Can Pak Times

Canadian Pakistani Times

ECP issues elections code of conduct ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday issued a final code of conduct pertaining to the upcoming general elections.

The code does not permit the president, the prime minister, federal ministers, governors, chief ministers, provincial ministers and other public office holders to participate in election campaigns “in any manner whatsoever”.

The election commission prepared the document, comprising of 40 points, after concluding consultations with political parties.

The rules also restricts political parties from encouraging or entering into any kind of

January 31, 2013 Volume 1, 045

Thursday

Army, judiciary in support of democracy, says PM ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military, judiciary and all political forces support a democratic system in the country, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Tuesday, urging all state institutions to continue working within their boundaries. Speaking at a function of the Gujjar Khan Bar Association in Islamabad, PM Ashraf said that, despite the naysayers and all the challenges faced, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led government had completed its fiveyear term.

The premier said that the Army and judiciary support a democratic system, and that all political forces are also in agreement that only a democracy could run in the country.

Ashraf further said that the PPP had set a history of reconciliation, and claimed they could have formed a government in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab if they desired. However, he said, the PPP respected the people’s man-

date and would continue to do so.

The premier’s statement comes nearly a day after Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) stalwart Raza Rabbani said ‘a conspiracy’ was being hatched by certain elements to delay the upcoming general election for two to three years.

The PPP senator had warned that “a sword (of Damocles)” was hanging over democracy and that “it would continue to be there till the election of prime minister after the polls.”

The senator’s remarks were followed by a pre-scheduled meeting of the PPP in which the party leadership had discussed possible dates for dissolution of the National Assembly and holding elections.

Also today, PPP Co-Chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned a meeting of leaders of the coalition parties for Tuesday evening to discuss the dissolution of assemblies and the caretaker setup.

Trade across Line of Control resumes after 20-day hiatus agreement debarring women from becoming candidates for an election or exercising their right of vote in an election. It further says that political parties should “encourage women to participate” in the election process.

It moreover says that all contesting candidates and their supporters are to avoid all activities which are offences under the election laws, such as bribing of voters, intimidation as well as canvassing within 400 yards of a polling station, including setting up of camps.

Furthermore, wall chalking as part of an election campaign has also been prohibited.

Whereas, use of loudspeaker would also not be allowed for election campaigns, “except at election meetings”. The code also makes it mandatory for candidates to specify a bank account for election expenses and they are also expected to keep records in this regard.

Also, the rules require all political parties and candidates to “firmly restrain their workers from exerting undue pressure against the print and electronic media”.

Moreover, the commission has also imposed a ban on display of weapons and fire arms in public meetings and processions “as well as on the polling day” and until 24 hours after the consolidation of official results by the Returning Officer”. The commission’s code of conduct also states that violation of the rules and regulations by a candidate may also result in his or her disqualification.

MUZAFFARABAD: Six Pakistani goods trucks crossed into Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday, an official said, ending a 20-day halt in trade sparked by deadly army clashes earlier this month.

The convoy, carrying onions, dates and dried fruits, crossed the Line of Control (LoC) shortly before midday. Tr a d e r s on the Pakistani side complained that the closure of the key crossing point had cost them 30 million rupees ($300,000) following the flare-up, which left five soldiers dead.

Brigadier Ismail Khan, the director general of Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s Trade and Travel Authority (TATA), told AFP that six trucks had gone to the Indian side at the Titrinot crossing.

Cross-border trade has been encouraged in recent years as a means to improve relations between the nuclear-armed rivals, who have fought two wars over Kashmir.

Kashan Masood, the head of the traders’

association in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said the recent disruption had hit business hard.

“We had placed orders for tomatoes and other vegetables from India. They were rotten and we suffered a loss of 30 million rupees,” he said.

“We are always at risk that our business will suffer whenever tension starts on (the) LoC. We are doing this business at our own risk as we don’t have any guarantee from the authorities.”

The clashes, which began on January 6, prompted fears that tensions between the two countries could escalate, but a ceasefire agreement on January 16 between commanders from both armies has held. A cross-border bus service also resumed on Monday. The route from Poonch on the Indian-administered side to Rawalakot on the Pakistani-administered side was opened in 2005 to enable members of divided families in the region to meet up.

‘All 20 on board Kazakh airliner killed in crash’ ALMATY: All 20 people on board a domestic flight in Kazakhstan operated by the SCAT airline died Tuesday when their Bombardier jet crashed on approach to Almaty airport in thick fog, the airline said. “Twenty people were on board – five crew members and 15 passengers,” the airline said in a statement, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

“According to preliminary information there are no survivors,” the statement added, saying the aircraft was a CRJ-200 made by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier.

SCAT said the plane went down about five kilometres (three miles) short of the financial centre’s main airport on a flight from the northern steppe city of Kokshetau.

Commercial KTK television said the plane crashed into a suburb of Almaty but gave no information of possible casualties or damage on the ground.

The Kazinform news agency reported that officials from both the interior and transportation ministry had travelled to the site of the crash.

The accident came just a month after a crash that killed 27, claiming the lives of much of the top echelon of the Kazakh state border service including the acting chief.

Aviation disasters remain a scourge across the former Soviet Union due to ageing hardware that often has not been replaced since the fall of the Soviet regime, as well as human error.

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Former Ogra chief arrested in Abu Dhabi ISLAMABAD: Former chairman of the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Tauqir Sadiq was arrested in Abu Dhabi, DawnNews reported on Tuesday. Sadiq is accused of having caused a loss of Rs83 billion to the national exchequer and eventually fleeing away. He went into hiding soon after the Nov 25, 2011 Supreme Court verdict which had declared his appointment illegal and had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate corruption cases against him within 45 days.

Sources told DawnNews a three-member team of law enforcement officials from Pakistan had arrested the former Ogra chairman in Abu Dhabi with assistance from local police.

Authorities are making preparations to bring the former official back to Pakistan.

Last week, the Supreme Court had ordered the NAB to file within a week two corruption references in the case against Sadiq.

One of the references ordered to be filed points a finger at the prime minister who had allegedly approved Sadiq’s appointment as chairman of the Ogra. The other is against the officials who are accused of obstructing investigations against Sadiq and facilitating his escape from the country. They include Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Pakistan People’s Party’s senior leader Jehangir Badar who is a close relative of Sadiq.

Prime Minister Ashraf was water and power minister and head of the selection committee which had approved Sadiq’s appointment.

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January 31, 2013

Fazlullah on top of US drone target list WASHINGTON: Pakistani Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah is top on a list of potential targets for US drones, The Washington Post reported on Monday, quoting official sources.

“Fazlullah is a priority — stalked by spies on the ground and squarely in the sights of armed drones,” a senior US Special Operations official told the Post. “He is very high on the leader board. We have assets focused on killing him.”

The US media reported earlier this month that the Obama administration was preparing new guidelines for attacking suspected terrorists but would continue to give the CIA a free hand in targeting terrorists inside Fata.

The report has irked Pakistan, which has repeatedly asked the US administration to reconsider its policy of using drones for attacking terrorists inside Fata. While Pakistanis agree with the US claim that the drones have killed many top terrorists, they complain that a large number of civilians have also been killed.

Pakistani officials also say that while the Americans are keen to target Afghan Taliban leaders, they do not show equal enthusiasm in attacking Pakistani militants.

The Americans reject this charge, pointing out that the drones have also killed dozens of

senior Pakistani Taliban, including their leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a drone strike on Aug 23, 2009.

Pakistani officials, however, counter this

and again after the attack on Malala Yousufzai in October, that US forces were doing too little to stop Fazlullah,” the Post noted but also pointed out that “this has (now) changed”.

argument by claiming that the Afghan government has allowed Maulana Fazlullah and other Swat Taliban to use their territory for carrying out crossborder attacks inside Pakistan. And the Americans are not using their influence to prevent the Afghan government from doing so.

“Pakistan officials complained for years,

The Post also quoted “conflicting reports from the region” as saying that a recent US drone strike in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province might have killed Fazlullah. “Neither US nor Pakistan officials have been able to confirm his death. Some of his followers assert that he is still alive,” the report added.

The Post noted that Maulana Fazlullah remained little known outside Pakistan until this past October, when a gunman associated with him tried to kill Malala for demanding equal education opportunities for girls. Malala survived the assassination attempt and is now recuperating with her family in Britain. The attempted assassination of a 15-year-old girl made headlines worldwide, and now “Fazlullah is notorious for murdering and maiming schoolgirls as part of his vicious campaign to impose Taliban rule on Pakistan,” the report added. The Post report also shows how a blast Fazlullah orchestrated outside a school in Swat affected lives in both Pakistan and the United States.

The blast killed three schoolgirls and wounded more than 100 students and teachers. US Army Staff Sgt. Mark Stets, Sgt. 1st Class Matthew S. Sluss-Tiller and Sgt. 1st Class David J. Hartman were also killed in the attack.

Sluss-Tiller, Stets and Hartman had five daughters and one young son. “These children and their mothers have struggled to deal with their losses. Some have fallen into deep depression,” the report noted. And Pakistani survivors of the 2010 school blast, like Sara Ali, 14, who suffered major back injuries, “live in fear of another attack”, the report added.

Kargil adventure was four-man show: general ISLAMABAD: The men who witnessed the Kargil fiasco continue to spill the beans. Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz, a former chief of general staff of Pakistan Army who has till now kept his peace about what he witnessed in the summer of ’99, says the ‘misadventure’ was a four-man show the details of which were hidden from the rest of the military commanders initially.

This is the first time someone this senior in the military hierarchy of the time has spoken in such detail and with such frankness about the fiasco that was Kargil.

According to him, initially the Kargil operation was known only to Gen Pervez Musharraf, chief of general staff Lt Gen Mohammad Aziz, FCNA (Force Command Northern Areas) commander Lt Gen Javed Hassan and 10-Corps commander Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad.

The majority of corps commanders and principal staff officers were kept in the dark, says Gen Aziz. “Even the-then director general military operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Tauqir Zia came to know about it later,” says Gen Aziz who at the time was serving as director general of the analysis wing of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

He said that Gen Musharraf worked on a policy of “need to know” throughout his tenure as COAS and later president — in other words, Musharraf would issue orders to only those who were required to implement orders instead of first consulting corps commanders and other military officers. The Kargil operation began in the summer of 1999 when Pakistani soldiers infiltrated into positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control.

The infiltration, which managed to cut off Indian supply lines, took New Delhi by surprise.

Initially, Islamabad claimed that the infiltrators were mujahideen but it could not maintain this façade for long. The Indian response coupled with international pressure forced the Pakistan military to withdraw.

However, the aftermath of the operation served to heighten tensions between Gen Musharraf and then prime minister Nawaz Sharif which culminated in the October coup when the military removed the elected government and took over.

‘Operation was never planned’ “The Pakistan Army did not plan the operation because Gen Musharraf never saw Kargil as a major operation. Only the FCNA was involved in it and perhaps a section of 10-Corps,” says Aziz,

adding that it was a major intelligence failure for India. More details of the operation are expected in Gen Aziz’s book which is hitting the bookshelves next week.

“It was a miscalculated move,” he says when asked about the operation, adding that “its objectives were not clear and its ramifications were not properly evaluated”.

we were not aware of whatever was unsettling the Indians. I deputed two officers to figure out what was happening.” The next day’s wireless intercepts were clear enough for Gen Aziz to realise that the Indians’ anxiety stemmed from the fact that someone from Pakistan had captured some areas in Kargil-Drass sector but it was not clear if they were mujahideen or regular troops. “I took these inter-

At his picturesque farmhouse in Pind Begwal in the foothills of Murree, about 30km from the capital, Gen Aziz was not averse to speaking frankly about the operation.

“It was a failure because we had to hide its objectives and results from our own people and the nation. It had no purpose, no planning and nobody knows even today how many soldiers lost their lives.”

He said he was personally not aware of what information had been shared with then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, but he felt that Mr Sharif “was not fully in the picture”.

He, however, recalls a general telling him that Nawaz Sharif asked “when are you giving us Kashmir?” during an informal discussion. This suggests, says Gen Aziz, that Mr Sharif was not completely in the dark.

Gen Aziz himself first discovered that something was up when he came across wireless communication intercepts from which he could tell that something was making the Indian forces panic.

“The intercepts worried me as I thought

cepts to then ISI director general Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt and asked what was happening.”

