e-paper pakistantoday 07th March, 2013 by Pakistan Today

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Rs 17.00 Vol III No 249 19 Pages Lahore Edition

Thursday, 7 March, 2013 Rabi us Sani 24, 1434

Life in the country’s financial hub came to a halt on Wednesday after some unidentified gunmen forced the closure of shops across the city in the afternoon. The MQM later gave a call for an indefinite strike in the city until the perpetrators of the Abbas Town tragedy were apprehended. However, Raza Haroon announced a few hours later that the strike call was being withdrawn and asked the people to continue with their routine activities. He said the MQM’s peaceful protest would, however, continue. story oN page 02

story oN page 03

Chavez Is No More story oN page 04

election ‘paid touts’ schedule coming don’t stand a in 10 days chance The Election Commission of Pakistan claims the schedule of general election 2013 will be announced in 10 days, but no tax defaulter, defaulters of public utilities or those convicted of corruption will be allowed to take contest the polls. The ECP said it had been decided that NAB would hand over the record of all corrupt and those who settled their corruption cases after plea bargains to the ECP, so that the commission could scrutinise the nomination papers of contesting candidates. page 02

Finally breaking his silence over reports of possessing a fake educational degree, PMLQ leader Sheikh Waqas Akram has said if he could stand up to banned outfits like LJ, he could hardly be afraid of ‘paid’ media ‘touts’ working to malign his credentials. page 03

Brennan a step closer to Becoming cia chief story oN page 04

India far from being MFN, Na told Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abbas Khan Afridi told fellow lawmakers in the National Assembly that India had not been granted the most favoured nation status and the decision was awaiting removal of negative items from Pakistan’s list for trade with India. The Lower House also adopted a resolution demanding action against TV anchors telecasting “baseless programmes against parliamentarians”, while urging the need for a journalistic code of conduct. page 02

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PollS SChedule to Be ANNouNCed wIthIN 10 dAyS: eCP ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday said the schedule of general election 2013 would be announced after 10 days. “A consensus has been reached between five state institutions that no tax defaulter, defaulters of public utilities or those convicted under corruption case can take part in the general election,” said ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed while talking to reporters after a high-level meeting. The meeting was presided over by Chief Election Commission Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and attended by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari, State Bank Governor Yasin Anwar, Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem and NADRA chief Tariq Malik. The secretary said a cell of SBP, FBR, NADRA and NAB representatives had been established in the ECP to ensure thorough scrutiny of the candidates. He said a majority of the country wanted implementation of Articles 62 and 63 for holding free, fair and transparent elections. The secretary said the election process was already underway and the commission had notified the names of returning and assistant district returning officers and was receiving applications from the political parties for allotment of the symbols. To a question, the ECP secretary said the nomination paper draft had been sent to the Law Ministry after making a few changes. To a question about regularisation of employees in Punjab, he said the matter would be reviewed in accordance with the law. Meanwhile, a senior ECP official said there was a consensus among the participants of the meeting that it was the responsibility of the ECP and other state institutions that no tax defaulter, defaulters of public utilities or people convicted under corruption case could take part in the general elections. STAFF REPORT

Iran remains the single most significant regional threat to stability and prosperity — General James Mattis

India not yet given MFN status, NA told Lower House demands action against tV ancHors making faLse accusations ISLAMABAD

ANwER AbbAS

A K I S TA N has not yet granted the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abbas Khan Afridi told the National Assembly (NA) on Wednesday. During the Question Hour, Afridi told the House that Pakistan maintains a Negative List of items for trade with India, and the MFN status would be awarded after removing the negative items from the list. Elaborating further, Afridi said the MFN status to India would be granted after the elimination of the Negative List after the cabinet’s approval. He said that India had already granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996. TAMING TV ANCHORS: The Lower House also adopted a resolution demanding action against TV anchors telecasting “baseless programmes against parliamentarians”, while urging the need for a journalistic code of conduct. Starting with a delay of 35 minutes, the 13th sitting of the NA session passed the resolution to demand action against “anchorpersons who are telecasting programmes against parliamentarians…without verification of the facts.”

After a debate that lasted for one and a half hour, the House demanded the owners of media houses to expel such anchors and take necessary action against them. Earlier, MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram, who moved the resolution, said that after his speech against a banned outfit, a section of the media had started a defamation campaign against him, and levelled “baseless allegations against him”, including possession of fake degrees and receiving money from Moonis Elahi. At this occasion, NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza remarked that a code of conduct should be prepared for journalists to avoid any baseless blackmailing. Akram said that the anchor who aired a programme against him was the one who had demanded that the chief justice of Pakistan be hanged. He said that the anchor, Mubashir Luqman, had been ousted from a private television channel for airing a programme in return of financial gains. Akram accused Luqman of illegally receiving money from Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and his son, adding that Luqman was already serving a legal notice filed by another anchorperson. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor pointed out that an English-language daily had published a “baseless and insulting” news item, calling the NA speaker and deputy speaker “defaulters”. He demanded apology from the reporter and owner of the newspaper which printed the story. The NA speaker said that if a certain ministry or department was responsible for the payment of the speaker’s and deputy speaker’s utility bills, how they could be held responsible.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Asif Husnain also endorsed Akram’s point of view, and condemned the particular programme as well as its host. Awami National Party (ANP) MNA Bushra Gohar advised the parliamentarians to boycott such programmes and the anchorpersons. She said that if the government organisations or the departments fail to make payments, then the MNAs and ministers should pay the dues from their own pockets, and explain why their dues reached Rs 2.5 million. PPP’s Ejaz Jhakrani also supported Akram, saying that he had served a legal notice to the owner of a news channel in one such incident while he was in London. Kashmala Tariq said that now the media persons would not give due coverage to the resolution, as it was against them. She also demanded accountability of the journalists living in costly residences. RAILWAYS: To a question‚ Minister for Railways Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour told the House that out of 281 non-functional diesel and electric locomotives‚ 250 were being repaired and rehabilitated at a cost of Rs 17 billion, adding that the projects were expected to be completed within next 3 years subject to availability of funds. YOUTUBE: Responding to a point of order raised by Shazia Marri‚ Defence Minister Naveed Qamar said that the government was seriously reviewing the issue of ban on YouTube in Pakistan, adding that the ban would be lifted soon. Standing Committee on Interior Member Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, on behalf of the chairman of the committee, presented a report on “the Anti-Terrorism (Second Amendment) Bill‚ 2013”.

SC seeks fresh report on Balochistan situation ISLAMABAD NNI

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the government and Balochistan inspector general to submit a fresh report over law and order situation in the province. According to a private television channel, a two-member bench headed by Justice Gulzar, resumed hearing of Balochistan unrest and Quetta carnage case. During the proceedings, the counsel for the Balochistan government informed the bench that every possible step was being taken to flush out terrorists from the province. The Balochistan IG also told court that a programme has been evolved to improve the performance of police. Later, the case hearing was adjourned for two weeks.

MQM withdraws call for indefinite shutter-down strike KARACHI STAFF REPORT/AGENCIES

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Wednesday withdrew its call made earlier today for an indefinite shutter-down strike in Sindh, particularly Karachi, Hyderabad and Nawabshah, a private TV channel reported. Earlier, the MQM had given a call to the business community, traders and transporters of Sindh to voluntarily keep their businesses closed for an indefinite period, in reaction to government’s ‘inaction’ towards nabbing the culprits of Abbas Town carnage. The decision was announced after the MQM Rabita Committee met following an earlier news conference in which it was announced that the party had started its ‘peaceful democratic movement’ in which the appeal to shut businesses and public transport for an in-

definite period was made. During the party’s second news conference on Wednesday, MQM leader Raza Haroon said the party’s peaceful protest movement would continue and the nation would be made aware of the future course of action soon. Businesses and petrol pumps have begun to reopen across the metropolis, following the withdrawal of the shutter-down strike. Public transport has also started to come back on the city’s roads and streets. Earlier, panic gripped Karachi after unidentified gunmen forced shopkeepers to close down their businesses. The presence of big shots such as Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in the violence-hit city added fuel to the rumours that something politically bad was going to take place. Tuesday’s ban on pillion riding added to

the misery of people and they commuters walked to reach safer places in the absence of public transport that was driven off the roads by the Karachi Transport Ittehad fearing arson attacks. Despite this, three vehicles were set on fire at different areas of the city. However, normalcy returned after the MQM appealed to the people for resuming their routine activities. A stampede was observed in city and massive traffic jams were reported from all parts of the city as the residents rushed to reach their homes. The shops, markets, petrol pumps and CNG stations were closed down hurriedly and very after half an hour there was no traffic on city’s roads. The businesses started to close at 2:30pm and before MQM Coordination Committee press briefing at 4pm the entire city wore a deserted look. Addressing reporters, MQM Coordina-

tion Committee member Raza Haroon said, “Last day, the MQM Coordination Committee held meetings in London and Karachi to devise future course of action if the government failed to arrest the culprits after passing deadline given by MQM chief Altaf Hussain.” “It was decided that MQM would launch peaceful protest movement as the government had failed to arrest those involved in act of terrorism at Abbas Town,” he announced. “MQM appeals to traders, industrialists and people belonging to all walk of lives to boycott routine activities and take part in MQM peaceful movement,” he appealed. “We see that how government befools public by presenting reports of fake arrest,” he cautioned. Soon after the MQM’s announcement, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon vowed that no one would be allowed to close

the businesses forcefully. “Police and Rangers have been directed to take stern action against those who were found in forceful closure of shops in the city,” he added. He appealed to the business community to keep their businesses open. Rangers arrested two people who were involved in forceful closure of shops in DHA. Later, MQM Coordination Committee Member Raza Haroon appeared on scene once again and appealed the traders and industrialists to resume their routine activities. After the appeal, petrol pumps and CNG stations were opened. Public transport also plied the city roads and shops in some parts of the city were opened. The private institutions, which earlier decided to keep schools closed for indefinite period owing to the MQM’s peaceful protest movement, announced to open schools on Thursday (today).

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Afghan people are not safe in their houses because of Afghan troops’ treatment — Afghan President Hamid Karzai

news

Thursday, 7 March, 2013

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those travelling in armoured cars cannot secure masses: CJP KARACHI ONLINE

KARACHI: Firefighters attempt putting out the blaze that erupted in New Sabzi Mandi on Super Highway on Wednesday. ONLINE

Akram slams ‘paid touts’ for maligning him ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Federal Education Minister Sheikh Waqas Akram, whose educational credentials are allegedly fake, has broken his silence and lashed out at what he called paid touts. Speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly, the minister said a local paper and an anchorperson of a private TV channel had insulted him. He said the media was giving air to propaganda against him and he would be issuing a legal notice to the anchorperson for maligning him. Akram said if he could stand up against activists of banned outfits such as SSP and LJ, he could not be afraid of such “paid touts”, adding that there was a dire need to remove such black

sheep from the media. Per media reports published on Saturday, the education minister did his BA without passing Intermediate examination. On the other hand, the Higher Education Commission and Election Commission are also sitting silently.

PPP has lost the Sindh card, says Pir Pagara RAWALPINDI ONLINE

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional chief and religious leader Pir Sahib Pagara on Wednesday said it would be a miracle if Pakistan People’s Party got 50 seats in the upcoming general election, adding that it had lost the much-touted Sindh card. Talking to reporters after a meeting with Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rahid at Lal Haveli on Wednesday, he said the PPP used to support Sindhi nationalists, but the situation was quite different by now. He said it was his wish that all factions of the PML got united at a single platform. Pagara hoped the next government might be a one capable of taking the nation on road to progress. To a question, Pagara noted that Sheikh Rashid was like a teacher to him. On the occasion, Rashid said he also shared the desire for uniting the factions of PML, and if that happened, it would be a source of happiness for him.

“The minister purportedly passed his BA examination from the Punjab University in 1997. The copy of his degree shows examinations were conducted in 1997 while the degree was surprisingly issued on November 27, 1996. The purported degree also does not bear any roll number or registration number,” the report had said. Talking to Pakistan Today, HEC Spokesman Murtaza Noor said HEC was currently not in a position to say anything over the education minister’s degree. “One thing is clear, the minister’s degrees is yet to be verified. When the minister asks us for the same, we will be in a position to say something,” the spokesman said. However, he said the HEC chairman will issue an official statement in the next couple of days.

HE Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the suspension of Malir Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar, saying that all officers, including Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Fayyaz Leghari, would have resigned from their posts if they had any shame. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the suo motu case on Abbas Town blast. The other two members of the bench included Justice Ameer Hani Aslam and Justice Aijaz Afzal. “If the government had been dissolved after the Karachi unrest case, everything would have been fixed by now,” the CJP remarked. He said that police officers were travelling in armoured cars, which was the reason why they were not able to provide security to the masses. When the hearing started, Sindh IGP Fayyaz Laghari presented a report on the bomb blast in Abbas Town. The CJP stated that they wanted to secure the common people and ensure application

of Article 9 of the constitution. Rangers Director General (DG) Major General Akhtar also presented a report on the incident. The CJP said that the life of a single citizen was more important than that of the officers. He ordered the Rangers officials to present a detailed report on the miserable law and order situation in Karachi by March 8. In addition, the CJP also ordered the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to present their respective reports regarding the incident. He observed that 10 to 15 citizens die in Karachi every day. The Sindh advocate general said that 50 people had died and 139 others were injured in the Abbas Town carnage. The SC also issued the suspension orders of SSP Rao Anwar on immediate basis. The CJP said that everyone including the IGP should be suspended. Government’s lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan told the court that it had been decided that the Sindh IGP would be transferred to Islamabad. The hearing was adjourned for March 8. The Home Ministry later transferred the IGP and the DIG to the central government. Sources said that both the officers had vacated their posts.

nawaz urges people to reject corrupt leaders LAHORE INP

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday urged the people to reject corrupt leaders through power of vote. He was talking to prominent political personalities of DG Khan Mian Zeeshan Khan Leghari and Azeem Shah who met him along with Sardar Zulfikar Khosa and announced to join the PML-N. The PML-N chief also addressed the district committees meetings of Okara and Pak Pattan.

Nawaz vowed to struggle for resolution of all national issues. He said it was his mission to restore Pakistan’s lost status as a fast developing country and a prosperous, sovereign and self-reliant Pakistan was his dream and manifesto of the party. He said that now people could easily differentiate between corrupt and the honest rulers. He also said the country could not progress until terrorism was completely rooted out from its soil. He was confident that the people would vote for the PML-N on the basis of its past and present performance and good governance.

India delays peace talks until new Pakistani govt formed ISLAMABAD ShAIq huSSAIN

India is unwilling to carry forward the peace process with Pakistan until the formation of a new government in the next few months, meaning the Indo-Pak composite dialogue has been virtually brought to a standstill for now. Indian authorities have indicated to Pakistani officials through diplomatic channels that talks on issues like Kashmir, peace and security, Siachen, Sir Creek and other bilateral matters would be resumed after a new government took over in Islamabad. New Delhi believes that only a few days are left before the term of current Pakistani coalition government led by the PPP comes to an end on March 16 and it would be better to engage in peace

talks with the next Pakistani government. Hence, there are no chances of IndoPak talks on different conflicting matters in the next couple of months. The Indo-Pak composite dialogue was slowed down by the military skirmishes on the Line of Control (LoC) in January and there was such a high level of tension between the two sides that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quoted as saying that there would be no usual business with Pakistan. In a bid to defuse the mounting tension, Pakistan offered to hold foreign minister-level talks with its nuclear neighbour, but that offer was rejected by India. New Delhi also cancelled a meeting on the Wullar Barrage between the water secretaries of the two countries

that was scheduled for the last week of January. Besides, India also suspended the new visa liberalisation regime with Pakistan that was signed in September last year. Diplomatic sources in Islamabad said due to the United States’ efforts to cool down the temperature in Islamabad and New Delhi, India had accepted to opt for de-escalation, but it was in no mood to hold talks on various issues before a new government was set up in Islamabad. “Its not that India has any problem with the current Pakistani government, it’s only that they (Indians) want to wait and engage in talks with future Pakistani rulers,” a source said, seeking anonymity. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is going to Ajmer Sharif, India on Saturday to pay homage to the great Sufi

saint Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, but he (Ashraf) is unlikely to travel to New Delhi and hold any meeting with his Indian counterpart and other Indian leaders. Another source said there was unlikelihood of any formal talks between India and Pakistan even during the caretaker set up in Islamabad and the Indian authorities would wait for the formation of a new Pakistani government. “Hence, it would be months of lull before we see any activity on the IndoPak peace process front,” he said. A Pakistani official said Islamabad wanted to resolve all bilateral issues with New Delhi through dialogue. However, India also needed to show seriousness and exhibit reciprocity if it wanted the peaceful settlement of conflicting matters with Pakistan.

