Pakistani English Newspaper

Canadian Pakistani Times

ECP issues notices to 23 MPAs over dual nationality

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday issued notices to 23 members of the Punjab Assembly in connection with the dual nationality issue, DawnNews reported.

A hearing of the references filed against the provincial assembly members is scheduled to be held on Feb 7. Those who have been served a notice include Rana Babar Hussain, Farrukh Javed, Raza Ali Gilani, Muhammad Yaar Hiraj, Arifa Khalid Pervaiz, Zaeem Qadri and Shamsheer Wattoo amongst others.

Last year in September, the apex court had ruled that lawmakers holding dual nationalities were not eligible to hold any public offices and had declared all such lawmakers as disqualified. Following the ver-

dict, the election commission had directed lawmakers of the national and provincial assemblies to submit affidavits affirming they did not hold dual nationalities.

Also today, the election commission called a high-level meeting for Wednesday (Feb 6) to be chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim. The meeting is expected to discuss fresh delimitation of constituencies in Karachi as well as review the ongoing process of door-to-door voter verification in the city. The government’s request for reversing the ban on new appointments at the federal, provincial and local government levels is also expected to come under consideration during the meeting.

February 7, 2013 Volume 1, 046

Thursday

US endorses Pak Afghan UK summit declaration United States endorsing Pak, Afghan UK summit declaration said that we are committed ourselves to support an Afghan-led process. During daily press briefing spokeswoman of State Department Victoria Nuland replying a question said that as you know, last month we had our own meeting. President Obama had welcomed President Karzai here to Washington.

And in that context, they reaffirmed that an Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process is the surest way to end the violence and ensure lasting stability in Afghanistan and in the region.

We believe that the U.K.Afghanistan-Pakistan Chequers summit that occurred this weekend, was clearly an advance in this process. We fully endorse the contents of the joint statement that those three governments came forward with, and we are committed ourselves to support an Afghan-led process, she elaborated.

She said our goal here has been to support the creation of a process to make it possible, both in the work that we’re doing with the Afghan Government,

the work that we’re doing with the Government of Pakistan and the three of us together through the core group, and our support for the opening of the office in Qatar under the right circumstance, to make it possible for willing Taliban participants to talk directly to the Afghan High Peace Council.

One killed, five injured 12 die in rain-related incidents across the country in Lahore roof collapse

LAHORE: One person was killed and five others injured when the roof of a house collapsed in Lahore, DawnNews reported.

According to the police, the roof of a dilapidated house collapsed during the rain in the provincial capital, burying six people under

Kashmir Solidarity Day observed with renewed pledge Islamabad- People across the country and in Azad Kashmir as well as in several locales around the globe observed Kashmir Solidarity Day on Tuesday renewing the pledge for continued support to their brethren in

Held Kashmir against the Indian atrocities. February 5 had been declared as a public holiday whereby the government and the entire nation reaffirmed support to stay with Kashmiris in the hour of trial and their fight against the Indian oppression.

The Day is being marked in Pakistan since 1990 to pay homage to the Kashmiri martyrs and highlight the plight of Kashmiris for their birth right to self-determination, promised to them by the international community under the resolutions of United

Nations Security Council.

The day dawned with special prayers at mosques and houses across the country after Fajr prayers for the early liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from Indian subjugation.

Rallies were staged in almost all cities and towns of country and Azad Kashmir with demand for cessation of Indian hostilities in the Held Valley and an end to illegal occupation of the valley by India.

As a mark of respect to the valiant struggle of Kashmiris in Held Kashmir, one-minute silence was observed at 10:00 AM – bringing all rail and road traffic across the country to standstill. The President and the Prime Minister in their separate messages on the occasion have expressed Pakistan's commitment to finding a just and peaceful solution of Kashmir dispute. Different political parties, civil society and trade organizations staged rallies to express solidarity with Kashmiri brethren and to continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support.

That’s what we’re looking for, and we call on the Taliban to take the steps necessary to open the office in Doha and to enter into real dialogue with the High Peace Council, she said.

She said the goal for everybody should be an inclusive political order in a strong, unified, sovereign Afghanistan.

Islamabad- At least 12 people, including three women and two children, were killed in rain-related incidents as heavy rains lashed Punjab and northwestern areas.

Flights at Islamabad and Karachi airports were also cancelled and delayed due to the bad weather.

The intermittent spell of rain, which started since Sunday night, will continue till Wednesday, Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD) said on Tuesday.

Reports said flooding in rivers and incidents of roof collapse and electrocution took place in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas, paralyzing the life and leaving more

than a dozen people dead and injured.

Roofs of mud houses caved in at Okara, D.G Khan, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Hyderabad, Khanewal and other areas.

Four people drowned due to flooding in a rainwater nullah at Haripur tehisl of Abbottabad. Rescue teams saved the life of a woman while search of more survivors was underway. Jalozai camp in Nowshera district of Peshawar, which hosts thousands of thousands of Afghan refugees in KPK province, was severely affected by rains and several mud houses collapsed in the area.

Iran says will attend nuclear talks on Feb 26 TEHRAN: Iran will attend fresh negotiations with world powers in Kazakhstan on Feb 26 over Tehran’s disputed nuclear activities, its top negotiator Saeed Jalili said in a statement released on Tuesday. The decision was made in a phone conversation earlier Tuesday between the offices of

Jalili and European foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported citing the statement.

Ashton represents the so-called P5+1 group of the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany.

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the rubble.

Rescue 1122 and other relief teams rushed to the site immediately upon being informed. The injured were brought out of the debris and shifted to the city’s Mayo and Jinnah hospitals. One person died while receiving treatment at one of the hospitals, while the other injured are said to be in critical conditions.

02

February 7, 2013

Third world is swamped with fake TB drugs: study PARIS: Africa, India and other developing countries are awash in fake or sub-standard drugs for tuberculosis, fuelling the rise of treatment-resistant strains of TB, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

Investigators in the United States asked local people in 19 cities in 17 countries to purchase isoniazid and rifampicin, the frontline antibiotics for TB, from a private-sector pharmacy.

The samples were then examined by chromatography, a technique that detects chemical signature, for their active ingredient.

They were also tested for disintegration, to see if they properly broke up in water at body temperature within 30 minutes.

Out of 713 samples, 9.1 per cent failed these basic quality control tests, according to the probe, published in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

Around half of the failed samples had zero active ingredients, “making them likely to con-

tribute to drug resistance,” it said.

Resistance to TB drugs develops when treatment fails to kill the bacteria that cause it – ei-

work. It can also be contracted through rare forms of the disease that are directly transmissible from person to person.

ther because the patient fails to follow their prescribed dosages or, as in this case, the drug doesn’t

Dud drugs were manufactured by legitimate companies and criminal fraudsters, said the

report. The pharmacies where the drugs were purchased were in Luanda, Angola; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Beijing, China; Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo; Cairo, Egypt; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Accra, Ghana; Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata, India; Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; Moscow, Russia; Kigali, Rwanda; Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania; Bangkok, Thailand; Istanbul, Turkey; Kampala, Uganda; and Lusaka, Zambia.

The failure rate was 16.6 per cent in Africa, 10.1 per cent in India and 3.9 per cent in Brazil, China, Thailand, Turkey and Russia.

Nearly nine million people around the world have TB, including more than 400,000 with a multidrug-resistant form of the disease, according to estimates for 2011 compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO). TB is one of the world’s deadliest diseases. It is spread from person to person through the air and usually affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body such as the brain and kidneys.

Afghan peace deal within six months LONDON - The leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan said on Monday they would work to reach a peace deal within six months, while throwing their weight behind moves for the Taliban to open an office in Doha.

Following talks hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron, President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai also urged the Taliban to join the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

Cameron, whose country is the second biggest contributor of troops to Afghanistan with 9,000 troops still in the country, appealed directly to the Taliban to join the reconciliation process.

“Now is the time for everyone to participate in a peaceful, political process in Afghanistan,” he told a press conference after the talks. At a news conference with Karzai and Zardari, Cameron said “an unprecedented level of co-operation” had been agreed between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The discussions had centred on both the Afghan-led peace process and on strengthening co-operation between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said.

Foreign ministers, military leaders and intelligence chiefs attended the talks for the first time. President Zardari and Karzai reaffirmed their aim to work towards a strategic partnership.

They said they hoped to sign an agreement strengthening ties on economic and security issues, including trade and border management, later in the year.

The joint statement said all sides had

agreed on the urgency of the Afghan peace process and “committed themselves to take all necessary measures to achieve the goal of a peace settlement over the next six months”.

“They supported the opening of an office in Doha for the purpose of negotiations between the Taliban and the High Peace Council of Afghanistan as part of an Afghan-led peace process,” the statement said.

Karzai had previously shunned the idea of a Taliban office in Doha because of fears that it would lead to the Kabul government being frozen out of talks between the United States and the Taliban. “All sides agreed on the urgency of this work and committed themselves to take all necessary measures to achieve the goal of a peace settlement over the next six months,” they said in a joint statement issued by Cameron’s office.

President Zardari and President Karzai also ‘re-affirmed their commitments’ to signing a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), to encourage closer ties.

The joint statement also said that the Afghan and Pakistani leaders had agreed arrangements to “strengthen co-ordination” of the release of Taliban detainees from Pakistani custody.

Afghan peace negotiators have welcomed Pakistan’s release of dozens of Taliban prisoners in recent months, a move they believe could help bring militants to the negotiating table.

There was no immediate reaction from the Taliban.

The summit was the third trilateral meeting in a year following meetings in Kabul in July

and New York last September — but the first in which Pakistani and Afghan army and intelligence chiefs took part.

Karzai told the press conference he hoped in future to have “very close, brotherly and good neighbourly” relations with Pakistan.

Support from Pakistan, which backed Afghanistan’s 1996-2001 Taliban regime, is seen as crucial to peace after Nato troops depart — but relations between the neighbours remain uneasy despite some recent improvements. Zardari said it was in Islamabad’s interests to support the initiative. “Peace in Afghanistan is peace in Pakistan. We feel that we can only survive together,” he said. “We cannot change our neighbourhood or our neighbours.”

The Taliban in March 2012 suspended contacts with American representatives in Qatar over a potential prisoner exchange and opening a liaison office in the Gulf state, and publicly refuses to negotiate with Kabul.

Traffic on one of Britain’s busiest motorways was slowed down on Sunday night as a motorcade accompanied by police cars with blue flashing lights took the dignitaries to Cameron’s country residence, an AFP reporter saw.

In an interview with Britain’s Guardian

newspaper and ITV television station released late Sunday, Karzai said the biggest threat to peace in Afghanistan was not the Taliban, but meddling from foreign powers.

“Peace will only come when the external elements involved in creating instability and fighting, or lawlessness in Afghanistan, are involved in talks,” he said, without naming any particular country. The president also suggested Western troops had been “fighting in the wrong place” in Afghanistan, saying security in the southern Helmand province was better before British troops arrived there. A spokesman for Cameron would not say if the prime minister agreed with Karzai’s characterization that security in Helmand was better before UK troops arrived. “We believe progress is being made,” Jean-Christophe Gray said.

“That’s why we think the approach that we’re taking is the right one.”

Punjab tries new way of tackling corruption LAHORE: Corruption is so pervasive in Pakistan that even Osama bin Laden had to pay a bribe to build his hideout in the northwest where he was killed by US commandos.

Ordinary Pakistanis complain they have to grease officials’ palms to get even the most basic things done: File a police report when they have a traffic accident. Obtain copies of court documents.

Get permission to see their relatives in the hospital.

Now, an enterprising group of officials is cracking down on this culture of graft with an innovative program that harnesses technology to identify corruption hot spots in the country’s most populous province, Punjab.

The initiative, which leverages the ubiquitous presence of cell phones, relies on the simple concept of asking citizens about their experiences.

But experts say it represents the first large-scale attempt by any government to proactively solicit feedback from citizens who are forced to pay bribes for basic public services and use that information to discipline officials. ”The strength of the model is that word gets out among officials that there is someone watching and there is someone who can make them accountable to what the public says,” said Nabeel Awan, a government official who has played a key role in the program. ”It may not eliminate corruption, but it does reduce corruption and bad administration.”

Pakistan’s anti-corruption wing recently estimated that graft costs the country billions of dollars each year. Citizens regularly identify corruption as one of the nation’s biggest problems, and it is getting worse. Pakistan slipped nine places to the 33rd most corrupt country in the world last year, out of a total of 176, according to Transparency International.

The issue could gain more relevance in the run-up to parliamentary elections expected in the spring.

One of the candidates is former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan, who has made fighting graft a key component of his party’s platform. That has put pressure on candidates from the country’s two main political powers, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz.

The PML-N controls the provincial government in Punjab, and the party may be hoping the anti-corruption initiative, which became fully operational in the middle of last year, will steal some of Khan’s thunder.

The program — run by the Punjab Information Technology Board — uses telephone calls and text messages to get feedback from citizens conducting transactions with a dozen different government departments, including those dealing with property, health and emergency response.

under the weight of the constant demand for bribes.

One man in the city of Multan sent a text saying police were demanding about $300 to register a case for him. A woman in Punjab’s capital, Lahore, said hospital officials demanded bribes to allow relatives to visit patients. The text messages were provided to The Associated Press under condition of anonymity to protect the respondents from retribution.

While the initiative does not attempt to tackle the millions of dollars thought to be involved

Many of the reported cases of corruption involved low-level property officials known as patwaris, who are notorious for demanding bribes.