It was then that Gen Aziz was finally told

by Gen Butt that the army had captured some area in Kargil. This, says Gen Aziz, was not right. In his opinion, he should have been told about the proposed operation in advance so that he could have provided his analysis in advance.

A day after this conversation between Aziz and Butt, the latter called Gen Aziz and told him that he had been invited to the General Headquarters for a briefing on Kargil.

The briefing- During the briefing, which was also attended by all the principal staff officers, Director General Military Operations Lt Gen Tauqir Zia explained that units of NLI (Northern Light Infantry) and regular troops had captured areas in the DrassKargil sector.

Aziz feels that even though the briefing was conducted by DGMO Tauqir Zia, it was clear that he had not been aware of the operation from the beginning.

The day after the DGMO briefing, the

friction at Kargil operation was reported in the Pakistani media; interestingly, the Indian media had carried stories a day earlier.

This shows that the military leadership was informed about such a critical operation only after it began and by that time information was trickling down to the media.

At the briefing, Gen Zia did explain the ‘objectives’ of the operation — it had cut off India’s supply lines to Siachen because of the closure of Zojila Pass on Srinagar-Drass-Kargil-Leh road.

This, said Gen Zia, would block India from supplying its troops in Siachen and subsequently, India would evacuate Siachen. That this did not happen is now history.

Gen Aziz says this was because the planners “miscalculated the Indian response and overall repercussions”.

At the briefing, Gen Tauqir Zia talked about airing pre-recorded Pashto messages that he hoped would be intercepted by the Indian forces.

His objective was that these intercepts would fool India into thinking that the Afghan mujahideen had occupied areas in Kargil.

Gen Aziz says he objected to this plan as “these would get exposed very shortly”. He adds that this led to lengthy discussions and finally Tauqir Zia conceded that the truth could not be hidden for long.

In retrospect, Gen Aziz feels that “even if only NLI men were up there, it would be wrong to suggest that the operation was carried out by paramilitary forces because NLI falls under the military chain of command unlike the Rangers that are headed by a military officer but technically they fall under the control of the ministry of interior”.

The study that never was But for Gen Aziz the end of the operation did not mean the end of the matter.

After he was promoted as chief of general staff, he says that in 2004 he ordered a small study to inquire into what miscalculations had led to such a huge loss of men and money. He also asked each battalion concerned for details.

But the reaction was swift.

An angry Gen Musharraf called him and asked what the objectives of the study were. “I told him it would provide a professional understanding of our mistakes and losses but Gen Musharraf insisted that this was not the time for such a study and ordered that it be stopped.

“Zero Dark Thirty” finds no takers in Pakistan Zardari summons meeting of coalition leaders

KARACHI: Pakistani movie distributors and television stations are boycotting an Oscar-nominated film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden and popular US dramas to avoid offending sensibilities or sparking a violent backlash.

Pakistan may have a starring role in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty”, which dramatises the 10-year CIA hunt for the 9/11 mastermind, but local cinemas are steering clear of a film they say could make people feel humiliated.

Similarly, a local cable distributor is blocking transmission of the smash hit dramas “Homeland”, starring Claire Danes, and “Last Resort” on the grounds they are against national interest.

The boycotts are the latest form of unofficial censorship in Pakistan, where YouTube has been blocked for four months over a trailer for the anti-Islam film, “Innocence of Muslims”.

“Zero Dark Thirty” has topped the box office charts in the US and earned five Oscar nods. But in Pakistan, the raid to kill bin Laden is considered one of the blacker incidents in the country’s history.

A US Navy SEAL team killed the Al Qaeda chief in his hideout less than a mile from

Pakistan’s premier military academy on May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad.

“We have not and neither has anyone else bought Zero Dark Thirty,” said Mohsin Yaseen, a representative for film distribution company Cinepax. He described the film as

“pro-American”, despite controversy in the US over its depictions of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” widely seen as torture.

“It has several scenes which could make us feel humiliated. It is against the interests of the Pakistani nation,” said Yaseen.

The chairman of the Film Censors Board told AFP it had not reviewed “Zero Dark Thirty” because there had been no request to do so.

In 2010 censors banned Indian Bollywood comedy “Tere bin Laden”, which poked fun at the Al Qaeda leader, on the grounds that it could incite violent backlash and terrorist attacks.

Max Media, which has the rights in Pakistan to cable channel Star World, is refusing to transmit “Homeland” and military drama “Last Resort”. While “Last Resort” features US nuclear strikes on Pakistan, the country is referred to only briefly in “Homeland”, which stars Damian Lewis as a US Marine who is also a suspected Al Qaeda agent. “We strongly believe that programmes such as ‘Homeland’ and ‘Last Resort’ are against our national interest, cultural values and ideology,” said an official at Max Media who did not want to be named.

He said the programmes were suspended in keeping with a code of conduct from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority (Pemra) and warned that even “a vague reference about Islam can ignite violence in Pakistan”.

But a thriving trade in pirated DVDs allows Pakistanis to watch whatever they want in the privacy of their homes and “Zero Dark Thirty”, “Homeland” and “Last Resort” are big sellers.

“We do not have any threats or concerns, nor has any one stopped us from selling these DVDs,” said a salesman at one popular DVD shop in Islamabad.

SLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned a meeting of leaders of the coalition parties to discuss important issues related to the upcoming general elections, DawnNews reported.

T h e meeting which is scheduled to take place on T u e s d a y evening will be held in the President House, sources said.

T h e meeting will discuss the dissolution of assemblies and the caretaker setup, DawnNews quoted sources as saying.

Earlier on Monday, the PPP leadership had discussed the possible dates for dissolution of the National Assembly and holding elections during a meeting with President Zardari at the Presidency.

The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and PPP ministers.

Sources said the party’s leadership had agreed that the time had come for making formal contacts with other political parties on the issue of setting up caretaker governments at the centre and in the provinces before the elections, which will become due anytime after the completion of the National Assembly’s term on March 16.

January 31, 2013

PPP, allies to begin talks on caretaker setup: Kaira ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Tuesday said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had completed internal consultations over the dissolution of assemblies and the installation of a caretaker setup and was scheduled to begin its talks with the allied parties, DawnNews reported. Speaking at a ceremony in Islamabad, Kaira said the government was working towards apprising the nation over developments on a caretaker setup and assemblies’ dissolution in seven to 10 days’ time.

The minister said so far no consultations had taken place over who should be made the caretaker prime minister and a name could only be finalised once talks were held on the matter.

He said the PPP had constituted a committee to hold consultations with all parties in this regard. Kaira moreover said the leader of the

opposition in the National Assembly should provide Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf with two instead of six names for a caretaker premier.

He added that the government and the assemblies could perform their duties until the last day of their tenure.

The PPP leader said the government was bound to implement its agreement with Tahirul Qadri, chief of the Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ). Criticising Leader of the Opposition in the NA, Kaira said Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s attitude toward Farhatullah Babar was inappropriate.

He added that the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) should choose the route of talks instead of one of sit-ins.

Kaira said the PML-N should first clarify whether if was in favour of or against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in its existing form.

The minister said the forum to empower the election commission was not the streets, adding that the delimitation problem in Karachi was not the government’s doing.

Benazir case: ATC grants defence request to obtain inquiry report

RAWALPINDI: An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi on Tuesday accepted a request of the defence lawyer to obtain an inquiry report in the

Benazir Bhutto murder case, DawnNews reported.

The court moreover issued a notice to the Punjab government to make the report available by

Feb 9. Earlier today, the defence lawyer had submitted the request to obtain the report. The Federal Investigation Agency’s prosecutor had opposed the request, however, the court eventually decided in its favour.

Also today, the court adjourned a request to allow key witness and US lobbyist Mark Siegel’s to testify in the case through video conferencing to Feb 9.

In his statement recorded before FIA’s joint investigation team constituted to probe the assassination in 2009, Siegel had accused former president Pervez Musharraf of extending threats to Benazir regarding her safety and security in Pakistan. Benazir was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack after an election rally in Rawalpindi on Dec 27, 2007, weeks after she returned to Pakistan after years in self-imposed exile.

Six killed in suicide blast outside Somali PM’s office MOGADISHU: At least six people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up amongst a group of security officials outside the Somali prime minister’s office on Tuesday, army officials said. “I saw the dead bodies of six people and several others were injured,” said Abdukadir Ali, a Somali military official who stayed near the scene of the attack in central Mogadishu.

It is believed that many of those killed or wounded were soldiers or police.

“The bomber was sitting near a perimeter wall and detonated himself in the midst of a group of security forces,” Ali added. “There was chaos, smoke and pieces of human flesh.”

Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Said was in his office at the time when the attacker struck, officials in his office said, but he was not harmed by the blast.

“The area was closed down by the security forces … I saw several dead soldiers and others injured being rushed to hospital,” said Mohamed Hussein, a witness.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but the Al Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents have conducted a series of guerrilla style attacks in the capital.

The insurgents have vowed to topple

newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office in September after being chosen by the country’s new parliament, bringing an end to eight years of transitional rule.

Shebab fighters are on the back foot, having fled a string of key towns ahead of a 17,000-strong African Union force, which is fighting alongside Somali government troops to wrest territory off the extremists.

Ethiopian troops are also battling the

03

Policeman killed in attack on polio vaccination team in Swabi SWABI: Unknown gunmen attacked a polio immunisation team in Gullu Dheri area of Swabi district on Monday killing a policeman who was escorting the team.

The two assailants, who were riding a motorcycle, fled from the area after the attack.

SHO of Swabi police station told Dawn.com that the two lady health workers, com-

prising the anti-polio team, remained unhurt and were sent back to their unit, adding that the antipolio campaign continued in other parts of the province. The body of the deceased policeman was shifted to the District headquarters Hospital Swabi. Dr Riaz, incharge of the polio campaign said that 538 teams, comprising of 754 lady health workers, were operating for the eradication of the polio virus and that each team was escorted by a policeman.

He further said that a meeting would be held with the DCO and DPO to discuss the future of the three-day immunisation campaign which was scheduled from Jan 28 till Jan 30.

No group had claimed responsibility for the attack till the filing of this report.

Nine polio workers were killed in a string of attacks targeting the immunisation workers across the country in Dec 2012.

Nepra approves electricity tariff hike

Shebab in the southwest of Somalia.

But the Shebab remain a potent threat, still controlling rural areas as well as carrying out guerrilla attacks, including suicide bombings, in

areas apparently under government control.

War-ravaged Mogadishu was hit last year by a string of bloody bomb attacks, although it has been calmer in recent weeks. A car bomb in December killed three people, while in November a suicide bomber attacked a restaurant.

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) allowed on Tuesday for an increase of Rs 1.33 per unit price of electricity, DawnNews reported.

The price change would come under the fuel adjustment charges for the month of December 2012. The increase in price was a result of low electricity generation during the month of December last year and the charges would be recovered from the coming month’s bill, Nepra sources said.

Fuel expenses incurred during the generation of 6.23 billion units of electricty in Dec stood at Rs. 55.825 billion.

The Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation (KESC) would remain exempted from the price change.

04

January 31, 2013

Change nowhere in sight Shamshad Ahmad

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

Weak democratic process Season of defections and of new alliances as the political parties IT is a season of defections and of new alliances as the political parties gear up for the coming elections. Horse-trading is the name of the game and political loyalties change overnight. There is no feeling of shame as political parties embrace turncoats with aplomb, all in the name of democracy.

Putting on the back burner their election manifestos and the grave economic and political problems faced by the country and the people, the political parties are engaged in intense wheeling and dealing, vying to win over the influential and powerful ‘electables’.

For these power elites it is also all about managing and strengthening family and clan interests. They will obviously go with the highest bidder and where the opportunities lie. There is no political ideology involved when it comes to the power game.

Hence it did not come as a surprise when Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood ditched his long affiliation with the PML-F faction led by Pir Pagara, who also happens to be his cousin, to accept the offer by President Zardari to become governor of Punjab. The move by the crafty president was not only aimed at pulling out the rug from under Pir Pagara who had joined hands with Nawaz Sharif to undermine the PPP in Sindh, but also to strengthen his party’s electoral support base in south Punjab.

Weeks later the new governor announced at a public rally — in the presence of another cousin and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani — that his three sons, one of them a member of the National Assembly and another a member of the Punjab Assembly, had joined the PPP. The decision was said to have been taken in the best interest of the country and democracy.

