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Inclusive elections in Balochistan

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Musharraf arrested,shifted to police HQSHO, IO dismissed over ex-president’s fleeing from IHC

ISLAMABAD—The judicialmagistrate’s court on Fridaygranted ex-military leaderPervez Musharraf two daystransit remand after he wasarrested over charges re-lated to judges confine-ment. The former presidentwas arrested Friday morn-ing and presented beforeJudicial MagistrateMuhammad Abbas Shah.After a brief hearing, thecourt issued a written orderto grant him two-day tran-sit remand.

The order further statedthat police showedMusharraf’s arrest on April18 and requested for twoweeks’ judicial remand. Thejudicial magistrate furthersaid that the police shouldabide by the IslamabadHigh Court’s order and in-clude Section 7 of anti-ter-rorism followed by submit-ting the report.

After attending the

hearing, Pervez Musharrafreturned to his Chak Shahzadfarmhouse. While talking toa private TV channelMusharraf said that he hasreturned to Pakistan out ofhis own will and he respectsthe courts. He expressed hisdetermination of facing theconsequences.

“General Musharraf has

at his farmhouse,” a spokes-man for his All PakistanMuslim League party told.The court has declared hisChak Shahzad farmhouse assub-jail where he will be con-fined for the next two days.

Pervez Musharraf alongwith his team of lawyers ap-peared before Judicial Mag-

istrate Muhammad AbbasShah’s court Friday morningunder strict security. At the

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No US position onMusharraf saga

ISLAMABAD—The UnitedStates says that it takes no po-sition on the return of formerPresident Pervez Musharrafor the legal proceedingsagainst him.

Responding to various

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Zardari, Altaf express resolveto face all odds together

LONDON—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) Chief AltafHussain telephoned PresidentAsif Ali Zardrai and apprisedhim of acts of terrorism, espe-cially killing of MQM workers.

Informing the presidentabout the killing of MQM jointin-charge Muhammad Faisal in

Mehmoodabad, Mr Hussain saidthat his party was showing re-straint in the interest of the coun-try and the democracy despiteprovocations.

President Asif Ali Zardariexpressed grief over the killingof MQM workers and applaudedthe party for showing restraint.

He said that PakistanPeople’s Party had also beenfacing terrorism and its officewas also attacked in Punjab onThursday.

However, the presidentsaid that the PPP would face allthe odds along with its partnerslike it did in the past.—INP

Writes to Obama

Zardari assuressupport againstterrorismISLAMABAD—President AsifAli Zardari has stronglycondemned the heinous act ofterrorism in the city of Boston,Massachusetts USA during theBoston Marathon and hasexpressed profound grief andsorrow over the deaths andinjuries in the terrorist attack.

In a letter to President of theUnited States Barack Obama,President Zardari while extend

ing his deepest condo-lences said that governmentand people of Pakistan con-

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been sent on a two-day judi-cial remand and he will stay

occasion, lawyers chantedslogans against Musharraf.Musharraf’s lawyer pleadedthe judicial magistrate to de-clare him judicial as his clienthas threats to his life.Musharraf waited in thecourt’s premises in his carand left for his residence af-ter a while. “Musharraf him-

LAHORE: The broken windscreen of Nawaz Sharif aircraft.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—An airplane carry-ing the chief of Paki-stanMuslim League-N, MianMohammad Nawaz Sharif,made an emergency landingFriday when the aircraft’swindscreen cracked midair.

Sharif’s plane makesemergency landing

The PML-N chief, a top con-tender in the coming polls,was travelling for a campaignrally to the town of Hasilpur.

According to aviation of-ficials, the pilot told air trafficcontrol that the aircraft’swindscreen had cracked mid-flight at a height of 9,000 kms.

The plane eventuallymade an emergency landingat Allama Iqbal InternationalAirport. At least 12 otherpeople were reported to beonboard along with thePML-N chief.

No injuries were re-ported.

QUETTA—Participation ofall political parties in elec-tions in Balochistan is sig-nificant development termi-nating politics of agitationPolitical forces have em-barked upon democraticprocess to resolve the prob-lems of people.

Political observers havenoticed a big change in theattitude of the to politiciansand their approach to theproblems. That is all due tothe saner policy of thepresent administrative setup and Caretaker Chief

Minister Nawab GhausBakhsh Barozai who gainedsufficient experience from hisfather Nawab MuhammadKhan Barozai who servedBalochistan for a long timetwice as the speaker of theprovincial assembly and onetime chief minister of the prov-ince.

The peaceful atmospherehinges on good law and or-der situation for which all outefforts are being made to en-sure peace and tranquility.The paucity of funds isstated to be a problem hin-dering noble objectives inthe wake of external threat.The situation has becomeserious after handing over

the management of GwadarSeaport to China which iseye sore for India and othercountries of internationalimportance. A report sug-gested that they would nothesitate to create unrest inthe province through theirhirelings, to sabotage theprocess of elections andcause de-stabilization of theprovince.

The Caretaker ChiefMinister Nawab GhausBakhsh Barozai and Gover-nor Nawaz Zulfiqar AliMagsi are fully aware of theexternal threat and they aredetermined to meet the chal-

Situationer

Ghulam Tahir

Five PMs innext 5 years:ShujaatGUJRAT—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Q (PML-Q) headChaudhry Shujaat Hussainhas predicted that Pakistan isgoing to see five primeministers over the next fiveyears.

Speaking to reporters inhis hometown of Gujrat onFriday, Hussain expressedthe fear that situation couldworsen after the upcoming

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10-party oppositionalliance in Karachi,

Dadu brokenKARACHI—Opposition alli-ance of ten parties in Sindh’sprovincial capital and Dadufinally came to an end on Fri-day as the parties failed toagree over seat adjustment inboth the cities.

According to media re-ports, the alliance parties an-nounced to take their candi-dates in the upcoming elec-

Senate for trial ofMusharraf under

Article 6ISLAMABAD—The Senateon Friday unanimouslypassed a resolution to tryformer military ruler Gen (r)Pervez Musharraf under Ar-ticle 6 of the Constitution for

self surrendered before the

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Thee cities ofKhyber Pukhtunkhwa wereFriday rocked by explosionsresulting in killing of at leastseven people and serious in-juries to scores others.

These explosions in-cluded rockets landing at anelection rally in SouthWaziristan leaving fourpeople dead and scores oth-ers critically wounded.Those killed in Friday’s ex-plosions included a womanand two kids.

In a major explosion atleast four political activists were killed and scores oth-ers wounded seriouslywhen three rockets firedfrom undisclosed locationlanded in the public meet-ing of a candidate in WanaSouth Waziristan agency.

Seven killed in threeKP cities blasts

Woman, kids die in election rally attackReports say two rockets,said to be fired from UchchaKhwara area, landed nearthe venue of the meetingwhile one projectile ex-ploded in Wana Bazar.

The meeting was orga-nized by an independentcandidate Naseerullah, whonarrowly escaped the at-tack.

Independent sourcessaid more than two dozenpeople sustained injuriesand they were shifted toWana hospital, where themedics described the con-dition of many injured asprecarious. 38 candidates,including those of PTI, JI,PPP, JUI-F and PML-N, aretaking part in the election inNA-41. –

On the other hand awoman and her two childrenwere killed in a bomb blast

in Buner on Friday. The po-lice and the locals said theblast occurred in the field inthe jurisdiction of Nawagaipolice station.

The woman along withher two children was work-ing in her field near her homewhen the bomb exploded.

All the three were killedin the explosion.

In the meanwhile at leastthree persons were injuredin a remote controlled bombblast in Adezai area in theoutskirts of Peshawar on Fri-day.

The bomb was plantednear the house of a leader ofthe local peace committeeWaqif Khan, which explodedwith big bang.

“At least three personswere injured in the explosionand they were shifted tohospital for treatment”.

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ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Mus-lim League Nawaz SenatorSyed Zafar Ali Shah on Fri-day said that the entire na-tion is paying the price forfor former president Gen.(R)Pervez Musharraf ’sadventurism. Talking to re-porters outside the Parlia-ment House, he saidMusharraf had derailed de-mocracy when country wason the road to prosperity anddevelopment under the lead-ership of Nawaz Sharif.

To a question, he said thatPML-N would bring a realchange in the country if givenan opportunity to come intopower. Peshawar: Senior ANPactivist Saadullah Khan ofKafoor Dheri has announcedjoining PML-N and full supportfor the party candidates fromNA-3, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra andPK-7, Syed Muazzam Bacha inthe elections, said a press re-lease issued here Friday.

He announced joiningPML-N in a function held herewith Secretary General PML-N,

Iqbal Zafar Jhagra in the chair.PML-N candidate from PK-7,Muazaam Bacha and MualanaMufti Hassan Jan also ad-dressed the function. Speakingon the occasion, Iqbal Zafar

Jhagra claimed that the popu-larity of PML-N is growing witheach passing day.

He congratulated andwelcomed Saadullah Khanand his associates on join-ing PML-N, saying their en-try will strengthen the posi-tion of the party.—APP

ANP’s Saadullah joins PML-N

Nation suffersfor Musharraf’s

adventurism

MASHKEL: A view of damaged house after 16th April earthquake that struck Mashkel Town.

HYDERABAD: A former policeman Ali Hassan with his children, who was brutallytortured by an influential political person on 24 March 2008, and was crippled stillwaiting for justice.

FAISALABAD: Ladies busy in cutting wheat crop in the fields.

ISLAMABAD—With womenprojected to comprise a ma-jority of the world’s urbandwellers, gender equality inemployment, housing,health and education is vitalto ensure the future prosper-ity of the cities, according toa new UN study, says a mes-sage received here fromUnited Nation Hadquarters.

“Women are key driversof economic growth and thatwealth in the hands ofwomen leads to much moreequitable outcomes in termsof the quality of life of fami-lies and communities,” thestudy, entitled State of

Women in Cities Report 2012/13, said. “Addressing thebarriers to women’s partici-pation in cities creates a situ-ation where women’s poten-tial is more fully realised andhouseholds, communitiesand governments also reaprewards.

“It is imperative thatwomen and men should en-joy equal rights and opportu-nities in cities on moral/ethi-cal, economic and politicalgrounds. This will not onlyengender women’s well-beingbut it will increase their indi-vidual and collective prosper-ity as well as the prosperity

of the cities in which they re-side. “Produced by theNairobi-based UN HumanSettlements Programme,known as UN-HABITAT,which is mandated to promotesocially and environmentallysustainable towns and citieswith the goal of providingadequate shelter for all, thereport also stressed the needto address unemploymentand other disadvantages thathobble urban youth. The re-port called for policies to en-hance gender equality, equityand prosperity of women incities, noting that cities of thefuture will comprise a major-

ity female component, espe-cially among people olderthan 60 and even more soamong those older than 80years.

While underscoring theunpaid caring and social ac-tivities that women under-take, such as childcare, car-ing for the sick, disabled andelderly, washing, cleaningand other community ser-vices that allow the urbaneconomy to function andprosper, even if this labouris seldom recognised or val-ued, the report stressed the“crucially important” eco-nomic contributions they

make through their paidwork “The feminization ofthe global labour force tendsto be associated withurbanisation, with the re-lated concentration ofwomen in export-manufac-turing, the service sector andInformation, Communicationand Technology (ICT),” itsaid, adding that women,especially the urban poor,are disadvantaged in termsof equal access to employ-ment, housing, health andeducation, asset ownership,experiences of urban vio-lence, and ability to exercisetheir rights.—APP

DRO noticescandidates on

polls violationsKHUSHAB—District Return-ing Officer (DRO)Muhammad Tanveer Mir is-sued notices to candidatesfrom NA-70 and PP-41 on vio-lation of elections. Accord-ing to official sources hereFriday, Sardar Shuja KhanBaloch, an independent can-didate for NA-70, and HajiSharif Khan Baloch, an inde-pendent candidate for PP-41,were brought to the city witha motorcycle rally which wasa sheer violation of the codeof conduct of elections.

The election monitoringteam had complained to theDRO in this regard. The DCOissued notices to Shuja KhanBaloch and Sharif KhanBaloch to appear before courton April 20. Meanwhile, DPOEhsan Ullah Bajwa, in a meet-ing held here Friday to reviewelection arrangements, di-rected field officers to ensureimplementation of electionscode of conduct.—APP

Pakistanistudent stands

second inint’l contest

ISLAMABAD—A Pakistanistudent has bagged silvermedal in the seventh Inter-national EnvironmentalProject Olympiad (INEPOEurasia) held in Baku,Azerbaijan. Students from 47countries presented 123projects in the Olympiad.Alvaz Adnan, a student ofPak-Turk School Lahore pre-sented her biology projectregarding removal of dyesfrom effluent of factories andwon silver medal.

Commenting on the suc-cess, Chairman PakTurk UnalTosur and Director EducationKamil Ture said that Pakistanstudents have been leavingothers behind in almost all theinternational competitionswhich has encouraged us toboost investment in the futureof Pakistan. “We aim to shapethe view of Pakistani studentsto think on global scale whilebeing dedicated to their tradi-tions and values; they shouldbe well acquainted with thecompetitive environment andcapable to cope with the on-going and forthcoming chal-lenges,” they said.—APP

Munir Niaziremembered

IS L A M A B A D —LegendaryUrdu and Punjabi poet MunirNiazi was remembered on hisbirth anniversary on Friday.He was born in Khanpur on19th April, 1928 in a villagenear Hoshiarpur, India. Afterthe partition of India he mi-grated to Pakistan andsettled in Sahiwal. MunirNiazi, a master of poetic im-agery, was bold enough toexperiment with many genresof poetry and is credited withcreating a distinct style,rhythm and diction.

Mythology, nostalgia andhaunting romance are some ofthose themes that find fre-quent mention in his poems.He wrote numerous songs forfilms and made his name asthe foremost movie songwriter of Pakistan.—APP

Senior femalejournalist tocontest polls

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Senior femalejournalist and former GeneralSecretary of Khyber Union ofJournalist, Anila Shaheen hasjumped into electoral race asindependent candidate aftershe was allotted election sym-bol ‘Basket’ here Friday. Hail-ing from Chamkani, a suburbanvillage of Peshawar located onGT Road, Anila Shaheen washopeful to give tough time tomainstream political parties andwill succeed from NA-4Peshawar mostly comprises onvillages and rural areas whereeducation ratio was compara-tively low to others three con-stituencies of Peshawar.

“My top priority wouldpromoting education, estab-lishment of quality educationaland technical institutes in NA-4 Peshawar as without educa-tion, the dream of progress anddevelopment besides durablepeace was not possible” hetold APP here at Judicial Com-plex where she came for allotof election symbol. She saidsetting up of network of qual-ity education and vocationaleducational training institutesin all areas of NA-4 where thisfacility was not availablewould in her top priority in or-der to save time and money ofstudents.

QUETTA—A number of cov-ering and other candidatesincluding nominated by po-litical parties and indepen-dent candidates have with-drawn their nomination formssubmitted for participating ingeneral elections 2013. Mostof the candidates who havewithdrawn their nominationforms were participating inelections as independentcandidates and they also ad-dressed press conference toexpress their support to thecandidate, in favour of himthey withdrew their papers.

Official sources told APPhere on Friday that PakistanMuslim League-NBalochistan chief SardarSanaullah Zehri withdrew hisnomination forms from PB-37Kalat-Surab seat in favour ofhis brother Mir NaimatullahZehri. Now, Sardar SanaullahZehri will be contesting elec-tions in NA-268 Kalat-Mastung and NA-269Khuzdar and total 15 candi-

Covering candidateswithdraw nominations

dates will be participating inelections for PB-37 Kalat-Surab. Seven candidateswithdrew their nominationforms submitted for PB-38Mastung and now 20 candi-dates will be contesting elec-tions in this constituency.

Three independent can-didates including QalandarKhan Khilji, Abdul MalikBaraich and Maula BakhshBariach have withdrawntheir nomination papersfrom NA-260 Quetta-Chagaiin favour of PPP candidatesSardar Omar Gorgaij. In NA-271 Kharan-Washuk, AlamaHabib Ahmed Nasqshbandiof Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan-Norani, former districtnazim Mir Mujibur RehmanMuhammad Hasni andSardarzada OmairMuhammad Hasni havewithdrew their nominationforms in favour of the Paki-stan People’s Party candi-date Mir EhsanullahReiki.—APP

SHANGLA—At least, fivepassengers were killed andten others sustained injurieson Friday afternoon inKormang of Shangla districtwhere a pickup plunged intoa deep ravine while taking asharp turn, a ptivate TV chan-nel reported. The accidentreportedly occurred due torash driving as the driver lostcontrol over the vehicle dueto over-speeding at a deadslope in Kormang of Shangladistrict, Some 121 km awayfrom Swat in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

According to report the

19 killed, 56 injuredin various incidents

driver was among five killedand ten others wounded in-cluding seven children andthree women in the accident.The rescue teams and policerushed to the accident sceneto rescue the injured passen-gers and shifted them to thedistrict hospital. Eyewit-nesses told the private chan-nel that around 15 passen-gers were onboard in the ve-hicle and out of them fivedied on the spot, while someinjured were in very seriouscondition.

Bahawalpur: At least,tenpassengers were killed and 46

others sustained injuries onFriday evening on Hasilpurroad in Bahawalpur districtwhere a bus turned trutuled,a ptivate TV channel re-ported. The accident report-edly occurred due to the tyrebrust of the passengerbus.The bus driver lost con-trol over the vehicle due toover-speding and tyre brustand the bus was overturned.According to report the driverwas among the killed. The ac-cident took place in Hasilpurcity,some 100 Km away fromBahawalpur district in south-ern Punjab.—APP

Urban women empowerment vital for prosperity

DC clarifiesdiarrhea news itemOUR CORRESPONDENT

LARKANA—Deputy Commis-sioner Larkana Umar FarooqBullo Friday clarified a newsappeared in electronic andprint media about alleged out-break of diarrhea. He said onApril 18, 2013, a news ap-peared on electronic and inprint media about diarrhea andother diseases allegedly dueto use of packed juices/ milkby fire victims re-settled afterthe occurrence of fire on April14 in Mohallah Rasoolabad,near Rice Canal Road.

He said on enquiry, thedoctors available in the medi-cal camp said that there wasno outbreak of any particu-lar disease except 16 cases ofdiarrhea which were attrib-uted to many causes includ-ing unhygienic conditions ofthe locality, possible use ofstale food, increase in cli-matic temperature (41 to 45Celsius) and stagnant wateron both sides of the railwaytrack. As per doctors reportno serious patient was wit-nessed nor was any referredto Civil Hospital and patientswith general complaints likeskin disease, general weak-ness, fever and clinical ma-laria were treated instantly.

The DC also recalled thatin the evening of April 14,2013, an unfortunate incidentof fire took place in whichsome katcha houses situatedin Mohallah Rasool Abad, inLarkana city caught fire, someof which were damaged par-tially and a few completely.

QUETTA—Director GeneralEarthquake Reconstructionand Rehabilitation Authority(ERRA) Abid Hussain hasvowed to help out calamity hitpeople of Balochistan living inopen after powerful earthquakeshook the areas bordering withIran. Small container-typehouses would be built in af-fected areas after the assess-ment of the losses caused by

ERRA to help Balochistan quake victimscalamity completes, he saidduring his visit to MashkelTehsil of Washuk district.

Mr Abid noted that localadministration has initiatedassessment work of thelosses. He said that stepswere afoot for the quack vic-tims as 1300 tents were reach-ing Mashkel while 1000 moretents would arrive in twodays. Besides launching wa-

ter scheme in Mashkel, roadnetwork connecting theWashuk with Nukundi andDalbandine would also beconstructed, he added.

DG ERRA said that catas-trophe -stricken peoplewould not be let alone andall-out support would be ex-tended to mitigate their suf-ferings. Quetta Electric Sup-ply Company (QESCO) hasestablished an emergencycell to undertake power res-toration work in the quakebattered area of Mashkel onFriday.—APP

LAHORE—Increase inloadshedding in citiesacross the country has ad-versely affected the lives ofcitizens besides creatingwater shortage and haltingcommercial activities. Ac-cording to PEPCO sources,through various sourcesonly 8970 MW electricitywas being generatedagainst the demand of13000MW leading to ashortfall of 4030MW.

Population of the urbanareas has to witness 14hours loadshedding whileduration of loadshedding

has reached 22 hours in ruralareas. Power looms inFaisalabad, Jhang andMultan were closed afterloadshedding mounted to 18to 20 hours daily leavingthousand of people jobless.

Sargodha, Gujranwalaand Sialkot were also facingworst loadshedding upto 20hours. The citizens have ex-pressed concern over theprolonged power outages.They were of the view thatworst power outage prior tosummer was failure of waterand power ministry.

Power supply in Sindh,

Khyber Pakhtunkhawa andBalochistan was also notsatisfactory where 10 to 18hours loadshedding was ob-served. The citizens havequestioned as to why thegovernment was unable tosupply enough fuel to thepower generation plant asthey said the generation ca-pacity in the country existaround 20,000 MW.

They said why the citi-zens who pay their duesregularly were being victim-ized due to defaulters of mil-lions of rupees and the cor-rupt practices of the distri-

bution companies staff.They demanded that

PEPCO should disconnectthe supply to areas where thenumber of defaulters or theftwas high. That would per-suade the defaulters to cleartheir dues and locals wouldforce their neighbours tostop theft of the electricity.Several people interviewedby INP requested the ChiefJustice of the Supreme Courtto look into this issue of hu-man right as the honest con-sumers were being victimizeddue to corrupt practices ofthe officials and those in-

volved in theft of the impor-tant utility.

Timergara: DeputyCommissioner Dir LowerDistrict Muhammad ZubairKhan, Friday said that theformal construction workon Koto Hydel Powerproject would start by nextmonth, which will help gen-erate 32-megawatt electric-ity. He disclosed this whilechairing a high level meet-ing here at his office. TheDeputy Commissioner alsoreviewed the hydel powerproject being constructedon River Panjkora.—INP

Electricity loadsheddingirks citizens across country

‘ANP to win polls’Staff Reporter

PE S H AWA R—Vice president ANP,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in chargeof the election campaign of AsfandyarWali Khan in NA-7, Shagufta MalikFriday said that their party had ful-filled all pledges made with the elec-torates in its manifesto for election2008. She expressed these views whileaddressing a function held in connec-tions with the election campaign ofANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan at

Muftiabad, Charsadda. On this occasion senior ANPactivist, Yasmin Pir Mohammad Khan, district vice presi-dent, Nabila Rehman, Razia Sultana, office bearers anda large number of women were also present. She saidthat under the leadership of Asfandyar Wali Khan,Pakhtun nation has not only protected most of inter-ests, but have also achieved it. She said that the peoplewill again elect ANP on the basis of its performance tofurther improve the standard of their lives. Shaguftasaid that during last five-year ANP government hadserved the masses indiscriminately and will continue iteven after success in the general elections. She saidANP is the continuity of the Khudai Khidmatgar Move-ment of Bacha Khan, which has always kept the interestof the people atop. Awami National Party (ANP) Sena-tor Haji Adeel said on Friday that his party is strugglingfor peace in the country and leadership scarifies theirlife to achieve the target. Talking to APP, outside theParliament House, he urged the other political parties tocome forward and joins the peace move of ANP in thecountry. To a question, he said the candidates of ANPare being targeted and their election campaign is beinghampered.

‘People joining PPP’LAHORE—People from different po-litical parties are joining PakistanPeople’s Party because PPP is theparty of poor people and always in-troduced people friendly policies.These views were expressed by PPPLahore President Samina KhalidGhurki and PPP Secretary InformationLahore Abid Hussain Siddiqui in ajoint press statement issued on Fri-day. They said that more people would

join PPP before the general elections adding that peoplewould not cast their vote for those who just make hol-low slogans. They said, with the grace of Almighty Al-lah PPP after wining elections PPP would form its gov-ernment in centre and Punjab as well. Bhutto ShaheedBenazir Workers Movement Punjab coordinator andcandidate from NA 126 Sardar Hurr Bukhari has ex-pressed his determination to continue the struggle forthe mission of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto andMohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed. Addressing cornermeetings in his constituency here Friday, he said theworkers would not hesitate to offer sacrifices to com-plete the mission of ZAB and BB. He said, the workerswere struggling for continuation of the mission ofMohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed. The PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) on the basis of its service will cleansweep in general election. This was claimed by formeradvisor to Governor Punjab on Human Rights, Saleem-ur-Rehman Meo, while briefing the media at MultanPress Club here on Friday. He said, following the in-structions of Senior Vice Chairman PPP, Syed Yusuf RazaGilani, Ch.Hashim Meo, an aspirant for PP-204 had with-drawn his nomination papers.—APP

Gwadar port handover decision laudedLALAMUSA—Former federal ministerand PPP’s candidate for NA-106, QamarZaman Kaira said the PPP governmenthad taken decisions in the larger inter-est of the country despite of foreignpressure. Addressing a gathering at vil-lage Ganja, he said that the PPP gov-ernment signed Pak-Iran Gas Pipelineproject, handed over Gawadar Port toChina and suspended Nato supplyroutes without caring any external pres-

sure. He said that the PPP government portrayed a goodimage of the country in the globe and saved it from loneli-ness. Pakistan is being considered a respectable countrydue to its policies on war against terrorism, he added. Qairacriticized the PML-N leadership and said they (Sharifs) leftthe country in difficult time. He said the PML-N Punjabgovernment had wasted billions of rupees in tandoors (ov-ens) scheme. He said “We have changed Pakistan”, add-ing the PPP government raised minimum wages oflabourers and raised salaries of all government employeesup to 150 per cent. He said that Pakistan People’s Partyserved the masses to uplift their living standard. He urgedthe people to vote for the PPP. Addressing the gatheringPPP Punjab president Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo ap-preciated services of Qamar Zaman Kaira and TanveerAshraf Kaira, PPP candidate for PP-112. Wattoo said thatin order to overcome energy crisis the PPP governmenthad launched many power projects including Neelum-Jehlum Dam, Bunji Dam and Bhasha Dam, which would becompleted within two years. He said the PPP was a partyof labourers, farmers and the poor and their problems couldresolve only the PPP. He said as many as seven millionfamilies were getting benefit from Benazir Income SupportProgramme and the PPP would extend this programme upto 10 million families at the rate of Rs 6,000 after coming topower.—APP

Govt to ensure security of candidatesISLAMABAD—Provincial Election Com-missioner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Sono Khan Baloch has said that provi-sion of security to candidates is the re-sponsibility of the provincial govern-ments. Talking to Radio Pakistan, hesaid that during a meeting in Januarythis year, the Election Commission hadasked the provincial governments toensure security of candidates and vot-ers during the election. The provincial

governments were also asked to evolve a contingencyplan in collaboration with Returning Officers and districtadministration for security at polling stations and to iden-tify sensitive, high sensitive and normal area so as to avoidany untoward incident, he added. He said the provincialgovernment officials are working on this plan and effortswould be made to check any untoward incident. To a ques-tion about security of political leaders in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Sono Khan Baloch said protection of thelife of people is the responsibility of the state. Meanwhile‘General Elections Complaint Cell’ has been establishedon the directives of the Caretaker Chief Minister (CM) SindhJustice (Retd), Zahid Kurban Alavi, at the CM SecretariatHouse here. An official statement here on Friday said thatthe Cell will function round the clock to monitor the issuesrelated to the forthcoming general elections and law andorder/security arrangements throughout the province. Ad-ditional Secretary Saeed Ahmed Shaikh informed that se-nior officers will monitor the ‘General Elections ComplaintCell’ and that it will work under the supervision of Addi-tional Secretary (Implementation).—APP

ISLAMABAD—Expressingdeep concerns over the recentspate of terrorist attacks onelection rallies, Ameer Jamat-e-Islami, Syed MunawarHassan on Friday calledupon Caretaker Prime Minis-ter Mir Hazar Khan Khoso toimmediately convene an AllParties Conference (APC) toevolve a consensus strategyto help ensuring secure atmo-sphere for holding electionsin the country.

