E paper pdf (19 03 2015) (lhr)

CMYK

HAVE NO FEAR AND CARRY ON, COAS ADVISES AGENCIES

GOVT TO TRY YOUHANABAD PROTESTERS IN MILITARY COURT

AT LEAST 34 SUSPECTED MILITANTS KILLED IN TIRAH AIRSTRIKES Thursday, 19 March, 2015 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1436

STORIES ON PAGE 03

Rs 17.00 Vol V No 258 16 Pages Lahore Edition

STORY ON PAGE 04

DyiNg MAN TAlks, sTArTs NAMiNg NAMes n

n

Just hours before his scheduled hanging, MQM hitman Saulat Mirza accuses MQM chief Altaf Hussain of ordering assassinations

Mirza’s hanging delayed for 72 hours

Nisar tells Britain to rein in ‘citizen’ Altaf n

Interior minister meets British ambassador, shares Pakistan’s concerns over MQM chief’s threats to security officials STORIES ON PAGE 03

HEAD COUNTING STARTS MARCH NEXT YEAR n

CCI APPROVES HOLDING OF POPULATION CENSUS IN MARCH 2016, ESTABLISHMENT OF HALAL FOOD AUTHORITY, POWER GENERATION POLICY, 2015, PAKISTAN OIL RULES, AND AMENDMENTS IN PETROLEUM POLICIES 2009, 2012

SHAFQAT HUSSAIN DODGES THE GALLOWS AGAIN n

STORY ON PAGE 03

President Mamnoon Hussain orders delay in controversial death row convict’s hanging which was scheduled for today

NINE MORE DELIVERED JUSTICE ON THE GIBBET n

Three convicts escape gallows after reaching agreement with aggrieved parties STORIES ON PAGE 02

CMYK

02 NEWS

Thursday, 19 March 2015

NiNe more delivered justice oN the gibbet THREE CONVICTS ESCAPE GALLOWS AFTER REACHING AGREEMENT WITH AGGRIEVED PARTIES WHILE SAULAT MIRZA SCHEDULED TO BE HANGED TODAY AT 5AM LAHORE

A

STAFF REPORT

S many as nine more deathrow prisoners were executed in various jails across Punjab on Wednesday. With the latest executions, so far 48 convicts have been hanged across the country, after the deadly attack on Army Public School, Peshawar on December 16 last year.

ONE IN LAHORE: Tahir Shabir, a resident of Lahore’s Sabzazar area, was hanged to death at the Kot Lakhpat Central Jail for killing a man, Irshad Ali, over a petty issue of placing a signboard at a shop in 2002. An anti terrorism court (ATC) had awarded him death sentence.

TWO IN JHANG: Moreover, two convicts, Ghulam Muhammad and Zakir Hussain, were hanged in District Jail Jhang. Both had been awarded death sentences by the district and sessions court Jhang.

Ghulam Muhammad had killed his brother-in-law in 2000 over a family dispute. The victim was supporting his sister in an earlier case against the culprit. Zakir Hussain had killed a man Zulfiqar, who was a custodian of a shrine in 1998. Both the offender and the victim were engaged in a dispute over the shrine’s custodianship.

TWO IN FAISALABAD: Two more prisoners, Shafqat and Saeed, were executed in Central Jail Faisalabad over a dual murder charge. They had killed two siblings Arshad and Anwar in 1998 over an old rivalry. A district court had awarded death sentences to both the culprits in 2001.

TWO IN PINDI: Furthermore, Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Shabbir were hanged to death in Adiala Jail Rawalpindi. They were convicted by a sessions court against charges of murders and attempt to murder.

ONE IN MIANWALI: Another deathrow prisoner Ahmed Nawaz was executed in the Mianwali Jail. He was awarded death sentence by a district court for killing a man, Jawed Iqbal, in 1998.

Nawaz and Hashmat Khan were convicted for the murder of Iqbal, however Hashmat had died in jail.

ONE IN ATTOCK: In the meanwhile, Asad Mehmood Khan was executed in the Central Jail Attock. He was awarded death sentence in a triple murder case. Khan had killed three people of a family in 2002.

SETTLEMENT SAVES THREE LIVES: In the meanwhile, hangings of three convicts have been halted after their heirs managed to produce agreements between the plaintiffs and defending parties. Their cases have been referred to the respective trial courts.

Qadeer Ahmed was scheduled to be executed in Adiala Jail Rawalpindi, while Azhar Mahmood and Muhammad Zaman were set to be hanged in Gujrat.

On the contrary, all the convicts hanged during the day had filed petitions in superior judiciary, seeking review of their sentences but the applications were dismissed. Their mercy appeals had also been turned down by President Mamnoon Hussain. Some 8,000 convicted prisoners are in death row in various jails across the country.

MIRZA BRACES GIBBET TODAY: In addition, the authorities finalised arrangements to execute convicted prisoner Saulat Mirza at Machh Jail in Bolan district of Balochistan today at 5am.

Mirza was sentenced to death for killing Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Managing Director Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi, and security guard Khan Akbar in a July 1997. Supreme Court dismissed a second review petition filed by the condemned prisoner against his sentence that was handed down to him by an anti-terrorism court in May 1999 for the triple homicide.

In April 2014, he was transferred to Machh Jail death cell after his mercy plea was rejected by Sindh High Court and president of Pakistan.

SHAFQAT HUSSAIN DODGES THE GALLOWS AGAIN PML-N LEADER KILLED IN PESHAWAR, TTP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

Banned terrorist organisation Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan (TTP) on Wednesday took responsibility for the killing of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PMLN) Peshawar President Haji Sardar Khan.

He was shot dead in Yakatoot area of the city. Last year in July, president of the Khuzdar city chapter of PML-N, Haji Muhammad Alam Jattak was shot dead in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district. In November 2014, militants had fired a rocket targeting the residence of PML-N’s provincial leader Nawab Sanaullah Zehri in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district. Nawab Zehri’s brother, son, nephew were killed in a powerful blast prior to the May 11, 2013 general elections in the same area.

PRESIDENT MAMNOON HUSSAIN ORDERS DELAY IN CONTROVERSIAL DEATH ROW CONVICT’S HANGING WHICH WAS SCHEDULED FOR TODAY MUZAFFARABAD STAFF REPORT

After protests from civil society on the roads and on social media, and pleas from Shafqat Hussain’s family, the controversial execution was delayed a second time just five hours before the hanging time.

According to sources, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar requested President Mamnoon Hussain to delay the execution. The president, while acknowledging that no innocent should be unduly executed, allowed the delay. Earlier in the day, the family of Shafqat Hussain appealed to the government and judiciary to save the death row convict from his execution which is scheduled to take place at dawn on Thursday.

In 2001, Shafqat had allegedly murdered a child named Umair, and was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in 2004. He was 14-years-old at the time. Mercy appeals for Shafqat were rejected by the high court in 2006, Supreme Court in 2007 and the presidency in 2012.

Shafqat’s mother Makhni Begum, along with her daughter Samira bibi, held a press conference on Wednesday during

which she claimed that her son was innocent. She said three suspects had been arrested in the case, but only her son was convicted while the other two were let go.

Makhni Begum further said that no one was fighting her son’s case which is why he was set to be executed. “For God sake don’t bereave me of my Shafqat ... He is my last child ... Please don’t snatch him from me,” she pleaded. “Save my Shafqat from falling victim to injustice,” she continued in what was a last-ditch attempt to influence the authorities to halt his execution. She reiterated that Shafqat was a minor at the time when he was sentenced to death, and that according to the law, a minor cannot be sentenced to a death penalty.

She added that if her son was executed, it would be a great injustice. She called on human rights organisations and other institutions to play a role in saving her son.

EU URGES PAKISTAN TO REINSTATE MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

A spokesperson of the European Union (EU) said on Wednesday that the government of Pakistan should halt all executions as capital punishment violates international law and basic human rights.

The spokesperson referred to the death penalty as an unjust and cruel punishment and said capital punishment should be eliminated globally. The government has executed 48 convicts since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted following the horrific terrorist attacks on the Army Public School in Peshawar last year. The condemnation of the death penalty by the EU comes at a time when the government is set to hang underage convict, Shafqat Hussain on Thursday (today). Hussain’s case has triggered outrage from rights campaigners, who complain he did not get a fair trial and was only 15 at the time of the killing. The EU is only one of many international organisations urging the government to halt executions of convicts all over the country. Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have also called for a stop to the hangings. The EU had opposed the removal of the moratorium in December last year, and again expressed concerns during the First Pakistan-EU Local Human Rights Dialogue where the delegation met to discuss Pakistan’s GSP Plus status.

POLIO WORKER KILLED IN ATTACK ON TEAM IN BAJAUR PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

Unidentified men attacked a polio team on Wednesday in Bajaur Agency’s Nawagai tehsil, killing one worker and leaving another injured. Assistant Political Agent (APA) Nawagai Fayaz Ali Sherpao said unknown gunmen fired at polio workers Ruhullah and Arifullah as they administered polio drops to children in the Kamangara area of Nawagai tehsil near the Pak-Afghan border. Polio worker Ruhullah died on the spot while Arifullah received injuries, Sherpao added. The injured worker was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took responsibility of the killing. The attack on the polio team comes just a day after a polio team in Mansehra was attacked. Two lady health workers and a policeman were killed in Tuesday’s attack. The polio team in Mansehra was vaccinating children on the second day of a three-day anti-polio drive in the district when they were attacked.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. Attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by militant attacks on immunisation teams that have claimed 76 lives since December 2012.

Militants claim the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims. Last year, the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years.

FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL? NO! RESEARCH ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS MONEY IN PUNJAB INDICATES INFRINGEMENT OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION LAHORE STAFF REPORT

“Following the School Paisa”, a research study launched by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), has revealed that around 97 percent students are still paying monthly fee in public schools despite the slogan of free education for all by the Punjab government.

The study has been completed by using Public Expenditure Tracking Survey

(PETS) in districts of Jhang and Toba Tek Singh. It further reveals that due to the insufficient educational funds by the government, the schools generate more than 50 per cent of the resources on their own.

The public schools charge Rs 20 per student per month to the Education Promotion Fund, commonly known as Farogh-e-Taleem Fund (FTF), by which 99 per cent of the schools in Jhang generate 60.7 per cent of their total income.

District Jhang is one of the low per-

forming districts of Punjab in terms of education and has a primary net enrolment rate of 52 per cent for girls and 58 per cent for the boys while in Toba Tek Singh, the secondary schools are equipped with most of the basic educational facilities and infrastructure, but many of the primary and elementary schools are deprived of such basic facilities including furniture for teachers and students, drinking water, washrooms, sports equipment, computer labs etc.

Parents in both districts had to bear out-of-pocket expenditures on account of admission fee, examination fee, maintenance fund, stationery cost, student-fund, school leaving fee and many more which is the clear infringement of Article 25-A

CMYK

of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The analysis of the budgetary data shows leakage of 38 per cent and 2 per cent in the non-salary budget for the FY 2009-10 and 2011-12 respectively. Similarly, 2.86 per cent leakage was observed in the resources of primary schools in FY 2012-13 in Toba Tek Singh.

Both studies covered various dimensions, which include tracking budgetary allocation and leakages, looking for the available facilities and the level of satisfaction of parents, the income and expenditure of the schools, information about the school councils, monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and income and expenditure patterns of schools among

others in Jhang and Toba Tek Singh.

CPDI Program Manager Raja Shoaib Akbar emphasised that government should make efforts to provide missing facilities, especially in primary schools and increase the allocation for operation expenditure of schools up to 12 per cent of the current budget.

Akbar said that the district government should issue orders to the school management authorities to ensure the implementation of “Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2014” and make sure that the students are not charged for education by any means, hence avoiding the violation of the act as well as Article 25-A of the Constitution.

Thursday, 19 March 2015

NEWS

03

heAd couNtiNg stArts mArch Next yeAr CCI APPROVES HOLDING OF POPULATION CENSUS IN MARCH 2016, ESTABLISHMENT OF HALAL FOOD AUTHORITY, POWER GENERATION POLICY, 2015, PAKISTAN OIL RULES, AND AMENDMENTS IN PETROLEUM POLICIES 2009, 2012

PM EXPRESSES DISSATISFACTION OVER WORKING OF REGULATORY AUTHORITIES; NEPRA ASKED TO STREAMLINE ITS PROCEDURES AT EARLIEST TO FACILITATE ENERGY BUSINESSES

DAR TELLS CCI THAT PUBLIC DEBT BROUGHT DOWN TO 62PC FROM 64PC IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS

ISLAMABAD

c

STAFF REPORT

HAIRED by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the meeting of Council of Common Interest (CCI) decided Wednesday that the sixth population census would be held in March 2016 with the support of armed forces, as it was done in 1998.

The housing and population censuses would be held at the same time and the cost would be shared by provinces through a divisible pool.

During the long-delayed meeting held in the federal capital, provinces were directed to frame rules and complete other formalities at the earliest for absorption of federal employees transferred to provincial governments in the wake of 18th Constitutional Amendment.

APPROVALS: The meeting approved amendment in Petroleum Policies of 2009 and 2012 and Model Petroleum Concession Agreement.

The CCI gave approval of the Pakistan Oil (Refining, Blending, Transportation Storage and Marketing) Rules which will repeal some of existing 1971 rules.

The new rules cover all the functions assigned to Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) under the Ordinance in

respect of mid and downstream oil sector and were prepared in consultation with stakeholders including the provinces. The CCI also gave approval of the draft bill for the Establishment of Pakistan Halal Authority. The meeting was informed that this will allow Pakistan to benefit from the huge potential that exists in the international market of Halal business worth trillions of dollars, bulk of which is being taken away by non-Muslim countries.

The scope of Halal sector covers a wide range of items such as food, pharmaceuticals, health, food supplements and toiletries etc. Currently, Pakistan is

AIR MARSHAL SOHAIL AMAN APPOINTED AS NEW AIR CHIEF ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday approved the appointment of Air Marshal Sohail Aman as new air chief, after promoting him to the rank of air chief marshal. He is set to take over the command of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) tomorrow as the government issued a notification for his appointment as the new chief of air staff with effect from March 19. Earlier, outgoing Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt called on PM Nawaz in Islamabad. The premier lauded the services of the outgoing chief of air staff for national defense and the role of PAF in the ongoing war against terrorism. Prime Minister said that the PAF made exceptional progress and attained professional excellence under the leadership of Air Chief Marshall Tahir Rafique Butt. Air Marshal Sohail Aman, who is an accomplished fighter pilot, was commissioned in the GD (P) Branch of Pakistan Air Force in November,1980. He is a graduate of Combat Commanders’ School, Air War College and Royal College of Defence Studies (UK) and his career encompasses a wide range of operational, training and command assignments. During his remarkable career in PAF, he has flown various fighter and training aircrafts in PAF’s inventory. He also holds a Master’s degrees in International Studies from Kings College UK and Strategic Studies from Air War College. During his illustrious career in PAF, he has commanded a Fighter Squadron, Combat Commanders’ School, an Operational Air Base and Regional Air Command. Aman remained on various important staff appointments including director operations, director plans and assistant chief of the air staff (operations) at Air Headquarters, in addition to air officer commanding, central air command and deputy chief of the air staff (training). STAFF REPORT

taking only a nominal share of this huge export potential, due to non-existence of a legal and recognised authority at the national level dealing with the Halal sector.

TAKING STOCK: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar informed the meeting that public debt has been brought down from 64 per cent to 62 per cent in less than two years and by June 2016 it would be brought down to 60 per cent as required under the law.

The meeting was also informed that proceedings on Pakistan Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation Bill 2014 have been completed and soon it

would be presented in the Parliament.

Moreover, the Water and Power secretary gave a presentation on Power Generation Policy 2015 which was in-principle approved by the CCI. Any further observation on the policy by the stakeholders will be removed by the Ministry of Water and Power.

National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA)’s annual report for 2012-13 and State of Industry Report, 2013 was also presented before the CCI. Pursuant to Section 42 of NEPRA Act, it is mandatory for NEPRA to submit its annual report for following financial year

TIME’S UP: KHAN BOUND TO HOLD FRESH PARTY POLLS FOLLOWING PTI ELECTION COMMISSIONER’S ORDER, PARTY’S ALL OFFICE JUSTICE WAJIHUDDIN ASKS IMRAN KHAN BEARERS, CEC, CORE COMMITTEE STAND DISSOLVED ON RIGGING CHARGES TO INSTALL CARETAKERS, HOLD INTRAWHILE IMRAN KHAN SURVIVES JOLT, STAYS PARTY CHAIRMAN PARTY ELECTIONS IN THREE MONTHS ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR

In a landmark verdict, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed Wednesday turned down an appeal filed by party chairman Imran Khan seeking six-month time to hold fresh intra-party elections.

Under the verdict, all office bearers, PTI’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) and the unconstitutional core committee have ceased to function. Only Khan has survived the jolt as he was elected unopposed and there was no allegation against him for rigging.

With the dismissal of the plea, all party organisations stand dissolved as of Wednesday as the two-year period allotted to the elected office-bearers by the party’s election commission also ended on March 18.

However, since Khan was elected unopposed, he would stay as party’s chairman till holding of the next elections, the verdict said, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today. Feeling the heat, Khan has summoned party’s consultative meeting on March 22 to discuss the emerging situation.

The tribunal has asked Khan to

appoint caretaker setup who would be tasked to hold next party elections within a three-month time.

The order issued by Justice Wajihuddin directed Khan that all the offices ceased to function immediately as the commission’s previous order passed last year was operative till March 18.

“No member of the caretaker set up or the election commission would be allowed to contest the upcoming party polls, while the matter of those party leaders found responsible for rigging the previous election may be sent to disciplinary committee, which would decide whether they are eligible to contest next election,” the order said.

A well-placed source told Pakistan Today that soon after the intraparty polls held two years ago, the election tribunal headed by Justice Wajihuddin had received 76 petitions, claiming that the party polls had been rigged heavily. The tribunal held several sittings and after examining evidence, the commission issued on order on October 17, 2014, declaring the party polls had been rigged by influential candidates across country.

“The commission had observed that serious flaws had been witnessed in party elections which could not be

maintained. However, the tribunal chief said that since neither all officers can be sent home immediately nor they could be allowed to serve a five-year term due to irregularities in election process, the five year term is curtailed into two years which ends

by March 18, 2015,” the order said.

However, PTI Chairman Imran Khan filed an appeal, an email petition through his executive secretary Naeemul Haq, with the election commission, seeking a six-month extension in the tenure of the party office bearers.

