner.

He said that it was hard time for family members of victims, but the government tried its best to give maximum relief to them.

To a question, he said, investigation of the tragic plane crash incident is underway and international experts were also assisting in the probe, adding that the responsible would be brought to justice.

Clearance of ATR engines lies with PIA, says CAA On the other hand, Pakistan Civil

Aviation Authority (CAA) has said that it is “doing its best to assist” Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in evaluating the current condition of its ATR aircraft fleet, and the final decision lies with PIA and the original manufacturers (OEM) of the aircraft to determine whether its engines are cleared for operation or not.

CAA Deputy Director General Nadeem Sharif Pasha stated in the letter, sent to PIA and dated December 13, that though the shakedown inspections of all ATR aircraft are underway, the “inspections of internal conditions of ATR engines is beyond our (CAA) scope”.

He stated that “significant observations” were made when the technical records of all aircraft were reviewed.

“The results of audits conducted by airworthiness field offices are indicating shortcomings in maintenance, quality assurance and Airworthiness Management System of PIAC,” the letter added.

04 NEWS

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

PPP calls for chaudhry Nisar's resigNatioN mONITOrING deSk

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akistan Peoples Party (PP) is demanding immediate resignation of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar in the wake of a scathing inquiry commission report on the Quetta Civil Hospital carnage. The party has submitted adjournment motions in both upper and lower houses of the Parliament.

The motion says that Pakistan has seen enough terrorist attacks without any accountability. It is time that those in power must be held accountable as thins cannot be allowed to go as they are. There is a need for systematic changes.

"This reaffirms our view that Minister of Interior is incapable or unable to play his role in combating terrorism and therefore, demand that he resign immediately," added the adjournment

Nation never going to forget sacrifices of aPs martyrs, armed forces: Marriyum

ADJOUrNMeNt MOtiONS SUBMitteD iN SeNAte AND NAtiONAL ASSeMBLy iMrAN KhAN SAyS the iNteriOr MiNiSter ShOULD either reSPOND Or reSigN

motion.

The motion calls for a debate on the state of national security in the light of the report by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The motion submitted in the National Assembly was signed by PPP's Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Abdul Sattar Bachani and others.

The motion in the Senate stated that the inquiry report presents a "damning indictment of the government's commitment and execution of NAP".

The motion submitted in the Senate was signed by PPP's Senator Sherry Rehman among others.

The report was compiled by an inquiry commission formed to look into the 8 August Quetta carnage. It calls

New CJ, COAS favour PML-N: Khan casts spotlight on ‘assumptions’

for banning terrorist organisations without any delay by enforcing the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) in letter and spirit.

Imran raIses questIons over government’s performance: Speaking on the report on Quetta Civil Hospital Imran Khan says that it raises question marks over the government’s performance, and called out Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar over the report’s findings and said the minister should either respond or resign.

An inquiry commission under the Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the federal interior minister, Balochistan chief minister and home minister for providing misleading information, following the deadly terrorist attack in

Looking forward to strong ties between US and Pakistan: Fatemi WASHINGTON

ISlAmAbAd

AGENCIES

STAFF REPoRT

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi Thursday said that though Trump Administration was not yet in place, Pakistan was looking forward to strong ties between Pakistan and United States as they serve the cause of peace and stability in South Asia and the region beyond. He added that Pakistan was looking forward to work closely with the new President-elect and his team with particular focus on economic linkages and trade that formed a common denominator in the agenda of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Presidentelect Donald Trump.

Mr Fatemi was addressing a media briefing on his current visit to the US at the Pakistani Embassy. In his opening remarks, Fatemi said that the primary purpose of his current official visit to the US was

There is an impression that incoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Saqib Nisar and newly-appointed army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa are sympathisers of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan said on Friday, commenting on rumours circulating about the two.

Khan’s comments came a day after senior PPP lawmaker in Parliament Khursheed Shah said there was impression that the new CJ’s sympathy was with the PML-N. “There is also this impression that the changes in the army are for PML-N,” Khan said while interacting with a group of reporters in Lahore.

But, he said, he was not sure if these rumours bore any truth, adding, “All I know is that when Maryam Nawaz tweets saying a storm has passed... what does it mean?

They [PML-N] themselves are giving weight to the perception that the change that has come is suiting them.”

Khan was referring to a tweet by Maryam Nawaz, which was posted when the Supreme Court said the Panama Papers case would resume with the next hearing, which will take place in January under a new chief justice.

Although such remarks aimed at the head of the military and apex court are rare, opposition parties have hit out at the PML-N and raised questions about the new appointments.

Quetta which claimed 70 lives and injured 112 people in August this year.

The commission criticised the government and state apparatus in its "monumental failure to combat terrorism and perform basic protocols". people don’t know what ‘u-turn’ means: khan: The PTI chairman said people don’t know what ‘U-turn’ actually means.

“Telling lies is U-turn,” Imran Khan said.

The PTI chief said he would attend the parliament’s session the day the prime minister appears before the parliament and presents his response.

Khan further said terrorism in the country has declined as a result of Pakistan Army’s operations against terrorists.

twofold: to touch base with the outgoing US administration by reviewing progress in the current bilateral relations and forge links with the new US administration that will assume office in January 2017.“Pakistan aims at building a comprehensive, sustained and forward-looking relationship with the US,” Fatemi said.

"America should know that today’s Pakistan is a reliable, effective and serious partner of the United States in South Asia and the region beyond. "The Trump administration should not forget the history of excellent relations between Pakistan and US that serves the cause of peace in our part of the world," Mr Fatemi said. Fatemi highlighted the tremendous sacrifices rendered by the people and security forces of Pakistan in the campaign against terrorism during his contacts in Washington. He emphasized that Pakistan had paid a heavy price and was firmly committed to eliminating terrorism in

all its forms and manifestations.

He, however, added that Pakistan, being a sovereign state, would decide the scale, pace and reach of its counter-terrorism efforts in line with its economic and operational limitations as well as other capacity constraints.

To a question on Kashmir, the SAPM stated that the dispute is on the agenda of the United Nation's Security Council. He said there cannot be peace and stability in the region without the resolution of this long-standing dispute. He said that the Indian occupation forces in the IndianOccupied Kashmir have unleashed a reign of terror through their brutal and suppressive tactics. "United States must seek to promote a relationship between India and Pakistan that is in consonance with the aspirations of the two countries and also meet the aspirations of the Kashmiri people who are struggling for their just cause of self-determination," he added.

ISlAmAbAd APP

Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb Friday said the nation would never forget sacrifices of martyred students and staff of Army Public School (APS) Peshawar, and the armed forces.

Addressing a function here at a college in memory of the martyrs of December 16, 2014 terror attack, she saluted the APS victims and martyrs of the armed forces, who offered sacrifices to realise the prime minister’s vision of eliminating terrorism from the country.

The minister said after the APS barbaric incident, the nation rose to the occasion, put aside all differences, and got united for the elimination of terrorism.

The brave Pakistani nation, she said, had been facing terrorism for the last many years, but its resolve for the elimination of the menace, could not be weakened.

She said after the APS incident, an indiscriminate operation was launched against the terrorists, besides finalising the National Action Plan (NAP). The present government, she said, also formulated the National Internal Security Policy. Under the policy, all mobile SIMS were linked with national database, which was a unique feature. Though it was claimed that cellular phone companies might leave the country, but the government gave priority to national security, she added.

The prime minister got all the political leadership united on that point, and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan played an important role in that regard, she added.

Steps were taken to ban hate speech, she said, adding that registration of aliens had been started, while the policy for Afghan refugees return was also formulated.

Over 120,000 fake computerised national identity cards (CNICs) were confiscated, illegal foreign residents were deported and border management system at the Afghan border was introduced, she added.

The minister appreciated the role played by the provinces and said that entire nation was united on the issue of terrorism. The war against terrorism would continue till the last terrorist was eliminated from the soil of Pakistan, she added.

She said the Pakistani nation is one of the most resilient nations in the world. In the West, the people did not visit the sites of terror incidents for many months, but, “we do not give up, as the Army Public School Peshawar was reopened only a few days after the incident,” she added. Candles were lit and Fateha was offered for the victims of APS tragedy.

Are touts of influentials virtually running Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal?

ISlAmAbAd ShAh NAwAz MohAl

Scores of poor and needy endlessly waiting in queues outside ‘one-window operation’ in Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal head office is a common sight. On an average working day, their number swells to more than a hundred. While those politically connected or have some ‘reference’ get direct access to officials for approval, attestation of financial assistance.

Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM), established back in 1991 through a parliamentary act, has an expressed mission of providing social protection to poor and marginalised segments of the society.

PBM MD SAyS thOSe DeNieD AiD Are SPreADiNg SUCh rUMOrS FOr yeAr 2016-17, PBM reCeiveD AiD exCeeDiNg rS 4 BiLLiON FrOM FeDerAL gOvt ALONe However, many visitors say that like many other government institutions, PBM has also fallen prey to red-tapism, favouritism and parchi system.

PBM launched one-window system back in 2014 in its head office situated in sector H-8, Islamabad. The facility greatly helps people about the status of their applications, investigation reports and other documentation. During its inauguration, PBM Managing Director Barrister, Abid Waheed Sheikh, talked about strengthening PBM by making it more transparent, efficient and ac-

cessible to the deserving people.

While great many are left to find their way through formalities, including fulfilling documentation requirements before initial nod and final approval of a grant from MD, touts of influential politicians and those who come with a ‘reference’ are ushered in directly, where officers go out of the way to facilitate them.

Since 2015, the total allocation of funds has been doubled. At present, the federal government gives Rs 4 billion grant in aid to Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal. This year,

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however, an additional supplementary grant of Rs 500 million was given to PBC for making payments to Pakistani workers stranded in Saudi Arabia.

“We can’t complain of corruption or misbehaving in Pakistan Bait-ul-mal, but the practice of giving preferential treatment to those who have a reference must be ended. If the rule is to stand in the queues, then everyone must stand in the queues. No trespassing should be allowed. Everybody should be treated equally,” said Muhammad, a visitor, while talking to Pakistan

Today.

When contacted, Barrister Abid Waleed Sheikh said that no application is entertained at one-window until and unless it is marked by him. “We have pre-defined criteria where we give priority to widows and old people. We reject many cases then and there, especially those aged 18-50 who can earn a living, and we don’t submit their applications,” he said.

“Approved cases are then forwarded to the one-window operation, where investigation reports are prepared. Then there are those cases which we’ve prioritised who need immediate support – like cancer patients – we provide them amount needed to suffice their purpose,” he added.

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Quaid’S MauSoleuM to get new 24k gold cHandelier today ISLAMABAD APP

The mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is going to be illuminated on December 17 with a new state-of-the-art chandelier, made of fine crystal and 8.3 kilograms of 24karat gold. President Mamnoon Hussain will inaugurate the newly-crafted chandelier today (Saturday), which is a gift by the Chinese government. The chandelier will replace the older one, also gifted by China in 1970.

Adviser to Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage Division Irfan Siddiqui, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar and Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong will attend the ceremony, wherein 40 Chinese engineers and experts will also join. The efforts for replacement of the old chandelier were initiated by PM’s Adviser Irfan Siddiqui after assuming charge as head of the newly created

PAKISTAN, CHINA TERM NEW CHANDELIER AT QUAID’S TOMB A ‘SYMBOL OF STRONG SINO-PAK FRIENDSHIP’ National History and Literary Heritage Division. The previous chandelier installed some 46 years back had lost its shine due to environmental pollution and corrosive atmosphere of the city.

The 23-metres-long new ceilingmounted fixture weighs 1.2 ton and has decorative lights in four arrays. It has been completed at a cost of Rs 220 million. The use of 8.3 kilograms of 24karat gold adds splendor to the mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan.

The Chinese government offered to undertake this project after an eight-member delegation headed by Yan Jianming, Counsellor, Economic and Commercial Office of China’s Consulate General in Karachi along with Miao Qisong, Vice General Engineer/Director, Research Department of Structure, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design visited Quaid’s

Suspected terrorist killed in Hyderabad HYDERABAD: A suspected terrorist was shot dead while another escaped in an encounter with Rangers here on Friday. The police spokesman told that the incident occurred near Amani Shah graveyard in Latifabad Unit 11. The spokesman informed that 2 suspicious persons riding a motorbike were stopped for snap checking but they tried to escape and attempted to throw a hand grenade on Rangers mobile. The Rangers personnel timely responded to the attack in which one of them was killed while the other one escaped. The spokesman said that a suicide vest was also recovered from the slain suspected terrorist. The Bomb Disposal Squad has been called to defuse the jacket.

The suspect's dead body is yet to be shifted to the civil hospital for post-mortem. APP

mausoleum for the first time on November 12, 2013.

Overall, it took two months in dismantling of old chandelier, transportation of the new one from China to Pakistan and its installation during this October and November by 13 Chinese technicians. The testing of the chandelier was completed after its installation by the Chinese technicians and a handing-over document was signed on December 8, 2016. The old chandelier has been installed at another location within the premises of mausoleum.

While, Pakistan and China have termed the installation of new chandelier for the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam as a “symbol of strong bond between the two countries”.

President Mamnoon Hussain in his message on the installation of the new chandelier, which he is going to inau-

gurate on Saturday, has expressed confidence that the symbolic significance of the chandelier would always remind the importance of Sino-Pak relationship. The president thanked the Chinese leadership and especially Ambassador Sun Weidong for the chandelier. Adviser to Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage Irfan Siddiqui in his message said the bond between Pakistan and China was unbreakable.

Irfan Siddiqi said he believed that the chandelier at the tomb would continue shedding light on the great bond between the two countries for generations to come. Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong said the chandelier shows the utmost respect for Quaid-e-Azam by the Chinese people and the deeprooted affection between two countries spanning more than half a century. He said the year 2016 marked the 140th anniversary of the birth of Quaid-eAzam and 65th anniversary of ChinaPakistan diplomatic relations.

PPP’s anti-corruption drive was limited to ‘dining room’: Sattar KARACHI INP

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)-Pakistan Chief Dr Farooq Sattar has criticised Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday by alleging the political party of mere empty rhetoric against corruption.

While talking to the media, Dr Sattar said that PPP’s anti-corruption movement was limited to ‘dining room’ and that the only purpose it was serving to the party was to hide its own corruption.

He said that the real fight against corruption was being put up by Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Dr Sattar has urged the PPP to support MQM in its stand against corrupt leaders.

He linked corruption with extremism when he said that elimination of terrorism would weed out corruption in the country. He also said that National Action Plan (NAP) was not being implemented and that the responsibility lied with both the federation and the province.

NEWS

05

leas conduct more than 25,000 operations in kP in two years Security agencies geared up implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) in the aftermath of the terrorist attack at APS Peshawar on December 16, 2014, In the past two years, the law enforcement agencies have conducted more than twentyfive thousand operations. During these operations, security agencies confiscated more than 46,900 weapons and seized 1.5 million cartridges. Security agencies also nabbed more than 311,900 suspects during 110,000 snap-checking activities. Data of suspects was thoroughly rechecked.

Tenancy law was enforced in province to annihilate sleeping cells of miscreants.

Cases were registered against 21,282 house owners and 2,950 hotel proprietors who contravened tenancy law. Police scrutinized more than 70,000 schools across KPK to ensure stern security arrangements. 7,962 cases were registered against schools found in breach security guidelines. Police also deported 34,448 afghan nationals under section 14 of Foreigners Act. News Desk

‘Sc commission report exposed performance of nawaz govt’ KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party Senator Saeed Ghani said on Friday that SC Inquiry Commission report on Quetta attack had exposed the so-called good performance of the Nawaz government.

The Supreme Court released commission report on Quetta tragedy on Thursday.

Ghani said that the stand of PPP chairman on Interior Minister Ch Nisar had proved to be candid and true. “If the Interior minister keeps close relations with terrorists, then how National Action Plan can be implemented,” he asked. Now keeping Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan as Interior Minister will be a mockery with not only National Action Plan but with the entire nation, Ghani said. He demanded the removal of Interior minister and action against him. Ghani said that former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain was not a terrorist rather Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was the patron and facilitator of terrorists.

Senator Ghani said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s four demands included implementation on National Action Plan and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was the biggest hurdle in implementation of NAP, Senator Ghani concluded. PPI

06 LAHORE

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

WEATHER UPDATES

FRIDAY

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SATURDAY

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CiTy FasT bEComing saFE HavEn For Drug PEDDLErs L LAHORE

RANA HAIDER

AHoRE city seems to have become a safe haven for drug peddlers as senior police officials are providing them shelter against hefty bribe, it has been

learnt.

