E-Paper November 15, 2012

NRO implementation case hearing

Apex court retracts contempt notice against Raja STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—Following the dispatch of the Swiss letter from the Federation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday retracted the contempt of court notice against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in National Reconciliation

No evidence against Petraeus: Obama WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama opened his first press conference in months — and first since the election that gave him a second term — with a vow to work with both parties in Congress to tackle the socalled “fiscal cliff” and revive the economy. He also said he had “no evidence” that the scandal that led David Petraeus to resign in disgrace from his job as CIA director had led to breaches in classified national security material.

“Right now our economy is still recovering from a very deep and damaging crisis, so our top priority has to be jobs and growth,” Obama said in opening remarks in the East Room of the White House.

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PM summons Balochistan party MPAs ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister (PM) Raja Pervez Ashraf has summoned member of Balochistan Assembly from PPP in Islamabad amid the persisting constitutional crisis in the province.

PPP Balochistan president Mir Sadiq Imrani said Wednesday that the members of Balochistan Assembly had been summoned by PM in Islamabad to discuss the prevailing political crisis in the province.

Supreme Court through its verdict in Balochistan law and order case had declared the Balochistan government a failed government and the rulers incapable to govern the province. The province is facing constitutional crisis following the apex court decision.—Online

UN committee adopts Pakistan draft UNITED NATIONS—A committee of the UN General Assembly adopted a Pakistansponsored resolution reaffirming that the universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination was a fundamental condition for the effective guarantee and observance of human rights.

The resolution, cosponsored by a record number of 75 countries, was adopted by consensus in the Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with Social, humanitarian and cultural issues.

Diplomatic observers say the resolution, which Pakistan has been tabling since 1981, serves to focus the world’s attention on the struggle by

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Ordinance (NRO) implementation case.

Heading the hearing Tuesday, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, who penned down the order, said that the government complied with the court’s directives of writing a letter to the Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President

Asif Ali Zardari. The contempt issue was disposed of by the court.

Law Minister Farooq H Naek appeared before the court and presented the receipt validating that the Swiss authorities have received the letter

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Politics should be fair: Zardari MALIKWAL: President Zardari waving to gathering at an Eid Millan party on Wednesday.

Eradication of terrorism

Pak, Afghan agree to work jointly Taliban urged to sever links with Al-Qaeda ISLAMABAD —”Pakistan and Afghanistan will work closely with other international partners to remove the names from the UN sanctions list of the potential negotiators amongst Taliban and other groups to enable them to participate in peace talks” This was said in the joint declaration issued at Foreign Office after the successful round of talks between Pakistan and Afghan High Peace Council on

NBP to provide Rs6.1b loan to Railways LAHORE—National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will provide cash-strapped Pakistan Railways a Rs6.10 billion-rupee loan to revamp its depleted fleet, media reports said on Wednesday.

According to the sources, an agreement to this effect has been reached between the National Bank and PRACS - a subsidiary of Pakistan Railways.

Under the agreement, the NBP will provide the funds in one-go but the loan amount will be payable in the next five years carrying a mark-up of 10.45 percent per annum.

During the first two years, Pakistan Railways will only pay the mark-up after every six months whereas in the next three years Railways will also be liable to payback principle amount along with the mark-up.

The loan will be used for repair and maintenance of Railways engines.—Online

Wednesday.Afghan High Peace Council’s delegation briefed the Pakistan side on the progress made in the peace and reconciliation process and underlined the importance of Pakistan’s role in this regard.

Pakistan supports Afghanistan’s vision and roadmap for achieving durable and lasting peace in Afghanistan.

The two sides appealed to the Taliban and other armed opposi-

tion groups to participate in the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process to end violence.

In support of peace and reconciliation process and in response to the requests of the Afghan government and High Peace Council, a number of Taliban detainees are being released. The two sides agreed to jointly work for holding an

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Karachi target killing continues, 5 more dead STAFF REPORTER KARACHI—As target killings continue, five more persons lost their lives in the on-going spate of violence in Karachi on Wednesday.

According to police, unknown gunmen killed Ghulam Muhammad in Sultanabad area of Manghopir who was the resident of Kotri.

Saifullah was targeted and killed in Korangi C area by unidentified attackers while at the same time, Qari Muhammad Imran was also gunned down at Nishtar Road in Jamshed Quarter area. Both the victims were believed to be the members of the same religious group. Tension has gripped the areas adjoining Teen Hati, Lasbela and Jahangir Road while the traffic police has advised the commuters to take alternate routes.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, two persons were

killed in New Karachi and and Orangi Town.

Police said a man was shot dead near Bashir Chowk in New Karachi. The identity of the deceased could not be ascertained.

In another incident, a man unidentified as Shujaat was gunned down by unknown outlaws in Orangi Town.

On Tuesday, five people were killed in ongoing violence in the city.

Meanwhile, Rangers carried out targeted operation in various areas and apprehended more than a dozen suspects. Sources told that a target killer was arrested from Baldia Town No. VII. Paramilitary force also recovered weapon from his custody. The accused were said to have affiliation with banned outfit. LEAs also conducted raids in Landhi, Mujahid Colony, Baldia Town and Chanesar Goth and held 12 accused and recovered arms.—Online

Pre-paid SIMs sale at shops banned ISLAMABAD—Government has put a ban on sale of Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) at unauthorised shops across the country with effect from December 1.

An individual wishing to buy a mobile phone SIM will now have to visit the cellular companeis’ authorized centers to buy the SIM which will be issued to him upon completion of a procedure prescribed by the government.

The consumer will need to submit a photocopy of his National Identity Card (NIC) to the cellular company’s authorized centre. The company will later carry out the verification of the subscriber’s address by sending a staffer.

The SIM will finally be issued to the subscriber after getting a go ahead from National Database and Regulation Authority (NADRA).—INP

Qadir: We have been left at terrorists mercy I SLAMABAD —Abdul Qadir Gilani, member of the National Assembly and son of former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, has said that lives of his family members have been left at the mercy of terrorists.

Speaking in the National Assembly, MNA Qadir Gilani said that the Federal Investigation Agency was threatening him while nobody including the parliament and Rehman Malik took notice.

The MNA said that he along with his brother, MNA Ali Musa Gilani, would resign from the National Assembly if the excesses went on being committed against them. He said though the

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USAID to spend $800m in 5 Pak major sectors from next year Interview Javed Mahmood

ISLAMABAD—The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) would spend about $800 million in different development projects in Pakistan in the financial year 2013 that has started from the 1st of Oct 2012.

The USAID has targeted five major sectors — economic growth, energy, education, health and community infrastructure development, with the mission to promote stability and prosperity in the country.

Jock Conly, Mission Director of the USAID Programme in Pakistan, disclosed this in an interview to Pakistan Observer.

Virginija Morgan, Country Head of the

USAID Programme facilitated the Pakistan Observer’s interview in the USAID’s office in the US Embassy. Ms Morgan and Matthew Boland, Deputy Spokesperson of the US Embassy, Islamabad, were also present during the interview. Below is the detail of the interview.

Q: For how long you have been in Pakistan and heading the USAID programme?

A: I came to Pakistan in June this year to work with the USAID Programme as the Mission Director.

Q: What motivated you to head the USAID programme in Pakistan and how is your experience of working in this country?

A: I am here to make efforts to achieve the ISLAMABAD: Jock Conly, Mission Di- key goals of the US Congress of making rector of USAID Programme in Pakistan, during an interview to Pakistan Observer. Continued on Page 7

Elections to be in time, transparent SHER GONDAL MANDI BAHAUDDIN—President Asif Ali Zadari said on Wednesday that elections would be held at due time and it would be ensured elections process was transparent.

He was addressing an Eid Millan party held in his honour at Malikwal. Commencing his speech in Punjabi he said he spent seven years in Punjab jails – Attock and Rawalpindi and many party workers including from Mandi Bahauddin district whom he still remembered went to jails to meet him and spoke in Punjabi.

Thus he learnt speaking Punjabi but still he was not flu-

ent. The President said he had planned to stay for some time at Lahore to further improve on Punjanbi language. He said he remembered that all praties leaders raised slogans “elections not acceptable” under Musharraf.

But it was Benazir Bhutto Shaheed who opted to go for elections and asked other parties to do so.

After elections a new era of politics started and that was to follow reconciliation policy among all political leaders. He said politics is a noble practice and nurturing enmity in it was dangerous for the nation. He said his party believed in democracy and our country’s existence, prosperity and stability

depended on it. Therefore his party was promoting democracy and would advance it in future as well.

Zardari said his party plays politics for the state and not for the party, adding if country survived we would be able to do politics and if the county was not there how all of us would do politics, he questioned. He said power was the public and there was no greater power than it. We would make our nation with the support of people more civilized and more prosperous.

He said his party did not work for one party; it worked for all parties. Referring to Malala he said Malala was following vision

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PM, cabinet express concern over Karachi situation designs of the terrorists and the He directed the law enforcgovernment, would play its part ing agencies of all provinces to ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister in eliminating these elements. beef up security arrangements and evolve a mechanism to mainRaja Pervez Ashraf has voiced tain peace and harmony during concern over the ongoing spate the holy month of Moharramul of violence in Karachi and diHaraam. He said the federal Govrected the law enforcing agencies ernment would extend all posto take all possible measures for sible assistance to the provincial improvement of law and order in STAFF REPORTER governments in this regard. the city.

He asked the people of In his opening remarks at the I SLAMABAD —The Federal cabinet’s meeting on Wednesday‚ Cabinet on Wednesday gave a go Karachi to keep an eye on suspihe said miscreants are trying to ahead to Electoral Reforms Bill- cious activities of miscreants and inform the Law Enforcing Agencreate sectarian strife in Karachi. 2012.

According to sources, the cies about any such activity. He We are all mindful of the fact that extremism, militancy, intoler- Electoral Reforms Bill 2012 urged Ulema and religious scholance, sectarian violence and ter- which also contains the Code of ars to play their role in bringing rorism, pose a serious threat and Conduct for elections, bans can- peace to the city.

Condemning the suicide atchallenge to our sovereignty, se- vassing by the President, carecurity and national cohesion. He taker prime minister and gover- tack on Rangers Headquarters in Continued on Page 7 said we have to thwart sinister Continued on Page 7

SHARAFAT KAZMI

Cabinet approves Electoral Reforms Bill

Conspiracy against army hatched: Musharraf KARACHI—Former President Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf has said that a conspiracy has been hatched against the army based on the fact, “If you want to weaken Pakistan then weaken the army” and this is what is happening now.

In an interview to British Radio on Wednesday, General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf said that he during his tenure had ordered the intelligence agencies to keep themselves aloof from politics and added, “We had decided that secret agencies must not indulge/interfere in politics.”

Musharraf said US drone strikes mostly killed terrorists in tribal areas, adding some from the general public also fell victim to it, but their number was being exaggerated.—INP

‘ISAF, Pak committed to peace, security’ RAWALPINDI—ISAF and Paki- Waheed Arshad, Chief of the stan are committed to peace and security on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Lt Gen Nick Carter, Deputy Commander of the International Security Assistance Force said.

He expressed these views during his meeting with Lt Gen

General Staff Pakistan Army on Wednesday.

According to ISPR, meeting was the latest in a regular series of engagements aimed at bolstering the military-to-military relationship between ISAF and

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5 TTP terrorists held MUZAFFAR ALI L AHORE —Punjab Police claimed to have arrested five terrorists having links with banned outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Punjabi Chapter involved in terror activities including attack on Babu Sabu checkpoints and Rasool Park tragedy.

Addressing a news conference at Police Club Lahore here on Wednesday, Inspector General

of Punjab Police Haji Habibur Rehman said the miscreants were based in Miranshah, adding they were arrested in a joint action by Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Police Multan and Makhdoom Rasheed Police.

He said that Multan police had an encounter with the Punjabi Taliban Qari Yaseen alias Ustad Aslam group and arrested its five members. A large cache

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Govt claims curbing target killings, crimes across country STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD —The measures adopted by Federal and provincial authorities to combat target killings have brought down such incidents during last two months in the country. A data here on Wednesday revealed that within Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), the concerned authorities established 29 halting points with break up of 12 in City Zone, nine in Saddar Zone and 10 in I-Area Zone.

At these halting points, 51 vehicles have been deployed. The data further revealed that from 1359 hours to 0600 hours the number of

halting points have been increased and rose to 126. At these halting points, 63 vehicles have been deployed to keep an eye over suspicious persons and vehicles to control the target killing. With regard to patrolling system within ICT, the data said it has also been revamped and 15 Falcons and 16 pairs of Eagle Motorcycle along with 6 Commandos vehicles have been deployed and working in three shifts for surveillance and to combat Besides this, time to time surveys of houses and places given on rent are being conducted at police station level to ascertain the types of keep

an eye over their activities as well as to control the crime.

Detailed surveys of Mosques situated within ICT have been carried out.

Regarding naka bandi, the data said total 60 such points including City Zone 24, Saddar 18, Industrial Area 14 and Rural 4 have been established on various key points of ICT which are functioning round the clock.

About the steps taken in Punjab, the data revealed that activities of Afghan Trained Boys (ATBs), Returnees from Afghan Prisons (RAPs) Guantanamo Bay, Madaris involved in militancy, Firebrand speakers of

different sectarian organizations and publication and distribution of hate material are being monitored closely to control target killing in the province. In Punjab, two incidents were reported during the period. In Sindh province, overall law and order situation is comparatively stable and peaceful except incidents of random killings.

The data said from August 1 to October 25, 2012 total 108 target killings were reported in the province of which 43 in August, 33 in September and 32 in October.

Karachi police, in order to combat the crime undertook measures including beefing

up its presence in violence affected areas, apprehension of target killers and gangsters, enhancement of patrolling in sensitive areas, monitoring and surveillance of sensitive areas and many more. However, 124 target killers involved in violence were arrested.

The steps taken in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) include extra ordinary vigilance, share of intelligence with other Law Enforcing Agencies (LEAs), effective police patrolling round the clock and establishment of additional checkpoints at conspicuous places, and detection of most of crimes &

Father, son killed; two girls injured in robbery bid

FESCO shutdown OUR CORRESPONDENT

OUR CORRESPONDENT

STAFF REPORTER PESHAWAR—A peace excellent award ceremony for year 2011-12 was held here Wednesday wherein professionals associated with education, health, performing arts, media and social work were honoured. The award ceremony was organized by Human Empowerment and Liberty Programme (HELP) NGO with the assistance of IDEAs Vision here at local hotel.

The recipients of the peace excellent awards winners prominent among those are social worker Liaquat Khan Tarkai, former Nazim Imran Khan, Executive Director Provincial Village Development Programme (PVDP), Muhammad Haris Khan, social worker Zafrullah Khan and media professional Mujeeb Reheman. Similarly, the social work education award was clinched by Hasseb Afridi, Asad Qasir, Haji Momin Khan, Abdul Wahab, Haji Nasim Gul, Fiazur Rehman, Rahatullah and Asad Ali Qureshi.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairman HELP, Aftar Hussain said the objective of organizing this function is to recognize the services of professionals in diversified fields.

He said it was our collective responsibility to encourage artists as they are the one whom bring smile on our faces, adding time has come to work for promotion of peace and tolerance in the society.

In addition to provision of free education to poor and orphan children in quality private schools, he said his organization was also endeavouring for the socio-economic empowerment of women folk.

CHAMAN: An Afghan boy carrying brother to cross into Pakistan at Pak-Afghan border.

10,000 students to get HEC scholarships STAFF REPORTER I SLAMABAD —Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to award more than 10000 scholarships to needy students from different parts of the country under its needs-based scholarship program during current financial year. These scholarships would be awarded to talented but financially constrained students especially those from rural areas to ensure greater equity in enrollment at different public sector higher education institutions (HEIs) throughout the

country.

The needs based scholarships are focused on providing opportunities for access to higher education especially to under privileged students of remote and far flung areas of the country who despite possessing academic merit, are unable to finance their education.

Under this new initiative, special emphasis is given to the students belonging to Balochistan, FATA, interior Sindh and Southern Punjab to support higher education of maximum number of academically qualified needy students from the very poor

segments of the country.

These scholarships would be awarded through Students Financial Aid Offices (SFAO) established at 60 public sector higher education institutions in a transparent and well defined mechanism. The scholarship amount would cover the expenditure including tuition fee, books, lodging , transportation and other academic costs.

The already enrolled students would be eligible to apply and application forms can be obtained from the Financial Aid offices of the selected universities.

Since its inception, HEC has undertaken a number of programs for provision of equitable access to higher education especially to marginalized segments of the society.

The award of needs based scholarships will be greatly helpful in poverty alleviation by providing grooming and learning opportunities to the youth belonging to humble background and lower middle class. These youth after completing their studies would get better job and business opportunities to serve their families and the country.

O

CTOBER the 8th, 2005, was the day when not only the Nation but the international community stood spell bound by the massive destruction. With 75,000 dead, 1, 2000 injured and over 600000 houses destroyed Pakistan faced one of the biggest challenges to rescue, treat, and then rehabilitate over 3.5 million homeless. The adrenaline worked and nation rushed towards KP and AJK, international community poured in and the rescue and relief started. Seven years down the lane, suddenly the organization which attracted international attention and praise seem to be criticized for being slow! We hear contractors protesting, people of affected areas demanding more and with financial crunch the projects seem to be stalled.

With world specifically the South Asian region fac-

security to the citizens. Traders are being escorted from Hazar Ganji to Hazara Town and onward up to Marriabad Quetta while Zaireen traveling from Quetta to Iran are also being escorted throughout the route by District Police and Levies Force in the area of responsibility. Districts Police is conducting random checking through Block Raids while Special Mobile Patrolling teams were constituted to perform duties in troubled areas. Intelligence sharing is also being pursued with other stakeholders. No such a killing was reported in AJK and ICT during the period.

Light rain on Friday, Saturday predicted

Faisalabad Electric Supply Company FESCO has issued shutdown programme for necessary repair, maintenance and expansion of electricity lines. According to the program issued here on Wednesday, power supply from Sheeraza, Pir Salah-udDin, Ravi, Kalarwala, Sugar Mills, Khidarwala and Kanjwani feeders will remain suspended from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon while Liaqat Abad feeder will observe shutdown from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 15.

Similarly, electricity supply from Al-Faisal feeder will remain suspended from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon whereas Farooqabad, Mansoor Abad, City, Dijkot Road and Farooq feeders will observe load shedding from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on November 15. Meanwhile, power supply from Shehbaz Pur, Amin Pur, Parokian Wala, Khurd Pur, Langrana, Masha Allah and D-Type Colony feeders will remain suspended from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. while Kotla Jam, Jahan Khan, Majoka and Saray Karishna feeders will observe shutdown from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Likewise, electricity supply from Gulab feeder will remain suspended from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 noon and from Anayat Ali Shah feeder from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. whereas Jubilee, Abdullah Pur, NIAB and Rafhan Mill feeders will observe load shedding from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on November 15.

(PMD) on Wednesday indicated chances of light rain for different places of Upper Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan during Friday and Saturday.

According to the synoptic situation outlook, continental air is prevailing over most parts of the country.

Mainly dry weather is expected in most parts of the country during the next 24 hours. Foggy/misty conditions are likely to prevail over Central/Southern areas of Punjab and Peshawar division during late night and morning. The lowest minimum temperatures recorded during the last 24 hours were Skardu -05 C and Astore -01 C. Dry weather with hazy/ misty morning is likely in the city during next 24 hours.

According to Met office weather report issued on Wednesday the minimum temperature is expected to remain in the range of 18 to 20 degree centigrade. The Met Office said,very cold and dry weather is likely to prevail in Zhob, Quetta and Kalat divisions of Balochistan.

Dry weather is expected elsewhere in the region over the period. The Met Office has forecast a dry weather for the provincial capital and adjoining areas on Wednesday. According to Met Office, the highest maximum temperature in the metropolis is expected between 20 to 22 degrees centigrade and the lowest minimum temperature between 0 to 2 degrees centigrad.

The dry weather has

Tuesday, the maximum temperature 37 degree centigrade was recorded at Turbat and the lowest minimum temperature of 00 degree centigrade recorded at Quetta.

According to the synoptic situation, continental air is prevailing over most parts of the country. The lowest minimum temperatures recorded during the last 24 hours were Skardu -08,

Astore -02 and Gilgit -01.

Moderate fog appeared on GT Road and Motorway in various cities of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Tuesday.

The Motorway authorities said there was moderate fog on the expressway at Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Faisalabad. Shallow fog was also reported on various areas alongside GT Road, and Multan, Jhang and Hafizabad, PTV reported. The Meteorological Office forecast mainly dry weather for most parts of the country in the next few days, with fog in the morning in Mardan, Peshawar, Kohat, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Lahore, Sahiwal and Multan divisions. The Karachi Met office has forecast a dry in the city over the next 24 hours.—APP

800-ft tunnel for 600 KV hydro power completed GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI CHITRAL—Chitral witnessed a new era in micro hydro development sector when local engineers made 800 feet long tunnel water channel to run a micro hydro power station producing 600 KW electricity at Karimabad valley and Work has been started on 600 KV hydro power house at Sewakht village of Shughoor valley.

The tunnel, first of its nature constructed by local private entity, symbolizes the commitment to development of Chitral people on self-help basis when people around the country react to the energy shortfall through protests and de-

struction.

The tunnel of seven feet diameter was a joint venture of the local communities, GAP and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), where GAP provided technical support to the project funded by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF).

The micro hydro power Project, providing electricity to 9 villages of Karimabad valley of Lotkoh area, will be managed by the local community based power committee with the technical support of any energy company hired at local or national level.

The project will prove a milestone to the GAP com-

mitment for larger projects and its efforts to work on the next generation energy solutions for sustainable livelihood and to make energy work for low income families and households.

On Completion of 800 feet long tunnel a thanks giving day and a function was held at Sewakht village.

Regional programme Manager of AKRSP Engineer Sardar Ayub was chief guest on the occasion. Addressing the participants Eng. Sardar Ayub said that PPAF provided 68 million fund for this purpose while community put their share of 10 million. There are two tunnels 800 and 115 feet long which were totally com-

pleted by local engineers without any casualty or loss. At first phase it will provide 500 KV electricity to 11000 people which will be augmentation to 600 KV and will be completed within stipulated period of two years.

A local woman told this scribe that there was no electricity in the valley and were living in dark while this power house will bring light in our lives at first time and we will be able to utilize home electric appliances as well as computer and internet, etc. A large number of people attended the inaugurationcum-thanks giving day of tunnel and 600 KV hydro KOHAT: Students and Doctors of Kohat Medical College taking part in awareness walk power station. on the eve of World Diabetes Day.

What natural disasters teach us: A point to ponder S HARIS

number of target killing incidents was 30 during two months (September and October) due to which 10 personnel of LEAs and 24 civilians lost their lives while 12 LEAs personnel and 11 civilians received injuries.

Provincial police strengthened all exit and entry points at district level. Besides police check points (Nakas) were also established in and around the cities.

The CCTV Cameras have been installed at key points within the provincial Capital and all entry and exit points of Quetta district. Security of troubled spots has been enhanced in order to provide

I SLAMABAD —Pakistan Me- also been forecast for other Department areas of the province. On F A I S A L A B A D — T h e teorological

KHAIRPUR—Some unidentified robbers killed two members of the family and injured two others on resisting their robbery attempt in Pir Jo Goth on Wednesday morning.

The deceased were identified as Sharif-ud-din Sheikh and his son Imran Ali while the injured included Sharif’s daughters Suraiya and Faizan who were shifted to hospital.

On receiving information police reached the spot and took bodies into custody which were later handed over to their relatives after postmortem. Police have registered a case.

Peace award event held

interrogation of suspects. In FATA, the data revealed that special focus has been maintained and measures in shape of deployment of LEAs on all routes leading to and from the Agencies to ensure that target killing in the jurisdiction of respective Agencies is effectively controlled.

It said due to efforts of respective Political Administrations target killing in FATA has been brought down to the minimum with exception to only one incident which happened on October 11, 2012 in North Waziristan Agency in which 3 persons were killed and one injured. In Balochistan,

ing frequent natural disasters, the phenomena of donor fatigue are also visible, which indicate that not only Pakistan needs to manage expectations of the people of affected areas and government officials, but has to evolve a wholesome strategy for future disasters.

While 2005 earthquake was a test case testing the resilience of people and coordination skills of civil and military organizations, several lessons can be drawn from the ERRA’s origin and now becoming a permanent government authority.

Two major points need to be incorporated in strategy for post disaster management that stand out are; one, while developing a post disaster reconstruction strategy the governments need to keep a separate kitty bag full of money in case the changing environmental conditions pose a threat or global politics affect the influx of donor money pledged. Both these have actually been a hin-

drance in speedy reconstruction in case of Pakistan, e.g., the floods and change of Libyan government both affected the progress.

Secondly, being in a geographically strategic location and vulnerable to natural disasters government needs to invest in developing and nurturing its own local and national human resource. Usually when a disaster hits we are waiting for international response for damage assessment and then strategy making followed by the long bureaucratic process leading to reconstruction while the affectees make a hue and cry.

To counter this ERRA experience tells us that we need to have a central data base of the names and expertise of the government and non government experts within Pakistan who can be immediately hired to do the job. Such a system will not only be time effective but also have far less financial

burden on economy than taking loans and hiring international consultants. Let’s take example of ERRA, it rose out of nothing but a need to handle massive disaster, and keeping aside all the differences the organization did perform pretty well getting international and United Nation recognition.

Three points made this organization’s unique “formed out of need existence” turn into a permanent organization.

Firstly the hybrid nature and a group of bureaucrats, OMG, DMG, finance and audit officers working hand in hand with the international consultants and experts from the market, thus cultivating a culture of multidimensional thought process and approach to flourish which attracted donors. Secondly, openness and financial transparency and online financial management system developed with help of DIFID which provides online details of each project and contrac-

tors payment schedule for higher management, thus, lowering the incidents of favouritism and delayed payments. Thirdly, approach to take media as a partner in reconstruction process rather than a third party. Thus openness with media and information dissemination contributed lot to building the image of the organization. Developing in-house software, electronic data base and engineering aspects of reconstruction are where ERRA has expertise developed over 7 years. However, the need to realize using government organizations for nation building and using expertise at hand require proactive decision making where organizations like ERRA can be utilized at national level thus help make futuristic strategies for better post disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation.

—The writer is a clinical psychologist.

Seminar demands equal gender opportunities OUR CORRESPONDENT TIMERGARA—Speakers at a one-day seminar on ‘violence against women’ (VAW) urged the government, its institutions and civil society to provide equal opportunities of development to women and empower them economically in order to eliminate violence against half of the country population.

The seminar was organized by a local non-governmental organization, the Rural Development Organization in collaboration with the Strengthening Participatory Organization at Balambat on Wednesday.

Lawyers, teachers, social activists and notables of the area both men and women attended the seminar. Sharief Sherazi of the World Vision, Ibrash Pasha

of the Khewendo Kor (KK), Akbar Khan, Alam Zeb Khan of education department, RDO chief Amir Zad Gul, Safiullah, prominent poets Iqbal Hussain Salar and Samiullah Khatir spoke on the occasion.

They said that violence against women was not only Pakistan’s problem but was a worldwide issue.

They said that even in developed states like America, Britain, and Germany, etc. women had been striving for elimination of violence against women.

The speakers, however, admitted that incidents of violence against women in Pakistan had been increasing. One of the speakers said kidnapping/ abduction, murder, domestic violence, suicide of victim women, honour killing, forced sexual

intercourse, sexual harassment, acid throwing, burning and girls’ trafficking were on the rise in the country. Speakers of the event said that majority of cases pertaining to VAW were not being reported due to social and cultural constraints.

They said that empowerment of women, repeal of discriminatory laws, provision of equal opportunities, posting of women clerical staff in education offices and women role in planning and management could only eliminate violence against women.

The women participants on the occasion complained that they had been considered second degree citizens in the country as male dominancy had been the gig hurdle in their way to progress.

Strange are ways of democracy in Balochistan

MEDIA WATCH

Divided States of America?

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alochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, who was in deep political trouble, managed to secure vote of confidence from ma jority of the members of the Provincial Assembly and retorted thereafter that he has foiled the conspiracy to topple his Govt. However, ground realities clearly indicate that he might have got a temporary relief but the problem is there to stay posing questions of legitimacy of his regime.

Legal fraternity and even layman are fully convinced that Raisani Govt has lost the right to rule following interim order of the Supreme Court that pinpointed its failure to deliver as far as security and law and order situation in the province is concerned. The overwhelming majority of the people believe that he should have immediately resigned afterwards but he not only shamelessly stuck to the position but also run a media and advertising campaign in a bid to restore faith in his moribund Government. No doubt, the passage of the resolution of the vote of confidence indicated that he enjoyed the confidence of the majority but it was never the question before people or the apex court. There were no doubts about the number game that favoured him as most of them were hands in glove with corruption and malpractices and even three of them were accused of their involvement in incidents of kidnapping for ransom. The real question was failure of the provincial Government to check the nosedive in law and order and killing of the citizens, which is fundamental responsibility of any Government worth the name. This point would remain there until and unless his Government improves performance, which is highly unlikely in view of its dismal record during the last over four years. Apart from the verdict of the SC, the decision by his own party is also a big no-confidence in him. No doubt, majority has the right to rule in a democratic dispensation but there are also democratic traditions and spirit that must be followed. Anyhow, camouflaging of the dirt in Quetta on Tuesday compels one to think that strange are the ways of democracy in Balochistan.

Calls for emergency and military operation A

S there is no let up in the killing spree in Karachi where over a dozen people are losing their lives daily, coalition partners both at the centre and in the province made bizarre calls in the parliament for resolution of the problem. While the MQM demanded imposition of emergency in the city to check gory incidents, the ANP, as before, reiterated its call for launching of a military operation to get rid of the criminals.

There is no harm in going to any length in ensuring peace and stability in Karachi that is bleeding for the last several years because of inaction on the part of those at the helm of affairs. However, the demands for imposition of emergency and military operation convey dismal signals about sincerity, commitment, ability and vision of those who see this as the last resort to save Karachi. This is because in the first instance, this is a clear declaration of self-defeat and failure by the coalition Government. You are in power both in the province and at the centre but instead of resolving the issue you are trying to pass on the buck to others. Why you are not giving free hand to police and Rangers to treat criminals as mere criminals and not agents of political parties and influential people. It is an open secret that criminals and criminal activities are known to all law-enforcing agencies and on different occasions they rounded up culprits even red handed but they had to release them afterwards in the face of intervention from somewhere else. Who is obstructing hanging of over two thousand criminals who are waiting execution of death sentences in jails? Why you are resisting calls and plans for retrieval of arms from Karachi that is one of the factors responsible for ever-deteriorating security situation there? There is also a perception that call for emergency is motivated by a desire to postpone general elections and therefore, is unlikely to get popular acceptability. It is time to shun rhetoric and act to prevent further bloodshed in the city of Quaid.

Right to free and compulsory education T

HE National Assembly Tuesday passed a bill moved by lady mem ber Yasmeen Rehman providing for Right to Free and Compulsory Education at a time when the country is in the midst of an educational emergency with disastrous human and economic consequences. The bill provides for education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years and ten percent quota in all the private institutions for poor children.