In that appeal it was clearly mentioned that chairman validates and accepts the order. The tribunal headed by Justice Wajihuddin then announced hearing of the appeal for March 18, 2015. The tribunal requested all members of the party to send their pleas to them with regard to the hearing.

ORDER OUT: Based on the pleas and requests made by the majority of the party members, the election tribunal issued an order Wednesday.

The salient features of the order are: “Imran Khan pleaded that the time was needed to help complete voters’ lists and bring in some constitutional amendments to help conduct party elections. Moreover,

HAVE NO FEAR AND CARRY ON, COAS ADVISES AGENCIES RAWALPINDI STAFF REPORT

Speaking during his visit to Counter-Terrorism Centre in Pibbi on Wednesday, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif vowed to eradicate terrorism from every nook and corner of the country and expressed resolve to support security agencies, advising them to carry out their duties without fear.

“We have resolved to cleanse Pakistan from all kinds of terrorism. Let’s join hands!

Operations must continue fearlessly,” he said.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), General Sharif visited Pibbi to inspect passing-out parade of the first batch.

Addressing the soldiers at the occasion,

and State of Industry Report for following calendar year to the CCI. During the meeting, the prime minister expressed his dissatisfaction over the working of regulatory authorities which were created in view of the privatisation of government entities. However, privatisation did not take place while regulatory authorities are continuing to work. He directed NEPRA to streamline its procedures at the earliest to facilitate energy businesses. Item related to short supplies of water in Pat Feeder and Kirthar canals was deferred due to the non-availability of Balochistan chief minister, who is out of country and could not attend CCI meeting.

Regarding agenda item on matters pertaining to higher education in post 18th Amendment scenario, the meeting decided that a committee would be formed under the Minister for Planning regarding working of Higher Education Commission and similar bodies in the provinces. Regarding the construction of Chashma Right Bank Canal, it was agreed that Ministry of Water and Power would discuss modalities with the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Earlier, the prime minister held meeting with chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh and KP in which matters of mutual interest came under discussion.

the army chief said that security forces of the country should carry out their duties without any fear, adding that public should identify enemies hiding in the ranks of population.

General Sharif said that capacity of the anti-terrorist forces would be increased soon.

He said that anti-terrorist forces which will have the capacity to chase the targets till destination are being readied.

According to ISPR, 500 security personnel have been trained in the first batch which includes 200 personnel from Rangers, Frontier Force, Special Police Department, 200 personnel from Elite Force and 100 personnel each from Navy and Airforce.

Senior military, police leadership, home secretaries of provinces were also present.

since the country was facing a war against terror, six months may be allowed to hold next party elections,” the source said.

Abdul Qayyum Khan Kundi, an office bearer of the party’s central training council, said that there was a disconnect between the party leadership and the party workers. There are 134 district presidents but none have ever been summoned for consultation on party’s affairs. Even the 34 MNAs were not consulted before resignations issue, he added.

He said that Justice Wajihuddin’s order of October 17, 2014 was a watershed event as it created an opportunity to hold new intra-party election through which a capable and ideology driven team could run the party. “But the former central leadership took that order for granted just like it takes all of us for granted in running the party affairs,” he said.

Kundi said that the verdict was a landmark precedent by all means as no political party has such a model of intra-party democracy. He said that there was no criterion to elect a member of the core committee and anybody could be appointed a party member. He said that party’s rank and file has stood up and they would have to hold intra-party elections.

AT LEAST 34 SUSPECTED MILITANTS KILLED IN TIRAH AIRSTRIKES PESHAWAR: At least 34 suspected militants were killed in airstrikes conducted by military jets in Tirah Valley area of Khyber Agency, according to a statement issued by the army on Wednesday. Pakistan Air Force jets bombed several suspected militant hideouts in the remote Tirah Valley area of Khyber tribal region, said the statement. Khyber is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous regions governed by tribal laws and lies near the Afghan border. Tirah valley is home to militants from the proscribed Tehreek-iTaliban Pakistan (TTP) and an allied group called Lashkar-i-Islam. STAFF REPORT

CMYK

04 NEWS

Thursday, 19 March 2015

DYING MAN TALKS, STARTS NAMING NAMES JUST HOURS BEFORE HIS SCHEDULED HANGING, MQM HITMAN SAULAT MIRZA ACCUSES PARTY CHIEF ALTAF HUSSAIN OF DIRECTLY ORDERING ASSASSINATIONS LAHORE

I

STAFF REPORT

N a damning ‘video confession’ made available to media just hours before the scheduled execution of MQM’s convicted hitman Saulat Mirza, the man condemned to death for carrying out several high-profile assassinations in Karachi accused the Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain and some other leaders of directly ordering the ‘hits’. The statement led to a postponement of Mirza’s execution for 72 hours in a hurriedly called meeting at the Presidency late on Wednesday night.

Saulat Mirza, in a supposed video confession aired on a news channel, hurled startling allegations in which he confessed to being an MQM worker and carrying out the murder of KESC chief Shahid Hamid

PTI MNAS’ SALARIES WITHHELD OVER ABSENCE ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Wednesday said the salaries of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers who resigned from the assembly have been withheld. While talking to reporters in the Parliament’s press gallery, the NA speaker said that if a lawmaker moves a motion against PTI’s absent lawmakers, he would be bound to conduct a vote. Upon getting a majority, the PTI members can be declared ineligible, he said, adding that PTI lawmakers laughed when he telephoned them to ask about their resignations. Responding to allegations regarding election rigging, Sadiq said that he is ready to undergo a Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) scan, Computerised Tomography (CT) scan and even a blood test. He further alleged that he has been a victim of “political terrorism”. Sadiq said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan has so far failed to produce any evidence of rigging against him in the tribunal and if the result of NA-122 investigation is released, Khan will be left with no chance of protest. He maintained that the report to be presented in the tribunal regarding finger prints will be the same as any other case. STAFF REPORT

UN SEEKS TO ENDORSE MILITARY ACTION AGAINST BOKO HARAM UNITED NATIONS: Chad has circulated a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council that would endorse military action by a five-nation African force against Nigeria’s Islamic extremist group Boko Haram. Chad’s UN Ambassador Mahamat Zene Cherif said Wednesday he hopes for a council vote this month. The draft would endorse the decision of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Benin to establish a force for a period of 12 months to take “all necessary measures” against Boko Haram, which killed an estimated 10,000 people last year. It was circulated as the Nigerian military, bolstered by forces from neighboring countries, has regained towns and cities held by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. AGENCIES

on direct orders from Altaf Hussain.

“I was summoned at Babar Ghauri’s house where I took Altaf Hussain’s orders via telephone. Altaf Hussain would usually pass on instructions through Babar Ghauri,” alleged Saulat Mirza, further claiming that MQM leader Azeem Tariq was also murdered by him on Altaf Hussain’s orders.

Mirza revealed that orders were given on telephone by the party chief himself. Usually, the party chief would either give orders himself or through the likes of Babar Ghauri. He further alleged that people whom the party wanted to save from police torture are provided protection in police stations through Governor Ishratul Ebad Khan.

Even during the PPP’s government, Mirza said that he was facilitated in jail and allowed to meet family members in separate rooms.

In the video, shot apparently on death row in Mach Jail, shows Mirza claiming that Altaf would not let anyone to rise in the party, adding that the MQM chief ordered the murder of Azeem Tariq when he started rising within the party ranks. Similarly, when former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal started getting popular among masses, he was disgracefully thrown out of the party.

Mirza appealed to his fellow party workers to take heed from his fate, of how he was used and then later discarded like ‘used tissue paper’.

The death row convict said earlier he was afraid for the safety of his family.

EXECUTION STAYED: In a dramatic turn of events, just minutes after Mirza’s ‘confessional’ video was broadcast, his execution was stayed for 72 hours.

The decision was reportedly taken by

President Mamnoon Hussain on the request of Interior Ministry.

BACKGROUND: Mirza was found guilty of murdering the then managing director (MD) of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), now K-electric, Malik Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi, and his guard Khan Akbar outside Hamid’s residence in DHA on July 5, 1997.

Previously a resident of Block J in North Nazimabad, Karachi, Saulat was his parents’ fourth child.

Having received his intermediate education from Pakistan Shipowners’ College in Karachi, he became active in student politics and joined the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO), the students’ wing of MQM, then an acronym for Mohajir Qaumi Movement. His name first appeared on intelligence and security agencies’ radar in 1994, after the killing of two US

diplomats at Karachi’s Shahrah-i-Faisal and murder of four workers of an American oil company, Union Texas, near PIDC Bridge.

He was believed to have been arrested from Karachi airport after his arrival from Bangkok; police confirmed his arrest at a press conference on December 11, 1998.

During that press conference, in the presence of the then Karachi DIG, Ameen Qureshi, Saulat Mirza made revelations about his involvement in the murder of scores of innocent people, including several high-profile personalities. Mirza was initially detained by FIA immigration officials for travelling on a fake identity but was handed over to the then Station House Officer (SHO) of Gulbahar police station, Mohammad Aslam Khan (Chaudhry Aslam), who was also present at the airport on intelligence reports.

Nisar tells Britain to rein in ‘citizen’ Altaf

SEVEN DEAD, 41 INJURED IN AFGHAN TALIBAN ATTACK

SAYS ALTAF’S THREATENING STATEMENTS FROM BRITISH SOIL COULD HARM ANTI-MILITANCY OPERATION IN KARACHI

KANDAHAR: A truck bomb set off by a Taliban suicide attacker targeting senior provincial officials killed at least seven civilians and wounded around 40 in southern Afghanistan. The bomber detonated his explosives-rigged truck near a complex that houses the governor, the head of the provincial council and the deputy provincial police chief in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, Deputy Provincial Governor Mohammad Jan Rasolyar told AFP. All three survived, but “seven civilian were killed and 41 were wounded in the attack,” he said. “The attack was targeted at a gathering of senior government officials, civil society members and journalists in a hall for a seminar on human trafficking and kidnapping,” he said. The wounded, including provincial government spokesman Omar Zhwak, were taken to the hospital. A senior police officer who declined to be named confirmed the attack and casualties, adding that buildings in the complex were also damaged. The interior ministry also confirmed the attack in a statement. The Taliban, who frequently target Afghan government officials and security forces, claimed responsibility for the attack through their official Twitter account. AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar has urged the British government to stop the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain from defaming Pakistani security forces and to take legal action against him from issuing statements threatening them, according to BBC Urdu.

In an unusual move, Nisar met British High Commissioner Philip Barton to discuss issue of MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s remarks against Pakistan Rangers and matter of two recent arrests in Imran Farooq’s murder case.

“The UK must take legal course against MQM Chief [who is a British citizen] and has threatened law enforcements agencies in Pakistan,” the

interior minister was quoted as saying by a senior official who was familiar with Wednesday’s meeting.

Nisar told Philip Barton that such a threatening tone from British soil could harm the going operation against militants in Karachi, the official added. Last week, Rangers raided the MQM headquarters NineZero, arresting several leaders.

Following the raid, in an interview with a private television channel, Altaf threatened Rangers officials involved in the operation. In the television show, the MQM had said, “The officers that raided my house, they belonged to the Rangers. They were, and they are now, the past.” Reacting to the threats, the Rangers filed a case against the MQM chief in Civil Lines police station in Karachi. According to a source in the Interior Ministry, the Rangers wrote a

letter to Nisar to inform him about the MQM chief’s threatening statement to the paramilitary force.

This meeting, which was not scheduled, was the second meeting between the interior minister and Philip Barton. The two earlier met on March 11 where they discussed issues relating to the MQM, exchange of convicted prisoners and lifting the ban on moratorium, the official said.

The interior minister also informed the British top diplomat about the arrest of two more accused who facilitated killers of Imran Farooq. “All evidences were shared with British High Commissioner today [Wednesday],” the official revealed. Earlier, Nisar had defended the Rangers’ raid on the MQM headquarters calling it “a step in the positive direction to eliminate militants from Karachi”.

ALTAF DENIES THREATENING RANGERS KARACHI

GOVT TO TRY YOUHANABAD PROTESTERS IN MILITARY COURT

STAFF REPORT

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Wednesday denied that he had threatened law enforcement personnel during a TV interview.

Addressing a gathering on telephone, Hussain said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahbaz Sharif had used harsh words and threats for Asif Ali Zardari during his election campaign while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazlur Rehman possessed illegal weapons but they were yet to be held accountable for their actions and words.

Altaf Hussain said that Rangers can give the text of his speech to anyone if they like, adding that he is not afraid because he did not say anything against the security personnel.

KARACHI: MQM workers of MQM listen to Altaf Hussain’s speech during the 31st Foundation Day event of the party at Lal Qila Ground. online

CMYK

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif have agreed on taking legal action against enraged protesters, who burnt two men following the attack on Youhanabad churches, and trying them in a military court. A meeting was held between the interior minister and Punjab CM on Wednesday, in which issues related to Youhanabad attacks were discussed, including the lynching of two men and damage to public property. Condemning the Youhanabad incident, the interior minister termed the immolation of two men an act of terrorism and said that the act’s perpetrators will be brought to justice. Both the leaders also agreed that action will also be taken against police officers found negligent in the incident. STAFF REPORT

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

Gunmen storm tunisian museum, kill two tunisians, 17 foreiGn tourists

NEWS

SECURITY FORCES STORM FORMER PALACE AROUND TWO HOURS LATER, KILL TWO MILITANTS AND FREE OTHER TOURISTS HELD HOSTAGE INSIDE TUNIS

G

AGENCIES

UNMeN in military uniforms stormed Tunisia’s national museum, killing 17 foreign tourists and two Tunisians on Wednesday in one of the worst militant attacks in a country that has largely escaped the region’s “Arab Spring” turmoil.

Visitors from Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain were among the dead in the noon assault on the Bardo museum near parliament in central Tunis, Prime Minister Habib essid said.

Security forces stormed the former palace around two hours later, killed two militants and freed other tourists held hostage inside, a government spokesman said. One policeman was killed in the police operation. european Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Islamic State militants, who have become par-

ticularly active in neighboring Libya, were behind the attack. “The eU is determined to mobilize all the tools it has to fully support Tunisia in the fight against terrorism,” she added.

Prime Minister essid declared in a national address: “All Tunisians should be united after this attack which was aimed at destroying the Tunisian economy.”

Television footage showed dozens of people, including elderly foreigners and one man carrying a child, running for shelter in the compound, covered by security forces aiming rifles into the air.

The attack on such a high-profile target is a blow for the small North African country that relies heavily on european tourism and has largely avoided major militant violence since its 2011 uprising to oust autocrat Zine elAbidine Ben Ali. Tunisia’s uprising inspired “Arab Spring” revolts in neighboring Libya and in egypt, Syria and Yemen. But its

adoption of a new constitution and staging of largely peaceful elections had won widespread praise and stood in stark contrast to the chaos that has plagued those countries.

Authorities did not immediately identify the gunmen.

But several Islamist militant groups have emerged in Tunisia since the uprising and authorities estimate about 3,000

Tunisians have also joined fighters in Iraq and Syria — raising fears they could return and mount attacks at home.

“Two terrorists disguised in military clothes got into the parliament building, then the museum where they attacked tourists. Nineteen people were killed including 17 foreign tourists. Twenty-two tourists are wounded,” the prime minister said.

SYRIA DOWNED US DRONE OVER SPYING FEARS DAMASCUS AGENCIES

US FLIGHT DIVERTED AFTER MAN RUSHES TOWARDS COCKPIT SHOUTING ‘JIHAD’: REPORT WASHINGTON: A United Airlines flight to Denver returned to a Washington airport late on Monday when a passenger shouting about jihad rushed toward the cockpit before other passengers grabbed him, ABC News said. United Flight 1074, carrying 33 passengers and six crew members, returned to Washington Dulles International Airport when the passenger “failed to comply with crew instructions,” airline spokesman Luke Punzenberger said in a statement. A video posted online by a passenger showed a dark-haired man with a bloodied face being held to the floor of the Boeing 737, tearfully saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” “Don’t move, you’re OK. We’re going to get you off this plane, buddy,” a second man says. A spokesperson for Washington’s airport authority said the passenger was taken to a hospital for observation. The man has not been charged and Dulles’ operations were unaffected, he said. Passenger Donna Tellam told ABC News, “At one point when his head was down he said there were extremists in the cargo hold and he did say jihad a couple times.” She said the man was held down by passengers until flight attendants manged to put plastic restraints on his arms. CNN played audio from LiveATC.net, which provides air traffic control communications online, of the pilot’s radio traffic with controllers.

“We’re declaring an emergency due to a passenger disturbance,” the pilot said.

“He ran forward towards the cockpit and he is being restrained by other passengers… The cockpit is secure and we would just like to return to the airport and have authorities meet him.”

The airport authority spokesperson said the plane later continued on to Denver and the passengers were rebooked by United. AGENCIES

Syria’s military said on Wednesday it downed an American drone over suspicions it was spying, in what would be its first attack on an aircraft in the US-led coalition battling jihadists.

A military source said the drone was not immediately identified as being American but was shot down as a hostile aircraft. “As soon as it entered Syrian air space, we considered it to be gathering security and military information on Syria’s territory,” the source in Damascus said.

“The aircraft entered areas where Daesh is not present,” he added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group.

Syrian state media reported late on Tuesday that air defences had targeted a US surveillance aircraft over Latakia province, a coastal stronghold of President Bashar Assad.

Without specifying a location or timing for the incident, state media published a series of close-up photos showing what they said was the mangled wreckage of a small aircraft.

The US military confirmed losing communication with a Predator drone over Syria on Tuesday and said it was looking into claims the aircraft was shot down.

At about 17:40 GMT, “US military controllers lost contact with a US MQ-1 Predator unarmed remotely pi-

loted aircraft operating over northwest Syria”, a US defence official said in an e-mail.

“At this time, we have no information to corroborate press reports that the aircraft was shot down. We are looking into the incident and will provide more details when available.” If confirmed, the incident would be the first time Syrian forces have attacked a US aircraft since the international coalition began its raids against ISIS in Syria in September.

Damascus is not participating in the coalition’s strikes, although its own aircraft also target ISIS, but has so far refrained from taking action against the foreign planes involved in the operations.

05

NETANYAHU HOPES TO FORM NEW ISRAEL GOVT ‘IN 2-3 WEEKS’ JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to form a new government within weeks after defying the polls to seal a clear election win, his rightwing Likud party said on Wednesday.