In an exclusive panel in-terview with APP, MunawarHassan said the rising waveof terrorism had raised fearsand doubts among the massesabout timely holding of elec-tions, saying the governmentshould summon the APC tomuster political support andchalk out a counter strategy.Denouncing attacks in KP andBalochistan, Hassan urged thegovernment to address the“root-causes” of terrorism andget the country out of the US-led coalition on war againstterror.

“The security agencies,besides politicians and ECP,should also attend the APCto make it meaningful,”urged the JI chief. He was ofthe view that people wouldwelcome the caretaker primeminister’s such initiative andgo for votes more vigorouslyif they are assured of secu-rity. He said that Jamat-e-

JI suggests PMfor APC to ensure

secure electionsIslami favoured to implementarticles 62, 63 during scrutinyprocess but every part ofconstitution is equally impor-tant. “It is appreciable to atleast take steps for implemen-tation of these laws but some-how improvement should be

further made in it to keep cor-rupt, crook politicians out ofelection race”.

He said that a number ofReturning Officers adoptednon-serious attitude duringscrutiny process which pro-vided secular lobby an op-portunity to bash the scru-tiny process. “Under pres-sure from criticism, the ECPthen compromised its resolveto scrutinise candidates pa-pers and the fake degree hold-ers, tax evaders and evenloan defaulters were allowedto enter election race,” headded.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Friday predictedintermittent widespread rainand thundershowers withgusty winds over centralparts of the country fromSunday to Wednesday.Spokesman of PMD in-formed that a westerlyweather system is approach-ing towards the country andlikely to enter on Sundaythat would cause intermittentwidespread rain and thun-dershowers with gustywinds in upper Sindh, south-ern Punjab, EasternBalochistan and KPK fromSunday to Wednesday.

The intermittent wide-spread rain and thunder-showers with gusty winds islikely at scattered places inupper Punjab, Gilgit Baltistanand Kashmir from Sunday toWednesday. The barani andirrigated areas of wheat andcotton crops in Sindh,Punjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa would receivescattered rain and thunder-showers with gusty windsduring the period. The farm-ers are advised to take nec-essary precautionary mea-sures to avoid severeweather impacts on wheatcrop and keep the harvestedcrop and fodder on safeplaces to avoid any loss dur-ing rainy days.

The highest maximumtemperatures recorded dur-ing the last 24 hours wereDadu and Sukkur 43C,

Widespread rainlikely next week

Shaheed Benazirabad andPadidan 42C, Turbat,Jaccobabad, Mithi andLarkana 41C. The maximumtemperatures recorded in themain cities were Islamabad31C, Lahore 37C, Karachi33C, Peshawar 33C, Quetta27C, Skardu 22C, Murree

20C, Muzaffarabad 32C, Gilgit28C, Faisalabad 36C, Multan38C, Hyderabad 40C.The pol-len count recorded inIslamabad was 502 per cubicmeter.

Fair/ partly cloudyweather has been forecastfor Saturday in the metropo-lis, said a weather report onFriday. According to theweather report issued by Pa-kistan Meteorological De-partment, the maximum tem-perature is expected to re-main in the range of 33 to 35degree celsius. It said dust-thunderstorm/ rain is likely tooccur at isolated places inSukkur, Larkana, Makran,Kalat and Quetta divisionsand dust-thunderstorm/rainat one or two places inHyderabad, Mirpurkhas andZhob. There will be hot anddry weather elsewhere in theregion, the weather reportadded.—APP

MULTAN—Pakistan TehrikInsaf (PTI) vice chairman,Shah Mahmood Qureshi Fri-day said that PTI had estab-lished Public Financing Fund(PFF) to help its candidates.This he said while address-ing a corner meeting held inPP-195 constituency here to-day. PTI has planed to fundRs 1.5 million to deserving

candidates to continue theircampaign smoothly, he said,adding that all details aboutthe fund would be uploadedon PTI website to maintaintransparency in this regard.

He said, PTI was the onlypolitical party which un-veiled its manifesto aftermaking thoroughly research.He dircted the youth tospread manifesto door to

door during election cam-paign. He expressed hopethat PTI put the country onright track after coming intopower. Dr. Arif Alvi, a centralleader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and a contestantfor NA 250, on Thursdaymaintained that fair and freepolls held under a scare- freeenvironment in Karachi willalter the previous mandate.

In a press conference heldhere at PTI’s provincial sec-retariat he said the election2013 must not at any cost becalled off or postponed. Dr.Alvi said political parties, thathad been for past many yearsclaiming to be stakeholder, areresponsible for the currentsituation in Karachi. In replyto a question about trial of Gen(Retd) Pervez Musharraf, thePTI leader this was extremelyimportant to restore peace inBalochistan. PTI candidatefor PS-113, Samar Ali Khan,party’s central media coordi-nator, Jamal Siddiqui, provin-cial spokesperson, DawaKhan Sabir and others werealso present on the occasion.Dr. Arif Ali reiterating hisparty’s claim that PTI will beable to clean sweep the forth-coming polls, said that theparty has nominated its can-didates against each.—APP

PTI to provide financialassistance to its candidates

Rule of lawprevails in country

DIFFERENT interpretations are being given to the Thursday’s landmark verdict of Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejecting pre-arrestbail request of former President Pervez Musharraf in judges’ deten-

tion case and ordering his arrest, but the fact remains that it symbolizedrule of law in the country. That Musharraf moved away to the safety of hisown farm house at Chak Shehzad and that too apparently under the watch-ful eyes of the law-enforcing agencies is something else but the incidentitself has highlighted the fact that no one is above the law and all are equalin this context.

The development is reflective of a sea-change in the overall environ-ment in the country as in the past it would have been next to impossibleto go for such an action against a former Army general and COAS. It isall the more significant as Musharraf was a powerful President and hestill has international stature and dynamism but, of course, law shouldtake its own course and his case is going to set another healthy traditionin the legal and political history of the country. Apart from judges’ deten-tion case, Musharraf is also facing several other cases including Lal Masjidcarnage, Akbar Bugti’s murder besides possibility of high treason caseand it would be interesting to watch what happens during the next fewweeks and months. Any how, all this shows that the country is movingforward in a positive direction where even big guns and influential peoplewould have to be made accountable for the wrongs they committed whenthey were in positions of authority. But this should be nothing surprisingas similar things happened to other key figures including two Prime Min-isters of the PPP Government and a number of former parliamentarians.This is because of the growing awareness among masses who are deadlyagainst the rising incidence of corruption and want transparency in gov-ernance. The judiciary indeed deserves credit for its leading role in thiscontext besides positive role being played by media in pinpointing lapsesand highlighting the need for rule of law and transparency. We are surethat the momentum would be sustained so that the future Governmentsact with utmost caution and deliver as per Constitution and law.

Are people losinginterest in elections?

GENERAL elections are just twenty days away but the kind of enthusiasm and level of participation by people is nowhere to be seen as

we witnessed on the occasion of polls in the past. There are apprehen-sions that a host of factors may result into low turn out in the comingelections despite the fact that these are very crucial in determining thefate of the country.

It is rather ironical that reports emanating from different parts of thecountry speak of diminishing interest of the people in the electioneering.One factor is definitely the rumour mongering that elections could be post-poned due to this or that reason and unfortunately repeated assurances bythe infirm Election Commission and frail interim Government have failedto restore confidence of the people fully. Deteriorating security environ-ment is another reason for lack of interest by the people as several candi-dates including those of ANP, PML(N) and MQM have been targetedand there are still threats of terrorist activities during election campaign.This is restraining political parties from mass mobilization or arrangingbig public meetings and rallies that had been hallmark of elections in thepast. Some of the actions of the Election Commission too have had nega-tive impact on election fever like restrictions on expenditure and adver-tisements and bar on providing transport to voters. There are fears thatturn out could be less if no transport arrangements were made to bringvoters to polling stations particularly in cases where stations are locatedsix to eight kilometers away. Low turn out would dent the entire electoralprocess as it would become a Herculean task for winning candidates tosecure fifty percent of the votes polled especially where the contest willbe neck-to-neck. Eventually, we may have to go for re-polling in most ofthe constituencies of National and Provincial Assemblies.

Khoso showersfavours on his own son

EVERY father is entitled to make things easier for his children and helpthem plan and pursue their careers but holders of public offices have to

strike a balance between fatherly sentiments and integrity of their offices.We are sorry that Caretaker Prime Minister retired Justice Mir Hazar KhanKhoso has faltered on this account as he could not resist the temptation offavouring his son using his coveted but temporary position, power andauthority.

The report that the Prime Minister got his son transferred fromBalochistan to National Highway Authority on deputation in BS-18 andthe very next day Shafqat Khoso was elevated to the post of Director inBS-19. This is clearly one of the cases of classical favourtism done in thename of personal competence and qualification of the son of the PM. Thequestion arises as to why he was not transferred on deputation and elevatedswiftly before assumption of power by his father if the official was reallyeligible and competent enough. It is all the more unfortunate that suchcrude favourtism has been done by a Prime Minister who is a retired judgeand who might have adjudicated countless cases of the nature during hisjudicial career. If a person with the background of judiciary is unable to dojustice and uphold merit then it is sheer wastage of time to complain aboutfavours showered by former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on hisson-in-law and free hand given by another ex-PM Gilani to his sons whoallegedly minted billions. Caretakers are there for a few weeks and it wasexpected they would become a role model but it seems no one is ready tolearn any lesson from what is happening to those who were involved incorruption or violation of rules and regulations.

Forex, IMF & bank rate

One man shall haveone vote.

LetMusharraf

stand in Pakelections

It is entirely clear that formerPresident Pervez Musharrafknew that he was putting his

head into the lion’s mouth when hereturned to Pakistan, intent onstanding in the upcoming elec-tions. His 10 years as presidentfrom 1999 made him many en-emies. He quit the post when hewas faced with impeachment andwent into self-imposed exile. Thedecision to return after four yearsto contest the election was coura-geous and in the view of somefoolhardy. Besides not many po-litical pundits give the formerfour-star general much of a chancein next month’s vote. His All Pa-kistan Muslim League (APML)party has not so far attracted themass support that would clearlypropel him into government.

The difficulties Musharraffaces are considerable. For a starthe is having trouble finding a seatfor which he can stand. This weekhis candidacy for a fourth constitu-ency, this one in Chitral was re-jected, though his lawyers are seek-ing to appeal the decision. How-ever, perhaps the greatest challengehe faces is the investigation intoallegations that he was complicit inthe assassination of former PrimeMinister Benazir Bhutto, after she,in her turn, had returned from ex-ile to re-enter Pakistani politics in2007. He is also implicated in thekilling of a tribal leader, AkbarBugti from Balochistan.

The courts have banned himfrom leaving the country. Yester-day a court in Islamabad orderedMusharraf’s arrest, in part on thegrounds that in 2007 he had at-tempted to place the country’sjudges under house arrest. How-ever, the proceedings degeneratedinto a farce when the former presi-dent left the court surrounded byhis security team and no attemptwas made to stop him. There ishowever a serious point here.Musharraf, who came to the presi-dency in a military coup, is nowseeking office through democraticmeans, in what looks like beingthe first peaceful change of civil-ian power in Pakistan’s history.He is submitting himself to thevoters. This in itself is importantand is a decision that deservessome respect, because he is say-ing in effect that the militaryshould no longer be involved inpolitics. It is the ballot box, notthe gun that should be the domi-nant force in the country.

Yet at the same time,Musharraf is accused of being in-volved in two murders and facesother lesser charges, includingthose relating to his treatment of thejudiciary. The issue is whether heshould be permitted to enter thedemocratic process or be arrestedand prosecuted immediately. Thekey point is the degree to which theaccusations that have been madeagainst him are politically moti-vated. If the charges are driven byrevenge, especially on behalf of thejudges, then they are a dangerousinterference in the political process.Musharraf should not be excludedfrom politics on this basis. It is forthe voters to decide if he has a partto play in Pakistan’s future andnobody else. If his political rivals,not least in the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) who are pressing theclaim that he was responsible fortheir former leader’s murder, aretrying to force him out of the po-litical stage to protect their owninterests, then this is not acceptable.

Politics is a ruthless businessat the best of times and perhapsnevermore so than in Pakistan. Butthe country is just about to see anelected government reach its fullterm and new elections be held fora replacement. In a country that isbedeviled by so many challenges,this is an achievement that shouldin no way be underestimated. Whatthe political establishment needs tounderstand, not least those wholoathe Musharraf, is that if theymanaged to force him out of theelections, they will be making a rodfor their own backs. Musharraf andhis APML will be able to cry fouland protest the result of the nationalvote. More importantly it will dam-age the whole democratic process,at one of its all too rare momentsof triumph. The sensible option issurely to let Musharraf find a seatfor himself and permit him and hisAPLM to fight the elections with-out impediments.—Arab News

MEDIA WATCH

John Cartwright—British writer

As stipulated in the Constitution of Pakistan, caretakersetup is meant to perform

day to day administrative functionsand to facilitate the Election Com-mission of Pakistan in holding free,fair and impartial elections. It doesnot have the mandate to take deci-sions having long term implicationslike negotiating loans with the IMF.Therefore, it should not go beyondits mandate and leave such mattersto the next elected government. Yet,caretaker Prime Minister Khoso hasappointed finance adviser andformed a team for IMF talks to seekanother bailout package for $5 bil-lion to pay the installments of ear-lier debt and to finance imports. Thetalks will be held on the sidelinesof annual spring meeting of theWorld Bank and IMF scheduled tobegin on April 19. What the teamshould do is to take up the matterof outstanding amount of CoalitionSupport Fund for $2.5 billion, andpursue US authorities to expeditethe payment, as Pakistan’seconomy is in dire straits. It shouldalso request the IMF to postponethe installment of $833 million tillthe next government is installedafter the coming elections.

It is true that foreign reserveswith the State Bank have depletedto critical level of $6.7 billion. Thereis indeed egregious trade deficit of

US sanctions & nuclear Iran

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Sunday Magazine

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Balancing pressures with diplomacy is recommended bythe “Iran Project”, a non-

profit group that promotes US-Irandialogue.With multinationalnuclear talks with Iranapparentlyhindered, the US sanc-tions to “bite even harder and forIran’s leadership to get past presi-dential elections in June 2013”.Arelax-sanction regime in exchangefor nuclear concessions is anotherway to avoid what an Americancommentator described, “the stra-tegic and moral bankruptcy of theUS”.The Obama administrationclaims that the sanction policy to-ward Iran is aimed to achieve awide range of objectives, withoutrealizing its implicationsfor Iranand regional economies. Histori-cally, the US sanctions target bothcivil & military areas, in order toisolate, convince and recruit anti-state/anti-nuclear oppositionwithin the respective state. In thecase of Iran, activating reformistand secular forces to build a sus-tainable opposition to the systemof velayat-e-faqih(absolute Guard-ianship of an Islamic Jurist), is themost suitable option.

The other options are being at-tached to several familiar diplo-matic/policy expressions including“changing Iran’s “nuclear calculus,”getting Iran “back to the negotiat-ing table” and making it “negotiatein good faith,” strengthening the“credibility and leverage” of “pro-engagement camps” inside Iran,preventing military action by theUnited States and Israel, “politicalsignaling” at home and abroad, andmaintaining “unity” within the

$15 billion during the ninemonths of current fiscalyear. Pakistan’s exportsduring nine months of theongoing fiscal year i.e.July-March 2012-2013amounted to $18 billion,and the import bill stoodat $33.414 billion. Al-though overseas Pakistanis

have remitted more than $10 billionduring the last nine months; yet thecurrent account deficit is $5 billion.If the US pays outstanding CoalitionSupport Fund, the reserves would in-crease to $9.2 billion, and Pakistanwould be able to finance imports forthe next two and half months. As re-gards the role of IMF, Pakistan andother developing countries have bit-ter experience of dealing with theIMF vis-à-vis its harsh conditionssuch as reduction in subsidies,privatization of prime national assetsand increase in the bank rate. Onedoes not need an economist to tell thatreduction in subsidies places addi-tional burden on the people; howeverrich also benefit from the subsidies.

Pakistan has been facing chal-lenges of fiscal deficit, adverse bal-ance of payments and current ac-count deficit, which has resulted inthe debt mountain of about $60 bil-lion of foreign loans and an equiva-lent amount of domestic debt. Thereason for perennial fiscal deficit isthat the governments in the past havebeen earning less (revenue) andspending more, and shortfall wasmet through domestic bank loans orprinting notes. As regards adversebalance of payments, Pakistan hasbeen importing more and exportingless, which is reflective of the factthat Pakistan is producing less andconsuming more. The yawning gap

cannot be met even with the remit-tances of more than $12 billion fromPakistani expatriates. The next gov-ernment after elections would havedaunting task before it, as it will haveto slowly phase out subsidies, reducelosses to Public-sector corporationslike Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA andelectricity distribution companies,which is causing more than Rs.1000billions’ loss every year.

But business community and in-dustrialists have been demanding acut in the bank rate, as they believethat economic boom is linked withlower mark-up. During the last twoyears, the State Bank of Pakistan hasalready brought down the policy ratefrom 14 per cent to 9.5 per cent, areduction of 4.5 percentage points.SPB has done well to keep the policyrate of 9.5 per cent for the next twomonths, as any further cut in thebank rate is likely to discourage sav-ings, which are already lowest ascompared with other countries in theregion. Of course, interest rates arevery low around the developedworld; near-zero in nominal termsand negative in real terms. This ispart of a deliberate policy by centralbanks to discourage saving and en-courage borrowing/spending. It hasalso been seen as a way of boostingthe stock market and thus creating awealth effect for individuals, andboosting confidence of big businessin developed countries. With the re-vival of economy there, people ingeneral benefit because it generatesemployment opportunities.

In developed countries, there ishandsome pension on retirement, andthe government also pays dole to theunemployed citizens. But in Pakistan,in the absence of such plans peoplehave to save for old age or stormy

day. But they would have little in-centive to save if the interest is verylow; or if inflation rises much fasterthan the interest one earns on hissavings. This forces the potentialsavers to turn to other riskier alter-natives i.e. stocks, bonds, or funds.In late 1990s, when interest rate waslow, people had started investing inshares of companies listed on stockexchange. Since they were notshrewd investors, they became vic-tims of the big investors’ manipula-tions. During the last one and halfdecade, our economic managers en-visaged that economy be driven byconsumption rather than investment;and SBP had started reducing thepolicy rate in late 1990s.

Borrowers whether industrial-ists, businessmen, credit card hold-ers or those availing auto-financ-ing facilities paid 9 per cent againstearlier rate of 20 per cent per an-num. Former Governor State Bankof Pakistan Dr. Ishrat Hussain wasthe architect of this policy who, be-lieved that there would be compul-sory savings from regular install-ment payments on account of loansgiven to consumers. But credit ex-pansion through credit cards and in-judicious extending of loansamounts to ‘creating money’. Andin economic terms ‘when a lot ofmoney chases a few goods’, theresult is inflation that erodes the in-comes of the fixed income groups.On the other hand, inflation fattensfeudal duck and the industrial rob-ber barons due to ever-rising pricesin addition to the generous supportthat mainly benefits the big land-lords because small land holdersconsume whatever they produce.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

P5+1).How the US sanctionswill facilitate the way US-Is-raeli narratives are buildingunconventional methods ofengagement with potentialsof a nuclear Iran is a vitalquery?

The character of both the optionshowever must be understood in thebackdrop of discourse on politicswithin Iran, especially in relationshipwith globalization and post-revolu-tionary socio-cultural logic. This ar-gument stems from the fact that withevery year into the twenty-first cen-tury, the cumulative impact of his-torical images of Iranian ‘Self” and‘Others’ has been growing, and anideological battlefield is marked outfor continued arguments pro et con-tra in the perennial debate on mod-erate vs. traditional values aboutIran’s international role. There is abroad sense of misplaced and dis-believed memory about modernity,and relationship with the UnitedStates, and hence a sharp dividingline between reestablishing tieswith the US or transforming Iran’scapacity to stand-up against theUS-Israeli nexus.It is this di-chotomy, which defines the impactof Western democratic values andtechnological advances on Iranianforeign/security policies.

Conversely, the Israeli DefenceMinister, Moshe Ya’alone warnedthat Israel must prepare for the pos-sibility of striking Iran’s nuclear pro-gram on its own[…and] that Iran isunimpressed with the West’s stepsagainst its nuclear program…“Theworld’s response to the Iraniannuclear program was delayed. Thefact that centrifuges in Iran are con-tinuing to spin and that enriched ura-nium has already been collected;proves that the regime in Tehran isnot impressed by these steps takenso far. Even more so, the regime inTehran does not identify determina-tion in the Western world to stop its

nuclear project and it therefore allowsitself to continue to develop it,” (In-dependence Day speech in Herzliya,Israel – April 16, 2013).

The intertextual reference to“world’s delayed response” in thisquote on Iran’s nuclear program de-scribes the weaknesses of sanctionregime and implicitly demonstratesIsrael’s diplomatic isolation, espe-cially in terms of an aborted “world

project” to attack Iran before it be-come a nuclear power. More allega-tions followed by hinting at a weakdecision-making system in the worldcapitals, due to which, the Iraniannuclear program continue toprogress, a concern that is shown inthe shape of a clear intention: “Is-rael must prepare for the possibilityof striking Iran’s nuclear programme

on its own”.The implicit hints ofcomplicity of Western powers insupporting Iran’s nuclearprogramme are also causing a typeof mistrust between Israel and theEuropean countries.

On the other hand, the SupremeLeader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah AliKhamenei stated that “If the USwants a diplomatic solution to thenuclear issue, it’s very easy: recog-nize Iran’s right to safeguarded en-richment, stop trying to get them tosuspend, stop trying to get them togo to zero enrichment and we canhave a nuclear deal.” The ‘clarityof voice’ of defiance against the USsanction regime includes showingwhere the discourse appears to beintentionally aims at pacifying the“Iranian Self”, the Supreme Leaderseems exclusive authoritarian. Thisreflection also addresses the inher-ent system of decision-making un-der which the national security andnuclear programme are not nego-tiable commodities.

To be concluded, “…It is timefor the [the US] administration tomake the sweat equity investmentin negotiations equal to” the effortput into sanctions and the militaryoption, said Thomas Pickering, aveteran former USambassador.“The president has to make the de-cision he wants a deal and instructhis people that he wants a deal.”This argument is exactly in linewith the current US policy ap-proach to withdraw from war-zones and stabilize the regions ofSouth Asia and Middle East. Ne-gotiating Iran’s nuclear programmewill be just an additional effort toavoid a wider instability project ofthe vested interests. Therefore,theUS must givepeace a chance andrespect the technological sover-eignty of developing nationsin thetwenty-first century.—The author is a Denmark-basedNational Security & Iran Expert

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Rana Athar Javed Email: ma_javed@hotmail.com

The ‘clarity ofvoice’ of defiance

against the USsanction regime

includes showingwhere the discourse

appears to beintentionally aims at

pacifying the“Iranian Self”, theSupreme Leaderseems exclusive

authoritarian. Thisreflection alsoaddresses the

inherent system ofdecision-makingunder which thenational security

and nuclearprogramme are not

negotiablecommodities.

Voice of the People

Taliban have fired first salvo ofwhat it promised to do, resorting to suicide bombings and

other means of violence against mem-bers of a KPK based political partyand their election campaigns for theupcoming parliamentary elections onMay the 13th, 2013. The horrendousact of terror launched near an elec-tion rally on 31st March showed thatthere are no limits to against whomand where the Taliban can strike, es-pecially in the restive areas of theKPK Province.

A roadside bomb killed twopeople besides injuring a former MPAand an election candidate. TTPclaimed immediate responsibility ofthe attack and vowed to launch moreattacks to sabotage democratic sys-tem and the forthcoming elections. Inan indication of their designs againstthe elections and the democracy, theTaliban have resorted to influence theminds in the Northern areas by regu-larly issuing pamphlets telling people

Injustice tostudents

SAMRA SALEEM

I feel really sad for the students ofBright Star School located in Lyariwho could not appear for Matricexams this year. School principalstated that the clerk who went tosubmit their forms and fees ran awaywith the money. It’s really upsettingthat such people even exist in oursociety who can go wrong to thisextent for just few thousand rupees.

It’s injustice to students whostudied hard for the whole year.They shouldn’t suffer this loss oftime and money. The students tooka great step by protesting against theschool, as they cannot afford oneyear to be wasted for no reason. Ihope authorities take an action intheir favour.—Karachi

Animal husbandryin Pakistan

SYED UMARULLAH HUSSAINI

Being a country that has a largelyrural and agriculture-basedeconomy, animal husbandry playsan important role in the economy ofPakistan and is a major source oflivelihood for many farmers. It isestimated that there are between 30to 35 million people in Pakistan’scurrent labour force who are en-gaged in livestock. While the agri-cultural practice is prevalentthroughout the entire country, it ismore common in the fertile prov-inces of Punjab and Sindh, whichare traditionally the main areas ofagriculture and farming activity.