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The PPP has presence in every part and area of the country — PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf

news Thursday, 7 March, 2013

Refused offer to become caretaker Sindh CM: Malik refused offer to become caretaker sindH cm, says maLik

interior minister says Quetta, karacHi bombing resuLt of Punjab goVernment’s inaction against banned grouPs

ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

PESHAWAR: A worker making slingshots at his shop on Wednesday. INP

teacher assaults student with iron rod, breaks his arm KARACHI AAMIR MAJEED

A private school teacher assaulted a student with an iron rod, breaking his arm, Pakistan Today has learnt. The school administration later expelled the tortured student, a day before the final examination. The incident took place in Waqarul Islam Secondary School, located in Umar Farooque Town, Kalapul, Defence. According to sources, the school building constructed on an 80 square yard plot, has only six rooms allocated for Montessori to Matric classes, is running on illegal water and electricity connections and has no washrooms for students and staff. Hasnain Noor, the injured student, fell unconscious following the beating and is unable to function with his right arm. Despite this, when Noor went to appear in his examination, he was not allowed to write the exam and was told he had been expelled from the institute. Mukhtar, owner of the school, when approached for comments, accepted that a female teacher had tortured a grade-V student. “We have directed the teacher not to attend the school, until the school management reviews the incident and decides on a plan of action,” he said. Mukhtar denied Noor had been expelled from the school and insisted that he attend classes. He further said the school provided the students and staff with all basic facilities and there were no inconsistencies in this regard. However, he did not allow Pakistan Today to visit the school building and verify his stance, and disconnected the call. Directorate of Private Educational Institutions Sindh (DPEIS) Deputy Director Zehra Mohsin, when contacted, condemned this act of barbarism. “We cannot allow physical punishment to students,” she added. “I will personally investigate this incident and the school management would be issued notices,” she vowed. “We will also direct the management of all private educational institutions working in Sindh not to appoint such teachers at their schools,” she said.

ppp, pML-N have joined hands to benefit ‘tax thieves’: Imran Pti cHief says nawaz, zardari biggest iLLs of Pakistan MANSEHRA INP

Calling President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N President Nawaz Sharif the biggest ills in the country, Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday assailed the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaderships for getting together to grant amnesty to around four million tax evaders by approving tax amnesty bill. Addressing public gatherings on his two-day visit to Hazara division, Imran said the secret alliance between the thieves, tax dodgers and plunderers had been exposed. “This is another NRO aimed at legalising the corruption of tax-evading big businessmen. The PPP and PML-N lawmakers have approved tax amnesty bill in the Standing Committee of National Assembly to provide legal cover to around four million tax evaders. This (move) has vindicated the secret alliance between both the parties who are stealing the national exchequer,” the PTI chief

said. “Let us join hands to bury these crooks who have been sucking your wealth. These corrupt are united to loot you time and again. This is time for you to get united and make life hell for them,” he said while addressing charged crowds of thousands in Mansehra. “Under the tax amnesty scheme, four million tax thieves will be given amnesty. This is another instance where the PPP and PML-N have decided to legalise corruption by dacoits who are sucking blood of the poor of Pakistan,” said Imran Khan. Khan said another such move was in the pipeline to waive off duty on imported non-custom paid vehicles through releasing an SRO by the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) to benefit smugglers. “As the election is fast approaching, both parties, afraid of the rising popularity of the PTI, are making clandestine efforts to make as much money as possible,” Imran said. He made it clear that the PTI, with the support of energetic and passionate youth, would inflict a punching defeat on both the parties even if they got united against it. “The difference between the PTI and rest of the parties is quite evident, as in the PTI workers have given the right to vote the crooks and looters out from the party by holding intra-party polls, but there is no such mechanism exist in other parties,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi doesn’t want to marry, won’t run for PM NEW DELHI INP

Rahul Gandhi, arguably India’s most eligible bachelor, on Wednesday said he was not interested in marriage, nor was he in the race for prime minister’s post despite his recent appointment as Congress vice president. His appointment as the Congress vice president was widely regarded as a precursor for him to be the party’s candidate for the top job in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. In a rare conversation with Congress MPs and journalists in Parliament’s Central Hall, Rahul said he did not wish to tie the knot and start a family as doing so would lead him to develop a vested interest in the status quo at the expense of his mission to democratise the Congress and decentralise its decision-making. “If I get married and have children, then I will become a status quo-ist and will be concerned about bequeathing my position to my children,” he said. This was the first-ever confirmation of Rahul’s much-speculated disinclination to marry and start a family. Rahul had so far fended off questions about his marriage by saying people would get to know about his plans at the appropriate time.

NTERIOR Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday said he had refused an offer of becoming the caretaker Sindh chief minister extended by the party leadership and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Talking to reporters outside the Parliament House, Malik said he had expressed his inability to accept the offer for personal reasons. He asked the Sharif brothers to stop defending Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ). Malik said he had sought a meeting with Punjab chief minister to present to him proofs about the involvement of LJ in various acts of terrorism. “I have never related the Sharif brothers with activities of the Lashkar-eJhangvi, but when I speak about the arrest of Malik Ishaq, the two brothers start defending him,” the minister said. “I want to remind Mian Sahib that an order was given to register an FIR against him in the Asghar Khan case verdict. How can he talk of honest leadership? I challenge him to come on TV with me, I would prove everything, even

the case lying pending against him with NAB,” he said. He said al Qaeda, TTP and LJ had prepared a conspiracy to get the elections postponed by carrying out bomb blasts, adding that the Taliban and LJ had threatened that they would not let the polls to be held. Malik said in the coming days, there could be a reduction in bomb blasts but warned that targeted killings could go up. He claimed that he had got a copy of the conspiracy that was prepared across the border, adding that he was receiving threats from LJ on a daily basis. The interior minister vowed to eliminate LJ and its backers, adding that had the Punjab government took action against the banned organisation, there would not have been attacks in Quetta and Karachi. He questioned why LJ was targeting Shia community in Karachi and Quetta, disclosing that 1,400 members of LJ were in Schedule-4. Malik said that if the government considered it necessary, it would seek army’s help for conducting general elections and if terrorism was not controlled, holding polls would be impossible. He also rejected a news report that a house in Ministers’ Colony had been allotted to him.

brennan clears senate Committee in confirmation process for CIa Director WASHINGTON SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The US Senate Intelligence Committee endorsed President Barack Obama’s choice for CIA Director, John Brennan, with a 12-3 vote after the White House agreed to provide lawmakers more information on the legal basis for targeted killings of suspected terrorism-linked Americans abroad. Serving as Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, Brennan, 57, has crafted the US drone policy over the years but lawmakers have questioned the basis for killing Americans in targeted operations and sought legal documents justifying such actions. The vote on Tuesday showed substantial bipartisan support for Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran who has overseen the expansion of strikes by the CIA and the military in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. According to the US media commentaries, Brennan is likely to get votes required for his confirmation in the Senate.

The Senate committee’s Democratic chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, said on Tuesday that the White House had agreed to give the committee access to all Justice Department legal opinions on the targeted killing of Americans. Two such opinions were briefly shared with senators at the time of Brennan’s confirmation hearing last month and officials said the remaining two were made available on Tuesday. But the administration withheld the opinions governing strikes targeting nonAmericans that the committee has also sought, arguing that they are confidential legal advice to the president. “As a result, the detailed legal rules for a vast majority of drone strikes, including so-called signature strikes aimed at suspected militants whose names are unknown to the people targeting them, remain secret even from the Congressional intelligence committees,” commented the New York Times.

venezuela bids farewell to Chavez as an era ends CARACAS AGENCIES

The flag-draped coffin of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez was borne through throngs of weeping supporters on Wednesday as a nation bade farewell to the firebrand leftist who led them for 14 years. His mother Elena wept over his wooden casket as a band played the national anthem outside his military hospital. Presidential guards with red berets then placed his remains on top of a black hearse, surrounded by flowers. Chavez’s hand-picked successor, Vice President

Nicolas Maduro, walked alongside the car through dense crowds, wearing a somber expression and a striking outfit in the color of the national flag. Chavez’ death after a twoyear struggle with cancer was a blow to his adoring supporters and the alliance of leftwing Latin American powers, and plunged his oil-rich country into uncertainty as an election is organised. His body, surrounded by soldiers, was being taken to the military academy that the former paratrooper colonel once called a second home, where he will lie in state until

an official ceremony with foreign dignitaries on Friday. People watched from their apartment windows, others climbed fences to get a better view of the hearse, many held or wore iconic images of Chavez. The 58-year-old leader succumbed to a respiratory infection on Tuesday. A new election is due to be called within what are sure to be 30 tense days. Maduro, who tearfully broke the news to the nation that his mentor had lost his battle with cancer, was poised to take over as interim president and to cam-

paign for election as Chavez’s chosen successor. The death brought thousands of Venezuelans to public squares across the nation, weeping and celebrating the life of a divisive figure whose oil-funded socialist revolution delighted the poor and infuriated the wealthy. Venezuela’s closest ally, communist Cuba, declared its own mourning period for a leader who helped prop up the island’s economy with cheap fuel and cash transfers, and dubbed Chavez a “true son” of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro. But US President Barack

Obama, often a target of Chavez’s anti-American scorn, was circumspect, pledging the United States would support the “Venezuelan people” and describing Chavez’s passing as a “challenging time”. Shortly before Chavez’s death was announced, Maduro expelled two US military attaches and accused Venezuela’s enemies of somehow afflicting the leftist with the cancer that eventually killed him. Chavez was showered with tributes from Latin American leaders and Russia, China and Iran also

paid tribute to a man who had cultivated close ties with the bugbears of the West as a way of thumbing his nose at Washington. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Chavez had fallen “martyr” to a “suspect illness”, while hailing his close ally for “serving the people of Venezuela and defending human and revolutionary values.” And beleaguered Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad took time off from attempting to crush a revolt against his brutal rule to dub Chavez’s death “a great loss for me personally and the Syrian people”.

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Lady of the family helps save more electricity when compared to the man. –Gallup

PtI intra-party elections take 2

LAhore Thursday, 7 March, 2013

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Pakistan teHreek-e-insaf Has Hired exPerts from bar counciLs to count tHeir Votes tHis time Voters to resume Voting for imPortant Posts as Party LeadersHiP diffuses tensions between winners and Losers LAHORE

uMAIR AZIZ

HE voters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) are going to restart the election process which was hanging in a limbo due to the fiasco after the election of the party’s Lahore president. The voters will be starting the election process for a wide array of officials. The party high ups had tasked the senior leaders to resolve the dispute which had resulted in an armed scuffle

between two groups and resulted in at least three workers being sent to jail. The losing candidates were also reported to have resigned from the party over the failure of the party leaders to announce re-election. However, after senior level meetings,

elections are going to resume on the seats that could not be filled because the ballot boxes were destroyed. The violence that ensued after the party attempted to hold elections last time invited a lot of criticism from many quarters, while some also

Lahore Master Plan 2005-2021: All ditched and forgotten

claimed that the party leaders who could not hold intra-party elections peacefully could never run the country. However, PTI information Secretary Shafqat Mehmood viewed the entire exercise as a part of the democratic setup and said that the “exercise was a historic step in the country’s history.” After the resolution of issues, the party is going elect a whole hierarchy of office bearers in the district and towns. Important posts include sports secretary, vice presidents, senior vice presidents and others. Around 2,000 voters will cast votes in the intra-party elections today (Thursday) after party high ups’ claim that the past “mistakes” have been resolved. District Election Commissioner Fayyaz Mehar has said that the party had hired vote counters from the Pakistan Bar Council and Lahore High Court Bar who were experienced. “Unlike the last time when the issue of placing ballot boxes created a fiasco, there is not going to be a need for it because the expert voter counters will finish counting within the stipulated time,” he added.

Smearing of underpass plaques ignored an organisation named jaag Punjab jaag Has accePted resPonsibiLity PhOTO by MuRTAZA ALI

LAHORE wALEED MALhI

The City District Government Lahore Administrator is changing the status of land use which is against the approved Master Plan of the Metropolitan, Pakistan Today has learnt. According to details, the changes have been made in all the underdeveloped areas of the city, rendering the master plan useless and redundant. The master plan was approved through a long exercise by techno-legal consents of the experts. “The expenditure incurred for the plan was Rs 15 million which is proving to be a waste since the CDGL is not abiding by it,” a source told Pakistan Today. The Ring Road, BRTS, Sunder Industrial Estate, Slaughter House, Baker Mandi and others

major Projects incLuding tHe brts, ring road, sundar industriaL estate and otHers are not Present in tHe master PLan tHat cost tHe goVt rs 15 miLLion are some major projects that violate the master plan. Apart from this, category of land use of over 95 percent of the unused land has also been changed through a single executive order. “These practices confirm that either the master planning authority or the consultants (NESPAK) were not experts and they have wasted the government’s revenue or the

government does not know how to implement a plan,” an official said. “There are rumours that the authorities are remaking the plan with NESPAK and this time the cost incurred would be Rs 30 million,” an official said, adding that the present master plan was valid until 2021. “Private urban developers are not abiding by the plan. Not only this, even the government departments themselves are not taking the plan seriously. In such circumstances I don’t see the need of making a new plan,” an official said. “There are many housing schemes which are not present on the master plan. One executive order has changed the entire plan and no advertisement has been made in the newspaper which will cause a lot of discomfort to the general public,” another official said.

No action has been taken by the City District Government Lahore on the blackening of the plaques of three underpasses on Canal Road, which were allegedly smeared with black paint by an organisation named Jaag Punjab Jaag, Pakistan Today has learnt. The names of three underpasses in Lahore were recently changed by the Dilkash Lahore Committee to pay tribute to people who were a part of the Pakistan Movement. The boards inscribed with the names of Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, Chaakar-i-Azam Rind, Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai, Liaqat Ali Khan, Waris Shah and Faiz Ahmad Faiz were installed at Doctors Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Muslim Town, Ferozepur Road, Jail Road and Mall Road underpasses, respectively. The plaques carrying names of Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, Chaakari-Azam Rind and Faiz Ahmad Faiz were spared and only the portions inscribed with names in Urdu were targeted in others. A legal proceeding can be done under the Defamation Ordinance 2002 as the law states that “Any wrongful act or publication or circulation of a false statement or representation made orally or in written or visual form which injures the reputation of a person, tends to lower him in the estimation of others or tends to reduce him to ridicule, unjust criticism, dislike, contempt or hatred shall be actionable as defamation.” Names of 26 locations all over the city are to be changed. “Legal action will be taken once we are sure who is behind this,” an official of the CDGL said.

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People globally are living longer but chronic diseases and conditions like high blood pressure are becoming more prevalent. –PLOS

LAhore Thursday, 7 March, 2013

Zeeshan leghari, Azeem Shah join PMl-N

GIVE US FOOD: Employees of the Sheikh Zayed Hospital protest for regularisation on Wednesday. MuRTAZA ALI

LAHORE: Zeeshan Leghari, Azeem Shah and Ahmed Hussain Dehar, leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from Dera Ghazi Khan, joined Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N), while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Dastgir Luk also announced his support for the PML-N. According to details, Zeeshan Leghari, Azeem Shah and Dastgir Luk met PML-N President Nawaz Sharif in Model Town and announced their decision to join PML-N. Addressing the meetings of regional committees of Okara and Pakpatan, Nawaz Sharif said that he was well aware of problems and difficulties which people were facing and would work day and night to resolve them. S TA F F R E P O RT

Zakat employees stage protest demonstration LAHORE: Punjab Zakat Employees Association on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration in favour of their demands in front of Lahore Press Club. The protesters were holding placards and posters inscribed with their demands. They chanted slogans against the provincial government. Addressing the participants, Muhammad Amanullah, General Secretary Punjab Zakat Employees Association said that more than 2,500 employees had been serving the department on contractual basis for the last many years and their service had not yet been regularised. Others said that Punjab government had regularised more than 100,000 employees but the workers of Zakat and Ushr Department were neglected. Later, Punjab Zakat Employees Association staged a sit-in in front of Chief Minister’s House. STAFF REPORT

Gill asks PML-N to take everyone should support South action against LJ Punjab province, says Raja Riaz LAHORE

LAHORE: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Aslam Gill has strongly urged Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders to stop appeasing terrorist organisations in Punjab and to take an action against them. “It is not a secret that PML-N has an electoral alliance with Lashkar-i-Janghvi and others similar outfits in the past and it has a soft corner for them,” he said, adding that Punjab chief minister had denied the irrefutable reality of the presence of bases of the organisations whereas a number of authentic publications had published on the activities of Punjabi Taliban in the country and beyond. He said that the terrorist activities of Punjab-based terrorist organisations had brought a bad name to the country and the nation as well in the international community. He said that collusion with such organizations amounted to working against the interests of democracy and as well as federation of Pakistan. He advised the PML-N leadership not to follow political opportunism at the expense of democracy, life and property of the citizens of Pakistan. STAFF REPORT

STAFF REPORT

AJA Riaz, Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, has urged the opponents of the South Punjab province to lend their support for the cause as it was reflective of the aspirations of the people who firmly believed that the new province was the only solution to mitigate their depravation on permanent basis. He said that the Pakistan People’s Party had been struggling for the creation of new province keeping in view the sentiments of

the people and would continue the movement till the dream of the people came true. “Welfare of the people is the prime consideration of the policies of PPP” he added. He advised the leadership of other political parties to extend requisite cooperation to the government in resolving the issue of new province sooner than later. “By opposing the South Punjab province they would earn the enmity of the people, they should lend helping hand instead and thus win their hearts and minds.’’ He said that the new provincial government, provincial assembly with its own administration, nation building departments and high courts

dedicated to serve the people of the region efficiently and diligently would bring qualitative change in the lives of the people. He said that the opposition of some of the political parties for carving out a new province was beyond comprehension because they voted in favor of it when Punjab Assembly unanimously passed the resolution in this regard. He said that the provincial autonomy was the spirit of 1973 Constitution and the creation of the new province would be a shining example of the implementation of the vision of the founding fathers of the constitution 1973.

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LAHORE STAFF REPORT

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of a petition against defamation campaign launched by Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and others against Bahria Town. Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh was hearing the matter which was fixed as an objection case. The court after hearing the arguments directed that the petition be fixed with another identical petition filed by the Bahria Town and adjourned the hearing until March 17. The petition was filed by Amjad Nawaz Bhatti and others through counsel Dr Basit, submitting that they were owners of plots in Sector D and E of Bahria Town which were

also known as Orchard Phase-II. They submitted that the respondents including LDA and others had initiated a massive defamation campaign through electronic and print media requesting people to avoid buying plots in sectors D, E and F of Bahria Town Lahore for being developed without approval of any competent authority. They contended that the LDA did not have authority to take such an action as scheme did not require NoC from LDA. The petitioners alleged that the Punjab government, which was under control of a politically hostile regime, formed a criminal conspiracy to damage standing of Bahria Town. They submitted that the prices of plots had decreased due to this defamation campaign.

