E paper pdf (24 10 2016) (lhr)

CMYK

Monday, 24 October, 2016 i 22 Muharram ul haram, 1438 i rs 20.00 i vol vii No 115 i 20 Pages i lahore edition

uK shadow foreign secy condemns rights violations in iOK

Nawaz will be responsible if ‘thirdpower’ steps in: Khan g

Blames naB, fBr for abetting in corruption, calls for replacing them

flays india’s relucTance To send un facT-finding mission To kashmir STORY ON PAGE 02

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alleges maryam nawaz’s media cell behind national security meeting leak claims government defaming army on pretext of PTi’s protest campaign

STORY ON PAGE 03

GOverNMeNt MulliNG hANdiNG Over CONtrOl OF red ZONe tO PAK ArMy AheAd OF Pti ‘lOCKdOwN’

STORY ON PAGE 02

‘MQM Pakistan is one party and that is us’

Zarb-e-Azb brought stability, says COAS

saTTar announces mass conTacT camPaign

“Today, PakisTan sTands more inTegraTed wiTh resT of world”

STORY ON PAGE 02

STORY ON PAGE 02

BritiSh NAtiONAl SeCurity AdviSer MeetS with FAteMi

STORY ON PAGE 03

02 NEWS

Monday, 24 October, 2016

BRITISh Shadow FoReIGN SeCy CoNdemNS humaN RIGhTS aBuSeS IN IoK ISLAMABAD

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RIME Minister’s Special Envoys on Kashmir Senator Lt Gen Abdul Qayyum and Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh MNA met shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry at the British Parliament, said a press release issued on Saturday.

The two envoys briefed the shadow foreign secretary on the human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) and reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to resolve the issue peacefully.

The envoys urged the foreign secretary to raise the issue of human rights violations in Kashmir in the House of

Commons and call upon the UK government to send a fact-finding mission of British parliamentarians to IoK. The foreign secretary expressed concerns over violations of human rights in Kashmir.

The use of pellet guns by Indian forces, she said, was not acceptable.

She also expressed disappointment over India’s reluctance to send a UN factfinding mission to IoK. Emily Thornberry said that the only solution to the conflict was through peaceful dialogue keeping in view of the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

She also praised the role of the Kashmiri diaspora for highlighting the just cause of Kashmir in the UK.

KARACHI OnlIne

In a press conference at Karachi, the MQM (Pakistan) chief announced the commencement in the coming days of the party’s 100-day mass contact campaign.

“MQM Pakistan is one party and that is us” Sattar said, adding that injustice being done with the party should end.

He said MQM Pakistan would continue its legal and constitutional struggle, and that the party was registered in his name at the Election Commission of Pakistan.

“Some people associating themselves with the August 22 incident are trying to push MQM into a ditch” he said.

The MQM has broken into factions following the Aug 22 incident, that are being called MQM (Pakistan), and MQM (London).

The MQM Pakistan leadership expelled 11 members from its ranks on Saturday, advising other workers to not keep any contact with them.

Earlier on Saturday, Rangers took MQMLondon interim Rabita Committee members, Professor Hasan Zafar Arif, Kunwar Khalid Younus and Amjadullah Khan, into custody from outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC).

PTI to hold rally ahead of Nov 2 Islamabad lockdown ISLAMABAD stAff RePORt

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced a protest rally in the capital next week ahead of the scheduled November 2 Islamabad lockdown.

The rally will start from Bhara Kahu and pass through the entire city to end at I-8 Markaz.

A special legal aid committee has been established by PTI to facilitate party workers in any incidents of arrests or detentions arising out of the situation.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan has announced that his party will reach Islamabad on November 2, and hold a sit-in until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif presents himself for accountability over the Panama Papers.

HASAN ZAFAR ARIF, KUNWAR KHALID YOUNUS AND AMJADULLAH KHAN PICKED UP OUTSIDE KARACHI PRESS CLUB AHEAD OF SCHEDULED NEWS CONFERENCE KARACHI news DesK

Three detained MQM-London interim Rabita Committee members have been shifted to Central Jail in Karachi on Sunday.

MQM-London interim Rabita Committee members, Hasan Zafar Arif, Kunwar Khalid Younus and Amjadullah Khan, were taken into Ranger’s custody on Saturday.

Amjadullah Khan was the third MQM-London worker taken into custody, three after Professor Hasan Zafar Arif and Kunwar Khalid Younus were detained.

Amjadullah Khan managed to

evade Rangers Personnel and enter Karachi Press Club (KPC), where he hid while his fellow committee members were taken into custody.

He was picked up as he came out of the Club building.

MQM-London leader Wasay Jalils’ twitter message confirms: “Amjadullah presented himself to Rangers from Karachi Press Club”.

Sources report that Hasan Zafar Arif was also approached by Rangers and taken into custody as he tried to enter the Press Club on a motorcycle.

Rangers had been deployed outside KPC ahead of a press conference by the MQM-London interim

Rabita Committee.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Ismail said it was a positive step that MQM-London leaders had been taken into custody.

On October 15, during an MQM-London interim Rabita Committee news conference, a large contingent of Rangers was deployed outside the KPC. A news conference was held in which the minus-one formula was rejected. MQM-London leaders also dismissed the MQMPakistan, saying there was no such party. “MQM is one and will remain as one. Designs to break the party will not be successful,” Professor Hasan said on October 15.

PTI’s sit-in: Govt may hand over Red Zone’s security to army ISLAMABAD InP

The government is mulling to hand over the security of Red Zone and other important installations in the federal capital to the army in the wake of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s November 2 sit-in in the federal capital.

Sources said the government was mulling over a proposal to hand

ISLAMABAD MIAn ABRAR

MQM-London Rabita committee members shifted to Central Jail Farooq Sattar announces launch of mass contact campaign

Mirwaiz urges world to pressure India for Kashmiris’ religious liberty

over the security of Red Zone and other important national installations to the army.

They said that after a decision to this effect following consultations, the district administration would formally request the Interior Ministry for deployment of army officials.

The 111 brigade of Pakistan Army will be called in for the security of Red Zone on November 1.

The sources said that police and paramilitary forces would be responsible for handling of participants of the sit-in, while the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary and Rangers would be deployed for security at the outer layer of Red Zone. On the other hand, AJK and Punjab police have also been called in for helping the Capital Police during the PTI’s sit-in.

Two Coast Guards killed near Gwadar

Rangers personnel allegedly shot dead by colleague in Karachi KARACHI A Rangers personnel was allegedly shot by his colleague, succumbed to his injuries Sunday (today) in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal K.D.A. Scheme.

Rangers officials of the 63 wing, Mashooq Ali and Ali Murtaza got into a fight when it was time for the change of duty around midnight, police sources told DawnNews. Ali Murtaza fired six bullets, three of which hit Mashook Ali. The injured Rangers man was taken to three different hospitals Civil Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, and PNS Shifa before he succumbed to his injuries at around 6:30am Sunday, police said.

The incident happened within the limits of the Shahrah-iFaisal police station, where a First-Information Report was registered by the Rangers against Ali Murtaza under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Murtaza was arrested and his weapon was recovered, police said. Further investigation into the incident is underway. news DesK

QUETTA AGenCIes Two Pakistan Coast Guard officers were gunned down near Gwadar in Balochistan on Sunday. Police official Chakar Khan Baloch said the attack took place in the seaside town of Jiwani near the Iranian border. “Two people on a motorcycle targeted Pakistan Coast Guard personnel when they were patrolling in a bazaar of the coastal town,” Baloch said. Two civilians were wounded and hospitalised, he added. Baloch said the two men were working for the intelligence unit of the coast guard in Jiwani, about 80km west of the Gwadar deepwater port. Militants trying to disrupt the CPEC project have killed 44 workers since 2014.

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All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Sunday called upon the world community, United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and human rights organisations to use their influence to build pressure on India to allow the Kashmiris to exercise their right to freedom of religion.

“The right to religious liberty for the Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir is being completely and systematically violated and trampled upon by the government of India and their local collaborators as part of its state policy of repression,” said the Hurriyat chief in a message shared exclusively with Pakistan Toady from Srinagar. It may be mentioned here that at present Mirwaiz Umar Farooq along with APHC and other Muslim leaders has been put under house arrest by the oppressive regime of India. “It was the 15th consecutive Friday since July 8 that Friday prayers are not being allowed to be held at the historic and central Jamia Masjid of Srinagar and other major mosques, as strict curfew and restrictions have been put in place in the entire area and across the Valley, barring people from assembling for Friday prayers,” said Mirwaiz, who has long been unable to deliver Friday sermons from the pulpit of Jamia Majid in Srinagar due to the curbs instituted against him. Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid, as the world knows, holds great significance and is central to the religious identity of Kashmiri Muslims besides being the political symbol of Kashmir’s resistance movement. “Being under detention since July 8, I as Mirwaiz have not been able to deliver Friday sermons from the pulpit of Jamia Majid which is a four-hundred-yearold tradition. In the recent history of Kashmir’s subjugation, this has been the longest period so far where people are being prevented from practicing their fundamental religious obligation by the Indian state,” said the religious leader. He regretted that even this year for the first time on Eid, curfew was imposed in the entire Valley and people were even barred from offering Eid prayers.

“I would call upon the world community, UN, OIC and human rights organisations to use their influence to pressure India to allow the Kashmiris to exercise their fundamental right to religious freedom by all means,” concluded the Hurriyat chief.

Zarb-e-Azb brought stability: Gen Raheel Sharif LAHORE stAff RePORt

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif said on Sunday that Pakistan is more stable than before and operation Zarb-e-Azb has created stability in Pakistan and the region.

“Our success against terrorism owes immensely to the physical strength and mental robustness of our officers and men.

This, coupled with sincerity of purpose and clear direction contributed heavily towards fortifying their will and morale during intense and demanding operations,” said the army chief while addressing the First International PACES championship’s concluding ceremony in Lahore. “Today, our brave men can tell the world with pride that by eliminating terrorist networks from the far reaches of Pak-Afghan border, an environment of peace and prosperity has prevailed. Having overcome the heartless enemy, we are set to march forward on the road to progress,” General Raheel said.

Speaking about the PACES championship, the army chief said, “This landmark event has brought together participants from 18 leading armies of the world. As a unique competition of its kind, the occasion is an opportunity to promote mutual cooperation and brotherhood. Today, Pakistan stands more integrated with rest of the world than ever before with such events as a fine example.” He said that the challenges in PACES are designed according to the challenges of modern warfare. The army chief applauded all the participants and those who excelled in various events. Raheel Sharif said that he hoped the participants enjoyed the country’s beauty and hospitality of locals during their stay. Later, the army chief distributed prizes among the winners.

He also lauded the organisers for organsing the event in a excellent manner.

Monday, 24 October, 2016

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aFGhaN TalIBaN ReleaSe dRoNe FooTaGe oF SuICIde aTTaCK LASHKAR gAH

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AGenCIes

FGHANISTAN’S Taliban have released drone footage showing a suicide bomber driving a Humvee into a police base in Helmand province and blowing it up this month.

An Afghan government official said the video posted online appeared to be authentic. The use of video taken by a drone is unusual for the Taliban but more common among the more media-savvy extremist groups fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The video, 23 minutes long, begins with the purported suicide bomber speaking in front of the Humvee, a vehicle provided to Afghan forces by American

SC judge Iqbal Hameedur Rehman resigns

advisers. “This is the happiest moment of my life,” the man says, dressed in a black turban and white tunic.

“I am telling the Afghan stooge forces to repent and join the Taliban or we will use this equipment the foreigners gave them, against them and they can’t do anything about it.” Later, a drone-mounted camera silently films the Humvee speeding towards a compound.

Facing no apparent resistance, the Humvee barrels into the middle of the base, detonating in flames in front of a large building and producing a cloud of smoke and dust, obscuring the entire compound.

A government official in Helmand said the district police chief and several other officials were killed in the attack on

British NSA calls on Fatemi

MOnITORIng REpORT Supreme Court (SC) judge Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman tendered his resignation from the post on Sunday, according to a private media outlet.

A few days earlier, he was accused of making illegal appointments in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

“I hereby resign from my office…,” the apex court judge wrote in a letter addressed to President Mamnoon Hussain.

In September, the SC had annulled 74 appointments in the IHC, observing that the court’s then top judge, Hameedur Rehman, and administration panel had disregarded their mandate while doing the hiring. On the contrary, the lawyers say he is a man of integrity. Last week, a reference was also filed against Justice Hameedur Rehman by IHC’s Bar Secretary Waqas Malik. He was appointed SC judge in February 2013. He had served as the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court previously. Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman cited personal reasons for tendering his resignation.

SIR MARK LYALL GRANT REAFFIRMS UK’S CONTINUED SUPPORT TO PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD OnlIne

British National Security Adviser Sir Mark Lyall Grant called on the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today (Sunday). The special assistant also hosted a luncheon in honour of the distinguished visiting dignitary.

Fatemi underscored the importance Pakistan attaches to its relations with the United Kingdom and noted that partnership between the two countries was moving in the right direction. In this context, he recalled the recent warm and cordial meeting

between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Theresa May, in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Fatemi highlighted the improved security situation and its positive impact on economic revival in Pakistan.

Sir Grant acknowledged the significant achievements made by Pakistan and the sacrifices rendered by the people of Pakistan in their fight against terrorism. He reaffirmed the UK’s continued support to Pakistan.

During the meeting, regional se-

curity issues and matters of mutual interest were also discussed. The special assistant briefed the visiting dignitary about the current situation in India-occupied Kashmir (IOK). He also stressed that as a country with historic links to this region, and as a member-state of UN Security Council’s P-5, it was incumbent on Britain to urge India to end its human rights violations in the occupied territory, and to enter into a sustained dialogue process with Pakistan, so as to enable the two countries to peacefully resolve their differences.

Sir Grant acknowledged the important role being played by Pakistan in promoting peace and stability in the region.

The minister of state also briefed the visiting dignitary about Pakistan’s serious efforts to promote lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan, including the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process through the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG).

NAWAZ WILL BE RESPONSIBLE IF ‘THIRD-POWER’ STEPS IN: KHAN ISLAMABAD stAff RePORt

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that only Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be responsible if a ‘third power’ steps in as a result of his party’s November 2 lockdown of Islamabad.

“One person will be responsible if democracy is derailed,” Khan said while talking to reporters outside his Bani Gala residence before departing for Dera Ismail Khan on Sunday.

The PTI is planning to besiege Islamabad on November 2 as part of its protest campaign to mount pressure on the government for PM Sharif’s resignation or accountability following the Panamagate.

Although Khan did not name the ‘third force’ in his comments, his statement seemed to refer to the military establishment. He however clarified that his party was not doing this to bring in a ‘third power’.

“Why is a protest happening?

Because Nawaz Sharif isn’t presenting himself for accountability,” Khan said, adding, “Protest is our democratic right. And the government will lose the most if it tries to stop us.”

The PTI chief also accused the government of defaming the army on the pretext of PTI’s protest. “In a democratic country prime minister is accountable to the people, but in

Pakistan our PM (Mian Sahib) only wants to save his wealth.”

He also argued that the Panama Papers were not accusations but evidence of the prime minister’s corruption.

Taking a jibe at opposition parties, notably the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Khan said that “those who call themselves opposition are defending Nawaz to save their own faces; those trying to stop us from protesting are also corrupt”.

Commenting on the hearing of Panamagate in the Supreme Court on November 1, the PTI chief said while the apex court might sentence the prime minister, the PTI was only demanding his resignation for a fair investigation.

He also asked for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to be shut down and replaced with some new institutions, blaming the two institutes for abetting in corruption.

Khan said if he did not take to streets everyone would soon forget about (PM Nawaz Sharif’s) corruption.

“Our protest is targeted at recovering corruption money from corrupt politicians and transferring power to those sincere about serving the public. So, nobody can stop us from exercising our constitutional and legal right to protest,” he went on to

say.

To a question, Khan said his party would continue with its peaceful protests while the Supreme Court hears the case.

SHARIFS BEHIND HIGHLEVEL SECURITY BREACH: The PTI chief alleged that the premier’s daughter Maryam Nawaz’s media cell was involved in a ‘leak’ of information from a recent highlevel meeting on national security.

“Investigation into this breach is not progressing only because Maryam Nawaz’s media cell is involved in this and there is no doubt about it,” he alleged.

“It is very easy to find out who was behind it. But if the person’s name hasn’t come out, then it is evident that Pakistan’s ‘royal family’ was behind it,” Khan claimed.

PML-N, PTI IN SEARCH OF ALLIES: The PML-N and PTI have both been searching for allies in the PPP and the PML-Q, respectively.

The PTI on Saturday won ‘unconditional support’ of the PMLQ for its Nov 2 sit-in. Together the two parties decided to approach the Pakistan Awami Tehreek of Dr Tahirul Qadri, which, ‘is likely to join the protest’.

On the other hand, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Saturday contacted Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shah over telephone in a

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bid to muster support for the ruling party against PTI’s protest campaign.

PTI’S PLAN B IN EVENT OF CRACKDOWN: The PTI has also prepared a strategy to tackle the sitin and any possible crackdown against the party.

PTI workers will gather at Faizabad and march towards Zero Point under Mr Khan’s leadership. “Blocking Zero Point will render Kashmir Highway, I.J. Principal Road, Murree Road and Islamabad Expressway closed and the federal capital will be in lockdown,” a senior official told Dawn.

“Party leaders are of the view that the government will close the roads themselves, helping the party’s plan to besiege Islamabad,” he said.

If PTI workers are arrested ahead of the lockdown of the capital city, the party plans to lay siege to the police station where they will be held.

PTI leadership has also directed party workers to avoid arrest and “if anyone arrested, then more than 200 workers will immediately reach that police station.”

The apex court is to hear petitions on Panamagate on Nov 1. The hearing had earlier been adjourned for two weeks, but the Supreme Court changed the date on Friday, set off a debate on the significance of the hearing a day ahead of the planned siege of the city.

October 3, when Taliban militants overran much of Nawa district. The official, who declined to be named, said the video depicting the attack appeared to be authentic.

The video’s producers used graphics of target-like overlays to give the footage a video game-like feel, an effect used by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. US-led forces have often used military-grade drones against the Taliban in Afghanistan’s long war since 2001. Commercial drones favoured by hobbyists and video producers are far simpler and cheaper.

In, June the Afghan government banned media from using camera drones near sensitive government sites on security grounds.

Government minister accuses Imran Khan of money laundering, tax return fraud ISLAMABAD OnlIne

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML N) leader, Muhammad Zubair, levelled allegations of financial misappropriations during a press conference. Muhammad Zubair said he would reveal evidence concerning Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf’s (PTI) Imran Khan’s involvement in money laundering and tax return fraud.

He said if Imran Khan truly wanted the nation to stand against corruption, he would have explained his involvement in certain corruption issues.

Zubair shared copies of certificates of anonymous transactions made allegedly by Imran Khan. The PML N leader reported that Imran Khan established Niazi Limited Service in 1983 as an offshore company, but did not mention it in his tax returns for nearly a year. He alleged that the offshore company was used to conceal black money. Khan bought a flat for ₤ 82,000 in 1983, he said, but concealed it in his tax returns until 1989. Khan disclosed the company in his records upon the introduction of Musharraf’s tax amnesty scheme during the year 2000, said Zubair.

