Canadian Pakistani Times

Canadian Pakistani Times

January 3, 2013 Volume 1, 041

Thursday

Pakistan frees more Taliban prisoners ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday released eight more Taliban detainees, including a close aide of Mullah Omar and former justice minister, to facilitate the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process for lasting peace and stability in the war-ravaged neighbour.The number of Afghan Taliban detainees released by Pakistan so far has risen to 26. Among those who were released by Pakistan included former governor Helmand Abdul Bari, former justice minister Nuruddin Turabi, former minister Allah Daad Tabib, former governor Kabul Mullah Daud Jan and ex governor Mir Ahmed Gul. Pakistan had released 18 Taliban prisoners last month on Afghan High Peace Council’s request.Among those released last month also included three former governors including Mulla Abdul Salam, Mir Ahmad Gul and Daud Jalali.Pakistan, which desires lasting peace and stability in the neighbouring country, has committed itself to support the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process.

Diplomats privy to the development believe that Pakistan’s decision to release Afghan Taliban detainees coincides with what has been described as Afghan government’s Peace Process Roadmap 2015 aimed at engaging Afghan Taliban to shun violence and dissociate from Al-Qaeda in a bid to give them political role in country’s future politics.The move, they believe is also in line with trilateral agreement between Pakistan, United States and Afghanistan to provide safe passage to various Taliban leaders willing to join the reconciliation process.

The ‘Peace Process Roadmap to 2015’ envisages release of Taliban prisoners in custody of United States and de-listing of Taliban from UN sanctions which entail travel ban and assets freeze.

Sources say there are 132 Taliban against whom the UN has imposed sanctions, while there were five senior Taliban leaders in the US custody.The Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process is gaining significant ground after release of Taliban detainees

road, 10 kilometres east of the agency’s main town of Miranshah.Tribesmen said unidentified men had thrown those bodies and officials said the bodies were yet to be identified; but the banned Tehreeki-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed they were of its

by Pakistan.According to foreign policy experts the recent conference between Afghan government and Taliban held in Paris was a good breakthrough in this regard and that these talks would continue in the coming months. They believe that Saudi Arabia and Turkey would be venues for these talks. Staff Reporter from North Waziristan adds: Nine dead bodies of suspected Taliban militants were found dumped in North Waziristan Agency on Monday, officials and residents said.The bullet-riddled bodies were found near Pir Kili on Miranshah-Bannu

fighters and it accused the security forces of killing them.Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the TTP, told a foreign news agency that all nine were Taliban fighters. “We are proud of their martyrdom; soon we will take revenge for this killing,” he said.It has also been learnt that all those killed belonged to Mehsud tribe of North Waziristan. The bodies were found a day after a roadside bomb killed at least two soldiers and injured two others in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.Jets pound hideouts: Fighter jets

pounded the militant hideouts in Sarokha Kaley, a far-flung area of Tirah valley in Tehsil Bara on Monday killing at least eight militants including a key commander.

Sources said the security forces, on a tipoff by intelligence agencies that militants were present in the area, conducted aerial strikes on Sarokha Kaley with fighter jets. The death toll could not be confirmed by the militant groups or other sources.On the other hand, the local tribesmen have said that fighting between security forces and militants is taking toll on poor masses. They said 14 people including women and children had been killed in the strikes. Captaan, a resident of the area, said at 4: 00 am in the wee hours of Monday warplanes appeared on the sky of Tirah valley and started bombardment at two houses of the area when people were asleep.

The owners of the houses were identified as Shafiq and Hunar Gul. Apart from two men rest of the victims were women and children, he claimed. Soon after the incident the neighbours rushed to the scene and launched rescue and relief work by digging the bodies out of the rubble of destroyed houses, local sources said. The two residences were completely razed to the ground.The head of Bara political administration, when contacted, refused to comment.

In 2010, security forces had mistakenly targeted civilian population in Sarawela area of Koki Khel tribe of tehsil Jamrud killing 62 local tribesmen. Later, the security forces apologised to the Koki Khel tribe for the incident.Tirah Bagh Maidan area is 50 kilometers away from Peshawar.

It shares boundaries with Afghanistan, Orkazai and Kuraam agencies. It is also considered a stronghold of Ansarul Isalm, a pro-government organisation.

UN rights chief urges India to end rape ‘scourge' GENEVA/NEW DELHI - The UN's high commissioner for human rights called Monday for measures to help India rid itself of the "scourge" of rape, but rejected the death penalty for six men facing gang rape and murder charges.

Amid vigils and protests over the death of a 23-year-old student in a rape case that has caused international outrage, UN rights chief Navi Pillay said she hoped the incident would mark a turning point. "However terrible the crime, the death penalty is not the answer," the high commissioner said. "What needed is a new public consciousness and more effective and sensitive enforcement of the law in the interests of women. India has shown through its social reform movements of the past that it can rid itself of a scourge like rape."

The unidentified medical student was repeatedly raped on a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16 and violated with an iron bar before being thrown from the vehicle. She died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital on Saturday. "I join Indians in all walks of life in condemning this terrible crime. Let us hope that 2013 will be the year the tide is turned on violence against women in

India and all women can walk free without fear," Pillay said.

"The public is demanding a transformation in systems that discriminate against women to a culture that respects the dignity of women in law and practice." Pillay added that the case was the latest in a series of rape cases that have sparked public concern and debate.

"In October, a 16 year-old Dalit girl committed suicide by selfimmolation after being gang-raped in Haryana, a state from which an alarming level of sexual violence has been reported," she said. "This is a national problem, affecting women of all classes and castes, and will require national solutions. "Now is the time to strengthen India's legal regime against rape," she added. While the family of an Indian gang-rape victim said Monday they would not rest until her killers are hanged as police finalised their investigation before charges are laid against suspects this week. As the ruling Congress party reportedly pushed for tougher punishments for sex crimes, in-

cluding chemical castration, authorities in New Delhi launched a hotline to improve safety for women in a city dubbed "India's rape capital".

Around 400 university students gathered in central Delhi on Monday, vowing to continue their "movement" until better safety measures are put in place and the guilty punished.

The dead woman, whom friends say was planning to marry in February, died of her injuries on Saturday in a Singapore hospital, nearly two weeks after being savagely attacked by men on a bus in New Delhi. She was cremated on Sunday.

"The fight has just begun. We want all the accused hanged and we will fight for that, till the end," her brother told The Indian Express in an interview published on Monday.

Delhi police said their probe was almost complete, pending the arrival of an autopsy report from doctors in Singapore and the conclusions of forensic experts, with charges to be unveiled on Thursday. "It is up to the court to decide when the trial would begin," said police spokesman Rajan

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Bhagat.Six men will face murder charges after allegedly luring the 23-year-old medical student onto a bus on December 16, and then taking it in turns to rape her and assault her with an iron bar before throwing her out of the moving vehicle.

The man whom she was hoping to marry, a 28-year-old software engineer, was also left with serious injuries after he too was attacked and dumped on the roadside.

Relatives told The Indian Express he had taken part in an identification parade of suspects at New Delhi's high-security Tihar jail.

While the country returned to work after a weekend marked by candlelit vigils and street protests, few people were in the mood to celebrate New Year.

Many bars as well as the armed forces cancelled or toned down festivities.

Seeking to assuage anger at police and local officials for failing to prevent widespread violence against women, the Delhi government announced compensation of 1.5 million rupees ($27,348) for the family of the murdered woman and promised one of her relatives a job.

(Cont.. to page no 8)

10

January 3, 2013

Conservation: No heritage, no identity A person without memory has no identity, likewise people without heritage. Over the course of 30 years, living and travelling in what was once called North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), I have seen a number of wonderful heritage sites — Buddhist remains in Swat, wonderful fort and museum at Shabqadar, the old British colonial Munda bridge in Abazai, the fabulous mosques in Kohistan and Dir, the mosque and fort in Chitral, the Kalash defence towers in Jinjeret Ku plus the archaeological wonders of Peshawar.

Unfortunately, they are now all at risk.

Concerned citizens are doing their best to preserve these sites, whether through press-releases, newspaper articles, press conferences or litigation. For example, recently FHT along with Citizens for Clean Environment became involved in a law suit against destroying the green belts of Peshawar such as in front of Islamia College.

This also pertains to the great mosque in Spin Jumaat, where a red line for demolition is clear to all.

A couple of weeks back, we were informed that the historic Khyber Pass would become the new highway from Afghanistan through Pakistan to Central Asia. Anyone who knows the Khyber Pass, knows that it is full of historical sites, such as the tunnels of the railway, which was built at the beginning of the last century; there are cliffs with the insignias of various regiments that served in the area, there is also a fort at Mitchener’s Point. To build a modern highway engineered by the National Highway Authority (NHA) there leaves one incredulous. A couple of weeks ago, I was astounded to receive an email with an attachment photo of Shahi Masjid, Chitral, with a huge hole below its minaret,

caused, believe it or not, by dynamite — all in the name of restoration. As usual, no one accepts the blame for this sacrilege and as usual the local administration turns a blind eye.

In Chitral, professionals had been asked for their expertise for the restoration of Shahi Masjid and an enormous sum of money was quoted. This has resulted in the dynamite debacle.

Is this expertise?

What does it take to preserve heritage?

Some years ago I met up with an old friend, Adil Zareef, whom I had not seen for a long time. The meeting took place at the Mughal Bridge Peshawar. Sarhad Conservation Network (SCN) of which Adil was a member, was celebrating restoring an old pillar of the bridge which had lain on the grass for many years. A few years after this SCN and Frontier Heritage Trust took a stay order against the demolition of Muhafiz Khana. The interior of Muhafiz Khana was overflowing with historical records all to do with Excise and Taxation Depatment. The old colonial building, with its high ceilings and long fans was maintained by a few lowly baboos, whose dress seemed to be as old as the colonial period. Take, for example, the defence/watch towers in Jinjeret Ku, the only ones remaining in the Kalash valleys (Jinjeret Ku was Kalash till 1920s and the people there still speak Kalasha language). A conversation with the right person did wonders. The right person in this case was the Finnish charge d’affairs. She willingly donated money for their restoration. On the completion of the project she came to the valley to inaugurate their opening. She was brave enough to climb the very difficult wooden steps.

In 2011, with the cooperation of various

people and groups such as SCN, we accessed the Vintage Car Club to find specialists for restoring the two antique fire engines in the old fire house in Gor Khuttree.

With our knowhow and the keenness of the then Secretary of Culture, Azam Khan, we presented a PC-1 to the Provincial Government, which then donated the funds.

One of the things that I have noticed in the preservation of such things is the keenness and pleasure of the people engaged. All of us, involved with the restoration of the fire engines, including the museum people, thoroughly enjoyed the venture. And, we were not the only ones. When we transported the fire engines from their place of temporary residence to Gor Khuttree, all shining with bright new red paint, people along the way stood transfixed. One gentleman nearly got run over trying to photograph us! When we reached the Old City, we were followed by numerous children.

In other words, enthusiasm, determination, awareness and cooperation between groups and people can help save our heritage.

Perhaps, all the historical sites, in what is now KPK, should first be examined by various civil society groups, who carry the enthusiasm and deter-

mination to preserve the history of this province.

The other factor is that when development takes place in Peshawar, such as the recent construction of flyovers (many more to be built), so much of our green belt is destroyed along with historic buildings. Recently, the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court declared that it was illegal to cut down even one tree, and the perpetrators would be punished as if they cut down the whole forest.

Every day I receive emails from friends and acquaintances who have come across some new horror regarding development and destruction of some precious buildings or parks or green belts.

Civil society hopes that the Provincial Government will take notice of this horrific plan for Gor Khuttree, the dynamiting of Shahi Masjid in Chitral and the destruction of the green belt and trees in Peshawar. For city dwellers the green belt and the trees are a necessity and keeping them safe should be done with ‘religious’ zeal.

US State Dept blamed for ‘grievous mistake’ in Benghazi WASHINGTON: The US State Department made a “grievous mistake” in refusing to shut down its mission in Benghazi, Libya, despite the deteriorating security situation in the country, a Senate report said Monday.