“The prime minister intends to begin forming the government immediately in order to finish the task within two to three weeks,” a party statement said. It said Netanyahu had already spoken overnight with the leaders of smaller parties he saw as likely coalition partners. It was referring to the leaders of the far-right Jewish Home party, the hardline Yisrael Beitenu and the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism. With nearly all the votes counted, Likud won 23.26 per cent of the vote to 18.73 per cent for its centreleft rival, Zionist Union, giving them 30 and 24 seats respectively. The Joint List, which groups the main Arab parties, followed with 10.98 per cent, which equates to 14 seats, meaning they will be the third largest force in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament. Jewish Home won eight seats, Yisrael Beitenu six, Shas seven and UTJ six, meaning that, with Likud, the rightwing-religious bloc looks to have secured 57 seats. AGENCIES

INDIANS ACCUSED OF USING AFGHAN SOIL FOR HEROIN SMUGGLING KABUL: UN officials recorded a sharp spike this year in the amount of heroin being seized from passengers trying to fly from Afghanistan to India, a worrying trend since the Taliban insurgency lines its pockets on the illegal drug trade. A lack of coordination is hampering efforts to clamp down on the route, officials said, with India blaming Afghanistan for poor cooperation in helping to track smugglers. In January alone, officials intercepted 44 kilograms of heroin from Afghan airports in eight separate cases, compared to 50 kilograms of heroin and hashish seized during the whole of last year, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime data. Most of the cases have involved passengers trying to board flights bound for the Indian capital New Delhi after swallowing as much 2 kg of the illegal opiate in capsules, like condoms. The spike is an “alarming trend”, said Mark Colhoun, deputy representative to the UNODC in Afghanistan. “These mule are small fry,” he said. “You need to track down the networks.” The UNODC started working with Afghan police and customs in 2013 at Kabul’s airport, and later expanded to airports in Kandahar, Herat, and Mazar-iSharif. It is unclear whether the rise in heroin being seized represents an increase in trafficking or better tracking of smugglers.

But opium cultivation in Afghanistan, which produces some 90 per cent of the world’s illegal opiates, is on the rise. AGENCIES

INDIAN STATE ASKS TOP POLICE UNIT TO INVESTIGATE NUN’S RAPE KOLKATA AGENCIES

An Indian state government under pressure over the rape of an elderly nun said Wednesday it was handing over the case to the country’s top investigators after coming under fire over the lack of arrests.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the case was being transferred from local police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) given the “sensitivity” of Friday’s attack on the nun, who was raped during a robbery at a convent.

“Police are making their best efforts,” Banerjee, the state’s top official, said on Twitter. “(But) Considering the seriousness and sensitivity of the case, I have decided to entrust investigation of the case to CBI.” She also pointed to West Bengal’s close proximity to Bangladesh as a reason for the shift, amid local media speculation that the robbers may have fled

across the border. The referral came just hours after the head of the Catholic church in India demanded swift justice for the nun, who is in her 70s and who needed surgery after the rape.

While local police have taken several people in for questioning, no one has been formally arrested over the incident, which has again highlighted the frightening level of sexual violence in India. After visiting the victim in hospital as well as the convent where she was attacked, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis voiced frustration at the lack of progress in the investigation. “I would like to request the authorities to ensure justice is done,” said Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

“The sisters have forgiven but justice (should) be made visible and such acts should not happen again,” he told reporters in the town of Ranaghat.

“I understand that the process has begun... but I’d like to request the chief minister (Banerjee) to adopt a faster approach and ensure justice is meted out

CMYK

at the earliest,” he added.

The nun was attacked around midnight when a gang of robbers broke into the convent near Ranaghat and ransacked the premises. Although police have launched a gang-rape inquiry, officers say only one person sexually assaulted the nun, who is expected to be shortly released from hospital.

Detectives have released CCTV footage showing the faces of several members of the gang, fuelling frustration that charges have not been forthcoming.

Protests were held in West Bengal and also in the capital New Delhi on Tuesday, while Banerjee was confronted by hundreds of protesters late Monday when she visited the victim.

06 LAHORE

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

WEATHER UPDATES

THURSDAY

270C 140C

FRIDAY

270C 140C

SATURDAY

280C 140C

SUNDAY

290C 160C

PRAyER TImINgS FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

4:47

12:11

3:38

6:08

6:13

7:35

Grenade explosion injures three MULTAN STAFF REPORT

three people, including two children, were injured in grenade explosion in Multan on Wednesday. According to police and rescue officials, two children found two hand grenades while playing at bank of a river near Samijaabad. “they took grenade to home where one exploded injuring two children and a man,” according to police officials. police arrived in the locality and impounded the unexploded grenade. they said a suicide vest was also recovered near the river last week.

Further investigations were underway.

EiGHt-yEar-old boy sExually assaultEd, killEd GUJRANWALA STAFF REPORT

A eight-year-old boy was allegedly sexually assaulted before his assailants brutally killed him in Gujranwala. the boy went missing from his house a day earlier and his body was found from an empty plot on Wednesday.

According to the boy’s family, he had a rope around his throat. police have shifted the body to Civil Hospital for post-mortem. the victim was the only brother of five sisters.

Five killed, 47 injured in burewala bus accident BUREWALA STAFF REPORT

At least five persons were killed while 47 sustained injuries as a speedy bus overturned on Lydon road near Burewala on Wednesday. on getting information, rescue teams reached the spot immediately and shifted the injured and bodies to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Burewala while all the medical staff was sought after declaring emergency in the hospital.

According to rescue sources, the bus, carrying pilgrims from Manga Mandi, overturned near Dewan Sahib as the driver tried to take a sharp turn while speeding.

According to police, the accident took place after the driver could not control the bus while moving at full throttle over a road turn, leaving five passengers dead and 26 others wounded. the ill-fated bus was en-route to shrine of Sakhi Sarwar from Manga Mandi.

MaryaM saFdar GrantEd intEriM bail till 24tH LAHORE STAFF REPORT

A session court has granted interim bail to Maryam Safdar, who in an attempt to save her life, ran over 3 people during Youhanabad protests.

According to the Session Court, stance taken up by the defendant Maryam Safdar is that she ran over 3 people in the Youhanabad incident in an act of selfdefense. According to her, the agitated crowd was threatening her life for which she countered by speeding out of the crowd. the court has directed Maryam Safdar to become part of the investigation.

It should be noted here that on Monday, Maryam Safdar’s car was attacked by a mob.

In an attempt to get out of the crowd, she ran over 3 people who were initially injured but passed away later on. the police officials escorted the woman out of crowd safely.

Lahore: Rangers stand alert near a bridge which broke down at Kala Khatai Road. ONlINE

Jinnah Hospital’s payback installment plan for corrupt employees LAHORE

C

RANA HAIDER

orrupt employees at the Jinnah Hospital can now find their very own get out of jail free card if they agree to pay back the amount they’ve embezzled in installments. Such is the case of Mushtaq, a night supervisor employed at the hospital, who had been using a subordinate’s name to funnel money into his own pocket.

According to a fact finding inquiry report shared with pakistan today, Mushtaq was involved in a clear cut case of fraud. the subordinate in question is Harrison Siraj, who had left pakistan on September 13, 2014. Even though he was no longer in the country, Mushtaq continued to mark his attendance till August 8, 2014. the salary that was owed to Siraj in return for him being ‘present’ for his duty was withdrawn by Mushtaq himself. What’s more, Siraj’s contract was renewed in

May 2014, even though he hadn’t been to work for months. the enquiry report highlighted that the matter only came to light because employees started using their initials to mark the attendance instead of denoting their presence with a ‘p’. It was then that it was discovered that the initials being used to mark Siraj’s attendance did not match the originals on record.

Harrison Siraj is still out of the country and hasn’t been in pakistan for the entirety of Mushtaq’s embezzlement

activities. the enquiry recommended that his contract be terminated with immediate effect and necessary actions be taken to recover the salaries that were withdrawn in his name.

Surprisingly, Mushtaq’s contract was not only not terminated but he was allowed to continue with his service. the condition? He has to pay back rs 10,000 from the next month onwards.

No criminal proceedings have been conducted against Mushtaq and he hasn’t even been fired.

PAT leader’s detention: LHC summons CPO, DCO on 20th LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday summoned city police officer (CPO) and Faisalabad district coordination officer (DCO) on March 20 on the plea filed against house detention of Tehreek-e-Minhaj-ul-Quran leader Afzal Rizvi.

During the hearing, Kubra Rizvi, on the behalf of lawyer Ishtiaq Chaudhry, apprised the court that Afzal Rizvi was detained on the orders of Faisalabad police while the government had also awarded him with a prize over his peace services.

After the arguments of petitioner, judge regretted over the government’s decision of Rizvi’s house arrest.

The court adjourned the hearing by asking CCPO and DCO to appear on March 20. INP

Government negligence led to Youhanabad bombings: Elahi LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Despite very clear information given to the government by intelligence agencies that terrorists have entered the province and churches will be their target, the government showed negligence in beefing up security of churches, said pakistan Muslim League (pML) senior leader parvez Elahi while talking to journalists and pML leaders at his residence on Wednesday.

He said that minorities particularly the Christians were feeling insecurity during pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz’s tenure due to Gojra incident in 2009 followed by Joseph Colony incident which were attacked during NLeague’s government. According to statistics, he said 14,000 Christians have applied for shelter in Europe from 2009 to 2014, despite very clear orders of Islam that protection of life and property of minorities was a duty of the rulers. He said that the punjab chief

minister has failed to provide protection to the life and property of the minorities, adding that incompetent rulers have also made police inefficient.

Elahi said that two major incidents of bloodshed and violence in Lahore, Model town and Ferozepur road, occurred near the residence of the chief minister but he didn’t take any action against the violence. He said that all those who died in Youhanabad incident were pakistanis and the govt was responsible for their protection.

6th Annual Urs of Pir Mehboob Gilani starts today LAHORE: International Naat Council founder pir Syed Mehboobul Hassan Gilani’s three-day urs celebrations will start today. Council Chairman Sahibzada pir Syed Husnain Mehboob Gilani will preside the urs celebrations. the urs will start in Jaranwala near Masjid Bahar-e-Madina, where ‘chadar poshi’ will be held after Asr prayer and will be followed by recitation of Holy Quran. the urs celebrations will shift to Lahore on the second and third days. recitation of Holy Quran will be held after Jumma prayer on second day. A ‘Mehfil-i-Milad’ will be held on Saturday after Isha prayer at 182-A, pak Block, Allama Iqbal town. STAFF REPORT

LAHORE 07

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

youHanabad boMbinGs a sad inCidEnt, says sHaHbaz LAHORE

t

STAFF REPORT

HE Youhanabad twin bombings have left the entire nation in mourning, said punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif while talking to a representative delegation of the Christian community comprising bishops and fathers on Wednesday.

Minister for Home Colonel (r) Shuja Khanzada, Minster for Human rights and Minorities Affairs Khalil tahir Sandhu, National Assembly Member Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, provincial assembly members rana Sanaullah, Zaeem Qadri, Shahzad Munshi, Shakeel Awan, former MpA rana Mubasher, chief secretary and authorities concerned were present during the meeting while the Christian community was represented by Bishop of Lahore Irfan Jamil, Cathedral Church Archbishop Sebastian F Shaw, Alexander John Malik, Fr Emmanuel Mani, Fr Moris Jalal, Fr Frances Gulzar, pastor Irshad Ashiq Naz, Fr Nadeem Frances, Lahore Cathedral Dean rev Shahid Meraj and other Christian leaders. the participants of the meeting observed one minute’s silence for those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Addressing the Christian delegation, Shahbaz said that pakistan is in a state of war and facing the most difficult challenge of its history. He said that terrorists want to divide the nation through their despicable activities but all pakistanis including Muslims, Christians and other minorities are united for the survival and stability of the country. He said that political, military and religious leadership are united in the war against terrorism and a unanimous National Action plan has been evolved against terrorism which will help eliminate this menace from the country. He said that operation Zarb-e-Azb against terrorists is continuing successfully and remarkable successes have been achieved. He said that more than 50,000 pakistanis have lost their lives in the war against terrorism including officers and Jawans of the army, police, security institutions as well as politicians, traders, ulema and common citizens. He said that every segment of the society has been affected by negative activities of terrorists and they are targeting pakistan and its people while mosques, Imambargahs, worship places of minorities, national institutions and even schools have not been spared. He said that young school going children have also been targeted by the

brutal elements. He said that sacrifices of pakistanis will not go to waste. He said that the whole nation will have to display unity and solidarity and foil every attempt made at dividing the nation. the chief minister further said that under the National Action plan, federal and provincial governments are moving ahead with complete harmony and effective measures have been taken speedily in punjab with regard to its implementation. He said that amendments have been introduced in the laws and penalties have been made more stringent for wall-chalking, misuse of loudspeaker, provocative speeches and publication and distribution of objectionable literature.

He said that a fully trained Counter terrorism Force has also been constituted which is now in the field. He said that maximum resources are being utilised in punjab for coping with the scourge of terrorism. He said that additional topics are being included in the syllabus of educational institutions and seminaries for the elimination of terrorism and extremism through promotion of sentiments of tolerance and brotherhood in the society.

He further said that the menace of extremism, terrorism and sectarianism has not taken roots in the society overnight nor it will go away easily. He said that effective and persistent measures are

required to tackle this problem. He said that the government is taking all possible steps for rooting out terrorism and extremism.

He expressed the hope that efforts to eradicate terrorism will succeed with the grace of Allah Almighty and pakistan will emerge as an Islamic welfare state in accordance with the vision of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

He further said that every member of the society will have to play his role for the promotion of the sentiments of tolerance and restraint so that the menace of terrorism and extremism could be curbed. He said that no religion permits intolerance, violence and aggressive attitude and it is also the message of Jesus Christ to have patience and tolerance and to live peacefully. He also thanked the Christian community for its cooperation over the incident of Youhanabad. He said that cabinet committee on peace and his other colleagues played a positive role in proper handling of the issue for which he is grateful to them. He said that cabinet committee on law and order and administration should remain fully alert so that such incidents could be avoided in future. He said that the message of restraint, tolerance and justice should be given from the mosques, Imambargahs and other places of worship as it is the need of the hour for foiling the nefarious designs of the enemies. He said that every person living in pakistan is pakistani and a joint investigation team has been constituted with regard to the tragic incident which will fulfil the demands of justice and the guilty persons will be brought to book.

GOVERNMENT WORKING DAY AND NIGHT TO RESOLVE ENERGY CRISIS: CM LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Serious efforts are being made under the leadership of prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resolve energy crisis, said punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif while presiding over a meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday regarding energy projects. the meeting decided to set up three gas based power projects of 3600 megawatt. these projects will be set up in Bikhi, Sheikhupura, Baloki, Kausr and Haweli Bahadur Shah at Jhang. the

federal government will provide funds for two projects of 2400 megawatt while the punjab government will provide sources for one project of 1200 megawatt. Ambassadors of China, turkey, Italy, Spain and Greece besides commercial consulers of Canada, South Korea and Japan were present during the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said that the government is working on priority basis for coping with the problem of shortage of electricity, revival of economy and elimination of terrorism. He

said that power projects will be completed by 2017.

He said that serious efforts are being made for the solution of energy problem on permanent basis. He said that work is also in progress on coal, solar, hydel and other projects. He said that investment by friendly countries in energy projects will be welcomed.

He said that all out facilities will be provided to the investors while their investment will be fully protected. He also commended the cooperation and investment by China in coal power projects.

08 COMMENT

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

Reinstatement of OGRA Chairman

The way out for the two sides MQM and the ubiquitous establishment

A dangerous precedent

A

ltaf Hussain resorted to irresponsible innuendo while commenting on the Rangers’ raid on Nine Zero. The Rangers have consequently got a case registered against the MQM chief. Meanwhile Asif Ali Zardari has vowed not to leave the MQM alone in these “times of trouble”. While the Interior Minister has handed over a copy of the FIR to the British High Commissioner, not all the PML-N is willing to support the case. In the presence of a long history of Byzantine conspiracies and intrigues in the country, the Rangers’ FIR looks suspicious.

There is a widespread perception in the country about the MQM using violent means to promote its political agenda. Those who have charge-sheeted the party on these issues in the past include the PPP, PLMN, various other political parties and the army. This is one part of the picture.

The MQM has contested every election since 1988.

It has been a coalition partner of the PPP and PML-N and was embraced by military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

The party still enjoys the support of the vast majority of voters in urban Sindh. This is the other part of the picture.

What is at stake is the credibility of the MQM as well as of the non-political establishment. Altaf Hussain needs to take visible and credible measures to cleanse the party of criminals in its ranks. It simply won’t do agreeing to action against them if found guilty. Unless the MQM does so the negative perceptions about the party would continue to prevail outside urban Sindh.

Altaf Hussain has to apologise for his remarks. The establishment on its part must not be seen to be indulging in political engineering of the sort it is known for. Attempts to create a split in the MQM or to pursue a ‘minus Altaf Hussain’ agenda will backfire as programmes of the sort did in the past. What is more, these are likely to array the major political parties against the non-political establishment.

More killings And a paralysed government

S

ADLy, it is not really surprising that Dr Shakeel Afridi’s former lawyer, Samiullah Afridi, was finally gunned down while the government watched from its usual distant window. He had been receiving death threats for a long time. That, in fact, was what prompted him to distance himself from the case.

And according to reports, he had informed the government about threats to his life. But with no help, or official security, forthcoming, he left the country for a while, before returning to a gruesome, though unfortunately expected, murder.

While it is investigated exactly which faction of the Taliban carried out this ‘hit’ – more than one claim has come up – the message is pretty clear. Unable to reach the imprisoned doctor himself, one of the spokesmen explained, the Taliban simply decided to take out the exlawyer in return for “Sheikh Osama”. And, of course, it’s not like this was an isolated incident. Just as Samiullah breathed his last in Peshawar, two lady health workers and a police guard were killed in Mansehra, because they were administering polio vaccine to infants in the area. Their killings take the number of polio killings, since Dec ’12, to 71. And what has the government done about all this? yes, there have been tall promises, also the provision of a little extra security, but what about that national narrative that is so essential in facing a brainwashed enemy.

Consider these killings in the wider context – bombings of imambargahs and churches – and the government’s paralysis becomes more apparent. What, then, of the National Action Plan (NAP) that was supposed to bring the official machinery together after the Peshawar tragedy? In the present situation, the government is not providing adequate security to civilians at the forefront of the war against terrorism.