Another interesting defection to the PPP which made media headlines last week was that of Saifuddin Khosa, a PML-N member of the National Assembly. The son of Zulfikar Khosa, a senior adviser to the chief minister of Punjab, Saifuddin switched sides accusing his party of betraying its supporters. It is interesting that it took him so long and close to the elections to realise that. It is certainly more to do with local political dynamics than any principled position.

Such defections have not only benefited the PPP. The PML-N and some other political parties, abandoning their so-called principled positions, have also welcomed turncoats in their ranks.

It is not that party-hopping is something new in Pakistani politics. There was one instance where almost the entire treasury bench of the Punjab Assembly switched sides in 1993 and then returned to the ranks a week later when political fortunes turned around. Similarly, the majority of PML-N members joined the military-sponsored Q faction after the coup that ousted the Nawaz Sharif government in 1999.

These defections galore and shifting political allegiances on the eve of the upcoming general elections, which may for the first time in Pakistan’s history lead to the transfer of power from one elected government to another, do not bode well for the future of democracy.

It is indeed a watershed moment for democracy that an elected parliament will be com-

pleting its full term, though it may not be for the first time. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s elected government also completed its five-year term, but elections led to a military takeover.

What is most creditable, however, is that the system has survived defying all dire predictions, conspiracy theories and strains within. That has raised the hope of democracy finally taking root in the country with all its shortcomings and problems. But the faith of the people in the political process and elections, as a means for change, may diminish if the system remains hostage to a few powerful families and vested interests.

The upcoming elections and peaceful transition of power are critical to the evolution of a nascent democratic process. Therefore it is not only imperative that the elections are free and fair, but that they also lead to the strengthening of an inclusive institutional democracy and do not become merely an instrument for the perpetuation of a dynastic, extractive political system.

Indeed, elections are an essential part of the democratic process, but they are not the ends of democracy. What matters most is whether the system delivers to the people, how it governs and whether it establishes the rule of law. A functional and robust democracy requires a process of horizontal accountability and a strong system of checks and balances.

Unfortunately, all these have been lacking, rendering the democratic process weak and vulnerable. The absence of governance, widespread charges of corruption at high government levels, deteriorating law and order, and the economic downslide remain major sources of instability. There is still a danger of the process being interrupted in case the economic crisis deepens and there is a complete collapse of law and order in the country.

Undoubtedly, the passage of the 18th and 20th Amendments to the constitution will go a long way in strengthening the parliamentary and federal system and creating an environment for free and fair elections. But these measures alone do not fulfil the conditions required for a participatory democracy. The political structure continues to be dominated by a narrow power elite, impeding the development of an inclusive democracy. A sense of dynastic entitlement dominates the country’s political culture. In this situation, elections become merely an instrument for the control of means of patronage.

That oligarchic political culture has to change to make the political process more credible for the electorate.

It may be true that a representative democracy offers the only way forward for the country, however painstaking and slow the process of change may be. But a system controlled by a privileged few and disconnected from the aspirations of the broad masses cannot survive for long.

Pakistani society is going through huge social changes with the emergence of a large middle class and a massive youth bulge. That has also generated conditions for radical political change.

Will the upcoming elections make that change happen?

More than two millennia after his death, Socrates remains as relevant as ever. The Greeks have already been getting nostalgic of their old wise man who doled out self-help tips, while railing against the hypocrisies of society and the state - and whose lessons live on more than 2,400 years after his death. They despise their present political leaders and their subservience to Brussels bureaucrats. The situation in Pakistan earlier this month looked no different. The Athenian scene was enacted in our capital with lot of ferment and frenzy. Dr Muhammad Tahirul Qadri was no Socrates. But, like Socrates 2,400 years ago, he did storm the citadel of political ‘power and greed’ in Pakistan.

Whatever his personal motives or political ambitions, like Socrates, Qadri challenged the rotten system in which the same feudalised and elitist oligarchy consisting of different men at different times under different political flags had kept the nation hostage with or without military collusion since independence. By rebuking the ruling hierarchy and their hypocritical corrupt practices in the name of democracy, he showed them their true face in the mirror. ‘State, not politics’ was his slogan. The people of Pakistan, like the Athenian public, stood totally disillusioned with the prevailing ‘democracy’ in their state.

For the first time, they were hearing someone speaking their mind and calling for longawaited change. They joined him in throngs because they knew the change they wanted will never come through elections under the present rotten system. Dr Qadri managed to mobilise a huge crowd for his long march. It was immaterial how many thousands they were. He did control the street power presenting an unprecedented spectacle of discipline. Contrary to general perception of Muslims being a ‘rowdy and aggressive’ people, the peaceful and disciplined sit-in at Islamabad’s DChowk was a different experience altogether.

But this was not meant to be a ‘discipline and peace’ rally. It was a wilfully mobilised and grandiloquently charged political dharna that its participants genuinely believed would demolish the system of corrupt politics in their country. They had gone there to convert Islamabad’s D-Chowk into Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Qadri’s demand for electoral reforms under a new caretaker set up before the coming elections was loud and clear. He cited the constitution’s Article 254 for deferring the next elections. The world of politics stood rattled. How dared he challenge the domain to which nobody, not even the successive military dictators, could ever bring change?

Qadri surely was a political outcast, not because he was a dual national or because in recent years for security reasons he had been living overseas, but only because ancestrally he was neither the ‘child of fortune’, nor ‘born into power’ as has been the requisite for being part of the privileged ‘club’ of Pakistani politics. To be part of this feudalised elitist exclusive ‘fraternity’, one must be the very antithesis of the criteria laid down in Articles 62 and 63 that Qadri had demanded to be implemented in letter and in spirit. No wonder, heartbeats and pulse rates zoomed up with Qadri’s last 90 minute ultimatum. The ruling hierarchy got the message. A group of notorious ‘wheelers and dealers” was soon there to deal with the challenge.

Qadri’s crime was no different from that of Socrates. Curtains in his bulletproof ‘container’ were drawn. The jury sat there briefly before giving its unanimous verdict. Qadri shall be ‘admitted’ into the ignominious ‘fraternity’ that he had vowed to topple. He accepted to be his own executioner. Unlike the real Greek tragedy, all in the ‘container’ were seen happy, gleefully embracing each other.

The hostage crowd returned home with change nowhere in sight. There couldn’t be a more comic end to our ‘Greek tragedy.’

Meanwhile, the media is galore with unending speculations and interpretations. Despite all the claims to the contrary, nothing has changed in Pakistan’s corrupt politics. Those who expect the coming elections to bring any change will be disappointed. The same political wizards remain in saddle. The same wizardries characterise our polit-

ical scene. The status quo of ‘loot and plunder’ that Dr Tahirul Qadri threatened to topple has only been reinforced. Hopes are still being pinned on the coming elections. Democracy is not all about elections.

If that was really so, countries with regularly elected dictators would have been rated the world’s most democratic states.

Democracy is also not about wealth or family lineage. Democracy is about the people, who are the final arbiters of their destiny. They choose their leaders in the hope of rule of law, justice and good governance. In our case, we have seen a number of political leaders ‘cycled’ through elections under political as well as military regimes. Invariably, very few of them went beyond maintaining their own political power and privilege, and securing their self-serving interests or those of their elite fraternity. As “elected” leaders, they never inspired hope to convert Pakistan into a self-reliant, democratic state enabling its citizens to live their lives and raise their children in dignity, free from fear, want, hunger, disease, corruption, violence and injustice. Since independence, the people of Pakistan have had no role in determining the course of their history or the direction of their country’s political, economic and social policies. As a newly-independent nation, we just could not cope with the challenges of freedom inherent in our geopolitical and structural fault lines. Language became our first bête noire. We lost half the country, and are still possessed by the same ghosts in the name of culture, ethnicity and history. We still have not been able to evolve a political system that responds to the needs of an ethnically and linguistically diverse population. There is no constitutional remedy to the genuine concerns on unequal size of provinces and lopsided sharing of political and economic power.

The problem is that the overbearing feudal, tribal and elitist power structure in Pakistan is too deeply entrenched to let any systemic change take place. It does not suit them. They make amendments in the constitution for self-serving reasons only. Our present provincial set up has long been the cause of political instability with an ever-looming threat to the country’s very survival. We must remember that Pakistan of 1947 could not survive even for 25 years. Despite the 1973 Constitution, the remaining Pakistan continues to face threats of further disintegration mainly due to unaddressed concerns of different regions.

Lately, there have been demands for more ethnic-linguistic provincial units in the country. If this trend were to continue, we will be left with a loosely wired skeleton of a federation with selfserving disgruntled and corrupt politicians playing havoc with this country. In any lopsided unequal setup, no method of governance will work. It is a system designed for paralysis, which we are already experiencing. To avert the vicious cycle of national tragedies, a serious and purposeful “national effort” is necessary for a holistic review of our governmental system before it is too late.

The foremost is the need for rationalisation of our federal system by recasting our ethnicbased provincial architecture to be able to redress our regional disparities. We must remove the inherent flaws in our body politic by replacing the present four ethnic-based provinces with as many administratively-determined provinces as necessary, free of ethnic and parochial labels but still constitutionally keeping their ‘ethnic and historical identities’ intact. Reason, not self-serving emotion, should be our yardstick.

Also needed is a political system that suits our nation’s “genius”. Temperamentally, we are a ‘presidential’ nation. It is time we abandon the system that we have never been able to practice, and opt for an adult franchise-based ‘presidential system’ suitably designed and tailored to Pakistan’s needs.

We must also adopt the ‘proportional’ electoral system to ensure representation of political parties proportionate to the percentage of popular vote they receive. It will provide greater access to non-feudal, non-elitist, educated middle class people in the elected assemblies.

Lack of commitment Farhan Bokhari The dysfunctional state of Pakistan’s democracy has many obvious aspects. As the country prepares for what members of Pakistan’s ruling political structure consider a historical transition from one elected regime to another through popular vote later this year, the gaps in the ruling order are all too obvious.

One such gap was noted by a respected Pakistani journalist recently, when he claimed in a TV discussion, that there are some 100 members of Parliament or roughly just below one-third of its strength, who have made no contribution to any discussions in the five years of their terms as elected representatives since 2008.

By pointing towards the blatant disregard by these members of Parliament for their obligations to their constituents, he noted the degree to which Pakistan’s democracy remains undernourished and underperforming.

The claim comes in a week when Presi-

dent Asif Ali Zardari, according to a report in the Pakistani press, finally returned to Islamabad after spending 49 days away from the city - either on an overseas trip or staying put in Karachi.

Indeed, Zardari’s absence has amply proven his irrelevance in tackling the many acute challenges faced by Pakistan. Rather than being an important agent of progressive change, Zardari has time and again proved himself to be largely a non-player, visibly obsessed with overseeing an increasing crisis of governance and cronyism.

Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising to see the claim aforementioned.

In addition to such dismal conditions inside Parliament, conditions outside the august house, across the political mainstream, are hardly surprising. During the past five years under Zardari’s watch, Pakistan has seen a deepening of an economic crisis. Meanwhile, the ability of the (Cont.. to next page)

January 31, 2013

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Pakistan, Afghanistan move closer ahead of London talks ISLAMABAD – Appreciating Pakistan’s role in the renewed peace process, a top Afghan official has ‘thanked’ Pakistani government for the release of Afghan Taliban prisoners while Islamabad’s military establishment has assured that it ‘fully’ supports Afghan-led settlement in the war-torn country. The development is said to have followed a meeting between Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and visiting Defence Minister from Afghanistan General (r) Bismillah Khan Muhammadi at the General Headquarters (GHQ) on Monday.General Muhammadi led a high-level five-member delegation that met the top military officials from Pakistan. Apart from the group meetings, a separate meeting between the Afghan minister and General Kayani was also held, military officials said.This meeting comes against the backdrop of the forthcoming trilateral summit on Afghanistan in London. The two-day event (February 3-4) is expected to draw future contours of negotiated settlement in Afghanistan with the active involvement of Pakistan.Afghan Military Operations Director General (DG MO) Major-Gen Afzal Aman, who was also among the five-member Afghan team, had earlier met Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-Gen Khalid Rabbani and he is reportedly playing key role in the renewed Pak-Afghan strategic commitments on cross-border coordination and cooperation.“We fully support Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process as a stable and peaceful Afghanistan is in the best interest of both the countries,” the military officials quoted Gen Kayani as telling Muhammadi.Sources said that the Afghan minister thanked the Pakistani government for the release of Afghan Taliban saying “this is going to play a

very positive role in the peace process”. Gen Muhammadi is further said to have appreciated what he described as Pakistan’s‘ efforts to fight terrorism and sacrifices rendered by the nation while “condoling with the grieved families”.According to the military officials, both sides agreed that security of both the countries was “inextricably linked with each other”. The meeting, officials said, was an expression of the ‘growing realisation’ that Pakistan held ‘centrality’ in the eventual negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. The two sides are also reported to have reviewed the measures on border coordination and cooperation to prevent cross-border attacks from both the sides against one another.Apart from General Muhammadi, all the other four members of the Afghan delegation are serving Afghan Major Generals who visited GHQ reportedly to meet their Pakistani counterparts.