On the face of it, the initiative would be welcomed by all and sundry but the mere passage of the bill would not promote education, which is the most neglected sector. The first and foremost requirement is allocation of financial resources, which are not there because there is no priority to education. Although successive governments announced various programmes to promote literacy, but those programmes could not achieve the desired results and allocations made for the purpose were plundered by the greedy politicians and bureaucrats. Today more than 30 millions children are out of school and the infrastructure is crumbling due to constantly shrinking budget for education. At the same time the quality of education is deteriorating in government run schools, enrolment is dropping and people who can afford are preferring for private institutions. In fact there is a near breakdown of public education system and the private sector is filling the vacuum. Though some institutions with missionary zeal are providing quality education but many others are being run without required facilities, poor curricula and untrained staff just for earning money. Given the continual changes in professions, there is need for development of a wide spectrum of new curricula and qualifications if we want to provide quality education to meet the demands of the market and development of the country.

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Defining principles higher office, including the Presidency.

The 140-page judgment, authored by Chief Justice Iftikhar Alauddin Masood Muhammad Chudhry, Email:alauddinmasood@gmail.com has set some defining principles. Among others, these include: All officers who obey unlawful commands igged or stalled elections are are individually liable. All superior impregnated with serious officers giving unlawful commands consequences. Experience or who fail to prevent unlawful actells that election thefts often pro- tion on the part of their subordinates voke the opposition and the civil are liable and culpable. Any violation society to launch demonstrations, of oath of office or any other illegal which sometimes lead to violent act committed by a State functionary confrontation between the establish- is a personal act for which the indiment and protestors. Such confron- vidual concerned would be liable in tations could destabilize the coun- accordance with law, and the institutry. Pakistan’s example shows that tion to which such individual may it may even derail it from the demo- belong would not be involved in it.

The President, in 1990, could not cratic path and scuttle prospects for have issued any command to the democratic growth.

The need for the holding of Army chief or the DG ISI as the presi1990 elections had arisen because dent did not have any operational Benazir Bhutto-led PPP govern- authority with respect to the Armed ment was dissolved by the Presi- Forces even after the Eighth Constident, and in keeping with constitu- tutional Amendment. Through these tional provisions new elections principles, the court has merely reitwere required to be held within 90 erated what is already codified in the days of the dissolution. Being an ag- Constitution: However, these pringrieved party, PPP should have ciples are likely to affect General bagged sympathy vote and also Aslam Beg (R) and Lt General Asad some extra votes due to her elec- Durrani (R), who claim that they were toral alliance with three smaller po- obeying the orders of their bosses. In litical parties. But, contrary to popu- hierarchical order, the “bosses” of the lar expectations, instead of im- Army Chief are the Defence Minisprovement in the mandate PPP was ter and the President in his capacity as the Supreme Commander of the routed in the elections!

In its short order, issued last Armed Forces.

But, President Ghulam Ishaq month, in Asghar Khan case, the apex court unambiguously held that Khan’s confidants, including his Adfunds were doled out by the State visor, close friend and allegedly a minions to block PPP’s victory in member of the ‘election cell’ Roedad the 1990 elections. On November Khan, have expressed their reserva8, 2012, the Supreme Court an- tions on this statement about a pernounced its detailed judgment, rul- son who was known for following the ing that officials are not bound to Constitution and the laws both in letaccept unlawful orders by any ter and in spirit. The Supreme Court

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has ordered that any election cell/political cell in the Presidency or ISI or MI or within their formations be abolished immediately. In one’s opinion, these defining principles would have wider implications because these could equally affect many civilian and military officers, especially those involved in General Musharraf’s November 3, 2007 coup The Supreme Court has demanded transparent investigations against politicians alleged to have taken money from the ISI to win 1990 polls to establish the allegations of taking money. Amongst others, the politicians in this category include: MQM’s Altaf Hussain, PML-N’s Mian Nawaz Sharif and PTI’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi. (Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira has alleged that Osama bin Laden had also funded in the formation of Islami Jamhoor Itehad (IJI) – The News: November 11, 2012).

Meanwhile, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s former Secretary, Kanwar Dilshad has contended that the affidavits by General Beg and General Durrani were accepted without checking the authenticity and talking to the concerned institutions or persons. He believes that ECP should file a review petition in Asghar Khan case to present its point of view on 1990 elections. Some quarters are trying to give an impression that huge amounts were given to different politicians before 1990 elections because the top PPP leadership had become a security risk and was involved in anti-state activities. Unless proved in the court of law, these insinuations and allegations would merely be considered as rhetoric. Here a question arises, if PPP was really involved in anti-state activities why the allegations against it were not proved in courts of law?

Interestingly, PPP’s founder Zulfikar

Ali Bhutto had created a political cell in the ISI in May 1975. Instead of assisting the federal government in its political affairs, this cell embarked upon rigging or engineering elections results. In 1990, Bhuttocreated political cell declared PPP government led by his daughter Benazir to be a political risk and launched a campaign to rout it out in the elections! ‘Those who dig pit for others themselves (or their progeny, permit me to add) fall into it!’

The apex court has also ruled that the office of the President falls in the service of Pakistan and is thus not supposed to indulge in politics. This part of the ruling would make it impossible for the incumbent to continue his political activities from the Presidency.

Though he can contest election for the office of the President for the second term, but he would not be able to become a member of the National Assembly and subsequently Prime Minister on completion of his term as President unless a period of two years has elapsed.

No doubt, democracy is about popular politics, and the incumbent President is co-Chairman of a political party. But, more importantly, he is a symbol of the unity of the federation and, as pointed out in the court’s detailed judgment, like all presidents in parliamentary republics, his office is expected to be apolitical, non-partisan and objectively disengaged with any and all affiliations of political, ethnic, linguistic, or geographic nature. Furthermore, Article 48 of the Constitution limits the exercise of presidential functions to the advice of the cabinet. It is, therefore, time that the President abdicates from his parallel role as PPP’s co-Chairman and starts performing functions that are strictly in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution.

Who is behind Tibetan militants?

Pakistan’s Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs supported Chistand on Tibet Sajjad Shaukat nese and Sinkiang issues.

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com It also condemned the miscreants for disturbing peace of Tibetan areas in the name of Jihad as n the recent months, more than well as defaming Islam in pursuit of 50 ethnic Tibetans died through western vested agenda. self-immolation in China, In fact, Indian secret agency which included many Buddhist RAW with the assistance of Amerimonks and nuns, calling for Ti- can CIA and Israeli Mossad have inbetan freedom and the return of termittently been arranging subvertheir spiritual leader, Dalai Lama sive acts in China’s Tibetan regions who has lived in exile in India since For this purpose, RAW has set up a a failed uprising against Chinese number of camps where Tibetan rule in 1959. Many Buddhist Ti- militants are being imparted trainbetans accuse the Chinese govern- ing, and are being sent to China ment of religious repression, while along with arms and ammunition. eroding their culture, as majority Besides, these agencies also incite of Han ethnic group also lives in Tibetan religious extremists for inthe regions. dependence, who have been setting In the past few years, several themselves on fire. In this regard, persons died in the terror-incidents with the backing of RAW, a Tibetan and ethnic riots occurred in vari- exile set himself to ablaze in New ous regions of China’s Xinjiang- Delhi on March 26 to protest the visit the largely populated Muslim prov- of Chinese President Hu Jintao to ince. In January, this year, Chinese India. But, protests are common durPolice shot dead more protesters ing Chinese leaders’ visits to Delhi. in Tibetan territories as unrest These secret entities are also fuelspread to some other areas includ- ing tension between the mainly ing China’s Sichuan province Muslim Uighur people and Han Chiwhich was rocked with ethnic nese to destabilise China. Notably, clashes. And in February, terrorists on March 10, 2008, when anti-govkilled 13 people in Kashgar. ernment violent protests by Buddhist However, for all the incidents, monks erupted in Tibet’s capital, India blamed Pakistani militants for Lhasa and nearby provinces, India, supporting the insurgency to dete- while acting upon a secret diploriorate Sino-Pak ties and to cover macy, assisted the same.

India’s role behind Tibetan miliIn that context, Indian Former tancy. But during the visit of a Chi- Foreign minister Yashwant Sinha had nese delegation on October 29, argued that we should intervene to 2012, while hinting towards India, secure Tibet’s freedom, adding, “We US and some western countries, want good relations with China. But

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if we reach a point of conflict over Tibet, we should be prepared for that eventuality.” In May 1998, while advocating Tibetan independence, Indian former Defence Minister George Fernandes had declared that “China is India’s potential threat No. 1.”

Meanwhile, Indian media had left no stone unturned in exaggerating the casualties by manipulating China’s crackdowns against the militants of Tibet—which were essential to restore law and order. Full coverage was given to the Tibetan leaders and some western propagandists against Beijing. In fact, both New Delhi and Lama had covertly planned bloodshed in Tibetan territories, motivating the people for liberation.

In response, China’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily had said that Dalai Lama had “never abandoned violence since fleeing to India”, and was scheming to take the Beijing Olympics of August 2008 hostage to force China to make concessions for Tibet’s independence.

Indian dual Tibet policy has significant security problems for China due to the entanglement of the issue in the Sino-Indian border dispute. In the post-1949 period, New Delhi urged China to let Tibet be an autonomous region. On April 29, 1954, through an agreement, India had recognised Tibet as part of China. After the Indo-China war of 1962, Beijing returned the land it occupied in Arunachal Pradesh. Indeed, China’s claim over Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) on the basis of old Tibetan religious links is logical.

Now, India which apparently shows mutual cooperation with China, is showing inactive approach in the solution of border dispute. But it has secretly been increasing military build up near the Chinese bor-

der coupled with covert support to the Tibetan insurgents. There are also other reasons behind Indian double game. Fast growing economic power of China, its strategic relationship with Pakistan and development of Gwader seaport in Balochistan irk the eyes of America and India. Besides, US-India nuclear deal, supply of sophisticated weapons to New Delhi, Obama’s recent defence strategy, which calls for greater US military presence in Asia, maintenance of six permanent bases in Afghanistan including Indian role there after the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014 and Indo-US antiPakistan secret game are part of American desire to make India a major Asian power to counterbalance China. But Chinese see India as a “future strategic competitor” rather than a partner.

US President Barack Obama had also met Dalai Lama to indirectly encourage militancy in China. While, human rights groups of the US and some western countries exploit extra-judicial killings by Chinese Security forces to give so-called moral support to the Tibetan separatist elements so that they continue their subversive activities in these areas.

Nevertheless, the new spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhist monks and successor of Dalai Lama, Lobsang Sangay, head of the Indiabased Tibetan government-in-exile has called on the international community “to not remain passive” and “to intervene to prevent further bloodshed” by the Chinese security forces. Nonetheless, with the tactical support of US, India which has given shelter to Dalai Lama along with his 120,000 Tibetan followers is assisting militants in the Tibetan regions to dismember China.

s soon Obama was re-elected as President, scenes of jubi lant Americans celebrating his win exploded on every news channel. While they certainly gave the impression that most Americans breathed a sigh of relief at a Democrat victory, that’s not actually the case. Just as many were pouring out in the streets of the East coast states to show their solidarity with the triumphant leader, there were others in the country’s South who felt indignant and resentful.

And this grumpy lot has collectively devised a method (albeit a drastic one) to eschew Obama’s leadership after their candidate Mitt Romney was defeated: secession from the US. Yes you read it right — more than 100,000 Americans have petitioned the White House to allow their states to secede from the US. Roughly 20 petitions have been filled, and the one from Texas has amassed 25,000 signatures, to which the White House has promised a reply. What legal precedence are these Republican supporters using to make a case for secession? Apparently, they are citing the American founding fathers, who stated their right to “dissolve the political bands” and form a new nation in the American Declaration of Independence from Britain. Texas, currently the leading state in this petition-signing business, has cited economic difficulties brought by the federal government’s mismanagement as the reason to demand territorial dismemberment of the US. While one might guffaw at the outrageous demand put forth by a bunch of Republican “crazies”, the petitions actually shows how divided America is today? The US Presidential election was, after all, a closely contested one. Many thought that the Republican campaign did not represent an increasingly multicultural and diverse America, but the fact is that the Republicans still have their loyal supporters across the US. There’s a dichotomy in American views, and with the economy down in the dumps, this divide is sharper than it ever was. Should we call now call the country the Divided States of America? — Khaleej Times

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New Syrian entity

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here is much work needed from all parties that are di rectly or indirectly involved in drawing the future of Syria. The task is complex as much as intricate as the matter is no longer confined to a single group that is calling for change. The responsibility of ensuring the integrity of the nation remains one that all Syrians should shoulder regardless of their background or political leanings. A major step has been adopted by the Syrian opposition. Earlier this week, various opposition groups came together in Doha to choose a new leadership. Muath Al Khatib has been selected to head the newly formed Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces (SNCORF). Riad Saif and Suheir Al Atassi have been elected as deputies. The Arab League, the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as several western countries have welcomed the step and recognised the new body.

This is an important step for Syrians as this entity is supposed to be the vehicle for moving towards a final solution to the crisis. It is also supposed to function as an umbrella group that unites all factions. Hence, it is critical that a clear and full agenda is outlined for what needs to be done in the near future. Without such a blueprint, the conflict will continue without an end in sight.

Furthermore, the new body will be required to speak with one voice.

This will obviously mean that its leadership has to play a role of reconciliation and focus on building consensus. There is no doubt that the focus, as much as the pressure, on the SNCORF is immense. This is simply because the aspirations for freedom and peace are very high. And hence, the new opposition entity should never lose sight of what the people want — an end to the bloodshed and suffering of thousands of innocent civilians. It is high time that forces and efforts are gathered for the sake of Syria. — Gulf News In the sex-war thoughtlessness is the weapon of the male, vindictiveness of the female.

—Cyril Connolly British journalist

US polls & implications for Pakistan Voice of the People Shams uz Zaman Email:smszmn72@yahoo.com

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he confident President Obama after being re-elected is ex pected to adopt more bold positions on domestic and foreign policy issues as he faces numerous challenges on domestic and forein issues.

US still remain divisive and polarized, a display of which came after thousands of citizens in around 18 states filed petitions for “secession from the Union to create their own new government”. Another major challenge at the domestic front is of economic recovery and tax cuts on which Republicans and Democrats have divergent positions.

The first major policy speech made by Obama after the re-elections was regarding avoiding the “Fiscal Cliff” but its little early to say if the Democrats and Republicans would put aside their differences to resolve the issue. On the foreign policy front there are numerous complex challenges including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, China, Russia and

relocation of Al-Qaeda in Yemen and sub-Saharan Africa. With the prospects of a new team of officials taking over the Department of Defence, Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency President Obama needs sincere advisors and analysts with more rationalism and less conservatism.

There are lot of US academics offering advice to the US policy makers. Some are rational despite being critical; others’ thinking process seems to be blocked by their prejudices and hatred. With regards to Pakistan academics like Christine C. Fair, Daniel Pipes, Charles Krauthammer and Hussain Haqqani etc are few examples whose opinions are cynical and overshadowed by their personal bigotry and abhorrence towards specific issues. Daniel Pipes and Charles Krauthammer suffer from a deep rooted Islamophobia while Christian C Fair is very unfair when it comes to Pakistan and her last few articles in Foreign Policy not only undermines her academic credibility but also indicates of her paranoiac syndrome towards Pakistan.

Mr. Hussain Haqqani’s writings on

Pakistan after the momogate humiliation become understandable which usually reflects of his personal vendetta towards Pakistani institutions.

It still remains unclear that how much influence such voices enjoy on the US policy makers, but the recent trends indicates that the gulf between the US and Pakistan is growing and problems are likely to compound rather to become simplified in the post May 2 period, until and unless President Obama moves away from stereo type of thinking regarding Pakistan which appears less likely.

Pakistan has become dependent on the foreign aid despite immense domestic potentials mainly because of governance issues. Self-sufficiency is not something which remains out of reach, but just that it has so far not become the priority of the ruling elite who remains badly addicted to foreign aid. The much of foreign aid has either been misappropriated or has been wasted away in futile projects thus has overall contributed very less to the economic growth and prosperity. Ground realities just substantiate these assertions.

On the other hand, growing economic

and political issues in the US dictate that the flow of aid to Pakistan would eventually be capped and bulk of US forces would depart from Afghanistan thus leaving Pakistan and Afghanistan to find their own destiny.

Apparently, no dramatic change is expected for Pakistan after the US elections and Pakistan will have to find regional solutions to the regional problems besides learning to stand on its own feet. State like Russia, China, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia therefore gains added importance for Pakistan. China has already invested a lot in Pakistan while Iran and Russia have shown their interest in mega gas pipeline projects on which Pakistan has yet to take a decisive action. As Europe further plunges into economic recession, the world donor agencies like IMF and World Bank might not find enough funds to bail out Pakistan. The Pakistani military therefore might have to play some constructive role behind the scene at this critical juncture to convince the government that now there is no other solution to survival except for self-sufficiency.

—The writer is NDU research scholar.

Respect & freedom of expression Atif Noor Khan

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s there a possibility of balance be tween freedom of expression and respect? Deep inside every conscious Muslim’s heart is a feeling of serenity and peace even in midst of tyranny, dispute and injustice.

Because they believe justice will be granted, not always from humans, but surely from the one who created humans.

Muslims believe that sometime justice is given in this world and sometimes in the next. Yet, no doubt total justice will prevail when it comes to final reckoning. As for those who don’t believe as Muslims do, they could fall into three categories.

The first would be the ones who don’t believe in Allah the almighty and the Hereafter and live basically by the man-made laws of this world which they either follow or not, according to their desires. Since they don’t believe in Allah the almighty, insulting a Prophet has no meaning to them, since they do not respect the person or his message. The second group would be believers in the Hereafter,

like Christians and Jews, but who have not taken impartial investigation into the religion of Islam as well as the life and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Holy Quran. They could act as above from sheer ignorance and animosity toward Islam which could even lead to insulting or belittling a Prophet of God whom they don’t really know. The third group may fall somewhere in between and do as the above for various reasons. All animosities against Islam come down to one point: “Ignorance”.

One may ask, had it been a law against insulting revered historical figures, would such actions occur?

Most likely not! So, to what extent are we to use freedom of speech to spread evil, violence and chaos among humans? Perhaps it all depends on the desired outcome. We have seen during the recent years such detestable publications and videos have cost the loss of innocent lives of even the non Muslims around the world. Newton’s third law of motion states that forces occur in pairs, and whether that force is the action or the reaction is scientifically irrelevant because at this point they are identi-

cal. Thus, we find ourselves in this vicious circle: We see actions and we see reactions. What is the result? You decide! One also may ask, has the freedom of speech made United States of America a safer place to live, where people of various cultures live in harmony with each other?

Is there a possibility of balance between freedom of expression and respect? It is normal for humans to act a certain way to achieve desired results. So, how can one desire to create hatred, chaos and disarray? Many Muslim scholars around the world have expressed their strong opinion against any kind of violence while condemning evil plots of the ignorant few. But when it comes to general Muslim population around the world, it would be very difficult to control the sentiment of millions against any insults on their religion and especially their beloved Prophet. So, is there a solution? As some Muslims around the world express their hatred by attacking embassies and its personnel, the Muslims in the US will become targets of more hate crimes and discriminations. This will be especially difficult for new Muslims. Is it the freedom of speech that is fanning the

already ignited fire? Surely, freedom of speech has two faces depending on who is using it or who is being targeted for it. Without getting into the issues of politics, one can clearly see there is a double standard even in this law that is supposedly written in stone in the US constitution, which should harbor freedom as well as justice.

Muslims are aware that our presence in this life is a test. So, when a Muslim encounters various incidents throughout his life, he is aware that he is being tested. It is through these incidents that a person displays his faith, submission and closeness to Allah the almighty who grants this life and countless blessings. Thus a Muslim must not lower himself to the level of his ignorant adversaries and show reaction that causes harm.

He must act in a way that benefits are heavier on the scale than harm.

He knows Allah God’s justice: “We will set up the Just Balance on the Day of Rising and no self will be wronged in any way. Even if it is no more than the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, We will produce it. We are sufficient as a Reckoner.} (AlAnbiya’ 21: 47)”.

Views From Abroad

Charting a post-Petraeus era David Ignatius

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o it turns out that the top brass at the CIA had an inbox of se crets of the all-too-human, sexual variety. Titillating, unquestionably. But what about the other secrets — the intelligence secrets that are the agency’s reason for existence? How are they doing on this score? When the uproar passes over the personal misjudgements of David Petraeus, the country will be left with this question of intelligence goals and missions. And here’s where an overlooked problem of the Petraeus era should be fixed. Petraeus was picked for the job, and eager to take it, partly because the White House believed that in an era of counter-terrorism, the CIA’s traditional mission of stealing secrets was morphing into a wider role that increasingly stressed paramilitary covert action.

The retired general, with his matchless experience in running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was seen as well-suited to run an agency that combined the trench coat and the flak jacket. But the Petraeus-era CIA had a hidden defect, quite apart from any errant e-mails, which was that the paramilitary covert-action function was swallowing alive the old-fash-

ioned intelligence-gathering side of the house. This actually seems to me to be the central lesson of the disaster in Benghazi, Libya. The CIA had a substantial base in Benghazi, with at least a half-dozen former military special forces assigned there as part of the “Global Response Staff.”

These were the muscle-bound security guys known to flippant earlier generations of CIA case officers as “knuckle-draggers.” They were in Benghazi in such numbers in part because the CIA was supporting the State Department’s programme to collect the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that had gone loose after the fall of Col. Moammar Gaddafi.

Agency officers may also have been working with Libyan militias to help them become effective security forces.Given the large number of security personnel at the base in Benghazi, they implicitly took on responsibility for security at the smaller US consulate a mile away.

The consulate didn’t have normal State Department security, so when the attack came on Sept.11, the CIA base was the only 911 number to call. The agency’s officers and contractors acted with great courage, but they should never have been in such a position. Similarly, they made a mistake in relying on Libyan militias for the heavy weapons they

needed that night but didn’t get in time. Petraeus himself visited the Benghazi base about a week before he resigned, to bolster agency officers there and review what happened.

His account, in person or in writing, will be important in understanding what went wrong.

Benghazi showed the reason the United States needs clandestine intelligence officers in dangerous countries such as Libya. They’re in country, undercover, to collect the secrets that will keep US citizens safe. That night, the United States needed to know what was going down in Benghazi, and in Cairo, Tunis and a half-dozen other capitals. It’s hard to do this intelligence collection — recruiting and running clandestine agents — when you’re operating from a quasi-public base, as seems to have been the case in Benghazi, and is certainly true in many others parts of the world.

The CIA inevitably will continue to mount some paramilitary operations. The United States is still fighting a war against al-Qaeda, and the CIA’s Counter-terrorism Centre has become proficient in managing drone attacks, to the point that they’ve made assassination from 10,000 feet an almost addictive covert tool of policy.

And there’s a role for paramilitary action in Syria, too, including an

idea suggested to me by Hank Crumpton, a former top CIA officer who recently published a book called “The Art of Intelligence.” He suggests that the CIA train a team of Syrians that can hunt Iranian fighters from the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps who are working with Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The United States has mounted similar clandestine training missions in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. I like this proposal because it underlines that this is a fight for Syrians, not Iranians or Americans. But one resolution for the post-Petraeus CIA should be to put intelligence collection back in the driver’s seat at the agency. Maybe this will only be possible when the agency fully deploys a new network of deep-cover “platforms” that can hide CIA officers better than that embattled annex in Benghazi did.

And one more thought, sent by a wise reader who passed along this sobering quote from Karl von Clausewitz: “The higher the rank, the more necessary it is that boldness should be accompanied by a reflective mind . . . for with increase in rank it becomes always a matter less of self-sacrifice and more a matter of the preservation of others, and the good of the whole.”

— Courtesy: The Washington Post

Shared tears..!

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s I hear about bombings in my country and neighbouring ones, my heart goes out to the families who suffer afterwards. But I know there is more to compassion than it just being an armchair discussion and I will try to bring this out with a few little stories below: A Story is told about a little boy with a big heart. His next door neighbour was an old man whose wife recently had died. When the

youngster saw the elderly man crying he climbed up onto his lap and simply sat there.

Later his mother asked the boy what he had said to their saddened neighbour. “Nothing,” the child replied, “I just helped him cry.” Sometimes that is the best thing we can do for people who are facing profound sorrow. Often our attempts to say something wise and helpful are far less valuable than just sitting next to the bereaved ones, holding their hand and crying with them.

In a London cemetery there were two funerals. The first little coffin was followed by a solitary mourner, a rather lost looking woman, evidently the mother. There were no flowers on this coffin, while the other was cov-

ered with wreaths and bunches of flowers, and followed by several hundred people. At the grave side one of the mourners who turned out to be the father took a wreath and a large bunch of lilies from his own child’s coffin and laid them upon the other.

The lost looking mother nodded and wept but she knew she was not alone in her grief. Small gestures go to the heart of those whose hearts are broken. Sometimes compassion needs more than just our tears or gesture.

In 1984 the newspapers told of the plight of a child in Mexico City.

The child had been orphaned and severely burned in a gas explosion that took the lives of five hundred people.

Millions saw the story and probably quickly forgot it. One woman in New

York didn’t. She couldn’t get the little boy off her mind. This woman’s concern led to efforts to find the boy, followed by two years of medical assistance, gifts, visits and finally adoption proceedings.

The poor homeless boy who had felt earlier that he had lost everything was overjoyed to find that he had someone who cared so much for him that she gave up her normal life to care for him. In a world where greed and materialism are showing their ugly heads compassion can be a powerful antidote.

“A heartfelt tear can show our love As words can never do: It says, “I want to share your pain— My heart goes out to you.”

—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Bureaucrats or land mafia?

ASGHAR MAHMOOD

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ccording to a media report, senior bureaucrats are putting pressure on the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to create plots in expensive sectors of Islamabad for allotment to BS 22 officers.

The background of this story is that the former Prime Minister approved a scheme for allotment of additional plots for Federal Secretaries and senior bureaucrats in BS 22; civil servants in BS 17 and above are allotted only one plot at the time of retirement. This was a special favour for senior bureaucrats to oblige them for their services beyond the call of duty. The Public Accounts Committee has reservations about this Scheme. The Monday report has published the names of secretaries who have costly plots allotted in Sector D-12. Many senior bureaucrats have plots in exclusive schemes in their own names or in the names of their family members. For example, some of them have got allotted very expensive plots in the National Police Foundation Housing Scheme in Sector E-11, at throwaway price, though entitled and deserving police officers have been denied plots in this prestigious scheme by the NPF management. The market price of a Kanal size plot in E-11 is more than two crore rupees. Invest a million and earn 20 millions. Simple and easy way to become a millionaire overnight for senior bureaucrats. Role of the civil service worldover is to serve the people by making people-friendly policies. In Pakistan, the senior bureaucrats make only self-serving policies; they are least interested in the welfare of junior officers and common man. A National Commission is called for to probe the allotment of plots and farm -houses in the Capital to bureaucrats and their cronies.

—Islamabad

Disaster’s aftermath in Sindh HASHIM ABRO Although several weeks are passed but it appears as it was yesterday that the natural and man-made disaster had hit different districts of Sindh province. Millions of people are displaced; they are passing their inclement days and chilly nights under the open skies; rain and flood water has become stagnant and breeding ground of mosquitoes.

Nothing has been done for displaced people, damage to health, sanitation, water supplies, housing, and agriculture, increase in malnutrition and communicable diseases.

There is complete health crisis in the worst affected areas in the aftermath of disasters. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and other relevant organizations are not doing enoughbetter to say these are not visible in many affected areas in the province. While visiting different districts such as Shikarpur, Kashmor/ Kandh Kot, Kambar/Shahdad Kot and Dadu last week I could hear about an alarming increase in the incidence of diarrhea, malaria, respiratory infections, measles, and other communicable diseases.

In this sordid scenario it is suggested that the following measures may be taken immediately to save millions of lives undergoing an agony and pain in the disaster –hit districts. First, rain triggered flood waters must be drained out from the affected areas. Second, a good system of water supply and excreta disposal must be put in place quickly.

Third, the provision of adequate clean water and sanitation, timely measles immunization, simple treatment of dehydration from diarrhoea, supplementary feeding for the malnourished, micronutrient supplements, and the establishment of an adequate public health surveillance system greatly reduces the health risks associated with the harsh environments of torn –out tents.

Above all, the officers of the relevant national and provincial organizations may be directed not waste resources in non-productive activities such as briefings on Power Points and photo sessions but do utilize the resources honestly and uprightly.

—Islamabad

A never ending thirst!

JUNAID ASHRAF “Those who long only and solely for the worldly life, their longing turns to a thirst, a thirst – never ending” Many of you might be familiar with the TV drama by the name of “Shehr-e-Zaat” based on the novel of Umera Ahmed that just finished.

I haven’t read the novel; nevertheless I have been following the drama because of its heart touching story and a strong message. To me “Shehr-e-Zaat” is not just a drama; it seems like, more a story about me and so many other people around me. It has made me reflect on my own actions and has compelled me to write about it, because I think we should take lessons from this play in the real sense of the word. The message it carries is a need of the hour, because, in pursuit of materialistic benefits we have forgotten the purpose of this life. The balance between spiritual and material life is missing. In pursuit of worldly gains, spiritual life has fallen into the shades, not only that, it is also diminishing in our lives with every single passing day. We are so much in love with this worldly life that we have forgotten the other part, the existence of God, which is a reality, inevitable. We have fallen prey to worldly pleasures, which eventually, will end up in smoke.

By and large, we are living a life of ignorance and obliviousness; instead of purification of our souls we desire physical beautification.

Many good traditions and values

have gone by the board because of excessive materialism. We have built walls of all types of material things around us; the walls are so high that we can’t see anything else, other than our own self. We only stay conscious of our self and turn a blind eye to world around, our heart has become like a rock, hard and blind!!

What is wrong with us? We all have gone astray; our lives are full of frail and fake pleasures. There also seems to be a lack of capacity on our part to understand and appreciate the enjoyment that can be found in worshiping God. We think that all the materialistic things we have are blessings of God but in reality, they often fulfill the characteristics of being “Israaf” (extravagance). We should try to find the path of moderation in order to find salvation.

Sometimes the things which are very obvious to our eye may be just an illusion, and when one realizes it, it may be too late, it may be impossible to move forward or backward.

It is time we focus our sight to where we are heading. The point I am trying to make is not leaving the worldly life aside but to find a balance between the spiritual and material life, between this world and the hereafter.

The greed and lust for material gains should stop before it is too late! We need to thank The Almighty Allah for everything we have and do not have, for He knows what is that we need the most, and what is the best for us!

—Via email

Hopes pinned to Obama MUHAMMED JAMIL ATHER People all over the world are feeling relieved and very happy by the news of President Barack Obama being reelected and thanking the people of America for taking the right decision.

We see in Barack Obama a positive attitude — he is not indifferent to other people’s sufferings. He seems to possess sound judgement, great wisdom, humility and kindness.

We were touched when we saw him breaking down in tears as he was speaking to his campaign team in Iowa for the last time.Former President Bill Clinton described Barack Obama as a person “who is cool outside, but burns inside.”We expect that in his second term he will be able to take concrete steps to bring peace in Kashmir & between Palestine and Israel.

The Kashmeries & Palestinians have been suffering for so long; they are deprived of their land and are living in an inhuman condition.We hope he will maintain a peaceful relationship with other countries including Iran. Global warming has become a curse. It is wreaking havoc all over the world. President Barack Obama should take the matter seriously and do something to combat it.The world has so many expectations from him; we hope and trust that by the help of the Almighty, he will be able to fulfil it.

—Karachi

Generals’ dirty affairs

tussle of two women. FBI uncovered evidence of the affair between Petraeus and Broadwell after Broadwell sent harassing messages to another woman who informed FBI about Petraeus affair. Now Defense Department is reviewing thousands of pages of e mails between the commander of forces in Afghanistan and his close friend.

