e-paper pakistantoday 08th May, 2013

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Rs 17.00 Vol III No 311 19 Pages Lahore Edition

Wednesday, 8 May, 2013 Jamadul Sani 27, 1434

Qadri is back for another sit-in! story on page 04

story on page 04

sC takes exception to ashraf’s misuse of Bhasha and Lowari funds Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday questioned how could former prime minister Pervez Ashraf utilise funds allocated for Bhasha dam, Lowari Tunnel and HEC in his own constituency. He gave the remarks while presiding over an SC bench while hearing the case of misuse of funds by the former PM in his own constituency and acquisition of supplementary grants illegally. pag e 18

police ban rallies in Dhaka after violence Police have banned all rallies in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, a day after clashes between the police and protesters left at least 27 people dead. The country's main opposition parties have called a two-day nationwide shutdown from Wednesday to protest against what they describe as the "mass killing" of protesters in a crackdown by security forces. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist allies called the strike after claiming that hundreds of people were killed on Sunday and early Monday. pag e 07

Kayani orders 10,000 troops for Karachi security story on page 02

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wednesday, 8 may, 2013

20 killed in attacks targeting JUI, JI, PPP PESHAWAR/QUETTA

Elections postponed in NA-83; candidate from NA 162 disqualified LAHoRE/FAISALABAD MONItOrING DESk

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday postponed elections in National Assembly constituency NA-83, Faisalabad after an independent candidate, Amjad Rabbani, died of cardiac arrest.

Polling date in this constituency would be decided after the May 11 elections.

CANDIDATE DISqUALIFIED A full bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday disqualified former MNA Chaudhry Zahid Iqbal from contesting the upcoming elections over possession of dual nationality, local media reported.

Iqbal was arrested earlier in April, for wrongly stating his dual nationality status while filing his nomination paper from NA-162 Sahiwal-III. He was charged under the Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution and was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 5,000.

He was previously disqualified by the Supreme Court in October 2012 for allegedly holding a British nationality under the dual nationality case.

Chaudhry Iqbal had won the 2008 elections from NA-162 constituency on a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ticket but joined the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) a night before the allotment of election symbols this year.

SHAMIM SHAHID/AGENCIES

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ySTEMATIC and consistent targeting of election hopefuls continued on Tuesday as candidates from various political parties, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-IslamFazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) - were attacked across the country.

JUI-F RALLY BOMBED IN HANGU: At least eight people were killed and 22 others injured in a highintensity suicide bombing targeting a JUI-F public rally in Dawaba area of Hangu. JUI-F candidate Mufti Syed Janan was target of the suicide attack and was among those injured. However, his condition is stated to be out of danger.

Per details, the JUI-F candidate for PK 43 Hangu was on a door-to-door campaign in Dawaba Bazaar along with his supporters when a suicide bomber blew himself up. The explosion caused destruction to a number of shops and vehicles in the vicinity.

Soon after the explosion, people and shopkeepers shifted the injured and bodies to Dawaba hospital. Officials said eight people were killed and 21 injured in the suicide attack. Mufti Janan sustained minor injuries. Those injured included 10 schoolchildren who were on way home.

The officials said Janan was discharged after being administered first aid. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

It was the second major terrorist attack targeting the JUI-F during a period of less than 24 hours.

A day ago, an election rally of the JUI-F candidate for a National Assembly seat from Kurram Agency was attacked with an improvised explosive device (IED), killing 25 people and injuring more than 90 others.

PML-N CANDIDATE ATTACKED: Militants hurled a handheld bomb at the residence of PML-N candidate Zubaida Jalal in Turbat town of Balochistan. Levies officials said that militants lobbed a bomb inside the house of the former federal minister, adding that the blast damaged her residence, but no human loss was reported.

PPP TARGETED AGAIN: A blast targeting a rally of the PPP in Lower Dir’s Baba Gam village killed six persons and injured several others.

The blast was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) near the vehicle of Zahir Khan, the brother of Muhammad Zamin Khan, who is a PPP candidate from PK-96 constituency of Lower Dir – III. Zahir Khan succumbed to his injuries sustained in the attack. In Upper Dir, a Jamaat-e-Islami election gathering was targeted. Several casualties were reported from the area.

SCHOOLS BLOWN UP: A school which was to be used as a polling sta-

tion was blown up with explosives by unknown miscreants in Kohlu district of Balochistan.

According to Levies sources, the middle school, declared as the polling station for the upcoming elections, was completely destroyed in the explosion.

In yet another incident, militants blew up a school in Gwadar. According to the police, the militants had planted a bomb near the school. The school was designated as a polling station for the coming May 11 election.

KURRAM BOMBING DEATH TOLL RISES: At least six more people died of injuries bringing the death toll from the bombing at JUI rally at Kurram to 25 with over 80 people wounded.

Political administration said the bomb was placed near the main stage of the venue of the rally. It exploded when Munir Orakzai, a former lawmaker and JUI-F candidate for NA38, left the dais after addressing the meeting. He remained unhurt in the blast claimed by the Taliban.

Kayani orders 10,000 troops for Karachi security KARACHI ONLINE

Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani on Tuesday chaired a meeting to review security arrangements, especially in Sindh, for the upcoming election. According to reports, Kayani ordered full implementation of the security plan, while he also said helicopters would also be ready in case of any untoward incident. Following the meeting, ISPR Director General Maj General Asif Salim Bajwa said around 124,000 security personnel would be deployed in Sindh for maintaining law and order on Election Day. He said 10,000 army personnel would be deployed in Karachi for election security duties, while around 39,000 personnel of Pakistan Rangers and police would also be on duty.

He made it clear that army troops won’t be deployed at polling stations and would only come into action as quick response force.

The high-level meeting was held at Corps Headquarter Karachi, which was attended by Lietenant Gen Aijaz Chaudhry, the Karachi corps commander, Rangers director general and Sindh chief secretary.

Voter turnout likely to be reasonably good: PM ISLAMABAD APP

Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday said there had been some terrorist incidents, which would not affect the voter turnout on May 11. “The turnout is expected to be reasonably good,” said the prime minister while talking to German Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Cyrill Nunn, who called on him here.

He said all was set to hold elections under the supervision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a free, fair and transparent manner.

Khoso said Pakistan and Germany enjoyed excellent relations and thanked the German government for its assistance during times of natural calamities. The German ambassador congratulated the prime minister for excellent arrangements, made for holding of the elections.

Nunn said the European Union Observers Mission, which is visiting Pakistan to monitor the elections, headed by German Member of Parliament Michael Gahler, was of the view that the arrangements for holding elections were much better than those of previous elections.

Palmists and Pundits

By the tuBe Do you think it was silly, the way the occult was consulted (Geo, Aapas Ki Baat, 5th May) to predict the outcome of the upcoming elections? you might, but it probably wasn’t as silly as what you’re otherwise used to.

Don’t get me wrong. I find the occult silly. For grown men and women to consult palmists and numerologists over any matter is atrocious. That is a view I have long maintained as the secular, scientific

rationalist I aspire to be. It is also a view I have on the basis of whatever little religion I have. Regardless of how you slice it, I will find it repugnant.

But if you, dear reader, are of the view that political analysts will do a better job, then I differ there as well. Political analysts, or what passes off as them in the media, talk out of their arses.

Their “predictions” are as much shots in the dark as the guy looking into your tea leaves to tell you about your future wife.

The biggest secret that the Pakistani news media has to hide is not how financially corrupt it is. Or how beholden it is to corporate or institutional interests. The biggest secret is how very, laughably, incompetent they are. Ironically, those analysts who do have a context-based encyclopaedic constituency-to-constituency grasp, coupled with both a studied and intuitive understanding of electoral dynamics, like Geo’s Sohail Warraich and, perhaps, Iftikhar Ahmed, are very shy of

“calling it” and concede of how little their understanding is.

If the reader would like to replace the tarot card reader with a smug-looking Muhammad Mallick, with his I-knowsomething-you-don’t look, he is free to do so.

Ever since the PPP government took over in ‘08, the pundits have been predicting a demise. Six months, said one; a year, tops, said another. They kept at it till the end of the tenure. Did the analysts lose their jobs? No. With such a track record, your average Shah Aalmi Bazaar fortune-teller, the sort that has a parrot that pulls out a card, would be out of business within a year. On the other hand, there is no, absolutely no, accountability in the media business.

For all we know, the tarot lady predic-

tion (PML-N biggest winner; PPP second biggest, but going on to form a coalition government) just might be true. Even if she did, I hasten to add again, pull it out of thin air.

LITERALLY SINGING FOR HIS SUPPER: Levi Strauss. Does the name ring a bell? Not to be confused with the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, Levi Strauss was a German Jew who made a killing in the California gold rush. One detail: he wasn’t a gold miner. He used to make jeans for the miners; they were really comfortable to work in despite being tough enough to withstand those conditions Since it was a gold rush, there was a lot more hope than there was gold. Our man Strauss cashed in on that. He was banking not on the gold, but the hope for

it. you might even be wearing one of his right now. Levi’s jeans.

This model is referred to during a lot of bubbles. A lot of people who didn’t believe in the 90s DotCom bubble did, nevertheless, set up incubators for startups and made money off them. Property traders, even the ones aware of the transient nature of a property bubble, do this. Smart money, as the great economist Keynes pointed out, follows dumb money.

Elections should be seen in that context. Those blaming Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for singing songs for both PTI and PML-N are being unfair. It is like blaming a TV channel or newspaper for running ads for both these parties. Levi Strauss, man.

As the comedian Dave Chappelle said: “I’ve done commercials for Coke and Pepsi.

I don’t give a [expletive] what comes out of my mouth. I say what it takes. Whatever it takes. If you wanna know the truth, can’t even taste the difference. All I know is, Pepsi paid me most recently so... it tastes better.”

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LAHoRE AZAM butt/uMAIr AZIZ

“I

gave 17 years of my life to the country; I did what I could, now it is up to the people to take responsibility of their future. you have to fight your war, your children’s war on May 11,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan told an awaiting nation from his hospital bed at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted after a tragic fall at a rally venue in Lahore on Tuesday. “you have to decide for a new Pakistan that has equality, rule of law and justice,” Khan said, sending millions across the country and its social media into a high-spirited frenzy.

“God says in Holy Quran that He does not change the state of a nation who does not change its own state of affairs. Come May 11, keep a party’s ideology in mind while voting. Make all efforts to change your destiny,” he said.

Earlier, PTI Chairman Imran

Down, but not out!

Khan made millions of fans skip a heartbeat when a horrifying accident made him fall several feet to the ground at a public rally in Lahore’s Ghalib Market area. Imran Khan was stable and in high spirits despite the accident, doctors at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital told reporters after conducting several critical medical tests on the PTI chairman that lasted a couple of hours.

Doctors said Khan was recognising everyone with ease and had received a minor fracture on his head, and though two of his vertebrae had been affected in the fall, they were exerting no serious pressure on his spinal cord. The PTI chairman would, however, have to wear a brace as he has been advised complete bed-rest for three weeks.

He was kept in the hospital overnight for want of evaluation and monitoring. According to the video footage, Khan was being escorted up the stage through a makeshift elevator using a fork lifter when the accident occurred.

Khan was surrounded by his guards, one of who lost balance and triggered the collapse. The fall was made worse as the guards had tightly gripped Khan’s right arm, leaving him with only one free arm to react to the situation.

Alarm bells went ringing across the venue, while the news spread like jungle fire across the country and globe, leaving PTI followers as well as the rest of countrymen gripped in tension.

Khan was first rushed to Fazl

Imran’s injury garners immediate national, international response, prayers ISLAMABAD tAyyAb HuSSAIN

The news of injury to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday night spread like a fire in the jungle and people from across the globe, including celebrities and politicians, posted tweets expressing concerns about Khan’s health and prayed for his swift recovery.

Khan had tumbled down from a makeshift lifter that was taking him onto a stage at an election rally in Lahore’s Ghalib Market, resulting into head injuries and backbone fracture.

Immediately following the news of the accident, people started tweeting. The most active among the participants was Imran Khan’s former wife, Jemima Khan, who tweeted immediately, “He’s in hospital and conscious now RT.” She tweeted again, “This from IK’s nephew: “@HniaziISF: Chairman reciting kalma in ambulance - he is fine - plz just pray.”

Later, she tweeted, “A rallying cry from the ICU. Go Imran!#NayaPakistan#May11t h.” Renowned West Indian cricketer Brian Lara @BrianLara tweeted, “Imran Khan injured @ rally fell off stage...

Out of danger Thank God!! Get well soon great man. Continue striving in what u believe in.”

Meanwhile, people from across the country heaved a sigh of relief when senior PTI leader Asad Umar tweeted, “CT scan results show only a minor fracture. IK will be fine inshaAllah though he is in a lot of pain.”

DR ARIF ALvI: @ArifAlvi said in his tweet message, “People love him. Received

so many calls in the first hour with people crying including our dear concerned friend.”

Faisal Javed Khan, the permanent host for Khan’s rallied, tweeted in utter optimism, “Imran Khan in high spirits. ll be on bed rest for tonight. InshALLAH he ll resume his activities for the cause Pakistan from tomr”.

DR Aq KHAN: Tahafuz e Pakistan @DrAQ_Khan tweeted, “6 inch wound and 28 stitches on head, Imran Khan saying I’ll still go and make my speech, that’s spirit of a patriot.”

SHEIKH RASHID: AML leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmad @ShkhRasheed tweeted, “thanks to Allah, Imran Khan is out of danger. We are praying for best health, longer life & early recovery of Imran Khan.” He also said that he had “canceled all political activities, corner meetings”.

SHERRY REHMAN: Ambassador in Washington DC Sherry Rehman @sherryrehman tweeted, “Wishing PTI leader #Imran Khan a speedy recovery. Just heard he is in hospital after a bad fall.

My sincerest sympathies!”

TALAT HUSSAIN: Eminent anchor Talat Hussain @TalatHussain tweeted, “Media shud refrain from speculation.

Stay put till doctors speak”.

ASFANDYAR WALI KHAN: Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan and other leaders of ANP also expressed their concern over Khan’s injury and prayed for his speedy recovery.

ALTAF HUSSAIN: MQM official website said chief Altaf Hussain had asked his supporters in Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Bhakkar that he

could not address due to the unfortunate incident of the fall of Imran Khan from the stage.

NABIL GABOL: @Nabilgabol tweeted, “Very sorry and sad abt Imran khan accident pray for his early recovery”.

RAzA HAROON: “#MQMPakistan Imran Khan is our national hero. Pray for his early and full recovery. Best wishes to him.”

MUNAWWAR HASSAN: Syed Munawar Hasan @SMunawarHasan tweeted, “I request the Pakistani nation in general and JI workers specially to pray for Imran Khan’s speedy and complete recovery”.

MARYAM NAWAz: Maryam Nawaz tweeted, “Got the sad news while campaigning. Our prayers and wishes for Imran Khan Sahib’s early & complete recovery”.

AHSAN IqBAL: Ahsan Iqbal @betterpakistan1h tweeted, “Praying for full and speedy recovery of Imran Khan”.

HASSAN NISAR: Hassan Nisar tweeted, “I would happily forsake my own life for #ImranKhan’s life - that is how IMPORTANT that man is to #Pakistan.”

NASIM zEHRA: @NasimZehra tweeted, “Pakistan deserves leaders like Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir and Imran Khan...God save us from tragedies. Reports say he is out of danger.”

DR SHAHID MASOOD: Dr Shahid Masood tweeted: “All prayers and best wishes for a very dear friend Imran Khan!”Jaldi theekh ho ja yaar! Please!”

SAROOR IJAz: Saroor Ijaz tweeted, “Imran Khan got injured before World Cup 92 victory. History repeats itself”.

Cardiac Hospital in Gulberg and then eventually taken to Shaukat Khanum Hospital, which Khan himself built with tireless efforts almost two decades ago.

Almost all political leaders sent in messages of sympathy and wished Khan well. The PTI chief’s main political rival, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif announced in a political gathering in Rawalpindi that he was calling off all political activities scheduled for Wednesday (today) over the incident.

“The entire gathering should pray for Imran’s early recovery,” Nawaz appealed. Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi rushed to the hospital and had a meeting with the ailing leader. Talking to

Qadri is back for another sit-in!

LAHoRE

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by the MQM against the delimitation of constituencies in Karachi.

Hearing the petition, the SHC bench ruled that it could not interfere in the Supreme Court’s decision. In its order, the SHC said the petitioners could approach the SC or the relevant tribunal. ONLINE

LJ Karachi chief arrested MonIToRIng DESK The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) on Tuesday arrested the chief of Karachi chapter of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) from Hub, 25 kilometres from the provincial capital, SSP SIU Farooq Awan told local media.