True, the army’s brave soldiers are at the centre of this existential war. But doctors, lawyers, journalists and worshippers who must operate at other front-lines of this fight must also be protected. The lawyer’s killing will not only deter others in the profession, but also give the doctor, fearing similar fate even in jail, a chance to flee.

And the polio attacks means Pakistan will remain one of the three countries in the world where the virus remains endemic. Unless the government wakes up immediately, this fight will slip out of control.

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

Saeed Ahmed Khan was sent on three months forced leave pending an inquiry by the Public Service Commission under the OGRA Act to unravel all the aspect of the crisis including final fixation of the responsibility for the crisis.

According to the sources savvy of the legal intricacies and provisions of the OGRA Act, the regulatory authority in the light of Section 6 of the Act was charged with the responsibility to ensure maintenance of 20 days oil stock in the country and keep vigilance on the market fluctuations, which it miserably failed to accomplish, resulting in unprecedented hardship to the general public. The sending of the OGRA Chairman on forced leave was designed to scuttle the possibilities of him exercising any influence on the inquiry proceedings. The step was not only logical but also in accordance with an earlier decision of the SC in Tauqeer Sadiq case in which it was said that during a crisis situation the official of the regulatory authorities responsible for the fracas can be sent on forced leave to thwart the possibility of the officer using his authority to influence the inquiry proceedings. Further, according to the settled constitutional and court procedures, whenever an inquiry for a disciplinary action is entrusted to a prescribed forum, the High Court cannot hear such cases.

But it is really surprising that the Islamabad High Court not only entertained the petition of the OGRA Chairman against his forced leave but after hearing the case has also set aside the government’s decision in this regard. It ostensibly agreed with the argument of the defence lawyer that it was not the duty

Malik MuhaMMad ashraf

T

He country was in the grip of the worst ever oil crisis in January, which not only caused great embarrassment to the government but also put the general public in lot of bother. The country virtually was shut down and the people had to endure hardships for good three week before the government was able to tide over the crisis through emergent measures.

The magnitude of the crisis warranted fixation of the responsibility and the adoption of measures not only to rectify the situation but also to ensure that no such situation cropped up in the future. The government lost no time in setting up a committee to probe into the whole affair and come up with recommendations in regards to fixing of the responsibility. The committee held an inquiry into the matter and in the light of the recommendations of this preliminary inquiry committee Secretary Petroleum, Additional Secretary Ministry of Petroleum, MD PSO, Deputy MD of PSO and other officers were suspended while Chairman OGRA

state institutions including the Judiciary remain within their constitutional domains and support each other in promoting the wellbeing of the masses which is the ultimate aim of the State. But unfortunately ever since the restoration of the judiciary as a result of the lawyers’ movement, the judiciary in a bid to assert its independence has exhibited an unremitting propensity to overstep its constitutional powers, has acted as popular court rather than a court of law and even trampled the internationally recognised principles of jurisprudence in certain cases. The constitutional experts and eminent lawyers have all along been pointing out this tendency on the part of the judiciary.

The courts while dispensing justice must act as courts of law keeping in view the public interest.

Any conduct to the contrary is bound to create difficulties for the institutions which are affected by it.

Chairman OGRA was found responsible for the onset of the oil crisis and putting the entire country into discomfort of unprecedented proportions. The executive had the legal authority to take action against him in the light of the OGRA Act and entrust the inquiry to the Federal Public Service Commission. The executive arm of the State is responsible for running the affairs of the state and the popularly elected governments are entitled to govern the country as per their mandate. All other state institutions are under obligation to respect its mandate and allow it a free hand in dealing with issues of executive nature, of course, within the ambit of law and the constitution.

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

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

Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

Editor’s mail

An issue of mindset The simultaneous attacks on two churches in Lahore this Sunday were devastating resulting in loss of precious lives while injuring many worshippers. This is not the first time Christian community has been targeted in Punjab; in earlier attacks entire localities were looted and burned to ashes. Soon after the Sunday bombing, angry mob went on rampage to protest government’s reluctance to rein in the terrorist outfits in Punjab. Two suspects were nabbed, beaten to death and burned at site. Mob reaction is deplorable, must be condemned and those involved in this heinous crime shall be punished.

But I was really shocked to see the venomous hatred emitted by a religious party’s daily Urdu newspaper in Karachi. It ignored the bombing of churches as a secondary news item and made the lynching of two suspects by mob as banner headline on front page reading — “Angry Christians burned Muslims to death”. The purpose was to incite violence against Christians in Karachi and elsewhere in the country. Is this journalism? It exposes the real agenda of religious parties — rid the country of all those who don’t share your views or faith.

But what happened to Ch Nisar is equally questionable. While speaking in National Assembly, the federal interior minister was not much worried about church bombing, terming this not unusual as mosques and shrines have also been bombed; his focus was on lynching that has tarnished Pakistan’s image. Then he updated scoreboard by telling assembly members how many Christians or Muslims died during the incident. Why was there a breakdown given on religious basis?

Telling someone to balance the score? All those who died were Pakistanis, doesn’t matter which religion or sect they belong to. I doubt anyone will take Ch Nisar seriously who is even unable to arrest Lal Masjid cleric after registration of two FIRs. Instead he lied to world press that the cleric has submitted a written apology, a claim which was vehemently denied by Lal Masjid.

Dear interior minister, we know with a fixed mindset you can’t deliver. For you Lal Masjid cleric is untouchable, dead bodies are

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

of the OGRA Chairman to purchase and distribute petrol in the country.

The argument on the face of it seems quite valid. He was not responsible for the purchase of the petrol and its distribution but it was his legal obligation as a head of the regulatory authority to see that the organisations responsible for purchasing and maintaining mandatory stocks were fulfilling their obligations amicably.

The legal circles are of the considered opinion that this decision of the IHC is not in line with the relevant legal provisions and is tantamount to undermining the powers of the executive to run the state institutions in a prescribed manner and hold the officials accountable for their acts of omission and commission. The courts as custodians of the constitution and laws are supposed to set emulating examples for others by abiding the laws and acts enacted by the Parliament. The reinstatement of the OGRA Chairman in complete disregard to legal provision by the court, though, is binding on the parties whether they like it or not but there is no doubt that the decision would surely undermine the inquiry proceedings against him, defeating the spirit of justice.

The fact that the action of the government had the backing of the SC decision on a similar issue which other courts are bound to follow and respect, the IHC decision has not only vitiated the spirit of the SC decision but has also undermined the principle of trichotomy of powers enshrined in the Constitution by trespassing into the domain of the executive. The judiciary has invariably been emphasising the need for good governance during the hearing of cases of public interest. The good governance is possible only when the

I

Muslims or Christians. you are no different from the yellow journalists who are mouth organs for religious parties.

MASOOD KHAN Jubail, Saudi Arabia

Peshawar commercial area Peshawar, one of the oldest city of the region, was moved to its current location by the Mughals from its previous location, Charsadda, many years ago to help the city expand and grow. But after so many years once again Peshawar is stuck due to bad planning.

The city is suffering from a severe shortage of commercial land. Schools, offices, shops, restaurants, hospitals, tuition centres, hostels, guesthouses and countless other commercial businesses have opened up in residential areas across Peshawar.

These commercial entities cause revenue loss to the government in the form of missing taxes and damage to infrastructure. While at the same time these business create security problems and headaches for residents living near the business.

For example, a tuition and teaching centre has opened their business in front of my home in the residential area of University Town.

The business is using electricity, gas and water as residential connection. Their heavy usage had created problems in the electricity supply (low voltage) while it also destroyed our street.

Similarly the students and parents that are picked and dropped from the business create problems for local residents by blocking the road, or creating too much noise and even destroying our private property. even the people working or studying in these commercial offices face problems with limited facilities, difficulty in travelling to the location and complaints from local residents.

The business owners face constant harassment from police and local body representatives.

Therefore the PTI is kindly requested to created special commercial areas through rezoning or new development that can cater to

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

CMYK

I

all the requirements of road connection, car park, security, commercial utility supply etc for the commercial businesses. This will help free up the residential areas and also reduce security risk. It will also greatly improve provincial government revenue.

ENGR SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER Peshawar

PPP’s failings From an ideological party founded by men like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Mubashar Hassan and the likes of Rasool Bakhsh Talpur, to its present status of a party with one objective of grabbing power and driven by insatiable greed of leaders like Faryal Talpur and members of Zardari clan, it is quite a comedown. What really is disturbing is the silence of men like Raza Rabbani, who were considered to be committed ideological socialists. The unfortunate fact is that when PPP lead by AZ became partners with known land grabbers and state corporations like PSM, PIA etc were being driven to bankruptcy through planned corruption and jobs were sold to highest bidders, the likes of Manzoor Ch, Raza Rabbani etc chose to be silent spectators. This country and its economy were driven to red by rampant institutionalised corruption in Rental Power Projects and even organisations like eOBI formed for welfare of elderly labourers were vandalised.

There is no Right or Left, nor Liberals in the parties that are represented in the Parliament. It’s all about power politics, with motto that morals and ethics have no role to play. How else can you explain all these so called Liberals and Leftists voting for JUI-F candidate in Senate elections for Deputy Chairman when that party has always opposed military operation against terrorists and has never shied from its contacts with TTP? The PPP has exploited Sindh card whenever it suits their leadership, but has no qualms in being partners with a party which maintains a militant militia that is involved in heinous crimes and killing of thousands including poor Sindhis.

ANEELA CHANDIO Sukkur

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

I

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

WORLD VIEW 09

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

Salman Should take new path on Iran

FInancIaL tImEs

S

ahmeD rashiD

AUDI Arabia’s new leader King Salman bin Abdulaziz is rapidly re-energising his country’s stagnant foreign policy with the aim of making the

kingdom once again the centre of decision-making in the Islamic world.

The only problem is that he may be heading in the wrong direction — that is, the same direction as his predecessors — if he is obsessed with trying to build a Sunni alliance of countries against Shia Iran. Instead, he should be making peace with Iran so the two countries can jointly tackle the far more threatening Sunni extremist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis).

Nearly a dozen Arab and other Muslim heads of state have visited Riyadh to confer with King Salman since he acceded to the throne in January at the age of 80 after the death of the 90-year-old King Abdullah. Considered to be more dynamic than his predecessors, the new king has been greeted with hope by both Saudis and their neighbours.

The visitors have included the leaders of Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey — a list that shows how even the somnolent kingdom is still powerful and influential.

With Isis controlling a third of Iraq and a third of Syria, wars raging across the region, floods of refugees and the emergence of Libya and Yemen as two new failed states, the Saudis are up to their necks in problems that need to be addressed.

The Arabs need to work with the Iranians in Iraq to defeat Isis, no matter how resistant they may be to doing so. Both want Isis defeated and Iraq stable. However, at a news conference this month the Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal accused Iran of “taking over’’ Iraq, after Iranian generals helped in the Iraqi army’s attack on Tikrit as it tried to seize the city back from Isis.

The Saudis are in a position to unite Muslim states against Isis and build an Arab alliance that could eventually take over the leadership reins from the US-led coalition against the extremist group.

Muslim leadership is desperately needed to deal with a problem that comes from within the Islamic world. Isis is determined to eliminate not just Shias and members of all ethnic and religious mi-

INDIA: BUILDING A SPHERE OF INFLUENCE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN? Lowy IntErprEtEr DaViD Brewster

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just completed a groundbreaking tour of the Indian Ocean, aiming to consolidate India’s leading role among the island states and counter China’s growing presence in the region.

Modi is now breaking some long-standing taboos in Indian foreign policy. Enhanced security cooperation was very much at the forefront of Modi’s visits last week to Seychelles and Mauritius. India has long acted as a security provider to these islands, including fending off feared coups on several occasions. The relationship is bolstered by their large Indian ethnic populations (some 70% of Mauritians are of Indian origin and there is a substantial Indian community in Seychelles). For decades, India has been the major contributor of military equipment and training to both countries.

The head of Mauritius’ navy and the Mauritian national security advisor are Indian officers, while the Seychelles maritime security advisor is also an Indian naval officer. Modi used last week’s visits to promise additional Indian surveillance aircraft to Seychelles as well as handing over an Indian-built patrol vessel to Mauritius.

Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka – the first Indian prime ministerial visit for almost 30 years – focused on rebuilding the political links between the two countries that have often been frayed and irritated by the Tamil issue. Modi pledged India’s commitment to the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka, but also pressed Colombo to implement its promises of devolving power to the Tamil community. In doing so, Modi managed to avoid the antagonism that has previously surrounded the issue, raising hopes that India might play a constructive role in helping to facilitate lasting national reconciliation. But Modi’s visit to the region also had considerable strategic significance.

India is now in the process of building a maritime security grouping among the Indian Ocean island states as part of its aspirations to be a “net security provider” to the region.

For several years, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have been parties to a trilateral arrangement involving training and capacity building of maritime forces, regular joint exer-

cises and meetings of national security advisors. Last year, Delhi proposed that this arrangement should be expanded to include Mauritius and Seychelles, and potentially even other states.

The proposal was blocked by Sri Lanka’s former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was concerned about the dilution of India’s contributions to Sri Lanka (particularly in defence training). Rajapaksa was also unhappy with Mauritius, which had boycotted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo in November 2013.

This policy may have now changed under Sri Lanka’s new President, Maithripala Sirisena, who has pledged to “correct” Sri Lanka’s perceived tilt towards Beijing.

An expansion of the trilateral maritime security arrangement to include Mauritius and Seychelles is now on the cards.

The initial focus of the “IO-5” will be on capacity building, training and information sharing, and perhaps joint exercises.

Delhi is also focused on building a cooperative system of “maritime domain awareness” for tracking and identifying ships and aircraft throughout the western and central Indian Ocean.

Delhi has already installed coastal radar systems in the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius, which all feed information back through the Indian Navy’s National Command Control Communication Intelligence network.

India also plans to build military facilities on the islands.

Modi’s visit to Mauritius included an announcement that India will upgrade airfield and port facilities at North Agalega Island, located some 1000km northeast of Madagascar, for use by the Indian military. This has long been discussed, but never acted upon. Using Agalega as a staging point will substantially help India’s maritime reconnaissance efforts throughout the western Indian Ocean.

Just as interesting is India’s agreement with Seychelles to develop ‘infrastructure’ on the uninhabited Assumption Island near the northern end of the Mozambique Channel. Along with the Suez Canal, the Channel is the main route for shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Control over this and other so-called Indian Ocean ‘choke points’ has long been a key objective of the Indian Navy. The deals giving the

Indian military access to these facilities will represent a major departure from Indian policy that has long derided ‘foreign military bases’ in the region. (Interestingly in the 1960s the US also planned to build a base on an island near Assumption before it settled on Diego Garcia.)

The immediate explanation for these moves is India’s growing strategic competition with China.

Delhi is seeking to pre-empt China’s perceived attempts to build its own strategic relationships in the region. China has longstanding security relationships with Pakistan and several other Indian Ocean countries.

Some highly unusual port visits by a Chinese submarine to Colombo last year prompted significant concerns in Delhi that Sri Lanka may be moving to align itself with Beijing and provide access to the Chinese military. In recent months there have also been curious reports emanating from Namibia that the Chinese navy may have sought access arrangements to a port being upgraded by China at Walvis Bay. Denials by the Namibian Government were not entirely convincing. Whether true or not, such arrangements would be extremely valuable to China in helping to secure its huge energy imports from West Africa.

As nascent and aspirational as India’s initiatives in the Indian Ocean may be, they represent important steps in giving substance to its claims to be a “net security provider” to the region. A grouping with the island states may represent the beginnings of a new multilateral alignment in the Indian Ocean, with India at the centre. For India it would represent an important psychological step beyond its traditional adherence to nonalignment, which could have much broader implications.

India’s moves also reflect an instinctive view among many in Delhi that if the Indian Ocean is not actually India’s Ocean, then in an ideal world it ought to be.

Dr David Brewster is with the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, where he specialises in South Asian and Indian Ocean strategic affairs.

He is also a Senior Maritime Security Fellow at the Indian Council on Global Relations, Mumbai, and a Fellow with the Australia India Institute.

norities, but even Sunnis who do not abide by their interpretation of Islam.

Yet by refusing to work with Iran, Saudi Arabia is widening the Sunni-Shia divide that could prove destabilising for all the Gulf states and provide Isis with inroads.

Isis is an equal threat to all Arab states and Iran. The Saudis must put away centuries of prejudice and make up with Iran, which has attempted to improve relations with the Arab Gulf countries. It is time the Saudis paid a visit to Iran.

Equally pressing for the Saudis is the crisis in Yemen as the country plunges into sectarianism and political and economic collapse. The ousting of the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the takeover of the capital Sanaa by the rebel Houthis and the marginalisation of other ethnic and tribal groups mean joint Saudi and Iranian mediation and conflict resolution are necessary.

Instead, the two countries are supporting rival factions in Yemen and creating a new arena of conflict. The Saudis accuse Iran of supporting the Houthis,

who follow a branch of Shia Islam. The Houthis accuse the Saudis of trying to divide the country by backing Salafi and militant Sunni groups.

A former minister from the previous Yemeni government who is now in exile, bewailed to me in a private email the lack of a western response to the crisis. He told me the west’s main concern in Yemen was terrorism, so it ignored the developing political crisis.

Saudi Arabia should be looking at the wider instability lapping at its borders and sacrifice parochial fights with Iran to mediate an end to the civil war in Yemen and put pressure on the tribal factions in Libya to do the same. That could pave the way for building a larger alliance jointly to help Iraq and Syria. King Salman must re-energise Saudi foreign policy, but it must be towards healing old wounds and not creating new ones.

Ahmed Rashid is the best-selling author of several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, most recently Pakistan on the Brink.

Talking to the generals

IndIan ExprEss ViVek katju

India called off former Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh’s visit to Islamabad last August as it was no longer willing for Pakistan to project the Hurriyat as a “party” in the bilateral dialogue. The implication: Pakistan should not consult Hurriyat leaders before bilateral engagements or brief them afterwards. Pakistani officials did not meet Hurriyat leaders before Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad earlier this month. However, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit called on Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Delhi a few days after Jaishankar’s trip and apparently briefed him on the discussions in Islamabad. It is obvious that Basit wanted to project the impression that his country’s approach to the Hurriyat had not changed.