—Jeddah, KSA

An essay on corruption MAHFOOZ UR RAHMAN No trade in Pakistan is possible unless one greases the palms of the concerned authorities . In Islam , who bribes for his work to be done commits a greater sin than who takes the bribe . When I was attending the NIPA course preparatory to promotion (which was not in my fate) to the next higher grade , there was a visiting professor who belonged to a famous university . He had been passed over to become a beaucrat .

In each session , he would make a dig at the country’s beaucracy . He is not alone in making this dig . There may be others like him . A case of sour grapes.

It is universally acknowledged that ‘corruption’ is a world wide phenomenon , not only in Pakistan . It did not save the image of the European Royalty from being soiled .

Princes Philip of the UK and Bernard of the Netherlands were accused of obtaining ‘hush-hush’ money . Of course , their cases never saw the daylight . In every third world country the division between the haves and the have nots is more acute than elsewhere in the world and hence the feeling is greater. Even ,in Pakistan , where the country was founded on the slogan of Islam , the society has become rotten to the core .However , while discussing corruption ,we tend to focus on the country’s beaucracy alone . We do not even consider other field or professions . The management and employees of each Pharmaceutical companies are aware of the company’s sponsored overseas visit of doctors .Do they not fall under the definition of ‘ Corruption’ . In addition , doctors prescribe medicines of particular favoured companies .

As former ‘beaucrat’ , I had many opportunities to meet journalists who were willing to change their reports for a cup of tea. Or journalists visiting foreign embassies located in Islamabad for a bottle of whiskey .

There are many instances in my career when journalists gave negative twists in their reports , if annoyed . I remember an occasion when the late Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi gave a twist in his column in his newspaper . The media is instrumental in promoting or demoting of individuals , not only here in Pakistan but everywhere .

These days many news of the wrongdoings of journalists are floating in the air of Islamabad .

—Islamabad

What’s on caption

KHAWAJA UMER FAROOQ

IQBAL HADI ZAIDI

According to media news after CIA chief Gen. David Petraeus resignation, Pentagon said that the top American commander in Afghanistan Gen John Allen is also under investigation for alleged inappropriate communications. At the time when things are going bad to worse in Afghanistan and NATO withdrawal is coming near recent events and resignation of main architect of Iraq and Afghanistan wars Gen Petraeus and involvement of NATO commander in Afghanistan Gen Allen add further miseries for US mission in Afghanistan. US authorities are trying hard to cover the situation.

Defense Secretary Penata ordered an immediate investigation and temporarily stopped Gen Allen nomination as commander of US European command. Petraeus accepted that he had an affair with biographer Paula Broad. She was writing Gen Petraeus biography. Interestingly CIA chief had been caught between

What a happy coincidence which I have noticed that the two English dailies of two different countries have a common heading about whatever is being programmed in the city each day. I am referring to Pakistan Observer, Islamabad which captions it as ‘What’s On’ whereas Arab Times, Kuwait captions it as ‘What’s On’.

Both of them have spelled and written the same but very much differently which as such made it still the more appealing and eye catching.

—Kuwait

READERS are requested to type their letters legibly with double spacing and only on one side of the paper.

—Editor Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

How Syria’s neighbours are being drawn into bloody conflict

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YRIA’s neighbors are increasingly be ing drawn into the country’s civil war in a variety of ways, whether militarily or due to an exodus of Syrians fleeing the fighting at home. The spillover has raised concerns that the nearly 20-month-long conflict between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime and rebels trying to topple him could endanger the entire Middle East.

Here is a look at how neighboring states are being affected by Syria’s bloodletting.

TURKEY: Turkey has struck the Syrian military repeatedly in response to shelling and mortar rounds from Syria since Oct. 3, when shells from Syria struck the Turkish village of Akcakale, killing two women and three children.

The incident prompted NATO to convene an emergency meeting and Turkey sent tanks and anti-aircraft batteries to the area. Turkey’s military has also scrambled fighter jets after Syrian helicopters flew close to the border.

There are about 120,000 Syrian refugees sheltering in Turkish camps, with up to 70,000 more living in Turkey outside the camps. Thousands more wait at the border, held up as Turkey struggles to cope with the influx. Turkey also hosts much of the opposition and rebel leadership.

Turkey has called for a buffer zone in Syria where the opposition and civilians would be protected, a step that would likely require international enforcement of a no-fly zone. Russia and China have blocked robust moves against the Syrian regime at the U.N. Security Council, and the United States has been reluctant to use its military in another Mideast conflict.

ISRAEL: Israel on Monday became the sec-

ond country to strike the Syrian military, after Turkey. An Israeli tank hit a Syrian armored vehicle after shells from fighting in Syria exploded in Israel-controlled Golan Heights. A day ear-

conflict has heightened deep rivalries and sectarian tensions in its smaller neighbor. Lebanon is divided between pro-Assad and anti-Assad factions, a legacy of the nearly three decades

lier, Israel fired a warning shot near a group of Syrian fighters.

Syrian shells have exploded inside the Golan several times in recent weeks damaging apple orchards, sparking fires and spreading panic but causing no injuries. In early November, three Syrian tanks entered the Golan demilitarized zone, and in a separate incident an Israeli patrol vehicle was peppered with bullets fired from Syria; no one was hurt in the incident and the Israeli military deemed it accidental.

There is concern in Israel that Assad may try to spark a conflict with Israel, opening up the potential for attacks by Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel has also warned that Syria’s chemical weapons could be turned on the Jewish state. Still, while no friend of Assad, Israel is also worried that if he is toppled, Syria could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists or descend into sectarian warfare.

LEBANON: Mortars and shells from the Syrian side regularly crash in Lebanon, causing several casualties, though Lebanese forces have never fired back. More dangerously, Syria’s

an affair with Kelley.

T

HE stunning revelation that the Pentagon is investigating vol umes of e-mails between ISAF commander Gen. John Allen and Jill Kelley, a socialite in Tampa, throws into doubt whether Allen will become the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, a position he has been nominated for. And if he does not, it raises the question of who would go in his stead.

The bench isn’t all that deep for a job first held by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and seen as a preeminent combatant command, typically given as payback for a hardship tour or a prize given to a known quantity.

The slate of three- and four-stars across the military are seen as either too junior or lacking in the kind of gravitas a job such as SACEUR requires. Gone are the Mike Mullens, Jim Joneses, Dave Petraeuses and Stan McChrystals who have the confidence and, at least within defense circles, the star power, to lead.

“We have a really talented military, but after these ten years, when it has come down to picking people, especially in a pinch, suddenly it seems that there aren’t any,” said one former defense official who wanted to remain anonymous given the current sensitivity over the scandal.

Allen, according to a defense official, says the 20,000 to 30,000 pages of e-mails between him and Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite linked to the Petraeus scandal, reflect no wrongdoing on his part. And Pentagon of-

ficials tell Foreign Policy that Allen, who is married, says he did not have

linked militants allegedly planning to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in Jordan.

lack of services. A growing number of stray Syrian missiles have fallen on Jordanian villages in the north in recent weeks, wounding several civilians.

Late last month, a Jordanian border patrol officer was killed in clashes with eight militants trying to cross into Syria. Hours earlier, Jordan announced the arrest of 11 suspected al-Qaida-

IRAQ: Sunni and Shiite fighters from Iraq have made their way to Syria to join the civil war — the former on the side of the opposition, the latter siding with Assad’s regime, according to Iraqi officials and Shiite militants. About 49,000 Syrian refugees have temporarily resettled in Iraq, according to the U.N. refugee agency— AP

Israel on Monday became the second country to strike the Syrian military, after Turkey. An Israeli tank hit a Syrian armored vehicle after shells from fighting in Syria exploded in Israel-controlled Golan Heights. A day earlier, Israel fired a warning shot near a group of Syrian fighters. when Damascus all but ruled Lebanon, until 2005. Assad’s ally, the Hezbollah militia is Lebanon’s strongest political and military movement.

On Oct. 19, a car bomb assassinated Lebanon’s top intelligence chief, Wissam alHassan. Many in Lebanon blamed Syria and Hezbollah for the assassination.

The northern Lebanese city of Tripoli has seen repeated clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites — the Shiite offshoot sect to which Assad belongs. Battles in the city in May and August killed at least 23 people total and wounded dozens.

The kidnapping of Lebanese Shiites in Syria by rebels has also had repercussions in Lebanon. In May, Shiites blocked roads and burned tires in protest over the abductions, and later in the summer a powerful Shiite clan took 20 Syrians and a Turk in Lebanon captive in retaliation, all of whom have since been released.

Lebanon also shelters about 100,000 Syrian refugees. JORDAN: Jordan has taken the brunt of the refugee exodus from Syria, with some 265,000 Syrians fleeing across the border.

If not Allen, who gets NATO? GORDON LUBOLD

Around 42,000 of them are housed at Zaatari, a dust-filled refugee camp, where riots have broken out several times by Syrians angry over

That leaves a gaping hole in the combatant command lineup and few people with the skills to fill it.

Gen. Carter Ham, who currently heads U.S. Africa Command, would be an obvious choice as someone who is widely-respected and has exhibited the kind of warrior-diplomatic savvy that job demands. And although he was long expected to retire, he has already served as head of the Army’s subordinate command in Europe. But the questions raised about what he did or did not do regarding Benghazi, while frivolous to many, probably means the White House would be unlikely to put his

confirmed for U.S. Southern Command and arrived there in recent weeks but who could be redirected.

Kelly spent two years in Europe, more than a decade ago, working in Belgium as the special assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, for both Gens. Wesley Clark and then Joseph Ralston. If the White House is looking for someone to go to Europe right away, Kelly could be an easy choice.

The Army, upset at what it sees as a disproportionate number of Marines in key jobs, from Kelly at Southern Command to Mattis at Centcom to Lt. Gen. Tom Waldhauser as Panetta’s senior military aide, may lobby to send Gen. Lloyd Austin,

But the volume of e-mails was enough of a flag for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that he approved a Defense Department Inspector General investigation on the matter.

That puts Allen’s promotion from ISAF commander to Supreme Allied Commander on hold. Although White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that President Obama “has faith in General Allen,” there is a good chance that his promotion to Europe may not weather this storm. The investigation alone may take its toll: Adm. James Stavridis, the current SACEUR, missed an opportunity to get the job he wanted, as Chief of Naval Operations, because of an Inspector General investigation over finances. He was just last week cleared of all the issues raised, but many believe the investigation squashed his chances of getting the job. name forward.

Chief among other candidates could be Gen. John Kelly, who was

now the vice chief of staff of the Army and ostensibly headed to U.S. Central Command next year, to Europe instead. And although he is expected to retire at the end of the year, Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling could be a prime choice because he is one of the few three- or four-stars with recent European experience. He just finished his own tour as the commander of the Army’s subordinate command in Europe. Other up-and-comers who are still considered strong varsity players but haven’t yet risen to the level of consideration for such jobs include the Air Force’s Lt. Gen. Paul Selva, an air strategist who just arrived at the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, and Gen. Will Fraser, now at U.S. Transportation Command.

One other choice could be the new Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, who served at U.S. Air Forces in Europe prior to getting the nod for the Air Force’s top job. —Courtesy FP

Rich Natural Resources

How to Rob Africa?

T

HE African continent is rich in natural resources that gener ate big profits. In Zimbabwe for example, billions of dollars’ worth of diamonds are being produced every year. However, little profit reaches the country’s treasury. This documentary discusses how corrupt government officials are channeling big mining profits into secret US and European bank accounts. Anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities in the West encourage and benefit from this practice.The world’s wealthy countries often criticise African nations for corruption - especially that perpetrated by those among the continent’s government and business leaders who abuse their positions by looting tens of billions of dollars in national assets or the profits from state-owned enterprises that could otherwise be used to relieve the plight of some of the world’s poorest peoples. Yet the West is culpable too in that it often looks the other way when that same dirty money is channelled into bank accounts in Europe and the US. International money laundering regulations are supposed to stop the proceeds of corruption being moved around the world in this way, but it seems the developed world’s financial system is far more tempted by the prospect of large cash injections than it should be.Indeed the West even provides the getaway vehicles for this theft, in the shape of anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities, whose disguised ownership makes it too easy for the corrupt and dishonest to squirrel away stolen funds in bank accounts overseas.

This makes them nigh on impossible for investigators to trace, let alone recover.

It is something that has long bothered Zimbabwean journalist Stanley Kwenda - who cites the troubling case of the Marange diamond fields in the east of his country.

A few years ago rich deposits were discovered there which held out the promise of billions of dollars of revenue that could have filled the public purse and from there have been spent on much needed improvements to roads, schools and hospitals.

The surrounding region is one of the most impoverished in the country, desperate for the development

that the profits from mining could bring. But as Kwenda found out from local community leader Malvern Mudiwa, this much anticipated bounty never appeared. “ W h e n these diamonds came, they came as a God-given gift. So we thought now we are going to benefit from jobs, infrastructure, we thought maybe our roads were going to improve, so that generations and generations will benefit from this, not one individual.

But what is happening, honestly, honestly it’s a shame!”

What is happening is actually something of a mystery because though the mines are clearly in operation and producing billions of dollars worth of gems every year, little if any of it has ever been put into Zimbabwe’s state coffers.

Local and international non-governmental organisations say they

us. That means someone is getting it. The person who is getting it is not getting it legally. Therefore, he’s a thief, therefore she’s a thief.”

Sadly, as Stanley Kwenda has realised, it is typical of a problem found all over Africa. The continent is rich is natural resources that are being exploited for big profits, but the money is rarely used for the benefit of the people. Instead it goes to line the pockets of corrupt officials who then often smuggle it out to be deposited in secret offshore bank accounts in the developed world. So who facilitates these transactions? And how and why does the developed world make it so easy to launder this dirty cash?

In this revealing investigation for People & Power, Kwenda and the Ghanaian undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, set off to

believe this is because the money is actually being used to maintain President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in power.

True or not, it is clear that the country’s finance minister, Tendai Biti, has seen none of it. A representative of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which sits in uneasy coalition with ZANUPF, he says he has no idea where it is going.

“We have got evidence of the quantities that are being mined, the quantities that are being exported but nothing is coming to the fiscus .... All I know is that it’s not coming to the treasury. So that is a self-evident question. It is not coming to

find out. Posing as a corrupt Zimbabwean official and his lawyer, their probe takes them deep into the murky world of ‘corporate service providers’ - experts in the formation of company structures that allow the corrupt to circumvent lax international money laundering rules.

It just so happens that the pair’s enquiries take place in the Seychelles but, as they discover to their horror, they could just as easily be in any one of a number of offshore locations (or even in the major cities of Europe and the US) where anonymous companies can be set up for the express purpose of secretly moving money and keeping its origins hidden from prying eyes.

—Courtesy Al-Jazeera

Polls over, it’s time for Obama to re-engage Asia BHAGYASHREE GAREKAR

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NALYSTS are unusually forthright in saying that a second Obama term is a wholesome deal for Asia, including Singapore. One veteran US watcher here describes him as the best-ever US president for Asean.US President Barack Obama survived Tuesday’s contest and, for Singapore, that is no cause for regret.

At home... For folks in Singapore, a collateral benefit of having Obama continue in the White House is a wealth effect - the values of property, equities and other assets are forecast to stay firm. Economists infer this from a presumption that there will be continuity in US policies. Although analysts caution that long-term debt and deficit problems will hobble the US economy.

With Obama in the White House, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will get to keep his job and his preferred weapon - igniting the economy by pumping in vast amounts of cash or quantitative easing (QE) - will continue to send money lapping on Asian shores.

This will keep asset prices buoyant and tends to soften interest rates. But this hot money is capable of spawning inflation, asset bubbles and turbulence that policymakers have to intervene to correct. The same forces act on the US dollar. The QE keeps the US dollar weak and allows room for Asian currencies,

including the Sing dollar, to strengthen further. That is great for those sending a child to college in the US but it means tough times for exporters because their goods get pricier.

As Alvin Liew, an economist at United Overseas Bank, sees it: “With Obama reelected, impact on Asia is expected to be minimal compared to the case of an unknown and untested person in the White House.

“This is a good outcome because this will ensure continuity of current US monetary and foreign policies. Asset prices in Asia could stay supported, with capital inflows from QE programmes going towards higher-yielding assets and countries. Likewise, Sing dollar could stay supported.”

During the Obama years, Singapore’s trade with the US touched a record US$65 billion. American investments in Singapore reached a high of $116 billion.

The post-election drop in the Dow says that Wall Street would have been happier with Republican Mitt Romney. But forecasters like Moody’s Analytics, for instance, expect the US economy with Obama at the helm to create between 10 million and 12 million new jobs in the next four years and the jobless rate to be under 6 per cent.

That is, if there is no hurtle down the socalled fiscal cliff, the looming harsh fiscal constraints, with $600 billion worth of automatic spending cuts and expiring tax breaks set to

kick in at the end of the year. If the politicians fail to reach an agreement to avert the cliff, all the bullish forecasts are off and shockwaves will travel across the planet.

This is where Obama can make a difference, analysts say. The re-election has freed him to roll out the right - not necessarily popular - policies to revive the US economy. For Singapore’s manufacturers and exporters that can only be good news. “A re-elected Obama will not be spending the next four years running for re-election,” says Manu Bhaskaran, a partner and head of economic research at The Centennial Group, a policy advisory group. “He is, therefore, more likely to be willing to take the hard decisions on domestic policy - fiscal consolidation, including sensible tax reforms, efforts to tackle the woeful US record on education and infrastructure, improvements to a flawed health-care reform - which will make the US a stronger economy and a better partner for Singapore and Asean.”

To avert the cliff, Obama has to cut a deal with Congress, which is tricky because the Republicans have retained control of the House of Representatives. The President is to make a statement early this morning Singapore time indicating how he would approach the problem.

But Bhaskaran is optimistic, noting that the GOP has failed to replace a president labouring under the burden of a weak

economy. The Republicans, he says, “will have to ask themselves whether their aggressive policies turned off the electorate”. “If Mr Obama and his Democrat colleagues in the Senate and House reach out to the Republican leaders, a compromise on the fiscal cliff is more likely.”

Some observers, noting Obama’s shaky economic start in the first term, are less sure of his prowess. On the other hand, he did keep the economy going when it was mired in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Ambassador Chan Heng Chee, Singapore’s envoy to the US for 16 years until July and now Ambassador-AtLarge at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says: “It is not often recognised that his policies did stop the US from falling into depression.

In January 2009, it was not at all clear that it would not happen. He and his economic team should get some credit for that.” Still, she faults his policy on trade, a test that Singapore expects American presidents to ace. “One area President Obama did not do well on in his first term was trade. He was not strong on trade notwithstanding taking up TPP, or passing Korus, and the FTAs with Colombia and Panama,” says Ambassador Chan.

His predecessor, George W. Bush, initiated the free trade pacts with Korea (abbreviated as Korus) and the two Latin American nations. He also laid the ground for the more

ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the Obama administration took further.

By some estimates, this pact could yield global income gains of over $300 billion and segue into an enormous FTA in the Asia-Pacific. But progress on trade has been slow.

“My best hope is that he focuses on the No. 1 thing, the economy,” says Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan School of Public Policy. “And No. 2, the completion of Doha.” Obama, giving in to the farm lobby, let the Doha Round of world trade talks die, despite countless studies establishing that the US itself benefits greatly from trade liberalisation. ... and beyond, Under Obama, the security high-water mark has appreciably risen. His vision for a lean and mean US military, outlined late last year, included a “pivot to the Pacific”, an extension of his conviction that the centre of gravity for US foreign policy, national security and economic interests is shifting towards Asia. Delighting many anxious diplomats, he announced he would expand US role in the Asia-Pacific at a time when China is emerging as an ever more influential regional power.

A part of the rebalancing allows the rotational deployment of US Navy littoral combat ships in Singapore. For the Singapore Armed Forces, this means enhanced joint exercises and training.

— Courtesy Straits Times

UN committee From Page 1 peoples for their inalienable right to self-determination, including those in Kashmir and Palestine.

The text also declared the 193-member body’s firm opposition to acts of foreign military intervention, aggression and occupation, since these have resulted in the suppression of the right of peoples to self-determination and other human rights in certain parts of the world.

The resolution also called on those States responsible to cease immediately their military intervention in and occupation of foreign countries and territories, as well as all acts of repression, discrimination, exploitation and maltreatment.—NNI

USAID to spend $800m in 5 Pak major sectors from next year

Pak, Afghan agree to work jointly

From Page 1

From Page 1

from Pakistan’s Ambassador in Switzerland. Along with the receipt, Naek also presented Ashraf ’s approval and law ministry’s summary regarding the letter.

Speaking on the premises of the Supreme Court, Naek said that Pakistan’s envoy in Switzerland sent his representative to Swiss authorities, who received the letter and issued him a receipt. “The court has disposed of the contempt of court notice against Prime Minister Ashraf and said that the government has complied with directions given by the Supreme Court in paragraph 178 of its judgment dated December 16, 2009 in the case of Dr Mobashir Hasan,” said Naek.

The law minister said, “We do not want any confrontation within institutions. We want all institutions to play while being in their crease.”Naek said that the envoy had forwarded all the documents which were presented before the court today, after which the court decided to conclude this aspect of the case and withdraw its contempt of court notice against Ashraf. He said, “Whenever the court issues orders, we comply with it. We want democracy to thrive in this country and don’t want it to derail.”

Pakistan a stable, peaceful and prosperous country. Pakistan is a key ally of the United States because of its strategic location in the region. Stability, prosperity and peace in Pakistan are essential for the United States so that this country could play its role in the regional development, peace and security. In 1989-90 I had been working in Pakistan. In 2012 my boss (global head of the USAID Programme) asked me to join the programme in Pakistan and I happily accepted this offer.

Q: How do you see the culture and people of Pakistan?

A: The people and the culture of Pakistan are very nice. I like the people of Pakistan and their hospitality.

Q: What are the key objectives of launching the USAID projects in Pakistan?

A: The United States want to see peace, prosperity and stability in Pakistan. That’s why the US government had engaged the USAID in Pakistan and allocating millions of dollars every year for different development projects.

To achieve these goals, we have targeted five major areas _ economic growth, energy development, health, education and community infrastructure. These are the areas that need proper focus and financial support for development.

Q: How much amount is being spent in a year on the USAID projects in Pakistan?

A: We are seeing an increase in the amount of expenditure on the USAID projects as several projects are at an advanced stage of completion that require more expenditures. In Financial Year 2013, a huge amount of $800 million would be utilized for the development of the USAID projects in Pakistan. Earlier, the annual quantum of expenditures on the USAID project was less than this amount.

Q: Any new sectors/areas being included in the upcoming projects?

A: We have short-listed five key

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In the Court of Judge Banking Court-III, Multan.12-B Allah Shafi Chowk Pul Bararan Road Multan.

Suit No.302/2012 UBL Branch Jahangerabad Multan —Plaintiff Versus Khalid Latif S/O Khuda Bux R/O Mouza Chopran Wala Tatepur Multan —Defendant Proclamation U/S 9 (5) Financial Institution Recovery of Finances Ordinance 46 of 2001 WHEREAS the aforesaid plaintiff has instituted a suit against you and others for recovery of Rs-253812/32alongwith mark up/interest and costs etc claimed to be payable by you Proclamation u/s 9(5) Ordinance 46 of 2001 to the above is hereby issued requiring you to make within 30 days of this proclamation, an application for leave to defend the suit.

Taken notice that on your failure to file such application within time specified above the Banking Court shall pass a decree as prayed for in the plaint. Next date for further proceedings, in the case has been fixed on 29.11.2012.

Given under my hand and the seal of the court, this 10th day of October, 2012 Seal of the Court Judge Banking Court II Multan

In the Court of Judge Banking Court-III, Multan.12-B Allah Shafi Chowk Pul Bararan Road Multan.

Suit No.357/2012 ZTBL Branch at Dunga Pur —Plaintiff Versus Mst. Noor Jahan W/O Ishaq SPA Muhammad Shabbir (son) R/O Mouza Bapper Tehsil Dunga Pur Distt, Lodhran —Defendant Proclamation U/S 9 (5) Financial Institution Recovery of Finances Ordinance 46 of 2001 WHEREAS the aforesaid plaintiff has instituted a suit against you and others for recovery of Rs-627162/alongwith mark up/interest and costs etc claimed to be payable by you Proclamation u/s 9(5) Ordinance 46 of 2001 to the above is hereby issued requiring you to make within 30 days of this proclamation, an application for leave to defend the suit.

Taken notice that on your failure to file such application within time specified above the Banking Court shall pass a decree as prayed for in the plaint. Next date for further proceedings, in the case has been fixed on 12.11.2012.

Given under my hand and the seal of the court, this 26th day of September, 2012 Seal of the Court Judge Banking Court III Multan

Apex court From Page 1

sectors in the USAID programme that I have mentioned earlier. We select a new project from within these five areas after consulting the stakeholders. Once the new project gets all the mandatory approvals, we start work on it immediately.

Q: Do you think the USAID projects would change the mindset of Pakistanis and improve the image of the United States in this country?

A: The American people have always placed a premium on Pakistan’s development and have extended considerable resources to help the country lay the economic and social foundations for a better future of its people. The majority of the US economic assistance over the years has been delivered by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its predecessor organizations. The USAID’s interventions have aimed at empowering the Pakistani population, strengthening the country’s institutions and key services and equipping the country with tools and processes to become self-reliant. The USAID’s projects are bringing some visible improvements and changes in the life of the people in Pakistan, especially in those areas where the projects are being implemented.

For example, the USAID has supported the government to generate 400 MWs of electricity per day that was sufficient for the consumption of 6 million people.

We are working on more projects to support the government to generate more electricity.

Q: How you ensure transparency in the utilization of the money?

A: We have very tough standards and audit parameters to maintain maximum transparency in the utilization of the USAID money that belongs to the people of the United States.

The US Congress also monitors the efficient use of the taxmoney of the US citizens.

Q: Do you see any benefit of devaluation of Pakistani currency for the USAID projects? A few years ago the dollar-rupee exchange rate was around Rs 63 but it had increased to over Rs 95 in recent years.

A: Devaluation of rupee gives benefit in those components and items which we buy in Pakistani currency. But some of the components of the projects are purchased in the US dollars. So I can say that there is benefit of devaluation but only in those components that are purchased in Pakistani currency.

Important USAID Programme highlights Oct 2012 Energy: Fatal Incidents at the Hyderabad Power Distribution Company Declined by 80% and Non-Fatal remained zero since January 2012 and this surprising but much-needed change is a direct result from the linemen training organized by the USAID Power Distribution Project. The project plans to train a total of 9,000 linemen from all public power distribution companies in such key skills as first aid, pole-top rescue, and modern grounding. In addition to preserving human lives and health, this effort will improve maintenance of the transmission lines. This in turn will reduce power distribution losses that are estimated at 10 percent of all electricity produced.

On October 3, U.S. Consul General Michael Dodman and Sindh Governor Ishrat-ul-Ibad launched cooperation between the USAID Power Distribution Programme and the Karachi Water and Sewage Board. Under this $900,000 initiative, USAID will upgrade 75 old water pump sets to improve Karachi’s water supply and reduce power consumption by up to 1.73 megawatts.

Economic Growth: During the month of October, the Entrepreneurs Project helped 450 women medicinal and aromatic plant collectors in Swat Valley sell more than 12,000 kilograms of medicinal and aromatic Iants.

On average, each woman earned $270. Earlier, the project also trained these women to identify and collect plants without damaging their growth.

For the fourth year in a row, the USAID and FAO Balochistan Agriculture Project organized livestock markets in Killa Saifullah, Mastung, Loralai, and Zhob in connection with Eid-ulAzha. By bringing markets closer to producers, the project reduces the cost to the farmers, increases their bargaining power, and improves their revenues. This year, more than 3,000 farmers participated in the markets from October 9-15.

Recently, USAID-supported Malakand farmers sold 100 tons of approved chip stock potato to the PepsiCo plant in Sundar Industrial Estate, Lahore. The USAID Project is linking smallscale potato producers in Malakand to large-scale buyers, helping them access greater economic rewards.

Ulema Conference which will include religious scholars from Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Islamic countries.

The conference could either be held in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan or any other Islamic country. The Ulema Conference would address the issue of rising militancy and suicide attacks in the name of religion and the defamation of our glorious and peaceful religion Islam due to its unjustified linkage with terrorism. Pakistan and the High Peace Council called on the Taliban and other armed groups to sever all links with Al-Qaida, and other international terror networks.

The two sides recognized that close and consistent cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan is key to building trust and confidence between the two countries and strengthening joint bilateral efforts in promoting peace and stability as well as overcoming the ongoing trends of violence and extremism. They called for long term and consistent mutual cooperation based on mutual interest and respect.

The two sides stressed that talking to and maligning each other through media leaves little space for serious dialogue. Therefore, all government officials and spokespersons should refrain from making hostile statements and avoid blame game.

The High Peace Council and Pakistani authorities discussed the issue of cross border incursions and shelling. It was decided to discuss ways and means to create conducive conditions and initiating bilateral mechanisms that would completely end the crossborder shelling. The contacts between Pakistan Army and Afghan National Army in this regard were lauded and encouraged.

It was also agreed that to initiate an effective mechanism in order to facilitate consistent and practical steps, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and the High Peace Council of Afghanistan agreed to have more frequent contacts to enhance peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region.

All concerned countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and USA will facilitate safe passage to potential negotiators to advance the reconciliation process. During their visit to Islamabad High Peace Council’s delegation led by H.E. Chairman Salahuddin Rabbani called upon President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf,Foreign Minister and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani.

The delegation also held meetings with Pakistan’s religious and political leaders. Both sides had an extensive exchange of views including briefing by the Pakistan authorities on the investigation of the assassination of Shaheed Burhan-ud-din factors are increasingly seeking Rabbani.—Agencies refuge in cities and not in relief camps.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the Report, Mian Muhammad Javed PRCS Managing Board Member Mian From Page 1 Muhammad Javed said this year, the World Disasters Report fo- nors during official tours. In adcuses on forced migration and dition to this, no one will be aldisplacement. He said at present, lowed to criticize the army as the Red Cross and Red Crescent well as other constitutional instiestimates that there are more than tutions.

72 million forced migrants which The bill also contains a prois the equivalent of one in every posal seeking to increase the limit hundred people on the planet. for election campaign expendi“Governments and humani- tures from Rs1.5 million to Rs 5 tarian organizations are still million for a National Assembly struggling to figure out how to candidate and from Rs1 million support these people who have to Rs3 million for a candidate of fled a disaster or a conflict and Provincial Assembly. who have ended up living in informal parts of towns or cities,” Mian Javed added.

Millions forcibly displaced facing ‘secondary disaster’ I SLAMABAD —Millions of people, forcibly displaced by natural and man-made disasters, often face a ‘secondary disaster’ that comes from living in unplanned and informal settlements. They lack the necessary social service, including health care and clean water, which they struggle to access alongside facing an increased exposure to sexual and gender-based violence.

This was revealed at the launching of the World Disasters Report 2012 at a ceremony jointly organised by the International Federation of Red Cross, Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) here on Wednesday.

The Report stresses that people forcibly displaced by conflict, disasters, persecution and other

Cabinet approves Electoral Reforms Bill

5 TTP terrorists held From Page 1 of arms and ammunition was also recovered from their possession.

He said the accused Habib ur Rehman, Imtiaz, Hafiz Muhammad Ramzan, Muhammad Imran and Amir Muawia hail from different areas of Dera Ismail Khan while their centre is in Miranshah from where countrywide terrorism is planned.