‘BetteR to dIe thAN to ShouldeR BlAMe’: PolICe CoNStABle CoMMItS SuICIde LAHORE STAFF REPORT

A constable committed suicide in GOR-1 on Wednesday. According to details, Tasneem Anjum, 50, killed himself over a family dispute. A letter reading “It is better to die than to shoulder blame” was also found near his dead body. Anjum had recently married his son. ROBBERY: A robbery took place in a house in P-Block, Defense. According to details, four robbers entered a house and robbed it of

50 tola gold, Rs 150,000 and five mobile phones. In another report a citizen named Umer was robbed of Rs 20,00,000 at Kalam Chowk Underpass ACCIDENT: An over-speeding van hit an electricity poll and injured five people who were shifted to Jinnah Hospital. ARRESTS: Police arrested three members of Imran robbery gang along with the master mind from Factory Area. Weapons, dozens of mobile phones and cash were recovered from their possession.

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They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America? — Fidel Castro

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Thursday, 7 March, 2013

the lIFe ANd tIMeS oF ChAveZ E

AIMA KHOSA

VERY now and then a giant arrives in our midst, one that etches a permanent impression on the course of history. One such figure was El commandante Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, the death of whom has left a gaping hole in Venezuela’s future and a question mark for revolutionary movements worldwide. Revolutionaries all over the world looked up to Hugo Chavez for leading socialism in the 21st century. And Chavez had taken up the task with the power and grace befitting a real leader. His election to president’s office four times is a testimony to his popularity in his country and the international mourning in the wake of his death points to how iconic Chavez had become in his 15 years of leadership.

the gIaNt awaKeNs Born in a rural town of Sabaneta in plains of western Venezuela, Chavez was educated in public schools and entered the Venezuelan Military Academy in 1971 as an army cadet. Rising steadily among army ranks, Chavez soon became a paratrooper and military-academy history teacher. Here he trained and led a group of dissident soldiers for a coup against the then Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez. The coup failed and Chavez was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was pardoned, however, after 2 years by the new president. He was then elected to presidency in the 1998 elections as the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement. Dedicated to a socialist ideology, he implemented reforms in Venezuela under what became internationally known as the Bolivarian Revolution. These reforms included a new constitution, participatory democratic councils, the nationalisation of several key industries, increased government funding of health care and education, and significant reductions in poverty. He used rich Venezuelan oil reserves for this purpose and won the ever-increasing support from the poor masses of his country. Internationally, he was a vocal critic of the American imperialism, having famously defended his stance by saying, “I hereby accuse the North American empire of being the biggest menace to our planet.” His government

forged an alliance with the socialist governments of Cuba under Fidel Castro and later Raul Castro, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Because of his international alliances and his vocal criticism of capitalism (Chavez once said, “I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell”), his presidency is associated with what is called the Pink Tide of Latin America. He was a key figure in setting up the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, the Bank of the South, and the regional television network TeleSur. As with all exceptional leaders, Chavez was not free from controversy. During his second term, senior military officials, media men and members of his own government attempted a CIA-backed coup. Mass rallies were held in Caracas against the Bolivarian government and violence reportedly broke out between pro- and anti-Chavez activists. Gun shots were fired, and twenty people were killed and over 110 were wounded. Using civil unrest as an opportunity, the plotters gained significant power in pressuring Chavez to step down. Chavez agreed and was transferred by army escort to La Orchila. However, when offered a chance to flee, Chavez resolutely refused to resign as the president of the country, having famously said, “I am a President held prisoner, that I haven’t resigned and I will not resign.” Nonetheless, the wealthy businessleader Pedro Carmona declared himself president of an interim government. Carmona abolished the 1999 constitution and appointed a small governing committee to run the country. Protests in support of Chávez along with insufficient support for Carmona’s regime, led to Carmona’s resignation and Chávez returned to power on 14 April. Chavez learned from this experience and attempted to moderate his approach. He implemented a new economic team that was more centrist and reinstated the old board of directors and managers of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), whose replacement was believed to be one of the reasons for the coup. At the same time, the Bolivarian government also began to prepare for a US invasion or future uprisings. At least 100,000 AK47 assault rifles and several helicopters

were purchased from Russia, as well as a number of Super Tucano light attack planes from Brazil. Troop numbers were also increased. It was announced in 2005 that the government intented to increase the number of military reserves from 50,000 to 2,000,000.

LegaCy After winning the presidency for the fourth time late in 2012, El Presidente fell ill which prevented him from taking oath as the president. News reports and official government sources claimed that he had cancer, although the nature of his disease was not disclosed. Chavez breathed his last in the early hours of March 6. In his absence, Vice President Nicolas Maduro will assume the presidency until an election is held within 30 days When news of his death broke, the government of Cuba declared three days of national mourning. In a statement read out on state television, it said Chavez had “stood by Fidel [Castro] like a true son.” In Argentina, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a close friend, suspended all activities after the death was announced. Peru’s Congress held a minute of silence in his honour while Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said he was leaving immediately for Caracas. The Ecuadorian government said it felt the loss as its own, and hoped its neighbours could carry on Chavez’s revolution. Thousands of Chavez supporters gathered outside government offices and chanted “We are all Chavez!” As the International Left mourns, there is a daunting question of who will fill the massive void left by Hugo Chavez. Chavez was not just a president, he was the flag-bearer of a blatant challenge to imperialism and capitalism and he was a living proof that socialism had not died with the collapse of the Soviet empire. His last tweet, “Until victory always! We’ll live and we’ll win!” may have referred to his hope in fighting cancer but it represents so much more. It calls to the brave spirits within all of us to continue to struggle against forces that threaten to annihilate our existence, it calls to the revolutionaries to remain dedicated to the cause of fighting oppression. While the world grapples with the loss, one cannot, then, help but join the chants, “We are all Chavez.”

syrIaN MILItary poUNDs hoMs

bLast at MaDrID hospItaL

sNowstorM IN Us MIDwest

BEIRUT: Syrian warplanes and helicopters struck rebel enclaves in Homs on Wednesday, on the fourth day of a major offensive aimed at crushing the insurgency in the country’s third-largest city, a watchdog said. “The army used helicopters to strafe the Old City district of Homs... and warplanes and rocket fire to strike the district of Khaldiyeh,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Although the government of President Bashar al-Assad now controls some 80 percent of Homs, several districts remain under rebel control despite a suffocating eight-month siege by the army. Several hundred civilians are trapped in rebel-held districts of the city, which activists dub “the capital of the revolution”. “We don’t know how they can get out, or where they would even go, should the army seize control of the rebel districts — Homs is surrounded,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. AGENCIES

MADRID: A gas explosion has occurred inside a hospital in the Spanish capital, Madrid, where King Juan Carlos has been recovering from a hip operation. Five people were injured in Wednesday’s blaze that resulted from an oxygen tank explosion which was stored on the ground floor of the hospital. A palace spokesman said the fire started before 8am local time on Wednesday on the opposite side of La Milagrosa hospital. The royal palace said that the monarch was fine and did not have to be moved. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of palace regulations. A Spanish television said the fire started in a boiler room and caused some blasts. No one was seriously injured. Hospital spokesman Eduardo Gismero said the fire was put out. AGENCIES

CHICAGO: A deadly late winter storm dumped heavy snow on the Midwestern United States, contributing to numerous highway crashes and flight cancellations as it moved east toward the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic states. More than 1,000 flights were cut in and out of Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports and 107 more were canceled in and out of Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport, according to the FlightAware.com flight tracking service. In Chicago, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through midnight, much of it expected to fall around the evening rush hour. At a late morning press conference hosted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications said nearly 300 snow plows were working to keep roads clear in the city. APP

s Korea vows to retaLIate IF provoKeD by North SEOUL: South Korea on Wednesday warned that it would retaliate against any provocation from North Korea, a day after the North threatened to tear up the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953. “If North Korea carries out provocations that threaten the lives and safety of South Koreans, our military will carry out strong and resolute retaliations,” Army General Kim Yong-Hyun told reporters. Kim’s briefing followed North Korea’s announcement on Tuesday that it would “completely declare invalid” the armistice agreement in response to moves to toughen UN sanctions on North Korea after its recent nuclear test. The announcement, attributed to the spokesman of the North Korean army’s supreme command, also threatened an undefined “strike of justice” against a target of the North’s choosing. APP

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The US relationship with Pakistan is not shaped solely by our commitments and responsibilities in Afghanistan — US Ambassador Richard Olson

news Thursday, 7 March, 2013

No official talks likely during PM Ashraf’s Ajmer visit: India

NEW DELHI: The Indian government

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT: Two gypsies exchange thoughts along a road in Rawalpinind on Wednesday. INP

PPP has lost the Sindh card: Pagara RAWALPINDI ONLINE

Army ready to help civil admin for Karachi peace: CoAS ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

HIEF of Army Staff ( C O A S ) General Ashfaq Kayani on Wednesday said the Pakistan Army was ready to provide assistance to the civil administration to bring peace to Karachi. The COAS said this at a briefing at the Corps Headquarters Karachi regarding law and order in the city. According to sources, General Kayani said the Pakistan Army was prepared to tackle the internal and external threats to national security. The army chief

two rhino poachers gunned down in India GUWAHATI AGENCIES Forest rangers in northeast India shot dead two poachers on Wednesday at a wildlife sanctuary where 13 threatened one-horned rhinos have been killed in the past two months. According to officials, four men entered Kaziranga National Park, 200 kilometers from Assam’s main city Guwahati, early on Wednesday and fired at a rhino. Park warden NK Vasu said the shot, which missed its target, alerted forest guards who rushed to the spot. “A fierce encounter took place between the two sides in which two of the poachers were killed,” Vasu said, adding that a rifle had also been recovered. Last week forest rangers engaged in a gun battle with poachers for over seven hours but failed to prevent the killing of another rhino whose valuable horn was gouged out. Wildlife experts say the price of a single rhino horn rivals gold and its value attracts international organised crime groups. China is the main market, where it is used for medicine and jewellery, while in Vietnam many believe that rhino horn can cure cancer and has aphrodisiac qualities.

expressed concern over the worsening law and order situation in Karachi. General Kayani said Karachi was the economic hub of the country and the enemies of the country were targeting the Quaid’s city to damage the country. He said it was the foremost duty of the army to safeguard the solidarity of the country and the army will fulfill this responsibility. Earlier, when General Kayani arrived at the Corps Headquarters Karachi, he was received by Corps Commander Karachi Lt General Muhammad Ijaz Chaudhry. The corps commander and other army officers briefed the army chief about the situation in Karachi.

on Wednesday indicated that there would be no official talks with Prime Minister Raja Prevez Ashraf during his upcoming visit to India, as he would directly travel to Ajmer. Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said he had no knowledge of Ashraf holding talks with Indian leaders during his visit. “Not to my knowledge. He is only coming to offer prayers at Ajmer. He will reach Ajmer directly,” he told reporters, when asked whether Ashraf would hold talks with Indian leaders. “He will possibly be received by the (Rajasthan) governor (Margaret Alva). There is no further programme and I am not aware of any programme,” Khurshid said. Ashraf will visit India on Saturday to offer prayers at the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer. In reply to a query on BNP leader Khaleda Zia cancelling her appointment with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee during his visit to Dhaka, Khurshid said the development was “disappointing” but the opposition’s preoccupation with the political developments in Bangladesh may have been the “reason and the cause” for the decision. “We had a very good visit.... We are continuing to build on our relationship with Bangladesh. Internal politics of any country and the dynamics of internal politics should not stand in the way of allowing our relationships to grow and fulfill,” he said. INP

PM to host farewell dinner for NA members today ISLAMABAD: The members of the National Assembly, which is close to completing its five-year tenure, will have a farewell dinner at the PM House today (Thursday). The simple but dignified ceremony will include NA members, Senate chairman, federal ministers, bureaucrats and key PPP leaders. Meanwhile, the National Assembly on Wednesday completed mandatory days of a parliamentary year. The NA speaker had also wanted to host a reception, but could not due to the Abbas Town tragedy in Karachi. ONLINE

Iran conducting clandestine activities in India: Us general WASHINGTON INP

Describing Iran as the “most significant threat” to regional stability, a top US commander has accused Tehran of carrying out clandestine activities in more than a dozen countries, including India. An Iranian miscalculation raises the risk of sparking disastrous conflict, General James Mattis, commander of the US Central Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a congressional hearing. “Iran remains the single most significant regional threat to

stability and prosperity. Its reckless behaviour and bellicose rhetoric characterise a leadership that cannot win the affection of its own people or respect of any responsible nation in the region,” he said on Tuesday. He added that Iran continued support to the “murderous Assad regime” in Syria coupled with its “malign activities” in India, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Thailand, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Nigeria. “In Washington DC it attempted to kill the Saudi ambassador and elsewhere

in the world, as well as in the cyber-domain, raise the risk of Iranian miscalculation that could spark a disastrous conflict,” he said. Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that all options, including military options, need to remain on the table. He said that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon was not only US policy, but the US was determined to achieve the policy goal. “Iran is actively expanding threat network that has promoted violence across the regions in Yemen, Gaza, Sudan, Syria,

Iraq and elsewhere. It provides financial and material support to overthrow or undermine governments or terrorise innocent civilians,” he said. General Mattis added that the collapse of Assad regime in Syria would be the biggest strategic setback for Iran in 25 years. “I believe they will arm militias inside the country to try to create a Lebanese Hezbollah-type effect. They would redouble their efforts vis-à-vis Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen and elsewhere,” he said. Mattis said that Iran obtaining a nuclear weapons would be very dangerous for the world.

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It is my wish that all factions of the PML get united at a single platform — Pir Pagara

Thursday, 7 March, 2013

(

( IsaF CoNtaINers Case

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SC gives FBR chief 2 weeks to recover losses from accused ISLAMABAD

INP

H E Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem to recover money from the accused in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) missing containers’ case within two weeks. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed was hearing the ISAF missing containers’ case. During the hearing, Justice Gulzar Ahmed also ordered the FBR chief to personally submit a report on the recovery in two weeks’ time. Until now, the FBR has managed to recover only Rs 5.06 million out of the total recoverable Rs 54.73 billion mentioned in a January 19, 2011 report by Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Shoaib Suddle due to the restrictions imposed by the pending lawsuits. The total recoverable amount is Rs 54.73 billion, which was accumulated over last four years due to irregularities in collection of custom duties and taxes.

KARACHI: A vehicle carrying Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry approaches the Supreme Court Karachi Registry office before hearing on the Abbas Town blasts. ONLINE

During the previous hearing on February 22, the bench had asked the FBR to submit a comprehensive report, including details of the duties and levies recovered. According to FBR’s counsel, those

uSS william P lawrence joins naval exercise AMAN-13

responsible for the losses had obtained a blanket stay order from the Sindh High Court, which restrained the FBR from collecting the recoverable amount. The court has also directed the chairman to personally appear during the next

hearing of the case. During the previous hearing, the court was informed that an amount of Rs 54.73 billion had been defalcated in the ISAF containers’ case and the people involved in looting money had got stay orders from the high court.

Karzai calls on Afghan troops to clean up their act

KARACHI: USS William P Lawrence (DDG 110), a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, has arrived in the waters off the port of Karachi to participate in AMAN-13, a multinational exercise being hosted by the Pakistan Navy from March 4-8. USS William P Lawrence is a state-of-the-art naval vessel, one of the most advanced in the US fleet, capable of ensuring the free passage of the seas for all nations. The United States is one of 13 countries with ships actively participating in AMAN-13, whose objective is to promote peace and stability in the region and enhance interoperability among partner naval forces. Twenty other nations are also sending observers to the exercise. STAFF REPORT

KABUL AGENCIES

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday called on his security forces to end incidents of torture and abuse of the Afghan people, a shift from past speeches that have solely blamed NATO troops for the violations in the country. In an address to parliament, Karzai said Afghan forces were also violating their own people’s rights, making it harder for him to raise the issue when abuses are carried out by foreigners. “It’s not forgivable… Our Afghan people are not safe in

Qatari air chief calls on Vice Admiral shafiq

their houses because of Afghan troops’ treatment,” he said. “Why should I blame foreigners?” The Afghan leader said he did not initially want to believe reports that his own security forces had tortured prisoners, for instance, but that now he was calling on Afghan forces to respect human rights. An Afghan government investigation last month found widespread cases of abuse at government-run prisons, backing up the results of a UN investigation that Karzai had initially repudiated. Karzai’s speech is likely to be welcomed by diplomats who have called on him to acknowledge his own troops’ re-

INP

ISLAMABAD Major General Mubarak Mohammad Al-Kumait Al-Khayarin, Commander Qatar Emiri Air Force is on an official visit to Pakistan. Major General Mubarak Mohammad Al-Kumait AlKhayarin called on Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Muhammad Shafiq at Naval Headquarters on Wednesday, where the two held

detailed discussions on professional matters. Major General Mubarak Mohammad joined Qatar Emiri Air Force in 1977. Besides commanding the Qatar Emiri Air Force, he has had the privilege to hold a number of Command and Staff appointments including officer commanding fighter wing, director operations, plans and training. He assumed the Command of Qatar Emiri Air Force on September 23, 2002. He is a graduate of King Faisal Air Academy.

sponsibility for incidents of abuse. But with the remarks, the Afghan leader also made a veiled reference to his recent calls for the withdrawal of US special operations forces from Wardak province, neighboring Kabul, because of alleged incidents of abuse by US and Afghan forces there. US officials have said they were investigating the allegations. Karzai also called on the Afghan Taliban to acknowledge his offer to open negotiations with them through an official Taliban office, which is due to open in Qatar. The senior Taliban leadership has not responded to the offer.