He said Imran’s ex-wife Jemima had transferred ownership of the Bani Gala house to Imran in 2005, yet the PTI chairman had not paid tax on it till date. He disclosed that Imran Khan had a gotten a flat booked in Grand Heights Islamabad in 2014 but had not mentioned it in his tax returns. Muhammad Zubair called PTI’s impending sit-in a revolt, adding that even Mujib-ur-Rehman never called for schools to be shut down the way Imran was doing now. He also called for Imran to offer a statement concerning the Justice Wajihuddin and General Hamid probes.

3rd phase of NWaziristan IDPs repatriation to begin tomorrow ISLAMABAD APP

The third phase of repatriation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan Agency will begin on Tuesday (Oct 25). Talking to a private news channel, North Waziristan Political Agent Kamran Afridi said the repatriation process of the displaced people has been divided into four phases. He said the two phases of IDPs’ return to their homes has been completed, while the third phase will begin from Tuesday. He said over 2,000 families of Ghazlamai, Kani Rogha, Manzarkhel, Pakai, Raghzai and Samiar will return to their areas during the third phase. He said the third phase will continue till 27 October. Out of 82,000 displaced families of North Waziristan, 51,000 families have returned so far, he added.

04 NEWS

Monday, 24 October, 2016

Over 35,000 SUSpecTS arreSTed In TUrkey cOUp prObe: mInISTer ANKARA

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urkey has arrested more than 35,000 people over alleged links to the group run by the uS-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the failed July coup, local media reported Sunday.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the suspects had been placed under arrest since the attempted putsch that fell apart within hours, quoted by NTV broadcaster.

Another 3,907 suspects were still being sought while nearly 26,000 people had been released from “judicial control”, he said.

Some 82,000 individuals had been investigated in total since the coup bid, he told the audience on Saturday at a ruling Justice and Development Party conference in Afyonkarahisar, western Turkey.

Tens of thousands of people have been suspended, sacked or detained in the military, judiciary, police, education sector and media in connection with the July 15 attempted putsch blamed on Gulen and his Hizmet (Service) movement.

The unprecedented purge has come

US warns citizens of ‘attack, kidnapping risk’ in Istanbul ANKARA AGENCIES

under heavy criticism from Turkey’s Western allies, including the european union. Brussels has urged Ankara to act within the rule of law, which Turkey in-

sists it is.

Ankara accuses Gulen of masterminding the coup, during which a rogue military faction tried to oust President

recep Tayyip erdogan.

Gulen — who has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999 in Pennsylvania — strongly denies the charges.

Indian journalist’s open letter to PM

‘Dear Modiji, the people of Kashmir are not with us’ NEW DELHI APP

rebuffing the untrue picture presented by Indian officials on kashmir situation, renowned Indian journalist Santosh Bhartiya has written an open letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying “the people of kashmir are not with us.”

In a letter addressed to Modi and published in rising kashmir, the journalist encompassed all of his findings during his travel to the Valley, including the brutal killings, use of excessive force, strong anger in kashmiri people, raising of Pakistani flags, the disturbance among the Indian army and mishandling of the kashmir issue by India, particularly the Modi regime.

He said he was in a state of restlessness after returning from the Valley. kashmiris have painful aggression in them against the Indian system; be it a man of 80 year old or a six-year-old child and he believes this situation

would lead them to a disastrous “massacre” situation.

He said a dangerous misconception was growing in the minds of the officials of Indian military troops and security forces that if anybody who raises voice against the prevailing system in kashmir he or she should be killed to suppress the separatists movement, but it is an entirely wrong policy to pursue.

“A kashmiri who does not hold a stone in hand, keeps the stone in his heart. This revolution has taken a shape of mass-movement same as the movement of 1942 or JP Movement in which the contribution of public was more than the leaders,” he said. eid-ul-Azha was not celebrated in kashmir this time. Neither did anyone wear new clothes. Not a single home celebrated eid. Isn’t this move of kashmiris a slap on the faces of the people who talk aloud and swear upon democracy?

In his letter the journalist quoted kashmiri people as saying, “The Valley is bedewed in blood of kashmiris as more than 10,000 kashmiris are badly injured

by pellet guns; more than 500 have lost their eyes forever..” The journalist recalled witnessing how people lived on one bulb’s light and how young boys piled up the stones on the roads and the same boys removed those heaps of stone in the evening.

He told Modi that during night kashmiri people slept with the doubt of pathos that anytime the military and security forces would enter their homes to pick them up, and they would never ever return to their homes. Such a situation was never witnessed in our history not even during the times of British rule, he wrote.

In order to hurt Indian government, when India looses a cricket match with Pakistan kashmiris celebrate even if India loses a cricket match against New Zealand, Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka.

Bhartiya said Modi had celebrated Diwali among kashmiris and promised crores of money-package for kashmir, but it was never received by the common people there.

The united States has warned its citizens of the potential risk of terror attack or attempted kidnapping of foreigners in Istanbul, which has been rocked by several bombings this year.

The consulate in Istanbul said in a message late Saturday that extremist groups continued their “aggressive efforts” to attack Americans and other foreigners in the city.

“These attacks may be pre-planned or could occur with little or no warning, and include, but are not limited to: armed attack, attempted kidnapping, bombing, or other violent acts,” it said in an online notice.

The consulate did not specify which group was believed to be plotting such acts, but in the past year the city has suffered multiple bombings by the Islamic State group (IS) and kurdish militants.

In June, 47 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, which authorities blamed on Islamic State.

Those visiting Istanbul or living in the city were advised to “review and update their personal security practices” when frequenting areas popular with Westerners or where they may live, the consulate said.

It is the latest warning from the uS after the consulate in southern Adana province warned of a potential security threat targeting uSbranded hotels in southern Turkey in late September.

In the same month, the uS embassy warned of the risk of a terror attack on businesses, including Starbucks, used

by Westerners in Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

That warning came after a deadly suicide bombing in Gaziantep blamed on extremists linked to Islamic State in August. The attack on a wedding left 57 dead including 34 children.

In the latest message, the consulate also told its citizens to avoid travelling to southeastern Turkey and to stay away from large crowds — especially in popular tourist destinations — as well as political gatherings and rallies.

AID AGENCIES STRUGGLE TO ASSIST WAVE OF RETURNING AFGHAN REFUGEES TORKHAM AGENCIES

Perched on top of lumbering trucks overflowing with all their possessions, Afghan families are streaming back to their home country at unprecedented rates, leaving international organisations scrambling to provide aid as winter approaches.

The flow of returnees from Iran and Pakistan this year, estimated by the united Nations to number more than half a million, is straining the capacity of the government and aid agencies, even as violence uproots more Afghans around the country.

At Torkham, the busiest border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, nearly 170,000 Afghans have returned this year, according to the uN, as relations between the two countries have deteriorated.

Islamabad has stepped up pressure to send people back and numbers have risen

sharply in recent months as Afghan-Indian relations strengthened and those between India and Pakistan soured.

Lines of colourfully decorated trucks pass through the border gate at Torkham, navigating the mountainous passes with returning refugees clinging to piles of household goods, sometimes with a family cow nearly buried in the back.

A cluster of white tents only a few hundred meters from the border marks the first facility operated by the uN, the Afghan government, and other aid agencies to provide aid for returnees before they look for a home in a country many have not seen in years.

Here, and at other sites nearby, families are offered medical checkups, bundles of basic supplies and food.

In September, the uN issued an appeal for millions of dollars of emergency funding to help returning refugees and

other internally displaced people in Afghanistan, but so far the fundraising has yet to reach its goal, said Mark Bowden, the uN’s humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan. “Out of the $150 million that we requested, we’ve only got $48 million so far, and our costs are certainly going to be running quite high over the winter period,” he said.

Freezing temperatures: While the winter is usually mild in the area of Nangarhar province where many returning refugees have at least temporarily settled, many others have headed further west to kabul, where freezing temperatures may take a toll on anyone unable to find accommodation, Bowden said. escalating friction between Afghanistan and Pakistan flared into brief clashes at the Torkham border crossing in June, the violence symptomatic of a wider decline in relations between Pak-

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istan and Afghanistan that has prompted political and sometimes military confrontations.

While the challenges of helping the returning Afghan refugees requires immediate attention, the international community should work with Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to try to solve the

broader problems driving the crisis, said Tadamichi yamamoto, head of the uN assistance mission in Afghanistan. “This could be a long-term issue, but I think the immediate attention now will define the magnitude of the problem that we have down the road,” he said. “So we need to do it right at the start.”

Monday, 24 October, 2016

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KARACHI GREEN LINE

BRT CoST InCReASeS fRom RS 16b To 24b FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILED TO KEEP SUFFICIENT FUNDS IN PSDP FOR PROJECT kArAchI

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FArId SAbrI

He cost of green line bus rapid transit (BRT) project in Karachi has been increased 52 percent from the previous estimate of Rs 16.085 billion to Rs 24.604 billion owing to the lack of interest of both Federal and Sindh government.

According to documents available with Pakistan Today, the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) approved a revised BRT project at a cost of Rs24.6 billion for the country’s largest metropolis.

The revised project, according to the documents, envisages construction of a 27.74 km long (18.34 km at grade & 9.40 km elevated) 2 lane dedicated signal free, bus rapid transit system, in Karachi, from Municipal park in Saddar to Surjani Town.

The original PC-1 depicted the construction of 17.80 km long (14.35 km at

grade & 3.45 km elevated) 2 lane dedicated signal free, bus rapid transit system at Karachi.

The additional budget is for extension of green line BRT route beyond Municipal Park. The plan proposes a one way loop, mostly along the curb line for the entire length until it rejoins the main green line BRT on M A Jinnah Road. The total length of this extension route is 6.08 km, added to 3.3 km from Guru Mandar to Municipal Park.

Furthermore the total number of stations has been increased to 35 from the previous 22. 20 of them are on ground, 13 are elevated and 2 are underground.

Ironically federal government had not kept any money for the project in Public Sector Development Programme during the last two budgets but the Sindh government mounted pressure in this regard, forcing the Federal Government to reserve Rs 5 billion for the current PSDP which amount has not yet been released.

earlier this year, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ceremonially laid the foundation stone for Green Line BRT at Anu Bhai Park. In December 2014, the eCNeC approved the mass transit project at a cost of Rs16.1 billion, and its date for completion was set by Dec 2017.

Pakistani Peoples Party Senior

Leader Taj Haider, when contacted, said the Sindh Government was not comparing BRT Karachi to Lahore Metro Bus Service. “We are trying to give services to masses of Karachi on the scale of Paris, London and others so we want to complete it as early as possible.

‘Federal government has inducted 6

to 10 km route to this project adding Rs 6 billion to this project,’ he added.

The management of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a loan of $9.7 million for Pakistan to help finance the designing of the Karachi Bus Rapid Transit Project, but it was rolled back due to reasons not made public.

Acting Speaker NA grills mayor for CDA’s sluggishness SAYS UNDUE DELAYS IN CONSTRUCTION OF ADDITIONAL FAMILY SUITES, SERVANT QUARTERS IS DUE TO INCOMPETENCE AND NEGLIGENCE OF AUTHORITIES OFFICERS over 5 thousand surveillance cameras to be installed at minority places of worship: Dr Sikandar Ali Shoro kArAchI

ISLAMABAD ShAh NAwAz MohAl

It seems that honeymoon period of Mayor Islamabad and CDA Chairman Sheikh Anser Aziz has finally come to an end, as National Assembly’s acting Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi has expressed annoyance over the delay in construction of Additional Family Suite and servant quarters for the accommodation purpose of parliamentarians and their staff.

Abbasi, in a meeting with Mayor,

said that due to incompetence, negligence and non cooperative attitude of officers of Capital Development Authority (CDA) the project which was supposed to be completed in 2013 is still unfinished.

The project of constructing additional family suites and servant quarter was started back in 2011 and final completion date of the project was stipulated December 2013, however, CDA had extended the time period and bestowed upon extension of deadline to the construc-

tion firm twice.

Previously, National Assembly Standing Committee on House and Library had instructed the CDA many times to bound the construction firm to expedite pace of work on the project and to complete it within extended completion period which was September, 2016.

Acting Speaker also reminded mayor that former chairman CDA Maroof Afzal and member engineering CDA had said many times before the committee that project will be completed within stipulated time; however, on ground no practical steps were taken to fulfill the task. It is pertinent to mention here that at present more than 100 Parliamentarians have no official accommodation and they’ve been demanding it for last 3 years.

Abbasi directed mayor and chairman CDA, Sheikh Anser Aziz to con-

duct an inquiry to investigate the reasons of delay in construction of Additional Family Suite and take stern action against the officers who were responsible of this failure.

Aziz assured the acting speaker that he would personally look into the matter and will submit a detailed report regarding the non-implementation of committee’s decisions and delay in construction of Additional Family Suite, within 15 days.

It is for the first time that Anser Aziz was being held responsible for and questioned for about the performance of CDA. It is pertinent to mention here that a two week back Aziz personally supervised the re-carpeting of Constitution Avenue to brandish his efforts right in front of the corridors of power, but it seems that parliamentarians care more about accommodation than swanky roads in front of their workplace.

AGENCIES

Special Assistant to Chief Minister Sindh for Information, Science & Technology (IST) has approved the installation of more than 5 thousands security/surveillance cameras at places of worship for minority communities throughout Sindh province.

He said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was keen to protect minority rights, and to guarantee minority communities their constitutional rights, at least. This he said while presiding over a high level meeting at his office.

Dr Sikandar Shoro has directed the Secretary for IST, Pervaiz Ahmed Seehar, towards the early completion of the project.

He added that Rs 400 million had been earmarked for the project while Rs.7 Million would be utilised for maintenance.

He said monitoring rooms with trained staffed would be established in the premises away from the monitored area to maintain the proposed set ups.

He further directed that in the projects’ first phase, a security survey of temples, churches, gurdwaras and other sacred places of minorities would be conducted, and on the basis of the survey report, 4 to16 security cameras would be installed per location, at strategic points in the premises.

Dr Sikandar Shoro said this project was in line with the e-governance initiative and IT road map 2010-15 of Information, Science & Technology department which envisages use of technology to improve public service and reduce service delivery costs.

Sindh CM says no ban on dance and music in schools kArAchI AGENCIES

Sindh Chief Minister (CM) on Sunday took strong notice of a news report which had claimed that the education department, in a notification, had banned dance and music classes in schools. In a hand-written note to the media, Sindh CM, Murad Ali Shah, said action was being taken against any notification issued to ban dance in schools and those responsible would be taken to task.

The Minister for the concerned department categorically denied endorsing such ban, he added.

“The government will not be dictated by isolated extremist elements and will not allow its progressive agenda to be hijacked at any cost”, he said. It would be pertinent to remark here that the once progressive PPP has taken to courting extremist elements in Karachi and other centers of power in Sindh.

“Dance and music are integral

parts of a liberal society and we continue our support to such activities’, he maintained.

The clarification was issued in response to a news story in a daily english paper, which reported that the education department had issued letters to private schools warning them against dance classes.

CMYK

The notification stated: ‘Some schools, in the name of dance, have hired teachers and started teaching vulgar dance, which cannot be tolerated, this practice must be stopped forthwith otherwise we will have no other option but to cancel the registration of these schools’.

ICST supports govt’s decision to appoint mayor as Chairman CDA ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) on Sunday lauded the decision of the government to appoint Islamabad’s Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz as Chairman CDA, which he considered a positive step. Aziz is transforming Islamabad into a green city and also trying to change the culture of the CDA which has failed to provide relief to the masses, said ICIT patron Rasheed Butt. In a statement issued here today, he said that encroachments are being removed from various markets, and many dysfunctional wings of the CDA are being revived. Several directorates of CDA including enforcement directorate, roads directorate, and environment wing are lethargic to take action against illegal direct accesses on main Kashmir Highway by blaming each other, and none of them is willing to take action on this illegality that must be noticed, he demanded. Butt said that Chairman CDA should also try to reduce pollution in the city which has taken toll on the health of the masses while the critical sectors like health and education should be given preference. He lauded Aziz for directing CDA to fully participate in the vaccination drive. AGENCIES

06 LAHORE DSP marks International Day of Eradication of Poverty LAHORE

Monday, 24 October, 2016

WEATHER UPDATES

310C 180C

TUESDAY

310C

170C

WEDNESDAY

310C 170C

THURSDAY

320C 160C

“No Polio cAse RePoRted iN PuNjAb this yeAR” LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

The Damen Support Programme (DSP) and the Development Action for Mobilisation and Emancipation (DAMEN) organised an event here on October 21 to mark the International Day of Eradication of Poverty. The event aimed to highlight awareness about poverty and destitute and one’s responsibility towards them. This ceremony was attended by various eminent personalities and people from all walks of life. At the event, DAMEN and DSP officials highlighted different aspects of poverty through a stage performance. Children of DAMEN Home Schools presented a tableau to create awareness on social evils due to poverty. The management presented shields to encourage the staff members who showed excellent performance throughout the previous year. At the end of the ceremony, DSP CEO Naghma Rashid thanked the participants and emphasised on the importance of collective efforts for reduction of poverty. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been observed every year since 1993, when the United Nations General Assembly designated this day to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries. Fighting poverty remains at the core of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The theme of International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is “Building a sustainable future: Coming together to end poverty and discrimination”. The DSP is an organisation which is determined to eradicate poverty. It helps low income households through financial inclusion for the development of their sustainable future. It has been determined to its mission for the past two decades and has pulled more than 160,000 families out of the circle of poverty and made them generate decent income so that they could enhance their living standards and live a better life.

MONDAY

N

APP

O polio case has been reported in Punjab this year so far and, hopefully, the target of polio-free Punjab will be achieved in the next year.

This was stated by Advisor to Chief Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique in his message on Sunday, released in connection with the World Polio Day, an-

nually observed on October 24.

The day is observed the world over, to commemorate the fight against poliomyelitis and pay tribute to Jonas Salk, American medical researcher and virologist, who led the first team that developed a vaccine against poliomyelitis.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries battling polio now in the world. Therefore, all eyes are set on these two countries.

Salman Rafique said: “Polio has been declared a national emergency, and a dedicated team of professionals in the provincial health directorate is working hard to achieve the dream of polio eradication.”

He said that Punjab had made serious progress over the last two years, and with other variables in control, polio eradication may well be in sight in the next one year.

“In 2014, Punjab accounted for just

PU, int’l NGO sign MoU to promote social work education

Ayesha Mumtaz granted leave for 104 days: Punjab govt LAHORE NNI

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

It was a great moment for the Punjab University’s (PU) Department of Social Work, its faculty and students when PU’s Department of Social Work and Community World ServiceAsia signed an agreement to promote social work education, and to produce skilled and trained human resources to the development sector of Pakistan.

The MoU was signed by Punjab University Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran and Community World Service Asia Country Chief Marvin Pervez. The ceremony was also attended by Law College Principal Dr Shania Qureshi, Department of Social Work Chairman Dr Zahid Javed, External Linkages Director Dr Maria, ASA President Dr Said Rasheed, Punjab University Registrar Dr Kamran Abid and Khurram Saeed from CWS. Faculty members of Social Work De-

four cases, out of a total of 306 in the country. In 2015, there were two cases in Punjab, out of country’s total of 54, and this year, no case has been reported so far,” the advisor said.

He said that with the use of androidbased tailor-made application E-vaccs with support from the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), Punjab has been able to boost its routine immunisation to 86 per cent from mid-50s within a year.

partment Aliyah Khalid, Dr Syeda Mehnaz Hassan, Sonia Omer and Muhammad Arshad Abbas also graced the occasion.