Sources in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), more and more youth are taking to drugs as narcotics are now more easily available to youngsters.

They also confided to this scribe that the use of various kinds of drugs in educational institutions of the provincial capital, notably posh areas, was on the rise as drug peddlers were operating right under the nose of the City Police.

“There are fears that the number of addicts in the country may further increase, since the neighbouring Afghanistan's opium production has hit

a record of 5,500 tonnes this year and there is almost no check on smuggling of heroin into Pakistan,” claimed sources in the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF).

They said that several “black sheep” in the Police Department had been suspended for patronising drug traffickers, but they were all reinstated later on.

“SHos personally supervise gambling dens, drug peddling spots and other street crimes for monetary gains.

They also send the cut to their senior officials just to avoid any departmental action against them,” said an ANF officer on the condition of anonymity.

According to police sources, there are as many as 1123 drug selling points in the provincial capital, of which 223 are being operated in the city which has some 84 police stations and 19 police chowkis. “on average police get a monthly of Rs 30,000 to 35,000 from each drug

peddling den, while big traffickers offer gratifications of Rs 100,000 or above,” a police officer told this scribe, requesting not to be named.

Citing a recent report, a police source said if drug supply to students in educational institutions in posh areas was not controlled, then the half of the problem would remain unresolved.

It may be mentioned here that Afghanistan produces 90 per cent of the world's heroin, with almost half of its production channelled through Pakistan on its way to Europe or Asia, hidden in containers shipped from Karachi, a sprawling port on the Arabian Sea. But the drug doesn't just pass cleanly through Pakistan. It picks up addicts along the way.

According to a report by the UNoDC, it is true that Pakistan is the biggest trafficker of heroin in the world at 150 tons per year, it still does not have the kind of reach and influence over trade routes like the Mexi-

Governor pays tribute to APS martyrs MULTAN APP

Punjab Governor Malik Rafiq Rajwana advised students not to let their dream of education die.

He underlined the need of education and knowledge at the 13th convocation of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) at Jinnah Auditorium in Multan on Friday.

The governor said, "No one can stop Pakistan from progressing because the country’s future our youth is very talented. We can compete with anybody in the world. Never let

your dreams die.”

Pakistan is taking giant leaps in economic, health and education sectors. The governor informed that the federal government in general and the Punjab government in particular has been focusing on the education and health projects.

The Punjab government has ended child labour and brought kids working on brick kilns to schools, he said.

Rajwana asked graduating students to put their degrees and medals in the lap of their mothers and congratulated the proud parents and teachers.

cans. Pakistani organisations ship mostly to low-income countries in Africa, Asia and middle income countries in the Middle East. Very little of the heroin in the lucrative European market is directly routed through Pakistan, the report claimed.

Recently at the function head of the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNoDC) in Pakistan Cesar Guedes said that Pakistan was a transit hub, but has also become a consumer and part of this drug stayed in the country not because it was a profitable market ... but because traffickers paid in cash and in kind, creating a local market.

When contacted for comments, DIG Haider Ashraf said all divisional SPs had been ordered to take action against criminals, drug dealers and addicts on a daily basis. He also said if any police official was found involved in narco business they would be dismissed immediately.

ITU holds 5th robotic expo today LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Information Technology University (ITU) is holding 5th Robotics Expo on Saturday at Arfa Software Technology Park. The Advisor to CM Punjab and ITU Vice Chancellor, Dr Umar Saif will preside over the closing ceremony of the expo.

The 5th Expo will display 14 robot prototypes, addressing locally relevant issues of Pakistan, successfully designed and built by the undergraduate third-semester students of ITU. ITU students have built some very interesting robots including; Rekhta, an ultimate Urdu word predictor and transliterator that works in Roman and Noori Nastaleeq; Windope; a window cleaning robot designed and built to save the lives of window cleaners who work in adverse environments to clean windows in high-rise buildings.

Mawazin, a medical product that ensures safety against overdose of anesthesia medicine and administers drugs at a controlled rate; Machine-e-Meharbani, a vending machine that takes plastic bottles as credit and in return provides food to homeless people.

The Eye-Writer, a robot designed for paralysed people, to help them do various tasks such as writing or controlling switch buttons by simple movements of their eyes; Taabat-ul-Miyah, a robot that autonomously controls your residential water motor based on water pressure from the main supply.

Previously, in 4th expo, the ITU students successfully designed and built 15 robot prototypes to address local issues of Pakistan.

The projects included Bazooka, a drone designed to break reinforced tempered double-glazed glass and deliver life saving equipment to people trapped in high-rise buildings in the event of fire or natural disasters.

3rd expo got the introduction of first of its kind, the drone, an essential life-saving, low-cost portable ventilator with adult and infant modes, to address the chronic shortage of ventilators in hospitals in Pakistan.

Later expos were based on Electronic Circuit Design course which helped to understand the basic principles of electrical engineering to analyze, design and troubleshoot electronic circuits and systems.

MONDAY

210C 100C

Four militants remanded in CTD custody GUJRANWALA INP

An anti-terrorism court remanded four militants into the custody of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) for five days here on Friday.

CTD sources said that four militants of a banned outfit arrested the other day were produced before an anti-terrorism court, which remanded the militants of the now defunct organization into CTD custody for five days.

Explosives, detonators, and safety fuses were recovered from their possession upon arrest.

Truck hits Pakistan Express at unmanned level-crossing SHORKOT AGENCIES

A truck struck a train of the Pakistan Express at an unmanned crossing between Shorkot and Chutiana on Friday. No causality was reported in the accident which happened early in the morning, but the train was slightly damaged.

The line was later cleared later but the collision resulted in a delay of the train at Shorkot for two and a half hours and of another Karakoram Express train for 20 minutes. The accident reportedly happened due to the negligence of the truck driver who tried to cross the tracks and misjudged just how close the train was. A press release by Pakistan Railways said that unmanned level crossings are not the responsibility of railway authorities. It also requested people to remain careful while crossing unmanned crossings. In order to ensure the safety of train operations, Pakistan Railways in 2013 conducted surveys for the up-gradations of existing unmanned level crossings in collaboration with provincial and local district governments which identified vulnerable unmanned level crossings all the provinces. In Punjab about 75 unmanned level crossings have been upgraded and are now manned by railway authorities.

LHC CJ addresses Punjab Provincial Committee seminar LAHORE INP

Chief Justice (CJ) of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Mansoor Ali Shah advised law practitioners on Friday to not let the clash between the bar and the bench to hinder the provision of justice to the people. The chief justice addressed a seminar of the Punjab Provincial Committee during which he said that an audit of cases has been conducted for the first time in history and timely reforms had been brought leading to a better legal system. Shah said that at least 0.15 million cases were under hearing in the high court while more than 1.3 million were being heard across Punjab. He added that reforms in the judiciary were not possible without funding.

541 accident victims shifted to hospitals in 24 hours LAHORE: The Monitoring Cell of the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) shifted 541 seriously injured people in 652 road accidents to hospitals during the last 24 hours. According to reports, 129 traffic accidents occurred in Lahore, which affected 121 persons, 65 in Faisalabad effecting 76 people and 34 accidents affected 35 people in Gujranwala. According to data, 523 motorcycles, 92 auto rickshaws, 71 motorcars, 38 vans, 13 passenger buses, 17 trucks and 70 other types of auto vehicles and slow moving carts were involved in aforesaid road traffic accidents. APP

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LAHORE 07

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

CPEC To PLay imPorTanT roLE in ELiminaTing ExTrEmism: Cm sHariF LAHORE

P

STAFF REPORT

UNJAB Chief Minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif has said that the completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will not only change bring economic prosperity to Pakistan, but to the whole region.

He said that development projects under the CPEC are being completed throughout the country.

The CM said that China is making an investment of 46 billion dollars in Pakistan and that the CPEC has opened the doors of other foreign investment into Pakistan.

He also said that the CPEC will also play an important role in the elimination

of terrorism and extremism from the region.

While talking to a delegation of the Pakistan Muslim league-N the chief minister said that energy projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor are being completed speedily throughout the country.

The chief minister said that the under-construction 1320 MW coal fired power plant in Sahiwal will be completed much before the stipulated period and will start energy production by the beginning of next year.

He added that the people of Pakistan will ensure the success of politics of honesty, trust and transparency in general elections of 2018 and those engaged in the politics of allegations, lies and chaos will gain nothing.

‘Organic farming can help mitigate effects of global warming’ LAHORE SAMIULLAH RANDHAWA

“The best way to mitigate global warming is to adopt organic farming,” said Cassandra D Pecol, a 27-year-old American lady who is attempting to set a world record by travelling through all 196 countries in the shortest time.

Cassandra set out for her first destination, Palau oceania, on July 24, 2015.

The Pakistan chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is her host in Pakistan with the support of the Asiatic Public Relations Network (APR). The programme chalked out for Cassandra by the PATA and APR includes delivering talks at leading universities in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and at a Rotary function, visiting important cultural and heritage sites, meeting the Karachi Mayor, and participating in a tree plantation activity.

During her one day Lahore visit, she enjoyed the flag lowering ceremony at Wagha Border and had the chance to deliver a lecture in a private university.

Moreover, she had Lahori food, which she claimed she will never forget.

"I received such warmth and love from the Pakistani people during my stay," Cassandra said, as she left the

country for her next destination, Eritrea.

Cassandra is a proponent of organic tourism – a relatively new term but vitally important if we care a little bit for our planet. Talking to Pakistan Today, she said that she wanted to make her travel sustainable and urged all travelers to be organic tourists.

She is of view that organic tourism takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.

“Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments” she said.

“So if you take a flight from your home town to another city or country, the carbon emissions of the plane will add to your carbon footprint as a tourist.

And the hotel you will stay in, the food you consume and all other things that are required will be added into that footprint.” Cassandra added. “That’s why the concept of organic hotels is emerging in some countries” To make her travel sustainable Cassandra has planted 43 trees during her

journey, including one in Karachi, though she thinks the number should have been lot higher.

She is also an advocate for organic farming.

“Farming practices such as organic agriculture that preserve soil fertility and maintain or even increase organic matter in soils are good countermeasures against the fall of productivity in the events of drought, irregular rainfall, floods, and rising temperatures,” she said.

She said that soils under organic management retain significantly more rainwater thanks to the sponge-like properties of organic matter.

“The strength of organic farming systems is their diversity – including the diversity of crops, fields, rotations, landscapes and farm activities. The diversity of organic farms provides many ecological services that significantly enhance farm resilience.” Cassandra said.

She further said that organic farming also helps in halting deforestation which has a remarkably adverse impact on climate change. “Careful land use and management as in organic farming enhances environmental security and will help to stop losses of fertile arable land” she added.

PmL-n's ahmad iqbal elected narowal district council chairman LAHORE: PMLN's Ahmad Iqbal was elected unopposed as Chairman District Council, Narowal, as PTI and independent candidates withdrew their candidacies.

Ahmad Iqbal has a background in public policy and finance and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, from where he obtained a masters degree in public administration, specializing in local governance. He has also worked as a consultant at the World Bank headquarter in Washington, DC, and has been affiliated with the World Resources Institute USA and Merrill Lynch in the past. He is the son of Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal. STAFF REPORT

CMYK

Corps Commander pays tribute to APS martyrs LAHORE APP

Commander Lahore Corps, Lieutenant General Sadiq Ali has said that the tragic incident of massacre of 147 innocent students and teachers of Army Public School (APS) Peshawar on December 16, 2014, had served as one of the most defining moments in the national history.

He said, “This commemorative

day reminds us how both the students and teachers jointly faced the carnage with courage, dignity and pride, thus leaving behind a message of sacrifice, resilience and hope for the generations to come.”

He was addressing a special assembly on the 2nd anniversary of the martyrs of APS Peshawar, held to pay homage at APS Lahore Garrison on Friday, says a press release issued by the ISPR.

08 COMMENT

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Who are the ‘Real Muslims’?

Placating terrorists would be disastrous What Dec 16 should remind us of

And will they please stand up already?

D

eCembeR 16 reminds Pakistanis of the APS tragedy when terrorists ruthlessly killed 141 people including 132 school children. The incident shook the entire nation. It gave birth to a realisation that the eradication of terrorism was necessary for survival. The entire political leadership and the military establishment jointly formulated the National Action Plan (NAP) with an aim to get rid of terrorism and eradicate the widespread extremist thinking which constitutes the fountainhead of terrorism. The NAP defined precise targets and recommended the establishment of powerful institutions to implement the plan.

The report of the judicial commission on the August 8 Quetta carnage which appeared in the media on the APS anniversary is a damning indictment of some of those entrusted the task of implementing the NAP. Despite a Supreme Court order of 2012, no satisfactory arrangements have been made so far for the collection of forensic evidence. The interior ministry refused to ban two notorious networks despite repeated requests from balochistan government although these had owned some of the most devastating attacks in the country. It wasted time by corresponding with ISI and Ib seeking comprehensive evidence that could indict LeJ al- Alami and Jamaat-ul Ahrar. Worst still the Interior minister held a meeting with the head of three banned organisations to listen to his demands and conceded to these demands as reported by media. This indicates a conciliatory attitude which can only encourage terrorist networks.

Soon after forming its government the PmL-N leadership wasted seven months in trying to convert the TTP terrorists who continued to attack and kill even during the government-TTP talks. The terrorist attack on Karachi airport finally led the army to launch Operation Zarb-e-Azb. It is time the government discards its policy of appeasement, stops delaying vital decisions and pays heed to the recommendations made by the judicial commission. It has to implement the NAP in letter and spirit with a spirit of urgency. Unless this is done terrorist networks will continue to play havoc in the country.

Thalassemia Major No minor issue

A

joint meeting of multiple Senate Standing Committees including panels on law and justice and religious affairs failed to reach an agreement over the bill to make pre-marital blood testing mandatory to avoid cases of Thalassemia in new born children.

Thalassemia major is a genetically inherited blood disorder that occurs in children if both parents are positive for Thalassemia minor. A simple blood test of both parents can determine if they carry the Thalassemia minor gene.

Such testing pre-marriage is often skipped resulting in children with a debilitating disease that requires expensive blood transfusions every month for the rest of their lives.

Similar bills have been passed in three provincial assemblies and the KP government has even increased their budget for Thalassemia prevention. At the federal level however things are quite different and the reasons are all too familiar.

Senator Hafiz Hamdullah who co-chaired the meeting as chairman of the panel on religious affairs stated that the testing should not be made mandatory and a single column in the marriage certificate stating the positive result of the disease is sufficient. He was citing a recommendation made by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in 2010.

Over 6,000 children are affected by Thalassemia major annually, the monthly blood transfusions that last 10 - 15 years – expected life expectancy of a child with the disease – costs more than Rs180,000 annually and the only cure is a bone marrow transplant costing Rs 2 million given a viable match is present.

Apart from the financial aspect of treatment there is the mental and physical anguish that the parents and children go through during the short life of their child.

Unfortunately practicality and logic often fall victim to self-serving backward thinking that is personified by institutions like the CII and individuals like Hafiz Hamdullah who represent them.

The bill should be passed as soon as possible so that work on implementation can begin. After all if an Islamic theocracy like Saudi Arabia and a quasimonarchy like Turkey can pass a similar bill then why not us?

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor

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

I

Faraz TalaT

A

mONg the most elusive species known to man – a human faction that is nearly only theoretical at this point in time – is the quasi-mythological ‘Real muslim’.

The ‘Real muslim’, is an archetype that is frequently mentioned in the aftermath of any act of religious violence, and goes like this: “The attacker wasn’t a real muslim!” The most recent example is the attack on the Ahmadi house of worship on a day none other than 12 Rabi-ulAwal itself.

A mob of a thousand to two thousand predominantly Sunni muslims, launched a frightening assault on the batul Noor mosque; reportedly angered by the fact the Ahmadi worshipers inside were commemorating the birth of the Holy Prophet (PbUH). It baffles the ordinary mind why a muslim would ever punish a person for venerating any of the sacred Islamic personalities, but the idea behind the attack is that Ahmadis must not ‘pretend’ to be muslims, because they’re not.