One man in the city of Multan sent a text message saying he had to pay a patwari about $170 to get his new property registered. Another man in Sheikhpura district reported paying about $15 to a patwari and his assistant and said ”they should be removed from their jobs”.

Osama’s courier, who built the Al Qaeda chief’s compound in the town of Abbottabad, had to pay roughly a $500 bribe to a patwari to purchase the required land, according to Pakistani intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While the plight of Osama’s courier might not elicit sympathy, ordinary Pakistanis — many living on a few dollars a day — often struggle

in high-level government corruption, it faces significant challenges since much of Pakistan’s political system is based on patronage. Politicians hand out jobs to their supporters in exchange for votes.

It’s not the salary or benefits, but the chance to solicit bribes that makes the jobs highly coveted.

Under the program, government clerks are required to log the cell phone numbers of citizens with whom they do business. The citizens then receive a robocall from Punjab’s top official, Shahbaz Sharif. The recorded call informs them that they will receive a text message asking if they had to pay a bribe, or whether they have any complaints. Their responses are logged into a computer database. Call centre agents also contact citizens who don’t respond in case they weren’t able to read the text message, a common problem in a country where the literacy rate is near 50 per cent.

So far, more than a million citizens have been contacted under the program, and about 175,000 of those either responded to the text message or talked with a call centre agent. About 6,000 — or one in 29 — reported corruption. More than 18,000 others reported other types of complaints.

The low level of corruption reported could be partly driven by citizens’ reluctance to tell government officials the truth, said Michael Callen, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, who is conducting research on the program.

That could improve as the program becomes more widely known, the anonymity of individuals is protected and more punitive action is taken against corrupt officials, he said. The initiative’s scale and proactive solicitation of feedback differentiate it from other anticorruption efforts around the globe, such as the “I Paid a Bribe” website run by an Indian non-profit group. The website and other similar schemes rely on citizens to take the initiative to complain. That can produce fictional accusations made to blackmail honest officials, said Umar Saif, head of the Punjab technology board.

The Punjab government already has used data from the program to pressure officials to clean up their operations.

The chief minister’s office recently sent the top official in Rawalpindi district more than 100 reports of corruption at an office that issues residency certificates to citizens, said Awan, the official involved in the program.

That resulted in clerks being suspended.

The government also has punished clerks who sought to avoid oversight by falsifying citizens’ cell phone numbers.

But not everyone is convinced the program is a good idea, raising questions about whether there is sufficient political will to follow through.

The top political official in Lahore, Noorul Amin Mengal, said bribes were so ingrained in the system that he was worried the bureaucracy might seize up if low-level officials couldn’t take them. “I’m a practical man,” Mengal said. “If an official is worried he is going to get into trouble, he may just delay the transaction.”

February 7, 2013

03

People’s Party caught between demands of PML-N, Qadri ISLAMABAD: Having signed an agreement with Dr Tahirul Qadri, and now the PML-N submitting a long list of demands, the ruling PPP has been virtually caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. In background interviews, senior PPP leaders said they believed that with elections round the corner everybody else was gunning for the ruling party. They accused the opposition parties of playing politics for point-scoring and creating problems for the government.

“Now when the government is all set to announce a date for the general election, the opposition parties have come up with a new set of demands which have no mention in the 20th Amendment that deals with selection of a caretaker set-up,” said a federal minister close to the top PPP leadership.

He said the basic purpose of putting in place caretaker governments at the centre and in the provinces was to ensure a level-playing field for all political forces and questioned the rationale behind PML-N’s sit-in in Islamabad on Monday.

Besides seeking removal of all governors, the opposition parties have also demanded transfer of officers holding important positions, including federal secretaries, provincial chief secretaries, inspectors general of police, heads of agencies, PTV and Radio Pakistan, politically-appointed ambassadors, attorney general, advocates general and those reappointed on contract.

Another PPP leader said the government was yet to pacify Dr Qadri who had been clamouring for his own demands, including changes in the Election Commission, which the government had

no authority to bring in. And now, he added, the PML-N had opened its own Pandora’s box.

The PPP legislator privy to informal contacts between the ruling and opposition parties said

the country.

Although there is no bar in the Constitution on holding national and provincial assembly elections on different dates, there is a broad con-

the PML-N was using its government in Punjab as a bargaining chip because dissolution of the provincial assembly was of critical importance to holding the elections on same day.

The National Assembly will complete its five-year constitutional term on March 16 and the Punjab Assembly on April 8.

The government has no choice but to announce the election date before March 16 for which it needs to reach an agreement with the PML-N for holding the elections on the same day throughout

sensus among all political forces on having the polling on one day for free and fair elections.

The PPP leader said the only purpose behind the PML-N’s demand for sweeping postings and transfers at the top level was to claim morale boosting victory before going to polls which, of course, would be difficult for the ruling party leadership to accept.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has been saying that being the ruling party in Punjab the key for

dissolution of the assemblies was with the PML-N. Senator Ishaq Dar, supposedly main negotiator of the PML-N behind the scenes, had refused to accept the Islamabad declaration signed by the government with Dr Tahirul Qadri. The PMLN is not in favour of holding elections within 90 days after the installation of a caretaker set-up, a condition which the government had accepted in its agreement with Dr Qadri.

Similarly, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is against earlier dissolution of his government, which has put the PPP government in a difficult situation.

A PML-N leader said the PPP had its own considerations at the centre and his party its own in Punjab before it dissolved the provincial assembly.

About the PML-N’s demand for changes in civil bureaucracy, he said everybody knew that the MQM had its governor in Sindh and two sons of the newly-appointed governor in Punjab had recently joined the PPP. “Will the two governors remain impartial in the run-up to elections?” But he agreed that instead of seeking wide-ranging changes in the federal bureaucracy, the PML-N should have pinpointed special cases such as governors in Sindh and Punjab which made a sense.

According to sources in the PPP and PML-N, an expected meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif will play a crucial role in ensuring a trouble-free democratic transition. President Zardari is likely to visit Mr Sharif to offer condolence over the death of younger brother of the PML-N chief.

Losses caused by two RPPs: NAB report termed ‘deliberately flawed’ ISLAMABAD: If NAB investigations are to be believed, two of the five Rental Power Projects (RPPs) caused the national exchequer a loss of only Rs51.78 million. However, some NAB officials and other critics reject the figure as ‘peanuts’.

According to the National Accountability Bureau, the small amount had sent a legislator of PML-N and another of PML-Q running to the Supreme Court which has since been huffing and puffing over the loss of billions of rupees.

Former deputy prosecutor general of NAB Khawaja Azhar Rashid and some others have described the Rs51m figure as “peanuts” and point out that if the amount is paid back by the 54 accused in the RPP case each of them would have to pay less than Rs1m.

NAB officials claim that the measly estimate is the result of deliberately flawed investigations. The estimate was made in two investigation reports completed by NAB and submitted to the court last month.

According to reports, the 54 accused — including Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf — have caused losses of Rs31.03m and Rs20.43m by granting permission to the RPPs in Piranghaib, Multan, and Sahuwal, Sialkot, respectively.

According to NAB sources, three more investigation reports are in the pipeline, which will contain similar estimates of losses.

They claim that the low estimates are being deliberately projected to provide the accused an easy exit route.

NAB rules allow people accused under the bureau’s ordinance to pay back the amount lost or embezzled or a part of it and win an acquittal.

The SC ordered NAB to prepare references in the RPPs scam case and the bureau as-

signed three officials to investigate the cases of the five RPPs. Such references or investigation reports are documents on the basis of which NAB prosecutes accused in accountability courts.

Asgher Khan was assigned the investigation into Multan RPP involving Techno E. Power (TEP) and Sialkot RPP involving Pakistan Power

at the rate of 7 per cent of the project cost. But, the rate of advance payment was increased to 14 percent in August.

After the court intervened and ordered the companies to return the amount paid in advance, both the RPPs refunded the amount. But, sources claim that the power companies which had undertaken the projects evaded penalties.

Resources (PPR).

Kamran Faisal, whose mysterious death has added heat to the RPP case, was investigating into the power projects at Gaddu and Naudero. Investigation into the fifth RPP, Naudero II, has been assigned to another official.

According to the sources, the investigation report about the Multan and Sialkot projects has missed important points.

According to the report, in June 2009 US$11.5 million were initially approved to the TEP and US$14.5 million to the PPR as advance

They said that under the contract for generating electricity the RPPs had to start production within three months after receiving the advance payment. In case of failure they were bound to pay $286 per day to the government.

In the settlement agreement, the private firms and the power companies deliberately ignored the condition and the investigators also did not include it in their findings, they claimed.

The sources said the settlement between the power companies and the private firms for the recovery of the advance payment was also made

in violation of the NAB ordinance.

“Rules allow recovery only through voluntary return or plea bargain involving NAB but the RPPs returned the amount to the government after directly negotiating and signing agreements with state-owned power companies like the GENCO,” they said.

Had the rules been followed, they said, the agreement should have been negotiated and signed with NAB. Instead the money went to Wapda via its power generation companies.

The NAB report highlights and says that on Sept 14, 2010, the ministry of water and power allowed the RPPs to sign off the agreement “on mutually acceptable conditions between the Central Power Generation Company Limited and the sponsors”. However, the report does not say that it is a violation of the rules and neither does it point out that the sidelining of NAB may have led to return of only a small amount.

Khawaja Mohammad Asif, a PML-N legislator and one of the petitioners in RPPs case, said that the real loss could be assessed only if the original RPP deal and the settlement between the RPPs and Wapda had been audited by renowned audit firms.

He said the court should also take up this issue because the NAB investigators were working under pressure of senior officials who did not want to prosecute the accused.

Raja Amir Abbas, the counsel of the NAB investigation team, said the bureau had submitted its findings to the apex court which would take notice of any flaws in the report.

He said the trial court would also detect flaws when the RPP case came in the Accountability Court.

04

February 7, 2013

Wither solidarity with Kashmiris?

S M Hali

Our Team Cheif Editor and Publisher-----------------------------Akbar Warris Asst. Editor--------------------------------------------------Saad Ali Advisory & Editorial Board-----------------------------Ahsan Qureshi, Ausim Mobeen, Zahid Rashid, Aneela Husain, Mushtaq Anjum, Komal Popli Technical Assistance------------------------------Ahmad Ashraf Legal Advisor-----------------------------------------Barrister Khalid Sheikh Photographer-----------------------------------------Frank B. Raymond Marketing Team--------------------------------------416-371-9849 Email: Canadianpakistanitimes@Gmail.com

Lion breeding in Yemen IN a cage built from lengths of rusting steel trellis, six African lionesses sit on the concrete floor. The bare skull of a donkey lies at the back of the cell as two male lions pace up and down patrolling their shared six metres of territory.

A village on Yemen’s scorched Tihama plain is an incongruous home for African lions. Set back several miles from the nearest road and reached by a rough network of sandy paths and thorny gorse bushes, it is home to one of Yemen’s newest and most unlikely businesses.

Lion breeding in Yemen seems as improbable a venture as salmon fishing. But rampant demand for exotic pets from collectors in the wealthy Gulf states has made this exercise in animal husbandry suddenly profitable.

Inside the compound, Hassan Bari proudly displays his merchandise. The eight lions were bought as juveniles just over four years ago, and Bari has recouped his initial investment from a first batch of captive-bred cubs. All six of his lionesses are pregnant, and he expects his next cubs to be available within a fortnight.

“I expect most of the cubs will be sold within days,” he says “There is a big demand for these animals, and often individuals will buy as many as I have on offer.”

With the value of lion cubs, and those of

other big cats, reaching 50,000 Saudi riyals apiece, animal trafficking represents an enormous opportunity to people in one of Yemen’s poorest regions.

A loose network has sprung up, trading not just lions but also cheetahs, leopards, gazelles, hyenas and monkeys.

The majority are bound for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates. The animals will end up in private collections and homes as trophy pets and status symbols.

The lucrative business is turning the coastal road along Yemen’s west coast into a wildlife superhighway thanks to the easy access it offers to the porous border with Saudi Arabia.

The director of Born Free Foundation’s project in Ethiopia, Stephen Brend, says the trade is “extensive, lucrative and with a low risk of prosecution. That’s probably why the trade is flourishing. This is having a devastating effect on wildlife populations in the region and also impacts on civil society.” He says wildlife smuggling is being likened to the blood diamond trade because of its links with other cross-border criminal activities.

“A study by the UN office on drugs and crime suggests there are strong links between the illegal shipment of guns, people, drugs and wildlife.

Hence, it seems the animals are just another victim of lawlessness.”

Limits of strategy THE government can influence the growth rate primarily by providing an adequate physical and social infrastructure and creating the policy and institutional environment for private-sector investment.

The reasons for the depressed rate of private investment (now the lowest in our chequered history) are missing complementary public-sector investments (especially in energy-related infrastructure). This is because of skewed priorities, and the lack of a supporting policy, institutional setting and a decent milieu for governance.

Public investments in physical and social infrastructure augment the supply side for the private sector. In our case, however, the government has slashed the size of its development programme to accommodate burgeoning expenditures on subsidies and to finance growing losses of public-sector enterprises like the Water and Power Development Authority/Pakistan Electric Power Company, the Steel Mills, PIA and Pakistan Railways.

The effects of the cuts in development expenditure accumulated in recent years are beginning to take their toll; they are reflected in the continuously expensive and unreliable supply of energy and other utilities.