The IG Punjab said that the saboteurs are involved in several crimes including Green Town’s bank robbery, attack on Babu Sabu check post, assault on office of District Police Officer (DPO) Dera Ismail Khan, murder of constable in D I Khan and multiple murder attacks on Shiite people.

Haji Habibur Rehman said Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa police have also captured also five other people who abetted these arrested criminals, adding he said the saboteurs had on anvil several plans to be carried out during the holy month of Muharramul Haram.

ISAF, Pak committed

Elections to be in time, transparent of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed. This vision was education, peace, progress, prosperity and stability of the country and for this Muhtarama laid down her life.

He said even patwari was not willing to part his chair but he had given executive power to PM. He said his party was fighting for future generations and history would disclose this fact as it was recently disclosed in Asghar Khan case how the democratic forces were blocked to come into power with the support of public. He said his government believed in providing equal educational opportunities to the less privileged and talented youth of Punjab with an aim to bring them at par with the more fortunate ones The President said his government had tried to strengthen the regional relationships with China, Turkey and other countries in order to make Pakistan better for the future generations.

He said this was first time that incumbent government was completing its full tenure and now even other parties were confirming this.He said we must develop tolerance for each other. He said

From Page 1 they would never let the country weaken and we would tie stones on our bellies for upholding dignity of nation, if need be, he added. Referring to terrorism in Karachi, the president said that it was part of terrorists’ policy to aggravate situation in Karachi to engage the state and undermine its efforts against war on terror.

Zardari said conspiracies against the country and nation were in action but he said if they thought that they would weaken the country, they were mistaken. He said it was result of tolerance and reconciliation policies that institutions gradually were becoming subservient of the parliament.

Online add: The President said he will respect the mandate of people and all measures have been taken to ensure holding of free and fair elections.

Advising his friends and foes to show patience President Zardari said that politics should remain politics and must not turn into enmity for the sake of the country and democracy He said that preparation of voter lists and appointment of independent Chief Election Commissioner are examples in

this regard.

He pledged to the people and political forces that power would be transferred to any one mandated by the electorate.

The President urged political parties not to stretch their difference too far and demonstrate tolerance and accommodation.

He said there is need to strengthen political parties as only then we can put the country on the road to progress and prosperity.

The President said he took along people and other political parties so as to secure future of our children. He said our survival is deeply linked to the survival of the country. But he said they part their ways after some times but we never closed our doors for them.

The President said law and order situation in Karachi is being deliberately created to divert our attention from war against terror.

He said situation in Karachi is not the failure of the state but some hidden powers are involved in destabilizing peace in the city under a planned strategy but their designs will be foiled with the power of the people.

PM, cabinet express concern From Page 1 Karachi, the cabinet expressed deep sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives in this cowardly act of terrorism.

The Federal Cabinet congratulated President Barack Obama on his re-election as the President of the United States for a second term.

Raja Parvez Ashraf said Pakistan and United States have common interests and shared regional objectives of peace, security and stability.

The prime minister also apprised the cabinet about his recent visit to Laos. The Minister for Interior briefed the Cabinet on the situation in Karachi. The Cabinet expressed serious concerns over the law and order situation in Karachi and directed the Ministry of Interior to make a detailed presentation to the Cabinet in its next meeting and sug-

No evidence From Page 1 “Both parties can work together” to address the fiscal challenges “in a balanced and responsible way,” he said, before pushing Republicans to sign on to his call for raising taxes on the richest Americans.

In response to the first question, regarding Petraeus, Obama said he had “no evidence at this point from what I’ve seen” that there had been any national security breaches. And the president praised the retired general, saying “we are safer because of the work Dave Petraeus has done.”

Asked later for his appraisal of the FBI’s work in bringing to light the marital infidelity that Petraeus cited in his resignation message, and why he learned of the probe only earlier this month, Obama said “I am withholding judgment” on that process but expressed “a lot of confidence generally in the FBI.” Obama said he would be willing to look at raising tax revenues by closing loopholes but said that “the math tends not to work” when it comes to making up that way for extending the tax rate reductions on income above $250,000. And he reiterated that he does not want a stopgap agreement with Congress.—Agencies

Qadir: We have been left at terrorists mercy

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Pakistan, as well as improving security in the region.Lt Gen Carter and Lieutenant General Arshad discussed a variety of issues relating to mutually shared goals of peace and stability in the region, including pressuring militant groups and strengthening cross border cooperation along the Pak-Afghan border.

This ongoing strategic dialogue between senior ISAF and Pakistani leaders, supported by frequent discussions at lower levels, has enhanced the effectiveness of operations on respective sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.—Online

Supreme Court had cleared him in the Haj scam, the FIA was still hurling threats.

Mr Gilani said his father had appeared before the apex court thrice. He demanded of Rehman Malik to resign from the post if he could not do something for them (Gilanis).

He said he received threats while on his way to the house to attend the NA session (Wednesday). A member of Panel of Chairpersons Yasmin Rehman has summoned the FIA Director General to inquire as to why the MNA was being threatened after Gilani fiery speech in the lower house of the parliament.—INP

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gest concrete proposals.

The Cabinet discussed and accorded its approval to the proposed amendment in Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (FERA, 1947) and the Land Surveying and Mapping Bill – 2012.

In order to avoid any legal complication of important terrorism cases under trial, the Cabinet approved, subject to vetting by the Ministries of Law and Human Rights, the Juvenile Justice System (Amendment) Bill, 2012. Necessary provisions have been incorporated for the protection of witnesses and juvenile accused persons in the proposed bill.

The Cabinet considered and approved amendments in the Customs Act 1969, Sales Tax Act 1990, Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and Federal Excise Act 2005 to register non-tax filers to

the tax net.The Cabinet was informed that a significant segment of Pakistan’s economy is undocumented. The growing size of the underground economy is not only depriving the national exchequer of its due share but is also acting as a hindrance for economic planning and development. A large number of businesses and individuals who are regularly filing their Income Tax returns are avoiding their legal obligations by either under-declaring or not correctly declaring their assets or income. On the other hand, a large number of businesses and individuals who are required to be registered with the FBR and to regularly file their Income Tax returns are avoiding their legal obligations. FBR along with NADRA has data about the multiple bank accounts, travels, assets and other details of these non-filers.

Bal Thackeray on oxygen, not eating anything MUMBAI—Indian Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who is ailing for sometime, is on continuous oxygen and not eating anything. “Bal Thackeray is not on ventilator, but is on continuous oxygen,” his close source said.

He said the 86-year-old Sena patriarch, who has been suffering from breathing problems, continues to be under medical supervision.

“His health is not so good.

He is not eating anything,” he said.—INP

PM seeks Ulema’s role in war on terror

Scanners at Pak, Afghan border P ESHAWAR —Federal Board of Revenue has decided to install scanners on Pak-Afghan Torkham border.

Sources in FBR said that after the installation of scanners, Customs officials would be given special authority to prevent smuggling in the cover of Afghan Transit Trade. In addition, all the goods delivered from Pakistan to Afghanistan through ATT will be checked. In the first stage, scanners are being installed on Chaman border, while in the second stage, scanners will be installed at Turkham border.—Online

PM visits Dir today UPPER DIR—Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is likely to visit Dir to inaugurate the second phase of Lowari tunnel project today. The work on the mega project had been abandoned for want of funds. The district administration, however, did not confirm the visit of the prime minister. It has been told that the rail tunnel would be converted into a road tunnel, which was a longstanding demand of the people of Chitral.

Media reports said that PM will visit Dir for one day under stringent security measures in this regard.—Online

Twin blasts in Kurram Agency K URRAM A GENCY —Twin roadside blasts in Upper Kurram tribal region on Wednesday wounded five civilians, officials said.

Tribesmen travelling on foot were hit by the improvised explosive devices planted on the roadside in Kurram tribal agency, said an official, adding that three of the people were injured in Spina Shaga area while two were injured.—INP

Pak-Turkish ties Staff Reporter L AHORE —Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Mian Nawaz Sharif said Wednesday that brotherly and friendly ties between Pakistan and Turkey had been transformed into economic relations which will be further strengthened in time ahead. This was stated by him while talking to Turkish Ambassador in Pakistan Mustafa Babur Hizlan who called on him at his Raiwind residence on Wednesday.

During the meeting, views were exchanged on Pak-Turkey relations particularly in economic field, regional situation and other matters of mutual interest, sources said.

SHARAFAT KAZMI ISLAMABAD: Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan, alongwith PTI Chairman Imran Khan, ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that addressing a press conference at party office.

Pakistan is in a state of war due to terrorism and urged religious leaders to play their role in resolution of the problem.

Addressing Ulema and Mashaikh here on Wednesday, he said there are trying times both for our religion and Pakistan and they should guide in overcoming I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a n country. “The judgement has ex- Habib, the owner of Mehran the challenge.

Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman posed those that had for decades Bank implicated in the The Prime Minister said terImran Khan on Wednesday lied to the nation and indulged in Mehrangate case for allegedly rorism is a curse and terrorist are demanded of the Election intrigues and conspiracies to having a hand in the creation spoiling the image of the counof the IJI, he stated, “A pow- try in comity of nations.

Commission of Pakistan come into power.”

He recalled that on the occa- erful man steals in the coun(ECP) to ban all the politiHe said a handful of elecians, including PML-N chief sion of merging of Tehrik-e- try and gets the NRO. This ments want to impose their will Nawaz Sharif, whose names Istiqlal in the PTI, he had de- was also the NRO, they did on the majority and we have have been included in the list manded reopening of the 16- not let an inquiry be con- to foil their designs. of former ISI chief Asad year-old case. At that time, he ducted and did not let him be Raja Pervez Ashraf said as Durrani’s list in the Asghar said, the PML-N was accusing sentenced.” terrorists are misusing the name the PTI of taking the help of The PTI chief was of the of the religion, Ulema can play an Khan case.

Addressing a press confer- agencies, but the SC decision has opinion that only the powerless effective role in countering their ence here at the PTI central sec- proved that the PML-N was on people go to jail and this is the designs. He said we should forget retariat along with veteran poli- top of the list of ISI beneficia- tragedy today. He said that Paki- our differences and work unitedly tician Air Marshal (Retd) ries. He came hard on the gov- stan was in a quagmire. to save Pakistan and its future genHe said the PML-N and PPP, erations.

Asghar Khan, Imran Khan ernment for its inaction on the said to conduct impartial in- Supreme Court’s ruling in the like the past, will do “Mukmuka” The Prime Minister said vestigation, the government National Reconciliation Ordi- on the issue of Asghar Khan Pakistan has offered tremenComment- dous sacrifices in the war should make the FIA chief nance (NRO) implementation case verdict. accountable to the Supreme case, saying that it was merely ing on deteriorating situation against terrorism. It has sufCourt. He made it clear that if the powerless men who have to of Karachi, he stated that the fered a staggering economic taking of money was proved endure jail terms while the pow- provincial government failed losses of over seventy bilagainst the PTI leader erful get NROs. He lashed out to protect the lives and prop- lion dollars.

Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, at politicians saying they had erty of the people in the busithen he will not take part in made politics a business and ness hub. In his view, the dethey didn’t let any inquiries politicization of the Sindh adthe election.

Imran Khan said the Asghar to be conducted. He called ministration, especially the Khan case will go a long way in this the biggest problem of police, was the key to restorbenefiting the democracy in the Pakistan. Referring to Younus ing peace.—INP

Imran asks ECP to ban ISI money-taker politicians

US official: Telephone was recovered from Osama’s compound WASHINGTON—A telephone was recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound in Pakistan, a senior US official claimed on Tuesday, shedding new light on the so far known description of the safe hideout of the al-Qaeda chief. Bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, by US commandos in a daring night raid in Abbottabad.

So far top US officials have insisted there was no internet or telephone service connection coming into the compound and that bin Laden completely relied on human courier to send his messages across or communicate with his other commanders.

“The FBI relies tremendously on SAR information to support its current investigations and to identify subjects we may have missed. We depend on the financial institution SAR information being complete and accurate,” Calvery said, adding that these are FBI’s words.—Online

Punjab thick fog road crashes claim 11 lives MUZAFFAR ALI LAHORE—At least 11 people lost their lives and over 30 others sustained injuries in early morning roadside accidents in southern Punjab areas blanketed by dense fog on Wednesday.

The accidents transpired owing to the dense fog leaving the visibility to the minimum on roads posing serious threats of accidents in most parts of the country as the winter is expanding its foothold. According to details, a pickup and a passenger bus collided in Bahawalpur where five people were killed on the spot and eight others injured.

The injured and bodies have been shifted to nearby Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur.

The deceased include a child, a man and three women. All the deceased and the injured people hail from a single family residing in Janwala. The family was on its way back from attending a funeral in Karachi. In another tragic mishap, three fe-

male students were killed and two others injured in a collision between their school van and a truck near Gondlawala area of Gujranwala. The injured and bodies were shifted to District Hospital.

The drivers of trailer and passenger wagon fled the accident scene. Meantime, two brothers riding a motorbike were killed when their bike was hit by a car on fog-covered MM Road in the limit of Kot Addu between district Muzaffargarh and Layyah.

In another mishap of crash between a car and a pickup on Khanewal Road in Vehari, a man was killed and seven others including a woman were injured. It should be mentioned here that the traffic on National Highway has been suspended owing to the overwhelming fog in Muzaffargarh, posing serious troubles for the commuters, as four more people were injured when two trailers bumped into each other on Alipur Road.

Borders no hurdle in relations between India, Pakistan: Bihar CM

W A S H I N G T O N — P a u l a it was a pre-arranged meet- tigation. Prosecutors will action against her rather than forbid them from discussing ing.

Prosecutors are now determining whether to charge Broadwell with a crime, and this morning the FBI and military are poring over the material. The 40-year-old author, who wrote the biography on Gen. Petraeus “All In,” is cooperating and the case, which is complicated by the fact that as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Military Reserve she had security clearance to review the documents.

The FBI found classified material on a computer voluntarily handed over by Broadwell earlier in the inves-

now have to determine how important the classified material is before making a final decision. Authorities could decide to seek disciplinary

pursue charges.

Senior FBI officials are expected to brief the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on their handling of the Petraeus investigation.

The officials are expected to lay out how the case was developed and argue that there were no politics involved.

The case is so critical that FBI Director Robert Mueller may attend to defend the bureau, ABC News has learned.

Members of Congress have been angry that they were not informed about the case before the story was reported by the media, but FBI officials maintain that their guidelines

I SLAMABAD —The Supreme who appointed them, while Establishment Division, InteCourt on Wednesday observed that former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani misused his authority by appointing convicted people, including NRO beneficiaries Adnan Khwaja and Ahmed Riaz Sheikh.

A five-member bench, headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, was hearing the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case. During the hearing, Justice Jamali remarked that the appointment of Khwaja as the managing director of the state-run Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) and of Sheikh as the additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was an important case.

He maintained that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was trying to save the key respondents of the case and apparently, the country’s top officials seem to be involved in corruption.

He questioned how a reference could be filed against the people who were appointed instead of the person

ongoing criminal cases.

This summer, Florida socialite and “honorary ambassador” to the military Jill Kelley received anonymous emails accusing her of flaunting a friendly relationship with military brass in Tampa. Kelley then called the FBI, which traced those emails back to Broadwell’s computer. Investigators are said to have then found emails in Broadwell’s inbox that pointed to an intimate affair with Petraeus, who on Friday admitted to the affair and announced his resignation as CIA director. —AP

Justice Khilji Arif maintained that the convicted people were given a favour by Gilani.

Prosecutor General NAB KK Agha informed the court that no reference has been filed against Gilani. The hearing was adjourned till December 4.

In its NRO ruling, the Supreme Court had directed NAB to take action against Sheikh, Khwaja and officials of the

rior ministry and FIA who were involved in the illegal contractual appointment of Khawaja and illegal reinstatement and promotion of Sheikh.

‘Malik Qayyum misused authority as AG’ J u s t i c e Asif Saeed Khosa, during the hearing of the case, maintained that Malik Qayyum had misused his authority as the attorney general.—Agencies

Australia to keep part forces in post-2014 Afghanistan PERTH—United States Defence considering what assistance it can commitment to the International

Secretary Leon Panetta says a deployment of Australian special forces to assist in maintaining security in Afghanistan after 2014 is worth considering.

Panetta, who visited the barracks of the Special Air Service Regiment in Perth to meet some of those who had fought in Afghanistan, said Defence Minister Stephen Smith had expressed an interest in an Australian special forces presence in Afghanistan in the post-2014 period.

“I believe that is worth considering,” he told the media conference at the conclusion of the annual Australia-US Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations in Perth.

Under current transition plans, Afghan National Security Forces are progressively taking the lead in security, with that proR AWALPINDI —The Chief cess to be fully completed by the Minister of Indian Province end of 2014. Australia is now Bihar Natish Kumar has said that the borders cannot become a hurdle in the relations of love, affection and culture between India and Pakistan.

He expressed these views during his visit to Katas Raj Temple at Choa Saiden Shah Wednesday.

Provincial Minister for Planning & Development and Hospitality Ch. Abdul Ghafoor, Member National Assembly Ch. Ayaz Amir, Member Provincial Assembly Begum Iffat Liaqat, Chairperson District Social Welfare Board Chakwal Mehwish Sultana, DCO Chakwal Ahmad Aziz Tarrar, DPO Chakwal Kashif Mushtaq Kanjo, ADC Chakwal Saadat Hassan and members Indian delegation SMP Deno Kumari, Minister Sri Ashook Kumar Sinha, Chief Secretary Behar Sri Anjani Kumar Singh, Naushad Ahmad, Amir Subhani, Saleem Pervaiz and Sri M.K. Kumar Singh were present on the occasion. The Chief Minister of Indian Province Behar, Natish Kumar planted a sapling at Katas Raj Temple. —INP

Paula Broadwell in classified document probe Broadwell, the author who allegedly had an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus, is suspected of storing significant amounts of military documents, including classified material, at her home, potentially in violation of federal law.

A source familiar with case told ABC News that Broadwell admitted to the FBI she took the documents from secure government buildings. The government demanded that they all be given back, and when federal agents descended on her North Carolina home on Monday night

Gilani misused authority by appointing convicts: SC

provide after that period. Among the possibilities is ongoing help with training and deployment of special forces, subject to a suitable mandate and legal framework.

Panetta said one of the missions in Afghanistan after 2014 would be counter-terrorism and continuing to target al-Qaeda and other groups. “As we design that post-2014 presence, we want to consider the role not only of Australia but other countries can provide in special forces that I think would be very important in the future security of Afghanistan,” he said.

In the communique released at the close of AUSMIN, Australia and the US reiterated the continued commitment to a secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan that is not a safe haven for international terrorists. Australia and the US reiterated their

Security Assistance Force (ISAF) transition strategy and to a post-2014 mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan National Security Forces.

Much pre-AUSMIN discussion centred on alleged US concerns at the level of Australian defence spending but the topic was only mentioned briefly in the media conference after a specific question to Panetta.

He said both the US and Australia were facing budget constrictions which had to be taken into consideration.

“But I remain fully confident that in light of what we are confronting that we have the capability to maintain a strong national defence for both of our countries,” he said. “We will be able to meet the threats that confront us, not only in this part of the world but elsewhere as well.”—INP

Migraines linked to brain lesions in women R

ESEARCHERS report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that women, who are three times as likely as men to experience migraines, may suffer from other consequences of the painful headaches apart from the common symptoms of nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light.

Women who have migraines are twice as likely as non-sufferers to show structural changes, or lesions, due to inadequate blood flow in certain parts of the brain.

The role that these lesions may play in health, however, still aren’t obvious. “Patients should not live with the idea that each migraine attack is potentially ‘damaging’ their brains,” corresponding study author Mark Kruit says in an email to TIME discussing the results. “Patients should know that the [volume] of changes is small, and that they are not related to worse cognitive function. [T]here is no need for changes in the way migraine patients are treated, based on the study results.”

Previous MRI brain scans of migraine patients found unusual “hyperintensities” — bright areas suggesting areas of poor blood flow.

But those studies could not determine which came first — whether people with migraines tend to develop brain lesions, or whether the brain lesions trigger migraines. Those studies also could not track whether each successive migraine would expand the size of the brain lesions, leading to worsening symptoms.

So Kruit, a radiologist and neurologist working in Leiden in the Netherlands, joined with a Dutch team of doctors to study migraine in nearly 300 adults living in that coun-

try. Most of the participants suffered from migraines, but some did not. Researchers scanned the brains of all of the participants at the start of the study, in 2000, and again in 2009. By comparing the images taken in the same year, Kruit and his colleagues could measure differences in brain lesions between the migraine patients and those who did not suffer from the headaches. And by comparing scans for the same patients taken nine years apart, they could also record whether those with migraine history are more likely to develop new brain lesions over time, whether existing lesions grow faster among people with more migraine attacks, or whether the lesions are linked to declines in cognitive skills.

The researchers found no difference in outcomes among men. Both men with migraines and those without the headaches were equally likely to show hyperintensities on the MRI scans.

But it was a different story for the women. Both in 2000 and in 2009, women with migraines had higher lesion volume than those without migraines, and during the study period their lesions also progressed faster than those among women without migraines.

However, the growth of these lesions was not associated with the frequency or intensity of migraines, or to the presence of aura — the vision disturbances and other sensory changes that may precede migraine headaches.

That, say the researchers, suggests that the lesions are not part of the collateral damage resulting from the migraine attacks but rather related to whatever is responsible for the headaches.

ISLAMABAD: Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Oe awarding the Patent of Decoration and Insignia to Ms Doreen Foster at the Embassy of Japan.—PO photo

Former Japanese embassy employee decorated CITY REPORTER ISLAMABAD—His Majesty the Emperor of Japan conferred upon Ms. Doreen Foster, a long serving locally employed staff of the Embassy of Japan, a dis-

tinguished decoration, The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Rays.

At the Decoration Conferment Ceremony held at the Embassy on Wednesday, Mr. Hiroshi Oe, Ambassador of Ja-

pan to Pakistan presented the Patent of Decoration and insignia to Ms. Foster on the Emperor’s behalf.

Mr. Oe also thanked all locally employed staff for their contributions.

ISLAMABAD: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan releasing blue balloons, symbol of Diabetes into air before the walk marking ‘World Debates Day’ organised by Dr M. Saleem Qureshi, Head, Centre for Diabetes and Liver diseases, Islamabad.

IHC reserves verdict in Rimsha Masih case ISLAMABAD —The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday reserved the decision on a plea to dismiss case against Rimsha Masih.

Chief Justice IHC Iqbal Hamid Khan heard the plea for dismissal of the case against Rimsha Masih. Attorney for Rimsha argued that the allegations against the accused were baseless and prayed for the dismissal of the FIR against her.

The prosecutor maintained that the medical report of the accused was false and the Interior Ministry had tried to weaken the case.—INP

World Diabetes Day

Awareness walk becomes lively fanfare ASHRAF ANSARI I SLAMABAD —The Centre for Diabetes & Liver Diseases arranged a walk entitled ‘Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes’ at the Parade Ground here Wednesday to promote awareness about the causes of diabetes, preventive measures and treatment. The walk marked the World Diabetes Day. A large number of doctors, patients and youths took part in the walk led by Pakistan’s national hero and renowned nuclear scientist Dr. AQ Khan.

President, Centre for Diabetes and Liver Diseases, Prof. Dr. Saleem Qureshi, Dr. Musarrat Iqbal and other senior specialist doctors accompanied him in

the walk.

Addressing the participants of the walk as chief guest, Dr. AQ Khan made a strong cause for adopting a simple and healthy lift style to remain healthy and energetic. He said we should take preventive measures against various diseases and go for treatment when needed without fear. He narrated some episodes from his own experience about facing ailments at various points of time and said, he always kept faith in the Creator and was not scared of any medical treatment.

Dr. Saleem Qureshi welcoming the chief guest said, people should adopt active lifestyle, should not shun

physical activity and avoid rich food and stay away from injurious intakes. He firmly believed that there should be awareness campaigns by the doctors to make people understand the real nature of diabetes and its treatment.

Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rahman said incidence of the disease can be lowered significantly if the people make healthy adjustment in their lifestyle, have regular exercise and avoid excessive sweets and fats.

Dr. Ali, a prominent dental surgeon urged the participants of the walk to take good care of oral health. He pointed out that there was a link between diabetes and oral problems. He advised the people to regularly

brush their teeth after meals to ensure their oral health.

Two diabetic patients, Sana Ajmal and Mr. Wajid also addressed the participants of the walk.

They narrated their experiences of facing the challenge of the disease while they were quite young and succeeded in achieving control over the ailment.

A large number of blue balloons were flown into the air when the chief guest inaugurated the walk.

The Centre for Diabetes and Liver disease, Islamabad and several pharmaceutical companies setup stalls, displaying literature, gadgets and latest equipment being used for treatment of diabetes.

Strong defence is first priority: Bokhari STAFF REPORTER I SLAMABAD —Chairman Senate Sayyed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari has said that strong defense is our first priority and that is why we are all out to

fulfill budgetary needs of the armed forces. He expressed these views in a meeting with Admiral Asif Sandila, Chief of Navel Staff who called upon him at Parliament House here Wednesday.

Chairman lauded the excellent performance of Pakistan Navy against piracy and for controlling human and drug trafficking.

Chairman further said that it is good that armed forces be-

lieve in continuity of democracy in the country as it is vital for ultimate peace, progress and prosperity of our country.

They also discussed matters of mutual interest and meeting continued about half an hour.

Anniversary of Algerian Revolution

A special salute to fighting spirit of Algerians A permanent source of inspiration for struggling people; Pakistanis love Algerians and Algerians owe to Pakistanis for support: Dr.Ahmed Benflis; Grand show bloomed in ecstasy of rage LIAQAT TOOR ISLAMABAD—The grand show bloomed in ecstasy of rage on Tuesday evening in a local hotel when Pakistani elites assembled to give a special salute to 1.5 million Algerian martyrs who went down fighting against occupational forces for earning their birth right of freedom during a long struggle for independence.

Prolific and energetic Algerian Ambassador Dr. Ahmed Benflis and his spouse staged an impressive ceremony in connection with 58th Anniversary of Launching of Armed Struggle for Restoration of National Independence of Algeria. A great number of Pakistani elites including politicians, parliamentarians, a large number of ambassadors and diplomats from different countries, particularly from Muslim countries, ex-generals, ex-civil servants, ex-diplomats, businessmen, students, mediamen and friends of Algeria thronged the show.

The show was bursting with a spirit of love, acknowledgement and regard for un-matched sacrifices of Algerians who wrote history with their blood and tears.

On arrival of the Chief Guest, Prime Minister on National of both the countries were joined by the Chief Guest and Dr. Paul Bhatti, Adviser to the Harmony, national anthems played. Dr. Ahmed Benflis was other eminent personalities in cutting the cake amidst applause by the guests.

The ambassadors and other diplomats including the new US envoy Richard Olson were surrounded by Pakistani politicians and parliamentarians to discuss the current situation in Pakistan and the region. The status of Pak- Algerian relations and struggle for independence of Algeria were also the topics during the interactions in a big hall where two screens in the corners continued to beam social and economic life of this great country in North Africa.

Different flavours and aroma of Algerian food and warm hospitality by the ambassador and his spouse greeted the guests. The Algerian ambassador and his embassy staff were ISLAMABAD: Chief guest Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Harmony Dr Paul attired in traditional dresses Bhatti, Ambassador of Algeria Dr Ahmed Benflis and his spouse, Ambassador of UAE Eisa which brightened the show.

The relentless effort of Dr. Abdullah Al Basha Al-Nuaimi, Ambassador of Argentine Rodolfo Martin Saravia, President AJK Sardar Yaqub, Charge d’ Affaires, Arab Republic of Syria Dr Ali Muhra, Ambassador of Ahmed Benflis has put Pak-AlMorocco Mohammed Rida El Fassi and Ambassador of Tunisia Mourad Bourehla cutting the gerian multi-dimensional relations cake on the occasion of the 58th Anniversary of the Launching of Armed Struggle for the on high pedestal. The economic and commercial ties are progressRestoration of National Independence of Algeria.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

ing as the hearts of people of both the countries beat in unison. Memories are still fresh in the minds of the people of Pakistan when armed struggle was launched in Algeria against French occupation. At that time in fifties, Pakistani media was full of stories about heroes of the fighting which has become a permanent source of inspiration for those who want to attain independence.

The Algerians always acknowledged the support given to them in hours of need by the government and the people of Pakistan.

After independence, Algeria is moving on the road to progress. Its oil wealth is giving a new shape to the country.

The recently held elections had given opportunity to the people to choose their representatives.

Destiny of Algeria is written on the horizon. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is leading his country to new goals and destinations. Grand Salaam to heroic struggle of Algerians.

Diabetic patients can avoid limb amputation CITY REPORTER Zohr

06:00 01:30 04:00 07:00

November 15-16 DEPARTMENT of English, International Islamic University would organize a three-day international conference at Faisal Mosque Campus.

The conference “The Literary Present and the Postcolonial Condition” will be held on 14-16 November.

IHC forms commission on encroachments ISLAMABAD—Islamabad high Court (IHC) has constituted a commission to review the encroachments eradicated by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in the federal capital.

According to sources, the commission, headed by the Assistant Registrar Resident of the IHC, Muhammad Shafiq-ur-Rehman, would submit its report in the IHC within a week.

Justice Shoukat Aziz Siddiqui heard the plea regarding end of encroachments in Islamabad, where Legal Advisor CDA, Jawwad Advocate presented report of 59 operations against encroachments.

Justice Shoukat Aziz Siddiqui said that the court could not be misguided by showing pictures of confiscating a few bricks or chairs.

He formed a commission to look into the matter saying if the commission rejected the report about the operation against encroachments, a contempt of court case would be started against the responsible elements.—INP

I SLAMABAD —Consultant Endocrinologist at Shifa International Hospital Dr. Usama Ishtiaq has advised diabetic patients to adopt preventive measures to avoid serious health hazards including amputation of limbs posed by diabetes as treatment is costly as well as difficult than prevention.

He said every 10 seconds, two people are diagnosed with diabetes, and one person dies from diabetes related causes.

He was addressing to a public awareness seminar organized by Shifa International Hospital to observe World Diabetes Day here on Wednesday.

A large number of diabetic patients, doctors, medical students and people from all walks of life attended the seminar. Free blood tests to check diabetes were conducted on the

occasion. Consultant Endocrinologist Dr. Mazhar ul Haq, Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Yousaf Hassan and nutrition expert Aman Afridi also spoke on the occasion. Later, all speakers and Consultant Endocrinologist Dr. Naseem Yousaf, Consultant Nephrologist Dr. Syed Nayyer Mahmood and Consultant Ophthalmologist Dr. Sadia Farooq gave answers to various queries of patients in question-answer session.

Dr. Usama said seven million people become victim of diabetes every year around the globe and 70 thousand children suffer from type-1 diabetes every year. “More than 7 million people in Pakistan are diabetic patients.” He said diabetes can badly affect eyes, brain, heart, kidneys and legs. It’s one of the major causes of blindness and kidney failure.

While informing the audience about symptoms of diabetes, Dr. Usama said need to urinate several times,

feeling severe thirst, reduc- regular exercise, weight con- diabetes and avoid complica- said diabetic patients should ing weight and fatigue and trol, regular medication and tions, he observed. strictly check their lifestyle weakness are important proper test of blood glucose Dr. Mazhar said in diabe- and dietary habits to avoid serious complications including limbs amputation.