The diplomatic post was kept open “despite the inability of the Libyan government to fulfill its duties to secure the facility and the increasingly dangerous threat environment that American intelligence described,” US lawmakers concluded.

In the report, entitled “Flashing Red: A Special Report On The Terrorist Attack At Benghazi,” chairman Joe Lieberman and ranking member Susan Collins of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security found security at the mission seriously lacking.

Four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed when heavily-armed men overran the Benghazi mission on Sept 11, setting fire to much of the compound and then attacking a nearby annex. The report comes just weeks after the State Department’s own investigation slammed security at the site as “grossly inadequate.”

One top State Department official has resigned in the wake of the internal review, ordered by Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton, and three others have been placed on administrative leave.

In their separate report, the senators recommended the State Department must from now on plan for all types of attacks even if there is no imminent threat.

Intelligence agencies “must broaden and deepen their focus in Libya, and beyond, on nascent violent Islamist extremist groups in the region that lack strong operational ties to core Al-Qaeda or its main affiliate groups.”

While a few members of the Feb 17 militia, assigned by Libyan authorities to protect the mission, had helped the US staff on the night of the attack, the local security was “woefully inadequate,” the senators wrote.

So if a host country cannot meet its obligations to protect US diplomatic missions then “the Department of State must provide additional security measures of its own, urgently attempt to upgrade the host nation security forces, or decide to close a US diplomatic facility,” they recommended.

They also proposed that the Pentagon provide more resources to defend Americans and their allies in Africa which has increasingly become a haven

for terrorist groups in places such as Libya and Mali.

Through the Senate committee’s investigation “we hope to gain a better understanding of what went wrong and

what we must do now to ensure better protection for American diplomatic personnel,” the senators wrote. They also recommended that the intelligence community should not draft talking points for government officials preparing to discuss any future attacks.

And they urged that “when terrorists attack our country, either at home or abroad, administration officials should speak clearly and consistently about what has happened.”

Republican lawmakers heavily criticized the administration of President Barack Obama in the weeks after the attack for initially insisting it had stemmed from a protest, rather than being a coordinated terror attack.

Pak Afghan Refugee Hunger Strike Some 30 refugees who are on hunger strike to protest for better conditions for asylum seekers in Austria, have been allowed to stay in the catholic church for the duration of their demonstration. A protest camp outside the church was cleared out earlier by the police.

January 3, 2013

11

In Indian student’s gang rape, murder, two worlds collide One of hundreds of attacks reported in New Delhi each year, the gang rape and murder of a medical student caught Indian authorities and political parties flat-footed, slow to see that the assault on a private bus had come to symbolise an epidemic of crime against women.

In the moments before the December 16 attack, the 23-year-old woman from India’s urban middle class, who had recently qualified as a trainee physiotherapist in a private Delhi hospital, and her male friend, a software engineer, were walking home from a cinema at a shopping mall in south Delhi, according to a police reconstruction of events. A bus, part of a fleet of privately owned vehicles used as public transport across the city of 16 million, and known as India’s “rape capital”, was at the same time heading toward them. Earlier that day, it had ferried school students but was now empty except for five men and a teenage boy, including its crew, police said. Most of the men were from the city’s slums.

One of the six - all now charged with murder - lured the couple onto the bus, promising to drop the woman home, police have said, quoting from an initial statement that she gave from her hospital bed before her condition deteriorated rapidly. A few minutes into the ride, her friend, 28, grew suspicious when the bus deviated from the supposed route and the men locked the door, according to her statement. They then taunted her for being out with a man late at night, prompting the friend to intervene and provoking an initial scuffle.

The attackers then beat him with a metal rod, knocking him unconscious, before turning on the woman who had tried to come to his defence. Police say the men admitted after their arrest to torturing and raping the student “to teach her a lesson”. At one point, the bus driver gave the wheel to another of the accused and dragged the woman by the neck to the back of the vehicle and forced himself upon her. The other five then took turns raping her and also driving the bus, keeping it cir-

cling through the busy streets of India’s capital city, police said.

The woman was raped for nearly an hour before the men pushed a metal rod inside her, severely damaging her internal organs, and then dumped both her and her friend on the roadside, 8 km from where they had boarded it, police said.

FAMILY ROLE MODEL The woman, whose identity has been withheld by police, gave her statement to a sub-divisional magistrate on December 21 in the intensive care unit of Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, according to media reports. She was undergoing multiple surgical procedures and her condition later began to

Robbed of their clothes and belongings, they were found half naked, bleeding and unconscious later that night by a passerby, who alerted the police. Last year, a rape was reported on average every 20 minutes in India. Just 26 per cent of the cases resulted in convictions, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, which registered 24,206 rapes in 2011, up from 22,141 the previous year. At first, authorities treated the assault on the medical student as one crime among many, and they were not prepared for the furious public reaction that led to running battles between protesters and police near the heart of government in New Delhi.

rapidly worsen.

Ten days after the attack and still in a critical condition, she was flown to Singapore for specialist treatment. She died in Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital two days later. Her body was flown back to Delhi and cremated there on Sunday in a private ceremony. Family members who had accompanied her to Singapore declined to speak to reporters, but relatives told the Times of India newspaper she had been a role model to her two younger brothers. Unlike most traditional Indian families who only send their sons to fee-paying colleges or universities, her parents pinned their hopes on the daughter and took loans to fund her studies.

Israel eases restrictions on Gaza JERUSALEM: Israel on Monday dropped its five-year ban on construction materials crossing into the territory and raised hopes there that rebuilding could begin following a damaging eight-day Israeli air campaign.

The easing of restrictions is an outgrowth of the cease-fire that ended the airstrikes and months of daily rocket fire from Gaza at Israel. Contacts mediated

by Egypt to follow up the truce produced the result, and Israel promised to keep easing the lives of Gaza’s 1.6 million residents, as long as Israelis were no longer targeted by rocket fire

by Gaza militants. How long the new arrangement holds could serve as a test case for the brittle truce between the bitter enemies.

It also reflects a new power equation, with neighbouring Egypt under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent group of Hamas. Israel, together with Egypt, imposed a land and naval embargo on Gaza after Hamas overtook the territory in 2007. Although Israel eased the restrictions in 2010, building materials such as cement, gravel and metal rods were still largely banned because Israel claimed militants could use them to make fortifications and weapons. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border gave Gaza a conduit for all manner of goods as well as weapons, though the blockade remained intact. During eight days of violence in November, the Israeli military said 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. The rocket attacks killed six Israelis and wounded dozens. Israeli airstrikes killed 169 Palestinians and caused considerable damage. Israel said it targeted Hamas installations and government buildings. As part of a cease-fire agreement brokered by Egypt’s new leaders, Israel agreed to consider new border

arrangements in return for a complete cessation of rocket fire. “Now we’re talking about a permanent easing,” said Maj. Guy Inbar, a military spokesman. “The longer the calm persists, the more we’ll weigh the additional easing of restrictions that will benefit the private sector.”

Hamas downplayed the move, calling it inadequate. Gaza economists said it would take years of shipments to make a dent in the gap left by the five years of

blockade. Inbar said 20 truckloads a day could enter Gaza, and other concessions may follow “depending on the continuation of the calm”. Last week, Israel authorised the entry of 60 trucks and buses for the first time since the Hamas takeover. Gaza crossing official Raed Fattouh confirmed that Israel agreed to send in 20 trucks of gravel daily, five days a week. “The Israelis promised to undertake further measures to alleviate the difficult economic situation in Gaza as a result of the calm,” he said. “This move had been expected as part of the deal.”

Gaza’s leaders demand much more. Hamas wants Israel to lift the remainder of the blockade and the lifting of a near-total ban on exports from the impoverished territory. Exports, especially to the West Bank, the Palestinian territory on the opposite side of Israel, once formed the backbone of Gaza’s economy.

The West Bank is run by the more mod-

erate Fatah, ousted from Gaza by Hamas.

Critics contend the export ban punishes ordinary Gazans instead of pressuring Hamas, contributing heavily to an unemployment rate of about one-third of the workforce. Eighty per cent of Gaza’s 1.6 million people rely on UN support.

Egypt eased its own restrictions on Saturday, allowing in 1,400 tonnes of gravel paid for by Qatar. The oil-rich emirate pledged $425 million to build housing, schools, a hospital and roads in Gaza as part of its attempt to build its influence in Palestinian politics and its power in the region, at the expense of regional rival Iran. Shipments from Egypt are expected to be ramped up to 4,000 tonnes daily, said Yassir al Shanti, Gaza’s deputy minister of housing and public works. He estimated Gaza needs up to three million tonnes of gravel to build roads, and the Qatar-funded projects need more than one million tonnes. Under former President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt had poor relations with Hamas. Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Morsi, comes from the Muslim Brotherhood and has vowed not to abandon the Palestinians.

But he is moving cautiously, in part to avoid alienating Cairo’s biggest patron, the United States. Israel labels Hamas a terror group because of dozens of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis, and Hamas does not recognise the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East, so Egypt is mediating the new border arrangements between the two enemies. A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to disclose confidential contacts to reporters, said a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo Sunday night to meet with Egyptian security officials for a second round of talks on border arrangements.

She was born and brought up in a middle class Delhi neighbourhood after her family moved to the city more than 20 years ago from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Her male friend recorded his statement to a court days after the attack and helped police identify the six accused. He left for his hometown in Uttar Pradesh late on Saturday, missing the woman’s funeral, media reported.

SHAME, ANGER IN SLUM Four of the accused, all in custody, live in the narrow by-lanes of Ravi Das Camp, a slum about 17 km from the woman’s home in southwest Delhi. Inside the slum - home to some 1,200 people who eke out a meagre living as rickshaw pullers and tea hawkers - many demanded the death penalty for the accused.

“The incident has really shocked all of us.

I don’t know how I will get my children admitted to a school. The incident has earned a bad name to this place,” said Pooja Kumari, a neighbour of one of the accused.

Girija Shankar, a student, said: “Our heads hang in shame because of the brutal act of these men. They must reap what they have sown.”

The house of one of the accused was locked, with neighbours saying his family had left the city to escape the shame and anger.

Meena, a 45-year-old neighbour, said she had wanted to join the protests that followed the rape, but was too scared.

“You never know when a mob may attack this slum and attack our houses. But we want to say we’re as angry as the entire nation. We want them to be hanged,” she said.

Two of the six alleged assailants come from outside Delhi, according to police. One is married with children and was arrested in his native village in Bihar state and the other, a juvenile, is a runaway from a broken home in Uttar Pradesh. In India, murder is punishable by death by hanging, except in the case of offenders aged below 18.

Next force transition in Afghanistan begins in two months KABUL: The next phase of transferring security from Nato to Afghan control will begin in two months and aims to cover nearly 90 per cent of the country’s population, the Kabul government announced Monday.

The transition, which began in early 2011, is slated to give Afghan forces full responsibility for security by the end of 2014, when most Nato troops will have withdrawn.

Misgivings persist about the readiness of Afghan forces, although their numbers have grown rapidly over the past year to more than 330,000. They now

shoulder most combat operations, while Nato forces, including some 66,000 US, troops are preparing to pull out.

The US intends to keep a residual force in Afghanistan past 2014 but the size has yet to be determined.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement said the forthcoming fourth phase was ”another sign of steady progress.” ”Going forward, our efforts in Afghanistan will continue to ensure that the Afghan people can secure and government themselves, and to deny safe haven to al Qaeda,” the statement said.

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who heads a transition commission, told a news conference that Afghan security forces now are responsible for protecting 75 per cent of the population. ”The general assessment is that security is better or the same,” Ahmadzai said, referring to changes over the third transition phase, which began in May and ended Monday. He said that by the end of the fourth phase, the duration of which is open-ended, 87 per cent of the people will be protected by Afghan forces.

Targeted for the upcoming transition are 12 provinces mostly in the north and central regions as well as a district in the southern province of Helmand, the most violent in the country.

Gen John R Allen, commander of foreign forces in the country, called the announcement ”another historic step as (Afghanistan) gets closer to taking full responsibility for security of the entire country.”