Previous Indian governments had adopted a laissez faire attitude to Pakistan’s continuing Hurriyat provocation, which was against all international conventions on official inter-state interaction — states do not publicly engage with separatists before a dialogue. Besides, the Simla Agreement mandates that all India-Pakistan issues be resolved bilaterally. There is simply no place for a reference to the “will of the Kashmiri people”. It is to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s credit that he stood up against this. But now that Pakistan has crossed the red line again, what will he do? If this provocation is allowed to pass, Pakistani generals, who actually control the country’s India policy, will get the impression that Modi is a paper tiger, no different from the UPA leadership. On the other hand, if he adopts a firm position, he puts at risk the process begun with Jaishankar’s trip to Pakistan.

After the cancellation of Sujatha Singh’s visit, Pakistan had said that since India had called off

the talks, it was for New Delhi to take steps to resume them. Modi called up Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in February to inform him of Jaishankar’s Saarcyatra. Pakistan naturally considered this as vindication of its stand — though it was careful not to rub it in. At the same time, through the visit of its army chief, General Raheel Sharif, to the border areas on the eve of Jaishankar’s trip, it sought to project that it would stand up to any Indian action along the International Border and the Line of Control. Raheel Sharif said, “let there be no doubt that any provocation along the LoC and the Working Boundary will meet a befitting response”.

On his trip, Jaishankar met the diplomatic and political leadership of Pakistan, including Nawaz Sharif. The Pakistani media emphasised that the two countries should continue their engagement.

This is in keeping with Pakistan’s position on the need for uninterrupted dialogue even if there are grave cross-border terrorist incidents in India. In view of the realities of Pakistan, should visiting Indian foreign secretaries take the initiative to seek a meeting with the Pakistan army chief? This would obviously be a departure from the present practice. It is also possible that the Pakistani political class may interpret this as Delhi’s lack of confidence in it. However, after it acquiesced to Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani visiting General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, it cannot credibly deny such a request. The Pakistan army chief may be unwilling to meet, but that should not stop India from trying. The fact is that a way has to be found to make the Pakistan army an interlocutor in order to better assess Pakistani approaches and attitudes. The atmospherics of the visit were good.

Pakistani spokespersons avoided abrasive comments — though they reiterated Pakistan’s position

on various issues. Predictably, they stressed on the centrality of the Jammu and Kashmir issue and the need to resolve it as well as other outstanding problems, such as Siachen and Sir Creek. They also raised the question of Indian interference in Balochistan. What was new — and significant — was that they formally raised the issue of Indian involvement in the troubled tribal region of FATA, where the Pakistan army is locked in a struggle with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Pakistani leaders have publicly made such claims for a while, but this is the first time that it was put on the table. Pakistan’s national security advisor, Sartaj Aziz, said that no breakthrough was achieved during the visit. Clearly, Pakistan wants to resume the composite dialogue without any modifications. Jaishankar did not give any indication of whether this would happen.

Modi will now have to decide if the dialogue is to be resumed and if so, what its structure would be.

The present indication is that, despite the risks, he does not want to shut the door on the process of engagement and talks. Pakistan has never given importance to the establishment of cooperative relations with India. It is unlikely to change this approach. Although its economy will gain immensely, it is refusing to move effectively on trade liberalisation. It has remained focused on divisive issues and has a special interest in the withdrawal of Indian forces from Siachen. But no Indian government will accept Indian soldiers leaving their positions in the region, particularly with the Chinese active in Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir.

It is, therefore, necessary to drop Siachen from the dialogue process altogether and restructure it with greater emphasis on issues that are directly relevant to the lives of the two peoples.

The writer is a retired diplomat.

10 BUSINESS

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

KSE fallS by ovEr 800 pointS on forEign SElling rEportS KARACHI

r

STAFF REPORT

EPORTS of a big foreign fund selling its Pakistan holdings took a heavy toll on the stock market on Wednesday, with the benchmark index recording the biggest single-day drop in six months.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-100 Index declined 2.5%, or 817.28 points, to close at 31,524.98 points.

A broker said panic selling on Wednesday was in response to the massive offloading of shares on the Karachi bourse by an American hedge fund in recent weeks. “Miami-based American hedge fund, Everest Capital, has resorted to heavy selling. I suspect its net sales amount to up to $70 million in the last month or so,” he said while requesting anonymity.

Net outflows of foreign portfolio investment since the beginning of the year have been $108.2 million. Net selling by foreign portfolio investors in February alone amounted to $62 million, which is the largest net

outflow since July 2013.

It means net offloading of shares by Everest Capital should account for more than half of the total outward flows of foreign portfolio investments from the KSE since January 1. The source said Everest Capital had to sell major stakes in the Karachi stock market after its bet on the Swiss franc went wrong, resulting in heavy financial losses for the company.

Most of the hedge funds operated by the Miami-based investment house have already been shut down following the recent appreciation of the Swiss franc against the euro – something Everest Capital had betted

Export sector needs foreign direct investment: Pasha

heavily against.

KSE Managing Director Nadeem Naqvi said foreign funds have been offloading their holdings from emerging and frontier markets in view of the expected monetary policy shift in the United States.

Investors around the world initially expected the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in September. In view of improved employment numbers, however, analysts now expect the interest rates to go up as soon as in June.

“The dollar has gained strength and the outflow of investments from emerging economies is accelerating,” Naqvi said.

In his daily market com-

ptCl signs agreement with nESpaK

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has inked an agreement with NESPAK for deployment of PTCL infrastructure and provisioning of services in NESPAK Housing Society.

The partnership shall enable residents of NESPAK housing society to experience the state-of-the-art telecommunications services of PTCL including Voice Telephony, Broadband Internet, SmartTV as well as EVO Wireless Broadband internet services. PTCL is already providing services in Phase-I of the society. The agreement was signed by Nausherwan Ajmal, PTCL Senior Business Manager, Faisal Town and Amjad A Khan, President NESPAK Housing Society in the presence of Naeem Shahbaz Ul Haq, EVP Central Zone PTCL and Nasir Mehmood Bajwa, PTCL Regional General Manager, Lahore Telecom Regional South along with other senior officials from PTCL and NESPAK. Naeem Shahbaz Ul Haq, Executive Vice President (EVP), Central Zone PTCL while speaking at the occasion said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with NESPAK housing society. PTCL remains committed towards improving lifestyle and empowering people to achieve more through its futuristic and diversified products and services”. PTCL is Pakistan’s largest integrated ICT service provider and is serving the nation since 1947. The Company’s cutting-edge technology and powerful array of telecom services, including Voice Telephony, Fixed/Wireless Broadband, Digital Television, Carrier & Wholesale, Satellite Services and Data Centers serve the connectivity needs of millions of consumers and businesses nationwide. PRESS RELEASE

AGRI CREDIT DISBURSEMENT SURGES TO RS 288.7B, SAYS SBP KARACHI STAFF REPORT

KARACHI: Noted economist Prof Dr Hafeez Ahmed Pasha said that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) must be invested in export sector of Pakistan which would certainly bring the prosperity of growth trend in economy.

He was addressing on the second day of international conference on “Structural Reforms for Inclusive Development” which was organised by Applied Economic Research Center in University of Karachi. Chairing the third session of conference, he referred the example of India where FDI had limited pathway to invest so as to avoid the bad impact on economy. However, the FDI had been invested in every walk of business in Pakistan except export sector which had been causing the vulnerability of economic condition. He simply raised the question to the researcher, “why FDI had never been invested in export sector of Pakistan?” Dr Hafeez Pasha said that China had been contributing 60% investment into Pakistan but the lack of long-term policy would create predicaments for the development of human and economy.

More than dozen economists read their research paper to the conference. While presenting the research paper on “Examining the Relationship between Inequalities in Gender Wage and Economic growth in Pakistan”, Asghar Ali said that economic growth could be effected by the gender wage differential through the cost of production. STAFF REPORT

mentary, Elixir Securities analyst Faisal Bilwani said nervous investors are expected to continue tracking foreigners’ activity while the upcoming monetary policy announcement will likely help support declines.

“We don’t see aggressive local buying until clarity on flows direction… yield plays will sustain sell-offs and are expected to continue to weather the panic in the broader market,” he wrote. The share of Colgate Palmolive gained 4.9% during the day to close at Rs1, 837. The biggest turnover was recorded in Pak Elektron, Fauji Cement, Bank of Punjab and Engro Corp.

Trade volumes clocked up at 208 million shares while the value traded amounted to Rs11.6 billion. Shares of 357 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day, 39 stocks closed higher, 307 declined while the value of 11 stocks remained unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs788.3 million during the session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

CORPORATE CORNER

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Wednesday said that during the first eight months of current fiscal year (Jul-Feb 2015), the banks have disbursed Rs 288.7 billion which is 57.8% of the overall annual target of Rs 500 billion and 32.3% higher than disbursement of Rs 218.3 billion made during the corresponding period last year. The outstanding portfolio of agri loans has increased by Rs 34.2 billion - from Rs 273.4 billion to Rs 307.6 billion at end of February 2015 as compared to same period last year.

Five major banks as a group have disbursed Rs 150.9 billion or 59.8% of its annual target and two specialized banks (ZTBL & PPCBL) also disbursed Rs 51.5 billion or 50.7% of their targets of Rs 101.5 billion.

Fifteen domestic private banks collectively disbursed Rs 64.9 billion or 56.2% against their target of Rs 115.6 billion. Seven microfinance banks have disbursed Rs 18.9 billion or 67% of their annual targets, however; the

four Islamic banks as a group have already surpassed their annual targets by disbursing Rs 2.5 billion against the target of Rs 2.3 billion during the period under review.

Amongst the five major banks, MCB has achieved 76.3% of its annual target, UBL achieved 72.2%, HBL 66.6%, NBP 46.2% while ABL could achieve only 43.1% of its individual annual target. Under the specialised banks category, ZTBL disbursed Rs 46.1 billion or 51.3% against its target of Rs 90.0 billion while PPCBL disbursed Rs 5.4 billion, 46.9 %, against its target of Rs 11.5 billion during the period under review.

Within 15 domestic private banks, Bank of Khyber has achieved 86.9%, Faysal bank achieved 72.3%, Bank Alfalah 53%, Bank Al Habib 48.3%, NIB bank 47.5%, Summit bank 45.4%, Sindh Bank 45%, Silk Bank 43.5 %, Soneri Bank 43%, Bank of Punjab 36.6% while Askari Bank could achieve only 35% of their annual targets during Jul-Feb 2015, however, Standard Chartered Bank has disbursed Rs 3.8 billion against its annual target of Rs 2.5 billion for 2014-15.

NEPRA decides to reduce power tariff by Rs 2.08 per unit ISLAMABAD: The NEPRA has decided to scale down electricity tariff by Rs 2.08 per unit. As per media reports, the NEPRA authority said: “The decision has been taken for reduction in the tariff of electricity. Recommendation has been made for slashing power tariff by Rs 2.08 per unit.” The power distribution companies had requested NEPRA that cost of production of electricity had witnessed fall in the month of January in the wake of fall in the cost of furnace oil. Therefore, tariff of electricity per unit be curtailed by Rs 2.08 for benefiting the consumers. The impact of reduction in power tariff will be passed on to the consumers in the month of January under fuel adjustment surcharge. STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Askari Bank Limited has signed an agreement with Ufone for provision of Upayments services to its account holders.

Jamal Eddine Trache, chief officer Contracts and Procurement Ufone, and Asim Bashir, country head Alternate Delivery Channels Division Askari Bank exchange documents. PR

KARACHI: Satoshi Melcata, Sony Mobile Japan, Talla Aslam, Marketing Head Inovi, and Zeeshan Mayanoor at the launch of SONY’s New Xperia E4 Dual at Amma Tower Karachi on Wednesday. STAFF PHOTO

Major Gainers COMPANY colgate Palmolive service Ind.ltd siemens Pak. Atlas battery habib bank Xd

OPEN 1837.00 840.00 985.00 706.00 185.26

HIGH 1837.00 898.00 985.00 727.00 188.00

LOW 1750.00 840.00 932.00 696.06 184.01

CLOSE CHANGE 1837.00 87.00 898.00 23.00 957.50 7.50 727.00 2.81 187.64 2.39

TURNOVER 2,040 100 80 300 53,400

9850.00 1190.00 950.00 530.00 1102.00

9850.00 1170.40 912.10 508.04 1070.00

9850.00 1171.41 927.71 508.07 1085.11

-457.50 -60.59 -31.92 -26.70 -25.05

20 560 7,750 44,850 14,950

52.84 29.99 10.28 280.75 17.10

50.20 28.70 9.31 267.09 15.82

50.23 29.02 9.60 268.33 15.82

-2.61 -0.94 -0.55 -12.81 -1.00

15,027,500 13,525,000 11,060,000 9,988,300 9,439,500

Major Losers Rafhan maize sPot Exide (PAk) hinopak motor Ferozsons (lab) Xd Indus motor coXd

9850.00 1186.00 950.00 529.50 1102.00

Volume Leaders

FRANcE, GERmANy, ItAly to joIN chINA-lEd INFRAstRuctuRE bANk PARIS AGENCIES

France, Germany and Italy have announced plans to join the Chinese-led development bank — AIIB, drawing concern in Washington which views the institution with scepticism.

The three European countries want “to become founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)”, they said in a statement. The $50 billion (47 billion euro) AIIB has been feted by Beijing as a way of financing regional development, but it is seen as a potential rival to US-based institutions such as the World Bank.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have declined to become founding members — but within a week, Europe’s four biggest economies have signaled plans to join.

London last Thursday announced its ambitions to be the first Western country to join

the bank, in a move to bolster relations with China. At a joint press conference with Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai on Tuesday in Berlin, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said his country along with Italy and France “want to bring our long experience … to help the bank build a solid reputation”.

“We want to make a contribution to the positive development of the Asian economy, in which German companies are actively taking part,” he said. But Europe’s move was met with a warning of caution from the United States. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Washington’s main concern was whether the bank would “adhere to the kind of high standards that the international financial institutions have developed”.

“Will it protect the rights of workers, the environment, will it deal with corruption issues appropriately. “Our point all along has been that anyone joining needs to ask those questions at

the outset and I hope before the final commitments are made anyone who lends their name to this organisation will make sure that the governance is appropriate,” Lew told Congress.

China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the Beijing-headquartered bank in October.

Responding to reports of European interest in the bank, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: “We welcome countries to join the AIIB as prospective founding members.”

“The AIIB is an open and inclusive multilateral investment institution,” the spokesperson said, adding that “participation by countries outside the region will intensify the extensive representativeness of the AIIB.” Twenty-one countries had initially signed the bill, which included: China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Pak Elektron Fauji cement Xd b.o.Punjab Engro corp jah.sidd. co.

52.75 29.99 10.23 280.00 16.80

Interbank Rates usd GbP jPy EuRo

PkR 101.8251 PkR 150.1615 PkR 0.8396 PkR 107.9346

Forex uk Pound sterling Euro us dollar canadian dollar Australian dollar japanese yen saudi Riyal u.A.E dirham china yuan

BUY

SELL

149.75 108.5 102.35 80 77.75 0.849 27.2 27.85 16.15

150 108.75 102.6 80.25 78 0.865 27.45 28.1 16.25

LEISURE 11

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

HaGaR tHE HoRRIblE

aries

taurus

gemini

Pay attention to every single thought today because nearly every hope and dream you visualize has the potential of actually coming true. Although this sounds like wonderful news, it's possible to squander.

Think twice or even three times about what you want to divulge to your friends today because they are diligently listening to every word you say. You may not realize how significant your ideas are now,

Being confined by your job is definitely no fun, since your creativity is soaring to new heights now. Even if you can focus on your work for short periods of time, it's tough staying on a straight and.

cancer

leo

virgo

You may be quite pleased with yourself if you find time to sneak off and daydream today.

You're enchanted with all the messages that you receive from the depths of your subconscious, but it's confusing.

It's nearly impossible to be sure if you're growing closer to someone special or if the entire relationship is a figment of your imagination. Although the dividing line between fact and illusion is blurry.

It seems as if everyone except you is living in a dream world now that rational Mercury dances with surreal Neptune in your 7th House of Others. However, it's crucial to consider your contribution to encouraging.

libra

scorpio

sagittarius

You may not have a very clear selfimage today, especially if you're experiencing any physical symptoms that elude diagnosis.

You might be so hypersensitive now that subtle stresses in a relationship could.

You could be setting yourself up for disappointment today by idealizing romance. It's all too easy to be blinded by your own fantasies with the Moon, Mercury and Neptune brilliantly lighting up your 5th.

You can't help but look at a family situation through rose-colored glasses today, making it tricky to discern the reality of what's going on. It's difficult to separate the current circumstances from similar.

dIlbERt

GaRFIEld

baldo

capricorn

aQuarius

pisces

You can sidestep trouble today by going out of your way to honor all of your commitments.

Although it's not your usual pattern, you might miss an appointment or forget to return a call. Unfortunately

A minor glitch in your personal finances could cause major annoyance today and avoiding the issue only makes it worse.

Fortunately, a simple solution is possible now if you are willing to think outside.

You may choose to spend your day playing in Fantasyland while trickster Mercury hooks up with nebulous Neptune, bending your perceptions out of shape. This may be a mixed blessing, but your logic isn't.

cRosswoRd

sUdoKU

woRd sEaRcH

ACROSS

bRIdGE

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

overtime people rays reach reason resign right safely sect sheep smile sport stamp sunshine swivels tear teas throw total vague will

Today’s soluTions

a scREEcHInG Halt

cHEss white tO PLAY AND MAte iN six MOVes 8

crossword solution

7 6 5 4 3 2

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

chess solution

A

1.Rxh7+! Kxh7 2.Qe7+ Kg6 3.Rg8+ Kf5 4.Rxg5+! Kxg5 5.Qg7+ Kf5 6.Qd7+ *

1

sudoku solution

1 in a difficult situation (2,7,2) 9 sorry (9) 10 fuss (3) 11 old ships once used as prisons (5) 13 encounter (7) 14 fair-haired (6) 15 ultimately (2,4) 18 crush underfoot (7) 20 a question of place? (5) 21 (in poetry) frequently (3) 22 tibetan breed of dog — a salsa hop (anag) (5,4) 24 fraternity (11) DOwn 2 hog (3) 3 surmised (7) 4 notoriety (6) 5 balm (5) 6 lifeless (9) 7 ban (11) 8 plant of the borage family, usually with bright blue flowers (6-2-3) 12 tend (4,5) 16 track by a canal (7) 17 stop acting up! (6) 19 aviator (5) 23 in favour (3)

allow barge bill bloom build charge children coarse crown dodge flower goes hale hardly hurry league mangle meeting merge move nine only

12

Thursday, 19 March 2015

ARTS

Round-the-woRld solaR pilot flies into indian Red tape tangle AHMEDABAD

a

Agencies

pilot who is trying to make history by flying a solar-powered plane around the world launched an angry attack on Indian bureaucracy on Wednesday after a lengthy hold-up in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state. Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss pilot of Solar Impulse 2, said the aircraft’s take-off from Ahmedabad city in the western state of Gujarat was delayed by five days because of tedious paperwork.