In 1998, the livestock industrywas contributing 37% to the totalcapacity of national agricultural out-put and 9% to the GDP. As of 2001,there were there were approximately23.3 million buffaloes, 22.4 millionhead of cattle, 49.1 million goats and24.2 million sheep in Pakistan.Commercial poultry numbered170.1 million broilers and 10.36million layers in 1999. In addition,there were also 108 million poultrykept and tamed by people. Sheepdiffer widely throughout the graz-ing lands of central and northernPakistan. Their wool is exported inlarge quantities. Among local cowbreeds, the most notable are the RedSindhi cattle and the Sahiwal Breed,used widely for milk and dairy pro-duction purposes. Dung excreted bycattle is a vital resource for supply-ing cooking fuel and soil fertilizers.

The production of dairy prod-uct items such as milk, ice cream,cheeses and butter is carried out bydairy plants. During the period of1984 to 1990, national milk produc-tion experienced a 41% increasewhile meat production surged by48%. Animals are also widely usedfor transport in Pakistan, especiallyin the rural areas; the most com-monly used animals are camels,donkeys and bullocks. Challengesfaced by modern poultry in Pakistaninclude high mortality rates and in-cidences of disease among chicks aswell as an inefficient marketing sys-tem. The livestock industry still re-mains neglected and underdevel-oped when compared to its fullsocio-economic potential. The gov-ernment of Pakistan has been em-barking on various developmentprojects, with the assistance of theAsian Development Bank, to im-prove the livestock industry and itsefficiency.—Karachi

To revivePakistan Steel

MUKHTAR AHMED

With reference to your editorial“Bail out package is no solution”(April 14) this is not the first timethat bail out package is being givento Pakistan Steel. There is no doubtthat Steel Mill the largest industrialunit in Pakistan is in pathetic stateand it is because of undue politicalinterference by previous govern-ment. This mill was designed to pro-duce 1.1 Million Ton steel annually,and this target was never achievedeven during good days. The con-dition of Steel Mill has deterio-rated to such an extent that it iscausing loss of Rs1Billion eachmonth and productivity in Dec2012 was lowest 17% mark in thehistory of Pakistan Steel. At thesame time plant requires major re-pairs. How can you run the big-gest industrial unit by appointingpeople having no technical knowhow about the steel industry?

There are two major reasons ofits downfall. Union interference andover staffing, to run the mill at fullcapacity around 10500 employeesare needed, if you employ around17000 it can never be viable nor itcan survive. When the mill was sink-ing what was the justification ofregularizing over 4500 daily wa-

Surviving heart attackSYEDA AREEBA RASHEED

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack,without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly

and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left beforelosing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselvesby coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breathshould be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deepand prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep insidethe chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about everytwo seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heartis felt to be beating normally again. Deep breaths get oxygeninto the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart andkeep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heartalso helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attackvictims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as pos-sible about this. It could save their lives!—Karachi

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

gers? All successive governmentsturned this mill in to employmentheaven and systematically destroyedthis most important industrial unit.

Before giving out bail out pack-age following steps are required tobe taken. There can not be two opin-ions about reducing the manpower to50% as suggested in the editorial butalong with it most important factoris to ban the union for 3 years. Nowit is for the government to take a de-cision whether to ultimately close itdown and deprive all from their jobsor take the pill of unpopular decision.There is no greater breach of thepeople trust than knowingly you de-stroy the trust (mill), the nation cannot tolerate the abuse of this trust bythe government.—Karachi

Our educationalsystem

KIRAN ZEHRA

Our educational system suffers morebecause honestly speaking it is notour system at all. It is the system de-vised by the British rulers of Paki-stan. It is foreign in spirit and expen-sive in practice. Pakistan’s educa-tional system is extremely narrow inscope and unrealistic. Our system ofeducation is very expensive.

Only a fortunate few can affordto get the benefits of this education,as they are. In an economicallybackward country like ours, educa-tion should be cheap enough to per-mit everyone to reap its benefit.Now Pakistan needs a new educa-tional system, free from the defectsreferred to. A true system of edu-cation should produce honest andefficient workers.—Karachi

Our ownindifferenceAREESHA MAZHAR

The air of indifference that this coun-try is surrounded with is pathetic. Weeither close our eyes, or delude our-selves into thinking that it won’tmatter to us. We have social work-ers such as Parven Rehman andMalala Yusufzai being targeted,communities being terrorized, schol-ars getting killed, drone attacks hap-pening and economy flailing. Noth-ing and nobody except the privilegedfew are safe or protected, yet we au-daciously remain indifferent. Apopulation of more than 18 crorescan handle a few hundreds, maybea few thousands of lawbreakers ifthey want too. It is high time weunite and stand against oppression.

We need to get out of our housesand cast our votes. Choose the leaderwho we want to represent us. Choosewell, so the new leadership doesn’tempty our treasury. They give us thereason to feel the proud of being Pa-kistani again. We need to stop ideal-izing about a messiah with his wandsand that he /she will vaporize awayour problems. We need to stop dis-criminating between the socialclasses and the ethnicity so we mayprogress ahead, We need to take astand, change ourselves in order tobring the change in our country.—Karachi

Children’sliteratureHUMNA KHAN

While Pakistan has a reasonably vi-brant literary industry in Urdu andeven publications in English by Pa-kistani authors are increasing in num-ber, the needs of children remainunmet. In neither language, let alonethe provincial languages, are thereenough locally written and publishedbooks for children and teenagers —despite the fact that the link betweenreading and honed intelligence iswell-established.

Some may argue that if interna-tionally published reading material isavailable in locally accessible lan-guages, there is no real need for aPakistan-based children’s literatureindustry. This assessment misses thepoint. Reading material that is writ-ten by Pakistanis and published in thecountry is not only culturally relevant,

From threats to handshakes

The diplomats and pundits wereright: transition after the deathof Kim Jong-il in North Korea,

they said, might well produce an un-stable and frightening situation. KimJong-un, his son, indeed is a cut offthe old block. But they forget too eas-ily America’s stance in the negotia-tions that began during the presi-dency of Bill Clinton. It led to ma-jor progress and the unprecedentedvisit to Pyongyang by his Secretaryof State, Madeline Albright, whichwas meant to pave the way forClinton’s own visit which was likelyto lead to major changes in the rela-tionship. (The demands of the Israel-Palestine-US negotiations in the lastdays of his administration meant itcouldn’t be fitted in.)

After seven years of erratic USpolicies under President George W.

Bush — met by equally erratic andbellicose North Korean ones — theBush Administration’s negotiationsended up achieving almost the sameas Clinton’s, albeit with no plan totake the final, big step, as Clintonhad planned. Well, not quite backto where the Clinton Administrationhad to leave off. On Bush’s watchPyongyang tested its nuclear bomb.This must count as one of PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s worst foreignpolicy feats. Commitments made intense but productive negotiationswere not honoured. (And the Re-publican majority in Congress inClinton’s time also torpedoed com-mitments.)

Bush’s first Secretary of State,Colin Powell, was made a fool of.After he declared that the new Ad-ministration would try and completethe work of its predecessor, Powellwas publicly repudiated. The insiderwork of Vice-President RichardCheney and Secretary of Defence

Donald Rumsfeld pulled the rug frombeneath him. Fortunately, the nego-tiations were salvaged by Secretaryof State, Condoleezza Rice, who tookpersonal charge of the negotiationsand empowered a skilful negotiator,Christopher Hill, to burrow throughthe labyrinthine confusion and mis-understandings that were now heapedone on top of the other.

Pyongyang’s twists and turns andoften appalling misbehaviour weremore tolerated. In September 2005,the US formally offered a non-aggres-sion pledge and an offer, in principle,to normalize relations. It also resur-rected discussion of the Clinton de-cision to help finance and build a‘light water’ reactor that would helpsatisfy the North’s domestic powerneeds, without producing morebomb-making material. (The reactorsits half finished.) In return the Northagreed to denuclearise and to openitself to international inspection. Per-haps inevitably both sides interpreted

Jonathan Power

to refrain from participating in elec-tion activities in FATA.

There is no immediate reprievein sight from the continued Talibanviolence in the country. A little whileago the Taliban had offered peacetalks to the government but withoutcessation of its killing activitiesthrough suicide and IED bombingsespecially targeting the personnel ofLEA agencies.

Leaders of a few political partieswith known links to the terrorists inone way or the other expressed theirwillingness and supported the offerof talks without taking into accountthe mayhem the terror outfit had un-leashed on fellow country men. Ap-peasement of terrorists have neverworked. Before supporting the talkssuch proponents ought to have lookedat what had happened in Swat. Wedid peace pacts with them and virtu-ally handed over Swat to them... andwhat next? They tried to run overBuner, Dir and now they are tryingto run over the rest of the country.Thanks to the saner minds who re-nounced the TTP terror activities anddid not fall in their trap of talkingpeace. The persistent wave of vio-

Views From Abroad

it is also likely to be more affordable.Meanwhile, the lack of diverse read-ing material further discourages chil-dren from reading. The reading habitis already on a trajectory of rapid de-cline in the country, aided in no smallpart by factors such as the lack ofpublic libraries and the temptationsof computers and the Internet.

Tomorrow’s Pakistan will needcitizens who are not just literate butalso world-aware. For that, the chil-dren of today need both fiction andnon-fiction books, neither of whichare being produced in significantnumbers. Pakistan must encouragewriters, poets and scholars to turntheir attention to children’s needs.Meanwhile, the publishing industryshould realise that this is an untappedmarket. At the policy level, it shouldbe understood that higher educationreforms will not count for much un-less they are bolstered by improve-ments at the lower levels.—Karachi

Using mobilewhile drivingSYED MUNSIF PIRZADA

Cell phone usage especially in theform of texting is a common distrac-tion not only among college aged stu-dents, but also for adults and horrify-ingly for new, inexperienced drivers.New drivers see their older siblingsor parents texting and assume thattexting and driving is not really ashazardous as anti-texting-and-drivingorganizations claim. The YouTubevideo “The Impossible texting anddriving test” shows students driverstrying to pass a text and drive test inorder to receive their license. Afterhitting countless cones and slammingthe breaks multiple times, each stu-dent admitted that it was impossibleto text and drive safely.

Statistic show that over 800,000people are texting and driving at anygiven time. Many justify texting anddriving by saying they only glancedown for a second. It only takes 5seconds to read a text message, butwhen driving at 55 miles an hour,that equals driving the length of afootball field without looking at theroad. This increases drivers chancesof having an accident by 23 times.Drivers need to put down theirphones while they are driving be-cause they are not superman; theycannot drive and text safely.—Karachi

Badami Baghand votes

SYED UMARULLAH HUSSAINI

This incident is one of the worst in-cidents in Pakistan. I daily meet withthe news and posters of violence atmy social media wall. But on thistragic incident of Badami Bagh, I amflabbergasted that no one took sucha move for it. There is genuine out-rage within and on behalf of theChristian community in the after-math of the Badami Bagh incident,in which a largely Christianneighbourhood was torched by aviolent horde.

I suggest that the case must bedealt with great clarity: by a scrupu-lous attention to the principle of therule of law. Not just the writ of thestate has been violated, but so has thelaw of the land. The only way to pre-vent further attempts to take the lawinto one’s own hands is to punish theperpetrators of this arson. This willonly be achieved by ensuring that thelaw takes its due course and the gov-ernment should remember that mi-norities have a vote in general con-stituencies, and that the Badami Baghincident will be reflected in Christian,indeed, all minority voting patternscountrywide.—Karachi

lence and terror being conducted byTaliban and related factions, now overhalf of the last decade, has taken awaycountless innocent lives of children,widows, old and the young alike. Allthis is being done in defiance of Is-lamic teachings that bind Muslims notto kill their fellow beings and destroytheir properties. Malala incident wasthe worst form of how low couldTaliban stoop to in defying the Is-lamic teachings.

Denying the right to education tochildren and the youth, especially thegirls and the female teachers, theyresort to blowing up their educationalinstitutions, the shrines, religiousplaces of worship and never find any-thing wrong in issuing video clipsshowing disrespect to dead bodies oftheir fellow Muslims. That theTaliban hanged a seven year old boyin Afghanistan after accusing him ofpassing information to the Americansis the most terrible act of brutality ina catalogue of horrors emanating outof the brand of Taliban. A UN reporthas accused the Taliban of violatingwomen’s’ rights with ‘unabated se-verity’ including mass abductions andforced prostitutions. Our Prophet

Muhammad Sallallaho Wasallam,in his address on the occasion ofHajjatul Widah, emphasized onMuslims to protect human lives,property and dignity of the wholemankind. Muhammad Ali Jinnahalso never wanted the country thathe founded to be a theoretic state.He actually wanted Pakistan to beliberal, secular and progressivecountry where Muslims and non-Muslims could live with amity andthrive as a nation and be counted asa responsible nation in the comityof nations.

Muslims are supposed to lead alife based on Allah’s guidance givenin Quran central to which is preser-vation of human lives, property, in-tellect, progeny and religion. IfTaliban think that they are truly thebest of the Muslims, they ought tohave contextualize the Quran andSunnah where they would discoverthat our Prophet (PBUH) aimed toreform 7th century Arab society bygiving women and weaker groupsgreater rights and relative equality.Islam speaks for pluralism whichthe Taliban continue to deny throughtheir un-Islamic practices.

the agreement differently. The Northagain became intransigent. In Octo-ber 2006 it exploded an undergroundnuclear device. Yet Rice managedto persuade Bush to dilute the hos-tile rhetoric.

The Rice/Hill push continuedforward. Fuel aid and food were of-fered as carrots. Surprisingly, the of-fer bore fruit. The North agreed todisable its nuclear weapons and otherimportant facilities at its Yongbyonnuclear complex. It also said it wouldallow back UN inspectors. But whenWashington stalled on removing theNorth from its terrorism listPyongyang also stalled. Washingtoncapitulated on the terrorism list. Adeal was made, with the added bo-nus of the North agreeing to open upundeclared sites as well, but with theproviso that inspections were agreedto by ‘mutual consent’, leavingPyongyang a card to play.—The writer is a veteran foreignanalyst. Courtesy: Khaleej Times

It was just after the emphaticthree match cricket win withIndia trouncing Australia that

the panel of ex- cricketers, ex- um-pires and ex- models who give ex-pert comments during the match re-alized they were getting calls fromdifferent parts of the world. “YesMr Andrews, you are speaking fromAustralia! You are asking what a testmatch is? Well an ex Indian captainwill answer that question for you.We’re putting him on!” “Mr

Andrews, you are asking what a TestMatch is. I find that a ridiculous ques-tion coming from a cricket lover. Ihave played more than a hundred testmatches for my country and havescored more than…” “Mr Andrewsdon’t call me names. I don’t want totalk to you, but our pretty model overhere will try to”

“Mr Andrews my name isSandira! No, not Sandra, Sandira!Yes, yes, you got it! It rhymes withMandira! You were asking what’s aTest match?

Actually I’m also new to cricketMr Andrews, but I know it means sit-ting for five whole days with a coupleof know it alls who spend the daycommenting on how stupid the fel-lows are on the field and how clever

they were in the good ole days! It alsomeans I have to bring five new setsof clothes to the studio, so I can makethe game more interesting for theviewers! You must watch me in mylovely shiny top with spaghettistraps!”

“Mr Andrews you are rude!” “MrAndrews, this is your captain speak-ing, the ex captain of the Indiancricket team, you have made Sandiracry! You called her boring?”“Sandira! Mr Andrews here says itisn’t you he called boring, it’s play-ing this silly test cricket for five days!What do you mean boring MrAndrews, I played more than a hun-dred test matches and scored morethan….” “Don’t call me names!Please talk to our umpire over here!”

Winning Test matches..!“Hello Mr Andrews, oh it’s MrsAndrews, and you’re wonderinghow anyone can stand in the sunfor five whole days watching a slowboring game? Ah Mrs Andrews, Ihave a wife and three kids and theypay well, so there’s no choice isthere. Mr Andrews you’re back,you want to speak to Sandira?”

“She’s left Mr Andrews! Butour former captain will speak toyou, Oh he’s also left, there’s noone in the studio Mr Andrews, butI’ll find out by tomorrow the an-swer to your question, can you re-peat it, fine I got it, you want me tofind out, “Why India wins only Testmatches and loses every other formof the game..!”—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Chill in Pak-Afghan ties

Relations between Pakistan andAfghanistan have registeredanother low as both countries

have again resorted to blame game.Last week, the Afghan Foreign Min-istry announced cancellation of thevisit of an eleven-member group ofAfghan National Army, which wasscheduled to take part in joint mili-tary exercise with Pakistan Armyin Balochistan. Similarly, Paki-stani Foreign Ministry SpokesmanAizaz Chaudhry alleged that hide-outs of Pakistani Taliban were presentin Kunar and Nuristan provinces ofAfghanistan.

The present chill in bilateral re-lations between the two neighbourscomes in the wake of the recent up-ward trend, not only in relations be-tween Pakistan and Afghanistan, butalso in Pakistan’s relations with theUnited States and its NATO allies,characterizing melting of snow ema-nating from the Salala incident. Asthe US State Department regrettedthe Salala occurring - in which anumber of Pakistani solders werekilled and injured - Pakistan openedNATO supply and a number of in-teractions ensued between theUnited States and Pakistan. It wasafter these exchanges that Pakistanreleased a number of Afghan Talibanleaders and announced to play rolein talks between the Afghan govern-

ment and Taliban. Later, BritishPrime Minister David Cameronhosted talks between President AsifAli Zardari and Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai in London last month.Addressing a joint press conferenceafter the trilateral summit, Zardariand Karzai promised to work forrestoration of peace in Afghanistanwithin six months. Both sidespledged to take all necessary stepsfor the purpose. They announcedtheir support for opening of Talibanoffice in Doha and urged the Talibanto take steps for holding talks withAfghan government. PresidentZardari and President Karzai alsoannounced that they would soon signan agreement to bolster their mutualeconomic and security relations.David Cameron said that during themeeting, he witnessed an ‘unprec-edented level of cooperation.’ TheBritish prime minister also made aphone call to both the presidents latelast month discussing the follow-upof the London meeting and urgingboth countries to take steps for im-proving bilateral relations and res-toration of peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has always experi-enced the bitter spillover impact ofthe turmoil in Afghanistan and itfully understands that it cannot es-cape the aftermath of turbulence inAfghanistan once the US-NATOforces are withdrawn from the coun-try. However, its proclaimed posi-tion is that it supports an ‘Afghan-led’ and ‘Afghan-owned’ peace pro-cess in Afghanistan. For their part,

neither the Afghan government northe United States and NATO haveever made any objection to Pakistan’stated position. Despite that, suspi-cions prevail between the two sides.While the Afghan side smells alacklustre response from Pakistanwith regard to the Afghan peace pro-cess, the Pakistani side is complain-ing about presence of the hideoutsof Swat Taliban leaders in southeast-ern Afghanistan. When the Kabulgovernment announced the arrest ofMoulvi Faqir Muhammad, the chiefof Bajaur Agency-based PakistaniTaliban, Islamabad earnestly de-manded his hand over to Pakistan.The demand appeared plausible, par-ticularly in the wake of its gestureof releasing Afghan Taliban detain-ees on the demand of the US andthe Afghan governments. However,the Afghan government is yet to giveany response to the demand.

It is against this background thatGeneral Joseph Dunford, the ISAFcommander in Afghanistan, visitedPakistan last week and held talks withArmy Chief General Ashfaq PervezKayani discussing issues pertainingto military relations between Pakistanand Afghanistan and restoring theirtrust. General Kayani reiteratedPakistan’s call for ending border vio-lations from Afghanistan side.

As regards the border violationsand rocket attacks along the Kunar-Bajaur border point, both Kabul andIslamabad have been accusing eachother for them. Pakistan has sincelong been complaining that Kunar

and Nuristan-based Swat Talibanare entering Pakistan’s BajaurAgency and attacking and abduct-ing Pakistani security personnel.Similarly, Fazlullah Wahidi, thegovernor of Afghanistan’s KunarProvince, alleged last week that 50rockets had been fired from acrossthe Pakistani border. Earlier, Afghanofficials had claimed that people inthe border areas of Kunar Provincehad migrated from their houses dueto heavy rocket and mortar firingfrom across the Pakistani border.While none of the two countries canhave any point to make through suchattacks, the militants on both sidesof the border can have a real stake inthese activities. Just recently, an ar-ticle appearing in a Peshawar-basedPashto newspaper blamed such ac-tivities on Indian agents. It will bebiased if any wrong doing of the sortis linked with India without anyproof, the suspicion makes sense thatmilitants operating in border regionsmight wish to keep relations be-tween the two countries troubled.

Although these skirmishes ap-pear minor in the broad spectrumof Pakistan-Afghanistan relations,yet they have caused sufficientdent to bilateral trust, which is es-sential, not only for a lastingpeace in Afghanistan but also forbetter relations between thepeoples and governments of thetwo countries, because, as lead-ers of both countries have repeat-edly said, one can choose his rela-tives, but not his neighbours.

Taliban’s unethical demeanorUrooj Raza

Email:uroojsayami@gmail.com

Abdul Hadi MayarEmail: ahadimayar@gmail.com

court Friday morning,”Amjad said, denying mediareports that he had been ar-rested prior to going to court.Musharraf walked into thecourt wearing a traditionalshalwar kamiz and sur-rounded by police and para-military.

According to reports,former President gave his arrestafter late night talks and thenwas presented in the court ofJudicial Magistrate MohammadAbbas Shah on Friday morning.

Earlier, the police officialsinformed the magistrate thatthey did not need physicalcustody of Musharraf and hecould be placed in judicialcustody.

However, lawyers forseveral persons who havefiled petitions againstMusharraf for imposingemergency in 2007 and de-taining over 60 members ofthe superior judiciary con-tended that he should bykept in police custody. Theyalso questioned whyMusharraf had not beenhandcuffed by police after hisarrest.

Musharraf ’s lawyerQamar Afzal argued that hisclient should be kept in judi-cial custody as there wereserious threats to his life. Themagistrate reserved his ver-dict in the matter andMusharraf left the court com-plex after waiting for sometime for a decision.Meanwhile, Inspector Gen-

Musharraf arrested, shifted to police HQeral Police IslamabadBinyamin on Friday dis-missed Station House Officerof Secretariat Police Stationand investigation officer overtheir failure to arrest General(Retd) Pervez Musharrafwho fled from IslamabadHigh Court when the courtrejected his petition and or-dered arrest in judges’ con-finement case.

The IG directed to takeaction against DSP secre-tariat in police station.Sulman Taimoor has beenappointed investigation of-ficer in the case.

Meanwhile, the IslamabadHigh Court on Friday repri-manded IG IslamabadBanyamin for police failure toarrest Pervez Musharraf aftercancellation of his interim bail.“Why wasn’t Musharraf ar-rested from the courtroom?”Justice Shaukat Siddiqi askedthe IG. The court said that 10police officers are tasked withthe arrest of a common man,but for important cases, no of-ficer was designated.

“You are not eligible forthis post. Why shouldn’t yoube suspended,” JusticeSiddiqi remarked. The courtalso said that Musharraf ’sfleeing was a separate crimeThe IG replied that he was inthe Supreme Court at a meet-ing of the Judicial Council.

Earlier taking notice offormer president Pervez

Musharraf’s escape from thepremises of the court, theIslamabad High Court sum-moned Inspector General Po-lice Islamabad.

Former President General(retd.) Pervez Musharraf hasbeen shifted to police head-quarters, sources said on Fri-day. The former military dic-tator was escorted to PoliceHeadquarters from his farm-house residence on Friday.

Musharraf, who is also thehead of All Pakistan MuslimLeague APML, was placedunder house arrest at his farm-house, which was declared asub-jail by authorities due tosecurity reasons. Accordingto police, Musharraf will ap-pear before anti-terrorismcourt judge inside the policeheadquarter.

It is not yet clear whetherMusharraf will be taken backto his farmhosue or kept inpolice headquarter. He surren-dered himself earlier Fridaybefore appearing in the courtof judicial magistrate RajaAbbas Shah in Islamabad.

The judge issued an or-der for a two-day-long transitremand of Musharraf. Theorder also added clause 780-A pertaining to terrorism in thelist of charges against theformer army strongman.

During the hearing,petitioner’s counsel, Advo-cate Mohammad BilalMughal, requested the court

Senate passes resolution to tryMusharraf under Article 6

From Page 1

No US positionFrom Page 1

demn this heinous act of ter-rorism in the strongest pos-sible terms. He as-sured the US President of thecontinued support of Pakistanin the fight against terrorismand said that people of Paki-stan itself being victims of ter-rorism for a long time share thepain and anguish of the fami-lies of the victims.—Online

media queries, a US Embassyspokesperson Friday saidthat this is an issue to be re-solved solely in accordancewith Pakistan’s constitutionand laws.

The spokesperson saidthe United States reaffirmsthat it is backing democracyin Pakistan and does not sup-port any particular politicalparty or individual candi-date.—INP

general election.Five prime ministers will

come in five years, he opined,foreseeing that independentcandidates would win moreseats in the election.—NNI

Five PMsFrom Page 1

Zardari assuresFrom Page 1

tions against each other.Despite an earlier deal of

seat adjustment with PakistanMuslim League - F, PakistanMuslim League - N issued tick-ets to its candidate from NA90 and NA 91.Furthermore,Liaquat Jatoi also refused toaccept the seat adjustmentcontract in Dadu, taking thealliance to its end.—Online

10-party oppositionFrom Page 1

Meanwhile HostThomson, and the ChiefGuest Caretaker FederalMinister for Housing andWorks, Dr. Younis Soomrocut a cake to mark this im-portant occasion for theUK, Pakistan and the otherCommonwealth countries.

The British High Com-missioner and the ChiefGuest also toasted theirHeads of State whilst thenational anthems of bothcountries played.

This year on Common-wealth Day, Her Majesty

Sure about on time elections From Back Page

the Queen also signed aformal ‘CommonwealthCharter’ sett ing out corevalues of democracy, ruleof law, good governanceand similar legal systems.

The High Commis-sioner also noted, “TheQueen’s Birthday is an oc-casion to reflect on theclose ties between the UKand Pakistan.

Pakistan only cameinto being shortly beforeHer Majesty becameQueen and the enduring

partnership between Paki-stan and the UK has takenshape during her reign.

It is a partnership thatis set to become even moreimportant as we continueto work together for themutual prosperity and se-curi ty of both our coun-tries.