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh said in a statement that it was a ”significant step toward our shared goal of seeing Afghans fully in charge of their own security by the end of 2014.”

12

January 3, 2013

India launches new system for handling welfare NEW DELHI: India will send billions of dollars in social welfare money directly to its poor under a new program inaugurated Tuesday, aiming to cut out the middlemen blamed for the massive fraud that plagues the system.

Previously officials only handed out cash to the poor after taking a cut — if they didn’t keep all of it for themselves — and were known to enroll fake recipients or register unqualified people.

The new program would see welfare money directly deposited into recipients’ bank accounts and require them to prove their identity with biometric data, such as fingerprints or retina scans.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has described the venture as ”nothing less than magical”, but critics accuse the government of hastily pushing through a complex program in a country where millions don’t have access to electricity or paved roads, let alone neighbourhood banks.

The program is loosely based on Brazil’s widely praised Bolsa Familia program, which has helped lift more than 19 million people out of poverty since 2003. It will begin in 20 of the country’s 640 districts Tuesday, affecting more than 200,000 recipients, and will be progressively rolled out in other areas in the coming months, Chidambaram said Monday.

The country has 440 million people living below the poverty line. ”In a huge new experiment like this you should expect some glitches. There may be a problem here and there, but these will be overcome by our people,” Chidambaram said.

He appealed for patience with the pro-

gram, which he called ”a game changer for governance.” The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the ruling Congress party of using the program to gain political mileage ahead of elections expected in 2014.

corruption and lost money — would be exempt.

The program will eliminate middlemen and transfer cash directly into bank accounts using data from Aadhar, a government project working to give every Indian identification numbers linked

As a first step, the government has said it plans to begin directly transferring money it would spend on programs such as scholarships and pensions. Eventually the transfers are expected to help fix much of the rest of India’s welfare spending, though Chidambaram said the government’s massive food, kerosene and fertilizer distribution networks — which are blamed for much of the

to fingerprints and retina scans. Currently hundreds of millions of Indians have no identity documents.

On Monday, 208 activists and scholars published an open letter expressing concern that the government was forcing the poor to enroll in Aadhar to get welfare benefits without putting safeguards in place to protect their privacy.

They also expressed fears the govern-

India, Pakistan exchange nuclear facilities list NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan have carried an annual exchange of lists of their nuclear facilities as part of an agreement that bans the rivals from attacking each other’s nuclear installations.

An Indian External Affairs Ministry statement said the lists were exchanged on Tuesday both in New Delhi and Islamabad.

The exchanges have taken place on the first day of the year since 1992 as part of their agreement.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

Relations between them have improved after India suspended them following the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 that killed 166 people. India blamed the attack on Pakistan-based insurgents, a charge Pakistan denies.

ment planned to eventually replace the food distribution system for the poor, the largest program of its kind in the world. ”Essential services are not a suitable field of experimentation for a highly centralised and uncertain technology,” they wrote.

Others said the government was trying to do too much too soon. ”A very important concern is are we ready for this sort of thing? The banking infrastructure is very poor, people are far from these banks, when they exist they are overcrowded. Sometimes people have to walk for a day to get to the bank,” says Reetika Khera, a development economist with the New Delhi-based Institute for Economic Growth. Mihir Shah, a member of India’s Planning Commission accepts that the government’s timeline is ”unrealistic”, but said many critics had confused the lack of readiness with flaws in the plan itself. ”My question to them is is it better than what is there today? That is the only way we can judge policy. I don’t think there’s a perfect solution to any of mankind’s problems,” he said.

Shah said a lot more work needed to be done before cash transfers could become a reality across the country. The identification drive needed to reach the vast majority of India’s poor, and villages needed banking infrastructure and Internet connectivity. ”It is going to take time and it will happen only when it happens whatever the deadline. It will be rolled out only when these conditions are in place,” he said. But if the deadline ”pushes us to fix the lacunae that currently hamper the roll out of cash transfer, then we’re in the right direction”.

Punjabi Press Club of Canada wishes all a very Happy “2013”.

Members of Punjabi Press Club of Canada at annual Christmas/ New Year dinner hosted by the club. To get more info on how to become a member please call 416-371-9849 also please do join us on facebook/twitter by typing Punjabi Press Club of Canada.

Tahirul Qadri meets MQM Rabita One Indian gang-rape suspect may be juvenile Committee members at Nine Zero

KARACHI: Chief of Tehrik Minhajul Quran, Tahirul Qadri, on Tuesday arrived at Nine Zero, the headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), to meet the members of the MQM’s Coordination (Rabita) Committee, DawnNews reported.

Qadri was received by members of the Rabita Committee and by other MQM workers. Subsequently, Qadri and his delegation met with the members of the Rabita Committee and discussed the country’s political situation and the plan to take a long march to Islamabad on Jan 14.

MQM would also be holding a rally later Tuesday which Qadri has been especially invited to attend. The preparations for the rally, which would be addressed by MQM chief Altaf Hussain through telephone, have been completed.

NEW DELHI: A bone test is being conducted to confirm the age of a juvenile suspect in custody for the fatal assault and gang-rape of a young woman, while prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the other five men arrested with him, police said Tuesday.

The six will be formally charged in court on Thursday on accusations that they kidnapped, gang-raped and murdered the 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in New Delhi on Dec 16, police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told reporters.

Media reports say some 30 witnesses have been gathered, and the charges have been detailed in a document running into more than 1,000 pages.

Outraged Indians have been demanding the death penalty for the six men, holding demonstrations almost every day since the rape. Murder is punishable by death and rape by life imprisonment. But juveniles — those below 18 years of age — cannot be prosecuted for murder. Another police officer said a bone test is being conducted to determine if the youngest suspect in the case is indeed a juvenile. If the test determines he is 18 years or older he will be treated as a legal adult, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to disclose sensitive information. The brutality of this case has made Indians confront the reality that sexual violence is deeply entrenched in the society. Women face daily harassment, from catcalls on streets and groping in buses to rapes. Often police refuse to accept complaints by victims and even blame them for inviting unwanted male attention by dressing provocatively.

Families too dissuade victims from coming forward in

the belief that it will ruin their reputations.

Activists hope that the savage assault on the young woman, a physiotherapy student, will shake off the taboo associated with sexual violence and make the authorities take such cases more seriously. The young woman and a male companion were attacked when they got into an off-duty bus in southern New Delhi to go back home. The six men, including the bus driver, took turns to rape her and beat her with an iron bar which they also inserted in her body causing severe injuries to her organs. The woman, who has not been identified, was airlifted to Singapore for emergency treatment but died on Saturday. She was cremated in New Delhi on Sunday, and the ashes were to be submerged in the holy river Ganges near her hometown in the northern Uttar Pradesh state in accordance with Hindu customs.

Protesters and politicians from across the spectrum called for a special session of Parliament to pass new laws to increase punishments for rapists — including possible chemical castration — and to set up fast-track courts to deal with rape cases within 90 days. Thousands of Indians have lit candles, held prayer meetings and marched through various cities and towns to express their grief and demand stronger protection for women and the death penalty for rape, which is now punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. The protests continued on Tuesday.

On Monday, the Indian army and navy canceled their New Year’s Eve celebrations, as did Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party. Several hotels and clubs across the capital also did not hold their usual parties.

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January 3, 2013

Back-up plans at Presidency as elections loom As the year came to an end, two key officials at the President’s Secretariat who had managed official and personal affairs of President Asif Ali Zardari opted for new postings in the federal government.

Their transfers set tongues wagging because Mr Zardari’s presidential term lapses on September 9, 2013, and the exits of the officials are too early. On December 8, Salman Farooqi was given the additional charge of the federal ombudsman on acting basis. Mr Farooqi is known for his decadesold association with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and looks after the president’s day-to-day affairs. For now he will also hold on to the position of general secretary to the president till his replacement is found. There are hints that by the time the government moves toward the caretaker set-up, his position as the ombudsman will be made permanent. Similarly, Malik Asif Hayat, secretary and the principal accounting officer of the Presidency, will head the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) as its full-time chairman. The position was vacated by Justice (retired) Rana Baghwandas on December 14, and the government formally notified his appointment as the new FPSC head this week. Unlike Mr Farooqi, Mr Hayat will be working on a full-time basis and has vacated his office at the Presidency. Secretary Establishment Taimoor Azmat Usman will in all likelihood be appointed as the new secretary to the president.

A plausible explanation being offered by PPP insiders is that with only a few months left for the PPP government in the centre, President Zardari wants to fill these positions with his trusted bud-

official and a PPP leader added that once the caretaker government comes in, the Presidency would turn into a ceremonial office.

Therefore, both Mr Farooqi and Mr

dies. The summaries of all these appointments are moved by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and once the caretaker prime minister comes in, it will not be possible for President Zardari to influence decisions and appointments.

At the moment, with his hand-picked Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the office, President Zardari is spoilt for choice.

Furthermore, a senior federal government

Hayat, who were already on post-retirement assignments with the Presidency, carefully planned their exits. “For the last four years, it was no secret that it was the Presidency and not the Prime Minister’s Secretariat that was running the country,” said the official. “There is no fun in sitting at a place which has no power.

“Secondly, the constitutional protection at the new posts is a major reason that Mr Farooqi and

Mr Hayat opted for these assignments,” he chipped in.

The last is a valid reason for the shifts as well. Both these positions are constitutional in nature and immune from political influence – neither the caretaker nor the next prime minister will be able to remove them.

The only way of changing an incumbent FPSC chairman or federal ombudsman is by filing a reference with the president, supported by strong evidence that the occupant was either involved in some irregularity or physically not able to deliver his/her official duties.

In fact in 2006 when General Pervez Musharraf wanted to remove then chairman of the FPSC Lt-Gen (retired) Jamshed Gulzar Kiani after they developed differences, he had to bring in a constitutional amendment to cut down the chairman’s tenure from five years to three years.

Currently, the appointment of the FPSC chairman is for three years whereas the federal ombudsman has a secured tenure of four years.

These developments strongly indicate that the PPP is unsure about its return, and for all one knows may be even President Zardari will leave the Presidency once his term is up.

At the moment, no one is willing to give definitive answers, but then again there is no harm in making back-up plans.

‘Pakistan most unsafe place for newsmen in S Asia’

LAHORE: South Asia, the most volatile region, mourned the murder of 25 media persons, with Pakistan again remaining on the top with its 13 journalists losing their lives during 2012.

This has been stated in the South Asia Media Commission’s (SAMC) Media Monitor 2012 report which was made public by the body’s Secretary General M Ziauddin here on Sunday. The report was simultaneously launched in all eight countries of South Asia. The launch, attended by senior journalists from all the four provinces and the tribal areas of the country, coincided with annual meeting of Media Commission-Pakistan, the local chapter of the SAMC. According to the report, five journalists were killed in India, three in Bangladesh and two each in Nepal and Afghanistan. Though luckily no journalist was killed in Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives, media persons there continued to face professional challenges and hazards.

The media also came under scrutiny for laxity in professionalism in achieving accuracy and being unbiased.

Despite the UN Security Council’s adoption of Resolution 1738 in 2006, which stressed the need to protect journalists in dangerous areas, violence against them, their physical security remained a major issue and one of the biggest threats to freedom of expression in most of South Asia.

Those killed in Pakistan included Saqib Khan, Ummat, (Karachi), Rehmatullah Abid, Dunya News, (Pujngor), Mushtaq Khand, Dharti Television Network, (Mehran, Khairpur, Sindh), Abdul Haq Baloch, ARY Television, (Khuzdar), Abdul Qadir Hajizai, Wash TV (Quetta), Razzaq Gul, Express News TV, (Turbat), Mukarram Khan Aatif, Freelance, (Shabqadar), Mohammad Amir, ARY News (Peshawar), Aurangzeb Tunio, Kawaish Television Network, (Lalu Ranwak) Tariq Kamal, reporter for a local Sindhi newspaper (Karachi), Syed Tariq Hussain (Karachi), Aslam Raja (Karachi) and Jamshed Kharal (Quetta).