Moreover, the recent lowering of interest rates (whatever the rationale) will not be enough to raise industrial-sector investment. Given a struggling economy the banks have been reluctant to extend credit to the private sector. The banking system has simply become a sophisticated post office for transferring household savings to government even at increasingly lower interest rates.

Furthermore, the institutional reforms required to improve the environment for private investment remain unaddressed. The government has not been able to maintain law and order that will ensure safety and security of life and property and ensure contract enforcement.

Nor have successive governments been

Sahid Qadar

able to keep the policy environment consistent or predictable. On several occasions policies have been changed after some players have made investments, i.e. after the initial investment has been locked in. Such behaviour has worked to the disadvantage of the first investor/mover. Thus, after some hiccups and losses there are hardly any investors prepared to become first-movers. Consequently, there is little investment in highly regulated sectors or in those requiring heavy resource commitment and with longer gestation periods.

It also defies logic that official circles should expect the private sector to take a long-term view when formulating its investment plans even when the government, for its own seemingly understandable reasons, takes a short-term view.

The private sector must take the lead from the government and adjust the time horizon of the payback period of its investments to bring them in consonance with the signals emanating from the government. After all, the investor acts under a great deal of uncertainty. Any investment in an asset other than financial is irreversible, as it cannot be undone. When an investment decision cannot be reversed, the opportunity cost of investment is the cost of “waiting”.

In Pakistan, investor risk, and thereby the cost, has been rising sharply in recent years. The reasons behind this are not just the poor law and order situation, political uncertainty and the unpredictability of government policy.

The reasons are more than the manner of implementation of enunciated rules and regulations reflected in the non-uniform application of discretionary powers, the general attitude of the revenue collecting and regulatory agencies, a deficient infrastructure (especially related to energy), proliferating corruption at the decision-making level and the lack of adequately skilled labour. They are also (Cont... to next page)

February 5th has been marked as Kashmir Solidarity Day every year by Pakistan since 1990 to protest against India’s continued oppression and torture of Kashmiri people. The day is observed as a national holiday and is marked by protest marches, seminars, cultural events and special prayers to express solidarity with the plight of Kashmiris, since all political parties of Pakistan are united on the core issue of Kashmir.

On October 27, 1947, the Indian forces illegally occupied the valley, while Pakistan tried to help unshackle the Kashmiri brethren. As the liberating forces closed in on Srinagar, the Indian Prime Minister approached the UN Security Council and urged it to impose an immediate ceasefire. Since then, India has reneged on the UN Resolutions to hold a plebiscite for the Kashmiris to exercise their option of joining India or Pakistan.

The 1965 and 1971 Pak-India wars also failed to change the plight of Kashmiris, who in 1989 ultimately commenced an armed struggle for freedom. India tried to crush the uprising with brute force; since then, more than 100,000 Kashmiris have been butchered, their women molested, property torched and youth continue to suffer incarceration. Thus, the Kashmir Solidarity Day was observed to provide moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris’ just struggle.

The world has also taken notice of the Kashmir issue between the nuclear arms-equipped hostile neighbours, stressing the need to resolve the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan to avoid a nuclear catastrophe in the region.

Needless to say, it is India that has remained oblivious to the friendly urges of the international community, foiling any attempt for resolving the core issue.

Twenty-three years after the origination of Kashmir Solidarity Day, we need to take stock of the situation, whether the Kashmiris see any light at the end of the tunnel of Indian atrocities. The ground reality is that with India’s rising military might and amorous overtures by the international community, more for its status as a commercial trade market as well as to prop it up as a bulwark to contain the Peoples Republic of China, whose economic ascent gives jitters to the Occident, emboldens New Delhi to drag its feet over the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

Former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf, as the Army Chief, sought military so-

lution to the Kashmir issue through his Kargil misadventure. After assuming the reigns of government through a military coup, the he pursued an “out of the box” solution to the festering Kashmir issue that also, ended up in a fiasco.

Following Musharraf’s departure, Asif Zardari, on assuming the mantle of President and Supreme Commander of Pakistan’s armed forces, sanguinely announced during his inauguration speech that Kashmiris would soon hear good news about the culmination of their struggle. Five years on, the residents of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir are no nearer the end of their just struggle than they were in 1989.

We need to realise that we are dealing with a crafty neighbour, whose leadership religiously follows Chanakyan principles of guile, deceit and machination in statecraft. The current mantra being chanted by the Indians is that Pakistan should develop trade and commerce with India, grant it the status of Most Favoured Nation and place the core issue of Kashmir on the backburner.

The sad aspect is that a number of Pakistani politicians and media men have fallen prey to such preaching.

Against this backdrop, the Mumbai attacks were choreographed by the Saffron Brigade of India to scuttle peace talks and blame Pakistan for them. The heinous role of Hindu extremist organisations like the BJP, Shiv Sena and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in terror attacks have now been admitted by its India’s Home Minister.

The recent violation of the Kashmir Line of Control (LOC), through unprovoked Indian firing, martyring three Pakistani soldiers and falsely blaming Pakistan for breaching the LOC, beheading two Indian soldiers, the jingoistic outburst by Indian politicians and media’s warmongering should have served as a lesson to our peaceniks.

The recent media comments of the nonMuslim residents of Jammu indicate that they too are suffering at the hands of the illegitimate Indian occupation forces. Credence to their just struggle, avoiding the label of a solitary quest by Kashmiri Muslims can be achieved by adding the voice of the Kashmiri Hindu and Sikh minority.

It is recommended that while expressing solidarity with the Kashmiris, Pakistan should not compromise on the core issue of Kashmir. Concessions to India sans its return to the dialogue table should not even be considered.

Indian brutality in Kashmir Momin Iftikhar The virtual evaporation of the dividends of an intricately built peace process in Kashmir with a small yet emotionally-laden skirmish on the Line of Control (LoC), following a well kept nine-year long ceasefire, has prominently endorsed the commanding importance of Kashmir as the issue that needs to be resolved if India and Pakistan have to move forward in forging a mutually beneficial future. The border clash amply exhibited how a carefully crafted Indo-Pak détente can give way to extreme acrimony and sabre-rattling coming with the suddenness of a bolt out of the blue.

The shots in anger across the LoC were fired after a lapse of over nine years of ceasefire.

It was in November 2003 that the guns fell silent in Kashmir as India and Pakistan started looking for a way forward from the political and military impasse that had descended on the region, following the rollback of Operation Parakram in October 2002. The Indians had initiated the largest ever mobilisation of forces onto Pakistan’s border in the wake of the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001.

During heightened tensions, the hawkish elements made it obvious that India wanted to exercise its hypotheses of limited aggression in Pakistan, including Kashmir, by launching treatises of hot pursuit. The Indian aggression was only deterred when Pakistan made it obvious that any bid for adventure would bring into consideration the nuclear dimension as a last resort for protecting its national integrity. The dangerous standoff aptly underscored the importance of the resolution of Kashmir issue, if South Asia was to know lasting peace. The stalemate ushered in endeavours for normalisation, which culminated into the Indo-Pak Summit in Islamabad in January 2004. It saw launching of the composite dialogue process; manifestly built around the core issue of Kashmir. The underlying idea was that Kashmir being such an emotive issue, it was in the fitness of things to prepare ground for ultimate cutting the Gordian Knot.

The emphasis was to be laid on initiating Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) by resolving less contentious issues first to build up momentum and prepare political environments for reaching a realistic and enduring solution of Kashmir. The track record of this process has amply demonstrated that despite best and determined efforts of Pakistani interlocutors, we are no closer to even discussing the peripheral questions towards resolving the Kashmir issue.

The much trumpeted pursuit of CBMs has yielded little, if nothing, and the few crossing points on the LoC, which keep opening and closing with many hiccups, have hardly borne any fruits in harmonising people-to-people contact in Kashmir. The whole exercise has only manifested India’s reluctance to discuss the Kashmir issue with Pakistan. Indeed, the border incident has shown that Kashmir still maintains the dominating position in deciding the fate of Indo-Pak relations.

The Indians may think that stonewalling

on Kashmir is only cementing their hold on the wailing vale, but, in effect, strong undercurrents are generating new trends and ripples that are hard to ignore. The all-pervasive Indian tyranny in Kashmir has unleashed the collective resistance of the people, who have begun to understand the power and potential of non-violent struggle, and undertaking efforts for exposing the Indian brutality to the outside world.

During 2008, a benchmark was reached when the efforts of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), through its own investigations resulted into the discovery of 1,000 graves that are believed to contain bodies of the victims of fake encounters, enforced disappearances, torture and other abuses whom the Indian security forces had killed and then dumped.

The findings have been compiled by APDP in a report, “Facts Under Ground”, which lists the grave sites of at least 940 people discovered in 18 villages of Uri District. The Indian army claimed that those buried were “foreign militants” killed during military encounters. But the report presents testimonies of locals, asserting that the buried men were residents belonging to the India Held Kashmir (IHK). The demonstrations launched by APDP attracted global attention to Indian atrocities in Kashmir. In July 2008, the European Parliament during its plenary session in Strasbourg, France, adopted a protest resolution concerning the existence of mass graves in Kashmir and called upon the Indian government to “urgently ensure independent and impartial investigations into all sites of mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir; and as immediate first step to secure the grave sites in order to preserve the evidence.”

The September Eleven incident has erased the line separating the freedom fighter from a terrorist and this has provided India with a handle to portray alienation of Kashmiris with Indian occupation as a foreign sponsored movement employing terror tactics. This has also enabled India to get away with the grave human rights violations it is perpetrating in the disputed valley.

In addition, one has to take into account that in the course of armed resistance spread over two decades, the Kashmir landscape has been thoroughly bruised and traumatised. The evolving nonviolent mass resistance movement in Kashmir is in step with the global dynamics and reflects their impact in shaping local ground realities.

The developments in Kashmir augurs well, but still Kashmiris need our earnest support in highlighting India’s atrocities that are the bitter staple of life under its occupation. The Kashmiri armed resistance was being waged by around 1,500 freedom fighters, operating in IHK at the peak of insurgency. But to neutralise this modest number of freedom fighters, the Indians have physically deployed 700,000 troops, who occupy every nook and corner of cities and hamlets and (Cont.. to next page)

February 7, 2013

05

Total liability crosses Rs15tr: Govt admits breaching debt limits ISLAMABAD, Feb 4: With Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities now in excess of Rs15 trillion, the government on Monday conceded to have breached major limits imposed by the parliament under the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2005 to check and bring down increasing debt levels deemed vulnerable to the nation’s sovereignty.

The two separate policy statements — Fiscal Policy Statement and Debt Policy Statement 2012-13 — released by the ministry of finance on Monday said the three major requirements were violated during last financial year ending on June 30, 2012 owing to fiscal profligacy arising out of higher subsidies, lower revenues, drying up of external program loans and currency devaluations.

The government also conceded that some of the requirements of the law continued to be violated every year consecutively since the current government came into power in 2008. Under the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act (FDRLA) 2005, the government is required to submit annual reports to the parliament on debt and fiscal situation.

The first key requirement of the law ‘to reduce the revenue deficit to nil not later than June 2008 and thereafter maintaining a revenue surplus’ remained total failure to begin with and throughout the last five years.

“Revenue balance has been in negative since 2006 because of increasing exogenous and endogenous challenges”, said the two policy statements of the finance ministry.

The reports indicated the revenue deficit stood at 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2008, declined to 1.2 per cent in 2009, increased to 1.7 per cent in 2010, jumped to 3.3 per cent in 2011 and stood at 2.5 per cent of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2012.

The second most important condition to limit total public debt below 60 per cent of GDP

and then maintaining it at this limit every year also could not be fulfilled.

“The government consolidated Rs391 billion or 1.9 per cent into public debt in 2011-12 against outstanding previous years subsidies related to food and energy sectors due to which public debt to GDP stood at 61.3 per cent of GDP at end June 2012”. The third key milestone required reducing total public debt by no less than two and a half per cent of GDP every year for 10 years — 2003 to 2013 — provided poverty alleviation related expen-

ditures did not fall below 4.5 per cent of GDP and doubling health and education related expenditures as percentage of GDP. The policy statements, however, admit that reducing debt by 2.5 per cent every year remained a pipedream throughout the 10 year period including fiscal year 2011-12.

The statements said total debt to GDP ratio stood at 59 per cent in 2008, increasing to 60 per cent in 2009 and 2010 and then dropping slightly to 59.3 per cent in 2011 and finally increased again to 61.3 per cent in 2011-12.

The government also failed to double allocations for health and education throughout its five year tenure. The allocations for education as percentage of GDP stood stagnant at or around 1.8 per cent in four years and slightly increased to 2.1 per cent in fiscal year 2011-12. Likewise, the allocations for health also kept on fluctuation between 0.6 and 0.8 per cent of GDP in all five years — 2008 to 2012.

It was, however, able to maintain social sector and poverty related expenditures in excess of 6 per cent, although it dropped from 9.3 per cent in 2008 to 6.7 per cent and 6 per cent in 2010 and 2011 and then 8.2 per cent in 2012.

The finance ministry said the composition of public debt witnessed major changes over the past few years with increasing reliance on domestic debt owing to lower external debt flows. “The composition of major components shaping the domestic debt portfolio has itself undergone a transformation from a high dominance of unfunded debt to an increasing dependence on short term floating debt which is a source of vulnerability as it entails high rollover and refinancing risk”.