“The theme of today’sQueen’s Birthday Party isthe ‘GREAT’ Britain cam-paign which showcasesthe very best of what Brit-ain has to offer,” he main-tained.

for a 15-day-long physical re-mand of the former president,whereas Musharraf’s lawyer,Qamar Afzal, asked for a judi-cial remand for his client. Thecourt observed that the list ofcharges against Musharraf inthe judges’ detention case en-tailed terrorism clauses whichwas why bail could not begranted to the retired generalwithout him surrendering toauthorities. Islamabad HighCourt on Friday held Inspec-tor General Police (IGP)Islamabad Bin Yamin respon-sible in former president Gen.(Retd) Pervez Musharraf flee-ing case.Single-member IHCbench comprising JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiqui washearing Musharraf fleeingcase here on Friday.

Former Pakistani militaryruler Pervez Musharraf vowedon Friday to fight what hecalled politically motivatedallegations against him, fol-lowing his arrest in a case in-volving his decision to firesenior judges while in power.

Local TV video showedMusharraf entering the courtFriday, surrounded by aheavy security detachmentof police and paramilitarysoldiers. “These allegationsare politically motivated, andI will fight them in the trialcourt, where the truth willeventually prevail,”Musharraf said in a messageposted on his Facebook pageFriday after he was arrested.

derailing democracy and ab-rogating the constitution.The Senate resumed its ses-sion on Friday with Chair-man Syed Nayyar HussainBukhari in the chair.

The resolution wastabled by Pakistan MuslimLeague - Nawaz’s (PML-N)Senator Ishaq Dar and wasapproved by all members ofthe Upper House ofParliement. The resolutionalso demanded that all pho-tographs, posters and ban-ners of the former presidentbe removed from all govern-ment buildings with immedi-ate effect.

It also demanded thatthe resolution passed by theHouse on 23rd January lastyear regarding arrest ofPervez Musharraf shouldalso be clubbed with thisresolution. The Senatemembers criticized over notsending Pervez Musharrafto jail. Senator RafiqRajwana said that declaringMusharraf’s house as sub-jail is equivalent to ridiculelaw.

Moreover Federal Inte-rior Minister Malik

Muhammad Habib Khan in-formed the Senate thatPervez Musharraf was al-ready in governments cus-tody and that the former mili-tary ruler’s Chak-Shezad resi-dence had been declared asa sub-jail. Speaking on theissue of arrest of PervezMusharraf, he said the resi-dence of Pervez Musharrafhas been declared as thesub-jail.

At the outset of the ses-sion, the members of thehouse expressed annoyanceover the absence of the In-terior Minister because hewas summoned by theChairman to appear beforethe house and answer thequestions regarding law andorder situation prevailing inthe country. The Chair sus-pended the proceeding for15 minutes and asked the In-terior Minister to come in thehouse.On the resumption ofthe session, the house wasinformed that the InteriorMinister is in a meeting withthe Prime Minister about lawand order situation. As aprotest over the absence of

the Interior Minister in thehouse all walk-out from thehouse.

Minister for Water andPower Dr. Musadik Malik hassaid that 12-hour electricityload-shedding is undergoingin the urban areas and 14-hours in the rural areas of thecountry. Giving his remarkson a motion moved by TahirHussain Mashhadi regard-ing excessive load-sheddingof electricity in the country,the Minister said that no at-tempt had been made to ad-dress the issue of circulardebts that has defaulted thepower generation institu-tions.

Speaking on a point of or-der the members of the houseobjected declaringMusharraf’s house as sub jailand demanded that he mustbe brought to book withoutany favour. They said that theresponsibility lies on the care-taker government.

Responding on the occa-sion, Interior Minister MalikMuhammad Habib Khan saidthat he is in touch with thewhole issue and supervisingthe process—Online

lenge effectively.The recent incident of at-

tack on Nawab SanaullahZahri president ofBalochistan Muslim League-N in which his son, brotherand other members of familyand party were assassinated,should be taken seriouslyand no effort be spared forthe arrest of culprits involvedin this heinous crime failingwhich the miscreants wouldbe encouraged to play theirdirty role to create alarm anddespondency among thepeople. Observers havecalled for efforts to be re-doubled by the law enforc-ing agencies to keep strongvigilance on the anti socialelements irrespective of theirsocial status so that the con-testants in the electionsshould participate withoutfear to ensure the transiencyof elections.

Inclusiveelections inBalochistan

From Page 1

PPP to emergeas single largest

party: KairaSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Secretary Infor-mation PPP, Qamar ZamanKaira has expressed his con-fidence that the PPP wouldemerge as the single largestParty in the country after theforthcoming elections de-spite being denied the levelplaying field by the CaretakerGovernment, may be by de-fault, and by extremists bydesign.

He said that the instructionsof the Election Commission ofPakistan were immediatelyimplemented in case of with-drawal of nominal security, con-sisting more than a dozen menin each case, providing securitycover to the two former PrimeMinisters and former SindhChief Minister.

Hundreds of securitypersonnel attached toSharif’s are continuing in pro-viding security to them and theirfamilies despite the clear-cutinstructions to the contrary bythe Chief election Commissionof Pakistan on April13, 2013, hepointed out.

He said that this preferen-tial treatment being meted outto Sharif ’s was discrimina-tory and therefore against theimperatives of neutrality, im-partiality and the mandate ofthe Caretakers.

Fazlullah askedfor passage toattack Punjab:

AsfandyarKARACHI—Awami NationalParty (ANP) chief AsfandyarWali Khan has revealed thatTaliban started attackingthem after he refused to pro-vide them passage for hittingPunjab.

In an interview to a chan-nel, ANP chief said ‘Talibanleader Fazlullah, in a tele-phone call, had asked me toprovide him passage for at-tacking Punjab and I had re-fused to do so.—INP

NADRA delivers final electoral rolls to provincesIS L A M A B A D—On the de-mand of political parties andcivil society organizations,National Database and Reg-istration Authority(NADRA) Friday deliveredFinal Electoral Rolls 2012(FER) to provinces. TheAuthority, by using its Citi-zens database under the di-rectives of Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP)for the first time in the elec-toral history of the countryhas included pictures ofeach and every voter on allcomputerized electoral rolls.

A Spokesperson of theAuthority said the FinalElectoral Rolls (FER) hasbeen dispatchedBalochistan, KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KPK), Sindh,Punjab and FATA. She saidcopy-1 and copy-2 of FER2012 with photographshave been delivered toBalochistan, KPK and

Musharraf pleadsformation of full bench

ISLAMABAD—The formerpresident and military rulerPervez Musharraf has sub-mitted a plea in SupremeCourt to constitute a fullbench to hear the treasoncase against him.

The petition, submittedby Musharraf’s counsels, re-quested the court to consti-tute a full bench to hear thecase. —Online

Wajahatallowed to

contest pollsSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt (LHC) has allowedPML-Q leader ChaudhryWajahat to contest elec-tions.

Chaudhry Wajahat whois the brother of PML-QPresident ChaudhryShujaat, is the party’s can-didate from NA-104 (Gujrat).

The LHC dismissed theappeal against Wajahat anddirected that electoral sym-bol of the cycle be allotted tohim. Chaudhry Wajahatwas been appointed as anMNA twice.

FATA while copies-1 and 2with photographs of Sindh(except Karachi) have beenprinted and delivered.

The copy-1 of FER 2012of 32 districts of Punjab out of37 have been printed and de-livered. Similarly, the copy-2of FER 2012 of 5 out of 37 dis-tricts of Punjab has beenprinted.

From Page 1

Zimbabwe 1st innings: 389Bangladesh 1st innings:Jahurul lbw b Meth ....... 43Shahriar b Jarvis ............ 29Ashraful c Waller b SWMasakadza ..................... 38Mahmudullah b Meth .... 3Shakib c Sibanda b SWMasakadza ....................... 5Mushfiqur lbw b SWMasakadza ....................... 3Nasir c Mutumbamib Jarvis ............................. 7Sohag b SW Masakadza 0Enamul b Jarvis ............... 0Rubel Hossain b Jarvis .. 0Robiul Islam not out ....... 0Extras: (b 4, lb 1, w 1) ...... 6Total: (all out) .............. 134Fall of wickets 1-53), 2-102),3-112, 4-123, 5-124, 6-134, 7-134, 8-134, 9-134, 10-134Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WKM Jarvis ........... 16-8-40-4KO Meth ............ 20-6-41-2

SW Masakadza14.1-4-32-4E Chigumbura ...... 3-0-16-0AG Cremer .............. 1-1-0-0Zimbabwe 2nd innings:Maruma lbw b Robiul ... 10V Sibanda b Robiul Islam . 4H Masakadza c &b Robiul Islam .................. 0Taylor not out ................ 58Waller c Nasir b Robiul .. 4E Chigumbura c JahurulIslam b Robiul Islam ..... 27R Mutumbami lbwb Robiul Islam .................. 0AG Cremer not out ........ 19Extras: (lb 1, w 1, nb 1) .... 3Total: (6 wickets) ......... 125Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-9, 3-16, 4-27, 5-84, 6-84Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WRobiul Islam ....... 13-1-35-6Rubel Hossain ..... 6-0-31-0Shakib ................... 9-2-22-0Enamul ............... 5.2-1-23-0Sohag Gazi ........... 7-0-13-0

HARARE: Mahmudullah looks back to see the damage during Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh 1st Test on Friday.

HARARE—Some of thesheen from Zimbabwe’sdominance over Bangladeshin this Test was lost afterthey lost quick wickets intheir second innings. Theirdecision to not enforce thefollow-on however has nothurt them just yet as they arestill leading by 317 runs withseven sessions left to play.

Robiul Islam took all thewickets to fall as Bangladeshfought back from a despair-ing first two hours on thethird day. Brendan Taylor,

Bangladesh collapseagainst Zimbabwe

unbeaten on 25, and EltonChigumbura remained at thecrease, seeing out a testingspell from Robiul and ShakibAl Hasan.

Vusi Sibanda was the firstto go, again clean bowled byRobiul. It was a similar dis-missal to the first innings,though this time Sibanda’soffstump cartwheeled as hemissed a straight delivery.Hamilton Masakadza fol-lowed soon after, giving astraight forward return catchto the same bowler. Timecyn

Maruma ended his first Testwith another low score, givenout leg-before from a full de-livery from Robiul. MalcolmWaller was the fourth wicket,edging an outswinger toNasir Hossain at first slip.

But Zimbabwe’s pacetrio’s probing spells thathave influenced this Testmatch significantly. KyleJarvis, Shingirai Masakadzaand debutant Keegan Methdidn’t just take the tenBangladesh wickets butforced it out of them.Bangladesh lost nine wicketsfor just 32 runs, having beencomfortably placed at 102 for1 in the 36th over. To makematters worse, the last fivewickets didn’t even yield asingle run as they remainedstuck on 134.

Jarvis was the pick of thethree, taking 4 for 40 from his16 overs. He started off theday with accurate bowling,giving away just one run inhis six overs. His first fiveovers in the morning weremaidens as he tested the pa-tience of Jahurul Islam andMohammad Ashraful. Ttwas in the second session,after he switched ends, thathe immediately removedNasir Hossain. It was acaught-behind dismissal,giving wicketkeeper Rich-mond Mutumbami his firstcatch in Test cricket. EnamulHaque jnr and RubelHossain lost their stumpssoon after, becoming Jarvis’

third and fourth victims inthe innings.

Masakadza too was keenon making the batsmen playand he was successful. Al-most as quick as Jarvis, thepace bowler took three bigwickets. Shakib Al Hasancouldn’t keep his bouncedown, as he gave a simplecatch to Sibanda at gully. Aball later, Ashraful popped asimple catch at square leg toWaller, before captainMushfiqur Rahim wastrapped leg-before by a de-livery that snaked in late.Masakadza took the finalwicket of the innings, that ofSohag Gazi and finished with4 for 32.

Meth marked the day asone for the seam bowlerswhen he removed Jahurul Is-lam and Mahmudullah in amarathon 12-over spell. Hegave away just 19 runs, re-moving Jahurul lbw whilethe Bangladesh vice-cap-tain gifted him a second byinside edging one on to thestumps.

Bangladesh’s over reli-ance on a defensive ap-proach on the third morninghad cost them dearly. Thesecond-wicket stand be-tween Ashraful and Jahuruladded seven runs in 10.5overs before the latter fell toMeth. Soon after, the battingline-up imploded in a mannerthat Bangladesh fans wouldhave forgotten after a good2012-13 season.—AFP

MONTE CARLO (Monaco)—Third seed Rafael Nadalturned in a routine perfor-mance to dispatch GermanPhilipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-4as the Spanish king of claybids for a record ninth straighttrophy at the event.

“I’m very excited to playin every tournament, and es-pecially when I’m playing in atournament like Monte Carlo,”said Nadal, who won his 44thmatch in a row at the venuewhere he suffered his onlyloss a decade ago.

The eight-time championwill next line up against GrigorDimitrov, who beatGermany’s Florian Mayer, 6-2, 6-4.

The win was theSpaniard’s 17th in a row aftersuccessive titles this seasonin Sao Paulo, Acapulco andIndian Wells.

Second seeded AndyMurray, who has yet to win aclaycourt title, collapsed to a6-1, 6-2 loss to StanislasWawrinka.

The win for the Swiss inless than an hour guaranteedthat Roger Federer returns tothe number two ranking onMonday, sending the Murrayback to third.

The shell-shocked Scotcommitted 24 unforced errors.US Open champion Murray,a 2012 quarter-finalist, went nilfor two on break points andlost his own serve five timesin the rout.

Nadal cruises into MonteCarlo quarter-final

MONACO: Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during his matchagainst Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria during the MonteCarlo Masters.

Murray had regained thenumber two world ranking onthe strength of his win in theMiami Masters.

Roger Federer will returnto second in the ATP stand-ings next week after AndyMurray collapsed to a 6-1, 6-2third-round loss to StanislasWawrinka at the Monte CarloMasters on Thursday.

A shell-shocked Murraycommitted 24 unforced errorsas he lost to Federer’s Swisscompatriot, seeded 13th, in 58minutes.

Murray, a quarter-finalisthere a year ago, went nil fortwo on break points and losthis own serve five times in therout which sends him back tothe practise court for the nextfortnight in hopes of repair-ing his game for the MadridMasters in early May.

Rafael Nadal stepped uphis campaign for an historicninth straight title at the eventas the third seed won his 44thmatch in a row at the venue witha 6-2, 6-4 defeat of German PhilipKohlschreiber.—AFP

GILGIT: Players taking part in volleyball match during Sprots Week at KIU.

WAPDA annualtable tennis

competitionsSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—National Trans-mission & Despatch Com-pany Limited (NTDCL) hasclinched first position inWAPDA Annual Table Ten-nis Competitions, held atShahbaz Sharif Sports Com-plex Rawalpindi from 14-18April 2013.

The event was organizedby Islamabad Electric SupplyCompany (IESCO), whereplayers from all over thecountry participated with fullzeal and enthusiasm and rep-resented Distribution compa-nies (DISCOs) of power sec-tor. The players of NTDCLhad outclassed their oppo-nents and won both men andwomen single and doublecompetition with huge mar-gins.

It is pertinent to note thatin a given situation of the coun-try, NTDCL is providing bestpossible opportunities to itsemployees (young boys andgirls) from all over the countryto take part in healthy andother sports activities. Conse-quently achieving high stan-dards both in national and in-ternational sports events.

Later chief guest on theoccasion, Director General(MIS) IESCO Mr KhlidMasood presented the win-ners trophy to the table ten-nis team of NTDCL.

Fawad Alam Khalid LatifSohail Khan

KARACHI—Karachi cricketAssociation (KCCA) chief onFriday banned three interna-tional players, Sohail Khan,Fawad Alam and Khalid Latif,for lack of discipline during adomestic Twenty20 tourna-ment.

Sohail, 29, is banned from

playing for Karachi in anydomestic match, and Alamand Latif for playing inTwenty20s. All three bans areto last 12 months.

“It is disappointing toban players but we had totake the decision so that anexample is set,” Karachi CityCricket Association (KCCA)president Sirajul Islam

Fawad, Sohail & Khalidbanned by KCCA

Bukhari told AFP.The players were shown

on TV criticising with coachTauseef Ahmed, a former Pa-kistan player, during the Su-per Eight Twenty20 event inthe eastern city of Lahorelast month.

Sohail has played two

Tests, five one-day and threeTwenty20 internationals forPakistan, the last of which onPakistan’s tour of Zimbabwein 2011.

Alam, 27, hit a hundredon his Test debut against SriLanka in 2009. He has so farplayed three Tests, 27 one-day and 24 Twenty20Internationals.

The 27-year-old Latif hasplayed five one-dayers andseven Twenty20Internationals.

He last played aTwenty20 match on lastyear’s tour of Sri Lanka.

Pakistan cricket has beenin and out of the headlines

for bans over match-fixingand discipline problems.Three top players — SalmanButt, Mohammad Asif andMohammad Aamer — werebanned in a spot-fixing casein 2010.

Appeals against the banswere rejected by the Court ofArbitration for Sports onWednesday.—AFP

K A R A C H I — M i s b a h - u l -Haq’s Sui Northern GasPipelines Ltd (SNGPL)ended the 2013-13 domes-tic season on a high notewhen they completed thedouble, beating WAPDA by32 runs in the final ofPresident’s Cup One-DayNational Cricket Tourna-ment at National Stadium onFriday.

Sui Northern sent to batfirst, raised 283 for the lossof eight wickets in 50 oversthanks to a flying openingstand of 125-run betweenMohammad Hafeez andTaufiq Umer.

WAPDA recovered par-tially after losing both theirinform openers RiffatullahMohmand and Hafiz SaadNasim early on and were re-stricted to 251-9 in 50 overs.

Test discard AyubDoggar hit a defiant 66 off60 balls studded with ninefours and talent SohaibMaqsood hit an enterpris-ing 57 in 71 balls spicedwith half a dozen bound-aries and brace of sixes.

Fiery pacer Asad Aliwas hero in his team’s vic-tory - snapping up fourwickets for 37 runs in tenovers including the prizedscalp of Riffat and Hafiz

SNGPL completesdouble with President’s

Cup triumphSaad by shattering theirstumps in his opening spell.

Director General PCBJaved Miandad presentedthe winning trophy to SuiNorthern Gas Pipelines LtdCaptain Misbah-ul-Haqwith cash prize ofRs.250,000 while WAPDAskipper Rana Naveed gotrunners-up trophy andRs.125,000 purse. Pakistanteam Manager NaveedAkram Cheema KCCA Presi-dent Syed Sirajul IslamBukhari were also presenton the occasion.

Earlier Hafeez andTaufiq’ century openingstand was cornerstone ofSui Northern Gas PipelinesLtd.

Hafeez struck sevenfours in his 58 off 64- ballbefore being hold out toAyub Doggar in the coversoff Saad Nasim.

Test left handed TaufiqUmer went seven over laterfor 79 and his 78-ball knockwas studded eight strikes tothe boundary. Azhar Alicontributed a subdued 33 in51 balls with a solitary four.

Left arm fast mediumbowler Nasir Malik was bestof WAPDA bowlers, takingthree wickets for 45 runs inten overs.—APP

Peshawar Whitebeat Nowshera

in KP InterDistrict Hockey

P E S H A W A R — P e s h a w a rWhite stunned Nowshera by4-0 in a one-sided affair onthe second day of the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Inter-DistrictMen Hockey Championshipbeing played here at LalaAyub Hockey Stadium onFriday.

Vice President KhyberPakhtunkhwa Hockey Asso-ciation Haji Nawaz Khan wasthe chief guest on this occa-sion and before the start ofthe match the players of bothPeshawar White and DistrictNowshera were introduced tohim.

The match was startedon fast tempo and PeshawarWhite took the lead in thevery 4th minute through full-back Zahid Khan on the pen-alty corner conversion. It wasright winger Irfan Khan movewho travelled past three de-fenders and by reaching inthe D area got penalty cor-ner which was nicely takenby Zahid Khan.

After taking the lead,Peshawar White team fullydominated the proceedingsand did not allow Nowsheraplayers to play with freehands. It was in the 13thminute when this time Irfanslammed in beautiful goal onthe field attempt. Irfan, whoalso delighted the sittingspectators with his rundown the flank, zoomedquickly from the center lineand when he reached at thetop of the D area he slammedin a superb goal to make thetally 2-0.

Peshawar was leadingby 2-0 at half-time.Nowshera, who have littleidea of playing on the artifi-cial turf failed to click in frontof the pack defence ofPeshawar. They did someresistance but failed to findany rooms.—APP

IFA to holdtrials

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadFootball Association (IFA) isorganizing two-day trials toselect the under-16 team hereat G 9/2 football ground.

The trials will be held onSaturday and Sunday (April20 and 21). Players born onJanuary 1, 1997 are only eli-gible to participate in the tri-als.—APP

Players gearingup for Asian

Squash C’shipISLAMABAD—The trainingcup of Pakistan Squash play-ers for the 17th AsianSquash Championship (se-niors) is in full swing here atRoshan Khan Squash Com-plex under the supervision ofhead coach Jamshed Gul.

The championship will rollinto action at the MushafSquash Complex in Islamabadfrom May 1. Secretary PakistanSquash Federation (PSF)Wing Cmdr. Abdul WahabMarwat on Friday said that thecamp was moved to Islamabadon Thursday from Abbotabad,where they underwent a three-week long intensive army-styledrills at Army School of Physi-cal Training in Kakul.

“The camp in Abbotabadwas set up on the advice ofPresident PSF Air Vice-Marshall Syed Razi Nawab.And after going throughtough training at the high al-titude there, our boys look ingood shape and we are ex-pecting some very good re-sults from them,” he told APP.

He said the camp inAbbotabad was arranged tobetter equip national playersfor lengthier contests. Paki-stan Army’s physical instruc-tor Sajjad Shah providedphysical training to playersat the Kakul Military Acad-emy, while Jamshed Gul fo-cused on improving theirplaying techniques, he said.

Marwat said that Pakistanoutfit were a talented bunchbut they had been facing fit-ness issues in the past. “Butthe army-style drills have im-proved them a lot. Now inIslamabad our focus will be toprovide them maximum train-ing and practice,” he added.

Over 40 male and femaleplayers from the nine Asiancountries are expected to fea-ture in the five-day extrava-ganza. Besides hosts Pakistan,players from Malaysia, Ku-wait, Sri Lanka, China, Korea,Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq andJordon would feature in theevent.—APP

KP govt finaliseselection planI S L A M A B A D — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Caretaker Min-ister for Information andEducation,Mossarat Qadeemon Friday said that compre-hensive plan has been final-ized for holding free, fair andtransparent elections in theprovince. Speaking at a pressconference here at KhyberPakhtunkhwa House , shesaid it is the constitutionalobligation for caretakersetup to facilitate the Elec-tion Commission in holdingpolls. The minister said thateducation staff and schoolshave already been providedto the Election Commis-sion.—APP

LHC issues notice toKairaLAHORE—A full bench of theLahore High Court Friday is-sued a notice for April 22 toformer information ministerQamar Zaman Kaira on a peti-tion against acceptance of hisnomination papers from NA-106. The full bench headed byJustice Ijaz ul Ahsan issuedthe notice on a petition filedby Muhammad Shabir, a voterfrom NA-106, through hiscounsel Asad Manzoor Butt.Earlier, the petitioner’s coun-sel submitted that QamarZaman Kaira in a contemptcase against his brother as-sured the court that he wouldfulfill the outstanding liabilitybesides giving a cheque of Rs1 million as guarantee. How-ever, Kaira failed to fulfill hiscommitment and cheque wasalso bounced.—APP

1 killed, 14 injuredin rockets attackWANA—A man was killedand 14 others sustained in-juries when unknown miscre-ants fired four rocketsMughal Khel Ada here onFriday, official sources inpolitical administration said.The rockets were fired fromRustam ada that landed atMughal Khel area wherepublic were gathered in largenumber and blasted withhuge sound, killing onetribesman while another 14injured. The injured wereshifted to hospital and politi-cal administration started in-vestigation.—APP

Attack onpolio teamTANK—Members of an anti-polio vaccination team cameunder attack in Gomal villagein Tank district’s border areawith Waziristan tribal regionon Friday. Two male vacci-nators injured were injuredin that attack, according topolice who added that the in-jured workers were shiftedto a local hospital The at-tackers immediately escapedfrom the scene after the in-cident. Police said that thevaccination team was beingescorted but the miscreantsfired at them from a distance.They said that hunt for theattackers was on.—INP

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab Najam Sethi called on President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday.

Korean peninsulartension rises

SINGAPORE—The UnitedStates’ first littoral warship,USS Freedom, has arrived inSingapore as part ofWashington’s plan to expandthe US military presence inSoutheast Asia.

According to US Navy of-ficials, the USS Freedom ar-rived in Singapore’s ChangiNaval Base around 11:00 a.m.local time (0300 GMT) onThursday.The ship is set to bestationed in the region for atleast 10 months.

This comes after the USannounced in April 2012 thatit would deploy four littoralwarships to Singapore for jointmilitary exercises, a moveaimed to expand bilateral mili-tary cooperation with theAsian country.

Malala tomake UN

speech in JulyLONDON—Malala Yousafzai,the teenage girl shot by theTaliban for promoting girls’education, will make her firstpublic speech on her 16thbirthday in New York, the of-fice of Britain’s former PrimeMinister Gordon Brown an-nounced on Friday.

She will speak at theUnited Nations on July 12,said Brown, speaking in hiscapacity as the UN SpecialEnvoy for Global Education.

Malala was shot at point-blank range by a Taliban gun-man as her school bus trav-eled through Pakistan’s SwatValley on October 9 last year,She was flown to Britain forsurgery on her head injuriesand, once she had recoveredsufficiently, returned toschool in Birmingham, cen-tral England last month.

“Malala is a true inspira-tion and a shining beacon forgirls’ education around theworld,” said Brown.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Air Chief MarshalTahir Rafique Butt, Chief ofthe Air Staff, Pakistan AirForce inspected PAF BaseLahore, an Air Base of Cen-tral Air Command Pakistan AirForce here on Friday.

In order to carry out op-erational evaluation of thePAF installations, equipmentand support unit, the AirChief is inspecting variousregional Air Commands andAir Bases.

Upon his arrival at the AirBase, a smartly turned outcontingent presented Guardof Honour. The Air Chief re-viewed the parade, and ad-dressed a joint gathering ofAirmen

. While addressing theBase personnel he said, “Be-sides maintaining the highest

professional standards, thereis a need of the hour that wemust be ready to respond toany external / internal secu-rity challenge”.