Speaking on the arrested suspected militant, Tariq Shafi alias Doctor, SSP Awan said Shafi “is a known terrorist” and was wanted in 14 cases pertaining to sectarian killings, in which eight people were

killed. Shafi is also a suspect in the murder of college principal, Professor Sibte Jafar, and is listed as absconding in the case, Awan said. A former head constable in police telecommunication wing in 2001, Shafi was later dismissed from his duties and arrested on charges of involvement in sectarian attacks. He was released in 2008.

The information on Shafi came through after a former LJ Karachi chief, Hafiz Qasim Rasheed, was arrested in 2012.

ISLAMABAD StAFF rEPOrt

Announcing a countrywide sitin on polling day, Tehreek Minhajul Quran chief Tahirul Qadri on Tuesday rejected the upcoming elections and said that there would be no change on May 11.

Speaking to journalists, he said the May 11 elections would usher the same old faces into the parliament, adding the current system would never be the foundation of real change in the country. Tahirul Qadri said that “real change” in the country was impossible, especially because there was a common root between the government and the opposition: corruption. “We do not want to become a part of this corrupt system. We will organise sit-ins across the country in every city to protest this election,” he said, adding he would put forward a new system to bring about change in the country after the elections were held.

“I will present a new system after the terrible collapse of this system,” he said. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), he alleged, had saved every corrupt person and all those immersed in corruption had been given a go-ahead to take part in the elections.

“Our war against the corruption will continue,” he said.

With tensions rising between Pakistan and India following a couple of recent incidents of prisoner violence on both sides of the border, Islamabad on Tuesday released a warning for its citizens against visiting neighbouring India.

“The government of Pakistan wishes to advise its citizens who are planning to travel to India to exercise due caution and care while travelling to various parts of India,” an advisory issued by the Foreign Office said. “We have seen some disturbing reports in the Indian media which indicate that the safety and security of Pakistani visitors to India, including that of over 600 Zaireen scheduled to visit Ajmer Sharif for the annual

80 Elite Force personnel to guard Imran after security threats LAHoRE As security threats mount with the election day nearing, PTI Chairman Imran Khan will now move with 10 mobile vehicles of Elite Force and 80 personnel. The security of the PTI chairman’s sisters have also been beefed up after the instructions of high-ups of the law enforcement agencies.

Senior Superintendent of Police Salman Ali Khan has been assigned the task of protecting the PTI leader, security officials said.

Khan, who has been moving across the country especially in Punjab, will have the same level of security until the elections conclude.

A PTI spokesman announced late on Tuesday night that Imran Khan would address the public rally in Islamabad scheduled for Thursday (tomorrow).

President Asif Zardari, Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain and Interior Minister Malik Habib were among several other political leaders and officials who expressed concern over Khan’s accident. They wished Khan an early recovery, calling him an “asset of the country”. President Zardari also sent flowers to the PTI chairman as a goodwill gesture.

Hundreds of PTI supporters had gathered outside Shaukat Khanum Hospital praying for Khan’s early recovery.

growing tensions: pakistan cautions its citizens against Indian visit

ONLINE

ONLINE

SHC dismisses MQM’s petition against delimitation

reporters later, Sethi said Khan was in good health, although he might not be able to continue with his campaign. “We had a good chat and Khan was smiling. There is just a hairline fracture while the rest is fine,” Sethi said.

Former Punjab chief minister and PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif also visited Khan at the hospital and enquired after his health. Other PML-N leaders including Maryam Nawaz Sharif also conveyed their concern to PTI leadership over the telephone. Khan’s PTI and Sharif’s PML-N have been criticising each other bitterly in their respective public rallies but this show of empathy from both sides shows that Pakistan’s politicians have matured over the years.

STOP PRESS

Urs this month, may be in jeopardy,” said the statement.

“The government of Pakistan would also call upon the government of India to ensure that necessary arrangements are in place to provide full protection to all Pakistani visitors to India,” the Foreign Office said. The statement was issued amid reports that some protestors had attacked “Dosti Bus Service” in Amritsar and the driver of the vehicle, Mohammad Khalil, had to run away with the bus and seek security cover inside a police station. Later, a police squad escorted the bus to Wagha border.

Indian forces also opened indiscriminate fire into Pakistan Monday night which was retaliated from Pakistan side. The latest tensions were triggered following the death of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national who was attacked by

Quls offered for senior journalist abbas athar

LAHoRE StAFF rEPOrt

The Quls for veteran journalist and columnist Syed Abbas Athar were offered on Tuesday.

Mr Athar passed away after protracted illness in Lahore in the wee hours of Monday. He had been suffering from cancer for a long time and hospitalised at the CMH for treatment. He was currently the Group Editor of Urdu daily Express and has been columnist for several other leading Urdu dailies. He earned fame in the 1970s as News Editor of an independent Urdu daily Azad edited by renowned human rights activist IA Rehman. Its unique feature was bold, crisp and catchy headlines splashed across the page. Often these had little connection with the content of the report.

One of these “Idhar hum udhar tum” (Here we, there

you) attributed to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the time of turmoil in East Pakistan became the lifelong stigma for the PPP leader though it had not been mentioned in the actual story. It painted Bhutto as advocating disintegration of Pakistan after 1970 elections which led to the creation of Bangladesh. Athar later became an ardent supporter of Bhutto and also served PPP’s mouthpiece ‘Musawat’ as its editor. Also a poet, he authored some of the poetic video ads for the PPP during current elections. Athar’s death was mourned by a large number of people including President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arif Nizami and Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi. They said that Athar’s death was an irreparable loss for Pakistani journalism.

his inmates at Kot Lakhpat Jail last week in Lahore, Pakistan, allegedly over a dispute for drug-related money.

Sarabjit was a RAW spy who was involved in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan and was responsible for killing over a dozen citizens. He was sentenced to death in a court verdict. However, his hanging had been delayed as his mercy appeal had been pending with the presidency without any action.

The incident triggered a “titfor-tat” attack on Sanaullah Ranjay, a Pakistani inmate serving a term in a jail in Jammu, Indian-held Kashmir.

Sanaullah is severely injured and is hospitalised at Chandigarh. The family of Sanaullah have been issued visas and they also left for India to see him due to his critical health condition.

Pakistan protests against Afghan firing at FC post ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday protested against the unprovoked firing by Afghan forces on a Frontier Constabulary (FC) border post on Monday, injuring five soldiers. The Afghan charge d’ affaires was summoned to the Foreign Office and conveyed the protest on repetition of unprovoked firing from the Afghan posts on Pakistan’s Gursal post on May 6. A Foreign Office spokesman, in a statement, said that as in the past, Pakistan’s security forces exercised maximum restraint and communicated first to the Afghan side about repetition of the serious violation through military channels. He said that the Afghan diplomat was conveyed Pakistan’s serious concern and asked to advise the relevant authorities in his country to avoid repetition of unprovoked firing, which undermined the existing coordination mechanisms between the security forces of the two countries. The Afghan charge d’ affaires was also conveyed that in case of any further escalation as a result of this situation, the responsibility would be on the Afghan government. StAFF rEPOrt

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Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organised conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. –Frederick Douglass

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Joseph Colony tragedy: LHC grants bail to nine accused LAHoRE

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StAFF rEPOrt

division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Tuesday granted bail to nine men allegedly involved in the Joseph Colony tragedy. The court directed the accused to submit surety bonds of Rs 100,000 each to avail the bail.

The division bench comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Abdul Sami Khan granted bail to Lal Khan, Aman Ullah Khan, Farhan, Sarfraz Khan, Anwar, Qasim, Sudheer Khan, Imran Butt and Muhammad Imran on their petitions filed for the purpose.

Earlier, the petitioners’ counsel Aftab Ahmad Bajwa pointed out that three accused out of nine were nominated in the FIR. He contended that the accused were innocent

as a substantial proof of their involvement in the incident had not been established and the police had also failed to recover any weapon from them.

He submitted that the court had granted bail to many nominated accused and others in the matter but it had rejected the bail plea of the accused. Therefore the petitioners should also be granted bail considering the principal of consistency, he added.

However, Punjab Additional Prosecutor General Abdul Samad opposed the petitioners’ counsel contentions and pleaded the court to dismiss bail applications as the accused were identified during a parade for the purpose.

The bench agreeing with the petitioners’ counsel’s arguments granted bail to the accused and ordered to submit surety bonds for the purpose.

egg bath for the Pti leader LAHoRE StAFF rEPOrt

Eggs were hurled at Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ejaz Chaudhry during a party meeting, Pakistan Today has learnt.

As shown in a video making rounds on the social media websites, PTI leader was presiding a meeting when a group of women got together with a bag full of eggs and started throwing them at Ejaz. The women accused Ejaz of corruption as they continued to pitch eggs.

However, the PTI leader kept his calm and

did not give any reaction to the group of women, who was later calmed down by other party members.

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Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody. –Franklin P. Adams

wednesday, 8 may, 2013

election holidays from 8th to 11th LAHORE: The government of Pakistan has announced a public holiday across the country on the occasion of general elections to be held on May 11 while educational institutions will remain closed for three days.

According to a notification issued by the government, in the backdrop of elections private and government educational institutions throughout Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will remain closed from May 8 to 11. While the Balochistan government has also announced holidays from May 9 to 11 in the educational institutions. Concerned provincial governments have issued notification in this regard. It said that due to the training of the teachers and their duties during the elections, the institutions will remain shut. INP

CCTVs installed at 160 sensitive polling stations LAHORE: Punjab caretaker government has installed CCTV cameras at 160 sensitive polling stations and has also cancelled leaves of staff due to polls. According to media reports, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has finalised all arrangements regarding the coming general elections.

Punjab government is all set for holding the coming general elections. The government has kept alert health authority, rescue staff and other administrative department. Unauthorised men would not be allowed to enter the polling stations on May 11. ONLINE

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Those who do not love me do not deserve to live. — Muammar al-Gaddafi

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Police ban rallies in Dhaka after violence DHAKA

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AGENCIES

OLICE have banned all rallies in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, a day after clashes between the police and protesters left at least 27 people dead.

The country's main opposition parties have called a two-day nationwide shutdown from Wednesday to protest against what they describe as the "mass killing" of protesters in a crackdown by security forces. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist allies called the strike after claiming that hundreds of people were killed on Sunday and early Monday, when police broke up a mass rally in central Dhaka. "We have called two days of nationwide strike to protest the mass killing of Hifajat-e-Islam workers and supporters on Sunday and Monday," BNP spokesman

Khandaker Mosharraf told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.

The strike is set to begin at 6am local time (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday and end at 6pm on Thursday, Mosharraf added.

On Monday, supporters of the Hifazate-Islam organisation who are demanding an anti-blasphemy law, blocked roads with burning tires in clashes that lasted for more than five hours and left more than 100 people injured. Police said they used sound grenades, water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse at least 70,000 protesters who were camped at the commercial district of Motijheel in the capital.

"We were forced to act after they unlawfully continued their gathering at Motijheel. They attacked us with bricks, stones, rods and bamboo sticks," Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman AFP. Violence also flared up at Hathazari, a town just outside the southern city of Chittagong, as

well as in the southern coastal district of Bagerhat. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested, while the leader of the protests, 93-

year-old Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, was put on a plane bound for Chittagong and the deputy chief was detained in the capital.

Police said that Shafi had not been arrested. According to Al Jazeera correspondent, whom we are not naming due to reporting restrictions, said Hefazat-e-Islam has called for nationwide shutdown on May 12. The turmoil comes as the government struggles to deal with outrage over the collapse of a factory building northwest of Dhaka, where the death toll has crossed 700 since the late April accident.

Tv STATIONS OFF AIR: Two local television stations - Diganta Television and Islamic TV - which broadcast footage of the raid on Motijheel were forced off the air, journalists at the channels said.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, called for an end to the violence, expressing his sadness at the loss of life, a spokesman said. Ban "urges political and religious leaders to engage in constructive dialogue and help defuse the tensions," Martin Nesirky, the UN spokesman, said.

egypt announces cabinet reshue CAIRo AGENCIES

GAzA: Children play with foam as members of the Palestinian Civil Defence train to use fire extinguishers on Tuesday. AGENCIES

syrian chemical weapons debate intensifies DAMASCUS AGENCIES

A UN team of investigators has said it has not reached "conclusive findings" that chemical weapons have been used by any parties in the Syrian conflict, distancing itself from an earlier statement from one of its members that suggested the likely use of sarin gas by rebels.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a statement on Monday that it "wishes to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict". The opposition Syrian National Coalition(SNC), which will hold a symposium on chemical weapons in Istanbul on Tuesday, has said only the regime had such capabilities. On Monday, Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN commission, said that "according to the testimonies we have gathered, the rebels have used chemical weapons, making use of sarin gas".

She acknowledged that there was "still not irrefutable proof, [but] very strong suspicions, concrete suspicions that sarin gas has been used... by opponents, by rebels, not by government authorities".

US STANCE: Later on Monday, the White House and the State Department said that it was likely that President Bashar al-Assad's regime, not the rebel opposition, was behind any chemical weapons use in Syria. "We are highly sceptical of suggestions that the opposition could have or did use chemical weapons," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. "We find it highly likely that any chemical weapon use that has taken place in Syria was done by the Assad regime."

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State

John Kerry arrived in Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss, among other issues, the situation in Syria.

OPPOSITION REFUTES: The Free Syrian Army (FSA) swiftly denied Del Ponte's statement that rebel forces had likely used chemical arms.

Salim Idris, FSA chief of staff, said the remarks were a "huge injustice" and "provocation" to the Syrian people. The Syrian regime and rebels have both accused each other of using chemical weapons, which are banned under international law. In a statement on Monday, the SNC said: "The Coalition condemns all use of chemical weapons, whoever uses them and it will pursue its investigation and collect evidence on this issue to present to the international commission of inquiry.

"If the inquiry proves that any party other than the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons, the coalition will take all legal and appropriate measures whoever the party is and whatever the reason

or motive for the usage might be."

The Geneva-based inquiry into war crimes and other human rights violations is separate from an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons instigated

by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ban's office is still trying to negotiate entry into Syria to investigate and collect samples. Set up two years ago at the behest of the UN Human Rights Council, the commission has also been unable to gain access to Syria as Damascus ignores repeated requests for entry. Instead, it has interviewed more than 1,500 refugees and exiles as a basis for its reports and its charges that both the government forces and their allies and opposition forces have carried out war crimes. Sarin is a powerful neurotoxin developed by Nazi scientists in the 1930s.

Originally developed as a pesticide, sarin was used to deadly effect in air raids in 1988 by Saddam Hussein's forces on the Kurdish village of Halabja in northern Iraq that left an estimated 5,000 people dead.

Egypt has announced a cabinet reshuffle that removes two ministers closely involved in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and increases the representation of President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in the government.

The opposition had been demanding the installation of a politically neutral cabinet to oversee parliamentary elections later this year. Egypt's Prime Minister, Hisham Qandil, announced the nine changes to his cabinet on Tuesday.

These included the appointment of Amr Darrag, a senior official in the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), as planning minister. Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said: "This [appointment] is interesting because it is one of the key ministerial posts in negotiation with the IMF over the long-awaited $4.8bn loan; it could be seen as an attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to play a larger role in key economic processes." The outgoing minister, Ashraf al-Arabi, had played a central role in talks with the IMF about a $4.8bn loan seen as crucial to easing a deep economic crisis. Egypt has yet to seal a deal with the IMF. Fayyad Abdel Moneim, a specialist in Islamic economics, was appointed as finance minister, rep l a c i n g Al-Mursi Al S a y e d Hegazy, another expert on Islamic finance who was appointed in January, the last time Qandil reshuf-

fled the cabinet. Abdel Moneim received a doctorate from Al-Azhar University in Islamic economics in 1999. yehya Hamed, another Brotherhood member, was appointed investment minister. The new cabinet includes at least 10 politicians affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood or the FJP, compared to eight in the old one.

Ahmed Suleiman was named as justice minister, replacing Ahmed Mekky, who resigned last month in protest at efforts by Morsi's allies to make changes to the judiciary. The ministers of interior, defence and foreign affairs were left unchanged.

The government has been widely criticised for failing to revive an economy that is in deep crisis because of more than two years of political turmoil. "We don't expect the opposition to be happy with this reshuffle," said our correspondent. The National Salvation Front (NSF), a loose alliance of opposition parties, "had one specific demand that the prime minister should be changed. That didn't happen. They view him as too weak and too close to the president and the Muslim Brotherhood group."