They need to pay close daily attention to foot health especially when there is significantly diminished blood flow and nerve damage (neuropathy). He said such complications do not occur very early but with the passage of time can pose serious threat to patient’s life. He stressed on pregnant diabetic women to specially follow the instructions of their doctor in order to avoid complication that can also affect new born baby. Prevention or delay possible with rigorous lifestyle intervention or drug therapy, 30 minutes daily exercise, at least 2 monthly dietary advice and early treatment for cholesISLAMABAD: Dr Usama Ishtiaq briefs participants about Diabetes on the occasion of terol and BP can help people World Diabetes Day at Shifa International Hospital. avoid diabetes as well as complications. symptoms of this deadly dis- level are a few essential fac- tes prevention is more imConsultant Cardiologist ease. Taking balanced diet, tors that can help to control portant than treatment. He Dr. Yousaf Hassan said pa-

to spend Political forces urged to join PHA Rs30m on hands for national consensus planting flowers ISLAMABAD—Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production has called upon all the political forces of the country to join hands for a broad-based national consensus on 4 key issues: education, economy, energy and extremism, to put the country back on track towards development. He said that a national consensus on these issues for the next 10 years was direly needed to restore people’s confidence in their democratic institutions and faith in the future.

Senator Mushahid expressed these views while addressing a group of students from dif-

ferent universities of the country, who visited him at the Parliament.

He observed that multiple power centers have emerged in the country, showing dynamism and playing their role effectively. He further maintained that independent Judiciary, lively parliament, vibrant media and active civil society have helped in ensuring transparency in decision making and injecting dynamism in society.

He said that on a larger perspective, the role of Parliament has changed qualitatively, saying that it has to be more pro-active on issues facing the people.

Answering various questions, Senator Mushahid

Hussain said the Senate Defence Committee would revisit the national security paradigm and would prepare a Defence Policy Strategy Document after consultations with Khaki and Mufti stake holders including defence experts, think tanks, civil society organization and all those who can contribute to finalizing the document. Regarding regional situation, the Chairman of the Defence Committee expressed the view that reelection of USPresident, Bark Obama and upcoming change of leadership on the political landscape of China would have far reaching impacts on the region in general and Pakistan in particular.—NNI

Participants of 12th senior management course visit PEMRA

R AWALPINDI —All Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Students of different universities with Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production, at Parliament House.

PUCM resents selection system for non-Muslims

PAF officials given 10 days to change pipelines

R AWA L P I N D I — P a k i s t a n by virtue of this system are RAWALPINDI—District Con-

United Christian Movement not the true representatives of sumer Court Rawalpindi has (PUCM) strongly condemns non-Muslims. “Big Pakistani given the deadline of 10 days the selection system for the political parties do not have to the officials of PAF non-Muslim candidates for the right to hand picks non Mus- Chaklala to change a water legislative assemblies in Paki- lim representatives on the ba- pipelines in the area. stan, said chairman PUCM sis of their liking,” he added.

Wing Commander, Raja He urged the government Parvez Hassan appeared before Albert David.After launching a political party, Albert David to have true census to ensure the court in the case of supply said that PUCM discourage the the true numbers of non - of adulterated water to the resipresent electoral system of se- Muslims, Christians in par- dents. The PAF officials prayed lection for minority’s represen- ticular. Representation in all that the consumers pay the cost tatives. The selection system fields including legislative in- of the pipes and the authority adopted for the minority mem- stitutions should reflect these should be given one month bers has opened the doors of numbers.He requested the time for the installation work. corruption. He emphasized that chief election commissioner to The court rejected the the current system is discour- ensure true democratic elec- viewpoint of the PAF offiaging and is a blockade for new toral system for non-Muslim cials and remarked that the and young leadership to Pakistanis in the coming elec- consumers were not respontion, as the current system sible to pay the cost of the emerge.

The people who make was a violation of Article 226 pipes as they pay the bills ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Po- their way to the assemblies of the constitution.—INP regularly.—INP lice have arrested 5 outlaws including a lady drug pusher from various areas of the city and recovered 10 wine bottles, 3 gallons (90 liters) alcohol, 75 gram heroin, a Toyota Hilux worth 14 lac 50 thousands rupees from their possession, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

On a tip of special informer Sub Inspector Muhammad Ali with police team arrested a lady drug pusher Razia Bibi and recovered 10 bottles of wine, while on her disclosure police also recovered 3 gallons (90 liters of Alcohol).Inspector Muhammad Aslam of ACLC recovered a Toyota Hilux No.QTA-353 worth 14,50000 rupees from an accused Muhammad Khalil during patrolling, while Assistant-Sub Inspector Muhammad Saeed of Sabzi Mandi police arrested 75 gram heroin from a culprit Muhammad Imtiaz during pa- RAWALPINDI: Girls seen taking keen interest in the calligraphic work displayed at an trolling.—NNI exhibition at Rawalpindi Art Council.

5 outlaws arrested

RAWALPINDI—The Parks and Horticulture Agency (PHA) Rawalpindi has decided to spend Rs30 million on planting flowers on green belts of various roads of Rawalpindi.

According to sources, the flowers planting process has been started in green belts of various roads including Benazir Bhutto Road, Rawal Road, Saidpur Road, Sixth Road and Fifth Road.

Managing Director PHA, Captain Mushtaq Ahmed said that scarcity of funds was usually a problem, adding they were planting flowers in the authority’s nursery as well that would be ready to be planted on green belts and parks till RAWALPINDI: Students cling to a passenger bus near Faizabad to reach their April.He said that they would destinations. improve the situation of all the parks. “We are trying to hire gardeners at daily wages for the purpose”.Expressing their reservations, citizens of the city said that it would have been better to use the grant for metalling the roads in the streets.—INP ISLAMABAD—A workshop on various sessions of the work- and effective delivery of lesintegration of Information and shop during next 3 days. The sons through ICTs. Dr. Kozue Kay Nagata, Communication Technologies opening session took place UNESCO, (ICTs) pedagogy in classroom at Allama Iqbal Open Univer- Director learning and teaching prac- sity (AIOU), in Islamabad. Islamabad in her opening reThis Workshop is aimed marks underlined the use of tices was inaugurated here Wednesday. The four-day at introducing, not only the innovation in classroom workshop is being jointly or- school-teachers to new di- teaching. “Information and CITY REPORTER ganized by the UNESCO and mensions of teaching and Communication Technololearning, but also to sensitize gies (ICTs) are a rapidly exBritish Council.

Two education special- education managers and panding and evolving meI SLAMABAD —The participants of 12th Senior Man- ists from UNESCO Bangkok, policy makers about the po- dium, which have revolutionagement Course (SMC) com- Dr. Jonghwi Park and Schmid tential role of ICTs towards ized our life, including eduprising of senior Govt. offic- Heartfried, experts supported improving quality of educa- cation. ICTS have reshaped ers from various Federal & by British Council, and na- tion in schools. The partici- not only modes of delivery Provincial Govt. depart- tional level educationists are pants with hands-on-training of lesson, but also they have ments, autonomous and pub- part of team of resource per- will be equipped with knowl- transformed role of teachlic sector organizations vis- sons, would be facilitating edge and skills for planning ers.” said Dr. Nagata.—INP ited PEMRA Headquarters here Wednesday.

The Chairman PEMRA Dr. Abdul Jabbar briefed the delegation of 24 participants about the mandate, functions, scope, performance and challenges related to PEMRA. He apprised participants of various initiatives being taken by PEMRA to transform electronic media into more vibrant, objective and sensible organ.

He told that the initiatives are both qualitative and quantitative and of-course its implementation would be done in consultation with the stakeholders and media organizations. Ultimately, it is the media who have to realize their responsibility and PEMRA in isolation may not be able to yield desired results, said Chairman PEMRA. ISLAMABAD: Prof Dr Sahibzada Sajid-ur-Rehman, President, IIUI addressing at inaugural ceremony of the 3-day International Conference ‘The Literary Present and the Postcolonial Condition’.

Training of teachers in use of ICTS in classrooms

APCA to continue struggle for its demands Clerks Association (APCA) has announced to carry on peaceful struggle in favour of their demands until their Charter of Demands (CoD) was accepted.

According to sources, president of the APCA said this while speaking at an event of the association here. He further said that the association office bearers were in contact with the federal and provincial governments in this regard, adding that notification of the new pay scale would be issued till December 01.He also said that they were making all out efforts to end the hiring system and get house rent approved for all the government employees. The association had earned the favours of millions of clerks and government employees of the country through its practical steps to get their rights, he said, adding the APCA would continue its struggle to get the rights of the clerks.—INP

tients with diabetes are at very high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and peripheral vascular diseases. “They are at more risk of heart attack and heart failure than normal persons,” he stated. He was of the view that in serious complication due to diabetes patients commonly left with no option but surgery that is costly and risky. He stressed on the need to adopt healthy lifestyle and risk prevention measures for living a better life.

Nutrition expert Aman Afridi highlighted the importance of diet in treatment of diabetes. She also underlined factors affecting individual diet of diabetic patients such as type of diabetes, complications, medications, blood sugar control, past medical history, height, weight, age, gender, dietary history, eating patterns and habits, favorite foods, food allergies and physical activity.

Operation against quacks

ISLAMABAD—Operation has been launched against the quacks in the rural areas of Federal Capital.

Campaign has kicked off under District Health Officer (DHO) Dr M Azhar Khan in pursuance of the directives of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Aamir Ali Ahmad.

Operation was started in the area of Tarnol. The DHO Islamabad visited the area alongwith drug inspector and sealed medical store and a hospital for violating drug act. Notices have also been issued to the violators under drug act and PMDC Ordinance and legal proceedings have been initiated against them. DHO said the campaign would continue against the quacks in all the rural areas of the federal capital.—Online

Literary Present and Postcolonial Condition

NAB arrest 2 plunderers

I SLAMABAD —NAB RawalISLAMABAD—Department of large number of male and fe- pindi has arrested Tahir Saeed male students also attended English, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, organized a 3-day international conference on “The Literary Present and the Postcolonial Condition”.

The inaugural ceremony of the conference was held at the Quaid-e-Azam Auditorium of the university. Prof. Dr. Sahibzada Sajid ur Rehman, Acting President IIUI presided over the ceremony.

Prof. Munawar Iqbal Gondal, Dean Faculty of Language and Literature, IIUI including faculty members, administrative officers and a

the conference. Renowned scholars from Pakistan, India, Nigeria, England, Canada and North America attended the conference as contributors.

In the opening remarks Dr. Sahibzada Sajid ur Rehman has said that sociopolitical and religious norms of the dominating colonizing powers not only command political and military supremacy but also do impress upon the socio-cultural values and religious norms pervasively and thus influence the entire socio-cultural and politico-religious structure of the colonized society.—NNI

and Nadeem Raza who have allegedly plundered Rs. 300 million from 27 complainants on the pretext of investment in their (fake/bogus) foreign exchange business namely M/ s Ahmed Trading Company (Commodity trading) .

The complainant invested in said fake company through bank transactions using International Fund Telegraphic Transfers, according to NAB spokesperson.NAB has collected relevant bank records which transpired that the amounts were actually transferred in personal accounts of accused who defrauded the complainants.—Online

South Asian peace needs Kashmir priority for Obama S TAFF R EPORTER I SLAMABAD —President of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Party Sardar Khalid Ibrahim Khan has said that time has come for the United States to push her role for a peaceful Kashmir solution during second terms of President Barack Obama.

Talking on Wednesday to a group of Kashmiri intellectuals at his residence here The JK-PP Chief said that being on the UN agenda Kashmir dispute cannot be bypassed under any pretext. It has had to be solved one day, but it

Talaaq verdict: HC to hear review plea on Dec 3 S RINAGAR — Jammu and

would be better that being sole super power the United States under President Obama prioritized it on her international agenda.

He recalled that during his first-term electioneering Obama had promised to appoint his special envoy on Kashmir but after entering White House he lost that promise. But in his November 2010 visit to India he urged New Delhi to solve Kashmir issue.

Now he should materialize his promise of appointing a special envoy on Kashmir for the sake of durable peace

in South Asia.

As media reports indicate America has already chosen Asia as its “21st century pivot”.

Therefore it becomes all the more important for him to start with the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Massive human rights violations in IHK and daily house arrests of elderly Kashmiri leaders must be stopped.

Reply a question he said that the UN Kashmir resolutions provide best practical way of Kashmir settlement via will of Kashmiris. “The lukewarm Kashmir policy of

the present government of Pakistan is very worrisome for Kashmiris. Kashmir is an international dispute, but the ‘expression’ of the present government gives the impresssion Kashmir being a bilateral issue.

We would not allow this international dispue to be reduced into a bilateral issue.

We have made tremendous sacrifices for the cause of Kashmir and the whole world recognizes those sacrifices, meaning thereby that world believes in the international personality of the Kashmir dispute”, explained.

Coalition govt breaks records of corruption: PDP

Baig said the Chief MinisKashmir High Court has slated SRINAGAR—Peoples Demo- fraud, nepotism and land grabbing.

This had resulted in a ter had lost all moral authority cratic Party has said the ruling December 3 for hearing a petition for review of its judgement that a Muslim man’s right to divorce his wife is not “unrestricted or unqualified”.

Justice Hasnain Masoodi said he will hear the petition on December 3 after a retired judge, Bashir Ahmad Kirmani, rose to argue his application seeking review of the judgement.

The former judge had filed an application before the High Court seeking review of the ruling on the grounds that observations made by Justice Masoodi in his 23-page judgement had far reaching consequences.

“The judgement touches upon some very crucial questions of the Family Law applicable to a vast majority of the population of the state and is likely to operate in a wide area, as such, in its given texture requires thorough second look,” Justice Kirmani has said in his application.

Kirmani has challenged the observations made by Justice Masoodi in para 26 and 27 of the ruling which pertain to maintenance of wife after divorce and putting the onus on the husband to prove that divorce was resorted to after all options of reconciliation had failed.

Giving reference of Shah Bano case in Supreme Court, President High Court Bar Association, Zaffar A Qureshi had said High Court has no competence to hear the matter related to personal laws.—NNI

World asked to come forward for Kashmir settlement SRINAGAR—The Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement Chairman, Zafar Akbar Butt has appealed to the world community to take cognisance of the blatant human rights violations being carried out by Indian troops in the territory and come forward to resolve the Kashmir dispute as per the people’s aspirations.

Zafar Akbar Butt, while paying rich tributes to mother of martyer Abdul Haq Raina and mother-in-law of liberation leader, Ahmad Hassan at their residences in Chadora said that people were the custodians of the ongoing freedom movement, who had presented great sacrifices for a just cause. “We pledge that we will carry the movement to its logical end,” he added.—KMS

coalition has broken all records of corruption by previous NC governments and landed the State in its worst administrative crisis.

Rounding off the tour of Kupwara district with a workers’ meeting in Zachaldara of Handwara constituency, former Deputy Chief Minister and senior leader Muzaffar Hussein Baig said the NC-led coalition had struck the State like a natural calamity.

Baig said the present government had converted corruption into broad daylight dacoity with most ruling politicians facing serious charges of involvement in murder,

after the Haji Yusuf incident in which his own name and that of Dr Farooq Abdullah figured around transaction of money for granting party mandates and ministerial berths.

This was followed by the cricket scam in which Dr Farooq Abdullah is in the dock in a multicrore swindle which saw money meant for promoting sports going into the pockets of the cricket association bosses.

Baig said the government machinery and institutions instead of being allowed to conduct independent probe were used to protect the ruling family from legal scrutiny.—NNI

ISLAMABAD: Chairperson Kashmir Cultural Academy, Prof Taqdees Gilani inquiring about the health of Kashmiri leader Chaudhry Noor Hussain on Wednesday.

Mufti creating urban-rural divide among people: NC S RINAGAR — The National Conference has lambasted the PDP for issuing wrong figures, imaginary stats and utter lies about Srinagar while accusing them of creating division between Rural and urban Kashmir.

“The gerontocratic politician, in a classic instance of hoodwinking the gullible by negative campaigning, has pointed out to the alleged paucity of infrastructure in Srinagar city, and scurrilously alleging that Srinagar city is the swing factor that allows the National Conference to come to power and the old intriguer has rattled off a few figures and stats in support of his wildly overboard and delusional allegations” National Conference Spokesman Tanvir Sadiq said in a statement issued to GNS, adding “Mufti Sahib once again flaunting a piece of paper and distorting facts”

YOUNUS FAROOQ

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unique situation in which nobody was in a position to question the other, he said, adding they had now found safety in coming to each other’s rescue in times of need.

He said the dissolution of the House panel constituted to probe allegations of land grab against a minister represented the lowest point in moral decadence of a government.

“Everyone will henceforth feel free to indulge in loot as all institutional vigilance has been demolished. The legislature is only the latest victim and most powerful institution to be trampled by the present government,” Baig said.

E could have prevented much loss of human lives and secured what is now being called “injured honor” of Kashmir’s had the Kashmir home grown resistance been a political movement right from the day it fell to forced occupation . The inspiration for writing this piece comes from the one article of A.G.Noorani- constitutional expert and historian- entitled “Kashmir’s wronged strategy “published in Dawn newspaper dated 9 November,2012. A.G.Noorani, as I have understood, takes Kashmir struggle back to British colonial era that was coming apart at the outbreak of World War II.Political leaders of congress and Muslim league, who desired liberation of their people, find it necessary to work within the British system. The most of the political vibrant leader from Indian National Congress was pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah, represented the Muslim League.

Shortly after the war or so, The Indian Independence Act, 1947, when it came into force, set in motion the cre-

“These tricks are to sow division and discord in the Kashmiri society and polity, deepening the urban rural fissures” adding “he is now trying to deceive and ingratiate himself with the city and urban dwellers of Kashmir” said Tanvir adding “Should we believe the same PDP and their leaders who almost shifted the secretariat from Srinagar, stalled the urban reform bill to ensure the GOI does not release the funds” “Srinagar and now the whole of Kashmir will never trust him as everyone has realized PDP’s game plan and agenda.

Mufti, Mehbooba, Beigh are divisive, diversionary, foul and negative” said Sadiq “By hallow slogans, mere tours of the city with a handful of sycophants doesn’t give you development but commitment does”

Tanvir said “as actions speak louder than words and the National Conference under the leadership of Omar Abdullah is developing Srinagar like never before” adding “Mufti talks about election boycott in 8 seats of Srinagar city and says that we form government on that basis; let me remind him if his age stop’s him from reading facts that 20 other seats our party won are from other rural areas of the state” adding “In Jammu region alone we came second in 15 seats and lost with few votes” Castigating Peoples Democratic Party for nurturing falsehood and unleashing unfounded propaganda, the Spokesman said that PDP has a homework now carved for itself, and that is to circulate false rumors and publish concocted stories.—NNI

ISLAMABAD: AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed coming to participate in a function.

Power protests knock at IHK CM’s door

Farooq was JKLF founding member: Murtaza

SRINAGAR—Dozens of people J AMMU — People’s Demo- conditions for endorsing acces- Indira–Sheikh accord was mostly women, furious over indiscriminate power tariff hike broke a commanding security grid near Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s residence at Gupkar Road here, raising slogans against the “imperial policies” of state government. The protestors from Sonwar and its adjoining areas marched towards the Chief Minister’s residence in a bid to register their complaint before the Minister of Power Development Department against “indiscriminate power tariff hike”.

The furious protestors shouted anti-government slogans and demanded an end to “persecution of poor” by the state government. “Get us the Chief Minister. Is it power tariff hike he had promised us? We need to talk face to face like he did with us when he had asked for votes,” the protestors shouted to a police official. Protestors accused the Power Development Department of charging them bills in thousand of rupees. The PDD officials, who were called to pacify the situation, arrived after almost fifteen minutes and promised to reissue their bills. Assistant Executive Engineer Power Development Department Sheikh Bagh Ghulam Qadir told the protestors that they will be given new bills in an hour.

“There would be some sort of errors. We are checking them.

We will just give you new bills,” he told them.—INP

Mirwaiz to skip OIC moot

cratic Party (PDP) leader Murtaza Khan has said Union Minister and patron of ruling National Conference Farooq Abdullah was the founding member of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).

“The son of Sheikh Abdullah and father of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was among the founding members of JKLF when it started armed struggle against India from Azad Kashmir,” Khan told journalist here. Khan said the Abdullah family had always betrayed Indian union.

Giving an example he said Sheikh Abdullah had kept two

sion to Government of India.

“The two conditions were that the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir will not be ‘Indian citizen’ and Indian constitution’s fundamental right chapter will not be applied on Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

He kept these conditions to keep people of Jammu and Kashmir as fiefdom but Delhi did not agree to his demands.

Khan said since Delhi did not accept his conditions, Sheikh started Plebiscite Front in 1953 and started speaking against India.

He said his second betrayal with India was in 1975 when

IHK women delegation terms AJK visit historic S RINAGAR — In occupied Kashmir, terming their visit to Azad Kashmir a historic and emotional moment, the 10member delegation of women activists from occupied Kashmir returned from Muzaffarabad after attending a 3-day cross-LoC conference from November 5 to 7.

The delegation members on arriving in Srinagar told media that the visit would serve as a roadmap for future dialogues.

Returning home with a bagful of memories, the activists said they are proud of being the first batch of women delegates to cross LoC and hold discussions

with women activists and civil society members of Muzaffarabad.

The 10-member delegation comprised Prof Nusrat Andrabi, Nighat Shafi Pandit, Prof T Joldan, Prof Qurat-ul-Ain, Prof Effat Yasmeen, Prof Ravinderjit Kour, Prof Rekha Chowdary, Prof Yasmin Ashai, Ellora Puri and Ayesha Saleem. This was the first visit of women activists from Kashmir to Muzaffarabad since 1947. First such conference was organized in Srinagar in November 2007 and the last was held in Gulmarg in September 2011. The main motive of the visit was to in-

of other side. The costs of the persistent protests should be outweighed against the benefits. The time had come to abandon little street wars. As long as our political consciousness remains low, effective, organized and coordinated freedom action will be a distant dream.

The response of the armed forces is always out of proportion to the mass uprising they face. The Indian government wants to integrate Kashmir state and to hold on to it they are using any and all means –arbitrary arrests, torture of every conceivable sort, and just to mention a few, that has terrorized a great part of Kashmir.

The summer uprising of 2008 which claimed more than one hundred lives was a humiliating reminder of the defeat of leadership, only, morally bent on the question of India’s right to rule Kashmir, which has, yet, remained at the core of the continuing tension in state of Kashmir. The loss of great lives reflects impotence and frustration of our leaders commanding behind the walls fate

clude women in the peacebuilding process. “Women form 50 per cent of the total population but ironically when it comes to peace building… this 50 per cent is neglected. We are the ones who are worst hit by turmoil and deserve to have a say in the conflict discourse,” said Nusrat Andrabi who was heading the delegation.

“We have appealed both the governments to make the travel hassle free to the other side so that visit of people especially senior citizens, students and women groups engaged in holding of such conferences can be facilitated.—KMS

S RINAGAR — Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will skip an important meeting of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) where Contact Group on Kashmir is scheduled to meet.

The Mirwaiz has been invited by OIC for its 39th annual conference scheduled to be held in Djibouti on 17th of this month.

“General Secretary of OIC, Kemal Akmeludin Augloo has sent a formal invitation to Mirwaiz on behalf of OIC for the conference,” Hurriyat (M) said in a handout.

It, however, said that Mirwaiz is unlikely to attend the conference due to his busy schedule. In interaction with media, Mirwaiz said, “I cannot attend the meet on 17th of November in Djibouti as Hurriyat is busy in gearing up for important MUZAFFARABAD: Commissioner Sardar Zafar Khan, DIG Khalid Chohan and DC Ansar Pakistan visit. —INP Yaqoob with NIM Lahore mid-career participants.

Kashmir struggle needs inspirational ideology ation of two independent domains. With the organization of an effective political movement, British Empire yielded to the Independence cry and relished British departure. Kashmir freedom movement needs an exceptional leader, well educated, rational, problem solving, who can coordinate a divided Kashmir movement into a one whole organized ideology. The freedom movement of Kashmir needs a more political, ideological and less sentimental leader who can inspire masses and be able to coordinate and sustain them. It is important to rid people of wrong ideas and bring about a great change.

“Protests have taken a toll on the patience of people”, rightly understands A.G.Noorani and believes that the profreedom leadership should instead search for a workable alternative and a radical shift perspective. Protest marches and strikes have little hope to defeat an armed strength. They can only, instead, intimidate and keep the struggle alive in the hope of breaking the back

signed. “After the accord, Sheikh was made Chief Minister of the State though NC had no member in the house. All the legislators were from the Congress party but Sheikh again betrayed the Congress,” he said.

“He motived 12 Congress MLAs and included them in his party by strangulating Congress.” Khan said his third treachery was in 1981 when Income Tax department raided the houses of Mattoo and other family members of Sheikh. “Sheikh addressed a public rally in Iqbal Park in Srinagar and spoke against India..—NNI

of lakhs of innocent lives. Who is responsible for the killings of innocent people? The youth took to streets under the impression that streets wars would do for them. Over the years, the Kashmir leadership had failed to achieve anything of substance. The hard-liner parties in Kashmir have slacken the freedom struggle that is why we are being continuously beaten and killed by formidable military strength of India. We will continue to suffer because of our backwardness, political backwardness, if we did not act and act decisively. For a political solution of Kashmir the most urgent task is to negotiate and discuss the fate of people of Kashmir whom India assumes an integral part and thus an internal matter. The time had come to sit down and talk.

MLA Lang ate, engineer Abdul Rashid, observes, A.G.Noorani, during a visit to Kashmir, sometimes making fervor appeals shall be conceived to be backed by Pro-freedom leaders, or say, Hurriyat leaders, a far as I can gather, is

a clarion call for Kashmir leaders to seek elections and abandon little street wars.

While in the University, I on few occasions watched a growing desire for change manifested by University students in large political demonstrations in June 2010.The demonstrations continued for almost few days before police forces dispersed the demonstrations.

I believe in my two year study course at University I did not think, I saw encouraging signs of reforms or watched organized freedom chants.

First student activism is highly restricted and second permission to freer access to information is limited. Students are not allowed to heed to public opinion on political issues, evidences of wide spread corruption among high University officials did not perturb our intellectuals sitting comfortably in academic chairs. That the situation of a society changes in the face of education, ironically, indigenous elite intellectuals, have remained politically less conscious and become victims of

ranks,awards,degrees and medals. The great poet-philosopher Al-lama Mohammad Iqbal warned us of the western styled education system one which pollutes the spirit of revolution and diverts youth to crooked lines, as such, fashion parties, beauty bars and TV shows. Kashmir intellectual society, academicians, and teachers, it can be said, has not fully developed a sense of grievance and responsibility, political consciousness, big prospect of effective, organized action has evaded our collective thought. The influence of the Islamic revolution in Iran and the rise of the Islamic fervor throughout the Arab world, the coming of power of Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsi, did not stimulate our leadership to take a big leap forward instead prefer to stick in. Shall our pro-freedom leaders and intellectual finest seek elections and get appointed and once this comes, convene all, and organize political parties and effect a real change. The future of a large part of population in Kashmir is deeply entrenched in one of the most dangerous places of the world Kashmira flash point for a possible nuclear war in the Subcontinent.—Kashmir Watch

KP Science Fair’ Staff Reporter

I SLAMABAD —Intel Pakistan today concluded the provincial fair held Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) in the run-up to the Intel® International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel® ISEF), one of the world’s largest precollege science competitions, to be held in May 2013. During the KPK Provincial Science Fair, students from across KPK presented research-based projects in the categories of biology, chemistry, computer sciences, mathematics and physics.

More than 40 projects were displayed from all over the province.

PCSIR exhibition

Czechs mineral sector uplift role lauded STAFF REPORTER I SLAMABAD —A delegation of Ministry of Industries and Trade of Czech Republic led

by Dr. Pavel Kavina, alongwith Miroslav Krenek, Ambassador of Czech Republic called on Dr. Asim Hussain, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Petroleum & Natural Resources and discussed with him certain vistas of opportunities and mutual cooperation in mineral sector. Advisor to the PM on Ministry of Petroleum & NR appreciated the keen interest evinced by the Ministry of Industries and Trade of Czech Republic in the de-

velopment of Mineral Sector of Pakistan. Minister also lauded that Czech Republic has established a very advanced mineral sector and Pakistan can benefit immensely from their expertise and experience.

The delegation of Ministry of Industries and Trade of Czech Republic led by Dr. Pavel Kavina, is currently on a visit to Pakistan.

The delegation earlier held extensive discussions with Secretary, MP&NR and Director General, Geological Survey of Pakistan. Following areas of mutual cooperation have been identified where the Czech delegation

has assured providing Pakistan all possible cooperation and assistance.

Capacity building of the geoscientists of the Geological Survey of Pakistan in exploration of Rare Earth Elements (REE).

Preparation of the training module for Applied Exploration in Geological Sciences for Human Resources Development Centre of the Geological Survey of Pakistan in collaboration with the European Universities and Evaluation of the Geothermal Energy in Pakistan and its potential to fill the gap in Energy Demand and Supply.

P ESHAWAR —The Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrial Research Laboratories (PCSIR) will organize Science & Technology exhibition on November 17-18 with a view to develop close liaison with local industry and transfer of its technologies for economic, commercial and social uplift of the end users.

During the exhibition products/processes developed by Research & Development organizations of Ministry of Science & Technology Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA would be put on display. Eminent businessmen, entrepreneurs, ISLAMABAD: Dr. Asim Hussain, Advisor to PM on Petroleum and Natural Resources academicians and stumeeting with Miroslav Krenek, Ambassador of Czech Republic on cooperation on mindents would attend the eral exploration. event.—APP

Conversion rates KARACHI—The following rates will be applicable for conversion into rupees of Foreign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency Bearer Certificates,Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profits thereon by all banks and for providing Forward Cover on Foreign Currency Deposits (excluding F.E.25 deposits) by the State Bank on November 15, 2012. The rates are U.S. Dollar Rs 95.9049, Japanese Yen Rs 1.1990,Pound Sterling Rs 152.3736 and Euro Rs 122.1540.—APP

Reservations expressed over CNG audit report STAFF REPORTER

and billing but unfortunately this factor has been neglected during the audit, said Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, Chairman Supreme Council APCNGA in a statement.

Variation in quality of natural gas results in dissimilar billing in different locations of the country resulting in losses, he added.

He said that 90 per cent of the CNG stations are facing low pressure which is an-other major concern for the sector. The excessive cost of gas and electricity bills due to low pressure should have been taken into consideration.

Paracha informed that most of the CNG stations

are installed on petrol pumps where the owners have to pay 10 to 20 per cent margin to oil marketing companies which hikes cost of doing business, a factor conveniently overlooked in the audit. Prices of gas provided to CNG stations should be uniform and government should sell gas at kilograms rates, he demanded.

Over 2300 CNG stations remain closed for twelve days every month due to gas load shedding causing colossal losses. Only eighteen working days marred with un-scheduled load shedding is an additional burden faced by the CNG sector, said Paracha.

ISE-10 Index witness bullish trend ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend here on Wednesday as the ISE-10 index was up by 12.72 points to close at 3,207.52 points in today’s trading. A total of 123,600 shares were traded, which were down by 158,900 shares when compared with previous day’s trading of 282,500 shares.

Out of 130 companies, share prices of 66 companies recorded increase, share prices of 64 companies registered decrease while that of zero company remained stable.

The share prices of Linde Pakistan increased by Rs 6.92 DIR: Federal Minister for Communication Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan being briefed on per share, while the share construction work on Lowari Road. prices of Sana Industries decreased by Rs 2.44 per share.