The plane landed in Ahmedabad last Tuesday from the Omani capital Muscat after completing an initial sea crossing in its epic bid to become the first plane to fly around the world solely powered by the sun. “The delay is (because of) of administration, papers, stamps,” Piccard told reporters before the plane finally took off from Ahmedabad airport on Wednesday morning. “I’m not here to accuse anybody. I just say that since the last five days we are trying to get all the stamps and every day (they) say tomorrow,” a frustrated Piccard said.

“Since five days we are desperate to get all the stamps and we still have stamps missing.” The single

MORBIDLY OBESE 'NEED FLU VACCINE'

Morbidly obese people should be given the flu vaccine, a body that provides advice to Department of Health has said.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said it had been given evidence from Public Health England showing people who are morbidly obese are at a greater risk of complications and death from flu. A spokesman for the JCVI told the BBC: "JCVI considered a summary of evidence, provided by Public Health England, which indicated that morbidly obese people are at an increased risk of complications and mortality from influenza, relative to healthy individuals, and additional evidence suggesting that such individuals respond well to vaccine. "The committee confirmed its advice that morbid obesity should be considered a risk factor for seasonal influenza vaccination." A spokeswoman for the Department of Health told the BBC the plan for this next winter's flu season is still being developed. People currently entitled to have a free flu jab include pregnant women, those aged 65 or older and those with certain medical conditions such as HIV or chronic heart disease. Agencies

MEDIUM FIRMS TO CREATE MOST JOBS Medium-sized firms will create the most jobs and are more likely to increase pay this year, according to a new study. Half of businesses are looking to increase staffing levels, rising to two-thirds among mid-sized companies , a survey of more than 660 firms by Barclays showed . The report, published ahead of the latest unemployment figures, also revealed that the number of employers planning to cut jobs has fallen from 10% to 5% over the past year. Middle and junior management roles continue to be the most in demand, although there has been an increase in bigger firms seeking senior staff. Kevin Wall, chairman of Barclays Corporate Banking, said: "Skills shortages are most evident amongst the mid-size businesses surveyed, and the increases they are planning in both hiring and wages may be an attempt to address this imbalance.

"This is positive news for employees as firms compete for talent but also, in the longer term, for businesses themselves as they look to ensure they are wellpositioned for future growth opportunities." Agencies

seater had been due to leave on Sunday for a short flight to the Hindu holy city of Varanasi before heading onto neighbouring Myanmar. But the plane could only leave on Wednesday following a series of delays, including a last-minute hitch at the time of scheduled take-off that had originally been blamed on poor weather.

Piccard’s comments risk embarrassing Modi, who has vowed to cut bureaucratic red tape in promised reforms to revive India’s economy after storming to power at general elections last May. Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat before becoming premier, wants to attract more foreign companies who have long complained of encountering bu-

reaucratic nightmares in India. Modi supporters have often touted Gujarat’s business-friendly policies as a model for success which should replicated nationally. ‘stalling progress’: Kiran Mazumadar Shaw, chief of Indian biotechnology company Biocon, on Wednesday took a swipe at Modi’s government following the pilot’s tirade.

“Hope (the prime minister) heard the solar plane’s pilot commenting on bureaucratic delays n cumbersome paperwork...Red tape and petty officialdom are stalling progress,” she wrote on Twitter.

The team behind Solar Impulse 2, which has more than 17,000 solar cells built into its wings, hopes to promote green energy with the circumnavigation attempt. Ridiculed by the aviation industry when it was first unveiled, the venture has since been hailed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. Muscat was the first of 12 planned stops on the plane’s journey around the world from Abu Dhabi, with a total flight time of around 25 days spread over five months.

The sea legs pose the greatest challenge for the Solar Impulse team as any loss of power over the water would leave the pilot no alternative but to bail out and await rescue by boat.

rti shows 34,000 indian children perished in five years: report An RTI response has revealed the shocking record of Delhi government hospitals, which boast of world-class healthcare facilities but have failed to save the lives of their newborn and young patients.

The reply reveals that 12-15 per cent children admitted to the hospitals’ neo-natal and paediatric ICU wards have died in the past five years. In some cases, the death rate has averaged 25 per cent.

The 34,000 casualties in five years were reported from 19 Central and Delhi government hospitals.

The Union government-run Safdarjung Hospital appears to be the worst offender. It has reported 10,396 deaths in the neonatal ICU (NICU; 4,288 casualties) and paediatrics ICU (PICU; 6,108 deaths) wards in five years. Senior health officials attribute the alarming figures to reasons like premature birth, low birth weight, neo-natal infections and birth trauma.

As per the Sample Registration System (SRS), the infant mortality rate in Delhi is 24 per 1,000 births.

Most children in the 1-5 age group died of septicaemia, sepsis, pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases, indicating that hundreds of these children could have been saved had it not been for the medical apathy and poor facilities in the hospitals. Agencies

Longer breastfeeding 'boosts iQ'

Children who are breast-fed for longer go on to become more intelligent, educated and successful adults, a study has found. Researchers analysed breastfeeding data on almost 3,500 babies who were given IQ tests when they reached the age of 30 and provided information on educational attainment and income.

Dr Bernardo Lessa Horta, from the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil, said: "Our study provides the first evidence that prolonged breastfeeding not only increases intelligence until at least the age of 30 years but also has an impact both at an individual and societal level by improving educational attainment and earning

ability. "What is unique about this study is the fact that, in the population we studied, breastfeeding was not more common among highly educated, high-income women, but was evenly distributed by social class."

Participants were divided into five groups based on the length of time they were breastfed as infants. The researchers took account of factors that might influence IQ, such as genetics, birthweight, parental schooling and whether or not the mother smoked during pregnancy.

Breastfeeding generally was found to increase adult intelligence, length of schooling and adult earnings. But the longer a child was breastfed, up to a period of one year, the greater the benefits turned out to be.

Someone who had been breastfed for at least a year gained four more IQ points, on average, at the age of 30 than a person who had been breastfed for less than a month. He or she also had 0.9 more years of schooling and earnings that were higher by a third of the average income. Dr Horta added: "The likely mechanism underlying the beneficial effects of breast milk on intelligence is the presence of long-chain saturated fatty acids (DHAs) found in breast milk, which are essential for brain development. Agencies

'FOR ALLAH' INSCRIPTION FOUND ON VIKING ERA RING

Ancient tales about Viking expeditions to Islamic countries had some elements of truth, according to recent analysis of a ring recovered from a 9th century Swedish grave. Featuring a pink-violet colored stone with an inscription that reads “for Allah” or “to Allah,” the silver ring was found during the 1872-1895 excavations of grave fields at the Viking age trading center of Birka, some 15.5 miles west of Stockholm. It was recovered from a rectangular wooden coffin along with jewelry, brooches and remains of clothes. Although the skeleton was completely decomposed, the objects indicated it was a female burial dating to about 850 A.D. The ring was cataloged at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm as a signet ring consisting of gilded silver set with an amethyst inscribed with the word “Allah” in Arabic Kufic writing. The object attracted the attention of an international team of researchers led by biophysicist Sebastian Wärmländer of Stockholm University. Live science

SAN DIEGO ZOO TURNS OFF PANDA CAM FOR MATING TIME If the San Diego Zoo's panda cam is a daily source of procrastination, we have some bad news for you: Footage may be a little spotty over the next few days because it's mating season. The good news is that the critter cam's coverage will be back to normal shortly. Pandas only have a 48-to-72-hour window each year to make a baby, so time is of the essence for Bai Yun and Gao Gao. Officials at the San Diego Zoo said the panda keepers had been watching for signs that the female adult, Bai Yun, is entering estrus. They had been monitoring her hormone levels and looking out for specific behavioral cues, such as scent-marking and vocalizing. [Animal Sex: 7 Tales of Naughty Acts in the Wild]. Finally, on Tuesday morning (March 10), Bai Yun and Gao Gao were put in the same enclosure for their first breeding attempt since 2012. Live science

WHITE HOUSE WAS SENT ENVELOPE WITH CYANIDE The White House this week was sent a letter that tested positive for cyanide, US media reported Tuesday, in yet another piece of bad news for the Secret Service. "On Monday 3/16/15, an envelope was received at the White House Mail Screening Facility. Initial Biological testing was negative; however, on 03/17/15, the chemical testing returned a presumptive positive for cyanide," Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said in a statement on CNN. "The sample was transported to another facility to confirm the results." Because an investigation is under way, the Secret Service had no additional comment, Leary was quoted as saying. There were no injuries or exposure concerns for the person at the mail-sorting facility who opened the letter, an unidentified law enforcement official told CNN. Agencies

are WearabLe drones buzzing on the horizon?

AUSTIN, Texas — Sometime in the near future, drones may be wearable and may even become our buddies — at least if one futurist has any say in the matter.

The wearable tech of the futuremight be able to perform many more functions than current technology can, from acting as a scout and tour guide in an unfamiliar city to being a rock-climbing companion, one expert said here at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival.

That future isn't so far away, said Adam Pruden, an interaction designer and tech futurist at design firm frog.

"Drones are starting to behave like smartphones — and they're also enter-

ing this era of post-smartphone capabilities," Pruden said. "One day, drones may become an everyday household device."

Wearable products: Drone technology is advancing rapidly, and these flying bots are already being used for a growing set of functions, from making agriculture more efficient to capturing dramatic video footage of a churning lava lake. Increasingly, drones are also being seen as a key way to deliver supplies to hard-to-reach areas during humanitarian crises. And as drones get smarter, their capabilities have begun to mirror those of smartphones, Pruden said. Live science

CMYK

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

ARTS

Father says Family not being given access to ayyan RAWALPINDI

P

STAFF REPORT

akistani supermodel ayyan ali’s father, Raja Hafeez on Wednesday claimed that the family has not yet been permitted to meet her. Malik Mushtaq, superintendent at adiala Jail, confirmed Hafeez’s statement, saying that the Customs team investigating ayyan is not allowing her to meet anyone until they are able to secure a statement from her.

although ayyan is a category B ‘ViP’ inmate at adiala jail, she is being denied the privilege of meeting her family. ViP detainees at adiala are allowed to meet their relatives and lawyers. the superintendent claimed the model is being treated like a regular detainee ─ following a ‘normal’ routine and eating the same food ─ but sources say she is being given special treatment and provided with food from outside the jail. this report comes amid concerns that the model has been issuing contradictory statements to investiga-

nandita das brings cinePlay ‘between the lines’ to lahore tion agencies, which has resulted in the summoning of her travel history and phone records. However, the mobile phones recovered from ayyan were blocked after she was taken into custody and her phone data and records have been inaccessible so far. the property agent she sold her property to khalid Malik through is also being tracked down for investigation, while the bank she withdrew the laundered money from will also be investigated. the Customs investigation and Prosecution Branch headed by inspector saleem is expected to send a three-member team to adiala jail to question the super-

model and record her statements. the Chief Collector north will send a two page report to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). the briefing will contain details about her trips abroad, the money recovered from her and her conduct.

Despite earning over $1,000,000 from the sales of her previous album, the supermodel has not filed a single tax return or paid tax to the government of Pakistan, authorities said. it is likely that she will be prosecuted for tax evasion. Raja Hafeez, ayyan’s father is said to have submitted a petition to Customs officials asking for permission to meet his daughter.

Justin Bibis’ mark their debut in World Cup anthem LAHORE

When the cricket World Cup started last month, little did anyone know that a Delhi boy would become famous not for his cricketing skills, but his acting skills. Meet Vishal Malhotra, who is now famous for playing the Pakistani supporter in an ad that shows him hoping for “his country” to beat india in the World Cup so that he can finally burst the crackers he’s had since 1992. the ad campaign, #Mauka, has been a hit across social media platforms. the Delhibased actor, who started his ad-film career alongside shah Rukh khan in a vest ad, cannot believe that he has become this famous. “no, i never thought it would be this big. i wasn’t aware of the second ad. they called me after the first one had gone viral,” says Vishal, adding, “and now, everywhere i go, people want to shake hands and click selfies with me. they see me, and shout, ‘arre yeh toh woh mauka mauka wala hai’. One day, when we were shooting in Mumbai, i posed for almost 80 selfies in one day! that’s wheni realised i am famous.” a selfconfessed fan of actors shah Rukh khan and salman khan, Vishal hopes to work in Bollywood one day. COURTESY HT

Taylor Swift laughs off rumour, denies getting leg insured for $40m ‘Blank space’ hit maker taylor swift has laughed off rumours that she is getting her legs insured for $40 million. Her pet cat gave her a red scratch on one of her legs and she posted a photograph of it on instagram, reports aceshowbiz.com. she captioned the image: “Great work Meredith.” “i was just trying to love you and now you owe me 40 million dollars,” she added. swift will soon kick off her world tour to promote her latest album “1989”. NEWS DESK

Justin Bibi’s have gone viral ever since their rendition of Justin Beiber’s song ‘Baby’, however, they made their debut in the World Cup song which is now being aired on all local channels. Becoming stars in a short span of time, the Bibi’s have sung a version of this year’s anthem for Coke inspired by Matt slogett and kasey Carlone’s famed 1992 hit ‘Who Rules the World’. in fact, the new video’s director, adnan Malik, says: “When i first saw the video of the girls on Facebook, i knew instantly that i wanted to find them.” since the girls barely speak English, they learnt the

LAHORE: Das was in Lahore for a screening of her cineplay Between the Lines on tuesday. the cineplay was screened for a select audience at the OLO Junction, and before that she had a chat with media at a press meet. Dressed in a bright red and orange khaddar kurta pyjama and speaking fluent Urdu, Das exuded affability and creativity — but she was also very modest. Recalling the year 2012, when she was heading a film society for children and also working as a columnist, she stated that it dawned on her that working women juggle too many responsibilities. “i decided to write a play on the many roles that a woman plays at one time; it’s all about multitasking,” explained Das. What makes Das stand tall amongst her contemporaries is her sheer commitment to advocacy for social service. Das remains unfazed when people mostly refer to her as an outspoken activist: “art cannot bring a revolution but it enters into our minds softly and steadily and changes our perceptions.” Das also talked about future projects, saying: “i’m currently working on a project based on Manto which will definitely bring the countries [india and Pakistan] together.” STAFF REPORT

mekaal hasan says govt lacks interest in spreading Pak culture

STAFF REPORT

meet vishal malhotra, the Pakistani cricket fan in mauka mauka ad

13

lyrics by sounding out the words and transcribing them into Urdu. Growing up in a very poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Lahore, their newfound fame has been lifechanging. they were picked up by local tV channels and were invited to perform live. the girls, who were taken out of school because they

were too poor, say they now hope to meet Justin Bieber. they have already appeared on local television to perform live.

“We really didn’t expect all of this to happen to us, to be famous like this. Because of this video we got on a plane for the first time and we’ve been on tV. that’s always been our dream,” the sisters added.

Legal troubles for Farhan Akhtar according to a Mumbai Mirror report, filmmaker abhishek kapoor, who wrote and directed Rock On!!, has moved the Bombay High Court against the movie’s sequel, Rock On 2, being produced by Farhan akhtar and Ritesh sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment. He claims that he hasn’t been credited for the story, the report stated. in a suit that will come up for hearing today (March 18, 2015), kapoor has sought an injunction against Excel Entertainment from producing the movie, or entering into any third-party agreements related to it. He has also sought that whatever agreements are

already in place should be disclosed before the court, stated the report. Further to the report, kapoor said that screenplay writer Pubali Chaudhuri avoided meeting him and stopped taking his calls. His attempts to resolve the issues with the production house had failed. On February 11, 2014, he applied to the Film Writers’ association to register the script of Rock On 2 in his name and the association ruled in his favour, the report further stated. NEWS DESK

LAHORE: Longtime musician Mekaal Hasan is set to perform at the south by southwest (sXsW) 2015 music festival in austin, texas on thursday (today).

His eponymous band, the Mekaal Hasan band, is one of the acts part of the Pakistani showcase at this year’s festival, joining the likes of Haroon, thar’s Mai Dhai, Peshawar’s khumariyaan, sialkot’s sain tanveer Brothers and Poor Rich Boy (PRB). “the Pakistani government provides no funds for supporting performing arts. the reason we are playing at sXsW is because the Us state Department is supporting the funding and has created a grant to allow Pakistani musicians to interact with a major Us festival,” he claimed.

Mekaal further added that it was a matter of deep concern that the country’s own government does nothing to spread Pakistani culture and americans are the ones who are more concerned about bringing Pakistani art out to their country. STAFF REPORT

Virat Kohli confesses his love for Anushka Sharma publicly indian cricket team’s vice-captain Virat kohli made his affection for girlfriend anushka sharma known to all by posting a tweet recently. the cricketer who is all set to play the quarterfinal against Bangladesh in the ongoing iCC World Cup 2015, had a chance to watch anushka’s thriller nH10 which released on March 13, 2015. Virat took to micro-blogging site twitter to post, “Just watched #nH10 and i am blown away. What a brilliant film and specially an outstanding performance by my love @anushkasharma. sO PROUD:)” after Virat kohli praised his lady love on twitter for her performance in nH10, anushka sharma has too replied to her beau via same medium. nH10 is getting praises from all

corners. From critics to movie goers, everyone has appreciated the film and anushka’s performance in the film. But the biggest appreciation that made her day was by beau Virat kohli. not only did the cricketer praise the film and her performance but he also declared anushka as his ‘love’ on twitter. the tweet by Virat has got 10k retweets and 16k favourites. Yes, you read the numbers right. not only this, anushka’s simple thakyou reply too has garnered 1.8k retweets and 3.7k favourites. amid the air kisses blown from the cricketing field to the paparazzi shots of the couple hanging out together, anushka sharma and Virat kohli had recently spoken about their relationship. NEWS DESK

CMYK

14 SPORTS

HOCKENHEIM BOSS RULES OUT GERMAN GP THIS YEAR There will be no German Grand Prix this year, Hockenheim circuit boss Georg Seiler said on Tuesday in a decision that ended months of uncertainty over the country’s Formula One race. The absence of Germany, home of reigning world champions Mercedes, for the first time since 1960 leaves the calendar with 19 races. “We have no hope any more of having a Formula One race here (this year),” Seiler told Bild newspaper. “We did everything in the last few years to keep the fans happy.” Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone had kept the door ajar but Seiler said time had run out because “quality would now suffer” if they went ahead with the 10th round of the championship. “We had declared ourselves willing to step in for Nuerburgring, something we were contractually not obliged to do,” he said. SPORTS DESK

Playing for Chelsea was like swimming in wet clothes: Fernando Torres Fernando Torres endured a miserable time at Chelsea before returning to something more like his best form at atletico Madrid.