Hussein Abdel Ghani, an NSF member said: "The changes will only deepen the political crisis and state of polarisation and block the way to any possible real national dialogue."

somalia asks for international support MOGADiSHu: Fifty countries and organisations are gathered in London for an international conference aimed at preventing Somalia from slipping back into abject lawlessness. British Prime Minister David Cameron and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud are co-hosting Tuesday's meeting, which hopes to bolster political stability in the conflict-battered Horn of Africa country. "The Somalia conference in London aims to capitalise on the significant progress made over the past year and to agree coordinated international support for the government of Somalia's plans to build political stability by improving security, police, justice and public financial management systems," Britain's Foreign Office said. Organisations such as the United Nations, the African Union, the International Monetary Fund and Somalia's neighbours are among those invited.

BiG CHALLEnGES: President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said security was at the top of the list of the country's priorities. "We have a six pillar policy frameworks to build the foundations of a new beginning for Somalia," he said. "Today, among the other priorities, security is the top one." Somalia has been battered by conflict since 1991, but a new United Nations-backed government took power in September, ending more than a decade of transitional rule. AGENCIES

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Sharif poised to take over mess in Pakistan LAHoRE AGENCIES

After 14 years out of power, Nawaz Sharif is a man in a hurry.

As his motorcade speeds to another campaign rally ahead of a general election next week, the politician tipped to be Pakistan’s next prime minister is frank about what he will inherit - “a mess”.

“The challenges are huge,” the portly Sharif told Reuters in his bullet-proof car. “We have to bail out the economy.”

With the nuclear-armed nation in crisis after decades of either military or socialist rule, it’s a job few might be able to handle. Sharif, who vows to bring in free market enterprise and ease economic controls, says speedy growth is the only answer.

According to opinion polls, his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is expected to win the May 11 general election after capitalizing on the failures of the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a left-leaning party.

The powerful military still calls the shots in Pakistan but it is the first time that an election is being held to decide on a transition between civil-

ian governments. Nevertheless, the new prime minister will have to work with the generals, who control foreign policy and security.

The new civilian government will also have to play its part in Pakistan’s difficult relationship with the United States. Washington has a deep alliance with Pakistan, but is troubled by elements in the country supporting Islamic militants fighting US troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden was found and killed in a Pakistani town in 2011. In addition, the economy is stuttering. Chronic power cuts have infuriated Pakistanis and crippled key industries. Corruption and poverty are rampant, and infrastructure is crumbling.

Sharif seems to have matured as a politician since he was toppled by former army chief and president Pervez Musharraf in a bloodless coup in 1999. As the main opposition leader, he has avoided antagonizing Pakistan’s powerful generals, or bringing down the unpopular PPP-led coalition government when it was in trouble.

Instead, he waited patiently for an opportunity to rule and now that his moment has come, he is in a hurry to fix Pakistan. Sharif how-

ever acknowledges that if he wins, the honeymoon will be short.

NEED FOR REFORM: Pakistan needs billions of dollars from donors to avert a balance of payments crisis but the cash may not flow to the South Asian nation unless politically sensitive economic reforms are implemented.

So far, one politician after another has failed to muster the courage to bring change.

Sharif ’s background suggests he may have the stomach for it, based on his attempts in the past to reverse socialist policies and open up the economy. “I think Nawaz Sharif will be very capable of making tough decisions,” said Zaffar Abbas, editor of Dawn newspaper.

“He has proven this before.”

Sharif, who was born into a family of wealthy industrialists in 1949, served as prime minister twice in the 1990s, when he tried to

promote free market policies. His family is from Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s most prosperous and populous province.

Now he says he is willing to again risk a backlash, and cut government expenditure by 30 percent in order to secure international backing for the economy. “you see privatization, free market e c o n o m y, deregulation - have been hallmarks of our party in government,” Sharif told Reuters. “We are going to pick up the threads from where we left off.”

Despite his reform credentials, Sharif may raise concerns in the West because of his conservative Islamic values: in 1991 he tried to make sharia the country’s supreme law.

More recently he has been accused of failing to act against militant groups which have a breeding ground in Punjab. He is one of the

few major politicians not on the hitlist of Taliban insurgents who have vowed to disrupt the elections.

His two terms as prime minister in the 1990s were marred by allegations of graft and he ordered Pakistan’s first nuclear tests in 1998.

THE MILITARY CONNECTION: Nawaz was a protégé of military dictator General Zia ulHaq in the 1980s.

But he became a victim of the powerful military when he was overthrown by Musharraf. He was then convicted of corruption and given a life sentence for hijacking, because he refused to allow an airliner carrying Musharraf to land in Pakistan.

Sharif went into exile in Saudi Arabia, but never lost hope of returning to politics one day.

“In private conversations, Nawaz still gets very emotional when he remembers that period,” said a senior journalist who has reported on Sharif for decades. “He has not forgotten being handcuffed and walking through the airport.

His face still gets red in anger when he recalls those days.”

No surprise, then, that he now talks tough against the army meddling in civilian affairs - a risky

stance in a country ruled by generals for more than half of its 66-year history, either through coups or from behind the scenes.

Sharif’s attempt to fire Musharraf as army chief ultimately cost him his job in 1999. If elected he will have to avoid any other errors in judgment, especially when it comes to Pakistan’s top army officers.

Musharraf attempted a political comeback of his own in March when he returned after nearly four years of self-imposed exile hoping to contest the election.

Instead, he has been barred from public office for life and is under house arrest at his luxury farmhouse as cases against him grind through the courts.

With his nemesis humiliated and out of the picture, politics has come full circle for Sharif. He has patiently plotted his own return to the top from his lavish, 700-acre estate near Lahore where peacocks strut on the lawns.

“I think we have a track record.

We have contributed to the country in the past,” said Sharif. “Wherever I have been during this campaign, the response of the people has been very emotional and charged.”

Most new-born deaths in India; Pakistan, Bangladesh fare better: report

Tauqir Sadiq sentenced to three years in prison

nEW DELHI

StAFF rEPOrt

RAWALPInDI

ONLINE

Of every 100 newborns that die in the world, 29 die in India. A report on 186 countries on Tuesday revealed that in Indian as many as 300,000 babies die on the day they are born every year while infants fare better even in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The report showed that 40 percent of the world’s first-day deaths occur in South Asia, which accounts for 24 percent of the world’s population.

It said Bangladesh and Pakistan also have large numbers of yearly first-day deaths at 28,000 and 60,000 respectively with chronic malnourishment of mothers one of the major factors for the fatalities in the region.

“Progress has been made, but more than 1,000 babies die every day on their first day of life from preventable causes throughout India, Pakistan and Bangladesh,” said Mike Novell, the regional director of the charity.

Non-governmental organisation, Save the Children, compared first-day deaths in 186 countries for its “State of World’s Mother Report”. Luxembourg has the least new-born deaths, India the most, the reports says.

While infant deaths in India have come down by almost half as compared to 1990, the rate has been slower than that in, say, Nepal.

The statistics only get worse. More than half the child deaths in India happen in the first month. And India has the biggest disparity between the rich and poor in child deaths.

NFC inks agreement with NLC for fertilizer transportation LAHoRE PrESS rELEASE

National Fertilizer Corporation(NFC) has signed an agreement with National Logistics Cell (NLC) for efficient, swift and safe transportation of fertilizer inside the country.

As per agreement, NLC would ensure safe and speedy transportation of urea from ports to various NFML stores spread across the country. During transportation of fertilizer, NLC would ensure safety of the fertilizer.

In this regard, Commander NLC Brig Hamid Raza and GM NLC Col Asif Mehdi called on Chairman NFC Rizwan Mumtaz Ali. Also present in the meeting were Managing Director NFML Tariq Shafique Khan, GM NFML Fakhar Ali Cheema and GM NFC Shahid Amin.

RAWALPINDI: PML-N President Nawaz Sharif addresses a public meeting on Tuesday. INP

sc takes exception to ashraf’s misuse of bhasha, lowari funds ISLAMABAD ONLINE

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday questioned how could former prime minister Pervez Ashraf utilise funds allocated for Bhasha dam, Lowari Tunnel and HEC in his own constituency.

He gave the remarks while presiding over an SC bench while hearing the case of misuse of funds by the former PM in his own constituency and acquisition of supplementary grants illegally.

The concerned officers and lawyers appeared in court. The finance secretary told the court that PM had the power to release discretionary funds and no bar could be imposed on him on this count.

The CJP remarked, “Can the PM can utilise the entire country’s funds in his constituency? If the prevailing state of affairs continues, what will happen in the country?”

He regretted the way the former PM issued such a huge amount for the uplift projects and then got supplementary grant amounting to Rs 30 billion.

J u s t i c e Azmat Saeed remarked how were supplemen tar y grants of Rs 30 billion obtained.

“Is the PM a monarch to get such a huge grant?”

Tariq Mehmood advocate appeared and prayed the court that certain contractors who had no relevance with the former PM’s schemes had been barred from doing work.

The CJP observed, “We have not barred anyone from carrying out

work. We want work be done per law and constitution. Development fund can neither be transferred to the PM’s constituency nor could it be utilised therein. Former PM transferred funds allocated to projects of national importance like Bhasha dam, Lowari Tunnel and HEC to his own constituency. No one will be allowed to plunder national wealth.” The court issued notices to the housing secretary and directed him to present record of all ongoing development projects under PWD within 10 days.

The hearing of the case was adjourned for 10 days.

Former OGRA chairman Tauqir Sadiq was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday by an accountability court for failing to appear for the hearing for a corruption reference against him. Furthermore, the court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Sadiq and ordered the freezing of his assets and properties. Sadiq, the main accused in a Rs 82 billion scam, fled from the country after the Supreme Court declared his appointment as OGRA chief illegal on November 25, 2011, and ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to start an investigation against him. Sadiq, who was sentenced in absentia, is currently in the UAE and sources said that some influential figures in the former government had been using their clout within the country and abroad to protect the former OGRA chief.

Tribal clash leaves five dead in Jhal Magsi MonIToRIng DESK At least five persons were killed during exchange of fire between two groups in Jhal Magsi district of Balochistan on Tuesday morning A Levies official Abdul Jabbar said that five tribesmen had died and that both groups used heavy weapons against each other in the clash that was the result of a tribal feud.

He said the bodies were shifted to Gandawah hospital for postmortem.

Levies and police reached the area and investigations into the incident went underway.

Earlier in April this year, an independent election candidate, Abdul Fateh Magsi, and three other persons from Balochistan’s Jhal Magsi area were killed by unknown assailants, prompting the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone the elections in the areas PB -32 constituency.

According to the police and relatives of the deceased, was kidnapped on Monday night and his bullet-riddled body was found on Tuesday morning.

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CHrISTIANS VoTE For ProTECTIoN ISLAMABAD

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RAUMATISED Christians in a Lahore slum where angry Muslims torched more than 100 homes say Pakistan’s two largest parties offer the only hope of protection at this week’s general election.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of Nawaz Sharif, a man accused of being soft on the Taliban but tipped to win Saturday’s polls, and the main outgoing Pakistan People’s Party both gave affected families $5 000 each in compensation.

PML-N is the party in power in Punjab province, the home of the largest Christian community in Pakistan. PPP led the outgoing federal government.

While in the northwest, Christians feel religious parties offer them more protection, voters in Joseph Colony say they will

opt for PML-N for the regional assembly and PPP for the National Assembly, in gratitude for their support.

“They helped us cover our losses and gave $5 000 to each family. So all of us have decided to vote for them,” said factory worker Sohail Masih.

Pakistan’s 86 million registered voters go to the polls on Saturday to elect four provincial assemblies and 272 lawmakers directly into the national assembly.

BLASPHEMY LEGISLATION: In the lower house of parliament, another 60 seats are allotted to women and 10 to religious minorities on a party ticket based on proportional representation.

Christians cannot directly elect Christian lawmakers. They vote like everyone else for different parties, which in turn choose their Christian candidates, in a process criticised as “selection” not election.

Only 2% of Pakistan’s overwhelmingly Muslim population of 180 million are

Christian. The community is poor and complains of increasing discrimination.

Last week, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom warned that the risk to Pakistan’s minorities has reached crisis level. It said blasphemy and other laws are used to “violate religious freedoms and foster a climate of impunity”.

Campaigners argue that blasphemy legislation, for which the maximum penalty is death, is often abused to settle personal scores and should be reformed.

Punjab has seen some of the worst cases. A Christian mother was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010. In the town of Gojra in 2009, a mob burned 77 houses and killed seven people after rumours that a Koran had been desecrated.

CHRISTIAN MINORITY: Last year, a young Christian girl spent three weeks in jail after being accused of blasphemy before the case was thrown out, although she and her family have been in hiding ever since, fearing for their lives.

Salman Taseer a leading PPP politician, a Muslim and the governor of Punjab, who called for the blasphemy law to be reformed, was shot dead by his bodyguard in protest in January 2011.

At the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, established in downtown Lahore in 1907, Father Andrew Nasari said his congregation feared conservative political parties and favoured the PML-N and PPP. “Christians are afraid of these parties, therefore Christians go to liberal parties, progressive parties,” he told a foreign wire agency.

But in Peshawar, which runs into strongholds of the Taliban and other al Qaeda-linked groups, Christian candidates have aligned themselves with and sought protection from right-wing Islamic religious parties.

Pervaiz Masih was first elected to parliament on the Jamaat-e-Islami list in 2002 and is again their Christian candidate on Saturday.

LEAvE PAKISTAN: He lives in Peshawar, which has been on the frontline of a six-year domestic Taliban insurgency, and believes the religious parties offer his community the best protection.

He gives an example by recalling one incident in August 2009.

“Some Christians were drinking close to a mosque in Peshawar and it was the call for prayer. When people arrived they became furious... I rushed to the site and talked to the people of Jamaat-e-Islami and convinced them to go back,” he said.

“God ordered me to work here in a religious party, I am a bridge between Christian and Muslim.”

Back in Joseph Colony, few people believe that Islamists can protect them.

Samuel, a medical student says he would consider voting for a religious party if it would help Christians and minorities.

But ultimately he has a more radical solution: leave Pakistan because “minorities don’t have security here”.

Sanaullah’s relatives visit him in Chandigarh hospital CHAnDIgARH ONLINE

Two relatives of the Pakistani prisoner on Tuesday visited Sanaullah Ranjahy, who was fighting for his life in hospital in Chandigarh, Indian media reported. The relatives of the critically wounded Sanaullah arrived in India via the Attari land border from Sialkot on Tuesday morning.

Sanaullah is currently admitted in PGI hospital, Chandigarh, for medical treatment where his condition is reported to be critical.

While talking to Times of India, one of his relatives Mohammad Shehzad said they had come to meet Sanaullah and look after him. However they were stopped from speaking to the media by the accompanying first press secretary of the Pakistan High Commission, Syed Sultan Hassan Naqvvi.

“We have instructions to not hold any media interaction,” Naqvvi said.

After persistent questioning, the nephew of Sanaullah Mohammad Asif said, “We appeal to the Indian government to let Sanaullah accompany us to Pakistan.”

LAHORE: Relatives of injured Pakistani prisoner Rana Sanaullah Haq cross over into India through Wagah border checkpost on Tuesday. ONLINE

70 govt officials campaign for candidates in 25 constituencies ISLAMABAD ONLINE

The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) observers witnessed a total of 70 government officials taking part in political activities in 25 constituencies across the country. Thirty-six officials were seen seeking votes for different candidates in 12 constituencies, while another 17 officials were found participating in political rallies, in 12 different constituencies, says PreElection Update 37.

The Constituency Long-Term Observers (CLTOs) saw 14 officials having private meetings with political candidates in seven constituencies, while one official was seen allowing a candidate to use official resources. In addition, FAFEN observers saw a party flag hoisted at a public official’s residence, and another flag on a vehicle belonging to a government servant.

FAFEN Pre-Election Update 37 highlights the use of state resources by political parties for election campaigns. It has been prepared from information gathered by CLTOs from April 1 to April 23. FAFEN

observers also reported seeing 74 campaign materials (banners, posters, stickers, wall chalking, panaflexes and flags) on the premises of government buildings.

The PML-N had the highest incidences (24) of campaign material displayed on state buildings, followed by independent candidates (19), the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (10), the Awami National Party (seven), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (6), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (four), the Jamaat-e-Islami (three) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (one). The CLTOs reported the initiation of 38 development schemes by political leaders. FAFEN recommends that the ECP should take action against parties and candidates violating the Code of Conduct and ensure no political campaign material is there at any government office or public place.

The ECP should ensure that government officials do not take part in campaign of any party or candidate and action must be taken against violators.

Political parties and citizens should observe public offices across the country and

report any campaigning at public offices.

CLTOs also observed the participation of government officials in political activities, the announcement of development schemes, and use of government vehicles in political campaigns. The CLTOs observed the government officials’ participation in political campaigns in 25 constituencies, government buildings in 30 constituencies, and development schemes in 18 constituencies.

Most of the government officials (15) were seen seeking votes for PML-N candidates, followed by 11 officials doing so for independent candidates, five officials for PTI candidates, two for PPP and one for JUI-F candidate. FAFEN observers could not identify the party affiliation of officials seeking votes for candidates in two instances.