And neither are the attackers, in the imagination of the moderate, non-violent muslim. This imagined authority of the educated muslim in determining unilaterally who’s muslim or who isn’t, is assumed without any appreciation of the irony of this matter. This is the same thought process that had the Ahmadis excommunicated

from the Pakistani circle of muslimhood in the first place.

It’s certainly understandable that every Islamic school of thought has its own idea of how Islam is best practiced; concerning the priority level of each principle, if it’s even a principle at all. It is not wrong to have an opinion on which series of roads form the best route to god. but these opinions have value only when the discussion is carried out in a strictly spiritual sense, and not when they are intertwined with real-politik. When your opinion of who a real muslim is or isn’t, begins impacting the lives of the minorities who are most likely to be voted out and socio-politically isolated – by the unforgiving force of majoritarianism – your ‘opinion’ becomes a tool of oppression.

Possibly even worse, this ‘opinion’ becomes the means of shirking your responsibility towards the perpetuation of a hateful atmosphere, which forms the perfect conditions for the birth of a violent fringe. In this case, the two thousand people who attacked the Ahmadi house of worship with stones, sticks, and even bullets – were practically carrying out the things that many nonviolent Pakistani muslims only theorised in their private conversations at the dinner table.

The Pakistani muslim is a powerful element in this specific socio-political context. You have the honour of having this country literally named after your religion. You have the privilege of setting the social policies that determine what’s appropriate (saying ‘Assalamualikum’) versus what’s inappropriate (saying ‘Namaste’), based on your cultural-religious preferences.

You have the privilege of having all laws, central or provincial, being fine-tuned to your religious requirements. These include the law that excludes Ahmadis from the definition of being a muslim in Pakistan, or other laws that make nonmuslims more susceptible to discrimination or violence.

So what does it truly mean when you say, “The attacker is not a real muslim!”?

In a religious sense, it simply means that the attacker does not follow the ideal that you consider essential in the making of a muslim – namely, non-violence. In a political sense however, it means that the hate did not come from your side of the political aisle, and is therefore not your responsibility to tackle.

I ought to make it clear that my argument has no value in the context of Western countries, like the United States or the european countries, where muslims are themselves a minority. These are places where muslims have limited political power to make a meaningful difference in global efforts against ISIS, Al-Qaeda, female circumcision, forced marriages and so on. They are also much more likely to be oppressed by the dominant non-muslim factions, than to hurt the “kufar” with their own brands of bigotry.

In the context of Islamic Republics, however, it is the muslim majority that determines its minorities’ fate – particularly in terms of interreligious interactions. All Ahmadi, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, buddhist, and non-religious state officials and law-makers combined, don’t come anywhere close to the number of muslims harnessing the same kind of politico-legal authority.

Outside the government, it is the muslim majority that sets the baseline tone in which Ahmadis are to be spoken to. The violent fanatics do not exist as an entity independent of the nonviolent muslim nation; they are the top section of a pyramid whose base is formed by moderate Pakistani muslims who normalise tableeghis who spout hateful rhetoric against the minorities, and applaud politico-legal acts that prioritise their own religion over the non-muslims’ needs.

The ‘Real muslim’, like the ‘Real Scotsman’, does not exist anywhere outside our own subjective imagination of what is ideal. There can never be political consensus on what a ‘real muslim’ looks or behaves like, though we are free to have our own religious opinion of what the term denotes.

Any political attempt at defining a ‘Real muslim’ is more likely to jeapordise the rights and equal status of the minority sects and non-mainstream schools of thought, than it is to isolate the violent fringe. You cannot clean the mess through cantankerous denialism, and doubling down on the very behaviour that spawns these self-proclaimed “real muslims” – those who believe they are entitled to determine the fate of minorities, just as you feel entitled to determine theirs.

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

Inauguration of the CPEC Hailing a revolution

Dr ahmaD rashiD malik

T

He dream has come true. The new great game began between Kashgar and gwadar. Chinese goods could reach from Kashgar in thirteen days for upward transfer via ships to the middle east, Africa, and europe. The litmus test was successful. The caravan reached speedily and safely.

It portrayed the peaceful image of Pakistan.

This is the change of the old game. The new game of trade is between China and Pakistan.

They have written new history. This year is “1869’’ for Pakistan when 147 years ago Suez Canal was inaugurated, making a direct and short route between Asia and europe. It was a revolution in shipping route.

On 13 November, Prime minister Nawaz Sharif kicked off the ground-making ceremony of the China-Pakistan economic Corridor (CPeC) at gwadar Port. The CPeC is the life blood of Pakistan. It is not just a set of arteries of roads within Pakistan and links between gwadar and Kashgar, it is a network of the economy of Pakistan in the 21st century.

It has initiated a revolution, a direct link between Kashgar and gwadar and bringing China on the mouth of the Arabian Sea as the most merchandise nation in the world. The inauguration of the CPeC was a real ‘’watershed’’ as pointed out by Prime minister Sharif. The con-

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

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sistent and vigorous pursuit by government has made the CPeC to become a reality. Political leadership and the army Chief Raheel Sharif together with Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong witnessed the inauguration. Prime minister Sharif termed the inauguration a ‘’momentous movement’’ and indeed it was.

Two vessels were loaded with over 150 containers and they were off to the middle east and African countries. The CPeC caravan reached in thirteen days from Kashgar to gwadar. The time would be further reduced when modern network and roads facilities will be provided. This hailed a revolution. gwadar is the crown in the jewel of the One belt One Road and the project is just inaugurated after it was formally launched some 18 months ago when President Xi Jinping visited Islamabad on 20-21 April last year. The early inauguration of the CPeC is the resolve of the hardworking Chinese sprit and Pakistani dedication of closely cooperating with Pakistan.

The inauguration is the biggest wonder of the 21st century. both nations have discovered a new trading route for sharing prosperity not only between them but almost for the entire world. This kind of breakthrough is only possible in centuries. A true friendship could do that.

The inauguration is a monument of the allweather friendship between the two countries.

Now no one can stop Pakistan entering into comity of prosperity and becoming an ‘’Asian Tiger’’ with the help of an Asian joint. The tiger vassals have sailed off. gwadar has become an international hub-port. It is unmatchable.

Now there are two backbones of Pakistan’s economy: the mighty Indus River and CPeC. Like the Indus ricer, CPeC would be eternal and guarantees the sustainability of the economy of Pakistan.

The Indian propaganda and artificial mistrust spread by some political parties in the country are designed to malign Pakistan’s

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

friendship with China. Pakistan has never paid any price for its friendship with China. It always comes to assist Pakistan. After country’s defence became un-conquerable, China is now converting Pakistan’s economy unmatchable by changing the natural geography of trade long existed between the two countries.

A new chapter of geo-economic has been written with China as the core author of the script elevating Pakistan as the beneficiary. This is a new outlet for the economy of Pakistan when the country faces so many hurdles and barriers in trade expansion. A new direction has been given. Pakistanis should be wise enough to understand the kind gesture of the Chinese people for their well being.

Anti-CPeC propaganda orchestrated by some political groups should come to an end. enough is enough. It is not disgraceful for us that the Chinese Ambassador at Islamabad requested the leader of a political party not to perturb CPeC just few weeks ago. It should be our collective responsibility to work out for the early implementation of the CPeC that would change our life in our time. government also needs to take stern actions against those anti-CPeC propagandists who have been sponsored by India and some other intelligence agencies. The Khuzdar incident is a case in point that was engineered a day before CPeC was inaugurated to discourage the great opening.

The opening of the CPeC sent out a strong message to anti-propagandists and they could easily see a new turning point in Pakistan-China friendship and that CPeC has become a reality.

Dr Ahmad Rashid Malik is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad. He is an expert on Japan, China, and East Asian affairs. http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk I

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

COMMENT 09

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Editor’s mail

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

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Who is destabilising whom?

The persecution of Christians in the Middle East Evil from religious convictions

Dr alon Ben-meir

A

LTHOUgH Christians have lived in the middle east – the birthplace of Christianity – for nearly two thousand years, as a result of years of persecution and discrimination, especially in the past 15 years, they now constitute no more than 3-4% of the region’s population, down from 20% a century ago. Christians are not the only minority being discriminated against in this region, but their plight is more visible in many places, beyond what has been experienced by Yazidis, Kurds, Druze, and others.

Unfortunately, given the turmoil in the middle east and the rise of Islamic extremism, with few exceptions Christians and other minorities may no longer be able to live in harmony with their largely muslim neighbours.

There are several factors contributing to the persecution of religious minorities in the middle east. Although sectarian conflicts in the region are not new, the 2003 Iraq War and the Arab Spring unleashed a new torrent of violence between Sunnis and Shias and against other religious minorities.

The rise of Islamic extremism has been a singular driving force in the plight of religious minorities, fuelling a growing desire to resort to religion as a palliative. The resurfacing of religious division visà-vis the Sunni-Shia conflict, and between different Sunni sects, is creating a societal mindset that posits other religious groups as ‘the enemy.’ groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS exploit this intolerance of religious and inter-religious out-groups, with the latter taking such fanaticism to new and barbaric heights.

In addition, the wanton persecution of religious minorities is compounded by the threat of radicalisation, which threatens social cohesion and combines religious doctrine with fanatical violence. As blaise Pascal aptly put it, “men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

The prevailing frustration, pain, and agony in the region as a result of socio-economic despondency adds further impetus to the spike in discrimination—when governments fail to step in and mitigate the situation, there is a tendency to find a ‘sacrificial lamb’ to blame one’s ills on.

The fact that there is rampant unemployment, limited opportunities for higher education, and that tens of millions of muslims live in poverty all fosters a sense of resentment against other minorities.

Arab nationalism is another major factor that was reinvigorated in the wake of Arab Spring, and as a result, discrimination against Christians was sharpened in certain countries, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The growing influence of Islam into the state framework created cleavages between religious minority groups and the majority.

The prevalence of blasphemy laws throughout the region add another complex layer to religious

discrimination. These laws, which are frequently abused to settle personal scores, often carry with them a mandatory death sentence. Allegations of blasphemy are often presented with no evidence, because to reproduce the evidence would be to reproduce the blasphemy.

Finally, a widely-held perception in the middle east today is that many of the region’s socioeconomic problems are attributable to the legacy of the postWorld War I and II colonial eras and the exploitive regimes of those times. Though many of the newly independent states immediately turned to autocratic rule, the pre-existing state structures were largely kept in place to the relief of religious minorities.

The Arab Spring, though, put this political order to the test—the demand for democratisation made many religious minorities uneasy, worried that the legal protections carried over from the Ottoman era would fall to the wayside.

There are several remedies and countermeasures that must be taken to mitigate religious discrimination. To begin with, a renewed and concerted push is necessary at the political level, led by the world’s major powers to end many of the raging regional conflicts. Needless to say, this is easier said than done, but then regardless of how extremely intractable many of these conflicts are, no one should expect that persecution of minorities would be eliminated or be appreciably minimised unless these conflicts come to an end. ending regional conflicts, including a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, would substantially reduce tensions in much of the region and bring Israel closer to the Sunni Arab world, while depriving extremist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah of their raison d’etre.

A solution to the Syrian conflict would stabilise what is left of the fractious nation and could help improve the status of the remaining Christian community in particular, which has seen many of its holy sites defaced or completely destroyed at the behest of radical Islamist militias such as ISIS. The Sunni-Shiite conflict, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively, is another conflict that feeds into the frenzy of extremism and must also be mitigated, even though it may take years if not decades.

Preventive diplomacy is critically important any time there is a sign that acts of persecution might take place, or there appears to be a gradual emergence of an environment that could lead to persecution—measures taken by the West, and particularly the United States, in a timely fashion would prevent such developments from occurring.

Furthermore, in responding quickly to atrocities against religious minorities, outside powers need to interject themselves more forcefully before conflicts spiral out of control. There is evidence that suggests timely intervention in Syria, however limited in scope, can prevent further calamities against religious minorities.

When ISIS was attacking the Yazidis in Iraq with genocidal intent, the US intervened and saved tens of thousands of Yazidis who were trapped on mount Sinjar, under threat of extermination by the extremist Islamist group. Similarly, the destruction of the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani in Syria was prevented when the US helped local Kurdish forces repel ISIS and take back the town.

Significant funding is needed for religious programming so that citizens of a given country can develop legal practices and cultural tools which offer training and instruction in religious tolerance.

In order to address these issues, federal agencies including USAID need to enforce their mandates, as do nonprofits whose mission is to promote religious freedom initiatives.

When these states modify their existing prac-

tices, they can be rewarded financially or otherwise depending on the special need of a given country — but tangible results need to be seen before any incentives are granted.

To drive the point home, violators need to fully understand that their transgressions will have consequences. With its tremendous global influence, the United States and the eU can go as far as leveraging international trade or other political deals with a demand of ending violations against religious minorities.

Violators can be punished through sanctions – restricting travel of senior officials, limiting trade, etc.—which could give violating countries incentives to stop discriminatory practices. Approaches to addressing violations against religious freedom, however, cannot be generalised. each country is different, and the same measures cannot be applied across the board.

We cannot underestimate the importance of education in promoting and fostering religious tolerance and inter-religious dialogue. modifying textbooks and learning about religions other than one’s own can be an invaluable experience, if it is approached without belittling, disparaging, or dismissing views that are different from the ones we happen to hold.

Positive exposure to other religions can deepen the understanding and appreciation we have of our own faith. As gandhi aptly observed, “It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others’ religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty.”

There are innumerable instances where a country, due to a preexisting alliance or for the sake of self-interest, will not admonish a partner nation for its violations against religious freedom. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iraq are on top of the list in discriminating against Christians, but one does not hear the United States raising this question publicly due to political considerations.

If the United States seeks to make its objections clear to allied nations, it must open a quiet dialogue and pressure them to correct their records on religious freedom.

At the international level, any progress toward ensuring the protection of religious freedom and reducing discrimination against and persecution of religious minorities has been hampered by the failure of the United Nations.

The UN Security Council is overly politicised, and a resolution to stop the persecution of minorities is rarely passed; even then, there is no enforcement mechanism over which all Security Council members agree upon. The UN general Assembly is less effective, as any resolution passed is nonbinding and largely ignored by its own members.

The strategies that have been enumerated for addressing religious persecution of minorities in the middle east do not constitute a silver bullet that will bring a halt to discrimination and abuse.

It is a tragedy for the world when any group of persons – whether they be Christians, muslims, Yazidis, or Druze – are denied their human dignity and the basic human freedom to believe and worship as they please.

The freedom of religion and the dignity of each and every individual will be fully restored when those who now are consumed with hatred for the other, recall and take to heart the words of matthew 25:40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Dr Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Centre for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies. alon@alonben-meir.com

INDIA is a very big country and Pakistan is a small country both in terms of area and population. both the neighbouring countries are also atomic powers.

Pakistan is facing host of internal and external challenges and problems and is engaged in the war on terror against terrorists, extremists and militants who, at the behest of their foreign masters and facilitators, are threatening its security and solidarity for many years.

It is well-known fact all over the world that a small country like Pakistan is more concerned about safeguarding and protecting its national security, solidarity and unity than anything else.

Few days back, Indian Home minister Rajnath Singh in line with his Prime minister Narendra modi hurled yet another volley of charges and allegations against Pakistan saying Islamabad is making attempts to destabilise India and also committing ceasefire violations on Line of Control (LoC). In his another outburst against Pakistan, the Indian Home minister also told the “truth” that though India was divided in 1947 on the basis of religion “still our hearts do not accept this”. every sensible person all over the world on reading the accusations and allegations of the Indian Home minister against Pakistan would certainly and surely agree with this scribe that It is always the bigger country which threatens smaller countries around it to enhance its hegemonious control and the small countries like Pakistan are forced to take adequate steps to ensure national security, solidarity and unity.

In all fairness, it is India which has been and is engaged in taking measures to destabilise Pakistan and isolate in the comity of nation and this bitter fact Indian Prime minister had also stated in his lashing out at Pakistan at the Heart of Asia Conference in Amritsar, India earlier this month. What India is doing to destabilise and isolate Pakistan, the Indian Home minister has blamed Pakistan for all that in his rather ridiculous statement void of all diplomatic norms.

Volumes of books can be written as to what India has been doing over the years and doing now to destabilise Pakistan whose creation it has no accepted so far.

ZOHAIB AHMAD QURESHI Lahore

Encroachment on railway land THe Karachi Circular Railway project’s major problem is encroachment on railway land. The elected mNA and mPAs must play their role and encourage people to move to the land which is reserved for the affected people.