The department was established in 1954. The chief objective of social

work education is to provide trained social workers equipped with the basic knowledge and skills to assist the government and private agencies in the development and execution of social welfare programmes.

Punjab Food Authority Director Operations Ayesha Mumtaz took leave for 104 days. In an application to Services and General Administration Department Provincial Secretary (S&GAD), Ayesha Mumtaz told that her father-in-law had suffered cardiac and paralysis attack, while her mother-in-law was a cancer patient, and there was no option other than taking leave from government engagements. Punjab chief secretary granted approval of 104 days leave to Ayesha Mumtaz. She had applied for a leave of 104 days from October 20, 2016, to January 31, 2017. According to sources, Ayesha said that she needed a leave to look after her father-in-law and mother-in-law.

She said there was no truth to the rumours that she was facing pressure from the food authority, and she will join duty assigned to her after her leave and continue her official work. Ayesha Mumtaz told the sources that she had also applied earlier for a leave due to the illness of her mother-in-law and father-in-law.

PPRA holds seminar on public procurement LAHORE APP

Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) arranged a seminar on ‘public procurement’ with an aim to create awareness about principles of public procurement and fundamental procedures.

All provincial secretaries, commissioners, heads of attached departments, autonomous bodies and chief executives of public sector companies attended the seminar. Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Saeed chaired the session, and highlighted the importance of trainings as well as capacity building of government officials in public procurement. In his welcome address, PPRA Managing Director Ali Bahadur Qazi highlighted objectives of the seminar and reiterated the importance of public procurement as a tool for good governance and better service delivery. Chairman Planning and Development Department stressed establishment of procurement and project management cells in various government departments.

Eminent experts and speakers on public procurement delivered lectures, including Syed Mohsin Abbas (senior legal expert), Dr Adnan Qadir Khan (CERP form UK) and PITB’s Atta-ur-Rehman.

LAHORE 07

Monday, 24 October, 2016

cM’s sMu oRgANise ‘WoMeN oN Wheels’ RAlly At FAisAlAbAd FAisALAbAd

P

STAFF REPORT

UNJAB Chief Minister's Special Monitoring Unit (SMU) organised women motorcycle riders’ rally under ‘Women on Wheels’ (WoW) project at Faisalabad today (Sunday).

The rally started from the main gate of Faisalabad Agriculture University and culminated on the same spot after passing through University Road, Zila Council Chowk and Halal-e-Ahmar Chowk. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, SMU Senior Member Salman Sufi, DCO Salman Ghani and UAF Vice-Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan led the women motorcycle rally by riding the motorcycle.

Parliamentarians Begum Khalida Mansoor, Madeha Rana, Dr Najma Afzal, CTO Arif Shahbaz Khan Wazeer, repre-

sentatives of civil society and others officials were also present on the occasion.

More than 60 trained women motorcycle riders (graduates) participated in the rally. Earlier, a certificate distribution ceremony was held at New Senate Hall of UAF. Addressing the ceremony, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan Said that government was taking revolutionary steps to empower the women and various steps are initiated, including ‘Women on Wheels’.

He said that Women Protection Act was also part of measures taken by the Punjab government for the safety and development of the women. He said Women on Wheels is another remarkable project of SMU under the CM’s directions, which has been organised to make the women self-reliant in order to reach their place of employment, schools , uni-

versities and other sites for their domestic necessities.

The law minister said that 50 per cent of population of the country comprises of women, and it is the need of hour to engage them in economic activities and to fight taboos being made on gender discrimination.

He told that CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has approved Rs 100 million for providing support to women motorcycle riders and more funds would also be provided in case of further need. He congratulated the women that completed their motorcycle riding training successfully, and asked them to promote the culture of riding and respecting the traffic rules, decency and Islamic norms during driving.

He said the Dolphin Force has been working efficiently in Lahore, and soon, this force would be introduced in Faisalabad, which would help in decreasing

street crimes and the protection of women while riding on road.

SMU senior member Salman Sufi said Women on Wheel project has been initiated by the Chief Minister’s SMU in Sargodha, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan, in collaboration with city district government, city traffic police and Honda Atlas as the partner.

He said this project is set to expand to all 36 districts of Punjab and aims to create motorcycles as a norm for female mobility in the public space. He told a mega rally would be held at Lahore on 27 November, in which all Women on Wheels graduates from all five districts would be invited to participate.

DCO Salman Ghani said WoW programme in Faisalabad was a commendable step to encourage the women for riding the motorcycle. He urged the women to benefit from the programme

CM pays surprise visit to THQ Hospital Raiwind without protocol LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid a surprise visit to THQ Hospital Raiwind today (Sunday) without protocol, and reached the hospital only in two vehicles.

He inspected different wards, inquired after the patients and asked about the facilities being provided in the hospital. He expressed displeasure over nonappearance of staff at reception. He reprimanded the MS on poor cleanliness condition and dirtiness of the washroom in the operation theater of the hospital.

He said that wastage of the hard-earned

40 hospitals to be revamped by june 2017 LAHORE APP

Advisor to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said that the government has empowered the medical superintendents by giving them financial and administrative powers. Now, it is their responsibility to run hospitals efficiently, he added. Speaking at a one-day seminar of the medial superintendents of DHQ and THQ hospitals at Directorate General Health Services on Sunday, he said that revamping of 40 DHQ and THQ hospitals would be completed by June 2017. He said that only doctors could cure patients. He said that any modern technology did not function itself, but humans apply them.

Therefore, administrative doctors had to improve their performance and discharge their duties with zeal and zest, he maintained. The purpose of the seminar was to sensitise the medical superintendents regarding the revamping plan of the hospitals and their responsibilities in this regard. Primary and Secondary Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan, DG Health Services Dr Mukhtar Hussain Syed, Additional Secretary Dr Adnan Zafar, Revamping Plan Project Director Muhammad Usman and other officials of the department attended the meeting.

money of the poor nation in such a way is shameful.

Shehbaz Sharif said that he will not allow wastage of resources of the nation.

He said that he is personally visiting the hospitals to monitor the situation. The chief minister took a strict notice of the closure of pharmacy and store in the hospital. He said that crores of rupees have been spent on new hospital, and common patients should benefit from it, but the situation is lamentable.

The CM also expressed displeasure over falling of water from an air-conditioner on the wall of a ward, which was damaging the wall, and said that cleanliness and improvement of hygiene is the

responsibility of the administration. He reprimanded MS on seeing the sanitary staff without uniform and said that despite his clear directions; not wearing uniform by the hospital staff is deplorable.

CM Shehbaz said that Punjab government is spending billions of rupees for providing quality and modern healthcare facilities to the people and modern hospitals are being set up throughout the province. Under this programme, a new hospital has been constructed at a cost of crores of rupees at Raiwind, so that best medical facilities could be made available to the people at their doorstep, but he expressed sorrow over seeing poor

unhygienic conditions, non-availability of quality medical facilities and medical staff during his visit today.

He said that appointment of orthopedic surgeon has been made in the hospital but he has still not joined his duty.

There was no gynecologist present in the hospital and only one nurse was on duty in the emergency ward.

CM Shehbaz also inquired from the patients and their attendants about the treatment facilities being provided in the hospital, who told him that hospital is splendid, but there is a lack of healthcare facilities and medical staff. The CM said that he is determined to improve the situation of the hospitals.

and become an active member of the society in terms of socio-economic activities. He assured full cooperation of district government to make WoW a success. Vice-chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said UAF had managed to distribute more than 600 bicycles among the women students with the cooperation of local industrial group in order to promote this culture.

He informed that two mega projects of girl’s hostels, having the capacity of 1,000 boarders each, were being completed under the special initiative of CM Punjab, which was a prominent step. The motorcycle riding women appreciated the project and said that chief minister Shehbaz Sharif had taken a number of steps for the betterment and development of women, and this project would provide facilities to women for their independent mobility.

countdown begins for rulers: sarwar LAHORE ONlINE

Former governor Punjab and PTI leader Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar said that the countdown has begun for rulers so they should accept the demand of accountability.

While meeting with the leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) at his residence here on Sunday, he said that if intention becomes clear, Panama Leaks problem can be solved within days. “November 2 protest has been decided and finalised, no amendment can be made.” He said that PTI is fighting for accountability, which is a constitutional and legit demand. “It is a manifestation of national desires. Amid the beginning of the countdown, it will be better for the rulers to solve the issue; otherwise, get ready for the agitation of PTI,” he added.

08 FOREIGN NEWS

Monday, 24 October, 2016

somali pirates free 26 hostages held for nearly five years s

oMAlI pirates have freed 26 Asian hostages held for nearly five years after the hijacking of their fishing vessel, the last commercial ship seized at the height of the country's piracy scourge, negotiators said Saturday.

The crew of the Naham 3, the second longest held hostage by Somali pirates, were taken captive when their omaniflagged vessel was seized in March 2012 south of the Seychelles.

“We are very pleased to announce the release of the Naham 3 crew early this morning,” said John Steed, coordinator of the Hostage Support Partners (HSP) who helped negotiate their release.

Steed, a retired British army colonel who has made it his mission to save “forgotten hostages” told AFP the mission to return the crew to their families still held one obstacle: extracting them from the

city of Galkayo, where fighting was raging between forces from the rival regional states of Puntland and Galmudug.

“There is fighting in Galkayo so it is very dangerous at the moment, they are exchanging artillery tonight. We will go in early tomorrow morning if the fighting stops and bring them back to Nairobi for medicals and a clean-up.”

Clashes in Galkayo have left at least 11 dead and over 50,000 displaced this month, the UN humanitarian agency said last week. once extracted, the crew, from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, will be returned to their home countries and families.

“They have spent over four and a half years in deplorable conditions away from their families,” said Steed.

He said the crew was malnourished and one of the hostages had a bullet wound in his foot, another had had a

stroke and another was suffering from diabetes. Pirates initially took 29 crew hostage, but one person died during the hijacking, and two more “succumbed to illness” during their captivity, said a statement from oceans Beyond Piracy (oBP).

Peril and heroisM: Steed said negotiations -- which took 18 months -- involved mediation with community, tribal and religious leaders. He declined to comment on the exact details but said the road to the hostages being freed was filled with peril and “heroism”.

The Naham 3 was originally tethered to another hijacked vessel, the MV Albedo, which was seized in November 2010 and released by the HSP in 2014.

When the MV Albedo began to sink “these guys jumped into the waters and rescued the drowning crew”, Steed said.

He said when the Naham 3 sank, a year after its capture, “these guys were

Trump attacks media, vows to sue accusers

GETTSYBURG AGENCIES

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump promised on Saturday to foil a proposed deal for AT&T to buy Time Warner if he wins the Nov. 8 election, arguing it was an example of a "power structure" rigged against both him and voters.

Trump, whose candidacy has caused ruptures in his party, listed his policy plans for the first 100 days of his presidency in a campaign speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, near the site of a Civil War battlefield and a celebrated address by President Abraham lincoln.

But he also defiantly raised personal grievances, describing how, if elected, he would address them from the White House in a way he said would benefit Americans.

The speech was billed by his campaign as a major outlining of his policies and principles. Many of the policy ideas Trump listed on Saturday were familiar, not least his promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico to deter illegal immigration and to renegotiate trade deals and to scrap the obamacare health policy.

Moments after promising Americans that he represented a hopeful break from the status quo, he promised to sue nearly a dozen women who have come forward in the last two weeks to accuse him of sexual assault, calling them liars.

And he added a new threat to his repeated castigation of US media corporations, which he says cover his campaign unfairly to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

"They´re trying desperately to suppress my vote and the voice of the American people," Trump, who often

rails against media outlets and journalists covering his events, told supporters in his speech.

Trump has not provided evidence for his assertion that the election would be rigged.

"As an example of the power structure I´m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it´s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," Trump said.

Telecommunications company AT&T Inc has agreed in principle to buy Time Warner Inc, one of the country´s largest film and television companies, for about $85 billion and an announcement could be made as early as Saturday.

Trump also said he would look at "breaking" up the acquisition by Comcast Corp of the media company NBC Universal in 2013."Deals like this destroy democracy," he said in explaining his apparent deviation from the traditional Republican position that seeks to minimize the taxation and regulation of American companies.

Amazon. com Inc, the online retailer, should also be paying "massive taxes", Trump said, reminding voters that Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post, a newspaper whose coverage Trump dislikes.

Trump, a wealthy New York building developer and television star, acknowledged in a debate with Clinton on oct. 9 that he had used investment losses to avoid paying taxes.

The New York Times reported on oct. 1 that Trump´s declared loss of $916 million in 1995 was so large that he could legally have avoided paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.

At a campaign event later on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Clinton

criticized Trump´s stance on news outlets, noting that she receives negative coverage too.

"When he blows up at a journalist or criticizes the press and goes on and on and on - you know, I get criticized by the press," she said. "I believe that´s part of our democratic system."

In a statement, Clinton spokeswoman Christina Reynolds described the speech as "rambling, unfocused, full of conspiracy theories and attacks on the media, and lacking in any real answers for American families.”

ChanCe of a lifetiMe: Although Trump on Saturday described his plans at least in part as a response to his belief media organizations had treated him unfairly, he argued that less wealthy voters had even greater cause to worry.

"When a simple phone call placed with the biggest newspapers or television networks gets them wall-to-wall coverage with virtually no fact-checking whatsoever, here is why this is relevant to you," he said.

"If they can fight somebody like me who has unlimited resources to fight back, just look at what they could do to you, your jobs, your security, your education, your health care."

Trump, who has said he may not accept the election´s outcome if he loses, is trailing Clinton in most polls - although he has narrowed the gap according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.

Clinton maintained her commanding lead in the race to win the Electoral College, however, and claim the US presidency, a Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project poll released on Saturday showed.

Trump has bluntly said that Mexico will pay for the wall, an idea the Mexican government has scoffed at. He tweaked his language on Saturday, saying the United States would fully fund the wall with the understanding that Mexico would reimburse the cost.

Trump´s campaign was thrown into crisis two weeks ago when a 2005 video was released showing him bragging about groping and kissing women, prompting several prominent Republicans to announce they would not vote for him.

Since then, at least 10 women have said Trump made unwanted sexual advances, including groping or kissing, in incidents from the early 1980s to 2007, all of which Trump has denied.

then taken ashore where they have been ever since with pirates making increasingly irrational demands.”

“The release of the Naham 3 crew represents the end of captivity for the last remaining seafarers taken hostage during the height of Somali piracy,” he said.

Poor fisherMen left for years: only a crew of Thai fishermen, released in February last year after nearly five years in captivity, spent longer held

by Somali pirates.

Many of the hostages left languishing in the hands of pirates are poor fishermen.

“If you don't have insurance or you are a poor little ship no-one is going to help get you out,” said Steed.

The first major commercial vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2005 and the industry flourished in a country wracked by years of civil war and with few jobs and no central government.

Piracy became a major threat to international shipping and prompted interventions by the United Nations, European Union and NATo, while commercial vessels hired private armed guards aboard their vessels.

In 2012 Somali piracy cost the global economy between $5.7 and $6.1 billion (5.6 million euros) and at the peak in January 2011, Somali pirates held 736 hostages and 32 boats.

According to the oBP, while overall numbers are down in the Western Indian ocean, pirates in the region in 2015 attacked at least 306 seafarers. While there has not been a successful attack on a commercial vessel since 2012, there have been several on fishing boats and there are still 10 Iranian hostages taken in 2015 and three Kenyan kidnap victims -- one a very ill, paralysed woman -- in the hands of the pirates, said Steed. AGENCIES

Iraq parliament in surprise vote to ban alcohol Iraq's parliament on Saturday voted to ban the sale, import and production of alcohol, in a surprise move likely to anger some minorities but also to please influential religious parties.

Proponents of the ban argue that it is justified by the constitution, which prohibits any law contradicting Islam. But some opponents argue that it also violates the same constitution which guarantees the traditions of religious minorities.

According to an MP and a parliament official, the ban was a last-minute addition to a draft law on municipalities that caught the anti-ban camp flat-footed.

The law was also passed by MPs in Baghdad as all eyes were on the north of the country, where forces involved in Iraq's biggest military operation in years are battling the militant Islamic State (IS) group and moving to retake the city of Mosul.

“A law was passed today and article 14 of that law bans the import, production and sale of all kinds of alcohol,” Yonadam Kanna, a veteran Christian MP, told AFP on Saturday.

“Every violation of this law incurs a fine of 10 million to 25 million dinars (roughly $8,000 to $20,000),” he said.

Kanna vowed to appeal the law in a federal court. Alcohol is rarely offered in restaurants and hotels in Iraq, but consumption is relatively widespread, especially in Baghdad where scores of small shops selling alcoholic beverages can be found.

Iraq also has companies producing various types of alcohol, such as Farida beer or Asriya arak (a regional aniseflavoured spirit).

Kanna was furious after the vote, issued a statement and went on television to argue against the new law.

More drugs: “This article of the law goes against the constitution, which guarantees the freedoms of minorities,” he said.

Article 2 of the constitution says it “guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and guarantees the full religious rights of all individuals to freedom of religious belief and practice” such as Christians, Yazidis and Sabeans. Ammar Toma, an MP who voted in support of the ban, argued that it was the constitution that made it illegal to sell, produce or import alcoholic drinks. AGENCIES

World's oldest aircraft carrier receives fareWell NEWS DESK The world’s oldest aircraft carrier INS Viraat was given a grand farewell on Sunday after it served for more than five decades in India. The aircraft carrier served Indian navy for 30 years and British Royal Navy for 27 years, Times of India reported. Having been accorded a send-off, it is expected to be decommissioned at the end of the year. Reports suggested Indian navy has agreed to give the aircraft carrier to Andhara Pradesh government to ‘promote tourism’.

Turkey's ruling party has completed proposal on presidency, says PM ANKARA AGENCIES

Turkey’s ruling AK Party has finished working on its proposal for a constitutional change to create an executive presidency and is now ready to submit it to parliament, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sunday.

“We have finished our work for the new constitution and the executive presidency,” Yildirim said in a speech closing a two-day party conference. “What

we will do now is to take our proposition to the parliament as soon as possible, and leave it to the decision of the noble parliament.”

Members of the AKP have been meeting in the western Afyon province this weekend, with much of the focus on work related to the proposed executive presidency. President Tayyip Erdogan, who founded the AKP, has long sought a presidency with greater power. Critics fear the change could consolidate too much power in his hands.

Monday, 24 October, 2016

iraqi army drives daesh from christian region near mosul MOSUL

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AGENCIES

RAqI army troops on Saturday stormed into a Christian region that has been under Daesh (Islamic State) control since 2014 as part of USbacked operations to clear the entrances to Mosul, the militants' last major city stronghold in Iraq.

The advance took place as US Defense Secretary Ash Carter met Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad to evaluate the campaign that began on Monday with air and ground support from the USled coalition.

A military statement said Iraqi units entered the center of qaraqosh, a mainly Christian town about 20 km (13 miles) southeast of Mosul, and were carrying out mopup operations across the town.

Further action was underway to seize a neighboring Christian village, Karamless, also known as Karemlash in the Syriac language. The region's population fled in the summer of 2014, when Daesh swept in.

Earlier this week, Iraqi special units also captured Bartella, a Christian village north of qaraqosh.

A US military official estimated there were fewer than a couple of hundred Daesh fighters in qaraqosh. "I've seen berms in qaraqosh. I anticipate there'll be trenches, there'll be passageways between different buildings," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Biggest Battle sinCe 2003” The offensive on Mosul is expected to become the biggest battle fought in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 and it could re-

quire a massive humanitarian relief operation.