APCnGA announces hunger strike ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

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All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) on Wednesday flayed anti-CNG policies of the government and announced to opt for a hunger strike in protest from March 12. “We will protest anti-CNG policies of the government, unjust gas distribution, 5-day gas load shedding for CNG sector in Punjab and continuous discrimination by authorities,” APCGNA Chairman Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha said. Speaking at a press conference, he said that all departments had been harassing CNG operators while false cases were being registered against CNG owners to discourage APCNGA. “Five-day gas load shedding in Punjab is unacceptable as it amounts to punishing 80 million masses living in that province,” Paracha added. The leaders of the CNG sector said that some top government functionaries had laid “siege” to the CNG

sector aiming its “annihilation” which could not be allowed under any circumstances. “The government has been using energy crisis to reap dividends by promoting the influential energy mafia which is worst kind of exploitation masses have ever suffered in history of Pakistan,” he added. The owners of CNG filling stations from across Pakistan said that they were not being provided gas for over a year despite directives of the prime minister and courts which was ravaging their Rs 10 billion investments. Mubashir Hussain and Chaudhry Liaquat, representatives of the CNG owners form Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that government was sending negative signals to investors by depriving them of their right to run businesses. They said that on October 4, 2011 the prime minister had issued orders to provide gas to CNG outlets but it could not be implemented due to friction between petroleum ministry and Ogra.

Musharraf attack case: SC revokes death sentence of two accused ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday revoked death sentences for two accused in a case pertaining to the attack on former president Pervez Musharraf. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had reserved the verdict in the case on February 28 against the procedure adopted by a military court to enhance the sentence on Rana Naveed and Amir Sohail who were convicted for their role in the suicide attack. However, the apex court maintained Rana Naveed’s life imprisonment and Amir Sohail’s 20 year imprisonment sentences. Field General Court Martial (FGCM) on July 21, 2005 had awarded the sentence to the two accused of the case. Naveed was awarded life imprisonment, whereas Sohail was awarded 20-year incarceration. But later Rana Naveed and Amir Sohail were sentenced to death by a military court on December 8, 2005. INP

Afghan terrorism triggered by int’l troops: foreign secretary ISLAMABAD: Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said on Wednesday that the role of international forces in Afghanistan had led to terrorism in the war-torn country. Speaking at a conference on Afghanistan in the federal capital, the foreign secretary said that terrorism would continue to affect the country even after the withdrawal of NATO forces. The US plans to end its combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and is encouraging the Afghan government to engage the Taliban militants for a peaceful end to the conflict. The Taliban, however, appear reluctant to work with Kabul. Jilani said that the Pakistan army and intelligence agencies were in close contact with their Afghan counterparts over cooperation on security-related issues. He further said that Pakistan had allocated funds for development projects in Afghanistan, and had provided $20 million for assisting the Afghan National Army (ANA). STAFF REPORT

three women drown in Sutlej BAHAWALPUR: At least three women drowned in River Sutlej on Wednesday after the boat they were riding lost control and catapulted. The incident occurred near Dera Bakha, some 12 kilometers from Bahawalpur. According to rescue sources, 16 people were riding the boat. The deceased were identified as Mumtaz Bibi, Shazia Bibi and Balqees, while the remaining passengers were rescued. The body of Mumtaz Bibi was retrieved while search was underway for the other two. APP

12 militants killed in upper orakzai ORAKZAI: At least 12 militants were killed during a search operation conducted by security forces in Mamoonzai area of Upper Orakzai on Wednesday. Security sources said four security men and one officer were also injured during a clash that took place during the search operation. Two militant hideouts were also destroyed in the operation, they said. The sources added that the security forces had taken control of Targhor area in the agency. INP

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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.–Albert Einstein

who will be our Chavez? chavez is dead, but his legacy shall live on

CoMMenT Thursday, 7 March, 2013

Quest for disgruntled electables status quo versus change

he race to enlist the disgruntled electables has gone on between the PPP, PML-N and PTI for quite some time. A number of potential turncoats are always on the lookout for parties with better electoral prospects. They have standard excuses to explain their desertion like maltreatment by the leadership, failure on its part to fulfil the promise made to the people, or deviation from the original party line. As Imran Khan’s ranking skyrocketed after the Lahore public meeting in October 2011, many were attracted to the PTI. Some realised later that they had made a miscalculation and decided to join some other party which they thought was more likely to come to power. Meanwhile, the PPP rolled out the red carpet for the PML-N and PML-Q deserters and the PML-N opened its doors to malcontents from other parties. With the elections in sight the process has hastened. The announcement by Lashkari Raisani and other PPP leaders from Balochistan to join the PML-N is a part of the ongoing exercise. It is hard to take Raisani seriously when he justifies joining the rival camp on the ground that the PPP had deviated from Benazir Bhutto’s ideology. This would imply that Nawaz is holding high the flag of PPP ideology, a proposition that even the PML-N leader may not readily agree with. Some are likely to interpret the act as an attempt to secure a family seat while taking a revenge on the PPP for disgracing Lashkari’s elder brother. Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani has brought five Balochistan Assembly members and several provincial party leaders along with him in the PML-N fold. This could strengthen the position of the PML-N in the province where it failed to secure even a single seat in 2008. The traditional elite always join a new party along with their respective groups and leave it with their supporters whenever they feel they are not being treated as they deserve. The alliances are generally as unprincipled as subsequent breakups. The Balochistan Assembly which is dominated by sardars has seen several kleidoscopic combinations of the same politicians taking shape over the decades. There is a tendency among the major parties to rely on sardars who continue to change loyalties for the sake of power and privileges. The tribal chiefs have joined hands alternately with the PPP, PML-N, and military rulers that included Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf. While the sardars prospered, Balochistan continued to suffer. Many think the rising middle class in the province holds the key to bringing the insurgency under control and putting Balochistan on way to peace and progress. The mainstream parties would do well to negotiate with those representing progressive Balochistan than rely on the forces of the status quo.

drone strikes Likely to continue, with even higher frequency

ohn Brennan, America’s new CIA chief, in on record being a pro-drone attacks person. And now that the command of the US’ foremost spy and covert operations agency has been put under his command, many fear that the frequency of the strikes of remote-piloted aircrafts would go nowhere but up. The US says drone strikes offer a non-traditional method of fighting a non-traditional war. But that would be an over-simplistic view of a complex situation. Like any traditional war, the real affectees of drone strikes are the people on the ground, the ones so easily categorised as collateral damage in military parlance. Being a controversial issue, the US has kept the lid tight on its drone programme. For Pakistan, though, the situation is quite different. As has been claimed time and over again by the US, and corroborated by WikiLeaks, certain circles in Pakistani military and political leadership knew about and approved the drones strikes all along while keeping a posture against them to gain public support. This dual purpose tactical move not only allowed the US and Pakistan to carry out strikes, but also created mistrust between the two nations. With the 2014 deadline of US withdrawal moving closer, the US seems intent on keeping Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders on their heels, and for this purpose drones are a handy option in its arsenal. However, with their high ratio of civilian casualties, they have become a proverbial bone of contention between the two countries. But seeing how John Brennan was the one who developed most of covert operations guidelines in the past four years as chief counter-terrorism officer for Obama, these strikes might see an escalation, quite contrary to what Pakistan wants from Washington amid all the peace talks with the terrorists going on. In the post-2014 scenario, Pakistan wants a bigger role in Afghanistan. The US while conceding that seems to push Pakistan towards an operation in North Waziristan. Seen in this backdrop the two mystery drone attacks in the tribal belt last month, which both sides are accusing each other to have carried out, takes an ironic turn. When the US first started drone strikes in tribal areas, Pakistan military would claim them as their strikes, but now when the US claims that at least these two strikes were not conducted by them but by Pakistan military, they are pinning it on the US. To make matters worse, no foreign reporters or even local ones are allowed there, leaving no way to verify the claim of either one. But what both of them should do is to stop this I-didn’t-do-it,-you-did-it routine and sit down on a table and thrash out the differences keeping them from making a joint effort for peace.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230 Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208 Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505 Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Comradely Speaking hAShIM bIN RAShID

ugo Chavez is dead. But his spirit still lives. In the eulogies to the great Bolivarian socialist, in the commitment to continue his task, in the cries of millions of people who have declared: ‘We are Chavez’, the promise is that his legacy shall be kept alive. Most famous for his blunt speeches at the United Nations General Assembly, especially his famous declaration when asked to speak after United States President Geogre W Bush, “The devil just left the building and it still smells of sulphur”, Chavez was the most blunt critic of the US imperialism and spoke out against the Afghan and Iraq wars at every forum. A true internationalist, he became the fountainhead of the revival of the Latin American block, and tried to expand it to a block of the Global South – much like the Non-Aligned Movement of the 1960s and 70s. This included a proposal to create a Bank of the South proposal and an alternate to the toothless UN. But his most cherished legacy shall remain how he reinvigorated the dream of socialism – “each shall get according to his needs”, rescuing it from its so-called death in the 20thcentury and pushing it into the 21st century. That Chavez died young, he was only 58, and will be unlike the ailing – but still witty and intelligent – Fidel Castro shall perhaps add to his mystique and splendour. He died at the peak of his popularity, at a time when the unity he provided was needed most, but perhaps, if the Bolivarian revolution he inspired is to continue beyond him, he died at the right time. His cult of personality having enamoured the oppressed of the world, it was time that the oppressed take the legacy and make it their own. Born to impoverished parents, Chavez joined the Venezuelan army, only to be disgusted by how it was an instrument to protect a corrupt ruling class. In 1992, Chavez attempted a failed coup and was jailed. In 1998, released from jail, he contested the elections and with 56 percent voting for him, he became president. By 1999, Chavez started a radical programme of redistributing the country’s wealth and initiated the drafting up of a new constitution – one that can allow a break from the contours of the bourgeois

state. In 2000, he contested the elections again – putting his popularity and the new constitution to the test – and won again. The programme – based on nationalising the oil wealth, creating workers collectives, increasing social spending – did not go down well with the wealth owning classes of Venezuela and the US, whose stakes in the Venezuelan oil were taken away. A coup against him was attempted. Deposed for two-days, Chavez was brought back into power by what could be described as a people’s counter coup. Comandante Chavez returned with more zeal and began to change the contours of the Venezuelan state – relabelled the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to cherish the legacy of 19th century Latin American revolutionary Simon de Bolivar. He began to restructure the most important pillars of the state and society, including the media, military, ruling class, the economy and the state itself. Chavez asked a simple question: why was 85 percent of the population of the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter poor? Chavez provided the answer. Radically shifting government spending priorities to providing employment, healthcare and schooling: household poverty fell to26.4 percent by 2009 while unemployment fell from 15 percent to 7.8 percent. This was as the rest of the world’s economy was going into crisis, the US and Europe faced unemployment and state debts, and the neoliberal economic experts that had pillaged Latin America in the 1980s and 90s continued to declare: Venezuela’s bubble will burst. An avowed democrat: Chavez won 56 percent of the vote in 1998, 60 percent in 2000, survived a coup in 2002, got over seven million votes in 2006 and secured 54.4 percent of the vote in October 2012. The US and Europe continued to gaze a skeptical glance at how a Marxist leader could continue holding and winning elections. How could he continue to sway the population and extend his influence across the globe? ‘Elections are rigged, political opponents are targeted, media is silenced,’ is what the Western powers said. Pakistan has experienced a somewhat similar period in its history: the policies and slogans of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto still have a deep resonance with the toiling classes. The attempt to nationalise industries in the Bhutto period was overturned by a US-backed right wing movement and the Zia military coup. If the liberals remember the late Gen Zia for ratcheting up religious fundamentalism, the left remembers him for de-nationalising industries and spurring on the wealth divide once again. But Bhutto was different: he alienated people, he strengthened the strong arm of the state, he found allies within the existing land-owning classes – and by the time he was deposed, there was no mass agitation to bring him back. When the 2002 coup against Chavez was completed, the head of Venezuela's largest business association was declared the leader of a transitional government. The coup showed the clear connection

between business interests and the military – something Venezuela shares with Pakistan. The difference was that the revolution in Venezuela had deeper roots – the redistribution of wealth, the feeling of being a part of government, was real and felt at the grassroots. Chavez’s popular weekly programme, ‘Hello, Mr President,’ where people would be able to call in – for eight-hours or more at a stretch – to speak to the president and cabinet ministers to speak about their problems, democratised the centre of governance and made it more transparent. The programme was radical: the processes at the top-tier governance became open to public scrutiny – something the most cherished first world ‘democracies’ cannot claim. The questions over media independence need to be answered by giving some local context. While Chavez maintained that media independence is a valuable aim, the lack of independence in corporate media is very easy to observe. The fact that each newspaper blocks out news stories that are against the corporate and political interests that back it is ignored – partly because the media is the one valourising itself. For example, one of the newspapers I have worked for shot down a story of last week’s sit-in for the rights of janitors at the LUMS, another has taken a week to get the same story ‘approved’. The fear is that the big barons at LUMS’ board of directors would ‘mind’. Is such so-called ‘media freedom’ worth treasuring? There can be genuine criticisms of Chavez, but the fact that he stifled the corporate media is not one. The documentary, The Revolution will not be televised, traced how the Venezuelan media was complicit in the coup against him to great depth. It is Chavez that has showed for the new generations that socialism can thrive, that the future of the world need not be determined by naked capitalist exploitation. A friend posted on Facebook: “After the breakup of the USSR, when Lenin seemed old-fashioned, Mao's China turned capitalist and Fidel's Cuba barely hung-on, it was Chavez's Venezuela that put socialism back onto the world stage.” If ever there is a revolution in Pakistan – big business families would have to cede their business interests and become equals to the working class. All the existing political parties would oppose such an endeavour, as it would go against their class interests. The military would also join in as soon as the eye is cast on its humongous business interests. Anyone desiring a revolution in Pakistan would have to take all three head on: political parties, the military and the media. Chavez has shown that it can be done. The question is: who will be our Chavez? The writer is the general secretary (Lahore) of the Awami Workers Party. He is a journalist and a researcher. Contact: hashimbrashid@gmail.com

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

Islamic values Pakistan was created for the Muslims of the sub-continent with only one argument that Muslims are a different nation and need a separate state to practice its religion - Islam. The Muslims could not live with Hindu majority population where Hindus worship cows and Muslims eat cows besides host of other differences in historical and cultural values. With this background of creation of a separate state, Pakistan should practice Islamic values as dictated by Quran and Sunnah. No doubt our constitution lays down in its Objective Resolutions that no law would be framed which is repugnant to Quran and Sunnah, but what use this resolution is when nothing is seen according to Quran and Sunnah in the state. The case in point is the recent appearance of pictures of our foreign minister meeting with foreign dignitaries. She should not shake hand with male diplomats/officials thus projecting wrong Islamic values to other countries and not justifying representing a Muslim country. I strongly feel if our lady parliamentarians and ministers dress up according to Quran and Sunnah, they would look more graceful and convey the correct Islamic values to their counterparts of non-Muslim countries.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA Lahore

Khosas reconcile Former minister Dost Khosa has reconciled with the PMLN’s leadership. One day he tendered a public apology to the Sharifs and two days later, he along with his senator father and elder brother, an MPA, went to meet Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Some months ago, Dost blew hot and cold against Shahbaz Sharif in a TV appearance, accusing him of dictatorial behavior and not listening to party members. Since the election season is round the corner and politics being the only source of income of the Khosa father and sons, they came making a beeline to ask for forgiveness. This particular father and sons clan could not have done better, for the father is a senator and senior adviser to the chief minister and all his three sons are lawmakers. If it is not dynastic politics, what else is it? Shahbaz Sharif, instead of giving party tickets to this clan, should find new candidates with better reputation. JAFFER GURCHANI Multan

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Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. –Richard M Nixon