The majority (22) of the 36 officials seeking votes for candidates belonged to the Education Department. They included schoolteachers and principals, who play an influential role in securing a vote bank in rural areas. The observer in Multan saw EDO Education seeking votes for a PMLN candidate, while a Deputy District Edu-

cation Officer was seen seeking votes for an independent candidate in Faisalabad.

In addition to education officials, the EDO Health in Kurram Agency was seen seeking votes for a JUI-F candidate while a police inspector was observed doing so for a PML-N candidate in Narowal.

Similarly, an AJK minister was also seen seeking votes for a PML-N candidate in Narowal, while two revenue officers were seen doing so for an independent candidate in Bhakkar. FAFEN observers witnessed a PPPP candidate meeting a police official, two health officials and five education officials in Jamshoro, and also observed a meeting between a JUI-F candidate and EDO Health in Kurram Agency.

In addition, the observers saw the DCO in Shaheed Benazirabad having a private meeting with a PPPP candidate, while an assistant commissioner was seen having a meeting with a leader of Balochistan National Party-Mengal in Kech-cumGwadar. Moreover, an official belonging to the Irrigation Department was also seen having a private meeting with a PML-F candidate in Matiari-cum-Hyderabad.

SC says no polls for looters of public wealth ISLAMABAD ONLINE

The Supreme Court (SC) has disqualified Niwani brothers from contesting election for defaulting on payment of water bills.

The court however granted Athar Minallah, counsel for the Niwani brothers, plea against lifelong disqualification of petitioners.

The SC said the other points raised in the petition would be decided after the elections. Notices have been issued to the respective parties. The hearing in this regard will be conducted after three weeks.

The SC while barring Rashid Akbar Khan Niwani and his brother Saeed Akbar Khan Niwani from contesting election from Bhakkar’s NA-74 and PP-49 respectively declared them disqualified ruling that this decision stood implemented until May 11.

Justice Jawwad S Khawaja remarked all should be allowed to contest polls but those who looted public’s wealth.

The justice said, “The SC has to do its own job. Asking questions is our right. The bill these brothers owe amounts to Rs 669,000…”

Minallah said the case would affect the future of the petitioners.

Justice Khawaja said, “Think about the future of the country.”

Minallah said the rival candidate of the petitioner was also defaulter.

Justice Ejaz Afzal said, “We have to see the law. The matter would have been different had they deposited the amount in time. These outstanding dues were required to be paid in the perspective of the polls.”

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God created war so that Americans would learn geography. –Mark Twain

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return of the prophet of doom Outside his cult, Qadri will find few takers

Q

ADRI is back, again for a while, from his cool and luxurious pastures in Canada to hector ignorant Pakistanis on what awaits them for turning their back on him. While a number of politicians have forsaken their foreign nationality to contest the elections, Qadri preferred to maintain loyalty sworn to the British Queen to receive the benefits that ensue. On his return he has told the ignorant natives that they are a lost tribe. According to him, May 11 polls would neither change the system nor the faces. Qadri had particularly grim premonitions reserved for the PTI and the MQM who decided to go for the elections – leaving him high and dry. ‘Champions of change’ would be hanging their heads in regret over the treachery practiced on them as the polls-to-come would be neither free nor transparent, he thundered. Even worse lies in store for them, predicted the prophet of doom, as full scale horse-trading will take place in the name of alliances when it comes to the formation of the next government. The cleric then posed the rhetorical question, “What a government that is a manifestation of corruption will be like”?

The people of Pakistan believe in change through the power of ballot. The country is therefore fully engaged in the election campaign caring little for what a foreign visitor might think about the activity. The three parties which are facing deadly attacks launched by the TTP and the Baloch nationalists and Hazaras who are being targeted daily by terrorists are courageously standing up to the gruesome challenge. A new generation of voters which had been mostly apolitical is out canvassing for the party of its choice. The election results would pass a judgment on the performance of the governments that ruled at the center and the provinces during the last five years. This would be a lesson for the newcomers.

The electoral system has undergone major reforms. The exercise is being supervised by an independent and powerful ECP and overseen by a consensus caretaker setup. yes, there still are shortcomings in the system but these will hopefully be removed by the next Parliament. This is how democracy slowly broadens its scope, opening up new possibilities precedent by precedent. Tahrul Qadri is striking a discordant note which few would care to pay heed to. Outside his cult he will find few supporters. People facing problems listen to the leaders who share the weal and woe with them rather than to those who jump the ship in difficult situations. On the day of the election, Qadri’s proposed protests are likely to go unnoticed.

Karzai outbursts and Afghan politics Current Afghan govt should reconcile, not inflame

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FGHAN President Hamid Karzai has started saying strange things, not for the first time, but this time these appear very calculated – albeit untimely for cross border relations. With a caretaker government in place in Pakistan and all political parties campaigning, Karzai has chosen to call on the “Taliban to attack external enemies” (read: Pakistan) and spoken of rekindling the Durand Line border dispute with Pakistan. Experts and political opponents have pointed to these as attempts by Karzai to extend his tenure – by hook or by crook – as his second and last constitutionally mandated term is set to come to an end in 2014.

The withdrawal of US troops appears to be all the more reason to make Afghanistan appear a goldmine to the current Afghan president – against whose office the New york Times only recently published allegations that the CIA “dumps bags of money” there. The question of who all shall contest the next presidential elections is being asked and the name of former foreign minister – and now Karzai opponent – Abdullah Abdullah has been propped up. But Abdullah does not believe Karzai will step down without a fight — despite the constitutional bar on him. If Abdullah’s suggestion that, “the president’s best option is to create an emergency security situation so everyone says ‘under these circumstances how can we have elections?” is true, then Karzai’s recent rants against Pakistan appear to fit. What has been heartening is to see the coalition parties in Afghanistan come out with a strong criticism of Karzai’s remarks on the Durand Line. “If Karzai was quiet about the Durand Line for the last decade, why has he chosen to speak at the end of the term?” is the question they have asked – and rightly so.

Karzai appears to want to cast himself as a ‘hero’ to the Afghan people, at a time when a statesman is required. There is nothing to be gained from slogan mongering – claims that Pakistan moved 11 outposts to the Goshta district near the Durand Line, “distributed Pakistani identity cards” and that Afghanistan has “never recognised the Durand Line” could spark unnecessary conflict between two countries facing the same threat: the Taliban. The next Afghan election will be as important for the future of the region as the current general election in Pakistan. A new political landscape could be carved out between the two neighbours in 2014, and the task of the current Afghan government should be to ensure that the next governments have a smooth playing field. President Karzai needs to be told to restrain himself – or he risks further antagonizing the tense relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Border clashes like the recent one are a part and parcel of the reconciliation process, they need not become more than that.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad 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

rhetoric and reality in election campaign Parties and their high-sounding propaganda

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ARTy manifesto and party leaders talk of high policy matters. High sounding and wild promises are made without paying any attention to financial and administrative imperatives for delivering on these promises. All political parties are promising to turn Pakistan into a genuine welfare state, overcome electricity shortages altogether and create jobs for the youth. Nawaz Sharif is talking of running a bullet train from Karachi to Peshawar. Imran Khan would ensure that the people get jobs in Pakistan so that they do not have to go abroad for that purpose. These statements get loud applause in public meetings and thus achieve the objective of drawing popular attention. However, no leader is willing to say how he would fulfill these and other promises when Pakistan’s economy is faltering and they have no definite plan to salvage it.

Most political leaders are unable or unwilling to understand the threat of religious extremism and militancy and terrorism to Pakistan internal political coherence and economic stability. The views of Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan on religious extremism and terrorism are naïve, if not deceitful, because of their desire not to lose the voters with Islamist and hardline Islamist votDr HASAN ASkArI rIZvI ers that seem to increase over time in the Punjab.

There is a lot of negative propaganda against each other in the speeches of the party leaders in public meetings. The major focus of Imran Khan’s speeches is on wild promises and a sharp criticism of the PML-N and the PPP leadership.

The PML-N leadership is targeting Asif Ali Zardari and Imran Khan for bitter criticism.

The major target is Imran Khan who is viewed by the

election Diary

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PMLN as cutting heavily in its traditional vote bank in the Punjab.

The PML-N also projects its last rule (February 1997-October 1999) as the golden era of governance in Pakistan and highlights the performance of the N’s Punjab government (April 2008-Marrch 2013). The PPP leadership is not on election campaign trail because of security reasons. It seems to have gone underground. This is for the first time in the PPP history that none of its leaders of national standing is engaged in public meetings and rallies.

However, it has launched a massive media campaign which is partly negative, focusing on what it describes as the misdeeds of the PML-N leadership and their rule in the past. They are trying to play up the PML-N relations with the Taliban and the Punjab-based religious-sectarian groups. It has also revived the issue how the PML-N government (1997-1999) conspired through Saifur Rehman and the then Justice Abdul Qayyum of the Lahore High Court to convict Benazir Bhutto in a case in the court of that judge.

When examining election campaigning by individual candidates in electoral constituencies, the political discourse is completely different from what the party leaders talk about in their public rallies. The constituency campaign is more down-to-earth and deals with the day-to-day problems and affairs of the residents of the constituencies. The issues that get highlighted at this level include, among other things, supply of drinking water and gas to households, sewerage, waste disposal and cleanliness of streets, improvements of roads and streets, hospital in the locality or availability of medical facilities in the already existing hospitals, schools in the constituency, traffic problems, law and order, and illegal constructions on roadside etc.

The candidates make promises to address these problems. Liaquat Baloch, a Jamaat-i-Islami candidate from Lahore promised to end gas and electricity load-sheding and reduce prices of the commodities commonly needed by people. One candidate in Hafizabad who worked as “marriageregistrar” for the area, promised not to charge fee for the registration of marriage of poor people. In Kamalia, Punjab, a candidate arranged quiz competition in local schools and gave gifts to the children giving correct answers. He also distributed candies and chocolates among junior school children. His argument was that if he won the goodwill of children they would ask their parents to vote for him and that a good number of parents respected the wish of their children.

The candidates of Islamic political parties made promises on the constituency related issues and talked of introducing a “truly” Is-

lamic order, enforce Sharia and introduce the welfare system of the earliest period of Islam.

The political parties paid attention to winning over religious hierarchy like sajjadanasheen, pirs and religious leaders of standing. Imran Khan is using a strong religious discourse. Some candidates started their election with a visit to some sufi shrine. The sisters of Imran Khan prayed at the shrine of Bibi Pak-daman (Lahore) for Imran’s electoral victory. A Christian candidate started his election campaign in the Lahore area with a church service.

The Ahmadiya community has boycotted the current election. They boycotted the earlier two elections also. They see no justification for making a separate voters’ list for their community in a joint electorate system.

The keepers of two major shrines are contesting the elections. They are Shah Mahmuud Qureshi and Makhdoom Amin Fahim. The Pir of Pagaro is heading a faction of the Muslim League but he is not contesting the elections.

There are 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly and 128 women reserved seats in four provincial assemblies. Women can contest on general seats as well. Over thirty women are contesting for National Assembly elections. The number of women contestants in four provincial assemblies is higher. Only a small number of women candidates are expected to win. One women candidate for a National Assembly seat used a motorcycle for travelling for campaign. A Hindu women contesting on a general National Assembly seat in Sindh came from a very humble background and has worked as a labourer. Similarly, there are reserved seats for non-Muslims in the National and Provincial Assemblies but a couple of non-Muslim are candidates on a general seat.

The allocation of party ticket to the candidates caused much problem for all political parties. A good number of those who did not get the partyticket decided to contest the election as an independent or joined another political party. This weakened the original party, accentuating internal conflict in it. All the major political parties faced this problem.

The high flying rhetoric of the party leaders is in sharp contrast to what is important at the constituency level. The leaders get away with their wild promises because the ordinary people want to live in dreams. Nobody asks the political leaders as to what happened to their earlier promises. However, the voting behaviour is not determined exclusively by these promises.

The writer is an independent political and defence analyst.

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

Votes in Pakistan People are debating over the voting issue as elections are getting nearer. There are a lot of people who vote for the same party year after year irrespective of its actual policies. There are some parties which actually threat people to vote for them and may even pay people for their votes.

Another common thing in Pakistan is that votes are based on casts. Caste should not be an issue. Quaid-eAzam once said: Every one of us should think, feel and act as a Pakistani and we should be proud of being Pakistani alone.

Lastly there are those people who don’t vote at all.

Voting is the only way to change the fate of a country.

Not voting means that we are happy with the conditions of our country and we don’t want the change. The future

of Pakistan is in our hands, it’s time to vote for change.

MEHR QURESHI Karachi

Providing security The security situation is in a bad state and human violations are going on unabated in Pakistan. Security conditions, under the shadow of bomb blasts, terror, target killings and harassment, it is impossible for the candidates of the political parties to carry on with their campaigns. All human rights organizations, political parties and citizens are in fear of their lives. It is the responsibility of the caretaker government to take precautionary measures for the safety of the citizens.

SAIRA M QURESHI Karachi

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War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. –George Orwell

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wednesday, 8 may, 2013

Masters of their own destiny A Time to atone for past mistakes

A lopsided equation Recognising Israeli/Palestinian realities requires that the US, not the Arab League, change direction

Washington Watch Dr JAMES J ZOGby

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AST week an Arab League committee proposed a change in their 2002 peace initiative in which they promised to normalise relations with Israel following a complete Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and an agreed upon resolution of the issue of the Palestinian refugees. Modifying this somewhat, what the Arab League committee did last week was reaffirm that the 1967 borders should be the basis for a final peace between Israel and Palestine, while acknowledging the notion that “land swaps” would be an acceptable part of such a deal. This gave Israel a major concession, allowing it to keep massive settlement blocs that have been established since 1967—some along the ‘67 border, others surrounding Jerusalem, and still others jutting out into the heart of the West Bank, dividing many areas of thePalestinian territories.

While some Palestinians decried the Arab League committee’s decision as an unwarranted concession, some in the Israeli peace camp heralded the move as an important breakthrough.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu poured cold water on the offer dismissing it as inconsequential, stating that the most important issues that have separated Israel from the Arabs have never been territorial.

This rejection should have been expected, and it is surprising that it was not. It is an unfortunate fact that discussions of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and actions of some players are often misdirected since they all too often ignore important realities we know to be true.

In the aftermath of this Arab League meeting, I listened to a senior Arab official present an assessment of the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He began by noting “facts” which he said define the state of play: Israel has moved to the right, with a government beholden to the hard-line settler movement that is unwilling to surrender what they believe is their “divinely inherited” land; Palestinians are divided, with neither side demonstrating a willingness to commit to reconciliation—Hamas, because they don’t want to become marginalised, and the Palestinian Authority, because they don’t want to lose the international funding and support they are convinced would follow from any unity arrangement

with Hamas; the US cannot be an “honest broker”, given the politics of Washington; and the Arab World is in chaos, with the Muslim Brotherhood in assent in some areas and Iran the preoccupation of other states in the region.

After laying out this rather stark and depressing portrait, the conversation moved, almost seamlessly, to a discussion of current state of the “peace process” and the steps being taken to restart negotiations. What was most interesting to me was the near total disconnect between this phase of the discussion and the presentation of the “facts” that had preceded it.

If Israel’s governing coalition has a determined hard-line pro-settler bent that is not able to make territorial concessions; if the Palestinian movement is hopelessly fractured; and if the US is deemed incapable of pressing the Israelis to change course, then, one can reasonably ask “what is the point of offering Israel more concessions for a peace they won’t accept; especially when these concessions will result in cutting Jerusalem off from its Palestinian environs, and creating even deeper fissures in the Palestinian polity?”

Ignoring reality in the Israeli-Palestinian context has consequences. In the lead up to the postGulf War Madrid Peace Conference, for example, the Arab states agreed to end their secondary economic boycott of Israel in exchange for Israel’s participation in the conference and their agreement to freeze settlements in the occupied territories. Twenty years later, peace talks have ended and the number of settlers in the territories has tripled. After surrendering their pressure, the Arabs found they had no leverage left to use with Israel, and without the US using its muscle to enforce the promised “freeze”, the peace process dragged on and settlements continued to grow.

None of this speaks for inaction, but it does urge caution and a change in direction. One way forward is to look again at what President Obama said in his recent speech in Jerusalem where he

committed to support Israel while challenging Israelis to recognise and deal with Palestinian need for justice. The president’s remarks were, I believe, born of his belief in the need to acknowledge the importance of reality in shaping policy.