Some 1.5 million residents remain in the city and worst-case scenario forecasts see up to a million being uprooted, according to the United Nations. UN aid agencies said the fighting has so far forced about 6,000 to flee their homes.

The army is trying to advance from the south and the east while Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are holding fronts in the east and north.

Iraqi forces have advanced to five km (three miles) from Mosul and there are signs of revolt against the group, the interior minister of the Kurdish regional government, Karim Sinjar, said in an interview on Saturday in Erbil. on the southern front, nearly 1,000 people were treated for breathing problems linked to toxic fumes from a sulfur plant that Daesh militants are suspected to have set on fire on Thursday, said sources at the hospital of qayyara, reporting no deaths at the medical facility itself.

The fumes prompted US forces at Iraq's qayyara West airfield to put on protective masks.

A cloud of white smoke blanketed the region to the north, where the factory is located, mingling with black fumes from oil wells that the militants torched to cover their moves.

The Iraqi army's media office said about 50 villages had been taken from the militants since Monday in operations to prepare the main thrust into Mosul itself, where 5,000 to 6,000 Daesh fighters are dug in, according to Iraqi estimates.

Daesh also controls parts of Syria. The warring parties are not announcing casualties, with each claiming to have killed hundreds of enemy fighters since Monday.

Daesh is relying mainly on suicide car bombs, roadside bombs, mines, sniper and mortar fire to counter the charge of the Iraqi units trained by the United States to deal specifically with this kind of warfare.

"The campaign is proceeding according to plan and the schedule

that we've had," Carter said after meeting Abadi. The Iraqi prime minister, however, rejected any Turkish participation in the campaign.

Carter signaled during a visit to Ankara on Friday his support for a possible Turkish role and said there was an agreement in principle between Baghdad and Ankara -- potentially ending a source of tension.

"I know that the Turks want to participate, we tell them thank you, this is something the Iraqis will handle," Abadi said after meeting with Carter. "If help is needed, we will ask for it from Turkey or from other regional countries." oil-riCh KirKuK retaKen: Roughly 5,000 US personnel are in Iraq. More than 100 of them are embedded with Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces involved with the Mosul offensive, advising commanders and helping ensure coalition air power hits the right targets.

The militants retaliated to the advance of the Iraqi forces and the Kurdish fighters in Mosul by attacking on Friday Kirkuk, an oil city that lies east Hawija, a pocket they continue to control between Baghdad and Mosul.

Authorities in Kirkuk regained control of the city on Saturday and partially lifted a curfew declared after the militants stormed police stations and other buildings. The region's oil producing facilities were not damaged.

At least 50 people have been killed and 80 others wounded in clashes between security forces and the militants in Kirkuk, according to a hospital sources. Four Iranians doing maintenance work at a power station were among the dead, they said.

Two suspected 'terrorists' killed in Russian city MOSCOW AGENCIES

Russian security forces have shot dead two people suspected of “terrorism” carrying explosives in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing law enforcement sources.

An explosion during the operation injured two special police officers, while a third suspect was detained alive, reports said. “law enforcement officers stopped a car, two suspects resisted arrest and were liquidated on the spot. Explosives were found in the car,” TASS state news agency quoted a source as saying.

The special operation is reportedly taking place in a residential area of Nizhny Novgorod, an industrial city of more than 1 million on the banks of the Volga River, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Moscow.

A law enforcement source told RIA Novosti: “They have shot dead two (people) suspected of

terrorism. They were driving in a Daewoo Nexia car. Now FSB (security force) officers are working at the scene.” There was no immediate official confirmation of the reports. Such special operations are frequent in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus but are rare in the central region where most Russians live.

A law enforcement source quoted by TASS named those killed as “members of illegal armed groups,” a term also used by officials to describe insurgents in the North Caucasus. Two special police officers were wounded in an explosion

during the operation, TASS reported, citing a local police source. “The officers suffered blast injuries as the result of an explosion. They have been taken to hospital, the source said. A third suspect was detained alive, Interfax news agency said, quoting a regional law enforcement official.

A Rossiya 24 state television correspondent reported that details of the incident would only be released on Monday. The regional branch of the FSB security service told Interfax news agency that “until urgent investigative steps are finished, we will not comment. later we plan an official press release.” local media posted photographs from social networking sites apparently showing two bodies lying on the ground close to a car with doors open, as vehicles and security officers block the nearby road in a suburb called Tsvety.

A robotic device can also be seen in the photograph. TASS reported that the anti-mine robot was used to neutralise an explosive device in the car.

FOREIGN NEWS 09

first Woman to climb mount everest dies at 77 toKyo: The first woman to conquer Mount Everest, Junko Tabei of Japan, died aged 77, media reported Saturday. Tabei died of peritoneal cancer on Thursday at a hospital in Saitama, north of Tokyo, Japan´s public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said, quoting her family. She completed the first conquest of Mount Everest by a woman in 1975, accomplishing the feat via the southeast ridge route. She went on to conquer soaring peaks in several continents -- Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mount McKinley in the United States and the Vinson Massif in Antarctica -- heralding the era of women climbers. Even after reaching the world´s highest peak, the Fukushima native continued climbing mountains at home and abroad.

In an interview with AFP in 2003, she said: "I don´t have the desire to climb Everest again any more. If I had enough time and money to do so, I would rather climb other mountains that I have not attempted before." Her last challenge was made in July when she climbed Mount Fuji, central Japan, with high school students, according to NHK. AGENCIES

Japan park blasts claim one life toKyo: one person was killed and at least two injured by two near-simultaneous blasts in a Japanese park on Sunday, the local fire department said. The explosions occurred at a park in Utsunomiya, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Tokyo, shortly after 11:30 am (0230 GMT), a fire department spokesman said. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts. "one person was found dead," the fire department spokesman told AFP, without elaborating further. Public broadcaster NHK said a body badly damaged in the blast was found at a bicycle parking space for the park. "The sex and ages of the three are not known yet," another local fire department official said, adding that one blast hit the facility´s car park. The Yomiuri Shimbun daily said one of the parked cars exploded and burnt down two other vehicles there. Minutes later police found a scorched, dismembered man´s body inside the park, it said. A local festival was taking place there but was immediately called off following the blasts, it said. A man told NHK that he "smelled gunpowder in the area" after the explosions. NHK said the sites of the two explosions were around 200 metres aparts, and police found a paper believed to be a suicide note in one of the burnt cars. The vehicle was owned by a 72-year-old former member of the Self-Defence Forces, whose house in the Utsunomiya city had been destroyed in fire shortly before the explosions hit, it said. The man could not be reached, NHK said. Explosions of this kind are rare in Japan, although small pipe bombs blasts linked to extreme leftists occasionally hit near US military bases. AGENCIES

ADULT FILM ACTRESS ACCUSES TRUMP OF OFFERING HER $10,000 WASHINGTON AGENCIES

An adult film actress on Saturday became the latest woman to accuse Donald Trump of unwanted sexual advances, saying the Republican presidential candidate offered her $10,000 to come to his hotel room alone.

Jessica Drake is one of at least 11 women to have alleged that the real estate billionaire groped them, made inappropriate remarks or forcibly kissed them.

Speaking during a los Angeles news conference accompanied by the highprofile discrimination lawyer Gloria Allred, Drake said she met Trump at a golf tournament in lake Tahoe, California in 2006.

“He flirted with me and invited me to walk along the golf course with him,” she

said, adding that he asked her to his hotel room. She went along with two other women, Drake said.

Wearing pajamas when they entered, Trump “grabbed each of us tightly in a hug and kissed each one of us without asking permission.” He also asked what it was like to film pornography, Drake said.

After she returned to her room, Drake said, Trump called her asking her to return to his suite and invited her to a party.

“What do you want? How much?” she said Trump asked her.

After she declined, Drake said, she received another call either from Trump or another man offering $10,000 and use of Trump’s private plane to fly home to los Angeles if she were to accept.

During Saturday’s news conference, Allred — who also represents two other women who accuse Trump of unwanted

sexual advances — showed a photograph of Trump and Drake at the golf tournament. Trump’s campaign denied the

CMYK

Drake’s allegations.

“This story is totally false and ridiculous,” it said in a statement. “Mr Trump

does not know this person, does not remember this person and would have no interest in ever knowing her.”

“This is just another attempt by the Clinton campaign to defame a candidate who just today is number one in three different polls,” it added of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump has seen his campaign spiral downward in recent weeks ahead of the November 8 election after a number of women made allegations that he sexually assaulted them — claims he again insisted on Saturday were false.

He also threatened to take legal action against all the “liars” that have claimed to be victims of his sexual assaults.

“The events never happened. Never.

All of these liars will be sued after the election is over,” he said during a campaign rally.

10 COMMENT

Monday, 24 October, 2016

Renaissance and historiography

Double, double, toil and trouble Appointing the new COAS

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he PMLN government which is used to nominating acting heads of vital government departments when cronies are not readily available faces a dilemma in the appointment of the new COAS as in this case ad hoc appointments are not permissible. The decision continues to be delayed despite the fact that the appointment has to be made by the end of next month.

There is a perception that the recent tension between the government and the army caused by the leakage of a high level security meeting has added to government’s worries which was already looking for a safe COAS. The government has had enough time to take the decision. The process for the selection of the COAS should have begun soon after Gen Raheel Sharif announced last year that he would not seek extension.

What is more the Prime Minister is no novice. Of the seven army chiefs after Gen Zia, five were handpicked

by Nawaz Sharif. The Prime Minster should have understood by now that any general appointed to the powerful post would soon become his own man.

Further, the only realistic way to keep the army within its constitutional limits is to strengthen democratic institutions, practice good governance and instead of acting arbitrarily take the opposition along.

The Prime Minister would have received the dossier of all the generals eligible to be army chiefs from the Ghq along with the views of Gen Raheel Sharif. The intelligence reports about the generals’ views about the system, war on terror and relations with India and the US would also have been on his table gathering dust.

This should help him to take a decision at the earliest.

There are some who think that instead of making a personal choice the safest way would be to abide by the principle of seniority. This implies that while the senior most four star officer from any of the three services can be made the CJSC the post of the COAS has to go to the senior most army general.

Not the time for Dar-isms With PTI on war path, the ball is in the government’s court

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ShAq Dar’s outburst yesterday was just another indication of the tension that’s mounting between the PTI and the government. What should have been averted a long time ago has turned in to what looks like a sit in reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Dharna.

Whether or not one agrees with Imran Khan’s plans, the fact remains that of the two actors at play (the PTI chairman and the government), he’s the only one who has announced any plans at all. And while his plans to block all routes to government buildings, shut down schools and effectively lock down the capital are not the most responsible ways of making a statement, Ishaq Dar’s assurance that the lockdown would not proceed wasn’t the most reassuring one. Particularly when it was accompanied by a statement like “Imran Khan will never be Prime Minister, he shouldn’t be jealous, it’s just not in his qismat (fate)”.

Such talk indicates primitive thinking, which is not expected from the country’s finance minister.

What it did not indicate was what the government was going to do to ensure that the government offices and the lives of the people of the federal capital would not be disrupted by the disgruntled PTI, short of arresting its party members (which IK has assured will be met with strict opposition and pressurising of the police).

One would think that such an important representative of the government would take more care with what he says on record, knowing full well how his words will be interpreted by both the general public and the opposition.

And speaking of the opposition, the government has yet to indicate any interest in talks with them. These talks are particularly vital because, should the government agree to the Opposition’s ToRs, this could possibly lead to negotiations with the PTI. All eyes are now on the prime minister as the ball is in the government’s court.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor

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

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Mubarak ali

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he movement of Renaissance not only challenged the authority of the Church but also critically examined the social, political and cultural traditions of the society and made attempt to radically changed the intellectual mind of it. Francesco Petrarca (d. 1374), poet & scholar was the first who condemned the middle ages as the dark period of european history. To get rid of this period the Renaissance scholars found out alternative in the classical period of Rome in Greece. especially Roman period inspired them because of this grandeur and glory. The object of the Scholars was to secularise the mind of people with the help of Greek and Roman philosophical ideas. The problem was lack of resources. Most of the literature was either destroyed or kept in some unknown monasteries and libraries. however, the enthusiasm was on its height. Scholars in search of manuscripts, visited old monasteries and libraries and brought them to light after a long neglected period. In 1455, the Roman historian Tacitus (d. 117AD) the author of Germania and Agricola was discovered which added immense knowledge related to the Roman empire and its expansion.

Some manuscripts were brought to Constantinople after its fall in 1453 and translated them from Greek into Latin. The next important task was to correct them from the mistakes which they contained. The study of philology helped these scholars to correct or delete the insertions which were made by the scribe while copying them.

Printing press facilitated printing manuscripts

and made them easily available to Researchers litical experience, as these countries suffered by & Scholars. The discovery of ancient classical repeated invasions and aggressions of Western literature was like finding a new world to schol- european countries which had changed their ars where the treasure of ideas and thoughts borders, Rulers and culture. As a result strong changed the intellectual perspective about the nationalism developed among the eastern euroworld. In the new curriculum which was intro- pean nations. They were not interested to trace duced by the humanist scholars, history was their roots of civilisation from Rome or Greece given important place to study. This brought because those countries committed aggression and destruction belonged to radical change in history this group, therefore they writing. So far in the past, had no interest to revive the it was hand made of Theolglory of Rome and Greece. ogy and interpreted it acTheir main object was to incording to religious faith. spire their people on the Renaissance historians and Francesco Guicciardini’s basis of nationalism and politicians changed its whole structure and con- (d.1540) book on the History after achieving unity revive their own past. Therefore, structed it on secular basis. of Italy (Storia d’Italia) was history was not only used The history was written from 1450 to 1550 ob- written on the same pattern. politically but also interpreted quite differently than served these changes which In fact he tried to find the Western Renaissance we can find especially in historians and attempt was The History of Florence out philosophy of history made to assert their superiwritten by Niccolò Machiwhich added respect and ority over Western euroavelli (d.1527). he also pean countries. wrote Discourses on the importance to the The same nationalistic Roman history of Livy, sentiments were emerged who was the leading discipline of history. in the Germany, which was Roman historian. When his so far not a united country book was published, its but divided into 300 small index was made by his faStates and Duchies. Gerther and he got a free copy man scholars were either to in exchange from the Publisher. Machiavelli got the opportunity to study enhance their status compare to France. Thereit and wrote a commentary on some important fore they claimed that their empire was older topics of the book which were also relevant to than Rome and Greece. They were also proud his time. Francesco Guicciardini’s (d.1540) that the German tribes resisted the mighty of the book on the History of Italy (Storia d’Italia) was Roman empire and finally caused its downfall. written on the same pattern. In fact he tried to The element of nationalism in history writing find out philosophy of history which added re- provided a new enthusiasm among the nations spect and importance to the discipline of history. to rediscover and search their past and build the The impact of Renaissance was not only on nation on historical basis.

Italy and Western europe but it also influenced Mubarak Ali is one of the pioneers of eastern european countries who developed their own concept of history on the basis of their po- alternate history in the country.

Changes in car dynamics And its impact

abbas Hasan

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motor car is the second most expensive purchase – after a home that any person would make in his or her lifetime.

As an industry it is worth almost one trillion dollars globally, cities and their economies rose or fell based on the car industry.

Toyota has an entire city called Toyota city that includes production plants as well as its suppliers all subscribing to the just in time building technique, to cut down on inventory, the parts are supplied only minutes before they are to be incorporated into the vehicle.

Globally in 2015 over 73 million new vehicles were registered, of those 17 million are registered in the US alone, and while the biggest market in the world in China where over 20 million vehicles were registered in 2015. Germany is the largest market in europe with almost 3.2 million, (europe as a whole was 14.2 million), while 3 million were registered in Japan and just over 2 million vehicles were registered in India. experts are of the view that the car industry is currently at an inflection point and about to undergo a rapid change, similar to others, such as communications industry. There are three main drivers that will influence this namely

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

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-i) The rapid improvement of electric pow- finding based on satellite navigation as well as 360 degree sensors that can sense and respond to ered vehicles, ii) The introduction of self-driving cars and any moving object including the ability to distiniii) the change from ownership to rental of vehi- guish between windblown plastic bags, cyclists or even birds in flight. The sensors with the help cles.

All these will have their own implications in of the on board computer can help identify obchanging the relationship between humans and jects and ensure that the car follows certain lanes avoiding any collision even if the objects move cars.

Currently most cars are petrol or diesel driven, rapidly in its path. To date the Google self-drive although externally similar internally they are cars have driven over two million miles with very different, with over 70 percent of an electric only one reported accident.

The idea that a vehicle will take you to whervehicles components different than its Internal Combustion (IC) counterpart. The IC engine has ever you wish at a press of a button or controlled by a telephone will mean many more moving parts, that most people will not carburetors that mix the fuel own a car but rather only with air, cylinders where the rent it on a need basis. So fuel is ignited, cooling syscar if rented and not driven tem to prevent the engine by the owner then so long as from overheating, exhaust Experts are of the it is safe and reliable most system that evacuate the burnt air, oil pump and lubriview that the car industry people will purchase expensive and or high performcating system, generator for is currently at an inflection ance vehicles but rather the electrical system, catcomfortable utilitarian ones, alytic convertors for pollupoint and about to where whole life costs tion control etc. (ownership and operating) On the other hand the undergo a rapid change, will trump the bling factor. electric car has four basic similar to others, such as Another major impact power components, an electric motor, charger, batteries communications industry. this will have is on planning of cities. Currently almost and the plc control mechaforty percent of a city space nism. The nature of electric is taken up by area required motors is that they have a for roads and parking, in high torque and therefore some cities such as Los Ansuch vehicles can accelerate rapidly and switched off completely when the car geles this is as high as fifty percent. however if is stationary. But importantly electric vehicle cars are only for pick and drop then the demand maintenance requirements (due to less moving for parking will not be there, similarly the road parts) are less and accordingly maintenance costs widths may be reduced due to higher utilisation are lower. Therefore once the cumbersome issue and increased occupancy due to shared rides. of a reliable battery has been solved electric cars The world is changing rapidly, so if I were you I will be cheaper than internal combustion cars to would not rush to buy the new BMW just yet as operate, but more importantly are easier to control its price may not be what you think ten years from today. remotely and hence the future self-driven cars.

Many companies including Google and othAbbas Hasan is an engineer and a cricket ers have been experimenting with self-drive cars these are vehicles that can move around without fan who works in the Middle East. He can be any drivers but based on an ability for direction reached on Twitter at: @A3bbasHasan

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

COMMENT 11

Monday, 24 October, 2016

Editor’s mail

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

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

More efforts needed to prevent TB The recent Global Tuberculosis Report by World health Organization stressed that more efforts are needed to prevent, detect, and treat the disease if we are to meet global targets. The report also signaled the need for bold political commitment and increased funding as well. Since Pakistan is also one of the countries bearing the brunt of tuberculosis therefore, every effort should be made to end this tuberculosis epidemic as nothing is more important than health of the people at large. Only words will not do anything until they are followed by actions.