CoMMenT

Thursday, 7 March, 2013

defining ideas obama: parochial leader for a parochial nation

the American strategy john brennan and the bin Laden files ThOMAS JOSCELyN

uring a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Centre on April 30, 2012, John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee to head the CIA, discussed “The Ethics and Efficacy of the US President’s Counterterrorism Strategy”. Brennan explained that President Obama has “pledged to share as much information with the American people ‘so that they can make informed judgments and hold us accountable.’?” “Obama,” he continued, “has consistently encouraged those of us on his national security team to be as open and candid as possible.” After all, “our democracy depends” upon “transparency”. But nearly two years after the May 1, 2011, assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound, the Obama administration has made public just 17 documents out of the huge cache of information captured during that raid. US intelligence officials tell The Weekly Standard that the vast collection includes “hundreds of thousands of documents and files”. Obama administration officials themselves have referred to the documents as a “treasure trove” the size of a “small college library”. Why hasn’t the public seen them? One of the main reasons: John Brennan. The Obama administration, with Brennan as its top counterterrorism adviser, has worked hard to convince the American people that Al-Qaeda “is a shadow of its former self”, in the words of the president. Its affiliates are atomized cells that operate without serious coordination, they’ve suggested, and with the assassination of several top leaders, the defeat of Al-Qaeda is, according to Obama, “within reach”. The war on terror, or whatever it is, is nearing an end. These claims are important to the administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the key to its broader counterterrorism posture. Immediately after bin Laden’s demise, there was a natural inclination to trumpet the Al-Qaeda CEO’s importance in the overall war. This was an honest assessment. But over the year that followed something interesting happened. Key administration figures decided to downplay bin Laden’s role in managing the groups that fight in Al-Qaeda’s name, even as many facts cut against their revised narrative. Why? It is easier to declare the 9/11 wars near their end if AlQaeda is all but dead, leaving little for bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al Zawahiri, to oversee. Al-Qaeda cannot be “on the path to defeat,” as President Obama repeatedly claimed during the 2012 presidential campaign, if bin Laden’s vision of terror lives on. That vision is outlined in bin Laden’s documents. Meet the Press host David Gregory repeatedly pressed Donilon on this point, noting that Donilon’s characterization of bin Laden’s active role was “something different than what intelligence officials have believed”. A few days after Donilon’s interview with Gregory, Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica published a fascinating look at bin Laden’s world. Citing US intelligence officials who had reviewed the AlQaeda CEO’s files, Rotella described bin Laden as a “fugitive micro-manager” who “clearly played a role

in Al-Qaeda’s operational, tactical, and strategic planning”. Although communications were hampered by security protocols, Rotella continued, bin Laden “managed to retain authority over Al-Qaeda’s affiliates in Yemen, North Africa, and Iraq”. He sent messages to them, and they sent responses. In one instance, some in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) suggested that Anwar al Awlaki take over leadership of the group. Bin Laden nixed that idea, preferring to keep his long time aide-de-camp, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in charge. Wuhayshi remains in that position today. There are additional examples in this early reporting that support the same view: Osama bin Laden managed a cohesive, international terrorist network. Nearly one year later, however, the fix was in. Some in the Obama administration had decided to spin bin Laden’s documents to portray the slain AlQaeda chieftain as a recluse with little sway over the terror network he had helped build. This new narrative was first pushed by administration-friendly journalists such as the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, who characterised bin Laden as “a lion in winter” in a March 18, 2012, article. A month and a half later, in a May 3 opinion piece riddled with logical contradictions, CNN’s Peter Bergen described bin Laden as “isolated” and yet a “micromanager.” Bergen has repeatedly argued that the threat from Al-Qaeda is insignificant, and his reporting on the documents more often than not is intended to buttress his view. A pathetically small sample of documents, the 17 mentioned above, was given to West Point’s Combating Terrorism Centre (CTC), which analysed them and concluded that bin Laden “enjoyed little control over either groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda in name,” such as AQAP or Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), “or so-called fellow travellers,” such as the Pakistani Taliban. What has been reported about the documents excluded from the administration-approved subset does not support the CTC’s conclusions either. Consider what the Guardian’s Jason Burke reported on April 29, 2012—just days before the CTC report was published. Burke reported that the documents recovered in bin Laden’s compound “show a close working relationship between top Al-Qaeda leaders and Mullah Omar, the overall commander of the Taliban, including frequent discussions of joint operations against NATO forces in Afghanistan, the Afghan government, and targets in Pakistan”. Both Osama bin Laden and his replacement, Ayman al Zawahiri, were involved in coordinating attacks with the Taliban. Mysteriously, the documents Burke reported on were not among those the administration allowed the CTC to publish just four days later. Why? As Burke noted beforehand, the documents “undermine hopes of a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, where the key debate among analysts and policymakers is whether the Taliban—seen by many as following an Afghan nationalist agenda—might once again offer a safe haven to Al-Qaeda or like-minded militants, or whether they can be persuaded to renounce terrorism”. Another, more startling example of what the

administration excluded from the documents released to the public was offered by Bruce Riedel, a former adviser to President Obama. Riedel said the files show a close relationship between bin Laden and the leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hafiz Saeed. The LeT is a Pakistan-based terrorist group with known ties to the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment. It was responsible for the November 2008 siege in Mumbai, India, in which 166 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. “The documents and files found in Abbottabad showed a close connection between bin Laden and Saeed, right up to May 2011,” Riedel told the Hindustan Times. And that’s not all. Riedel said that the recovered intelligence “suggested a much larger direct Al-Qaeda role in the planning of the Mumbai attacks than many assumed”. This is a bombshell. It changes the public understanding of how Al-Qaeda operates both inside and out of Pakistan. The Hindustan Times reported Riedel’s comments on April 4, 2012. Yet less than one month later, there was no sign of the Mumbai connection in what the administration released to the public. The story of bin Laden’s documents is not merely a historical curiosity. The files have a direct bearing on the future of America’s counterterrorism strategy. This brings us back to John Brennan, the man President Obama would have led the CIA. It was Brennan who announced, during his Wilson Centre speech last April, the pending release of the 17 bin Laden documents. It was in that same speech that he reiterated President Obama’s promise of more transparency. The linchpin of Brennan’s approach to fighting Al-Qaeda is the use of pinprick drone strikes and special operations raids to take out select Al-Qaeda members who are thought to threaten the American homeland. Brennan and his fellow administration officials certainly know that Al-Qaeda’s affiliates are growing in places like Syria, where upwards of 10,000 AlQaeda fighters are on the ground today. But they want to define the threat in such a way that a more robust American military response is not necessary. But if Al-Qaeda lives on as an extended network, with Ayman al Zawahiri at its helm, then the picture becomes far more complex. Drones cannot contain the growing threat from Al-Qaeda in places like Syria. Similarly, it took French military forces to stem Al-Qaeda’s advances in Mali. The administration and its surrogates would have us believe that these are all discrete problems, and America can mainly “lead from behind”. It is for that reason, among others, that the American public deserves to see bin Laden’s files. To use Brennan’s own words, let the American people “make informed judgments” about the Obama administration’s counterterrorism strategy. Let them see bin Laden’s files. The writer is a terrorism analyst and writer living in New York. Most of his research and writing has focused on how al Qaeda and its affiliates operate around the world. This article was also published by the Weekly Standard.

FOuAD AJAMI

t wasn’t Barack Obama’s doing -- at least not fully. The crowds in Paris and Berlin, and the Muslims in Cairo and Karachi, eager to be done with President George W Bush, took the new standard-bearer of American power as one of their own, a cosmopolitan man keen to break with the embattled certitude of the Bush years. Obama didn’t try to disabuse them. He let the smitten believe what they wanted to believe. He was a blank slate, and they were free to project onto him what they wished. The French have an apt expression, trompe l’oeil, trick of the eye: The cosmopolitanism of the newcomer was a gloss, and it covered up a political man of an intensely parochial kind. Behold his entanglements and the passions of a full term in office: health care, the battle over the debt limit and the budget, the rescue of the auto industry, the running war with the Republicans, sequestration. They all bespeak of the priorities and preoccupations of a man who has had so little time, and precious little interest, in foreign lands. It was no fault of Obama’s that the folks in Oslo awarded him a Nobel Peace Prize before he unpacked what he brought with him from Chicago. Forgive those in Ankara, Cairo and Jakarta who thought the middle name Hussein foreshadowed an affinity with Islam new in American practice. It is easy to understand how this sense of Obama as a man of the foreign world took hold: the Kenyan father, the Indonesian stepfather and half-sister, the four boyhood years spent in Indonesia, and the mother, a searcher whose curiosity about foreign peoples took her into the most romantic of callings, anthropology. But a careful reading of this life can yield an altogether different conclusion about the man. The Kenyan father had been a terrible disappointment -- the absentee father who saw his son only once, who died young and disillusioned, losing a battle with alcohol and personal chaos. The years in Indonesia don’t read at all as idyllic. The mother, in search of foreign assignments and grant money, had taken a boy of 6 to Indonesia, then sent him four years later to Hawaii to be raised by her parents. In the full sense of things, a boy had lost his mother to the calling of foreign attachments. Barack Obama is all Chicago -- a big American place in the middle of a continent. The spouse he chose had nothing to do with the foreign world. Her journey was all-American. Nor did Obama’s law school education give him some abiding interest in foreign lands and causes. One treads carefully around lawyers and their curriculum: Lawyers are trained in the arcane details of the law, its reasoning, its methods. This was Obama’s ticket in life, and he wasn’t going to burden himself with taking up the study of the subnationalisms of Pakistan or the tribal affairs of Africa. He studied no foreign languages; legal education doesn’t call for it. He had this new life before him, and, if anything, its animating drive was to distance himself from the entanglements, and the wounds, of the past. Perhaps the foreign world was menacingly close for him. There were those who could never be convinced that he was born on American soil, who were certain that he was, at heart, a Muslim, the faith of the father he never knew. Presidents such as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush didn’t have that burden. They could plunge into foreign crises and take in distant places, without undue anxiety. A seasoned aide of Clinton’s, Strobe Talbott, wrote a book about his boss, “The Russia Hand”, to pay tribute to Clinton’s obsession with the transformation of Russia. Clinton could simulate emotions with the best of them, but there is no mistaking the passion he had for Israel and the sorrow he felt for the 1995 assassination of its leader, Yitzhak Rabin. He was dogged and genuine in his interest in the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace. He stayed with it to the bitter end and the closing days of his presidency -- the Arkansan taking to exotic callings. Liberals are invested in the image of Bush as a rube who couldn’t pronounce foreign names to save his life. From the security of a high pedigree, however, Bush came into a sincere sense of mission in the greater Middle East. He came to master the arcane details of Iraq. His diplomacy of freedom in the Muslim world was the vocation of a man who had started a war in a faraway world and felt compelled to know its peoples and details. Bush of Arabia, I once dubbed him. In the Obaman world, we awaken to the crisis du jour. The man at the helm relishes political combat and abhors the idea of losing. The aides around him, those who have his ear, the palace guard, are or have been technicians of power: David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, Thomas Donilon, Denis McDonough, Valerie Jarrett. The ground burns in Syria, and a transformation as consequential as the one that remade the communist world is at play in Arab and Islamic domains. But the world outside can be ignored. We behold our leader pronouncing on the same matters in the same way -- have teleprompter, will travel. Obama is at once the author and the expression of the US withdrawal from the world beyond our shores. He has driven us into ourselves, and we neither mind nor even take notice. The writer is a senior fellow at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the author of “The Syrian Rebellion”.

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A arts Thursday, 7 March, 2013

PAKIStANI PlAyBACK SINGeR MAlA ReMeMBeRed The 23rd death anniversary of Pakistan’s famous playback singer Mala is being observed on Wednesday. Mala was born in Faisalabad on November 9, 1939 as Naseem Nazli. She was interested in singing and music from a very young age. Her elder sister happened to be her first music teacher and Naseem learnt the essentials of music from her. She started her career somewhere in late fifties and sang more than 300 songs in an almost two-decades-long singing career. “Mala sang many super hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s,” said Radio Pakistan. Her first Urdu film was “Suraj Mukhi” in which she changed her name to Mala and sang a simple Urdu composition‚ Aaya re dekho (1962). However, Mala’s greatest accomplishment was Akele na jana. In 1962, she won the Nigar Award for best singer for the film ‘Ishq pe zor nahi’. In 1965, she won the Nigar Award again, this time for the film Naila. The last days of Mala were fraught with loneliness and misery. She found herself in the midst of deep financial crisis. Mala faded out of the popular music scene towards the late seventies and died on March 6‚ 1990. AGENCIES

holly MAdISoN GIveS ‘BIRth’ to BABy GIRl Holly Madison and her boyfriend Pasquale Rotella welcomed a daughter on Tuesday, in Las Vegas, according to reports. In August, the 33-year-old Playboy model had announced that the couple were set to be parents, before Rotella revealed that they were thinking pink, People magazine reported. The mom-to-be had previously been busy perfecting her daughter’s Alice In Wonderland themed nursery. She said in December that she wants six kids as she would like to have a big family. NEwS DESk

The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazov

Qatar revealed as the world’s biggest contemporary art buyer The small but energy-rich Gulf state of Qatar is the world’s biggest buyer in the art market—by value, at any rate—and is behind most of the major modern and contemporary art deals over the past six years, The Art Newspaper can reveal. Sheikha Al Mayassa is not the only art collector in the family: her relative Sheikh Saud Bin Muhammad Bin Ali Al-Thani has always been a passionate art buyer, and was recently named as one of the world’s top ten collectors by Artnews.Among the purchases Qatar is believed to have made are: n The “Merkin Rothkos”: A $310m deal saw 11 Rothkos sold by court order to an “unidentified buyer” in 2009. They came from the collection of financier J. Ezra Merkin, who is being sued in New York over his role as provider of funds to convicted Ponzi-scheme fraudster Bernard Madoff; the collection was the largest private holding of Rothkos in the world. They were subsequently exhibited at the Garage Centre in Moscow, leading to rumours that they had been bought by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, which was strenuously denied. Two very well placed sources maintain that they have gone to Qatar. n The Sonnabend estate: $400m worth of art from the

Former President George H. W. Bush offers intimate observations about low points of his son’s presidency in his latest book, set to be released Tuesday. CNN received an advanced copy of All the Best, George Bush; My Life in Letters and Other Writings, and reports that the elder Bush had a pained reaction to the nation’s criticism of his son’s performance as 43rd president. “My heart went out to him” after Hurri-

eyeing ‘hot’ Jennifer Lawrence One Direction star Harry Styles has been flirting with Jennifer Lawrence for the past one year. A source told the Mirror that the 19-year-old actor knows people will tell Lawrence what he has been saying and eventually they will be introduced. In an interview more than 11 months ago, his band was asked for their thoughts on blockbuster movie ‘The Hunger Games’ when Styles said “The girl, the girl in it is hot as well.” The Kidd Kraddick host confirmed with him that it’s Lawrence, the boys replied that “Yeah, she’s hot.” “Just watched Silver Linings Playbook... I really liked it,” he tweeted on Monday. And before the 22-yearold actress embarrassingly tripped up the stage stairs at the Academy Awards, he said that Lawrence needed to win an Oscar. NEwS DESk

estate of the famous art dealer, comprising major works by Lichtenstein and Koons. The deal was negotiated privately in 2007-08, going to GPS; multiple sources identified its client as Qatar. Ségalot told us that “the group was sold to more than one client”.• The Claude Berri dation: A group of nine works by Ryman, Reinhardt, Morandi, Serra and Fontana was promised to the Pompidou Centre in Paris in lieu of tax. But the heirs of the film director finally sold them through Ségalot for about €50m to Qatar; he did not deny this but said “the reality was less exotic than the French press said at the time”. n Andy Warhol’s The Men in Her Life, 1962, which sold for $63.4m at Phillips de Pury in New York in November 2010, in a sale orchestrated by Philippe Ségalot. He insists that the work was acquired by a US buyer. But a source who bought regularly from Ségalot said that sales often went through his US company, so while the buyer was technically American, the end owner could be of any nationality.

Olivia Wilde slammed by Justin Bieber fans Olivia Wilde, who took to Twitter to criticize Justin Bieber for his love of walking around topless, has been slammed by the singer’s devoted fans. The 28-year-old actress wrote: “Bieber, put your f—ing shirt on (sic),” after recent pictures emerged of the teenage heartthrob in London without a shirt, Contactmusic reported. The fans, who call themselves ‘Beliebers’, tweeted back with one of them saying: “justin probably doesn’t even know who [footballer] joey barton or olivia wilde are LOL you guys just hate from the back.”‘ Another wrote: “@oliviawilde I’ll punch you in your face (sic).” Wilde is the latest high profile celebrity to hit out at the 19-yearold singer, after ‘The Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney suggested that his music isn’t good enough to win awards. NEwS DESk

George HW Bush memoir complains about criticism of his son

NEWS DESK

hArry sTyLes

cane Katrina, Bush, 88, writes of his son, former President George W. Bush. “Here is a guy who cares deeply. Who wants every possible resource of the federal government brought in to bear to help people, yet he is being roundly accused of not giving a damn ... the critics do not know what is in 43’s heart, how deeply he feels about the hurt, the anguish, the losses affecting so many people, most of them poor.” The younger Bush was stung by considerable backlash for slow execution of recovery efforts in Louisiana after Katrina. The resentment came to a memorable head in September 2005, when entertainer Kanye West publicly blasted Bush during a nationally broadcast relief telethon, claiming he didn’t “care about black people.” Five years later, in an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer, Bush said he regarded West’s criticism as “one of the most disgusting moments in my presidency.” The elder Bush comes to his son’s defense in the book, calling the critics “nasty.” The World War II vet and 41st president then goes on to note that his son had come under fire exactly 61 years after his own Navy plane had been shot down by the Japanese. “I was a scared kid back then,” Bush writes. “Now I am just an angry old man hurting for my son.”

shAh rUKh-AAMIr KhAn flee Twitter terror Nurse wounds inflicted by internet trolls while their teams take the virtual blows A star and his followers have always had a storybook affair, until social networking empowered the latter with an open platform and a mask of anonymity. To follow a star does not necessarily translate into exchanging terms of endearment. ‘Followers’ now tweet to berate, bully, abuse or heckle the stars. As Deepa Mehta had said in an interview to this newspaper, it gives the anonymous, armchair critic a sense of empowerment. And no one knows this better than Shah Rukh Khan, who has quit Twitter again, after a fresh surge of attacks brought on by his views on being a Muslim superstar in India. This is SRK’s second boycott of the popular medium after being hounded out by trolls under similar circumstances last year. But the star showed just how vulnerable he still is, when he tweeted: Sad, i read so much

judgements, jingoism, religious intolerance on the net & i use to think, this platform will change narrow mindedness, but no! TOI has learnt that SRK is now putting together a strategy to handle his online presence. He will no longer take the virtual punches on his chin, but his media managers will do the needful. “Shah Rukh is distraught with the negative energy on Twitter. The abuses and the vicious attacks on him after every tweet have made him very cynical about the medium,” explained a friend of the star. “You can see from his last tweet that he is disillusioned with the medium.” But SRK is not alone. Aamir Khan, who is perhaps not subjected to such intense scrutiny, seems to have taken a break from Twitter because of similar reasons. NEwS DESk

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I like to feel dumb. That’s how I know there’s more in the world than me. — Susan Sontag

ArTs Thursday, 7 March, 2013

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dAN BRowN to visit Dublin and London Novelist Dan Brown will make his first author visit to the UK in May, as part of a European tour to publicise Inferno. Brown will be in the US for the launch of his latest Robert Langdon thriller on 14th May. However he will fly from there to the Dublin Writers Festival, for “An Evening with Dan Brown” at Dublin’s National Concert Hall on Monday 20th May. Thereafter he will travel to London for what Transworld publicist Alison Barrow described as a “fleeting” visit of “a few days”. His London events are still “under discussion”, she said. “It is our ambition, with his full approval, for him to meet as many readers as possible, as it’s the first time he’s had the opportunity,” Barrow added. “There will be a very traditional PR campaign, with national media coverage and public events; Dan will be engaging with his fans in public and on all the online channels.” The Dublin/London visits will be part of a wider European tour, with all Brown’s overseas publishers working together. Dublin Writers Festival programme director Liam Browne said: “We’re thrilled to host Dan Brown’s first Irish visit. It’s a fantastic opening to this year’s festival.” The full programme for the Dublin Writers Festival, which takes place from 2026th May, is published in April. NEwS DESk