First Fidelity Leasing Modaraba, SilkBank and Nishat Mills remained the top trading companies in Wednesday’s trading with 200,000, 75,000 and 4,000 devastating floods in Paki- will also help the industries STAFF REPORTER shares respectively.—APP stan, the European Council of Pakistan, especially the I S L A M A B A D —Following mandated the European textile and clothing exporters their adoption by the Euro- Commission to formulate a to get increased market acpean Parliament and the comprehensive package, in- cess.

The 26 items originated Council, the EU Autono- cluding measures to provide mous Trade concessions for Pakistan with greater market in Pakistan have been ofPakistan come into force access to help recover from fered under Tariff Regulated STAFF REPORTER the disaster.

Quotas while 49 items origifrom November 14.

EU Ambassador to Paki- nated in Pakistan have been “The Regulation covers ISLAMABAD—The textile in- all EU members States and stan Lars Gunnar Wigemark covered under non-tariff dustry is likely to miss its ex- will remain in force until De- welcomed the entry into force regulated quotas in total, 75 port target by $4 billion, includ- cember 2013”, a statement of the autonomous trade con- items have been granted ing Christmas orders worth of the EU Delegation to Pa- cessions, saying, “These spe- duty-free market access un$1.5 billion during the current kistan here on Wednesday. cial trade concessions will der these autonomous year, sources revealed. The According to the EU provide economic growth by trade concessions, the EU industry is likely to face 700 statement, after the 2010 generating employment. They statement said.

MMCFD gas shortage in the current year against 500 MMCFD in the preceding year, officials said. The industry will face a drastic decline of about $1.5 billion in textile exports for Christmas, as exportISLAMABAD—Minister for Sciers accepted 50 percent less Steel’s production level will STAFF REPORTER ence and Technology (S&T) orders in the current year, inimprove. dustry sources said.

K ARACHI —The Pakistan He said that after open- Mir Changez Khan Jamali on Textile export target was Steel (PS) has opened an LC ing of LC the raw material Wednesday informed the Senprojected to be $16 billion for of 50,000 MT of coal from takes about more than sixty ate that during the last five the current year. Industrialists, Australia, a spokesman of days journey and process to year 265 out of 5,363 textile companies registered with Sesources said, were finding it Pakistan Steel said here on reach Pakistan Steel. hard the timely completion of Wednesday. He stated that This transitional period curity Exchange Commission export orders because of exces- the PS opened an LC of must be included in the of Pakistan (SECP) had either sive power outages. As a re- 50000 MT coal which is used count down. Pakistan Steel been dissolved or their name sult, foreign buyers are divert- as one of basic raw materials recently purchased 110,000 had been struck off under the ing export orders to neighbor- in Pakistan Steel process.

MT of coal which arrived last provisions of the Companies Ordinance, 1984. ing countries, inflicting huge Moreover, the PS still month from Australia and He was replying to a losses on the county’s foreign seeking purchase of iron ore, Canada after the first tranche exchange earnings, sources tenders are in process and of bailout package and now question asked by Senator maintained. More than 15-20 soon the iron ore shipments this is the third LC of 50,000 Kalsoom Parveen during the question-hour session. percent textile export orders of will be finalized after comple- MT coal.

The minister told the House Pakistan were diverted to tion of necessary formalities.

According to Pakistan that the data concerning to cloBangladesh, India and Sri Lanka Chief Executive Officer of Steel production plan, the last year. The situation is likely Pakistan Steel Major General production units are cur- sure of textile mills due to power to worsen in the current year (Retd) Mohammad Javed ex- rently working properly shortage was not maintained. because of energy shortages. pressed the hope that after while after the induction of He said Interpol (Pvt) Ltd., M/s Obviously, a foreign importer, the availability of raw materi- raw materials the production Sootry Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd. whose orders are not met within als in continuity Pakistan will be increase accordingly. and US Apparel & Textile Mills Ltd. And M/s Sootry were apa specific time, will divert his proved by the SPB for investorder to other countries such ment in textile related business as India and Bangladesh. in Bangladesh in the last five years. —APP

EU’s autonomous trade concessions take effect in Pakistan

Country to lose textile export target

ISLAMABAD —The All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) on Wednesday expressed reservations on forensic audit report of the CNG stations terming it flawed.

In a letter sent to Chairman OGRA regarding audit of production cost of the CNG filling stations on the directives of Supreme Court, the APCNGA said that audit teams have neMills crushing starts glected some critical issues which has left the report inStaff Reporter complete.

KARACHI—After the The quality of gas propassage of two weeks, cane vided to CNG outlets has crushing in the province remained very important could not start in full as factor in terms of rate, price only three of the total 32 sugar mills have so far started their operations.

The non-operational mills are expected to begin their operations after Muharram, they said, adding that the boilers of all mills have been lighted. One of the major reasons behind the failure of mills to start operations is the lack of labour, which delayed the crushing on the scheduled date of November 1, they said. There are 29 other sugar mills in the province mills that have illuminated the boilers (a first stage in sugarcane crushing) of their sugar factories.

Industry sources said that the remaining twenty nine sugar mills would comKARACHI: Haroon Agar, President KCCI presenting crest to Brian Graul, Chief of Party, USAID Trade Project. mence their operations after 10th Muharam-ul-Haram, adding that Sanghar Sugar Mills, Ranipur Sugar Mills and Mityari Sugar Mills have started their operacally designed to address this million of U.S. support has thanked the U.S. government STAFF REPORTER tions. However, Mehran challenge by bringing to- successfully revitalized eco- for their prompt response to Sugar Mills, Al-Noor Sugar I SLAMABAD —As many as gether entrepreneurs, govern- nomic growth in disaster-af- the country’s urgent need.

Mills, Sindh Abadgar Sugar 22,000 flood-affected dairy ment officials and academia to fected regions and enabled He said the assistance by the Mills, Habib Sugar Mills, farmers throughout the coun- share their experiences dealing resilient Pakistani entrepre- U.S. government brought Faran Sugar Mills, Ansari try have doubled their in- with natural disasters and dis- neurs to recover and rebuild tears of joy and hope to thouSugar Mills, New Dadu comes since May 2010 with cuss best practices for re- their businesses,” she said. A sands of conflict and floodSugar Mills. the assistance of the United sponding to them and rebuild- recent impact assessment of affected families as they States’ development projects. ing their businesses. “Under USAID’s rehabilitation pro- struggled to stand on their The facts were shared at a normal conditions, Pakistan’s gram found that since May feet once again.

The USAID initiative is conference held here for Pa- entrepreneurs face challenges 2010, more than 22,500 dairy kistani entrepreneurs to dis- at many fronts. These issues farmers increased their in- part of a comprehensive U.S. cuss the results of the are compounded by the comes by more than 200 per- economic assistance program The important thing projects of U.S. Agency for country’s particular suscepti- cent, as a result of receiving which creates jobs and boosts in my view is not to International Development bility to natural disasters,” said the U.S. government’s flood- incomes with projects that expand Pakistan’s agricultural (USAID) Entrepreneurs Pro- Catherine Moore, Deputy related assistance. pin the blame for a Mission Director, USAID PaDr. Zafar Iqbal Qadir, output, build roads to faciligram. mistake on someThe conference titled kistan in her address at the Chairman of the National Di- tate trade, and offer a private body, but rather to saster Management Authority equity fund to help small and “Livelihood Recovery Sup- event. find out what caused “We are delighted that $4 addressing the gathering medium-size businesses grow. port Conference” was specifithe mistake.

Pakistan Steel opens LC for 50,000 MT coal

BoI to introduce fund for dev of SME sector STAFF REPORTER

I SLAMABAD —Board of Investment (BoI) in collaboration with USAID and Bank Al-Falah has been working to introduce a fund for the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector in Pakistan. The newly elected Senator and Minister for State and Chairman BoI, Saleem H Mandviwala informed the media in an informal chat here on Wednesday.

He said that deliberations have been going on the creation of the proposed

new funds adding that the size of the fund will be around Rs.50 million. “It will be ten years plan”, he remarked. Responding to a question, he said that a proposal has been under the consideration of Prime Minister over amendments in rules of Business to make the process of foreign inflow more efficient.

The amendment will allow them to approach directly to decision making forums like Cabinet and Economic Coordinate Committee of Cabinet to seek approval on investment proposals.

Plan to support marginalized businesses on cards Flood-hit dairy farmers income doubles with US aid L —Implementation of a Tiwana,General Manager, BusiAHORE

project with the financial support of UNDP to enable poor strata of society take up marginalized businesses is under way.

Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) is working to implement the project,informed speakers at a consultative workshop arranged by SMEDA here on Wednesday to review draft of the “Community Outreach Strategy” developed by the renowned legal expert Asad Maken for practical implications of the project.

Law,experts,business managers and other stakeholder attended the event while Sultan

ness and Sector Development Services (BSDS) chaired the meeting. While discussing various aspects of the draft the speaker stressed the need for engaging poor people in marginalized businesses and to make them aware of their rights.

They recommended that a legal status should be determined for marginalized businesses coupled with regulatory and lawful framework. They identified that even though existing SMEDA structure provides legal services to the business community but it does not cater to peculiar requirements of the marginalized businesses.—APP

265 textile companies dissolved, struck off during five years

Vfone Wireless Service in Balochistan starts STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD —As part of its vision to bring latest Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to the remotest areas of the country, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) has extended its Vfone wireless service to isolated Mekhtar, Bard and Murgha Kibzai areas of Balochistan.

Part of Loralai region of Balochistan, Mekhtar, Bard and Murgha Qibzai areas are one of the remotest areas of the country. PTCL aims to facilitate the people of the region with the launch of Vfone service. PTCL Vfone has the country’s largest WLL coverage and is available with both prepaid and postpaid options. Supported by highspeed CDMA technology, Vfone also offers SMS and internet connectivity at affordable rates.

“Our vision is to bring latest telecommunications infrastructure to every city and village of Pakistan,” said PTCL Executive Vice President (EVP) Wireless, Omer Khalid. “Provision of Vfone services in the area will go a long way in fulfilling the communications needs of the people of Balochistan.”

LCCI, SCCI ink trade promotion MoU

Defaulters yield Rs. 24.3m to PESCO

SALIM AHMED

P ESHAWAR —The Peshawar Electric and Supply Company (PESCO) has recovered Rs.24.3 million from defaulters and disconnected power supply of a large number of consumers on non-payment of Rs. 13.9million in different areas of the province. According to Pesco press release here on Wednesday, the recovery teams of the company has recovered Rs 8,17,498 from defaulters in Swabi-I division and Rs 2,88,200 in Swat circle. Similarly, in Hagu Division, Rs 3,36,830 have been recovered from defaulters while power supply of 34 defaulters was disconnected on non payment of Rs.19,70,541.

In Khyber Circle, Rs.1,16,12,974 from 78 defaulters have been recovered while power supply to 26 consumers disconnected on nonpayment of Rs 1,13,79,472.

In Hazara Circle Pesco Recovery Teams recovered Rs 79,00000 from three Govt defaulter departments and Rs 33,80000 from private consumers while power supply to 76 defaulters was disconnected on nonpayment of Rs 5,90,000. Likewise, In Mardan-1-division, Rs 14,00000 have been recovered from defaulters.—APP

L AHORE —The

LAHORE: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf with members and office-bearers of LCCI.

ECC to allow additional export of 0.2m tonnes sugar

LSE sheds 8.87 points LAHORE—Bearish trend prevailed in Lahore Stock Ex-

ISLAMABAD—The Economic of Commerce Ministry which The controversial weekly price change on Wednesday as it

Coordination Committee has sought the export of 0.2 review mechanism was also (ECC) of the Cabinet sched- million tons sugar in addition suspended by the governuled to meet on November 20, to 0.2 million tons allowed ear- ment after giving an undertaking in the Supreme Court last is expected to allow addi- lier.

The committee will also month. tional export of 0.2 million The government has also tons sugar. Last month, the take up the ministry of apex economic decisions Industry’s summary in which been seen to repeatedly ignore making body had also al- they (ministry) sought the wa- the continuous recommendalowed 0.2 million tons sugar ver of sales tax at import stage tions of the National Assembly on the import of Swede bus Standing Committee on Petroexport.

According to Pakistan Pakistan. Following a resolu- leum and Natural Resources Fiscal deficiency Sugar Mills Association tion passed by the National and the Oil and Gas Regulatory (PSMA), the permission for fur- Assembly, the Economic Co- Authority (OGRA) to switch to ther export of 0.2 million tons ordination Committee of the the old oil pricing mechanism. sugar will go a long way to im- cabinet is also expected to give The Ministry of Finance and prove the financial positions of a go-ahead to switch to a OGRA had already opposed to the mills and payments to sug- monthly oil pricing mechanism the price review on a weekly arcane cultivators. According as the Ministry of Petroleum basis when the summary was to the agenda items available and Natural Resources will first tabled before the ECC for with Online News agency, the table the summary before the approval, but their concerns F AISALABAD —Mian Zahid ECC will consider the summary committee for its approval. were not addressed.—Online Aslam, President, Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) has said that Industrial growth particularly the large manufacturing sector is following negative growth owing to non-availability of finance from the banking sector which has lead to stoppage of even further expansion to the large industries at the regional and national level.

Giving details he said that Government borrowed Rs.324 billion from scheduled banks from July 30 to Sept 07 (2 months) which is 123% higher than the same period of last year. He continued that according to SBP, the Government accumulated borrowing from scheduled PESHAWAR: DCO Javed Marwat and President Chamber of KPCCI Dr. Yusuf Sarwar banks till June 2012 was discussing arrangements for Muharramul Harram.

Rs.2.360 trillion against a total borrowing of Rs.1.704 trillion from the State Bank.

He maintained that high mark up rate is another major hurdle to increase the cost of doing business. The banking spread of 7% is the world M ULTAN —Former National highest in Pakistan. Rampant Assembly Speaker and proGovernment borrowing has gressive grower Syed Fakhar reduced credit space to the Imam has urged the governsharing his thoughts, “It is AMANULLAH KHAN private sector and their im- ment to take steps for develdelightful to see our custompact on the prospectus of opment of agriculture and in- K ARACHI —Mobilink an- ers winning such fabulous growth. The banks have dustry on modern lines to en- nounced the winners of the prizes, as they enjoy the preshifted their lending focus hance national productivity five million rupee bumper prize mium cellular services from from private sector to the and attract premium price and eight 1300 CC cars for the Mobilink. Besides the big citGovernment. The interest through export of finished Jazz SMS Khazana Offer, 2012. ies, numerous winners durrate being charged by the products. Addressing a semi- The prize money and cars’ ing this campaign came from Commercial Banks can be nar here Wednesday, he said keys were handed over to the small towns and even remote decreased if Government that such policies be formu- winners in a ceremony held in villages, which highlights the stop or curtail its borrowings lated that strengthen both the Mobilink House, Islamabad. vast network coverage we from them, he added. farming and industrial sectors This is the 8th version of provide to our customers. I He continued that such a and stressed on their enforce- Mobilink’s highly popular would like to congratulate the heavy domestic borrowing ment in letter and spirit. trivia-based contest that offers winners and would also like from Commercial Banks has He expressed concerns Mobilink customers the op- to thank our subscribers for restricted credit space to the over the rising cost of doing portunity to win high-valued making the SMS Khazana private sector which is en- agriculture and added that the prizes on a daily and weekly Offer such a great success.” gine of growth for revenue government must ensure bet- basis by answering simple Shamsullah, the winner of generation, employment and ter returns to growers. He said questions over SMS. the Rs 5 million bumper prize desired economic growth of that price of Urea had risen A cheque of Rs. 5 Million shared his excitement stating, the country. He said that in- from Rs 1200 to Rs 1800 per was presented to the grand “I had no idea that the reward dustries are already crippled bag, power tariff from Rs 4 to prize winner, Shamsullah of for choosing Mobilink for my with the shortage of energy Rs 13.8 per unit, diesel from Rs Quetta, whereas, Zahid Iqbal communication needs would and gas coupled with dete- 60 to Rs 117 per litre. He urged of Toba Tek Singh and be this huge. With all gratitude riorating law and order situa- the government to convene a Jahangir Mehmood Gul of to Allah for his blessings, I tion and lesser availability of meeting of all the stakehold- Lahore drove off in their 1300 would also like to thank loans to the industrial sector ers of cotton economy to de- CC cars.

Mobilink for introducing this is a stumbling block to the vise a strategy to protect the Farid Ahmad, Vice Presi- unbelievable offer. This day has revival of economy. —INP interests of all.—APP dent Marketing, Mobilink completely changed my life!”

Large scale industries in negative growth

Fakhar for steps to develop agri, industry

‘SMS Khazana 8’

Mobilink awards Rs 5m, cars to winners

shed 8.87 points, following the LSE-25 index opened with 3932.53 and closed at 3923.66 points. The market’s overall situation, however, corresponded to an upward trend as it remained at 2.193 million shares to close against previous turnover of 1.904 million shares, showing an upward move of 289,200 shares. While, out of the total 97 active scrips 21 moved up, 19 shed values and 57 remined equal.

Cherat Cement Company Limited, Maple Leaf Cement Factory and Balochistan Glass Limited were Major Gainer of the day by recording increase in their per share value by Rs 2.06, Re 1.00 and Re 1.00 respectively.

Muslim Commercial Bank Limited, Pakistan State Oil Company Limited and Adamjee Insurance Company lost their per share value by Rs 2.00, Rs 1.35 and Rs 1.30 respectively. The Volume Leader of the day included Maple Leaf Cement Factory with 698,000 shares, Silk Bank Limited (Saudi) with 422,500 shares, Lafarge Pakistan Cement with 192,500 shares.—APP

1,217 corporate taxpayers selected for audit STAFF REPORTER I SLAMABAD —The Federal

Bihar was accompanied by a officials of Indian High Comhigh level delegation com- mission in Islamabad.

Mr. Nitish Kumar said I SLAMABAD —Benazir In- prising of Indian Ministers, come Support Programme Members of Assembly and that poverty is beyond the (BISP) is a commendable initiative aiming at poverty alleviation and women empowerment. Various interventions including those in health and education sector have been introduced to uplift the living standards of underprivileged segments of society. India wants to learn from the experiences and success of BISP. These were the views expressed by Mr. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Indian province Bihar during a meeting with Federal Minister and Chairperson BISP Farzana Raja here on ISLAMABAD: Chairperson BISP, Farzana Raja talking Tuesday. The Chief Minister to Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Indian Bihar State.

border phenomenon. He said that various schemes aiming at poverty reduction and provision of job opportunities are being run in India, especially in the province of Bihar.

However, he said, BISP is a unique intervention in the social sector as its offering various services under one roof. He said that the targeting and identification mechanisms adopted by BISP are laudable indeed which has made it a truly wonderful programme.

Chief Minister Bihar said that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had played pivotal role for the sake of democracy. Attributing BISP with her name is one of the major factors behind the success of

Soaring Karachi crimes betray govt claims STAFF REPORTER K A R A C H I —The wave of heinous crimes like target killing, kidnapping and frequent extortions fearlessly is a question on the effectiveness of the rule of law particularly in Karachi, said leaders of the trade and industry today.

Chairman Korangi Association of Trade and Industry, Mohammad Zubair Chhaya has shown his dismay over the ever-increasing target killing in the city and frequent incidents of extortion and street crimes.

In meeting with SPs of Korangi and Landhi areas to discuss law and order situation Zubair said that peaceful industrial environ-

ment is essential in the industrial zones for economic survival of the country.

President All Karachi Industrial Alliance Mian Zahid Hussain, SSP Traffic, KIA Ali Raza, SP KIA, Capt.

Chaudhry Asad, SP Landhi, Abdul Qayyum Patani, Chairman Law and Order Committee, Nadeem Khan, Vice Chairman KATI Niaz Ahmed and Danish Khan attended the meeting.

He urged upon the police high ups to increase police patrol in KIA and strengthen all check posts in and around Korangi industrial area. Mian Zahid Hussain while speaking on the occasion said that Karachi plays most important role in Pakistan’s economy.

this Programme due to her struggle for poverty alleviation and women empowerment, he said.

Earlier, Farzana Raja welcomed the Indian delegation and appraised its members about various initiatives of BISP. She said that BISP is ready to share its experiences with India with regards to steps in the social sector.

She said that it is true that poverty is a trans-national menace, hence Pakistan and India have similar sort of issues in the social sector that ought to be resolved by working together. She added further that BISP has introduced various measures to empower women, children and youth.

STAFF REPORTER KARACHI —A SAFA summit followed the theme “Corporate Governance and Transparency” organized by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) in Lahore.

The Summit was attended by delegates from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Past President and current Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) Abdul Rahim Suriya was the speaker in the session on “Corporate Reporting – a means of Corporate Governance and Transparency “, the first technical session of the Summit. Nazir Ahmed Shaheen, Executive Director, Law Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was the Chief Guest.

Peace boosts trade ties: HC STAFF CORRESPONDENT P E S H AWA R — M a l a y s i a n High Commissioner in Islamabad Dr Hasrul Sani Bin Mujtbar said the restoration of peace further improved economic and trade relations between Pakistan and Malaysia.

He viewed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Afghanistan as a gateway for linking with Central Asian Republic (CARs) states and rest of the world.

He was speaking at Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).

SCCI Chief Mohammad Yousuf Sarwar, vice presidents, Malik Iftikhar Awan, Mohammad Anees Ashraf, members of executive body, renowned industrialists, and businessmen, and leaders of traders community were present. The both side agreed for boosting up mutual trade and economic linkages.

Russia ready to sign PTA with Pakistan SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT on Wednesday.

K ARACHI —Pakistan and Russia are feeling the heat of the long absent direct sea, air and banking links as the two countries are mulling ways to promote bilateral trade to the extent of singing a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).

“The unavailability of direct shipping-lines, airlines and banking channel are major obstacles impeding bilateral trade,” said Andrey V. Demidov, Russian Consul General during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)

At the Chamber, Demidov met KCCI President Muhammad Haroon Agar, Senior Vice President KCCI Shamim Firpo, Vice President Nasir Mehmood, Former President KCCI Majyd Aziz and members of the Chamber ’s managing committee.

The Russian consul general said good prospects for Pak-Russia PTA were existed.

“Russian Mission can prepare feasibility study on PTA as deliberations are required on certain legalities,” he added. Demidov viewed that

Board of Revenue (FBR) has selected 1,217 corporate taxpayers and 8,523 non-corporate taxpayers for income tax, sales tax and federal excise audit for the Tax year 2011 through transparent parametric computer balloting.

The FBR conducted computer ballot for selection of audit cases at the FBR House.

The selection was made on the basis of various risk parameters developed after consultation with all stakeholders.

President of Pakistan Tax Bar Association Zulfiqar Khan pressed the button for selection of cases. Representatives of All Pakistan Tax Bar Association, Islamabad/ Rawalpindi Tax Bar Association, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rawalpindi chamber of Commerce and Industry, media and senior officials of FBR attened the balloting ceremony.

Representatives of chambers and federations congratulated FBR’s Member of Taxpayer Audit for transparent balloting.

CHINIOT: Peasants using machine for harvesting rice.

India to learn from BISP successes STAFF REPORTER

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Sargodha Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on Wednesday inked Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to wage joint efforts and pool their resources for the promotion of trade and industry in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

The LCCI Senior Vice President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh signed the MoU on behalf of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry while Sargodha Chamber of Commerce and Industry was represented by its President Zia Amin Sheikh. LCCI Vice President Mian Abuzar Shad, former President Sargodha Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mazhar Ahmad Malik, Chairman Research and Development Cell of SCCI Faisal Khawaja, Vice Chairman R&D Javaid Iqbal Chaudhry also spoke on the occasion.

As per MoU, both the

chambers would evolve a unified strategy on the issues of common interest, share and exchange all traderelated data with each other for increasing competitiveness of goods and reducing cost of doing business. The Lahore Camber of Commerce and Industry and Sargodha Chamber of Commerce will cooperate in preparation of proposals for Excise and Taxation matters, budgetary recommendations and other national policies.

Both the Chambers would conduct joint research studies to strengthen industries in their respective areas.

Speaking on the occasion, the SCCI President Zia Amin Sheikh said that the harmony between the LCCI and Sargodha Chamber of Commerce would give further boost to the inter chamber interaction. He said that Sargodha is hub of quality Citrus, wooden handicrafts and products made of salt, therefore, offer matchless opportunities for both local and foreign investors.

ICMAP Summit held

ILO holding Business Plan Competition I SLAMABAD —International Labour Organization (ILO) would hold a Business Plan Competition to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship amongst Pakistani women on November 17, (Saturday). In the competition named ‘Khadija’, awards will be given to the best business start-up plans that show the most potential to grow, are in line with market demand and have the potential of achieving socio-economic empowerment of women.

President, Women Chamber of Commerce Lahore, Ms Qaisera, will be the chief guest at the occasion, said a representative of ILO here on Wednesday. —APP

to execute transit trade from Gawader Port, adequate infrastructure, railways, highways and bridges were essential.

He recalled that in early 90’s PIA operated to Moscow and the restoration of such direct air-connectivity was important. “In past, PIA also used to stopover to Moscow while going to UK, while Russian Airline may stopover Islamabad or Karachi while going to UAE which can provide opportunity to visitors of both countries for interaction,” observed the Russian consul.

Stringent check on sale of fake seeds urged STAFF REPORTER L AHORE —The agricultural experts have said that developing countries like Pakistan would have to adopt genetically modified/biotech crops in the shortest possible time to ensure food security for rapidly growing population, saying that the future of agriculture growth depends on biotechnology.

“The sale of illegal/substandard seeds especially Bt cotton seeds is another important issue that needs to be addressed by the government on priority basis to tap true potential of agricultural productivity in the country,”

the experts unanimously said while speaking at extra ordinary general body meeting of Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP), a representative body of farming community, here in Lahore. The event was attended by a large number of farmers from different parts of the country as well as representatives of different seed companies.

Media representatives were also present on the occasion.

On the occasion, corn growers urged the government to approve the genetically modified (GM) corn, which is being planted successfully across the globe, for commercial plantation in Pakistan.

France recognizes Syria opposition, US stays away New treason law in Russia M OSCOW —Russian

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law broadening the definition of treason which opponents say could be used to smother dissent and put almost anyone who has contact with foreigners at risk. The law allows Russians representing international organizations to be charged with treason, as well as those working for foreign intelligence.

It took effect on Wednesday when it was published in the official gazette, despite a promise

by Putin on Monday that he would review it. Political opponents and rights activists say the legislation is the latest in a series of laws intended to crack down on the opposition and reduce foreign influence since he returned to the Kremlin in May for a six-year third term.

“Citizens recruited by international organizations acting against the country’s interests will also be considered traitors”, the official gazette, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, said in a commentary on its website. The maximum sentence for high treason remains 20 years. At a meeting of his human rights council on Monday, Putin listened to a retired Constitutional Court judge’s concerns about the legislation, which she said did not require authorities to prove a suspect damaged state security. Putin indicated at the meeting that he would move cautiously and that the legislation had been scrutinized closely as it passed through parliament. But he also said “nonetheless, I am ready to return to this again, to look more attentively.” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the president had signed the legislation on Tuesday although the Kremlin had not made a formal announcement. Russian officials have said the law is needed to help prevent foreign governments using organizations in Russia to gather state secrets.— Reuters

B EIRUT —France became the first Western power to recognize a fledgling Syrian opposition coalition fully, stepping out beyond the United States, which said on Wednesday the body must first show its clout inside Syria. Six Gulf Arab states recognized the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces on Monday and France followed suit the next day, unlike its European partners.

President Francois Hollande’s decisive posture on Syria recalled that of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy on Libya last year, when France led calls for

NATO action to protect civilians which effectively helped Libyan rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi.

The European Union bans arms sales to Syria, but Hollande said the question of arming rebels would be examined when the coalition formed a transitional government. Paris had previously ruled this out, fearing arms could reach Islamist militants.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the formation of the coalition, which supersedes the widely discredited Syrian National Council as the face of the Syrian opposition, was an important step, but

did not offer it full recognition or arms.

“We have long called for this kind of organization. We want to see that momentum maintained,” Clinton told reporters in the Australian city of Perth. “As the Syrian opposition takes these steps and demonstrates its effectiveness in advancing the cause of a unified, democratic, pluralistic Syria, we will be prepared to work with them to deliver assistance to the Syrian people.” Suhair alAtassi, a vice president of the new coalition, said that once it had proved it represents “revolutionary forces” on the ground, there would be no excuse for Western

powers not to provide some form of military backing.

“The ball now is in the international community’s court,” she told Reuters in an interview in Dubai, blaming Western reticence to arm the rebels for the rise of extremism in Syria. “There is no more excuse to say we are waiting to see how efficient this new body is. They used to put the opposition to the test. Now we put them to the test,” she declared. Syrian insurgents have few weapons against Assad’s air force and artillery, which can pound rebel-held territory at will. A Syrian warplane bombed the town of Ras alAin near the Turkish border

Suu Kyi meets Singh NEW DELHI —

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with India’s prime minister and foreign secretary on Wednesday as part of a trip to establish closer ties between the countries. Suu Kyi, who arrived Tuesday for a five-day visit, met separately with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai. Details of the meetings were not immediately available. 0 Comments Weigh InCorrections?Personal Post Images from around the world Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe. WorldViews How the Petraeus scandal might have gone down in China Max Fisher 7:00 PM ET What if a Chinese Communist Party spychief and top general, rumored to have higher ambitions, suddenly lost office amid an uncertain scandal? Irans hardline media struggles to grasp Petraeus scandal Max Fisher 6:00 PM ET The pro-regime Serat News has some harsh words for Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus.

China shows off its new drone Max Fisher 4:22 PM ET An airshow demonstration of the Wing Loong or Pterosaur unmanned aerial vehicle. Protests break out in Jordan, mention king by name Max Fisher 2:49 AM ET Is this just another bump in the status quo or a serious challenge to the monarchy? In the 1980s and early ‘90s, India was a strong supporter of Suu Kyi in her struggle against the country’s military junta for which she received the Nobel Peace Prize. But in the mid-1990s, India changed tack to engage with the junta, resisting pressure from Western democracies that had imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar. New Delhi insisted it had to follow a pragmatic policy because it needed its neighbor’s help in cracking down on Indian rebels who had built hideouts in the jungles along the India-Myanmar border. The new policy also underscored India’s quest for energy supplies and concerns about China’s strong influence in the Southeast Asian country. Suu Kyi also visited the memorials of Indian independence leaders Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru on Wednesday, and delivered the prestigious Nehru Memorial Lecture, held annually to mark the birthday of independent India’s first elected leader. —AP

Pelosi to stay in WH W ASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi told House of Representatives Democrats on Wednesday that she plans to stay on as minority leader, according to a source close to the San Francisco lawmaker. “She will continue to serve as Democratic Leader. She has just announced her decision to her Caucus,” the source told reporters on condition of anonymity. Pelosi was scheduled to hold a 10 a.m. press conference with House Democratic women. “Ten years ago today, Nancy Pelosi was elected as the first woman to lead a political party in Congress,” said the source. “She will continue to lead a united Democratic Caucus that will play a crucial role in developing a responsible deficit reduction package—working with President Obama and our colleagues in the Senate—that protects Social Security and Medicare, the middle class and children, while asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.”—AP

sole authority.