Given this, the right course of action for the Obama Administration is for the president to put muscle behind his words to the Israeli public. His Jerusalem speech had two parts. He committed his administration to fully supporting Israel’s security, and he pressed Israelis to deal forthrightly with the matter of Palestinian rights. Having delivered on the former (with unprecedented amounts of security assistance), he needs, as an Israeli peace activist recently suggested, “to take the bull by the horns” and make it clear to the Israeli public where their government’s policies are leading them. If the way forward, as the president suggested in his Jerusalem speech,is for the Israeli people to demand a change in direction, then he must make a commitment to help change the politics inside Israel. If the US only makes more political concessions to the Netanyahu government and then presses the Arabs to make still more concessions, how will this ever change Israel’s calculations? The president has given Israelis love, now he must deliver tough love and hard truths.

And recognising that peace isn’t possible with only one half of Palestinians in agreement, the US should provide an opening to the Palestinians to push for reconciliation—making it clear that if Hamas accepts the well-established conditions for a Palestinian unity government, it will support such an agreement and urge the other members of the Quartet and Congress to support it as well.

In short, given current realities, peace may not be possible. But if current conditions in both internal Israeli and Palestinian politics can be changed, and if the United States can demonstrate that it can be an effective agent of this change, then doors, now closed, may be opened.

The writer is President, Arab American Institute.

LL political theories are unanimous on the point that the people of a country are ultimately the masters of their own destiny, more so in a political dispensation. Majority of the countries of the world presently are democracies, of course with different features, where the people through their collective MALIk MuHAMMAD ASHrAF wisdom choreograph the path to their cherished destinies through the power of their vote.

Abraham Lincoln defines democracy as, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” Making right choices and participating in the electoral process are the mechanisms through which the will of the people is exercised and expressed.

There are no two opinions about the fact that Pakistan is faced with probably the most formidable challenges in its history and the coming elections therefore are of vital importance with regard to ascertaining whether the nation was determined and willing to confront those challenges and rediscover the contours of the real Pakistan as envisioned by the founding father or allow the forces inimical to democracy, peace and progress to have their way, unchallenged. I have no doubt that the entire nation wants the continuation of the democratic process, a change in the political system of the country and an end to the hydraheaded menace of terrorism. But only wishing something away does not automatically resolve the issue. The divine help in staving off calamities and crisis is also contingent upon the people themselves taking the initiative to change their milieu.

So if we are looking to the new horizons and a break from our past follies, we will have to make the right choices and then seek Allah’s blessings for securing our country from the evil eyes.

Viewed in the backdrop of the foregoing, the appeal made by the caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso to the people to fully participate in the elections without any fear is of great significance. He assured of taking all possible measures to improve the law and order situation and strengthen the security environment for the people to freely exercise their right of vote. Another point that he unequivocally made was that under no circumstances an extension in the tenure of the caretaker setup will be accepted, which is indeed very reassuring and indicates the dedication and sincerity of the caretaker setup to accomplish their task strictly according to the constitution and their mandate.

The ECP and other agencies including the Army have also exhibited unfaltering resolve to ensure the holding of free, fair and transparent elections in the country. More than 75,000 army personnel are being mobilized to provide security during the elections and deployment in the most sensitive province, Balochistan, have already commenced.

The Army chief has personally thrown his unqualified support to the continuation of the democratic process. All these developments are very encouraging portents. The people must exercise their right of franchise without any fear and by their enhanced and unprecedented turn out, must not only strengthen their credentials as a democracy loving nation but also send a strong signal to the anti-state and anti-democracy elements that they would resist their nefarious designs at any cost. The enemies of the country are already doing what they can and will not hesitate to unfurl more terrorist acts to sabotage the elections by scaring away the people at the polling stations. It is indeed a worrying situation but there is no other way to get out of it except by standing up to the machinations of these elements.

Pakistan itself was achieved through unparalleled sacrifices. But as they say getting independence is not as difficult as consolidating the gains of independence is. We have had our independence but unfortunately we have failed to tread the path that the founder of Pakistan had envisioned for us and we have paid a very heavy price for our follies. Both the politicians and military dictators are responsible for pushing the country towards the edge of a precipice. The people have also contributed to the slide by remaining complacent and indifferent while the dictators and politicians took turns to take the country and the people for a ride.

It was time to atone for the past mistakes and rediscover Pakistan. The good thing is that there has been a discernible change in the mindset of the military and the politicians are also conscious of the fact that they will lose their relevance if they failed to deliver and change the system that has encouraged the politics of graft and entitlement and replace with an arrangement that not only is capable of reviving the sagging economy and rectify the maladies afflicting the political landscape of the country but also act as a catalyst to sustained progress in all the fields of national life, for the posterity to reap the rewards of the good work The writer is an academic.

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It’s easy to fool the eye but it’s hard to fool the heart — Al Pacino

arts wednesday, 8 may, 2013

ArNIE’S SoN THrowN oUT oF LA NIgHTCLUB

Cameron Diaz

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 19-year-old son Patrick was kicked out of a nightclub on Saturday after feuding with a Dj. The 19year-old student and model was partying at The Sayers Club when he bumped into Dj Anthony Valdez’s mixing gear and he was asked to move away. Patrick allegedly began throwing ice cubes at Valdez, prompting security to reportedly escort him out of the venue. The star child went on to bad mouth about the DJ to a group of friends while outside the club, TMZ.com reported. The teen appeared to comment on the incident via his Twitter.com page on Monday, writing, “Excuse my language. I apologize.” He added, “Live and learn... hope everyone has a blessed day. NEWS DESk

Wearing Stella McCartney, Cameron cinches her blue gown with a gold spiked belt.

Blake Lively

The Gossip Girl star stunned in a strapless design by Gucci featuring a pale green top and an elaborate tiered skirt

Gisele

Does Gisele ever look bad? Apparently not! The supermodel hits another glam slam in a Anthony Vacarello design

SCArLETT JoHANSSoN ENJoyS ExPLorINg CITIES IN FrEE TIME Scarlett Johansson has revealed that she likes to take a break from her intense working schedule and enjoys exploring different cities when she is shooting. The ‘Iron Man 2’ star said that sometimes working for as much as 16 hours a day becomes quite intense and so, in her free time she likes to work out, go to galleries and enjoy in whatever city she is in, Contactmusic reported. The 28-year-old actress isn’t above spending all day in bed, although she claimed that she just loves relaxing around the house or walking in the park. NEWS DESk

Kate Beckinsale The actress turned heads in a gorgeous strapless design by Alberta Ferretti featuring elaborate draping and an asymmetrical hemline

Feel confident that I would pull off a film on my shoulder: Aditya Roy Kapur Actor Aditya Roy Kapur is inspired by sister-in-law Vidya Balan’s grounded nature despite achieving so much success.

“She is a very a good actress and a good human being. She has achieved success but her attitude is same... she is so grounded. She is not affected by it (success) at all I like that very much about her. It is good to imbibe that from her,” Aditya told .

Aditya’s first solo hero film - ‘Aashiqui 2’ is a success and he is happy with the response it has garnered.

“I feel confident that I would be able to pull off a film on my shoulder. I am happy that the audience has accepted me,” he said.

Before this film, Aditya was seen in supporting roles in films like ‘London

Dreams’, ‘Action Replayy’, ‘,Guzaarish’. And he insists he will continue to play such roles provided his role is exciting and different. He is open to “good” roles the length does not matter much.

Aditya says the film ‘Aashiqui 2’, has changed things for him.

The film directed by Mohit Suri had Shraddha Kapoor as the female lead.

“I had very good experience while doing ‘Aashiqui 2’. I am really very much happy with the success of the film. The feeling has not sunk in yet. It (film) has changed my life as an actor and as a person,” he said.

Aditya will be seen next in Karan Johar’s home production film ‘yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone.

nina Dobrev

Karlie Kloss

The actress took our breath away in this gorgeous custom design by Monique Lhuillier

Rocking darker strands, the Victoria Secret model poses in a printed Louis Vuitton dress

Gwen Stefani

The stylish singer looked incredible in a black-and-white ensemble by Maison Martin Margiela

the best of met gala 2013 red carPet

SANJAy DUTT feels betrayed by Bollywood Sanjay Dutt, who was recently convicted of illegal possession of arms — he has to surrender on May 18 — feels Bollywood has let him down. The actor says his own co-stars have betrayed him. “I did not charge them a penny for 30 days’ work. And what did I get in return?

Betrayal. My co-stars told the media that I have been sitting at home, cooling my heels. But I was out there in the studios, shooting for them, just to save them from a financial crisis,” he says. Director Mahesh Bhatt, who has been a pillar of support for Dutt, agrees.

“Gratitude does not exist in planet Bollywood.

Contrary to what the world believes, Sanju is a fiercely lonely man today.” With just a few days left for his surrender, Dutt is busy completing pending work. He has already finished shooting for Karan Johar’s Unglee, confirmed director Rensil D’Silva. He now has to shoot a song for TP Agarwal’s Policegiri, apart from shooting and dubbing for Apoorva Lakhia’s Zanjeer and Raju Hirani’s PK. Dutt is also doing a cameo in his home production, Hasmukh Fisal Gaya. NEWS DESk

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It’s important not to indicate. People don’t try to show their feelings, they try to hide them — Robert De Niro

When I finish a film I rinse myself of it:

SHAH rUKH KHAN Shah Rukh Khan opens up to TOI on being professional and accepting failure, feeling ‘a little alien’ in his country and why his next could also have been Kolkata Express interview? Sure! Karte hain na abhi, 10 minute mein,” was how Shah Rukh Khan reacted. Just like that. No starry airs, no caginess, no holding back.

Team Kolkata had just won Friday’s match and the Badshah was in a great mood. So a few hours of sound sleep, and SRK was ready for a relaxing chat with us. And with him, it’s always direct, dil se...

Excerpts: YOu TEAM iS THE DEFEnDinG CHAMPiOn. BuT THiS SEASOn, KOLKATA iS nOT DOinG TOO WELL in THE iPL...

More than anything else, I feel bad for the cricketers.

If you are a professional team, you have to take it in your stride — the good and the bad. A professional needs to leave behind the good times and the bad times. Like there are good films, there are bad films.

You have to take both; that’s what being professional is all about. You are as good as your last Friday.

Having said that, yes, it feels bad when your film doesn’t do well. When we start anything, we assume we are making something very nice. Sometimes everything put together with the best of intent does not come through. It is professional to accept that, to accept failure and success.

YOu’VE SEEn SO MAnY uPS AnD DOWnS. HOW DO YOu HAnDLE THEM? I am a sportsman by nature. When I finish a film I rinse myself. I take a shower for one hour. I wash myself of the last film I have done on the last day.

This is it. You can’t do anything about it. It’s gone.

Games are like that. So we won (the Eden match on Friday against the Team Rajasthan), it was fantastic.

But that day is over. We can’t carry it with us, like people resting on their laurels. It’s over.

things. So, inshallah, it will turn out well. But Man U loses, Chelsea loses. The Indian team loses. The Australian team also loses... But you have to say that we are going to try our best. That’s the culture.

People must understand that sport is like Chak De. HOW inVOLVED ARE YOu inVOLVED in SOMETHinG LiKE, SAY, TEAM SELECTiOn? No, our roles are very clear. Jai and Venky sir, they handle the administration, movement, hospitality.

Gautam (Gambhir) and Trevor Bayllis, they do the cricket part of it. I am very, very clear, to put it as a joke, that I am the glamour quotient or the fun guy of the team. At the same time, I am the face of the team. I am not taking anything away from the JaiJuhi-Shah Rukh team. I keep everyone happy. I think I am more of the outside happiness-bringing side of the team. I do all the joking, talking, cartwheeling.

My kids come. Jai does all the administration. Juhi does all the prayers and Kolkata does all the cheering. (Laughs) MAnY FEEL CHAK DE! inDiA — A SPORTS FiLM — WAS YOuR BEST PERFORMAnCE EVER...

Around 2.6 billion people watch my films. I can never ever counter anybody’s views. I am glad some liked that film. My son too feels that’s my best film. I personally like some others. But my liking is not important at all. Once I have done a film I have put it into the public domain — it is your (public) opinion. A lot of people did not like me, my looks, in that film and even said so. A top director who is also very close to me told me that Chak De was a very good film and if I was not part of it, it would have done much better — I had done such a bad job! So everybody has their own opinion.

AnD THE MOST DiFFiCuLT ROLE SO FAR? (Promptly) The next one! It’s always the next one. It is never the one that has happened. If I have done it, it is over and it wasn’t difficult.

SO DOES THE SAME PHiLOSOPHY APPLY TO FiLMS? I have done 75 films. I can’t keep going back to Dilwale..., to Maratha Mandir (the Mumbai theatre where the film is still running) and say this is the longest running film in the history of India. It is done with. I am really happy that it did so well. I am grateful to Allah. I am grateful to people, but it is over. It got over on that Friday in ‘95.

TELL uS ABOuT YOuR nEW FiLM, CHEnnAi ExPRESS...

That’s also over now. It was great fun, completely different. It is really off-the-cuff. It’s with a lot of abandon, a lot of madness. It’s an in-your-face, over-the-top happy comedy and action film. I had a lot of fun doing it.

COMinG BACK TO CRiCKET, WHY DO YOu THinK THE TEAM nOT DOinG WELL THiS SEASOn? That’s because, one, the team itself has gone through lows in the six years — controversies, nonsense, silliness, stupidity, and also a lot of pressure because it happens to be, fortunately or unfortunately, owned by me, a person who is part of the movie-making Bollywood sector of business. So obviously it gets a lot more attention.

WHEn DO WE SEE YOu in A FiLM CEnTRED On KOLKATA? (Laughs) I have done Chak De, so I have done the whole of India! Chennai Express is not about Chennai. It’s about the journey of a guy down south.

It is about so many languages, so many cultures and sometimes I find myself feeling a little alien in my own country. The beauty of the film is, there are 1,600 languages in our country and dialects change every 500 km. And still we are all Hindustanis. It could have been Kolkata Express, it could have been Gujarat Express, Punjab Express...

BECAuSE OF THE GLiTz AnD THE GLAMOuR...

As far as I am concerned, IPL is about the sport and not any Bollywood connection, whatever people may like to take away from it. The audience can always take away whichever scene they want to. But IPL is about the sport, it’s about the youngsters. When people ask me about the season not being good, yeah it is there for everyone to see it’s not good. But it doesn’t kill you. You get up and you try again. Similarly, when someone says last season was fantastic, I don’t live by that. And I don’t

live by this either.

You move on. You create new

AnD WHAT FiLMS DO YOu LiKE TO WATCH? I’ve liked It’s A Mad Mad Mad World. I used to watch it with my mother.

It’s an old film, a comedy. I think somebody even remade it in India.

Recently, I liked Flight (Oscarnominated Denzel Washington film) and Silver Lining Playbook.

SHARE WiTH uS SOME OF THE MEMORiES OF YOuR MOTHER...

(Visibly holding back emotions) I don’t think or remember anything of my parents. I have a couple of pictures of them. The other day I was sitting and telling my daughter what my mother’s name was, because they have never met her. Her name was Lateef Fatima. I sense her at two times, when I am extremely sad and extremely happy. I miss her, but that’s very personal. I find it somehow reducing the importance of what my mother is to me if I speak about a selective memory.

WiTH THE COnSTAnT MEDiA FOCuS, HOW DiFFiCuLT iS iT FOR YOuR FAMiLY? We as a family are completely untouched by the exterior of my stardom. I tell them if you feel bad, you have the right to show it. If you feel happy it is all right. It is absolutely okay to show your emotions as long as you are giving in to each emotion. Yes, being a star, I sometimes get constricted. I get disturbed by stupid controversies or when somebody says something, I am like, ‘Stay away from me. You don’t even know me and you are saying this’. How often can you convince yourself that you are a public figure and people have the right to say things about you publicly? No, there is a private part of you which will always be separate from the public figure. It is a difficult life at times, but a most beautiful one.

YOu SEEM TO WEAR YOuR HEART On YOuR SLEEVES...

I have led my life the way I wanted to and it has been a good life. And if it ain’t broke I won’t fix it. If you spend time with me and look deep into my eyes you will understand that it is nice to be the way I am, to wear my heart on my sleeves. But if you don’t know me and if you were to just see me from the outside, a lot of the things I do are questioned. After losing my parents, I reached a stage about 25 years ago, when I didn’t need to prove anything to anyone.

I am a giver. I don’t hold back. Sometimes I find that when you become a star you hold back. You become enigmatic. It is the demeanour of a star. Many times, I’m told that I shouldn’t be so free, but I say it’s ok.

That’s the way I am.

WHAT inSPiRES AnD MOTiVATES YOu? To give and to believe. And when you give, you never go wrong. I teach my kids this. That it is okay to be nervous, it’s all right to be scared of failure because it will help you succeed. At the end of it all if you believe that something will be a certain way, just believe it and a lot of other people will believe in it too. And give. You can’t be a taker.