Arts help students think out of the box: Pepperdine Ceo STAff REPORT PAKISTAN Today got in touch with Pepperdine School CEO Nayab Raza Bukhari and discussed with him how his school, unlike others, gave arts its due importance in their curriculum. Bokhari said, “Arts education is an integral part of the development of each human being. The learned have always emphasised on the importance of arts in the education process.”He added than an arts education was integral to our society as it helped students “think out of the box and be more creative”. “Our main focus at Pepperdine is to bring out the talent of children rather than focusing on learning which other schools are doing. It is a proved psychological fact that if you keep on forcing a child to learn, 80 percent of the intelligence could be lost,” he said. The CEO said that the basic problem with our education system was an undue focus on predefined limits of courses and not thinking out of the box. “This is the

The book we’re talking about How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia By Mohsin Hamid be named among the highlights. WHO WROTE IT? Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani writer whose previous book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT? Written in the second person, “you” are a smart kid who grows up in a poor South Asian country, working the corrupt systems to your advantage. It’s darkly funny and brutishly human. WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT IT? A major publisher, strong blurbs (from Dave Eggers, Ben Fountain, Philip Pullman), a string of outstanding reviews and a distinctive, powerful narrative all suggest that come awards/best of the year time, Hamid’s powerful, troubling book will

WHO WILL READ IT? People who enjoyed both Bright Lights, Big City and Behind The Beautiful Forevers. People who like metanarratives (each chapter opens with a discussion of selfhelp books, the book you’re reading, and the act of reading a book.) Readers who like cynical literature about the “real” world. WHAT DO THE REVIEWERS SAY? NEW YORK TIMES: “With How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia Mr. Hamid reaffirms his place as one of his generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.” WASHINGTON POST: “Working within the frame of a self-help book would seem constricting at best, annoying at worst, but Hamid tells a surprisingly moving story and — crucially — a short one.” IMPRESS YOUR fRIENDS: The first self-help book to use the name was Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct, published in 1859 by Samuel Smiles. The founder of Toyota, Sakichi Toyoda was apparently a fan - according to The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker, a copy of the book is displayed in a museum at his birth place. You can read a copy of SelfHelp at the Gutenberg Project. OPENING LINE: Look, unless you’re writing one, a self-help book is an oxymoron. You read a self-help book so someone who isn’t yourself can help you, that someone being the author. COuRTESy hP

reason we are lagging behind so much. We should prepare our children not just to lead but to bring about a positive change in the society. Focus should be on creativity and innovation,” he said. Bokhari said he did not run his school as a business enterprise. “We charge students half the fee other schools charge,” he said. When asked how private schools were helping the society in general, he said, “Our role is of immense importance as the Pakistan government allocates very little money to education sector. In my opinion, private schools are the backbone of our education system”.

demi finally files for divorce from Ashton Demi Moore is finally filing divorce papers, 16 months after splitting up with Ashton Kutcher. According to an insider, she’s tired of trying to reach a confidential settlement with Kutcher, and that the couple’s divorce could go to a trial, the New York Post reported. “Ashton made a lot of money after marrying Demi - a lot more than she made - but despite him becoming just as famous through her, he believes he doesn’t owe her that much,” the source said adding that the actress has had enough. Moore’s lawyers could file paperwork in Los Angeles. Kutcher filed divorce papers in December, a year after the couple split, but this would be the first time Moore responds. She’d been hoping to quietly negotiate a settlement and then file the papers once an agreement was reached. But negotiations got bogged down, and Kutcher has been very difficult during the talks, the insider said. “After over a year of attempting to reach a settlement, Demi is definitely ready to move on,” the source said of her decision to file. NEwS DESk

NotabLe tweets Fayes t KaNtawaLa

the great thing about being self-employed is waking up and giving yourself a day off. the worst thing is that you can do that everyday.

Mehr tarar

A much loved man in his country... Rest in peace, #HugoChavez... #Venezuela

MehreeN zahra-MaLIK

How do we explain the proliferation of fat old aunties on Twitter?

NIgeL brItto Nagpur Tiger befriends goat he was given as food, baffles sanctuary authorities.

FeIsaL h NaqvI

Amir Mir nails responsibility for the Abbas Town attack on the LeJ

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When the men kill, it is up to us women to fight for the preservation of life. — Clara Zetkin

Next-GeN IPAdS Could ARRIve IN APRIl

INFotaINMeNt

Apple is getting ready to launch the iPhone 5S this summer, probably in August, while the next batch of iPads— likely the iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2—could be here next month, sources are telling iMore. So what can we expect from the new gadgets? Well, the iPhone 5S matches its predecessor in terms of "basic design," insiders tell iMore, but it offers a stepped-up processor and camera. As for the iPad 5, redesigned casings have already been leaked. NEwS DESk

Thursday, 7 March, 2013

dId KAte JuSt GIve AwAy BABy'S Sex?

Is Duchess Kate expecting a little girl? At a public appearance yesterday, she gave what some are calling a hint about the sex of her baby, the AP reports. When someone handed her a teddy bear as a gift, Kate said, "Thank you, I'll take that for my d—" and then stopped herself. Asked if she was about to say "daughter," all Kate would say was, "We're not telling," the Telegraph reports. She claimed she doesn't even know the sex of the baby due in July, but her slip of the tongue was enough to get Britain's tabloids declaring, "It's a girl!" in today's papers. Royal precedent dictates that the baby's gender will be kept a secret until birth, the Telegraph notes. Also at yesterday's appearance, Kate revealed that the little one is kicking "very much." NEwS DESk

PIRAte BAy'S New PARtNeR: NoRth KoReA

Billionaire spills details of titanic II

N Australian billionaire has revealed detailed plans for a new Titanic—this one much safer than the original, its designer says. The Titanic II "will be absolutely the most safe cruise ship in the world," says Markku Kanerva, of the Finnish firm behind the replica. That doesn't mean it's "unsinkable," however, says mining billionaire Clive Palmer. "Anything will sink if you put a hole in

it," he says. Should that happen, however, the ship has enough lifeboats and rafts for 3,500 people. That's more than the 2,435 passengers and 900 crew members the ship will carry. The first Titanic only had enough lifeboats for a third of those on board. Otherwise, however, the new ship will be remarkably similar to the original. At a New York event, which kicked off with an instrumental version of Celine Dion's

"My Heart Will Go On," Palmer showed off some features, the Daily Mail reports: At 883 feet, the Titanic II will be just three inches longer than its predecessor; it will weigh 55,800 metric tons to the original's 53,210. Made of steel composite rather than wood, the hull will be stronger than before. The maximum speed of both ships is the same: 24 knots. To re-create the original experience, there will be no TVs or Internet, and passengers—again divided into three classes—will be offered period clothing to wear. Don't expect a high-tech gym. In keeping with the original, the rendering shows early 20th-century-style workout gear, like a punching bag and rowing machine. Like the original, the new ship will have Turkish baths, two "Millionaire Suites," and a Cafe Parisien. Already, 40,000 people have registered for tickets; 16 have offered "between $750,000 and $1 million to be on the opening voyage," Palmer said. That maiden voyage is set for late 2016. NEwS DESk

PlAyBoy lAuNCheS FIRSt heBRew edItIoN

Israelis can now read Playboy 'for the articles' with the launch of the magazine's first Hebrew-language edition. Playboy has been widely available in Israel for years but this marks the first local edition of the magazine. It features Israeli models and articles by Israeli writers. Owner and publisher Daniel Pomerantz says he got the idea while working as a lawyer in Chicago, where he made friends with some of the magazine's lawyers. NEwS DESk

Ancient Arctic camel a curious conundrum North Korea has been getting some odd guests lately. First it was Dennis Rodman; now, controversial filesharing site Pirate Bay is making a home in the country, PC Magazine reports. "Today we can reveal that we have been invited by the leader of the republic of Korea, to fight our battles from their network," said the site in a blog post. Though some at first doubted the seriousness of the post, Torrentfreak says the site is being routed through the North—though its workers aren't actually based there. It's "truly an ironic situation," says the Pirate Bay, which exited Sweden last week. "To our help comes a government famous in our part of the world for locking people up for their thoughts and forbidding access to information." NEwS DESk

Ancient, mummified camel bones dug from the tundra confirm that the animals now synonymous with the arid sands of Arabia actually developed in subfreezing forests in what is now Canada's High Arctic, a scientist said Tuesday. About 3.5 million years ago, Strathcona Fiord on Ellesmere Island's west-central coast would have looked more like a northern forest than an Arctic landscape, said paleobotanist Natalia Rybczynski of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. "Larch-dominated, lots of wetlands, peat," said Rybczynski, lead author of a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. Nearby fossil sites have yielded evidence of ancient bears, horses, deer, badgers and frogs. The average yearly temperature would have been about 32 Fahrenheit. "If you were standing in it and watching the camel, it would have the feel of a boreal-type forest." The Arctic camel was 30 percent larger than modern camels, she said. Her best guess is it was one-humped.

Although native camels are now only found in Africa and Asia, scientists have long believed the species actually developed in North America and later died out. Camel remains have been previously found in the Yukon. What makes Rybczynski's find special is not only how far north it was found, but its state of preservation. The 30 fragments found in the sand and pebbles of the tundra were mummified, not fossilized. So despite their age, the pieces preserved tiny fragments of collagen within them, a common type of protein found in bones. Analyzing that protein not only proved the fragments were from camels, but from a type of camel that is much more closely related to the modern version than the Yukon camel. Out of the dozens of camel species that once roamed North America, the type Rybczynski found was one of the most likely to have crossed the Bering land bridge and colonized the deserts. "This is the one that's tied to the ancestry of modern camels," she said. NEwS DESk

Microsoft shows oﬀ 3D scanning techniques

Scanning a three-dimensional image has been possible for quite a while now. The challenge has been doing so quickly, easily and inexpensively. At Microsoft’s TechFest this week, the software maker is showing off several different methods, each of which is capable of producing a 3D scan of a person or object in pretty short order. While 3D image capture is just one of dozens of areas being pursued by Microsoft’s 800person research team, the company chose to highlight its work in that area as part of the public portion of the company’s internal science fair. Having multiple projects, even competing efforts, in the same area is part of the culture of Microsoft Research, says corporate VP Peter Lee, who heads all of the company’s U.S. labs. While 3D scanning isn’t perhaps a critical need for many users today, it is important to the future of gaming and augmented reality along with busi-

ness uses. Besides, Lee says access to an easy means of scanning makes that MakerBot 3D printer he has at home a lot more useful. Three different means for creating 3D scans were shown off at TechFest, but the lab is looking at even more options, Lee said. At the highest quality end, the company demonstrated an impressive scan using a small green screen combined with an array of six digital cameras. Two other research projects, meanwhile, produced pretty decent scans using even more basic gear. The first method used the depth-sensing camera on the Xbox’s Kinect sensor while another effort used only a custom app on a Windows Phone to gather the needed images. Lee said that internally Microsoft seems to like the Kinect option and plans to include the feature in the next version of the Kinect software toolkit for developers. “We’ll see what our customers do,” he said. NEwS DESk

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S sPorTs Thursday, 7 March, 2013

Rain spoils dunedin’s ‘arrival’ on international stage

It is about him taking more leadership role than anything dramatically different. He said he was honoured to take up that role. – Venky Mysore

do not judge Misbah on just one series loss: lawson LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

EOFF Lawson, the former Australian cricketer and exPakistan coach, believes that Misbah-ul-Haq has been a great servant of Pakistan cricket and the sporting fans must not judge him on just the series against South Africa. Misbah was appointed as the captain of the Test team after the disastrous tour of England in 2010, with the national side in complete taters. The middle-order batsman showed his leadership skills and consolidated the situation for the Green Shirts. After the tour of West Indies in 2011, the cricketer from Mianwali was handed over the leadership of all three formats of the game, only to be replaced by Mohammad Hafeez for the T20s last year. The seasoned cricketer’s greatest

DUNEDIN AGENCIES

Otago Cricket Chief Executive Ross Dykes was left disappointed and frustrated on Wednesday after bad weather washed out the opening day of the first test between New Zealand and England and rained on University Oval's parade. The match has been billed as the ground's arrival as a true international cricket venue and the culmination of more than a decade of strategic planning, which included a lengthy battle with the local preservation society and massive upgrades of drainage, wicket block and playing facilities. Thousands of fans were reportedly flooding into town for the match, while there was intense local and international media interest. Expectations were, putting it mildly, high. But then the rain came. And it rained. And rained. And rained. The first day was washed out without a ball being bowled and more than 4,000 fans who had flooded into the picture-postcard ground across the road from the new Otago Regional Stadium were forced to slosh their way back into the bars, restaurants and hotels of downtown Dunedin. "I suppose the real disappointment was everything was set," Dykes told Reuters in his office in a modern addition linked to the back of the old grandstand. "The ground looked immaculate. The stands were filling up. You saw the toss and ... everything was building towards a great climax ... then you saw the rain and it was just a damp squib. "I know there are four more days and the weather forecast is going to perk up but you gear yourself for day one really and the expectation was pretty high." The England test was supposed to be University Oval's 'arrival' party, Dykes said. It is the match Otago Cricket had been targeting to host ever since the ground was awarded its first test -- against Bangladesh in early 2008. The local cricket association, in conjunction with Dunedin City Council and Otago University, began refurbishing the ground, increasing the size of the wicket block from five to eight pitches. Poor drainage facilities that blighted the ground's second test involving West Indies in December 2008 meant the council helped fund a new porous base underneath the playing surface and major drainage works. Another major problem for the redevelopment was an 80year-old former art gallery at one end of the ground, which meant the straight boundaries were only 50 metres away.

achievement remains the 3-0 whitewash against England in United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year, as the opposition was ranked as the world’s best Test team at that time. However, Misbah and company could not live up to the expectations in the recently-concluded Test series against South Africa, failing to compete against some of the finest fast bowlers of the current era. Lawson, who served as Pakistan’s coach between 2007 and 2008, while speaking to Pakpassion, said that the Proteas are the best side of the globe at the present moment and competing against them at their own backyard was surely not a child’s play. The former Australian fast bowler praised the past performances of the right-handed batsman, who played an influential role in pulling Pakistan out of

Kaneria’s lifetime ban for fixing could be quashed at appeal hearing LONDON

the miseries of the spot-fixing scandal. Lawson said, “It’s harsh to judge Misbah just on the South African Test series as the opposition bowling was of the highest calibre. Misbah is a very smart cricketer who has got the best out of what he has. He’s heading towards 39 years of age and that makes it pretty tough. He’s survived on his instincts and his cricketing intellect and he’s been a great leader.” However, the former cricketer understands that Misbah is running out of age in international cricket and Pakistan needs a fresh captain, who can take care of the team in the coming years. “Yes they will have to find a new leader eventually but he’s done a terrific job. His best days were probably when he wasn’t given the opportunities at international level that he should have been given,” he added.

Former NZ opener how hits double-ton in one-day match DUNEDIN AGENCIES

AGENCIES

Danish Kaneria’s lifetime ban for fixing could be quashed at his appeal hearing after it emerged Mervyn Westfield, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s star witness in the case, has not responded to requests to appear at the tribunal. A source has described Westfield as “disappearing off the scene” over the past few months as the ECB looks to defend their case against Kaneria, whose appeal hearing is provisionally scheduled to take place on April 22. The hearing was due to be heard before Christmas but was postponed at the last minute. Kaneria’s lawyers have told the Daily Telegraph they will appeal to the High Court to have a deadline set for the hearing if the date in April is moved again. “At the first disciplinary hearing [when Kaneria was banned] Westfield was their star witness and was subjected to cross examination by us,” said Farogh. Naseem, Kaneria’s lawyer. “But that testimony will not be available to the ECB unless they are able to produce him at the appeal so we can cross examine him again. If a witness is not available for cross examination then his evidence is not admissible and without him they have no case. We have nothing against the ECB but by delaying over the last several months they have put this cricketer’s [Kaneria] career in jeopardy.” Kaneria was banned for life by the ECB and declared a “danger to cricket” after being named at the Old Bailey as the player who corrupted Essex team-mate Westfield, who was imprisoned for four months last year for accepting money to underperform in a one-day match in 2009. Westfield was banned from cricket for five years but can play club cricket in the final two years of his suspension. That sentence was harsher than expected and without any incentive to cooperate with the authorities, he is believed to have severed his ties with the sport. Initially there had been hopes he would help the

Former New Zealand opening batsman Jamie How scored the first double century in domestic one-day cricket on Wednesday, smashing 222 as Central Districts posted an imposing 417 for six in their clash against Northern Districts in Hamilton. How's 138-ball innings included 27 boundaries and eight sixes on the small Seddon Park ground and surpassed the 170 that New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum scored for Otago against Auckland in March, 2008. It is the second-equal highest List A -- or domestic one-day -- score in world cricket. Ali Brown made 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan at The Oval in 2002, while South Africa's Graeme Pollock scored 222 not out for Eastern Province against Border in Oct. 1974. India's Virender Sehwag holds the highest one-day international record, with his 2011 innings of 219 against West Indies in Indore. How survived two chances, the first when he was bowled from a no-ball by Anurag Verma on 76 and again when Jono Hickey dropped a catch when he neared 150. He was eventually dismissed when caught by Anton Devcich off Brent Arnel's bowling. Professional Cricketers’ Association in their anti-corruption education programmes. Kaneria was banned by the ECB and not the ICC because his offences occurred in county cricket. All boards have an agreement to respect suspensions handed down by fellow boards and he has been prevented from playing domestic cricket in Pakistan. The ECB declined to comment.