The Air Chief also empha-sized upon the commandersto put in more efforts in im-proving the quality of livingstandards for the airmen.

The Air Chief was briefedon the role and task of thevarious units with a focus onoperational and administra-tive tasks and various projectsof infrastructure developmentbeing carried out at the Base.Later on, the Air Chief visitedvarious installations, wherehe interacted with the Airmen.

Earlier on his arrival at thebase, the Air Chief was re-ceived by Air Vice MarshalAsad Lodhi, Air Officer Com-manding, Central Air Com-mand and Base Commander.

PAF ready to facesecurity challenges

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Working simulta-neously on a new electoralstrategy of detaching itselffrom a nexus of religioushardliners and forging alli-ance with nationalist partiesfor upcoming elections, Pa-kistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) Mian Nawaz Sharifhas turned down a list oftwenty candidates nominatedby Markazi Jamiat AhleHadith (JAH) wannabe to

contest elections from the plat-form of PML-N.

After PML-N’s knockbackof awarding tickets to JAH as-piring candidates for the up-coming elections, the stake ofpolitical future of JAH for thefirst time appears jeopardizedsince its inception in Pakistan.JAH leadership in return hasgiven clear signal to PML-Nfor tilting their political supporttowards Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and called a meet-ing of Majlis-e-Aamla to de-

cide the future political strat-egy on 20thApril in Lahoreunder the chair of JAH chiefSenator Prof Sajid Mir.

JAH, a religio-politicalparty, is the central Salafist or-ganization in Pakistan thatcame into existence as a reli-gious group but later trans-formed into a political party in1986 under the leadership oflate Ehsan Elahi Zaheer.

In the political arena theJAH has managed to have amarginal presence inspite of

the fact that it does not haveany significant public support.The JAH has been closelyaligned with the PML-N groupsince 1986 that ushered it intothe through a few members.JAH was also part of theMuttahida Majlis-e-Amal(MMA), an alliance of Islam-ist parties that came intopower with 11.3 percent of thepopular vote at the 2002 elec-tions. After breaking a longtime traditional tie of politicalalliance with Jamat-e-Islami

(JI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief MianNawaz Sharif has this timeturned his back on MarkaziJamiat Ahle-e-Hadith by refus-ing them to give a single ticketof his party for the upcominggeneral elections, thus, endinghis twenty five years old jour-ney of friendly and political re-lationship.

According to the sourcesin PML-N, they have awardedtickets to JAH candidates inaccordance with the strict seat

adjustment formula decidedbetween the chiefs of boththe parties. “PML-N hasgiven a PML-N ticket to JAHnominated candidates HafizAbdul Kareem for NA-172DG Khan, Malik ZulqarnainDogar for PP-172 NankanaSahib and Kashif NawazRandhawa for PP-64. Thesources further revealed thatPML-N Punjab governmentJAH leader Malik Sulemanappointed chairman ofPunjab Bait-ul-Maal.

No seat adjustment with any religious party: PML-NTwo decades long ties with Jamiat Ahle Hadith end

Britain Afghanwithdrawal

via TajikistanDUSHANBE—Britain andTajikistan signed an agree-ment concerning the trans-portation of military equip-ment and personnel throughthe country from Afghani-stan.

The Ministry of ForeignAffairs said the agreementprovides for the procedurefor the transit of militaryequipment and personnel ofthe military contingent of theUnited Kingdom through theterritory of Tajikistan.

The document wassigned by Foreign MinisterKhamrokhon Zarifi and RobinOrd-Smith, the UnitedKingdom’s ambassador inDushanbe. The UK this yearwill withdraw about 3,800troops, and in 2014 - the re-maining 5,200, 11,000 con-tainers with property.—NNI

AFZAL BAJWA

I S L A M A B A D — B r u s h i n gaside all conspiracy theoriessuggesting delays in nextmonth elections, top Britishenvoy in the capital appearedhighly confident about thepolls to be held on time (May11). “Not only hopeful butI’m sure about the nextmonth’s general elections tobe held on time within theframework of the Constitu-tion,” said Adam ThomsonUK High Commissioner toPakistan.

Talking to this scribe atthe 87th Birthday party ofMajesty Queen Elibabeth II,Thomson said, “you shouldbe sure about certainty of(democratic) process. Paki-stan is going to experiencestrengthening of this pro-cess,” he added. Earlier dur-ing his speech as well, heunderlined the importance ofupcoming elections. He de-

scribed the continuity anddeepening of the democraticprocess as the key toPakistan’s relations with theout-side world.

“Our chief guest DrYunas Somro’s presence is areminder to me and my gov-ernment that we are sharingspecial time in Pakistan’s his-tory,” he said while address-ing the august gathering. “Atransition from one full termgovernment through credibleand acceptable elections toanother de-mocraticallyelected government on timeand all within the frameworkof the constitution,” hecontin-ued.

“This process is tremen-dously important for UK Pa-kistan relations. Britain firmlybelieves that continuity anddeepening of the democraticis inordinately vital forPakistan’s own well being butalso the key to ever strongerand deeper relations between

our tow countries,” he wenton. “For us it is the qualityof the process that mattersnot which party win or lose.We will work to strengthenUK Pakistan relations in mu-tual respect and benefit nomatter who forms the nextgovern-ment,” he undertook.“Caretaker government nowin office is holding in theirhands the future ofPakistan’s relations with UKand Commonwealth of whichHer Majesty the Queen ishead.

Guests from all over Pa-kistan had gathered at theBritish High Commission tomark Her Majesty’s birthday.Our 1,000 people attendedthe red carpet celebrations,including representativesfrom the Caretaker Govern-ment of Pakistan, politicalparties, the military, membersof the diplomatic corps, civil

Sure about on timeelections: British Envoy

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterJustice (R) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso said that law and ordersituation is becoming a chal-lenging task for the caretakergovernment. In his openingremarks at a meeting here Fri-day morning, the Prime Minis-ter Justice (R) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso said that law and ordersituation is becoming a chal-lenging task for the caretakergovernment.

He said that it is the dutyand obligation of the govern-ment to provide a conduciveatmosphere for the conduct offair and transparent elections.He said that every citizen mustbe treated equally, dignity ofhuman life should be main-tained, and liberty of life andhonour must be guaranteed asenvisaged in the Constitution.

Chief Minister Punjab,Najam Sethi, Chief MinisterBalochistan, Nawab GhausBukhsh Barozai and Chief Min-ister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mr.Justice (R) Tariq Pervez are

attending the meeting on lawand order situation at PrimeMinister Secretariat Islamabad.

The Prime Minister saidthat it is heartening to note thatall the political parties, repre-senting all shades of politicalspectrum, have decided to bepart of the mainstream politi-cal process.

This shows their confi-dence in the democratic dis-pensation. However this con-fidence has seriously affecteddue to recent killings of theprominent party candidatesbelonging to major politicalparties. The Prime Ministerstressed the need to restoreand strengthen the confidenceby assuring and ensuring apeaceful environment for theelections and maintaining lawand order.

He urged the Ministry ofInterior and Home depart-ments in the provinces andFATA, to lay additional em-phasis on addressing loopholes in security.—Online

PM declares law & ordersituation a challenging task

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Sui Northern GasPipe Lines Limited (SNGPL)has suspended gas supply tothe industry and CNG sectorof Punjab following sabo-tage activity in 30-inch diam-eter Guddu-Kashmore gaspipeline which was blown upby miscreants.

While addressing anemergent press conference,Managing Director SNGPLArif Hameed said this 30 inchline carries gas from fromPeer koh, Hasan andZamzama gas fields. Afterrupture of this pipe lines gassupply to various cities of

Punjab including Lahore,Gujranwala, Multan,Sheikhupura and Sahiwal re-gions stands suspended.

Arif Hameed said that anamount of Rs 56 billion out-standing against power sec-tor. He said that in recentmonths seven sabotage ac-tivities took place and due tothe recent sabotage activitythe gas short fall has reachedto 845 mmcfd.

He also said that theyhave suspended the gas sup-ply to the industry and CNGsector to provide uninter-rupted gas supply to the do-mestic sector which is ourpriority. He said that SNGPL

teams have been sent to DeraBugti and they had startedrestoration work and ex-pressed his hope that resto-ration work will be completedby Monday next week.

Hameed said that due tothe security reasons there isa possibility of delay in res-toration work because in thearea where sabotage activitytook place restoration workis not possible with out rang-ers support.

While responding to aquestion he said that it is dif-ficult to protect the 8500 ki-lometer transmission line.Hameed said that 70 % of gasis coming from Sindh.

SNGPL suspends gas supplyto industry, CNG sector

Conspiracy tokeep MQMaway frompolls: SattarSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—At the end of theday of mourning, observedacross Sindh by theMuttahida Qaumi Move-ment against killings of itsworkers and office bearers onFriday, Dr Farooq Sattarclaimed that a conspiracy isbeing hatched to keep theparty away from contestingthe May 11 elections.Speaking at a press confer-ence, the deputy convenerof the party’s Rabita (coordi-nation) Committee said thatelectoral candidates andparty sympathisers are beingtargeted through a con-spiracy. The MQM had ob-served a “peaceful day ofmourning” in Karachi andother parts of the provincedenouncing brutal killings ofits party activists and officebearers in the recent past.

The party, late on Thurs-day, had appealed its work-ers to remain peaceful andhoist black flags throughoutthe day. Traffic and businessactivities across the provincelargely remained unhinderedduring the protest.Speakingto journalists, Sattar said theparty has been kept awayfrom carrying on with theirroutine election campaignthough a planned con-spiracy.

“Our democratic and con-stitutional right is beingsnatched,” he said. TheMQM leader said that all par-ties are running their electioncampaigns while his party isbusy in funerals of its slainactivists.

He said four party sup-porters were kidnapped andtortured before being killedon Friday also.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt on Friday sought namesof the responsible who sanc-tioned illegal funds worth Rs47billion on the directions offormer prime minister RajaPervez Ashraf. The apex courtalso directed the concernedauthorities to stop issuing fur-ther funds which were allo-cated and approved by theformer premier.

A three-judge bench,headed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,heard the suo motu case re-

SC seeks names sanctioningillegal funds by Ashraf

garding issuance of develop-ment funds by the former PMin his hometown constituency.The bench also soughta detailed report of the relevantrecords within three days.

The bench directed thesecretary finance to clear hisstance over issuing of fundsworth billions till the eveningof the same day. The apexcourt also issued notices to theattorney general for Pakistan,special secretary of the primeminister and secretary plan-ning and development seek-ing their view points on thematter. During the course of

proceeding, the chief justiceremarked that the money doesnot own by an individual as itcomes from the public exche-quer and one cannot use itwhile exercising his discretion-ary powers.

The CJ observed that allthe funds were utilised in aspecific area and developmentschemes were initiated at oneplace while ignoring the wholecountry. Finance secretaryNergis Sethi apprised the courtthat she went through almostall 149 development schemesand found no monitoring sys-tem on any of them.

Continued on Page 6

PEOPLE who are exposed to fine particle matter (PM) air pollution from traffic pollution for a prolonged period of

time are at an increased risk of developingarteriosclerosis, according to a new studypresented at the Euro Prevent 2013 congressin Rome.

This isn’t the first timethat road traffic has beenlinked with heart disease, aprevious study conducted inDenmark in 2012 identifiedthat traffic noise is signifi-cantly associated with riskof heart attack.

The aim of this study, asdescribed by Dr HagenKälsch from the West-Ger-man Heart Centre in Essen,Germany, was to seewhether the increased heartrisks associated with trafficcame from either noise, par-ticle pollution, or both.

The researchers useddata from the German HeinzNixdorf Recall Study, whichincluded a total of 4,814 participants. Theyused street maps to calculate how near theparticipants were to roads with lots of traffic,chemistry transport models to estimate theirexposure to pollutants, and validated tests tomeasure traffic noise.

Through the use of computed tomogra-phy imaging they measured vascular vesselcalcification in the thoracic aorta, which re-vealed the patient’s level of arteriosclerosis.

Increased proximity to major roads withtraffic was associated with an increased levelof aortic calcification in the 4,238 partici-pants of the study. The degree of calcifica-tion increased by 20.7% as particle volume

increased by 2.4 micrometers, and increasedby 10% for every 100 meter proximity toheavy traffic. Dr Kälsch confirmed thatboth exposure to PM air pollution as wellas road traffic noise are associated with sub-clinical arteriosclerosis.

He said: “These two ma-jor types of traffic emissionshelp explain the observed as-sociations between livingclose to high traffic and sub-clinical arteriosclerosis. Theconsiderable size of the asso-ciations underscores the im-portance of long-term expo-sure to air pollution and roadtraffic noise as risk factors forarteriosclerosis.”

Traffic noise and finePM are thought to increasecardiovascular risk by actingthrough similar biologicalpathways and causing an im-balance in the autonomic ner-vous system.

TAC is one of the mostreliable markers of sub-clini-

cal arteriosclerosis, along with coronary ar-tery calcification (CAC).

All air pollutants, including carbonmonoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2),sulphur dioxide (SO2), and particulate mat-ter (measured as PM10) were associatedwith an increased risk of heart attack, ex-cept for ozone (O3).

Traffic air pollution may be particularlyharmful for infants - researchers from theKarolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden,reported in the American Journal of Respi-ratory and Critical Care Medicine, that traf-fic air pollution exposure during infancyharms the lungs for many years.

Exposure to traffic pollutionincreases risk of heart disease

ISLAMABAD: Relatives of missing persons standing in a cage during protest at D-Chowk on Friday.

RAWALPINDI: Garbage littered all over in a street of Ariyan Mohallah.

April 20

NATIONAL book founda-tion would arrange 3-daysbook festival on the eve of“National Book Day”. Thethree days book festival tobe held at Pak-ChinaFriendship Centre will com-mence from April 20.

April 20-21

THE Islamabad Traffic Po-lice (ITP) would arrangefamily Gala in the F-9 Parkon April 20 and 21. As pertradition the ITP familyGala for the citizens wouldbe arranged in F-9 Park,sources added.

April 21

DAWAH Academy is orga-nizing ‘Quran Khuwani’ inconnection with 75th deathanniversary of AllamaIqbal, in collaboration withDistrict Administration,Islamabad on Sunday after‘Assar’ Prayer at FaisalMasjid. People from all as-pects of life have been askedto attend Quran Khuwani.

April 24

DISTRICT Health Depart-ment Rawalpindi wouldlaunch a week-long specialdrive to create awarenessamong women abouthealthcare of mother fromApril 24 to 30.

April 25

ALLAMA Iqbal Open Uni-versity (AIOU) has sched-uled its final exams of MS,MPhil and PhDfrom Mon-day 25th April.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The traditionalbasketry display set up at LokMela catches the visitors’ eyehere at the folk festival orga-nized by Lok Virsa.

The 10-day festival hasprovided a number of beautifulglimpses of country’s culturalheritage with the display of artand tradition of various regions.

The basketry display by agroup of female craftswomenfrom Jhang is attracting thevisitors towards itself. KaneezFatima and Fateh Bibi fromShah Jewna are demonstratinga variety of basketry artifacts.

They belong to a poor fam-ily who are practicing this old

craft tradition since long. Despitethe fact that they get a very lowincome from this art, yet they seementhusiastic not only to continue itbut also to transfer to next genera-tions. Both Kaneez and Fateh Bibiare imparting training in basketryto girls in their native town andhopeful that they would not allowthis tradition to vanish.

“Previously people buy bas-ketry items for keeping bread, etcbut now the trend is only to keepthem as decoration pieces, yet weare glad that even in modern days,our crafts are patronized in anyform,” Fateh Bibi was talking toa female customer at her stall.Kaneez also remarked in a simi-

lar way while discussing her crafttradition to a young fine art stu-dent from National College ofArts (NCA). People still prefer touse our products,with her tearingeyes, Kaneez Fatima told, “my 9-year old son Idrees is sufferingfrom heart disease. Poverty doesnot allow us to arrange for histreatment. My husband is a lowpaid worker in a Steel Mill and hecannot afford heavy expenses onhis treatment and medicines”, sheinformed. She has appealed to thegovernment and philanthropists tocome forward for her help.

Explaining details of this art,Lok Virsa’s executive directorKhalid Javaid informed that very

fine and ornate baskets are madeby village women and there is apicturesque array of variouskinds of baskets in bazaarsthroughout Pakistan. Although,it is usual to find locally craftedbaskets, there are large produc-ers whoes market work all overthe country as baskets are a partof most Pakistani households forutilitarian and decorative pur-poses, he said.

Basket techniques and theirdesign elements are traditional.Diverse shapes and sizes haveevolved to serve practical func-tions as well as being adapted tomodern uses. A typical exampleis the snake charmer’s basketwhich carries his snakes and setsthe stage for their performance.

Traditional basketry catches visitors’eye at Lok Mela

Al-Shifa freeeye camps

RAWALPINDI—Al-Shifa trusteye hospital has provided treat-ment to over 38,000 patients in64 different eye camps in last fourmonths under its community out-reach programme.

According to Al-Shifa Trustauthorities, purpose of conduct-ing free eye camps was to pro-vide best eye care facilities toneedy and poor at their doorstep.

They said the hospital hasincreased the number of free eyecamps keeping in view the num-ber of increasing eye patients inthe country.

Col Tariq Usman, Director ofAl-Shifa community care oph-thalmology over 2000 patientswere referred to Al-Shifa Trusteye hospital Rawalpindi for sub-specialty clinics and furthercheckups.

This is the record highestnumber of patients treated infour month time span, headded.—APP

Bahria SpringFestival

2013 startsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Bahria Univer-sity Islamabad Campus has or-ganized a grand Spring Festival2013 for not only their own stu-dents but for the students fromother universities as well.

The objective of this festivalis to provide students with suchplatforms where they can exploretheir talents & skills, to have fun& enjoy to the fullest. This springfestival is taking place with thecollaboration of BACSAP, BUEvents Club, BU Music Society& IEEE.

Director of Bahria Univer-sity Islamabad Campus inaugu-rated the Spring Festival at open-ing ceremony.

During Festival, manyevents and competitions arrangedby the different clubs and societ-ies of the university.

From other universities,COMSATS, FAST & SZABISTparticipated in different compe-titions.

The Spring Festival 2013was attended by a large numberof students and faculty membersof Bahria University and willcontinues till 20th April, 2013.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The speakers at adialogue with the University Stu-dents, Friday, urged youth to fullyparticipate in the upcoming elec-tions as it is very vital tostrengthen democracy and for theprosperity of the county.

Dialogue with university stu-dent on “Importance of EffectiveParticipation of Youth in Election2013” was held at FAST NationalUniversity of Islamabad on Fri-day under the auspices of Centrefor Human Rights Education-Lahore which was participated bymale and female students of dif-ferent department.

Naseer Memon (Chief Ex-ecutive-Strengthening Partici-patory Organization), AdamMalik (Project Manager-Soci-ety for Alternate Media andResearch) and Samson Salamat(Director, Centre for HumanRights Education) were the pan-elists at this occasion.

Naseer Memon said that “thecountry’s better future is linkedwith democracy therefore youthshould understand and supportdemocracy, if youth want tobring change in country then theyshould fully participation in elec-tions. Educational institutesshould initiate debates to engagethe students and youth in the

politics. Just casting of vote is notpolitics but it is more importantto hold the public representativesaccountable”.

Naseer Memon criticized theZia and other dictatorship re-gimes because during their ten-ures the politics was portrayed assomething bad which effected theoverall political and democraticdiscourse of the country.

Samson Salamat (Director,Centre for Human Rights Educa-tion) said that “there are variousmisconceptions about democracyin our society but youth shouldunderstand that democracy is thebest possible way forward for bet-ter Pakistan.

Election-2013

Youth participationin elections urged

ISLAMABAD—Lack of roadlights on Islamabad Highwayfrom Karal Chowk to Rawat hasled to road accidents due to in-different attitude of CDA towardsinstallation of lights.

This is the busiest high wayas not only voluminous localtransport runs on the road but alsothe inter district transport pliesthereon round the clock. More-over thickly populated towns andhousing societies includingBahria Town, Korang town, Pa-kistan town, Police Foundation,PWD housing scheme, Mediatown, Gulberg, Ghauri town andJudicial town are located along-side both sides of this high wayand residents of these housingsocieties and towns use this high

way frequently being the onlydoorway to federal capital. .

The residents of these areashave to face difficulties in driv-ing their cars and vehicles be-ing this part of highway clampedin pitch darkness due to lack oflights.

Sources said that new roadlights were installed by CDA in2001 from Karal Chowk toRawat but the same were got re-moved in 2008 on the plea thatpopulation has expanded in thearea therefore, large size moderntype road lights will be installed.CDA invited tenders in this re-gard but later it was cancelled.CDA has not invited tendersagain despite lapse of more thanfive years.—Online

Road accidents onIslamabad Highway

CCTV camerasat pollingstations

RAWALPINDI—The City Dis-trict Government Rawalpindi(CDGR) has asked for funds ofRs2.3 million from the Punjabgovernment for the installationof CCTV cameras at sensitivepolling stations.

It may be noted that districtreturning officer had finalisedthe list of 93 polling stations andhad asked the CDGR to make ar-rangements for the installation ofCCTV cameras at those stations.

“Of the 2,110 polling sta-tions in the district, 59 inRawalpindi city, 15 in GujjarKhan, 10 in Wah Cantonmentand three each in Kahuta, KalarSyedian and Murree have beendeclared sensitive, as sectarianviolence or clash between politi-cal workers is expected there,”an official of CDGR said.—INP

Happiness does notcome from doing easy

work but from theafterglow of satisfac-tion that comes afterthe achievement of a

difficult task thatdemanded our best.

— Theodore IsaacRubin

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Textile exportsfrom the country grew by 7.09per cent during the first ninemonths of current fiscal year(2012-13) as against the sameperiod of last year.

The overall textile exportswere recorded at US$9.63 bil-lion during July-March (2012-13) against US$ 8.993 billionduring July-March (2011-12),according to data released byPakistan Bureau of Statistics(PBS) here Thursday.

The main contributor topositive growth of the textileexports was cotton yarn,whose export surged by 29.17per cent.

Other textile commoditiesthat witnessed positive growthincluded cotton cloth with 11.56per cent increase, yarn (otherthan cotton yarn) with 13.79 percent increase and knitwear by2.84 per cent.

During the period underreview, the export of towels in-creased by 18.11 per cent,tents, canvas and tarpaulin by30.89 per cent, readymade gar-ments by 10.27 per cent,madeup articles (excluding

Textile exports increaseby 7.09pc to $9.63b

towels and bedwear) by 6.31per cent, bedwear by 0.09 per-cent and other textile materi-als by 44.83 per cent.

The textile commoditiesthat witnessed negative growthduring the period under reviewincluded raw cotton, whose ex-ports shrunk by 65.07 per centand cotton carded or combed by93.86 per cent and synthetic tex-tile by 25.33 per cent.

Meanwhile, the textile ex-ports during March 2013 alsowitnessed a growth of 17.77 percent and 13.21 per cent whencompared to the exports of Feb-ruary 2013 and March 2012 re-spectively.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that the country’s tradedeficit decreased by 4.86 percent during the first nine monthsof the current fiscal year as ex-ports expanded by 5.36 per centand imports witnessed positivegrowth of 0.39 per cent.

The overall exports fromthe country increased from$17.1 billion in July-March2011-12 to US$ 18.02 billionduring July-March (2012-13),according to the data of Paki-stan Bureau of Statistics(PBS).

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The country re-quires a level playing field,where the ‘protected stake-holders’ are also taxed similarto a common man and there isa need for improving the taxregime.

There was a need for docu-mentation of economy and re-forms in the taxation system.

This was stressed byChairman of the TaxationCommittee of the Institute ofChartered Accountants of Pa-kistan (ICAP) Saqib Masood,here on Thursday evening.

President of ICAP, AhmadSaeed, Haroon Tabraze andMs. Badia Raza were also

ICAP stresses need for improving tax regimepresent on the occasion.

It was pointed out that ICAPbeing a leading national profes-sional body is committed towork for building a prosperoustax culture needed to achieve asustained growth.

ICAP’s strength is drawnfrom the expertise of its mem-bers having a world class quali-fication, knowledge and experi-ence. ICAP members, workingin every sector of the economy,add value to their organisationsand the national economythrough their positive contribu-tion, it was further pointed out.

Saqib emphasised that theperception of the tax burden isshared by every citizen of thecountry in an equitable way

must be the foremost objectiveto increase the tax base.

The final and fixed tax re-gimes were introduced decadesago as ad-hoc measure to sus-tain tax collection, but to com-pensate economic mismanage-ment and defective collectionsystem they had to be evolvedinto an important collection tool.

Saqib was of the view thatthese tax regimes, coupled withthe frequently deliberated ‘am-nesty schemes’ create negativeperception about the whole taxa-tion system in the eyes of thehonest tax payer.

The long term objective ofany tax policy must be to removethis perception at the earliest.Saqib maintained that provi-

sions are available in law whichgrant tax immunity to foreignremittances coming into thecountry.

He said that hard work andeffort put up by our countrymenin foreign lands is highly com-mendable, and the remittancesthey send to support their fami-lies in Pakistan are the backboneof the economy.

However, Saqib opined,these immunity provisions inunscrupulous hands lead to largescale tax evasion.

He stressed that such immu-nity should be available onlywhen a family member is send-ing foreign remittances, or re-mittances are sent for invest-ment in plant and machinery.

Saqib also explained thatdeveloped economies use taxrates to attract investments.Schemes to provide higher taxdepreciation and capital allow-ances are introduced in the yearsof recession, with the aim to stirup the economy.

Different jurisdictions re-duce corporate rates to attractcorporatisation, he said, addingthat similar measures are re-quired to be taken in Pakistan,and that ICAP has been advo-cating these recommendationsfor the last many years.

Saqib stressed that it is nowimperative that the country’s taxbase be broadened and ex-plained that it is not sustainablefor a country to collect substan-

tial junk from indirect taxeswhich is equally shared by acommon man.

He said that ICAP has beengiving various suggestions andrecommendations to broaden thetax base for the last many years,and is now proposing that everyperson should declare his/herNTN or CNIC number manda-torily while buying or sellingproperty and vehicles, or whenpaying membership dues ofclubs.

Saqib also highlighted thata tax collection mechanism col-lecting more than three-quartersof its revenue, is in itself a red-flag. The lower share of collec-tion through audit/investigationmeasures shows the ineffective-

ness of the assessment and au-dit mechanism prevalent at thedepartment.

He recalled that ICAP hadput a considerable effort a coupleof years ago to device a compre-hensive tax audit framework.