The report said journalists in Pakistan faced pressures from all sides.

Historically, it was the state power which curbed freedom of speech and at-

tacked journalists. Now journalists are under attack from non-state actors also.

Press freedom has made journalists more audacious in performing their job which, in turn, has also made them a very threatened lot. Killings with impunity aside, there have been various incidents of attacks on media houses and threats and violence against media persons with perpetrators remaining unscathed. There have also been reports of journalists sustaining injuries in protests and bomb blasts.

Violent protests that erupted against the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” in September took a heavy toll on media professionals in Pakistan.

One media worker was killed and many others were injured as they covered the protests that turned violent in many cities of the country. Journalists were beaten and dragged by protesters who complained that they were not being given proper coverage.

Other than the physical threats, the pressures on the media are tremendous, the repot says.

It says the ban on YouTube in Pakistan imposed on September 17 was meant to pacify incensed emotions following the release of the anti-Islam film. The knee jerk reaction served no purpose other than keeping citizens barred from accessing the service and using it for knowledge, it says, adding several proxy websites that allow users to bypass the ban soared following the imposition of curb.

To ensure a free and fair space for public discourse, the report suggests a participatory approach in drafting cyber laws. It also urges defining of the terms like “blasphemy,” “morality” and “national security”.

It deplores the government’s failure to introduce a reformed Access to Information law and repeal of other laws and regulations hampering media freedom. It terms the draft law to be presented in the Punjab Assembly quite prohibitive and unacceptable to the media and the people.

It also mentions federal gov-

ernment’s inability to deregulate the corporations running the state-owned media – Radio Pakistan, Pakistan Television. They have to be made autonomous and genuine public service outlets before the elections, it demanded.

It says journalists in Pakistan

do not enjoy economic freedom, with owners holding strong sway over content and the marketing staff deciding the editorial content in many media houses.

Most journalists work against inadequate salaries and have contractual jobs, it points out, saying these factors, too, undermined press freedom.

It lauds media in Pakistan for carrying out its public watchdog functions Energetically, saying some negative trends must, however, be highlighted.

About electronic media, it says a lot of analysis by TV anchors is without any research backing it, suggesting the media organisations must get used to hiring experts instead of using non-expert political figures simply to save money.

The TV channels and the Urdu press have still to discuss the problem of terrorism in a balanced manner, the report points out.

Despite ample empirical evidence and daily violence against innocent people, worship places, schools, markets and most sensitive security installations, many media persons tend to obfuscate the reality with their speculative presentations and portrayal and conspiracy theories, it says.

Isolationism while discussing foreign policy and internal events with

international effect like the Malala Yousafzai affair was allowed to be confused with farfetched erroneous linkages to the war on terror, the report says. A moral, social and political consensus needed on such occasions was thus undermined and the Taliban, who accepted the responsibility for the ghastly act, were allowed to run away with their incorrigible standpoint despite a heavy moral loss of the militant outfit, it adds. Even the role of UN was cast in a bad light by some of the discussants, it regrets.

It points out the elected government was exposed to a regular assault in the name of accountability

by TV anchors who, it says chose to take sides in the discussions.

It says the media was inexpert in handling the activism of the superior judiciary and failed in its duty of presenting an informed discourse on some of the judgments that “were more populist and political in nature” and created sharp divisions even among the juridical community. It took without demur the judicial intervention in setting standards of morality and piety in the media by curtailing entertainment after calling it ‘obscenity’, the report says.

No objective analysis is made of the inadequacy of the definition of obscenity in a state where people need entertainment while endangered by terrorism and suffocated by obscurantism, it observes.

It says reporters are allowed undue exposure while expounding their political views in violation of the vows of neutrality of the media.

Similarly, it says, no informed debate is attempted on such matters as price-fixing by the judiciary. Nowhere is media dereliction more observable than in refusing to acknowledge that avoidance of subsidy is important for the survival of the economy, it adds.

It says the media errs by not first inquiring into the definition of the term before accusing the government of ‘bad governance’.

No distinction is made about corruption inherent to the system and its

auxiliary personalized variant, the report mentions, adding the issue of corruption became an instrument in the hands of unscrupulous elements for mudslinging on the basis of speculations. The topic of ratings is already bringing negative returns to the media in the shape of viewer cynicism. The biggest flaw in the media is the practice of sensationalism in crime, government, civil society and religious stories, it observes. Unfortunately, the report says, the blackmailing aspects of some TV anchors have come to light and the viewing public has been afforded an opportunity to see the phenomenon on screen. But, instead of being subjected to accountability the offenders have been rewarded with better contracts, it deplores. The report finds it ironic that sections of media are now in the forefront of imposing various kinds of restrictions and censorship on the media itself on ideological and cultural grounds, negating pluralism and diversity.

It terms insurgency-hit Balochistan and the northern parts of Pakistan most dangerous areas with a range of threats and trauma growing.

Journalists in these areas had to steer a perilous course between hostile elements losing 13 of their peers, it says.

The report says in India five killings pointed to the dangers journalism faced apart from the constant pressure of commercialisation. Tensions persist in the conflict prone regions such as Kashmir. In the northeastern states, hazards for journalists seeking to balance their stories have increased from both the Maoist cadre and the security agencies. Also, journalists there have almost no professional security, it mentions.

In Afghanistan, the report says, journalism remained a hazardous pursuit with one journalist found decapitated and another killed in a roadside bomb blast. The Afghan media has grown rapidly during the last decade, courtesy mostly foreign funding, it adds. It says with the endgame being near several media outlets have closed in the country. Uncertainty allowed little in the way of public-spirited journalism to take root or grow there, it adds.

PML-Q backs Qadri’s demands LAHORE: After MQM, another ally of PPP — PML-Q — has announced its support for Dr Tahirul Qadri’s demands for an independent and honest

caretaker set-up and electoral reforms.

“We will support Dr Tahirul Qadri’s mis-

sion whether we remain in government or not,” declared PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain after meeting the patron-in-chief of Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran. He was accompanied by Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Syed Mushahid Hussain. Briefing reporters on the meeting, Mr Hussain said: “After a discussion with Dr Qadri we believe that his mission is not against any individual, but against injustices and those who do not pay taxes.” If implemented, Dr Qadri’s proposals about electoral reforms and an independent and honest caretaker government would strengthen electoral and democratic systems, he said.—Khalid Hasnain

January 3, 2013

03

Pakistan-US relations improved in 2012 WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ties with the United States appear to be improving gradually as the year 2012 ends, creating space for a relationship built on ground realities rather than unrealistic expectations.

When the year began, the bilateral relationship was held hostage by two major incidents that happened in 2011, the US raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden and the Nov 24 US air attack that killed 22 Pakistani soldiers in Salala.

Pakistan also had a new ambassador in Washington, Sherry Rehman, who was still struggling to create a space for herself in the US capital’s power circles.

Bilateral contacts had been reduced to a minimum and mutual distrust was at its height.

The US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, started before the Abbottabad raid with the promise to promote close political, economic and defence ties between the two nations, had stalled.

Rhetoric on both sides was quite high.

Osama bin Laden’s discovery in Pakistan remained a very sore point, leading to a high trust deficit on both sides, for different reasons.

If the US administration appeared reluctant to show warmth towards Pakistan, Congress was openly hostile.

But the changing situation in the PakistanAfghan region forced both nations to have a fresh look at their ties. The realisation in Islamabad that it would not be wise to strain relations with the United States and the latter’s desire to have some arrangement with the Taliban before the drawdown of its troops from Afghanistan in 2014 also played

a key role in improving the ties. So did a change of attitudes inside Kabul, which has apparently become less receptive to Washington’s demands.

Under instructions from Islamabad, which were also backed by Rawalpindi, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington also played a key role in steadying the relationship, through constant engagement, outreach and tireless quiet diplomacy.

A major change in the embassy’s approach was to publicly convey Pakistan’s concerns to the Americans, including those that addressed some of the disconnect in joint expectations.

Engaging with a broad range of US interlocutors, visitors from Islamabad as well as the embassy’s officials gave Pakistan’s narrative on various difficult issues in the relationship: Islamabad also ensured that the trilateral process on Afghanistan does not fall a victim to difficulties in the US-Pakistan relationship. The trilateral talks continued with a meeting in Tashkent in

March and another in Islamabad.

The prime minister had a meeting with US President Barack Obama in Seoul in March.

Pakistan participated in the Nato Chicago Summit where President Asif Zardari met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Pakistan also initialled the Bilateral Investment Treaty with the US. The US administration also stepped up its efforts to defuse antiPakistan feelings in Congress and some very negative amendm e n t s relating to Pakistan were defeated.

In July, the US tendered an apology for Salala , which had been avoided earlier.

After months of hectic conversations with many sections of the Obama administration, the CSF payments to Pakistan were released.

The US established a Pakistan Private Partnership Initiative to help promote entrepreneurship in Pakistan. This was officially launched at the

first ever US sponsored Investment Opportunities Conference in London, where Pakistani and US companies came together to explore joint ventures and an expansion of investment in Pakistan.

The US also established a US-Pakistan Women’s Council to promote economic empowerment among Pakistani women.

President Zardari met Secretary Clinton in September in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

The matter of cross-border attacks into Pakistan from Afghanistan is now part of the established discourse on the region and Pakistan.

Although serious differences over the use of drones remain unresolved, the issue is now a subject of considerable discussion in the US with a lively debate on its operational pros and cons as well on its legitimacy.

The new US ambassador to Pakistan admitted repeatedly in his confirmation hearings on the Hill that Pakistan had made grave sacrifices in the battle against terrorism and extremism. He also acknowledged that the core of Al Qaeda had been dismantled and degraded with the help of Pakistan.

This is now accepted in Washington, whereas a year ago, Pakistan was accused of being the main reason for the presence of terrorism in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Key nodes of the strategic dialogue groups have resumed. Working groups have started meeting in Islamabad and Washington to discuss core issues of bilateral cooperation identified by both sides.

Pakistan frees more Taliban prisoners ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday released eight more Taliban detainees, including a close aide of Mullah Omar and former justice minister, to facilitate the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process for lasting peace and stability in the war-ravaged neighbour.The number of Afghan Taliban detainees released by Pakistan so far has risen to 26. Among those who were released

by Pakistan included former governor Helmand Abdul Bari, former justice minister Nuruddin Turabi, former minister Allah Daad Tabib, former governor Kabul Mullah Daud Jan and ex governor Mir Ahmed Gul. Pakistan had released 18 Taliban prisoners last month on Afghan High Peace Council’s request.Among those released last month also included three former governors including Mulla Abdul Salam, Mir Ahmad Gul and Daud Jalali.Pakistan, which desires lasting peace and stability in the neighbouring country, has committed itself to support the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process.Diplomats privy to the development believe that Pakistan’s decision to release Afghan Taliban detainees coincides with what has been described as Afghan government’s Peace Process Roadmap 2015 aimed at engaging Afghan Taliban to shun violence and dissociate from Al-Qaeda in a bid to give them political role in country’s future politics.The move, they believe is also in line with trilateral agreement between Pakistan, United States and Afghanistan to provide safe passage to various Taliban leaders willing to join the reconciliation process.The ‘Peace Process Roadmap to 2015’ envisages release of Taliban prisoners in custody of United States and de-listing of Taliban from UN sanctions which entail travel ban and assets freeze. Sources say there are 132

Taliban against whom the UN has imposed sanctions, while there were five senior Taliban leaders in the US custody.The Afghan-owned and Afghanled process is gaining significant ground after release of Taliban detainees by Pakistan.According to foreign policy experts the recent conference be-

metres east of the agency’s main town of Miranshah.Tribesmen said unidentified men had thrown those bodies and officials said the bodies were yet to be identified; but the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed they were of its fighters and it accused the security forces of killing

tween Afghan government and Taliban held in Paris was a good breakthrough in this regard and that these talks would continue in the coming months. They believe that Saudi Arabia and Turkey would be venues for these talks. Staff Reporter from North Waziristan adds: Nine dead bodies of suspected Taliban militants were found dumped in North Waziristan Agency on Monday, officials and residents said.The bullet-riddled bodies were found near Pir Kili on Miranshah-Bannu road, 10 kilo-

them.Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the TTP, told a foreign news agency that all nine were Taliban fighters. “We are proud of their martyrdom; soon we will take revenge for this killing,” he said.It has also been learnt that all those killed belonged to Mehsud tribe of North Waziristan. The bodies were found a day after a roadside bomb killed at least two soldiers and injured two others in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.Jets pound hideouts: Fighter jets

pounded the militant hideouts in Sarokha Kaley, a far-flung area of Tirah valley in Tehsil Bara on Monday killing at least eight militants including a key commander.Sources said the security forces, on a tip-off by intelligence agencies that militants were present in the area, conducted aerial strikes on Sarokha Kaley with fighter jets. The death toll could not be confirmed by the militant groups or other sources.On the other hand, the local tribesmen have said that fighting between security forces and militants is taking toll on poor masses. They said 14 people including women and children had been killed in the strikes. Captaan, a resident of the area, said at 4: 00 am in the wee hours of Monday warplanes appeared on the sky of Tirah valley and started bombardment at two houses of the area when people were asleep. The owners of the houses were identified as Shafiq and Hunar Gul. Apart from two men rest of the victims were women and children, he claimed. Soon after the incident the neighbours rushed to the scene and launched rescue and relief work by digging the bodies out of the rubble of destroyed houses, local sources said.