They are: DG MO Afzal Aman, Military Intelligence and Investigation DG Abdul Manan Farahi, Training Inspector General Payanda Mohammad Nazim and National Defence College Afghanistan Commandant Aminullah Karim.They met Pak-

istan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) DG Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam, Military Intelligence (MI) DG Major Gen Noshad Kayani, Training and Evaluation Inspector General Lt Gen Raheel Sharif and National Defence University (NDU) Commandant

Lt Gen Nasir Janjua in the group meetings, the officials said.“The two sides discussed matters of professional interest, with particular focus on enhancing mutual defence cooperation and measures that Afghan National Army and Pakistan Army intend initiating for an enduring training relationship,” a Pakistan Army statement said.Operationalisation of recently concluded agreement on Tripartite Border Standing Operating Procedures was also discussed in detail. The agree-

ment is aimed at improving existing security cooperation and intelligence sharing mechanisms, on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border, the statement added.Pakistan’s military relationship with Afghanistan and International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) stays on a positive path amidst reports that Islamabad is expected to get a key strategic role in the renewed Afghan peace process. Pakistan released over a dozen Taliban detainees, after successful negotiations with Afghanistan’s High Peace Council in November and December 2012.Last week, the commanders from the three sides had pledged continuing cooperation against the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by the militants. In the 36th meeting of the Tripartite Commission held in November last year, the three forces had signed Tripartite Border Coordination Mechanism for enhanced border coordination and cooperation.Agencies add: Afghan Defence Minister Bismillah Khan also called on President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday and discussed matters of defence cooperation and war on terrorism. Talking to him‚ President Zardari said Pakistan gives much importance to its ties with Afghanistan.The president said that Pakistan has always taken principled stance to support efforts intended to bring peace, prosperity and stability to Afghanistan. He said that Pakistan will continue to support an Afghan-led peace process in the brotherly state.President Zardari reiterated that Pakistan has abiding interest in the stability, prosperity and development of Afghanistan and it was ready to contribute its share for the capacity building of Afghan institutions. Afghan defence minister expressed his country’s desire to promote defence relations with Pakistan.

Father of gang-rape victim urges changes in law NEW DELHI: The father of an Indian student who died after being gang-raped on a bus has called for changes in the law to allow a teenage suspect to be tried as an adult, local media reported on Tuesday.

The father of the 23-year-old victim said he was shocked that a court ruled that the sixth suspect in the deadly gang-rape case would be tried as a juvenile, facing a maximum prison term of three years if convicted.

“I want to ask the lawmakers if an exception shouldn’t be made in this case,” the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was quoted as saying in the Hindu newspaper.

“We want to be reassured by the government that my right to justice is protected. In this case the accused is hiding behind legal loopholes

NAB chief sends his resignation to President ISLAMABAD - Apparently perturbed over the Supreme Court’s severe remarks on NAB’s partiality and inefficiency regarding cases of mega corruption it presently investigates, Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Admiral (Retd) Fasih Bokhari has ‘warned’ of stepping down alleging that the Bureau was unable to carry out its investigation process under the ‘undue’ pressure exerted on it by the Supreme Court. The Chairman NAB in a letter written to President Asif Ali Zardari has levelled serious charges of over-stepping the jurisdiction as well as powers and pre-poll rigging on the country’s apex court with the remarks that if these issues were not addressed expeditiously, he would be forced to resign. “I am constrained to observe and bring to your notice that the position of the Supreme Court, on this issue, remains clouded by actions that are bearing heavily on my mandate to strictly abide by the NAO (National Accountability Ordinance) in both letter and spirit, as the time for elections approaches,” he said.

Lack of commitment government to begin resolving any of the profound challenges faced by the nation has remained far from adequate. The President’s latest prolonged absence from Islamabad, rumoured to have taken place under spiritual advice, says much about his lack of commitment to overseeing a credible reform of the government.

While the buck may, indeed, just stop with him as the President of Pakistan, Zardari’s persona typifies a wider challenge. Left to the whims of its politicians, the country may, indeed, be in the danger of continuing to slip on multiple fronts, notwithstanding its democratic framework.

Faced with this far-fromperfect outlook, many Pakistanis are anxiously looking to see if there is hope in the future or, indeed, that of their coming generations. However, a number of crisis in recent years have only reinforced the popular impression of a government that has no interest in overseeing Pakistan’s outlook improve radically.

The economic crisis alone is the consequence of several policy failures. One has, indeed, been the failure to address acute electricity shortages that have simply turned Pakistan into a potential economic basket case. The closure of many industries, especially in the textiles sector, which was once the country’s largest industrial employer, has meant that unemployment has risen rapidly.

For the moment, there is no credible hope of the electricity-related crisis

beginning to end any time soon.

Another policy failure has, indeed, been the government’s virtual inability to tackle an ever-yawning and fast-growing budget deficit, which has simply demolished the idea of prudent economic management. In large measure, this outcome is driven by the terrible reality of Pakistan’s failure to lift the number of its taxpayers beyond the hopeless figure of just about 0.9 percent of the country’s population. The failure to tackle the economic challenge, in large part, is also driven by a continuing failure of the government to tackle the mounting losses surrounding large public sector corporations. Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which came to power in 2008, has seen many public sector corporations only run deeper into losses in comparison to their past record, adding to the strain on the national exchequer.

These bits of evidence must raise some very compelling questions about the virtual absence of tangible fruits of democracy reaching ordinary Pakistanis. Surrounded by increasingly dismal conditions, ordinary Pakistanis are, indeed, well within their rights to ask if a democracy in name has been able to meet their expectations. For many, the answer must be in the negative. Even surrounded by comforts in his ivory tower, Zardari will be ill-advised to ignore Pakistan’s increasing journey southwards, for the chicken will eventually come home to roost.

in the system,” he added.

The victim’s family has been among those calling for the juvenile to be tried alongside the five other accused, who face the possibility of being hanged if found guilty of rape and murder charges.

But the Delhi-based Juvenile Justice Board on Monday accepted the school records of the teenage suspect, which states that he was born on June 4, 1995, making him 17.

“The news came in as the family sat down to have its evening meal. Nobody has eaten since then,” the father said from the family’s modest one-

room accommodation in east Delhi.

The dead woman, a physiotherapy student, suffered massive intestinal injuries during the assault on December 16 in which she was raped and violated with an iron bar.

She died 13 days later after the government flew her to a Singapore hospital in a last-ditch bid to save her life.

Though sexual harassment is commonplace in India and gang-rapes far from rare, the case has touched a nerve, leading to an outpouring of criticism of the treatment of women in Indian society. A government panel set up to recommend changes to sexual crime laws last week rejected calls for the age at which people can be tried as adults to be lowered to 16 from 18.

06 January 31, 2013

Shah Rukh Khan article sparks war of words between India and Pakistan The hullabaloo erupted after Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik, perceiving Khan to be unsafe, called upon India to augment his security.

“He (Khan) is born an Indian and would like to remain an Indian. But I will request the Indian government to provide him security,” Mr Rehman said in response to the actors article, seemingly in an expression of Muslim solidarity.

Matters were aggravated further by Hazif Saeed, founder of Pakistan’s proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist militant group, offering Mr Khan asylum in his country.

“He can live here (in Pakistan) for as long as he wants,” said Saeed, whose LeT India holds responsible for the November 2008 siege of Mumbai by 10 Pakistani gunmen during which 166 people died.

India’s federal home secretary R K Singh responded to both statements tersely saying that India was capable of looking after its citizens.

“Let him (Malik) worry about the security of his country’s citizens” Mr Singh retorted.

Mr Khan, 47, whose has family roots in

the Pakistani border city of Peshawar and who has a massive fan following in that country, said the row over his article was “meaningless”.

“I never said I was insecure. I would like to tell all those offering unsolicited advice that we (Muslims) in India are extremely safe and happy” he declared adding that

Kathleen Wynne the New Leader of the Ontario Liberals

Kathleen Wynne is Ontario's first female and openly gay premier. Wynne won the leadership of the Liberal Party of Ontario on the third ballot with 1,150 votes to Pupatello's 866. She becomes the sixth female premier in Canada..

Political history was made in Toronto last night when Kathleen Wynne became the first female and openly gay leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario.

When Lynne assumes the office of Premier of Ontario early next week, she will join five other female premiers in Canada.

Wynne, an openly gay woman, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens University, a Master of Arts from the University of Toronto, a Master of Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies and Education and has completed a one week course in mediation at Harvard University. She is

the mother of three children, formerly married to Phil Cowperthwaite.

She came out as being gay at age 37 and lives with her partner Jane Rounthwaite. On her way to becoming Ontario's first gay premier, she gave a remarkable speech at the convention on Saturday morning, the words of which will be remembered long after they were spoken.

Wynne has represented the Toronto riding of Don Valley West since 2003 and has held portfolios in transportation, education and aboriginal affairs in outgoing Premier Dalton McGuinty's cabinet.

Wynn first took a run at political office in 1994, in attempt to become a school trustee, but was defeated. In her second attempt in 2000, she was elected public school trustee in Toronto's Ward 8.

24 hours of controversy over this pointless matter was more than enough.

“The whole thing has been sensationalised and trivilaised. Let me get back to doing

dian Premier League cricket team.

Mr Khan, often known as "King Khan", recently wrote in Outlook Turning Points, published by India’s weekly Outlook magazine in association with the New York Times, saying that at times local political leaders made him a symbol of all they thought was “wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India”.

He went on to say that he has been accused of bearing allegiance to Pakistan rather than to India, a not uncommon refrain against Muslims voiced by some political parties.

This, Mr Khan, said was despite him being an Indian whose Peshawar-born father participated in the country’s freedom struggle from Colonial rule that led to independence and the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

India today has the world’s second largest population of Muslims - over 165 million after Indonesia.

Meanwhile, police in Mumbai what I do best (acting)” stated Mr Khan, who had recently withdrawn Mr Khan’s the flamboyant Bollywood superstar who security reinstated it over the weekend but has appeared in over 75 films, anchored claimed it had nothing to do with the war TV game shows and who also owns an In- of words with Pakistan.

Hockey Night For Osler "Challenge Cup" in Brampton

Maple Leafs Legends take on the Osler Crusaders @ Hockey Night For Osler "Challenge Cup" in Brampton This week.

Enter tainment IT WOULD be nice to watch Zero Dark Thirty in the cinema in Pakistan. The extraordinary final sequence when Seal Team Six swoops into Abbottabad and raids the compound where Osama bin Laden had remained undetected for six years would definitely benefit from surround sound and a big screen. And it would be fun to listen to the chortles of derision from a Pakistani audience in a real time, rather than following the tweets and Facebook updates of those who watched versions downloaded from the internet weeks before its release in the UK. But I’m not holding my breath that Kathryn Bigelow’s account of the hunt for America’s greatest enemy will go on general release here any time soon. The film’s distributors have not offered it for theatrical release in Pakistan over concerns that the official censors would take exception to it.

While the movie is controversial in the US over the suggestion that the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques were instrumental in nabbing Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan the film is an unwelcome reminder of a past humiliation.

The country’s security establishment is still seething over the Americans’ decision to mount a massive operation without bothering to involve the Pakistanis, nominally allies in the war against Al Qaeda.

So, in Pakistan many people are making do with illegal downloads and pirated DVDs. In my local video shop it comes in two different cases.

One has the original artwork on the cover; the other features a large portrait of Osama bin Laden, a character whose face is never actually shown in the film. “For me the biggest problem was that the production design was so weak,” says Wajahat Khan, a television journalist. Not only is he unconvinced by many of the locations used to stand in for Pakistan, Khan is, like many others, bemused by the depiction of Pakistanis speaking Arabic to each other. And he thinks the film-makers are guilty of “imagining Pakistan to be what they want it to be”.

“It does a disservice to how complex the society is,” Khan explains. “This society may have

housed Osama bin Laden, but it’s not the backyard of a local mosque in Jeddah.”