The framework was sharedwith the department with a viewto build their capacity, but un-fortunately, nothing crystallised.

Saqib briefed about specificissues faced by the tax payersand said that the tax rate dispar-ity introduced last year for highearners in the ‘Salary’ class istop on the list of public griev-ances. More than 80% of theactive tax payers belong to thoseearning income from salary; allbeing conscientious tax payers.

The rule of ‘progressive taxa-tion’ ensures that high earners payhigher taxes. However, the ratesprescribed in the previous yearwere not progressive in nature.

He said that delay in theavailability of the tax returnsare a constant irritant for thetax payers. The departmentshould finalise the return of theyear at least three months be-fore the due date, and ensurethat the returns are error free.

He emphasised that it is al-ways better to publicly exposea new document before mak-ing it mandatory for use. Thelast date for filing a tax returnfor a salaried person must alsobe aligned with that availableto a business.

ISLAMABAD—The SensitivePrice Indicator (SPI) for theweek ended on April 18 for thelowest income group up toRs.8,000 decreased by 0.54per cent as compared to theprevious week.

The SPI for the week un-der review in the above men-tioned group was recorded at185.78 points against 186.79points registered in the previ-ous week, according to provi-sional figures of Pakistan Bu-reau of Statistics (PBS).

The weekly SPI has beencomputed with base 20072008=100, covering 17 urbancenters and 53 essential itemsfor all income groups andcombined.

The SPI for the combinedgroup also decreased by 0.36

Weekly inflation decreases 0.54pcper cent as it went down from192.27 points in the previousweek to 191.58 points in theweek under review.

As compared to the corre-sponding week of last year, theSPI for the combined group inthe week under review wit-nessed increase of 3.92 per-cent.

As compared to the lastweek, the SPI for the incomegroups from Rs.8001 12,000,12,001 18,000, 18001 35,000and above Rs.35,000 decreasedby 0.45 percent, 0.41 percent,0.36 and 0.26 percent respec-tively.

During the week under re-view average prices of 14 itemsregistered decrease, while that of19 items increase with the re-maining 20 items’ prices un-

changed.The items which registered

decrease in their prices duringthe week under review in-cluded onions, egg hen (farm),wheat, LPG (11 kg cylinder),gram pulse (washed), chickenlive (farm), wheat flour (bag),bananas, red chillies (powder),potatoes, mustard oil, veg-etable ghee (loose), fire woodand kerosene oil.

The items which recordedincrease in their average pricesincluded tomatoes, georgette,tea, moong pulse (washed),gur, massor pulses (washed),salt powder, lawn, milk fresh,curd, mutton, garlic, mashpulse (washed), energy savor,sugar, beef, cooking oil (tin),rice basmati (broken) and riceirri-6.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Despite numer-ous challenges, the economy ofPakistan performed well in 2012as compared to 2011, UnitedNations said in its latest surveyreport.

“There was improved per-formance in 2012 despite nu-merous challenges, includingheavy rain and flooding insouthern parts of the country,increases in fuel and commod-ity prices, the global slowdownand weak capital inflows,” saysUN Economic and Social Sur-vey of Asia and the Pacific 2013.

According to the reportGDP grew by 3.7% in 2012 ascompared with 3% in 2011 andthe agricultural sector also per-formed better than in 2011.

Pakistan’s economy performedwell in 2012: UN report

As for manufacturing, itsperformance improved and theconstruction sector staged astrong recovery while highergrowth in the industrial sectoras a whole was achieved despiteshortages of electricity and natu-ral gas.

On the other hand, the ser-vices sector witnessed some-what slower growth, the surveyobserved. On the demand side,consumption, both private andpublic, grew at a higher rate in2012 but investment declined, itsaid adding as a result, invest-ment fell to 12.5% of GDP in2012 from 13.1% of GDP in2011.

Inflation in Pakistan wasbrought down from 13.7% in2011 to 11% in 2012 despite in-creases in international oil

prices, the effect of an upwardadjustment in the administeredprices of electricity and naturalgas, supply disruptions due toheavy rains and flooding in thesouthern part of the country andheavy bank borrowings.

The country achieved strongexport growth at 28% in 2011and value of total merchandiseexports reached $25 billion.Despite the crisis in the Eurozone, a major destination forPakistan’s exports, the countrycould maintain exports at nearlythe same level as in the previ-ous year.

Overseas workers’ remit-tances continued to grow andcrossed the $13 billion mark in2012. The growth rate in remit-tances over the past two yearsexceeded 45% partly due to gov-

ernment efforts to divert remit-tances from informal to formalchannels. These remittanceshave helped in containing thecurrent account deficit.

However, the report pointedthat the economy of Pakistan ispassing through a phase of lowgrowth, saying that the pro-tracted energy crisis and weakfiscal fundamentals are the mainreasons behind slow growth.

Similarly, the decliningtrend in private investment ex-penditures is continuing andwithout stemming the free fallin investment and addressing thechallenge of chronic energyshortages, growth cannot beimproved on a sustainable ba-sis. The report predicted GDPgrowth of the country at 3.5%in 2013.

Rates for conversionKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Cover onForeign Currency Deposits(excluding F.E. 25 deposits) bythe State Bank on April 22,2013. The rates are U.S.Dollar Rs 98.3575, JapaneseYen Rs 0.9908 Pound SterlingRs 150.9492 and Euro128.7598.—APP

Syed Mazhar Hussain, PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) Human Resourcereceiving souvenir from Ghalib Rizwi, President HR National Forum, for his participationin Panel Discussion on “Global Mobility with Organization”, held at National Institute ofBanking and Finance (NIBAF).

ISE-10 indexsheds 2.44

pointsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadStock Exchange witnessed abearish trend on Friday as theISE-10 index was down by 2.44points to close at 3426.64.

A total of 25,600 shareswere traded, which were downby 105,900 shares as comparedto previous day’s trading of131,500 shares.

Out of 133 companies, shareprices of 74 companies recordedincrease and those of 59 regis-tered decrease. No company re-mained stable.

The share price of SanofiAventis increased by Rs. 19.74,while that of Indus Motors de-creased by Rs. 2.75. Fauji Fer-tilizer Bin Qasim, Silk Bank andFatima Fertilizer remained thetop trading companies with15,000, 5,500 and 5,000 respec-tively.

Economic growthmeasuresTOKYO—Japan’s PrimeMinister was expectedFriday to unveil growthstrategies aimed at perkingup the economy, the lateststeps in a policy blitz thathas rallied stocks andboosted his popularity.Shinzo Abe will showcasehis plans in a major pressaddress as his controversialbig-spending, easy-moneypolicies—dubbed“Abenomics” have fuelledoptimism in an economy thathas struggled for twodecades. The address comesas Abe’s aides suggesteconomic reforms, includingsetting up special businessdistricts with loweredcorporate taxes and lighterregulation in a bid to attractforeign investors. Abe wasalso expected to discussemployment measures foryoung people and womensuch as expanding theavailability of day-careservices to broaden Japan’sshrinking labour market, hitby retiring babyboomers andfalling birthrate.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The NationalHighway Authority (NHA) hasattached top priority to developthe road linkages to the GwadarPort which can prove backboneof the country’s economy in thenear future.

An National Highway Au-thority official told media onFriday that road connectivitywith the Gwadar port was cru-cial for making it hub of transittrade between Pakistan, Af-ghanistan, Central Asian Repub-lics and China.

He said that the Governmenthas spent a total of Rs 13,527million on the construction oflink roads to Gwadar Port dur-ing past five years.

Giving details he said Rs3854 million had been spent onthe construction of N-10, N-85,and M-8 linking Gwadarwith rest of the country in 2008-9, Rs 3738 million in 2009-10,Rs 1946 million in 2010-11, Rs1630 million during 2011-12and 2359 million during 2012-13.

Gwadar link roadscompletion prioritised

He said Rs 1 billion has beenallocated for providing compre-hensive foolproof security andcreation of dedicated wing ofFrontier Constabulary for pro-viding security to contractorsand labour.

The National Highway Au-thority has planned the construc-tion of another 110 km longBasima-Khuzdar road (N-30)for providing connectivity toGwadar port.Moreover it hasplanned the construction ofseven roads for providing con-nectivity to Gwadar Port, hesaid.

Three roads have alreadybeen completed including 653km Lyari-Ormara-Gwadar-Gabd road (N-10). Another 35km section of M-8 fromKhuzdar- Khori road has alsobeen completed while Khori-Quba Saeed Khan road has beennearly completed.

About 25 percent of 467 kmlong Hoshab-Basima-Sorab (N-85) has also been completedwhile 196 km long Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab Highway hasbeen completed about 75 percent.

KARACHI: Muhammad Haroon Agar, President of the Chamber is presenting Chamber’screst to Syed Iqbal Haider Zaidi, Director General Operation South, Employees Old-AgeBenefit Institution (EOBI), his visit.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Twenty Paki-stani scholars received total of$ 410,000 worth of grants fromthe United States agency for In-ternational development(USAID) for research related togovernance, creative cities &regions energetic youth & com-munities and vibrant markets.

The twenty proposals wereselected from almost 200 re-search applicant received fromacross the country as well asabroad.

Deputy Chairman Planning

US to boost econo-agriresearch in Pakistan: USAID

commission Dr Nadeem ul Haq,Mission director USAID Paki-stan Jock Conly distributedawards among the scholars ingraceful ceremony.

Talking to the participants ofaward ceremony, USAID mis-sion director Jock Conly saidthat it is yet another example ofUS support for Pakistan’s devel-opment priorities. He said webelieve that this research willhelp lay foundations to thegrowth of Pakistan. The U.S andPakistan joint efforts in the fieldof economic growth energy andeducation will contribute to a

stronger brighter future for Pa-kistan.

Jock Conly said that USAIDis providing funds for researchpurposes to the scholars becausethey believe that good qualityresearch impacts on economicgrowth of any country and in-novations in the economic re-search are vital for growth.

Country Director said that toremove institutional barriers thisprogram would be helpful.Meanwhile, Deputy ChairmanPlanning commission DrNadeem ul Haq said that

Continued on Page 11

Energy shortfallStaff ReporterKARACHI—Shaheen IlyasSarwana, Acting President ofthe Federation of PakistanChambers of Commerce andIndustry (FPCCI) hasexpressed grave concern overthe worsening situation ofenergy in all parts of thecountry – in particular the cityof Karachi – with the onset ofsummer, and the resultingfallout on trade and industry.Sarwana noted that it is nosecret that Pakistan has beensuffering from a seriousenergy shortage over the pastfew years, which has inflictedcolossal damage on productionand business activitiesthroughout the country.However, in the past oneweek, the energy situation hadworsened visibly, which hasled to further problems for thebusiness community inmeeting export orders andfulfilling their trade commit-ments.

Punjabindustriessans gas

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Gas supply to indus-tries and CNG stations in Punjabremained suspended for fifthconsecutive day on Friday.

On Wednesday, two gaspipelines were blown up inBalochistan causing suspensionof gas supply to different areasin Punjab including Lahore.

Later on Thursday night,some unknown miscreants blewup Guddu Kashmore gas pipe-line, further increasing the gasshortfall to 700 mmcfd.

Resultantly, gas supply toPunjab industries and CNG sta-tions could not be restored. Accord-ing to SNGPL, gas supply will re-sume after repair work is done.

Satpara Power HouseNo. 3 starts

power generationRAO ATIQ UL AMIN KHAN

MIRPUR (AJK)—Power HouseNo. 3 of Satpara Dam Projectwith installed capacity of 2360kilowatt (KW) today has startedpower generation, officialsources said.

The under-construction PowerHouse No. 4 with an installed ca-pacity of 1400 KW is also sched-uled to go into operation by the endof this month, the WAPDA sourcestold media on Friday. With comple-tion of these two power houses,Satpara Dam Power Complex willattain the installed capacity of 17.36megawatt (MW). Power HouseNo. 3 and 4 utilise the water usedfor running the Power House No.2, as cascade system for electricitygeneration.

It may be mentioned thatPower House No. 1 and 2 ofSatpara Dam Project have beenin operation since October 2007and December 2008 respectively,and have contributed over 140million units of low-cost hydelelectricity providing muchneeded relief to the local popu-lace. Satpara Dam – the first-evermega water and power project inGilgit Baltistan - is located in thevicinity of Skardu town. Theproject consists of three compo-nents including a dam, irrigationsystem and a power complexcomprising four power houses.The dam was completed in July2010 and the irrigation system in2012.

The United States Agencyfor International Development(USAID) provided a grant of US$ 26 million to help completeSatpara Dam Project.

Asian sharespick up, dealers

eye G20 meetingHONG KONG—Asian marketsrose on Friday at the end of atough week for global equitiesand commodities as dealers keepan eye on a meeting of worldcentral bank and finance chiefsin Washington.

Investors seemed to brushoff a second straight loss on WallStreet, while gold prices climbedafter hitting two-year lows ear-lier in the week.

Tokyo rose 0.73 percent, or96.41 points, to 13,316.48,Seoul was 0.35 percent higher,adding 6.69 points to 1,906.75,while Sydney climbed 0.15 per-cent, or 7.5 points, to 4,931.9.

Hong Kong rose 2.33 percent,or 501.05 points, to 22,013.57 andShanghai jumped 2.14 percent, or47.04 points, to 2,244.64, withbargain hunting providing a lift.Shares were enjoying a brighterend to the week, which startedwith a sell-off after China releasedworse-than-forecast growth datathat raised concerns about thestrength of the world’s number-two economy.

At the G20 meeting in Wash-ington finishing Friday, Japan isexpected to try to reassure otherfinance ministers and central bankgovernors that it is not intention-ally weakening its yen with recenteasing measures.—APP

Gold Tezab 46714.00Silver Tezabi 814.28

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 50420.00Gold 22 Ct 46010.00SilverTezabi 895.00Silver Thobi 815.00

USA 98.20 98.00

UK 151.22 150.92

EURO 128.80 128.54

Canada 97.24 97.04

Switzerland 105.67 105.45

Australia 103.65 103.43

Sweden 15.49 15.45

Japan 0.9871 0.9851

Norway 17.22 17.19

Singapore 79.36 79.20

Denmark 17.27 17.24

Omani Riyal 255.00 245.00

Saudi Arabia 26.19 26.13

Hong Kong 12.65 12.63

Kuwait 344.56 343.86

Malaysia 32.35 32.28

Newzeland 84.79 84.61

Qatar 26.97 26.92

UAE 26.74 26.68

KR WON 0.0868 0.0867

Thailand 3.382 3.375

Lufthansa mullslegal actionagainst new

strike warningFRANKFURT—German air-line Lufthansa said Friday itis considering taking legalaction against a further dayof walkouts in an escalatingpay dispute that threatens todisrupt air travel across Ger-many next week.

“We’re examiningwhether to take legal steps asthe strike action is not awarning strike, but an all-outstrike which will probablycost us double-digit millionsof euros,” Lufthansa spokes-woman Claudia Lange toldAFP.

Board member StefanLauer slammed the union’smove as “absurd.” “A 24-hour strike is effectively anall-out strike and given theprogress made in negotia-tions, a totally over-the-topreaction,” Lauer fumed.

The board member saidit was “intolerable just howfrequently and callously thevarious unions inflict dam-age on the air traffic sectorand on our company. It ishigh time that policy makerssee the need for new rules inlabour disputes,” he said.

Earlier the giant servicessector union Verdi had calledfor a full day of walkouts onMonday after managementfailed to come up with up anacceptable pay offer afterthree rounds of talks. The callcomes a month afterLufthansa was forced to can-cel nearly 700 out of a total1,800 flights due to half a dayof warnings strikes.

The union complainedthat the offer tabled by man-agement represented an in-crease of 0.4-0.6 percent overa period of 12 months. ButVerdi is demanding a 5.2-percent pay increase for33,000 Lufthansa groundstaff, plus employees of thesubsidiaries Lufthansa-Sys-tems, Lufthansa ServiceGroup (LSG), LufthansaTechnik and LufthansaCargo, as well as those cabincrew members who are Verdimembers.

Lufthansa rejected theunion’s interpretation ofmanagement’s offer, insist-ing that staff of LufthansaTechnik would get an in-crease of 2.3 percent overtwo stages, staff atLufthansa Cargo andLufthansa Systems wouldreceive 2.1 percent and em-ployees at the main com-pany 1.7 percent.

In addition, Germanground staff would receive aone-off payment of 1.0 per-cent of their annual wage ifLufthansa’s operating mar-gin reached 3.0 percent in2014. And for the periodfrom February to September,employees would receive aone-off payment of 400 eu-ros.

Lufthansa complainedthat the timing of the warn-ing strike was “incomprehen-sible.” “Four new dates fornegotiations have beenagreed. And we tabled an of-fer on Wednesday,” spokes-woman Lange said.—Agen-cies

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Azerbaijan iskeen to further enhance its bi-lateral, economic and commer-cial relations with Pakistan withspecial focus on improving thedeteriorating energy situation ofthe country.

“Azerbaijan has expertise inenergy sector, having huge hydelpower plants as well as exper-tise in exploration of oil and gassector, therefore, both the coun-tries could cooperate in theseareas to further enhance theirbilateral relations,” Ambassadorof Azerbaijan in Pakistan,Dashgin Shikarov said in ameeting with office bearers ofIslamabad Chamber of Com-merce & Industry (ICCI) hereFriday.

Azerbaijan to helpresolve Pak energy crisis

The Ambassador informedthe ICCI members thatAzerbaijan would increase itsairline fleets by 2014 to estab-lish direct air-link betweenIslamabad and Baku whichwould bring people of the twocountries closer to each other.

He also underlined the needfor establishing Pak-AzerbaijanBusiness Forum and invitedICCI’s delegation to visitAzerbaijan that would open newavenues of cooperation.

Dashgin said that construc-tion sector is one of the fastestgrowing areas of Azerbaijan’seconomy as it is in process ofconstructing huge buildings anda new island that provide invest-ment opportunity of about $130billion.

He said that the two coun-

tries also have a potential of jointventures in pharmaceutical, ag-riculture and manufacturing sec-tor. Speaking on the occasion,ICCI President, ZafarBakhtawari said that both thecountries must ensure liberalvisa policy to enable the busi-nessmen get visa easily and meeteach other, which is imperativeto boost trade between the twocountries as there is enough po-tential in various fields betweenthe two countries to increasetrade.

ICCI President informed theAmbassador that ICCI plans tohost a meeting of ECO CapitalChambers Conference inIslamabad with the aim to pro-mote mutually beneficial rela-tion between Pakistan and ECOcountries.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Federation of Pa-kistan Chamber of Commerceand Industry (FPCCI) an apexbody Friday demanded fortotal exemption from powerand gas loadshedding tostrengthen the bleak nationaleconomy besides saving theindustrial and agricultural sec-tors from irreparable loss.

The newly elected Presi-dent FPCCI, Zubair Ahmad

FPCCI urges exemption from gas, power loadsheddingMalik and VP SAARC Cham-ber of Commerce and IndustryIftikhar Ali Malik in a joint state-ment expressing serious concernon massive loadshedding de-manded that government, inlarger national interest, ought toaccord top priority to industrialand agricultural sectors over do-mestic and commercial sector.

They said round the clockpower and gas supply withoutany interruption throughout theyear will accelerate economic

growth and meet export targetstimely besides bumper crops.

They said that world over,in all developed and moderncountries always, in case ofshort of gas and power, attachedgreat importance to industrialand agricultural sector than do-mestic consumers.

They said that survival ofthe all countries always rely onsound economy, hence it is in thegreater national interest thatgovernment should reshape its

policy of load shedding to pro-vide a chance to industry toflourish and save millions ofdaily wagers from job.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said un-precedented loadsheddingwould hamper the industrialproduction in the country andlead to cut in export orders. Hesaid that the industry was al-ready facing acute energy cri-sis and the frequent increase inpetroleum prices squeezes li-quidity. The high power, gas

and petroleum tariffs had cre-ated liquidity crunch for im-porters of industrial raw mate-rials, he added.

He said that industry, liketextile, cement, pharmaceuticaland other continue to brave fromexceptionally long durationloadshedding, mostly unan-nounced outages and industrialproduction has nosedived be-sides rendering millions of dailywagers jobless in addition tocausing billions of rupees loss

to national exchequer in theshape of taxation.

He said that industry badlyneeded at least eight hours ofregular supply to complete theprocess otherwise it will con-tinue to cause considerably fi-nancial loss to the already sickindustry.

He said that absence of gasand power would burden the in-dustrial sector and “All thesefactors are increasing the costof doing business”, he added.

SINGAPORE—Oil was up inAsia on Friday on market specu-lation the OPEC cartel wouldcut output ahead of a meetingnext month to stop Brent crudeprices—which remained below$100 a barrel—from falling fur-ther. New York’s main contract,light sweet crude for delivery inMay added 43 cents to $88.16 abarrel.

Brent North Sea crude forJune delivery gained 30 cents to$99.43 but still below the psy-chological threshold of $100 abarrel.

“There are rumours thatOPEC may call for an emer-gency meeting to discuss outputif Brent prices stay below $100a barrel,” Ker Chung Yang, se-nior investment analyst atPhillip Futures in Singapore,told AFP.

“This is boosting oil pricesin the near term.”

Brent prices had hit a multi-

Oil up in Asian trademonth lows this week as pooreconomic data from China andthe United States left dealersconcerned about the strength ofglobal economic recovery.

The Organisation of Petro-leum Exporting Countries(OPEC) earlier this month keptits world oil demand forecastsfor 2012 and 2013 virtually un-changed, with China expected tocontribute the most to growthwhile industrialised countriesappeared to be headed for a de-cline.

Sanctions-hit Iran, OPEC’sfourth largest producer, said onWednesday that it considers the“logical” price of crude to bearound $100 to $120 a barrel.

Analysts said the $100 pricefor Brent is considered ideal bySaudi Arabia, the world’s top oilexporter, and crossing below itcould prompt the oil cartel’smembers to cut back on produc-tion.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Warid Telecom,leading innovator in Pakistan’stelecom industry, has launchedits unlimited Facebook bundleoffer. Access Facebook out ofthe box. No need to downloadany third party applications orfiddling with your mobile set-tings. It’s as easy as sendingan SMS and the entireFacebook world is at yourdoorstep. The UnlimitedFacebook Bundle offer is freefor all Warid Prepaid andGLOW customers till the 30thof April 2013.

This offer has been devel-oped to cater to the ever increas-ing need of Pakistan’s youth tocarry their social life in their

Warid offers unlimitedfacebook bundle

pocket and stay connected witheveryone, no matter the distance.

Warid Prepaid and GLOWcustomers can subscribe to thisoffer by sending FB in an SMS to7777 (For tariff details visit http://www.waridtel .com/products/facebook-bundle.php). UnlimitedFacebook subscribers can updatetheir status, view News Feed, likeand comment on posts, send andreply to messages, write on theirfriends’ Walls, view and sharephotos and videos and much more.The Unlimited Facebook offerwill also allow subscribers to stayconnected with their FacebookContacts via the FacebookMessenger.

Postpaid subscribers wouldbe able to subscribe to Unlim-ited Facebook from the 1st ofMay 2013.

FFC donateRs25m to SKMT

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Fauji FertilizerCompany Limited has donatedRs. 25 million for the construc-tion of Radiation Department ofShaukat Khanum Cancer Hos-pital and Research Center,Peshawar it includes Rs. 5 mil-lion for the construction of wait-ing area and Rs. 20 million forRadiation Department on 18thApril 2013.

This initiative by FFC is partof its commitment for the upliftand support of underprivilegedand deserving communities inPakistan through its CSR pro-gram which provides assistancein education, health care, pov-erty alleviation, disaster relief /rehab, environmental protectionand sports promotion.

ISLAMABAD: Brig Munawar Hayat Khan Niazi (Retd) of FFC presenting cheque of Rs20million to Rizwan Baig, SKMT for construction of Radiology Department at SKMCHPeshawar.

AMISP issuescommodities

ratesLAHORE—Agriculture Market-ing Information Service Punjab(AMISP) issued rates of agricul-ture products in local market onFriday.

As per details, following arethe per 100 kg rates of differentagriculture products in Lahoremarket:

Maize minimum Rs 2400and maximum 2700, Rice SuperBasmati (New) minimum Rs9500 and maximum Rs 10000,Rice Basmati (old) minimum Rs11000 and maximum Rs 12000,white sugar minimum Rs 5160and maximum Rs 5160, whitegram (local) minimum Rs 8000and maximum Rs 8000, RedChili Whole (Dry) minimum Rs11750 maximum Rs 13000,Cauliflower minimum Rs 1000and maximum Rs 1400, Onionminimum Rs 2600 and maxi-mum Rs 3200, Tomato mini-mum Rs 3600 and maximum Rs4200, Ginger (china) minimumRs 10000 and maximum Rs10500, Peas minimum Rs 5000and maximum Rs 5500, Brinjalminimum Rs 1600 and maxi-mum Rs 2000, Potato Freshminimum Rs 1000 and maxi-mum Rs 1100, Apple Kala Kullu(Pahari) minimum Rs 8000 andmaximum Rs 9000, Banana(Dozen) minimum Rs 44 andmaximum Rs 50.—APP

Saleema Hashmito inaugurateexpo on 20th

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Tourism Devel-opment Corporation of Punjab(TDCP) in collaboration withLahore International Expo isorganizing “Lahore Interna-tional Tourism (LITE-2013)”expo on April 20-21 at ExpoCentre, Johar Town.

Minister for TourismSaleema Hashmi will inauguratethe expo (LITE).

LITE-2013 will provide aplatform to the tourism- re-lated industry and potentialclients to interact with eachother. This will help to widenmarketing scope for the indus-try and expand the business.More than 150 local and inter-national brands are likely toparticipate.

International athlete ChrisPfeiffer German Stunt-Bikerwill also do a show at the site.

Seen in the picture are Kamran Y Mirza, CEO Pakistan Business Council, Ali S Habib(former Chairman PBC), Sikandar Mustafa Khan, Chairman PBC and Bashir AliMohammad (Vice Chairman PBC) and Abdul Razak Dawood (founder Chairman PBC).

Juniorentrepreneurs’

exhibition beginsin WBDC

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—A two-day Gen-Y‘ Junior Entrepreneurs Exhibi-tion’ began here in the displaycentre of Women Business De-velopment Center Peshawar(WBDCP) on Friday.

The exhibition specific forgirls of age group 10 to 18 years,which remain continue for twodays April 19-20, 2013 was inau-gurated by Dr. MohammadYousaf Sarwar Mohmand, Presi-dent Khyber Pakhtukhwa Cham-ber of Commerce and Industries.