In such cases, an increase in interest rates has an adverse fiscal impact. On an average, 66 per cent of total increase in external debt was caused by the unfavourable movement of exchange rates since 2007-08. The government said the total public debt stood at Rs12.667 trillion as on June 30, 2012, showing an increase of Rs1.967 trillion or 18.4 per cent higher than debt stock at the end of last fiscal year. This was mainly because of slippages in both revenues and expenditures that led to fiscal deficit at 6.6 per cent of GDP excluding 1.9 per cent of one-time debt consolidation.

The reports said the interest servicing, security and subsidies constituted 60.9 per cent of the revenue as expenditures were fairly rigid.

“The external debt component grew by Rs345 billion or 7.4 per cent over the last fiscal year” even though appreciation of US dollar against other major currencies caused the foreign currency component of public debt to decrease by $1.740bn.

This was, however, subdued by depreciation of rupee against dollar by almost 10 per cent.

Philippines’ SC again blocks cybercrime law Naek requests ECP to reverse ban on recruitment, funds diversion MANILA: The Philippine Supreme the state powers to shut down webCourt has again stopped the government from enforcing a controversial cybercrime law, officials said Tuesday, amid concern it would severely curb Internet freedoms.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said a fresh “temporary restraining order” (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court meant the law passed last year could not take effect.

“We submit to the court’s discretion and respect such decision to extend the TRO,” she told AFP in a text message.

“It’s not a total defeat. It’s just a TRO pending determination of the merits of the petitions.”

President Benigno Aquino signed the law in September last year, amid huge online protests, to stamp out cybercrimes such as fraud, identity theft, spamming and child pornography.

But opponents swiftly sued over provisions that authorise heavy prison terms for online libel and give

sites and monitor online activities.

The court in October issued a four-month injunction that was to have lapsed this week, as it scrutinised the law for possible violations of constitutional provisions on freedom of expression.

De Lima did not say how long the new injunction would be in force and Supreme Court officials declined to comment.

Aquino spokesman Ramon Carandang said the government acknowledged the public’s concerns.

He noted that even its chief lawyer, Solicitor-General Francis Jardeleza, had publicly acknowledged that shutting down websites may be illegal. “As the president said, it’s not a perfect law and even (Jardeleza) had questions about the takedown provisions,” Carandang told AFP. Jardeleza however has also said this provision was not enough reason to strike down the entire law.

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Indian brutality in Kashmir crisscross the forests turning the landscape into a virtual jail. Around 100,000 Kashmiris have lost their lives during the 20 years of conflict and 8,000-10,000 people have simply vanished after arrest by the security forces.

The Indian armed forces employ infamous Special Operations Group, an officially patronised band of local collaborators, to perform the dirty job of extrajudicial executions.

The culture of fake encounters thrives whereby innocent locals are killed and dumped in nameless graves as Pakistani militants and cross-border terrorists to enable their killers to claim gallantry awards and promotions.

The Kashmiri armed struggle by a small number of freedom

fighters has played a major role in keeping alive the hopes of throwing away the Indian yoke for over two decades. Their struggle has been rewarded in a way that while they were few in number in challenging the might of the Indian state now the entire Kashmir stands awakened.

The Kashmiris are losing the fear of Indian bayonet and embracing the power of mass non-violent resistance to assert their will.

They have also managed to keep alight the flame of armed resistance in face of tremendous odds. On the ‘Solidarity Day’ this year, we eloquently endorse these endeavours and recommit ourselves to supporting the valiant struggle with a renewed vigour and with all means at our command.

Limits of strategy because of recent disturbing developments. The latter refers to the increase in the number of ill-informed (but pretending to be all-knowing about issues and solutions), seemingly wellintentioned actors, including the more assertive parliamentary committees, important state institutions, civil society organisations and the hyperactive media, any of whom is now able to put a spanner in the works at any time. Having limited, if any, expertise or training to understand complex economic policy issues does not seem to deter the latter set of players from holding forth on literally any subject.

Regrettably, as also argued

by Ishrat Husain, their intrusiveness has not only increased investor risks and the insecurity of investment, thereby weakening investor confidence, it has also made civil servants risk-averse to taking decisions that are badly needed for attracting investments in areas critical to growth. Such developments are further worsening the investment environment and the costs to the economy of postponed investments in areas the government,

running up huge budgetary deficits, does not have the resources to finance.

The head of a leading industrial group summed up rather well the dilemma that Pakistani entrepreneurs face. He says that he can handle the increased competition from China and India (whenever we finally grant the latter most-favoured nation status). However, it is Islamabad and the new set of actors that he is infinitely more scared of. He finds them the more formidable, and easily the most unpredictable, opponents.

Given recent developments he wonders if this period of transition, during which each player finally becomes mature enough to understand his respective role, will end anytime soon, so that new players on the scene and Islamabad, through better understanding and coordination with provincial governments, can become enablers. In his opinion, preventing them from continuing to be disablers in the foreseeable future will become a real challenge in these difficult times for the country.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Law Minister Farooq H Naek has requested Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim to lift the ban on fresh administrative appointments as well as the diversion of funds allocated for development projects, DawnNews reported.

In a telephone call to the CEC, the law minister said a ban on recruitment and diversion of funds before the announcement of an election date was in violation of the Constitution.

He added that the commission had the mandate to impose the two bans after a date for the polls was announced.

Naek said a letter with a formal request had been sent to the CEC in this

regard. On Jan 21, the commission had banned all recruitments at the federal, provincial and local government levels with immediate effect. This ban, however, was not to apply to inductions made through the federal or provincial public service commissions. The commission had also banned diversion of funds allocated for development projects and stopped the spending of the diverted funds. The commission had in its directive stated that different segments of society had expressed grave concern that some government departments were in the process of induct-

ing thousands of people to various positions which amounted to pre-poll rigging.

The directive had added that it had considered the concern voiced by people that money allocated for important development projects was being diverted to the discretionary fund of the prime minister for development in his constituency, which was nothing short of another facet of pre-poll rigging. The commission had therefore stated the move as imperative in order to prevent any action by the federal, provincial and local governments which amounted to influencing election results.

February 7, 2013

06

February Black History Month Black History Month, also known as AfricanAmerican History Month in America, is an annual observance in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom for remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora.

It is celebrated annually in the United States and Canada in February and the United Kingdom in October. Black History Month had its beginnings in 1926 in the United States, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be "Negro History Week". This week was chosen because it marked the birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Woodson created the holiday with the hope that it eventually be eliminated when black history became fundamental to American history. Negro History Week

was met with enthusiastic response; it prompted the creation of black history clubs, an increase in interest among teachers, and interest from progressive whites. Negro History Week grew in popularity

edged the expansion of Black History Week to Black History Month by the leaders of the Black United Students at Kent State University in February of 1969. The first celebration of Black History

throughout the following decades, with mayors across the United States endorsing it as a holiday.

In 1976, the federal government acknowl-

Month occurred at Kent State in February of 1970.

Six years later during the bicentennial, the expansion of Negro History Week to Black History

Month was recognized by the U.S. government.

Gerald Ford spoke in regards to this, urging Americans to "seize the opportunity to honor the toooften neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history."

Black History Month was first celebrated in the United Kingdom in 1987.

This establishment of Black History Month is generally attributed to the work of Ghanaian analyst Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, as well as the Greater London Council.

In 1995, after a motion by politician Jean Augustine, Canada's House of Commons officially recognized February as Black History Month. In 2008, Senator Donald Oliver moved to have the Senate officially recognize Black History Month, which was unanimously approved.

US urged not to cross ‘red line’ in Fata Drones are legal, ethical and wise: White House WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States on Tuesday blasted the Obama administration for continued drone strikes in Fata, calling the violation a “red line” that should not be crossed. At a breakfast meeting with the Christian Science Monitor staff, Sherry Rehman said that drones strikes were “a clear violation of our sovereignty and a violation of international law” that threatened stable relations between the two gov-

ernments. She rejected persistent media reports that Pakistan tacitly approved the strikes while denouncing them publicly as untrue. “Let me assure you that since we have been in government, there has been no quiet complicity, no question of wink and nod,” she said.

The United States has launched hundreds of drone strikes in Fata, killing dozens of militant leaders. While Pakistan appreciates the elimination of some key terrorists, it says that the drones also have killed a large number of innocent civilians.

Pakistan warns that the civilian deaths are counter-productive as they increase public sympathy for the militants and wants the United States to stop the strikes.

The drone strategy “creates more potential terrorists on the ground and militants on the ground instead of taking them out,” the ambassador said. “We need to drain the swamp, but instead it is radicalising people.”

Ambassador Rehman complained that the United States had failed to appreciate Pakistan’s domestic terrorism problems and counterterrorism operations, which have cost nearly

50,000 military and civilian lives and billions of dollars in expenditures and lost income over the past decade.

She said Pakistan was increasingly concerned that the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan would leave “the kind of detritus we were left to deal with” after the last US departure from the region in the early 1990s.

But the ambassador also noted that the United States and Pakistan had overcome years of “chronic distrust and periods of crisis management” and Pakistan was now looking for an enduring, sustainable relationship with the US, based on mutual respect and cooperation.

As over a dozen senior US journalists grilled her on Pakistan’s record in the war against terror, the envoy reminded them that her country faced multiple challenges, including the war against militancy, a historic transition to democracy and its first constitutional transfer of power.

She also upheld her government’s criticism of the Academy Award nominated movie “Zero Dark Thirty”, calling it “very zero, very dark”. The film depicts the CIA-led raid on a compound in Abbottabad where US commandos killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Ambassador Rehman said Pakistan was fully engaged with the US and their dialogue groups were working across a range of structured issues on which there was cooperation.

She denied the allegation that Pakistan was obstructing the peace process in Afghanistan, and said that Islamabad was willing to do all it could to “support all tracks that Kabul proposes”.

Pakistan had no favourites in Afghanistan and did not want to interfere in the internal dynamics of an Afghan-led peace process, she said.

The ambassador said that Islamabad actively participated in all meetings of the core group, which includes the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

She praised incoming Secretary of State John Kerry as somebody who “brings experience and knowledge” of her country to the table.

Referring to Mr Kerry’s statement at his confirmation hearing last week, she urged Washington to give her country credit for joining in the anti-terror campaign of the last 11 years and helping to stop insurgents from crossing the border into her country.

Raisani acts to defuse crisis, sends resignation to Sherani QUETTA: Nawab Aslam Raisani whose coalition government was removed by the federal government after imposition of governor’s rule last month has resigned from the post of Chief Minister of

Balochistan. According to sources, Mr Raisani has faxed his resignation from Dubai to provincial chief of JUI-F Senator Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani and Syed Ehsan Shah, parliamentary leader of the Balochistan National Party (Awami) in the Balochistan Assembly.

But other sources said Mr Raisani had sent copies of his resignation to coalition partners and a

special messenger delivered them to Maulana Sherani and Ehsan Shah.

The two leaders were not available for their comments on the development.

The resignation came two days after JUIF had presented a three-point formula to resolve the political crisis in the province. The party offered its unconditional support for the ruling coalition to elect a new chief minister.

The JUI-F urged coalition partners to nominate a new chief minister or let Maulana Fazlur Rehman make a choice to enable Balochistan to move ahead with other provinces in democratic transition. It asked the PPP to immediately lift governor’s rule and let the political process take its due course in Balochistan.

The sources said the BNP had supported the JUI-F formula, but other parties expressed their reservations. The PPP and independent members in the assemly also did not accept the formula.

Meanwhile, JUI-F’s Secretary General Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri claimed on Tuesday that the Raisani-led coalition government would be restored within a week.

WASHINGTON: The White House said on Tuesday that US drone strikes on potential terrorist targets were ‘legal,’ ‘ethical’ and ‘wise’ and would continue. “These strikes are legal, they are ethical and they are wise,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told a briefing in Washington.

“The US government takes great care in deciding to pursue an Al Qaeda terrorist, to ensure precision and to avoid loss of innocent life.”

Mr Carney rejected the media criticism of the US drone policy, the day after a Department of Justice memo leaked the conditions in which it viewed drone strikes targeted at American citizens abroad as legal.

The DOJ memo, which was first reported

by NBC, says that the government can order the killing of American citizens abroad if there is reason to believe they are “senior operational leaders” of Al Qaeda or “an associated force”.

“If an informed, high-level official” determines that an individual is “a senior, operational leader of Al Qaeda or an associated force” and

poses “an imminent threat” to the United States and that individual’s “capture is infeasible”, then killing him or her wouldn’t violate the Constitution, says the memo. The 16-page “white paper” provides a legal framework for killing a terrorist overseas, without violating his due process — even if the person is an American citizen.

Zardari, Raja vow to work for just resolution of Kashmir issue MUZAFFARABAD: A special joint session of the AJK Legislative Assembly and the AJK Council was held here on Tuesday to express solidarity with the people of occupied Kashmir.

In their messages read out at the session, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf reaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to stand by its Kashmiri brethren and find a just and peaceful solution to the longstanding Kashmir dispute. “On this day, we pay tribute to the valiant struggle of our Kashmiri brethren and assure them that Pakistan remains firmly committed to finding a just and peaceful solution to the dispute,” the president said in his message.

“Kashmiris have remained resolute and steadfast in the face of oppression spanning over more than six decades. Pakistan believes that the use of force, coercion and violation of basic human rights can never succeed in suppressing an indigenous struggle for a just cause. The perseverance of Kashmiris will bear fruit,” President Zardari said.