AS THE BRAnD AMBASSADOR, HOW DO YOu inTEnD TO PROMOTE WEST BEnGAL? It’s a mistake to believe that an actor can promote a state. Every state or city has something beautiful to offer. I am not stretching it, but Kolkata is genuinely the cultural centre of our country from time immemorial. That’s what I have been taught by my parents. It is the City of Joy. Everything started off here, whether it was the revolution or literature or poetry or songs or whether an international company came and set up shop here. Everyone knows it all stared here. Times change, things change. Just the fact that there is so much beauty here, it got thwarted a little bit. The people here are so cultured, so educated. The city has given me so much. I am an outsider in a certain sense, but when I got the choice I felt culturally and sports-wise Kolkata was somehow the hub. I had three-four choices for the IPL bidding, but I chose Kolkata.

YOu’VE BEEn TO KOLKATA BEFORE YOu BECAME A STAR. When I was young I came here and performed with Anamika, the theatre group, when I was with Barry John. We stayed here for some days at Shakespeare Sarani. We lived in a big room with mattresses on the floor. We performed the play Rough Crossing.

When I was doing my masters, my audiovisual final was on the City of Joy. I had come here, taken pictures, done a 10-minute audiovisual on the city.

Why, I don’t know. I was just very attracted. I used to hang around the Maidan area, taking pictures of kids playing soccer. I spent four days shooting here. I remember coming here again and going to a nightclub called Pink Elephant. I have been on a tram. I had come and spent two days with Gauri’s family (cousins) who stay here. I have come here and performed at the Mittal wedding. I have spent a lot of time here. So I have been coming to Kolkata for long.

WHAT iS YOuR FiRST MEMORY OF KOLKATA AFTER YOu BECAME A MOViE STAR? The premiere of Darr. I put my hand out and I got pulled up by my fans to the top and Yash Chopra, Pam aunty and Juhi were in front of me. And they went away and I was screaming.

HOW HAS THE CiTY TREATED YOu? When I came here with the IPL, everybody took to us. Truth is, I genuinely want to thank Kolkata. Once in a year this is the time, this is like an awesome time. COurtESy tOI

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PHoNE HASN’T SToPPED rINgINg PoST SHooToUT: SoNU SooD

Call it an actor’s gut-feeling and optimism or his understanding of cinema, but Sonu Sood’s box office prediction about Shootout At Wadala has hit the bulls-eye.

In an earlier interview with TOI, Sonu had claimed that Shootout At Wadala will take his career a step ahead. The movie which released last week has opened to great response. Now, since the curtains from the result have been raised, the actor said, “It feels really nice that our hard work has paid well. We were not just rewarded by box office but we also got critical acclaim, and I am glad that I am part of such a film.” The actor also added that his has been having a really busy time since the release. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing post Shootout At Wadala.

People are complementing our work and praising the performances.” On being asked about his future plans, Sonu expressed his desire to do different shades of grey characters. “I would like to do different kind of negative roles. Like in Shootout, I played a don and in Dabangg I played Chhedi Singh with lot of humor. In future, I want to do different roles, which I have never done; and want to entertain my fans,” concluded Sonu. NEWS DESk

LILo BEINg ALLowED To TAKE PowErFUL DrUg ADDErALL

Lindsay Lohan is not drug free at the Betty Ford Center, it has been revealed. Sources connected with the troubled star told TMZ.com that the rehab centre is allowing her to take the powerful drug, Adderall. The reason - she has an Rx and says she’s been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Lindsay has made it clear over the last month that she would only go to rehab if she’s allowed to take the med. But sources said that doctors at Betty Ford are currently evaluating the actress’ diagnosis and the efficacy of the drug. If doctors disbelieve her diagnosis or the usefulness of Adderall, they will cut her off. Adderall is commonly misused by lots of people, especially actresses, who take the drug to suppress their appetite. NEWS DESk

ToM CrUISE SET For ‘MISSIoN: IMPoSSIBLE 5’

Superstar Tom Cruise has officially signed on to reprise his role as Ethan Hunt in ‘MISSION: Impossible 5’ and Christopher McQuarrie may direct the film. The 50-year-old is officially set for fifth instalment of the action franchise after inking a deal with Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions, reported Deadline. Cruise could re-team with Christopher McQuarrie who directed him in last year’s ‘Jack Reacher’ - on the project.

The new film would follow 2011’s hit blockbuster ‘Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol’ which was well received by critics and earned nearly USD 700 million worldwide. That film was directed by Brad Bird and saw ‘Avengers’ star Jeremy Renner join the franchise while Simon Pegg reprised his role as technician Benji Dunn. Meanwhile, Paramount and Skydance are also reportedly mulling a sequel to action flick ‘Jack Reacher’, which grossed over USD 200 million. NEWS DESk

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InFotaInMent Wednesday, 8 May, 2013

CHrIS HADFIELD LEADS HUgE SINgALoNg FroM SPACE

International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield led a hightech concert Monday, joining thousands of young voices from around the world — with his own voice from space.

Students, musicians and other participants across Canada and as far away as Singapore and Australia sang along with Hadfield, belting outISS — Is Somebody Singing?, the song Hadfield co-wrote with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, to celebrate the ninth edition Music Monday, an annual celebration put on by the Coalition for Music Education.

This year, the event was a partnership with CBC Music and the Canadian Space Agency.

The concert is Hadfield’s final live link from the space station before he returns to Earth on May 13.

ISS — Is Somebody Singing? was commissioned by CBCMusic.ca and the Coalition for Music Education.

The Coalition for Music Education is a non-profit organization that promotes the benefits of music education for young people. The group says it created Music Monday to “celebrate the galvanizing power of music and demonstrate how that power is rooted in school music programs.” NEWS DESk

BILLIoNS oF rEDEyED CICADAS To SwArM EAST CoAST Any day now, billions of cicadas with bulging red eyes will crawl out of the earth after 17 years underground and overrun the East Coast. The insects will arrive in such numbers that people in the southern state of North Carolina to Connecticut in the northeast will be outnumbered roughly 600 to 1. Maybe more.

Scientists even have a horror-movie name for the infestation: Brood II. But as ominous as that sounds, the insects are harmless. They won’t hurt you or other animals.

“It’s not like these hordes of cicadas suck blood or zombify people,” says a University of Illinois entomologist.

They’re looking for just one thing: sex. And they’ve been waiting quite a long time. Since 1996, this group of 1-inch magicicada cicadas has been a few feet underground, sucking on tree roots and biding their time. They will emerge only when the ground temperature reaches precisely 64 degrees. After a few weeks up in the trees, they will die and their offspring will go underground, not to return until 2030. And they will make a big racket, too. The noise all the male cicadas make when they sing for sex can rival a rock concert. NEWS DESk

Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root. –Angela Davis

Does the internet rewire your brain?

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BBC FUTURE

EING online does change your brain, but so does making a cup of tea. A better question to ask is what parts of the brain are regular internet users using.

This modern age has brought with it a new set of worries. As well as watching our weight and worrying about our souls, we now have to worry about our brain fitness too – if you believe the headlines.

Is instant messaging eroding the attention centres of our brains? Are Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools preventing you from forming normal human bonds? And don’t forget email – apparently it releases the same addictive neurochemicals as crack cocaine!

Plenty of folk have been quick to capitalise on this neuro-anxiety. Amazon’s virtual shelves groan with brain-training books and games. (I confess I am not entirely ). you can fight the cognitive flab, these games promise, if you work that grey matter like a muscle. But is this true? Are sudoku puzzles the only thing stopping the species turning into a horde of attentiondeficient, socially-dysfunctional, email addicts – part human, part smartphone?

Fear not, there is some good news from neuroscience. But first, it is my duty to tell you the bad news. you may want to put down your phone and take note, this is the important bit. The truth is that everything you do changes your brain.

Everything. Every little thought or experience plays a role in the constant wiring and rewiring of your neural networks. So there is no escape. yes, the internet is rewiring your brain. But so is watching

television. And having a cup of tea. Or not having a cup of tea. Or thinking about the washing on Tuesdays. your life, however you live it, leaves traces in the brain.

BRAIN WORKOUT Worrying about the internet is just the latest in a long line of fears society has had about the changes technologies might bring. People worried about books when they first became popularly available. In Ancient Greece, Socrates worried about the effect of writing, saying it would erode young people’s ability to remember. The same thing happened with television and telephones. These technologies did change us, and the way we live our lives, but nothing like the doom-mongers predicted would stem from them.

But is the internet affecting our brains in a different, more extraordinary way?

There is little evidence to suggest harm.

Here we are, millions of us, including me and you, right now, using the internet, and

we seem okay. Some people worry that, even though we cannot see any ill-effects of the internet on our minds, there might be something hidden going on. I am not so worried about this, and I’ll tell you why We regularly do things that have a profound effect on our brains – such as reading or competitive sports – with little thought for our brain fitness. When scientists look at people who have spent thousands of hours on an activity they often see changes in the brain. Taxi drivers, famously, , a part of the brain recruited for navigation. Musicians’ brains devote more neural territory to brain regions needed for playing their instruments. So much so, in fact, that if you look at the motor cortex of string players you see bulges on one side (because the fine motor control for playing a violin, for example, is only on one hand), whereas the (because piano playing requires fine control of both hands).

So practice definitely can change our

arctic ocean ‘acidifying rapidly’

nEWS DESK The Arctic seas are being made rapidly more acidic by carbon-dioxide emissions, according to a new report.

Scientists from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) monitored widespread changes in ocean chemistry in the region. They say even if CO2 emissions stopped now, it would take tens of thousands of years for Arctic Ocean chemistry to revert to pre-industrial levels. Many creatures, including commercially valuable fish, could be affected. They forecast major changes in the marine ecosystem, but say there is huge uncertainty over what those changes will be.

It is well known that CO2 warms the planet, but less well-known that it also makes the alkaline seas more acidic when it is absorbed from the air. Absorption is particularly fast in cold water so the Arctic is especially susceptible, and the recent decreases in summer sea ice have exposed more sea surface to atmospheric CO2.

The Arctic’s vulnerability is exacerbated by increasing flows of freshwater from rivers and melting land ice, as freshwater is less effective at chemically neutralising the acidifying effects of CO2. The researchers say the Nordic Seas are acidifying over a wide range of depths - most quickly in surface waters and more slowly in deep waters. The report’s chairman, Richard Bellerby from the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, told BBC News that they had mapped a mosaic of different levels of pH across the region, with the scale of change largely determined by the local intake of freshwater.

“Large rivers flow into the Arctic, which has an enormous catchment for its size,” he said.

“There’s slow mixing so in effect we get a sort of freshwater lens on the top of the sea in some places, and

freshwater lowers the concentration of ions that buffers pH change. The sea ice has been a lid on the Arctic, so the loss of ice is allowing fast uptake of CO2.” This is being made worse, he said, by organic carbon running off the land – a secondary effect of regional warming.

“Continued rapid change is a certainty,” he said.

“We have already passed critical thresholds. Even if we stop emissions now, acidification will last tens of thousands of years. It is a very big experiment.” The research team monitored decreases in seawater pH of about 0.02 per decade since the late 1960s in the Iceland and Barents seas. Chemical effects related to acidification have also been encountered in surface waters of the Bering Strait and the Canada Basin of the central Arctic Ocean.

Scientists estimate that the average acidity of surface ocean waters worldwide is now about 30% higher than before the Industrial Revolution. The researchers say there is likely to be major change to the Arctic marine ecosystem as a result. Some key prey species like sea butterflies may be harmed. Other species may thrive. Adult fish look likely to be fairly resilient but the development of fish eggs might be harmed. It is too soon to tell.

brains. By accepting this notion, though, we replace a vague worry about the internet with a specific worry: if we use the internet regularly, what are we practicing?

GET A LIFE In the absence of any substantial evidence, I would hazard a guess that the majority of internet use is either information search or communication, using email and social media. If this is so, using the internet should affect our brains so that we are better at these things.

Probably this is already happening, part of a general cultural change which involves us getting better and better at .

Internet use would only be a worry if it was getting in the way of us practicing some other life skill. If Facebook stopped people seeing their friends face to face that could have a harmful effect. But the evidence suggests this is not the case. If anything, people with more active internet lives have . Most of us are using the internet as a compliment to other ways of communicating, not as a substitute.

So there is no magic extra risk from the internet. Like TV before it, and reading before that, it gives us a way of practicing certain things. Practice will change our brains, just like any habit. The important thing is that we are part of this process, it is not just something that happens to us. you can decide how much time you want to put into finding , bantering on Facebook or fitting your thoughts . There will be no sudden damage done to your brain, or great surprises for your brain fitness. you would be a fool to think that the internet will provide all the exercise your brain needs, but you would also be a fool to pass up the opportunities it offers. And those pictures of funny cats.

Cat café to open in London

A café filled with cats looks set to open in London in the coming months, with thousands of feline fans set to battle it out to be the first through the door. Australian entrepreneur Lauren Pears revealed on Friday she is on the verge of signing a lease on a property in the capital as she looks to open the cat café before the start of the summer. Speaking to Metro, Ms Pears, 30, said she has been overwhelmed at the support her business idea had received after on crowdfunding website Indiegogo.

‘It’s a bit surreal to be honest,’ she said. ‘I just remember putting the video up and thinking: “OK, see if people want it”, and it’s just gone bonkers.’

The idea has sparked interest in cat lovers across the country and despite not even advertising, Ms Pears revealed she has received over 700 job applications for less than 10 expected positions.

Pre-sales of tickets to enter the café (it will cost £5 for every visit), have also gone through the roof, with around 3,000 passes being sent out to those ‘crowdfunders’ who helped raise capital for the business. While Ms Pears admits there is now a considerable degree of expectation on her to deliver the finest destination in feline and caffeine bonding, the level of support she has received makes the task much less daunting.

She explained: ‘At the same time as I feel a lot of pressure to make sure it’s the ultimate cat café experience, I also have a lot of confidence because there I think there are so many people who are willing to help me get there as well, there’s such a volume of volunteers offering to pitch in and help.

‘The cat enthusiasts of London are really getting behind me and I think they will be what makes it an amazing experience in the end.’

At present, Ms Pears plans to have around 10 cats in the café, with 40-50 people maximum in the property with the animals at any one time.

She hopes to find rescue cats from a shelter, potentially from the same litter to make sure they get along. NEWS DESk

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Zimbabwe look for rare series win

BULAWAyo AGENCIES

Zimbabwe and Bangladesh go into Wednesday’s third and final one-day international in Bulawayo locked at one match apiece, yet it is the hosts who know they will need to improve their game if they are to claim a rare series victory. After being humiliated by 121 runs in the first match last week, Zimbabwe drew level with a six-wicket victory on Sunday, preventing Bangladesh from extending their unbeaten run in bilateral one-day series to three.

However Zimbabwe have enjoyed the benefit of bowling first in both matches so far, with early morning starts giving their seam bowlers an advantage against Bangladesh’s strong top order - none of whom have registered telling scores as a result. Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan remain some of the most dangerous batsmen on either side, yet none have passed 34 in the series thus far. “They are always a side that is very threatening,” Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor said.

If it is in the V, it goes in the tree; if it is in the arc, it goes out of the park — David Miller followed his father’s advice in his 38-ball 101 against RCB

Ajmal targets gayle in Champions Trophy

BPL payments delayed again

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A K I S TA N off spinner Saeed Ajmal vows to target ‘swashbuckling’ Chris Gayle in Champions Trophy.

SPoRTS DESK Zimbabwe’s Elton Chigumbura and Hamilton Masakadza have claimed they are yet to be paid the second installment of payments for their participation in the Bangladesh Premier League. The two appeared for Sylhet Royals, which is among five franchises that haven’t paid the Bangladesh Cricket Board the second installment According to the players’ contract this season, the first installment was to be paid before the start of the tournament while the second was due at the end of it.

The third installment is to be paid within six months of the tournament’s end. The BCB had taken over the responsibility of player payments this year after there were irregularities by the franchises in the inaugural edition of 2012. But as per the current process, the board needs to receive the amount from the franchises before paying the players. According to BPL secretary Ismail Haider Mallick, the BCB have only received money for the second installment from Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi. “It is true that five out of seven franchises haven’t made payments after the first 25%,” Mallick told ESPNcricinfo. “Our lawyers have told us that we have to wait till May 15 before sending out legal notices. We will take action if we are not paid by that time.” “The BCB has taken up the responsibility of paying the players mainly because of what happened after the first edition of the BPL. We will continue to do so, but the franchises have to pay us the players’ fees. Once they fail to make the payments, we will take out the bank guarantees to pay the players.”

Masakadza was bought in the players’ auction for $30,000, but has only received the first 25% of the payment.

According to Ajmal, they are practising and finding out methods to rein in Gayle by watching videos of him batting, adding Gayle has been playing in a laudable manner.