The two residences were completely razed to the ground.The head of Bara political administration, when contacted, refused to comment.

In 2010, security forces had mistakenly targeted civilian population in Sarawela area of Koki Khel tribe of tehsil Jamrud killing 62 local tribesmen.

Later, the security forces apologised to the Koki Khel tribe for the incident.Tirah Bagh Maidan area is 50 kilometers away from Peshawar. It shares boundaries with Afghanistan, Orkazai and Kuraam agencies. It is also considered a stronghold of Ansarul Isalm, a pro-government organisation.

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January 3, 2013

Nuclear weapons competition Michael Krepen

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

Afghanistan peace in kaleidoscope As the US withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches near, there is a renewed desire within America to engage Taliban in talks. With the Qatar initiative gone in the cold storage for US reluctance to release Taliban leaders from Guantanamo bay, new vistas have been opened elsewhere around the globe. The latest has been the French initiative where various Afghan stakeholders were invited to Paris on 21-23 December to discuss the Afghan imbroglio. A Paris based Foundation ‘Pour la Recherche Strategique’ also arranged two conferences with other Afghan parties during the occasion. The conference was fruitful in many ways.

Whereas it afforded an opportunity to the Afghan government officials and Taliban to talk to each other directly, it also served as a platform for the Taliban to renew their demands for the foreign forces to quit Afghanistan.

Earlier there was also a flurry of Afghan officials’ visits to Pakistan. The first was that of ‘Afghan Peace Council’. The council interacted with Pakistani officials seeking help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table with the Kabul regime. The council also handed over a roadmap for the integrating the Taliban into Afghan national polity by the time foreign forces quit Afghanistan.

As a goodwill gesture, the government of Pakistan released a few of the detained Taliban leaders, including Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, the justice minister during the Taliban regime. Another important initiative that the two sides agreed to was about using Ulema to persuade the Taliban to join the peace process. An ulema conference could either be held in Saudi Arabia or any other Islamic country. It would be mandated with deliberations on the issue of rising militancy and suicide attacks in the name of religion in the Islamic world.

The roadmap of integrating the Taliban with the Afghan polity was also discussed between President Zardari and President Karzai in Turkey recently. The roadmap outlines four milestones.

The first focuses on taking Islamabad on board for furthering the peace process, second milestone calls for initiating moves for direct interaction with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia in the first half of the year 2013; the third speaks of ceasefire and transforming the Taliban into political parties to enable them participate in 2014 elections. The fourth one seeks securing a peaceful end to the conflict by the first half of 2014.

Whatever Afghan stability dynamics may shape into as 2014 approaches, one thing is certain that Pakistan’s centrality to Afghanistan’s stability

cannot be ignored. Pakistan has always said that any peace process in Afghanistan must be Afghanled and Afghan-owned. By saying so, it has made it clear that it will not support any other process and any country that overlooks this vital factor of peace and stability in the country will not bear fruit. Chief of the Army Staff General Kayani, while addressing a gathering at Brussels earlier this month, also made it abundantly clear that it would only accept Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.

Pakistan has a critical role to play in bringing peace to Afghanistan not only to ensure security for itself, but also the region and beyond.

Frequent interaction between Pakistani and Afghan officials have gone to reduce the trust deficit between the two. ‘Strategic Agreement’ between the two countries has now become a distinct possibility. The recent meeting between the Presidents of the two countries in Turkey has also gone to remove trust deficit to some extent despite Karzai’s apprehensions of Pakistani hand in terrorist attack on his security chief not too long ago. As the Afghan Peace Council’s roadmap envisages, all the parties will be working together to get some ceasefire agreement by the end of 2013 or early 2014 before the foreign forces have Afghanistan. Nevertheless, the renewed effort of Afghan reconciliation efforts has given hopes that 2014 may be the year when Taliban would form permanent part of the Afghan political mainstream and relative peace is established. The Afghan war has taken its toll on all the participants. They are all tired. Some Taliban leaders have accepted the fact that they cannot continue to fight and taking the negotiation course is the best remedy to save Afghanistan from further destruction.

Pakistan is interested in seeing an end to war in Afghanistan and have some kind of say in any future Kabul setup. This will be in line with its desire that the government that comes into power in Afghanistan does not support India in its antiPakistan activities on its soil. This wish may not hold true for long keeping the history of IndoAfghan relationship. For all of its sacrifices in the war on terror and international recognition that peace in Afghanistan would be a distant possibility if Pakistan is not made part of the process. Pakistan, as such, has to tread the path with utmost clarity and commitment to deliver on the peace process, otherwise, there is all the likelihood that Afghanistan may slip back into a civil war, a chilling scenario that nobody wants to witness.

Wasting good intentions in Haiti Lan Birrel ALMOST three years ago, Haiti was hit by an earthquake that killed an estimated 220,000 people in 35 seconds of unimaginable terror. It was the worst national disaster in the history of the western hemisphere. The world rushed to help, with huge sums donated amid declarations to “build back better” one of the most blighted nations on earth.

But, as the anniversary approaches, it is evident that many good intentions imploded at the expense of the people they were meant to help.

Haiti stands as the latest sad example of how selfaggrandising assumptions of the global aid industry can backfire so badly.

Even before the quake, this was a poor country. More charities were thought to operate per capita there than anywhere else, earning Haiti the nickname Republic of NGOs. In the 50 years before 2010 it was given four times as much per head as Europeans received under the postwar Marshall plan, yet incomes collapsed by more than a third.

After the disaster the international response was impressive. People watching horror play out in primetime donated nearly £2bn to charities; governments and official institutions pledged (Cont.. to next page)

EVERY state possessing nuclear weapons has difficulty answering the question, ‘How much is enough?’ It’s natural to think that more weapons will result in more security because nuclear weapons are so fearsome and because it’s hard to know what hand the competition is holding.

If the competition responds in kind, feelings of insecurity usually grow. Refusal to compete can also result in greater insecurity.

Improved relations and nuclear risk-reduction agreements, tacit or otherwise, can provide a way out of this dilemma.

The guardians of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal have achieved many successes, despite the efforts of the United States and export control regimes to prevent them. With an economy one-ninth the size of India, outside observers now believe that Pakistan is ahead of India in some nuclear weaponrelated capabilities, including the size of its stockpile. India is not, however, standing still. It, too, is increasing the size of its stockpile and flight-testing more advanced missiles. If New Delhi decides to pick up the pace of this competition, Pakistan will feel less secure as an unwanted arms race picks up steam.

Even if India chooses not to pick up the pace, Pakistan will become more insecure unless its economy and social cohesion improve. Nuclear weapons can help severe crises from becoming wars, and some kinds of added nuclear capabilities can strengthen deterrence.

But nuclear weapons cannot fix domestic ills, and if deterrence fails, the significant costs of acquiring nuclear weapons will become a mere down-payment to the extreme costs associated with their use.

The United States and the Soviet Union remain object lessons of how success can breed competition and insecurity. Both superpowers were guilty of wretched nuclear excess because their competition was always measured in relative, rather than absolute terms.

An adversary’s gains were always bad news, no matter how many weapons the home team possessed. The successful acquisition of ‘second strike’ capabilities — the ability to withstand a surprise attack and respond with devastating effect — never did relieve Cold War anxieties because the competition never waned, even at very high numbers. This twisted superpower dynamic only subsided when the Soviet Union failed because its economy couldn’t sustain the competition.

Three states with mid-sized nuclear arsenals — Great Britain, France and Israel — managed to avoid this dynamic because they didn’t have a nuclear-armed adversary in their approximate

weight class, and because all three could rely on Washington as a back-up.

One key decision point for all states with nuclear weapons is whether to seek the means to deliver them at short, as well as longer ranges. Mobile missiles with longer ranges are easier for the home team to control in a crisis and harder for an adversary to target.

Short-range capabilities are the hardest to control because, in order to have maximum deterrent effect, they need to be positioned close to where battle lines might be drawn. These lines can change and can be breached quickly, especially with the use of air power.

The United States and the Soviet Union were never able to figure out how to secure shortrange nuclear capabilities and to maintain command and control over them in the fog of war.

Nonetheless, the superpowers handed thousands of battlefield nuclear weapons to soldiers who would become victims of fallout from friendly as well as enemy fire. The Soviet Union planned to carry out a ground offensive across Europe with tactical nuclear weapons, while the United States planned to stop tank offensives with them. With the benefit of hindsight, these plans now appear to have been pure folly.

Huge Cold War arsenals of tactical nuclear weapons have shrunk considerably, but many still reside in Russian and US stockpiles. Success that leads to excess eventually results in reductions — long after it becomes clear that the risks associated with tactical nuclear weapons far exceed their military utility.

Pakistan and India won’t compete as foolishly as the United States and the Soviet Union, but they are still entering uncharted territory. This territory is even harder to map because Chinese strategic capabilities figure in New Delhi’s nuclear requirements, and because all three countries maintain secrecy over their holdings. A triangular competition makes it even harder to determine how much is enough. As the conventional military balance tilts in India’s favour, Pakistan has signalled a requirement for short-range nuclear capabilities to strengthen deterrence against the threat of Indian retaliation after dramatic attacks by violent extremists based in Pakistan.

New Delhi might also seek short-range nuclear capabilities, if it decides not to rely on longer-range missiles and airpower. Other new aspects of the competition are emerging with cruise missiles and sea-based nuclear capabilities. The question, ‘How much is enough?’ is being answered in ways that Pakistan and India are unlikely to find reassuring.

KARBALA CHAIN OF EVENTS Continued from last issue...!

MU'AWIYA'S PLOT TO POISON IMAM HASAN (a.s.): It was Mu'awiya's ardent desire to impose his son Yazid (who had been named after his uncle) upon the Muslims by making him the succeeding Khalifa, despite the fact that Yazid was the playboy of the time, with many evil habits including gambling, heavy drinking, and indulgence in the pleasures of the flesh. But the peace agreement would not permit Mu'awiya to appoint Yazid as his successor, (According to the agreement Imam Hasan would immediately become Khalifa upon Mu'awiya's death). Therefore, it was obvious to Mu'awiya that, if Al-Hasan did not outlive him, Mu'awiya could do as he pleased. Thus Mu'awiya planned to kill Imam Al-Hasan in order to pave the way for his son Yazid to be his successor.