Prime Minister Ashraf said: “On behalf of the government and the people of Pakistan, I reaffirm Pakistan’s firm commitment to a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and protection of their fundamental rights. It demonstrates our commitment to support the just cause of the Kashmiri people.”

The messages were read out by Deputy Speaker Shaheen Kausar Dar who presided over the session. Speaker Sardar Ghulam Sadiq attended the session as Acting AJK President in the absence of President Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan.

Prime Minister Ashraf said the government of Pakistan would continue to extend its unwavering political, moral and diplomatic support to the just cause of the Kashmiri people to safeguard their right to self-determination.

Pakistan, he said, had always supported dialogue with India and initiated confidence building measures in good faith and anticipation that the same would mitigate the sufferings of Kashmiri people. “We also hope that these measures would

lead to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”

Leader of the Opposition Raja Farooq Haider regretted that neither the president nor the prime minister of Pakistan visited Muzaffarabad to express solidarity with the struggling Kashmiris.

“Any of the two must have come here so that not only we could speak out our hearts before him but also a real solidarity message would have gone across the dividing line,” he said.

The outspoken opposition leader said he considered himself a Pakistani by conviction, but not anyone’s ‘subject’. “I was dubbed a separatist, but I am least bothered about it. Let them go on saying it, but I won’t give up seeking the rights for Kashmiris.” Raja Farooq accused Kashmir Affairs Minister Manzoor Wattoo of “squandering resources of the AJK Council for election purposes” and urged the ruling party to stop the minister’s ‘injustices’. In his brief address, AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed praised the people and the government of Pakistan for expressing solidarity with the people of occupied Kashmir and supporting their just cause. He said Prime Minister Ashraf was scheduled to address the joint sitting, but his visit was suspended because of inclement weather.

APP adds: The Solidarity Day was observed across Kashmir with enthusiasm. It was a public holiday and people took out rallies, held seminars to highlight the longstanding dispute and vow to support the struggle of their oppressed brethren in Indianheld Kashmir. As a mark of respect to the valiant struggle of Kashmiris, one minute silence was observed at 10am. A human chain was formed on all five bridges — Mangla, Kohala, Dhalkot, Azad Pattan and Holar — and in Bararkot which connects AJK with Pakistan.

Interfaith community to speak out against Islamophobic speech at public institutions Ottawa ( February 4, 2013) The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), a national Muslim civil liberties organization, will be joined by members of Ottawa’s various faith communities to speak out against the legitimization of Islamophobia at public institutions.

Canadians across the country have written to voice their concerns about a scheduled appearance tonight by a foreign anti-Muslim campaigner, Gavin Boby, who has been invited to speak at the

Ottawa Public Library’s Main Branch by an organization called ACT! For Canada. Boby is a UKbased activist lawyer who works to prevent mosques from being built in communities.

See: Daily Mail UK – ‘Mosque buster’ says he can stop the ‘tide of Islam’ Several members of Ottawa’s faith communities will speak about the issue at a news conference just before Mr. Boby is scheduled to speak.

What: Interfaith Community News Con-

ference on Islamophobia Where: Outside of the Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch, 120 Metcalfe Street When: 6:00 p.m local Ottawa time.

Participants: The Reverend Dr. Meg Illman-White, Minister, Southminster United Church; Diana Ralph, Independent Jewish Voices, 613-3212765; Colin Stuart, Quaker Community, 613-565-6608,

613-290-6609; Imam Samy Metwally, Ottawa Muslim Association CAIR-CAN is a national, non-profit, grassroots organization striving to be a leading voice that enriches Canadian society through Muslim civic engagement and the promotion of human rights.

CONTACT: Ihsaan Gardee, CAIR-CAN Executive Director,613.254.9704; 613.853.4111

Enter tainment Can we, please, just leave him alone?

Shahrukh Khan is an icon. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia and the rest of the world – he’s an artist that does the job of crossing borders effortlessly. But he happens to be born an Indian and, by all accounts, at peace with his multiple identities.

So, when Lashkar-e-Taiba boss, Hafiz Saeed, whose new fondness for Hindi / Urdu cinema and actors has come as a bit of surprise to me, takes up cudgels for Shahrukh, and offers him security in Pakistan, one must question his motives.

On January 27, Saeed tweeted: Sharukh Khan Should come to Pakistan if he is being persecuted for his faith; Islam. We will welcome him with an open heart…

Saeed’s blind hatred for everything Indian could help place his remarks in context, but what about Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik, whose professed aim is to improve relations between Delhi and Islamabad?

On January 29, Malik said at a reception hosted by Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal in Islamabad that the government of India should provide security to Shahrukh: He (Shah Rukh) is born Indian and he would like to remain Indian, but I will request the government of India (to) please provide him security. I would like to request all Indian brothers and sisters and all those who are talking in a negative way about Shah Rukh, they should know he is a movie star.

But, no one was talking in a negative way. It was an article that Shahrukh wrote to which Saeed and later Rehman Malik appeared to be responding to. There weren’t any active threats or protests happening against Sharukh the Actor, or questions raised about his religious identity at this point of time.

And, then jumped in Indian Home Secretary R.K. Singh and Information Minister Manish Tewari to declare that India was quite capable of looking after the security of its own citizens: We are quite capable of looking after security of our own citizens…let him [Malik] worry about [the] security of his own [citizens, said Singh].

It was “irksome” to clarify a “non-existent” issue: Shahrukh himself went on to say: I would like to tell all those who are offering me unsolicited advice that we in India are extremely safe and happy. We have an amazing democratic, free and secular way of life.

He also said: I think some of the people have not even read it [the article] and are reacting to comments of people, who in turn have also not read it. I implore everyone here to read the article and convey through your respective mediums of communications all the good things that it expresses to youngsters and my fellow Indians.

To me, it seems to be a case of Hafiz Saeed wanting to create more trouble for Shahrukh Khan (and Indian Muslims), Rehman Malik joining the band without bothering to read what Shahrukh wrote and the Indian establishment responding in a very Indian-government way to what was being said in Islamabad. Whether Saeed can be directly linked to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks or not on the basis of evidence, the fact that he is the ideological fountainhead of “jihadi terror” in Pakistan cannot be disputed.

And, by continuing to play footsie with Saeed, the Pakistani establishment continues to raise questions about its intentions in dealing with mentors of terror like the Lashkar boss. By appearing on the same side as Hafiz Saeed, Rehman Malik didn’t do Shahrukh Khan or Pakistan any favours. Whatever problems Indian Muslims face, “help” from Mr. Malik isn’t going to add to their security. He probably knows that. But he should also know that succumbing to the demands of byte-and-camera journalism can do enormous damage to even larger-than-life personalities like Shahrukh Khan.

One can only wonder if Mr. Malik would be equally concerned about the “security” of a John Abraham or Hrithik Roshan.

Let’s not cast Shahrukh in this long-running India-Pakistan film entitled Tragedy and Farce.

Movie review: Ben Affleck’s surprise thriller Argo is a seemingly come-frombehind movie that took moviegoers and critics by storm.

With epics by Hollywood stalwarts such as Steven Speilberg’s Lincoln, or Katherine Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty vying for Oscar gold, Affleck feels like that punk kid trying to upstage the old guard.

But Argo has already become an award-season favourite, having won big at the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards and is expected to carry the Big Mo into the Academy Awards.

A quintessential life-is-stranger-than-fiction tale, Argo tells the true story of a daring, albeit ridiculous, escape plan involving six American hostages in Iran and an unorthodox CIA agent named Tony Mendez.

The movie opened on November 4, 1979 with images of furious Iranians in a spontaneous up-from-the-streets eruption against the yoke of US imperialism, who storm the US embassy in Tehran and take its employees hostage.

The protesters are seen churning to a slow boil outside, while inside, embassy employees feverishly destroy documents, as it dawns on them that the cavalry isn’t coming. They’re on their own.

But six members of the consular staff escape the embassy and eventually end up at Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor’s (Victor Garber) home where they are sheltered as supposed personal friends, knowing they might face public execution if they are caught.

This is where Tony Mendez steps in. While watching a few minutes of Planet of the Apes on TV, Mendez, the resident CIA exfiltration expert, contrives what agency head honchos grudgingly admit is “the best bad idea we’ve got”.

As part of the rescue mission, the six house guests would pose as a Canadian film crew who’ve travelled to Iran to scout a location for a science fiction epic. The plan would entail supplying them with fake Canadian passports and flying out from the airport right under the noses of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. As one skeptic observes, Mendez’s plan comes from the long-standing “so crazy it just might work” school of thought. It’s an enjoyable and thrilling movie, laced with a smart wit that depicts Hollywood at its most self deprecating best. Self deprecation being the appetizer of charm as Aaron Sorkin would say, but it sets its face disconcertingly against satire and mischief and veers into schmaltzy, American jingoism that is exe-

February 7, 2013

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Argo

cuted with just enough subtlety for it not to make you queasy.

Affleck, having already proved his directing chops in films such as Gone Baby Gone (2007) and The Town (2010), ups the ante handling one of the darker chapters of American history with velvet finesse. You can sense the tension, feel the beads of sweat, perhaps because those tensions haven’t gone away. And Affleck knows that.

As Mendez, Affleck elicits a scruffy sympathy, but it is John Goodman and Alan Arkin who steal the show. Their

chemistry in portraying veteran Hollywood wisemen is what provides Argo with its best moments. Witty and cynical, their chemistry is sublime and feels genuinely real.

A highlight of the film has to be Farshad Farahat’s dynamite performance as a frenetic Revolutionary Guardsman at the airport who vividly illustrates the mistrust of the US at the time and which has metastasized over decades from that moment on. But Hollywood has always had trouble with nuance when it comes to the Middle East. You’d think there would be room to acknowledge the complexity of Iran and the justice of many of its attitudes, but Argo at times feels like an attempt to reinforce old enmities and the cliché of the angry Iranian in the name of making an astute but ultimately hokey thriller.

Much of the movie shows Iran as a theocratic menace and Iranians as enraged mobs while it fails to provide any sane voices from Iran.

There is that maid in the Canadian embassy who despite all their suspicions turns out to be on the side of the hostages, which comes as too little, too late. It’s a welcome little nugget, but not enough to offset the rest of the movie. That said, Argo is by far Affleck’s best work. And while he, along with Katherine Bigelow, was snubbed in the Academy Award nominations in the director category, Aflleck has been winning accolade after accolade for his work, first at the SAG Awards, and just recently at the Director’s Guild of America.

Zeenat Aman to remarry at 60 Zeenat Aman, who has always created different standards in life and made her mark in Bollywood, is all set to surprise her fans again. According to the latest buzz, the actress at 60 is going to tie the knot again.

The actress got married to Mazhar Khan in 1985 and had two sons Azaan and Zahaan.

Zeenat went through troubled marriage and promised herself to never witness the courtship ever again after her husband passed away in 1998. However, life decided to spring a surprise on the actress and she met the man of her life.

Zeenat plans to keep things under the wrap for sometime, but according to sources the special person has become an important part of her life and belongs to Mumbai.

Even her children Azaan and Zahaan are excited about her marriage and have always been an encouraging force in her life.

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February 7, 2013

Tahirul Qadri announces more rallies Nawaz says ‘certain forces’ conspiring to delay elections

LAHORE - Tehrik-e-Minhajul Quran Chief Tahirul Qadri on Monday announced mass rallies in six major cities from February 15 in the second phase of his what he described as revolutionary struggle for electoral reforms in the country.

Addressing a press conference here, Qadri said marches would be organised in six cities – Rawalpinid, Faisalabad, Multan, Sukkur, Peshawar and Gujranwala.

The first meeting, he said, would be held in Gujranwala on February 15 after Friday prayers. “This is initial stage of our revolution’s second phase. Our movement is for the rights of 18 million oppressed people. Our struggle has created awareness among the masses this is why the government assured implementation of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution,” Qadri asserted.

The TMQ chief said they were going to the Supreme Court for the dissolution of the Election Commission according to the constitution and law. He said no one had the courage to hinder implementation of the agreement for electoral reforms.

Qadri said they did not want martial law or postponement of

elections. He lauded the Pakistan Army for supporting democracy and the Constitution and said it did not want imposition of martial law. He said he had not been in contact with General Kayani since day one.

TMQ chief said he was ready to lay down his life, but would not leave his objectives. He claimed that through his march, people had realised their real power. He said the present system in Pakistan was antipoor. He claimed his movement would be more effective and powerful than that of 1977.

The Pakistan Awami Tehrik chief said the first rally of the ‘revolution’ would be held in Gujranwala on February 15, second on February 17 in Faisalabad, third in Multan on 22nd and fourth in Peshawar on February 24.

Qadri said that his party did not want to get the upcoming general polls postponed. He reiterated the Pakistan Army was also in favour of maintaining the continuity of a democratic system in the country. He extended invitation to all political parties, including Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), to participate in the rallies.

Bangladesh politician sentenced to life for war crimes

DHAKA: A Bangladeshi court sentenced a senior Islamist opposition official to life in prison Tuesday for mass murder and crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Abdul Quader Molla, 64, the fourth highest ranked leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, is the first politician to be found guilty by the International Crimes Tribunal, a muchcriticised domestic court based in Dhaka.

Molla cried “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater) and said all the charges were false after the presiding judge Obaidul Hassan delivered the verdict in a crowded court, blanketed with heavy security.