Surgery vital to extend career: Swann

Khawaja, Smith will be considered: Arthur MOHALI AGENCIES

Australia coach Mickey Arthur has said Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith will both be strongly considered for the third Test in Mohali after the team's innings defeat in Hyderabad. However, Arthur also said the group of batsmen on tour in India was the best Australian cricket had to offer and it was important to provide them with as much experience as possible in different conditions to allow them to develop into more rounded Test players. Australia's batting in Hyderabad was so poor that they couldn't even manage in both innings what Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay compiled in their 370-run partnership. Australia were back at the ground in Hyderabad on Wednesday for a centrewicket training session on what should have been the fifth day of the Test and the batsmen spent plenty of time working

against spin. Arthur, Michael Clarke and new selector on duty Rod Marsh have a week to decide on the line-up for the third Test but having been flummoxed by spin in both Tests and the tour match, Phillip Hughes is the man whose position appears in most danger. With Clarke's move up the order now confirmed, if Smith or Khawaja

was to play it would likely be at No. 5. "Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith have got to come into the reckoning at some stage," Arthur said. "When we have more of the same it will probably give us the same result. We are certainly going to have to have a look at what is our best top-six combination. We'd be silly if we didn't think about them. Whether they both play, whether one plays, whether none plays I'm not 100% sure but they've got to come very much into our thinking." Despite the potential for changes, Arthur believes the struggles of the batsmen in India does not change the fact that the selectors have assembled the best group available. Hughes is the leading runscorer this Sheffield Shield season and at the age of 24 has accumulated 21 first-class centuries, Ed Cowan continually makes starts at Test level, David Warner is a potential match-winner and Shane Watson's ability is vast, but so is the drought since

his last Test hundred. "I see that for us as our greatest challenge, making these guys the best we can possibly be," Arthur said. "If you looked at how we went in Australia, Eddie Cowan is a fighter. He has continually done enough. Is he going to win us games? Not sure. We need more runs out of Shane Watson. Phillip Hughes came back into the side and was successful in conditions that he was used to. It was always going to be tough for him here. "Davey Warner averaged 47 in our international Test series in Australia. It's a challenge for him playing outside. We've just got to get as much experience into these players as we possibly can, because I do think they're the best players. There's absolutely no doubt. I've looked at a lot of players. This is our best young crop of batsmen that we have. We've just got to make them the best they can possibly be and try to fast-track them.

DUNEDIN AGENCIES

Graeme Swann said he had no option but to go under the knife again on his right elbow if he wanted to extend his England career. Swann found out the extent of the problem that involves floating bone fragments - which he has managed for four years since his last surgery in 2009 - on the morning of the first Test against New Zealand in Dunedin. His concerns had been raised during the warm-up match in Queenstown, where he bowled 42 overs, and scans taken after arriving in Dunedin were then viewed by the specialist, Dr Shawn O'Driscoll, in America who said that further surgery was now required.

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Everyone wants instant success â&#x20AC;Ś and the trouble when you go through a transition or succession phase is that impatience manifests itself into a bit of emotion. â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Don Argus

sPorTs

Thursday, 7 March, 2013

Bangladesh batting spots up for grabs baNgLaDesh pLayers barreD FroM IpL DUrINg INterNatIoNaL serIes A SPORTS DESK

gaping hole in the batting order stares at Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim, coach Shane Jurgensen and on-tour selector Habibul Bashar when they decide the final eleven of the first Test against Sri Lanka. Of the four batting changes Bangladesh have to make Shakib Al Hasan, Nazimuddin, Shahriar Nafees and Naeem Islam are all not in the squad - two places are still up for grabs two days ahead of the Galle Test. Jahurul Islam and Anamul Haque were not among the runs in the three-day match against a Sri Lanka Development

Emerging Team. Last month, Akram Khan had mentioned the possibility of "one debutant" in the Test series, and it was assumed to be Anamul, a 20-year-old opening batsman who has been impressive in Under-19 and first-class cricket in the last three seasons. Anamul's inadequate footwork has been a cause of concern, even though he has scored plenty of limited-overs runs recently. What has also hurt his case is the failure in the three-dayer, the only first-class innings before the Tests, which means his debut in whites could be delayed. Jahurul was Anamul's opening partner in the three-dayer and he looked more assured of the two. He played three Tests

bCb to gIve boNUses For Draws

SPORTS DESK: Bangladesh have been given financial incentive to draw a Test match. According to the BCB, the team will get an extra Tk 100,000 ($1250) per drawn Test on top of the Tk 150,000 ($1875) they will receive as Test match fee, which has also increased from Tk 100,000 ($1250). The team drew only seven games in the last 13 seasons, the last one against West Indies in 2011 when rain interrupted play considerably. Only one of Bangladesh's drawn games didn't come with the assistance of inclement weather, against Zimbabwe in 2005. Their match fees in ODIs were also increased from Tk 60,000 ($750) to Tk 100,000 ($1250) per game, while in Twenty20s, a Bangladesh player will receive Tk 50,000 ($625) after being previously paid Tk 35,000 ($438) per game. "The players have told me recently that their net income has decreased," BCB chief Nazmul Hassan said. "So we have increased their match fees. In addition, we feel since the team has enough ability to draw Tests, they will be paid bonuses if they can do that."

in 2010, after which this could be his first chance. Domestic runs for Rajshahi Division and lately for North Zone and Duronto Rajshahi have brought him back into contention. Jahurul's compact defense makes him the sort of batsman Tamim Iqbal has often missed at the other end, but the jury is still out on his place. Jurgensen said he was impressed with what he saw of Jahurul on the third morning. "He looked good until he got a good ball," he said. "I think we still have some thinking to do before we make the selection." Among the four who have to be replaced, Shakib is the biggest loss while those who take the place of the others could be given a longer run to establish themselves. Though Naeem made runs against West Indies, Nafees didn't make any big scores in the series and Nazimuddin has been in poor form for most of the season. Bashar was happy to see Mohammad Ashraful and Mominul Haque among the runs in the practice match, but he is still unsure who would open with Tamim or bat at No. 3. "We have a few places up for grabs, but we are happy that two of them got runs," Bashar said. "We are still thinking about the other opener's place, but we know what we want. And the opening position and the No. 3 hasn't been taken by someone regularly, so I think we have the options this time. "Both have spent enough time in the middle to get a feel of the weather here, as well as the wickets. The bowling attack will be vastly different, but I would still think scoring 102 or 99 is crucial ahead of a Test series." Ashraful, a last-minute inclusion to replace Nafees, made 102 in Matara batting at No. 3 and has indicated that he would like to continue in this position. He is a natural stroke-player, though, and might have to curb his shot-making if he wants to play at No. 3. The selectors initially picked Mominul to fill Shakib's position in the middle-order and that is likely to be a straight swap in the Test team as well. Mominul, a left-hand batsman, played the ODIs against West Indies and turned in a crucial performance in the series-deciding fifth game. His 99 in the three-dayer came at a brisk pace which impressed the selectors, although there were periods at the end of sessions when he lost his rhythm trying to find boundaries. There is likely to be a reshuffling in the batting line-up, with captain Mushfiqur Rahim coming up the order, though he is

SPORTS DESK: The club versus country debate has cropped up again as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan has barred players from participating in the IPL during international series. Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal are the only Bangladesh players associated with the league, and have not asked for NOCs (No Objection Certificates) yet. Bangladesh's Zimbabwe tour commences on April 13 and ends on May 12, while the IPL is scheduled between April 3 and May 26. Shakib plays for Kolkata Knight Riders and Tamim for Pune Warriors and the BCB decision means the pair will be eligible to play in only four IPL matches. "There is no chance for players to take part in these [IPL] tournaments when an international series is going on," Hassan said. "As far as I know, cricket boards don't allow such things, and we will not provide that opportunity [either]. "We haven't been requested to provide any NOCs yet. I was asked if they can go to the IPL instead of the Zimbabwe tour, but I told them that they wouldn't be able to. I know for sure that even in my capacity, I cannot let them go." Hassan didn't single out the two players, but warned players against trying to pick and choose formats. "The country comes first, otherwise there is always the chance of the players thinking they can play in these tournaments, where they have more personal benefits. I am not saying that the players are taking chances, but this attitude isn't healthy when you look at the bigger picture."

the wicketkeeper and his workload will be taken into account. It wouldn't be surprising if Mahmudullah gets a promotion after showing confidence and good form against West Indies. Nasir Hossain is another slight worry for the team, given his lack of runs recently. Bashar's other worry is the pace attack.

India must take a call on sehwagâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spot: Dravid SPORTS DESK India's selectors and management must decide whether they want Virender Sehwag to open in Tests in South Africa at the end of the year, and if not, they must give someone else the opportunity to find his feet in familiar conditions, Rahul Dravid has said. The Indian selectors are due to pick the squad for the last two Tests against Australia on Thursday, but ESPNcricinfo understands no changes are expected. A chink in India's commanding victories in the first two Tests in Chennai and Hyderabad was their opening partnership, which produced 11, 16 and 17. While M Vijay found form in Hyderabad with 167, Sehwag aggregated 27 in three innings. He had made only 253 runs in seven innings during the home series against England last year, 117 of those coming in one innings in Ahmedabad. He also failed to score a half-century in two home Tests against New Zealand. On India's last overseas assignment, in Australia, Sehwag made 198 runs in eight innings. After the two remaining matches against Australia, India have no more Tests scheduled before their trip to South Africa at the end of the year. "I think the selectors and management need to decide whether they are going to open with Viru (Virender) in South Africa," Dravid told ESPNcricinfo. "I mean Viru playing well, Viru at his best, is a great asset to any side, but the reality is that

he hasn't been performing particularly well, and he hasn't really done well on overseas trips over the last two or three years. If they feel confident about opening with Sehwag in South Africa, then I think it makes sense to continue with Sehwag and give him the opportunity to get that confidence." Dravid said there was also the option of moving Sehwag to the middle order, and if that was the case, then India should blood the replacement opener in home conditions before taking him to face the new ball in South Africa. The reserve opener in the squad for the first two Tests against Australia was Delhi batsman Shikhar Dhawan. "If they are going to look ahead, I think there could be a realistic possibility of Sehwag coming into the middle order," Dravid said. "You know if opportunities open up at some stage, maybe Sachin is going to move on, then I think Viru is the man with the experience to be able to come in and bat in the middle order. He has said in the past that he would like to, and that could be an option. If that is the route India is going to take then I think it makes sense to try out another youngster, or try out another opener, and give him the opportunity to play at least a couple of Test matches in more familiar conditions, before going to South Africa. I think it will be unfair on any young opener to be asked to go to South Africa straightaway, and play against the likes of Steyn, Philander and Morkel."

Rubel Hossain went through 19 overs on the first day in Matara but Abul Hasan struggled to stay on the field after bowling six overs as he suffered from dehydration. "I think we need another practice match to test our pace bowlers," he said. "We have Shahadat Hossain as back-up so we are thinking of a right combination."

Positive change in dhoni's captaincy, says Gavaskar SPORTS DESK Sunil Gavaskar has said the break after the England series has had a positive effect on MS Dhoni's captaincy and with this new approach Dhoni should lead the side till the 2019 World Cup. "He has changed positively as a captain. Now, if a player is not attentive and not up to the mark, Dhoni is letting him know," Gavaskar told NDTV. "He is not making too many gestures but he is making the player know that he is not happy. "With the changed leadership approach I think he should not be disturbed till the 2019 World Cup," he said, adding that it would be up to Dhoni to ultimately decide, considering he would be 38 then. Gavaskar said that during India's home-series loss against England, Dhoni's captaincy had been defensive and the team was allowing the game to meander. But after the two wins against Australia, Gavaskar said, "Dhoni has recharged and he is in great batting form, though he needs to tighten up a bit in his wicketkeeping." Dhoni, with the win in the second Test in Hyderabad, surpassed Sourav Ganguly to become the most successful India captain with, 22 wins. Gavaskar said, "records over a period of time indicate that Dhoni is the 'winningest' captain and we should be very happy with that. "There will always be the debate whether Tiger Pataudi is the best-ever captain or is it Ajit Wadekar or Sourav Ganguly. And no one talks about Rahul Dravid who has an outstanding overseas record as skipper."

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When we are designing, I am narrowing down which ones I’m wearing. I have got to plan ahead. … The retailers want to know right away which ones I’ll be wearing. – Venus Williams

17 S

sPorTs Thursday, 7 March, 2013

National Polo begins with a bang

Khan not gunning for Brook fight

NEW YORK: Rafael Nadal shakes hand with Juan Mar after losing the match.

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

LONDON AGENCIES

MIR Khan is aiming to laugh in the face of domestic rival Kell Brook by putting on a show in his backyard. The pair have quarrelled in the past and an allBritish welterweight tear-up is on many fight fans' wishlist, but both men have business to take care of before then. Brook will fight Devon Alexander for the IBF title in May while Khan is returning to England for the first time in two years to take on Julio Diaz on April 27. That he has chosen to do so in Brook's home city of Sheffield has only served to add extra spice to their rivalry, although Khan is adamant he has plenty to occupy him in the light-welterweight division for now. The Diaz fight is a catch-weight one at 143lbs and he wants rematches at 140lbs with Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. As a result he says he is not even thinking about Brook, but could not resist tickling his ribs when asked about his foray into South Yorkshire. "Wherever we fight in the UK, we will go to Brook's home town and we will

( pUNjab yoUth FestIvaL

sell out - that's a fact," the 26-year-old said. "Brook should not be focusing on my fight. I'm not thinking about a fight with him - he's got a fight with Devon Alexander. He has to be focused on his thing. "But it will show I have more fans than him in his home city. That's a laugh in his face. "I have nothing against Kell Brook. I don't care about him or think about him. He has to prove himself. At the moment he's not on my radar or anything. "If I move up to 147 then definitely I would fight him, but it's six to nine months before I do move up. When I do, I'm not someone who says no and I would take that fight." In the Steel City or not, there will be a huge expectancy for Khan to perform next month. His last outing on home soil was his sixth-round stoppage of Paul McCloskey in 2011 and since then he has lost his two world titles as a result of defeats against Peterson and Garcia. Some redemption came in the form of a victory over Carlos Molina in December - his first scrap under Virgil Hunter's supervision - and he has scores to settle in the light division before moving up. "I still want to fight at 140 and win titles at that weight and then move up to

147 as a world champion," he added. "There are still two fights out there are 140 against Petersen and Garcia - they are fights I want and that are there for me, so I don't see why I should move up." Reports had suggested Khan's team had tried to nail down a Peterson rematch for April, with the likes of Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez also mentioned. As a result, some have taken the 33-year-old Diaz to be nothing more than a stand-in but, having worn the world title belt twice himself, Khan is certain he is not facing a mug. "We got the fight I wanted," he said. "Not many would take this fight on so I have a lot of respect for Diaz for taking it. "People will turn us down because they know this is a tough fight, even though last year wasn't our best. We tried with some and didn't didn't happen, which is why I left England for a training camp without doing any press as I didn't have a secure opponent." Diaz's resume is certainly lengthy - this will be his 49th fight - and he will bring close to 300 boxed rounds to the ring. He admits, though, to having struggled to find a weakness in Khan's performance against Molina.

Ferguson left distraught after defeat to Real MADRID: Sir Alex Ferguson was left distraught after seeing Nani controversially sent off and Manchester United booted out of the Champions League by Real Madrid. From a position of some promise, 2-1 up on aggregate after Sergio Ramos' own goal, 10-man United were dumped out of the Champions League as Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo scored to take Real Madrid into the quarter-finals. United were seething at referee Cuneyt Cakir's decision to red card Nani for a high tackle on Arvelo Arbeloa. AGENCIES

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Army-Coca Cola, Master and Diamond Paints had opening day honours when they got full two points with win against their respective teams of the Zong-sponsored National Polo Championship For The Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup 2013 here at the LPC ground on Wednesday. The first two matches of the opening day were closely contested with the winners Army-Coca Cola and Master Paints getting through by one goal margin wins while Diamond Paints had little to push for victory. The combined quartet of Army-Coca Cola rattled Guard Group harmless with 6-5 win. The major role in the win was played by Manuel Crespo who hit in five goals while Abdul Rehman Monnoo added one goal to complete the tally while the losing side fought through Ahmed Ali Tiwana, Santiago Mendivil and Taimur Ali Malik. Marcus Hancock and Matias Vial Perez umpired the match with James Harper being the referee. Master Paints baking of the shoulders of Gaston Moore got victory against Hataff/Newage by 9-8 difference. Gaston Moore played a pivotal role in the win producing six goals and creating moves through which Shah Qubilai Alam, Sufi Muhammad Haris and Sufi Muhammad Aamir scored one goal each. Hissam Ali Hydr and Shah Shamyl Alam gave the Masters tough time. Hancock was support by Santiago Mendivil on the umpires saddle while Referee for the match was Manuel Crespo. Diamond Paints left Colony Sugar tasteless with 11-9 win and in that joyous ride Raja Samiullah and Matias Vial Perez played the key role while Matias Vial Perez fought well from the losing side. Moore helped Hancock in the umpiring role while Hissam Ali Hyder refereed through the match.

Gujranwala Bar win cricket, Lahore Press sweep TT title LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Gujranlawa won the Bar Association cricket title here at the Mehran Club Ground beating Rawalpindi in the final on Wednesday while Lahore Press Club reached the final of badminton at the Iqbal Park Sports Complex Gymnasium and their table tennis team clinched the title at Johar Town Hall. On the third day of the final phase of the Punjab Youth Festival, PHA got walk over and reached the final and would face Sports Board Punjab team for the departments table tennis title. SBP table tennis team made its way to the final beating Motorway Police. Asad Javed of SBP moved past Aslam of Motorway Police 11-8, 11-7. Similarly, PHA reached the final when forensic department team did not reach the venue. Meanwhile, the

match of the Ittefaq Cricket Ground has been moved to the LCCA ground while the first final of cricket was played between Rawalpindi and Gujranwala bar associations. Gujranwala batting first gathered 90 runs for the loss of eight wickets in eight overs. Babar Jamil with 29 and Shahid Farooq 21 were the prominent batsmen. In reply Rawalpindi could make just 64 runs. Gujranwala thus won the match by 24 runs and took the winner’s trophy. Earlier, Rawalpindi beat Bahawalpur and Gujranwala defeated Lahore Bar association teams in the semi-finals. In the press club category, Sahiwal played Multan in the first semi-final. Sahiwal made 69 for the loss of seven wickets in eight overs. In reply Multan could manage 67 runs in eight overs for the loss of six wickets. And Sahiwal won by two runs. Faisalabad beat Rawalpindi by six runs in the other semi-final. Faisalabad

made 82 in the given overs while Rawalpindi crawled to 76 runs. Now Sahiwal will take on Faisalabad in the final of the press club category of cricket. Meanwhile, in the badminton SBP showing sportsmen spirit awarded the match to Excise Department after one of their player got injured. With this gesture, Excise team reached the final of department badminton. In press club table tennis category, Lahore swept Multan to grab the table tennis title. Naeem Akhtar and Sarmad Saeedi made the win possible for Lahore. In singles, Sarmad beat Multan’s Agha Shahid 11-6, 9-11, 11-5, Kashif of Multan brought his team back in contention beating Naeem Akhtar 11-6, 11-5, then Sarmad and Naeem paired up to beat Kashif and Shahid pair 11-7, 11-7. In reverse singles Sarmed beat Kashif 13-11, 11-9 and in corporate sector final, Lahore beat Faisalabad 3-1 to win title.