France, however, went ahead on its own. Hollande told a news conference in the French capital that Paris recognized the new Syrian national coalition “as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and as future government of a democratic Syria making it possible to bring an end to Bashar al-Assad’s regime”. Clinton announced an extra $30 million in aid to those affected by the war in Syria, to be delivered via the United Nations’ World Food Programme, which is supplying food to more than a million people in Syria and to 408,000 Syrian refugees.—Reuters

Turkey warns Syria on border violation C E Y L A N P I N A R — T u r k e y fired on targets in Syria

China’s Hu clears way for Xi to take party helm B EIJING —President Hu Jintao stepped aside as ruling party leader Wednesday to clear the way for Vice President Xi Jinping to take China’s helm as part of only the second orderly transfer of power in 63 years of Communist rule. In a possible break from tradition, Hu may also be giving up his post as head of the commission that oversees the military, which would give Xi greater leeway to consolidate his authority when he takes over. A top general indicated Hu would not stay on in the military post. Hu and other senior leaders mostly in their late 60s are handing over power to leader-in-waiting Xi and other colleagues in their late 50s over the next several months. The new leadership faces daunting challenges including slowing growth in the world’s No. 2 economy, rising unrest among increasingly assertive citizens and delicate relations with neighboring countries. In keeping with the widely anticipated succession plans, Hu was not re-elected a member of the party’s Central Committee on the final day of a pivotal party congress, showing that he’s no longer in the political leadership. Delegates said they cheered when the announced results of secret balloting showed that Xi had been unanimously chosen for the committee, a step toward being named to the topmost panel, the Politburo Standing Committee, and becoming party leader as expected on Thursday. Li Keqiang, designated as the next premier, also was elected to the Central Committee of 205 full members. “We were very happy, and the whole assembly responded with warm applause,” said delegate Si Zefu, president of the Dongfang Electric Corp. based in the central city of Chengdu. Previous outgoing leaders, including former President Jiang Zemin, have held onto the military post for a transitional period to extend their grip on power. Asked by Hong Kong reporters if Hu would retain his chairmanship of the military commission, Zhang Qinsheng, deputy chief of general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, said the central leadership “had no such arrangements.

again on Wednesday, rocking buildings on the frontier and sending up huge plumes of smoke, in the latest of several attacks since rebels captured the town last week.

After 20 months of a conflict that has killed more than 38,000 people, fragmented Syrian opposition groups struck a deal in Qatar on Sunday to form a coalition led by Damascus preacher Mouaz Alkhatib, who has appealed for international recognition.

Arab League and EU foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Tuesday welcomed the coalition’s formation as an important step, but did not recognize it as Syria’s

Demonstrators hold banners reading ‘General Strike’ in Barcelona during strike on Wednesday.

Anti-austerity protests, strikes spread across Europe B ARCELONA — Flights and trains were canceled across Europe on Wednesday as thousands of workers took to the streets to protest austerity measures aimed at reducing massive government deficits and boosting shaky economies.

“We all know that reforms, layoffs and cuts will continue but maybe we manage to get them cut (more slowly),” said Francisco Vallejo, 41, an administrative assistant in Madrid. “The only strike that is useless is the one we don’t follow.”

Unions had called for strikes across Europe to protest the trimming of government-funded salaries and pension benefits, which had risen dramatically over the years and led to significant debt problems in some countries.

The call to strike was heeded by many in Italy and Spain; but union workers in Britain, Germany and Denmark held rallies instead of walking off the job.

Transport hubs were at standstill across southern Europe and in Brussels as airports and train stations shut down. Clashes between protesters and police were reported in Spain and Italy but demonstrations remained largely peaceful. World stock markets were mixed Wednesday.

The so-called austerity measures comprise spending cuts, tax hikes and changes to labour laws to allow businesses to better adjust to shaky economies. But several governments and many workers worry that the measures may worsen economies by driving down individual incomes.

The protests Wednesday brought out people who blame the economic system as a whole.

“They’ve only just started cuts but they are pretty draconian already,” said Andrew Burgin, European officer for the Coalition of Resistance in London, which organized a rally outside the European Commission offices there. “I think this is the beginning of a new movement. It will be a day remembers in history as the beginning of a pan-European movement, possibly an international movement, against capitalism.”

But European leaders, such as Angela Merkel of Germany, says the problem is the massive debts piled up by individual nations, many of which like Greece and Portugal spent beyond revenues on public projects, expanding welfare and government jobs, and generous public benefits.

Greece and Spain, which have been hit hardest by an economic slowdown and debt

crisis that has swept up several nations across the continent, are experiencing unemployment rates of more than 25%. Both countries passed measures recently to change labor laws that protected employees from layoffs and that businesses say prevented them from hiring or innovating.

The austerity measures are supposed to improve the economy over time but in the short-term people in Greece and Spain especially are experiencing curtailment of government health care, reductions in their pensions and salaries and higher taxes.

“Of course it’s a political strike, against the policies of a suicidal and anti-social government,” said Igancio Fernandez Toxo, a Spanish union leader, at a protest.

Analysts were skeptical about the effectiveness of the strikes.

“I think we have already seen turn in the European crisis management toward a more social management, meaning, like in the case of Greece and Spain, that more time is given for the reforms to be implemented due to the social impact, not to somehow totally overburden the countries with the implementation of the measures,” said Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING in Brussels.— AP

Palestine UN bid endangers accords: Israel JERUSALEM — Israeli diplo- On Wednesday, a U.S. envoy bility. mats have put foreign leaders on notice that their country will consider its historic peace accords with the Palestinians null and void if they ask the United Nations for a state, according to a document obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The list of Foreign Ministry talking points also instructs diplomats to tell world leaders that Israel will retaliate against the move, without specifying details.

The Palestinians, frustrated with a four-year impasse in peace efforts, say they will ask the U.N. General Assembly on Nov. 29 to give them upgraded observer status. A draft resolution floated by the Palestinians seeks international recognition of their state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

Israel and the U.S. strongly oppose the effort, saying all matters must be resolved through negotiations.

was set to meet the Palestinian president in Switzerland in a last-ditch bid to halt the bid.

The document says U.N. General Assembly approval of the Palestinian request would violate 1990s agreements between the two sides and “give Israel the right to reconsider and nullify” them in whole or in part. “Adoption of the resolution by the General Assembly will have grave consequences, and set in motion unilateral Israeli responses,” the ministry communique said, cautioning that it would also complicate future diplomatic progress.

Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon, speaking in a similar vein, told Army Radio on Wednesday that his country would “have to take steps to make it clear that there will be a heavy price” if the statehood petition goes ahead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also warned previously that a statehood appeal would push peace further away and lead to insta-

Late Tuesday, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned that the planned Palestinian move would undermine negotiations. “None of us should act in any way that would place a return to talks at risk. There can be no substitute for meaningful negotiations,” he said in a speech at Yale University.

Palestinians, exasperated after 44 years of Israeli occupation, insist they have no choice but to sidestep talks that have foundered for nearly two decades amid a toxic mix of intransigence, violence and failure of will.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists he hasn’t closed the door on negotiations, but only on condition Israel stop building settlements on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. Israel refuses to do that, saying the future of settlements will be settled once an agreement is reached on the final borders of Jewish and Palestinian states.— AP

Croatia Deputy PM punished for car crash B U D A P E S T —Cr o a t i a ’s deputy prime minister, Radimir Cacic, has been given a 22-month prison sentence by a Hungarian court for causing a fatal car crash in Hungary in 2010, a court spokesman and Cacic’s lawyer told Reuters on Wednesday. In a previous ruling in June, Cacic was given a suspended 22month prison sentence but this has now been changed and Cacic will need to start his sentence probably in 12 months, Attila Vadocz, spokesman for the Kaposvar court said. Cacic is also economy minister and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic’s closest ally in the centre-left cabinet. The ruling is not open to appeal.— Reuters

Hamas military chief killed in Israeli attack G AZA — Israeli aircraft attacked a car in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing Hamas military chief al-Jabari with multiple Israeli attacks rocking the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military confirmed the incident, which appeared to end a 24hour lull in cross-border violence that surged this week.

Jabari becomes the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago, who has long topped Israel’s mostwanted list. Witnesses say Jabari was traveling in his vehicle in Gaza City when his car exploded. Jabari is claimed to oversaw the detention of Gilad Shalit. Hamas said Ahmed Al-Jabari, who ran the Izz elDeen Al-Qassam, died along with a passenger after their car was targeted by an Israeli missile.Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service confirmed it had carried out the attack, saying it had killed Jabari because of his “decadelong terrorist activity”.

“The purpose of this operation was to severely impair the command and control chain of the Hamas leadership,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

Immediate calls for revenge were broadcast over Hamas radio and smaller groups also warned of retaliation.“Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences,” Islamic Jihad said.A Reuters witness reported there were multiple Israeli airstrikes against the coastal enclave, but it was not immediately clear what else had been targeted. —Turkish News

Turkey on Wednesday warned that its military would retaliate if any Syrian aircraft violate its airspace amid a third day of air strikes by Syrian forces against rebels who overran a town along the border with Turkey.

An Associated Press video journalist in the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar witnessed a Syrian air strike in the adjacent Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, where rebels say they have ousted troops loyal to President Bashar Assad.

Deadly air strikes began several days ago, and many casualties were rushed into Turkey for treatment. Local officials said as many as 30 people have died since Monday.

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency and other Turkish media said several villages west of Ceylanpinar have been evacuated to protect residents from any spillover of fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels.

About 1,000 people left Mursitpinar, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from Ceylanpinar, after an appeal from the loudspeakers of local mosques.

Turkey’s defense minister, Ismet Yilmaz, indicated that Turkey would use military force in response to any incursions

by Syrian aircraft. Last month, Turkish artillery

after Syrian shells landed inside Turkey and killed several Turkish civilians in one instance.

“The necessary response will be given to Syrian planes and helicopters that violate our border,” Yilmaz said.

Also Wednesday, the AP journalist saw Syrian forces shelling a wooded area near Ras al-Ayn from where rebels had been firing on them.

A Turkish official in Ceylanpinar said the sound of shelling was heard throughout the night.

Two rocket-propelled grenades hit houses on the Turkish side, but there were no injuries, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is barred from speaking to the media on the record.

Ras al-Ayn is located in the northeastern Syrian province of al-Hasaka, an oil-producing region where the population is mostly Kurdish.

The violence in Syria has killed more than 36,000 people since an uprising against Assad’s regime began in March 2011.

Hundreds of thousands have fled the fighting into neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq .

Another 11,000 escaped into Turkey last week following the surge of fighting at Ras al-Ayn. —AP

US Senate passes bill boosting payments to veterans W ASHINGTON — The Sen- necessary. ate sent the White House a bill on Tuesday giving nearly 4 million veterans and survivors a 1.7 percent increase in their monthly benefit payments next year.

Democrats said the normally routine measure was delayed for weeks because an unidentified Republican senator objected to it.

Republicans were not given enough time to ensure that all senators were okay with the bill, said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He said the clearance process was completed soon after Congress adjourned for the elections and that Democrats could have brought the bill up if

When the Senate returned this week, it acted quickly to ensure that checks issued beginning in January reflect the adjustment for the higher cost of living.

The House approved the measure in July. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, welcomed the financial boost.

“Particularly in this difficult economy, our veterans deserve a boost in their benefits to help make ends meet,” Murray said.—AP

Blasts kill 14 across Iraq BAGHDAD—A series of car neously, killing nine people bombs killed at least 14 people across Iraq early on Wednesday, the eve of a Muslim festival to mark the start of the Islamic year, police and hospital sources said.

The holy month of Muharram is of special significance to Shi’a Muslims, who are a prime target of alQaeda’s Iraqi affiliate and other Sunni Islamist insurgents seeking to re-ignite the kind of sectarian violence that gripped the country in 2006-2007.

The deadliest explosion took place in the disputed and ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, 250km north of the capital Baghdad, where four bombs planted in parked cars went off simulta-

and wounding 30, police said.

In the southern city of Hilla, 100km south of Baghdad, four people were killed in a car bomb blast, police and hospital sources said.

“A car bomb exploded near a secondary school for girls and a crowded poultry market, leaving four dead, including innocent students. It’s a real vicious terrorist act,” said Hamza Kadhim, a local official in Hilla. Another car bomb targeting an Interior Ministry official in central Baghdad killed one passerby and wounded nine others, including three policemen, hospital and police sources said.— Reuters

1st Test: BD swift in reply to WI’s 527 D H A K A —At one end was Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who took seven-and-a-half hours to make his second Test double hundred. At the other end was Tamim Iqbal, who hit so many boundaries in his 72 that he turned the single into an event. In the end, Bangladesh were halfway towards the follow-on mark, at the cost of their top order.

West Indies didn’t lose a wicket in two sessions today, with Denesh Ramdin making a hundred and putting on 296 with Chanderpaul. After Darren Sammy declared with Chanderpaul having equalled his highest Test score, West Indies did lose their bearings for a bit, though, as Tamim, along with Shahriar Nafees briefly, entertained the sparse crowd with a thrill-a-minute show of unrestrained hitting.

Bangladesh tend to regularly indulge in such shows, but they generally prove to be self-consuming in Test cricket. Tamim and Nafees both fell to urges to manufacture outrageous strokes, and it was down to Naeem Islam and Shakib Al Hasan to shut down the thrill store for the evening.

Tamim’s first boundary was fortuitous, when a lifter from Ravi Rampaul took the edge and flew over the slip cordon. A similar, and better MIRPUR: Shivnarine Chanderpaul attempts to play a shot during Bangladesh vs West targeted, snorter soon con- Indies 1st Test on Wednesday. sumed Junaid Siddique.

Then began the Tamim-and- Nafees display. It barely lasted eight overs, fetched posing score. They batted Bangladesh 63 runs, 52 of nearly three sessions, and which came in boundaries. their near-triple century The highlight was Tamim’s stand came at a healthy rate Nasir Hossain ........ 1-0-8-0 assault on Tino Best, who of 3.57 runs an over.

West Indies 1st innings: Chanderpaul, troubled a Gayle c Mahmudullah b Tamim Iqbal .......... 1-0-10-0 was punched, pulled and driven for four fours in an few times in the morning by Sohag Gazi ..................... 24 Bangladesh 1st innings: the quicks, but otherwise in Powell b Sohag Gazi ... 117 Tamim Iqbal c Narine over.

The suicidal moments control, kept leaving offerBravo c Rubel b Gazi .... 14 b Sammy ......................... 72 MN Samuels c Sohag Gazi Junaid c Bravo b Rampaul 7 arrived soon enough. After ings outside off stump, but b Shahadat Hossain ..... 16 Shahriar Nafees c Ramdin hitting seven fours in his 31, still managed to outscore Chanderpaul not out .. 203 b Rampaul ...................... 31 Nafees flailed at one too Ramdin. Chanderpaul hit D Ramdin not out ........ 126 Naeem Islam not out ..... 27 close to him, and was caught fewer boundaries on the day Extras: ....... (b 4, lb 13, w 2, Shakib Al Hasan not out16 behind off Rampaul. Tamim than Ramdin, and went nb 8) ................................ 27 Extras: (b4, lb4, w1, nb2)11 carried on a while longer and about his job unobtrusively Total: (4 wickets dec) .. 527 Total: (3 wickets) ......... 164 hit Sunil Narine for two sixes as usual. Singles were Fall of wickets 1-32, 2-74, 3- Fall of wickets 1-25, 2-88, 3- in three deliveries before picked regularly, deliveries somehow managing to ten- were worked from off 119 106, 4-231 Bowling: ........... O-M-R-W Bowling: ........... O-M-R-W nis-forehand a short and through midwicket, and he enough to let Sohag Gazi ....... 47-7-145-3 R Rampaul ............ 8-0-49-2 wide Sammy delivery to did Bangladesh know who was Shahadat ............ 21-3-85-1 TL Best ................. 7-1-31-0 short mid-on.

The frenzied action was in charge.

Rubel Hossain ... 18-0-89-0 DJG Sammy .......... 5-0-21-1 What stood about Mahmudullah .... 14-0-45-0 SP Narine ............ 10-3-40-0 in stark contrast to the calm in which Ramdin’s innings was his Shakib Al Hasan34-4-104-0 V Permaul ............... 3-2-1-0 manner Naeem Islam ......... 8-1-24-0 CH Gayle .............. 3-0-14-0 Chanderpaul and Ramdin desire to bat long - he was took West Indies to an im- at the crease for five-and-a-

Umar dropped

by SNGPL LAHORE—Umar Akmal, the Pakistan batsman, has been left out by his department side SNGPL from the President’s Trophy, the Pakistan’s domestic first-class tournament.

Akmal had skipped several rounds of the tournament, but was ‘discouraged’ after being dropped as he had hoped to show his Test credentials in the remaining rounds of the competition.

SNGPL are currently unbeaten in the President’s Trophy, topping the table with 45 points after winning five of their six matches.—APP

half hours. He did loft the spinners for a few boundaries after getting to his second Test hundred of the year but before that, he had gone through several periods of denial, refusing to go after innocuous stuff from the tiring spinners.

For a side that had conceded 361 on the first day, Bangladesh started promisingly. They restricted the batsmen, and even created a few opportunities, but fortune and consistency continued to desert them. The home side could have had an opening off the second ball of the day when the tireless debutant Sohag Gazi beat Ramdin in the flight. But to sum up Bangladesh’s morning, not only did the ball turn past the stumps, it also beat the wicketkeeper.

The second over, bowled by Rubel, held more pointers to the day. Rubel sprayed the first ball down the pads to concede four leg-byes, offered enough width outside off on the fourth to be taken for four to third man and Ramdin’s slash eluded gully off the fifth to go for another boundary.

Bangladesh managed to at least slow things down considerably. They did not have any wickets to show for their effort, but a firstsession run-rate of 2.71 was evidence enough of how much two well-set batsmen had to work for their runs.

However, Bangladesh’s fight evaporated after lunch.

One of their fast bowlers, Shahadat Hossain, didn’t bowl in the second session, the other, Rubel, bowled just two overs, and Tamim sent down only his fifth over in Tests. Shakib was reduced to bowling flat and wide outside off stump. Gazi ended up sending down 47 overs in his debut.

Chanderpaul motored along at his own pace all day and eventually brought up his double with a dab past point for two in the 143rd over. An over later, Sammy called his men back. The pitch had remained largely sedate, and he would need all the time to enable his bowlers to take 20 wickets.

As it turned out, Bangladesh have already gifted him two.—AFP

Finn, Sharma out of first India-England Test AHMEDABAD (India)—India and England will be without the services of fast bowlers Ishant Sharma and Steven Finn when they open a fourTest series in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Finn has not recovered from a thigh strain suffered in England’s three-day tour opener in Mumbai last month, while Sharma was ruled out of the first Test due to viral fever he picked up on Tuesday.

The duo’s absence was confirmed by rival captains Alastair Cook and Mahendra Singh Dhoni at a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, even as speculation mounted over the likely nature of the newly-laid pitch.

Both Dhoni and Cook expected the dry surface at the Motera stadium to assist spin, but added its unknown quality would generate considerable interest for the two teams.

“Wickets could change a lot in 24 hours, but it looks quite dry,” said Cook. “The pitch has been re-laid and so there are not many statistics available that are relevant to the wicket.”

Dhoni, who had openly called on groundsmen across India to prepare turning pitches against spinwary tourists, termed it a “good wicket”.

“It definitely looks dry and I feel it will turn,” he said, but indicated India were un-

likely to field a third specialist spinner in Harbhajan Singh to bowl alongside Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha.

“The fast bowlers could also get a bit of reverse swing.

It’s always advisable to have a bowling attack that has people available for different

sive 4-0 routs in England and Australia over the past year, but Dhoni refused to term the upcoming matches as a grudge series.

“When we go on to the field there will be a red ball and there will be two teams playing,” he said. “You can name it whatever you want

scenarios.”

England have proved vulnerable against the turning ball this year, losing 3-0 to Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in JanuaryFebruary before forcing a 11 draw in Sri Lanka in March.

The tourists now confront an Indian side that usually makes up for its poor record abroad by dominating all comers on home soil, where it has lost just one series out of 16 in the past 10 years. India are desperate to make amends for two succes-

but it does not change the fact that this is another Test match.

“In your own country you are supposed to be good. But when you play abroad it’s a fresh challenge.

Every country feels the same. It’s no different for England.”

Cook said he was “nervous and excited” leading England as a full-time Test captain since taking over from Andrew Strauss, who retired after the 2-0 loss to South Africa at home in August.—AFP

Champions Trophy: Pak hockey team named, chief coach eyes fourth/fifth place Football: Brazil remain outside

LAHORE: Players of Punjab White and Mangolia struggle for the ball during a match of International Chief Minister Punjab Football Tournament.

L AHORE —Pakistan hockey we have included two un- pointed full back Mohammad Bhutta, Shafqar Rasool,

Shakeel Abbasi, Kashif Shah, Mohammad Atiq, Rizwan Jr, Touseeq Ahmed, Hisseem Khan, Rizwan Sr, Ali Shan and Kashif Ahmed. “ We have selected the team purely on merit and we seek God’s help for improving its performance during two hockey assignments in Australia “,he added. Prior to its participation the team will also play in 9-a-side hockey tournament commencing from November 22.

The team official said the participation in champions trophy is very significant in order to improve its ranking .”We will be going all out to produce a better show to improve from our number seventh ranking to number four or five and if we do so it will be a big accomplishment, he asserted.

Akhtar Rasool said the team management is under heavy load of responsibility as it is also performing the duties of the selection committee. “ Our aim is to inspire the team to a level to struck its peak during the Champions trophy and to improve its ranking, he said adding “ the task is tough amid presence of world’s best eight teams but achievable as Pak team is full of talent and potential .”

He blamed lack of clubs activities for the overall downfall of hockey in Pakistan and said clubs have almost vanished from the hockey scene and those which exist are making lesser efforts to strengthen the base ISLAMABAD: Squash players during 2nd All Pakistan Inter-University Squash Championship 2012-13 organized of the game at grass root

by Preston University in collaboration with Higher Education Commission at Sports Complex. level.—APP team announced here on Wednesday for Champions trophy has two new faces in Kashif Ahmed and Mohammad Atiq and the team management is hoping to improve Pakistan’s ranking by putting up a good show in 8-nation event being played from December 2 in Melbourne.

“It is the most suitable combination selected from the 27 camp probables and

capped players keeping in view our preparations for 2014 World Cup ,” said Chief coach and manager of the team, Akhtar Rasool Chaudhary while addressing a news conference to announce the 18-member squad.

He said Kashif will strengthen the forward line and Atiq will reinforce the defence as a full back . The team management has ap-

Imran as the captain of the team which also has the services of veteran defender ,Wasim Ahmed who was also part of the teams during this summer’s Olympics in London.

The squad is the Imran Shah, Imran Butt, Mohammad Imran (captain), Waqas Sharif (vice captgain), Wasim Ahmed, Mohammad Rashid, Farid Ahmed,Mohammad Umer

world rankings top 10 Z URICH —Five-times world champions Brazil remained stuck outside the top 10 of the FIFA world rankings on Wednesday despite winning both friendlies last month and scoring 10 goals in the process. Brazil, whose next game is against Colombia next week, thumped Iraq 6-0 and Japan 4-0 yet rose only one place in the controversial table, from

a record low 14th to 13th.

Despite winning most of their games, the 2014 World Cup hosts, who qualify automatically for the tournament, have been slipping steadily down the table over the last year as they have only been playing friendlies which carry less weight in the complex system.

Mano Menezes’s side

have played 19 games since the Copa America last year, winning 15.

South American champions Uruguay’s dramatic loss of form cost them a place in the top 10 as they slipped from seventh to 11th. They were thumped 3-0 by neighbours Argentina in World Cup qualifying and slumped to a 4-1 defeat in Bolivia.—AP

Pakistan team will win hearts of Indians, promises PCB chairman BIPIN DANI OBSERVER CORRESPONDENT M UMBAI —The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has sent a “get well soon” message to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackrey. This was revealed by the PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf.

Speaking exclusively over telephone from his Lahore residence, he said, “we have sent him a letter with flower bouquet at his Shiv Sena office in Mumbai”. “In our letter, we have expressed our concern about his health and wished him speedy recov-

ery. We have been praying for his good health and fans in this country want to see him at all match-venues”, he added.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackrey has been opposing the Pakistan cricket team’s tour of India next month.

“We want to win the hearts of Indian people”, he added.

Pakistan team is scheduled to play two Twenty20 and three ODIs’ during their two-week tour (Dec. 25, 2012 to January 6, 2013).of India.

“The forthcoming revival series between India and Pakistan will be the biggest ever and much bigger than the

Ashes between Australia and England”, Ashraf hoped.

“The matches betwwen India and Pakistan will have more market value”.

The PCB has planned to send ten former greats to witness the matches.

Unlike Gavaskar-Border trophy being played between India and Australia, the PCB is not in favour of naming the Trophy on individual players’ names.

“Yes, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev are legendary living all-rounders, but we would like the people of both nations interact heart to heart with each other”, Ashraf concluded.

Migraines Linked to Brain Lesions in Women

R

ESEARCHERS report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that women, who are three times as likely as men to experience migraines, may suffer from other consequences of the painful headaches apart from the common symptoms of nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light.

Women who have migraines are twice as likely as non-sufferers to show structural changes, or lesions, due to inadequate blood flow in certain parts of the brain.

The role that these lesions may play in health, however, still aren’t obvious. “Patients should not live with the idea that each migraine attack is potentially ‘damaging’ their brains,” corresponding study author Mark Kruit says in an email to TIME discussing the results. “Patients should know that the [volume] of changes is small, and that they are not related to worse cognitive function. [T]here is no need for changes in the way migraine patients are treated, based on the study results.”

Previous MRI brain scans of migraine patients found unusual “hyperintensities” — bright areas suggesting areas of poor blood flow. But those studies could not determine which came first — whether people with migraines tend to develop brain lesions, or whether the brain lesions trigger migraines.

Those studies also could not track whether each successive migraine would expand the size of the brain lesions, leading to worsening symptoms.

So Kruit, a radiologist and neurologist working in Leiden in the Netherlands, joined with a Dutch team of doctors to study migraine in nearly 300 adults living in that country. Most of the participants suffered from migraines, but some did not. Researchers scanned the brains of all of the participants at the start of the study, in 2000, and again in 2009. By comparing the images taken in the same year, Kruit and his colleagues could measure differences in brain lesions between the migraine patients and those who did not suffer from the headaches.

And by comparing scans for the same patients taken nine years apart, they could also record whether those with migraine history are more likely to develop new brain lesions over time, whether existing lesions grow faster among people with more migraine attacks, or whether the lesions are linked to declines in cognitive skills. The researchers found no difference in outcomes among men. Both men with migraines and those without the headaches were equally likely to show hyperintensities on the MRI scans.

But it was a different story for the women.

Both in 2000 and in 2009, women with migraines had higher lesion volume than those without migraines, and during the study period their lesions also progressed faster than those among women without migraines.

However, the growth of these lesions was not associated with the frequency or intensity of migraines, or to the presence of aura.

KARACHI: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan chairing a meeting with businessmen community at Governor House.

Sindh Assembly session from today OBSERVER REPORT

the provincial The official statement KARACHI—Governor Sindh SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT over government’s efforts to bring quoted trader leader Sirtaj Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan has KARACHI—The Sindh govern- the law and order situation of Qasim Teli as saying that the summoned the Sindh Assembly session to reassemble here at the Assembly Secretariat from today, Thursday.

According to a notification issued by acting Secretary Sindh Assembly Ghulam Muhammad Umar Farooq, the provincial legislators would gather at the legislature on 10am.

Farooq is officiating in place of Secretary Sindh Assembly Hadi Bux Buriro who is under treatment after being wounded in an accident on the National Highway his way to home in the interior of Sindh.

The governors are constitutionally empowered to convene the session of their respective provincial assemblies under Clause (a) of Article 109.

KARACHI: General Secretary Supreme Court Bar Association Javeed Iqbal Raja addressing a press conference at Supreme Court Registry office.

Sri Lankan delegation visits SSUET, discusses coop in academic sector KARACHI—An eight-member Kumara, Deputy Mayor of added. Baiz appreciated the Sri Lankan delegation, headed

by Chairman, Puttalam Urban Council and Minister for Health, Indigenous Medicine, Sports and Youth Affairs, visited Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) and exchanged views on matters of bilateral cooperation in the field of education.

An official of SSUET said here on Wednesday that the delegation comprised K.A. Baiz, Mayor of Puttalam, Chief Government Organizer for Puttalam Electorate, N.T.M Thahir, Member of North Western Provincial Government, A.M. Kamardeen, Member of North Western Provincial Government, R.A.S. Pushpa

Puttalam, A.O. Alikhan, Opposition Leader for Puttalam, M.T.N. Ameen, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Party Member for Puttalam Urban Council and W.M.M.B Weerasakara, Commissioner of Local Government and Representative of Governor of NWP. Mayor of Puttalam and Chief Government Organizer for Puttalam Electorate, K.A. Baiz said that efforts are being made to improve further bilateral cooperation in academic sector, for which vast potential exists between two countries.

We are planning for interactive sessions with the officials of Sir Syed University to open its campus in Sri Lanka, he

University’s role in helping the students in acquiring knowledge in modern technologies through highly competent and capable faculty and state of the art equipment. He was impressed with the presentation given by Prof.

Shahid Saleem providing complete information about Sir Syed University with the help of statistics. Speaking on the occasion, Mayor Abdul Baiz emphasized the need to explore new avenues of bilateral economic and commercial cooperation.

He was of the view that Puttalam Urban Council can join hands with SSUET in areas of mutual cooperation in the field of education.—APP

Ebad pledges 50pc financing of monitoring systems

Dacoits killed in encounter with police STAFF REPORTER K ARACHI — Police on Wednesday claimed to have killed three alleged dacoits during an encounter in Karachi as the metropolis continued reeling from violence motivated by political and sectarian rivalries. Officials said a police party stopped during snap-checking four suspects riding two motorbikes near Quaidabad’s Daud Chowrangi.

“The shootout took place when the dacoits didn’t stop and sped away opening fire on the policemen. Three of them were killed while two of our constables sustained bullet injures in exchange of fire,” an official said. He claimed that the victims were dacoits, adding that their bodies and the injured cops were shifted to Jinnah hospital

ment would provide the traders and industrialists of this violence-hit city with 50 percent of the funds they would be using to install high-tech equipment to make their monitoring systems fool-proof.

The pledge was made by Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan with an appreciative delegation of traders and industrialists who, led by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), visited Governor House Wednesday.

According to an official statement issued by the Governor House, the traders and industrialists expressed satisfaction

the city under control. The governor told the KCCI members that the financing for the acquisition of their monitoring systems would be provided from the province’s development funds. Dr Ebad said modern technology was being introduced along with an effective community policing to root out menaces of extortions and targeted killing from the city.

The governor on the occasion directed the IG Sindh, Commissioner Karachi and DG Rangers to accelerate the ongoing measures underway to check the criminals in the metropolis.

KMC’s 3-day free eye, medical camp STAFF REPORTER KARACHI—Providing medical facilities to poor and deserving people was a great work and such people were serving humanity in the society.

Chief Officer Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Matanat Ali Khan said this whie addressing as chief guest after inaugurating 3-day free eye medical camp and the medical laboratory opened in the building of Fatima Hospital in Surjani Town by Hawwa Almaul-Shifa Trust.

Director Local Government Mushtaq Ahmed, Fatima Surayya Bajya, Wahid Ali Rehmani and others were also present on this occasion, said a statement. Matanat Ali Khan said that medical equipments for other medical facilities would be provided in hospital in the future and KMC would fully cooperate in providing

medical facilities to poor and deserving people.

He admired the services of chairman of the Organization Wahid Ali Rehmani.