Expatriate life is also shown to be grimmer than the reality of large and spacious houses enjoyed by diplomats in Kabul. Perhaps the foreign press corps is to blame for disabusing Zero Dark Thirty’s screenwriter, Mark Boal. During a visit to Pakistan before filming began, Boal asked a group

A single character, Maya, is used to carry the film. She is portrayed as a lone voice challenging the CIA’s bureaucratic inertia after Bin Laden trail goes cold and she is placed at the centre of the action. She is shown dining in a poor imitation of Islamabad’s Marriott hotel even though it was blown up in 2008. Her car is attacked by gunmen as she drives out of her house – something that has

Zero Dark Thirty: the view from Pakistan of hacks whether foreigners in Islamabad enjoy “crazy parties where everyone gets naked in the pool”. The poor man looked crestfallen when told the (all too depressing) truth that Islamabad is a pretty subdued place.

INACCURACIES: Although it was described by Bigelow as a “reported film”, Zero Dark Thirty offers a feast for fact-checkers. Inaccuracies abound, largely due to the need to compress the decade-long hunt, create composite characters and make the whole thing work as a piece of drama.

Movie Review: Race 2 In the sequel to 2008’s Race, Saif Ali Khan returns as Ranveer; A sharp witted protagonist and antagonist whose ambitions are stuck for good in the con games and as formula prescribes, he’s got murder in his mind.

After opening, with possibly the worst car-explosion special effects in history, Ranveer, off the radar since Race, appears at a Casino run by Vikram Thapar (Rajesh Khattar), a millionaire whose motivations for money-doubling are as philistine as his common sense.

Vikram’s con, in a long line of unoriginal rip-offs in Race 2’s, is one

of the small fishes; there’s bigger game at play. As a song from the movie goes “Allah Duhai Hai”!

Race 2, shot everywhere except India (as its predecessor), is a lot like every other sequel: it suffers from ‘sequelitis’ – an epidemic that infects the genome of box-office breaking movies with spin-off potential. The virus is global and unbiased in its toxicity: it shares equal affection regardless of geographies, film industries or originality in plot pitching. Race-400--5 Ranveer, like any other heroic lead-villain of a heist movie, has a deceptive itinerary of money laundering, money nabbing and general hoodwinking pre-plotted.

His schema compromises: Amaan (John Abraham, leaner, as effective as possible with the material), a street fighter turned big-fish, his half-sultry sister (Deepika Padukone), his newly acquired girl-friend (Jacqueline Fernandez), the returning lynchpin with a fruit fetish (Anil Kapoor) and his new stereotypical dumb-blonde (Ameesha Patel).

There are also a lot of deal breaking and half-interested late night booty calls that trail away to ritzy dance numbers.

Double take cons and U-turns go off without intrigue or punch (there’s a vengeance-driven backstory, that one outguesses an hour before it happens on-screen).

Consequences and upshots are relegated to second class citizenship, outmoded by infrequent growls, car chases, fisticuffs and skimpy bikini beachparties (as another song goes: everyone has a “Party on their Mind”). And of course, shelling out millions and then, unsurprisingly, billions is as stress free as delivering dialogues (and in a way, that’s what they are: dialogues).

happened more than once to US government employees in Peshawar, but not to anyone’s knowledge in Islamabad.

One of the CIA’s overseas “black sites” used for interrogating members of al-Qaeda is shown in Pakistan itself, presumably to place Maya in both the torture scenes and where the action was in the CIA’s Islamabad station.

Her character appears to be based on a real CIA agent named as Jen in an account of the Bin Laden raid written by former Navy Seal Matt

January 31, 2013

07

Bissonnette. But Peter Bergen, a journalist and author who has researched Bin Laden more deeply than anyone else, claims the CIA officer who worked on the search for eight years up until his death and was convinced he was hiding in the Abbottabad compound was actually a man.

In December the acting director of CIA went public to criticise the film for taking “significant artistic licence, while portraying itself as being historically accurate”. The film, which claims to be based on “firsthand accounts of actual events”, adds tantalising and colourful details that build on what has been reported elsewhere.

But it’s hard to know what to believe when the film makes an astonishing error in portraying one of the gambits used to try and identify whether Bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad. A controversial hepatitis B vaccination programme run on behalf of the CIA in the town in an attempt to get hold of Bin Laden family DNA is clearly shown as an anti-polio campaign. It’s a truly sloppy mistake given how widely reported the incident was. And it’s also potentially dangerous. The scandal of the CIA using aid workers as cover for operations has helped to inflame deep mistrust in Pakistan’s tribal areas towards vaccination programmes. Two Taliban commanders have banned polio eradication from their areas of control. Last month, six polio vaccinators were murdered by gunmen while going about their work.

Another curious departure from the truth, likely only to be noticed in Pakistan, is the decision to rename the CIA’s station chief in Islamabad who, as accurately depicted in the movie, has to leave the country after anti-drone campaigners blew his cover by naming him in a court action.

For some reason the film-makers name the character Joseph Bradley, not the real-life Jonathan Banks whose name is now irretrievably all over the internet. Could this be some small (but pointless) quid pro quo for the access Boal was granted to CIA officers and White House officials?

Or just artistic licence?

The tale of a Dilli wallah KARACHI: It’s no joke laughing at yourself in order to make others’ laugh with you. It requires a fair degree of wit and a sharp understanding of how fine the line between quality and coarse humour is. (Click here for an exclusive interview of Saad Haroon with Dawn.com) It was a delight to witness standup comedian Saad Haroon put up a hilarious performance marked with intelligent and occasionally sensitive punch-lines in a show titled ‘Don’t worry, be Pakistani’ in the PACC auditorium.

Haroon began from the beginning, letting the audience know that it was the 10th anniversary of his career in comedy, a career that his father, a Dilli wallah, admonished him from joining because it had drugs and bad women (which confused him as to whether his father was convincing him to join the profession).

His father wanted him to join his business and become a ‘businessman’.

At the age of 13 he started working at his factory and felt that the workers there had become his family because his father yelled at both him and them the same way. When he asked for wages, his father would say all he had was his (son’s). Therefore, what would he need a salary for.

The comedian carried on with the argument and touched on the textile industry. He said since textiles had to do with clothing people, it was the opposite of pornography.

Haroon, during the gig, also interacted and chitchatted with the audience. Upon knowing that one of the girls in the hall was single and was researching consumerism, he made quite a few off-the-cuff funny remarks. He said he never understood why girls would offer tea to their potential in-laws; instead they should bring stronger beverages like coffee or energy drinks to make their case more compelling. He reverted to his Dilli wallah father and said when things came to a pass, his father fired him and he became a comedian.

However, becoming a comedian was no cakewalk.

When someone would ask him what he did for a living, he’d say he’s a comedian, and they’d remark: “What else do you do?” Then he asked another audience member about what kept

him busy and the young man replied he was studying in Turkey, to which the comedian retorted “you get to see all those Turkish plays before they come to Pakistan.” This reminded him of his school days. He said he remembered class VII the most because he did it twice. “I was a bad student,” he confessed. When the Islamiat teacher once asked him about the five pillars of Islam, he answered they were faith, unity, discipline and the remaining two he had forgotten.

After that Haroon came to the topic of Karachi in particular and partition of the subcontinent in general. He said

there was a time when parents warned their children against meeting strangers. These days they stopped them from stepping out of their house where strangers lived. On partition he mentioned that it’s time we put an end to discussing the justification for partition. He kept cracking jokes about the word ‘partition’ suggesting people took it lightly and then intelligently threw a line saying we got separated from India because we feared we’d be persecuted there as a minority; ‘we wanted a land where we could persecute our own minorities’.

The highlight of Haroon’s accomplished performance, in the eyes of this reviewer, was when he lectured on how in the days of yore boys at the age of 16 achieved bigger feats.

Alexander won many a battle, Mohammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh, and “somewhere along the way 16 became sweet”. With reference to partition he said Mohammad Ali Jinnah was not just a great leader but a great lawyer, “the best divorce lawyer”.

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January 31, 2013

Salam – The forgotten genius On a hot summer afternoon in 1940, a boy of 14 was rushing on his bicycle to his hometown near Jhang, part of present day Pakistan. He covered his head under a heavy turban because the barber had accidentally shaved off his hair.

When he reached the town, he saw people lined up on either side of the road, greeting him with loud cheers. The boy had earned a distinction in his matriculation examinations; the young genius had broken all previous records within the province, he was Abdus Salam.

Salam was born on January 29, 1926 in Jhang, then a small town in Punjab. After attending Government College, Jhang he went to Government College, Lahore in 1946 where he was awarded a masters degree in Mathematics, securing first place in the College with 95.5 per cent.

A wrangler in Cambridge

After his masters, Salam had two choices: Join the civil services or go abroad for further education. Luckily, he was offered a scholarship and instantly opted for the latter.

In 1946 at St. John’s College in Cambridge, Salam did his Tripos (BA honors) in just two years (the course usually takes three years) and because of this, he was given the title of ‘wrangler’ – a term given to students at Cambridge for obtaining first-class honours in the University’s undergraduate degree in mathematics.

Salam was appointed as a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton University, USA In 1951, where he attended a lecture by Albert Einstein. Author Zakaria Virk mentions a witty incident between Salam and Einstein in her book “Dr. Abdus Salam – Champion of Science in the Third World”: “One day, when Prof Salam was studying in Princeton, New Jersey, he met Prof Einstein casually on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study. Einstein asked him, ‘what kind of research are you doing?’ Salam replied, ‘I am working on the renormalisation theory,’ to which Einstein replied, ‘I am not interested in that.’ After a few moments of silence, Einstein asked the Pakistani, ‘have you studied my Relativity Theory.?’ Salam replied, ‘I am not interested in that.’”

The story of his doctoral thesis too is truly inspiring; he had taken up the complex task of eliminating infinities from the Meson Theory. Salam found a unique solution to this problem in just three short months! However, as per the regulations at Cambridge, he had to wait three years to receive his doctorate degree in 1952.

Back to Pakistan While he was waiting to get his degree, Salam returned to Pakistan with the hope of serving his country. Upon his return, Salam was appointed the head of the Mathematics Department at Government College, Lahore from 1951-54. However, in that period with no research, minimal contacts or updated material to work with, Salam faced complete intellectual isolation.

In addition to this, neglecting Salam’s outstanding academic career at Cambridge and Princeton, his principal at the college advised him to put aside his research, offering him three substandard jobs: warden of the hostel, chief treasurer of the college or president of the football club. Resignedly, Salam took up the football club offer. However, this occurrence resulted in major disappointment for Salam, prompting him to return to Cambridge as a lecturer. He was the pioneer of the Theoretical Physics Department at Imperial College, London, where he taught from 1957 to 1993.

Back at Cambridge, he studied and interacted with PAM Dirac, Max Born, Wolfgang Pauli and other great minds of the time.

In 1959, Salam became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 33 years. The Royal Society is the oldest science association on

the planet.

During the 50s, Salam visited Pakistan often as an advisor on science policy to the government and in 1961 he was finally appointed as a Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of Pakistan. He laid the foundation of Pakistan Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and made remarkable contributions in creating a culture of science in Pakistan.

In 1973, at the Conference of Islamic Countries in Lahore, Salam presented a memorandum for the creation of Islamic Science Foundation.

The dream of ICTP During a meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Salam proposed the Idea of an International Center for Theortical Physics (ICTP). He planned a platform for physicists from the developing world to stop the ‘brain drain.’ In his book Salam wrote, “The notion of a centre that should cater particularly to the needs of physicists from developing countries had lived with me from 1954, when I was forced to leave my own country. I realised that if I stayed there much longer, I would have to leave physics, through sheer intellectual isolation” (Ideals and Realities 3rd ed., World Scientific, 392, 1989).

Salam was interested to establish the centre in Pakistan. He also passed on this idea to President Ayub Khan. When Ayub Khan briefed his

Finance Minister, Mohammad Shoaib, about the idea, the minister dismissively replied, “Salam wants to make a hotel for scientists rather than a

research at the highest international standards and maintain a conducive environment of scientific inquiry for the entire ICTP community.”

centre.”

Unification of Fundamental Forces Dr Salam was often quoted as saying, “Progress, begins with the belief that what is necessary is possible.” With this spirit he presented the unification theory of electromagnetic and weak forces – the basic but very different forces of nature; he named it the ‘Electroweak Force.’