SHEHAr BAno SyEd Lahore

Educational facilities for disabled persons

The Kashmir conundrum How will the valley find peace?

abuzar salMan kHan niazi

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ATURe has blessed the valley of Kashmir with an inimitable class of charm, exquisiteness and splendor ; scenes of, rich verdant mountain sides, snow covered tops gleaming in one side, lush green fields, crystal clear springs, glittering rivers, roaring waterfalls and singing larks are tremendously mesmerising. Air is so clear there that one is often misled about the distance of objects, considering them much nearer than they actually are. Glimpse of this wild desolate haunt of nature is a magnificent sight, surrounded as it is by snow-peaks, like a diadem or an amphitheatre of Zeus, the Greek god.

Since 1947 the people of this beautiful valley (IhK) are continuously battling against episodes of state sponsored terrorism, torture, extra-judicial killings, unjust persecution and horrendous war crimes. Kashmiris inherent right to self determination has become a pipedream; one gets, astounded by scenes of unchecked Indian brutalities, disturbed by nonseriousness of our ruling elite and perturbed by indifferent attitude of international community.

For how long Kashmir would be simmering pot and a flash point for a nuclear holocaust between the two neighboring countries? This is a question, which haunted the minds of all those who remained part of the problem and also, paradoxically, tried to solve it, though, for outward consumption of the International community or the local inhabitants, but, without any success.

After partition, many formulas, to solve the jigsaw through open or back door diplomacy between India and Pakistan, were tested but all proved a far cry.

To search answers for the questions posed above, one needs to dig down the historical underpinnings of the problem. In October 1947, in the backdrop of massive riots taking place across the borders especially in both Punjabs and Dehli, Liaquat Ali Khan arrived in Dehli to attend a meeting where Mountbatten was in the Chair and the moot issue was how to defuse the Junagadh crisis. Nehru suggested that India would accept the results of any free and fair plebiscite or referendum of Junagadhs’ citizens, asking them which dominion they preferred to join. Mountbatten immediately pointed out that, as a statement of policy,

Nehru’s offer would apply to any other state whose accession remained in doubt. A vote would obviously go India’s way in huge hyderabad; both there and in Junagadh, hindus outnumbered Muslims four to one.

But there remained a last kingdom that had yet not allied with either dominion. Nehru nodded his head sadly; Liaquat Ali’s eyes sparkled. Mountbatten wrote afterward describing the scene for the King. “And there is no doubt that the same thought was in each of their minds: ‘Kashmir”. however, despite Nehru’s outward friendly gestures and advocacy of democratic values, Kashmir problem remained unresolved. Nehru’s non-resolution legacy of Kashmir issue remained the policy of every successive Indian Government and mantras of Kashmir being the inseparable India resonated at all forums.

The legend of Burhan Wani and the unremitting defiance which the Kashmiris are presently posing cannot be overlooked; India must realise that the current movement is overwhelmingly native and it cannot be squeezed by force or phony propaganda. Indisputably the indigenous freedom movement as now has blown into full scale ‘Intifada’ and Kashmiri youth are writing the freedom history not only with sustained toil but with bloodletting in every street and house of occupied Kashmir. In past, India has successfully portrayed the movement as ignited and funded by Pakistan through proxies, but this time due to profoundly indigenous origin of struggle, it has now becoming increasingly difficult for India to hide behind the rhetoric of cross border terrorism.

India’s current stance on Kashmir is slowly losing its weight as the international media has started exposing ruthless atrocities and human rights violations of Indian forces in the valley. Kashmiri youth are up against the mighty killing machine of India, gradually the world community is starting to realise the gravity of the situation, however, still a lot needs to be done as the International community is not sufficiently forthcoming and India is not feeling any heightened pressure to come to terms with rapidly changing ground realities in Kashmir.

Pakistan has an apt opportunity to expose the Indian wickedness and enlighten the world about the genuineness of the movement and let India face international condemnation and embarrassment. however, if Pakistan continues with the mantra of Bad versus Good Talban/proxies, then the price for this policy is ‘International Isolation’. The self-proclaimed custodians and non state actors driven by selfinterests should not be allowed to dictate foreign policy formulation of Pakistan. If Pakistan at this critical juncture is left isolated, then, India would be better placed to sell to the World, that the freedom struggle in Kashmir is not indigenous rather Pakistan sponsored proxy war. This idea, though sham, will be readily accepted by those powers that have soft corner for India and thus Kashmir cause will adversely suffer on international arena.

India needs to be reminded of the fact that

magnification of isolation theory will not cloak the heinous crimes it is committing in Kashmir.

This isolation theory got latest thrashing in the recent held BRICS summit in Goa, India wherein Modi tried to highlight Indian grievances against Pakistan and its involvement in Uri attack. however, Modi’s efforts were backfired when no member of the BRICS was really seen impressed by Modi to drag the group into speaking against Pakistan.

Furthermore, India’s stance that that Kashmir issue is bilateral and needs to be fixed by India and Pakistan is flawed as past history of seventy years of wars, dialogues and broken dialogues leave very little optimism that Kashmiris would in near future get the right of self-determination unless international powers plays an active role towards its fulfillment.

In Pakistan, although the media in general and social media in particular is often abuzz with the news on Kashmir, but the recent history of General elections held in 2013 reflect otherwise; during election campaigns, Kashmir issue was hardly the main focus of any major political party. The seriousness of the sitting Parliamentarians can be gauged from the fact that only 19% backed the ‘Unanimous Kashmir Resolution’ in recent held joint sitting of the Parliament. Nominal attendance and the nonchalant attitude of the Parliamentarians in taking the issue and debate seriously are not only deplorable but also do not augur well to send the message across the border and to the International community about our collective seriousness on the issue.

Kashmir cause to a great extent has also suffered due to extreme hatreds both countries relish in the aftermath of partition whereby millions of people belonging to various faiths were butchered, mutilated and displaced. Surely, this nonsensical mayhem created the long lasting psychological effects of indelible nature in the minds of the populace of those areas who suffered the most i.e. Punjab. Amid war hysteria and nationalistic cries, atmosphere for fruitful dialogue has never come into existence; as a result, the only solution to Kashmir issue which has been preached is warfare.

Both the neighbors need to realise gravity of the situation and join hands for peaceful solution through dialogues and only dialogues, and let sanity prevail instead of emotions and jingoism. hawks in India (Modi himself, media personnel like Goswami, Shiv Sena) and Pakistan (Punjabi establishment and its offshoots) are living under a wrong impression that a fullfledged war between both the countries will determine who will eventually prevail, any future misadventure between two nuclear countries will be tragedy of the most grievous kind as there will be no conquerors; only thing left behind will be masses living in abject poverty and wretched state of affairs, in case, if they are able to survive the catastrophe. As Bertrand Russell rightly said “War does not determine who is right-only who is left”.

The writer is an advocate based in Lahore.

He can be contacted on Twitter at: @SalmanKniazi1

IT is indeed good to note that besides providing jobs in government departments and in the private sector establishments as well, the Punjab Government has taken a number of measures to facilitate the persons with various disabilities for getting education in the colleges and universities for graduation and masters in the subjects of their choice.

Little more than 600 highly-educated persons suffering from disabilities have gotten employed in the colleges and universities all over the province.

As for facilities for seeking higher education by disabled persons are concerned, there is no age limit for taking admission in any educational institution all over the province, all educational charges including tuition fee, hostel fee and utility charges on admission in the public sector universities and colleges have been waived off and on admission in public sector university disabled persons are awarded lap tops as incentive and also provided wheel chairs on passing out from the university.

Not only this, one seat is reserved for persons with disabilities in educational institutions for higher qualifications i.e. M.Phil and Ph.D. If any disabled person desires to sit in the Central Superior Services competitive examination, he is allowed a helper to sit with him.

These are only some of the appreciable and commendable measures which the Punjab Government has taken for facilitating the disabled persons in seeking higher level education even.

Government departments and private sector institutions are requested to highlight the disabled persons including visually impaired persons if they are holding some important job or achieve good results in the examinations. This will encourage the philanthropists to also come forward and help the disable persons who are keen to seek higher education in any educational institution of the province.

People at large are also requested to advise and help the disabled persons who are seen begging on roads and in crossings to get education and qualify for some government or private job and thus be able to lead respectable life. This is our individual as well as collective social and moral obligation, please.

M. Z. Lahore

Dengue fever DeNGUe fever seems to have launched full-fledge attacked on the people of Lahore. Cases of dengue fever are being reported from different localities quite regularly without any let up.

Punjab’s Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been reviewing dengue fever situation every now and then and issuing directions to health officials concerned to remain vigilant, keep monitoring and motivate the people to take preventive measures.

But quite regretfully health officials down the line and field staff somehow are not translating the directions of the Chief Minister into action in letter and spirit. Spray against dengue fever do not seem to be undertaking in most localities as a result of which more and more dengue fever cases are being reported in different hospitals also every day.

The Chief Minister should please pull up health officials concerned and reports about dengue fever on a day to day basis.

Those not performing their duties efficiently and properly in this regard should be given stern warning. The Chief Minister who is known to be hard task master is quite obviously very much concerned about healthcare of the people at large and hopefully will not spare lethargic health officials either.

The people themselves should also be taking preventive measures not allowing stagnation of water, garbage etc inside and outside their houses. Print and electronic media should also motivate the people in prevention and fighting against dengue fever. Please remember healthy people make healthy nation and a healthy nation keeps working hard for progress, development and prosperity.

M. ZAHid riFAT LAHorE

12 years of service The news that Rescue 1122 has successfully completed 12 years of excellent emergency service delivery in all 36 districts of the province is commendable and brings to light the fact that since commencement, it has rescued around 4.3 million victims of different emergencies. however, keeping in view the alarming increase in fire incidents and roadside accidents, it is hoped that this emergency service would continue maintain the service standard and work in cohesion in order to build a safer Pakistan. dAniA ALi Lahore

12 WORLD VIEW

Monday, 24 October, 2016

Noam Chomsky has 'Never seeN aNythiNg like this' TruThdig

N

ChRis hedges

OAM Chomsky is America’s greatest intellectual. His massive body of work, which includes nearly 100 books, has for decades deflated and exposed the lies of the power elite and the myths they perpetrate. Chomsky has done this despite being blacklisted by the commercial media, turned into a pariah by the academy and, by his own admission, being a pedantic and at times slightly boring speaker. He combines moral autonomy with rigorous scholarship, a remarkable grasp of detail and a searing intellect. He curtly dismisses our twoparty system as a mirage orchestrated by the corporate state, excoriates the liberal intelligentsia for being fops and courtiers and describes the drivel of the commercial media as a form of “brainwashing.”

And as our nation’s most prescient critic of unregulated capitalism, globalization and the poison of empire, he enters his 81st year warning us that we have little time left to save our anemic democracy.

“It is very similar to late Weimar Germany,” Chomsky told me when I called him at his office in Cambridge, Mass.

“The parallels are striking. There was also tremendous disillusionment with the parliamentary system. The most striking fact about Weimar was not that the Nazis managed to destroy the Social Democrats and the Communists but that the traditional parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, were hated and disappeared. It left a vacuum which the Nazis very cleverly and intelligently managed to take over.”

“The United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen,” Chomsky went on. “Every charismatic figure is such an obvious crook that he destroys himself, like McCarthy or Nixon or the evangelist preachers. If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response.

What are people supposed to think if someone says ‘I have got an answer, we have an enemy’? There it was the Jews.

Here it will be the illegal immigrants and the blacks. We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves and the honor of the nation. Military force will be exalted. People will be beaten up.

This could become an overwhelming force. And if it happens it will be more dangerous than Germany. The United States is the world power. Germany was powerful but had more powerful antago-

nists. I don’t think all this is very far away. If the polls are accurate it is not the Republicans but the right-wing Republicans, the crazed Republicans, who will sweep the next election.”

“I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Chomsky added. “I am old enough to remember the 1930s. My whole family was unemployed. There were far more desperate conditions than today. But it was hopeful. People had hope. The CIO was organizing. No one wants to say it anymore but the Communist Party was the spearhead for labor and civil rights organizing.

E v e n things like giving my unemployed seamstress aunt a week in the country. It was a life. There is nothing like that now. The mood of the country is frightening. The level of anger, frustration and hatred of institutions is not organized in a constructive way. It is going off into selfdestructive fantasies.”

“I listen to talk radio,” Chomsky said. “I don’t want to hear Rush Limbaugh. I want to hear the people calling in. They are like [suicide pilot] Joe Stack. What is happening to me? I have done all the right things.

I am a God-fearing Christian. I work hard for my family. I have a gun. I believe in the values of the country and my life is collapsing.”

Chomsky has, more than any other American intellectual, charted the downward spiral of the American political and economic system, in works such as “On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures,” “Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and US Political Culture,” “A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West,” “Understanding Power: The

Indispensable Chomsky,” “Manufacturing Consent” and “Letters From Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda.” He reminds us that genuine intellectual inquiry is always subversive. It challenges cultural and political assumptions. It critiques structures. It is relentlessly selfcritical. It implodes the self-indulgent myths and stereotypes we use to elevate ourselves and ignore our complicity in acts of violence and oppression. And it makes the powerful, as well as their liberal apologists, deeply uncomfortable.

Chomsky reserves his fiercest venom for the liberal elite in the press, the universities and the political system who serve as a s m o k e screen for the cruelty of

unchecked capitalism and imperial war. He exposes their moral and intellectual posturing as a fraud. And this is why Chomsky is hated, and perhaps feared, more among liberal elites than among the right wing he also excoriates. When Christopher Hitchens decided to become a windup doll for the Bush administration after the attacks of 9/11, one of the first things he did was write a vicious article attacking Chomsky. Hitchens, unlike most of those he served, knew which intellectual in America mattered.

“I don’t bother writing about Fox News,” Chomsky said. “It is too easy.

What I talk about are the liberal intellectuals, the ones who portray themselves and perceive themselves as challenging power, as courageous, as standing up for truth and justice. They are basically the guardians of the faith. They set the limits.

They tell us how far we can go. They say, ‘Look how courageous I am.’ But do not go one millimeter beyond that. At least for the educated sectors, they are the most dangerous in supporting power.”

Chomsky, because he steps outside of every group and eschews all ideologies, has been crucial to American discourse for decades, from his work on the Vietnam War to his criticisms of the Obama administration. He stubbornly maintains his position as an iconoclast, one who distrusts power in any form.

“Most intellectuals have a self-understanding of themselves as the conscience of humanity,” said the Middle East scholar Norman Finkelstein. “They revel in and admire someone like Vaclav Havel. Chomsky is contemptuous of Havel. Chomsky embraces the Julien Benda view of the world. There are two sets of principles. They are the principles of power and privilege and the principles of truth and justice. If you pursue truth and justice it will always mean a diminution of power and privilege. If you pursue power and privilege it will always be at the expense of truth and justice. Benda says that the credo of any true intellectual has to be, as Christ said, ‘my kingdom is not of this world.’ Chomsky exposes the pretenses of those who claim to be the bearers of truth and justice. He shows that in fact these intellectuals are the bearers of power and privilege and all the evil that attends it.”

“Some of Chomsky’s books will consist of things like analyzing the misrepresentations of the Arias plan in Central America, and he will devote 200 pages to it,” Finkelstein said. “And two years later, who will have heard of Oscar Arias? It causes you to wonder would Chomsky have been wiser to write things on a grander scale, things with a more enduring quality so that you read them forty or sixty years later. This is what Russell did in books like ‘Marriage and Morals.’ Can you even read any longer what Chomsky wrote on Vietnam and Central America?

The answer has to often be no. This tells you something about him. He is not writing for ego. If he were writing for ego he would have written in a grand style that would have buttressed his legacy. He is writing because he wants to effect political change. He cares about the lives of people and there the details count. He is trying to refute the daily lies spewed out by the establishment media. He could have devoted his time to writing philosophical treatises that would have endured like Kant or Russell. But he invested in the tiny details which make a difference to win a political battle.”

“I try to encourage people to think for themselves, to question standard assumptions,” Chomsky said when asked about his goals. “Don’t take assumptions for granted. Begin by taking a skeptical attitude toward anything that is conventional

wisdom. Make it justify itself. It usually can’t. Be willing to ask questions about what is taken for granted. Try to think things through for yourself. There is plenty of information. You have got to learn how to judge, evaluate and compare it with other things. You have to take some things on trust or you can’t survive.

But if there is something significant and important don’t take it on trust. As soon as you read anything that is anonymous you should immediately distrust it. If you read in the newspapers that Iran is defying the international community, ask who is the international community? India is opposed to sanctions. China is opposed to sanctions. Brazil is opposed to sanctions.

The Non-Aligned Movement is vigorously opposed to sanctions and has been for years. Who is the international community? It is Washington and anyone who happens to agree with it. You can figure that out, but you have to do work. It is the same on issue after issue.”

Chomsky’s courage to speak on behalf of those, such as the Palestinians, whose suffering is often minimized or ignored in mass culture, holds up the possibility of the moral life. And, perhaps even more than his scholarship, his example of intellectual and moral independence sustains all who defy the chant of the crowd to speak the truth.

“I cannot tell you how many people, myself included, and this is not hyperbole, whose lives were changed by him,” said Finkelstein, who has been driven out of several university posts for his intellectual courage and independence. “Were it not for Chomsky I would have long ago succumbed. I was beaten and battered in my professional life. It was only the knowledge that one of the greatest minds in human history has faith in me that compensates for this constant, relentless and vicious battering. There are many people who are considered nonentities, the so-called little people of this world, who suddenly get an e-mail from Noam Chomsky. It breathes new life into you.

Chomsky has stirred many, many people to realize a level of their potential that would forever be lost.”

Chris Hedges writes a regular column for Truthdig.com. Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times.

He is the author of many books, including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know About War, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.

The Philippines just blew up Obama's Asia Pivot BloomBerg eli lake

Does anyone remember President Barack Obama's pivot to Asia? The plan was to focus diplomatic and military assets in East Asia to contain a rising China. It was one of the reasons Obama said he was shrinking the American footprint in the Middle East.

Well, the pivot is failing. On Thursday, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, announced to an audience at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing a "separation" with the U.S. "America has lost now,” he said. "And maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way."

Two things should be said here.

First: Duterte is a crude vulgarian. He has called Obama a "son of a w****," and picked a fight with the pope. As a politician he is often compared to Donald Trump. As a president, he has acted like an authoritarian, waging a paramilitary war against his nation's drug users and drug dealers.

Second: Duterte's own government appears to have been kept out of the loop about this new alliance. On Friday, Duterte himself said he did not mean to imply that he would cut diplomatic ties with the U.S., but he has not backed away from his pledge to end military cooperation with the U.S., though others in his government have suggested he will back down.

Regardless, this is a big story. The Philippines has been an important U.S. ally since the beginning of the cold war. What's more, the Obama administration has invested in the country as part of its pivot to Asia. In 2014 the two countries signed an enhanced defense cooperation agreement.

When the Philippines brought a case against China at the Hague over China's artificial islands in its territorial waters, the U.S. supported the Philippines diplomatically.

In July, the Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines. This would have been an opportunity for the U.S. to turn the screws on China. But instead the Obama White House encouraged China and the Philippines to resolve the matter themselves after the ruling of the international tribunal.

At the end of August, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that the U.S. was not interested in "fanning the flames of conflict but rather trying to encourage the parties to resolve their disputes and claims through the legal process and through diplomacy."

Duterte has now taken Kerry's advice.