The judgement sparked protests by Jamaat, the country’s largest Islamic party which enforced a nationwide strike Tuesday in anticipation of the conviction. It warned it would resist “at any cost a government blueprint” to execute its leaders.

“He deserved death sentence because of the gravity of the

crimes. But the judge gave him life imprisonment,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said, adding Molla “had directly participated” in the killing of more than 350 people near Dhaka.

The verdict is the second to have been handed down by the tribunal. On January 21 a top TV preacher, an ex-Jamaat official, was sentenced to death in absentia for murder and genocide.

The judge in Molla’s case refused a prosecution bid to try him for genocide.

Molla’s lawyer Nazim Momen said they would appeal the verdict as it was “politically motivated”. Ten other opposition figures — including the entire leadership of Jamaat and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — stand accused of war crimes. Both Jamaat and BNP have labelled the cases “show trials” aimed at barring the leaders from upcoming polls. International rights groups have questioned the proceedings.

KARACHI: Chief of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif, said on Tuesday that ‘certain forces’ were conspiring to delay the elections, DawnNews reported.

Nawaz, who was speaking to the media in Jeddah, added that postponing the 2013 polls was against the interests of the nation. He said his party would not allow for such a delay to take place, and that the elections would take place as per schedule. The PML-N chief’s statements on a ‘conspiracy’ to delay the elections come in the wake of similar statements from Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Senator Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

He further told reporters that overseas Pakistanis should be allowed to vote in the upcoming general elections and that it was necessary to pass legislation in this regard.

Nawaz added that the incumbent government was reluctant to pass legisla-

tion which would enable overseas Pakistanis to vote.

Last week, Law Minister Farooq H Naek had told the Senate that while overseas Pakistanis had the right to vote, absence of a suitable mechanism for the purpose would render it meaningless, at least for the upcoming general election.

He had stated that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had enrolled as voters 4.3 million Pakistanis living abroad who possessed national identity cards. But they would be able to cast their votes in the constituencies where they had been registered, for which they must come to Pakistan.

Syrian Opp throws ball in Assad’s court DAMASCUS - Syria’s opposition chief urged President

German city of Munich. “We had 45 (minutes) to an hour

operations against rebels, who he branded “tools” of the Jew-

Bashar al-Assad on Monday to respond positively to a call for dialogue and to delegate his deputy to end 22 months of warfare that has cost tens of thousands of lives.“The ball is now in the regime’s court.

They will either say yes or no,” Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib told pan-Arab channel AlJazeera, following up on his surprise announcement last week that he was ready for talks with the Damascus regime - subject to conditions, including the release of 160,000 detainees.He later elaborated, telling Al-Arabiya news channel he was ready to meet Assad’s deputy, Vice President Faruq alSharaa.“Since the start of the crisis, Mr Sharaa has seen that things are not going in the right direction,” said Khatib.

“If the regime accepts the idea, I ask it to delegate Faruq alSharaa for us to hold discussions with him.”Assad last month announced he was ready for talks with the opposition but ruled out meeting groups such as Khatib’s National Coalition which back armed rebels seeking to overthrow his regime.Opposition groups, including the National Coalition, have in the past demanded Assad step down before peace talks can begin.

“Doctor Bashar, this country is in grave danger, come out of your bubble, if only for a moment. Look into the eyes of your children and you will recover some of your humanity,” Khatib said, addressing Assad by the term adopted by state media and his supporters.

“We can help each other in the interest” of the people, Khatib said. “The regime needs to take a clear position. We will extend our hands for the sake of the people, and in order to help the regime leave in peace.” Some opposition figures have denounced Khatib’s proposal as traitorous. But he rejected the criticism and said: “Our people are dying, and we will not allow that.”His comments came as Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran would continue talks with Khatib following a preliminary meeting Sunday on the sidelines of a security conference in the southern

discussion which was very fruitful... and we committed ourselves to continuing this discussion,” Salehi said in Berlin.Khatib also meet in Munich on Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who while expressing an interest in “maintaining regular contact” with the opposition, said the dissidents’ insistence on Assad going was “the main reason for the continuation of the Syrian tragedy.”Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has implicitly confirmed that the Jewish state staged the air strike on Syria, following reports of a raid which Damascus said targeted a military complex near the capital.On Monday, his Syrian counterpart Fahd al-Freij said the Israeli raid was nothing more than “retaliation” for successful army

ish state. “When the Israeli enemy saw that its tools were

being pursued, it responded to our military operations against armed groups,” Freij told state television.The January 30 air strike targeted surface-to-air missiles and an adjacent military complex believed to house chemical agents, according to a US official.Fresh violence on Monday killed at least 81 people across Syria, including six children who died as regime warplanes raided the outskirts of the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.And a three-yearold child and his 17-year-old brother were killed in army shelling of the northern province of Raqa, while at least 13 insurgents died in fierce battles in parts of Damascus province.

February 7, 2013

SPORTS LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has been named skipper of the Pakistan ‘A’ side for two one-dayers and a T20 match against Afghanistan which will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium from Feb 11 to 13.

The Afghanistan team will also play three one-day matches against regional teams, which have also been announced.

Afridi, who is going through a lean period and has been confined to only the Pakistan T20 squad, had asked the selectors to give him a chance against Afghanistan in order to regain his form.

He has thus, been named as captain so that he can get back in form ahead of the selection of the Pakistan team for the upcoming One-day International and Twenty20 International series against South Africa, which will be played after the ongoing Test series.

Besides Afridi, other prominent players named in the ‘A’ team are Umar Akmal (both oneday and T20), Fawad Alam (one-day), Kamran Akmal (only one-day), Wahab Riaz (one-day), Ahmed Shehzad (T20), Umar Amin (one-day and T20), Zulfiqar Babar (one-day and T20).

Ahead of the series against Pakistan ‘A’, Afghanistan face a team comprising players from

Afridi to lead Pakistan ‘A’ against Afghanistan

Karachi and Hyderabad on Feb 6 at the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad.

The Afghans face Pakistan ‘A’ in the opening one-dayer on Feb 12 before squaring off

They then face off against a team made up of players from Multan and Bahawalpur on Feb 8 at the Multan Cricket Stadium before squaring off against a combined team of Rawalpindi and Faisalabad on Feb 10 at the Gaddafi Stadium.

again a day later. The T20 game will be played on Feb 13.

Squads: Pakistan ‘A’: Both one-day and T20 teams: Umar

Pakistan, South Africa women clash in must-win contest CUTTACK - With a Super Six berth at stake, the struggling teams of Pakistan and South Africa will clash in a do-or-die Group B women cricket World

Cup match in Cuttack on Tuesday. With two defeats each, both Pakistan and South Africa are facing early exit from the tournament.Since it will be their last group stage match, the loser will be sent crashing from the event while the winner will move to the next stage. Pakistan have more to

worry than the Proteas as neither their batting nor bowling has clicked.They managed meagre scores of 84 and 104 in the encounters against Australia and New Zealand respectively and the bowlers too failed to make an impression. South Africa though had been at least competitive against Australia although they were out-batted by the Kiwis in their opening match.Bismah Maroof is the only batswoman in the Pakistan team to have offered some resistance to the rival bowlers. Captain Sana Mir's failure in the toporder has hit them badly and they need their skipper to lead from the front. Either the top-order or the middle-order players have batted for South Africa.Trisha Chetty and Marizanna Cap delivered against Australia while Susan Benade, Cri-zelda Brits and skipper Mugnin du Preez batted well for South Africa against the Kiwis. It will be difficult for Pakistan bowlers to stop the in-form Proteas, who undoubtedly will start favourites.

Akmal, Ali Waqas, Umar Amin, Shahid Afridi (captain), Zulfiqar Babar, Adnan Rasool.

One-day: Shan Masood, Khurram Manzoor, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal, Anwar Ali, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah. T20: Ahmed Shahzad, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Asad Ali, Ahmed Jamal, Ali Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Imran Khan.

Regional teams: Karachi Blues, Karachi Whites and Hyderabad: Shahid Afridi (captain), Khurram Manzoor, Rizwan Ahmad, Aqeel Anjum, Mohammad Waqas, Akbar-ur-Rehman, Mir Ali Talpur, Mohtashim Ali, Atif Maqbool, Faraz Ahmed Khan, Zahid Mahmood, Mohammad Sami, Tabish Khan, Zafar Ali, Fawad Alam.

Multan and Bahawalpur: Kamran Hussain (captain), Naved Yasin, Sohaib Maqsood, Usman Tariq, Usman Liaquat, Gulraiz Sadaf, Zulfiqar Babar, Ahsan Nazir, Mohammad Talha, Rizwan Haider, Shahan Akram, Rehan Rafiq, Imranullah Aslam, Zain Abbas.Faisalabad and Rawalpindi: Sohail Tanvir (captain), Awais Zia, Asif Ali, Abid Ali, Umar Waheed, Hammad Azam, Naeem Anjum, Babar Azam, Zohaib Ahmed, Hasan Mahmood, Sami Aslam, Samiullah Khan Niazi, Nasir Malik, Mohammad Nawaz, Usman Qadir, Asad Ali.

‘Pakistan need more practice against new ball’

JOHANNESBURG: Pakistan have 10 days to come up with an answer over how to counter South Africa’s new-ball bowling attack ahead of the second Test at Newlands.

Captain Misbah-ul-Haq said their inability to find a way to deal with the new ball was the major factor in their 211-run defeat in the first Test on Monday.

It will be of little comfort to the tourists that the next Test will be played in Cape Town where South Africa bowled Australia out for 47 in November 2011 and New Zealand for 45 just last month. “We will try and get more practice in around the new ball. If you can get through the new ball then I think we can score runs in South African conditions,” Misbah told reporters.

The tourists will play a two-day practice game against a Western Province Invitational XI in Cape Town on Feb 10 and 11, a chance at least to test this new resolve even if Czech Republic reached the quarter-finals. The Czechs led Switzerland 2-1 overnight against vastly inferior opposition. after Berdych and Lukas Rosol beat Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, Their second innings total of 268 6-7 (3/7), 24-22 in the longest-ever Davis Cup match, an exhausting doubles which on Monday gives Pakistan some realasted a minute over seven hours.World number six son to be cheerful off the back of Berdych and Wawrinka, the 17th-ranked player, returned their record Test low of 49 in their on Sunday for the first of the reverse singles in Geneva first effort with the bat. and three hours 15 minutes later, it was the Czech who “It gives a little bit of hope, the triumphed again, claiming a 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) win. fact that we scored some runs. All "Stan is one of the players who I don't like to play. He has these players will have learnt from a dangerous game," said Berdych, of a player who also the last three and a half days. It is featured in a five-hour defeat to Novak Djokovic at the about applying yourself and getting Australian Open last month."The match on Saturday will good starts,” Misbah said. go down in history. You play tennis for moments like Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore this," added Berdych, who won all three rubbers he has urged his players to be positive played this weekend and spent almost 13 hours on court. in the face of the South African atWawrinka insisted that despite his three matches -- he had tack. also won his opening singles on Friday -- he would have Asked whether the team would been able to play a fifth set on Sunday."I care about this competition and love to play carry forward any psychological for my country," said Wawrinka, who was Switzerland's top player in the absence of scars from the first innings capitulaRoger Federer. "We were really close. tion on day two, Whatmore says the I was up in the tiebreak today but Tomas played better and showed why he players have accepted the circumis number six in the world."The Czech Republic will now travel to Kazakhstan in stances and have moved on. “I would April for the quarter-finals. Kazakhstan, who beat Austria 3-1 in their World Group like to think it does not do too much clash on Sunday in Astana, knocked the Czechs out in the first round in 2011. In psychological damage,” he said.

Turin, Italy beat Croatia to make the quarter-finals for the first time since 1998.Italy “You try to look at the facts and not had led 2-1 overnight but Marin Cilic won his second singles match of the tie by easget too emotional about it. It was two ing past Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3, 7-5. Fabio Fognini then saw off Ivan Dodig 4-6, 6hours of relentless pace and swing.

4, 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the winning point.

They never took the pressure off. It

Spain crash out to Canada as USA battle to survive PARIS - Short-handed five-time champions Spain crashed out of the Davis Cup Sunday when Canada completed a famous World Group triumph while 32-time winners United States edged Brazil in a dogfight.Milos Raonic secured the crucial winning point in Canada's 3-2 victory in Vancouver by beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to send Canada into their first Davis Cup quarter-final. They will tackle Italy in April for a place in the semi-finals.Missing top players Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Verdasco, Spain, winners of the title three times in the last five years, and the 2012 runners-up, had been 2-0 down on Friday. Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez kept their hopes alive with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 victory over Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in Saturday's doubles.But Raonic, the world number 15, was unstoppable on Sunday firing 22 aces and 55 winners past the hapless GarciaLopez, the world 82, as Spain were beaten in the opening round for the first time since 2006. Albert Ramos beat Frank Dancevic 7-5, 6-4 in a dead rubber to create the final margin.The United States escaped an upset when Sam Querrey rallied to beat Thiago Alves 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) and give the Americans a 3-2 triumph. Querrey fired 26 aces for a perfect weekend in his first Davis Cup home tie. Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci battled back to defeat John Isner 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3, in Sunday's opener at Jacksonville, Florida.Isner fired 22 aces in the clash but also committed 81 unforced errors. The US had been 2-0 ahead on Friday before twins Bob and Mike Bryan suffered a stunning loss in the doubles -- just the third of their Davis Cup career -- to Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, going down 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The Americans will meet 2010 champions Serbia, who had already defeated Belgium.Tomas Berdych beat Stanislas Wawrinka in a battle of Davis Cup ironmen as defending champions

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February 7, 2013

India gang-rape victim’s companion to testify NEW DELHI: The companion of an Indian medical student who died after being gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi was to begin giving evidence on Tuesday in the trial of five adults accused of her murder, his father said.