The Sindh government removed encroachments for the Lyari expressway project so that it could be completed. The Sindh government was also involved in removing encroachments from storm water drain like Organi nullah, gujjar nullah, Lyari river and other areas so that storm water drain return to its original shape and there could be smooth water flow.

All encroachments from these projects were removed before the development projects were started. These encroachments were removed only through the efforts of political parties.

Therefore, these political parties must play their role in removing encroachments from the railway land so that KCR project could be materialised.

The government should sign an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) or some other Chinese firms for providing soft loan for laying new tracks and new engines.

The KCR project is feasible and it could be done through the joint efforts of Sindh government and Pakistan railways.

GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN Lahore

Schools in KP and basic facilities IT is sad to mention that the schools of KP are devoid of four walls. According to a news report, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 3,900 schools including, primary, middle, high and higher secondary are unguarded and deprived of basic facilities. The children are facing problems for getting education in KP, such as classrooms, basic facilities and security.

Such cases occurred before in KP schools. The provincial government is not taking action for building classrooms and the four walls (chaar deewari). 2 billion rupees were allocated for the provision of facilities in schools, and nobody knows where that money is being used. It’s estimated that this money is being lost in corruption by the officials.

So, the government of KP should provide basic facilities in KP schools and must give more funds to schools. The officials by whom the previous funds were corrupted should also be punished.

JALAL JAN Kech

Evacuation grinds to a halt in syria’s war-torn alEppo ALEPPO/BEIRUT

t

AGENCIES

HE evacuation of east Aleppo has been halted, with Syrian rebels accused of failing to respect a deal to lift their own siege of two pro-government

towns.

At least 6,000 civilians and rebels are said to have left Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, since Thursday after the government recaptured most of the city.

But the UN believes that some 50,000 people are still trapped there.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey, the rebels were meant to ease their siege of towns in Idlib province.

Reports suggest the biggest rebel group in Idlib, the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham jihadists formerly known as the Nusra Front, have now agreed to allow injured people to leave the towns, Foua and Kefraya, which are home to some 20,000 people.

Four years of vicious fighting in eastern Aleppo left thousands dead, destroyed hospitals and wiped out food supplies.

Those being evacuated were taken in convoys to rebel-held parts of Idlib.

Meanwhile, there were new protests across the world, from Malaysia to Turkey, to condemn violence against Syrian civilians and show solidarity with the country’s opposition.

Why did the evacuatioN stop? Confusion reigned on Friday

morning when the Aleppo evacuation was stopped. Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government on the ground, said the evacuation was complete, with all rebels and their families having been evacuated. It put the number at more than 9,500.

However, Turkey contradicted this, saying many people still wanted to leave.

Speaking in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said consultations were under way with Russia and Iran, another key ally of the Syrian government, as well as “elements on the ground”. An unnamed Syrian official overseeing the operation told agencies the evacuation had been suspended “because the militants failed to respect the conditions of the agreement”.

Syrian state media also accused rebels in Aleppo of trying to smuggle captives and heavy weapons out with them as they left besieged enclaves in the city.

Later on Friday, rebel sources told media that Jabhat had agreed to let injured people out of Foua and Kefraya, and the evacuations there were due to start shortly.

“There are still high numbers of women and infants - children under five - that need to get out,” WHO official Ms Hoff told the UN on Friday in a phone call from government-held western Aleppo shortly after the suspension had been announced.

“They have been collecting themselves on the points where the buses and the ambulances were waiting for them.

“But now with the operation aborted

they had to go back to their houses and this a great concern to us because we know that they are desperate to get out.”

On Thursday, the UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said there were “50,000 people, including 40,000 civilians, unfortunate enough to live in” eastern Aleppo. Syrian regime forces have captured almost all of the rebel-held territory in eastern Aleppo, with the help of Russian air strikes. But the conflict in Syria is far from over.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has accused the Syrian government of carrying out “nothing short of a massacre” in Aleppo. Syria and Russia have repeatedly denied targeting civilians in eastern Aleppo.

FOREIGN NEWS 11

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Obama says US will retaliate against Russian hacking in 2016 elections WASHINGTON AGENCIES

Barack Obama on Thursday said the United States would retaliate against Russian hacking, after the White House accused Vladimir Putin of direct involvement in cyber-attacks designed to influence the US election.

The outgoing US president’s remarks dramatically upped the stakes in a dispute between the world’s leading nuclear powers over interference that may have swayed last month’s tight election, in which Republican billionaire Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact

the integrity of our elections that we need to take action,” Obama told NPR radio. “And we will, at a time and place of our own choosing.”

Pointing the finger at the Russian president over meddling in the election also puts the White House on a collision course with Trump, who has become increasingly isolated in questioning Russian involvement in hacks of Democratic Party emails that appeared to have slowed the momentum of Clinton’s campaign. Obama is expected to be peppered with questions about the dispute, and any subsequent action when he holds a news conference Friday at 2:15 PM (7:15 PM GMT) before leaving for a vacation in Hawaii.

“I don’t think things happen in the

Russian government of this consequence without Vladimir Putin knowing about it,” one of his top advisers, Ben Rhodes, said earlier Thursday. “Everything we know about how Russia operates and how Putin controls that government would suggest that, again, when you’re talking about a significant cyber intrusion like this, we’re talking about the highest levels of government,” he told MSNBC television.

“And ultimately, Vladimir Putin is the official responsible for the actions of the Russian government.”

Not a joke: White House spokesman Josh Earnest echoed his comments, saying the decision by US intelligence agencies in October to blame “Russia’s senior-most officials” was not meant to be “particularly subtle.”

Trump caused outrage in July by suggesting that Russia find 30,000 missing emails related to Clinton’s use of a private server when she was secretary of state.

Surrogates dismissed it as a joke, but he repeated his call on Twitter.

“I don’t think anybody at the White House thinks it’s funny that an adversary of the United States engaged in malicious cyber activity to destabilize our democracy. That’s not a joke,” Earnest said on Thursday. “Mr Trump obviously knew that Russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity that was helping him and hurting Secretary Clinton’s campaign,” he added.

Asked if the White House believes Russia successfully rigged the election, however, he told reporters that there were

a “variety of potential explanations, and that’s more of a question for analysts of politics than it is for analysts of intelligence.”

Trump, who blasted as “ridiculous” a reported CIA assessment that Russia was trying to help him win, has continued to question Russian involvement in hacks of damaging Democratic Party emails. He used a campaign-style victory rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday to hit out against Earnest, calling him “this foolish guy,” and questioning whether he was talking to Obama to boos from the crowd.

“Having the right press secretary is so important because he is so bad the way he delivers the message,” said the Presidentelect, who has yet to appoint one for his own incoming administration.

CMYK

10 FOREIGN NEWS

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

12 WORLD VIEW

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Is the AmerIcAn dreAm deAd? TruThouT

C JPolyChRoniou

C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, in several of your writings you question the usual view of the United States as an archetypical capitalist economy. Please explain.

Noam Chomsky: Consider this: Every time there is a crisis, the taxpayer is called on to bail out the banks and the major financial institutions. If you had a real capitalist economy in place, that would not be happening. Capitalists who made risky investments and failed would be wiped out. But the rich and powerful do not want a capitalist system. They want to be able to run the nanny state so when they are in trouble the taxpayer will bail them out. The conventional phrase is "too big to fail."

The IMF did an interesting study a few years ago on profits of the big US banks. It attributed most of them to the many advantages that come from the implicit government insurance policy -- not just the featured bailouts, but access to cheap credit and much else -- including things the IMF researchers didn't consider, like the incentive to undertake risky transactions, hence highly profitable in the short term, and if anything goes wrong, there's always the taxpayer.

Bloomberg Businessweek estimated the implicit taxpayer subsidy at over $80 billion per year.

CJP: Much has been said and written about economic inequality. Is economic inequality in the contemporary capitalist era very different from what it was in other post-slavery periods of American history?

NC: The inequality in the contemporary period is almost unprecedented. If you look at total inequality, it ranks amongst the worse periods of American history. However, if you look at inequality more closely, you see that it comes from wealth that is in the hands of a tiny sector of the population. There were periods of American history, such as during the Gilded Age in the 1920s and the roaring 1990s, when something similar was going on. But the current period is extreme because inequality comes from super wealth. Literally, the top one-tenth of a percent are just super wealthy. This is not only extremely unjust in itself, but represents a development that has corrosive effects on democracy and on the vision of a decent society.

CJP: What does all this mean in terms of the American Dream? Is it dead?

NC: The "American Dream" was all

about class mobility. You were born poor, but could get out of poverty through hard work and provide a better future for your children. It was possible for [some workers] to find a decent-paying job, buy a home, a car and pay for a kid's education.

It's all collapsed -- and we shouldn't have too many illusions about when it was partially real. Today social mobility in the US is below other rich societies.

CJP: Is the US then a democracy in name only?

NC: The US professes to be a democracy, but it has clearly become something of a plutocracy, although it is still an open and free society by comparative standards. But let's be clear about what democracy means. In a democracy, the public influences policy and then the government carries out actions determined by the public. For the most part, the US government carries out actions that benefit corporate and financial interests. It is also important to understand that privileged and powerful sectors in society have never liked democracy, for good reasons.

Democracy places power in the hands of the population and takes it away from them. In fact, the privileged and powerful classes of this country have always sought to find ways to limit power from being placed in the hands of the general population -- and they are breaking no new ground in this regard.

CJP: Concentration of wealth yields to concentration of power. I think this is an undeniable fact. And since capitalism always leads in the end to concentration of wealth, doesn't it follow that capitalism is antithetical to democracy?

NC: Concentration of wealth leads naturally to concentration of power, which in turn translates to legislation favoring the interests of the rich and powerful and thereby increasing even further the concentration of power and wealth. Various political measures, such as fiscal policy, deregulation, and rules for corporate governance are designed to increase the concentration of wealth and power. And that's what we've been seeing during the neoliberal era. It is a vicious cycle in constant progress. The state is there to provide security and support to the interests of the privileged and powerful sectors in society while the rest of the population is left to experience the brutal reality of capitalism. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.

So, yes, in that sense capitalism actually works to undermine democracy. But what has just been described -- that is, the vicious cycle of concentration of power and wealth -- is so traditional that it is

New York Times RogeR Cohen

The thing about “The Apprentice” is you could turn it off. Now we get to watch Donald Trump all the time. There’s nowhere to hide. I was in Papua New Guinea recently. His name kept coming up.

The appointments cascade at reality-show speed.

Rick Perry to head the Energy Department whose name he couldn’t remember when he wanted to dismantle it! Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency he’s spent the last several years suing! A fierce critic of worker protections to be secretary of labor! An oil executive, Rex Tillerson, whose company owns drilling rights on 63.7 million acres in Russia to handle dealings with Vladimir Putin when Moscow just infiltrated the American election process!

Next up: Kim Jong-un as press secretary, Cruella de Vil to head the Humane Society, and Mata Hari to lead the Cybersecurity National Action Plan.

All this is further evidence of Trump’s genius.

He is master of the Art of Disorientation. He’s turned Americans into cartoon characters whose heads are always spinning. How the president-elect must laugh at all the fact-based journalism (ghastly tautological phrase) dedicated to disproving things he never believed and can’t remember anyway.

The disoriented are more inclined to seek saviors. Trump knows that. He’s been right up to now.

even described by Adam Smith in 1776.

He says in his famous Wealth of Nations that, in England, the people who own society, in his days the merchants and the manufacturers, are "the principal architects of policy." And they make sure that their interests are very well cared for, however grievous the impact of the policies they advocate and implement through government is on the people of England or others.

Now, it's not merchants and manufacturers who own society and dictate policy.

It is financial institutions and multinational corporations. Today they are the groups that Adam Smith called the masters of mankind. And they are following the same vile maxim that he formulated: All for ourselves and nothing for anyone else. They will pursue policies that benefit them and harm everyone else because capitalist interests dictate that they do so.

It's in the nature of the system. And in the absence of a general, popular reaction, that's pretty much all you will get.

CJP: Let's return to the idea of the American Dream and talk about the origins of the American political system. I mean, it was never intended to be a democracy (actually the term always used to describe the architecture of the American political system was "republic," which is very different from a democracy, as the ancient Romans well understood), and there had always been a struggle for freedom and democracy from below, which continues to this day.

In this context, wasn't the American Dream built at least partly on a myth?

NC: Sure. Right through American history, there's been an ongoing clash between pressure for more freedom and democracy coming from below and efforts at elite control and domination from above. It goes back to the founding of the country, as you pointed out. The "founding fathers," even James Madison, the main framer, who was as much a believer in democracy as any other leading political figure in those days, felt that the United States political system should be in the hands of the wealthy because the wealthy are the "more responsible set of men." And, thus, the structure of the formal constitutional system placed more power in the hands of the Senate, which was not elected in those days. It was selected from the wealthy men who, as Madison put it, had sympathy for the owners of wealth and private property.

This is clear when you read the debates of the Constitutional Convention. As Madison said, a major concern of the po-

litical order has to be "to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority."

And he had arguments. If everyone had a vote freely, he said, the majority of the poor would get together and they would organize to take away the property of the rich. That, he added, would be obviously unjust, so the constitutional system had to be set up to prevent democracy.

Recall that Aristotle had said something similar in his Politics. Of all political systems, he felt that democracy was the best. But he saw the same problem that Madison saw in a true democracy, which is that the poor might organize to take away the property of the rich. The solution that he proposed, however, was something like a welfare state with the aim of reducing economic inequality. The other alternative, pursued by the "founding fathers," is to reduce democracy.

Now, the so-called American Dream was always based partly in myth and partly in reality. From the early 19th century onward and up until fairly recently, working-class people, including immigrants, had expectations that their lives would improve in American society through hard work. And that was partly true, although it did not apply for the most part to African Americans and women until much later. This no longer seems to be the case. Stagnating incomes, declining living standards, outrageous student debt levels, and hard-to-come-by decent-paying jobs have created a sense of hopelessness among many Americans, who are beginning to look with certain nostalgia toward the past. This explains, to a great extent, the rise of the likes of Donald Trump and the appeal among the youth of the political message of someone like Bernie Sanders.

CJP: After World War II, and pretty much up until the mid-1970s, there was a movement in the US in the direction of a more egalitarian society and toward greater freedom, in spite of great resistance and oppression from the elite and various government agencies. What happened afterward that rolled back the economic progress of the post-war era, creating in the process a new socio-economic order that has come to be identified as that of neoliberalism?

NC: Beginning in the 1970s, partly because of the economic crisis that erupted in the early years of that decade and the decline in the rate of profit, but also partly because of the view that democracy had become too widespread, an enormous, concentrated, coordinated business offensive was begun to try to

PAX AMERICANA IS OVER Before anyone else, he was onto the way that direct democracy through social media has buried representative democracy.

One minute it’s “millions” of illegal votes for Hillary Clinton; then dangling little Mitt Romney; then being too smart for intelligence briefings. Let’s face it, folks. We have no idea what is about to happen in the White House or at White House North in midtown New York. We are in whatever territory lies beyond unknown unknowns.

But some things may be emerging from the fog.

Trump is not interested in the rules-based international order the United States has spent the last seven decades building and defending. His foreign policy will be transactional. If it profits America, fine. If not, forget about it. Trump’s United States will be agnostic on human rights, freedom and democracy.

America, suspending moral judgment, will behave a lot more like China on the world stage.

Except that’s a little unfair to China. The Chinese do understand the benefits of free trade (and they certainly understand that when Trump rips up the TransPacific Partnership, a strategic plan to offset Chinese power couched in an economic arrangement, Beijing grows stronger). Because they often can’t breathe,

the Chinese also understand, in a way Trump does not, the importance of fighting climate change.

As an exercise, I’ve been trying to imagine Trump saying something — anything — about the heinous destruction of Aleppo by the forces of Putin and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. I’ve been trying to imagine what Trump might say about the brutal crimes against Syrian civilians in the beleaguered eastern sector of that once glorious city. I came up blank.

He did say it was “sad.” He said he’d ask Persian Gulf nations to put up money for “safe zones.” Good luck with that as the war nears its sixth year.

I guess that’s one advantage of the amorality in which Trump traffics: You may as well refrain from any moral stand because nobody will believe you anyway. (To be fair, Syria is a huge stain on the Obama presidency.) It would be obscene for Trump to speak of principles. That is a problem.