Mu'awiya sent one of his agents to contact Imam Al-Hasan's wife Joda who was the daughter of AlAsh'ath (once a secret agent for Mu'awiya against Imam Ali in the Battle of Siffin). Joda was asked a small favor, i.e., to put a little poison in AlHasan's food, and in return Mu'awiya would give her a large sum of money and also make her wife of his son Yazid. She found the offer too attractive to ignore, and foolishly agreed to accept it. A few days later, she mixed poison in honey and gave it to the Imam. As soon as the Imam took the poisoned honey he became seriously ill. Sensing that his death was imminent, the Imam designated his brother Al-Husain (a.s.) to be the third Imam. Although Imam Al-Hasan knew he was poisoned, he did not reveal that to anyone but to his brother AlHusain. One thing Al-Hasan had wished was to have his burial by the side of his grandfather, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Imam Husain made all the arrangements to fulfill that wish but Mu'awiya's governor over Medina did not let that happen and used military force to stop it. Imam AlHasan was 47 year old when he died of poisoning.

Medina was never the same without Imam Hasan (a.s.). Everyone missed him dearly. People at first did not believe Mu'awiya poisoned Imam AlHasan, but soon found out the truth. When Husain (a.s.) was designated as the 3rd Imam he was 46 years old. Imam Husain (a.s.) carried on with his mission of teaching Islam as before. A large number of people kept coming to see him and to learn from him. This process continued for several years when people began to hear an ugly rumor that Mu'awiya wanted his son, Yazid, to succeed him.

MU'AWIYA DESIGNATES YAZID AS SUCCESSOR: Mu'awiya began a campaign to introduce Monarchy into the structure of Islam. To have Monarchy, by force or otherwise is alien to Islam, an innovation in religion, simply not acceptable. Everyone knew that, for Islam does not subscribe to any

Prepared by: Ramzan Sabir form of Royalty through inheritance or Monarchy.

In Islam it is supposed to be Shura.

Nevertheless, Mu'awiya sent his agents to the prominent members of the communities to obtain allegiance of loyalty to his son Yazid. But Yazid was evil, of the drinking type, incompetent, contemptible, and a pleasure-seeking person. People knew that. So the people protested vigorously.

There was anger everywhere. Emotions went sky high. To calm people down, at least temporarily, Mu'awiya decided to send his son Yazid to Mecca for the pilgrimage. Yes, Yazid did go to Mecca but only after taking alcohol with him as well as a chorus of girls for his entertainment.

MU'AWIYA DIES: Mu'awiya was getting older day by day. At the age of 75, he became seriously ill. He was nearing death. He lay weak and lifeless as if something was choking and strangling him. He felt tortured and tormented, and continuously cried for mercy.

He was in terrible pain. He wanted to die but death would not come close to him. His conscience tormented him for the calamities that he brought upon the Islamic Ummah specially Ahlul Bayt.

Mu'awiya suffered in agony for many many days.

His suffering continued until he breathed his last.

At the time of his death, the 30 year old Yazid was nowhere near him, he had gone for fun on a hunting trip.

(Please note that Mu'awiya's brother was by the name of Yazid, and he had named his son after his brother.)

YAZID BECOMES RULER: Upon Mu'awiya's death, Yazid, 30 years old, managed to impose himself on the people and become the Khalifa. At first people refused to accept him as a representative of the Prophet (pbuh) and Islamic Ummah, but Yazid approached people in mosques for their favors. Like his father Mu'awiya, Yazid used all possible means like bribery, coercion, pressure, threats, and force to receive the people's acceptance of him as the legitimate ruler. Many people were worried, threats to their lives and livelihood was too menacing, so they grudgingly and reluctantly gave in. But, Imam Husain (a.s.) and his family (who practiced Islam in its true sense), did not give in. As the true representative of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), AlHusain flatly refused accepting Yazid either as a Khalifa or a leader of Islam. Despite Yazid's intimidating military power the Imam stood firm in his resolve and chose to challenge Benu Umayya's authorities.

To be Continued in next issue...!

January 3, 2013

05

Top Afghan negotiator cautiously optimistic on peace prospects Attackers kill 15 at Nigerian church: rescue official KABUL: One of Afghanistan’s top peace negotiators said he was cautiously optimistic about prospects for reconciliation with the Taliban and that all sides now realised a military solution to the

war was not possible.

Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai also told Reuters that the Kabul government hoped to transform the Afghan Taliban into a political movement. He predicted the lethal Haqqani militant network would join the peace process if the Afghan Taliban started formal talks.

Signs are emerging that the Afghan gov-

ernment is gaining momentum in its drive to persuade the Taliban to lay down their arms before most Nato combat troops pull out by the end of 2014, a timeline that makes many Afghans nervous.

Pakistan, long accused of supporting Afghan insurgents such as the Taliban, has sent the strongest signals yet that it will deliver on promises of helping the Kabul government and the United States bring stability to its neighbour.

Stanekzai, also a close aide to President Hamid Karzai, expressed cautious optimism about prospects for peace.

Members of the Afghan government, the Taliban and some of its old enemies in the Northern Alliance discussed ways of easing the conflict during a recent meeting in France. “I think one consensus was that everybody acknowledged that nobody will win by military (means). Everybody acknowledged that we have to enter into a meaningful negotiation,” he said in a rare interview.

KANO: Attackers have stormed a church service in an area of Nigeria’s volatile northeast and killed 15 people in the latest such violence targeting Christians in recent days, an official said Monday.

Nigeria’s military however denied the attack, with a spokesman issuing a statement saying that while he was not present in the area where it was said to have occurred, “all my enquiries indicated that nothing like that happened.”

However, Nigeria’s military tends to downplay such incidents, and the official who spoke of the attack is the regional coordinator for the country’s National Emergency Management Agency. News of the killings emerged after President Goodluck Jonathan questioned whether deadly Islamist attacks on churches in his country and other violence worldwide could be signs of coming “end times”. Jonathan also suggested that the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram aimed to take over the Nigerian capital Abuja, but vowed the group would be defeated and claimed that progress had been made in thwarting attacks.

Details were still being confirmed from the remote area where the latest church attack occurred, but it appeared the victims had been shot, said Mohammed Kanar, the emergency agency coordinator. “We received information from our per-

sonnel in Chibok that some attackers stormed a church during Sunday service yesterday and killed 15 people,” Kanar told AFP. He later specified that the attack was at an

evangelical church in Kyachi village outside Chibok. The attack followed violence on Friday that saw attackers slit the throats of 15 Christians in a pre-dawn raid in Musari, also in the northeast.

Musari and Chibok are located in Nigeria’s Borno state, where Boko Haram has been based.

During a Christmas Eve service last week, gunmen attacked a church in northeastern Yobe state, killing six people, including the pastor, before setting the building ablaze.

Violence linked to Boko Haram’s insurgency in northern and central Nigeria is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

Wasting good intentions in Haiti Acting BA speaker secures permanence another £6bn. Although huge amounts still sit in bank accounts — the Red Cross alone has £310m, more than twice the total spent on permanent housing — £5.6bn has been disbursed.

Yet not only has the promised long-term reconstruction barely begun, but poverty is increasing, violent crime rising and 358,000 people remain stuck in the squalor of tent camps, lucky to eat one meal a day.

Thousands more families were forcibly evicted with nowhere to go, and the cholera was imported — allegedly by the UN — which has killed more than 7,800 Haitians so far.

Little wonder there is anger among local people, who were left so badly placed when Hurricane Sandy struck two months ago.

From the start of relief efforts in 2010 there was chaos. There had to be dozens of coordinating meetings each week, invariably held in English rather than French or Creole, underlining the exclusion of Haitians from the rebuilding of their own country.

It is hard to ignore the idea that some charities saw the disaster as a chance to raise money; why else did they all need to be there and slap their logos everywhere? The Lancet accused them of jostling for publicity while Médecins sans Frontières — which almost uniquely stopped fundraising after a few days, having

made enough for its needs — told me charities loved to be in front of cameras to ensure cash flowed into their accounts. This would not be so bad if the money was well spent. But substantial sums were blown on botched projects and needless staff costs.

I visited one place were families were lured to live in wooden sheds on the promise of jobs and decent public services, only to find themselves marooned on rocky land 10 miles from town, unemployed and charged twice the going rate for water. The voices of local people were ignored by arrogant outsiders, undermining accountability and sustainable development. As the Centre for Global Development reported last month, only a shameful 0.6 per cent of the money spent by bilateral and multilateral donors was given to Haitian charities and businesses.

Meanwhile an estimated 40 per cent went on supporting all the foreigners dispensing aid, with their inflated housing allowances, vehicles and drivers. When it comes to development aid, the concept of giving cash to people to spend as they see fit is attracting interest. Perhaps it is time to apply similar tactics to disaster relief. In Haiti, people could have been given more than double the average annual income. It is hard to believe they would not have spent the money better than the foreigners who have achieved depressingly little.

QUETTA – Syed Matiullah Agha and Dr Fouzia Marri were Monday elected unopposed as speaker and deputy speaker of Balochistan Assembly, and soon after their election the high court rejected a petition of former speaker challenging his removal from the office.Dr Fouzia of Balochistan National Party (Awami) is the first ever women of the province to assume the august office of the deputy speaker.Matiullah Agha, who belongs to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal), was earlier deputy speaker and was functioning as acting speaker, after former Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhootani refused to chair the assembly session.

Bhootani contended that the Supreme Court verdict in Balochistan unrest case has brought the status of provincial government into question, and that he would not chair the assembly unless there is clarity on this subject.The slot of speakership fell vacant when Chief Minister Aslam Raisani’s government pushed a no-trust motion against speaker Bhootani in session chaired by Matiullah Agha and got it passed with majority on Dec 26.Monday’s session of Balochistan Assembly started with acting Speaker Matiullah Agha in the chair with the sole agenda of electing speaker and deputy speaker. Matiullah himself being a candidate for the speakership left the chair for Dr Fouzia Marri, a member of Panel of Chairmen of the House.As no other candidate had submitted nomination papers for the slot of speaker, Matiullah was elected unopposed and was administrated oath by Dr

Fouzia. Following his election as speaker the slot of deputy speaker fell vacant and break was given for the election of deputy speaker.After the session resumed, Dr Fouiza Marri was elected deputy speaker unopposed and she took oath from Speaker Matiullah Agha. Besides Dr Fouzia, PML-Q’s Dr Basant Lal Gulshan had also submitted his nomination papers for the slot but he withdrew his papers before the election.

Cameras were not allowed to cover this election.Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani in his speech congratulated the new speaker and deputy speaker and thanked the legislators for their cooperation and declared it a victory of democracy. “The election of speaker and deputy speaker with consensus is a precedent for others,” he remarked, adding that neither “shoes nor papers” were thrown in the assembly; rather, the lawmakers showered flowers on each other.Raisani said during the ongoing tenure of the assembly, though sometimes ‘some friends’ were furious and jeered at each other but they always demonstrated flexibility which was a welcome trend for democracy. “We think the (other) democratic institutions (of the country) should learn from our assembly because there are different parties of various schools of thought but the house never witnessed hullabaloo,” he added.Senior Minister and Parliamentary Leader of JUI-F Abdul Wasey felicitated the new speaker and deputy speaker.

06 January 3, 2013

January 3, 2013

07

Enter tainment 2013 seems to be the year of remakes and sequels in Bollywood as a number of production houses are planning to bank on the popularity of their hit films by releasing their next installments.

Beginning with ‘Race 2′ and ‘Murder 3′, the year will have some of the much-awaited sequels as well as remakes like ‘Chashme Baddoor’ and ‘Zanjeer’.

According to a report in TOI: The year is set to end with big budgeted sequels like ‘Krrish 3′ and ‘Dhoom 3′, but others such as ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2′ and ‘Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns’ will hit screens much ahead.

With an ensemble star cast and the promise of the same thrill that ‘Race’ had offered in 2008, its sequel is set to release on January 25. Anil Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are reprising their roles from the previous film while Deepika Padukone,

John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel are new additions to the cast.

Bipasha Basu will reprise her role of Sonia in a special appearance. Emraan Hashmi is not a part of the third instalment in the Murder series. The film, starring Randeep Hooda and Aditi Rao Hydari, will release on February 15.

‘Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns’ will hit theatres on March 8 with Irrfan Khan and Soha Ali Khan as new additions.