The 28-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, arrived at the sessions court in New Delhi in a wheelchair, according to an AFP correspondent, and was expected to be the first prosecution witness to testify.

Although he did not speak to reporters, his father confirmed that his son would give evidence in the trial of the five men who have all denied murder, rape and robbery charges.

A sixth defendant is being tried separately as a juvenile.

“My son will go to any lengths to ensure that the guilty are punished,” the father told AFP as the two of them entered the courtroom in the Saket district. “He will cooperate and is prepared to answer any questions posed by the defence,” he added.

The 23-year-old medical student

died in a Singapore hospital on December 29 from massive internal injuries she sustained during the bus assault a fortnight earlier which caused outrage across India. She and her male companion had spent the evening at the cinema and were lured onto the off-duty bus after failing to flag down an autorickshaw to take them home.

As well as taking turns to rape the medical student and violating her with a rusty iron bar, the group attacked her companion so badly that he is still unable to walk properly.

He is the main witness in a case that is being held in a special fast-track court.

The judge has banned all reporting of proceedings inside the courtroom and ordered lawyers not to speak to journalists.

Tailor routs millionaire in PTI election KOHAT, Feb 4: A tailor has been elected district president of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) by defeating a millionaire in the intra-party elections.

According to results of PTI intra-party elections, Hamayun Pehlawan, a tailor by profession, and Mohammad Arif, who sells snacks at his stall, have been elected district president and Lachi tehsil president, respectively, of the party.

PTI chairman Imran Khan while congratulating the new office-bearers expressed the hope that candidates belonging to middle class would be fielded in the general elections to steer the country out of the present crises. He said that he would award tickets to those candidates, who could not be corrupted and could resolve problems

of people.

According to observers, election of poor candidates in the PTI intra-party polls has shocked local leaders of other political parties.

TMA: The Kohat Bar Association has issued a legal notice to the tehsil municipal officer (TMO) for appointing non-local youth instead of local people on vacant posts in the municipal administration.

The president of lawyers action committee, Samiullah Khan, and secretary general Masoodur Rehman mentioned in the notice the names and designations of the three persons, who were transferred from Peshawar Town-III and appointed on different posts in Kohat TMA.

In this regard a meeting was held wherein they asked the TMO to remove immediately the outsiders as it was the right of the local people to serve in TMA otherwise legal action would be taken against him.

Meanwhile, the residents of Shakardarra have demanded of the oil and gas companies, working in the area, to provide them with jobs.

The elders of the area set a 10-day deadline for the companies to provide jobs to local people otherwise they would launch a protest against them.

Afghan peace talks Pakistan’s urgent priority: Sherry

WASHINGTON, Feb 4: Pakistan treats the Afghan peace process as an “urgent priority”, Ambassador Sherry Rehman said on Monday as the US media reported that mistrust among key players had floundered talks with the Taliban.

“Pakistan looks clearly to an Afghan-led roadmap for reconciliation, understands that this is an urgent priority,” said Pakistan’s envoy to the US, rejecting insinuations that Islamabad was trying to delay the talks.

“Pakistan also has shown support at the highest level for any track of dialogue that the Afghans deem important,” she added.

The US media reported on Monday that Mulla Omar has recently made a surprise offer to share power in a post-war Afghanistan. But “mistrust and confusion” among key players had floundered the peace effort, the report added.

The United States hopes to reach some peaceful arrangement for transfer of power in Afghanistan before withdrawing its forces from the country by 2014.

“Although the Taliban appear more ready to talk than ever before, peace talks remain elusive because of infighting among a rising number of interlocutors,” reported the Associated Press, quoting official sources in Kabul.

The report said that Taliban leaders had contacted representatives from 30 to 40 different countries, but the relationship among the key players — the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan — was “marked by distrust that keeps tugging momentum away from the peace process”.

The report claimed that “finding a path to the negotiating table” was also a main topic in a series of meetings among Afghan, Pakistani and British leaders in London on Monday.

President Karzai recently complained that the West was using the peace talks as a lever against his government. The US media also reported that both Kabul and Washington were also frustrated with Pakistan for not monitoring the activities of Taliban prisoners it released in recent months.

Pakistan counters this allegation by pointing out that it freed the prisoners at the request of the Afghan government and doesn’t have the resources to keep tabs on them.

The US media also reported that Kabul had asked for the release of the Taliban’s former second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, but Washington urged Islamabad not to release him.

But Ambassador Rehman said categorically: “Pakistan has been supporting all discussions that may lead to an Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process.” The Pakistani effort, she added, aimed at strengthening joint efforts to address extremism and advance regional peace and stability.

“President Zardari has made his government’s full commitment to the project of peace in Afghanistan by assuring strenuous and sustained efforts to maintain the momentum of the process,” said the Pakistani envoy.

“US officials also appreciate that Pakistan continues to demonstrate a willingness to cooperate by taking concrete steps that the Afghan High Peace Council asks for,” she said.

February 7, 2013

11

People of Timbuktu save manuscripts from invaders TIMBUKTU: For eight days after the militants set fire to one of the world’s most precious collections of ancient manuscripts, the alarm inside the building blared. It was an eerie, repetitive beeping, a cry from the innards of the injured library that echoed around the world.

The al Qaeda-linked extremists who ransacked the institute wanted to deal a final blow to Mali, whose northern half they had held for 10 months before retreating in the face of a French-led military advance.

They also wanted to deal a blow to the world, especially France, whose capital houses the headquarters of Unesco, the organisation which recognised and elevated Timbuktu’s monuments to its list of World Heritage sites.

So as they left, they torched the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, aiming to destroy a heritage of 30,000 manuscripts that date back to the 13th century. ”These manuscripts are our identity,” said Abdoulaye Cisse, the library’s acting director. ”It’s through these manuscripts that we have been able to reconstruct our own history, the history of Africa.

People think that our history is only oral, not written. What proves that we had a written history are these documents.”

The first people who spotted the column of black smoke on Jan 23 were the residents whose homes surround the library, and they ran to tell the centre’s employees. The bookbinders, manuscript restorers and security guards who work for the institute broke down and cried.

Just about the only person who didn’t was Cisse, the acting director, who for months had harboured a secret. Starting last year, he and a handful of associates had conspired to save the documents so crucial to this 1,000-year-old town.

In April, when the rebels preaching a radical version of Islam first rolled into this city swirling with sand, the institute was in the process of moving its collection into a new, state-of-the-art building. The fighters commandeered the new center, turning it into a dormitory for one of their units of foreign fighters, Cisse said. They didn’t realise only about 2,000 manuscripts had been moved there, the bulk of the collection remaining at the old library, he said.

The militants came in, as they did in Afghanistan, with their own, severe interpretation of Islam, intent on rooting out what they saw as the veneration of idols instead of the pure worship of

Allah. During their 10-month-rule, they eviscerated much of the identity of this storied city, starting with the mausoleums of their saints, which were reduced to rubble.

The turbaned fighters made women hide their faces and blotted out their images on billboards. They closed hair salons, banned makeup and forbade the music for which Mali is known.

Their final act before leaving was to go

here. ”I have spent my life protecting these manuscripts. This has been my life’s work. And I had to come to terms with the fact that I could no longer protect them here,” said Alhadi. ”It hurt me deeply to see them go, but I took strength knowing that they were being sent to a safe place.”

It took two weeks in all to spirit out the bulk of the collection, around 28,000 texts housed in the old building covering the subjects of theol-

through the exhibition room in the institute, as well as the whitewashed laboratory used to restore the age-old parchments. They grabbed the books they found and burned them.

However, they didn’t bother searching the old building, where an elderly man named Abba Alhadi has spent 40 of his 72 years on earth taking care of rare manuscripts. The illiterate old man, who walks with a cane and looks like a character from the Bible, was the perfect foil for the militants.

They wrongly assumed that the city’s European-educated elite would be the ones trying to save the manuscripts, he said. So last August, Alhadi began stuffing the thousands of books into empty rice and millet sacks.

At night, he loaded the millet sacks onto the type of trolley used to cart boxes of vegetables to the market. He pushed them across town and piled them into a lorry and onto the backs of motorcycles, which drove them to the banks of the Niger River. From there, they floated down to the central Malian town of Mopti in a pinasse, a narrow, canoe-like boat. Then cars drove them from Mopti, the first government-controlled town, to Mali’s capital, Bamako, over 1,000 kilometres from

ogy, astronomy, geography and more.

There was nothing they could do, however, for the 2,000 documents that had already been transferred to the new library, to its exhibition and restoration rooms, and to a basement vault.

Cisse took solace knowing that most of the texts in the new library had been digitised. Even so, when his staff came to tell him about the fire, he felt a constriction in his chest.

The new library is housed inside a modern building, whose sheer walls are made to resemble the mud-walled homes of Timbuktu. Cisse braved his fear to slip through the back gate on the morning of Jan 24.

The alarm was still screaming. The empty manuscript boxes were strewn on the ground outside in the brick courtyard. All that was left of the books was a soft, feathery ash.

Cisse then entered the library. The glass cases in the exhibit room were empty. So was the manuscript restoration lab, its white tables blanketed in dust. The manuscripts left out were gone.

But the librarian knew the bulk of the books was in a storage room in the basement. With the alarm still screaming, he walked down the flight

of pitch-black stairs.

The room had been locked shut. And he was too afraid to open it, because the mayor of Timbuktu had warned residents that the retreating rebels had mined the town and booby-trapped strategic buildings.

So he waited.

On Jan 28, a column of more than 600 French troops rolled into the city.

The same day, they came to inspect the institute. They spraypainted in pink the word “OK” in front of each room they cleared, working their way to the basement. They pummeled the locked door. When the door slapped open, Cisse felt as if his chest was about to explode.

They beamed a flashlight into the darkness. In the pools of light, he made out the little bundles of parchments sitting on the rafters. They were where they had left them nearly a year ago, in a room the militants had never discovered.

The director-general of UNESCO toured the damaged library this weekend, alongside French President Francois Hollande, who made a triumphant visit to Timbuktu. She described the manuscripts as a global treasure. “They are part of our world heritage,” said Irina Bokova. “They are important for all of Africa, as well as for the entire world.” Cisse estimates that what was lost in the end is less than five per cent of the Ahmed Baba collection. Which texts were burned is not yet known. He stresses that all the manuscripts, which date back over 700 years, are irreplaceable. They are hand-written in a variety of scripts, and include ornate illustrations embedded within the text.

The collection is itself only a portion of the estimated 101,820 manuscripts stored in private libraries here, the product of the confluence of caravan routes which passed through Timbuktu and fostered an extensive trading network, including in books.

Among the most valuable are the Tarikh al-Sudan and the Tarikh al-Fattash, chronicles which describe life in Timbuktu during the Songhai empire in the 16th century.

“We lost a lot of our riches. But we were also able to save a great deal of our riches, and for that I am overcome with joy,” Cisse said. “These manuscripts represent who we are…. I saved these books in the name of Timbuktu first, because I am from Timbuktu. Then I did it for my country. And also for all of humanity. Because knowledge is for all of humanity.”

Investigators expose global football fixing scam THE HAGUE: Hundreds of football matches have been fixed in a global betting scam run from Singapore, police said on Monday, in a blow to the image of the world’s most popular sport and a multi-billion dollar industry.

About 680 suspicious matches including qualifying games for the World Cup and European Championships, and the Champions League for top European club sides, have been identified in an inquiry by European police forces, the European anti-crime agency Europol, and national prosecutors. “This is a sad day for European football,” said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol. “This is now an integrity issue for football. Those responsible for running the games should hear the warnings.”

The world’s most popular sport, football is played on every continent. The World Cup and Europe’s Champions League are beamed worldwide and generate billions of dollars for national associations, clubs and broadcasters.

The matches in question were played between 2008 and 2011, the investigators said. About 380 of the suspicious matches were played in Europe, and a further 300 were identified in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Corruption linked to Asian betting syndicates and organized crime has long been seen as a threat to the game, but Monday’s announcement underlines the scale of the problem.

Ralf Mutschke, Director of Security for world football’s governing body FIFA, said sports bodies and prosecutors needed to work more closely together.

“The support of law enforcement bodies, legal investigations, and ultimately tougher sanctions are required, as currently there is low risk and high gain potential for the fixers,” said Mutschke,

a German former police officer.

Last year the head of an anti-corruption watchdog estimated that $1 trillion was gambled on sport each year – or $3 billion a day – with most coming from Asia and wagered on football matches.

SINGAPORE CONNECTION A German investigator described a network involving couriers ferrying bribes around the world, paying off players and referees in the fixing which involved about 425 corrupt officials, players and serious criminals in 15 countries.

“We have evidence for 150 of these cases, and the operations were run out of Singapore with bribes of up to 100,000 euros paid per match,” said Friedhelm Althans, chief investigator for police in the German city of Bochum.

Singapore police said last month that they were helping Italian authorities to investigate alleged football match fixing involving a Singaporean, but said he had not been arrested or charged with any offence there.