America is an idea. Strip freedom, human rights, democracy and the rule of law from what the United States represents to the world and America itself is gutted. Of course, realpolitik driven by interests is integral to American foreign policy, but a valueless approach of the kind Trump proposes leaves the world rudderless.

Noam Chomsky, long considered one of America's voices of conscience and one of the world's leading public intellectuals

beat back the egalitarian efforts of the post-war era, which only intensified as time went on. The economy itself shifted to financialization. Financial institutions expanded enormously. By 2007, right before the crash for which they had considerable responsibility, financial institutions accounted for a stunning 40 percent of corporate profit. A vicious cycle between concentrated capital and politics accelerated, while increasingly, wealth concentrated in the financial sector. Politicians, faced with the rising cost of campaigns, were driven ever deeper into the pockets of wealthy backers. And politicians rewarded them by pushing policies favorable to Wall Street and other powerful business interests. Throughout this period, we have a renewed form of class warfare directed by the business class against the working people and the poor, along with a conscious attempt to roll back the gains of the previous decades.

CJP: Now that Trump is the presidentelect, is the Bernie Sanders political revolution over?

NC: That's up to us and others to determine. The Sanders "political revolution" was quite a remarkable phenomenon. I was certainly surprised, and pleased. But we should remember that the term "revolution" is somewhat misleading. Sanders is an honest and committed New Dealer. His policies would not have surprised Eisenhower very much. The fact that he's considered "radical" tells us how far the elite political spectrum has shifted to the right during the neoliberal period. There have been some promising offshoots of the Sanders mobilization, like the Brand New Congress movement and several others.

There could, and should, also be efforts to develop a genuine independent left party, one that doesn't just show up every four years but is working constantly at the grassroots, both at the electoral level (everything from school boards to town meetings to state legislatures and on up) and in all the other ways that can be pursued. There are plenty of opportunities -- and the stakes are substantial, particularly when we turn attention to the two enormous shadows that hover over everything: nuclear war and environmental catastrophe, both ominous, demanding urgent action.

C.J. Polychroniou is a regular contributor to Truthout as well as a member of Truthout's Public Intellectual Project.

Pax Americana is over. It had a good run. A PutinTrump alliance at the service of the butcher Assad — combined with the undoing of the military alliances, trade pacts, political integration and legal framework of the postwar order — constitutes its death knell.

Maybe everything will work out fine with a nuclear South Korea, a nuclear Japan, Baltic States exposed to the whims of Putin, the United States Embassy moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a flimsy NATO abjured by America, and swaggering Texan oil men running things while Trump takes time off in New York.

I doubt it. The embassy move alone could ignite widespread violence. David Friedman, the man Trump has nominated as ambassador to Israel, seems certain to stoke the fires.

Trump’s plans are full of contradictions he hasn’t begun to address. He’s against the Iran nuclear deal although of course he’s never read it. But Putin is for it. Trump wants to eliminate the Islamic State. So does Russia, whose ally in Syria is Iran. Trump wants an America-first, business-driven policy. Boeing just signed a big deal with Iran. So maybe Trump ends up doing the only sane thing: preserving a nuclear deal that’s in everyone’s interest.

Who knows? Markets think they do. They love Trump. That’s because Trump believes big guys should take everything and little guys should take nothing.

But wasn’t it the little guys who voted for Trump?

That’s funny, really it is. Or as he would put it, “Sad.”

LEISURE 13

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

Social activities with friends continue to take on a greater role of importance in the days ahead as the Aquarius New Moon emphasizes your 11th House of Groups. You enthusiastically join with others in.

Your career remains the main focus of your life for the weeks ahead as you look for ways to stabilize the foundation you have already created. But don't stop to rest on your past actions; if you have plans.

You're not interested in taking directions from anyone else today. The individualistic Aquarius New Moon rocks your 9th House of Adventure, filling your head with radical ideas about escaping from your.

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

You are tempted to bury your emotions, but this strategy won't work today because the Aquarius New Moon falls in your 8th House of Deep Sharing.

Fortunately, others take you seriously when you speak your.

There's a window of opportunity to make a clean break from some aspect of your life that is no longer serving you well. In addition to leaving something behind, consider what kind of relationships you.

You have no tolerance for boredom today, making it crucial to find new ways of doing the same old job today. At minimum, the Aquarius New Moon's presence in your 6th House of Habits infuses a healthy dose.

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

There's a window of opportunity to make a clean break from some aspect of your life that is no longer serving you well. In addition to leaving something behind, consider what kind of relationships you.

There is an ongoing stress between your desire to connect and your need to be separate. A comfortable blanket of emotional detachment overtakes the details of your day as you move steadily into a new phase.

You're willing to accept the all-toosensible restraints currently being placed on your life. The restrictions actually bring relief from the hectic pace now that the Aquarius New Moon agitates your 3rd.

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

The universe is sending mixed signals your way today. On one hand, the Aquarius New Moon in your 2nd House of Values requires you to focus on the most basic concepts so you can build your world on a firm.

You have a unique opportunity to reset your emotional calendar today when the Aquarius New Moon lands in your 1st House of Self. It's nearly impossible to maintain objectivity because your passions are.

There's magic in store for you if you're willing to swim through the swirling and healing waters of your own mind. The Aquarius New Moon floats in your 12th House of Spirituality, taking you on a magical.

cRosswoRd

ACROSS 1 with little or no excess (6) 4 Cop (slang) (5) 7 Nocturnal dog-like predator (6) 8 Circle of light around the moon (6) 9 Good-quality sound equipment (2-2) 10 Small monkey — Rome's mat (anag) (8) 12 Numerical twodimensional matrix where the sum of all the rows (vertical, horizontal and diagonal) is the same (5,6) 17 Supposedly helpful untruth (5,3) 19 Roman male garb (4) 20 Snigger (6) 21 Artist's total output (6)

woRd sEaRcH

22 English prince — trouble (5) 23 heavy food (6) DOwn 1 Arena (7) 2 Suspicion (7) 3 Involving controversy (9) 4 flower (5) 5 Program used to view hTML documents — cow in a field? (7) 6 Causing fermentation (6) 11 french blue cheese (9) 13 flyer (7) 14 Bewilder (7) 15 Prepare to fence! (2,5) 16 Sample piece of cloth (6) 18 hard black-grey mineral used in grinding and polishing (5)

HaGaR tHE HoRRIblE

dIlbERt

GaRFIEld

baldo

cHEss ABOUT ASPECT AwAkE AwfUL BELOw BRAIN BREAk BRING BUNT ChILL CLINIC CONTROL dIffERENT dIGIT dISEASE EARLy fROzEN GIANT hEALTh hEAVy

INVEST LEARN LOAN LOBE MINUS NEAR RACIAL RATE RESEARCh ShEAR SINGLE SLId STAGE START STIff TEAM ThICk TREMOR wINTER wORRy

black TO PlaY aND MaTE IN TwO MOVEs 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

Today’s soluTions

bRIdGE loUIE Has a casE

sUdokU crossword solution sudoku solution

1...Qd1! 2.Nxb6 [2.Ne5 e2+ 3.kh1 Qxe1+ 4.Qxe1 Bf2] 2...Rc1 * chess solution

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

14

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

ARTS

Climate Change behind some 2015 floods, fires, heat waves: study MIAMI

Agencies

Last year’s heat waves across Europe and Asia, fires in Alaska, unusually sunny winters in Britain and high-tide floods in Florida were influenced by climate change, a US report showed Thursday.

But other extreme weather events could not be blamed on the burning of fossil fuels which traps gas in the atmosphere and warms the planet, said the report called “Explaining Extreme Events from a Climate Perspective.”

Those for which scientists found “no climate signal” included the extreme cold in the eastern US and Canada, the late arrival of Nigeria’s spring rains and heavy daily precipitation in December over Chennai, India.

The report, regularly published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, does not cover all extreme weather events but allows scientists to select and study certain ones of interest.

Scientists then use historical records and climate models to attempt to explain the extent of the impact of climate change in shaping them.

The latest report is based on 25

peer-reviewed research papers that examine episodes of extreme weather of 2015 over five continents and two oceans.

Some 116 scientists from 18 countries contributed to the analysis.

“The strongest evidence for a human influence was found for temperature-related events — the increased intensity of numerous heat waves, diminished snowpack in the Cascades, record-low Arctic sea ice extent in March and the extraordinary extent and duration of Alaska wildfires,” said the report.

Monthly temperature records show that 2016 is likely to be the hottest on record, marking the third such year in a row as the planet

Indian newspaper offers ‘tips’ to conceive baby boy Web Desk Kerala’s Mangalam newspaper published a selection of tips for readers who wish to conceive a baby boy, according to a report on BBC. The newspaper counselled mothers-to-be to eat well and sleep facing the west. The publication went as far as advising potential mothers to forego breakfast and only have sex only on specific days; when “the male sperm is stronger”.

Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at The Portland Hospital in London, Shazia Malik discredited the article, saying: “The chance of a girl or a boy at conception is totally random. There is no scientific evidence on any method that will change this statistical chance when a baby is conceived naturally.”

However, the strength of a sperm has no bearing on the baby’s

sex. The baby’s sex is determined by the chromosome carried by the sperm. Many Indians have a longstanding preference for sons with a number of baby girls being aborted or killed after birth. Despite laws proscribing the gender of unborn children to be ascertained, sex-selective abortions remain common in India and have resulted in a decline in the number of girls to boys.

Speaking to the BBC, Disappearing Daughters: The Tragedy of Female Foeticide author Gita Aravamudan said the article was unlikely to have much influence.

“This article is even more ridiculous than usual, but such ideas are common,” she said.

“It shows that attitudes like this still flourish despite initiatives taken by the Indian government, NGOs and health workers. The message isn’t going through: people still value boys more than girls,” Aravamudan said.

warms.

Scientists say some storms and other kinds of extreme weather are likely to get worse as the Earth heats up, glaciers and ice sheets melt and sea levels rise.

“After five years of the BAMS Explaining Extreme Events report, we’re seeing mounting evidence that climate change is making heat waves more extreme in many regions around the world,” said lead editor Stephanie Herring, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Information.

“As we get better at distinguishing the influence of climate change from natural variability, the local sig-

nificance and impacts of this global phenomenon are becoming clearer.”

Among the clearest signals of climate changes influence were the 2015 European heat waves.

“Modelling experiments indicate that human-induced climate change was a major factor in setting the conditions,” for these heat waves, said the report.

Extreme winter sunshine in Britain over the past two years has “become more than 1.5 times more likely under the influence of climate change,” it said.

A warming climate raised the risk of wildfires. In Alaska, 5.1 million acres (20,700 square kilometres) burned in 2015, the second-most since records began in 1940.

“Human-induced climate change may have increased the risk of a fire season of this severity by 34 percent to 60 percent,” said the report.

In coastal Miami, flooding during high tides on otherwise sunny days have increased by more than 500 percent in the past two decades, a rise that is likely due to climate change. One such flood in September last year was “symptomatic of such a trend in tidal floods that are becoming commonplace as sea levels rise.”

Facebook to roll out new tools to tackle fake news Facebook said on Thursday it will introduce tools to prevent fake news stories from spreading on its platform, an about-face in response to rising criticism that it did not do enough to combat the problem during the US presidential campaign. The social network company stressed that the new features are part of an ongoing process to refine and test how it deals with fake news. It has faced complaints this year involving how it monitors and polices content produced by its 1.8 billion users. Facebook said users will find it easier to flag fake articles on their News Feed as a hoax, and it will work with organisations such as factchecking website Snopes, ABC News and the Associated Press to check the authenticity of stories. If such organisations identify a story as fake, Facebook said, it will get flagged as “disputed” and be linked to the corresponding article explaining why. The company said disputed stories may appear lower in its news feed, adding that once a story is flagged, it cannot be promoted. A few weeks ago, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said it was a “crazy idea” that fake or misleading news on Facebook helped swing the election in favour of Republican Donald Trump.

But criticism persisted amid reports that people in the United States and other countries have fabricated sensational hoaxes meant to appeal to conservatives. Critics said fake news often was more widely read than news reported by major media organisations. Ahead of the Nov 8 election, Facebook users saw fake news reports saying Pope Francis endorsed Trump and that a federal agent who had been investigating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was found dead. The effort by Facebook is intended to focus on the “worst of the worst” of clear hoaxes created by “spammers for their own gain,” Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s vice president in charge of its News Feed, said in a blog post. Some far-right conservative writers quickly pounced on the announcement, decrying it as a covert attempt to muzzle their legitimate content. “Translation: A group of incredibly biased left-wing fake news outlets will bury dissenting opinions,” Paul Joseph Watson, editor-atlarge of the far-right website Infowars, which routinely peddles unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, said on Twitter. Facebook has struggled throughout the year to mollify conservatives who fear the company may be censoring them. The company fired contractors who managed the site’s trending news sidebar after a report by Gizmodo in May quoted an anonymous employee claiming the site routinely suppressed conservative news. Agencies

Reprogramming body could extend lifespan: study Web Desk Scientists say a technique of reprogramming cells can “reverse” ageing and markedly increase lifespan, The Independent reported.

“Our study shows that ageing may not have to proceed in one single direction. It has plasticity and, with careful modulation, might be reversed,” Professor Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute said.

The technique used in an experiment involved turning cells back into stem cells, which can then develop into any kind of specialist cell. Another researcher, Alejandro Ocampo explained, “What we and other stemcell labs have observed is that when you induce cellular reprogramming, cells look younger.”

Although previous experiments using the technique on mice did produce younger cells, they also resulted in tumours that caused the mice to die. But the team’s latest research managed to achieve positive results with the mice living 30% longer than untreated animals and not getting cancer.

Scientists explained that the technique was risky because creating stem cells, which can divide rapidly and are important to em-

bryo growth, in adults appeared to increase risk of tumours.

To prevent this, the Salk researchers changed the way four genes, which are involved in cellular programming, were expressed for a short period. Following this technique, scientists achieved the same posi-

tive test results on human cells in the laboratory. Pradeep Reddy, also a Salk research associate explained, “In other studies scientists have completely reprogrammed cells all the way back to a stem-cell-like state. But we show, for the first time, that by expressing these factors for a short duration you can maintain the cell’s identity while reversing age-associated hallmarks.”

For this reason, tests on skin cells in the lab appeared younger but still remained recognisable skin cells. The researchers also tried the technique on mice with progeria, a condition which leaves them – and humans – prematurely old.

Compared with other mice with progeria, the ones with reprogrammed cells lived 30% longer. The researchers then tried the technique on normal, elderly mice. They reported improved regeneration of muscle tissue and the pancreas after an injury.

“Obviously, mice are not humans and we know it will be much more complex to rejuvenate a person,” Professor Belmonte said.

“But this study shows that ageing is a very dynamic and plastic process, and therefore will be more amenable to therapeutic interventions than we previously thought.”

Study warns of world's groundwater depletion by 2050 WAsHINGTON DC Agencies

Groundwater resources could be depleted in the next few decades in dry areas of the world where people use lots of water for drinking and irrigating crops, researchers said Thursday.

The research was presented at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

“While many aquifers remain productive, economically exploitable groundwater is already unattainable or will become so in the near future, especially in intensively irrigated areas in the drier regions of the world,” said researcher Inge de Graaf, a hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

Humans could drink the groundwater almost dry in parts of India, southern Europe and the United States in the coming decades, according to computer models of the world’s groundwater resources.

The research showed that aquifers in the Upper Ganges Basin area of India, southern Spain and Italy could be depleted between 2040 and 2060.

In the United States, in droughtstricken California, aquifers in central and southern parts of the state could be depleted by the 2030s.

Aquifers that Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico rely on could reach their limits between the 2050s and 2070s.

In the next 34 years, as many as 1.8 billion people worldwide could live in areas where groundwater levels are fully or nearly depleted because of excessive

pumping of groundwater for drinking and agriculture, said the findings.

Previous studies have relied on satellite data to estimate groundwater levels.

But the current study, which included researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, aimed to simulate regional activity by studying aquifer structure, water withdrawals, and interactions between groundwater and surrounding water. Billions of gallons of groundwater are used daily for agriculture and drinking water worldwide.

While the latest study offers a new approach to estimating the limits of global groundwater, scientists remain in the dark about exactly how much groundwater remains in individual aquifers.