Pakistani off spinner Saeed Ajmal has said that he will be targeting West Indies star Chris Gayle when the two sides meet in the Champions Trophy next month.

Pakistan is currently featuring in a tune-up camp in Abbottabad hoping to match conditions in England where the eight-nation Trophy will be played from June 6-23, Sport24 reports.

Stating that the match will be an encounter between the ‘swashbuckler’ Gayle and Pakistani bowlers, Ajmal, who will secure Pakistan’s spin department in the tournament, said that he hopes to restrain the Jamaican, who is in a great form in the ongoing Indian Premier League, having smashed a world record 175 not out.

Ajmal said, they are practising and finding out methods to rein in Gayle by watching videos of him batting, adding Gayle has been playing in a laudable manner.

Stating that he hopes to perform in the unfamiliar English conditions, Ajmal, who has the second best record of wickets in Twenty20 cricket behind countryman Umar Gul, said that he has to work hard and bowl well to combat the hard hits of the opposing batsmen.

Ajmal further said that Pakistan will miss injured paceman Umar Gul and leg-spinner Shahid Afridi, who has been left out of the squad, although he added that the team is balanced and have good bowlers in Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan and Abdul Rehman.

Pakistan will also face South Africa on June 10 and arch-rivals India on June 15 — both at Birmingham.

Defending champions Australia, England, Sri Lanka and New Zealand feature in group A. Top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals, the report added.

fica demands enquiry into sivaramakrishnan’s entry into icc SPoRTS DESK A miffed Federation of International Cricketers Association on Tuesday demanded an ICC ethics committee enquiry into BCCI-backed L.Sivaramakrishnan’s appointment as a players’ representative in the governing body, saying captains could have been forced to vote against incumbent Tim May. Sivaramakrishnan replaced May, who is also the FICA CEO, on the ICC Cricket Committee after a reported re-vote pushed for by the BCCI. It is alleged that in the initial vote, May had won 9-1 but the BCCI used its financial might to coerce the Cricket Boards of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe into asking their respective captains to vote for Sivaramakrishnan.

Jimmy Adams, former West Indies captain and FICA president, said the election has created serious doubts about the credibility of the ICC. “How can the players of the world look to ICC for leadership in these circumstances and how does the spirit of cricket apply to the organisation itself?” Adams asked.

“Board members didn’t like how their captains intended to vote, so they apparently ordered them to change that vote. This type of behaviour from the game’s ruling body makes a mockery of their motives behind the procurement of the Woolf report,” he said.

Adams said the manner of Sivaramakrishnan’s appointment signifies everything that is wrong in the governance model of the ICC. “...the reported actions of some of the Member Boards and ICC directors, at the very least warrant investigation under this

Code. We call on ICC to hold itself up to the high standards of moral conduct it constantly tells the players and officials it expects from them.”

“Ultimately, these actions are symptoms of poor governance at the top level and a blatant disregard for what most would regard as the necessary ethical standards required to run a prominent international sport - cricket deserves a lot better.”

Former India international Laxman Sivaramakrishnan as a new player representative on Monday, sweeping aside concerns over its voting process and underlining India’s powerful influence over the upper levels of the sport.

The ICC said that Sivaramakrishnan, the Indian cricket board’s preferred candidate, was elected to the ICC Cricket Committee in a vote of the game’s 10 test captains and would serve as one of two current player representatives alongside Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, who was reelected.

Sivaramakrishnan replaced Australian Tim May. yet one captain, South Africa’s Graeme Smith, expressed surprise when he was asked to vote three times, South Africa’s top player representative said, indicating initial ballots favouring incumbent May over Sivaramakrishnan may not have been accepted.

Cricket’s governing body wouldn’t respond in detail to the concerns that May, the former Australia player and current international players’ association chief executive, was initially re-elected, only for the commercially dominant Board of Control for Cricket in India to apparently force one or more re-votes to install its candidate.

Tony Irish, a board member of the

Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations and South Africa’s player representative, told The Associated Press that South Africa’s Smith was asked to vote three times. Smith chose May each time but other captains may have been asked to change their votes, Irish said.

Before Sivaramakrishnan was announced as the winning candidate, Irish had last week raised concerns from the international players’ body - both to the AP and in the Indian media - that an initial vote re-electing May was disregarded and captains of some of cricket’s smaller nations may have been “pressured” to change their votes to allow India’s choice to take his place on the ICC’s Cricket Committee, a body that makes recommendations that can affect the game to the ICC. “Sangakkara and Sivaramakrishnan were elected by a vote of the 10 test captains. The ICC has nothing more to add to this statement,” ICC spokesman Sami Ul Hasan wrote in an email to the AP in response to questions regarding the nature of the vote.

The ICC’s initial statement earlier Monday announcing Sivaramakrishnan as the new member made no reference to the voting process, only noting that the former India legspinner would attend his first ICC Cricket Committee meeting in London at the end of this month during the ICC’s annual conference.

May declined to comment on the process, saying in an email that he was disappointed, “but such is life.”

However, Irish indicated that international players’ federation FICA would formally approach the ICC with its concerns over the vote.

“It’s a sad day for the governance of the

game, especially when it comes to players being able to freely elect their own representatives and have a voice in the running of the game,” Irish said.

Irish, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, said longtime Proteas skipper Smith had expressed surprise when he was asked to cast his vote three times.

“I was involved in that as Graeme asked me why he was being asked to vote again when he had already cast his vote,” Irish said.

The BCCI didn’t respond to multiple messages from the AP requesting comment, but India’s board is accepted as the most powerful and influential in cricket. India’s huge, cricket-mad population and the resulting big-money commercial deals make it the game’s richest national association.

Although the ICC Cricket Committee has no direct decision-making powers, it still has influence by making recommendations on “cricket-playing matters” to the ICC’s Chief Executive’s Committee and the ICC Board, the ICC says. The committee will also be chaired for the first time this month by another former Indian player, Anil Kumble, and has representatives of various nationalities from the ICC leadership, former players, women’s cricket and coaches, among others.

Some of the issues the committee could discuss are the DRS umpiring video review system, which India remains opposed to despite its general acceptance by other countries. The ICC Cricket Committee could also make recommendations on the scheduling of tours and tournaments that affect all countries.

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I’m very happy to be joining Sussex again, I can’t wait to get back to my second home and the lovely crowd at Hove — Dwayne Smith

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Pakistan is a well-balanced side: Chief selector Qasim LAHoRE

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H I E F selector Iqbal Qasim has dispelled the impression by experts and pundits of the game that Pakistan squad named for Champions Trophy was lacking in batting.

National selection committee named eight batsmen including a wicket-keeper and seven bowlers for the event to be played in England next month.

“I think it is a well balanced combination with experienced batsmen with youth and same in bowling,” he said ahead of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Governing Board meeting.

“Squad named for the Champions Trophy is a blend of youth and experience in both batting and bowling,” he remarked.

He said there is presence of Misbahul-Haq, Muhammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal with youngsters like Asad Shafiq, Nasir Jamshed and Umer Amin.

Pakistan’s pace attack looked

inexperienced but talented with Junaid Khan, Muhammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Ehsan Adil and Asad Ali. Team got quality spinners in Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman.

Former Pakistan captain Mushtaq

Muhammad has said that keeping team’s batting problem; selectors should have inducted one more batsman instead of packing with five pace bowlers.

Pakistan bowling did really well on the tours of India and South Africa. But

batting remained in trouble.

“An additional batsman may be needed considering the past,” Mushtaq Muhammad said.

Melbourne hero Sarfraz Nawaz complimented the selection committee for picking a good team. But he too said Pakistan team is one batsman short in the circumstances.

The Selectors have for once gambled on picking former Pakistan captain Shoaib, who had scored 4121 round in 28 One-Day International at an average of 18.72 with 39 his highest score at Dambulla against Sri Lanka in 2010.

On the other hand wicketkeeper/ batsman Kamran Akmal had also struggled with the bat having scored over 300 runs in his last 19 ODIs. “We have selected Malik and Kamran on the basis of their experience and past track record with consent of skipper and chief coach,” he said.

Pakistan is drawn in tough group “B” with India, South Africa and West Indies.

Pakistan will clash with West Indies on June 7.

Australia, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are placed in group “A”.

Farhat looking to cement place SPoRTS DESK Imran Farhat, the Pakistan batsman, has been around international cricket since 2001 but has never been a regular in the side for too long. In the last 12 years, he has only managed to play 53 ODIs at 32.45 and given the number of his matches he has opened with as many as nine partners.

Farhat’s career has often been overshadowed by the fact that his fatherin-law is Mohammad Ilyas, a key figure in the PCB over the past decade. “This is the notion I want to clear,” Farhat said on sidelines of the training camp at Abbottabad Cricket Stadium. “He [Ilyas] has his own status but I never took advantage of it. I would have been playing cricket for Pakistan even if we weren’t associated. It is in front of everyone that whenever I make a comeback it is due to my domestic performances.

“I have been playing my own cricket and nobody is there to help at the pitch where you are on your own. I have my own goals and have always been very committed to my game and I never discuss it with him. If I perform it’s good and if I don’t, I never worry. Cricket is my bread and butter, and I want to play cricket and kept myself busy with it.

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Playing international cricket is like a reward against performances in the domestic cricket. The only reason I am in the team at the moment is my performance as I have scored enough runs to win a place.”

Farhat is in fluent form at the moment. He marked himself with a triplecentury in domestic cricket earlier this year and was recalled to the Test squad for the South Africa tour and retained for the ODIs as well. Since than Farhat has been looking to cement a spot in the top three.

“I am much more experienced now and can manage any position and ready to play at any order [between 1 and 3] the team management wants. “I am more confident than ever and working extremely hard,” Farhat said. “I just want to make as much contribution as possible for my team whenever I get selected.

However, the snub from national team has never been a frustration for me.”

Pakistan had a targeted practice match during their training camp in Abbottabad with Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal hitting 92 and 66 respectively. Again, like in last five days, the camp was mainly focused on the batsmen, giving them ample practice before leaving for Scotland ahead of the Champions Trophy.

Caribbean Premier League can spur cricket growth: Michael Holding

BRIDgEToWn, BARBADoS AGENCIES

Former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding believes the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) represents an excellent opportunity for the development of professional cricket in the region. The 59-year-old, known for his strident criticism of the shortest form of the game, said the CPL was special as it had the potential to give birth to a new generation of professional cricketers in the Caribbean. He has signed on as the ambassador for the development programme, reports CMC. “I think cricket has lost a lot of young people in the Caribbean who are thinking ‘why bother with cricket because unless you are playing for the West Indies then there is nothing there for you’,” said the former pacer who took 249 wickets in 60 Tests. “The advent of the CPL means West Indian youngsters can now think to themselves ‘hey, I can make a reasonably good living from playing cricket.’ Now there is something here in the Caribbean they can play in, they can make a reasonable living and they can go on and play cricket again.” The cash-rich CPL is set to bowl off in July, with franchises based in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. Each outfit is stipulated to have 11 of their 15 players qualified to play for the West Indies, with four required to be under the age of 23.

Holding said it was clear the CPL’s objectives would result in new international players being identified and properly developed, even for the longer forms of the game. “The CPL is looking at a development programme which they will start rolling out in January 2014, I understand,” said Holding, now an internationally renowned broadcaster.

“They will have about 60 young cricketers, 10 from each of the six franchise regions, who they will put on contract and create programmes to improve their cricket. That is what I am interested in.”

rajasthan maintain perfect home record JAIPUR AGENCIES

A stuttering top order and a lame effort with the ball consigned Delhi Daredevils to their ninth loss in 12 matches, while Rajasthan Royals sounded a warning with a nine-wicket thumping that embellished their unbeaten home record, and propelled them to second place on the table.

Royals’ seventh straight victory in Jaipur was founded first on robust bowling, as Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny and 41-year-old debutant Pravin Tambe struck upon a collective consistency that erased the damage done in Shaun Tait’s early, wayward overs. Their openers then flew to an unbeaten century stand in staggeringly orthodox fashion, and ensured Daredevils’ modest total would not challenge them. Ajinkya Rahane, who opened alongside Rahul Dravid, was dropped on 4, but did hardly a misdeed thereafter, as he finished not out on 63 from 45 balls, after he hit the

winning run in the 18th over. Dravid had more of the strike in the early overs, and though he was the slower scorer, reached his fifty first, before departing for 53, with the match almost secure, at 108 for 1.

It was Royals’ bowling, however, that had the bigger impact on the match, as they muzzled a seasoned Delhi Daredevils top order, despite their strike bowler’s indiscretions. Tait began the match with an 11-run over, three wides among those runs, and his second cost 17, later in the Powerplay. But James Faulkner and Watson had struck once each in between those Tait overs, and that was enough to scare Mahela Jayawardene and David Warner into relative reticence.

On a pitch so full of runs, Daredevils did not hesitate to bat first, but the visitors were barely scoring at six an over inside the Powerplay, and when Warner departed in the eighth over to leave his side at 47 for 3, the run rate dipped further still. Jayawardene attempted a measured rescue, but fell too, before he could

make any meaningful impact, and were it not for a well-paced 64 not out from Ben Rohrer, whose recent nuptials had evidently done him good, Daredevils may not have reached 154 for 4 on a pitch on which they should have made 180.

Royals’ openers exploited Daredevils bowling, and the pair went about playing orthodox cricket, with just the level of aggression required for such a chase.

Daredevils’ seam bowlers strayed towards the pads too often, and Dravid laced the first four of the innings through the leg side, and continued to prosper there, throughout his innings. Rahane began with more nerves - an inside edge past the stumps in the eighth over in addition to the early life - but he found the going simple enough in the end, thanks largely to the largesse of the bowlers. Watson arrived after Dravid’s fall in the 14th over and struck two powerful fours off Umesh yadav almost immediately, as Rahane coasted beyond 50 at the other end.

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It’s a sensational feeling to be quite honest — Tommy Haas

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sPorts wednesday, 8 may, 2013

ABBOTTABAD: Pakistan pacer Junaid Khan bowls during a practice match as Asad Shafique tryng to take a run.

Iniesta puzzled by Casillas situation SPoRTS DESK Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta admitted that he is puzzled by Iker Casillas’ situation at Real Madrid. Casillas lost his place in the starting XI of Real Madrid in January after an injury and has since found himself playing second fiddle to new signing Diego Lopez, with coach Jose Mourinho stating that he would have signed Lopez earlier if he could. Iniesta was surprised by his international team mate’s plight, considering his that he has shone for the club from a youth level and was their captain at the start of the season. “From the outside, it’s quite difficult to understand for what Iker has always represented and continues to represent. Not just the fact that he is not getting a chance to play but for all the things that other people have been saying about it. It must be a very difficult moment for him”, Iniesta told Onda Cero’s ‘Al Primer Toque’ program. “Diego López is a great keeper and has been playing well but I am not talking about sporting issues here, just what I have heard other people saying”, the Barça player continued. Iniesta conceded that the Champions League semifinal defeat to Bayern Munich still haunts the players but hopes that clinching the La Liga title can make up for it. “The way we were knocked out of the tournament was terrible and of course, we are all feeling hurt by it. The pain goes right down into our souls - for the players and the fans.” he added. “We are close to claiming the league title after a tough season. We have had many problems to deal with through the campaign and for that reason, we have to cherish it even more.

Hamilton wants to be pushed to the limit

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SPoRTS DESK

E W I S Hamilton believes Formula One has lost something because of what technology and officials allow star drivers like Sebastian Vettel to get away with.

Mercedes star Hamilton is full of admiration for Ayrton Senna, who drove at a time in the late 1980s when the sport was less technical and more dangerous.

Hamilton told the Daily Mail: “If you watch Sebastian Vettel now he always runs over the Astroturf and over the kerb a little more than he should, going beyond the white line, which you’re not actually allowed to do but they let you get away with it.

“In Senna’s day, if he went one foot over that kerb, it would be grass and he would spin, and be penalised. He would be right on the limit, rather than over the limit - and I respect that style of driving more.

“Now you can go beyond and get back because modern tracks have run-off areas. They used to be gravel. Hit that, and your car was damaged or stuck. Now you can push beyond, go wide and come back on.

“When you do and get away with it, you think, ‘Great’, but the reason I love

street circuits like Monaco is there is no room for error and if you make a mistake, you pay. I don’t want people to pay by being hurt, but losing time, or having the car stop; that’s what racing is about.

“That’s why you’ve got to have so much admiration for the guys who did it back then.”

Hamilton believes driving alongside the likes of Senna would have brought out the best in him.

“I like that it’s safer now but the cars then were raw - they had a gear stick,” he said. “you watch Senna at Monaco and he’s one-handed most of the time, oversteering. That’s really cool. So cool.