This initiative has been espe-cially designed to instill the con-cept of entrepreneurship amongthese junior entrepreneurs and toaware them for considering entre-preneurship as a career optionwhich will lead to job creation forthemselves and other members ofthe society.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Vice Chancellor ofMuhammad Ali Jinnah Univer-sity, Dr Abdul Wahab, has saidthat about 80 percent of employ-ment can be generated throughmicrofinance system.

The people of Pakistan havegreat hopes with themicrofinance. He was speakingat a seminar organised by theDepartment of Business Admin-istration of Sindh MadressatulIslam University (SMIU) on‘Concepts and Practices ofMicrofinance in Pakistan’ at itsauditorium.

Dr. Abdul Wahab said thatfor the first time microfinanceloans were introduced by Gen-eral Ayub Khan, with an amountof Rs 60 million, however allthis amount was not properlyutilised by the bank employees.

He suggested that the peoplecan progress financially by iden-

Microfinance system to generatenew employment opportunities

tifying their needs at first.‘Before the practice the

needs of the society should bekept in mind’, he said and addedthat first of all there should bean idea, then a person shouldmove forward.

Dr. Wahab gave numerousexamples of successful businesspersons of the world who startedtheir business from a small in-vestment.

Dr. Abdul Wahab also ap-preciated services of Vice Chan-cellor of SMIU Dr. MohammadAli Shaikh. Vice Chancellor ofSMIU Dr. Mohammad AliShaikh, in his speech said that alarge number of common mencan benefit from microfinanceloans.

He said it can empower poorpeople and can help in povertyalleviation. He also lauded ser-vices of Dr. Abdul Wahab andDr. Abuzar Wajidi, rendered forthe quality education of our

young generation.Dr. Mohammad Ali Shaikh

announced Rs 1,000 for eachstudent who participated in theseminar for purchase of books.Dr Abuzar Wajidi, Dean, Fac-ulty of Management and Admin-istrative Sciences, University ofKarachi said that microfinanceis a tool of social change.

Hence, especially 80 per-cent of our rural population canresolve their financial problemsby getting loans to start smallbusiness.

Earlier, Dr. Mehboob-ul-Hassan, Dean of the Departmentof Business Administration wel-comed the guests and SMIU stu-dents including Ahsen Habib,Uroosa Khurshid, Wasif AliShar, Naheed Akhtar,Muhammad Talha, SummerKhalid, Shahbaz Khan, AreebaBaig, Ghufrana Akber andGhulam Mustafa delivered theirspeeches.

KARACHI: Group photograph of Tahir Ahmed Chairman Insurance Association of Paki-stan, Ayaz Hussain Chairman Insurance Institute, Abdullah Hasan Ali CEO EFU and Ms.Farzana on the occasion of World Insurance Day at KPC.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI—The President AlTuwairqi Steel Mills Limitedalong with his team visitedNational Bank of Pakistan tofelicitate on the successful op-eration of Tuwairiqi SteelMills Limited (TSML), WithNBP’s support and trust ,TSML has been able to turnits vision into reality saidPresident TSML.

TSML has an operatingcapacity to produce 1.28 Mil-lion tons of high quality DRIper annum, TSML is the larg-est private sector integratediron & steel manufacturingproject in Pakistan. TheProject is a joint venture be-tween AL TUWAIRIQIHOLDING of Saudi Arabiaand steel giants POSCO ofSouth Korea, who are theworld’s third largest steelmakers by market value andAsia’s most profitable steelmaker. This has also paved theway for foreign investmentsin Pakistan from not only theMiddle East but also otherAsian economic multination-als.

Al-Tuwairqi groupvisits NBP head office

NBP is a prominent sup-portive force in this entireproject, offering Project fi-nancing and Working capitalfacilities to TSML in excessof USD 100 Million, makingNBP one of the largest indi-vidual contributors to theproject. This has resulted in afully integrated and state ofthe art steel plant which isable to cater not only to steelneeds of the local market, butalso to international marketswhere TSML will export itsvalue-added products. We be-lieve that with continuing sup-port from NBP and other syn-dicate participants, the projectwill add significant value toour economy in terms of in-creasing foreign exchange re-serves and reducing thecountry’s reliance on imports.

President NBP Dr.AsifA.Brohi congratulated CEOTSML & POSCO and wishedthem for growing relationshipwith them in Pakistan, SaudiArabia, South Korea, USAand other international mar-kets.—NNI

FPCCI teamoff to NepalSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—A High powereddelegation from Federation ofPakistan Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (FPCCI) hasleft for Nepal to attend the 57thExecutive Committee Meetingand the 18th General Assemblyof the SAARC Chamber ofCommerce and Industry(SAARC CCI) on April 20-21at Kathmandu.

The delegation comprising12 Members from Pakistan un-der the leadership of Mr. TariqSayeed, Vice President,CACCI, Founder and formerPresident, SAARC CCI, formerPresident, FPCCI and Patron –in- Chief Pak – China BusinessCouncil, FPCCI, Mr. ZubairAhmed Malik, President,FPCCI, Mr. Iftikhar Ali Malik,Vice President, SAARC CCIand former President, FPCCI,Mr. Haroon Rashid, Mr. FazalIlahi, Mr. Hameed AkhterChadda and Engineer AbdulJabbar Memon, Former VicePresidents FPCCI, Mr. ZahidMaqbool, Mian MahmoodAhmed. It is notable thatSAARC Chamber of Com-merce and Industry comprisesAfghanistan, Bangladesh,Bhutan, India, Maldives,Nepal, Pakistan and Srilankaand its headquartered is atIslamabad.

USAID assistance will enablethe Pakistan to modernize itspolicy formulation by improv-ing research based policy analy-sis; building capacity and leadership. This program will createa favorable environment for in-vestment and enterprise growth.

Dr Nadeem Ul Haq said thatgovernment of Pakistan does notprovide funds for research ac-tivities although research has itsimportance but it is very unfor-tunate that our government is notready to invest in research. Hesaid that we are facing hugelosses in the energy sector butno one bothered to identify whatare the reasons behind theselosses.

Dr Nadeem said that econo-

mies of developed countries es-pecially U.S are research baseseconomies. Unless we will notinvest in research we will not beable to get economic growth andbottom of all is through compe-tition and research.

Deputy Chairman planningcommission said that buildingnetworks of all fields is alsoimportant as through buildingnetwork we will be able to ex-change ideas and move forward.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that research scholarshipsare awarded under the USAIDfunded Pakistan strategy supportprogram administered by theInternational food policy re-search Institute and this programis working to modernize policy.

US to boostFrom Page 10

Greek NationalBank postpones

capital planATHENS—Greece’s NationalBank (NBG), the country’s big-gest, was forced to postpone avote on its 9.75 billion-euro($12.7 billion) recapitalisationplan on Friday after too fewshareholders turned up.

NBG will now hold a sec-ond attempt on April 24 and seekagreement from 50 percentrather than 66.6 percent ofshareholders.

Hard hit by the country’ssovereign debt writedown andrelated bad loans, NBG needsapproval to undertake a shareoffering worth up to 9.756 bil-lion and issue up to 1.9 billioneuros of contingent convertiblebonds in order to raise capital.

It also plans to reduce thenumber of its outstanding sharesvia a 10-for-1 reverse split.Greece’s four major banks includ-ing NBG need 27.5 billion eurosin fresh funds to restore their sol-vency ratios to levels required bythe country’s central bank.

Most of the funds will beprovided by a state bank supportfund the Hellenic Financial Sta-bility Fund (HFSF) in exchangefor new shares or contingentconvertible bonds (CoCos).

CoCos will be issued exclu-sively to the HFSF rescue fundand Greek banks plan to resortto them if less than 10 percentof their rights offerings is takenup by private investors.

Under the terms of therecapitalisation plan agreed withthe country’s international lenders,at least 10 percent of banks’ newcommon equity must be raisedfrom the private sector for them tostay privately run.—Agencies

Google forbidsresale or loan ofGoogle Glasses

KARACHI—Google’s terms ofservice for its highly-awaitedtechnological eyewear prohibitprospective buyers from resell-ing or loaning the gadget.

The rulebook states: “youmay not resell, loan, transfer, orgive your device to any otherperson. If you resell, loan, trans-fer, or give your device to anyother person without Google’sauthorization, Google reservesthe right to deactivate the device,and neither you nor the unautho-rized person using the device willbe entitled to any refund, prod-uct support, or product warranty.”

However; if you are one ofthe lucky few who have receivedconfirmation for your order ofGoogle Glass, then you “may givethe device as a gift” although thesame terms and conditions applyto recipients of Glass as a gift.

This means you cannot becompletely in control of theproduct even once you own it.Anonymous for the sake of pri-vacy, a person who had receiveda Twitter post from Google con-firming his order.

Gold Tezab 46714.00Silver Tezabi 814.28

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 50420.00Gold 22 Ct 46010.00SilverTezabi 895.00Silver Thobi 815.00

USA 98.30 98.10

UK 150.34 150.03

EURO 128.45 128.19

Canada 95.92 95.73

Switzerland 105.53 105.31

Australia 101.40 101.20

Sweden 15.07 15.04

Japan 0.9984 0.9963

Norway 16.90 16.87

Singapore 79.59 79.42

Denmark 17.23 17.19

Omani Riyal 255.00 245.00

Saudi Arabia 26.21 26.16

Hong Kong 12.66 12.64

Kuwait 345.07 344.37

Malaysia 32.37 32.30

Newzeland 82.89 82.72

Qatar 27.00 26.94

UAE 26.76 26.71

KR WON 0.0880 0.0878

Thailand 3.423 3.416

Lufthansa mullslegal actionagainst new

strike warningFRANKFURT—German air-line Lufthansa said Friday itis considering taking legalaction against a further dayof walkouts in an escalatingpay dispute that threatens todisrupt air travel across Ger-many next week.

“We’re examiningwhether to take legal steps asthe strike action is not awarning strike, but an all-outstrike which will probablycost us double-digit millionsof euros,” Lufthansa spokes-woman Claudia Lange toldAFP.

Board member StefanLauer slammed the union’smove as “absurd.” “A 24-hour strike is effectively anall-out strike and given theprogress made in negotia-tions, a totally over-the-topreaction,” Lauer fumed.

The board member saidit was “intolerable just howfrequently and callously thevarious unions inflict dam-age on the air traffic sectorand on our company. It ishigh time that policy makerssee the need for new rules inlabour disputes,” he said.

Earlier the giant servicessector union Verdi had calledfor a full day of walkouts onMonday after managementfailed to come up with up anacceptable pay offer afterthree rounds of talks. The callcomes a month afterLufthansa was forced to can-cel nearly 700 out of a total1,800 flights due to half a dayof warnings strikes.

The union complainedthat the offer tabled by man-agement represented an in-crease of 0.4-0.6 percent overa period of 12 months. ButVerdi is demanding a 5.2-percent pay increase for33,000 Lufthansa groundstaff, plus employees of thesubsidiaries Lufthansa-Sys-tems, Lufthansa ServiceGroup (LSG), LufthansaTechnik and LufthansaCargo, as well as those cabincrew members who are Verdimembers.

Lufthansa rejected theunion’s interpretation ofmanagement’s offer, insist-ing that staff of LufthansaTechnik would get an in-crease of 2.3 percent overtwo stages, staff atLufthansa Cargo andLufthansa Systems wouldreceive 2.1 percent and em-ployees at the main com-pany 1.7 percent.

In addition, Germanground staff would receive aone-off payment of 1.0 per-cent of their annual wage ifLufthansa’s operating mar-gin reached 3.0 percent in2014. And for the periodfrom February to September,employees would receive aone-off payment of 400 eu-ros.

Lufthansa complainedthat the timing of the warn-ing strike was “incomprehen-sible.” “Four new dates fornegotiations have beenagreed. And we tabled an of-fer on Wednesday,” spokes-woman Lange said.—Agen-cies

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Azerbaijan iskeen to further enhance its bi-lateral, economic and commer-cial relations with Pakistan withspecial focus on improving thedeteriorating energy situation ofthe country.

“Azerbaijan has expertise inenergy sector, having huge hydelpower plants as well as exper-tise in exploration of oil and gassector, therefore, both the coun-tries could cooperate in theseareas to further enhance theirbilateral relations,” Ambassadorof Azerbaijan in Pakistan,Dashgin Shikarov said in ameeting with office bearers ofIslamabad Chamber of Com-merce & Industry (ICCI) hereFriday.

Azerbaijan to helpresolve Pak energy crisis

The Ambassador informedthe ICCI members thatAzerbaijan would increase itsairline fleets by 2014 to estab-lish direct air-link betweenIslamabad and Baku whichwould bring people of the twocountries closer to each other.

He also underlined the needfor establishing Pak-AzerbaijanBusiness Forum and invitedICCI’s delegation to visitAzerbaijan that would open newavenues of cooperation.

Dashgin said that construc-tion sector is one of the fastestgrowing areas of Azerbaijan’seconomy as it is in process ofconstructing huge buildings anda new island that provide invest-ment opportunity of about $130billion.

He said that the two coun-

tries also have a potential of jointventures in pharmaceutical, ag-riculture and manufacturing sec-tor. Speaking on the occasion,ICCI President, ZafarBakhtawari said that both thecountries must ensure liberalvisa policy to enable the busi-nessmen get visa easily and meeteach other, which is imperativeto boost trade between the twocountries as there is enough po-tential in various fields betweenthe two countries to increasetrade.

ICCI President informed theAmbassador that ICCI plans tohost a meeting of ECO CapitalChambers Conference inIslamabad with the aim to pro-mote mutually beneficial rela-tion between Pakistan and ECOcountries.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Federation of Pa-kistan Chamber of Commerceand Industry (FPCCI) an apexbody Friday demanded fortotal exemption from powerand gas loadshedding tostrengthen the bleak nationaleconomy besides saving theindustrial and agricultural sec-tors from irreparable loss.

The newly elected Presi-dent FPCCI, Zubair Ahmad

FPCCI urges exemption from gas, power loadsheddingMalik and VP SAARC Cham-ber of Commerce and IndustryIftikhar Ali Malik in a joint state-ment expressing serious concernon massive loadshedding de-manded that government, inlarger national interest, ought toaccord top priority to industrialand agricultural sectors over do-mestic and commercial sector.

They said round the clockpower and gas supply withoutany interruption throughout theyear will accelerate economic

growth and meet export targetstimely besides bumper crops.

They said that world over,in all developed and moderncountries always, in case ofshort of gas and power, attachedgreat importance to industrialand agricultural sector than do-mestic consumers.

They said that survival ofthe all countries always rely onsound economy, hence it is in thegreater national interest thatgovernment should reshape its

policy of load shedding to pro-vide a chance to industry toflourish and save millions ofdaily wagers from job.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said un-precedented loadsheddingwould hamper the industrialproduction in the country andlead to cut in export orders. Hesaid that the industry was al-ready facing acute energy cri-sis and the frequent increase inpetroleum prices squeezes li-quidity. The high power, gas

and petroleum tariffs had cre-ated liquidity crunch for im-porters of industrial raw mate-rials, he added.

He said that industry, liketextile, cement, pharmaceuticaland other continue to brave fromexceptionally long durationloadshedding, mostly unan-nounced outages and industrialproduction has nosedived be-sides rendering millions of dailywagers jobless in addition tocausing billions of rupees loss

to national exchequer in theshape of taxation.

He said that industry badlyneeded at least eight hours ofregular supply to complete theprocess otherwise it will con-tinue to cause considerably fi-nancial loss to the already sickindustry.

He said that absence of gasand power would burden the in-dustrial sector and “All thesefactors are increasing the costof doing business”, he added.

SINGAPORE—Oil was up inAsia on Friday on market specu-lation the OPEC cartel wouldcut output ahead of a meetingnext month to stop Brent crudeprices—which remained below$100 a barrel—from falling fur-ther. New York’s main contract,light sweet crude for delivery inMay added 43 cents to $88.16 abarrel.

Brent North Sea crude forJune delivery gained 30 cents to$99.43 but still below the psy-chological threshold of $100 abarrel.

“There are rumours thatOPEC may call for an emer-gency meeting to discuss outputif Brent prices stay below $100a barrel,” Ker Chung Yang, se-nior investment analyst atPhillip Futures in Singapore,told AFP.

“This is boosting oil pricesin the near term.”

Brent prices had hit a multi-

Oil up in Asian trademonth lows this week as pooreconomic data from China andthe United States left dealersconcerned about the strength ofglobal economic recovery.

The Organisation of Petro-leum Exporting Countries(OPEC) earlier this month keptits world oil demand forecastsfor 2012 and 2013 virtually un-changed, with China expected tocontribute the most to growthwhile industrialised countriesappeared to be headed for a de-cline.

Sanctions-hit Iran, OPEC’sfourth largest producer, said onWednesday that it considers the“logical” price of crude to bearound $100 to $120 a barrel.

Analysts said the $100 pricefor Brent is considered ideal bySaudi Arabia, the world’s top oilexporter, and crossing below itcould prompt the oil cartel’smembers to cut back on produc-tion.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Warid Telecom,leading innovator in Pakistan’stelecom industry, has launchedits unlimited Facebook bundleoffer. Access Facebook out ofthe box. No need to downloadany third party applications orfiddling with your mobile set-tings. It’s as easy as sendingan SMS and the entireFacebook world is at yourdoorstep. The UnlimitedFacebook Bundle offer is freefor all Warid Prepaid andGLOW customers till the 30thof April 2013.

This offer has been devel-oped to cater to the ever increas-ing need of Pakistan’s youth tocarry their social life in their

Warid offers unlimitedfacebook bundle

pocket and stay connected witheveryone, no matter the distance.

Warid Prepaid and GLOWcustomers can subscribe to thisoffer by sending FB in an SMS to7777 (For tariff details visit http://www.waridtel .com/products/facebook-bundle.php). UnlimitedFacebook subscribers can updatetheir status, view News Feed, likeand comment on posts, send andreply to messages, write on theirfriends’ Walls, view and sharephotos and videos and much more.The Unlimited Facebook offerwill also allow subscribers to stayconnected with their FacebookContacts via the FacebookMessenger.

Postpaid subscribers wouldbe able to subscribe to Unlim-ited Facebook from the 1st ofMay 2013.

FFC donateRs25m to SKMT

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Fauji FertilizerCompany Limited has donatedRs. 25 million for the construc-tion of Radiation Department ofShaukat Khanum Cancer Hos-pital and Research Center,Peshawar it includes Rs. 5 mil-lion for the construction of wait-ing area and Rs. 20 million forRadiation Department on 18thApril 2013.

This initiative by FFC is partof its commitment for the upliftand support of underprivilegedand deserving communities inPakistan through its CSR pro-gram which provides assistancein education, health care, pov-erty alleviation, disaster relief /rehab, environmental protectionand sports promotion.

ISLAMABAD: Brig Munawar Hayat Khan Niazi (Retd) of FFC presenting cheque of Rs20million to Rizwan Baig, SKMT for construction of Radiology Department at SKMCHPeshawar.

AMISP issuescommodities

ratesLAHORE—Agriculture Market-ing Information Service Punjab(AMISP) issued rates of agricul-ture products in local market onFriday.

As per details, following arethe per 100 kg rates of differentagriculture products in Lahoremarket:

Maize minimum Rs 2400and maximum 2700, Rice SuperBasmati (New) minimum Rs9500 and maximum Rs 10000,Rice Basmati (old) minimum Rs11000 and maximum Rs 12000,white sugar minimum Rs 5160and maximum Rs 5160, whitegram (local) minimum Rs 8000and maximum Rs 8000, RedChili Whole (Dry) minimum Rs11750 maximum Rs 13000,Cauliflower minimum Rs 1000and maximum Rs 1400, Onionminimum Rs 2600 and maxi-mum Rs 3200, Tomato mini-mum Rs 3600 and maximum Rs4200, Ginger (china) minimumRs 10000 and maximum Rs10500, Peas minimum Rs 5000and maximum Rs 5500, Brinjalminimum Rs 1600 and maxi-mum Rs 2000, Potato Freshminimum Rs 1000 and maxi-mum Rs 1100, Apple Kala Kullu(Pahari) minimum Rs 8000 andmaximum Rs 9000, Banana(Dozen) minimum Rs 44 andmaximum Rs 50.—APP

Saleema Hashmito inaugurateexpo on 20th

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Tourism Devel-opment Corporation of Punjab(TDCP) in collaboration withLahore International Expo isorganizing “Lahore Interna-tional Tourism (LITE-2013)”expo on April 20-21 at ExpoCentre, Johar Town.

Minister for TourismSaleema Hashmi will inauguratethe expo (LITE).

LITE-2013 will provide aplatform to the tourism- re-lated industry and potentialclients to interact with eachother. This will help to widenmarketing scope for the indus-try and expand the business.More than 150 local and inter-national brands are likely toparticipate.

International athlete ChrisPfeiffer German Stunt-Bikerwill also do a show at the site.

Seen in the picture are Kamran Y Mirza, CEO Pakistan Business Council, Ali S Habib(former Chairman PBC), Sikandar Mustafa Khan, Chairman PBC and Bashir AliMohammad (Vice Chairman PBC) and Abdul Razak Dawood (founder Chairman PBC).

Juniorentrepreneurs’

exhibition beginsin WBDC

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—A two-day Gen-Y‘ Junior Entrepreneurs Exhibi-tion’ began here in the displaycentre of Women Business De-velopment Center Peshawar(WBDCP) on Friday.

The exhibition specific forgirls of age group 10 to 18 years,which remain continue for twodays April 19-20, 2013 was inau-gurated by Dr. MohammadYousaf Sarwar Mohmand, Presi-dent Khyber Pakhtukhwa Cham-ber of Commerce and Industries.

This initiative has been espe-cially designed to instill the con-cept of entrepreneurship amongthese junior entrepreneurs and toaware them for considering entre-preneurship as a career optionwhich will lead to job creation forthemselves and other members ofthe society.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Vice Chancellor ofMuhammad Ali Jinnah Univer-sity, Dr Abdul Wahab, has saidthat about 80 percent of employ-ment can be generated throughmicrofinance system.

The people of Pakistan havegreat hopes with themicrofinance. He was speakingat a seminar organised by theDepartment of Business Admin-istration of Sindh MadressatulIslam University (SMIU) on‘Concepts and Practices ofMicrofinance in Pakistan’ at itsauditorium.

Dr. Abdul Wahab said thatfor the first time microfinanceloans were introduced by Gen-eral Ayub Khan, with an amountof Rs 60 million, however allthis amount was not properlyutilised by the bank employees.

He suggested that the peoplecan progress financially by iden-

Microfinance system to generatenew employment opportunities

tifying their needs at first.‘Before the practice the

needs of the society should bekept in mind’, he said and addedthat first of all there should bean idea, then a person shouldmove forward.

Dr. Wahab gave numerousexamples of successful businesspersons of the world who startedtheir business from a small in-vestment.

Dr. Abdul Wahab also ap-preciated services of Vice Chan-cellor of SMIU Dr. MohammadAli Shaikh. Vice Chancellor ofSMIU Dr. Mohammad AliShaikh, in his speech said that alarge number of common mencan benefit from microfinanceloans.

He said it can empower poorpeople and can help in povertyalleviation. He also lauded ser-vices of Dr. Abdul Wahab andDr. Abuzar Wajidi, rendered forthe quality education of our

young generation.Dr. Mohammad Ali Shaikh

announced Rs 1,000 for eachstudent who participated in theseminar for purchase of books.Dr Abuzar Wajidi, Dean, Fac-ulty of Management and Admin-istrative Sciences, University ofKarachi said that microfinanceis a tool of social change.

Hence, especially 80 per-cent of our rural population canresolve their financial problemsby getting loans to start smallbusiness.

Earlier, Dr. Mehboob-ul-Hassan, Dean of the Departmentof Business Administration wel-comed the guests and SMIU stu-dents including Ahsen Habib,Uroosa Khurshid, Wasif AliShar, Naheed Akhtar,Muhammad Talha, SummerKhalid, Shahbaz Khan, AreebaBaig, Ghufrana Akber andGhulam Mustafa delivered theirspeeches.

KARACHI: Group photograph of Tahir Ahmed Chairman Insurance Association of Paki-stan, Ayaz Hussain Chairman Insurance Institute, Abdullah Hasan Ali CEO EFU and Ms.Farzana on the occasion of World Insurance Day at KPC.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI—The President AlTuwairqi Steel Mills Limitedalong with his team visitedNational Bank of Pakistan tofelicitate on the successful op-eration of Tuwairiqi SteelMills Limited (TSML), WithNBP’s support and trust ,TSML has been able to turnits vision into reality saidPresident TSML.

TSML has an operatingcapacity to produce 1.28 Mil-lion tons of high quality DRIper annum, TSML is the larg-est private sector integratediron & steel manufacturingproject in Pakistan. TheProject is a joint venture be-tween AL TUWAIRIQIHOLDING of Saudi Arabiaand steel giants POSCO ofSouth Korea, who are theworld’s third largest steelmakers by market value andAsia’s most profitable steelmaker. This has also paved theway for foreign investmentsin Pakistan from not only theMiddle East but also otherAsian economic multination-als.

Al-Tuwairqi groupvisits NBP head office

NBP is a prominent sup-portive force in this entireproject, offering Project fi-nancing and Working capitalfacilities to TSML in excessof USD 100 Million, makingNBP one of the largest indi-vidual contributors to theproject. This has resulted in afully integrated and state ofthe art steel plant which isable to cater not only to steelneeds of the local market, butalso to international marketswhere TSML will export itsvalue-added products. We be-lieve that with continuing sup-port from NBP and other syn-dicate participants, the projectwill add significant value toour economy in terms of in-creasing foreign exchange re-serves and reducing thecountry’s reliance on imports.

President NBP Dr.AsifA.Brohi congratulated CEOTSML & POSCO and wishedthem for growing relationshipwith them in Pakistan, SaudiArabia, South Korea, USAand other international mar-kets.—NNI

FPCCI teamoff to NepalSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—A High powereddelegation from Federation ofPakistan Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (FPCCI) hasleft for Nepal to attend the 57thExecutive Committee Meetingand the 18th General Assemblyof the SAARC Chamber ofCommerce and Industry(SAARC CCI) on April 20-21at Kathmandu.

The delegation comprising12 Members from Pakistan un-der the leadership of Mr. TariqSayeed, Vice President,CACCI, Founder and formerPresident, SAARC CCI, formerPresident, FPCCI and Patron –in- Chief Pak – China BusinessCouncil, FPCCI, Mr. ZubairAhmed Malik, President,FPCCI, Mr. Iftikhar Ali Malik,Vice President, SAARC CCIand former President, FPCCI,Mr. Haroon Rashid, Mr. FazalIlahi, Mr. Hameed AkhterChadda and Engineer AbdulJabbar Memon, Former VicePresidents FPCCI, Mr. ZahidMaqbool, Mian MahmoodAhmed. It is notable thatSAARC Chamber of Com-merce and Industry comprisesAfghanistan, Bangladesh,Bhutan, India, Maldives,Nepal, Pakistan and Srilankaand its headquartered is atIslamabad.

USAID assistance will en-able the Pakistan to modernizeits policy formulation by im-proving research based policyanalysis; building capacity andleader ship. This program willcreate a favorable environmentfor investment and enterprisegrowth.

Dr Nadeem Ul Haq said thatgovernment of Pakistan does notprovide funds for research ac-tivities although research has itsimportance but it is very unfor-tunate that our government is notready to invest in research. Hesaid that we are facing hugelosses in the energy sector butno one bothered to identify whatare the reasons behind theselosses.

Dr Nadeem said thateconomies of developedcountries especially U.S areresearch bases economies.Unless we will not invest inresearch we will not be ableto get economic growth andbottom of all is through com-petition and research.

Deputy Chairman planningcommission said that buildingnetworks of all fields is alsoimportant as through buildingnetwork we will be able to ex-change ideas and move forward.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that research scholarshipsare awarded under the USAIDfunded Pakistan strategy supportprogram administered by theInternational food policy re-

US to boostFrom Page 10

Greek NationalBank postpones

capital planATHENS—Greece’s NationalBank (NBG), the country’s big-gest, was forced to postpone avote on its 9.75 billion-euro($12.7 billion) recapitalisationplan on Friday after too fewshareholders turned up.

NBG will now hold a sec-ond attempt on April 24 and seekagreement from 50 percentrather than 66.6 percent ofshareholders.

Hard hit by the country’ssovereign debt writedown andrelated bad loans, NBG needsapproval to undertake a shareoffering worth up to 9.756 bil-lion and issue up to 1.9 billioneuros of contingent convertiblebonds in order to raise capital.

It also plans to reduce thenumber of its outstanding sharesvia a 10-for-1 reverse split.Greece’s four major banks includ-ing NBG need 27.5 billion eurosin fresh funds to restore their sol-vency ratios to levels required bythe country’s central bank.

Most of the funds will beprovided by a state bank supportfund the Hellenic Financial Sta-bility Fund (HFSF) in exchangefor new shares or contingentconvertible bonds (CoCos).

CoCos will be issued exclu-sively to the HFSF rescue fundand Greek banks plan to resortto them if less than 10 percentof their rights offerings is takenup by private investors.

Under the terms of therecapitalisation plan agreed withthe country’s international lenders,at least 10 percent of banks’ newcommon equity must be raisedfrom the private sector for them tostay privately run.—Agencies

Google forbidsresale or loan ofGoogle Glasses

KARACHI—Google’s terms ofservice for its highly-awaitedtechnological eyewear prohibitprospective buyers from resell-ing or loaning the gadget.

The rulebook states: “youmay not resell, loan, transfer, orgive your device to any otherperson. If you resell, loan, trans-fer, or give your device to anyother person without Google’sauthorization, Google reservesthe right to deactivate the device,and neither you nor the unautho-rized person using the device willbe entitled to any refund, prod-uct support, or product warranty.”

However; if you are one ofthe lucky few who have receivedconfirmation for your order ofGoogle Glass, then you “may givethe device as a gift” although thesame terms and conditions applyto recipients of Glass as a gift.

This means you cannot becompletely in control of theproduct even once you own it.Anonymous for the sake of pri-vacy, a person who had receiveda Twitter post from Google con-firming his order.

PEOPLE who are exposed to fine particle matter (PM) air pollution from traffic pollution for a prolonged period

of time are at an increased risk of devel-oping arteriosclerosis, according to a newstudy presented at the Euro Prevent 2013congress in Rome.

This isn’t the first timethat road traffic has beenlinked with heart disease,a previous study con-ducted in Denmark in 2012identified that traffic noiseis significantly associatedwith risk of heart attack.

The aim of this study,as described by Dr HagenKälsch from the West-Ger-man Heart Centre in Essen,Germany, was to seewhether the increasedheart risks associated withtraffic came from eithernoise, particle pollution, orboth. The researchersused data from the GermanHeinz Nixdorf Recall Study,which included a total of 4,814 participants.They used street maps to calculate hownear the participants were to roads withlots of traffic, chemistry transport modelsto estimate their exposure to pollutants,and validated tests to measure traffic noise.

Through the use of computed tomogra-phy imaging they measured vascular vesselcalcification in the thoracic aorta, which re-vealed the patient’s level of arteriosclerosis.Increased proximity to major roads with traf-fic was associated with an increased levelof aortic calcification in the 4,238 partici-pants of the study. The degree of calcifica-tion increased by 20.7% as particle volume

Exposure to traffic pollutionincreases risk of heart disease

increased by 2.4 micrometers, and in-creased by 10% for every 100 meter prox-imity to heavy traffic. Dr Kälsch confirmedthat both exposure to PM air pollution aswell as road traffic noise are associatedwith sub-clinical arteriosclerosis. He said:

“These two major types oftraffic emissions help explainthe observed associationsbetween living close to hightraffic and sub-clinical arterio-sclerosis. The considerablesize of the associations un-derscores the importance oflong-term exposure to air pol-lution and road traffic noiseas risk factors for arterioscle-rosis.”

Traffic noise and finePM are thought to increasecardiovascular risk by act-ing through similar biologi-cal pathways and causingan imbalance in the auto-nomic nervous system.

TAC is one of the mostreliable markers of sub-clini-

cal arteriosclerosis, along with coronaryartery calcification (CAC).

All air pollutants, including carbonmonoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2),sulphur dioxide (SO2), and particulatematter (measured as PM10) were asso-ciated with an increased risk of heartattack, except for ozone (O3). Traffic airpollution may be particularly harmful forinfants - researchers from the KarolinskaInstitutet, Stockholm, Sweden, reportedin the American Journal of Respiratoryand Critical Care Medicine, that traffic airpollution exposure during infancy harmsthe lungs for many years.

KARACHI: Former federal minister Dr Atta-ur-Rehman visiting the stalls during theinauguration ceremony of Research Poster Exhibition organized by Faculty of Science,Jinnah Women University.

CM sets upelections

complaint cellSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—‘General Elec-tions Complaint Cell’ has beenestablished on the directivesof the Caretaker Chief Minis-ter Sindh Justice (Retd), ZahidKurban Alavi, at the CM Sec-retariat House here. An offi-cial statement here on Fridaysaid that the Cell will functionround the clock to monitor theissues related to the forthcom-ing general elections and lawand order/security arrange-ments throughout the prov-ince.

Additional Secretary SaeedAhmed Shaikh informed thatsenior officers will monitor the‘General Elections ComplaintCell’ and that it will work underthe supervision of AdditionalSecretary (Implementation).

The Cell will also be incontact with the other Cellswhich were already estab-lished for the elections pur-pose in Home Department,offices of DG Rangers, IGPolice Sindh, DivisionalCommissioners, DeputyCommissioners and SSPs ofdistricts.

The said Cell after receiv-ing the complaints will imme-diately take action for theirredressal. Saeed Shaikh furtherinformed that a comprehen-sive daily report will be sub-mitted to the Caretaker CMSindh. The General ElectionsComplaint Cell Telephone Nosare, 021-99202051-4, 021-99207349-99207568,021-99202065 and Fax Nos are 021-99202007, 021-99202000.

Anwar Zaiappointed Deputy

Chief CommissionerPBSA

KA R A C H I—Prof. AnwarAhmed Zai, Chairman of theBoard of Intermediate Edu-cation Karachi (BIEK) hasbeen appointed as DeputyScout Commissioner of thePakistan Boy Scouts Asso-ciation (PBSA). A statementof the SBSA issued here onFriday said.

Prof. Anwar Zai is alsothe senior vice provincialscout commissioner.

It was further pointed outthat Prof. Anwar Zai has beenappointed as the DeputyChief Commissioner of thePBSA for a period of twoyears.

He has been associatedwith the Scouts Movementfor past over 35 years.

He assumed the charge ofhis office, it was furtherstated.—APP

SHC restrainsFBR from sales

tax recoveryKARACHI—A divisionbench of Sindh High Court(SHC) has restrained theFederal Board of Revenue(FBR) and its subordinateofficers from the recovery ofSales Tax of Rs 60 millionfollowing a constitutionalpetition filed by a local tex-tile mills.

The bench comprisingJustice Maqbool Baqar andJustice S.M. Farooq Shahalso ordered issuance ofnotices to the Deputy At-torney General , FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR)and other respondents forMay 6.

Senator Mian RazaRabbani and Saalim SalamAnsari, advocates on behalfof the petitioner contendedbefore the division benchthat under the sales tax am-nesty scheme announced bythe Government, the recov-ery of 2 percent ST can notbe shifted to the manufactur-ers / textile mills on theground that the registeredbuyers, who are legally liableto pay the tax did not pay thesame.

They submitted that thelaw does not provide theshifting of the liability to paythe sales tax upon the manu-facturers/ textile mills insteadof registered buyers.—APP

KARACHI—The caretakerMinister for Labour, SindhSardar Khan Ghotoo hasurged the labourers to getthemselves necessarily reg-istered for the social securityscheme.

According to a press re-lease issued by Sindh Em-ployers’ Social Security Insti-tution (SESSI), the caretakerminister while addressing aprogramme organised by it,advised the workers to en-sure procurement of socialsecurity cards for them-selves.

Sardar Khan said theworking class in the countrywere generally exposed towide range of problems andthis is with specific referenceto their healthcare needs.

He said workers musttake advantage of series ofgovernment run workers wel-

fare schemes.The caretaker minister

said SESSI’s chain of hospi-tals and clinics functional inthe province must be furtherstrengthened to ensure thatthe medical needs of thelabourers are readily avail-able. SESSI Commissioner,Dr Badar Jamil on the occa-sion mentioned that morethan 658,000 workers andtheir more than 3.2 milliondependents are registeredwith different welfareschemes offered by SESSI inthe province.

He said that SESSI hasearmarked more than Rs 500million for the welfare ofworkers for the fiscal year2012-2013. Dr Badar saidSESSI has established a net-work of 45 dispensaries, fivemedic centres and five hos-pitals in the province.—APP

Workers asked to acquiresocial security cards

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—At least eightpersons were killed in differ-ent areas of the city in ongo-ing wave of violence. Ac-cording to police, unidenti-fied gunmen shot and killedthree people in Shershah areathis morning. They werebrothers and were supplyingmeat to a private company.They were shot dead whenthey were going in a rick-shaw. Police reached the

scene and shifted the victimsto hospital for medico-legalformalities.

Four other people weregunned down in firing inci-dents that occurred in Baldia,Surjani, Suparco and BinQasim Town. On the otherhand, a dead body of a newborn baby was found from aground in Baldia No 3 area.Tension prevailed in the ar-eas where the incidents oc-curred.

Meanwhile, rangers in

collaboration with policehave arrested 40 suspects ina targeted operation fromvarious areas of the city. Ac-cording to details, the tar-geted operation was carriedout in Mangopir andPakhtoon Abad areas here onFriday.

The operation was con-fined to special localities andhouses as all the entry andexit points were cordoned offduring the operation. Asmany as 28 suspects werearrested during this opera-tion and the police also re-covered arms from their pos-session, a banned outfit ac-tivist was also among thedetainees, sources added.

On the other hand, policearrested 12 suspects duringthe operation carried out inDefence area of Rasool andNeelam colony while threemotorbikes were recoveredfrom the accused.

Continuing violenceleaves 8 more dead

40 suspects arrested during targeted operation

MQM observesmourning againstkilling of workers,

office bearersKARACHI—A day of mourn-ing was observed by theMuttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) Friday againstthe killing of its activists andoffice bearers. MQM headAltaf Hussain has said thathis party is showing restraintfor the sake of peaceful elec-tion.

In a statement issuedfrom London, Hussain tookthe caretaker governmentand Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) to task fortheir failure to protect theworkers of MQM’.

He asked what actionswere taken by the ECP andcaretaker government tostop the killing of his partymen. He demanded that thecaretaker government mustprove its seriousness in con-ducting elections by arrest-ing culprits. The MQM chiefappealed to his supporters toset up vigilance teams intheir respective areas andkeep an eye on suspectedpeople.—NNI

European shortfilm festival on

April 25KARACHI—A European shortfilm festival will be organised atthe Alliance Francaise Karachifrom April 25 to 28. An an-nouncement on Friday said thatthe event would be held in part-nership with Eurochannel andthe French Embassy.

It said that theEurochannel is a world televi-sion channel dedicated topromoting the European cul-ture and lifestyle throughmovies, television series,documentaries, music, andprogrammes on fashion,events, art, and mythical des-tinations. It offers only Euro-pean focused programmes inEnglish, Spanish Portuguese,Polish, and Korean versions.Eurochannel covers LatinAmerica, United States,Canada, the Caribbean,Angola, Mozambique, Portu-gal and Korea. Since 2011, thechannel has been available inover 11 million households in27 countries.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Commissioner,Karachi Metropolitan Corpo-ration (KMC) Matanat AliKhan, handed over appoint-ment letters to the familymembers of city wardenskilled here recently, duringdifferent incidents of vio-lence. On the occasionwidow of a warden, and sib-lings of two others receivedthe appointment letters.

This was besides thecompensation chequesworth Rs 500,000 each thathad already been given byKMC authorities to the be-reaved families.

Karachi Administrator,Hashim Raza Zaidi had as-sured the families of city war-dens who lost lives while per-forming their duties and pro-fessional obligations that amember from each of thesefamilies would be providedjob in KMC.

Matanat said that incompliance to the directiveof the administrator thesource of livelihood hasbeen ensured for the be-reaved families. “These citywardens have set an ex-ample that can never be com-pensated, however, it is ourresponsibility to take care oftheir dependents,” he said.

Appointment letters for relativesof assassinated city wardens

KARACHI—The Universityof Karachi (KU) will soonestablish a hospital of itsown. This was stated byVice-Chancellor of KarachiUniversity, Prof. Dr.Muhammad Qaiser.

He was speaking at aprize distribution ceremony,said an official of the institu-tion on Friday. The ceremonywas held under the joint aus-pices of the Faculty of Phar-macy, University of Karachi,and the Society of HealthSystem Pharmacists.

Dr. Qaiser pointed outthat pharmacists who hadpassed out from Karachi Uni-versity were rendering ser-vices in various fields. Hesaid that openings are alsoavailable to pharmacists inhospitals in the metropolis.

Vice-Chancellor informedthat the University of Karachiwill soon establish its ownhospital and that this wouldalso help provide the re-quired training to the stu-dents as pharmacists. TheDean of Karachi University’sFaculty of Pharmacy, Dr.Ghazala Hafeez, presentedthe welcome address.

Later, the Vice-Chancellor

gave away gold medals to themeritorious students.Muhammad Hussain wasawarded four gold medals inview of his excellent perfor-mance.—APP

KU to establish itsown hospital soon

Deadline forchanging motorcycles

number platesKA R A C H I—The deadlinefor changing number platesof the motorcycles and re-placing them with those is-sued by the Excise and Taxa-tion Department, will expireon today. This was re-minded by the spokesmanof the Sindh Police here onFriday.

He said that after expiryof the deadline a drive wouldbe initiated against thosemotorcyclists not fulfillingthe legal requirements in thisregard.

Action would also be ini-tiated against vehicles withtinted glasses, AFR andfancy number plates as wellas those using the blue re-volving lights illegally, it wasfurther stated.—APP

KARACHI: Rangers’ jawans checking people as the security has been beefed up in the city ahead of the upcomingelections.

STATE and health officials have beenwarned about a deadly virus whichhas so far killed 8 of 14 infected people

in the Middle East and the United King-dom. The CDC (Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention) explained that this viru-lent coronavirus is part of the same familyof viruses as the common cold and SARS.

Experts believe thisnew coronavirus comesfrom the Middle East. Ofthe four confirmed infec-tions in the United King-dom, three occurred amongpeople who had travelledto the Middle East, one ofwhom was a family mem-ber of an infected person,he had no history of recenttravel and had never beento the Middle East. Thismeans that it has becomehuman-transmissible; in-fected humans can pass iton to other people.

One of the family mem-bers, the one who had nottravelled, died. Accordingto UK authorities, the pa-tient had an underlyingcondition that may have increased suscep-tibility to respiratory infections.

The novel virus is a coronavirus, partof the same virus family as SARS (severeacute respiratory syndrome) and the com-mon cold. During the SARS epidemic of2003/2004, 10% of infected people werekilled. This new coronavirus has a deathrate of over 50% (8 out of 14 infectedpeople have died). “Corona” is Latin for“crown” or “halo”. Coronaviruses havehalo-like projections on their surfaces.

Scientists working at the Health Pro-tection Agency, UK, say that the new

Beware of deadly new viruscoronavirus (N-CoV) is not the same asSARS-CoV (the virus that causes SARS),but is similar to it. N-CoV is similar to acoronavirus found in bats.

According to the CDC, no cases ofinfection with the new coronavirus havebeen reported in the USA. The first caseof the novel coronavirus infection wasdiagnosed Qatar, the patient was taken

to the United Kingdom fortreatment in September2012.

According to Profes-sor John Watson, head of therespiratory diseases depart-ment at Britain’s Health Pro-tection Agency: “The routesof transmission to humans ofthe novel coronavirus havenot yet been fully determined,but the recent UK experienceprovides strong evidence ofhuman-to-human transmis-sion in at least some circum-stances.

The three recent casesin the UK represent an im-portant opportunity to ob-tain more information aboutthe characteristics of this in-

fection in humans and risk factors for itsacquisition, particularly in the light of thefirst ever recorded instance of apparentlylower severity of illness in one of the cases.The risk of infection in contacts in mostcircumstances is still considered to be lowand the risk associated with novelcoronavirus to the general UK populationremains very low. The HPA will continueto work closely with national and interna-tional health authorities and will share anyfurther advice with health professionalsand the public if and when more informa-tion becomes available.”

LAHORE: Women lighting clay lamps during the Annual Urs at the Hazrat Bibi PakDaman.

LAHORE: Students of Government College University present a cheque of Rs 1.5 million to Provincial MinisterSaleema Hashmi for the deserving students.

LAHORE: PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif with Chief Organizer Women WingPML-N Qasoor Hina Iqbal and others after a meeting.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Punjab’s caretakerhealth minister SaleemaHashmi has said that provincewide campaign againstMeasles is going to belaunched soon.

Talking to media personshere on Friday, SaleemaHashmi said that health minis-try during its limited tenurewould try to spare no effortsin awarding basic health facili-ties.

She said that nothingcould be said yet about thepurchase of anti-measles vac-cine. However, she said thatconcerns of donors would be

Anti-measles campaign to belaunched soon: Saleema

removed during the upcomingdonor’s conference.

Saleema Hashmi said thatvaccination through injectionagainst various diseases wassuccessful programme duringthe past two decades but theywould have to find out whatcauses made it ineffective.

The provincial health min-ister termed the malnutritionmajor reason behind attack ofepidemics on children as lackof balance diet decreases de-fence system of the body.

On the directions of Dis-trict Coordination OfficerLahore Mr. Rizwan Mehboob,Anti Measles meetings werearranged in all nine towns ofLahore city, which were pre-sided over by Assistant Com-

missioners and Town Admin-istrators.

All the Towns have startedtheir preparation to celebrate“Stop Measles Week” withgreat zeal and zest and it wasdecided that special seminars,walks and awareness cam-paigns would be arranged inthe entire week starting from24th April.

All the offices of unioncouncils have already beendeclared as measles vaccina-tion centers and informationdesk and vaccination desk hadbeen set up in all union coun-cil offices. A meeting was helddin Data Ganj Baksh Town onFriday Morning which waschaired by Assistant Commis-sioner Samia Saleem.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister Najam Sethi has saidthat juvenile offenders andwoman prisoners can bemade useful citizen throughimparting them various skills.He directed to pay specialattention to the psychologi-cal and mental health of childprisoners so that they couldemerge as law-abiding citi-zens after completing theirprison sentences.

He said that there is alsoa need for concentrating oneducation and training of ju-venile offenders and womanprisoners as well as provi-sion of maximum facilities towomen prisoners. He furtherdirected to ensure thatwoman prisoners are keptnear their home districts. Hesaid that process of settingup PCOs should be acceler-ated to provide prisoners thefacility of talking to their fami-lies. He said that sanitaryconditions in accordancewith the hygienic principlesshould be ensured in pris-ons.

He was presiding over ahigh level meeting at ChiefMinister’s Secretariat here.Provincial Home MinisterTariq Pervaiz, SecretaryHome, Principal Secretary toChief Minister, Secretaries ofFinance, Law, Schools Edu-cation, Inspector GeneralPrisons and other concernedauthorities were present.Problems of juvenile offend-ers and woman prisoners aswell as reformation of jail sys-tem were reviewed on theoccasion.

Addressing the meeting,Chief Minister Najam Sethisaid that the process of jail re-forms should be accelerated

CM wants focus on psychological,mental health of child prisoners

and special attention shouldbe paid to education and train-ing as well as provision of bet-ter facilities to prisoners. Hesaid that setting up of 30 com-puter labs with the coopera-tion of NGOs is a welcome stepand philanthropists and non-governmental organizationsare extending commendablecooperation in the payment offine of poor prisoners.

He said that schools arealso functioning in Lahore,Sheikhupura and Kasur jailswith the assistance of NGOs.He said that IT labs havebeen set up in 22 prisons ofthe province while nine vo-cational centres are beingestablished and 14 voca-tional centres are being up-graded in prisons. The ChiefMinister said that these mea-sures will help prisoners inacquiring various skills. Hesaid that the system of pro-vision of food to the prison-ers has also been improved.He said that separate wardshave been set up for juvenileoffenders and prisonerwomen.

He said that petty offend-ers who have completed theirterms are also being releasedafter payment of fine. He saidthat special attention is be-ing paid to the provision ofbetter medical facilities whileprovision of medical equip-ment for the treatment of pris-oners has been ensured. TheChief Minister directed thatthe system of regular moni-toring of prisoners should befurther improved whilesearch operation shouldcontinue. He directed thatthe security system of pris-ons should be made more ef-fective and training of prisonstaff on modern lines shouldbe arranged.

He said that prisonsshould serve as reformationcentres for prisoners so thatthey could become useful citi-zens after their release insteadof indulging in criminal activi-ties. He directed that stepsshould be taken speedily forevolving prisons manage-ment information system. Hedirected that maximum medi-cal facilities should be pro-

vided to the prisoners andthey should be providedproper treatment facilities inthe best hospitals if needed.

Inspector General Pris-ons while giving a briefingregarding prisons systemand reforms informed thatthere are 850 woman prison-ers and 825 juvenile offend-ers in jails in Punjab.

Polls preparations

PML-N briefsEU delegation

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)leader Tariq Azim has saidthat upcoming general elec-tions are of vital importance,as for the first time in thecountry’s history a transitionwill take place from one civil-ian democratic governmentto another.

He said this while talk-ing to a six-member Euro-pean Election Union Elec-tion Commission Observa-tion Mission during theirvisit to the PML-N centralSecretariat here at ModelTown.

The PML-N leader toldthe EU delegation that free,fair and transparent electionsare vital to secure future ofthe country. He also apprisedthem about the salient fea-tures of the PML-N mani-festo, its priorities and for-eign policy apart from prepa-rations made by the party forelections.

Tariq Azim said the PML-N wants transparent and im-partial elections as per sched-ule. “We whole heartedly ac-cept decisions of ElectionCommission and SupremeCourt,” he said.

The EU delegation mem-bers also raised queries per-taining to upcoming generalelections. They also visiteddifferent sections of thePML-N Secretariat.

It may be noted that asmany as 52 long term observ-ers of the EU countries arevisiting Pakistan to monitor2013 polls.

LHC issuesnotice to KairaLAHORE—A full bench ofthe Lahore High Court Fridayissued a notice for April 22to former information minis-ter Qamar Zaman Kaira on apetition against acceptanceof his nomination papers fromNA-106.

The full bench headed byJustice Ijaz ul Ahsan issuedthe notice on a petition filedby Muhammad Shabir, avoter from NA-106, throughhis counsel Asad ManzoorButt.

Earlier, the petitioner’scounsel submitted thatQamar Zaman Kaira in a con-tempt case against hisbrother assured the courtthat he would fulfill the out-standing liability besidesgiving a cheque of Rs 1 mil-lion as guarantee.

However, Kaira failed tofulfill his commitment andcheque was also bounced, headded.

He contended that QamarZaman Kaira was not an hon-est person, therefore, he didnot fulfill the criteria set inArticles 62 and 63 of the Con-stitution.

He prayed the bench toset aside decision of thereturning officer and tribu-nal and reject Kaira’s nomi-nation papers from NA-106.

The bench after hearingthe arguments issued no-tice for April 22 to QamarZaman Kaira and soughtreply.—APP

PPP to workfor nationalprosperity:

YousufLAHORE—Pakistan PeoplesParty senior leader and mem-ber Islamic Ideological Coun-cil Pir Allama Yousuf Awanhas said that the PPP is de-termined to work for prosper-ity of the country.

In a statement here onFriday, he said the party work-ers had presented their livesfor democracy in the past.

He claimed that the PML-N had failed to win hearts ofthe people due to its policies.

He alleged the PML-Nwas contesting elections fortheir own interests and Sharifbrothers had given ticketsjust to their close relatives inthe city.

He said the PPP had set ahistory by nominating aworker as prime minister inthe past.

He expressed the hopethat PPP would clean sweepin the elections and it wouldsuccessfully form the nextgovernment.—APP

Every step forfair, free

elections: ShamsLAHORE—Punjab Law Min-ister, Shams MehmoodMirza has said that the care-taker government is adopt-ing every step to conductfair, free and transparentelections in a peaceful atmo-sphere.

Talking to a delegation ofHigh Court Bar AssociationMultan, he said that legal com-munity as well as all segmentsof the society are providingtheir cooperation to the gov-ernment for free-fair election sothat power is transferred to theelected representatives. Hesaid that all possible ste

ps would be taken togive the powers of deedwriting to the lawyers com-munity.—APP