“We don’t know how much water there is, how fast we’re depleting aquifers, or how long we can use this resource before devastating effects take place, like drying up of wells or rivers,” de Graaf said.

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

ARTS

15

Sharmeen oBaId, PakIStan’S oSCar wInner, vowS to tell untold StorIeS KARACHI

P

AGENCIES

AKISTAN’S double-Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy has hailed new legislation outlawing the crime of “honour killings” as a turning point in the long battle on violence against women, as she sets her sights on conquering her country’s silver screen.

The filmmaker cast a spotlight on the issue with her documentary ‘A Girl In The River: The Price of Forgiveness’ — which bagged an Academy Award earlier this year.

“It is very good in the case of honour killing we finally have a legislation that is stronger,” she says In October, Pakistan’s government passed legislation aimed at closing loopholes that allowed the perpetrators of such killings, often relatives of the victim, to walk free after they are pardoned by another member of their family.

Now a pardon can only save a killer from the death penalty, but not from life imprisonment.

Critics contend that loopholes in the new law remain. For instance, if a killer

claims a motive other than ‘honour’ to justify their act, the blood money pardon law may still apply.

There are around 1000 ‘honour’ killings per year in Pakistan, but Chinoy remains hopeful the tide is shifting, especially in the wake of widespread revulsion over the murder of a social media starlet by her brother.

Bradley Cooper, Irina Shayk engaged?

“It is not going to end tomorrow, but at least the process has started to send the men into jail who kill under the pretext of honour,” she tells a foreign media agency ahead of the premiere of her her new animated film “3 Bahadur” part two (Three brave warriors), which follows three children superheroes.

If her pride is evident, it is unsurpris-

ing — Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif originally announced the bill following a screening in the capital of Chinoy’s Oscar-winning film.

Many observers believe the weight of international pressure was a catalyst in the government’s decision to move a bill that was initially tabled three years ago.

Another turning point for Chinoy was the murder of social media starlet Qandeel Baloch — who shot to fame for her provocative selfies and videos that were praised by fans for daring to challenge the country’s strict social norms on how women should conduct themselves.

In July, Baloch was strangled by her brother who later said he had found her “intolerable” — but the police took the rare step of making themselves “complainants” in the case so the family could not invoke the law of pardon even if they were pressured into doing so.

Chinoy explained: “That sent a very strong message to the people of the country.”

Storyteller: Primarily known for her award-winning documentaries, Chinoy is now branching out into fiction to help revive Pakistan’s long-moribund

Farhan and Urwa finally tie the knot

ENTERTAINMENT DESK

ENTERTAINMENT DESK

Hollywood couple Irina Shayk and Bradley Cooper recently announced that they were expecting their first child. And just when we thought the hype had toned down, Harper’s Bazaar reported that Irina Shayk was spotted with an engagement ring on her finger. Excited fans could barely contain their excitement when Irina was seen on the streets of Los Angeles flashing the ring on her left hand after a day at the spa. The ring is an exquisite emerald surrounded by a pear-shaped diamond halo set in yellow gold. With a stark resemblance to Kate Middleton’s ring we think the ring is royal enough for Hollywood’s it-girl.

The most talked about Pakistani couple, Farhan Saeed and Urwa Hocane finally tied the knot Friday morning. The power couple’s relationship has been making headlines for quite some time and the two finally sealed their vows at the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore. Urwa’s sister Mawra Hocane shared a few pictures from the nikkah event, as the family rejoiced. Wearing an Elan ensemble and sporting accessories by Sheherzad, Urwa was a vision. The beautiful bride was styled by Nabila salon. Farhan boasted a traditional avatar and looked dapper as ever in a white sherwani.

The news of the pair being engaged created

quite a frenzy last month when Farhan shared an Instagram post of Urwa holding his hand in Paris while wearing an engagement ring. The photo was very aptly captioned, “She said YESS!” Recently, the couple also walked the ramp at Bridal Couture Week (BCW) 2016 where they couldn’t take their eyes off each other.

In an earlier interview, the singer opened up about his relationship with the Udaari star.

“We are together and everyone knows about it. We have confessed it earlier on social media as well, so it is not a rumour but a reality.”

The two have worked in a number of projects together, including the super-hit drama Udaari and Mere Ajnabi.

Chai wala makes it to Sexiest Asian Men list ENTERTAINMENT DESK Looks like Zayn Malik of One Direction fame has competition. Even though Malik may have bagged the Sexiest Asian Men title for the second time in a row but our very own Arshad Khan has made a surprise appearance on the list.

The poll that was conducted by East-

film industry.

Pakistan’s cinemas are dominated by Bollywood imports, but her first foray into fiction — which was also Pakistan’s first animated feature film, earned $650,000 when it was released last year.

“I believe first and foremost, I am a story teller so it doesn’t matter whether I am telling a story through making a documentary film or through animation,” she said.

The upcoming sequel also highlights social evils in Pakistani society, from corruption to the so-called “water mafia” which syphon off Karachi’s water to supply to sell to poor residents at exorbitant rates.

Chinoy’s work is not to everyone’s liking — much like teen activist Malala Yousafzai, she is routinely vilified in some quarters for daring to bare the country’s “dirty laundry”.

“Anybody who works at holding a mirror to the society or talking about the difficult issues that push the envelope, there is always blowback,” Chinoy said, adding with a smile: “I have stopped picking up my phone directly, and that’s the wiser thing to avoid threatening calls.”

ern Eye – a London-based weekly publication – also named Deepika Padukone as the Sexiest Asian Woman of 2016, reported India Today.

Khan is also known as ‘chai wala’ has been ranked 31 in the list that also includes the likes of Hrithik Roshan and Ranveer Singh. Khan, whose picture went viral earlier this year, was reportedly the

first Editor’s Choice entry in the contest where the final verdict is decided on the basis of social media appeal.

“He has since been plucked from obscurity and gained global media attention along with a new career in modelling. He makes the list for representing the everyday man and for showing an impossible dream can come,” Asjad Nazir, of Eastern

Eye told the Indian media.

After making his runway debut at the Bridal Couture Week (BCW) 2016, Khan has also made his first appearance in a music video. A music video titled ‘Chai wala’ by Lil Mafia Mundeer, a duo based in Lahore, has been making rounds on social media and features Khan as the lead model.

Bollywood aCtor PraChI deSaI turnS down PakIStanI advertISement

Faryal Makhdoom takes a hit at in-laws, again LONDON ENTERTAINMENT DESK

The ongoing feud between boxer Amir Khan’s wife, Faryal Makhdoom and his family has taken a new turn. Talking on the This Morning TV show recently, Faryal attacked the boxer’s family yet again.

According to Dailymail.co.uk, the beauty V-logger was called an evil wife

by Amir’s father, Sajjad Khan in an exclusive interview with the publication.

“She is pushing Amir to the limit with her accusations and I feel very sorry for my son. It is not fair. While he is working so hard with his foundation, helping people he doesn’t even know but who are so deprived and he just wants to make them happy, look what his wife is doing?” said Sajjad.

“She’s not picking up the phone or calling us to try and make amends. Now, with her big ego she’s gone on national TV and is stuttering through the interview. It’s crazy. She said she’s doing it with her husband’s blessings but I don’t

think so.”

Faryal, who is also a 25-year-old model, claimed that she was bullied in the Khan household for many years. She claimed that she was called names by her brother-in-law for getting plastic surgery done, who often compared her to Micheal Jackson.

Faryal also opened up about being called a gold digger. “When I didn’t work

and I used to just stay home I was called a gold digger. People would say I’m with Amir for his money,” she shared.

However, Sajjad and his manager have called out all the accusations false, saying that he tried to reason with his daughter-in-law, but it was of no use.

“She is trying to come between us, she is trying to break up the very close relationship we have with Amir. She is a very evil

CMYK

woman. I have given and taken with her.

We all have. All she wants is the limelight.”

Sajjad added, “He’s tried his best to calm things down but she goes against him. Sooner or later I wouldn’t be surprised if he just wants out. The writing’s on the wall.”

Talking about the trouble in his son’s marriage, Sajjad said that the only problem is that his Faryal will not change.

“She should be doing the best for her husband and she’s not. I don’t want to see them get divorced for their daughter’s sake. I hope they don’t get divorced, absolutely not. I hope they live happily after for the rest of their lives.”

Upon his arrival in the UK, the former unified light-welterweight world champion will have a talk with his family about the allegations made by Faryal.

“Amir’s back and forth all the time, here, there and everywhere but when’s he’s got time we’ll sit down and talk,” said Sajjad. “We’re very close and if there are problems he can’t cope with he’ll tell me.”

Bollywood actor Prachi Desai says she turned down an offer to feature in an advertisement for a Pakistani beauty brand, considering the strained ties between India and Pakistan. “As of now, I am not taking up any endorsement deals in Pakistan and yes I have turned down the offer since I feel it is not the right time,” Prachi said in a statement. According to a source close, Prachi was approached by a ‘Pakistani beauty brand to endorse one of its products’.

“But the actor politely turned it down. She has done this keeping in mind the relations India has with our neighbours at this time. She thought it would be inappropriate for her to be signing up for such a thing right now.” the source added. The dust between India and Pakistan has clearly not settled. After SRK negotiated Mahira’s position in Raees promotion, Prachi has refused a Pakistan project. AGENCIES

16 BUSINESS

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

BusIness CommunIty urgeD to Invest In green Future For sustaInaBLe growth ISLAMABAD

F

INP

ORESTS are the backbone of sustainable economic growth in Pakistan and the business community ought to invest in the forestry sector of Punjab to gain lucrative returns, observed Tahir Rasheed, CEO, South Punjab Forest Company (SPFC), during his address at a seminar entitled “Investment Opportunities in Forestry Sector in South Punjab”.

The seminar had been organized by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with SPFC for sensitizing the business community about investment potential in the country’s green future.

Tahir Rasheed said that according a 2015 FAO report, just 1.9% of the total area of Pakistan had forest cover, while the country faced an average deforestation rate of 2.1% in the 1990–2015 period, which is extremely alarming.

He said if this deforestation rate continued for the next 50 years, Pakistan would be a country with no

forests. He said however, that given the increasing demand for wood products, the forestry sector offered attractive investment opportunities with high returns and low risk.

He said SPFC has been allocated 134,995 acres of land in 6 districts of South Punjab including Bahawalpur, Ba-

hawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, and Muzzafargarh.

He added that investment in these areas would not only ensure sustainable supply of firewood, fodder, fibre, plywood, paper, and pulp to meet the needs of forest-based industries, it will also reduce the import bill of the country.

He urged those in attendance to promote green investments and create green jobs in the rural areas of South Punjab.

He said investors would be provided encroachment-free land and that they could invest in 6-8 species of forestry.

He assured those present that SPFC would provide technical and other support to investors and would coordinate with key stakeholders in addressing any environmental or ecological concerns.

Speaking at the occasion, Tahir Ayub, Vice President ICCI welcomed the initiatives of SPFC and hoped that its efforts would promote green entrepreneurship. He said that ICCI would play its role in promoting this idea as positive contribution towards green economic growth, innovation and job creation. He suggested that a specific security force on the pattern of CPEC project force should be considered for ensuring investment protection in green future.

The seminar aimed to gather together views of various ICCI members on making the process inclusive which can be incorporated in the upcoming feasibility study.

FPCCI for enhancing economic, trade ties with Lebanon ISLAMABAD APP

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Abdul Rauf Alam has asked the business community to explore untapped trade potential in the Lebanese market. Abdul Rauf Alam made these remarks in an FPCCI meeting with the Ambassador of Lebanon to Pakistan, H.E. Ms Mona El Tannir. He said steps ought to be taken to promote greater economic cooperation to bring masses of the two countries closer, reported a statement issued by FPCCI here on Friday. The meeting was attended by leading businessmen who discussed ways and means to promote greater trade relations between the two countries.

Abdul Rauf Alam briefed the Ambassador about the workings of trade bodies in Pakistan and extended an invitation to Lebanese businessmen to visit and hold a single-country exhibition in Pakistan. The FPCCI president was of the opinion that enormous potential for bilateral trade was available. However, both countries had not even begun to explore the possibilities available in bilateral trade between the two countries. On the occasion, Ms Tannir said that her country was known for production of olives and olive oil. She said that Pakistan was importing olives, generators and some other items from Lebanon but that bilateral trade could be improved.

Dry fruits sale rises despite high prices ISLAMABAD APP

With onset of cold weather, the sale of dry fruits has increased despite their high prices, particularly almonds and peanuts. During the winter season, intake of dry fruits including dates, walnuts, cashews and pistachios becomes a popular 'pastime' among people, but almonds and peanuts remain the most favourite. Peanuts are available in the market for Rs 240 to 280, almonds for Rs 640 to 720, walnuts for Rs 400, pistachios for Rs 1400, Raisin for Rs 480 to 800, cashews for Rs 1,800 to 2,200 and pine nuts (chilgoza) for Rs 3,400 a kilogram. Consumers complain of high prices of dry-fruits, which they say, are beyond the purchasing power of the salaried class. Haneef Aslam, who was shopping at Aabpara Market on Friday, said the price of the peanuts was less compared to dry-fruits, but it had also registered an increase of Rs 20 to 30 per kg than the last year. According to Muhammad Zubair, who deals in dry fruits, said they import dry fruit from neighboring countries of Afghanistan and Iran, besides Gilgit, Chitral and Quetta at high prices. Asad Khan, a buyer, said he was fond of figs due to their healthy effects on the digestive system. Moreover, eating figs was a Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), he said.

PESHAWAR: A motorcycle rickshaw loaded with recyclables items. INP

KARACHI AAMIR MAJEED

Consumers of Warid and Mobilink -two of Pakistan’s leading cellular servicescomplained of service issues following the merger of both telecommunication companies, it is learnt.

The consumers claimed that often when they made calls, their cell-phones responded with the ‘no network coverage’ message. Others reported issues in Short Message Service (SMS) of both cellular companies.

In July 2016, VimpelCom Ltd in a statement announced completion of the transaction to merge Pakistan Mobile Communication limited (Mobilink) and Warid Telecom (Warid). According to Vimpelcom’s CEO, the combined Mobilink and Warid entity will be the leading telecommunication provider of 2G, 3G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) services in Pakistan, providing higher quality national voice and data coverage, faster downloads, and a wider portfolio of products and services.

Talking to Pakistan Today, a consumer of Warid Telecom claimed that he was experiencing issues following the merger of the two cellular giants. “For the last two months, when I make calls, I receive a message of ‘no network coverage’

from the service provider”.

“I have to redial numbers repeatedly and it takes usually two to three minutes to get the line cleared for a call” complained a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, maintaining that: “I am also receiving complaints of delayed landing of text messages from receivers.”

“I made a call to Warid Telecom helpline to report the problem of network coverage, and the company’s customer care officer informed me that Warid is shifting some numbers on Mobilink which was causing difficulty to its consumers,” a resident of Malir claimed.

“Apologizing for the inconvenience, the officer asked me for the make and model of my cell-phone and told me that he was sending a message to me to reset network settings,” he said.

To verify consumers’ claims, when this scribe visited Warid Telecom Customer Care Centre located at Khayabane-Ittehad Phase-II, the company’s representatives told that if consumers were facing problems of network coverage then they could switch to Mobilink’s network to avoid problems in calling.

“We [Warid Telecom] are shifting some of our customers on Mobilink, and that is

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the only reason that some of our customers are facing service issues these days,” she added.

“The issue will be resolved with the completion of the shifting process,” she argued. “With the merger, Warid customers can recharge their sims using a Mobilink card, and vice versa,” she added.

Warid and Mobilink are now one family and you can use services of both companies at the same time,” she maintained.

When a call was made on the Warid Telecom helpline, the company’s Customer Care Officer (CCO) also presented a similar argument. However,

Mobilink Assistant Manager Public Relations and Corporate Communication, Junaid Shafqat, rejected the claims of shifting of consumers.

“Though both cellular companies reached a merger agreement, there is no shifting of consumers is going on at this time,” he clarified.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert Parvez Iftikhar said that the temporary problem could have surfaced in switching customers from one cellular service to another.

“If the network issues persist for a longer time, there could be other issues with the service, which the management didn’t want to share with its customers,” the ICT expert maintained.