“I think that would have brought a lot more out of me, the time before the driver aids came in. Now it’s so technical, sitting around talking about hydraulic dip. I have tons of buttons - 26 on a Mercedes steering wheel - and to understand and utilise them all is a science in itself.”

suarez deserved Pfa award: collymore SPoRTS DESK Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore believes Luis Suarez’s consistency should have seen him win the PFA Player of the year award instead of Gareth Bale.

Bale was crowned the PFA Player of the year two weeks ago ahead of Suarez, Robin Van Persie, Michael Carrick, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard. The Welsh international’s fearsome form has seen him score 20 goals in 30 games so far this season, a healthy return which has helped propel Tottenham Hotspur into contention for a spot in the top four; Spurs are currently fifth in the table on 65 points, two points behind fourth placed Arsenal but with a game in hand over their arch-rivals.

Suarez has three more goals than Bale to his name, albeit having played three games

more than the Spurs star.

And Collymore, who made 61 appearances for Liverpool, believes the Uruguayan international has been more consistent than Bale throughout the course of the season and hence should have won the Player of the year award.

“It is time to define exactly what makes someone footballer of the year,” Collymore wrote in The People.

“Because while I congratulate Gareth Bale for the spectacular moments that have helped him land a hat-trick of prizes from fellow players and football writers, he has not been the best, most consistent player this term.

Luis Suarez has.

“The Liverpool forward has been superb week in, week out. He carried the team through stages of the season and provided

goals at a time when Fabio Borini was the only other front-man at the club.

“His performances and strike rate have been fantastic. But he won nothing.

“He was voted into the PFA Team of the year so his peers clearly acknowledged his performances. But it seems most of them thought Bale had been better.”

Collymore also suggested that Bale only won the award ahead of Suarez because voters were turned off by the Liverpool striker’s controversial personality.

“When I was voting in my playing days I would simply judge people on how they had performed on the pitch,” Collymore added.

“These days I’m not sure that’s the case.

“I do not want to take anything away from Bale. He has produced some stunning moments this season.

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I didn’t think I’d be in, so I just sat around and waited all day, then 10 minutes before the match I got a text message telling me I was going on and to get ready — Madison Keys

roBSoN stuns radwanska in madrid MADRID

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Lahore win National U16 Hockey LAHORE: Lahore won the title of the national 2nd Motorway Police U16 hockey title beating Sialkot 5-3 in a penalty shoot in the final here on Tuesday at National Hockey stadium. Lahore overcome spirited Sialkot with much labour as the first half ended in a 1-0 in favour of Sialkot. Lahore leveled at 1-1 before the close of the second session and the match ended in a 2-2 draw at full time. Both the team exhibited a higher brand of quality hockey and lively moves were seen and the fortune of the match changed hand in hand. Lahore demonstrated better conversion skills and accuracy in the penalty shoot out to win a thrilling battle. Scorers, Lahore: Shan 2 Goals 40th minute (PC) & (PSO), Rana Sohail 58th minute (PC), Adeel (PSO) & Afsar yaqoob (Capt) (PSO).

Sialkot: Faizan 6th minute (FG), Ali Raza 57th minute (PC) & Nohaiz Zahid Malik (Capt) (PSO). Faisalabad routed Multan 8-2 in a classification match for the third place. The winners led the first half 4-1 and the second 7-2, scoring goals at regular intervals with agility and anticipation. Scorers, Faisalabad: Sohail 4 Goals 6th & 15th minutes (FG) & 17th & 37th minutes (PC), Dawood 3 Goals 14th minute (PC) & 31st & 38th minutes (FG) & Abu Bakar 57th minute (FG).

Multan: Mohammad Adnan 19th minute (FG) and Qaiser Zaman 34th minute (PC). President, Pakistan Hockey Federation, Qasim Zia was the Chief Guest on the occasion and witnessed the match with keen interest. Also present were Secretary, PHF, Mohammad Asif Bajwa Tournament Director Olympian Tahir Zaman and number of former hockey Olympians.Later Qasim Zia gave away the trophies and prizes to the players and the officials. StAFF rEPOrt

Andre Villas-Boas says he has had to make big changes to his management style because of the mistakes he made at Chelsea.

Villas-Boas returns to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night for the first time since he was sacked by Blues owner Roman Abramovich less than nine months in to his ambitious three-year “project”.

Villas-Boas’ plans to start phasing out the likes of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and John Terry while replacing them with younger, more dynamic players, played a part in his downfall.

Rumours about persistent unrest among the Chelsea squad dogged the Portuguese throughout his tenure at Stamford Bridge, but Villas-Boas is generally well-liked by his new

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/3) in two hours 14 minutes.

Elsewhere, Kristina Mladenovic defeated Silvia SolerEspinosa and Christina McHale beat Shuai Peng while, in the second round, seventh seed Sara Errani overcame Sorana Cirstea 75 2-6 6-4 and sixth seed Angelique Kerber ousted Alize Cornet 6-4 62.

In the men’s competition, American John Isner came through

his first-round match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5 7-6 (8/6) while Denis Istomin brushed aside Belgium’s Xavier Malisse 63 6-2 and Jerzy Janowicz beat Sam Querrey 6-3 6-4.

Twelfth seed Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Florian Mayer, Kevin Anderson and Robin Haase also made it into round two, while Nicolas Almagro progressed after qualifier Tobias Kamke pulled out of their firstround match through injury.

players at Spurs.

“The experiences (of managing Chelsea and Spurs) are different and I learned a great lesson from last year,” Villas-Boas said in an interview with yahoo!

“There are things I do dramatically different and things that I do exactly the same because you still have to stay true to your principles.

“The Chelsea experience allowed me to see things in a different way and helped me address the mistakes I made; that always allows you to develop on a personal and a professional level.”

The closeness between VillasBoas and Gareth Bale was summed up when the PFA and FWA player of the year shared a warm embrace with his manager after he hit a dramatic winner in the 3-2 victory at West

Ham in February.

Villas-Boas has also maintained a good relationship with his squad players thanks to his occasional rotation - something that Harry Redknapp was accused of failing to do last season.

Although Spurs remain outsiders for a top-four finish, Villas-Boas admits he has enjoyed working with a squad of players who are all pulling in the same direction.

“On a personal note the season has been good for me. I’ve found it extremely good here,” the former Porto boss said.

“It was good to be back in England after last year. I’ve been very well received by everybody, particularly this group of players whose drive and ambition towards achieving results has been tremendous.

wawrinka beats ferrer to oeiras crown oEIRAS AGENCIES

Stanislas Wawrinka won his first ATP title of the year after a straight-sets victory over David Ferrer at the Portugal Open in Oeiras.

Wawrinka dominated against the world number four, completing a 6-1 6-4 triumph as his out-of-sorts opponent made 31 unforced errors. Ferrer failed to break the world number 16, while Wawrinka unlocked the Spaniard’s service game on three occasions on his was to victory in a little over an hour. The win was doubly sweet for Wawrinka as it provided a measure of revenge for the loss he suffered at the hands of Ferrer in his only other final appearance so far in 2013, in Buenos Aires.

“I am definitely playing better than last year and I am improving,” said Wawrinka on the ATP Tour’s official website. “Today [Sunday] I got the confidence that I can beat a topfour player in a final, on a clay court.”

Ferrer had no complaints about the result, saying: “Stan played a great match. “I was never close to winning, but I felt better the longer it went on with my shots. “Stan played pretty well from the baseline and he had a good percentage of first services. He surpassed me in everything.”

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wednesday, 8 may, 2013

wAtCh It LIve GEO SUPER Sunrisers v Super Kings

07:30 PM

GEO SUPER Serie A: Pescara vs. AC Milan

09:30 PM

local news

LAHORE: The District Football

i learnt from my mistakes at chelsea: avb SPoRTS DESK

sPorts

DFrA rEFErEES CoUrSE IN FULL SwINg

AGENCIES

AURA Robson produced the shock of the day by sweeping into the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open with a straight-sets victory over fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska.

The 19-year-old British number one matched the world number four in the opening stages of the match before she changed gears and demolished her Polish opponent’s serve to win convincingly, 6-3 6-1.

It was one of the biggest wins of Robson’s career and she will now face either Ana Ivanovic or qualifier Chanelle Scheepers, who play their second-round match on Tuesday.

Ninth seed Samantha Stosur was another high-profile casualty when she was defeated 7-6 (7/5) 62 by Carla Suarez Navarro.

Second seed Maria Sharapova and third seed Victoria Azarenka came through their first-round matches, though.

Russian Sharapova toppled Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru 7-5 6-2, while Belarus’ Azarenka saw off Russian

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Referee Course has been commenced yesterday under the auspicious by the president of DFA Lahore. Lectures on the Law of the Game delivered by the Ex FIFA referee Mr. Mohammad Arif Siddiqi and Mr. Anees Javaid and Naseem Ud Din Assist them in the course. “DFRA Referees Course is equipping Referees with the knowledge and skills to take charge of the coming matches in DFA League and other events. “During the course, participant will learn both practical and theoretical aspects of refereeing.

StAFF rEPOrt

LAHorE wHITES IN rEgIoNAL SEMIS oF SENIor CrICKET LAHORE: Lahore Whites beat Sialkot Seniors by 45 runs in the 15th National Senior Cricket Cup and qualified for the regional semifinal.

Playing at the Jinnah Stadium Sialkot, Lahore Whites batting first 221 all out after 27.3 overs. Shahid Anwar batted well 65, Saleem Malik 37 & Asif Karmani 29 runs. Sialkot Seniors bowling Qalb Shah 4/32, Khalid Naseem 2/35 & Asif Ali 2/34 wickets. Sialkot Seniors batting 176 all out after 26.5 overs. Sohail Butt 46, Basit Saeed 25, Shahid Rafiq 28 & Qalb Shah 22 runs. Lahore Whites bowling Tariq Siddiqui bowling well 4/10 wickets. Asim Sheikh 3/42, Javaid Hayat 1/6 & Saeed Khan 1/37 wickets. Javeed Ashraf, Muhammad Asif Umpire, Aziz ur rehman match referee & Farrukh Ilyas Raja was the scorer.

MODEL TOWn GREEnS OuTPLAY LuDiHAnA GYM: Mode Town Greens moved into the next round of 28th M Yaseen Akhter Event when they outplayed strong Ludihana Gym by 41 runs played at Model Town Greens ground on Tuesday. Scores: Model Town Greens 169/7 in 20 overs. Hamza Pracha 52, Luqman butt 51, Ali Naqvi 13, Wahab Dar 1.

Waseem Zahoor 5/25, HAider 1/15, Imran Ali 1/16. Ludihana Gym 128 all out in 17.2 overs. Umer Siddiq 55, Waseem Zahoor 38. Akbar Ali 4/16, Aamir Hayat 2/23, Ali naqvi 2/40.

TAuSEEF CLuB, nATiOnAL GYM quARTERS TODAY: The first quarterfinal of the 28th M Yaseen Akhter Memorial Cricket Event will be played between Tauseef Club and National Gym on May 8 (Wednesday) at Mehran Block ground. The 20-20 overs match will start at 1:00 pm, Rising Stars,Ghulam Qadir Memorial Club and Jallo Gym have already marched to the quarterfinal.

YuSLiM CLuB quALiFY TO SEMiS: Yuslim Club has qualified for semifinal of 10th M Siddiq Memorial cricket event when they beat strong Akhter Abdul Rehman club by 9 wickets in the 1st quarterfinal played at Model Town greens ground on Tuesday morning. Scores: Akhter Abdul Rehman club 137 all out in 20 overs. Asfand Mehran 20, Noman 24, Hafiz Amir 23, M Ishfaq 17, Tajamal Ch 14. Babar Azam 2/14, Haider 2/27, Mohsin Nadeem 3/13, Subhan ul haq 1/14. Yuslim Club 138/1 in 13.4 overs. Babar Azam 88 (no), M Azeem 48. M Ishfaq 1/18. StAFF rEPOrt

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wednesday, 08 may, 2013

Judiciary has to ensure supremacy of law: SC MUShARRAf’S COUnSeL SAyS ALL jUdgeS, MILITARy OffICeRS, POLITICIAnS ShOULd be PUnIShed fOR PROvIdIng OPPORTUnITy TO MUShARRAf TO TAke OveR POweR ISLAMABAD ONLINE

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UPREME Court Justice Jawwad S Khawaja on Tuesday remarked the court had decided to ensure supremacy of law and constitution and “a price will have to be paid for it”. He gave these remarks while presiding over a three-member SC bench during the course of hearing of Musharraf treason case on Tuesday.

Ahmad Raza Kasuri argued Musharraf was not made party anywhere in Sindh case and this thing was very clear.

Justice Ejaz Afzal remarked it was correct that Musharraf was not made party in these petitions, but notice was issued to him which could not reach him.

Kasuri argued if Musharraf was punished for subverting the constitution, then all judges, military officers and politicians should be punished for providing an opportunity to Musharraf to take over power.

Justice Khilji remarked, “you are saying the matters have become clear with the abolition of 17th Amendment and all will have to be given punishment.” Kasuri said, “I want to read the names of judges.”

Justice Jawwad remarked, “Names of all parliamentarians also come therein.

Will this matter go up to patwaris. We are not going to make any political decision.

We will have to draw a line up to what extent we will have to initiate proceeding. I am ready too. The federation can initiate proceedings if it wants to do so.

Cut of line will have to be drawn up.”

Kasuri said the lines should include on the civil side, secretary and additional secretary and on the army side those personnel who were involved therein.

Justice Jawwad remarked, “We have to author decision why should we leave other people out. Those who had abrogated the constitution twice will become guilty. Proceedings will be initiated against 10,000 people.”

Kasuri said Bhutto lost half of the country. “Action will have to be initiated against him as well. Senators who cast vote in favour of Musharraf and now are in parliament will have to be proceeded against. The federal cabinet which approved the orders and services chiefs will also stand included therein.”

Justice Khilji said, “We will see who did what after the martial law. Whosoever assisted the act of subverting the constitution will have to be put to trial.”

Kasuri said proceedings would have to be initiated against Arshad Hassan Khan,

Afrasyab, Bashir Jahangir, Ejaz Shah, Abdul Rehman Khan, Sheikh Riaz, Chaudhry Arif, Munir A Sheikh, Rashid Latif Khan, Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Bhagwan Das, Mian Ajmal, Deedar Hussain Shah, Javed Iqbal, Abdul Hamid Dogar, Tanvir Ahmad Khan, Taqi Usmani for taking oath under PCO. Justice Jawwad remarked, “We will not allow judges to be maligned. The whole world should come to know who got money. This all should come to light.

Musharraf had a role in abrogating the constitution. It is known to every one.

Political speeches will not be allowed to be delivered.” Kasuri insisting that a full court minus the CJP should be constituted.

Justice Jawwad said they had sent a request to the CJP and a three-member bench was constituted after it. The hearing of the case was adjourned until Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court was assured that action would be taken against Islamabad IGP Bin yamin in the Musharraf escape case.

During today’s proceedings, Interior Secretary Javed Iqbal appeared before the court and said the IGP was an officer of Grade 21 and according to Civil Services Act, only the prime minister could take action against him.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui remarked that the ICT police fell under the Ministry of Interior, adding that action should have been taken against those who facilitated Musharraf in escape.

Vast majority of Pakistanis dissatisfied: poll WASHIngTon AGENCIES

The vast majority of Pakistanis are unhappy with their country’s direction and a growing number see the domestic Taliban as a threat, said a survey released Tuesday ahead of elections.

The poll by the Pew Research Center found that 91 per cent of Pakistanis were dissatisfied with the direction of the country and that a mere 14 per cent saw President Asif Ali Zardari favourably. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, seen as a front-runner in Saturday’s election, was viewed favorably by 66 per cent of Pakistanis and 60 per cent held positive views of Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf chief Imran Khan. However, the poll was taken in March, when Pakistan was just starting the campaign for what could be the country’s first democratic transition of power. Pew conducted 1,201 in-person interviews across Pakistan.

The poll found overwhelming alarm at crime and terrorism. Forty-nine per cent described the Taliban as a “very serious threat” to Pakistan, for the first time nearly equaling those who said the same about historic rival India. Despite concerns about the Taliban, the vast majority opposed US drone attacks against militants, saying they killed too many civilians.

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

India opens fire on sialkot sector SIALKoT ONLINE

Indian Border Security Forces on Tuesday opened unprovoked fire at working boundary in Sialkot District, officials said. Punjab Rangers retaliated at Samba sector near Sialkot. According to reports, Indian Border Security Force opened fire in Chenab sector and later fired mortar shells in Samba sector which landed in Tanda village near border

area, however no casualty was reported. Punjab Rangers responded the Indian firing and silenced the guns from across the border. This was the first incident of firing from Indian forces after grave tension between two archrival countries which resulted in killing of four Pakistani soldiers and two Indian troops at LoC few months back. Pakistan has decided to launch protest against Indian firing during flag meetings with India.