After announcing his country's new alignment with China, Duterte signed a series of trade agreements worth $13.5 billion, along with a promise to continue bilateral negotiations over the South China Sea. Dan Blumenthal, the director of Asia studies at the American Enterprise Institute, told me Friday that the Obama administration had fumbled. "After the tribunal deci-

sion, our response was to tell Duterte to tamp down tensions and talk bilaterally with China, and there was no evidence of follow-up by us in terms of our own military exercises or diplomatic initiatives to enforce the findings of the tribunal," he said. "There has been next to nothing on this. We still haven't had a Freedom of Navigation mission that actually challenges the Chinese artificial islands."

Is it any wonder then that Duterte concluded Obama wasn't serious about defending the rule of law in the South China Sea? Close watchers of the Filipino leader could have predicted this kind of thing. Before his campaign for the presidency in August 2015, he told supporters, "If America cared it would have sent aircraft carriers and missile frigates the moment China started reclaiming land in contested territory."

Of course America didn't do that. It didn't even send the Navy into Filipino territorial waters claimed by China in the South China Sea after an international tribunal ruled that those waters were Filipino.

Instead, the Obama administration acted as if international law would implement itself.

But it never works that way. The rule-based system Obama endorses requires a great power to defend it.

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist.

He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Raj Thackeray ka goonda raj in Bollywood Times of india RenukaBisht

Raj Thackeray is claiming victory, saying Ae Dil Hai Mushkil can be released now that its producers have agreed to pay Rs 5 crore for the Army Relief Fund, as ‘penance’ for signing Pakistani artistes. Attack on the film has been nakedly opportunistic and illogical. As MehboobaMufti said in Srinagar, “See, there is a fight on whether to show a film or not, but trade continues on the Wagah border.” AbhayDeol similarly has pointed out that filmmakers have been targeted while the rest of imports and exports continue unaddressed. He said, “It just looks like it gets you a lot of publicity and makes noise. I will support if you think banning anything to do with Pakistan is going to help our jawans.” Unfortunately the whole contretemps has only been about making political gains in the name of jawans. Now it looks like DevendraFadnavis has been party to negotiations where Maharashtra NavnirmanSena or MNS, which had threatened Ae Dil Hai Mushkil with vandalism, has basically arm-twisted the filmmakers to pay some sort of protection money. Other films like Raees and Dear Zindagi will also have to cough up the same. This sets a terrible precedent.

Vandals belong in jail. Instead they are getting to make the rules. Goonda raj has grown from demanding apologies to snatching monies.

LEISURE 13

Monday, 24 October, 2016

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

Putting your calendar in order sounds like a sensible thing to do today, but it may be challenging to follow through with your original plans when so many people seem to want a piece of your day.

Although your relatives might not understand your unpredictable behavior now, they are willing to put up with it until they determine if your plan is worth supporting. However, your current impatience.

Everyone seems to be talking up a storm today, but no one has the time to really listen. You have important things to say, but aren't sure how to work your newly formed ideas into the flow. Don't give.

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

You are lulled into a surreal mental space today, but the emotionally detached Aquarius Moon inspires you to use your intellect to interpret the mysterious symbols of your dreams.

However, this logical.

You don't want to be distracted by anyone now because you're trying to figure out how to navigate the current time crunch. Ultimately, you can create additional stress by concentrating on the future before.

You want to be an integral part of the social activities today but you don't like leaving a project only partially completed.

Thankfully, you can be quite methodical, enabling you to finish just in the.

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

Living in your dreamworld was fine for a little escape, but it's time to reclaim your power now by telling others what you want. Nevertheless, it's not a good idea to let your personal preferences stand.

You won't be satisfied with social pleasantries today unless they connect you with your friends and relatives on a deeper emotional level. However, your manner of expressing your needs can sound overly.

You may believe you have a practical strategy to complete your chores before indulging in any holiday festivities today.

However, your idealistic solution might fall apart once you start executing your.

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Social obligations are like the fly in your ointment today. You want to spend quality time with friends and family, but you resent the fact that they expect you to contribute to the day in specific ways.

You seem to be attracted to nearly anything that allows you to lose yourself into a crowd today.

But you won't be able to run away from your problems since you just keep bumping into the same issues again.

Reality is giving you permission now to luxuriate in the rich symbolism of your imagination.

Of course, you're no stranger to the act of invisibly slipping behind the veil of consciousness.

However, putting.

cRosswoRd

ACROSS 1 without delay (7-5) 9 Edible organs from a butchered animal (5) 10 Mild (7) 11 Naked person (4) 12 Not based on fact (8) 14 yolk (6) 15 Piece of material used to enlarge a garment (6) 18 Person or thing seen as comparable with another (8) 20 Slight (4) 22 final layer of paint (7) 23 Tadpole or caterpillar, say (5) 24 Once in a while (5,2,5) DOwn

woRd sEaRcH

2 Unbeliever (7) 3 Large seaweeds with leathery fronds (4) 4 Big cheese in business (6) 5 Plausible but false (8) 6 That extra hour or so in bed? (3-2) 7 Tyrannical (12) 8 Blown-up fortress? (6,6) 13 Sameness (8) 16 Extravagant spending spree (7) 17 In a careful manner (4,2) 19 More than enough (5) 21 Musical notation on a staff (4)

HaGaR tHE HoRRIblE

dIlbERt

GaRFIEld

baldo

cHEss AdORE ANNUAL AROUNd BANdIT BARE BLOOd BREAk BROOM ChURN CLICk CURRENT dAISy dANGER dEVELOPMEN T dOILy fINAL fOCUS hONESTy

hONEy INTENd jOINTS LENS MARE MOUSE NUMBER REACTION SINGLE SLUMBER SMOOCh STRIPE SUPPLE TEAR TISSUE TOwER TUBA VEER wORTh

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

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

Today’s soluTions

bRIdGE to tHE bIttER End

sUdokU crossword solution sudoku solution

1.Nf7+ Rxf7 [1...kg8 2.Nxh6+ kh8 3.Qg8+ Rxg8 4.Nf7#] 2.Qc8+ Bxc8 3.Rxc8+ Rf8 4.Rxf8# * chess solution

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

14

Monday, 24 October, 2016

ARTS

AttAcks on internet keep getting bigger, nAstier c neW YORK Agencies

OulD millions of connected cameras, thermostats and children toys bring the internet to its knees? It’s beginning to look that way.

On Friday, epic cyber attacks crippled a major internet firm, repeatedly disrupting the availability of popular websites across the united States. The hacker group claiming responsibility says that the day’s antics were just a dry run and that it has its sights set on a much bigger target. And the attackers now have a secret weapon in the increasing array of internetenabled household devices they can subvert

and use to wreak havoc.

Meet the fire hose: Manchester, New Hampshire-based Dyn Inc. said its server infrastructure was hit by distributed denial-ofservice, or DDoS, attacks. These work by overwhelming targeted machines with junk data traffic — sort of like knocking someone over by blasting them with a fire hose. The attack temporarily blocked some access to popular websites from across America and Europe such as Twitter, Netflix and PayPal. Jason Read, founder of the internet performance monitoring firm CloudHarmony, owned by Gartner Inc., said his company tracked a half-hour-long disruption early Friday affecting access to many sites from the East Coast.

A second attack later in the day spread disruption to the West Coast as well as some users in Europe.

Members of a shadowy hacker group that calls itself New World Hackers claimed responsibility for the attack via Twitter, though

that claim could not be verified. They said they organized networks of connected devices to create a massive botnet that threw a monstrous 1.2 trillion bits of data every second at Dyn’s servers. Dyn officials wouldn’t confirm the figure during a conference call later Friday with reporters.

Make that, Many fire hoses: DDoS attacks have been growing in frequency and size in recent months. But if the hackers’ claims are true, Friday’s attacks take DDoS to a new level. According to a report from the cyber security firm Verisign, the largest DDoS attack perpetrated during that second quarter of this year peaked at just 256 billion bits per second.

A huge September attack that shut down of security journalist Brian Krebs’ website clocked in at 620 million bits per second. Research from the cyber security firm Flashpoint said Friday that the same kind of malware was used in the attacks against both Krebs and Dyn. lance Cottrell, chief scientist for the cyber security firm Ntrepid, said while DDoS attacks have been used for years, they’ve become very popular in recent months, thanks to the proliferation of “internet of things” devices ranging from connected thermostats to security cameras and smart TVs. Many of those devices feature little in the way of security, making them easy targets for hackers.

The power of this kind of cyber attack is limited by the number of devices an attacker can connect to. Just a few years ago, most attackers were limited to infecting and recruiting “zombie” home PCs. But the popularity of new internet-connected gadgets has vastly increased the pool of potential devices they can weaponise. The average North American home contains 13 internet-connected devices, according to the research firm IHS Markit.

Since the attacks usually don’t harm the consumer electronics companies that build the devices, or the consumers that unwittingly use them, companies have little incentive to boost security, Cottrell said.

What’s behind the attacks?: like with other online attacks, the motivation behind DDoS attacks is usually mischief or money. Attackers have shut down websites in the past to make political statements. DDoS attacks have also been used in extortion attempts,

something that’s been made easier by the advent of Bitcoin.

For its part, a member of New World Hackers who identified themselves as “Prophet” told a reporter via Twitter direct message exchange that collective isn’t motivated by money and doesn’t have anything personal against Dyn, Twitter or any of the other sites affected by the attacks. Instead, the hacker said, the attacks were merely a test, and claimed that the next target will be the Russian government for committing alleged cyber attacks against the uS earlier this year.

“Twitter was kind of the main target. It showed people who doubted us what we were capable of doing, plus we got the chance to see our capability,” said “Prophet.” The claims couldn’t be verified.

The collective has in the past claimed responsibility for similar attacks against sites including ESPNFantasySports.com in September and the BBC on December 31. The attack on the BBC marshalled half the computing power of Friday’s attacks. a shifting global assault: Dyn said it first became aware of an attack around 7:00 am local time, focused on data centres on the East Coast of the uS Services were restored about two hours later. But then attackers shifted to offshore data centres, and the latest wave of problems continued until Friday evening Eastern Time.

“Prophet” told that his group actually had stopped its attacks by Friday afternoon, but that others, including members of the hacker collective known as Anonymous, had picked up where they left off. Anonymous didn’t respond to a request for comment via Twitter.

The uS Department of Homeland Security is monitoring the situation, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday.

He said he had no information about who may be behind the disruption.

Cottrell noted that there are several firms that offer protection against DDoS attacks, by giving companies a way to divert the bad traffic and remain online in case of an attack. But monthly subscription fees for these services are generally equal to a typical DDoS extortion payment, giving companies little incentive to pay for them.

Meanwhile not much is required in the way of resources or skill to mount a botnet attack, he said, adding that would-be attackers can rent botnets for as little as $100. Cottrell said the long-term solution lies in improving the security of all internet-connected devices.

Muslims pray at Colosseum, protesting against Rome mosque closures Agencies Hundreds of Muslims prayed next to Rome’s Colosseum on Friday to protest against the closure of makeshift mosques, calling on city authorities to protect their religious rights. Worshippers knelt on prayer mats and tarpaulin on the pavement meters away from the ancient amphitheatre. Some held placards reading “Peace” and “Open the mosques”. At least 1.6 million Muslims live in Italy but there are only a handful of mosques officially registered as such with the government. Most worship takes place in houses and Islamic cultural centers – a development that some right-wing politicians have said makes them difficult to monitor, raising the risk of radicalization, particularly in the wake of militant attacks across Europe. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said in August that “mini mosques in garages” should not be allowed. The rights group that organized the demonstration, the Dhuumcatu Association, said police have closed three improvised mosques in Rome in recent months. Attaching placards to a lamp post near the Colosseum, Sikdir Bulbul, a 41-year-old Bangladesh-born Italian citizen who has lived in Rome for 16 years, said the mosque he helped establish in 2012 had been shut down in September. “Friday prayer is very important to us so today we have come to the Colosseum. Otherwise where else can we pray?” he said. A spokesman at city hall had no immediate comment. Right-wing Roman politician Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy party, who came third in a mayoral election this year, has called for Muslims to be obliged to pray in Italian. The Dhuumcatu Association said there needed to be clearer rules on setting up mosques. “We are sick of the criminalisation of our places of worship,” it said on its Facebook page. “There are no relevant regulations, and we cannot invent solutions independently of the authorities.”

India's children of bonded labourers Adult film actress accuses Trump of offering her $10,000 use memories to rescue others Agencies

WAsHingTOn Agencies

An adult film actress on Saturday became the latest woman to accuse Donald Trump of unwanted sexual advances, saying the Republican presidential candidate offered her $10,000 to come to his hotel room alone.

Jessica Drake is one of at least 11 women to have alleged that the real estate billionaire groped them, made inappropriate remarks or forcibly kissed them.

Speaking during a los Angeles news conference accompanied by the high-profile discrimination lawyer Gloria Allred, Drake said she met Trump at a golf tournament in lake Tahoe, California in 2006.

“He flirted with me and invited me to walk along the golf course with him,” she said, adding that he asked her to his hotel room. She went along with two other women, Drake said.

Wearing pajamas when they entered, Trump “grabbed each of us tightly in a hug and kissed each one of us without asking permission.”

He also asked what it was like to film pornography, Drake said.

After she returned to her room, Drake said, Trump called her asking her to return to his suite and invited her to a party.

“What do you want? How much?” she said Trump asked her.

After she declined, Drake said, she received another call either from Trump or another man offering $10,000 and use of Trump’s private plane to fly home to los Angeles if she were to accept.

During Saturday’s news conference, Allred — who also represents two other women who accuse

Trump of unwanted sexual advances — showed a photograph of Trump and Drake at the golf tournament.

Trump’s campaign denied the Drake’s allegations.

“This story is totally false and ridiculous,” it said in a statement. “Mr Trump does not know this person, does not remember this person and would have no interest in ever knowing her.”

“This is just another attempt by the Clinton campaign to defame a candidate who just today is number one in three different polls,” it added of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump has seen his campaign spiral downward in recent weeks ahead of the November 8 election after a number of women made allegations that he sexually assaulted them — claims he again insisted on Saturday were false.

He also threatened to take legal action against all the “liars” that have claimed to be victims of his sexual assaults.

“The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over,” he said during a campaign rally.

They are not easy to spot. Working in vegetable patches and on millet fields in Karnataka, farm labourers caught in debt bondage suffer mainly in silence.

But Gopal V has lived with this silence for long enough. Now 44, the son of bonded labourers is on a mission to identify workers trapped in debt bondage – and to make sure they get justice.

“My parents worked endless hours not for money, just food,” Gopal said. “They worked for a landlord in my village, whose house I still can’t enter. He paid them back with a little food, and my father died in bondage.”

Now, he travels across villages around Anekal, near the city of Bengaluru, looking for people like his parents.

There is an urgency to his search, he says, because he wants to “get them out before they die”.

India banned the practice of bonded labour in 1976, but the country is still home to 11.7 million bonded labourers, according to the International labour Organisation (IlO). The labourers may be working to pay off a loan from their employer, or a debt inherited from a relative.

Jeevika, a non-profit organisation that works to eradicate bonded labour in the southern state, said it identified 12,811 bonded labourers in Karnataka between 2012 and 2015. Most of them are still waiting for state authorities to give them release certificates and compensation money, it said.

Its founder, Kiran Kamal Prasad, estimates that there are up to 200,000 bonded labourers across Karnataka.

“It is a perennial problem that persists in the

agriculture sector,” said Druthi lakshmi of the state’s rural development department.

“We know they are really poor, illiterate people who often go back to the same landlord for work after they are rescued because the rehabilitation money is not enough.”

The government is in the process of undertaking a more comprehensive survey to identify people in bondage, she added.

Gopal and others like him who work in partnership with Jeevika use their childhood memories of suffering and debt bondage to encourage others to find a way out of it.

“The fear of the landlord still exists in our (lower-caste) Dalit communities and people refuse to acknowledge they are in bondage,” said Ramakrishna V, also the son of a bonded labourer.

“It takes a lot of talking before they break down and admit they are paying off a loan they took many, many years ago,” said Ramakrisha, now a lawyer fighting for workers’ rights in court.

Monday, 24 October, 2016

ARTS

15

FEATURING PAKISTANI ACTORS

IndIan army slams mns for askIng ‘penance’ fund I

CourtESy tImES of INdIA

NDIAN army on Saturday reportedly slammed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for asking film producers employing Pakistan artistes to pay INR50 million to its welfare funds.

“Don’t play politics with the army, which has a strong apolitical, highly-disciplined and secular ethos. The armed forces do not want to be dragged into such low-level political wrangling,” said a senior officer. “We only accept funds that are donated voluntarily, not through such coercion or extortion,” added another officer.

Officers said an “Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties” fund was recently established after the force was approached by a large number of philanthropic organisations and individuals who wanted to donate money to assist the rela-

henceforth all Pakistani artistes, including actors, singers, among others, shall be permanently banned from Bollywood. “Why should Pakistani actors be given the red carpet welcome when our soldiers are being killed on the borders?

Was the Uri attack the first one,” an aggressive Thackeray said. Fadnavis convened a meeting on Saturday which was attended by Thackeray, Karan Johar and Film and Television Producers Guild of India’s President Mukesh Bhatt, among others at his official residence, Varsha, to resolve the imbroglio.

MNS, however, imposed certain conditions to release the film. The party chief demanded a handsome contribution to the army welfare fund and “slides paying tributes to brave Indian soldiers before the start of the film in theatres” — to which both Bhatt and Johar reportedly readily agreed.

tives and next of kin of soldiers who laid down their lives in the line of duty. “There was a surge of such requests after 10 soldiers perished in the massive avalanche in Siachen on February 3 as well as after the attack on the Uri camp on September 18 that left 19 soldiers dead,” said an officer.

Hindu radical party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Saturday gave the green light for the release of Karan Johar’s forthcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil but said all producers who employed Pakistani artists must pay INR50 million each to the Indian Army’s welfare fund as atonement.

The decision came after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ intervened in the matter, a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Mumbai to meet representatives of Bollywood.

MNS President Raj Thackeray further said

Naseeruddin Shah slams MNS threats, says film industry is an easy target ENtErtAINmENt dESK

Scarlett Johansson turns popcorn girl in Paris AGENCIES Hollywood superstar Scarlett Johansson swapped the red carpet for a turn behind the counter at her new popcorn shop in Paris on Saturday.

The "Lost in Translation" actress -- decked out in a classic French blue and white striped top -- dished out the crunchy treat to punters at the launch of the Yummy Pop store she and husband Romain Dauriac have opened in the city's trendy Marais district. The couple hope their unusual twists on the classic cinema snack -- including the 31year-old "Avengers" star's favourite truffle, parmesan and sage flavour -- will wow customers in the gastronomic capital of the world. Ahead of the launch, Johansson's spokesman in Los Angeles said the she was passionate about popcorn, adding that it was cooked and mixed fresh on the spot with seasonal ingredients. After Saturday's soft launch, an official grand opening is planned for a later date.

As the release date of 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' is inching closer, more and more Bollywood insiders are coming out in the open to support the Karan Johar film that is stuck amidst major controversy. This time around, it was Naseeruddin Shah who took everyone by surprise with his opinion. The veteran, who was present for a book launch, asserted that he will surely watch the film starring Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Anushka Sharma. Speaking on the MNS ban, he said, "The film industry is an easy target.

They (MNS) have as much fun targeting the industry as they would have while watching films made by Bollywood. We haven't broken diplomatic ties with Pakistan, nor are we in the state of war, or have sealed our borders. Only artistes who aim to spread the message of love and peace are being attacked." In the past few days, reports suggested that threatening messages were sent to multiplex owners regarding the release of the film.