“If the company’s [Warid Telecom] representatives are asking to shift to Mobilink where they are facing network issues, then it is the most convenient excuse,” Iftikhar claimed, reiterating that “There would be any other issue, and service provider is trying to attribute it to customers’ switching.”

“As per my information, no sharing of customers is going on between Warid and Mobilink after the merger agreement, but both telecom industry giants had allowed their customers the use of each other services,” the ICT expert added.

BUSINESS 17

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

PCJCCI to revoLutIonIse It InDustry wIth ChInese CoLLaBoratIon ISLAMABAD

P

STAFF REPORT

AKISTAn-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) wishes to invigorate a revolutionary phase of information technology exchanges under China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

This was said by PCJCCI president, Wang Zihai, in a meeting with a three member Chinese delegation from BODA software solutions, Sichuan, China. The delegation was headed by Qiu Ziynn and included Dr. Ahasanullah Awan and Xinchao.

The purpose of the delegation was to enhance bilateral cooperation and trade between the IT sectors of the two countries. Their visit to Pakistan is in-line with the Chinese government’s push towards enhancing trade ties with neighbouring countries, particularly Pakistan.

The IT delegation aimed to inform Chinese stakeholders about the opportunities available in Pakistan’s IT industry,

to solicit Chinese interest in outsourcing IT work to Pakistani companies, and to partner with Pakistani companies for extending Chinese IT companies’ footprints.

Wang Zihai briefed the delegation

and provided information regarding Pakistan’s IT and software industry.

He said the Chinese are intrigued by the fact that there are over 2000 Pakistani companies developing high end enter-

prise-grade software solutions for some of the world’s largest companies, adding that Pakistani IT companies regularly won awards at international IT events. To enhance the importance of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the two countries have to step forward in tandem to develop an e-corridor for greater connectivity, stressed Mr. Wang.

Ziynn mentioned that CPEC was currently focusing on infrastructure development and energy generation but that the scope of CPEC would expand to contain other mainstream fields like science and information technology as well.

He said expanding the cooperation to science and information technology would boost bilateral trade and economic ties in a more modern and digital way.

Secretary General PCJCCI, M Salahuddin Hanif informed the delegates about concerted efforts of the Pakistani government for the development of IT industry. He told that the IT & Telecom ministry was already collaborating for the development of an ‘e-commerce gateway

Pakistan, Uzbekistan should develop direct communication links to improve trade: Saad ISLAMABAD INP

Federal Minister for Pakistan Railways (PR), Khawaja Saad Rafique, said that Pakistan and Uzbekistan should focus on establishing direct rail and air links that would go a long way towards improving trade activities.

The minister for railways stated this while talking to Uzbek Ambassador H.E. Furkat A Sidikov who called on him at the Ministry of Railways on Friday. During the meeting both sides agreed on the need for mutual cooperation.

Saad Rafique said that direct communication links, besides improving trade activities, would promote people-to-people contacts.

The areas of cooperation between Pakistan and Uzbekistan were identified as intervention and cooperation in the existing railway systems, including upgrades on the carriage mak-

Major Gainers COMPANY Sanofi-Aventis Colgate Palmolive Hinopak Motor Abbott Lab. Highnoon (Lab)

OPEN 2299.99 1626.00 1625.00 967.00 643.00

HIGH 2305.35 1753.57 1659.27 984.90 662.95

LOW 2299.99 1626.00 1590.00 956.00 643.00

CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVER 2305.35 109.77 2,300 1752.17 82.10 1,180 1615.73 35.47 7,340 975.17 18.15 30,000 657.70 18.00 31,850

5610.00 1119.00 4700.00 555.00 1000.00

5610.00 1082.01 4451.00 530.50 971.00

5610.00 1091.01 4656.61 532.30 978.57

-240.00 -37.32 -28.47 -17.60 -16.83

20 280 540 2,100 5,250

37.46 17.60 13.56 16.54 23.10

36.00 16.96 12.60 15.80 21.70

37.36 17.45 13.49 15.97 22.61

1.68 0.50 0.93 -0.06 0.61

28,248,000 19,150,000 18,805,500 17,630,000 12,060,000

ing factory here and the Locomotive Factory in Risalpur. Another area for cooperation is connectivity through ML I(Karachi to Jalalabad),ML II (Kotri to Attock) and ML III (Rohri to Zahedan).The third area of interest was stated to be collaborative training programmes at the Lahore Railway Training Centre and Tashkent Railway University.

Uzbekistan is interested in CPEC. Uzbekistan has constructed 11 railway bridges in Afghanistan in the interests of regional connectivity. As of 2008, Uzbekistan had 3,645 kilometers of rail lines, about 620 kilometers of which were electrified. A large percentage of the system’s track requires major repair. The main line is the portion of the Trans-Caspian Railroad that connects Tashkent with the Amu Darya. There are rail links with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. Suburban traffic only exists around Tashkent.

hesCo BoD approves upgrading employees pay-scales

Major Losers Unilever Foods Pak Tobacco Wyeth Pak Ltd Jubile Life Ins Murree Brewery

5610.00 1119.00 4455.00 550.00 991.00

Volume Leaders Pak Int.Bulk B.O.Punjab Power Cement Ltd. Engro Polymer Faysal Bank

36.00 17.10 12.70 15.92 22.35

Interbank Rates USD GBP JPY EURO

PKR 104.8490 PKR 132.6235 PKR 0.9103 PKR 111.4492

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

BUY

SELL

133.25 112.25 107.6 80 78.25 0.87 28.5 29.2 15

135 113.45 107.9 80.85 79.05 0.9 28.7 29.45 15.15

HYDERABAD: The Board of Directors of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) has approved upgradation of employees’ pay scales after considering the Office Memorandum issued by Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO). According to an HESCO spokesperson, scales of Circle Head Draftsman Grade-A have been upgraded from BPS-14 to BPS-15, Divisional Head Draftsman Grade-B from BPS-13 to BPS-14, Draftsman ADM from BPS-12 to BPS-13, Audit Assistant from BPS-14 to BPS-15, Account Assistant from BPS-14 to BPS-15, Commercial Assistant from BPS-14 to BPS-15, Lineman-I from BPS-9 to BPS-11, Lineman-II from BPS-7 to BPS-9, Assistant Lineman from BPS-5 to BPS-7, Meter Reader from BPS-7 to BPS-9, SSA from BPS-7 to BPS-9, ASA from BPS-5 to BPS-7, ASA from BPS-5 to BPS-7, Bill Distributor BPS-5 to BPS-7, Helper from BPS-5 to BPS-7, Assistant from BPS-14 to BPS-15, Senior Clerk from BPS-9 to BPS-11 and the scale of Junior Clerk/Lower Division Clerk has been upgraded from BPS-7 to BPS-9.

HESCO Chief Executive Officer Asadullah said that the management was fully committed to facilitating its employees and to providing maximum facilities, now it had become the duty of the employees to discharge their professional responsibilities with dedication and devotion for the betterment of the organization. APP

CMYK

framework’. This gateway would open up opportunities for online commercial ventures. He said this would mean a flourishing of business, and extension of market shares to a broader customer base, foreign consumers and online businesses. He also informed that Pakistan’s mobile app, gaming, and animation development industries are rapidly progressing. Export of mobile phone apps is fetching US $ 10 million to the country every month while yearly exports have now exceeded US $ 2 billion, said Salahuddin.

The attending delegates appreciated this vision of the government and hailed initiatives being taken by the Ministry of IT for uplifting the sector and also expressed their interest in mutual collaboration with Pakistan in this potent sector. It was jointly agreed to revolutionize this important sector with joint efforts and operative planning. It was notable that software and IT industry works as an underline support for this colossal business infrastructure. It is the need of the time to facilitate business ventures in this key area.

CORPORATE CORNER

Hashoo Group Vice Chairman Akhtar Bawany arranged a farewell party for the group’s former vice president Irshad B Anjum along with the higher management. PR

honda atlas Cars Pakistan launches sportier, bolder honda accord 2016 LAHORE: Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Limited sets a new benchmark for an executive Sedan with the launch of all-new Honda Accord. The redesigned 9th generation Accord offers an attractive package with premium features. Accord is also celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. After its launch in the Pakistan market in 2005, Honda Accord has maintained its position as Honda’s flagship. The new Accord comes with three new enhancements: advanced – fun – environment. It is more elegant and luxurious by delivering the feeling of “Ride into the Future" to its customers. It has been redesigned to offer a sophisticated yet masculine exterior with new front bumper design, stylish LED headlights for both front and rear plus twotone black and silver rims to complete the dynamic outlook. The new Accord has been fitted with a 7-inch touch-screen advanced display audio unit with I-MID, Hands-free telephone control with voice recognition and mirror link features complete the ease of communication and entertainment. PRESS RELEASE

DMD Amer Tufail seen at a medical camp organised by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited. PR

18 SPORTS

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Butt seeks inteRnational RetuRn afteR twin hundReds KARACHI

s

AGENCIES

POT-fixing convict and former Pakistan captain Salman Butt pressed his case for a return to international cricket by scoring a century in each innings to help power his team to victory Thursday.

The 32-year-old was playing in his first major first-class tournament after serving a five-year ban for spot-fixing, which ended in September last year.

Butt scored 125 and 105 not out in the match for Water and Development Authority (WAPDA) against Habib Bank in the final of Quaid-e-Azam trophy.

His second hundred helped his team draw the match with 198-3, after a target of 444 to win on the fifth day.

WAPDA won the final on the basis of a first innings lead of 42, their maiden title in the 62-year history of the tournament.

“I have knocked the door (of international cricket) very hard and hope this will pave my way for a return to (the) Pakistan

team,” Butt told reporters.

“I want to keep myself fit and keep my form alive. I am trying my best to the best of my inten-

IBRAHIMOVIC DISCUSSES GELLING WITH POGBA

WEST BROMWICH AGENCIES

In-form Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic reckons his understanding with French midfielder Paul Pogba has started to blossom on the pitch for United ahead of the trip to West Bromwich Albion.

“Paul and I talk a lot and we try to help each other,” said Ibrahimovic. “I think he likes to play with me and I like to play with him too. But it is not only about us two, it is the whole team.”

Ibrahimovic believes the club’s luck has finally turned ahead of their clash with The Hawthorns.

United manager Jose Mourinho recently lamented his side were playing much better than results and their position in the Premier League suggested.

The Red Devils head to the West Midlands on the back of two consecutive victories following a frustrating eight-match league sequence that featured six draws, one win and one defeat.

United have beaten Tottenham (1-0) and

Crystal Palace (2-1) in the past week and are now in sixth place, although they are 13 points behind leaders Chelsea.

“We are working hard, we have confidence and we believe in what we are doing,” said Ibrahimovic, who scored the winner against Palace on Wednesday to take his tally to 14 goals in 24 appearances. “At the moment, we work very hard for it and we will keep focused.

We have always had the belief and we keep getting more confidence from recent games.”

He added: “We all put in the hard work.

Sometimes you hit the top and don’t get the winner, like in the last couple of weeks. We have been disappointed in some games, so let’s keep going like this and get the three points [against West Brom] that we need to get closer to the top. Now we have closed the gap even more and we have to keep going like this,” added the 35-year-old Swedish veteran.”

Mourinho is again set to be without injured trio Henrikh Mkhitaryan (ankle), Chris Smalling (toe) and Luke Shaw (knock).

Right-back Antonio Valencia is available again having served a suspension but fellow de-

fender Eric Bailly is set to miss after he was substituted against Crystal Palace with a knee problem.

West Brom will take on United as the inform team outside the Premier League’s top six. They have won four and drawn one of their last six games and climbed back to seventh in the table after a 3-1 win at home to Swansea on Wednesday, with Salomon Rondon scoring his first hat-trick in England.

And midfielder Chris Brunt, who provided two of the crosses for Rondon’s all-headed treble, claims the Baggies must seek to secure European football. “You always have to push,” said Brunt when asked about European prospects. “At the end of the day that’s the next step for us. We have been a mid-table Premier League team for five or six seasons now.”

He continued: “Five or six teams flirt with relegation but progression for us would be to get away from that and push up the table. The likes of Southampton have done that over the last couple of seasons. There’s no reason why we couldn’t do that but it’s difficult to sustain that over the season for a club the size of ours.”

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tion.”

“I have a wish and always want to be in every squad. I have the capacity but that is something the selectors have to tell and decide.”

Butt accumulated 741 runs with four hundred in the ten matches of the tournament.

This followed his 536 runs at an average of 107 in the National One-Day Cup earlier this year.

Butt, along with team-mates Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, were handed the bans after they were caught in a spotfixing case on Pakistan´s tour of England in 2010.

The trio was accused of arranging deliberate no-balls during the match, for which they were also jailed by a UK court.

Pakistan fast-tracked Amir´s return to international cricket after the International Cricket Council

amended its code last year, allowing banned players to return to domestic cricket six months before their ban ends.

Amir was selected for Pakistan in January this year.

Pakistan´s chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq last month said Butt and Asif will only be considered after they feature in first-class matches.

“I hope the bad days are over,” said Butt.

“I have gone through difficult times but my wife, my family and friends supported me.”

Pakistan is currently touring Australia for a three-Test and five one-day matches.

After his performance, Butt is likely to get selected for Pakistan´s tour of the West Indies in March-April next year where they will play four Tests, three one-day and two Twenty20 internationals.

Catalan derby: Barcelona look to reel in Real MADRID AGENCIES

Barcelona will have to end Espanyol’s 10-game unbeaten run if the Spanish champions are to close to within three points of La Liga leaders Real Madrid in Sunday’s Catalan derby. Barca have the chance to end the year within striking distance of their eternal rivals with Madrid not in Liga action due to their participation in the Club World Cup in Japan. However, they will confronted by an Espanyol side that has conceded in just two of its last nine league outings to shoot up the table to within four points of the Champions League places. Barca boss Luis Enrique will at least have the rare luxury this season of counting on a fully-fit squad as Neymar returns from suspension after missing the comfortable 3-0 win at Osasuna last weekend. “In the past two or three games the team has improved and got back to feeling positive,” said captain Andres Iniesta, whose comeback from a six-week injury layoff has coincided with Barca’s return to form. “We have to continue that into the two games we have to end the year.”

Barca also received a welcome boost on Thursday as Luis Suarez extended his contract with the club until 2021. Luis Enrique’s men had the unwelcome distraction of fulfilling a friendly commitment in Qatar in midweek, but Lionel Messi, Suarez and Neymar were all on target in a 5-3 win over Saudi champions Al-Ahli. The meeting also garnered Barca some goodwill as a six-year-old Afghan boy, who became an internet sensation after pictures of him wearing an improvised Messi shirt made out of plastic bags went viral, got to meet his superstar idol. Murtaza Ahmadi couldn’t be separated from the five-time World Player of the Year before kick-off. More Messi magic may be in need come Sunday as only a late consolation by Sporting Gijon’s Duje Cop ended a club record 586-minute streak without conceding for Espanyol’s former Real Madrid goalkeeper Diego Lopez. “They maybe didn’t start the league as they expected, but they are in very good form defensively and it will be a difficult game,” added Iniesta. Atletico Madrid are a huge 12 points off the top after suffering a fourth league defeat in seven games at Villarreal on Monday. The immediate target for Diego Simeone’s side when they host Las Palmas on Saturday is just to get back into the top four as they lag behind Sevilla, Villarreal and Real Sociedad in sixth. The bad news for last season’s Champions League finalists continued as goalkeeper Jan Oblak will be sidelined for at least three months after undergoing shoulder surgery on Wednesday. “I am sad for Jan because he is not just a good teammate, but a good friend,” Atletico’s back-up keeper Miguel Angel Moya told the club’s website.