The theory predicted basic particles of W and Z bosons. The experimental stamp was put to theory when Carlo Rubbia discovered them in atom smashing machines at the Center for European Nuclear Research (CERN). Rubbia was also conferred the Noble Prize in 1984 with Simon Van Der Meer for the discovery of the particles.

Despite being afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, Salam produced high level research papers until 1995. He worked on Chirality and its role in the origin of life, gravity, fermions, superconductivity, symmetry, proton decay and science and human development.

The Nobel Prize In 1979, he shared the Noble Prize of Physics with US physicists Steven Weinberg and S h e l d o n Glashow. For the Nobel Prize ceremony, he wore the traditional Pakistani dress of shalwar and sherwani with a turban. He was also allowed to give his speech in Urdu.

ICTP and TWAS Beside the unification of Physics, Salam had another passion; to unify humanity for science. He often said science is the common heritage of mankind. In 1964, he setup a rendezvous for science called the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. And due to the laudable efforts of the Italian government, the centre still continues to do wonders in the beautiful city of Trieste.

Unesco and IAEA also supported the effort for the centre which was set up to bridge the gap between the scientists of the south and the north. The ICTP mission statement says: “Foster the growth of advanced studies and research in physical and mathematical sciences, especially in support of excellence in developing countries. Develop high-level scientific programmes keeping in mind the needs of developing countries, and provide an international forum of scientific contact for scientists from all countries. Conduct

The center also offers strong scientific research and outreach programs, organising more than 60 international conferences, seminars and numerous workshops annually. Thousands of scientists and scholars visit the ICTP every year to avail the center’s travel fellowships as well.

Salam was the Founding Director for the ICTP from 1964 to 1993.

Apart from his passion for Physics, Salam also felt strongly about providing a platform for scientists from the developing world. He established the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), also located in Trieste, for this very reason. TWAS supports scientists in the developing world through a variety of grants and fellowships.

Salam breathed his last in Oxford, England on November 21, 1996.

In an email to Dawn.com, world renowned physicist, author and professor of physics at the University of Texas, USA, Steven Weinberg said: “As a graduate student, though I had not yet met Salam, I spent a good deal of time reading his papers on quantum field theory. So I was very pleased when he invited me to spend 1961-2 at Imperial College, where he was the leading theorist.

We became friends and collaborators, and wrote a paper together (with Jeffrey Goldstone) that turned out to be pretty important. Of course, before and after that Salam did work of the highest importance in theoretical physics. Physicists in general, and I in particular, miss him greatly.”

International donor conference for war-torn Mali opens ADDIS ABABA: An international donor conference to drum up funds and troops to help the military operation against militants in Mali opened on Tuesday at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital.

“The whole world has gathered here, it’s very good for Mali,” Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly said.

African leaders and officials, as well as representatives from the United Nations, European Union, Japan and the United States are also taking part in the conference. The conference opened a day after French-led

forces seized Mali’s fabled city of Timbuktu from militants as part of an offensive against the radicals who have controlled the country’s vast desert north for 10 months.

“We are all gathered here to express solidarity with the Republic of Mali and its people,” African Union Commission c h i e f Nkosazana DlaminiZuma said in her opening speech.

“We all know the gravity of the crisis … It is a situation that requires a swift and effective inter-

national response for it threatens Mali, the region, the continent and even beyond.”

AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said on Monday the African-led force for Mali (AFISMA) will cost $460 million, with the AU promising to contribute an “unprecedented” $50 million for the mission and Mali’s army.

However, there is no clear figure for how much the conference is aiming to raise, although diplomats had suggested some $700 million will be needed for AFISMA and the Malian army, in addition to heavy humanitarian costs.

UN leader Ban Kimoon warned ahead of the conference there was a “moral imperative for the entire international community” to provide support. Ban, speaking at the 54-member AU’s two-day summit meeting which closed late Monday, and which was dominated by discussion on the conflict in Mali, said he was “determined to help the people

of Mali at this critical hour.”

January 31, 2013

09

SPORTS Gul’s big test Umar Gul has remained the linchpin of Pakistan’s bowling attack ever since the spot-fixing scandal derailed the careers of Mohammad Asif and the prodigious Mohammad Amir.

Gul has had a topsy-turvy run in ODIs, performed like a dream in T20s but his Test returns are still ordinary compared to the leading fast bowlers of the present time.

Former fast bowlers have been of the opinion that Gul has been best when a clear role has been defined for him. As Pakistan prepare for the three-match Test series against the world’s best outfit in their own den, it is clear that Gul will have to spearhead the fast bowling pack. The enormous task of leading newcomers Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan and possibly Ehsan Adil against South Africa’s classy order, falls squarely on his shoulders. Pakistani fast bowlers have played pivotal roles in the ODI wins that the team has notched up against the Proteas at home, and even their two Test wins out of nine matches have come on the back of incisive spells from the quicks.

Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar combined with the wizardry of Mushtaq Ahmed in Durban in 1998 while Akhtar, who bowled only in one innings, partnered with Asif to deliver the knockout punch at Port Elizabeth in 2007.

Fresh prospects Despite their performances in the limitedovers formats in India the trio of Gul, Irfan and Junaid together are untested in Test cricket.

While Gul and Junaid have played in the longest format together in Sri Lanka, the lanky Irfan is yet to make his debut and there remains a question mark on his sustainability for the rigours of the five-day game.

Considering this, Gul’s role becomes

magnified. If Pakistan are to dismantle the host’s battling line, brimming with acts like Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers, the ‘Guldozer’ will have to roll.

This is the Peshawar-born fast bowler’s first Test series in South Africa; so far he has claimed a mere 10 wickets in the four Tests he has

His five wickets in the first innings put a dent in the Indian line up but his solitary wicket in the second made a mess of VVS Laxman’s stumps and captured the imagination of the Pakistan fans.

Since then, Gul has put in the odd brilliant performance against top sides, but the scarcity of fast bowling resources at the Test level has meant

featured in against them in Pakistan and UAE. Overall too, his record at Test level borders on the ordinary, a return of 158 wickets at 33.68 runs per wicket is hardly going to send shivers down the spine of any class batting line-up. The 28-year-old has managed only four five-wicket hauls in his 45-match Test career.

Gul made his Test debut in 2003 against Bangladesh but it was the Lahore Test in 2004 versus India that truly put the bowler in the spotlight.

that he has been a steady influence. After the loss of Amir and Asif he has played a useful role backing up the quality spinners Pakistan has relied on recently. Since August 2010, Gul has featured in 15 Tests and taken 50 wickets without a single fivewicket haul; the matches have been spread across UAE, New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In South Africa, the conditions will suit him. The ball flies off a length at the first two ven-

ues Wanderers, Johannesburg, and New Lands, Cape Town. There is some seam movement on offer as well, but especially Johannesburg, especially, can see runs come quickly due to the nature of the wicket and a lightning fast outfield.

Here Gul’s experience would come in handy, provided he keeps his head. He would have to aim for a consistent line and length with due reliance on his ‘heavy ball’, the venomous bouncer he has up his sleeve. He should not forget also that he has a potent yorker in his repertoire that can surprise and barge through the defences of the best in the business.

The biggest question, though, is whether the ‘senior’ player is ready for the challenge? At times, he looks clueless with the red cherry and seems to run out of options fast when the batsmen are dominating.

In his last two Tests played in Sri Lanka last summer he claimed a solitary wicket conceding 220 runs. Even on a lively Pallekele wicket, venue for the last Test, the right-armer failed to make inroads. Gul, perhaps, is the embodiment of Pakistan cricket. He can be two different bowlers within the space of a dozen deliveries. The challenge for him on this tour is to rise and be counted as Pakistan weathers the storm against a well-oiled machine.

If he has to go down in the annals of the game as one of Pakistan’s best he would have to deliver against the best, keep it consistent and account for over a dozen scalps if Pakistan are to win the series. Captain Misbah-ul-Haq has already laid it down to his boys: ‘perform a notch beyond your ability if you are to surmount the South Africans’.

Gul has to do exactly the same and if he does, he would for sure become the world-class act he has threatened to since long.

Solid Pakistanis held to Will Pakistani stars play in IPL 6? draw by SA Invitation XI

EAST LONDON: The touring Pakistanis were held to a draw when bad light brought an early end to their four-day match against a South African Invitation XI at Buffalo Park on Monday.

The Invitation XI, set 323 to win, were 190 for five in their second innings when the match was called off. Home team captain Justin Ontong made an unbeaten 51 after his side had seemed in danger of defeat when he went in to bat with his team on 101 for four. Opening bowlers Umar Gul and Junaid Khan both struck early in the second innings. The tall Mohammad Irfan took two wickets and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal claimed one.

Earlier, the Invitation XI opening bowler Kyle Abbott took three quick wickets – one with the old ball and two with the second new ball – before the tourists declared on 250 for nine. They lost four wickets for ten runs on Monday.

The Pakistanis travel to Johannesburg on Tuesday to prepare for the first Test against South Africa starting at the Wanderers Stadium on.

Pakistan, having completed a convincing ODI-series win in India, are set to take on the mighty South Africans in what promises to be a grueling Test and limited-overs tour.

But while the focus of the Pakistani cricketers and fans alike has been on Graeme Smith’s men, various reports say that the top T20 stars from the country may yet again face an IPL blackout.

Gautam Bhattacharyya, writing for Gulf News, said: “What may have escaped the notice of cricket fans is the U-turn of Indian cricket board on the issue of allowing Pakistani players to take part in the IPL after a gap of four years.

“It was in the last week of December that the IPL governing council quietly issued a diktat to all the franchises not to go for players from Pakistan — despite earlier verbal assurances from the IPL chairman and positive vibes in the wake of the BCCI allowing Sialkot Stallions from that country to take part in the Champions League T-20.”

According to Bhattacharyya, the decision was taken well in advance of Pakistan’s tour to India and certainly did not come as a result of the fallout between the two countries over recent border tensions.

The subtle move by the governing council of the IPL, it seems, drowned in the anticipation of the Pakistan-India series that was played in front of jam-packed stadiums and kept fans transfixed.

There is no doubt that players like Junaid Khan, Nasir Jamshed, Saeed Ajmal and even Mohammad Irfan would offer

An official decision on the inclusion of Pakistan players is yet to be taken by the BCCI and with the auction set to take place

greater pull for Indian crowds after their performance in that series but according to Times of India they have so far not been included in the auction list.

“There is no problem buying Pakistan cricketers in the auction, but somehow there was no move from anywhere to include them for the auction,” a franchisee owner told Times of India.

on February 3, 2013, in Chennai, their fate hangs in the balance.

At present, Pakistan’s top cricketers will be focused on tackling Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and company, but they will be keeping one eye on developments in India after having been barred from the Bangladesh Premier League.

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Women’s World Cup: Pakistan confined to Barabati Stadium NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s women cricketers in India for the World Cup are staying in the stadium premises instead of a hotel for security reasons, the International Cricket Council said on Tuesday.

The entire squad is living in the club house of the Barabati stadium in the eastern city of Cuttack where Pakistan are due to play its matches in the eight-nation tournament starting on Thursday.

“I can confirm the team is staying at the Barabati stadium,” an ICC spokeswoman told AFP from Cuttack.

“The ICC considered all options and the best security for the teams, and we have chosen to use the Barabati stadium club house.”

Cuttack was added as a last-minute venue after the rightwing nationalist Shiv Sena party threatened to disrupt Pakistan’s

matches in Mumbai, where the entire tournament was originally scheduled to be played.

Matches in group B — featuring Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa — were shunted to Cuttack, where Pakistan will remain if they qualify for the second round.

But the Pakistani team will still have to travel to Mumbai if they make the final at the Brabourne stadium on February 17.

Pakistan team manager Ayesha Ashar said the entire squad was happy with the arrangements made at the Barabati stadium. “The arrangements are more like we get in Pakistan,” Ashar was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency. “We are happy with the facilities provided to us by the organisers.”

Pakistan open their campaign against Australia at the Barabati stadium on Friday.

10

January 31, 2013

A society at war with itself

The professional Muslim Ulema of Pakistan have influenced our thinking so much that we see everything in religious terms. We keep a keen record of “atrocities against Muslims” but we ignore the enemy within who hides behind Islam. Earlier, we used to see two centres of evil: India and Israel but with time they have increased to include America and Europe. Iran is rapidly moving away because of our growing sectarianism and it is hard to name any real friend – Saudi Arabia and China are our ‘friends’ only in the sense that they are not enemies.