German investigators said international matches were implicated as were games in Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia, Slovenia and Canada. Suspicious

games had also been identified in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Fourteen people have already been convicted in Germany in connection with the investigation. Austrian prosecutors are investigating 20 people, including players, on suspicion of fraud and money laundering linked to fixing and betting on football matches, a spokesman for prosecutors in the city of Graz said.

Investigators said no names of players or clubs would be released while the investigation proceeded. However, the fixing also included top flight national league matches in several European countries, as well as two Champions League matches, including one played in Britain.

UEFA, European football’s governing body, said it expected to receive further information from Europol in the coming days.

“As part of the fight against the manipulation of matches, UEFA is already cooperating with the authorities on these serious matters as part of its zero tolerance policy towards match-fixing in our sport,” it added.

England’s Football Association said it was not aware of any “credible reports into suspi-

cious Champions League fixtures in England.”

Football has been affected by bribery scandals in the past, with the English game suffering in the 1960s and Italian football hit by a series of fixing cases in recent years.

The growth of televised sport and technology that allows gamblers to bet during a match have created fresh opportunities for fraudsters with links to organized crime.

Corruption goes beyond football. Three Pakistani international cricketers were jailed in Britain in 2011 for their part in a scam where players agree to rig a specific part of a game, so-called “spot fixing”.

TIP OF THE ICEBERG Althans said that while German police had concrete proof of 8 million euros ($11 million) in gambling profits from the match fixing, this was probably the tip of the iceberg.

Investigators described how gang members immediately subordinate to the Singaporebased leader of a worldwide network were each tasked with maintaining contacts with corrupt players and officials in their parts of the world.

Laszlo Angeli, a Hungarian prosecutor, gave an example of how the scam worked.

“The Hungarian member, who was immediately below the Singapore head, was in touch with Hungarian referees who could then attempt to swing matches at which they officiated around the world,” he said.

Accomplices would then place bets on the internet or by phone with bookmakers in Asia, where bets that would be illegal in Europe were accepted. “One fixed match might involve up to 50 suspects in 10 countries on separate continents,” said Althans.

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February 7, 2013

Pakistan calls for end to rights violations in Kashmir ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Monday reassured the Kashmiri people of political, moral and diplomatic support for their just cause – for the right of selfdetermination – as enshrined in the UN Charter and the relevant UN Resolutions, and called for an end to human rights violations in the occupied Valley.

In their messages on Kashmir Solidarity Day, President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Pervaiz Ashraf paid rich tribute to valiant Kashmiri martyrs who laid down their lives in their quest for realising their inalienable right to choose their destiny by themselves.

The two leaders called for an end to human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir, stating that Pakistan had demonstrated seriousness of purpose and sincerity in resuming the dialogue process with the neighbouring state.

Reiterating Pakistan’s principled stand on Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Ashraf said “the government of Pakistan and its people reaffirm their commitment to the just cause of the Kashmiris and their right to self-determination”. He promised that the Kashmiris would continue getting wholehearted moral, diplomatic and political support for their struggle from Pakistan. “We will stand by them until the realisation of their demands; they can count on us in their hour of anguish,” the premier said giving a solemn pledge to the Kashmiri people.

Ashraf said 5th February was observed as Kashmir Solidarity Day by the people of Pakistan every year to reaffirm “our steadfast resolve to stand by our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their valiant struggle to achieve their legitimate right of self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN

resolutions. It demonstrates our commitment to support the just cause of the Kashmiri people”.

The premier further said the Kashmir dispute held the key to durable peace in South Asian region and “Pakistan feels that a sustainable resolution of the problem would only be possible if the aspirations of the Kashmiris were taken into account”. In his message, President Zardari noted the Kashmiris had remained resolute and steadfast in the face of oppression spanning over six decades. Pakistan believed that the use of force, coercion and violation of basic human rights could never succeed in suppressing an indigenous struggle, he said, and hoped that perseverance would bear fruit. The president reassured the Kashmiris that Pakistan remained firmly committed to finding a just and peaceful solution of the dispute.

In his opening remarks at the 48th Session of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Council at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Prime Minister Ashraf said Pakistan and India stand at the crossroads of the history. “The Kashmiri people are looking up to the two countries to fulfill their obligations by allowing them to exercise their right to determine their fu-

ture.” Pakistan, the prime minister affirmed, had conveyed to India that it seeks friendly, cooperative and good neighborly relations with it. Pakistan had emphasised on the need to invest more on building trust and infusing greater political skill in resolving all the outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, he added.

He recalled that Pakistan had always supported dialogue with India, saying, “We have initiated CBMs (confidence building measures) in good faith and hope that the CBMs would mitigate the suffering of the Kashmiri people. We also hope that the CBMs would lead to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”

The Kashmiri people, the prime minister said, were engaged in a legitimate struggle for the implementation of the United Nation’s Security Council resolutions. “The people of Indian-held Kashmir continue to render great sacrifices for the Kashmir cause,” he noted, “Pakistan feels that it should be uninterrupted as it is important to sustain this process to make it result-oriented.”

The session passed unanimously a proposal for constitution of a public accounts commit-

tee and approved the nomination of Muhammad Mehboob as its first chairman. Muhammad Nadeem and Babar Zulqarnain were approved as its members.

The council also considered and passed unanimously “The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council Removal from Service (Special Powers) (Repeal) Act 2013”.

Earlier, the council offered fateha for the martyrs who laid down their lives in the heroic struggle for freedom in Indian-held Kashmir.

Those attended the meeting included AJK Acting President Sardar Ghulam Sadiq Khan, AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Minister for Kashmir Affairs Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, Minister for Law and Justice Farooq H Naek, MNA Tanzeela Aamir Cheema, MNA Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur and other senior officials.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief and Kashmir Committee chairman Maulana Fazlur Rehman meanwhile said that negligence of the ruling leadership over the Kashmir issue could lead to disappointment among the Kashmiri people.

Addressing a news conference at the Parliament House, Rehman said that despite Indian aggression on the line of control (LoC), Pakistan was blamed for antagonism. He said Indian hostilities in occupied-Kashmir had touched the peaks and bloodshed on a daily basis was chalking a new history of barbarism.

He urged the media to appropriately highlight the viewpoint of the suppressed Kashmiri people and play a pivotal role to help them get their inborn self-determination right.

Kashmir girl band quits after fatwa France, US to pressure Iran on N-drive SRINAGAR: An all-girl teenage rock band from Indian-administered Kashmir has decided to split after the region’s top Muslim cleric declared their

music to be “un-Islamic”, their manager said Tuesday. Pragaash, a three-piece group whose members are still in high school, had been the target of an online hate campaign ever since winning a “Battle of the Bands” contest in December.

But after initially insisting they would continue making music, they have now called it quits after the Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Bashiruddin Ahmad, branded them as “indecent” and issued a fatwa calling for them to

disband. “After the fatwa the girls decided to quit and disband,” Adnan Mattoo, the band’s manager, said in brief comments to AFP. The mother of one of the girls confirmed that her daughter had decided to leave the band, saying she was staying with relatives outside Kashmir until the fuss died down.

“My daughter had been depressed and irritable so we decided to send her away to another city for some time,” said the mother, who did not want to give her name.

The comments by the grand mufti have been widely criticised with the state’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah among those calling on the band not to be intimidated into giving up on music.

Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority state and hardline Islamists have a reputation for trying to impose Islamic law, forcing the closure of cinemas and liquor stores with the onset of an anti-India insurgency in 1990.

US to continue working for peace in Afghanistan: Kerry Washington DC- The United States would continue to work to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan, the new US Secretary of State, John Kerry said, welcoming a group of Afghan musicians in one of his first public appearance as the top American diplomat. “I think you all know that we have very very high hopes from your country that you can find

peace and stability and we would continue to work with you to try to do that,” Kerry told young visiting members of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) who are here on their first ever trip to the United States, during which they are scheduled to perform both in New York and Washington DC. Kerry made an unscheduled appearance at the auditorium of the State Department headquarters at the State Department, a few hours after formally taking over the position of the Secretary of State.

He was sworn in on Friday replacing Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State.

“I do not have a lot to time to talk to you all. I had the privilege of travelling to Afghanistan many times,” Kerry said in his brief interaction with the members of the Afghan Youth Orchestra.

“Music is the international language of peace,” said

the Secretary of State welcoming the young Afghan musicians to the State Department and described them as Ambassadors of Peace.

“We are happy to welcome you here as Ambassadors of Peace. I am particularly happy to welcome you here because when I was of your age, I played in a rock band,” he said amidst applause from the audience. “You can actually go to our youtube and hear some of our music. It is called the electrics. And I still play guitar. When I go home I love to play guitar and love to see all these string instruments here,” he said.

Kerry also sat down for a few minutes listening to the enthralling music from these young Afghan musicians. Impressed by their performance, he went and met each one of them and was seen talking to a few of them before he left.

Founded by Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, ANIM is both a source and a symbol of Afghanistan’s progress, exemplifying the restoration of Afghanistan’s rich culture in a country where the Taliban had repressed all forms of musical expression, the State Department said. “Many of the teachers at the Institute are private American citizens who have chosen to live in Kabul in order to bring the gift of music to these young children,” it said. Funded by the US Embassy in Kabul, the World Bank, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan, the tour from February 2 to 17 will showcase the extraordinary success of ANIM. These concerts will feature the Afghan Youth Orchestra (AYO) and other ANIM ensembles performing orchestral and chamber music on both Western and traditional instruments; collaborations with their contemporaries from American youth orchestras; and guest appearances by award-winning Russian violinist Mikhail Simonyan.

PARIS/BERLIN - France and the United States warned Monday that they would up pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme - which the West suspects is aimed at making an atomic bomb - in upcoming talks with world powers.

“Despite all efforts, Iran is still refusing to be transparent,” President Francois Hollande said at a press conference with US Vice President Joe Biden. “Therefore we will pressure it right to the end to ensure the negotiations succeed.”

Iran on Sunday announced fresh talks with world powers on its nuclear drive and said it was open to an offer from the United States for twoway discussions if Washington’s intention was “authentic”. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday he saw positive signs the United States was rethinking its approach to Tehran in the protracted dispute over the Islamic republic’s nuclear drive. “As I have said yesterday, I am optimistic,” he told a foreign policy think tank in Berlin.

“I feel this new (US) administration is really this time seeking to at least divert from its previous and traditional approach vis-a-vis my country.” Salehi had told a security conference in the southern German city of Munich Sunday that Iran was open to a US offer for two-way discussions if Washington’s intentions were “authentic”.

He said Iran welcomed comments by US officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, who said at the Munich conference that Washington was ready to hold talks with Tehran on its nuclear programme. And Salehi said Iran was prepared to resume talks over its disputed nuclear work with the United States and five other world powers in Kazakhstan on February 25 after an eight-month break.

“The recent approach by the US, we look at it positively,” he said Monday.

“We hope that this time they are really meaning what they say and that they really want to see how they can resolve this issue bilaterally. We express our readiness to resolve the issue bilaterally.” French President Francois Hollande said at a press conference with Biden meanwhile that Paris and Washington would be increasing the pressure on Iran in the upcoming talks.

Washington severed diplomatic ties with Iran in the wake of the 1979 revolution, and relations remain hostile, with little direct contact. “I think it’s about time that both sides really get into engagement because confrontation certainly is not the way, confrontation will only exacerbate the situation and the entire region and the international community will be suffering from the consequences,” Salehi said. “Enough is enough, we have enough problems in the Middle East.” Iran and six world powers - the United States, China, Russia,

Britain, France and Germany - held three rounds of talks last year aimed at easing the standoff over Iran’s nuclear activities, which Tehran insists are peaceful. The six, known as the P5+1 or EU3+3, called on Iran to roll back its programme but stopped short of meeting Tehran’s demands that they scale back sanctions, and the last round ended in stalemate in June in Moscow. Since then, talks have been held up over disagreements on their lo-

cation. “We are ready... to recognise the worries of the other side and that is very important,” Salehi said. “We see no justification in this concern but we are yet ready to recognise that, ok, they have their concern.” Salehi said he believed new members of US President Barack Obama’s cabinet during his second term, presumably including Secretary of State John Kerry and his nominee for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, were disposed to compromise.

“Those who are being appointed - when I read their position vis-a-vis my country prior to their appointment years ago, I have noticed that they have taken a balanced view,” he said.

In broadly conciliatory remarks, Salehi added that Tehran would continue talks with the Syrian opposition following a preliminary meeting at the weekend. “We had 45 (minutes) to an hour discussion which was very fruitful... and we committed ourselves to continue this discussion,” Salehi said after meeting Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib in Munich. The talks were the first with Khatib, who became Syrian National Coalition leader late last year.

Salehi’s speech in Berlin was briefly interrupted by a protester and a few dozen demonstrators braved a cold, driving rain to stage a rally against Iran’s human rights record. After the speech, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged a quick resumption of the nuclear talks, calling 2013 “a decisive year” to ease tensions.

“In the nuclear dispute with Iran, a window of opportunity has opened that should be met with a real will for dialogue,” he said in a statement.

Bahrain to resume national dialogue DUBAI - Bahrain’s justice ministry announced Monday that national talks aimed to end the kingdom’s political stalemate will resume on February 10 after an earlier round failed to bring the opposition onboard. Justice Minister Khalid bin Ali al-Khalifa said that the dialogue will reconvene on Sunday, February 10, after he met representatives of the six opposition groups, as well as eight other associations that are on good terms with the government, BNA state news agency reported. The opposition groups included Al-Wefaq, the largest formation in the Shiite-majority Gulf state that is ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty.