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EDITORIAL

We have to strengthen the institutions not simply the heads of the institutions

Jawaid riaz

Jawaid Riaz, EditorArmughan Asar, Queens, NY Mashood Ahsan, Saint Louis, MONajeeb Ali Kidwai, Canada Rashid khan, Springfield, MAShahid Alam, Dallas, TX Shahid Khan, London, UKSuhail Ahmed, Houston, TX Zafar Khursheed, Denville, NJ Zulikha Wahid Washington, DC

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As per the statement of former PM Nawaz Sharif the day of accountability has come for Pervez Musharraf and he is

now on his way to meet his fate. However, personally I feel this “statement” is more of a wish, made by Nawaz Sharif while poisoned with personal courage, nothing more.

After his return from self exile, Pervez Musharraf is facing two separate cases from his time in office. The first is that his regime did not do enough to protect the life of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, the first woman prime minister of Pakistan and in the Islamic world before her assassination in 2007. Musharraf is also accused of ordering the army in 2006, as COAS to assassinate Nawab Akbar Bugti, a tribal leader in the unstable province of Balochistan, in 2006.

Though the PPP led government that succeeded Musharraf became the second democratically elected government to serve a full term during the country’s 65-year history, Pakistan is still overwhelmed with problems; a crippled economy, food shortages, inflation, unemployment and frequent power break downs as well as a bloody insurgency.

Now is a big test for the leadership of APML to safe guard the Musharraf and penetrate, mobilize the masses to find out that how many Pakistanis would be happy to see the return of Musharraf to politics, hoping his leadership could help restore order to a country riddled with political division and beset by extremist violence. As the former army chief, Musharraf will have retained support and influence within Pakistan’s powerful military?. “Most people think that the army won’t let him go to jail and won’t tolerate him being under house arrest for long. Nevertheless they will not do anything rash. They’ll exert their influence behind the scenes to secure a favorable outcome.

Now the question arises about the role of judiciary, because the Islamabad High Court judge who ordered Musharraf’s arrest is one of the judges whom Musharraf is alleged to have had detained in 2007 and therefore should have refused himself from the case, as it presents a clear conflict of interests. The role of Pakistan’s judiciary has never been without problems. The uses of suo moto actions by present courts are very alarming. There has to be accountability and the culprits need to be brought to justice.

Nobody wants nor likes for dictators or the army to come and rule, but we have to find out who created the situations and scenarios for them to come and take over. Who provided them the legal shelters and issued them the licenses so that they may rule under the defamed umbrella of the idea of ‘necessity’. We must decide from where and whom do we begin the accountability. Do we want accountability for ourselves on our own agendas or do we want justice for our people, so they may rebuild a healthy, strong and educated Pakistan. We have to strengthen the institutions not simply the heads of the institutions.

ADVISORY BOARDPUBLICATION COMMITTEEEDITORIAL BOARD

Contents4. President Zardari 5. High hopes: PPP will sweep 6. 35pc young candidates riding PTI’s polls tsunami7. Musharraf, PPP govt pushed country decades back: Shahbaz 8. MQM will not boycott elec-tions: Farooq Sattar9. Does Article 6 apply to Mush-arraf10. Musharraf shifted to police headquarters11. Overseas Pakistanis to vote12. APPNA St. Louis Community Health Clinic13. Dr. Naseem Shekhani, of St. Louis, Missouri, organized a gathering14. Aamir Khan, Malal Yousafzai 15. Britain’s ‘Iron Lady’ Marga-ret Thatcher dies16. Sports17. Short films don’t work in In-dia: Zoya Akhtar18. Adnan sami concert (chicago)19. Nitin mukesh concert(chicago)20. Health21. Fashion23. Mehfil - e - Mushaira

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ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has urged people of tribal areas to enthusiastically participate in the general elections and elect representatives who can bring about a positive change in their lives.

Addressing a grand jirga of el-ders from the Federally Ad-

ministered Tribal Areas (Fata) at the President House here on Monday, he said the country was undergoing a democratic transi-tion for the first time in its his-tory.

He said security concerns and the fragile law and order situation should not obstruct the electoral process. He said he himself had suffered and rendered sacrifices in the war against militancy and mentioned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

President Zardari said a nation itself should change its circum-stances and should not expect anyone else to do it for them.

“You have skilled manpower, high-ly qualified engineers, doctors and other professionals who can play an active role in bringing about a socio-economic change in their respective areas.”

The president said that after an initial resistance in some parts of Fata, the Benazir Income Sup-port Programme had now started receiving attention. A number of features might be added to the programme which could cater to health, education and stipends for tribal people through its social safety net, he added.

The president said the PPP-led government from day one had been doing a lot to develop the area and bring it on a par with other parts of the country.

ISLAMABAD:

President Asif Ali Zardari has announced that a task force

will be set up to pick candidates for his ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to contest the next general elections in Punjab.

Presiding over a meeting of PPP lawmakers from Punjab here on Wednesday night, President Zardari, who is also co-chairper-son of the PPP, said that his move was aimed at preparing the party for the next elections scheduled for 2013.

A handout statement issued by the president’s media office did not mention when the task force will be set up or who will be its members.

Punjab is thought to be the most important political battleground and whosoever rules the province will dominate the country.

Insiders in the PPP said that Pres-ident Zardari appears to be aware of this fact and is vetting his plans to outsmart the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Punjab.

According to the statement, Zardari also directed the PPP law-makers from Punjab to play the role of a constructive opposition in the provincial assembly and stop blocking the house proceed-

2013 general elections: Task force to select PPP candidates for Punjabings through noisy protests.

Briefing the media, presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said

that Zardari told the lawmakers that the party had a long history of fighting dictatorship and de-mocracy had been restored after huge sacrifices.

He said the PPP lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly must maintain decorum in the house as it is a symbol of democracy and should not do anything which may un-dermine its spirit.

The president’s directives come after a month of noisy protests in the Punjab Assembly both by PPP and PML-Q members, often hin-dering the proceedings and em-barrassing the government.

President Zardari said he was aware of the difficulties faced by the PPP lawmakers in Punjab in respect of their development funds after their ouster from the provincial government.

The president said he had already discussed with the prime minister to constitute a committee of the party lawmakers to look into their problems and suggest measures for the continuation of their de-velopment projects with the help of federal government, if needed.

President Zardari has urged people of tribal areas to participate in the elections.

He said the appointment of the KP governor from Fata was a step in the right direction and it would go a long way in bringing the area to the national mainstream and acknowledge it as an important part of the country and to recog-nise sacrifices of its people.

The president called the valiant and courageous people of Fata

“defenders of the frontiers”. He acknowledged their sacrifices and struggle along with the armed forces to make Pakistan a safe place to live.

He said the PPP-led government had taken a number of measures over the past five years for uplift of tribal people and had opened for the first time an opportunity for reforms in Fata which had been denied for over a century.

Besides getting a new judicial system, he said people of tribal areas had been allowed for the first time to freely participate in political activities.

Mr Zardari said the new judicial system in Fata ensured due pro-cess and right to appeal and bail. It was, he added, a leap forward for the people of Fata towards freedom, liberty, human rights and political participation.

He said that those considering reforms in Fata as too little too late should realise that the door had finally opened and all should work together to open up further the window of opportunity.

But he stressed that the drive for change in Fata must come from within because it could not be im-posed from outside. He said chang-es and reforms must respect tribal customs and traditions without which any reforms would fail.The president stressed the need for devising a monitoring mechanism to oversee implementation of re-forms on the ground. He said it was important that reforms were fully implemented, and it must be ensured that people actually ben-efited from them.

He assured that along with the Gomal Zam project, Bara dam would also be constructed to

meet water and energy needs of the area.

He stressed the need for stepping up efforts for setting up the Fata Information Technology Univer-sity and Fata Medical College.

He mentioned a new model for development wherein tribal peo-ple would be partners in projects and industries that would be set up under the concept of Recon-struction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) in tribal areas.

Mr Zardari said the problems be-ing faced by internally displaced persons in Fata would be seri-ously addressed.

He assured construction of schools, colleges and academic institutions in the tribal areas. He said efforts were being made for enhanced access of Pakistani goods to international market which would promote industrial development and create jobs for the youth.

Senate Chairman Nayyar Hus-sain Bokhari, Khyber Pakh-tunkhawa Governor Shaukatul-lah, federal ministers, elders from different agencies of Fata, ACS Fata Dr Tashfeen Khan and senior officials of the Fata secre-tariat attended the jirga.

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ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Peoples Party Chair-man Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

said on Sunday that his party will sweep the upcoming general elections with the support of the people of Pakistan and go on to form the next government to take the country “forward in the com-munity of nations, in accordance with the vision of Shaheed Bena-zir Bhutto and Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.”

In a statement on Sunday, Bila-wal said his mother Benazir had laid down her life for the cause of democracy and for the people of Pakistan. “PPP will continue to make sacrifices for preserving democracy and the betterment of the masses,” he added.

He said the PPP government successfully completed its five-year term under the courageous leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari and expressed the hope that the party would win the 2013 polls with a thumping major-ity. “The products of Ziaul Haq’s martial law who dream of victory shall have to bite the dust once again because the masses have not forgotten their murky past,” said the PPP chairman.

Bilawal said his mother always stood like a rock in the face of successive dictatorships and went to the extent of laying down her life for the cause of democracy. He said the PPP would continue to serve the downtrodden sec-tions of society.

Upon returning to power, Bi-lawal said, the PPP will expand the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to complete its second phase during the next five years. He announced that the new PPP government would also

double the monthly BISP stipend to Rs2,000 per month. The PPP chairman added that under the second phase of BISP, more lo-cal and international institutions including banks will be taken on board as partners and scope of the programme would be widened. He stated that the Waseela-e-Haq, Waseela-e-Rozgar and Waseela-e-Taleem initiatives are the part of BISP’s long-term strategy to help out the poorest of the poor in the country.

Bilawal counted the 18th Amend-ment and the restoration of the 1973 Constitution among the landmark achievements of the PPP government. He also praised his father, President Zardari, for surrendering his powers and au-thority to the elected parliament and further strengthening democ-racy in the country.

“PPP is the real heir to the legacy of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. My mother gave the best years of her life while protecting her father’s legacy. She confronted the worst at the hands of General Ziaul Haq who had sent my grandfather to the gallows. She kept her father’s party and his mission alive with great steadfastness. She gave her life for the preservation of de-mocracy and the people of this country acknowledge her great sacrifice. Let me assure the fol-lowers of Shaheed Bhuttos that I will protect their legacy till my last breath while carrying forward their mission, vision and philoso-phy being the leader of the largest and most popular political party of the country, which has roots in all provinces. We shall live and die for the cause of Pakistan as done by my mother Benazir Bhut-to and my grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.”

High hopes: PPP will sweep the upcoming polls says Bilawal

“We will soon start public meetings and rallies at a massive level,” said Faryal Talpur.

ISLAMABAD:

The general elections are just a month away and the coun-

try’s largest political party — the PPP — still seems undecid-ed about its campaign strategy.

The dilemma being faced by the party that remained active in all the previous general elections was evident from the replies given by its leaders at a news conference at Zardari House here on Wednesday.

Faryal Talpur, who is believed to be the de facto head of the party, and Manzoor Wattoo, the presi-dent of the PPP’s Punjab chap-ter, gave ambiguous replies when they were asked who would lead the party’s campaign and when the party would announce its schedule for public meetings.

“He will definitely speak,” said Ms Talpur when asked if young Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would lead the PPP’s election campaign. Both the party’s former prime ministers, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf, had al-ready started addressing the pub-lic meetings, she said, but at the same time added, “in their con-stituencies”.

“We will soon start public meet-ings and rallies at a massive level and the party has already launched its election campaign at the local level,” she said when asked why the PPP had so far not arranged any big show.

Ms Talpur took no time in “dis-agreeing” with a journalist who said the PPP had now been re-duced to a “drawing room party” and the leadership was afraid of going to the masses due to “se-curity fears”. “I totally disagree with you. The PPP has never done drawing room politics and

it has always done politics for the masses,” she said when a ques-tioner asked wasn’t today’s PPP different from the PPP that was once headed by Zulfikar Ali Bhut-to and Benazir Bhutto.

When asked about the decision of the Sheerazis of Thatta to part ways with the PPP, Ms Talpur said the party could not force anyone to stay in its fold. “This is democracy.

Every individual or group has the right to choose his own path in politics,” she said.

Similarly, she said, the PPP dif-fered from the thinking of na-tionalist parties. “We believe in federation and a united Pakistan. The nationalists have their own thinking,” she added.

Responding to a question, Mr Wattoo claimed a 95 per cent suc-cess in the talks with the PML-Q on the issue of seat adjustment. He said the PPP would announce its candidates for Punjab on Thursday.

Earlier, the reporters and camera-men protested over the humiliat-ing treatment meted out to them by the police and security person-nel deputed outside the Zardari House.

Interestingly, the news confer-ence had been arranged on a short notice of only two hours to an-nounce that the caretaker of the Hazrat Baba Fareed Ganj Shakar shrine Pir Sahab Deewan Ahmed Masood had announced his sup-port for the PPP. Speaking on the occasion, Deewan Masood said he had decided to revive now defunct Jamiat Mashaikh Paki-stan that had been formed by his grandfather some 30 years ago.

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continued...

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on

Monday claimed over 35 per cent of candidates of his party for the general elections are young (be-low 40) and 80 per cent of all can-didates have never been elected to the assemblies before. He said 60 per cent of the party candidates are new faces.

Imran said old faces could never bring about a change the masses desperately looked for. He as-serted that the PTI had changed the culture of what he called mu-sical chairs between the PPP and PML-N.

He challenged both parties to name a single state entity that they had been pulled out of crisis during their repeated tenures in power. The PTI chief said it was high time for the masses to vote for a change.

Speaking at a news conference here, Imran, clad in white shal-war qameez and flanked by some young nervous-looking faces, said the nation was going for the most interesting ‘match’ of its history on May 11.

Using cricket terms, the former skipper of the national team, which won the World Cup in 1992, claimed to be the best at team selection and that he was fielding a blend of experienced and young candidates in the up-coming elections.

Imran asserted PTI had smashed the PPP-PML-N policy of muk-muka (deal), adding 80 tickets for the assemblies were being given as per the recommendations of the elected district chapters of the party.

He also made it clear that on the

reserved seats for women, no rela-tive of the party leader would be given preference and noted that even if any link was traced after-wards, such name would be struck off the list.

He maintained that no defaulter was given the party ticket and if anyone found out later on, he would have to give it back. At one point, a few party activists shout-ed slogans against the award of some tickets. Imran retorted that such tactics could not blackmail him.

He said he believed that some 40 million youth voters would play a decisive role in the electoral per-formance of a political party and claimed 90 per cent young voters were PTI supporters.

The PTI chairman maintained that before the elections, his par-ty had changed the direction of Pakistani politics by holding in-tra-party polls in the election year and putting assets of party leaders on the website.

“No political party ever declared assets of its leaders and lawmak-ers. Had they done so, 70 per cent tax defaulters had not reached the assemblies,” asserted the PTI chairman.Imran has fielded 30-year-old Muhammad Madni against former prime minister and President of PML-N Mian Nawaz Sharif from NA-119, Lahore.

The ticket was given to the pharmacist Monday afternoon and he was present in the news briefing.“I am confident of win-ning maximum support of my people against Nawaz Sharif be-cause they have made up their mind for a change,” he claimed when The News asked him about his chances in the upcoming polls against the PML-N leader.

He claimed the rival party leader-ship seemed nervous.Madni, who is one of the founding workers of PTI, and had been twice behind bars for supporting the move-ment for the independence of ju-diciary, said that the rotten politi-cal system stood exposed before the nation.

He said Sharifs are billioners but

35pc young candidates riding PTI’s polls tsunami

misers and don’t want to spend money on their security, he al-leged. These two parties have been power since 1980s, but the masses problems continued to compound and access of justice

to them had been a dream, he said. A senior PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari has been made the party’s information secretary in place of former senator Shafqat Mehmood.

Promising ‘change’: Only PML-N can steer the country

out of crises, says Nawaz

FAISALABAD:

PML-N Nawaz Sharif has la-mented the nose-diving econ-

omy, rampant unemployment, burgeoning energy crisis and slid-ing living standards in Pakistan, saying that only his party could guide the country through these dire straits.

“People have confidence in me. They voted me to power twice. On both occasions, however, anti-democracy forces did not allow me to complete my constitutional tenure,” Nawaz told journalists on Monday. He was in Sammundri to offer condolences to the fam-ily of PML-N leader Chaudhry Sharif Gujjar.

He hit out at former military ruler Pervez Musharraf who had toppled his second government in October 1999. “Musharraf de-railed democracy while the coun-try was on the road to prosperity and development,” he said. “Today, the entire nation is paying the price for his adventurism”.

The PML-N chief also criticised the PPP-led coalition government for ‘bad governance, nepotism and corruption.’ He added that the previous government added to the problems of people instead of resolving them.

“During the PPP government, poverty went up to an all-time high. Economically, the country has been ruined, and the law and order situation has worsened, es-pecially in Karachi and Quetta,” he added.

Nawaz said that key state-run organisations like PIA, Pakistan Railways and Pakistan Steel Mill were at the brink of collapse due to the ill-conceived policies of the previous government. “If voted to power, the PML-N will change the destiny of Pakistan and bring qualitative change in the lives of people,” he added.

No polls for Musharraf

Former president Gen (r) Per-vez Musharraf, who had re-

turned to Pakistan after years of self-imposed exile to contest the May 11 polls, has been thrown out of the election race.

The former military strongman’s nomination papers were rejected on Tuesday from NA-32 Chitral, after him being earlier disquali-fied from three other constitu-encies. Appeals against the ac-ceptance of Pervez Musharraf’s nomination papers for NA-32 (Chitral) were approved by the Election Tribunal in Peshawar.

Musharraf’s lawyer said they would contest the decision in a high court.

Earlier in the day, an election tribunal had decided against an appeal filed by Musharraf chal-lenging the returning officer’s re-jection of his nomination papers for NA-48 (Islamabad-I).

The returning officer had rejected Musharraf’s nomination after ob-jections, saying the retired gener-

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LAHORE:

Former president Pervez Mush-arraf’s dictatorial regime and

the corrupt PPP government have pushed Pakistan back decades, former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

“The extremely difficult times that Pakistan is facing now re-quires that the PML-N come in power and that too with a ma-jority,” Shahbaz said, adding that in 1998, when Nawaz Sharif had won by two-thirds majority, the PML-N government had carried out nuclear explosions.

“Now the party will ensure mas-sive growth in Pakistan’s econ-omy to bring prosperity back to Pakistan.”

Addressing PML-N workers at the party’s secretariat, Shahbaz said the PPP government had de-stroyed all national institutions.

“Steel Mills, PIA and Railway are a few examples. Even worse is the fact that NAB and other in-stitutions that hold these people

al had subverted the constitution as the army chief and had illegally placed judges under house arrest.

Musharraf’s appeal for NA-139 (Kasur-II) was also rejected by an election tribunal in Lahore. The tribunal said the former president had abrogated the constitution thrice and therefore, did not qual-ify to contest the coming general election.

An election tribunal in Rawalpin-di also rejected Musharraf’s nomi-nation papers on Tuesday.

The nomination papers of Pervez Musharraf for NA-250 (Karachi) have already been rejected

Musharraf, PPP govt pushed country decades back: Shahbaz

JI fears terrorist attacks on political leaders during elections

MQM finalizes candidates from Hyderabad

MQM candidate Fakhrul Islam assassinated in Hyderabad

accountability and check corrup-tion, have been transformed into bodies that protect these govern-ments.”

The former Punjab chief min-ister said the PPP was using the tax payers’ money it had amassed while in power on extravagant election campaign. He assured the people that all these efforts will go in vain.

“Had Zardari and Co not shame-lessly looted the national exche-quer, Pakistan would not have been facing the darkness of load shedding. In the coming elections, these unable rulers will have to be answerable to the people of Paki-stan.”

Shahbaz said the responsibility of load shedding lay with the PPP government’s rental power proj-ects which were solely launched to fill the party’s corrupt leaders’ own pockets.

JI Ameer calls for comprehen-sive measures to hold elections in a peaceful environment.

Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hasan has urged

the Interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso to convene a meeting of all political parties and law-enforcing agencies to firm up strategy to hold elections timely and in a peaceful environment.

He said Referring to recent ter-rorist attacks on candidates of ANP and PML(N)‚ Syed Munawar Hasan feared that problems would increase if acts of violence continued in the remaining days upto elections.

He said it is the responsibility of the interim government to take steps for improvement of the

situation by taking political par-ties‚ law-enforcing agencies and the Election Commission. He said this is necessary to give con-fidence to masses otherwise they would get disappointed.

The JI Amir said no political party alone can face the threat of terror-ism and should build consensus to tackle the challenge.

He said if the caretaker Prime Minister showed resolve then the situation can improve and the next Government should review the existing policies to improve image of the country.

Asked why JI has adopted anti-establishment posture when in the past it was pampered by in-telligence agencies‚ Amir of the Jamaat said why no one is asking which party the ISI is supporting now.

To a question he said like PML(N) and PTI‚ JI too is going into elec-tions alone but possibility of co-alition could be explored if there is going to be hung parliament as most of the analysts predict.

He categorically rejected the im-pression that talks between JI and PML(N); and JI and PTI for seat adjustment could not succeed because Jamaat was demanding more than its due share. He said no such thing was discussed in the talks with the two parties.

About differences with JUI(F)‚ he said differences among political or religious parties are not per-manent in nature. He said there were differences with JUI(F) over restoration of MMA but Maulana Fazlur Rehman went ahead with the decision without taking Ja-maat on board. He said Maulana believed that Jamaat can join later but we have conveyed to them that there is no such possibility.

HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qua-mi Movement (MQM) announced the names of finalized candidates to contest from Hyderabad con-stituencies for seats in national and provincial assemblies.

According to details, Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui will vie for Na-tional Assembly seat from NA219,

Syed Waseem Hussain from NA220; while, Ghazi Salahuddin will be on field on MQM’s ticket from NA221.

Dilawar Qureshi has been field-ed from provincial constituency PS45, Rashid Khilji from PS46 and Ali Ahmed Brohi will contest polls for provincial assembly’s PS47 seat.

Meantime, Zubair Ahmed Khan eyes provincial assembly seat from PS48 and Sabir Qaimkhani is the Muttahida’s candidate from PS50.

HYDERABAD: A Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) candidate of provincial assem-bly from PS-47, Fakhrul Islam was assassinated near Halana-ka in Hyderabad, weeks before the forthcoming general elec-tions.

As per details, The MQM can-didate for PS-47 Qasimabad

was gunned down by unknown armed bikers at Halla Naka in the limits of Hatri police. He received bullets in chest and abdomen and died on the spot. The attackers fled, leaving their motorcycle at the site of crime.

Hatri police rushed there and began search of the culprits. The body of the slain politician was brought to Civil Hospital Hy-derabad where a large number of MQM workers and sympathizers gathered and raised slogans.

Armed men opened indiscrimi-nate aerial firing in different areas including Market Tower, Liaquat Colony, Shahi Bazaar, Resham Gali and Gari Khatta went closed.Angry mobs also blocked roads by burning tires and putting hurdles. The slain, Fakhurul Islam, left be-hind a widow, two sons and three daughters.

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NEWS

MQM will not boycott elections: Farooq Sattar

Provincial govt is well aware of problems faced by traders: Kurban Alavi

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Farooq Sattar has said that conspiracies are being hatched in a bid to keep his party out of electoral process.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the MQM lead-er said that his party is being forced to boycott elections while the mandate of MQM is being snatched under a planned con-spiracy.

Dr Farooq Sattar said that delimi-tation of constituencies in Ka-rachi was also a part of the con-spiracy, however, he added that the MQM would not boycott the forthcoming elections.

The party’s candidates, activists and supporters are also being killed under a planned script and its purpose is to compel MQM for boycotting the upcoming elec-tions, Sattar claimed.

He further said that door-to-door

checking in the name of search operations are being conducted in 30 localities of Karachi.

All political parties are work-ing on their election campaigns, while MQM is lifting the coffins of the party workers prior to the polls, he lamented.

“Killings of the workers and sup-porters have become a daily routine.”

Condemning killings of the ac-tivists, Sattar said that funeral prayer of our political worker was offered today in the morning and in the meanwhile four more supporters were killed when the preparations of the worker’s buri-al were in progress.

Armed terrorists kidnapped the party’s supporters and tortured them to death, while their bod-ies were thrown to Mewah Shah Graveyard, Sattar added.

Farooq Sattar told that MQM would issue its final list of candi-dates for polls tomorrow.

Traders delegation apprised the Chief Minister about their problems with especial reference of law and order.

Caretaker Chief Minister Sindh Justice (Retd) Zahid Kurban Alavi has said that present interim pro-vincial government is well aware of the problems being faced by small businessmen and shopkeep-ers and it is striving hard to resolve the problems faced by business community.

This he said during meeting with the seven member delegation of Alliance of Market Association Sadr and Sindh Sarafa and Jewel-ers Association in Karachi.

Traders delegation apprised the Chief Minister about their prob-lems with especial reference of law and order.

Caretaker Chief Minister said provincial government has taken effective and prompt measures to maintain law and order.

These comprehensive measures will restore peace in Karachi to provide conducive atmosphere for general elections.

LAHORE: The caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab, Najam Sethi met chairman Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf, Imran Khan on Friday (today) to discuss the issues related to the fair and free elections.

The caretaker CM ensured PTI chief for free and fair elections as the top priority.

Caretaker Chief Minister Punjab Najam Sethi and Chairman Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan had a meeting in Islamabad today and discussed current situation of province in upcoming elections.

Sethi thanked PTI Chairman for his support and trust in him. Na-jam Sethi said he will take all nec-essary steps to ensure free and fair elections in the province.

Chairman PTI said that future of Pakistan depends on fairness and transparency of elections.

PTI leaders Javed Hashmi‚ Shah Mehmood Qureshi‚ Naeem-ul-Haq and Jahangir Khan Tareen were also present in the meeting.

On Thursday, Sethi called on the Ameer Jamaat e Islami, Syed Mu-nawar Hasan at Mansoora and discussed matters of the next gen-eral elections.

Mr Sethi also visited PML-N lead-ers Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in Model Town and PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat and Pervaiz Elahi in Gulberg.Talk-ing to the media persons, Najam Sethi said that his first priority to conduct impartial elections in accordance with the directives of the Election Commission.

The caretaker Chief Minister said that his cabinet would be small and have only five or six people who have no political affiliation.

CM Najam Sethi ensures Imran Khan for fair elections

Raja Ashraf allowed to contest elections on NA-123

He further said that he would re-shuffle the administration all over the province within a week, and added that he would try his best to come up to the expectations of the people of the Punjab.

He said it was difficult to follow the Election Commission’s code of conduct but he would assist the ECP in implementing the main articles of the Constitution, sections and clauses of relevant rules.

Added that, JI leadership had giv-en him certain proposals in con-nection with holding transparent elections by following the articles 62 and 63 and other election-re-lated rules.

About his visit to JI headquarters, he said it was part of his plan of consulting political leaders for holding transparent elections and making a neutral administration.

The court declared Raja Ashraf eligible and allowed him to run for the elections on NA-123.

LAHORE: The sword of disquali-fication hanging over the head of former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Asharf has finally been removed as a Lahore High Court (LHC) full bench on Monday gave him a clean chit to contest the upcoming elections.

The full bench of LHC on Mon-day heard appeal against rejection of nomination papers of Raja Per-vez Ashraf on NA-123. Farooq H Naek and Latif Khosa represent-ed former prime minister in the court.

The same bench on Monday had conditionally allowed Ashraf to contest the election after sus-pending tribunal and RO’s deci-sions and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to include his name in the list of candidates for NA-51.

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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Attorney General (AGP) of Pakistan Irfan Qadir to explain if the Article 6 of the Constitution applied to former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf for high treason and come up with a reply of the federal government in writing in the instant matter through a concise statement by April 17.

The directive came during the hearing of identical petitions

by a two-member bench, seeking prosecution of former president Pervez Musharraf for abrogating the Constitution. The bench com-prised Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.

During the hearing, the apex court observed that it was for the Fed-eration to prosecute a person and said that the federal government had not taken any action either in pursuance of its July 31, 2009 judgment or in accordance with a unanimous resolution passed by the Senate for prosecuting a per-son under high treason for sub-

verting and abrogating the Constitution.

A two-member bench of the apex court, compris-ing Justice Jawwad S Kha-waja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, heard identical petitions, seeking prosecu-tion of former president Pervez Musharraf for ab-rogating the Constitution.

In its order, the court ruled that under Section 15 of the High Treason (Pun-ishment) Act 1973, read with Criminal Law Special Court Act 1976, it was for the Federation to estab-lish a special court and to prosecute a person for vio-lation of Article 6 of the Constitution.

“It is evident from the hear-ing so far that the federal government has not taken

any action either in pursuance of the court’s July 31, 2009 judgment or in pursuance of the Senate’s unanimous resolution passed for prosecuting a person,” the court ruled in its order.

The court directed the federal government to submit its reply by April 17 in writing through a concise statement, supplied by relevant documents regarding any action taken by it.

At the outset of the hearing, the Attorney General of Pakistan, Ir-fan Qadir, submitted that he had a number of preliminary objections to the proceedings of the court but not against the petitions.

Referring to the court’s earlier ob-servation in the instant case that ‘justice not only be done but seems to be done’, the attorney general said he was of opinion that justice does not seem to be done.

Irfan Qadir contended that there were judges sitting in the court who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), therefore, how could the court proceed in a matter which revolved round the unconstitu-

tional acts of the respondent (Per-vez Musharraf).

The court, however, asked the at-torney general to inform it about the stance of the government if it had taken any step after the July 31, 2009 judgment of the court and in pursuance of the Senate resolution passed unanimously and after the return of the re-spondent, Pervez Musharraf, on March 24, 2013.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussain asked the attorney general to state if Musharraf’s act of November 3, 2007 by imposing emergency in the country was constitutional or unconstitutional. He further asked him whether or not the for-mer military ruler should be tried under the Article 6 of the Consti-tution.

Irfan Qadir, however, replied that at present while representing the Federation, he was under no in-structions but could give an oral statement before the court. The court, however, sought the reply of the federal government in writ-ing through a concise statement, supplied by relevant documents in the instant matter by April 17.

Justice Jawwad S Khawaja re-marked that for the last 65 years, the nation faced many problems, adding that many commissions had been constituted in differ-ent matters including the Asghar Khan Case but the Federation even had no record of that com-mission. Justice Khawaja said the court wanted to block the way of abrogators of the Constitution once and for all and punish the guilty.

He recalled that even Ahmed Raza Kasuri, learned counsel for former president, during the preliminary arguments had contended that many unhidden faces would come to the fore in the instant case. “It may but it’s time now that noth-ing should be concealed from the nation,” Justice Jawwad S Khawa-ja remarked.

Earlier, during the hearing, the court repeatedly asked the acting Secretary Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sohail Qadeer Qureshi about the steps taken by the Law Ministry after the court’s July 31, 2009 judgment, the Senate unanimous resolution as well as after the return of Per-

vez Musharraf on March 24, 2013.

The acting secretary law, how-ever, told the court that the said post fell vacant on March 15, 2013 while he took over as acting sec-retary on March 18, saying that although he was a law graduate, he did not have a judicial back-ground and discharge administra-tive matters.

Later, the court directed him to provide details by 11.30am as to what steps had been taken by the federal government in pursuance of the court’s judgment of July 31, 2009 and the Senate resolution, etc.

The acting secretary was later on given time till 1pm after he failed to give a satisfactory reply. Later, the attorney general appeared be-fore the court and said he had no instructions from the Federation on which the court sought a reply from the federal government in writing with concise statement supported by relevant documents by April 17 and adjourned the hearing.

Ahmed Raza Kasuri contended that before entering into any con-troversy, his prayer be considered for constituting a larger bench minus the Chief Justice of Paki-stan. The court however told the learned counsel that it would be considered after the reply of the federal government.

The court also ordered that an-other identical petition, filed by Engineer Jameel Ahmed, would also be taken up with the instant petitions from April 17.Maulvi Iqbal Haider, advocate, Ahsan-ud-Din Sheikh, former President La-hore High Court Bar Association, Rawalpindi Bench, Taufiq Asif, President Lahore High Court Bar Association, Amjad Malik, Presi-dent Pakistani Lawyers Asso-ciation, UK, and Abdul Hakeem Khan, former vice chairman, Paki-stan Bar Council, had filed iden-tical petitions in the apex court, making the Federation and Per-vez Musharraf as respondents.

The petitioners prayed to the apex court to direct the Federation to take Pervez Musharraf into cus-tody immediately awaiting his investigation and prosecution under the High Treason (punish-ment) Act 1973.

Does Article 6 apply to Musharraf, SC asks AG

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ISLAMABAD: Former Presi-dent General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has been shifted to the police headquarters here from his farmhouse in Chak Shahzad.

According to the law anyone granted a transit remand must be kept within police jurisdiction. Musharraf is expected to remain at the police headquarters until he is presented before an Anti-Terrorism Court.

Earlier on Friday, the former president was arrested and pre-sented before Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Abbas. After a brief hearing the court issued a writ-ten order to grant him two-day transit remand. He was shifted to his farmhouse in Chak Shahzad which was declared sub-jail

The judicial magistrate further said that the police should abide by the Islamabad High Court’s or-der and include Section 7 of the anti-terrorism law in the charges against the former president and submit a report.

Speaking to Geo News after the hearing, Musharraf said he re-turned to Pakistan out of his own will and respects the courts. He expressed his determination to face the consequences.

ISLAMABAD HIGH COURT ORDER

In its order the Islamabad High Court has held Inspector General Police Islamabad responsible for Pervez Musharraf fleeing from the premises of the court on Thursday. The court has directed the Defence Secretary to take ac-tion against those responsible.

US REACTION

According to a press release by the US Embassy, the United States takes no position on the return of former President Pervez Mush-arraf or the legal proceedings against him. This is an issue to be resolved solely in accordance with Pakistan’s Constitution and laws.

The press release further states

Musharraf shifted to police headquarters

Judges arrest case: Musharraf sent on 14-day judicial remand

Fazal opposes delay in elections; says Musharraf not above law

that the United States reaffirms it is backing democracy in Pakistan, and does not support any particu-lar political party or individual candidate.

INVESTIGATION OFFICER REPLACED

The officer investigating the Pervez Musharraf case, Sultan Mehmood, has been removed. Rana Mubarak has been appoint-ed as the new investigation officer.

Former dictator Pervez Mush-arraf was presented in an anti-terrorism court in connection with the judges’ arrests case and was sent on 14-day judi-cial remand, on Saturday.

After 14 days he will be presented in the same court, on May 4.

He was taken to the police head-quarters immediately after the case was heard.

According to news source former dictator will further be sent to Adiala jail where a special cell has been made for him.

The All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) General Secretary Dr Amjad, spoke to the media after the verdict was announced and maintained Musharraf’s “morale was high” and that he was pre-pared to present himself in all re-quired courts.

Answering questions related to Musharraf’s judicial remand pe-riod, the general secretary said “It isn’t necessary to be sent to Adiala jail, if security is at risk, any place can be declared a sub-jail.”

“This is the administrations job to

decide where he can get the best security while in custody”, he added.

Security and protests

Musharraf had to wait nearly 45 minutes in his car on court prem-ises, waiting on a security clear-ance. There was tight security present for both his arrival and departure due to the angered law-yers present.

There were attempts made to block lawyers from coming close to Musharraf’s way of entrance, with the rangers cordoning the area.

Lawyers shouted anti-Musharraf slogans as he entered the court premises. The protests intensified as the former dictator got in to his car to leave.

The police was unsuccessful in stopping protesters as they broke barriers. Rangers and the anti-riot force were called in to help con-trol the situation.

Former army chief Musharraf fac-es allegations that he ordered the illegal detention of judges during a showdown with the judiciary in 2007. Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, resigned in 2008.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rah-man Monday said that elec-tions should be held on time and added if once delayed it would continue to be deferred..

Talking to media here in Mul-tan, Maulana Fazlur Rahman ex-pressed the hope that elections would be held on time, but if it

happens to be delayed, then it will continue to be delayed for long adding that in Multan there would be much more heat in the coming months and people would not be able to go out to polling stations.

Responding to a question about Pervez Musharraf, he said that he also remained in jail during Mush-arraf regime. Law and courts exist in the country, Pervez Musharraf is not above law, he added.

Giving his reaction on the scru-tiny of the candidates, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said that the scru-tiny process was stunning, while the returning officers made them-selves and others also a laughing stock.He said even ulema were disqualified from contesting elec-tions.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman strong-ly opposed the use of bullets in politics and blamed the ANP and MQM for use of force. He said had the ANP not called in the army, the situation would have been different. He said the JUI(F) formed a tribal Jirga to negotiate peace with the Taliban and the political parties supported it.

He expressed the hope that after elections, the government would take forward the peace process

Blast near MQM office in North Nazimabad, 2 killed MQM to observe Wednesday as day of mourningKARACHI: At least two peo-ple were killed and 12 others injured in a bombing near an election office of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) lo-cated at People’s Chowrangi in North Nazimabad area of the city late Tuesday night.

Bodies of the deceased and the injured have been shifted to Ab-basi Shaheed Hospital. According to police sources, the attack was meant to target the Muttahida’s office.

Soon after the blast, police and the Rangers approached the mis-hap site only to meet infuriated

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Overseas Pakistanis to vote

The Election Commission of Pakistan’s indication of allow-

ing the overseas Pakistanis - 4.5 million – to vote in the general elections through e-voting would lead towards the kind of partici-patory electoral process that the country needs badly. This would be made possible through a presi-dential ordinance expected with-in a day.

There is hardly any doubt that given their number and because of their world outlook, which is progressive and moderate, they will have a profound impact so far as the election results are concerned. Being done first time ever in the history of the country, it reflects the winds of change blowing away the cobwebs of rather anachronistic electoral trends. That overseas Pakistanis can do a lot for their country and for the growth of democracy is self-evident. Factors such as their education, orientation and living experience in foreign lands can naturally make them choose bet-ter candidates to lead their coun-try. Some of these expats include students and professionals; others are blue collar workers, yet seen as a whole, they can turn out to

be a positive influ-ence on the polls. As of now, their contribution to the national econ-omy is great; the money they send helps their fami-lies back at home and that sustains

the economy by boosting up the foreign exchange remittances. The issue is not to be confused with the debate over dual nation-als in seats of power. The same logic cannot be applied for the reason that there is a world of a difference between letting a dual national vote and letting him run for Parliament, or worse become a ‘suitcase prime minister’ which as we have seen has had a detrimen-tal effect on the nascent growth of democracy. It is no wonder the Supreme Court kept calling for according the grant of such a status to all Pakistanis in foreign nations.

In the wake of the recent cyber at-tack on the ECP’s website, there lurks the danger of the Nadra’s e-voting software being hacked, which calls for greater oversight of the entire electronic data. These risks were earlier brought to the Supreme Court’s notice by the ECP reasons why it was re-luctant to giving the green signal. One hopes once these procedural pitfalls are sorted out there would be no hurdle to a wakeful mass of expats to exercise their right of vote.

A POSTCARD has ar-rived at a Leicester-

shire home 45 years late. De Montfort University lecturer Martin Morgan-Taylor received the letter at his home, as it was addressed to the former occupant of the Glenfield property.

He told This Is Leicestershire: “I’d just got back from a trip to India and I was feeling very jet-lagged. I’d just woken up from a nine-hour sleep and I wasn’t en-tirely sure what day it was. But when I saw this old postcard in my letterbox I was pretty sure it wasn’t 1968.

“The first thing I noticed was the stamp, which was in old money, and the postmark said ‘1 July 1968, Ryde’. There was also an-other postmark from Peterbor-ough in April of this year. I’ve no idea what happened.”

He continued: “The postcard was for the man who lived here back then, but he died in the mid-1990s and I never knew him.

“It’s a lovely old vintage colour photo of Carisbrooke Castle on

Postcard arrives at house after 45 years

the Isle of Wight. You occasion-ally read about things like this happening but it’s very odd.”

The postcard simply read “From Margaret and Ron”, which Mor-gan-Taylor found rather disap-pointing. He said: “It would have been nice if it said something like, ‘We just saw one of those new-fangled television sets’ or something, but disappointingly it just said ‘from Margaret and Ron’.”

Royal Mail spokesperson Valer-ie Antoine explained that sort-ing offices are often checked to make sure post is never delayed for such a long time.

She said: “It is extremely un-likely that this item of mail was in our system all this time. “It is difficult to speculate what may have happened, but almost cer-tainly it was put back in a post box very recently, as we regular-ly check all our sorting offices and machines are cleared.”

people with ensuing clash fol-lowed by aerial firing.

Members of Muttahida’s Coordi-nation Committee also visited the injured people at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Talking to media, the MQM leader Raza Haroon said the attack is an attempt to mar-ginalize the party.

After the blast in Karachi, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain directed its party to temporarily shut down all of its election offices.

MQM Chief Altaf Hussain, whose, party faces direct threats from the Pakistani Taliban, said that as to how voters could come out of their houses to cast their ballots in a situation like this.

A SCOTTISH company has unveiled a new pros-

thetic hand that can be con-trolled by a mobile phone app.

Touch Bionics’ i-limb ultra revo-lution features a powered rotat-ing thumb to enhance dexter-ity, 24 grip options and extra

New bionic hand is controlled by mobile app

sensitive electrodes. It’s the first upper-limb prosthesis that can be controlled via an app compatible with the latest Apple products.

The powered rotation of the thumb can be controlled either directly by the wearer’s muscle signals, or can move automatical-ly into position as part of a pre-set

grip pattern or gesture.

The new ‘quick grips’ option from the Biosim mobile control app allows the user to automati-cally activate 24 different grip patterns and gestures with a sin-gle tap of the screen.

It means users can adjust their prosthetic hand for different tasks, such writing, typing, grip-ping small objects - or even tying shoe laces

Wearer Bertolt Meyer said: “Pow-ered thumb rotation, combined with the mobile app and quick access to all these new grips, gives me natural hand function that I never imagined would be possible.”

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Talking to the news paper Dr. Noor Ahmed discussed the

aims and objectives, back ground and the development of APPNA ST. Louis Community Health Clinic. The clinic was established in September 2011 under the leadership of Dr. Manzoor Tariq and with the help of a team of dedicated volunteers. The prima-ry aim and objective of the clinic was to provide medical services to those in need. The clinic also intended to provide foster health awareness, medical education and preventive health care informa-tion. Furthermore the clinic was seen as an ideal venture as it of-fered our Muslims physicians and non physicians the opportu-nity to volunteer and take part in serving their community. The seven founding members of the board and supporting staff were Dr. Manzoor Tariq(President), Dr. Shazia Malik, Dr. Naseem Shek-hani( Secretary), Dr. Noor Ahmed, Dr. Ishaq Chishti, Dr. Mujtaba Qazi(Treasurer), Dr. Mohammad Haseeb and br. Adil Imdad

The clinic was gifted/donated eye room equipment from St. Mary’s Hospital and Dr. M Ishaq Chishti, dental room equipment was gift-ed /donated by Dr. Abid, Dr. Ta-hira Bhaiji and Dr. Noor Ahmed.

Free of cost labo-ratory ser-vices were provided by Clin Lab. Since the open-ing of the clinic its volunteer physicians have served almost a thousand patients.

The clinic is open every Satur-day from 10 to 1 pm, under the leadership of Dr. Noor Ahmed (President), Dr. Danish Hassan (Secretary), Dr. Mujtaba Qazi (Treasurer) and Hafiz Waqas (Ad-min) and other volunteers from a variety of walks of life.

Pakistan Abroad St. Louis Bureau congratulates Dr. Noor Ahmed and his team for their noble work and appeal to the St. Louis Mus-lim community for their support and donations. Long may your g o o d w o r k cont in-ue.

Jawaid Riaz, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Abroad News Paper visited APPNA St. Louis Community

Health Clinic, on Sunday, April 14, 2013.

Washington Bureau Report:

University of Karachi Alum-ni Association organized a

fund raiser to support and help in sponsoring Mid wifery School at Koohi Goth Hospital Kara-chi, Pakistan. A large number of the Pakistani community members and non members (UKAA) attended this color-ful and well organized event. It was a memorable and one of its kind evenings in the his-tory of UKAA.

Please enjoy the pictures. Prominent and well known Dr.Shershah Syed (Pakistan), President of NHF, Drs. Nas-eem Shekhani & Farhat Shek-hani St. Louis), Shahid Hash-mi, President UKAA, Shahab Qarni, GS, UKAA, addressed the audience and discussed the project of Mid wifery School at Koohi Goth Hos-pital Karachi. They further request and thanked for their continuous patronage and support for the good causes in future. A delicious dinner was also served. Zulikha You-suf and Hassan Jalil were the MC of the program

University of Karachi Alumni Association organized a fund raiser to support and help in sponsoring Mid wifery School at Koohi Goth Hospital Karachi, Pakistan

Tariq Shahab, Secretary of UKAA

Shahid Hashmi, President of UKAA

MC, Zulekha Yusuf & JAMAL

Naseem Shekhani

Shershah Syed

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Junaid Fahmi, Central Organiz-er MQM USA, Wakeel Jamali,

Member COC, Sohail Shams, Member Helping Committee, of-fice bearers and volunteers of Pakistan Club, Jawaid Riaz, Ja-meel Khan, Mohammad Tahir, Shehzad Aman, Nihal Akhtar,

Tariq Mehmood, Rizwan Qureshi, Kafeel Jamali,Rashid Mushtaq, visited Robin Kelly at her office upon her victory, and congratu-lated her on her success. Robin Kelly thanked all the members for their support, and appreciated all their efforts.

Report by Jawaid Riaz

Ameen Ceremony of Ayesha Kazmi, Umar Kazmi and Ali Kazmi, Children of Mr. and Mrs. Rashid Kazmi.

Jawaid Riaz - Dr.Tariq Manzoor, Taqueer Haider and

Dr. Naseem Shekhani

Dr. Nadeem Ahmed, Jawaid Riaz and Dr. Sajid Zafar

Jawaid Riaz, Dr. Naseem Shekhani

Dr. Naseem Shekhani, of St. Louis, Missouri, organized

a gathering of his friends to help and support community newspa-pers and magazines, Urdu Times, Pakistan Abroad, and Bridge Mag International. During this

meeting they discussed how vi-tal print media is for our upcom-ing generation, so that they can maintain and bridge a civic rela-tionship with their culture and legacy. Among the attendees, Dr. Tariq Manzoor, Dr. Javed Qasim, Dr. Nadeem Ahmed, Dr. Sajid Zafar, Dr. Umair Ali, Adil Rajput

of Alrajput Inc, Umair Iqbal, CPA, and Haris of Aftab Designs, pledged to help the abovemen-tioned publications financially, which are free distributions, and rely on donations and advertise-ments.

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Bollywood star Aamir Khan has been featured on one of seven special covers of Time magazine listing the world’s 100 most influential people.

The list also includes India’s Finance Minister P. Chidam-

baram, Delhi lawyer Vrinda Gro-ver and California’s Indian-Amer-ican attorney general Kamala Harris besides teenaged Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Like Aamir Khan, Malala Yousafzai, “the Pakistani school-girl whose advocacy for girls’ rights is just beginning” is also featured on one of the special covers.

Aamir Khan, 48, is described by composer A.R. Rahman on behalf of Time as having “been chosen for using his influence to raise so-cial awareness in India.”

“In a world of false diplomacy and evasiveness, Aamir is a straight-forward man,” writes Rahman, noting, “He uses his gifts as a charmer to give his audience the most bitter medicine. Hypnotized, we take it without complaint.”

“Aamir has started a movement that will help change the world in which Indians live. Jai ho!” adds the Academy Award-winning composer.

Described as “a trusted counsel-lor to the ruling Congress Party’s Gandhi family, Chidambaram’s

experience is unsurpassed,” writes Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley, as-signed to describe the man with the keys to the treasury in India.

Playing “an important role as In-dia opened its economy” in the 1990s, “his reform record has been spotty,” Sharma says, before sug-gesting: “To land India’s top job, he needs to revive his country’s economic fortunes. He may also need to adopt a more Indian style.”

Delhi lawyer Vrinda Grover’s “work as a human-rights lawyer and advocate for women’s rights has meant that she presses down pretty hard,” writes author Nilan-jana Roy.

“Her determination to force an of-ten recalcitrant political and legal system to change was evident in these past few heated months, as a particularly tragic rape in Delhi brought women’s rights center stage,” Roy notes.

Kamala Harris, 48, is described as a jurist to watch by Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as U.S, Speaker of the House.

“In 2010, after seven years as San Francisco district attorney, she be-came the first African American, first South Asian and first woman to be elected California attorney general,” Pelosi writes, predicting:

“As a new generation of women picks up the mantle of progress, she will always be among the first to stand up and step forward.”

ISLAMABAD: Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that Pakistan greatly val-ues its relations with America in a meeting with the US Ambassa-dor Richard Olson in Islamabad.

During the US ambassador’s visit, Pak-US relations and the security situation in Afghanistan were dis-cussed in detail.

The US ambassador said that bi-

lateral cooperation with Pakistan in various fields will continue as it is. He also briefed the president on the strategic dialogue to take place between the two countries in future.

ISLAMABAD: Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday that Pakistan greatly values its relations with China in a meeting with China’s Ambassador Liu Jian in Islamabad.

During the meeting, Pak-Chi-na relations were discussed in detail.

President Zardari observed that the Gwadar Port between the two countries would promote eco-nomic cooperation and enhance

communication. He also took up the matter of his upcoming visit to China.

China’s Ambassador Liu Jian also briefed the president on the prog-ress of the Gwadar port in the region.

Malala Yousafzai, the teenage girl shot by the Taliban for pro-moting girls’ education, will make her first public speech on her 16th birthday in New York, Gordon Brown announced on Friday.

She will speak at the United Nations on July 12, said Mr

Brown, speaking in his capacity as the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

Malala was shot at point-blank range by a Taliban gunman as her school bus travelled through Pak-istan’s Swat Valley on October 9 last year,

She was flown to Britain for sur-gery on her head injuries and, once she had recovered sufficient-ly, returned to school in Birming-ham last month.

“Malala is a true inspiration and a shining beacon for girls educa-tion around the world,” said Mr Brown.

“I am full of admiration for her courage and determination in the journey she is on, and am sure that she can become a real leader in the campaign for a school place for every girl - and every boy.”

Malala has become a global sym-bol of the campaign for girls’ right to an education and has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Some 4,000 young people are ex-pected to be in attendance for her debut speech.

Her self-penned life story is due out later this year in a deal report-edly worth around $3 million.

Malala Yousafzai to give speech in New York

US Ambassador calls on President Zardari

Chinese ambassador calls on President Zardari

Aamir Khan, Malala Yousafzai land on Time’s 100 most influential people list

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LONDON: Margaret Thatch-er, the ‘Iron Lady’ who trans-formed Britain and inspired conservatives around the world by radically rolling back the state during her 11 years in power, died on Monday fol-lowing a stroke. She was 87.

Britain’s only woman prime minister, the unyielding, out-

spoken Thatcher led the Conser-vatives to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous period in of-fice by a British premier since the early 19th century.

A grocer’s daughter with a steely resolve, she was loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed the unions, privatised vast swathes of British industry, clashed with the European Union and fought a war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders.

She struck up a close relationship with US President Ronald Reagan in the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and declared that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a man she could do business with.

“We’ve lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Brit-on,” Prime Minister David Cam-eron said.

“Her legacy will be the fact that she served her country so well, and she saved our country and she showed immense courage in doing so, and people will be learn-ing about what she did and her achievements in decades, prob-ably centuries to come.”

Cameron cut short a visit to Eu-rope to return to Britain after the

death was announced and British flags at Cameron’s official resi-dence, 10 Downing Street, were lowered to half mast.

Mourners began to lay flowers outside her house in Belgravia, one of London’s most exclusive areas. One note said: “The great-est British leader.”

Thatcher died peacefully on Mon-day morning, said Lord Bell, a spokesman for the family. She had been in poor health for months and had declined into dementia in her final years.

“I think she will be remembered as one of the greatest prime min-isters this country has ever had,” Bell said.

“I’m sure she will be remembered in the context of other great men like Winston Churchill. She made a real difference to the way we live our lives,” Bell said.

The British government said Thatcher would have a ceremoni-al funeral with military honours at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, which falls short of a full state funeral, in accordance with the wishes of her family.

The abiding images of her pre-miership will remain those of conflict: huge police confronta-tions with the miners’ union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over an unpop-ular local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.

“It’s very sad to hear of her death but her legacy and death are two different things. Politically, she did not leave a good legacy for the working class,” Kevin Robertson, a 39-year-old garage manager, told Reuters in Edinburgh.

To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree. “The lady’s not for turning”, she once famously informed members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her poli-cies. Others who crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were sub-jected to withering diatribes of-ten referred to as “handbaggings”,

named after the black leather bag she invariably carried.

Queen Elizabeth said she was sad to hear the news of Thatcher’s death and sent a message of sym-pathy to her family.

“Her memory will live long after the world has forgotten the grey suits of today’s politics,” said Lon-don Mayor Boris Johnson. reuters

London (CNN) -- Despite the spring sunshine, the start of the London Marathon on Sunday was a somber occasion.

Thousands of runners joined in a 30-second silence on the start

line to remember those killed and injured by the blasts near the finish of the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Before the tribute, signaled by a whistle blast, an announcer told the massed runners: “We will join together in silence to remember our friends and colleagues for whom a day of joy turned into a day of sadness.

“Let us now show our respect and support for the victims of the trag-

LONDON: A campaign by op-ponents of late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to get the song “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” to the top of the Brit-ish pop charts to celebrate her death failed on Sunday al-though it did manage to reach second place.

Thatcher, who died aged 87 on Monday, deeply divided Brit-

ons and while some have paid warm tributes to the achieve-ments of her right-wing Conser-vative governments, others said her privatization of swathes of industry had destroyed communi-ties. That opposition was mani-fested in a Facebook campaign to propel the witch song, from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz”, to number one in the charts, provok-ing anger from politicians of all parties, right-leaning media, and members of the public.

The Official Charts Company said 52,605 copies of the song had been sold, but that was about 6,000 shy of the chart-topping track “Need U” by British DJ Duke Dumont and singer A*M*E.

The top 40 best-selling singles are played weekly on BBC Radio but the broadcaster said on Friday it would only pay a five-second clip of the song as part of a news item, leading to accusations it had caved into political pressure.

“I understand the concerns about this campaign. I personally be-lieve it is distasteful and inappro-priate,” BBC Director-General Tony Hall said in a statement.

“However, I do believe it would be wrong to ban the song outright as free speech is an important principle.” Meanwhile, a rival campaign by the former premier’s supporters to promote the 1979 single “I’m In Love With Marga-ret Thatcher” by punk band the Notsensibles fared less well, de-buting in 35th place after sales of 8,768.

Britain’s ‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher

dies Anti-Thatcher song 2nd in UK charts

Runners start London Marathon with moment of silence for Boston victims

Britain’s only woman prime minister served 1979-1990

edy in Boston.”

The runners, many also wearing black ribbons as a Boston tribute, then poured over the start line to begin the 26.2-mile race.

Boston wheelchair champ racing in London

Open Mic: London Marathon

Security increased for London Marathon

Along the route, the mood became more festive, with loud cheers and applause for the passing runners from the spectators lining the bar-riers.

Prince Harry also made an appear-ance, visiting the finish line to show his support for the race stewards.

APRIL - 201316SPORTS

Akram, a former captain, has started working with the

country’s quicks after coming to a short-term agreement with the PCB. He commenced a 10-day training camp at the National Stadium in Karachi for 18 of Paki-stan’s top fast bowlers, including members of the national team and some new, raw talent.

The camp was set up ahead of the Champions Trophy in June in England and Akram said that the change to regulations in one-day cricket were tough for bowlers.

“You need to be aggressive and learn how to adapt to these rule changes. Pakistani bowlers have a lot of talent but they need to learn and adapt to the demands of international cricket.

“With the change in ODI cricket, that you can’t keep more than four fielders outside the circle in a 50-over match at any time, and the rising popularity of T20 crick-et means pace bowlers now need to be more adaptable.

“I will advise these bowlers that to be successful in this scenario, ag-gression is a must with top grade fitness, pace and the ability to have length variation. T20 cricket has changed the mentality of bats-men. The odds are stacked against the bowlers. First I will tell them how to swing the ball, then re-verse swing and how to make use of the yorkers.

“I am not a magician able to work wonders in ten days but I will try my level best to help them in phases and hope that the same training camp is staged after a

DELRAY BEACH, Florida: World No. 1 Serena Williams

cruised past Johanna Larson 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday to pull the Unit-ed States level with Sweden at 1-1 in their Fed Cup World Group playoff.

The visitors had taken a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five match tie when Sofia Arvidsson downed Sloane Stephens 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 on the out-door hardcourt at Delray Beach Tennis Center.

Arvidsson blasted three aces, ham-mered 28 winners and won 63 percent of her first-serve points in the two-hour match.

Stephens, who is ranked 16th in the world, had five double faults, won just 40 percent of her second serves and made 74 unforced errors.

However, a rain delay before the second singles was the only thing that could slow Williams’ bid to get the tie back on level terms.The reigning Wimbledon and US Open champion subdued Larsson in 66 minutes, extending her per-fect record in Fed Cup singles to 9-0.

In Sunday’s reverse singles, Wil-liams will play Arvidsson and Ste-phens will take on Larsson.

The fifth rubber would be a dou-bles encounter with Arvidsson and Larsson teaming against the American tandem of Venus Wil-liams and Varvara Lepchenko.Serena and her former top-ranked sister Venus are playing Fed Cup together for the first time in 14 months.

The US team is trying to avoid rel-egation to World Group II after losing their 2013 first-round tie 3-2 to Italy in February.

A victory over Sweden would keep the Americans back in the World Group for 2014. (AFP)

break of three to four months,” he added. “I will be there in the camp and then at the Champions Trophy so will do my best to help them to learn and mature.”

“I don’t think it’s a serious con-cern. The talent is definitely there but these kids need experience and must learn to adapt to the demands of international cricket where they are found wanting,” he said.”It’s not easy to found someone with 145kph pace, you need to do scouting and hunting for fast bowlers and I am sure there will be talent.

“The grounds in South Africa were green but you need a certain strategy to bowl, so until and un-less they learn it they will not be able to turn their potential into performances.”

Pakistan’s pace pack at Karachi camp

Wahab Riaz (L), Zia-ul-Haq (L), Mohamamd Aftab (L), Rahat Ali (L), Mohamamd Irfan (L), Junaid Khan (L), Sadaf Hussain (L), Hammad Azam (R), Ahmad Jamal (R), Asad Ali (R), Ehsan Adil (R), Mohammad Talha (R), Bila-wal Bhatti (R), Imran Khan (R), Tabish Khan (R), Anwar Ali (R), Aziz Ullah (RAF), Atta Ullah (R)

Wasim Akram urges Pakistan bowlers to be aggressive

Serena pulls US level with Sweden in Fed Cup

ISLAMABAD – Common sense finally prevails as International Tennis Federation (ITF) has ac-cepted Pakistan Tennis Federa-tion’s (PTF) written complaint against Australian-based Sri Lankan origin referee Ashita Aji-gala, who without any concrete reasons, awarded the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group II tie to New Zealand, which was held at the neutral venue of Myanmar.Paki-stan ace tennis star Aisamul Haq personally met with the ITF of-ficials at the ITF headquarters in London and pleaded Pakistan’s case. After haring the arguments, the ITF had accepted PTF’s plea and the matter would be taken before the ITF Board next week.

While talking exclusively with The Nation, Aisam said: “I had very constructive and detailed meeting with Justine Albert, head of Davis Cup & Fed Cup of ITF and also with a member of the ITF Board of Directors. I thoroughly told them my point of view and I am quite satisfied with the devel-opments.

I am sure the ITF would not only consider our genuine request but also reverse the previous unjust and biased decision made by the biased referee.

”While talking to this scribe lon-gest serving Pakistan number 1 tennis player Aqeel Khan was also full of confidence that the tie would start from the same position where the referee had interfered and awarded to New Zealand.He further said: “I had detailed conversation with Aisam and I am pretty sure that Asiam had conveyed the message very loud and clear. We are preparing very hard and eagerly looking for-ward to play the tie from where we had left. We are fully prepared to play the tie at any given neutral place on any grass court surface. We would not disappoint the na-tion and would win the tie for the country.”

ITF to review decision in Board meeting

APRIL - 201317Bollywood

continued...

MUMBAI:

Director Zoya Akhtar believes that short films that are shown standalone in theatres are un-likely to find takers in the coun-try. Zoya has recently created a 25-minute movie, Bombay Talk-ies, which is a compilation of four short films that are different in content from each other, celebrat-ing 100 years of Indian cinema. Zoya, who has previously direct-ed movies like Luck By Chance and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, joined forces with Bollywood’s most popular directors including Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap and Dibaker Banerjee to put together Bombay Talkies.

The movie is all set to release on May 3. When asked if its release will open doors for a theatrical culture for short films in India, Zoya said, “I don’t think this will ever happen. There might have been three or four different film-makers coming together, but as a theatrical concept, individual short films just don’t work [in India].”

Bombay Talkies is a 25-minute short movie which is a compila-tion of four short films. PHOTO : FILE

She further added, “You don’t need it [a theatrical release] now. With internet, digital platforms and film festivals, you have so much that you can do. But hon-estly, I don’t think short films will become a huge theatrical culture.” Zoya, however, is proud that she had the opportunity to collabo-rate with such experienced directors.

“I am the youngest in this lot and I am proud to be sharing the credits

with them. They are three amaz-ing film-makers. I am actually the least experienced amongst them,” she said while maintaining that Bombay Talkies is a “good package.”

For her part in the film, Zoya worked around a slim budget of INR15 million. Despite that, she managed to pull it off with an ac-tor like Katrina Kaif, who did not charge anything for her role in the movie.

When asked if she had to make a lot of compromises, Zoya said,

“Compromises here and there, but not really! I am lucky that I am with producers like Excel En-tertainment. They were like, ‘Do whatever, just work within the budget.’ I liked it because it was great exercise [practice] for me.”

Short films don’t work in India: Zoya Akhtar

Dutt asks for more time before jail

NEW DELHI:

Sanjay Dutt has asked India’s top court for more time before going back to jail for possessing arms supplied by plotters of the deadly 1993 Mumbai blasts, his lawyer said Monday. India’s Su-preme Court last month struck down Dutt’s appeal over his con-

viction and said he must return to prison by April 18, but the 53-year-old has asked for another six months of freedom to com-plete his filming obligations.

“Please defer my surrender by 180 days as I have work commitments,” his defence counsel Harish Salve, citing a petition filed on Monday, told AFP. The lawyer said the plea was likely to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Tues-day. The top court last month sentenced him to five years for possessing firearms supplied by gangland bosses who staged the string of bombings that killed 257 people. The muscular and tat-tooed Dutt had already served 18 months of his sentence but was released on bail while his case was appealed.

SEOUL :

Gangnam Style” star Psy’s new music video had received more than 50 million views on YouTube by Monday, re-writing the video-sharing site’s records for single-day hits.

The dance video to “Gentleman”, the South Korean singer’s long-awaited follow up to “Gangnam Style, was only posted on You-Tube at 9:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday.

In the first 24 hours, it racked up around 20 million hits, destroying the previous record for single-day views of 8.0 million, set by Cana-

Psy’s ‘Gentle-man’ video smashes

YouTube records

Actress Sushmita Sen and Paki-stani cricketer Wasim Akram rub-bished reports suggesting that they are planning to tie the knot and asked the media to respect their privacy.Earlier some reports had stated that the duo are plan-ning to get married after seeing each other for a couple of years. But the 37-year-old actress took to micro-blogging site Twitter to clarify the news, saying she is just good friends with 46-year-old Akram.”Hi guys! Been read-ing about my upcoming wedding with Wasim... Absolute Rubbish. Goes to show just how irrespon-sible media can be sometimes.

Wasim Akram is a friend and will always be one!! He has a wonder-ful lady in his life... Rumours like these are uncalled for and disre-spectful,” Sushmita said.Akram also denied the rumours saying

he wants to devote himself to his children and is not planning to get married anytime soon. “I am really fed up

with these rumors and specula-tions made in the media. I decided to take a year off from the Indian Premier League because I wanted to give time to my two sons who are growing up and need their father close to them.”Right now my entire focus is on spending quality time with them. There is no plan in my life now to get mar-ried,” Wasim a widower, whose wife Huma died in October, 2009 told PTI.”I want to devote my life to my sons.

I think the media and people should not only respect my priva-cy but also that of Sushmita who is a very graceful and decent lady and a fine human being,” he add-ed. Sushmita and Akram met on the sets of Indian television show ‘Aik Khiladi Aik Haseena’ in 2008.The former Miss Universe, who is a single parent to two adopted daughters Renee and Alisah, also said she will disclose when she gets married.

“My beautiful people... when I find ‘The One’... You’ll be the first to know. Benefits of being my twitter family!!”

Wasim Akram is a friend and will always be one: Sushmita Sen

APRIL- 201318SHOWBIZ

dian heartthrob Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” video in May 2012. Now that record looks set to be stretched again, with the view count about 40 hours after release standing at 51 million.

“51million views in 40hours!! My God~!!!” the 35-year-old star ex-claimed on his Twitter account. The video shows Psy, wearing his signature sunglasses, dancing at various locations in and around Seoul including a high-end cloth-ing store, restaurant, swimming pool and a library.

Asian Media USA ©

Chicago IL: Adnan Sami staged a live concert on Saturday, March 30, 2013 at Sears Center, 5333 Prairie Stone Parkway, Hoffman Estates, Ill. The multi-talented pi-anist, singer, composer, actor, and musician, also reputed to be the world’s fastest keyboardist, was back in Chicago after eight years with a spectacular new show pre-sented by Combined Oil Com-pany, Live 2U, and Desi Bazaar. Sami mesmerized an enthusiastic crowd of more than 3800 listeners for about 3 hours.

British-born 39-year old Sami is of Pakistani origin, currently holds Canadian citizenship, and lives in Mumbai, India. His style merges Asian and Western music styles and instrumentation and ranges

Adnan Sami Spectacular Concert after 8 years with new look in Chicago

from classical to jazz to modern pop-rock. The first person to play Indian Classical music on the electric piano, Sami is featured in a documentary recently commis-sioned by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office amongst the ten most famous names from India and Pakistan, who have influenced Asian culture in the UK over the last fifty years. He is committed to experimenting with new styles and forms rather than be taken hostage by past suc-cesses.

Sami started by singing “Allahu Akbar” and showing his virtuos-ity on the keyboard. He went on to sing the following songs: Meh-booba mehbooba, Dil kya kare, Dil keh raha hai, Chain mujhe ab aaye na, Sun zara, Roshni kahaan meri, Mere khuda, Ishq hota nahin, Ek ajnabee se, Meri baahon main, Kuch lafdaa hai, Udi udi, Ishkan ishkan ho gaya, Naino se naino ko mila, Kabhi toh nazar milaao, Yeh zamin ruk jaaye, Bheegee bheegee raaton main, and finally brought the curtain down with his famous song Lift kara de.

The evening began with a 13-min-ute nonstop performance by the new young talented group, Yeh Cheez. Guitar-playing Noman Khan danced amidst the crowd to “Challa” (from movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan), transitioning to “Avi Avi” (Band Baaja Baraat) as Tanya Sharma joined him on stage to finish with “Second Hand Jawa-ni” (Cocktail). Nishma Patel then sang solo: “Sadi Gali” (Tanu Weds Manu) and Aashima Ghai, closing with “Chikni Chameli” (Agnee-path). Anand Bhatt entertained with dance moves, stunts, and a mix of songs, such as “Pani Da Rang” and “Race 2.”

Khan returned with a two minute medley of “Shahid Kapoor with a hint of Punjabi Tadhka,” which started off with “Hadippa,” then

“Punjabdiya Di Battery,” “Nagada,” “Sajh Dhaj Ke,” and “Desi Beat.” Nishma, Aashima, Bansari, and Viraj joined him on stage for their synchronized choreography of

“Mauja Hi Mauja.” The four girls then danced to the 2013 favorite

“Fevicol Se” (Dabbang 2) that cul-minated in “Desi Boyz”.

Coming onstage to “Don’s Dia-logue” in the background, Kevin Tony made the first moves and froze. Anand Bhatt joined him to a dialogue from “Rowdy Rathod” and performed the second verse. Finally, Khan and Sharma joined in to “Race 2’s Dialogue” and all eight performers danced to “Desi Boyz” remixed by DJ Afridi in an amazingly novel way, and transi-tioning seamlessly into “Gangam Style” which drove the crowd crazy.

Vandana Walia invited sponsors of the event Sunil Shah and Jasbir Suga of Suga Builders onto the stage. A well-known Chicagoland personality and patron affiliated with the Federation of Indian Associations and New York Life Insurance Company, Shah felici-tated the audience for this oppor-tunity to experience a legend and credited Karl Kalra, young and dynamic national promoter and CEO of Live 2 U Entertainment, who drew thunderous applause.

Shah also recognized the May-ors of Schaumburg and of Hoff-man Estates, Al Larson and Wil-liam McLeod respectively, who also came up on stage, for their unswerving support of the Desi community in its various secular and religious activities. Larson appealed to residents of Hoff-man Estates to support and vote for William McLeod on April 9 as he stands for reelection as Mayor. Both mayors thanked Sunil Shah and Karl Kalra for having invited them and expressed their delight at meeting Adnan Sami and lis-

tening to his music with such an enthusiastic crowd of music lov-ers from their respective townships.

After the concert, Sami thanked his musicians: Pawankumar (gui-tar), Deepak and Vishal (key-boards), Shyamraaj (saxophone), Abdul (flute), Gaurav Chopra and Roosvelt (sound). Stage décor and lighting was managed by Vchilli. Launched in Chicago, the concert tour will take Sami to Houston, New Jersey, Washington DC, Bos-ton, and the Bay Area.

APRIL - 201319

SHOWBIZ

Nitin Mukesh’s command performance in Dhrishti’s Remembering Mukesh

Playback singer Shamshad Begum passes away

Asian Media USA ©

Rolling Meadows, IL: A command performance by playback singer and illustrious son of a legendary father, Nitin Mukesh had a capac-ity crowd in raptures for over four and half hours on Sunday, April 21, 2013 at The Meadows Club, 2950 W Golf Rd Rolling Mead-ows, IL.

The concert titled Remember-ing Mukesh and presented by Dhrishti at the Meadows Club here was a tribute to the legend-ary Indian playback singer Muke-sh. Nitin Mukesh is his son and an accomplished playback singer himself having sung several very popular numbers in different lan-guages. He was accompanied by singers Manasi Paranjape, Nam-rata Seth and young second gen-eration local singer Sajni Ganger.

The program began with an intro-duction by host Shebani Kulkarni, the co-founder of Dhrishti and The Meadows Club in a beauti-fully lit and done up grand ball-room with soft lighting and mul-tiple screens for the benefit of the viewers. She spoke about the legend of Mukesh and his jour-ney for over five decades in the industry. She then introduced Ni-tin Mukesh and his band and the fireworks started immediately.

Nitin Mukesh, a persona of great charm and immense skill started with a shloka and commenced what can only be termed as a command performance for over four and half hours. Whether ser-enading the audience with Mera Joota Hai Japani or serenading his wife with Chand Si Mehbooba ho Meri Jaan, he was in his ele-ments as he belted out hit after hit with breathtaking assurance, poise and melody. His periodic forays into the audience during the performance gave the viewers a close glimpse of this remarkable artiste and his ability to connect with them, young or old. An era of his legendary father was touched upon as he sang Dil Jalta Hai to jalne de, Mukesh’s very first song

in the film industry and his later day hits from Kabhi Kabhi.Post interval he opened with some soft and soulful num-bers Wo Teri Pyar ka Gham and Nayan Hamaare which backed by some incredible lighting and an international quality sound system brought the house down. Mukesh’s incredible association with India’s great showman Raj Kapoor was paid tribute through some magnificent renditions of ageless hits like Jeena yahan, Jaane Kahaan Gaye who Din from Mera Naam Joker and the duet Oh Mere Sanam and Dost Dost Na Raha from Sangam. Manasi Paranjape and young singer who has accompanied Nitin Mukesh on several ours excelled in both her solo numbers and duets with Nitin Mukesh. Namrata Seth, Nitin’s younger sister and the youngest sibling of the legendary Mukesh wooed the audience with her solos of Geeta Dutt and duets with Nitinji. Sajni the young sec-ond generation singer from Chi-cago introduced by Nitin Mukesh wowed the audience with her voice in a duet with Nitin Muke-sh. She happens to be the daugh-ter of the national promoter Mayur Ganger who was earlier introduced by Nitin Mukesh.