They have excellent relations with our enemies and do not support us in our disputes with India and America, or in our red-hot anger against Israel.

We strongly believe that in our 65 years of national life, we have been attacked five times

by India, once by Russia, that we are “spiritually” fighting America for the last 12 years, that we fought our East Wing and lost it because of Indian aggression which the world supported because of the bias established by Indian propaganda. We believe that we were always on the right side, that we were persecuted.

It was always hard for us to ask: are we really so innocent and so persecuted? Why does the world hate us? All these 65 years we have been teaching our students that one billion Hindus hate us because they are bigoted and jealous of our merit. It has been considered unpatriotic to ask why we failed to befriend them in 700 years.

War is a tragedy but we refuse to see that a society at war with itself is an abomination. We love to talk of “we”, but we are “we” only in hate against “others”; when it comes to sacrifice or service, everyone is an individual.

War is a tragedy because it tries to achieve

an objective through use of force and destruction.

Even when it ends in one’s victory, it does not end; it sows the seeds of future wars because those who are vanquished and disgraced never forget the wounds of defeat. Their collective memory passes to posterity generation after generation and nourishes the desire to avenge. Our subcontinent remained in a state of war for centuries between the Muslims kings and a resisting India. A narrow class of Muslim victors in India won prosperity and power but the large Indian population suffered the tragedy of defeat and suffering for all these centuries, while Muslim masses had no share of victory except vain pride and widespread ignorance. This history of war has left an aching scar on both sides of our people. It is partially, if not wholly, responsible for the lingering misery of our masses on both sides. Although for several reasons we in Pakistan refuse to see, the fact is that India started its recovery only after 1947, Bangladesh only after 1971 while we have yet to start.

As a result of this war, Muslims remained a medieval-minded crowd for centuries, taking pride in their ability to wield the sword, until the Aligarh University movement of modern learning started some change. But we, in Pakistan, never questioned our Civilizational Narcissism which keeps breeding new tragedies of paranoia and chaos. The legacy of centuries of war never leaves us. Both the nations have spent, since 1947, trillions annually on meaninglessly large armies and armsbuilding, keeping their masses in misery, stupor and barren hate. The total resources spent by both amount to a sum that could have brought us to modern European levels of life and learning, had we spent them productively.

War is a tragedy but a society at war with itself and everything around, with no objective and no remorse is more than a tragedy; it is a total disaster. Our society with its special mindset is at war with itself and the world, with other religions and its own religious diversity. It is in a state of schizophrenia passing into paranoia. The roots of this mindset lie in our narcissism, in our self image of righteousness.

We do not take criticism and never feel sorry for our wrongs. A semi-educated boy can start yelling at you if you point out a mistake.

It is a depressing state of affairs. Many sensitive patriots have lost all hope that health can be restored. Ever since 1947, the nation has been moving down the slope. Each period has left us more frustrated and hopeless. Every time we discover that standards have fallen further. But that is not how human societies should move in this age of immense opportunity.

It is right to reject what was wrong in the past but it is not right to predict that the wrong will continue forever. Admitted that it is our special ability as humans that we conduct mass destruction; this special ability is a tragic aspect of our mind but that same mind is capable of science, wisdom, tolerance and inclusiveness. We can perhaps halt destruction by practicing and preaching critical thinking with humility. Human societies all around us are growing and developing. Why can’t our land of disaster outgrow its roots? And do we have an option other than trying?

View of Jinnah Avenue from Uzbek Hotel Uzbek Hotel is not really a hotel, and it’s not in Uzbekistan. It’s a popular ethnic restaurant in Islamabad. The owner is a Punjabi but the majority of the cooking and serving staff is Uzbek. Some of you who have enjoyed our specialty – haddi pulao, which is rice cooked in beef broth and served with a gigantic bone and long handled spoon to scoop out the marrow – have been waited on by me, and likely took me as an Uzbek boy.

And that is the point of me working here. I am a Hazara from Quetta. I moved to Islamabad with my mother and two sisters while my father stayed back to look after his shop, that is our only source of family income. We were sent away because my father feared for our lives. Haz-

aras have the unfortunate distinction of being the face of the Shia sect, though not all Hazaras are Shia. My family is atheist – my father believes in no religion, my mother believes in him, and we, the children, are trained to believe that we were not born into a religion and as adults can decide for ourselves – but that does not make us any safer. If anything ‘they’ might kill us for looking like Shias AND for being atheist kafirs.

It’s difficult to hide anywhere in Pakistan if you carry a Hazara face on your shoulders.

The Uzbek Hotel gives me the invisibility I need.

I am usually taken for an Uzbek because a majority of men who work here look like me, and I have no reason or intention to correct that impression.

If you can lay low and stay low, you are counted as a successful person among the Hazaras, one who is more likely to die a natural death. I am studying for a journalism degree in the day, holding gainful employment in the night and not known to murderers as a Hazara from Quetta. At 22, I am brimming with potential to do well. For myself, my family, and my country.

I will graduate next year, and have built up a sizeable collection of academic awards and my published letters to editors, to get an internship in mainstream news media. I want to be a journalist. Not an ‘ethnic’ journalist; just a profes-

sional, trustworthy, Pakistani journalist. Through news media I want to inform, educate, entertain, and inspire my audience to have hope and dream big. And I plan to do this by reporting the truth.

I read two newspapers every day, follow prime time current affairs programmes on television, and frequently scan the evening tickers.

There is very little truth in what they tell us, especially about us.

Uzbek Hotel is popular across social and cultural classes. Its patrons include students and clerks, shop keepers and industrialists, and everyone in between. Outside, on the pavement and in the ground next door that is used as a parking lot, beggars, cabbies, personal drivers and guards representing every district of Pakistan; and vendors of roasted corn, balloons, flowers, fruit and azaar band; far outnumber the customers inside. Together, the restaurant and its ambiance becomes a microcosm of Pakistan – a small number of people eating and a large number waiting for crumbs to be thrown at them. A general opinion picked from this mini-Pakistan is a true reflection of the public mood. Also, diners tend to be relaxed and uninhibited in their conversations around a bunch of Uzbeks who likely don’t know the language and if they do, don’t care.

My world also includes hundreds of young men at college who come from all parts of the country. For about 10 days, before, during, and immediately after Dr. Tahirul Qadri’s march in Islamabad, everyone in my world – students, middle class families, the rich and powerful, the beggars and vendors, men, women and khawaja saras – went through a whirlwind of emotions that was largely missed by the media. There were animated discussions in the college cafeteria, laid back conversations in the VIP marquee of the restaurant, more open and irreverent exchanges in the hall, and swear words-laced analyses offered by drivers in the parking ground. That is where the big story was, that every journalist searched for on Jinnah Avenue and under the rug of Dr. Qadri’s container.

By day two when everyone was secretly wishing for a miracle that would deliver them from the tyranny of those who exploit them in the name of democracy, the media was abuzz with speculations about who was backing Dr. Qadri.

When the crowds were talking about the interior minister’s public assurance that whoever it was, the army and its intelligence agencies were not behind Dr. Qadri, the media was greeting the Declaration as a sign of political maturity.

There are only two powers on the streets of Islamabad – the army and the government. If the government says it’s not the army, this is ample admission that the government and its allies set the stage for the visiting doctor, people deduced, but by that time, the media had moved on to the next story.

January 31, 2013

11

KFW pays tribute to Mehnaz KARACHI: Pink Chiffon, Eden Robe and Vasim Asghar presented their collection in Act One of Day 2 of the ongoing Karachi Fashion Week.

Pink Chiffon presented a puritanical pallete with lace trimmings and then moving on to a more colourful presentation with Indian motif block print in classic eastern wear. A one-off was an off-shoulder silk leopard skin print dress worn by model Fouzia.

Eden Robe for kids had tiny tots in smart jackets in deep, formal colours with waistcoats and shalwar kurtas. It was simply adorable the way the boys took to the ramp.

Eden Robe for men featured the same attire in slightly mature form and colours as well as pattern. Velvet pajamas, jamawar sherwanis, Kashmiri embroidered kurtas, Chinese collar jackets, tux with velvet collars, rough-cut jackets and moonlight shimmer fabric were just some of the designs and elements used in creating the collection.

Designer Vasim Asghar’s Moulin Rougeinspired collection in red and deep black featured a short dress worn by Saima Azhar over sheer red stockings. Loose, billowing fabric was used to create further drama and special effects in the clothes.

Fouzia in an oversized v-high neck, a short black sequin dress worn over striped stockings added to the element of surprise which slightly tamed down as the show progressed. Intelligent use of minimal embellishments on such a strong pallete and Iraj

and Nadia’s multi-tier long shirts drew the segment to a sensational close.

Sobia Waheed and Sapphire, both of Brands Just Pret, showed a navy blue jumpsuit with silk scarf, handkerchief prints, orange and gold, military green silk dress with calligraphic motifs and matching accessories with prints with mute embroidery, respectively.

Probably the most-awaited segment since the KFW began, the tribute to Mehnaz courtesy

Shabs Couture commenced by observing a moment of silence and prayer for the departed soul. What ensued not only warmed hearts and tugged at the

heartstrings and was an intensely emotional moment for all and sundry while remembering the legacy left behind by the indomitable singer, and also in many ways symbolizing the undying, resilient spirit of Karachi which the late singer called home. The collection and accessories were as wacky and crazy as the style sense of the divas of Lollywood during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s shown to the tune of Mein jis din bhula doon… and other such classic compositions.

Malaysian designer and KFW regular Sharifah Kirana showed form-hugging, clinging classic Hollywood gowns, impressive colour block-

ing and a line inspired by the concept of hijab in Islamic fashion for women. It showed a highly evolved sense of design and spoke volumes about the market for such products in Pakistan for women who want to dress modestly while maintaining a keen eye on styles and ongoing high fashion trends.

Afghan female artist beats the odds to create KABUL/KANDAHAR: Charred bodies lie scattered against blood-stained walls and debris covers the ground. For Afghanistan, the only unusual thing in this gruesome scene is that the blood is red paint — and part of an art installation.

It’s a work by 23-year-old Afghan artist Malina Suliman, who risks her life, sometimes working by flashlight after dark, to create art in southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban and still one of the country’s most dangerous areas.

Her pieces, which range from conceptual art to paintings and sculpture, are bold representations of the problems facing her generation and have drawn praise from top officials in Kandahar, making her exceptional in a place where women face even greater restrictions than in other parts of the country.

“Many people had never seen an art installation…Some were offended and others were hurt because they’d experienced it before,” Suliman said of “War and Chaos,” which was in an exhibit last year and depicts the aftermath of a suicide bombing, an all too common event in Kandahar. Her haunting, powerful pieces earned her an invitation last year to President Hamid Karzai’s palace in Kabul, where she showed her art to the Afghan leader, who is also from Kandahar.

Suliman’s artwork is now making waves in the Afghan capital of Kabul, where she lived

after fleeing the violence of her native province as a child. In December, she had two exhibits there, a highlight of which was a sculpture of a woman in baggy clothing with a noose tied around her neck. An exhibit in Kandahar, where the Taliban and tribal elders dominate public opinion, was the

first there in three decades.

She drew a mostly male crowd of around 100, including Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa and some of Karzai’s relatives.

“I was taken aback by her work. I had only seen great art abroad, but never here,” Wesa later told Reuters, recalling the exhibit, which featured a painting of a foetus in the womb suspended from a tree and being pulled in different ways. “I hope it persuades more women to do the same.”

Suliman said this piece, called “Today’s Life”, reflected the frustrations of her generation.

“Before a child is born, the parents are

already thinking that a son can support them and a daughter can be married off to a wealthy suitor.

They don’t stop to think what the child may want,” she said.

Slow progress for art Thirty years of war and conflict, starting with the Soviet invasion of 1979, effectively shelved Afghanistan’s art scene.

The austere 19962001 rule of the Taliban then banned most art outright, declaring it un-Islamic. Since the group was toppled almost twelve years ago, large Afghan cities have resurrected something of an art movement, but progress is slow.

Herat city, in the country’s west, now has art studios for rent, while Mazar-i-Sharif in the north has an artist collective and a lively graffiti scene.

Suliman, who is self-confident and energetic with almond-shaped eyes, joined the Kandahar Fine Art Association, a relatively new, all-male group whose goal is to support and exhibit local art, one year ago.

The small collective of 10 artists caught the eye of the Ministry of Information and Culture, which funded and last year opened Kandahar’s first art gallery, where Suliman has exhibited.