He told Spanish newspaper El Pais: “The doubts were understandable because people do not see the Premier League or the short time i was at Milan, they read the statistics, and they were not the same as always. “The worst part about not playing is when you think that you are ready to do it. You try to get more minutes, taking the chances, but you you end up in a situation where things have not gone well for weeks, or for years.

Torres was widely mocked throughout his career at Chelsea, as his replacement at Liverpool, Luis Suarez, became one of the best strikers in Europe. Torres has no overcome the doubts that plagued him in his time at Stamford Bridge. SPORTS DESK

Bhutan continue on the road to the World Cup Bhutan beat Sri Lanka in their second-leg match 2-1, to qualify for the second round of World Cup qualifying. The Himalayan kingdom ranked rock bottom in world soccer spirited another improbable win on Tuesday as Bhutan reached the second round of World Cup qualifying. Lying 209th in FiFa’s rankings, Bhutan proved last week’s 1-0 win over Sri Lanka in Colombo was no fluke with a 2-1 victory in the return leg in capital Thimpu. The tiny nation had allowed workers to leave early to catch the game, and the Changlimithang Stadium was packed to witness the heroics.

Chencho Gyeltshen set the hosts on their improbable path in the fifth minute and fired in the second at the death to ensure only a fifth ever win for his side who were once beaten 20-0 by Kuwait in an asian Cup qualifier in 2000. SPORTS DESK

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

Flavia Pennetta stuns Maria sharaPova at indian Wells

M

SPORTS DESK

aria Sharapova fell victim to Flavia Pennetta, who stunned the second seed 36 6-3 6-2, while Serena Williams also progressed, beating Sloane Stephens. italy’s Pennetta, the defending champion at indian Wells, left the court momentarily after breaking down in tears following her first set loss.

When the 15th seed returned, she seized the momentum, going on to win 10 of the last 13 games to blaze past the twotime champion Sharapova and into the last eight. Sharapova said she was unaware of Pennetta’s emotional outburst and had struggles of her own, the russian finishing with 42 unforced errors and 11 double faults. “Maybe i wasn’t playing my best tennis but i was competitive enough,”

Sharapova said. “i just wasn’t able to step up in the key moments.”

Earlier, top seed Serena Williams overcame a wobbly start to see off a determined Sloane Stephens 6-7(3) 6-2 6-2 and move into the last eight. Williams, playing her third match at indian Wells after deciding to end a 14-year boycott of the event where she had suffered alleged racist abuse, enjoyed plenty of support but struggled early to find her form.

Stephens, who reached the quarter-finals a year ago, looked ready to return to the last eight after breaking Williams twice to open the match but in the end there was no denying the world number one as she extended her winning run to 14 matches. “i don’t feel like i need to come here and win the trophy,” Williams told reporters. “i feel like this is more than i have ever imagined doing. i never imagined even

having an opportunity to come back. “i feel like i have been a champ here, and i’m really happy with every match that i win and every result. For me it’s all icing on the cake.” On another sun-bathed afternoon, Stephens got the contest off to

a bright start by charging 3-0 ahead. But Williams, who has not lost since last year’s WTa Finals in Singapore, quickly got her game in gear, sweeping through the next four games before her opponent could again hold serve.

Atlético Madrid make last eight after shoot-out victory over Bayer Leverkusen

SPORTS DESK atlético Madrid advanced to the last eight of the Champions League – but only after a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over brave Bayer Leverkusen.

Diego Simeone’s side were trailing 1-0 from the first-leg in Germany but a firsthalf strike from Mario Suarez – atlético’s first goal in three matches – levelled the scores. after an excellent showing from the home side in the first period, roger Schmidt’s side took the sting out of atlético’s offense and limited their opportunities in the second-half.

The best opportunity fell to substitute raul Garcia on 69 minutes but he was denied from close range by the impressive Bernd Leno in the visiting goal.

Extra-time was inevitable and the final half hour was played in scrappy fashion with neither side able to create any chances of note.

The shoot-out proved much more interesting with the first two penalties being missed by raul Garcia and Hakan Calhanoglu respectively. Both sides composed themselves and the spot-kicks improved with atlético taking a 3-2 lead, putting the pressure on Bayer’s Stefan Kiessling who needed to score to keep his side in the contest but the substitute smashed his effort over the bar.

KEY MOMENTS 18’ - CHaNCE! a dangerous pass is threaded through to Son who suddenly finds himself behind the atlético defence but his first touch is heavy and the ball runs comfortably to the arms of Moya.

19’ - MOYa iNJUrED! The atlético goalkeeper is holding his hamstring and is badly hobbling. He won’t be able to continue and is replaced by Oblak.

27’ - GOaL! atlético Madrid 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen! The hosts score from the subsequent free-kick! Koke delivered the set-piece deep into the opposition’s penalty area, it was headed out but only as far to Suarez who hammers the ball at goal and the strike takes a deflection before flying into the back of the net!

30’ - CHaNCE! Turan finds Mandzukic through on goal but the forward is challenged by Wendelll in a last-ditch tackle. Wonderful defending.

45’ - CHaNCE! Wendell delivers a pull-back from the byline but a last ditch intervention from Miranda denies Bayer and Oblak collects. That was a great opportunity for the visitors.

69’ - SaVE! a really dangerous cross from Koke picks out Garcia who sees his flick beaten away at the far post by Lena. Great save! atlético are getting closer to a vital second goal.

75’ - CLOSE! Griezmann shows fan-

tastic pace on the flank, picks out arda who opts to flick the ball in search of a team mate rather than shooting and the chance is gone.

115’ - SaVE! atlético go close once more as Garcia’s cross meets the head of Torres but Leno saves comfortably.

PENALTY SHOOTOUT - MISS! Kiessling puts it over! atlético are through to the quarter-finals!

KEY STATS: The game between atlético Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen featured an attempt on target every 20 minutes (6 in 120 mins). atlético Madrid have not conceded a goal in a second half of a UCL home game since September 2013 against Zenit. atlético Madrid have become the first Spanish team to win a shoot-out in Champions League. Cani will start his first game for atlético Madrid and his first in the Champions League since October 2011 TALKING POINT: Lack of goals a real concern for atlético Madrid – Diego Simeone’s side hadn’t scored in three consecutive games prior to this match and had failed to score in their last 205 minutes in the Champions League and the relief was clear to see in the Vicente Calderón when Mario Suarez edged them in front in the firsthalf. atlético’s complacency in goal meant they couldn’t finish off Bayer but they were rewarded for their performance by deservedly winning the penalty shoot-out. However, if the La Liga champions want to go any further in this competition they need to get their strikers firing again.

MAN OF THE MATCH: arda Turan (atlético Madrid): The midfielder worked tirelessly for 120 minutes, winning tackle after tackle in the middle of the pitch.

PLAYER RATINGS: ATLETICO MADRID: Moya 6, Juanfran 6, Gimenez 7, Miranda 7, Jesus Gamez 6, Mario Suarez 7, Koke 7, Cani 6, arda 8, Griezmann 7, Mandzukic 6. Subs: Oblak 7, raul Garcia 7, Torres 6.

MAN CITY’S PELLEGRINI IN CONFIDENT MOOD AHEAD OF BARCA TIE Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini called on his team to deliver in Barcelona as he again asserted confidence in his position. Pellegrini has become noticeably more bullish in recent weeks as pressure and speculation over his future have increased. The Chilean is under considerable scrutiny with his side faltering in their Barclays Premier League title defence and seemingly needing to overturn a deficit in Barcelona to salvage their season.

City go to the Nou Camp on Wednesday for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie trailing 2-1 after defeat to the Catalan giants at the Etihad Stadium three weeks ago. SPORTS DESK

Peter Ebdon knocks Shaun Murphy out in Llandudno Shaun Murphy went out in the opening round of the World Grand Prix as he lost 43 to former world champion Peter Ebdon.

Ebdon, 44, was locked at 3-3 with Murphy after failing to get over the line despite having a chance to seal the match in the sixth frame until he missed on the brown.

But he picked himself up after the disappointment to produce a 136 clearance in the final frame to win 4-3 and earn a last-16 berth in Llandudno. “i don’t honestly know where that break came from in the final frame,” said Ebdon, who faces Stephen Maguire in the second round. “i’m really delighted to win though. i found a little bit of something from somewhere because i would have been so disappointed to have lost. “it meant an awful lot to me to win today because i’m missing a school play performance from two of my children, Tristan and ruby, in Dubai! SPORTS DESK

ARSENAL BOW OUT ON AWAY GOALS DESPITE VALIANT WIN IN MONACO SPORTS DESK arsenal’s valiant attempt to make Champions League history ultimately came up short as a 2-0 victory at the Stade Louis ii wasn’t enough to deny Monaco a place in the last eight, with the French side coming through on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate draw. The Gunners came into the clash knowing they faced the improbable task of becoming the first side since ajax in 1969 to overturn a two-goal deficit after losing the home clash of a European Cup tie.

The 3-1 defeat at the Emirates left much work to be done and saw Olivier Giroud come in for some heavy criticism, but it was the France striker who gave them a glimmer of hope when he crashed a rebound into the roof of the net on 36 minutes.

The Gunners lay siege to the Monaco goal for long spells and eventually pulled level on aggregate deep in the second half when substitute aaron ramsey drilled into the corner after Theo Walcott had hit the post.

KEY MOMENTS 14’ - arSENaL CHaNCE! Hector Bellerin rampages down the right and hangs a cross up towards Giroud who plants a header just wide of the far post.

36’ - GOaL! MONaCO 0-1 arSENaL. Giroud is sent clear. He sees his first shot saved but hammers the rebound into the roof of the net. Game on? (Monaco lead 3-2 on agg).

38’ - SO CLOSE! a left-wing cross drops for Welbeck on the edge of the area. The striker lets fly but sees his goalbound shot hit aymen abdennour and somehow de-

flect wide. it could have gone anywhere.

Let off for the hosts.

65’ - arSENaL CHaNCE! ramsey involved straight away on the right. The cross from Bellerin drops to Ozil on the edge of the box but he flashes his volley wide.

79’ - GOaL! MONaCO 0-2 arSENaL it’s ramsey!!!!!! The Welshman takes advantage of a poor clearance to drill a low shot into the corner after Walcott’s shot came back off the post. Game on!!! (3-3 on aggregate).

84’ - arSENaL CHaNCE! Giroud meets an angled free kick with a stabbed effort from close range but Subasic somehow claws it away! So close!

KEY STATS: Monaco concede at home for the first time in the CL this season. arsenal had 70.75% possession against Monaco, their most dominant CL display since No-

CMYK

vember 2010 versus Braga. The Gunners are unbeaten in their last four CL last-16 second leg matches but have been eliminated each time. Olivier Giroud is the first French player to score against Monaco in the CL since Djibril Cisse in September 2004.

MAN OF THE MATCH.: Santi Cazorla (arsenal). Dictated the play in a dominant arsenal display, finding the passes to release the likes of Welbeck, Sanchez and Giroud who terrorised a mean Monaco backline throughout.

SPORTS Thursday, 19 March, 2015

india Won’t take B’desh lightly a SPORTS DESK

T the start of the World Cup, defending champions india would have accepted gleefully the position they find themselves in - a quarter-final against Bangladesh, the lowest-ranked of the remaining eight teams, a side with medium-pacers and spinners that india’s batsmen have found relatively easy to bully, a team without bigmatch experience, and a team with vulnerabilities outside the subcontinent. ironically, Bangladesh would probably have accepted their position too.

Though india, on current form, are superior in every aspect, their brand of cricket and their frailties are not unfamiliar to Bangladesh. it isn’t South africa, who are going to blow them away with extreme pace and bounce, or with muscular hitting. india’s batsmen are better at what Bangladesh aim for - timing, using the pace of the ball, and wristwork - and india execute better in the field with a similar bowling formation to Bangladesh. There

is no doubt about who the favourites are Bangladesh admitted as much - but it allows them to plan more intuitively.

What could help Bangladesh is india going off the boil, but that hasn’t happened yet in this tournament. in a complete turnaround from their first two months in australia, india have found the aura defending champions ought to bring. Barring one or

two players, everyone has contributed to the resurgence. The quarter-final appears to be their smallest bump on the road ahead, but one uncontrolled approach is all it takes.

FORM GUIDE (laST fivE maTchES, mOST REcEnT fiRST) inDia WWWWW BanglaDESh lWWlW

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Bangladesh’s

fielders struggled with the size of the MCG playing area against Sri Lanka, their first game at the ground. They dropped catches and they grappled with field placements. it was not a surprise that during practice for the quarter-final, fielders were made to charge in from the edge of the boundary to take catches, fire throws and understand the unique dimensions of the venue. Bangladesh’s bowling coach Heath Streak also tested umpire aleem Dar’s catching with three hits. all were taken, drawing applause from the players, who knew it was an important skill to judge catches in the outfield where only rarely is one able to see the ball against a disturbance-free background. One mistake on Thursday and it could mean the end of a dream for a generation of cricketers.

TEAMS NEwS: Mashrafe Mortaza missed Bangladesh’s last group game against New Zealand, but will be back to lead the side.

That would leave arafat Sunny, Taijul islam and Nasir Hossain fighting for the remaining spot. Nasir, who picked up two wickets against New Zealand, could be the favourite

because he would strengthen the batting.

BanglaDESh (PROBaBlE) 1 Tamim iqBal, 2 imRul KayES, 3 SOumya SaRKaR, 4 mahmuDullah, 5 ShaKiB al haSan, 6 muShfiquR Rahim (WK), 7 SaBBiR Rahman, 8 aRafaT Sunny/naSiR hOSSain, 9 maShRafE mORTaza (caPT), 10 RuBEl hOSSain, 11 TaSKin ahmED inDia (PROBaBlE) 1 ShiKhaR DhaWan, 2 ROhiT ShaRma, 3 viRaT KOhli, 4 ajinKya RahanE, 5 SuRESh Raina, 6 mS DhOni (caPT & WK), 7 RavinDRa jaDEja, 8 R aShWin, 9 mOhiT ShaRma, 10 mOhammED Shami, 11 umESh yaDav

PITCH AND CONDITIONS: The pitch for the quarter-final is the same one that was used in the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Group a game. it’s expected to be flat and full of runs. However, teams would keep an eye on the weather as some showers are forecast for Thursday afternoon and evening.

STATS AND TRIvIA: Bangladesh are playing their first knockout match in a top-flight iCC tournament. india, on the other hand, are playing their 10th under MS Dhoni’s captaincy. Dhoni, with eight wins from nine matches (Champions Trophy, World T20 and World Cup) is level with ricky Ponting, whose eight wins have come from 11 games.

‘Challenge has been to evolve’

SPORTS DESK after Mahela Jayawardene’s final match for Sri Lanka ended in a World Cup quarter-final defeat to South africa, he said that he would probably be allowing himself a lie-in. Jayawardene and his great friend Kumar Sangakkara were hoping for a glorious swansong in their final World Cup but neither could pull Sri Lanka out of the fire against an irresistible South africa.

Jayawardene has already called time on his career in Tests and T20 internationals and he said afterwards that he had no regrets about hanging up his blue Sri Lanka shirt for the final time. “i’ll probably wake up a bit late tomorrow for a change,” he said. “i will miss it but that’s reality, you know that the time is right for you to leave and i’ve enjoyed every bit of it, it’s been great playing with all these guys, had some great friendships - no regrets.” a famously feisty competitor, Jayawardene only managed one significant contribution at the World Cup - but that was a match-winning hundred against

afghanistan to get Sri Lanka up and running in the group stage. Having made his international debut in 1997, Jayawardene has played through a period of huge change in the game - including the introduction of T20 and the rise of video analysis - and he said that he relished the challenge of constantly trying to stay ahead.

“The hardest thing is to evolve with everything, everyday it’s something new - teams developing, they always come up with something new, so for you to survive and to keep up with that you need to keep pushing yourself,” he said. “i think that’s the most important thing, be it mentally, physically, or trying to outsmart someone. That’s been the toughest thing. “i think enjoying that with the group of players in the dressing room, that’s the most satisfying thing. Every cricketer loves spending time with his mates and going out playing cricket. The challenge has been to evolve for such a long period. From where i started in 1997, now i’m finished, the cricket has improved drastically.” asked if he thought standards had risen, he said: “Definitely, if you take the bowlers, the variations - i don’t think any of those guys, except for one or two bowlers, had that amount of variations in their armoury. Even the batsmen nowadays play so many different shots, so i think skill-wise the game has evolved. The tactics have changed, field settings have changed, the way people look at the game has changed, more analysing - people know exactly where your strengths and weaknesses are, so i think that has been fantastic.” Sri Lanka had been billed as the knockout specialists who could press South africa’s self-destruct button in Sydney but the nine-wicket margin of victory, with more than 30 overs to spare, told a different story. Jayawardene and Sangakkara had signed off in T20 by leading Sri Lanka to that title last year but there was to be no repeat of the fairytale.

“No, it’s been tough, we’ve had a pretty good campaign so far, but we did pretty much everything wrong today,” Jayawardene said.

‘DOUGLAS’ WI LOOK TO SUCKER PUNCH ‘TYSON’ NZ The World Cup is now in the knockout stage and Darren Sammy chose to pull out a boxing analogy as he built up West indies ahead of their quarter-final against New Zealand, insisting all the pressure was on the home side. Sammy referenced the historic 1990 boxing bout between James ‘Buster’ Douglas and Mike Tyson in Tokyo, where Tyson, the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion, had been a clear favourite only for the unfancied Douglas to prevail via a knockout. “i remember some guy called Douglas beating Mike Tyson and it’s a case of that on Saturday,” Sammy said. “We always believed from the time the tournament started, the first goal was to reach the quarter-finals. after that you’re two games away from a World Cup final. We’ve won two, it’s been a long time, but New Zealand have not won any. “i just watched the guys warm-up today and it’s a different feel. it’s the business end.