Two sequels are set to release in May – ‘Shootout

2013 to be year of sequels and remakes in Bollywood

at Wadala’ and ‘Aashiqui 2′. The former is the sequel to underworld drama ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’ (2007), while ‘Aashiqui 2′ is a revisit to the hit 1990 film starring Rahul Roy and Anu Agarwal.

The new film has Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor as the lead pair.

The Deol family will return with ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana 2′ in June, while the sequel to ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai’ is set to hit screens in August. The film has a new star cast comprising Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha.

Horror film ‘Ragini MMS’ will have its second instalment in October.

The Hrithik Roshan-starrer ‘Krrish 3′ is set to release in November, while Aamir Khan will be seen taking on as the baddie in action-thiller ‘Dhoom 3′ in December.

I am very harsh on myself: Deepika Padukone Deepika Padukone may have chartered a successful Bollywood career for herself in a short span but the actress says she is rarely happy with her work.

The 25-year-old says her self-criticism helps her do better with each film.

“I am very harsh on myself. I am very rarely satisfied with my own work but I am glad that it is like this. I would rather be harsh on myself than be happy with the smallest thing that I do. I compete with myself and challenge myself to do better everyday. It gives me the drive to push myself otherwise I would

be stuck in the rut,” Deepika said.

She proved that she is more than a pretty face with her powerful performance as Veronica in Cocktail, her lone release this year.

“I am glad that this film happened for people to realise that. I have always believed in my work and myself but sometimes you have to wait for the right script and opportunity to come your way. Cocktail did that for me.”

She has already won an award for her performance in the film. Deepika, however, says she is more happy to see that the audiences’ perception about her has changed for good.

“I think awards are always welcome. Big Star awards recently acknowledged my contribution. But I am more happy about the energy shift that I feel from the audiences post Veronica. There is nothing in the world that compensates for that feeling.” With her latest film Race 2 ready to hit the screens on January 25, Deepika says she is looking forward to 2013. According to a report in Times of India.

“I could not have asked for more this year. I invested a lot emotionally into the character of Veronica and I am very happy with the result. It has been a great year for me not only in terms of Cocktail’s success but also with the kind of films that I signed post that. I have an interesting line-up for 2013.”

Deepika is looking forward to a busy year in 2013 with Race 2, Kochadaiyaan and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani releases.

She has also reunited with Shah Rukh Khan for Chennai Express after Om Shanti Om besides working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Ram Leela.

“Yeh Jawaani… is almost done and we have just started shooting Chennai Express. I am working with Shah Rukh again after four years. The film is true to Rohit Shetty’s style. While Ram Leela with Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a love story,” says Deepika, adding that Kochadaiyaan with superstar Rajinikanth is ready for release.

Talking about Race 2, her first release of the year, Deepika says she plays a manipulative role.

“It is for the first time that I am doing an action thriller.

The first part was very successful and Race 2 has similar twists and turns. My character Alina is very manipulative and intelligent and she knows how to get her way through whatever she wants.”

The Abbas-Mustan film also stars Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor, John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ameesha Patel and Bipasha Basu.

Film stars have lost their magic: Paresh Rawal Versatile actor Paresh Rawal feels film stars have lost their charm owing to extensive marketing and promotions.

"The stars have lost their magic in Bollywood. If I call myself a star, then no need to go door to door and ask the audience to come and watch me in theatres. There is no need for that. Does Rajinikant do that? Does any Southern star do that? Only we do that," Paresh told IANS. "We have blown this marketing thing out of proportion as, if we don't do this, then we are going to die. Do aggressive marketing through TV and media.

What is the need to go to Nagpur and wave your hands. People come because they like you. This is a very childish way of looking at marketing," he added. Paresh has witnessed the film industry very closely in his two decades long career, and says now the stars in Bollywood want to play characters and don't want to sacrifice it for the sake of stardom.

"Star system will always be there, every film will need a star. Even if there is no star, you want to make somebody a star.

Now fortunately, all the stars like Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, they have started playing characters," said the 62-year-old.

"Now the change that I see is, all of them want to play the character. They don't want to sacrifice the character for the

sake of stardom and this is a very positive sign," he added.

Paresh recently turned producer with Akshay Kumarstarrer Oh My God, which not only won critical appreciation, but also raked in moolah at the box-office.

But the actor says he doesn't associate himself with figures. "I don't associate myself with any kind of figures. Rs.100 crore, Rs. 200 crore - they are just mere numbers. I feel the best film will stay with you. Few films will stay with me for ages like 3 Idiots, Kahaani, Vicky Donor, Oh My God," said the actor.

"These are the health cinema which will entertain you with a message. It is good entertainment. Films like Teesri Manzil, Johnny Mera Naam were also good entertainment," he added. The actor, who has pulled off all his roles to the best of his ability, feels his best is yet to come.

"I would still say my best is yet to come because there are new writers, new directors, new ideas coming. The work culture has changed because of the multiplexes and all that. All the small films like Vicky Donor, Kahaani, Oh My God among others have got an audience who are ready to watch these kind of films," he said. "At this point of time, I would enjoy working more and I feel my best is yet to come," he added.

Every actor is an attention seeker: Anushka Sharma Hailing from an army background, Anushka Sharma has led a very quiet and disciplined life, but confesses her profession has now made her an attentionseeker - an "occupational hazard" for all actors.

"I am not spoilt as I was brought up in an army background. But every actor is an attention-seeker. It is an occupational hazard for us. If I don't seek attention, I will not be doing my work well," Anushka told IANS in an interview.

The actress made her Bollywood debut in 2008 with "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" and later went on to do films like "Badmaash Company", "Band Baaja Baaraat", "Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl" and most recently "Jab Tak Hai Jaan".

In a short span of four years, Anushka has carved a niche for herself in Bollywood and the 24-year-old says she wants to use her success to do things on her own terms.

"You should use success as a way of doing your work in a better way. I want to be successful to be able to do things on my own terms. You should use your stardom and success to be able to pull people into the theatre. That's what I would want to do with my success," Anushka said.

Asked what her mantra to survive in the industry is, she said: "Do your work and mind your own business; that is the only way."

Anushka admits she wasn't sure about the film industry before she joined it, but her views changed once she became a part of it.

"I used to think it is a dirty field because of these news channels playing dumb stories. But now I feel that when you get a lot here, you need to give back equally too. So whoever is the biggest star right now is working that much harder," she said.

After garnering critical acclaim for her performance in "Jab Tak Hai Jaan", Anushka will now be seen in Vishal Bhardwaj's "Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola" opposite Imran Khan and Pankaj Kapoor. It releases Jan 11.

The actress found the role of Bijlee challenging as it was difficult for her to relate to it.

"This is the first time I dealt with something which I just could not relate to.

When I was growing up I was not at all spoilt. There was no scope for throwing tantrums in my house. Plus, she (Bijlee) is not a stereotypical spoilt brat.

I could not look at my personal references for this. I had to be like someone else totally," she said.

Anushka admits that though she felt intimidated by Pankaj Kapoor, she had learnt a lot from the veteran actor.

"Pankaj Kapoor is one of the best actors one has ever seen because he has been a theatre actor. He has learnt to blank out people and the crowd and focus. That is one of the strengths an actor must possess," she said.

"I was intimidated by him. He doesn't talk much so you are always on tenterhooks around him. But it is such a pleasure seeing him act. He doesn't drink and he has played an alcoholic," she said

08

January 3, 2013

Delay in polls to be disastrous MANDI BAHAUDDIN - Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday said that some elements in the country were conspiring to delay elections and feared that if it happened it would be disastrous for the integrity of the country. The Punjab chief minister was addressing a public gathering here at Rose Cinema Ground which packed to its capacity only for the second time in its history.It is to be noted that first it was filled at the visit of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed. Praising Army, Shahbaz said it was fighting against terrorism and defending the frontiers of home land by sacrificing their lives. He, however, warned that the commanders should avoid falling in the trap of those elements who wanted to derail the country from the path of democracy. Referring to menace of corruption, the Punjab CM said that Zar Bab and forty thieves group were looting national wealth with both hands. The poor and commoners are facing hardships and the rulers are not caring for their welfare,” he lamented. He stressed that the nation would have to break the begging bowl and develop own resources if it wanted to stand in the comity of dignified nations.

“For this purpose the masses would have to vote the PML-N into power the upcoming elections,” he pointed out and appealed to the audience to vote in favour of Nawaz Sharif as he was the only capable

national leader who could steer out the country from the prevailing crises. Shahbaz recalled that during first term of Nawaz Sharif, value of national current was equal to two Indian rupees but now it

had fallen down to the level where Pakistan Rs1.75 was equal to one Indian rupee. This depreciation occurred due to mismanagement of the successive governments,” he claimed. Referring to achievements of the Punjab government, the chief minister said, it had worked hard to improve lot of the common people including farmers and educated youth. He said that the provincial government distributed 20,000 tractors to farmers, and yellow cabs to youth on merit. The government established a network of Daanish Schools across the Punjab to promoted education,

especially the most deprived areas; gave laptops to students and started Ashiana Housing Scheme and built houses for homeless people,” he enumerated. Shahbaz said that last year Dengue epidemic outbreak claimed 250 lives, adding that to control the epidemic he and his government worked day and night and succeeded in curbing the threat with the grace of Allah Almighty. He said there were some leaders who sitting in London called us dengue brothers but practically they did nothing for the patients suffering from dengue.

He further said that his government was aware of other diseases like TB and cancer and the Punjab government was working for their eradication as well. He pledged to bring Mandi Bahauddin at par with Islamabad and Faisalabad if the people gave their mandate to Nawaz Sharif in the coming elections. Later, he announced construction of overhead bridge on railway line and dual carriage way to link Mandi Mahauddin with Motorway. Mumtaz Tarar, Dewan Mushtaq, Ijaz Chaudhry and Nasir Bosal also addressed the public gathering and demanded establishment of university campus at Mandi Bahauddin and construction of overhead bridge on railway line and dual carriage way to link Mandi Bahauddin with Motorway.

Market flirts with record 17,000-point level KARACHI – On the last day of year 2012, the Karachi stock market closed lower, although the market gained 49 per cent during 2012 and crossed 17,000 points for the first time.

“The Karachi stock market closed below the psychological level of 17,000 points. Bank of Punjab remained in the limelight after news of recovery of funds. Volumes also showed some sign of improvement. Market gained 49pc is calendar year 2012 mainly because of substantial decrease in interest rate,” a dealer observed.

KSE 100-share index shed 37.86 points or 0.22 per cent to close the day as well as year at 16,905.33 points as compared 16,943.19 points of last working day on Friday.

Analyst said stocks closed lower on institutional profit-taking.

“Higher global commodities led the sentiment positive in the trading session amid concerns over rising political uncertainty,” he said.

He further said, “Expectations of lower CPI Inflation for Dec 2012, release of $688m US Coalition Support Fund and positive fertilizer off-take data for FFC and FFBL affected the sentiments. Falling banking spreads and global uncertainty over US fiscal cliff approval affected the foreign inflow at KSE.” KSE allshare-index lost 41.05 points or 0.34 per cent to end the day at 11,964.24 points, KSE 30-share index decreased by 31.56 points or 0.23 per cent to finish at 13,764.00 while KMI 30-share index lost 105.47 points or 0.36 per cent to conclude the day at 29,125.55 points. The day turnover in terms of shares settled at 177.671 million shares after opening at 154.458 million shares and the value of traded shares climbed to Rs 4.438 billion from Rs 3.655 billion while the capitalization of stock market remained Rs 4.242 trillion compared to Rs 4.256 trillion of the last trading session.

Trading took place in 350 companies where 141 closed in positive and 184 in negative, while the values of 25 stocks remained intact. Unilever was the top loser of the day, down by Rs 400 to Rs 10100, while the gainers were led by Unilever Food, up by Rs 100 to Rs 4300.

In the top ten scrips, Byco Petroleum was the volume leader of the day with 16.316 million shares, up by Re 0.53 to Rs 14.45. B O Punjab was on the second position with 12.534 million shares, higher by Re 1 to Rs 10.70.