Fatima Surayya Bajya also spoke on this occasion and said that it was a big responsibility that I had been made the head of this organization to serve the poor and needy people.

Chairman of the organization Wahid Ali Rehmani said that this organization was based 20 years ago which had been a medical hospital where general OPD, gynecology, eye OPD and medical lab were available.

In 3-day eye camp 41 eye phaco surgeries were done, 40 gynecologic patients were provided medical treatment and 315 sugar patients were also cured. Later, the Chief Officer KMC visited camp and distributed spectacles and medicines among eye patients.

pledges made previously with traders by the Sindh governor had been materialized by 30 to 60 percent.

Later, President KCCI Haroon Agar told the reporters that his side’s meeting with the governor was fruitful as the later had assured the traders of further improvement in the city’s law and order before November 30. He said the governor vowed to ensure permanent deployment of the police in all major city neighborhoods, particularly the old city areas. He said the governor also would convene another review meeting of the traders after Muharram.

Sattar hints at conspiracy to shatter sectarian violence STAFF REPORTER KARACHI—Deputy Convener of the Co-ordination Committee of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Dr Farooq Sattar has said that the people of Pakistan would continue their struggle for religious tolerance and sectarian harmony. He said that Pakistan was passing through critical circumstances and the conspiracy to shred sectarian harmony into pieces by pitching people against each other was at its height. He was speaking at a large gathering of religious scholars in Jinnah Ground Azizabad on for forging sectarian harmony during the month of Muharram.

Dr Sattar said that there was no issue of sectarian differences at the time of independence in 1947 but now after the passage of 65 years a group has emerged in the country that wants to impose its particular lifestyle on the rest of the people.

Bilawal calls for strict security plan during Muharram STAFF REPORTER KARACHI—Chairperson Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has emphasized the need for implementation of strict security plan during the month of Muharram-ul-Haram in Sindh.

He emphasized this at a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and the President PPP Women Wing MNA Faryal Talpur in Karachi on Wednesday.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari underlined the need for ensuring protection to the life and property of the people with comprehensive security arrangements particularly during the month of Muharram-ul-Haram.

The meeting discussed at length the law and order situation in the province and the measures adopted by the government for providing security to law abiding people.

The meeting also discussed in detail the party affairs and the political situation and took various decisions including further activation of the party as well as addressing of the problems of the party workers.

Karachi administrator visits under-construction hospitals KARACHI—KMC Administra- The hospital building which

tor Muhammad Hussain Syed said construction of a 50 bed each hospital in Gulistan-eJauhar and Federal B-Area Block 13 was started to provide better health care facilities to citizens.

He said this on a visit of both under construction hospitals along with the D.G Technical Services Altaf G. Memon, Sr. Director Medical Services Dr. A.D Sajnani, Sr. Director T& C Muhammad Ather, Project Directors and other concerned engineers.

The Administrator Karachi said sum of Rs 165 million would incur on the construction of hospital in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and this KARACHI: Police checking vehicles on a roadside in city to avoid any incident on Wednesday. would be completed in a year.

spread on 48000 square feet would have the emergency, diagnosis facility, OPD, Operation Theatre, ICU, Wards for Women and Children and General Wards.

This three storey hospital would provide medical facilities to the residents of localities located at from around Nipa Chowrangi to Safoora Goth, he added.

While visiting the Federal B-Area Block 13, Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed said this hospital would be constructed with a cost of Rs 165 million in a year with all the necessary medical and health care facilities to be provided in this three storey KARACHI: Provincial Minister Faisal Sabzwari inaugurating youth festival at Arts Council on Wednesday. building.—APP

Autumn superfoods for health

A

UTUMN and winter eating is some thing to look forward to. It is the ideal time to savor comfort food, and some of the best is at its peak when the weather turns cold. Pumpkins, pomegranates, nuts, beets and sweet potatoes are all at their best.

Apart from pumpkin pie, which is a perennial favorite, winter squash appears in many forms, and whether you choose butternut or acorn squash, they can be a wonderful addition to stews, soups and curries in addition to being delicious simply roasted on their own or stuffed. All these autumn foods are packed with vitamins and minerals and many provide a special bonus in the form of antioxidants.

They help us to get through the long cold days of winter in excellent health.

The European settlers who came to the new world had not seen anything like an autumn squash before.

Squash is a word that originates from “askutasquash,” a word used by the Narragansett Indians. Even now, the variety of shapes and colors is impressive.

Winter squash consists not only of carbohydrates, it also features prodigious amounts of vitamin A in the form of betacarotene and a low calorie count. Their high levels of potassium and their easy digestibility make them a perfect choice for comforting and healthy fall and winter cooking.

Pomegranates are becoming ever more popular, and whereas just a few years ago it was rare to find one even in a gourmet food store, you now can often find them in your

local supermarket. Low in calories, with no fat or cholesterol, pomegranates (both as a fruit and as a juice) are an important superfood in your health arsenal due to their antioxidant polyphenols. They are high in vitamin C (17% of your daily requirement), vitamin K and are high in fiber. Studies have shown pomegranate juice to be effective in reducing the risk of heart disease and lowering blood pressure, and it also boasts antiviral and antibacterial properties. Although drinking the juice provides many benefits, you get the most from eating the fruit itself (the seeds only). The fiber benefits come from ingesting the entire seed (called an aril).

Although nuts are high in calories, if you can manage to allow yourself only a handful each day, it can provide significant benefits to your health. Two studies done on women found that women who ate nuts more than four times per week had a 40% lower risk of dying from heart disease. They’re good for men too: results from the Physician’s Health Study showed that men who ate nuts two or more times per week were less likely to suffer sudden cardiac death.

They contain healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats, the kind that raise levels of “good” cholesterol, have abundant antioxidants in the form of selenium and vitamin E and are high in fiber. One or two ounces a day is enough to keep you healthy and provide a tasty snack when you get the munchies. Most people are unaware that the humble beet is an aphrodisiac.

Nawaz happy over Pak-Turkish ties STAFF REPORTER L AHORE —Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Mian Nawaz Sharif said Wednesday that brotherly and friendly ties between Pakistan and Turkey had been transformed into economic relations which will be further strengthened in time ahead.

This was stated by him while talking to Turkish Ambassador in Pakistan Mustafa Babur Hizlan who called on him at his Raiwind residence on Wednesday.

During the meeting, views were exchanged on Pak-Turkey relations particularly in economic field, regional situation and other matters of mutual interest, sources said.

The sources claimed that Nawaz Sharif appreciated Turkish cooperation for Metro Bus Project in Lahore besides various other projects.

He noted there has been a tremendous increase in trade and bilateral ties between Pakistan and Turkey.

He also said that the efforts of Turkish Ambassador Mustafa Babur Hizlan to further mutual ties between Pakistan and Turkey are highly commendable.

Talking on the occasion, Turkish Ambassador Mustafa Babur Hizlan said the role of PML-N in strengthening Pak-Turkish mutual relations was laudable.

Trains delay riles passengers L AHORE —Delay in the ar-

LAHORE: A volunteer of Akhuwat Health Services distributing Debates awareness hamlets on World Debates Day at Campus Road.

Arrangements for Muharram peace finalised STAFF REPORTER LAHORE—Senior Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab and Chairman Cabinet Committee Muharram-ul-Haram Senator Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa has said that electronic and print media should help the government in maintenance of atmosphere of peace brotherhood, and harmony between various schools of thought in their programmes and talk shows.

He said, before publishing or telecasting any news during Muharram-ul-Haram, it must be got verified by the control room, so that no unrest is created among the people.

Giving a briefing regarding Muharram-ul-Haram arrangements to the representatives of media, at 90Shahrah-e-Pakistan, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa appreciated responsible reporting and assistance to the government by the media

during last Muharram-ulHaram. He said that ban on pillion-riding would be minimized during Muharram-ulHaram for convenience of the people, however wherever district administrations would consider necessary, this ban could be implemented.

He said that mobile peace committees consisting of administrative officers and Ulema of all schools of thought have been formulated at provincial, divisional, district and tehsil levels.

He said at every union council level, local SHOs and notables of the area would patrol their concerned areas for maintenance of law and order. He called upon the people to inform the local police immediately, if they see any suspicious element so that timely action can be taken against him.

Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa informed the media representatives that visits of

all district headquarters of the province have been completed in order to review Muharram-ul-Haram related arrangements. He said that he himself would visit procession routes at sensitive areas, while no procession would be allowed without license. He said no problem would be created if we do not interfere into each others beliefs. He said the organizers of the processions have been asked to ensure adhering to the stipulated timings.

Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa said that necessary logistic support and funds have made available to administration and the police of all districts by the Punjab government, while control rooms have been set up at all districts of the province, whereas control rooms at sensitive tehsils are also being established, which would be linked with the central control room at the secretariat.

1434 AH begins on Friday L AHORE —Islamic calendar year 1434 AH will begin on Friday as new moon to be easily visible in the evening of Thursday, November 15, on all places of Pakistan if there will be no clouds.

The New Moon was born on the midnight of Tuesday and Wednesday at 03:08 Pakistan Standard Time and the age of the new moon at the time of Sunset on the evening of Thursday will be more than 37 hours in all parts

of Pakistan.

Khalid Ejaz Mufti Secretary General Ruet-e-Hilal Research Council predicted said this while talking to APP here on Wednesday.

“New Moon cannot be sighted until and unless its age is minimum 20 hours at the time of sun set, at the place of observation, whereas the difference between Sun set and Moon set (Lag Time) is more than 40 minutes.

On other hand, Lag Time (difference between Sun set and Moon set) will be more than 85 Minutes in all parts of the country. So the New Moon will not only be easily visible in all the areas of Pakistan but comparatively big in size in the evening of Thursday, November 15, 2012 i.e.

29th Zulhijja 1433 AH, in case of clear weather”, he said.

Yaum-e-Aashur will be on Sunday, November 25, 2012.—APP

rival and departure of several trains irked passengers here at Lahore railway station on Wednesday .

According to the Pakistan Railways Inquiry 117, several trains including night coach, Allama Iqbal Express, Tezgam, Jaffar Express and Awam Express were late and hundreds of passengers alongwith their families including children had to wait for hours.

Saleem, a passenger told APP that he and his family had reserved seats in Awam Express which arrived here at 8:00 am while it was scheduled to reach here from Karachi at 7:30 pm last night. Zulfikar, another passenger who was going to Karachi by Night Coach said he came at the station at about 4:00pm but time of the train had been changed and now it would leave at 9:00 pm for Karachi and he had to wait for more than five hours.

Jamal, head of a family said he alongwith his family had come from Sharaqpur for going to Sialkot but could not board Lasani Express due to heavy crowd and shortage of the coaches, adding that now they would wait for Allama Iqbal Express which was reaching here at 6:30 pm from Karachi and was almost nine hours late.—APP

President PTI Kasur, others join PML-N

LAHORE: PML-N President Muhammad Nawaz Sharif talking to Turkish Ambassador to Pakistan Bahur Hizlan.

Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif also present.

Meritocracy, transparency introduced in Punjab: Shahbaz SALIM AHMED L AHORE —Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that the Punjab government of Muslim League-N, for the first time in national history, has introduced a culture of merit and transparency, at every level and in every sector, due to which even international institutions have appreciated transparent and merit-oriented policies of Punjab government.

He asserted that nobody has been able to raise a figure of accusation against the Punjab government, during the last four and a half years.

He said our hands are clean, while the incompetent government of People Party has distributed largesse among its cronies, thereby destroying the national institutions. Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif said the next general elections would not be for

formation of governments but for the survival of Pakistan, in which PML-N would achieve a thumping success on the basis of its unprecedented performance.

The Chief Minister was talking to members of delegations from various districts, who apprised him of the progress made on the development projects in their areas, and other issues of the people.

Talking on the occasion, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif said that Punjab government has set a new standard of merit and transparency in every sector, due to which international institutions have also acknowledged transparency and good governance of Punjab government.

Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif said federal government has given nothing to the people, except pain, while the Punjab government has

provided them great relief.

He said that the unjustified treatment being meted out to Punjab over loadshedding, was vigorously raised in the Council of Common Interests.

He said Zar Baba and Forty Thieves have mercilessly looted Pakistan, for four and a half years, and such worst kind of corruption was perpetrated that even the most corrupt are also ashamed. But he warned the days of looters and plunderers are over now.

He said as a result of corruption by the leadership of People Party, relations of Pakistan with friendly countries have no longer remained the same.

National economy has been destroyed and people are sick of incompetent federal rulers who have not paid any attention to solving the problems of the masses due to which the people have

been unable to enjoy the fruit of democratic system during the last four and a half years.

Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif said the Punjab government is implementing a revolutionary development programme which is boosting the standard of living of the people and the trust of the people in Punjab government proves beyond doubt that the government of PMLN is utilizing all available resources for solving problems of the masses.

He directed Members of the Assembly to keep a close liaison with the people of their constituencies and work vigorously to solve their problems.

He further directed Members Assembly to closely monitor the development work in their area, and keep a strict eye on the quality of construction material being used for the development activities.

Ashura processions plans reviewed MUZAFFAR ALI LAHORE—The Director General Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) Dr. Rizwan Naseer has directed all the district emergency officers (DEOs) of Punjab to remain alert and ensure provision of swift emergency ambulance, rescue and fire services to mourning processions and other citizens during Ashura.

Following special directives by the Home Department, rescuers shall perform their duties during Moharram-ul-Harram and will provide first aid besides shifting seriously injured azadaars to base hospitals.

DG Rescue 1122 Dr Rizwan Naseer on Wednesday reviewed the arrangements for providing emergency care to the mourners during Moharram. He said

that such precautionary steps were necessary for the safety of mass gatherings so that any kind of untoward incident could be responded properly.

He, however, asked the citizens to extend their cooperation with the Rescue 1122 officials and always give way to the Rescue Emergency Ambulances. “Kindly dial 1122 in case of emergency, as timely call can ensure timely rescue,” he asked the citizens.

As per emergency plan, trained rescuers will discharge their professional duties in different shifts in Punjab.

Three special monitoring teams under the supervision of Provincial Monitoring Cell (PMC) will evaluate the performance of rescuers of each district and will submit

their final report to the Director General during Moharram.

In Lahore, emergency medical technicians and other rescue officials along with 24 emergency ambulances, 11 fire vehicles, two rescue vehicles and 46 mobile posts shall provide medical cover to the processions. Rescue posts will be established at Imam Bargah Bhakewal More, Samanabad, Niaz Baig Village, Ali Raza Abad, Kotha Pind, Cavalry Ground, HBlock Model Town, A-Block Model Town, Nishat Colony/ R.A Bazaar, Batapur Attokey Awan, Adda Shabil Hando Village, Gamay Shah, Aziz Pully, Lalpul Mughalpura, Islampura, Rang Mahal Chowk, Bhaati Chowk, Imamia Colony and Jafria Colony, Shahdara.

LAHORE—President Tehrike-Insaf District Kasur Ch. Nasir Mahmood along with other four leaders of the party have announced to join Pakistan Muslim League-N. Ch.Nasir Mahmood, Malik Muhammad Khurram Nasrullah Khan, President Tehrik-e-Insaf Laliyani, Mehr Muhammad Shafique Organizer Tehrik-e-Insaf Kasur City, Mehr Muhammad Afzal senior leader Tehrik-e-Insaf Pattoki and Abdul Ghaffar Bhatti senior leader Tehrik-e-Insaf Kasur, called on central leader of PML-N, MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif and announced to join PML-N. Ch. Nasir Mahmood and his companions said that they fully support the poliLAHORE: A view of low visibility due to fog early in the morning at Egerton Road. cies of PML-N.—APP

PDWP approves transport sector schemes STAFF REPORTER LAHORE—The Punjab Government has approved the scheme of Transport Sector with an estimated cost of Rs. 2677.467 million for “Metro Bus Transit System for Lahore-Ferozepur Road Corridor, Construction of MTS from Taxali Chowk to Shahdara Mor (Package-V) length 3.3 km (Revised)” on Wednesday.

Five development schemes of various sectors of the economy were also approved worth Rs. 5239.996 million in the 19th meeting of Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) of current financial year 2012-13 presided over by the Punjab Planning and Development Board Chairman, Javaid Aslam.

Secretary Planning & Development Punjab Arif Anwar Baloch, members of the Planning & Development Board and other senior representatives of the relevant Provincial Departments also participated in the meeting.

5 die in road mishap OUR CORRESPONDENT

Strict Muharram security Our Correspondent

N AWABSHAH —Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has emphasized the need for implementation of strict security plan during the month of Muharram-ul-Haram in Sindh. He emphasized this at a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and the President PPP Women Wing MNA Faryal Talpur here at Zardari House Wednesday afternoon. The meeting discussed at length the law and order situation in the province and the measures adopted by the government for providing security to law abiding people. The chairperson PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari underlined the need for ensuring protection to the life and property of the people with comprehensive security arrangements particularly during the month of Muharram-ul-Harram. The meeting also discussed in detail the party affairs and the political situation and took various decisions including further activation of the party as well as addressing of the problems of the party workers. Meanwhile a comprehensive security plan has been chalked out by the district administration regarding Muharra- ul-Harram. This was stated by SP Khushab Faysal Ali Raja while chairing a high level meeting here on Wednesday. According to details for 807 majalis and 186 processions ,1800 or more police personnel would be deployed and moreover 1500 volunteers would perform their duties during Muharram-ul-Harram. He said 19 different locations have been declared sensitive points and they would be monitored through CCtv cameras in the district to avoid any untoward incident during the holy month.

He further said four walkthrough gates along with 119 metal detectors have been provided on concerned sensitive points.

Political stability stressed

BAHAWALPUR—Five persons including three women and a minor were killed when a van was hit by a speeding bus near Bahawalpur Bypass here on Wednesday. According to police sources, a van was hit head on by a speeding bus near Bahawalpur Bypass.

The details revealed Nazar Muhammad, Sughra Bibi, Naimat Bibi, Zafran Bibi and a minor Zeeshan died on the spot. Police have registered the case and started investigation.

Meanwhile two persons including a woman were killed while another injured in different road accidents in Bhalwal police limits on Wednesday.

According to police, Azhar Mehmood Warriach resident of Satellite Town (Sargodha) and his wife Zhuran Bibi (50) were going to Bhalwal by a motorcycle when a rashly driven car (GAA-5831) hit them near 26-

IDPs jirga to protest for human rights STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD —Federal Minister for Po- PESHAWAR—The Internally litical Affairs, Moula Bakhsh Chandio has said that Political stability must for country’s development. Talking to Private television channel, he said that Political stability is a pre-requisite for economic growth and development of the country. He urged the leaders of the political parties to help strengthen democratic system in larger national interest by burying their political differences. Replying to a question, he said that opposition must demonstrate their responsibility, tolerance and uphold the decent democratic values and norms in their ranks.

The Minister said that the government believes in the supremacy of Constitution. He said that “Let the Parliament to fulfill their responsibilities and in democracy minority cannot impose its opinion upon the majority. He said that the PPP will not indulge in politics of confrontation but will not allow the opposition to adopt undemocratic methods. Meanwhile addressing a seminar here Wednesday, he said that such policies be formulated that strengthen both the farming and industrial sectors and stressed on their enforcement in letter and spirit. He expressed concerns over the rising cost of doing agriculture and added that the government must ensure better returns to growers. He said that price of Urea had risen from Rs 1200 to Rs 1800 per bag, power tariff from Rs 4 to Rs 13.8 per unit, diesel from Rs 60 to Rs 117 per litre. He urged the government to convene a meeting of all the stakeholders of cotton economy to devise a strategy to protect the interests of all. He said that cotton and cotton products accounted for 60 per cent of export earnings, adding that cotton and related industry provided employment to 40 per cent of the total industrial work force of the country.—APP

Compensation to terror victims paid Our Correspondent

Q UETTA —Balochistan government in compliance with the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s directives increased compensation amount being paid to the victims of terrorism from Rs 0.4 million to the tune of Rs 1 million. The heirs of those whose mutilated dead bodies was found in Balochistan would also receive the same amount, while compensation amount paid to the injured of subversive acts has been doubled from Rs 100,000. The advisory committee formed by the Balochistan government for the review and transparency of the appointment in the provincial government has also decided to be abolished. These decisions were taken by the Cabinet meeting held with Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani in chair here.

The three-member bench of the apex court during its hearing on Balochistan law and order situation directed the Balochistan government to enhance the amount paid to the victims of terror incidents and families of those who received mutilated dead bodies of their dear ones. Nawab Raisani led Cabinet meeting taking unanimous decision, approved Rs 1 million amount as compensation to the victims and Rs 0.2 million to the injured. While strictly following the merit, areas and quota allocated for the disabled in the provincial departments, meeting directed the officials concerned to make new appointments on the previous pattern. Denouncing the Airport Road blast which claimed two lives of the FC men and left many others injured on the Airport Road of the city, the meeting expressed sympathies with the bereaved families and offered Fateha for the departed souls. Besides, they also offered Fateha for the late Balochistan Minister Abdul Khaliq Bashar Dost and former federal minister Iqbal Haider. Meeting also approved one month extension of the police powers to Frontier Corps to maintain peace in Quetta.

Women college affiliation with GCUF Our Correspondent

F AISALABAD —Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) Syndicate has approved the affiliation of Garrison Postgraduate College for Women, Lahore Cantt, with GCUF for various degree programs. A spokesman of the GCUF told here that under the semester system, Garrison College for Women got affiliation for the BBA, BS (Commerce), MBA, MSC (Microbiology), M.Phil (Statistics), M.Phil (Economics), M.Phil (Urdu) whereas for the annual system, the courses are B.Com (Part 1, Part 2) , BS (Mass Communication), M.Com, MA (Mass Communication), B.Ed, M.Ed and MA Education. On the direction of GCUF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zakir Husain, a meeting of Affiliation Committee GCUF was held to finalize the modalities relating to the relevant educational disciplines. The meeting was chaired by Director Admin Chaudhary Muhammad Mushtaq. A ten-member delegation of Garrison College headed by Senior Faculty Member Dr Muhammad Ismaeel also participated at the meeting. The visiting team said that although there are many other universities in the province for whom they could get affiliation, yet the GCUF was making development with a large pace as it has emerged country’s number six best university only in the span of ten years. The other high ranked GCUF officials including Prof Dr Pervez Azeem, Prof Dr Muhamamd Zubair, Dr Nasir Amin, Sibqat Ullah Tahir, Dr Nadeem Sohail, Abdul Qadir Mushtaq, Dr Shahzad Ali, Dr Sofia Anwar, Dr Tanvir Ahmad, Dr Hadayat Ullah, Imran Wakeel and Asif Lateef also attended the meeting.

Phatak Ajnala Road.

As a result, Zhuran Bibi died on the spot while Azhar received injuries. Similarly, Ejaz Ahmed resident of 153/ SB riding a motorcycle was killed when his two-wheeler collided with a van (LEB/5769) near Tanoka Phatak Bhalwal.

Cases have been registered. A young man was shot dead by unknown persons in Factory Area police limits here on Wednesday. According to police, some persons riding in a car opened fire at Mumtaz Hussain Usmani (35) resident of Istaqlalabad Colony Sargodha near Bakar Mandi.

The body was shifted to DHQ hospital for postmortem.

A case has been registered. One person was killed during the exchange of fire between two rival groups over land dispute here on Wednesday. According to police, Mohamad Fiaz died during the firing. Body was recovered by Sub Inspector LARKANA: A view of stagnant water in front of Railways Quarters.

Noor Mohammad.

Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Tehsil Bara Khyber Agency have announced for a Grand Jirga on coming Sunday at Jalozai refugees’ camp to make a final decision for protest against the government for not giving them their basic human rights. The grand jarga shura members headed

by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) FATA leaders Haji Iqbal Afridi and others will take the final decision whether they register their protest on Grand Trunk (GT) road Peshawar or march to Parliament House Islamabad for the

sake of their rights in the camp and in the agency (Bara).

“Government wants to crush us by force in the agency and use baton charge or starvation in the IDPs camp,” the PTI leader Iqbal Afridi accused. He claimed only innocent women, children and aged men falling prey to mortar shells in Tehsil bara. In the Jirga meeting, he informed will devise strategy against the prolonged security forces operation, indifference attitude of police and unauthorized US drone attacks in tribal areas.

Flanked by tribal elders and PTI leaders Engineers Gul Madar, Tahir Advocate, Noor-

ul-Haq, Inayat Haji, Nawaz Mir, Muhammad Javed, Javed Khan, Rahman Gul Haji, Zahoor, Haji Gul Bat Afrid and Abd-ul-Wahab, he said the IDPs of the agency were facing enormous difficulties due to absence of adequate facilities at their makeshift Jalozai camp whereas the registration process was suspended.

“A number of displaced families had been deprived of relief items due to blockage of registration, while the nongovernmental organizations allegedly involved in corruption by selling out food items in open market,” he blamed.

Haji Gul Bat on the occasion said the sub-standard food

was being distributed among the displaced people against the actual weight of the relief items. He alleged that the administration had suspended distribution process several time.

Mr Iqbal said that the tribal people had inflicted huge losses of lives and property in wake of excessive security forces operations in Bara Khyber agency and else where tribal region. He alleged that the CIA-operated drone campaign was being carried out on behest of corrupt rulers in which killing of innocent people including women, children and aged. He said that a large number of people

were fled from their hometown to take shelter in temporary facilities, but no proper facilities were available to them. He expressed grave concern over indifferent attitude of police with IDPs in the settled areas.

The tribal affected people, therefore, appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan take sou moto notice of inhuman attitude with the IDPs here in camp and in the agency as well and they also demanded of Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, high officials of police to take action against for arresting tribal people even students while going to colleges in settle areas and IDPs camp.

Demo against murder of old man OUR CORRESPONDENT S ARGODHA —Traders community Kutchery Bazaar on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration against the murder of an old man here on Tuesday night. According to details, a shopkeeper Amjad Latif and Irfan etc had quarrelled over parking a motorbike in front of shop at Kutchery Bazaar, two weeks ago.

The people of both sides gathered at Kutchery Bazaar on Tuesday night when Amjad Latif and others opened indiscriminate fire injuring two brothers- Irfan, Nadeem and their father Muhammad Yasin.

PPP to change economic destiny of Chitral: Arbab STAFF REPORTER P ESHAWAR —Federal Minister for Communications, Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil said that the present democratic government of PPP wants to change the destiny of the residents of Chitral, adding the completion of Lowari Tunnel will usher social and economic revolution in the area. He expressed these views after meeting political and social delegations and reviewing construction work on Lowari Tunnel Road during his emerQUETTA: School girls attending the function of 19th day of camping entitled ‘Voice of gency visit to Chitral.

Those present on the ocChildren’ organized by an NGO. casion included Chairman, National Highway Authority (NHA), Mohammad Javed

Iqbal, Member Construction, Yusuf Ali Khan, General Manager, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Region, Fazal Nawab Khattak and other concerned officials.

The federal minister after reviewing pace of work on Lowari Tunnel also held meetings with political and social notables of Dir Upper.

Speaking on the occasion, Arbab Alamgir Khan said that fast-track progress and development of Chitral and Malakand is the top priority of the government. The construction of Lowari Tunnel is the part of the same efforts, he added. He said that the completion of the project will not only facilitate the people of Chitral in the provision of all weather passage

to the people of Chitral, but, to the people of the whole Malakand region.

Arbab Alamgir Khan said that the completion of the project will also provide trade access to the whole region including Central Asian Republics (CARs) and will not only help develop trade, industries, agriculture and tourism, but will also help usher an era of economic stability in the region.

He said that Lowari Tunnel is not only a mega project of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but also of the whole country, which was initiated by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and will be completed during the period of the present PPP government.

Police fail to recover Elahi: Rs 300b were spent on girl, curb crimes NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—Police have failed even after 19 days to recover baby Kainaat (6), missing since Eid-ul-Udha from Larkana city, and citizens have warned of protest campaign. The relatives along with social and political activists held a protest demonstration and token hunger strike continued to demand recovery of Kainaat Jagirani, daughter of Mohammed Ameen, resident of Hussaini Muhalla, Larkana city.

It is pertinent to be mentioned here that the criminal activities are on rise in Larkana city and adjoining areas. The snatching of motorbikes and mobiles, robberies followed by killing incidents are witnessed in city in the broad daylight. Police

has also failed to control the street crimes and robberies of traders and citizens. The protesters told that the police has failed to curb the criminal activities in Larkana district.

The relatives told that their innocent baby Kainaat was abducted from Larkana and the gangsters are moving freely while the police and administration are calm spectators. Talking to this scribe, the uncle of Kainaat Mohammed Asghar Jagirani told that we are in a difficult situation and family in unconsciousness and suffering from the dilemma. On the other hand, several social and political parties have shown dissatisfaction over the law and order situation of Larkana city and they have soon called for the All Par-

ties Conference and active citizen action move about the issues of Larkana.

They have also demanded of recovery of innocent Kainaat Jagirani and prevention of robberies and killings in Larkana, they have also demanded of the President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Minister Sindh, MNA Faryal Talpur to depoy an honest police officials. They said Larkana is the constituency and the home of Pakistan Peoples Party as well the leader Benazir Bhutto, had become the target of the criminal activities. On the occasion, Larkana citizens have warned police and administration for control of law and order situation otherwise they will launch of protest drive against them.

South Punjab development HABIB KHAN

L AHORE —Pakistan Muslim League senior central leader and Deputy Prime Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi has said that the Khadam-e-A’ala should get a comparative survey done on development works undertaken in Punjab during our and his tenure. Addressing a public meeting in Hockey Ground Vehari Ch Pervaiz Elahi said that during our period Rs 300 billion were utilized in the South Punjab whereas he has spent Rs 100 billion on

a single road of Lahore, he is enemy of South Punjab and farmers, he has dropped developments of our tenure and withdrawn facilities given to the people particularly the farmers. We had served all segments of the society including poor, farmers, workers, students, lawyers, doctors, journalists and government servants and he has done nothing except indulging in politics of revenge.

Ch Pervaiz Elahi said that we would restart the process of development and progress

in Punjab from where we had left, our five years compared with previous 55 years, people themselves would decide during which period more development had taken place.

He maintained that we did politics of principles, did not humiliate anyone and not got false cases registered against anyone. He said further that in view of deprivations of the people of South Punjab we practically launched the movement for making South Punjab a province, we established first dental hospital in South Punjab.

16,000 police to guard Muharram events OUR CORRESPONDENT GUJRANWALA—All available resources would be utilized to thwart nefarious designs of unscrupulous elements to maintain law and order and ensure congenial atmosphere besides strengthening religious harmony among all sects during the month of Muharram-ul-Haraam. Regional Police Officer, DIG Muhammad Amin Vance told APP here Tuesday that 16,000 policemen comprising commandoes, elite force and mobile squads have been deployed on Muharram duty.

He said that a modern network of close circuit TV had been installed at all important routes of the Zuljinnah processions besides walk-through gates at all processions and Majalis in the entire range. He said video would also be made during the main procession passing through different areas. “A sufficient number of police reserves, platoons and mobile teams of police commandos of elite force equipped with modern weapons and wireless fitted jeeps are conducting round the clock regular patrolling in all

important areas of the districts for maintaining law and order”, he added.

He said City Police Officer, all DPOs, Additional SPs and SDPOs had already been strictly directed to ensure round the clock patrolling in all the sensitive areas.

They had further been directed to personally visit the sensitive areas regularly in their respective jurisdiction and ensure harmony during Muharram ul Harram. Capt Amin said the Punjab CM and IG have accorded highest priority to sectarian harMULTAN: Labourers busy in construction work of overhead bridge at Rasheed Abad. mony in the province.