When asked about the same, Naseer was quoted saying, "According to me, the brave hearts (MNS) who are threatening them (makers and multiplexes) with dire consequences should fight the enemies on the border, kill Pakistani intruders. What's the point of threatening defenceless/harmless artistes?"

Swedish Academy says up to Dylan if he wants to come to receive Nobel Prize AGENCIES The committee that awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Bob Dylan said on Saturday it was up to the American singer-songwriter whether to attend the prize-giving ceremony later this year or not. The notoriously media-shy Dylan has not yet made any comment on the 8 million crown ($900,000) prize, despite repeated attempts by award-givers the Swedish Academy to contact him since it named him as the winner on Oct. 13.

On Saturday, Swedish media reported that Academy member Per Wastberg had said that if Dylan remained silent, it would be “rude and arrogant”.

The Academy, however, said Wastberg’s comments did not reflect their view.

“The author awarded the Noble Prize makes up his or her own mind regarding the ceremonies involved in the presentation of the prize,” Sara Da-

nius, Permanent Secretary of the Academy, said in a statement.

“The Swedish Academy has never held a view on a prize winners decision in this context, neither will it now, regardless of the decision reached.”

The Academy gave 75-year-old Dylan the prize for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. It was a controversial choice.

Dylan revolutionised American popular song with numbers such as “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Like a Rolling Stone.” Yet some have questioned whether his work qualifies as literature. Others have complained that the Swedish Academy missed an opportunity to bring attention to lesser-known artists.

The award ceremony takes place each year on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death when the King of Sweden's hands each laureate a

diploma and a medal, followed by a lavish banquet at Stockholm’s City Hall for about 1,300 people. If Dylan maintains his silence, he would be the first to simply ignore the Academy’s decision.

Some Nobel laureates have been too ill to travel to the ceremony. French writer Jean-Paul Satre refused the 1964 prize. The Academy said his refusal did not affect the validity of the award, but they would not be able to give it to him.

CMYK

AT&T to buy Time Warner for $85 billion, create telecom-media giant AGENCIES AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Saturday it agreed to buy Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) for $85.4 billion, the boldest move yet by a telecommunications company to acquire content to stream over its high-speed network to attract a growing number of online viewers.

The biggest deal in the world this year will, if approved by regulators, give AT&T control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. The tie-up will likely face intense scrutiny by U.S. antitrust enforcers worried that AT&T might try to limit distribution of Time Warner material.

AT&T will pay $107.50 per Time Warner share, half in cash and half in stock, worth $85.4 billion overall, according to a company statement. AT&T said it expected to close the deal by the end of 2017.

Dallas-based AT&T said the U.S. Department of Justice would review the deal and that it and Time Warner were determining which Federal Communications Commission licenses, if any, would be transferred to AT&T in the deal.

U.S. lawmakers were already worried about cable company Comcast Corp's (CMCSA.O) $30 billion acquisition of NBCUniversal, creating an industry behemoth. Several argued for close regulatory scrutiny of the AT&T deal.

"Such a massive consolidation in this industry requires rigorous evaluation and serious scrutiny," said U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, former attorney general of Connecticut. "I will be looking closely at what this merger means for consumers and their pocketbooks."

U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said at a rally on Saturday he would block any AT&T-Time Warner deal if he wins the Nov. 8 election. Trump has complained about media coverage of his campaign, especially

by Time Warner's CNN. "It's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," said Trump.

Representatives of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CONTENT PLUS DELIVERY: AT&T, whose main wireless phone and broadband service business is showing signs of slowing, has already made moves to turn itself into a media powerhouse. It bought satellite TV provider DirecTV last year for $48.5 billion.

It had about 142 million North American wireless subscribers as of June 30, and about 38 million video subscribers through DirecTV and its U-verse service.

New York-based Time Warner is a major force in movies, TV and video games. Its assets include the HBO, CNN, TBS and TNT networks as well as the Warner Bros film studio, producer of the “Batman” and “Harry Potter” film franchises. The company also owns a 10 percent stake in video streaming site Hulu. The HBO network alone has more than 130 million subscribers.

The deal is the latest in the consolidation of the telecom and media sectors, coming on the heels of AT&T's purchase of NBCUniversal. AT&T's wireless rival Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) is in the process of buying internet company Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) for about $4.8 billion.

Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes rejected an $80 billion offer from Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O) in 2014.

FINANCING: AT&T said the cash portion of the purchase price would be financed with new debt and cash on its balance sheet. AT&T said it has an 18-month commitment for an unsecured bridge term facility for $40 billion.

AT&T currently has only $7.2 billion in cash on hand.

Further borrowing could put pressure on its credit rating as it already had $120 billion in net debt as of June 30, according to Moody's.

AT&T said the deal would add to earnings per share in the first year after closing. It said it expects $1 billion in annual run-rate cost savings within three years of closing, chiefly driven by lower corporate and procurement spending.

5G IS COMING: Owning more content gives cable and telecom companies bargaining leverage with other content companies as customers demand smaller, hand-picked cable offerings or switch to watching online. New mobile technology including next-generation 5G networks could make a content tie-up especially attractive for wireless providers.

"We think 5G mobile is coming, we think 5G mobile is an epic game-changer," Rich Tullo, director of research at Albert Fried & Co, said in a research note, adding that mobile providers would be in position to disrupt traditional pay-TV services.

A previous Time Warner blockbuster deal, its 2000 merger with AOL, is now considered one of the most ill-advised corporate marriages on record.

16 BUSINESS

Monday, 24 October, 2016

“more than half powerlooms shut down” FAISALABAD

t

INP

HE All Pakistan Cotton Power looms Association (APCPA) has expressed grave concern over the decline of cloth exports and has warned that the prevailing situation is yielding a negative impact over the powerlooms industry, which is facing serious financial crunch and an unfavourable business environment in the country.

Addressing the executive committee members of APCPA, Choudhry Abdul Haq, Chairman, All Pakistan Cotton Powerlooms Association, demanded that the government should give special rebate to the powerlooms industry to control the crisis as well as to promote

cloth exports. At the moment, he said, the powerlooms industry is bearing multiple direct and indirect taxes, severe circumstances of import of indian cloth. This situation is leading to unemployment in the country and has stopped fresh investment in the powerlooms sector, he added.

Choudhry Abdul Haq pointed out that the government is already collecting sales tax at multiple stages from the powerlooms industry, like the ones on electricity and petroleum products. He said that more than half of powerlooms already closed down and unemployment reached at dangerous level. He appealed to the government for taking notice immediately and should given special package and rebate to the power looms Sector.

EU, Canada to decide on trade pact signing summit today AGENCIES BRUSSELS

The European Union and Canada will decide on Monday whether to gather for a summit later this week to sign the imperilled CETA trade pact, a European source said. The source said that European Council President Donald Tusk would on Monday afternoon or evening call Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel with "one simple question: will Belgium be in a position to sign the agreement on Thursday, yes or no?" Plans to sign the CETA trade pact at a summit scheduled for Thursday were thrown into doubt Friday when the parliament of the Belgian region of Wallonia rejected the deal, leaving Belgium the only EU state unable to sign the pact, the fruit of seven years of talks. The European source said that on Monday Tusk would first call European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker "to share an assessment of where we are," then Michel and lastly Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "to decide whether to maintain the summit," and "Regarding Thursday, if Belgium is not in a position to say that they guarantee they can sign, it's very clear for Tusk that it doesn't make sense to have a summit, and there will be no summit, and there will be no date set for a new summit," the source said. The source added that any decision would be made jointly by Tusk and Trudeau. "The decision will very much depend on what Michel tells Tusk," the source said.

Mark Zuckerburg thinks this Indian startup is worth Millions AGENCIES

I

BANGALORE

nDiA is currently the fastest growing major economy in the world, and that’s a title that doesn’t come without its own set of challenges.

Depending on who you ask, it’s often argued that india’s number one challenge moving forward is the need to transform its current one-size-fits-all approach to educating its billion-plus population.

One person who might agree with this approach is educational entrepreneur Byju Raveendran, founder of edtech startup BYJU’s. BYJU’s has been a championing force for personalized learning in india since launching last year.

BYJU’s is an app aimed at students in grades 4-12 learn subjects like math, physics, or biology independently. At present, it’s been downloaded more than 5.5 million times. With over 250,000 subscribers paying an annual subscription of $150, the app offers original content, watch-and-learn videos, animations and interactive simulations. “no rote learning,” says Raveendran, adding that some of the content is offered free.

“Students are spending 40 minutes per session per day on the app, without anyone forcing them to do it,” says Raveendran. “This is a validation of its effectiveness.”

Some more validation exists with the Chan Zuckerberg initiative (CZi), the philanthropic arm created by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, which invested a whopping $50 million in BYJU’s, along with Sequoia, Sofina, LightSpeed Ventures and Times internet, in September.

This is the first Asian investment from CZi. in his Facebook post, Zuckerberg cited a survey which claims that almost 80% of parents said the app has improved their children’s learning dramatically.

Taking Zuckerberg’s confidence in stride, Raveendran says, “To be backed

by CZi is very encouraging. The infusion of funds will help us grow, develop our products and boost our aim to revolutionize learning across the world.”

Perhaps it’s because Zuckerberg isn’t the first to see the potential that has Raveendran so relaxed. Last March, BYJU’s raised $75 million from Sequoia india and Sofina.

The indian tech scene has been dominated by e-commerce, but over the past few years a growing contingent of entrepreneurs are shifting their attention to edtech. According to VCCEdge, a re-

search platform for the indian investment ecosystem, angel, private equity and venture capital deals in the education sector rose from 27 (valued at $187 million) in 2010 to 49 ($248 million) in 2014. in 2015, there were 51 deals valued at $155 million.

And with over 260 million enrolments in K-12 and 12 million job seekers who need critical working skills every year, the need for quality education in india is palpable. The indian edtech market is expected to hit $2.5 billion this year and is poised to grow at 15% over the next three years, according to RedSeer Consulting, a research and advisory firm.

“While india has been big on traditional schooling and learning techniques, technology and data science has just about made its mark in personalizing learning,” says Raveendran, who started

with teaching college graduates for rigorous entrance tests for management, engineering and medical schools in classrooms in 2012. He launched his digital platform in 2015.

“More than 90% of our business is coming through the app,” he says, adding that the app was launched following four years of development by its 500-strong R&D team.

Unsurprisingly, Raveendran’s love of learning came from his upbringing. He went to a non-English school, where both his parents were teachers, in a small coastal village called Azhikode in the southern indian state of Kerala. Although he excelled in academics and later became an engineer, Raveendran’s firsthand experience of the drawbacks of the education system helped him to come up with solutions to a problem he knew ex-

isted. According to him, too much emphasis on test-based teaching and learning often encourages students to simply memorize information. “in india, children are still getting trained to solve questions and not ask questions. Learning driven by fear of exams has been the main reason why india consistently ranks low in global education,” laments Raveendran. The statistics are disheartening. A recently released UnESCO report says that many global education challenges such as universal primary and secondary education still remain unmet in india. According to the report, over 60 million children in india receive little or no formal education and the country has over 11.1 million out-of-school students in the lower secondary level.

Given the poor state of available facilities, it was important, Raveendran

says, to find new ways to connect with students. “The best thing about edtech is that you get a chance to empower millions of students irrespective of their proficiency levels or geographic locations.”

Still a young edtech startup, BYJU’s is already profitable in india with a month-on-month growth of 15%. For now, BYJU’s only creates content in English for indians, but Raveendran has ambitious plans for the future. He wants to expand to English-speaking markets around the world. “Currently, we are in india and in the Middle East. With the recent round of funding from CZi and a few other investors, we see a potential for our product globally. in the next two years, we will create better and interesting learning products which help students to become lifelong learners,” he claims.

BUSINESS 17

Monday, 24 October, 2016

oIl prIce down cycle 'nearIng end': saudI mInIster

RIYADH

s

APP

AUDi Oil Minister Khalid alFalih said Sunday that the current down cycle of crude prices is close to an end as market fundamentals improve.

"The current down cycle is nearing an end," Falih told a joint press conference

with his Russian counterpart Alexander novak after a Gulf ministerial meeting in Riyadh.

"Market fundamentals, in terms of supply and demand, have begun to improve," Falih said.

"We are optimistic that oil prices will continue to improve in the future," he said.

Qatar's energy minister, Mohammed alSada, whose country holds the rotating

presidency of the OPEC oil exporting cartel, also said the "difficult phase is over".

OPEC has invited Russia and key nonmembers to a meeting later this month as the cartel and Moscow seek to tighten cooperation to boost historically low crude prices. Oil prices currently hover around $50 per barrel after hitting a 10-year low of less than $30 in January, down from a peak of more than $100 in mid-2014.

Drone startup funding crashes AGENCIES SAN fRANcIScO

Drone startups hoping to snag venture-capital funding may have hit some turbulence.

Financing for drone companies fell 59% year-over-year in the third quarter, and 48% from the previous quarter. The drone industry’s numbers were starker than for venture-capital funding overall, in which funding dollars fell 39% from the same quarter in 2015 and 14% sequentially.

That’s according to the latest Venture Pulse report, a quarterly global report on VC trends published jointly

by KPMG international and CB insights. The data tracks VC-backed deals and dollars for companies worldwide.

There was $55 million invested in eight VC deals for the drone industry in the third quarter, compared with almost $106 million invested in 13 deals in the second quarter. in the third quarter of 2015, $134 million was invested in 12 drone-related companies, part of a banner year for drone startups. “in 2015, everyone was superhyped about drones,” said Alex niehenke, an investor at Scale Venture Partners. “We’re now starting to see the leaders emerge.”

This year has seen the drone industry establish winners and losers.

3D Robotics laid off more than 150 people and burned through almost $100 million in venture-capital funding, according to Forbes. Meanwhile, drone maker DJi is valued at $8 billion and controls 70% of the drone market, according to Forbes estimates. niehenke, whose firm funded DroneDeploy as part of a $20 million Series B funding round in August, said that since leaders have been established in drone hardware, venture capitalists are now looking to the software space. DroneDeploy creates mapping software used primarily on DJi drones. With reliable hardware from

companies like DJi in place, nienhenke said that many venture capitalists are now more attracted to software companies because they require less capital (and, therefore, less funding) to accomplish their goals, along with other changes in the drone industry.

“The reason we are now deploying our dollars is because of the combination of off-the-shelf hardware, the vast improvement in quality of drones and the recent regulation,” he said.

The FAA in August began regulating commercial drone use in the U.S. by allowing anyone who passes a written test to operate a drone for commercial use. Previously, commercial drone operation required businesses to go through a lengthy waiver process, with strict requirements including a manned aircraft license requirement. “That’s where a lot of investors had concerns over the last couple years,” said Jesse Kallman, president of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems international and an employee of Airware, one of Silicon Valley’s most heavily backed drone companies. He said investor confidence is now rising given the new FAA regulations.

“The VCs, and more importantly the customers, now see that the barriers to entry are much lower.”

Ron Stearns, Business Development Director for Robotics and Unmanned Systems at the Velocity Group, predicts that the companies that will be most successful in nabbing VC funding in the future won’t be focused solely on drones. “(Venture capitalists) want to see an established company that might not be wholly reliant on the drone for survival,” Stearns said. “The more patient money will likely look for established commercial providers of imagery and information who are making drones a part of their operation as opposed to saying, ’We have a drone and now we have to find a way for it to work.’”

Africa’s Most Valuable Business Worth Less Than What It Owns AGENCIES cAPE TOWN

Fifteen years ago, a South African media company invested $34 million in an obscure Chinese internet developer. Today that stake is worth $88 billion.

All naspers Ltd., now Africa’s most valuable company, has to do is figure out how to make money from its other properties: The whole company is worth only $72 billion, less than its stake in Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Ltd. investors aren’t impressed with naspers’s operations in pay-TV, newspapers and ecommerce in such countries as South Africa, Russia and india.

To win them over, Chief Executive Officer Bob Van Dijk has launched an aggressive push to sell some assets, invest in others and expand operations such as classified advertising into new markets. if it pays off, comparisons with Tencent could become more flattering.

The valuation gap is an “opportunity for long-term investors who have done their homework” on naspers’s e-commerce components, said Ruan Stander, a money manager at Cape Town-based Allan Gray, which owns naspers shares.

“The headline accounting numbers can mislead you into thinking these businesses are failing,” yet they need a period of loss-making to establish themselves in the marketplace, he said.

On Tuesday, naspers said it would combine ibibo, a travel business in india, with competitor MakeMyTrip Ltd. to boost their presence in the South Asian country. Last week, naspers agreed to sell Allegro, a Polish online auction site, for $3.25 billion, saying the sale was “consistent with the group’s strategy to find and unlock value for shareholders.” The shares rose after both announcements, bringing naspers’s gains in Johannesburg this year to 9.4 percent. The stock rose 2.1 percent to 2,317.64 rand as of 1:08 p.m. in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

The company also hired Citigroup

inc. Managing Director Fahd Beg as deputy chief investment officer, people familiar with the matter said, a move that boosts the company’s team of executives scouring the planet for the next Tencentstyle success story.

To make more money from its operations, naspers will have to overcome a threat to its satellite TV business from new competitors and e-commerce activities that lost $693 million in the last fiscal year. Companies such as classified-ad business OLX operate in 40 countries, yet only 10 are cash-generative, according to Bloomberg intelligence media analyst Tal Smoller. naspers-owned Flipkart may be india’s biggest online shopping hub, yet the e-commerce market in that country is still nascent, she said.

“The key to naspers doing more than merely tracking Tencent’s performance will be the extent to which they can successfully monetize these e-commerce assets,” said Sean Ashton, chief investment officer of Johannesburg-based Anchor Capital. naspers, which started out as a newspaper publisher in 1910 before expanding into TV in the 1990s, bought the Tencent stake under then-CEO Koos Bekker in 2001. Since then, Tencent has developed WeChat, an instant messaging app that has 805.7 million monthly active users.

Even China’s economic slowdown isn’t hurting its fortunes.

“More advertisers might choose to place ads with Tencent in times of downturn, since its platform might be more effective than offline channels,” said Yu Jianpeng, a Hong Kong-based analyst at iCBC international Research Ltd. “One of Tencent’s biggest strengths is the traffic it generates as a social media platform, making it an attractive game distributor.”

Though Tencent accounts for half of naspers’s revenue and almost all its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, the South African company does have some successful operations. its pay-TV business, Multichoice,

has close to 10 million subscribers in 49 sub-Saharan African countries and broadcasts international sports and hit dramas like “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead.”

Dubai E-CommErCE: naspers has stakes in about 45 technology and media companies around the world, including U.S. online-learning provider Udemy and Souq.com, known as the Amazon.com of the Middle East. The Dubai-based online retailer is planning to sell a block of about 30 percent that would give the company a value of at least $1.2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said last month.

“Our focus remains on delivering long-term value and sustainable profits,” Meloy Horn, naspers head of investor relations, said in e-mailed comments. “We expect sustained good results and increased contributions from our fast growing e-commerce operations to rectify the discount” to Tencent.

But Multichoice faces new competi-

tion from entrants such as Econet, owned

by Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa. StarTimes, a fast-growing Chinese rival, has also enjoyed “rapid growth on the continent by targeting the mass market with bouquets for as little as $3,” Priscilla Tirvengadum, an analyst at Dataxis Africa, said in e-mailed comments.