It was followed by PTCLA with 11.980 million shares, gained Re 0.24 to Rs 17.35, Maple Leaf Cement with 10.951 million shares, shed Re 0.03 to Rs 14.57, and NIB Bank Limited with 10.806 million shares, increased by Re 0.11 to Rs 2.63.

ECP says same-day national, provincial elections unlikely ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday ruled out the possibility of polling for National and Provincial Assemblies on the same day, stating, that since the National and Provincial Assemblies had taken oath on different dates, thus their elections could not be held on the same day either.Talking to reporters, the ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said that the Constitutional tenure of the National Assembly would be completed on March 16th, 2013, whereas the Constitutional tenure of the Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assemblies would end on April 4, 6, 8 and March 27, 2013 respectively.To a query, he said that without dissolving all the Assemblies on the same day, polling for National and Provincial Assemblies could not be held on the same day. To another query, he said polling for National and Provincial Assemblies on the same day will lead to mix-up and confusion among voters,

and could result in wastage of many ballots.According to election experts, voters are not educated enough to correctly cast their votes in simultaneous polling for the national and provincial legislatures, thus, if polling was held on the same day many illiterate electorates would waste their votes.They said in the simultaneous polling every voter is issued two ballots, which are considerably long due to the number of contesting candidates, whose names figure on them.

Similarly, two ballot boxes are placed in every polling station for the National and Provincial Assemblies.However, political parties favouring the same day polling argue that the results of the one electoral exercise, say for the National Assembly, can’t impact the outcome of the second for the Provincial Assemblies.But, election experts believe that if the polling is held on different days for the two sets of legislatures, the results of the National

Assembly, which will be held first, could have influence over the opinion of voters casting their ballots for the Provincial Assemblies.

Therefore, some political parties may have to face a disadvantage in the subsequent polling for provincial legislature. If separate polling is held, the party winning the first round will have an excellent edge to fare better in the second exercise as voters generally tend to tilt towards it.According to a former senior official of ECP, the electoral exercise becomes exceedingly marathon if the same day polling is held. In the case of separate polling, the workload is scattered on two days, which facilitates the process as a whole, and relieves the ECP of massive pressure. He said since the Constitutional tenure of the National and Provincial Assemblies had to complete on different

Japan PM supports new N-reactors TOKYO - Japan's new prime minister Shinzo Abe has voiced his willingness to build new nuclear reactors, reports said Monday, despite widespread public opposition to atomic energy since the Fukushima crisis. During an interview Sunday with television network TBS, Abe said new reactors would be different from those at Fukushima that were crippled by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, according to major news outlets including the Nikkei business daily and Kyodo News. "New reactors will be totally different from the ones built 40 years ago, those at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that caused the crisis," Abe said in the interview, according to the Mainichi Shimbun daily. "We will be building them while earning the understanding of the public as to how different they are," he was quoted by the Nikkei as saying. It was the first time since Abe took office last Wednesday that he has voiced support for new construction, although his pro-business government had been widely expected to restart Japan's stalled nuclear programme. The day after being installed, his administration began signalling an aboutface on the previous government's policy of working towards a phasing out of atomic power, with a key minister speaking of a policy review.

UN rights chief urges India to end rape ‘scourge' The young woman's father spoke of the impact of the tragedy on the family.

"My wife had hardly eaten in the last two weeks," he told the newspaper.

"She was exhausted... I think she was not ready to face the shock of our daughter's death, despite doctors always telling us that she was serious. She cried intermittently all of Saturday, but it got worse on the flight back home."

The father, who was at his daughter's bedside when she was pronounced dead in Singapore, said he too was struggling to accept the news.

"It is too painful. I have

not gone inside her room. She was born in this house. Her books, clothes, they are all here," he said.

The attack has led to widespread calls for rapists to be executed in a country where the crime is so commonplace that it rarely gets a mention in the papers.

I n d i a does have the death penalty for "the rarest of rare" crimes although executions are only

occasionally carried out.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunman

of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was hanged last month but it was the first execution for eight years.

dates, thus the elections should also be held on different dates.Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ibrahim has said that the decision about holding general elections on the same day would be taken by the Election Commission of Pakistan in a special meeting.He said he cannot take any decision in this regard in his personal capacity.

January 3, 2013

SPORT DHAKA - Bangladesh said Monday it had shelved on safety grounds a planned cricket tour of Pakistan, which would have been the first by an international team since a 2009 militant attack on Sri Lanka's bus.

The two teams had been scheduled to play a Twenty20 and a one-day international on January 12 and 13 respectively, both in Lahore. But Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan told reporters the proposed tour had been put off indefinitely amid fears over players' safety, following protests by Bangladeshis and a Facebook campaign against the visit.

Anti-Pakistan sentiment still runs strong in the country, which was part of Pakistan until 1971 when it won independence after a nine-month war. "Bangladesh will not visit Pakistan for now.

We've made the decision after considering the overall security situation in Pakistan and the concern that our people have expressed over the safety of

09

‘Frightened’ Tigers refuse to tour Pakistan

their players," Hassan said. " W e made a commitment to visit Pakistan and it's almost mandatory for us to tour the country.

But we believe safety of players and officials are of highest importance. It's a national issue."

Pakistan have had to play their "home" matches in venues ranging from Dubai to London ever since gunmen shot dead eight people and wounded seven Sri Lankan players in an audacious attack near the stadium in Lahore in March 2009.

T h e Bangladesh board had indicated two weeks ago that it was ready to send a team, albeit only after a final security review.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf had said on December 22 that Bangladesh had confirmed the tour was definitely on. Hassan said Bangladesh had informed the Pakistan board of its change of heart and added that the team would visit Pakistan if security improves.

"We have noticed the security situation in Pakistan has not improved significantly, rather de-

teriorated," he said. "We've sent a letter to Pakistan three days ago explaining our position. We've decided to wait and see." Bangladesh had earlier agreed to tour Pakistan in April 2012 but the visit was blocked by the Dhaka high court.

Hassan said that he feared Pakistan might now bar its own cricketers from playing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in response to the decision. The BPL is the Bangladeshi answer to the Indian Premier League -- the hugely popular Twenty20 tournament which has fused cricket with showbusiness. In the first edition back in February, 20 Pakistani players featured in the tournament, with all-rounder Shahid Afridi fetching $700,000 in an auction of stars -- the highest amount paid.

More than 50 Pakistani players have already been bought at an auction for the second edition of the tournament, beginning on January 17. Officials said the BPL would go ahead even if Pakistan did not allow its cricketers to play.

Afridi needs to take a break to recover form: Imran Nazir Tendulkar, a record-setting batting ‘god’ KARACHI - Dashing Pakistan opener Imran Nazir has advised all-rounder Shahid Afridi to take a break from international cricket to recover his confidence and form. "There is no doubt that Shahid bhai is going through a bad patch and his luck is also not good. I have not seen such a long bad patch for any player," Nazir said. Afridi was recently dropped by the national selectors for the one-day series in India. They were hopes that if he performed well in the two T20 matches he would be retained for the one-day series as well but after a sluggish performance in both games he returned home luckless on Saturday. The former Pakistan captain has been going through a rough patch in batting and bowling in recent months and the biggest debate in Pakistani cricket circles is now about his future as an international player. "I have no doubt that Shahid bhai

can still play for a couple of years but right now I would say he needs to take a break," Nazir, himself dropped from the national team after the T20 World Cup, said.

"I think he is taking too much pressure on himself and it is not helping his confidence. He should take a break from the game, work on his basics and come back fresh for a new stint," Nazir told a TV channel.

"I think Pakistan definitely needs him but not in this form. His energy and enthusiasm is important for the team and he needs to get it back," Nazir said. Pakistan's experienced all-rounder Abdul Razzaq also backed Afridi, insisting that he should have been retained for the one-day series.

Razzaq, who was also dropped for the T20 and ODI series against India, said that Afridi's experience was still invaluable to the team and he needed to be given some confidence.

Fixing has taken toll on Pakistan NEW DELHI - Pakistan cricket legend Imran Khan lamented that the match-fixing scandal has robbed the country of two match winning bowlers M Asif and M Aamir. "Imagine if they were playing in this Pakistan team. Pakistan would be a formidable attack," said Imran during a panel discussion on NDTV after Pakistan's six-wicket triumph in the first one-day international against India.

The duo along with then Pakistan captain Salman Butt were found guilty of spot-fixing during the Lord's Test against England in the summer of 2010. When asked whether Pakistan were reliving the glory days despite this scandal after Junaid Khan ripped through India's top order to have them tottering at 29 for 5, Imran admitted that "match fixing has taken a big toll on Pakistan".

"Those two bowlers Asif and specially Aamir are a big loss," said the former Pakistan captain himself a fast bowler. "In world cricket today there are not many match winning bowlers. In the past you had (Muttiah) Muralitharan and Shane Warne... two match winning spinners. Then you had (Glenn) McGrath, curtley Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, (Andrew) Flintoff for a brief while.

Today if you look at Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel now and then," said Imran.

"On all conditions you don't have bowlers who can run through a team. In Pakistan you had Aamir was certainly a match winner, Asif was one of best new ball bowlers," he added. He said these two bowlers along with seven-footer Irfan and Saeed Ajmal could have made Pakistan an even more formidable attack. Asked what was the secret behind Pakistan producing top quality fast bowlers, Imran said: "I think it where they come from the

north of Pakistan or Punjab, they are physically athletic and their bodies are more equipped for fast bowling." He warned that Irfan has to be looked after if he is to continue making an impact because "he is going to have fitness problems because he is too tall".

On India's new find Bhuvneshwar Kumar who took a wicket with his first delivery in one-day internationals, Imran said he "swings the ball". "To get wickets you need air speed. The greatest bowlers are one who can use air speed and move the ball. Or you have to swing the ball which is what Kumar did. Or you should have bounce. Irfan the tall Pakistan bowler at his height gets bounce.

You have to have something extraordinary to deceive the batsman with movement or bounce of the wicket," explained Imran. He described Indian captain MS Dhoni unbeaten 113 as an "exceptional innings in the circumstances". "This match could have been over in two or three hours but for the splendid innings he played. It was one of the best innings," he added. Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar who took part in the same panel discussion, also lauded Dhoni for his magnificent century.

"There is no question about him being an outstanding cricketer in limited overs cricket. We have seen over the years how he has turned matches with his batting in 50 overs format and T20 as well. Today was one of all time great innings in the history of Indian cricket," said the former Indian skipper. He defended India's top order for the sorry batting spectacle saying they were dismissed to very exceptional deliveries. "Sometimes it happens in cricket.

Batsmen play and miss, ball goes over the stumps, catches are dropped.

NEW DELHI: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting once said that he would probably be batting in a wheelchair if he survived in world cricket as long as Sachin Tendulkar.

Tendulkar spent 23 years at the crease in the one-day game before retiring from 50 over cricket on Sunday with a record unlikely to be matched. The 39-year-old amassed a record 18,426 runs in 463 one-dayers with 49 centuries. South African Jacques Kallis is his nearest active contemporary with 11,498 runs and 17 hundreds.

“I think he is an amazing player,” Ponting once said. “You look at his records, and they are quite incredible. And to think that someone can stay in the game for 20 years is pretty remarkable as well.” Feared and respected by opponents, Tendulkar changed the definition of Indian batting, shrewdly combining orthodox and unorthodox shots to dominate any attack on any surface at home

or abroad. He brought not only flair and flamboyance, but also aggression to Indian batting, doing away with the days of the defensive approach with his attractive stroke-making against both pace and spin. Legendary India opener Sunil Gavaskar, the first batsman to complete 10,000 Test runs, said he was convinced Tendulkar would achieve greatness when he first saw him bat in the nets more than two decades ago. “It is hard to imagine any player in the history of the game who combines classical technique with raw aggression like the little champion does. There is not a single shot he cannot play,” he said. Tendulkar shattered batting records, earned millions of dollars and was revered as a demi-god by his fans, but humility remained his prime virtue.

If there was any arrogance, it was only in his batting because he loved to dominate bowling with exciting and aggressive strokeplay, always putting the team’s interests first in a glorious career.