SPORTS 19

Saturday, 17 December, 2016

Rejuvenated fabregas ready to dance to Conte’s tunes LONDON AGENCIES

Cesc Fabregas believes he has shown he can be an integral part of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea side having until recently been thought to be surplus to requirements. The 29-year-old midfielder has taken a more prominent role since returning to the side at the start of this month after a twomonth absence. Having started two of the last three games, he is expected to retain his place for the Premier League table-toppers’ short trip to face London rivals Crystal Palace. Fabregas pressed his case for a regular start with the only goal of the game at Sunderland this week that secured Chelsea’s 10th successive league victory and tightened their hold at the head of the Premier League table with a six point advantage over Liverpool. Fabregas’s future at Stamford Bridge had been called into question but he believes he is demonstrating he can slot in effectively into Conte’s rejigged 3-4-3 formation that has been the key to the club’s upturn in fortunes. “People forget it’s only the second time in my life, in my whole career, I’ve played this system,” Fabregas told chelseafc.com. “My teammates have played a lot more than me. Against Manchester City [in early December] it was a big test because it was the first game. I’m getting used to it, I feel very comfortable.” He added: “I have a lot of players in front of me so I can pick passes between the lines, they run into space and I have protection behind me. I’m really enjoying it and I think it suits me a lot.” Fabregas, who made his name with Chelsea’s London rivals Arsenal before a spell with Barcelona and then returned to England when the ‘Blues’ came calling in 2014, says it is unfair to say he doesn’t get back and defend. “People say I cannot defend but I recovered the ball, went forward and scored [against Sunderland],” said Fabregas. “I know what I can do but the problem is I haven’t had minutes, and if you don’t play you can’t show what you can do. In football nowadays people forget very quickly who you are, what you’ve done and what you can do. Hopefully now I can have a run of games to keep my fitness up and show what I can do.” Fabregas says Chelsea have proven they have the mettle to win the title in eking out 1-0 wins over both West Brom and Sunderland in their last two games. “We can compete,” said Fabregas. “I’ve seen many times teams winning titles — Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea — where these 1-0 victories are so important. Hopefully we can keep it up.”

Palace go into the game still smarting from the narrow midweek 2-1 defeat to Manchester United. Alan Pardew, the manager, was left frustrated by a number of controversial refereeing decisions he believes helped turn the match and must now lift his side who remain close to the relegation places. “The luck that we’re getting right now, it just seems that every mistake we do or decision that goes against us is costing us,” said James McArthur, who scored Palace’s goal in the United defeat. “We need to make sure we’re ready for Chelsea because we know the quality they have. We need to frustrate them and keep trying to score because that’s a real positive of our team this year.”

Moeen ali, Joe Root guide england to 284-4 vs india M

OEEN Ali and Joe Root pulled England back into contention on day one of the fifth Test against India after a poor start, with Ali scoring an unbeaten century as England reached 284-4 at the close on Friday.

With the series won by India, Ali, mixing watchfulness against India’s potent spin attack with aggression, was unbeaten on 120, while Ben Stokes was 5 not out. They had added 31 runs for the fifth wicket.

Root and Jonny Bairstow added steel to the English batting after England’s openers were dismissed cheaply. He put on 146 runs for the third wicket with Joe Root, who scored his 27th Test half-century.

Post tea, Ali and Bairstow (49) continued their fourth-wicket partnership as England went past the 200mark in the 65th over.

Ali survived a second DRS review, for lbw off Amit Mishra (0-52) this time, and the umpire’s decision stayed in the batsman’s favour.

He then reached his century off 203 balls, including nine fours. In all, he faced 220 deliveries and hit 12 fours. It was Ali’s fifth Test hundred.

After adding 86 for the fourth wicket with Ali, Bairstow offered a simple catch to Lokesh Rahul at cover off Ravindra Jadeja (3-73).

India took the second new ball in the 86th over, but were unable to take another wicket.

The visitors won their fourth toss in five Tests and opted to bat. Alastair Cook (10) crossed 11,000 runs in his Test career. At the other end, Keaton Jennings (1) was caught behind off Ishant Sharma (1-25).

Spin was introduced in the ninth over, and Ravindra Jadeja (3-73) troubled Cook from the very outset before dismissing the England skipper for a fifth time in this series and adding to

speculation he will step down as captain at the end of the series, to be replaced by Root.

Cook was caught at slip as England were reduced to 21-2 in the 13th over. Two overs later, Jadeja could have picked up a second wicket, but Lokesh Rahul dropped Ali at midwicket.

Ali then tightened his game and settled down to build a partnership with Root.

Root scored his half-century off 91 balls, while Ali reached the mark off 111 balls. They brought up the 100partnership off 181 balls, while England’s 100 came up in the 38th over.

The English vice-captain had on Thursday practised on a road, within the confines of the stadium, since the practice nets weren’t available owing to a cyclone that tore through the city

PARIS The powerful body representing Europe’s top clubs on Thursday said it opposed the proposed enlargement of the World Cup, saying leading players were already under too much strain.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to expand the World Cup to 48 teams starting with the 2026 tournament, with Asian countries already backing the controversial plan.

Ali then took centre-stage. He added 86 runs for the fourth wicket with Jonny Bairstow (49) as England went past the 200-mark in the 65th over.

In the final session, he survived another review, for lbw again but off Amit Mishra (0-52) this time, and the umpire’s decision stayed in the batsman’s favor.

He then reached his century off 203 balls, inclusive of nine fours. In all, he faced 220 deliveries and hit 12 fours.

“The way Moeen played through the day was quite excellent. He showed maturity when starting the innings in a tough situation. He has done it through the year with the added responsibility of batting higher up the order. Hopefully he can kick on and bat deep tomorrow, and help us get 500 runs so we can put India under pressure,” said Root. AGENCIES

Cricket Australia defends pregnancy rule COURTESY BBC Cricket Australia has defended its policy of asking women players to declare if they are pregnant when they sign a central contract.

CA’s chief executive James Sutherland says the organisation has not broken any antidiscrimination rules and the policy is a “health and safety issue”.

He added: “We are fully aware of our obligations as an employer.”

The England & Wales Cricket Board says it does not have a “notification of pregnancy” rule for women cricketers.

“As employees of the ECB, England women’s centrally contracted players are supported by the full terms of maternity conditions, as per any other female non-playing ECB employee,” an ECB statement read.

“They are not required to declare if they are pregnant before they sign their contract.”

The legal position It is unlawful to ask a woman if she is pregnant before employing them, under Aus-

EUROPEAN ELITE OPPOSE WORLD CUP EXPANSION AGENCIES

on Monday.

“My feet were all over the place in Mumbai against the seamers so I just wanted to iron some things out. It was the firmest surface we could find, and I managed to sort a few things out, going into this game with peace of mind,” said Root, after the day’s play.

He scored his fifth half-century in this series, but once again failed to go big. He was out caught behind while sweeping Jadeja, an under-edge ending his knock. The decision went up for DRS review, and Root wasn’t happy with it.

“I was convinced I didn’t hit it, but technology suggested otherwise. It was frustrating because I was convinced there was nothing. Even the keeper was not interested. But Virat Kohli went for it and it worked out,” said Root.

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola warned last week that the global saturation of football was going to “kill” players and the European Club Association (ECA) added its criticism, saying it had sent a letter to Infantino opposing the moves for a bigger World Cup. “We have to focus on the sport again,” said ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who is also chairman of Bayern Munich.

“Politics and commerce should not be

the exclusive priority in football.

“In the interest of the fans and the players, we urge FIFA not to increase the number of World Cup participants.”

The ECA, an independent body representing football clubs at European level, said that the number of games every year “has already reached an unacceptable level”.

Founding members of the ECA include Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan and Bayern.

CMYK

tralia’s Sex Discrimination Act. Sutherland insists that the organisation has not breached any regulations, and says CA has a policy of paying out the whole contract should a centrally-contracted cricketer become pregnant.

“We are fully aware of our obligations as an employer and any anti-discrimination issues. This is not about a matter of us trying to take a higher ground on discrimination,” he told ABC Grandstand.

Sutherland says cricketers are required to inform Cricket Australia if they are pregnant when they sign a central contract, so the organisation can then work with the player to ensure the health of both mother and baby.

“We are asking the lady to declare to the doctor on a confidential basis so the doctor who services the team that she plays for can be aware and if anything untoward happens on the cricket field or at training or whatever, the needs of health and safety can be serviced,” he said.

SPORTS Saturday, 17 December, 2016

AustrAliA's quicks blow PAkistAn AwAy

A

USTRALIA and Pakistan on night two in Brisbane resembled nothing so much as Australia and most of the rest of the world during the great recession of 2008. Having planned and saved soundly in the good times on a slower day one pitch, the hosts were able to absorb the shock of tougher batting conditions, helped by a Peter Handscomb stimulus package.

Pakistan had no such safety net, and when the crash came under the Gabba lights against the wobbling pink ball, they went swiftly into free fall. The visiting batsmen jutted their bats out at the bad real estate offered by Australia's canny bowlers like so many reckless traders, and were left observing the ruins of their first innings like former employees of Lehman Brothers.

The main reason for the day's violent swerve from 1 for 43 to 8 for 67 was the quickening of the surface, which clearly did not need a single millimetre more grass than the two the curator Kevin Mitchell Jnr. left on it. One wonders how swiftly the match might have moved with the 6mm preferred by Adelaide's groundsman Damian Hough.

Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Jackson Bird had far too much speed, accuracy and movement for Pakistan's batsmen, cowed as they already had been on slower, seamier pitches in New Zealand.

Of the tourists only Sami Aslam gave any indication of permanence, and even that was of the painful, white-knuckle kind as he wore two blows on the helmet before glancing Bird into Matthew Wade's gloves.

Handscomb's chanceless century, in

only his second Test, ensured that the quality spells bowled by Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz did not result in a similar level of mayhem. Amir's figures were his best since returning to the Pakistan side, but he was unable to dislodge Handscomb, who showed patience beyond his years and deep trust in his way of batting. Gleefully, he leapt from 91 to 101 with a powerful six off Yasir Shah then a delectable square drive off Amir.

Bird and Nathan Lyon bolstered Australia's total with a pesky stand of 49 runs measured in value through the deepening furrow in Misbah-ul-Haq's brow.

Steven Smith and Handscomb had begun intent on a long occupation, but the captain appeared to decide it was time to go on the attack after the fourth wicket stand went beyond 170 runs. First he tried to deposit Yasir into the Gabba stands only for Amir to drop a swirling chance, then flayed at Wahab to end an equal parts fine and fortunate innings.

Nic Maddinson was not confronted by floodlights and a swinging ball, but the extra pace off the pitch did appear to trouble him against both spin and pace before he was unable to withdraw his bat from Wahab in time - having already been

turfed at short leg off Yasir. Wade and Starc both offered up catches to the slips off the persistent Amir before Handscomb was able to reach three figures, doing so with an exultant yell and matching fist pump.

Despite the late flurry from Bird and Lyon, Pakistan's openers did have the advantage of starting in daylight. Starc gained some early swing, but it was a ball angled across with bounce that found the edge of Azhar Ali's bat - expertly snaffled

by Usman Khawaja. For a little more than 15 overs, the resolute Sami and a seemingly composed Babar Azam held the

Australians at bay, even as the lights took effect.

It was clear they stuck around longer than the hosts preferred, as evidenced by Starc's ever more prominent snarling in Sami's direction. But it was to be Hazlewood who signalled the start of the downturn by tempting Babar with a delivery just wide enough to drive, and just short enough to make it risky. The resultant edge was well held by Smith, turning his body, and next ball Wade had a far simpler task to collect a thinner edge from a fencing Younis Khan.

Though Misbah survived the hattrick, he seemed mesmerised by the bouncing, seaming ball, and it was no surprise when his searching bat succeeded only in edging low to Matt Renshaw at first slip. By now the Gabba had taken on full Colosseum mode, as near enough to 25,000 spectators willed further edges into the Australian cordon.

They got them too, as Asad Shafiq and Yasir offered further catches to Khawaja, either side of a return catch from Wahab and a forlorn touch down the leg side by Sami. His determination to keep his bat from harm had been the closest any Pakistani came to a workable method in such bouncy conditions.

Late in the piece, Sarfraz Ahmed and Amir managed to hang around until stumps while inching the total towards three figures - the former was reprieved when Wade failed to glove a stumping chance off Lyon. If Pakistan look about as healthy as numerous major economies did in late 2008 there is one troubling divergence from that tale: the Gabba doesn't tend to do bail-outs. SPORTS DESK

Ronaldo hits 500th goal as Real reach world final

YOKOHAMA AGENCIES

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 500th club goal Thursday as Real Madrid eased past Mexico's Club America 2-0 to reach the Club World Cup final in Japan. The Spanish giants will face shock finalists Kashima Antlers, the J-League champions, in Yokohama on Sunday as they look to capture their second world

title in three years and fifth in total.

"Our sole aim was to reach the final -- so it's job done," Real coach Zinedine Zidane told reporters after goals from Karim Benzema and Ronaldo extended his side's club record unbeaten run to 36 matches in all competitions.

"We didn't have a great rhythm in the first half, but in the second half we created more chances and Cristiano was able to kill the game

off so I'm very happy," added the Frenchman.

"It was a long flight to Japan and we have very few days to rest and prepare for the final, but we have come here to win this Club World Cup." His countryman Benzema said: "It was a hard game against a tough team. The conditions were difficult too with the long journey we've had, but we played well and won the game -now for the final."

With Ronaldo firing blanks until scoring with virtually the last kick of the game, Benzema struck in first-half stoppage time, finishing clinically with the outside of his right boot after a deft pass from Toni Kroos.

Ronaldo, who scooped his fourth Ballon d'Or earlier this week, had already squandered a giltedged opportunity by heading against the post.

The Portuguese superstar also saw two stinging efforts blocked by goalkeeper Moises Munoz but his dogged persistence paid off when he swept home from a tight angle deep into injury time.

Mexican protest: Confusion followed, however, when it appeared the goal could be ruled out using the video technology being trialled by FIFA in Japan.

Ronaldo's face turned to thunder as the Mexicans protested he

WAPDA WINS NATIONAL WOMEN KABADDI TITLE LAHORE APP

WAPDA won the title of the inaugural National Women Kabaddi Championship with a comfortable 43-29 points win over Pakistan Army in the final here on Friday at

WAPDA Sports Complex.

WAPDA put up resolute efforts to outplay army in all departments of the game in the final stages of the play. Army dazzled with aggressive play to take a good start in the final but their performance faded away when WAPDA bounced back to take control with collective team efforts.

had been offside -- until Paraguayan referee Enrique Caceres finally indicated that the goal stood. "It's a new invention but to be honest I don't like it," said man of the match Luka Modric when asked about video replays.

"It causes confusion. I hope they don't continue with this system because for me it is not football."

Zidane refused to criticise the technology, although his comments hardly amounted to a ringing endorsement either.

"If you ask my personal impression, it could cause problems," he said. "But if it's FIFA policy then we have to get used to it. We don't have the power to decide. Maybe it will help make things clear and transparent." The 31-year-old Ronaldo has hit a remarkable 377 goals in 366 games for Real with 118 more in 292 games for Manchester United and five in 31 for Sporting before that.

Club America coach Ricardo La Volpe insisted his side had been unfortunate to lose.

"I think the luck was against," growled the firebrand Argentine.

"Real Madrid were not the better team. I told the players they can be proud of the way they fought," he added. "It was a very tight game which we dominated for periods, but we were not aggressive enough.

We just couldn't find the final ball."

As the score was levelled at some stages in early half of the play and WAPDA continued its determined efforts to widen the lead and eventually left behind Army at far distance at points table, winning the match in style with ease and comfort.

Punjab secured third position whereas Islamabad stood at 4th position in the championship. The 3-day championship was organised

by WAPDA Sports Board in collaboration with Pakistan Kabaddi Federation. As many as seven teams namely WAPDA, Pakistan Army, Islamabad, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan took part in the competition.

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

CMYK

MMA title fight: PAkistAn's iMrAn to tAke on PhiliPPines' MiAdo Another undefeated Mixed Martial Arts prospect from Pakistan will put his impressive record on the line in a strawweight title fight on Saturday in Quezon City, Philippines as part of the Blaze Fighting Championship.

The MMA fighter in question is Muhammad Imran, who has a professional record of five wins and no losses. The only time he was bested inside the cage was as an amateur before he embarked on a professional career.

The 25-year-old Imran is a 5’11, 115lb strawweight who fights out of Gujar Khan-based PAKIDO MMA team.

Standing in Imran’s way and the title this Saturday will be Philippines’ local boy Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado, who has an identical 5-0 record like Imran’s and has also never tasted a defeat in his young pro career.

Both the fighters seem to have very different fighting styles though. Imran — like many of his fellow Pakistani fighters — is known to favour fighting on the ground — a notion validated by the fact that four of his five wins have come via submission. Miado, meanwhile, has only one submission win out of five, although he has two knockouts, including a spectacular headkick finish. Those finishes as well as Filipino fighters’ general preference to stand and trade makes this bout an intriguing matchup, stylistically-speaking. SPORTS DESK