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I don't have words to explain what I feel. I just have one word to say it is unbelievable. – Cristiano Ronaldo

sPorTs Thursday, 7 March, 2013

nadal beaten on hardcourt return NEW YORK AGENCIES

Rafael Nadal played his first hardcourt match in nearly a year on Monday to end the inaugural World Tennis Day. Nadal was beaten 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 by Juan Martin Del Potro at New York's Madison Square Garden in what was, at times, a light-hearted exhibition match. The Spaniard will now move on to Indian Wells to play in the BNP Paribas Open - his first competitive hardcourt action since Miami last March. The men's draw starts on Thursday. Looking ahead to testing his knee fully on the hardcourts which are believed to have heaped pressure on the joint, Nadal said: "I really hope that the knee will go well. I don't know how well but the knee will give me the chance to compete. "I know the knee isn't 100 per cent better yet, but if the knee is now

Georgiou leads race for the open

well to be competitive, to run with no limitations or limitations on my movements, that's a lot." In a women's match at the same BNP Paribas Showdown event in New York, world number one Serena Williams defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-4 6-3. Azarenka will now move onto Indian Wells to defend her BNP Paribas Open title. The draw has her seeded to meet Sloane Stephens in the last 16 and Caroline Wozniacki in the last eight before a semi-final clash with Angelique Kerber. On the other side of the draw, Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska are seeded to meet in the semis. Britons Heather Watson and Laura Robson will begin their campaigns against Irina-Camelia Begu and Sofia Arvidsson respectively. The latternamed Swede left Robson in tears last April when beating her in a Fed Cup match.

Pre-season test relieves Ferrari BRASIL AGENCIES

MUIRfIELD AGENCIES

Andrew Georgiou leads the way after the first round of The Open Championship International Final Qualifying (IFQ) Africa after an opening seven-under par 65. Three spots are on offer at the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club for The Open, which takes place at Muirfield in July. Georgiou is in the driving seat after a fine round which was kick-started by an eagle on the eighth and the 26-yearold South African, who qualified for last year's Open following success at the IFQAfrica 2012, is determined to return.

Balochistan stun Punjab women

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

On day three of the 2nd Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Women Cricket Challenge Trophy – 2013, Balochistan fought to victory against Punjab at the Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday. Nahida with her brilliant batting got Balochistan 8 runs win against one of the strong teams of the tournament. SCORES: BALOCHISTAN Women – 102-7 in 20 overs: (Nahida Khan 52, 6x4s, 47 balls, Farrah Naeem 23, 1x4, 49 balls, Elizabeth Barkat 1-9, Namra Imran 1-19), PUNJAB Women– 94-5 in 20 overs: (Ayesha Qazi 27, 4x4s, 38 balls, Irum Javed 20*, 25 balls, Sabahat Rasheed 2-12, Shumaila Qureshi 2-14), Result: Baluchistan won by 8 runs (Punjab women team qualify for the final on NRR ), Player of the Match: Nahida Khan (Baluchistan Women), Toss: Balochistan, Umpires: Muhammad Asif & Riffat Mustafa, TV Umpire: Javed Ashraf, Match Referee: Shahid Butt, Official Scorer: Azhar Hussain.

There was a palpable sense of relief within Ferrari after the first day of pre-season testing a month ago. It was understandable because a year previously, come the conclusion to what was a nightmare opening day, Felipe Massa had been forced to make one of the most agonising telephone calls of his career. Massa has made a point over the years of relaying to president Luca di Montezemolo his first impression of a new car, and last year it was not a conversation he wanted to have. The Brazilian had no choice but to describe the car as "a disaster", one he was left struggling to drive and he found "difficult to keep on track". As many observers had feared, the car's performance matched its looks which had been described upon its unveiling a few days previously as "ugly" and akin to something Lego would build. Ferrari spent the rest of pre-season, and the first four grands prix, attempting to correct its many flaws and

wAtCh It LIve STAR CRICKET University Cricket 07:00 PM

TEN SPORTS UEFA League: VfB Stuttgart v S.S. Lazio 10:30 PM

ACC level II Coaching Course LAHORE STAFF REPORT

The Pakistan Cricket Board is conducting an ACC Level II Coaching Course for Asian Cricket Council at National Cricket Academy, Lahore from 09th (Saturday) to 14th(Thursday) March 2013. In all 25 Coaches selected by Asian Cricket Council from 7 Asian Countries i.e. UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran and Afghanistan are attending this high profile coaching course. NCA Elite Coaches & Support Staff will conduct this course along with Mr. Rumesh Ratnayake (Ex-Sri Lankan Test Cricketer & ACC Course Presenter), Mr. Amin ul Islam (Ex-Bangladeshi Test Cricketer & ACC Course Presenter), Mr. Iqbal Sikandar (Ex-Pakistan International Cricketer & ACC Course Presenter). The course includes advanced skills of Bowling, Batting, Fielding, Wicket Keeping, Athlete Preparation, Physical Fitness, Game Sense Training, Sports Nutrition, Biomechanics in Cricket and Sports Psychology.

lahore district football from today LAHORE STAFF REPORT

imperfections. There was a fluke victory for Fernando Alonso in the second race in Malaysia, but only because of the adverse weather conditions. Instead the Spaniard's results in Australia, China and Bahrain of fifth, ninth and seventh respectively offered up a truer picture, with qualifying even worse as the car's one-lap pace was virtually non-existent. If only Ferrari had

found a more solid platform on which to build then it would have been Alonso, and not Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, celebrating becoming a three-times champion at the end of last year. Instead, a dog of a car and such wretched form over those first four races - Malaysia aside, of course - proved defining as the 31-year-old finished a meagre three points behind Vettel.

Lahore district football championship will resume here from today, Thursday at three grounds of the city. “Due to rains the event was halted for a while and now its matches will be played at MT Football Club/Academy Ground Model Town & Raider Football Club Faisal Town”, said DFA President, Mian Rizwan Ali on Wednesday. The 40-teams are participating in this event. Matches will tomorrow, Thursday, Lahore United F.C v Black Pool F.C at Faisal Town Football ground while Nadeem F.C will face Walton F.C at Model Town Football ground. The two top teams will qualify for the final to be played on March 23 at MT Football Ground.

PTCL Inter-regional Table Tennis concludes ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) Inter-Regional Table Tennis Tournament's first phase has concluded at the company's Officers Club F-8, Islamabad. The 14 day tournament saw a large number of employees competing in categories of Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, Veteran's Singles, Veteran's Doubles and Mixed Doubles. In the Men's Singles final, Amir Kundi emerged as winner by brilliantly defeating Asim Akhtar, while ImranUl-Haq and Haroon Rafiq defeated Aamir Kundi & Salman A Farooqi after an enthralling match in Men's Doubles final. Behram Shahrokh Aslam stood the ground in his contest with Aqdus Faraz Tahir in Veteran's Singles before teaming up with Abdul Sattar to defeat Sana Ullah Shaikh & Abdul Rashid Quadry in Veteran's Doubles. In Women's Singles, Azka Hamid was the clear winner, while Tasnim Akhtar and Saira Javed beat Azka Hamid and Nida Iftikhar in Women's Doubles. Mr. & Mrs. Aqdus Faraz Tahir beat their rivals Azka Hamid and Raza Sarwar in the Mixed Doubles finals. The matches drew large number of spectators comprising of employees as well as their families who appreciated the sportsmanship and level of competition displayed by the players. Syed Mazhar Hussain, PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) HR presented awards among the players reiterating that the company shall carry on with its efforts to bring PTCL family closer through cocurricular activities in future as well, enabling employees to showcase their athletic abilities, sporting passion and team spirit. Abdul Sattar Naeem, Executive Vice President (EVP) HR Services and other senior officials were also present at the occasion.

ISLAMABAD: Syed Mazhar Hussain, PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) HR and Abdul Sattar Naeem, Executive Vice President (EVP) HR Services along with the winner and runner-up players of PTCL Inter-Regional Table Tennis Tournament.

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Thursday, 7 March, 2013

Govt passes bill for creation of Janoobi Punjab Province mQm Lawmakers join treasury to get biLL Passed

indePendent senator moHsin LegHari onLy member to oPPose biLL

ISLAMABAD

sain called for adopting a cautious approach over the matter, he also supported the bill. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was not present. The government had done its homework as most of permanent absentees, including former finance minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh, attended the session. The government needed 69.5 percent votes to get the bill passed which it did narrowly as 70 senators supported the bill while the lawmakers of the PML-N, the PML-F and the National Party staged a walkout. Law Minister Farooq H Naek

TAyyAb huSSAIN

HE coalition government passed the 24th Amendment Bill 2013 – meant for creation of Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab Province – with a two-thirds majority as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmakers from opposition benches joined hands with the ruling PPP. The PML-Q, the ANP and the BNP-Awami legislators also supported the PPP. Though PML-Q Secretary-General Mushahid Hus-

moved the bill. However, for a shock to many, the bill was not opposed by the leader of the opposition Senator Ishaq Dar and rather Senator Mohsin Leghari, an independent, opposed the move. The JUI-F did not take any side and its members remained absent of the entire process. ANP lawmaker Haji Adeel and other treasury members also withdrew their respective amendments. The PML-N apparently gave a safe passage as they walked out of the Senate and left Mohsin Leghari as the only lawmaker to oppose the bill. Leghari finally had no option but to stage a walkout later. Speaking over the bill, Senator Mohsin Leghari raised strong questions against the government’s bill, saying that the commission did not consider the reality that there was no constitutional provi-

sion of creation of a new province. “Article 239 only refers to alteration of any province which means that boundaries of any province could be altered but no new province can be created. So you have to amend the constitution which the commission did not mention,” he added. He said that the commission did not form a permanent national commission for creation of new provinces as mentioned in the Punjab Assembly’s resolutions.” He also said that for allocation of funds for the new province, the government would have to revise the national finance commission (NFC) which would only be reviewed in year 2015 as the NFC was for a five-year term. He said that the commission also overlooked the distribution of

water resources for the new province as water for essential for South Punjab which was agriculture-based area. He said that there was also no mention to share of appointments in FPSC and superior courts from the new province which was mandatory. He said that the bill was prepared in haste and it should not be “bulldosed” in a hurry. Terming the bill as a political stunt, Senator Dar said that the move aimed at getting political mileage to help the PPP win next elections from southern Punjab. He said that the Punjab Assembly had not only rejected the commission formed by the National Assembly speaker for creation of new provinces, but it had also called for formation of a national commission to deliberate over the matter. He said despite being the leader of the

opposition in the Senate, neither he nor Chaudhry Nisar was contacted for nominees for the commission. “Yes, I agree that southern Punjab has been ignored in the past and successive governments of PPP and PML-N have ignored this area. They deserve for more funding than any other area but the creation of new province should not be supported in such a manner. Keep the country integrated and don’t divide it into pieces and this process would make Pakistan another USSR,” he said, adding that Shahbaz Sharif’s government had allocated 31 percent budget for southern Punjab. The bill was passed with majority when put by Chairman Senate for voting. However, the opposition members protested and sought time for debate. Resultantly, the opposition walked out of the house in protest.

Masood sharif Khattak parts ways with Imran Khan former ib dg Quits Pti oVer ‘rigging’ in intraParty PoLLs ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

MULTAN: President Asif Ali Zardari at the ground breaking ceremony of a bridge planned over river Ravi at Syedwala.

2014 not the exit year for Us: olson us enVoy says united states wiLL not disengage from tHe region ISLAMABAD INP

Richard Olson, US ambassador to Pakistan, said on Wednesday that 2014 was not an exit year for the United States and that the US would not disengage from the region. In a speech at a conference on the situation in post-2014 Afghanistan at the National University of Modern Languages, Olson said, “2014 is not an exit. It is a continuation of a long-term commitment and engagement with the Afghan people. 2014 is not 1989. The United States will not disengage from the region.” The envoy also said, “The international community’s financial and political commitment, and the nearly $20 billion in pledges for security and development assistance that have already been made through 2024, stands out as a defining difference between 2014 and 1989. The United States, and nations across the globe, have unambiguously committed to Afghanistan’s future.” “As President Obama and President Karzai agreed in Washington, Afghanled peace and reconciliation is the

reiterates us commitment to cooPeratiVe and Long-term PartnersHiP witH Pakistan surest way to end violence and ensure the lasting stability of Afghanistan and the region,” Ambassador Olson recalled. “The US role is to help advance such a process, including by supporting an office in Qatar, where negotiations can take place between the Afghan High Peace Council and authorised representatives of the Taliban.” In order to facilitate a negotiated peace, Olson called for the US and Pakistan to work together with purpose, noting, “For the sake of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the region, Pakistan’s full support to an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace process is needed now.” Ambassador Olson also reiterated the US commitment to a cooperative and long-term partnership with Pakistan. “The US relationship with Pakistan is not shaped solely by our commitments and responsibilities in Afghanistan. This partnership is far broader than any one issue, and centered on areas of mutual interest,” he said. “It is not dictated solely by the requirements of today, but rooted in the joint realization that the security and prosperity of our peoples is better served when we remain engaged, and cooperate.”

three names short-listed for caretaker prime minister: Nisar MONITORING DESK Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday said the PML-N had short-listed three candidates for the caretaker prime minister. The shortlisted candidates include Rasool Baksh Paleejo, Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Justice (r) Shakirullah Jan. Addressing a press conference, Nisar said he would be replying to Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Sharaf’s letter tomorrow (Thursday). Meanwhile, talking to a private TV channel, Minister for Religious Affairs Khurshid Shah said the name of the caretaker prime minister would be announced before March 16, adding that President Asif Ali Zardari would announce the date of the election after consulting all four chief ministers. Shah said every conspiracy of postponement of elections would be made unsuccessful and elections will be held on time. “The interim government will be installed the moment the clock strikes 12 on March 16,” the minister said, adding that elections in all provinces would be conducted on the same day.

Masood Sharif Khattak, former Intelligence Bureau director general (IB DG ), has quit the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) following differences with the party leadership for not looking into the complaints of “rigging” in intra-party polls held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). During the recent intra-party polls, Khattak’s group lost the slot of KP president as Asad Qaisar, an old guard of the PTI, was elected the party’s provincial president after defeating Khattak’s candidate, Pervez Khattak. When contacted, Khattak confirmed that he had left the PTI due to “massive rigging” in the polls. He said that he would not review his decision. Prior to joining the PTI, he was the senior vice president of the Pakistan People’s Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP). He was defeated in the 2002 general elections by a candidate of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in his home constituency NA-15 (Karak). He resigned from the PPP in 2007 in protest against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) signed by the PPPP with former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf. He joined the PTI on November 11, 2007, after a meeting with Chairman Imran Khan.

Born on June 5, 1950, Khattak served in the army until 1986. After his retirement, he was appointed as the IB DG in 1993 and continued until 1996. This is where he played an important role in securing Pakistan’s borders in Balochistan and in securing peace in Karachi. He increased the size of the organisation to three times its original size and revamped its organisational structure and introduced STS Anti-Terrorism training for all officers of the organisation. Khattak created and headed a cooperation committee, chaired by the prime minister and the interior minister. This committee consisted of the director generals of the Military Intelligence (MI), the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Naval Intelligence (NI), Air Force Intelligence (AFI), the inspector general of police (IGP) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). He served as the vice president of the PPP under the leadership of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He also led a famous intelligence operation codenamed Midnight Jackals, which thwarted an alleged military coup attempt of the elected PPP government in 1990. He was arrested by the government of President Farooq Leghari in 1996 and imprisoned on charges of corruption as well as allegations which included widespread wiretapping of opposition politicians, judges and senators. Released in 1999, he was investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on corruption charges but no cases of corruption were filed against him in any court. In 2002 he was appointed the senior vice president of the PPPP.

ppp party of common man, down trodden people: ashraf ISLAMABAD INP

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Wednesday said the Pakistan People’s Party was the only party that raised the voice of the common man and down trodden people. Talking to workers of the Pakistan People’s Party belonging to the federal capital, he said the people could see themselves the difference between dictatorships and democracy after the successful completion of tenure by the present government. Ashraf said the workers of the party were like a family that was spread all over the country. “The PPP has presence in every part and area of the country”. The PM said it was PPP that raised the voice of the common man and down trodden and other political parties sub-

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

Editor: Arif Nizami

sequently were forced to follow. Referring to the politics of reconciliation pursued by the present government, he said all political parties represented in parliament remained allies of PPP at one time or another. The prime minister said he hailed from the middle class family and understood the impact of inflation and unemployment on the common man. He reminded the workers of the challenging circumstances in which the government had been working. Ashraf said the PPP had rendered great sacrifices for the cause of democracy in the country and the president voluntarily transferred his powers to parliament. The prime minister urged party workers to go into the field and campaign for their candidates with the confidence that the PPP had many achievements to its credit.