The accompanying seven member band put up a tremendous perfor-mance and the sounds created by them with limited instruments drew accolades by both the sing-ers and the audience. The lights and sound extravaganza created by the techs of the Meadows Club, Live Entertainment and Tantrixx created an ambience which was mesmerizing and soothing. Nitin Mukesh repeatedly commended the local organizers Madan and Shebani Kulkarni for another beautifully organized event which Dhrishti is always known for. The organizers presented Nitin Muke-sh with a shawl during the concert in recognition of his performanc-es over the years. It was indeed an event which will linger in the memories for a long time.

When her singing career be-gan, Indian cinema had

barely started talking. And by the time it got over, the Golden Age of melody in Hindi films was gone. In a voice that was distinctive — nasal, deep and muscled — Sham-shadBegum sang an impressive cache of chartbusters spanning three decades that continue to be heard and hummed even as gen-erations come and go.

The Amritsar-born playback sing-er, who passed away on Tuesday after prolonged illness in Mum-bai at the age of 94, crooned ever-green hits such as Mere piya gaye Rangoon (with Chitalkar, film: Patanga, 1949), Saiyan dil mein aana re (film: Bahar, 1951), Leke pehla pehla pyaar (with Mohd Rafi and Asha Bhonsle, film: CID, 1956), Teri mehfil mein kismet aazma kar (with Lata Mangeshkar, film: Mughal-e-Azam, 1960) and Kajra mohabbatwala (with Asha Bhonsle, film: Kismat, 1968).

Ask any wedding band master, even today there’s no better bi-daai song than Pee ke ghar aaj py-aari dulhaniya chali (film: Mother India, 1957) and Chhod babul ka ghar mohe pee ke nagar (film: Babul, 1950). A surprisingly high

number of her smash hits were remixed: starlet Tanushree Dutta gyrated sexily to the reworked rhythms of Saiyan dil mein aana re (film: Bahar, 1951).

“Unki aawaz zordaar thi. Her pro-nunciation was clear. You could hear every word clearly. She was an extremely versatile singer. And as a person, she was humble and disciplined. She never threw tan-trums. You can call me unlucky that I couldn’t work with her,” says renowned composer Khayyam.

Ghulam Haider, Anil Biswas, Saj-jad, C Ramchandra, S D Burman and Shankar-Jaikishan, she sang for all music maestros in the 1940s and 1950s. But her biggest chartbusters came from Naushad (Jadoo, Anokhi Ada, Mela, Dulari, Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam) and O P Nayyar (CID, Naya Daur, Kismet).

Shamshad Begum first made her mark singing non-filmi songs for AIR’s Lahore station in 1930s. Her earliest film hits came with com-poser Ghulam Haider. “The song, Saawan ke nazare hain, from Khazanchi (1941) became wildly popular,” recalls Khayyam. That she never sang with K L Saigal re-mained an everlasting regret for her.

APRIL-201320Health/Horoscope

LAHORE:

Holistic health, by definition, is alternative medicine that keeps in mind psychological, social and physical aspects of people’s needs when treating a certain problem. It is a different approach that sug-gests that a disease is a result of physical, spiritual, social and en-vironmental imbalances. Some examples of holistic approaches include herbalism, homeopathy, acupuncture, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and ayurveda (an ancient approach from India). Another wholesome approach used to connect the body, mind and soul with the core of the body is yoga. Recently turned into a fad and a fashion statement, yoga in its true form is a holistic approach connecting the body as a whole. Here we talk to Amna Habib of Arammish Spa who has been practicing yoga for over 25 years and has received extensive training from India regarding the accurate practice of yoga and what it entails.

“Yoga is one of the most serious searches in the world,” begins Habib. “It is the search to find your true self. We are empty car-casses until we don’t know who we are and that is what real yoga enables one to do.”

After training at the Iyengar insti-tute in Puna, India, Habib began her journey to find herself and bring upon other people to par-take on this journey to discover themselves. “There are various types of yoga practices and all fo-cus of different discoveries. Some

of the basic ones are Kundalini, Astanja and Vinyasa Flow,” she re-veals.

Based on the concept of zikar, Kundalini yoga incorporates mysti-cism and connects it to Sufism. “We basically take a mantra or a set music rhythm and the body utilises the man-tra or the music into its movement,” she con-tinues. Working on the astral

part of the body, people usually feel lightheaded-ness and a spirit which is more free. “It ignites the energy from the base of the spine and makes it travel upwards, con-necting the metaphysical spheres of the whole,” says Habib. The Kundalini method magnetises the body in a deep alpha state and allows there to be a connection with the core of the body.

Astanja, or the eight limbs of yoga, focuses on self restraint, mental/emotional discipline along with breathing and meditation. “This particular method uses concen-tration and pranayam (breathing practices) along with Asnas poses to carve out a path towards nir-vana,” she says.

This preliminary form of yoga is all about eating right and thinking right. “It allows for one to reach a state of no mind. People are not aware of themselves or their own surroundings and hence are un-able to connect and utilise their minds to its full capacity,” contin-ues Habib. “Time is created by our lack of awareness and yoga allows you to achieve this state of time-lessness whereby allowing one to lead to nirvana.”

Vinyasa Flow or synchronised living, creates an interconnec-tion with the soul using mind, body and breath. “Being so aware of your every breath and every movement that one experiences every moment of life in a differ-ent way,” explains Habib. This particular method of yoga in-cludes different sets of movement and breathing exercises such as Surya Namaskar. “Various teach-

Yoga is about the mind, body and soul

ers have their own specialised sets that allow for them and their pu-pils to create the necessary con-nection,” she adds.

Habib likes to use Sufism in her yoga practices. “Vadanta and Su-fism are different practices of the same thing,” says Habib. “My love has always been for the Prophet and my journey is a homage to him.” With the use of names of Al-lah, Habib creates her own man-tra to follow and brings the mys-ticism of Islam to the practice of yoga. “What yoga does is give you an experience of God,” enlightens Habib, “It’s about the experience and not the physical attributes. I use qawalli to go into haal and not only is it soothing and relaxing but it is also very enjoyable.”

A long-term study of the chick-enpox vaccine has found it highly effective after one dose and even more effective after two.

Before 1995, when the varicella vaccine came into widespread use, chickenpox affected 90 percent of

After a period of living in the relative backwoods, dear Taurus, you are ready to share yourself with a bigger audience once cos-mic bodies begin entering your sign, one by one. Venus, the Sun, and Mars all enter Taurus on the 15th, 19th, and 20th respectively, and you emerge from a period of withdrawal and emotional re-newal. Until then, much is going on behind the scenes. You keep your emotional distance and a low profile. Major decision mak-ing may be deferred until you feel more confident later in the month. Desires are complex and either difficult to fulfill or you

could struggle with whether you should go after them. Private and past matters tend to assume larger importance in your life, particu-larly around the 10th. From the 20th, you’re more assertive and opportunities that emerge are clearer and more straightforward. Personal magnetism skyrockets now. For single Taureans, roman-tic opportunities abound. Never-theless, some relationship hurdles can figure strongly on the 20-22 and then the 28-30 in more seri-ous partnerships. As well, emo-tions run high around the Lunar Eclipse on the 25th that brings a personal epiphany and relation-ship drama into your life.

Overview for this Month: TaurusApril 2013

Vaccine prevents chickenpox

the population, leading to thou-sands of hospitalizations and 100 deaths a year.

“Now a very safe vaccine will to-tally prevent it from happening,” said the lead author, Dr. Roger Baxter, co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Cen-ter in Oakland, Calif.

Between June and November 1995, researchers began study-ing 7,585 children vaccinated be-tween the ages of 1 and 2.

The analysis, published online in the journal Pediatrics, found 1,505 cases of chickenpox, all except 30 of which were mild or moderate, involving fewer than 300 lesions. There were no cases among chil-dren who received a second dose.

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Summer fashion show in karachi april 2013

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NEWS

Report by Jawaid Riaz

The Mushaira was presided over by senior poet, Hamid

Amrohvi and emceed by Jawaid Riaz. Chaudhry Riaz Recited the Holy Quran. Hamid Am-rohvi read the Naate- Rasool (MPH). Prof. Masroor Qureshi introduced the guest’s poets. An emotional tribute was also paid to the late poet Muneer Uddin Shararr by Tahir Farooqui of PC.

In the Mushaira Famous Po-ets of Chicago Land attended the reception / Mushaira and presented their poetry: Syed Hashmat Sohail, Nazar Naqvi, Wajid Nadeem, Rashid Shai-kh, Nadeem Sharafi, Rashid Rahmee, Ghulam Mustafa An-jum, Anwar Ali roomy, Shakeel Chughtai, Waliuddin and Afzal ur Rehman Afsar read and pre-sented their poetry and were ap-preciated by the crowd. Promi-nent Businessman and member of Pakistan Club Mohammad Kamran said the words of thank. The mushaira was well orga-nized, prestigious and enjoyed by the attendees and will be re-membered. Ch Riaz of Zeenat Banquet served the dinner.

Community leaders and ac-tivists Hameed Ullah Khan, Producer Program Radio Aay Zindagi, Tauseef Siddiqui, Prominent Businessman Jamil Khan and Ex Member of Par-liament Sindh, Wakeel Jamali, General Secretary Pakistan Pa-rade Asif Saleem, also attended the evening.

Bridge Mag International, Urdu Times, Pakistan Abroad and Pakistan Club organized a “Mehfil e Mushaira” in the honor of famous poet, Mr. Ghulam Mustafa Anjum, Mr. Anwar Ali Roomy (Pakistan) and Mr. Shakeel Chougtai Anjum(Germany) in Chicago, Illinois.”An emotional tribute was also paid to the

late poet Muneer Uddin Shararr