Slowing sub-Saharan African economies are causing Multichoice customers to cancel subscriptions that can reach $88 a month. Meanwhile, increasing availability of broadband has allowed netflix to start in South Africa and nigeria and given internet users the opportunity to access video over Google inc. and Facebook inc. naspers pay-TV CEO imtiaz Patel says that’s a concern because they are unregulated.

The video-entertainment unit, which includes Multichoice, lost 288,000 subscribers in the 12 months through March, while trading profit declined by 17 percent. The poor performance of the video-

entertainment business prompted S&P Global Ratings to revise to negative its outlook on naspers’s BBB- rating, only one notch above junk status.

Patel says naspers plans to broaden its appeal to those who don’t want to pay for premium packages. Last year, the company launched its answer to netflix, an online video offering called Showmax.

“Our 2016 year was a tough financial year, especially with African currency devaluations, but we have reviewed the business strategy, moved the English Premier League football to our lower priced Compact bouquet and did not implement any price increase for the year,’’ Patel said.

Yet, while naspers grapples with payTV and e-commerce, Tencent goes from strength to strength. net income soared 47 percent to a record 10.74 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in the second quarter, as the company splashed out on mobile games and content -- prompting user numbers to mushroom and online advertising revenue to jump 60 percent.

18 SPORTS

Monday, 24 October, 2016

Chelsea thrash Man Utd on MoUrinho’s retUrn J COURTESY BBC

OSE Mourinho was humiliated on his return to Chelsea as his former club blew away his Manchester United side at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues, who sacked Mourinho for a second time last year, led after just 30 seconds when Pedro capitalised on slack defending to roll in.

Gary Cahill smashed in the second after United allowed Eden Hazard’s corner to bounce in their box.

United offered little sign of making a comeback, falling further behind when Hazard drilled in a precise 15yard strike.

N’Golo Kante skipped around a static defence to slot in and seal victory as Chelsea moved within a point of Premier League leaders Manchester City.

The comprehensive win lifted the Blues above Tottenham into fourth, with just one point separating the top five.

United stay seventh as the gap between them and the early pacesetters widens to six points, with almost a quarter of the season gone.

Mourinho was making his first return to Stamford Bridge since he was sacked in December 2015, leaving when the defending champions were 16th in the Premier League.

The Portuguese boss said before the match he was unsure - and also unconcerned - about the reception he would be given by the home fans.

Unsurprisingly, for a man who delivered seven trophies in his two spells at the club, it turned out to be largely positive.

Hundreds gathered to greet Mour-

inho as he walked off the United team bus, while he received a warm embrace from former skipper John Terry before kick-off.

That is where the Blues’ hospitality ended. Instead, it was his United team who provided the generosity.

And the home fans could not resist a cheeky dig at their former boss chanting “you’re not special anymore” to the self-proclaimed Special One. UNITED EXPOSED BY DEFENSIVE HORROR SHOW Mourinho said before the game he would not “celebrate like a crazy kid” if his new team scored at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately for him, there was little sign of that resolve being put to the test as Chelsea capitalised on his side’s defensive deficiencies.

United were ragged at the back, ripped open by Pedro’s opener and left flapping from then on.

And the severity of the scoreline was emphasised by some startling statistics: It was the heaviest defeat for

Jose Mourinho in all competitions since Real Madrid’s 5-0 defeat by Barcelona in November 2010. United suffered their heaviest Premier League defeat since the 6-1 loss against Manchester City in October 2011. The Red Devils lost a Premier League away match by four or more goals for the first time since 1999 also at Chelsea.

The tone was set when Chris Smalling hesitated in dealing with a long ball, allowing Pedro to nip in and round David de Gea - and United never recovered.

The basic ability to defend a setpiece eluded them for Chelsea’s second, two deflected touches helping the ball on to the unmarked Cahill, who lashed in.

United, without the injured Wayne Rooney, looked unrecognisable from the side that dug in to keep a clean sheet at Anfield on Monday.

They looked unrecognisable from any Mourinho side, always expected to be

Salma Khatun back in Bangladesh Women’s squad for Asia Cup

well organised and difficult to break down. A stony-faced Mourinho watched his static defenders allow Hazard and then Kante to skip into space and score after the break, leaving new Chelsea manager Antonio Conte lapping up the acclaim of a home crowd revelling in their former boss’s misfortune.

“We made incredible defensive mistakes,” said Mourinho. “And then you pay for that.”

POST-MATCH REACTION: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho: “You come with a strategy, you cannot concede a goal in the way we did. “We were coming to have an offensive approach. We wanted to create chances; we showed that after the 10. The second and the third were counter-attack goals.

“It is one of those days when you give the advantage to opponents by doing nothing.

“In terms of points, we got zero points, we lose three points. We are six points from the top, three from the top four, we now need to win matches.

We need to win our matches now, which are not easy. “We need to win to close that gap - after these last three matches, we made two out of nine. We now need points.”

WHAT’S NEXT? Next comes the not-so-small matter of midweek derby matches for both teams. Chelsea travel across London to face West Ham in the EFL Cup fourth round on Wednesday (19:45 BST), while Manchester United host neighbours City at Old Trafford in the same competition on the same day (20:00 BST).

SPORTS DESK Allrounder Salma Khatun has returned to the Bangladesh Women’s squad for next month’s Asia Cup in Thailand after recovering from a shoulder injury.

Salma was forced out of the team’s tour of Ireland last month after suffering the injury during a training session in August.

The 15-member squad also includes batsman Sharmin Sultana and Sobhana Mostari. Sanjida Islam and Lata Mondol, who were part of the squad for Ireland, have been left out of the main squad but are on the standby list.

The Asia Cup will be the first assignment for the team’s new coach David Capel, who was appointed earlier this month on a four-month contract. The tournament is scheduled to start from November 27, and also includes India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and hosts Thailand.

Bangladesh lost the T20 series in Ireland 0-1 but clinched the ODI series with a win in the third match, after the first two games were abandoned due to rain.

Neesham, Henry rearguard lifts New Zealand to 285 James Neesham and Matt Henry added 84 for the ninth wicket to rejuvenate New Zealand after a mid-innings collapse had left them floundering at 199 for 8. It was an innings of three parts: on a pitch with true pace and bounce, New Zealand began brightly, and were 153 for 2 in the 29th over before losing six wickets for 46 runs in the space of 9.2 overs. From there, Neesham and Henry didn’t just survive; their partnership rattled along at 7.52 runs per over and propelled New Zealand to a total of 285. New Zealand’s innings was looking like a repeat of the second ODI in Delhi, where they went from 158 for 2 to a final total of 242 for 9. Neesham, though, hadn’t played in Delhi. He replaced Anton Devcich here in an allrounder-for-allrounder swap, with New Zealand possibly feeling they needed an extra seam option on a pitch with a decent cover of grass. The first three boundaries Neesham hit were all played with a straight bat: twice, he showed the full face to hit Jasprit Bumrah down the ground, and then he brought in a late whip of his wrists to power Amit Mishra between long-on and deep midwicket. It showed he had worked out a sensible method to score runs at a time when New Zealand had only two wickets in hand. At the other end, Henry showed a sound defence when the ball was at his stumps - even though he often stayed beside the line rather than getting behind it - and excellent timing when he got width, slashing and punching Umesh Yadav for fours through point. As the slog overs approached, Umesh’s old failings resurfaced, as short balls followed wide length balls that allowed the batsmen to free their arms.

In the 47th over, Neesham stood tall and pulled him through midwicket before slicing a wide-ish ball to the third man boundary to bring up his halfcentury. Henry hit him for a six and two fours off successive balls in the 49th over, and Umesh’s already expensive figures took another hit. He eventually finished with figures of 3 for 75. New Zealand were bowled out with two balls still left to play, losing Neesham and Trent Boult in the last two overs, but they had already done India enough damage at the death, scoring 52 in the last 6.4 overs. In less than an hour, New Zealand had effected a more-or-less complete reversal of momentum, though they may have still ended 15 or 20 short of a par total given the conditions. On a pitch where the ball came on and allowed batsmen to play freely on the up, New Zealand’s openers made their best start of the series. They were watchful initially, scoring only 12 in the first three overs, before Martin Guptill walked down the track to the first ball of the fourth and launched Hardik Pandya for a massive six over long-on, the ball remaining inside the ground only because it went towards the three-tier stand behind the straight boundary. That shot set the tone for an abrupt change of gear: Guptill hit two fours and another six - over long-off this time - in the next two overs, and Tom Latham joined him by pulling Umesh Yadav over the square-leg boundary. AGENCIES

BANglAdeSH Need 33 ruNS WitH 2 WiCKetS left to ClAim mAideN eNglANd teSt WiN SPORTS DESK Bangladesh’s hopes of securing their greatest Test victory were in the hands of their debutant batsman, Sabbir Rahman, and his final two tail-end partners, after an enthralling fourth day at Chittagong finished with three of the four results possible, and history on the cards for Test cricket’s youngest nation.

The situation at stumps, after a sensational final session played out in front of a fervent, expectant and ever-growing crowd, was simple. Bangladesh, chasing 286 for victory, were 33 runs short with two wickets remaining and Sabbir standing tall on 59 not out from 93 balls - a supremely gutsy performance from a man who utilised his experience in ODI and T20 cricket to break down the chase into calm and manageable chunks.

Alongside him at the close was the redoubtable figure of Taijul Islam, whom Sabbir trusted with the strike as he accepted every single on offer from a deepset field, and who subverted all conventional tactics in the final over of the day’s play by swipingGareth Batty for

two ambitious lofted strokes down the ground, to reach the close unbeaten on 11 in a ninth-wicket stand of 15.

England, by that stage, had earned the right to be considered favourites once again, having cracked the crucial partnership of the innings - Sabbir’s 87-run stand for the sixth wicket with Mushfiqur Rahim - before dispatching two more of Bangladesh’s debutants, Mehedi Hasan and Kamrul Islam Rabbi, with minimum fuss.

But, with a notable lack of faith in his trio of spinners (notwithstanding a hardearned three-wicket haul for Batty) Alastair Cook telegraphed his team’s anxiety throughout a gripping final session. The new ball, due in two overs’ time and such a key weapon throughout this contest, may well be ignored if Ben Stokes and his fellow seamers can locate the sort of reverse swing that derailed Bangladesh’s first innings when play resumes on the final morning.

It was a far cry from England’s ambition at the very top of the innings.

After being bowled out for 240 in the first 20 minutes of the day, England had made their intentions plain from the out-

set by handing the new ball to two spinners, Batty and Moeen, for the first time since the Lord’s Test against South Africa in 2008.

Both men bowled some unplayable deliveries, but Bangladesh’s attitude was established in a skilful and aggressive 43 from Imrul Kayes, who found a means to counterattack in style, sweeping with intent to disrupt their lengths and pick off his boundaries behind square, while play-

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ing with confidence off the back foot in between whiles.

Tapping into their recent success in one-day run-chases, Bangladesh were happy to live dangerously in the opening overs - Tamim in particular twice came close to holing out - but their positive mindset sowed some early seeds of doubt in Cook’s mind, as he shed a few close catchers to patrol his boundaries. Nevertheless, England’s patient approach

slowly reaped its rewards, and after removing Tamim and Kayes before lunch the latter caught on the sweep as he attacked Adil Rashid out of the rough Batty returned with a spring in his step and an extra zip through his action, to grab two lbws in eight balls and put England firmly in command at 108 for 4.

Bangladesh’s middle-order, however, contains two of their toughest nuts in Mushfiqur and Shakib Al Hasan, and for the best part of an hour, the pair pushed back against the tide. Mushfiqur produced yet another unflustered display of patience, skill and experience - he has, after all, been playing Test cricket for longer even than Cook, England’s newly crowned most-capped cricketer - while Shakib seemed eager to atone for his wasteful dismissal in the first innings.

A pair of fizzing boundaries off Rashid lifted the spirits of the crowd - a slammed drive through mid-off and a vast bottom-handed swipe over long-on for six - but, on 24, he received the best ball of the innings to date, a perfect ripping offbreak from Moeen that he couldn’t help but nick to the keeper.

SPORTS 19

Monday, 24 October, 2016

Pakistan bUild big lead after Yasir’s foUr-for

STUMPS PAKISTAN 452 AND 114 FOR 1 (AZHAR 52*, ASLAM 50) LEAD WEST INDIES 224 (BRAVO 43, YASIR 4-86) BY 342 RUNS

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ASIR Shah’s four wickets led Pakistan’s slow but clinical strangulation of West Indies, before their openers stretched a 228-run first-innings lead to 342, leaving them in a dominant position in the Abu Dhabi Test by stumps on the third day. While Sami Aslam and Azhar Ali did not go out of their way to score quickly, the ease with which they milked the bowling contrasted with West Indies’ struggles in the first two sessions of the day.

Aslam departed for 50 late in the day, when third umpire Paul Reiffel made the dubious decision to overturn a not-out decision on a caught-behind appeal. Shannon Gabriel had angled the ball into Aslam’s pads and West Indies believed he got a faint edge as it went down leg to the wicketkeeper. DRS provided only slow-

motion replays and the evidence to overturn looked scant, but it was enough to convince Reiffel.

That ended a 93-run opening partnership that had steadily taken the match further and further from West Indies’ reach. Asad Shafiq joined Azhar to take Pakistan to 114 for 1 by the close, a position that looked nigh on impregnable with two days left in the match.

It was an indictment of the ineffectiveness of West Indies’ frontline bowlers that Kraigg Brathwaite, bowling first-change, was the only one who came close to taking a wicket in the first two hours of the innings. In the tenth over, Brathwaite fired in a delivery at 95 kph to beat Azhar’s sweep and induce umpire Michael Gough to raise his finger. But Azhar reviewed immediately and replays indicated the ball had brushed the batsman’s glove. In Brathwaite’s next over, another fired-in delivery thudded into the

pads, but not before Sami Aslam had got an inside edge. Umpire Gough raised his finger and West Indies’ hopes, only for Aslam to review successfully.

In the 18th over, Brathwaite was denied yet again, this time by his team-mate. Azhar edged a cut to Jermaine Blackwood at first slip, but the fielder did not even manage to a get a hand on it. He moved to his right, the ball struck his left thigh and a clear chance went down. It was ultimately Gabriel who made the breakthrough, but only after Pakistan’s lead had swelled beyond 300.

Having lost two wickets in the last seven balls on the previous day, West Indies began the third day well behind the game, trailing by 346 in the first innings with four wickets down. Nightwatchman Bishoo might understandably have been carrying a few scars from the second evening, having been involved - and arguably cul-

pable - in the run-out of Kraigg Brathwaite in the last over of the day. But he shrugged all of that off to occupy the crease for a gutsy 66-ball knock that, while not always convincing, helped West Indies repel many of Pakistan’s early efforts.

Bishoo’s overnight partner, Blackwood, departed about half an hour into the session with only 15 runs having been added to the overnight score of 106 for 4.

Blackwood took a couple of steps down the track, before playing a loose, half-hearted drive to a Rahat delivery moving away from him; Sarfraz Ahmed collected a good, low catch to his right.

Bishoo struggled against Rahat’s outswing, repeatedly playing and missing outside off stump with no footwork. He got off the mark in his 20th ball with a cross-batted swipe through midwicket off Yasir. His first boundary came off his 50th ball with a

similar shot, this time off Zulfiqar Babar. By that stage, Bishoo’s stubborn knock was vexing Pakistan. In Babar’s next over, the bowler went up for a big lbw appeal after Bishoo missed a sweep; Pakistan reviewed the not-out decision, only to find that the impact was just outside off. That exhausted Pakistan’s reviews.

But Bishoo did not last too much longer. He had his off stump floored by Sohail who angled the ball away from the left-hander to beat his outside edge and give Pakistan their second wicket of the morning. Roston Chase and Shai Hope then added 7 off the 49 balls leading into lunch, and added a further 18 after lunch before both fell to Yasir in the space of three overs.

Yasir struck with the first delivery of the second new ball, finding the outside edge of an extravagant drive from Chase with Shafiq completing a sharp catch at

second slip. In his next over, Yasir bowled Hope when the batsman missed an attempted pull off a short ball that kept low.

He could have had a third when Jason Holder played an inside-out drive in the air to longoff, where Mohammad Nawaz dropped the catch. Instead, it was Sohail who broke the 19-run ninth-wicket partnership, when he angled a ball across Miguel Cummins to beat the bat and hit off stump, much as he had done to Bishoo earlier in the day. Holder and Gabriel then chipped in with a few lusty blows, before Gabriel holed out to mid-on as West Indies were bowled out for 224.

West Indies had added 118 for 6 over the course of 49.4 overs of attritional cricket, till they were bowled out at the stroke of tea.

Pakistan’s solid start in their second innings left West Indies in need of a far better effort when they bat again.

India beat Pakistan 3-2 in Asian Champions Trophy match WtA finals: Kerber beats Cibulkova, Halep beats Keys COURTESY BBC

Pakistan were beaten 3-2 by India in the group match of the Asian Champions Trophy on Sunday at Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium.

India opened the scoring with a field goal from Pardeep Mor in the 22nd minute. Pakistan replied with a field goal from Muhammad Rizwan Sr in the 31st minute to level the score 1-1.

Pakistan’s offensive reaped fruit when Muhammad Irfan Jr tapped in a pass from Umar Bhutta into the nets.

However, India came back strong on the counter and scored two goals in a span of two minutes courtesy Rupinder Pal Singh (43rd minute) and Ramandeep Singh (44th minute).

Earlier, Pakistan lost its match to Malaysia 4-2 and beat Korea 1-0 in its previous two encounters of the tournament. AGENCIES

mAtHeWS iNjured, HerAtH Set for lAte CAptAiNCy deBut

World number one Angelique Kerber overcame stern resistance from Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova to win her opening match at the WTA Finals. The German, 28, won 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3 as the eight-player, season-ending event got under way in Singapore. Romanian third seed Simona Halep beat American sixth seed Madison Keys 6-2 6-4 in the other match in the red group. “Domi is a tough opponent - I knew that I had to play my best tennis,” said top seed Kerber. “I was trying to stay positive in the third set, play my game, be aggressive and just go for it. I was also really concentrating on getting my first serve in. It was a really close match.” The round-robin stage will continue on Monday, when Poland’s defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska plays Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Czech Karolina Pliskova takes on Spain’s Garbine Muguruza. Two players from each group will progress to Saturday’s semi-finals.

COURTESY ESPN Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath is set to become the oldest player to lead a Test team for the first time since Somachandra de Silva in 1983, after he was named captain of Sri Lanka for the tour of Zimbabwe because Angelo Mathews is injured.

Sri Lanka’s regular vice-captain, Dinesh Chandimal, was also unavailable for the two-Test series because of a thumb injury sustained during a domestic game, for which he had to have surgery. Herath, 38, will be only the second bowler to lead Sri Lanka in Tests, after de Silva.

Mathews had torn his calf during the fourth ODI against Australia in August and had not recovered suffi-

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ciently, despite being named in the original squad for the tour of Zimbabwe on October 21. He is expected to be out of action for three weeks and is doubtful for the tri-series in Zimbabwe, also involving West Indies, that follows the Tests. No replacement was named yet for Mathews.

Herath played 71 ODIs and 17 T20Is for Sri Lanka and did not captain in those formats either. He retired from limited-overs cricket in April this year to focus on Test cricket and played the defining role - 28 wickets - in Sri Lanka’s 3-0 whitewash of Australia in July and August. Seventeen years after having made his debut in 1999, Herath is set to make his captaincy debut, in his 74th Test.

Monday, 24 October, 2016

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

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