Since she joined the collective, several more Kandahar-based female artists have come on board.

But the stakes remain high.

“One of our biggest fears is that people will mistake us for creating art for foreigners or working with NGOs. People who work with NGOs get shot without question in Kandahar,” she said. Despite her success, Suliman has received threatening phone calls warning her against attending her own exhibits, and the Taliban have spoken out against her.

Even creating her art must take place away from public view.

She often waits until after dusk, working with a dim flashlight.

Suliman recalls her first exhibit in Kandahar last year, and how she trembled as she made her way towards the gallery, in fear of it being bombed.

“I was so scared…whenever there is a gathering of government officials it becomes a target,” she said.

But one of Suliman’s greatest challenges lies at home.

“The night of my first exhibit my family told me ‘if you go, don’t come back’,” she said with a wry laugh.

While her sisters and mother now support her ambition and passion, her brothers and property developer father remain fiercely opposed — attitudes typical for Afghanistan.

She is now looking to expand Kandahar’s budding art scene to nearby Helmand, hoping to secure locally-sourced funds for workshops and training.

When asked if she is scared, she mentions her sculpture of the hanged woman and smiles. “That’s what happens to women when they ask for their rights in this country,” she says, impudently.

Afghan war is war on Islam: UK PM advisor LONDON - The former head of the British armed forces who recently retired and appointed as a defence advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday confirmed that the war in Afghanistan is a war on Islam. Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 programme about Britains continued occupation of Afghanistan, Gen (r) Sir Richard Dannatt said: There is an Islamist agenda which if we dont oppose and face it off in southern Afghanistan, or Afghanistan, or in South Asia, then frankly that influence will grow. We could see it moving from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa and to the high water mark of the Islamic caliphate in the 14th, 15th Century.

He explicitly said if Muslims adopted Is-

lams political ideas and the Khilafah ruling system, this would be unacceptable and warranted a military response from Britain. He had no issues with Muslims praying or enacting spiritual rituals, provided they surrendered political life to Western values. Taji Mustafa, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, said: General Dannatt, a recent adviser to Prime

Minister Cameron, has previously been on the record attacking Islams ruling system, the Khilafah (Caliphate). However, this exchange on the BBC confirms a particular matter.

He tried to justify this by attempting to label Islam as a religion and not a deen, or way of life that encompasses political matters as well.

These comments echo

the language of warmongers like Tony Blair, George W Bush and Donald Rumsfeld - all of them justified the war on terror by demonising the desire of Muslims to restore the Islamic Caliphate - something that enjoys overwhelming popular support in the Muslim World, he said.

If Dannatts comments are a reflection of the thinking of the new British government, it is an indication that David Camerons government would be committing itself to an almost perpetual war against the political aspirations of the Muslim World - to move towards a greater role for Islam in governance and a greater move to shed the shackles of colonialism, both of which are represented in the aspiration for the return of the Caliphate.

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January 31, 2013

Bodies of 68 executed young men, boys found in Syria ALEPPO: The bodies of at least 68 young men and boys, all executed with a single gunshot to the head or neck, were found on Tuesday in a river in the Syrian city of Aleppo, a watchdog and rebels said. A Free Syrian Army (FSA) captain at the scene said at least 68 bodies had been found and that many more were still being dragged from the water, in a rebel-held area.

The bodies were found in the Quweiq River, which separates the Bustan al-Qasr district from Ansari in the southwest of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Until now we have recovered 68 bodies, some of them just teens,” said Captain Abu Sada, adding that all of them had been “executed by the regime.”

“But there must be more than 100. There are still many in the water, and we are trying to recover them,” he added.

A volunteer said as he helped load one of the bodies on a truck: “We don’t know who they are because there was no ID on them”.

At least 15 bodies could already be seen on the truck, with others continuing to arrive.

Abu Sada said they would be taken to the

hospital at Zarzur where relatives could seek to identify them.

zone, and we don’t know where he is or what has become of him,” said Mohammed Abdel Aziz, as

“Those who are not identified will be buried in a common grave,” he added.

“My brother disappeared weeks ago when he was crossing (through) the regime-held

he looked at the mud-covered bodies one by one.

“They could have been executed a couple of days ago and the current brought the bodies this far,” an FSA fighter, Abu Anas, told AFP.

Karzai accuses foreign countries of ‘plotting’ against Afghan peace KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused foreign countries on Tuesday of plotting against his war-weary nation’s peace programme, saying all negotiations

Karzai made the comments in a long diversion during a speech to a water management conference in Kabul, but it was unclear why he raised the issue or

should take place under his administration. Without pointing a finger at any particular country, Karzai said he had told the US government during a recent visit to Washington that “no foreign party must try to take the Afghan peace process in its hand”. All negotiations with Taliban insurgents should take place through the government-appointed High Peace Council, but unnamed “foreigners” had tried to sidestep the council, Karzai said.

who exactly he was targeting.

A senior official told AFP that Karzai was referring “to foreign and internal elements who are trying to tell the Taliban to hold talks with other groups and encouraging political groups to hold talks with the Taliban”.

The plan was to weaken the Afghan government, he said, adding that the “foreign elements” were from both Western and regional countries.

Afghan Defence Minister Bismillah Khan Muhammadi is on a five-day visit to neighbouring Pakistan, where he has met Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani.

Afghan-Pakistani relations are understood to have improved recently despite years of suspicion and mutual accusations of Taliban violence plaguing both countries. “Any effort to conduct peace talks individually is not an effort for peace but it’s a plot by the foreigners, aimed at weakening Afghanistan,” Karzai said.

Washington began tentative moves towards peace with the Taliban a year ago. But the militia broke off the talks a few months later, apparently over the failure of the United States to free Taliban prisoners held at GuantanamoBay. The Taliban are in the process of opening a political office in Qatar to facilitate talks, but the US ambassador to Afghanistan said earlier this month that a peace process “hasn’t even really begun”.

The United States, which will withdraw its combat troops next year, has repeatedly said any peace process should be Afghan-led.

Pakistan, which Kabul accuses of harbouring Taliban fighters, said it freed 26 Taliban prisoners late last year in a bid to kick-start peace talks ahead of the withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

US Congress passes $50.5 billion superstorm aid bill WASHINGTON: Congress sent a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims to President Barack Obama for his signature Monday, three months after the storm ravaged coastal areas in much of the Northeast.

Despite opposition from conservatives concerned about adding billions of dollars more to the nation’s debt, the Senate cleared the long-delayed bill, 62-36, after House Republicans had stripped it earlier this month of spending unrelated to disasters. All 36 votes against the bill were from Republican senators.

The House passed the bill two weeks ago. The long debate over Sandy aid has exposed deep divisions within the Republican Party – still reeling from losses in the November election – over how far to go in their fight to cut US spending. Lawmakers say the money is urgently needed to start rebuilding homes, businesses, public transportation facilities and other infrastructure damaged by the Oct 29 storm, one of the worst to strike the Northeast. Sandy is blamed for more than 130 deaths in the US and tens of billions of dollars in property damages, particularly in New York and New Jersey.

“I commend Congress for giving families and businesses the help they deserve, and I will sign this bill into law as soon as it hits my desk,” Obama said in a statement late Monday.

The biggest chunk of money is $16 billion for Housing and Urban Development Department community develop-

ment block grants. Of that, about $12.1 billion will be shared among Sandy victims as well as those from other federally declared disasters in 2011-2013. The remaining $3.9 billion is solely for Sandyrelated projects.

More than $11 billion will go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief aid fund for shelter, restoring power and other storm-inter-

rupted utility services and meeting other immediate needs arising from Sandy and other disasters.

Another $10 billion is devoted to repairing New York and New Jersey transit systems and making them more resistant to future storms.

Earlier in January, Congress approved and Obama signed a $9.7 billion bill to replenish the National Flood Insurance Program, which has received well over 100,000 flood insurance claims from businesses, homeowners and renters related to Sandy.

Added to the new, $50.5 billion package, the total is roughly in line with the $60.4 billion that Obama requested in December. Sandy damaged or destroyed

305,000 housing units in New York and more than 265,000 businesses were disrupted there, according to officials. In New Jersey, more than 346,000 households were destroyed or damaged.

The aid package was greased for passage before the last Congress adjourned and the new legislature came in on Jan 3. But House Speaker John Boehner refused to bring it to the floor after two-thirds of House Republicans voted against a “fiscal cliff” deficit-reduction deal raising taxes on the wealthy while deferring spending cuts to have been shared between defence and domestic programs. The ruckus triggered angry bickering within Republican ranks.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a prominent Republican, angrily blamed Boehner and the other House Republicans “for the continued suffering of these innocent victims.” Top House Republicans responded by bringing new Sandy aid legislation to the floor under ground rules designed to win over as many Republicans as possible while retaining support from Democrats eager to approve as much in disaster aid as possible. Republican leaders cut spending in the Senate bill unrelated to disasters. One was to transfer $1 billion for training Iraqi policemen to instead be used on bolstering security at US diplomatic missions. The shift in money followed a Sept 11 terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

The 129-kilometre river originates in Turkey to the north and flows to the southwest of Aleppo, traversing both regime and rebelheld areas.

“This is not the first time that we have found the bodies of people executed, but so many, never,” he says numbly, as he examines the body of a boy of about 12 with a gunshot wound to the back of the neck.

The shabiha (pro-government militia) seize people crossing the checkpoint … and they torture and execute many of them,” said Abu Anas.

In video filmed by activists and published by the Observatory on YouTube, the cameraman walks along the river, less than two metres wide, and films some 50 bodies that have been pulled onto the concrete path.

Most have their hands are tied behind their backs and pools of blood trail from their heads. Their faces are white and bodies bloated.

All look to be young men, some teens, wearing jeans, button-up shirts and sneakers.

The cameraman films them one-by-one as he walks slowly down the path, then starts running toward more ahead of him.

Egypt military chief warns of collapse of state CAIRO: Egyptian Defence Minister and military chief General Abdel Fattah al Sissi warned on Tuesday that the political crisis rocking the country could lead to the collapse of the state.

Failure to resolve the situation “could lead to grave repercussions if the political forces do not act” to tackle it, Sissi said in com-

curity and stability”.

He stressed that “the attempts to undermine the stability of state institutions is a dangerous thing that harms national security and the future of the country,” but stressed that “the army will remain strong … as a pillar of the state’s foundations.”

Fifty-two people have died in five days of violence that erupted

ments posted on his Facebook page.

“The continuing conflict between political forces and their differences concerning the management of the country could lead to a collapse of the state and threaten future generations,” Sissi said in the comments, which were extracts of a speech he gave to students at a military academy.

Sissi further warned that the political, economic, social and security problems facing Egypt constitute “a threat to the country’s se-

Thursday night in Egypt as the country marked the second anniversary of the start of the uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

A curfew has been imposed in three provinces: Port Said, Ismailiya and Suez.

The bloodiest clashes and most of the deaths have occurred in Port Said, with rioting breaking out on Saturday after 21 supporters of a local football club were sentenced to death for their roles in a deadly football riot last year.

North Korea threatens ‘merciless’ retaliation on South SEOUL: North Korea on Tuesday vowed “merciless” retaliation against the South for its support of UN sanctions, as Seoul urged Pyongyang to step back from a widely expected nuclear test.

The perennially tense situation on the Korean peninsula has been stretched to its limit in the past week, with almost daily threats from the North that it is preparing to conduct a nuclear test as a riposte to the expanded sanctions.

A lengthy commentary published Tuesday by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reiterated that the sanctions resolution passed by the UN Security Council was tantamount to a “declaration of war”.

Noting what it called the South’s “despicable” support for the resolution, KCNA said it was an act of gross provocation that would not go unanswered. “The provokers will meet only merciless retaliatory blows,” it said. The commentary made no specific mention of the nuclear test that the North’s top military body had explicitly signalled in a statement carried by KCNA last week.

The National Defence Commission had said the test was aimed at “arch-enemy” the United States, which had proposed the UN resolution penalising Pyongyang for a banned rocket launch in December.

In Seoul, the foreign ministry on Tuesday noted that the UN resolution had warned of further “significant action” against the

North it it proceeds with another test.

“The government once again strongly urges North Korea to pay heed to the continued warnings from the international community and not push ahead with any further provocations, including a nuclear test,” spokesman Cho Tai-Young said. “I don’t really understand why North Korea is sticking to an act that threatens security in the region at a time when its people are struggling from a lack of food,” Cho said.