You could win all your games then coming into the knockout there’s

no guarantee you’re going to win.

The guys know what’s at stake and we’re going to do everything in our powers to beat Mike Tyson.”

Expectations were low for West indies after they suffered an opening-game defeat to ireland in Nelson before back-to-back wins against Pakistan and Zimbabwe lifted them up the group table. That was followed by resounding defeats against South africa and india, meaning they had to beat UaE while also improving their net runrate. “as you guys put it, we were not supposed to be here,” Sammy said. “Here we are, a knockout game, so the pressure is on the home team. They are the favourites to win, so the question is, what are they going to do when they

play West indies in a knockout.

We’re not too bad in knockout games. We’re just going to enjoy it.

The pressure is not on us.”

The last time the two sides met in a one-day series it ended 2-2 during the 2013-14 season, but Sammy was keen to recall the previous meeting when tournament progression was on the line at the World T20 in 2012. The teams were tied after 20 overs in the Super Eight clash in Pallekele before West indies prevailed in the Super Over when Tim Southee could not defend 16. SPORTS DESK

Steve Waugh called in to help hosts SPORTS DESK as the World Cup’s stakes get higher, so too does the gravitas of australia’s guest speakers on tournaments past. The inimitable figure of Steve Waugh strolled into adelaide Oval on Wednesday wearing australian team training gear for perhaps the first time since his retirement in 2004, having joined the squad for a group dinner on the Tuesday night. at dinner, Waugh imparted knowledge and insight in the sort of understated way that became one of his trademarks as australian captain, often better in one-on-one conversation than booming speeches to large groups. His major message was to help the team come to terms with the pressured nature of what they were about to embark upon by enjoying it.

“Just simple stuff about how great this opportunity is and really to enjoy what’s going on because sometimes you get caught up in these big tournaments and put too much pressure on yourself,” Waugh said. “at the end of the day it’s about why did you first start playing cricket, because you love the game, and nothing’s changed, so don’t forget that when you get out there for the big games. “in 1999 before the World Cup final against Pakistan the last thing we said was why did we start playing cricket. When i looked back to 10 years of age, the last thing i did before i went to bed was think about how many runs i was going to score and wickets i was going to take and first thing i thought about in the morning was same thing, how am i going to go today. That’s why we started playing cricket and just remember a few of those thoughts.” running his eye over australia’s Wednesday training ses-

CMYK

sion, Waugh was taken by its intensity - particularly the aggression of the pace bowlers in firing down yorkers and short balls - but also its tuning to match scenarios that may be relevant against Pakistan on Friday. He also noted how many more staff went with the australian team circa 2015 - in contrast to the old touring days of coach, physio, scorer and manager. “it was take no prisoners with the bowling, there was short stuff there and guys were playing as if they were in a match situation,” he said. “i can only judge on how they went today and it was pretty full-on. “at dinner last night there was more staff than players but they’re there for a reason, everyone seems to get on well and i think that’s the key, you’ve got to respect each other’s position in the team. When there’s a lot of people around there is potential for things to maybe go wrong, but that seems like a pretty happy camp at the moment.”

The Cup’s elongated format requires a team to build its intensity and focus along the way rather than firing too many bullets early and losing momentum later.

Waugh recalled a certain extreme of this approach in 1999, when australia were pushed to the brink of elimination when losing to Pakistan at Headingley, before crushing the same opponents in the final several weeks later.

“We tried to build ourselves up towards the bigger games and really switch on the intensity button and focus on what we were doing,” he said. “We didn’t play well early on, but we played to our peak in that final. That was 18 months in the making. We hoped to play that well when i took over the captaincy and we played our perfect game at the right time. i think we’d have beaten anyone on that day and Pakistan just hap-

pened to be the opposition. “i think australia have built themselves up nicely over the last couple of weeks, they’ve had a lot of time off and it’s been a bit distracting, but you can see now the way they’ve trained today they’re primed and ready for the big games. World Cups are all about getting momentum at the right time in the tournament.” as for pitfalls, Waugh reckoned the major risk for australia was to allow lazy thoughts to creep in as a result of the team’s depth of talent. With a batting line-up stretching down to No. 8 and a pace bowling collective as varied as it is deep, Waugh reckoned the notion of “someone else will do it” needed to be warded away, and was glad to hear that had already been spoken about by the coach Darren Lehmann, among others. “australia can definitely go all the way, they’ve got every base covered,” Waugh said. “Their only danger is they’ve got so much talent, you can sometimes leave it up to the next person, but i know they’ve talked about that and covered that off. That’s the only danger for australia if they just switch off and leave it for someone else to do the job.”

Waugh’s words certainly resonated with aaron Finch, who found a serendipitous link between the attitude fostered over the course of the 1999 tournament and that established by Lehmann and the captain Michael Clarke in 2015. Namely, a lack of fear about losing.

“The beauty of this team is that we don’t fear losing,” Finch said. “Yes it’s knockout but as soon as you’re worried about losing a game you tighten up and you don’t play with your natural flair.

So that’s what a lot of our chats have been about, and Steve was great with his chat last night.

SPORTS

Thursday, 19 March, 2015

PUMPED-UP SOUTH AFRICA END KNOCKOUT HOODOO

Scoreboard Sri Lanka MDkJ Perera c †De kock b abbott 3 tM DiLShan c Du PLeSSiS b Steyn 0 kc Sangakkara c MiLLer b MorkeL 45 hDrL thiriManne c & b iMran tahir 41 JayawarDene c Du PLeSSiS b iMran tahir 4 aD MathewS c Du PLeSSiS b DuMiny 19 nLtc Perera c roSSouw b iMran tahir 0 kMDn kuLaSekara c †De kock b DuMiny 1 Pht kauShaL Lbw b DuMiny 0 PVD chaMeera not out 2 SL MaLinga c MiLLer b iMran tahir 3 extraS (b 4, Lb 2, w 7, nb 2) 15 totaL (aLL out; 37.2 oVerS; 166 MinS) 133 FaLL oF wicketS 1-3 (MDkJ Perera, 1.4 oV), 2-4 (DiLShan, 4.1 oV), 3-69 (thiriManne, 19.1 oV), 4-81 (JayawarDene, 23.1 oV), 5-114 (MathewS, 32.6 oV), 6-115 (nLtc Perera, 33.4 oV), 7-116 (kuLaSekara, 34.1 oV), 8116 (kauShaL, 34.2 oV), 9-127 (Sangakkara, 36.2 oV), 10-133 (MaLinga, 37.2 oV) bowLing Dw Steyn 7-2-18-1, kJ abbott 6-1-27-1, M MorkeL 7-127-1, JP DuMiny 9-1-29-3, iMran tahir 8.2-0-26-4

w

SPORTS DESK

hen South Africa were asked to chase in the big knockout, the mind obviously went to the stats: only one successful chase of 270 or more out of nine in the last four years, and four

South aFrica hM aMLa c kuLaSekara b MaLinga 16 Q De kock not out 78 F Du PLeSSiS not out 21 extraS (Lb 4, w 12, nb 3) 19 totaL (1 wicket; 18 oVerS; 89 MinS) 134 DiD not batrr roSSouw, ab De ViLLierS*, Da MiLLer, JP DuMiny, Dw Steyn, kJ abbott, M MorkeL, iMran tahir FaLL oF wicketS 1-40 (aMLa, 6.4 oV) bowLing SL MaLinga 6-0-43-1, tM DiLShan 2-0-10-0, kMDn kuLaSekara 1-0-13-0, Pht kauShaL 6-0-25-0, PVD chaMeera 2-0-29-0, nLtc Perera 1-0-10-0 Match DetaiLS toSS - Sri Lanka, who choSe to bat SerieS - South aFrica aDVanceD oDi Debut - Pht kauShaL (Sri Lanka) PLayer oF the Match - iMran tahir (South aFrica) uMPireS - nJ LLong (engLanD) anD rJ tucker tV uMPire - ra kettLeborough (engLanD) Match reFeree - Dc boon reSerVe uMPire - bnJ oxenForD

out of 14 chases of 240 or more. The other side of the statistic was that their bowlers had allowed those scores hardly big by current standards - extremely rarely. If they were to win for the first time in a World Cup knockout match, their batsmen would have to do it the difficult way or their bowlers would have to do it. The bowlers did

it, and how: in the shortest World Cup knockout match of all they bowled Sri Lanka - who once again made questionable moves - out for 133 in a show of pumped-up skill, hostility and aggression. Kyle Abbott, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel set it up with probing spells at the top, leaving Sri Lanka at 47 for 2 by the time spin was introduced in the 15th over. Imran Tahir and JP Duminy made sure the pressure wasn’t released, and were there to accept the wickets when the pressure became too much. Duminy became the first South African to take a hat-trick at the World Cup. Playing what turned out to be his last ODI innings, Kumar Sangakkara - who had scored four centuries in his last four innings - was neutralised through excellent bowling and the failure of the rest. His score at various points of the innings read 0 off 15, 2 off 27, 6 off 42, 34 off 90 and out for 45 off 96. He was the ninth man out with the score at 127, only just past the lowest score in a World Cup quarter-final: West Indies’ 112 against Pakistan in 2011. On big days, you are looking for early signs that everything is going to be all right. Sri Lanka tried all sorts of verbal gamesmanship.

When they won the toss, Angelo Mathews said, “Obviously the pressure will take it to them.” He introduced debutant offpsinner Tharindu Kaushal as a “duplicate Murali” and “mystery spinner”. They made mystery moves, too. Kusal Perera was asked to open although Lahiru Thirimanne had scored 261 runs at the top of the order this World Cup. Perera kept slashing at everything outside off until Abbott bowled a perfect seaming delivery, which looked like it would swing in when in air, but left him a touch upon pitching. The edge was taken, and would have died well short of first slip. There are quite a few specialist wicketkeepers going around today who wouldn’t even have attempted it. Quinton de Kock, who is under pressure for having scored just 53 runs this World Cup, not only went for it, not only got his left hand to it, but also took the rebound even as he dived. South Africa’s weakest link had come good.

This was possibly the sign they were looking for. De Kock would go on to double his tournament aggregate in

ensuring there were no hiccups in the chase. Now South Africa were all over Sri Lanka. Another lovely low catch by Faf du Plessis at second slip, and Tillakaratne Dilshan was walking back. Steyn nearly popped a vein while celebrating. South Africa were on for this. The first 13 overs of the match contained everything: two great catches, lovely outswing, some seam, four maidens, Sangakkara’s 5 off 34, Thirimanne’s 29 off 28.

South Africa bowled superbly at Sangakkara. There was no room given, there was some movement around, at the times he managed a cover drive he would find the wide mid-off or extra cover, and looking at the team situation, he was in no position to take a risk. The man so famous for getting under the South Africa captain’s skin reminding him of the expectations in 2003 was now getting bogged down by the expectations that come with being, clearly, the best batsman in the side.

Thirimanne at the other end was rubbing it in for Sri Lanka, who have often been guilty of getting too funky on the big day. The last time Sri Lanka lost a World Cup knockout, in the 2011 final, they made wholesale changes to a successful side. Questions will be asked of this combination too. Batting at No. 4, Thirimanne was not quite the Aravinda de Silva at 1 for 2 in the 1996 World Cup semi-final, but he was connecting everything.

South Africa finally had the luxury of introducing their spinners with the pressure on the opposition, and it showed. Duminy cramped the lefthand batsmen for room, while Tahir attacked a little more. Soon, a legbreak stopped at Thirimanne, and the floodgates opened for good. Mahela Jayawardene’s last innings ended to a familiar nemesis soon after he was almost lbw to a Tahir wrong’un. Jaywardene has often struggled to read Tahir, and pulled a quicker one straight to short midwicket to fall to the legspinner for the fourth time in four ODIs. Coming in at 81 for 4, Mathews had a big job to do. He added 33 with Sangakkara, saw off the middle burst by the quicks, but whipped an innocuous Duminy delivery straight to short midwicket. That was the last ball of the 33rd over. In the 34th, Tahir got Thisara Perera with a legbreak that didn’t turn.

icc world cup 2015 today fixture 2nd Quarter-Final bangLaDeSh V inDia Mar 19, 2015 08:30 PSt MeLbourne cricket grounD MeLbourne

Beating Sa turned it around for uS: youniS Pakistan batsman Younis Khan has said the side’s fighting win against South Africa in Auckland turned their fortunes around and transformed the team into believing they could qualify for the knockouts. Pakistan struggled in the beginning of the tournament and followed the win against South Africa with a sevenwicket victory against Ireland to book a quarter-final berth. “Before that game nobody was thinking about us qualifying for the finals, but after that game we were everywhere,” Younis told ESPNcricinfo in an interview.

“Now everyone knows this is a team that, if they play according to their plans on the day, maybe they will do well. Amazing things can happen and you learn a lot from these situations.” Younis spoke of the mindset going into that match. “There was a chance to play against South Africa and I didn’t make a lot of runs but that 30-odd innings and the partnership with Sarfraz Ahmed was quite nice. Then the way we bowled, we all knew this was the game, we have to perform in this game. After batting we did not have many runs on the board but we knew that with the conditions here if you pitch it in the right areas you may be lucky, get some wickets and suddenly the bowlers were bowling very well that innings and everybody was motivated.

Sometimes things happen like that, in the first over when Irfan got de Kock out, the momentum shifted to us and we grabbed that opportunity.” Younis spoke fondly of his captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, and the composure with which he carries himself. Younis also stated that it is Misbah’s hunger to bat for long periods that rescues the team when they are in trouble. “He is very calm. I think he’s like Steve Waugh,” Younis said.

“When you watched him play he was very quiet but he’s tough. He had a tough body, tough emotions. So Misbah is like Steve Waugh, he’s calm, he’s cool, but inside he’s very strong. I’ve spent a lot of time with him and he’s strong. Sometimes he looks like he’s not strong but inside he’s very strong and he wants to play for his country, his family, himself. SPortS deSK

gayle on medication to relieve pain

SANGAKKARA RUES BEING UNDONE BY SPIN SPORTS DESK Kumar Sangakkara was unhappy with Sri Lanka’s capitulation to South Africa’s spinners in the quarter-final at the SCG. JP Duminy, who picked up a hat-trick, and Imran Tahir, who finished with 4 for 26, ensured the early pressure did not dissipate and helped bowl Sri Lanka out for 133.

Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott had been able to move the ball at pace and unsettle the batsmen, as Sri Lanka reached 47 for 2 in the 15th over when spin was brought on. Only three overs had cost more than five runs until then, and South Africa had bowled four maidens too.

Sangakkara, playing what became his final ODI innings, had attempted to hold his end up in the hopes of attacking later on. But he was the ninth man out for 45 off 96 deliveries as Duminy and Tahir were just as good in strangling the runs and forcing batsmen to make mistakes.

“The most disappointing thing was that we lost seven wickets to spin when South Africa have a pace-dominant attack,” he said, “But that’s the way quarter-finals go and if you’re not good enough you are disappointed at the end. The wicket probably helped because it was a bit two paced at the start, but we should be disappointed with ourselves the way we played because we just weren’t

good enough to get the 250, 260-run score that would have really been difficult to chase on that track.”

“A lot of people around the world who’ve been watching must be as disappointed as we are. We’ve got to put our hands up and say we weren’t good enough on the day, but the boys tried their best and they can be proud” Along with Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene was also retiring from one-day cricket and unlike the last World T20, they were unable to grab a trophy on their way out. “He’ll be terribly disappointed, but that’s part and parcel of the game. You can’t have everything. There are no fairy-tale endings, you want it to be that good, but if it isn’t, it isn’t. No matter how much you want to win a World Cup or you want to end on a high, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen and that doesn’t mean you have to walk away disappointed.”

The Sangakkara-Jayawardene combination has lasted 15 years and the two batsmen have the secondmost prolific partnership in ODIs. A part of their success was down to their chemistry. “When I got into the side, Mahela was two years into playing. I think he was the vice-captain of the side and he was already looked up to. For someone so young, he had a lot of respect in the dressing room. When I walked in, we were the same age. We hung out together, went for dinner together and that’s

how we became fast friends.

“It was great to bat with him because he was always looking to dominate and you could slip under the radar and just coast along. We always knew [how each other plays]. He’d take a back seat and I’d take over sometimes and it’s been an absolute privilege playing with him. Along with Aravinda de Silva, I think Mahela has been an exceptional player for Sri Lanka who’s scored a lot of runs. He’s made a hundred in a lot of victories, and he’s given a lot on and off the field to the country.”

There were the odd occasions when the sparks would fly, Sangakkara said, but there would be some satisfaction in stepping away from the game as well. “It was always friendly, there was never any rivalry between the

two, other than when we played warm-up games. Then, that was highly competitive.

“But also, sometimes there is a bit of relief when your career ends. The high-pressure situations, the warmups, the ice baths, the recovery sessions - all of that, all repeated over 16, 17 years can get a bit much.” Sangakkara will continue to play Tests, most likely until August this year, but said that the team would continue to thrive without him, under Angelo Mathews’ leadership. “I definitely think the team is in a better place than when I started. If you take some of the younger players, if I can compare myself to them at the same age, I think these guys are quite a ways ahead of where I was. That’s quite exciting.

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

CMYK

Chris Gayle has had an injection in his back to try and aid his long-standing complaint ahead of West Indies’ World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand in Wellington, but Darren Sammy said Gayle “is not missing this quarterfinal for anybody.” Gayle did not play against UAE in Napier as West Indies secured the win that enabled them to progress to the knockouts at the expense of Ireland, who had beaten them early in the tournament. He underwent a scan in Wellington and did not attend training on Wednesday. It is understood the West Indies management are taking a day-by-day approach to assessing Gayle, but Sammy provided an upbeat assessment of his prognosis. “Chris is not missing this quarter-final for anybody,” he said. “He is more pumped up than we are. He’s been writing down the path for us and the different scenarios. We’ve had teams who had the better of us and he’s said we’ve got a chance of meeting them in the semis when it matters, when it hurts the most. “Chris is pumped up just like everyone in the dressing room. It’s unfortunate that this chronic back injury keeps hindering his progress. He won’t miss that quarter-final.” Gayle is West Indies’ leading run-scorer in the tournament with 279 runs at 55.80, though 215 of those came in one innings against Zimbabwe. In his absence against UAE, Johnson Charles made 55 off 40 balls, and if Gayle is able to return it will be his opening partner Dwayne Smith under most pressure for his place after making 93 runs in six innings. SPortS deSK